Foreign Mission Journal, December 1880

Foreign Mission Journal L>ia(>M»Iicd Monthly l»y the l’or«lpi ЛПьм1оп ISoaril o« the fjonthern UEuiitlst Convention. «ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE , THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS." Vol. 12.— Now Series. RICHMOND, VA., DECEMBER, 1880. No. 0,— Whole No. 120. fFnteml at the ГоиЮШев nt lilchmoml, Л'»., os scoond- 1 close matter.] FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL KATES UHU ANNUM : Oue copy . . «I cte Four copies ami over, to они Rillin'?*, each . U6 cl*. ea-l’h'ttue I emit by Draft, I’ostnl Onhir, or in Ut-Klsteretl Letter, tttul notify ns ritOMrri.Y of nny chantru In ntltlross, AildrcM, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL, Richmond, Va. FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, I.OCA7 CD at RICHMOND. VIRGINIA. PnicMDKXT— J. I,. M. OUIIRY. VK's-I’nsiniKXTH,— Hlrnin Woods, bid., J. A. Hackett, I, a., W. 11. Kirk, Va., II. U. McUnllum, Fla., T. II. Pritch¬ ard. N. Cl., J. L. Burrows, Ky., S. HenJereon, Alabama, W. Pone Yenmau, bio., J. 11. Link, Tosha, W. L. Kilpatrick, Ga., J. U. Furman. S. (J., Matt. Jllllsman, Tenn., T. I*, bpy, Ark., M. P. I.otvry, bliss. UoitUESfO.s-Dl.NO SK' KKTAitv— H. A. TUPPER. Tiikasuhbii— J. C. WILLIAMS. RSCOHDINO Seen UTAH v—W. II. GWATHMKY. AupITOll— JOSEPH F. COTTRELL. llOAitDOk blAN'AOKMH — J. 11. Hnwthorne, J. 11. Watkins, H. K. Ellyson, W. E. Hatcher, K. Wortham, Henry McDonald, W. Goddln, II. H. Harris, J. Pollard, Jr., J. W. Jones, Л. H. Olarke, J. II. Winston, T. J. Evans, О. H. Winston, S. O. Oloptoa. _ ТЗГ All communication!! in reference to the business о/ 4 lid Board should be addressed to II. A. Tvrrm:, Corresponding Secretary, Richmond, Va. FORM OF BEQUEST, “ 1 huioby give and bequeath unto tlio Soutliern baptist Con veil! Ion, formed in Augusta, Georgia, ia tlio month of May, 18-Jo, and chartered by the Legislature of the State of Georgia, by an net passed and approved December 2‘Jth, ISIS, [here insert the amount , if in money, or ‘subject,’ if other property, either real or personal,) for Foreign Missions.” THE COLONIZATION-IDEA, My Dear Brother: You ask mo to give you my views on the •‘Colonization-Idea.” I adopt tills method of doing it as others may be interested In the same subject. Once I was deeply interested in it— so interested that I was willing to give myself, and my all to its practical excmplitlcation. The chosen field was Japan. The plan was for uio to make a tour of inspection, for which all needed informa¬ tion was obtained and ail preliminary arrangements were made. Should the report be favorable, a mis¬ sionary colony was to be led to that country under the auspices of the IJoard of Foreign Missions of tlie Southern Baptist Convention, but at no cost to the Convention. An income of §10,000 to $12,000 per annum was actually secured for tlio purposes of support; and a much larger umount was ex¬ pected to he secured. Cut a plan which was now to the Convention, and which involved so much of good or evil, was not to be undertaken without tlio wisest counsel. Two visits were made to Richmond for consultation with tho then Corresponding Sec¬ retary of the Board. Correspondence was opened througli the Secretary, Dr. Taylor, with the Secre¬ taries of tiie Missionary Union, and tlio American Board, and others in situations adapted to qualify them for accurate judgment. The result of tho consultation was that tlio plan was deemed inex¬ pedient. Tho war rendered Impossible what wis¬ dom regarded uriadvlsabio. This personal experi¬ ence is introduced for the purpose of indicating that I do not write on tlio subject without some knowledge and thought. What is the colonization-idea ? It Is that a com¬ pany of Christian moil and women, of varied vo¬ cations and talents, should go to a heathen laud and take care of themselves by their own means or toil, and spread the knowledge of Christ not only by preaching but by the Influence of their Christian character, us exempllticd in the business Slid social relations of life. Tho theory is very pleasant ; and were Chris¬ tianity what it should be, perhaps it would be practicable. But, what are some of the dilUcultics at the very start which render such an enterprise Impracticable? J. U’liat kind of persons— of businesspersons— shall the colony be composed of? Do you say, for instance, tlio Iirst-clas3 and successful merchant or mechanic? Go to tlio best and most pious llrst- claes merchant, or mechanic, or physician, or lawyer that you know, and make tlio experiment of convincing hitn that it is his duty to break up his business, and root up Ids family, to go and set¬ tle in Asia or Africa. Try it, and you will be wiser after tlio experiment. Do you say : The kind of persons to go ure young people who are not so firmly settled in life? That young merchant, or mechanic, or lawyer, on whom you have your eye, has a death-3trugglo to get bread in tills land of abundance, where ho knows the language and the people, and lias a circle of friends around him to sympathize with and to aid him ; and what would it be in China or in Yoruba? Suppose for the sake of tlio argument either should be persuaded to go. Take the successful man ; take tlio poor man. Presume that ho can make money, or make a living in the heathen coun¬ try, over-crowded, with everything against him, how much missionary work will either do? How mueli does he at homo? In his struggles with the heathen for property or for life, how much will he influence them to go to Christ? See the business Christian men of Sandwich Islands. Immersed in gain-gathering, their influence for Christ is worse than nothing. If nny doubt this, let him read the letters of General Armstrong, of Hampton Insti¬ tute, of tliis State, written last summer from his native Sandwich Isle. So dangerous is tlm effect of business-relations In heathen lands on the mis¬ sionary spirit, that it is a positive rule of the Southern Baptist Convention that no Foreign Mis¬ sionary under its patronage shall engage, on pain of excision, in any secular business. Prominent missionaries have been eut off on this ground. If occasional business has so injurious an effect, what must be the influence of a business-life? Ab¬ stractly it may seem different; but, wisdom is to regard tilings as they are. The average Christian merchant or mechanic in China will be no more Christian there than in America, llow much do the Chinese learn of Christ from the Christian merchants, and mechanics, and lawyers of Cali¬ fornia? Suppose that only ministers and their families should go— how much better would the case be? You say : Did not Paul do missionary work, and support liimself ? I reply, as suggested by Clirist- lieb: 1st. Wbcro is your Paul to go? 2d. Where are tho eircumetuuces of Paul to be found now in a pagan land? “If a Paul preached in a civilized empire, of whicli he was a native and a citizen, to a people with whose language lie had been from childhood familiar, and whoso social habits made it possible for him, in every term, to gain by his own hand a livelihood, without thereby having his whole time occupied, he was surely in a positlou quite different from that of the missionary. The latter, to begin with, apostle neither in strength nor in gifts, goes to distant peoples, perhaps quite savage, perhaps only half civilized, a complete stranger, with every avenue of speech and custom shut to him, and thus, for a considerable time, necessarily compelled to be without any sufficient means of sustenance— is it to be wondered at, if in his care for his own daily bread, lie shall forget to be anxious about the souls of others ? Mauy So¬ cieties which at first sent out missionaries on this principle, have, after bitter experiences, and taught by tho stern reality of facts, been compelled to abandon it, or to apply it only in very special cases.” But your eye is not so mueli on self-supporting preachers as on self-supporting business men. 1 remark then that the gospel-doctrine for tho salva¬ tion of the nations is:. “Go — preach.” You say, the Christian may preach by his life. True. But, can you get the Christian to go to preach by his life? Why, the right kind of Preachers cannot be in¬ duced to go ! It REQUIRES THE REST MEN DE¬ VOTED TO THE WORK OF SAVING SOULS BY THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL, TO GO TO THE HEA¬ THEN. It is not the mechanic, not the merchant, not the physician — however good they may be — but the preaching of Jesus which is the power of God unto salvation. But I must close for the present at least, although I have scarcely entered tho subject. I am yours, very affectionately, Richmond, Va. q\ SPECIAL PRAYER. Dr. M. T. Yates, in sending some strange news from China, under date of September 21, 18S0, asks: “My dear brother, will not you and the members of the Board join me in special prayer every Sunday night, for more men and women and means for tho work in China? The demand is ur¬ gent, and the time is short.” Who will unite with brother Yates and the Board in this concert of prayer ? VALUABLE MAP. W. G. Corthcll, publisher in Boston, is about to issue an outline missionary map, five by six feet, which will “take in India, Burmah and China.” In the last country the mission-stations of the Southern Baptist Convention will appear. Tho prloe on cloth, $1.50, on paper, 75 cents. MEMORIAL MONEY, The Missionary Society of the Walnut-Street Baptist church, of Louisville, Ky., lias contributed two hundred dollars during the present year to tlio work of Foreign Missions, “ as a memorial to two of their members recently deceased.”