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pany may now join in a combination greater even than the one which gave birth to it, and the result will be higher prices for barbed wire to the farmer, and an increase in the cost to the consumer of the products of steel. That such a combination would be detrimental to foreign trade, to domestic producers and consumers, no one who remains uninfluenced by monopolistic gold will deny. The American people will yet have to settle with machine politics the questions of monopoly.

War with Spain may postpone it; the silver question may befog it; the free trade dispute may divert attention from it; the high church standing of many monopolistic Christians may confuse the distinction between a religious saint and an economic sinner; but the crystallization of the economic forces in this country is sure to bring a sharp and decisive war greater than that with Spain between the friends and foes of this Republic. The newest and best interpretation of Christianity is to be righteousness in the ethical and economic spheres that will wage relentless war on the traders in the Temple; and some of the indignation that we have felt toward Spain for her treatment of her colonies we may well transfer to the unprincipled and cruel monopolists and trust magnates, who would have the industries of this nation by the throat, and grind us all to powder.

Z. S. H.

ARTICLE IX.

NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

12mo.

THE GROWTH OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. BY SIDNEY L. GULICK,
M.A., Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. in Japan. Pp. xv, 320.
New York, Chicago, Toronto: Fleming H. Revell Company; London:
The Religious Tract Society. $1.50.

men.

The author says in his preface, "The germ of this book consisted of an address delivered to an audience of wide-awake Japanese young The aim of the address was to lead the hearers to give the Christian religion an impartial study, by telling them briefly of its growth and influence in the world, and the transformations it has wrought in the life and thought of the Western nations. . . . The primary purpose, the Japanese audience, and the practical, rather than the theoretical interest and aim of the book, will thus account for certain of its features."

The author concedes that the work is not as thorough as it might be, and is aware of defects. But, when we remember its "primary purpose," and the many demands upon the time of a foreign missionary, we have only praise for this work. The world-field since the Christian era has been well surveyed, the salient facts have been seen and placed in such relation to each other that the story tells itself, and carries irresistible conviction to the candid reader. The optimism that prevails is simply created by the steady movement of facts as they crowd on each other through the book.

In the first chapter the problem, methods, standpoint, purpose, sources, and definitions are given. The problem is stated to be, "There are many who think that the world is growing worse, and not better. Many assert that Christianity is rapidly declining; that not only is the influence of Christ's teaching growing less outside of the organized church, but that even within it the Christ-spirit is yearly losing its hold on individual lives; . . . that, therefore, missions are essentially a failure. Sweeping assertions like these are made, not only by non-Christians, but even by many who claim to be Christians. . . If true, then the religion of Christ is a failure." The method followed is to seek an answer along four distinct lines of inquiry; namely, (1) growth in numbers, (2) growth in understanding, (3) growth in practice, and (4) growth in influence. The purpose is to prove by facts, "that the Kingdom of God is growing, and that it is conferring inestimable blessings on all its members, and even on those who, though not members of the Kingdom, are more or less associated with those who are.".

The second chapter gives the best available statistics regarding professed Christians and Christian adherents and Christian nations since the death of our Lord. Mr. Gulick makes a distinction between the "kingdom and the "church," showing that they are not identical in members or numbers; yet says, "But, after all, it is the Church that is trying more or less faithfully to realize the Kingdom; it is the Church, defective though it is, that is trying, oftentimes with mistaken methods, to increase the power and extend the rule of the King of Righteousness."

In this chapter the author begins the use of those vivid charts which from here onward are liberally used, and which give a peculiar value and attraction to the book; dates and figures are set in parallel columns, and ingenious diagrams show comparative values and growth. Thus a glance of the eye shows the development through the Christian centuries; how the church doubled its membership between 1000 and 1500, and that the growth of the next two centuries was greater than the total of the first thousand years; and that "during the hundred years from 1700 to 1800 it gained nearly as many as during the first thousand years. Since the beginning of the present century Christianity has more than doubled; in other words, Christianity has gained nearly three times as many adherents during the past ninety as it did during the first fifteen hundred years."

One chart gives the population of the world, and shows the religion of the governing nations; the Protestant ruling over 468,000,000, the Confucian and Shinto nations over 436,000,000, the Roman Catholic over 217,000,000, the Polytheistic over 130,000,000, the Greek over 120,000,000, and the Mohammedan over 89,000,000. Another chart shows that the Christian powers ruled seven per cent of the earth's surface in 1600 and had increased their rule in 1893 to eighty-two per cent; and that, “at the present time, the Protestant nations rule about twice as much as all the non-Christian nations combined.”

A third chart shows the comparative growth of population under the various governments, in which is seen the remarkable growth of Protestant nations during this century; it is shown that the Roman Catholic peoples of Europe have doubled themselves in one hundred and thirtyeight years, while the Protestant once in sixty years.

Another chart shows the remarkable growth of the English-speaking population of the world, and that it is rapidly outstripping all others. "Not only is English the dominant language of the world, but it is fitted to be so. The original Anglo-Saxon dialect has been enriched from a great variety of sources. . . . Finally, in consequence of the spread of English exploration, commerce, conquest, and colonization, it has come into contact with, and received more or less contribution from, nearly all the great languages of the world. English is to-day the most complete language spoken by man.' . . . The English and German languages are steeped in Christian, Protestant thought. These two languages

...

have been powerfully influenced by the translations of the Bible into the vernacular of the common people. . . . This is peculiarly true of English. Yet this is the language which is spreading over the world, the one which, above all others, bids fair to become the world language. English is to-day the language of diplomacy. In the recent negotiations for peace between the Japanese and Chinese, the English language was chosen as the best medium of communication."

Other of these remarkable diagrams show how Protestant Christian nations lead all others in wealth, in trade, and in scholars.

One chapter gives the growth of the Christian forces of England and Wales, in which the degradation of the churches in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is shown: "It is beyond dispute that for more than a hundred years there was common in all parts of England a degree of wickedness and immorality, of filthy speech and foul literature, which is almost inconceivable."

With a perfect wealth of statistical tables, and striking diagrams of various kinds, regarding almost every movement begun and carried forward by Christian people, it is shown that, notwithstanding the rapid growth of the population of England and Wales, "the churches as a whole are fairly holding their own," after a half-century of particularly scholarly skepticism and agnosticism; that "direct moral and religious instruction is far more general than ever before"; that "the principles of righteousness and justice" prevail as never before; that more auxiliaries, through which Christians labor without pay or profit, are aiding the Church to help the suffering and needy and to rescue the erring than ever before in the world's history; and "that the religious life of the churches is far more spiritual and real than it has been for at least two hundred years."

The growth of the Kingdom of God in the United States is treated in the same careful and thorough manner. We have space for only a few conclusions. "If there has ever been a time when the Protestant churches seemed doomed to failure, it was toward the close of the last century. At the beginning of the present century, out of 5,300,000 inhabitants, the Church-members numbered only 364,000, i.e. about seven out of each hundred. . . . During the [first] ninety years [of this century] the total population increased twelve times, while the church membership increased thirty-nine times. So that the evangelical church membership has grown more than three times as fast as the population. . . . There is to-day a larger proportion of men in the membership of the Protestant churches of America than at any previous time during the present century."

"Although the nation has been making phenomenal progress, the religious forces have been growing so much faster, that the non-Christian population is not only diminishing in its proportion to the nation, but seems to be diminishing even in actual numbers."

Facts are given regarding the very small number of professed Christians in the colleges and among educated men at the opening of this century, and over against them are set such facts as the following: Out of fourteen hundred recent graduates of Harvard University only two declared themselves unbelievers. “In non-Christian countries, and even in non-Protestant countries, it is doubtless true that religion has a more powerful hold on the uneducated and ignorant masses than on the educated; but it is not so in the United States; rather, it is clearly the reverse. "If we compare the growth of Christianity in the United States with its growth in the early centuries, we shall learn that during the ninety years of the religious history of the United States [the first ninety of this century] more persons have come under the direct influence of the Christian Church than during the first thousand years of Christianity in all lands combined."

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A chapter is given to "Growth in Comprehension," in which a review is made of the Christian centuries, and it is shown how the church has gradually grown in comprehension of the true spirit of the gospel, and how remarkably it has come to understand and try to practice the spirit of its Master in this century.

A following chapter is devoted to "Growth in Practice,” and is a most impressive massing of facts. There are mentioned the increased sanctity of the marriage relation, sacredness of human life, “the contribution of means as well as of one's own labor for the care of the sick and poor; thus leading to the establishing of hospitals," and "giving freedom to slaves." Then these great influences are named: Christian brotherly-love, trained nurses, “asylums for various classes of permanent invalids," reformatories, shelters to give work for the workless, rescue societies, those for the suppression of vice, the temperance movement, summer outings for the poor, prison reform, the "Red Cross Society," the care many Christian manufacturers give their workmen, college and university settlements, industrial and training schools, the endowment of Christian schools of various grades; "three evangelical denominations in the United States reported the endowments of their colleges and seminaries at $62,631,135 in 1893." And then facts are piled up to show what the Christian spirit has done in this century to promote higher education, and showing that almost all of such higher education is the possession of the Christians of the age. As might be expected from a foreign missionary author, a great and convincing array of facts is given regarding the missionary movements of this century,-city, national, and foreign. And concerning "practice" of Christianity this is neatly given: "So closely have worship and moral life been identified by the Christian, and especially the Protestant churches, that they are now felt to be inseparable. The immoral man who worships is pronounced a hypocrite . . . immorality is irreligion."

Chapters follow on the "Growth of Influence," in which the subject

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