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. Nothing can be more misleading when these figures represent men, and especially when they represent Chris­ tian men. Among those hundreds of thousands of native Christians there are seme who in spiritual force are worth a thousand nominal Christians. To estimate the value of these Christians as helping to establish the kingdom of God in India, it is useless to count by heads ; we want to know the moral and spiritual force which each exerts. That cannot be tabulated. The figures, though valuable for many purposes, do not therefore give an accurate estimate of the position of the kingdom of God in India. We believe that kingdom has made far greater progress than the figures represent. There is vastly more moral energy and spiri­ tual life in the country to-day than there was nine years ago. Thou­ sands that are exerting a mighty influence in extending God’s kingdom in India are not included in those figures, because they have not been baptised in the name of Christ. Many are doing Christ-like deeds, many are living Christ-like lives, and so helping to build the city of God; but we cannot reckon them. We must not then lay too much stress upon the figures that are before us for consideration. The communicants have increased in far greater proportion than the Christian community. We conclude that the past nine years have been marked by consolidation rather than expansion. The figures show that the proportion of communicants to the Christian community has been steadily rising. In 1851 it was between one-sixth and one-seventh ; now the communicants form nearly one-third of the whole Christian population. Missionaries in India evidently do not believe that when a man is baptised he can be left to take care of himself. He needs instruc­ tion and pastoral care. A large portion of the time of native pastors is employed in this necessary work ; and to this extent they are prevented from engaging in direct evangelistic work amongst non-Christians. On the other hand, their efforts amongst the Christians ought to raise up a band of voluntary workers in connection with each church. It is evi­ dent that much more time is spent in pastoral work in some parts of India than in others. In the Madras Presidency every native preacher has an average of 200 Christians under his care; in Bengal he has about 109; in the other parts of India from 51 to 69. There is therefore less time available for work amongst non-Christians in the Madras Presidency than in other parts of India. The difference is so great, that we are almost led to question the accuracy of the figures. The increase of native agents has been very small in Madras. In 1881 there were 235 ordained native ministers and 1,444 lay-preachers, or a total of 1,679. WHAT DO THEY TEACH ? 243 In 1890 the figures were respectively 363 and 1,462, or a tot^l of 1,825. While the Christian community has increased by 66,170, the workers have increased by 146 only. This may partly account for the compara­ tively small proportional increase of the Christian community in South India. In Madras that increase has been only 22 per cent. ; in Bengal, 30 per cent. ; Bombay, 92; Central India, 132 ; North-West Provinces and Oudh, 139 ; Panjab. 335. Though the per-centage is low in Madras, yet that 22 per cent, represents nearly half the total increase in India, for in all India the gain is 142,289, of which Madras is credited with 66,170. The larger amount of pastoral work to be done in the Madras Presidency is absolutely necessary. Christ’s kingdom must be consoli­ dated. The church must be built up. The moral and spiritual forces of the Christian community must be developed. Still the outside masses must not be neglected. More labourers must be sent into the harvest. It may be that funds available will not admit of extension and consolidation at the same time. This is most unfortunate. When numbers come in, there ought to be available teachers to instruct the ignorant, to enlighten the spiritually dark, and at the same time an increasing band to extend the work amongst those who know not Jesus. We have heard of missions where every available man has been almost fully occupied with the infant converts. They must not be neglected ; but if they alone are attended to, the increase from without must be less. We do not know for certain whether native preachers and teachers can be obtained in sufficient quantities. In some cases we should gather that they cannot be found. If they are available, they should be thrust into the work, so that the area of Christian influence may ever extend. The workers in India have largely increased during the last nine years, but not to the extent that is desirable. Foreign missionaries have increased from 586 to 857 ; native ministers from 461 to 797 ; foreign and Eurasian lay-preachers from 72 to 118; and native lay- preachers from 2,488 to 3,491, being a total gain of 1,656 or nearly 46 per cent. This is a larger numerical gain than in any previous decade, especially in foreign missionaries, there being a gain of 271 in the nine years. India is attracting far greater attention in the Christian world to-day than it has ever done ; and workers from every quarter of the globe come to take part in the great battle with idolatry and sin. Here there Bhould be a true evangelical union of the churches and the nations. Mission work in-India will tend to unite Christendom in a way that no Grrindelwald or any other Conference can possibly do. As far as we can gather, very few new missionary societies have begun work in the last nine years. The Salvation Army has come into the field and spread its forces over a wide area. They are credited with 1,920 followers. These figures are taken from Badley’s Missionary 244 THE STATISTICAL TABLES OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS : Directory, and we doubt whether they are reliable. No religious body has so often to make returns, yet one can never get to know the number of their adherents. Apparently they refused to supply the information asked for. This is an attitude which we cannot under­ stand, unless it is to hide a weakness. The other new societies are apparently small isolated missions. Some of these do not appear at all. Probably the compilers of the statistics were not aware of their existence. The figures omitted would not materially affect the totals. The report roughly classifies the different missions into seven groups—Baptist, Congregationalist, Church of England, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, and sundry missions. All except the last group have made progress, but in vastly different proportions. The Metho­ dists have made the greatest comparative advance, having more than trebled their Christian community, while the communicants are more than four-fold greater. The Presbyterians come next, having nearly doubled both their Christian community and their communicants. The Baptists have increased in almost the same proportion. The Congre- gationalists have advanced about 12 per cent, in the number of Chris­ tians, but 42 per cent, in the communicants, showing that they have been engaged in consolidating their former large accessions. The Christians belonging to the Church of England have increased only about 7 per cent., but the communicants are nearly 28 per cent, more numerous. Here also the building up of the church has taken up the time and energy available. The Lutheran figures are not clear, but we gather that there has been an increase of some 22 per cent, in Christians, and 46 per cent, in communicants. The Church of England has the lar­ gest number of adherents, the total being 193,363, with 52,377 commu­ nicants; the Baptists come next with 133,122 adherents and 53,801 communicants. The Congregationalists follow with 77,466 and 13,775 respectively.