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The PresbyterifeS the South Vol. 96. No. 34. RICHMOND, VA. August 23, 1922 REV. THERON H. RICE, D. D., died on last Thursday in a hospital in Balti more, where he had been operated on several times. His death will be a great loss to Union Seminary in which he was a professor and to the Church at large. Dr. Rice was the son of Theron Hall and Airs. Lydia Ann Rice. He was born in Wetumpka, Ala., July 8, 1807. He was educated at Ogden College, Howling Green, Ky., Southwestern Presbyterian Uni versity at Claiksville, Tenn., the University of Virginia and Union Theological Seminary. He graduated from the Seminary in 1892. In 1899 Davidson College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, lie was pas tor of the church in Alexandria, Va., and then of the Central Church in Atlanta. Eroui this latter pastorate lie was caiied to the chair of the English Bible and Pastoral Theology in Union Seminary. In 1913 he married .Miss Elizabeth Matthews Sherrard, the daughter of Rev. J. L. Sherrard of Crozet, Va. She and three children survive him. Dr. Rice yvas a most successful pastor, binding his people to him by ties that were not broken when he left them. As a preacher he had few equals in presenting the great spiritual truths of the Gos pel, so that they went straight to the hearts of his hearers. As a professor he won the love and confidence of his students in a marked de gree "and was always faithful and successful in teaching the subjects pertaining to his depart ment. As a man he was strong and gentle, lovable and deeply spiritual. The outstand ing characteristic of lii3 life was its deep spir ituality which clearly manifested itself in all that he did or said. Few men have exerted such an influence upon the religious lives of young men with whom they have been asso ciated as did Dr. Rice upon the men of his congregations and the students of Union Semi nary. His influence is effecting the lives and work of many of these men, and it will long be felt in the Church to which he gave his life and his labors. LITERARY DIGEST readers have had a good deal given them in regard to a bal lot that is being taken by that magazine in regard to prohibition and the soldiers' bonus. As the votes come in the results are being dis cussed very largely. Some people have been disturbed at the results o?! this voting. This U specially true in regard to the prohibition vote. Some alarm, has been exprePSNwl, because of the large proportion of the voters who favor the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment or the modification of the Volstead Act. Before any one goes into hysterics over this vote there are some facts that need to be considered. The ballots have been sent out by the Literary V gent, it claims to 10,000,000, and it claims that it expects 10,000 000 votes will be ea-i It claims that its list of names has l:c?;*n made up from the telephone books of the large cities. Tf this is true two facts should be borne in mind. Telephone lists are made up of a much larger proportioh of men that of women ; in fact, there are comparatively few names of women found in such lists, and yet the women are legalized voters, who will be heard from, if prohibition ever becomes again a political issue in this country. The other fact worthy of no tice in regard to this list is that it does not include any great number of country people. They had more to do with the adoptic ? hibition than did the dwellers in tlie cities.' There is one more very important fact to be remembered. Jii such a movement as this, those who favor a change in the law are very active in every form of propaganda, and they are far more apt to send in their votes than are those who do not want any change, but are satistied to let matters stand as they are. They do not believe that there is going to be any change, and so they see no reason for voting when it means nothing. INTERESTING it would be to know how the Literary Digest'# "straw vote" is being financed. Jt claims to b'j sending ballots to 10,000,000 people scattered all over this coun try. This can only be done at a tremendous cost. Let us make a conservative estimate. A one-cent stamp put on each of these ballots as they are sent out will amount to $100,000. The cost of the envelopes, the cards, the print ing, the clerical work in addresing and send ing out the ballots, and in receiving and count ing them, and overhead charges, cannot be less than two cents each, or $200,000. This makes a total of $300,000. The only legitimate rea son that we can think of for the Digest to spend this enormous sum out of its treasury is for advertising purposes. This would be of con if5e with the idea of securing new subscrib ers and increasing its mailing lint The sub scription price of the Digest is $4 a year. To get back this amount spent, therefore, it would be necessary to secure as the result of this adver tising, without any other expense, 75,000 new subscribers. Every newspaper man knows that no such results will occur from such advertis ing as this alone. Two questions suggest them selves. What object has the Digest in going to such an enormous expense to take this vote And, who pays the freight? UNITED STATES Census Bureau lias re cently published reports on church sta tistics. It. seems that it takes a long time to got these reports out, so the figures cover the deepde 1000-1 91 G. This census shows that in 1910 the?*e were 203 religious denominations in this country, with 227,487 organized churches or congregations. The membership of these churches was 41,926,854, while the population of the country was 101,4G4,014. For the ten years the increase of population was 17.1 per cent; that of the church member ship was 19.5 per cent. The various divisions of the churches show varying rates of growth. According to this cen.-iim ir. 1 9 1 (i there were 25,025,990 members of Protestant church, an increase for the ten years of 23.4 per cent. Roman Catholics had 15,721,815 members and 10.6 per cent increase. The .Tews had 357,135, but these figures are evidently incomplete. The Eastern Catholic, or Greek Church, had 313,626 members and an increase of 90.1 per cent. The Mormons had 469,329 members, a gain of 80.1 per cent. Other religions 45,959 members, an increase of 3.9 per cent It is really very difficult to compare the different denominations. Protestants report as members only those who bv profession of faith have united with the church. The Roman Cath olics report, all who have been baptized, and it is a very rare thing that the infant of a Cath olic is not baptized. The Mormons report all ..unioo., "is *in[ij|A. to Mormon families. The Greek gjtew because of large immigration from Russia and the Eastern European coun tries. The Romish church received many members by immigration from Catholic coun tries, and yet the net gain was only 1 per cent a year. The Morrncus growth of 80.1 per cent was due to their very effective missiou work both in this country and abroad. We are told that they keep 2,000 missionaries at work in this country, or one fcr about every Ss-JO of their population. The Protestant churches, with their growth of 23.4 per cent, kept well ahead of the 17.1 per cent increase in the pop ulation, but that does not make a very good showing when there were 60,000,000 people in this country who were nci connected with any church or denomination. Making allow ance for children and deficients, there must still have been at least 40,000,000 people in this country who were out of the churches. It is interesting to notice that during those ten years the Southern Presbyterian church in creased 37.7 per cent, in membership. During the five years ending December 31, 1921. the increase of population was 5.58 per cent. That of all the churches was 9.85 per cent and of the Southern Presb\'terian for the five years was 14.02 per cent. And yet there are some people who say this church is dead. Advances in knowledge and tbe appli cations of science have come so fast that we can scarcely realize the changes that have taken place during the lifetime of the present generation. Probably no invention of modern times is more generally used or U mora neces sary to the comfort of life and the success of business than the telephone. -It is used in mil lions of homes and business places all over this land and over the civilized world. Yet this is a comparatively now invention. It was at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 that its inventor, Dr. Alexander Graham, who has just died, first put in on public exhibit ion. During his lifetime, or at least during the last forty-six years of his life, he saw his invention take a place in the economy of life and busi ness that wo suppose even he could not have dreamed of in the beginning. In the same period has come practically the whole develop ment. of the use of electricty in lighting, in power, in radio. The airplane is another new invention. There are innumerable others of lessor importance in the physical world- Dis coveries in medicine and surgery are numerous, wonderful and life saving. This knowledge is the gift of God to man. Why has lie given so much to this generation? Is it net a chal lenge to us to use it all for His glory? T7*PISCOPALIANS are engaged in revising XL their Prayer Book. The United Presby terian says: - "For nine years a commission of the Episcopal Church has been revising the Book of Common Prayer. It is now completed and will be submitted to the general conven tion which meets in Portland, Oregon, this fall. Several tendencies are evident. The ascend ency of the sacerdotal party appears in the frequent changes of the word minister to priest. Prayers are introduced for the dead and also prayers for special and memorial days. There are also memorial days appointed for saints and worthies, many of these being from other than English-gpeatfing peoples."