A State religion is, no doubt, the greatest obstacle to a proper appreciation of Christianity by the working classes—for through that medium it is reflected as simply an elaborate machinery to provide comfortable incomes for an army of priests—a gigantic establishment based upon selfishness. But even this dead weight upon the progress of religion would be greatly lightened if Evangelical Christians rightly commended it to the affections of the people—if, instead of bowing down to the great imposture, and drinking into its spirit, they unceasingly displayed the benign and disinterested character of the Gospel. Whatever the religious organizations of the present day accomplish—and it is not denied that they do something—they do not seem to be capable of evangelizing the masses. To this objection it is no reply to urge that they never have, except to a small extent, effected that purpose. If true religion be what the religious world say it is, there must be, irrespective of all former experience, some lamentable deficiency in the mode of presenting its great and omnipotent truths to the people. For it is a notorious fact that the bulk of our working population do not care for religion, scarcely come within range of its teachings, and, for the most part, dislike its professional representatives. Is there not here something more than the natural aversion to superior goodness, and the preference for self-gratification? Every one will have fresh in recollection a touching episode in that eminently religious book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” in which are detailed the successive steps in the training of a little outcast negro. Miss Ophelia undertook the benevolent task, and performed it only too conscientiously. No pains, no sacrifices, were spared in educating the benighted Topsy. The system of the Northern lady was perfect in its mechanism. Instruction, exhortation, reproof, punishment, followed in due order. The young mind exhibited unusual quickness and aptitude in the acquisition of knowledge. One element alone was wanting—the moral influence of the teacher. That being absent, all the rest seemed comparatively valueless. Between the upright New Englander, with her unflinching sense of duty and her prejudice against colour, and the hardened negro girl, there was no connecting link—an entire absence of affection and sympathy. Yet that moral waste on which the lady of strong sense and set rules could make no impression, was reclaimed by the kindness of a child. Topsy’s heart, steeled to Miss Ophelia’s exhortations, melted at Eva’s sympathy. {18}