Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1905 — RELIGIOUS SECTS GROWING. [ARTICLE]

RELIGIOUS SECTS GROWING.

Episcopal Church Leads, but Nearly All Show Gains. Nearly all religious sects, as their figures of growth for last year are announced, show a larger peiyentage of increase than in previous years, says the New York Herald. In several denominations the ratio of growth exceeds the usual "ratio of increase in the population. This is notably the case in the Episcopal church, which last year gained 3 per cent on its membership of the previous year, while the population growth is estimated at about 2 per cent. The Episcopal church has added 25,915 to its 807,351. In the Presbyterian church the increase in membership last year was at the rate of 2% per cent, the gain in members being 27,431 and the total number 1,094,908. Last year’s gain was 2 1-5 per cent. The Southern Presbyterian church, a smaller body than the Northern, having but 239,888 members, gained 2 per cent last year. The ratio of gain by the Methodist membership is not so large as in the other bodies, named, but was 14-5 per cent, or almost, as much as the estimated ratio of population growth. For the previous year the Methodist ratio was only 1 per cent, The body has now 3,064,735 members, of whom about 200,000 are connected with foreign conferences and missions. It is stated in the Presbyterian handbook for 1905 that the religions of the world have 1,430,000.000 adherents, divided as follows: Christianity, 477,080,158; Confucianism, 256,000,000; Hinduism, 1V),000,000; Mohammedanism, 176,834,372; Buddhism, 147,900,000; Taoism and Shintoism', 57.000.090; Judaism, 7,056,000, and various heathen faiths, 118,129,479.