Inferences hastily drawn, or prematurely adopted, would only tend to discredit missionary survey as a means to the attainment of truth.

The adoption of a hypothesis and the making of a survey in order to prove it by a careful selection and manipulation of facts would not discredit survey as a means to the attainment of truth; it would only discredit and debase the moral character of the man who made such a survey.
2.

The survey here treated of is missionary survey, that is to say, it treats of missions and is governed by a missionary purpose.

And it is a survey of Christian missions; therefore it is governed by the purpose of spreading the knowledge of Christ.

This statement is of great importance and needs to be carefully conned before it is accepted, because by it missionary survey will be distinguished from all other survey.