persons already detected of falsehood? Is it not "more safe that we stop ourselves at the plain, pure, "and unmixed belief of one God, which is deism, "than that we commit ourselves on an ocean of "improbable, irrational, indecent, and contradictory "tales?" (Thomas Paine, Age of Reason, pp. 69-70).

For more than a hundred years the Christian apologists have been attempting to discover some way out of this manifest contradiction. Many and various systems have been tried, all of which have been utterly futile; but they are not discouraged, they are still working on the problem. If, however, the missionaries could be persuaded to give the Chinese a truce until these two accounts are made to agree, there would be plenty of time for the Chinese to recuperate. There would be no more bloodshed in China on account of missionaries, enough having already been spilled to amply satisfy the most bloodthirsty of gods. According to our blessed religion, there is no remission of sins except by the shedding of blood; while the Chinese on their part claim that there can be no remission of sins so long as we persist in shedding the blood of our fellow man. Who is right?

As the present scientific and learned men of Europe and America have already repudiated the belief in ghosts and devils-in fact, everything of a supernatural nature-and believe that the world came into existence according to natural law, it will be seen that their present belief is practically the same as that of Confucius. If we believe as Confucius taught, we are Confucians; and according to this way of putting it there are vastly more Confucians in Europe and America than Christian converts in all the rest

of the world. While the missionaries in China are securing one convert to their way of believing, Confucianism makes a hundred, at least, in Christendom.

The common Chinese people, who, on account of their ignorance, are liable to have trouble with the missionaries, should be instructed to let well enough alone, and should be comforted by the fact that Confucianism is reaping a much greater success in the West than Christianity in the East. Let nature take its course, therefore, and do not assist the missionary cause in China by assaulting the missionaries.

MISSIONARIES IN OTHER LANDS

FROM the foregoing it will be seen that the missionaries have done an infinite amount of harm in China. They have saddled that great nation with an enormous debt, and have caused millions of lives to be destroyed. But the mischief done to China is infinitesimal in comparison with the mischief that has been done elsewhere, especially on the islands of the Pacific and in South America, if we consider the subject from a mathematical standpoint. The destruction of life in China on account of missionary enterprise amounts only to about four per cent. of the population, while on many of the Pacific islands. nearly the whole of the population has perished.

The Sandwich Islands, before their discovery by Captain Cook, were the most delightful places in the world, and the most favourable to human life. The climate was perfect all the year round, the land extremely fertile, and there was in the sea an abundance of fish. There was not a contagious disease of any kind, and biting insects and snakes were totally unknown. The islands at that time contained a population of 600,000. They had a very simple religion and a wooden god. If their god did not grant them all they demanded, they simply destroyed him and made another. The temperature was such that clothes were not required, and nowhere on the face of the earth would it have been possible to find a community of the same size where the people were so happy and life was so enjoyable. The prob

abilities are that nothing of the kind will ever happen again.

We sent to these "poor benighted heathens" our missionaries. They introduced clothes, stove-pipe hats, hoop skirts, paper collars, Bibles, playing cards, and hymn-books. These were followed by tobacco, rum, and whisky. They also introduced various insects and two unspeakable diseases which cannot be mentioned in polite society. These killed a good many natives; but to complete the disaster measles was introduced, and this disease alone killed off three-quarters of the population in a very short time.

When Mark Twain visited the Islands some years later he found that the population had been reduced from 600,000 to 60,000. I have recently been informed, by one who claims to know, that the number of natives at the present time does not exceed 6,000. Of course, this is justified by the missionaries, who claim that life on this planet is only transient, and is nothing in comparison with the life to come. Formerly all these innocent, happy people lost their souls; but after the advent of Christianity a few of them managed to have their souls saved, and so slither into heaven.

What has happened on the Sandwich Islands is a type of what has taken place on the numerous smaller islands of the Pacific. Measles and other Christian diseases, with rum, religion, and tobacco, kill off about ninety per cent. of the population in a few years.

Converts are cheaper in Madagascar than in any other part of the world. Mr. Tacchi, one of the leading missionaries, told me that the natives would attend church three times a day on Sunday for what they call "a cash "—a little cube cut out of an American trade

dollar (720 to the dollar). He told me of a congregation of 720 earnest converts who could be relied upon to attend church three times every Sunday for a cash each. On one occasion he failed to pay, and the natives reported him to the British Consul. They claimed that they had been cheated and swindled, and they demanded satisfaction. Since that time the island has been taken by the French, and the great majority of Protestant missionaries have had to vacate the premises. The ways of the Lord are indeed mysterious!

A few years ago a lot of female missionaries, of the screeching-sisterhood variety, learned that the Esquimaux of Labrador managed to dispense with clothes in their hot little huts. They made them a lot of thick woollen pyjamas, which they asked them to wear for decency's sake; and by this change bronchitis was introduced, and seventy-five per cent. of the men lost their lives.

A tribe of fair-haired, blue-eyed white men has recently been discovered in the extreme North by Captain V. Stefannsen. It bears no resemblance, however, to the Esquimaux. The mode of life of the people fits them exactly for their environment, and their discoverer has already petitioned the Canadian Government to protect them against the invasion of missionaries, pointing out that measles and a few other diseases which always accompany the missionary would probably kill more than three-quarters of these harmless people, as has been the case in many other places. Nevertheless, the missionaries are bound not to miss their prey. A movement is already on foot to send missionaries to the extreme North to convert and exterminate this tribe.

In British India the missionaries are making