Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1881 — Church-Going in New York. [ARTICLE]

Church-Going in New York.

Detroit News. «*, According to some statistics gotten together by the Rev. Albert Simpson, who ought to know whereof he speaks, there are only 78,000 professing, Christians in New York, or one person in every sixteen in,a population of 1,250,000. * There are,\ it appeals, only 490 churches, the same number which existed in 1875, although the population has immensely increased in the i-ix {tears. Some of the denominations ;re osing ground/ the Presbyterians having eight less churches than they had in 1870. Above Fourteenth street there is one church for every 2,200 persons, while below it there is but one for every 5,000. To make matters worse the comparatively few churches are not filled to anything like their capacity at any time. The same state of things exists in the subuibs of New York; there are many churches, but only the rich and the poor make extensive use of them, the lower middle class being conspicuous by its absence. Take an Episcopal church, for instance, iu one suburb. The rent of an ordinary psw is $l2O a year, and offerings axe. expected from , the congregation every Sunday in envelopes supplied for the purpose. What is the consequence? The Episcopalians iu the vseiuity wuo wilt not or cannot pay the sl2o the maJority--do not go to church at all, but attend to their own spiritual wants in their own way. The fact is, pew rents and offerings, aud what not, are stifling religion here as elsewhere, perhaps in a more marked degree in this city than any where else, because the demands for money for church purposes aud clerical salaries are more exorbitant here than elsewhere. Take it altogether, the clerical professiou in proportion to the ability exhibited, the work done aud the hours aud conditions of laoor, is about the best paid oaliing we have in New York.