THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 80
ee
increased three and one-half times faster than the population in 100 years (1800-1900), and this in spite of the foreign flood. These figures take no note of the millions outside church-membership, old and young, especially the latter, who are brought under the healthful influence of religion in their home lives. An eminent authority estimates that fully 60,000,000 out of a population of 90,000,000 are either directly controlled or indirectly influenced in their daily lives by the churches of the land. The past twenty-five years especially have been marked, not only by large growth and wide diffusion of religious sentiment among the people, but by a significant change of emphasis in the claims of religion itself. The time has been when theology and the creeds formulated therefrom were the sole, or at least the predominant, standard of religious faith and practise. Under the change referred to, theological standards have by no means been abandoned; but they have, so to speak, been supplemented by practical forms of religious effort, to which has been given the significant term “‘ Applied Christianity.” This new point of view, or change of emphasis, is seen in the founding of chairs of social ethics in theological seminaries; in the widespread increase of institutional and mission churches which add to the preaching of the Gospel a practical sympathy and care for the neglected and the unprivileged; in the opening of social settlements in the lower wards of the great cities, where consecrated men and women, living on the ground, by personal ministry seek to alleviate distress and elevate the social and spiritual condition of the masses; in the multiplication of Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations, ministering to the physical, intellectual, social, and spiritual needs of their members and furnishing a refuge from the temptation of city and town; in the multiplied temperance societies and anti-saloon leagues, waging continuous, and of late most successful war in many states against intemperance and vice; and in institutes of social service, which seek to train the religious sentiment of the people into forms of religious service for the general betterment of society. All these forms of effort are the legitimate development of the religious life of the people, and they enjoy the cordial sympathy of the churches. If they are more numerous and active than they were fifty years ago it is because the need of them has grown with the growth of the population, and, especially, because the massing of foreign elements in great cities has awakened in the churches a lively sense of peril.
One of the most significant developments of applied Christianity is seen in the disposition of the churches to ally themselves with the struggles of the working classes against the tyranny of capital. For many years, and unconsciously on their part, the churches had allowed barriers to grow up between themselves and the laboring masses. Not that sympathy was wanting, but that it seemed to lack the means of adequate expression. It is today one of the most hopeful signs of the times that the leading ecclesiastical bodies of the United States, under a quickened sense of Christian brotherhood, not only pass resolutions of sympathy with the
working classes, but invite the leaders of labor to plead their cause before the great national councils and conferences of these bodies, and in several instances employ secretaries of labor to cooperate with their working brethren for the betterment of their condition. (Puitie Scoarry.) J. B. CuarK. VII. Statistics: The figures in the following tables have been compiled chiefly from the year-book
Cuurcn Statistics In THE Unitep STATEs.
Denominations. psec Church vow Adventists (7 bodies) .......... 1,198) 2,676 94,441 Armenian Church .... : 7 73 19,889 Bahals 2% ceases ae i 2 1,280 Baptists (14 bodies)... ..| 41,390} 56,750} 5,620,498 Brethren (Dunkers, 4 bodies) ...| 3,477; 1,155 20,597 Brethren (Plymouth, 4 bodies) nner 403 10,566 Brethren (River, 3 bodies)..... 216 111 4,569 Buddhists (2 bodies).......... 15 74 8,165 Catholic Apostolic (2 bodies)... 33 24 4,927 Christadelphians............... aad 70 1,412 Christian Catholic Church in
Fiou=-Dowie se ere 35 17 5,865 Christian Israelite Church ... SONG 78 Christian Union... 324.42. 060% 295 217 13,905 Christians (Christian Connec-
GION) BAe oepenercaes ket psi eile eka 1012) 1,379 110,117 Church of Christ Scientist ..... 2,208; 1,104) 114,089 Church of God and Saints of
Christ (colored) ............ 75 48 1,823 Churches of God, General Elder-
SHIP siosis citelsigista aca viele siele oertie 509 595 41,475 Churches of the Living God
(colored) (3 bodies).......... 101 68 4,276 Church of the New Jerusalem (2 .
Dodies) iss ee wero gers 132 152 9,314 Communistic Societies (2 bodies) . eo arets 22 2272 Congregationalists............ 6,033] 6,033 735,563 Disciples of Christ (2 bodies). . 8,163| 12,590] 1,417,462 Eastern Orthodox Churches
(Greek, Russian, Servian, Syr-
ian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, 6
bodies) scion seas oo eee see 116 419 132,006 Evangelical Bodies (2) ......... 1,751} 2,803 213,121 Evangelistic Associations (14
bodies) oc cealstancecemele eeereiere 356 182 10,842 Free Christian Zion Church of
Christ)\(colored) ii. ae ees 20 15 1,835 Friends (4 bodies) ............ 1,479) 1,147 118,772 German Evangelical Protestant
(2 bodies) Wyesrrsccs.hte eine 59 66 84,704 German Evangelical Synod .... 1,024] 1,314 236,615 Independent Churches ......... Aor 874 47,673 International Apostolic Holiness
Union’s..ewetce on ees 178 74 2,774 Jewish Congregations .......... 084) et, 169) epee Latter Day Saints (2 bodies)....| 1,774] 1,184 256,647 Lutherans (23 bodies and inde-
pendent churches) ...........| 8,738] 13,936] 2,273,691 Mennonites (14 bodies)........ 1,006 60 54,798 Methodists (15 bodies)........ 40,187) 61,038) 6,114,780 Moravians (2 bodies)........... 128 132 17,926 Non-sectarian Churches of Bible
Faith Usoi.ccsiaeo ene 50 204 6,396 Pentecostal Church of the Naza-
NW SoR oie ocuneocuCeCoM aS 545 470 20,501 Polish National Church........ 24 24 15,473 Presbyterians (12 bodies)....... 13,492} 16,570| 1,940,835 Protestant Episcopal Church... 5,174| 7,897 928,202 Reformed Bodies (4)........... 2,106) 2,654) 451,282 Reformed Catholic Church..... il 5 1,250 Reformed Episcopal Church ... 84 81 9,682 Roman Catholic Church....... | 17,194] 18,461 |12,425,946 Salvationists (3 bodies)......... 3,391 785 25,538 Schwenkfelders................ 5 8 725
17 1,262
5 2,040 455 35,056 408 PAY Cal 3 376
85 2,336 503 70,542 4,478 310,815 882 62,751 4 340 Totals... cnc eee 169,350|218,146 |34,177,827
Epwin M. Buss.