ch exist under the _voluntary_ system. When people in a
community are all of one creed, one church is sufficient; but if they
are of different persuasions, they must, as they do in America, divide
the one large church into four little ones. It is not fair, therefore,
for Mr Carey to count _churches_.

[Note. "We know also that large sums are expended annually for the
building of churches or places of worship, which in cities cost from
10,000 to 100,000 dollars each; and in the country from 500 to 5,000
dollars."--_Voice from America, by an American Gentleman_. [What must
be the size of a church which costs 500 dollars?]]

But, although I will not admit the conclusions drawn from Mr Carey's
premises, nor that, as he would attempt to prove, the Americans are a
more religious people than the English, I am not only ready, but anxious
to do justice to the really religious portion of its inhabitants. I
believe that in no other country is there more zeal shown by its various
ministers, zeal even to the sacrifice of life; that no country sends out
more zealous missionaries; that no country has more societies for the
diffusion of the gospel and that in no other country in the world are
larger sums subscribed for the furtherance of those praise-worthy
objects as in the Eastern States of America. I admit all this, and
admit it with pleasure; for I know it to be a fact: I only regret to add
that in no other country are such strenuous exertions so incessantly
required to stem the torrent of atheism and infidelity, which so
universally exists in this. Indeed this very zeal, so ardent on the
part of the ministers, and so aided by the well-disposed of the laity,
proves that what I have just now asserted is, unfortunately, but too
true.

It is not my intention to comment upon the numerous sects, and the
varieties of worship practised in the United States. The Episcopal
church is small in proportion to the others, and as far as I can
ascertain, although it may increase its members with the increase of
population, it is not likely to make any vigorous or successful stand
against the other sects. The two churches most congenial to the
American feelings and institutions are the Presbyterian and
Congregationalist.

"The Congregationalists answer to the Independents of England and are
sympathetically, and to a great extent, lineally descendants of the
Puritans."--_Voice from America_, p. 62.

They may, indeed, in opposition to