working is impossible unless a very wide expression is employed, and a
very wide interpretation given to it.

(2) The Christian cause, both for good and evil, is largely influenced
by the existence of these unbaptised. They are called Christian, they
are considered to be such by their heathen neighbours, they suffer
persecution often with the other Christians when any outbreak occurs.
Their numbers and conduct exercise a wide influence in the society in
which they live, for or against the progress of the Christian faith.

(3) The attitude of these people to the Christian missionary is quite
different from that of the heathen. They acknowledge Christ as the one
Divine Teacher and Lord. The missionary cannot count them as belonging
to the heathen; he cannot approach them as the teacher of a new
religion. He must approach them as an exponent of the religion which
they already profess. However inadequate and confused their ideas about
Christian theology and practice may be, they expect to receive from a
Christian teacher instruction in their own religion, and that religion
is a religion common to him and to them. Consequently to omit them from
the Christian constituency is to do an injustice to them, and to
misrepresent the true facts of the case.

(4) In many areas two or more societies are at work and their conception
of the qualifications for the name of Christian differ. In a survey each
society is tempted to ignore the members of the other, and to reckon as
Christians only those who fulfil the conditions which are applied by the
one society. So certain Protestant societies ignore all Roman Catholics;
but that for the reasons already stated is most misleading, for when
persecution arises Protestants and Roman Catholics alike suffer for the
Name of Christ. Whatever the members of another society may be, they are