Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 February 1903 — SAYS METHODISTS ARE IN LEAD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SAYS METHODISTS ARE IN LEAD.

Bishop McCabe Denies that the Church la Losing Ground. Bishop C. C. McCabe declares that the Methodist Episcopal Church leads all the churches of the United State* In

membership, and takes occasion to contradict the remark made by Dr. Buckley of New York, as imputed to lilm, to the effect Riat the church was decaying. Dr. McCabe gives figures to back up his assertion. He claims that if all

the branches of the church are counted, and the figures based upon families, after the census method of the Roman Catholic*, the Methodist Church will pbow a membership of 12,000,000 In the United States. Since 1884, Bishop McCabe assert*, the Increase In the membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church is nearly 1,200,000, after making up for the absent and dead. The total membership of the Presbyterian Church, North, is 1,024,190; the regular Baptists, North, 1,012,270; Prot •stent Episcopal, North and South, 788,062; Congregational, North and South, 080,324. The only churches that the Methodists exceed in total membership gain since 1884 are the Roman Catholic, the regular Bnptists in the South, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The First Natlonnl Bnnk of Asbury Park, was closed by direction of the Comptroller of the Currency and Na tional Bank Examiner John W. Scolleld was placed in clinrge as receiver. The bank was closed because of losses which absorbed the surplus and undivided profits and seriously impaired the bank's capital. Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and a party of friends were left at Pineland, Ga., by the Southern Palm limited, but they talegraphed ahead and had the train run back twenty-five miles to pick them up.

BISHOP M'CABE.