The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
THE CAMPBELLITES.
In America of late years there has been an enormous increase of what are
called the Campbellites. They now number in that country 500,000, have
fifteen colleges, and a large university with 800 students; they have
2000 churches, and 1000 regular ministers. They are also well
represented as regards literature. They have one quarterly, six or seven
weeklies, two ladies’ magazines, and several Sunday-school papers. In
London they are not a numerous class. They have places of worship in the
Milton Hall, Camden Town, and in College Street, Chelsea. The truth is,
as regards chapels and churches, public worship is as much a social as a
religious institution. Fashion has a great deal to do with the
attendance. It is the fashion to go to church. It is not the fashion to
run after new sects or preachers of new doctrines. In a flourishing
church there are societies which bring people into contact with one
another—these promote in their turn, like the far-famed ale of Trinity,
“brotherly neighbourhood.” The old ladies get a habit of
gossiping—Jones, Brown, and Robinson take tea together—and then young
people form alliances in consequence often of a serious and matrimonial
character. It is uphill work, then, in London for a little isolated
cause. The odds against its permanent success are infinite. Still the
Campbellites are making way. They have a fine base of operations in
America, and they are spreading over England,—if they are not doing much
in the Metropolis. They are good, pious people, and earnest in the
conviction that they alone understand and maintain apostolical charity;
and deeply deploring the present divided and unhappy state of the
Christian Church, and with a view to unity, they increase the number of
divisions by withdrawing from all other religious bodies, and forming a
fresh one of their own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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