The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1893-12-31

| 10 church once week, the ehurohe
could contain them. II IL 70 be note'
that not all the Inhabitants Of an
community could possibly attend servic'
1t any particular hour on any particular day
Infants. the sick. and those who walt upor
them. must remain At home. and II is doubtful
| whether. under the most favorable cIrcum
| stances. more than two-thirds Of the popua,
tion OF any community could be free to attend
| any one religious service Yet the churches
| alone, ~ DR.. Carroll has shown. furnish &C.
commodstions for over two-thlrds Of the pop.
ulstion. while the halls. sehoolhouses, and
other places where sermons are preached
have room for nearly two and aduarter MIL
lions more. In view OF these facts. Il IL impos-
sible to maintain that the spiritual interests oil
the masses are neglected In the United States
The total valuation OF church edinces In this
country IL nearly se7o. 900 600. a sum repre-
sentlng only what Christians have contributed
TO bur the ground and erect and furnish the
buildings ready for worshin The average
value OF . church edlflce in the United States
IL s4.707. OF course. In some denominations
the average IL much greater. while In others IL
is much smaller Thus. among the Original
Free-vill Bsptists OF the Caroiinas. the average
value OF church building 10 only SASS. while
In the Reformed Jewish community Il IL $685.
$50. which IL the highest average exhibited in
like the Disciples Of Christ. the Methodist
Episcopal Church. South. and the United
Brethren, have constituencies made up chiefly
OF rural inhabitants, report a low average
OF value. 1t 10 observable that the aver
age 10 much smaller in the Southern than
In the Northern and New England States.
As q matter OF fact, at least twenty per cent.
OF the entire value OF church property 10 re-
turned By New York State alone: and the Eve
States. New York. Pennsylvania. Msssachu-
setts, Ohio. and Illinois together. have more
than flfty per cent OF IL No comprehensive
attemp ut 10 made In the book before us to coll
lsot information relating to church debts. In
the Methodist Episcopal Church. which an
nually Investigates the question, It appears
that the debts on the churches con stitute
about eleven per cent. OF their value. Whether
this proportion holds good In other denomina-
lions Il 10 i'm possible to say. In the Protestant
Episcopal Church no edifce can be canon
ically consecrated until It 10 fully paid for.
What 10 the religious population OF the
United States1 How large proportion Of the
Inhabitants can be described a. religious. in
any sense OF the word and how are these dis
tributed among tho different sects2 We have
said that the census enumerators are forbid
erences Of the people. Nevertheless. II is pos
sible to form an estimate OF their preferences
upon the basis Of tho communicates reported
TO the author Of this volume The usual way
OF computing religious population is by null
tiplyinR the number OF communicates OF
any Protestant denomination BY 81. This Is
on the supposltion that for every Protestant
there are ~ non-communi-
eating adherents. including. Of course. young
children. DR.. Carroll IL convinced that this
hypothesis rests upon good grounds He
finds support for II in q comparison between
the census returns Of tho religious popula-
ton OF various communions in Canada with
the statistics Of com municants furnished by
the denominations themselves A tabulated
OF this kind shows that. in Can
ada the proportion OF non comm unicating ad-
herents to communicates in the Methodist,
Baptist and Episcopalian communions Is as
2-10 to /. This is higher average than DIR.
Carroll Is disposed to apply to all denomna-
lions In tho United States. but he thinks we
are justified In assuming that there are Mt |
east 2 $40 non loom mu nicating adherents in |
The United States to each Protestant |
taking all the denominations |
together Now. the statistics collected |
In this book show that. In round numbers We
may take Il. 10000 as representing the !
FrotosAnt COMMANDMENTS lhS computation
caves out not only the Catholics but the Jews.
he Theosophists. the Ethical Culturists tho |
Spiritualists. and also tho Latter-Day Saints. |
Multiplying this number By ~ we have 40
$4,000 which represents the aggregate OF
communicates and adherents. or. !
n other words. the Protestant population. To |
his We must add the Catholic population In |
rider to get the entire number OF Christian In |
,abitants. According to the data presented In
MS DOCK there are q. ZoIon Catholic commu-
iicants OF oil branchea Now Catholic COM
nunicants. according TO Catholic estimates.
30 per cent OF the Catholic
population. and there must. therefore. be
,athollo population OF L3O2,ooo. Adding
his to the Protestant population. We
ave oo.ee2.ooo. This. according to DR.. Car
oil. stands Tor the Christian population OF the
United States As the population. according
the census. 10 62622.25o 1t would follow
hat there are o.o3O.Ooo people who are neither
'hristian communicate nor Christian ad-
srents. Making liberal allowance for the
ews and other religious bodies not embraced
a the Christian population. there remain s.
10000 belonging to the non-religious and
nt-religious classes. including freethlnk-