| Show SPREAD OF mohammedanism JET IT OUTSTRIPS christianity IN ASIA AND AFRICA the assertion that mohammedanism is advancing far more rapidly than christianity in asia and africa has often been made of late years but bat when it was repeated a short time ago in the english church congress by a dignitary of the church it was received with surprise and anger the speaker was the rev isaac tay lor canon canoa of york and his exact dec anat in asia and africa islamae a missionary religion is more successful than christianity and our oar efforts to convert the edans have failed having since the congress been challenged to prove these statements and produce the facts to sustain his bis generalizations canon taylor now BOW answers bis critics and a questioners through gli the london times ile he points out that according to the census returns the mohammedan population in india increased bt between tween 1871 sad and 1881 or about 25 per ceat cant after making ample allowance for the natural increase of births ever deaths this shows that the conversion of heathens heathers he athens and christians to 10 modam me bad been going on at the rate of a year during daring toe same period the conversions to christianity barely amounted to one tenth of that number yet the edans have no paid missionaries and no organized mission ary agencies their conversions must therefore be due to the voluntary efforts of individuals and tue toe intrinsic attractions of their faith meanwhile the christians on the other ot her hand have bave all the prestige pre of a christian governing power and are expending vast sums in proselytism for which they have a long established and carefully methodized methodi zed system of missionary effort of the total number of conversions conver eions to christianity too all except a comparatively ively small part are in the extreme south of the madras residency where christianity obtained a firm footing it at a very remote period and the christians are more numerous than anywhere else in india canon taylor ai also finds as a 11 startling result that four of the christian converts are roman catholics in the northern and central provinces where islam is strong and and the conversions to mohammedanism are at the rate of a year the conversions to christianity to use his words are practically ni nil 1 11 the most active and powerful ot the english missionary societies at work in ladia india is the church missionary society according to whose report rols missionaries sion slon aries and native agents employed at a cost of toward made last year only converts a population of in those provinces it if the number of genuine converts be measured by the number of adult baptisms of these COR coa verts only seveR seventeen teen seem to have been edans out of a mohammedan population of and some of them were very suspicious us as in fact conversions from isaam islam almost invariably are the practical results of eastern missionary labors in the way of actual conversions are not more elsewhere in ceylon last year agents made only converts at a cost of more than in mid china 71 agents made 63 converts at a cost of and in south colas agents made converts at a cost of about these are the facts and statistics with which canon taylor meets the challenge of his critics and they are quite interesting As AA to A africa r ca he e will speak in another letter but the spread of islam there has been so remarkable within recent I 1 years ears that be will have no difficulty in proving his point new york sun |
