340 RELIGIOUS AGENCIES 



The question may indeed be raised whether the provision of 

 religious agencies in America has not been overdone. If there are 

 190,000 churches in this country, there must be one church for every 

 400 inhabitants, which is certainly a liberal allowance. Adding to 

 the churches all the other agencies which we have named, it is clear 

 that there can be no dearth of religious privileges in America; and 

 there are indications of a wasteful oversupply. That is a very un- 

 pleasant fact which, in many communities, we are facing. In the 

 better residence portions of the cities, and in most of the small 

 villages, the population is grievously overchurched. This taxes 

 too heavily the small constituencies of the rich city churches, and 

 leads to neglect of the poor districts, and it is the cause of serious 

 waste in home missionary funds. A great number of the churches 

 supported by missionary contributions on the frontiers and in the 

 small villages could easily be spared if sectarian zeal were not stronger 

 than love for the Kingdom of God. 



This excess of ecclesiastical machinery cannot, indeed, be attributed 



wholly to the freedom enjoyed by the churches, for other systems 



have developed much more burdensome conditions. In the ancient 



Hebrew commonwealth one tribe out of twelve was consecrated to 



religious service, and one tenth of all the product of the soil was 



demanded for the support of religion. In ancient Mexico, whose 



population could not have been more than a fraction of ours, we are 



told that there were 1,000,000 priests, against the 146,000 ministers 



in our country. And in Peru there was generally a minister for every 



ten Indians or less. We must not, then, imagine that America is as 



badly priest-ridden as some other lands have been. Nevertheless, 



the unseemly competition and the needless waste caused by the 



multiplication of churches for sectarian purposes have become a 



scandal and a shame, and earnest movements are now on foot looking 



to the combination of several of these separated sects. 



The most promising field for such rapprochement would seem to 

 be among the subdivisions of the sects. There is no obvious demand 

 for seventeen different kinds of Methodists, or thirteen distinct types 

 of Baptists, or twelve varieties of Presbyterians, or twenty-one kinds 

 of Lutherans, or twelve stripes of Mennonites; a great deal of men- 

 tal energy must needs be expended in distinguishing each of these 

 varieties from all the rest and in emphasizing the small peculiarity 

 which entitles it to separate existence -- energy which could surely 

 be put to better uses. The truth is that the strongest reason for the 

 maintenance of these distinctions is found in the selfish interest of the 

 men who get their living by running the denominational machinery. 

 If that motive could be eliminated, many of these separated bodies 

 would quickly coalesce. 



We have witnessed, within the past few years, some notable illus- 



