El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-08

Interesting Statistics OF the Work
Done in the Past Century.
(From Highways and Byways, in the
February Chautauquan-)
An issue of the Pennsylvania Ga
zette. now the Philadelphia North
American. bearing date during 1904,
contains letter from a correspondent
who refers to the prevailing notlon
then extant that The Christian religion
had about reached the end; that some
thing must happen in favorable III
rection. else such days of usefulness
as it was supposed to have were num-
bered There were. when this CORE
spondent wrote. about 2.7G0 churches
This is a liberal estimate. There were
a3{O i'm 1901. and their value. all OF
them together was hardly more than
81. 500. 900. In 1901 there are 49,
500 churches, and their value is ia
900 OOO There are in 1901 thlrty-nihe
Episcopal parishes having larger an
nual incomes each than the incomes OF
all Episcopal parishes in America III
1900. Presbyterian benevolences
amounted TIC 81. 500 n 1900. Now they
crowd S400O.0 900 year. Brown nj
varsity secured it's name on grit OF
s5OOO-an amount so large that the
whole Baptist denomination, and the
whole country for that matter, dld
honor to the munificent donor. Bap-
fist educational institutions in 19OO
were worth $4,000. 900. There are
score of Methodist annual conferen-
that contain more ministers each IMAM
there were Methodist ministers in the
whole country when the Pennsylva-
mia Gazette correspondent wrote
There were $50 Lutheran churches IN
America in 1900. Now there are 10
9OS. an increase of twenty-hvefold
Lutheran membership during the CEN
tury increased eighty fold, or more
than six times as fast as the popuia-
ton. and the population growth OF
America astonisheS the world Con-
greeationaI home mission work be-
gan seyenty-ive years ago. There
were then $50 900 Congregational1sts-
Now there are 629.S74. There are hve
times as many children in Roman
Catholic schools to-day as there were
members of all Roman Catholc
churches 100 years ago. and the H.
Gas Catholic clergy of to-day are hve
times as many as there were minis
tiers of all religious bodies at the be-
ginning of the century. When the
PENNSYLVANIA Gazette man wrote there
was not a missionary society in Amer
lea. Now the missionary societies
of America receive and spend va
900 900 a year.
1t took 1921, O0O,0 900 to pay the run
ming expenses of all the churches OF
the United States last year. 1t took
SIS 9s1 900 to maintain the churches OF
New York City alone; s4,771 900 those
of Philadelphia, 100000 Chicago, 81
219. 900 Boston. and so on THESE enor-
nous figures do not include new struc-
lures. mission contributions or general
charities. 1t costs s14.6OO,OOO to main
tain all Episcopal churches year. SZo,
1000 all Presbyterian S12.34S.OOO all
Baptist, s26. 267 900 all Methodist. s3l,-
liza. 900 all Roman Catholic and 81
$50 600 to buy lesson papers. libraries,
presents. etc. for all the Sunday school
scholars
people who belong to the Church OF
England give S37 300, 900 a year IN VOL
untary offerings and the government
directly and indirectly, gives 2S.Ti3,Ooo
a year. The maintenance OF the free
Churches OF England comes to s2o,-
800 600 a year. The money voice of
Christianity of 1901 is considerably
above 81. COO 5000 year
The church in all America having
the largest annual income IS ST Bar
tholomew's Episcopal. New York. It's
income amounts to about SZoo,ooo
wear: that of historic Trinity parish
in the same city s16S.OOO- In New
are many Episcopal churches having
annual incomes from $4,000 to $780,
600 each year The largest Presbyter-
ian church is the Brick, New YORK,
with $4,000 income, and the second
largest is the Second. of Indianapolis,
with sS5. 900 income. The Fifth avenue
New York. of which the Rev. DE- John
Hall was so long pastor, has an income
running from $50 900 to $4,000 year
Chicago PRESBYTERIAN churches hardly
reach $50 900 a year. any of them Inc
largest CONGREGATIONAL church is the
Old South. Boston, with s5O,OOo IN
come. Income of Methodist churcnes
is small in comparison The largest
is that of the Madison Avenue, New
York. $4,000 The largest Baptist Is
the Fifth Avenue, New York, Where the
Rockefellers attend. Its income iasl
wear was S145, 900, but that was rather
exceptional. ooo ooo
American people pay s2,OOO.OoO
wear for Bibles, 100000 year LOT
bvu,n and tune books. 100000 year
for nrayer books and 81, 1000 year
for religious periodicals and other
christian literature. Methodists north
alone nav into their two book concerns
in New York and Cincinnati over So,-
600 900 each four years, and since the
establishment in 1S4S have paid to
them almost S7O,000,O0O.
These figures compiled by Eugene
M. Camp. are filed with the copy OF
the PENNSYLVANIA Gazette, which con-
tains the correspondence referred 10 In
order that the searcher OF 20Ol, VINO
ever he NAV me- may have something
interesting to write about, something
-