from the time when it was Russian territory, and various American societies are also represented. The total number of Indians in British North America is 99,000, of whom about 27,000 are still pagan, and the rest are about equally divided between the Protestant and Roman Catholic Missions. (3) Central and South America.—Protestant missions to Indians here have been very limited. Von Weltz did something in Dutch Guiana (c. 1670), and the Moravians among the Arrawak Indians of Surinam (1738–1808). Since 1847 they have worked on the Mosquito coast of Central America. American Missions are at work in Mexico and adjacent countries. In the West India Islands the negro population has been reached by most of the larger British societies. The South American Missionary Society, founded by the ill-fated Captain Allen Gardiner, has much extended its work among the Indians of the interior of what has been well called “the Neglected Continent”; it has been specially successful among the Araucanians of Chile and the Paraguayan Chaco. Their work among the Fuegians drew a warm tribute from Charles Darwin. Several American missions are also at work. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has an important mission in British Guiana. But there are numerous heathen tribes never yet reached. The Roman Church, which is dominant throughout the continent, has been engaged in serious struggles with the anti-religious tendencies of the Republican governments, and L’Année de l’Eglise makes no mention of missions among the Indians. In fact the Pope in 1897 was obliged to send a severe rebuke to the clergy for their lack of consistency and zeal. Protestant societies have done much to bring the Bible to the knowledge of the nominally Roman Catholic population.
Results of Missions
The Christian Church bases its missionary enterprise upon the spirit, the example, and the commandment of its Founder, and regards the duty as just the same whether the results be large or small. It appeals to common sense, saying in effect, “If it be a fact that a Divine Person came into the world to bless mankind, all men ought to know it, and have a right to know it. However much or (if you will) little a Buddhist or a Moslem may need to know of Christ, he certainly has a claim to be told of Him. The responsibility, if there be any, of believing, rests with the individual told; the responsibility of telling him rests with the Christian Church.” On this view of the matter, results, however desirable, are no certain test of a mission doing its work. A mission in Persia, with its handful of converts, has, on this view, as much right to support and appreciation as a mission in southern India with its tens of thousands. Again, on the hypothesis that Christianity is true, the statistics at a particular period are no test of success at all. For in them the dead are not counted; and the converts who are already dead are—at least in respect of individual salvation—the surest of results. If, however, we are to take statistical returns for what they are worth, it is estimated that the Christians in heathen lands gathered by Protestant missions probably amount to five millions, and a similar total may be ascribed to Roman Catholic missions, making ten millions in all. This, however, includes adherents still under instruction for baptism, and their children. The inner circle of communicant members is hardly more than one-third of the total.
Missions are however a far greater thing after all than simple proselytism. It would require many a volume to tell of what they have done for civilization, freedom, the exploration of unknown regions, the bringing to light of ancient literatures, the founding of the science of comparative religion, the broadening of the horizon of Christian thought in the homelands, and the bringing of distant peoples into the brotherhood of nations. These are results that cannot be put into figures. While it is true that very diverse opinions are held concerning missions, it is indisputable that the most favourable testimonies come from those who have really taken the most pains to examine and understand their work. The one discouraging feature, from the Christian point of view, is the backwardness of Christendom in its great enterprise. If the Churches did their foreign work with the same energy which they throw into their home work, the results would be very different.
The figures given below are taken from a table compiled by Dr D. L. Leonard, and refer only to Protestant missions to non-Christian and non-Protestant peoples. The figures are for 1907, and should be compared with those in the Statistical Atlas. This list gives a total of 69 Foreign Missionary Societies, of which 34 are American, 19 British, 10 German, and 6 other societies. The statistics for these 69 societies may be grouped as follows:—
I.—STATISTICS OF THE GREAT RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD.
(From The Blue Book of Missions, 1907).
| Christians. | Jews. | Moham- medans. |
Buddhists. | Hindus. | Confucian- ists and Taoists. |
Shintoists. | Animists, Fetishists,&c. |
Unclassed. | Totals. | |||
| Protestants. | Roman Catholics. |
Eastern Churches. | ||||||||||
| Africa. | 2,665,000 | 2,493,000 | 3,799,000 | 381,000 | 50,810,000 | 11,000 | 277,000 | 31,000 | — | 97,179,500 | 125,500 | 157,722,000 |
| America, N. | 64,488,000 | 36,693,000 | 2,000,000 | 1,069,000 | 15,000 | 5,000 | 94,000 | 85,00 | — | 20,000 | 8,002,000 | 111,651,000 |
| America, S. | 362,000 | 36,125,000 | — | 22,000 | 10,000 | — | 108,000 | 4,000 | — | 1,262,000 | 63,000 | 37,956,000 |
| Asia . | 1,542,000 | 5,385,000 | 17,144,000 | 482,000 | 141,456,000 | 137,900,000 | 209,152,000 | 291,030,000 | 24,900,000 | 41,436,000 | 5,693,000 | 876,120,000 |
| Australasia | 3,424,000 | 964,000 | 1,000 | 17,000 | 3,000 | 4,000 | 1,000 | 31,000 | — | 40,000 | 70,000 | 4,555,000 |
| Europe. | 92,922,000 | 183,754,000 | 98,213,000 | 9,247,000 | 3,576,000 | — | — | — | — | — | 1,319,000 | 389,031,000 |
| Malaysia | 416,500 | 7,095,500 | — | 3,000 | 20,760,000 | — | 27,000 | 570,000 | — | 16,445,000 | 62,000 | 45,379,000 |
| Oceania | 247,000 | 129,000 | — | 1,000 | — | 15,000 | — | 65,000 | — | 507,000 | 18,000 | 982,000 |
| Aggregate | 166,066,500 | 272,638,500 | 120,157,000 | 11,222,000 | 216,630,000 | 137,935,000 | 209,659,000 | 291,816,000 | 24,900,000 | 157,069,500 | 15,352,500 | 1,623,446,000 |
558,862,000 |
||||||||||||
II.—SUMMARY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONARY WORK.
| American. | British. | German. | Other Societies, viz. Paris Society, Swiss Romande, Netherlands Societies, Scandinavian Societies, &c. |
Totals for Christendom. |
Totals for 1895 (showing growth between 1895 and 1907). | |
| Ordained Missionaries | 1,911 | 1,980 | 932 | 912 | 5,735 | 4,028 |
| Laymen | 535 | 1,738 | 168 | 361 | 2,802 | 1,477 |
| Unmarried women | 1,527 | 2,332 | 150 | 378 | 4,387 | 2,578 |
| Ordained natives | 2,312 | 2,141 | 197 | 623 | 5,273 | 4,295 |
| Communicants (full members) | 545,180 | 561,179 | 240,883 | 466,208 | 1,817,450 | 995,793 |
| Numbers added in 1906 | 63,916 | 38,614 | 25,983 | 12,336 | 140,849 | 63,081 |
| Adherents | 1,286,259 | 1,398,306 | 540,073 | 1,136,500 | 4,361,138 | 2,770,801 |
| Schools | 8,855 | 11,789 | 2,878 | 5,346 | 28,868 | 19,384 |
| Scholars | 344,213 | 619,399 | 139,891 | 199,402 | 1,302,905 | 786,002 |
III.—PROTESTANT MISSIONARY INCOME.
| 1895 . . . | £2,724,194 | 1906 . . . | £4,256,029 | |
| 1900 . . . | £3,095,915 | 1907 . . . | £4,473,933[1] | |
| 1905 . . . | £3,932,377 |
A world missionary conference was held at Edinburgh in June 1910, which aimed at making, on a scale far more comprehensive than had been previously attempted, a thorough and scientific study of the problems involved in the relation of Christianity to the non-Christian world. For two years preceding the conference eight
representative commissions investigated the following questions:- ↑ The Statistical Atlas (1910) puts it at £5,071,225, of which British and American societies each find about £2,000,000, and German societies £427,455.
