ART. IV. THE CHURCH AND THE CITY.

FROM the time of Alexander to the days of Grant the goal of great military campaigns has been the city. Alexander won the Eastern world only at last to perish in its most historic capital. Grant lifted his nation's flag in triumph over the last and mightiest citadel of rebellion and passed into history as the foremost patriot soldier of his century. The city has been both attacked and defended with all the skill and fury and endurance of which human nature seems capable. When the city of Leyden was reduced to starvation within the beleaguering grip of the Spanish army the inhabitants hurled from the ramparts into the enemy's ears such defiance as this:

Ye call us rat eaters and dog eaters, and it is true. So long, then, as ye hear dog bark or cat mew within the walls ye may know that the city holds out. And when all has perished but ourselves be sure that we will each devour our left arms, retaining our right to defend our women, our liberty, and our religion against the foreign tyrant.

When, on the fourteenth of September, 1812, the French army, scaling the "Mount of Salvation," looked for the first time upon Moscow, the sight of this city, glittering with a thousand colors in the sun, sent a thrill of wild enthusiasm throughout all ranks. Napoleon himself, in personal transport, hastened forward to view the sight. The other great capitals of the continent having been humbled, this mighty and golden city, this brilliant clasp of Europe and Asia, seemed to him the last and greatest prize of his boundless ambition, the only thing remaining to make his glory complete. But even Napoleon, with all his genius, had failed to penetrate the desperate measures which were about to thwart his hopes. The inhabitants of Moscow, unable to match their military skill against that of the invader, grimly determined, sooner than permit their city to be taken, to destroy both it and themselves. To its vast treasures they applied the incendiary torch, and themselves marched forth from the gates to perish by the hundred thousand from starvation and cold. Moscow in ashes, for Napoleon there was left no alternative but to face his army toward the most dismal and tragic retreat known in military history.

But what the city has always been in the distinctive world of strategy it is-and in a sense far more vital, immeasurably more sublime, than any with which military science has ever invested it-everywhere to-day in the social, civil, intellectual, and moral worlds. The most superficial observer cannot fail to see many reasons for the vast strategic importance which the city asserts for itself in civilization. It is man's royal emporium in the earth; it is the magazine of the most marvelous material appliances, the garrison of all forces which most powerfully affect the destinies of the race. In obedience to the operation of most potent social laws men have always lived in cities in as large numbers as could there find support; but our modern art has created the conditions which permit the multiplication and enlargement of cities in our day in a measure utterly impossible to any previous age. The last census shows us that very nearly thirty per cent of our entire population is urban. The steady gain of the city is well indicated by the fact that in the last forty years the number of dwellers in the city, as compared with the entire population of the country, has increased relatively more than one hundred and forty per cent. The last decade has shown a marked acceleration of the tendency of our people to urban life, so much so that if the ratio were to be maintained for three decades to come we should have in the year 1920 ten millions more people in the cities than could be numbered in the entire nation outside the cities.

And so far as can be seen, the causal factors which enter into the growth of the modern city are permanent. There is no present indication that for an indefinite time to come the forces which conspire to swell the city will be less active than they now are. The growth of rural populations may be arrested, but the city moves on with titanic stride. The city is already upon the throne. It is the dictator of the world's destinies. Its rule will be more mighty to-morrow than it is to-day. Modern city growth is the most portentous and challenging fact of the age. The problems that arise from it, socially, politically, morally, are the most stupendous and difficult that address themselves to either the genius of statesmanship or of Christian thought. For the Church the facts before us bring the gravest revelations. They tell us, and with merciless logic, that the church life which is to have the mightiest future

is the life which, with the greatest energy, resource, and skill, shall gird itself for the conquest of the cities. It matters not what may be the past history of any Church, even though that history be a perfect repository of heroic deeds and inspiring facts. No Church can have a regnant future in this land if, whatever it may do elsewhere, it shall fail at the city gates. The city will ever remain dominant, and the Church that would wear the crown of the future must win the city to the sovereignty of Christ.

Another truth which these facts carry is that the Church which will command the future must not be content simply with the methods of the past. The causes which have multiplied and magnified the cities have done much, and in many ways, to modify and to change the habits of multitudes of the people. The Church is called upon to-day to adjust itself to essentially new social and moral conditions. These changed conditions call for revised and improved methods of treatment. This does not mean that any vital truth or really effective means is to be set aside. It does mean that the all-vital truth shall be coupled with the best possible appliances. It may be that the guns of the new navy are charged with the same kind of explosive that was used in the days of Paul Jones; but the missile that to-day goes crashing through twenty inches of solid steel armor is fired from a gun compared with which those of Paul Jones were mere toys. The Church of Christ is confronted in these days with almost invincible dominions of spiritual wickedness in high places. It needs to be perfectly organized and armored for the highest type of spiritual warfare and of conquest which the ages have yet demanded. Few things in current history are more phenomenal than the wondrous way in which the business world in the last few decades has readjusted itself to new conditions. The methods of twenty-five years since, especially in cities, would mean for any firm of to-day an early assignment in bankruptcy. Keenest ability, concentration of capital, most efficient organization of forces, vigilant and aggressive push-these are now the conditions of business success as never before. But the changed conditions of life demand the spirit of adaptation on the part of the Church not less than in the business community. Unfortunately there is an inveterate conservatism in the Church that makes it traditionally slow in adjusting itself to new conditions. This is the

opposite of what ought to be. The Church of Christ, by virtue of its divine mission, ought to be the most progressive, the most resourceful, the most adaptive society among men. Satan has a most inventive genius. He not only subsidizes all the ancient forces of human depravity, but he boldly lays under tribute every available modern discovery to strengthen and to make more deadly the reign of his kingdom in the earth. Let it not be doubted: the Church which shall finally destroy this kingdom must be not only the Church of the Holy Ghost, but a Church that shall be most fertile in the creation and employment of every method and of all methods which the success of its great mission may require. A closer than a theoretical view must be taken of the situation. Fortunately, for the first time in history, we are now able with some approach to mathematical accuracy to locate the forces of the Church. The work of the Census Bureau in gathering the religious statistics of the country is monumental, and the result is worthy of all commendation. But a general survey of the situation will leave little or no room to doubt that thus far no form of church life has appeared which does not show itself relatively weak in presence of the moral needs of the cities.

It will be convenient for purposes here sought to classify the populations dealt with into two divisions-the non-Catholic and the Catholic. The method of the census is to enroll as communicants of the Roman Church only baptized persons above nine years of age. It is estimated that the children under this age constitute really about fifteen per cent of the Catholic population proper of the country. We secure approximately, therefore, the total Catholic population by adding to the number of communicants this allowance of fifteen per cent. This may, or may not, furnish too liberal a basis of computation; but it is the basis which will be accepted for the purposes of this article. For convenience three classes of cities are dealt with. In the first are included only those which have 500,000 or more people; in the second those which have 100,000 or more, up to 500,000; the third containing those from 25,000 to 100,000. In the first class there are but four cities, namely,

* For the basis of the computations here made we are indebted to the admirable work entitled The Religious Forces of the United States. This work was prepared by Dr. H. K. Carroll, who had charge of the Division of Churches for the Eleventh Census. The results which we here present, so far as we are aware, now appear for the first time.

New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Of the total population of these four cities a little more than twenty-six per cent are Catholics. In these cities the Catholic communicants are entered as numbering 1,012,968; while the members of all other communions combined, including evangelical, liberal, and Jewish societies, number but 576,930. Thus in the four largest cities the Catholic communicants outnumber the membership of all other communions in the ratio of nearly two to one. Of cities of the second class there are twenty-four. In this list also the Catholics number a little in excess of twentysix per cent of the population. But these cities of the second class show relatively to the population a much larger membership in non-Catholic communions than appears in cities of the first class, so that here the Catholic communicants number only in the proportion of about eleven to eight of all others. In the third class of cities there are ninety-six. In these ninety-six cites the Catholic population numbers about twenty-two and one half per cent of all. But here we find, for the first time, that the Catholic communicants are outnumbered by the total membership of other communions, the numbers standing as follows: Catholics, 807,580; all others, 869,476. Aside from the one hundred and twenty-four cities in the classes named, the country has a population of 48,633,312. This estimate includes three hundred and nineteen cities, each containing 8,000 or more inhabitants. Of this population the Catholics number somewhat less than eight per cent. But if in this area we group the bodies known under the general names of Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Protestant Episcopal, Congregational-these being presented in the order of their respective numbers-we find that here the communicants in these Protestant bodies alone outnumber those of the

Catholic Church nearly three to one. The fact concerning the Catholics may be explained largely in the mere locations of their populations. Very nearly one half of all the Catholic population of the country dwells in the one hundred and twenty-four cities classified. The Catholic Church, from the very method of its enumeration, must be assumed to hold its own relatively to its own proper population the country over. But, as the non-Catholic populations are seen to be distributed, the fact of location cannot, and does not, explain the 15-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. X.