Foreign Mission Journal, November 1889

ягг- Foreign Mission Journal. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE FOliEIGN MISSION -BOAltD OF THE SOUTIIEICN BAPTIST CONVENTION. '"/10». ГШ'. «ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS.’ Vol. 2i — New Series. RICHMOND, VA„ NOVEMBER, 1889. No. 4 — Whole No. 256 [Entered nt the Post-Omce fit lUchmrnrt, Ya., second-class matter.) Foreign Mission Journal. RATES PER ANNUM: having the name of this honored firm upon them. Would to God that many, many more, both of preachers and people, would adopt this method of giving unto the Lord. I. For papers nepnrately addressed, either to same or to different post отсев : Threecopies ifii.or - . SSH cts. apiece. II. Fornnckases sent to one person, who shall be responsible for their distribution: Fonr copies for $1, or more at . . . 25 eta. apiece. Twenty* live copies for f 6. or more at.. ....20 cts. apiece. One llundrod copies for 910, or more at., 10 cte. apiece. «-Please remit by Draft, Postal Order, or Inlieyls- lered belter, and notify us rnouPTLY of any change In address. Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL, Richmond, Va. ADVERTISING RATES. ВГД0В. 1 Month. s Months в Months 12 Months U 8 CO 4 76 ills 3 46 в 4fl 0 20 IS 00 26 26 60 00 в 60 12 60 18 00 16 00 48 00 82 60 12 00 22 60 S2 00 48 00 90 00 178 00 Two Inches . . Three Inches . Quarter column... Half column . . One column . FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE 80U7HERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, Located at RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. Рпкэпжнт— H. H. IlAItlUS. VICi-Pn*siD*NTs.—Toebna Levering, Md„C. W. Tomkl-s, La.. Д. B. Owen, Va.. N. A. Halley .Fla., J. L. While, N.O.. O. F. llagby. Ky., W. O. Bled- sss. Alabama, J. P. Greene, Mo.. lL H. Carroll, Texns. W. L. Kilpatrick. Ga- A. J. S. Thomas, S.C. R. J. Willingham, Tenn.. J. R. Searcy, Ark., George Whitfield. Miss.. W. F. Attklsson. w. \a. ConnseroNDmaSKCitaTAny— II. A. TUPPEB. ASSISTANT SECnHTAIty, T. P. DELL. ТпиАвепип— J. O. WILLIAMS. Rsconmna Sbcbbtaby— A. II. CLARKB. Additob— H. O. BURNETT. BOABDOF Managers. — H. K. Ellyson. O. H. Win ston. W. E. Hatcher, J. Pollard, fr.. S. O. dop- ton, J. B. notion, W. O. Thomas. W. W. I-andrum, Geo. Cooper. О. II. Ryland. H. C. Bnrnett, T. P. Mathews. It. II. Fltt. R.S. Hosber, J.L.M. Carry, Theo. Whitfield. communications in reference to the business of this Board should be addressedto H. A. Tuppkr, Corresponding Secretary, Richmond, Va. The editor has been away visiting State Conventions since the first copy for this issue of the Journal was given to the printer. If any special defects appear in it, lie will have to crave the indulgence of his kind readers, as he cannot overlook its making up. TITHING. Within the last few years, and especially since we have been traveling about a great deal, we havo been a little surprised, and not a little gratified, to find that many of our ministers are in the habit of tithing their incomes for the Lord’s work. We say " ministers,” because nearly all of those who we have learned do tithe, are minis¬ ters. So far as our observation goes, very few others do so. At least, we have failed to hear of more than two or three such. In talking with those who give the tenth, we have been struck with this fact, that without exception, they declare it to be the easiest and most satisfactory method of giving they have ever tried. And with equal unanimity they say that God has manifestly blessed them in temporal as well as spiritual things, since they have tried to honor him by this system. Several have assured us that the conviction of the duty had come to them when they were behind-hand in money matters, and that when, resisting the temptation of the devil to defer the performance of the duty until they were free of debt, they had gone forward in it, they had been able to man¬ age their financial affairs more satisfactorily and had derived far more- pleasure from the use of what remained than had been the case before, when all was theirs (?) and God got only an uncertain part. We said in the outset that we had found many ministers who tithe their incomes. It has been our pleasure to know also of one firm of Christian men who, we are told, regularly set apart a certain pro. poriion of the profits ol their business for the Lord's use. And not unfrequently have we known the anxious hearts of secreta¬ ries and treasurers of our denominational boards to be comforted by the receipt of checks for one, two or three hundred dol¬ lars from “Stewards of the Lord’s money,” COMMUNICATION WITH THE MISSIONA¬ RIES, We once heard an honored leader in the foreign mission work of our Convention say to a party of missionaries, some of whom were at home for a season, and others just going out, that he every morning got into direct communication with each one of our missionaries. To their look of in¬ quiry, he answered by pointing upward, and saying, “ Through the central office up yonder.” There was a moment’s pause in the general conversation that was going on, as each one of the party sought to re¬ alize the force of the statement. Every morning in communication with every Mis¬ sionary. Pause too, dear reader, and think. It is possible for you to do the same thing. The central office above is never closed, and each reader of the Journal can, in a mo¬ ment, be placed in closer than telephone communication with each of those loved men and women who are representing us on foreign shores in the great work of giv ing tlie gospel to the lost. If more of God’s dear children here at home would do this what blessed results would follow. Our own hearts would be quickened unto new and sweeter sympathy with this great work, and we would feel more as if we had areal partin it. Joy and strength and comfort would (low into the hearts of the toilers across the waters, and they would be upheld and uplifted by a pow' er unseen, but felt. Their heart would be touched by our sympathetic hearts and they would feel as we do when we meet together in our conventions and other meetings, and clasp hands and toucli hearts, and feel a joy and a strength not felt when we toil alone. And — for God hears and answers prayer— our petitions for them would bring to them God's grace and God’s power. And that is what they most need — power from God. With one accord, in one place, Christ’s servants prayed for power in the days before Pentecost. But the "one place "is not essential. If with “one ac¬ cord,” from many places, our prayers should ascend to God, the “ power ” would come upon our missionaries— yea and upon ourselves, for we need it as much as they. Just as we had finished the above our eye fell on these words of Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, which we commend to the prayer¬ ful consideration of our brethren : It is quite right” “ that we should carefully consider our ways, but one feels ealous lest Satan should throw sand in the eyes of the Lord’s people, and occupy them in discussing missionary methods in¬ stead of getting down on their knees for missionary power— the power of the Holy Ghost. There is no missionary method used to my knowledge in China, which, witli more Holy Ghost power, would not bring abundant returns to the praise and glory of God. There are no workers among the evangelical Christian missionaries in China, who, with more Holy Ghost power, will not be so blessed and owned that all true hearts will rejoice together. Do not let us, in our anxiety to be iooklng at this method or that, forget that what the church at home needs, and what the church abroad needs, is to be filled with the Holy Ghost.” TO OUR MISSIONARIES. The Missionary Review for October, in noticing the Annua! Report of our Board says: “The statistics are so incomplete that it is scarcely just to give them. So far as they can be made out, they are, etc.1 This ought not so to be. The Assistant Secretary has done his best to obtain and compile statistics of the missions, but has not been able to do so, and will not be un¬ less he has the assistance of the mission¬ aries. We have for two years past sent a blank form to each mission, asking that the blanks be filled up as nearly as possible, and the paper returned to us. In some cases we have received full and prompt returns; in others very imperfect ones, and in still others, none. In the cases of these last we have had to go over the whole year’s file of the Journal and try as best we could to make outsomesort of account of theyear’s work and its results. Of course, such sta¬ tistics are of little value. We now make special request of each mission, that some one of its members, where there is more than one missionary in tiie mission, shall be appointed to prepare the accurate statistics of the mission and send to this office. Of course, where there is only one missionary in a mission, he must attend to the matter himself. I’lease, on the first day of January of each year, make out your statistics. In these give the following information. 1. Stations, i. e., principal ones. 2. Out-stations (a) in city of principal station, (b) in other places. 3. Male missionaries. 4. Missionaries’ wives. 5. Unmarried female missionaries. 6. Ordained native Preachers. 7. Other Preachers and helpers. 8. Bible and other women employed. 9. Organized churches. io. Members. и. Baptized since last January. 12. Died. 13. Excluded. , 14. Schools — male— female. 15. Scholars— male — Гета!е. 16. Contributions. These reports should be sent to the Sec¬ retary as soon as possible after January the first. If each mission will send in such a report annually, the officers of the Board can prepare correct tables of statistics — not otherwise. BISHOP TAYLOR’S COLONIZATION SCHEME. The scheme of Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Church, for spreading the gospel the heathen by the establishment them of self-supporting mission aries, has attracted a great deal of atten tion, and was hailed at one time, by the lovers of the new in missions, as a cheap and у of accomplishing the great work which lies before the church of Christ. We have from time to time seen intimations that this plan had not been working as sat¬ isfactorily as it was hoped it would, but nothing definite had come to us. At last, however, we have a definite statement as to the results of that work on the Congo, and it comes from a source that ought to establish its correctness. The American Baptist Missionary Union has missions on the Congo, and from its workers there can obtain definite information as to the success or failure of Bishop Taylor’s work. The Baptist Missionary. Magazine gives an account of the work, which is interesting and suggestive. The facts stated ought to lead those who are ready to criticise the regular missionary societies and their methods, and to praise every new and seemingly cheaper method that is sug¬ gested, to stop and consider. According to the statements of the Magazine, Bishop Taylor's method of work has proved neither successful nor economical. It says: Mr. Taylor has been appointed by the Methodist General Conference Missionary Bishop of Africa. So far as Liberia and the rest of the Continent are concerned, we do not understand that this involves a concession to his peculiar methods, hut the region about the Congo appears to have been selected by him ns the field for a new experiment of his unique ideas. A con¬ siderable number of missionaries have gone out. Some are in the Portuguese territory south of the Congo, and are re¬ ported as cultivating the ground success- uliy, and having schools of native chil¬ dren. The larger number are on the lower Congo, in the neighborhood of Vivi. They are living in the abandoned houses of the Free State at Vivi, and are scattered along in villages from that place to Isangila. Each place where a missionary lives is called a station, even though it may be but a few miles from another. A station in the usual missionary sense is a centre for work over a large district, so that when Bishop Taylor reports a large number of stations on the Congo a wrong impression is gained by many. All his stations do not cover so much ground or reaclt so many people or imply so much actual work as two mis¬ sionary stations in the ordinary sense, which always mean headquarters for work over an extended territory, with many sub¬ stations or preaching places. When in this country, in his enthusiastic speeches. Bishop Taylor made use of the work of other societies, especially of the American Baptist Mission on the Congo ; but the references were made with so little care, that his hearers undoubtedly inferred that the successful work of that mission was a part ol that under his own superintendence. Any one unacquainted with the actual state of things on the Congo, and reading his address in New York, as reported verbatim in The Independent, would hardly suppose that there were at least two very successful missions on the Congo, while Bishop Tay¬ lor’s own work was yet wholly disorganized and ineffective. Perhaps something also ought tojie said of the question of cost. Bishop Taylor is expending on the Congo Mission about the same per year as the Missionary Union; but while the mission of the latter is work¬ ing smoothly and successfully, the Taylor Mission is doing very little evangelistic work among the heathen. Nearly all the missionaries are still about the foot of Livingstone Falls, and unable to get up country. Many are sick or discouraged, and would be glad to return to America or to join. other missions if they had an op¬ portunity. They are compelled to use every effort to obtain a support, and have little time, strength, or courage left for missionary work. The pieces of the steamer which was sent out at an expense of $20.000 are scattered along the lower river and becoming useless. The truth is, Bishop Taylor’s idea is not entitled to be called a missionary idea in any sense, t is a plan for Christian colo¬ nization. As such, and properly con¬ ducted, it might be successful in producing tiie good results which would (low from a Christian colony in a heathen land, But to call it a mission is misleading; and those who contribute to it under the idea that they are giving to missions are mistaken. In lands where there is a call for the ser¬ vices of Christian men and women, or where the conditions of soil and climate are such that they can maintain themselves by agriculture, they may settle, sustain themselves, exercise a healthful influence on the people about them, and perhaps do a limited amount of evangelistic work. But we do not believe this is the idea Christ had when he said to his disciples, “Go ye into ail the world and preacli the gospel,” or that the apostle had when he asked, “How shall they preach except they be sent?" The going implies a continu¬ ous movement to those who have not the gospel, and the sending implies participa tion on the part of those who do not go, We do not wish to cast discredit on any good work which is being done for God ; but it is highly important that there be clear and just ideas regarding all these subjects, in order that methods which have been adopted after years of experience may not be condemned by comparison with things which, while put forward under the same name, differ utterly in principle, and have not yet received a successful demon¬ stration. MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. The missionary societies which have agreed to support girls in the Matiero In¬ stitute, at Saltillo, Mexico, are some fjoo in arrears. This is giving the Institute and tiie Board no little trouble. The. publica¬ tion of this fact should make each Society ask: “Is it I? Is it I.” A word to the wise is sufficient. Redeem your pledges , young sisters, good A idlest " How can I arouse my people on the subject of missions?" “Wake yourself up and you will soon wake up your people.” .• If there Is a revival spirit in the heart of the preacher there will be a revival In his Church. If the preacher is alive on the subject of missions. he will kindle a (lame in the hearts of liis people. His in¬ terest in the salvation of the heathen, and his desire to carry out the command of Christ, will lead him to inform himself and to pour light into his congregation. Duties done in a cold, perfunctory spirit will never inspire zeal. ICIndling-wood will not make fire unless a live Наше or spark is applied. Missionary information will not awaken zeal unless it is kindled by prayer. Let the preacher read and pray until his soul is aflame, and his words will wake up the peo pi e. — Missionary Reporter. True, every word of it, and the truth of it ought to be pondered by very many of our Baptist preachers. The ignorance of and consequent want of interest in our foreign mission work, on the part of very many of our pastors, is a disgrace to the pastors and a chief cause of the lack of interest on the part of the people. SCRAPS PICKED UP. The Christian women of Tokio and Yo¬ kohama, in a union prayer-meeting, resob ved to present the Emperor of Japan with a handsome copy of tiie Bible. It is being prepared ; may the entrance of God’s Word give light to many in the palace . By the new Constitution of Japan, neither Christian ministers nor Buddhist priests are allowed to hold seats in the Imperial Diet, Good . February nth, 18S9, is the date of the promulgation of the new constitution in Japan . A fire in Soochow, on tiie upper Yangtze river, destroyed over 80,000 houses, leaving 130,000 people camping in the open air. 1,600 lives were lost . Russia has determined to suppress all sects, that the Greek church may rule un disputed over men's minds and heaifs. But tiie work of the Lord goes on even in Rus¬ sia. "The Lord shall have them in deri¬ sion,” is written of the rulers of the earth. ..Russia has decided to tax dissenting churches . The Temple of Heaven, at Pekin, containing the Dragon throne, has been destroyed by fire . “God’s Spirit to help me work, and bless the work when it is done," is a missionary's statement of the special need of his field in Assam . “When the thermometer stands at. 910 in the coolest part of the house in the after, noon, and scarcely falls to 86° at midnight,” our missionaries must suffer in Southern China. The Shantung has been the most fruit, ful of our missions in China. It is one of the most promising and accessible of the eighteen provinces, and is peopled by a stalwart race. The province contains a population of nearly twenty-nine million, or nearly one-half the total population of the United States. So says The Church at Home and Abroad, the organ of the Northern Presbyterian Board. This is the province in which Dr. and Mrs. Crawford, and Miss Moon, have been working for so long, and from which they have been sending such appeals for help. The Northern Presbyterians have now at work there thirty-four missionaries, and are now adding thirteen more. No won¬ der they have found the field fruitful, while we have lamented the smallness of our in¬ gathering. They have sent the sowers and the reapers; we have not. We are doing better now, but not enough by far. In wandering through some native vil¬ lages on the Kroo Coast, one feels as in a kind of Hades, peopled. by brutalized hu¬ man beings, whose punishment it is to be possessed by a never ending thirst for drink. On. all sides you are followed by eager cries for gin. gin, always gin. I had travelled and suffered in Africa, inspired by the idea that I was doing some good in the world in opening up new lands to com¬ merce and civilization, but all my satisfac¬ tion was blighted, as I felt that what little I had done had better have been undone, and Africa still remained the Dark Con¬ tinent, if such was to be the end of all I So says Thompson, the African explorer. How sad to think that by Christian na¬ tions this rum curse is put on Africa. The devil works, so must Christ’s people.. The Chinaman lias a choice of three re¬ ligions, but not one nor all together can give moral power to save an opium smoker or a gambler from the clutches of his habit; nor can they rob death of its grim terror. He shuns the word "death.” He says, "passed from earth," If you ask him, “passed whltherj" he says, “I do not know" — a true agnostic. And how shall he know anything better, while Christians in this land enjoy their better religion and keep it to enjoy ? POPERY IN AMERICA. There are rumors that the Pope is scarcely satisfied with Cardinal Gibbons, and that he has summoned Archbishop Corrigan to Rome for the purpose of making him a cardinal — a more tractable cardinal. Cardinal Gibbons is thought to be dan¬ gerously patriotic — so says a Rome corre¬ spondent of the New York Times ; .lie is not sufficiently careful to curb in the young republic for the tame and truculent service of the Church. He has dared to prefer American-born instructors for the Wash¬ ington University, to those who shall be sent from Italy or France or Spain. In the view of the Vatican only a foreign thumb¬ screw can insure an ultramontane and medireval type for Roman Catholic educa¬ tion in America. “As the twig is bent the tree’s inclined," and now is the time to bend it by a vigorous Italian grip, if this country is to belong, not to God and hu¬ manity, but to the Pope of Rome 1 . The recent outrageous demands made by the Roman Catholics of Bavaria are a sample of what would be asked of our Congress if matters were sufficiently ripe. — Church at Home and Abroad. THE BIBLE IN CHINA. The Bible Society Record reports that up to 1876 the Bible Society had put in cir¬ culation in China two hundred and twenty- five million pages of Scriptures. Since that date Dr. L. II. Guliek has been the agent of the Society in China, and two million volumes of the Scriptures had been circulated, making fully two hundred and twenty-five million pages more. From letters received from our missionaries wo are convinced that these copies of the Scriptures are read in many obscure parts of China which the missionaries have not yet reached. “ My word shall not return'' unto me void.” Ti