FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
PubliBlietl Monthly by tlio Foreign Mission Hoard of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE. AND TEACH ALL NATIONS."
Vol. 18— New Series.
RICHMOND, VA.. DECEMBER, 1886.
No. S.— Whole No. 221.
[Entered at the Post-Office at lllchmond, Va.,
second-clues matter.]
Foreign Mission Journal.
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Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL,
Richmond, Va.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE 80UTHEI1N BAPTIST CONVENTION.
Located AT RUHIMOND. VIRGINIA.
Plt*6IDTNT— II. II. llABRtS.
Vlcs-I’nseiDKMTS _ Joshua Leverlnc, Md., C. W.
Toralde., La..
О.
II. Wlanoa, Va.,N.
Л.
Halley, Fla.
Theo. WhllflelU, N.U.O. F.
ПякЬу.Ку.,
J. J. I). lien
froe, Alabama, It. S Duncan, Mo., II. II, Carroll,
Texne, W. L. Kilpatrick,
Па„
Ohas. Manly, S. O.,
J. M. SentiT, Toon.. J. II. Searcy, Ark., Georce
Wbllfleld, Miss., W. F. Attklseon, W. Va.
OOimKerOMDING Seciiktaey— II.
А, Т11РГЕК.
TuEAbunun— J. O, WILLIAMS.
Recoedino SEcnKTAny
II. CLARKE.
A UDITOll— JOSEPH F. COTTRELL.
Полно
or Manaoeus.— H. K. Ellyson, J.
П.
Wlr.
slon, W. E. Hatcher, F. W, Jones, J. Pollard, ,Tr.,
S. O. Illopton, J. H. Hiitinn. W. D. Thomas, W. TV,
Landrum, W J. Shipman. Geo.
Пгпрег.
R. W.
Power., O. lI.RylaiHl, II. U. Uurcolt, T.
Г.
Mathew..
КаУЛН
communications in reference to the
btiiintJA of this Hoard should be addressed to
H. A. Tuppek, Corresponding Secretary,
Richmond. Va.
LITTLE WORKERS,
The little workers of Bethlehem church,
Henrico comity, Virginia, send us four dol
lars for the poor heathen children who have
never heard of the Saviour. Let the little
workers stimulate larger workers in their
zeal for this cause of the Master.
CONVENTION NOTES,
Since the middle of October it has been
our privilege to visit a number of conven¬
tions in the interest of foreign missions.
Our first visit was made to the Western
North Carolina Convention, a body embrac¬
ing in its territory that I of North Caro¬
lina lying west of the Blue Ridge mountains.
Here a pleasant surprise awaited us. We
had expected to find a small, only partially
organized body, just beginning to work.
Instead, we found a well organized body of
earnest, intelligent men, whose souls seemed
full of zeal for the Master’s work— a zeal
embracing every part of the mission work,
and educational as well. If we were to say
that the Western North Carolina Conven¬
tion is enthusiastically missionary, we should
not be going too far.
Hitherto the contributions of the churches
belonging to this Convention have been
placed to credit of the State Convention,
and delegates to the Southern Baptist Con
vention have been appointed by that body.
Hereafter the Western Convention will be
represented by its own delegates, as was de¬
termined by resolution at their late meeting.
Material results followed our visit.
From Hendersonville, N. C., in company
with Dr. Tichenor, we spent a broken night
and day in reaching Nashville, where the
Tennessee Convention was in session. This
body was busily and earnestly working on
its State Mission affairs, but kindly gave
time to the representatives of the Boards of
the Southern Baptist Convention to present
their interests. Saturday night was given
to a mass meeting for Foreign Missions,
and after addresses from several brethren,
Dr. T. T. Eaton took the floor and lifted a
collection of pledges. The late hour pre
vented a casli collection.
The hospitable home of brother M. 1).
Pilcher will be long remembered by the
representatives of the Boards.
From Nashville we went to St. Louis,
where we fell in with a large number of
brethren on their way to Moberly, to the
General Association. This number was
largely increased by the time we readied
our destination. An attendance of overlive
hundred delegates and visitors attested the
fact that we were in a grand Baptist State.
Among these delegates we met not a few
old Seminary friends, and renewed the close
friendships of years now belonging to the
not very near past. Some of us will be be¬
ginning to get old before we know it. Gray
hairs are already streaking the heads of some
of the students who met in Greenville in
Yl at tile— can’t we say great school of the
prophets ?
The brethren all manifested a deep inter¬
est in the FoVeign Mission work, and the
Association kindly gave Thursday night for
a mass meeting in the interest thereof. Par¬
ticular interest was manifested in the build¬
ing of a school bouse for Miss Emma Young
in Canton. At 10 o’clock on Thursday
night, after speeches by the chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Missions, brethren
Bagby, of Brazil, and Eubank, of Africa, we
took the platform and did not make a speech
We, however, received assurance that mis-
souri would this year give the amount asked
of her, £S,coo. Some brethren thought she
would give this amount and the £1,500
needed for Miss Young’s school in addition
How easily the great Baptist host of Mis¬
souri could do it. How much it would help
tlie Board ill its great and increasing work,
Our next visit was to Arkansas. And
what a fine time we did have there I In
Forest City, at the charming home of
brother Izard, which i learned was the
"preachers’ home” in that pleasant little
city, were assembled a few secretaries.
Brother Early, Corresponding Secretary of
the State Board, brother Searcy, our Foreign
Mission Secretary for Arkansas, and ourself,
to which number brother Bagby was for
awbile added.
The Arkansas Convention is pre-eminently
the Convention of collections. They came
too fast to count while there, so we tried to
sum them up while on our way home. We
could recall seven besides the usual Sunday
morning list collection. And they were all
good ones — some big ones. How nobly
does that princely giver, J. P. Eagle, lead
bis brethren in gifts to the Lord. And by
the way, brother Eagle, in a private conver¬
sation, remarked to us that lie had never so
prospered in his efforts to make money as
since lie had been giving largely to the
Lord’s work. And he attributes his success
to the good band of God upon his labors.
He believes that God prospers him because
lie gives and that lie may give. He hopes
soon to be able to give £1,000 a year to mis¬
sions. When our rich men learn these
truths, how will the Lord’s work move on 1
Watch and see if Arkansas doesn’t give
£1,500 to Foreign Missions this year.
From what we have seen and heard
among our brethren in different places, we
are encouraged to believe that interest in
Foreign Missions is growing steadily, and
that tlie means necessary for carrying on the
work will largely increase witli this interest.
Brethren, one and all, help to swell our
income this year to more than the £100,000
asked for. There is a place for every dollar
of that amount, and much more.
FOR HiS SAKE,
We hear much now about substantialism,
which holds that light, and heat and sound,
as well as mind and spirit, are substantial
entities, which are among the great second¬
ary forces of the world. Whether this phi
losophy is tlie true wisdom with regard to
the movements of the natural and spiritual
universe, it is certain that the greatest force
for the world’s transformation, is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called dis¬
tinctively the jiower of God and the wisdom
of God. That this is the divine means for
the salvation of our race is the creed of
practical Christianity, which should he im
bedded in the heart of every follower of the
God-man. This creed, distilled by the Holy
Spirit into Christian experience, becomes a
sentiment and motive of God's people,
which should control them to efforts and
enterprises commensurate with the dire ne¬
cessities of humanity. Many of these ne¬
cessities are met, in a goodly degree, in in¬
stitutions of learning, retreats for reform,
hospitals, almshouses, churches, Sunday-
schools, mission-stations, and like establish¬
ments for temporal and spiritual
benefit, found everywhere in the civi¬
lized and Christianized world, which
are sustained at the annual cost of
millions of money. And millions more
might be wisely expended upon these be
neficent outgrowths of our humane and
saving religion. But what of the spiritual
necessities of the hundreds of millions of
humanity who have none of the benefits
of Christian civilization, who have never
heard of the saving power of the cross?
Nothing is truer than that these multitudes
of souls are lost without the gospel. This
is the plain teaching of revelation ; and the
fearful trutli should be burned into the
deepest conviction of the believer. Mr.
Beecher is justly censured for saying that it
is monstrous, if retribution be true, not to
be filled with perpetual gloominess. But,
are we free from blame who, believing in
this future punishment, are yet careless in
reference to the universal spread of the
only means of averting the everlasting
calamity ? If Christians were more thought¬
ful about this matter they would be more
cast down. But none are called to useless
distress. It is the sorrow that leadeth to
repentance— repentance for indifference and
inaction — that is needed and encouraged.
In the hands of God’s people have been
placed the ability of giving the gospel to
every nation and tribe, and family, and in- ;'a“ch dayaVnoon, for
dividual under the sun. It is not too mucli
" He that hath a bountiful eye, and lendeth
unto the Lord, that which he hath given will
He pay him again.”
to say that this ability has been given for
this purpose, as well as for other good pur¬
poses. Shall such responsibility be lightly
held ; or, held without deep concern as to
its discharge? Should it not quicken
earnestness, and should not that earnestness
express itself in a conscientious and
constant employment of the Lord’s
talents for the performance of the
sacred obligation ? Nor should it be held as
a hard duty. This is a service to the Lord
Jesus— to carryout his longing for the re¬
demption of the vast family of which he is
the head ; to make his name great unto the
ends of the earth. The certainty of success
should make this work, though it have sac¬
rifices, a most joyous privilege. " For the
oy that was set before him he endured the
cross.” The failure of Christianity, which
means the non-salvation of the nations, is
an impossibility. Ail the forces of nature
and providence, physical, metaphysical,
spiritual and circumstantial, are ordained by
the primordial force of the universe for this
end. The throne of the Mediatorial Jeho¬
vah is based upon the universal triumph of
his kingdom. Nothing can be more sure.
The universe were a failure, without the
vindication of the supreme ruler in the re¬
demptive work of the gospel economy.
The co-worker with Christ, in tlie midst of
his toils, may rejoice in the certain results to
he witnessed. Mexico is to be converted,
and Brazil, and Central" Africa, and Italy,
and China, and ail the other countries of tlie
eastern and western hemispheres, with all
the isles of the seas.
But, before this day, much money must be
given ; many sacrifices must be made. In
the providence of God, the work is divided
out among a number of Christian bodies in
this country and in Europe. What are we
doing in the Southern Baptist Convention
for the nations of the earth? Thanks to
God, much has been done, and more is do¬
ing. But, in view of the millions of dollars
in the hands of our people, how small are
the means afforded. For example, in the
last six months, only £31,000 have been
given the Board of Foreign Missions to sup¬
port the work committed to them in five
continents. This is less than five cents
apiece for the Baptists represented in the
Southern Convention. But, tile matter as¬
sumes a graver aspect, in light of the fact
that this £31,000 is not within £20,000 of the
actual expenditures, to date, for these mis¬
sions. In other words, in addition to
contributions for current expenses, which
require some £8, 000 monthly, this £20,000
must be provided, before May next, by the
Baptists of the South. The Board call upon
the brotherhood of our holy religion to
ponder this'matter, and to act in reference
to it, in view of their relations to our foreign
missions, their obligations to them, and in
view of the Master’s good mercies toward
them. But, let none degrade the subject
by thinking he is called to help a board. The
board is nothing but the authorized medium
of carrying supplies to the Lord’s laborers in
foreign fields. Tlie Lord requires that his
own talents be given to gather from the na¬
tions those called into the heavenly fold.
In tlio necessities of the Lord’s work, the
Lord is necessitous, and hence his appeal
to come up to his help against the mighty
forces of the heathen world. Is there no
large-hearted, God-favored man that will
make a thank-offering to the Lord worthy
of the prosperity bestowed upon him ? Are
tiiere not hundreds and thousands that will
send us a thousandth part of the £20,000
needed now? If there be a brother or sis¬
ter, whose eyes shall fall upon these lines,
who cannot send a dollar or a dime,- we beg '
that child of God to join us, for one minute,
a week, in imploring
the giver of all to put it into tlie hearts of
those who can give, to give as tlie Lord hath
prospered them. The claims of tlio Board
as servants of the churches for Christ’s
sake are imperative ; the prospects of their
work were never more favorable. But, let.
the great motive be love to him, who,
“ though he was rich, yet for your sake he
became poor, that ye, through his poverty,
might be rich ; ” and who, looking into the
face of every one of his disciples, asksz
" Lovest thou me more than these.”
SUPPLEMENT OF JUNE, 1880.
Any one having a copy of the supplement
of the June, tS8o, Foreign Mission Journal,
containing notices of the volume “ Foreign
Missions of the Southern Baptist Conven¬
tion,” would confer a favor by sending it to
tlie Corresponding Secretary of the Board
of Foreign Missions, box 134, Richmond, Va.
The Turkish authorities have suppressed
the “ Tornitzja,” a Bulgarian Christian news¬
paper published by American missionaries
in Constantinople. This act is only one indi¬
cation of the growing hostility of the Turk¬
ish authorities to mission work. :ii
