.
Г'
I
^'v:4'T‘)'s
/««Чр'* -лАав*.
я оч /
tv
•*■ .„• ~;ь->
&>hjr$k
':?'—
"• -
■•?> О г
, 4 -л
Foreign Mission Journal
2»иЫ1«1м.>41
Moullilj by the Foreign HUwIon Hoard of the Southern Kaptixt Couvcntlon.
“All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth. Go ye, therefore, and Teach all Nations.” — The Son of God.
Yol. 7. — Now Series.
RICHMOND, VA., SEPTEMBER, 1874.
No. 3.— Whole No. 75.
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL
TERMS :
Single copy, 0110 year .
.
. . . $ 00
У
our cotilcx loononddroM . .’.... 1 00
Ten copl» to one
асЫгм»
. . 2 00
Thirty copies tn ono uddroaj . a . 6 00
ftS-For pockngM containing II fly N)jJei anil upward*, per year,
IS crniti per copy.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD,
Located at Richmond, Va.
PauiDtKt— J. L. M. CUBBY, VltotMiA.
Vicz-PiiMoetn— Ulram Wood», Md, W. M. Wingate, N.
С..
II.
II. Tucker, lla., 8. Ilcnderaon, Ala.. J. A. Hacked, ill**, J. L. liar-
roars, Vn., Henry McDonald, Ky.. W. Pope Yeoman, Mo., J. C. Fur¬
man, 8. O., Mo*m Oreen, Ark, H. Courtney, Lu, II. 1). McCollum,
Fla., Matt. Hlllaman, Tenn., W. Cary CraDe, Texas.
11. A. TUPPKIt, Coantiroknpto StqiiraRr.
KDWI.V WOUTIIAM, TaiAsram.
. W. II. OWATIIMCY, lUooaDino Stcanmr.
С.
T. WOrtrHAM,
Лионок.
-*
Hot»n or Makaoim- J. II. Jeter. C. 0. Hitting. A. K. Dlcklnann,
II. K. Kllyaon, A. II. Clark. J. F. KeMoe. J. 0. William*. T. J. Evanr,
J. II. Wlnaton,
О.
II. Wlneton, II II. Harrle, J.JI. Watklna, Wel¬
lington Ooddin, N. W. Wllai>n, J. H/Carllck.
ЮЗ}'
All communication s in reference to the business
of this Hoard should be addressed to II. A. Tcppeh,
Corresponding Secretary^ Jlichmonu, Va.
THE'LOKD'B WAY.
It was opr Lord trim said, “ the harvest is great but
the laborers arc low." Having all power in Heaven
and on earth it wero an easy thing for him to raise up
laborers.
Пе
would only have to will it and angels
would go forth to preach Hie Gospel. He need not ask
tko co-oporation of men, or wait their slow and half¬
hearted assistance. lie might, in His own person, ac¬
complish hie purposes, hut that is not His tcay.
The laborers are few. What tlion t Pray ye the
Lord of the harvest that He send forth lahorors into
Hie harvest. Laborers are needed, hut it is our duty
to ask for thorn. Our hearts must feel the magnitude
of tho work, and wc must call for help to do it.
The grain may he ripening and fulling nml wasting,
and thero may bo laborers waiting to bo eont into the
harvest, but they will not bo sent until wc
авк
for
them. The Lord is ever ready to work witii us, but
Ho pationtly waits until our hearts yearn for Ilis pre¬
sence. This is JHs icay. Ho will not anticipate Ilis
pcople’d wishes, or give Ilis blessings beforo they aro
desired.
If wo ask why the Lord docs not move faster, the
answer is, because He is waiting for His people. He
will not go forward moro rapidly than they can hear.
He kept them in the wilderness forty years, not bo-
causo Ho delighted in their wanderings and sufferings,
hut becauso they were not prcpaied to enter upon
their inheritance. It would avail nothing to drive tho
heathen out of Palestine to make room for a people
who had not learned to trust and obey. When tho Is¬
raelites were prepared for tho promised land tho prom¬
ised land was prepared and opened for thorn.
In tho same way, whenever tho Christian world is
prepared for enlarged and more extended labors, tho
laborers will be provided. When tho church earnestly
desires the conversion of men ebe wiUnek for it, and
ask for tho means of accomplishing it, and this desiro
is tho true preparation for it. If tho kingdom of God
docs notoomo with power, let us understand the reason
for it. It is because the Lord .is waiting for ns. Ilis
blessing docs not go beforo, but follows, our conscious¬
ness of needing it^, This is tho Lord ’s way.
OUR NEIGHBORS.
Wc have consulted our big dictionary, and find that
a neighbor is one who lives near. The family on the
opposite side of the street are our neighbors, and so
arc they who live on the right hand and the left. But
if wo take tho word near to mean not only proximity
in space, but nearness in time, quick accessibility, the
number of our neighbors has been greatly increasing
of late years. Fifty years ago it would hardly have
been allowable for a man in Richmond to speak of a
man^pQVaehington city as hie neighbor; but there
would .bo no nbsurdity in such a thing now. The
Richmond man might take breakfast at his own home,
dine wilh his neighbor of ,tke Federal capital, and re¬
turning, spend tho night with his own family. There
aro hundreds of what are called “ near neighbors” in
some parts of our country who could not do more. In¬
deed, so near are they to us in point of time, that we
feel there is no'impropriety in our spooking of onr
neighbors in New York, or Boston, or San Francieco.
It is the letter on our desk that suggests these
thoughts to us. It has been only one week einco it
left the I’ocifio shore. In one brief seven days it bas
crossed the continent. What would the great oldman
Ben, Franklin, whq
this eotmlryDiaVe"' said to that ? Ilowho would have
laughed nt the very thought of such a thing I 11 It is
impossible, unthinkable,” be would have said. And
yet, here is the official mark that makes us know that
this missive from a friend is but ono short week from
San Francisco. But there is another thing about it
worthy of attention ; it is hut forty days from Asia,
and but fifty days from the for off northern pnrt of
China. Tho American continent, the Pacific ocean,
and a thousand miles of Asia aro between us and the
writer, and all that distance has been passed in fifty
days. Ab they are
во
near to us it would hardly be
wrong to speak of our neighbors in China. We could
not treat neighbor Yates in Shanghai, or neighbor
Graves in Canton, or neighbor Hftrtwellin Chefoo, like
we (reat our neighbors at homo. Wo could not borrow
of them a cup of toasted coffee, or a pound of sugar,
or tho morning paper. Wo are not quit? near enough
for that, but, when we think of it, wo arc really very
comfortably near them.
Said the Georgia legislator: “The telegraph may
possibly carry letters and email packages, but it can’t
carry a bale of cotton.” If only it could carry the
letters and small packages 1 Just for the name of the
thing, we wonld telegraph over to our correspondent
at Tung Chow and get hor to send us a canister of
genuine tea direct from China. Let us seo. This is
Monday night. As we are in no particular hurry
about it, wo would be satisfied to have tho tea Sunday
morning for breakfast, and wo could have it. Thanks
to tho Atlantic cable, (thero will bo a Pacific cable
after a while), it takes only three days to send a mes¬
sage to tho heart of Asia. Tho time will soon come
wlion it can bo done in one day— whon human thought
<-au fly over all continents and seas
того
rapidly than
the earth turns upon its axis.
Wo rather hope that we have something like seen
tho limit of man’s feats in annihilating space. We
do not like tho idea of being too closo to everybody. Wo
do not fancy being too much crowded— wo like n little
breathing
врасо.
Another thing toueboe us very
olosoly. We were always 6trong advocates of Foreign
missions, and if things go on much furthor there will
bo no room for Foreign missions, the whole world wiU
be Home mission ground. “ The Greeks aro at your-
doors I” said tho cynical Randolph, of Roanoko. That
was true in his day ; it is far worse now. Not the»
Greeks alone, but the Chinese, and the Japanese, and
the Africans, and all the world are at our doors. Thft
whole race of mankind have become our neighbors.
AN OLD STORY APPLIED.
The fables of iKaop, even without explanations,
teach useful lessons. We have an idea that all our •
nursery stories, or at least all the old and good ones,
have much wiedom and practical sense wrapped up in
theircrude conceits. We all have h?ard tho story of the-
woman who went to the market and bought her a. pig.
The pig went on very well until it came to a branch,
and then it would go no farther. Tho old woman
called first upon a dog, then upon a stick, and then upon
the fire, and then upon the’ water, and then upon tho
ox, and so on, to help her. At last, as the story goes,
the ox began to drink tho water, tho water began toij
quench the fire, the firo began to’hnrn the stick, thef
stick began to beat the dog, the dog began to bite the ’
pig, the pig jumped over the branch, and the old
woman got home.
It ’wac fcclgn.j^Cjgsd.pf -a .number gtrogcuolea ’anltinc’
to pr Stuck thoYcsircd reeuh. If’ any one’ of 'theeo
agencies had failed the result would havo failed.
Now, we cannot undertake to say who is the old
woman, or who is the pie, or who is tho fire. But it
certainly is true, that our missionary works cannot go
on unless a number of persons co-operato in them. If
our Corresponding Secretary should stir up the pastors,
and the pastors should urge on their
того
prominent
members, and these tho more sluggish or diffidont, we
would have something like the fablo made fact. We
should like to seo the whole chain of agencies in activq
motion.
THE DISPUTES SILENCED.
Two gentlemen were once disputing on the divinity
of Christ. Ono of them, who argued against it, said,
“If it were true, it certainly would have been ex¬
pressed in
того
clear and unequivocal terms.” “Well,”
said tho other, “ admitting that you holieved it, wero
you autboriied to teach it, unit allowed to ueo your
own language, how would you
схргсва
the doctrine
to make it indubitable f” “I would eay,” replied he,
“ that Jesus Christ is the true God.” “ You aro very
happy,” replied the other, “in the choice of your
words, for you havobappenod to hit upon tho words
of inspiration. St. John, speaking of the Son, says,
‘ This is tho true Qod, and eternal life 1’ ”
We arc told that’ Sir Charles' Lyell, the eminent
geologist, in tho early editions of his book estimated
tho period of man’s existence on the earlhnt eight hun¬
dred thousand years. In his last edition he hue fallen
in his estimate to two hundred thousand years. Who
but a geologist could dispose of time after that faBhionf
Wc who hold to the'Biblo chronology have to bo
того
careful with our poor six thousand years.
“ I would give,” said an enthusiastic Southerner, in
thoaummerof 1801, “atliousanddoliarstohovohoonin
the battle of Manassas, and to have come out alive.”
A far more glorious battlo than any waged in human
wars is going on around us. ThoPrinco of Light con¬
tends with tbe powers of darkness. If we chooso wo
may take part in the contest on the side of light, and
win a glorious crown.
.
> - . liViVn'f,
„V
