Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress .. . hand, it is true that of the 57,000,000 reckonedas either communicants or adherents, millions are Christians only in name,either never attending the services of the churches, or at the best only atrare intervals. Gratifying as is this splendid exhibit of religious devotion onthe part of the Ameri
Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, the true mirror of a phenomenal era, a volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress .. . hand, it is true that of the 57,000,000 reckonedas either communicants or adherents, millions are Christians only in name,either never attending the services of the churches, or at the best only atrare intervals. Gratifying as is this splendid exhibit of religious devotion onthe part of the American people, the fact that there are millions in our landwhose allegiance to Christian doctrine is but nominal, with millions more uponwhose lives religion exercises no appreciable influence whatever, is a sufficient,proof of the enormous task yet confronting the churches of Christ, if we areto stand before the nations as the great distinctive Christian nation of theworld. The stupendous gain, however, in ninety-four years, of over 14,853,-076 in Protestant churches alone is a record of religious progress unparalleledin the history of the world. Advancing to the question of distribution of the religious forces enumer-ated, we find that while these forces are distributed throughout every State-. THE CENTURYS RELIGIOUS PROGRESS 153 and under one hundred and forty-three denominational names, they are, never-theless, massed largely in a few denominations and in a comparatively few-States. Competent authorities estimate that the five largest denominationscomprise fully GO per cent, of the entire number of communicants; the tenlargest, 75 per cent. With respect to communicants, the Catholic Church isfirst, with 7,510,000; the Methodist (all bodies) second, with 5,405,076; the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidtri, booksubjectinventions
