material, and spiritual state of the people among whom the mission was
planted, and seek for signs of a change which we could trace with some
certainty to the influence of the mission. That would be a stupendous
and most intricate undertaking. Where innumerable forces are at work
such as are implied in the impact of western civilisation upon the
peoples of the East, or of Africa, it would be extremely difficult to
state the exact impression made by the mission, even if we could survey
the whole state of the people at regular and definite periods. We do
not for a moment doubt that all Christian missions do exercise an
influence of this wide and far-reaching character, and from time to time
we can see results which clearly spring from it, but we cannot think it
wise to set out this vague influence as the primary purpose of a
mission. We believe that the Christian missions which aim directly and
primarily at the conversion of men and the establishment of a living
native Church produce this fruit by the way.

If, however, we take the narrower expressions in the statement of aim
which we have set out above, we find in it the purpose of establishing a
Church, but the establishment is viewed as the result of a long and
elaborate training and cultivation of a comparatively small body of
Christians, rather than as the immediate result of widespread work. In
such a case we ought to be able to trace progress and to place these
missions in a common scheme.

The early tables of work to be done and of the force in relation to that
work on a territorial basis certainly fail. The leaders of the mission
have not the information and do not want it, but they could almost
certainly provide the facts concerning the force at work contained in
the tables without the proportions for the district, and they would
perhaps be able to fill up most of the other tables omitting proportions
to area and population.

Now if they did that we should be able to see the force at work and the
type of work in which the mission was strongest and weakest, and the
relation of the different types of work to each other, though it is
probable that the tables dealing with the native Church as distinct from
the Mission would not be filled up. With that information we could
almost certainly define more or less exactly the place of the mission in
a large area such as the province, or the country; for in dealing with
the province or the country we must necessarily m