Of the total estimated population of continental United States in 1906, 39.1 per cent., or not quite two-fifths, were reported as church-members. The corresponding percentage for 1890 was 32.7, or somewhat less than one-third, showing that the church has gained faster than the population 6.4 per cent.

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CHURCH, SUCCESS OF THE

Mr. Beecher arose in his pulpit Sunday after Sunday for forty years with the invariable fortune of looking at a crowded congregation, tho the most eloquent political orator in the country can not draw the same people to hear him five times in succession. A country town of 3,000 people will support from five to ten churches when it will hardly pay the rent of an amusement hall. For centuries, against intellectual doubt and the weakness of the flesh, the Christian religion has more than held its own in Europe and America, and while the theater could attract only by a continually changing appeal to curiosity, the church has retained its power with slight change and with only enough flexibility to adjust its forms of government to the character of different people.—Kansas City Times.

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Diagram 2—Proportion of the population reported as Protestant, Roman Catholic, and “all other” church-members, and proportion not reported as church-members, for continental United States: 1890 and 1906.

Table No. 1—Denominational Rank. (See [Church Statistics].)

DENOMINATIONNumber of
organizations		Rank in
number of
organizations
Methodist bodies64,7011
Baptist bodies54,8802
Presbyterian bodies15,5063
Lutheran bodies12,7034
Roman Catholic Church12,4825
Disciples or Christians10,9426
Protestant Episcopal Church6,8457
Congregationalists5,7138
United Brethren bodies4,3049
Evangelical bodies2,73810
Reformed bodies2,58511
Adventist bodies2,55112
Jewish congregations1,76913
Christians (Christian Connection)1,37914
German Evangelical Synod of North America1,20515
Latter-day Saints1,18416
Friends1,14717
Dunkers or German Baptist Brethren1,09718

CHURCH, THE