ART. V. — RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF THE TIMES.

THERE is a general complaint at present of a decline of religious interest in the churches of our land. From all denominations arises this lamentation, united with more or less rebuke of those who are represented as participating in an apathy which they should have prevented. In some quarters very strong language is used on the subject. The present is pronounced "a period of spiritual death." "There are few or no revivals." "Coldness has crept over our religious assemblies." "Worldliness has chilled the sensibilities of the devout, and diverted to its own ends the energies of the active." "Religion is at a low ebb in the community." "Zeal has given place to torpor, and piety to indifference." In such terms as these is the character of the present time described by some persons; while others content themselves with speaking of a comparatively low state of religion, and deplore the absence of those signs of spiritual life which were seen a few years ago.

We are far from denying that there is occasion for such remarks. There is apparently, and, we believe, really, less interest felt in religious subjects now than prevailed three or four years since. Those who have adopted the religious life are generally less strict in their fidelity to its requisitions, and among the irreligious or the worldly fewer examples occur of a change of character. We may, with entire truth, confess the poverty of our faith and the emptiness of our lives.

But we must not exaggerate the evil, imputing to our times more of irreligion than belongs to them, nor continue to present to our own or to others' observation only one side of the reality, as if there was no reverse to the gloomy truth. We should avoid this mistake, both because it is a mistake, a virtual falsehood, and because it does no inconsiderable harm.

It is a virtual falsehood, as all one-sidedness is. He who dwells exclusively on the dark or the bright aspect of society misrepresents it, as much as he who looks only on the joy or the sorrow of life misrepresents the Divine Providence. There is never an entire degeneracy, an indifference which sweeps over all hearts, as there can never be found an individual who is wholly and only bad. In the worst times

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there are some faithful souls who withstand, if they cannot arrest, the tendency of their age. When the Papal Church was at the height of its power, and the depth of its corruption, the Waldenses stood forth as the champions of a purer religion, or maintained their virtue in the seclusion which was their only means of safety. Even in Sodom there was one Lot, an exception to the general character of the people. We are apt, too, when grieved or indignant at the proofs of laxity around us, to forget how much excellence is hidden from sight in the quiet homes of the land. Who can tell how many morning and evening sacrifices are laid on altars. which no eye but God's has counted? Who can estimate the amount of private virtue, of Christian self-denial, of unostentatious goodness, of secret communion, which comes up into constant remembrance before the Omniscient One? At the moment when the lust of gain and the love of pleasure may seem to divide the community between them, in hundreds of households might we find lives worthy of all praise. There never was an Elijah to complain that he alone was left of the servants of the Lord, who might not have been rebuked by a declaration like that which taught the prophet that God's knowledge, like God's patience, was greater than his own.

The partial judgment of which we speak does harm, because it discourages some persons, and in the minds of others raises painful questions respecting Christianity. It disheartens those who depend very much on sympathy, and who, if they be told that their fellow-Christians are all sinking into religious unconcern, will lose their own energy of faith, and illustrate the truth of the remark by which they will themselves have been overborne. Yet more serious is the evil which is done, when persons, who are not established in that Christian experience which is a witness to itself of the Divine origin of the Gospel, are tempted to inquire how that can be from God which is so inefficacious. Can a religion which produces no fervor or force of character have come from above? Christianity is now hampered, in its attempts to win the submission of some men, by difficulties enough arising from its confessedly slow progress and imperfect establishment in the world, without our increasing the obstacles in the way of faith by holding up to view only the less favorable passages of its history. By speaking only of our neighbour's ill-success or want of influence, we may very soon create a prejudice against him that shall never be over

come. In like manner may we prejudice the cause of truth and of God.

In regard to the alleged, and actual, departure of our times from a high standard of Christian experience, it should not be forgotten that similar complaints have been made, and not without reason, in all ages. We find them at no great intervals, as we traverse the whole extent of ecclesiastical history. To go no farther back than the settlement of our own country, this neighbourhood had scarcely become the seat of a Christian population, when the charge of degeneracy was brought against the people. In the sermons of a hundred years ago, and of a still more distant date, we meet with as strong descriptions of prevalent immorality and declension of piety, as in any of the discourses or journals of our own day. It does not follow that either now or then the imputation was unjust, but from such facts we may learn to avoid alike excessive severity of judgment and extreme indulgence of anxiety.

Another fact of a general nature is established, we think, by a survey of the history of the Christian Church. Is it not manifest, that there are alternations of religious interest and religious apathy? Are there not periods at which God seems to awaken a wider and deeper thoughtfulness on spiritual subjects than at others? It is plain that a uniform religious experience is no more to be expected in a community than in an individual. There will be seasons of earnestness and seasons of dulness. For a time an anxiety about the welfare and destiny of the soul will appear to pervade all classes, and then again little concern will seem to be felt by any class of persons. Unusual engagedness in divine things will be followed by apparent forgetfulness of them. Such variations no one who has observed the state of society even for a few years can deny. Much of the language which has been used in regard to the fact we are noticing we would avoid, as being founded in a wrong philosophy of religion, and suited, while it represents God as capricious, to render man indolent. But that seasons of religious excitement alternate with seasons of religious depression, we hold to be undeniable. The law which governs such changes, if a law there be, is known only to the Supreme Intelligence; if they are what in human language we term accidental, the causes which produce them are either so obscure or so various that they elude our power of description. Still, the

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existence of something like a periodical sensibility to the importance of religious truth is established by the history of every town and church. And in this fact we but discover a resemblance to what we observe in other provinces of human experience. Excitement and indifference succeed each other on every subject in which a community can be interested, not, indeed, with the regularity, but with the certainty, of the ebb and flow of the tide. Now the people are captivated with this pleasure or this pursuit, and now they seem weary of it. What we call fashion is little else than obedience to this principle of social life, which has force in religion as well as in other matters.

The comparative want of interest in religion which marks the present time may be, in part at least, explained. Not to insist on that principle of reaction to which we have just referred, two powerful and obvious influences present themselves, as conspiring to withdraw the minds of the people from religious thought. One is the great prosperity of the times, not unexampled, indeed, but perhaps never surpassed. Never has there been a period when all classes, from the day-laborer to the capitalist, received more sure or larger returns for whatever investment, whether of industry, ingenuity, or money, they made in worldly undertakings. Look, on the one hand, at the situation of those whose reliance for their daily bread is on their daily toil. The poor we may always expect to have with us, the infirm and the vicious; but he who is willing and able to work finds work, and for that work receives such remuneration as, if it do not relieve him from anxiety, lifts him above want. But then he must work, all day and with all his strength, or others will take advantage of his idleness and carry off from him the means of subsistence. On the other hand, he who has already accumulated large property unites with his rich neighbours, and in one short winter rises a city where his wealth may be expended in the confidence of ample returns. Meanwhile, the country is crossed and recrossed with the iron roads along which trade and travel pour themselves, like streams down mountain-passes. Business stretches out its thousand arms in every direction, and everywhere grasps a substantial reward. The city is prosperous, and outgrows its natural limits. The country is prosperous, and sustains an increasing and thriving population. The misfortunes of other lands, while they call our benevolence into ready exercise,

and throw upon our shores a host of needy sufferers, yet materially increase the value of our harvests, and add to our wealth. Activity is seen on all sides; and men's hearts are full of the cares and concerns of this life. At such a time the claims of religion are not likely to receive their due share of attention. The people are too busy, and too successful, to stop and meditate on Christian duty or the grounds of Christian hope. With some, gratitude may be a bond to hold them to a faithful obedience; but most, amidst this crowd and clamor of worldly engagements, will think little of the soul's wants or the soul's Saviour.

In connection with this characteristic of the present time is another, which has a still more unhappy influence on the religious sensibilities of the people. It is a time of war, — a period when anxiety or excitement absorbs all the interest that can be spared from business. The war with Mexico has become a history of remarkable and rapid successes on the part of one of the nations engaged in this unchristian strife, if that can be called success which consists in slaughter and rapine. The consequence has been an intensity of feeling about the war, which no one anticipated a few months since. With many, the feeling is one which no humane or Christian heart ought to entertain; with others it is a feeling of grief and shame. In both cases it is very strong, and every day grows stronger. While the thoughts of the people are thus preoccupied and enchained, it is not probable that religion will receive any special regard. We say nothing of the effect on the general character which must follow from such an interest in the details of injustice and bloodshed. We speak now only of the necessary exclusion of sacred thoughts, and the inevitable tendency towards a neglect of religious duties. The mind becomes secularized, if it be not barbarized. The sympathies and hopes of the heart are turned from heaven and detained on earth. To expect that at such a time there should be a revival or an active condition of the religious sentiments, is to expect that flowers will grow and harvests ripen amidst the storms of winter.

While, however, we admit that from these and other causes the interest which the people take in the subject of religion is probably less than it was two or three years since, we cannot but attach importance to a consideration which appears to us not to have been sufficiently weighed by those who, under the influence of their fears or their prejudices,