[Footnote 33: _Memorial Papers_, p. 27, et seq.]
"The undersigned," who passed this severe and searching criticism upon the practical efficiency of the Episcopal Church, were such men as Dr. Muhlenberg, founder and chaplain of St. Luke's Hospital, New York; Dr. Crusé, librarian, and Drs. Turner and Johnson, professors at the General Theological Seminary; Drs. Bedell and Coxe, both since made bishops; Drs. Hobart and Higbee, of Old Trinity; Drs. Francis and A. H. Vinton, two of the most eminent of her parochial clergy; and Dr. Harwood, late professor at the Berkeley Seminary of Connecticut. Certainly no Episcopalian, either of that day or our own, could ask for more reliable authority.
Second, the report of the commission of the house of bishops, made to the convention of 1856, after some preliminary statements, thus continues:
"An examination into the relative increase of the various bodies of Christians in the United States within the last thirty years will exhibit some startling facts, which may well rouse us to serious considerations, and lead us to ask ourselves the questions, 'What have we been doing? and what shall we do?' We have been in the habit of looking merely at the increase of our ministers and members within given periods as the proper exponent of our growth, without considering how that increase compares with the rate of increase in the population at large. Making our estimate in this way--and it is the only accurate method to ascertain the ratio of our growth or increase as a church--_it will be found that we are by no means keeping pace with the population of the country_ in the provision we make for their religious instruction, to say nothing of our duty to heathen and foreign lands; that we are consequently falling very far below the measure of our responsibility, and _that our growth in the last half century_, which has been dwelt upon with complacency, if not with a spirit of vainglory, _furnishes matter of deep humiliation and shame, rather than of boasting_." [Footnote 34]
[Footnote 34: _Memorial Papers_, p. 53, et seq.]
"Ministers are found, who yet do not minister; rectors who cannot govern; pastors who do not feed the flock; teachers send forth theological essays, for the instruction of the church, who might find better employment in studying the Bible and catechism, while the necessary means for maintaining religious services too often have to be wrung from those who appear reluctant to recognize it as a Christian obligation to give of their ability, as God has prospered them, with liberality, with cheerfulness, and with simplicity. _On every side the complaint is heard, that the work of the church languishes, or is not done._' [Footnote 35]