Of the 178,214 Sunday-schools conducted by church organizations, 165,128, or 92.7 per cent., are returned by the Protestant bodies; 11,172 or 6.3 per cent. by the Roman Catholic Church and 1,914, or 1.1 per cent., by the remaining bodies.

Among the Protestant bodies, the Methodist bodies rank first, with 57,464 Sunday-schools, or 32.2 per cent. of the total, and the Baptist bodies come next with 43,178 or 24.2 per cent. of the total the two families together reporting considerably more than one-half the entire number of denominational Sunday-schools. If to these be added the Presbyterian bodies, with 14,452 Sunday-schools, the Lutheran bodies with 9,450, and the Disciples or Christians with 8,078, the 5 bodies combined report 132,622 Sunday-schools or nearly three-fourths (74.4 per cent.) of the entire number and more than four-fifths (80.3 per cent.) of all those reported by Protestant bodies.

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Sunday School, The, As a Seed—See [Needs, Meeting Children’s].

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES

DENOMINATION ORGANIZATIONS REPORTING SUNDAY-SCHOOLS SUNDAY-SCHOOLS REPORTED SUNDAY-SCHOOL OFFICERS AND TEACHERS SUNDAY-SCHOOL SCHOLARS
Number Per ct. of total Number Per ct. distri-bution Number Per ct. distri-bution Number Per ct. distri-bution
All denominations 167,574 79.0 178,214 100.0 1,648,664 100.0 14,685,997 100.0
Protestant bodies 156,437 80.0 165,128 92.7 1,564,821 94.9 13,018,434 88.6
Adventist bodies 2,078 81.5 2,242 1.3 14,286 0.9 69,110 0.5
Baptist bodies 41,165 75.0 43,178 24.2 323,473 19.6 2,898,914 19.7
Christians (Christian Connection) 1,136 82.4 1,149 0.6 10,510 0.6 72,963 0.5
Church of Christ, Scientist 550 86.2 551 0.3 3,155 0.2 16,116 0.1
Congregationalist 5,327 93.2 5,741 3.2 75,801 4.6 638,089 4.3
Disciples or Christians 7,901 72.2 8,078 4.5 70,476 4.3 634,504 4.3
Dunkers or German Bapt. Brethren. 866 78.9 1,223 0.7 10,789 0.7 78,575 0.5
Evangelical bodies 2,454 89.6 2,549 1.4 32,113 1.9 214,998 1.5
Friends 846 73.8 887 0.5 7,735 0.5 53,761 0.4
German Evangelical Synod of N. A. 1,086 90.1 1,111 0.6 12,079 0.7 116,106 0.8
Independent churches 826 76.6 922 0.5 6,732 0.4 57,680 0.4
Lutheran bodies 8,682 68.3 9,450 5.3 83,891 5.1 782,786 5.3
Mennonite bodies 411 68.0 439 0.2 5,041 0.3 44,922 0.3
Methodist bodies 55,227 85.4 57,464 32.2 569,296 34.5 4,472,930 30.5
Presbyterian bodies 13,048 84.1 14,452 8.1 176,647 10.7 1,511,175 10.3
Protestant Episcopal Church 5,211 76.1 5,601 3.1 51,048 3.1 464,351 3.2
Reformed bodies 2,345 90.7 2,588 1.5 38,710 2.3 361,548 2.5
Unitarians 358 77.7 364 0.2 3,592 0.2 24,005 0.2
United Brethren bodies 3,777 87.8 3,870 2.2 42,169 2.6 301,320 2.1
Universalists 596 70.4 600 0.3 6,585 0.4 42,201 0.3
Other Protestant bodies 2,547 68.9 2,669 1.5 20,693 1.3 162,380 1.1
Roman Catholic Church 9,406 75.4 11,172 6.3 62,470 3.8 1,481,535 10.1
Jewish congregations 561 31.7 600 0.3 2,239 0.1 49,514 0.3
Latter-day Saints 1,036 87.5 1,169 0.7 18,507 1.1 130,085 0.9
Eastern Orthodox Churches 7 1.7 7 [14] 10 [14] 509 [14]
All other bodies 127 16.6 138 0.1 617 [14] 5,920 [14]

[14] Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.

SUNS, THE SIZE OF

How large are some of our neighbor suns? Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbor, with its double sun, gives twice as much light as we receive; great Sirius equals sixty-three of our suns; the Pole Star eighty-six. “Think of an eighty-fold sun. However, some are still more astonishing: Vega blazes with the light of three hundred and forty-four suns; Capella with the light of four hundred and thirty; Arcturus with the light of five hundred and sixteen, while mighty Alcyone, the glorious center around which we all, suns and worlds, are supposed to circle, blazes with the light of twelve thousand of our suns!” If our little sun can boast of a family with worlds of such beauty and greatness as Venus and Earth and glorious Saturn and mighty Jupiter, how shall we measure the number, the splendor and the magnitude of the worlds which circle about such centers as Sirius, Vega, Capella, Arcturus and Alcyone?—James H. Ecob.

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