that
it should be so. The establishment of the principle that purity of
worship and of belief was to be sought, and diversity of religious
opinion to be gratified in separation and the erection of new
organizations, rather than in the endeavor to purify the old and
established form, at once threw wide open the door of schism, and with
it, in the end, that of scepticism. The movement once begun could
neither be checked nor controlled by any human effort. Others claimed
the right which they themselves had exercised, and the result was soon
seen in the separation of one after another denomination from the
Puritan Church, each, in its turn, to be divided into a score of sects,
according as circumstances should alter religious views. Were the
principles of true religion in themselves progressive, were the
teachings, of the gospel inadequate to or unfitting for all possible
stages of human progress, or were they capable of development, the world
might then have been the gainer. Or, again, were reason infallible, the
separation of the churches would be an incalculable blessing, by
securing to all minds a free investigation upon religious subjects. But
infidelity desires no more powerful coadjutor than human reason in its
freest exercise, because it is so liable to be led away by sophistry,
and its invariable tendency is to reject as myths and fables all things
which it cannot comprehend or for which it cannot see a material cause.
Perfect reason is the twin brother and strongest supporter of faith; but
reason as it exists in the present development of humanity is its most
deadly antagonist. The age of reason has fallen upon us, and its result
is seen in a practical scepticism pervading the whole of our society,
which in its extent and its injurious effects put to the blush the
wildest speculations of the most radical German metaphysicians. Every
day we see around us men of no religious profession, and little if any
religious feeling, calmly facing death without a tremor, without a
thought of the awful beyond. And though the application of the term
infidel to such a man would not fail to arouse his fiercest indignation,
his indifference to the events and the fate of the great hereafter can
arise from nothing else than an utter disbelief in the teachings of Holy
Writ, in the truths of Christianity. Such men are but types of a class,
and that class a very large portion of our population.

The evils of religious divisions are pla