The difficulty lies in the fact that the educational missionaries who
set before themselves as the aim of their work a far distant goal to be
attained by the cumulative effect of Christian influence brought to bear
upon generation after generation of children who do not themselves
become Christians, naturally resent a table which seems to demand a
present, immediate, result in the tabulation of baptisms, and we fear
that the other tables will hardly reconcile them, because we are afraid
that few educational missionaries have yet learned to understand what a
vast and important and absorbingly interesting work the education of the
converts outside the schools affords. Consequently we shiver when we
think of the reception which these tables are likely to receive at the
hands of some of our friends in foreign countries, and our ears tingle
in anticipation.

Nevertheless, if we are to be told, and to act on the hearing, that
Christian schools are founded because it is easier to convert the young
than the old, and the twig can be bent while the tree resists till it
breaks, we must inquire how far this saying is justified by experience.
A survey which neglected the factors which throw light upon it would be
a partial and unjust one.

Hence we ask first--

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| Scholars | Baptism | Baptism | Confirmation | Remarks
| | of | of | or Admission | and
| | Scholars | Parents | as Full | Conclusions
| | | | Members |
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