WITHHELD STATISTICS by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 15, 1881

WITHHELD STATISTICS.

By Editor

How it would startle some of our congregations to have the pastor follow the reading of the annual report of his church with a few of the withheld statistics, somewhat after this sort: “Of the thirty-two who have joined our church the past year, I find that five of those who came in on profession have unmistakably fallen into former evil ways, while of those who were received by letter, three were certainly lacking in good character in the churches they left, although by the record they were in ‘good and regular standing.’ One of our elders is popularly reported to have swindled a neighbor outrageously in a notorious business transaction. We have lost one of our more prominent members by his transfer to the county jail on conviction of crime. A careful examination of our record has convinced me that fully one-third of our members can be counted on the ‘dead head’ list. They do nothing in the line of Christian activity. As to their example, they are not bad enough to be a warning to the outside world, nor good enough to be taken as an example by anybody—in or out. Our benevolent contributions look pretty well for our numbers, but I learn that fully one-third of their full amount has been given by four persons; and that of the other members of the church, more than one-half gave less to religious causes than they paid toward public amusements, while there are not a few families which gave more for peanuts during the year than they put in the contribution box. A fair estimate of the tobacco bills of the congregation is twice and three-eighths the amount given by the church to home and foreign missions combined.” Such a supplement as this, in kind and in degree, according to the particular community, could be truthfully made in many a church where the annual report last presented is spoken of as “every way encouraging.”—S. S. Times.