Religious ideas of the settlers in central New York. The Protestant Episcopal Church; its relations to larger Christian bodies. Effects of revivalism in them. My father and mother. A soul escaped out of the thirteenth century into the nineteenth, Henry Gregory. My first recollections of religious worship; strong impressions upon me; good effects; some temporary evil effects. Syracuse. My early bigotry; check in it; reaction. Family influences. Influence of sundry sermons and occurrences. Baptismal regeneration. My feelings as expressed by Lord Bacon. The "Ursuline Manual" and its revelation. Effects of sectarian squabbles and Sunday-school zeal. Bishop DeLancey; his impressive personality. Effects of certain books. Life at a little sectarian college. Results of "Christian Evidences".
CHAPTER LIX. IN THE NEW ENGLAND ATMOSPHERE—1851-1853
Influence of New England Congregationalism at Yale. Butler's "Analogy." Revivals. Sermons and prayers in the college pulpit. Noble efforts of sundry professors, especially sermons of Horace Bushnell and President Woolsey. The recital of creeds. Effects of my historical reading. Injury done the American Church at that period by its support of slavery; notable exceptions to this. Samuel J. May. Beecher. Chapin. Theodore Parker. Influence of the latter upon me. Especial characteristics of Beecher as shown then and afterward. Chapin and his characteristics. Horace Greeley as a church-goer; strain upon his Universalism. Dr. Leonard Bacon. Bishop Alonzo Potter. Archbishops Bedini and Hughes; powerful sermon by the latter; Father Gavazzi's reply to it.
CHAPTER LX. IN THE EUROPEAN ATMOSPHERE—1853-1856
Student life in Europe. My susceptibility to religious architecture, music, and the nobler forms of ceremonial. Beauties of the Anglican service. Sundry experiences in European cathedrals and English university chapels. Archbishop Sumner. Bishop Wilberforce. My life in a Roman Catholic family in Paris. Noble work of the Archbishop of Paris. Sibour; his assassination. German Protestantism as seen in Berlin. Earnest character of Roman Catholic worship in central Germany. The Russo-Greek Church as seen in Russia; beauty of its service; its unfortunate influence on the people. Roman Catholicism in Italy; its wretched condition when I first saw it; irreverence of prelates at an Easter high mass in st. Peter's. Pius IX; effectiveness of the ceremonial in which he took part; Lord Odo Russell's reminiscence of him. A low mass at Pisa and its effect. An effort at proselytism in Rome; Father Cataldi. Condition of Rome at that time. Improvements since. Naples and "King Bomba"; Robert Dale Owen's statement to me. Catechism promoted by the Archbishop of Sorrento. Liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius; remark of a bystander to me. The doctrine of "intercession" illustrated. Erasmus's colloquy of "The Shipwreck." Moral condition of Naples. Influence of this Italian experience upon my religious views.
CHAPTER LXI. IN LATER YEARS—1856-1905
My relations with Professor Fisher at New Haven; his good influence. My interest in church work as a professor at the University of Michigan; am asked to select a rector; my success. Readings in ecclesiastical history; effect of these. Sale's Koran. Fra Paolo Sarpi's "History of the Council of Trent." Dean Stanley's "Eastern Church." Bossuet, Spalding, Balmez, Buckle, Lecky, Draper, the Darwinian hypothesis. Special influence of Stanley's "Life of Arnold," Robertson's Sermons, and other works. Good influences from sundry Methodists. Exceptions taken by individuals to sundry Broad Church statements in my historical lectures; their favorable reception. Sobering effect upon me of "spiritualistic" fanaticism. My increasing reluctance to promote revolutionary changes in religion; my preference for evolutionary methods. Special experiences. The death-bed of a Hicksite Quaker. My toleration ideas embodied in the Cornell University Charter; successful working of these. Establishment of a university chapel and preachership; my selections of preachers; good effects of their sermons upon me. Effects of sundry Eastern experiences. Mohammedan worship at Cairo and elsewhere. The dervishes. Expulsion of young professors from the American Missionary College at Beyrout; noble efforts of one of them afterward. The Positivist Conventicle in London. The "Bible for Learners." Summing up of my experience. Worship—public and private; reasonableness of both. Recognition of spiritual as well as of physical laws. Recognition of an evolution in religious beliefs. Proper attitude of thinking men. Efforts for evolution rather than for revolution. Need of charity to all forms of religion but of steady resistance to clerical combinations for hampering scientific thought or controlling public education.