[Footnote 2:  Including fees and contributions.]

It will be observed that this table is designed, like all the others, to serve primarily one single purpose.  Since that purpose is to show the relative weight thrown by the mission and the Christians into different forms of evangelistic expression, all missionaries, all native workers, all funds mainly occupied in each form are lumped together.  There is no need at this stage to distinguish doctors from nurses, or Bible-women from pastors or priests.

From these tables we should hope to gain a general idea of the direction of the force at work.

We thrust in here an inquiry concerning a form of work upon which many missions lay great stress.  It is exceedingly difficult to classify.  It is not certainly evangelistic work, though it is commonly organised by evangelistic workers; it is not educational in the sense that educational missionaries accept it as a definitely recognised part of their work, though educational methods are employed and it often has a distinctly educational purpose.  It is sometimes a form of Sunday service almost akin to a Church service.  It is often a form of children’s school where the religious teaching given, or neglected, during the week in the day school is supplemented:  it is sometimes a form of elementary school for adults, Christian, or inquirers:  it is a form of Bible school for adult Christian workers.  It is a method of propaganda for the conversion of heathen children or adults.  It is a form of work where untrained Christian voluntary workers find opportunity for expressing their religious zeal; it is a form of work in which experts in certain types of elementary religious teaching revel.  It is educational work carried on by those who are not technically educationalists:  it is evangelistic work carried on by those who are not technically evangelists.

What sort of information then are we to seek concerning it?  It is so important that it cannot be omitted; it is so widespread that it almost demands special consideration; it is so protean that tables designed to reveal all its aspects and values would be with difficulty designed, and tediously minute.  From the point of view of this survey it would be futile to ask, as most of the societies ask, simply for the number of Sunday schools, the number of teachers, and the number of scholars.  From those bare numbers we can gain no information which really enlightens us.  We want to know what the Sunday schools exist for, and whether they are accomplishing the object of their existence.  But we cannot define, nor even enumerate all the objects.  We therefore arbitrarily select three which are directly related to the establishment of a native Church, and make one table serve.  We inquire:  (1) How they are related to the Christian constituency; from this we hope to learn the extent to which Sunday schools are a part of the Church life. (2) How the teachers are related to the communicants (or full members); from this we hope to learn the extent to which the voluntary effort of the communicants finds expression in this work. (3) How the scholars are related to baptisms and confirmations (or admission as full members); from this we hope to learn to what extent the Sunday-schools are a recruiting ground for the Church.