"To learn Chinese is work for men with bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah!"
III. Signs of World-wide Victory
Progress by Centuries.—The following table used by Gulick in The Growth of the Kingdom of God, indicates the onward sweep of Christianity throughout the last two thousand years. Of this table Gulick says: "The table does not give the number of professed Christians or church-members, but only the number of those who may be fairly said to have accepted the Christian standards of moral life whether attempting and professing to live up to them or not. The word 'Christianity' is used in its broadest, loosest sense."
The first column includes the period to the end of the century named. The second column gives the number of millions of Christians of all faiths:
| 2nd century | 2 millions |
| 10th century | 50 millions |
| 15th century | 100 millions |
| 18th century | 200 millions |
| 19th century | 500 millions |
A glance at these figures reveals the following inspiring facts.
The number of Christians reported at the end of ten centuries was doubled in the next five centuries. The total was doubled again in the next three hundred years. At the end of the nineteenth century the number was two and a half times as great as at the end of the previous eighteen centuries.
Recent Victories.—While the survey of the progress of the kingdom by centuries just given is inspiring, recent years have witnessed an unprecedented response to the Christian appeal.
Looking at America first we discover that one hundred years ago there were 364,872 communicant members of the Protestant churches out of a population of 5,305,925, or one in fourteen. To-day one in four of the population is identified with the Protestant church. These are not nominal Christians, as in the paragraph above, but actual Protestant church-members. These figures make it clear that the forces of aggressive Christianity in America have realized a tremendous return on their investment. If we include Catholic and all other religious bodies the total communicant members reach 36 millions in round numbers, or about two fifths of the total population.