Bible Study and Religious Statistics
The truth of the Bible can not be learned by simple study alone. We must approach the Book with a right spirit, with heart meek and humble, with a desire to know and do the truth. To the froward God will show Himself froward, but the meek will He guide in judgment and teach His way. According to the religious statistician, Dr. H. K. Carroll, the gain of the Catholic Church during the last year was 125,778, making a total membership of 10,879,930. Catholic membership, however, is made up in a different way from that of other denominations. The number of communicants is estimated on the basis of population. Eighty-five per cent. of the Catholic population is taken, deducting fifteen per cent. for infants and children not admitted to communion. This, it seems, is a pretty small per cent. The total number of communicants in all Protestant churches is given as 32,283,658; the number of ministers, 159,503, the number of churches, 207,707. The Christian Advocate gives as the total number of Adventists in the United States, 95,437; Seventh-day Adventists, 60,471. This, however, is at least ten thousand too low. They must number full seventy thousand in the United States, with about twenty thousand outside. Roman Catholics have gained more than fifty per cent. in the last ten years. Next to Roman Catholics come Methodists with a membership of six and one-half millions, and the great Baptist family has a membership of over five millions.