FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
' I'uWIslitMl Monthly by the Foreign Mission Hoard of the Southern Iinptlst Conventlou.
“ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTII. GO YE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS.»
Vol. 15 — New Series.
RICHMOND, VA„ SEPTEMBER, 1883.
No. 2.— Whole No. 109.
n:ulfiiil nl tlio l’oel-Offlcn fit KithmonM, Vti., as
•i<coiitl-cla»s mutter.]
Foreign Mission Journal
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Address,
FORICION* MISSION JOURNAL.
Richmond, Va.
•OREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE 30UTHCHN BAPTIST CONVENTION,
1,14 vr*T> at UK'IIMONH. VIRGINIA.
Ранм1»Г.мг-.1.
Jj. M. CURRY.
Vic E-PfucbiincNTe. — .T««liun levering. Mil.,
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A.
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ЛИ-11,
Fla.,
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Oratory, N.
(».,
T. T. Katon, Ky.. J. J. 1). Hen-
f.OM, Alabama. H. S. Duncan, P1I0.,
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11. Carroll,
Texas, \\\ It. KllnrUrlck. (la.,
ОЬчк.
Mnnly, ft. U.,
Matt. HlllMnun, 'i*<*uit.,
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II. Searcy, Ark., George*
WhltllH.l Mla«. \V. V. Wntlcrr W . Vn.
< JOUIlliMflSDINC. SwriiKTAity— H.
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SircHKTAKY— W II. (IWATIIMUY
Л'-штн
-JOSEPH V.
СОТТИЕГД-
lltJAll U OX M.IVAOKIIS. — .T. 11. Hnwihorn», .T.
П.
Will*
, It C. Ililynon. W,
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Hatcher. 11. Wortham, W.
ii Thomas. IloUa.n. II. II. Home. .1. pollard, Jr .
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Winston. S t;. oirpioc.
coiiin iinieiili'iim in reference In the
business nf this Hoard should he addressed to
II. A. Tui'l'KK, Uorrcs/xmdiiii/ Secretary ,
1,‘ichmnnd, I hi.
VACATION.
I)r. Tapper is ofTin his nnmml Right from
hay-fever. The climate of Marquette, Mich¬
igan, in which Rev. Kerr It. Tupper is pas¬
tor, is famed as a sovereign
сиге
for that dis¬
agreeable affection, winch no medicine ap¬
parently can reach. If his sou's home in the
town should prove inadequate for complete
protection, the doctor has engaged to hoard
with it light-house keeper, some mile or so
out in the neighboring shallowsof 1-akeSupe-
riur. 1 Icrc he will certainly be free from the
dust and the vegetable pollen which are so
annoying, and will in quiet contemplation
map out many a plan for future work, while
he is gathering a store of strength to carry
bis plans into execution.
The editor of die Journal is also off, seek¬
ing rather than finding rest. This number is
therefore made up under some difficulties
and while equal, we t rust, in real value, may
prove slightly inferior in variety and fresh¬
ness, to what it might have been made.
I'. S, — Since the above was forwarded to
tlie printer we have found a refreshing,
health-giving haven at blue Ridge Springs,
and confidently hope in ten days to get
strength enough for ten months work. The
waters are excellent, the company good, the
air restful, ami the proprietor (Phil. F. brown)
a very prince in genial courtesy. His house
is always full, and well deserves to be.
STRATEGIC POINTS.
On every battle-field there is some emi¬
nence which die attacking column must
take, if they would win the day. It is good
generalship to concentrate on such a point
suilicient force to carry it early, even at
much cost of men and munitions. In every
aggressive campaign there are certain cities
and fortresses which offer the invader a van¬
tage ground for subjugating broad expanses
of territory. Those the enemy will of course
Hold most strongly and contest most fierce¬
ly, and yet it is economy in the end to assail
them first. In human warfare something
can be accomplished by feints and surprises,
and the unskilled captain may achieve tem¬
po! ary success by virtue of that uncertainty
which makes it impossible to forecast his
movements, Not so with the strife in which
the soldiers of the Cross are embattled, for
"your adversary, the devil," is ever on the
alert, "walking to and fro in the earth, and
чр
and down in it." Our sole reliance is in
our superior strength, for as the pious Hezu-
kiah said to Israel, trembling before Senna¬
cherib and the multitude of his host, "there
be mote with us than with him; with him is
an arm of llcsh, but witli us is the I.ord our
God, to help us, and to fight our battles,"
Our mission stations have been chosen as
strategic points. Saltillo is the capital of
Coalniila, one of the States in the Republic
of Mexico, linliia is the second city for size
ill the empire of brazil, and the gateway to a
broad stretch of populous country. Lagos
is a commercial mart for Western Africa,
and Ahheoknta commands a large distiict
in the interior. Italy has three capitals —
Milan for literature, Naples for commerce,
and Romo for politics and religion — we
occupy them all, as well as eight or ten other
centres of influence. In China, Canton is
the chief city of an immense and densely
populated plain and the metropolis of emi¬
gration ; Shanghai is the seaport for the val¬
ley of the Vang Tse, a river which rises in
lliu heart of Asia, and waters more people
than any other stream on the globe — and
Tung Chow is on the line of approach to the
broad district prepared in recent Hoods and
famines for a kindly reception of foreigners.
At every one of these it will be good gene¬
ralship and wise economy to strengthen our
weak force of pioneers.
If now we may take a wider view, and re¬
gard the whole world as one province, re¬
volted from God, held by the prince of the
power of the air, and to be reconquered for
Emmanuel, it can hardly be doubted that be¬
yond all other countries, Chinn is the great
stronghold of Satan— the key-stone in the
terrible arch of his dominion. Numerous,
compact and conservative, proud, jealous
and keen-witted, and with consciences
thoroughly perverted on questions of truth
and honesty and worship, the people are
difficult to approach. The strong bastions
of idolatry which Satan has erected on
the rock of filial piety show his estimate of
the importance of the position. They can¬
not be undermined and blown up, for they
are founded on immutable truth. They must
be scaled and lorn down by a power work¬
ing from above, but when the fullness of
the time is come, and die defences really
begin to fall, so close is the connection of
man with man and custom with custom, that
eacli will carry another, and this a third and
so on, till the gospel shall have free course
throughout the empire.
Westward has ever been the main march
of civilization and of religion. If, moving
from our l’acific coast upon the far-off cast,
we can there gain notable victories and
biing its millions to the foot of the Cross,
tlie tide of success, rolling with die diurnal
course of sun and moon, and gathering in
volume as it advances, will easily overwhelm
the false prophet, the patriarch and tlie
pope, and when it meets on the Atlantic, tlie
high waters of evangelical Christianity will
dash tip to the very heavens its glittering
spray of thanksgiving and praise. Some
have thought that die Chinese are descen¬
dants of the ten tribes of Israel, who were
carried away by the Assyrians and that they
are alluded to in Romans X and XI. This
is hardly tenable, yet it is certain that many of
the expressions there used are peculiarly ap¬
plicable now. As for example: “ God gave
them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should
not sec, and ears that they should not hear
unto this very day.” Or again : “ If the
casting away of them be tlie reconciling of
the world, what shall the receiving of them
be but life from the dead?" And certainly
this : " I low shall they call on him in whom
they have not believed? And how shall
they believe in him whom they have not
heard ? And how shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach ex¬
cept they be sent?”
A DROUTH.
The section of country in which we have
been spending some weeks lias, up to this
11 tli of August, had no rain since the last of
June. The gardens are burned tip, the crops
are withered, the lean cattle roam restlessly
over dry pastures, and the farmers sit about
with little to do, and little to hope for this
year. One looks forward eagerly to a
change of the moon, another observes light¬
ning in the north, a third detects some ten¬
dency in the cool westerly wind to veer to
the east, a fourth turns nervously in his
daily paper to the Washington reports of the
falling barometer, or of local rains, but only
to fall back at last, one after another, on tlie
oft-repeated saying that “all signs fail in dry
weather.” It is sorely distressing.
Much more distressing, however, than any
lack of rain, is a spiritual drouth, wherever
it prevails. Habbakkuk could say, '‘although
the fig-tree shall not blossom, nor fruit be in
the vines; tlie labor of the olive fail, and
the fields yield no meat; the (lock be cut off
from the folds and no herd be in the stalls:
yet will I rejoice in the I.ord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation." But if this joy lie
be cut off, what can all else avail ?
The lesson which a drouth ought to teach
is that we are entirely ami constantly depen¬
dent on a higher power. It shall prove a
rich blessing to all who get the lesson so
deeply engraved on their hearts that it can¬
not he washed out by any Hoods of future
prosperity. The best protection of a grow¬
ing crop in dry weather is to keep stirring
the soil so that it may drink up what little
moisture is in tlie air. Tlie best preven¬
tive against injury lies in deep plowing, both
to bring up moisture from the reservoirs be¬
low and to gather and hold more of that
which has fallen from above. So also in
spiritual drouths. They ought to lead us
to look upward, to seek refreshing, not from
our own exertions, or from the eloquent lips
of a mortal man, but from the only source
of grace anil truth.
Is it a time of declension and listlessness
in your church? There is all the more need
of constant stirring to “ strengthen the tilings
which remain, that are ready to die," And
tlie best preventive against any recurrence
will he in the next fallowing season to
drive deeper the plowshare of truth. Super¬
ficial work and commercial fertilizers make
a splendid show in wet seasons, blit cannot
stand a fiery trial. Frothy preaching and
clap-trap exercises rim with meteoric bril¬
liance and with meteoric brevity, and leave
behind a deeper darkness. The need of the
world is tlie old gospel in all its power and
pungency.
One more thought. If lack of ram for six
weeks in our mild climate be so distressing,
what must it be in Sahara, under an equato¬
rial sun, with no rain for thousands of years?
If in a Christian land the condition of a
community which enjoys for months no re¬
freshing, is so lamentable, how must it be
in benighted Africa? Are you suffering from
the drouth ? Try to help the heathen, for
it is written, "He that watered!, shall be
watered also himself."
Miss A. M. Fielde went out to Bangkok
some twenty years ago, expecting, on her
arrival, to be married to a missionary who
had preceded her. Instead of a bridal cham¬
ber she f-uind a new-made grave containing
nil that was mortal of iier affianced. She
found solace for a broken heart by engaging
in work, and has been enabled by her hero¬
ism and devotion to accomplish more for the
Master than any other one person now la¬
boring for the women of China.
FROM MRS. CRAWFORD.
Shanghai, June 30th, 1SS3.
Dear Dr. Tupper— I nriivcd here on the
23th. My healthisslowly. but steadily improv¬
ing, and I am now better than when at Waco.
Dr. and Mrs. Vales are preparing to go to
Chefoo fora summer rest. My passage is en¬
gaged to sail to-morrow morning for Chefoo,
where my husband is to meet mo. I trust
my long journey will end a week from to-day.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
M. T. Ckawi'okd.
ANOTHER LABORER AT REST.
Brother Chan Po Wo has just entered into
rest. Ho was a Chinese doctor connected
with the troops, and heard the gospel during
the preaching of several of our members in
the street. He was baptized by brother
Gaillard, and has been engaged for some
years as a colporter in several of our country
stations. The stations at Slick Kok and
Tsing Yuen were opened by him. His
knowledge of medicine, his pleasant address
and his earnestness of purpose and hopeful¬
ness of disposition, made him a valuable man
for pioneer work.
When our appropriations were reduced
last year we secured a place for him as col-
porter of the American Bible Societies. He
was very successful in selling scriptures.
While thus engaged in company with one of
the Presbyterian missionaries in the adjoin¬
ing province of Kwaug Si lie was called home
to heaven. He died very suddenly, prob¬
ably from heart disease. He had been sell¬
ing books in a village a mile or so from the
river accompanied by his son, a youth of 18;
on their return be sat down under a tree,
saying lie was tired. He then asked his son
to pray with him, and so passed away in the
very midst of his work. How glorious thus
to be called up higher, in the midst of the
field I No lingering disease, no falling
strength, no pangs wrung from the heart by
the grief of mourning friends.
He leaves a helpless family behind him, a
blind wife and five children, the oldest 18 and
the youngest an infant. 1 have secured a
place at $3.00 per month for the son, and the
church will take up a collection to-morrow
for the rest. This will help them for a month
or so, and we must then try to do something
to help them along.
R. H. Graves.
A VERY FULL POSTAL CARD.
Rome, July 13th 18S3.
We leave Rome to-night for San Moinme,
a little mountain village in Tuscany, about
•25 miles from Florence, and seven from Pis-
toia. During the last few days the heat has
been unusually severe and prostrating, and
we are all feeling tlie effects of it.
The little village to which we arc going is
the native place of the colporter uf our
church in Rome, and he thinks 1 shall find
the people disposed to hear the gospel. 1 le
is specially anxious about his aged father,
who is not. yet a Christain, and hopes our
stay may prove a real blessing to him. 1
shall hope to wiite yon frotu that point, es¬
pecially if I am able to do some preaching.
The priest ol the village, I am told, is a bad
man, and the people dislike but cannot dis¬
place him. I shall hope to meet him and to
lie able to talk to him frankly on the subject
of vital religion. I have often been struck
with the fact that Dr. Taylor makes good op¬
portunities to talk to all classes ami condi¬
tions of people on tlie gospel. I call to mind
the case of a priest in Sardinia, whose repu¬
tation was none too good. We met him face
to face in a little shop, and he did not get
away till he had heard some vital gospel
truth, and had been exhorted to remember
his responsibility as the spiritual guide of
the people.
Dr. Taylor returned last week from lus
annual visit to the stations in the north, and
since then has been alone, his family being
in llagni di Lucca. He remains in Rome
till after Sunday to baptize a young lady who
has been attending our church lor several
years. I suppose he will give you the latest
from the stations.
1 am longing for a whiff of mountain air,
and am anticipating with delight the invlgo-
rating walks that 1 expect to take. Trust we
shall return to Rome fully prepared for the
winter's work. .
Affectionately,
John II. Eager.
