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4 (842) THE!
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RECOMPENSE.
His was an humble way to plod.
Cleaning the mire from lane and street
iBut O, at night his rest was sweet,
A.nd thankful was his prayer to God.
What mattered if the task was hard?
What cared he when his heart waB right??
When he knelt down at candle-light.
He lifted his honest hands to God.
This is the lesson, O my friend,
No task is low if they who plod
Keep white their soul by trust in God.
Reward waits at the journey's end.
?J. R. Moreland.
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN
LEADING AMERICAN CITIES.
BY THE REV. CHARLES STELZLE.
Seventy-five Norlh American cities with a
combined population of 20,000,000, were "survoviwi"
rbirinir the mist, winter bv the Men and
I v/j vv* X ~?r
Ueligou Forward Movement. About 1,000 questions
were addressed to the loeal committees
having charge of the surveys in each of the
cities, covering?among other things?the following
subjects: the population, municipal administration,
social influence, industrial life,
the saloon, dance halls, crimes and arrests,
housing, health, political life, social service
agencies, public schools, libraries, recreational
life, juvenile delinquency, and the general condition
among the churches in these cities.
Of the churches in these cities 77.7% are
Protestants, 11.3% are Catholic, 4% are Jewish,
and 7% consist of other denominations.
The Methodist Episcopal Church leads in point
of membership. Then come the following
churches in order: Presbyterian, Baptist, Episcopal,
Congregational, Lutheran, Christian and
Reformed. The membership in all Protestant
Churches consists of 30.7 per cent of men, 54
per cent of women, 6.2 per cent of boys between
the ages of 12 and 18, and 9.1 per cent of girls
between the ages of 12 and 18. It is a striking
fact that only 5.1 per cent of the boys in the
Sabbath schools in these cities are members of
the church, although, during the past ten years
the number of men and boys uniting with the
Protestant Churches has increased 21-2 per
cent, there being a steady gain in this respect
from year to year.
Sixty-five per cent of those who attend the
Sabbath morning services in the Protestant
churches are women and the morning attendance
at all the churches is 65 per cent, of the
total attendance of the day. More people unit
ed with the church at the age of 14 than at any
other time, and here is a sharp decline in church
accession after 21. Forty-one per cent of the
churches have organized movements to greet
strangers. Forty-eight per cent have missionary
committees and 42 per cent, have Mission
Study classes. In fully one-third of the church
es practically every member contributed regularly
to missions, and 42 per cent, of all the
churches have weekly offerings for missionary
purposes. However, 73 per cent of all the
contributions of the Protestant churches in
these 75 cities for the last fiscal year was used
for congregational expenses. Seven and four
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tenths per cent, of the total was used for denominational
Home Mission purposes, and 7.7
per cent, for denominational Foreign Missions.
Of the total contributions of the churches for
all purposes, 62.5 per cent, were given by the congregations
themselves; 9.9 per cent by the Sabbath
schools; 18.2 per cent by women's organS
0
L
PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SC
leadings
izations; 1.4 per cent, by men's organizations;
3 percent by the young people's societies; and
15 per cent by individuals, presumably iu large
personal gifts. During the past ten years, fivetenths
of 1 per cent, of the men in the churches
actually went out from the churches as missionaries,
either in the Uilited States or in for
eign countries, and two-tenths of 1 per cent, of
the men in the churches today intend to become
missionaries.
Of the enrollment in the Sabbath schools
57.2 per cent, are women and girls, and 42.8 per
cent men and boys; and of the enrollment in
the Bible classes 62 per cent, are boys between
the ages of 12 and 18, while 38 per cent, are
men. Of the teachers of Men's Bible Classes
in the Sabbath schools 23.7 per cent, are clergymen;
36.5 per cent, are business men; 11.4 per
cent are women; 17.3 are professional men;
whereas the teachers of the boys' classes in
the Sabbath schools are 5.3 per cent, clergymen,
7.9 per cent, professional men; 8.8 per cent, male
school-teachers; 19.4 per cent, business men; 19.5
per cent, men of other classes; 7.5 per cent, women
under 20 and 31.6 per cent, women over 20
years of age.
There are more than three times as many
saloons as there are churches in these cities
but as the survey includes niauy Southern cities
which are under prohibition rule, the actual
proportion oL' saloons in most cities is
very much greater. Of the nearly 25,000 saloons
in these cities 40.0 per cent, serve free
lunches, 32.9 per cent, have games and cards;
while 1.3 per cent, have cafes, 9.5 per cent, have
hotels, 4.6 per cent, have club rooms, and 1.9
per cent, of the saloons have dance halls in connection.
Fifteen per cent, of the labor unions in these
cities meet in halls connected with saloons and
9.8 per cent, of the unions regularly hold their
meetings on Sabbath. In not a single instance
do the labor unions hold their meeting in the
public schools, and in only one case does a labor
union meet in a church.
Among the millions of subscribers to the
Public Library 27.5 per cent are men; 35.6 per
cent, are women; 19.6 per cent, are boys and 17.3
per cent, are girls. The truancy of boys in the
public schools is reported at 2.52 per cent. Socialism
has increased nearly five-told during
the past ten years in these 75 cities. Of the
amusement centers, 12.1 per cent, are theatres;
23.2 per cent are motion picture shows; fourtenths
of one per cent, are penny arcades and
62.2 per cent, are pool rooms.
The crimes and arrests indicate that of those
arrested 83.9 per cent, were men; 9.1 per cent,
women; 6- per cent, boys and 1 per cent, girls.
Forty and eight-tenths per cent, of the arrests
were due to drunkenness; 15.9 per cent, to disorderly
conduct; 8.2 per cent, to disturbance of the
peace; 7.8 per cent to vagrancy; 6.1 per cent, to
assault; 4.8 per cent, to larceny; 3.5 per cent, to
gambling; 6.1 per cent to socfial evils. The Juvenile
court records show that 25.4 per cent, of
the boys committed were guilty of larceny;
26.3 per cent, incorrigibility; 8.2 per cent, truancy
; 6.1 per cent, disorderly conduct; 2.2 per cent,
assault; and 31.8 other causes. The parents
of these boys were 52.3 per cent. American born,
7.6 per cent German; 5.8 per cent Irish; 5.1 per
cent Italian; 2.2 percent Russian and 27 percent
were of other nationalities.
The birth-rate in these cities during the past
year was 20.02 per thousand of the population,
n
> U T H '[July 17, 1912
while the deuth-rate during 1910 was 15.68 j?. r I
thousand, there being a steady decrease in the
death-rate from 17.19 per thousand in 1901. Tuberculosis
was responsible for 11.4 per cent, of
the deaths during the past ten years; pneumonia
was chargeable with 9.7 per cent.; heart
disease 8.2 per cent., accidents 5.8 per cent.; cancer
4.1 per cent, typhoid fever 2.2 per cent; and
58.6 per cent, were due to other causes.
A DUMP BOY WHO SAVED SIXTY.
Fred Evans was a boy who worked in the
dump in an Illinois coal mine. One day there
was a cave-in, and the earth and coal in set
tling imprisoned sixty men. The foreman of
the rescuintr Dartv saw the small nn^nincr ttini
the cave-in had left between the places where
these men stood and the outer world, and he
spoke to this boy to know if he would dare to
help him. "The hole is just big enough for
you to crawl through," he said, "and to drag a
hollow pipe after you. You'll have to be
mighty careful, or the coal will settle and
crush your life out. But if you can get it
through to them, then we can pump air
enough in to keep them alive till we can dig
them out. Are you willing to try it?"
All Fred answered was, "I'll try my best."
It was a long erawl, and many a time it
stopped, and those outside gave up hope, hut
at last there was a faint call through it that
told them he was there; they began humping
air and water and milk though the pipe, and
kept it up for a week, when Fred and the
whole sixty were safely brought out and giveu
hack to their families, lie was only a boy,
hut these true stories of plucky hoys and their
heroism and devotion show that not only a
prophet, hut common, every-day people may
hear the Lord's call to needed work; and that
the answer reveals the kind of boy or girl or
man or woman it is that hears it.?The Heidelberg
Teacher.
THE DOCTRINE OF REMNANTS.
(Continued from Page 3.)
cause they have not the courage to live by letting
go the things which kill. This doctrine
and practice of the remnant is vcrv elnsalv re
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lated to salvation. In so many instances when
money and social influence and health go, so
many despair and go with these because they
have lost the things which made life desirable
instead of securing some fragment which can
be turned by the soul's inner energy under God
into the highest and noblest phase of living.
In every loss of property, every wreck of personal
affection, every disaster in the sphere of
the visible, something remains which, by the
grace of Christ, can be converted into spiritual
values, so that one becomes a trophy of
redemption or enters upon a larger life of
Christian usefulness. Pascal made his ill-health
into a means of spiritual beauty. Wesley accepted
the wreck of domestic happiness as
another call to a great work. George Romanes
followed up the fragment of an idea of his departed
mother'8 love, and that idea followed up
brought him into faith in God, through Jesus
Christ. Bunyan converted his prison cell, the
only thing left him, into an observatory from
which he caught glimpses of the celestial city.
These men made use of the fragment, the remaining
thing, the remnant by the grace of
God and they achieved great things in the
Ifinorflnm nf flnrl
May we believe and practice the doctrine of
the remnant in its various meanings and applications.
And may we be a remnant in the
hands of the Spirit of God, that he may gird us
with strength and girdle us for a large service.
This is God's way. ?