XX.

PROTESTANTISM IN NEW YORK CITY.

IN 1800 the Catholic population in the United States was 100,000. In 1890 it was 8,277,039. A fair estimate of the Catholic population of New York City is 750,000. A third of this number represents the Protestant church-going population of the city. In 1840 we had in this city one evangelical Protestant church to every 2071 of the population; in 1850, one to every 2442; in 1860, one to 2777; in 1870, one to 2480; in 1880, one to 3048; and in 1890, one to 3544, or if we take the police census, one to 4006. In comparison with the growth of the population, the Presbyterian Church has lost 17 per cent. in this city in twenty years. The Methodist Church in this city in nineteen years increased only 263 per cent., and during the same time the population increased 80 per cent. The Dutch Reformed Church sustained a loss of 10 per cent., relative to the population. There is not a Protestant church in

this city that has grown at all in proportion to the growth of the population.

The Christian forces at work below Fourteenth Street are not so large as they were twenty years ago, and although during that time 200,000 people have moved in below Fourteenth Street, twenty churches have moved out. One Jewish synagogue and two Catholic churches have been added, so that, counting churches of every kind, there are seventeen less than there were twenty years ago. Our pulpits ring with frequent appeals for money to establish missions in the destitute West. The population in the city of New York exceeds that of North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists have only 85 pastors at work in this city, while in the States mentioned the two denominations have 540 pastors and workers.

The greatest mission field in America is in New York City, and not in the far regions. In the fourth and seventh wards of this city there are 70,000 people and seven Protestant churches and chapels. In the tenth ward there are 47,000 souls and two churches and one chapel. The twentieth ward increased 7 per cent. in population in ten years, and

its churches decreased 31 per cent. The drift of our Protestant churches is always toward the more fashionable parts of the city. The magnificent churches built up-town have not been built by the people, but the money came from the sale of down-town churches, where hundreds of thousands of dollars were often realized for the ground, and churches left behind chapels for the poor on back streets. The Protestant church deserves to fail, so long as, in defiance of the Christ spirit, it builds fine churches for the few and pauperizes the poor by building plain chapels for them. God's house should be built for all alike.

"The churches must follow the people" is the cry. Who are the people? The up-town rich and fashionables, where the churches all seem anxious to crowd and hinder each other's growth by ruinous rivalry? Only a few days ago the New York Presbytery advised two down-town congregations to dissolve their organizations and sell their churches, so that the money might be used in removing the indebtedness of fashionable up-town churches. We have systematically robbed the down-town poor by selling their churches to get money to build churches for the rich few.

The Catholic Church never surrenders an

old field; none of her churches is ever turned into secular uses. The people must build their own churches. To what, then, is the Catholic Church indebted for its triumphant march? To the monstrosity of our frequent moving days, the indifference of Protestants, and the enthusiasm of Catholics. It is because the Catholics are thoroughly devoted and in earnest, and are prepared to make sacrifices and to suffer in order to support what they believe to be true.

XXI.

LET NOT YOUR ANGRY PASSIONS RISE.

WHEN the storm of passion has cleared away the angry man sees that he has been a fool, and he has made himself a fool in the eyes of others too. Getting "mad" never helps matters. No man ever got along better for getting angry. To be angry with a weak man proves that you are not very strong yourself. "Anger," says Pythagoras, "begins with folly and ends with repentance."

Many men otherwise very good have allowed a bad temper to get the mastery over them so as to make themselves and those about them very uncomfortable. A minister was dressing himself one day so as to go out and make pastoral calls. But when he came to fix the collar round his neck he found that the button was gone from his shirt and he could not fasten the collar. All at once his patience left him. He began to storm and used unkind words about it, so that his wife burst into tears, hastened to her room, sat down, and had a good cry.