104 



REV. J. B. WHITING, M.A., ON 



century the people of Prussia still worshipped snakes and 

 lizards. Maclear {Christian Missions in the Middle Ages, 

 p. 339) states that " three gods in particular were held in 

 veneration, the god of thunder, the god of corn and fruits, 

 and the god of infernal regions " ; " every town or village had 

 a temple."' Infanticide, polygamy, and the burning of widows 

 on the death of their husbands, and human sacrifices, gave 

 rise to " European crusades," and Christianity was forced on 

 unwilling peoples. Till the year 1336 not a ray of light had 

 penetrated the darkness of Lithuania. Nevertheless, great 

 missionary efforts had been attempted in every century. (See 

 Archbp. Trench, Mediaeval Church History, and Neander.) 



2. The statistics given above are very wonderful from 

 another point of view. They show that the previous pre- 

 paratory history of the world led to a marvellous result, 

 marking out the nineteenth century as an " appointed time." 

 We note that there has occurred a sudden and extraordinary 

 increase in the population. Whilst non-Christians increased 

 on an average 5 per cent, in a hundred years for eighteen 

 centuries ; in the nineteenth, owing to the security of life and 

 property under British government, the population of India 

 far more than doubled, so that taking the whole world, 

 the increase was 25 per cent, instead of 5 per cent. 

 Christians, again, who had previously increased on an average 

 fifty per cent, in a hundred years, in the nineteenth century 

 increased 150 per cent. 



In passing 1 notice that in consequence of the systematized 

 missionary work, newly commenced by the Protestant Societies 

 at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the number of 

 their converts now living is over 4,000,000. To effect this 

 languages have been learned, grammars made, Bibles and other 

 books translated, schools provided, new industries introduced, 

 new roads, and even railways constructed, commerce established 

 and character elevated. The Romanist results in the century, 

 omitting the number of the descendants of previous Indian and 

 Chinese Christians, was at least 2,000,000. 



I learn from the Bev. James Johnston, that the population 

 of Europe from a.d. 1 to a.d. 1800, was almost stationary, 

 viz. : — about 170 millions.* That population suddenly began to 

 multiply, owing to the shifting of political power, within the 



* Mr. Rouse donbts the correctness of this statement on the ground of 

 the vast tracts of forest, especially in Germany, which were cleared for 

 habitation in the latter part of that period. — Ed. 



