Foreign Mission Journal, May 1890

Foreign Mission Journal. " • • д 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. 2i — New Series. RICHMOND, VA., MAY, 1890. No. io— Whole No. 262 IKstsrsd at the Post-Offlce at Richmond, Va., ae 1 second-claes matter,] Foreign Mission Journal. RATES PER ANNUM : I. For rarer» eeparately addressed, either to same or to different poet offlces : apiece. II. For package» sent to one person, who ahnll be responsible lor their distribution t Four copies lor M, or more at . SScta. apiece. Twenty-live copies lor *s, or more at . !(i els. apiece, Oae Hundred copies lor <16, or more nt..l6ci*. apiece. «-Please remit by Ilralt, Postal Order, or Inltegls- ued Letter, and notlly us гпош-тоу o( any change tired In address. Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL, Richmond, V*. ADVERTISING RATES. ВГАСВ. One inch . Two Inches . Three Inches . 8 carter column., all column . One column . 1 s в 12 Month. Months Months Months 1 26 S « в ftft 18 Ml 1 40 в 46 12 60 28 60 3 60 9 20 16 no 32 00 4 76 13 M* S6 00 46 (O 9 26 Я 26 46 00 90 «« 18 00 60 Oft 92 60 178 OO FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, LOCATXD AT RICHMOND, YHtQINIA. Pn*Sn>BNT— II. H. Клише. Vlcx-PnxsiDXNTS — Josbna Levering, Md„ ОД Tomkles. La.. Л. E. Owen, Л a.. N. A. Halley. Fla., I. L. White, N.O., Q. F. Hughy, Ky.. W. O. Bled¬ soe, Alabama, J. P. Grewie, ilo.. В. II. Onrrcll, Texas. W. L. Kilpatrick, f»a„ A. J. S. Thomas. S.O. B. J. Willingham, Tenn., J. II. Searcy, Ark., Ocorge Whitfield, Miss., W. F. Attklsson. w.Ia. OonnxJ rONDTNO SXCRXTAnY— II. A. T UPPER. Assistant secbetart. T. P. BELL. TitxAScnxn— J. O. WILLIAMS. IlXCOItDINO SXCRXTAnT — A. II. CLARKB. ADDITOit-ir. O. BUItNETT. BOAUDOF MANAORBS.— H.K. ЕНувОП, О. IL Win- iton, W. E. Hatcher, J. Pollard, Jr.. S. O. Clop- ton, J. II, llution. W. D. Thomaa, W. W. Landrum, Oeo. Cooper, О. H. Iivlnnd, H. C. Burnett. T. P. Mathews, It. H. Pitt, It.S. Bosher, J. L. M. Currv, Theo. Whitfield, ISTAll communications in reference to the business of this Board should be addressedto H. A. Tupper, Corresponding Secretary, Richmond, Va. OUR FINANCES. At 12 o'clock M., Wednesday, April 3°lh, the books of the Foreign Mission Hoard closed, showing that we had received over Iiog.ooo, and that ail debts were paid, with a balance in bank of $1,922.34. In the last twenty-seven hours of the year f14.4S2.23 was received, in the last six weeks #37,545.- 27 came to hand. After the books closed, on 30th, considerable amounts, by telegram and mail, came in; but, we regretted, they were “too late.” But they aid quite as much by giving us a start for the new year. The Lord be praised 1 A TIME OF ANXIETY. We wonder sometimes whether the breth¬ ren generally have any, even remote, con¬ ception of the anxiety which oppresses the hearts of the officers and members of the Board during the closing weeks of the con¬ ventional year. All through the year, be¬ ginning even before the annual report of the past year is read to the Convention, the Board carries on the work entrusted to it by borrowing money. As ageneral thing the money that comes pouring into the treasury during the closing days of the year barely suffices to meet the notes that have been given to the banks for that year’s work, and the drafts that come from the mission fields for the first quarter of the new year have to be met with' borrowed money. So that the only timeinthe yearthatthe Board is free from debt is the little while between the paying of the last note of the one year and the making out of the new one for the new year’s work— not generally for more than a day or two at a time. All along during the year, as note after note has to be made to meet the current expenses of the missions, more or less of anxiety rests upon the minds of the Board. But how it oppresses towards the close of the year. The Corresponding Secretary sits for weeks at a time with a list of notes falling due and to be paid, lying before him. Every day’s mail is eagerly scanned to see if it brings enough to meet the demands of Ute day. Can we take up this note ? Per¬ haps so, but another comes due three days hence, and the chances are discussed of enough coming in to meet this. Whence is it to comt? This State treasurer has sent in funds and that one has sent. This one, however, has r.ot sent for some time- may be— and so it is from day to day and from week to week. Hope and fear, con fidence and doubt, elation and depression, follow each other in rapid succession until the closing day, and then the secretaries and the treasurer, at least, feel as if they had been through a spell of sickness. Then tlie Board meets, and as the busy men, coming from bank and recitation room, pastoral work or study, file into the room, every face wears an expression of anxious inquiry. Will we come out clear of debt? If the treasurer so reports, some one calls for thanksgiving to him by whose blessing the result has been reached, and from earnest hearts the thanksgiving as¬ cends. The quiver in the voice of him who leads, and the wet eyes of all, as they rise to enter on the deliberations of the occa¬ sion, tell how heavy the burden has been, grateful the relief is. And all because the churches wait till the last moment to present their gifts before the Lord. A REMEDY. A remedy for the state of things describ¬ ed above, a state of things, let it be said, that exists to a greater or less extent in connection with ail our mission boards, whether general or local, lies, so far as we can see, in one thing only. Let the churches adopt the weeklj) or where this is impossi¬ ble, monthly) giving suggested by the apos¬ tle Paul to the Corinthian Christians, and this evil would cease. There would then be a constant stream of money pouring into the treasury, not of one Board only, butofall, and the work of all could be carried on, as the Lord's work ought always to be, on a cash basis. The condition of our mission treasuries each year Is not unlike that of Egypt as seen In Pharoah’s dream. Only Egypt had seven years of plenty in which to secure a supply for seven years of want, while we have about two months of plenty in which to provide for ten months of want. Two fat kine we have, but ten hungry ones to eat these up. So the churches decree it shall be with the Lord’s treasuries. A remedy ought to be found for this state of tilings. If there be any except the one suggested above, we would be glad to learn of it. If not, will not our pastors earnestly, lovingly, patiently, endeavor to induce their churches to apply the one only feasible one? Each year ought to make an improvement in this respect on the one going before it, and the beginning of each year is the time for pastors to work on their churches on this line. because these million Christians did not furnish the money to send them, Not only so, but that the Board has had to borrow the money to maintain even those who did go. Thesn are sad and saddening facts and call fo.- grave questionings of ourselves as to our faithfulness as stewards of the Lord’s grace and of the Lord’s means questionings as to whether we have not been seriously derelict in our duty to our Lord and to our lost race: questionings that might well lead us to repentance be. fore the Lord and solemn determination to do more and better things lor him in the coming year, and years, than we have ever done in those that are gone. The incoming year ought to witness bet¬ ter things in this foreign mission work than the passing one has seen. At least fifty new men and women ought to be added to the present force. This many are needed on the fields, this many can be secured, this many our people could well send, if— “ ah, cruel if” — if only they would give In anything like the measure in which they have been prospered of the Lord. Fifty new missionaries during the Con ventional year, 1890-91. What say the brethren? What will the brethren do? Prompt, liberal giving early in the year would be an encouragement to the Board to add more and yet more workers as the months roll around. A DECADE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, 1880-90. This is the title of a work prepared by the Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, and ready for publication. It is a continuation of his book, “ Foreign Missions of the Southern Baptist Conven¬ tion,” published in 1SS0, by request of the Convention. The present volume includes an abstract of the former work. “ A De cade” will contain some ten hundred pages, with a number of portraits and maps, The edition will be limited. The book will be published in the best style known to book-making art. The price, merely to cover cost and handling, will be #2.50. No money to be sent until book is received. Apply to Rev. T. P. Bell, Box 134, Rich mond, Va., for Prospectus and blank order for the book. HOW MANY NEXT YEAR? The Conventional year just passed wit¬ nessed the departure of more missionaries under the direction of our Board than any other year in the history of the Convention. Twenty-two men and women, some of the former fresh from the Seminary, while others had had more or less of experience in pastoral and other work, were added to our working force in foreign lands. We may well rejoice in this fact, and thank God that he made it possible for us to send these, giving us both the mis¬ sionaries and the heart to send them. But while we rejoice in so many sent, let us pause and ask ourselves whether still others ought not to have gone. When we remember that our Board represents over a million of professed followers of Je¬ sus Christ, it seems but a very small thing that only twenty-two out of all these should have gone out into the great harvest fields of the world to gather sheaves for the Master. Had those twenty-two been multi¬ plied by ten, they would not have been too many for this great host of people to have sent out to fulfill the great commission. While we rejoice that so many went we may well sorrow at the thought that they were so few as compared with what the Lord might well have expected o( us. Another fact that ought to cause serious, prayerful thought, that ought to lead to deep humiliation of ourselves before the Lord, is this— that others were ready to go, eager to go, begging to go, but could not, SCRAPS PICKED UP. The Missionary Union has a missionary steamboat on the Upper Congo, and now proposes to place one on the waters of the Lower Congo . A Belgian company has taken a contract to build a railroad around the cataracts of the Congo. The work is to cost #5,oco,ooo, and it is thought that trains will be running in four years’ time. . “The whole Roman Catholic system of salvation is a system of dependence on every thing and every one for salvation ex¬ cept Christ.”— Nun of Kcmnarc. BAPTISTS IN LIBERIA, Under this heading the Baptist Afission- ary Magazine for April, says: Since the mission of the Union in Liberia was discontinued in 1S77, American Bap¬ tists have not knowii very much of the pro¬ gress of Baptist work in that country. The Liberian churches have, however, contin¬ ued their work on the basis of self-support, have had an encouraging growth, and are doing something for the heathen in the in¬ terior. We find the following from Rev. R. B. Richardson, who was born and educated in Liberia, and wak formerly connected with the Missionary Union. • “The Baptist Church in Liberia shows that it brought with it from America the spirit of self-reliance, self-direction, and .self-support. It is the only self-supporting religious body in the country, having gen¬ erally the largest and best church edifices, numbering thirty-one, with twenty-four or¬ dained ministers, and a membership of three thousand. We have begun an inde¬ pendent missionary work in the interior, planted among the aborigines. It was ded¬ icated May 15, 18S7. With this mission is connected an educational work, literary and industrial. We have a seminary (Ricks Institute) intended to train negro youth to be missionary agents, guides, counsellors, and rulers for the people; to be also farm¬ ers, mechanics, and industrial workers in the country.” From the reading of this extract one would be left under the impression that the excellent condition of the Baptist churches in Liberia is the outcome of the labors of missionaries of the American Baptist Mis¬ sionary Union alone. The writer ignores the work done by the Southern Baptist Convention during a series of years, from 1S56, when the Missionary Union withdrew from Liberia and left the work to the South' ern Baptist Convention, to 1876, when our missionary work was transferred to the Yo ruba country. In 1S60, from which time till 1S70, owing to the war and subsequent de¬ pressed condition of our people, our work was practically suspended, the statistics of our mission in Liberia were: Churches and stations . 24 Pastors . iS Baptized during the year . - 68 No. of members . 1238 Teachers . 26 Scholars . 665 Nor were these Christians unmindful of the needs of their heathen neighbors, but did much work among them. “Bro. P. B. Yates,” (I quote from Dr. Tupper’s “For¬ eign Missions of the Southern Baptist Con¬ vention,”) “wrote Oct. 27th, 1S74: 4 am sorry I cannot say anything as to the growth of our chur<ftes. Our regular and stated meetings are properly and fully' attended. The Sunday-schools are in a most health¬ ful condition.’ ” These are only a few of the facts of the case, but facts concerning the work of Southern Baptists for the negro, whether in this country or elsewhere, are studiously ignored in some quarters. But God knows. The parable of the two sons is of peren¬ nial interest. The father said to the first, “Son, go work to day in my vineyard.” He answered, ,l I will not;” but afterward repented and went. He said the same to the second, and he answered, “ I go, sir,” and went not. There are multitudes of people in these days who assent to the command of Christ, ” Go ye into ail the world and preach the gospel to every crea¬ ture,” but neither go themselves nor give that others may go. The ranks of the fol¬ lowers of the second son are well filled; but there is a great need of those who will imitate the example of the first son, not in his reply, but in his repentance and obedi¬ ence; for the question of foreign missions is simply a question of obedience to the Saviour's last command. — Bap. Afiss’y Mag. Would that every so-called “missionary” Baptist could read and ponderthis applica¬ tion of a familiar parable to the foreign mis¬ sion work. There would be fewer “o-mis- sionary ” Baptists. Reader, which son are you following ? Every man in the church, whose heart is not in her mission work, is a drawback to those who have put their soul into it. If this be true, and who can deny it ? the fewwhoareprayingand doing formissions, in our Southern Baptist churches, are going forward under great difficulties. The “drawbacks” are very many. If our churches were thoroughly sifted, as was Gideon’s army, the working force only be¬ ing left, it is doubtful whether the remnant would be proportionately much larger than Gideon’s band of three hundred. The in¬ difference of the great majority of our people to this work is lamentable, and still more so is the fact that many of the leaders (pastors) are as indifferent as are the people. The Rev. G. W. Butler, writing in The Missionary about the revolution in Brazil, says of the priests: The Jesuitism of the priest-character came out into view at the embarkation of the imperial family. Not a priest went to bid them good-bye. Not even the Prin¬ cess’ confessor went to bid her a safe jour¬ ney, or say a consoling word, though she wept much at her departure. She was the greatest devotee and supporter of the priesthood, bestowing lavishly emoluments and titles upon them. And this is how they requite her. Rome and her agents have no use for men and women as such— only as they can contribute to herinfluence and power. Let the Princess return in power, and the high dignitaries of Rome in Brazil would don their gorgeous apparel and flock to wel¬ come her. May that day never come. FROM HOME CORRESPONDENTS. We give herewith a few of the many en¬ couraging letters that have come to the of¬ fice recently. These are of the kind that make glad the hearts of those to whom God and the churches have committed the management of the great foreign mission work. A brother from Alabama says: My dear Brother : You will not b£ offended when I express my sincere thanks for your pointed and ef¬ fectual appeal for Foreign Missions in your recent letter. Our collection had already been made. I have no pastorate, but fall in frequently with the - church, where I preach¬ ed regularly for many years, especially end more frequently when they have no pastor, as now. After reading your letter I saw Bro. - and proposed that he should take up a second collection here, and I would try at - . This we did on last Sunday. The contribution here was almost equal to the first one. As that had not been sent forward, the aggregate now ready for transmission, amounts to $150 from this church. More than double that of last year. - church having al¬ ready sent their contribution, gave me $13.10 to add to it. This was from a small congregation. One of their deacons told me to-day that many of the country mem¬ bers who were absent last, Sunday would probably be presentto-niorrow, and request¬ ed that I should attend the meeting and give them an opportunity to help, to which I readily agreed. We may- get a little more, and will forward all on Monday to Bro. Crumpton. Thanks be unto God that the obstacles are breaking down. He has opened the doors of access to the heathen. He lias put into the hearts of many of his servants a longing to go and carry them the gospel. He will awaken his churches to a liberality that will assure the support of these mis¬ sionaries. But. 11 Oh 1 how long!” Yet the heathen "shall" be given to His son, Sic. May His richest blessings abide upon the great work your Board are so nobly doing. A brother from Louisiana writes : Find enclosed twenty-six dollars. I shall press the claims of the Foreign Mission Board in all my places of meeting. The night after I took the above collection in - church (which was the first ever taken in said church) we had four accessions to the church. I believe it one of the, best means of producing a revival. Another brother from Alabama sends a contribution from a "broken down” church. We can hardly believe that it can be broken down while such members are in it: Enclosed please find a money order tzv twelve dollars, to be devoted to Foreign We, as members of a broken down church, ' ‘ that wc ought *.0 do something for the of mission^, hence in answer to your 1 for aid we send this. . A Virginia lady says: I havejust read in th«* Herald your appe&I to the Baptists of Virginia, and in response I enclose you the small sum of one dollar, regretting that it is not ten thousand. With a prayer for God’s blessing.upon your grand work, I am, &c. And still another Virginia sister sends “the last dollar.” , . After reading your appeal for missions in the last Herald I now send you my last and only dollar for that cause, and I do hope and pray that every Christian who reads that piece will give something, and more, than I am able to give. A sister in Christ. And this from West Virginia— how good it is I Your appeal to the Missionary Baptists of Virginia in the Herald of the 3d, deeply stirred my heart, and I send by check $10, which is all I can afTord at this time (would that it were ten times as much.) I am an old lady and very much cut of from my church privileges. The past winter we have been without a pastor. I shall try to pray specially for those who go to the Convention, that a double portion of the Holy Spirit may be given them, and that all the deliberations may be blessed in the advancement of Christ's kingdom and the good of all Christians. Very truly yours in Christian bonds, A member of the Charlestown Baptist church, Jefferson Co., West Va. A GOOD BOOK. A Chinese merchant came into the Amer¬ ican Baptist Mission chapel in Shanghai, and, after talking with him fora short time, Dr. Yates sold him a copy of the New Tes¬ tament. He took it home, three hundred miles away, and afler about three months appeared again in the chapel. He came back to say that he was under the impres¬ sion that the book was not complete; that surely it must have other parts; and so he came to get the Old Testament, as he read and studied the New. What had he done with the New Testament? He had taken it to his home, and shown it to the school¬ master and the reading people. They said. "This Is a good book. Confucius himself must have had something to do with it.” As there was only one copy, they unstitched this one, and took' It leaf by leaf ; and all those who could write _ took a leaf home. They made twelve or fifteen complete cop¬ ies of the New Testament, and introduced it into Uteirschools, without any "conscience clause.” It was introduced as a class-book , throughout that district, for heathen schools. — Baptist A fissionary.