FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
Published Monthly by tlio foreign Mission Hoard of tlio Southern Baptist Convention.
;<ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE, AND
ТЕЛОН
ALL NATIONS.”
Vol. 18— New Series.
RICHMOND. VA„ MARCH, 1884.
No. S.— Whole No. 188.
IKntered at the I'oft-Ofllce at Itlchmond, Vh.(
eeceml-claes muU«<r,]
Foreign Mission Journal
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Address,
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
Richmond, Va.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION,
I.OCATKD
лт
RICHMOND. VIRGINIA,
P11K8IDKNT — J, L. M. CURRY.
\*1СВ-Гнк8тсхТ8.—
J.sliua I.evcrlnc, Met., J.
Л.
Hack. it, I.n., J. I.. Burrow., Va..
О.
K. Allen, Fin.,
O. F. Gregory, N.
О.,
T. T. Kntou, Ky.. J. .1.
I».
Hen-
(roe, Alubittnn, R. S. Diincnn, Mo., II H. Carroll,
Texn», W. I,. Kilpatrick, (In,, Ctiae. Manly, S. (J.,
Matt. Klllemiln, Teon., J. II, Senrcv, Ark,, Georze
Whltlleld, Itlln, W. P. Walker, W. Va.
OOltmt.FO.uDINO ,S«cn«TAItT— H. A. TUI'PER.
Тввлеипкн—
J. O. WILLIAMS.
lUcouniNH SkCitkTAitr— W. 11. OWATHMEY.
Audito it —JOSEPH F. COTTRELL.
BOAltD
ОГ
ItlANAOKIIS. — J.
В.
Hawthorn., J. II. Wnt-
ktan, II. It. Ellyeon. W. E. Hatcher. E. Wortham, W.
I). Thomne, W. Ood-tln. 11. H. Harris, J. Pollard, Jr .
J. W. Jones.
Л.
II. Clarke, X II. Winston, J. It. Hut-
eon.
О
II. Wlneton. S. (J. Cloiiton.
t&TAll communications in reference to the
business of this Hoard should be addressed to
H.
Л.
Tuppbr, Corresponding Secretary,
liichmond.
Го.
TWO MONTHS.
The Soutlicrn baptist Convention will as¬
semble for its next annual meeting in Haiti-
more, on Wednesday, tlie 7th of May. To
enable tlie oliicers of the boards to prepare
and print their reports, tlie financial year
closes on the .".Oth of April.
The Foreign Mission board reported last
year a gratifying growtli in receipts, a
corresponding enlargement of operations,
and a pressing call for still further extension
of their work. They therefore asked for a
large increase of contributions. Ten months
of the year have passed. We had hoped
Hie collections of these ten months would
equal those of the twelve preceding, and
that all the money received in April and
May would be so much of clear advance
over the previous year. How far this hope
has been realized will appear from tlie fol¬
lowing table of contributions by States, in
which we print in parallel columns the re¬
ceipts from May], 1SS2, to April .10, 1SS3,
and those from May 1, 1SS.4, to February 11),
18SI. The figures do not include consider¬
able sums raised in Texas, Kentucky and
Maryland for Mexican schools and forward¬
ed direct to Saltillo. These will in due time
be reported to tlie Treasurer, and entered
on his hooks.
1882-3 (12 mos.) 18S3-I (10 mos.)
110 12
OHS JO
. 3(11 so
IJS-l S3
1,80.1 GS
1,700 01
1,159 00
2,503 45
3,014 4S
3,203 08
5,397 20
4,870 90
4,315 57
0,004 51
5,901 17
242 2S
West Viiginia .
.. £ 131 12 £
Arkansas .
292 55
Florida .
290 14 .
Louisiana .
779 90
Tennessee .
2,234 23
Alabama .
2,494 If.
Maryland .
2,829 72
Mississippi .
3,001 4S
Missouri .
4,333 14
North Carolina .
4, MS 70
Texas .
5,011 35
. 0,020 82
Georgia .
0,109 95
South Carolina .
0,500 15
Virginia .
8,271 SO
Other States .
325 08
£54,253 01 £42,800 43
Nearly £12,000 must be raised in these two
months to bring tlie churches up to the
measure of last year's liberality. More than
twice that sum is imperatively necessary to
meet obligations which the board lias al¬
ready assumed. The regular current ex¬
penses of maintaining our thirty-nine mis¬
sionaries, together with thirty native evan¬
gelists, including rents of dwellings and
houses for worship, is about £5,000 a month.
Since tlie first of May last the treasurer lias
paid out £50,000. but for a balance of £0,000
brought forward from last year lie would
have been compelled to borrow large sums,
liven with this balance added to the receipts
above the treasury is overdrawn by about
£1,000, and other drafts are. daily expected.
How shall they be met?
but more, if we propose to hold our ground
in Soochow and Ching-kiang, we must have
chapels in both these cities. If our African
mission is to yield much fruit of a perma
Rent character, we must complete tlie build¬
ing at I.agos and maintain the school there.
More chapels arc sadly needed in Italy. The
time seems to have come when we must
open a new station in brazil. An advance
in Nortli China has been already authorized
to Whang-hcin. The arrangement just
completed in Mexico demands an immedi¬
ate expenditure of £12,000, with £8,000 or
£10.000 more in a few months.
Further still, wc ought very speedily to
reinforce our corps of laborers. One young
lady, already under appointment, has spent
three years in preparing herself fora medi¬
cal missionary. She will be ready soon to
sail for Shanghai. To render hernttainments
valuable to the cause, she will need a some¬
what costly outfit for a dispensary. Three
or four young men, most highly recom¬
mended, are completing their theological
studies, and will in a few weeks come before
the board seeking appointments in foreign
lands.
Shall we sadden the faithful veterans by
instructing them to give up cherished
schemes and curtail their work in order to
diminish their drafts? Shall we write to any
whom we have sent forth to preacli the gos¬
pel that they must return or devote them¬
selves to secular pursuits for a support?
Shall wc chill the fresh love and glowing
zeal of worthy applicants by telling them
they will have to wait ? Some or all of these
tilings we must do in common honesty, un¬
less tlie churches supply tlie means for sus¬
taining and extending our work.
The receipts for March and April of last
year were £18,000 — one-third of tlie whole
amount raised. If the same ratio is pre¬
served we shall receive this year in these
two months £21,000; but we need, as has
been shown, at least £30,000. And this can
be easily secured if the whole brotherhood
of Southern baptists will heartily unite,
brother, have you given according to your
ability this year for Foreign Missions? Has
your church taken a collection for this ob¬
ject? Have all the members been called
upon to boar their part in extending the Re
deemer's kingdom ? Will you not at once
repair any omission ? Do not wait till the
last of April, but secure what you can and
remit promptly. The need is pressing.
Great is our privilege in being entrusted
with " the word of reconciliation ” fora dying
world. Great are the opportunities which
Providence is opening wide before us. Much
has been given ; much will be required.
OUR CAUSE IN MEXICO.
As was mentioned last month, the Cor¬
responding secretary of the board has made
a visit to Mexico as a commissioner, empow¬
ered to negotiate with brethren and friends
there for establishing certain schools in the
State of Coahuila. He reached Saltillo on
the 5th of January, and was detained by va¬
rious delays, difficulties, and complications
until the 18th of February. Returning in
one week’s travel to Richmond, he laid be¬
fore the board n full report of his mission
and its results, and this report was, on the
2Gth ultimo, heartily approved. It remains
for the brethren who had so liberally
pledged their support to tin's work to for¬
ward the money to our treasurer, and let
the proposed schools enter at once on their
blessed work of elevating the women of
Mexico and laying tlie foundations for evan¬
gelical Christian homes.
The unexpected delays in the work of tlie
commissioner were occasioned first by the
absence of Governor Madero, who suggest¬
ed the enterprise, and is one of its most
earnest and influential supporters, but was
detained by other business till January 20th;
then by important modifications in the
agreement originally made last September
between the Governor and our missionary —
modifications which amounted, in fact, to
a setting aside of the original contract and
the substitution of another, which reaches
the same end by different means; and
lastly, by the secret machinations of the
priests, who, by threats of excommunication,
threw difficulties in tlie way of acquiring a
title to certain property. The six weeks,
however, were by no means lost. In fact,
we have reason to thank God for the good
providence which gave our commissioner
such ample opportunities to examine the
field, get acquainted with the people, and
consider the difficult and delicate questions
with which he had to deal. We trust the
solution to which he was thus providentially
guided will prove generally satisfactory to
the brethren, and will greatly advance the
Redeemer's kingdom. He was also enabled
to make arrangements for the translation
and publication of Dr. H. H. Tucker's ser¬
mon on Baptism ; to prepare and have pub¬
lished by tlie church at Saltillo an excellent
little tract in answer to the question, “Who
are the baptists? ” which was translated in¬
to Spanish by Don I.ouis Tejada, a native
of Castile, now professor of English in tlie
State college; and not least in importance,
to confer fully with the newly appointed
trustees of Madero Institute, aid them in
preparing a constitution and by-laws, and
see them fairly started in tlicir responsible
duties. But we are anticipating.
The original proposition made to our bro¬
ther Powell provided for the appointment
of trustees, a majority of whom, under Mex¬
ican law, must be citizens of that country ;
the conveyance to these trustees of certain
public property for school purposes ; and the
conduct of schools and orphanages at tlie
joint expense of our Board and the civil
government. This, though carefully guard
ed and perhaps not really liable to the ob
jection, bore on its face the appearance of
union between church and State, and might
have made necessary a considerable diversion
of missionary funds for educational pur¬
poses. The plan as finally adopted is for
the trustees appointed as above by tlie
board to buy outright, at its market value,
certain property in Saltillo; to accept cer¬
tain other property in tlie same city as a do¬
nation from two private citizens, Scnors
Maas and Smith; to accept in the same way
a building at I’arras, the private property of
Governor Madero, donated by him, and to
rent a public building at I’atos for the sum
of £100 per annum. The trustees thus hold
in fee simple property estimated to be wortli
£100,000; for which they pay £12,000 cash,
and will need to add some £20,000 in im¬
provements, furniture, &c. They will also
hold property wortli £30,000 at a rental of
£100 per annum.
The property at Saltillo embraces an un¬
finished temple, 80x200 feet, with front of
carved stone ; the Marqueta, a quadrangular
building of 150 x 200 feet one story high, with
court, fountain and arcade ; and some lots on
the Alameda, or public park. The temple
was begun in 1805, and tlie work suspended
in 1810. It was subsequently sold for a the¬
atre, but is at present unoccupied. Tlie es¬
timate is that £3,000 will fit it up— tlie front
portion for the publicmeetings of the church
at Saltillo, now greatly hindered by the in¬
accessibility and mean appearance of their
place of worship, and the rear for recitation
rooms. Tlie Marqueta will furnish ample
accommodations for boarding pupils and
several excellent recitation rooms. The
Alameda lots will give room for a chapel
and one department of the college. To
build here and fit up the Marqueta will
cost £8,000. With these facilities at their
disposal, tlie trustees propose to open forth¬
with an institution for the liberal education
of young ladies. Don Jose Maria Cardenas,
most pleasantly remembered by all who saw
and heard him during his recent visit to this
country, in company with brother Powell,
has been selected for the principal ; our mis¬
sionaries will transfer their school work and
their personal services, and other teachers
will be added as they may be needed. The
trustees organized by selecting Governor
Madero, president; Rev. W. D. Powell, sec¬
retary and treasurer. The other members
are Senors Musquiz, Attorney-General ; Car¬
denas, Superintendent of Public Instruction ;
Orepaso, Rodriquez, Gonsalvez. and Powell,
of Mexico; brethren Breedlove and Dunn,
of Texas; Eaton, of Kentucky; Levering,
of Maryland; and Winston and Harris, of
the Foreign Mission board.
At I’arras the Governor gives grounds and
building worth £30,000, and he, with other
wealthy friends, promises to endow tlie in¬
stitution, especially for the care and educa¬
tion of orphan girls. This will be put in
charge of a separate Board of Trustees.
The institution at Patos will be somewhat
similar in character. For the present, as
already stated, the property there will be
rented.
In speaking of the spirituality*, zeal and
love of the little baptist church at Saltillo,
tlie Corresponding Secretary is quite enthu¬
siastic. The members thus far have come
mainly from the middle and lower classes of
society. Tlie proposed change in their
place of worship will enable them to resell the
upper ranks, who have renounced popery,
but incline to indifierentism. Our mission¬
ary is without exception the most influential
man in the city, and is doing with singleness
of heart an incredible amount and variety
of work.
Scnor Cardinas in an eloquent letter ad¬
dressed to the board, estimates that six
millions of the population of Mexico are
Romanists, most of them through ignorance,
others for convenience; one million are
evangelicals; thtee millions have rejected
Romanism, but are totally indifferent to any
religion. Of the Romanists, he thinks at
least four million arc women. He there¬
upon p.leads : “ In view of this stale of things
it is evident that this is the time, the em¬
phatic time, to give to Mexico the divine
Word, tlie truths of Christianity. There
should be no delay. For these three mil¬
lions, who have torn themselves from Rom¬
anism, will not remain indifferent. They
would find a refuge in a Christian temple;
they would follow the light of a pure evan¬
gelism. And this powerful attraction would
draw those who, through fear of anathemas,
remain beneath the bondage of Rome. With
eyes enlightened by the pure light of the
gospel of Christ, they will enlist under the
banner of the Crucified One. Thus the
million of evangelicals, of different denomi¬
national persuasions, would not be isolated,
and could make a powerful and heroic cru¬
sade in the cause of true religion."
At every step of its Mexican work the
Board has been borne along by the generous
enthusiasm of the brethren, and guided, as
we humbly trust, by the providence of God
and by the Holy Spirit.
