The average annual increase of the denomination in twenty-four years has been 1,791.
9. The "Christians," or "Christian Connection," profess not to owe their origin to the labors of any one man, like the other Protestant sects. They rose almost simultaneously in different and remote parts of this country, without knowledge of each other's movements.
The new organizations of this denomination held their twenty-third annual convention in June, 1868. The number of organizations was one hundred and sixty.
The numbers of the denomination have been stated as follows:
| Ministers. | Churches. | Members. | |
| 1844 | 2,000 | 1,500 | 325,000 |
| 1866 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 500,000 |
The average annual increase of members has been as follows:
| In 22 years | 7,594 members. |
The "Church of God," as it exists by that name in the United States, is a religious community, who profess to have come out from all human and unscriptural organizations, and to have fallen back upon original grounds, and who wish, therefore, to be known and called by no other distinctive name.
This denomination exists in Ohio and Pennsylvania and the Western States, and their numbers have been stated as follows:
| Ministers. | Churches. | Members. | |
| 1843 | 83 | 125 | 10,000 |
| 1860 | 140 | 275 | 14,000 |
| 1866 | — | 360 | 32,000 |