Christian never to despair of the progress and ultimate triumph of Christianity.

ECCLESIASTICAL STATISTICS.

Figures are facts. The following statistics will give you the best idea of the outward growth and the present numerical status of Christianity in the United States.

I. STATISTICS OF 1870.

We present first the results of the last decennial census of the United States, which was taken in 1870. They were published in three large quarto volumes, and condensed in "A Compendium" of 942 closely printed pages of figures, edited by Francis A. Walker (Superintendent of Census), Washington, 1872. From this document we make the following extracts:

Total population in the United States and Territories in 1870....38,558,371.
White do....
Colored...

Foreign-born white population (included in total).

Born in Great Britain and Ireland....

·33,589,377

4,880,009

5,567,229

The ecclesiastical statistics of the census report (which are not given as a separate head, but strangely ranked under "Schools, Libraries, Newspapers, and Churches," and which do not agree in all cases with the statistics of denominational yearbooks and almanacs) are given on p. 514, in alphabetical order as follows:

The decennial growth of all the churches since 1850 may be inferred from the following table:

2. COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF THE CENTENNIAL GROWTH

OF CHURCHES FROM 1776 TO 1876.

The growth of churches during the first century of the United States can only be made out approximately. The Revolutionary war produced great confusion, and there are few reliable lists of ministers and congregations before 1790. The statistics of 1776, therefore, are mostly conjectural, but those of 1876 (as also those of 1878 in the next table) are from official records and private communications of leading men of different churches.

1 The Regular or Calvinistic Baptists numbered in 1790 about 200 ministers and 300 congrega

tions.

2 Estimated. The Protestant Episcopal Church had no regular statistical tables before 1832. 3 The first R. C. bishop, Carroll of Maryland, was consecrated in 1790. In 1808 there were 80 Roman Catholic churches; in 1830, 230; in 1840, 454; in 1850, 1073; in 1860, 2385; in 1870, 3995.

1 Estimate of Rev. Prof. H. Osgood, D.D., Rochester, N. Y., compared with the American Baptist Year-Book. Philadelphia, 1879. (Bapt. Publication Society.)

2. According to the careful statistics of the Congregational Year-Book. Boston, 1879.

3 The statistics furnished by Bishop Perry, of Iowa, the historiographer of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, and the Rev. Dr. C. C. Tiffany, of New York.

4 According to the estimates furnished by Rev. D. Dorchester, of Springfield, Mass., endorsed by Rev. Dr. Warren, of Boston. The Methodist Almanac, New York (Nelson & Phillips), 1879, differs somewhat, and credits the Methodist Episcopal Church only with 11,308 ministers (including 12 bishops), 16,099 congregations, and 1,688,783 members. But there are counted besides 12,749 local preachers. All the Methodist organizations together number 30 bishops and 26,642 local preachers, in addition to the regular ordained clergymen.

5 The figures of the Northern and Southern General Assembly are from the last Minutes. The sum total of Presbyterians is estimated by Rev. Dr. E. F. Hatfield, of New York, Stated Clerk of the Northern General Assembly, and includes the United Presbyterians, the Welsh Calvinists, and the Cumberland Presbyterians, but not the Dutch and German Reformed churches.

6 Among the 52 Roman Catholic bishops there are 11 archbishops and I cardinal. See Roman Catholic Almanac for 1879, New York (Sadlier & Co.). In some dioceses chapels are counted with churches, in others with mission stations. In some cases colleges and theological seminaries are combined, as at Emmitsburg, Md. The membership includes the whole R. Catholic population.

4. STATISTICS OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK IN 1878.

We add the ecclesiastical statistics of the American metropolis, taken from the last report of the N. Y. City Mission Society, carefully prepared by its secretary, Mr. Lewis E. Jackson. It may furnish an idea of the strength of the churches in the larger cities.

Of these 496 church organizations (including chapels and mission stations), 387 have church edifices, and these, together with the ground they occupy, are estimated to be worth $40,172,850. The total population of New York City in 1875 was 1,041,886.

The church organizations average a membership of 300, equal to a total of 80,000 communicants. The number of attendants, of course, is much larger. The Protestant churches and chapels afford accommodation probably for 275,000 persons, and the whole (nominally) Protestant population of the city is estimated at from 500,000 to 600,000.

The Roman Catholic churches are usually crowded on Sundays, and are not sufficient for the Roman Catholic population, which probably amounts to one third of the whole.