.OTQz.NTg5NDY
111 begin lined out portion Methodist Chapel at home only well put, & well delivered. end lined out portion Of course sermons of this kind indicate the Theological calibre of the congregation as well as that of the Minister; for Ministers & sermons are in the long run made by the congregation. In the evening of the same day I attended service at an Episcopal Church. The interior of the building was profusely decorated with Christmas evergreens, & the sermon showed that the Preacher was a man of learning & thought.
There are five Episcopal Churches in this city. Those who
minister in them appear to be well paid. I was told that the two highest salaries were 4000, & 3500 dollars. I heard, however, but I do not know to what denominations my informants belonged, & so possibly they may not have been well acquainted with the subject, that the Episcopal Church here is not so active as it is in the North. Of course in the North there is greater intellectual & religious activity, just as there is more doing in agriculture, manufactures & trade; but if there was to be any exception to this rule one wd have expected to have found it in the Episcopal Church in Richmond, because here the people in bearing & conversation far more closely resemble Englishmen than is the case in the North. They speak, too, more frequently, & with more regard of the old country, its people, & its institutions. Everybody I saw in the Churches in Richmond just as in the Churches of the northern cities was well-dressed. The humbler classes appeared neither to have churches for themselves nor places in the churches of the rich. This, as everybody knows, is the weak point in the American voluntary system.