Alarming Decrease of Population.—
Reports from Paris state that the depopulation of France is proceeding at an amazing rate. In 1907 there were over 32,000 less births than in the preceding year, and more than 13,000 more deaths. There were 19,920 more deaths than births. In 1906 the ratio of births was 215 to 10,000 population. Last year it fell to 207. In fifty-five departments there is an excess of deaths; in Paris alone the greatest, of 3,316. These statistics do not give us the cause of this. Sometimes it is intimated that unnamable crimes are the cause of the falling off of the birth-rate. It certainly points to an unhealthful, unnatural condition. Wherever people have been living temperately, righteously,—truly living,—there has always been a large increase of population; and yet these are among the things which we may expect as we near the end of the earth’s career in sin.