FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
Published Monthly by the Foreign Mission Hoard of the Southern Baptist Convention.
‘ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS.’
Vol. 15 — New’Seric
RICHMOND. VA„ JUNE, 1884.
No. 11.— Whole No. 101.
(Entered nt the Poet-Office at Klchmoiuf, Vn . ne
eecoiul-cln*e mutter.}
Foreign Mission Journal
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Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
Richmond, Va.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTI8T CONVENTION.
LOCATXD AT ltlOlIMOND. VIltClINIA.
PiiRSiDKHT — J. I.. M, OU1UIY.
VlCK-I'lieeiDBNTe.— Joshua I.everlnr, №.. J.
Л.
Hackeit, l.a., J. I.. Ilurrow,. Vn.. Cl. K. Allen, Fla.,
O. F. Orexory, N.
О..
T. T. Knlon, Ky.. J. J. 1). lien-
lroe. Alnbamn. II. S. Duncan, Mo., II.
П.
Carroll,
Texas, W. I., Kilpatrick, (la., Wins. Manly, S. C„
Matt. Hlllsmnn, Tenn., J.
И,
Searcy, Ark., (leorge
Whitfield, Mies., W. 1'. Walker. W. Vn.
OOHIIXBI-ONOIN-tl sxcnxTAiiY— H.
Л.
TUI'I’ER.
TnxASunxn— J. O. WlbblAMS.
IUcauDlsa SxcuxTAiiy— W. 11. OWATHMEV.
Auditor— JOSEPH F. COTTltEI.E.
BOARD or MANAasnR.— J. H. Hawthorne, J. I!, Wat¬
kins, II. K. Ellyson, W. E. Hitcher, E. Wortham, W,
D. Thomas, W. OoJdln, II. II. Harris, J, Pollard, Jr.,
J. W. Jones,
Л.
II. Clarke, J. II. Winston, J. II. llul-
son.
О.
II. Winston, S. O. Olcnton.
tZ£T All communications in reference to the
business of this Hoard should be addressed to
H. A. Tui-PER, Corresponding Secretary,
Hichmond, Va.
Remember that we want £100,000 to cover
the expenses of the current year, and that a
large proportion of these expenses must be
met quarterly in advance. This means
about £7,000 a month, besides the special
contribution for Mexican schools,
THE CONVENTION.
The meeting in Hnltimorc was universally
regarded as one of the best ever held. The
delegation was larger than ever before ex¬
cept at Waco. The reports of both the
Hoards showed a healthy growth over former
years. Everybody was in gootl humor and
hopeful, and much of the spirit of devotion
pervaded the assembly. The Jlaltimore
Baptist illustrated its enterprise and vigor
by publishing a daily edition— the other
baptist weeklies have given full reports. We
may he indulged in a few general remarks
on what specially concerned us, the doings
and sayings in reference to Foreign Missions.
The Committee on Order of business al¬
lotted three sessions, afternoon stud evening
of Friday, anti morning of Saturday, for the
various topics treated in our report. From the
first afternoon a large slice was cut by a
question which had risen in the morning, hut
the loss was made up on Saturday evening.
The minutes of these proceedings will he
meagre for the reason that the topics were
introduced not as iieretoforc by extended
reports of committees, but by simple resolu¬
tions. We approve most heartily of having
an order of business, but we do not quite
like the omission of committees, wiio may
give independent approval, sometimes ad¬
ditional weight, and occasionally, perhaps,
needful correction to the conclusions of the
board.
The question of our Mexican schools, ns
being somewhat exceptional and open prima
facie to grave doubts, was referred to an
able committee, who considered it long and
carefully, and reported by resolution endors¬
ing fully the action of the board. Itis proper
to add that two members of the committee,
brethren Pope, of Texas, and Breaker, of
Missouri, did not sign the report because, as
they explained to the Convention, while ap¬
proving most heartily the general purpose
and plan of the proposed schools, they could
not endorse one subordinate feature, viz:
the offer to take certain orphan girls on con¬
dition that their hoard he paid by the civil
or municipal government. These brethren
it seems had conscientiously opposed the
adoption of a somewhat similar provision in
tlicorganizationofthe Leveringmanuni labor
school in the Indian Territory, both of them,
however, promised their hearty support to the
great work, and we may fairly claim that
after a most searching investigation in the
board, in committee and in Convention, the
|)!ans sketched last year by brother Powell
and matured. by the added labors of the
Corresponding Secretary last January, have
now received the unanimous approval of
Southern baptists. It remains to help our
noble missionary in his efTort to raise an en¬
dowment sufficient to secuie their complete
success. He appeared to he much worn by
his manifold cares and liis exhaustive labors,
and ought to rest awhile before prosecuting
the work of collection. His physical weak¬
ness in addressing the Convention brought
out more clearly the intense earnestness of
his soul, and the memory of his thrilling
words will long linger in many a heart.
The steady progress . in Italy, the old-
fashioned revival at Lagos, the fierce conflict
waged in Hahia, and the inviting field opened
up in Kabylia, all claimed and received their
due portion of attention. We were reluct¬
antly compelled to leave before anything had
been said about the greatest, most needy,
most difficult, and as we honestly believe, in
the long run, most promising of all our fields.
Its claims, as we iiear, were well presented
to a full house on Saturday evening, and our
representatives on the other side of the globe,
lonely in the midst of millions of heathen,
may rest assured that they are never forgotten
by their brethren at home. The ocean is
wrought i.p, here and there, by a local temp¬
est and its waves run high for a time, but the
ceaseless swell of the tide rolls ever steadily
from our western shores to the eastern coast
of Asia. So tlie great heart of our Baptist
brotherhood may be much stirred now and
then by other and minor objects, yet its reg¬
ular tidal wave of deepest sympathy is al¬
ways breaking against theinnumerahlestones
of Chinese superstition.
To brother J. A, Iloyt, of the Baptist
Courier, Greenville, S. C., the Journal is
indebted forpresentingaresoiutionof compli¬
ment and commendation, which was heartily,
and so far as we could hear unanimously,
adopted. This pleasant surprise could not
have come from a source more highly ap¬
preciated. Of tlie resolution itself, we need
only say that the generous terms in which it
was couched accorded fully with tlie graceful
way in which tlie brother introduced it.
Dr. Ashmore, of Swatow, China, con¬
tributes to tlie Missionary Magazine an
article on “ Fallacies about Converts,” in
which he draws out many points of paral¬
lelism between the recovery of heathen
from their superstitions, and tlie deliverance
of Israel from Egyptian bondage. Tlie
missionary lias all the trials of Moses with
his stifT-nccked generation, and can iiope
to lead fully into the promised land of a
Christian community very few who had
attained the age of maturity before they set
out. This also emphasizes tlie importance
of giving attention to tlie young, with whom
there is more Iiope of making faithful and
intelligent soldiers of tlie cross. The second
generation may be able to drive out tlie
Canaanites.
The Northern Presbyterian Board of For¬
eign Missions received during the year just
closed £093,000; being an advance of £53,-
000 in donations over the previous year, with,
however, a decrease in bequests. The ex¬
penses of the year, including a debt brought
forward, were £703,800.
WOMAN'S WORK.
Our readers will have noticed in other
papers that there was some discussion in
Baltimore in reference to appointing some
lady “ to visit various cities in the hounds of
the Convention, organize societies where
they do not exist, collect and disseminate
information, and in every way possible
stimulate and strengthen the work of wo¬
men for home missions.” Tlie matter was
referred, without instructions, to tlie Home
Board at Atlanta, Ga. We advert to it only
to call attention to tlie fact that it in no wise
concerns tlie organization of societies
through the State Central Committees,
which co-operate with the Foreign Mission
Board, as was explained in our last number.
These, as we then said, are working smooth¬
ly and well ; nobody proposes any change,
except in bidding them a hearty God-speed
as they press on to still greater efficiency.
Our estimate of woman as compared with
man, may be summarily stated in three
propositions. 1st. She is his equal. 2d. She
is inferior. 3d. She is superior.1 A little
reflection will satisfy anybody that the ap¬
parent contradiction in these statements has
no real foundation; that, in fact, the three
agree in asserting an equality, which results
from inferiority in some respects, counter¬
balanced by superiority in others.
That woman stands on an equal footing
with man in all that concerns their relations
to God might be argued on many different
lines. It will suffice to clench the patent
truth by a citation or two from Scripture.
In Genesis I, 27, we find distinction of sex
mentioned, but no difference in relation to
the prototype, “ in the image of God cre¬
ated he him ; male and female, created lie
them.” So in the New Testament, to take
one passage out of many, Paul, in Galatians
III, 2S, affirming the sonship of all who have
been baptized into Christ, says: "There
can he neither Jew nor Greek, there can he
neither bond nor free, there can be no male
and female; for ye are all one [man] in
Christ Jesus."
That she is inferior to man in certain mat¬
ters pertaining to the forms of public wor¬
ship, may he similarly shown and clenched
with these Scriptures : Genesis Ill, 10— "Thy
desire shall he thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee;" I Corinthians XIV, 34—
“Let the women keep silence in the
churches; for it is not permitted unto them
to speak;” and in 1. Timothy II, 2S — “But
I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have
dominion over a man, but to be in quiet¬
ness.” Some would evade the force of these
texts by arguing that they were of local and
temporary application, being given because
of prejudices then and there indulged, The
evasion is excluded by the fact that the
Apostle himself assigns his reason, as shown
in the circumstances of the creation and the
fail. Wherever fallen man is, there tlie pro¬
hibition holds.
That, woman is superior to man in the ex¬
ercise of all those sweet and gentle influ¬
ences, which create home and adorn social
life, is not perhaps distinctly affirmed in
holy writ, but is illustrated by many exam¬
ples there, and will be readily admitted as a
corollary from tlie preceding propositions.
Siie is excluded from tlie responsibility of
what we may call official work, because of
her' greater liability to be imposed upon by
subtle hypocrites, and this is the strongest
testimony to tlie comparative exuberance of
her emotional nature. But enougli of the¬
orizing.
Practically, in our foreign mission work,
we recogn'?e the equality of woman in in¬
viting her as a church member to take her
full share in the regular contributions— it is
wrong and injurious for either sex to rele¬
gate to the other duties which are alike in¬
cumbent on both. We recognize it also in
preferring that every man sent to a foreign
field shall take a wife with him. We recog¬
nize her inferiority in giving her no repre¬
sentation in her own person in our Conven¬
tion or Board of Managers, and in sending
out no unmarried woman, except to a station
which needs tlie kind of work which she
can best do, and offers the shelter of a
Christian home. We recognize her superi¬
ority in expecting her deeper and stronger
interest in foreign missions to manifest itself
by raising, through mite-boxes and such
like means, large contributions for tlie cause,
in addition to the regular church collections,
and by furnishing, as they may be needed,
devoted women who shall go out free from
the cares of married life, to carry the gospel
by private instruction into those inner tem¬
ples of heathenism, from which man is ex¬
cluded.
.
OUR ENGLISH BftETHREN.
The ninety-second report of the Baptist
Missionary Society was presented to the
anniversary meeting May 9th, and is printed
in full in the Missionary Herald. The
Society lias missions in India, Ceylon, China,
Japan, Africa, the West Indies, and in sev¬
eral European countries, employing in all
9G missionaries and 221 native evangelists.
The total receipts for the year have been
/7)9,783
19s Gd, or nearly £300,000; the ex¬
penditures have been still larger by some
£15,000. We subjoin some excerpts from
the report:
The year has been marked by heavy and
sore losses of specially promising and gifted
laborers, yet its record is also one of re-
maikabie progress, not only in the regions
beyond, but in the sympathy and liberality
of the churches at home. Larger additions
have been made to the native churches,
more missionaries have been sent out, and
a larger amount of money raised by the
home churches, than in any previous year
for a quarter of a century.
In the Delhi district three native brethren
have been called to the pastorate of three
native churches, and are mainly supported
by the free-will offerings of the people. It
is also matter for special thankfulness that
tlie number of actual conversions that have
come under the personal observation of
brethren on the field has been larger during
the past year than in any previous year for
a long time. Not that tabulated iclurns,
ever represent in any reliable manner the
actual result of work done either at home
or abroad ; and while this is true with regard
to England, still more emphatically is it so
with regard to India. Many shall come from
the east and the west, from tlie north and tlie
south, whose names have never been recorded
in the roll-call of any of our church books,
or tabulated in any statistical return.
Tlie reports received from the brethren
on tlie field of the work done during the past
year show most clearly that tlie period of
experiment and early weakness in China is
past, our brethren being no longer misun¬
derstood or contemned as they once were.
They have preached the gospel to not a
few of the people, and gathered out churches
of earnest men and women who are suffer¬
ing for their faith, and active for the salva¬
tion of others. They have given aid to the
sick and suffering, and in famine-relief they
ha ve been fi rst a ml fore most. Native evange¬
lists have been sent out, and a tract half as
large as England lias been tlie. field of their
journeyings. Friendly intercourse with the
natives lias been established. Books and
tracts of all kinds and sizes have been issued.
Knowledge and experience have been gain¬
ed. In a word, their work has been a true
success I Itis the Lord's doing, and surely
it is marvellous in our eyes. Consuls, mer¬
chants, and travellers all bear the same wit¬
ness. — “China is moving at last.” On all
lianas our missionaries tell us of opportuni¬
ties which they cannot seize, and of a harvest
at their very doors that they cannot gather.
There are to-day in connection .with the Mis¬
sion of tlie Society in thesingle district ofTsing
Chu Fu, fifty-five churches, all these stations
being self-supporting, and being ministered
to by native pastors and teachers, maintain¬
ing themselves entirely, and not drawing any
of their support from tlie funds of tlie So¬
ciety. More than threehundredandsixtycon-
verts have been baptized during the past year.
