Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-04-15
Church Attendance.


sumed to be fact. 1t las been reported
upon and discussed in many church and
ministerial conventions of various denomna-
tons and magazine articles have discussed
the question whether the coming man will
=, 30 church at all. The Christian Union
Of New York recently interviewed ten prom
lnent New York and Brooklyn ciciaymcu,
oi the several leading denominations upon
the subject. They We're consulted upon the
following questions:
Considering the difference IN to.ulaipn mas
there been relative decline IN urea ATTENDANCE
during the past fifteen or twenty years II 80
how can it he accounted for:
What influence has the world upon the church
Has ilc increase OF church lars, sotiahirs PA
vstc theatricais, and social ANUS, uIrnts generally
anon. Christians tended 10 dccreise spirituality IN
the rhnch?
Wnat has been the innuance Of modern
thought or skepiici-m, on churcligoug people,
srI int VIII he IT, ultimate effect ~ ,hr~tiaii-
ny
Ca the first point, Rev. DR.. john Hall OF
the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church, is
not sensible Of any decline" Rev. Or Ar
ni,scc If the Fifth Avenue Baptist church
thinks Here IS probably Il Little Increase,
and Rev ]. Il. Thomas of the Fins, Baptist
church, Brooklyn, has thc "imnrcssion that
his denomination has Increased in member
slip" Rev DIR. Howard Crosby thinks
things are just as they always have been. ~
Rev. DR. Deems thinks that the attendance
in his charcl, is better than it was forty
years ago Rev Or. Chapman Of st. Paul's
NJ. +. church would say there has been no
decline Mr.. Beecher thinks there has
been both much larger average attend
ancc" at the principal churches, and n
''Lininulon in proportion to the whole pop
uatiou" The Very Rev. T. 8. Preston of
St AIMS (Ron.an Catholic church, New
York. thinks there has been with lis a very
great increase in church attendance. HTu
Rev. DR.. Potter thinks that the average at
tendance of the Episcopal church is much
larger" tIian it was thirty wears ago. Tie
Christian Union thus sums up the replies To
its questions:
Their testimony is absolutely uniform that
there las been no falling OF in church AT
resented appears to be in as prosperous a
condition as it ever was-sOmc of them
much more So Doubtless there are some rea-
sons for the contrary impression. dimin-
ishctl attendance has been constantly assum-
ed and falsehocd assumed and constantly
reiterated comes TO produce the impression
Of truth The ministers and churches whose
congregations have fallen off have filled the
land with their outcries; the others were
contented and have gone quietly on with
their work the vacant seats have been adj
verlised. but not the full ones. In some
communities, as in New York. the increase
in population has been largely foreign Access
sion and Protestant church attendance has
naturally not kept pace with ii. In other COM
nunities there has been transfer OF attend
ancc from one form of faith or worship 10
another In still other communities congrc-
gatiens have been split up by scctarian sep
aratious there are many villages liz New Eng
land where, fifty years ago, all the people
attended one meeting house and filled it,
while now they attend five or SIX, each one
of which is half or quarter full. There are as
many passengers on the train, hu, more cars.
This NAV bc 4 disadvantagc-in some sense
it is-but il does not Indicate thai fewer peo-
pie are travelling heavenward. In so far as
there is in any special church or locality a
diminished attendance, the cause and the cure
are very succinctly pointed out by DIR. Pot
ter and Mr.. Bcccher, who though seeming
to differ, really agree. The minister Is
10 longer press and teacher rs well as pull
pit. Men 90 TO church not to get new ideas,
but TO get new spiritual fervor. fthcy get
that from a devout minister in non-liiurgl-
cal service they are content If not, they de-
of chr
which furnishes spiritual fcrvor by its wise
employment Of the spiritual life and expert
cnce of past ages, gathered into what We,
with Dr. Potter, believe TO be an incompara-
be liturgy.
These witnesses are equally hopesul when
their attention is turned from the external 10
the interior aspects of church life. Church
activity was never so intense and never so
well organized us il is to-day this is their
general and united testimony. One needs
only TO read DIR. Chapman's rarsgraphal ac-
count Of the multiform work Of his own
church, or recall the recent account in our
columns Of the various works of Grace
church, or the still fuller report which
We published few years ago of the church
work of the younger Tying, 10 find abundant
demonstration of the truth of their tcstl-
mony. Lazy churches lhere are, us there
are lazy folks everywhere but Il lazy church
is more entirely out of harmony with the
spirit of this age than with that o: any other
The church OF the nineteenth century is en-
phatically church militant. So of world
liness il exists and il is the hane of church
and Christian life; but the substantially
unanimous testimony of these clcrgymen is
that il is not relatively increasing. The
church is widening out its conception OF
Christian life. DR.. Potter points ont that
in lis mission work, and sometimes in its
home work, il cndcavors to provide healthy
amusement for the young DIR. Arml,agc,
that il has cast off the old sOmbre and sour
form Of religion, and is substituting Tor
asceticism Christianity it is ceasing TO
follow John the Baptist, and is following
more truly Christ Mr.. Beecher, that in this
transition there are blunders and excuses
but Dr. Hall, with just discrimination, re-
minds us that there may have been just as
much worldlness in a singing school rs there
is now in church fair DIR. Thomas, that
the infusion of Christianity in domestic and
social life has been L gain and DIR. Deems,
that the world has been approximating the
church. rather than the church the world.
But what is perhaps the most notable in
these ,cpiies is the absolute unanimily of
spirit in their answer TO the qucs-
ton, What has been the influence Of
modern thought Z" DIR. Crosby terscly
declares, what is most certainly true, that
"a good deal of modern thought is Il modern
humbug' But this might also he said more
iruthiuly Of large proportion Of ancient
thought and Fr.her Preston, identifying
modern thought with inildclity, considers its
iuil fence on the community 10 he very
la ." hut every other clergyman looks on
llic present agitation and discussion of relis-
ions truth and life only with hopcfulncss.
There is not one Of them who appears 10 bc
in the least afraid Of the fullest and frcest
discussion of the claims of Christianity as a
divine revelation, or of any agitation 10
which skepicism can subject it.