Newspaper Page Text
September 15, 1909. THE PRESBYTERI
larger. The relative strength of the leading denominations
of Protestants would then be: Methodist
5,749,838, Baptist 5,662,234, Presbyterian, 2,280,069,
Lutheran 2,112,494, Disciples 1,142,359. These five
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the churches' membership, and five-sixths of all the
Protestant membership.
The total seating capacity of church buildings is reported
as 58,536,830, an increase of 34.4 per cent, the
Protestants providing 53,282,445, and the Romanists
4,494,377, while the minor sects not embraced in
these two bodies provide a few hundred thousand.
Of church property, not including colleges, universities,
schools, convents, etc., the total value is $1,257,575,867,
of this the Protestants having $935,942,578,
and the Romanists $292,638,747. Of church indebtedness,
which is 8.6 per cent of the value of church property,
$53,301,254 is due by Protestants, and $49,488,055
. by Romanists, the Protestant proportion of debt be
.? ? pci tcm, ana ine rcomamst lo.y per cent. The
total number of Protestant organizations is given as
195.618, averaging 104 members each, and of Romanist
12,482, averaging 969 each.
Even with figures only approximately exact, some
interesting facts may be seen. One is the smallness,
with all its vaunting, of the Christian Science cult.
Instead of niHnbering a million or a million and a
half adherents as is sometimes claimed, they are only
85,717 strong, and that notwithstanding the known
facts that at least 20.000 of them are duplicated in
church membership by being enrolled in the "mother
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i-iiuiui, L>osion, 01 ti,oM memoers, as well as in the
local congregations. Another suggestive fact is in
connection with the little growth of Unitarianism.
In 1890 it had 67,749 members; in 1906, only 70,542.
And yet in wealth, social and educational prestige and
every other outward advantage, its opportunities far
surpassed all others. Strong doctrine is needful to
. growth and power. So, too, the Universalists numbered
only 49,194 and 64,158. The large increase in
the Lutheran and "Evangelical" bodies was due in
part, like that of the Romanists, to immigration. It is
surprising to see that New Jersey, with its large Presbyterian
population, is a little more than half Roman
ist, while next to New Mexico, Rhode Island, Montana,
and Massachusetts come highest in that same
faith. Tennessee is put down as having the highest
percentage of Presbyterians in any one State's church
membership. It is given as 11.4 per cent.
WHAT THE EDITOR LEAVES OUT.
In the "Cumberland Presbyterian" is an editorial
entitled, "What the Editor Leaves Out." One of the
most important duties of an editor is wisely to
"leave out." i. He must leave out all bitterness
and all that would encourage needless strife. 2. He
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every page must have an aim for the benefit of Christ's
people. 3. He must have firmness to decline articles
which have -been laid before the same community in
the columns of other papers. 4. He must avoid being
made the catspaw of enthusiastic cranks. The harmony
and progress of the Church depends much on
the prudence of the editor in omitting.
? -?
AN OF THE SOUTH. 3
A SABBATH IN EDINBURGH.
My last letter was from Chester. That was a week
ago. A great many things have happened in my life
during this week. From Chester I went direct to
Glasgow. There I found a modern commercial city of
some eight hundred thousand people. Of all the cities
of Great Britain, it stands next to London in size. I
spent a day at Robert Burns' old home, which is less
man iwu nunrs irom oiasgow. it was a day lull ot
interest and pathos. I have read somewhere that when
they took Burns' mother to see one of the beautiful
monuments that have been erected to him, that instead
of going into ecstasies over it she shook her head
sorrowfully and said: "Robbie asked for bread and
ye gave him a stanc." One day I spent in going over
what is known as the Trossach route. A delightful
little steamer took us nearly the whole length of Loch
Lomond. Then we drove in a great coach for five
miles over the mountains to Loch Katrine. After
lunch we boarded the little steamship ''Walter Scott,"
and went the whole lentrth of Loch Katrine. Then
we went by coach over the mountains to Aberfogle.
That was a day of exquisitely beautiful scenery and
of history and poetry and romance. Sir Walter Scott
has made that whole country an enchanted land.
Ellen's Isle, and many places in the Lady of the Lake
were pointed out to us.
A day and a night we spent at Stirling. There I
saw my first real castle. There I saw the field of
Bannockburn. I climbed the great Wallace Monument
and got the finest view I have had on this side.
Best of all, I went into old Greyfriars church and
churchyard. A great deal of Presbyterian history
centers about that old church, but nothing touched my
heart more than the privilege of standing beside the
grave of Henry Drummond, who is buried just back
of the church. Stirling is not a very large place. It
has a population of about fifteen thousand, but the
history of Scotland centers about it. If your patriotic
blood does not begin to stir as you visit these various
places about old Stirling, you might as well go home.
You are hopeless.
During this week we had the privilege of hearing
the bagpipe very often. In the Queen's Park in Glasgow,
there were about fifteen of the pipers dressed in
their kilties and plaids, and they marched and piped
for dear life. After hearing them for a week, and after
the most mature deliberation, it is my honest opinion
that while the bagpipe is a most excellent thing
for stirring the patriotic blood of a Scotchman, it is
not to be classed among the musical instruments*
Friday night found us, my Methodist friends and I,
in Edinburgh. I had determined to spend at least one
Sabbath there. It is a far cry from Chester to Edinburgh.
It is hard to realize that they are in the same
kingdom, or even in the same century. In nothing do
they differ more than in their religion. In Chester
I had to search for a Presbyterian Church, and then
submit to the humiliation of having it called a chapel.
You do not have to search in Edinburgh. It is almost
impossible here to get away from a Presbyterian
i^nurcn. f-very time you turn a corner you come face
to face with one, and. moreover, it is the Church, the
State Church of Scotland. On Saturday afternoon I
bought a copy of the Scotsman for the express pur4.