670 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHUKCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 



as a city, is reckoned as having the largest 

 death-rate in the United Kingdom, ranging 

 from 25 to 35 per 1,000 annually. 



The Arguments. Advocates of prohibition 

 base their arguments on the greatest good of 

 the greatest number; the duty of Government 

 to conserve general welfare ; the right of the 

 State to exact obedience by the citizen; the 

 known tendency of intoxicating liquors to pro- 

 duce immorality, vice, and crime ; their certain 

 source of taxation, and their enormous national 

 waste. Human brotherhood, Christian sen- 

 timent, moral need, and progressive civiliza- 

 tion, it is held, demand the suppression of a 

 traffic which cares for none of these considera- 

 tions, but debases manhood, debars Christian- 

 ity, and defiles the State. With John Stuart 

 Mill, prohibitionists believe that "to tax stim- 

 ulants, for the sole purpose of making them 

 more difficult to be obtained, is a measure dif- 

 fering only in degree from their entire prohi- 

 bition"; and the claim of "personal liberty," 

 as opposed to prohibitory law, they meet with 

 a further declaration by Mr. Mill that " the 

 liberty of one man ends, however profitable it 

 may be to himself, when it interferes with the 

 well-being of another." 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. This Church is in commun- 

 ion with the Church of England (whence it 

 derives its origin), and with all the branches 

 of the Anglican Church throughout the British 

 Empire and elsewhere. Its position and growth 

 in the United States are of more than ordinary 

 interest at the present time, inasmuch as it 

 counts just one hundred years of life, as a 

 church existing of and by itself in the repub- 

 lic of the United States, and enjoying the privi- 

 leges of our country's laws and regulations in 

 regard to religious bodies of every description. 

 The year 1883 is further noteworthy in Epis- 

 copal Church affairs, because of the earnest 

 and zealous effort put forth and carried out to 

 completion, in order to give greater flexibility 

 in the use of the Book of Common Prayer, 

 and greater enrichment and fullness to the 

 public services of the Church. The sources of 

 information from which this article is drawn 

 are, the Journal of the General Convention of 

 1883, Pott's "Church Almanac, "and Whitta- 

 ker's "Protestant Episcopal Almanac." The 

 following table presents a summary of statis- 

 tics of Church progress from 1880 to 1883 : 



Number of dioceses 



Number of missionary jurisdictions 



Bishops 



Candidates for orders 



Deacons ordained 



Priests ordained 



Whole number of clergy 



Number of parishes. 



Missions 



Corner-stones laid 



Churches consecrated 



Number of churches and chapels 



Free churches and chapels 1,337 



Rectories 1,159 



Families 129,961 



Baptisms (infant and adult) 134,080 



Confirmations 75,5'iO 



Marriages 



48 

 15 



. 68 



401 



409 



359 



3,627 



2,749 



1,307 



140 



811 



3,782 



Burials 77.586 



Communicants 864,125 



Sunday-school teachers 33,900 



Sunday-school scholars. 814,910 



Church hospitals 45 



Church orphan asylums 48 



Church homes 32 



Academic and collegiate institutions 116 



Theological and other institutions 72 



Communion alms 1515,48584 



Offerings for diocesan missions $533,672 82 



Offerings for domestic missions $649.468 04 



Offerings for foreign missions $357,778 46 



Total of charitable offerings and income $9,487,480 04 



Total offerings for religious purposes $28,912,731 08 



PROGRESS BY DIOCESES. 



