The Number of Christians
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT sends us the following statement, which is credited to Rev. Judson Smith, D. D. and asks if it is true:— "The adherents of the religion of Jesus Christ to-day outnumber the followers of any other faith in the world. Christian missions number more than 2,000,000 adherents on heathen soil, and at the present rate of increase will include 20,000,000 before this century closes." We wish we could say that it is true; but unfortunately it is not. "Cram's Universal Atlas" gives the number of professed Christians, including Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Churches, as 388,000,000; Buddhists, 400,000,000 to 600,000,000. The entire Protestant church membership—and it is here that the real "adherents of the religion of Jesus" are to be found—number only about 17,000,000. Cram places the number at 16,500,000—a long way from a converted world, even nominally so.