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Show RAPIDLY TOiliJ D5?0HE Percentage of Increase Greater in Episcopal Iian in Other Dcnom--.nations in America. " NEW YORK, Dec 19. Nearly all religious re-ligious sects,, as their figures of growth for last year are announced, show a larger percentage of increase than in previous years, says the Herald. In several sev-eral denominations' the ratio of growth exceeds the usual ratio of increase in the population. This is notably the case in the Episcopal church, which last year gained per cent on its member- ship of the - previous year, while the population growth is estimated at about i 2 per cent. The Episcopal church has added 25,915 to its membership, making its present figures 807.351. In the Presbyterian church the increase in-crease in membership last year was at the rate of 2tt per cent, the gain in members being 27,431. and the total number 1,094,90$. Last year's gain was i 1-6 per cent. The Southern Presbyterian Presby-terian 'church, 'a much smaller body than the Northern, having but 239,888 members, gained 2 per cent last year. The ratio of gain by the Methodist membership is not so large as in the, other bodies named, but was 1 4-6 per cent, or almost as much as the estl- i mated ratio of population growth. For the previous year the Methodist ratio was only 1 per cent. The body now has 8,064,736 members, of whom about 200,000 are connected with foreign conferences and missions1. It is stated in the Presbyterian hand-, bookfor 1905 that the religions of the worl have l,430,000,poo adherents, divided di-vided as follows: Christianity, 4tt.080,158;,Confuclanism. 256,000,000; Hinduism, 190,000,000; Mohammedanism. Mo-hammedanism. 176,834,372; Buddhism, 147,900,000; Taoism and Shlntoism, 57,-000,000; 57,-000,000; Judaism, 7,056,000; and various heathen faiths. 118.129,479. |