The Book of Religions / Comprising the Views, Creeds, Sentiments, or Opinions, of All the Principal Religious Sects in the World, Particularly of All Christian Denominations in Europe and America, to Which are Added Church and Missionary Statistics, Together With Biographical Sketches

Friends.

The Friends are found in most of the states in the Union, and some in the British Provinces. They are most numerous in Pennsylvania, a state first settled by them, under their worthy head and father, in this country, William Penn, in 1682.

In England and Ireland, they number about fifty thousand; and in America, about two hundred thousand, and are divided into four hundred and fifty congregations. About half are Orthodox, and the other half Hicksites, or followers of Elias Hicks, who died at Jericho, N. Y. in 1830, aged 76.

Jews.

The number of Jews in the United States is estimated at about four thousand. They have synagogues in Newport, R. I., the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, S. C., and in other parts of the country. Their mode of worship is exceedingly interesting. With regard to the number of this people in the world, Blackwood's Magazine says:—

“The statistics of the Jewish population are among the most singular circumstances of this most singular of all people. Under all their calamities and dispersions, they seem to have remained at nearly the same amount as in the days of David and Solomon—never much more in prosperity, never much less after ages of suffering. Nothing like this has occurred in the history of any other race; Europe in general having doubled its population within the last hundred years, and England nearly tripled hers within the last half century; the proportion of America being still more rapid, and the world crowding in a constantly-increasing ratio. Yet the Jews seem to stand still in this vast and general movement. The population of Judea, in its most palmy days, probably did not exceed, if it reached, four millions. The numbers who entered Palestine from the wilderness, were evidently not much more than three; and their census, according to the German statists, who are generally considered to be exact, is now nearly the same as that of the people under Moses—about three millions.”

On the above, Judge Noah, of New York, a learned Jew, remarks:—

Protestant Methodists.

This infant church is rapidly increasing, especially in the middle States. Its population in the United States exceeds one hundred and fifty thousand.

This class of Christians have twenty-one annual conferences in as many states; nearly four hundred travelling, and a large number of unstationed ministers. They have a general conference, which meets once in four years, consisting of two delegates from every thousand communicants, one a minister, the other a layman: this is their legislative body. The number of communicants is about sixty-five thousand.

Publications. The Protestant Methodists support four religious papers:—the Olive Branch, Boston, Mass.; the New York Luminary, New York, the Methodist Protestant, Baltimore, Md., and the Western Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio.

Methodists.

The population of all denominations of Methodists in the United States exceeds three millions.

Publications.—The Christian Advocate and Journal, New York city; Zion's Herald and Wesleyan Journal, Boston, Mass.; Northern Advocate, Auburn, N. Y.; Christian Repository, Philadelphia, Pa.; Richmond Christian Advocate, Richmond, Va.; Southern Christian Advocate, Charleston, S. C.; South-Western Christian Advocate, Nashville, Tenn.; Pittsburg Christian Advocate, Pittsburg, Pa.; Western Christian Advocate, and the Christian Apologist, a German paper, Cincinnati, Ohio.

There is also published by this denomination, the Methodist Quarterly Review, New York city; Ladies' Repository, (monthly,) Cincinnati, Ohio; Guide to Christian Perfection, (monthly,) Boston, Mass., Sunday School Advocate, (semi-monthly,) New York city; Sabbath School Messenger, (semi-monthly,) Boston, Mass. The Methodists have ten colleges, and thirty academies.

In the Methodist church in Canada, are two weekly newspapers viz., Christian Guardian, Toronto, U. C.; The Wesleyan, Montreal, L. C.

From the “Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the Year 1840,” we copy the following table:—

Other Presbyterian Communities.

The Associate Presbyterians have about one hundred ministers, one hundred and ninety congregations, and twenty thousand communicants. They are principally found south and west of the Hudson River.

The Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters, are located principally in Ohio. They have about thirty ministers, fifty congregations, and four thousand communicants.

Reformed Dutch Church.

This church comprises one general synod, and two particular synods; one at New York, and another at Albany. The two synods comprise eighteen classes, about two hundred ministers, two hundred churches, twenty-seven thousand communicants, and a population of about one hundred and thirty thousand. This denomination of Christians is found almost entirely in the first settlements in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

The Christian Intelligencer, published at New York, advocates the principles of this church.

Roman Catholics.

This denomination is spread over every section of the United States and the British Provinces. They form, it is stated, more than three fourths of the population of the Canadas. They are also found in large numbers in the Provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. In this Union, they are most numerous in the Middle States; but in consequence of the great influx of this people into North America, and their frequent change of location, it is utterly impossible to state their numbers, in each state, with any degree of accuracy. Their number in the United States is variously stated from five hundred thousand to one million five hundred thousand. Their number, probably, is not less than eight hundred thousand, nor more than one million two hundred thousand. The population of Canada, in 1840, was at least one million.

The first Roman Catholics that came to this country were from England, under Lord Baltimore, a Catholic nobleman, in 1634. They settled the state of Maryland; and, much to their honor, while some of the Protestant provinces were persecuting all those who differed from them on religious subjects, the Catholic Marylanders protected all sects that were moral and civil in their deportment.

We copy from the “Metropolitan Catholic Almanac and Laity's Directory for 1841” the following statistical table:—