Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)
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Last winter in the United States : $b being table talk collected during a tour through the late Southern Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.
Zincke, F. Barham (Foster Barham)
United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
At the service I attended, there was not a seat vacant in the Church of
the Epiphany; but they were all filled with well-dressed persons. In
the afternoon of the same Sunday I went to the church of St. John’s, to
be present at a Bible class held by the Adjutant-General of the United
States army, a man whom any church might be thankful to have among
its members, and to hear the catechising conducted by the rector. The
children catechised were those of the upper class, for here also I
found no ill-dressed people among the congregation. In the evening I
went to Trinity Church, where I was told I should see a congregation
of the humbler classes. I heard a clergyman conduct the service and
preach, who I thought possessed just the qualities which would adapt
him for obtaining an influence over those classes, but I saw very few
of them in the church.
As I am not aware that any bishop of the American Episcopal Church
was at Washington while I was there, I will take this opportunity for
offering to the consideration of English Churchmen some remarks that
were made to me elsewhere by an American bishop. I run the risk of
doing this without permission, because I believe that here at home we
are far too ignorant of, not to say indifferent about, what is passing
in the minds and hearts too of our American brother-churchmen. He
thought that the Episcopal Church in America was the natural, or at all
events now the chief, bond of union between the old country and the
United States. With very few exceptions, and they are exceptions that
are not worth considering, the Episcopalians cherish the recollections
of the old country most fondly; whereas it is notorious that the
American churches which are connected with English dissent are more
or less actuated by feelings, if not of animosity, yet certainly of
coldness towards the old country.
[Sidenote: _Some Remarks of an American Bishop._]
The Episcopal Church is a great power in the United States, and is
more respected, and more influential in forming and guiding public
opinion than even the government and legislature. Its members comprise
the great bulk of the most refined and educated class in the country.
Those who join us from that class come to us because they regard
Romanism as a religion not for men, but only for women and children,
while they look upon the other churches as having little devotion and
less stability.
The Episcopal Church was opposed to the late war, and though pressure
was put upon it, it would not give in to the fierce mania of the
moment. This was the case in both sections.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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