CHURCH PROGRESS IN AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 658, 8 November 1909, Page 8

CHURCH PROGRESS IN AMERICA.

; , The.Census Bureau ;'ofthe United States has pnblished an 'authoritative' census; of ireligipua" ; bodies £ox 190 S. The L oflly'preTious anthoritative census was.that'.of 1890. The figures are gratifying./ Out of a population of something ' over, eighty millions- there • are 32,936,445' cpm- • municants, and a majority; of the others : more or less ■; loosoly ' : connected Vitit : the Churches; "The' most' remarkable iricreaseiap'- ' pears'in the Eoman Catholic Church,.but these '. include all'baptised Catholics' over eight years. • old, and cannot, therefore; be properly com- : I pared with'the others. The Korian-Catholics . claim 12,079,142, and' in 1890 /they 'claimed : ,6,241,708. Amtmg the Protestasi? the Methodist ' bodies rank first in : number nf'memborsi with '; of the fetal for all religious denominations, ' and the Baptist bodies, come next with, 17A !' TJio : ; iacrease of'.the Baptists was 52 A per'cent;' and the Congnjgntionatists 36.6 per cent., and , .thePreshyterians *U per cent. "'.ThePrdtestant I ,Epi£copa3Lms'reported. 888,9i2 in : 1906, 'ana '" in 1890, an increase of. 66.7 per eant But the .Methodists report and -the, ,; Baptists : .hs2£S!>.\ ., Cqngregationalists' ;,aro rather more numerous, than' Episcopalians. , Presbyterians report About eight new,.churches hare been built every day for c the sixteea-year. period." .It would seem■■tJiat > the. Church, in''spite "of ' ail;' opposition, is t growing mare'rapidly titan, the population is, 1 ; and'more rapidly than' ii ever gre,w \bdore. !■: Out ,of the total estimated, population of: the } United' States in' 1«K; 39.1 per'cent were re-. 1 ported'as Church, membors. Thecarrespondiig 1 percentage for 1890 waii'32.7, so that '.the per--9 centage of the /were .Cbnrch ~ members .was larger .by:6.4, .in 1906 .than in ■.. 1890. It "will ; bo, seen that , tttore is good reason '" ib'-'.th'ank.'. ; 'God:.'.nnd take' courage'.—"British 1. :Weekly;"';■;:'''/.. :■'■- ■^■'A.'■■ : >W." ■'.;-.\; :