An Appeal to the People in Behalf of Their Rights as Authorized Interpreters of the Bible

by Catharine Esther Beecher

The conflict led by the New Haven school of divines, was, in fact, an attempt to cut up the Augustinian system by the root, in maintaining that sin consists in the wrong action of a right nature, and [pg 303] not in a depraved nature and its inevitable results.

All these controversies have been carried on, more and more, in the audience of the people, who, in the meantime, have been continually advancing in mental culture and knowledge.

Especially has this been the case in this country, where religion has been freed from civil restraints. Several of the religious sects have been so divided on these matters as to involve civil suits to settle questions of property, thus bringing theologians and lawyers on to the same arena. And thus discussions on theological points were reported in secular papers.

This was the case in the rending of the Presbyterian church into the Old and New-school sections. During this controversy, some of the most honored and talented of the clergy were suspended from their pulpit duties and threatened with dismission from theological professorships, solely on the charge of denying certain points of doctrine of the Augustinian system. And the highest judicature of the nation was called to decide whether the men thus charged had, or had not so departed from orthodox creeds as to warrant the loss of place and income.

In this discussion, the endowments of colleges, of theological schools, and of church property, were so at stake, that the laymen all over the land were obliged to inquire into and understand the merits of a discussion strictly metaphysical and theological.

In Massachusetts, at one time, the whole State was excited by the question whether there were any other churches except the congregations that worshiped together [pg 304] and supported the minister. This question was argued before the highest court of the State, and decided in the negative, while for years the controversy was prolonged.

Meantime, the study of mental science has been introduced into both colleges and schools all over the land, and the sons, and even the daughters of our farmers and mechanics, have gained clearer and more discriminating views on such subjects than can now be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato, and the wisest men of past ages.

Phrenology, also, has drawn maps of the mental faculties, so that even the senses have been trained to aid in metaphysics.

The pulpit, the press and public lecturers now, when they refer to the intellect, the susceptibilities, the will, the moral powers, and use other metaphysical terms, are understood by all.

In short, the human mind has developed in all directions, until it is impossible any longer to conceal absurdities under cover of hard names and metaphysical abstrusities, especially when the practical concerns of this life, as well as the life to come, are equally involved.