all baptized persons, including children, connected with the
congregation. There are also many blanks, and many figures that look
like "round numbers." For thirty years I have tried in vain to
comprehend its statistics. _Hinc illae lacrymae_.

The Missouri Synod has three membership rubrics: souls, communicant
members, voting members. When however, a congregation of 900
communicants reports only 80 voting members, one wonders whether some of
the 820 non-voters ought not be admitted to the right of suffrage. The
congregational system favors democracy. It should be remembered also
that the laws of the State define the right to vote at a church
election.

The Synod of New York has three membership rubrics: Communicants,
Confirmed, Baptized. The first includes all members who actually commune
within a year. The second adds to the communicants all others who are
entitled to commune even if they neglect the privilege. The third adds
to the preceding class baptized children and all other baptized persons
in any way related to the congregation, provided they have not been
formally excommunicated.

The Swedish Augustana Synod has three rubrics: Communicants, Children,
Total. "Communicants" may or may not be enrolled members of the
congregation. This classification therefore is neither comprehensive nor
exhaustive and may account in part, for the discrepancy between the
number of Lutheran Swedes in New York and the number enrolled in the
Swedish Lutheran Churches.

None of the synodical reports take note of "families." Pastors seldom
speak of their membership in terms of families. In the book of Jeremiah
(31, 1) we are told: "At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the
God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people." The
captions of the five parts of Luther's Small Catechism proceed upon the
assumption of the family as a unit. It is true we are living in an age
of disrupted families, but it would seem that some recognition of the
family should be made in the statistical tables of the Christian Church,
especially when in the families with which we have to do, most of the
individuals are baptized members of the church and have not been
formally excommunicated. Until, therefore, we agree upon a common
standard, our figures will be the despair of the statisticians. A
reformation must come. Without it, we shall not be able to formulate
needed policies of church extension.

In view of the complicated charact