Foreign Mission Journal, January 1879

Foreign Mission Journal S*iiI>1!kIi<!<1 .Tioii (lilv l*.v lint Forcipi ЛПнкЬш Itoiinl «Г IIic Koullivrn Jtii]>liNl Con will ion. "ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ' ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE , AND TEACH ALL NATIONS .” Vol. Ю. — Now Series. RICHMOND, VA., JANUARY, 1879. No. 10. — Whole No. 10G. FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL RATES PER ANNUM: Out' copy . HI cle, Five or lnnro copies, to оно person . 411 " a copy. Twenty or mom copies, to оно рипчш . so " ’’ Fifty or more copies, to one person . " " 4B’*l*lenm romll by limit, Dos till Orilor, or III Ht'Kluteroil Letter. Atlilrese, FOREIGN MISSION’ JOURNAL. KiciiMosii, Va. FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, I.Oi ATKii at RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. l'liKSMiHNT- -J. I,. M. OUIIIIY. VluK-I’iiKAlliUNTS.— Hlriliu Wooils, Mil., Л. A. lliicki'lt, MIm.. F. Uonrmey, I.ii , J. II. .Гонт, Vn., H. H. McCalliim, FPi„ W. M. Wimmle, N. C„ .1. I,, llurrowh, Ky„ S. Hen¬ derson. Aliili.'ium, V. Pop» Yoamnii.Mo., .1. II. Link, Texas, II 11 Tucker, On., .1 c V’iiro"'.!i, S. C Mult. I<iiuin:iii Тит., .Г. II. Iloono, Ark. Coiiiiksi'oniiino Skoiiktaiiv— H. A. TUI'I'EU. TiiKAKPiir.li— Л. C. WILLIAMS. II крои iiino Skoiiktaiiv— \V. II. OWATHMKY. Al'Iiitoh— JUSIII'II V. COTTKKLL. Hoa ill) or Ma.vaokiih. — E. w. Warren, .1. 11. Watkins, II. K. l-.llyi.0M, \V. K. Hatcher, E. Wortham, Henry McDonald, V. G odd In, II. II. Harris, Л. E. Dickinson,.!. W. Jones, Л. II. Clarke, .1. II. Winston, T. .!. Evans, С. II. Winston, .1. U. (larllck. _ _ top A tl communications in reference to the business of Мл Hoard should be addressed to 11. A. Turn:», Correspondin') Secretary, Richmond, Va. FORM OF BEQUEST. '•I hereby give and bequeath unto the Southern Baptist Convention, fonnetl in Augusta, Georgia, in the niontli of May, 1S45, and chartered by the Legislature of Hie State of Georgia, by an act passed anti nppiovctl December 20th, ISIS, ( here inscil the amount, if in money, or 'subject,' ij other property, either real or personal,) for Foreign Missions.'’. CHRISTMAS— NEW YEAR. The season of jollity and good things ! Our best "blips to our readers, our friends, and God’s people ! A crumb from the tables of your abun¬ dance would be gratefully received by the sore- covered, dog-licked, perishing nations who wall in the anguish of their neglected and hopeless state : "No man caret!) for our soul.” THE INFANT-CLASS. Two Incidents. A little boy, who is a member of an infant-class, wishing to make some money for the heathen and for himself, invested fifty cents in a rat-trap, and, making one hundred per cent on the investment by receiving live cents for every rat lie caught, be devoted ten per cent, of bis Income to the Lord’s cause among the nations. Another member of the sumo class, a little girl, receiving a penny for every chapter she read in the New Testament, deposited two dollars in the Mitc-box, as the material result of her Bible reading. The immaterial results will never be collected, as the dally habit of reading the Scriptures is formed, which may eventuate in end¬ less bonolit. Those incidents are mentioned, not with the view of commending them at all, but simply as facts, which happen to come under our observation, and as illustrative of tlie salutary in¬ fluence of intelligent Instruction over even very young children, with regard to the grand enterprises of the world. Our greatest earthly hope for missions is tlie Sunday-school, and the hope of the Sunday-? school is the infant-class, whose Importance can scarcely be exaggerated. The Majesty of Childhood. That was a remarkable thing, which our Saviour did, when he took a 111 tie child and set him in tlie midst of his disciples, and said : ” Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same Is great¬ est in the kingdom of heaven.” It was remarkable, because of its plain implication, that tlie child— tlie little child — Is the model of true character, and of heavenly greatness; an idea, lmw dltlcrent from man’s wisdom, which sets up the Jupiter of power, the Mercury of eloquence, the Venus of beauty, as the standard of human and divine excellence. Dr. Fuller took off Ids hat to the Mississippi river. The greatest of earth might well make profound obeisance in the presence of tlie dignity, the majesty of childhood, made more majestic by the fact that the personage at whose feet tlie sages of tlie East laid their offerings, was an infant — the infant of the blessed Virgin Mary. Responsibility, Influence and Triumph of Infant Class Instruction. How great and responsible is the work of this class of the Sunday-school. The l’roxiteles and Powers of sculpture devote themselves to models. To ruder hands is committed the stone cutting of imitation. The genius of the Sabbath-school should be given to the infant class. How wide spread is its liillucnee. The child of to-day is the man or wo¬ man of Io-iuoitow ; and, as one model may serve for a thousand copies, the outcome of ail infant class may he countless generations of God’s peo¬ ple. The inscription to Sir Christopher Wren, in St. Raul’s Cathedral, of which lie was the solo architect, is: “ If you ask for Ids monument, look around you.” The monument of the faithful in¬ fant class teacher, Is all around in tlie Sabbath- school and tlie church, and shall ho seen hereafter everywhere in that living Temple, “whose dome of many colored lines tints the white radiance of eternity.” Success in tlie infant-class is the highest of moral triumphs, as at the foundation of all others. (1) The greatest of orators said : “ Oratory depends as much on the ear as on the tongue.” The mothers of Greece had implanted in the bosoms of their sons the seeds of lire, which Demosthenes fanned Into the patriotic Наше which cried: “Lead us to Philip ! ” (2) “Let me make the songs of a peo¬ ple,” said one, “and I care not who makes their laws.” The Marsaillaisc lias done more for the glory of France than the Code Napoleon. And childhood is tlie emphatic period of song. (3) Min¬ isterial roeping of our day is chiolly from tlie sow¬ ing of tlie Sabbath-school, of which the infant class is tlie nursery. Church discipline is con¬ trolled more by the songs of Zion, which we learn to love in the Infant school, than by the creeds and covenants of afterlife; and the glory of Christianity Is human transformation into the heavenly character of which the well instructed and pious little child Is the most perfect possible model. It Is worthy of note that the disciple who leaned on Jesus’ bosom addressed tlie Saints uni¬ versal as, “My little children,” and that Jesus himself said with regard to infants: “Of such is tlie Kingdom of heaven.” Woman Teacher of Infants. Not a thousand miles from us the infant elass- teaehcr is a man, and a bachelor at that : anti an excellent spiritual nurse is he ! It was not, how¬ ever, with reference to his class that, a few evenings ago, at a Sunday-school meeting, one of the teach¬ ers said something like tlie following: “If any outsider doubts that we have a model Infant class, which is conducted under a tine sense of Its great responsibility, and in view of its vast iniltieiiee, and with triumphant success; if any would he con¬ vinced that it is not only the model, hut also the foundation of the Sabbath-school and of the future church— a foundation laid broad and deep on the principles of Divine Truth, and garnished, as it should he, with all manner of precious stones of ■•esthetic attractiveness and practical utility— if any thus doubt, or would he thus convinced, all I have to say is, In the language of Philip to Nathaniel, ‘Come and see.’ “ The traveler in Scotland who visits that most exquisite specimen of Medieval architecture, Roslyn chapel, whose elaborately wrought whitlows and architraves warrant the description of frozen mu¬ sic or crystallzcd poetry, is struck by the peculiar inscription upon one of the arches near to the chancel, Virfortis — Femina forlissima: an inscrip¬ tion, which, If frescoed on our side-chapel walls, might ho liberally rendered thus : In the main Sabbath-school are great male teachers, hut the teacher of the Infant class hears oil' tlie palm from all.” The Missionary Spirit. We verily believe that the power . of our Infant classes resides largely in the missionary spirit which is Infused into them. The children have objects outside of themselves, which Is the secret of ever fresh Interest and of generous activity. In¬ fant classes, unlike the otlierdepartments of Sunday- schools, seldom support themselves ; all their con¬ tributions go to benevolence. Unsclllslmcseis thus inculcated in early childhood, and a high-toned and charitable spirit is fostered. When it is remem¬ bered that of every dollar given to benevolence, nine¬ ty-eight cents are appropriated to home works, tlie wise teacher sees at once that tlie infant class must Inaugurate a system to overthrow this unchris¬ tian partiality of Christians. Twenty years from now the proportion will he more seemly, and the percentage given to the foreign Held may even come up to that bestowed by the little rat catcher, if not to that of the youthful llihle reader, who honored the instruction of her Infant, class l)> the sublime gift of ли, that she had. The Bishop of Madras stated at the recent Pan Anglican Synod in London, that20,000 Hindoos hud renounced heathenism and accepted Christianity within tlie year. Tlie Presbyterians, with 100,000 less communi¬ cants than the Baptists, gave last year $473,371 for Foreign Missions.