;¦: iiif.'i - ;, - •*¦-. mm THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS PROGRESS BY Daniel Dorchester, D.D REVISED EDITION WITH NEW TABLES AND COLORED DIAGRAMS New York:- Hunt & Eaton Cincinnati: Cranston & Curts Copyright by HUNT & EATON, 1895. Composition, electrotyping, printing, and binding by Hunt & Eaton, 150 Fifth Ave., New York. 03121 PREFACE AFTER a wide sale for thirteen years, in response to repeated requests, a new edition of this volume is given to the public. My absence from home, for nearly five years on the Western frontiers, superintending the Indian schools of the United States, necessitated delay in meeting the request of friends for the revised edi tion now presented to the public. The revision has been thorough, bringing the data down to the present year, and important addi tions have been made, including points of inquiry and discussion pertaining to the most recent phases of moral and social evolution. Questions relating to science and faith, the city perils, divorce, crime, lynchings, pauperism, intemperance, wages, the pur chasing power of money during the last fifty years, the anarchistic spirit and other kindred topics, have received such treatment as could be given them within the limits of this volume. A new part has been inserted upon " Christianity in the World's Consciousness and Life," showing by crucial facts that Christianity was never a greater working force in the common life of the race than 4 Preface. at the present time. It is confidently expected that with these additions the volume will possess a renewed value. The value is enhanced by the introduction, in a generalized and discriminated form, of the unusually full, and reliable results of the last census of the Churches of the United States, and also much essential data from the censuses of Canada, En gland, and the continent of Europe, officially col lected at the beginning of the present decade. For the great favor with which the first edi tions of this work were received, the author expresses sincere thanks. Daniel Dorchester. Boston, Mass., November 30, 1894. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE 3 PROLOGUE (Whittier) 13 THE QUESTION OPENED. "The World Going to the Bad" — "Spirituality, Declining in the Churches'' — "A Break Between Modern Thought and Ancient Faith" — "Christianity Outgrown by the Popula tion " — " Protestantism Outgrown by Romanism " — " Prot estantism the Generator of Skepticism " — " Protestantism a Deteriorater of Morals " — ' ' A General Collapse of Religious Belief at Hand" — "A Moral Interregnum at Hand" — Mr. D. L. Moody's Premillenarianism 17 THE PROBLEM. Protestantism on Trial, from Within and Without — A Favor able Solution Indicated 33 I. FAITH. CHAPTER I. bONDAGE. Spiritual Despotism — Papal Scholasticism — Protestant Scholas ticism 45 6 Contents. chapter II. LIBERATING FACTORS. PAGE Modern Skepticism — Physical Science — Antitrinitarian Prot estantism — Modern Philosophy. 61 CHAPTER III. PHASES OF PROGRESS. Threatening Aspects — Safeguards — Encouraging Indications. . . 87 CHAPTER IV. DELIVERANCE. Restatement — Vindication — Rejuvenation — The True Ideal. . . . 121 II. MORALS. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. Europe Anterior to the Lutheran Reformation — England An terior to the Wesleyan Reformation — The United States from 1700 to 1800 161 CHAPTER II. THE PRESENT PERIOD. Specific Tendencies — Sabbath Observance — Slavery and Bar barism — Unchastity and Divorce — Impure Literature — Crime 207 CHAPTER III. THE PRESENT PERIOD, (CONTINUED.) Intemperance — Dueling — English Morals — New England Morals — Irreverence, etc. — Pauperism — The Economic View — Longevity and Sanitary Science — The Anarchistic Spirit — Philanthropic Agencies — Penal Inflictions — Machinery and Moral and Social Progress — The Peril of the Cities — Criti cisms and Testimonies .- 291 Contents. 7 III. SPIRITUAL VITALITY. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. PAGE The Eve of the Lutheran Reformation — The Eve of the Wes- leyan Reformation — The Eve of the Edwardean Revival — The Eve of the Revival of 1800-1803 379 CHAPTER II. THE NEW SPIRITUAL ERA. New Life — The New Life Organizing — The New Life Aggres- . sive — New Lay Activities — City Missions — Home Missions — Young Men's Christian Associations — Foreign Missions — Imperfections — Type of Religious Character — The Out look 407 CHAPTER III. CHRISTIANITY AN INCREASING FORCE IN THE WORLD'S CONSCIOUSNESS AND LIFE. In the World's Thought — In Civil Government and Adminis tration — In Higher Education and Culture — In Philan thropy and Reform — In Morals — In the Physical and Social Condition — In Literature— In Art — In Song — In Practical, Social, and Institutional Work — This Elevation not the Fruitage of Civilization, but of Christianity 453 IV. STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. CHAPTER I. STATISTICAL SCIENCE. Preliminary Observations 511 8 Contents. chapter ii. RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND STATUS. PROTESTANTISM AND ROMANISM. PAGE In Europe — In Papal America : South America, Mexico, The British Dominion in North America; and Portions of the United States Formerly Papal 525 CHAPTER III. RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES. Difficulties of the Situation. I. The Actual Progress : The Evangelical Churches— The " Liberal " Churches — The Roman Catholic Church. II. The Relative Progress : The Churches Compared with the Population — The Evangel ical, " Liberal," and Roman Catholic Churches Compared with Each Other — The Churches and Higher Education — Modern and Early Christian Progress — Encouraging Con clusion 553 CHAPTER IV. FOREIGN MISSIONS. Inception— Papal and Protestant Mission Funds — Foreign Mis sions of the United States — Foreign Missions of Christen dom — Papal and Protestant Missions — Missions Vindicated by Testimony — Results 607 CHAPTER V. THE WORLD-WIDE VIEW. Christian Populations — Christian . Governments — Papal and , Protestant Governments — Papal and Protestant Areas — The English-speaking Populations — Civil Supremacy of Protestantism — The Ascending Sun 647 Contents. 9 APPENDIX. ECCLESIASTICAL AND SOCIAL STA-- TISTICS. UNITED STATES. TABLE PAGE I . Churches and Ministers in 1875 675 II. Churches, Ministers, and Communicants in 1800 676 m. " " " 185L 676 IV. " " „ " 1870 679 V. '« " " 1880 681 VI. " " " 1890 .1683 VII. " " " 1894 689 VIII. Recapitulation 694 IX. Unitarian Societies 694 X. Universalist Ministers 695 XI. Universalist Parishes '. 695 XII. The New Jerusalem Church 695 XIII. The. Roman Catholic Church 696 XIV. Church Organizations, Edifices, Sittings, and Valu ation in 1850, i860, 1870, 1890 696 XV. The Colleges arid the Churches 703 XVI. Foreign Mission Receipts 705 XVII. Home Mission Receipts 706 XVIII. Religious Publication Receipts 707 XIX. Arrivals of Immigrants, by Nationalities and Decades, 1790-1894 708, 709 XX. Divorces by States, 1867-1886 710 XXI. Distilled Spirits, Wines, etc., Consumed 1875-1893..: 711 10 Contents. TABLE PAGE XXII. Consumption of Liquors, 1810-1870 712 XXIII. The Churches and the Cities 713 XXIV. Wages in the United States for Fifty-two Years.. . 714 XXV. The Purchasing Power of Money. 715 THE- BRITISH ISLANDS. XXVI. The Protestant Churches 719 XXVII. Dissenters in England and Wales 721 XXVIII. Romanism in the British Isles '. . . 721 XXIX. Romanism, Protestantism, and the Population in Ireland .< 722 XXX. Romanism and the Population in England and Wales 722 XXXI. Roman Catholics in England, Wales, and Ireland. 722 XXXII. Consumption of Alcoholic Liquors in Great Britain. 723 ECUMENICAL STATISTICS. XXXIII. The Anglican Communion in the Whole World... 727 XXXIV. Baptists in the Whole World in i860 and 1880. . . 728 XXXV. •' " " '• 1893 729 XXXVI. Congregationalists in the Whole World in 1880 731 XXXVII. " " " " 1893.... 732 XXXVIII. Methodists in the Whole World in i860 and 1880 . 733 XXXIX. " " " " 1893-94 734 XL. Moravians in the Whole .World in 1880 735 XLI. " " " " 1893 735 XLII. Foreign Missions of the United States in 1850 736 XLIII. " 1880.... 737 XLIV. Foreign Missions of Europe and America in 1830. . 738 XLV. " " "' " " " 1850.. 740 XLVI. " " " " " " 1880.. 741 Contents. i i TABLE PAGE XLVII. Foreign Missions of the Evangelical Churches of the United States, 1892-93 744 XLVIII. British Foreign Missions and Kindred Societies, 1892-93 745 XLIX. Summary of Protestant Foreign Missions, 1892-93. 746 L. Religious Census of Europe 747 LI. Yearly Rate of Increase of Population 748 LH. Independent States under Christian Governments.. 749- 750 DIAGRAMS. MAP FACING PAGE I. Localities of Lynchings in the United States 227 DIAGRAM II. Increase of Divorces in the United States 239 III. Immigration into the United States in Ten Years 267 IV. " " " One Year, .facing Dia. III. V. Diminution of High Crimes in the British Isles 276 VI. • " of Pauperism in England and Wales 278 VII. Advance in Popular Education in Great Britain 279 VIII. Decline in the Consumption of Distilled Spirits in the United States in Eighty-three Years 300 IX. Increase in the Consumption of Beer in the United States in Fifty-three Years 301 X. Consumption of Wine and Distilled Spirits in the British Isles 303 XI. Consumption of Malt Liquors in the British Isles in Forty-three Years 304 XII. Liquor Bill of the United Kingdom for Twenty Years. 305 XIII. Rate of Wages in the United States for Fifty-two Years 326 12 Contents. DIAGRAM FACING PAGE XIV. Purchasing Power of Money in the United States for Fifty-two Years. ... '. 327 XV. Growth of Fifty Principal Cities in the United States. 355 XVI. Religious Condition of 124 Large Cities of 25,000 Inhabitants and over in the United States. 365 XVII. Growth of Sunday Schools 416 '" XVIII. The Colleges and the Churches 466 PAGES XIX. Denominational and Undenominational Students in Course for A.B 469, 470 XX. Religious Population of Europe 529, 530 FACING PAGE XXI. Waves of Immigration 558 XXII. Immigration from Four European Countries 559 PAGES XXIII. Church Accommodations in the United States. . 565, 566 XXIV. Valuation of Church Property in the United States. 569, 570 XXV. Relative Progress of Evangelical, Roman Catholic, and Total Population of the United States. 601, 602 FACING PAGE XXVI. The World's Population Religiously Classified 628 XXVII. Progress of Christianity in all the World 650 XXVIII. Populations under Christian Governments 654 PROLOGUE. PKOLOGTJE. THE outward rite, the old abuse, The pious fraud transparent grown, The good held captive in the use Of wrong alone — These wait their doom, from that great law Which makes the past time serve to-day ; And fresher life the world shall draw From their decay. O backward-looking son of time ! The new is old, the old is new ; The cycle of a change sublime Still sweeping through. So wisely taught the Indian seer ; Destroying Seva, forming Brahm, Who wake by turn Earth's love and fear, Are one, the same. Idly as thou, in that old day Thou mournest, did thy sire repine ; So, in his time, thy child grown gray Shall sigh for thine. But life shall on and upward go ; The eternal step of Progress beats To that great anthem, calm and slow, Which God repeats. Take heart ! The waster builds again. A charmed life old Goodness hath ; The tares may perish, but the grain Is not for death. God works in all things ; all obey His first propulsion from the night ; Wake thou and watch ! the world is gray With morning light. 1 6 Prologue. I, TOO, am weak, and faith is small, And blindness happeneth unto all. Yet, sometimes glimpses on my sight, Through present wrong, the eternal right ; And, step by step, since time began, I see the steady gain of man ; That all of good the past hath had Remains to make our. own time glad, — Our common daily life divine, And every land a Palestine ! . . . O friend ! we need not rock nor sand, Nor storied stream of Morning-Land ; The heavens are glassed in Merrimack, — What more could Jordan render back ? We lack but open eye and ear To find the Orient's marvels here ; — The still small voice in autumn's hush, Yon maple wood the burning bush. For still the new transcends the old, In signs and- tokens manifold ; — Slaves rise up men ; the olive waves, With roots deep set in battle graves ! Through the harsh noises of our day A low, sweet prelude finds its way ; Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, A light is breaking, calm and clear. That song of Love, now low and far. Ere long shall swell from star to star ! That light, the breaking day, which tips The golden-spired Apocalypse ! . . . Flow on, sweet river, like the stream Of John's Apocalyptic dream ! This maple ridge shall Horeb be, Yon green-banked lake our Galilee 1 Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more For olden time and holier shore ; God's love and blessing, then and there, Are now and here and every-where. — Whittier. THE QUESTION OPENED. THE Problem of Religious Progress. THE QUESTION OPENED. APOSTLES of complaint and despondency invade even the brightest pathways of modern progress, proclaiming doleful views of the world's tendencies and prospects. This pessimistic taint appears in manifold forms, from the destructive and hopeless Atheism of Schopenhauer to the plaintive sighs of perplexed and discouraged saints. In its most radical form it .tells us there is no God ; this world and its inhabitants are only mate rial mechanisms, dominated by fatality ; the idea of progress, moral or social, is a Utopian hallucination of visionary minds, and that only decay and dete rioration can come out of the present constitution of the world, going on until it is utterly worn out. According to this atheistic theory the world must inevitably grow worse. All evolution to better conditions and all progress upward are discarded. In its next most radical form pessimism tells us that Christianity, after eighteen centuries of alter nations, with meager results, must be pronounced a 20 Problem of Religious Progress. failure; that it has already reached the period of obsolescence and decay ; that it has ceased to be an aggressive moral force in the world ; and that, in respect to real progress, Christianity has always been a laggard in the march of mind. In another form, a little less radical, the pessi mistic complaint includes only Protestantism in its indictment, claiming that it is a failure ; that it is " falling in pieces like a broken raft " in stormy seas ; that it has no hold on either the intellect or the conscience of the great nations, and that it is a generator of unbelief and immorality. Others tell us that it is " evangelical ' ' Protestant ism that is at fault ; that it has so changed its doc trines as to be no longer the Protestantism of the Reformation period, and that, in its present form, it is questionable whether it can be said to have any historical antecedents. The foreign missions of Protestantism, especially, are pronounced a failure. The moral and religious prospects of the British Isles, of the Canadian Dominion, and the United States are declared to be gloomy and discouraging. Pessimists of the premillenarian type, and some others, contend that according to the Bible the world must " wax worse and worse; " that there " will be no more religious triumphs in the world under the present dispensation," and that " only under a coming dispensation of Christ's personal reign on earth will the Gospel achieve success." * The Question Opened. 21 Such, in brief, are the allegations of minds in which the pessimistic virus has worked. What are the views justified by a careful study of the case? Is the world growing worse or better? Is Christianity declining or advancing ? Is Protest antism, or " evangelical " Protestantism, dwindling or expanding in Europe, in the British Isles, in the United States, and in the world ? What conclusion does the world's statistics, or the world's conscious ness and life justify as to the actual trend of mod ern society ? We believe that in all these respects there is genuine improvement. Three hypotheses are premised : 1. Under some kind of religion the world is bet ter than under no religion. * 2. Under Christianity the world is better than under Paganism. ^ . 3. Under Protestantism the world is better than ^ under the Roman Catholic or the Greek Churches. ' The inferences from these premises need not be written out. But, first, the complainants will be allowed to state freely their allegations. Criticism is the exhaustless heritage of Christian ity. It has come both from within and without. Especially has Protestantism been subject to crit ical ordeals. " The Decline of Protestantism, and its Causes," was the topic of an address to the citi zens of New York, by Archbishop Hughes, about 22 Problem of Religious Progress. the year 1850, in which he asserted that "Prot estantism had lost all central force and power over the masses of mankind." His uninspired auguries were caught up and echoed in High-Church circles ; and in 1868 a bold volume — "Protestantism a Failure" — appeared, from the pen of Rev. F. C. "Ewer, D. D., a very estimable and eminent ritual istic clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Three years later, a writer in the " Catholic World," in a somewhat elaborate article on the " Statistics of Protestantism in the United States," with an un- discriminating and unpardonable carelessness jCd re w a comparison between two abnormal periods — tl c one, of unnatural growth, under the Second Advent excitement, and the other, of declension, at the close of the civil war — and from this defective basis, evincing a meager growth, made a suppositious demonstration of the probable number of Protestant communicants in the year 1900; and triumphantly inferred that Protestantism is hopelessly falling, and must irjgv^ably fall, behind the progress of the population. It is a fact, not to be omitted in this connection, that the 10,844,576 Protestant commu nicants, in the year 1900, according to the conject ural calculations of this Roman Catholic writer, are not over two thirds, as will be shown in our future pages, of the present number ; a half dozen years yet remain before the close of the century. Father Thomas S. Preston, an ex-Protestant, long The Question Opened. 23 high in the counsels of Rome, as Vicar-General in the Diocese of New York, very boldly renewed the charge, that Protestantism is a failure ; and so said Pere Hyacinthe, in an able lecture on Deism, in Paris, declaring that " neither Deism nor Protest antism can be generally and permanently accepted by the French people," and that "a reformed Catholicism " — confessedly a hitherto unknown ism, and too uncertain a basis for theorizing — " is the only solution." Besides Romanists and High-Churchmen, skep tical thinkers of various grades have represented Protestantism as having seen its best days, and as now rapidly losing its hold upon the world. Mr. Buckle, in his " History of Civilization," reiterated this view; and it has since been echoed in coarser and more vulgar forms. The advocacy of Protest antism has been represented as faint and apolo getic — an indication of a loss of heart and internal demoralization. It is said that the scholars and thinkers are arrayed against its peculiar tenets ; that they are rapidly extracting from it the best part of its social ethics, and gradually reducing it to the lowest terms — a kind of philosophic deism ; that only Roman Catholics and a few "seared and shriv eled relics of Protestantism " now attend church ; and that, henceforth, the Bible, as an authoritative revelation, is to be discarded and laid upon the back shelf, as "a queer relic of an ancient faith," 24 Problem of Religious Progress. while the world moves on under the widening influ ence of modern ideas. In an elaborate address, in 1 868, Rev. William. J. Potter,* of New Bedford, claimed to demonstrate that the Protestant sects in the United States are gaining very little, only five per cent., in ten years. (1850-1860,) upon the population. In 1872 Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.,+ dis- coursed very eloquently upon the " Break between Modern Thought and Ancient Faith and Worship." Speaking of "the Church and its creed, on the one side, and the world and its practical faith on the other," he said : " An antagonism has arisen be tween them as of oil and water ; " that " there are some millions of people in this country, not the least intelligent or useful citizens in all cases, who never enter a church door;" that " Church religion and general culture do not play any longer into each other's hands;" that "the professors in col lege, the physicians, the teachers, the scientists, the reformers, the politicians, the newspaper men, the reviewers, the authors, are seldom professing Chris tians, or even church-goers ; and, if they do go to church, from motives of interest or example, they are free enough to confess, in private, that they do * See First Annual Report of the Free Religious Association, Boston, 1868, p. 56. f " Christianity and Modern Thought." American Unitarian Association. The Question Opened. 25 not much believe what they hear." Dr. Bellows, nevertheless, expressed hope for the future of Christianity. But a later and more serious complaint appeared from Rev. Dr. Ewer, who, after a lapse of ten years, very sharply renewed his bold indictment against Protestantism in several discourses* delivered in Newark, N. J., " at the request of leading Epis copal laymen in that city." He said that Protest antism is only " a miserable raft, its fragments float ing apart like the flying rack of the heavens ;" that " the poor remnants only of the great nations are clinging to its parted and broken logs, and earnest, thinking men are at their wits' end to know what is truth." He stoutly claimed that " the solemn in dictment against Protestantism, drawn up " by himself, in 1868, "in the fear of God, and in behalf of dying souls, and uttered in Christ's Church, Mur ray Hill, New York, was not met by argument, but only by a gale of holy malediction and impotent scorn ;" that the volume passed through several editions, but has never been answered, and cannot be answered. Dr. Ewer said ; " To say nothing of the specifica tions in those eight discourses, what were two of the main counts in the indictment ? First, that where as, 250 years ago, the Protestant religious dogmas held captive to themselves great thoughtful peoples * " Complete Preacher," June and July, 1878. 26 Problem of Religious Progress. of the Germanic, the Swiss, and the Anglo-Saxon man, those dogmas had failed to retain the hold they once had, and have, to an overwhelming ex tent, lost at last the intellect of those peoples ; and that, while 250 years ago Protestantism held the masses as well as the intellect of those peoples, it has failed to hold and has lost those masses as well as the intellect ; that Protestantism, as a form of Christianity, stands to-day breast-deep in torrents of skepticism which itself hath let loose, which are deepening around it, and in which it is drowning ; and that it stands there to-day aghast and incom petent. This was one count in the indictment. Gentlemen, you have seen that it has not been de nied. A second count was that the fundamental religious premises of Protestantism were essentially anti-Christian, and must end, by inexorable logic, in infidel conclusions ; that if Calvin's and Luther's and Zwingli's premises were to be accepted, then Channing's conclusions were nearer right by logic than Cromwell's, and Theodore Parker's nearer right than Channing's, and Frothingham's and Adler's the Tightest of all, and quite unanswerable by a Protestant ; that when the Calvinists burned Ser- vetus at the stake they burned Calvin's own brain: child. It was claimed that if this logical aspect of Protestantism was correct, it ought to have shown itself finally in practical historical results. And the. charge was made that what thus ought to have The Question Opened. 27 followed logically, had actually followed historically, and was patent to all in the comparatively empty churches and the wide-spread skepticism of thought ful Germany, America, and Switzerland. This was another count." * Dr. Ewer also calls " the Protestant movement ' " a wide-spread destruction ;" not an improver, but a deteriorater f of morals; "not a reformation, but a deformation, and a hideous destruction." A writer in the "Atlantic Monthly," (October, 1878,) joins in this arraignment of the Churches. He says : " The disintegration of religion has pro ceeded rapidly. . . . The Church is now, for the most part, a depository of social rather than relig ious influences. Its chief force is no longer relig ious. There are still, of course, many religious people in the Churches who sincerely believe the old doctrines embodied in all the creeds. But these are every-where a small minority, and they are mournfully conscious that the old religious life and power have departed from the Church. . . . They are alarmed to find the atmosphere and tone of the Church becoming more and more secular and business-like. These people, who thus represent the better elements of a former state of things, are the real strength of the evangelical Protestant Churches, so far as religion is concerned, and their * " Complete Preacher," June, 1878. p. 145. f "Complete Preacher," July, 1878, pp. 223, 224. 28 Problem of Religious Progress. character is one of the most wholesome and truly conservative forces of our national life. . . But they are too few to regenerate the American Church, though their influence is highly valuable in resisting some of the evil tendencies of the age. Most of them are old, and they have few successors among the younger people. They have already done most of their work, and their number and strength diminish from year to year." " The morality based upon the religion popularly professed has, to a fatal extent, broken down. Multitudes of men who are religious are not honest or trustworthy. They declare themselves fit for heaven, but! they will not tell the truth, or deal justly with their neighbors. The money of widows and orphans placed under their control is not safer than in the hands of highwaymen. There is no article of food, medicine, or traffic, which can be profitably adulterated or injuriously manipulated, that is not, in most of the great centers of trade, thus corrupted and sold by prominent members of Christian Churches." One of the boldest of these gloomy utterances is that of Professor Goldwin Smith, who, in a thought ful article, in the "Atlantic Monthly," for Novem ber 1879, discoursed upon "The Prospect of a Moral Interregnum," consequent upon the supposed de-. cadence of religious faith. He said : " A collapse of religious belief, of the most com- The Question Opened. 29 plete and tremendous kind, is apparently now at hand. At the time of the Reformation the ques tion was, after all, only about the form of Christian ity ; and even the skeptics of the last century, while they rejected Christ, remained firm theists ; not only so, hut they mechanically retained the main princi ples of Christian morality, as we see plainly in Rousseau's ' Vicaire,' ' Savoyard,' and Voltaire's ' Letters on the Quakers.' Very different is the crisis at which we have now arrived. No one who has watched the progress of discussion, and the in dications of opinion in literature and in social inter course, can doubt that, in the minds of those whose views are likely to become — and in an age when all thought is rapidly popularized sure to become — the views of society at large, belief in Christianity as a revealed and supernatural religion has given way. . . . " All English literature, even that which is so- , daily and politically most conservative, teems with evidences of a change of sentiment, the rapid strides of which astonish those who revisit En gland at short intervals. . . . There is perhaps an increase of church-building and church-going, but the crust of outward piety is hollow, and growing hollo wer every day." From such assumed premises Mr. Smith pro ceeds to prognosticate the disastrous "effects of this revolution on morality." 3 30 Problem of Religious Progress. Mr. James Anthony Froude, in the "North Amer ican Review," December, 1879, treats Protestantism as an exhausted factor : " Protestantism has failed. It is a hard saying. Protestantism, when it began, was a revolt against lies. It was a fierce declara tion that men would no longer pretend to believe what in their hearts they did not and could not be lieve. In this sense Protestantism has not failed, and can never fail, as long as there is left an honest man upon the globe. But we cannot live upon ne gations ; but we must have convictions of a positive sort, if our voyage through earthly existence is to be an honorable and successful one. And no Prot estant community has ever succeeded in laying down a chart of human life with any definite sailing directions. In every corner of the world there is the same phenomenon of the decay of established religions. In Catholic countries as well as Protest ant ; nay, among Mohammedans, Jews, Buddhists, Brahmans, traditionary creeds are losing their hold. An intellectual revolution is sweeping over the world, breaking down established opinions, dissolv ing foundations on which historical faiths have been built up. Science, history, philosophy have con trived to create universal uncertainty." Neverthe less, he adds, " Christianity retains a powerful hold, especially over the Anglo-Saxon race." In the " Independent " of October 5, 1893, that dis tinguished evangelist, Mr. Dwight L. Moody, gave The Question Opened. 31 expression to very pronounced premillenarian theo ries. He said that " Every one not blinded by prejudice " must see what facts make plain, and the Scriptures declare that we are " in the last days " when " perilous times shall come," and that "there is every indication that the present dispensation will end in a great smash up ; but I believe that out of that smash up the most glorious age in the world's history will come. So I look into the future, not with despair, but with unbounded delight." The theory that a "smash up "is imminent is predicated on the ground that the world is morally and religiously deteriorating, and so rapidly grow ing worse as to cause apprehension that a perilous conflict is at hand, between right and wrong, tran scending in magnitude and incisiveness any thing heretofore known — a theory claimed to be supported by certain Scripture prophecies which, in the esti mation of the wisest biblical students, are fancifully interpreted by these advocates. One of the latest allegations comes from those who, assuming certain social, civil, and economic theories, radically speculative and Utopian, and which at best are crude, tentative, and quite certain to be soon modified or wholly abandoned, arraign Christianity, because it has not yet met their self- assumed conditions ; and hence they loudly pro claim that Christianity has exhausted her energies, has ceased to be a working force, and after many 32 Problem of Religious Progress. vain struggles has demonstrated her incompetency to meet the world's needs. Such are the complaints against Christianity and modern society. In meeting the aforesaid allegations, the method of investigation adopted by the author is, first, to make a careful, discriminating analysis of the last few centuries, and especially of the present century, with a view to discover the intellectual, moral, and religious trend of the times, as indicated by well- attested facts. After that the statistical exhibits will be introduced. Special attention will be given to the darker phases Of society connected with pauperism, crime, anarchism, etc. ; and also to the multiplying evidences that Christianity is more and more penetrating the world's consciousness and life and demonstrating her efficiency as a regenerating and uplifting power, among the nations. THE PROBLEM The Problem. 35 THE PROBLEM. TT is an important preliminary inquiry, What is *- comprised under the term Protestantism ? and what does Protestantism claim ? In the foregoing arraignment we find two com plex and widely divergent parties — on the one hand, Romanists and men of Romanizing tendencies; and on the other thinkers, who stand avowedly outside of Christianity, and those who, under the more indefinite name of " Liberal Christianity," maintain an attitude of criticism toward the generally ac cepted Protestant theology. And yet the latter portion of both of these classes are connected with denominations, which, in the broad sense of the term, are Protestant. In the course of modern progress, the term Protestant has undergone some modification in its common use, although it still stands, historically, as the name given to all bodies of Christians which have sprung up out of the Reforrriation — " the totality of the Churches which separated from the Romish communion." It also embraces those secondary protests against original Protestantism, such as Quakerism — a protest against its ordinances ; Arminianism — a protest against its Calvinism ; Methodism — a protest against its Cal- 36 Problem of Religious Progress. vinism and its formalism ; and " Liberal Christian ity " — a protest against its Trinitarian and sacrificial theology. But these are only the subordinate di visions of the great Protestant body, now, as ever, maintaining an unfaltering protest against the hier archical prerogatives and exclusive functions of' Ro manism, which constituted the leading issues of the Reformation. In its broadest, definition, then, and as the term is used by D^- Ewer and the Romanists, Protest antism embraces all avowedly Christian bodies out side of the Roman Catholic Church. Jews and Mormons, professedly rejecting Christianity, are ex cluded ; and Universalists, Unitarians, Christians, etc., are included. The tendencies of modern re ligious thought, regarded by. Dr. Ewer and others as so baleful, and as logically and historically the outgrowth of Protestantism, necessitates such an inclusion of the " Liberal " Churches. We accept this definition, and shall adhere to it, so far as pos sible, in this volume ; but a narrower definition will sometimes be necessary, restricting the term Prot estantism to those Churches distinctively holding the sacrificial and Trinitarian theology, which gave vital impulse and moral unity to the Reformation, and which even now identifies them with that period. The reason for this is twofold : firstly, the scanty statistics published in the "Year-books" of the " Liberal " Churches, entirely omitting many items The Problem. 37 furnished in the "Annual Minutes" of the Evangel ical or Orthodox Churches, make it impossible to carry out, at many points, on the broader defini tion, comparisons which are important in testing the questions of progress, spiritual vitality, etc. ; and, secondly, because, in the foregoing indict ments, eminent representatives of " Liberal " relig ion have sharply arraigned the " Evangelical " Churches, and made heavy allegations of their de cline, decrepitude, disintegration, and decay. We have seriously pondered the foregoing charges, scrupulously scrutinizing the tendencies of the times, collating exact data, reviewing the origin and progress of Protestantism, internally and externally, and - its relation to Christianity, as a whole, in its entire history, and are fully convinced that the foregoing indictment is both faulty and false ; that it is predicated upon wrong assumptions as to the genius and mission of Protestantism ; that many of the assumed facts are only hasty and un- discriminating collections of the most meager data, many well-attested facts arid statistics being wholly overlooked and ignored. That part of the indictment which comes from Romanists and Romanizing Ritualists implies that the Christian religion has had a perfect ideal devel-. opment in the Church on the earth ; that this de velopment existed at some time in the past ; that the aim of the modern Church should be to attain to 38 Problem of Religious Progress. the ancient ideal ; and that there can be no future unfolding of any thing richer or deeper in the spirit, the import, or the power of Christianity, because the fullness of its meaning was exhausted long ago. It also supposes that Protestantism has claimed and still professes to be a finality — the perfect ideal of Christian life and experience, the last and perfect word of truth — an assumption not only false but impossible. Protestantism claims the holy Script ures as the complete and final word of religious truth, though not of all truth, but that new and deeper discoveries of their meaning and power will be wrought out by the progressive studies and ex perience of the Church. An early representative of Protestantism, Rev. John Robinson, of Leyden, said: "I am confident that the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy word." Protestantism has ever been conscious of imper fections and weaknesses, making necessary some kind of siftings, modifications, and restatements, that it may be purged from unreasonable and unscfiptural features, from relics of Popery and mediaeval civilization, to say nothing of the ages anterior; and that its life has been a growth, an evolution, in which, notwithstanding some pain ful deformities, it is steadily attaining, in its actual life and workings, fuller realizations of the ideal of Christianity presented in the holy Scriptures. The Problem. 39 Protestantism has been doing its work under great disadvantages, under sudden and radical changes of conditions. As a reformation and re volt against old errors, it has had extremes, reac tions, and other incidental evils. Doubts, disor ders, and experiments are inevitable in such proc esses. The work of modification and restatement, gradually going on in connection with the advance ment of general intelligence, has been a task of the most delicate and difficult character, sorely testing the highest wisdom, stability and piety of its adher ents, ..and also its hold upon the confidence and respect of the masses. But this is not all. In its divorce from the State, in the United States, and in some European countries, it lost the advantage of prestige and influence over the popular mind, which the State afforded, and was cast upon fluctu ating outward sources of voluntary support. Hence the natural inquiry, whether it could maintain its influence with the masses. But another and still more important element has entered into the case — the Protestant religion considered as internal spiritual exercises between the individual and his God, with no priestly or hier archical dependence. Under Protestantism, relig ion became purely a personal thing, passing out from under the exclusive control of the sacraments, and the arbitrary sway of assumed prerogatives, into irrepressible conflicts with individual lusts and 40 Problem of Religious Progress. worldly influences. Instead of pompous rituals, each soul was thrown upon its God and the deep realities of its inner life. The scourge of the hie rarchy disappeared, but the struggle with sense and self went on. Still recognizing the validity of the Church, as a divinely instituted body- -a brother hood and a guide — Protestantism pressed with pow erful tenacity upon each individual the fact of his personal responsibility ; that he must bear the weight of his own guilt to the foot of the cross ; that he must seek within himself and for himself access to God, and, in the spirit of adoption begotten by the Holy Ghost, find a satisfaction which will meet the soul's deepest needs. Since its primitive days, .ex cept among small groups, Christianity had not ex isted under such conditions. What was to be the effect of these new religious conditions among large masses of people ? It was predicted that religion, wholly dependent upon the fluctuations of individual affections, and the vacil lations of individual wills, would be characterized by inconstancy and alternations, until its influence would be utterly wasted. In Europe, Protestantism has. been tested only under the latter conditions, the voluntary spiritual action being supplemented by the support of the State. Such, too, was the situation of American Protestantism during the colonial era; but after the Revolution the civil bands were sundered, and it adjusted itself to whol- The Problem. 41 ly voluntary conditions, externally and internally, and has undergone the trial of the transition, and the operation of the voluntary principle in its full measure. There has been still another source of trial. These capricious and fluctuating voluntary sources of sup port have been tested in a country which every where yields to the supremacy of public opinion. We have passed out from under the tutelage of authority, and a new power, until late years little known, has risen up, exercising supreme sway — even the functions of empire. With vast, complicated, religious, moral, educational, social, and political interests, our young nation ventured upon its career under the supreme guidance of public opinion. Nothing is more irresponsible, or liable to be more capricious and destructive; and yet, in these un steady hands are such great interests held. How experimental and perilous, in the judgment of many, the task of Protestantism, under these new conditions ! Those most sanguine of its success have expected vacillations, reactions, disorders, and even much decay. They are incidental and inevi table, necessary to her life and higher development. Those who have written this terrible indictment against Protestantism do not correctly apprehend the case. No paralysis has come upon her, nor are there any indications of dissolution, as will be fully demonstrated, but the best symptoms of life and 42 Problem of Religious Progress; progress. The struggles of Protestantism are only the normal contests of the vital forces, expelling from the system disorders inherited from Rome, whose deadly taint has long disfigured and embar rassed her : and the evidences of decay, which some see, are only the devitalized elements, which vigor ous life throws off, in its higher advances. Opening wide our eyes, and wisely interpreting the signs of the times, in the light of the whole his tory of Christianity, we see indications, in the con dition and progress of American Protestantism, which convey encouraging lessons. The past eighty years ; at farthest, the past century ; and, in some respects, the past forty years, have been distin guished by a most rapid and marked development, ¦n the actual life and workings of the Protestant Churches in the United States, of the true ideal of Christianity, which during long centuries was almost wholly lost out of the world. In no other period, if we except the brief period following the day of Pentecost — and possibly that should not be excepted — have the past ninety years been equaled, much less excelled. Viewed in this light, every thing will be clear, al though all is not perfect. Protestantism wears, foi its mottot he language of St. Paul, " Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect ; but I follow after,, that I may apprehend that, for which 1 am apprehended in Christ Jesus." The Problem. 43 To understand our times, and to meet the re sponsibilities, call for the clearest vision, the broad est analyses, the amplest resources, prepared hearts, and the best manhood. No hasty deductions by bi ased minds, from narrow generalizations and scanty data, can determine the situation. No personal ill- success, or ill-adjustment to our surroundings, or cramped routine perspective, should color the judg ment and inspire evil prognostications. To the high mount of broad observation, then, we betake ourselves, to study the tendencies and prospects of the times. One feature of our times is entirely new, and, therefore, experimental. Great and sacred ques tions are brought into the arena of public investiga tion. Never before were the people expected to have an independent opinion about such matters. The common soil of humanity * for the first time in all the ages is surveyed, plowed, and sown. The problem now pending is whether more of wheat or of tares will be harvested ; whether, in the end, it will be productive of more of faith or of doubt, of genuine piety or ungodliness. In the United States, unlike the older countries, there are no conserving forces in the constitution of society, holding men to the old faiths — no old institutions, hereditary nobilities, State Churches, etc. ; but every thing is new — communities, governments, and institutions, * " Christianity and Modern Thought," p. 17. 44 Problem of Religious Progress. and any number of new projects, trial schemes, and prophecies of newer and stranger things to come. All things stimulate to theorizing. The new is held at a high premium, and the old at a heavy deprecia tion. In such times men find it easy to break away from old morals and old faiths, and a supernatural ' system like Christianity undergoes searching ex amination. Every thing, however spiritual, is sub jected to natural tests. The revolutionizing tend ency of the times has invaded every department of thought and action. Thought is intense and bold. Principles, institutions, and usages, long sacred and venerable, are discarded and obsolete. In the midst of such tendencies, American Christianity has been called to experience a severer test than European Christianity, with its old institutions environing and sustaining it, but we shall see that her triumphs are purer and grander. How is the conflict progressing, and what are the indications? This problem is our appointed task, and waits a solution — a solution, which we believe is radiant with hope and promise. Let us advance and see. I. FAITH. — ¦»¦¦¦ CHAPTER I. THE BONDAGrE Spiritual Despotism. Papal Scholasticism, Protestant Seholastieiam. I. -FAITH. I CHAPTER I. BONDAGE. T is charged that Protestantism is a break with -ancient faith and worship; that it discards an chors and moorings ; that it is logically and histor ically the generator of skepticism ; that the Prot estantism of the present is very different from the Protestantism of the past ; that its numerous modi fications in doctrine and life indicate its rapid dis integrating tendencies ; that it has become " a miser able raft," its fragments floating apart like the mere " flying rack of the heavens ;" and that " poor rem nants only of the great nations are clinging to its parted and broken logs." That Protestantism was the leading factor in those great movements which burst the shackles for cent uries restraining freedom of thought, and that it has quickened intellectual activity and enlarged its scope, can be regarded a reproach only by those who still loiter among the murky vapors of medi aeval times. Even if it be true, as Dr. Ewer declares, that " it stands to-day breast-deep in torrents of 48 Problem of Religious Progress. skepticism," it is creditable to it to be able thus to stand ; and, through the severe ordeals of external criticism and rigid self-introspection, to endure re statements and modifications, not only without loss of essential identity, but even with increased vitality and power. In the midst of the scrutiny and conflicts of the centuries, Protestantism has strengthened itself, within and without ; it has taken possession of " storm-driven outposts ; " it has erected " Eddy- stone lights where surging waves of doubt are ever breaking;" it has established "last hayens of stores and comfort for adventurous voyagers, bewildered in search' of truth;'' and has extended its lines to the ends of the earth. In future pages, the truth of these declarations will be demonstrated. That Protestantism has been able to advance its position amid the stormiest seas of doubt and free inquiry, and grow larger, purer, and stronger, is its glory ; but that it has " let loose " these " torrents of skepticism," because it broke away from the ab solutism of Rome, and championed spiritual liberty, is too absurd a statement to come from a divine of high standing and culture. It is an oft-exploded complaint, that the Reformation produced the skep ticism of the eighteenth century, by generating the revolution in philosophy, and, through that, the infidelity which accompanied it. Of that disastrous result, it was in no sense the cause. The Reforma- Faith. 49 tion and the philosophical revolution were both, in themselves, beneficent, necessary to the world's progress, and productive of irreligion only " as the coo] bracing air may sometimes produce fever in a debilitated body, or warmth may hasten corruptioa in a corpse." The infecting malarial taint was spirit ual despotism, intrinsically and eternally malignant. The testimony of the centuries shows that, for the origin of skepticism and 4its fearful ascendency in the last century, the cause of causes was not lib erty in any form, but an imbecile, corrupt, and im perious Church, obtruding itself between the world and God, and darkening the faith of the nations. The causes were " practical rather than speculative ; more moral than intellectual ; and less theological than ecclesiastical. The religious insurrection of the nations was political and social rather than met aphysical. The revolt was less from Christianity than from the Church ; or, at least, was from Chris tianity because of the (Romish) Church."* Comparing the Protestantism of the present with that of the past, changes are, indeed, apparent in religious sentiment, in technical theology, and in the practice of enforcing religious belief. Theology is less scholastic and repulsive, has less of pagan adulteration, has been lubricated and broadened, and is the better for its siftings. Modern thought and * The Skeptical Era in Modern History," by Rev. T. M. Post, D.D., p. 257. 50 Problem of Religious Progress. Protestant theology have been mutual benefactors and beneficiaries. Religious sentiment is less su-~ perstitious and more intelligent, is less actuated by fear and more by knowledge, lives less in damps and shadows and more in the light, and has become less a blind impulse and more a law written in the heart — at once a passion and a principle. Creeds are shorter, but broader, deeper, and stronger ; have less of husk and more of kernel ; are shedding the devitalized and retaining the vital. Stakes and fagots have disappeared ; inquisitorial tortures have ceased ; inquisitorial examinations are giving place to friendly utterance of mutual belief; and faith is no longer forced, but voluntary. All this is as it should be — not the shame but the glory of Protestantism. But this gain has come through peculiar processes, both within and without — the fruit of discipline. Protestantism had its origin at a time when tra dition and the schoolmen, sustained by the terrors of the hierarchy, had dominated Europe for centu ries. Two evils were rampant in the world of mind —the spirit of scholasticism, tenacious for dialec tical forms, shaving truth with tools of iron logic, to the sacrifice of its simplicity and purity, and dishon oring it with human subtleties ; and the spirit of dog matism, which, with unrelenting authority, denied the freedom of personal convictions and enforced belief. Faith. 5 1 Protestantism, a too apt pupil in the school of the centuries, inhaling the spirit of the age, started in its career hampered with these trammels. It could not, at once, purify the superincumbent air, nor lift itself wholly above the murky vapors. A revolt against the hierarchy, an advocate of freedom, and a champion of independence, early Protestant ism, nevertheless, only feebly realized what liberty meant and what gross bondage it still retained. It brought out of Romanism the spirit of dogmatism, and the devotion to truth which fired its zeal against the falsities of the papacy was sometimes betrayed into a spirit of persecution. Husks of scholasticism were still retained; as seen in the rigidly drawn and extended theological formularies and systems. The iron logic of the reformers followed too closely in the dialectical lines of the schoolmen, cramping into systems of human devising, and perverting by hu man subtleties, truths which the Great Teacher and his apostles presented in simpler forms. With such a legacy of evil Protestantism began its work, and only by processes of severe purging could it be purified. These modifications have exposed it to the charge of change and disintegration, exciting alarm in some minds. Are these allegations and apprehensions well founded ? Several lines of inquiry are necessary in bringing this subject fully before us. 52 Problem of Religious Progress. How was Christian truth so brought into bondage that only through long, stern ordeals could it be de livered ? Why did not original Protestantism wholly cast off these fetters ? And, What factors have providentially wrought with Protestantism for its deliverance ? By pursuing these inquiries, we shall be able more intelligently to appreciate the present situation and tendencies. We shall find a true historic answer to the unfounded allegation that Protestantism is the generator of skepticism ; and shall also perceive that it has successfully pursued its course, and been de veloped, purified, extended, and strengthened, in spite of all infecting and antagonizing forces. In the fifth century Christianity conquered pagan ism, and thenceforth paganism, in turn, enfeebled and burdened Christianity. " The rites of the Par thenon passed into the worship of the Church ; the subtleties of the academy into the creed. Similar trifles, just as subtle, interminable, and unprofitable, occupied the sharp intellects of the schoolmen. At length the time had come when the barren philos ophy, which had worn so many shapes, mingled with so many creeds, had survived empires, religions. races, languages, was destined to fall. Driven from its ancient haunts, it had taken sanctuary in that Church which it at first had persecuted, and, like the daring fiends of the poet, Faith. 53 ' Placed its seat next to the seat of God, And with its darkness durst affront his light.' " * The scholastic philosophy, based on the logic, ethics, and physics of Aristotle, and the judgments and decretals of the Church, and fostered by the Church, dominated the realms of human thought through the long, dark mediaeval period. The schoolmen, dialecticians, mostly theologians and ecclesiastics, constructed Out of the philosophy of Aristotle an armory for the defense of the papacy, whose formularies were traps, tricks, and snares, involving the unwary in subtleties. Their schemes of casuistry and intellectual legerdemain bejuggled men out of common-sense beliefs and into the acceptance of absurd dogmas uphold ing the papal Church. Around the intellect of Europe, Romanism bound the chain of scholasti cism, repressing the thought and faith of the nations. In the name of an infallible authority conferred by Heaven, the Church applied the clamps of scho lasticism to all science, usurped the prerogatives of all truth, put all minds under censorship, and burned men as quickly for new theses in physical science, medicine, or astronomy, as in theology. " Was a proposition in physics or. metaphysics to be determined ? The schoolmen sent you, not to analyze the thing; but they coerced it into the * Macaulay. 54 Problem of Religious Progress. categories and syllabus of the subtle Greek ; they put it into the strait-waistcoat of some dialectic formula ; they put it upon the rack and torture of syllogism and enthymeme ; and, finally, bound it down and smothered it by the decrees of Councils and the bulls of Popes. Was the inquirer still unsat isfied? The ponderous names of a Duns Scotus, a Thomas Aquinas, or some Seraphic Doctor, or some Gregory or Innocent or Boniface, were made to thunder about his ears with the technical bar barisms of a scholastic jargon, till, overwhelmed and confounded, if not convinced, he was glad to be silent, especially as those barbarisms were no mere bruta fulmina, but behind them was bran dished before his eyes the ultima reason of spiritual despots — the mightier logic of imprisonment, wheel, and fagot." * Ages wore away under such processes, excluding scientific discovery and progress. It was a futile, fruitless toil, in an endless circle, " an endless round of sonorous nothings." Society "plodded its weary way over ' many a frozen, many a fiery Alp,' mid rivers of inky blackness, in endless mazes wander ing, emulating, in its bootless and ceaseless toil, the fabled children of eternal night, till, at last, emerg ing from its dark sojourn, lo, it finds itself just where it started weary centuries ago." * See " Skeptical Era in Modern History," by Rev. T. M. Post D.D., p. 72. Faith. 55 Emancipation from such a bondage was a neces sity, and, in due time, a certainty. A quickening conjuncture of great events — the Revival of Letters, the Invention of Printing, the Discovery of America, the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, and the rapid development of the power of the municipalities and the burgher class, preceded and prepared the way for the Reforma tion of the sixteenth century. Out of these wide and deeply significant movements the Reformation sprung ; and to their influence, stimulating mental activity, broadening the scope of human thought, and developing intellectual and moral independ ence, and not to the Reformation alone, are we to attribute the first advancement in philosophy, and in physical science, the rise of skepticism, etc. The seeds of these movements were widely sown, and germinated in the general quickening which started forth the Reformation. Each, springing from its peculiar conditions, had nevertheless points in com mon in their inception and earlier development, while the Reformation soon became the bold im pulse and central figure, under whose leadership they went forth on their mission. The Revival of Learning was the chief cause of the Reformation, but many causes contributed to the Revival. Feudalism declined ; the State be came consolidated ; cities arose ; new classes of free citizens came into existence ; industrial and com- 56 Problem of Religious Progress. mercial activities increased, producing material prosperity; and with competence came leisure for the adornment of life with the arts of peace. At the same time there grew up a secular form of cult ure, as distinguished from the prevailing religious and scholastic type. From 1 348 to 1 502, uni versities were founded in various , parts of the continent. Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio wrote, extolling force and beauty, the manly courage of severe contests, the delicate sentiments of love, the fervor of devotion, the nobility of loyalty, the ignominy of treason — stirring every natural and moral feeling. This humane culture awakened an interest in an cient poetry and in ancient conceptions of the world. New desires for art and literature followed, and the social life of the rising burgher class, and of the noble families who had attained to wealth and power, provided the taste, the leisure, and the means for resuscitating the remains of ancient cult ure. First, Roman literature was explored anew ; then the Greek classics. Greece was visited, arid her " muses would have been brought to Italy if they had not soon fled thither for refuge." Greek scholars came to Italy before the capture of Con stantinople by the Turks, in 1453 ; but that great event drove thither numerous Greek refugees, rich in literary treasures, and the Halls of the Medici received them as apostles. Convents brought forth Faith. 57 their resources ; antiquity had a resurrection ; and youth from Western Europe, Germany, and Hun gary crossed the Alps to study the ancfent classics. This movement marked a new era in culture ; the Church was to be no longer the sole instructor ; a wider horizon was to open over the human intellect, and scholasticism was destined to wane. " The Fa thers," hitherto for centuries read only in frag ments, convenient for the use of the dialectician, were brought forth from their long obscurity ; and the Scriptures, in the original tongue, once more served as the touchstone of truth. Printing facili tated the multiplication of books, and helped the spreading ferment. Little resistance was offered, for the new era, at first intent upon antiquities, projected no new theories. And yet, out of the antiquities with which Italy and even the Papal court were then captivated, important changes were to come. Through this channel were intro duced into the West the Platonic, the Neopla- tonic, the Epicurean, and Stoical philosophies, whose temporary mission, in the transitional period of philosophy then opening, was to supplant the Scholastic-Aristotelian method, and whose residu um, in the ages beyond, was a legacy of skepticism, harassing the faith of Protestantism. This Revival of Learning was the instaurator of new ideas and movements. In the midst of this period, Protestantism, the 58 Problem of Religious Progress. most conspicuous of all modern movements, had its birth, ushering in a new and better religious life, but inheriting taints which only long and stern dis cipline could purge away. " Side by side," says Ueberweg, " with this re turn of learned culture from scholasticism to the early Roman and Greek literature stands, as its analogue, the return of the religious consciousness from the doctrines of the Catholic Church to the letter of the Bible. . . . Acknowledging the author ity of the holy Scriptures, and of the dogmas of the Church in its earliest days, Protestantism -rejected the mediaeval hierarchy and the scholastic tendency to rationalize Christian dogmas. The individual conscience found itself in conflict with the way of salvation marked out by the Church. By this way it was unable to attain to inward peace and recon-' ciliation with God. ... In the first heat of the con flict the Reformers regarded the head of the Cath olic Church as Antichrist, and Aristotle, the chief of the Catholic school philosophy, as a ' godless bulwark of the Papists.' " The logical tendency was to break with all phi losophy, and adopt a simple, unquestioning faith. But as Protestantism gained " fixed consistence," the necessity of some determinate order, in the new ecclesiastical condition, pressed upon the attention of the leaders. Melanchthon felt the need of some kind of philosophy. He found the Epicureans too Faith. 59 atheistic ; the Stoics too fatalistic in theology and extravagant in ethics ; Plato and the Neoplatonists " either too indefinite or too heretical ; " while Ar istotle, as a teacher of a unique method, met the needs of the young. Luther consented to the use of the text of Aristotle if uncumbered by scholastic comments. " There arose thus," says Ueberweg, " in the Protestant universities, a new Aristotelian- ism, which was distinguished from scholasticism by its simplicity and freedom from empty subtleties, but which, owing to the necessity of modifying the naturalistic elements in the Aristotelian philosophy, and especially in the Aristotelian psychology, so as to make them harmonize with the religious faith, soon became, in its measure, itself scholastic. The erection of a new independent philosophy, on the basis of the generalized Protestant principle," was, therefore, a necessity ; but its accomplishment was reserved for a later time and other hands, In the mean time, burdened with limitations in consistent with its fundamental principle, checking and falsifying its movements, Protestantism pur sued its course, slowly and imperfectly developing and waiting the concurrent action of other factors, which should fully emancipate it from scholasticism and dogmatism, and invest it in simple forms, in closer harmony with the original ideal of pure Christianity. Those factors have wrought along the centuries, ostensibly a work of criticism, and some- 60 Problem of Religious Progress. times of destruction, but, under Providence, devel oping those modifying tendencies in theological truth so conspicuous in our days. What were these factors ? They comprise, in their fullest scope, the great movements of modern thought, some of which took their origin just anterior to Protestantism, others nearly simultaneously with it, and others still soon after Protestantism started upon its career. Their mission has been providential, under the wise over- rulings of " Him who is the Head over all things unto his Church," and who maketh the activities of human thought, and even human unbelief and wrath, to subserve his beneficent ends. CHAPTER II. LIBERATING FACTORS. Modern Skepticism. Physical Science. Antitrinitarian Protestantism. Modern Philosophy. Faith. 63 CHAPTER II. liberating factors. Modern Skepticism. ANCIENT in its essence, and a residuum from antemediaeval times, skepticism first appeared, in modern history, springing out of the bosom of Rome just prior- to the origin of Protestantism. A new philosophical movement was one of the first and most noticeable developments in the Re vival of Learning, working simultaneously with its earliest beginnings, both as a factor and a product, and constituting the first division in modern philos ophy — the period of transition* from the old scho lastic method, of mediaeval dependence upon the Church and Aristotle, to the beginning of the new method, of original and independent investigation, inaugurated by the bold genius of Descartes. It was an era of change, of transfer, of partial emanci pation from the old, with, as yet, no fully developed system. This movement had long been a felt necessity. As early as the eleventh century,. and through the three following centuries, the spirit of freedom * Ueberweg's " Division of the Historic Periods of Philosophy." 64 Problem of Religious Progress. struggled in Italian minds, and champions of intel lectual liberty appeared. At the beginning of the twelfth century " a numerous and powerful school of philosophers labored so persistently for freedom of thought and expression, that it was denounced by the Church as a school of Epicureans and Atheists." * It has been already noticed that the Revival of Learning introduced the Platonic and the Neopla- tonic philosophies into Italy. AverroSs, a commen tator upon Aristotle, in high repute, taught that " only the one universal reason common to the en tire human race is immortal," " that the world-or dering divine mind is the active immortal reason," and denied " individual immortality." These doc trines prevailed in Northern Italy from early in the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century, and in the school of Padua they were prominent tenets until the seventeenth century, though in different acceptations at different times. The het erodox elements in this belief were made prominent in some and toned down by others. In the four teenth century Eckhart taught a mystical panthe ism, and in the fifteenth century the antichfistian and pantheistic system of Neoplatonism, which had been developed and systematized under the mold ing influence of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Julian, * Prof. Vincenzo Botta, D.D. See Ueberweg's " Philosophy," ii p.46t. Faith. 65 prominent opponents of Christianity in the first Christian centuries, became the favorite philosophy of the cultured minds. Many made an easy passage from Averroism to Pantheism. Plethro, (1355-1442,) a "passionate Platonist ; " Bessarioh, (1 395-1472,) a moderate Platonist; and Marcilius Ficinus, (1433-1499,) a meritorious trans lator of PlatO, Plotinus, Porphyry, and other Neo- platonists, propounded theses which have been characterized as " neither Christian nor Moham medan, but Neoplatonic and heathen." With these men there arose in Italy and elsewhere schools of ideal Platonists, tending to Deism and Natural ism, and a class of Peripatetics, sliding into ma terialism and skepticism. Hallam says, " There is strong ground for ascribing a rejection of Chris tianity to Plethro." Ficinus declared there was no hope for religion except in the " bolstering aid of the Platonic philosophy; " Pomponatius, (died 1525,) that "Christianity was in a state of obsolescence and decay," and that the immortal ity of the soul is doubtful on philosophic princi ples; and Machiavelli, (1464-1527,) that the high est political ends can be obtained without the aid of the Church or of Christianity. " The Platonic Academy in the gardens of the Medici," says Hase,* " defended only a few of the religious ideas * " Church History," p. 328. This academy was established 1440-1445- 66 Problem of Religious Progress. peculiar to Christianity." " Infidelity and super stition were arrayed boldly in opposition to each other." " To the Italian infidelity of this period probably belongs the authorship of the book, ' The Three Impostors,' (Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed,) first mentioned in the sixteenth century ; " * also, the " Dialogue Upon Religion," between " seven learned freethinkers of Venice," by John Bodin, (died 1597,) in which all religions are set forth as " having the same merits and defects," and " ideal deism " is commended as the " true re ligion." f In the earlier stages of this movement, the new views were sometimes accommodated to the Church by attempted distinctions between philosophic and theologic truth, and by a profession of submis sion to the Church. The Church condemned this view of the twofold nature of truth, but the move ment went quietly on so long as the Church was not directly antagonized. Thus the School of Humanists, enthusiastic wor shipers of pagan antiquity, devoted to the revival of classical study, became antagonistic to Christi anity, and it was quite common for dignitaries of the Church, in the circles of their friends, to avow atheism. Even Pope Leo X. was credited with the remark, regarded as credible by his contemporaries, " It is not generally known how much we and ours * Kurtz's " Church History," vol. ii, p. 159. f Ibid. Faith. 67 have been profited by the fable of Christ." Oppo nents of Christian belief retained their positions, often of the highest rank, in the Church. In this early movement in the quest of another philosophy, we see, in the Romish Church, the first outcroppings of European skepticism during the century before Protestantism arose. " The Refor mation," says Professor Fisher, "is not responsible for the tendencies to skepticism and unbelief which have revealed themselves in modern society. These tendencies discovered themselves before Protestant ism appeared. The Renaissance in Italy was skep tical in its spirit. This infidelity sprang up in the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church, partly as a reaction against the superstitious doctrines and practices which the Church countenanced, partly from the Epicurean lives of the ecclesiastics, and the worldliness which had corrupted the piety of the official guardians of religion." Hallam,* speaking of those who called in ques tion the " truths of natural and revealed religion," says, " The proofs of this before the middle of the sixteenth century are chiefly to be derived from Italy. ... If we limit ourselves to those who di rected their attacks against Christianity, it must be presumed that, in an age when the tribunals of justice~visited even with the punishment of death the denial of any fundamental doctrine, few books * Hallam's "Literature of the Middle Ages," vol. i, p. 288. 68 Problem of Religious Progress. of an openly irreligious tendency would appear. A short pamphlet by one Vallee cost him his life in 1574. . . . The list of men suspected of infidelity, if we could trust all private anecdotes of the time, would be by no means short." Besides the Platonic and the Neoplatonic, other ancient philosophies were renewed in this transi tional period. Telsius (1 508-1 588) and other rela tively independent investigators of nature, were considerably influenced by the doctrines of the nat ural philosophers of ancient Greece. Stoicism was revived and developed by Lipsius, (1 547-1606,) and Epicureanism by Gassendi, (1 592-1655.) Ueber- weg says, " Ancient skepticism was revived, and, in part, in a peculiar manner further developed, by Michel de Montaigne," (born 1503,) and "more or less directed to the doctrines of Christianity." Char- ron, (1 541-1603,) and Sanchez, (1 562-1632,) a teacher of medicine and philosophy in France, " supported this tendency." Le Vayer (1 586-1672) applied the arguments of ancient skeptics to theology, and had successors among his pupils — Sprbiere, (161 5-1670,) Foucher, (1644-1696,) Glanville, (died 1680,) Hern- haym, (died 1670,) Huet, (1633-1721,) and Bayle, (1647- 1 706,) the latter "breaking the pathway of a mere frivolous unbelief." Ueberweg also says, " From its relation to the investigation of nature, in modern times, Gassendi's renewal of Epicurean ism is of far greater historical importance than the Faith. 69 renewal of any other ancient system;" and F. A, Lange says, " Gassendi is the one who may proper ly be styled the renewer, in modern times, of sys tematic materialism." We have thus traced the lines of modern skepti cism from its rise out of the revival of the ancient philosophies, through phases separate from the Reformation, however much it may have been em boldened, in its later stages, by the examples of the Reformers ; and have reached a period, on the Continent, parallel with that of Herbert, (1581— 1648,) Hobbes, (1 588-1679,) Blount, (1654-1693,) and Sir Thomas Brown, (1605-1682,) the earliest leaders in skeptical thought in England. Such was the origin of one of the great factors destined to exert an extensive influence upon mod ern thought and upon theology. Let us now 're trace our steps, and briefly notice the rise and early progress of Physical science, another modifying factor. The mental quickening commenced in the Re vival of Learning soon extended to all the sciences. The superstitious scholastic methods, by which the schoolmen figured out with equal facility the popu lation of Saturn, the number of feathers in the wings of the cherubim, and how many angels could stand on the point of a needle, could not meet the neces sities of awakened thought in the new era. It must 70 Problem of Religious Progress. have more rational processes; but the true process was not at once reached. It first went backward to the old pagan philosophies. Dr. Ueberweg, whose competency none will question, shall tell the story. ¦ " The modern mind, dissatisfied with scholasti cism, not only went back to the classical literature of antechristian antiquity, and to the writings con stituting the biblical Revelation, but, setting out from the sciences of antiquity, also directed its en deavors, more and more, to independent investiga tion of the realities of nature and mind, as also to the problem of moral self-determination, independ ently of external forms. In the fields of mathe matics, mechanics, geography, and astronomy, the science and speculation of the ancients were first restored, and then, partly by gradual progress, and partly by rapid and bold discoveries, materially ex tended. With the assured results of investigation were connected manifold and largely turbulent at tempts to establish on the basis of the new science new theological and philosophical conceptions, in which attempts were involved germs of later and more mature doctrines. Physical philosophy, in the transitional period, was more or less blended with a form of theosophy, which rested at first upon the foundation of Neoplatonism and the Cabala, but which gradually, and especially on the soil of Protestantism, attained a more independent chai- Faith. 71 acter. A physical philosophy thus blended with theosophy, not yet freed from scholastic notions, nor contradicting the affirmations of ecclesiastical theology, and yet resting on the new basis of mathe matical and astronomical studies, was maintained, about the middle of the fifteenth century, by Nico- laus Cusanus, (1401-1464,) in whom the mysticism of Eckhart (1260- 1327) was renewed, and from whence, later, Giordano Bruno (1 548-1600) derived the fundamental features of his own bolder and more independent doctrine. Physics, in its com bination with theosophy, continued to be taught, and was further developed in the sixteenth century, and also in the seventeenth. Among its professors were Paracelsus, (1493-1541,) the physician; Car- danus, (1 501-1576,) the mathematician and astrolo ger; Bernardinus Telesius, (1508-1588,) the founder of the Academia Cosentina, for the investigation of nature, and his followers, Franciscus Patritius, (1 529-1 597,) the Platonizing opponent of Aristotle; Andreas Caesalpinus, (1519-1603,) the Averroistic Aristotelian; Nicolaus Turxellius, (1547-1606,) the opponent of the latter, and an independent German thinker; Carolus Borillus, (i470-i553>) a supporter of the Catholic Church, and a disciple of Nicholaus of Cusa, (1401-1464) ; Giordano Bruno, (1 548-1600,) and Lucilio Vanini, (1 585-1619,) the antiecclesias- tical freethinkers; and Thomas Campanella, (1568- 1639,) the Catholic opponent of Aristotle. The 72 Problem of Religious Progress. religious element prevailed with Schwenckfeldt and Valentin Weigl, Protestant theologians, and with Jacob Bohme, the theosophist, among whose fol lowers have been H. Moore, John Pordage, Pierre Poivel , and, in more modern times, St. Martin, and whose principles were employed by Baader and by Shelling — by the latter on the occasion of his pass ing over from physical philosophy to theosophy. The themes of law and civil government were de veloped in an independent manner, without defer ence to Aristotelian or ecclesiastical authority, and in a form more adapted to the changed" political conditions of modern times.* Physical science, then, in its early modern stages, was hampered with the embarrassments incidental to the transitional period of modern philosophy — the newly revived ancient philosophy, the Cabala, the remaining influence of scholastic methods, and the ecclesiastical domination. Beginning before the birth of Protestantism, in such an unnatural combination, it struggled through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries into the seventeenth, when it received a new impulse under the independent method of original investigation promulgated by Descartes, and became another of the modifying factors in the progress of Protestantism. * Ueberweg's " History of Philosophy,'- vol. ii, pp. 19, 20. • Faith. 73 The Antitrinitarian theology, a residuum from the antemediceval age, restored with the Revival of Learn ing, has been another providential factor. Antitrinitarianism has been incorrectly regarded by some as an offspring of Protestantism, because a protest against Protestant theology. While very many of those representing these opinions have been dissenters from the Trinitarian and sacrificial theology of Protestantism, yet it is not strictly true that Antitrinitarianism originated in the Churches of the Reformation. The rise of these ideas ante dates the mediaeval age. The Arian doctrines sur vived that dark period, and reappeared during the Revival of Learning. The same causes that pro duced the Reformation, modern skepticism, and the transition in philosophy and physical science, re vived the Arian ideas of previous centuries — a part of the general resurrection of ancient knowledge. Nor was this all. Before those great events took place which gave character to the Reformation, and determined its career, even in the midst of the Middle Ages, the efforts of the schoolmen to estab lish, by syllogistic gins, logical technics, and tenu ous sophisms, the Trinity and other Church doc trines, invested them with absurdity, and awakened revulsions. The scholastic processes proved peril ous. In the tenth century Arians appeared in the Diocese of Padua, a district of northern Italy. In the twelfth century Joachin, an Abbot of Flora, 74 Problem of Religious Progress. taught that the union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was not a natural one, not one of es sence, but wholly moral, like that of persons hold ing common opinions. In the thirteenth century these views had many representatives. During the revival of the Platonic and the Neoplatonic philos ophies, prior to the Reformation, the Trinity came under frequent discussion, in various speculative forms, but cautiously, for fear of the Church. The shocks occasioned by the collisions of thought, in the convulsive moments of the Reformation, brought to the surface the dissent which the scho lastic methods had provoked. " It was in Italy," says Professor Fisher, " among the cultured class, in men of inquisitive and culti vated minds, that the Antitrinitarians appeared. The peculiar tone of the belles-lettres culture that followed upon the Revival of Learning was often congenial with these opinions. There was a dispo sition to examine the foundations of religion, to call in question the traditional doctrines of the Church, and to sift the entire creed by the application of reason to its contents. The writings of Servetus (1509-15 53) doubtless had much influence in diffus ing Antitrinitarian opinions ; but most of the con spicuous Unitarians who first appeared were of Italian birth, generally exiles from their country on account of their belief. After the publication of the Antitrinitarian work of Servetus, in 1531, it is Faith. 75 said that not less than forty educated men in Vi- cenza and the neighborhood were united in a private association, all of whom held Unitarian opinions. The Unitarian doctrines were found in the Churches of Italian refugees at Geneva and at Zurich." Hallam says : * "It is certain that many of the Italian reformers held Antitrinitarian opinions, chiefly of the Arian form. M'Crie suggests that these had been derived from Servetus ; but it does not appear that they had any acquaintance. ... It is much more probable that their tenets originated among themselves." These views are confirmed by Mosheim, who says that " Socinian writers generally trace, the origin of their sect to Italy;" and Kurtz also says, " Italy was the proper home of the rationalistic denial of the doc trine (of the Trinity ;) it was the fruit of the half- pagan humanism which flourished then." Its advo cates, compelled to flee, took 'refuge in Switzerland; but, being persecuted there, and banished, they went first to Germany, thence to Poland, Hungary, and the province of Transylvania, where princes or no bles protected them. Blandrata, Gentilis, Alciati, Grimbaldi, Claudius of Savoy, and Tellius, early disseminators of Antitrinitarian ideas, and some of them martyrs, and Laelius and Faustus Socinus, from whom the Socinian scheme took its name, were all from Italy — the fruitage of the Neopla- * Hallam's " Literature of the Middle Ages," rol. i, p. 196. 76 Problem of Religious Progress. tonic movement — and were all of them born be tween 1475 and 1540, and all but one prior to 1520 The Socinii were descendants from an illustrious family of Sienna. Almost simultaneously with the first movements of Luther, and doubtless mainly out of the general quickening given by the Revival of Learning, there arose in different parts of central and northern Eu rope various sects of Reformers, several classes of whom received the designation of Anabaptists. In 1 52 1, within four years of Luther's bold theses on the church door in Wittenberg, they were known as distinct bodies, under fiery leaders, among whom we find Antitrinitarian opinions. The Antitrini tarian refugees from Italy and Switzerland, " some of whom," says Hase, " in the name of the Script ures or of intellectual freedom, claimed the right to reject any ecclesiastical doctrine, and especially the doctrine of the Trinity, as it had been taught by the Church," indulging the hope of finding an asy lum in countries possessing the Reformation," ap peared at an early date in Switzerland, then in Germany, and elsewhere. They found sympathy among the Anabaptists when they were repelled by Luther and Melanchthon. John Denck, (died 1528,) and Hitzer, (died 1529,) Anabaptist leaders, learned and extensively read in polite literature, and others, almost with the origin of the Reforma tion, avowed Antitrinitarian views. These opinions Faith. j-j spread with this sect even to England, where they appeared " at the very dawn of the Reformation." * Poland and Transylvania became the centers from which they radiated, and the Catechism printed at the Socinian printing-office, in Racow, was a noted campaign document. In England, in every period since the earliest dawn of the Reformation, Antitrinitarian ideas have been held by those who have shared the common protest against the Church of Rome. In the reign of Edward (1547— 1553) these views ex cited the alarm of the authorities. Under the reign of Elizabeth and James I. (15 58-1625) men suffered martyrdom on account of them. In the time of the Commonwealth, John Biddle, who had collected a body of worshipers holding these views, was ban ished by Cromwell, and subsequently returning, died in prison in 1662. Strong tendencies to Ari anism existed among the English Presbyterians throughout the seventeenth century, and it was a bar to the effective union sought between them and the Independents near the close of the century. Prior to this time, divines of the Established Church — Chillingworth, Hales of Eaton, etc.— had thrown aside the system of Calvin, and exposed themselves to the charge of Socinianism, and, in the next period, Cudworth, Whichcote, Williams, * Rev. Wm. Turner, A.M., " Unitarianism Exhibited." London, 1846, p- 157- 6. 78 Problem of Religious Progress. Tillotson, and Whitby, were added to the list. Later, Clarke, Hoadley, Hare, Sykes, Law, Justin, etc., not positively Antitrinitarians, expressed them selves in language admitting of Unitarian construc tion. In the last decade of the seventeenth cent ury an extensive controversy raged, developing within the Establishment two parties - real and nominal Trinitarians — in which Sherlock was pro nounced almost a Tritheist, and South and Wallis almost Sabellians. Among the Presbyterians in Scotland three eminent divines and professors in the University of Glasgow belonged to this school of thinkers; Modern philosophy has been a modifying factor. We have already noticed the first imperfect phases of modern philosophy in its transitional period from mediaeval dependence on the authority of the Church and of Aristotle. Its establishment as an independ ent science, uncontrolled by any human authority, occurred under Descartes about one hundred and twenty-five years after Luther inaugurated the Ref ormation. Indirectly the product of the Reforma tion, following the example of bold revolt against authority, Ueberweg calls it " a new, independent philosophy, on the basis of the generalized Protest ant principle." It was destined to be a great prov idential factor, modifying ancient philosophy, skep ticism, physical science, and the formularies of Faith. 79 Trinitarian and Antitrinitarian Protestantism, and aiding their deliverance from the partial bondage to scholastic methods in which they were all still held. A renovation more radical than any hitherto known suddenly consummated this transition, and Bacon and Descartes were the renovators — the sys tems of both products of the Reformation. While Bacon (1 561-1626) is regarded as the forerunner of modern philosophy, and Thomas Campanello (1568- 1639) as his echo, Descartes (1 596-1650) is the ac knowledged founder. Next, after him we find the pinnacles of philosophic development occupied by Spinoza, (1632-1677,) Locke, (i632-i704,)and Leib nitz, (1646-17 1 3.) ' Bacon, not so much an originator of a new method as an instaurator of a new era, resisted tradition in physical science, insisted upon independent induc tive processes, and thus effectually broke from the authority and the scientific methods of the Church and the schoolmen, as Luther had broken from the authority of the hierarchy. But Bacon's task was only partly done. Descartes, following a few years later, inauguiated the new method, which character izes modern from mediaeval philosophy. Separat ing it from theology, he cast aside all assumptions and all human authority. It was a complete revo lution, and bold and rapid movements followed in the realm of inquiry. "Themost stupendous thought that was ever conceived by man, such as had never 80 P.ROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS PROGRESS. been dared by Socrates or the Academy, by Aris totle or the Stoics, took possession of Descartes, in his meditations, on a November night, on the banks of the Danube. His own mind separated itself from every thing besides ; and, in the consciousness of its own freedom, stood over against all tradition, all received opinion, all knowledge, all existence ex cept itself, thus asserting the principle of individu ality as the key-note of all coming philosophy and political institutions. Nothing was to be received as truth by man which did not convince his own reason. Luther opened up a new world, in which every man was his own priest, his own intercessor ; Descartes opened a new world, in which every man was his own philosopher, his own judge of truth." * Luther preceded Descartes one hundred years, inaugurating the great revolt against despotism, and furnishing the inspiration for later and more ad vanced movements. Both were bold reformers — the one against the despotism of an absolute^hier- archy, and the other against the despotism of scho lasticism, products of the middle ages. And yet there are radical and practical differences between the two revolts. " The one was the method of continuity and gradual reform ; the other of an in stantaneous, complete, and thorough revolution. The principle of Luther waked up a superstitious * Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. ix, p. 500, Faith. 81 world, ' asleep in the lap of legends old,' but did not renounce all external authority. It used drags and anchors to check too rapid progress, and to se cure its mooring. So it escaped premature con flicts. By the principle of Descartes, the individual man at once, and altogether, stood aloof from king, Church, universities, public opinion, traditional sci ence — all external authority and all other beings — and, turning every intruder out of the inner temple of the mind, it kept guard at its portal, to bar the entry of every belief that had not first obtained a passport from himself." * After his death, the philosophy of Descartes ex tensively spread. The Churches and schools of Holland were full of Cartesians, and the old scho lastic philosophy became ridiculous. The Armin- ians and Coccijeans generally espoused his system, and modifications followed in all branches of inquiry. By some persons, the spirit of free inquiry has been regarded as an unmitigated evil in its origin, and also in its entire influence and tendencies. Such, however, is -not the testimony of history, nor will it be the verdict of the future. In its inception it sprung out of the roots of the great Reformation, and partook largely of its spirit and aims. The leading principles in both movements were germane ; and, in their legitimate and unperverted operations, each seems to have been intended by Providence to * Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. ix, p. 500, etc. 82 Problem of Religious Progress. supplement the other — the one a protest against hierarchical assumptions and intolerance, and the other against the not less rigid intolerance of me diaeval scholasticism, in its theology, science, and general inquiry. As revolts against the enslave ment of the religious and intellectual natures, their mission was one of universal emancipation. Each had its legitimate sphere. Descartes, the powerful promoter of the purely rational system, from whose bold conception the radical method sprang, recognized an act of faith as lying at the basis of all the processes of the intel lect, and proclaimed " God the first, the most cer tain, and the best of all truths." He comprehended that " if God is not, the most regular exercises of thought may deceive us, and that our reason affords us no guaranty." He confessed that all the force of his proofs " depends upon a belief which precedes them — that, without this belief, man is condemned to irremediable doubt." The spirit of free inquiry, therefore, in its inception, was not irreverent and reckless ; it did not disregard all limitations im plied by faith in God ; but it was a revolt against the intellectual intolerance engendered amid the damps and darkness of the Middle Ages. This is the mission upon which it was sent forth by " Him who is the head over all things unto his Church ; " to deliver his truth from the spirit of dogmatism ; to dissolve the rigid and perverted Faith. 83 forms into which it had been wrought by the iron logic of the mediaeval scholastics, and to restore it to the more simple, practical, and vital forms in which the great Teacher and his apostles originally presented it. This is still its mission, and none the less because it has been perverted in the interest of unbelief. But, even as an opposing force, many in cidental benefits have accrued to the cause of truth, under the wise overrulings of Him who is its su preme source. The emancipation of mind from in tolerance and old-time superstitions is now a rapid, world-wide tendency, in which many forces, both of faith and unbelief, either wittingly or unwitting ly, are participating. In the history of Protestantism this new spirit has been marked by hesitation, circumspection, moder ation, and gradual progress ; but elsewhere it has been reckless and defiant. In England and France free thought became " speculative, skeptical, and impassioned. This modern Prometheus, as it broke its chains, started up with revenge against the eccle siastical terrorism which for centuries had seques tered the rights of mind." Henceforth it every where actively assailed Christianity and invaded all departments of science, politics, morals, and relig ion, proving the truth of the sentiment that " Error is often the handmaid of Providence," rendering two services to truth — intellectual and moral — com pelling clear definitions and testing offered proofs, 84 Problem of Religious Progress. and also rousing languid natures into a passionate love for the truth which error threatens. We have noticed the rise of the spirit of skepti cism, in advance of the Reformation, out of the transitional movements produced by the Revival of Learning ; and we have seen, on the continent of Europe, a succession of skeptical inquirers ex tending through a period of two hundred years, from the Platonic Academy in the gardens of the Medici, founded 1440-1445, to the first develop ment of deism in England. The period of Herbert (1581-1648) and Hobbes, (1588-1679,) the first En glish deists, synchronizes with that of the French skeptics, Sanchez, (1 563-1632,) Le Vayer, (1586- 1662,) and Gassendi, (1592-1655.) Herbert and Hobbes traveled extensively and resided on the Continent, enjoying personal acquaintance with Gassendi, and other leading thinkers. From the time of Locke, whose philosophy was ' a middle term between Bacon's empiricism and Descartes' rationalism, on the one hand, and En-. glish deism and French materialism, on the other," English skepticism, adopting, in part, Locke's sen sationalism, entered upon a new stage of develop ment, under the leadership of Tolland, (died 1722,} the Earl of Shaftesbury, (died 1713,) Collins, (died 1729,) Woolston, (died 1733,) Mandeville, (died T733») Tindall, (died 1733,) Chubbs, (died 1747,) Lord Bolingbroke, (died 175 1,) and David Hume, Faith. 85 (died 1776) — the representatives of English deism, in the dark period, in the last century, to which we shall hereafter refer. Under such powerful forces, the revolt against Christianity, in England and France, became wild, reckless, and ruinous to faith and morals. Many sacred truths were seriously periled, and their influ ence over many minds was destroyed. Such results, if not a necessity, were nevertheless a natural re bound from spiritual despotism and dogmatism. The scholastic philosophy, upheld by the hierarchy, and designed as a coat of mail to protect the Church, became a compress, preventing growth and stifling life. Disastrous consequences to Christianity could hardly fail to ensue, when a philosophy so subtle, so foul and tyrannical, but baptized and canonized as of God, should be exposed as " a barren, mon strous mockery." But is the party which tears away the mockery, or the one which made and up held it, responsible for the unbelief which follows ? Let not Protestants timidly distrust their own principles. If the rebound from this hideous despotism was sometimes ruinous, it was not less necessary to the progress of humanity. " It is difficult for the human mind to stop in revolutions. When it begins to cast its false creeds and false gods overboard, it is apt also to throw away the true." It was spiritual despotism, paralyzing and darkening the intellect 86 Problem of Religious Progress. of the nations, that made mental emancipation wild, and mad with revenge for its long enslavement. Protestantism, sharing in the same trammels, started upon its career. A new philosophy, a child of Protestantism, sprang up in her pathway, and carried into practical operatiorj, tin the realm of thought, the protest against fcfpam- authority, which Protestantism had made against the Papacy. Its providential mission was to purify, although, some times, under a perverted spirit, it has been as by fire. Modern physical science and modern skepti cism, both starting ahead of Protestantism, and antitrinitarian Protestantism starting quite as early as orthodox Protestantism, all in the same partial bondage to scholastic methods and the dogmatic spirit, have jointly shared in these modifying proc esses, and have mutually improved each other. By such processes of development have these great modern forces come into being, taken their position, and started in the race, as working factors in the realm of mind. They have had points of unity and also of antagonism. Criticism, waste, and even destruction, have been inevitable; but, through them, pure truth and the best life of the race have been promoted. Which has best endured the purging, reaped the largest gains, and conferred the greatest blessings upon the world, the records of the centuries show. CHAPTER III. PHASES OF PROGRESS. Threatening Aspects. Safeguards. Bneouraging Indications. Fatth. 89 CHAPTER III. PHASES OF PROGRESS. THERE is an impression in some quarters that serious changes are taking place in the relig ious thought of the world, that Protestant Chris tianity is losing its fundamental doctrines, and its hold upon the respect of cultivated minds, and that these things bode evil to the Churches, whatever their statistical exhibits may show. Let us look at the worst aspects of the case, and see whether the symptoms are grounds of "hope or alarm. The first and most palpable indication is a drift of religious ideas. The present is called an age of infidelity outside of the Church, and of a decay of faith within. Changes are taking place in the ac cepted theology. Theological controversies are di rected to new issues, or to old ones in modified forms. Some religious thinkers are changing their religious bases ; some are rationalizing their beliefs, and adjusting them to new conditions of progress ; others are toning up and growing more conservative ; and others still are anxiously wondering whither we are tending. 90 Problem of Religious Progress. Many are seeking relief from the embarrassments of close elaborated systems ; the " liberal " are grow ing more " liberal," some, to be borne into seas where deadly calms reign, or others upon sunken rocks, or into engulfing quicksands of doubt and de spair. Nevertheless, formulated creeds and books of discipline remain, and are likely to remain, to serve as buoys, pointing out deep water, and indi cating the relative position of the fleet. A - considerable "drift of educated thought — in science, in art, and in philosophy — is away from Church life." * Some are " losing veneration for the Church and its ordinances," and no longer regard it as " a divine institution, in any peculiar sense," but only as "an association for education." It is popu lar to kick against dogmas. The old systems, which "supposed a logical connection in divine truth," " like a pyramid, tapering, point by point, to its very apex," and devolving upon its builders a kind 'of necessity to cramp Christian doctrine into forms harmonizing with preconceived ideals of theological symmetry, have fallen into disfavor, and, with many, into contempt, as relics of the old scholastic habit. The temper of the present age instinctively shuns every thing tending that way. Theodicies are put forth less elaborately and more modestly. * The author acknowledges his indebtedness in this and in several of the following paragraphs, to Rev. Henry Ward Beecher"s Ser mons upon "Christianity Unchanged by Changes." Faith. 91 We find some men atheistically inclined, " not ignorant and malignant men," but men who "pro fess to have trained their minds to regular and scientific thought," who favor those views quietly and tentatively, and are " not active propagandists." Others, persons of mystical poetic natures, may be called moderate pantheists, whose god is " the sum of all the facts, attributes, and possibilities of all his creatures," but without personality, vague, mys terious, illusive. Others are unsettled in regard to certain ques tions about the Bible — as to the extent of revelation — whether inspiration reached beyond the natural faculties of the writers ; whether it was " an injec tion of thought;" whether it extended to every word of the original language; whether it was a special gift to the few men who penned the biblical books, or whether it has been bestowed upon other great religious teachers, in other lands and periods. There have been pressing inquiries in regard to the* authority of the Scriptures ; and how far, " in the last estate," doubtful points ' " come for audience and adjudication before the court of the reasonable moral consciousness, in an intelligent age." Rules and methods of biblical interpretation are undergo ing modification. Specific doctrines also have been subjected to close questionings. The trinity, depravity, redemp tion, the resurrection, penalty, the scope and im- 92 Problem of Religious Progress. port of miracles, and other .doctrines, have been freshly and broadly discussed, the fields plowed and replowed, subsoiled and drained. In some circles, the Christian ideas included in the words sin, re pentance, pardon, atonement, salvation, holiness, etc., as long interpreted in religious thinking, are radically opposed or explained away. It is said, and not without some basis in facts, that " thinkers of great boldness and breadth," ministers and lay men, may be found in the " evangelical " Churches of Scotland, in the Church of England, and in the " orthodox " Churches in the United States, who are turning aside from the old faiths. Among many literary, scientific, and even busi ness men there seems to exist a conviction that there is a radical conflict between the current the ologies and the natural sciences, while the attitude of others is simply one of indifference to all theol ogy, and even to religion. A few years ago Mr. „Ruskin said that so utter was the infidelity of Europe, no statesman would dare, in defending a measure before Parliament or the Corps Legislatif, to quote from the Bible in support of his position. About the same time, at the annual meeting of the Christian Evidence Society, in London, Lord Salis- . bury, the chairman, said, " The intense importance of the prevalent unbelief pressed itself upon the minds of thoughtful . Christians, and acquired new weight every day. . . . They were standing in one Faith. 93 of the most awful crises through which the intellect of Christendom had ever passed. They could point to many distinguished intellects from which all that belief had gone in which until now the high est minds coincided." Lord Shaftesbury, following him, said that "bishops, deans, men of science, the greatest minds in literature, avowed infidel prin ciples." In the "Atlantic Monthly," for Novem ber, 1879, Professor Goldwin Smith also joined in this gloomy representation of our times, and dis coursed upon " The Prospect of a Moral Interreg num," the result of the wide-spread infidelity of the present time. " Three fourths of the strongest and most original minds among the younger graduates of our American colleges" are claimed to hold "be liefs or unbeliefs diametrically opposed to the accept ed faith of Christendom." Others, of less mental in dependence, are presumed to be unbelievers from fashion, or from pride of association ; and others still are said to be simply in a condition of non-belief — a state of vacancy and indefiniteness — because they hardly know what to believe. To complete the picture, " Lawyers, physicians, teachers, scientific men," says Rev. H. W. Beecher, " sit for various reasons under pulpit instruction, some because they feel a want of reverence and worship ; some because their social relationships make it convenient for them ;' some because they are bringing up families, and they think it a good 7 94 Problem of Religious Progress. thing for their children to start in this way, and not blossom out into more perfect knowledge until their habits and characters are formed ; and some because it is respectable, fashionable, and profita ble ; but, whatever the cause may be, our Churches are filled with men who are very much at sea in regard to their religious beliefs." * In_some localities, though in comparatively small circles, but active and many-seeming, a Babel of beliefs, new-fangled and old-fangled, loads the air. " Pre-existence of souls, regeneration by moral sua sion, the religion of philanthropy, the ethics of ex pediency, the Bible to be judged by man's intui tions, inspiration reduced to genius, the gospel of physical strength, the gospel of aspiration, the eter nity of matter, millenarianism, science the new Bible, the nineteenth century to sit in judgment on God's word and to select what it shall be pleased to believe, (the twentieth century of course to have che same privilege;) why, these that I have named — and they are enough to dizzy one's brain— are only the first syllables of the clamor of the semi- infidel Church of the day." f We cheerfully allow a considerable part of the foregoing statements but these things excite in us no alarm. Why? ?Discourse preached May ig, 1878. "Christian Union," p. 14. {•"The Light: Is it Waning?" p. 61. Congregational Publica tion Society, 1879. Faith. 95 1. The condition of things is not wholly nor even mainly the result of human depravity. Many love darkness and hate the light, and car nal hearts resist the higher and purer truths. But this too common source of unbelief does not always nor even approximately account for the tendencies under consideration. A large portion of the world, in the Churches and out of them, is actuated by other motives. Many excellent persons, of high - character and devout spirit, in these matters pro ceed thoughtfully, hesitatingly, and even regret fully, because of the perils attending both the sur render and the restatement of ideas. But they think they have gleams of new truths, or of new forms and relations of truth ; and, probably, in some cases, they are more conscientious in saying what they do not believe than others in averring what they do believe. Such changes come not out of the baser elements of human nature, but largely out of higher aspirations. Bishop Butler said : " There is a middle ground between a full satis faction of the truth of Christianity and a satisfac tion to the contrary. The middle state of mind between these two consists of a serious apprehen sion that it may be true, joined with a doubt whether it is so." Such a state may co-exist with a simple love of the truth, and earnestness in seeking it. Such doubt is not criminal ; it is one of the stages of progress in faith and knowledge. Faith 96 Problem of Religious Progress. becomes stronger from the investigations which honest doubt has prompted. Skepticism, in these milder forms, is only a suspense in the midst of investigation. Some of the more moderate forms of the ration alistic spirit in our times, whether wise or unwise, have not been unfriendly, in intent, toward Chris tianity. They have simply attempted to discover elements of truth in the various systems of theology and mythology. The philosophy of Hegel was an elaborate attempt to identify the deductions of reason with the system of the Church. But how Often, in such attempts, is faith surrendered at the outset, and reason accepted as supreme and final. A heavy discount must therefore be charged to even honest doubt, because of the unrest and peril which follow in its path. But we are learning that this is only one of many deductions, which the cause of Christianity is obliged to endure, in its attempts to save and utilize imperfect beings ; that it can afford to endure very much of such loss ; and that often, in the long stretch of events, large compensations come from these losses. The truth is strengthened and fortified by the stimulus they awakened.- 2. Nor is the present situation an indication of the weakness of evangelical Protestantism. It is rather an evidence of life, of activity, of mental inquiry and investigation — normal condi tions of intelligent souls. Questions will arise, and Faith. . 97 there will be trouble in settling them. Rome says, " Come, cast yourself into my lap. I have settled every thing infallibly. My children have no doubts. Every thing with me has been thoroughly arranged, established, and vindicated for ages. No anxious changes are necessary. „ I Ijave a tribunal that an swers infallibly all^rfqu^fe^ I give peace and rest." But God did not make man to live on any such basis, furnishing him with a " packed-up trunk of beliefs," to take with him all through the way of life. Nor does Rome meet the needs of her own children. Large numbers of thinkers in France to day and elsewhere have broken radically from their traditional faith, and hold only a nominal re lation with the Papal Church as quasi Catholics. We are made to be " thinkers with the divine Thinker," responsible for thinking and deciding. The spirit of inquiry and investigation may some times be bold, rash, irregular, discarding all respon sibility. It may push sacred and well-established principles into temporary peril, with no just vindi cation for such conduct. But inquiry is the path of individual improvement, a normal state. Considered as a whole, it should be regarded as the progressive movement of the world's best relig ious thought. Does it sometimes seem irregular * and destructive? So is all progress, for it is the advance of living elements over the decayed. It is -inevitable that sharp criticism, friendly, unfriendly, 98 Problem «of Religious Progress. and even destructive, will arise to test truth. By such tests, piercing to the core, we get rid of old superstitions and husks destitute of vitality. Thus have physical science, medicine, and civil law been improved. What immense revolutions have taken place in all departments of knowledge ! Old ideas, sometimes, are inadequate to our needs. The old phraseology will not stand the test of the progress of philology, and, therefore, old formularies and technicalities must be modified. Any other course would logically carry us back to the phraseology and demonology of the Middle Ages. Some persons see only evil in such things, and think that evangelical ideas are dying out. But we see in them signs of the world's growth under the power of a divine impulse. Behind it are divine factors, and it will be sustained by the world's best consciousness. Its product will be a larger and deeper expression of the Divine will. During the past three centuries great factors have been oper ating for the production of these results ; and Prot estantism has been an influential participator, and also, by just right, a leading beneficiary. 3. Truth does not depend upon speculative con ditions, nor upon purely intellectual apprehension The heart-needs conserve and guard it. We are little inclined to agree with those who think the power of Christianity, even with persons of the highest intellectual -culture, depends upon its Faith. 99 alliance with philosophical theories. " The Gospel of Christ is not the faint negative of the daguerreo- typist, whiqh cannot be discerned by the usual vision, but must be held up to a certain light, under the direction of an adept operator. The Christian religion has never identified itself with any system of science, astronomical, intellectual, political, or natural." Liberal speculators in theology, and the champions of " advanced thought," forget these things, and are frequently betrayed into the old scholastic method of forcing the truth into meta physical formulas — an offense to all just minds. How much wiser and truer the higher philosophy which aims to meet the deeper wants of the heart, than that which comes from intellectual restless ness or morbid curiosity, or is hampered by precon ceived logical conditions ! In this country, where liberalism in religion has been carried to the furthest limit, there seems little reason to fear that radical unbelief will be either extensive or permanent. "There are aberrations and vagaries without number, but they are, for the most part, ephemeral. The experiment of letting people think and preach what they like has not been so destructive as it was once thought it would be. ... A practical adoption of the mild methods, which must after all be conceded to be in the true spirit of the Gospel, cannot, we think, with truth be said to have been unfavorable to its influence. It ioo Problem of Religious Progress. is a fact of impressive significance that the minister* who has borne liberalism in religion to lengths here tofore unknown in any public speaker professing Christianity, has lately, in terminating his labors in New York, deliberately announced his dissatisfac tion with the results of his own teachings, whether in himself or others." f The human race cannot live in a state of unbe lief. The soul needs faith and the benefit of faith, and will demand " the bread of life." Said Professor Austin A. Phelps, in " The Inde pendent," a few years ago: " There was truth in Robespierre's argument for the Being of God, that ' Atheism was an aristocratic belief.' It is true of every variety of infidelity that, sooner or later, it contracts itself within the circle of a few minds. The masses of men never permanently embrace it. The history of infidelity proves this. It has been beaten so many times, in so many varieties, beneath such adroit disguises, under such diversities of cir cumstances, with such accumulations of disadvan tage on the side of faith, popular opinion has so often spurned it, respectable opinion has so often become ashamed of it, that now we have settled upon this as one of the axioms of Christian pol icy, that infidelity cannot become the permanent belief of any people. The mania of suicide lurks in its blood. Sooner or later a secret power in the * Rev. O. B. Frothingham. f " New York Evening Post" Faith. ioi popular instinct of faith will creep around it in a circle of fire, and it will act the scorpion in the fa ble. This we believe simply because the history of unbelief is a succession of such deaths. It is always braying in some new form, and is always gasping in some old form." 4. The present indications and tendencies of re ligious thought are not new, unusual, and excep tional experiences in the world's history, nor in the history of modern times. We see but a tithe of these things as compared with Europe, in the opening half of the last century, when "the human mind, pushing .its inquiries in all directions, approached and entered the domain of metaphysics in religion. The disclosure of ancient errors in natural science as well as the falsehoods of the Papacy, had cherished a rising habit of doubt, till incredulity was regarded a token of superior wisdom. . . . Theologians felt the influence, or yielded without consciousness. It was as if a mist had silently overspread the landscape ; and neither tree nor hill, neither the house of God below nor the bright heaven above, was seen clearly. Not a land in Western Europe was exempt from that pe culiar atmosphere, in which all forms of speculation glided into incredulity." * " Never," said a writer in the " North British * Bishop Burgess, of Maine, in " Pages from the Ecclesiastical History of New England." 102 Problem of Religious Progress. Review." " has century risen on England so void of soul and faith as that which opened with Queen Anne, (1702,) and reached its misty noon beneath the second George (1 732-1 760) — a dewless night succeeded by a sunless dawn. . . . The Puritans were buried and the Methodists were not born. . . . The world had the idle, discontented look of the morning after some mad holiday." In 1729 the heads of Oxford University complained of the spread of open deism among the students, and Cambridge struggled with the same evil. Isaac Taylor says: "At the time when Wesley was acting as moderator in the disputatipns at Lincoln College (1729-1734) there was no philosophy abroad in the world — there was no thinking — that was not atheis tic in its tone and tendency."* The "Weekly Mis cellany" (1732) said: "Freethinkers were formed into clubs. to propagate their sentiments, and athe ism was scattered broadcast through the kingdom." The pastoral letters of Bishop Gibson f show that the most pernicious efforts were put forth to under mine religion. "Some set aside all Christian ordi nances, the Christian ministry, and the Christian Church ; others so allegorize Christ's miracles as to take away their reality ; others display the utmost zeal for natural religion, in opposition to revealed ; and all, or most, pleading for liberty, run into the * " Wesley and Methodism." Am. edition, p. 33. f Quoted in Tyerman's " Life of Wesley," vol. i, p. 219. Faith. 103 wildest licentiousness. Reason is recommended as a good and sufficient guide in matters of religion and the Scriptures are believed only so far as they agree or disagree with the light of nature." A writer in " Blackwood's Magazine " * said, " Pope held his hereditary faith without the slightest ap pearance or pretense of any spiritual attachment to it." Sir John Barnard said, " It really.seems to be the fashion for a man to declare himself of no re ligion." Montesquieu said, " There is no religion in England. If the subject is mentioned in society it excites nothing but laughter. Not more than four or five members of the House of Commons are regular attendants at Church." Bishop Butler said :f " It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry ; but that it is now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And, accord ingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discern ment, and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for. having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." The clergy were thoroughly infected by this tend ency. Natural religion included most of their the ology. The great doctrines of the Reformation * About twenty-five years ago. f Preface to his "Analogy of Religion." 1736. 104 Problem of Religious Progress. were banished from the universities and the pulpits, A large class of divines held to a refined system of ethics, having no connection with Christian motives and the vital principle of spiritual religion. Arian ism and Socinianism were fashionable in the Estab lished Church, and the prevailing creed of the most intelligent Dissenters. Among the Presbyterians the departures from orthodoxy were very grave. Three professors in the University of Glasgow were Antitrinitarians. An able school of Arian teachers arose among the Presbyterians, in Exeter** about 1717. It spread through Devonshire and Cornwall to the metropolis, and established itself in Salter's Hall, in London, among the descendants of a Pu ritan ancestry. " Latitudinarianism spread widely through all religious bodies, and dogmatic teach ings were almost excluded from the pulpit." f Mr. Lecky said : % " The doctrines of depravity, the vicarious atonement, the necessity of salvation, the new birth, faith, the action of the Divine Spirit in the believer's soul, during the greater part of the eighteenth -century, were seldom heard from in the Church-of-England pulpits. The rationalistic ten dencies of the Church rendered it little obnoxious to skeptics." Leslie Stephen said : § " Hume and Paley curiously agreed in recommending young ?"England in the Eighteenth Century," by Mr. Lecky; vol. ii P- 586. f Ibid-. P- 341- % Ibid., p. 593. § " History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century.'' Faith. 105 men of freethinking tendencies to take orders ;" and that " the skepticism of the upper classes was willing that the Church should survive, though faith might perish." Many of the clergy " taught but little that might not have been taught by Soc rates or Confucius." " Dogmatic teaching had dis appeared from the pulpits ;" " Christianity was re duced to the lowest terms," though some gave it " a quasi assent, because they felt it to be essential to society." I have given but a partial exhibit of the facts, showing the dubious prospects of religious faith in England, in the first half of the last century. Many other dark shades might be added to the pictures. But this brief portrayal shows that, the peculiar ten dencies in religious thought, which we have recog nized as existing in our day, are far more hopeful, and less' radical, less widespread, and less influ ential, than in Great Britain a century and a half ago. This was recently admitted in the "Spec tator," and yet, said the writer, " English unbelief melted away, and was succeeded by vehement forms of faith." Mr. Lecky also recognized this fact. A . similar condition of things existed in the United States in the last two decades of the last century, extending somewhat into the present cent ury. The most radical and revolting forms of infi delity prevailed throughout the land. It especially infested the colleges and the legislative bodies. 106 Problem of Religious Progress. The leading statesmen were Atheists or Deists. A writer in the "Index"* said: "All the great men who took part with Mr. Paine in laying the foundations of the government of the United States, with very few exceptions, held the same theological sentiments, although they did not pub licly identify themselves with him in his attacks on the Church and its religion. And they would have completely revolutionized the sentiments of the American people but for the influence of George Whitefield and John Wesley." Chan cellor Kent (1765-1847) said, f "In my younger days there were very few professional men that were not infidels ; or at least they were so far in clined to infidelity that they could not be called believers in the truth of the Bible." Bishop Meade £ vividly portrayed the prevalence of infi delity in Virginia at this time. Scarcely a young man of any literary culture believed in Christianity. As late as 18 10, he said, " I can truly say that in every educated young man in Virginia whom I met I expected to find a skeptic, if not an avowed un believer." Said Rev. Lyman Beecher : § " The boys who dressed flax in the barn read Tom Paine, and believed him." Yale College was pervaded with infidelity, and the dominant habit of thought * May 13. 1870. •)• Conversation with Governor Clinton, of New York. f " Old Churches and Families of Virginia." § "Autobiography.' Faith. 107 was skeptical, when Dr. Dwight assumed the presi dency in 1795, only four or five of the students being members of the Church. The members of the first Senior Class reciting to him were more familiarly known by the names of Diderot, D'Alem- bert, Voltaire, Rousseau, Robespierre, Danton, etc., which they had assumed, than by their own. To overcome the current infidelity taxed Dr. Dwight to the utmost, but he triumphed.* Princeton Col lege was no better, and William and Mary's College was called a hot-bed of infidelity. Transylvania University, in Kentucky, founded by the Presby terians, was wrested from them by infidels. At Bowdoin College, Me., in the early period of the presidency of Rev. Dr. Appleton, only one student was willing to avow himself a Christian. Dr. Ap pleton " stood in the current of destruction," with prayers, arguments, and pleadings, " long before he saw the tide turning." Mr. Parton, in his " Life of Aaron Burr," speaking of the infidelity of this period, says, it was confidently predicted that Christianity could not survive two more generations. Dr. Timothy Dwight's description of this period will remind us of many things we see and hear in our days: " Striplings, scarcely fledged, suddenly found that the world had been involved in general darkness through the long succession of preceding ages, and * See " Sketch of Dr. Dwight's Life," in vol. i x>f his works. ro8 Problem of Religious Progress. that the light of wisdom had just begun to dawn upon the human race. All the science, all the in formation, that had been acquired before the last thirty or forty years stood, in their view, for noth ing. Experience they boldly proclaimed a plod ding instructress, who taught in manners, morals, and government, nothing but Abecedarian lessons, fitted only for children. Religion they discovered, on- the one hand, to be a vision of dotards and nurses; and, on the other, a system of fraud and trick, imposed by priestcraft, for base purposes, upon the ignorant multitude. Revelation was found to be without authority or evidence, and moral obligation a cobweb, which might indeed entangle flies, but by which creatures of stronger wing nobly disdain to be confined. The world, they concluded to have been probably eternal, and matter the only existence. Man, they determined, sprang, like a mushroom, out ,of the earth by a chemical process ; and the power of thinking, choice, and motivity were merely the result of elective affinities. . . . From France, Germany, and Great Britain the dregs of infidelity were vomited upon us. From the ' System de la Nature ' and the ' Philosophical Dictionary ' down to the ' Po litical Justice ' of Godwin and the ' Age of Rea son,' the whole mass of pollution was emptied upon this country. The last two publications flowed in upon us as a deluge. An enormous edi- Faith. 109 tion of the 'Age of Reason' was published in France, and sent over to America, to be sold at a few pence per copy, and, where it could not be sold, to be given away." * Rev. Dr. Baird saidf of this period : ' Wild and vague expectations were every-where entertained, especially among the young, of a new order of things about to commence, in which Christianity would be laid aside as an obsolete system." When Rev. Dr. Nathan Strong became pastor of the Con gregational Church, in Hartford, Conn., in 1774, there were only fifteen male members in the Church, and the spirit of infidelity was already rife in all the larger towns. " The religion of Christ and its ministers were often the subjects of open ridicule and contempt, even on the part of those who were regarded as being entitled to the first standing in society." " Mr. Strong was not unfrequently at tacked in public places by some of this class of persons, who, under the guise of a pleasant raillery, sought to inflict a wound upon his feelings, and to sink him and his office in the deference of the thoughtless bystanders." £ There was also a vast amount of what was called '' heretical " sentiment in the Churches. The Uni versalist denomination was just starting ; the Chris- * Dwight's " Travels, '' vol. iv, pp. 376, 379, 380. f " Religion in America." {"American Quarterly Register," Nov., 1840, p. 132. 8 no Problem of Religious Progress. tians had a small commencement, in 1801 ; the Unitarian break did not come until 181 5-1830, and the Hicksite Friend movement until 1827. All the " orthodox " bodies were largely pervaded by the leaven of Arian, Socinian, restoration, and no-fu> ture-punishment ideas. As we survey present in dications, it is difficult to conceive the extent of their prevalence at that time in the Churches of " evangelical " Protestantism — an infection from English, and European sources, running back, as we have seen, through Papal lines in Italy and the gardens of the Medici, to ante-mediaeval times, though in part a revolt from High Calvinism. A Congregational pastor, Rev. Dr. Huntington, of Coventry, Conn., wrote the first book ever pub lished in this country advocating the " death-and- glory " doctrine, subsequently so conspicuous in the teachings of Rev. Hosea Ballou. And Rev. Dr. Strong, of Hartford, Conn., in answering it, in 1796, deplored the extensive prevalence of those sentiments in the " evangelical " Churches. A Con gregational pastor, Rev. Charles Chauncey, D.D., of Boston, and a Baptist minister, Rev. Elhanan Winchester, of Philadelphia, wrote the first books in favor of Restorationism published in America. Boston Congregationalism, comprising nine Churches, had become substantially Unitarian, and only waited for a convenient time to take the name. Nine towns within ten miles of Boston had Faith. i i i no Congregational Church which remained true to orthodoxy. " In 1800," said Dr. Bradford,* " it was confidently believed there was not a strict Trinitarian clergyman [Congregational] in Boston." Rev. Dr. Eckley, at the " Old South," was variously regarded as a " High Arian," a " Semi-Arian," or a Socin ian ; and his Church, in the language of Dr. Lyman Beecher, " was shivering in the wind," and accord ing to Dr. Bacon, " if an exception, might cease to be an exception " to the general Unitarian revolt. The most intense opposition to " evangelical" ideas pervaded the higher social and cultured classes, and dominated Boston. The little nucleus of de voted Trinitarians which organized the Park-street Church, in 1809, was called to endure an amount of opposition and obloquy unknown in more recent times, for the major sentiment of the city was over whelmingly against them. When Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin entered upon the pastorate of the Church, in 181 1, his task called for a stout heart and a bold hand. The current of prevailing thought was so averse to evangelical religion, that to raise a voice in its defense was to hazard one's reputation among respectable people. " The finger of scorn was pointed at him, and he had to breast a tide of mis representation and calumny, of opposition and ha tred, which would have overwhelmed him if he had not the spirituality of an apostle and the strength * " Life of Dr. Mayhew." ii2 Problem of Religious Progress. of a giant." * Attracted by reports of Dr. Griffin's genius and eloquence, gentlemen of culture and standing occasionally ventured into the church to hear his Sunday evening lectures, but in partial " disguise " — so unpopular was it to visit an evan gelical church — sitting "in obscure corners, with caps drawn over their faces, and wrappers turned inside out." f This condition of religious sentiment dominated Eastern Massachusetts, and more or less pervaded other localities throughout the State. The ortho dox historian of Massachusetts Congregationalism says, that of two hundred Congregational Churches, east of Worcester County, not more than two in five were under evangelical pastors. In 1795, Socin ian ideas, from reading Dr. Priestley's writings by members of the parish, drove Dr. Jonathan Ed wards, 2d, from his Church, in New Haven, Con necticut, as similar notions had driven his father from Northampton forty years before. The Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in their Pastoral Address, in 18 16, deplored the prevalence of Arian and Socinian notions in their denomination. No de nomination was wholly exempt, so extensive had be come the infection originally exhaled from the bosom of Rome, before the birth of Protestantism, and as sailing her theology in every period of her history. * "American Quarterly Register," 1840, p. 374. t A Statement, by Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D.D. Faith. 113 During the period from 1800 to 1830 there were numerous schisms, secessions, and withdrawals from the evangelical Churches, which entered into the formation of the Unitarian, Universalist, Christian, and the Hicksite bodies, thus relieving the evangel ical Churches of these heterogeneous elements. At this time, too, under the leadership of Rev. Hosea Ballou, Universalism took on its Arian type. During the same period the infidels in Europe re newed their efforts to uphold their cause. Between 1817 and 1830 5,768,900 volumes of the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, and other infidel writers were circulated on the Continent.* But if these dark periods had their bold doubt ers and deniers, they also had " hearts of faith and tongues of fire." God has never been without stand ard-bearers—the true "spiritual pontificate" — the heroic succession, whbse lineage is divine. Under such leadership the spell of unbelief, in England and America, was broken, and the desolating hosts were turned back. Within the past thirty years they have rallied and assailed Christianity again, without and within ; but this time they have been unable, even temporarily, to check the progress of the Churches. Our banners have uninterruptedly advanced, even more than in any previous period in the history of Christianity. But more than this should be said. Already we * " American Quarterly Register," August, 1830, p. 33. 114 Problem of Religious Progress. discern indications that the skepticism of our times is staggering and receding. As English Deism, French Atheism, and the Old Rationalism of Ger many, have been successively dismissed by thinking men, so also the mythical Rationalism of Strauss, Bauer, and the Tubingen critics, has run its course ; Pantheism has lost its prestige ; Materialism is en countering among its friends " significant shrugs of suspicion and dissent ; " skeptical scientists are be coming weary in their long and fruitless waitings for the foundations of religious hope to be laid in irrefragable axioms ; Spiritism has come to disgrace by the foulness of its tendencies, the monstrosity of its claims and the gigantic frauds of its seances ; Ingersollism has damned itself with its terrible blas phemies; and Free Religion is only a respectable annual spectacular parade of many-shaded inquirers, rapidly decreasing in number: Is it said that the evangelical Churches have lost their hold upon the intellect of the age ? How, and wherein ? When was it equally identified with the best, the most vigorous, and the most learned cult ure ? It is a matter of clear demonstration * that the students in the colleges of the evangelical Churches in fifty-four years (1830 to 1884) increased twice as much, relatively, as the population of the coun try, and also that a half more, relatively, of the * See Chapter on " Protestant Progress in the United States ; " also " Table of Colleges " in the Appendix. Faith. i i 5 students in those colleges are professing Christians than fifty years ago. The colleges of the evangel ical Churches increased eight fold, and the popula tion three and a half fold. These things indicate that evangelical Christianity is fully identified with the advanced educational movements of society, and entrenched in the highest institutions of culture. The editor * of a leading religious journal, a man whose scholarship, culture, and breadth of Christian fellowship are conspicuous, recently said : " It is one of the most familiar incidents in the re ports of modern sermons delivered in ' liberal ' pul pits, and in the pages of periodicals published under the patronage of the people who listen to such dis courses, to find the assertion, in various forms, that what are termed evangelical views of revealed truth — such as those relating to sin and its retribution, to the triune personality of the Godhead, to the vicarious sufferings of Jesus Christ, and to the re newal of nature and character through faith in the Son of God — have become obsolete in the denom inations which professedly hold them, and that it is only through disingenuousness that many minis ters and members still remain in connection with Churches that hold to these doctrines as their creed. It is affirmed that they are rarely preached from the pulpit, that they are often disclaimed by ministers * Rev. Bradford K. Peirce, D.D., in "Zion's Herald," Boston, Massachusetts, August, 1880. ir6 Problem of Religious Progress. of orthodox Churches, and that they are not ac cepted by the membership. " Now, if these preachers and writers of ' liberal ' views simply mean to say that there has been a great change in what may be called the philosophy of religion — in the development of a system of hu man discipline from the love rather than from the sovereignty of God — or if they affirm only that the necessary fruits of faith in a Hfe of obedience and holy charities are more emphasized than they were when the early Protestants were insisting upon faith in contradistinction to the prevailing sacramental popery of the hour, or that the future retributions of sin are urged in less figurative and material forms, little objection would be made to the state ment. But if it is meant that there is any serious weakening throughout the evangelical Churches on what is vital in these truths, we must say, the per sons that hold these opinions have generalized too rapidly from very narrow premises. In large cities and considerable towns there may be found, over certain Churches of a special character, men of strong, original characteristics, of marked popular gifts, and usually of no inconsiderable self-conceit, who studiously shun the common modes of express ing and interpreting the doctrines of Revelation, and are disposed to give great prominence to the relative duties of life. These men can all be readi ly numbered on the fingers of one hand. And it is Faith. 117 noticeable, in nearly every case, that when these men are called upon by ecclesiastical bodies or by the public press to define their position, they are ready to affirm that, in their own forms of expression. they hold all the vital doctrines of evangelical Prot estantism. Even Mr. Beecher, far the most inde pendent man of this description, and most disposed to tear in pieces formal creeds and traditional forms of religious expression, after one of his most abrupt and apparently positive renunciations of certain orthodox beliefs, hastens at his earliest opportunity in a succeeding discourse, in view of the public comments, to say that, with his own explanation of them, he still holds the evangelical as distin guished from the liberal interpretation of the divine nature and the New Testament plan of salvation. " But outside of these well-known pulpits and a few periodicals, the great body of ministers and members in the orthodox Churches are entirely at rest in reference to their catechisms. Our theolog ical seminaries, those which are not Arminian, while largely modifying the Calvinistic philosophy of pre vious centuries, have found no difficulty in ex pounding the Scriptures in the light of pronounced evangelical views. Modern destructive biblical crit icism has had no perceptible influence in shaking the faith of those institutions in the authenticity and inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. In spite of the busy activity of this school of critics, there never n8 Problem of Religious Progress was an hour when so many commentaries, written by accomplished Hebrew and Greek scholars, were published 01 so widely distributed. All that is val uable, that can stand sifting in this criticism, has been accepted, and a clearer and better interpreta tion of the Bible has been secured ; but not one of the doctrines of the Nicene creed has been touched by this criticism, or any important excisions made in the received canon of Scripture. "Take the great national Churches, more than keeping pace, as they do, with the growth of popu lation — the Baptist, the Presbyterian, and the Meth odist — and upon these millions of members scarcely any appreciable impression has been made by these modern liberal views. All over the land the old and impressive truths of Revelation, sanctioned by a Book in which the hearers have not the slightest distrust as to its divine origin and as accepted through the ages, are preached every Sabbath, and taught to susceptible childhood in the Sunday- schools. The Episcopal Church every-where utters its positive creed and sings its sublime evangelical anthems, as if a liberal discourse had never been preached or destructive criticism never laid its hand upon any sacred text. The Roman Church, with its millions of believers in its professed infall ible truth, goes on year after year peremptorily affirming these articles of faith. There could be nothing more unsustained by the facts than these Faith. i 19 assertions that the evangelical views have become, or in any wise, as the signs of the times indicate, are liable to become, obsolete. The great revivals of religion, occurring in the centers of population and among multitudes liable to deteriorate morally. more than supply any loss that may happen from the lapse of certain professed evangelical teachers, or the deterioration of vital faith on the part of worldly members of wealthy Churches." The foregoing facts show that the tendencies, in our times, to what has been styled " advanced thought," are not new ; that it is not new for men of education and literary taste to assail " evangel ical " theology, or even Christianity itself; that the forces now assailing Christianity and sacrificial or thodoxy are less numerous, less dominant, and less influential than in the two previous periods of un belief within the last one hundred and eighty years ; that skeptical thought repeats itself in varying forms and in intermitting waves ; and that out of each pe riod of darkness and doubt Christianity has emerged to achieve greater conquests than before. The. re vival and wonderful progress of evangelical Protest antism in England since the first half of the last century, has become one of the palpable and incon trovertible facts of history, and its unparalleled growth, in this country, during the present century, is not less indisputable. In another place the facts of its progress will be fully demonstrated. Never 120 Problem of Religious Progress. before was there so much intellect and culture de voted to the vindication and propagation of evan gelical religion as at the present time. In and around Boston, in the year 1800, the liberal Churches, so called, immensely preponder ated in influence, wealth, and number, over the evangelical Churches. It is difficult for us now to appreciate the situation then, when within a radius of ten miles around Boston there were twenty-three liberal Churches to eighteen evangelical, and in nine towns there were no Churches which, in the schism that soon followed, remained true to ortho doxy. In 1894, within the same limits, there are three hundred and fifty-eight evangelical Churches to ninety-three liberal Churches, the former gaining three hundred and forty and the latter about seventy. Morally and socially, the evangelical gain has been even greater. The "Harvard Advocate" recently stated a kindred fact.. Inquiries extending through fourteen hundred graduates of Harvard College, within the last few years, show only two skeptics, one an Atheist and the other an Agnostic, and never before were there so many evangelical Church mem bers among the students of that institution. How different from the condition of the colleges in 1800! CHAPTER IV. DELIVERANCE. Restatement. Vindication. Rejuvenation. True Ideal. Faith. 123 CHAPTER IV. deliverance. ' I ''HE purification of theology, under the modi- ¦*• fying processes noticed in previous pages, has been sometimes mistaken for disintegration and de cay. But the changes have chiefly related to surface forms rather than to central truths, to the husk rather than to the kernel ; while some things once magnified are now minified, and others once in the background are now brought to the front. A purging process has been apparent in religious phraseology and never more sovthan at the present time. Great advances have been made in purifying and simplify ing Christian doctrine and in developing fuller con ceptions of the truth. Never, since the days of primitive Christianity, has the liberation from arbi trary systems been so complete ; and never before has Christian truth stood upon conditions so favor able to the best and most enduring influence. We have learned that no setting of the truth in systems of human construction can save it or make it effect ive. Truth, in its purest and simplest forms, is its own best conservator and advocate. Under Edwards, Hopkins, and the Andover and 124 Problem of Religious Progress. New Haven theologians successively, Calvinism has undergone great modifications. The thought of the age, and especially the Arminian theology, have continually warred against it, producing a wide spread revulsion. The doctrine of the imputation of Adam's guilt to his posterity; the old Calvinistic view of depravity, which represented unregenerate men as just as bad as they can be, and capable of acting only in the direction of evil ; and the theory that regeneration is effected by irresistible grace effectually calling and saving men, are only faintly shadowed in any of the writings of this age ; while the coarser and more offensive features of reproba tion, infant damnation, etc., are rapidly dropping out of sight. Few American preachers — we doubt if one can be found — will allow Calvin's " Institutes " to be their theological standard. Calvinism, whether sublapsarian or supralapsarian, is now seldom ut tered in pulpits. The religious consciousness rec ognizes it as effete, or as rapidly becoming so, not withstanding an occasional quasi-ratification of the Westminster Catechism. In the spring of 1894 one of the leading Con gregational (orthodox) churches in Boston settled a very talented young minister who, in his examina tion before the council, gave utterances which show the recent drift of thought, and also how closely the best progressive minds cling to the old moorings. He said : " I am conservative in this, that I appre- Faith. 125 date the heritage we have received from the past. I am progressive in this, that I believe that to be as good as our fathers we must be better, that the faith once delivered to the saints was not a set of fossil ized formulas, but a faith that grows larger and bet ter continually." " I have no quarrel with the creeds or with theology, so long as it is understood that life is their master, not their servant." " On all mat ters of eschatology I am very modest. The language of Scripture is largely that of parable and apocalypse, and nineteen centuries of interpretation of this kind of literature tends to make one careful how he de duces a scientific statement from it, or makes it the basis of a clear, definite conviction." "I have very little interest in the debate about a future probation. It does not furnish sufficient relief from the pressure of the great questions about human destiny to make it worth contending for." " It is not for the Church to give instructions as to how a man shall carry on his business nor to become a factor in its organized capacity in political campaigns, but it is to furnish the motives and the inspiration which shall enable men to meet the crises that come and to do the work of the community." The doctrine of vicarious atonement, while firmly held as substitutional, is no longer preached as a ransom of war, or a commercial equivalent ; and Christ is not often portrayed as a culprit, shrinking under the bolts of his Father's personal wrath, and 9 126 Problem of Religious Progress. sinking to the misery of the damned. Literal fire and brimstone, as the final portion of lost souls,, is now generally discarded, although held by restora- tionists and evangelicals alike within the present century.* The doctrine of the Trinity no longer savors of Tritheism. The six creative periods are now interpreted by only a few scholars as six literal days. The theory of literal verbal inspiration has fewer advocates than formerly. Very considerable modification in the principles and methods of bibli cal interpretation have taken place. These are a few of the more noticeable changes. But with these changes the central thoughts in all these doctrines remain. Striking to the core, we find them still cherished by the Churches. Take the great working doctrines of Christianity, strip off the husks, and state them in their simple forms : there is a personal Deity ; God is a sover eign ; he is a being of infinite perfections;, he is the ultimate source of life and being; a mysterious Threeness, so distinct as to justify the use of three distinct names and the personal pronouns, is united in the oneness of the Godhead ; the Bible is the divinely inspired Book ; it is so inspired as to be the authoritative rule of faith and practice ; the soul is immaterial and immortal ; man is accountable to God ; he is so depraved and weak as to need a * See " Discourses on the Prophecies," by Rev. Elhanan Win chester, 1800, vol. ii, pp. 86, 131, 132. Faith. 127 Saviour; he must be spiritually changed in order to rise into harmony with holiness ; whatever edu cation or culture may do, the Holy Spirit is the efficient agent in effecting this change ; supreme Deity was embodied in the personage Christ Jesus ; the death of Christ and his resurrection is the sole basis of pardon and ground of hope for sinners ; the effects of faith in Christ are the love of God shed abroad in the heart and a new life ; Christ will per sonally come the second time; he will raise the dead ; there will be a day of future general judg ment, and a state of fixedness of character involving endless retribution and reward in the future world. These vital centers of the doctrines of Christianity are held, with little dissent, by all the denomina tions of evangelical Protestantism. The exceptions are exceedingly rare among men capable of con structing a system, and there is no prospect of a change in these essential elements. Christianity is losing nothing of its inherent original self — only that which human imperfection, subtlety, and folly have attached to it, trammeling and falsifying it. The discussion of the "Higher Criticism" of which we have heard so much of late, and which has produced alarm in some quarters, is likely to bring results quite helpful rather than seriously harmful. Many of the points agitated are not new to the best scholars, who long ago developed all we now know about the age, unity, and authorship 128 Problem of Religious Progress. of the Pentateuch, of Isaiah, and of Daniel, etc., and notwithstanding the slight shock to the faith of a few immature, venturesome speculators, the Holy Scriptures are likely to be better understood, and still serve as-the source, the guide, and the. guardian of the faith of Christendom. The question of errancy or inerrancy has narrowed down to one of scholastic criticism of the text and verbiage, while the Old Book still remains as the true and only inerrant guide to eternal life, for all sincerely in quiring souls — its highest value. Some persons, not clearly discriminating, in their first acceptance of the doctrine of inspiration, believed too much, more than was possible from the nature of the case, making no allowance for unavoidable imper fections in ancient manuscripts, for palpable diffi culties in chronology, for progress in the science of interpretation, and questions of authorship ever held in abeyance by the best biblical critics. Hence they have had trouble in readjusting their ideas. Modern philosophy and science, edther directly or indirectly, have confirmed many of the fundamental tenets of evangelical theology. The Kantian philosophy, rising little later than German rationalism, exerted an important and rela tively ennobling influence upon rationalistic theol ogy, and upon other currents of modern thought. "Immanuel Kant," says Kurtz, "saved philosophy Faith. 129 from superficial self-sufficiency and quackery, and led it out upon the arena of a mental conflict un paralleled in power, energy, extent, and continuance. Kant's philosophy stood altogether outside of Chris tianity, and upon the same ground with theological rationalism. Nevertheless, by digging deep into this ground, it brought out much superior ore, of whose existence vulgar rationalism had no idea, and became, without wishing or knowing it, a school master to Christ in manifold ways. Kant demon strated the impossibility of a knowledge of super- sensuous things by means of the pure reason, but acknowledged the ideas of God, freedom, and im mortality, as postulates of the practical reason, and as the principle of all religion whose con tents are above the moral law." Kant's philosophical writings are only a single example of the many contributions of modern phi losophy to the cause of religious truth. They have modified the various forms of radical doubt, and the lines of true speculation are converging more and more to the lines of Christian truth. When we closely analyze the situation we find little blank Atheism in the, world, and whatever of Atheism and Pantheism does exist appears almost wholly in speculative forms, tentatively put forth, in connection with individual efforts, to explore the nature and mode of the Infinite. While Hartmann professedly holds atheistic opinions, his philosophy 130 Problem of Religious Progress.* sometimes leans toward Theism ; for he talks of the " One Identical Subject," " One Absolute Subject." In some form, though often imperfect and unsatis factory to us, the existence of the Supreme Being is recognized by skeptical, philosophical, and scien tific writers. We seem to be doubling the Cape of Fear as to the effect of natural science upon specu lative Theism, notwithstanding the God of scientific Theism is a different being from the God of Chris tian Theism — often only the force, personal or im personal, behind all phenomena. But this is a step far in advance of the blank Atheism and the Athe istic theory of chance, so popular a hundred years ago. Heinholtz said, "If we direct our attention to the progress of science, as a whole, we shall have to judge of it by the measure in which the recognition and knowledge of a causative connection, embracing all phenomena, has advanced." Kant said, " The great whole would sink into the abyss of nothing, if we did not admit something originally and independ ently external to this infinite contingent, and as the cause of its origin." " Atheism," said Comte, " is a consecration of ignoble metaphysical sophisms, the last and least durable of all metaphysical phases, ' inferior to the rudest philosophy of The ism,' and 'the natural adversary of the positive' spirit." " I am no atheist," Comte protested warm ly to a visitor, two years before his death ; " my at- Faith. 131 titude is that of belief: if not, I should have no right to treat of these matters. If you will have a theory of existence, an intelligent will is the best you can have." * Herbert Spencer, while professedly dis carding the accepted idea of God, as the creator of ' all things or of any thing, and pushing back the first great cause as far as possible, like others of his kind, sometimes falls back upon anthropomorphic con ceptions of deity, and speaks of the " Incomprehen sible Existence," the " Unknown Cause," the " In conceivable Greatness." " From the very necessity of thinking in relatives," he says, " the relative is inconceivable, except as related to a real non-rela tive." t Professor Tyndall said, "The idea of Cre ative Power is as necessary to the production of a single original form as to that of a multitude." % Professor John Fiske has said, " Provided we bear in mind the symbolic character of our words, we may say, ' God is a Spirit.' " § And Mr. R. W. Em erson, after having long dwelt in the dreamy soli tudes of Pantheism, has come to be, in the estima tion of his intimate friend, Mr. Alcott, a Chris tian Theist, The Bible, so sharply and extensively assailed by scientists during the last fifty years, is rapidly emerging from the conflict. ?See review in "Christian Examiner," July, 1857, pp. 25-27. +" First Principles," p. 96. % Belfast Address. §" Cosmic Philosophy," vol. ii, p. 449. 132 Problem of Religious Progress. It is a common statement that the highest teachi ers of science do not now give as much cognizance to Agnostic unbelief as fifteen or twenty years ago. From Faraday, Sir John Herschel, Agassiz, Dana, Guyot, etc., downward, the ranks of science have held many men eminent for faith in Christianity. ' Alluding to the branch of science of which Pro fessors Huxley and Tyndall were distinguished ex pounders, Professor Tait, of Edinburgh, declared:* Science enables us distinctly to say, that the present order of things has not been evolved through infinite time past, by the agency of laws now at work, but must have had a dis tinctive beginning, a state beyond which we are totally unable to penetrate ; a state, in|fact, which must have been produced by other than the now [visibly] acting causes. Furthermore, he speaks of " the absolute necessity of the intervention of creative power to form or to destroy one atom even of dead matter ; " and he de clares that " it is simply preposterous to suppose that we shall be able to understand scientifically the sources of consciousness and volition, not to speak of higher things." For twenty-five years the nihilistic idealism or nihilistic materialism of Mill deeply and widely in fected the thinking of Oxford and the higher English culture ; and ¦the transition from Mill to Spencer was easy. But an able English writer has said : * " Some Recent Advances in Physical Science,'- pp. 349 and 22-24. Faith. i33 Already it is evident that their day is passed. Now the retribution has come. The fallacies of Mill's logic, the false assumptions which underlie his skillful exposition, were more or less exposed by various writers, including Whewell and McCosh. A little later the University of London, his own university, held them up to view. Professor Jevons, long himself a disciple of Mill, came to see how Mill's nihilistic assumptions, his habit of ignoring or explaining away phenom ena, realities, intuitions, etc., have vitiated the entire fabric of his speculations,' and made large sections of his work a con geries of inconsistencies and incoherences. As to Herbert Spencer, his teachings are being sifted by various writers, and after a decisive manner. Pro fessor Green, of Oxford, examined him in the " Contem porary Review." Mr. Conder and Mr. Brownlow Maitland . have admirably refuted his Agnosticism, as related to Chris tian Theism. In short, on all sides, the forces of Christian orthodoxy appear to be rallying. and turning the enemy to the gate. As a hundred years ago, so now, unbelief will be, is being, defeated in argument. The victories of Butler, and Paley, and Berkeley are being repeated. There is a tone of confi dence in the Christian camp, as there was not twenty-five years ago. Our champions have gone out, our unknown Davids, and have met, and, meeting, have overthrown the giant of the Philistines. It may be safely said that the relations of Christian faith to philosophy and science are bet ter settled,, and more satisfactory than formerly. Not long ago infidelity was more confident in tone, notwithstanding all her utterances in recent years. Twenty-five years ago it was not suspected that Christianity could claim so much support 134 Problem of Religious Progress. from philosophy. It has required a little time to mature the new developments of modern science ; but since they have become more fully understood, they have been readily adjusted to the great cycle of truth, where God is the center, and all truth is in harmony with him. We are learning to read the old faiths in the light of modern thought. We seem to have reached the third of three * great epochs in the questions between science and the Bible. The first was the period of violent attacks upon the Bible from the scientific side, and of violent defense. This was followed by another period, of ingenious attempts to reconcile religion and science, attended with compromises and concessions on both sides. The third period, upon which we have now entered, is one in which the question is hardly asked whether religion and science can be reconciled, but rather, How are we to use the help of both in a ra tional interpretation of the universe ? The multiplication of theories of biblical inspira-, tion show a deepening conviction of some peculiar inspiration, and consequently some peculiar value to be attached to the Bible; arid the recent ex tensive attempts of students to compare it with other great religious books is a substantial con cession to its high character. Professor Bowon^ *See "Old Faiths in a New Light." By Newman Smith Charles Scribner & Sons. 1879. T Professor Bowen's " Philosophical Lectures,'' p. 456. Faith. 135 quotes Hartmann as saying, "The germs of all revealed religion are to be found in the heated fancies of the mystics, these fancies being due to inspiration from the Unconscious ; " and then adds, " The evidence adduced goes far enough only to confirm a text of Scripture, which he uncon sciously labors to establish, that ' The prophecy came not in old time, by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'" Some of the specific doctrines of revelation have received ample confirmation from the best and strongest developments of modern thought. Kurtz said, Kant's " sharp criticism of pure reason, his deep knowledge of human weakness and de pravity, revealed in his doctrine of the radical evil, his categorical imperative of the moral law, were all adapted to produce in profound minds a despair of themselves, and a want which Christianity alone could fully satisfy." But these confirmations are broader than mere individual opinions. " From a new quarter, namely, science itself, in the theory that is now held, and is likely to be more widely held, of the origin of man, the doctrine of uni versal sinfulness is assumed and believed, not as a dogma, but as a conceded universal fact. . . . Un expectedly, from right out of the camp of science, comes a belief in the doctrine which underlies the whole truth of religion — the doctrine, namely, 136 Problem of Religious Progress. of the universal lost condition of man." * The modern doctrine of the solidarity of the race cor roborates this fundamental truth of the Bible. As to the recognition of the divine in Christ. there has been a perceptible advance during this century. While some have gone down to purely humanitarian views, others have risen to higher conceptions. Leaving the Arian conception al most wholly, as a thing of the past and utterly, un satisfying, they have advanced to the Sabellian and the Logos theories, and some to the orthodox view. Renan could not resist the inclination to call Christ " divine," to speak of " his divinity " as " resplen dent before our eyes," and to declare that " he is the center of the. eternal religion of humanity ; " while Schelling, after years of ranging between the idealistic and the realistic systems, near the close of life, declared that St. Paul's language, (Rom. xi, 36,) " For of him, [ Christ,] and through him, and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever, Amen," " is the foundation and last word of philosophy, . . . the key-note of the harmony between revelation and philosophy." Mr. Beecher has well said : " Henceforth, I think, in the en deavor of mankind to formulate a conception of God, no thinker and no theologian will ever be able to frame a distinct and efficient conception of the •Sermon on "Christianity Changing yet Unchanged," by Rev, H. W. Beecher, p. 33. . Faith. 137 divine nature without using the materials which were developed in the life and character of the Lord Jesus Christ." Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.,* has very forcibly and justly said, " You will hear much to the effect that the divisions among Christians render it impos sible to say what Christianity is, and so destroy all certainty as to what is the true religion. But if the divisions among Christians are remarkable, not less so is their unity in the greatest doctrines that they hold. Well-nigh fifteen hundred years . . . have passed away, since the great controversies concern ing the Deity and the person of the Redeemer were, after a long agony, determined. As before that time, in a manner less defined, but adequate for their day, so ever since that time, amid all chance and change, more, aye, many more, than ninety- nine in every hundred Christians have with one voice confessed the deity and incarnation of our Lord, as the cardinal and central truths of our re ligion. Surely there is some comfort here, some sense of brotherhood ; some glory due to the past, some hope for the times that are to come." As to the doctrine of immortality, the Church has abated nothing ; but, in addition to all former proofs, the later interpretation of Scripture, and the latest revelations of physical and psychological science, have augmented the great volume of testi- * Address at the Liverpool College, Dec, 1872, pp. 27, 28. 138 Problem of Religious Progress. mony in its favor. The greatest names in modern philosophy, Bacon, Descartes, Leibnitz, Locke, Kant, Hamilton, and even Hartmann, are subscribed in its support. Mr. R. W. Emerson, at one time in grave doubt in respect to personal immortality, has recently expressed himself more clearly and confi dently in its favor. As to the doctrine of accountability to God, the multiplication of oaths and obligations, and their substitution, in modern society, in the place of former physical methods of binding men, show its increasing recognition. Kant's " categorical imper ative of the moral law " has put this doctrine on an unshaken philosophical foundation of great weight with thinking men, and modern skepticism has vir tually recognized it in her new styles of speech — talking of duty, obligation, and responsibility, of " the sacred obligation of truth," of responsibility for belief, of " the duty " of professing one's belief, and respecting the beliefs of others. Polite literature has recently come to abound in these allusions— though often we fear that they contain only half- truths. Such ideas were unknown, however, 'to classical • antiquity, and to the skepticism of other days, as Isaac Taylor has clearly shown. As to the doctrine of retribution, there have been some vacillations and transitions ;. but, on the whole, there is an increasing confidence. From 1815 to 1850 the form of belief held by Rev. Hosea Ballou, Faith. i 39 and others of his class who departed from ortho doxy, was that all suffering on account of sin will end with the close of this life : and that, at death, every person will enter upon a state of holiness and hap piness. Since 1850 this view has almost wholly disappeared, and retribution is now almost univers ally recognized by the same class of " liberalists," as running on indefinitely into the future world. In respect to the endlessness of retribution, there has been, in some evangelical circles, a weaken ing of confidence, while others are more strongly fortified than ever. Many of the ripest scholars in the "liberal" bodies, particularly the Unita rian, have conceded that " by no just interpreta tion of the Scriptures can the final recovery of all s"Ouls be made to appear," although they still cherish the doctrine on philosophical hypotheses. Others in those bodies have gone so far as to declare that even the philosophical hypothesis of such recovery is not sustained by natural theology nor analogy, and is opposed by the weightiest names in the realm of speculation. On the latter point Professor F. H. Hedge, D.D., has cited Plato and Leibnitz. * We believe that, on the whole, the doctrine of retribution has gained ground during this century in the number of its advocates and the force of its * See " Concessions of Liberalists to Orthodoxy," by Rev. D. Dorchester. D.D. Boston : D. Lothrop & Co. 140 Problem of Religious Progress. advocacy. The discourses and writings of Dr. Channing, W. G. Eliot, D.D., Orville Dewey, D.D., F. H. Hedge, D.D., E. H. Sears, D.D., Rev. J. C. Kimball, W. H. Rider, D.D., and many others, freely attest this position. The debates in the Univers alist ministers' meetings in Boston, in Novembei and December, 1877, abounded in very strong statements of the law of retribution.* The comparative study of religions, sometimes conducted in a spirit hostile to Christianity, is mak ing the absolute superiority of Christianity more manifest ; and the religious element in the human soul is coming to be more definitely accepted, as not an accident, but an essential factor, of human ity. It is making it apparent that the soul has a Godward side, and that to discredit the religious instinct is to throw doubt on all the powers of the soul, and involve it in the blankest skepticism. The Christian conception of God and man is demonstrat ing its compatibility with a perfect religion and a perfect life ; ,and the thorough study of the soul seems likely to lead to the acceptance of all the leading tenets of Christian theology, as the only adequate foundation — " the union of all antitheses, the solution of all problems, and the reconciliation of all opposites." The ethics of Christianity were never so widely accepted in the current literature, the common be- *See numbers of "The Universalist" during those months. Faith. 141 lief, and actual life of the race. They are sifted in to all departments of knowledge. New Testament morals are universally acceded and dominant, not because of civil or ecclesiastical authority, but from a rational conviction of their essential rightfulness. And the ethical theory that man has a religious nat ure, with religious' needs, a conscious dependence upon the Divine Being, and a necessity for worship — in short, that in the constitution of man there is a foundation for religion — is now indicated by the greatest thinkers, as the result of careful scientific analysis. David Strauss, after years of wild and destructive criticism, in his last book declared that in both the fields of positive and natural the ology there exist valid grounds for the deepest and purest piety, which, "under its twofold as pect of utter dependence and utter reliance, con stitutes the inmost core of all the manifestations of religion." While we may question whether such an answer can be given from his stand-point, we nevertheless rejoice to see so sturdy a critic acknowledge a sure ground of personal piety and spiritual consolation. It was the ground of Schleiermacher, in his great and successful contest with the Materialists and Pantheists, and on whieh we hope many may yet be led " into all truth." These fundamental indications of the great ethic al ideas of Christianity are establishing it more and 10 142 Problem of Religious Progress. more firmly ; and no skepticism, no change of institu tions, no revolution, nothing that has been developed by philosophy, from Descartes to Spencer and Hart- mann, can change the eternal fact inherent in men's nature, of the necessity of utter dependence and reli ance upon God for spiritual repose and consolation. Thus is Christianity being continually vindicated, on some new basis, according to the changing phases of knowledge and opinion, and more impregnably established in candid minds. It has recently been said, " Germany has found a new theology " — alias, the old theology, as we will soon see. The Teutonic expounder is Dr. Albrecht Ritschl. A correspondent of the " London Inde pendent," two years ago, writing from Marburg University, said .- The most important feature in German religious life at the present time is a change whioh is coming over theological teaching. Of late years theologians in Germany have been engaged either in trying to explain Christianity on rationalistic principles, or in defending doctrines long accepted as revealed truth. The former, like all attempts to explain a higher nature by a lower, naturally results in explaining Christianity away. It was reserved for Dr. Albrecht Ritschl, late Professor in Got- tingen ( 1 889) , to find a new basis of defense. Ritschl. emphasized the fact that in Christian theology we have to deal with the thoughts of a new creature, the Christian, whose faith is just as inexplicable by the lower standard of the natural man as the nature of the latter is inexplicable by natural law alone. Some new fact has entered with Christianity into human nature, which must be taken into account. This fact is expressed in the word Revelation. The speculative German mind, tired of its Faith. i43 wanderings, finds the old way the best, and shouts again the old battle-cry of Revelation. The circle in German theology is once more com pleted. What seems new to German thinkers was familiar to St. Paul. Nor is Dr. Ritschl without followers. The same correspondent says : At the present time, the school of Ritschl finds one of its most distinguished representatives in Dr. Wilhelm Herrmann, Professor of Systematic Theology at Marburg, whose lectures during the present session are being attended by upward of ninety students. Dr., Herrmann is a man whose face and very voice inspires his students with confidence and trust. Without veiling his meaning by any obscurity of language, Dr. Herrmann patiently tries to place the grand truths of Christianity before his hearers in such a way that they may appeal to reason and to heart alike. Old forms of thought are shown to contain the same spirit which animates every Christian heart, and the words of the early reformers lose their apparent harshness when the professor explains their real meaning. To all Dr. Herrmann's theological teaching, however, there is one great presupposition, which he sums up in the word " Revelation '' — than which no word occurs with more persistent frequency in Dr. Herrmann's lectures. We inquire, in what sense is the term " Revela tion " used here, and are told that it is not through " some system of philosophy," but by " a revelation by God himself and his almighty presence," that we " become conscious of God." How fully in' harmony with St. Paul, who declared that " the world by wisdom knew not God." "The knowledge of him self which God gives us in Revelation is not an anticipation of the results of science or philosophy, 144 Problem of Religious Progress. but something utterly different in nature." It is as suring to know that in this system " the only object of faith is God himself, manifested and incarnated in Jesus Christ. Certain attributes we must ascribe to him, certain new thoughts about his creatures must arise in our minds, and our new activity must take certain forms; but our faith is rooted and grounded in the living God." It remains to be seen whether these views will make headway ; but it is a great improvement over German rationalism — and in its essential points a palpable confession of evangelical Christianity by those who have long stood aloof from it. While the fundamental elements of Christianity have been so fully attested and vindicated by the best modern thought, and even by candid modern skep ticism, on the other hand, radical unbelief has demon strated its poverty and power lessness for good. Some of the more courageous skeptics have at tempted to push their theories to ultimate practical results, in order to show that their systems are capa ble of meeting the deeper needs of humanity. But their efforts have only led to constrained or implied confessions. A writer in the "Westminster Review," for October, 1872, set for himself the task of estimat ing the capacity of the prevailing materialistic philosophy to console and elevate human life. Its incentives and comforts to cultivated minds were Faith. 145 portrayed with feeble, vanishing touches; the neces sities of the common heart of humanity were over looked, and the article closed with seemingly conscious revulsion and disgust. On any purely materialistic basis life loses its noblest aims and ideals, self-sacrifice its significance and impulse, and virtue becomes an empty, unreal thing. None more than the materialists believe in " the order of things," but they shrink from carrying their theories to the lowest terms. Thus reduced, the sys tems of Schopenhauer and Hartmann would eclipse the universe. Their inevitable sociological bearings, so deteriorating and destructive in practical life, have opened many minds to their true character. Dr. Strauss, as we have noticed, lived long enough to see the unsatisfactory character of his form of unbelief, because it left great needs of the soul unmet, and to write his later work, " Ein Bekenntniss " (A Con fession). He did not wholly recant, but, rejecting the theories of Schopenhauer and Hartmann as con trary to the best consciousness of the race, this great critical iconoclast set forth the valid ground of the purest and deepest piety—" the innermost core of all the true manifestations of religion — utter dependence and utter reliance upon the Divine." Thoreau, a gifted and beautiful writer, an ardent lover and worshiper of Nature, in one of his pecul iar moods, complained of the failure of his panthe istic worship to satisfy the deeper needs of his con- 146 Problem of Religious Progress. sciousness, and expressed the sadness of his inner life in these lines : " Amid such boundless wealth without, I only still am poor within ;. The birds have sung their summer out, But still my spring does not begin." With characteristic frankness, Mr. O. B. Froth- ingham, a leader in •" Free Religious " doubt, said of the system he had championed, " The new faith cannot compete, with the old in what are com monly called ' benevolent enterprises.' It would not, probably, if it were as rich and capable as the old faith is. Not because the Radicals are stingy, as has been over and again asserted, but because they cannot accept the principle on which these exercises are conducted, and no other principle is yet in working order. No original work is yet possible. . . . The new methods of charity — reasonable, scientific, practical — have not yet been devised. ... The new faith will exhibit its charity when it finds an object which makes to it a commanding appeal." * More recently, in terminating his labors in New York city, Mr. Frothingham " deliberately an • nounced his dissatisfaction with his own teachings, whether in himself or in others." f * A Discourse on "The Living Faith," by O. B. Frothingham. New York, 1871. f " New York Evening Post," 1879. Faith. 147 Full of significance are also these lines of Mat thew Arnold : "The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear, And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be trae To one another ! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain ; And we are here, as on a darkling plain, Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorance armies close by night." On the other hand, the modifications in the state ment of evangelical theology, we have noticed, have not been attended with a decay of faith or a decline of power, but the contrary. We do not believe there has been any alarming decay of real faith, but that faith has extended her empire, even in the realm of the highest thought. Some lights have indeed been flickering, and oth ers have gone out ; but vastly more lamps are being lighted where they never before burned than have been extinguished where they have been burn ing. To change the figure, the apparent loss has been only a process of sifting more closely the 1.48 Problem of Religious Progress. wheat from the chaff, in which the kernels of religious truth have become cleaner and more precious. With Mr. Beecher* we say, " I do not believe that theology is ever going to pass away. I be lieve that to past theologies we owe a world of gratitude. They were efficient in bringing us up to the times that have gqne by, and they were good enough for the periods in which they existed ; but that there is no more light to break out of the word of God, or out of human experience, I do not believe. . . If we are losing our hold upon the older systems, or a part of them, it is only that we are preparing the way to build larger, deeper, and with more authority and power." While we are shedding a few of our worn-out garments of technical expression, and rehabilitating ourselves, the Christian standards are advancing. Notwithstanding the gloomy mutterings of modern pessimism, faith in humanity, in God, in Christ's supreme divinity, and in the doctrinal and ethical system of Christianity, is increasing. Rightly inter preted, the present situation means that " Chris tianity has brought the world up to the point where some of the old forms and dogmatic termin ology are no longer adequate to embody and ex press it." Such has been the " augmentation of ?Sermon in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.,JkIay 19, 1878, p. 19. Faith. 149 individual manhood," the "elevation of social rela tionships," the expansion and purification, of philo sophic thought, and the enlargement of the world's life. While this rehabilitating process has been going on in the Protestant Churches, a similar process has been going on, not only in medicine, in statesman ship, and political economy, in education and gen eral science, but also in the realm of skepticism. Infidelity has changed its dress and form. Even its spirit has been much altered, showing the modi fying influence of Christianity. The defiant temper of the Diderots and Paines has disappeared. What naturalist now speculates like D'Holbach ! What historian discourses like Volney ! And what meta physician dogmatizes like Helvetius ! Infidelity has accommodated itself to Christian phraseology ; has accepted, in the form of half-truths, fundament als of the Christian system, and has become more rational and religious in its unbelief than a hundred years ago. However deceptive its attitude in these accommodated forms, the fact itself is a concession to the substantial truth of Christianity, a confession of the need of its faiths. Take a single specimen. By "a kind of an intellectual hypertrophy, it has developed a peculiar pantheism— call it eclecticism, spiritualism, free religion, or what not — which agrees in representing all things " as chaos, or tem porary forms of God," and claims that all religions 150 Problem of Religious Progress. are more or less true — " phenomena, race drifts, or meteoric clouds " — shedding luster on our darkness, and affording gleams of light and hope. " Infidel ity can now deny a personal God, and at the same time, as by a double consciousness, breathe out the devotional language of the Bible, in " spurious re ligiosity." It adorns itself with Christian senti ments, and the " words which belong of right to faith alone." " It talks of prayer, permeates litera ture with a self-conscious devoutness, breathes heavenly aspirations, wails languidly over the evils of the world, talks wonderfully of the All-Father, and even sings David's Psalms." * What a prodigious power is this in Christianity, that " even its deadly foes and traducers borrow its speech and trade upon its capital. This borrow ing and wearing in public view the insignia of the divine kingdom obscures somewhat the distinction between the body of faith and the body of unbelief, renders Christianity less conspicuous by reason of her very triumphs, and forsooth perils somewhat her hold upon un discriminating minds." But it is her glory that, as a living power, she has so wrought upon her great enemy as, by constraint, to change it so far into her own image. A conviction of the substantial truth in Christianity has constrained to this result. The solid central beliefs of the Churches have compelled these things. *" The Light ; Is it Waning ? " Boston. 1879. Faith. 151 Amid all the changes that have been made, the aggregate of skeptical gain has been nothing. Not a single great concession has been made by Chris tianity to unbelief, not an evidence surrendered, not one sacred book has been given up ; while " the life of Jesus is still majestic and divine — the insoluble enigma to the cold critic, but attractive and com prehensible to the humble believer." Looking at the positive side, "What has the Church been doing ? Has the apologist made no advance ? Is the map of Christendom now just what it was when the old independence bell broke with its first glad peal of liberty to both the hemi spheres ? We would not boast, but we must be grateful. God has been in the storm, and made it speed the ship of truth as in no equal period since the first Christian Pentecost. . . . " The first great reply to Strauss was Neander's ' Life of Christ.' It was a constructive work, and not simply negative — the first of a long line of de fensive writings of the foremost theologians of the century. It would take a good octavo to contain merely the titles of the works that the last forty years have produced in favor of the divine founda tions of Christianity. The war has been carried into the enemy's camp, and the leading skeptical writers are more busied, just now, with defending their own ground than with advances upon the Church. . . . The recent apologetical literature of 15-2 Problem of Religious Progress. the Church is able, copious, and aggressive beyond example. There is no question that the most vig orous theologians of the present day are thoroughly orthodox, in whatever country we look for examina tion. Poor, skeptical Heidelberg, rich only in his torical and natural associations, has lost her great number of theological students, because she has been giving them nothing but ' husks, that the swine did eat ; ' while evangelical Leipsic, Halle. and Berlin are thronged with busy seekers of ' the bread of life.' . . . " The recent activity in missionary labor, in evan gelistic work at home, in providing modest places of worship for the threadbare, despondent multi tude, in humanitarian open-handedness, in paternal love, in care for the scriptural knowledge of the young, is a sure indication .of the new voyage of evangelical Christianity from its old traditional moorings, out upon the broad sea of discovery and possession. The great forces of civilization are now Christian, and they are becoming more positively so every day." * These purifying processes through which it is pass ing are restoring theology to the original type of Christian doctrine. It is one of the clearest and most hopeful indica tions of the times that, under the progress of phil- * Rev. J. F. Hurst, D.D., in the "Christian Advocate." Faith. 153 ological study and biblical interpretation, the true light is so breaking out of God's word ; that Chris tian doctrines are outgrowing many of the old de cayed formularies, casting off unwarranted append ages, assuming less dialectical and more simple forms, and that, under all these processes, the core of each remains, not only undecayed, but more vig orous and vital than ever — the best vindication of eternal truth. Church creeds, too, are shortening, are confined to root principles of the great doctrines, and stated in simpler forms. This is also a growing characteristic of modern doctrinal preaching and of the theological writings of our times. Simplicity and directness in the statement of religious truth — New Testament statements — are likely to command liberal premiums in the coming ages. Truth is simple. The maturest thought embodies itself in the simplest forms ; and the broadest anal ysis and most rigid synthesis fail of their ends un less they arrive at simple propositions. Systems of truth are well, if not hewn to suit the caprice of the builder. Dialectical knowledge may serve useful purposes, especially in detecting sophistry and sub tleties ; but dialectical arts savor of guile, and true men, loving truth and seeking only truth, have no use for them except for defensive warfare. Sim plicity and directness characterized the inculcations of the great Teacher and his apostles. Apostolic Christianity was content with simple styles and 154 Problem of Religious Progress. forms, discarding the subtleties and elaborate meth ods of the schools. Primitive Christianity was long without an elab orate authoritative creed. The so-called Apostles' Creed is supposed to have had its origin subsequent to the time of the apostles, taking form by slow ac cretions, and coming into its present shape in the third century. And yet this was the period of the greatest purity and power of the Church, when least shackled by dogmatic forms. Thus did the (rue philosophy and the ever-faithful friend of philoso phy start upon their missions. But, in the course of time, both lost their simplicity and purity, and fell into a long and grievous bondage, from which they are now emerging. Such is the emancipation which has been going on in Protestant theology, and the progressive re covery of the ideal of Christian truth, first shadowed forth in the apostolic Church, but long lost under thef rubbish of Popery, j ^ In a brilliant discourse Rev. Phillips Brooks very appropriately said : "I believe that religion, so far from being on its death-bed, is just ready to enter on a completer life than it has ever before had ; and I believe that it must come by the results of relig ious inquiry, of which so many men are afraid, as we have learned so much about religion, knowledge has grown so wonderfully within our own short age. Now, to many men it seems that that growth of Faith. 155 knowledge has undermined the foundations of re ligious faith ; out of that knowledge must come the grounds of a purer faith. It must come (it is come) just as fast as knowledge brings us into con tact with the truth. What I believe we have a right to look for as religious men is a great religious revival which shall not be a despairing retreat upon worn-out rituals, which once had life in them ; not a great excitement of feeling ; but a devout search after truth for the cause which gives to every truth its meaning, and the triumphant acceptance of Him as the glorious Lord, the example of our life, which shall be as much more thorough and devout and religious as it is intelligent over the best faith of ages that have gone before us." In Rome the traveler is assured, that however violent the changes of temperature without, the deep interior of St. Peter's preserves its uniform medium. So is it with the spiritual life of the Church. Unmoved by changes of outward condi tion, and slight variations in forms and terminology, and feeding upon the covenants and promises, -it realizes a more profound entrance into that interior heart of doctrine in which unity, simplicity, and power dwell. What, then, have been the effect of these modifi cations of doctrinal statements upon the moral in fluence, the spiritual vitality, and the growth of Protestantism ? Have they been diminished or in- 156 Problem of Religious Progress. creased ? The answer given in subsequent chapters is full of encouragement. The period of intellectual progress and activity in which these doctrinal modifications have been made has also been the period of the greatest spir itual activity. It has also been eminently charac terized by practical beneficence, philanthropy, and the wide extension of Christian influence. Piety has become more intelligent, beautiful, and attract ive, the sure foundation of a truer humanity and a more rational happiness. Every year brings new attestations of the sub stantial truth of the fundamental principles of Christianity by leaders in the department of scien tific and philosophic thought. Within two or three years Huxley and Spencer have confessed that the gross materialistic theory of evolution was unable to account for the origin of conscience and the ability to make ethical distinctions. At recent public meetings at Amherst College and in Boston President G. Stanley; Hall, of Clark University,' im pressively showed the aid that biology and the new psychology are giving to the exposition of the old doctrines of sin, redemption, and immortality ; and, not long ago, an argument was presented by Dr. Charles P. Bancroft, Superintendent of the New Hampshire State Asylum for the Insane, based on facts ascertained by study and experience, in sup port of what he termed " St. Paul's profound pathol- Faith. 157 ogy : " " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." Many men of science believe in practical piety. A correspondent of the " New York Observer," attending a recent meeting (1894) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Minneapolis, thus relates what he witnessed : I was surprised to hear, among the announcements made Saturday, the notice of a prayer meeting to be held on Sunday afternoon ; and, what was a greater surprise, on attending that service, to find the leader of the meeting the newly elected president of the association, and the first volunteer to take part the retiring officer of the previous year. The foremost astronomer in the State led in prayer. There are no more dis tinguished geologists, botanists, or biologists in America than those gathered thus to commune in the name of Christ. There are no names in the schools of America more honored than those to be found upon the roll of her Christian churches. At a special service, in Plymouth Church, Brook lyn, N. Y., (August, 1894,) for the members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Rossiter Raymond, in an address on Science and Religion, said : The- scientific attitude before the mysterious, all-pervading Energy is one of reverent awe. But the attitude of religion is not that. " Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak with thee ; behold, I raise thee, who couldst not otherwise stand. I need thee ; I send thee ; I go with thee ! " That is the added content of religion. Science may be defined, God in his world ; religion, God in us. Science takes us to wonder and awe ; religion, to communion and service. II 158 Problem of Religious Progress. In the afternoon a prayer meeting was held, by the members, in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, at which the speakers " were eminent professors of natural science in American colleges. At a recent anniversary of the Massachusetts Bible Society, of which he has long been president, that eminent scholar and statesman, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D., uttered some memorable words : The bravest and most hopeful among us are, I know, some times disposed to despondency, and almost to despair, as they witness such floods of lawlessness and infidelity swelling and sweeping over our own and other lands, and dashing down so many of the old landmarks of morality and religion. But we may all take comfort and courage in thinking of the great and glorious things which the Bible has already done for mankind since the opening of the Christian era, and which can never be lost. And even science, after all the marvelous discoveries it has of late accomplished, and all the signal triumphs it is daily achieving, now soaring to the skies, questioning, each particular star and comet and remotest nebula, and analyzing the very tints and texture of the sun itself ; now sounding the depths of the sea and spreading out its countless contents, animate and inani mate, to be the subject of an exposition for princes to inaugu rate and the world to admire; now exploring and searching the caves and caverns of the earth and laying bare to our insatiate gaze the long buried treasure of Hion or Assos, or the hardly less interesting outcomes of mounds and shell heaps in our own land ; and now suspended in mid air, over the broad current which had so long separated the two great sister cities of our continent, that stupendous bridge over which travel and traffic may pass and repass unimpeded from hour to hour, and Faith. 159 look down upon the tall ships sailing freely beneath them ; even science, I say, in all the just pride of these and a hundred other successes, has never found, and never can find, any other fixed and steadfast point of departure, or any other sure and •final resting place to fall back upon, save in that sublime announcement in the first verse of the Bible : " In the begin ning God created the heaven and the earth." It was my privilege, in London, to represent our American Academy of Arts and Sciences at the public funeral ;of one who has been held as the greatest philosopher and naturalist of our day and generation. It was solemnized at Westminster Abbey, and his remains were laid at the side of those of Sir John Herschel and Sir Isaac Newton. The highest peers of the realm were among the pall-bearers, and all who were most distinguished in. Church and State, in art and literature, in science and theology, were gathered around his grave. The burial service of the English Liturgy was read or chanted, and, as a part of it, the wonderful chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians, in which the great apostle, as with a pencil of electric fire, draws that glowing distinction and contrast which no material science can overlook or confound, and which shines and sparkles on the pages of Holy Writ like the Milky Way in the heavens above us : " There are celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heav enly." Never before, it seemed to me, had those old familiar texts sounded so new, so full of meaning, so convincing, so sublime, as when read in presence of all that was mortal of one whose masterly researches and deductions and theories— however modestly, conscientiously, and reverently conducted and pursued, as we owe it to him to remember, that they always were — had probably done more to disturb the faith of the Christian world than any utterances since that glorious epistle was written by St. Paul. And certainly, my friends, that solemn tribute to the genius 160 Problem of Religious Progress. and virtues" of Darwin, by the highest authorities of the English Church, as well as of the English nation, was a most memor able attestation, from which we trust there may be no appeal, that no discoveries of modern science, and no theory or doc trines of evolution, even if universally accepted and adopted, are ever to be counted incompatible with a firm and unwavering belief in one God, as the Creator of heaven and earth, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, who brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. II. MORALS. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. PERIOD I. — Europe, Anterior to the Lut&eran Reformation " II. — England, Anterior to the Wesleyan Reforma tion. " III— The United States, from i700 to 1800. IL-MORALS. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. A writer in the " Fortnightly Review " * said : The services rendered by the mediaeval Church in this country to the cause of -enlightenment and learning have been much exaggerated. As Mr. Hallam has said, the learning was of a bad and false sort ; and no real enlightenment could pos sibly come out of the arid discussions and distressing puerili ties which constituted the only orthodox mental exercises per mitted by the Church. The increasing demand for cathedrals, abbeys, hospitals, and churches .raised to rapid eminence an order of architects among the most original, daring, and suc cessful that has ever flourished. These cultivators of one of the noblest, most difficult, and most useful of all the arts and sciences which advance and adorn a country, will "always be counted among the greatest benefactors of western Europe. By the simple and enduring force of beauty and fitness the principal edifices raised by the mediaeval architects, whether clerics or laymen, have become models of their kind for all subsequent ages. These are the principal considerations which can be urged in favor of the mediaeval Church. I do not discuss its theology or its traditions. But the considerations of an opposite and evil nature far outweigh the good. There has been a disposition among writers and philosophers who have discussed the nature of the various influences exerted by the Roman Catholic Church in Europe and this country * June, 1880. 164 Problem of Religious Progress. during the Middle Ages, to concede that, notwithstanding fla grant abuses and tyrannies and defects, the beneficial influences predominated. The Church, during the earlier centuries of its ascendency under the Popes, did, without doubt, preserve from the danger of total destruction whatever was left of literature, learning, and the arts ; and by means of religious offices and rites kept alive the ideas of morality in the midst of a barbarism of the most savage character. But about the eleventh century a process of deterioration set in, which, with checks and inter vals of amendment in various countries and at different epochs, steadily advanced from one abuse to another still more gross, till, after a downward career of five hundred years, human nature could bear the tyranny and the wickedness no longer, and found relief in the Reformation. Period I. — The Period antedating the Reforma tion under Luther. This was a long, dark epoch, too hideous in corrup tion, brutality, and evil portents to be easily exagger ated. Not the least noticeable was the immorality of the clergy—" a hissing and a reproach." " If," said an Italian bishop, " I were to enforce the canons against unchaste persons administering ecclesiastical rites, there would be no one left in the church but the boys ; and if I enforced the canons against bastards, they also must be excluded." The priests either married, although such unions were illegal, or maintained con cubinage openly. Historians agree that the conduct of the monks and the clergy could hardly be worse than it was, and that the evil virus permeated society. In an age like this, a new prerogative, for which the way had been preparing, still further augmented the Morals. 165 already vast influence of the clergy. " Every individ ual pastor, in the tribunal of penitence, was made the absolute inquisitor, judge, and dictator of every soul, male and female, belonging to his flock." " The de cision of a single priest was pronounced final for the forgiveness of sins, and his solitary voice, uttered in secret, was pronounced as the voice of Christ him self, dispensing the prerogatives of the Most High."* Out of the practical workings of the confessional arose schools of casuistry ; and a decline in theoret ical and practical ethics extended through the whole range of morals. " According to the Fathers of the Church and the rigid casuists in general, a lie was never to be uttered, a promise never to be broken. The precepts of revelation, notwithstanding their brevity and literalness, were held complete and literal. . . . But there had not been wanting those who, whatever course they might pursue in the confes sional, found the convenience of an accommodating morality in the secular affairs of the Church. Oaths were broken, and engagements were entered into without faith, for the ends of the clergy, or for those whom they favored in the struggles of the world."f Ingenious sophistries were resorted to for defend ing breaches of plain morality. * " History of the Confessional." By Bishop Hopkins. Harper Brothers. 1850. P. 192. f Hallam's " Literature of the Middle Ages." Harper Brothers. Vol. ii, p. 121. 166 Problem of Religious Progress. Another source of demoralization grew out of the necessities occasioned by the immense extravagan- ' cies of the Papal Court, inspiring an avaricious in genuity in the invention of new methods of extor tion. Among these schemes, we find a system- of indulgences — liberty to buy off the punishment of sin by pecuniary offerings — not fully invented at once, but gradually developed, and, at last, elabor ately drawn out and " shaped by chancery rules," under which absolution from sin was made a mat ter of traffic. Scarcely a sin could be imagined but had its price. " The doctrine and sale of indulgences were pow erful incentives to evil among an ignorant people. True, according to the Church, indulgences could - only benefit those who promised to amend their lives, and who kept their word. But what could be ex pected from a tenet invented solely with a view to the profit that might be derived from it ? The venders of indulgences were naturally tempted, for the better sale of their merchandise, to present. their wares to the people in the most attractive aspect. . . . All that the multitude saw in them was, that they permitted men to sin; and the mer chants were not over eager to dissipate an evil so favorable to their sale. " What disorders and crimes were committed in these dark ages -when impunity was to be purchased by money? What had man to fear, when a small Morals. 167 contribution toward building a church secured him from punishment in the world to come?"* The priests were the first to yield to these cor rupting influences. " The history of the age swarms with scandals;" and we would not cite them, but to exhibit the sad condition into which the Church had lapsed, and from which it emerged under Protestantism. The fifteenth century opened amid turbulence, crime, lawlessness, and impurity. Profligacy and corruption pervaded the hierarchy, and the sacred offices of the Church were bartered and sold. Priest ly avarice and arrogance wore an unblushing front, and deeds of darkness were performed by the high est dignitaries, and shamelessly avowed. The bene fices were the carcasses around which the eagles gathered ; and the question upon which ecclesias tical promotion turned was not, " Are you a fit man?" but, "Have you money?" "Scullions, pimps, hostlers, and even children," became Church dignitaries. The signature of the Pope had its price, and men ignorant, scandalous for vice, ambi tious, cruel, and every way unfit, were promoted to bishoprics. An Englishman's recipe for the stom ach of St. Peter and its complete reformation, quaintly given in thje Council of Constance, was. " Take twenty-four cardinals, a hundred archbishops * Merle D'Aubigne*s " History of the Reformation under Luther." American Tract Society's Edition, vol. i, p. 61. i68 Problem of Religious Progress. and prelates, an equal number from each nation, and as many creatures of the court as you can secure ; plunge them into the Rhine, and let them remain for the space of three days. This will be effective for St. Peter's stomach, and will remove its entire corruption." " No Protestant doctor could have prescribed a harsher remedy." At the Council of Constance (1414-1417) evi- dence was given, which no Roman Catholic can dispute, that the state of priestly morals was as low as the range of human nature could reach. The schism in the Church, and its two Popes— at Rome and Avignon — furnished occasion for severe utterances and plain dealing. The Bishop of Lodi, who had urged the Council to severity against Huss, in a funeral sermon of a Cardinal before the Council, rebuked the clergy as " so plunged in ex cess of luxury and brutal indulgence, that Diog enes, seeking a man among them, would only find beasts and swine." * The well-known feelings of the Emperor in re gard to the prevailing corruption, and the schis matic condition of the Church, secured freedom of speech, and the public discourses were the safety- valve through which the pent-up feelings of many found relief. . One preacher declared that " almost the entire clergy were under the dominion of the devil."f "In the world falsehood is king; among * L'Enfant, 339. f Ibid., 494. Morals. 169 the clergy avarice is law. In the prelates are found only malice, iniquity, negligence, ignorance, vanity, pride, avarice, simony, lust, pomp, hypocrisy. At the court of the Pope there is no holiness. It is a diabolical court." Another said : " The clergy spend their money on buffoons, dancing girls, dogs, and birds, rather than in charity to the poor. They frequent taverns and brothels, and go from their concubines and prostitutes to mass without any scruple. It has passed into a proverb, that the priests have as many mistresses as domestics." The convents were not spared. " It is a shame," he says, " to speak of what is done in them ; more a shame to do it. In all these abominations the Court of Rome sets the example, even in the place where it is assembled for the reformation of man ners." In the one hundred years between Huss and Luther some changes took place for the better in the civil and social condition of Europe. The labors of Wycliffe, Huss, etc., and the revival of learning, were exerting a beneficent influence. An invisible lever was lifting the century ; the charm of lofty ecclesiastical claims was breaking; men's minds were disturbed on many subjects ; the old unreasoning submission to authority was shaking off its deep slumber and awakening into inquiry. But these were only the first feeble motions of the mighty giant, starting up with fierce revenge 170 Problem of Religious Progress. against " the ecclesiastical terrorism which for centuries had sequestered the rights of mind." Men were weary of the establishments of former ages ; feudalism declined, royal power consoli dated, and all Europe was ripening for a change in the relations of Church and State. Social life lost something of its coarseness and brutality. The invention of printing and the great maritime discoveries in the last half of the century quickened thought and gave an impulse to learning, but there was little moral improvement. " Almost within hearing of the first motion of the press incalculable numbers of enthusiasts re vived the exploded sect of the Flagellants of for mer centuries, and perambulated Europe, plying the whip upon their naked backs, and declaring that the whole of religion consisted in the use of the scourge. Others, more crazy still, pronounced the use of clothes to be evidence of an unconverted nature, and returned to the nakedness of our first parents, as proof of their restoration to a state of innocence. Mortality lost all its terrors in this earnest search for something more than the ordi nary ministrations of the faith could bestow, and in France and England the hideous spectacles called the Dance of Death were frequent. . . . Peo ple danced the Dance of Death because life had lost its charm. Life had lost its security in the two most powerful nations of the time. England Morals. 171 was shaken witn contending factions, and France exhausted and hopeless of restoration. ... A car dinal, bloated and bloody, dominated both London and Paris, and sent his commands from the palace at Winchester, which were obeyed by both na tions." * At the opening of the sixteenth century Alexan der VI., (1492-1513,) "the most depraved and wicked of mankind," sat in the chair of St. Peter. No earthly ruler since the Roman Nero had equaled him in profligacy, and in the coarser vices of cruelty and oppression. Through his whole life time he was notoriously dissolute. In earlier life criminally connected with a Roman lady in Spain, he also seduced her daughters, and adopted one of them as his life-long mistress, having by her five children. Later, while occupying high ecclesias tical positions in Rome, he installed her in a house near St. Peter's,, and shielded his amours under her pretended marriage to an intendant. Devoting himself to public duties and acts of piety by day and to lust by night, this infamous man easily, in an age of gross corruption, beguiled the Roman people. By heavy bribes procuring his elevation to the Papal chair, by outraging time-honored rights elevating his bastard sons over the old princely houses of Italy, he became at last a victim *"The Eighteen Centuries," by Rev. James White. Page 374. D. Appleton & Co. i860. i7.2 Problem of Religious Progress. of his own wickedness. After reveling in debauch ery, venality, and blood, he was poisoned by the very dose with which he had connived ,to poison another. Julius II., a man of ferocious spirit, and Leo X., a patron of art, and of a polished licen tiousness, followed in the Papal chair. Such was the head of the Church on the eve of the Refor mation. The condition of the clergy and the people of Europe was little different. The depravity of the Church followed its ramification every-where. The priests were proverbially ignorant, brutal, and drunken. The obligations of celibacy were un scrupulously eluded, and the disorders of the mon asteries and convents were appalling. " In many places the people were delighted at seeing a priest keep a mistress, that the married women might be safe from his seductions." " In many places the priests paid the bishop a regular tax for the woman with whom he lived, and for each child he had by her. A German bishop said publicly one day, at a great entertainment, that in one year eleven thou sand priests had presented' themselves for that pur pose. It is Erasmus who relates this." * How gross was the age which could tolerate such things ', The period of the Reformation was a vast crisis, * Merle D'Aubigne's " History of the Reformation under Lu- ther." American Tract Society's edition, vol. i, pp. 62, 63. Morals. 173 a ground-swell, heaving society from its bottom depths, and stirring up much that was of evil re port. Great tempests swept over Europe. There were extreme movements and reactions, involving much to be deprecated. In the midst of such heavy throes, and out of such a low condition, the new life of Protestantism emerged, taking into it much of the moral imperfection of the age. Ban croft has said, " A man can as little move without the weight of the superincumbent atmosphere as escape altogether the opinions of the age in which he sees the light." With the Reformation there was destruction, and with the advance recession. It was no small task for the Reformation to raise it self out of a slough so foul and so universal, and maintain at once a clean front, a clear head, and a secure footing. It is not strange, therefore, that we find Luther and his followers, while reacting against the papal doctrine of works, in their advo cacy of faith as the only ground of justification, " running perilously near the abyss of Antinomian- ism," if they did not even topple into it, as seems evident from some of Luther's utterances recently quoted by Sir William Hamilton, S. Baring Gould, and Rev. Dr. F. C. Ewer. The legitimate fruit of this extreme was dissolute manners. For a time, with advanced purity, there was much impurity, and with wisdom, folly and madness. Hence we find Luther saying that " for one devil of Popery ex- 12 174 Problem of Religious Progress. pelled, seven worse devils entered " into some of his followers. Bucer said that some, " in their re volt from the tyranny of the Pope and the Bishops," " gave themselves up freely to their caprices and all their carnal passions." The Reformation did not at once produce a com plete improvement in manners. Rev. Dr. Ewer, in his recent effort to prove the failure of Protestant ism,* cites the capital convictions of Nuremburg in three centuries, as evidence that morals declined after the Reformation under Luther began. He says, " There were condemned to death, in Nu remburg, for incest, highway robbery, murder, in fanticide, unnatural crimes, etc., in the fifteenth century, before the Reformation, 41 ; in the six teenth century, after the Reformation, 190 ; in the seventeenth century, after the Reformation, 270." But what do these statistics prove save an increased attention to the promotion of moral order by the enforcement of law ? Before the Reformation, under the unchallenged dominion of the Papacy, crime was committed with such im punity that it could hardly be called crime. . Even indulgences to murder were granted by the Church for sums ranging from twenty dollars to fifty dollars. The increase in the number of convic tions, then, is evidence of progress in the ad ministration of laws, either long in disuse or * " The Complete Preacher," July, 1878, p. 224. Morals. 175 newly enacted, and the elevation of the standard of order. And now, after three hundred years have passed, who can fail to see a great improvement in morals, and also a marvelous difference between those countries which have remained Roman Catholic and those which have been Protestant ? Who can fail to observe the rapid advancement of Protestant over Papal nations in useful arts, commerce, litera ture, education, civil rights, social privileges, moral sense, and political influence ? Trying the case by any reasonable standard of existing facts, it will be obvious that the system which lives by indulgences and the confessional does not advance and elevate nations, but depresses, degrades, and impoverishes them. Progress has been made amid conflicts, by vary ing stages, through ebbs and flows, eddies, rapids, and even stagnant lagoons. Advance movements in society are seldom by straight lines or in uniform rates, free from retarding frictions ; but rather un even, irregular, sometimes oscillatory, with frequent recessions and reactions. Keeping these things in mind, let us pass over the intervening period, and pause amid the scenes which preceded the Wesleyan Reformation in England. 176 Problem of Religious Progress. Period II. — England from 1660 to 1750. The English Reformation had passed ; Protest antism had triumphed and securely intrenched it self; Puritanism and other forms of dissent, as sub-protests, championing a still purer faith and life, arose and exerted their influence. The rigid regimen of Cromwell was followed by a terrible rebound. The great soldier and his Puritan supporters came to be regarded as " lank-haired gentlemen," with " sour-faced hypocrisies," " speak ing through the nose," " debarring from social meetings, from merry-making at Christmas, and junketing at fairs," and " forswearing all innocent enjoyments." After " years of weary restraint and formalism," on the restoration of Charles II., the accumulated tide burst all barriers. "A flood of dancing and revelry and utter abandonment to hap piness burst over the whole country. . . . Never, since the old times of the Feasts of Fools and the gaudy procession of the Carnival, had there been such a riotous jubilee as inaugurated the Restora tion. The reaction against Puritanism carried the nation almost beyond Christianity, and landed it in heathenism again." * Through nearly one hundred years this reaction extended. The first half of the eighteenth century was the darkest period, morally, since the birth of * White's " Eighteen Christian Centuries," p. 472. Morals. 177 English Protestantism ; and yet, with all its terri ble gloom, it was many degrees brighter than either England or the Continent two centuries before. Scrutinizing the picture, we shall be able to appre ciate the struggling stages through which the bet ter life of the race has passed in reaching its present condition. In the higher classes of English society, the taint left by Charles II. and his licentious court still fes tered ; and in the lower, laziness and dishonesty were universal. Extravagance was the order of the day, and " scarcely a family kept within its income." In 1723 Lady Mary Montagu wrote, " Honor, vir tue, and reputation, which we used to hear of in the nursery, are as much laid aside as crumpled ribbons." The masses entertained themselves with brutal amusements, instigating bloody quarrels, and engendering savage dispositions. " The essayists, in their matchless prose ; Pope, in verse no less terse and vigorous ; and Hogarth, on canvas, at tacked, with all the weapons of satire and ridicule, the vicious tendencies, which struck them chiefly as instances of folly and bad taste."* But art and culture failed to regenerate society; and the spirit nourished by these savage sports found vent in tumults, uproars, manslaughters, etc., which more recent records of crime fail to parallel. The pic ture is a dark one. * Julia Wedgewood. 178 Problem of Religious Progress. Lecky says : * " The impunity with which out rages were committed in the ill-lit and ill-guarded streets of London during the first half of the eight eenth century can now hardly be realized. In 1712 a club of young men of the higher classes, who assumed the name of Mohawks, were accus tomed nightly to rally out drunk into the streets to hunt the passers-by, and to subject them, in mere wantonness, to the most atrocious outrages. One of their favorite amusements, called 'tipping the lion,' was to squeeze the nose of their victim flat upon his face, and to bore out his eyes with their fingers. Among them were the ' sweaters,' who formed a circle around their prisoner, and pricked him with their swords till he sank exhausted on the ground ; the ' dancing masters,' so called from their skill in making men caper by thrusting swords into their legs; the 'tumblers,' whose favorite amuse ment was to set women on their heads, and commit various indecencies and barbarities on the limbs that were exposed. Maid-servants, as they opened their masters' doors, were waylaid, beaten, and their faces cut. Matrons, inclosed in barrels, were rolled down the steep and stony incline of Snow Hill. Watchmen were unmercifully beaten and their noses slit. Country gentlemen went to the theater, as if in a time of war, accompanied by their armed re tainers. A bishop's son was said to be one of the * " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. i. p. 522, etc. Morals. 179 gang, and a baronet was among those who were arrested." Said the Bishop of Lichfield, in 1724: "The Lord's day is become the devil's market day. . . . Sin, in general, is grown so hardened and rampant as that immoralities are defended, yea, justified, on principle." Smollett said, in 1730, "Thieves and robbers are now become more desperate and savage than they had ever appeared since mankind were civilized." " All men agree," thus begins the " Pro posal for a National Reformation of Manners," in 1734, " that atheism and profaneness never got such a high ascendant as at this day. A thick gloomi ness hath overspread the horizon, and our light looks like the evening of the world." The mayor and aldermen of London, in 1744, drew up an ad dress to the king, in which they stated that " Divers confederacies of great numbers of evil-disposed per sons armed with bludgeons, pistols, cutlasses, and other dangerous weapons, infest not only the pri vate lanes and passages, but likewise the public streets and places of usual concourse, and commit most daring outrages." Tyerman, after portraying the usual condition of London, says of this period, "The country was an apt imitator of the vices of the town," and that "the dark picture might easily be enlarged, not from posterior writings, or even from the religious publications of the period,, but from, periodicals. 180 Problem of Religious Progress. magazines, and newspapers, which had no tempta tion to represent the customs, manners, usages, and vices of the age in a worse aspect than was war ranted by facts." A fearful passion for gambling reached its climax under the first two Georges. Swift says, Lord Oxford denounced it as "• the bane of the English nobility." The Duke of Devonshire and Lord Chesterfield were bewitched by it. . It " reigned supreme " " at Bath, the center of English fashion ;" and the passion was quite as strong among fashion able ladies as among fashionable gentlemen. And yet gambling was only one of many mam moth evils of that time. We will not pause to speak of the " Fleet marriages " — the strangest scandals of English life. But drunkenness was one of the distinguishing vices, the consumption of distilled spirits increasing from 2,000,000 gallons in 1684, to 11,000,000, in 1750, besides the milder drinks. Phy sicians declared gin-drinking was a new and terrible source of mortality, of murders, and robbery. " The evil acquired such fearful dimensions," says Lecky, " that even the unreforming Parliament of Walpole perceived the necessity of taking strong measures to arrest it." No efforts, however, availed for some years. Violent riots followed the first attempts, and the evil still increased. Crime and immorality of every description became more terrible. " The London physicians," says Lecky, " stated, in 1750, Morals. 181 that there were in and about the metropolis no less than 14,000 cases of illness, most of them beyond the reach of medicines, directly attributable to gin." Fielding said that " gin was the principal sustenance of 100,000 people in the metropolis," and he pre dieted that " should the drinking of this poison be continued at its present height, during the next twenty years, there will, by that time, be very few of the common people left to drink it." Bishop Benson, in a letter written from London a little later, said : " There is not only no safety in living in this town, but scarcely any in the country now, robbery and murder are grown so frequent. Our people are now becoming, what they never before were, cruel and inhuman. Those accursed spiritu ous liquors, which, to the shame of our government, are so easily to be had, and in such quantities drank, have changed the very nature of our people ; and, they will, if continued to be drank, destroy the very race of people themselves." The political corruption in England in the first half of the eighteenth century was one of the most serious blemishes of that age. Capitalists and cor porations descended into the political arena, and carried measures by sheer corruption. Lavish sums were spent by the East India Company .among members of Parliament, and in the elections cor ruption was universal. Brokers stock-jobbed elec tions on the Exchange. One writer said, " Bor- 1 82 Problem of Religious Progress. oughs are rated in the Royal Exchange like stocks or tallies ; the price of a vote is as well known as of an acre of land, and it is no secret who are the moneyed men, and generally the best cus tomers. ' * Lecky said : " He [Walpole] governed by an assembly which was saturated with corruption ; and he fully acquiesced in its conditions, and re sisted every attempt to improve it. He appears to have cordially accepted the maxim that govern ment must be carried on by corruption or by force, and he deliberately made the former the basis of his rule. He bribed George II. by obtaining for him a civil list exceeding by more than £100,000 a year that of his father. He bribed the queen by securing for her a jointure of £100,000 a year, when his rival, Sir Spencer Compton, could only venture to promise £60,000. He bribed the dis senting ministers to silence by the regium donum. for the benefit of their widows. He employed the vast patronage of the Crown uniformly and stead ily with the single view of sustaining his position ; and there can be no doubt that a large propor tion of the immense expenditure of secret-service money during his administration was devoted to the direct purchase of members of Parliament." f * Somers' " Tracts,'- vol. xiii, quoted by Lecky. t Lecky's " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. i, pp. 395, 396, etc. Morals. 183 But Mr. Lecky says that " Bribery, whether in the elections or in Parliament, was no new thing " under Walpole. He quotes from Davenant and De Foe to show its prevalence at the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries ; that men made- it their business to buy and sell seats in Parliament ; that the market price was one thousand guineas ; that " bribery, buying of votes, freedoms, and freeholds " were " open and barefaced ;" and that in 1716 the Earl of Dorset said, "A great number of persons have no other livelihood than of being employed in bribing." He further says, that if corruption did not begin with Walpole it did not end with him. His ex penditure of secret-service money did not equal that of Bute, and " it is to Bute, and not to Wal pole, that we owe the most gigantic and wasteful of all forms of bribery. In 1754 Sir John Bar nard, with a view to the approaching elections, actually moved the repeal of the oath against brib ery, in the interest of public morals, on the ground that it was merely the occasion of general perjury. . . . Very few statesmen of the eighteenth century had less natural tendency to corruption than George Grenville. His private character was un impeachable. . . . The expenditure of secret-service money during his administration was unusually low, yet, such was the condition of the legislature 1 84 Problem of Religious Progress. by which he governed, that he appears to have found it necessary to offer direct money bribes to members of the House of Lords. If Walpole was guilty of corruption, it may be fairly urged that it was scarcely possible to manage Parliament with out it." * He also says.f that "supporters of the government in Parliament frequently received, at the close of the session, from £500 to £1,000 for their services ;" and that " it is certain that the consentient opinion of contemporaries accused the ministers of gross and wholesale corruption." An English gentleman,^: before the Unitarian Conference, at Saratoga, September, 1878, speak ing of the political corruption in England, said : " There had been no political parties in England until the time of William of Orange, and then things began to grow corrupt, and reached their height in the times of Walpole, when they were more corrupt than in our own day." Fashionable life and sentiment were coarse and foul. The writings of De Foe, Swift, Fielding, and Smollett fully illustrate this, and the two Georges did not improve the condition. According to Lord Hervey and others, " each king lived publicly with mistresses, and the immorality of their courts was accompanied by none of that refinement and grace which has often cast a softening veil over evil." * " Lecky," i, pp. 398, 399. f Ibid., p. 403. t Dorman B. Eaton, Esq. -> Morals. 185 «peaking of the queen of George II., Lecky says : " Living herself a life of unsullied virtue, discharg ing, under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, the duties of a wife with most exemplary patience and diligence, exercising her great influence in Church and in State with singular wisdom, patriotism, and benevolence, she passed through life jesting on the vices of her husband and of his ministers with the coarseness of a trooper, receiving from her husband the earliest and fullest account of every new love affair in which he was engaged, and prepared to welcome each new mistress, provided only she could herself keep the first place in his judgment and in his confidence." On her death-bed, says Lord Hervey, " Caroline advised the king to marry again. Upon which his sobs began to rise and his tears to fall with double vehemence. While in the midst of this, passion, wiping his eyes, and sobbing between every word, with much ado, he got out this answer : ' No, I shall have these mistresses.' To which the queen made no other reply than, 'O, my God, that will make no difference ! '" Doubtless there were " party libels " of the time, imputing great iniquities to objects of personal dislike ; and discrimination should be made between the " place-hunters " at St. James' and other per formers in the greater scenes of life and the great body of English and Scotch gentry. The latter 1 86 Problem of Religious Progress. should not be involved in the condemnation of the former. Many examples of morality and religion, of pure and noble champions of truth remained ; but the more active currents of society were thor oughly tainted. A writer in " Blackwood's Magazine," about ten years ago, said : " Walpole served his country and the devil to gether, and laughed 'at the very idea of goodness. Chesterfield, in devotion to one of the most blessed "of natural pieties, did not blush to encourage his young son in shameless wickedness. Pope babbled loudly of the vice for which his weak frame inca pacitated him. ... It was the age when delicate young women of the best blood and best manners in the land talked with a coarseness which editors of the nineteenth century can represent only by asterisks; and in which the most polished and dainty verse, Pope's most melodious, correctest couplets, were interspersed with lines which would damn for ever and ever any modern poetaster. Per sonal satire — poor instrument of vengeance, which stings without wounding — had such sway as it never had before in England ; but that sense of public honor which prevents open outrage upon decency was not in existence. The public liked the wicked story, and liked the scourge that came after, and laughed, not in its sleeve, but loudly, at blasphemy and indecency and profanity. Even the sentiment Morals. 187 of cleanness, purity, and honor was lost to the gen eration." Turning to the Churches, we find no ameliora tion of the dark picture, for those who should have been reformers needed themselves to be reformed. The dissenting Churches, which felt themselves to be the bulwarks of truth and morals, lamented that many of their own ministers were immoral, negli gent, and inefficient, while their communicants par took largely of the prevailing corruption. Of many of the clergy of the Established C hurch what shall we say ? One familiar with the facts shall bear tes timony. " The foulest sins were made sinless by intem perate zeal for the Pretender, and the fairest virtues besmeared in those who showed a friendly feeling for Dissenters. A man might be drunken and quar relsome all the week, but if on Sunday he bowed at the altar and cursed King William he was esteemed a saint. He might cheat every body and pay no body, but if he drank health to the royal orphan, hated King George, and abhorred the Whigs, his want of probity was a peccadillo scarcely worth no ticing. On the other hand, a man might be learned, diligent, devout, and useful, but if he opposed the Pretender and Popery, or if he thought the Dis senters should not be damned, he was at once set down as heterodox, and, according to his impor tance, became a target for the shafts of High-Church 1 88 Problem of Religious Progress. malice. . . . The court of England was corrupt to its very core, and the people were too faithful imi tators of the bad example. Popery was intriguing, Dissenters were declining, and the Church was full of fiery and drunken feuds." * Another English writer f says : ¦" In a great many instances the clergy were negligent and immoral ; often grossly so. The populace of the large towns were ignorant and profligate ; and the inhabitants of the villages added to ignorance and profligacy brutish and barbarous manners. A more striking instance of the rapid deterioration of religious light and influence in a country scarcely occurs than in our own, from the Restoration to the rise of Meth odism. It affected not only the Church, but the dissenting sects in no' ordinary degree." Such is the dark picture of English morals two hundred years after the birth of Protestantism. Even in its worst aspects it is many degrees brighter than the moral condition of either England or the Continent when the Lutheran Reformation com menced, for some new alleviating lights irradiate the page. But a comparison of the lights and shadows of the present with those of England one hundred and fifty years ago, will show stupendous progress. In the midst of such a state of morals the great * Tyerman's " Life of Wesley," vol, i, p. 65. ¦)¦ Rev. Richard Watson. Morals. 189 religious revival under the Wesleys and Whitefield had its origin, spreading out into a broad evangel ical movement among Churchmen and Dissenters, permeating the British Isles with elements of new life, and elevating the moral tone of society. While Luther gave special prominence to the doctrine of justification by faith, Wesleyanism laid its emphasis upon holiness of heart and life, and thus became not only a revival, but also a reformation in morals. The story shall be told by one who will not be sus pected of partiality. Mr. Lecky says : " From about the middle of the eighteenth century a reforming spirit was once more abroad, and a steady movement of moral as cent may be detected. The influence of Pitt in politics, and the influence of Wesley and his follow ers in religion, were the earliest and most important agencies in effecting it. . . . The tone of thought and feeling was changed. . . . The standard of political honor was perceptibly raised. It was felt that enthusiasm, disinterestedness, and self-sacrifice had their place in politics ; and, although there was afterward, for short periods, extreme corruption, public opinion never acquiesced in it again." * Again he says : f " Although the career of the elder Pitt, and the splendid victories by land and sea that were won during his ministry, form un- * " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii, pp. 562, 563. f Ibid., p. 567, etc. 13 190 Problem of Religious Progress. questionably the most dazzling episodes in the reign of George II., they must yield, I think, in real importance, to that religious revolution which shortly before had been begun in England by the preaching of the Wesleys and of Whitefield. The creation of a large, powerful, and active sect, ex tending over both hemispheres, and numbering many millions of souls, was but one of its conse quences. It also exercised a profound and lasting influence upon the spirit of the Established Church, upon the amount and distribution of the moral forces of the nation, and even upon the course of its political history." Among the ulterior advantages of the Wesleyan Reformation Mr. Lecky cites its influence in pre serving the English nation from the French revolu tionizing tendencies which were felt by many classes in England at the close of the century. He says : " England, on the whole, escaped the contagion. Many causes conspired to save her, but among them a prominent place must, I believe, be given to the new and vehement religious enthusiasm which was at that very time passing through the middle and lower classes of the people, which had enlisted in its service a large proportion of the wilder and more impetuous reformers, and which recoiled with horror from the antichristian tenets that were associated with the Revolution in France." Morals. 191 Mr. Lecky's testimony is luminous and valua ble. After speaking of the divergent tendencies in English society and the growing inequalities in the conditions of the rich and the poor, in connection with the increase of capital and the great manufac turing interests, the evils and the dangers incident to such a condition of things, the growing distrusts, alienations, etc., between the higher and the lower classes, not yet duly estimated by political econ omists, he proceeds to say : " The true greatness and welfare of nations de pend mainly on the amount of moral force that is generated within them. Society can never con tinue in a state of tolerable security when there is no other bond of cohesion than a mere money tie ; and it is idle to expect the different classes of the community to join in the self-sacrifice and enthu siasm of patriotism, if all unselfish motives are ex cluded from their several relations. Every change of conditions which widens the chasm and impairs the sympathy between rich and poor cannot fail, however beneficial may be its effects, to bring with it grave dangers to the State. It is incontestable that the immense increase of manufacturing popu lation has had this tendency ; and it is, therefore, I conceive, peculiarly fortunate that it should have been preceded by a great religious revival, which opened a new spring of moral and religious energy among the poor, and at the same time gave a 192 Problem of Religious Progress. powerful impulse to the philanthropy of the rich." * In the more recent periods English morals have never fallen to so low a condition. Period III. — The United States from 1700 to 1800. Passing over to the American Continent, we find a manifest decline in morals during the one hundred years following the landing of the Pilgrims. The influence of the licentious and debauched court of Charles II. had been felt among all English-speak ing people, at home and abroad, and new classes of immigrants, not actuated, like the first settlers, by high religious motives, but by secular aims, and many of them paupers and criminals from work houses and jails, had been infused into the colonial population. The corruption of manners, working downward through English society during the reigns of William III., Queen Anne, and the first two Georges, extended to American shores, chang ing the moral aspects of the people. In the first third of the eighteenth century this deterioration was very plain. The drinking habits, hitherto very moderate, were increased, though not as bad as at the close of the century. West India rum had been introduced in trade with those islands, and the manufacture of rum was commenced in New En- * " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii, pp. 691-694. Morals. 193 gland in 1700, reducing the price, and leading to its more general use. In the forty years preceding the Edwardean revival intoxicating drinks had come into common use, and there was much hard drink ing • but darker days were to come. " It is easy to praise the fathers of New En gland," said Theodore Parker ; " easier to praise them for virtues they did not possess than to dis criminate and fairly judge those remarkable men. . . . Let me mention a fact or two. It is recorded in the probate office that, in 1678, at the funeral of Mrs. Mary Norton, widow of the celebrated John Norton, one of the ministers of the First Church in Boston, fifty-one gallons and a half of the best Ma laga wine were consumed by the ' mourners ; ' in 1685, at the funeral of Rev. Thomas Cobbett, min ister of Ipswich, there were consumed one barrel of wine and two barrels of cider, and, ' as it was cold,' there were ' some spice and ginger for the cider.' You may easily judge of the drunkenness and riot on occasions less solemn than the funeral of an old and beloved minister. Towns provided intoxicating drink at the funeral of their paupers. In Salem, in 1728, at the funeral of a pauper, a gallon of wine and another of cider are charged as ' incidentals ; ' the next year, six gallons of wine on a similar occasion. In Lynn, in 171 1, the town furnished ' half a barrel of cider for the widow Dispaw's funeral.' Af fairs had come to such a pass that, in 1742, the 194 Problem of Religious Progress. General Court forbid the use of wine and rum at funerals." * Among the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who set tled at Londonderry, N. H., about 1719, drinking habits became quite as bad as in other localities. In allusion to their inflexible adherence to their creed, and their social irregularities on festive occa sions, it was commonly said, " The Derry Presbyte rians never gave up a pint of doctrine or a pint of rum." The " Derry Festival," introduced and kept up for many years, was " a sort of Protestant carni val " — " a wild, drinking, horse-racing, frolicking, merry-making, at which strong drink abounded." Those who good-naturedly wrestled and joked to gether in the morning, not unfrequently closed the day with a fight. William Stack, in describing his ancestors, the first settlers of Amoskeag Falls, says : " Of the goodly men of old Derryfield It was often said that their only care, And their only wish, and only prayer, For the present world, and the world to come, Was a string of eels and a jug of rum." In the inland town of Northampton, said Ed wards, " there was far more degeneracy among the young than ever before." "Licentiousness, for some years, greatly prevailed among the youth." " The Sabbath was extensively profaned, and the * " Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons." By Theo dore Parker. Pp. 341-397. ' Boston : Horace B. Fuller, publisher. 1871. Morals. 195 decorum of the sanctuary not unfrequently dis turbed." This was a fair sample of many New England towns at this time ; while the average morality of Virginia, Maryland, and some other sec tions, was even lower, not having so many conserv ing elements as New England. The clergy, in the Virginia Colony, following the style of those in England, were morally low. and the people lower still. Bishop Meade said: "As to the unworthy hireling clergy of the Colony, there was no ecclesiastical discipline to correct 01 punish their irregularities and vices." In the Prov ince of Maryland, in the latter part of the seven teenth century, " The Lord's day was generally profaned, religion was despised, and all notorious vices were committed, so that it had become a Sodom of uncleanness and a pest-house of iniqui ty." * " The clergy were remarkable for their laxity of morals and scandalous behavior." In the forty years following the formal establishment of the Episcopal Church as the State Church in Mary land, in 1692, there was no moral improvement, but rather a steady decline, as letters to the Bishop of London, quoted by Dr. Hawks, fully show. It was at this time, simultaneously with the ori gin of the Wesleyan movement in England, though of briefer duration, and less radical in character, * " Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury," quoted by Dr. Hawks. 196 Problem of Religious Progress. that the ten years of Edwardean and Whitefieldian revivals began, (1735-1745.) They were an incal- culable blessing to the Colonial Churches and com munities, checking for a time the spread of immo rality. But there speedily followed a long and troublous period, (1750-1800,) and its distracting events — the French and Indian wars ; the conflict ing agitations preceding the Revolutionary War ; the war itself, with the usual depraving influences ; the depressing financial condition afterward ; the sharp conflicts on questions of civil polity attending the organization of the Federal Government ; the general infusion of European skepticism and man ners ; and the spread of New England rum. A detailed statement of American manners in the last quarter of the eighteenth century will exhibit a condition of immorality, having no later parallel on our shores. The Revolutionary War had not progressed far before the faithful ministers of the Presbyterian Church, in their Synod, deplored the spread of " gross immoralities," " increasing to a fearful de gree." In 1779 they lamented " the degeneracy of manners," and " the prevalence of vice and im morality that obtain throughout the land." A sentiment of insubordination grew up out of the infusion of French ideas, which declared " moral obligation to be a shackle imposed by bigotry and priestcraft," revolution a right and duty, and au- Morals. 197 thority usurpation. The revolutionizing spirit, serviceable in the war, was so thoroughly diffused among the people that it threatened new trouble. Men had vaunted about rights until many felt that any government was an imposition. Demagogues multiplied, poisoning the minds of the masses, en gendering the spirit of domestic scuffle, instigating local rebellions, discontent, and heart-burnings. A relaxation of moral principle, and licentiousness of sentiment and conduct, followed in the footsteps of liberty — the offspring of her profane alliance witl French infidelity. In not a few even of the New England towns desecration of the Sabbath, lewd ness, neglect of the sanctuary, profanity, and lovi cavils at the Bible were common, and " the last vestiges of Puritan morals seemed well-nigh irre coverably effaced." This corruption extended into civil and literary circles. The newspapers partook of the general demoralization, Jefferson wrote : " Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misapprehension is known only to those who are in a condition to confront facts within their knowl edge with the lies of the day." Rev. Theodore Parker said : " The general character of the press since the end of the last century has decidedly im proved, as any one may convince himself of by 198 Problem of Religious Progress. comparing the newspapers of that period with the present." It was an era of bad feeling, and a political bit terness was indulged, unknown to the partisan strifes of our day. The debates on the adoption of the Federal Constitution were of the most exas perating character. The Jacobin intrigues inflamed the public feelings, and political bitterness was the bane of Washington's administration. With our exalted views of Washington, it is impossible for us to conceive how he was assailed, maligned, and abused by the press, and also in public and private circles. The acts of his administration were tor tured, and the grossest and most insidious misrep resentations made " in such exaggerated and inde cent terms," said Washington himself, " as could scarcely be applied to Nero, or a notorious de faulter, or even to a common pickpocket." In this dark period (1796) a gentleman of the highest char acter wrote to Washington : " Our affairs seem to lead to some crisis, some revolution ; something that I cannot foresee or conjecture. I am more uneasy than during the war. . . . We are going and doing wrong, and therefore I look forward to evils and calamities. . . . We are wofully and wickedly misled. Private rage for property suppresses pub lic considerations, and personal rather than national interests have become the great objects of atten tion." Washington replied, "Your sentiments that Morals. 199 we are drawing rapidly to a crisis accord with mine. What the event wHl be is beyond my foresight." Rev. Theodore Parker said : " Political servility and political rancor are certainly bad enough and base enough at this day ; but not long ago they were baser and worse. To show this, I need only appeal to the memories of men before me, who recollect the beginning of the present century. Political controversies are conducted with less bit terness than before ; honesty is more esteemed ; private worth more respected. The Federal party, composed of men who certainly were an honor to their age, supported Aaron Burr for the office of Vice-President of the United States, a man whose character, both public and private, was notorious ly marked with the deepest infamy. Political par- - ties are not very Puritanical in their virtues this day, but I think no party would now, for a mo ment, accept such a man as Mr. Burr for such a post." Dueling was then not a sectional, but a national, vice. The whole land was red with the blood of duelists,' and filled with the lamentations of widows and orphans. It was a common crime of men high in office, and a duelist was elected, by a large ma jority, Vice-President of the Union, even coming within a narrow chance of the presidential chair. Profanity terribly abounded, and was not then regarded as ungentlemanly. The stocks, the pillory, 200 Problem of Religious Progress. and the whipping-post were common. Slavery ex isted in all the States. * Intemperance was an alarming evil. The manu facture of New England rum commenced in 1700, increasing the home consumption of this fiery stim ulant ; but the milder liquors, beer and wine, con tinued in general use, until the war of the Revolu tion cut off foreign commerce, and gave an impulse to the distillation of rum, when this most vitiating of all beverages became universal. Furnished freely to the soldiers in the army, at the close of the war, they went forth with vitiated appetites, increasing the demand for distilled spirits throughout the land. In the forty years following the Revolution, drunk enness fearfully increased, until, in the language of a European traveler in the United States at that time, it became "the most striking characteristic of the American people." Intemperance had not then the weight of public sentiment to struggle against, which has since been raised up. To get drunk did not then injure a man's reputation or influence. Members of Churches, the highest Church ofncialsj deacons and ministers., drank immoderately, without seriously compromis ing their positions. Said Rev. Leonard Woods. D.D. : "I remember when I could reckon up among my acquaintances forty ministers who were intem perate." Another gentleman, living in those times, subsequently said in a Boston newspaper, " A great Morals. 201 many deacons in New England died drunkards. I have a list of one hundred and twenty-three intem perate deacons in Massachusetts, forty-three of whom became sots." In an old book, " Practical Infidelity Portrayed," we find a horrid portrayal of the moral condition of some portions of the United States just before and after the year 1800. The locality, specially de scribed is Orange County and Smith Cove, N. Y. Here was a party organized for the purpose of de stroying Christianity and civil government, and the account is given by one who personally knew them ; They claimed the right to indulge in lasciviousness, and to recreate themselves as their propensities and appetites should dictate. I knew them well as neighbors, and some as school mates. I marked their conduct and knew their deplorable ends — almost all by violent deaths. Twenty were men and seven females. The conduct of the females who associated with this gang was such as to illustrate its practical effects upon them. I shall only say that not one of them could or would pretend to know who were the fathers of their offspring. Perhaps hell itself could not produce more disgusting objects than were some of them.* Numerous localities, at that time, presented sim ilar moral phases. Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New *" Practical Infidelity Portrayed." By Alva Cunningham. i2mo. New York City. 1836. Pp. 42-46. These facts, and other similar facts, are supported by numerous affidavits of respectable men. 202 Problem of Religious Progress. Jersey could produce many parallel cases. Soci eties, or clubs of Illuminati, existed in Virginia, in affiliation with those of France. The infidelity of the age far exceeded any thing before or since known in America, and was of the grossest kind. The above portrayal shows this, and also the gross character of the habits in other respects. In some other incidental matters, also, it exhibits the low social and moral condition. The Rev. Devereux Jarratt gave a dark picture of society in Virginia near the close of the last cent ury, and Bishop Meade's sketches of the "Old Churches and Families of Virginia " deepen the shades. Of a portion of Kentucky, Peter Cartwright, speaking of the year 1 793, said, " It was called ' Rogues' Harbor,' because ' law could not be exe cuted.' The most abandoned and ferocious lawless ness prevailed. It was a desperate state of society. Refugees from justice, murderers, horse-thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters settled there, and * actually formed a majority.' The better ele ments of society, called ' Regulators,' organized and attempted, by arms, to put down the ' Rogues,' but were defeated." As late as 1803, according to Rev. Joseph Bad- gei, Cleveland, Ohio, had no church, and "infidelity and Sabbath profanation were general." A gen tleman visiting Western New York in 1798 said: " Religion has not got west of the Genesee River. Morals. 203 Some towns are hot-beds of infidelity." Of many other sections of the country it was said, "There was scarcely a vestige of the Christian religion." Rev. Dr. I. N. Tarbox says: "A sentence from the 'Andover (Mass.) Manual' opens another subject of great significance, as showing the real condition of the Churches in the last century. We are told, as a part of the history of that Church, that ' the chief causes of discipline for a hundred and twenty- five years were fornication and drunkenness.' And the writer adds : ' He who investigates the records of this or any other Church for the same period will be astonished at the prevalence of these vices, as compared with the present time.' " * The Pastoral Letter issued in 1798 by the Gen eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was full of alarm and expostulation : " When formidable innovations and convulsions in Europe threaten destruction to morals and religion ; when scenes of devastation and bloodshed, unexampled in the his tory of modern nations, have convulsed the world ; and when our own country is threatened with sim ilar calamities, insensibility in us would be stupid ity; silence would be criminal. . . . We desire to direct your awakened attention toward that burst ing storm, which threatens to sweep before it the * " Historical Sketch of the Congregational Churches of Massa chusetts from 1776 to 1876." Minutes of the General Association fo« 1877. P- 33- 204 Problem of Religious Progress. religious principles, institutions, and' morals of our people. We are filled with deep concern and aw ful dread, while we announce it as our conviction that the eternal God has a controversy with our na tion, and is about to visit us in his sore displeasure. . . We perceive with pain and fearful apprehen sion a general dereliction of religious principle and practice among our fellow-citizens ; a great departure from the faith and simple purity of manners for which our fathers were remarkable r a visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws and institutions of religion ; and an abounding infidelity, which, in many instances, tends to atheism itself." In this alarming condition of things, they say : " A dissolution of religious society seems to be threat ened by the supineness and inattention of many ministers and professors of Christianity." " For mality and deadness, not to say hypocrisy, a con tempt for vital godliness and the spirit of fervent piety, a desertion of the ordinances, or a cold and unprofitable attendance upon them, visibly per vaded every part of the Church." "The profligacy and corruption of public morals have advanced with a progress proportioned to our declension in religion. Profaneness, pride, luxury, injustice, intemperance, lewdness, and every species of debauchery and loose indulgence, greatly abound." The means for combating these evils were then small. In large sections of the land the people Morals. 205 either were not supplied with gospel preaching or the supply was very scanty. There were no tracts, and very few religious books and Bibles. The age of tract and Bible societies had not dawned. Dur ing the colonial history no Bibles except Eliot's In dian Bible were allowed by the mother country to be printed. They were, therefore, scarce and expen sive, and during the Revolutionary War a few were imported, with great difficulty, from Scotland and Holland. The first English edition of the holy Scriptures was published in 1 781, by Robert Aiken, of Philadelphia. So meager were the means of resistance against the evils of that period. Prior to that time all Bibles, except Eliot's Indian Bible, had been imported from Europe. It is natural for some people to indulge in whole sale glorification of the past, for they learned it from their grandfathers and grandmothers, who perhaps performed some heroic part in the great events of the last century, or were witnesses of the great struggles of that period. The last thirty years of the eighteenth century were full of memorable struggles and triumphs — the independence, the Revolutionary War, the adoption of the constitution, the organiza tion of the government, the Indian wars, and the numerous incidental struggles. The times called for a vigorous type of manhood, decision, and clear thinking, and this class of virtues were remarkably developed in that stormy period, though the finer 14 206 Problem of Religious Progress. qualities of moral culture, aesthetic taste, and ag gressive Christianity suffered from neglect. The men of those times were founding the state, and ¦initiating a style of government hitherto compara tively unknown and experimental, involving much faith in God and in humanity. They were bold in- augurators, good men for their day, though not up to our more advanced standards. CHAPTER II. TIIE PRESENT PERIOD SPECIFIC TENDENCIES. The Sabbath. Slavery and Barbarism. Unehastity and Divorce. Impure Literature. Crime. Morals. 209 CHAPTER II. THE PRESENT PERIOD. ' I "HE review of the preceding periods has pre- -*¦ pared us to judge more intelligently the moral condition of our own times. The task, however, is still attended with difficulties ; for to judge our times is much like judging ourselves. Future judges may modify our best conclusions. To compare the moral condition of the same people in two different periods requires much careful discrimination. So many diverse elements, currents, ebbs, and flows enter into the life of any people, and especially of a young nation like ours — an asylum for all nations — and in times so stimulating, intense, and revolution izing in the realm of ideas, that there is a liability to error in any conclusion that may be reached. With many first appearances, or fancies and prepossessions, instead of a definite basis of facts, determine conclu sions. It is not strange, therefore, that on a ques tion so complicated as this a considerable diversity of views should exist ; and it would be wonderful if a being so much inclined to fault-finding as man should fail to sometimes indulge in that peculiar luxury. 210 Problem of Religious Progress. For ourselves, we may say that the careful study of the period under consideration, notwithstanding its serious currents of evil, some of them increasing and others new, has resulted in the comforting con viction that a very great and substantial improve ment has taken place in the average moral purity of American society and of the American Churches. It should, however, be kept continually in mind that the world abounds in evil; that under the ex traordinary light and intelligence of the age unu sual hardness and impiety are to be expected in those resisting ; that an age so intensely active will be likely to be characterized by a corresponding activity and intensity in evil ; and that rank and monstrous developments of evil will justify the pre diction, " Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse," even while the average moral condition may be radically improving. The progress of society is not wholly in straight lines or by uniform rates. Currents have their ed dies, flows their ebbs. The best advancement of the world has sometimes seemed oscillatory or re ceding. Beating against the wind is a frequent method of moral navigation. Human Progress, said Theodore Parker, is much like the flight of wild fowl. The leaders continually change ; the old fall to the rear, and new ones come to the front, soon to give place to others. But the whole flock is advancing. So with the flock of virtues and Morals. 211 vices. The actual progress of communities can be determined only with due discrimination in regard to things phenomenal, temporary, and collateral. In such a spirit we inspect the facts of our na tional life, indicative of the moral condition and progress during this century. The great revival of religion which spread through almost the whole land from 1800 to 1803, inaugu rated an era of better moral and religious life. The dark and gloomy spell of evil under which the country had struggled in the two preceding decades was in a good measure broken ; the Churches were invested with new power ; the tone of public mor als improved ; and new currents were introduced, destined, in due time, to work out beneficent re sults. Such intelligent observers as Rev. Drs. He- man Humphry, E. D. Griffin, Nathan Bangs, Elijah Hedding, Lyman Beecher, and Hons. Reuben H. Walworth, John Cotton Smith, and John Quincy Adams, all familiar with those times, bore ample and decisive testimony to this change. But the tes timony of facts must be cited. The Sabbath. The disregard of the Sabbath in the last two de cades of the last century, so serious in all the older communities, and total in many of the new settle ments, still continued a flagrant offense against morals after the present century opened. In large 212 Problem of Religious Progress. portions of the West and South-west the only rec ognition of the Sabbath was a general devotion to pleasure, gaming, and visiting. The home mission aries and itinerant preachers who first visited West ern New York, Ohio, Michigan, and the regions farther south and south-west, encountered a condi tion of morals calling for stern courage and hero ism. They found Sunday a day of amusement, spent in horse-racing and dissipation. The stores were kept open, and " the only distinguishing feat ure of the day was an excess of wickedness." This state of things existed in those sections for several decades. Bishop Meade represented the condition of things in Eastern Virginia as but little better. At the time of his consecration to the ministry, in 1811, at Williamsburgh, Va., the seat of William and Mary's College, and, therefore, presumed to be the most cultivated part of that State, (Bishop Madison of that diocese, president of the college, residing there,) the disregard of the Sabbath was almost to tal. " On our way to the old church," he said, " the Bishop and myself met a company of students with guns on their shoulders and dogs at their sides, attracted by the frosty morning, which was favor able to the chase, and at the same time one of the citizens was filling his ice-house. On arriving at the church we found it in a wretched condition, with broken windows and a gloomy, comfortless as- Morals. 213 pect. The congregation consisted of two ladies and fifteen gentlemen, nearly all of whom were relatives or acquaintances." * He also describes a similar condition of things in Richmond, and elsewhere in Virginia. In staid Connecticut Sabbath desecration was so serious that the " Society for the Reformation of Morals," organized in 1812, under the leadership of Rev. Lyman Beecher, in addition to intemperance, gave special prominence to Sabbath-breaking as one of the evils from which they hoped to deliver the State. After 1 8 10, mails were carried on the Sabbath on all the routes in the United States, and the post- offices were kept open. This practice continued more than twenty years, notwithstanding numer ous remonstrances. All the religious bodies repeat edly protested, and memorialized Congress on the subject, from 1812 until after 1830, but with little effect. Matters grew worse instead of better ; for whereas the law of 1810 required only those post- -offices where the mails arrived on Sunday to be kept open, and that only for an hour, in 1825 a more lax law was enacted, requiring that all post- offices, at which mails arrived on the Sabbath, should be kept open during the whole of the day. *"01d Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia." By Bishop William Meade. Vol. i, pp. 29, 30, et<_. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott & Co.- 1857. 214 Problem of Religious Progress. Public military honors were paid to General La fayette, in 1824, on the Lord's day. At its next session, the General Association of Massachusetts expressed grave apprehensions on account of " the growing indifference to the sanctity of the day," and the " repeated violations of it." In 1827 a crowd of opposers violently interfered and prevented Rev. Gardner Spring, D.D., and other influential gentle men, from holding a meeting in City Hall, New York, for promoting the better observance of the Sabbath. In March, 1830, Hon. Richard M. Johnston, Post master General, outraged the moral sentiments of the nation, in an official reply to memorials asking for the repeal of the laws requiring the post-offices to be kept open the whole of Sunday. Respecting that report it was said: "Satan never accomplished a greater victory over the Sabbath, through any agency, in any country, than was accomplished: by this report, if we except the abolition of the Sab bath, in France, during the reign of infidelity." In 1834, by a general repealing clause, all the Sabbath observance laws in New York city disap peared, and in their place was found a law prohibit ing religious meetings in the Park and other public places, unless held by a licensed minister of the Gospel, and with the written permission of the mayor or aldermen. Some years later the only law bearing on the Sabbath, in New York, was a Morals. 2 1 5 prohibition against the firing of a gun on Sunday, and the sale of intoxicating drinks, the latter of which was supposed to be superseded by a law of the State. In 1840 the "come-outer" wing of radical aboli tionists assailed the Sabbath, and denounced it in conventions, lectures, newspapers, etc., exerting a very pernicious influence against the sacred day, through several years. In 1842 the American and Foreign Sabbath Union was formed. Under the leadership of Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D., its agent, a redoubtable champion of reform, a broad and influential move ment was inaugurated, enlisting leading statesmen, and influential" gentlemen, in all sections of the land, and securing favorable action by the State Legislatures. In 1844 a National Convention was held in Baltimore, attended by upward of seventeen hundred delegates, from eleven different States, at which Hon. John Quincy Adams presided. Through several years much attention was devoted to the discontinuance of railroad trains and steamboats on Sundays ; and Hon. E. C. Delavan, of Albany, printed, and gratuitously circulated among the stockholders and travelers of the New York Central road one hundred thousand copies of Dr. Edwards' " Sabbath Manual," to prepare the way for the cars to cease running on Sunday. After eight years of arduous labors, traveling more than forty-eight 216 Problem of Religious .progress. thousand miles, in twenty-five different States, ad dressing men through the pulpit and the press, Dr. Edwards summed up the glorious results of his labors in these lines : "Railroad directors, in an increasing number of cases, have confined the running of their cars to six days in the week ; locks on canals are not opened ; and official business is not transacted on the Sab bath. Stages and steamboats in many cases have ceased to run ; and more than eighty thousand miles of Sabbath-breaking mails have been stopped. .* . . "About forty railroad companies have stopped the running of their cars on that day, on about four thousand miles of roads. The communities through which they pass, and whose right to the stillness and the quiet of the day had for years been grossly violated, by the screaming and rumbling of cars in time of public worship, are now free from the nui sance,, and are permitted to enjoy their rights and privileges without molestation." The year 1850 was the period of the best general observance of the Sabbath that had then been known for one hundred years. About that time, however, a very large new element was introduced into American society, destined to seriously modify our habits and life. The great European immigra tion set upon our shores about 1848, and came in rapidly swelling waves in the following years, bring ing Sabbath ideas and habits radically different from Morals. 217 ours. A decline in Sabbath observance was soon apparent. To resist these encroachments upon public mo rality, in 1854, Christian men came together and organized the New York Sabbath Committee, the record of whose labors is worthy of more extended notice than we can here devote to it. In 1856 the Sabbath desecration in New York city was described as presenting a fearful picture. Steamboats arrived and departed, and railway trains bore an immense freight of passengers into neigh boring towns, to return at night with half-intoxi cated crowds; dance- houses emitted mingled noises of music, dancing, and swearing ; red-curtained grog shops stood open in the larger avenues ; the public gardens were full of target-shooters, gamblers, and drinkers; many branches of business continued in full blast ; shops, foundries, and machine factories continued their work; engine companies and pro cessions paraded the streets ; academies of music and theaters were open for " sacred " performances ; and, in short, " the Sabbath became the vilest day of the seven." No such picture could then be drawn of any other Northern Atlantic city. Boston was bad enough; but the Sabbath was a quiet day. Its wickedness was not noisy and demonstrative, nor in the major ity. But there was a growing laxity in the observ ance of the Lord's day. . 218 Problem of Religious Progress. The New York Committee attributed the grow ing desecration of the Sabbath to the following causes : Selfishness and worldliness, the preoccupa tion and neglect of Christian men, the multiplication of lines of travel into the interior of the country, European travel, the immense immigration from Europe, and, above all, the desire for recreation. In 1859 a New York newspaper said: "It ap pears that there are 7,779 places where liquors are sold in the city, of which only 72 have license from the Excise Commissioners, and that 5,186 houses continue their business on Sunday, in violation of State and city statutes ; and it is estimated that at least the sum of $1,348,360 is expended in the grog shops on the fifty-two Sundays of the year. It fur ther appears that of the 27,845 commitments to prison in 1857, no less a proportion than 23,817 of these, or about 6 out of every 7, were of persons of ' intemperate habits ; ' of whom, again, sixty per cent, were mere youths and young men between ten and thirty years of age. Lastly, another set of statistics shows that, taking seventy-six successive Sundays, the criminal arrests were 9,713, while for the same number of Tuesdays there were but 7,861 — a difference of twenty-five per cent. — traceable to the Sunday grog-shops." Foreign immigration exerted an influence almost incalculable in promoting Sabbath desecration. At the date of which we now speak, more than one Morals. 219 half of the population of New York city were either foreign-born or their immediate offspring, and with European ideas of the Sabbath. Few of the cities of Ireland had a larger Irish population, and few cities of Germany a larger German population, than New York, and it was particularly the Germans who took the lead in Sabbath profanation, trans planting to our country, not the German Sabbath of Germany itself, but of the most irreligious and atheistic portion of that people. In this new soil it reached an enormity of development that would have astonished the natives at home. The great mass of the children, released from the imperative necessity of receiving a good theoretical religious education, which in Germany is rigidly enforced upon all, in this land grow up to live absolutely without any recognition of God or his sacred laws ; many of their newspapers openly denying the sa credness of the Bible, and even the existence of God. To them Sunday was a day to eat, drink, and be merry. It was early seen that every year an increasing portion of the American people were adopting these customs, so that this element, in stead of being absorbed into our native element, was absorbing a portion of the native element. We have spoken of New York city because these agencies were there most conspicuously working at that time, and, through the hot-bed fermentations of city life, earliest ripened there into the natural 220 Problem of Religious Progress. fruit. But the same seed was scattered all ovei the continent. The cities of the West partook of the same type, those of the East were infected, and the fruitage was destined to be seen every-where. At one time, reviewing the work of the Sabbath Committee, Dr. Gardner Spring said : " They have not labored in vain. They have suppressed the vociferous cries of the Sunday news boys, ... in defiance of the most violent ribaldry and abuse. They have suppressed the Sunday pa geant of the Fire Department, so that it has fallen into disuse under, the weight of its own folly. They have rectified the abuses of the Sabbath in Central Park. They have suppressed the Sunday liquor traffic to a great extent, . . . and driven it into cor ners. They have suppressed the Sunday theaters and beer-gardens, and the Sunday concerts, etc. . . . They have carried the reform into our canals, our steamboats, our flouring and salt establishments, and our fisheries." Since that time the wave has receded ; but, after all, Sabbath desecration is the exception rather than the general practice. But few, relatively, of the railroad trains run. Nearly all the engines lie still. Business is almost entirely hushed. But few stores, libraries, and museums are opened. With almost no attempts, by legal prosecutions, to en force the observance of the day, its very general voluntary observance, becomingly and sacredly, by Morals. 221 such large masses of people is clear evidence of the elevated moral sentiment that dominates the land, speaking more loudly of real virtue than the con strained observance secured by rigorous civil penal ties under the regimen of our Puritan fathers. It must be confessed that theoretical changes have been working in many minds, the views of good men of the highest rank, religiously and mor ally, having undergone some modifications. The Puritan Sabbath has come to be regarded as an ex treme toward the Talmudical Sabbath of the Phar isees, incumbered with vestments not scriptural, nor even Mosaic, and far removed from the spirit and character of the Christian Sabbath. The tend ency is toward a Christian ideal of the sacred day. Many, however, have gone to the extreme of laxity. Each age requires for its peculiar necessities a re statement of familiar truths and principles ; for they are assailed from new quarters and by new argu ments. The Christian Church is adjusting lines of discussion which will fully'meet these demands, and is freshly presenting and arguing fundamental prin ciples, which will effectually vindicate the eternal sanctity of the Sabbath. It is demonstrating that the essential sanctions and obligations of the Jew ish Sabbath are transferred to the Christian Sunday ; that the evidences for the necessity of a day of rest are inwrought in man's physical, intellectual, and religious nature ; and that the laws requiring Sab- 15 222 Problem of Religious Progress. bath observance are compatible with the most per fect personal freedom — " the law of rest of all be ing necessary to the liberty of rest of each." Slavery. At the beginning of this century slavery existed throughout all the world. Hungary numbered nine millions of slaves, and the Russian, Austrian, and Prussian peasantry were mostly slaves, or serfs in a low condition. For some years after this century opened an Englishman might sell his wife into servitude. Slavery existed in Scotland down to the very last year of the eighteenth century. The col liers and salters were slaves bound to service for life, and were bought and sold with the works at which they labored. During the first seven years of this century English ships conveyed annually over the Atlantic forty thousand Africans, one half of whom perished at sea or soon after landing. Twenty-six acts of the British Parliament expressed approval of the traffic^' and it required twenty years of agitation to suppress it, and twenty-six more to procure emancipation. The whip was freely used in the English West Indies, and even the flog ging of women was practiced till eight years after the Battle of Waterloo. In 1833 emancipation was decreed, and six hundred thousand slaves were liberated by the expenditure of twenty millions sterling. Morals. 223 In the United States the evil was not so easily disposed of. Here it wrought with incalculable mischief and demoralization in all ranks of society, North and South. Considered in all its phases, the institution of slavery did more to corrupt and dete riorate American manners than any other single cause. It was a fountain of glaring injustice, bloody barbarism, the grossest licentiousness, the darkest ignorance, the most perfidious sophistry ; in short, " the sum of all villainies." It extended its corrupt sway even to the best circles of society in the North, and made eminent instructors in law and piety pleaders arid apologists for the rankest injustice. The hallucinating power of our Western cotton ri valed the hempen hasheesh of the East, and made "Or fools or knaves of all who ate it." ' The preacher eats, and straight appears His Bible in a new translation ; Its angels negro overseers, And heaven itself a snug plantation. "The noisiest Democrat, with ease It turns to slavery's parish beadle ; The shrewdest statesman eats, and sees Due southward point the polar needle. " The judge partakes, and sits ere long Upon his bench a railing blackguard ; Decides off-hand that right is wrong, And reads the ten commandments backward." The legislation of the country, on the slavery question was of the most corrupt and deteriorating 224 Problem of Religious- Progress. character : whether we look at the local legislation of the several States, delivering over the blacks more and more completely, soul and body, to the most abject and debasing servitude, shutting out the means of enlightenment and amelioration al lowed in earlier periods ; of the legislation of Con gress, violating grave ordinances which had been declared final and unalterable, compromising and then violating compromises, bartering sacred hu man rights for the broth of office, entering into war with Mexico for the purpose of extending the area" of slavery, turning the whole North into a hunting- ground for slaves, and outraging the most palpable principles of law and justice in their arrest and re committal to slavery. Each and all these acts, from the great Missouri Compromise, through all the pro- slavery constructions placed upon the Constitution, to the infamous Kansas perfidy and crime, were not only destructive of good morals, but also posi tively barbarous and brutalizing in tendency — the abundant seed-sowing of the more recent outrages and atrocities in the Southern States. The pro- slavery theories, in their politico-moral bearings ; the Scripture vindication of slavery, in its religious bearing; the humiliating bondage of large ecclesi astical bodies to the slave power ; the loose sexual relations of the' whites with the slaves ; the almost entire absence of ethical inculcations in connection with the scanty religious instruction imparted to Morals. 225 the slaves, leaving them wholly undeveloped in moral ideas, and immoral in habits while ardent in religious sentiment; and the brutal severity prac ticed to hold in subjection the rapidly multiply ing serfs — were productive of an untold amount of moral impurity and deterioration. The statistics of homicides and other atrocious crimes in the South show that the pernicious pro- slavery seed-sowing of the century has produced a fearful harvest. According to the census for 1870, in North Carolina there was one violent death to every twenty-two thousand of population ; in South Car olina, one to nineteen thousand; in Georgia, one to ten thousand ; in Alabama, one to ten thousand ; in Florida, one to four thousand ; in Mississippi, one to nine thousand; in Louisiana, one to six thousand; in Arkansas, one to six thousand three hundred ; in Texas, one to two thousand five hundred. The ratio in the nine States is one in seven thousand three hundred; and, even excluding Texas, which shows such a horrible record, the proportion is one to nine thousand six hundred. At this rate the homicides in the whole United States should have exceeded forty thousand, or nearly twenty times as many as actually occurred. It may put these fig ures in a somewhat clearer light if we call attention to the fact that the homicides in Florida exceeded by two those in all the New England States ; that Louisiana exceeded those for the two most populous 226 Problem of Religious Progress. States — New York and Pennsylvania — combined; and that Texas alone records more than half as many murders as all the States that were loyal dur ing the war. " If statistics are good for any thing, these figures prove conclusively that a state of society existed in the South, previous to the passage of the Ku-Klux bill, which demanded interference. In a great sec tion of the country, comprising fourteen States, with a population of thirteen millions, life was so insecure that one in every ten thousand met death by pre meditated violence in one year, and a large propor tion of these, in at least twelve of the States, was traceable directly to an organization which aimed at political power through murder and robbery." Statistics recently collected in Kentucky, cover ing the period of about five years, (1874-1879,) in several counties, present a most appalling showing of high crimes and the laxity of law. Soon after the last decade opened there seemed to be a subsidence of the wave of savagery, and many felt hopeful in reference to the South, but a reflex soon followed. " The Chicago Tribune," Jan uary 7, 1892, gave the following exhibit of Negroes murdered by mobs : 1882.1883.1884. 1885.1886. 52 1887 39 1888 53 1889 77 1890 73 1 891 707295 100 169 M-A.:E= X. Showing States where Lynchings were Perpetrated in Six Years, (1888-1893.) See page 227. Morals. 227 Thoughtful men are now tabulating the cases of brutality — in less than six 3'ears "exceeding one thou sand, in three States one hundred and over in each. Lynchings in the United States* (1888 to 1893). Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana ...... Maine Maryland Massachusetts . . . Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire. New Jersey New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Arizona District of Columbia Indian Territory. . . New Mexico. ...... Oklahoma Territory Utah Total 1 26 255 1 37 9 80 40 5 17 3 26 20 10 5 1,045 These are statistics which chill the blood, and cause us to stand still and meditate, though a Southern writer, in a magazine, obtusely said : Nowadays, it seems, the killing of Negroes is not so extraor dinary an occurrence as to need explanation. It has become so common that it no longer surprises us. We read of such things, as we read of the fires that burned a cabin or a town. * From the "Christian Educator," January, 1894. 228 Problem of Religious Progress. Almost all the lynchings are the murder of Ne groes by white men ; and, running the eye through the table, we see where the murders occurred. None were in the New England States, or in New Jersey, or in the District of Columbia, or in Utah ; only one in Iowa, two in Minnesota, one in New York, one in Pennsylvania, and two in North Dakota. In the mining and frontier States and Territories there is much lawlessness. With all the immigra tion into the North, only sporadic instances of this kind are found. In the old slave States, and the States bordering upon them, the major part have occurred. ' Some one has summed uplhe murders of Negroes by mobs, in ten years, as follows : Charged with rape 269 " " murder 253 " " robbery 44 " " incendiarism 37 " " burglary 14 " " race prejudice 27 " " quarreling with white men 13 " " making threats 10 " " rioting 7 " " miscegenation 5 " "no reasons given 32 Tota. 701 One prominent Southern gentleman of high character explained these lynchings as " emotional insanity," but a Kentucky gentleman called it " premeditated insanity," and Senator Morgan, of Morals. 229 Alabama, said, it is the old case of "an inferior race crushed by a superior race." Bishop Haygood said, " Under the conditions of Southern life, it was inevitable that these crimes should be met by violent punishment, without law." For a verdict we refer the question to the jury of the wise, discriminating Christian public. The souls around Christian altars cry out, " How long, O Lord, how long," before the barbarism en gendered by slavery will pass away. Considered widely as a question of progress in morals, these cases of brutal treatment of Negroes should be com pared with what they suffered under the old slave rigime. , Thus viewed, "has not the total of bar barism been considerably diminished ? Thank God, the institution of slavery, a prolific source of de moralization, is dead — one of the great moral tri umphs of the nineteenth century. In due time, doubtless, under the widening and deepening sway of humane sentiments, the reign of barbarism will come to an end, but at present, says Hon. W. E. Chandler,* " the constitutional and natural rights of the Negroes are in danger of utter extinction, and the race must fight or it will relapse into a state worse than slavery, — theoretical rights of man hood and citizenship without any attempt to exer cise them. What lower state of mental and moral degradation can be imagined ! " * Letter to the colored men of Boston, Mass., September 1, 1894. 230 Problem of Religious Progress. Chastity and Divorce. The French infidelity, so prevalent in America at the close of the last and the beginning of the pres ent century, exerted a baleful influence upon social and domestic relations. Numerous facts might be ' cited, if the details were not so indelicate, showing the prevalence of the grossest licentiousness, in large sections of the country, and of unehastity, in slightly milder forms, in even the better communi ties. Shocking examples of indiscriminate sexual relations between parents and children, continuing for years without civil interference, not in the fes tering centers of the population, but in the sparser communities, might be cited, on the authority of regularly drawn and duly attested affidavits. Data now exist showing that rural towns in Massachu setts and Connecticut, of more than average thrift, rank, and intelligence, favored with the ministra tions of some of the most eminent and faithful di vines, were not exempt from this eviljthat enforced marriages were frequent, and that the Churches, much more frequently than in our days, were under the necessity of administering discipline for crimes against chastity. In large sections of the land newly settled, and either without Churches, ministers, and magistrates, or only scantily supplied, there was little or no civil or ecclesiastical recognition of matrimony, and men Morals. 23 1 and women assumed family relations without mar riage forms. These cases were very numerous. Some of our most eminent civilians were the fruits of the low habits prevailing in the beginning of this century. In the older portions of the land " runaways " from matrimonial relations were frequent. The stringency of the divorce laws gave little hope of relief from unhappy unions. The comparative se clusion of local communities, then not penetrated by railroads and telegraphs, and unvisited by ubiq uitous reporters, gave abundant opportunity for concealment and remarriage, even though removed but a short distance from a former residence. The newspapers of that time abounded in advertise ments of " runaway wives." A gentleman writing in 1815 said : " I cut out of all the newspapers we received the advertisements of all the ' runaway wives,' and pasted, them on a slip of paper, close under each other. At the end of a month the slip reached from the ceiling to the floor of a room more than ten feet high, and contained one hundred and twenty-three advertisements. We did not receive. at most, more than one-twentieth part of all the newspapers in the United States." Many, it is to be presumed, were not advertised, and we have no statistics of the runaway husbands. About 1824-1826 Robert Owen and Fanny Wright nearly simultaneously commenced their rad- 232 Problem of Religious Progress. ical- socialistic efforts, lecturing in all parts of the country, and inculcating the most disorganizing theories. It was a national excitement somewhat like that of a religious revival or a political cam paign. The movement organized eleven commu nistic societies within a few years, and scattered broadcast sentiments unfavorable to the dignity and permanence of the marriage relation. More recently, chiefly during the last forty years, a series of legislative acts, in numerous States, have removed the stringent restrictions upon divorce, and the separations of husbands and wives have become so numerous as to awaken much concern. " Beginning with Connecticut, we find Benjamin Trumbull, in 1785, mourning that 439 divorces had taken place in Connecticut within a century, and that all but 50 had occurred in the last 50 years. About twenty years later, when the corrupt influ ence of French infidelity had reached its height, President Dwight was alarmed that there was one divorce to every hundred marriages. The evil, how ever, seems nearly checked in increase until 1843, when ' habitual intemperance ' and ' intolerable cru elty ' were added to the two existing causes for di vorce. Even, then the increase was small. But in 1849 several causes were added, including the no torious ' omnibus clause,,', making nine in all, and jurisdiction was taken from the Legislature and given to the courts. That year divorces numbered Morals. 233 94; the next year, 129; and in 1864,426. Then for 15 years they averaged 446 annually, varying less from year to year than the reported births or marriages, or deaths. During this period the ra tio of divorces to marriages was 1 to 10.4. The re peal of the ' omnibus clause,' in 1878, reduced the divorces of the next year to 316. Another slight change in the law for the better was secured a year ago. " Vermont grants divorces for six causes. There were 94 divorces granted in i860, and from the close of the war they increased to 197 in 1878, with the ratio to marriages of 1 to 14. That year an amend ment to the laws resulted in a reduction of divorces in the year following to 1 26. " Rhode Island grants about 18b annually, and her ratio is 1 to 13. " New Hampshire prints no statistics either of divorce or marriage, but it has been found that there were 1 59 divorces in the entire State in 1 870 ; 240 in 1875, and 241 in 1878. Three counties, that had only 18 in 1840 and 21 in 1850, granted 40 in i860, and 96 in 1878. There are fourteen causes for divorce, but no more inclusive, probably, than those of most other States. " I do not know that the divorces of Maine have ever been reported. I have secured an examination of the county records in. that State giving the di vorces Of the 16 counties of the State for the year 234 Problem of Religious Progress. 1878. In these 16 counties there were 478 divorces in that year. It is also found that in the five coun ties giving the number for 1880, there was an in crease of more than one third in the latter year, from 166 to 223. Penobscot County granted 84 divorces last year. " And now take Massachusetts, which I have re served to the last, because she is the heart of New England, and for the facilities she affords for study ing this whole problem. This State, following closely English law, granted divorce for only two causes until i860. That year there were 243 di vorces, or 1 to 5 1 marriages. Then, by a series of acts passed, chiefly in 1 860, '67, '73, and "tj, the causes for absolute divorce became nine, copying a Connecticut vice just as Connecticut began to for sake it. In 1866 there were 392 divorces ; in 1870, 449; and in 1878, 600. The ratio to marriages, 1 to 51 in i860, became 1 to 21.4 in 1878. It is probable that in Massachusetts the increase still goes on. " If now we sum up for New England, there were in the year of grace 1878 in Maine 478 divorces; in New Hampshire, 241 ; in Vermont, 197 ; in Massa chusetts, 600 ; in Connecticut, 401 ; and in Rhode Island, 196; making a total of 2,113, and a larger ratio in proportion to the population than in France in the days of the Revolution. In France the ratio of separation to marriages, latterly, is about I to 1 50 ; Morals. 235 in Belgium, of divorce to marriages, I to 27o, with a few separations ; and in England, of petitions for both divorce and separation, 1 to 300. On the ba sis of population by the present census there was one divorce to every 1357 inhabitants in Maine ; one to about 820 in Penobscot County, the seat of a theological seminary ; one to every 1,443 m New Hampshire; one to every 1,687 in Vermont; one to every 2,973 in Massachusetts ; one to every 1,553 in Connecticut ; and one to every 1,411 in Rhode Island. But no State is likely to have a larger di vorce rate than Massachusetts, unless the laws and discussion speedily check the evil. " But the Catholic marriages are, in four States, 27 per cent, of the whole. Assuming what is very nearly true, that there are no divorces among these, the ratio of divorces to marriages among Protest ants is 1 to 1 1.7 for the four States together ; it be ing 1 to 15 in Massachusetts, 1 to 13 in Vermont, 1 to 9 in Rhode Island, and 1 in less than 8 in Connecticut. " But what of divorce in the West ? Has not this practice, in going West with the New En- glander, run into greater extremes ? Few States, if any, west of Ohio, collect statistics of divorce. In Ohio the ratio for many years averaged 1 to 25, and now it is about 1 to 18. Indiana has changed her laws for the better, while Illinois has, it is said, adopted better forms of procedure. No 16 236 Problem of Religious Progress. city has had a worse reputation in divorce than Chicago. Yet the records of Cook County, with a population of about 600,000, for the five years, 1875-79, show a ratio of divorce suits begun to marriage licenses taken out of 1 to 9.4. But for the year 1875 it was found that one fifth of the peti tions heard were denied. Making this allowance — and the more strict practice of later years fully jus tified it — the ratio becomes 1 to 12. Chicago is not as bad as Hartford or New Haven." * The last report f of Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor in Massachu setts, contains a very succinct resume" of the legislaT tion of that State in reference to divorce, since 1780. The divorce law of 1786 recognized only two causes for divorce — adultery: and impotency. Seven other causes have since been added — sentence to imprisonment at hard labor for five years or more, desertion for three consecutive years, separation with out consent, refusal to cohabit and union for three years with a religious sect or society holding the relation of husband and wife unlawful, extreme cruelty, gross and confirmed habits of intoxication, abusive treatmer t and neglect to provide. Under these general causes there have been other sub- * Monday Lecture delivered by Rev. Samuel W. Dike, of Royal- ton, Vt., in Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass., January 24, 1881, and published in full in the " Boston Traveler," January 25, 1881. Mr. Dike is a high authority in the matter of divorce statistics. \ January 7, 1880, pp. 199-235. Morals. 237 causes or specifications, for which complete or par tial separations have been granted. The statistics in this volume, gathered from the records of the Massachusetts courts, covering a period of nineteen years, .(1860-79,) show forty-four causes or speci fications in which the courts have granted 7,233 di vorces, of which the following is a condensed sum mary, under eight general heads : Desertion 3,013 Adultery 2,949 Intoxication 452 Extreme cruelty 375 Cruel and abusive treatment 223 Neglect to provide 154 Imprisonment. 50 Impotency. 17 " It will be observed," says Mr. Wright, " that but 3,016 of these 7,233 divorces were granted for causes that would have been valid even so late as half a century ago. ' Desertion ' was not admit ted as a cause for divorce at all until 1838, and not until after the passage of the law of 1857 could it be used to any considerable extent. ' Intoxica tion ' and ' cruel and abusive treatment ' came in with the revision of the laws of i860. Extreme cruelty ' and ' neglect to provide ' did not until 1857 become causes for which decrees of full divorce could.be entered. Practically, therefore, more than half of the whole number of divorces to which our tables refer were granted for causes that have come into legal existence within twenty-five years. . . . " Of 1,169 divorces granted to wives in the whole period, on account of ' intoxication,' ' extreme cru- 238 Problem of Religious Progress. elty,' ' cruel and abusive treatment,' and ' neglect to provide,' 985, or more than 84 per cent., were decreed within the last half dozen years. It would hardly do to assume that husbands have given so much greater cause of late than ever before for complaint in the directions indicated by these sev eral legal specifications. The explanation lies in the fact that certain material modifications of law took place in 1870 and 1873." Simultaneously with this increase of divorces there has been another serious fact, the decrease of the number of marriages. In Massachusetts, in 19 years, the average ratio was 1 divorce to about 36 marriages ; during the past 3 years, it was 1 to 23 marriages ; in Vermont, in 7 years, there were 730 divorces to 15,710 marriages, or 1 to 21; in Ohio, in 1866, 1,169 divorces to 30,479 marriages, or 1 to 27 ; in Connecticut, in 8 years, 2,910 di vorces to 33,227 marriages, or 1 to 11 ; in Rhode Island, 1 to 14. This subject is one of great importance, but, until within a very few years, satisfactory statistical data from which to draw conclusions has been wanting/ Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor, at Washington, D. C, has thoroughly investigated the subject, and issued a voluminous report of great research and value, (1889,) to which I refer those de siring to study this subject more extendedly. In the appendix of this volume will be found a table xsx.A.s-xa.A.M xx. Illustrating the Increase of Divorces in -ihe United States in Twenty Years, (1867-1886.) 1867 1870 1880 1886 (See pp. 238-241.) In 1867 9,737 divorces. " 1870 10,962 " " 1880 19,663 " " 1886 25,535 " Total in 20 years in United States, 328,716. Increase in States. Texas, from 91 to 1,326. • Ohio, from 901 to 1,889. New Jersey, from 60 to 286. Nebraska, from 10 to 436. Mississippi, from 40 to 504. See full table (XX) in Appendix. Morals. 239 (p. 710) which will help those unable to obtain Mr. Wright's volume. It gives the number of divorces in each State for 1867, 1870, 1880, and 1886, and the total divorces for twenty years. No statistics of divorce are given in the United States Census for 1890. In 1867, 9,937 divorces were granted in the United States. In 1886, 25,535 " Increase, in twenty years, 157 per cent, divorces. " " " 60 " population. Some States hold the unenviable distinction of having far outrun others in granting divorces. Population Total divorces in 1880. from 1867 to 1886. New York 5,082,871 15,355 Illinois 3,077,871 36,072 Wisconsin 1,315,497 9,988 Michigan... 1,636,937 18,433 Iowa 1,624,615 16,564 California 864,694 12,118 Michigan and Iowa with one third the popula tion of New York had from 1,209 to 3,078 more di vorces respectively, and Illinois, with three fifths of the population of New York, had nearly two and a half times as many divorces. Presuming that the reader will be interested to examine his particular locality, I give another table, from the same source : 240 Problem of Religious Progress. Per Cent, of Increase from 1870 to 1880 in Population and Divorces. [In cases where the minus sign is prefixed the figures represent a .decrease.] States and Territories. c0 §• Pi V 0 0> 3 States and Territories. (3 % *p p.0 At « 0 0 26.6 318.7 65.654-3 387-4 15-8 853.2 T7.234-8 43-5 30.2 117. 4 21. 1 17.7 36.0 '73-3 24.8 29-3 3-5 19.7 22.338.2 77-5 36.6=5-9 163.2 2,200.0 310.6 129.2733-3 — 16.0 (a) 400.0 6g.2 l6l. 4 114 4 81.621.675-6 179.7 54-i 263.3 68.152.447-3 107.4174.7 404-7 , 89-4 90.1 "267 .,8 4^-5 9.0 24.8 30.1 15-9 30.6 19.9 92.221.627.241.022. 5 94-4 65.8 o-S 23-4 «3>5 39-9 . 24-7 127.9 560.0 128.6 New Hampshire. . North Carolina... Ohio... n6.o 5J-7 700.0 14. 1 104.9 District of Columbia Florida .. 56.6 171. 9 Pennsylvania Rhode Island .... South Carolina. . . Tennessee 52.6 ft6 '39 -4 382.2 Utah 40.2 —IS -9 164. S West Virginia. . . . The United States 50.0 35-161. 5 30.1 79-4 a There were .no divorces in Dakota in 1870, and none in South Carolina in 1880 ; hence the percentages cannot be computed. The table shows that while the population of the United States increased 30.1 per cent, the divorces increased 79.4 per cent. Connecticut and Vermont decreased relatively. In Indiana divorces slightly increased upon the population, likewise in Kansas, while in New York the population increased 15.9 per cent., and the divorces only 14. 1. It is also desirable to know how the " movement of divorce " in the United States compares with that MORALS. 241 in European countries. Another table from the same source will show this tendency abroad : Divorces, 1867 to 1886, in Certain Countries of Europe. Countries. 1867. 1870. 187S. 1883. 1886. Austria Hungary Belgium Canada Denmark England and Wales. . Scotland Ireland France German Empire Alsace-Lorraine Baden Bavaria Hamburg Hesse Prussia Saxony Wurtemberg Italy Netherlands, The .... Norway Roumania Russia : Evangelical Augsburg " Reformed Greek Catholics . . , Finland Poland Sweden Switzerland 130 130 32 2,181 19 270 "28 396 94 133 147 163128 128 3 176 42 i",863 35 308 "28 493 97 554 156 33 130 4 735 195126 192 5 521 192 43 1 2,292 55 70 229 44 oii 149 186 19 323 166 3 1,065 55 215 181 1,267 295 5 613336 80 3 2,624 "82 56 145 33 615 226 3° 432 159 7 920 19 329217856 745 973 290 12 429 74 5 6,2466,161 138 100 245 225 75 3,902 981 144 556 339 186 6 1,106 63 338229920 700 862354 11 372 96 7 6,2116,078 117143 238287 53 3,808 917 161 418 188 I "02 345 226899 For the years left blank no statement was ob tainable. The foregoing countries grant both ab solute and limited divorces, and the figures are supposed to give both, except. Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Canada, (only absolute divorces,) Denmark, 242 Problem of Religious Progress. France, (limited for the whole period, and absolute only for 1880, 1885 and 1886.) In England, Wales, and Scotland, only absolute divorces are reckoned in the table. Similar peculiarities exist in many countries. The tables should be studied discriminatingly, , with reference to existing laws, in order to see how far the statistics throw light on the moral tone of society. Many subtle and underlying causes affect divorces in Europe — -even more complex than in this country, where much discrimination is neces sary in making up a judgment in respect to the moral status. It is impossible within the limits of this volume to follow out this investigation in all its phases; but it seems clear that a great social movement, in both this country and in Europe, has taken place contemporaneously, in the direction of increased divorces. Several considerations claim attention — I. The increase of divorces during the past forty years is an ominous symptom ; and, in even the most liberal view of the question, can but awaken concern for the permanence of social order and the stability of public virtue. 2. The comparison of the number of divorces with the number of marriages annually is not satisfac tory ; for the number of marriages varies with the prosperity of the country and other causes. The Morals. 243 financial embarrassments following 1873 have di minished the number of the marriages, while they have not reduced the number of the divorces ; and the larger facilities for obtaining divorces, granted in 1870 and 1873, is another cause not to be over looked in such an investigation. 3. Loose legislation in regard to the matrimonial relation is an evidence of a change in the type of morals and a modification of the moral standard. 4. Some divorces, now granted, are for causes which do not imply serious immorality, or for im moralities not new, and probably not so numerous or so serious as in former times. Hence, the mere fact of an increase of divorces does not imply an in crease of wickedness. 5. The divorces in our days, morally considered, count against the runaways from matrimony and the illegalized assumptions of marriage relations, quite extensive under the deleterious influences of French infidelity, less than one hundred years ago. The elopements and runaways now arc few in comparison with those of that period, less even than twenty-five years ago. Now, combining the runaways and divorces, we find no such condition of things as existed when one twentieth part of the newspapers, in a single month, contained one hundred and twenty-three advertisements of runa way wives. We have only to go back a few centuries to find 244 Problem of Religious Progress. the family a very different thing from what it is to day, with all the present evils. Out of what low conditions, before the Reformation, has it gradually risen into the dignity and purity with which we find it invested ! It is not long since wives were exposed for sale in England.* A gentleman in this country in 1815, having access to not a very large number of English sources of information, found in a single year thirty-nine instances of wives exposed to public sale, like cattle at Smithfield. In hotly contested elections, in places where a freeman's daughter con ferred the right to vote by marriage,f it was common for the same woman to marry several men. The ceremony over, the parties went into the church yard, shook hands over an open grave, saying, " now death do us part," and away went the man to vote with his new qualification, and the woman to quali fy another husband at another church. How have laws and customs pertaining to mar- * The following is an extract from an English publication : " Shrop shire. — The town of Ludlow lately witnessed one of those scenes to which custom has attached the character of lawful transactions in the minds of the lower classes. A well-looking woman, wife of John Hall, to whom she had been married only one month, was brought by him in a halter, and sold by auction in the market for two and sixpence, with the addition of sixpence for the rope with which she was led. In this sale the customary market fees were charged — toll, one penny; pitching, three pence." — New Monthly Magazine. for Sept., 1 8 14. f The qualifications for voting differed at different places. Bristol England, is here referred to. See " Espriella," by Southey. Morals. 245 riage been purified and improved! how much honor and influence is now accorded to woman ! how has the sacredness and sweetness of home-life been de veloped throughout Christendom ! This home sanc tuary still has its evils, but less numerous and in veterate than those which cursed the family before Protestantism arose. Numerous socialistic communities, organized in this country on an antimarriage basis, have nearly all disappeared ; and those remaining have aban doned the system of promiscuous sexual relations. The, recent change in the Oneida Community has received much attention, and is clearly the effect of the advancing moral sentiment of the nation. Impure Literature. The immorality of much of our current literature and its pernicious influence, deserves more atten tion than we can give it in the present limits. The number of trashy and sensational papers published in New York city alone has been stated* to be twenty-five, with an aggregate circulation of three hundred and thirty-six thousand copies weekly. Add to this vast number a reasonable estimate of the circulation of other papers of the same class, in other cities, and multiply the total by the average number of readers, say three or five to each copy of a paper, and we have an audience of several mill- * "National Quarterly Review," July, 1879. 246 Problem of Religious Progress. ions, chiefly boys and girls, young men and young women, to whom these papers minister intellectual food — with many, their only nutriment. These pa pers have been classified as bad, worse, worst. " The first class do not contain that which is ob scene or profane to any considerable extent, but are ¦ full of highly sensational stories. The titles of some of them, selected at random, indicate their char acter : ' Dashing Dolores, or Chincapin Dick on the Border,' ' Spider and Stump, the Plagues of the Village,' ' The Boy Pedestrian, or, Walking for a Life,' etc. The staple characteristic of these stories is the narrative of adventures. There is no real portrayal of character, no picturesque description, no pure sentiment — nothing but the recital of thrilling, blood-curdling adventure after adventure. Other stories in these papers recite in appropriate slang the tricks and practical jokes played by dar ing youngsters upon their parents and guardians. The distinction between the two lower classes of papers is a question simply of more or less. They have sensational stories, dealing largely with the relations of the sexes, together with illustrations of current events of a sensational character, portraits of burglars, murderers, and other criminals, and pictures of crime. In their reports of crime, espe cially those against purity, they enter into the min utest details, and they are spiced not infrequently with accounts of the doings in saloons and dance- Morals. 247 halls. The effect upon the reader, the ' Review ' writer observes, is as if he were put into constant companionship with criminals. Crime is not only made familiar to him, it is glorified, and his imag ination is stimulated until he is ready to imitate the adventures which have been painted for him in such brilliant colors." * The fruits of such reading were justly described by the writer already referred to : "The completed product, then, brought forth as the result of these publications, is a foul-mouthed bully, a cheat, a thief, a desperado, a libertine. Instead of a clean-minded, high-toned, honorable young man, not afraid of work, and knowing that whatever is of value in this world is gained by work — a young man of courage, in which the moral element is greater than the physical, a young man respecting the law and other men's rights, a young man worthy of the love of a good woman — we should have one who, when the fictitious gloss, the stage- tinsel, the mock-heroic glamor, had been rubbed off, would be found preferring to live by his wits rather than his labor; rotten at heart, and hence foul in speech ; as likely as not a betrayer of innocence : a pe'st and a plague in society." f It is seriously Reared that our public libraries foster rather than restrain the cravings for the sen- * Editorial in " Boston Journal," Aug. 2, 1879. f " National Quarterly Review " July, 1879. 248 Problem of Religious Progress. sational thus awakened. " The gravity of this ques tion was confessed in a recent congress of librarians, and the ratio of sensational fiction in the various libraries, (in some Sunday-school libraries,) is ad mitted to be ominously large, in spite of all that has been done to diminish it. The nature of the difficulty is illustrated by the fact that the Hartford librarian recently reported that one boy had taken out one hundred and two story books in six months, and one girl one hundred and twelve novels in the same time." This is a great and subtle evil. A New York judge, recently interviewed, traced a great deal of the current crime to the influence of the flashy and sensational story papers. But, besides, there are the dime novels, cheap song books, et id omne genus, turned out by the ton, and equally unhealthy to morals. Nor should we fail to specify the perni ciously illustrated weeklies. While fully accepting these facts, and in no sense depreciating their importance, we must not forget that the Christian public are fully aroused to resist this evil. It is being assailed by the pulpit, the press, the schools, and the public lectures, and or ganized movements have been formed against it. An immense work has been accomplished by that ever-to-be-honored champion of reform, Mr. An thony Comstock, in protecting society against this malignant foe, and a better sentiment is becoming Morals. 249 apparent — of itself, we may hope, to prove a salu tary safeguard. But great as is this evil, it is only a slight blem ish upon the vast mass of the general literature of our times, the character of which, as compared with previous centuries, has immeasurably im proved. Where do our times furnish novels of the vicious character of those of Smollett, Fielding, and their company? And yet such books were read by all classes in their day, in the higher as well as the lower ranks of English society. Where are our poets who babble loudly of vice " in dainty verse," as did Pope, Moore, Byron, etc. ? A writer in "Blackwood's" recently said : "Pope's most melo dious, correctest couplets were interspersed with lines which would damn for ever and ever any modern poetaster." Another said : " It is now necessary to prepare expurgated editions of Shakspeare and of Dryden if we would introduce them into our families. Coming down almost to our own days, compare the works of Lord Byron and of Tom Moore with the works of Tennyson and of Longfellow. Here is the title of one of De Foe's most popular works, so much of it as decency will allow us to quote ; ' Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, who was born in Newgate, and during a Life of Con tinued Variety for Threescore Year, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Harlot, Five Times 17 250 Problem of Religious Progress. a Wife, whereof once to her own Brother, Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a transported Felon to Virginia, at last grew Rich, lived Honest, and died a Penitent.' Such a book, reaching the widest cir culation of any book of its time, reveals the state of public morals." * We are scarcely out of the wake of the influence exerted by a distinguished French woman, who, as a prolific writer, ran a famous career. Daring and gifted, she waged war for many years against social decencies and religious belief. The productions of her pen were scattered by millions, depraving the taste, engendering doubt in its most radical forms, and impelling many to flagrant evils. The tone of society was vitiated beyond remedy in a genera tion. But it is due to Madame Dudevant (George Sand) to say that in her later years she greatly modified her views, changed her course, and, in some measure, helped to correct the evils of her former life. She tried to come to terms with Christianity, avowed a species of quasi faith in its system, and, it is said, took refuge at death in the pale of the Church. We cite her case as a typical one, for she was eminently representative, not merely as a woman, but of the genius of France. As a producer of impure literature she has had no successor who has at all ranked with her in power * Editorial in "The Christian Advocate," New York city, No vember 30, 1876. Morals. 251 for evil, nor do we believe it possible with the present temper of literary criticism for another writer to achieve such a notoriety. What an effective expression of social morality, is the recent rejection of Colonel Breckenridge, of Kentucky, by his constituents. Crime. The subject of crime should not be overlooked in these inquiries, for the study of morals cannot be dissociated from the study of crime. Moralists and legislators mutually influence each other. Un der advancing conditions of society the moral lapses of one generation become the criminal offenses, of another, and deeds once praiseworthy become pun ishable. In the progress of an ever-expanding civ ilization, religious beliefs, theories of ethics, science, the growth of commerce and trade, and whatever affects the moral tone of society, exert an influence upon criminal legislation. Many complain of the recent growth of great evils, but we believe that great crimes are relative ly less, both in this country and in Europe, than before the present century, and that piety and morality are higher than ever before, except in the earlier periods of a few of the American colonies, when, of course, the condition was anom alous, and would not fairly admit of such a com parison. 252 Problem of Religious Progress. The difficulty in the way of comparing the crime of the past with that of the present is the want of sufficient exact data. No single individual has had the needed amount of personal observation, at once comprehensive and minute, and the public statistics of previous periods are too scattering and imperfect to form a definite basis for calculation. The amount and character of crime against society, as recognized by the police, may be assumed as a pretty good standard of the public morality ; but even that is confessedly imperfect, and mostly lim ited to quite recent dates. Perfect statistics of criminal jurisprudence, for any given State or city, or for the whole country, through the successive decades of a century, cannot now be obtained, and, .even if they could be, some abatements and modi- fications, suggested by collateral facts, would be found necessary. During the past twenty or thirty years considerable improvement has been made in collecting and arranging criminal data, some of which will be introduced in this discussion. But it is too palpable to be disguised, nor are we disposed to do so, that great crimes have been shockingly frequent since the close of the late civil war. The large cities have become centers of crime, where it multiplies, and often claims im punity. Lechery riots and putrefies, groggeries keep open on Sunday in the face of worthless offi cials, filthy performances draw crowded audiences Morals. 253 to theaters, and elaborately furnished gambling hells flourish unnoticed. The larger cities are ba bels of manifold crimes, in crowding regiments, be sieging and threatening the very existence of law and order. Grave charges have been made, with too much truth, we fear, against the official guardians of law and order, in our larger cities, as the aiders and abettors of crime. The report of the Legislative Committee in New York, in 1875, appointed to in- vestigatejhe conduct of the officials of New York city, gave a startling picture of the demoralization of the police, the offices of the District Attorney, the Coroner, and the Sheriff, the Prisons, and the Reformatories. Even the detective force, under Captain I , was described as a band of skillful and treacherous robbers, who, when in lack of sub jects, robbed and betrayed each other, to keep their hands in." We cannot pause to give even a tithe of the deplorable facts developed by this commit tee, nor need we speak, in detail of similar things elsewhere. Nor in the larger cities only. The rural com munities, also, have furnished cases of daring atroc ity. Crimes against life and property have seemed to move in waves, sometimes for a few months, coming with shocking frequency. The newspapers have freely discoursed of " The Reign of Violence." " The Era of Blood," " The Carnival of Crime," 254 Problem of Religious Progress. and sounded notes of alarm. An editor, not given to sensationalism,* said, " The problem revealed in such developments of the murderous propensity is certainly one calculated to justify the profoundest anxiety of every thoughtful citizen, not only be cause the evil has reached alarming proportions, but because the mere fact of prevalence begets a sort of social influenza, which becomes a distinct and additional source of crime." The editor of one of our largest religious news papers has thus summed up these complaints against the crimes of our times : " To bring the whole case before us, let us cata logue the crimes, charges, criminations and recrim inations, and the conflicting convictions concerning public affairs. So much has been poured into the public ear that disheartened men are not a few. Many charges have been urged on both sides with a view to make them public convictions. We will emphasize them, then analyze them. It is trum peted abroad that distrust,, the forerunner of de struction, fills the very air ; that virtue herself veils her face, lest an idolatrous multitude should brand her as a hypocrite ; th,at even integrity weeps at the bar of the public judgment, waiting for a vindi cation by events. It is said that every place of public trust is polluted ; that thieves in the public treasury consort with criminals in the halls of jus- * The " Boston Journal." Morals. 255 tice ; that creatures, wearing the badges of honora ble and ancient orders, fawn about the steps of power that they may barter the secrets of friend ship for the booty of conspirators ; that the slime of corruption has reached the most holy place, till avenging angels seem to guard the very approaches to the mercy-seat. But what is worse than all else, the very efforts at reform are alleged to be con ceived in sin and born in iniquity. Partisans seek not criminals, but victims. If any scrap of honor remains in public, life it attracts assault. " Liars and informers and thieves can fatten at the public expense, to secure room for greater crimes. Language can do but poor justice to the case when men who have plundered the treasury are the sole protectors of the government they failed to bankrupt and overthrow. If these things be true, it is no wonder that the air is full of accusa tions. In the last year we have seen thirty-seven investigating committees appointed apparently to slander political antagonists whose demerit is, at the worst, only equal to that of their persecutors. We have nearly three hundred indictments for offenses that were fatal to honor. Over seventy have pleaded guilty to crimes that involve the hon or of a vast net-work of officers. ;,The case is summed up in a few terribly dark characters. Public integrity is said to be lost in the sewer where politicians are spawned ; so that all 256 Problem of- Religious Progress. turpitudes in public servants are accounted' for, if not justified, by the use of the single terrh politic clan.' Public trust, that at once partakes of the honor of the citizen arid the fidelity of the father, rests as lightly on the political conscience as the passing shadow of. a summer cloud. Office is said to mean opportunity for spoils. Justice is called a cat-o '-nine-tails with the stock end in the hand of the great criminals, while the small rogues and helpless victims dance at its business end. Faith in eternal verities is said to stumble over its own deserted altars, strangled by the profligacy of its own priests. Private fortunes are thought to be in perpetual peril from the treachery of personal friends as well as from the assaults of organized bands of .plunderers." * Astounding cases of defalcation, forgery, and other offenses against trust and honor, involving in heavy crime men of highest respectability, of lofty religious profession, pillars of Churches,; and conspicuous in Christian and charitable labors, have been the most painful and staggering to public con fidence of all the recent developments. While set ting their hands to deeds for which they now lie in penitentiaries,. they were " repeating every Sabbath the prayers of the Church ; singing songs hallowed by the voices of martyrs; giving freely of stolen goods to Christian benevolences; and seemingly *" Christian Advocate," New York city, Nov. 30, 1876. Morals. 257 delighting in deeds of charity more than in hoard ing gold. So tortuous, serpentine, and idiotic, under the wiles of evil, have consciences become." Faith less officials have lived in splendid mansions, driven fast horses, and traveled in foreign lands, on the money of poor people, putting industry and econo my at a discount. The effect of these oft-repeated defalcations has been fearfully cumulative. Sermons, homilies, scathing editorials, public and social indignations, have multiplied, inculcating virtue, protesting against venality, and warning of the consequences of dishonesty. Then straightway one supposed to be incorruptible takes a hand in the unequal game, and surprises the public with a fresh example of perfidy and ruin. Within a brief period a single New England city has furnished a half-dozen illus trations of defaulters in high social and religious positions. No theory fully accounts for the recent increase of crime. Sometimes it is said to be owing to the infusion of a large immoral foreign population into the country ; but the next moment we hear of some horrid atrocity by a native American of education and good social- standing. Then we talk of the cities as the peculiar abodes of crime ; but the next day a quiet rural district furnishes a case which for savagery matches anything perpetrated in the viles| haunts of the large centers. It is impossible tp go. 258 Problem of Religious Progress. to the deepest root of homicidal crime, for it in volves " some of the most occult and difficult prob lems of mental and moral psychology." Malignant ulcers, horrid deformities, and infectious distempers have always afflicted the highest civilizations, and probably will continue to do so. We have given the alleged demoralization so much prominence and emphasis that we may do full justice to many palpable facts, and lest we should seem to unduly eulogize the present age. But a broad and discriminating analysis of these unfavorable aspects of our times, in the light of previous times, will throw a clearing light upon the page, and show that the indications are not doleful but hopeful ; that some are temporary reactions un der temporary causes ; that others are eddying cir cles in the stream of progress; others, first, and probably transient, out-puttings of new and imma ture stages of civilization ; and that, whatever shad-. ows here and there may darken the picture, its average light and beauty are immeasurably greater than in former days. There are many weighty considerations which shed an alleviating light upon the situation. First of all, it must be borne in mind that a large part of the increase of crime is apparent rather than real. It is not simply that more crimes are com mitted, but more are reported. " We read about defalcations and rascalities, but we forget that we Morals. 259 skim the whole creation every morning and put the results in our coffee. Years ago a crime had to be of unusual proportions to make its way into an ad joining State. Only the giant crimes could cross the continent. But now we see and know every thing." " The ubiquitous reporter," says the editor of the "Boston Journal," (July 11, 1879,) ">s responsible for the gloomy showing. His note-book and pen cil are every-where, and -the telegraph is the ready agent for transmitting news to all parts of the world. The scope of the press has vastly broad ened of late years, and its facilities for collecting news are immensely multiplied. We have had the curiosity to look back over some early files of ' The Journal,' in order to show by comparison the change which has taken place. Selecting an issue of the paper at random, in July, 1850, we find that out of thirty-two columns contained in the paper precisely one third of a column is taken up with telegraph hews, and two thirds of a column with local news, half of the latter space being devoted to an account of tenement-house life on Fort Hill. Of actual news, gathered by reporters and by telegraph, the paper contained hardly more than half a col umn. ' The Journal ' of that day was not less enterprising than its contemporaries ; but journal istic ideas and ideals were altogether different. The newspaper reader then was content with the narrow 26b Problem of Religious Progress. horizon which his paper supplied him, and troubled hiniself very little about matters which went on at a distance. The newspaper editor presented news as it happened to come, and when it came, and was not given to making special exertions for procuring it. How different this is from the journalism of to day, with its net-work of agencies, embracing the most insignificant places and the most remote quar ters of the world ; with its complex facilities and mighty rivalries ; with its special correspondents here, there, and every-where — scouring the deserts of Central Asia, exploring Africa, watching the mil itary movements in Zululand, and even going out in quest of a way to the North Pole — we hardly need say. The editor of thirty years ago would have stood aghast at the expenditures for news collecting necessary to a journal of to-day. But we may note, in passing, that in the scanty space devoted to news in the issue of July, 1850, to which we refer, we find mention of nine crimes." What proportion of crime is apparent' and what is actual cannot be satisfactorily answered. Our bureaus of statistics are preparing materials which may at some time assist us. Unquestionably, more crimes are now committed than twenty or thirty years ago. But during this period great changes have taken place in the composition of our popula tion. It must be evident to all that as society develops Morals. 261 life becomes more rapid and intense, and the liabil ity to break down under overstrain increases, with those naturally frail or ill-balanced ; but such fail ures do not indicate a general deterioration of morals. An over-wrought civilization will exhibit some painful features. The high nervous tension characteristic of our times easily slips into some form of derangement or aberration, or enfeebles self- control, and makes men easy victims of temptation and passion, to which in a truly normal condition they would not have succumbed. " I believe," said an English writer, " it may hold true that any period of great mental activity in a nation will be prolific of crime. The Greeks were sad knaves; that is to say, there were sad knaves among them ; and so, God knows, there are in England, at the present day of free trade and swift intercommunica tion, stimulating mental activity into rapid, perhaps morbid, action. The knavery of the Italian repub lics was enormous — hidden from us, however, to some extent by their astounding ruffianism. Mac- chiavelli, Guicciardini, and a host of other writers, show how deeply the depravity of actual, life had corroded all moral principles. The theory of the Italians was worthy of their practice, and their practice of their theory. Yet what marvels of in tellect they were — intellect in all its branches!" Another effect of advanced civilization is that the higher the taste is cultivated the fewer pictures do 262 Problem of Religious Progress. we see which challenge admiration. A nearer in spection of the Fenelons, Madame Guyons, Augus- tines, etc., would present points of criticism to us which did not arrest attention in their age ; and future ages may exalt into first-class saints some of the average saints of to-day. In talking of the enormous wickedness of large cities, sufficient allowance is not made for the pal pable fact that large aggregates of population neces sarily concentrate and intensify large aggregates of evil. In the year 1800 the population of London did not vary much from the present population of New York city; but the amount of crime and the criminal population of London at that time far ex ceeded these elements in New York at the present time. Colquhoun's " Police of London " furnished ample statistics of London crime eighty years ago. The number of offenses designated as " high crimes," in a single year, was 10,880 ; * and the number of * Later statistics of the police and ciime of London : In 1831 the population comprised within the metropolitan police district of Lon don was 1,468,442, and the number of police was 3,341. In 1878 the population was 4,534,040, (" British Almanac and Companion," 1880, p'. 131,) and the police numbered 10,477. The ratio of increase was nearly the same in both. The Chief Commissioner's Report for 1878 ("British Almanac and Companion," 1880, p. 273) shows : Arrests 83,746 Summarily convicted or held for trial 57,038 Subsequently discharged after trial'. 817 Total convicted 56,221 Morals. 263 persons living by " different sorts of villainy regu larly carried on" was 119,500, or one for eveiy nine inhabitants. These figures were the results of " long experience and minute inquiries " by Mr. Colqu- houn, and " did not include every kind of fraud and dishonesty practiced." We do not believe our national metropolis, with all its corruptions, can produce such a record. But the forces of geod are relatively more numerous, active, and powerful in large populations than in smaller. Virtue also ag gregates and concentrates in large populations. What powerful centers of moral, reformatory, and religious agencies, of world-wide influence, are New York and London, and how vastly more so, too, relatively, than eighty or a hundred years ago. The period 1865 to 1880 compared favorably with other post-bellum periods. Wars are the pro lific causes of moral deterioration, deadening and brutalizing the finer sensibilities, cheapening the estimate of human life, and introducing an era of fictitious prosperity, greed, and extravagance. But, as compared with other periods and people, we hardly know what luxury means, as might be demonstrated by scraps gathered from the ancient Of this number 16,227 were cases of drunkenness, leaving 39,994 oases of more serious offenses, in a police district containing 4,534,- 040 inhabitants, or one for 113 inhabitants. But, according to Mr. Colquhoun, as cited above, in 1800, with a population of 958,863, there were 10,880 "high crimes,'- or one for 89 inhabitants. This is an indication of progress. 264 Problem of' Religious Progress. and modern world. Roman luxury squandered in a single dinner amounts equal to many modern for tunes ; Roman youths of seventeen summers needed from three to five millions of dollars " to make them even ; " vast Roman estates often changed hands for the merest trifle, to gratify pride or appetite ; Ro man freedmen purchased three hundred thousand dollar ^estates from desperate debauchees, for one hundred dollars ready money; Mark Anthony squandered three quarters of a billion of the public money ; in Roman thoroughfares tables were pub licly spread with money for the purchase of votes ; in the Roman baths thousands of men and women were abandoned, without shame, en masse, to the lowest crimes. These are a few citations showing the demoralization following successful Roman wars. Coming nearer to our own times, we look at En gland after the Restoration, and find Hobbes pub licly teaching that the will of the king is the ground of right and wrong, and the standard of morals, under such doctrine, the lowest, perhaps, of any court since the days of the Csesars. Even " the Re stored Church was powerless, because it had driven out the Puritans to make room for itself. Saved by the sinners of that age from the saints, it could do little or nothing to correct the evils that flooded the land." * His fifteen illegitimate children en- * See editorial in "Christian Advocate," New York city, Nov. 30, 1876, from which some of these citations are made. . Morals. 265 dowed and ennobled by Parliament, the king aban doned himself to his score of vile mistresses. Squandering upon his sons public money raised for a war against Holland, he was still in want; and, in spite of his plundering of the treasury, was destitute of linen, his unpaid grooms having carried it off for their pay. The typical periods of a previous chapter furnish ample facts, which may be cited, showing our more favorable condition, even in this post-bellum period. The recent period of financial straits, depressing ousiness, closing up large manufacturing and mechan ical establishments, and throwing out of employment several hundred thousand men, in all parts of the country, has been one of the most productive causes of crime. Great crimes often spring, not so much from vicious purposes, as from downright idleness. The unemployed have not far to go before they tumble into dangerous pitfalls, or are drawn into fatal allurements. It is easy enough fof vice to come from having nothing to do. It is to be feared that the sensational and detailed accounts of crime, which some journals publish, awaken a morbid emulation amOng the criminally disposed, arid suggest acts which might not other wise be thought of. Thus a murderer becomes an object of interest as soon as he is arrested. Ladies weep in the court room when he is tried ; and 18 266 Problem of Religious Progress. when he is condemned heaven and earth are moved to save him from the gallows. Leniency in sentences and flagrant abuse of the pardoning power have diminished the restraint upon crime. The laws are right, but a maudlin sentimentalism has interfered with their execution. Take away the fear of pun ishment, and the criminal classes become rampant. There has also been too much disposition to speak of successful crime as "smartness." Great swindlers have been exalted above ordinary pil ferers and pickpockets. The perverted popular moral sense has honorably discriminated in favor of Wall-street gamblers over the denizens of the gambling " hells." Our greatest and meanest criminals have been the "game "men to the people, " chiefs " of the " rings," " sachems " of Tammany. Their very ef frontery has been a species of heroism. Such things indicate low commercial morality, and have exerted a deteriorating influence. But this spell has been broken, and we are doing better. A better moral sentiment aroused the people ; the " sachem " was compelled to succumb to the majesty of law ; and now no position, however sacred, shields from arrest and conviction. The influence of the large foreign immigration dur ing the past fifty years, infusing lower and antago nistic moral elements into our population, has been several times incidentally alluded to, as a cause of X> X .A. <3-X& -&.:*£ III. Immigration into the Uniteej States in Ten Years, (1885-1894.) YEARS AUSTRIA- HUNGARY X I-&.<3-K-&-3S£ XTT. Immigration into the United States in One Year. (1893.) ^tal, islfi'1'2' Total, 3 15,84-5 Morals. 267 much of the moral decline which has been apparent. This new and heterogeneous element has been a large one, sufficient to impart a changed aspect to American society. Between 1850 and 1880 eight millions of foreigners, a number nearly equal to one third of the total increase of our population during that period, were added to our people. Their im mediate offspring, partaking fully of the same ideas and habits, have swelled the number to nearly one half of our total increase. So large an addition of people of loose moral culture has been a severe strain upon our morals. Their drinking habits have given a new impulse to the use of alcoholic liquors, and their holiday-Sabbath habits have exerted an evil influence on our communities, relaxing the sanctity of the Lord's day. French and German Communists have become a serious element of troub le, and may yet tax our virtue and wisdom more severely. The people of foreign extraction in New England, constituting twenty per cent, of the popu lation in 1870, furnished seventy-five per cent, of New England crime — probably also true of other sections of the country. This is the testimony of United States official statistics. And yet it is idle to say that our greatest crimes are committed by escaped criminals from Europe. We must confess that people of our own nursing commit a large share of the flagrant offenses: that maelstroms of vice in our midst are ready 268 Problem of Religious Progress. to engulf newly arrived immigrants ; that we have done comparatively little to throw around these new comers saving moral influences ; and that we have allowed multitudes of children from Ireland, Ger many, and Italy, of parents too poor or depraved to care for them, to become waifs, to grow up with out any purposes higher than brutal indulgence, and to swell the terrible aggregate of our criminal classes. And, further, it must be acknowledged that our rural population furnishes a considerable per cent. of our gross criminals. The excitements and variety of city life attract young men from the country, to become victims of evil, and rapidly descend the terrible gradations of crime. But it is also a very noticeable and encouraging fact, that large portions of our foreign population have very greatly improved in morals and intelli gence since they came among us. Even those representing the Roman Catholic Church have changed for the better by inhaling the atmosphere of Protestant society ; and hence American Roman ism exhibits a higher moral type than European Romanism. Italian and Spanish Romanism could not exist in the United States. Among these signs of moral elevation may be mentioned the purchase of houses, farms, and lands, in all portions of the country, by industrious and economical for eigners, and the enrollment of one hundred thou sand Irishmen in total abstinence societies. Morals. 269 May it not be said that we have endured the heavy strain upon our moral forces from so large and sudden a foreign increment quite as well as could be expected, and that the improving indica tions now warrant the hope that, after another score of years, with due effort by those already arousing and concentrating for the work, we may see a still higher moral development ? The latest statistics indicate a decrease in crime in the largest cities. In Boston, where about twenty years ago murders were so frequent, t fewer homi cides have occurred during the last five years. The report of the Police Justices for 1880, in New York city, contained encouraging facts. While the city population had increased over seventy thousand in the years 1875 to 1880, crime had diminished more than twenty-five per cent. This improvement was attributed to a growing temperance sentiment, the discouragement of willful pauperism by systematic charities, the enforced attendance upon schools, the punishment of truancy by the civil authorities, the relative decrease in the foreign immigration from 1875 to 1880, the widely extending mission work among the most degraded population, and the increase of the practical activities of the Churches. And yet a sufficient amount of crime remained, in startling and destructive forms, to tax all the vir tues and efforts of the better portion of society for higher progress. 270 Problem of Religious Progress. A common misconception often leads to hasty and improper conclusions in regard to the preva lence of crime. Statistics of crime are often ac cepted, without the needful discrimination in re gard to the progress of criminal legislation, which is constantly increasing the number of offenses cog nizable by law. The figures themselves, accepted without discrimination, show an apparent increase of crime, when much of the increase is affected by legislation. " Civilization has raised many things formerly considered perhaps as immoral, and as offenses against moral law, into well-defined crimes, and subject to punishment as such. The result is, we are constantly increasing the work of criminal courts, by giving prosecuting officers new fields to canvass, and by adding to the list of offenses defined as crimes. The number of sentences is thus in creased comparatively."* " The number of offenses designated as crimes by the criminal code of Mas sachusetts largely exceeds that of other States ; for instance, the statutes of Massachusetts compre hended, in i860, one hundred and fifty-eight offenses punishable as crimes, while the code of Virginia for the same year recognized but one hundred and eight,, or fifty less. The same is true, to a greater or less extent, of nearly if not quite all the other States." t * " Eleventh Annual Report, Bureau of Statistics of Labor, State of Massachusetts," Jan., 1880, p. 193. f Ibid., p. 178. Morals. 271 This tendency of civilization, by legislative enact ments to increase the list of offenses recognized as crimes, must be kept distinctly before our minds. when the present is compared with the past. In earlier times many serious offenses against individual, social, and public welfare were hardly elevated into the dignity of crimes. In large circles of men killing was no murder, taking no robbery, the violation of a woman no rape, in the modern sense. Further on, robber chieftains were tolerated even by governments which enacted laws for the suppression of robbery and violence. From these lower conditions the law of improvement can be traced, restricted to no class or race, but wide as the range of history. It is seen in the progress of language, and the progressive significance of words, as well as in statutory legislation. The times are not very remote when brave law breakers not only believed themselves good men and true, but even had the sympathy of large numbers of their fellow-countrymen. In the history of crim inal legislation in England, says the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," " we find the ideas of the primitive tribesmen steadily resisting the advance of civiliza tion, retreating very slowly from position to posi tion, and rarely yielding one without a long and desperate struggle." " The crime of forcible entry hardly ceased to be common before the eighteenth century. When valor was the greatest or only vir- 272 Problem of Religious Progress. tue, one clan took land by force from another." "Long after this half-savage condition of society it remained a maxim of the English law, that there was no legal possession of land without actual seisin." "~As late as the reign of William IV. the fiction of a forcible entry continued to be one of the chief implements of the, conveyancer's art." "The modern security of life and property of every description represents the triumphs of new ideas over old. . . . Fraud has never increased with the increase of trade and civilization. It in fected commerce at the very beginning, and ex isted during the darkness of the Middle Ages in every form then possible. It may, and it sometimes does, assume new shapes, as society groups itself anew, as occupations and the relations of man to man are changed. . . . With infinite difficulty has civilized mankind so far gained the victory oyer its own primitive nature as to concur, with some approach to unanimity, in reprobation of the forger- monk, the brigand-knight, and the man who regarded a woman as a chattel and a tempting object for appropriation." " It is most necessary to bear in mind the con trast between the habits and ideas of one period and pf another, if we wish to estimate correctly the position of the criminal in modern society, or the alleged uniformity of human actions to be dis covered by statistics. There is, no doubt, some Morals. 273 truth in the statement that in a modern civilized country — Great Britain, for example — the statistics of one year bear a strong resemblance to the statis tics of another in many particulars. But a little reflection leads to the conclusion that there is noth ing at all marvelous in such coincidences, and that they do not prove human nature to be unalterable, or circumstances to be unchangeable. They only show, what might have been predicted beforehand, that human beings of the same race, remaining in circumstances approximately the same, continue to act upon nearly the same motives and to display nearly the same weaknesses. The statistics of a quarter of a century, of half a century, even of a whole century, (if we could have them complete for so long a period,) could -tell us but little of those subtle changes in human organization which have come to pass in the lapse of ages, and the sum of which has rendered life in Britain, in the nineteenth century, so different as it is from life in the sixth. ... If, for instance, we look at the statistics of homicide and suicide in England during any ten recent years, we perceive that the figures of any one year very little exceed or fall below the general average. Yet no inference could be more erroneous than that homicide has always borne the same proportion to population in England as at pres ent ; for in the reign of Edward III. there were, in proportion to population, at least sixteen cases of 274 Problem of Religious Progress. homicide to every one which occurs in our own time,"* If we take the whole of Christendom into consid eration, we shall doubtless find far less crime than in pagan and uncivilized countries, but the aggregate of offenses in this more favored portion of the world has. become hideous and alarming, demonstrating the need of greater forces or better administration than now exist for their suppression. The first at tempt to collect and publish statistics of crime was in France, in 1826, followed by England in 1835, and later by other nations. The exhibits for France are terrible. From 1826 to 1 880 her population increased only from 31,000,000 to 37,000,000, but the trials for adultery multiplied ninefold; rape on children increased from 136 per annum to 809 ; assassinations from 197 to 239 ; arson from 71 to 150, and infanticide from 102 to 219. In the leading European countries, in seven years, (1881 to 1887,) the annual average of homicides was :f Austria .... . . 689 Hungary 1,231 Spain 1,584 Italy 3,606 Germany 577 France 847 Belgium 132 Holland 35 England 318 Scotland 60 Ireland 129 Total, yearly. 9,208 Mr. Lea (" Forum," August, 1894) says, the most efficient of all causes leading to the increase of * " Encyclopedia Britannica." Ninth edition. Vol. vi. Article, " Crime." * f Henry Charles Lea, in "Forum," August, 1894. Morals. 275 crime is " the humanitarian movement which is so marked a feature of the present century. The re action against the barbarism' bequeathed to us by the Middle Ages — a reaction led by Beccasia in criminal jurisprudence, and by Howard in prison discipline — has not been without its serious draw backs. Punishments have been mitigated, while methods of procedure have been adopted, which in their efforts to avoid injustice to the innocent afford impunity to the guilty, or so protract the trial that the deterrent influence of speedy justice is lost." A weak or corrupt working of the jury system, and great hesitation about bringing on the trials, are cited by Mr. Lea as other causes working evil to public order: Thus in France, in 1887, out of 459,319 complaints, 239,061, or more than half, were pigeon-holed. Unlike the English, the Continental jury is not required to be unanimous ; its decisions are reached by secret ballot, in which a tie acquits, and a blank or illegible ballot is counted for ac quittal In Italy no execution, gave in the army, has taken place since 1876, and the death penalty was finally abolished as useless, (in 1891,) as it has likewise been in Holland, Portugal, Roumania, and practically in Belgium and Switzerland. In the other States, the following curious table, quoted by Professor Ferri from the Howard Atheneum, shows how tender are the Continental nations in the judi cial shedding of blood : 276 Problem of Religious Progress. Country. Period. Condem nations. Execu tions. Country. Period. Condem nations. Execu tions. Austria 1870-79 1870-791868-77 1869-78 1868-77 1870-79 806. 198 291 32 94 249 z6' 93 126 3 1 7 N. Germany. Australia and New Zealand 1869-781860-791860-791860-79 1870-79 484 665 6640 453 z 372 36 *5 123 It will be noticed that the figures for England, Scotland, and Ireland comprise twenty years each, and the others only ten years each. " British severity, as illustrated by these figures," says Mr. Lea,* "may perhaps explain how England has held crime in check." Great Britain, during the last fifty years, has indeed led the world in the difficult task of repressing high crimes. We have no statistics of crime in Great Britain prior to 1840, but the following tables, collated from English sources,f show a great improvement since that time : The Higher Class of Criminal Convictions. Average for three years. t England and Wales. Scotland. Ireland. 1 840-1 842 . . .. 23,980 2,907 IO,Il8 1850-1852 . . . 21,140 3.150 13,979 1860-1862 . ¦• 13,753 2,508 3,348 1870-1872 . .. 11,920 2,28l 2,623 I880-1882 . . . 11,422 1,940 2,445 1890-1892 . • ¦ 9.301 1,843 1,214 United Kingdom. 37,005 38,269 19,609 16,824 15,807 12,358 * The entire article of Mr. Lea, in the " Forum," is of great inter est and value. f " Financial Reform Almanac," " Whitaker's London Almanac," and the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." Ninth edition. % The average of these years in each period is taken, because in some single years the number is exceptionally large or small. Illustrating tub Decrease of High Crimes in the British Isles since 1840. ENGLAND AND WALES. SCOTLAND. IRELAND. UNITED KINlDnM 1840-42 , 1850-52 1860-62 1870-72 1880-82 1890-92 See pp. 276-77. Morals. 277 The following table will indicate the relative progress, by showing the number of inhabitants for one criminal conviction, in the given periods : Average for three years. England and Wales. Scotland. Ireland. United Kingdom I 840-I 842 . . . . 664 902 810 722 1850-1852 . . . . 854 919 466 713 1860-1862 . - -. 1,463 1,222 1,729 1,477 1870-1872 . . . . 1,909 1,476 2,057 1,873 1880-1882 . . .. 2,274 1,925 2,118 2,229 I890-1892 . . .. 3,109 2,175 3,875 3,083 The above tables show that the number of crim inal convictions, from 1840 to 1892, decreased, in England and Wales, from 23,980 to 9,301 ; in Scot land, from 2,907 to 1,846; in Ireland, from 10,118 to 1,214; and in the United Kingdom, from 37,005 to 12,358. But during all this time the population, except in Ireland, was increasing. Comparing with the population, we find that in England and Wales, instead of one conviction for high crimes for 664 inhabitants from 1840 to 1842, there was only one for 3,109 inhabitants from 1890 to 1892. In Scot land it had decreased from one for 902 inhabitants to one for 2,175 inhabitants; in Ireland, from one for 810 to one for 3,875 inhabitants; and in the United Kingdom, from one to 722 inhabitants to one for 3,083. The ratio of improvement in En gland and Wales was 4.68 fold ; in Scotland, 2.41 fold ; in Ireland, 4.77 fold ; in the United Kingdom, 4.27 fold. These statistics fully justify the state ment in " Whitaker's London Almanac " for 1880, 278 Problem of Religious Progress. page 203, that "the criminal element is happily on the decrease, and will be further diminished as the lower classes become better educated." But popular education promotes general morality. The wide-spread conviction that the increase of education will lead to a decrease of crime and pau perism is susceptible of at least partial demonstra tion, from the following statistics of England and Wales, which show an encouraging decrease of the. pauper population since 1850, and vast increase in attendance upon the public schools. Paupers of all Classes in England and Wales Receiving Aid " In-doors " and "Out-of-doors."* Average yearly, 1850-1852, 871,953, or one for 20.6 inhabitants. " " 1860-1862, 895,869, " 22.4 " " 1870-1872, 1,046,327, " 21.7 " 1880-1882, 816,887, ' " 31-8 " " 1890-1892, 772,311, " 37.4 " Here is evidence of an actual decrease of nearly 99,642 paupers since 1850, while the population in creased about 10,974,916. Instead of about 5 pau pers in every 100 persons there are less than three. Similar progress has been made in the education of the. masses. The progress of popular education in Europe and America is one of the brightest indi cations of the times. Especially does it appear in an interesting light in connection with the diminu- * See the " Financial Reform Almanac," and other English Almanacs. Illustrating Decrease of Pauperism in England and Wales. 1850-52 871,953 paupers. 1860-62 1870-72 1880-82 1890-92 One in 20.6 inhab's. Pop'n, 17,927,609. One in 22.4 inhab's. Pop'n, 20,066,224. One in 2l'.7 inhab's. Pop'n, 22,712,"266. One in 31.8 inhab's. Pop'n, 25,974,439. One in 37.4 inhab's. Pop'n, 29,002,525. 19 DX^.S-Xa^.2^ T7-XX. Illustrating a Steady Advance in Popular Education in Great Britain since 1871. (See explanation on page 279.) 2.357,025. (Continued.) Accommodations, 5,157,406. 1871 1872 1873 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 Accommodations, 5,002,116. Accommodations, 6,429,485. Morals. 279 tion of high crimes in England. At the opening of this century the number of schools, public and private, in all England, numbered only 3,363. In 1 8 18 it was found that one half of the children were growing up without an education, and from one third to one half the candidates for marriage were unable to sign the register. In 1850 the schools in England, of all kinds, had increased to 45,000 ; but thgse were almost wholly paid schools. In England and Wales the government schools, in 1850, numbered only 1,844. The following table* very clearly shows the progress since 1871 : Education, Great Britain, 1871 to 1892. Year. 187118721873 18741875 1876 18771878 187918801881 »2O Q, ¦s! ,IOm 11,46512,713 13,95415,67116,957 17,787l8,Il819,291 20, 169 20,670 21,136 Ed o o o-rj 2,357>°252,665,157 2,963,1863,344,o7i 3,636,1143,946,775 4,189,367 4,5°5,8i8 4,727,853 4,842,807 5,002,116 « i,547,i95 1,651,425 1,783,740i.985,394 2,175,522 2,340,277 2,511,0962,782,4542,980,104 3,155,5343,273,501 Year, 1882 18831884 1885 1886 18871888 18891890 " ili2 ¦3" 2 0. 21,36221,630 21,89221,976 22,11422,26522,326 22,426 22,49522,61322,543 5,157,4065,304,144 5,482,4105,658,8195,836,6975,956,976 6,043,851 6,146,5266,254,150 6,360,9366,429,485 « 3,436,4163,560,351 3,721,366 3,826,9803,915,315 4,019,1164,111,206 4,185,7254,927,987 5,043,5085,230,446 It will be noticed that the progress is remarkably uniform and steady, indicating a movement which cannot fail to lift up the average population in * " Whitaker's Almanac," 1894. 280 Problem of Religious Progress. intelligence and character. A vast improvement is perceptible, as seen in the growing number of per sons able to sign their names to the marriage register. The "Statesman's Year-Book " (1894) furnishes an impressive table indicating the percentage of persons married in England and Wales who signed by mark * in the marriage register during the last fifty years. A casual glance will show the great progress : Year. Males. Females. Year. Males. Females, l"843----1853....1863....1873--.- 32-730-4 23-8 18.8 49.O 43-9 33-125.4 1883....1890. . . . 1891 12.6 7-2 6.4 15-5 8-3 7-3 Another conserving factor, among any people, is the habit of pecuniary savings and accumulations, which is of special significance in connection with the diminution of crime, pauperism, and illiteracy. It is not so much the amounts saved as the num ber of individuals who open and maintain accounts in savings institutions, as shown by the following table, from" Whitaker's Almanac," 1894, page 280: Savings Banks — Trustee and Post Office — Number of Ac counts Open, 1885-1892. Year. England and Wales. Scotland. Ireland. United Kingdom. 1885.. • 5,494,989 447,645 188,013 5,128,647 1886... . 4,667,470 457,787 196,968 5,322,315 1887... . 4,872,736 474,793 208,842 5,656,371 1888 .. . 5-083,532 494,414 221,547 5,800,473 1889... . 5,303,989 5i9,299 235,815 6,059,403 189O. . . - 5,569,305 545.358 248,433 6,363,096 1891... . 5,802,990 563,830 261,352 6,628,677 1892. . . . 6,192,965 582,953 274,918 6,964,236 Morals. 281 The increase is in all parts of the United King dom. Attempts were made by the officers of United States Census, in 1850, i860, 1870, and 1880, to gather and compile the statistics of pauperism and crime, but without satisfactory success. The figures for the foregoing dates give the number of persons in prison and in the almshouses, a summary of which we give : In Prisons. 1850 6,737 i860 19,086 1870 32,901 1880 59,255 1890 82,329 In Almshouses. 1850 50,352 i860 82,942 1870."' 76,737 1880 67,067 1890 73,045 Native and Foreign.* Of (he prisoners for 1890, 58.81 per cent, are of foreign elements. Of the paupers for 1890, 58.44 per cent, are of foreign elements. I have given these statistics not for the purpose of making deductions from them, but to call atten tion to some of the difficulties of tabulating such data in the United States. Referring to the table for 1870, General F. A. Walker says : Owing to the fact that the constitution of courts of record in the several States varies greatly as to the crimes over which they have jurisdiction, it has not been found practicable to make this table strictly one of convictions for crimes by courts of record. The effort has been, however, to make the returns for each State an equivalent for those of every other, and the results * See " Compendium of United States Census," 1890. 282 Problem of Religious Progress. are now submitted with the remark that neither the statements of crime nor those of pauperism for the year are regarded as possessing any high degree of statistical authority. They are believed, however, to contain a very much larger amount of exact and of approximate information than it is in the power of any individual or of any other public agency to collect. The numbers reported respectively as receiving poor-support, and as in prison on the first of June, 1870, are regarded as quite accurately determined. Errors may be found to exist, but an , extensive correspondence on the part. of the Census Office has established their substantial accuracy and completeness. Hon. F. N. Wines, in Census of 1880, says : It would require an almost unlimited acquaintance with all sorts of local conditions and usages to enable us to say, at any stage of our investigation, that we have now succeeded in find ing and enumerating all known paupers in the United States. The figures here given are the best attainable at the present time ; nothing more is claimed for them. But the form of presenting them will, it is hoped, satisfy the inquirer that the figures given are worthy of implicit trust, so far as they go. Whatever fault attaches to them is incom pleteness rather than error. As they are, however, compiled upon a different principle from those contained in the census heretofore, comparisons founded upon them will be apt to be misleading. . . . The census of prisoners was first taken in 1850. The num ber then returned was 13,474. In i860 it was 38,172; in 1870, 32,901, (a falling off;) In 1880, as stated, it was 59,255. Un fortunately, the statistics of former years are not to be relied upon. No question can be more important or, rightly consid ered, of greater interest than whether crime is increasing more rapidly than it should, in comparison with the growth of the population ; but it cannot be answered from the census as it has been taken in the past. It has been customary in the census to include a column for the number of persons con- Morals. 283 victed during the twelve months immediately preceding, but the extraordinary variations in the figures returned from one census to another wholly discredit them. The statistics of crime in the United States are so faulty and fragmentary, covering periods of such brief duration, or gathered and arranged in plans so diverse, as not to afford a satisfactory basis for a just comparison. But great improvement is being made. The statistics of crime in Massachu setts, published in 1880,* are the best specimens of this advance. They show a great increase of crime after the close of the civil war. The sen tences for crime went up from 17,276 in 1865, to 46,132 in 1873, when it reached its maximum, since which time it declined to 28,149 in 1879. These figures for 1879 show that the bulk of crime, as in dicated by sentences, has increased 70.4 per cent. since i860, while the population has increased 50.4 per cent., or 20 per cent, more than the increase of the population. But, examining these statistics, we find that out of 28,149, the total sentences in 1879, direct rum-crimes occasioned 16,871 ; minor crimes, 10,662 ; and felonies and aggravated crimes, but 616. The latter class furnished 505 in i860. While the population, from i860 to 1879, increased 50.4 per cent., general crime, eliminating all direct rum- crimes, increased but 20.1 per cent. The liquor * Report of Hon. Carroll D. Wright, chief of the Bureau of Sta tistics of Labor in Massachusetts, January, 1880. 284 Problem of Religious Progress. offenses have fluctuated according to the raids of executive officers, in obedience to the prevailing sentiments of the administration or the require ments of existing laws. But the prosecution of high crimes depends upon steady, settled princi ples of government. The whole number of sen tences for the crimes of murder and manslaughter for^the twenty years was no, an average of five and a half per year. These crimes have not kept pace with the population. The same is true of the whole body of high crimes. While they have " in creased in a deplorable degree," they have not kept pace with the population, this class of sen tences increasing 39.5 per cent., and the popula tion 50.4. The foregoing conclusions are ably demonstrated by Hon. Carroll D. Wright, in his last '"Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor to the Legis lature of Massachusetts," (January, 1880.) He pro ceeds further to show the prison population of the State of Massachusetts, from i860 to 1880, increased 47.7 'per cent., or 2.7 per cent, less than the whole population, and adds: "This analysis would be quite crude without understanding the effects of legislation upon criminal statistics. It should not for a moment be supposed, because the tables show a decided increase in the number of sentences for apy year, that more crime existed during that year ; as, for instance, that, because drunkenness, as repre- Morals. 285 sented by sentences, reached an increase of 276.4 per cent, in 1873 over the number for i860, that much more drunkenness occurred in 1873 than in i860. The cause is to be found either in legislation or public sentiment, which caused a more vigilant prosecution of offenders." The care of orphans is receiving, both in England and America, increased attention, not only as a philanthropic measure, but also as a wise provision of political economy — a means of reducing the amount of crime. From orphanage and pauperism come crime. Statistics show that a large part of the criminals were first destitute orphans, driven to crime by want and neglect. Delinquent and desti tute children become petty thieves or beggars, and thus ripen into a harvest of crime.. The recent mul tiplication of institutions for orphans and the des titute has improved morals and public security; and the future will, doubtless, bring still greater benefits. It is not easy to gauge the extent and conditions of crime in a country so constituted as our own. Many attempts have been made with indifferent success, since what is asserted by one person is immediately denied by another. One sociologist says the masses are growing worse and criminals are rapidly multiplying, and another sociologist equally eminent asserts the contrary. S° als° pul piteers, statesmen, chiefs of police, and editors give .confused and contradictory opinions. 286 Problem of Religious Progress. But " how about the morals. of our public men ? " Of course, there are many bad examples among them ; but the late Judge Miller, one of the ablest and best public men of the period, told us, be fore his death, that " nobody, save one who had lived for a generation, like himself, in Washing ton, could appreciate the immense improvement of the personal character and moral influence of the great body of public men within that period." Enterprising newspapers have sent out schedules of inquiries to officials and public men of all classes with far from satisfactory results. Some large cities are depicted in very dark colors, and even then, it is said, " the whole truth is not told. Every man about town, every reporter, and every civil officer could tell much more. Printed reports tell what occurs on the streets ; but, behind closed doors, are all sorts and conditions of crime which, if flaunted before the public, would produce startling sensa tions.' Gather what data we can, then boil down the facts, discriminate carefully the figures, balance the opinions, arid we cannot resist the conviction, that in many large cities crime is either increasing or at least holding its own ; that prostitution, publie or private, is at least not much if at all diminished ; that drunkenness among women has increased ; that the women produce a large proportion of criminals, Morals. 287 and many the hardest and least susceptible of refor mation ; that the most intelligent classes produce the most cunning criminals, showing that crime has Other causes than ignorance. An editorial in the " Independent " (October, 1893) said : If we are told that there is more crime in the big New York of to-day than there was in the little New York at the begin ning of the century we reply by comparing the London of to-day with the London of that time. Laws are better obeyed, public morality is better observed, crimes against the purity of the home or the sanctity of the person are more disgraceful now than then. The public conscience treats licentiousness or slavery or intemperance much more severely than it did then. It is a shame now to get drunk ; it was not then. It is illegal now to hold slaves ; it was not then. An Aaron Burr now could not find an entrance into polite society. During these fifty years the public conscience has'been awakened to its duty to the public, and good people of every religious name are banded together to repress injustice and wrong. Our halls of legislation are purer than they used to be. A smirch on a man's name such as would not be considered at the beginning of the century,- now drives him into retirement. I think there can be no doubt that there is less crime and flagrant badness in San Francisco than thirty or forty years ago ; and so, all along the Pacific coast cities and far back on the Western frontiers. In Tucson, Albuquerque, Reno, Carson City, the cities and rural sections of Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and many other localities which need 288 Problem of Religious Progress. not be mentioned, intelligent, discriminating ob servers think the condition in respect to crime and barbarism has materially improved, as com pared with former periods, however bad they may now seem. New Orleans and some other Southern cities may ^doubtless be added to the foregoing list. Rev. A. D. Mayo, D.D., who has spent the greater part of the last fifteen years traveling in the South, in the interest of education, says : I doubt if there were ever in New Orleans any ten thousand men and women so thoroughly determined to make that city the worthy metropolis of the Southwest in all the ways char acteristic of the higher Christian civilization, than I find there to-day. I am sure a larger proportion of influential Southern men are living temperate, moral, manly lives in 1890 than in 1850; and I shall need more light than at present to be con vinced that the corresponding class of women, whom I find at work in every Southern community for the general uplift of society, was ever surpassed in the South of a generation ago. No one will question Rev. Edward Everett Hale's breadth of observation, high moral stand-point, and ability to clearly discriminate facts. He wisely says, (" Independent," October 5, 1893 :) Vice is not crime. But the amount of crime ought to be an index, to a certain extent, of the amount of vice. Unfortunately, statistics are impossible which will compare precisely the amount of crime recognized by law, with that so recognized fifty or a hundred or two hundred years ago. But statistics show something. They show, in Great Britain, Morals. 289 a steady diminution of the number of prisoners, in a country which is more and more watchful in its punishment of crime. It is easy to say that the criminal classes are transported to America, and the English prisons thus emptied. This is true ; but it is by no means certain that the transportation accounts for all the improvement. My own opinion is formed after as careful study as I know how to give. I am quite aware that the reports do not enable one to speak confidently. But my strong impression, is that any apparent increase of crime is due to the increase of civilization — to the increased severity of law, and to the increase, therefore, of arrests. For instance, a hun dred years ago, drunkards hardly appeared among prisoners, in a world where most men were drunk. Now every prison returns "drunkards," who are guilty of no crime but intemper ance. I believe that the experts most skilled will say that the real amount of crime, known to the law, is less than it was a hundred years ago. We should not neglect to say that, in the bright ening light and the higher standards of morality of these days evil stands out clearer and more repel- lant ; and that resistance to greater light inevitably drives men to more desperate crimes. The striking declaration of St. Paul, (2 Tim. iii, 13,) that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived," will doubtless be more and more illustrated as the ages roll on, and the bright est millennial periods will be attended with ranker and more hideous developments of evil. In evil there inheres a law of retributive and judicial blind ing and hardening, under which men intent upon sin become more desperate and reckless, even under increasing light. 290 Problem of Religious Progress. Said an eminent Unitarian divine :* It is a terrible fact that the higher and richer a man's op portunities are, the more hardening and deadening, if not im proved aright, is their influence on the character. It is in the midst of Christian lands, in the full light of the Gospel, that we find the worst crimes, the most hardened unrepentant criminals. The world has never had such irreversible skeptics and unbe lievers as some of the men who stood in the very presence of Christ, seeing his miracles, hearing with their own ears his words of wisdom. . . . You cannot increase a sinner's means of salvation without increasing at the same time his means of deeper damnation. . . . There are some phenomena of sin which are. absolutely horrible, more so than anything that was ever painted in the most lurid hill. When its fangs are once fastened thoroughly on the spirit, it seems, like bodily disease, to have a life of itself. It feeds, grows, unfolds itself, displays a will of its own, becomes a live, hissing, writhing serpent. May it not be so with some of the great evils which now threaten and are destined long to threaten our large municipalities, even while the pathways pf human progress, as a whole, may brighten and widen. * Rev. J. C. Kimball, in the " Religious Monthly Magazine," 1867, P- 343- CHAPTER III. THE PRESENT PERIOD. (CONTINUED.) Intemperance. Dueling.English Morale. New England Morals. Irreverence, etc. Pauperism. The Economic View. The Anarchistic Spirit. Philanthropic Agencies. Penal Inflictions. Machinery and Moral and Social Progress. The Peril of the Cities. Criticisms and Testimonies, Longevity and Sanitary Science. Morals. 293 CHAPTER III. THE PRESENT PERIOD.— (CONTINUED.) Intemperance. THE vice of intemperance, so conspicuous during the closing quarter of the last century; wrought with increasing malignity, until it reached its cul mination in the year 1825. The average annual consumption of distilled spirits and wine, but chiefly distilled liquors, (no account being made of beer, ale, etc.,) in 1790, was two and a half gallons per capita ; in 18 10 it had increased to four and a half gallons ; * in 1 823 to seven and a half gallons f for distilled spirits alone ; and in 1830, after four years of vigorous temperance work4 it was six gallons, or a half a gill daily for every inhabitant of all ages and conditions. At the latter date there were 400,000 confirmed drunkards in the land, " not in cluding those in some stage of progress toward the fixed habit," or one for every thirty inhabitants. * Statistics prepared by Hon. Samuel Dexter, LL.D. See "Re port of the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemper ance," 1814. f " Boston Recorder." X The American Temperance Society was organized in January, 1826. 20 294 Problem of Religious Progress. A writer in the old " American Cyclopedia," pub lished in 1830,* gives the following account of the drinking customs of this early period, in the light of which we cannot fail to see the great moral prog ress that has since been made : " The men now upon the stage remember, from their childhood till within theJast ten years, to have seen distilled spirits, in some form, a universal pro vision for the table, at the principal repast, through out this "country. The richer sort drank French and Spanish brandy ; the poorer, West India, and the poorest, New England, rum. In the Southern States whisky was the favorite liquor ; and the somewhat less common articles of foreign and do mestic gin, apple brandy, and peach brandy, made a variety which recommended itself to the variety of individual tastes. Commonly at meals, and at other times by laborers, particularly in the middle of the forenoon and afternoon, these substances were taken, simply diluted with more or less water. On other occasions they made a part of more or less artificial compounds, in which fruit of various kinds, eggs, spices, herbs, and sugar, were the leading in gredients. " A fashion at the South was to take a glass of whisky, flavored with mint, soon after waking ; and so conducive to health was this nostrum esteemed, that no sex and scarcely any age were deemed ex- * Article, " Temperance Societies.'' Morals. 295 empt from its application. At eleven o'clock, while mixtures under various peculiar names — sling, tod dy, flip, etc. — solicited the appetite at the bar of the common tippling-shop, the offices of the pro fessional men and the counting-room dismissed their occupants for a half hour to regale themselves at a neighbor's or a coffee-house with punch, hot or iced, according to the season ; and females and valetudinarians courted an appetite with medicated rum, disguised under the chaste names of Huxam's Tincture or Stoughton's Elixir. " The dinner hour arrived, according to the dif ferent customs of different districts of the country, whisky and water, curiously flavored with apples, or brandy and water, introduced the feast ; whisky, or brandy and water, helped it through ; and whisky or brandy, without water, often secured its safe di gestion, not again to be used in any more formal manner than for the relief of occasional thirst, or for the entertainment of a friend, until- the last appeal should be made to them to secure a sound night's sleep. Rum, seasoned with cherries, protected against the cold ; rum, made astringent with peach- nuts, concluded the repast at the confectioner's ; rum, made nutritious with milk, prepared for the maternal office ; and, under the Greek name of par egoric, rum, doubly poisoned with opium, quieted the infant's cries. " No doubt there were numbers who did not use 296 Problem of Religious Progress. ardent spirits, but it was not because they were not perpetually in their way. They were an established article of diet, almost as much as bread ; and with very many they were in much more frequent use. The friend who did not testify his welcome with them, and the master who did not provide bounti fully of them for his servants, were held niggardly ; and there was no social meeting, not even of the most formal or sacred kind, where it was considered indecorous, scarcely any where it was not thought necessary, to produce them. The consequence was, that what the great majority used without scruple large numbers indulged in without restraint. Sots were common of both sexes, various ages, and all conditions ; and, though no statistics of the vice were yet embodied, it was quite plain that it was constantly making large numbers bankrupt in property, character, and prospects, and inflicting upon the community a vast amount of physical and moral ill in their worst forms." Such is the description, by an able writer living in those times, of the social drinking customs in the period when intemperance reached its culmina tion in America. In England the evil was not less rampant. It infested all circles, and became espe cially a social vice. It was deemed indispensable that visitors should evince their appreciation of the hospi tality they received by becoming intoxicated. The host claimed it as his due that every guest should Morale. 297 drink until he could drink no longer. " The supreme crowning evidence that an entertainment had been successful was not given till the guests dropped, one by one, from their chairs to slumber peacefully on the floor till the servants removed them." The worst phases of society, in our day, in either country, fail to parallel the general habits then. From 1808 to 1815 a few beginnings were made, in various localities in the United States, in the di rection of reform, with meager results. The organi zation of the American Temperance Society, in 1826, inaugurated more thorough, energetic, and far-reach ing efforts, and, for thirty years, the Temperance Reformation was one of the most mighty and ex tensive movements in the nation. The mora^l ren ovation was incalculable. The average annual con sumption of distilled and fermented spirits, beer and ale excepted, declined from seven and a half gallons in 1823, to two and one fifth gallons in 1850. Intemperance was, however, still a great evil, of immense power and sway, and its desolations were fearful. In the State of Massachusetts, in the year 1849, °f 2>598 paupers, 1,467, or -56 per cent., and of 8,76b committed for crime, 3,341, or more than 38 per cent., resulted from intemperance. In the city of New York, in the same year, there were 4,425 licensed houses, 750 selling without license, and 3,896 selling on the Sabbath. In a single quarter 1,600 persons were arrested for drunkenness, 1,485 298 Problem of Religious Progress. for intoxication and disorderly conduct, 744 for vagrancy, 1,214 f°r assault and battery, and 1,006 for disorderly conduct, besides more serious crimes. In Philadelphia, in 1849, there were admitted to the alms-house 5,119, of whom 2,323 were intoxicated when received ; and in the mayor's court 5,987 per sons were under arrest for drunkenness and disor derly conduct, and only 324 for other crimes. In the State of New York, in 1849, 36,610 persons were committed for crimes perpetrated under the influ ence of intoxicating liquors, and 69,260 were in the poor-houses from intemperance. Between 1850 and 1855 "The Maine Law" was enacted in about a dozen States. For a time it was faithfully executed, with splendid results. Large numbers of towns, chiefly rural, were almost wholly rid of the evil of intemperance. So clear and bene ficial was the influence in Massachusetts, that Gov ernor Briggs, only a short time after the adoption of the law, declared that it had already been worth one hundred millions of dollars to that State alone. This was the period of the best temperance habits in the United States. After that time a great abatement in temperance efforts was apparent, seemingly under the false con viction that the battle had been fought, and that the enactment of stringent laws, entirely prohibiting the sale of liquors as a beverage, had -put a final stop to the evil of intemperance. But "while men slept. Morals. 299 the enemy sowed tares ;" and a reverse movement took place in New England under the leadership of ex-Governor John A Andrew, Dr. Bowditch, and others, and extending into other States, in regard to total abstinence and prohibition. Many persons abandoned those principles as extreme and imprac ticable, and the " Maine Laws " were repealed in nearly all of the States in which they had been en acted. Other causes of the reverse movement were the incoming of large hordes of immigrants who had never received the temperance tutelage to which our native population had been subjected, and the introduction of malt liquors in large quantities. For a fuller explanation of this reverse movement the reader is referred to the author's volume, " The Liquor Problem in All Ages," (Phillips & Hunt, New York city,) pp. 390-410. After 1872 the Anti-saloon Crusades, the Woman's Christian Tem perance Union, and other movements originated, which advanced the cause of temperance to within a few years. We are now in a period of compara tive inaction— or at least of cessation of marked progress. Tables of statistics, representing the consumption of alcoholic liquors from 1810 to 1893, will be found in the Appendix, pp. 711, 712. These tables show that the consumption of dis tilled spirits, domestic and foreign, has declined from 7.26 gallons per capita in 1820, to 6.02 gallons in 300 Problem of Religious Progress. 1830; to 2.21 in 1850; to 2.05 in 1870; to 1. 27 in 1880; but in 1890 it rose to 1.40; and in 1893 to 1.5 1 gallons per capita, not far from one fifth as much as in 1820. The foreign wines steadily increased from 1,553,088 gallons in 1810, to 9,165,549 in 1870; since which time they have decreased to about 5,000,000 gal lons a year, during the last three years. As to American wines, exact figures are wanting, and hence estimates of experts have been used by those making up tables. From 12,954,961 gallons in 1875, they went up to 23,298,940 gallons in 1880; they then declined to 17,000,000, and then went up to 31,080,523 gallons in 1888; for the last three years they have been estimated at 23,000,000 gallons. The consumption of malt liquors has rapidly ad vanced from 1.61 gallons per capita in 1850; to 5.31 gallons in 1870; and to 16.08 gallons in 1893. It should not be overlooked that distilled spirits and wine are extensively adulterated and expanded, and that such liquors do not enter into any compu tations. This is not, however, a recent evil, nor is it probably relatively more extensive than thirty or forty years ago. The Washingtonian speakers, from 1840 to 1845, who went forth to tell their stories of inebriation and ruin, often complained of the vile compounds with which they had been deceived and injured ; and we find Addison, in the " Spectator," mentioning the vile concoctions manufactured in 33I.A. C3-25.A. JsJE VIII. Illustrating the Relative Decline in the Consump tion of Distilled Spirits in the United States. Per Capita Consumption. 1810| | -v 4-30 gal. 1820 1830 1840 185C 1860 1880 1890 1893 See full tables in Appendix. x>i.A.<3-ia.&.2rf: ix. Illustrating the Great Increase in the Consump tion of Beer in the United States. Per Capita Consumption. 1840 1 .36 gallons. 1850. . ... 1. 61 1S60 3.27 1870 5.31 1880 ' 8.26 1890 13-67 1893 16.08 See full tables in the Appendix. An exact proportion is kept between tiie population and the beer in the lines of this diagram. 1,074,546,336 gallons in year ending June 30, 1893. Morals. 301 his day, by a fraternity of chemical operators, in dens under the streets of London. A leading journalist said : " Intemperance is no longer tolerated in good society. It is no longer tolerated in business circles. A young man knows that he stands no chance of success in life if he is addicted to the use of strong drinks ; and, what is a still stronger provocative of temperance, the youth of our country know that life is sacrificed by the use of spirits, and that length of days and a vigorous old age are not boons which can be expected by those who violate the laws of health. This great change has been brought about by that enlightened public sentiment which prevails, and this feeling is increasing." The aspect of most rural towns in respect to tem perance is encouraging. Not a tithe of intemper ance exists as compared with fifty years and more ago. Maine retains her famous law, and a high authority says there are few open bars in the State — outside of a few cities with a large foreign popula tion — a great' gain upon former times. In 1832 there was one for every 225 persons. The Maine Law is so far sustained that in 1884 a constitutional pro hibitory amendment was adopted by a large popular vote. Our adopted fellow-citizens, who in large num bers have come among us, settling chiefly in large centers of population, have given a more unfavor- 302 Problem of Religious Progress. able aspect to society in respect to drunkenness. But even this class is coming to learn the necessity and value of abstinence, and is organizing for the promotion of this virtue. They are already en rolled in large numbers as abstainers from alcoholic liquors. The Catholic Total Abstinence Union held its twenty-third session in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1894, at which delegates were present representing 727 Catholic Temperance Societies, and a member ship of 54,676. The decline in the consumption of the more fiery drinks is a fact attested by the daily observation of men whose personal knowledge extends back thirty or forty or fifty years. The great reformatory move ments from 1872 to 1876, under the "Crusaders," the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Dr. Rey nolds, Francis Murphy, and his son, introducing a more positive religious element into this depart ment of effort, greatly improved many localities, and placed the virtue of temperance on purely moral grounds. But a reaction has followed, carrying back to their cups many reformed men ; and the general in troduction of beer into common life, within thirty years, has led many young men and women down ward in intemperance. There is reason to believe that the free use of beer, which was advocated on moral, grounds, as a means of decreasing drunken ness, has already proved the means of more ex- Showing Consumption of Liquors in the British Isles. The same scale is used in both cases For full table see Appendix. Wines. Distilled Spirits. Morals. 303 tended intemperance and ruin, as it did in England after the enactment of the celebrated " Beer Act," some years ago. In the British Isles intemperance is still an evil of enormous dimensions, as will be seen by the elab orate tables in the Appendix, (p. 723,) to which the reader is referred. A careful inspection of those tables will be more convincing than any general discursive talk can possibly be, as to the condition of Great Britain in respect to temperance and sobriety. Since 185 1 there has been very little variation in the average per capita consumption of the various kinds of liquors : The average of wine has been 0.40 gallons per capita. " " spirits " " 1.04 " " '• " " beer " " 28.4 " " " During the last twelve years the total annual cost of all kinds of liquors has thus been ;£ 130,000,000, or about two thirds of a billion of dollars, yearly. This represents a prolific cause of pauperism, crime, gen eral degradation, and misery. Since the year 1831 large efforts have been made in the United Kingdom by numerous societies, in the churches and outside of them, to promote temperance and to counteract the drinking cus toms ; but the tide of evil still rolls on. What would have been the condition if these efforts had 304 Problem of Religious Progress. not been made, it is impossible to conjecture. Certain we are that large masses of people, formerly accustomed to use liquor, have become total ab stainers, and maintain that attitude consistently and firmly. There is a large fruitage for these many years of temperance labors. Notably is it the case in the upper and middle classes of society, where the al tered habits are matters of frequent observation. The customs of large houses of providing for the profuse distribution of intoxicants to servants and strangers are giving way. So also are the social customs of commercial travelers and country vil lagers changing. There is abundant evidence of the growth of a new public opinion seen in the al tered tone in which intemperance is spoken of, and in the increasing number of young people entering into life as pledged abstainers, with a deep horror of the evil of drunkenness. The formation of 18,400 Juvenile Temperance Societies, with 2,617,000 members, pledged to abstinence, attending 700,000 meetings in a year, at which sound teaching respect ing the nature and effects of alcohol is imparted, is a great omen for good. Numerous organizations for sailors, railroad employees, and other laborers, and counteractive agencies, institutes, clubs, cocoa houses, and coffee taverns, (285 in one diocese,) afford further hope and assurance for improvement in the future. 33 x a. & £s -a. 3vi xi. Showing the Consumption of Malt Liquors in the British Isles. See tables in Appendix. ' So enormous is the consumption of these liquors that the scale used in the previous diagram had to be reduced to a point one sixteenth as large. Total gallons. 639,323,967 775.I7L584 995,746,374 1,113.448,754 970,788,564 976,828,104 1,137,396,600 Gallons per capitu 2226 3134 27 26 29 35 1 -A. S- 3=5 A. 2vl SEII. Liquor Bill of the United Kingdom for Twenty Years. Liquors in 20 Years. Exports. British Products, 10 Years. Debt of Great Britain, 1893. £2,388,381,888. £2,181,011,959. £671,642,842. Morals. 305 On the continent of Europe a bird's-eye view shows signs of awakening and earnest effort against the drink evil. In the darkest portions of the con tinent longings for a better state of things are apparent. For a long time in the North the light has been shining, and many noble souls are wide awake, though even in Norway and Sweden much remains to be done. The so-called Gothenburg system, from which so much was expected, has not proved sufficient, and spirit-drinking is on the in crease. In Sweden the temperance cause progresses, and quite a number of total abstainers in the Parliament are making their influence felt. The king has lately sanctioned a law making the teaching of the physi ological effects of alcohol mandatory upon schools and seminaries. In Iceland the bishop and a third part of the clergy have signed the life-pledge of abstinence, and a large portion of the inhabitants are members of the Order of Good Templars. Denmark still holds the first rank in respect to the amount of spirits consumed, but the temper ance people are not asleep, and active efforts are being made to reform the nation. In Finland there is a very considerable move ment, and a Teachers' Total Abstinence Union has many branches. Nor is Russia without some strong throbs of a 306 Problem of Religious Progress. new and better life. Two books, or pamphlets, written -by Dr. Graufelt, which exerted a great influ ence for total abstinence in Finland, roused a young Russian schoolmaster, Herr Tilk, and kindled a flame which has spread from village to village, so that, at the beginning of 1892, sixteen temperance societies existed in Esthland, and other branches have been formed among the Letts, supported by the newspapers. In the little republic of Switzerland statistics have shown that alcohol was the cause of the death of every ninth man who died, in 1891 and 1892, between the ages of twenty and sixty years. The Blue Cross Temperance Society, started in 1877, last year reported 5,943 members; 1,474 had taken the life-long pledge. In different parts of Belgium, France, and Ger many the Blue Cross Society is slowly organizing. The " International Union for Combatting the Use of Alcohol " was formed at Zurich, in January, 1890, soon enlisting many men and women of in tellectual and scientific eminence. It now has branches in Basel, Bern, Berlin, and Gratz. Its literature is very helpful. The Independent Order of Good Templars was brought from Denmark into Northern Germany in 1883, and in 1891 a lodge was formed in Berlin. The Empress of Germany has lately sought informa tion concerning the Order. Morals. 307 In Italy an Italian pastor in Lucca has organized a temperance league. In France the need of reform is deeply felt, but only the Blue Cross Temperance Society and the Salvation Army have done much. Belgium has been stirred a little the past year. A beginning has been made with the children of that besotted people, and temperance societies have been started in the schools. After nearly fifty years of arduous work for tem perance, Rev. Adama Von Scheltema is able to re joice that even in Holland is good fruit appearing. The children who have been trained in the King William House in Amsterdam are growing up with total abstinence principles, and the Temperance Union has forty branches. The Salvation Army has done good work, and a Teachers' Temperance Society has been started in Amsterdam. Nor should we fail to notice the fact that the International Alcohol Congresses, held in Antwerp, Zurich, and Christiania, have done much to help the temperance cause all over Europe. From every direction philanthropists have been drawn together and learned something of each other's plans for combatting the evil of intemperance, whose fatal blight has covered so many lands. Thus light is breaking in all directions to cheer the stalwart soldiers in this great contest, and the soldiers are multiplying. 3,o8 Problem of Religious Progress. When we consider that this is the first of all the long centuries in which any headway has been made against the evil of intemperance, and that in large circles of people no alcoholic beverages are now used, and in many more larger circles, it, is almost abolished, we have reason to be encouraged, still a hard fight yet remains, calling for courage and constancy. Dueling. Dueling, a custom of former ages introduced into England by the Normans, has had a luxurious growth among Anglo-Saxon populations on both sides of the Atlantic. Before the opening of this century it became a capital offense, in England and the United States alike, to kill in a duel ; but pub lic sentiment was so tolerant of dueling that juries would not ordinarily convict the offenders, and they were seldom arrested. Far into the present century it was frequently practiced by men in high and low stations alike. In England, Fox, Pitt, Castlereagh, Lord Hervey, Canning, the Duke of York, Daniel O'Connell, the Duke of Richmond, Wellington, and others, all fought duels^the latter as late as 1829, and others as late as 1850. In the United States, De Witt Clinton and John Swartwout, in 1802 ; Hamilton and Burr, in 1804; Benton and Lucas; Jackson and Dickinson ; Clay and Randolph, in 1826 ; Cilley and Graves, in 1838 ; and others later, are a few of the more notable examples. Dueling Morals. 309 was a national sin, and no bar to the highest civil position in the gift of the nation. Since 1850 it has nearly disappeared in both countries — a clear indi cation of moral progress. In England the reform is attributed largely to Prince Albert. He induced the Duke of Welling ton and the heads of the service to use their influ ence to discredit and discourage the odious prac tice. But there were other and wider influences at work, in the general progress of the times, which were the effectual agencies under which the im provement came. M'Carthy says:* " Nothing can testify more strikingly to the rapid growth of genu ine civilization, in Queen Victoria's reign, than the utter discontinuance of the dueling system. When the queen came to the throne, and for years after, it was still in full force. ... At the present hour a duel in England would seem as absurd and bar barous an anachronism as an ordeal by touch or a witch-burning. Many years have passed since a duel was last talked of in Parliament, and then it was only the subject of a reprobation that had some work to do to keep its countenance while adminis tering the proper rebuke. But it -was not the in fluence of any one man, or even any class of men, that brought about in so short a time this striking change in the tone of public feeling and morality. * "A History of Our Own Times," by Justin M'Carthy. Harper & Brothers. 1880. Pp. 106, 107. 21 310 Problem of Religious Progress. The change was partly the growth of education and of civilization, of the strengthening and broadening influence of the press, the platform, the cheap book, the pulpit, and the less restricted intercourse of classes." English Morals. At the beginning of the century England, in man ning her navy, supplemented her system of volun- ¦ taiy enlistment by the barbarous methods of the press-gang. Any seaman who could be stolen from the merchant service was carried on board of a ship-of-war and compelled to fight. A band of men lurked in the sea-ports armed with this terrible power to seize any returning sailor. Military and naval discipline was maintained by the use of the lash, the doctor standing by to see how much the victim could bear. The torture was often changed, at short intervals, until five hundred lashes were inflicted ; or, if unable to bear so much, he was taken down, carried to the hospital, and re cruited, then brought back to receive the balance of his punishment. When the attempt was made, after the battle of Waterloo, to limit such punish ments to one hundred lashes, it failed through the opposition of Lord Palmerston, and there was no reform until after 1846, when, a sailor dying under the lash, the number of lashes was limited to fifty ; and twenty years later the House of Commons de creed that flogging, in the time of peace, should be Morals. 311 wholly abolished. The new army bill proposes to entirely abolish flogging in the national service. Women and children worked in coal-pits, drag ging little wagons by a chain fastened round the waist, and crawling like beasts, on hands and feet, in the darkness of the mine. Children of six years were habitually employed, their hours of labor ex tending to fourteen and sixteen daily. They were often mutilated and sometimes killed with impunity by their brutalized associates. There being no ele vating machinery, women carried the coal to the surface, climbing long wooden stairs, with baskets on their backs. Little boys and girls of five and six swept chimneys. Being built narrower than now, only a child could crawl into them, often driven by blows to the horrid work. Sometimes they were burned by the hot chimney, sometimes stuck fast in the narrow flue, and extricated with difficulty, and occasionally taken out dead. Parlia ment refused to interfere, and not until 1840 was this practice suppressed. Children of six were pften put to work in factories. The hours of labor ranging from thirteen to fifteen daily, the chil dren often fell asleep at their work, and received injuries by falling against the machinery, o; were beaten by the overseer to keep them awake. They were stunted in size, pallid, emaciated, scrofulous, and consumptive. Recent laws in England and America have alleviated their condition. After 312 Problem of Religious Progress. 1833 no child could be employed in England under nine years of age, and those under thirteen were limited to forty-eight hours a week. Ten years later the hours of labor were further reduced for all classes of operatives. And numerous other al leviations from exacting toil have since been made. These things, related by Mr. Mackenzie, in his sketch of the English people, were also in some measure true of the United States. Of English morals, at the opening of this cent ury, and the improvement since that time, the same writer* says: "Profane swearing was the con stant practice of gentlemen. They swore at each other, because an oath added emphasis to their as sertions. They swore at inferiors because their commands would not otherwise receive prompt obedience. The chaplain cursed the sailors, be cause it made them listen more attentively to his admonitions. Ladies swore orally and in their let ters. Lord Braxfield offered to a lady at whom he swore, because she played badly at whist, the suffi cient apology that he had mistaken her for his wife. Erskine, the model of a forensic orator, swore at the bar. Lord Thurlow swore upon the bench. The king swore incessantly. When his majesty desired to express approval of the weather, of a handsome horse, of a dinner which he had enjoyed, this " first gentleman in Europe " supported his * "The Nineteenth Century," Franklin Square Library, p. 18. Morals. 313 royal asseveration by a profane oath. Society clothed itself with cursing as with a garment. " Books of the grossest indecency were exhibited for sale side by side with Bibles and prayer books. Indecent songs were sold, without restraint, on the streets of London, and sung at social gatherings by the wives of respectable tradesmen, without sense of impropriety. " Many causes have conspired to bring about the remarkable improvement which has taken place in the moral tone of British society. Among these the influences exerted upon public morals by the pure domestic life of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert fills no inconsiderable place. The intellect ual ability recognized in the queen and her hus band, and their manifest devotion to the public good, added largely to the authority which their high station conferred upon them, and disposed the nation to be guided by their example. The queen and prince lived conspicuously blameless lives in the earnest and effective discharge of the family and public duties which their position imposed. Their exarriple confirmed and powerfully re-en forced the influences which at that time ushered in a higher moral tone than had distinguished previous reigns." 314 Problem of Religious Progress. New England Morals. Much has been said about the decline of morals in New England. It should not be overlooked that this section of the country has undergone a great change in its population. It has been a great -^emigrating region — a feeder of the West. First, Western New York was peopled from New En gland ; then the large Western Reserve region in Ohio ; then all other portions of the West received large accessions, continually depleting the original stock of New England. Hon. John Sherman, at the New England Dinner in New York city,* said : " We have in the West more people of New En gland ancestry than you have in all New England, with New York thrown in." Confining our calcu lations to the nativity of those living in- 1870, we find that the United States Census for that year shows 801,301 inhabitants born in New England, a number equal to one third of her population born, and then residing, in New England, who were liv ing in other sections of the Union. Within forty years not less than one half of all born in New England have gone forth to other States. While this depletion has been going on, carrying with it the best elements of New England life, the vacant places have been filled by a very different class of people. The same census shows 638,001 persons, * December 22, 1878. Morals. 315 or nearly one fifth of the whole population of New England, born in foreign lands, 421,850 more, both of whose parents were foreign-born, and 84,957 more, one of whose parents was foreign-born ; total 1,144,809, or one third of the whole population, either foreign-born, or one or both of whose parents were from foreign lands. From 1850 to 1870 the actual increase of the native-born inhabitants of this section was 327,956, and of the foreign-born 431,752; but probably full one third of the native- born increase was from foreign parentage, and hence foreign in ideas, habits, etc., which, deducted from the former number and added to the latter, gives 541,080 increase of the foreign element to 218,682 of the native in the last two decades. Such changes, extending to one third of the popu lation, and so extensively engrafting a different class of habits and customs, clearly accounts for a very considerable part of the modification that has been apparent in the character of New England society. But while New England has suffered from this loss, other sections of the country have been immensely benefited. Reverence, etc. Is it said that the feeling of reverence has greatly declined during the present century? that funda mental truths have lost their sanctity, and the spirit of veneration is exhaling ? True ; and this is what 316 Problem -of Religious Progress. has been repeatedly said during previous centuries. Nor is it altogether an evil omen. Moral ideas, as well as scientific theories, are undergoing a sifting-^ a process attended with gain as well as peril. We are, indeed, outgrowing that excessive reverence which, in the past, has been unreasonable and akin to superstition. We are casting off our supersti tions; but the next generations may discover that we have retained many of them. We are accus tomed to characterize one of the past stages of society as " the pagan," and another as " the elfic ;" and only those whc live after us can characterize the stage in which we live. As society advances in intelligence reverence be comes more intelligent and rational. We have a . more rational reverence than our ancestors. Con sidering the natural law of rebound to extremes, are we not doing quite well ? Do we not exhibit a good degree of morally conserving power ? Are we told that " moral questions are becoming unsettled, and the moral judgments, whether of in dividuals, or of the Church, or public opinion, have lost much, and with many have lost all their weight ? " It has been well replied that these things " result from two excellent features of the times- -the exposure of old fallacies and the culti vation of mental independence." Revolutions in thought know no limits. Every thing must be tested — the false sifted out, the husk separated from Morals. 317 the kernel. The domain of morals must endure these siftings, and modifications of moral ideas are inevitable. This spirit is wide spread. " The debris of old maxims, notions, and institutions strews the land, as the shells of the seventeen-year cicadce strew the woods of New Jersey. Their time was out, and they had to go ; the world had no more room nor tolerance for them. But they leave us necessarily the knack of questioning and the habit of demoli tion — of looking on old things as candidates for the hammer and the fire. And this, of course, devel ops a spirit that is proud of not leaning on anti quated supports, and is only too ready to call any thing antiquated that is not new." And here is our danger. " This spirit not only insists upon testing afresh all things that are clearly doubtful, which is the sacred duty of every genera tion ; but it discards that most wholesome principle which accepts provisionally what has hitherto been believed, and throws the burden of proof on who ever assails it. Now, the irreverent mind of the age, so much of it as there may be, holds under indict ment whatever has come down to us from a former generation, because it has come down." But this is no new tendency. This spirit per vaded Great Britain on the eve of the.Wesleyan reformation. Rev. Dr. Timothy Dwight described the same condition of things in this country in the 318 Problem of Religious Progress. time of the general prevalence of French infidelity here, at the close of the last century, which the ris ing tide of evangelical Christianity, after the great revival of 1799 to 1800, very considerable sup pressed. It is one of the alternate waves of modern progress. But is it said that " public opinion was once, and to a very influential degree, a unit iri this country," on moral questions ? and that " there was no reason to doubt what the judgment of society would be upon an unfaithful wife, or a defaulting officer, or a perjured witness, or an evil doer in the ministry? " When and where ? Only in New England, in the very earliest colonial times. In the Middle and Southern colonies it was never so, except in a few localities. Certainly the last quarter of the last cent ury did not exhibit such moral superiority, when men notoriously dissolute and gross held the high est positions in public life, and a perfidious intriguer, debauchee, and duelist was an almost successful - candidate for the presidency of the United States. Such a man could not be a candidate for the presi dency to-day. Disreputable conduct in the Chris tian ministry was not as thoroughly and as easily subjected to discipline then as now. Many who held high positions in the ministry and in the State then would not be tolerated in those positions now. We believe the moral judgment of society is clearer, more uniform and emphatic to-day, than Morals. 319 ever before for one hundred years. Christianity has evidently made great moral progress. The apostolic Church was probably purer in morals than that which preceded it. But it appears, however, from the apostolic epistles, that, even in the days of the apostles, false and pernicious doctrines and corrupt practices existed in the Church. St. Paul's remarks concerning the Lord's Supper show this. We read, in 1 Cor. xi, 21, " For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken." Is there a Church in Christendom that needs such a rebuke? Again, we read : " It is reported commonly that there is for nication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that One should have his father's wife." St. Paul is speak ing not of those without, but of persons tolerated in the Corinthian Church, who were guilty of prac tices which would expel them from any Church in these days. He interposed to elevate the standard. A clear evidence of a high-toned morality, rising above the corruptions of the times, is the current dissatisfaction with the evils which have been afflict ing us, the impatient demand for the purification of society, the sharp indictment of public evils, their fearless exposure and scathing criticism. We are ferreting out corruption and applying caustic rem edies. These are indications of moral sensitiveness, vitality, and recuperative power. Criticism and 320 Problem of Religious Progress. self-introspection are auspicious omens — the diag nosis, which precedes the prescription. Vigorous remedies are closely following the analysis. Every where the call is for official honor, fidelity, pure laws and equitable civil service. Reform is the watch word in most circles — the talismanic word in polit ical and ecclesiastical life. We are finding our reck onings and mending our course. Beating against the wind is sometimes better than sailing before it. The moral sentiments of society are mighty and cumulative. The action of the two great political parties, in nominating Generals Garfield and Han cock, both morally unobjectionable men, as candi dates for the Presidency, is a concession, by poli ticians, to the moral sentiment of the country. Pauperism. Pauperism, though less obviously, yet more reli ably, than crime, indicates the standard of public morality. Most cases of publicly recognized pau perism are intimately related to criminality and viciousness of character as their cause, though the criminal cause of poverty is often found in a.differ- ent person from the individual sufferer. Pauperism generally increases and diminishes with the decline and advance of public morals. If this is a correct conclusion, a reference to the statistics of pauper ism, in almost every parish in the nation, will afford the most gratifying refutation of the late lamenta- Morals. 321 tions over the " moral declension " of the country. Without adducing statistics, we are sure that no well-informed person will question the general ac curacy of the assumption that pauperism has greatly diminished during the century. In regard to both crime and pauperism, a dis tinction should be made between persons educated among us and those whose characters were formed under influences antagonistic to the influences which prevail among ourselves. A Protestant of foreign birth may be presumed to have a character not wholly different from that of an American. The the religious element is the most considerable one, though we must still claim for our free institu tions an influence for good, a tendency to engender a rational patriotism, a self-respect, and a general moral sentiment, which cannot be looked for under a despotic government. If, then, in this reckoning, we confine ourselves either to native Americans, or to Protestants and persons of Protestant parentage, the result will show a very much larger relative diminution of crime and pauperism. Removing all foreigners and their children, or all Romanists and their children, from our penitentiaries and eleemos ynary institutions, the remnant will be very small compared with the mass of our Protestant popula- . tion. Take out the emigrant paupers, and you will find that the masses have advanced astonishingly in this respect since the Revolution. 332 Problem of Religious Progress. It must be remembered that many of the fathers of New England owned the bodies of their laborers and domestics, and that this condition t>f things, in a modified form, in large sections, extended into this century. The condition of workingmen has improved relatively to the wealth of the land ever since. Wages of every kind bear a higher propor tion to the things needed for comfort and conven ience than ever before for two hundred years. Said Theodore Parker: " If you go back one hundred years I think you will find that, in proportion to the population and wealth of this town or this State, there was consid erably more suffering from native poverty then than now. Now public charity is more extended and more complete, works in a wiser mode, and with far more beneficial effects, and pains are now taken to uproot the causes of poverty — pains which our fathers never thought of." Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., writing in 1815, estimated the paupers in the towns of New En gland outside of cities at one for three hundred inhabitants, a ratio far exceeding the present. Another minister,* referring to the condition of things at the time of his settlement, in 18 10, at North Coventry, Conn., a fair sample of many in land towns, at that time, said : * Rev. George A. Calhoun, D.D., sermon on the fortieth anniver sary of his settlement, 1850. Morals. 323 " There were only four floors with carpets on them, but four houses painted white, and not more than ten four-wheeled vehicles. Even whitewash on the walls of rooms was very seldom used. Nor was the difference in the times merely. Real pov erty was the cause. Even in the condition in which they did live, there were few who had money at interest compared with those who were in debt, and those whose farms were mortgaged. Property was constantly changing hands by the foreclosure of mortgages and insolvency. But the expense of living then, as compared with now, was very small. What, then, was the reason for this depression in worldly circumstances ? Their - gains were con sumed, and they were oppressed, by the use of in toxicating drinks." "At least one man in every score became a drunkard, and not a few women were addicted to habits of intemperance." " There was probably not one in five hundred who did not believe that the use of intoxicating drinks, as a beverage, was absolutely needful." The problem of poverty is an old one, and has survived many attempted solutions. Some plain facts stand out in all the investigations of this ques tion. It is a fact that it is well-nigh or quite impos sible to push many of the poor over the line of self-support and keep them there ; while those who are naturally efficient make progress under almost any circumstances. How many instances may be 324 Problem of Religious Progress. cited of families of paupers, extending through many generations, when drunkenness was one of the causes ; of others, when a sort of Ishmaelitish pro pensity to antagonize civilization has prevailed ; and of others who have exhibited an uncontrollable inclination to- get away from comfortable circum stances, in well-established society, and to dwell in the midst of scarcity and unthrift. Besides, it must be admitted that some hard con ditions in the lot of humanity seem to have been established by nature. Nothing can be obtained or kept without work is an old fact. " To him that hath" (increase by diligence) "shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he hath," is the divine law. Improvidence and lack of thrift is the fruitful cause of want. So much has been said and so severely said within a few years, in a socialistic and anarchistic spirit, that the views of three prominent writers, in vindication of organized society against the heavy allegations of pessimists and disorganizers, will be inserted, one at considerable length. The topic is of pressing interest at the present time. Rev. Edward Everett Hale, in the " Independent," in 1893, said: Pessimists distress themselves on paper about the condition of the poor in modern cities ; but it is a healthy sign that they do distress themselves. Two hundred years ago nobody dis tressed himself, to any purpose, about the poor of Paris or of Morals. 325 London or Vienna or Rome. And one may learn from such a book as Defoe's " Captain Jack," or his " History of the Plague," how much more sickness, wickedness, misery, vice, and death there was in London two centuries ago than there is now. Such a book as Mr. Booth's " Statistical Study of Lon don" throws a great deal of light on a matter which had been left to vague outcry. The world certainly takes more systematic care of its defect ive classes — the blind, deaf, dumb, lame, and insane — than it ever did. It is hard to assign any other cause for this improve ment than an improvement in moral sense, or the obligation of a higher law. It is a wise remark of the great economist, Gen eral F. A. Walker, '' It is a matter of wonder that the condition of the working classes is as good as it is, when so much is wasted in using." David Starr Jordan, LL.D., President of Leland Stanford University, in the " Catholic Mirror," May 19, 1894, gave some striking thoughts: The most effective Sacculina is the most degenerate one. In like manner, whenever a race or family of men have fallen away from self-helpfulness the forces of evolution intensify its parasitism. The successful pauper is one who retains no ca pacity for anything else. In every American city there exists a large number of people who, in the ordinary course of life, can never be made good citizens. Our free institutions do not make them free ; our schools do not train them. It is well to face the fact that the existence of the great body of paupers and criminals is possible only by feeding them in one way or another on the life-blood of the community. It is the presence of this class that adds terror to poverty. It is they who make hard the lot of the worthy poor. The problem of poverty and misfortune is a difficult one 22 326 Problem of Religious Progress. at best. It is rendered many times more difficult by the pres ence among the poor of those whom no condition could bring to the level of self-helpful and self-respecting humanity. The difficult problem of the unemployed becomes far more difficult when associated with the hopeless problem of the unemploy able. < Whatever the cause of the existence of hereditary inefficiency, it exists in our civilization. It is one of the factors in our social fabric. It is an element not less difficult than the race problem itself. The race problem is indeed a phase of it, for when a race can take care of itself it ceases to have a problem. Hereditary inefficiency is therefore a factor in society. It •must be a factor in civil affairs. In what way does it affect the problem of government ? In municipal government its evil effects are at once apparent. A single group of related fam ilies, all helpless and hopeless by heredity, forms in the clean and wealthy city of Indianapolis some four per cent, of the pop ulation, 5,000 in perhaps 125,000. In other American cities, notably San Francisco, with its mild climate and proverbial hospitality, the percentage is greater. In no city is it absent. Self-government by such people is a farce. No community was ever built up of thieves and imbeciles. The vote of the dependent classes is always purchasable. The co-ordination and sale of this vote and of the allied criminal vote is the work of the most dangerous of the dirty brood of political bosses. It is stock in trade of every king of the slums. This vote can be bought with the money of candidates. It can be bought with the spoils of office. It can be bought with public funds set aside for purposes called charitable. The various forms of outdoor relief constitute " a corruption fund of the worst kind." We have heard, ad nauseam, the oft-repeated dec laration that " the poor are growing poorer and the rich richer ; " but the best students of the economic conditions of society have demonstrated that the 33X.A.Q-3=a.A.3vE XIII. Rate of Day Wages for 52 Years in United States. Average for 22 leading industries. See pp. 714, 715. 1840 1 78 2 3 9 1870 4 5 1 2 6 3 789 1850 4 56 7 >•a w 1 0 0 8 2 3 4 5 67 i- <« ¦ O 9 1880 23 4 U.O as -J 8 5 9 6 7 8 9 1890 4 2 6 >- < a0C 0- 0 H u. Ul2 f-l 1 T5I-&.C3-X5.A.3s an^ that prices of all articles, simply averaged, fell in the same period from 100 to 92.2. The relative pur chasing power of a day's work thus becomes appar ent. The ratio of wages in the first ten years of the period to those of the last ten years is as 88 to 154. A good authority carries the comparison back to an earlier period : In considering the subject of wages a century ago one finds many facts of curious interest. In 1793 the Schuylkill & Sus quehanna Canal Company advertised for workmen, offering $5 a month for the winter months and $6 for summer, with board and lodging. The next year there was a debate in the House of Representatives, which brought out the fact that soldiers got but $3 per month. A Vermont member, discussing the pro posal to raise it to $4, said that in his State men were hired for ^18 a. year, or $4 a month, with board and clothing. Mr. Wadsworth, of Pennsylvania, said : " In the States north of Pennsylvania the wages of the common laborer are not, upon the whole, superior tp those of the common soldier." In 1797 a Rhode Island farmer hired a good farm hand at $3 a month, and $5 a month was paid to those who got employment for the eight busy months of the farmer's year. A strong boy could be had at that time in Connecticut at $1 a month through those months, and he earned it by working from daybreak until eight or nine o'clock at night. He could buy a coarse cotton shirt with the earnings of three such months. The farmers could pay no better, for the price they got for produce was so vepy small. Butter sold at eight cents a pound, and when it rose suddenly to ten cents several farmers' wives and daughters went out of their minds with the excitement. Women picked the wool off the bushes and briers, where the Morals. 329 sheep had left it, and spun and knit it into mittens to earn $i a year by this toilsome business. They hired out as help for twenty- five cents a month and their board. By a day's hard work at the spinning-wheel a woman and girl together could earn twelve cents. As late as 1821 the best farm hands could be had for twenty-five cents a day, or twice as much in mowing time. Matthew Carey gives a painful picture of the working classes at that time. Every avenue to employment was choked with applicants. Men left the cities to find work on the canals at from sixty to seventy-five cents a day, and tp encounter the malaria, which laid them low in numbers. The highest wages paid to women was twenty-five cents a day, and even the women who made clothes for the arsenal were paid by the government at no higher rates. When the ladies of the city begged for an improvement of this rate, the secretary hesitated, lest it should disarrange the relations of capital and labor throughout the city. Poor people died of cold and want every winter in the city, and the fact seems to have made an impres sion only on benevolently disposed persons. The Economic View. A writer in the " Fortnightly Review," (June, 1880,) said: "We are at length beginning to read history in the light of economic causes. These causes, silent, simple, potent, and pervading, have been always, and must be always, at work in all sorts of societies, in all ages, from the most rude to the most artificial." He then directs attention " to the following epitome of the evidence relating to the progress of the population of England, and in England and Wales, since the close of the eleventh century," and to certain inferences therefrom, which 330 Problem of Religious Progress. throw much light on the question of moral progress. (Figures corrected to 1891.) " The researches which have been undertaken and the discussions which have occurred regarding the population of England, and of England and Wales,, at various periods antecedent to the first actual census of 1801, justify us in accepting the following results as near the truth : About the year 1 100 (Henry I.) "the total population of England was certainly not more than 2,000,000 of persons, if so many. After the lapse of three centuries it had become (including Wales) 2,750,000 in 1400, (Henry IV.) The lapse of another century raised it to somewhat less than 3,500,000 in 1500, (Henry VII.) At the close of the reign of Elizabeth, in 1600, the population was 4,500,000. In 1700, under William III., it was 5,500,000. In 1801 the first census gave the population of England and Wales at 9,250,000, and in 1891 it is computed officially that the total has risen to quite 29,002,525. " From these figures we deduce the following very striking variations of progression, always remem bering that soil, climate, and seasons, and national character, have remained essentially the same, and that there has not been any foreign invasion : In the three centuries (1 100-1400) the increase was 700,000, or 233,000 in each, equal to about 10 per cent, in each hundred years. In the single century. (1400-1500) the increase was 700,000, or 25 per cent. Morals. 331 In the next single century (1 500-1600) the increase was 1,110,000, or 30 per cent., and it was the same total increase, equal to 25 per cent., in the hun dred years 1600-1700. But in the following century (1700-1800) the increase was more than 3,500,000, equal to say 64 per cent. ; and in the ninety years (1801-1891) the increase has been the vast total of nearly 20,109,989, equal to 226 per cent. The percentages of increase have been, therefore, (stated in general terms,) for each of the seven periods of one hundred years, as now described, 10, 10, 10, 25, 30, 25, 64, and for the last ninety years 226 per cent., and, if emigration be allowed for, this last per centage would be largely increased. " We find in this statement a foundation of solid evidence regarding the progress of this country in the resources and appliances of civilization ; that is to say, in the growth of capital and skill and sci ence. In a country by nature temperate and fer tile, a population which increases slowly means (apart from circumstances of a very special kind not easily overlooked) a country the people of which are deficient in the wealth and knowledge whereby reasonable food, clothing, and shelter can be provided, and diseases and epidemics averted or cured. Devastating invasions or domestic wars, for example, the Turkish inroads in the East of Europe, or the Thirty-years' War in Germany, may, when "they occur, reduce the population of a fertile region 332 Problem of Religious Progress. to a low ebb for a considerable time. But in the case of England during the four hundred years from iioo to 1500, there were no sweeping calamities of this nature to account for the fact that the popu lation grew only at the rate of 10 per cent, in each of the first three, and at the rate of only 25 per "cent, in the last of the four centuries indicated. Nor can it be said that the government of the country during these four centuries was ill-suited to the times, or more corrupt or oppressive than the governments of other parts of Western Europe. On the contrary, the English kings and English statesmen of the period in question were consider ably better and wiser, on the whole, than their for eign contemporaries. The small number of people and their tardy increase can be attributed only to the circumstance that capital accumulated so slowly that each generation had the greatest physical diffi culty in maintaining as many offspring as would just replace it, sometimes with a trifling surplus and sometimes with a deficiency. And this incessant conflict with nature for mere life necessitated dense ignorance, the rudest and hardest labor, the diseases and epidemics which follow close upon hunger, cold, and exposure, and the sweeping destruction of infant and advanced life." Morals. 333 Longevity and Sanitary Science. Another class of facts throws light upon this question ; we refer to the average extent of human life. Vice, whether it results in squalid poverty or in sensual luxury, is always unfriendly to health and longevity, while viciousness of character is both di rectly and indirectly destructive of human life. These propositions are so obvious as not to need proof or illustration. It is ascertained that the av erage measure of human life, in this country, has been steadily increasing during this century, and is now considerably longer than in any other country. The approximate agencies that have produced this result are thrift, temperance, parental care, and self- control — all proofs of public and private virtuous- ness of character. This is one of the most reliable tests of our real moral status ; and it must be grant ed that- the conclusion to which it leads is highly satisfactory, although much remains to be done. Sanitary science, a department of study almost "unknown until recent times, is everywhere receiv ing attention and working out beneficent results. There are few people whose sanitary condition is not better than that of their fathers. Progress is quite perceptible in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. Especially marked is the economy of life among the young, on whose imma ture strength evil sanitary conditions press most 334 Problem of Religious Progress. heavily. The influence of sanitary legislation traces its benign and enduring record in the higher phys ical conditions of city populations, in comparative exemption from epidemic diseases, and the increased duration of human life. At the beginning of the century the deaths in London exceeded the births, and the growth of the metropolis depended upon immigration from the provinces. Going back several centuries in English history, we find accounts of mortality which are really appalling, and of which we have no conception in the present century. In the sixteenth century England remained numerically at a stand-still. The "black death" occurred in .1348. In later centuries there followed other fearful pestilences, of which we have a valuable record from able in vestigators,*, with a brief account of the sanitary measures resorted to : In 1 501 that strange, terrible pestilence, the sweating sick ness, visited England for the second time, and numbers died of it. Again in 1517 the third visitation occurred ; and was more formidable than any preceding outbreak. Not only did count less numbers of the poorer inhabitants fall victims to the disease, but it attacked the court. The king isolated himself in miserable and selfish solitude, and terror and consternation prevailed throughout the kingdom. On the cessation of this epidemic the plague broke out and ravaged England during the remainder of that and the whole of the succeeding year. * The "Decorator's Gazette and Plumber's and Gasfitter's Re view," England. Morals. 335 In 1 521 and 1526 the plague was sp severe in Lpndon that the law courts had to be adjourned. The year 1521 was notice able above all others for the great mortality that occurred throughout Europe. In France one fourth of the entire popu lation is computed to"have been destroyed by disease and fam ine, while England appears to have been visited .with equal severity — " hundreds of thousands," according to Stow, dying of pestilence and famine. In 1530 " a great death in London and in other divers places " is recorded. Holinshed speaks of " a great death " in 1 540, " by a strange kind of hot ague with fluxes." In 1546,10,000 English soldiers died of pestilence while besieging Boulogne. Again in 1551 the sweating sick ness visited England with such violence that Godwin, speaking of it, calls it " a depopulation.'' In 1558 vehement quartan agues prevailed, accompanied by malignant typhus. The poor perished in thousands, while within the space of four months no less than thirteen bishops died. The years 1561 and 1562 were characterized by the prevalence of malignant small-pox, accompanied by violent pleurisies, and in 1563 the plague de stroyed in London 29,000 persons. In the succeeding centuries, although London was five times ravaged with the plague, still the general mortality decreased, while toward the end of the century, with the introduction of the New River water supply, the extension of the suburbs, and finally the rebuilding of the city after the fire, the plague quit ted this country forever. The improvement manifested in that century was continued into the next, and of that we have a very interesting proof. In 1693 the British government bor rowed money, the amount borrowed being paid in annuities on the basis of the mean duration of life at that time. The State then made a good bargain. Ninety-seven years afterward Pitt established another tontine, based on the presumption that the mortality would remain the same as one hundred years before, but now they lost money, for while in the first tontine 20,000 of each sex died under the age of twenty-eight, in the second only 12,188 died under this age. The causes which produced these frequent outbursts of pes- 336 Problem of Religious Progress. tilence and' added to their fatality are not far to seek, and chief among them must be mentioned the absolute ignorance of the medical practitioners of the day ; the decay of scientific teach ing, especially in such practical pursuits as architecture, agri culture, and horticulture ; the diseases engendered and spread by the soldiery during the civil wars, and the gross habits of the people. With the decay of religipus houses the practical sciences, such as architecture and agriculture, languished. It is not generally known that our ancestors at a very early period reached a point of sanitary refinement which seems to have been quite lost in subsequent generations. Thus, many a fourteenth century house was provided with a regular bath room, the water led in by a conduit, which also supplied a lavatory. Bathing-tubs of large dimensions, covered by em broidered hangings, are also represented in contemporary draw ings. Records of public drains are also made mention.of, and in 1285 water was conveyed by means of pipes from Padding- ton, then a country village, to a reservoir in Cheapside. We need not dwell on the insanitary condition into which the houses in the sixteenth century relapsed, since Erasmus, in a letter to Dr. Francis, physician to Cardinal Wolsey, dated 1518, has graphically described their filthy state. But not only were the houses of that period deficient in sanitary nicety, but they were often ill-constructed, while, owing to the want of space and the absurd restrictions against building in the sub urbs, they became more and more contracted, pinched, and ill-contrived. With an increase of inhabitants in the town the water supply had to be taken more and more from the surface wells, while the public conduits, instead of bringing water from a distance, took their supply from springs immediately adjacent to the city walls. Such a supply would necessarily be liable to contamination by all kinds of filth, especially as it was stored in wooden vessels- capable of holding about three gallons each, while infected excreta, finding its way tc the priginal source cf supply, wpuld spread disease far and wide. There was np sys tem of drainage, the sewage was either received into small Morals. 337 cesspools or cast directly out on the land. Often it was cast into the streets, and we learn from the records of the court leet of Stratford-on-Avon that Shakespeare's father was there fined for this offense. Owing to the lamentable condition of agriculture corn was scarce, and the poor had to content them selves with bread made from " beans, peason, otes, tares, and lintelles." Fresh meat could only be obtained during the sum mer months ; for the greater part of the year even the rich had to content themselves with salted meat. Turning from that period to our own time, we cannot fail to see the improvement in the marked contrast. In the present century in England among the upper classes the average dura tion of life is fifty years ; in the sixteenth century it only ex tended to thirty years. At the present time as many people live to seventy years as three hundred years ago lived to forty- three. Taking the seventeenth century, from which more reli able statistics as regards mortality can be gathered than the sixteenth, we find that the average death rate in ordinary years for London, with a population of half a million, was about thirty-nine per 1,000 people living; whereas the death rate in London, put at quite the highest figure at the present time, does not exceed twenty-four per 1,000 ; so that the average age of the entire population, which two hundred years ago -only reached twenty-six years, now extends to forty-two. Thus sixteen years have been added to the life of the London citizen by improvements in the science of public health.* Epidemic diseases, it is true, still exist among us, but thanks to the im provements in medical science they are earlier recognized and better treated than they were three hundred years ago, while our knowledge of the causes that lead to these outbreaks is so complete that if our means of application were equally ad vanced we could effectually control them. Improved methods of drainage and land cultivation have removed from us such maladies as ague, dysentery, and scurvy, while our food supply, being more varied and plentiful, maintains the general health at a high standard. Improved methods of treating wounds have rendered operations possible for the relief of human 338 Problem of Religious Progress. - suffering that a few years ago could only be imagined, while pyaemia and erysipelas, which were formerly regarded as mat ters of ordinary risk in hospital practice, are now looked upon as evidences of sanitary neglect and opprobrium to the individ ual surgeon. With these examples to encourage us, we may hope that the progress toward the moral and physical regener ation of the race will continue tc be the proudest and most suc cessful achievement of this and succeeding centuries. i -# » A prominent journal has said : During the first half of the last century the death rate of London was so great that the population made no advance, being 665,200 in 1700, and 653,900 in 1750. The deaths were one in thirty of persons living. In 1801 the population had advanced to 777,000, and the deaths had declined to one in forty-one. This amendment was not owing to better sanita tion, but to better food and means of warming the houses, and , better clothing. In the next quarter of a century the London ers began to wake up to the evil effects of bad water, no drain age, and foul air, and before 1850 the sanitary efforts and the sanitary legislation which mark our modern era had begun the beneficent work through which, in that great aggregation of more than 4,000,000 of people the death rate is now eighteen persons in 1,000, which is only one in fifty-five. In England and Wales, in 1710, the annual death rate was 28 in every 1,000 persons ; in 1837 ^ nad fallen to 24.7 ; in 1876, according_to Mr. Mackenzie,* it was 21 ; while in Hungary it was 37.2 ; in- Austria, 29.4; in Italy, 28.7; in Prussia, 25.4; in France, 22.7.' A great improvement has been effected ; but " the waste of human life is still discreditably great." * "The Nineteenth Century," Franklin Square Library, p. 26, note. Number London. Liverpool. Manchester. of years. In 1,000 persons. In 1,000. In 1,000. . 2 25-5 40.2 33-5 • 4 23.8 3I-I 31.8 • 4 22.8 30.I 30.2 • 4 22. g 27.8 28.6 Morals. 339 Table of the Average Annual Rates of Mortality in Three English Cities. Periods. 1865-66. . 1867-70. . 1871-74.. 1875-78.. In 1840-44, with 16,367 inhabitants to the square mile, in London, the average annual mortality was 24.5 persons in 1,000; in 1874-78, with 28,602 inhab itants to the square mile, the rate was 22.9. Rela tively, the rate of mortality, figured according to density, should have been 26.2. Here is a saving of 12,178 lives annually in London, from 1874 to 1878, as compared with the death rate and density in 1840 to 1844. This improvement the Registrar- General attributes, in part, to the extensive sew erage introduced, measuring 1,300 miles.* Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., recently said : The death rate of the world and the proportipn of sickness improve steadily. It is fair to ascribe this improvement to an improvement in morals or the obedience to law. It is said — though not on very perfect authority — that the probability of life at a given age is three times as great in London as it was in Rome in the days of Augustus. This cannot be abso lutely demonstrated. But something like it is true. This is evidence that man takes more care of man, that man bears his brother's burdens, that he lives in the common life, as he did not eighteen hundred and fifty years ago. * See " The British Almanac and Companion," 1880, p. 121. 340 Problem of Religious Progress. The Anarchist Spirit is a dark phase in the problem of modern progress. These elements have come to us by immigration^- the fruitage of the despotism of the Old World ; kin dred to the spirit of the French Revolution which a century ago shook the continent of Europe. It is the most difficult and alarming problem that has confronted the citizens of the United States since the first mutterings of the civil war. The pope's encyc lical on the labor question a few years ago fell powerless on his European audience, utterly failing to suppress the spirit of anarchy in its native home. The evil has overleaped the ocean and poisoned the atmosphere of the United States. Great un rest and discontent have prevailed in many central localities, and we have had coal strikes, mining strikes, railroad strikes, armies of the unemployed marching across the land, and desperate uprisings in Pittsburg, Buffalo, and in Chicago. If sterner and more efficient measures had been exercised in dealing with the lawless mobs who went tramping across the country, seizing railroad trains, preying upon farmers, etc., the sanguinary drama in Chicago and vicinity would not have been witnessed. It is high time for the people to be serious when they realize that men infected with anarchistic prin ciples occupy gubernatorial chairs, and boldly share the perverse direction in which their sympathies Morals. 341 run. When the Governor of Illinois pardoned the anarchist murderers, he startled the country; but when he impudently stood face to face before the President of the United States and opposed his in tervention to suppress the great riot, the country was startled into tumultuous rage. Severe have been the expressions of indignation ; but will the people remember this evil conduct, or will they soon condone the offense ? They have only themselves to blame, if they elect such men to these high offices and keep them there. The rioters in these great tumults appear to com prise large multitudes, but the real spirits of mis chief are probably comparatively few. Our great cities are unfortunate in having large numbers of desperate men who, mixing in with genuine strikers, multiply their capacity for harm, and the examples become contagious. We cannot believe that it is our decent, well- trained American workmen who perpetrate these great offenses, though some may be tainted with the virus of the pestilence. Who would have sup posed a year ago that the incomparable World's Fair would so soon be followed by these direful catastrophes, developing a spirit of evil emulous of the Parisian Commune ? And yet we are told some visitors even then had ominous apprehensions of the possibility of an outbreak, as they occasionally ob served clusters of scowling proletariats ripe for revolt 23 342 Problem of Religious Progress. and spoliation. It is not strange that men who project these uprisings are often shattered victims of alcoholism and Ingersollism, and that a species of demagogism among laboring men adds fuel to the flame. Should we not reflect upon the dangers that at- • tend that material and scientific progress of which so much strident boasting has been heard ? The West has long been upheld as a marvel of enter prise, and Chicago as the wonder of the universe. One half of the population of that city is foreign. Europe and America combined there to perform prodigies of material grandeur. But was it at no cost of morals ? At no sacrifice of genuine happi ness ? At no peril to salvation ? Certainly it was the kingdom of this world and not the kingdom of God that was sought. Such a reversal of the divine edict could be attended with no real, lasting good. If we make idols of gold and worship divinities of material prosperity, the curtain will in due time be lifted, and we shall behold hideous devouring de mons lurking behind the scenes. Shall our mighty cities become heaving volcanoes? What can pre vent or postpone the bursting forth of the pent-up fires ? Who has the wisdom to name and apply the remedy ? So far as anarchism is a spirit of madness and revenge against old-time institutions, and it is that chiefly, there is only one remedy — suppression by Morals. , 343 the civil power ; but the remaining fraction will doubtless be reached by calm and thorough discus sion, which will eliminate the more radical elements of the problem — the sting of the hornet. Some of our expounders of political economy, in promi nent positions, for a while stood on perilous ground, which gave comfort and encouragement to the rev olutionary party.. There are some indications that they are emerging from the hallucination of their extreme theorizing, retracing their steps, and are likely to become helpful to other venturesome in quirers. The anarchistic spirit has been aggravated by certain radical and reckless discussions of unsolved economic problems. During the past twenty years or more the American people have been confronted with momentous questions closely related to the question of monopoly. Heavy allegations are made against railroad and other corporations, as so seriously grinding down and impoverishing large classes of the people as to call for interference by the State. The support of the churches, it is also claimed, should be afforded in the interest of hu manity, that the offensive monopolies may be elimi nated and government control be established over those large industrial operations. The solution of this problem, some have self-con- fidently asserted to be easy, and two methods have been advocated, mutually dependent: First, turn 344. Problem of Religious Progress. over the great public functions in the industrial realm to responsible public authorities ; and, sec ondly, civil control of those who manage these es sentially public businesses, and make them so dis charge their functions that they will promote the public welfare. This scheme was regarded with much favor at first by many thoughtful persons, but on maturer thought it has been judged to be im practicable and visionary. Professor Richard T. Ely has well said : " The hope of a beneficent con trol of private property, of the kind mentioned, is Utopian. Every article, monograph, and book ad vocating such control should be entitled ' Utopia,' because they all rest upon hypotheses which apply only to an imaginary world." This radical theory implies that civil govern ment can put in charge of such interests, which have been developed by long personal experience, officers capable of managing and sustaining them, who can be found in other and inexperienced relations, and who, with no personal interest in the work, will efficiently conduct them. In other words, the advocates of these views propose to bring about " a system of control in which inex perience shall control experience, and ignorance, knowledge. Cart anything more Utopian be well imagined?" * It is very certain, that while something may be * Article in the " Catholic Mirror," Baltimore, August, 1894. Morals. 345 done by specific legislation, yet the whole matter is so mixed and complicated, that the only sure and effectual remedy must be sought in pervad ing the public mind with a fuller realization of the great principles relating to the brotherhood of man and the common rights of all — Christianity in the concrete. Philanthropic Agencies. One of the noblest traits of the century is the development of organized voluntary effort to relieve the suffering and raise the fallen. Near the begin ning of this century the humane spirit of Christian ity was seen struggling for a wider dominion. It came forth slowly, for a long period of hatred, per sonal bitterness, and bloodshed had preceded, and left its spirit lurking in all departments of society. But after the great European war which ended in the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, a spirit of tol eration, tenderness, and forbearance began to pre vail, and men's minds were directed to the work of helping the helpless, protecting the unprotected, providing for the needy, and alleviating suffering. Charities, many of them before unknown, sprang up and multiplied. Hospitals, infirmaries, dispen satories, asylums, homes for the aged, lodging- houses, institutions for the blind, the deaf and dumb, the idiotic, and for drunkards, have been * See " The British Almanac and Companion," 1880, p. 121. 346 Problem of Religious Progress. established every-where, and number their inmates by hundreds of thousands. Children without guard ians have been snatched by merciful hands from the perils which surrounded them, and committed to institutions for education and training. Fallen women are gathered into institutions devoted to their moral recovery. Criminals whose terms of punishment have expired are provided with employ ment. A vast machinery of charities, with a spirit of noble devotedness, is spreading its net-work of kindly influences in all our cities and towns. Five hundred* charitable -societies in London expend $5,000,000 annually ; and in New York city about $4,000,000 annually are expended. In the United States 43 institutions care for 5,743 deaf and dumb annually ; 30 institutions for the blind minister to 2,179 pupils annually; 11 idiot asylums minis ter to 1,781 idiotic and imbecile persons. The first two classes of these institutions show a property of $10,000,000, and the three classes an annual ex penditure of $2,250,000, for persons heretofore left to be trodden down and passed by with indifference. Not to specify other humane and philanthropic in stitutions, it may be said that nearly all institutions and organizations for these unfortunates have had theii origin since the battle of Waterloo. This dis position to raise the fallen, to befriend the friend- * Low's " Hand-Book to the Charities of London," 1879-1880, shows one thousand charitable institutions in that city. Morals. 347 less, is now one of the governing influences pf the world, whose dominion is widening every year, and winning to its support a growing public sentiment. Penal Inflictions. Within one hundred years the criminal laws of even the most enlightened countries were atro ciously savage, and administered in a relentless spirit. Hon. Edmund Burke said he could obtain the consent of the House of Commons to any bill imposing punishment by death. English law recog nized two hundred and twenty-three capital crimes — not wholly a legacy of. the Dark Ages, for one hundred and fifty-six of them bore no remoter date than the reigns of the Georges. " If a man injured Westminster bridge he was hanged. If he appeared disguised on a public road he was hanged. If he cut down young trees, if he shot rabbits, if he stole property valued at five shillings, if he stole any thing at- all from a bleach-field, if he wrote a threatening letter to extort money, if he returned prematurely from transportation — for any of these offenses he was prematurely hanged. . . . Men who were not old when the battle of Waterloo was fought were fa miliar with the nameless atrocities which it had been customary to inflict upon traitors. Within their recollection men who resisted the government were cut in pieces by the executioner, and their dishon ored heads were exposed on Temple Bar to the de- 348 Problem of Religious Progress. rision or pity of passers-by. It seemed, indeed, as if society were reluctant to abandon these horrid practices. So late as 1820, when Thistlewood and his companions were executed for a poor, blunder ing conspiracy which they were supposed to have formed, the executioner first hanged and then be headed the unfortunate men. The prison accom ¦ modations provided by the State were well calcu lated to reconcile criminals even to the gloomiest of all methods of deliverance. It was in 1773 that John Howard began his noble and faithful researches among the prisons of England, but many years passed before remedies were found for the evils which he revealed. In Howard's time the jailer re ceived no salary : nay, he often paid a considerable sum for the situation which he filled. He was re munerated by fees extracted at his own pleasure, and often by brutal violence, from the wretches who had fallen into his power. It was his privilege to sell their food to the prisoners, and to supply, at an extortionate price, the. straw which served them for beds, unless they were content to sleep on the damp floor." * The penal codes and usages of all civilized coun tries retained too long the barbarism of the less- enlightened ages. But a marked modification in statutes and prisons has been apparent in the last sixty years. The more sanguinary penalties of + Mackenzie's " Nineteenth Century." Harper & Brothers. Morals. 349 other ages have been left behind, and the retribu tion which savors of vengeance has been eliminated. Penal justice is administered with reference to what is required for the safety and well-being of society — not exact retribution — so much suffering for so much crime — but the principle of self-defense, security, and reformation. Machinery and Moral and Social Progress.- We have to go back in thought only a short time to see what men were without machinery. Mind is more than muscle. Mind first invented the tools which muscle uses, and civilization is the sum of our attainments in the use of the materials and forces for the promotion of our physical, material, and moral well-being. After groping through cent uries, through alchemy, empiricism, and guess work, invention and discovery have reached the bed rock on which mechanism puts forth its multitudinous machinery and sets it to work for the welfare and happiness of the human race. Hon. Carroll D. Wright has ably discussed this new factor in practical ethics : Machinery has brought with it a new school of ethics. It is the type and representative of the civilization of this period, be cause it embodies, so far as mechanics are concerned, the con centrated, clearly wrought out thought of the age. While books represent thought, machinery is the embodiment of thought. We are living in the age of mind, intellect, brain, which to-day is king, and machinery is the king's prime minis- 350 Problem of Religious Progress. ' ter. Wealth of mind and wealth of purse struggle for the mastery, and the former wins and gives the crown to the Hux- leys, Darwins, Tyndals, Proctors, Woolseysi and Drapers, rather than to the Rothschilds and Astors" It is natural and logical that under such sovereignty, machinery should not only typify the progress of the race, but have a clearly marked influence upcn the morals of people — a mixed influence, too, as men are what we call good or evil, but, on the whole, with the good vastly predominant. The pessimist of this age — and his name is legion — finds in this influence the wonderful displacement of muscular labor, back work, and mourns for the days of the fathers. He sees in the growing importance of inventions the destruction of the individuality of men, and their gradual retrogression to mere puppets, without the intelligence of the machinery they deplore. He sees, in the division of labor, the to him sure corollary of machinery, the degradation of labor, the dwarfing and narrow ing of the mind, and the complete subjugation of all manly- qualities. He fails to comprehend work as anything' more than mere manual labor, the expenditure of muscle, and never real izes that it means employment, occupation, the means by which all sane people secure happiness for themselves and those they love — and that whatever is done in the name of service to mankind is work, and that the work which calls out the highest faculties of the worker, whether of endeavor or of aspiration, is, for him, the highest employment. If there is any one thing this age more than any preceding insists upon in individuals it is work — employment of some kind. Once it was enough to be good ; now one must prove himself valuable, or he becomes, if not an actual, a sccial and moral tramp. St. Paul said : " To him that worketh is the re ward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Yet when a man is employed to the extent of the support of himself and his own, the reward is reckoned of grace, and he is capable of a better and a purer religious growth, for a poverty-stricken people cannot well be a religious people. Religion most assuredly has to do with everything that affects the ccnduct of life ; it is Morals. 351 the art of living well, not merely of dying well. It is the sci ence of being and doing. The aim of the modern Christ " would be to raise the whole platform of society. He would not try to make the poor contented with a lot in which they cannot be much better than savages or brutes. He would not content himself with denouncing sin as spiritual evil ; he would go into its economic causes, and destroy the power by cutting at the roots — poverty and ignorance '' — and the lowest, most harmful, and most expensive ignorance of to-day is ignorance of work, the want of some technical knowledge which enables a man to earn his own living outside a penal institution. " He, the modern Christ, would accept the truths of science, and would teach that a man saves his soul best by helping his neighbor." Poverty and such religion cannot exist among the same peo ple, for such a religion cannot prevail unless the people are engaged in that class of employments which tend to broaden all their faculties, to awaken not only their sense of duty to their kind, but to develop their love of beauty, of art, and of all that adorns and ennobles life, and such employment cannot be maintained without the presence of machinery as the endow ing, working, and perfect embodiment of the ingenuity of man. We are hardly aware of the silent working influence of ma chinery upon the morals of the world. It is recognized in this thought I have outlined, that poverty and religion are not now, as once, twin virtues, and that work is as good an evangelist as the world has seen. Christianity only prevails in industrious communities. The people of America, with all their faults and foibles, are more religious, in the sense I have given, than any other, and this, I am sure, is because, among a democratic people, where there is no hereditary wealth, every man works to earn a living, or has worked, or is born of parents who have worked. The notion of labor is therefore being presented to the mind, on every side, as the necessary, natural, and honest condition of human existence. Professor Everett, in his able essay upon the subject, justly refers to the old idea of poverty 352 Problem of Religious Progress. as " the ideal life." The old idea of poverty was that it was to be comforted and solaced — in some way ameliorated — but the thought of doing away with it would have been considered, if not sacrilegious, at least hardly desirable. The life of poverty was indeed the ideal life. This whole state of things has changed. " God's poor," said the old morality ; the " devil's poor," would say the new, if it spoke its- whole thought. Pov erty is not the blessing, but the curse of society. The whole social effort is not so much to ameliorate it as to abolish it. Charity, instead of being regarded as the ideal virtue, is, at least under its old form, regarded as a weakness, if not as a vice. " If you would help men," cries the new morality, "help them to help themselves." " Give to him that asketh thee," cried the old ; " Give to nobody that asks thee," cries the new. " Send beggars to the Central Committee ; " and to this Central Committee it says : " If you give anything give work." And work is the cure all, the panacea for many of the evils that threaten society, but in order to have this panacea induce the very best conditions for the reception and growth and home of a high state of morals, the prerequisite of religious advance ment should be the very highest grade of employment. If the lowest grade germinates into self-respect, and the dignity which comes of self-support, how ennobling must be that em ployment which not only stimulates the highest faculties, but excites the admiration for the perfect and love for the beauti- _ ful. Any man witnessing the operations of a wonderful piece of mechanism feels its influence for life. There is something educational in the very presence of the mechanical powers. The witnessing of the automatic movements of a machine stimulates thought, and, coupled with necessity or desire, makes the laborer not only the inventor of other movements, but of his own fame and fortune. If labor, employment of the mind, is an essential to religion and good morals, then the highest kind of employment, that requiring the most application, the best intellectual effort, means the best religion and the best morals. This condition, I take courage to assert, is superinduced eventually by the . Morals. 353 employment pf so-called labor-saving machinery and the divis ion of labpr. We are tpld that in the good old times we did not have so many sick with us. True, because they died. The feeble could not live under the pld conditions ; only the most robust and sturdiest physical natures could survive, and none others were seen. To-day the presence of feeble men and women, of advancing years, does not show degeneracy of the race, but is a living glory of our civilization which allows them to exist. The constant promotion of luxuries to the grade of necessaries of life, which marks the forward steps of civilization, positively demands the fullest play of the ingenuity of man to place them within reach. The wheel of progress rolls on, destroying the old as it rolls, crushing out ignorance ; but it rolls all the time, and man is often obliged to give way before it, as the old machine is thrown aside, for the new. Educated labor, as the pioneer, must step over human graves, over buried ambitions and lost opportunities ; the law is infallible, if even in our short- sightedness we call it cruel. In the division of labor, as I have said, is positive reduction of working time and corresponding increase of wages. These benefits are particularly, marked during the past century in the increased chance of life, which has been raised ten per cent.,. in the fourfold increase of productive power, and the wonder fully enhanced power to command what rulers a century ago, with all the appointments of war and the adjuncts of unlimited exchequers, could not command. The laborer will learn in the future that diversity of employment, and the consequent prac tical versatility of hiS talents, will enable him to secure the essentials of life in a few hours, and that he can swell his in come by artistic employment upon articles which he may now be denied. The inevitable result, it seems to me to be, is, that while we shall always have the unfortunate with us, made so from a variety of causes, bad conditions will be palliated to a large degree by the capacity to not only employ one's time, when enfeebled, upon profitable^ work, but by bringing with such employment corresponding joy. 354 Problem of Religious Progress. To accomplish this it is desirable to increase the capacity of the people to consume, and this is done by improving their physical and moral condition. So the nearer we get to the point where a man shall have control of powers, by simplifying muscular motions, the quicker will his physical condition be improved, for the higher will be the efficiency of mere muscular labor ; and certainly the higher physical condition begets the better moral condition. Can there be any other corollary than morality to these propositions ? If not, then religion flourishes best under the conditions that produce the best morality. The Peril of the Cities. Massed populations cannot dwell in obscurity. They are the radiating centers of national life. The rural sections get not merely their fashions, but their social customs and mold of character from the cities. Cities are moral battle grounds, potent determining factors of moral progress. The prob lem of the cities is therefore one of the leading problems of our civilization. Under our peculiar civil polity the solution must come from out of the hearts of the people, by the process of self-govern ment, grounded in intelligence and true virtue. The tendency to a congestion of populations has been one of the marked phenomena of all history from the days of Babel to the present time. The teeming populations of Nineveh, Babylon, Carthage, Syracuse, and Rome, the cities of Egypt and Greece, are only a few of the more notable of the great centers of the olden time. v But it must be confessed that the conditions of Illustrating the Growth of Fifty Principal Cities. Per cent, of total population of United States. 1850 1 1 10.4 per cent. 1860 1870 1880 1890 Total population of 50 cities, 11,267,988 18 0 124 cities of 25,000 and upward contain 13,988,938 inhabitants, or 22.5 per cent, of whole population of United "States. 448 cities of 4,000 inhabitants and upward contain 18,284,385 population, or 29 . 2 per cent, of whole United States. Morals. 355 the higher Christian civilizations furnish the impulse and also the facilities for larger concentrations of population. In the United States these large ag gregations of people have been the more remark able because of the unparalleled extent of our national area. While the inhabitants have been spreading out into the new territories, filling up vast solitudes with new organized communities, at the same time the growth of the city populations has been even more wonderful. The fact of the great and rapid growth of these centers of population is not of itself an unmixed peril. It has its advantages, bringing people near together, so they can be easily reached, and making Christian labors less obtrusive and open to carping criticism. The question of peril for the large cities starts from this point — the rapid growth of the pop ulations producing great demands for religious pro vision. To follow up the growth of these great cities, to furnish them with religious influences, to make lodgment of Christian truth in the hearts of these intensely surging masses, and capture and hold them to Christianity, is a task of no small magnitude. The manifold large corrupt elements concen trated in the cities produce hideous congestions of evil, for such the slums may be characterized. These re-enforcements come from several sources. Our rural districts send valuable additions of virtue, intelligence, enterprise, and real stamina ; but other 24 356 Problem of Religious Progress. classes of a very different type pour into the cities — uneasy, restless, roving adventurers, needy and greedy men and women, thriftless families, many weary of the sweat of honest toil, many whose grow ing viciousness shuns the light and gaze of village streets, others whose overmastering propensities to evil break from the restraints of staid communities and seek large indulgence ; others fleeing from the wreck of better fortunes, and others from the wreck of character. With such tides pouring into them, portions of the cities become large festering, fer menting slums. Commerce, with its great advantages, brings seri ous disadvantages to the large maritime cities. With their widely extended commercial intercom munication with the whole world there comes familiarity with the vices of the nations — an enlarged community of evil. The great seaports absorb the concentrated vices of the world, and in these days of quick and easy transit the inland cities and rural towns are easily inoculated with every evil virus known in the world-wide community of iniquity. We have quarantine protection against foreign pes tilences, but none against foreign vices. Furthermore, the law of growth inheres in sin. Large aggregates of vicious characters intensify evil and produce monstrous developments of iniquity. Thus large cities become the strongholds of devil dom, where " Satan's seat is," and saloonocracy, Morals. 357 prostitution, gambling, and a long list of nameless wrongs are rampant. The slums are babels of moral confusion, of manifold tongues and manifold crimes, in crowding regiments, besieging and beating back law and order. These terribly lapsed masses seem utterly devoid of hope or desire for elevation, indif ferent to imitation and instruction, and defiant toward remonstrance and warning. The American policy of rule by the people is being put to a severe test. Some time ago we be came familiar with the phrase " ring rule ; " but we have passed far down beyond that, and now hear much of " gang rule " and " thug rule." In some cities a large part of the primaries are held in low saloons, which good citizens will not enter ; hence the administration of city affairs is determined by the lowest and most corrupt elements of the population. Political service on the recommenda tions of saloon keepers too often determine the appointment of police. It is the old story of the wolves selecting the dogs to guard the sheep-fold. The " Congregationalist " (June 14, 1894) said: Our republican form of government has developed in recent years a kind of monarchy peculiar to America, impossible in a republic except where suffrage is practically universal. It is as absolute as was that of the Caasars. It is not the gift of the people, but a simple usurpation of power, in most cases by for eign rulers. Though our monarchs do not receive their office by election of citizens, they direct popular elections so as to reward their 358 Problem of Religious Progress. subordinates with offices. They wear no royal titles, though the peculiarly American title of " boss" is generally given them by their subjects. They are almost always uneducated, many of them' having spent their earlier life in liquor saloons. But they direct the education of the children and youth of the cities they govern, and virtually decide the amount of money appro priations made for this purpose. They are entirely without moral aims or restraints or patriotism, but they profit greatly by the civic contentions of citizens over moral and patriotic issues. The biographies of these men are more romantic than those of any of the kings and emperors of the Old World. They fur nish the type of hero for a large proportion of American youth. We mention a few of these monarchs by way of illustration. Chris. Buckley, born in Ireland, was in 1876 the keeper of a liquor saloon in San Francisco. By hard drinking he contracted a disease which destroyed his eye-sight about fifteen years ago. He then reformed, studied diligently the laws of the State, gathered a company of followers around him, joined either po litical party, according as he could make it contribute most to his selfish purposes, till he rose to the position of absolute mon arch of the city. He is now in exile with a large amount of public property. Ed. Murphy, the boss of Troy, N. Y., an Irishman, has been for many years a brewer, entered" politics through the fire department of that city, and became seven years ago Chairman of the Democratic State Committee. He is now a United States senator from New York. Chris. Magee, boss of Pittsburg, Pa. ; Hugh McLaughlin, the recently de throned boss of Brooklyn ; and Richard Croker, just retired from the office of boss of New York city, all came from Ireland. Croker's history is a typical one. He came to this country in 1846, was early expelled from public school in New York, became a noted prize fighter and tough, was chosen alderman of his adopted city in 1870, was indicted for murderln 1874, but escaped conviction through the influence of Tammany Hall ; won by unscrupulous diligence and skill the position of boss in New York; without office or employment has amassed wealth, and now in the face of accumulating dangers to the Morals. 359 system he has so ably administered, has voluntarily retired, and lias left the country. The investigation of the police depart ment, now being conducted by the Lexow Committee, shows in part the immense revenues pouring in to support the system of government by bossism from payments for appointments to public offices, taxes levied without authority upon unlicensed saloons, gambling places, and houses of ill-fame. I At the date of this writing the investigation is not finished, but the " Independent," June 14, said : In brief, the witnesses, many of whom were keepers of dis orderly houses, testified to a regular system of extortion by which these houses were allowed to continue their business, on the payment of the sum of five hundred dollars when they opened, or at the beginning of the term of a new police captain, and fifty dollars a month. In a few cases the monthly sum was less than this, but the testimony goes to show that that was the amount fixed upon, and if the proprietors of these places did not pay it their places were raided. In each ward some one was appointed to go around and gather up these monthly contributions, and he was known as the ward man. When the police captain was changed it generally followed that the ward man was changed. So long as these keepers of dis orderly houses kept up their contributions, with Christmas presents for the captains and others, they were not disturbed. . The disclosures are worse than disgraceful. Nothing more sickening could be imagined. The wages of sin have been filched from the shameless creatures of the stews, and through the agents of the law Tammany has gorged itself like an insati ate monster. The stench of the corruption is awful. Uncover it, and then away with it. Worse than all else, the fountain-head of Justice is sometimes submissive to " the gang," and roughs arrested are discharged because they " stand well " with " the boss," usually a saloon keeper. The 360 Problem of Religious Progress. overmuch politics with which this country is cursed, and the constantly recurring elections, place the ad ministration of law at the mercy of the ruffianly elements, and ward politics becomes a trade, in which robbery and lawlessness are connived at. Gang rule prevails wherever ward politicians bid the police stand aside, and force the police justice to utter decisions in the interest of disorder. Even the registration lists in these cities, under the manipulation of the gangs, are falsified. A few years ago the St. Louis papers moralized over the degeneracy of the city politics, and put the respon sibility upon "the good men who do not vote." But many of the best citizens replied that " for years the registration lists have been the chief in strument used by the worst elements for their fraud ulent purposes ; " that " the registry of voters has not afforded the slightest protection against fraud ulent voting ; " that there " has not been an honest election in this city for years;" that "hotel regis ters have been transferred to the voting lists, and men have been found to vote upon the names ; " that "the ballot-boxes are often in the hands of men whose satanic mathematics will produce any kind of election result desired ; " and that such things are " carried on with connivance of the party in power," and " why, therefore, should good men trouble them selves in the vain effort to make an honest ballot over balance fraudulent returns?" With "thugs " installed Morals. 361 as election judges, how farcical must be the elec tions. Primary meetings are packed, nominations controlled, elections dictated, and ballots counted to suit. Similar facts are given concerning Cincinnati, Chicago, Albany, the north end of Boston, etc. It is said that the erection of many costly, mag nificent churches, to meet the desires of wealthy, aristocratic families, has conveyed the impression of caste to less favored people, has increased the cost of church attendance, and has put many families in a position of so great social disparity that, feeling ill at ease, they have withdrawn from the sanctuary and fallen away from public worship altogether. There have been many complaints of churches of "the few elect, select people;" of churches man aged on " the high plane of financial and aristocratic exclusiveness ; " of expensive churches which screw out of the people pew assessments and pew rents, and drive the people away from the sanctuary ; of churches which have ceased to imitate the great Master who " ate with publicans and sinners," and "went about doing good." A citizenship unassimilated with the national, moral, and religious life of any people is a peril. We are unable to produce from the pages of history an example of a nation so greatly exposed to peril at this point as our own ; and the sources of this peril are concentrating in the large cities more than anywhere else. If the additions to our city popu- 362 Problem of Religious Progress. lation were homogeneous in race and general ideas, the case would be more tolerable. How different is London, with only 1.6 per cent, of its immense population born outside the British Isles. How much easier there the work of reform, philanthropy, and evangelization than in the heterogeneous popu lations of our American cities. In our urban cen ters we find every conceivable nationality, as well as all shades of religion, and the darker shadows of no religion, and many. persons owning supreme al legiance to a foreign pontiff. How diverse the civilization, the religious ideas, the social customs, the culture, and no-culture of our new-comers. Among them are some, a goodly number, whom we are glad to recognize, welcome, and honor as desirable additions to our citizenship. With liberal allowance for such, nevertheless, it will not be denied that, as a whole, these heterogenous masses, with habits, sympathies, political and relig ious predilections so unlike and positively antago nistic to those of our native population, have weighed heavily against us. Coming in large crowds, pour ing into the cities as new and distinct nationalities, keeping up " Old World " customs, introducing crude and sometimes revolutionary opinions into our elections, massing and effectually controlling their forces, they have set aside the American Sabbath, opened Sunday theaters, beer gardens, infidel clubs, communistic societies, and anarchistic leagues, in- Morals. 363 augurated mobocracy, and copiously filled up the ranks of the social outcasts. In these facts lie the most serious perils of the cities. How grievously have morals been de bauched, pauperism, insanity, and crime augmented, and moral progress retarded by these exotic masses. The problem of city evangelization has been incon ceivably enhanced in difficulty, and its solution in definitely postponed, by the continual addition of these radical socialistic pauper and criminal classes, as too many really are. Under such circumstances it has become a grave question, Can Old World sub jects be transformed into New World citizens ? Our cities more than any other part of the coun try have received large installments of foreign rad icalism. The communistic, anarchistic, and other radical revolutionary theories, assailing government, social order, and religion, have been promulgated in the largest centers of our population. The spirit of atheism is in the air. It comes largely from the Old World. It steams from the slums. It organizes in leagues. It has presses. Large batches of atheism and socialism are published in New York and Chicago. They proclaim anarchy as a scheme of freedom, and freedom is a popular word. Inflammable edicts issue from the atheistic press, outspoken, defiant, steeped in the spirit of denial, frothing with venom, and so shocking with rage that our blood chills while we read. They are disseminated with a dead-in-earnest 364 Problem of- Religious Progress. zeal and diligence. These things are done among the worst classes of our foreign-born population. Fourteen or fifteen centuries ago, said a writer in the " Congregationalist," our British ancestry asked the Anglo-Saxons to help them in their struggles against the Picts and Scots. The Saxons complied with this request, but after the enemy had been de feated, remained to hold sway over the Britains. Are we not repeating the old experiment ? Our Western cities are rapidly becoming Germanized and our New England cities Irishized. We are being dominated by those who were invited to share in, not to over turn, our beneficent institutions. The aggressive radicalism of our adopted German citizens has al ready projected crises in more than one of our great cities, and Boston and some other New England cities are shuddering over their dubious prospects. The most prominent antagonism to our religious life comes in an organized form, dominated and di rected by a foreign pontiff who assumes to include educational, social, religious, and political matters within the scope of his administration. Romanism has concentrated her adherents in the cities. Take out this element and carry us back to the condition in 1850, and how different the city problem. The multiplication of large and imposing churches and other ecclesiastical edifices by the Roman Catholic Church had greatly impressed the public, and ex cited alarm in some quarters. Exaggerated state- Illustrating the Religious Situation of 124 Large Cities of 25,000 Inhabitants and Over in 1890. See Table XXIII Appendix. Total population, 13,988,938. pj^-, Roman Catholic communicants, 21.5 per cent, of whole pop. of said cities. I Roman Catholic. ,. u „i„<;„„ "* „.•- t* " " " " ;-__-; _: population, 24T7 H Protestant. Protestant communicants, 13. 2 " j _] Unclassified. " population, 46.1 " " " Line of Communicants. Communicants in said Cities in Six Leading 0 N m CO 0> T3 O X> O. (AC U4 u £ >i in CL a. Roman Catholics reckon their population at 15 per cent, more than their communicants. Protestants reckon the Protestant population at z\ times their communicants. Morals. 365 ments in regard to numbers are often paraded before the public. No exact data has existed to tell the numerical strength of Roman Catholic adherents in the cities, until the Census of 1890 collected and tabulated by H. K. Carroll, LL.D. (See Appendix, P- 7I3-) Nor should the increase of Roman Catholic churches be regarded as an unmixed evil. In some respects it is an encouraging indication. Without these religious agencies hbw could our foreign masses be held in check and controlled, especially in times of panic and other provocations to violence. The argument might be extended further. The numerous efforts for city evangelization, more extensively organized since 1870, are developing en couraging results. The Young Men's Christian Associations and the powerful evangelistic labors carried on in most cities have all contributed to this result. The relative decline of Roman Cath olic immigration, and the large Protestant immi gration since 1870, have also been helping factors. While looking at the perils of the present time let •us not pessimize the situation. There is a judicial view of the case which will not diminish our sense of present responsibility, but will give a healthier, steadier, and more courageous tone to our efforts. It is very doubtful whether any such aggressive Christianity in large cities can be cited from the history of any previous century ; certainly not in the 366 Problem of Religious Progress. last two centuries can be found such progress as we have witnessed in our large- cities during the last fifty years. The Protestant churches of the few cities in this country, and in the larger and more numerous cities of Great Britain and all other Prot estant countries during the last century, were in a slow, cold, stagnant condition, wholly unaggressive. In the last half of the last century there was a little waking up in Great Britain, but nothing like what we have seen here in the last fifty years. Had we possessed no more vital power than the churches of the last century and of almost all the previous cent uries, with the great tides of foreign immigration, Romanism, rationalism, and socialism coming in upon us, we would have been utterly swamped, and our churches would have wholly disappeared from our cities. We must recognize the value of the . breakwater that has kept us from being submerged, the Eddystone lighthouses that have stood firmly where dreadful waves have been breaking, the last havens maintained where stores, comfort, and refuge could be offered wild, venturesome voyagers. We are learning that the large metropolitan cities contain not only the concentrated vices of the world, but also the intensest concentrations of good forces. While these large aggregations of evil have been gathering we have also been organizing and centrat- ing in the cities great benevolent, philanthropic, educational, and evangelizing societies and boards, Morals. 367 for which only the feeblest parallels could be found one or two hundred years ago, and in many large cities no parallels at all. When we become depressed and gloomy over the great corruptions of our large cities, and feel like sinking under the discouraging prospect, let us read' what Lecky says about the large cities of Great Britain in the last century, and then turn to the still grosser condition of the cities of the European continent at that time. The evils we see in our Amer ican cities impress us deeply, because we see them on the background of the clearest Christian civilization that ever illumined the world. The old Roman world never looked so dark and revolting as it did after Christianity poured into it her divine illumination. Let us join with Dr. Guthrie in saying : I bless God for cities. I recognize a wise and gracious prov idence in their existence. The world had not been what it is without them. The disciples were commanded to begin at Jerusalem, and Paul threw himself into the cities of the ancient world, as offering the most commanding positions of influence. Cities have been as lamps of light along the pathway of human ity and religion. Within them science has given birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind their walls freedom has fought her noblest battle. They have stood on the surface of the earth like great breakwaters, rolling back or turning aside the swelling tide of oppression. Cities have been indeed the cradle of human liberty. They have been the radiating active centers of almost all Church and State reformations. Having, there fore, no sympathy with those who, regarding them as the ex crescences of a tree or the tumors of a disease, would raze cities to the ground, I bless God for cities. 368 Problem of Religious Progress. Then let our motto be, Capture and hold the cities for Christ, as the vital strategic points of his ad vancing kingdom.* Criticisms and Testimonies. It has been well said, " It takes but little length of line to touch the bottom " of such criticisms on current morals as appeared in the October " Atlan tic "in 1880. But many good people inconsider ately indorse such criticisms, notwithstanding "they come not much short of violating the ninth com mandment." There is much carping and unjust depreciation of our times, a whining tone of dis trust, and an exaggerated confession, often both unintelligent and unmanly. A sensational press parades, in exaggerated and highly colored forms, the disgusting details of pollution, and many eagerly catch them up, depreciate the present, and pro nounce lofty eulogiums upon the past. Many are notoriously incapable of appreciating the virtues of the age in which they live, but have a keen scent for corruption, a horrid relish for scandal, look with a fixed contracted gaze upon the ulcers which af flict their fellows, and presume that every body else but themselves has ulcers. * For a fuller discussion of the Perils of Cities, by the author and others, see "Problems of American Christianity." New York: Baker, Taylor & Co. Morals. 369 If we search the records of the past for contem poraneous recognitions of a golden age, we shall fail to find them. In the course of our review, we have found men of each generation dwelling upon the degeneracy of their age, and the preachers thundering against its unprecedented vices. " The present always lies "bare to the gaze, with all its de formities and hideousness in view, while the enchant ment of distance hangs over the past." But, thank God, there are not wanting those of high intelligence, of accurate observation, of close scrutiny, who have studied the moral condition of our times in the light of preceding ages, who hail the multiplying indications of the brightening days. Theodore Parker said : " It is very plain that the people of New England are advancing in wealth, intelligence, and morality ; but in this general march there are little apparent pauses, slight waverings from side to side ; some virtues seem to straggle from the troop ; some to lag behind, for it is not always the same virtue that leads the van. ... It is probable that the morals of New England in gen eral, and of Boston in special, declined somewhat from 1775 to 1790. There were peculiar but well- known causes, which no longer exist, to work the result. . . . To estimate the moral growth or de cline of this town we must not take either period as a standard. But take the history of Boston, from 1650 to 1700, from 1700 to 1750, and thence to 1800, and 370 Problem of Religious Progress. you will see a gradual but decided progress in morality in each of these periods. From 1800 to 1849 tms progress is indisputable and well marked. Let us look at this a little in detail. "It is generally conceded that the moral charac ter of trade has improved a good deal within fifty or sixty years. It was formerly a common saying that, ' If a Yankee merchant were to sell salt water at high tide, he would cheat in the measure.' The saying was founded on the conduct of American traders abroad, in the West Indies and elsewhere. Now things have been changed for the better. I have been told by competent authority that two of the most eminent merchants of Boston, fifty or sixty years ago, who conducted each a large busi ness, and left very large fortunes, were notoriously guilty of such dishonesty in trade as would now drive any man from the Exchange. The facility with which notes are now collected by the banks, compared with the former method of collection, is itself a proof of the increase of practical honesty; the law for settling the affairs of a bankrupt tells the same thing. Now this change has not come from any special effort; and consequently it indi cates the general moral progress of the community." After speaking of the improvement, of the moral tone of the press, he says : " Yet a publicity is now adays given to certain things which were formerly kept more closely from the public eye and ear. Morals. 371 This circumstance produces an apparent increase of wrong-doing, while it is only an increase of public ity thereof. . . . There has been a great change for the better in the matter of intemperance in drink ing. . . . Probably there is not a respectable man who would not be ashamed to be seen drunk, in ever so private a manner, or who would willingly get a friend or a guest in that condition to-day. Go back a few years, and it brought no public reproach, and, I fear, no private shame. A few years further back, it was not a rare thing, on great occasions, for the fathers of the town to reel and stagger from their intemperance." Another eminent gentleman said : " The present age is not pre-eminently a bad one. On the con trary, I believe the present age to be the purest and best the world has ever seen. It is not an age of gross licentiousness, either in life or literature,, as some former ages have been. The student of liter ature meets few ' terrible temptations.' Writers like Tom Paine would be to-day turned out of the synagogues of skeptics." The late Hon. Rufus Choate is said to have maintained that there had been a decided growth in political and personal, morality since the early clays of the Union, and two Massachusetts gentle men with whom he was conversing, as well quali fied as any to judge of such matters, concurred in his views. 25 372 Problem of Religious Progress. The editor of a leading secular daily * said : " If we look back over the history of England, even in modern times, we shall easily note several distinct periods when the moral tone of the nation was low, politics were corrupt, and every thing apparently tending to ruin. And yet a few years in each in stance enabled the people to outgrow these dele terious influences, until finally the age of Victoria may be considered, on the whole, decidedly superior in all moral elements to that of any former sover eign. Nor have we any reason to doubt that the unfavorable peculiarities of the present times, in the United States, are ephemeral, and must yet yield to the inherent moral vigor of the Nation." A short time before his death, Hon. Charles Sumner was asked : " And what do you think, Mr. Sumner, of our country — are we going to destruc tion ? " " No, no," cried Mr. Sumner, emphatically ; " I believe in the Republic. I believe in the future of our country." " But think of all the lawlessness, the anarchy, and corruption every-where prevailing. We are treading in the footsteps of France. What can save us from falling as she has done?" " It is true," he answered, sadly, "these terrible disclos ures in New York, in Washington, in Kansas, in Louisiana, are enough to make us tremble. The worst feature of it is the apathy of the people. When corruption is discovered the judgment of the * " The Boston Journal," 1875. Morals. 373 people should strike like the thunderbolt." After a pause his face brightened, and he concluded: " But it does not matter. Our people have im mense recuperative power. I believe in their recu perative energy. I believe in the Republic." One of the most vigorously edited of our secular dailies,* noted for its independent criticisms, said : " Let the 'Atlantic ' essayists, and Professors Shedd and Schopenhauer, and the millenarians, tell us of the night. Let them put out the storm signals, and fix the buoys, and ring the fog-bells. We may have to slow up for a while ; we may have to beat against winds just now dead ahead, and currents drifting strong toward a lee shore ; but God lives as well as the devil, and this pessimistic tack will bring us, in the next wearing of the ship, well ahead in the open sea." The stringent morals of the Puritans, are often referred to. Rev. Washington Gladden said : f " I should like to explore the period of the Reforma tion and the days of the earlier Puritanism, and show you, by typical cases, how far inferior to our own the moral standards and practices of those days were. We should find them, indeed, vastly higher and purer than those we have encountered in the earlier days of the Church, for progress is the law of God's kingdom in the world ; but there *"The Springfield Republican," 1879. f Thanksgiving Discourse, Springfield, Mass., Nov. 28, 1878. 374 Problem of Religious Progress. would be proofs enough that none of the former days were better than these. " The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ. It is his power that is doing all this mighty work. It is the influence of his Gospel, more than all other causes combined, that has purified our jurisprudence — that has revealed to men the great doctrines of rights, and taught them how to secure and maintain their rights ; that has lifted the family out of the pagan degradations and the mediaeval corruptions ; that has gradually purified the sentiments and the eth ical ideas of society, so that all our institutions are pervaded by its spirit, and all our civilization shines with the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." A leading religious editor * said : " The world never saw such extensive business organizations as at the present time. When one man, like a Stew art, can combine the abilities of several hundred men, and reap the margins on all their work, we cannot doubt general confidence. " Take the single branch of business known as banking. How it depends upon letters of credit, and on dispatches, and on statements ! Think of the millions that daily pass through the channels of exchange, and how seldom a penny rolls out into any by-way. It hardly amounts to the one hun- * " Christian Advocate," Nov. 30, 1876. Morals. 375 ,dred thousandth part of one per cent. Take the 25,000 men in American banks that have it in their power to steal ; see how seldom they do it. The cases will not average more than one every two weeks, or one in a thousand a year. A leading banker said not long ago, ' I would be willing to take the men up from the street as we meet them, and put them in charge of the vault, saying, " This vault is open, you watch it for an hour," and not one in a hundred would disappoint the confidence.' We are n'ot all abandoned. Honesty is not one of the lost arts. " Take another class of community now much abused by certain secular papers. There are now more than 80,000 ministers in the United States. Make an estimate of the percentage of failures in morals. There is not an average of one a month in the entire land. One in 6,500 is not a bad showing for a year. Would to God there were none at all ! But we are far ahead of the infant Church, where the failures were one in twelve. . . . We have great reason to hope, for we are going in the right direc tion. Slavery is not defended, but dead. Alcohol is no longer imbibed in the pulpit, but denounced. Corruption is not concealed and apologized for, but denied and condemned ; the cry against it is de manded by the public conscience. The Churches were never more vigorous in their evangelizing work. The credit of the nation has been so estab- 376 Problem of Religious Progress. lished that its paper has advanced from thirty-five to ninety cents on the dollar. The losses on dis bursements by corruption and fraud were never so small in the entire history of the country as at present. " In the time of Van Buren the loss was $2 1 15 on every $1,000. Now it is only twenty-six cents. In the days of Buchanan, United States bonds bear ing six per cent, interest, issued to pay current ex penses of the government, which exceeded the rev enues by over $75,000,000, were hawked about the country, and sold with great difficulty at seventeen per cent, discount. Now four and a half per cent. bonds sell at par. Surely capital, which is the most sensitive nerve in the world, does not indicate much distrust. . . . We are bad enough, but we are bet ter than ever in the past. God has not a surplus of earthly governments that do as well by the masses of the people as our government does. We may confidently expect him to use us as long as we are fit for use ; then he will do the next best thing with us." Said another eminent preacher and writer: "All the great ideals of civilized life of to-day are baptized in the spirit of the Gospel. Ideals are the engines that draw men up to higher planes of being. It is from ideals that aspirations spring, and it is by them that development is produced ; although they may be but little flickering lights, they are like the north star Morals. 377 that guides men, and that enables them to find their way on the trackless sea by its constant bright ness. The ideals of the family, the ideals of active men in commercial relations, the ideals of the pa triot, the ideals of the whole civilization of our time, are essentially Christian. Honor, truth, pu rity, self-denial, love, intelligence, and general man liness, are all largely inspired and shaped by the Spirit of Christ. . . . The steady shining of the Spirit of Christ through the ages has imbued laws and formed customs. In the procedure that is most universally approved among civilizations there is an element of Christianity that has entered into it ; so that, besides conceptional Christianity and the Christianity of the record of the Book, there is a concrete Christianity, which consists of the equity, purity, justice, love, and generosity that are incul cated by the customs, public sentiments, laws, and institutions Of human society." * Moral self-poise is one of the best tests of true progress. The masses of the world have not yet reached a perfect equilibrium, as occasional occur rences remind us ; but how much greater the self- control of the human race than one hundred years ago ! Arbitrary enactments and standing armies are now little better than mockeries ; for men with elevated ideas need no overawing forces to restrain or compel them. Popular outbreaks against law * Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 1878. 378 Problem of Religious Progress. and government, once so frequent, are now compara tively rare, seldom disastrous, and are usually quieted by personal moral influence rather than by force. International difficulties, once decided wholly by the sword, are coming to be settled chiefly by diplomacy. International conferences seem destined to supplant sanguinary encounters. In pending elections the sharpest partisan agitations, enlisting however much of acrimony, and sometimes exciting painful apprehensions for the future peace and sta bility of governments, quietly subside with the verdict of the people — the most ardent demagogues promptly bowing to the popular will. Men are learning, more than ever before, that they can dis agree and yet live happily together. France has at last come, may we not believe, after many unsuc cessful experiments, to a condition in which its excitable elements are susceptible of that self-con trol essential to republican government. One hun dred years ago, or even fifty or thirty years ago, it was not possible. England and America have also improved in this regard. Many far-off lands, Aus tralia, some Polynesian isles, Southern and Western Africa, portions of South America, and Mexico, only a little time ago dominated by savagery or an intol erant priesthood, are learning the great moral les son of self-government. Thus, under the tutelage of Christianity, God is fulfilling the ancient predic tion, " I will write my laws in your hearts" etc. III. SPIRITUAL VITALITY. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. The Eve of the Lutheran Reformation. The Eve of the "Wesleyan Reformation. The Eve of the Edwardean Revival. The Eve of the Revival of 1800-1803. OF III.-SPIEITUAL VITALITY. CHAPTER I. TYPICAL PERIODS. SPIRITUAL Christianity had almost disap peared when Protestantism arose. The spirit of ecclesiasticism was dominant, and the Roman hierarchy, assuming all control of spiritual functions, raised its imperious head between the individual and his God. Imposing forms and elaborate cere monials supplanted spiritual life. Piety retired to cloisters, which, indeed, developed some conspicu ous examples, but disfigured by morbid introspec tion, abnormal ecstasy, physical flagellation, and antinomian quietism. Pining to dwell " In dark monastic cells, By vows and grates confined," these illustrious religionists, whose devotion the Church of Rome has proudly cited as evidences of her high spiritual capabilities, overlooked the prime obligation of true saintship — " Freely to all ourselves we give, Constrained by Jesus' love to live The servants of mankind." 382 Problem of Religious Progress. In such a period Luther appeared, protesting against the exclusive functions of the Romish priest hood, and proclaiming every man his own priest. The theory of the priesthood . of believers, as an is sue with the hierarchy, was fought out in the great Reformation of the sixteenth century ; but it was only imperfectly realized in the practical life of the Reformation Churches. We recognize it, in an ex cessive and fanatical form, among the Anabaptists in Germany, who claimed immediate and even prophetic inspiration, and, a little later, among the early Quakers. It had a better but yet imperfect development among the Puritans. Absorbed in the outward battle of great princi ples, the Reformation, in its earlier stages, did not exhibit much spirituality, except in some of its best leaders, in whose hearts the most radical truths were combined with intense religious devotion. Nor did early Protestantism exhibit much mis sionary and soul-saving power. The subject of spiritual regeneration did not receive the distinct ive prominence which it had in, the primitive Church. Before the death of Luther all Northern Europe had broken away from the Papacy, and the Refor mation was .established by law. Great religious wars occurred, extending through three generations, during which the spirituality of Protestantism was extinguished and its aggressive power lost. It be- Spiritual Vitality. 383 came political, and contented itself with maintain ing itself within its own limits. From Luther to Wesley few revivals occurred, except at long intervals, among the Presbyterians in Scotland, the Moravians, and in some of the earliest Churches of the Massachusetts Colony. One hun dred and fifty years ago spiritual death and formalism pervaded the Protestant Churches of Europe and America. No aggressive impulse, no lay activities, no outgoing desire for the salvation of the world, marked the period. The New England Churches had a few feeble missions among the Indians ; En glish Protestantism had one society that reached beyond the British Isles — the " Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," or ganized in 1 70 1 for the benefit of English colonists on foreign shores, not for heathen populations ; and on the Continent of Europe a missionary afflatus had just come upon the Moravians, under which they went forth to sublime achievements. It will now be necessary to sketch the progress of Protestantism more in detail, and examine closely the changing phases of its history. As we do so we shall notice at considerable length the period of spiritual decadence in England and America one hundred and fifty years ago, from which, in the former country, it emerged into a gradual develop ment for more than a century ; and, in the latter. it partially and temporarily emerged, but was fol- 384 Problem of Religious Progress. * lowed by another period of decline, from which it has since risen into grander life and progress than ever before. It should be kept in mind that Protestantism never claimed perfection. Exceedingly immature at first, and ever a growth, it started upon its career with great disadvantages, heavily encumbered with relics of popery and mediaeval life, beclouding its vision, depressing its spirituality, dividing its coun sels, and holding its laity in partial bondage. The English Reformation, embarrassed with state pat ronage, imperfectly restored the primitive idea of Christianity as " the kingdom of God within." Typical examples of spirituality under the English Reformation, Churchmen and Puritans, bright and worthy of their times, fall below more recent stand ards. Pure and noble men they were, in advance of the next preceding centuries, and some of them aheadof their own age ; but the spiritual influence of the movement was confined to narrow circles. Southey says : " Among the educated classes too little care was taken to imbue them early with this better faith ; and too little exertion used for awak ening them from the pursuits and vanities of this wodd to a salutary and healthful contemplation of that which is to come. And there was the heavier evil that the greater part of the' nation were totally uneducated — Christians no further than the mere ceremony of baptism — being for the most part in a Spiritual Vitality. 385 state of heathen, or worse than heathen, ignorance. In truth, they had never been converted j for, at first, one idolatry had been substituted for another — in this they had followed the fashion of their lords — and when the Romish idolatry was expelled, the change on their part was still a matter of nec essary submission. They were left as ignorant of real Christianity as they were found." With such a view of the English Reformation it is not surprising that it was subject to alternations and reactions, and that the rigorous dispensation of the Puritan Cromwell should be followed by the lax and dissolute reign of Charles II. Churchmen and Nonconformists alike bear concurrent testimony respecting the low condition of religion from the time of Charles II. to the middle of the eighteenth century. The reaction against Puritanism, follow ing the restoration of the Stuarts, left a universal blight upon the nation. A total irreligion and life less formality spread every-where. A haughty dis like repelled the spiritualities of religion. Arch bishop Leighton complained that the Church was " a fair carcass without a spirit." The pathetic lamentation of Bishop Burnet,* in 17 1 3, on the state of the Church, has often been quoted : " I am now," he says, " in the seventieth year of my age, and, as I cannot speak long in the world in any sort, so I cannot hope for a more * " Pastoral Care." 386 Problem of Religious Progress. solemn occasion than this of speaking with all due freedom, both to the present and to the succeeding ages. Therefore I lay hold on it to give a free vent to those sad thoughts that lie in my mind, both day and night, and are the subject of many secret musings. I cannot look on without the deepest concern when I see the imminent ruin hanging over this Church, and, by consequence, over the whole Reformation. The outward state of things is black enough, God knows, but that which heightens my fears rises chiefly from the in ward state into which we are unhappily fallen." Referring to the condition of the clergy, he says : ' " Our ember-weeks are the burden and grief of my life. The much greater part of those who come to be ordained are ignorant to a degree not to be ap prehended by those who are not obliged to know it. The easiest part of knowledge is that to which they are the greatest strangers. Those who have read some few books yet never seem to have read the Scriptures. Many cannot give a tolerable ac count even of the Catechism itself, how short and plain soever. This does often tear my heart. The case is not much better in many, who, having got into orders, come for institution, and cannot make it appear that they have read the Scriptures or any one good book since they were ordained, so that the small measure of knowledge upon which they got into holy orders not being improved, is in a Spiritual Vitality. 387 way to be quite lost ; and then they think it a great hardship if they are told they must know the Scriptures and the body of divinity better before they can be trusted with the care of souls." Watts declared that there was " a general decay of vital religion in the hearts and lives of men ;" that this condition extended, " to Dissenters as well as Churchmen ;" that it was " a matter of mournful observation among all who lay the cause of God to heart ;" and he called upon " every one to use all possible efforts for the recovery of dying religion in the world." * Another writer asserts that " the Spirit of God had so far departed from the nation that hereby almost all vital religion is lost out of the world." t The "Weekly Miscellany" (1732) said : " The people are engulfed in voluptuousness and business, and a zeal for godliness looks as odd upon a man as would the antiquated dress of a great-grandfather." In Scotland, under the early visits of Whitefield, the Churches were somewhat quickened, but the work was limited in extent and power by divisions and dissensions, and was followed by a deeper moral slumber, called " the midnight of the Church." The infidelity of the times had infected the ministry, and only tame " moral sermons," after the style of Blair, were preached, and convivial cir- * Preface to his " Humble Attempt," etc. T Harrison's " Sermons on the Holy Spirit." .26 388 Problem of Religious Progress. cles were more attractive than pulpits to the clergy. Dr. Hamilton said : " To deliver a Gospel sermon, or to preach to the consciences of dying sinners, was as completely beyond their power as to speak in the language of angels. . . . The congregations rarely, amounted to a tenth of the parishioners, and one half of this small number were generally, dur ing the half-hour soporific harangue, fast asleep. They were free from hypocrisy ; they had no more religion in private than in public." A writer in " Blackwood's Magazine " said of that period that it was " singularly devoid, not only of religion, but of all spirituality of mind, or refer ence to things unseen. ... It was one of the mo ments in which the world had fallen out of thought of God. Other ages may have been as wicked, but we doubt whether any age had learned so entirely to forget its connection with higher things, or the fact that a soul which did not die — an immortal being akin to other spheres — was within its clay. The good men were inoperative, the bad men were dauntless ; the vast crowd between the two, which forms the bulk of humanity, felt no stimulus to ward religion, and drowsed in comfortable con tent." Lecky says : " A great skeptic described the nation as ' settled into the most cool indifference with regard to religious matters that is to be found in any nation in the world.' " Spiritual Vitality. 389 Leland,* an eminent Dissenter, said : " It cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer that an habitual neglect of public worship is be coming general among us, beyond the example of former times." " People of fashion," said Arch bishop Seeker, f " especially of that sex which ascribes to itself the most knowledge, have merely thrown off all observance of the Lord's day, . . . and if, to avoid scandal, they sometimes vouch safe their attendance on divine worship in the country, they seldom or never do it in town." Cabinet councils and cabinet dinners were con stantly held on that day4 Sunday card-parties, during the greater part of the eighteenth cent ury, were fashionable entertainments in the best circles. § Bishop Butler said : " The general decay of re ligion in this nation, which is now observed by every one, has been for some time the complaint of all serious persons." " The influence of it is more and more wearing out of the minds of men, even of those who do not pretend to enter into specu lations upon the subject ; but the number of those who do, and who profess themselves unbelievers, increases, and with their numbers their zeal." * Leland's " View of the Deistical Writers," ii, 44a, (• Seeker's Sermons, works i, 114, 1x5. X Stanhope's " History of England," vii, p. 320. § '¦ Rambler," 30, etc. 390 Problem of Religious Progress. Addison said : " There is less appearance of re ligion in England than in any neighboring state or kingdom." Crossing the Atlantic, we find the Churches of the American Colonies not much better. The Vir ginia Colony was never noted for either its morality or piety, and the tendency was downward rather than upward. In Maryland, under the numerous civil and ecclesiastical distractions which prevailed through the seventeenth century, things were even worse. The Lord's day was generally pro faned, religion despised, and the clergy were scan dalous in behavior. In the New York Colony the Dutch Church, dependent upon. the mother Church in Amsterdam, performed its work under serious embarrassments ; and the Episcopal Church, sus tained by the civil power, partook of the prevailing laxity in English manners at home. The Presbyterians, commencing under the inde fatigable labors of the spiritual and apostolical Francis Makemie, beginning in 1684,. spread through New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. But the pio neer passed away, (1708,) and a change came over the Churches. Being in close affiliation with the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland and Ireland, and receiving their ministers from those countries, they partook of the same spirit that was working such deteriorating results in the Churches of the Spiritual Vitality. 391 British Isles. The primitive zeal of Makemie and his compeers declined, " revivals of religion were nowhere heard of, and an orthodox creed and a decent external conduct were the only points on which inquiry was made when persons were admit ted tc the communion." And no more was required of the ministers, ex cept intellectual and scholastic qualifications. Vi tal piety almost deserted the Church. The sub stance of preaching was a " dead orthodoxy," which laid no emphasis on human sinfulness or regeneration. " Some of the preachers," says Dr. Gillett,* " whom Tennent rebuked, were unques tionably ' Pharisee preachers.' Among them, too, were bitter opponents of the ' revival ' which subse quently occurred, ' if not of evangelical religion.' " A change of heart not being required of members or preachers, unconverted men became pastors. Some of them, subsequently, awakened under Whitefield 's preaching, mourned over themselves as " soul-deceivers and soul-murderersi" Puritan New England was not exempt from the general decline. The early Churches were noted for piety, and during the first thirty years after the landing of the Pilgrims deep spirituality prevailed — almost continual showers of refreshing. Subse quently spirituality declined, and at the close of the century there were many lamentations over * " History of the Presbyterian Church." 392 Problem of Religious Progress. the low state of religion. The eighteenth century opened with no improvement. In 1702 Increase Mather said : " Look into our pulpits and see if there is such a glory as there once was. Look into the civil state. Does Christ reign there as he once did ? How many churches, how many towns, there are in New England over which we may sigh and say the glory is gone." Dr. Trumbull described the condition of Connecticut in similar terms. Iii 1707 the downward tendency, attributable, in part, to the adoption of the Half-way Covenant forty- five years before, was accelerated by the action of Rev. Solomon Stoddard, of Northampton, a man of larger public influence than any other in west ern New England, whose subversive practice of admitting unconverted persons to the Lord's sup per, at first feebly resisted, became current in many Churches. The Half-way Covenant had admitted the impenitent, if baptized in infancy, to Church fellowship, so far as to allow them to become voters, but hot to partake of the Lord's supper. It was the wooden horse within the walls of Troy. Henceforth they were admitted to full fellowship in the Church if correct in faith and not scandalous in life. From this time justification, regeneration, and the cognate doctrines were discarded, or preached in new and accommodated forms. Piety being no longer a condition of membership, nor of ministerial ordination, zeal was at a discount, and Spiritual Vitality. 393 refined moralizing and speculation constituted the staple matter of pulpit discourses. Spasmodic efforts, like the convulsive twitchings of dying muscles, were occasionally put forth to arrest the decline.. In 1725 Cotton Mather, in be half of the convention of ministers, petitioned the Legislature that, " in view of the great and visible decline of piety," a Synod might be called to remedy the unhappy condition, but without avail. Two fatal epidemics, carrying off from one tenth to one seventh of the people in some localities, pro duced temporary alarm, but did not essentially change the religious condition. The evil tendencies working down through En glish society from the coronation of Charles II., un binding the safeguards of virtue and faith, and pro moting skepticism, frivolity, and profligacy, were only too contagious among the children of the Pil grims, the Covenanters, and the Cavaliers. The re ligious enthusiasm of the fathers had passed away, and devotion, self-sacrifice, and sanctity of life had subsided into staleness of thought and stagnancy of feeling in all the colonies. The Churches were valleys of dry bones. In such a condition of the Churches in Great Brit ain and the American Colonies the memorable re ligious movements known as the Wesleyan Refor mation in England, and " the Great Awakening" in this country, commenced. Simultaneous and 394 Problem of Religious Progress. unique, but unconnected, these remarkable quick- enings bore the divine impress. The Wesleyan movement, beginning in the indi vidual longings of the Wesleys and Whitefield after spiritual life and purity, became at once a revival and a reformation. It emphasized spiritual life, spiritual power, holiness of heart and life, and the •priesthood of believers. The latter, one of the leading theses of the Reformation, but imperfectly carried out in the actual life of the Reformation Churches, except the Moravians, developed into a distinguishing feature of the Wesleyan movement. All converts, male and female, were joyful witnesses for Christ, and went forth to active labor for their new Master. Wesleyanism was characterized by intense vitality. Social services, the favorite privi leges of the people, were almost as prominent as the preaching of the Word, and large numbers of lay preachers and exhorters went forth into neglected by-ways. This movement gave a broad impulse to English Christianity. Wesley, forming societies, and White- field forming none — the former Arminian and the latter Calvinistic, but one in impulse and purpose — awakened the spiritual life of the national Church and also of the dissenting^bodies. English Protest antism became a live, aggressive, regenerating force. Under the influence of Whitefield and the Countess of Huntingdon, Calvinistic Nonconformity rose, as Spiritual Vitality. 395 from the dead, with an energy increasing ever since ; while, in co-operation with Wesley, a powerful evangelical party arose in the Establishment, and new measures of gospel propagandism were inau gurated, which have kept British Christianity alive and extended its activities into far-off lands " sit ting in darkness and the shadow of death." Chiefly out of this spiritual quickening came forth those great Christian enterprises through which British piety has spread its influence around the globe. "The British Bible Society, most of the British Missionary Societies, Tract Societies, the Sunday- schools, religious periodicals, negro emancipation, etc., all arose, directly or indirectly, from this im pulse." * Isaac Taylor said the Established Church owes to the Wesleyan movement, " in great part, the modern revival of its energies ; " and, " by the new life it has diffused on all sides, it has preserved from extinction and has reanimated the languishing Non conformity of the last century, which, just at the time of the Methodist revival, was rapidly in course to be found nowhere but in books." Also Mr. Leckey says of the Wesleyan movement that " it incalculably increased the efficiency of almost every religious body ; " f that " it has been more or less felt in every Protestant community speaking the * Mr. Lecky's " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii, p. 674. t Und., P- 682. 396 Problem of Religious Progress. English tongue ; " * and that Wesley " has had a wider constructive influence in the sphere of practi cal religion than any other man who has appeared since the sixteenth century." f Dean Stanley has uttered similar tributes to Wesley. At the time when the Wesleys and Whitefield were pressing into higher spiritual life in England, across the Atlantic, in the Massachusetts Colony, in the retired town of Northampton, the ablest young minister of the age, a descendant of a London cler gyman in the days of Elizabeth^ was striking mass ive blows against the foundations of false hope on which, in stupid lethargy, the Churches were repos ing. Jonathan Edwards, born in the same year with John Wesley, was a fellow-champion with him of spiritual religion, evangelical theology, and ad vanced spiritual movements. He proclaimed with powerful cogency man's lost condition, Christ's death the only ground of justification, and the ne cessity of regenerating grace. His bugle-call awak ened the slumbering Churches, and aroused them to higher spirituality. In Central and Western Massachusetts and in Connecticut a large number of towns were quickened, and the dormant Churches of New Jersey also felt the pulsations of the new life. The Edwardean revival attracted much atten tion ; but the visit and labors of Whitefield extended * Mr. Lecky's " England in the Eighteenth Century," vol. ii, p. 690. f Ibid., p. 687. Spiritual Vitality. 397 the circle of its influence, and made it the great re ligious event of the period. In the Middle States the way had been providen tially preparing. In 1718 Rev. William Tennent, a clergyman of rare scholarship and deep piety, emi grated from Ireland, and about 1729 established at Neshaming, not far from Philadelphia, the famous " Log College " as a training school for ministers — the first Presbyterian school in America. Here, at a time when a cold and formal religion called only for intellectually drilled ministers, candidates for the sacred office received both intellectual and spiritual culture, and a body of young preachers was raised up who warmly welcomed the coming of Whitefield. Under his flaming ministrations the influence of Edwards' revival was suplemented and extended, saving the languishing Churches of the Middle States from extinction. The Tennents, father and three sons — John, Gilbert, and William, 2d — Finlay, Robinson, and Davenport, all educated at the " Log College," were leaders in this movement. The Presbyterian Churches assumed an attitude of aggressiveness and power ; faithful men were en thused and enlisted in active labor ; Nassau Hall received its birth and baptism ; and Whitefield's preaching and the reading of his published sermons introduced Presbyterianism into Virginia. Much of " the stock from which the Baptists in Virginia, and those farther south and south-west, sprung was 398 Problem of Religious Progress. also Whitefieldian." In New England, Wheelock, the founder of Dartmouth College, and the in structor of many Indian youth who became mission. aries to their red brethren, lighted his torch in this flame. Brainerd was fired from the same altar, and, under the last sermon of Whitefield, Benjamin Ran dall, the founder of the , Free- Will Baptists, was awakened. - The result of the revivals, not to speak of other gains, was the addition of from 20,000 to 30,000 members to the Churches. But more serious errors and irregularities accompanied these movements than have characterized the revivals of later times, leaving ample ¦ occasion for criticism, even by the friends, in cooler moments of review. The Churches of the Middle and New England States were divided. A stout resistance to the extreme measures of the revivalists, and a growing spirit of dissent — the in cipient stages of the later Arian and Socinian devel opment — sharply arrayed parties against each other. The revival, therefore, with all its great and never- to-be-depreciated advantages, was not an unmixed blessing, but left behind a residuum of evil, to har- rass the Churches, and bring again coldness and death. There speedily followed a long period of spiritual decline, extending through a half century, occa sioned by new and continually multiplying troubles: the French and Indian wars, the political agitations Spiritual Vitality. 399 ushering in the Revolution, the sanguinary scenes and deep trials of that severe contest, the pecuniary embarrassments following it, the agitations connect ed with the organization of the"" Federal Govern ment, the local rebellions in several of the States, the infusion of English Deism through the British officers aiding in the French and Indian wars, and the spread of French infidelity, during and after the struggle for independence. The disbanded armies poisoned every community with skepticism and immorality. On the borders, lawless Indians and renegade white men kept the settlers in perpetual alarm. In large sections there was no other vestige of the Christian Sabbath than a faint observance of the day as a time of rest for the aged and a play-day for the young. The in trigues of infidel politicians thickened around the best statesmen ; and, without Divine interposition and the steady moral courage of Washington, the newly emancipated people would have relapsed into anarchy. The Half-way Covenant was a prolific source of evil to the Congregational Churches of New En gland. " In the light of it," says Rev. Dr. Tarbox,* "we can easily understand why the Churches of Massachusetts were in a very unhealthy condition * Historical Survey of the Congregational Churches of Massa chusetts, 1776-1876. " Minutes of the General Association of Mas sachusetts, 1877," p. 42. 400 Problem of Religious Progress. one hundred years ago. They had not, it is true lost all their power as Churches of Christ, but they were greatly shorn of their strength. From 1745 on to the close of the century there was a woeful ab sence of those special breathings of the Holy Spirit which we call revivals of religion. The Churches were built up as to numbers, but largely with earth ly materials, and the standard of Christian conduct came to be very low. " We talk of the good old times, but all through the last century there were strifes and contentions in many of these Churches, such as were far below the Christian standards of the present day. We refer to these things not to dishonor our fathers, but rather to honor the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in its power to overcome evil, and make the world better from generation to generation. " The drinking habits of all classes, ministers in cluded, hung like a dead weight upon the Churches. Ordinations were scenes of festivity, copious drink ing having a large share in this festivity, and an ordination ball often ended the occasion. Not very far from the period of the Revolution several coun cils were held in one of the towns of Massachusetts, where the people were trying to be rid of a minister, who was often the worse for liquor, even in the pulpit, and once, at least, at the communion table ; but some of the neighboring ministers stood by him, and the people had to endure him till his death." Spiritual Vitality. 401 A large amount of the social religious activity we are now familiar with, presenting to the public the major part of the Church phenomena of our times, was unknown almost all through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, except as exhibited among the Quakers, and also by the Methodists, after the rise of that body. In an address at An dover Theological Seminary, published in the " Con gregationalist," Professor Phelps said : In the olden time, the two sermons on the Lord's day with the accompanying exercises, constituted the whole of the serv ices of public worship. Sabbath-schools were not, weekly lectures were not frequent, except the single lecture preparatory to the administration of the Lord's Supper. The only notable exception to this statement I am able to discover, is the institu tion of the "Thursday lecture" in the old First Church of Boston. In revival seasons like that of 1734-36, under Ed wards, in Northampton, Mass., there was a little variation, when private praying-circles or family meetings were held in each other's houses, weekly or monthly, " to seek the Lord." In the " Great Awakening" under Whitefield, meetings for prayer were held on secular da"ys ; and a woman's prayer- meeting, under Miss Abigal Waters, a convert under Whitefield, was held in connection with the. Old South Church, Boston. But such meetings were not. numerous and did not long continue. Ministers and conservative Church members opposed them. A letter is said to be in existence from Jonathan Edwards, reproving 402 Problem of Religious Progress. a young man for taking part in a meeting held in his father's house, and appealing to him, as a wise, intelligent young person, to forecast what such a practice might lead to. Ministers refused to give notice of such meetings, unless they could be pres ent or some officer of the Church could preside. In the beginning of this century, when nine spiritual members of the Old South Church, Boston, met for social worship, they encountered scorn and opposi tion from many of the other members. As late as 1813, it is said that only two laymen in the Church in New Britain, Conn., had ever been heard to pray in public. Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon testified that the " mod ern style of prayer-meeting is, I think, entirely novel in our Churches." In addresses delivered on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the First Church in Pomfret, Conn., we read : We cannot say how much visiting from house to house and catechetical instruction there was during the first two pastor ates, a period of ninety years ; but preaching and public as semblies were limited to two services on the Sabbath, (and in cold weather frequently to one,) the preparatory lecture, and an occasional lecture in the house of some aged person or invalid. None but the pastor took part in acts of social worship. Lay men never prayed or spoke on religious themes in public. No place or time was given them. It was looked upon by the age as disorderly. Any brother inclined to such service was looked upon as a "new light " and a "separatist." But at the open ing of the third pastorate, 1802, prayer and conference meetings were introduced, though many trembled for the result. Spiritual Vitality. 403 Such was the condition of the Churches in the older communities. The younger settlements were even worse. Rev. David Rice, who went to Ken tucky in 1783, said,* " I scarcely found one man, and but few women, who supported a creditable profession of religion. Some were grossly ignorant of the first principles of religion ; some were given to quarreling and fighting ; some, to intemperance ; and perhaps most of them were totally ignorant of the forms of religion in their own houses." And yet " many of them procured certificates of having been in full communion and good standing in the Churches from which they had emigrated." The religious outlook was dismal indeed. Spirit uality was at a low ebb. The revival idea nearly died out of the actual life of the Churches. Many of them, decimated by the war, and sunken in apathy, dragged a miserable existence. From 1745 to I797f only few and comparatively small revivals of religion occurred: in 1764 and 1770, under the * " Memoirs of Rev. David Rice, of Kentucky." f " Long before the death of Whitefield, in 1770, extensive reviv als in America had ceased. And, except one in Stockbridge, and some other parts of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, about the year 1 772 ; and one in the north quarter of Lyme, Connecticut, about the yeai 1780 ; and in several towns in Litchfield County, Con necticut, about the year 1783, I know of none which occurred after ward, till the time of which I am to speak, (1797-1803.)" — Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., Letter on Revivals to Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D. (See Sprague's " Lectures on Revivals." Albany, 1832. Appendix, p. IS 1.) 27 404 Problem of Religious Progress. labors of Dr. Laddie, in New York city; in 1767, a small revival, with only ten or twelve converts, in Norfolk, Connecticut; in 1778, at Vance's Fort, Pennsylvania; in 1781-1787, in the region of Cross Creek, Upper Buffalo, Lebanon, and Cross Roads, Pennsylvania; in 1772 and 1784, at Elizabeth, and in 1790, at Hanover, New Jersey; in 1764, 1785, and 179 1, under Dr. Buel's labors, at Easthampton, Long Island; in 1788-89, in the upper regions of Georgia; in 1795, under the labors of Dr. Griffin, at New Hartford, Connecticut, and again in 1799; in 1 78 1 and 1788, in Dartmouth College, but not again for seventeen years; in Yale College, in 1783, but not again until after 1800, the undergraduate membership of the College Church dwindling to four or five; and in 1757, 1762, and 1773, in Prince ton College, and not again until 1813, during which time, according to Dr. Ashbel Green, there were only two or three students who professed religion, and only four or five who scrupled to use profane language. These were almost all the revivals for fifty years. William and Mary's College was " a hot-bed of infidelity," and Harvard College of Arian and Socinian sentiments. Writing of this period, one pastor said, " Prior to this year (1799) there never was any extensive re vival of religion in this town ; " another mentioned a small revival in 1767, and another in 1783, and nothing more until 1799; another said, "I cannot Spiritual Vitality. 405 learn from any of the first settlers that theie had been any remarkable revivals in this town, until June, 1799;" and Rev. Ebenezer Porter, of Wash ington, Connecticut, in 1803, wrote, "Though this Church has enjoyed a preached Gospel with very little interruption since its formation, a period of sixty-four years, nothing that could be properly termed a revival of religion had ever taken place until the present." In describing the condition of things in Lenox, Massachusetts, a pastor wrote: " The situation of this Church calls .for the earnest prayers of all who have any heart to pray. The number of its members is not much greater than it has been at any time for twenty-five years, and al most all of them are burdened under the infirmities of years. Not a single young person has been re ceived into it for sixteen years." And another, in Canton, Connecticut, said, " Religion has gradually declined among us, the doctrines of Christ grow more and more unpopular, family prayer and all the duties of the Gospel are less regarded,, ungodliness prevails, and modern infidelity has made alarming progress among us. It seems as though the Sab bath would be lost, and every appearance of religion vanish yea, that our Zion must die without any helper, and that infidels will laugh at her dying groans." We might multiply these testimonies, for these were not the exceptional utterances of men of melancholy temperament, but the frequent and 406 Problem of Religious Progress. almost universal expression of the best minds of that day. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, embracing men of high character, broad culture, and superior intelligence, in its Pastoral Letter, in 1798, said : " A dissolution of religious society seems to be threatened by the supineness and inattention of many ministers and professors of Christianity." " The statements of the Assembly," says Rev. Dr. Gillett, " grave and startling as they were, were by no means exaggerated. The prospect for religious progress or improvement was almost cheerless. By public men in high station infidelity was boldly avowed. In some places society, taking its tone from them, seemed hopelessly surrendered to the impious and the blasphemer." The last two decades of the eighteenth century were the darkest period, spiritually and morally, in the history of American Christianity — so dark and ominous of evil that it was a fruitful topic of dis course, of correspondence, of profound inquiry and consultation ; and numerous fasts were appointed by the ecclesiastical bodies— annual fasts, quarterly fasts, monthly fasts, and weekly fasts — and, in some localities widely separated, a half hour at sundown on Saturday night, and a half hour at sunrise on Sunday morning, were devoted to special prayer for the divine blessing on the land. CHAPTER II. TIIE NEW SPIRITUAL ERA. New Life. "Young Men's Christian Asso- The New Li,fe Organizing. eiations. The New Life Aggressive. Foreign Missions. New Lay- Activities. Pecuniary Benevolence. City Missions. Imperfections. Home Missions. Type of Religious Character The Outlook. Spiritual Vitality. 409 CHAPTER II. the new spiritual era. IN the midst of the low spiritual condition de scribed at the close of the preceding chapter the great religious awakening, known as " the revival of 1800," performed its beneficent work. From 1795 to 1797 a few isolated revivals occurred in western Massachusetts and Connecticut, but in the autumn of 1799 the Holy Spirit was more power fully poured out in Eastern Tennessee and Ken tucky. The flame of revival rapidly spread, cross ing the Blue Ridge into Virginia and North Caro lina, extending southward and northward through out almost the entire land. It continued, with va rying' force, from 1799 to 1803, but most deeply marked the years 1800 and 1801, and inaugurated a new era of deeper spirituality in the American Churches. Rev. Dr. Tyler said : * " Within the period of five or six years, commencing with 1797, it has been stated that not less than one hundred and fifty Churches in New England were visited with ' times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.' " * " New England Revivals." By Rev. Bennett Tyler, D.D. 410 Problem of Religious Progress. Rev. Ebenezer Porter, D.D., said : " The day dawned which was to succeed a night of more than sixty years. As in the valley of Ezekiel's vision, there was a great shaking. Dry bones, animated by the breath of the Almighty, stood up new-born believers. The children of Zion beheld with over flowing souls, and with thankful hearts acknowl edged, ' This is the finger of God.' The work was stamped conspicuously with the impress, of its di vine Author, and its joyful effects evinced no other than the agency of Omnipotence." Rev. E. D. Griffin, D.D., said : " I could stand in my door, at New Hartford, Litchfield Co., Conn., and number fifty or sixty contiguous congregations laid down in one field of divine wonders, and as many more in various parts of New England." Since that time American revivals have been fre- quent and extensive, attracting the attention of European divines as remarkable phases in the history of the Christian Church. Rev. Dr. Gardner Spring said : " From the year 1800 down to the year 1825 there was an uninterrupted series of these celestial visitations spreading over different parts of the land. During the whole of those twenty-five years there was scarcely a time in which we could not point to some village, some city, some seminary, and say, ' Behold what God hath wrought.' " Rev. Dr. Heman Humphrey said : " It was the opening of a new revival epoch, which has lasted now more Spiritual Vitality. 411 than half a century, with but short and partial in terruptions. . . . Taken altogether, the revival pe riod, at the close of the last century and the be ginning of the present, furnishes ample materials for a long and glorious chapter in the history of redemption." Between 1825 and 1845 these spiritual visitations were very powerful ; from 1848 to 1857 was a period of reaction and spiritual decline, following the wide ly- extended, but abnormal, Millerite excitement ; but since the great revival of 1857 and 1858, the re vival seasons, except during the civil war, have been more frequent and continuous, and the declensions less disastrous. Numerous local Churches have enjoyed a well-nigh uninterrupted revival condition for many years, few weeks passing without conver sions. In later years, too, there has been less ex citement, and less of the peculiar physical phenom ena which characterized the early revivals in Scot land among the Presbyterians, in England under the Wesleys, in America under Whitefield and Ed wards, and in Tennessee and Kentucky at the be ginning of this century. A more deliberate and in telligent action of the religious sensibilities is every where apparent. And the fruits of this new life have been an increase of nearly fifteen millions of com municants in the Evangelical Churches from 1800 to 1894 — a gain without a parallel in religious history. As one of the effects, though, in an important 412 Problem of Religious Progress. sense, a cause, of these great revival movements, and an unmistakable evidence of the deepening spiritual vitality of the American Churches, we have the every-where patent fact of a more general and intelligent acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit's influences as the efficient agent in all spiritual work. During the last one hundred and fifty years this doctrine has come to a fuller recognition than ever before for eighteen centuries, and Christian men are accustomed to labor in humble reliance upon this divine agent for spiritual success. The supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit in awak ening sinners, in begetting and sustaining Chris tian experience — the vital and vitalizing power in true piety — has1 come into very distinctive promi nence in the religious literature also of this period. As a consequence, there has been a deeper awaken ing of the religious consciousness, a wider explora tion of the field of religious experience, a develop ment of a more joyful and victorious type of piety, and a spirit of heroic effort in keeping with our best ideals of pure Christianity. New wine must have new bottles ; new life devel ops new organizations. The old methods of relig ious work no longer sufficed. The vigorous con verts of the new era became conspicuous as organ izers and standard-bearers of great advance move ments. Under the hay-stacks on the banks of the Hoosac, Mills, Hall, and Richards, three devoted Spiritual Vitality. 4 1 3 young students of Williams' College, all fruits of the revival of 1800, " prayed into existence the em bryo of foreign missions," and soon after, at Ando ver, enkindled the hearts of Newell, Nott, and Judson with the same flame. Dr. Justin Edwards, one of the wisest and most influential organizers of moral and religious enterprises, and the most effective champion of the temperance and Sabbath reforms this country ever knew ; and Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., devoted to religious literature, mis sions, temperance, Sunday-school and tract move ments, and numerous others — were also fruits of that revival. Home Missionary, Foreign Mission ary, Bible, Tract, and Sunday-school Societies sprang lip sporadically in the new religious soil. Rev. Heman Humphrey, D.D., writing about 1850, alluding to the far-reaching results of the re vival of 1800, said: "The glorious cause, of religion and philanthropy has advanced, till it would require a space not afforded in these sketches so much as to name the Christian and humane societies which have sprung up all over our land within the last forty years. Exactly how much we at home and the world abroad are indebted for these organizations, so rich in blessings, to the revivals of 1800, it is impossible to say, though much every way. ... It cannot be denied that modern missions sprang out of these revivals. The immediate connection between them, 414 Problem of Religious Progress. as cause and effect, was remarkably clear in the organization of the first societies, which have since accomplished so much ; and the impulse which they gave to the Churches to extend the blessings which they were diffusing, by forming the later affil iated societies, of like aims and character, is scarcely less obvious." The religious quickening in England, under the Wesleys and Whitefield, was followed, at the close of the last and the beginning of the present cent ury, by the organization of numerous societies for Christian and beneficent purposes. Foreign and Home Missionary, Bible, Tract, Sunday-school, Educational, Peace, African Amelioration, Seamen's, Prison Discipline, and Philanthropic, Societies were organized, with extended ramifications, mostly be tween 1780 -and 1830, with additions and enlarge ments since the latter date. Their pecuniary re ceipts are among the most wonderful examples of modern munificence, and the fruitage of Bible, tract, and mission work is marvelous. The same tendency followed the religious quick ening in America. During the present century American Christianity has fully attested its deep vitality by its wonderful self-organizing power. The numerous local societies for missions, home and foreign, tracts, Bibles, Sunday-schools, temperance, education, the Sabbath, seamen, etc., which came into existence during the first two decades of this Spiritual Vitality. . 415 century, were subsequently combined * into large national organizations, with countless auxiliaries covering the entire land. Each successive decade has developed new organizations, and extended more widely the old, comprising all conceivable forms of benevolence and beneficence, and enlisting an army of Christian workers, outnumbering the largest armies of ancient or modern times. The last quarter of a century has witnessed no decline in these agencies, but rather a vast increase in their number, resources, workers, and the scope of their operations, beyond any previous period, even sev eral times greater than in the previous half century. Besides the purely Christian organizations directly connected with the Churches, there are numerous philanthropic, social, civil, educational, and reform atory societies, indirectly or directly growing out of the impelling life-flow of Christianity. Thus has the new life attested its divinity — quickening, en lightening, humanizing, reforming, and saving men. " The poor have the gospel preached unto them." This new life has also been wonderfully aggress ive and expansive, following closely the large pop ulations spreading over our broad national domain with enlightening and saving influences. Pioneer preachers, colporteurs, and Sunday-school agents, stepping closely in the footprints of pioneer settlers, hailing the cabin builder with religious salutations, * Mostly from 1820 to 183a 416 Problem of RELrGrous Progress. calling him to an extemporized worship on his half- hewn log, and including his home in a plan for future religious visitation, in the spirit of zealous propagandism, founded Churches, Sunday-schools, Church seminaries and colleges, and made the wil derness, less than three generations ago a vast moral waste of howling savages, to bud and blossom with the institutions of Christian civilization. In the region beyond the western line of New York, Penn sylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, which, in the year 1800, had but few scattering Protestant Churches, there were, according to the Census of 1890, 106,257 Protestant Church organi zations, or two thirds of all the Protestant Churches in the United States — the abundant harvest of zeal ous pioneer seed-sowing. And what a multitude of cognate religious institutions accompany these Churches, comprising an amount of Christian life scarcely paralleled in any other land — the results of seventy years' labors, fully testing the spiritual vitality of the American Churches. A great change has taken place in the spiritual activities of the Churches. Formerly, prayer-meet ings, except in the occasional revival seasons, were rare, and only a very few persons were allowed 01 expected to participate in them. All through the last century, and for some time into the present, this custom prevailed. The gifts of the laity were not exercised, and their voices were seldom heard in 1784| 3DX.&.Q- E&A-ML XVII. 1800 IN ALL THE WORLD. 1830 nSK 1 ,689,693. 1830 Sunday-School Membership. in THE UNITED STATES. V1880 11,113,557. 18801 1890 22,732,224. Spiritual Vitality. 417 exhortation or supplication. Rev. Mr. Fisk,* of New Braintree, Mass., had been pastor of that Church eleven years before he heard the first word of prayer from one of his members. And when the little band of zealous evangelicals went off from the Old South Church, Boston, in 1808, to organize the Park-street Church,f as a breakwater against the in coming tide of Arianism, they met several times for consultation before any one of even these redoubt able champions of orthodoxy had sufficient courage to open his lips in vocal prayer. Women never prayed or spoke in any religious services. " The only religious meetings of the week were on the Sabbath. There was no evening lecture, no altar for social prayer, no intercessions in concert for the coming of the kingdom, no schools for the religious education of the young, no religious weekly periodicals, discoursing earnestly of the signs of the times, the demands of the age, the great questions of faith and practice, or giving tid ings of the refreshing visits of the Spirit abroad, and thus quickening the sympathies and animating the activities of Christians at home." £ There were no associations for printing and scattering Bibles, tracts, etc. * See his " Half-Century Discourse." f " Memorial Volume." X Deacon Samuel Willis, Judge Samuel Hubbard, and Peter Ho- bart, Jun., in the " Memorial Volume of the Park-street Church, Boston," p. 13a 4i 8 Problem of Religious Progress. During the present century marked progress has been made in the practical working of the principle of the universal priesthood of believers ; and numer ous modifications have been made in the usages and politics of all the religious denominations, bringing into prominence and activity Christian men and women in great moral and spiritual enterprises. True Christianity, claiming the whole world for its field, is, in its nature, irrepressible and aggressive. Almost within the' period of a generation social religious services have not only come to be regarded as indispensable, but increasingly prominent, often gathering the largest audiences of the Sabbath. These meetings are for the most part lively and spiritual — a great advance upon those of other days — the few old-time prayers and exhortations having given place to " a cloud of witnesses " for Christ. Large numbers of Christian laymen and women are engaged in religious work in our cities and desti tute localities throughout the country. Religious services in halls, depots, groves, public squares, popular watering-places, etc., are held by Young Men's Christian Associations, and tons of religious tracts are annually distributed. The prisons, alms houses, and reformatory institutions, are visited, and Sunday-schools are sustained in them, by lay workers. Sunday-schools, conducted by laymen, become nuclei of Churches; systematic religious visitation is maintained in large centers by pious Spiritual Vitality. 419 women ; praying-bands, of young men and older men, conduct series of religious services ; and sys tems of colportage are carried on, by unordained men, through which* large quantities of tracts and religious volumes are scattered in the land. An order of deaconesses, or class of devout women engaged in religious labors, has been recog nized in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the late Triennial Convention authorized the appoint ment of lay-preachers. The Methodist Episcopal Church has 14,274 local preachers, and in all branches of Methodism in the world about eighty thousand. It has also an order of deaconesses. City missions, almost entirely the work of the present century, are conducted by lay agencies. The Boston City Mission Society (Orthodox Con gregational) was founded in 1816; the New York City Mission and Tract Society in 1827 ; a few oth ers, and but very few, were elsewhere organized at this early period.* In the great revival .of 1830- 1832, particularly in connection with the religious labors of Harlan Page and others in New- York city, a new interest was awakened in personal efforts for the salvation of in dividuals, and in city evangelization. But the work slowly progressed, and it is worthy of special notice, that since the year 1850 city mission work through out the United States has received a much greater * See "Church Almanac," 1879, p. 27. 28 420 Problem of Religious Progress. impulse, and the amount of money and labor ex pended has increased beyond all calculation. At the present time no cities are without these agen cies, and they are chiefly in the hands of evangelical Protestantism. " The utilization of lay help," says Charles Mack- eson, " to supplement the work of the clergy, is a modern improvement of no slight importance ; and, in the Diocese of London alone, has brought into the field 2,788 unpaid laborers, 121 of whom hold the Bishop's license to conduct services for the poor. All these centralized and consolidated agen cies may be fairly reckoned as not the least impor tant elements in the progress of religion and phi lanthropy in London ; and not one of them can be said to be superfluous in a condition of "society which, unlike that of the continental city, or even of the English provincial town, has led to an almost complete separation of classes, until between the east and west of London, there is literally 'a great gulf fixed ; ' and it is to bridge over the chasm that the efforts of all who wish well to the race must be directed." * The Annual Reports of the Boston City Mission ary Society, (Orthodox Congregational,) probably the most thoroughly organized, intelligent, and spiritual body of laborers in the United States, furnish the most gratifying exhibits. * "British Almanac and Companion," 1880, p. 134-5. Spiritual Vitality. 421 Summary for Fifty Years, 1840-1893, Inclusive. Missionaries, years of service go8 Visits made 1,936,436 Different families visited. 457,037 Visits to the sick 266,440 Papers and tracts distributed 9,257,784 Bibles given away 12,217 Testaments given away 19,940 Persons induced to attend public worship. . . . 16,598 Children gathered into Sunday-schools 36,563 Children gathered into public schools 5,333 Chapel and neighborhood meetings. held 84,256 Hopeful conversions 3,347 Persons furnished employment 16,209 Times pecuniary aid to families 270, 193 Garments given away 291,074 Receipts of the Society for the missions $628,363 08 Receipts for relief of the poor, Thanksgiving and Christmas offerings, and Fresh Air Fund ^ $412,654 76 A table of summaries by decades (Report, 1891, at end) shows a steady increase, in almost every item, in each decade. The receipts in the last decade are $100,000 more than two decades ago ; the missionary labor, fifty years more ; the visits, 130,000 more; the conversions, nearly twice as many ; persons furnished employment, more than twice as many ; pecuniary aid afforded, 50 per cent. more times; and nearly twice as much aid in amount given, in the last, as in the former period. Such statistics are not dry figures, but are resonant with the eloquence of deeds. Other denominations have numerous missions in 422 Problem of Religious Progress. Boston which cannot be stated here in detail, all of which are penetrating all classes of the popula tion. If we allow one third of the population wholly neglect public worship, and another third to be detained from the sanctuary by illness, or as nurses, or on account of old age or tender child hood, we have another third who may be reckoned as worshipers, some of whom are very irregular. The accommodations for worship will appear from this table : * Churches, Chapels, Mission, and Branch and Mission Sunday-schools. Location. &< si a,i — , o-o Ph re One for each East Boston East Boston Charlestown Charlestown. Charlestown North End North End West End West End Court to Kneeland Street Back Bay South Cove South Boston South Boston South Boston South End South End South End Roxbury Roxbury Roxbury Roxbury • West RoxbUry Dorchester Brighton 19,63317,297 13,09412,84212.413'8,447 "3,14513,02612,660 8,205 21,660i=,58s22,375 26,367 18,049 18,048 15,63816,035 22,992 24,33523,04220,011 24,99729,55° 12,032 8 7 24 3° 9 55 15 15 6 97 2432 66 16 9 16 7 23 26 13 2,8051,5724,365 6,421 1,241 1,230i,3M1,4471,809 342677 1,144 7,458 2,637 3,0083,008 977 1,7822,0902,704 1,440 2,859 1,087l,"37 926 448,477 296 " Report of the Boston City Mission Society for 1890." Spiritual Vitality. 423 Here is one church or chapel for 1,500 in the whole city, with ample room left for evangelizing work, in providing for the more neglected localities, and the better cultivation of the best provided sections. The following statements show the character of New York city as a mission field, a character toward which other cities are approaching. Population of the city in 1890, 1,513,491; males, 747,579 ; females, 767,722. There is also a large transient population, seamen, boatmen, visitors at hotels, immigrants, etc., probably 40,000. Of the population, as taken from the Census, 871,858 were born in the United States, and 639,943 foreign born. * Religious Analysis for 60 Years. Years. Population. Churches. Average. 1830. . . 202,589 109 r church to 1,858 inhabitants 1840. . . 312,852 170 ] . 1. " I,840 1850. . . 515,394 246 r " " 2,095 i860. . . 813,669 347 r ' ' " 2,344 " 1870. . . 942,293 470 r " " 2,044 " 1880. . . 1,206,229 489 r " " 2,468 1890. . . 1, 5I3.491 537 . it " 2,819 I893, • ¦ 1,801,739 579 1 11 " 3,112 " The above suggests a theme for study, and pre sents a view of one of the most urgent and difficult fields for Christian effort in the United States. This is a place for calm but strong faith. *" Report of New York City Mission Society," 1894, pp. 262-3. 424 Problem of Religious Progress. * Relative Number of Churches. Jews, Protestant VPara Roman Unitarians, Evangelical ears- Catholic. Universalists, Churches Miscellaneous. combined. 1830 4 6 99 1840 7 12 151 1850 19 16 221 i860 32 22 293 1870 41 4g 380 1880 56 39 396 1890 77 101 412 1893 w. 86 112 426 Communicants of Four Protestant Churches in New York City. 1S6S. I88O. 1891. 1893. Baptist 10,469 12,476 13,952 14,469 Methodist 9,r92 11,967 13,280 14,551 Presbyterian.... 15,086 18*950 23,299 23,746 Episcopal 12,139 23,631 37,915 42,413 Total 46,896 67,024 88,446 95,179 Lutheran 16,666 The above four denominations show a slight gain on the total population, from one member in 17.9 inhabitants in 1880, to one in 17.4 inhabitants in 1891. The data, though prepared with great labor and discrimination by careful persons, are possi bly not perfect. Besides, it should be kept in mind that a large number of the members of these Churches, during the period in question, have "moved out into suburban localities and transferred their membership also. A comparison including a *¦• Report of New York City Mission Society,'' 1894, pp. 262-3. Spiritual Vitality. 425 radius of twenty-five miles is desirable in such an investigation ; but the data are not easily gathered and tabulated. The New York City Mission and Tract Society is the largest city mission society in that city. For many years it was under the superintendence of Mr. Lewis E. Jackson, and more recently under Mr. Morris K. Jesup and Rev. A. F. Schauffler, D.D. There have been single years when it has employed 40 missionaries, besides assistants, who have made 33,787 visits annually. In 54 years, 1826-1880, 2,421,994 visits were made,' 51,476,740 tracts were distributed ; 90,027 Bibles and Testa ments given away ; besides a large number of chil dren gathered into Sunday-schools and day-schools ; 257,652 persons induced to attend public wor ship, and 13,911 converts united to evangelical Churches. The New York City Church Extension and Mis sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in 1866, has proved to be a very efficient organization. Rev. M. D'C. Crawford, D.D., is the president. For 1893 it reported : Churches and chapels 22 Pastors and assistants 34 Communicants 3,347 Probationers 659 Visits made 34,598 Visits to sick 3,158 Pages of tracts distributed 1, 121,620 426 Problem of Religious Progress. In twenty-seven years it reports : Visits made 639,873 Visits to the sick 53, 893 Paid on chapel property $591,846 02 Paid on current expenses $1,965,638 13 Conversions 14,339 City mission organizations are now universal in ?all American cities, and all of them the growth of the last seventy-seven years. The general home missionary work of the coun try has enlisted a large amount of lay and clerical talent, and developed astonishing results. The un paralleled increase of our population since 1790 has created extraordinary demands upon the Chris tian activity of the American Churches. With an average yearly gain in population more than three times as large as in any European country, new vil lages and cities springing up as by magic, and the inhabitants spreading over an immense territorial area; it has been incumbent upon the Churches to furnish the new communities with religious watch- care and instruction. Large masses of ignorant and unevangelized people from other lands — Papists and Rationalists from Europe, and heathen from Asia — have crowded to our shores, and the utmost dili gence and sterling virtue have been required to pre serve the land from misrule and ruin. How have these moral and religious necessities been met? Has the spiritual vitality of the Churches been suffi cient for these demands ? Spiritual Vitality. 427 The great revivals of religion extending through the nation at the opening of the nineteenth century, followed by successive waves of spiritual impulse in the subsequent decades, prepared the Churches to appreciate the necessities of the situation, and in spired them with the requisite spirit of self-sacrific ing labor. Home Missionary Societies, the imme diate fruits of the new revival era, sprang up, mul tiplying auxiliaries and laborers, and spreading through thousands of localities. In reviewing the century we cannot fail to recognize the profound significance of those providential movements which turned- back the dark tide of infidelity spreading over the land at the close of the last century, and prepared the way, in the American Churches, by which the nation has been religiously permeated and strengthened to endure so well the severe strain from the large exotic, and heterogeneous masses ab sorbed in its population. The full record of the labors of these Home Mis sionary Societies, about thirty-five in number, not including City Societies, would fill many pages with most significant statistics and evidences of im mense spiritual force. Their toils and triumphs cannot be matched in either ancient or modern times. The following partial aggregates, taken from offi cial reports, of Home Missionary Societies, combine such data as can be obtained for a single year : 428 Problem of Religious Progress. Ministers, licentiates, colporteurs, and teachers employed by eighteen societies 9,033 Localities supplied, reported by eight societies 9,365 Conversions and additions to the Churches reported by nine societies 26,918 Churches organized in one year reported by five socie ties 332 Sunday-schools organized in one year reported by four so cieties 4,621 Sunday-school scholars reported by ten societies 548,569 Time spent in labor, by missionaries, in one year, reported by seven societies, equal to .• (years) 1,906 Religious visits in one year reported by missionaries of five societies 920,202 Prayer-meetings held by missionaries of three societies in one year 17,131 The system of colportage, inaugurated by the American Tract Society in 1 841, has been another important lay agency, exhibiting, in a practical form, the vital religious force of the Churches. In 1850 their number had increased to 508, and their labors were extended to the German, Irish, French, Welsh, Norwegian, and Spanish populations, both Prot estant and Papal, in all portions of the land, but es pecially throughout the Mississippi Valley. They went forth from house to house, selling religious books wherever practicable, bestowing them gratu itously among the poor, accompanying their visits with religious conversation and prayer, holding re ligious meetings, forming Sunday-schools, promot ing temperance, and in many other ways advancing the kingdom of God. Spiritual Vitality. 429 The following partial summaries of the Home Missionary and Colportage work, full of instructive significance, will be pondered with pleasure and profit : Religious Visits. By missionaries of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in 61 years 3,710,187 By agents or colporteurs of Baptist Publication Society in 69 years 1,202,043 By colporteurs of American Tract Society in 52 years.. . 14,163,167 By colporteurs of American Bible Society in 28 years. . . 16,468,078 By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of. Publication in 40 years 3,390,940 Total visits ". 38,934,415 Prayer-meetings Held. By missionaries of the Baptist Home Missionary Society in 61 years 821,393 By colporteurs of Baptist Board of Publication in 39 years 108,939 By colporteurs of the American Tract Society in 52 years 476,558 Total by agents of three Boards 1,406,890 Additions to Churches by Profession of Faith. By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in 67 years 409,257 By missionaries of Presbyterian Home Missionary So ciety in 15 years 115,304 By missionaries of Baptist Home Missionary Society in 61 years 128,181 ¦ Total by agents of three Boards 652,742 430 Problem of Religious Progress. Religious Volumes Given Away. By colporteurs of the Presbyterian Board of Publication in 40 years 1,750,097 By agents and colporteurs of Baptist Publication Board in 69 years. 143,060 By colporteurs of American Tract Society in 52 years. . . 3,176,215 By colporteurs of American Bible Society in 28 years.. . 2,249,731 Total by agents of four Boards 7,319,103 Pages of Religious Tracts Given Away. By agents and colporteurs of Baptist Publication Board in 69 years. 42,007,846 By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication in 40 years 193,308,019 Total pages of tracts by two Boards 235,315,865 m Other Boards have gratuitously distributed large quantities of tracts, but we are unable to tabulate them. The American Tract Society has published 9,571,101,032 pages of tracts from the beginning, 69 years ago, and has sold 12,595,771 volumes of books in the last 52 years. Years of Labor Performed. By missionaries of American Home Missionary Society in 67 years 48,701 By missionaries of Baptist Home Missionary Society in 61 years 11,303 By missionaries of Presbyterian Board of Home Mis sions in 1 1 years 9,453 By colporteurs of Presbyterian Board of Publication in 40 years 7,504 By agents and colporteurs of Baptist Board of Publica tion in 45 years 1,029 Spiritual Vitality. 431 By colporteurs of the American Tract Society in 52 years 5,955 Total by agents of six Boards 83,545 These are only partial exhibits of the spiritual activities of the American Churches during the last half century. If the full statistics could be gathered they would thrill and amaze us. What we have here gathered are highly significant, and indicate religious activities of incalculable proportions, al most wholly unknown until within the last eighty years. They are unmistakable evidences of the deep spiritual vitality of the modern Churches, and their ardent aggressive force. The Young Men's Christian Association has be come one of the great factors in the evangelization of the masses. The product of the last fifty years, they have come to number over 5,000 Associations in all parts of the world. Early in June, 1894, this body celebrated its Golden Jubilee in London, at which the doxology was sung in twenty different languages, receiving recognition from Queen Vic toria and honors at Westminster Abbey. Else where in many cities celebrations were held, in which eminent gentlemen participated. All this because, fifty years ago, a consecrated Christian lay man, Mr. George Williams, believing it would pay to undertake special work for young men, acted on his conviction. 432 Problem of Religious Progress. The following table will show the number of these Associations, in all parts of the world, com paring the growth from 1880 to 1894, showing an increase of nearly 3,000 Associations in 14 years : Young Men's Christian Associations in the World. 1880. 1894. 1880. 1894. America. United States. . 792 Wis - 3 i,3i5 81 11 2 1 2 1 8 Europ'n Turkey Total, Europe. Asia. 1 1 Argentine Rep. 1,272 2 2 4 3,479 7417 9 29 British Guiana . West Indies . . . Japan Asiatic Turkey . Total, America . 810 [ 295 65 293 406204 6 8 .15 1 1,412 597 246 102 1,005 744 130 354 133 4350 12 1 34 11 3 12 24 2 12 Total, Asia Africa. Madagascar. . . . North Africa. . .' W. Cent. Africa South Africa. . . Total, Africa . . Oceanic A. New Zealand . . Total, Oceanica England and Holland 8 1 167 25 1 16 Italy 1 13 1 24 19 44 14 2,H3 27 5,109 Fuller details will be desired, and are here given for the United States, as far as reported : Spiritual Vitality. 433 Number and Membership. 1,286 Associations have sent in reports. 1,244 °f these report an aggregate Membership of. . .. 232,653 1,166 report an Active Membership of 109,291 1,074 report the number of Members serving on Com mittees 35,907 Financial. 291 Associations own Buildings valued at $15,155,950 106 own other Real Estate valued at 1,220,310 Total Property in Buildings and other Real Estate $16,376,260 Deduct debt 3,818,290 Net Property in Buildings and other Real Estate $x2,557,970 118 report Building Funds paid in, amounting to. . 452,900 38 report Endowment Funds paid in, amounting to 381,944 2 report Special Funds paid in, amounting to. . . . 155,175 842 report Furniture valued at 1,095, 156 612 report Libraries of 50 or more volumes, valued at 428, 164 The Niblo Library Endowment Fund — N. Y. C'y 107, 500 13 other Library Funds paid in 32,230 Total net Property $15,211,039 153 report Building Funds pledged $1,613,160 2 report Library Funds pledged 2,400 4 report Endowment Funds pledged 7,200 984 report cash paid out for Current Expenses 2,138,097 Physical, Intellectual, and Social. 524 report attention to Physical Culture ; 473 through gymnasiums, and 297 through other means, including baseball, rambling, rowing, and swimming clubs, bowling alleys, and classes in calisthenics. 654 report total average Daily Attendance at Rooms of 7r,on 789 report Reading Rooms. 434 Problem of Religious Progress. 638 report Libraries of 50 or more volumes, contain ing volumes to the number of 476,572 190 report Literary Societies, with a total average attendance of 4,506 568 report 4,795 Lectures and Entertainments. 774 report 3,829 Sociables. 304 report Educational Classes ; the branches taught in individual Associations number from one to fifteen or more. 294 report 20,253 different Students of Colleges in their Educational Classes. Religious. (Meetings for Young Men Exclusively.) 490 Associations report 15,493 Bible Class Sessions, • 14,613 of which had a total attendance of. 226,832 452 report 11,504 Bible Training Class Sessions, 11,362 of which had a total attendance of. 111,667 1,108 report 64,967 Young Men's Meetings, 58,853 of which had a total attendance of 2,583,007 219 in schools and colleges, report 1,738 Foreign Missionary Meetings, 1,738 of which had a total attendance of 64,194 Miscellaneous. 340 report 10,725 Situations Secured. 581 have Women's Auxiliaries or Committees. Departments. 95 Railroad Branches and Associations send in reports ; 98 are in existence. 90 of these employ 120 General Secretaries and Assistants. 11 German Branches and Associations send in reports ; 11 are in existence. 10 German Branches employ 14 General Secretaries and Assist ants. 397 College Associations send in reports ; 444 are in existence. Spiritual Vitality. 435 15 College Associations employ 15 College General Secretaries. 37 Colored Associations send in reports ; 27 of which are located in schools and colleges. 21 Indian Associations, and 4 Indian College Associations, send in reports. 252 Associations report organized work for Boys. 251 of these report a Membership of 15,924 ; 152 report 271 sep arate Rooms ; 204 report 7,401 Religious Meetings ; 156 report 2,537 Secular Meetings. In five years one Association distributed eleven tons of religious tracts. The non-professional char acter of these lay-workers gives them access to some who would reject the professional visitations of the clergy. They prosecute evangelistic labors, literally fulfilling the command, " Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in." In the larger cities they go into saloons, bil liard parlors, concert halls, " to the very borders of hell," to rescue their fellow-men from ruin. They visit hotels, boarding-houses, and workshops to find out strangers coming into the city, to invite them to the Association rooms, and shield them from the snares which surround unsophisticated youth. The Young Woman's Christian Association was not instituted until 1870, but it comprises 63 organ izations, in the largest cities of the Union. Differ ent from the Young Men's Association, it provides homes and boarding-houses for young women. It has property valued at $2,208,612, with accommo dations for 6,695 young women reported by 32 29 436 Problem of Religious Progress. homes. The members number 21,527. These As sociations impart instruction in sewing and other domestic arts. They have excellent libraries, and afford many social privileges. An employment bureau is a good feature. Socially, intellectually, morally, and religiously it is a very helpful institu tion, illustrating concrete Christianity. In addition to these recently developed forms of Christian activity, so numerous and potential in the home field, and wholly unlike any religious effort in former times, numerous Foreign Mission ary Societies have been organized in Europe and America, all but seven within the present century, and forty within the last fifty years, sustaining in the foreign field 9,624 foreign missionaries and 52,422 native assistants, ministering to at least one and a quarter million communicants in mis sion Churches, and three millions of adherents who have renounced paganism. * Such are the inroads made into the empire of pagan darkness within the last century. Never, since the apos tles' age, has the Christian Church so deeply felt her obligation to convert the world as during the last fifty years. And yet, with all these new and manifold activi ties every-where bearing ample fruits of Christian beneficence, we are told that the spiritual vitality of American Protestantism has sadly declined. *See Tables XVI, XVII, XVIII (Appendix) for fuller statistics. Spiritual Vitality. 437 Such is the blindness of those who, having eyes, see not. The progress of pecuniary benevolence in the Churches is another evidence of advancing spiritu ality. It shows the overmastering power of Chris tian love in the human heart, breaking down its selfishness, and drawing it out in practical offerings for the good of others. It is a crucial test. of real religious progress. It is not possible for us now to- appreciate the stern contest with covetousness which the founders of the Foreign and Home Missionary organizations fought in the first twenty-five years of this century. The standard of giving was very low, while the number of the givers was much smaller relatively. The fathers tell tales of penuriousness in those days which now seem scarcely probable. Dr. Harris' magnificent prize essay on " Mammon," published in 1836, since followed by numerous other valuable books and tracts on systematic giving, and floods of sermons and homilies on the same subject, have exerted a powerful influence for pecuniary liber ality. A change for good is very perceptible, but the battle is not fully fought. We have collected and tabulated summaries of the receipts of the Foreign and Home Missionary Boards of the evangelical Churches of the United States. Arranged in a table, they constitute an instructive object lesson. 438 Problem of Religious Progress. Receipts from Great Christian Agencies. (For full tables see Appendix, pp. 705-7.) -- Foreign Home Religious . Years. Mission Mission Publication Boards. Boards. Houses.* 1790-1829 $2,385,162 $206,210 1820-1S29 745,718 $233,826 1830-1839 2,885,839 2,342,712 4,539,096 1840-1849 5,087,922 3,062,354 7,187,403 1850-1859 8,427,284 8,099,659 18,382,317 1860-1869 12,929,715 21,043,892 30,119,595 1870-1880 21,425,121 29,982,534 42,169,863 I88i-i8g4t 44,390,389 51,402,640 55,475,270 Additional^ 2,000,000 5,000,000 9,000,000 Total $101,561,964 $138,893,303 $170,579,723 Average Yearly. 1830-1839 $288,583 $234,271 $453,909 1840-1849 508,792 306,235 . 718,403 1850-1859 842,728 809,965 1,838,231 1860-1869 . 1,292,971. 2,104,389, 3,OII,959 1870-1880 1,947,738 2,725,685 3,833,624 1881-1894 ... 3,551,231 4,112,211 4,438,016 We look with great satisfaction upon these grand aggregates — for Foreign Missions, $101,561,964; for Home Missions, $138,893,304; raised for these two leading benevolences. For Foreign Missions almost nothing was raised in America until since 1810, and only two or three Home Missionary Boards were organized until after 1800, and even those were very small, and the scope of their operations was narrow. * Receipts from sales, periodicals, etc., as well as gifts — all funds entering into religious publication work. All these Boards do much home mission work— indeed, all their work is for the elevation of our home population. f A part of them end in 1893. i Sums reported in aggregates, and not by periods. Spiritual Vitality. 439 There was some unorganized home missionary work prior to 1800, but there has been vastly more of this kind of work since 1800, which is wholly unrepre sented in the above table. The foregoing tables show amounts raised by the evangelical people of the United States for illuminating, elevating, and evangelizing purposes during the present century. The reported amounts are far from including the whole, for no tabulation is possible for large expenditures by some denomi nations. They have been sought for in vain. And the sums received from " sales," by the Publication Boards, represent products which had their origin in large donations from Christian people, and which have been husbanded and wisely accumulated under good business management. The Sunday-school, the Tract and Religious Publication Boards are therefore essentially evangelizing and illuminating agencies. The three classes of religious factors combined amount to $412,492,454. 0 Average Annual Amounts. For Foreign and Home Missions. Including Religious Publication Work. 1850-1859 $1,652,793 3,397,350 4,673,423 7,663,442 $3,491,024 6,409,309 8,507,047 12,101,458 1860-1869 1870-1880 1881-1894 It is probable that, in the last thirty-four years, American Protestantism has raised more money for purely evangelizing purposes, than all Christendom 44o Problem of Religious Progress. raised in the previous three centuries for the same purposes. It is an encouraging fact that since 1881, in which period we have suffered so much and so long from financial embarrassments, these two grand charities of American Protestantism have not declined, but have averaged $7,663,442 yearly, or over four and a half times as much as the yearly average from 1850 to 1859. These facts show the abiding devotion of Christian people to these two great causes, in times financial stringency and reverse. It is undoubtedly true that the increase in pe cuniary benevolence has more nearly corresponded with the advance in national wealth than at any former period. During the same period the value of the Church property of the denominations repre sented in the above tables, (the Evangelical Protest ant Churches,) as given by the United States Cen sus, increased from $71,275,909 in 1850, to $271,- 477,391 in 1870; and to $527,093,103 in 1890; and we do not doubt that the money invested in col legiate and academic institutions during the same time has increased still more. These things show that the Christian people are advancing well in the right direction ; and we should be stimulated to greater progress. In this almost infinite number of wayside labor ers, is it strange that some are not profound think ers, mature Christians, or discreet actors? Are Spiritual Vitality. 441 they not deepening, maturing, and learning wisdom, as others have done, by the old process of experi ence? Some may have erred in carrying the prin ciple of the priesthood of believers to an extreme, discarding the Christian ministry as a divinely insti tuted order of the Church ; some local communities have suffered from religious decline ; some Churches have died out, from change of population, unwis dom, possibly from more culpable causes ; some are in a transitional condition, occasioning anxiety in regard to the results ; some sad cases of collapse and ruin have occurred in men occupying high religious positions ; some futile attempts at reform have gone upon record ; some abuses still survive all denunciations ; some outbursts of religious en thusiasm have left individuals and communities almost barren of spiritual fruitage ; and the spirit of worldliness is often dominant in the Churches — a fatal impediment to progress. All these things, and many more still, exist with mischievous tendencies. They are imperfections incidental to human agents. Some wonder there are not more of them ; while others wonder that Christianity can endure so much imperfection and still stand and work so powerfully. It is because of its inherent conserving power, and its immense vitality. The healthy body can throw off great quantities of devitalized matter, resist malaria, heal wounds, and grow strong under heavy strains. 442 Problem of Religious Progress. Winters, tornadoes, storms, and devastating cur rents do not stop the course of nature. Is it said, " There is much rootless piety," an " incessant cultivation of sentiment," a " reckless popularization " of sacred things, and " floods of namby-pamby talk?" Be it so. But how slight are these blemishes on the great mass of true piety ; and how much less offensive than the whine, the nasal twang, the cant, the rant, the abnormal ecstasy, the jerking, the selfish exclusiveness, the supersti tion, and the torpid inactivity, which characterized much of the piety of other days. Religion is less sanctimonious, has less of " holy tone," but is not less genuine and worthy of respect, but more so, on that account. There is relatively more "well- rooted " piety, more intelligent religious affection, more faithful testimony for Christ. Is it still insisted that much of the work done is routine work ; that " sentiment substitutes pleasant songs and pensive looks for self-denial and arduous service ;" and that an antinomian spirit often seeks " to rectify a dishonest ledger by a prayer, or gild a malignant temper by a holy tone, so that to too many modern religionists the words of Hood may be applied, without caricature — ' Rogue that I am, I cheat, I lie, I steal ; But who can say I am not pious ? " There is a measure of truth in all these allega tion. But why are these things so ? Spiritual Vitality. 443 "It is because there is so much genuine relig ious activity, and so many new and taking meth ods of work and worship. The penumbra is child of the light. The evil is real ; its growth is alarm - ing; not, however, as threatening the existence or perpetuity of the Church of Christ, t>ut as por tending grievous falls for many true believers, and the stumbling of many sinners, who, when they fall, will not rise again." * Nor should it be overlooked that the common soil of humanity was never before so widely plowed by the Church. In large circles, among large masses, it is being plowed and sowed for the first time on purely voluntary conditions. No hierarchy nor civil power interposes to exert a steadying or sustaining influence in times of fluctuation or de cline ; nor does an overshadowing formalism throw its concealing mantle Over irregularities and defects. But we have a type of piety incalculably higher in true elements of personal godliness than has been furnished by any other age, or under hierarchical or State conditions. Is it said that the influence of religion is less marked than formerly? When religion has con quered its position, and become an established working force, it cannot be expected to produce such a sensation as when it first enters the field ; yet * See book entitled, ' ' The Light : Is it Waning ? " Boston, 1879, pp. 81, 82, etc. 444 Problem of Religious Progress. it does not follow that there is any real declension or loss of power. There have been times of much physical demonstration, and brief periods of excep tional spasmodic fervor, but such phenomena do not measure Christianity. Paroxysms may attract at tention, but do not indicate normal progress. Gen uine religious progress is indicated by moral reno vations. In numberless instances, even within the last twenty years, or the last ten years, under many American preachers, gospel truth has exhibited a potency not excelled in any other days, reaching and transforming large numbers of the most aban doned persons, and proving as all-controlling in the life, as when Peter preached, and the disciples had " all things in common." It is often declared that the contrast between the Church and the world is less perceptible than for merly, and therefore the Church has degenerated. Christianity has largely transformed Christendom — morally, intellectually, and socially — and, therefore, it cannot look as bright on the new background as on the old. Her very success has dimmed the relief. Christianity has " softened and shaded the world to her own likeness." How different is American society now from eighty years ago, and from the Roman world when Christianity entered it ; and yet the distinguishing characteristics of Church members are the same as in the days of the apos tles. They bear the same marks of attachment to Spiritual Vitality. 445 Christ, and the same evidences of genuine experi ence are exhibited. Rev. Orville Dewey, D.D., says: "When irrelig ious skeptics* learned or worldly wise, tell us that re ligion is to die out, we can't think much of it. There is a foolish talk, I sometimes hear, about faith's having been greater in the dark Middle Ages than it is now; credulity it should be called. Faith, true faith, deepens as thought, reasoning, feeling, the heart's great searching, goes deeper. It is so to-day. As knowledge grows, as culture advances, there are more' and more men whose souls are fraught full with a swelling and undying sense of religion ; who seek after God, after the living God, and feel that all the interest of life" is gone if that great all-hallowing Presence is gone from the world. No ; religions may die out of the world, but not religion. Forms, usages, false ideas of religion, have changed and will change, but not the central reality." * Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows has said of the wide ly diffused and operative influence of Christianity in our times, " Christianity is happily quite as much in the world as in the visible Church. Its leaven is working, never so powerfully as now, in politics, literature, life. ... A great part of the piety once expended in emotion, and profession, and dogmatic belief has gone into practical action. It has passed * "Unitarian Review," January, 1877, pp. 66. 446 Problem of Religious Progress out of the sanctuary into the workshop ; is no longer exclusively in the religious organ, but in the gen eral organism ; is not to be seen in the shape of pure leaven, but in the lightness and wholespmeness of the loaf. Religious faith, which takes form in gor geous cathedrals, gay festivals, and splendid rituals, may indicate the exclusive predominance foi an age of certain powerful religious ideas, but by no means indicate the prevalence of equality, justice, truth, self-respect, or private worth. Protestantism buries its Christian ideas in secret places, in private hearts and consciences, and they come up in domestic, social, and political rights and graces. Roman Ca tholicism places hers in golden chalices, and under' embroidered cloths upon the altar, to be worshiped ; and they remain, not without influence, but essen tially barren and powerless for the advancement of society. " We cannot admit, therefore, that the Christian religion, or Protestant Christianity, so far as it is the Christian religion, is declining, or waning in influ ence, or demands any new forces, or has failed to accomplish the expectations of its Founder, or the reasonable hopes of his faithful disciples. We can not concede that the doubt or question of certain theological ideas long associated with Christianity. which now prevails, is any discredit to the truth or reality of the Gospel. We seem to see the faith of Jesus of Nazareth every day emerging from the Spiritual Vitality. 447 cerements in which it has been buried, like Lazarus in his tomb." * The multiplication of schools, books, newspapers, and, especially, religious literature, and the loud demand for universal illumination, prove that the mind of Christendom is rising, and going forth, on a scale and with an impulse never before witnessed. How mighty and cumulative the moral and spiritual forces exhibited in our day ! Never before was the moral consciousness of the Churches so quickened, or their exertions, at home and abroad, so amazing, or so fruitful; Islands have been born as. in a day. New nations have come suddenly to the light, em braced the faith, maintained their own preachers, builded their own churches, and furnished martyrs for Christ. In a single year, one missionary society received eighteen thousand seekers after the truth ; another baptized nine thousand converts, six thou sand in one day; and another received six thousand to membership. A hundred thousand pariahs are numbered among the followers of Christ. A hundred thousand Fiji savages worship in Christian temples. Twelve hundred thousand spiritual conyerts praise God in mission churches. Six hundred thousand pu pils study the divine word in mission schools. Polyg amy, the suttee, and widow celibacy, are doomed all over Hindustan. Schools and colleges are rising; and scores of presses are printing millions of pages * " Unitarian Review," May, 1876, pp. 466-7. 448 Problem of Religious Progress: a year in the heathen world. Christian civilization has permeated heathen society, and called forth apostles of truth out of the bosom of paganism ; and the Church of Christ has seized the strongholds of the enemy, and established a base line of opera tions throughout the heathen world. Forward, is the motto, all along the vast lines of Christ's mili tant host. It is an era of sublime progress, answer ing the long-repeated prayer, " Thy kingdom come.'1 A century and a half ago the outlook for Chris tianity was dreary enough. The science, the phi losophy,, the culture of the age, were all against it ; little spirituality, only as a feeble dying flame, was left ; and its aggressive power was reduced to a minimum. Since then, it has reached its greatest known maximum. We have seen, that from the days of the Apostles down to near the middle of the last century, if we except some remarkable ex amples among the Moravians, the world has known nothing of such spiritual activities as have been since developed, chiefly within the last ninety years, and most of them within forty years. Piety has come out from the cloisters and gone forth among the masses, in imitation of " Him who went about doing good." Never was the life of Jesus more fully illustrated, in the average lives of Christians, than in the United States, during the last quarter of a century. Never was there a more intelligent spirituality. Spiritual Vitality. 449 The habit of some minds of investing every thing in the past with a halo of glory, is inconsiderate and superficial. No judicial mind will do this. Previous ages do not furnish parallels of what this age has witnessed. What then is the significance of such extraordinary and augmenting religious activity, if it be not a deep and deepening religious vitality? Such tangible evidences of extraordinary spiritual vitality, and the wonderful increase of more than nine and a half millions of communicants, in eighty years, in the evangelical Churches in the United States, far outrunning relatively the growth of the population, are two cognate facts, mutually supple menting each other, as irrefragable crucial tests. Such remarkable religious phenomena must have for their cause a powerful underlying religious force. No other inference is philosophical. Christ reigning over a territory hitherto unrivaled in its extent; .great benevolences awakened and sus tained by a deeper religious devotion ; rapidly mul tiplying home, city, and foreign mission stations, the outcome of an intelligent consecration ; magnifi cent departments of Christian labor, many of them heretofore unknown, and none of them ever before so numerous, so vast, or so restlessly active ; the great heart of the Church, pulsating with an unequaled velocity; the fires of evangelism burning with un wonted brightness on multiplied altars; and a re ligious literature such as has characterized no other 450 Problem of Religious Progress. age, replete with life and power, eminently prac tical, intensely fervid, and richly evangelical, ema nating from her presses : all conspire to show, more than ever before, that God has a living Church within the Churches, towering amid them all in its mightiness, the strength, the support, and central life of all ; and that an increasing number of true believers are " walking with him in white " — a grand constellation of light and purity — a bright Milky Way from earth to heaven. For what, under Providence, have these wonder ful spiritual appliances been developed, if it be not as a preparation for the cultivation of the vast home fields which have recently been opening for us. In the Census for 1 890, eleven States and Territories are classified as "The Western Division," viz.: Wyom ing, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, with an area equal to forty per cent, of the total area of the United States excepting Alaska, nineteen times as large as New England.. In 1850 they had a population of only 178,818; in 1870, only 981,510; but in 1890, 3,027,613, an increase of 209 per cent, since 1870. What a field to cultivate'! It will test our real spiritual vitality and power. This area is unequaled in natural resources by any other portion of this country, abounding in stores of mineral wealth to attract both enterprising settlers and dissolute adventurers. And besides, Spiritual Vitality. 451 "those majestic mountains are God's provision for watering the valleys and the plains. They trend across the path of the prevailing winds that come cloud-laden from the western ocean. The high peaks catch the clouds, wring them dry, and treasure their waters in their deep gorges for distribution in the valleys below." A denser population will soon occupy those vast regions, beset with unusual temptations to worldlinessi and greed, and calling for Christian laborers of deep spirituality, stanch fortitude, and vigorous enterprise. We should not lose sight of the ever-present fact that the conditions under which the United States have pursued their career, have been grave and solemn, new in history, and largely experi mental. Never were the elements of good and evil set forth against each other in a grander arena. Without the conserving force of old institutions, from the nature of the case the conflict must be tremendous, at times exciting alarm, but ever fore casting the development of the race to those higher conditions toward which humanity here is surely ad vancing. Rev. Bishop E. G.Andrews, D.D., LL.D., clearly and effectively portrayed * the situation. We are in the fierce heat of a great conflict. The forces of evil multiply among us. The vast increase of our population ; * Address before the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in England, August, 1894. 30 452 Problem of Religious Progress. the nature of much of our immigration, ignorant, thriftless, and unable by its training to use or appreciate freedom ; the rapid growth of our urban life beyond our power to overtake it with Gospel appliances ; illiteracy at the South very slowly diminish ing; colossal fortunes rapidly accumulated and ostentatiously displayed, while the condition of the poor though not deterio rated, is very slowly improved ; socialism and anarchy, not indeed indigenous, but now naturalized among us ; the activity of the , Roman hierarchy, perilous to our liberty and our religion, and, perhaps chief of all, the saloon power, organized, diabolic, de termined, by stimulating the drink habit, to fatten itself though it ruin all interests and aggravate all the evils under which a people can suffer. These are some of the portentous forces that confront us in the New World. We know no adequate help save in that Gospel which our fathers preached to us, and which we received. We need"noth-; ing else. Our natural resources are inexhaustible. Our insti tutions are well ordered. Our military power forbids fear. But will manhood flourish under the western sky ? Will the classes live in amity and mutual helpfulness ? Can free governments continue to repose on the loyalty and intelligent love of freemen without the compulsion of standing armies, the too ready instruments of ambition ? Will a supreme sense of justice keep peace between individuals, and between remote sections whose interests appear to be in conflict ? Will this great continent, reserved so long from evils of oriental and mediasval life, prove a theater for the upbuilding of redeemed men for the " land that is very far off ? " Shall it serve the race of which it is the latest heir ? Such questions' oppress us. They drive us to the Lord and' Master of us all. They make us review the possibilities of that Gospel from which so great transformation has already come to individual men and to society. They pledge us to make proof of the infinite reserve of power that is in the Captain of our salvation. CHAPTER III. CHRISTIANITY AN rN"Cit:E:.A.srN"G- foeck in thk world's CONSCIOTJSNBSS J±NI> LIFE. In the World's Thought. In Civil Government and Administration. In Higher Education and Culture. In Philanthropy and Reform. In Morals. In the Physical and Social Condition. In Literature'. In Art. In Song. In Praetieal, Social, and Institutional Work. This Elevation not the Fruitage of Civilization, but of Christianity. Spiritual Vitality. 455 CHAPTER III. CHRISTIANITY IN THE WORLD'S CONSCIOUSNESS AND LIFE. "O EFORE passing to the more demonstrative *-* numerical exhibits, attention is invited to some direct crucial tests of religious progress in the actual life of the race. It cannot be regarded as a bare assumption,, that Christianity is steadily and surely penetrating the world's consciousness, shading the world to its own likeness, increasingly controlling its great working forces, alleviating its woes, and more than ever be fore shaping its tendencies, so that the present may be fittingly declared as the most Christian of all the Christian centuries. To say that Christianity is an expended force belies the most patent facts. In the World's Thought. Have we ever asked ourselves, whence came the idea of progress; and whether the very idea sand impulse of human progress are not distinctive gifts of Christianity ; and whether the world was ever be fore so fully possessed with this idea, or so power fully affected by it ? How clearly does it appear in 45°" Problem of Religious Progress. all history, that Christianity introduced into human ity this spiritual, redemptive energy and stimulated ¦ activity toward its renovation, making it the grand end toward which men intelligently consecrate their powers. The expectation of progress, thus awakened and sustained, largely determines the Jjest advances of society toward the achievement of its highest ideals. Neither in literature nor in civilization, outside of the influence of Christianity, has this expectation of human progress ever appeared. The growth of pagan nations has been mainly enlargement by the power of the sword. Professor Maine said : The stationary condition of the human race is the rule, the progressive the exception. ... It is most difficult for a citizen of Western Europe to bring home thoroughly to himself the truth that the civilization which surrounds him is a rare excep tion in the history of the world. . . . The greatest part of mankind has never shown a particle of desire that its civil institutions should be improved since the moment when ex ternal completeness was first given to them, by their embodi ment in some permanent record. . . . Instead of civilization expanding the law, the law has limited the civilization. . . . In progressive nations, social necessities and social opinion are always more or less in advance of the law. Eighteen hundred years ago the Bible was com pleted ; and who will say it has ever limited human progress, or that human necessities and ideas have ever been in advance of it ? Or rather, shall we not say with Dr. Harris : Spiritual Vitality. 457 Unlike all other codes and records, this book is evermore the stimulus, the law, and the ideal of a higher life for the in dividual, and of a purer and better civilization for society ? What a mighty working force is this idea and ex pectation of progress, thus infused into the world's thought, under which Christian nations alone have become the progressive nations, while all beyond this influence are stagnant and unexpectant. There is more of Christianity in Christian theology than ever before. Early Christianity was corrupted by Judaism and pagan philosophy ; then, perverted by Roman Catholic scholasticism ; then, by Protest ant scholasticism and dogmatism. The iron logic of the reformers followed too closely in the dialec tical lines of the schoolmen, perverting by human subtleties the truths which the Great Teacher and his apostles had presented in simpler forms. Dur ing this century, more than ever before, these en cumbrances have been thrown off, and the truth is approximating its original simplicity. Never before was Christianity so widely accepted and held in intelligent moral convictions. For long ages it was nominally accepted, under the dominat ing influence of a civil authority which tolerated no questioning. Now in almost all civilized coun tries belief is a matter of personal choice, based on intelligent conviction, which signifies that Christian ity is directly identified with the consciousness and thought of men. 458 Problem of Religious Progress. Never before were the people expected to have opinions, nor could they be trusted to form opin ions; but now the common soil of humanity has been so thoroughly plowed, enriched, and culti vated, that great and sacred questions are safely brought into the arena of public investigation. -What an advance in intelligence and in morally conserving power is implied in all thisi. Christianity was never before so well understood as in the present century. Under these clearer Views many perversions and travesties of our holy religion are disappearing, and the world is not likely to be far misled or easily deceived. Christianity is now widely diffused in the thinking of the world, in Its philosophy, its history, it's poetry, its science, its statesmanship, its art, its legislation, and its literature. Now the world does its thinking largely from Christian stand-points, on a Christian basis, and in a Christian phraseology. Consider, too, the ideals of life, as compared with 1 former periods. The most potent forces of the mod ern world, under the all-pervasive influence of Chris tianity, are not law, nor police, nor institutions, nor even armies, but latent and ideal elements, thought out, digested, and self-incorporated, so as to become the determining powers of life. Men, thus possessed, are a law unto themselves — actuated by laws gen erated in souls enriched with the best spiritual and moral fertilizers of the kingdom of God. Thus are Spiritual Vitality. 459 we having illustrated the working of the leaven of the divine kingdom. Ideals thus begotten are the potencies of life, the engines which draw men into higher planes and society into higher stages. The family feels their influence ; the schools submit to their silent tutelage ; legislation is molded by them ; the Church takes them into her sacred service ; and by them humanity is purified, illumined, and hallowed. In the last century faith has vastly increased in quantity and improved in quality. It is not so superstitious, is more intelligent* and its dominion is broader and stronger. The eighteenth century was distinctively a skeptical era. The unbelief generated by misconceptions of physical science, etc., has been slight compared with that of the last century. Forms of dogmatic faith have been so modified that faith has been helped. Never before was there so much faith, such mighty faith, such in telligent faith. The faith achievements of Rev. William Taylor in India, Australia, South America, and Africa fully rival those of St. Paul ; and those of Moody, Mulier, etc., stand conspicuous in Chris tian history. The average faith of Christendom has incalculably advanced. In the true sense of the term this is not so much an age of doubt as of transition. Old forms are changing, but old faiths are not dead nor dy ing. There are manifestations of unrest. Here and there a 460 Problem of Religious Progress. religious teacher goes adrift, and sometimes a church follows him. But the vital truths of Christianity still afford a sure and steady anchorage for intelligent believers. In Civil Government and Administration. In the year 1500 the populations under nominally Christian governments were estimated at 100,000,- 000; in 1890, at 890,000,000, over half the inhabit ants of the globe. In these almost four centuries a much greater change has come from a nominally Christian toward an actual Christian character in these great ruling States. How much more rational and elevating are the conditions of civil government. The world is transferring its political homage from traditions to principles, from absolutism to freedom, from royal and baronial lines to rights and duties, from compromises with ancient usurpation, inequal ity, and wrong to affirmations of equality and justice. A writer in the "Nineteenth Century" recently said : .Sixty years ago Europe was an aggregate of despotic powers disposing, at their pleasure, of the lives and property of their subjects, maintaining by systematic neglect the convenient ig norance which rendered misgovernment easy and safe. Within a few years one hundred and eighty millions of Europeans have risen from a degraded and dissatisfied vassalage to the ranks of free, self-governing men, and one of their earliest concerns has been to provide the means of universal education. The era of absolutism has nearly passed in civil ized nations. It has but a feeble hold on any people, and it must soon wholly disappear. We have not Spiritual Vitality. 461 to go far back to find it almost everywhere. Con stitutional governments, with certain functions guaranteed to thepeople, are multiplying. Absolute monarchies are disappearing, and limited monarch ies, more and more limited and dependent upon the people, and republics are taking their place. The irreversible drift of the world is in the direction of " governments of the people, by the people, and for the people.' ' France has had painful experiences in her struggles toward this ideal. After repeated failures she seems likely to succeed. What does this tendency indicate ? The answer is ready and full of inspiring significance. Human ity is developing and maturing. It is becoming capable of self -direction and self-control. The race is increasingly conscious of IDEAS diffused abroad in the popular heart ; that it possesses capabilities of self-government ; that these things are sacred trusts, to be claimed, held, and exercised in the interests of humanity. This feeling is pervasive. Every where in Christendom it is expanding, depressing, asserting itself, and coming into concrete forms in legislation and in government. Freedom of opinion, now well-nigh universal in Christian countries, is evidence of the prevalence of the kind and tolerant spirit of Christianity among the nations and in the churches. Church discipline for heresy is not now for the purpose of enforcing belief, as it once was, but for the purpose of vindi- 462 Problem of Religious Progress. eating compacts which men have voluntarily made, and should voluntarily surrender when no longer willing to keep them. What an evidence this of the higher life of the race than was seen under the old regime of absolu tism. What an advance toward manhood. What development of the best and noblest elements. Personal liberty has incalculably advanced. The magna charta and habeas corpus have been great factors and bulwarks of this progress. " Liberty is the creature of law," says) Hon. D. Webster : * r It is a legal and refined idea, the offspring of high civiliza tion, which the savage never understood and never can under stand. Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome ' restraint ; the more restraint on others to keep off from us, the more liberty we have. It is an error to suppose that liberty consists in a paucity of laws. If one wants few laws, let him go to Turkey. The Turks enjoy that blessing. The working of our complex system, full of checks and restraints on legislative, executive, and judicial power, is favorable to liberty and justice. Those checks and restraints are so many safeguards set around individual rights and interests. That man is free who is protected from injury. It would be an interesting task to trace in detail the evidences of the increasing presence of Chris tianity in constitutional law, in international law, in statutory legislation, in the administration of oaths, in legislative, army, and navy chaplaincies, in public fasts and thanksgivings. * " Works," ii, p. 393. Spiritual Vitality. 463 What an exhibition of Christian sentiment in the hearts of the American people.was witnessed on the assassination of President Garfield. There was at once an almost universal impulse to turn to God for guidance and help. Theories of prayer were no longer discussed, but men prayed ; arid thousands unused to devotion turned aside from their business at midday to mingle their prayers with other thou sands for the recovery of the stricken President. The feeling of devotion thus enkindled, was strong enough to endure thelshoek of disappointment, and was not destroyed or impaired when, in the sequel, the na tion's request was not granted. This sad event, which deprived the United States of President Garfield, called forth in the highest circles, of civil authority expressions of religious faith and recognitions of the truths of our holy re ligion such as had never, or almost never, before been witnessed. Such allusions in public docu ments have usually been very guarded and of the mOst meager character. It was refreshing to see such distinct recognitions of Almighty God, and of dependence upon him for guidance and consolation, as were uttered by Queen Victoria and President Arthur. What a beautiful, devout Christian message was that of Queen Victoria to Mrs. Garfield : Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you. May Gpd support and comfort you as he alone can. The words of President Arthur in his inaugural 464. Problem, of Religious Progress. are worthy of remembrance, and inspired confidence in his high character : Summoned to these high duties and responsibilities, and pro foundly conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on divine guidance and the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of the American people. President Arthur's proclamation contained even more. It-recognized God as the God of providence, who " in his inscrutable wisdom has been pleased to remove from us the illustrious head of the nation." It recognizes the throne of God as "the throne of infinite grace," to which in our calamity we should come. He said : That we should bow Defore the Almighty and seek from him that consolation in our affliction and that sanctification of our loss which he is able and willing to vouchsafe. Again, he recommended that : All the people assemble in their respective places of divine worship, there to render alike their tribute of sorrowful sub mission to the will of Almighty God, and of reverence and love for the memory and character of our late chief magistrate. Such expressions of the great truths of Christian ity by the two greatest rulers in the world are of in calculable value to the race. In Higher Education and Culture. Protestant Christianity is increasingly identified with the most advanced education and the best cult- Spiritual Vitality. 465 ure of the age. These fragrant blossoms of our best civilization are chiefly products, directly or in directly, of influences which Protestantism has ex erted and fostered. Most of the colleges of the United States have been founded and conducted by Christian men, (see pp. 703-4.) How have libraries multiplied. What a mighty work has been per formed, too, by the religious publication houses of the United States, (see p. 707.) By such means is Christianity becoming identified with the intellect ual life of the age. Furthermore, a process of edu cation is going on under the tutelage of machinery. A thousand skilled trades, by numberless intricate processes, develop an incalculable amount of thought and experience. Spindles and hammers and files think now as well as bayo nets ; and the girl .who stands looking on to see the piston or the turbine manipulate her shuttles in half a dozen looms, is in a school of philosophy, and so is her brother at the lathe. But heathenism follows the same old treadmill of three thousand years ago, without a discovery or an invention. A religion that fails to identify itself with intelli gence, science, and the best progress of the age can have no hold upon the future. It is the mission of Christianity to enlighten. It has been freely asserted of late that the Churches, especially the evangelical Churches, are perceptibly losing their hold upon the intellect and scholarship of the age ; that few young men in the colleges are Christians in the usual ac- 466 Problem of Religious Progress. ceptation of the term ; that denominational colleges are relatively declining, and that they are destined to be superseded by State universities and other large institutions founded by individual munificence. What are the facts ? ,r * Colleges in the United States in 1830. Denominations. 4 . *> O ¦a H m S 1)13 n * B 5 S> O 00 ¦o »/¦¦ Congregational Presbyterian .".¦'. :. . Baptist , . . . Protestant :'.:.''!.. Reformed (Dutch and German), Methodist Episcopal* Unitarian i* Roman Catholic 53 39 16 34 1612 20 1,047 517196 203 287 172 247 Total denominational. Non-denominational. . 15 6 3514 190 85 2,669 913 Aggregate1. 28 ¦49 275 3,582 Here are 49 colleges in 1830, with 275 professors and 3,582 students. From 1800 to 1830 the col leges increased 28, of which number 20 were de nominational and 8 undenominational. In 1800 the denominational colleges were 71.5 per cent, of ,the whole; in 1830, 71.5 per cent, of the whole, and at the latter date these denominational colleges had 74.6 per cent, of all students in colleges. * These two colleges, under Revs. H. B. Bascom and Dr. Martin Ruter, did nott become prominent Methodist colleges. The, Wes leyan University, founded at Middletown, Conn., in 1831, was the first permanent Methodist college. 1830 X}XA.S-XIA.:Z/L XVIII. The Colleges and the Churches. STUD ENTS. 1830. 1884. \ In Denominational 2,669 25,948 \ In Undenomina- \ ' tional Institut'ns 913 6,819 \ Total 3,582 32,767 r- \ % \ i \ \ ^ \ Increase Per Cent. \ Ha \ Population of United \ S \ i* States, 329 per cent. \^ \^y Students in Undenomi- \ -A \ _ national Institutions, \ *** \ *A 646 per cent. \& \r* Students in Denomina- \tf \^v tional Institutions, \& X?1 872 per cent. \ * \ <* \* X \ f> \ \ Q. \ \l X 1884 31 Spiritual Vitality. 467 For the data concerning the colleges in 1884,* the latest available, we are indebted to the very able reports of General Eaton,f Commissioner of Educa tion at Washington, D. C. Collating from his re port, we have a satisfactory basis for a comparison with the year 1830 — a sufficiently long interval to indicate quite clearly the educational tendency of the century. Changing the phraseology for the reasons indi cated below, and using the terms denominational and undenominational, we have on the one hand the * The author regrets that in the later reports the data necessary for similar comparisons for 1890 are omitted. •(• In using General Eaton's reports we have discarded the terms " sectarian " and " non-sectarian " sometimes used, because not ex pressing what they are intended to express, and consequently put ting most of the colleges in a false light. It is well known that no ecclesiastical tests in either admitting, disciplining, advancing, or graduating students are used by any of the colleges, unless it be^in some of the Roman Catholic colleges. In all the colleges of the Protestant Churches no questions are asked in regard to religious be lief, and students are at liberty to select the place of worship which - accords with their denominational predilections just as freely as in purely State colleges. Harvard College, reported as " non-sectarian," is no more so than over two hundred others reported as sustaining denominational relations ; for Harvard, during more than half a cen tury, has been under the direction of a " Board of Fellows " all of whom have been Unitarians except one elected within a few years ; and, besides, the Theological School of Harvard College is usually mentioned in the Unitarian " Year- Book " as a Unitarian institution. Yale, Columbia, Williams, and many other colleges also reported by General Eaton as " non-sectarian " recently were reported as Con gregational, Episcopal, etc. But there has been no severance in their denominational relations. 468 Problem of Religious Progress. colleges of the Churches, comprising those closely related to the Churches in origin, sympathy, and patronage, some of which are organically held by ecclesiastical bodies ; and, on the other hand, those whieh sustain no denominational relatioris. This classification fully and fairly covers the question What are the churches doing for collegiate educa tion, and how far are they identified with advanced intellectual culture ? In carrying out this classifica tion the advantage of any doubt in regard to insti tutions not' fully known is given to the undenomi national list. Of the 61 colleges classified in the following table as undenominational, 23 are State institutions, some of them founded before the disruption of the union between the Church and State ; 4, city insti tutions; 3, military; 2, agricultural ; 1, deaf mute; and the remainder are not clearly indicated as to their character. Nearly half of the latter are under the presidency of evangelical divines. Eight of the State and city institutions have clergymen for pres idents, and many of the professors and students are active evangelical communicants. General Eaton's report for 1883-84 gives 370 colleges and universities. In 1870 he gave a large number; but he has probably since that time found that some of them should be classified in a different table. With the aid of the Year-Books of the denominations we have carefully examined the list, and assigned to 1830 1 S3 \ ^ \ 1 » xaX* 3 \ » \ £ Denominational 1 o \ o \r » \£\4 ' AND 1 w X S X »° Undenominational Students 1 §¦ \^ \% IN C0URSE F0R A.B. 12 X P* \*L 1 a Xs \* 1 5 \ '?. \ ff 1 \ \ I in \ \ 1 >* \ \ a \ u> \ 1 «¦ Xs \^ s X * \t» 1 * \ < \<* I cs \* \ a 1 * X tf \ \ 9 X «i \ »* 1 3 \ » \ a. \ BS \S \r» la \\ V IB \t \% 1 ^ \ rl X a 13 XS Xrf I £ X?1 \n I * \p \' IS X?1 \ la \ V* \ 1 C X*1 \ 1 C \ a \ \ 3 X*> X 1 2 X «• X 1 pi X ¦ X « XX \ \ u V V ! , \r \ 1 5** \?1 X*3 i to \ OP \^A 1884 \" V \" Spiritual Vitality. 47i the Churches those marked " unsectarian " which are properly denominational in their origin, affilia tion, patronage, etc. We give the following care fully classified table : Colleges and Universities in the United States — 1884. Denominational Relations. Number of Colleges. Number of Professors. Students in the Collegiate Course for A.B. Baptist (all kinds) Congregational Christian and Disciple* Episcopal Evangelical Association Friend Hebrew Lutheran Methodist (all kinds) Mormon Presbyterian (all kinds) Reformed (German and Dutch) . Seventh-day Advent Sweden borgian United Brethren Unitarian Universalist Total non-Roman Catholic Roman Catholic Total denominational Undenominational Aggregate 45 2617 11 25 1 14 63 1 46 7 1 1 7 1 4 252 57 309 61 332317 140 99 14 46 7 102 534 39 7 1 4 39 58 41 2,215 2,215 782 3,7283,108 1,326 807 137 331 11 860 4.9384,060 449 13 238 1,040 260 21,301 4.647 25,948 6,819 37o 2,997 t32,7&7 * The practice of the Disciples in taking to themselves the desig nation " Christians,'- which for three quarters of a century has been held by another religious denomination, so confuses the statistics that it is necessary to combine the two bodies. f When General Eaton gives 65,522 students in'the colleges he comprises those in the preparatory as well as the collegiate depart ments. 472 Problem of Religious Progress. Comparison of i833"with 1884. Colleges. Students. 1830. 1884. 1830. 1884. Undenominational 35 14 3°9 61 2,669 913 25,948 6,819 Total 49 370 3,582 32,767 Increase from 1830 to 1884. Population 335 per cent. Denominational Colleges 783 " " Undenominational Colleges 335 " " Denominational Students 872 " " Undenominational Students 653 " " In 1830 the denominational colleges were 71.5 per cent, of the whole; in 1884 they were 83.5 per cent. In 1830 the students in the denominational colleges were 74.6 per cent, of the whole; in 1884 they were 79.2 per cent. Of the students in denominational colleges, 1830. 1884! The Baptists had 7.3 per cent. 14 . 3 per cent. " Congregationalists 38.8 " " 11. 9 " " Episcopalians 7.6 " " 3.1 " " Methodists. 6.4*" " 19.0 " " Presbyterians 19.3 " " 15.6 " " Roman Catholics None reported.* 17.9 " " Non-Evangelical Churches. 9.2 per cent. 5.1 " ' ' Evangelical Churches 90 . 8 " " 94 . 9 " The Year-Books.of some of the religious denomi nations, within a few years, have furnished carefully * See " American Quarterly Register," May, 1831. f Report of General Eaton, Commissioner of Education, 1883-84, p. 169. Spiritual Vitality. 473 prepared tables of all the higher educational insti tutions of the Churches, including theological semi naries, colleges, and universities, female colleges, classical seminaries, and academies. Many denomi nations give no such information in any tabulated form ; but such as have been prepared and pub lished we give, that the relation of the Churches to the higher education may be more fully seen and appreciated. Educational Institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1893. '0 0 ¦s <*- 0u P 2 0 rC Ort V H §O J3 Q Students Last Year. 13 Class of Institution. d3 en c fO«£! 0 V T3 3 <33 0) d "bfl '0O O H B0c rt « "Sojj"0 0 ^3 3 C/3 1 0 {3 S1) T3 3 tJ5 0 H *o c o 0> 0 V Pi m 3 O >>;"™ 3 OJ H Theological Institutions Colleges andUniversities Classical Seminaries.. . . Female Colls, and Sems. Foreign Mission Schools 17 5752 9 77 $2,270,839 19,993,101 2,79^54° 1,472,500 766,050 71 1,438 431 181 461 835 2,372 5,422 641 I4,OIO 10,859 580 5M 835 22,453 10,859 1,294 6,236 $251,607 384,285 49,984 374,H3 30,746 Less Schools duplicated in Theological list. . . . 212 15 27,294,030 1,010,839 2,582 60 3,207 6,063 25»449 5H 41,677 628 1,090,766 1,607 Net total 197 26,283,191 2,522 3,207 6,063 25,449 5H 41,049 1,089,159 Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Number of schools and colleges. ..:.., 179 Value of property and endowments exclusive of debts. . . $4,485,042 Number of professors and teachers 897 Number of students 16,620 474 Problem of Religious Progress. Regular Baptist Institutions. Class of Institution. *o o ¦ain •s e 3 Value of Property and Endowments exclusive of Debts. aE0 a « 1?. a y>'v ii _ 0 rt rt i> aj H Theological Seminaries .... Universities and Colleges . . Academies and Seminaries. For Colored and Indians. . . 7 3532 47 31 $3,401,618 19,171,045 4,121,906 3,787,793 1,380,540 54 604 388369 279 776 9,088 3,6755,2505,177 $99,867 2,303,662 33,500 151,752 96,536 Total 152 31,862,902 1,694 23,966 2,685,317 These tables give the following aggregates for these three denominations, leaving out a multitude of others : Higher educational institutions 528 Number of professors 5, 113 Number of students 81,635 Amount of property and endowments $62,631,135 Amount of gifts received during the year 1893. 3,773,468 It has been sometimes asserted that the influence of evangelical religion upon educated young men is declining. It is not possible, perhaps, to obtain exact data for fully testing this matter, but we have a class of statistics which go far to settle it. The num ber of students, in the colleges and universities of the highest grade, who are " professedly religious," or members of evangelical' Churches, is certainly one good test. These we have in a tolerably complete form, covering a period of over fifty years. Spiritual Vitality. Percentage of College Students Pious. 475 Date of Statistics. Number of Colleges Reporting. Total Number of Students in CoUeges Report ing. Number Pious. Percentage of Students Pious. 1830 28303832 12 65 1 10* 2,633 4,533 7,3517,8181,891 12,06315,344 693 1,727 3.3802,l62 941 6,051 7,361 26 per cent. 38 " " 1855 1865 46 " " 1870 40 " * " 1872 50 " " 1880 50 " " 1885 48f " The opinion, current in some quarters, that the colleges are degenerating, morally and religiously,- and that skepticism and dissipation are setting at naught the better influences of other days, is dis proved by the foregoing statistics, and by many concrete testimonies^: which cannot be inserted in these limited pages. All the foregoing facts show the strong and enduring progress of Christianity in the United States ; that it is identified with the highest educational culture of the age ; that the denominational institutions are incalculably leading in number and students all the undenominational colleges, and that the great principles and blessed experiences of Christianity are being voluntarily and * In this list are 9 State colleges, 4 State normal schools, 2 agri cultural and mechanical institutions, 1 polytechnic department, 1 medical and I military institute. See table in report of Y. M. C. A. of the United States, 1885. f See "American Quarterly Register," May, 1831. % See article by Rev. C. F. Thwing, D.D., in " Sunday Afternoon," September, 1878. 476 Problem of Religious Progress. intelligently adopted by a far larger proportion of college students than ever before. In Philanthropy and Reform. The numberless philanthropies of our day, for the most part unknown until the present century, in dicate the widely extended presence in the world of the spirit of " Him who went about doing good." Mr. Green* says : A yet nobler result of the religious revival (the Wesleyan) was the steady attempt, which has never ceased from that day to this, to remedy the guilt, the ignorance, the physical suffer ing, the social degradation of the profligate and the poor. It was not until the Wesleyan impulse had done its work that this philanthropic impulse began. The Sunday-schools established by Mr. Raikes, of Gloucester, at the close of the century were the beginnings of popular education. By writings and by her own personal example, Hannah More drew the sympathy of England to the poverty and crime of the agricultural laborer. A passionate impulse of human sympathy with the wronged and afflicted raised hospitals, endowed charities, built churches, sent missionaries to the heathen, supported Burke in his plea for the Hindu, and Clarkson and Wilberforce in their crusade against the iniquity of the slave-trade. It is impossible to fully set forth in these limits the philanthropies of our day. We can only classify them. They are for the poor, for the laboring classes, for the sick, for children ; free schools, Sun day-schools, homes, and asylums ; for widows, for fallen women, for aged women, for aged men ; for * " History of the English People," iv, 273. Spiritual Vitality. 477 the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane, the idiotic ; for strangers, for the impotent, for inebriates, for the degraded and outcast, for sailors, for Africans, for prisoners, for the protection of animals, for State charities, for hospitals, for city evangelization, for home missions, for foreign missions, for religious publications, for peace ; Young Men's Christian As sociations, and Young Women's Christian Associa tions. These are only classes. Their number is legion, and at least three fourths; probably more than that, the direct outgrowth of Christian prin ciple and love, in the last one hundred and fifty years, very largely within eighty years. Within this century Christianity has achieved more for humanity in a single decade than in long centuries before. An English poet sang : "Better fifty years of Europe Than a cycle of Cathay." The sentiment could be put more strongly without violence to fact. Christian philanthropy has penetrated the in terior of our prisons and produced beneficent changes. It has lifted the prisoners out of the damp and dreary dungeons in which they were orrce confined into high, healthful, and magnificent struct ures, often the pride of the city and the state ; it has broken the iron fetters in which they were once bound and tortured ; it has abolished the bastinado 478 Problem of Religious Progress. and the scourge ; it has stopped the herding of criminals in close corrupting contact in the same rooms ; it has furnished them with wholesome food, comfortable beds and clothing, medical attention and nursing, secular and Sabbath school instruction, religious services, and libraries. Besides these things, the number of offenses punishable by death has been diminished ; imprisonment for debt has been almost wholly abolished, reformatories and houses of industry have been substituted for regular prisons for children ; the corporal punishment of prisoners has been mostly abolished ; solitary con finement in dungeons is limited to a few days ; prison congresses and associations have been organ ized ; and this amelioration has been carried to such lengths that a wise conservatism is inquiring whether Christian tenderness toward these social outlaws is not degenerating into a sickly condition of sentiment ; whether Christian philanthropy has not decorated and softened the way of crime, and enfeebled the energy and majesty of government to the detriment of the welfare of society. Outside of Christianity criminals are treated as outlaws, with no rights or claims, not even to any physical comfort. Take the highest type of pagan civilization. In China criminals are incarcerated in filthy, loathsome cells, fittingly called "hells," and left without the slightest provision, except such as friends, to whom they appeal, may bring. For cer- Spiritual Vitality. 479 tain crimes they are punished by torture. Wearing the " kang," a plank four feet square, with a hole in the center, fitted and locked around the neck, being a common method. He cannot get his hands to his head and must starve unless friends feed him. He can take but two positions, sitting and standing. In from ten to twenty days the prisoner is broken down beyond recovery. The increasing presence of Christianity in the world's consciousness is also seen in the great moral and .reformatory movements, which it has generated and made effectual. In no previous century were such gigantic evils assailed and broken as in this. In the year 1800 human slav ery existed all over the world. In the year 1200, about the beginning of the reign of John, it has been estimated that one half of the Anglo-Saxons were in a condition of serv itude. At the time of the Norman conquest, a still larger proportion of the people were held as the property of their lords, and incapable of acquir ing and holding any property of their own.* The time when villain slavery wholly ceased in England cannot be accurately determined. Mr. Hargrave says,f at the commencement of the seventeenth century African slaves were sold in London, and until near the close of the last century. * Hume's " History of England," vol. i, Appendix I. f " Twenty State Trials, 40 ; May Const. Hist.," cii. 480 Problem of Religious Progress. In Scotland, the condition of servitude continued to a later period. The salters and colliers did not acquire their freedom until 1799, nor without an act of Parliament. The removal of slavery in Great Britain was not by formal enactment, however, so much as by causes silently at work for many years, leading to its gradual abandonment. Macaulay* says the chief instrument of its removal was the Christian religion. Mackintoshf bears similar testimony. For more than two centuries at least, the horrors and iniquity of the slave-trade moved no pity even in the most civilized nations. By the triumph of Marlborough, England secured the monopoly of the slave-trade between Africa and the Spanish dominions, and planted slavery in her American colonies and in her West Indian islands. Half the wealth of Liverpool accrued from this cursed traffic, and exerted its benumbing influence on the sensibilities of all English-speaking people. It was not, says Mr. Green, until after the great Wesleyan revival in the last century had quickened the moral sensibilities of the English nation that a new spirit of humanity was felt and the apathy disappeared. Philanthropy was a corollary of the new religious movement, and it actively assailed the slave- trade, forcing itself into politics. After a conversation in the open air, at the root of an old tree just above the steep descent into the Vale of Keston, with the younger Pitt, his friend, * " History of England," vol. i, chap. i. f " History of England," chap. iv. Spiritual Vitality. 481 William Wilberforce, whose position as a representative of the Evangelical party gave weight to his advocacy of such a cause, resolved to bring in a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade. Such was the beginning of the great antislavery reform. The slave-trade was abolished in 1808 ; in 1834, 800,000 slaves were emancipated in the Brit ish, colonies ; in 1863, 4,000,000 were liberated in the. United States; and, since the latter date, 15,000,- 000 serfs have been emancipated in Russia, and a system of emancipation has gone into effect in Brazil which liberated 5,000,000 slaves. Other emancipa tions have taken place in Danish and French colo nies, in Austria, and elsewhere. And we ask where in nominal Christian countries, and especially where* under Protestant governments, does slavery exist to-day ? As the effect of these emancipations, and of the determined suppression of the slave- trade by Christian governments, and of the influ ence of Christian missions, long lines of African sea-coast are now free from slave-pens, once so numerous, and Christian missions are taking their place. Christian civilization is penetrating that dark continent on every side, and leading to Christ those dusky millions once the victims of avarice and oppression, and founding Christian states. When, too, was the great vice of intemperance, so venerable for its antiquity, so mighty in its in fluence, so seductive in its power, so inwrought by habit and appetite and social courtesy into the 32 482 Problem of Religious Progress. very life of the nations, ever before so boldly at tacked and determinedly opposed, as during the present century ? The battle that has been fought during the last seventy years against intoxicating liquors has been a momentous conflict, involving, in its inception and in its progress, an amount of moral courage, moral force, and faith, for which only the great revivals of religion that -preceded the movement and accompanied its earliest stages could have prepared the American churches, out of which the reform sprung, and from which it de rived its best support. It would be a pleasant task to recite in detail what has been gained in this reform, if space would admit. We have the work still on our hands. (See pp. 293-308.) Do you say that intemperance is still a great evil of our day — that hundreds of millions of dollars yearly are expended in some Christian countries for intoxicating drinks, and avast amount of suffer ing occasioned ? Yes ; but it was Christianity that exposed this great waste — that unmasked the true character of the drinking customs of society, and brought them under the ban of enlightened senti ment ; that has demonstrated the danger of moder ate drinking ; that has made the traffic in intoxica ting liquors as a beverage disreputable and infa mous ; that has reformed large bodies and circles of society once addicted to intoxication : that has Spiritual Vitality. 483 erected inebriate asylums, and is rapidly making the dealer and the building occupied for the sale responsible for the damage done by the liquojrs sold. Where in the non-Christian world are there such mighty efforts to reform and save ? There not a finger is raised to protect the tempted or to save the fallen. Criminality and revelry are encouraged, and society is left to gravitate downward to ruin. In the World's Morals. Does some one remark, Granted that we know more than our fathers, that we can do more with our heads and hands, that we have more and better schools, newspapers, libraries, etc., are we, after all, any better morally ? Let me specify. In our times we see little organ ized and successful resistance of moral laws, as com pared with former centuries. Within a compara tively recent period the commerce of nearly every nation was crippled or embarrassed by pirates, and hundreds of lives and millions of dollars were sacri ficed every year to their rapacity. Now no pirate sails on any of the great seas, except among some of the East India islands. Until quite recently, on the coast of England and elsewhere, it was a current custom for wreckers to seize and appropriate wrecked vessels. In the eighteenth century the practice of wrecking in creased to a fearful degree. Now the shipwrecked 484 Problem of Religious Progress. mariner, on all the great coasts of North America and Europe, is met, not by wreckers, but by life- saving, stations and agents," like good Samaritans, tenderly caring for life and property. Highway robbery was very prevalent in the last century in the United States and in England. Many are the stories of such, adventures told by our fathers. Horace Walpole, in 1781, wrote, " One is forced to travel, even at noon, as if he were going to battle." But the gangs of robbers that used to infest the highways of England and America have been routed. Roads regarded dangerous within the memory of men now living are safe. Such out rages and robberies are now exceptional, and bear no proportion to the increase of the population. Dueling, well-nigh universal among Anglo-Saxon people in the early part of this century, has almost wholly disappeared. Not less than fourteen of the most prominent statesmen in the United States, not to speak of many of lesser rank, were concerned in duels in the first half of the present century. A duelist was not unacceptable, on that account, as a candidate for the presidential chair, as we see in the- cases of Aaron Burr, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay. The latter, after several duels in which the blood of his rivals stained the earth, was nominated for the presidency as late as 1844, and with such enthusiasm in the convention, that it was impossible to put the question formally to vote. Spiritual Vitality. 485 Now no political party would risk its chances with a duelist as a candidate for that high office. Some States by law require certain officers to make oath that they have not within a certain time, and will not hereafter, be concerned in a duel. There never has been so much conscience on so many subjects and among so many people as now. The consciences of men in our day are better in formed and more susceptible' than in any previous age. Public conscience prohibits more things and enforces more obligations than ever before. Weak and infirm consciences there are to-day, as well as weak and infirm bodies, and there are still many gaps which conscience does not fill. But the times are steadily educating the consciences as well as the brains and hands of the race. Forms of vice once admired and enjoyed, as, for instance, men fighting with beasts, now find no apologists. We ^vould sooner trust the average moral sentiment of the present age than of any other age. " The wonder is that we have so much conscience in a country which has been the common dumping ground of the nations, with so many diverse elements, subject to so many contagions of vice and dilutions of virtue, especially in the cities and States which re ceive the first dump of the immigration tip cart." If this immigration came to us only once in several hundred years, as the Saxons, Danes, and Normans invaded England, the case would be very 486 Problem of Religious Progress. different ; but ours comes every week and every day. It is a matter of congratulation that, not withstanding this great influx of diverse moral elements, we have not been swept away from our moorings, nor given up our civil and religious prin ciples. The standard of moral obligation has not been lowered, and the average conscience nobly endures the strain. That Christianity is a builder of ethics and the source of all our ethics, was vigorously stated by' Rev. Professor Austin Phelps, D.D.* The ancient religions, excepting that of the Hebrews, which was Christianity in embryo, had no systems of ethics. They did not profess to have any. Ante-Christian ethics, so far as they existed outside of Hebrew literature, were independent of religion. Neither had any radical relation to the other. A Greek or Roman devotee might be guilty of all the crimes and vices known to the criminal code of ancient jurisprudence, and it made no difference to his character as a religionist. He might be the most execrable of mankind in the courts of law, yet he could cross the street into a temple of religion, and there be a saint. In the temple of Bacchus or of Venus his very vices were virtues. The identity of morals and religion is a Christian discovery. In the Physical and Social Condition. In its purity and beneficence, Christianity shows its ameliorating influence by improving the physical and social condition of men. We sometimes hear it said that there is more sickness than formerly, * " Congregationalist," May 2, 1887. Spiritual Vitality. 487 but there is no evidence adduced to support the assumption. Doubtless some constitutions suffer from the severe strain and tension of modern life. But never were the sick so well cared for, as in our day, in Christian lands. Multitudes are now raised up to health who a century ago would have succumbed to disease. Our late President Garfield would scarcely have survived a week, and possibly a day, under the medical treatment of a hundred years ago. Life is thus prolonged. How different from pagan lands, where the sick are speedily consigned to death. Does some one say that during the present cent ury, and especially within the last fifty years, insan ity has greatly increased ; that Massachusetts, for in stance, has 5 public hospitals, all large, and each ac commodating from 300 to 500 patients, besides large private institutions for this class ; that all of them have been built since 1820; and that 1 in 1,000 of the population of the United States is insane, and 1 in 600 in Massachusetts,? In reply, we say : The statistics of insanity one hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago, were very imperfect as compared with the present. The per capita increase, therefore, as compared with whole populations, cannot be demonstrated for any long period. But if we take out the foreign insane, particularly the Irish insane, in England, in Massa chusetts, and in some other localities, the increase 488 Problem of Religious Progress. will be much diminished. A high authority states that the percentage of insanity in Ireland has long been larger than in any other modern countries. Their transference, therefore, to other countries accounts for much of this increase in those lands. Care for the insane has incalculably improved, in " kindliness, in intelligent consideration, and in scien tific treatment, under which 75 percent, of all cases recover. Probably not one in ten under the regime of one hundred years ago recovered. The terror that attended the frightful malady has been dis pelled, by showing that it has no connection with the moon or planets, or magic of any sort, but is simply the result of bodily disease. . . . The heart of Christian love has prepared for the insane palatial residences, furnished the best medical treat ment and nursing, and provided beautiful and attractive pict ures and objects to divert their attention. Lectures, concerts, and exhibitions are furnished, tender sympathy is expressed, and hope is inspired. Thus a large majority are restored ; while in heathenism they are either utterly neglected or driven by abuse to desperation, and abandoned as in league with Satan. Thus this melancholy chapter in modern civilization becomes a beautiful exhibition of Christian philanthropy. Is it claimed that the vocations, the various trades and employments, and the artificial life inci dent to modern civilization are producing a marked physical deterioration ? That some deteriorating tendencies are apparent in the physical life of many cannot be denied. Overcrowded tenement houses, cotton and woolen mills, mines, luxurious and Spiritual Vitality. 489 effeminate living, drunkenness, etc., etc., are exert ing deleterious influences in very considerable bodies of people. Something like these things, and in part, the very same things, exist among all civilized communities, whether pagan or Christian. Nevertheless the fact remains, that the average of human life is lengthening. There may be areas where the average of human life is shortening, and diseases are multiplying, just as on the surface of the earth there are some sandy Saharas and howling wildernesses, but the human race evinces more fruitfulness than barrenness, more healthfulness than sickness, and each generation is scoring more years in the race of life than the preceding. Our civilization, so far from being hostile to longevity, is friendly to it. The highest average occurs in countries where wealth, commerce, and civilization, are most generally diffused. In England, the average mortality is said to be 2.25 per cent, per annum; in Russia 3.50 per cent., and considerably more in some provinces, including the basins of the Volga, the Dnieper, and the Don. If a high state of civilization were unfavorable to health and longevity, we should expect to find among the most highly civilized nations a relatively slower growth of the population, and the higher the civilization the slower the growth. Let us see. There is the fact, confessedly unquestioned by those who have studied the problem of populations, 490 Problem of Religious Progress. that pagan populations grow less rapidly than those of Christian countries. The populations of the British Isles, as a whole more advanced in civili- aztion than those of other portions of Europe, increased, from 1500 to 1880, 600 per cent., while those of other portions of Europe increased 200 per cent. Taking the British Isles themselves, since the year 1200 we find a very rapidly increasing rate of growth, keeping pace with the greatest advances in civilization. The rate of increase has been as follows : From 1200 to .1500 60 per cent. From 1500 to 1600 30 per cent. From 1600 to 1700 30 per cent. From 1700 to 1800.. 75 per cent. From 1800 to 1891 137 per cent. In the last ninety years the British Isles have lost many millions of people by emigration to British America, the United States, Australia, India, South Africa, and all over the world, and yet, with this great disadvantage, there was a relative increase of 137 percent. Such an augmented rate of increase would be plainly impossible if the conditions of ad vanced civilization were physically deteriorating in their influence. It is too palpable to be denied that never in the world's history were the principles of sanitary science so well understood and observed by such large num bers of people as at the present time. Take sped- Spiritual Vitality. 491 men facts. Erasmus, who visited England in the time of Henry VIII, described the country as " a land of filth, every room full of grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs, cats, etc., every thing that is nauseous." Such a description would now be a gross libel. Compare Ireland in the last century and to-day. Bishop Berkeley said, writing one hundred and fifty years ago, the people grew up in a contest with dirt and beggary beyond. any other people in Christen dom. Their habitations and furniture were more wretched than those of the American Indians. The great bishop asked whether there were any civilized people so beggarly wretched and destitute as the common Irish. But how improved now their con dition even in Ireland. How much more so the condition of those who have come to England, the Canadas, and the United States. Under the mold ing influence of their new environments they have improved their physical, social, and intellectual state. When we remember the extremely degraded character of the Britons two thousand years ago, declared by their Roman conquerors as unfit even for slaves, and then consider the successive infusions of new blood, through the invaders who overrun and dwelt among them — the Romans, the Angles, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans — and what a nobl'e physical development has characterized the 492 Problem of Religious Progress. Englishmen of these later centuries, and the grand part they have been performing in history, who shall say that the infusions of foreign blood into the population of the United States, now going on, may not so invigorate and fortify our physical condition as ultimately to develop us into a mightier nation. And, mor~e than this, who that intelligently surveys the great intermixing of races all over the world, under the , modern impulse of colonization, universal commerce, and intercommu nication, unlike anything before known, can fail to be impressed with the conviction that the physical condition of the whole human race is destined to be improved. These facts, in connection with the spread of sanitary knowledge, make this conclusion almost certain. In Literature. Take Christ out of literature ; take Christian the ology out of literature ; take Christian ideas and sentiment out of literature ; take Christian history and institutions out of literature ; take Christian charity and tenderness out of literature ; take the Christian idea of immortality out of literature, and what vacuums will be produced. Whole volumes will disappear by thousands and hy thousands of editions. Entire chapters will be torn from num berless volumes ; millions of pages will be mutilated by the remorseless scissors, and logical order and Spiritual Vitality. ' 493 continuity will be turned into chaos. Whole shelves and entire alcoves in our libraries will be emptied. Christ is the greatest element in the world's literature. In the Worlds Art. Art has indeed flourished under pagan as well as under Christian influences, not the product of paganism, but a human creation, springing from genius, which Christianity has purified, expanded, and enhanced. Rev. Mr. Weld* slightly exaggerated when he said: The world of art owes its existence to Christianity, for before Jesus came there was no background to human Jife. His life gave it tenderness and mystery, and showed that back of this confu sion lay the love of God, and men saw it, and for the first time everything was changed and made new. Ancient Greece and Rome had their art, their beautiful temples, their choice statuary, their glow ing pictures, their admirable architecture ; but what were they, in variety of conception, in spirituality, in humane sentiment, in purity, in high and noble inculcations, as compared with the products of art developed during these eighteen centuries of the world's tutelage in the school of Christ. Take the person of Christ and everything relating to him out of art ; take the madonna out of art ; * Unitarian minister, Baltimore, Md. 494 Problem of Religious Progress. take Old Testament and New Testament scenes out of art ; take the early Church, the mediaeval Church, -and the modern Church out of art ; take Christian temples, cathedrals, monuments, asylums, cemeter ies, hospitals, etc., out of art ; take Christian ideals out of art ; take Christian martyrs, prophets, heroes, reformers, statesmen, explorers, and philosophers out of art; take out of art every conception, every linea ment, every shade, every beauteous light, every softening hue, every inspiring hope borrowed from Christianity, and what would we have left ? Picture galleries would be robbed and despoiled, and parlors and halls deprived of their choicest ornaments. In the World's Song. What meagerness of song among all pagan na tions ! Few have a just conception of it. Christian ity is the only religion that goes singing its way through the world. Infidelity never sings. In the non-Christian world melody is unknown, and the service of song is no part of religious worship. In India and China there are only a few harsh, discordant instruments, played without reference to harmony or melody, only to the rude clangor of a noise ; . . . their educational systems dis courage vocal music altogether, and leave it to be practiced by beggars, stage players, montebanks, etc., whom they despise.* An anonymous writer has said : Throughout the antichristian world worship is a mingling * Rev. L. B. Peet. Spiritual Vitality. 495 of dread and fear, and there are no heavenly emotions of love and joy to express. Consequently there is no use for song or melody to give them utterance. And in all heathen mythology and poetry and philosophy there is no conception or imagination of a musical heaven to come. Though the art of music is of the highest antiquity, and the gamut was invented by the Greeks, it remained like the moral precepts of their sacred books, dead and useless. The harp of Orpheus is now silent, but the harp of David is trium phant. For all, therefore, which is delightful in harmony and precious in song we are indebted to the Gospel.* The Jewish psalmody was developed under proph ecies relating to Christ, a system which contained the germs of Christianity. When Christianity was fully inaugurated, as from her divine bosom, music leaped to engage in her service. As soon as the worship emerged frdm the catacombs it showed its joyful nature. Anyone who studies the develop ment of music will see how it leaped forward with a bound in the service of Christianity. Greece and Rorrie had not such a musical development as had Judea ; but when Christianity came the Jewish system was enlarged for the music for which Jewish psalmody was the preparation. Music was developed in the Church through the stages to the magnificent jubilate and to the deep miserere. All the world sings with us, said St. Chrysostom. In the dungeon of the prisoner, at the stake of the martyr, were sung the songs of the new religion. Phi losophy does not sing ; science has no note ; it is only the joy ful soul which breaks forth into song, and the strain is taken up and carried along from chorus to chorus and organ to or gan. At the outset of Christianity there were religious songs. The " Gloria in Excelsis," dates back to the middle of the second * " The Philanthropies," p. 97. ' 496 Problem of Religious Progress. century, and perhaps earlier. The Latin language developed new possibilities. Accent took the place of quantity, and there was developed alsoithe power of rhyme, which before this had not been cultivated.^ What wonderful advances have been made in song since that early period. What an impulse to song did the Lutheran Reformation give. What an expansion of Christian song have we had since the Reformation under Luther, and especially since the great Wesleyan revival, in the last century. This revival permeated, warmed, thrilled, inspired, and made joyful and exultant the Christian conscious ness as never before. It poured a flood of heaven's genial light into men's cold, dark hearts, and filled them with exultant hope and praise. It really seems as though, within the last two or three centuries, the inner sanctuary of spiritual joy, hope, and faith had been opened to the Church as never before. Certainly never before were such thrilling strains sung. Luther sang that glorious sentiment of sublime faith : "A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing : Our helper he, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing." Baxter followed, singing : " Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet Thy blessed face to see ; * Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., Lowell Institute Lecture, Boston. Spiritual Vitality. 497 For, if thy work on earth be sweet, What will thy glory be ? " In joyful hope Doddridge broke out : " O happy day that fixed my choice, On thee, my Saviour and my God." In grateful thanksgiving Addison sang : " When all thy mercies, O my God, My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lost In wonder, love, and praise." With clear evangelical faith Toplady sang : " Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee." Watts, longing for brighter visions, exclaimed : " Could we but climb where Moses stood, And view the landscape o'er, Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood, Should fright us from the shore." Scaling the mount of faith Charles Wesley sang: "Rejoicing now in earnest hope, I stand, and from the mountain top See all the land below : Rivers of milk and honey rise, And all the fruits of Paradise In endless plenty grow." In the full experience of an all-embracing faith John Wesley sang: 33 498 Problem of Religious Progress. " O Love, thy bottomless abyss, My sins are swallowed up in thee ! Covered is my unrighteousness, Nor spot of guilt remains on me, While Jesus' blood, through earth and skies, Mercy, free, boundless mercy, cries." Nor is this the end, nor will it be. These are only a few specimens of the Carmina Sacra of the mod ern Church in religious worship, which have become so extensively used in our day. The expansion of Christian song, and especially in social worship dur ing the last fifty years, has been wonderful, a glori ous contrast to any former period. In over one hun dred and fifty thousand congregations of worshipers in the United States, in many more in Europe, arid in fifteen thousand mission stations and sub stations in Africa, Asia, and Oceanica, the voice of Christian song is heard every Sabbath, and on many evenings each week, and in millions of Christian families every day. It has increased more than a hundred fold in the last one hundred and fifty years. These inspiring songs are sung in scenes of joy and scenes of grief; at bridal altars and by dying beds ; in the solitude of the closet and in choral halls of thousands of trained voices. Much of this music has been professional singing, but manifold more spontaneous, joyful outpourings of the heart of Christendom, in adoration and thanksgiving to God. We have had apostles of Christian song — Bliss and Sankey — rocking our American States with enrapt- Spiritual Vitality. 499 uring praises, and swaying England and Scotland with thrilling Christian melodies ; and Philip Phillips, carrying the gospel of song all over this country, the British Isles, Europe, to Jerusalem, to India, to Ceylon, to Australia, and the isles beyond. This cheerful, joyful element of popular Christian song was but little known in the Church until since the modern baptisms of grace so copiously experi enced in the last one hundred and fifty years ele vated the Christian consciousness into closer and more satisfying oneness with God. It is the fruit of clearer and larger faith and higher spiritual reali zations, and brings redeemed humanity nearer to the melodious musical heaven unfolded in the Apoca lypse. In Practical, Social, and Institutional Work. Some conditions of society, long neglected, are now being reached. Christianity is looking more sharply and widely than ever before into the entire field of humanity, and penetrating localities, nooks, and classes heretofore but little reached, or once treated as beyond the pale of effort. This work is now being done by methods which partake more or less of an institutional character, and therefore are crystallizing into more practical, industrial, and permanent forms. It is an effort, not only to convert the people to Christianity, but to build them into Christian institutions and, life in such 500 Problem of Religious Progress. a way that their temporal and social interests, as well as the spiritual, may be conserved and pro moted. Dogmas and empty sensationalism are being sup planted by practical work and personal upbuilding. Allegiance to Christ is coming to mean something more than expressing a desire for prayers, singing namby-pamby songs, and assenting to a few formulas long ago emptied of meaning ; it means concrete religion in the common affairs of life, the social amelioration of the most needy classes, and the ap plication of renovating influences to men in their most vital relations. The colleges are establishing professorships of " Applied Christianity " and lectures on Christian socialism ; and collegiate and theological students are making " settlements " or institutional homes for social contact, industrial aid, and religious en deavors, often in the denser slums of the large cities. I cite a specimen example : On the top of Copp's Hill, near the Old North Church, Boston, where were hung Paul Revere's lanterns, which warned the country of the approach of the British upon Lexington and Concord, a party of young Epworth Leaguers and university students have set up an institution which is designed similarly to arouse the patriotism and Christian loyalty of the surround ing country, and warn the people that an enemy worse than the British had enciamped upon the old Puritan hills. Instead of red-coated grenadiers, there is a host of some seventy thousand Jews, Italians, Portuguese, and Irish. They do not come with Spiritual Vitality. 501 arms and ammunition, but with ballots. . . . They are like a giant, blind, strong, of uncontrolled energy; striking not be cause of hate, but rather from a nervous unrest and a nameless sense of wrong. They may be soothed by caresses, but will never be put down by force. These restless spirits need the Christian nurse and physician rather than the jailer's chains ; and when, by Christian sympathy, they are brought to their right minds, instead of being enemies, they will prove to be one of the mightiest agencies for good in our civilization.* The young men of the Boston University School of Theology who are active in this work have called ita "University Settlement." They are "special ists," giving time to the Italians, Jews, Portuguese, to eheap lodging houses, etc., yet all working along similar lines, evangelistic, industrial, medical, etc. Their residence is a model American home — not a monastic order or a professional club, but a clean, sweet, cheerful American home, w'here Chris tian women preach and illustrate the Gospel of cleanliness and domestic economy. These institutional "settlements " are now spring ing up in many denominationsf and cities; and who will say that they are not among the best evidences that Christianity is not a spent force, but is showing in our day courage and faith and power as never before exhibited, in undertaking the solution of the greatest and most difficult phases of the problem of human redemption. * " Epworth League Home " (University Settlement), 34 Hull Street, Boston, pp. 7-8. f The Andover Home, etc. 502 Problem of Religious Progress. The recent book of General Booth on " Darkest England,' and the plans he unfolds, are other evidences of a heroic grappling with phases of evil, which have been adjourned over- to us by previous centuries. Until the present period Christianity had not the courage to touch them. A few years ago, " The Churchman " called atten tion to another important phase of Christian effort in Great Britain : The Society for Promoting Industrial Villages in England has for its object to draw together all who would remedy the deplorable condition of the large cities and towns, and remove from them the members of the unemployed classes, whose presence is a perpetual menace to the social and religious well- being of the community. As one remedy for this abnormal state of congestion in the urban communities, the society pro poses the multiplication of village industries, so as to prevent the unemployed out of the rural districts from crowding into the already too densely populated cities, by encouraging poul try, fruit, and bee farming and culture, as being, among the means more immediately available for helping the holders of small plots of land. The society also purchases parcels of land — chiefly unreclaimed moor land — which it divides up into allotments. These are put under the supervision of a compe tent overseer, and to these are drafted numbers of street Arabs and unemployed men with their wives and families, to whom is afforded what is necessary for cultivating the ground, and of living thenceforward by the fruits of their honest labor. The plan appears to have worked well, and as it has been taken up by influential Churchmen, such as the Dean of Westminster, Archdeacon Farrar, Lords Onslow and Brownlow, and is fur ther encouraged by the Church Temperance Society, its opera tion will be accompanied by that religious element which is so Spiritual Vitality. 503 often wanting in such schemes of what the world wrongly calls "pure philanthropy," as if true philanthropy can ever be di vorced from religion. The writer also "wisely suggests : Might not the plan be tried on a much larger scale in a countiy like this, whose cities are as hives of bees — too fre quently of drones, not workers, whose huge towns reek with impurity and unhealthiness, their streets and alleys being rather death traps for soul and body than conducive to that perfect soundness which beseems the inhabitants of a Christian land ? In South Georgia and Florida, with climates of unsurpassable beauty, and soil of inexhaustible fertility, there are acres and acres of abandoned plantation land, as well as of that which as yet has not known the plow or the spade. This could be acquired at a moderately cheap rate, especially in Georgia, and thus influential parishes in the large Northern cities might send out colonies whose members, besides relieving the urban popu lation and finding wholesome dwelling places, would be the nucleus of the churches of the future. The New York City Mission Society, for a long time one of the most conspicuous and successful evangelizing organizations in our large communities, presents a synopsis of Christian, industrial, and social work among the churches under its super vision worthy of special attention in this connection. German meetings : Seven serv ices each week. Circles : 1. Shining Light. Give food and clothing to needy, who are personally invited. Olivet Church. 2. Willing Workers. Make and give garments. 3. King's Sons. Personal effort for boys. 4. Thread and Needle Club. Provide places in hospitals for 504 Problem of Religious Progress. Olivet Church (Continued). sick children ; pay rent of needy families ; give materials for Thanksgiving dinners. 5. Sewing Circle of Sunday- School Children. . 6. The McAlpine Kindergar ten. Five mornings each week for children of three lo five years. 7. Penny Provident Bank — one hundred and eighty depositors. 8. The Olivet Library. 9 Reading-room. 10. A Gymnasium. De Witt Memorial Church. Sends missionaries out among Germans and Jews. Circles or Societies : 1. The Christian Endeavor. 2. The Helping Band. 3. A Free Library. 4. A Mission Band. 5. Circle for Practical House work and Garment Sewing. 6. Kindergarten. 7. Light Home— movable mis sion. 8. Chinese work. Broome Street Tabernacle. I. Seven lady missionaries and two trained nurses, with other occasional volunteers from churches. 2. Bible classes for young men. Bible classes for young women. Bible classes for adults. 3. Italian Department. 4. King's Daughters. 5. Band of Hope. 6. Yoke-fellow Band. 7. Christian Endeavor. 8. Kindergarten. 9. Reading-room. 10 Sociables. n. Sewing School. 12. Gymnasium. 13. Penny Provident Bank. Italian Church. 1. Regular services by mission aries. 2. Young Ladies' Dressmaking Circle. 3. Society of Brotherly Help. 4. Girls' Class. 5. Boys' Club. 6. Sewing Circle. Church of the Sea and Land. 1. Male and female mission- I 2. Young People's Society of ries. j Christian Endeavor. Spiritual Vitality. 505 Church of the Sea and Land (Continued). 3. Lylian Association. 4. Kindergarten. 5. Sewing School. 6. Girls' Helping Hand Club. 7. Afghan Missionary Society. 8. Lodging-house. Woman's Branch 1. Representatives . in fifteen 9. Open-air meetings. 10. Cottage prayer-meetings. 11. City Vigilance League. 12. Jewish work — one man and two assistants. churches. 2. Day nurseries maintained, with forty-one ladies enrolled, and training classes. 3. Mission work in tenement houses, calling upon hundreds of mothers, who often ill-treat their children, teaching the mothers of New York. lessons of self-control, temper ance, and kindness. 4. Mothers' meetings. 5. Children's meetings. 6. Sewing schools. 7. Day nursery, showing an aggregate attendance during one year of 15,959 children. 8. Fresh Air Circle — sends many children outside of the city. All the above are related to the New York City Mission Society.* Similar work is now performed by hundreds of such societies in all the large cities of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, etc. Those mammoth organizations, the Young Peo ple's Society of Christian Endeavor, the Epworth League, the King's Daughters, the King's Sons, the St. Andrew's Society, with many millions of mem bers in active religious work, are also the fruitage of the recent enrichment of spirituality in the mod ern Churches, paralleled in no other age. An order of deaconesses, now numbering four * Office : United Charities Building, Twenty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, New York city. 506 Problem of Religious Progress. hundred and forty-one, has been established in the Methodist Episcopal Church, with numerous " Homes." They labor among the destitute, the neglecters of religious worship, and minister to the sick in hospitals and elsewhere. It is another prom ising and significant phase of religious progress. „ The Protestant Episcopal Church has three orders of brothers and sixteen orders of sisterhoods, be sides many deaconesses. Nor are those who do business for us upon the great waters overlooked. It will be ian instructive and significant evidence of this great outgoing of Christianity into the world's consciousness and life to. read the following statement* of the work of the American Seamen's Friend Society in supplying ships with libraries : " The whole number of new Loan Libraries sent to sea from the rooms of the American Seamen's Friend Society at New York and at Boston, Mass., from 1858-9, to April 1, 1894, was 10,052; and the reshipments of the same for the same period were 11,466; the total shipment aggregating 21,518. The number of volumes in these libraries was 520,- 860, and they were accessible, by shipment and re- shipment, to 381,764 men. Ten hundred and thir teen libraries, with 36,661 volumes, were placed upon vessels in the United States Navy and Navy Hos pitals, and were accessible to 117,079 men; 148 * "Sailors' Magazine," October, 1894, p. 322. Spiritual Vitality. 507 libraries were placed in 148 stations of the United States Life-Saving Service, containing 5,550 vol umes, accessible to 1,197 keepers and surf men." This Elevation not the Fruitage of Civilization, but of Christianity. There is an impression in some minds that these signs of progress are due, not to Christianity, but to civilization. It is popular in some quarters to seek some other cause than the Christian religion, by which to account for the beneficent changes so ex tensively going on. What is civilization ? What are the attributes of civilization ? Is it an original inherent force, or an effect of forces outside of itself? Where are its springs ? And how many different civilizations has the world seen — the Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Jewish, the Grecian, the Roman, the Chinese, the Hindu, the ancient, mediaeval, and the modern ? And how diverse ! How plain it is that none but the Christian civil ization ever developed philanthropy. Max Mulier says the word " mankind " never passed the lips of Socrates or Plato or Aristotle. " Where the Greeks saw barbarians, we see brethren." Among pagan nations there have been high culture, art, and elo quence, but no humanity. Greece and Rome had shrines for numberless divinities, forty theaters for amusement, thousands of perfumery stores, but no 508 Problem of Religious Progress. shrine for brotherly love, no almshouse for the poor. Millions of money were expended upon convivial feasts, but nothing for asylums for orphans, or homes for widows. " In all my classical read ing," says Professor Packard, a life-long professor of ancient languages in Bowdoin College, " I have never met with the idea of an infirmary or hospital, except for sick cats (a sacred animal), in Egypt." Dr. Schneider, forty years a missionary in Turkey, said he knew of only one Moslem hospital in the whole Moslem empire. China and Japan have a few institutions bearing some outward resemblance to our philanthropies, but closer inspection discloses the fact that they are not erected for the good of others, for the relief of the unfortunate, or the recov ery of the vicious. Their foundling asylums are spec ulations, rather than charities, only female children being received, and trained to be sold as prostitutes. In pagan lands caste is an insuperable barrier to sympathy. Monkeys are worshiped and provided with gorgeous temples, as much as $50,000 being sometimes expended on the marriage of two sacred apes. " Boa constrictors are maintained in state, but no provision is made for suffering humanity." But Christianity is a religion of sympathy with the unfortunate, and during the last one hundred years it has been widely diffused in the world's con sciousness and life, and has become one of the most widely operative living principles of the world. Spiritual Vitality. 509 Without extended discussion, an authority whose ability and impartiality will not be questioned shall decide this question, as to whether Christianity has been the active factor of this modern progress. Mr. Lecky says : * The great characteristic of Christianity, and the proof of its divinity, is that it has been the main source of the moral de velopment of Europe, and that it has discharged this office, not so much by the inculcation of a system of ethics, however pure, as by the assimilating and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progressof mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian, as long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Christian Founder. There is indeed nothing more wonderful in the history of the human race than the way in which that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring new strength and beauty with each advance of civilization, and infusing its beneficent in fluence into every sphere of thought and action. Again, Mr. Lecky says: Christianity, the life of morality, the basis of civilization, has regenerated the world. Again : f It (the Christian religion) softens the character, purifies and directs the imagination, blends insensibly with habitual modes of thought, and, without revolutionizing, gives a tone and bias to all the forms of action. Mr. Froude says : X All that we call modern civilization, in a sense which deserves the name, is the visible expression of the transforming power of the Gospel. * " History of Rationalism in Europe," I, p. 336, English edition. f " European Morals," vol. i, p. 205. \ " Short Studies," II, p. 39. 510 Problem of Religious Progress. Again, Mr. Lecky : * As a matter of fact, Christianity has done more to quicken the affections of mankind, to promote piety,, to create a pure and merciful idea, than any otlier influence that has ever acted upon the world. Carlyle has well remarked : f The Christian religion must be ever regarded as the crown ing glory, or rather the life and soul, of our whole modern culture. Mr. Martineau has said :4 There is not a secular reform in the whole development of modern civilization which (if it is more than mechanical) has . not drawn its inspiration from a religious principle. Infirm aries for the body have sprung out of duty to the soul ; schools for the letter, that free way may be opened for the spirit ; san itary laws, that the diviner elements in human nature may not become incredible and hopeless from their full environment. Who would ever lift a voice for the slave that looked no farther than his face ? or build a reformatory for the culprit child if he saw nothing but the slouching gait and the thievish eye ? At the present time no intelligent person, stand ing in the light of the last four centuries, and be holding the great religious movements of this age, can doubt that Christianity is advancing. Every year it is robing itself with new effulgence, and pouring its blessed illumination upon new millions of earth's population. *" European Morals," II, 163. f Essay on " The Signs of the Times." X " Hours of Thought," pp. 181, 182. IV. STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. CHAPTER I. STATISTICAL SCIENCE. Preliminary Observations. IT -STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. - CHAPTER I. STATISTICAL SCIENCE. IT is the habit of some persons to discard religious statistics, and to complain that an undue im portance is attached to them. " Of what conse quence," they ask, " is it that three new churches are built every day, so long as the ideas they are supposed to represent are fast dying out ? " " Some denominations are so infatuated with their numerical growth and preponderance, that they are in danger of losing sight of those higher, and deeper, and more potent elements and forces which Chris tianity represents." " Give us the Gospel with its moral and spiritual forces, and we care not who holds the book of numbers." No mathematics, certainly, are cunning enough to fully calculate the work of Christianity, and sum up its effects as it goes through the world, moder ating its coldness, calling forth countless forms of life, activity, and beauty, purifying its fountains, and filling it with verdure and fragrance and music. And yet it is also true that there are no phenomena 34 514 Problem of Religious Progress. which may not be approximately enumerated, and the more distinct and positive they are, the more definitely may they be numbered and aggregated. " For those who do not believe in the permanency and the importance of the Church," says one of the most cultured religious editors, " as an external institution, it is well enough to -talk contentedly about the indirect influence of literature and the leavening effected by opinions as they percolate through society in secret ways. But if the Church is a lasting and indispensable agency we must be seeing to it, not merely that the community is lib eralized, but that Church institutions are organized and ideas crystallized in organic forms. . . . Chris tianity, from the days, of the apostles, has been a propagandism of Christ's truth by means of Church organizations. The spirit of Christianity alone is not a Church ; and without a Church it degenerates and loses itself in vague aspirations." He, there fore, calls upon his brethren to strive to disseminate their principles, and " show at the end of each year a plain and positive gain in numbers, faith, and influence."* In previous pages, we have carefully examined the question of religious progress in its intellectual moral, social, and spiritual aspects. It is, therefore, fitting that attention now be directed to the more concrete numerical forms in which the progress and * "Liberal Christian," 1871. STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. 515 results of Christianity may be traced in the world. Positive ideas assume a clear, distinct, differenti ated form ; and the positive elements in a religion determine its character, durability, influence, power, and destiny. It is the positive elements which a man receives, and not what he rejects, that assimi late and organize themselves into his fibers and faculties, and reveal themselves in concrete forms in his life. This is the law of growth in spiritual, social, and ecclesiastical life. Ecclesiastical success is the development of religious principles in organic forms, according to laws of religious growth. " Influential Churches and sects are never built up. Men cannot put their heads and hands together and manufacture a religion. They cannot create permanent and potential organizations ; for the creative, organizing force is behind and above the human will, in ideas and sentiments which at best they can but perceive and lay hold of, and flows down into the spirit of man through faith, taking possession of intellect and imagination, making men the keys through which its ideal harmonies are poured into history. Denominations are not de signed and constructed by human carpentry ; a great truth takes possession of a multitude of men through their faith in it, binds them into a body, becomes the informing spirit of their organization, and puts forth its power through all available channels of influence. A religion is the crystallization of a 516 Problem of Religious Prooress. great idea, a spiritual force, in the history of the race." * Viewed in such a light, ecclesiastical statistics, like moral, social, commercial, and political statistics, have a distinct significance. Their importance has been enhanced by the recent studies of exact science. Comte" and Buckle gave an impulse to statistical inquiries, and they are now becoming " a specialty " in Europe and in America. " Statistic ians rank as a class of savants, with important organizations or ' societies,' in the principal cities of Europe, and the results of their researches are highly appreciated by the governments. " Difficult as statistics must be — liable to the greatest errors, in results, by the smallest errors of fact or number — they have nevertheless attained the truest proof of scientific character, namely, that the statisticians can predict? Science is the ascer tainment of laws ; the knowledge of laws enables us to foretell results. This is the test of a scientific theory — the distinction of truth from speculation. And this the statisticians can now claim in a remark able manner. They can tell the averages of births and deaths for a given year in a given population, how many suicides, how many misdirected letters, etc. And they can thus predict without denying the moral freedom of man, for freedom itself, rightly defined, is compatible with law." * Editor of the " Liberal Christian." - Statistical Exhibits. 517 European journals have lately published the re sults of the extensive researches of M. Bertillon, of Brussels, so distinguished in this department of inquiry. Elaborately investigating questions of social, domestic, and physical ethics, by the statis tical classification and analysis of concrete facts, he has demonstrated that marriage is favorable to longevity and morality, and that married people are less liable to suicide, assassination, theft, and insanity ; thus showing, by the aid of figures, a scientific basis of morals, and attesting the truth of Christian morality. Modern science measures material forces, sub-. jecting even the more subtle elements — steam, gas, heat, light, the winds, and the atmosphere — to accurate registration. We have noticed the great progress made in collecting and classifying statistics representing moral and social phenomena, in mak ing generalizations and deductions from such bases, and determining questions of moral and social progress. Nor is the realm of spiritual religion so hidden and intangible that it is impossible to measure the forces which move and dominate it ; for it has its exact phenomena, its numerical repre sentations, its distinctly cut channels, its streams of varying depth and velocity, registering water-marks all along their pathways. The United States Cen sus, the Annual Year Books and Minutes of the American Churches, and the Annual Reports of 518 Problem of Religious Progress. the various organizations connected with them, combine with increasing care and exactness, from year to year, carefully collected data, reliably rep resenting the changing phases of our religious life, and enabling us to determine questions of religious progress. No department of statistical inquiry re quires more care and discrimination, closer attention to incidental and collateral facts, or the application of severer crucial tests. But, with due attention, impartial, broad analysis and rigid synthesis, reli able conclusions may be reached, definitely deter mining the religious status. The most noticeable objective feature of apostolic Christianity was its aggressive impulse, indicating a powerful latent force. The facts are so familiar as to need little repetition. The Pentecost registered three thousand converts; the close of the first century, five hundred thousand ; the close of the third century, five million. The conversion of Con- stantine soon followed, and Christianity ceased to work from a purely moral and spiritual impulse, its spread being henceforth dependent upon the civil power. The reformation under Luther, at first partly ecclesiastical and partly spiritual, soon oecame of a more mixed character in the great political revolu tions it inaugurated ; and one hundred and fifty years jago Protestantism had lost its aggressive spiritual force. The Wesleyan movement, starting Statistical Exhibits. 519 in 1739, and closing the century with four hundred and fifty preachers and one hundred and twenty thousand communicants, in England, inspired new life into British and American Protestantism ; but its influence was not much felt in the United States until near the close of the century. Some persons, not properly informed in regard to this matter, con sider the progress of Protestantism since that time as small and feeble, both in Europe and America, dragging slowly behind the growth of the popu lation. The statistics of this progress presented to the public have been for the most part fragmentary, lacking completeness, only partially covering given periods, or failing in some way to cover such points as are necessary to justify clear and legitimate de ductions. It is to be regretted that for some of the earlier periods in the history of Protestantism no exact statistics are now obtainable ; and it must be confessed that, for even the more recent periods, we have only partial statistics of Protestantism in Great Britain and the continent of Europe, and must content ourselves with incomplete or approximate statistics and, in some cases, mere estimates. But the estimates are such as have been made by those who have intelligently studied the question, and are worthy of high consideration. For the United States, however, within this cent ury, our statistics are as nearly exact as can reason- 520 Problem of Religious Progress. ably be expected, and have been derived almost entirely from official sources — the Year Books and Annual Minutes of the various denominations, and the United States Census. They are the results of some years of extensive, painstaking study, involv ing much correspondence and numerous consulta tions with representative men of the Churches. Careful discrimination, also, has been exercised; collateral facts and modifying circumstances have been duly considered ; and periods selected, for comparison, as free as possible from abnormal in fluences. As to the relative progress of Christianity, com pared with the total population of the world in for mer centuries, it is impossible to calculate. No trust worthy estimates of the total population of the earth, until within the present century, can be found. Malte Brun (d. 1826) estimated the whole number to be six hundred and forty-two million, and M. Adrien Balbi, (d. 1848) at seven hundred and thirty- seven millions. About 1850 it was commonly reck oned at one billion. But it is probable that all these estimates were defective, little better than guesses. Sufficient data did not then exist, had not been, and could not be, collected, for a satisfactory basis of calculation. " Owing to the progress of the science of statis tics," says Professor Schem, " the population of the globe can now be estimated with a degree of proba- Statistical Exhibits. 521 bility with which, as we see in the light of modern science, estimates made in" former times have no claim whatever. All of the countries of Europe, with the exception of Turkey, most of the countries of America, and the European colonies, with a num ber of independent States in other large divisions of the globe, from time to time, take an official census, which establishes the actual population with a cer tainty, which, it seems, leaves hardly any room for considerable improvement. ... In the countries in which no official census has as yet been taken, the researches in regard to the number of the inhabit ants made by learned travelers give us at least fig ures vastly superior, in point of trustworthiness, to those found in geographical works of an earlier date. The famous geographical establishment of Perthes, in Gotha, Germany, has for several years been publishing a periodical specially devoted to the most recent information relating to the area of all the divisions and States of the globe, where the results of the entire literature of the world relating to this subject are carefully garnered, and where every figure can be traced to the source, official or inofficial, from which it has been derived." " The greater accuracy obtained for the statistics of populations has, of course, enabled us to estimate more correctly the population professing the vari ous creeds. Most of the states include in the cen sus questions one in regard to the religious profes- 522 Problem of Religious Progress. sion. Where this is not done, as in the United States, in England, and Scotland, most of the religious denominations publish annual accounts of adult membership, of number of Churches and min isters, and other facts from which inferences as to the total population, which more or less is influ enced and controlled by the doctrinal tenets of a particular religious denomination, may be made. It is interesting to observe, in the religious statistics of those States which include the religious profes sion of the inhabitants in the official census, the small number of persons who avow themselves as atheists. Thus, in Prussia, which, by friends as well as by foes, is sometimes looked upon as the El Do rado of atheists and opponents to the belief in a personal God, avowed atheists can only be looked for in the column of "persons of unknown relig ions," who number 4,495, and free religions, ' of whom there were 2,531. Thus no more than about seven thousand in a total population of 24,600,000 made a statement that might cause them to be looked upon as atheists. In France in 1891, 7,684,"- 906 persons were reported as indicating no religious preference, out of a population of 38,000,000. In the Dominiop of Canada, according to the official census of 1 88 1, of a total- population of 4,324,810 not a single person was reported as an atheist or as a deist, and 2,634 had no religion. Facts like these indicate that, however large the number of Statistical Exhibits. 523 persons may be who are indifferent in religious matters," or have discarded a belief in a personal God and in Christianity, the population of the Christian countries continues to be almost a unit iii its outward connection with Christianity. This includes the Christian character, more or less ex plicit, .of laws; of customs, of literature, and of edu cation. Thus the countries of Europe, of America, and Australia may be looked upon as representa tives; of the Christian religion and of Christian civil ization to as high a degree as at any former period of their history." * With these preliminary observations, we proceed to notice the progress of Christianity since the dawn of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. In doing this we have rigidly discarded transient newspaper statistics, because liable to many inac curacies from misprint and otherwise, and have closely adhered to official documents and standard authorities. Even these have been scrutinized and compared, and personal conferences and letters have drawn from authors and compilers necessary attesta tions and explanations. Many items of statistics which have passed current have been thrown aside, as unworthy of confidence. Nevertheless, notwithstanding entire accuracy has been laboriously sought for, we dare not affirm that we have always succeeded in attaining it; but the "Methodist Quarterly Review," Jan., 1876, pp. 154, 155. 524 Problem of Religious Progress. figures given are believed to be close approxima tions, sufficiently correct to enable us to make intel ligent comparisons of religious progress. They are the best available exhibits. The variety of forms in which different religious bodies prepare their sta tistics has occasioned much trouble, and prevents entire uniformity in tabulating. But every year brings some improvement, and before another dec ade shall pass away the ecclesiastical statistics will furnish materials for more exact study. When those who have the care of ecclesiastical year-books and registries come more distinctly to realize that every unit figure represents an immortal soul, they will be more careful in their work, and the distrust of Church statistics will give way to confidence. CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS PRO&RESS AND STATUS. PROTESTANTISM AND ROMANISM. In Europe. In South America. In Mexico. In the British Dominion. In Portions of the TJ. S. formerly Papal. Statistical Exhibits. 527 CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND STATUS. PROTESTANTISM AND ROMANISM. STATISTICIANS are nearly agreed that in the year 1500 Europe had a population of about 100,000,000,* all Roman Catholic, except the major portions of Russia, Turkey, Greece, and the Ionian Isles, in which the Mohammedan and Greek relig ions prevailed. In Central and Western Europe there were few who did not hold at least nominal relations to the Church of Rome. The Waldenses, the Hussites, a remnant of the Lollards, and a small number of Jews — all combined, scarcely enough to count at all against the overwhelming odds of the Papacy — were the only exceptions. Eighty millions may be accepted as an approximate estimate of the Papal population in Europe and in the whole world, at the opening of the century which intro duced the Lutheran Reformation. Passing over the intervening periods, for which no definite basis for comparison exists, and coming to our own times, we find the population of Europe divided in respect to religions, as follows : * Seaman's " Progress of Nations," p. 551. 528 Problem of Religious Progress. Religious Population" of Europe. 1875.1 i8go.t Actual Increase. 1875 to 1890. 1500 to 1890. Rel. Inc. 1500- 1875. 1875 -go. Total pop Rom. Cath. Protestants Greek Chi Jews . . . . > Moham'sJUnclassified 100,000,000 No appreci able numb'r 20,000,000 - 309,000,000149,000,000 74,000,00075,000,000 4,500,000 6,600,000 355 ,757.426 154,568,151 87.925,130.91,839,789 7.254,257 3,553,812 10,616,278 46,758,426 5,568,151 13,925,000 16,839.789 2,754,257 Decrease, j 3,046,188] 255.757.426 74,568,151 87,925.139 82,647,878 209 86 Gain 74mil- Hons. 15 3 19 60 Dec S° Romanism, starting in the year 1 500 on a basis of about eighty millions, has not quite doubled, while the total population of Europe has increased three and a half fold, and Protestantism, starting nominally from unity, has gained 87,925,139, which is 13,356,980 more than the total gain of Romanism. Within the last forty-five years Protestantism has made large inroads into the Roman Catholic countries of Europe, laying the foundations for nu merous Churches and communicants before another generation shall pass away. How different is the condition of Romanism in France, Italy, Austria, and Spain from forty years ago, not to go farther * These figures, by Professor Schem, nearly correspond with those in Hubner's Statistical Tables and also with those given in the "Catholic Family Almanac" for 1876. See also " Encyclopaedia Britannica," article "Europe,'' p. 713. According to Bern and Wagner, in 1874, the population of Europe was 309,178,300. \ Made up very carefully from data in the " Statesman's Year Book" for 1894. See also table in Appendix (p. 747.) Religious Population of Europe. 1890. Not know 11. Roman Catholic. Protestant. Greek Church. Mohammedans. TOTAL POPULATION, 355,757,151. Statistical Exhibits. 531 back ! How great is the change in the position and influence of the Pope in Italy, shorn of his temporal power, and with Protestant churches under the very shadow of St. Peter's ! Protestantism has numerous missions among the papal population of Roman Catholic countries. In Ireland eight Protestant missionary societies are operating ; in France, eight societies ; in Italy, Sicily, and Malta, seventeen societies; in Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal, and Madeira, nineteen socie ties; in Canada, nine societies; in Mexico, Centra! America, and South America, twenty-three societies, making, in all, eighty-four distinct Protestant mis sionary movements among Papal populations. A single society, the A. B. C. F. M., has in Papal lands 9 stations, 69 out-stations, 31 American laborers, 64 native laborers, 38 churches, and 1,656 com municants. All these missions are continually enlarging, and many others being established. Roman Catholic countries are invaded on every side, and the foundations are laid for vast future movements. It is a frequent remark that Romanism is smitten with decay all over Europe. The populations of Roman Catholic countries have had meager growths. Spain and Italy, leading populations of the conti nent in the year 1500, are now among the smaller, the increase of both, with their large territories, in three hundred and eighty years being only about 35 532 Problem of Religious Progress. two thirds of the increase of England and Wales, with their small areas, in the same period. Com paring three Papal with three non-Papal countries, we have — Austria, in fifty-nine years, (i 792-1 851,) increased 13,014,397; France, in eighty-nine years. (1762-1851,) increased 14,014,170; Spain, in one hundred and eleven years, (1723-1834,) increased 5,607,194; total, 32,635,761, in an aggregate of two hundred and fifty-nine years: but Great- Britain, in fifty years, (1801-1851,) increased 11,675,271; Prus sia, in sixty-three years, (1786-1849,) increased 10,331,187; and Russia, in sixty-seven years, (1783- 1850,) increased 34,688,000; total, 56,694,458, in an aggregate of one hundred and eighty years, or twen ty-four millions more, in seventy-nine less years, than the increase of the three Papal nations. The increase, per annum* was : in the Papal Countries. Austria, .94 of one per cent. France, .72 " " " Spain, .66 " " " In the non-Papal Countries. Great Britain, 1.48 per cent. Prussia, 2.73 " " Russia, 1.89 " " The tendency of Rome is to dwarf the mind, to beggar the nations, and repress progress — the oppo- sites of the tendencies of Protestantism. " Through out Christendom, whatever advance has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has been made in spite of her, (Rome,) and has every-where been in inverse proportion to her power. * For a fuller exhibit see Appendix Table 747. Statistical Exhibits. 533 The loveliest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk in poverty, in polit ical servitude, and in intellectual torpor, while Prot estant countries, once proverbial for sterility and barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry into flourishing gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets." * When the " Invincible Armada " threatened to overthrow Protestant England, Spain could boast of forty-three millions of subjects. Now she has only seventeen millions. England, Wales, and Scotland then numbered only about four millions ; but in 1891 the population had reached over thirty- eight millions, besides colonial subjects all over the world, swelling the number to three hundred and fifty millions, and their wealth has centupled, while Spain has become impoverished. The old Concordat, in Spain, is repudiated, and toleration is allowed. In Italy, under the very eyes of the Pontiff, the old foundations are sliding away; and, as Garibaldi said in a letter not long ago, " There is no place on earth where the Pope is less regarded than in Rome." For seventy years Italy has been reviving, for the first thirty years slowly, and the last forty more rapidly. " The ' States of the Church,' after one thousand years of dark pre eminence, no longer appear on the map of the world. In 1870 the various States and Provinces were * Lord Macaulay. 534 Problem of Religious Progress. united under one crown, and Rome became, once more, the capital of united Italy. The present government affords as much freedom for Protestant worship as any other in Europe. A new enlight enment is becoming apparent. Priestly influences. long hostile to education, have given way to new forces. The Italian government energetically in troduced the work of public instruction, made a parliamentary grant of one million sterling for school purposes, and added to it the greater portion of the vast revenues of 2,400 monastic establish ments it had confiscated. Education, self-govern ment, telegraphs, and railroads are working an elevation. From the windows in the Vatican the Pope beholds the flag of the reprobate king who rules in his stead, and a depository of Bibles with its eager seekers after the word of life." The religious results in Italy are beginning to assume tangible numerical forms. In 1877 Father Gavazzi said : " Fifteen years ago there were only 5 Protestant congregations and 400 communicants in all Italy, while there are now 8,000 communicants and about .41,000 hearers." These figures do not include the Waldensians in Northern Italy. In 1879, at t^e Evangelical Alliance, in Basel, Professor Comba furnished definite data of these Christian heroes who bear " the scars of thirty persecutions." The Waldensians number, in all Italy, 56 churches, 32 mission stations, about 15,000 communicants, a Statistical Exhibits. 535 theological school, 55 pastors, 50 teachers, and 4,400 Sunday-school scholars. The Free Church, founded in 1848, has 8. congregations and 30 stations. The Free Italian Church, beginning in 1865, has* 36 churches, 35 missionary stations, 15 pastors, 15 lay-preachers, 1,800 communicants, 800 Sunday- school scholars, 2,085 children in day-schools, under 21 teachers, and 17 students in a theological sem inary. The Wesleyan Church, formed in 1861, has 22 pastors, 6 helpers, 6 evangelists, 1,350 communi cants, and 704 Sunday-school scholars. The Bap tist Church, established in 1855, has 9 pastors, 155 members, and 5 Sunday-schools. The Methodist Episcopal Church, begun in 1873, now numbers 6 pastors, 9 evangelists, 1 colporteur, 5 Bible readers, and 709 communicants. Seven Protestant denomi nations, with 53 Protestant schools, are represented in the City of Seven Hills. Later statistics show in Italy 327 Protestant mission churches with 27,375 communicants, by 14 different Boards, four of which have 9,083 pupils in their day schools. This work among a people long biased against Protestantism is slow but encouraging. Crossing the Alps into Switzerland we find Ro manism declining. It has decreased to two fifths of the population. But, while 1,716,548 of the 2,933,334 inhabitants are Protestants, within the last thirty-five years important changes for the worse * Statistics given by Father Gavazzi, November 28, 1880. 536 Problem of Religious Progress. have taken place in Swiss theology. It has become decidedly rationalistic, the Churches are" sparsely attended, the communion service is sadly neg lected, and divorces are painfully numerous. The Methodists and Baptists are penetrating the coun try and gaining a respectable footing among the State Churches. The new leaven is a good omen. In France, the hope of the Papacy after the loss of the temporal power in Italy, it has declined, lost the countenance of the government, and each suc cessive election reduces its influence in the Cabinet and in the Assembly. France is becoming one of the fairest, ripest, and richest fields for Protestant missions in the world. In the Republic there are 692,800 Protestants. They have had to contend with great embarrassments, but have made consid erable progress during this century. In 1806 there were only 171 Protestant pastors, and the Protest ant Church had no schools. To-day it has 850 pastors, Alsace and Lorraine not included, 1,250 Protestant schools, and 30 religious journals. The Reformed Church has a membership of 560,000 ; the Church of the Augsburg Confession, 80,000; the English Free Church, 43 church edifices and 5,000 members ; the Wesleyan Methodist Church, 28 pas tors, 18 evangelists, a theological seminary, and 175 preaching places ; the Baptist Church, 12 native preachers, 8 Churches, and 706 members. Rev. Mr, Reveiland has become an apostle of religious prog- Statistical Exhibits. 537 ress. . A new work has been inaugurated in Paris under Mr. and Mrs. M'All, extending into some outside localities, which is one of the brightest omens of the times. During a single year not less than 85,000 people attended the services of these evangelists, and their Sunday-schools number 42,000 scholars. The movement is under the protection of the government, as a means of promoting moral ity among the laboring classes. In Bavaria, until recently the strongest German center of Popery, it has been snubbed by the civil authorities, and Protestantism has come to number nearly one third of the population. In Austria the influence of Rome is less absolute, and Protestant worship is more generally allowed ; but within a few years Bohemia has been stained with the blood of martyrs. In Belgium alone does Romanism show much vigor. The following table* will show the religious statistics of four European countries : Counties, p Ju "Statesman's Year-Book," and "Whittaker's Al manac," from 1880 to 1894, and the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," all of which agree. The latter work says the Catholics in England and Wales in 1877 were "barely one million ;" but we have allowed that number in 1871. According to the above figures, in 185 1 the Roman Catholics were twenty-five per cent, of the whole population of England, Wales, and Ireland ; in 1891 they were not quite fifteen per cent. In the three countries the actual increase of the non-Papal population was over ten millions, and the actual decrease of the Papal population was over one million in forty years. * In 1891 they numbered 365,000, chiefly immigrants from Ireland. Statistical Exhibits. 543 The statistics for England, Scotland, and Wales show that the Roman Catholic churches and chapels increased from 647 in 1850 to*" 1,556 in 1890,. with a corresponding increase of priests, and even larger increase of convents and monasteries. The new " Encyclopaedia Britannica "f gives a more extended and thorough statement of Roman Catholic progress in England, with similar results. " It is stated by Hallam, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Roman Catholics numbered one third of the entire population ; but the ef fect of the many repressive laws enacted against them was, that at the end of the seventeenth cent ury, when the already referred to religious census of 1699 was taken, the total number was only 27,696, being barely one half per cent, of the pop ulation. It is estimated that the number of Roman Catholics in England had increased to 68,o0o in 1767, being about one per cent, of the population, and that it stood at 69,400 in 1780, being less than one per cent. On the basis of the marriage re turns of the Registrar General, the estimated number of Roman Catholics in England and Wales was 284,300 in 1845, or 1.70 per cent, of 'the population; but within the next six years, "when there was a large immigration of Irish, the numbers rapidly rose, and at the end of 1851 the total number of Roman Catholics was calculated * See Table XXXIII in Appendix. \ Article, " England." 544 Problem of Religious Progress. at 758,800, being 4.22 per cent, of the population. The numbers kept rising till 1854, when there were estimated to be 9~i 6,600 Roman Catholics in En gland and Wales, being 4.94 per cent, of the popu lation ; but there was a fall after this year, if not in numbers yet in percentage. The calculated number was 927,500, or 4.61 per cent., in 1861, and 982,000, or 4.62 per cent., in 1866.* It is estimated that in the middle of 1877 the number of Roman Catholics in England and Wales had barely reached one mill ion, being a less percentage than in 1866, and about one half the number comprised natives of Ireland with their families. It would thus seem that Ro man Catholicism has not been progressive in En gland for about a quarter of a century. However, the wealth of the body increased very greatly, owing mainly to the secession of many rich persons of both sexes to the Church, which led to a vast in crease of Roman Catholic places of worship. They numbered 616 in 1853, and had risen to 1,095 in 1877, with a clergy of 1,892." The progress of Romanism in England has beeji from Irish immigrants and a few of the higher classes of English society. The Tractarian move ment, from which Rome has reaped a small har vest, confined to a class of scholarly mystical men, represented no reaction toward Popery among the English people, though it unquestionably made a * See Table XXX, Appendix. Statistical Exhibits. 545 great impression upon the leading ecclesiastics in Italy, who thought they saw in it the vanguard of a vast national movement. The most chimerical notions prevailed in the Vatican, in whose eyes the whole English nation was only waiting for some timely word to call them once more to the spirit ual jurisdiction of Rome. Unfortunate at home, a fugitive from his own city, and restored only by the force of French arms, not seeing far into the various phases of human thought and character, the Pope flattered himself that Heaven was about to make up for the domestic disasters of his reign by making him the instrument of the reclamation of England to the Papal faith. Little significance did the Pope see, if he saw the fact at all, in the fact that at least five sixths of all the Catholics in England were Irish by birth or ex traction. The gains among the higher classes, and in political influence, by no means constituted any loss to genuine Protestantism. The religious de nominations, earnestly Protestant — the Independ ents, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. — no more suffered from secessions to Rome than the same denominations in the United States. Only the Church of England felt alarm from the inroads of Rome, and even that Church was only relieved of a few nobles and clergymen, whose Romeward tendencies compromised and ^embarrassed her. Upon the Protestant character of England the 546 Problem of Religious Progress. movement exerted a beneficial influence. While the privileged classes of England were drawing nearer to the most conservative and backward- looking power in Europe, the masses in England, as in Italy, Spain, Austria, and, indeed, in almost every civilized country in the world, were moving forward in a contrary direction, and causing to the Church of Rome losses a hundred fold greater than her gains in England. The alarm which some have expressed, in conse quence of the concession of some of the English nobility and a few Ritualistic clergymen to Popery, is without just foundation. " In many instances the family histories would show some ancestral mental tendency or aberration, adequately explain ing the phenomena." Such eccentricities are ab normal and sporadic, not affecting the great middle classes, upon whom the character and destiny of the nation depend, nor the laws of population, of opinion, and of progress, before which Romanism is doomed the world over. " No thinkers are more humbugged than those who suppose that because of an occasional local movement of Popery, like that in England, the civilization of the age is about to give way, and the world roll backward. The aberrations of the very planets are compensated and rectified at last by the general laws of the me'canique celeste." Statistical Exhibits. 547 In Papal America. But Roman Catholics have confidently asserted that in America they are retrieving their waning fortunes. The most clamorous and preposterous statements of Protestant declension and Papal growth have been made by Papists and various classes of skeptics. The recent utterances of Mr. Froude, in the " North American Review," have been not the least remarkable, but are characteris tically inaccurate, borrowed largely from his imag ination rather than from facts. Looking, first, at the whole American field, North and South, we notice the familiar fact that one hundred years ago, and even until within about fifty years, all South America was Roman Catholic. Not a single Protestant Church existed on that vast continent, unless, perhaps, in Guiana. But in 1872 sixteen Protestant missionary societies occu pied 37 stations, and sustained 84 clerical and lay laborers there. Since that time the number has been increased, and within twenty years that re doubtable apostolic missionary, Rev. William Tay lor, has projected a line of missions all along the western coast, and in Brazil, with favorable indica tions. Less than a generation ago the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico was the richest ecclesiastical es tablishment in the world, with landed property, 36 548 Problem of Religious Progress. mortgages, and rents, worth $150,000,000, besides untold millions invested in cathedrals, church edi fices of the costliest construction, gold and silver vessels, etc. ; 108 church edifices in the city of Mexico alone were worth $50,000,000. The rev enues of the clergy were large, the annual income of the archbishop being at one time $130,000, and of eight bishops $400,000. The Roman Catholics of Mexico repeatedly contributed * of their ample means to aid the struggling Catholics of the United States in establishing their churches among us. But this vast and powerful establishment has re ceived a stunning blow, from which it can never recover. The Inquisition, with its horrors, existed until almost within a half century. The orders of friars, nuns, sisters of charity, and the Jesuits have all been disbanded and abolished in Mexico, and the magnificent churches and convent buildings for merly occupied by those orders have been offered for sale by the general government. Since 1861 six distinct Protestant missions have been established. Passing to the North, we find the vast region of the two Canadas,as late as the time of the English Conquest, wholly Roman Catholic, and about a fifth part of the population of the more easterly maritime provinces of the present British dominion was also of the same faith : •"'History of Catholic Church in the United States," pp. 355, 356. By De Courcy. Statistical Exhibits. 549 Popula- Roman Protest- tion. Catholic. ant. In 1765, The Canadas 69,810 69,810 In 1767, Nova Scotia n,779 1,718 9,961* " New Brunswick and P.Ed. Isl. 1,196 152 i,024f " Cape Breton 519 276 243 Total 83,304 71,956 11,228 Here are six and a half Roman Catholics to one Protestant. In 1820, according to Mackenzie's " Messenger," the proportion of the Roman Catholics to the Protestants was as 19 to 7. In 1851 the religious census of New Brunswick was not taken ; but for the remaining provinces of the present British dominion the figures were: Roman Catholics, 983,680; Protestants, 1,065,728; not given, 69,652 ; Jews, 354 ; Mormons, 259 ; or 10 Protestants to 9 Roman Catholics. In 1861 the statistics for all the provinces were, 1,680,790; Roman Catholics, 1,372,923 ; Jews, 1,195 ; Mormons, 111 ; not given, 35,542; or 16 Protestants to 13 Roman Catholics. In 1871 the proportion was 19 Protestants to 14 Roman Catholics. Tabulating, we have the follow ing exhibit : Roman Catholics. Protestants. 1851 983,680 1,065,728 1861 1,372,923 1,680,790 1871 1,492,033 1,967,532 1881 1,791,982 2,436,554 1891 1,992,017 2,641,854 * Not given, 100. f Not given, 20. 550 Problem of Religious Progress. Relative Progress. I7&5 1 Protestant for 6J Roman Catholics. 182018511861187118811891 17s1.361.33 Roman Catholic. Here are decided indications of the greater progress of Protestantism, but since 1871 the com petition between Romanism and Protestantism is quite close. Instead of only 10 Protestants to 65 Romanists, as in 1765, there are now 26 Protestants to 19 Roman Catholics. Fuller statistics, showing the actual and relative strength of each denomination, and also the churches numerically in each province, according to the Dominion census of April 6, 1891 : Roman Catholics 1,992,017 Presbyterians 755,326 Anglicans 646,059 Methodists.... 847,765 Baptists 302,565 Lutherans 63,982 Congregationalists 28, 157 Miscellaneous creeds. . . 108,013 No creed stated *8g,355 Total 4,833,239 The following shows the numbers of the leading denominations in the several provinces according to the census of 1891 : Provinces. Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia New Brunswick. . . . Manitoba .... British Columbia. . . Prince Edward Isl.. The Territories Roman Catholic. 358,300 1,291,709 122,452II5,g6l 20,57120,367 47,837 13,008 Church of England. 3S5.999 75.472 64,41043,095 30,852 23,619 6,646 14,166 Presby terian^ Methodist, 453,14' 52,673 108,952 40,639 39,001 15,284 33,072 12,507 654,033 39.51954,19535,504 28,437 14,298I3.596 7,980 Baptist. 104,838 7,991 83,108 79,634 16,107 3,0906,261 1,546 * Including Pagans. Statistical Exhibits. 551 Within the present territorial area of the United States there are large sections once wholly under the control of the Roman Catholic Church. The only religious occupancy was exclusively Roman Catholic. Rome had the opportunity of shaping the religious life, and possessing it wholly. It is a fair inquiry, What is the relative strength of Ro manism and Protestantism in these regions ' Sta tistics show that Protestantism has invaded • this territory, once exclusively occupied by the papacy, and has far outrun it in the race of progress. Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and California were occupied by papal missions before Protestantism gained its first permanent foothold within the original United States, (and they long continued under the religious sway of the papacy.) In Florida and Texas no Protestant Churches were planted until within the present century, and not many until within fifty or sixty years ; in California, not until within a generation ; and in New Mexico not until fifteen years ago. In the gulf region, ancient Louisiana, (comprising the whole region west- and north-west of the Mississippi,) Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the Roman Catholic Church was the only religious force. The Indian missions were nu merous, and the French-Indian trading-posts and forts were extensive. Cahokia, Kaskaskia, the Wabash region, and Detroit, had considerable pop ulations, some of the settlements dating back as 552 Problem of Religious Progress. far as the founding of Philadelphia. Rome pre empted this large field. No Protestant Churches were founded in Illinois until about 1800; in Loui siana, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Michigan until some years later ; in Wisconsin and Arkansas until more than thirty years later ; in Detroit until 1815 ; and in St. Louis until 1818. The first Prot estant Churches, in many localities, encountered strong Papal prejudices and even persecution. Maryland, as an original Papal colony, belongs in this list. Such was the beginning. What progress have Protestantism and Roman ism made in these large regions? The impartial statistics of the United States census tell the story. In these originally Papal regions Protestantism had, in 1870, 14,522 church edifices, and Romanism 1,187, or less than one twelfth as many. The Methodists had 6,342 churches, or 5^ times as many as Romanism ; and the Baptists 3,948, or 3^ times as many as the Roman Catholics. Since that date the Protestant churches had gained still more rela tively. CHAPTER III. RELIGIOUS PROGRESS AND STATUS IN THE UNITED STATES. DIFFIOTJLTIK OF THE SITUATION. I. THE ACTUAL PROGRESS. The Evangelical Churehes. The Liberal Churches. The Roman Catholic Church. II. THE RELATIVE PROGRESS. The Churehes Compared with the Population. The Evangelical, Liberal, and Catholie Churehes Compared with each other. The Churehes and Higher Education. Modern and Early Christian Progress. Encouraging Conclusion. Statistical Exhibits. 555 CHAPTER III. religious progress and status in the united states. " I ""HE boast of Romanists of their great growth ¦*- in this country ; the frequently expressed fears that the Papacy will gain the ascendency here ; the oft-repeated assertions of skeptics that Christianity is being outgrown by the population, and is des tined to be left behind in the march of progress , the impressions of some that the " Liberal " Churches are relatively advancing more than the " Evangelical " Churches ; the misapprehensions and despondency of some good people in regard to the condition of the Churches of the United States ; the fact that here Christianity exists under conditions unknown (purely voluntary) for long centuries, awakening much interest and inquiry among European divines and statesmen, now pressed with the question of Disestablishment ; and the great intrinsic importance of the question of religious progress in this country, in the estimation of those who believe that our nation and its Church es sustain an intimate relation to the best progress and welfare of the world, — these are reasons which 556 Problem of Religious Progress. prompt to a closer analysis and a more extended examination of the growth and status of religion in the United States. Nearer access to the necessary data favors our task, and enables us to do what we could not do in our sketches of religious progress in Europe. But we shall fail to appreciate the growth and present position of American Christianity, unless we first briefly consider some of the local difficulties and competing forces with which it has had to con tend during this century. Consider the vast extent of the field which Chris tianity in the United States has been called to fill and provide for, religiously, during the last ninety years. The immense region from the Alleghanies to the Pacific has been opened and largely occupied al most entirely since the year 1800. At that time there were probably less than 200 Church organiza tions in this vast area, of about 2,500,000 square miles, exclusive of Alaska, equal to about twelve times the area of France. Five eighths of the States and Territories of our nation have been or ganized in this region, and Christianity has been called upon to furnish to . these numerous com munities religious institutions and watchcare, and all the appointments of a Christian civilization. As early as 1870 there were in this trans- Alleghany territory 37,855 Protestant Church organizations, Statistical Exhibits. 557 with 30,687 church edifices, valued at $97,183,492, besides 47,637 Evangelical Protestant Sunday- schools, and several hundred colleges, universities, theological seminaries, and academies, founded and sustained by the Churches, and numerous other in stitutions and societies incidentally connected with them and dependent upon them. To prepare this great work has severely tested the pecuniary re sources, the benevolence, and the zeal of the Amer ican Churches. Since 1870 the growth is greater. Consider the unparalleled increase of the population of the United States. In 1800 our population numbered five and a third millions, in 1890 little more than sixty-two millions, a twelve and a fifth fold increase in ninety years, probably greater than in any other country in ancient or modern times. The " Compendium of the United States Census for 1850," p. 131, contains a table which shows the growth of leading Euro pean nations in population through long terms of years. Those increasing the least rapidly gained at the rate of about three fourths of one per cent, an- nually, and the nation gaining most rapidly increased at the rate of little more than two and a half per cent. (2.73) annually ; but the United States, from 1800 to 1850, gained eight and seventeen one hun dredths (8.17) per cent, annually in her population. An increase of 57,316,337 of people in ninety years has devolved great responsibilities upon the Ameri- 558 Problem of Religious, Progress. can Churches. To religiously care for these rapidly multiplying millions has seriously taxed the activity and zeal of the religious bodies. Consider the character of the new populations added to our original stock. If these new additions were homogeneous the case would be much more favorable, for then they could be more easily molded and saved by the American Churches. To go no farther back than 1850, in the last forty years about fifteen millions of foreigners have been added to our population. Their immediate offspring are at least seven millions more. Twenty-two mill ions of persons, foreign in character, ideas, and sym- pathies,havethus been incorporated into our national life in these years. During this period the total pop ulation of the United States increased about thirty- nine millions, of which twenty-twd millions, or four ninths, almost one half, were essentially foreign. Of these twenty-two millions riot less than three fifths were originally Roman Catholic. Going back to the beginning of our history, the editor of the "Irish World" (July 25, 1874) calculated that the original Catholic stock entering this country, and their descendants, if all had remained true to Ro^ manism, would make (in 1874) a Roman Catholic population of about twenty-four millions. At the presenttime they would number over forty millions. Besides these there, have been other ady^xae^ ele- 1790 1820 1875 1885 1894 Waves ok Immigration. Periods. Yearly Average. 1790-1799 5,000 1800-1809 7,000 lSlO-1819 11,400 1820-1829 I3,50O 1830-1839 53,700 1 840-1844 80,000 1845-1849... 102,730 1850-1859 279,900 1860-1864 139,337 1865-1874 323,409 1S75-1879 171,127 1880-1884 607,518 1S80-1894. 517,099 Total Immigration. 1790-June 30, '94, 17,654,400 Largest in a Single Year. 1881.... 695,263 1882 816,272 l892 644,353 Smallest Since 1879. 1894 311,404 a Total from Norway and Sweden, 1 .113.397. ¦Bill Statistical Exhibits. 559 ments — communists, nihilists, rationalists, and skep tics of various grades, convicts, and paupers. A goodly number of exceptions to these classes have been received, from the British Provinces in North America, from Great Britain and Ireland, and from the European Continent, who have come shoul der to shoulder with our best moral, religious, and philanthropic forces, in all good labors. All honor to such. But the major portion have been very dif ferent. Large numbers have come from the prisons and pauper houses of Europe to fill up the ranks of our social outcasts. From a late report of the Howard Society, of London, it appears that " seven ty-four per cent, of the Irish discharged convicts have found their way to the United States." This large influx of foreign criminals, added to our own dangerous classes, has militated severely against the public weal. The major part of these new-comers have been not merely heterogeneous, but positively antago nizing forces — largely anti-Protestant, anti-Sabbath, anti-Bible, and anti-temperance — and have assailed this young Republic in the experimental period of its existence. The infusion of such large adverse elements into our national life has occasioned a severe strain upon public virtue, and enhanced the labors and responsibilities of the Protestant Churches. Such have been some of the disadvantages under 56b Problem of Religious Progress. which the Protestant Churches of the United States have prosecuted their work. What has been the progress ? The question of progress will be considered in a twofold form : actuala.nd relative. The Evangelical Protestant Churches will be selected first, because' they historically and numerically constitute the leading religious force of the country ; * next, the Churches commonly designated as Liberal; and then the Roman Catholic. The actual progress of each will be first considered ; then their relative prog ress, as compared with the population, with each other, and with the progress of higher education. I. — The Actual Progress. Since the year 1800 the most remarkable progress has been made by the Protestant Churches of the United States, far exceeding any thing ever seen elsewhere, even in the apostolic era. The exhibit of this progress is truly wonderful. In preparing and stating it, great care and research have been exercised, that it may be worthy of the fullest con fidence. In making the comparisons, periods have been selected furnishing the most full and reliable data, and abnormal periods have been excluded. * This classification is made for this additional reason, that the Evangelical, the Liberal, and the Roman Catholic Churches stand before the public as competing forces ; and the public mind has long been accustomed to make comparisons between them. STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. 561 Church Organizations, Edifices, Sittings, and Valua tion in the United States. In the Appendix will be found four tables giv ing these items in full. These matters were not reported in the census for 1880. Nor were the statistics of Church organizations ever reported ex cept in the censuses of 1870 and 1890. In the year 1870 much difficulty was found in collecting the Church statistics, and some of them were very un satisfactory, as will be seen by referring to the foot notes in the census volumes for that year. In 1850 to 1870 the Christians and the disciples were com bined, and the Dunkards, the Mennonites, and the Winebrennarians were reported with the Baptists. Since the census for 1870 a large number of new church organizations have appeared, and the labor of collecting and tabulating the data has been enor mous. But in the last census it has been well and carefully done, so that the Church census for 1890 will probably be accepted as a great improvement upon those which preceded it. The denominations have been classified in this volume according to the method adopted in pre vious editions, and was to indicate the trend of religious sentiment. Church Organizations. 1870. 1890. Evangelical 69,701 151,172 Non-Evangelical 1,442 3,229 Non-Christian 189 624 562 Problem of Religious Progress. Church Organizations (Continued). 1870. 1890. Roman Catholic 4,127 10,231 Other Catholic 31 Total Catholics 4,127 10,262 Aggregate 72,459 165,287 In 1870 there was one Church organization for 532 inhabitants. In 1890 there was one Church organization for 378 inhabitants. In 1870 the Evangelical Church organizations were 0.92 per cent. of the whole number of churches. In 1890 they were 0:914 per cent, of the whole number of churches. Taking individual churches, the Baptist (all kinds) organizations were : In 1870, 0.218 per cent, of the whole number of churches. In 1890, 0.261 The Congregational organizations were: In 1870, 0.039 Per cer)t, °f nne whole number. In 1890, 0.029 " " " " The Episcopal organizations were : In 1870, 0.039 Per cent, of the whole number. In 1890, O.031 " ' The Lutheran (all kinds) organizations were: In 1870, 0.042 per cent, of the whole number. In 1890, 0.052 " " " " The Methodist (all kinds) organizations were : In 1870, 0.348 per cent, of the whole number. In 1890, 0.312 " " " " The Presbyterian (all kinds) organizations were : In 1870, 0.107 per cent, of the whole number. In 1890, 0.081 " " " Statistical Exhibits. 563 The Roman Catholic organizations were : In 1870, 0.059 pe* cent' of the whole number. In 1890, 0.062 " " " " Church Edifices. Referring to Table XIV we have the church edifices for 1850, i860, 1870, and 1890, from which we take the following summaries : 1850. i860. 1870. 1800. Evangelical 35.670 50,343 57,940 131,400 Non-Evangelical... 823 1,039 1.184 2,074 Non-Christian 36 77 152 349 Roman Catholics... 1,222 2,550 3,806 8,776 Other Catholics .... .... ao Aggregate 37.751 54,009 63,082 142,639 Proportion of church edifices for the people of the United States : In 1850, one church for 614 inhabitants. In i860, " " " 578 In 1870, 611 In 1890, " • " 438 It appears that during the decade of the civil war the relative number of the churches diminished a little, but during the last twenty years the provis ion has increased far beyond any former period. Considering the three divisions of the Christian forces, we find them relatively to each other in the number of the churches as follows : Per cent, of the Whole Number of Churches in Each Class. 1850. i860. 1870. 1800. Evangelical 0.944 0.932 0.919 0.921 Non-Evangelical and Non-Christian. . . 0.024 0.021 0023 0.017 Roman Catholic 0.032 0.047 0.060 0.062 Total ". . 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 37 564 Problem of Religious Progress. The non-Evangelical . and the non-Christian Churches combined have lost a little relatively to the population. The Evangelical Churches lost a little from 1850 to 1870, and since 1870 have gained slightly. The Roman Catholic Churches have steadily gained, but are only .062 per cent, of the whole number; arid^yet it should be stated that they have two, three, and four audiences each Sun day, made up mostly of different people. The same thing is also true of the Protestant Churches, though not so largely. The per cent, of the whole number of the church edifices owned by each of six leading bodies of Evan gelical denominations is a topic, of some interest. They are as follows : 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Baptists (all bodies) 0.251 0.225 0.221 0.265 Congregationalists 0.045 0.041 0.043 0.033 Episcopal, Protestant 0.038 0.039 0.043 0.036 Lutherans (all bodies) 0.032 0.039 0.044 0.047 Methodists (all bodies) 0.349 0.368 0.368 0.323 Presbyterians (all bodies).... 0.127 0.118 0.112 0.088 In 1850 the Evangelical Church edifices were O.945 per cent, of the whole number of churches. In i860 they were 0.932 per cent, of the whole. In 1870 " 0.918 " " '* In 1890 " 0.921 " " " Calculating again in the same way, we find the Roman Catholics had 0.031 per cent, of the whole number of the church organizations in 1850: 23 I -A. (3- SB ja. U^E XXIII. Church Accommodations in United States in 1890. Total Population, 62,622,250. Not provided for 30 per cent. Evangelical sittings 63 " llillll R°man Catholic and Non-Evan. 7 " Total 100 " Statistical Exhibits. 567 In i860, 0.046 per cent, of all the church edifices. In 1870, 0.060 " " " " In 1890, 0.061 " " " Let the total churches be represented by 100 per cent, and we have the following exhibit : 1850. i860. 1870. i8go. Evangelical 0.945 0.932 0.918 0.921 Roman Catholic... 0.031 0.046 0.060 0.061 Non-Evangelical. . . . 0.024 0.022 0.022 0.018 Church Sittings or Accommodations. By referring to Table XIV the capacity of the church edifices will be seen. Of this provision for the public need we make a brief analysis: 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Evangelical 13,173,179 17,276,103 19,112,515 39,414,250 Non-Evangelical. 374,812 413,802 488,768 693,250 Non-Christian. . . 18,371 Roman Catholics. 667,863 Other Catholics 34.412 73.265 139.434 1,404.437 1,990,514 3,365,754 9,153 Aggregate.. 14,234,825 19,128,754 21,665,062 43,621,841 The church accommodations for the whole peo ple are indicated by the following figures : In 1850 there were sittings for 61 per cent, of the whole population . In i860 ' 60 " In 1870 " " " 56 " In 1890 " " " 69^ " " " * " While this provision declined from 60 per cent. to 56 per cent, during the decade of the civil war, 568 Problem of Religious Progress. it has since increased from 56 per cent, to 69^, going far beyond any previous period. It is an interesting point to notice what per cent. of the whole population of the country is provided with sittings by each one of seven large religious bodies. The next table will show this : ^ * 1850. i860. 1870. 1800. Baptists (all kinds). . . . 0.142 0.129 0.113 0.185 Congregationalists .... 0.034 0.030 0.029 0.025 Episcopalians 0.027 0.027 0.026 0.022 Lutherans (all kinds). . 0.023 0.024 0.025 0.032 Methodists (all kinds). . o 187 0.199 al7 °-2° Presbyterians (all kinds) 0.090 0.081 0.07 0.064 Roman Catholics 0.028 0.044 0.051 0.053 The percentage of the actual church sittings owned by each of seven leading religious bodies : 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Baptists (all kinds). . . . 0.232 0.211 0.201 0.266 Congregationalists 0.057 0.050 0.051 0.036 Episcopal 0.045 0.044 0.046 0.032 Lutheran (all kinds). . . 0.038 0.039 0.045 0.052 Methodists (all kinds). 0.305 0.327 O.301 0.295 Presbyterians (all kinds) 0.146 0.134 0.125 0.093 Roman Catholics 0.047 0.073 0.092 0.077 The Baptists have a little over a quarter (26 per cent.) of all the sittings, and gained 6 per cent. upon their relative number in 1870, but only about 3 per cent, on that for 1850. The Methodists about held their relative place since 1850, but fell off a lit tle since i860, yet they still hold 30 percent, of the whole number of church sittings in the United X}XA.<3rT5.A.^£ 2C2SIT7-- Valuation of Church Property, 1890. Total, $679,694,439. Evangelical Churches $527,093,103 Roman Catholic Churches .... 118,069,746 All others., 34, 531,590 Statistical Exhibits. 571 States. The Roman Catholics hold about 7 per cent, of all the church sittings, but fell behind rela tively since 1870 nearly 2 per cent. But they are 3 per cent, more than their relative number in 1850. Taking four large Evangelical Protestant denom inations and we have an instructive exhibit for 1890: Sittings. Baptists (all kinds) n,599,534 Lutherans " " 2,205,635 Methodists" " 12,863,178 " Presbyterians (all kinds) 4,038,650 Total (four bodies) 30,706,997 The four large bodies hold 49 per cent, of all the church sittings, the Roman Catholics 5 per cent., and the other non-Evangelical bodies .01^5 per cent. Valuation of Church Property. By referring to Table XIV, the reader will find' the valuation of church property : 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Evangelical . . .$72,354,909 $135,033 300 $274,654,281 $527,093,103 Non-Ev'ngelic'l 5,298,518 8,455,211 13,688,500 24,413,095 Non-Christian. 418,600 1,135,300 5,155,234 ' 9,816,875 Rom. Catholics. 9,256,758 26,774,119 60,985,566 118,069,746 Other " 301,620 Aggregate. $87,328,801 $171,397,932 $354,483,581 $679,694,439 The church property is valued at $10.85 Per capita for the whole population of the country. 572 Problem of Religious Progress. In 1870 it was $9.11 per capita. In i860 " 5.45 " In 1850 " 3.76 " This is a very considerable relative • advance— a threefold increase per capita reckoned on the whole population. * Taking three competing classes of Churches and we find how they relatively progressed in church property from 1850 to 1890: Total population increased 170 per cent. Evangelical Church property 642 " Non-Evangelical Church property 360 " Roman Catholic " " ...1175 " Total Church property 726 " What part of the total church property have the Evangelical Churches, the non-Evangelical Churches, and the Roman Catholics respectively held in the several periods ? 1850. 1860. 1870. 1890. Evangelical Churches . . 0.82 0.78 0.77 0.77 Non-Evangelical " . . 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.035 Roman Catholic " . . 0.105 0.156 0.175 0.173 Take six leading denominations, and we find the percentage of the whole church property each of them has held since 1850: 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Baptists (all kinds) 0.128 0.123 0.117 0.121 Congregationalists 0.091 0.077 0.071 0.065 Episcopalians 0.13 0.126 0.103 0.121 Lutherans (all kinds). . 0.033 0.031 0.042 0.051 Methodists " . . 0.169 °-*93 0.197 0.193 Presbyterians " .. 0.166' 0.156 0.151 0.139 Statistical Exhibits. 573 Ministers. The following is the number of ordained minis ters of the Evangelical Churches : In 1775 ¦ • - 1,435 In 1870 47,6og I" 1800 2,651 In 1880 69 870 Inl850 25,555 Ini8go 98,085 Besides, there are 9,181 Roman Catholic priests, 3,770 ministers in the non- Evangelical Churches, and over 50,000 local preachers, licentiates, etc. Total ordained ministers in United States, 111,036. Sunday-Schools. This great religious agency, one of the most act ive, conspicuous, and important in our times, is wholly the product of a century. Founded in En gland in its distinctive character, 1780-84, a few organizations only were effected in the United States prior to 1800; so that, in this country, it may be said to be the work of the past eighty years. For 1830, the "American Quarterly Regis ter " gave the number of Sunday-school scholars in the United States 570,000. The statistics for the United States, in 1880, as prepared by Mr. E. Pay- son Porter, Statistical Secretary of the International Sunday-School Convention for the United States and the British American Provinces, are as follows : Sunday-schools, 82,261 ; teachers, 886,328 ; scholars, 6,623,124; total, 7,509,452. The following figures in reference to the Sunday- schools in this country and in the world were 574 Problem of Religious Progress. given at the recent meeting (1891) of the Interna tional Sunday-School Committee : Number of schools in the United States, 121,977 ; officers and teachers, 1,303,254; scholars, 9,688,506; total, 11,113,557. In the whole world there are : Schools, 224,563 ; officers and teachers, 2,239,738 ; scholars, ^20,268,923; total, 22,732,224. Evangelical Communicants. Until 1890 the United States Census has never included the communicants of the Churches, and the only sources from which they could be obtained were the Minutes and Year-Books of the Churches. For the former periods they have been collated and tabulated with great expense and labor. See full tables in the Appendix of this vol ume. Communicants. Increase. In 1800 364,872 In 1850 3,529,988 3,165^116 In 1870 6,673,396 3,143,408 In 1880 10,065,963 3,392,567 In 1890 13,823,618 3,757,655 In 1894* 14,818,391 These are remarkable gains. It will be noticed that the gains from 1870 to 1890 were 7,150,223 — more than the whole number in 1870. * A portion of the statistics could not be obtained for 1894. They are chiefly for 1893 and 1894, but some are for 1890, as given in the United States Census. The full figures for 1894 would exceed fif teen millions. Statistical Exhibits. 575 The gain of over 14,453,519 in theiast ninety-four years is a stupendous record of religious progress, without a parallel in any former times. For the first time in history the statistics of the communicants of non-Evangelical and Roman Catholic bodies were obtained in the United States Census of 1890. An effort was made to get the sta tistics for 1894, but the general reply to our inquiries was, "About the same as in the United States Census tables for 1890." But the Unitarians, Universalists, and Roman Catholics are from their Year-Books for 1894. See Table VI in the Appendix. The summary for 1890 is as follows: Ministers. Churches. Members. Non-Evangelical bodies. .. . 3,770 4,463 538,753 Roman Catholics 9,157 10,231 6,231,417* Other Catholic Churches. .. . 24 31 25,119 Total 12,951 14,725 6,795,289 The " Liberal " Churches. The Year-Books of these denominations furnish the following statistics of parishes : *Dr. H. K. Carroll, Superintendent of the Religious Census of the United States for 1890, obtained from the Roman Catholics a statement of the number of their communicants — that they were 85 per cent, of their whole Roman Catholic population, namely, 6,231,417. But their whole population as given in " Hoffman's Catholic Almanac and Directory " for 1 891, which are the figures gathered in 1890, is 8,570,966, and 85 per cent, of this number is 7,292,971. But the figures given in the United States Census are accepted and used in this book. 576 Problem of Religious Progress. * 1840. 1850. i860. 1870. 1880. 1894. Unitarian 230 246 254 328 335 445 Universalist.... 853 1,069 1,264 917 956 1,012 New Jerusalem . 20 38 93 354 1,315 1.556 1,245 1,384 1,611 Many persons connected with these three bodies are, doubtless, Evangelical Christians, but it is im possible for us to discriminate in these statistics. As denominations, they are distinct from the Evangel ical Churches. Great pains have been 'taken to ob tain the above data, and every thing has been col lated from official sources. The footings show an increase of 453 parishes from 1840 to i860, and an increase of 55 parishes since i860, there being now 508 more than in 1840. The Unitarians and the New Church have gained 307 parishes since i860; but the Universalists have lost 252. " Liberal ' ' Church Edifices. The United States Census gives the following summaries : 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Unitarian 245 264 310 424 Universalist 530 664 602 832 New Jerusalem 21 ' 58 61 88 Spiritualist............ .. 17 22 30 Total 796 1,003 995 i,374 Here is an increase of 379 church edifices from 1870 to 1890. Statistical Exhibits. 577 The Roman Catholic Church. The question of Roman Catholic growth in the United States is one of interest the world over. Conceding heavy losses in the old countries, it has been the habit of Romanists to boast of their large gains in this country, sufficient to compensate for their losses elsewhere. Has the Roman Catholic Church realized a large actual increase in the United States? And has it relatively increased ? Yes ; *ito. It has made large accessions rb its numbers, mul tiplied its adherents manifold, increased its churches, priests, schools, convents, etc., and appointed high ecclesiastics in the main centers of the population. It has organized numerous brotherhoods and sis terhoods here, whose monasteries and convents are visible every-where, and who number their work ing members by tens of thousands. Its parochial schools are more than 3,732, and the pupils 860,356. It exerts a very large, and, in some localities, a controlling, influence in politics. Its magnificent cathedrals, its artistic music, its subtle logic, and its political patronage, have captivated and led away some of our Protestant population. /it was never plottingcmore deeply"""and desperately than now, and some fear' it will yet severely test the safety of our free institutions.'*! JfThere will be need of vigi lance and hard work ; but it will not triumph. 578 Problem of Religious Progress. Roman Catholic Church Edifices. According to the census the church edifices were: In 1850, 1,222; in i860, 2,550; 1870, 3,806; in 1890 they numbered 8,776. The value of this church property was estimated in 1870 at $60,985,506; in 1890 at $118,069,746. The statistics of Roman Catholic churches, chap els, and stations, as given in their Year-Books, are as follows : In 1850 1,830 In 1880 8,540 In i860 3,797 In 1894 18,446 In 1870 5,392 These figures, also indicate a large increase, as do also those which give the number of the Priests. In 1850 1,302 In 1880 6,402 In i860 2,316 In 1894 9,717 In 1870 3,966 Other Roman Catholic Statistics show great growth in the past forty years : 1850. 1880. 1894. Dioceses and Archdioceses 29 69 86 Ecclesiastical Students 322 1,170 2,122 Male Religious Houses 35 176 .... Female Religious Houses 65 6.73 Educational Institutions for Young Men and Young Ladies 123 618 840 Parochial Schools No report. 2,38g 3,732 Pupils in Parochial Schools " " 423,383 768,4^98 Hospitals, Asylums, etc 108 386 655 Statistical Exhibits. 579 Roman Catholic Population. Without any definite statistics of their popula tion, and dependent upon conjectural estimates. it is not strange that the most diverse and even amusing statements of their numerical strength should be made. Taking only those of the Roman Catholics themselves, and going no farther back than the famous letter of Bishop England, in 1837, we present the following contradictory, but instruct ive, estimates, and the authority for each : Roman Catholic Population of the United States, Year. Estimates. Catholic Authorities. 1800,1837. 1840.1845. 100,000. 1,000,000. to 1,200,000. 1,300,000. 1,500,000. 1,071,800. 1850. 1852. 1853. i860. 1,614,000. 2,000,000. 3,000,000. 3,500,000. 1,930,000. 3,500,600. 4,000,000. 4,500,000. Rev. I. T. Hecker, "Catholic World," 1879, generally accepted. Bishop England, of South Carolina, in letter to the Propaganda, at Lyons, said : " It is doubt ful whether the number of Catholics rises above a million, but it may amount to 1,200,000." "Metropolitan Catholic Almanac,'' 1841. Rev. I. T. Hecker, "Catholic World," 1879. " Metropolitan Catholic Almanac,'' for 1846. Fourteen dioceses, estimated by the Bishops, gave 811,800. Eight dioceses, estimated by the editor, 260,000 more. The editor says, this num ber " cannot fall short of the truth," though " less than for several years past. " "Metropolitan Cath. Almanac," 1851, "Annals" of the Lyons Propaganda. Archbishop Hughes. Rev. I. T. Hecker, in " Catholic World," 1879. "Metropolitan Catholic Almanac.'' Also in dorsed by Rev. Dr. Mullens, of Ireland. Archbishop Hughes. Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburgh. Rev. I. T. Hecker, in "Catholic World," 1879. 580 ., Problem of Religious Progress. Roman Catholic Population of the U. S. (Continued.) Year. Estimates. Catholic Authorities. 1865.1866.1868. [869. 4,400,000. 5,000,000.5,000,000. 9,000,000 to 10,000,000. 3,354,000. 1870. 6,000,000 to 7,000,000.4,600,000. " The Catholic World." " Civita Catholicd," Papal organ, Rome. " The Catholic World." Hon. J. F. Maguire, member of Parliament, from Cork, in his book, "The Irish in America," p. 539, says : " I am inclined to agree with those who regard from nine to ten millions of Cath olics as a fair and moderate estimate." " German Catholic Year-Book," by Rev. E. A. Reitter, a Jesuit priest, Buffalo, N. Y. In the preface, pp. 6, 7, the editor says: "After the nearest possible account of the German Cath olics in the United States, that is, of such as have their children baptized, their number is 1,044,000. The number of Catholics of all other nations is 2,310,000, making the whole number 3,354,000, which is less than is commonly thought. ... If to these are added the incredibly large number of those who, after their arrival in this country, have only too soon thrown over their Catholic faith, we may with good reason, as the judgment of those who know, and my experience. of fifteen years has taught me, add one half to the number above, which would bring it to 5,031,000. Yet such cannot now or ever be taken into account ; as in this country nothing is more seldom than a backslidden Catholic ever to be reclaimed, even on their death-beds." " Catholic World." "Sadlier's Catholic Directory" gives thirty-four dioceses reporting estimates amount ing to 2,649,800. The remaining twenty-four dioceses comprise eight of the very largest, five quite large, and others much smaller. Suppos ing the twenty-four not reporting to average with those reporting, we have 4,600,000 for the total Statistical Exhibits. 581 Roman Catholic Population of the U. S. (Contmued.) Year. Estimates. Catholic Authorities. £870. 1872. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878, 1879.1880. 10,000,000. 5,000,000.8,000,000.6,000,000.9,000,000. 6,500,000. 6,240,000. Over 6,000,000.6,304,950. Over 7,000,000. 7,000,000. 9,000,000.6,375,630.6,143,222. 6,367,330. " The St. Peter's," in reply to the "New York Times," said, "The Roman Catholics in the United States are ten millions strong." "The Catholic Telegraph," Cincinnati, said the estimate of " The St. Peter's " would be cor rect had Romanism kept all its children received by immigration, but it had lost half of them. "Catholic World," June, 1872, " We number 8,000,000 souls." Kehoe, manager of the Catholic Publication Society, New York. Father Sack ; estimated on the basis of three masses to each priest, and each priest represent ing a congregation of 2,000 devout, indifferent, children, etc. "History of the Catholic Church in the United States," by J. O'Kane Murray, p. 577. "Sadlier's Catholic Directory;" five dioceses not reporting that year, supplied from estimates given in other years. "Catholic Family Almanac," 1876. " Sadlier's Catholic Directory;" eight dioceses not reporting that year, supplied from estimates given in other years. Mr. Kehoe's Report to Bureau of Statistics, Washington, D. C. Rev. I. T. Hecker, in "Catholic World," 1879. A priest in Indiana, estimating like Father Sack. "Sadlier's Catholic Directory," 1879, all dio ceses, reported. "Sadlier's Catholic Directory," 1880, all dio ceses reported. "Sadlier's Catholic Directory," 1881. All but three very small dioceses reported. 582 Problem of Religious Progress. Roman Catholic Population of the U. S. (Continued.) Year. Estimates. Catholic Authorities. 1884. 1889. 1891. 1893. 6,623,176 7,000,0008,000,000 7,855,294 8,579,966 12,000,000 14,000,000 8,902,033 8,806,648 ' ' Sadlier's Catholic Almanac and Directory, " 1894. John A. Russell, A. B., in Prize Essay before the Provincial Council, Baltimore, Md. Me morial Volume, p. 27. In said Council, Rev. Bp. McQuaid, of Rochester, N. Y., said: "The Directory esti mates the Roman Catholic population at 6,623,176. It is easy to see that these figures are not based on correct information An estimate that would place the Catholic popula tion at 8,000,000 would in my judgment not be far from the truth." ' ' Sadlier's Catholic Almanac and Directory," New York City. " Hoffman's Catholic Directory," Milwaukee, Wis. Dr. R. H. Clark, in. "Catholic Quarterly Review," said: "In 1890 the census of the United States shows the entire population to have been 62,885,548, while the Catholic pop ulation was estimated at 12,000,000. One of the bishops placed it at 14,000,600. It would be impossible to estimate the number of converts to the faith in this 12,000,000 of Catholics — would that we could approximate to the number." " Hoffman's Catholic Directory." "Sadlier's Catholic Almanac and Di rectory." Such staggering statistics show how wild and un reliable are the claims to large numbers made by the Church of Rome.^The scientific method seems not to be employed in making up their book of numbers, and therefore their claims must be taken with allowance. Statistical Exhibits. 583 The striking variations of the foregoing estimates, even those of high Roman Catholic officials, show the necessity of careful discrimination in order to arrive at satisfactory numbers of the Roman Cath olic population. We notice five estimates, between 1868 and 1876, which exceed almost all made since 1876. And the estimates given by the Catholic Directories and Almanacs, all the way through, contrast with the random figures of others. These official estimates are all made up on the basis of reports from the Bishops of the different dioceses, each one estimating the Catholic population of his diocese. Some years the Bishops neglect to esti mate their populations, and the editor supplies the vacancy by some information at his command, or from the estimates of other years. Our statistics of the communicants of the Prot estant Churches are made up for the years 1800, 1850, 1870, 1.880, and 1890. , In order to future comparisons it is necessary, therefore, to select the most reliable estimates of the Catholic population for these years. For 1800, Protestants and Roman ists are agreed upon the number 100,000. For the three remaining periods we take the estimates given from the Catholic Year-Books, and thus have bases for comparison made by uniform processes: Roman Catholic Population. 1800 100,000 1880 6,367,330 1850 1,614,000 1890 8,579,966 1870 4,600,000 38 584 Problem of Religious Progress. These figures show a large Roman Catholic in crease. From 1800 to 1850 it averaged 302,800 . each decade; from 1850 to 1890, 1,741,491 each decade. We have before noticed that the number of im migrants landed on our shores from 1850 to June * 30, 1894, was 13,462,367. Of these, at least three fifths, or 8,077,419, were Roman Catholics, which is 1,111,453 more than the total increase of the Roman Catholic population in the same period, as given in their Year-Books. Full seven eighths of all the immigrants from Ireland have been Papists. The Roman Catholic immigrants, from all countries, and their offspring, during the past forty years, must have amounted to full ten millions, making no account of those here prior to 1850 and their descendants. But their Year-Book for 1891 gives the total Catholic population 8,579,966, which is only little more than the Catholic immigration dur ing the last forty years, and their natural increase, not to mention the natural increase of those already here in 1850. That Romanism has grown here, and very large ly, too, is unquestionable. And it is likely to grow still more. Every thing grows in the United States. But its gains have been almost wholly by immigration, and its losses have been heavy, im mensely more than its gains. By its own acknowl edgment it has lost millions. " This country is the Statistical Exhibits. 585 biggest grave for Popery ever dug on earth." Un der strongly predominant Protestant influences, her children have been extensively alienated and lost to the Church. Papists know this well, and hence their hostility to our common-school system. A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses in the United States, as acknowledged by Romanists. Year. 1837. [852. Estimated Losses. 2,800,000 to 3,000,000. 2,000,000. One third of all the Irish immi grants. Thousands lost in cities ; more in the country. Typical cases of loss of descend- i ants. Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. Bishop England, of South Carolina, in a let ter to Lyons Propaganda, said : " If there had been no losses, the number of Catholics would have amounted to 4,000,000." Deducting his estimate (1,000,000 to 1,200,000) of Catholics then living in the United States, we have the annexed figures. Rev. Robert Mullen, D.D., based upon an elaborate statistical calculation, (" Christian Union," August, 1852, p. 251.) He said: " Of the number of Irish Catholics emigrating to the United States one third at least are lost to the Roman Catholic Church." He also said that Rev. Bishop Reynolds, of Charleston, S. C, told him, "You will save religion by proceeding, on your return to Ireland, from parish to parish, telling the people not to lose their immortal souls by coming to America ;" and that Archbishop Hughes said to him : " The people at home (Ireland) do not fully understand the position of the emigrants — thousands being lost in the large cities, while in the country the faith has died out of multi tudes." In the " Freeman's Journal," June 5, 1852, a correspondent said : " We know of a Catholic couple, who settled in an adjoining county some seventy or eighty years ago; their de- 586 Problem of Religious Progress. A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1855. 1862.1864. 1869. 1875- [876. Estimated Losses. Sixty per cent, of the children. 3,000,000 to 4,000,000. Five hun dred lost to Popery to one convert from Protestantism. " 1,700,000 in 15 years." Thousands upon thou sands. Loss great er than the gain. Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. scendants are very numerous, but there is not a Catholic now among them ! In anothei county an old Irish couple are still living, and still preferring the Catholic faith, whose chil dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren number something over one hundred souls. yet there are but two or three Catholics at present among them." The editor of the " Celt," lecturing in Ire land, advised his countrymen to " stay at home, because the Roman Catholic Church loses sixty per cent, of the children of Roman Catholic parents in the United States." Bishop of Toronto. " The Tablet," New York city, said : " Few insurance companies, we venture to assert, would take a risk on the national life of a creed which puts five hundred daily into the grave for one it wins over to its communion ; and yet this is what the Catholic Church is doing, in these States, while we write." German Catholic " Year-Book." An archbishop in Ireland, after visiting the United States, told his people in Ireland, " It is far better for you to live here in poverty, and die in the faith, and be sure of saving your immortal souls, and going to heaven, than to go to a country where thousands upon thou sands of our race, our Irish race, deny the faith." " Life of Archbishop Spaulding." Speak ing of the period " in which the hierarchy has been in existence, (1 790-1876,)" the biogra pher says : " We have lost in numbers by far Statistical Exhibits. 587 A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1876. Estimated Losses. More fall en away than now living. 18,000,000. Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. more than we have gained, if I may express an opinion, beyond all doubt" Mr. J. O'Kane Murray, " History of Catho lic Church in United States," p. 583, says : " It may be safely said that more Catholics have fallen away from the faith in this country dur ing the last two centuries and a half than are to-day living in it." J. O'Kane Murray, " History of Roman Catholic Church in the United States," pp. 610, 611. The following is Mr. Murray's full statement, and the basis on which it is pred icated : " Two points frequently discussed are, 1. What are the relative proportions of the Celtic and the Anglo-Saxon or English ele ment in the population of the United States ? 2. How many members has the Catholic Church probably lost in this country ? In re gard to the first question, there can be no doubt that the Celtic element far exceeds that of the Anglo-Saxon. This is a settled fact. A careful analysis of our statistics proves it. Just a quarter of a century ago the Hon. Will iam E. Robinson, in a remarkable speech at Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., said: 'I think it would be quite good-natured in me to allow that about one eighth of this country is English, or what is called Anglo-Saxon.' By means of statistics he then clearly demon strated the correctness of this opinion. (See 'New York Tribune,' July 30, 1851.) Rev. Stephen Byrne, O.S.D., in his 'Irish Emigra tion to the United States,' 1873, puts the Celtic element at one half of our present population, the Anglo-Saxon at one fourth. The New York 'Irish World,' whose editor, Mr. Ford, 588 Problem of Religious Progress. A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1876. Estimated Losses. Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. is well known as a diligent student of statis tics, holds that two thirds of our people are Celts by birth or descent, and only about one ninth are Anglo-Saxon. "As to the Church's loss. in the United States, it is no easy problem to solve. Nei ther higher algebra nor calculus can help us to grapple with it. The geologists say that past time is long. As to its exact length, they hesi tate to put it into figures, or when they do, scarcely two are alike. It is the same with the American loss to the Faith. The earnest student of our history is obliged to confess that it was large ; but how large it may have been is an unsettled question. The ' Irish World ' of July 25, 1874, maintained that 18,000,000 have been lost to Catholicity in this Republic. It backed up this assertion with the following table, which, I believe, is, in the main, reli able: "Table Showing the Relative Proportions of the Constituent Elements of the Population of the United States in 1876, in which is Indicated the Number of Catholics that should be in the Country now, (1874.) I. Total white popu lation of the thirteen colo nies at the close of the Revolu tionary War . . 3,172,000 II. Relative propor tions of the constituent ele ments in colo nial population Statistical Exhibits. 589 A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1876. Estimated Catholic Authorities; Remarks, etc. —Celtic (Irish, Scotch, Welsh, French, etc.) . . 1,903,200 (Irish separately) 1,141,920 Anglo-Saxon . . . 841,800 Dutch and Scan dinavians 427,000 III. Product, in 1870, of the popula tion of 1790 9,496,000 IV. Product, in 1870, of the separate elements of the population of 1790: Celtic 5,697,000' (Irish separately) 3,418,200 Anglo-Saxon . . . 2,504,000 Dutch and Scan dinavians .... 1,295,000 V. Product, in 1870, of population gained by ac quisition of new territory since 1790 1,500,000 Product, in 1870, of Irish and French immi gration from Canada 2,000,000 Total strength of Colored ele ment in 1870 4,504,000 VIII. Total immigra tion to U. S., 1790 to 1870 8,199,000- VI. VII. 590 Problem of Religious Progress. A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1876. Estimated Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. Irish immigra tion from 1790 to 1870 3,248,000 Anglo-Saxon im- migration.from 1790 to 1870. . 796,000 Immigration of all other ele ments 4,155,000 IX. Product of total immigration to U. S., from 1790 to 1870 23,000,000 Product of Irish immigration (from 1790). . . 9,750,000 Product of An glo-Saxon im- migration(from 1790) 2,000,000 Product of all other immigra- tion(from 1790) 11,250,000 X. Total population of U. S. in 1870 38,500,000 XI. Joint product, in 1870, of Irish Colonial ele ment and sub sequent Irish immigration(including that from Canada). 14,325,000 Joint product, in 1870, of Anglo- Saxon Colonial Statistical Exhibits. S9i A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1876, 1883. Estimated Losses. "Hundreds,nay, thou sands, have been lost to the faith during the present cen tury." Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. element and subsequent An glo-Saxon im- r migration 4,522,000 Joint product, in 1870, of all other Colonial elements and all subsequent immigration (in cluding Colored population) 19,653,000 Total joint product 38,500,000 XII. Total Celtic element {Irish Scotch, French, Spanish, Italian) in United States in 1870 24,000,000 Total Irish element in United . States in 1870 14,325,000 Total Anglo-Saxon element in United States in 1870. . 4,522,000 Total of all other elements (not Celtic nor Anglo-Saxon) in United States in 1870.. 9,978,000 " Almost the entire Celtic element (24,000,000) might be safely regarded as the descendants of men who were Catholics on settling in America." Cardinal Gibbons' Pastoral Letter: "We are also warned by experience that the loss of Catholic faith is another evil resulting from the separation of a religious from a secular educa tion. While we are gratified at the number of converts who embrace the true faith, we have reason to be appalled in considering the vast number of souls that are straying away from the fold. If we look for the descendants of those families that have been immigrating from Cath olic Europe to this country, in one uninterrupted 592 Problem of Religious Progress. A Tabulated View of Roman Catholic Losses, (Continued.) Year. 1885. Estimated Losses. 12,000,000 - Catholic Authorities, Remarks, etc. march, from the beginning of the present cent ury, how many of them shall we now find ranked among the most bitter and unrelenting enemies of the Church ! In observing even the names of the dissenting clergymen of the coun try, you cannot fail to notice that many of the most prominent lights among them betray their Catholic origin and nationality. " These statements are confirmed by Bishop England, a prelate of vast experience and close observation. They are confirmed also by our illustrious predecessor, Archbishop Kenrick, a man incapable of exaggeration. We once heard him remark, as the result of his personal ob servation, that hundreds, nay, thousands, of sons of Catholic parents have been lost to the faith among us during the present century." The " Catholic Mirror," of Baltimore, while claiming that there, are 8,000,000 Catholics in this country, asserts that there should be 20,000,000, and admits that the losses have been enormous. The " Union " adds the following frank confession : " It is our opinion that avast deal of unmeaning stuff has been talked about the progress of the Catholic Church both in England and America. It is true there are 2,000,000 Catholics in England and 8,000,000 in America. Nine tenths of those in the former country and three fourths in the latter are of Irish blood. There have been a few hundred people of what are there called the ' higher classes ' con verted to the faith in England ; whether, from a politic standpoint, they have been an acquisition we greatly doubt ; but it is certain that the masses have not been touched. In America, also, there have been a few conversions, but they do not amount to a drop in the bucket compared with the immense losses the Church has sustained." Statistical Exhibits. ' 593 Is it asked, Has not Romanism, in spite of these losses, relatively gained ? We answer, Yes ; no. In our plan of investigation we shall soon be ready to enter upon this question. We next consider, II. The Relative Progress. I . What has been the progress of the three religious forces under consideration — the "Evangelical " Prot estant, the "Liberal," and the Roman Catholic — rela tively to the whole population of the United States. The Evangelical Denominations. In 1775 there was one church organization of this class for 1,376 inhabitants; in 1870, one for 612 in habitants. Taking the societies, (before explained as including in some instances parishes and congre gations,) there were, in 1800, one for 1,740 inhab itants; in 1850, one for 895 ; in 1880, one for 520 habitants; and in 1890, one for 414 inhabitants. The ministers were, in 1775, one for 1,811 inhab itants; in 1800, one for 2,000 inhabitants ; in 1850, one for 907 inhabitants; in 1880, one for 717 in habitants; in 1890, one for 638 inhabitants. How is it with the evangelical communicants ? An impression prevails in some quarters that, while the number of church members in this coun try is constantly on the increase, the growth does not keep pace with the increase of the population. Some have contended that they are irrecoverably 594 Problem of Religious Progress. falling behind. This question is one of general in terest ; and it can be determined only upon a well- prepared basis of facts, covering a considerable term 'of years. Thirty years ago a writer in the " Southern Ob server" showed that, in 1750, the proportion of members of Evangelical Churches to the entire pop ulation was one to thirteen ; in 1775, one to sixteen ; in 1792, one to eighteen; in 1825, one to fourteen; in 1855, one to six and three eighths ; in i860, one to five and a half. We have not at hand the statistics upon which these conclusions are based ; and we very much doubt whether definite data for the first three periods ever were or ever can be obtained. But we have no doubt of the substantial accuracy of the conclusions, from what is well known of the re ligious tendencies of those times, as already sketched in previous chapters of this volume. For the periods within the present century we have statistics which we believe to be as accurate as such masses of statistics can well be, a great amount of care, re search, and correspondence having been devoted to the work. In a previous paragraph we have given the sum maries showing the actual increase of the com municants. Compared with the population at the different periods we find the following results : In 1800 there was one Evangelical communicant in 14.50 inhabitants in the whole country. In 1850 Statistical Exhibits. 595 there was one in 6.57 inhabitants. In 1870 there was one in 5.78 inhabitants. In 1880 there was one in 5 inhabitants. In 1890 there was one in 4.53 inhabitants. These figures indicate a very large relative gain upon the population — three communicants in the same number of inhabitants where there was one in ¦1800. While the population from 1800 to 1890 increased without a parallel in ancient or modern times, devolving upon the Protestant Churches the responsibility of meeting the religious needs of these rapidly multiplying millions, it is creditable to them, and an occasion of gratitude to God, that they have so far met these extraordinary demands, and achieved the brightest triumphs known in their whole history. While the population since 1800 has increased twelve fold, the communicants of these Churches increased thirty-eight fold, or over three times as fast relatively. The period since 1850 has been one of severe strain upon American Protestantism, on account of the great activity of modern rationalism, material ism, and spiritualism, and a large immigration. Because of these things it has been claimed that, whatever increase the Evangelical Churches have had, they have, nevertheless, fallen behind the growth of the population during the last thirty years. But the statistics already noticed prove the contrary. Even during this trying period, 596 Problem of Religious Progress. while the population increased 170 per cent., the communicants of these Churches increased 290 per cent., or a half faster relatively than the population. And during the severe strain from the year 1870 to 1890, while the population increased 62 per cent., the communicants increased 107 per cent. ,The total increase of the communicants from 1850 to 1880 was 6,535,985, or more than twice as laVge as the increase in the fifty years from 1800 to 1850. The last forty years, then, has been the period of the grandest progress, both actually and relatively. Progress of the Roman Catholic Church Compared with the Population. This denomination has made a large advance, relatively, upon the population. Three forms of comparison will show this fact clearly. . According to the United States Census the church edifices of this body were : In 1850, 1,222, or one church for 18,977 inhabitants. In 1870, 3,806, " " " 10,130 " In 1890, 8,776, " " " 7,134 According to the Roman Catholic Year-Books their priests were : In 1850, 1,302, or one priest for 17,812 inhabitants. In 1870, 3,966, " " " 9,725 " In 1880, 6,402, " " " 7,844 In 1890, 8,778, " " " 7,134 " Statistical Exhibits. 597 The Roman Catholic population, as estimated in their Year-Books, was : In 1850, 1,614,000, or one Roman Catholic for 14.37 inhabitants. In 1870, 4,600,0.00, " " " 8.38 " In 1880, 6,367,330, " " " 7.88 " In 1890, 8,579,966, " " " 7.3 nearly. In 1894, 8,806,648, " " " At every point we discover evidences of a large gain* relatively, upon the whole population of" the country. But the greatest gain was from 1850 to 1870. Since 1870 their relative gain is smaller. 2. What has been the progress of the Evangelical and the Roman Catholic denominations, as compared with each other? Taking the church edifices we have : Evangelical. Roman Catholic. 1850 34-537 1.222 1870 56,154 3,806 1890 131,400 8,776 Increase 1870-1890 75,246 4,970 An increase pf 4,970 Roman Catholic churches in twenty years is small to the increase of 75,246 Evangelical churches. Comparing the Evangelical ministers and the Roman Catholic priests, we have the following : Evangelical Roman Catholic Ministers. Priests. 1850 25,555 1,302 1880 69,870 6,402 1890 98,085 8,778 Increase 1 880-1 890 28,215 2,376 598 . Problem of Religious Progress. The increase of 2,376 priests is a small offset to an increase of 28,215 Evangelical ministers. We next compare the communicants of the Evan gelical Churches with the Roman Catholic popu lation : Communicants. R. C Population. 1850 3,529,988 1,614,000 1870 6,673,396 4,6oo,0O0 1880 10,065,963 6,367,330 1890 13,823,618 8,579,966 Increase, 1850-1870 3,143,408 2,986,000 " 1870-1880 3,392.507 1.767.33° " 1880-1890. . . . 3,757,655 2,202,636 " 1850-1890. . . . 10,293,630 6,965,966 It appears that in the period of the largest Ro man Catholic immigration, from 1850 to 1870, the increase of the enrolled communicants of the Evan gelical Churches was 157,408 larger than the increase of the whole Roman Catholic population. In the last . ten years it was 1,555,019 greater ; and in the whole forty years (1850-1890) it was 3,327,664 greater. While the Roman Catholic Church, largely aided by immigration, has relatively gained upon the pop ulation, it has, -nevertheless, not gained upon Pro testantism. The Evangelical Protestant Churches, with only small accessions from abroad, have far outstripped her. The increase of single classes of Protestant Churches has far exceeded the whole in crease of Romanism. The ordained ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) alone, and also of the Baptist Church (North and South) alone, Statistical Exhibits. •, 599 not to include other bodies bearing the names Meth odist and Baptist, are each almost twice as numerous as the Roman Catholic priests. Taking the com municants of four classes of Churches, those bearing the name Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, and United Brethren, leaving out of the account all the Presby terian, Congregational, Episcopal, and about a dozen other Evangelical denominations, increased more, from 1850 to 1880, than the whole Roman Catholic population, as estimated in their Year-Books. There is another view of this matter which must not be overlooked. In all our comparisons hitherto we have given Romanism every possible advantage. We have compared the registered communicants of the Evangelical Churches with the Roman Catholic estimates, based upon conjectures or only meager data; and we have also compared these duly en rolled and yearly revised lists of communicants, seven eighths of whom are above eighteen years of age, with the whole Roman Catholic population. Their estimates (we have it on the authority of those who have assisted the Bishops in making them) include whole households, all baptized children as well as adults. The bases for comparison, therefore, are very unlike, and unfair to Evangelical Protestantism. In order to make the comparison equitable, the whole population of the Evangelical Churches should be compared with the Roman Catholic pop ulation. This may be done by multiplying the 39 6oo Problem of Religious Progress. communicants of these Churches by 3^-, (the usual number is 4, but we prefer to not seem to overrate any thing.) There must be at least two and a half additional persons for every communicant who is an adherent of the Evangelical Churches. Calculating thus, we have the following results : * Population of the Roman Catholic Evangelical Churches. Population. In 1800 1,277,052 IOO,000 In 1850 12,354,958 1,614,000 In 1870 23,356,88b 4,600,000 ¦In 1880 35.23P,870 6,367,330 In 1890 48,382,663 8,579,966 These figures show the relative position and growth of these two religious classes during the century. The last ten years has been, relatively, the best for Evangelical progress. What percentage of the whole population has been Evangelical. Protestant, and what percentage Roman Catholic, in these different periods, is an interesting inquiry. The following is the statement, and the dia gram on the opposite page, with measurements care fully calculated, will illustrate the relative progress. The Evangelical population was : In 1800, 24.06 per cent, of the whole population. In 1850, 53.22 " In 1870, 60.57 " " " " In 1880, 70.003 " " " " In 1890, 77.26 " " " " The Roman Catholics were : In 1800, .02 per cent, of the whole population. In 1850, .07 " " " " In 1870, 11.93 " " " " In 1880, 12.68 In 1890, 13.7 " " " " 1SOO! Total Population, 5,308,488. X)I^.S-ia^.2v56°>* and those of the United States about $15,000. What sums have been raised by the Protestant foreign missionary societies ? Professor Christliebf has estimated that, in 1800, the total sum annually contributed in all Christendom for Protestant mis sions hardly amounted to $250,000. In 1850 the income of these boards in Europe and America was $2,959,541,164 In 1872 the amount had increased to $7,874,155,1 or seven times as much as the re ceipts of the Lyons Propaganda for that year. From 1852 to 1872 the receipts of the Lyons Propaganda advanced 25 per cent., and of the Protestant boards 162 per cent. The actual in crease of the Protestant boards during that time was nearly $5,000,000, while that of the Lyons Propaganda was about $230,000. The aggregate receipts of the Protestant foreign missionary socie ties have become marvelous. * See " Kalendar of the English Church," for 1881, p. 265. f " Protestant Foreign Missions," Randolph & Co., New York, 1880, p. 18. X " Christian Retrospect and Register," App., Rev. R. Baird, D.D. §" Statistics of Protestant Missions," by Rev. W. B. Boyce. London, 1874. See also article on Missions in M'Clintock & Strong's Cyclopaedia. 616 Problem of Religious Progress. The Foreign Missions of the Protestant Churches of the United States. The following table* will impressively exhibit the aggregate receipts received by the foreign mission ary societies since the origin of each': Years. Amount. Average Yearly. 1810-1819 $206,201 $20,621 1820-1829 745,718 74,571 1830-1839 . 2,885,839 288,583 1840-1849 !,.... 5,078,922 507,892 1850-1859 8,427,284 842,728 1860-1869 13,074,129 1,307,412 1870-1880 (11 years): .. . 24,861,482 2,266,143 1881-1894 (134 " ).... 48,390,389 3,282,251 Not reported by periods. 2,200,000 Total $101,561,964 From 1881 to 1894, $48,390,389 were received, which is five and a half times more than was re ceived in the forty years from i8ioto 1850. Ninety- two per cent, of the aggregate for eighty-four years has been received in the last forty years — all for foreign missions. What results can the foreign mission societies of the United States show for these remarkable ex penditures? By the aid of Tables XLV to XLVIII, in the Appendix, the following exhibit is made : 1850. 1880. 1893. . Missions 77 129 Principal stations 196 758 691 Sub-stations 3,925 4,835 Laborers 1,267 5.959 16,105 Communicants 47,266 205,132 301,904 Day-schools 883 1,392 5,600 Pupils 29,210 65,825 179,087 * See Table XLVI, in the Appendix. Statistical Exhibits. 617 The foregoing exhibit needs no comments. Over 16,105 laborers, laboring in 5,526 stations and sub stations, and 301,904 communicants, an increase in the latter item of fifty per cent, since 1880 is full of encouragement. Total Protestant Foreign Missions of Europe and America. By the aid of Tables XLIV to XLIX, in the Appendix, the following imperfect exhibit is tabu lated : 1830. 1850. 1880. 1893. 1 2o 178 504 Principal stations . . . 502 700 5,703 12,476 Ordained ministers . . 656 1,672 6,696 1,892 5,728 40,552 62,051 70,289 210,957 857,332 1,222,605 Few persons can appreciate the difficulty in get ting statistics from so wide a field, and bringing together the divers materials into a table. It is probable that the total stations and sub-stations number over 25,000, the laborers 75,000, and the communicants 2,000,000. The adherents doubtless number 3,000,000 to 5,000,000. How vast the extent of Protestant missions? On the continent of North America, in Mexico, Central America, Greenland, Labrador, the Hudson Bay region, among the aborigines in British Amer ica and the United States, and the Chinese in Cali, fornia ; on the continent of South America, in New 40 618 Problem of Religious Progress. Granada, Brazil, Peru, Chili, Uruguay, the Argentine Republic, Guiana, the contiguous Falkland Islands, and Terra del Fuego ; on the continent of Europe, among the rationalistic, Papal, Jewish, and Moham medan populations in Scandinavia, Germany, Aus tria, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, Slavonia, Holland, * Belgium, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Portu gal, Turkey, Greece, Roumania, and Bulgaria; on the continent of Africa, in Egypt, Tunis, Algiers, Abyssin'ia,' Zanzibar ; in 368 stations and 1,112 sub stations all over South Africa; in 135 stations and 454 sub-stations in Central and Western Africa ; on the continent of Asia, in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Persia, in 46 principal and more than 383 sub-sta tions; in India, in 418 principal and 1,032 sub-sta tions; in China, in Thibet, Japan, Burmah, Siam, " the Straits Settlements," and the Indian Archi pelago ; on the islands of the Atlantic, the Baha mas, the Bermudas,, and the West Indies ; in Mada gascar and Mauritius; on 300 islands in Polynesia; and all over the mighty world of Australasia, 75,000 Christian workers are toiling, and great mul titudes are rising up as witnesses for Christ. Roman Catholic and Protestant Missions. In the mission fields long occupied by Romanism, Protestant missions, starting much later, are gaining rapidly upon the Roman Catholic ; while in the Statistical Exhibits. 619 newer, simultaneously opened to both, the Papal missions are making slow progress. A few facts in regard to two of the older and two of the later fields will show the relative progress and work of Papal and Protestant missions. China, one of the oldest Roman Catholic, and one of the latest Protestant mission grounds, has been sometimes referred to by the English press and by travelers in terms of disparagement to Protestant ism. They point to the 400,000 Roman Catholic,* and the small number of Protestant, converts, over looking the fact that Roman Catholic missions be gan in China In 1589, when Protestantism was in its infancy, eighteen years before the first permanent settlement in the United States, and two hundred and fifty years before the first Protestant mission in China. In this long period of nearly three hun dred years the Roman Catholic missions, though sometimes persecuted, were generally favored by the imperial government, from which they have received grants of lands, buildings, etc. By a quasi recognition of Chinese idolatry and customs they * Rev. Dr. Legge said : " Possibly the adherents of the Roman Catholic missions in China amount to nearly half a million, though, according to the ' Bulletin des Missions Catholiques' for 1876, they were then only 404,550, and a priest in Chinan, capital of Shan tung told me, in 1873, that their annual increase all over China was only about 2,000." " Give us three hundred years- to work in, and the adherents of Protestant missions will far transcend the present number of Romish Christians." 620 Problem of Religious Progress. have conciliated the civil power, but have weakened their religious influence, and failed to truly Chris tianize and elevate the people. Protestantism gained its first, but only tentative, footholds in China about sixty-five years ago, and was restricted to five specific ports until the treaty of 1858-60. Prior to that time we could only think of Protestant missions "as dotted here and there along the coast," hardly anywhere penetrating fifty or a hundred miles into the interior. In 1872 there were 26 Protestant missions, with 337 principal and sub-stations and about 9,000 communicants in China. During the past few years these missions have greatly increased, never more rapidly and sub stantially than during the last twenty years. No set of statistics suffices for many years because they are so soon outgrown. Said Dr. Legge,* in 1878: "The converts have multiplied in thirty-five years two thousand fold, the rate of increase being greater year after year. Suppose it to continue the same for other thirty-five years, and in A. D. 191 3 there will be in China 26,000,000 of communicants, and a professedly Christian population of 100,000,000." As to the Chinese converts, Rev. Dr. Legge, who will be accepted as the very best authority, said : f " It has been asked, in deprecation or depreciation * " Proceedings of General Conference of Foreign Missions," 1879, p. 177. London : John F. Shaw & Co., publishers. f Ibid., p. 173. Statistical Exhibits. 621 of my statements, ' But what is the character of these thirteen thousand communicants? Can they be accepted as real Christians — as true converts ? ' It would take long to explain how it has come about that a bad report of the constituency of mis sion Churches has gone widely abroad ; but I do not hesitate to declare that it is wantonly untrue and unjust. When administering the communion to a Church of English-speaking members that were under my charge in Hong-Kong, I often spoke to them to this effect, ' In the afternoon your places before me will be occupied by the members of the Chinese Church. I have confidence in you as Christian men and women, but I shall not have less confidence in our Chinese brethren and sisters.' . . . There are fallings away among the Chinese Chris tians. They have, also, some peculiar weaknesses and inconsistencies. But these things cannot be said of them more than of the members of the Churches among ourselves. . . . Yes, the converts are real. Your missionaries, in receiving them, and watching over them, are careful and strict. If they err, it is in being overscrupulous, rather than in being lax." Insisting upon a considerable acquaintance with the doctrines of Christianity, a renunciation of every form of idolatry, and good evidence of a moral change, as conditions of baptism, Protestant prog ress means moral reformation and elevation, as well 622 Problem of Religious Progress. as intellectual enlightenment. Many social changes and modifications of life also follow. . A recent traveler * in China, in his observations upon the Papal missions in that country, said : " They manifest no intelligent zeal for the enlight enment and elevation of the people. Few, if any, of the priests possess that noble ambition which characterized their predecessors, Ricci, Schaal, Ver- biest, and others. I have never observed any indi cations among them of men grappling with the lan guage, and girding themselves with ardor to over throw the mighty evils which are stalking abroad among the natives. As a rule, they content them selves with superintending native priests and cate- chists, and other purely official duties. They never preach, nor publish any books. . . . We are thus left in a great measure dependent upon Protestant missions for the advancement of knowledge, civil ization, and true progress among the people. This department has not failed us." Protestant missionaries "have given their days and nights to the study of the Chinese language, day by day have preached to the people, thus spreading light in all directions, arousing generous impulses, and training up converts to be well- informed, truth-seeking men and women. 'To such men,' says the ' Supreme Court and Consular Gazette,' (Nov. 14, 1868,) 'are we indebted for ?Alexander Williamson's "Journeys in North China.'' Statistical Exhibits. 623 more than nine tenths of our knowledge of China and the Chinese.'" They have thus opened the inner life of the nation to the world. Not to speak of the long, patient studies and elaborate productions of Morrison, Milne, Med- hurst, and Legge, of the translations of the Script ures and other religious books into Chinese, of the dictionaries and grammars now in common use, of the " lesson books," the schools, and weekly period icals, all the work of Protestant missionaries, numer ous works of science also have been translated into Chinese by these devoted laborers. Dr. Hobson has given them works on physiology, surgery, med icine, chemistry, and natural philosophy ; Mr. Wylie, Euclid, algebra, arithmetic, geometry, calculus, Herschel's large Astronomy and Newton's Principia ; Mr. Edkins, Whewell's Mechanics and works on Western literature ; Mr. Muirhead, English history and universal geography; Dr. Bridgeman, an illus trated history of the United States ; Dr. Martin, Wheaton's International Law, and illustrated vol umes on chemistry, natural philosophy, etc. More even may be said. Many of these works have been reprinted verbatim, by native gentlemen, attesting their literary accuracy ; and some of them have been reproduced in Japan by the Japanese. This has been done mainly since 1850. Romanism shows no such results, after a three hundred years' occupancy of China. It is plain that, with this preparatory work, 624 Problem of Religious Progress. so directly affecting the best thought of the nation, the future of China must belong to Protestantism. Roman Catholic missions in India date back almost to the discovery of America, to the conquest of Goa, by the Portuguese, in 15 10, and were at first conducted by the Franciscans and the Dominicans. The arrival of St. Francis Xavier, in 1542, gave them a new impulse. " Vicarate Apostolics," or in choate dioceses, were established in Verapoli, in 1659; in Bombay and Poona, in 1660; in Further India, in 1624; in Southern Burmah, in 1722, etc. After, 370 years of mission work, Romanism reports,* in all India, Ceylon, Burmah, Siam, and " the Mala bar coasts :" Bishops and archbishops. 19 Priests 1,009 Catholic schools 1,192 Scholars 51,781 Roman Catholic population (estimated) 1,046,932 Protestantism, within the same limits, after 180 years since a few Danish missionaries began their labors in South India, and, for the most part, after less than ninety years of labor, reported : f Statistics Mis'ns not Missions (in India, Burmah, Siam, and >» 1880. reporting. Ceylon) 74 Principal stations 562 3 Sub-stations . 1,642 41 Ordained ministers, foreign and native. . 1,137 6 * Sadlier's Catholic Almanac and Directory, 1879, Part "1 P- WS- \ See Table XLVI in Appendix. Statistical Exhibits. 625 Statistics Mis'ns not in 1880. reporting. Lay assistants, foreign and native 7,093 II Total workers ' 8,230 17 Communicants . . . . : 126,409 4 Hearers 246,018 28 Day-schools 3,741 18 Day-school pupils 181,945 14 These statistics show that the Protestant missions are rapidly outgrowing the Roman Catholic. Prot estant ministers already outnumber the Roman Catholic ; and the day-school pupils of Protestant ism are three and a half times as many as theirs. The " Statesman's Year-Book " for 1894 gives the following statistics from the census of 1891 : Population in all the Presidencies, Provinces, and States of India. Hindus 207,731,727 Sikhs 1,907,833 Jains 1,416,638 Buddhists 7,131,361 Parsees 89,904 Mohammedans .... 57,321,164 Christians 2,284,380 Jews.., 17,194 Animistic 9,280,467 Others..- 42,763 Total 287,223,431 In 188 1 the Christians were reported in the cen sus as 897,216. The 2,284,380 Christians in the census of 1891 are divided as follows : Roman Catholics 1,315,263 Church of England 295,016 Presbyterians 40,407 Dissenters 296,938 Other Protestants 63,967 Total Protestants 696,328 Syrians, Armenians, and Greeks 201,684 626 Problem of Religious Progress. Protestant Missionary Work in Japan for the Year 1893. (Compiled by Rev. H. Loomis, Yokohama.) Name of Mission. 2 > 9* Hi 0) a ft O ¦Bg.Sfi Sk"g ot.i" ¦g.3 « S9 o O Presbyterian Church of the U. S.. . Reformed Church in America United Presb. Church of Scotland. . The Church of Christ in Japan*. . . Reformed Church in the U. S Presb. Church in the U. S. (South) Women's Union Miss. Soc, U. S. . . Cumberland Presb. Church Evangelical Lutheran Mission .U.S.. American Prot. Epis. Churcht Church Missionary Society .' , . Nippon Sei Kokuwai Society for the Prop, of the Gospel . Wycliffe College Mission (Canada). American Baptist Missionary Union. Disciples of Christ Christian Church of America'^ Baptist Southern Convention Kumi-ai Churches, A. B. C. F. M.§ American Meth. Epis. Churcht. . . Canadian Methodist Churcht Evan. Assoc, of North America. . . Methodist Protestant Churcht . . . . American Meth. Epis. Church, South The Scandinavian Japan Alliance. . . . General Evan. Prot. (German-Swiss) . Society of FriendSj U. S . . .' International Missionary Alliance. . . . Unitarian. Universalist Independent 185918591874 18791885 187118771892 1859 18731888 i860 1869 1873 1873 1876 1880 1886189118851885 1890 !| 1 1,126 7 i.5=9 2,652 945 31 1.547 372 199 31 II, 110 4.034 1,987 610 263 507 5.00 4,935-°5 3,089.09 986.07 34.63 1,022 . 14 264 . 48 126.00 20.00 21,667.92 10,149.14 4.374- 81 1,040.86 7I3-4«375- °o 194 51 110.00 30.00 103100 Total of Protestant Missions, 1893 Total of Protestant Missions, 1892 Increase in 1893 37,39835,534 460 62,416 73 63,337.00 This is a sample of tables which might be given for China, India, Africa, etc. * Statistics to August 30, 1893. f To June 30, 1893. X To August 1, 1893. § To March 31, 1893. | Including 1,474 classed as "children."' Statistical Exhibits. 627 Australasia. In Australia one hundred years ago there was not a single civilized man where .there are now fully two millions. All the vast world of Australasia was in a similar condition. In 1879 tne Roman Catholic Church had in all Australasia 285 priests, 135 schools, and 12,379 scholars, 3 dioceses not reporting the last item. In 1880 Protestantism had, Statistics Missions for 1880. not reporting. Missions 17 Principal stations 1,251 2 Sub-stations 891 12 Ordained ministers, native and foreign . . 429 Lay assistants, native and foreign 1,785 II Total laborers 2,214 H Communicants 33.143 2 Hearers 229,955 6 Day-schools 26 14 Pupils 3.658 11 Census of Australia and New Zealand. 1871. 1891. Protestants 1,317,310 2,806,508 Roman Catholics 412,802 799.559 All others 138,802 203,828 In Australia the Church of England numbers 1,252,842 adherents; the Methodists, 371,582; the Presbyterians, 352,007, etc. Other recently occupied fields show a similar nu merical superiority of Protestantism. Only in fields occupied several hundred years ago by Romanism, and less than a century by Protestantism, has Ro manism any preponderance. In respect to moral 628 Problem of Religious Progress. renovation, enlightenment, and social elevation, Protestant mission communities are incomparably superior to those qf the Papal Church. Missions Vindicated by Testimony. Testimonies of the highest authority have at tested the genuine worth, high character, and real progress of Christian missions. A few brief extracts from an official statement in the English " Parlia mentary Blue Book," in 1873, ought not to be omitted : The mission presses in India are twenty-five in number. During the years between 1852 and 1862 they issued 1,634,940 copies of the Scriptures, chiefly single books; and. 8,604,033 tracts, school-books, and books for general circulation. Dur ing the ten years between 1862 and 1872 they issued 3,4io,new works, in thirty languages ; and circulated 1,315.503 copies of books of Scripture, 2,375,040 school-books, and 8,750,129 Chris tian books and tracts. ... A very large number of Christian communities scattered over India are small, especially in the country towns : and they contain fewer than a hundred com municants, and three hundred converts of all ages. At the same time some of these small congregations consist of edu cated men, have considerable resources, and are able to provide for themselves. From them have sprung a large number of native clergy and ministers in different Churches, who have re ceived a high education in English institutions, and who are now taking a prominent place in the instruction and manage ment of our indigenous Christian Church. . . . Taking them together, these rural and aboriginal populations of India, which have received a large share of the attention of the missionary societies, now contain among them a quarter of a million native Christian converts. The principles they T3I^.<3rE.^.2wT. 2S2C-V X. The World's Population Classified. Total, 1,500,000,000. Each tiny square represents 1,000,000. The three white squares represent converts from paganism. Mohammedans, 185,000,000. IHHeathen, 834.000,000.1 Roman Catholic, 223,550,000 II II ¦¦¦I¦¦¦I !¦¦! ¦ Ml iHir— -^=?f ! Hfireek Church" 98.000,000.~; Protestants, 149,955,000. ¦ ¦¦¦¦¦I ¦ ¦¦¦¦¦I {¦¦I Spiritual Vitality. 629 profess, the standard of morals at which they aim, the educa tion and training which they receive, make them no unimport ant element in the empire which the government of India has under its control. These populations must greatly influence the communities of which they form a part ; they are thoroughly loyal to the British crown ; and the experience through which many have passed has proved that they are governed by solid principle in the conduct they pursue. . . . Insensibly a higher standard of moral conduct is becoming familiar to the people, especially to the young, which has been set before them, not merely by public teaching, but by the millions of printed books and tracts scattered widely through the country. . . . And they augur well of the future moral progress of the native population of India, from these signs of solid advance already exhibited on every hand, and gained within the brief period of two generations. This view of the general influence of their teaching, and of the greatness of the revolution which it is silently producing, is not taken by mis sionaries only ; it has been accepted by many distinguished residents in India and experienced officers of the government, and has been emphatically indorsed by Sir Bartle Frere. The following is Sir Bartle Frere's testimony : I assure you that, whatever you may be told to the contrary, the teaching of Christianity among the one hundred and sixty millions of civilized industrious Hindus and Mohammedans in India, is effecting changes, moral, social, and political, which, for extent and rapidity of effect, are far more extraordinary than any thing you or your fathers have witnessed in modem Europe. Lord Lawrence, Viceroy and Governor-General of India, said : I believe, notwithstanding all that the English people have done to benefit India, the missionaries have done more than all other agencies combined. 630 Problem of Religious Progress. " The Friend of India and Statesman," Calcutta, April 25, 1879, contains a remarkable lecture deliv ered by Baboo Keshub Chunder Sen, the leading man in the Church of Brhum, in which this high official bears the following generous testimony in favor of Christian missions : Is not a new and aggressive civilization winning its way day after day, and year after year, into the very heart and soul of the people ? Are not Christian ideas and institutions taking their root, on all sides, in the soil of India? Has not a Christian government taken possession of its cities, its provinces, its vil lages ; with its hills and plains, its rivers and seas, its homes and hearths, its teeming millions of men and women and chil dren ? Yes ! the advancing surges of a mighty revolution are encompassing the land ; and, in the name of Christ, strange in novations and reforms are penetrating the very core of India's heart. Well may our fatherland sincerely, earnestly, ask, "Who is this Christ?" Who rules India ? What power is that that sways the des tinies of India at the present moment? You are mistaken if you think that it is Lord Lytton in the cabinet, or the military genius of Sir Frederick Haines in the field, that rules India. It is not politics, it is not diplomacy, that has laid, a firm hold of the Indian heart. It is not the glittering bayonet, nor the fiery cannon that influences us. . . . Armies never conquered the heart of the nation. No ! If you wish to secure the attach ment and allegiance of India, it must be by exercising spiritual and moral influence. And such, indeed, has been the case in India. You cannot deny that our hearts have been touched, conquered, and subjugated by a superior power. That power is Christ ! Christ rules British India, and not the British Gov ernment. England has sent us a tremendous moral force in the life and character of that mighty Prophet to conquer and hold this vast empire. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, none Statistical Exhibits. 631 but Jesus ever deserved this bright, this precious diadem- India ; and Christ shall have it. India is unconsciously imbibing this new civilization, suc cumbing to its irresistible influence. It is not the British army, I say again, that deserves honor for holding India. If to any army appertains that honor, that army is the army of Christian missionaries, headed by their invincible Captain, Jesus Christ. Their devotion, their self-abnegation, their philanthropy, their love of God, their attachment and allegiance to the truth, all these have found, and will continue to find, a deep place in the gratitude of our countrymen. It is needless for me to bestow eulogium upon such tried friends and benefactors of our country. Mr. Robert Mackenzie has said : * The greatest of all fields of missionary labor is India. . . . For fifty years Hindu youth in increasing numbers have re ceived an English education. A revolution of extraordinary magnitude has been silently in progress during those years, and even now points decisively to the ultimate, although still remote, overthrow of Hindu beliefs and usages. A vast body of educated and influential natives acknowledge that their an cient faith is a mass of incredibilities. A public opinion has been created, by whose help such practices as infanticide and the burning of widows have been easily suppressed. . . . Through the open gateway of the English language English knowledge and ideas and principles are being poured into India. . . . The Hindu mind is awakening from its sleep of ages. ... A higher moral tone is becoming familiar to the people England has undertaken to rescue from the debasement of ages, that enormous multitude of human beings. No enter prise of equal greatness was ever engaged in by any people. Generations will pass away while it is still in progress, but its * The " Nineteenth Century.'' Franklin Square Library, pp. 39, 45. 632 Problem of Religious Progress. final success cannot be frustrated. We who watch it in its early stages see mainly imperfections. Posterity will look only upon the majestic picture of a vast and utterly barbaric population, numbering well nigh one fourth of the human family, subdued, governed, educated, Christianized, and led up to the dignity of a free, self-governing nation by a handful of strangers, who came from an inconsiderable island 15,000 miles away. Mr. Mackenzie says of the missions of South Africa : * Southern Africa was the home of the Bechuanas, a fierce, warlike race, cruel, treacherous, delighting in blood. No trav eler could go among them with safety ; they refused even to trade with strangers. They had no. trace of a religion, no belief in any being greater than themselves, no idea of a future life. . . . Christianity is now almost universal among the Bechu anas. Education is rapidly extending ; natives are being trained in adequate numbers for teachers and preachers ; Christianity is spreading out among the neighboring tribes. The Bechuanas have been changed by Christian missions into an orderly, industrious people, who cultivate their fields in peace, and maintain with foreigners a mutually beneficial traffic. Rev. S. J. Whitmee, missionary at Samoa, said : f At the present time we have in Polynesia nearly two hun dred ordained native ministers doing, in some respects, more than the English and American missionaries. I have had the honor of placing some of these men, as pioneer missionaries, on heathen islands, among the native savages. Then I have afterward seen what God has done by their agency. Whole * The " Nineteenth Century.'' Franklin Square Library, p. 19. f Volume of "London Conference of Foreign Missions," 1878, p. 200. STATISTICAL EXHIBITS. 633 populations of islands and groups of islands have been brought out of idolatry, and have received Christianity and civilization, and all through the agency, not of Englishmen, but of native missionaries. They are Polynesians, who have received the Gospel themselves, whose hearts the grace of God has touched, who have been trained in native colleges, and who have then gone as missionaries to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to their heathen fellow-islanders. Again : Christianity has, also, become a power for good, in most of our older missions, over the people generally. Public morality has been benefited by it. The political, social, and domestic life of people has, to a greater or less extent, received a more healthy moral tone. . . . The Sabbath is usually strictly ob served. Nearly all the people make a practice of attending public worship at least once on the Lord's day. Rev. Dr. A. T. Pierson said : The world has been fully explored. There remains probably no undiscovered territory. The origin and history of every nation have been traced ; languages have been reduced to forms, and literature created. The present marvelous facilities for rapid travel and communication give easy access to all parts of the globe. Commerce of the globe, especially by sea, is in the hands of Protestant nations ; postal and telegraph unions extend into all countries. The Bible has been translated into more than three hundred tongues — the press is greatly utilized. Barriers so completely removed — Christian mission aries under protection of law in every land. A native ministry is developing, and the churches gathered out of heathendom will soon be taking care of themselves. Science's debt to missions is thus described by Archdeacon Farrar: Are not the names of missionaries written in letters of gold upon the annals of mankind as the explorers of unknown 41 634 Problem of Religious Progress. regions, the describers of natural phenomena, the annalists of national customs, the philologists of vanishing languages, the ethnographers of unvisited races, the discoverers of valuable medicines, the translators of immemorial literatures ? Nothing was further from the minds of the first missionaries than the promotion of science, yet none have contributed more materials to its development. Did not Leibnitz desire their assistance for this purpose ? Did not Karl Ritter, the geogra pher, say that without their materials his book could not have been written ? Is it nothing that through their labors in the translation of the Bible the German philologist in his study may have before him the grammar and vocabulary of two hundred and fifty languages ? Who created the science of anthropology? The missionaries. Who rendered possible the deeply important science of comparative religion? The mis sionaries. Who discovered the great chain of lakes in Central Africa on which will turn its future destiny ? The mission aries. Who have been the chief explorers of Oceanica and America and Asia ? The missionaries. Who discovered the famous Nestorian monument in Singar Fu ? A missionary. Who discovered the still more famous Moabite stone ? A Church missionary. Who discovered the Hittite inscriptions? A Presbyterian missionary. A native Hindu paper thus summarizes the work of Carey, Marshman, and Ward at Serampore: They created a prose vernacular literature for Bengal ; they established the modern method of popular education ; they gave the first great impulse to the native press ; they set up the first steam engine in India; in ten years they translated and printed the Bible, or parts thereof, in thirty-one lan guages. From Lord Macaulay : Whoever does anything to depreciate Christianity is guilty of high treason against the civilization of mankind. i Statistical Exhibits. 635 Referring to the depreciation of the work of mis sionaries by infidel tourists, Charles R. Darwin says: The slanderers forget — or rather they will not consider — that human sacrifice, the power of an idolatrous priesthood, a systematically refined sensuality which has no parallel in the world — child murder — that all this is put away and abolished, and that dishonesty and intemperance and impurity have been to a great extent lessened through the introduction of Chris tianity. It is the basest ingratitude on the part of writers of travels to forget this. Were it their lot to stand in expectation of suffering shipwreck on some unknown coast, they would direct a fervent prayer to heaven that the teaching of the missionaries might have reached its inhabitants. These are mighty words coming from Charles R. Darwin. From " The Christian Advocate : " Last year Charles Stewart Smith, President of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, was traveling around the world. The secretary, Mr. George F. Wilson, has received a letter from him in which Mr. Smith says it is the fashion among passengers by the Pacific 'steamers, and of a large number of travelers, to sneer at foreign missionaries. He therefore says that he determined to visit them. After describing what he saw, he says : " My personal observations led me to the con viction that the results concerning the missions are under stated," and adds that he was invited to the principal Hindu Club, and was there introduced to a high-caste Brahman, a distinguished member of the board. He spoke faultless English, was a very interesting man, and said : " Hindu as I am, I want to bear my testimony to the valuable service the American missionaries have rendered to our poor people by their schools. They have forced us in self-defense to open 636 Problem of Religious Progress. Hindu schools for the poor." Those passengers who sneer at American Missions in India, China, or even in Egypt, have never visited them. Many of them would be far better authority as to scenes, with the descriptions of which for home reading they would not like to have their names connected, if eye witnesses or participants. It has been said that, under the influence of pagan superstitions, men evince an inanity and a torpor, from which no stimulus has proved power ful enough to arouse them but the new ideas and principals imparted by Christianity. If not already proved, but little time longer will be needed to demonstrate the fact that Protestant missions are the most effective means ever brought to operate upon the social, civil, commercial, moral, or spirit ual interests of mankind. Commencing at a time when the larger pagan nations (China, Japan, etc.) were inaccessible, Polynesia and Australasia were providentially opened as the trial-ground on which the great problem of foreign missions was to be tested and wrought out. In these dark moral wastes the densest ignorance has been enlightened, the fiercest cannibalism confronted, the lowest con ditions of humanity elevated, the most abomin able idolatries overthrown, and the pure worship of the Prince of Peace substituted. Well-organ ized civil institutions have been established, a lit erature has been created and learned, new ideals of life produced, and new types of society de veloped. Statistical Exhibits. 637 Many of the results of modern missions cannot be definitely expressed. No array of figures, nor terms, nor illustrations, will adequately set them before us. Who can measure the preparatory work, the learning of the imperfect languages, in some cases almost creating them ; the translating-of the Bible into such crude tongues, without words to express the higher forms of thought ; the develop ment of a religious literature, sometimes among people without any literature ; the removal of prej udices seated in the lowest passions ; and the es tablishment of confidence. Mountains and hills have been made plains, valleys exalted, chasms bridged, the far off brought nigh, and foundations laid. The centrifugal aversions of paganism are giving way to the centripetal attractions of Christi anity ; the habitations of cruelty are becoming safe, peaceful abodes ; and the dark vapors and clouds of superstition are vanishing before the brightening light of Gospel day. The translation and diffusion of the Holy Script ures, at once one of the factors and one of the achievements of this world-wide evangelization, de serve particular mention. Passing by, as we have, the semi-millennial anni versary of the first complete translation of the Bible into the English language, we joyfully recognize that grand consummation as one of the great waymarks of the Church's progress. 638 Problem of Religious Progress. Seven great events mark distinct epochs in the history of the Bible : The giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, B. C. 1491 ; the compilation of the Hebrew Bible, by Ezra, B. C. 450; the Septuagint version, B. C. 287 ; the Vulgate version, about A. D. 400; -Wycliffe's version, A. D. 1380; King James' version, 161 1; and the newly-revised En glish version, completed, printed, and issued in our day. Each of these dates has marked an era of more. rapid and widely extended progress of God's king dom. The Pentateuch, for nearly fifteen hundred years, was the basis of the national life and order of a people, who, though numerically small, acted a leading part in the earlier religious movements of the world. The work of Ezra brought into consist ent unity and permanence the fragmentary revela tions of a long dispensation, for the benefit of after ages. The Septuagint invested the Hebrew Script ures in a language the most perfect and beautiful ever written or spoken, and introduced them into the widely-extended realm of letters during the great centuries of ancient classical culture. The Vulgate, appearing simultaneously with the con quest of the old world by Christianity, conveyed the sacred volume to the numerous- rising nations of northern, western, and southern Europe, among whom for centuries the Latin tongue was the cur rent medium of communication. Wycliffe's version Statistical Exhibits. 639 introduced the divine word into the vernacular of a young nation just coming into prominence, and des tined to act a leading part in the most active era of progress the world has ever seen. In King James' version, completed near the close of a period of extended Papal colonization, and at the opening of the period of Protestant colonization in the New World, the Bible has become the corner stone of numerous new Christian States in both hemispheres, the impulse and purifier of our civil ization, and the inspiration of the great world-wide evangelizing movements which are the crowning glory of our age. And may we not confidently an ticipate for the revised version, now recently com pleted, in this age of steamships, railroads, tele graphs, telephones, and electric light, a glorious providential mission in connection with the ad vancement of the divine kingdom, demonstrating anew the wonderful possibilities of the word of God ; that it can live and work with increasing power in all the languages of the successive ages ; that it not only satisfies the advancing necessities of the world, but also leads the column of progress ; that each new verbal investiture, notwithstand ing outward diversities, is both a symbol and a factor of an increasing spiritual unity, bringing the common heart of Christendom nearer to the core of truth, a fresh illustration of the two eternal facts, that God's kingdom is unchanged amid 640 Problem of Religious Progress. changes, and is capable of. perpetual rejuvenes cence. One hundred and thirty years ago, in a room in Geneva, Voltaire boastingly said, " Before the be ginning of the nineteenth century Christianity will have disappeared from the earth." Since that time the very room where these vain words were uttered has been used as a Bible Depository, and Christian ity has won the greatest, the widest, and the most glorious triumphs of her whole history. Of all the periods of religious history, the most wonderful is that included in the ninety years of our times since the organization of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1804 — sometimes called the era of Bible Societies — but, more comprehensively, the era of evangelizing agencies. Numerous data, collected at the opening of this century, show that large por tions of professedly Protestant countries. were with out copies of the sacred Scriptures, and that they could be attained only with great difficulty and at great cost. On the continent of Europe, in Lithuania, among 32,800 families not a Bible could be found ; in Holland one half of the pop ulation was destitute ; in Poland a Bible could scarcely be obtained at any price ; in the district of Dorpat, in a population of 106,000, not 200 New Testaments could be found, and there were Christian pastors who did not possess the Bible in the dialects in which they preached ; in Iceland, Statistical Exhibits. 641 in a population of 50,000, almost all of whom could read, not more than forty or fifty copies of the Bible existed ; in the United States no Bible was published until the close of the Revolution ; the pagan world was wholly destitute, and in Papal countries it did not exist in the dialects of the people. There are libraries in which are to be found copies of every edition of the Bible ever printed, and it is probable that in 1804 there were much less than 5,000,000 of Bibles in all the world, a far greater number, probably, than were in the hands of mankind during the thirty centuries from Moses to Luther. But since 1804 over 200,000,000* copies, in whole or in part, of the word of God have been scattered abroad by the two great Bible societies, more than forty times as many as existed in all the previous thirty-three centuries since the law was given on Mount Sinai. At the beginning of this century the Bible ex isted, in some fifty translations, in the languages of one fourth of the earth's population ; now it exists in the languages of over four fifths of the inhabitants of the world — in 319+ languages and dialects, very many of which had no written form:]: *See Bible Society Record, Nov. 15, 1894, p. 170. f Bible Society Record, Nov. 15, 1894, p. 178. X Within seventy years sixty or seventy languages have been made to possess a literary history. 642 Problem of Religious Progress. until Protestant missionaries created it. Such has been the accelerated progress in our time in supplying the unevangelized world with scriptural knowledge. Many of the results of modern missions are mag nificent. Some of the largest local churches in the world are mission churches, on some of the islands of the Pacific, not sixty years removed from utter barbarism, and now sending out missionaries to other Pacific islands. On the Fiji Islands, whose inhabitants less than fifty years ago feasted on human flesh, nearly one hundred thousand hearers assemble for Christian worship. What a community is this body of Fijians, 99,835 of whom are worshipers in Wesleyan chapels, 10,205 in Roman Catholic chapels, and the balance of the population, 15,367, not specified. The Wesleyans have here 1 1 European missionaries, 70 native ministers, 52 catechists, 1,126 teachers, 2,081 local preachers, 979 churches and 334 other preaching places. In 1820 there was not a native Christian on the Friendly Islands ; now twenty thousand as semble for Sabbath worship, and nearly eight thou sand are enrolled as communicants of the Wesleyan Societies. In i860, forty years after the first mis sion began on Madagascar, there were only a few hundred scattered, persecuted converts. Now the queen and her prime minister, with 450,000 of their subjects, are adherents of Christianity. In 1877 Statistical Exhibits. 643 the last vestige of slavery was abolished on that island. There are in Madagascar 38 missionaries of the London Missionary Society, 16 of the Friends' Mission, 13 of the Anglican Mission, 50 of the Norwegian Lutheran, and 53 Roman Catholic priests. The London Missionary Society has 750 native pastors and 100 evangelists. Out of the 3,500,000 estimated population, 450,000 are Prot estants, arid 50,000 Roman Catholics. The re mainder are still pagans. There are 1,800 Prot estant schools and 170,000 children under instruc tion. Much literature is provided and circulated by the Missionary Societies. Western Africa numbers over 32,000 communicants and over 90,000 Christian hearers. Over 2,000 miles of coast have been reclaimed from the slave-trade, and churches and schools have taken the place of slave-pens. One hundred years ago Polynesia,* with its 12,000 islands, was, for the first time, clearly made » * Rev. S. J. Whitmee, at the London Foreign Mission Confer ence, in 1878, (see volume, p. 268,) gave the following statistics of the Polynesian Missions : 1. Malayo-Polynesian area — Members of the Churches. London Missionary Society 17,025 Wesleyan Missionary Society 10,315 Hawaiian Association 8,739 36,079 *. Micronesian area, (approximate) J,5oo 3. Melanesian area — Wesleyan Missionary Society 26,634 London Missionary Society 3, 105 Presbyterian Missionary Society 783 30,522 Total church members 6S,ioi 644 Problem of Religious Progress. known to Europeans by the discoveries of Captain Cook. Its population was entirely heathen, of the lowest degree, grossly and savagely heathen, their hideous vices sadly contrasting with the wonderful natural beauty of their island groups. Now, by far the greater portion of Polynesia has become, in a good degree, Christianized. Heathenism is mainly confined to the islands in the western portion, upon which the missionary societies are now concentrat ing. The London Missionary Society has under taken the work in New Guinea ; the Melanesian Mission, in the Banks' and Solomon Islands ; the Presbyterians, in the New Hebrides ; the Wesley ans, i-n New Britain and New Ireland ; and the American Board, in connection with the Hawaiian Churches, are widening their labors in Micronesia. More than 60,000 converts were gathered into the Protestant Mission Churches of the world in 1878 — a number nearly equal to the whole number of members of the Mission Churches fifty-five years ago. Marvelous harvests were reaped in India, Bur mah, and Siam. Over 18,000 souls, at once, joined the Anglicans in Tinnevelly, subsequently increased by 6,000 more in the same presidency. About 6,000 converts were added to the Arcot Mission of the Reformed Dutch Church. In the American Baptist Mission, among the Telugus, there was a similar immense ingathering of 10,537 converts in one year. Statistical Exhibits. 645 "Seventy years from the first promulgation of Christianity," said a religious journal, discussing the success of missions, " it is probable^ that there were not more avowed Christians in the world than there are now in India and Burmah." The nominal Christian population of the world, at the close of the second century, has been quite uniformly esti mated at two millions. But the Christian hearers reported on three fifths of the foreign Protestant missions, in 1880, at the close of ninety years since the great English foreign missionary societies were organized, was 1,813,596. Complete returns would probably give more than four millions at the present time, and the enrolled communicants quite two millions. And yet, in the face of these unparalleled results in the widely extended field of the world, and an increase of 9,679,619 communicants in the Evangelical Churches of the United States during the previous ninety years, a writer in the " Catholic World" some years ago had the hardihood to de clare, "All historians agree that the triumphs of Protestantism closed with the first fifty years of its existence." The eyes of India, China, and Japan are turning more and more to Christian lands as the sources whence are to be obtained the blessings of knowl edge and culture. Young men from these three countries, now numbered by hundreds, are enrolled as pupils in our schools and colleges, taking prizes 646 Problem of Religious Progress. at our universities, and fitting for the Christian ministry at our theological seminaries. Japanese princesses, also, have come to join their dusky brothers in Christian halls of science, fulfilling the Scriptures: "The Gentiles shall come to thy light; " "thy sons shall come from far, and. thy daughters shall be nursed by thy side." CHAPTER V. THE WORLD-WIDE VIEW. Christian Populations, Christian Governments, Papal and Protestant Governments. Papal and Protestant Areas. The English-speaking Population. Civil Supremacy of Protestantism. The Ascending Sun. Statistical Exhibits. 649 CHAPTER V. THE world-wide view. THE progress of Christianity during the past one hundred years is one of the most pal pable of all the phases of the world's history. The following table,* published as a conjectural, but probable, estimate of the progressive increase of the number of Christians in the world, in the succes sive centuries, intelligently made up from carefully collated data, has been generally accepted. For the period more especially under consideration — the time since the birth of Protestantism — the fol lowing are the figures : i50o,f 100,000,000 Christians. j 1700, 155,000,000 Christians. 1600, 125,000,000 " I 1800, 200,000,000 " Before 1847 Rev. Sharon Turner said : % "In this nineteenth century the real number of the * See Ferussac, "Bull. Univ. Geog.," January, 1827, page 4. f The statistics of the earlier periods are as follows : Christiana. First century 500,000 Second u 2,000,000 Third " 5,000,000 Fourth " 10,000,000 Fifth " 15,000,000 Sixth " 20,000,000 Seventh " 25,000,000 Chrlituuii. Eighth century 30,000,000 Ninth u 40,000,000 Tenth u 50,000,000 Eleventh " 70,000,000 Twelfth " 80,000,000 Thirteenth " 75,000,00c Fourteenth " 80,000,000 See Mr. Turner's " History of the Anglo-Saxons.'' X " History of the Anglo-Saxons," sixth edit., vol. iii, p. 484, note. 42 650 Problem of Religious Progress. Christian population of the world is nearer to three hundred millions, and is visibly much increasing from the missionary spirit and exertions which are now distinguishing the -chief Protestant nations of the world." The latest estimates are as follows: Year. Christians: Authorities. 1830 228,000,000 Malte Brun.. 1840 300,000,000 Rev. Sharon Turner, D.D. 1850 342,000,000 Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. 1875 394,000,000 Prof. Schem, LL.D. „ 1880 410,900,000 Prof. Schem, LL.D. 1890. 492,865,000 Prof. Keane. 1894 500,000,000 The above are probably the most reliable repre sentations of the later progress of Christianity in the whole world, showing its wonderful growth in later years, far exceeding its previous progress. In fifteen hundred years it gained one hundred mill ions ; then, in three hundred years, it gained one hundred millions more ; then, in eighty years, it gained two hundred and ten millions more, more than as much as in the eighteen centuries previous to 1800. In the last twenty years, one hundred and six millions. During the nearly ten centuries of almost exclusive Papal dominion, Christianity gained only about eighty-five millions. Since the birth of Protestantism, a period about one third as long, it has gained nearly six times as much. And since the great religious quickening of Protestantism A. D i 50,000,000. Illustrating ihe Progress of Christi anity IN ALL THE WORLD, A. D. 1-1890. 500 1000|H 50,000,000. Statistical Exhibits. 651 under the Wesleys and Whitefield, in the middle of the last century, it has gained three hundred and forty-five millions. I. — Population of the Grand Divisions of the World. Table of Prof. A. J. Schem* LL.D., in 1875. Europe 302,973,000 Asia 798,907,000 Africa 206,007,000 America 84, 392,000 Australia 4,563,000 Total 1,396,842,000 Table of Prof. A. H. Keane-]- for 18934 Europe 360,000,000 Asia and Eastern Archipelago 832,000,000 Africa 171,000,000 Australia and Pacific Islands 6,000,000 North America with Central America and West Indies 93,000,000 South America 38,000,000 Total 1,500,000,000 II. — Christian Populations of the World. Prof. Keane says : " The table subjoined requires a little explanation. The Eastern Archipelago is now brought into Asia, and New Guinea left to * See " Methodist Quarterly Review," January, 1876. f See " Church Missionary Intelligencer," London, October, 1894. X Prof. Keane says : "' Allowing for a considerable increase since the- last general censuses of 1890-91, the population of the world in 1893 probably falls little short of, and may even somewhat exceed, 1,500,000,000." 652 Problem of Religious Progress Australia. Over half (7,684,906) of the 'other Christians ' not specified in Europe are French, who at the last census ' declined to make any declaration of religious belief.' Most of the others are Russian sectaries too numerous to specify. The Orthodox Greeks and the Roman Catholics have greatly increased in recent years, as shown by the official populations of Russia (January, 1893, 124,- 000,000, of whom at least 90,000,000 are nominally orthodox); of the Hispansand Lusitans — American States (Brazil, now, 16,000,000); of Austro-Hungary, Italy, etc. There are 6,000,000 Roman Catholics in the Philippine Islands, which are generally over looked in estimating. The figures for the Jews, although differing considerably from those usually given, are prepared from trustworthy sources. The large number of Protestants in America is due to the great increase of the population of the United States. The 160,000 Buddhists in Europe are the Torgot branch of the Kalmucks, who migrated to the lower Volga in the seventeenth century, and of whom that number still remain, the great body of the nation having returned to Zungaria in 1771. The 20,000 pagans in Europe are the Samoyeds and a few Votyaks (Volga Finns)." Prof. Keane is a high authority, in England, in ethnological studies. Though absolute accuracy can not be predicated of such statistics, yet they are in teresting and approximate exhibits — the best of any. Non-Christians and Christians in the world. Europe. Asia, with Eastern Archipelago. America. Australia, with Poly nesia and N. Guinea. Total. Jews .' Mohammedans Hindus and Sikhs Buddhists, Jains, Shintus, Taoists, and followers of Confucius Religions not specified, and sundries. Pagans Total non-Christians. . Roman Catholics Protestants Orthodox Greek Arminians, Syrians, Malchites, Copts, and Abyssinians Other Christians not specified Total Christians. Grand total. . . . 5,500,0005,750,000 160,000 350,000 20,000 260,000 160,000,000 207,000,000 430,000,000 250,000 15,000,000 430,000 40,000,000 300,000 300,000 100,000 15,000 25,000 125,000,000 200,000 14,000,000 14,000 30,000 1,600,000 6,505,000 205.775,000 207,400,000430,174,01,0 830,000 155,620,006 11,780,000 812,510,000 165,730,000 14,600,000 1,684,000 1,006,304,000 156,000,000 86,000,000 92,000,000 300,000 14,000,000 8,500,000 1,000,000 6,000,000 3,000,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 820,000 30,000 3,000,000 57,000,00059,000,000 850,000 3,135,000 30,000 223,550,000 149,955,000 98,030; 000 6,300,000 15,030,000 348,300,000 19,500,000 5,050,000 116,000,000 4,015,000 492,865,000 360,080,000 832,010,000 170,780,000 130,600,000 5,699,000 1,499,169,000 >HenH1— 1 n>r1 PI X X H en o> Note. — My previous table of European populations varies very little from the above, but it was made up independ ently of this and based on the "Statesman's Year- Book." The variations are not material. See Appendix, pp. 749, 750. 654 Problem of Religious Progress. III.— Relative Number of Christians who are Roman Catholics, Protestants, etc. 1875. i8go. Roman Catholics 201,800,000 223,550,000 Protestants 111,200,000 149,955,000 Eastern Church 81,000,000 98,030,000 Not specified 6,000,000 21,330,000 Total... 400,000,000 492,865,000 Percentage of the Whole. 1875. 1890. Roman Catholics 50.4 45 .5 Protestants 27.3 30.6 Greek Church 20.2 18.2 Actual Increase. Relative Increase. Roman Catholics 21,750,000 10.9 Protestants 38,755,000 34.0 Eastern Church 17,030,000 21.0 IV. — Populations Under Christian Gov ernments. But the portion of the earth's population under Christian governments has increased even more rap idly than the number of Christians, as will be seen by the following well-established figures : Under Christian Governments. Year. Population. Authorities. 1500 100,000,000 Rev. Sharon Turner, D.D. 1700 155,000,000 Rev, Sharon Turner, D.D. 1830 387,788,000 Adrian Balbi. 1875 685,459,411 Prof. Schem, LL.D. 1890 890,901,277 Prof. Keane. These figures show the wonderful growth of the Christian nations, the enlargement of their national domains, and the increase of their populations. They demonstrate the rapid extension of Christian Statistical Exhibits. 655 influences and the Christian subjugation of th'6 world. Nearly nine times the number of people are under the control of Christian nations as at the opening of the sixteenth century, when Protestantism arose. The increase since Wesleyanism arose in England has been equal to half of the population of the globe. But has this wonderful increase been in the Greek, or the Roman Catholic, or the Protestant form of Christianity? Let us examine this question by looking at a succession of tables. The following table, based upon statistics furnished in Seaman's "Progress of Nations," will show the relative strength of these forms of Christianity in the world in the year 1700: Pop'n under Pop'n under Pop'n under Countries. Roman Catholic Greek Church Protestant Governments. Governments. Governments. Italy and islands 18,000,000 Spain and Portugal 13,500,000 France and colonies 20,700,000 Great Britain and colonies . 9,000,000 Ireland 2,400,000 Holland and colonies 1,800,000 Belgium 1,400,000 Prussia 7,500,000 Denmark and colonies 1,300,000 Sweden and Norway 2,400,000 Germany 8,500,000 Switzerland 1,500,000 Austria and Hungary 18,000,000 Poland 3,000,000 Span, and Portuguese Am.. 13,000,000 Russia 17,000,000 Greece and isles 12,000,000 Africa, etc 4,000,000 Total 90,000,000 33,000,000 32,000,000 656 Problem of Religious Progress. In the year 1500 about 80,000,000 of people were under Roman Catholic governments, and not far from 20,000,000 under the Greek Church govern ments. The following estimates by Adrian Balbi for 1830, and by Prof. Schem for 1875, will serve our p Year. 1500. . urpose : Pop'n under Roman Catholic Governments. 80,000,00090,000,000 134,164,000180,787,905 242,822,264 Pop'n under Greek Church Governments. 20,000,00033,000,000 60,000,000 96,101,894 127,975,823 Pop'n under Protestant Governments. Total. 100,000,000 1700. . 1830. . 1875..1890 . 32,000,000 193,624,000 408,569,612520,103,190 155,000,000 387,788,000685,459,4"890,901,277 Latest Table of Populations Under Chris tian Governments.* The civil ascendency and control of the world is a question of great interest. It is a remarkable fact that the dominant civil influence of the world is rapidly becoming Christian in some form — Roman Catholic, or Eastern Church, or Protestant — but more rapidly Protestant than either of the others. States, including Area Square Miles. Population. Colonies and Departments. 1875. 1890. 187s- 1890. Under Protestant Governments " Rom. Cath. " " East. Church " 14,337^87 9,304,6058,778,123 15,618,81511,860,150 8,756,310 408,569,612 180,787,905 96,101,894 520,103,190242,822,264 127,975,823 Total under Christian Gov'ts. . 32,419,915 36,235,275 685,459)4" 890,901,277 Per Cent. To, Area. Per Cent. To. Popula'n. Under Protestant Governments . "' Rom. Cath. u 11 East. Church u 27-5 17.816.8 29.9 22.7 16.8 29.2 12. q 6.8 35-7 16.2 8-5 Total under Christian Gov'ts. . . 62.4 69.6 40.2 59-4 * See full tables in the Appendix. Statistical Exhibits. 657 V. — Colonies, Dependencies, and Possessions of Christian Governments. An interesting feature is the reaching out of Chris tian nations among pagan nations in the establish ing of Colonies and Dependencies, thus extending the sway of Christian governments. British. Empire. Square Miles. Population. Great Britain and Ireland. 121,115 38,500,000 Indian Possessions 1,600,000 288,350,000 Other Eastern -Possessions. 104,441- 4,169,000. Australasia, etc 3,403,405 4,200,000 America (North) 3,525,000 5,200,000 " (South), t 76,000 285,000 Africa* 295,000 4,000,000 West Indies 20,343 1,136,000 European Possessions 124 185,500 Total 9,145,428 346,025,500 German Empire. Localities. Date of Acquisition. Estimated Area. Estimated Population, 18841884 1884-901885-90 1884-90 208,738 49,428,470 In Africa. 16,000 130,000 350,000 400,000 500,000 German South West Africa 0 0 p 0 _ 0 b" 00 00 896,000 6,200,000 * Whitaker's "London Almanac" for 1894 says: "If to these figures we add the recent ' Annexations,' ' Influences,' or perhaps the truer and more expressive word ' grabbings,' in Africa, the area will be extended to 11,190,513 square miles, and population yet unnum bered." 65S Problem of Religious Progress. German Empire, (Continued.) Localities. Date of Acquisition. Estimated Area. Estimated Population. In the Pacific. Kaiser Wilhelm's Land.. . . Bismarck Archipelago 1885-86 188518861886 72,000 19,000 9,000 150 IIO.OOO 190,000 90,000 16,000 Total Pacific Possessions. 100,150 406,000 996,150 6,606,000 1,204,888 56,034,470 In Europe. In Asia.. . . Russia. Area. 2,095,504 6,564,778 Total Russia 8,660,282 Population. 99,531,929 17,694,981 II7,226,giO A very large part of this extension has occurred between 1886 and 1892. France. Localities. Date of Acquisition. Area. Population. 1679-1893 163 7-1890 1626-16351841-1888 204,092 38,343,192 137,903 876,734 48,040 9,165 17,159,69214,564,654 377,203 92.995 Total Colonies with Algeria. 1,071,842 32,194,544 Total France 1,275,934 70,537,736 Statistical Exhibits. 659 Besides the above, France claims a sphere of influence over Tunis, Madagascar, Annam, Cam bodia, Comoro Isles, and the Sahara region, mostly since 1880, comprising 1,412,940 square miles, and 14,547,000 people. Portugal. Localities'. Date of Acquisition. Area in Square Miles. Population. 1878-18851878-1887 34,038 4,708,178 In Africa and isles . . . In Asia and isles .... 735,304 7,900 4,431,970 939,320 743,204 5,371,200 Total Portugal .... 777,242 9.779,378 Spain. Localities. Date of Acquisition. Area in Square Miles. Population. 1885 .197,670 I7,565,632 In Asia and isles .... 45,205 116,256 243,877 2,438,395 7,121,172 136,000 . 405,338 9,695,567 603,008 27,261, 199 Italy. Localities. Area in Square Miles. Population. 110,623 30,535,848 Possessions. 3.IOO 420 580 250,000 2,000 6,800 660 Problem of Religious Progress. Italy, (Continued.) Localities. Area in Square Miles. Population. Protectorate. Afar, or Danakil, and Suit, of Aussa. l8,O0O 34,O0O 300,000 igO.OOO 200,000 , 200,000 600,000 5,000,606 Total Possessions and Protectorate 546,100 6,258,800 Total Italy 656,723 36,794,648 Total Colonies, Possessions, Dependencies, and Pro tectorates. Area. British Empire 9,024,213 German Empire. ..... . 996,150 Russia 6,564,778 France.. 1,071,843 Portugal 743,204 Spain 405,338 Italy 546,100 Total 19,351,626 Population. 307,525,500 6,606,000 17,694,98132,194.544 5,371,200 9,695,567 6,258,800 385,306,592 The above shows over one third of the area, and more than one fourth of the people of the world, now under the dominion of Christian governments, were, only a little time ago, under pagan or Moham medan rule. One hundred and ninety years ago only 1 5 5,000,000 of the earth's population were under Christian gov ernments. Then the Grand Seignior, the Sophi, and the Great Mogul were the most potent arbiters of the destinies of the race. Nearly all Asia and Africa were under pagan and Mohammedan sway. Statistical Exhibits. 661 The mighty worlds of Australasia, Polynesia, and the Indian Archipelago lay in the undisturbed slumbers of savagery and superstition. Scarcely four hundred thousand Protestant colonists occu pied both American continents ; all the remainder was pagan or Catholic. All the religious missions of the world, excepting a few among the aborigines in the American colonies, were Papal, and the only religion not disseminating itself and gaining ground was the Protestant. Great Britain and her colonies did not number ten millions of people. Now she : comprises a population of almost three hundred and fifty millions* under her civil sway. The population under Roman Catholic govern ments in the year 1700, as we have seen, was 90,000,000. This has increased to 242,822,264 in 1890, two and a half fold. The population under the Greek Church governments in 1700 was 33,000,000. This increased to 127,975,823, quadrupling. The population under Protestant governments in 1700 was 32,000,000. This increased to 520,103,190 in 1890, a more than sixteen fold increase. While Romanism brought 152,822,264 more people under her sway, Protestantism extended her dominion over 488,103,190 more people — an actual gain more than * According to the census for 1891 the inhabitants of India were 288,350,000, almost the whole of them were directly governed by British rulers, and a small number by native governments dependent upon the British. 662 Problem of Religious Progress. three times as great as that of Romanism in the same period. In these calculations Italy, France, and Mex ico, rapidly passing out from under the civil control of the Papacy, are reckoned with Romanism. In twenty years more they will probably be transferred to the other side, and much of South America also. Transferring them to the class of Protestant States and we will have the following exhibit : Area. Population. Protestant States 17,052,242 600,624,950 Roman Catholic States 10,426,723 160,300,504 Greek Church States -8,778,123 127,975,823 This calculation is made on the supposition that the population remains stationary and is only trans posed, and colonial populations are left out entirely. The Roman Catholic and the Protestant popula tions of the world, which were not long ago sup posed to be nearly equal, the transitions from the one to the other nearly balancing, have relatively changed very greatly during the last thirty years, the preponderance being now very largely in favor of Protestant nations. The losses and gains of Ro manism and Protestantism are now far from balanc ing each other, the preponderance of the gains being immensely in favor of Protestantism. The signs of the times clearly indicate that the future will bring still greater relative gains to Protestantism. In Spain, Italy, France, Mexico, Chili, and in almost every Catholic country of the globe, Protestantism is gaining more rapidly and substantially than Statistical Exhibits. 663 Romanism is gaining in any country wholly or pre dominantly Protestant. Under the spread of toler ation, other papal lands are opening to the introduc tion of Protestantism, and Rome is losing her exclu sive hold upon other long-occupied seats of power. While Rome is thus losing to a great extent the control of the great nations hitherto nominally con nected with her, it must be admitted that she is making some gains in the aristocracy of some Prot estant countries. The number of Roman Catholic peers in Great Britain, in one hundred years, in creased from nine to more than thirty. In Germany the facts are similar. The Marquis of Bute and the Count of Schonburg are examples. The explana tion of this fact is not difficult. The aristocracy of those countries is no less opposed to the liberalizing tendencies, of modern civilization than Rome, and is thus drawn into natural alliance with Rome. She may still continue to make such gains, and increase her wealth ; but among the masses of the people the effect can only be favorable to Protestantism. The opposition to the principles, of progress and liberty is more and more centering in the Roman Catholic Church ; and the plainer this becomes the sooner will society emancipate itself from her influ ence, for the irreversible drift of the world is in the direction of popular freedom. Looking at the territorial area of the earth, we notice similar progress. The latest computations 664 Problem of Religious Progress. fix the total area at 52,062,470 square miles, of which Christian nations have under their civil con trol 32,419,915 square miles; and the pagan and Mohammedan, 19,624,555 — three fifths Christian and two fifths pagan and Mohammedan. Dividing the Christian nations, we find under the civil dominion of Protestant governments, 14,337,187 square miles; under Roman Catholic, 9,304,605 square miles ; and under Greek Church governments, 8,778,123 square miles. " The acquisition of foreign territory by Great Britain is without a parallel in the history of the human family. She bears rule over one third of the surface of the globe, and one fourth of its popula tion. Her possessions abroad are in area sixty times larger than the parent State. She owns three millions and a half of square miles in America, one million each in Africa and Asia, and two and a half millions in Australia. These enormous acquisitions have been gained chiefly within the last hundred years. There are thirty-eight separate colonies, or groups of colonies, varying in area from Gibraltar with its two miles, to Canada, with three million and a half. Their population aggregates eleven millions, and steadily continues to increase." * Great changes are also taking place in the pre vailing language of the world, the English coming more than ever to be the means of intercommuni- * " The Ninteenth Century," p. 45. Statistical Exhibits. 665 cation among the great nations. Baron Kolb, the German statistician, after extensive research, has given the following statement of the prevalence of leading languages. The German is spoken by fifty to sixty millions of people ; the French and Span ish, by forty millions each; the Russian, by fifty- five millions ; and the English, by eighty millions. "Whitaker's Almanac" for 1881 (p. 157) puts the latter at eighty-one millions. The last authority has materially increased his estimate, such are the wondrous growths. The following are Whitaker's estimates for two periods : 1881. 1891. Episcopalians 18,000,000 28,750,000 Methodists ,.. 14,250,000 18,500,000 Presbyterians 10,250,000 12,000,000 Baptists 8,000,000 9,200,000 Congregationalists 6,000,000 6,100,000 Unitarians 1,000,000 2,500,000 Lutheran, German, or Dutch 2,500,000 Minor sects 1,500,000 5,000,000 Total Protestants 59,000,000 84,550,000 Roman Catholics 13,500,000 15,300,000 Of no particular religion 8,500,000 21,000,000 Total English-speaking people. 81,000,000 120,850,000 Whitaker adds : English bids fair to become the universal language ; already it is more widely spread and more freely spoken than any other tongue. In Europe it is regarded as the language of polite society. On the vast Australian and North American conti nents it is the one speech; and in the East fully 18,000,000 of 43 666 Problem of Religious Progress. Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and others read and speak English. In point of numbers at the present time it is exceeded by the Chinese alone. In the year 1800 the English-speaking popula tion of the globe did not exceed twenty-four mill ions, of which five millions and a half were Roman Catholics ; four millions and a half were of no par ticular religion ; and fourteen millions were Prot estants. According to this analysis the English- speaking population has increased four hundred per cent. ; the Roman Catholic population among English-speaking .people two hundred per cent. ; and the Protestant English-speaking population five hundred per cent. The Bible, in the year 1800 existing in the^ lan guages of only one fifth of the earth's population, has now been translated into the languages of nine tenths of the inhabitants of the world. A writer makes this statement : " It is a curi ous fact that while Queen Victoria speaks German in her home circle, the present German Empress disregards it in hers, and uses English as much as possible. English is the fireside tongue of the Greek, Danish, and Russian royal families." In the Middle Ages the Roman Catholic Church exerted the controlling influence in civil legislation and administration all over Europe. It claimed the sole right of dictating legislation, exempted its priests and, monks from civil jurisdiction, and ac- Statistical Exhibits. 667 cumulated within its hands a very large portion of the wealth of the nations. The Reformation was a movement in the direc tion of freedom. It sought to break this exclusive control of the Church over the State, and to make all citizens equal before the law. Immense ad vances have every-where been made toward the realization of this reform. "Although the Catholic Church has still a larger membership than all the Reformed Churches combined, the power and com manding influence upon the destinies of mankind are more and more passing into the hands of States and governments which are separated from Rome. In the New World, the ascendency of the United States and British America, in both of which Prot estantism prevails, over the States of Spanish and Portuguese America, is not disputed even by Cath olics. In Europe, England has become the great est world power, and, in its wide dominions, new great Protestant countries are springing into exist ence, especially in Australia and South Africa. In Germany, the supreme power has passed from the declining Catholic house of Hapsburg to the Prot estant house of Hohenzollern, and the new Prot estant German Empire marks an addition of the greatest importance to the aggregate power of the Protestant world. The combined influence of the three great Teutonic peoples, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, continues to be cast 668 Problem of Religious Progress. in a steadily increasing ratio, for the defense of that freedom from the dictation of Rome which was first won by the Reformation. That freedom is now not only fully secured against any possible combination of Catholic States, but the Parliaments of most of the latter, as France, Austria, Italy, Portugal, are as eager in the defense of this princi ple as the Protestant States. Thus it may be said that, after an existence of about three hundred and fifty years, the Reformation hds totally annihilated the influence of Rome upon the laws and the govern ment of the civilized world'' * " Once the slightest whispers of the Roman pon tiff upon political affairs caused every throne of Europe to nod;" but now his utterances are of " little more account than the ghosts of Tam O'Shan- ter." How greatly has the area of liberty extend ed since the days of Louis XV. and George II. Thirty years ago an able writer said, " We do not despair of yet hearing a Protestant sermon within the gates of the Eternal City." It is now more than an accomplished fact, for Protestant Churches, Sunday-schools, and Bibles are penetrating all Italy, and are established under the very shadow of St. Peter's. Protestantism has steadily gained power, and widely extended the blessings of a higher civ ilization. The Anglo-Saxon race, now in the ascendant, that has stretched its power over Amer- * M'Clintock & Strong's "' Cyclopaedia," art., Reformation. Statistical Exhibits. 669 ica, India, and Australia, has " a history and a temperament that will never allow it to become the craven minion of R ome." How marvelous the changes that have taken place in China within thirty years. This exclusive, circumvallated people have admitted innovation after innovation, and are accepting the Christian civilization, as a thing no longer to be resisted. Japan is putting on the new civilization as a gar ment, effecting changes in her political constitu tion and social habits, the like of which no other State ever accomplished in a century. Very early one morning several hundred eager tourists, in scanty apparel, stood shivering on one of the Alpine summits, waiting the rising of the sun. So long was his approach delayed, that it seemed as though somewhere in the far East un expected events had detained him. Soon deep shadows began to lift and retire, and purple streaks gleamed athwart the eastern horizon. Clearer and louder notes from an Alpine horn roused the weary waiters to the tiptoe of expectation ; and on the cloudless blue there soon formed a band of gold, swiftly growing in brilliancy, until the full-orbed sun blazed, and blinded all eyes with its brightness.* Long ago the purple streaks and dispersing shadows of the world's great day-dawn and the fillet of its earliest rays appeared. Christianity is *Rev. J. L. Withrow, D.D. 670 * Problem of Religious Progress. now far beyond its dawn. We see something more than the purple tints of Christ's kingly presence in the affairs of men. Though dark shadows, hideous specters and poisonous malaria still lin ger in deep vales, yet we behold his rising glory,, diffusing light and warmth, purifying and sweet ening the world. Higher and higher is Christ's scepter lifted. Willing nations, rejoicing in the day of his power, " To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown him Lord of all." In the last moments of the Convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, while the members were affixing their signatures to the document, Benjamin Franklin arose in his seat, and pointing to a painting of the rising sun on the wall behind the President, said : " Painters, in their art, have found it difficult to distinguish between a rising and a setting sun. I have often, in the course of the session of this convention, in the vi cissitudes of hope and fear as to its issue, looked at that picture, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun." There have been periods, since the conquest of the old Roman world by Christianity, when some friends have entertained grave doubts whether it would not soon go down in darkness and wholly Statistical Exhibits. 671 disappear. Many times have its enemies confi dently predicted such disaster. But, at the present time, no intelligent person, standing in the light of the last four centuries, and beholding the great religious movements of this age, can doubt whether Protestant Christianity is a setting or a rising sun. Every year it is robing itself in fuller effulgence, and pouring its blessed illumination upon new millions of earth's benighted children. How marvelous the advances of Christ's kingdom in our days ! What a privilege to be witnesses and sharers in the great movements ! That devout commentator, Rev. Albert Barnes, deeply inter ested in the kingdom of God, rejoicing in its ad vances, and the clear indications of still greater strides of progress soon to come, was accustomed often to say that he would like to live a hundred years longer than the allotted term of human life, that he might participate in the glories of the grand advancing era. Much yet remains to be done. Heavy duties and arduous toils are before us. Stern battles are to be fought All along the vast lines of Christ's militant hosts the conflict rages. Skepticism and worldliness are rallying their forces. Subtle and specious forms of evil are seeking to undermine and destroy. But over the storm of battle hangs the bright bow of promise ; and tidings, from afar 672 Problem of Religious Progress. and near, of mighty conquests cheer us. Even in the tomb, where some think faith is being buried, we see the angels of resurrection standing. The rapidly accumulating treasures of humanity are being joyfully laid at the feet of the Son of God. The utilities of art, invention, and enterprise ; the sublimest discoveries of science and exploration; the broadest researches of history, ethnography, and philology ; the beautiful charities of the good ; the best thought of the wise ; the cultured ameni ties of the rich and the loving gratitude of the poor, unite in a common homage, and chant hymns of praise to the great Redeemer. " The continual and steady growth of Christianity, its vigorous life in spite of various seasons of una voidable ebb, and notwithstanding the presence of many sources of corruption, and its continual reju venescence, are no ordinary proof of its divine origin, as well as of its superior fitness for the position in the world which it claims to occupy." * * " Encyclopaedia Britannica," ninth edition, art. " Christianity." APPENDIX. ECCLESIASTICAL AND SOCIAL STATISTICS. The United States. Tables I to XXV. The British Islands. Tables XXVI to XXXII. Ecumenical Statistics. Tables XXXIII to LII. APPENDIX. ECCLESIASTICAL STATISTICS. UNITED STATES. TABLES I TO XVII. TABLE I.' Churches and Ministers in 1775. Denominations. Congregational Episcopalian, Protestant Baptist Presbyterian Lutheran German Reformed Dutch Reformed Associate Reformed Moravian Methodist" Total Churches. Ministers. 700 575 300 250 380 350 3°0 140 60 25 60 25 60 25 20 13 8 12 30 20 1,918 1.435 1 All this table, except the item in regard to the Methodist Church, then not organized as a national body, was taken from Rev. Dr. Baird's " Religion in America," p. 210. Harper & Brothers, 1856. There were 52 Roman Catholic Churches and 26 priests not included in this table. ?-The ." Minutes " for 1775. give 20 preachers, 10 circuits, and 3,418 members. Each circuit comprised several societies, or Church organizations. 6j6 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE II. Churches, Ministers, and Communicants, 1800. Denominations. Church Organiza tions or Minis Congrega tions.* ; ters. 1,500 T 200 8lO 600 • • ¦ ¦ 287 500 300 320 264 3,030 2,651 Communi cants. Baptists, Regular " Baptists, Free-will * Congregational * Friend « Methodist Episcopal Church * Presbyterian ',.-.. Protestant Episcopal8 Smaller Bodies. Lutheran, Dutch, and German Reformed, Seventh-day Baptist, Six-Principle Bap tist, Mennonite, Moravian, etc., estim'd. Total 100,000 3,000 75,000 50,00064,894 40,000 9 n,973 20,000 1 In some cases the congregations are given. ^^~ 9 " Christian Retrospect and Register," by Rev. Dr. Baircf, p. 220 ; also arti cles on the " History of the Baptists,"by Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., in "Ameri can Quarterly Register," 1841-42. * Appleton's old " Encyclopedia," article, FreeTwill Baptists. * " Historical Sketches of Congregationalism," by Rev. Joseph S. Clark, D.D., and Dr. Baird's " Christian Retrospect and Register," p. 220. ' Estimated. • u General Minutes of Methodist Episcopal Church." ' Rev. Robert Baird, D.D. * " Episcopal Record," i860. * Dr. Baird, in " Report to Evangelical Alliance, ' 1850, set the nnmberof com municants at 16,000, in 1800. TABLE III. Churches, Ministers, and Communicants, 1850. Denominations. Church Organiza tions or Congrega tions.' Minis ters. 2 Communi cants.8 Baptist,1 Regular, North • 3,557 4,849 2,6652,477 296,614390,193 South' 8,406 5,142 686,807 APPENDIX. 677 TABLE III, (Continued.) Denominations. Church Organiza tions or Congrega- tions.1 Baptist, Free-will * " Seventh-day * " Seventh-day German*. " Six-Principle*... .... " Anti-mission * Total Baptist Congregational " Disciple, or Campbellite * Dutch Reformed • Dunker * Episcopal, Protestant ,0 EvangeUcal Association u Friend (Evangelical) (est'd by Friends). . German Reformed * Lutheran 8 , Mennonite * Moravian s , Methodist Episcopal Church13 Protestant".Wesleyan15 . Primitive16. . Reformed 16 . Stillwellite 16. Total Methodist South16.. African 16 " Zion16 Presbyterian, Old School 18 " New School19 " Reformed General Synod of, in North America M . . Ref 'd Synod of, in N. Am." " Associate 16 " Associate Reformed 16 .... ''¦ Cumberland21 " Other small bodies (est'd) . Total Presbyterian Minis ters.2 1,126 7121 2,035 »,659 i,97i1,8/ 286 152 1,350 200600 1,603 400 31 867 58 4 25 907 7,003 1,687 848 299 160 i,595 195 260 1,400 240 27 4,129 i,556 .127 7i 807 400 1250 Communi cants.8 50,223 6,351 400 3,586 67,845 815,212 197,197118,618 33,780 7,849 89,359 "21,374 70,00070,000 163,000 25,000 3,027 "693,811 "514,299 "22,127 "4.817 "65,815"21,400 "l,II2 "2,050 200 8I7,0O0 2,595 1,568 63 50 214 332500 5,322 "7,152 "1,325,631 1,926 207,754 1,473 139,797 43 6,800 33 6,000 120 18,000 219 26,340 450 75,000 8,000 4,264 487,691 678 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE III, (Continued.) Denominations. Church Organiza tions or Congrega tions." Minis ters." Communi cants.8. 5O0 IOO 450 75 40,000 800 United Brethren sa "50,450 II.OOO 43,072 25,655 3,529,988 1 In some cases, probably, congregations are reported instead of Church or ganizations. „ 2 Local preachers and licentiates not included. 3 Some Churches include baptized children, but not many. ~* " Baptist Almanac," 1851. 6 Divided on the basis of the two General Conventions, which, since the schism in 1845, have not affiliated, as is also the case with the Methodist Episcopal Churches, North and South, and the Presbyterian. fl Free-will Baptist lL Register," for 185 1. 7 Seventh-day Baptist tl Manual," for 1852. 8 "Christian Almanac," 1850, and Dr. Baird's "Christian Retrospect and Register." B u Christian Retrospect and Register," by Dr. Baird. 10 " Church Almanac." 11 Official document, number of churches estimated. 12 Ministers added with members to make the total communicants, as with the Methodist bodies, because of peculiarities of Church polity. See *l Methodist." 13 u Minutes of the Methodist Episcopal Church," 1850. 1 " Annual Minutes,1 1870. 81 "Methodist Almanac," 1871. 2a Appleton's , "Annual Cyclopedia," 1870. 's " N. Y. Observer Year-Book," 1871. " " Minutes " of said Church, 1871. •• " Official Minutes," 1870. a« For 1866. *> " New York Observer Year-Book," 1871. '» Estimated by Revs, J. Litch and J. V. Hines. Appendix. 68 i TABLE V. Churches, Ministers, and Communicants, 1880. ¦ EVANGEUCAL DENOMINATIONS. Baptist,6 Regular, North6. . " " South6... Colored6 . Total Baptist, Free-will' Minor bodies 8. . . . Anti-mission6 Seventh-day* " " German (estimated) Six-Principle 6 Total Baptist Congregational (Orthodox)11 Disciple18. Dunker " Episcopal, Protestant14 Reformed16 Evangelical Association1' Friend, Evangelical (partly estimated) . Lutheran,18 General Council " General Synod, South " " " North " Independent. " Synodical Conference Total Lutheran Methodist Episcopal11 South88 African84 '• Zion86.. Colored8' Congregational 8T Free88 Primitive88 Protestant8' Reformed (estimated) Union American86 Wesleyan in United States89 Total Methodist . 44 131 6,782 13,827 5,451 26,060 1.432 900 9425 20 1028,53l 3,743 5,100 250 63,ooo 1.477 392 1,151 214 1,285 913 1,990 "5,553 '29,278 5,280 8,227 3,089 16,596 1,213 400 no 18,331 3,6543.782 200 3,432 100893 200624 122 841369 1,176 3,132 12,096 3,887 i,738 1,800 638 225260 52 1,385 101 400 22,582 "aji «w a So-a 608,556 1,026,413 661,358 2,296,327 78,012 25,000 40,000 8,539 3,000 2,000 2,452,878 384,332 591,821 60,000 338,333 9,448 112,197 60,000 184,974 18,223 123,813 69,353 554,505 8»95o,868 8i,755,oi8 832,189 387,566 300,000 112,938 I3i75o12,318 3,369 135,000 3,0002,250 17,087 B3,574,485 682 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE V, (Continued.) Evangelical Denominations. ¦81*1 I s m m S o a Mennonite (estimated). Moravian98 Presbyterian, General Assembly 8I South81 ' ' United, of North A merica81 " Cumberland81 " Synod of Reformed81 . . . " Gen. Synod of Reformed*" " Welsh Calvinistic88 " Associate Synod of South81 " „ Other bodies (estimated) Total Presbyterian. Reformed Church (late Dutch)81 " " (late German) M Second Advent86 Seventh-day81 United Brethren8' Winebrennarian, or Church of God 6 . . German Evang'l Ch. Union, Bible Chris tians, Schwenkfelders, Bible Union, River Brethren, little known (estimat'd) 300 84 5,489 1,928 813 2,457 "7 50 137 112 350 94 5,0441,060 684 1,386 in 32 100121 11,103 510 1,405 800 "^o 4,524 400 8,538 544 748 600 144 2,196 350 50,000 9.491 578,671 120,028 82,119 111,863 io,473 6,800 11,000 6,686 10,000 937,640 80,208 155,857 70,000 15,570 157,835 30,000 25,000 Aggregate 97,09069,870 10,065,963 1 The "Year-Books" for 1881 contain the statistics for 1880; but some of the " Annual Minutes " of the Churches give the statistics for the given year. 3 In some cases the congregations are reported ; in others, only the organized Churches. s Local preachers and licentiates not included. * A few denominations reckon baptized children as members, but by far the smaller part. * " Baptist Year-Book," for 1881. * Divided on the basis of the two General Conventions, North and South, which are as separate as the Methodist and the Presbyterian Churches, North and South. The colored associations are also independent of the others. ' Free-will Baptist " Register," for 1881. 8 Ibid., 1880. 9 " Minutes of Seventh-day Baptist Convention," for 1880. 10 Probably to some extent congregations. See references 14 and 15, under previous table. 11 Official Statistics, furnished by Rev. A. H. Quint, D D., 1881. 12 Furnished by Rev. F. W. Green, Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Disciples. 13 Official returns for 1877. Appendix. 683 14 " Church Almanac, for 1881." Another Almanac, a few more. 1B Parishes. 16 Statistics published after late Convention. 17 "Almanac Evang. Ass'n, 1881. 18 " Lutheran Church Almanac," 1881. 19 Congregations. 20 Including baptized children in some Synods. ai To December, 1880. 19 Including ministers, because not reckoned elsewhere as communicants, and also probationers. See explanation under Table III. - 33 " Almanac of Methodist Episcopal Church, South/' for 1881. " " Official Report," for 1880. 26 Furnished by Rev. R. 6. Dyson, a prominent minister of said Church. 26 ,l Methodist Almanac," 1881. a7 Furnished for 1880 by a leading minister. 28 " Minutes," for 1880. ¦» Minutes of said Church, for 1879. 80 Church organizations of the Methodist Churches are not published in the 11 Minutes," and therefore cannot be accurately gathered. The " United States Census" reported 25,278 for all Methodist bodies in 1870. It is a moderate esti mate to suppose that they have since increased 4,000. One branch of Methodism has increased its church edifices 3,700 since 1870. « " Official Minutes," 1880. « Furnished by Rev. David Steele, D.D., Phila. 88 Report of the Second Council of the Presbyterian Alliance, p. 963. " " Almanac of Refd Ch.," 1881. SB Estimated by leading Advent officials. 86 Congregations. S7 u Almanac of United Brethren,1* for 1881. TABLE VI. Church Organizations and Communicants. (From United States Census, 1890, classified by the author.) Denominations. Ministers. Church Organiza tions. Communi cants or Members. /. Evangelical Bodies. Adventists : 883 19 9434 50 284 580 29953028 995 25,8l6 647 3. Church of God in Christ Jesus. 2,872 1,147 I,0l8 28,991 1,364 80 1,493 118 332300 2,040 6,685 8,957 1,757 152 1,586 167 399 473 3,222 7,9°7 16,238 60,491 Baptists: 8,254 87,898 11,864 21,362 5. Old Two-Seed-in-tbe-Spirit... 12,851 121,347 800,450 8. Regular, South, White 1,280,066 684 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE VI, (Continued.) Denominations. Ministers. Church Organiza tions. Communi cants or Members. Baptists (Continued) : 9. Regular, Colored. 10. Separate II. Seventh-day 12. Six-Principle 13. United Total. . Brethren, Plymouth : I II Ill IV... Total. . Brethren, River : 1. In Christ 2. Old Order of Yorker 3. United Zion's Children. Total. Catholic : 1. Apostolic 2. Armenian, The. 3. Reformed Total Christadelphians. . . . Christians, The Church, South Total. Christian Missionary Association. . Christian Union Churches Church of God (Winebrennarians). Congregationalists Disciples of Christ Dunkards : 1. Conservative. 2. Old Order... 5,468 19 H5 14 25 128 7 155 1,350 85 1,435 1,622 237 12,533 24 106 1 204 25,646 43,029 109 8631 314 78 8 25 2463 1,281 143 1,424 10 13 183 294 522 479 5,058 4,868 3,773 7,246 720 135 1,348,989 1,599 9,J43 937 13,209 3,717,969 2,2892,419 1,235 718 6,661 2,688 214 525 3,427 1,394 335 1,000 2,729 1,277 90,718 13,004 103,722 754 18,214 22,511 512,771641,051 61,101 4,411 Appendix. TABLE VI, (Continued.) 685 Denominations. Church Communi Ministers. Organiza cants or tions. Members. 224 128 8,089 5 6 194 2,088 989 73,795 1,235 2,310 138,313 I,H3 794 80,655 II 9 232 38 52 4,329 I,l62 855 85,216 4 4 340 680 870 187,432 966 1,424 164,640 201 414 37,457 1,153 2,044 324,846 1,282 1,934 357,153 397 421 69,505 20 27 4,242 58 175 14,730 194 489 55,452 37 65 11,482 108 131 10,181 49 23 7,010 40 50 3,493 1 13 i,99i 21 21 5,58o 8 11 1,385 109 1,122 119,972 47 231 41,953 4,691 8,595 1,231,072 336 246 17,078 9 5 352 228 97 10,101 7i 22 2,038 2 2 209 Dunkards (Continued) : 3. Progressive 4. Seventh-day Baptists, German, Total.. Evangelical Association. . Friends : 1. Orthodox 2. Primitive 3. Wilburite Total. Friends of the Temple German Evangelical Synod. , Lutherans : I. General Synod f. 2. United Synod, South. . 3. General Council 4. Synodical Conference. . Independent Synods. 5. Joint Synod of Ohio 6. Buffalo Synod 7. Hauge's 8. Norwegian in North America. 9. Michigan 10. Danish in America II. German, Augsburg 12. Danish Church Association. . 13. Icelandic Synod 14. Immanuel 15. Suomai 16. United Norwegians of America 17. Independent Congregations. Total : Mennonites : I. Mennonite 2. Bruederhoef 3. Amish 4. Old Amish 5. Apostolic 686 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE VI, (Continued.) Denominations. Church Communi Ministers. Organiza cants or tions. Members. 43 34 1,655 95 45 5,670 18 18 471 17 15 610 37 12 1,388 18 9 856 31 45 1,113 905 550 41,541 15,423 25,861 2,240,354 32 42 2,279 3,32i 2,481 452,725 40 40 3,415 1,565 1,704 349,788 ~ i,44i 2,529 141,989 600 565 16,492 4,801 15,017 1,209,976 150 214 8,765 5 9 319 20 24 1,059 30 32 2,346 1,800 1,759 129,383 60 84 4,764 657 1,102 22,110 8 15 2,569 47 n . 951 30,000 51,489 4,589,284 114 94 11,781 5,934 6,717 788,224 1,861 2,791 164,940 393 224 12,956 1 bo 187 12,722 73i 866 94,402 1,129 2,391 179,721 12 31 1,053 .1.33 116 8,501 124 "5 IQ,574' 29 33 4,602 Mennonites (Continued) : 6. Reformed 7. General Conference 8. Church of God in Christ 9. Old(Wisler) 10. Bundes Conference , 11. Defenseless 12. Brethren in Christ , Total -Methodists : 1. Methodist Episcopal 2. Union American Episcopal . . 3. African Methodist Episcopal 4. African Union Meth. Protestant 5. African Meth. Episcopal Zion. 6. Protestant Methodist 7. Wesleyan 8. MetTIodist" Episcopal, South. . . 9. Congregational , 10. Congregational, Colored II. Congregational, New 12. Zion Un»on Apostolic 13. Colored Methodist Episcopal. . 14. Primitive 15. Free.. 16. Independent 17. Evangelical Missionary Total Moravians Presbyterians : 1. Presb'n, Gen'l Assembly, North 2. Cumberland 3. Cumberland, Colored 4. Welsh Calvinistic 5. United of North America 6. Presb'n Gen'l Assembly, South 7. Associate of N. A , 8, Associate Reformed Synod, So. 9. Reformed Presbyt'n in U. .S. . . 10. Reformed Presbyt'n in N. A. , Appendix. TABLE VI, (Continued.) 687 Denominations. Ministers Church Organiza tions. Communi cants or Members. Presbyterians (Continued) : 11. Refor'd Presbyt'n (Covenanted) 12. Refor'd Presbyt'n in U.S. & Can. Total. Protestant Episcopal. Reformed Total. Reformed Church : I. Church in America 2. Church in United States. 3. Christian Total. Salvation Army.. Schwenkfeldians . Social Brethren . . United Brethren : 1. In Christ 2. (Old Constitution). Total.. Independent Congregations. Total Evangelical. . 77. Non-Evangelical Bodies. Chinese Temples Christian Scientists Church of the New Jerusalem Church Triumphant (Schweinfurth). Communistic Societies : 1. ¦ Shakers . 2. Amana • • 3. Harmony 4. Separatists 5. New Icaria 37 600 10,448 4,146 78 13,476 5,019 83 4,224 558 880 68 5,102 .572 1,510 99 1,506 3 17 2,267 531 2,181 329 4 20 3,731 795 2,798 54 4,526 156 3,185 26 119 151,172 47 221 154 12 1,278,332 532,054 8,455 540,509 92,970 204,518 12,470 309,958 8,742 306 913 202,474 22,807 225,281 14,126 13,823,518 8,7247,095 384 1,7281,600 250200 21 688 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE VI, (Continued.) Denominations. Ministers. Church Organiza tions. Communi cants or Members. Communistic Societies (Continued): 6. Altruists 7. Adonai Shomo 8. Church Triumphant Total. Friends (Hicksite) German Evangelical Protestant . Jews : I. Orthodox. . 2. Reformed. Total.. Latter Day Saints : I. Church of Jesus Christ. 2. Reorganized 1 Total. Society of Ethical Culture. . Spiritualists Theosophists Unitarians Unwersalists , Total Non-Evangelical. . . III. Catholics. The Roman Catholic Church. Greek Catholics Russian Orthodox Greek Orthodox Old Catholics Total Catholics. Evangelical Non-Evangelical. . Catholic Aggregate. . "5 44 125 75 543 1,500 2,043 515708 3,770 9,157 9 13 1 1 9,181 98,185 3,77o 9,181 111,136 25 20 205 32 201 52 3?6217 533 425431 856 4 334 40 421956 3,863 10,231 1412 1 4 10,262 151,172 3,863 10,262 165,297 4,049 21,99236,156 57,597 72,899 130,496 144,352 2i,773 166,125 1,064 45,030 695 67,749 49,194 538,753 6,231,417 10,85013,504 100 665 6,256,536 13,823,518 538,753 6,256,536 20,618,807 Appendix. 689 TABLE VII. Church Statistics of the United States — 1894. (From Church Authorities, except. Chose for 1890, which could be obtained only from the United States Census.) Year. Denominations. Ministers. Churches DrParishes. Communi cants or Members. 1894189O1894 .1 /. Evangelical Churches. Adventists : 3. Ch. of God in Christ Jesus. 833 19 94 50 45 267 600 299545 28 1,151 40,000 647 2,872 7,332 5. Life and Advent Union. . I.5O0 37,404 Total 1,308 80 1,538 118 400 300 2,0408,1829,610 7,562 19 112 14 25 1,948 152 1,537 167 ¦516 473 3,222 8,322 17,34612,454 2492 18 204 89,755 8,254 82,694 1890 1893 1890 18931890 Baptists : 11,864 23,272 5. Old Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit 12,851 121,347 1893 842,587 1,363,351 189018931890 1,291,046 i,599 8,429 -937 13,209 30,000 44,527 109 88 8631 3,781,440 1890 Brethren, Plymouth: 2,289 2,419 ,( 1,235 11 718 128 7 20 314 78 8 25 6,661 1890 Brethren, River: 2,688 3. United Zion's Children. . . 214 525 155 111 3,427 690 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE' VII, (Continued.) Year. Denominations. Ministers. Churches orParishes. Communi cants or Members. 1890 Catholic: 1. Apostolic. 2. Armenian, The . . . 3. Reformed 189018931890 189318921893 Dunkards : iv Conservative. 2. Old Order 3. Progressive 18931890 18901893 1890 1893 Evangelical Association . 1894 11 1890 Total. Christadelphians Christians, North and South. Christian Miss. Association . . Christian Union Churches . . . Church of God (Winebrennarians) Congregationalists. .' Disciples of Christ. Total. Friends : 1. Orthodox . 2. Primitive 3. Wilburite Total. Friends of the Temple German Evang. Church Union Independent Congregations Lutherans : 1. General Synod. , 2. General Council , 3. United Synod, South 4. Synodical Conference 5. Ind. Synods and Cong's. . . Total. Mennonites : 1. Mennonites. 2. Amish 3. Amish, Old.. 4. Apostolic I,3H 10 183522 5,1383,8872,000 .1237 '224 2,461 1,327 1,113 11 3.8 1,162 4 765 54 1,0881,084 206 1,607 1,483 5,468 336228 71 2 24 63 1 1,424 13 294 479 5,2367,850 675 '135'128 938 '2,310 794 9 52 855 4 972 156 1,491i,747 441 2,274 3,260 9,213 246 9722 2 1,394 335 1,000 2,7291,277 110,701 754 18,214 22,511 561,631700,650 75,ooo 3,000 9,000 87,000 145,829 80,655 232 4,329 85,216 340 175,667 14,126 169,689 302,275 33,016 440,489 314,850 1,260,319 18,07810,601 2,038 209 Appendix. 691 TABLE VII, (Continued.) Year. Denominations. Ministers. Churches orParishes. Communi cants or Members. I890 Mennonites (Continued): 6. Bruederhoef 31 9 37 1818 95 17 43 45 5 .12 18 9 45 15 34 I,H3 351 1,388 471 856 5,670 " 8. Church of God in Christ . tl 11. Old(Wisler) (( 1,655 Total 9°5 3,321 1,565 40 1,800 150 5 2047 624 8 16,454 5,487 77 i,44i 32 600 30 550 2,481 1,704 40 1,759 214 9 24 11 1 1,102 15 '25,861 '15,017 104 2,529 42 565 32 43,040 452,725 349,788 3,415 129,383 8,765 319 1,059 951 23,326 2,569 2,540,525 1,345,210 5,725 141,989 2,279 16,492 2,346 I89O 11 Methodists : 1. African Meth. Epis. Ch. . 2. African Meth. Epis. Zion. 3. African Union M. E. Prot. 4. Colored Meth. Epis (1 1893 1890 1893 u It 1890 «[ l( 6. Congregational Colored. . 8. Evangelical Missionary. . 12. Meth. Epis., South 15. Union Amer. Meth. Epis. 16. Wesleyan American 17. Zion Union Apostolic. . . Total 31,681 "7 12 103 1,966 393 6,641 1,31.9 33 . 107 1 5i,5°9 9431 131 2,g20 224 7,387 .2,713 '39 122 1 5,026,866 18931890 189318941890 1894189018931890 12,183 Presbyterians : 1. Associate of North Amer. 2. Assoc.Ref'dSynodofS.A. I,°53 10,088 184,138 4. Cumberland, Colored. . . . 6. General Assembly, South. 7. Reformed in North Amer. 9. Ref 'din U.S. and Canada 12,956 895,997 199,167 '4,602 9,874 600 692 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE VII, (Continued.) Year. Denominations. Ministers. Churches orParishes Communi cants or Members. 1890 I8931890 Presbyterians (Continued): 10. Reformed (Covenanted). . I 810 100 4 935 187 37 111,119 12,722 Total 11,486 4,232 120 14,694 4,583 "5 1,442,353 560,645 10,500 1893 Protestant Episcopal : Total 4,352 598 9IO 68 4,698 603 1,590 99 57i,i45 97,52o 217,088 12,470 1893 s Reformed Ch. : 1. (Late Dutch) I89O 1894189O i,576 Officers. i,753 3 17 1,049 53i 2,292 Bands. 631 4 20 4,l88 795 327,078 Enrolled. 50,000 306 9T3 208,452 22,807 1893 United Brethren : 1. Old Church Total 1,580 4,9S3 231,259 Total Evangelical. . . . II. Non-Evangelical Bodies. io7,335 26 119 156,206 47 221 154 12 1 1 75 11 14,773,39° I89O U I89O 8,724 7,095 384 Church of the New Jerusalem. . ChurchTriumph't(Schweinfurth) Communistic Societies : <( 25 1,600 205 250 21 '• 4. Church Triumphant 11 Appendix. TABLE VII, (Continued.) 693 Year. 1890 1890 1890 1890 Jews: I. Orthodox. 2. Reformed 1890 1890 11 18901894 1890 18931890 Denominations. Communistic Societies (Cont'd): 7. Separatists 8. Shakers Total . Friends (Hicksite) German Evangelical Protestant Total. Latter Day Saints : 1. Church of Jesus Christ. 2. Reorganized Total. Society of Ethical Culture . Spiritualists Theosophists Unitarians Universalists Total Non-Evangelical III. Catholics. Greek Catholics Greek Orthodox Old Catholics Roman Catholic Church. Russian Orthodox Total Catholics. Evangelical Churches.. Non-Evangelical Catholic Churches Aggregate . Ministers. «5 44 125 75 543 1,500 2,043 519756 3,822 9 I I 9,686 13 9,710 107,335 3,822 9,710 120,867 Churches orParishes 32 201 52 316217 533 425 43i 856 4 334 40 445 1,012 3,943 14 1 4 8,512 12 8,543 156,206 3,9438,543 168,692 Communi cants or Members. 2O0 1,728 4,049 21,99236,156 57,597 72,899 130,496 144,352 21,773 166,125 1,064 45,030 695 '67,749 44,863 534,422 10,850 100 665 »7 485.640 13,504 7,5io,759 i4,77"3,390 534,422 7,5io,759 22,818,571 1 For 1890. 2 Calculated on the basis of 8g per cent, of total Roman Catholic population, as in the United States Census for 1890. " Sadlier's Almanac " for 1894 is the basis for the above calculation for the communicants. 694 ¦ Problem of Religious Progress. table VIII. Recapitulation of Evangelical Bodies. Year. Churches or Congregations. Ordained . Ministers. Communicants or Members. 1775 1,918 3,030 43,072 70, 148 97,090 151,172159,206 1,4352,651 25,555 47,609 69,870 98,085 107,335 364,872 3,529,988 6,673,396 10,065,963 13,823,618 14,818,391 1850 . . 1870 1886 1890 1894 Population of the United States. 1775 2,640,000 1800 5,305,923 1850...... 23,191,876 1870 38,558,371 1880 50,152,866 1890 62,622,250 Ratio of Communicants to the Population. 1800 one in 14.50 inhabitants. 1880 one in 5 inhabitants 1850 " 6.57 1890 " 4.53 1,870 " 5.78 From 1800 to 1890 the population increased n. 8 fold. From 1800 to 1890 the communicants increased 38 fold. From 1850 to 1890 the population increased 170 per cent. From 1850 to 1890 the comniunicants increased 291 per cent. TABLE IX. Unitarian Societies. States and Sections. 1830. 1840. 1850. i860. ¦ 1870. 1880. 1894. Maine .¦ 1211 3 147 22 1519 150 [,„ 15 13 5 165 14 15 • .3 163 22 20 18 6 176 4 2 19 23 5 176 4 2 31 9 190 6 2 Total New England. . . 177 2 12 2 194 17 h 206 17 11 199 2626 3 226 6237 3 229 76 27 3 259 138 28 Middle " Out of New England. . 16 36 40 . 55 102 106 186 Total in United States . 193 230 246 254 328 335 445 Appendix. table x. Universalist Ministers in the United States.1 695 States. 1835- 1840. 1851. i860. 1870. 1880. 1894. 293225 67 2 69 33 40 109 8 10 60 24 40 142 4 16 46 27 4i 126 5 15 40 15 34 107 3 17 49 23 4i 133 8 18 -44 2328 149 6 15 Total in New England. Out of New England. . . . 169139 269 243 286356 260 425 216 409 272 457 265393 Total in United States. 308 512 642 685 625 729 658 1 Each " Year-Book " gives the statistics of the previous year. Note.— This denomination has 4 colleges, with 603 students, and 2 theological seminaries, with 68 students. They also have a publishing house in Boston, whose sales amount to about $50,000 annually. TABLE XI. Universalist Parishes in the United States. States. 1835- 1840. 1851. i860. 1870. 1880. 1894. 101 72 80 90 5 45 100 8192 131 • 7 27 130 70 108150 10 33 139 78 82 168 12 27 8929 60 105 5 16 913564 "5 8 18 9834 68 124 16 Total in New England. Out of New England. . . . 393260 438415 501 568 506 758 304 613 33i 625 350 662 Total in United States. 653 853 1,069 1,264 917 956 1,012 TABLE XII. The New Jerusalem Church. - Year. Societies.- ¦ Ministers. Communicants. . 1850 4 57 93 154 42 5489 119 i860 1,960 3,994 7,095 1880 696 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XIII. The Roman Catholic Church. 52 26 8 OO 1 50 4 0 CO to CO 0 in CO ,8CO 0 00 0 00CO M 8, CO ON 00 H Dioceses, Vicar Apostolics. 9 232 22 675592707 220 2889 94 29 1,245 S85 1,302 322 35 65 123108 48 =,519 1,27s 2,316 499 100173 £60 57,6n 58 3,9'2 1,480 3,9^6 >,°I5 "5 297467 1,214 257,600 295 69 6,8l7 1,723 6,4021,17© 2 I76 '673 6l8 423,383 386 85 7,6312,841 8,778 1,711 3>277 665,328 62l8 86 8,5123,795 9,6862,122 840 3,732 768,498 655 Priests Female religious houses.4.. Educationalinslitutions for Pupils in parochial schools. The. total estimated ' Roman Catholic population in 1800 was 100,000 ; 1830, 500,000 ; 1845,, 1,071,800 ; 1850, 1,614,000 ; i860, 2,789,000 ; 1870, 4,600,000 ; 1880, 6,367,330 ; 1890, 8,579,966 ; 1894, 8,806,648. The statistics for 1894 have been taken from Sadlier's " Catholic Directory." Note.— The ahove statistics from 1830 to 1880 have been collated from the " Metropolitan Catholic Almanac " and Sadlier's " Catholic Directory." They do not entirely agree with Father Hecker's table in the " Catholic World," June, 1879. We prefer to rely upon the " Year-Books " of the Church. 1 From Sadlier's "Catholic Directory" for 1881, giving the statistics collected in 1880. This rule has been observed throughout this table. 3 Not tabulated in the " Year-Book," but collated from the reports of the dio ceses. It is difficult sometimes to distinguish between the convents and the academies. 8 Monasteries. • That is, convents. 6 Orphan asylums. TABLE XIV. Church Organizations, Edifices, Sittings, and Valuation, in the United States, 1850, i860, 1870, 1890. (From United States Census, 1890.) Section I. — Church Organizations.1 Denominations. 1870. 1890. Evangelical. 225 15,829 1.757 43.029 314 Appendix. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) 697 Denominations. 1870. 1890. Brethren, River Catholic, Apostolic Catholic, Reformed Christadelphians Christians*. Christian Missionary Association . . Christian Union Church of God (Winebrennarians)4 Congregationalists Disciples3 Dunkards,4 all kinds Episcopal, Protestant Episcopal, Arminian Evangelical Association Friends, three bodies Friends of the Temple German Evangelical Synod Lutherans, all kinds Mennonites,4 all kinds Methodists, all kinds Moravians Presbyterians, all kinds. Reformed, all kinds Salvation Army Schwenkfelders Social Brethren United Brethren, all Independent Congregations Total Non-Evangelical. Church of the New Jerusalem Friends (Hicksite) German Evangelical Protestant. . . Christian Scientists Church Triumphant Communistic Societies Latter Day Saints Spiritualists. Unitarians. UniversalistS Total 45 III .... 10 8 63 3,578 1,424 13 294 479 2,887 4,868 7,246 984 2,835 5,102 6 815 2,310 692 855 4 870 3,032 8,595 55o 25,278 51,489 72 94 7,764 13,476 1,727 2,181 329 4 20 1,445 4,526 462 156 66,701 151,172 90 154 201 52 • ¦ • • 221 12 18 32 189 856 95 334 331 421 719 956 1,442 3,239 698 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XIV,. (Continued.) Denominations. 1870. 1890. Non- Christian . Chinese Temples Ethical Culturists Jews " Theosophists 189 47 4 533 40 Total . Catholic. Roman Catholic Greek Catholic Russian Catholic, Orthodox.. Greek Orthodox Old Catholic 4,127 624 10,231 14 12 1 4 Total Catholic. Aggregate 4,127 10,262 72,459 165,297 1 Church organizations never reported in Census of United States until 1870, and omitted in 1880. 2 .Very incomplete in 1870. a Christians and Disciples combined in 1870. 4 Combined with the Baptists in 1870. Section II. — Church Edifices. Denominations. 1850. 1870. 1890. Evangelical. ¦ Adventists, all Baptists, all kinds Brethren, Plymouth Brethren, River Catholic, Apostolic Catholic, Reformed Christadelphians Christians (& Disciples until 1870) Christian Missionary Association Christian Union Church of God (Winebrennarians) Congregationalists Disciples Dunkards 25 9,563 875 (reputed L725 (with(with 70 12,150 068 with 2,234 Bap-Bap- 140 13,962 2,822 Bapt's) 2,715 tists) tists) 774 37,789 halls 7o 3 halls 4 1,098 11 184 338 4,736 5,324 1,016 Appendix. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) 699 Denominations. 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. 1,459 39 726 1,231 (with 13,302 34 4,858 676 14 1,143 2,145 726 2,I2"8 Bap-19,883 49 6,406 1,116 1,368 2,601 641662 2,776 tists) 21,337 67 7,071 1,613 937 59& 5,103 1,899 782 5 785 6,701 406 46,138 "4 12,469 2,080 27 6 11 3,4°5 112 Total 35,670 21 (with II 16 245530 50,343 58 other 12 24 17 264 664 57,940 61 Friends' "18 171 22 310 602 131,400 Non-Evangelical. Church of the New Jerusalem. . . 88 213 German Evangelical Protestant. 52 7 halls 40 388 30 424 832 Total . .- 823 "36 1,039 77 ' 1,184 152 2,074 Non-Christian. 47 301 1 36 1,222 77 2,550 152 3,8o6 349 Catholic. 8,776 13 7oo Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) Denominations. 1850. i860. 1870I 1890. 23 1 3 1,222 2,550 3,806 .8,816 '37,751 54,009 63,082 142,639 1 An error in census for 1850. Section III. — Seating Capacity of Churches. Denominations. 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Evangelical. 5,250 17,120 34,555 190,748 3,307,211 4,044,218 4,360,135 11,599,534 Brethren, Plymouth .- 21,163 .... 22,105 Catholic, Apostolic . . .... 750 Catholic, Reformed!. .... 3,660 Christadelphians 950 303,780 681,016 865,602 347,697 3,3°o Christ'n Miss. Ass'n. 68,000 Church of God (Wine- (combined with Bap. before 1890) H5,530 Congregationalists . . 807,335 956,354 1,117,212 1,553,080 before 1890) before 1 890) 991,051 1,609,452 414,036 (combined ¦ 643,598 with Bap. 847,296 Episcopal; Protestant 1,360,877 Evangelical Ass'n. . . 15,479 I93.796 479,335 Friends, three bodies. 286,323 269,084 224,664 229,650 Friends of the Temple .... 1,150 Ger. Evangel. Synod. 245,781 Lutherans ...... . ... 539,701 757,637 977,332 2,205,635 (combined with Bap. before 1890) 129,340 Methodists, all. .... 4,345,519 6,259,799 6,528,209 12,863,178 '114,988 20,316 25,700 31,615 Presbyterians, all. . . 2,089,954 2,565,949 2,698,244 4,038,650 343,6i8 484,765 658,928 825,931 .. . . . . . . 12,055 1,925 Appendix. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) 701 Denominations. Spcial Brethren. . . . United Brethren. . Independent Cong's Total Non-Evangelical. Ch. of New Jerusalem Friends (Hicksite) . . Ger. Evangel. Prot. . Christian Scientists.. Church Triumphant. Communistic Soc's. . Latter Day Saints. . . Spiritualists Unitarians Universalists Total. Non- Christian. Chinese Temples Ethical Culturists. Jews Theosophists 1850. Total.. Catholic. Roman Catholic Greek " , Russian " Greek Orthodox. . . . Old Catholic Total Aggregate. Average sittings to the population Per cent, of the whole sittings in theEvan- gelical churches... . 4,650 366,373 13,173,779 5,6oo (with 5,150 10,880 138,067 215,115 374,812 18,371 i860. 372,549 17,276,103 15,395 otlier 5,200 13,500 6,275 138,213 235,219 1870. 265,025 172,062 1890. i8,37i 667,863 667,863 14,234,825 6i«r 92 413,802 34,412 34,412 1,404,437 19,112,515 18,755 Friends) 8,850 87,838 6,970 155,471 ' 210,884 488,768 73,265 73,265 1,990,514 8,700 991,138 39,345 39,414,250 20,810 72,568 35,175 1,500 100 10,050 122,892 20,450 165,090 244,615 693,250 139,234 200 1,404,437 19,128,754 90 1,990,514 21,665,062 139,434 3,365,754 5,228 3,i5o 75 700 6,374,907 43,621,841 91 1 Error in census for 1850. 702 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) Section IV. — Valuation of Church Property. Denominations. 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Brethren, Plymouth. Catholic, Apostolic. . Christadelphians.. . . Christ'ns (see Sec. II) Christ'n Miss. Ass'n. Christian Union. . . . Congregationalists . . $11,100 n,i73,970 853,386 ¦8,001,995 (see(see 11,375,010 118,250 1,713,767 2,909,711 (see 14,825,070 444,i67 14,571,339 5,110,060 18,600 1,228,500 $101,170 21,079,114 2,518,045 I3,327,5H SectionSection 21,665,698 2,544,507 5,385,179 Section 33,093,371 227,450 26,840,525 6,876,520 1,374,210 $306,240 41,608,198 6,425,137 25,069,698 III) III) 36,514,549 2,301,6503,939,560 14,917,747 III) 69,854,121 709, 1 00 53,265,25616,134,470 1,819,8101,788,745 $1,236,345 82,392,423 1,465 8i,350 66,050 2,700 1,775,202 3,900 234,450 643,185 43,335,437 12,206,038 1,362,631 82,835.418 4,785,680 2,879,484 15,300 4,614,490 35,060,354 Episcopal, Protestant Evangelical Ass'n . . . Friends,: three bodies Friendsof the Temple Ger. Evangel. Synod. Methodists, all Mor'v'ns (see Sec. Ill) Presbyterians, all... . United Brethren. . . . Independent Cong's. 643,800 132,140,179 681,250 94,869,097 18,744,242 38,150 12,200 8,700 4,937.583 1,486,000 Total 72,354,925 $115,100 (with 39,500 84,780 3,280,822 i,778,3i6 I35,033i300 $321,200 other 41,000 891,100 7,500 4.338,316 2,8,56,095 274,654,281 $869,700 Friends) 86,900 656,750 100,150 6,282,675 5,692,325 527,093,103 Non-Evangelical. Ch. of New Jerusalem Friends (^Jicksite). . Ger. Evangel. Prot. . Christiati Scientists. . Church Triumphant. Communistic Soc's. . Latter Day Saints. . . $1,386,455 1,661,850 1,187,450 40,666 15,000 106,800 1,051,791 573,650 10,335,100 8,054,333 $5,298,518 $8,455,211 $13,688,500 124,413,095 Appendix. TABLE XIV, (Continued.) 7°3 Denominations. 1850. i860. 1870. 1890. Non- Christian. Chinese Temples. . Ethical Culturists . . $ .... 418,600 $ .... 1,135,300 $ • .. $5,155,234 $62,000 9,754,275 600 Total $418,600 $9,256,758 $1,135,300 $26,774,119 $5,155,234 $60,985,566 $9,816,875 $118,069,746 63,300 220,000 5,000 13,32° Catholic. Roman Catholic . . . Greek " Russian " Greek Orthodox . . . Old Catholic Total $9,256,758 $26,774,119 $60,985,566 $118,371,366 87,328,8011171,397,932354,483,581 679,694,439 TABLE XV. The Colleges and the Churches.' Denominational Relations, 1 h pif Baptists, Regular, North and South . " Free-will " l Seventh-day Total Baptist . Christian and Disciple * Congregational . . .7 Congregational and Presbyterian . Episcopal, Protestant Friend ; Evangelical Association Lutheran - Methodist Episcopal, North. " ;t South.. u Protestant , " African Total Methodist. 57 3,56o 250201 $9)630,765 5i5i«»222,251 4,011 3,0262,428 3«827 261 39 1,152 10,368,016 3,112,20c . 9,7°4,595 1,2x6,000 8,759,7*5 1,255,000 147,000 1,388,000 3,io7 1,220 150 19 8,859,600 1,863,700 265,000 62,300 38I 4,496" 11,050,600 704 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XV, (Continued.) Denominational Relations.* £ o I Ii L£3 el I*.So ' ii- I- If:. If '* United 26 e 36 3 8 23 2 »5 4 x 4 256 114 394 6,306,447 Reformed and Associate 202,500 Refor'd Churches (Dutch and German] 41 8 11 75 X 3 1 1 '4 X X «4 6 XX 65 . 3,459 ¦521 '7 39 286226 8X3 7,073,9471,456,107 42,000 5x5,782 5,657,491 258 XX IT X 7017 177 34 X1 20,9x2 3,564 63,514,553 Total Non-Protestant 54 31a <54 X 12 8 17 87 36 213 41 3,5^4 24,476 5,883 5,310,300 68,824,853 21,301,934 Total, with denominational relations 376 20 102 254 3o,359 890,126,787 1 A great amount of research, review, and care has been expended upon the above table. The author cannot claim for it completeness or entire accuracy ; but it is a close approximation, the best that conscientious care and extensive % inquiry can make. The data are chiefly for 1878, and have been gathered from the report on Education by General Eaton, the omissions of that year being sup plied from his previous reports, and from the Year-Books of the Churches. Con sultations have also been had with prominent educators. 3 Under this term is comprised the colleges which are closely associated, by origin, sympathy, and support, with particular Churches. The non-denomina tional are those designated in General Eaton's reports as " non-sectarian," or not specified at all. Some, however, of those thus designated in his reports, as Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia, but really Congregational, Presbyterian, Unitarian, and Episcopal, have been included in the list of denominational col leges, because they are such in all their relations. None of the denominational colleges have any sectarian tests, and the distinction, sectarian and non-sectarian, is often unfair and offensive. (See discussion, pp. 459-466.) 8 Students in the regular course for the degree of A.B. * Chiefly belonging to the Disciples or Campbellites. b The Roman Catholic Church " Year-Book," for 1881, gives 79 colleges, but some are not yet fully developed. • Comprising grounds, buildings, and productive funds. TABLE XVI, Receipts of the Foreign Missionary Societies of the United States from the Origin of Each.1 Societies. American B. C. F. M ; " ' Baptist Miss. Union Methodist Episcopal 3 Protestant Episcopal ' Presbyterian Board 4 Southern Baptist Am. For. Ch. Union (chiefly for.)5.. Reformed Ch. (Dutch) (with A. B. C. F. M. until 1857) Evangelical Lutheran 6. . .' u Association United Brethren u Presbyterian' Southern il .' Reformed u Disciples .'....' Free-Will Baptist6. Methodist Episcopal, South'...'..'...'. Cumberland Presbyterian Other Boards (estimated) $162,430 43.78o 1810 to 1819. $664. 81, 1820 to 1829. 1830 to 1839. $1 ,684,751 195,403 227,8l6 186,639 184O to 1849. 52,550,277 769,265330,213 309,026 784,750 65,886 246,505 20,00012,000 Total $206,210 $745,718 $2,885,839 $5,087,922 $8,427,284 $12,929,715 $21,425,121 $44,390,389 $101,561,964 1850 to 1859. $3,140,811 1,061,608 785,357 559,435 1,772,873 276,263608,424 41,11135,ooo30,00044,402 i860 to 1869. $4,519,112 I.4*9,I49Ii505,550 709,200 2,372.552 238,365 829,164 568,424 80,000 62,000 161,101 400,331 54,767 1870 to 1880.3 $5,243,137 2*753.977 3,773.8871,270,731 4,885.241 404,428 518,613 7°t.576165,000145,000 345.15°609,298 483.!74 92,73233.T77 1881 to 1894.' $8,944,557 5,655,9936,976,32f2,664,329 10,002,055 '.237,359 169,613 1,246,009 456,544 170,457 693,161 1,312.514 604,208256,941 592,562 561,561 2,631,970 214,235 Total. $25,909 12,386. 15,58s 6,656, 20,949, 2,242.2,372. 2,406 856.5"9. 1,243 2,323. ' 1.637 349,625, 56., 2,631, 214: 2.COO, ,322 4 J3 ,280 783 .493 3°i319 ,138 . .544 457 1814 H3 .7*9 673739 ,561 97°235 000 r In a'few' cases the earlier receipts have not been ascertained. 2 This period comprises eleven years. 3 For foreign missions only, commencing with African Mission 4 For many years the N. S. Presbyterians contributed to the A. B. C. F. M., but not since 1870. 5 Formerly more largely foreign than of late years.- - - 8 Estimated by a leading official of that denomination. 7 Partly for 1893. In most instances the receipts of the Woman's Boards are embraced in the statistics of the large denominational Boards ; but there are some amounts of foreign mission funds which we have been unable to collect and tabulate. > H G ^1 O TABLE XVII. Receipts of the Home Missionary Societies of the United States from the Origin of Each.1 ON mowr mSo&wr a t— i o aw OO W 0O Ul Societies. 1820 to 1829. 1830 to 1839. 1840 to 1849. 1850 to 1859. i860 to 1869. 1870 to I880.3 1881 to 1894.8 Total. Presbyterian, O. S., Board N.S., " American Home Missionary Society. . . . Methodist Episcopal Domestic* Protestant Episcopal " American Church Missionary Society. . . Reformed Church (Dutch) American Baptist Home Mission Seamen's Friend Society6 American Missionary^ Association5 Evangelical Association6 United Brethren Southern Baptist Domestic Young Men's Christian Associations. . . . Disciples United Presbyterian Church Southern Presbyterian Board Cumberland Presbyterian Free- Will Baptist Methodist Episcopal Ch., South (estimated) Evangelical Lutheran Seventh-Day Baptist9, Reformed Church 1 (German)," Reformed Presbyterian,8 Protestant Methodist,8 Wesleyan Meth- > odist,8 Free Metnodist ,8 African Meth odist8, Moravian, etc., etc.8 J $105,643 65,173 63,010 $860,599 724,231390,806 108,184 31,661 134,534 94,697 $394,482 1,107,852 660,426 320,613 64,297 243,444172,128 51,11248,000 $1,012,281 612,658 1,746,963 463,204 139.49° 441,762 254,9*4 421,249 120,000 88,804 266,356 908,000 27.714 $1,190,657 1,178,017 1,975.8783,011,100 754.507453.0972°2,534 1,149,161 430,766 1,829,624 248,000 322,201 495,020 77,384,2i8 84,410 186,801 117,728 28,173 [ 3 $4,3i4>327 3,119,584 2,907,635 1,827,724 517,690308,516 2,330,585 689,796 3,743,"3 580,000693,29258,279 6,773,082 650,078369,661457.633209,287 10 $9,5oi,544 6,354,2595,707,8993,429.078 1,895,346 677,600 4.3!3,643 599,022 6,889,227 1,363,716 589,487 1,451,730 i3,59'.8i8 761,343690,910 779,712 127,870 337,000 1,920,046 421,390 $19,170,208 IS.384,895 12,752,411 6,903.310 2,866,133 1,424,0187,704,944 2,241,367 12,934.325 2.759,7i6!.693,783 2,47!.385 36,507,118 1,523,548 1.247.372i.365.°73 337.157 337,ooo 4,920,046 601 ,367 Aggregate $233,826 $2,342,712 $3,062,354 '$8,099,659 $21,043, $29,982,534 $51,402,640 $138,893,303 1 The earlier receipts of some Boards have not been ascertained. 3 This period includes eleven years. s United in 1870. 4 Divided on the basis of domestic appropriations. t 6 Chiefly domestic. 6 Estimated by a leading official of that denomination on partial data. 7 Including the expenditures of the Christian Commission, organized by the Young Men's Christian Association. 8 Partially esti mated. 9 A part of these end at 1893. 10 For last nine years. TA.BLE XVIII. Receipts of the Religious Publication Houses of the Evangelical Churches of the United States, from all Sources, from the Origin of Each. Publication Houses. Methodist Book Concerns, 1790* American Bible Society, 1809 Massachusetts BibleSociety, 1806 American Tract Society, Boston, 1814 American Tract Society, New York, 1824. American Sunday-School Union, 1824.... Baptist Publishing Board, 1824 Presbyterian, Old School, 18323 Presbyterian, New School, 18523 Congregational Board, 1832 American and Foreign Bible Society, 1836 Evangelical Association, 1842 United Brethren, 1850 American Bible Union, 1850 Southern Presbyterian, 1865 Free-Will Baptist, 18264 Reformed Church (Dutch)6 United Presbyterian6 Cumberland Presbyterian7 Lutheran Evangelical Methodist Episcopal, South, Lutheran (n Houses Unknown), Reformed Ch. (Ger.), Moravian, Seventh-Day Baptist, Wes leyan Methodist, Protestant Methodist, African Methodist, Disciples, etc., etc. 1790 to 1829. $1,200,000 687,023 57,10785,379 145,860199,558 IO,235 1830 to 1839. $1,300,000 972,106 23,036 187,343 844,088 900,817 67,216 94,490 150,000 1840 to 1849. $'.73',74' 1,670,058 22,014 349.335 1,472,8221,004,879 170,328 225,920 500,000 40,306 1850 to 1859. $4,608,677 3,598,480 178,676 653,289 3,777,213 2,268,855 496,271 951,957 332,292 378,554 418,402 107,369 326,974 285,308 i860 to 1869. $10,309,766 5,696,205 283,717 1,259,535 3,956,3382,798,626 1,461,566 1,196,535 361,476 1,073,686 320,714389,608558,099 347,158 106,566 18701 to 1880. $I5,672,I_ 6,666,407 358,830 '77,933 5,318,634 1,942,913 4,192,563 \ 2,423,965 ',274,318 '41,779 l,546,75o1,002,770 358,512 359,062 237,456 156,338 339,495 1881 to 1894.8 $22,577,628 • 7,918,684 344.981 } 2,165,055 '.314,997 7.344,48o5,110,225 2,351,202 28,042 1,399,409 1,972,203 Defunct. 251,540 561,000143,163 837,5P'329,960 845,207 Total to 1894. $57,399,950 27,208,963 1,268,361 20,793,82410,430,645 '3.742,659 10,376,450 5.398,170',558,937 3,483,44^ 3,860,046 ¦ 900,978 717,168 '1,461,000 380,619 993,839 669,455 845,207 Aggregate $2,385,162 $4,539.096 $7,187,403 $18,382,317 $30,119,595 $42,169,863! $55,475,277 £170,579,72,3 Note. — All of the above houses comprise Sunday-school and Tract departments, and most of them do much home missionary work. _ l This period includes eleven years. , 2 Receipts of the Methodist Book Concerns from 1790 to 1843, estimated on partial data ; but since the latter date exactly reported. 8 Cannot obtain figures prior fco 1850. 4 Estimated by a leading Free-will Baptist official. B Can not obtain figures prior to 1870. 6 Fof last six years only. T For last nine years only. 8 For the Methodist Book Concerns, the Amer ican Sunday-School Union, the Evangelical Association, the reports extend only to 1893. 9 Previous years estimated and added in the total. 10 Have been unable to obtain data ; estimated. >ra dx O vj TABLE XIX. Arrivals, by 'Nationalities and by Decades, of Alien Passengers and Immigrants [Alien Passen gers from Oct. i, 1820; to Dec. 31, 1867, And Immigrants from Jan. i, 1868, to June 30, 1892]. vj o00 &O W M ora*ira.ft-tot—to.c; CO ?rj*>OO H LOCO Countries whence Arrived. Austria- Hungary Belgium Denmark , France Germany , . . , Italy Netherlands Norway and Sweden. . Russia and Poland.. . . Spain and Portugal . . . Switzerland United Kingdom : England1 Scotland Ireland Total United King dom All other countries of Europe.. Total Europe. . . 1830. 27 169 8,4976,761 408 1,078 9i 9i 2,622 3,226 1831 to 1840. 22 1,063 45,575 152,454 2,253 1,4121,201 646 2,954 4,821 22,167 73,143 2,9I2! 2,667 50,724207,381 75,803283,191 43' 96 98,816495,688 1841 to 1850. 263,332 3,712 780,719 1,047,763 155 1,597,502, 1851 to Dec. 31, i860. 4,738 3,749 76,358 951,667 9.231 10,789 20,931 1,621 io,353 25,011 385,643 38,331 914,119 1,338,093 116 2,452,657 Jan, 1, 1861, to June 30, 1870. 7,80O 6,734 17,094 35,984 787,468 11,728 9,102 109,298 4,536 8,493 23,286 568,128 38,768 435,778 1,042,674 2,064,407 Fiscal years 1871 to 1880. 72,969 7,221 31,77172,206 7181182 55,759 16,541 211,245 52,254 9.893 28,293 460,479 87,564 436,871 984,914 656 2,261,904 Fiscal years 1881 to 1890. . 353,719 20,17788,13250,464 ,452,970 307,309 53,701 568,362265,088 6,535 81,988 657,488 149,869 655,482 1,462,839 10,318 4,721,602 Fiscal ¦ years 1891 and 1892. 151,178 7,340 21,252 13,291 244,312 138,191 12,466 107,157192,615 5,657 14,219 104,575 24,077 .I",I73 239,825 4,954 1,152,457 Total. 585,666 51,333 163,769 379,637 4,748,440 526,749 113,340 1,032,188 517,507 49,266 185,488 2,534,955 347,900 3,592,247 6,475,102 16,548 14,845,033 British North American 2,2774,817 105 531 3,834 13,624 6,599 44 856 12,301 41,723 3,271 - 368 3,579 13,528 59,309 3.078 449 1,224 10,660 153,871 2,191 96 i,396 9,043 383,269 392,802 5,362| 1,913 210; 462 928J 2,304 13,957; 29,042 (3)..-. (»).... 576 1,344 5,673 1,046,875 27,231 2,310 12,162 98,038 Total America .... 11,564 33,424 62,469 74,720 166,597 403,726 426,523 7,593 1,186,616 Islands of the Atlantic. . 352 103 337 3,090 3,446 10,056 15,798 2,484 35,666 2 8 8 40 35 47 41,397 61 64,301 308 123,201 622 6l,7II 6,669 5,564 10,826 296,219 All other countries of 18,581 10 48 82 41,458 64,609 123,823 68,380 16,39° 314,800 16 52J 55 210 312 22Q 437 382 1,693 j Islands of the Pacific. . . All other countries and 2 32,679 9 69,801 2g! 158 52,7771 25,921 221 15,232 IO,9I3 1,540 12,574 1,299 3,862 235 27,768 199,484 H3.439 599.125 1, 713,25112,598,214 2,314,824 2,812,191 5,246,613 1,183,403 16,611,060 1 Includes Wales and Great Britain not specified. 2 Includes 777 from Azores and sfrom Greenland. 3 Immigrants from British North American Possessions and Mexico are not included since July i, 1885. Note.— The immigrants for years 1820-1892 have been reported at i6,6it,o6o The immigrants for year ending June 30, 1893, have been reported at 497,936 The immigrants for year ending June 30, 1894, have been reported at 311,404 Total 1790 to 1820 Aggregate from 1790 to June 30, 1894. -17,420,400 234,000 >w d 17,654,400 o 710 Problem of Religious Progress. table xx. Divorces, 1867 to 1886, By States and Territories.1 States and Territories. Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Dakota Delaware District of Columbia. Florida , , Georgia Idaho 1 Illinois . ..:¦ Indiana.. Iowa ....". Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland , Massachusetts , Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina2 Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Washington Wisconsin Wyoming - In United States. 1867. 121200 4 500 I 25 2832 127 12 1,071 1,096 SO+ 76 292 53 408 83 318449 52 49 362 1710 37 136 60 575195 '387 9188 157 9020 72 400 1870. 30 412 39 57 118 9 1,178 1,-170 57° 158 368 30 357 84 404 554 8385 491 ¦4 3028 .63 73" 41 992 64 623202 1 284 163 82 164 62 15 80 396 13 10,962 300 23 464 683 250346 72 5 66 149 253 23 2,139 1,423 1,001 442567 109 600 128 595 1,149 228 429 93o 38 198 64 352 '35 8 834 84 J,553 174 951 274 '680 786 "5 118164 65 120 535 19,663 662 3° 646 1,001 451 .420 179 9 75 232 325 53 2,606 1.6551,127 817757 197 374 165 565 !,339 379- 504 1,217 130 43« 44 381 286 40 1,006 163 1,889 249 1,156 257801 1,326 119 129238128 217700 46 Total. 5,204 237 6,041 12,118 3,6878,542 1,087 289 1,105 2,128 3.959 3'68 36,07225,19316,564 7.I91 10,248 1,697 8,4122,185 9,853 18,433 3,623 5,04b 15,278 822 3,°341,128 4.9792,642 255 15,355 1,338 26,367 2,609 16,020 4,462 163 9,625 11,472 4,0783,238 2,635 996 2,555 9,988 401 25,535 328,716 Note. — It should be said that the statistics for some counties are missing and some destroyed, but not. enough to affect seriously the completeness and accuracy of the table. The totals for each .year present a serious problem,- which should engage the' attention of the best minds. 1 From Report of United States Commissioner of Labor, on Divorces, 1889. 3 No divorce law except 1872 to 1878. TABLE XXI. Distilled Spirits, Wines, and Malt Liquors Consumed. Ye END Jul 3c AH ng Domestic IE spirits.1 . Imported spirits. Total. Domestic wines.2 Imported wines entered for con sumption. Total. Domestic malt liquors.3 Imported njalt ' liquors entered for con sumption. Total. T3 0".in - PS* V c n *j 0 Proof gallons. Proof gallons. Proof gallons. Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. Proof gals. 1.50 Gals. Gals. 1875. 64,425,911 1,694,647 66,120,558 12,954,961 7,036,369 ^¦W^o 292,961,047 1,992,110 294,953,157 •45 6.71 1876. .... 58,512,693 1,471,197 59,983,890 14,968^085 5,193,723 20,161,808 306,852,467 ',483,920 308,336,387 1.28 ¦ 45 6.83 1877. .... 58,043,389 1,376,729 59,420,118 16,942,592 4,933,738 21,876,330 303,854,988 1,072,679 304,927,667 1.22 ¦47 6.58 1878. . . . . 50,704,289 1,227,752 51,931,941 17,953,386 4,310,563 22,263,919 317,136,597 832,755 3'7,969,352 i.og •47 6.68 1879. ¦¦• 53,025,175 1,253,300 54,278,475 19,845,113 4,532,017 24,377,130 343,724,971 880,514 344,605,485 1. ti .50 7.05 1880. 62,132,415 1,394,279 63,526,694 23,298,940 5,030,601 28,320,541 413,208,885 ¦ 1,011,280 414,220,165 1.27 ¦56 8.26 1881. .... 69,127,206 1,479,875 70,607,081 18,931,819 5,231,106 24,162,925 442,947,664 1,164,505 1,536,001 444,112,169 1.38 • 47 8.65 1882. 71,976,368 1,580,578 73,556,976 19,934,856 5,628,071 25,502,927 524,843,379 526,379,980 1.40 -49 10.03 1883. 76,762,063 1,690,624 78,452,687 17,406,028 8,372,152 '25,778,180 549.616,338 1,881,002 55I,497,340 1.46 ¦48 10.27 1884. 79,596,901 1,511,680 81,128,581 17,402,938 3,105,407 20,508,345 588,005,609 2,010,908 ' 590,016,517 1.48 •37 10.74 1885. .... 68,558,025 1,442,067 70,600,092 17,404,698 4,495,759 21,900,457 594,063,095 2,068,771 596,131,866 1.26 • 39 10.62 1886. .... 70,851,358 1,410,259 72,261,614 20,866,393 4,700,827 25,567,220 640,746,288 2,221,432 642,967,720 1.26 • 45 11.20 1887. ••¦• 69,597,036 1,467,697 71,064,733 27,706,771 4,618,290 32,325,061 715,446,038 2,302,816 717,748,854 1. 21 •55 11.23 1888. . . . . 74,201,386 1,643,966 75,845,352 31,680,523 4,654,545 36,335,068 765,086,789 2,500,267 767,587,056 1.26 .61 12.80 1889. .... 79,097,341 *,&*&! 80,613,158 29,610,104 4,534,373 34,H4,477 777,420,207 2,477,219 779,897.426 1.32 •56 12.72 1890. 86,268,370 1,561,192 87,829,562 23,896,108 5,060,873 28,956,981 853,075,734 2,716,601 855,792,335 1.40 .46 "3-67 1891. .... 89,574,919 1,602,646 9i,I57,565 23,736,232 5,297,560 29,033.792 974,427,863 3,051,898 977,479,76i 1.42 • 45 15.28 1892. 97,148,447 1,179,671 98,328,118 23.°33,493 5,434,367 28,467,860 984,5I5,4i4 2,980,809 987,496,223 1.50 44 15.10 1893- 99,890,331 1,307,422 101,197,753 26,391,285 5,596,584 31,987,819 1,071,183,827 3,362,509 1,074,546,336 I-5* 16.08 1 Includes domestic spirits exported and returned since 1886. a Product less exports. s Consumption per capita. Notes. — (1) Domestic wines from 1875 to i8q3 estimated by the Department of Agriculture, by Mr. Charles McK. Leoser, President of the Wine and Spirit Traders' Society of New York, and other well informed persons, and the production for 1889 is that officially reported by the United States Census. (2) Domestic spirituous a-nd malt liquors obtained from the reports of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. (3) The consumption of imported liquors and wines taken from the official returns made by collectors of customs. (4) Quantity of sparkling and still wines and vermuth, five quart bottles are reckoned as equivalent to the gallon. >-0M2t) I— I X 712 Problem of Religious Progress. table XXII. Consumption of Liquors in the United States.1 Distilled Spirits, Malt Liquors, Year. Foreign Wines. Foreign and Foreign and Domestic. Domestic. Gallons. Gallons. Gallons. 1,553,088 31,725,417 5,4",058 1,754.322 7o,ooo,ooo2 1830 2,893,689 77,196,120s 4,748,362 • 43,060,884 23,310,843 1850 6,094,622 51,833,473 36,563,009 i860 WWMS 89,968,651 101,346,669 1870 9,i65,549 79,895,708 204,756,156 Per Capita. 18101820 1830 1840 1850 i8601870 Gallons. 0.21O.18 0.22O.27 0.260.30 O.23 Gallons. 4-39 7.26 6.022-54 2.212.862.05 Gallons. O.71 I.36 1. 6l 3-275-31 1 From official sources chiefly. a From "Puritan Recorder." 3 From old " American Cyclopedia," TABLE xxiii. , The Churches and the Cities. *" The urban populations of the United States, comprising municipalities of 4,000 and upward, are in 448 com- 01 munities, with an aggregate population of 18,284,385, or 29.20 per cent, of the total population of the country in 1890. These cities are 7 per cent, more than in 1880. They have a foreign element of 25 per cent., while in the whole country this element is 14.77 Per cent. a table of 124 largest cities.1 Total Population. Roman Catholic Communicants. Roman Catholic Population.2 Inhabitants to one Roman Catholic Adherent. Evangelical Protestant Communicants. Evangelical Protestant Population * or Adherents.8 Inhabitants to one ProtestantAdherent. 4 largest cities, 500,000 inhabitants and over. 24 cities 100,000 to 500,000 inhabitants. 96 cities 25,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. | 4,468,458 [ 5,229,432 j- 4,291,148 1,013,9681,191,163 807,580 1,166,063 1,367,847 928,717 3-83-84.6 486,220 654,068 704,415 1,701,770 2,289,2382,465,453 2.62-3 i-7 Total 13,988,938 3,OI2,7II 3,462,627 4.04 1,844,703" 6,456,461 2.2 1 See an extended tabulation of these cities in " The Religious Forces of the United States," by H. K. Carroll, LL.D., pp. 404-435- 8 Fifteen per cent, more than the Roman Catholic communicants. 3 The communicants multiplied by 3$. , „ . , „ T . ltlCl_ . ,. , • A few denominations specified : Baptist communicants (five bodies), 157,952 ; Congregational, 66,551 ; Lutheran (fifteen bodies), 77,002 ; Methodist (thirteen bodies), 231,856 ; Presbyterian (seven bodies), 92,021 ; Protestant Episcopal, 79,033, etc- >>-dacI— I X ^1 714 Problem of Religious Progress. table xxiv. Rates of Wages in the United States for 52 Years, by Industries, and a General Average of All Industries. M &s b O I 13 ^- .j cfl K < •a , 3 V •Si 0 M OJB 3 0u . •a c 0 m 0 g u-r* a c ss 3 a c m OOtQ 0 0 H CM" W-fc4*W H CO 0 M *0J H OOUJ rO --J Ul HO-H-mOOOOm*O* O CO-j o O O H to OJ to I com o\ oo o> o to OOOt » h \0 H ^ VO o ^¦COi*- OOtO Ol 00 00 00 i O W TO Ol 0 M Q Q O 0 0 0*000 COO O O O 00 00VO ¦¦£> vO OO CO 0\U> OJ OOVO tO 00 tg C\ OMO lO O Ui CO CO tOt-itOHHOvOtOOOJtOOOvOOMOUK. Years. All articles simply averaged. All articles averaged according to impor tance, certain expendi tures being considered uniform. All articles averaged according to impor tance, comprising 68.6 per cent, of total ex penditure. COCOCOCO00O0000OCO000OCOCO0 - ¦jcococococooooooor 5 vo oo^q Oltn *w u i o co co oo oo co o N OJ 10 10 OvO Q4> OOlSO OvOJ >0 10 0\OUCOOUUlOl > vOoOOOOtOO 0 0 O OvO 0 O I Coi vO ^1 OiW Ol H 4»- CMn OJ C\OJ to t. (0 -JJ 0 4- W Ln -k C0U1 OJ 0OJ> CMH J> <- OOOl VO 10 CO*- VO "4 to to AUR 0>4* OJ L i-^oi to uii-o Ov 0\ H +- O 0 CT> Oi OtvO tO 0 J> hi 4> Oj O CG-J All articles simply averaged. All articles averaged according to impor tance, certain expendi tures being considered uniform. All articles averaged according to impor tance, comprising 68.6 per cent, of total ex penditure. W GO 5S H K w w w H ^^ H- M S CO O 4- a o 01 l HCO H awI— ( c/it-l Za|-d o B O> >terwXX< M M H M H -. ¦J «o *»J -»J *j ^j 10 tO O O O G On ^j w vO h OJ 10 U 10 10 10 10 p O Q O Q O to to to to 10 to 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* *¦ H H M H H H OvCn CriOiCn J> OivO -J v*) 0 *J h *j o -»i o»o *j O\oi O vO *J h o«0 CJ\ H H H H H H J> J> J> jS -fc. Go ¦ 00 00 On-h- W vO b\"o "» bvoj bv •^ OOJ h Ovtn H H H H H H Ov OvOi on Oi Ca WVO vO 00 h Oi Years. In Building Trades. In Carriages and Wagons. In Cotton Goods. In Lumber. In Metals and Metallic Goods. In Railroads. In Stone. i oo OOl Oo o -o \b -^ 4* "j vb Average of all Industries. -3>W X o o3 > wd THE BRITISH ISLANDS. TABLES XXVI to XXXII. Appendix. THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 719 TABLE XXVI. The Protestant Churches. 1880. 1893. Denominations. a u 0 5ft - « 2'C s -c ni 0 UPhO IA 0 0 J§So 0 in H. Q Ul g. ft {$ aM b HI bj) 5'C a J3 rt 0 OPMU i S3 B'l 360,000 1,898 2,730 2,825 4,842 342,507375,000 Total Catholic Apost. . Huntingd'n Con. New Jerusalem.. Presbyterian: Est.Ch.ofScot. Free Ch. Scot. . 2,713 265 357 i,53o1,060 600 3,4313 19 37 327 3864 370 1,4201.043 593 360,000 14,500 5,604 4,987 515,786300,000 183,221 2,730 35i 350 1,660 1,273 615 4,842 8034 340 5075 345 1,699 1,097 572 375,000 16,102 5,660 6,063 599,531 343,015 187,075 720 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XXVI, (Continued.) 1880. 1893. Denominations. »V O a 2'e: c OPMO IA 0 0 e's u 3 So 0 inrt ** 0 ,o*S « - d W w bJD .J3 « 14 376.501 6,3839,1823,696 514 342 '17 309 55 86 19.775 5,212 70.125 17 "96 206 141 340 "145 75.337 * 30,275 7.996 7.670 896,742 1 Orthodox. a Congregational " Year-Book," 1881. 3 Congregational " Quarterly." 1877, pp. 64, 65. 4 " Missionary Herald," January, 1881. 3 English Congregational " Year-Book," 1880. 6 Estimate by Rev. Henry M. Dexter, D.D. 7 Report of the London Missionary Society, for 1880. * Report 6f~Anferican Missionary Association, 1880. 8 Statistics of Foreign Missions, by Rev. William B. Boyce. London, 1873. 10 In part from Report of London Missionary Society, for 1879. The statistics of the Sandwich Islands are for 1878. 11 The Churches of the London Missionary Society not given in their Report. 732 Problem of Religious Progress. table xxxvii. Congregationalists in the Whole World, 1893. Countries. America : United States British Provinces Mexico West Indies and British Guiana Total America Europe : British Isles France and Belgium. Spain and Portugal Italy and Switzerland Austria and Turkey in Europe Total Europe Asia: Western Asia India and Ceylon China Japan Total Asia Africa . Continent Madagascar Total Africa Polynesia and Australasia. Aggregate 5,236 -170 13 5o 5,i3« "8 561,631 7,000 581 1,965,848 28,157 1,260 5,469 4,842 "6 30 5,146 2,730 15 25 569,212 375,ooo 4Q2 1,665 1,995,265 i,757,oi7 2,298 2,347 4,878 124100 9767 2,770 112 9339 70 377,067 11,48117,526 7,470 11,070 1,761,662 46,86493,739 7,520 30,000 388 46 1,093 314 21 47,547 5,"4 63,020 178,123 11,824 283,738 1,139 823 21 135 68,134 43,2i6 295,562 135,389 12,697 8,836 1,105,175 4,366,001 Appendix. 733 TABLE XXXVIII. Methodists1 in the Whole World. 1860.2 1880. Minister!. Local Preachers. Commonl- cant.. Mlnliten. Local Preacher*. eanta. America: British N. America ¦¦ W. Ind. , Bahamas, etc 12,843 688 X :::: "1,930,714 89,72640,260 500 4,o6> 35,373 1,682 108 27 5 35 36,875 4,333 17 9 *3,775,753 I73,3fil 51,905 1,087 1,086 4,958 Total America. Europe; 13,532 3,377 3i 13 4 3 .... 2,065,267 •698,111 1,551 63 1,279 44 27,220 5,o8o 37 10 98 961 31,224 *44,i53 929499 2 4,008,150 •¦881,137 2,041 398 21,27613,150 2,586 44 , Germany, Switzerland Total Europe. Asia: India and Ceylon. . . . 3»46o 66 701,048 1,173 72 5,375 164U3 8 44,440 105 46 5 920,632 IOyO05 -a Total Asia . 12 2Z I7S 1.345 17,726 33,»8 3'5 177 435 156 52 3,771 13,517 51,65775,153 Australasia and Pol- Aggregate X7,2CO 35,000 2,818,414 33,533 79,643 5,069,109 1 All bodies bearing the name Methodist, the Evangelical Association, and the United Brethren, both of which Churches are Methodistic in. origin, polity, and doctrine. 2 "Christian Advocate," January 26, i860, and "Ecclesiastical Year-Book,*' for i860, by Professor Schem. 8 Exclusive of members in mission fields, who are reckoned in countries where they live. 4 Including six or seven thousand who should be reckoned in mission fields, but we are unable to distribute them for lack of sufficient data. 5 " Whitaker's LonddM Almanac," 1881. 734 Problem of: Religious Progress. .table xxxix, Methodists in the Whole World,1, 1893 and i8g4.2 .COUNTRIES. Ministers. Local Preachers. Members or Communicants. America : 34,588 1,687 26 108' 64 23,731 1,989 207 90 44 5,403,954 252,102 43,495 British North America and West Indies, Bahamas, Hon- 8,030 3,644 Europe : 36,473 5,630 34' 10 234 139 41- 15. 26,061 41,751 •87 1.5 ' "252 . 205- .21 5,7«,225 4g28,230 i,48g • 508 Germany, Austria, and 31,251 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, 24,330 Italy, Naples, and Malta. . . 2,839 182 Asia: , India, Ceylon, Malaysia, etc. 6,206. 5" 116129 > 42,301 683 17.4 50 g88,82g 139, 031 14,661 7,I25 756460 548 907 1,179 2,602 160,817 Australia and Polynesia. . 99,095 170(953 44,453 3 73,050 7,130,919 1 See explanations under previous table. The figures approximate closely the actual number. 3 Partly for 1894. 8 FuU reports would probably give 15,000 more local preachers. 4 Including about 70,000 junior members. Appendix. 735 TABLE XL. Moravians in thb Whole World,1 1880. Countries. Congre gations. Minis ters, Communi cants. America: United States Greenland and Labrador . North American Indians . West Indies, Barbadoes . . Central America South America Total America . Europe: British Isles Bohemia German Provinces & S » f Germany, Prussia of E S J Scandinavia JtjjS 8> I Russia, Baltic, Poland . 0 9 "* I Switzerland Total Europe . Africa Asia Australasia Missionaries and their families. Aggregate. 59 12 4 41 6 16 138 38 4 2628 7 6 123 15 32 281 75 62 9 89 1672 323 57 2 162 221 64 7 6 621 9.491 1.245 124 14.576 242 5,619 31,297 3,361 153 5,878 "5 9.5072,588 15 30 317 43.754 1 Moravian Year-Book, 1881. TABLE XLI. Moravians in the Whole World, 1893.1 Communicants. Total. British Province (40 Congregations, includ- 3iT36 100 10,160 2,001 278 3^6S3 327 5,660 7*95° 125 I5»9i5 3»oi5 416 91,844 400 German Province (26 Congregations, in- American Province, Northern (62 Congreg' s) American Province, Southern (6 Congreg s). 53,75° 125,331 ''Moravian Almanac " for 1894. 736 Problem of Religious Progress. table XLII. Foreign Missions of the United States. - -185a Working Eitkope: Greece Missions not reporting. . . Turkey in Europe Missions not reporting. . . Germany Missions not reporting. . . France Missions not reporting. . . Total Europe Missions not reporting. Asia: Western Missions not reporting. . . India Missions not reporting. . . China Missions not reporting. . . Siam, Burmah Ceylon.. Total Asia Missions not reporting. Africa: Western Missions not reporting. . . Southern Missions not reporting. . . Total Africa Missions not reporting. America : Indians in U. S Missions not reporting. . . South America Missions not reporting. . . West Indies Missions not reporting. . . Total America Missions not reporting. Oceanica 1 Missions not reporting. . . issions not reporting. 80 10 105 5.°oo 300 59 170 6 2Z2 t 03 A 49 5,415 463 1 575 a 50 3 7,492 345 641 9 8,923 s 1.333 I 7« 5* "4 6 249 4 1,411 1 8,220 2 51 4» 5«> Sio 4 1,107 1 4.9SO 340 3 2,143 4,373 12,913 3 1,591 18s •,77o i,749 2 1 350 53 265 9 67 8,313 3 23,102 1,999 3 12,012 77 xg6 438 426 1,207 3t 47,266 29,2x0 Note. — The above table has been collated and arranged from data collected by Rev. R. Baird, D.D., (u Christian Retrospect and Register,") with a few correc tions and additions. 1 Confined to Polynesia Appendix. 737 £*' table xliii. Foreign Misbt§t#^of)the United States, 188a1 Commas. Working Foiom. 15 ^Europe : Scandinavia Missions not repor'g Germany and Switz erland Missions not repor'g France Missions not repor'g Spain and Portugal . . Missions not repor'g Italy Missions not repor'g Austria Missions not repor'g Greece Missions not repor'g Bulgaria and Turkey in Europe Missions not repor'g Total Europe... Missions not repor'g Asia : Western Asia .... Missions- not repor'g India Missions not repor'g Ceylon .... Burmah and Siam... Missions not repor'g China Missions not repor'g Japan Missions not repor'g Total Asia Missions not repor'g Africa : Western Africa Missions not repor'g Southern Africa. . Egypt Total Africa . . . Missions not repor'g North America : Chinese in California, Missions not repor'g Indians Missions not repor'g Mexico Missions not repor'g 48 Zi493 x 26 1 9 15 123 161 397 3 284 2 IS 2 16 6s 32,051 773 1 700 336 3 15 44° 473 5 334249 365 5 5'7 1 1,176 54 45°006 183 10 851 X 1,435 I 67 540 792 265 78,918 5 9,077 34,687 1 933 21,594 7,968 531 3 130173 l «3 3 15,751 I 21,045 7,6885,^332,697 1,46b 8 63 3 2,986 «37 71 •47 «94 "81 161 76,470 3,4»8 3 630 985 1,222 13 »4 3 2944 53,5l6 4 1,406 937 1,216 116 3 4 152 3 78 3 355 98 43« 363 3 151 5,0*3 3 413 1 15,307 I 8,9'9 4,5«I 2 *,84i 1,152 10 «,55i 7-38 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XLIII, (Continued.) i a Station.. Working Foroei. 1 1 OetnantB. 11 1 l! i 1 11 1CD South America : Missions not repor'g 5i XX i '5 I 3 43 93 x 12 X IO 16 i 6 6 IX 38 3 1 97 19 54 3 X I «5«3 30 '•339 33 '462 9» 363 4 4 X 3 4 "6 60s 3 29 Missions not repor'g Argentine Republic. . Chili 100 65 Missions not repor'g 160 Total A merica .... Missions not repor'g 45 3 108 24 261 i5 45 251 4 33 421 5 40 672 9 73 26,817 3 17,904 71 11 a 13 5,503 15 I>545 ; Missions not repor'g 12 X30 T'Bl 4,167 XI 5,959 31 305,132 I3< 1,393 63 65,825 Missions not repor'g J 34 10 55 1 Collected from reports for 1880. TABLE XLIV. Foreign Missions of Europe and America, 183a 1 i 1 I1 Working Force.. 3 1 OuumjuM* J1 1| sis ii n ! 3 i 3 i I II Europe: Asia : 4 3 13 10 34 3 44 3 3 in 6 20 14 1014 58 100 15 26 '7 •5XO 2 7 101 163358 292 9 91 3 ¦5 *4 7 '5 495 40 150 78 2 1,967 XOO 1,000 27,922 6>i 9,9°° 37 161 185 227 397 809 3iP69 41,872 Appendix. 739 TABLE XLIV, (Continued.) Working Force Ii Africa: Western Africa South " Egypt, Abyssinia Madagascar, Mauritius. . Total Africa America : North American Indians South America, Guiana. West Indies Total A tnerica. . . Oceanica: Australasia Polynesia Total Oceanica.. . Aggregate 62 73 M5 96 233 331 407 7 27 30 34 5°2 656 776 SO "5 5 11 1,117i486 1,800 2,128 63 3i439 181 517 21 215 3,603 7,134 5»,876 7,420 3,000 1,000 9,000 •5 753 62,167 13,000 of 18,165 ',45° '8,364 460 70,289 Note. — The above table has been collated and arranged from data furnished, by a very able survey of the religious condition of the world, in the u American Quarterly Register," August, 1830, pp. 25-60, from the pen of that eminent scholar, Rev. B. B. Edwards, D.D. It is not presumed to be absolutely accurate at every point, nor is it complete, there being numerous omissions of important items, .which could not be supplied ; but it is a close approximate to .a full ex hibit, and the best that can now be obtained for that period. It is 'an under statement, as are also the tables for later periods. This will appear more clearly on examination of the table for 1880, where the number of missions not reporting given items ia carefully specified. 740 Problem of Religious Progress. table xlv. Foreign Missions of Europe and America, 1850. S I £oo Working Forcei. i ! Cotwrnna. 6Sh 13S 1 i « s = 31 1 ¦SQQ Europe : 1 33 3 _40 13 0 4014 1 10 1 14 80 9 7 120 14IX 31 - 5,000 ' 300 '4 "5 5 1 462 5K> Asia: Western 8S 18 12 3 53 6220 133 1 1 6S 44 359 63 30 5i >s 51 9741 16 96 41 i,59i 18 125 324 5 176 136 2,047 122193 393 11 5,4=9 467 24,878 67 7,493 2,651 =4 6 6z 1,111 2083 345 3 972 3,30.5 47,897 269 2,303 11,914 39° TotalAsia Africa: Eastern 46 12II 3 217 28 130 5 555 93 214 8 =43 170155 1 2,104 75 84 2,903 338 377 13 35,s8o 9,635 12,016 18 1,623 3 65,078 I3,63T 20,102 178 North America: 26 40 24 40 163 62 10IS 84 3"5"35 53 15 266 326 119 "6 20 87 70 5 344 728 424 26 630 21,659=4,703 1,0821,521 71,984 215 89 15 135 33,9" 2,886 Greenland and Labrador . 3,0571,1539,869 Oceanica : 86 84 171 IS 72 569 100 68 «45 10 '44 4195'5 52 1,133 625 164 99,290 13,7513S,=48 =39 214 44= 16,965 13,69417,319 12 87 168 54 567 789 48,999 656 31,013 178 700 1,672 783 3,=93 5,7=8 310,957 =,739 147,939 Note. — The above table has been prepared from data furnished by Rev. Robert Baird, D.D., (" Christian Retrospect and Register," Appendix,) with a few cor rections, and some omissions supplied. It is not presumed to be absolutely cor rect, some items being frequently omitted in the reports of some of the Mis sionary Societies, and some having methods of making up their statistics very different from others. The aggregates are believed to be short of the full num bers. But the table is worthy of confidence, as a close approximation to the true facts, and the best that can be obtained for that period. Appendix. 74i TABLE XLVI. Foreign Missions of Europe and America, 1880. North America: Greenland, 1880 . . Miss, not repor'g Add? I (Dan.) 1873 Miss, not repor g Labrador, 1880.... Miss, not repor'g Brit. Domin'n, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Additional, 1873 Miss, not repor'g Indians, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Chinese, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Mexico, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Cen. America, 1880 Miss, not repor'g West Indies, 1880. Miss, not repor'g Additional, 1873. Miss, not reporg Total N. A merica Miss, not repor'g South America : Guiana,. 1880 Miss, not repor'g Brazil, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Columbia, 1880 . . . Miss, not repor'g Argentine Rep. '80 Miss, not repor'g Chili, 1880 Miss, not repor'g Tot al .S. A merica Miss, not repor'j Total America ., Miss, not repor'g Europe : Ireland, (Pap.,) '80 Additional 1873. Miss, not repor'g Enel'd, Uews,) '8° Miss, not repor'g 95 1,005 9 152 44 78 3 18 x 418 5 9 1,214 3= 1,300 40 370 5 Working Forces. 1,602 4 89 X 16 86 117 558 1,719 6 61 57 "48 71 2 1,363 5 =23 3 38 "98"58 1,295 2 16 3,3=8 13 3,886 17 336 84 "65 "87 751 2 1,662 6 384 3 45 I 151 x 78 1,590 2 33 4,930 17 54 3 675 5,6°5 23 426 783 462 55,598 20,657 6 '5,33' 1 413 x 8,919 1,328 211,833 11,065 i,339 33 '462 9= 12,981 224,814 4,076 623 1,533 9,ooo 1,260 90,134 I 46,849 8 27 4 "6 4.030 179,248 9 °u 47,585 47,58s 379,639 66 9,179 836 2 10 1,470 10 1,841 1,55' 2 817 1 29,499 9 1,335 4,657 2 605 3 29 5,45* S 42,805 43 1*0766,593 4 742 Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE XLVI, (Continued.) ¦t I ¦a J Working Forces. j 13 i *! IIto OOOHTUBS. i 1 J 11 8"! i I i a £ & 5» « £ O 1 Europe: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, x880j. . . t 205 493 300 no 410 33,696 300 Miss, not repor'g. 1 1 3 3 '"i "i s Germany, Austria, Switzerl'd, 1880. 7 lit 1,699 169 348 517 47,155 9,506 I -319 Miss, not repor'g. 1 3 X I 3 3 6 6 6 35 2x8 41 169 2IO =.957 13,300 13 513 Miss, not rcpoi'g. 3 z 3 3 3 3 3 3 A dditionaly 1873 . Miss, not repor'g. Spain and Portu 1 2 2 2 79 "J .. I . ... I t ¦ ¦•• x 1 gal, 1880,... .... Miss, not reporg. .4 10 30 19 58 77 90S 2,350 - 34 =,359 I .... X I .... „ 3 3 a Additional, 1873 . Miss, not reporg. *8 19 12 26 3= 58 813 0,000 3 199 s .... 4 4 6 . 5 7 7 Italy, Naples, and 10 no 103 59 65 ". 4,658 3,688 IX 780 Miss, not repor'g. 5 3 5 3 7 7 7 4 "t 4 15 19 9 ..„ 700 Miss, not repor'g. 4 X X 3 3 4 3 Bulgaria and Tur key in Europe, '80 5 9 19 =4 62 86 69 38 5 6=3 Miss, not reporg. .. 2 8 4 3 3 Additional \ 1873 . Miss, not reporg. 5 7 9 "9 28 S .... .... s 5 S 5 Total Europe... 63 682 =,934 785 1,285 2,070 94,036 43,076 33 13,366 Miss, not repor'g. 3 33 7 18 35 »7 48 47 Africa: South Africa, 1880 26 217 1,100 319 2,020 =,339 45,308 153,677 39= 20,191 Miss, not repor'g. a 12 3 3 „ 5 13 11 Additional, 1875 . Miss, not repor'g. Middle and West =4 151 1x2 148 177 3=5 13,888 i8,795 =3 ''"xl 2 17 7 IS 19 XI •9 33 ern Africa, 1880. =4 116 454 177 1,114 1,291 =5,846 79,564 363 15.346 Miss, not repor'g. 7 3 3 6 15 7 6 Additional , 1873 . Miss, not reporg. 7 19 "69 '74 =43 7,»8 10,400 37 3,031 1 7 4 4 1 s ' 4 3,38l North-east.: Africa 5 16 45 30 188 208 i,3=o 53 Miss, not repor'g. 3 X X 2 4 -1 I Additional, 1873 . Miss, not repor'g. 11 =5 62 35 36 71 17 17 1,131 2 9 3 8 4 10 11 7 5 Madagascar, 1880. 2 29 1,152 97 7,345 7,44= 70,187 353,402 883 48,050 Miss, not repor'g. .. 1 .... .... X ' ' X Additional, 1873 . 1 5 9 19 4 46 '288 3,x6g 9 704 Mauritius, 1880 . . . 2 8 10 36 456 81 757 Miss, not repor'g. 3 I St. Helena, 1880 . . x 3 3 3 =73 9x0 .... • ¦•¦ Miss, not repor'g. I X X .... I 1^696 57 ¦' ,i Total Africa... Miss, not repor'g. 103 589 71 3.93J 897 9 «,o»4 35 1,991 34 164,701 30I 518,075 5* 08,381 48 Appendix. 743 TABLE XLVI, (Continued.) «? 1 ¦3 :4 Working Form. i ] *i «l Coronam. sia* i s a £ £ I3 A 1 II I1to 1 Asia: Western Asia. 188c Miss, not repor'g Additional, 1873 . Miss, not repor'g Miss, not repor'g. Additional, 1873 . Miss, not repor g. Burmah, Siam, '80 Miss, not repor'g. *310 3313 3 383 5 10 348 17 3 . 581 a . 9=9 2 1 6c .8 10,380 4 10 1,781 9 303 4 17,390 3 - 330 4422 2 342 7I 15 1,002 so32 18 440 1 76415I 3 90 5,313 5 3=! 6 450 6,071 483 9 54o 8o,97j 16,56: t =1,594 309,966 12 =1,764 12 2,721 11 180 6 173 135,054 , 5 6,350 8 5,233 Miss, not repor'g. Additional, 1873 . Miss, not repor'g. Miss, not repor'g. 29 3 IX 158 15 39 465 7 22 1 58 5 302 24 97 1,088 3 57 1 201 1,390 8? 1 298 19,434 2 333 I =,436 9,436 =5 3 =97 161 12 3I 32 6 4,926 5 36 2 1,848 Miss, not repor'g. 6 129 170 i=5 1,005 1,130 7,278 14,288 667 35,408 East Indies, 1880 . Miss, not repor'g. 14 56 48 17 6s 85,814 63,754 13 11,518 ii 14 7 137 Additional, 1873 . Miss, not reporg. 21 36 60 77 879 20,400 22 575 18 11 31 10 16 26 19 20 16 4,365 Total Asia 175 902 2,570 2,033 9,266 11,299 =45,685 341,686 =17,858 Miss, not repor'g. 28 104 25 4° 65 61 104 77 66 Oceanica : Australasia, 1880.. 17 1,251 891 4=9 1,78s 2,214 33,143 329,955 26 3,6* Miss, not repor'g. 2 13 II II 2 6 14 11 Additional, 1873 . Miss, not reporg. 25 =93 133 374 341 715 19,214 80,474 859 1 19 2 18 30 II 18 35 33 Polynesia, 1880 . . . 24 1,032 414 422 6,105 6,527 75,oo6 218,691 =,425 68,67! Miss, not repor'g. t 2 6 8 4 8 8 Additional, 1873 . Miss, not repor'g. 2 11 33 37 94 131 733 3,000 71 3,000 I I 1 1 1 1 Total Oceanica. 68 2,587 i,47i 1,262 8,325 0,587 128,096 532,120 2,522 75,193 Miss, not repor'g. 504 5 ;,7°5 38 4 36 40 18 33 47 43 Aggregate.... 12,209 6,696 13,856 4o,55= 857,33= 1,813,596 9,316 447,6o» Miss, not repor g.l 52I 273 5l| 136 187 148 310 371 «47 Note. — The above table is not quite complete. The author, not having many of the reports of the Missionary Societies of the European Continent, for 1880, has supplied this lack with the additional for 1873' (see above) from a semi- official source. The statistics of the British and American Societies for 1880 are nearly complete. The reader is referred to the chapter on Foreign Missions. The full fruitage of Protestant foreign missions should strictly take in all the religious life of Canada, Australia, West Indies, etc. 744 Problem of Religious Progress. table xlvii. Foreign Missionary Societies of the Evangelical Churches of the United States, 1892-93. Societies. American Board Presbyterian Board, North Presbyterian Board, South .. . Reformed Ch. in Amer. (Dutch) United Presbyterian Board. ... Cumberland Presbyterian Ch . , Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanter) Reformed Ch. of the U. S. (Ger.) Reformed Presb. Gen. Synod. Amer. Baptist Miss'ry Union1 . . Baptist Southern Convention.. Free Baptists Seventh-day Baptists2 Ger. Bap. Brethr'n (Dunkards). Methodist Epis. Church, includ ing Woman's Society1 Bishop Taylor's Transit and Building Society Methodist Epis. Church, South. Methodist Protestant Church. . Wesleyan Methodist Protestant Epis. For. Miss. Soc. Evangelical Association. ....... United Brethren in Christ Evang. Xuth. General Council . Foreign Christian Missionary Society (Disciples): Christian Church United Brethren (Moravians)3.. Woman's Union Mission'y Soc. Ger. Evang. Synod of N'th Am. Seventh-day Adventists3. . . .'. . . American Bible Society. . ..:... American Tract Society The Friends' Church 1,129 586 10S 202239 20 9 1,065 5 J54 18 171 45 422 146 201256 54 273° 67 4 Total 691 4,835 1,256 1,737 13,112 304,905 5,600 179,087 356 367 69 405° 4 242 '16 3 2,741 1,647 130 392 •5=i 23 5745 17 1,644, 79 186 =3 16 1=5 75 428 90409862 13 236 3==4 326 4i,5== 31,3=4 2,800 5,799 10,641 716 236 1,842 - 120 101,469 2,923 860 3° 165 68,891 700 6,709 334 3,ooi 11,150 5,9781,441 3,004 199 375876 1,167 7=5 30 172264 5 31 2 3 i,=i3 16 93 4 .ii 50,533 28,983 ",373 5,099 12,068 J 76 618222 90 24,688 .1,565 71 33,5?8 800 =,499 131 5 5,223 50 594 1,6081,100 4,768 45° 1 The work of these Societies in Protestant Europe is not here reported. 2 Reported last year. 3 Excepting receipts in the United States, the work of the Moravians is given in the table of British Societies. 4 American missionaries. Save in the instances noted, the above table contains a report by the proper official of each Society represented, made since October Appendix. 745 r5, !893, and gives the very latest figures obtainable. Comparing the totals of last year, the chief increase here indicated is in the native laborers, over 1,800 having been added to the forces. The contributions have passed the five million point, and show an in crease over last year of about $136,000. TABLE XLVIII. British Foreign Missionary and Kindred Societies, 1892-93. Name of Society. Baptist Missionary Society , Baptist Zenana Missionary Society China Inland Mission Church Missionary Society Church of Eng. Zenana Miss'y Soc Church of Scotland Church of Scotland, Women's Asso'n Congo Balolo Mission Free Church of Scotland Friends' Foreign Mission Association. Friends' Syrian Mission Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society London Missionary Society Methodist New Connection Moravian Missions North Africa Mission Presbyterian Church of England. Presbyterian Church of Ireland. . . Primitive Methodist Salvation Army Society for Propagation of the Gospel South American Missionary Society. Syrian Mission Schools v United Methodist Free Churches United Presbyterian Church Universities' Missions Waldensian Church Mission Wesleyan Missionary Society Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Total. . 106 402 53 94 39 26 97 3 123 15 5 13 5 233 470 *7 2 73 98 10 44 340 13 697 JOI 17 4 1,875 8526 1 144 J9 9 241 3,5°° =4 8 130173 ¦7 54 170 138 375 419 15 110 187 8 167 2032 150 628 70 74 60 '158 15 100 58 177 384 150 2729 7 963° 53 207 ,6o 55 18 =4 5 84 75 19 1,337 1763=3 5,218 635466 '34 539 470 241 8,180 57 1,803 149 42 468 2,420 9 120 824 662 97 138 2,348 51,682 3,637 52,898 5',663 144 150 7,0073,198 92,400 1,45° 31,653 20 3,944 690829 11,077 70,000 383 10,471 I7,4H 1,070 4,737 37,466 2,284 2,308 7,496 2,739 1,875 27,060 410,357 1 European missionaries. Pupils in Schools 474,204 Receipts of above Societies, 1892-93 $6,602,182 Twenty nine other Societies 712,902 Four Medical Missionary Societies 15,587 Nine Bible and Tract Societies 1,024,769 Four missions to the Jews 272,239 British Roman Catholic Miss'ry Soc. (about) 45,000 48 746 Problem of Religious Progress. which makes the grand total income (including funds raised and appropriated at mission stations) of British foreign missionary and kindred societies $8,672,679. TABLE XLIX. Summary of Protestant Foreign Missions. Rev. Dr. E. Strong, Editor of the Missionary Herald, Boston, the author of the tables for 1892-93, says : "A summary is naturally looked for, and yet such a summary must be imperfect. The fig ures given below, so far as they relate to the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, are of our own compiling, and are the most re cent, covering the year 1892, save in a few cases where the year of the Society reporting ended in the spring of 1893. These tables are derived from original sources, and are believed to be thoroughly re liable. For continental Europe and other portions of the world not heretofore fully reported, we have taken the figures from Dean Vahl's statistics, which cover the year 1891. Dr. Vahl's tables do not give the wives of missionaries as do ours. It should always be kept in mind that there is great diversity of method in the reports of missionary societies, and the summaries can be only approximately correct. The totals given are undoubtedly, in all cases, less than the true figures, could full reports be obtained. It is cheering to notice that in almost all columns there is an increase year by year." Societies. a .2 W G .2 u V0 ¦8 rJ 0 'a ft 'o.5On 1 3 O OJ 3 s B Vea 9Bs0 - 0 0B00 a 691 4,835 1,256 1,737 13,112 304,905 jfc,xio,668 46 2,308 145 7,49^ 80 2,739 103 1,875 608 27,060 7,806 4IO,357 382,261 6,602,182 Continental Europe.. . 1 960 »IQI 5,772 224,751 i,434,47o West Indies, Asia, Af rica, and Australia. 1#> 632 »5i 5,870 276,786 863,710 Total 3,045 12,476 5,667 3,957 52,422 1,224,605 $14,402,291 1 Not reported. 2 Wives not included. 8 Missionaries, TABLE L. Religious Census of Europe.1 (Mostly from 1889 to 1893.) Countries. Year. Total Population. Roman Catholics. Protestants. Greek Church. Jews. Moham medans. Not Ac counted. Austria and Hungary Belgium Bulgaria ( Bosnia and Herzegovina... Denmark France Finland Germany Greece Great Britain arid Ireland. Italy Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Russia in Europe , Ron mania Switzerland Servia Sweden Spain Turkey in Europe Not accounted Total 1890 1892 ,1893 1S8S 1890189118901890 1881 1890 1890 18931888 1893189218S7 41,358,886 6,195,3553,3°5,458 1,404,000 2,185,335 38,343,192 2,380,140 49,428,470 2,187,208 38,104,97328,459,628 4,5",4*5 2,000,9178,485,903 4,708,178 88,665,796 5,800,0002,933,3342,226,7414,806,865 17,565,632 27,754,000 6,181,355 i8,539 265,788 3.647 29,201,703 461 17,674,921 14,677 5,412,307 28,359,628 1,604,169 1,004 6,214,504 4,707,678 (1888) 8,300,000 114,200 1,183,828 11,596 (1880) 8io I7j535,836 (estimated) 7,5oo 4,077,886 ro,ooo 2, 170,048 692,800 2,354,547 3*. ^2,350 32,692,666 62,000 2,809,922 i,999,°93 445,oi3 500 (1888) 2,950,00a 13,800 1,710,548 1,149 4,768,665 6,654 (estimated) 1,500 7,659,000 2,432,154 57 1, 250 45,132 1,902,800 398,885 69,863,407 4,529,000 2,127,144 (1880) 17 (estimated) 2,291,000 1,868,000 4,000 24,352 5,805 4,080 53,436 5*67,884 5,792 93,200 38,00097,3=4 1,134,268 3,000,000 300,000 8,0694,652 (1880J 2,993 402 (estimated) 50,000 668,173492,710 24,165 2,000,000 2,000 16,764 355,757,4262 154,568,151 87,925,i39 538 5,000 7,684,906 13,3^5 139,774 63,892 26,000 14,000 22,730 1,646,123 91,839,789 7,254,257 3,553,8i2 10,616,278 > mo 1 Carefully collated from the " Statesman's Year-Book," for 1894. 3 Professor A. H. Keane makes it 360,000,000. 748 Problem of Religious Progress. table LI. Yearly Rate of Increase of Population.1 Countries. Observed Period. Yearly Rate of Increase. Observed Period. Yearly Rate of Increase. 1800-60 0.48 1860-77 °-35 1800-61 0.61 1861-78 0.71 1801-61 0.98 1861-78 0.92 1801-61 1.37 1860-75 ' 1.24 1871-81' 1.44 1801-61 0.17 1861-78 . 0.46" 1801-60 0.93 1860-78 1. 11 1800-60. 0.82 1860-78' i-i5 1800-60 0.99 1860-78 0.86 1851-63 z.20 1863-75 1. 11 1830-60 0.64 1860-78 0.86 1830-60 0.27 1860-77 o-55 1837-60 o.59 1860-78 0.00 1820-61 1.21 1861-75 0.98 1830-61 1.16 1861-75 0.83 18 1 8-61 °-55 1861-78 °-54 1820-61 1. 41 1861-78 1.56 1834-61 o.34 1861-78 0.76 1795-59 0.71 1859-77 °-9S 1831-60 0.48 1860-78 0.82 1801-61 o.39 1861-74 1. 17 1800-60 0.66 1860-77 o.35 1823-58 0.72 1858-77 1.95 1821-61 1.22 1861-77 0.97 1834-59 1.92 1S59-77 1. 19 1860-70 2.04 1870-80 2.61 France Italy United Kingdom England and WaleS Ireland Denmark Sweden Norway Russia in Europe Austria (Cisleithania) Hungary Switzerland Prussia (without recent annexations)' Prussia (with recent annexations) . . . Bavaria. . .'. Saxony. Wurtemberg Holland Belgium Portugal Spain Poland Greece Servia United States The above table includes the effects of immigration and emigration* An Earlier Table.3 Countries. rt B .2 rt "a &0 P* udV a .2Js &0 Ph oii a "rt a 0 4 ** J. D C a 8. 4) -. . a u 5 1790 1786 1801 X783 1S01 17921762 1723 3,929,8276,000,000 8,500,000 27,400,000 15,800,009 23,500,000 21,769,000 7,625,000 18501849184418501851 1851 18511834 33i>9Ii87<> 16,331,18715,500,000 62,088,000 27,475,27i 36,514,39735,783,170 12,232,194 60 6343675059 89 III 19,262,04910,331,187 7,000,000 34,688,000 11,675,271!3,oi4,39714,014,170 5,607,194 8.17 2.73 1.921.891.48 ¦ 94 .72 66 Turkey (European) The annual increase of the United States has been nearly three times as great as that of Prussia, notwithstanding the large popula tion that was added to her by the partition of Poland ;.more than four times as much as Russia ; six times as much as Great Britain ; nine times as much as Austria ; ten times as much as France. 1 Prepared by Signore Luigi Bodio. See " Encyclopaedia Britannica," vol. xix, a Decrease. 8 See " Compendium of the United States Census," 1850, p. 131. Appendix. 749 TABLE LII. Independent States under Christian Governments. States, including Colonies and Dependencies. Area in Square Miles. 1875.* i8go.s Populations. 1875.I i8oo.s Protestant States. British Empire : Great Britain and Ireland.. Indian Possessions Other Eastern Possessions. Australasia, etc America, North " South Africa. . . ^ West Indies European Possessions Total German Empire Foreign Dependencies United States The Netherlands. Foreign Dependencies Sweden Norway Madagascar Switzerland Denmark ..... Colonies Liberia Transvaal Republic Orange Free State Sandwich Islands Australian Islands Total Protestant Roman Catholic States. France.. Colonies and Dependencies Austria-Hungary Italy ' Colonies and Dependencies Spain Colonies and Dependencies Brazil Mexico Portugal Colonies and Dependencies Belgium Colombia Peru Chili Bolivia Argentine Confederation and Territories ¦ 8,755,159 121,115 1,600,000 104,441 3,403,305 3,525,000 76,000 295,000 20,343 124 283,604,841 * 38,500,000 288,350,000 4,169,000 4,200,0005,200,000 285,000 4,000,000 1,136,000 185,500 8,755,159 208,729 3,611,844 12,648 661,452294,030228,600 15,992 54,3o8 9<567 114,000 42,479 7,629 320,750 9,145,328 208,738 996,150 3,501,409 12,648 7^9*674 170,979"4,445 228,500 15,97615,289 86,614 14,360 48,326 7,629 320,750 283,604,841 41,060,864 38,555,98326,569,000 6,063,8005,000,0002,669,147 1,988,000 718,000300,000 57,00056,877 1,926,100 346,025,500 49,428,470 6,606,000 62,622,250 j 4,669,576 | 32,000,000 I 4,806,865 | 2,000,9173,50o,ooo , 2,9*7,754 2,185,335 | 114,229 1,068,000 77,716 80,578 M,337,l87 577,^95 240,954 114,405 3 '6,075 3,288,100 • 741,823741,625 ",373 320,738 503,468 126,034 500,880 15,616,815 204,092 1,071,843 240,942 110,623 546,100 1" 197,670 405,338 3,209,878 767,005 34,038 743,204 ",373 504,773643,747393,970567,360 838,605 1,125,086 408,569,612 41,736,000 35,904,43526,801,154 25,196,100 10,296,238 9,158,2478,028,5005,253,8212,894,9922,500,000 2,074,000 2,000,000 1,812,500 38,343,T9232,194,54441,358,886 30,535,848 6,258,800 17,565,632 9,695,567 14,002,33511,642,720 4,708,1785,371,2006,195,3533,878,6002,971,8442,867,375 1,192,162 4,257,000 7So Problem of Religious Progress. TABLE LII, (Continued.) States, including Colonies and Dependencies. Area in Square Miles. 1875.' Populations. 1875. x i8go.a Venezuela and Territories. Ecuador , Guatemala San Salvador Hayti Honduras Uruguay Nicaragua Paraguay Luxemburg Costa Rica San Domingo Andorra Lichenstein San Marino Monaco Total Roman Catholic, Eastern Church States. Russian Empire Roumania. . . .¦ Abyssinia Greece Servia Montenegro Total Eastern Church . . . Under Christian Gov'ts.. 403,272248,300 40,778 7,335 9,233 47,°9269,80058,16956,714 999 ai,433 19,959 144 6824 6 593,943120,000 46,800 7,225 10,204 43,000 72,110 49,50098,000 998 23,000 18,045 175 68 32 1,784,1941,308,000 1,194,000 600,000 572,000350,000 300,000250,000 221,079 197,528 185,000 136,500 12,000 8,060 " 7i8l6 5,74i 2,323,527 1,271,8611,460,017 780,426 960,000 396,048 728,447 282,845 480,000 211,088243,205 610,000 6,000 8,060 8,200 13,304 9,304,605 *,535,i42 46,710 158,400 19,353 16,817 1,701 11,860,150 8,660,282 48,307 25,041 19,050 3,630 180,787,905 85,686,000 4,500,000 3,000,000 1,457,8941,338,000 120,000 242,822,264 117,561,874 5,800,000 .2,187,208 2,226,741 200,000 8,778,123 8,756,310 96,101,894 127,975,823 32,419,915 36,233,275 685,459,411 90,901,277 1 Statistics of Professor A. J. Schem, LL.D. 2 Collated from the "Statesman's Year-Book" for 1894, from censuses taken between 1887 and 1893, but chiefly 1890 and 1891. INDEX. Abolitionists, The "come-outer" wing of, 215. Absolutism passing away, 460. Accountability to God, 138. Activities, An exhibit of religious, 428-430. Activity, New religious, 401. Adams, Hon. John Quincy, 211. Rev. Dr. N., 112. Addison, quoted, 300, 390, 497. Additions to churches, 429, 430. Adopted fellow-citizens, 302. Adultery, Penalty for, 236. Advent, second excitement, 22. Adventures, Wild, 246. Advertisements of runaway wives, 231. Africa, England in, 657. Africans in slave-ships, 222. Agassiz, Professor, 132. Age of Reason, Paine's, 108. Agnosticism of Mill, 133. Classing away, 132. bert, Prince, Good influence of, 309. Alcohol, 375. Congresses, 307. Alcoholism, 342. America, Discovery of, 55^ threatened with great evils, 203. American Association for the Advance ment of Science, 157. Cyclopedia, 294. Quarterly Register, quoted, 109, 113, 472, 475, 553- . . Statistical Association, 327. Temperance Society, 293. Amoskeag Falls, 194. Amsterdam Temperance Association , 3°7. Amusements, Brutal, 177. Anabaptists, 76, 382. Anarchy, 340-363. Andover House, The, 501. Manual, 203. Andrew, Hon. John A., 299. St., Society, 505. Andrews, Rev. Bishop E. G., 451, 452. Anglican Communion, 729. Anglo-Saxon dueling, 308. race, 668, 66g. Angjo-Saxons, History of, 649. Antinomian spirit, 442. • Antiquity, Resurrection of, 57. Anti-saloon crusade, 299. Antitrinitarians, 73, 75, 77. Antony, Mark, 264. Apocalyptic dream, 16. Apostles of Complaint, 19. Applied Christianity, 500. Aquinas, Thomas, 54. Archipelago, The Eastern, 651. Architecture, Mediaeval, 163. languishes, 336. Arcot Mission, 644. Areas under Church governments, 656. Arians, 77, 104, 136, 398. Aristotle's Philosophy, 53, 57, 58. Armada, 538. Armies disbanded, 399. Standing, 397. Arminianj Wesley an, 394. Arminianism, 35. Arminians oppose Descartes, 81. Arnold, Matthew, 147. Art in Greece, etc., 493. Arthur, President, quoted, 463, 464. Association, General, of Massachusetts, 214. Atheism, 19, 130. an aristocratic belief, 100. Little of, in the world, 129. Profaneness of, 179. Atheistic presSj 363. Atheists in United States, 106. Atlantic Monthly, The, 27, 93, 368. Atonement, Vicarious, 104, 125. Australia, 578. Progress in, 661. Statistics of, 627. Averroes, quoted, 64. Awakening, The Great, 393. Babel, 354. of belief, 94. Babels of moral corruption, 357. Bacon, 79. on immortality, 138. Rev. Dr. Leonard, in, 402. Bacon's Empiricism, 84. Badger, Rev. Joseph, 202. Baird, Rev. Robert, D.D., 109, 615,650. Balbi, Adrian, 520. Ballots, Satanic count of, 360. Ballou, Rev. Hosea, no, 138, 139. Bancroft, Dr. C. P., quoted, 156, 157. Hon. George, quoted, 80. Bangs, Rev. Dr. N., 211. Banking, 374. 752 Index. Baptist educational institutions, 497. Publication, Board, 429, 430. Baptists in south-west, 397. English-speaking, 665. Free-will, Origin of, 394. in whole world, 730. Barnard, Sir John, 103. Barnes, Rev. Albert, D.D., 671. Bascom, Rev. Dr. H. B., 466. Bath rooms, 336. Baxter, Richard, quoted, 456. Beecher, Rev. H. W., quoted, 73, 90, 117, 136, 148, 377. Rev. Dr. Lyman, quoted, 106, 111, 211, 213. Beer gardens, 362. Belgium, Temperance in, 306, 307. Belief, Free, 457. Believed too much, 128. Bellows, Rey. Dr. H. W., 24, 445. Bern and Wagner, 528. Benefactors of Western Europe, 163. Benefices, 167. Benevolence, Pecuniary, 437, Benson, Bishop, quoted, 181. Bertillon, M., 517. Bessarim, 65. Bible distribution, 637, etc' American Society, 413, 641. Cavils at, 197. Eliot's, 205. ' emerging from conflicts with scien tists, 131. epochs, 638. given away, 421, 430. imported from Scotland, 205. in ninety years, 641. inspired, 126. interpretation modified, 120. King James's Version, 639. language, 641, 642, 666. rare, 205. Statistics of the, 640.. The, and progress, 456. the sure resting place, 159. the true guide, 128. Biddle, John, 77. Bishops, Ignorant and vicious, 167, 172. Bismarck, quoted, 539. Black Death, 334. Blackwood's Magazine, 103, 186. Blair's Sermons, 387. Blasphemy, 186. Blind, The, 345. Bliss and Sankey , 498. Blount, 69. Blue Book, 628. Bocaccio, 275I Bodin, John, 66. Bolingbroke, Lord, 84. Booth s Study of London, 325. Bosses, Political, 326, 358. Boston churches, 120. city missions, 409, etc. Journal, 247, 254, 259, 372. North End, 500. Boston Progress, 369. Recorder, 293. Traveller, 236. Botta, Professor Vincens, 64. Bowditch, Dr., 299. Bowdoin College, Infidelity in, 107. Bowen, Professor, 134. Boyce, Rev. W. B., 614. Bradford, Dr., quoted, in. Brainerd, Rev. David, 398. Breckenridge, Colonel, 251. Bribery, 182, 183. Briggs, George N., 298. British Empire and colonies, 657. and Foreign Bible Society, 640. Companion and Almanac, 339, 345, 420. Isles Church, Statistics of, 718, etc. Isles, Intemperance in, 303. Society, 276. Britons of two thousand years ago, 490. Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, 158. Brooks, Rev. Phillips, quoted, 154. Brotherhood, Principle of, 345. Brotherhoods, Papal, 611. Brown, Sir Thomas, 69. Bruno, Giodario, 71.' Bruta fulmina, 54. ( Buckle s History, 23, 516. Buel, Rev. Dr. Samuel, 404, Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 270. Burgess, Bishop, quoted, 101. Burgher class, Rise of, 56. Burke, Hon. Edmund, 347., Burnett, Bishop, 385. Burr, Aaron, 199, 287, 484. Butti, Marquis of, 663. Butler, Bishop, quoted, 95, 103, 389. Byron, Lord, compared with lennyson, 249. Calhoun, Rev. G. A., quoted, 322. Calvinism modified, 124. Calvinist, Whitefield a, 394. Calvin's Institutes, 124. Campanello, Thomas, 79. Canals, Wages on, 329. Capacity to consume, 354. Capital crimes, 347. Capital, Growth of, 331. ' The men of, 376. Card amis, 71. Card parties on Sunday, 384. Carlyje, T., quoted, 510. Carmina Sacra, 498. Carpets, rare in 1800, 323. Carroll, H. K., LL.D., 575. Cartesians in Holland, 81. Cartwright, Rev. P., quoted, 202. Casuistry, Schools of, 165. Categorical imperative of the moral law, 135. Cathay, 477. Catholic marriages, 235. Index. 753 Catholic Mirror, quoted, 325, 3445 592. Telegraph, Quoted, 581. ../mi^o* Total Abstinence Union, 3olPW% World, quoted, 22, 541, 580, 581, 645.' Causative, A, connection, 130. Causes, Economic, 329. Celibacy violated, 172. Celt, The, quoted, 586, etc. Census of Australia, 627. of United States, 1890, 450. " quoted, 314. " " 517. Central ideas in doctrines retained, 126. Century, the most Christian, 455. Chandler, Hon. W. E., on the rights of Negroes, 329. Change in philosophy of religion, 116. Changes between Huss and Luther, 169. in doctrine, 89. Channiing, Rev. Dr. W. E., 26, 140. Charities, The great, 440. New, 345- Charles II, Debauched court of, ig2. Evils flowing from, 3g3. Religion under Law, 385. Chastity and divorce, 230-245. Chauncey, Rev. Dr. C, no. Chesterfield, Lord, on gambling, 180. unfilial conduct, 186. Chicago, Divorces in, 236. half-foreign, 342. " strikes, 340. Tribune, quoted, 226. Children and temperance in Germany, . 307- . in coal mines, 311. in factories, 311. Chilli ngworth, 77. Chimney sweeps, 311. China, Changes in, 669. Criminals in, 478. Missions in, 619, 620. Choate, Hon. Rufus, quoted, 371. Christ in art, 493. divine, recognition of, 136. in literature, 492. Life of, by Neander, 151. portrayed as a culprit, 125., Testimony to, by Renan and Schel ling, 136. The modern, 35 Christendom? Map of, enlarged, 151. Christian Advocate, The, quoted, 152, 250, 253-256, 264, 635, 374. conduct low. Standard of, 400. Educator, quoted, 227, 228. Endeavor Society, 505. Examiner, quoted, 131. governments, population under, 654, etc. Retrospect and Register, 615. standard advancing, 148. Theist, A., 131. Christianity advancing, 510. a failure, 19, 20, etc. Christianity and civilization, 570, etc. among industrious peoples, 351. and Modern Thought, 43. and the masses, 4gg. an increasing force, 454-510. A party organized to destroy, 201. apologetic, 153. applied, 500. a propagandism, 514. corrupted, 457. emerging from a period of darkness, 119. Evangelical, New voyage of, 152. Faith in, by scientists, 132. fictitious, 103. Gains of, 650. has wrought upon her enemy, 150. in England, 385, 394. its foes borrowing from it, 150. losing nothing by its modifications, 127. makes no great concessions, 157. newly vindicated, 142. not waning, 446. now better understood, 458. Progress of, 645, etc. reduced to the lowest terms, 105. relative progress of, 520. Statistics of, in the world, 649, etc. Tutelage 0^378. Unchanged by changes, 90. Working doctrines ot, 127. Christians in India, 625. Unity and diversity among, 137. Chubbs, 84. Chunder Sen, quoted, 630. Church Almanac, 415, 419. attendance, 213. discipline in New England, 203. fives motives, 125. lissionary Intelligencer, 651. of England, its evangelical party, 395, of Rome imbecile, 49. property, Value of, 571. sittings, 567. The Mediaeval, its service, 163, 164. Churches, Costly, 361. dissenting, in low state, 187. Empty, 27. in American colonies, condition of, 390, etc. in Boston, 422. in Great Britain, Low condition of, ew Jersey, low, 390. . 383-390. in New Jer in New York, low, 390. in Virginia, low, 390. multiplying in West, 416. National, of United States, 168. not built by carpentry, 515. of Maryland, low, 390. of Massachusetts, 399. organizations, edifices, etc., in United States, 1850-1890, 606-703. organized by home missions, 428. organized in United States, 560. 754 Index. Churches, The, and the cities, 713. valleys of dry bones, 393. with new power, 211. Churchman, The, quoted, 502. Cities, Advantages of, 355. Aggregates -of virtue in, 263. and aggressive Christianity, 365. and commerce, 356. and crime, 263. and the churches, 713. centers of evil forces, 355, 360. centers of good forces, 366. Concentrated vices of, 355, 660. congestions of population, 354. Evangelization of, 363, 366, 419, etc., 503, etc. fed by rural towns, 356. Hot-bed fermentation in, 219. . in United States, 355. in United States, Progress of, in fifty years, 366. Provision for churches in, 422. Radiating centers of, 354. Rise of, 55. unfortunate^ 341, etc. Civil government and large business enterprises, 344. government and Christianity, 460. life, Ideals of, 376. recognition of religion, 463. Civilization, A leading problem of, 354. and Christianity, 507-510. Pagan, 478. Progress of, 331.. Civita Catholica, 580. Clark, -Dr. R. H., 582. Clarkson, Thomas, 476. Classes of paupers, 325, etc. Classics, Greek and Roman, 56. Clay, Hon. Henry, 484. Clergy, English^ ignorant, 386. exercising divine prerogatives, 165. immoral, 164, 188, 195. intemperate, 400. made inquisitors, 165. under dominion of Satan, 168. Cleveland, Ohio, described in 1803, 262. Cloisters, Purity in, 380. Coal-pits, Women and children in, 311. Codes, Penal, 348. Coke, Rev. Thomas, LL.D., 611, Colleges and the Churches, 466. and the Evangelical Churches, 115. by whom founded, 465. in United States, 114. Religious status of, 475. Roman Catholic and Protestant, 471. students religious, 474, 475. Colliers -and salters, 222. Collins, 84. Colonies under Christian governments, n , 6s7' Colportage organized, etc., 428. Colquhoun, Mr., 263. "Come-outer" wing of Abolitionists, 215. Commerce and cities, 356; Common soil of humanity plowed and planted, 443. Communicants, 267. of Evangelical Churches in the United States, 574, etc.j 600, etc. Communistic societies, 232. Comparative religions, 140. Complete Preacher, The, quoted, 27. Comstock, Anthony,. 248. Comte, quoted, 130, 516; Concessions of Liberalists to Orthodoxy, 139- Concordat, The, 533. Concubinage of priests, 164. Conditions of progress in United States, 45i- Confession . of Huxley and Spencer, 156. of Strauss, 145. Confessional, History of, 165. Confidence, New, 133. Conflicts of theology and science, 92. Congregational Association of Massa chusetts, 203. minister, A young, in Boston, 124. Congregationalist, The, quoted, 357, 364, 486. Congregationalists, English-speaking, 665. in all the world, 731. Congregations, Small, 388. Connecticut, Divines in, 332. The Sabbath in, 213. Conscience, More and better, 485. Consciousness, Double, 150. The world's, 455, etc. Conservative and progressive, 125. Conserving forms wanting in the United States, 43. Constance, Council of, 168. Constantinople, Capture of, 56. Contemporary Review, The, 133. Contrast between Church and world, 444- . Contributions of science to religious truth, 129. ] Converts in mission stations, 644. Convictions, Moral, 457. Cofbett, Rev. Thomas, T.93. Corinthians, The, 159, 319. Corporal punishment, 478. Corruption, A scent .for, 368. Prevailing, -187. working downward, in English soci ety, 192. Cosmic philosophy, 131. Cost of liquors in England, 303. Covenanters, Children of, 393. Crawford, Rev. Dr. M. D'C., 425. Creation, A new, 142. of the World, 126. Creative periods, 126. Creator, The, 131, 132, .160. Creed, The Apostles, 154. Creeds, No quarrel with, 124. Index. 755 Creeds losing their hold, 30. now shorter and broader, 50. Traditionary, 50. Crime, 251-290. and foreign immigration, 257, 266. and immorality, 178, 180. and pauperism, 321. and the jury system, 275. a product of overwrought civilization, 261. before the Reformation, 174. condoned by officials, 253, 266. Data of, 252. in Christian lands the worst, 290. in cities, 253, 262. increase more apparent than real, 258, in Europe, 274. in France, 274. in Great Britain, 271-276. in London, 262. in Massachusetts, 270, 271, 283. in New York city in 1859, 218. in periods of financial straits, 265. in rural communities, 253. Native, 257. pauperism and illiteracy diminishing in England,'276, 277, 280. promoted by sensational reports, 247, 265. Statistics of, in United States, imper fect, 281. Criminal statistics defective, 252. Criminals, Pious, 256. how treated, 478. Critical tests of progress, 455, etc. Criticism, 21, 319, 368, etc. Croker, Richard, 358. Cromwell's vigorous rigime, 176, 385. Crusaders, 302. Cudworth, 77. Culture, New era of, 57. Cunningham, Alva, quoted, 201. Currents, ebbs and flows, 210. Cusanus, 71. D Dana, Professor,- quoted, 132. " Dance of Death, ' The, 170. Dante, 86. Darkest England, 502. Dark period, 1780-1800, 406. Darwin, C. R., quoted, 635. Tribute to, 160. Data of Crime, 252. D'Aubign<5, quoted, 167, 172. Deaconesses, 419, 505, 506. Deacons, Drunken, 200, 201. Dead orthodoxy, 391. Deaf and dumb, 345. Death rates in England, 338, 339. Debris of old ideas, 311, 317. Debt, Common, 323. Decadence in England, 383. Decorator's Gazette, quoted, 344. Defalcation, 356-358. De Foes, Captain Jack, 249, 325. Deism, 65, 66, 84, 102. Deists in United States, 386. Deity of Christ, Gladstone on, 137. Delevan, Hon. E. C, for the Sabbath, 215, 216. Deliverance from bondage, 123. Demagogues multiplied, 197. Demonology of the Middle Ages, 98. Denck, John, 76. Denmark, Temperance in, 305. Departure from the faith, etc., 204. Dependence on the Divine, 141, 145. Depravity, Calvinistic view of, 124. conceded, 126, 135. Derry festival, 194. Descartes, 63, 72, 78, 79, etc., 138. Desperadoes, 202. Despotism of old world, 340. Devonshire, Duke of, gambling, 180. Dewey, Rev. Dr. O. H., 140. Dexter, Hon. Samuel, 293, D'Holback, 149. Diderot, defiant, 149. Dike, Rev. Dr. S. WM quoted, 236. Diogenes, 168. Disciples, Name of, 471. Discipline, Church, 203, 461. Discourses on the Prophecies, by Rev. [ Elhanan Winchester, 126. Discrimination needed, 209. Dispaw's funeral, 193. Dissenters heterodox, 104. Dissenting churches in a low state, 187. Diversities of material prosperity, 342. Divine conditions of progress, 209. Divorce, causes of, 232, 236, 243. and chastity, 230-245. Discriminations in, 242, etc. in ChicagOj 236. in Connecticut, 232. in Europe, 241. in Maine, 233. in Massachusetts, 234. in New Hampshire, 233. in Rhode Island, 233. in United States, 700. in Vermont, 233. in the West, 235. legislation, 232, 243. per marriages, 242. statistics, 239. to population, 238. Doctrine of depravity, 104, 135, 156. of revelation, 135. Doddridge, quoted, 497. Dogmatism, 20-50. Drainage, 336,337. Drams, Public, 336. Drift toward freedom, 461, 663. of religious ideas, 89. Drinking habit, ig2, 193, etc., 294, 303, 400. members, 200. ministers, 400. Drunkenness in England, 186. cause of poverty, 324.- 756 Index. Drunkenness in New England, 193. no bar to saintship, 187. the most striking characteristic of the American people, 200. Dudevant, Madame, 250. Duelists and dueling, 248, etc., 308, 310. Dunces and runaways, 243. Dunkards, The, 345. Dwight, Rev. Timothy, D.D., 107, 232, 317, 322. E> Eaton, General, 467, 468. Ecclesiasticism, Spirit of, 380. Eckhart, 64, 71. Eckley, Rev. Dr., in. Economic problems, 329—332, 343, Ecumenical Church statistics, 727, etc. Eddying movements, 175. Eddystone lighthouse, 48, 366. Educated labor, 353. Education, Higher, of Churches, 464- 476. by machinery, 465. popular in England, 279. Educational institutions, 473, 474. Educator, The Christian, 227. Edwards, Rev. J., D.D., 112, 194, 401. and Wesley, etc., 396. Rev. Justin, D.D., 215, 413. Eighteen Centuries, by Rev. James White, quoted, 171. Ein Bekenntniss, 145. Elections, English, corrupt, 181. Elfic stage, 316. Eliot, Rev. John, 205, 610. Ely, Professor R. T., 344. m Emancipation in West Indies, 222. of theology, 154. Emerson, R. W., 131, 138. Emigration from New England, 314. Empiricism, 84. Encyclical, Papal, 34b. Encyclopaedia Britannica, quoted, 271, 276, 528, 542, 543, 672. England, Rev. Bishop,'quoted, 579, 585. after the. Restoration, 264. Antitrinitarians in, 77. before the Wesleyan reformation, 176. Court of, corrupt, 188. escapes the contagion of the French Revolution, 190. English Church, Popery in, 545. language, spread of, 665, 666. law, 347. morals, 188, 310-313. Epicurean philosophy, 57. Epidemics, 334, 393. Episcopalians in the world, 665. • Epochs, Three, of science and the Bible, _ *34* Epworth Leagues, 501, 505. Era of bad feeling, 198-203. A better, 211. Erasmus, quoted, 172. Errancy of the Bible, 128. Erskine, 312. Eschatology, 125. Espriella, by Southey, quoted, 244. Established Church, The, benefited by Methodism, 190, 395. Estimate of progress, 369. Ethics, 486. - and Christianity, 140. practical, 349. Evangelical Christianity vindicated, 128, 144. Evangelization of cities, 363, 365. Evarts, Jeremiah, 413. Everett, Professor, 351. churches not weakening, 116. movement broad, 180. party in Church of England, 395. " Evil men and seducers, 210. Aggregations of, 366. Europe, Northern, and the Papacy, 382. before the Lutheran Reformation, 163. Population of, prior to 1500, 527. Ewer, Rev. F. C., D.D., 22, 25, 27, 36, 47 j t74- Experimental task of Protection, 41. Exploration, 612. Extortions, New method of, 166. Extravagances of the Papal court, 166. Extremes in revolutions, 85. Factors, new, 60, 78. liberating, 63, etc. Fair The World's, 341. Faith, bondage of, 47. a necessity, 100. by eminent scientists, 132. Dogmatic, modified, 459. Dubious, 115. Empire of, extended, 147. firm in God, 160. Hesitation about, 95. increasing, 148, 459. in the Middle Ages, 445. No decay of, 147, 459. Old, in new light 134. Relations of, to philosophy, etc., 133. rooted in God, 144. small, 16. springing from larger knowledge, 155. True, 445. Fallacies, Old, exposed, 316. Family, State of, improved, 244, 245. Farraday, 132. ' Fashionable life foul and coarse, 184. Fast days, Numerous, 406. Fatalism, 19. Fathers, The, 57. Fault-finding the luxury of some minds, 209. Federal Party, The, 199. Constitution, Debates on, 198. Index. 757 Feeble persons, Death ot, 353. Fees of jailers, 348. Fern, Professor, 275. Ferusac's Bulletin, 649, Feudalism, Decline of, 55, 170. Ficinus, 65. Fiji Islands, 642. Filthy condition of England, 336. Finality, Protestantism and, 38. Financial Reform Almanac, 276, 278. Finland ^Temperance in, 305. Finlay, Rev. Dr., 397. Fire and brimstone discarded, 126. Fisher, Professor, quoted, 67, 74. Fisk, Professor John, quoted, 131. Rev. Mr., of New Braintree, Mass., 417. Flagellants, The, 170. " Fleet marriages," 180. Flogging 310. Food of the poor, 337. of prisoners sold, 348. Forces facing us, 452. - Foreign Missionary Societies, The first, 613. parentage, 315. population and home missions, 362, 428. population in New England, 315. Forgery, 256-258. Fortnightly Review, quoted, 163, 329. Forum, The, quoted, 274. Foulness of Moore and Byron, 249. France, Struggles of, 461. and colonies, 658. Temperance in, 307. Francis, Dr., quoted, 336. Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 670. Fraud, 376. Freedom of opinion, 460, 461. Free inquiry regarded, 80. inquiry,, its source, 80. inquiry. Mission of, 82.- inquiry over-ruled, 83. inquiry perverted, 84. Free Italian Church, 535. thinkers in clubs, 102. Freeman's Journal, 585. L' Free Religion," 114, 146. Freethinkers among young clergymen, 105. •French and Indian wars, 196, 398, 3gg. infidelity, etc., 230. Revolution, 612. Revolution held back in England by Methodism, igo. woman, A representative, 250. Frere, Sir Barlle's testimony, 629. Friend of India, quoted, 630. Frivolity among children of Covenant- ers, 393- Frothingham, Rev. O. B., 26, 100, 146. Froude, James A., 30, 509. Functions, Spiritual, assumed, 380. Funeral customs in Old New England, *93- G Gains of Protestantism, 662. Gambling, Passion for, 180. " Gang rule," 357. Garabaldi, quoted, 533. Garfield, President, 463, 488. Garments given away, 421. Gassendi. 68, 69, 84. Gavazzi, Rev. Father, quoted, 534. General Association of Massachusetts, 399- Assembly of Presbyterian Church, quoted, 404. Conference of Foreign Missions, 62J. George II, Reign of, igo. German Catholic Year-Book, 580. Empire and colonies, 657. thinkers and St. Paul, 143. Germany and the Papacy, 537. Invaders from, 364, New theology in, 142. Temperance in, 306. Germs of revealed religion, 135. Gibbons, Cardinal, quoted, 591. Gibson, Rev. Bishop, quoted, 102. Gillet, Rev. Dr., quoted, 391. Gin sickness in England, 181. Giving, 437. Gladden, Rev. W., 373. Gladstone, Hon. W. E_ quoted, 137. 11 Gloria in Excelsis," The, 495. Glorification of the past, 205. Godwin's Political Justice, quoted, 108, 335- , Golden Age, 369. Goodness ridiculed, 186. Gospel, The, not a negation, gg. Gottingen, 142. Governments, Civil, and Christianity, 460, etc. Grace, Irresistible, 124. Graduates of Harvard College, 120. Grand Seignior, 660. Great Awakening, The, 401. Great Britain's acquisition of territory, 664. Great evils, Growth of, 251. Great Mogul, The, 660. Greek Church, The, under Christian governments, 655, 656. classics, 56. gain in Europe, 528, etc. scholars in Italy, 56. Greeks sad knaves, 261. Green, Rev. Dr. Ashbel and revivals, 404. Greene, Professor of Oxford, vs. Mill's logic, 133. Green s History of England, 476, 480. Grenville, George, 183. Griffin, Rev. Dr. E. D., and revivals, in, 404, 410. Growth of Churches, 449. Guthrie, Rev. Dr., quoted, 367. Guyot, Professor, quoted, 132. 7S8 Index. Habeas Corpus, 462. Habits of business, 374. Hale, Rev. E. E., LL.D., quoted, 288, 324, 339. Hales of Eaton, quoted, 77. Half Century Discourse, by Rev. Mr. Fisk, 417. Half truths, 138, 149. Half-way Covenant, 392, 399. Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, 156. Hall, Tammany, 358. Hallam's. Literature of Middle Ages, quoted, 65, 67, 75, 163, 165. Hamilton, Dr., quoted, 388. _ Hand-book of London Charities, quoted, 346. ¦ Hapsburg, House of, declining, 667. Hard lots, 324. Hargrave, quoted, 479. Harris, Dr., quoted, 456, 457. Hartman, quoted, 129, 135, 138. Harvard Advocate, quoted, 120. Harvard College, Religion in, 120, 467. Arianism in, 404. Hase's History, quoted, 65, 76. Hawaiian Churches, 644. Hawks, Rev. Dr., quoted, 195. Haygood, Rev. Bishop, quoted, 229. Hay-stacks, Under the, 412. Heart-needs conserve truth, 98. Hecker, Rev. I. T., 81, 579. Hedding, Rev. Bishop E., 211. Hedge, Rev. Dr. F. H., 139, 140. Hegel, 96. Heidelberg, Skeptical, 152. Heinholtz, quoted, 130. Helvetius, 144. Herbert, 69, 84. Heresy, Treatment of, 461. Herrman, Dr. W., 143. HerscheV. Sir John, 132, 159. Hervey, Lord, 184. Heterodoxy, Queer standard of, 187. Hicksite movement, The, no. Hierarchy, Exclusive, 382. Higher criticism, 127. Highway robbery, 484. Hindu testimony, 634. History of the United States, Bancroft, quoted, 80. Hitzer, 76. Hoadley, 78. Hobbes, 69, 84, 269. Hoffman's Roman Catholic Almanac, £75, 582. Holinshed Chronicles, 335. Holy Scriptures better understood, 128. Holy _ Spirit the efficient agent, 127, 412. Home-life sweetened, 245. Home Missions, Baptists, 429,430. labors of, 428,431. Homicides under slavery, 225, 226. Honor, standard improved, 187, 189. Hopkins, Bishop, History of the Con fessional, 165. Horeb, 16. Hospitals, 338, 345. Moslem, 508! Hot-beds of infidelity, 404. Hours of labor reduced, 312. Howard, John, 275, 348. Society, of London, 559. " How long, O Lord," 22g. Hubner's statistical tables, 528. Hughes, Archbishop, 21, 57g, 585. Humane laws, 311, 312. ¦spirit of Christ, 345. Humanists, School of, 66. Humanitarian views, 136. Humanity developing, 461. Hume, David, quoted, 84, 47g, 611. and Paley agree, 104. Humphrey, Rev. Dr. H., 211, 410, 413. Huntington's, Rev. Dr., doctrine of " death and glory," 110. Hurst, Rev. Bishop J. F., LL.D., quo ted, 152. Husk and kernel, 123. Huxam's tincture, 294. Huxley, Professor, 132. Hypertrophy, I4g. Hypotheses, Three, 21. Ideals of civilized, life, 376, 458. of the family, 377. Ideas differed abroad, 461. Drift of, 89. Old, inadequate, g8. Idiotic, The, 345. Ignorance of. English clergy, 386. Illinois, Government of, pardoning an archists, 341. Illuminati, Clubs, in Virginia, 202. Immigrants, Roman Catholic, 557, 584. Immigration, 212, 485. 1790-1894, 708, 709: Immorality in last century, 196, 197, 205. in dissenting sects, 188. in literary circles, 197. of clergy, 164, 187. Picture of, 201. , Immortality doctrine confirmed by great names, 137, 138. Imperfections of Protestantism, 38. in laborers, 441. "Impostors, The Three," 66. Improvement in Australia, South .America, and Mexico, 378. Impulse to philanthropy, 192. Impunity purchased, 166. Impure papers, 246. Imputation of sin, 124. ^ Increase of population in England, 331, Indecent songs, 313. Independent, The, quoted, 30, 100, 287, 324, 359. Index. 759 Independent States under Christian governments, 745. Index, The, quoted, 106. India, Population of, 661. Missions in, 624, 630, 631. Statistics of population in, 625. Indian seer, 15. Indians, College for, 398, Lawless, 309. Indications "hopeful, 152, 153. Indulgences an evil system^ 166, 174. Industrial villages in England, 502. Infidelity in French colonies, 399. and song, 494. beaten, 100. Hotbeds of, 201, 202, 203. Improvement in, 371. in Bowdoin College, 107. in literary circles, 197. in Princeton College, 107. in Transylvania University, 107. intriguing, 399. in the ministry, 387. in the United States, 107-110. in William and Mary College, 107. in Yale College, 107. more rational, 149. not so confident, 133. strong, 611. Infidel literature, 113, 612. Ingersollism, 342. Inner life, The, 40. Inquiry, Spirit of, 97. Inquisitorial examinations giving way, x So- Insanity, 487, etc. Inspiration, 91, 126, 128. Institutional work, 497-507. Insubordination sentiments, ig6. Intellect, Hold upon, 114. Intemperance, 293-308. an alarming evil, 200. Vice of, 481. International arbitration, 378. Interpretation, Biblical, modified, 126. Inventions subsidized, 612. Ireland, Temperance in, 308. Irish population in New York city, 219. Ishmaelitish prosperity, 324. Italian republic, Knavery in, 261. Italy arid its colonies, 659.. Temperance in, 307. Jackson, Hon. Andrew, 484. Rev. Lewis E., 425. Jailers, how^ remunerated, 348. Japan, Mission statistics of, (26. students in United States, 645. Jarratt, Rev. Devereux, 202. Jefferson, Hon. Thomas, 197. Jesuit missions aided, 614. Jesup, Hon. Morris K,., 425. Jews, 36. Johnston, Hon. R. M., and Sabbath mails, 214. Jordan, David Starr, LL.D., on poverty, 325- Judicial blinding and hardening, 280. Julian, Influence of, 64. Julius II, Pope, 172. Junius, Robert, 610. Jury system badly worked 275. Justification, Doctrine of, discarded, _ 39?. Juvenile Temperance Society, 304. K Kalendar of English Church, 615. Kalmuck, 652. Kansas perfidy, The, 224. Kant, Immanuel, quoted, 128, 130. Kant's philosophy, 128, 129. quoted, 135, 138. Keane, Professor A. H., 650, 651. Kent, Chancellor, quoted, to6. Kentucky, Low morals of, 202. Kimball, Rev. J. C, quoted, 290. Kingdom of God, discarded, 342. King's Daughters, 505. Knowledge, growth of, 154. Ku-Klux, The, bill, 226. Kurtz's Church History, quoted, 66, 128, 135. Labor necessary, 351. and wages, 353. Division of, 350. question, The Pope on, 340. Laborers, Better condition of, 322, Imperfect, 441. Wayside, 441. Laddie, Rev. Dr., Revivals under, 404. Ladies, Profane, 312. Lafayette, Gen., received public honors on Sunday, 214. Lange, F. A., D.D., cjuoted, 69. Language, The English, 664, 665. Languages spoken, 665. and missions, 633. Lash, Punishment by, 310. Law, Charles Henry, quoted, 274, 275, 276. Law of rebound, 316. Lawlessness in London, 178. Lawrence, Lord, testimony, 629. Laws, Alleviating, 311. better obeyed, 287. contempt for, 204. few among the Turks, 462. Lay activities, 400, 403, 418. Learning, Revival of, 57. Leaven working, 445. Lecky, quoted, 104, 105, 178, 180, 182, 185, 189, 191, 388, 395, 509, 510. Legge, Rev. Dr., quoted, 619, 620. 760 Index. Legislative Committee of New York, Report of, 253. Leibnitz, quoted^ 7g, 138. Leighton, Archbishop, quoted, 385. Leipsic, Evangelical, 152. Leland, quoted, 389. Leopold Propaganda, 614. Le Vayer, 68. Lexow Committee, 359. Liberal churches, 35, 36, 99. - Christian, quoted, 514.. Liberalism does not satisfy, ipo. Liberation from arbitrary systems, 123. Liberty, Personal, 462. Libraries, Public, often pander to low tastes, 248. Licentiousness, Gross, in the last cent- ; ury,230. in court of Charles II, 177. in early New England, 194-197. Life, Length of, 333. sacrificed, 347, saving stations, 448. Light, Resisted, depraves, 289. " Lignt, The, Is it Waning," g4, 150. Lipsius, 68. Liquors, Alcoholic, 323, 711, 712. Cost of, in England, 303. fictitious, 300. Statistics of, 297, 299, 303, 307. Litchfield, Bishop, quoted, 179. Literaturel.Bad, 186, 245-251. and Christ, 492. Expurgated editions, 249. of Rome, 56. Liturgy, English, 159. Liverpool, Wealth of, 480. Living well, The art of, 351. Locke, John, 70. Logic of the reforms, 457. Logos theory, The, 136. London, births and deaths, 325. Crime in, 262. ill lit,* 178. Independent, quoted, 142. Missionary Sqciety, 613. Londonderry, N. H., Drinking habits of, 194. Longevity, 333-339. in British Isles, 4go. increasing, 489. Losses by fraud small, 376. of Roman Catholic Church in United States, 585, etc. Luther, 26, 173, 496. and Descartes, 80. his own priest, 80. posts his theses, 76. Lutheran Reformation, Eve of, 380, etc. Lutherans, English-speaking, 665. Lynchings, Statistics of, 226, etc. accounted for by Senator Morgan, Bishop Haygood, etc., 228, 229. Apologies for, 227. Causes of, 228. Lyons Propaganda, 614. 1VI Macaulay, T. B., quoted, 53. Machiavelli, 65. Machinery and morals, 349~359- Mackenzie, Robert, 348, 641, 642. Mackeson, Charles, quoted, 420. Mackintosh; 480. Madagascar, 480, 533, 634, 642, 643. Madison, Bishop, 212. Magazine, Blackwood's, quoted, 388. Magna Charta, 462. Maguire, Hon. J. F., 580. Maine laws, 298. Maine, Professor, quoted, 456. Makemie, Francis, 312, 390, 391. ^ Malt liquors, 300. Malte Brun, 520, 650. Mammon, by Dr. Harris, 437. Manhood, A vigorous type of, 205. Manners in England, 192. Barbarous, 188. Man's lost condition, 136. Marburg University, 142. Mariners,, 506. Mark, Signing by, in England, 280. Marlborough, Lord, The triumph of, 480. Martineau, Rev. James, quoted, 510. Maryland churches in low condition, 390. Massachusetts revivals, 383. Bible Society, 158. Crime in, 270, 271. Society Suppression of Intemperance, 393- Masses, The, and Protestantism, 26. Material prosperity, 56. Materialism, Day of, has passed, 133. cannot console3 144, 145. Materialistic basis of life, 145. Mather, Rev. Increase, quoted, 392, Rev. Cotton, quoted, 303. Matrons inclosed in barrels, 178. Max Mulier, quoted, 507. Mayo, Rev. A. D., D.D., quoted, 288. McCarty, Justin, quoted, 309. McCHntock and Strong's Cyclopedia, 668. McCook, Dr., exposes the fallacies of Mill, 133. McCrie, quoted, 75. McLaughlin, Hugh, 358. McQuaid, Bishop, 582. Meade, Rev. Bishop, D.D., quoted, 106. on low morals in Virginia, 195. on the Sabbath, 212. sketches, quoted, 202. Mechanism, The bed rock of, 349. Mediaeval age, its architecture, 163. Church and learning, 163. Romanism in, 666. scandals, 167. tyranny, 164. Medici, Halls of the, 56. Medicine, Modification of, 149. Index. 761 Melanchthon, 58, 76. MemB°orsto„v,o'iIrofParkstreetchurch' Methodism, 35. Activity of, 401. Colleges of, 466, 473 . Influence of, in Established Church 190. ' in whole world. 665 73a . Quarterly Review, 522, 523, 651. ¦- Rise of, igo. Theology not Socinian, 112. Metropolitan Catholic Almanac, 579. Mexico, Roman Catholic Church in 547- Middle Ages, Ideas of, 98. Miller Chief Justice, quoted, 286. Mill's logic. Fallacies of, 133-. Ministers of, the Gospel, 375. Immoral and drunken, 187, 200. in United S_tates,593. Missions, Activity in, 152. a failure, 20. and civilization, 630. and languages, 633. and science, 623. City, 419, etc., 503, etc. denounced, 603. Foreign, 609-646. Foreign, among the Indians, 683, 687_. Foreign, by Moravians, 383. Foreign, Embryo of, 413. Foreign, Extent of, 617, 618. Foreign, Melanesian and Polynesian, 643, 644. Foreign, of Europe and United States, in 1830, 736. Foreign, of Europe and United States, in 1850, 738. Foreign, of Europe and United States, in 1880, 739. Foreign, statistics of India, 624, 625. Foreign, statistics of Japan, 626. Foreign, of United States, 1850, 735. Foreign, of United States, 1880, 736. funds, 614, 615, 616, 617, 706. Home, 413, 426, 427, 428. in infancy, 609. M' All, 537. . Papal and Protestant, 614. results, 637. societies in England, Origin of, 395. societies, The first, 613. vindicated, 628. Mistresses of English kings, 185. Modern philosophy, 78. Modifications in medicine, 149. of theological statement, 123. Mohawks, 178. Monarchy, A new kind, 357. Money not the most potent tie, 191. Purchasing power of, 715. Monopolies, Railroad, 343. Montague; Lady, quoted, 177. Montesquieu* quoted, 103. 49 Moody, Rev. D. L., 459. Moral ideas changing, 316. interregnum, 28. lapses, 251. questions unsettled, 316. status, Test of, 333. Morals, 163, etc. Advance of, 318. and paganism, 320, 321. and trade, 370. English, 310-313. Higher, 175 312. in United States, prior to 1800, ig2- 206. low in literature, 186. of public men, 286. Priestly, 168. Self-poise in, 377. under Charles II, 176. Morality, An accommodating, 165. Political, 371. Statistics of, 337. Moravians, 610. in whole world, 733. More, Miss Hannah, 476. Morgan, Senator, on lynchings, 228. Mormons, 36. Morrison, Robert, 623. Mortality, Rates of, 33g. Mosheim, quoted, 75. Mullens, Rev. Lr., 579. Mulier, 459. Multiplication of schools, 447. Murder, Indulgence for, 174. Murphy, Edward, 308. Francis, 302. Murray, J. O'Kane, quoted, 587, etc. Music, Developed, 495. N Napoleon's defeat, 345. National Quarterly Review, 245, 247. Nations, Progressive, 457. Natural religion, 103, 104. science, 92, 130. Neander's Life of Christ, 157. reply to Strauss, 151. Neglect of worship, 389. Negroes lynched, 226-228. Neoplatonism, 57. Neshaming School, The, 397. New and old, The, 15, 44. New creature, A, 142. New era of culture, 57. New Life, The aggressive, 415. New England morals, 314. Divorces in, 314. in the United States, 314.^ New Hampshire, Divorces in, 233. New monthly magazine, 244. Newspaper statistics of crime, 286. Corrupt, 197. New spiritual era, 409, etc. New theology in Germany, 142. Newton, Sir Isaac, 159. 762 Index. New World citizens, 363. New York City Mission and Tract So ciety, 4ig, etc. as a mission field, 523. Church Extension Society, 425. Evangelist, 146. Observer, 157. Western, Low morals in, 202. Nicene Creed, The, 118. Nihilists, 132. Nineteenth Century, 312, 338, 348, 431,432, 460, 664. " North American Review, 30. Northampton, Mass., 194, 396. North British Review, 101, 102. North Coventry, Conn., 322. Norton, Mrs. Mary, Funeral of, 191. Novels^ Dime, 248. Nuremberg, Crime in, 174. Oaths, Broken, 165. Observation, 43. O'Connor, Bishop, 579. Old and the new, 15. forms of dogmatic expression, 148. Roman World in contrast, 444. South Church, Boston, 417. the best, 143. World subjects, 363. Oneida Community, The, 245. Opinion, Public, supremacy of, 41. Opinions of common people, 458. Opposition to progress, 663. Optimists, 369. Orange County, New York, 201. Ordinations, Drinking at, 400. . Organizing, The new life, 412-416. Orphans, Care of, 285. Orthodox forces, 133. Greeks, 652. Orthodoxy, Dead, 391. Owen, 'Robert, 231. Oxford thinking, 132. Packard, Professor of Bowdoin College, quoted, 508. Padua, School of, 64 Pagan populations of slow growth, 456, 490. Paganism burdens Christianity, 52. Stage of, 316. Page, Harlan, 419. Paine, Thomas, 106, 149. * Pantheism a speculation, 129. Papal Court, Extravagances of, 166. Paracelsus, 71. Pardon of sin, Ground of, 127. Paregoric, 294. Parisian Commune, The, 341. Park Street Church, Boston, in, 417. Parker, Rev. Theodore, quoted, 26, 193, 197-199, 210, 322. 360. Parliamentary Blue Book, 628, Parton's Life of Burr, 107. Pastoral Letter of Presbyteriati General. Assembly, 203. Paul, St., quoted, 42, 143. Pauperism, 320-329. arid crime, 321. arid morals, 320. Classes of, 325. hereditary, 326". in England and Wales, 278. Peet, Rev. L. B., quoted,- 494. Penal codes, 348. inflictions, 347-349* Penalties mitigated, 27/5. Penmanship, 280. Pentateuch, 128. Per capita- Consumption of liquors in England^os. in United Mates, 300 301. Peril of cities, 354. Perilous times to come, 31. Peripatetics, 65. Persecution of Protestants, 51. Perthes, Germany, 521. Pessimism, 19, 20, 148. Pessimists, 205, 324, 350, 369. Pestilence. Causes, of, 336, Peter's, -St., Church, 155, 581. Petrarch, 56. Pharisee preachers, 391. L • - Phelps, Rev. Dr. Austin A., quoted, 100, 401, 486. Phenomena of sin, Horrible, 290. Philanthropic, "The, quoted, 495. Philanthropy and reform, 345-348, 476-483, 507- Philippine Isles, 652. Phillips, Philip, 499. Philosophical Dictionary, .108. Philosophy, Modern, 58, 78, 128. Phraseology, Religious, modified, 123. Christian, adopted by infidels, 149. of old faiths^ 53. Physical condition, The, 486., demonstrations in religion, 444. philanthropy, 70, 71, etc. science, 69, 72, 86. Physics taught by the old schoolmen^ 53. Pierce, Rev. B. K., quoted, 115. Piety, Decline of, in New England, 391; 392- Hollow, 29. Rootless, 442. "Pint of doctrine and a pint of rum," 194. Pioneer preacher, 416. Piracy abolished, 483, Pitt, Influence of, 189, 335. Place hunters in England, 185. Plagues, A visitation of, 335. Platonic philosophy, 57. Plethro, 65. Plotinus, 64. t Plymouth Church, Special service by scientists, 157. Poland a center of Antitrinitarians, 77-. Index. 763 Polite literature, 138. Political bosses, 326. corruption in England, 184. corruption in United States, 181. intriguing, 399. rancor and servility, 199. Politics, Overmuch, a curse, 360. Polynesia, Missions in, 643. Progress in, 661. Statistics of, 643, 644. Pomfet, First Church in, 402. Pomponatius, 65. Poor and rich growing apart, 191. Food of the, 337. God's, 352. " Poor growing poorer," 326, Pope Leo X, 66. babbling for vice, 186. ,The Antichrist, 58. Popery intriguing, 188. Pope's court, The diabolical, 169. Encyclical, The, 340. signature had its pricey 67. Population of the world, 651. and Roman Catholic Church, 507. Roman Catholic, in United States, 579, etc. Populations under Christian govern ments, 654, 666. of England and Wales, Growth of. of Europe in 1500,, 527. under Protestant governments, 661. Porphyry, Influence of, 64. Porter, Rev. Ebenezer, D.D., 405, etc. Portugal, Colonies of, 659. Post-bellum periods, 263'. ^ Post, New York Evening, quoted, 100. Post, Rev. T. M., D.D.,. quoted, 49, 54. Potter, Rev. W. J., quoted, 24. Poverty, Problem of, 323, etc. Practical ethics, 349. " Practical Infidelity Portrayed," 201. Prayer-meetings, 401, 406, 416-420, 428. for President Garfield, 463. Pre-existence, 94. Premillen arian theories, 31. Presbyterian Board of Publication, 429, 43o. churches in Middle States, 390. Presbyterians, churches quickened, 397. in England, unsound, 104. in Scotland, 78. in the whole world, 665. in United States deplore low state of morals, 196. President of United States suppressing anarchy, 341. Press gang, The, 310. Preston, Rev. Thomas S., 22. Priesthood of believers, 382, 394, 418, etc., 441. Priestley, Dr., in United States, 112. Priests, Roman Catholic, sg6. concubinage of, 164. mistresses of, 172. Prince Albert, 313. Princeton College, Infidelity in, 107. Princeton College, Revival in, 404. Printing, Invention of, 55, 57, 170. Prison discipline modified, 477, etc. Probation, tuture, 125. Problem of the book, 35, etc. of the cities, 354, 363. Profanity, 199, 200, 312. Profligacy of the hierarchy, 167. of manners, 204. Progress in Australia, etc., 661. Crucial tests of, 455, Expectation of, 456. How to estimate, 369. in England, 329. in last one hundred and fifty years, 448. in sanitary science, 333. in temperance, 308. in the first Christian centuries, 604. not in straight lines, 210. not limited by Bible ideas, 456. of.Christianity, 645. Opposition to, 663. Relative, in United States, 593, etc. Religious, in United States, 560, etc. Whence the idea of, 455. Progressive nations, 457. Prologue, 15, 16. . Propaganda, The, 614. Propagandism of Christianity, 514. Protestant missions in Papal popula tions, 531. and Papal missions, 614. and Papal nations compared, 175, 527, etc., 575, etc., 667. governments, Population under, 655, 656, 661. religion not declining; 446. Protestantism, Birth of, 58. a leading factor, 47. and crime, 321. Darkest period of, 611. declared to be a failure, 20, 22, 30. defined, 35. does not claim to be a finality, 384. Early, not missionary, 382. embarrassed by Aristotelianism, 59. encumbered, 51, 384. Gains of, 662. Glory of, 50. growth helped, 155. in England, 541, etc, not weak, 96. Prosperity of, 42. Spirituality of, lost for a time, 383. Protestants, English-speaking, 665. 1 gain in Europe, 528, etc. gain on Romanism, 528, etc. in all the world, 654. Prussia, Churches of, 540. Publication Board, Baptist, 429. Boards, all, table, 707. Public opinion, 318. Punishments, limited, 310. Pure reason. 129. Purifying processes, 152. 764 Index. Puritan morals, 373. Puritans, The, 176, 382, 391. Purity, Improvement in, 210, Q euakerism, 35. uakers, 382, 401. Statistics of, see Friends, 685, 688, 6go, 693, 695, 6gg, 700, 702. Queen Anne, 102. of George II, 185. Questions, The, 19. now discussed before the people, 43. Races mingling, 491, 492, Racow printing office, 77. Radicalism, Foreign, 363. -Raikes, Robert, 476. Rambler, The, quoted, 389. Randall, Rev. Benjamin, converted under Whitefield, 398, Rationalism, 114. Raymond, Rev. Dr. Rossiter, 157. Reaction in temperance, 302. Readjustment, a trouble, 128. Rebound, Law of, 316. Receipts of benevolence, 439. for foreign missions, 705. for home missions, 706. for religious publications, 707. Recipe for St. Peter's stomach, 167. Recuperative power, 373. Reformation, The, established by law, 382. and excesses, 174. doctrines. banished, 104. Inception of, 55. not cause of skepticism, 49. The, and freedom, 667. The struggle of, 173. Reforms and philanthropy, 476-483. _ The Temperance, 482. Regeneration, Doctrine of, discarded, 392- . Registration manipulated, 360. Regium donum, The, 182. Regulators organized, 202. Relics of Popery, 38. Religion in America, Baird's, quoted, 109. advanced, 413. and science, 464. Contempt for, 204. defined, 350. in colleges, 474,475. less sanctimonious, 442. Low condition of, 403. not manufactured, 515, personal, 30. Revealed germs of, 135. ReligiousMonthly Magazin e,quoted,2go. meetings only on Sunday, 417. nature in man, 141. tests, 467, Renaissance in Italy, 67. Renan's eulogy on Christ, 136. Reporters, Ubiquitous, 25g. Reports of crime, 246. Republican, The Springfield, 373. Responsibility,-Personal, 40. v Results of missions, 637. Resurrection, The,i27. Retribution, Doctrine. of, 138, 139, Revelation, 142, 143. Reverence, Decline of, 315, etc. Revival of learning, 55, 57, 63 , 64, 76. at close of last century in Massachu setts and Connecticut, 404, 405, 409. Decline of, 403. Edwardean and Whitefieldian, 196, . 396,398. in 1800, 211, 403, 409, 413. in 1830-1832, $ig. of religion in Massachusetts Bay churches, 383. opposed, 391. periods in United States, 411. Revivals, Testimonies to, by- Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, 403, 410. Testimonies tp, by Rev. Dr.. H. Humphrey, 410. Testimonies to, by Rev. Dr. E. Porter, 405- Testimonies to, by Rev. Dr. William B.Sprague, 403. Testimonies to, by Rev. Dr. G. Spring, 410. Testimonies to, by Rev. Dr. Bennet Tyler, 409. under the Moravians and the Wesleys, 189, 383. Value of, 191. Revolutionary War, Causes of, 196. Revolutionizing tendencies, 316, 3x7. Revolutions in knowledge, 98. under the Wesleys, igo. Reynolds, Dr. William, 302. Rice, Rev. David, D.D., of Kentucky, 4°3- Rich and poor, Inequalities of, 191. Rights, Vaunting about, 197. Ring rule, 351. Rioters, 340-342, etc. Rising Sun, The, 671. Ritschl, Dr. Albrecht, 142. Ritualism in England, 546. Robbery, Highway, 484. Robespierre, 100. Robinson, Rev. John, 38. Roman Catholic Church in Australia, 627. and Protestant -missions compared, 618, 619, etc. communicants in United States, 575. English-speaking people, 665. estimates, 579, etc. Roman Catholics under Christian gov ernments, 655, 656, 661. in America, 547, 577-596. in British Isles, 541, 542, 720, etc. Index. 765 Roman Catholics in Canada, 548, etc. in cities, 364, 365. in Europe, 528, etc. in Ireland, 542. in Russia, 652. in whole world, 654. Roman Classics, 56. luxury, 264. Romanism and Protestantism compared, 667. losing, 663. and the population, 596, etc. Decay of, 531. Rome, Church of, says, 97. revolt to skepticism, 97. Rousseau, 29, 612. Rum, New England, 192-200. given to soldiers, 200. West Indies, 192. Runaways from matrimony, 231. Russell, Hon. John A., 582. Russia, extent and population, 658. language spoken, 665. Temperance in, 305. Ruter, Rev. Dr. Martin, 466. Sabbath, The, 179, 19-4197, 211-222. Sabellian theory, The, 136. Sacculina, 325. Sack, Rev. Father, 581. Sadlier's Roman Catholic Year-Book, 580-582, 624. Sailor's Magazine, The, quoted, 506. Saintship, Low type of, 187. Salisbury, Lord, quoted, 92. Saloonocracy, 357. Salter's Hall, 104. Salvation Army, 307. Samoa, Missions in, 632. Sanchez, 84. Sand, George, 250. San Francisco, improving, 287. Sanitary science, 490, 491. legislation, 334. Sankey and Bliss, 498. Savings banks in England, 280. Saxons invade England, 364. Scandals in Mediaeval Age, 167. Schauffler, Rev. Dr. A. E., 425. Schelling's testimony to Christ, 136. Scheltema, Rev. Adama Von, 307. Schem, Prof., quoted, 520, 528, 650, 651. Schleiermacher, 141. Schneider, Dr., quoted, 508.^ Scholarship, hold on the churches, 465, Scholasticism, Roman Catholic, 50, 53, 451- Schoolmen, The, 50. Schonburg, 663. Schopenhauer, ig, 141. Protestant, 457. Schuylkill Canal, 328. Schwartz, 610. Science, Discoveries in, 158. Science and practical piety, 132, 149, 157. and public health, 337. Sanitary ,333-339. Statistical, 511. vindicates missions, 623. vindicates religiqn, 134, 135. Scotch Irish Presbyterians, 194. Scotus Duns, 54. Scriptures, The, translated, 57. Seaman's Friend, The American, 506, 507. Progress of Nations, quoted, 527. Sears, Rev. E. H., 140. Sectarianism discarded, 467. Seer, The Indian, 15. Self-government, 378. organizing, 414. support, 323. Sensational press, Thel 368. Separations from matrimony, 234, 235. Septuagint, The, 628. Servants owned, 322. Servetus, 26, 74. Services in New England Churches, 113. Settlement, The University, 501. Shaftesbury, Lord, quoted, 84, 93. Shakespeare's father, 337. Shelling, quoted, 72. Sherlock, 78. Sherman, Hon. John, 314. Sick, The, visited, 421. Sickness, The Sweating, 334. Sifting out the wheat, 141. Simplicity of Truth, 153. Sittings in churches of United States, 567, etc. Skeptical Era in Modern Times, quoted, 49, 54. spell broken, 113. Skepticism, 27. in colleges, 93. in Italy, 64, 66, 67. in United States, 105. Modern, 63, 138. Skeptics busy in self-defense, 151. Slavery, 479, etc. abolished, 481. Atrocities of, 221, 223, 224, 229. in England, 479, etc. Slums, The, 499-507. Small-pox malignant; 335. " Smash up," a great, 31. Smith, Charles Stewart, 635. Prof. Gold'win, 28, 93. Rev. John Cotton, 211. Rev. Newman, 134. Smollett, quoted, 179. Social condition, 486. Socialism, Christian, 500. Socialistic communities, 245. efforts of radicalSj etc., 232. Societies, Evangelizing, started, 412, etc. Society of the holy childhood, 614. Socinian ideas, 112. in Established Church, 104. printing office, 77. 766 Index. ¦ Socinii, The, brothers, 75-77. Sociologists, Vagaries of, 285. Solidarity, 136. Song, Christian, advances, 496. Christ in, 494. Songs, Indecent, 312. Sophi, The, 660. ^ South African Missions, 632. Southern Observer, The,- 594. Spain and colonies, 659. Spaulding, Archbishop, Life of, 586. Spectator, quoted, 300. ^ / Speculative lines converging, 129. Spencer, Herbert, quoted, 131, 135. Spiuoza, 7g. Spiritism^ 114. Spirits, Distilled, 200. Spiritual religion, 517. vitality, 380, etc. Spring, Rev. Dr. Gardner, mobbed, 214. Rev. Dr. Gardner, quoted, 220, 410. St. Chrysostom, quoted, 495. Stack, William, quoted, 194. State, Break from, 39, 40. colleges, 468. States, Independent, under Christian governments, 745, etc. Statesman's Year-Book, 280, 528, 535, 625. t Statistics of Australia, 627. Ecumenical, 729, etc. of Bibles, 640, 641. of British Isles, 540-544. of Canada, 548-550. of Charities1 346. of Christianity, 649, 650. of Christians and non-Christians in the world, 653. of# Churches, ministers, sittings, etc., in 1775, 1800, 1850, 1870, 1880, 1890, and^i8g4, 554~6o6, 675-689. of churches in Boston, 422. of churches in cities, 713. of crime, 218, 252, 262, 274, 282, 286. of denominations in world, 665. of divorce, 231-240. of liberal churches, 576, 694, 695. of liquor, 293-303. of lynchings, 225, 228. of missions, 643. of missions in Japan, 626. of New York city, 224, 423, 432-435, ' of pauperism, 281. of population of United States, 557. of Protestants in world, 654. of Roman Catholic churches in United States, 577, 5g6^ 696. of Roman Catholics in world, 654, of tracts, 428-430. of wages, 327, 714. of Young Men's Christian Associa tion, 433. of Young Women's Christian Asso ciation, 435. Religious, of Eujrope^ 528-540. Religious, of Polynesia, 643. Statistics, Religious; of population in India, 625. Religious, of population of world, 651. See Appendix, 673, 750. Stevens, Leslie, quoted, 104. Stoical philosophy, 57. Stoughton's Elixir, 294. Straight lines not expected, 210. Strauss, David, 141, 145. Strikes, 340, etc. Strong, Rev. Nathan, D.D., quoted, 104, .109, no. Struggles, Memorable, 205. Students from Western Europe in Italy, 57- Suffrage,' The right of, conferred by marriage, 244. Summary of Boston city mission labors, 421. Sumner, Hon. Charles, 372. Sun, The rising, 673:. Sunday-schools, 418. Sunday theaters, 362. Sunrise and sunset prayer, 406. Superstitions outgrown, 50, 316. Surgery improved, 337. Sweaters in London, 178. Sweating sickness, 334. Sweden, Temperance in, 305. Switzerland and temperance, 306. Syllogistic gins, 73. Tablet, The, quoted, 586. Taitt> Professor, 132. Tamil language, 610. Tammany, 266, 359.. Tarbox, Rev. Dr. I. N., 203, 399. Taylor, Isaac, quoted, 102, 395. Rev. William, 459. - Technical expression, The old cast off, 148. Telsius, 68-71. Telugus Mission, The, 644. Temperance on the continent of Europe, 305, etc. Ternporal power, Loss of, 533-536. Tennent, Gilbert, 397. John, 397. William, 391, 397. Territory acquired by Great Britain, 664. Testimony for missions, 628, etc. Tests, Religious, in colleges, 467. Theism, 130. Theodicies less elaborate, go. Theological rationalism, i2g. Theology, Christian, 457. Emancipated, 154, New, in Germany, 142. purified, 123. restored, 152. Swiss, 536. Value of the old, 148. Theosophy, 70, 71. Index. 767 Thieves fattening at public expense, 255. Thirty Years' War, The, 331. Thoreau, quoted, 145, 146. Thought, The world's, 455, etc. Threatening aspects, 89. , Threeness in the Godhead, 126. Thug-onile, 357, 361. Thwing, Rev. Dr. C. H., 475. Tillotson, 78. Tinnevelly Mission, 644. Toland, 84. Toplady, quoted, 497. Torpidity, 4^2. Tract societies, American, 429, 430. societies in England, 395. Tracts, Religious, given, 430. scarce, 205. Trade, Character of, 370. .Traitors, how treated, 347. Transfer of Roman ^Catholic States to the Protestant side, 662. Transition, An age of, 459. from Mill to Spencer, 132. Transylvania University, Kentucky, and infidelity, 107. Travesties of religion, 458. Trinitarian theology, 36. Trinity, The, 74. no longer Tritheism, 126. True Light, The, 153. Trumbull, Governor, on divorces, 232. Rev. Dr., 392. Truth, Perverted, 457. Simple, 153. Turkish inroads, 331. Turks, few laws, 462. Turner, Rev. William, quoted, 77. Tyerman, quoted, 102, 179, 188. Tyler, Rev. Bennet, on revivals, 409. Tyndall, Professor, quoted, 84, 131, 132. Typical periods, 163, 380. U Ueberweg, quoted, 58, 63, 68, 70, 72, 78. Unbelief, Abnormal, 100. Defeated, 133. Poor, 144. Spread of, 389. Unehastity, 164, 230. Unemployed, The, 326. Unitarians, 36, 74, 75, 77, IXI, II2' 6o4- English-speaking, 665. in Harvard College, 467. Unive rsalists, 36, no, 140, 695. Universities founded, 56. . , . University of London and Mill s logic. 133- , settlement, 501.- United States Census, quoted, 281. Extent of, 556. increase of population , 557. Unrest, Social, 340, etc. Unselfishness, Need of, 191. Utopian hallucination, 19. theories, 31, 344. Vagaries, Ephemeral, 99. Vallee's pamphlet, 68. Value of church property in the United States, 571. Van Buren, 376. Versions of the Bible, 638. Vice and crime, 288. unfriendly to health, 333. Victoria, Queen, exerts a good influence, 3o9- pure life, 309. quoted, 463. Virginia churches, law in early time, 39°- Visitations by plague, 334, 335. Visits, Religious, by colporteurs, etc., 421-429. Vitality of American Christianity, 414, of Wesleyanism, 394. Volney, 149. Voltaire, 29, 612, 640. # Volumes, Religious, given away, 430. Voluntary conditions of American Churches, 41. Votes purchasable, 326. Vulgate, The, 638. ¦ "W Wadsworth, Hon. Mr., quoted, 328. Wages a century ago, 329. debated on in Congress, 328. Statistics of, 714. Walker, Hon. F. A., 281, 325. Walpole, Horace, 186, 484. Walworth, Hon. Mr., 211. War, The Thirty Years', 331. Washington, George, 198. Courage of, 399. Washingtonian speakers, 300. Waters, Miss Abigail, 401. Watson, Rev. Richard, 188. Watts. 387. quoted, 497. 1 Webster, Hon. D., 462. Wedgewood, Julia, 177. Weekly Miscellany, 102, 387. Weld, Rev. Mr., quoted, 493. Wesley, Rev. John, 497, 498, an Arminian, 394. at Lincoln College, 102. Conservative influence of, 396, 480. formed societies. 384. Influence of, 106, 189. Isaac Taylor on, 102. Rev. Charles, 497. Revival under, 189. Wesleyan Movement, The, 394, 518, 519. University, Middletown, Conn., 466. Wesleyanism eulogized, 475. West, The, penetrated by churches, 416. The, a marvel of enterprise, 342. Western Division of United States, 450. purity improving, 287. reserve, 314. 768 Index. Western Review, quoted, 144. Westminster Abbey, 159. Catechism, 124. Wheelock, Dr., of Dartmouth, 3g8. Whitaker's Almanac, 189, 276, 278, 280, „, .542, 651, 655. Whitby, 78. Whitefield, Rev. G., 106, 387,394. Whitewash, rare,323. Whitmer, Rev. S. J., 632. Whittier, J. G., 15, 16, 223. Wjlberforce, 476, 481. William and Mary College, 212, 404, .4,T3- Williams, Geo. M„ founds the Young Men's Christian Association, 431. Williamsburg, Va., rnorals low, 212. Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, 110-126. Wines, Hon. F. A„ quoted, 282. Winthrop, Hon. Robert C, 158, 159. Withrow, Rev. Dr. J. L., 669. Witnesses in Lexow case, 359. Wives exposed for sale in England, 244. Woman's Christian TemperanceJUnion, 299. Women, Coarse, 186. and suffrage, 244. and wages, 329. in coal pits, 311. a missionary societies, 613. sold with a halter, 244. Wooden horse. The, 392. Woods, Rev. Leonard, D.D., 200. World, The, " to wax wise and un wise," 20. World-wide view, The, 649-672. Wreckers, 483. Wright, Hon. Carroll D., 236-238, 283, 327, 349- Fanny, 231. WyclifEe and Huss, 169. Xavier, St. Francis, 624. Yale College, Infidelity in, 106. Revival in, 104. Yankee merchants dishonest, 370. Years of labor by home missionaries, etc., 430. Young Men's Christian Association, 365, 418, 431-435. Young people and temperance, 304. _ Young Women's Christian Association, Statistics of, 435. Zwingli, 26. f!%M