Decline of Religion, and its Causes. By Evan M. Johnson [pp. 588-596]

Decline of Religion.
ART. VII.-Decline of Religion, and its Causes; a Ser mon preached before the Convention of the Protestant
Episcopal Church of the State of New York, in Trinity
Church, in the city of New York, October 6th, 1836.
By Evan M. Johnson, Rector of St. John's Church,
Brooklyn. Brooklyn, 8vo. pp. 16. 1836.
THIs is one of the most weak and ill-considered discourses
we have read for a long time. Indeed it is, in itself, utterly
unworthy of notice. But as it affords us an opportunity of
making some remarks on subjects which it discusses, and
which we deem seasonable, we think proper to place its title
at the head of this article, and to make some of its contents a
text on which to found our comments.
The author assumes, as a conceded point, that religion, in
our country in general, is on the decline; that infidelity and
moral profligacy are evidently gaining ground; and that
Christian and moral influence is now at a lower ebb than it
has at any time been within the last quarter of a century. He
assumes, too, that the fault, in regard to this state of things,
cannot lie with the church; because this would be to charge
the Master with forming an imperfect institution,,which fails
of effecting its intended benefits. He forgets that there was
a deplorable state of things in several of the churches to which
the apostle Paul sent inspired epistles, particularly in the
churches of Corinth and Galatia: that both doctrinal error
and moral delinquency prevailed within them to a distressing
degree. And yet the apostle, in remonstrating with those
churches on the state of things among them, does not ascribe
it to the surrounding heathen, but to themselves. He addresses the members of those churches in terms of severe
rebuke. He charges them with having embraced "another
gospel;" with being " foolish" and "bewitched;" with having "not obeyed the truth;" with having "begun in the Spirit, and ended in the flesh;" insomuch that he declares he
"stood in doubt of them." Were the apostolic churches
true churches of Christ, or were they not? Were they less
perfect, and less efficacious then than they are at the present
day? We had thought that the state of the visible church
had been marked with imperfection in all ages; that its antediluvian period was distinguished by deplorable degeneracy;
that on various occasions, under the Old Testament economy,
it was brought very low-nay, to the verge of ruin; that
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