Foreign Mission Journal, July 1887

Foreign Mission Journal. PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY TUB • FOREIGN MISSION- BOAIiD OF TIIE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION. .I'M: ;o ■ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS." ' Voi.. iS — New Series. RICHMOND, VA., JULY, 1S87. N0. 12 — Whole No. 227 (Entered at the Popt-OtUce at Richmond, Va. eecomt-claea matter.) 1 ship nnd personal interest has sprung up _ ‘between some of the natives and our- selves— a sort of mutual ownership. An Foreign Mission journal. ;encourasinKfeatureisu,atwe have been _ _ received by many of the wealthy and most substantial of the residents.” These facts indicate a very remarkable I. For lingers separately addressed, either to samp ! change of feeling in Northern China, or to different i>o»i oittcee • I where our missionaries have been hitherto ThSeS’te- apiece, seated with сом contempt. In Southern China, cordial and hitter hatred towards missionaries took the place RATES PER ANNUM: II. For пискам» »ont to one person, who shall be , - - Die'- " •' 1 r*epoi>plbfe for their distribution : Four coplee for frl, or more ut . ....25ct*. n piece. ,of ,lle contempt manifested in the North, «■riease remit by limit, Postal Order, or In negls- . Tl,e history of missions in Southern China t*recl Letter, and notify us promptly of any c In Address. Address, FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL, Richmond, Va. ADVERTISING RATES. БГАСК. One inch . . Two Incites . Three Inches . annrter column... nlf column..... . One column . 1 Month. 3 Mouth* tl Mon the 12 Month* 1 to a 45 а ю IS no 2 4U e 43 12 50 22 50 я to fl •JO i s 00 32 «Ю 4 75 1Я uo 25 00 4G (» 0 25 я ез 48 <0 JHi on 18 00 Л0 00 02 AO 178 (Ю FOREIGN MISSION BOARD OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION, I.ocatsd at RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. has been a history of violent persecutions, 1 with destruction of property and loss of 'life. The Chinese of the South have most intensely hated foreigners, and have ex¬ hibited that hatred at every favorable op¬ portunity. Bu t here, too, a change is taking place, as will be seen by the letter of Dr. Craves, on another page of the Journal. I Dr. Graves says : “ Especially have we I been encouraged at the improvement in the treatment accorded us by the people. With the exception of one town where the people were rude to Dr. Niles, we have met with no bad treatment." And Mrs. Graves, writing about the same trip, says: " We found the women very friendly and ready to listen while we talked to them and read Bible stories to them," It is very possible that this revolution in the feelings of the people is due, in part at least, to the changed policy of the rulers; iuev 'лгк^гэеогкс 1 >’et lC 1S manifestly not due entirely to this . w.’va. " cause. The holy lives, the gentle patience, the arduous, self-sacrificing labors of love, of the missionaries themselves, together with the improved lives of the converts. PiiKsmuMT— II. H. lUnius. ViCE.PnKSiDRNTs.— Joshua I.everlng, Md., O. ЛУ. Tomklss. I.a., J. I.. narrows, Va.. N. Л. Halley. Fla,, Theo. Whitfield, N. 0„ (1, F. Huffby, Ky„ J. J. 11. Ren- froe, Alabama. J. P. Greene, Mo„ II. II. Carroll, Texas, W. I,. Kilpatrick, Oa, Oho». Manly, S. O., J. M. Penler, Tean.. J. It, Sea ‘ ' ~ Whitfield, Mi»., W. F. Atlklsson OOiinasroNbinoSitcnETAny— Н.Л. TUPFER. TnEABL’nnn — J. O. WILLIAMS. Rxconprso Sec патаку — Л, П. CLARKE. AooiTon-11. C. BURNETT. , , . , . , „ , , Roaiid or otanaokrs.— и, K. Elly.on, J. D. Win. ha\-e helped to bring about the change. In- non. о. II. Wanton, W. E. Hatcher, J. w. Jones. ' deed, a number of causes are combining arwVu»/'.T%te"« . '° revolutionize Chinese ideas, change Cooper. С. II, Ryhmd, H.C. BuroftiiT. P.M.-uhcws, Chinese feelings, and make straight the J _ ... _ , ,, .way of the Lord in this great empire of t&’All communications in reference to the j d lrkness 6U»ine« of this Board should be addressedto The ^ dl . on in china caM H. A. TOPPER, Corresponding Secretary. , upon the peop|e [Q prfiss forward jn Richmond. Va. the work 0f giving Ciirist to her people. — - ~ 1 : - - — ; ' God having opened the doors of China to A missionary among the Karens, speak- ' the missionaries, is now opening the hearts ing of a recent trip he had made, says: 'of the people as well. “ Instead of climbing great hills and follow- 1 Baptists of the South, see the opportunity ing the rocky beds of streams, in order to for winning China to Christ, and buy Hup. reach this village, as we had to do five ( _____ - years ago, we now have an excellent road. < SAVING FOR GOD’S WORK. This road was made at the lime of the I French-Tonqiiin trouble, in order that i clothes went to a dyer, in order that he We have received from the Maryland might save the cost of a new suit, nnd give Baptist Mission Room, No. io cast Fayette the money to the cause of Christ— if we all street, Baltimore, samples of a card which had more of this spirit, we would have j the ladies in charge of this room have pre- fewer pleas of poverty, and see grander | pared for the use of pastors and Christians work (lone for God and souls. Cannot | in general. At the head of the card are every reader of the Journal-, just as he or ! these words: " Each person using this card she reads, determine to make some saving ! is requested to remember daily, in prayer. in expenditure this year, and give it to the Lord’s work? Read the letters in this is¬ sue under the head of“ More Good Cheer,” and follow the example given there of sac¬ rifice made by some of God's poor ones. England could march troops into Siam should occasion arise.” Rome of old made roads for the messengers of the cross to travel on, and England is doing the same thing to-day. During tile Convention in Louisville we went with a lady friend to a millinery estab¬ lishment, and while waiting for her to' con¬ sult the proprietor, listened to a lady cus¬ tomer pricing hat-tiimmings. “ Beautiful,” " exquisite,” “lovely," were the terms used to describe the different bunches of artificial Rowers exhibited. After awhile came the question, "What is the price?" “Oil, very cheap." was the reply, and then prices were given varying from two and a half to three, four and five dollars. With the mind's eye we looked upon a congregation of Christians before whom we had a short time before stood and pleaded for money to send the bread of life to starving millions of men and women and children. All over the house were to be HOPEFUL SIGNS IN CHINA. A short time ago we had the pleasure of recording the fact that from the imperial authorities a proclamation had been made all through China, urging and command¬ ing the people to live in pence and friend¬ ship with missionaries and converts. This has been generally received as a most en¬ couraging sign of progress in China, anti as being very favorable to the advance¬ ment of missionary work. ! seen the new spring bonnets — not less than Now comes information from our mis- three hundred of them. At a moderate siounries of a different kind, yet in connec- estimate they averaged five dollars apiece, lion with the other, seeming to indicate Fifteen hundred dollars in one house of that the time of China’s redemption is . God alone, for spring hats and artificial drawing near. This new sign of hope is | Rowers. And this was only one of many seen in the changed feelings of the people j thousands of congregations that on that towards missionaries and their work. In day were assembled in God's houses all the last Journal Miss Lottie Moon speaking over the land. And in these congregations of this change says : “A mighty change is ! were to be found hundreds of thousands being wrought in the feelings of the people j of dollars worth of artificial flowers, when towards foreigners. No true missionary i not one hundred thousand could he raised cares for physical hardships. But ‘the (among the Baptists of all the Southern iron enters the soul,’ when all his advances j States to send life-bread to the perishing. are met by suspicion, coldness, dislike or actual hatred. For many long years this was what missionaries in China bad to en¬ dure. Happily that state of things is rap¬ idly passing away. The change is very marked. Where of old we were met by cold, averted glances, by rudeness and dis¬ like, we are greeted now by smiles and words of cordial welcome.” Speaking of a trip she had just made, she says : " I was much delighted with the friendliness of the people.” In a later letter, published in this number of the Journal, she makes mention ol the same thing. Mrs. Crawford, in her annual report, al¬ ludes to this changed state of things iri these words : “ A strong feeling of friend- Yet pastors and newspapers are constantly talking about the poverty of our people, so helping them to excuse themselves from giving to missions. We have mentioned this one item of artificial flowers, not to make a fling at our women— far be it from us to do such a thing — but simply because our atten¬ tion happened to be specially called to this item of partly unnecessary expendi¬ ture on the part of our Christian people. It is only one of many things in which we could save, that we ipight have enough to give to the Lord's work. If we all had more of the spirit of the saintly Elias Dodson, who is said to have gone to bed in Charleston, while his old GOD’S CALLS TO SOUTHERN BAPTISTS. God Is calling, loudly calling, upon South¬ ern Baptists to go forward in the work of Foreign Missions. These calls are coming in several different ways. First, of course, comes the call in His word for each, every one, to go and disciple all nations— to go either in person or by substitute. Obedience to this command is a test of our love. “ If ye love Me ye will keep My commandments, "and no com¬ mand was given under more solemn cir¬ cumstances than this. It has all the force of "last words” from our ascending Saviour. Loud calls come from every field that is open or opening to the entrance of our missionaries to-day. And nearly every field of earth is open. These calls are em¬ phasized by the voices of the missionaries as they tell of the great opportunities for preaching the word, of the great needs of the work, of its encouragements, of the vast¬ ness and whiteness of the harvests, and the scarcity of the laborers. Every time a missionary writes about these things, he or she utters a call to you, brother, sister, a call of God, a call which unanswered will meet you in judgment. Yet again, God is calling us to enlarged work in the appeals which are being made to the Board by men and women, to be sent at once to the mission fields. God has moved by his. Spirit on their hearts, and now they are pleading to be sent into the field. Within two weeks applications have come to the Board from two young men, one a successful pastor, the other a young man just finishing his college course. The first was formerly a physician with a good practice, which he gave up to become a preacher of the gospel. So strong is his conviction of duty, that he is willing to go to a mission field, and if necessary, practice medicine for a support, after he shall have acquired the language. The other, for years, has felt the call of God to go to China, and his fellow-students be¬ lieving that he has been called of God to this work, and will do it well, have volun¬ tarily pledged themselves for part of his sup¬ port, and now plead with the Board tosend him. These applications are in addition to a number received last year, and are given merely as samples of many that, are coming to the Board. What is the Board to do ? Can it send new men out when God’s people are with¬ holding the means to support those now in the suggested topics.” Then follow “Sub¬ jects of Prayer," embracing the general work and special fields of labor of both the Foreign and Home Mission Boards— one for each month in the year. These cards arc sold at fifty cents a hundred, and we hope to hear that very many of our pastors and people are using them. Their use will keep the work of missions before our people, lead them to pray for, and as a necessary consequence, give to this work. There will also be published in a short time programmes for missionary meetings, which will be supplied at small cost. Write to Maryland Baptist Mission Room, No. io E. Fayette street. Baltimore, Md. MISS MAGGIE RICE. In the last Journal we mentioned the de¬ parture of Miss'Rice, in company with Rev. W. II. Bagby and family, for her field of labor in Brazil, and promised to give our readers some account of her. The follow¬ ing brief sketch of her life, we prefer giving in her own words. llev. //. A. Tapper .- Dear Bro.— Grandfather Rice moved from Kentucky to Missouri, and settled in Buchanan county, when my father, Benja¬ min Franklin Rice was quite young. My mother's maiden name was Susan James. Her parents came from North Carolina to Missouri when she was a little girl. I was born near St. Joseph, Buchanan county, Missouri, December, 1859. When thirteen years old, I felt myself a sinner in the sight of God. Soon after I sought the Lord, and obtained the sweet assurance that my sins were forgiven. At the time of my conversion, very little was said in our churches about foreign missions. Previous to this, I had read a memoir of Mrs. Comstock, which left a lasting impression upon my mind. “ New- year's Day,” 1873, 1 united with the Toas Baptist church, Buchanan county, Missouri, and was baptized by my father, who was pastor of that church. J list at the dawn of my young Christian life came a desire to carry the gospel to the heathen. I knew that I was too young to think of going then, but as I grew older the desire to go became stronger. During the years that I was a pupil in brother E. S. Dunlin’s school I was more than ever anxious to become a missionary, but there were so many obstacles in my way that I did not tell anyone my feelings. I believe that God’s hand was leading me then, ar.d preparing me for my life The last sacrificehas been made. Hence¬ forth I shall consider it a blessed privilege— a glorious opportunity, to give my life work to foreign missions. I have left a lovely Christian home, fond parents and loving brothers and sisters. I am cheerful and happy, for I know that God is with me, and He will guide me in all things. Brethren of the Foreign Mission Board, many of you have never seen me; few know me. I thank God that' you have ap¬ pointed me to this glorious work. 'My . life prayer has been answered. I pray that God will make me a devoted, faithful missionary, and that you may never regret my appointment. I know that you will give me Christian advice, and pray for me and my work.' Your sister in Christ, Maggie Rice. Richmonds l'a.. May 23, 1887. While the Prudential Committee of, the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions were considering applica¬ tions for appointment from ten young per¬ sons, one of the members scribbled off those lines : , “They come, they come, these brave young hearts, Aflame with earnest zeal ; They come with hopes as high as heaven,. With purpose firm as steel. - "They come by scores, these, brave.youhg hearts, - . . From homes all o’er the land; They come anointed of the Lord, And led by his right hand. “They cornel they cornel God bless them all, And speed them on their way; May others come till all the world ‘Shall own Messiah’s sway.’” And they are coming to our Board as well. Alas! we cannot accept 'and send them forth, because God’s stewards are keeping his money for themselves..- : A mob attacked the mission hous? of the American Board, In Smyrna, in March. Letters from that place report the Protes¬ tants very "cheerful jind hopeful, some'of them feeling strongly that this (meute was in answer to their prayers that something might occur which would lead men to think." The same Ietterstates that "the Governor, by orders from Constantinople, has directed the reading in all the Greek and Roman Catholic churches of instruc¬ tions to live at peace with their neighbors, ‘ for this is the spirit of Christianity, and the wish oj the ; Sultan’.' " The Mohammedan teaches Greek and Roman Catholicism the spirit of Christianity ! the field? Shall the Board borrow m.oney 1 work. I needed so many lessons to teach to send men out, and have to beg and plead I me patience and submission. Year after next year for money to pay the debt ? year the struggle went on, no one en- Ought not every child of God who reads j couraged me, and I was left to struggle this, to feel that here is a special call to j with my convictions. Then I graduated, him or her to give something for the ex- j and again the question came up for de¬ tension of this work? Reader, the call is to you. The pierced hand of the Christ is ex¬ tended to you, and extended for a gift from you, for whom He gave himself. How will you treat His call ? Our Northern Baptist brethren, ha\ing raised #25,000 for a mission building in the City of Mexico, are now turning their at¬ tention to the Chinese work in California. The Home Mission Society, which has both these works in charge, calls for 815,000 for the purchase of " Chinese Mission Head¬ quarters " in San F rancisco. Of course the call will be answered. Already 85,000 lias been pledged. When Southern Baptists of means learn to give by the hundreds and thousands to the needs of our work, our missionaries will have the houses they so much need. The Lord continues to bless the labors of our Baptist brethren in Sweden. Re¬ vivals are reported in many of the churches, with large ingatherings of converts. cision. There was plenty of home-work for me, and I tried to silence the voice of duty by thinking that I was doing the Lord's will, but the little voice only spoke louder. Every sermon that I heard about foreign missions made a strong appeal to my heart. There is no rest for me outside of duty. Last November, after much prayer, I laid every¬ thing on the altar for Qhrist. Then came such peace of mind and joy of heart as I had not experienced since the first years of my Christian life. Many of my friends have pointed to the home field’s need of earnest Christian workers. I know about this, but to me the shadows are deeperon the pictures of igno¬ rance and woe in heathen lands. To me the command is imperative, nnd I must obey. If there were no foreign fields waiting for the sower and reaper, no Macedonian cries coming across the waters, I would be a home missionary. If I refuse to carry the gospel to the women and children of Brazil, I believe they will rise up in the judgment against me. A missionary on the Congo; speaks thus of the new converts in, that. field. Wise words are these : “ Brother Richards has given an account of the great religious interest, which still continues, I find most all the converts in the condition of early infancy. They are only just weaned from their.former customs, and are still hovering around the grandeur and wonderment of salvation", A deeper work of divine renewing is needed, and their spiritual life must be built and sup¬ ported by the means, of grace. It may take long, patient years of service before, we shall see in the lives of these natives the thorough conscientiousness, moral manliness, and beautiful piety, which grace the life of Christianity at home. But Christ is believed, worshipped, loved and honored by these souls' just struggling out of the darkness of heathenism ; and although their faith is small, and their ignorance ex¬ treme, I believe they are trusting' Christ and are saved. ‘ Whosoever believeth in the name of the Lord shall be saved.”’ It has often beensaid that the conungof ap¬ plicants for missionary service will certainly 1 insure the supply of the needed money for sending them forth. There are some re¬ cent indications that this is a true state¬ ment. This week a letter reached the treasurer of the Board from a gentleman and his wife, who wished their names strictly withheld, saying, " Our hearts are greatly moved to know of so many of our young men and women offering themselves as workers under our beloved Board. In anticipation of their needs in outfit, travel¬ ling expenses, etc., please accept the accom¬ panying check, with many fervent prayers for the speedy unbuilding of Christ’s king¬ dom in every land.” The check was for #5,000. May God bless these' generous givers!— Missionary Herald. Why do we not have such things among our Southern Baptists? Some' , of; them have money, 1 '* .?■' ' '