If we can fill up the table

-------------------------------------------------------

--------------
District.| Total.       | Communicants | Proportion of | Remarks and
| Christian    | or Full      | Communicants  | Conclusions
| Constituency.| Members.     | to Christian  |
|              |              | Constituency. |
------------------------------------------------------------

---------
|              |              |               |
------------------------------------------------------------

---------

we gain an impression of the strength of the Church.  But it is important to observe that it is only in relation to the earlier tables, which set out the force in relation to the work to be done, that this impression of strength is of immediate importance to us.  We are dealing with a missionary survey, a survey concerned with the propagation of the Gospel.  The mere strength of the Church, unrelated to any work in which the strength is to be employed, is a very different matter.  We might take pleasure in the sight of it.  We might congratulate ourselves and the missionaries on the beauty of the strength revealed, but not until it is related to work to be done does strength appear in its true glory.  We find in nearly all missionary statistics the number of communicants and converts set forth, and we often wonder what for.  It cannot be that we may glory in our conquests and say:  See how many converts and communicants we have made!  But, unrelated to any task to be done, that is all that appears.  Therefore we have instituted this comparison here, in close relation to the earlier tables, that we may know what is the force on the spot at work in the area defined.

Next, the proportion of Paid Workers in proportion to the number of the Christian constituency and the communicants is a most illuminating factor.  By itself it is a difficult factor to appreciate rightly.  Suppose we find, as we do sometimes find, that one out of every ten communicants is a paid worker.  That may imply that the proportion of rice Christians is very high, or it may imply a high standard of zeal, very many of the converts being able and willing to devote themselves to Christian work and at the same time too poor to be able to support themselves without pay.  This proportion, therefore, should be carefully checked by a table which shows the proportion of unpaid workers and another which shows the standard of wealth.  But commonly we are given the number of paid workers, and given neither the number of unpaid voluntary workers, nor the standard of wealth, and therefore the danger of reading amiss the number of paid workers is great.  We have already explained the difficulty of obtaining exact figures, or even estimates, of the number of voluntary unpaid workers, but a mere glance at the proportion of paid workers to communicants should be enough to persuade any man who desires to judge our work fairly of the necessity for such a table as we now suggest.