There Are 35,000 Sabbath
Schools, With 250,000 Teachers, And 2,500,000 Scholars.
Besides the large
number of churches, religious services are held in many schools and
courthouses, and even in forests and fields.
The dissemination of the
Bible is on the increase. In last year the Bible Society distributed
upwards of 11,000,000 copies. The Society for Religious Publications
employed 1300 colporteurs, and effected sales during the year to the
amount of 526,000 dollars. The principal of the religious societies are
for the observance of the sabbath, for temperance, anti-slavery objects,
home missions, foreign missions, &c. The last general receipts of all
these societies were 3,053,535 dollars.
In the State of Massachusetts the Unitarians are a very influential body,
numbering many of the most intellectual and highly educated of the
population. These, however, are divided upon the amount of divinity with
which they shall invest our Lord.
The hostile spirit which animates some of the religious journals has been
already noticed. There is frequently a good deal of rivalry between the
members of the different sects; but the way in which the ministers of the
orthodox denominations act harmoniously together for the general good is
one of the most pleasing features in America. The charitable religious
associations are on a gigantic scale, and are conducted with a liberality
to which we in England are strangers. The foreign missions are on a
peculiarly excellent system, and the self-denying labours and zeal of
their missionaries are fully recognised by all who have come in contact
with them.
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