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Christian    |Inquirers  |Congregations| Amount         | Remarks and
Constituency.|brought in |Evangelising | Subscribed     | Conclusions
|by Native  |their        | for Missionary |
|Christians.|Neighbours.  | Purposes.      |
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|           |             |                |
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That a Church must be instructed and instruct its children all are agreed:  where men differ is with respect to the manner of the teaching.  On the one side are those who would safeguard the faith by committing the teaching of it to a small body of carefully trained men, the clergy, whilst the majority of the Christians, the laity, remain unlearned and accept what is taught by the trained official teachers:  on the other side are those who would boldly commit the faith to all, opening to all the door of learning.  The one party would preserve the faith in the hands of a select few, the other would put the Bible into every man’s hands.  It is an old controversy; but we suppose nearly all those for whom we write are of the second party, men who would gladly see every Christian able to read the Bible and to base his religious life upon it.  We stand for the open Bible; we believe that the Christian Church in every country will progress and develop strongly if it is based on a widespread knowledge of Holy Writ, and we are prepared to believe that a capacity to read the Bible is a sure sign of health in any Christian Church.  The test of literacy commonly adopted in our missions is the capacity to read the Holy Gospels:  we accept that gladly and confidently.

Furthermore, the influence of the Christian Church in the country will largely depend upon the extent to which the Christians are better able to read and understand literary expression than their heathen neighbours.

We want then to know the literacy of the Christian community as compared with the literacy of the non-Christian population from which it springs, and, if possible, a little more than that—­what proportion of the Christians have had a sufficient education to enable them not only to satisfy the very slight demands of a literary test, but to have some wider knowledge with which to improve their own position and to enlighten others.

The table which results is as follows:—­

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Non-Chris-|Propor- |Total     |Propor- |Proportion    | Remarks and
tian      |tion of |Christian |tion of |of Christians | Conclusions. 
Popula-   |Liter-  |Consti-   |Liter-  |of Higher     |
tion.    |ates.   |tuency.   |ates.   |Education.    |
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|        |          |        |              |
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In this table we touch one of the points on which exact figures are often inaccessible and an estimate must be made.  An estimate which is recognised as an estimate is not misleading, and, if it is carefully made and based on evidence understood, is generally most useful, only estimates carelessly made and mistaken for precise and accurate statements of fact are misleading.