Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1883-12-01
age than it had done in any of the CEN
turtles that intervene.
W. oI,,st ~c oo,,,,o xho+ xlo o,rto,,

Iage than it had done in any of the CEN
turtles that intervene.
We admit, of course, that the exter-
nal activities of given community are
not wholly commensurate with the con.
temporaneous mental states and ten
dencies of its members. The habits OF
men often remain in action after the
faiths of which they are the expression
have begun to die at the root, even as
the waves of the ocean are often high
after the winds which raised them have
subsided. We also admit that statistics,
like all other systems of facts or OF
symbols, may be SO used as to express
untruths. But it is absurd to pretend
that rising wave over an entire ocean
can be diagnostic of falling wind, and
statistics, when the induction is broad
enough, are among the most solid OF
all scientific data. Never before has
Christianity, nominal and real, ad-
vanced as during the present century.
The best approximate estimates give as
the whole number of nominal Chris
tians on earth at the end of the first
century, 500 1000; at the end of the
seventh century, 5000, 900; at the end
of the fourteenth century, $4,000, 900; {;
at the end of the seventeenth century,
155, ,000, 900: at the end Of the eighteenth
century. 100000, 900: and i'll 1880, 40,
600, 900. As to the relative political in
f1uence OF these Christians, we have
100, 100000 of population subject to
Christian government in A. d. 1900 as
compared with 6S5, ,459, 900 in A. ID.
1876.
AS to the religious tendencies pre-
valling at present in the population Of
this country. the following statistics,
gathered with great care from the year
books of all the evangelical churches,
will be seen to be conclusive. In the
year 1900, there were in the evangelical
churches in the United States 3O3O con-
gregations, 2651 ordained ministers, and
364 ,872 communicates. In the year
1850, there were 1902 churches, 25,
555 ministers, and 8 1926, 1888 communi-
cants. In the year 1870, 20, l48 churches,
1909 ministers, and 6,673, 1896 COM
municants. In 1880, 81 ,OgO churches,
69, $40 ministers, and 1O,O65, 1868 COM
municants. The ratio Of the commune
cants of our evangelical churches to the
entire population of the United States
at these different dates was, in 1900,
one to every IA so inhabitants, in 1850,
one to every 6 81 inhabitants, in 1870,
one to every 5.78; and in 1880, one to
every inhabitants. This last is, of
course, one communicate to everv
2.5 or nom Roman Catholic adult meil
and women. From 1900 to 1880 the
population of the nation increased 9.46
fold; while, in the same time, the evan
gelical communicants increased 1852
fold. From 1850 to 1880 the population
increased 116 per cent, and the evan
gelical communicants increased 1874 per
cent.
The above leaves out of view the
6,367 $3.50 Roman Catholics, who do
not report cOmmunicants as distinct
from the general mass of their ad-
herents. If these are all counted as
sincere believers in the truths of histor-
ical Christianity, it increases the super
ior ratio of the increase of those who
make a personal acknowledgement of
the truth of Christianity over that of the
general population 100 per cent. The
Catholic population has increased more
than 200 per cent. in the last thirty
years. .-..
On the other hand, 10 liberal
churches, which have in som degree
followed the advice to put les. stress
upon the distinguishing doctrines of a
pretended supernatural! revelation, ,have
been relatively retrOgrading. The
number of parishes claimed by the
. ohitarians in 1850 was 246, and they
had only S35 in 1886, or an increase OF IS
per cent. III thirty years as compared
with the 250 per cent. increase made by
the evangelical churches in the same
time. The Universalist churches in
1850 were 1869 and only $50 in 1880, an
actual loss of 113 in thirty years. The
Christian church Unitarian Baptist)
has also retrograded from 1900 parishes
in'lS40 to 1900 in 1880.
That these statistics represent a real
faith is shown hy the evidence our year.
books present of the amazing missiona-
ry fruitfulness of these protesting
Christians. The work of foreign mis-
sions is characteristic enterprise Of
the present century. Professor Christ
lieb has estimated that in 1900 the total |
sum annually contributed in all Chris
tendon to Protestant missions
to $250,000. In 1856 |
the income of the mission boards in |
England and America was 80 ,959 ,54l.
In 1876 the amount was 1854, 1856. |
The reports from all the missions can-
not be obtained, SO that, from the ma
ture of the case, our carefully collected |
reports fall below and can never equal |
the real facts of the case. Protestant |
mission societies in Europe and Amer
lea reported in A. D. 1880: missions
1872, ordained missionaries 656, Law |
helpers 1886, communicates 7O,2S9,
scholars SO,656. In A. d. 1850: mis-
siOns 11S, ordained missionaries 1872,
lay helpers 4056, communicates 21O,-
957, scholars 147 1886. In A. d. 1890:
missions 5O4, ordained missionaries
6696, lay helpers 81, 1852, communicates
S57 1882 GAS missions not reporting).
scholars 447 ,6O2, with hearers and ad-
herents, estimated from the actual re-
ports OF the missions, amounting to g.
100000.
In the meantime, the aggregat te funds
collected by the evangelical churches in
the United States for home missions
from A. d. 1920 to A. D.
1929, to $233, 1926; from A. D. 1860 to
AID. 1869 they amounted to $21 ,O15,-
7l9, and from A. D. 1870 to 1880 they
amounted to 1922 ,154. Sunday
schools were instituted only one hun
lred years ago. Fifty years afterward,
in A. d. 1880, it is estimated that there
were less than 100000 teachers and
scholars in the world. In A. d. 1880
there were 100000 teachers and
scholars in the world, or 5000, 900 in
Europe, and S,OOO,O in America.
Young Mems Christian Associations
late back only about thirty years and,
more than any other religious move
nent, prove the intense vitality of
Christian life in the bosoms of intelli-
gent laymen Of the present and coming
generation. The International Con-
of Young Mems Christian AS
'ociations," held at Milwaukee, Wis.
May 1920, 1888, report in their year
ooek total Of 242S associations for the
whole world, including $40 for North
America; 3SS for Great Britain and
ireland; "a for France; 400 for Ger
many; 335 for Holland, etc. These
abor for the religious welfare of young .
IL. -. l.. !