ty; by the second question we
understand the number of congregations which are represented at any
council higher than the council of their own congregation.

We think these questions most unsatisfactory, but we can devise no
others. We have no doubt that, if all the foreigners disappeared
suddenly, the native Christians would either perish or would speedily
adopt a form of Church government which they understood. The whole
necessity for these questions arises from the fact that we have foisted
upon them foreign systems and are uncertain to what extent they have
really grasped them. The consequence is that when we think of a Church
capable of standing alone we are in doubt. We do not feel certain that
the converts could carry on their government; and some of us think a
change in the form of Church government as serious a matter as the
change from Paganism to Christianity: it is an excommunicating matter.
Inevitably then in an inquiry such as ours we must try to discover how
far the people are advanced in the understanding of the organisation
which they have been taught. Until they are quite sound in this faith
and fully trained in this system, whether it is a circuit or a
presbytery or a democratic episcopacy, or a papacy, they cannot possibly
stand alone. Who would dare to suggest such a revolutionary idea! Why,
they might adopt a native governmental system--something which they
understood at once, quite easily, and then where should we be? We know
how to administer the system in which we were brought up: it is better
that they should learn that.

Finally we make an inquiry concerning the power of the Christians to
supply the material needs of their religious organisation. We want to
know to what extent they are really dependent on foreign funds, and to
what extent they can stand alone financially.

It is tempting to imagine that we can discover this by a mere
calculation of the total expenditure on all work carried on in the
district and comparing this either with the number of Christians and
their relative wealth or poverty, or simply with the contribution which
they actually make, concluding that the difference between their
contribution, or their estimated power to give, and the cost of the work
carried on in the area is the difference between their power to supply
their needs and their real needs. But foreign funds are largely spent
upon things which, however excellent they may be in themselves, are not
really _