®P H a R V E S T * F Ield <&>
THE ®p H a r v e s t * F ield <&> JANUARY, 1893. ■■ ■ ■ ORIGINAL ARTICLES. THE STATISTICAL TABLES OF PEOTESTANT MISSIONS: WHAT DO THEY TEACH P TATISTICS are in tliese days required for everything. In themselves they are of no nse ■ but if they can be rightly interpreted, they may be made to convey most important and valuable lessons. For five decades the Protestant missions in India have numbered their adherents, and it is easy to see at a glance the progress made in actual numbers during each decade. It will be well to place the total number of Protestant native Christians and communicants for each period in a tabular form. It must be remembered that all the figures in this paper deal only with Protestant native Christians. Europeans, Eurasians, and Boman Catholics are omitted. Native Christians. Communicants. 1851 91,092 14,661 1861 138,731 24,976 1871 224,258 52,816 1881 ... 417,372 113,325 1890 559,661 182,722 We can at once see the numerical advance that has been made during the last nine years. The religious census was taken a year earlier than usual in order to make the returns co-incident with the 242 , THE STATISTICAL TABLES OP PROTESTANT MISSIONS : numbering of the people by the Government. The rate of progress has been slower than usual; but it would be folly to argue that therefore the kingdom of Christ had not advanced so rapidly as in previous decades. There is a tendency when dealing with figures to regard every unit as equal in value.
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