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FACTS AND FIGURES.

SEVEN years have elapsed since the Yearly Meeting of London determined to collect accurate returns of the numbers of its members, and to ascertain how many persons were annually joining or leaving its communion. Six of these returns have been published. They afford significant indications of the religious and social condition of the community to which they relate.

Before discussing some of these indications, we shall briefly advert to two objections that have been urged against the collection of the returns. The first is based on the sin of King David, in numbering his people; the second deprecates the collection of figures, lest it should induce an unhealthy reliance on numerical strength,-" numbers are no test of truth." Since Moses, by Divine command,* twice numbered the "church in the wilderness," it may very safely be assumed that no peculiar blessing attaches to ignorance of numerical strength, whether in churches or nations, and that David's sin consisted, not in the numbering of the people, but in the motives that impelled him on that particular occasion. The sentiment, "numbers are no test of truth," is sometimes quoted in a manner that manifests considerable confusion of thought. It is sufficiently obvious that the existence of truth is altogether independent of its acceptance or rejection by men. The whole was greater than the part, two and two made four, before either position had been formulated

* "And the Lord spake unto Moses. . . take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families."Numbers i. 1, 2. See also Numbers xxvi.

in human language. Nor would their inherent truthfulness be affected, though every inhabitant of this planet were to affirm the whole to be less than the part, and that two and two made five. In this sense, the aphorism is apposite,-numbers are no test of truth. But if it were ascertained that ten thousand persons in London believed the whole to be less than the part, and in twelve months' time the ten thousand had become twenty thousand, these figures would furnish a test or index of the intelligence of the Londoners at the respective periods. Just so is it as regards moral and religious truth. Slavery was as contrary to the Divine will, when hardly a voice was raised against it, as it is now. The circumstance that millions now condemn it, affects not the right or wrong of the system; whilst yet the information is valuable, from indicating that a portion of Divine truth is more largely accepted than it once was. That Roman Catholics outnumber Protestants is per se no argument that Romanism embraces more of truth than Protestantism, because history and revelation alike teach that majorities are often in the wrong. But to any intelligent man, whether Romanist or Protestant, information of the varying numbers of either communion at different periods may afford highly-prized indications of the religious condition. of the believers in either creed. Numbers are not, and cannot be a test of abstract truth; but when a truth has been determined by the appointed tests, then the numbers of the persons embracing or rejecting such truth, may furnish some criterion of the condition of such persons. Now, to apply these principles to the case before us: in enquiring into its numerical strength, the Yearly Meeting does not seek, in the enumeration of its members, for a confirmation of the truthfulness of the principles accepted by them, but asks for this amongst other branches of information, as helping it to determine how far these

principles are adopted in the world, and with what results amongst its own members. Figures, if accurate, represent facts. Facts form the basis for the yearly consideration of "the state of the Society." The "answers to the Queries" report as to the attendance of Friends at public worship, the preservation of a spirit of love, the reading of Holy Scripture, the relieving of the poor,-facts rightly believed to have an intimate connection with the health or decrepitude of the Divine life in the hearts of men. The figures now collected simply enlarge the basis of information from which the state of the Society can be approached. In one respect, they are even more reliable than the answers to the queries, which necessarily represent in degree, the sentiments of those who frame them. What constitutes a "due" attendance of meetings is a matter of opinion, that may be differently determined by different persons. Births and deaths, admissions and resignations, are matters of so explicit a nature, their existence or non-existence admits of no questioning. Nor can it, we think, be doubted that all the items comprised in the annual return are very fitting subjects for a religious community to be informed respecting. When the Christian faith is regarded in its large and true aspect, of providing for the restoration of man to the image of God, the Church rightly asks for information on all points that may help to show how this faith is affecting the lives of its members-how nearly the actual state of things approaches the ideal. Christianity blesses men physically and socially, as well as spiritually; consequently, there is no incongruity in placing alongside of information respecting admissions into membership, resignations, and disownments, events affecting so closely the religious interests of menfigures relating to births, deaths, and marriages, that testify not less clearly to their moral and social condition. The members of the Society of Friends are

peculiarly fitted by mental habits, to appreciate the value of correct data for the guidance of their private concerns; the advantage of possessing analogous facts and figures relating to their ecclesiastical affairs seems so obvious, that they should increasingly commend themselves to the best judgment of the Society.

The following table presents in small compass the most prominent features of the six returns published in the printed extracts of the Yearly Meeting Proceedings.

SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN GREAT BRITAIN.

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The fewness of the births, in comparison to the deaths, is a notable feature in these returns; the annual average for the six years having been 268 of the former to 279 of the latter. In the general population of England and Wales, the births exceed the deaths in about the proportion of three to two. The number of marriages appears very small, and is no doubt smaller than in the population at large; but it will be remembered these figures do not represent all the marriages of Friends-only those solemnized in the meeting-houses of the Society.

The amount of emigration represented by these figures is very small. The removals to other Yearly Meetings average but 39 per year-only two more than the average of the removals into the Yearly Meeting. There is reason to suppose that at an earlier period of the present century, when there were more Friends in rural districts, the emigration must greatly have exceeded what now exists.

But without further comment on the minor details of this table, we think the most prominent consideration it suggests, is the smallness of the Society of Friends in this island. If to the Friends resident in Great Britain were added those in Ireland, the sum total, children included, would not equal the congregation said to have recently assembled in the Agricultural Hall, Islington, under the ministrations of C. H. Spurgeon. When these facts are contrasted with the amount of influence exerted by the Society in this and other countries, they assume a yet more remarkable aspect. We doubt if history can supply a parallel case, in which so great a moral and religious influence has been exerted by so small a body of men. Wherein lieth this great strength? Primarily, we apprehend, in the strength-giving nature of a spiritual Christian faith. More definitely, we should answer, that the Quaker system does develop

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