FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
I'u1)]Ih1ic<1 w°iilhly l»y tlic Foreign
ЗШн.ч1оп
Hoard of «ho Southern Baptist Convention.
“A Lb POWER IS GIVEN UNTCLMR IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO VE, THEREFORE, AND TEACH ALL NATIONS.”
Vol. 16— New Series.
RICHMOND, VA„ NOVEMBER, 1884.
No. 4.— Whole No. 196.
fpiiwrc»! ul tU<* l’cwt'Ofllce ut Itlchmoiul, Va,,
1 hhcoiuI'cIiibp umtH'r.]
Foreign Mission Journal
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Addros. FOKKIGN MISSION JOURNAL.
KrcMMuNii, Va.
FOREIGN MISSION BOARD
OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION.
I.ocatkd at lUUIIMONIi. VIRGINIA
PKUIDKST— J. Ia. M.
ИТОГ.
VK'K-I*«KSIP*NT8.— Joshua I.t.crlltp,
Л1,
1.. J.
Л.
|Inck-it. 1,4..
.Г.
h.
Витни.
Va., N.
Л.
Il.i'lev, Fin.,
O. F. Uri-zory, N. <).. T. T. Knlun, Ky.. .1. J. 1). lien-
Cr->p, Alabama. It. S. Ituncna, Mo ,
И
II, Uarrotl,
Тим,
W. I,. Kilpatrick, (In,, Ohm. Mnnly, s. (),,
J M, Ki'Ot'T.
Типи
. .1. II. Swircv,
Лгк., Осог^с
WMiIIpUI, Ml..,, W. F. Attkls.on. V. . Vrt.
COHnKH'OftWntl SltnnKTAHY— II.
Л.
TUPI’ltlt.
TtutAsi'itKit — .T. (). WILLIAMS.
KSGOUPl.NU SE( 1IKTAIIY— W. II. OWATIIMLA
Лгечтоп—
JOSEPH F.
ООТТНКЫ..
HOAltDOr rlAMAORIli. — .1. H. Ilawthomi-,.?. It. Wat-
kin., II. K. Elly-on. W.
Г..
HnUIhrr. E. Wortham, \V.
II. Thomn., W. OoUillu. II. II. Jlnrrl., J. reliant. Jr .
j W. .lone,
Л.
II UlirKi-, .1 It Win. too. .1. II. Hut-
ion. 0. H. Wlniton. S O. Oltnlon
All communications m reference to the
business of this Hoard should he addressed to
H. A. Tupphu, Corresponding Secretary,
Richmond, Va.
THANKS.
In behalf of tile Hoard we relurii tlianlts
to the bretliren wlio liave come forward so
liberally with their contributions to meet
the special demands of this month. Never
before has our treasury received so much
money in the first half (May to October) of
the financial year. It has enabled ns with-
jut serious embarrassment to meet all the
regular quarterly drafts for annual appro¬
priations, to pay for a house and lot in Cliin-
kinng, to meet the expenses of a new station
m Brazil, to push forward the promising
srhool-woi
к
in Mexico, and to provide for
the outfit and passage of thirteen new mis¬
sionaries. The month of October has
proved an Appii-Forum on our way. We
thank Got! ami take courage.
Our missionaries now number fifty, besides
nearly as many native assistants and evan-
gelists. Their food ami raiment, houses for
their shelter, and places in which they may
gather disciples for instruction and for wor¬
ship, will cost fully #8,000 a month or #100,-
000 during the year. 1 lalf the year is gone,
but, though there has been unusual liberal¬
ity, only one-fourth of the money is yet re¬
ceived. We confidently anticipate. still larger
contributions this month, anil then again in
January and following.
day of services long to he remembered, set
out westward on the 20th. They were
brethren Joiner and Davault, with their
brides, one of them the youngest sister of our
brother J. II. Roger, the other a fair daugh¬
ter of Kentucky, and brother
К
C. llickson,
with his wife and tluee children. By the in¬
fluence of Dr. Raton tickets for both rail
and steamer have been secured at reduced
rates. In San Francisco they will find a
warm welcome to the hospitable home of
Dr. Hartwell, and will stay with him until
their steamer sails about the 1st of Novem¬
ber. They go together to Yokohama,
thence brother Hickson and his family keep
on in the same vessel to Bong Kong, at the
mouth of the Canton river, while the others
tranship for Shanghai, and thence again for
Chefoo.
A third party, consisting of brother F. M.
Myers and wife, who are at the time of this
writing in Missouri, with probably another,
about the first of November cross the
Rio Grande, to take parr In laying for our
sister Republic the only sure foundations of
tine liberty. They go direct to Saltillo,
and, if needed, will, besides other work,
take part in the instruction of the girls who
may assemble at the Madero Institute.
These additions raise the number of our
missionaries to fifty, beside nearly ns many
native assistants aed evangelists. God has
graciously heard our prayer for more labor¬
ers, ami it is a divine ordinance "that they
who preach the gospel should live of the
gospel.” When God commanded Elijah to
go into the desert to the brook Ki.shon, he
also commanded the ravens to feed him
there. These devoted men and women go
forth in obedience to the great commission
of our risen Lord, and he commissions us
u ho May at home to send them supplies, and
to stay them up with hearty sympathy and
earnest prayer.
DEPARTURE OF MISSIONARIES.
We have the great pleasure of announcing
the addition of thirteen new workers to our
coipsof representatives in foreign lands.
A party of four, Revs.
С.
1C. Smith, S. M.
Cook, and W. W. Harvey with Mrs. Harvey,
sailed from New York in the hark Cardenas,
October 18th. Brother Cook, it will bo re¬
membered, was appointed some months ago,
hut was detained by the severe illness of his
wife. Her sufferings ended in a peaceful
death September 14th, and the strike» hus¬
band claimed the privilege of his appoint¬
ment to carry out what had been his inten¬
tion and hers in preaching the gospel in the
dark continent. They hope to reach Lagos
in forty days, more or less, according to
wind and weather. It is expected that
brethren Smith and Cook will go on inland
to Abheokuta.
The second party, consisting of six mis¬
sionaries and three children, assembled at
Louisville, !<y.,on the 18th, and aftcra Lord's
DIFFERENCES IN ORGANIZATION,
We promised last month to complete a
discussion then on hand, by pointing out
some important differences between the
principal missionary organizations of Ameri¬
can baptists, North and South. In carrying
out this purpose we shall aim to avoid
everything about which there could be any
controversy. We choose to compare with
our Southern baptist Convention the A. II.
Home Mission Society, rather than the A. Ii.
Missionary Union, for two reasons: first,
because the discussion alluded to concerned
the H. M. Society, and, secondly, because
it makes the contrast more distinct — in
several points the Missionary Union is much
more nearly like our Convention than the
И.
M. Society is. The differences are, as
will he seen, all connected with one another
as the corresponding parts of two distinct
systems, yet it will he clearer to state them
tinder separate heads.
First, then, our northern brethren have
different and independent societies, one for
foreign missions, another for home missions ;
we have one Convention with two boards.
Now it is true that the Missionary Union
and the Home Mission Society are com¬
posed in large measure of the same persons,
and for their convenience, usually meet on
consecutive days in the same city ; if, how¬
ever, there should some day be disagree¬
ment about the proper time and place for
holding their anniversaries, there is nothing
to prevent them from selecting the same
time and different places, or different times
at the same place. Suppose, for example,
the Executive committee in boston, to
whom the Union by vote referred the time
and place for meeting in 1SS5, should ac¬
cept the invitation of the church in Sara¬
toga for die “fourth Tuesday of May,” and
the Executive Board in New York, which,
under the Constitution of the If. M. Society
has absolute power to appoint the time and
place of all annual meetings, should deter
mine to hold the next one somewhere South
and should appoint it for the same week,
say at Austin, Texas, evidently the thou¬
sands who are life-members in both, would
he practically disfranchised in one or the
other. Our Convention appoints its own
place and time for meeting, which can he
altered only by its President, and at the re¬
quest of both boards.
The importance of this difference will
more fully appear by noticing that the tone
and temper, and, to a considerable extent,
the action of a large assembly depends no
little on its immediate surroundings, and
further that the dividing line between
home and foreign work is not entirely dis
tinct. The Presbyterians, for instance, com¬
mit to their Foreign board all missions to
the Indians on our western frontier; the
baptists, both North and South, count
Indian missions as home work. The New
York board has a home mission in Mexico,
the Richmond board has in the same coun
try a foreign mission. Now, if any question
should arise among our northern brethren
as to the proper board to take charge of
some such work, there is no tribunal to
which they can appeal ; with us the one
Convention settles all such questions. In a
word, their boards, each pushing its own
work in its own way, may antagonize each
other; ours must work in harmony.
A second difference is found in the
tenure and the powers of the Executive
Committees. Our boards are appointed
for a single year. Their location or their
personnel may lie entirely changed at any
annual meeting. They have charge only of
the matters committed to them, and that
under the instructions of the Convention.
The Managers of the H. M. Society are
divided into three classes, and the term of
only one class expires each year. They
have power to fill vacancies not only in
their own body, hut also in the offices of
the Society, to appoint annual meetings, to
convene special meetings, to propose con¬
stitutional amendments, K:c.
Our Home board was located at Marion,
Ala.; in 1SS2, the Convention, by a simple
resolution, gave it a new life at Atlanta, Ga.
If Xreafter it should seem desirable to
move it again, say to New Orleans, when
that becomes a baptist city, or to some
point in Texas, tile process would he
equally simple, but suppose a majority of
the II. M. Society should he convinced that
the management ought to he transferred
nearer to the centre of operations, as e. g.
to Chicago ; they would find the way
blocked by almost insuperable obstacles.
Unless the board itself would take the
initiative in its own decapitation, it could
only he done by a majority vote one year,
followed up by a two-thirds vote the next
year, and that at a time and place selected
by the board. The short and uncertain
tenure of our boards is a strong conserva¬
tor of doctrine and practice, and keeps all
their actions and appointments well within
the bounds of approval by the brethren;
the more permanent tenure and greater con¬
stitutional power allows the New York
Board to mould rather than follow public
opinion.
Thirdly, the annual meetings are essen¬
tially different in character. Our Conven¬
tion is a deliberative body, which, first of
all, organizes itself, and then proceeds to
arrange its work at its own pleasure, and to
despatch it at will. Two evenings are
usually set apart for mass-meetings, to be
addressed only by speakers previously
designated, hut except at these hours, every
member has equal right to the fioor. The
anniversaries of our northern brethren are
little more than mass-meetings all the time,
carrying out a programme arranged by the
board. A striking Illustration is seen in the
mode of electing officers. The 11. M. So¬
ciety this year occupied two days. The
Committee on Nominations reported on the
second day a ballot containing names for
all the offices to he filled; there seems to
have been no opportunity to prepare and
print any competing ballot. It has been
often said that our Convention wastes much
lime by adhering to all the forms of par¬
liamentary procedure; the reply is that
these forms are designed primarily to secure
to every one his right to speak and vote
exactly according to his own convictions,
and secondarily to facilitate the despatch
of business— they help one who desires the
real judgment of the body, and hinder
such os might wish to dictate its policy,
That the 11. M. Society cannot be truly a
deliberative body appears not Only from the
powers vested by Constitution and by custom
in its Executive, hut also from the vast ■
number entitled to seats, by the Constitu¬
tion any church may appoint one delegate
on a contribution of #10, and more on #30
apiece, or a contribution of #30 entitles the
donor to life membership. We have no
means of knowing accurately the number of
life-members— ISO were constituted during
the past year, and 31 died, making a net
gain of 151. If during all the 52 years of its
existence tne gain lias been even half as
great there would be 3,‘JOO life-members.
The contributions, besides payments for
membership, were last year some #230,000,
which would entitle the churches making
them to appoint over 7000 delegates. Alto¬
gether we may say that probably not less
than 10,000 people were, or might have been
entitled to seats at Detroit. Sucli an as¬
semblage nould not lie other than a mass-
meeting. •
It is worth while to add that our system
seems to secure better attendance. At iial-
timorc out of 1503 entitled to seats, there
were enrolled fill) delegates and 21 visitors ;
at Detroit were enrolled 133 visitors and
only 501 directors, members and delegates.
Visitors Hock to mass-meetings, delegates
attend deliberative assemblies.
We have already written more than we
intended, but must mention very briefly
some minor points. The custom of our
northern bretliren admits women to mem¬
bership ; our custom limits it to men only.
They entirely ignore all State organizations
and deal directly with the churches; our
Constitution enumerates all the General
Associations and Conventions within our
hounds, gives them a right to send one dele¬
gate ior every #000 expended on missions,
and enjoins upon its boards to form the
closest possible connection with the State
boards. Our Hoards pay salaries to officials
employed at the rooms, and to agents in
those States in which the bretliren desire
them ; for the rest we rely upon the volun¬
teer aid of Vice-Presidents, State Boards,
and pastors; the
И.
M. Society, besides its
officers in New York, employs five District
Secretaries and fifteen Superintendents and
General Missionaries.
We close with a word of exhortation to
our people. The one form of organization,
conceutreing much control in the hands of
a small committee, is eminently conducive
to activity, enterprise, zeal, push ; the oilier,
retaining in the larger body of representa¬
tives all power except what it is absolutely
necessary to commit to an Executive, is emi¬
nently conservative of purity in doctrine and
safety in procedure, hut it also gives room
for sfowtli and negligence. The danger of
Southern Baptists is that they may become
so well satisfied with their soundness in
the faitli and the scripturalncss of their plans
as to forget that this faith can lie held only
by such as have been transformed into the
image of him who went about doing good,
and that these plans are suited only to those
who have hearts burning with the love of
Jesus. Let us preserve our organization by
earnest prayer and diligent labor for the
quickening of spiritual life in ourselves and
our brethren. The best engine ever built, if
left without steam, is utterly useless and
soon rusts out. Our machinery is far from
being perfect, hut the great need is for more
motive power, more of the constraining love
of Christ.
4
