that there was then one Congregational church to about every sixteen hundred and fifty-nine souls -men, women and children—in the New England States.

It will of course be understood that these figures give only the number of churches now in existence, and by no means the number that have been organized by Congregationalists. Hundreds of our churches have passed into the hands of the Presbyterians; and very many have died outthough it is a hard matter to kill out a Congregational church when once fully rooted and grounded in a place.

In 1834 the number of Trinitarian Congregational churches in the United States was estimated at twelve hundred and fifty; the ministers, at eleven hundred, and the communicants, at one hundred and fifty-five thousand; and, estimating the communicants as one in nine of the population, we have about a million four hundred thousand souls,* or about one in seventeen of the

about the middle of this century. The numbers given in the text are obtained chiefly by counting the churches in our lists under the different years; and though no account is made of such as are not now on our list - a very considerable numberthe numbers given are believed to be substantially correct; the estimate being less than the true number rather than greater. In addition to Dr. Quint's invaluable statistical tables in the Cong'l Year-Book, I have availed myself of Holmes' Annals, ii, 103, 537-38; the Am. Quar. Register, vii, 20—; and Dr. Joseph S. Clark's data, in the Cong'l Year-Book for 1854.

*American Quarterly Register, vi, 201, compared with pp.

141-48.

CHAP. XII.]

CHURCH STATISTICS.

463

entire population of the United States, under Congregational influence and training.

In 1854 the number of Congregational churches in the country was not far from twenty-one hundred. The number actually returned, according to the Year-Book, was two thousand and eightynine; but these reports are confessedly deficient. Thus, for example, Pennsylvania is credited with seven Congregational churches in 1854; whereas eighteen new churches were actually formed in that State in the course of the years 1834-54, and there were at least eleven of our churches in the State previous to 1834; which would give us twenty-nine living churches in Pennsylvania in 1854, instead of seven. The whole number of our communicants was not far from two hundred and seven thousand six hundred, according to the Year-Book for 1855.

In 1864 our churches had increased five hundred and ninety-nine-being that year twentysix hundred and sixty-eight; and our church members, fifty-five thousand and forty-nine— being two hundred and sixty-two thousand six hundred and forty-nine at that date.

In 1874 we had thirty-four hundred and three churches a net gain in ten years of seven hundred and thirty-five churches; while the number of our communicants was reported at three hundred and thirty thousand three hundred and ninety-one-a gain over all losses of sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and forty-two members since 1864.

In 1878 the denomination had thirty-six hundred and twenty churches, and three hundred and seventy-five thousand six hundred and fiftyfour church members; showing a gain of two hundred and seventeen churches and forty-five thousand two hundred and sixty-three communicants in the course of four years. And the number of Congregational ministers in the United States had increased in fourteen years (1864–78) from twenty-seven hundred and ninety-eight to thirty-four hundred and ninety-six.

Thus has the little one become a thousand. Our growth has not been rapid; but it has been a healthy and strong growth-a Christian growth, not simply a denominational one. For it is not boasting of things without our measure to say that, of all the Christian denominations which now pervade this vast and populous country, the Congregational denomination has been among the least selfish and sectarian. Compared with other denominations, we are still "a little one"-ranking the seventh, instead of the first, as we did for a century and a half; yet it may be truthfully said of us, "As poor, yet making many rich." We have been as a little leaven which has leavened, more or less, the great mass of Christian people in this country. While all denominations have felt the influence of our principles and polity, some have drawn largely on us for their own support. The denomination which ranks third in

CHAP. XII.] "RICHES OF LIBERALITY."

465

point of numbers, and even higher than that in point of influence, in this country, has been very largely indebted to us for its prosperity. We have formed hundreds of churches, and then quietly surrendered them to Presbyterianism, under the mistaken conviction that we were thus doing God service. Still, we are holding our way and growing stronger and stronger; and we have no idle lamentations to make over the denominational losses which we have sustained, so long as we can believe that they have not been losses to evangelical religion.

LIBERALITY.

Another thing quite as characteristic of Congregationalism as its inherent vitality, and even more to its credit, is its abounding liberality. We mean that "grace of God . ... bestowed on the churches of Macedonia," which the apostle styled (2 Cor. viii: 2) "the riches of their liberality." This began to shine out of that poor, little church at Plymouth as soon as it had secured a resting-place for itself in the wilderness, in "the helping over of some of their friends from Leyden;" which assistance they rendered in 1629–30, at a money expense of about £550, in addition to the support of these friends until they could raise crops for themselves "a rare example," as Governor Bradford well says, "of brotherly love, and Christian care in performing their promises and covenants to their bretheren, too, and in

a sorte beyonde their power for they never demanded, much less had, any repaymente of all these great sumes thus disbursed."*

The Massachusetts Congregationalists were equally ready to give, not only for the support of home institutions-which they did most liberally-and for the poor which they had always with them, but also for the relief of brethren whom they had never seen. This was the case when the churches of the Bay contributed £800 for "the poor church of Christ that had been banished from the Bermudas, for the gospel's sake, to Segotea;" sending a messenger with their contributions and letters of Christian condolence and encouragement.

And this hereditary trait of Congregationalists has descended to our own times. We have no statistical returns from our churches previous to the middle of this century, and even since, scarcely more than two thirds of the churches have ever made any returns. But, from the returns made, it appears that, in the course of fifteen years, these reporting churches have contributed to benevolent objects an aggregate of more than fifteen millions of dollars a million and more yearly; while their home expenditures must have been, in the aggregate, thirty millions more, or an average of two millions a year. The total

* Bradford's History of Plymouth, 227, 249.

t The Year-Book for 1879 shows that, in the course of eight