THE
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL
Vol. XXIII— June, 1892— No. 11.
1882—1892.
We, all of us, sometimes get discouraged at what seems the slow
progress we are making in our mission work. We look at what needs
to be done and what we ought to be doing, and then at the little we
are doing in comparison with the need and the duty, and it seems to
us that we are making almost no progress.
So it seems to some mountain climber as he toils step by step. up the
great mountain side. He looks above and about him and it seems
that he draws no nearer to the still distant summit. But, ever and
anon, coming to some break, some projecting point in the road, he
looks backward and downward upon the path he has climbed, sees
perhaps his starting point, or some resting place far below, and
realizes that he has, indeed, ascended far. Then he presses on with
better heart.
So let us stop at the beginning of the conventional year of 1892,
and take a backward glance at our mission work, that our hearts
may be cheered, and that we may be the better prepared for the great
effort that lies before us in the Centennial year. Wc will make a com¬
parison of the work for the years 1882 and 1S92, premising that at
the best our figures must be imperfect, yet approximating correctness.'
In most instances, in the work of our Board, the figures will fall under
rather than go over the true ones.
In looking over the minutes of the Southern Baptist Convention for
18S2, several things attract our attention before we reach the report
of our Board. The first is that of the officers of the Convention that
year, several have passed over to the other side, where they look upon
the face of him “whom hot seeing” here, they “loved.” President
Hell, Vice-Presidents Furman and Ellyson, Treasurer Norton and Au¬
ditor Long, now serve above. The total membership of the Conven¬
tion that year was three hundred and thirty-five, and it was consid¬
ered a large Convention. Atlanta has entertained over nine hundred
this year.
Our Home Board was then in a troubled condition. Its receipts, all
told, were $28,370.88, and it had on the field only thirty-eight mis¬
sionaries, including the Secretary and agents. Quite a contrast this
