—M. Thiersant estimates the Mohammedan population of China to be between twenty and twenty-one millions, and says he has arrived at his figures from facts given by Mandarins, Romish priests, and other prominent individuals. Mr. Blunt, in “The Future of Islam,” allots fifteen million Moslems to China.
—According to Missionary Butler, of China, as Buddhism has no heaven for women, the Chinese damsels labor with might and main to lay up merits that they may prevail with the judges of the lower world to let them be born again as men, so that they may have a chance to get there.
—A Chinese Christian tailor thus described the relative merits of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity:—
“A man had fallen into a deep, dark pit, and lay in its miry bottom, groaning and utterly unable to move. Confucius walked by, approached the edge of the pit, and said, ‘Poor fellow, I am sorry for you; why were you such a fool as to get in there? Let me give you a piece of advice: If you ever get out, don’t get in again.’ ‘I can’t get out,’ groaned the man. That is Confucianism.
“A Buddhist priest next came by, and said, ‘Poor fellow, I am very much pained to see you there. I think if you could scramble up two-thirds of the way, or even half, I could reach you and lift you up the rest.’ But the man in the pit was entirely helpless and unable to rise. That is Buddhism.
“Next the Saviour came by, and, hearing his cries, went to the very brink of the pit, stretched down and laid hold of the poor man, brought him up, and said, ‘Go, sin no more.’ That is Christianity.”—Rev. Canon Stowell.
THE INDIANS.
—There are 296 church buildings among the Indians, including the “five nations.”
—The religious bodies expended in 1881 the sum of $139,440 for education and missions among the Indians.