DÖLLINGER ON THE TEl\1PORAL POWER 339
another, "in order to have a free Church, is pastors and flocks; dogs and wolves there are in plenty," In America it is rare to find people \vho are openly irreligious. Except some of the Gern1ans, all Protestants generally admit the truth of Christianity and the authority of Scripture. But above half of the American population belongs to no particular sect, and performs no religious functions. This is the result of the voluntary principle, of the dominion of the sects, and of the absence of an established Church, to receive each individual from his birth, to adopt him by baptism, and to bring him up in the atmosphere of a religious life. The nlajority of men \vill naturally take refuge in indifference and neutrality from the conflict of opinions, and will persuade themselves that where there are so many competitors, none can be the la\vful spouse. Yet there is a blessing on everything that is Christian, which can never be entirely effaced or converted into a curse. Whatever the imperfections of the form in \vhich it exists, the errors mixed up with it, or the degrading influence of human passion, Christianity never ceases to work immeasurable social good. But the great theological characteristic of American Protestantism is the absence of the notion of the Church. The prevailing belief is, that in times past there was always a war of opinions and of parties, that there never \-vas one unbroken vessel, and that it is necessary, therefore, to put up \vith fragments, one of which is nearly as good as another. Sectarianism, it is vaguely supposed, is the normal condition of religion. No\v a sect is, by its very nature, instinctively adverse to a scientific theology; it feels that it is short-lived, \vithout a history, and unconnected \vith the main stream of ecclesiastical progress, and it is inspired with hatred and with contempt for the past, for its teaching and its writings. Practically, sectaries hold that a tradition is the more surely to be rejected the older it is, and the more valuable in proportion to the lateness of its origin. As a consequence of the want of roots in the past, and of the thirst for novelty, the history of those sects which are not sunk in lethargy consists in sudden
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