not be claimed as a convert ! Conversion means the changed state of the whole person ; and the whole person, especially when he is a stolid Chinaman, changes . very slowly indeed, so. that it is impossible to say exactly when and where he has become a new man. I think, then, that those who have had most to do with peoples of other religions than the Christian, and have realized how difficult and slow the change from one state to another must be—and how valueless, if ever it is effected rapidly—will have the least faith in any mere statistics of converts to Christianity.
But, on the other hand, men who have studied the whole effect of Christianity upon European civilization, and have traced the first germ, planted nearly two thousand years ago, growing and expanding, till it influenced all the nations of Europe ;—those who compare the state of society before that germ was implanted, with the state of society at the present day, have recognized what marvellous good the Christian religion has done. Men may not agree as to the truth of many of the doctrines which have become encrusted on to the central truth and essence of Christianity, but all can see the truth and force of the primary Christian doctrine of love toward their neighbour. And the results of the infusing of this principle into the human race are evident in the increased amount of sympathy displayed by European nations.
A well-informed writer in the Times, in the winter of 1894-95,. stated that in London alone the amount annually given for charity by contributions, by legacies, and by the interest on, legacies, did not fall far short of twenty million sterling. Every Christian country has numbers of benevolent institutions for the sick, the aged, the orphans, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the. dumb, the weak-minded, and the fallen. And not for men and women only, but for horses, dogs and cats, and other domestic. pets. Contrasted with the state of feeling one notices in Asiatic. countries at the present day, there is, too, among Christians, a
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