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534 STATISTICS AND CisAconfronted withto Misskms stupendous task which will demand the wiseapplication of its resources in men andspiritual energy. While it is true that the moving of theSpirit of God cannot be determined by the mere enumerationof facts, we are justified in studying and enumerating ourmaterial and human resources, as much as in the days whenwe are told that our Lord ehose twelve apostles, sent outseventy to preach, fed live thousand, after making them sitdown by fifties and by hundreds, with five loaves and twosmall lishes, and may be encouraged by the enlargement ofour activities and our membership even as the one hundredand twenty gathered in the upper room were by the additionin one day of about three thousand, and of others till thenumber of them that believed was about live thousand.Statistics are liable to error (1) when the:gr .^Statistics facts to be enumerated are not clearlydefined or are not, fully understood by theenumerator ;(2) when the record is not made in the presenceof the facts and details have been forgotten; (3) when therecord is not accompanied with sufficient descriptive detail toenable those who use the numbers to interpret them correctly; (4) when the record is inaccurately transmitted; (5)when incomparable facts are grouped together (as when itis attempted to add together figures- for lower and higherelementary schools from one source and day and boardingschools from another) ; (6) when they are interpreted bythose unfamiliar with the phenomena with which they deal..r These considerations indicate to some ex-TJStatistics tent the importance of the efforts now beingmade to co-ordinate the statistical returns ofmissionary organizations around the world. They givesignificance to the statistical schedules prepared by theSpecial Committee on Survey and Statistics of the Continuation Committee of the World s Missionary Conference, andadapted and more fully defined by the China ContinuationCommittee. By accurate definition it is hoped to enablethose making the first records to do so with accuracy ; bysecuring uniformity to secure returns which shall be comparable and capable of combination; by the use of the same