THE "TERRIBLE FACT."

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

THE "TERRIBLE FACT."

Rev. Dr. Cuyler of Brooklyn writes to the Boston Congregationalist that it is useless to deny or attempt longer to conceal "the terrible fact that while the population of our beloved land is rapidly increasing, there is a lamentable falling off in attendance upon the worship of Jehovah." It requires but half an eye to discover the alarming fact that this attendance is steadily falling off, both in the cities and in the country, both at the East and in the West. In New York City, he says, not more than one-half as many attend now as attended forty years ago, in proportion to the population. Fifteen of the most popular churches in that city on a recent bright Sunday morning averaged about one-half the sittings empty. "Philadelphia pastors complain to me of the same sad falling off. The disease is not confined to the cities. Like a malaria it is spreading throughout the rural districts." Among the causes of this lamentable defection Dr. Cuyler mentions "the secularization of the popular heart" and "the growing miasma of skepticism." Among the results he mentions that "thoughtful young men are becoming disheartened about entering the ministry," and that many ministers, in order to retain their congregation, "entertain" them with the popular topics of the day and indulge in "rank sensationalism."