A recent work by a Christian writer states that there are now employed in the work of converting the heathen to Christianity fifteen thousand missionaries, and that they succeed in converting about ten thousand a year. From this statement, it appears that ten thousand missionaries make annually one convert apiece, while five thousand make none. And the cost the writer estimates to be about twenty thousand dollars for each convert. C. Wiseman estimated it, about thirty years ago, to be ten thousand dollars apiece. And, while these ten thousand converts were made, the heathen population increased in numbers five millions. Thus it appears they increase two hundred times faster than they are converted. How long will it take, at such rates, to effect the entire conversion of the world? and what will be the cost? All the gold ever dug from the mines of Golconda and California would be but a drop in the bucket compared with the requisite amount. The question naturally arises here, Do the results justify such an enormous expenditure of time and treasure, say nothing of the loss of health on the part of the missionaries? A learned Hindoo stated, in a speech made in London in 1876, that the conversions made in India are confined principally to the low, ignorant, superstitious class, who do not possess sufficient sense and intelligence to know the difference between the religion they are converted to and the religion they are converted from. Are such converts worth ten thousand or twenty thousand dollars apiece? The case suggests the story of the Hibernian who stated his horse had but two faults: "First, he is hard to catch; second, he is no account when caught." The heathen must be hard to convert if it requires an expense of ten thousand dollars apiece, and of but little account when converted if they know nothing about the nature of the religion they are converted to. There are various considerations which go to prove that the hundreds of millions of dollars expended annually in this enterprise are worse than wasted:—

1. One missionary, becoming discouraged at the prospect, once made the statement that nine-tenths of the converts have not sense enough to understand the Christian religion, nor moral principle enough to live up to its precepts, and that a considerable portion of them relapsed into heathenism. It should be borne in mind that it is not the most intelligent nor the most moral portion of the heathen who profess to embrace Christianity, but generally the credulous, ignorant, and fickle-minded class, who are ready for any change that may be offered.

2. No real good seems to be accomplished by the introduction of the Christian Bible among the heathen, but much evil. Its thousands of bad moral precepts and bad moral examples, and its sanction of every species of crime, must inevitably have the effect to weaken their moral resolutions, and deepen them in the commission of crime. And hence, as missionaries themselves indirectly confess, crime has increased in almost every nation where missions have been established. It is true, that, in those nations where the arts and sciences have been cultivated, they have operated to some extent in counteracting the bad moral lessons they learn by reading the Bible; and in some cases, in this way, some improvement has been made. But no instance can be found in the history of the missionary enterprise where any improvement has been made in the morals of the people, where their instruction has been confined to the Bible, without the arts and sciences. On the contrary, their morals have grown worse, or remained unimproved, as in Abyssinia and the Samoan Islands, where, after more than a thousand years' instruction in Bible religion, without the arts and sciences, they are still in the lowest stages of barbarism. (See Chapter 50.)

"THE BIBLE AS A MORAL NECESSITY."

3. It is a policy that must be deplored by every true philanthropist, that the Christian world expends millions of dollars every year to convert the heathen to a religion that can neither improve their morals or their intellect, but inculcates bad lessons in morals and science, and, in many cases, is a worse religion than that already established in those countries. (For evidence, see Chapter 50.)

4. And this policy becomes still more reprehensible when coupled with the fact that there are sixty thousand Christians living in a state of want, beggary, destitution, and suffering, in Christian cellars in New-York City; and two hundred thousand, including Boston and Philadelphia, who are in a state of degradation and suffering almost beyond description, who might be relieved and placed in a situation to improve their morals and their physical condition comfortably if the millions of money, time, and labor were spent on them which are uselessly expended on foreign missions. Think of two hundred thousand church-members living in dark, damp, dreary, sickly cellars, with grim starvation daily staring them in the face, while their purse-proud Christian landlords are living in luxury over their heads. No such cruel, inhuman religion can be found in any heathen nation.

5. And then the missionary enterprise inflicts physical evils, as well as moral, upon the foreign heathen. It introduces habits and customs amongst them, which, in some cases, destroy their health, as well as corrupt their morals. Look, for example, at the Sandwich Islands. Since the establishment of Christian missions amongst them, the population has decreased thirty per cent. Twenty thousand children in schools in 1848 are dwindled down to eleven thousand. Marriages have decreased, and divorces have increased. Nine hundred divorces took place in four years, while previous to the introduction of Christianity, we are told, divorces were almost unknown. Missionaries, ignorant of physiology and the laws of mental science, and in total disregard of natural law, establish habits among the heathen which destroy both their health and their happiness.

6. The people in several heathen countries have proved to be sharp-sighted and intelligent enough to detect the errors in the Bible and religious system presented to them by the missionaries. Bishop Colenso states, that, while serving as missionary among the Zulus tribe, some of the natives started objections to statements found in the Bible which had not occurred to his own mind. And this fact made him resign his mission and return home, and read his Bible with more care, which resulted in detecting hundreds of errors in the Holy Book, which he has published to the world in a large volume. We are informed that the Hindoos told some of the missionaries while among them, that such a God as the Christian Bible describes would not be allowed to run at large in their country. He would be taken up as a criminal.

7. The natives in several countries where the missionaries have been operating, on becoming acquainted with the character of the teachings of the Christian Bible, have raised objections to its being circulated amongst them, and, in some cases, have besought the missionaries to leave. The Rev. Mr. Hall, a missionary in India, states that a public meeting was called at Madras by the natives to draw up a petition to Lord Stanley of England to send no more missionaries, and also entreat him to withdraw those then operating there; and such was the interest manifested that the meeting called out ten thousand people. The Chinese, also, have manifested strong opposition to the movements of the missionaries among them; while the Japanese have kept out from amongst them both Bible and missionaries by positive law until a recent period.

8. The inhabitants of the Friendly Isles, of Honolulu, of India, and also of Japan, have all discussed the subject of sending missionaries to this country to improve the morals of the Christians; and it is certain that some of them are practically acquainted with a better system of morals than that which prevails in this country.

Here we will note the remarkable circumstance that a learned Hindoo has recently held a two days' debate with a Christian missionary, which excited such an interest that it drew together from five to seven thousand of the natives, who desired to see the missionary beat in the debate. A writer states that the Hindoo handled the missionary's arguments as a cat would a mouse, thus intimating that the missionary was completely vanquished in the logical contest; and yet this Hindoo is called a "heathen." Pshaw! It would be a blessing to Christian countries to be supplied with a few millions of such heathen. It would improve both their morals and their intelligence.

Note.—Many anecdotes are afloat tending to prove the superior moral honesty of the Hindoos and other "heathen." As a traveler was walking the streets of an Asiatic city with one of the natives, he proposed to step into a store and purchase some article. "No," said the native: "see that chair in the door to let us know the merchant is absent."—"What!" exclaimed the traveler: "do merchants go away and leave their goods exposed in that way?"—"Yes," responded the honest native, "where there are no Christians about."