Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-08-26
RELIGIOUS COMMUNICANTs.

1 RELIGIOUS COMMUNICANTS. 1 The New York Independent has com piled some interesting statistics concern ing the number of Christian families
 and their growth in the United States. ! In bulk, the number of communicants
 with us is about 20, ,750 ,OOO and the in-
 crease for one year has been ST, ,OOO.
 The Methodists, of whom there are four
 teen varieties, count up to 1, ,723, ,SS1. The Roman Catholics are estimated at 4, ,43o,-
 O19. The Baptists, of whom there are
 thirteen kinds, are footed up as having
 l4,O78,5S9 communicants. The Presby-
 terians, of whom there are nine varieties,
 reach ,1SO,113. The Lutherans number
 9S9, ,OOS, the Congregationalists 475,OOS,
 the Episcopalians 459,642. The rest of
 the denominations do not footup so large
 in numbers, and when they are arrang-
 ed strictly by denominational rank the
 Roman Catholics have larger number of
 communicants by far than any other
 religious body. It is probable, too,
 though the Independent does not say so,
 that the latter are increasing more rap
 idly than those of any other denomina-
 tion at least if we accept our estimates
 signs which indicate growth of numbers.
 The figures furnished by the Indepen-
 dent, however, are not accepted by the Boston Herald as telling the whole
 Istory or being entirely satisfactory. Ac-
 cording to the Herald, the Roman Cath olics count the communicants as CO.,
 extensive with the population, which it does not consider fair to the Protestant bodies, who estimate their con- municants by a different meth od The Unitarians are com puted by the Independent at 10000 and the Universalists at 2S,7sO, whereas the actual number of communicants in these two denominations must certainly be very much larger. Again, when the division of numbers is made according to l polity, there are 9.433, ,196 under the Episcopal polity, 1928, ,619 under the Con- gregationalist and 2,sss,a under the s Presbyterian. It will be seen from this
 that when it is a question of church
 tunity the Episcopal takes the lead; but : whe en the total Protestant population is compared with the total Roman Cath 1 olic population the former exceeds the 7 ! latter by two to one With all the re- s lligious bodies the total net gain for the l last year is named as larger than it was 2 for the year 1887, though it appears from the detailed account of gains as if it Q Iwere less. The Independents explana- tions are interesting and may be ac- 3 tcepted as more instructive than the figures. The Catholic church has grown a enormously by immigration. The num- Der of small bodies branching off from the Baptists and Methodists is remark | brok Broken up. P. The Quakers, though num- : bering hardly 1O7,OOO communicants, are divided into three sects. The Men | nonites have O0,OOO members and are t divided into four sects. The tendency to 'lsplit up among Protestants is seen to be excessive. In nearly every purely Protestant body lines are drawn between : the old and the new schools, or the right and the left wings. The Reformed Epis. copalins are the smallest religious body the Moravians come next, and then fol $ low the Unitarians and the Universalists The growing religious people in the U United States are evidently the Roman Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists and the Episcopalians; the rest seem tc be barely holding their own. This would seem to indicate that the future of Chris Itianity in the United States lies as much with the Roman Catholic as with the :, Protestant clements; and however much certain zealots may be disposed to de u plore this as a menace to our institu ,: tions, right thinking people, whose re u factions are not mirrored in their preju dice will regard as safe the future Chris tian character of the country and its y lpeople. We are not disposed to regard '' as uncertain or weak the morale of any considerable body of Christian commun icants; and be they Catholics or Protes e tants, so long as they cherish the princi
 (ples and practice the precepts inculcatec
 in the holy book we have naught but elconfdence in the future of the country whatever may be the controlling or pre- dominating denominational element.
 '- The American people will always be { Christian people, even though it may y never be a unit in denominational polity y or dogmatic beliefs.
 VI LOCAL LINES.
 ek DR c. ". s. FROST 137 Bank street.