FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL-
Published Monthly by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“ALL power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, go ye. therefore, and teach ALL NATIONS.”
Vol. 17— New Series.
RICHMOND, VA.. NOVEMBER,
188Б.
No. 4.— Whole No. 208,
fEuifrfd ftt the l*oi 14) Bice nt Richmond, Ya., as
1 second-clues matter.)
Foreign Mission Journal
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Address,
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL,
Richmond, va.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE SOUTHERN
ВЛРТ18Т
CONVENTION,
Looatmd at RICHMOND. VIRGINIA.
Рпшгожкт
L. M. GURRY.
VlCA-PiiselDlKTe.— Joshua Levering, Md„ 0 W.
Tomltles, I,a., J.
I,-
Borrows, Vn„ N.
Л.
Ilalley, Fla,,
Tbeo. Whitfield, N. O., W. If. Felix, Ky„ J. J. 1). Iien-
' abama, It, S. Duncan, Mo., II. II. Carroll,
L. Kilpatrick, On., Chas, Manly, S. O.,
enter, Tenn,. J. It. Senrey, Ark., George
Mis.., W. F. Attklsson, W. Va.
OonnaerOKBtko SkcnnTATvy— H. A. TUPPEIl.
TttKABtJnKit— J. G. WILLIAMS.
Rioohdi.ho SxcR.TAnT— W. II. OWATIIMEY.
ACDtrOn— JOSEPH F. COTTRELL.
Board or
Мдгглокпз.—
J.Ii.Wntklna, H. K. Elly-
.on, W. E. Hatcher. G. Cooper, W. D. Thomas, IL
H. Harris, J. Pollard, Jr., J. A'. Jons.,
Л.
II. Clarks,
J. II. Winston. J H. notion. O. JI. Winston. S. O.
Clopton, W, W. Landrum, W. J. Shipman.
S6VAII communications in reference to the
buxine»» of this Board should be addressed to
H. A. Tuppkr, Corresponding Secretary ,
Richmond, Va.
EDWIN WORTHAM.
One of the oldest and most faithful of our
Board of Managers fell on sleep at his resi¬
dence in this city, on the loth of September
last. A successful merchant and a devoted
Christian, he was in 1S5S selected as treas¬
urer of the Board, and filled the position
with perfect satisfaction to all parlies con¬
cerned until compelled a few years ago by
age and feebleness to remit the work to
younger hands. To the last he remained
deeply interested and well-informed about
all the work of the Board, a regular attend¬
ant at its meetings and a wise counsellor in
all its affairs. We shall miss his familiar
form, his warm greeting, his earnest spirit.
At the funeral, which took place from the
First Baptist church, September 12th, his
pastor spoke most appropriately of his
worth as a church-member, and Dr. Craw¬
ford alluded most tenderly to his services as
treasurer. The Board at its meeting Octo- J
ber 12th, adopted the following:
Whtreas, it has pleased our Heavenly
Father to remove from our number the ven¬
erable and beloved Edwin Wortliam, Esq.,
who for many years tvas the faithful and ef¬
ficient treasurer of the Board, and ever a
devoted member, even when burdened with
the infirmities of age and disease, therefore
1. Resolved, That in the departure of our
honored brother the work of Foreign Mis¬
sions has lost one of its truest friends and
most conscientious managers.
A Resolved, That in testimony of his ap-
Ereciatcd worth, a leaf in our record *
c appropriately dedicated to the
our friend and co-laborer.
j. Resolved, That a copy of this paper be
communicated to the family of the deceased,
with assurances of the sincere and profound
sympathy of every member of the Board of
horeign Missions of the Southern Baptist
Convention.
THEORY AND CONDUCT OF OUR MISSIONS.
'1 he meaning of the foreign missionary
enterprise is the preaching of the gospel to
heathen and unchristianized nations by for¬
eigners. But the enterprise does not con¬
template that these nations are to have the
gospel preached to them by foreigners al¬
ways. In the beginning of Christianity
foreign apostles and disciples went ,imon_
the nations and declared to them the good
news; then native preachers and teacher:
arose by the grace of God, and were set
apart among these peoples; and thus the
gospel was universally propagated. The
present theory, in accordance with this
scriptural example, is that foreigners from
Christian lands are to introduce the truth of
Christ and him crucified, and natives, called
of God to the work, are to take it up, spread
and perpetuate it among their own people
and, in their turn, propagate it among other
peoples. This theory is based on the known
fact that men of every nationality have more
influence over their own people than for¬
eigners can possibly have. There are race
preferences and prejudices which are in
nale and ineradicable, and which are in
peraotc barriers to human progress except
by the instrumentality of race progress it¬
self. The theory is based also on the divine
statement that God is not a respecter of
persons, and that among all nations he has
chosen ,ones to do and declare his will
There is no reason why the Negro or the
Mongolian should not be called to the gos
pel ministry as well as the Caucasian. The
reasonableness and naturalness and neces¬
sity of this gospel-propagation, by the natives
of each country, is a divine intimation ns to
how universality is to be given to his king
dom on earth.
This theory suggests the comforting view
that “ foreign missions” are limited as to
time. As this work of foreigners advances
the sphere of the work diminishes. As the
native takes up the gospel-publication the
foreigner is to retire. The foreign work
thus becomes home-work. The day is to
come when the foreign missionary enter¬
prise will have fulfilled its mission, and the
home mission work will be co-extensive
with our globe. What inspiration to press
with the utmost vigor this work among the
nations is found in this hope, that we shall
hear some day the cry : “ The kingdom of
this worltl is become the kingdom of the
a better way is to aid these churches for a
book
of
Dr. George Cooper, pastor of the First
Baptist church, has been chosen by the
Board to fill the vacancy '.left by the death
of brother E. Wortham. We gladly wel¬
come him to a full share in the responsibili-
iies, the anxieties and the joys of a manager
of our Foreign Mission work, and trust that
we shall reap the benefits of his experience
in other similar bodies and of his Christly
spirit.
I Lord and of his Christ !
j The idea of " self-support,” about which
we hear so much now in connection with
foreign missions, is embedded in the very
heart of the gospel theory of foreign mis
sions. The native churches, in pagan and
papal lands, must, of course, take upon
themselves, sooner or later, the burden of
gospel propagation, just as foreign mission¬
aries from Christian lands must sooner or
later retire from gospel preaching in these
pagan and papal lands. This view is held
by all of our missionaries, we believe, with
greater or less distinctness. There is not
one of them, in our opinion, who does not
long and labor to see the native churches do
what they can for the support of the gospel
among themselves and “In the regions be¬
yond.” In all our missions there are col¬
lections among the converts for this pur¬
pose ; and, in some of them the amounts
raised arc very considerable. How the ul¬
timate aim of complete self-support is to be
realized is a question which missionaries, in
different countries and among different peo¬
ple, may answer differently. Some may
think that the native churches should have
no aid, and thus learn at once to support
their own preachers, on the principle that
the best way to teach a boy to swim is to
throw him into deep water where he must
either swim or drown. Others may think that
while, and indoctrinate them gradually into
tlie gospel principle of gospel propagation
by native agency until they feel able to do
the work as the mother helps her Infant un
til it can stand and walk by itself. Are not
feeble churches and poor preachers aided
(thus in Christian countries by missionary
organizations ?
There is room for difference of opinion,
also, as to the best method of preparing na¬
tive churches and preachers for self-support.
It is thought by some that the native should
receive from the foreign missionary the gos¬
pel and Bible teaching alone, by which he
may, by the grace of God, be made
unto salvation, and by which lie will
to crave more knowledge and more elevated
life, and will be ultimately led to erect the
school-house and pay for the training of his
children. It is thought by others, that while
the preaching of the gospel is, of course, the
principal work of the missionary, the school
is an important auxiliary to this work, and
even the removal of children from the
corrupting influences of pagan and papal
associations. Just here the prudent mis
sionary exercises great care not to let
parents deceive themselves by the notion
that the child is thus being trained for the
church, and not to deceive himself with the
idea that because parents allow their chil¬
dren to enter his school, they are necessarily
in favor of his religion. Parents give up
their children thus for their material benefit ;
and, the missionary takes them for the spir¬
itual benefit he hopes to confer. In heathen
lands there is as much human nature in the
church and in the world as in Christian
lands ; and we must not apply tests to the
heathen, and to our missionaries, that we
ourselves might not be able to stand.
In view of such differences of opinion as
to the best method of securing the common
end held by all our missionaries, the man
agers of our Board, taking a broad view of
the situation, make their rules so flexible
that there is room for the earnest and en¬
thusiastic working of all, only providing that
the main matter shall be the preaching of
the gospel and the edification of the
churches. And in view of the present dis¬
cussion on “ self-support,” it might be more
distinctly formulated that a constant eye
should be kept by our missionaries to the
ultimate self-support of the native churches,
agreeably to the very theory of Christian
foreign missions.
But this is only half. While these mis¬
sionaries are in the field, preaching the gos¬
pel, and training the churches to assume
themselves the work, the churches of our
country are to bear the burden. This the
churches of our denomination have virtually
contracted to do in the organization of the
Southern Baptist Convention. The business
of the managers of this work is not merely
to give direction to the workers abroad, but
to stir ujr constantly the pure minds of the
churches at home by way of remembrance.
Hence the Board has kept before its eye,
for many years, the object of getting every
Baptist church and individual in the territory
of our Convention to contribute something
regularly to the work of the world’s evan¬
gelization. This was the aim of our State
agents, our Central Committees and of our
mite-box system ; this was the point of an
elaborate plan of systematic beneficence,
one of the prominent features of which was
that our people should give “ on the first day
of the week,” and " as the Lord had pros¬
pered them,” which was published in the
oornal of March, 18S0, and which we have
reason to know has been adopted by not a
few churches : this is the intent of the pres¬
ent Vice-President scheme embodied in the
By-laws of the Convention, according to
which our Vice-Presidents have labored
faithfully to reach through State and District
Associations, churches and Sunday-schools,
every Baptist man and woman and child of
the South. The pages of the Journal are
replete with exhortations to the same end;
and hundreds of thousands of appeals, with
this object, have gone to the churches, dur¬
ing all these years, through the mail and
our denominational periodicals— to say
nothing of the countless addresses made
personally to God’s people. This is still the
aim of the Board, who expect to continue on
this line of labor, according to their own
wisdom and the direction of the Convention.
But, during all these years of toil to realize
this most desirable result, the Board has
been impressed with the conviction that the
most efficient and powerful agent for this
end are the pastors of the churches. It
seems greatly preferable for the churches to
plan for themselves, and for the pastors to
make their weekly ministrations of the gos¬
pel to bear on the great duty of heeding the
divine requirement of regular and conscien¬
tious support of his kingdom among the na¬
tions of the earth. This seems according
to the order of the gospel and is most agree¬
able to our ideas of Baptist church inde¬
pendence and missionary organizations.
And the Board entertains the hope that this
great and God-ordained means will yet be
employed generally and universally in the
South for the realizing of the aim of the
Board, as indicated by its myriad recorded
acts and efforts of bringing every Baptist
church into line in the effort to do what it
can for the salvation of the world.
In view of these facts, botli witii regard to
the theory and conduct of missions at home
and abroad, the Board is cheered, from time
to time, in seeing the one or the other of
these cardinal matters of self-support and.
of universal giving being brought promi¬
nently and regularly before our churches.
New bells ringing out the old tunes are apt
to be most readily heard and heeded.
But the best theory, most ably and per-
severingly advocated, is impotent without
the divine spirit of missions burning in the
hearts of the people. This must be kindled'
by the Holy Spirit, in response to prayer and'
the teaching of God's word, and may be
aided by the contemiilation of how greatly
this work of God has been prospered in the
bands of his people, and how great is the
demand for means to sustain this evergrow¬
ing and prospering work. Never has the
work been more successful, and never have
its needs been more pressing. Will not the
churches and every lover of Jesus come up,
according to his means and promptly, to the
hglp of the Lord, to the help of the Lord
against the mighty ?
DR. YATES’ CHAPEL.
Two-thirds of the twenty-five hundred
dollars subscribed for this chape!, at the last
meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention,
remains unpaid. It lias been a hard year;
but, the money has to be paid, notwithstand¬
ing, by the Board. Even if it is not easy for
subscribers to pay, it is easier for each of
them to arrange to get the amount of his
subscription and forward it, than for the
Board, with all its other burdens, to arrange
to borrow and advance for all of the sub¬
scribers who have not paid.
The General Association of West Arkan¬
sas and Indian Territory at its late session
created the office of Foreign Mission Secre¬
tary, and elected to it Elder E. L. Compere.
He made a good beginning by forwarding a
round sum to our treasurer and a list of sub¬
scribers for the Journal.
