The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-22
PRoTEsTANTIsM IN CUBA.
Not Enough Protestant Churches for the
 Demand.

Literary Digest.
 Ninety-five per cent. of the Cubans do not habitually attend any church. says Bish- op Warren A. candler of the Metodist Episcopal Church. South, writing of the Present Religious Conditions in Cuba" in The Independent. Of the remainder wh go to church the Bishop is inclined to be- 1ieve that their sympathies are more nearly with the Frotestants than with the Ro- man Catholics But Protestantisrn, upon general and permanent basis. Is of so re- cent establishment. dating practically from the year 1899, that there arc not enough places of worship on the island to meet the demands of the situation.' Says the writer.
 "when the Protestant missionaries be- in The Independent. Of the remainder who land filled with religious indifference. in which there considerable amount of downright and outspoken infidelity Of the VoItaire type. The Roman Catholic Church, by reason of it's social connection with the Spanish Government and from other causes. had lost It's hold upon the Cuban people and other form of Christi anity had been embraced by them Very much the same state of things re- Ugious continues. says the Bishop, though there are tangible results to he observed for the seven years of missionary effort l Thus:
 ''The agents and colporteurs of the American Bible Society and the Protest ant preachers have scattered among the people tens of thousands of copies of the Bible. These Bibles have not been given away. for If they had they soon would have been thrown away. Most of them have been sold to people who wished to own them and were willing to pay for them. It is now impossible to get these books out of Cuba or to restrain the influ- ence of them.
 With the coming of Prostestantism into Cuba has come also type of uacred fat have been thrown away. M ost of them requiems and the like, but 1t has no 1 hymns of toy. These are the l'peculier treasure of evangelical Christianity, Thousands of Cubans are now singing these songs. There is no way to estimate the pervasive power of these evagelieal hym $. It must be canddly admitted that many of them are rather clumsy transiationa from the hymns of the Wesleys and Moody and Sankey; but, despite tner many many blemishes and defects they have power with a people who have had no such hymn" before Cuba. well as all Spanish America. awaits the coming of It's Watts it's Charles Wesley: but when they come ae they will in time, they will find in these Latin lands better hymns than Watts and Wesley found in England when they came singing their songs of salvation
 through the eighteenth century"
 The Bishop records a movement for the
 better observance of Sunday throughout
 Cuba, while in Havana definite action has
 been taken by the municipal authorities
 The ayuntamento directed thatS "all places
 of business be closed Sundays except
 ing the undertakers. drug stores, restau-
 rants. cafes, fruit stores, newspaper of
 fices, cigar stands and dairies Bakeries
 butcher shops and provision stores are all lowed tc remain open until 10 a. m. or , Sundays. The ordinance was strongly sup. ported editorially by some of the daily ] nan