The entire absence of criticism on the decennial tables contained in the report of Mr. Horace Mann on the Census of Religious Worship has filled the writer with equal surprise and concern.  For a period of nearly three years, hardly a week has passed without some injurious step on the part of the Government, some disastrous admission on the part of a friend, some daring rhodomontade on the part of a foe—all of which have owed their origin more or less directly to the false and mistaken view of t

Among the many changes which the present age has witnessed, none are more remarkable than those we have seen take place in the public mind with regard to the Church of this country. Thirty or forty years ago, the popular estimate of what was called the Established Religion was as low as can well be conceived.  The laity, for the most part, regarded Churchmanship as a mere empty tradition, or at best as a political symbol, and an excuse for lusty choruses in praise of “a jolly full bottle.”  The