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testimony of God’s Word they could not regard as constituting the
church of Christ, “the pillar and ground of the truth.” Hence they felt
themselves justified in separating from their former connection. In the
summer of 1844 about fifty thousand withdrew from the churches.
About this time a marked change was apparent in most of the
churches throughout the United States. There had been for many years
a gradual but steadily increasing conformity to worldly practices and
customs, and a corresponding decline in real spiritual life; but in that
year there were evidences of a sudden and marked declension, in nearly
all the churches of the land. While none seemed able to suggest the
cause, the fact itself was widely noted and commented upon, both by
the press and the pulpit.
At a meeting of the presbytery of Philadelphia, Mr. Barnes, author
of the commentary so widely used, and pastor of one of the leading
churches in that city, “stated that he had been in the ministry for
twenty years, and never till the last communion had he administered
the ordinance without receiving more or less into the church. But
now there are no awakenings, no conversions, not much apparent
growth in grace in professors, and none come to his study to converse
about the salvation of their souls. With the increase of business, and
the brightening prospects of commerce and manufactures, there is an
increase of worldly-mindedness. Thus it is with all denominations.”
[377]
In the month of February of the same year, Professor Finney, of
Oberlin College, said: “We have had the facts before our minds, that,
in general, the Protestant churches of our country, as such, were either
apathetic or hostile to nearly all the moral reforms of the age. There
are partial exceptions, yet not enough to render the fact otherwise
than general. We have also another corroborative fact,—the almost
universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The spiritual
apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the religious
press of the whole land testifies. Very extensively, church-members
are becoming devotees of fashion, joining hands with the ungodly
in parties of pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, etc. But we need
not expand this painful subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens
and rolls heavily upon us, to show that the churches generally are
becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone very far from the Lord,
and he has withdrawn himself from them.”