RELIGION IN AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 526, 5 June 1909, Page 9

RELIGION IN AMERICA.

A ROSY PICTURE: , "The Times" has just published a rather romarkablo article on "Religious Movements in tho United States." The correspondent paints a somewhat rosy picture.. Ho tells us that there never was a timo whon tho religious forces of tho United States were more fully organised for their work".of moro devotedly and enthusiastically engaged in procecuting it. As if to set 'English mouths watering ho declares that tliCEp are not belligerent days in American religious life —that the Higher Criticism has ceased' from troubling, and denominational feuda .aro. at rest. Last year the United States and Canada put £1,940,000 into foreign missionary work. "Doubtless tho intense missionary-spirit has had a very stimulating influen'co'bn too mbyb-' meuts towards organic union' and co-opera-' tion. Inter-denominational controversies have long been a thing of tie past. <t Inter-de-nominational jealousies and rivalries have, in consequence, lost much of their,keenness. The increasing cost of church buildings and-of t-hoir maintenance, of congregational support,' and of denomination boards, to say nothing of the swelling list of intor-doriomina'tiorial charities, naturally suggests the necessity..of .economy to tho thrifty lay mind, and hence denominational pride often has to givp way to tho spirit of lnter-donominatiorial " comity, which makes mightily for economy." The correspondent draws tiie deduction that "because of this unity of spirit organic union comes more slowly than it might"; -but his conclusion is that.tho Evangelical, Churches of tho United States aro entering on a now epoch, in which denominational barriers are likely-to becomo exceedingly thin.and-frail. ' Some statistics riven.by the correspondent ere especially'striking ':,'.'. Iα the 18 jan that hay* eltmstd, jriaoe the

last religions census was taken tho total number of communicants of all bodies, Christian and Jewish, has. increased from te 34,289,870 —more than. 66 percent. That is, Christianity increases much more rapidly than tho population. Tho membership of tho Roman Catholic Church, through immigration, has almost doubled, and tho in- * ■reaso in tho Evangelical group.is 7,114,720, it upwards of 51 per cent. The Methodist Episcopal Church alono contributed in 1908 or religions purposes £8,854,000; while the Presbyterian Church, one of a dozen Presjytorian branches, reports an income for 1908 of over £4,400,000, contributed ,by 1,300.000 communicants. ....■■