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."