Methodist event was the opening of the new Wesleyan Church House in Westminster (Oct. 1912), as the headquarters and focus of the multiple organization of the Connexion. It is an outcome of the million-guinea fund raised at the beginning of the century and is a monument of the unwearying care and ability of Sir Robert Perks. The Wesleyans in 1921 also established a theo- logical college at Cambridge.
In 1912- the Congregationalists, and to a less extent the Baptists, Presbyterians and Unitarians, celebrated the 25oth anniversary of the Act of Uniformity and the consequent ejec- tion of 2,000 ministers (1662). Here and there the occasion was used somewhat aggressively against the Anglican Church, but on the whole attention was drawn to the positive lessons of the ejectment, fidelity to conscience, and the dawn of the modern idea of a free Church in a free State. In 1920 the tercentenary of the Pilgrim Fathers was widely celebrated in England, Hol- land and America.
In this connexion may be mentioned a notable crop of sound historical research in which most of the Free Churches have taken part, and which contrasts favourably with the com- paratively uninformed productions of past generations. For Elizabethan Puritanism and Separatism we have the work of Mr. Champlin Burrage and Dr. Albert Peel, while Rev. W. Pierce has done much to clear up the Marprelate mystery, Rev. Ives Cater that attaching to Robert Browne, and Rev. W. H. Burgess has investigated anew the story of John Smith, " the Se-Baptist," and of John Robinson. As regards the i7th century, the Rev. B. Nightingale has pointed the way to a very necessary revision of Calamy's story of the ejected ministers, and brought to light many facts respecting Cumberland and Westmorland, and Prof. Lyon Turner has made a special study of the indulgences granted in 1672. Prof. Alex. Gordon is another diligent worker in this field. Mr. W. C. Braithwaite has written a standard history of early Quakerism in England, and Dr. Rufus Jones has performed a similar service for America. Rev. H. W. Clark has produced a comprehensive history of Non- conformity in two volumes. Dr. Rendel Harris has been inde- fatigable in his researches into the history of the " Mayflower," that carried the Pilgrims to New England, and has brought to light very interesting information. It is even suggested that part of the ship itself is preserved in the timbers of a barn at Jordans, in Buckinghamshire.
Statistics. -The Free Churches in the United Kingdom had to admit a falling-off in their figures during 1910-20. For several years prior to the war most of them, especially Baptists and Wesleyans, had to lament an annual decline in numerical strength. The Welsh revival of 1904-5 brought into the churches an immense number of recruits whose stability proved to be in inverse ratio to their enthusiasm, and many quickly fell away. This accounted for much of the decrease; emigration and the movement from the rural to the urban districts were other causes. People change their residence more often than of yore, and are not always careful to transfer their membership. The increase of Sunday pleasure and the general " spirit of the age " have also to be taken into account. The incidence of the war made the compilation of statistics very difficult, and even in 1921 the machinery was not in proper working order. There were indications, however, that pointed towards a cessation of the decrease and in some quarters towards an increase. The figures given in the following schedule are but an approximation. The meaning of the .term " members " varies to some extent in the different denomina- tions, and some of the returns are a year or two old.
Ministers
Members
Sunday Scholars
Wesleyan Methodists
2,768
489,870
849,861
Congregationalists ....
2,883
451,229
605,796
Baptists
2,061
380,357
481,128
Primitive Methodists
1,095
206,372
424,452
United Methodists .
709
138,921
264,113
Calvinistic Methodists or Welsh
Presbyterians ....
961
187,575
191,295
Presbyterians (Eng.)
390
84,232
67,139
Society of Friends ....
18,753
17,222
Independent Methodists
38i
8,468
25,192
Unitarians
338
28,330
Churches of Christ ....
13,310
15,702
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion
34
1,933
2,736
Moravians . . .
39
5,539
4,162
Wesleyan Reform Union
16
8,506
21,978
The Salvation Army returns 9,635 corps, circles and societies; 17,288 officers and cadets; but gives no returns as to adherents. In Ireland the (disestablished) Episcopal Church claims about 600,- ooo of the population, the Presbyterians 450,000, the Methodists 65,000. Congregatipnalists and Baptists are very thinly represented.
Allied Organizations. The Brotherhood movement, in some places known as the P.S.A., was particularly hard hit by the war, and was still finding reconstruction difficult in 1921. But a great opportunity was there for these services, brief and bright, where addresses are given on Bible subjects or on themes of current interest from the Christian point of view, much stress being laid on the obliga- tions of Christian citizenship. The movement has spread to the continent of Europe, and had much success in Canada. The Adult Schools, a much older institution, and one in which Friends have been particularly active, have been hampered by the lack of suitable local leaders and class teachers, but exercise a very potent influence through the men who meet usually on Sunday mornings about nine o'clock. Sunday Schools have suffered in the number of scholars, but the quality of the work done is rapidly improving, as better methods of grading and instruction are introduced.
The Y.M.C.A. found its great opportunity in {he war. By its operations at first in the home camps and then by invitation in N. France, and subsequently in every field of war, near and far, it led the way in ameliorating the lot of the soldier. It gained the good-will of men in the field and their relatives at home, of Government and of employers of labour. Its after-war programme, somewhat ambitious, like that of many another concern, was checked by trade depression and financial stringency, but its Red Triangle Clubs did good work.
The Student Christian Movement is one of the most vital Christian agencies in existence, and affords a happy meeting ground for the educated youth of all the churches. It has widened its earlier scope, when it was chiefly concerned with foreign missionary aims, and is now placing alongside those the claims of social service at home. It is increasingly powerful in other countries, and held an important international gathering at Glasgow in Jan. 1921.
The British and Foreign Bible Society and the Religious Tract Society are the willing handmaids of all the churches. They too did excellent work during the stress of war, and continued it afterward?, though hampered by the high cost of production. In March 1911 the 3OOth anniversary of the issue of the English Authorized Version was worthily commemorated. With regard to Bible revision, a number of Free Church scholars issued a manifesto in Oct. 1912 stating that, in their opinion, the time was not ripe in view of the work yet to be done in getting an approximately true text of the original Hebrew and in utilizing recent linguistic discoveries affect- ing New Testament Greek. A number of them also joined with representative Anglican scholars in a public protest against the issu- ing of the revised Bible of 1881-5 without the reviser's marginal readings. A new translation of the New Testament by Prof. J. Moffatt, of the United Free Church College, Glasgow, has gained high appreciation and wide use. (A. J. G.)
IV. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES OF SCOTLAND
In Scotland, apart from the relation of the World War to religion and the churches, the most prominent question between 1910 and 1921 was a possible union between the Church of Scot- land and the United Free Church. These two communions em- braced nine-tenths of the church members in the Northern kingdom, and thoughtful men on both sides had long been anxious for closer fellowship in the face of decreasing rural populations and the increasingly serious problems of the cities and large towns. Holding the same standard of faith and order these two great wings of Presbyterianism had practically everything in common except the State connexion. Patronage in connexion with ministerial appointments which led to the disruption in 1843 ceased to operate in the Established Church a generation ago and thus a great stumbling-block was removed. The Union of the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church in 1900 was a predisposing cause to the thought of a larger union, and in 19 10 the two Assemblies (Established and United Free) appointed committees to confer on the causes which keep the two Churches apart. These causes were not primarily connected with doc- trine, discipline or worship, but with the spiritual independence of the Church, its freedom from parliamentary interference with doctrine, discipline and worship. The United Free Church felt that, in spite of the absence of any conflict between Church and State in Scotland for 70 years, the decisions reached by Lord Brougham's judgments in the Disruption cases held the field, and witnessed to the State's claim to be omnipotent in the spiri- tual as in the secular domain. In 1912, in a document known as the Memorandum, the Church of Scotland committee gave a new turn to the matter by suggesting: (i) that instead of the State
