The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1867-03-20

of this article, an ample one may be found in
the facts which we wish to present. But to
save the modesty of the writer it may be add
ed, that this and the other articles which are
to follow are prepared after consultation with,
and at the suggestion of others who think with
the writer, that these facts need to be pressed
upon the minds of our churches
The strength of the Presbytery of Lexington
lies in the two counties of Rockbridge and
Augusta. Within its territorial limits num-
Der of large mountain counties are embraced,
and these counties are embraced, and these
counties were taken in as missionary field for
this Presbytery, but, out of about forty
churches in our bounds, twenty-five or six lie
in these two countless and out Of about three
thousand MEMBERS nearly twenty-seven hun
dred live in them. So that these counties con-
stitute the strength of the Presbytery.
In the first settlement of the Valley Of Vir-
ginia, the two great elements of population
seem to have settled in distinct colonies. The
Germans filled the counties of Shenandoah and
Rockingham almost to the exclusion Of all
others, and the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians
took almost exclusive possession of Augusta
and Rockbridge. These latter counties were
therefore, from their earliest settlement, dis
tinctively Presbyterian in their religion, and
even to the present day are very largely SO /;
not only Presbyterian, but filed with some of
the best raw material for Presbyterianism that
the world has ever produced.
These facts would naturally lead us to expect
that the Presbyterian Church would grow
steadily and rapidly in this whole region
With all the natural elements Of strength that
belongs to the character of the Scotch Irish,
and with the immense predominating influence
which as Church she possessed, what was
there to retard her growth? A careful ex-
animation of the statistics of these counties and
of the Presbytsry shows, however, that in this
highly favored place, and under these highly
| favorable circumstances, the Presbyterian
Church has not fulfilled, in any just sense, her
legitimate mission, or met her responsibility
She has not kept pace with the increase of
population; she has not advanced with the
growth of other Christian denominations. The
object of this writing is to call the attention of
the pastors and churches of Lexington Presby-
terry to these facts, and to inquire into the
causes of this failure and the remedy for it.
We offer not opinions but the statistics
promising only that for reasons that all will
understand, we have no statistics of later date
than 1860. But comparison of the ten years
that preceded, shows that in lS49 Lexington
Presbytery had under its care 30 churches, with
an aggregate membership of 1882. Ten
years later, 1859, she reports IS churches, with
an aggregate membership of $780, an actual
decrease of l72 members in ten years. During
the same period the population of Rockbridge
and Augusta counties had increased in the ag-
gregate from 49, 55 to 44,997, an increase of
1882 souls. There was, during these ten years,
not only an absolute decrease in membership,
but a much larger relative decrease. The pop
ulation of the other counties of the Presbytery
had probably increased more rapidly than those
named, but throughout the whole bounds the
Church had fallen back. But taking the ratio
of these counties in 1S49, our Church had one
member to every ID. of population, and in
1859 one to every II Of population in the same
counties, and in the circumstances most favor
able to her work.
According to the census Of the United States
in 1850 the Methodist Church had IA houses
of worship in the counties of Rockbridge and
A Al oL dot
$50 persons. In 1860 they had 81 churches,
with corresponding increase Of accommoda-
ton. While the Presbyterians had not built
one church, or organized one, or more than one
congregation, the Methodist had more than
doubled their number of churches and their
membership.
This comparison is instituted in no jealous
spirit but with hearty God-speed to any
Christian Church that does the Masters work;
and with the hope that Presbyterians will learn
of others something of the value and impor-
lance of energy in their work.
Is it not sad sentence that we writer THE
Presbyterian Church has lost ground, and IS
constantly losing ground in that territory which
peculiarly belongs to her, and which is for her
operations the most favored part of Virginia,
she is losing ground both absolutely and rela-
lively to the increase of population, and to the
progress of other Christian churches in the
same territory.
These may be unwelcome truths; our de-
nominational pride would lead us to suppress