The daily gazette. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1874-1883, 1881-02-28
CHURCH GOING.
M the So, Louis Globe- Democrat.

From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
Before entering into the conflict with
the Sabbath-breakers, the leaders of the
ehurch-going army have been counting
their forces, and the result is not Ell cour-
aging. Not only are the believers in
church. going very small minority of
| the people in the large cities, but of
these only small minority actually 90
to church, the majority contenHng them
selves with purely theoretical adher-
encs to their behalf. In Chicago count
was recently taken at the attendance d.
30 out of the 216 Protestant churches in
that city In those churches there are
about $4,000 sittings and the member
ship of the churches is 1924, and the
largest aggregate attendance was 1880.
The total numbered sitlings in the Prot
estant churches of Chicago is about 100,-
900; the total membership 50,226 as
Stunning that the 80 selected churches
represented the average Of the whole
number, the largest aggregate number
Of Protestants attending morning ser
vice on Sunday ID Chicago would be
about $4,000, Of whom, of course,
m .jority are women and children.
1t will not do TO assume that in the
matter of church-going Chi ago is either
better or worse than other cities. The
statistics we havs quoted, which were
collected By DR.. Goodwin, show that
the people OF that city are liberal at
church building, having provided dou-
BILE the accommodation needed for the
actual church members. Chicago is in
every way representative city, and in
tins matter Of church-geing it contains
fair share OF that Puritan element from
New England which is at the bottom of
all agitation In favor of Sunday laws.
In fact, 1t is only among Protest ants that
advocates Of Sunday laws are to be
found, and only among Protesants of
English Puritan ideas. The Continental
Proestants of Europe are nearly as lib
eral In the matter of Sunday observance
as their Catholic neighbors are j.; so that
in city Of SOC, 900 inhabitants the only
support of a Sunday-law movement
would come from certain proport OIL of
$4,000 church-goers.
We should like very much to believe
that other citi-S we're more pious than
Chicago, but the general burden of
complaint that goes up from the
mouths of the preachers forbids our
INDUCING in any such belief. In St.
Louis, for instance, the agitation for
Sunday law is not based on the fact
that the majority of the people are
church goers, but arises largely from
the reproach that the great majority
Of the people stay away from the
churches and frequent the saloons,
the advocates of the Sunday law ad
uniting that the number of people fire.
quenting the saloons which they wish
to close is much larger than the num-
Der of those who frequent the churches
and seek to close the saloons. At a
recent conference of the Episcopal
Church the prir ciple topic of discus
sion was the prevalence of abstention
from church, and almost every meth
cd short of actual physica. violence
was proposed in order to bring the
people into church. There is not q
synod or conference or annual meet |
ing of any kind of tho clergy of any
church in which the decline of church
going is not admitted as fact and de- |
plored as an evil.
In the early colonial settlements
church going was enforced by fiLe and
imprisonment, but when these unec-
elesiastical inducements were removed
the attendance at church commenced
to dwindle. In the City of London,
that heart of the metropolis, which |
now holds population of some 200,-
900, there are eighteen churches which |
are to-day absolutely without congre-
cations, and the Government is puzzled |
TO know what to do with them. Their
however, is not much worse
than that of Dean Swift's parish, in
which the size of the congregation
justified him in altering the ritual
slightly, so that instead of "Dearly be-
Owed brethren" he read, Clearly be-
owed Roger, the Scripture moveth you
md sme in sundry places" etc. II
the absence of church> going can be
construed into an argument in favor
If compulsory attendance at church,
'r of any form of Sunday law, one
would think that the City Of London
would be the place to advocate such
ava