or nothing; while, at the same time, it lim- | some government official for the means of ited others to a certain fixed amount, who, needful repair, a few of them put their if left to themselves, would perhaps have hands into their pockets, and supply these given more. themselves, without delay or the risk of vexatious refusals from public functionaries. With the exception of a few thousand pounds for building some of the earliest colleges, and a few more, chiefly from Scotland, for the support of missionaries, most of whom laboured among the Indians, I am not aware of any aid received from the mother-country, or from any other part of Europe, for religious purposes in our colonial days. I do not state this by way of reproach, but as a simple fact. The Christians, not only of Great Britain, but of Holland and Germany also, were ever willing to aid the cause of religion in the colonies; they did what they could, or, rather, what the case seemed to require, and the monuments of their piety and liberality remain to this day. Still, the colonists, as was their duty, depended mainly on their own efforts. In several of the colonies there was from the first no Church Establishment; in two of those which professed to have one, the state never did anything worth mention for the support of the churches; and in all cases the dissenters had to rely on their own exertions. In process of time, as we have seen, the union of Church and State came gradually to an end throughout the whole country, and all religious bodies were left to their own resources. Thus have the Americans been trained to exercise the same energy, self-reliance, and enterprise in the cause of religion which they exhibit in other affairs. Thus, as we shall see, when a new church is called for, the people first inquire whether they cannot build it at their own cost, and ask help from others only after having done all they think practicable among themselves; a course which often leads them to find that they can accomplish by their own efforts what, at first, they hardly dared to hope for. CHAPTER III. HOW CHURCH EDIFICES ARE BUILT IN THE CITIES AND LARGE TOWNS. THE question has often been proposed to me during my residence in Europe, "How do you build your churches in America, since the government gives no aid ?" Different measures are pursued in different places. I shall speak first of those commonly adopted in the cities and large towns. There a new church is built by what is called "colonizing:" that is, the pastor and other officers of a large church, which cannot accommodate all its members, after much conference, on being satisfied that a new church is called for, propose that a commencement be made by certain families going out as a colony, to carry the enterprise into effect, and engage to assist them with their prayers and counsels, and, if need be, also with their purses. Upon this, such as are willing to engage in the undertaking go to work. Sometimes individuals or families from two or more churches of the same denomination coalesce in the design. Or a few gentlemen, interested in religion, whether all or any of them are members of a church or not, after conferring on the importance of having another church in some part of the city where an increase of the population seems to require it, resolve that one shall be built. Each then subscribes what he thinks he can afford, and subscriptions may afterward be solicited from other gentlemen of property and liberality in the place, likely to aid such an undertaking. Enough may thus be obtained to justify a commencement; a committee is appointed to purchase a site for a building, and to superintend its erection. When finished, it is opened for public worship, a pastor is called, and then the pews, which are generally large enough to accommodate a fam Besides, there has grown up among the truly American part of the population a feeling that religion is necessary even to the temporal well-being of society, so that many contribute to its promotion, though not themselves members of any of the churches. This sentiment may be found in all parts of the United States, and es-ily each, are disposed of at a sort of aucpecially among the descendants of the first Puritan colonists of New-England. I shall have occasion hereafter to give an illustration of it. These remarks point the reader to the true secret of the success of the voluntary plan in America. The people feel that they can help themselves, and that it is at once a duty and a privilege to do so. Should a church steeple come to the ground, or the roof be blown away, or any other such accident happen, instead of looking to tion to the highest bidder. In this way, the sum which may be required, in addition to the original subscriptions, is at once made up. The total cost, indeed, is sometimes met by the sums received for the pews, but much depends upon the situation and comfort of the building, and the popularity of the preacher. The pews are always sold under the condition of punctual payment of the sums to be levied upon them annually, for the pastor's support and other expenses; fail ing which, after allowing a reasonable time, | regular Sabbath services at the usual hours. they are resold to other persons. But if After announcing their intention by public all the required conditions be fulfilled, they advertisement, they proceed to organize a become absolutely the purchaser's, and church, that is, a body of believers, accordmay be bequeathed or sold like any other ing to the rules of the communion to which property. they belong. If Presbyterians, the Presbytery appoints a committee to organize the church according to the Book of Discipline, by the appointment and consecration to office of ruling elders, after which it falls under the care of the Presbytery. A pastor is next called and regularly inducted. Meanwhile, the congregation may be supposed to be increasing, until strong enough to exchange their temporary for a permanent place of worship. In this way new swarms are every year leaving the old hives, if I may so speak, in our large cities, and new church edifices are rising in various localities where the population is extending. Instead of being sold in fee-simple, the pews are sometimes merely rented from year to year. This prevails more in large towns and villages than in cities, and in such cases the churches must be built solely by "subscription," as it is called, that is, by sums contributed for that special object. Should these prove, in the first instance, insufficient, a second, and perhaps a third subscription follows, after a longer or shorter interval. The seats in some churches, even of our largest cities, are free to all. Such is the case with all the Quaker, and most of the Methodist meeting-houses; these are occupied on what is called the "free-seat" plan, and have the advantage of being attended with less restraint, especially by strangers or persons who may not have the means to pay for seats. But there are disadvantages also in this plan. Families who regularly attend, and who may bear the expense of the church, have no certain place where all may sit together, and in case of being delayed a little longer than usual, may find it difficult to get seats at all. The Methodist churches, accordingly, are coming more and more into the other plan in our large cities. Where they have not done so, and also in the Quaker meeting-houses, the males occupy one half of the house, the females the other; a rule, however, observed more constantly in the latter than in the former body. Church edifices, or meeting-houses, on the freeseat plan, must, of course, be built by subscription alone. A more common practice in forming new congregations, and erecting church edifices, is this: The families who engage in the undertaking first obtain some place for temporary service the lecture-room attached to some other church, a courthouse, a schoolroom, or some other such building* and there they commence their * In Philadelphia there is a building called the Academy, built for Mr. Whitfield's meetings, the upper part of which is now divided into two rooms, each capable of containing 400 or 500 people, and both constantly used as places of worship, one permanently by the Methodists. The other has been occupied temporarily by colonies, which have grown into churches, and then gone off to houses which they have built for themselves. In this way that one room, as I have often been told, has been the birthplace, as it were, of more than twenty different churches. It is rented to those who wish to occupy it by the corporation, to which it belongs. In the lower story there are schools held throughout the week. The church edifices in the chief towns and cities are, generally speaking, large and substantial buildings, especially in the more densely-settled districts. Those in the suburbs are often smaller, and not expected to be more than temporary, as they give place to larger and better structures in a few years. In the cities and larger towns, whether on the Atlantic slope or in the Valley of the Mississippi, they are, in nine cases out of ten, built of brick; a few are of stone; and in the New-England cities and towns of second and third rate size, they are often built of wood. As for the cost of church edifices, it is difficult to speak precisely where the country is so extensive. In the suburbs of our large cities on the seaboard, from Portland, in Maine, to New-Orleans, some may not have cost more than from 5000 to 10,000 dollars; but in the older and more denselypeopled parts of those cities, they generally cost 20,000 dollars and upward. Some have cost 60,000 or 80,000, and yet are comparatively plain, though very chaste and substantial buildings. A few have cost above 100,000,* without including such as Trinity Church at New-York, belonging to the Episcopalians, or the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Baltimore, for these very elegant and expensive buildings have cost at least 300,000, if not more. There may have been, in States assemble-are allowed to be used as places of worship on the Sabbath in a case of exigency. * The church in which the late eloquent Dr. Mason was last settled as a minister in New-York, cost, I believe, rather more than 100,000 dollars. It was an excellent, large, tasteful, substantial, brick building. Yet it, and some others in the lower parts of the city, whence business is driving the people to the upper part, have been torn down, and their sites are covered with shops and counting-rooms. The congregations have mainly emigrated to about a mile and a half, or two miles northward. So matters go in our London. The chapel of the University of New-York is used for the same purpose; and the Court-houses through- + Trinity Church is not yet finished. It is a reout all the land, and even some of the State-houses-markably fine specimen of Gothic architecture. I that is, those in which the Legislatures of the several have not heard what the cost will be, but, including some cases, a useless expenditure of mon- | of 16,000 souls, has fifteen churches; Newey on interior decorations, but in general, Haven, for about 14,000 souls, has thirteen, the churches, even in our largest cities, many of which are of large size; Poughare neat and rather plain buildings exter- keepsie, on the Hudson, has 9000 inhabinally, but exceedingly comfortable within. tants and twelve churches; Troy had, in The village churches of New-England 1840, a population of 25,000 souls, and fifare, for the most part, constructed of wood; teen churches, and several of those very that is, of beams framed together and cov- large. Newark, in New-Jersey, has about ered with boards; and being almost univer- 20,000 inhabitants and seventeen churches; sally painted white and surmounted with Rochester 22,000 inhabitants and twentysteeples, they have a beautiful appearance. two churchers. The church-going bell every Sabbath sends forth its notes far and wide amid the hills and dales of that interesting country. In other parts of the Atlantic States, though often of wood, like those of New-England, they are still oftener of brick or stone, or of unpainted frames and boards, which is especially the case in the South. On this head the reader is referred to the works of Drs. Reed and Matheson, and to that of Dr. Lang, as containing much accurate information with respect to church accommodation in the United States. CHAPTER IV. *. TLEMENTS. Any one may be satisfied, by careful inquiry, that even our cities and large towns, HOW CHURCHES ARE BUILT IN THE NEW SETas respects churches, may well bear a comparison with the best supplied in any part of Europe. Boston, for instance, in 1840, BUT it is in the building of places of worhad fifty-eight churches, many of which ship in the new settlements of the Western could accommodate from 1000 to 1500 per- States, and in the villages that are springsons, and that for a population of about ing up in the more recently-peopled parts 88,000 souls. New-York had that year of those bordering on the Atlantic, that 159 churches for about 310,000 inhabitants; we see the most remarkable development namely, forty-one Presbyterian, of all of the voluntary principle. Let me illusshades; fourteen Reformed Dutch; twen-trate by a particular case what is daily ty-seven Episcopal; eighteen Methodist; occurring in both these divisions of the eighteen Baptist; eight Roman Catholic; country. nine African (Methodist, Episcopal, Bap- Let us suppose a settlement commentist, and Presbyterian); five Friends' meet-ced in the forest, in the northern part of ing-houses; three Lutheran; three Mora- Indiana, and that in the course of three or vian; three synagogues (there are now four years a considerable number of emifive or six); two Unitarian; three Univer-grants have established themselves within salist; four Welsh and smaller denomina- a mile or two of each other, in the woods. tions; and two Mariners' churches. This is from a published statement which may be depended upon as rather within the truth. The church accommodation of the Protestant population is in much higher proportion to their numbers than that of the Roman Catholics to theirs, partly owing, no doubt, to the liturgical services of the latter requiring less church accommodation than the "sermon preaching" of the former. Philadelphia is better supplied with churches than New-York. Those of all the leading denominations there have greatly increased during the last few years. The Methodists, I learn from one of their bestinformed ministers, have, in the course of the last fifteen years, built in the city and suburbs above twenty churches, most of which are capacious buildings; and the Episcopalians and Presbyterians have increased the number of theirs nearly in the same proportion. But our second and third rate cities and large towns are far better supplied than either of these two places. Salem, in Massachusetts, for a population the value of the ground, I should think it cannot be less than 300,000 dollars, and may amount to 500,000. Each clears away by degrees a part of the surrounding forest, and fences in his new fields, in the midst of which the deadened trees still stand very thickly. By little and little the country shows signs of occupation by civilized man. In the centre of the settlement a little village begins to form around a tavern and a blacksmith's shop. A carpenter places himself there as at a convenient centre. So do the tailor, the shoemaker, the wagon-maker, and the hatter. Nor is the son of Esculapius wanting; perhaps he is most of all needed; and it will be well if two or three of his brethren do not soon join him. The merchant, of course, opens his magazine there. And if there be any prospect of the rising village, though the deadened trees stand quite in the vicinity of the streets, becoming the seat of justice for a new county, there will soon be half a dozen young expounders of the law to increase the population, and offer their services to those who have suffered or committed some injustice. Things will hardly have reached this point before some one amid this heterogeneous population, come from different points of the older states, intermixed with a like kind is taking place every year, in wanderers from Europe-Irish, Scotch, or hundreds of instances, throughout all the German-proposes that they should think states. Settlers of one denomination are of having a church, or, at least, some place sometimes sufficiently numerous in one of worship. It is ten chances to one if place to build a church for themselves at there be not one or more pious women, or the outset, but in most cases they hold their some pious man with his family, who sigh | first meetings for worship in schoolrooms for the privileges of the sanctuary, as once or private houses. enjoyed by them in the distant East. What The rapid increase of the population in is to be done? Some one proposes that some of the new villages and towns of the they should build a good large school- West, when favourably situated for trade, house, which may serve also for holding re- is astonishing, and strikes one particularly ligious meetings, and this is scarcely soon- in its early stages. Thus, when in the er proposed than accomplished. Though State of Alabama in February, 1831, I vispossibly made of mere logs and very plain, ited the town of Montgomery in company it will answer the purpose for a few years. with a worthy Baptist minister, in the Being intended for the meetings of all de- course of an extensive tour through the nominations of Christians, and open to all Western States in behalf of one of our preachers who may be passing, word is benevolent societies. It was then hardly sent to the nearest in the neighbourhood. more than a large village. On the night Ere long some Baptist preacher, in pass- of the second of the two days we spent in ing, preaches in the evening, and is follow-it, we preached in a large schoolhouse, ed by a Presbyterian and a Methodist. By-and-by the last of these arranges his circuit labours so as to preach there once in a fortnight, and the minister of some Presbyterian congregation, ten or fifteen miles off, agrees to come and preach once a month. Meanwhile, from the increase of the inhabitants, the congregations, on the Sabbath particularly, become too large for the schoolhouse. A church is then built of framed beams and boards, forming no mean ornament to the village, and capable of accommodating some 200 or 300 people. Erected for the public good, it is used by all the sects in the place, and by others besides. For were a Swedenborgian minister to come and have notice given that he would preach, he might be sure of finding a congregation, though, as the sect is small in America, and by many hardly so much as heard of, he might not have a single hearer that assents to his views. But it will not be long before the Presbyterians, Methodists, or Baptists feel that they must have a minister on whose services they can count with more certainty, and hence a church, also, for themselves. And at last the house, which was a jointstock affair at first, falls into the hands of some one of the denominations and is abandoned by the others, who have mostly provided each one for itself. Or it may remain for the occasional service of some passing Roman Catholic priest, or Universalist preacher.* Such is the process continually going on in the West, and, indeed, something of * In some places in the Southwestern States, the primitive and temporary churches built for all denominations, in the new villages or settlements, are called "Republican churches;" that is, churches for the accommodation of the public rather than for any one sect. Large schoolhouses, also, erected for the double purpose of teaching and preaching, are called Republican meeting-houses. which, if I remember rightly, was the only place for holding religious meetings existing there at the time. We had a good congregation, though a circus was held hard by. Just three years after, when repeating the same tour, I spent a Sabbath and one or two days more at the same spot, but under amazingly different circumstances. In the morning I preached in a Presbyterian church built of frames and covered with boards, and every way comfortable, to at least 600 persons. The church, which reckoned 100 members, had got a young man as pastor, to whom they gave a yearly stipend of $1000. At night I preached in a Baptist church, built of brick, but not quite finished, which could hold 300 persons at least. Besides these, there were one Methodist Episcopal and one Protestant Methodist church, each, in so far as I can recollect, as large as the Baptist church. Then there was an Episcopal church, not less in size, though probably with a smaller congregation, than the Baptist church. And, withal, there was a Roman Catholic church, though not a large one, I believe. All this after an interval of only three years! Eventful years they had been. A revival of religion, which took place during one of them, had brought many souls to the knowledge of salvation. This was, it is true, an extraordinary case, yet something very similar in kind, although not in degree, is going on at a great many points in the West. I know not what reverses the town of Montgomery may have since undergone, but what I have stated occurred, I know, between the years 1831 and 1834. On the Genesee River, a few miles above its entrance into Lake Ontario, in the State of New-York, stands a town, incorporated as a city, called Rochester. The place is famous for the vast quantity of flour made at its mills. Twenty-five years ago, it could show but a few houses scattered here the trustees, where there are such. Where and there, where now there is a well-built and flourishing city, containing, when I was there about two years ago, 22,000 inhabitants, and twenty-two churches, many of which were large and fine buildings, capable of accommodating congregations of from 1000 to 1200 persons each. Among these churches there were two for Germans, and another, I learned, was soon to be erected for French and Swiss. Churches and church property of every description are held, in the United States, by trustees chosen by the congregation to which they belong. The laws of almost every state provide for this. These trustees, who may be two, three, or more in number, are authorized to act for the congregation, to whom they report, from time to time, the state of the common funds. They are charged, in most cases, with the collection of the pastor's salary, as well as with the general collection and outlay of money for the congregation. Without their consent the church edifice cannot be given to any other than the ordinary religious services of the sanctuary. the seats are free, as is the case with very many churches of all denominations in the interior of the country, the minister's salary is raised by yearly subscription. In the Methodist Episcopal churches, with few exceptions, the ministers are supported by collections among the members, quarterly public collections, &c. Sometimes, also, recourse is partially had to subscriptions, especially where there are " stationed" or non-itinerating ministers. Among the Protestant denominations, the amount of the pastor's salary is determined, in most cases, by the churches themselves. In the Methodist churches, the amount is fixed by the General Conference. In ordinary cases, he receives so much for himself, a like sum for his wife, and so much for each of his children, according to their ages, with certain perquisites besides, such as a family dwellinghouse, a horse, &c., making up altogether a comfortable maintenance for himself and his household. The collections of each "circuit" are expected, generally speaking, to suffice for the salaries of the ministers who occupy them, any deficiency being made up from funds which the Conference may have in hand for meeting such contin denominations, with two exceptions, receive fixed salaries from their people, and are expected to devote themselves to their proper vocation, and to “live by the altar.” The exceptions are a part of the ministers of the Baptist Church, and all the Quaker preachers. These support themselves by their labour, or from other sources, and preach on the Sabbath. In some cases, several, if not all of the churches in a city, belonging to a particular communion, are held by a common board of trustees. All the Methodist Epis-gencies. The clergy of all evangelical copal churches of New-York are so held. One corporation has the proprietorship of four of the Reformed Dutch churches in that city, and another holds Trinity Church, and perhaps some others belonging to the Protestant Episcopal denomination. In all denominations, according to general practice, each particular church and congregation has its own trustees, and manages its own "temporal" affairs, being such as relate to the church edifice, the ground on which it stands, and any other property or stocks belonging to it; and it is only on questions of right to property that the Civil Courts, or even the State Legislatures, or Congress itself, can ever meddle with the affairs of the churches. CHAPTER V. THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED.-HOW UNDER this head we find different measures adopted by different churches, and in different parts of the country. The Baptists agree with the Methodists in not considering a college education, or an acquaintance with the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew tongues, or the natural and moral sciences, indispensable for a preacher of the Gospel; hence by far the greater number of them have had only an English education, together with such theological knowledge, derived from English sources, as has qualified them, in the opinion of the authorities in their churches, for undertaking to preach the Gospel. In both these denominations, however, there are not a few truly learned men, who have passed through the curriculum of some college, and have diligently added to the acquirements of their preparatory course. The regular itinerating ministers of the Methodist churches receive salaries, and devote themselves wholly to their ministerial call Universally where the seats and pews are the property of individuals or families, and generally where they are rented by the year, the salaries of the pastors, and some-ing; whereas very many of the Baptist times all the incidental expenses, are raised by a certain yearly, half-yearly, or quarterly rate upon each pew. The proportion for each pew is fixed by the trustees, or by the elders, or by a committee appointed for that special purpose, but in most cases by ministers, as has been already stated, especially in the Southern and Western, and to a certain extent in the Middle States, receive no salaries at all, or none of any consequence, so that they must support themselves in some other way. |