A final comparison will prove even more startling than what has gone
before. In 1890, the total number of church buildings in the country
was 142,639; in the cities referred to, the number was 9,722; and in
New York city it was 917. That is to say, 124 cities, with less than
one-fourteenth the number of church buildings, possessed practically
one-half of the church wealth; while the single city of New York, which
absorbed more than one-tenth of the wealth, had less than one out of
every 155 of the church buildings of the country! No wonder the churches
of the large cities, and of New York in particular, howl bloody murder
when asked to part with some of their popular graft and pay their debts!
To them, at least, Christianity is no longer a religion for the poor
and disinherited of earth, but the special enjoyment of idle wealth and
heartless vanity.
What New York lacks in number of churches to the population, it makes
up in the luxurious elegance of those it does possess. Its houses of
worship are magnificent religious clubs for worship on the _de luxe_
plan. What the poor, wandering Nazarene, if any credence is to be placed
in the story of his life, would have said to this cynical burlesque of
his teachings, may be left to the imagination. Were there any honest
excuse for asking the state to bear part of the burdens of the church,
it would apply in a tenfold degree to the struggling country churches,
which form a much more organic life of the community than do the
city ones, and may much more plausibly be credited with genuine and
community-wide social service. As has been seen, however, tax exemption
going in the main to multiply the superfluous wealth of the city
churches, does next to nothing for them.