oots in the past, and of the
thirst for novelty, the history of those sects which are not sunk in
lethargy consists in sudden transitions to opposite extremes. In the
religious world ill weeds grow apace; and those communities which strike
root, spring up, and extend most rapidly are the least durable and the
least respectable. The sects of Europe were transplanted into America:
but there the impatience of authority, which is the basis of social and
political life, has produced in religion a variety and a multiplicity,
of Which Europe has no experience.

Whilst these are the fruits of religious liberty and ecclesiastical
independence among a people generally educated, the Danish monarchy
exhibits unity of faith strictly maintained by keeping the people under
the absolute control of the upper class, on whose behalf the Reformation
was introduced, and in a state of ignorance corresponding to their
oppression. Care was taken that they should not obtain religious
instruction, and in the beginning of the eighteenth century the
celebrated Bishop Pontoppidan says, "an almost heathen blindness
pervades the land." About the same time the Norwegian prelates declared,
in a petition to the King of Denmark: "If we except a few children of
God, there is only this difference between us and our heathen ancestors,
that we bear the name of Christians." The Danish Church has given no
signs of life, and has shown no desire for independence since the
Reformation; and in return for this submissiveness, the Government
suppressed every tendency towards dissent. Things were not altered when
the tyranny of the nobles gave way to the tyranny of the crown; but when
the revolution of 1848 had given the State a democratic basis, its
confessional character was abrogated, and whilst Lutheranism was
declared the national religion, conformity was no longer exacted. The
king is still the head of the Church, and is the only man in Denmark who
must be a Lutheran. No form of ecclesiastical government suitable to the
new order of things has yet been devised, and the majority prefer to
remain in the present provisional state, subject to the will of a
Parliament, not one member of which need belong to the Church which it
governs. Among the clergy, those who are not Rationalists follow the
lead of Grundtvig. During many years this able man has conducted an
incessant resistance against the progress of unbelief and of the German
influence, and against the Luthera