Foreign Mission Journal, January 1889

, - M1».- * *■ *.• 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.’1 Vol. 20 — New Series. RICHMOND, VA., JANUARY, 1889. No. 6 — Whole No. 246 [Entered at the Post-Office at Richmond, Vft., ae second-class matter.] Foreign Mission Journal. RATES PER ANNUM : I. For papers separately addressed, either to same or to different poet оШсее ; One copy . . . . . . . 36 cts. Three coj^ee @$1, or . 33Hcts. apiece. IT. For packages sent to one pereon, who «hall be responsible for their distributions Four ooplee for 61, or more at....» . 2BcU. apiece. Twenty-Are copies for |S. or more at.... ..20 eta. apiece. One Hundred coplee for flfi, or more at . . 1 5 eta. apiece. ЛГ*Р1еаае remit by Draft, X*oetal Order, or In Regis¬ tered Letter, and notify na promptly of any change In addreee. Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL, Richmond, Va. ADVERTISING RATES. 1 s e 12 SPACE. Month. Months Months Months 1 26 9 40 S 45 « UJ 12 BO 13 (Ht 22 Bn Three Inches. ...... 3 to 0 20 18 00 32 00 Quarter column... Hall column . 4 75 13 M) 25 00 46 00 9 26 25 25 48 1*0 PI) 00 One column . IS 00 60 00 02 50 178 00 FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, Locatxd AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. President— II, II. Hakiiis, Vioi-Pde8Ident«.— Jo.huft Levering, Met,, O. W. Tomklf". Da., A. H. Ovvpii, Va.. N. A, Halley, Fla,, W. L. WrlKht, N.O., O. l'.Itntrbj-, Ky., W. O. Bled- OOebespondinq Secdetabt— H. A. TUPPEU. Assistant Зеспетлпу. T. P. BELL. TBEA8DBEB— J. O. WILLIAMS. Recobdino Secbbtabt— A. B. CLARKE. ATOITOB-H. O. BURNETT. ■ Boabd от MAHAOEBS.— H. K. Ellysoo, J. B.WIn- •ton, О. II. Wla.ton, W. E. Hatcher, J. Pollard, Jr., 8. О. О opton. J. B. HuKoa. W. O. Thoma., W. W. Landrum, W. J. Shipman, Geo. Cooper, 0.1/. Upland, H, C. Barnett, T. P.Mnthew», R. H. Pitt. R.S. Bosher. t&ff'All communications in reference to the tnuineesof this Board should be addressed to H. Л. Tupper, Corresponding Secretary , Richmond. Va. A RAMBLER'S OBSERVATIONS. It lias been our privilege, since Hie ist of October, to visit the State Conventions of Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina anti South Carolina. We regretted very much that we could not reach the Maryland Union, the General Association of Virginia, and the Western North Carolina Convention, but these met at the same time with other bodies which we felt it more necessary to- reach. We can only regret our loss and hope for bet¬ ter things next year. The accounts we had prepared of our visit' to the four first mentioned States were unavoidably crowd¬ ed out of the December Journal, but as that issue Was full of better things, we have been content, and now will not at¬ tempt accounts of individual visits, but give some general impressions made on our mind during our year’s campaign. And first of all, one who lias been ail the South during the year feels a temptation to pause a moment, to pay a tribute to the Baptist preachers whom he has met in the best sense — a grand set of men. Strongly marked as individuals and in their individuality, knowing no "spiritual superiors," bound by no one great ecclesiastical organization, having no church creed, yet are they as to all essen¬ tial truths, of one mind and one heart. Without any one having authority to say to them "go here” and " go there,” they yet go into the hardest fields, to do the hardest work, on the smallest pay, and do it cheerfully as well as faithfully. Progres¬ sive are they, never resting satisfied with what has been done, but ever looking for¬ ward to what ought to be done and eagerly pressing forward to do it. Old and young, educated and uneducated, trained in col¬ lege and seminary or at the plow handles, yet all equal, they have seemed to us to be striving to carry out the apostolic injunc¬ tion to each esteem other better than him¬ self. Noble leaders of a noble army, we have thanked God for the privilege of knowing them and working with them, brethren beloved, we greet you in the name of the Lord: May his richest blessings be ■pon you and your work in this incoming Tear. As we have gone about from Convention to Convention during the year just closed •••••••••«« REV. W. J. DAVID, Born in Lauderdale county, Miss., September aS, 1850. Bap¬ tized August, 1867. Attended Mississippi College and Cro- zer Theological Seminary. Sailed for Africa January 8, 1875, and reached Sierra Leone February 8th. After thirteen years of excellent service he is now on his way home broken down in health. •*♦••***• we have been made to feel that a new spirit was at work in our people, a spirit of progress. ” Forward ” has been the cry everywhere. " Forward " in the work of the Lord. And forward in every line of work. We have been struck by the absence of croakers, predicting failure, and of ultra¬ conservatives crying " You are going too fast." The conservatives of even a year ago are this year in the front rank of the progressives. There has almost every¬ where been manifest a hopefulness, a buoy¬ ancy of spirit, which has not been, and can¬ not be, repressed by droughts and floods, by pestilence and by seeming political disaster. This hopefulness comes, in part, from a growing consciousness of power. Baptists are realizing that they are no longer a feeble folk, but-etrong— strong in numbers, strong in intellect, strong in money, strong in the truth, and they are, with faitli in God, saying “We are able to accomplish the work God lias called us to do.” It has been pleasant also to note an in¬ creased and increasing prayerfulness on the part of the brethren for the boards charged with the management of our great denom¬ inational enterprises, whether State or general movings of God’s Spirit towards foreign fields, and they are yielding to these movings. Successful pastors are giving up their choice places to go to other lands, and none are found to say, “ Why this sac¬ rifice ?” The great heart of our denomi¬ nation, as its pulsings are seen and felt in the representative assemblies, is becom¬ ing more and more stirred in behalf of this greatest of causes. Our own heart has been so cheered by the evidences we have seen of this rapidly growing spirit of missions, and our hopes for the future work of our people in this line so brightened, that we have found our¬ self trying to usurp a prophet’s place and predicting that in ten years time Southern Baptists, from being in the rear ranks of the foreign mission army, will be striding toward a place in the front. And they ought to be there. Let us all pray and labor to bring them there, WHENCE ARE THEY TO COME? Whence are to come tiie many laborers whom the rapidly-enlarging work ofall mis¬ sionary bodies in foreign lands absolutely demands ? The missionary forces now in There has been more than was j the field are confessedly inadequate for once observable of a realizing sense of the j the vast work opening up before them, responsibilities resting on these boards and ! New fields are opening every day. Doors of sympathy with their heavy burdens. A I are flung wide open, from -within, and mis- feeling exists, too, everywhere, be- 1 sionaries invited, urged to enter. Mace- the special representatives and advo- j donian calls multiply. Whence shall come of different great interests, and breth- • those who are to enter these doors, cultl- ren have come, or are coming rapidly, to see I vale these fields, answer these calls ? that special progresvn one department of 1 This question is puzzling the brains of work is helpful and not hurtful to all other | those who have charge of the work, both departments. Thedesire to seek and work j in this country and in Europe. They arc for the best time and the most favorable 1 everywhere calling for more laborers, circumstances for one cause at the expense I Moreover, they are coming to the conclu- of another has been conspicuously absent jsion, forced to it by sad experience, that in most conventional meetings. j the old sources of supply of men are inad- That there is a rapidly growing foreign | equate to furnish all that are needed, mission interest among our people has , Hundreds, thousands of workers are great- been testified to by brethren ail over the | ly needed, and our seminaries, hitherto the South. This has been yet more clearly j main sources of supply, are turning out shown, however, by other things than words. The gifts of the people to this work are increasing, and give promise of yet larger increase. In some Conventions more prominence has been given to this work than for several years past, while in others, as usual, best hours have been assigned to its consideration. More men and women Iban ever before are feeling the year by year, only scores of graduates. And these scores must be depended on largely for the supplying of pulpits at home. The home demand for fully trained men is now far larger than the supply and is growing larger every day. Probably notten per cent of the graduates of all the theological seminaries of this country go, or can go, to foreign fields. The semina¬ ries cannot, manifestly, be depended upon to supply the large numberof workers now imperatively demanded by the growing work abroad. If they can furnish enough thoroughly trained men to do literary work, superintend schools, and give gene¬ ral direction to the work, it is about all that can be expected of them. Whence, then, shall the large number of laborers come ? The question is receiving practical an¬ swer in England— whose good example is soon to be followed here where conse¬ crated laymen are being selected and sent forth into the fields. The China Inland Mission has led the way in this movement, and the Church Missionary Society has followed. Missionaries on the field are urging theirrespectiveboards tosend them laymen, and the boards are coming to see that their request must be granted. The following extract from "The Missionary," the organ of the Southern Presbyterian Board, shows how this idea is taking hold of that very conservative body .of Chris¬ tians : “ It is plain that the old sources of sup¬ ply are inadequate. They are good, but do not suffice. The theological seminaries and other training schools have sent out excellent men ; but when will the destitu¬ tions of the world ever be overtaken by the small bands that come forth year by year from these institutions? And must the proclamation of the Gospel be made only by those who have training of this sort? There seems to us but one, answer to this question. We have before'now in¬ dicated it in these pages. It is that among the laymen of the church suitable workers may be found — men who, without the pro¬ fessional training of the seminary, may go and preach the gospel to the heathen.” Nor would this be any new thing in the history of Christ's Church. It would be merely a return to New Testament me¬ thods. We would rejoice to see a number of earnest, consecrated laymen offering themselves to our board for foreign mis¬ sion work. We hail this movement as a return to New Testament methods, and see in it not only the supplying of laborers Гог our foreign fields, but a strong blow at that false idea, child of Romanism, which leads us to believe that the gospel can be properly preached and the Kingdom of our Lord advanced only by a class of men set apart and separated from the rest of the church, by the magic power that re¬ sides in the hands of a presbytery. Strange that the Church of England should lead Baptists in this return to apos¬ tolic methods in mission work. BEARING ONE ANOTHER'S BURDENS. (We have before called attention to this recommendation and urged our readers to heed it, but we gladly give place to it again, together with the earnest words of our beloved Dr. Ellis. We hope many of cur readers will help bear the burdens of our brethren in the field.— Ed.) If we realized how missionaries appre¬ ciate our sympathy, I’m sure we would be more thoughtful of them, and gladly afford them expressions of It frequently. If we knew how they lean upon our prayers, we would oftener speak their names on our knees, and make them' and their work the themes of our remarks and petitions in our meeting for conference and prayer. Think of them. Pray for them. F. M. Ellis.- We earnestly commend the following to the attention of those who love the cause of missions, and feel an interest in the men and women who have given their lives to this work on the foreign field. It was recently recommended by the “Eng¬ lish Baptist Missionary Society That, in view of the lonely position oc¬ cupied by so many of our missionary brethren (and sisters) in distant fields of labor, and their practical exile from home, friends and associations, the com¬ mittee feel it most desirable that efforts should be made to secure for each mission¬ ary in the field some friend or friends in this country who will undertake to keep up personal sympathetic communication by periodical dispatch of Christian litera¬ ture, say of papers, magazines, pamphlets and books, and occasional correspon¬ dence — it being the judgment of the com¬ mittee that such sympathetic thought and consideration will tend greatly to the hap¬ piness and encouragement of their mission¬ ary brethren, who are now bearing the heat and burden of the day." Jt would seem that such a timely and considerate suggestion would commend itself to many a Christian at home. It is evident that this beautiful and loving min¬ istry would be a welcome one to our breth¬ ren and sisters far from their homes and a blessing to those who should engage in its service. SCRAPS PICKED UP. On May 13th the Princess Imperial Re¬ gent, in the name of Dora Pedro, of Brazil, affixed her signature to the law by which 600,000 slaves were liberated— thus putting an end to slavery forever in Brazil . A speaker at the World’s Missionary Con¬ ference said that the “ Light of Asia ” was the light of Oxford and Oxford street; that it was Oxford 'thought read into Oriental systems . J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, says that "the opium habit works more damage in China than drink, slavery,, and the social evil com¬ bined." And England forced opium on China . More copies of the Word of God, in whole or in part, were put into cir¬ culation by the British and Foreign Bible Society alone last year than existed ,in the whole world at the beginning of the pre¬ sent century . "What has become of Stanley?” is still a question anxiously asked concerning the great explorer . The British and Foreign Bible Society re¬ ceived 11,251,910 last year and Issued 4,206,- 032 copies of the Bible or parts thereof. . " I would guarantee to take the first 20 men, women and children that-I should meet with in Samoa, (in Polynesia), and I would back them in Bible knowledge against any 20 I should meet with in this country," says a missionary-; The China Inland Mission has 64 stations, 294 mis¬ sionaries, 132 native helpers,. 66 churches, 2,105 communicants ; 551 were baptized last year. The lay element predominates gmong their workers . . From official reports it is learned that by the recent floods in China 100,000 people were drown¬ ed and i.Soo.ooo left destitute .........The Dewan of Indore, India, has stolen the Shorter Catechism and put it forth as a cat¬ echism of the Aryan-Vedic religion, leaving out, of course, all the questions about Jesus, and multiplying the number of ques¬ tions to about 20,000. A bold bit of plagiar¬ ism . A movement towards the union of ail Presbyterian bodies in China seems to be taking shape. Why not unite? . The missions of the Northern and South¬ ern Presbyterians, in Brazil, have united in a Synod. This body will embrace 50 churches, 19 missionaries, and 12 native ministers, with some 3,000 members— 'a strong body. The Northern Presbyterians began work in 1S60, and the Southern in 1865 . When Dr. Alexander Duff was asked wlint lie thought the greatest hin¬ drance to missions, he replied, " The apa¬ thy of the clergy.” . The English gov¬ ernment exacts a duty amounting to one- tenth on all legacies to Missionary Socie¬ ties . On July 10th, it was announced in the English House of Lords that the Princes of Rajpootana, in India, had abol¬ ished the custom of infant marriages. A reform is this of vast importance to India. Another illustration of the leavening influ¬ ence of Christianity. r COVETOUSNESS. Xavier has left on record a marvellous statement:. “I have had many people re¬ sort to me for confession. The confession of every sin that I have ever known" or heard of, and of sins so foul that I never dreamed of, has been poured into my ear; but no one person has ever confessed to me the sin of covetousness." Bishop Wit- mer says, “One man only has ever ex¬ pressed to me the fear lest lie should be¬ come covetous; and it is a suggestive fact that he was the most generous man that! have ever known — John Stewart, of Vir¬ ginia. Wc used to talk this matter over frequently. He would say, ‘ I have noticed that covetousness is the prevailing disease of old people; I fear it for myself as I get older; and I know of but one remedy- giving, giving, giving!’ The most liberal are the most fearful of selfishness. The most learned feel most their ignorance; the most humble their pride; the most pure their uncleanness: and, for the'same reason, the most generous their .selfish¬ ness." S ’• - . . , a c .