III. SUCCESS OF THE SOCIETY.

In all the Missions of the Society Statistical Returns are made, periodically, of the number of Converts from Heathenism; of the number admitted to Baptism and to the Lord's Supper; and of the number of Schools and Scholars. Such returns are important, as furnishing the evidence of the progress of the work of evangelization. It must, however, be borne in mind, that a great part of the success of Missions cannot be exhibited by Statistical Returns; namely, such as the overcoming of prejudices against the Christian Religion, and the diffusion of a general knowledge of the doctrines and precepts of Christianity: of these results some notice will be given hereafter.

Throughout the Missions of the Society the same standard of qualification for admission to the Lord's Supper is maintained, namely, that of a sincere, intelligent, and consistent Christian profession and behaviour. An interval of probation is interposed between Baptism and the Lord's Supper, in those adult cases in which confirmation cannot be administered. A proportion only, therefore, of those adults who are baptized are admitted as Communicants. In every case the Missionaries keep a list of the names of the Communicants, and exercise over them a measure of Christian discipline rarely possible in this country.

The Communicants at the several Stations of the Society, for the last ten years, have been as follows:

с с

MISSIONS.

1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845

West Africa

Calcutta & North India)

643 707 9021075 1177 1362 1414 1275 1330 1560 12 12 32 341 330 285 429 481 644 640.

Madras & South India 285 279 314 417 599 1214 1467 1639 2103 2348

From the inspection of this table it will appear, that there has been a gradual, and, for the most part, a steady increase of Communicants in every one of the Missions. Such an increase is in itself an important sign that the work is of God, as in private Christians there is no surer mark of divine life than growth in grace.

It will be seen, also, that the annual increase of Communicants has been much larger in the latter than in the earlier years of the decade. This annual increase in the number of those who may be regarded as forming the nucleus of a Native Christian Church is a result of the highest importance.

The whole increase, during the period of ten years, has been more than sevenfold.

These results, encouraging and important as they are in themselves, will become still more so, if we view them in connexion with the comparatively small number of European Teachers employed in the Missions. The number of European Teachers employed in 1836 was 132; and the number in 1845

only 160. The average of the first five years, compared with that of the last five years, exhibits a still smaller difference; the one being 160, and the other 168. So small has been the increase in European agency; so large the increase of blessing vouchsafed to their labours. The increase in the number of Agents one in twenty! the increase in the number of Communicants sevenfold! Some abatement must be made from this calculation, inasmuch as the Ordained Missionaries and the Native Clergy now bear a much larger proportion than they formerly did to the number of European Catechists, and the Native Catechists have been greatly increased. The numbers in 1836 and 1845 were respectively

In some of the Missions Returns are accurately made of the number of persons who regularly attend Public Worship: in other Missions the Places of Worship are too numerous, and too much dispersed, to allow of exact Returns. Throughout the whole of the Missionary field, however, cultivated by the Labourers of this Society, there are at least 80,000 Christian worshippers. This goodly number has been gathered from among those who, a few years ago, were sunk in the darkness and pollution of Heathenism; offering worship only to idols or devils.

The Missions in which complete Returns have been made number 31,000 Attendants upon Public Worship, including children and out of this number, nearly 6000 are Communicants; giving a general average, of the proportion between the Communicants and the worshippers, of 1 in 5. In some

instances the proportion is 1 in 2, in others 1 in 4, in others 1 in 6; which is the lowest amount of Communicants, with the exception of one Mission, in which it is only 1 in 16.

IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN SUCCESS IN MISSIONARY STATIONS,

AND THAT WHICH ATTENDS THE MINISTRY AT HOME.

It may serve to give a more distinct idea of the state of the Missions, if a comparison be instituted between the visible results of Christian instruction in some of the Missions and in parishes in our own Christian land.

In many cases, no such comparison can be made, because of the large and undistinguishable mass of the Heathen to whom the Gospel is presented. Instances must, therefore, be selected, in which the labours of the Missionaries are circumscribed, as in the case of parishes at home, by local limits. Two such instances will be found; namely, the Colony of Sierra Leone, and the Northern Island of New Zealand.

By the Government Return, the Coloured Population of Sierra Leone amounted, at the close of the year 1844, to 41,058. This number comprised a large proportion of liberated Africans recently introduced into the Colony, in a state of the most degraded Heathenism, from the holds of slave-ships. Many hundreds of the natives who had embraced Christianity had also lately emigrated to other parts of Africa, or to the West Indies. These circumstances are greatly to the disadvantage of Sierra Leone, as compared with a parish in a Christian land.

In the case of New Zealand, the native population is estimated at from 104,000 to 110,000, scattered over a country as large as the whole of England, and the European Christian Teachers only amount to 30.

A comparison between such fields of Missionary labour and

our parishes at home must be, in many respects, incomplete; and the result must be only regarded as an approximation to the truth. But it will be, nevertheless, an important comparison.

Two Districts in England may be naturally selected for the purposes of the comparison, namely; that District of the City of London in which the Church Missionary House is situated and the Parish of Islington, in which the Church Missionary Institution for training Missionaries is established.

In the City of London District may be included the Parish of St. Bride, Fleet Street, and the five contiguous parochial divisions, namely; the Parish of St. Dunstan -in-the-West; The Liberty of the Rolls; Trinity District, St. Bride's; St. Andrew's, Holborn, Parish Church District; and the Parish of St. Anne, Blackfriars.

The Parish of Islington contains St. Mary's Parish Church, a Chapel-of-Ease, and seven District Churches.

The number of Communicants, and of Attendants on Public Worship, in these Districts, has been estimated with much care; and the results of the comparison may be thus exhibited