THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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SHALL WE SHORTEN LINES? The London Times on Foreign Mis sionary Policy says, “The p rud en t pol icy for any arm y h ard pressed is to shorten its lines. I t may be assumed th a t th e Church is h ard pressed both i n ' men and in m aterial; .its wisdom th erefo re would appear to lie in a bold shortening of th e lines. . . . But th e Church w ith one voice has rejected th is logic. . . . The unpardonable sin for a modern man is to despair of th e hum an family, or to demand a safety for him self or his people which is not offered to all. The Church can not lim it its vision or its service. Nor can it d o .its work piecemeal; it can not finish its task in Europe and afte r wards begin in Asia. The Church in deed, so far from th ink ing th a t the mis sionary en terp rise can be delayed, is strick en by remorse to know th a t it is late, almost too late, w ith th e offer of a faith to which all th e sp iritu al striv ings of th e E ast have moved.” GROWTH OF CHURCHES Church membership in the United States increased from 35,068,058 to 42,044,374 during th e ten-year period which ended December 31, 1916, ac cording to figures given out by the census bureau. The number of churches increased from 212,230 to 228,007; m inisters- from 164,830 to 191,722; Sunday- school scholars from 15,337,811 to 20,569,831; Sunday-schools from 192,- 722 to 207,789; Sunday-school officers and teachers from 1,746,074 to 2,049,- 293. The to tal num ber of denom inations covered by the statistics was 201, th ir teen more th an repo rted in 1906. Of th e to tal membership, 25,691,774, or 61.1 per cent, comprised members of th e P ro te sta n t denom inations, L at te r Day Saints, sp irtu a list and various other small groups; 15,742,262, or 37.4
p er cent, were, Roman Catholics and 250,340 members of Greek or Russian churches. The Jew ish congregations comprised 359,998 persons. llis . M- DECLINING METHODISM In B ritain th e re has been a steady falling off from th e membership in the Methodist church, also in the Sunday Schools. But th e re is a reason. Mark Guy Pearse says: “People speak of th e de cline of Methodism, bu t th e decline is really one of Christianity. It used to be a condition of membership, not to lay up earth ly treasu re, bu t now the more we lay up the more they th ink of us.” In America we have watched w ith g reat anxiety a still deeper source of. decline. In spite of protests made by Conferences and some of th e most dis tinguished m inisters of the denom ina tion, th e Bishops have introduced a new set of books to be studied by the stu dents for th e m inistry and every one of them contradicts the fundam entals of Evangelical tru th and also th e plain teachings of the founders of Methodism. They m agnify man and minimize God, they deny the necessity of th e new b irth and throw doubt upon th e inspiration of th e Bible. Indeed, these books would be well suited for U n itarian preachers, bu t are poison to th e Methodists. —Watchword and T ruth. OUR IDLE POSSESSIONS I t was once asserted by Dr. A. T. P ierson th a t in so-called Christian homes th ere lies buried in gold and silver plate and useless ornam ents “ enough to build a fleet of fifty thou sand vessels, ballast them w ith Bibles and crowd them w ith m issionaries; build a church in every d estitu te ham let, and supply every living soul with the Gospel w ithin a score of years.”
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