^^^^^^^^^w^ '^iWMMM^^- V »."»♦<-». ■•■, T^tJ^-A^CrT-. Mtf^'tl *-*-<««; .* -JJTJ vf^-. ^ vV^tvX^^ ,^ ■>, PRINCETON, N. J. ^cM?i^er/ /y BV 2570 .R36 1893 Rankin, William. Handbook and incidents of sheij foreign missions of the ^^\4; -A- --^^ - ■* HANDBOOK AND INCIDENTS FOREIGN MISSIONS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, u. s. A. M^ william'^rankin. LATE TREASURER. Newark, N. J. : W. H. Shurts, 874-876 Broad Street. 1893. PREFACE. Much that is herein contained has recently appeared in Church periodicals, and is republished in book form at the re- quest of the President and Secretaries of our Foreign Board. The "Incidents" may furnish some threads to be woven into the history of the Board when hereafter by some competent hand it shall be written. Selections from my published ad- dresses are included for their historical interest. The whole edition is donated to the Foreign Board, save the copies re- served for private distribution. I am happy to add that while this miscellaneous collection is passing through the press a con- densed history of Presbyterian missions down to .the organiza- tion of our Foreign Board in 1837, written by Dr, Ashbel Green, and now out of print, has been re-published by A. D. F. Randolph & Company, with valuable additions by my esteemed friend and long co-laborer. Dr. John C. Lowrie, Sec- retary emeritus. CONTENTS. PAGE Historical Summary, ----- 5 Constitution and Charter, - - - - 17 Reunion Address, New Jersey Synod, - - - 24 North India Missions — Incidents - - " 33 Central China Missions — Incidents, - - - 40 China Press, . . . . . 50 Chinese Missions in United States — Incidents, - 56 Siam and Laos Missions — Incidents, - - 62 Japan Mission — Incidents, - - - - 69 African Missions — Incidents, - - - 75 Indian Missions in Kansas, etc. — Incidents, - - 84 Waldensian Endowment, - - - - 93 Address Before General Assembly in 1880, - - 97 Address Before General Assembly in 1882, - 104 The Week of Prayer, - - - - 107 The Six Stuarts, - - - - - no Two Old Presbyterians, - - - - 114 Death of Dr. David Irving, - - - 116 Death of Rev. Wm. Hamilton, - - - 119 Death of Dr. J as. P. Wilson, - - - - 121 Appropriations for the Coming Year, - - 125 Reminiscense of 1850, . - . - 127 Letter of Resignation, - - - - 130 Action of the Board, Presbytery and Gen. Assembly, - 131 Bible Society Address, - - - - 133 ERRATA. Page 64, for Casswell read Caswell. Page 82, for Hamel read Hamill. HISTORICAL SUMMARY. Revised in 1892. " The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" was organized by direction of the General Assembly, in the city of Baltimore, October 31st, 1837, and the year in which this little Manual was first published (1887), was its semi-centennial. Its corporate existence dates from January, 1852, under a general law of the State of New York, and the franchise so acquired became merged in a special act of the Legislature, which took eifect April 12th, 1862, and under which its legal powers and privileges are now secured. A copy of this Act of Incorporation is printed with each annual report. The germ of the Board antedates its organization by six years in the institution by authority of the Synod of Pittsburgh (consti- tuted in 1802) of the "Western Foreign Mission Society," on the theory of Church work for Missions. Its Executive Committee held its first meeting of record, November ist, 1831, Dr. Francis Herron being Chairman, and Dr. Elisha P. Swift, Corresponding Secretary. These officers and their associates conducted this synodical mission work until the Western Society was merged in the existing Board. Under their effi- cient supervision, missions were planted in India and in Africa, and among Indian Tribes, and measures were in progress to send the Gospel to China, while as yet no door was open for its entrance into that empire. A history of the Western For- eign Missionary Society, written by Dr. Ashbel Green, was published in 1838, and is about to be re-published, with ex- tended and valuable notes by Dr. John C. Lowrie. Upon the organization of the General Assembly's Board the 6 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. seat of its operations was transferred from Pittsburgh to New York, and of necessity another Executive Committee of local members was chosen, having Dr. William W. Phillips as its Chairman. Its meetings were held weekly, and with the attendance of the chairman rarely interrupted during a quarter of a century, constituted a prominent factor in the advance of the work abroad and in securing for it the confidence and support of the churches. Upon the death of Dr. Phillips in 1S65, the chairmanship was conferred upon Dr. John M. Krebs during the last two years of his life. He was succeeded by Mr. James Lenox, who, when the Executive Committee, as such, ceased to exist, in 1870, became President of the re- organized Board. In 1873 Mr. Lenox resigned this office, when Dr. William Adams was chosen, and served in it until his death in 1880. He was succeeded by Dr. William M. Pax- ton, on whose removal to Princeton, in 1885, the present incumbent, Dr. John D. Wells, became his successor. From its institution in 1837 to the re-union the Board was composed of 120 members, selected by the General Assembly from different sections of the church, one-fourth of this mem- bership being chosen each year. The annual meetings were held on the ist Monday in May, when the Minutes of the Executive Committee were reviewed, the Secretary's, and Treasurer's reports were presented and referred in sections to sub-committees, on whose approval the whole was adopted as the Report of the Board to the General Assembly. At the same time also, the executive committee and the officers were elected for the ensuing year. Occasionally an adjourned meeting was called during the sessions of the General Assembly. In 1870 the membership of the Board was reduced to fifteen by the General Assembly, and in 1890 enlarged to twenty-one, who are elected one-third annually by that body, upon whom devolves all the duties of the former Executive Committee. Each year the Board elects its President and Executive Officers — the latter being ex- officio members, but by a law of the State not entitled to vote. Its regular meetings are on the HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 7 first and third Mondays of each month — the business brought before it is prepared by the Executive Officers in conference whose concurring views on any proposed measure are usually adopted. Standing Committees on the several missions and on Finance are appointed, to whom or to special committees mat- ters requiring investigation are referred, and on whose report final action is taken. Besides these, an Auditing Committee examines the monthly accounts of the Treasurer and another committee of business men not members of the Board is chosen to examine his annual report. The subject of peculiar perplexity and anxiety is the appropriations for the new year. After the Secretaries have revised the estimates received from the missions, they are referred to the Finance Committee, who from their business outlook may not be able to anticipate re- ceipts sufficient to cover them, and so the knife is applied, and when final action is taken by the Board, the appropriations are found much below the original estimates, and then follows a correspondence from the Mission House to the mission fields charged with many sad disappointments. The first Corresponding Secretary of the Board in 1837 was the Hon. Walter Lowrie, who resigned one of the most honored and remunerative positions at the National Capital to become the servant of the Church in this office, and which he filled with conspicuous ability and devotion until the year before his death in 1869, when bodily infirmities compelled his retire- ment. Rev. John C. Lowrie, who was obliged to withdraw from his mission work in India, through failure of health was chosen Assistant Secretary in 1838, holding also after 1845 ^ pastoral charge until 1850, when he became a full co-ordinate Secretary with his father. This office-he held until 1891, when on his resignation he became Secretary emeritus. In 1853, Dr. John Leighton Wilson, then a member of the Synod of South Carolina, and a returned missionary from Africa, was chosen third Secretary, continuing until 1861, when he resigned and became the first Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Presbyterian Church in the Southern States. This vacancy was filled in 1865 by Dr. David Irving 8 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. until his death in 1885. Dr. Irving had been a missionary in India, and at the time of his appointment was Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, N. J. In 1871 Dr. Frank F. Ellinwood, who had just closed his successful work as Secretary of the Re-union Memorial Fund, was chosen as associate of Drs. Lowrie and Irving. In 1883 Dr. Arthur Mitchell was called from the Pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church, of Cleveland Ohio, to become the fourth Secretary, and in 1885 the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Irving was filled by Dr. John Gillespie, Pastor of Westminster Church, Elizabeth, N. J. The present corresponding secretaries are in the order of their appointment, Drs. Ellinwood, Mitchell and Gillespie, with whom was associated, in 1891, Mr. Robert E, Speer, Assistant Secretary. By arrangement among them- selves each secretary has his own allotted mission fields for correspondence, though all letters relating to general affairs are open to all the executive officers. The same arrangement is also had among the secretaries in their editorial work. The first Treasurer of the Board on its removal to New York was Mr. James Paton, a prominent merchant of this city, who served without salary for three years. Then it was decided unwise to have mission funds involved in the uncertainties of mercantile business ; moreover, much inconvenience was found in having this office distant from that of the Board, and in 1 84 1 Rev. Daniel Wells, who had been rendering assistance in that department became the responsible treasurer. His health failing in 1848, Charles D. Drake, Esq., afterwards United States Senator, and Chief Justice of the Court of Claims in Washington, was elected his successor. After two years ser- vice Mr. Drake resigned, and William Rankin, Esq., then of Cincinnati, where he had practiced Law about thirteen years, was invited to this office and entered upon its duties Novem- ber ist, 1850, and was succeeded in June 1888, by Mr. Gilbert Harroun, who resigned the following year, when the present incumbent, William Dulles, Jr., Esq., was chosen as his suc- cessor. The multiform duties of the Treasury Department may be HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 9 inferred from the Statistical Tables of the Annual Reports. It is the financial agency of the Board — the balance-wheel of its extended movements. There can be no empty Treasury with- out a general collapse ' and bankruptcy. When the needed supply from its legitimate source fails, extraneous aid is invoked. The Treasury becomes a borrower and a cloud of debt hangs over it. Then the inquiry is often made, " Why is not the work of Foreign Missions conducted on true business principles, so that expenses shall be controlled by the actual beneficence of the Church with the other miscellaneous re- ceipts ? " " Why may not the General Assembly wisely impose the rule to distribute only what is received ? " It is always assumed that the Board is the steward of the General Assem- bly, and responsible for the proper distribution of funds entrusted to its care, but it must not be forgotten that the credit of the Board must be upheld in any and every contin- gency — that appropriations are of necessity made, except in special emergencies, at the beginning and not during the progress or at the close of each year, that remittances are forwarded monthly or bi-monthly in equal proportions, not measured by receipts from the churches, but by obligations assumed to the men in the field which can neither, be scaled nor suspended. It should be considered also that these expenses always fall within the recommendation of the General Assembly, and are based on the receipts of the preceding year. It is hardly possible for persons unfamiliar with the de- tails of the work to appreciate the money pressure under which at times officers and missionaries labor. The members of the Board, recognizing their two-fold relation to the Church and the commercial world — in view of the shortcomings of the former — are pressing upon the brakes when they would more gladly direct the course of the engine. The correspondence of secretaries is hampered and unsatisfactory, especially to waiting candidates, because of the financial uncertainties, and the men and women in the front with many opportunities for successful advance are withheld from the attempt by the reported ebbing tide of the exchequer, lO HISTORICAL SUMMARY. During the first five years of the Board's sojourn in New York it had no abiding place, but was shifted from office to office at great inconvenience to all concerned. In 1839 an appeal was made for a portion of the thank-offering that was raised on the occasion of the semi-centennial of the General Assembly, the result being a special fund then, and subsequently given, of $23,000, the cost of the ground and building of the Mission House. 23 Centre street, which was first occupied in 184.'. Though plain in structure, yet for convenience in loca- tion and office arrangement, it was all that was needed by its early occupants. But it was deemed advisable that all the Boards of the Presbyterian Church located in New York should be under one roof, and in January 1888, the Home and Foreign and Church Erection Boards removed to the premises formerly the residence of Mr. James Lenox, on Fifth avenue and Twelfth street. This property was purchased by the two Mission Boards jointly for $250,000, of which $50,000 was con- tributed by the late Robert Lenox Kennedy, who also, with his sister, added $10,000 for necessary alterations. Of the $100,- 000 paid by the Foreign Board $70,000 were the proceeds of the sale of the Mission House on Centre street. The two Woman's Boards of Home and Foreign Missions are accom- modated in the same building. An adjoining house now under rent was included in the purchase and can be used hereafter if needed. The property has a market value far be- yond its cost. With the ownership of the Mission House on Centre street came the nucleus of a Library, increased now to over 6,000 volumes, one of the best for reference on mission subjects in this country. Also a Museum of Curios, illustra- tive of the customs of Heathen nations, especially their idol worship. In the early history of this Board much time and thought were given to the selection and appointment of salaried agents in the several sections of the Church. These were supposed to make Foreign Missions a specialty, and as experts to present with unusual power and success the cause before the people. It was a costly machinery, whose power with the increasing HISTORICAL SUMMARY. II interest of pastors in missions gradually declined, and for thirty-five years has not been used. There is, however, no lack of interest in the personal reports from the field by mission- aries at home on furlough, or in the appeals of the Secretaries. for whose attendance upon conventions and ecclesiastical bodies and for pulpit supply, there is an unceasing demand. IVomans Work for Missions has always had its place in the Church of Christ. But in 1870 it assumed an organized form, and tendered its aid as an auxiliary to this Board. A power- ful and beneficent agency it has become, pouring its multiply- ing and collected rills in a swelling tide of blessings upon all our mission fields. A tabulated statement of the growing receipts from these auxiliaries is given in this Manual, amount- ing from 1870 to 1892 to $3,912,400. The results accomplished during the sixty years since the Synod of Pittsburgh engrafted Foreign Missions into church work have not been written, nor can they be. Seventeen hundred men and women constitute the honored roll of mis- sionaries sent by the Synod and this Board to the Foreign fields, including thirty-six transferred from the American Board at the Re-union. The work thus undertaken and car- ried forward is pre-eminently a work of faith, and has met with the rewards of faith. The golden threads of the precious promise, " Lo, I am with you alway," are interwoven with it, and full results are beyond the sphere of human record. But so far as the work of the Board forms part of the history of the Presby- terian Church, it is embodied mainly in its periodicals and an- nual reports. First in the Foreign Missionary Chronicle, begun in Pittsburgh in 1832, then in the Home and Foreign Record and the Foreign Missionary, both begun in 1850, and by action of the General Assembly merged in December 1886, in The Church at Home and Abroad. To these also should be added the Foreign Missionary for Young People, begun in 1842 and ended in 1855, ^^^ the more recent and popular monthlies of our Woman's Boards, viz : Woman's Work for Woman and Children s Work for Children. A summary volume of the earlier publications, enibracing an historical narrative written 12 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. by Secretary Dr. John C. Lowrie, with brief memoirs of de- ceased missionaries down to 1868, was published that year by the Treasurer under the title, ''The Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church." This more than half century's experience brings into promi- nence three principles of future success. ist. Funds must be raised not by outside pressure, but by the spontaneous action of church courts, ministers and people. 2d. The income of the Board must be steady, so as to be safely anticipated in making the annual appropriations for its widening fields. 3d. The income should increase from year to year, by a percentage of which there can be an approximate estimate, so as to keep pace with the natural progress of the work abroad, and of the church in its growth and material prosperity at home. Unless these principles are recognized and upheld, there will be debt and discouragement, and the inscription, " Go Forward " upon the banner of the Presbyterian Church, an in- appropriate emblem. The tables on the pages following have been collated by my esteemed friend, and for twenty years efficient assistant in the treasury department, Mr. George S. Garrison, who will receive the thanks of all who consult them for furnishing in this com- pact form, information often called for at the Mission House. It will be seen from these tables that the cash receipts into the Foreign Mission treasurv of the Presbyterian Church during the last sixty years is about eighteen and a quarter million dollars, and that the required annual outlay for the Board's work is now over one million. It is in place here also to express my high appreciation of an- other assistant, Mr. Campyon Cutter, who for thirty-one years in the purchasing and packing and shipping department, has ever been faithful in meeting the wishes and seeking the com- fort of the missionaries, either in their going out or on their return, or in attention to orders from the field. STATISTICS OF SIXTY YEARS. Ministers. 10 10 10 9 14 15 15 17 17 19 19 21 21 21 21 22 22 22 23 21 21 21 22 22 22 19 20 2-^ 82 26 28 23 23 28 28 26 25 25 25 25 28 29 30 33 33 33 31 31 26 27 27 13 16 20 23. 26 28, Native Lat Mission- aries. American. Female . 3 4 4 10 11 17 19 20 26 28 28 29 31 28 37 38 39 43 45 51 48 5' 60 65 69 60 69 81 81 54 5' 54 58 59 58 62 65 69 91 103 113 98 101 98 105 102 103 111 117 125 138 149 150 162 160 162 176 196 201 207 4 6 9 4 12 11 14 19 21 20 26 25 30 31 43 48 63 44 51 73 75 80 94 118 141 145 174 1 193 199 378 357 387 440 396 458 457 484 519 516 516 607 580 746 813 731 756 804 863 943 1055 1108 44 51 41 50 87 131 185 189 330 389 437 492 512 672 813 908 933 1,162 2,779 2,857 681 665 961 1,012 1,193 1,490 1,616 1,836 2,047 3,512 4,202 4,476 6,272 6,901 8,. 577 9,632 10.391 11,366 12,607 14,.588 16,484 18,656 19,897 21,051 20.294 21.420 23,740 25,346 26.794 28,494 30.479 50 194 519 679 482 678 734 513 993 1,102 1.165 1,322 1,6.32 1,755 2.291 2,657 3.046 3.836 4,824 4,469 4,595 1,.545 2,340 4,524 4,644 4.792 5,010 4.910 5,817 6,865 7.182 6,851 7,422 7,465 10,059 10,681 10,961 12,592 12,509 13,501 14,614 16,039 17,104 17,791 18.260 20,064 21.223 25,914 25,269 24.144 23,329 23,770 27,394 26.348 27,813 29,011 Receipts. M n $5,331 90 12,673 04 15,072 78 16.801 74 33.560 26 44,468 62 52,2,38 68 52,325 79 63,834 39 53,614 10 5.3,682 25 75,938 01 69,800 05 67,416 43 79,4.30 82 82,745 75 93,009 01 98,916 59 94.631 82 103,158 53 104,548 36 123,193 03 110,706 48 118,864 37 120,919 71 150.951 45 134.274 28 1.55,346 24 152,074 97 135,446 82 137,750 61 155,488 84 200,521 27 151,881 85 194,152 18 241,766 63 212,121 14 217,6.37 51 293,099 06 377,497 00 380,040 06 527,537 09 396,662 74 468,691 80 434,460 52 428,768 49 385.127 13 445,071 31 468.899 74 463,645 79 521,369 60 574,845 12 581,067 93 633,975 02 680,887 75 738.456 27 707,233 90 681.188 76 853.501 27 798,242 54 $100 00 337 28 50 00 1,034 88 80 00 115 00 1,764 25 977 75 5,310 22 1,077 70 1,813 56 2,317 28 8,978 10 3,308 52 6,419 31 3,285 39 5,586 81 7,315 81 10,162 20 11,190 76 8,298 60 11,615 82 17,340 10 14,671 57 13,677 52 19.354 82 23,821 58 13,249 24 7,637 11 10,158 86 22.181 31 34,648 58 17,927 15 14,957 98 15,219 79 88.308 64 23.251 47 17,249 08 72,579 35 64 875 82 88,373 89 52,405 27 38,636 89 37,511 26 32,915 81 40.355 31 120.104 51 111.3.56 57 113,152 59 126,933 59 112,551 58 112.189 77 111,189 44 103 269 84 162,724 53 145,581 95 112,877 68 89,189 37 133,049 93 [FOR NOTES SEE PAGE FOLLOWING.] 14 HISTORICAL SUMMARY. NOTES. a Missionaries and scholars in India reduced by the Sepoy revolt. b Most of the southern Presbyterian churches withdrew from the Board owing to the civil war. c Mission? in the Indian Territory broken up by the war. Some of them re- sumed. iS'iS and 1881. d The Seneca, Lake Superior, Chipp»wa, Dakota. Syria. Gaboon and Persia missions, and a number of missionaries received from the American Board. e Including S138.503, special for debt. / Including $51,474, special for debt. g Number of missions and communicants reduced by transfer of Chippewa, Omaha, Wiunebago, Sa.x and Fox Indian mis-sions to Hom*^ Board. h Including 3,5:5 boardmg scholars, 1,749 boys, 1,826 girls in 1891-2. The above notes explain the abrupt changes in some of the col- umns on the preceding page. The most important break was in 1861-2, when the civil war caused the severance of one-third of our churches from the support of the Board, and the disbandmeut of boarding schools in the Indian Territory, with their more than 400 youth and children, and the return to their Northern homes of twen- ty-three Missionary teachers. One of our Secretaries of Southern birth then felt constrained to resign his connection with the Board and return to his native State. Dr. J. Leighton Wilson was a man of high character and zealous in the cause which had engaged his earh- manhood in Africa, wise and efficient as an executive officer, and beloved by his brethren in New York, especially by his associates at the Mission House. He was at once chosen Secretary of the Foreign Board in the Southern Church, which he organized, and for nearly thirty years administered with distinguished ability. His memoirs are now being written by Rev. H. C. Du Bose, D.D., of the Southern Presbyterian Mission at Soochow, China. o.S »3 02 5 o ts o o o to •* ■ CJ r-i ( t- X ■ CO -f ! •<*< CO DCS O 50 » •<*< CO ^ 5 to 5 «i>COlCO0C0M'-il-l-'*'OCO»-)<'ffl-* CO— i-*(r3lrt5DX)CO:Dt--*t-0<0000} wr-xioot-ioo:oO"0:DiOX-^^cr. C5 C005®-t— <0}t-COCO O'!^— H^--^— _^X^O_?C^0Q_ O t- 50 W ^ X i> ■* X ~. ■* » O IC Ci -t< CO iO'*-*-*ioicioai);D';ct-t-oixt^O'. 02 "f CO >C X t-CO 1 00 »0 CI O 1— I Oi OOSClu^COlCOi— ilClC-tlCDOJCO-HOSOiOi-f^^t-aiCTi ■^■^l-t-t-OCO'^'-^'raOlOiOCOiCXXOOJXt-X^ 10 0JiCXCO'*5DiC05CO'-COt— ■0510>— '1— 'Ot-lCX'-O ■*coo:DXi-Oi-*cocC5Di>o:oco®ict-mcoxx |i~ X— i(N.-it-'-lWiO'-i>t-'-'0'*TfiC«OCOOXCOt- -* O— lOr-l/IOXiCCOXOfCiO'-^XXtD— '00X05 X oo;oOOTCiiCi-co — -tc;;crJio»coxicTJO^ ov y; -* -^ M o^o r-_;'!_:c_~^co_^:o__'-'_^o^t- >c_o_cq_w i-^x_:c_ m^ t-^CQ~CD''--<'~Crco'"lo"-*"co'~Cr-o''ic''x'~05~o'~x'~OJ"od":D Co'iO'co" CO OTXOa-^CO^TjiXCOCCt-l-CiC-. I>i>£-!CXt-CO— ' O: >05iO'^lCt--Ji-i0005tOO«DCO«07-ilO«OXt- 't-^cii-'02coiooioOr-.c5»OT-(t--*inioeoThi SlO-Hi-^COt-t^OS-^XOX-^tOOO:— lONXX : -^ O O CO t~ O lO -t -f X O O CO I- O CO O O O 01 > 05 05 Of ■* CO co^i2 — ' "^o; O2x050:oco-*oooi rcc'~i>'iO"t-^CQ'~cfo"o''0~orC'ro"--^o"T-riO~co'"eD"-1«~-ti' (WCiOllMWWOJOJOJr-lWeOCOCOlO-^COCOWCO i«oo:t-t-n-^coxo5Xco?^coTt^ob— I t-eo5D03-*>-'iCOOxo5(?3cos>»n-t-t-t-«0'*^''*0?COX05COTt'T«XlrtXOCD:D a&OJtOxo:— i?»«cot-t-£^OOC-iO}-i^o:i>xeo— ' rtr^^^rHi-Hi-i^CJOlCQWlMOjeiCOCO ob-o>— 'csinirtinx-t* — -fooj-^Tf^Dr-cjososoo c; CO 07 :o o X i> to ct 05 — o X t- o CO ^ o-> -*■ t^ — 1 1> as OCOCOCOlrt — — J05i-'l005XOlC07t^05 0}CO':Ot>{>-OS x~ co'crx~t-^o"-*~ '-<'"*'" -I-' x~'—'~crr-^x"j>'ofrorc!rx' ^"o'or XOO)05-t'CO:DMiC350500020-*-*^00}OC»TtiCO Oir-OJi-lOJ05 010i'-ii-iCJO'lr-(0}OJO}OJCOCOCOO>COCO 0'-l07CO-»tXOiO— '03 t-t-I>t-t~l^t>l-l>-l-XXX00XX0pXXXOiO5C» co0'-i0}co4"io?ct-xo50 — o>co4t^l-t^l-t^l>XXXXXXXXXX0:05 ooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx a o li^OJO! OS vn t-i >-H t- ■* -jt so no _ i>"o;' ^iSiO o o: t- oi » Ph t6 historical summary. Statement of Mission and Home Expenditures For the Year Ending April 30, 1892. By Wm. Dulles, Jr., Treasurer. Expenditures for Missions. 1891-92. Total. Africa. Gaboon and Corisco $22,786 92 Liberia 5,877 50 $28,664 42 China. Cnnton 48,988 11 Peking 13,801 68 Shanghai 56,978 74 Shantung 53,308 96 173,077 49 Chinese and Japanese in U. S 27,247 10 Guatemala 9,732 35 India. Lodiana 90.857 22 Farrukhabad 49,869 73 Kolhapur 22,126 37 162,853 32 Japan. East 46.743 42 West 56,697 61 103.44103 Korea 24,295 61 Mexico 86,156 69 Persia. East 32,138 69 West 57,567 30 89,705 99 SiAM and Laos. Siam 27,177 76 Laos 28,324 14 55,50190 South America. Brazil 56,714 90 Chili 28,880 00 Colombia 13,114 25 98,709 15 Syria 68,252 05 U. S. Indians. Dakotas 9,860 00 Nez Perces 5,606 25 Senecas.... 2,750 00 18,216 25 Sundry Special Appropriations 3.191 66 Total for Mission Fields . . $949,045 01 Home Department 51,286 12 " Church at Home and Abroad '" 2,352 52 Total of Expenditures $1,002,683 65 CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER OF THE Bonnl of Foreip Wllssions of tlie Presbyterian G|irch. " The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America," was constituted in 1837 by a Committee of the General Assembly, and consisted of 120 members, one-fourth of this number to be elected each year thereafter by the Assembly, and was located in the city of New York. The change of location from Pittsburg, where it originated as a Synodical Society, was one of the conditions of acceptance of the Hon. Walter Lowrie as its first Corre- sponding Secretary. The Board met yearly, and elected an Executive Committee of nine members, with Secretaries and Treasurer. Up to 1852 it was simply a benevolent association, acting under the power conferred by the General Assembly, but without any corporate rights and privileges. An impor- tant legacy had been contested in the New York courts, and lost to the Board from want of capacity to take ; although the Treasurer, Charles D. Drake, Esq., in an able argument, con- tended that inasmuch as the Trustees of our General Assembly were incorporated, and the Board was but an agency of the Assembly, the legacy referred to was virtually to a corporation, and therefore good in law. But this view was not sustained by the Court, and so a large sum of money intended by the testator for mission purposes, reverted to his estate. Before this case arose, or pending its litigation, the Board had applied to the Legislature of New York on two different years for a special charter, but failed, the second time by one l8 CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. vote only, which could have been secured if Mr. Lowrie, who had the matter in charge, would change the name of the Board by adding the two letters O. S. (old school), to the closing word "America," which he would not consent to do. After these repeated failures, the Board was glad to avail it- self of the provisions of the General Law of the State of 1848, respecting charitable and missionary societies, and became incorporated under it by filing a certificate in the proper offi- ces, signed and acknowledged by members of the Executive Committee. In 1862 another serious loss of $10,000 occurred under the will of Samuel Cochran, by reason of one of the sections of that law which did not affect other legatees being foreign cor- porations, and again an application was made for a special charter, which was carried through the Legislature by a mem- ber who volunteered to take it in charge, the Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. This is the charter which now gives the Board its legal existence, and is printed in all the annual reports. A majority of those who had signed the certificate of 1852, being still members of the Executive Committee of the Board with its President and Secretaries, and " such others as they may associate with themselves," are constituted "a body corporate and politic for ever." This new charter, with the name un- changed, was accepted by the Board at its annual meeting in May, 1862, and was subsequently interpreted by the Supreme Court in a litigated legacy case (Wm. Bostwick's Execs.), as a merger of the powers originally acquired in 1852. It reads as follows : AN ACT to incorporate the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America : Passed April 12, 1862.— Chapter 187. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : Section i. — Walter Lowrie, Gardiner Spring, William W. Phillips, George Potts, William Bannard, John D. Wells, Nathan L. Rice, Robert L. Stuart, Lebbeus B. Ward, Robert CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. 19 Carter, John C. Lowrie, citizens of the State of New York and such others as they may associate with themselves, are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic forever, by the name of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, for the purpose of establishing and conducting Christian Missions among the un- evangelized or Pagan nations, and the general diffusion of Christianity ; and by that name they and their successors and associates shall be capable of taking by purchase, grant, devise or otherwise, holding, conveying, or otherwise disposing of any real or personal estate for the purposes of the said corporation, but which estate within this State shall not at any time exceed the annual income of twenty thousand dollars.* Section 2. — The said corporation shall possess the general powers, rights, and privileges, and be subject to liabilities and provisions contained in the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes, so far as the same is applicable, and also subject to the provisions of chapter three hundred and sixty of the laws of eighteen hundred and sixty. Section 3. — This act shall take effect immediately. In 1870 the reunited General Assembly reorganized the Board and reduced its members from 120 to 15, with the Sec- retaries and Treasurer as members ex-officio. Its modified Constitution as found on page 46 of General Assembly Minutes for that year, is as follows : The Board of Foreign Missions shall hereafter consist of fif- teen members, besides the Corresponding Secretaries and the Treasurer, who shall be members ex-officio. The term of service of the present members of the Board, the Executive Committee, and the Permanent Committee, shall end with the first meeting of the Executive Committee after the dissolution of the General Assembly, when a new Board shall be constituted. The General Assembly shall select fifteen members of the Board in three classes of five each. The first shall serve three years, the second class two years, and the third class one year. Each subsequent General Assembly shall elect five members of the Board to hold office for three years, and shall fill any * Restricted income enlarged by Chapter 553 of Laws of 1890. See page 22. 20 CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. vacancies in either of the other classes for the unexpired term of service. Any five members of the Board shall form a quorum. One of the ex-officio members to be designated by the Board shall be entitled to a seat in the General Assembly as a cor- responding member on all subjects relating to Foreign Missions. Besides the duties already committed to their charge, the Board shall perform the duties heretofore assigned to the Executive Committee of the Board, and to the Permanent Committee on Foreign Missions, in so far as these have not been superseded or modified by this minute. The " Permanent Committee " above referred to had here- tofore been acting in connection with the American Board and was at once dissolved. After the adoption of the foregoing changes, the General Assembly elected fifteen persons to serve as members of the Board for the ensuing year, eight or a majority of whom were members of the Executive Committee. At the first meeting of the Executive Committee after the dissolution of the General Assembly, the members present, as authorized by the Act of Incorporation, and as instructed by the General Assembly, associated with themselves the other seven members chosen by that body, and they were thus to- gether constituted under the charter the reorganized Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. The Board then re-elected the Secretary and Treasurer, their yearly term of office having expired. The General Assembly of 1890 au- thorized the enlargement of the members to twenty-one, mak- ing seven of each class. In 1872 the Legislature of New York enacted a law relating to ''Trustees and Directors of Charitable or Benevolent Insti- tutions," prohibiting such officers from receiving any salary as such. In consequence of this law, the General Assembly the same year so modified the constitution of the Board, so as to take from the Secretaries and Treasurer the right to vote on any measure coming before it, and reduced the quorum to four members present at a meeting. The Assembly thus interpreted the terms "directors and trustees " as the equivalent of "cor- CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. H porators and their associates," and held this corporation sub- ject to the prohibition of the statute. Since 1862 the Board has been repeatedly involved in litigation with executors and heirs-at-law, but has never been defeated from want of capacity to take under its charter, nor has the integrity of the charter been questioned by opposing counsel. Every year since cor- porate rights were secured as vacancies have occurred mem- bers of the Board have been elected by the General Assem- bly, who thus become as an essential law of its being "succes- sors and associates of the body corporate and politic forever." In 1885 the Legislature of New York passed a law imposing a collateral inheritance tax of five per cent, on legacies to cer- tain classes of corporations, and the question has been raised which perplexed some executors, whether it applied to benevo- lent institutions. Surrogate Rollins, of New York, in a case before him, decided that the Boards of Foreign and Home Missions were exempt from its provisions, and so have the Surrogates of some other of the counties of the State. An opinion by ex-Judge Hooper C. Van Vorst was obtained, which so clearly sets forth the reason for exemption, that I quote it in full : "The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church is a domestic corporation. It has no capital and no stocks, its purposes are wholly religious, being the establishment of Christian missions and the propagation and diffusion of Chris- tianity among pagan nations. It was chartered by the Legisla- ture of this State by an. act passed April 12, 1862, chap. 187. It is not liable to taxation upon its personal property. Moneyed corporations deriving income or profits from capital or other- wise are liable to taxation, i R. S., page 404, sec. 11. The Board of Foreign Missions being exempt from taxation upon its personal property, a legacy to it is not subject to be re- duced by the collateral inheritance tax imposed by the law of 1885, chap. 483, as amended by chap. 763, Laws of 1887. The wording of the Statute expressly excepts from its provisions societies, corporations, and institutions now exempted by law from taxation." The opinion of this eminent counsellor and of the Surrogate was overruled by the Court of Appeals, and such legacies were CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. held subject to the collateral inheritance tax. The decision gave occasion to the enactment by the Legislature of the fol- lowing : Chapter 55J of the Laws of i8go. "AN ACT to amend chapter one hundred and ninety-one of the laws of ei^^hteen hundred and eighty-?une, entitled ''An act to litnit the amount of property to be held by corporations or- ganized for other than business purposes,' and relating to such corporations. " The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : "Section i. Chapter one hundred and ninety-one of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, entitled 'An act to limit the amount of property to be held by corporations or- ganized for other than business purposes,' is hereby amended so as to read as follows : "Section i. Any religious, educational, Bible, missionary, tract, literary, scientific, benevolent or charitable corporation, or corporation organized /Icr the enforcetnent of laws relating to children or animals, or for hospital, infirmary, or other than business purposes, may take and hold, in its own right or in trust for any purpose comprised in the objects of its incorporation, property not exceeding in value two million dollars, or the yearly income derived from which shall not exceed one hun- dred thousand dollars, notwithstanding the provisions of any special or general act heretofore passed or certificate of incor- poration affecting such corporations. In computing the value of such property, no increase in value arising otherwise than from improvements made thereon shall be taken into account. The personal estate of such corporations shall be exempt from taxation, and the provisions of chapter four hundred and eighty- three of the laws of eighteen hundred and eighty-five, entitled '^ an act to tax gifts, legacies and collateral inheritafices in cer- tain cases," and the acts amendato7'y thereof, shall not apply thereto, nor to any gifts to any such corporation by grant, bequest or othenejise ; provided, however, that this provision shall not apply to any moneyed or stock corporation, deriving an income or profit from the capital or otherwise, or to any corporation which has the right to make dividends or to distribute profits or assets among its members. "Section 2. This act shall not affect the right of any such corporation to take and hold property exceeding in value the CONSTITUTION AND CHARTER. 23 amount specified in section one of this act, provided such right is conferred upon such corporation by special statute ; nor af- fect any statute by which its real estate is exempt from taxation. " Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately." A recent decision of the Court of Appeals limits the ex- emption from the collateral inheritance tax to religious corpor- ations created by the State of New York. Reunioii jlddress Before the Synod of few Jeiseij. October 1870. The work of Foreign Missions in the American Churches originated in the inspiration and agency of Samuel John Mills. In 1810 the American Board was organized in answer to a memorial signed by him and three associates. In May 1 81 6, Mills writes to his father, from Dr. Griffin's study in Newark : " The Presbyterian Church, as is well known, have heretofore as a church made no exertions to send the Gospel out of the limits of the States. I have for a long time thought it desirable that their attention should be directed to the sub- ject of Foreign Missions, not only with the view of sending the Gospel to the destitute abroad, but in the hope that exertion of this kind might excite more zeal for the diffusion of religious knowledge in our own country. I conceive the object is secured." " Mills went from my house," says Dr. Griffin, " to lay the project of a Missionary Society before the General Assembly, at the time the United Foreign Missionary Society was formed." This society, a Union of the Associate and Dutch Reformed Church with our own in this work, had an existence of nine years — being in 1826 merged in the American Board. Nine Missions, embracing sixty male and female Missionaries were thus transferred from the control of the highest judicatories of these Presbyterian bodies to the management of the non- denominational Board at Boston. In 183 1 there sprung from the bosom of the Synod of Pitts- burgh, The Western Foreign Missionary Society. The reason for this new Church organization is well expressed in its first REUNION ADDRESS. 25 circular addressed to the churches early in 1833. " In refer- ence to the American Board we hope to cherish no selfish principle, and we shall appeal to no sectarian feeling. We do contemplate its past achievements and its present prosperity with unmingled pleasure. Our only strife will be to copy its every good example and try not to be outdone by it in kind affection and Christian magnanimity. We hope to be able as a Presbyterian Board to increase the amount of Missionary feeling and effort in our church, but certainly on such princi- ples of mutual harmony and brotherly co-operation as every sincere disciple of Christ will desire to witness." We accept then the testimony of the noble founders of this Presbyterian Board, that it was formed in brotherly co-opera- tion with kindred societies to increase the amount of Missionary feeling and effort in the Presbyterian Church. It recognized the great principle that the Church is " designed, adapted and bound as God's agent, to preach the Gospel to every creature." This Synodical Society attracted the sympathy and support of churches outside its bounds in different sections of the Presby- terian body, so that in 1835 its friends had a controlling vote in the General Assembly. It was there proposed to bring this organization under the supervision of the Assembly, and a Committee was appomted to confer with the Pittsburgh Synod and arrange the terms of such transfer. The terms were agreed upon and preliminary measures adopted by the respect- ive Committees, which the Assembly of 1836 was expected to ratify and thus re-engraft the Foreign Missionary work upon our highest judicatory as one of its benevolent agencies. That Assembly, however, refused its sanction to the arrangement of its Committee, or to any other plan looking to the withdrawal of our churches from their support of the American Board. The Assembly of 1837 became divided into two bands, and by virtue of tllb authority of one of them, the Western Foreign Missionary Society, was reorganized in the City of Baltimore, Oct. 31, 1837, as the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in the U. S. A. New York was then selected as the seat of its 26 REUNION ADDRESS. operations, and Walter Lowrie appointed Corresponding Secretary. This Board of the Assembly entered upon its work under favorable auspices, for the roots of its present vigorous growth were already planted. There were Missionaries among the Indian Tribes — Mission- aries in Africa and in India, and Missionaries ready to embark for China, and within a month of their departure, while as yet that empire had every gate barred and sealed against their entrance. In looking back upon the history of the Presbyterian Church during these early years, we may sincerely regret the action of 1826, which removed the responsibility of the Foreign Mission- ary work from our Church Courts. We cannot certainly say how different that history would have been had the Assembly all along been, herself, a great Missionary Society for spread- ing the Gospel over the earth, but we are impressed with the significance of the words of Dr. Swift, the venerable Secretary of the Pittsburg Society, in his Annual report of 1836. "Had the commotions which now agitate the Church found its min- istry and its churches bound together by the hallowed ties of one harmonious and life-inspiring effort to evangelize the world, those waves whose rockings now threaten her destruc- tion would scarcely have left the trace of their existence. . . . The days of division and inaction cannot last for- ever. The Spirit of God will return in glory and in power to the churches, and the Spirit of love and concord to the Saints." Brethren, have we not reached that predicted era ? The United Assembly of 1870 has again re-organized the Board of Foreign Missions. We have entered upon the work of Mills and Griffin, and Green, of 1816 ; of Swift and Elliott of 1 83 1, of the Fathers assembled in Baltimore in 1837. We start upon this new career with twelve Presbyteries organized on heathen soil, most of them having been represented by dele- gates in our late Assembly, and all of them the fruits of the REUNION ADDRESS. 2^ inspiration and plans of those who engrafted the Foreign Missionary work upon our ecclesiastical body. We start, too, with a suddenness of development and respon- sibility heretofore unknown in our history. All our Missions have thus far been planted and nurtured and brought to their present advanced condition by a gradual process. We have grown with the growth of the Missionary spirit in our Church and in our Seminaries. We have sent out faithful men and women in regions unoccupied by other societies, and through their labors, and the blessing of God upon them, the work as presented in our last Annual Report has been accomplished. But now we are invited to enter upon the labors of others. By the transfer of some of the Missions of the American Board we have cast upon us greatly increased responsibilities. Happily, with these new burdens comes the united co-opera- tion of the whole Presbyterian Church. As one body we throw our strength into this work. The days of division and inaction pass away together, and we wait for the Spirit of God to return in glory and in power to the churches. There can be no standing aloof from this work. No ques- tionings whether contributions shall go in this direction or that. The example of over twenty Presbyterian Corporate members of the American Board in withdrawing from that body, that they may throw the full weight of their influence into their own Church organization is an indication of the pur- pose of the great mass of all who have heretofore co-operated with them. Individual Christians from personal relationships and long cherished sympathies will not altogether desert their old friends, but Pastors and Sessions, and the people generally, will hold up the Presbyterian Board as one of the desired fruits of our blessed reunion And now, having reviewed the past and taken our stand on this raised platform, let us look briefly at the work before us. And first, as to the working machinery. This is simply our Church Courts in action. The only departure from the well- tried policy of "dispensing with agents" was in the recent appointment of a minister of our Church, who has long acted 28 REUNION ADDRESS. as District Secretary for our Sister Board, in a region largely covered with Presbyterian churches not heretofore co-opera- ting with us. This brother, however, decided to remain in his present relation, and when the conclusion he had reached was reported at the last meeting of the Board, every member seemed satisfied with the result. The new Board then will not change the old policy, a policy which contrasts most favor- ably with the "agency system" practiced in our earlier history. The Presbyterian Church as an organized community includes all the inherent power and agency necessary for carrying on the missionary work. That power needs, however, a fuller de- velopment. We should consider this cause and plan for it in our Presbyteries. We should discuss it in our Synods. We should plead for a larger portion of the sessions of the General Assembly for the consideration of this, its great work. We should hold our church sessions responsible for regular collec- tions for Foreign Missions. We should remind pastors that it is one of their duties to their people, to teach them what Christ taught his disciples, to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." And, oh! what a soul-inspiring theme is this. " I could not comfort my pious people," says the great and good Andrew Fuller, "however and whatever I preached to them, until they began to care for the souls of the perishing heathen." Let this cause rest then upon the regular ministrations of our pastors, and let them study and present it as they study and present the great doctrines of the cross. I admit that this machinery, so simple and inexpensive, has not brought us all the money that was needed. For the last four years the expenses of the Board have outrun its receipts, and but for remarkable providences the cause would have been so crippled as to make necessary a retrograde movement. Three years ago last May our debt was $35,000. A suggestion was made in the General Assembly, that the children of the Church pay it, and within six months they poured in their special contributions, exceeding in the aggregate the sum re- quired. A year ago, within a week of closing the annual ac- REUNION ADDRESS. 29 counts, we were in debt $70,000. Before the week closed $67,000 were laid upon the Treasurer's table in settlement of a single legacy. On the first of last May there was a debt of $44,000. More than three-fourths of that debt has been can- celled by a few individuals. But we must not rely upon remarkable interpositions, or the double gifts of a dozen men to float our Missionary ship. The sources of supply must be the regular outflowing of our churches, and for this there is in every pastor's hand the divinely appointed producing rod. The working power of our scriptural machinery is capable of indefinite expansion as every fair trial of it demonstrates. Be- sides pastoral instruction there must be organizations such as will reach the individual, man, woman, and child ; there must be Sunday School societies and zenana bands, or kindred as- sociations to aid the noble women of our Board who are labor- ing in all its fields to shed light upon the darkened mind of their heathen sisters. We entered upon this first year of our re-organized Board with greater incentives to action, and weightier responsibilities than in all our past experience. We have outrun the American Board in the number of new Missionaries. Since the meeting of the General Assembly we have sent them to Brazil, to China, to the Chinese in California, to the Indian Tribes, to the recently adopted Kolapoor station in India, and to the old stations of the Board on and beyond the Ganges. There is now a steamer on the ocean having thirteen Mis- sionaries of our Board — men and women — most of them going to meet their first experience in missionary life. Since the first of May your Treasurer has had to meet the traveling expenses of twenty-two outgoing Missionaries, and during these months the receipts of the Board, from its regular sources, have been less than for the same months in several years — less by forty per cent, than last year. Is this great de- ficiency the fruits of our munificent offering to the Lord for the reunion ? Was it ever known in Israel that God accepted thank-offerings while the tithes for the support of the priest- hood and the regular services of the sanctuary were omitted ? 30 REUNION ADDRESS. Let the great principles of justice and judgment lay at the foundation of our benevolence and then our prayers and our offerings will come up as a sweet memorial before the Throne. Since the first of September we have also assumed all the expenses of the Syria and the Gaboon Missions and of some among the Indian Tribes lately under the American Board. We expect, moreover, to include the mission to the Nestorians. Thus we offset the withdrawal of churches formerly contribu- ting to the American Board by assuming a reasonable share of the expense which it has heretofore borne. The work is upon us, and the future, with its hopes and uncertainties, before us. It is pre-eminently a work of Faith. Walter Lowrie used often to write to discouraged teachers of Indian children and desponding Missionaries abroad — " The blessed Saviour cares far more for those poor children and those degraded heathens than we do." And so we work on in faith, knowing that the heart of Jesus is in full sympathy with those who work for him. The God who has led us these nearly forty years, and brought us through many parting seas asweneared their brink — the God who has sent into the fields of the old Board, and who are still spared in their work, over ninety ordained and medical missionaries, with wives and sisters as co-laborers, and added native preachers and helpers, and all the appliances of schools and zenana openings, and press and colportage — the God who has baptized every mission with the Holy Spirit, and never in greater measure than now — the God who has just interposed by his signal Providence to rescue a promising mission from threatened destruction in removing by death the persecuting king of the Laos — the God who has reunited these churches, which once split upon this rock of Foreign Missions, and as the fruits of this his signal good- ness, has cast upon us increased cares and responsibilities, adding to our force in the Foreign field missionaries hardly yet counted, and expenses not yet estimated — He will still take care of His own work and make this once rock of offence a REUNION ADDRESS. 3 1 corner-stone of a more glorious temple than the Presbyterian Church has ever yet reared to His praise and His glory. The late meeting of the American Board was perhaps the most memorable of all that preceded it. Two marked events gave it peculiar interest, not only to the listening audience that filled the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, but to the entire Church of Christ. One of them was the voluntary withdrawal from co-opera- tion in that cherished institution of so many of the official ministers, and laymen in the Presbyterian connection. The other was the winding-up and graduation of the mission to the Sandwich Islands. A nation had been christianized through the labors of men in its service during a period of fifty years. In the history of our own Board there is no such remarkable record as that. We have, however, the closing up of one mis- sion — a little one — begun and ended by a single man, and his valedictory to our Board is my valedictory to this audience. Chippewa Mission, Michigan, August 29, 1870. Dear Brethren — You are mostly strangers to me person- ally. The thirty-two years that have passed since . I became connected with the Board as a missionary to the Indians have borne to the grave and their reward the beloved Secretary Walter Lowrie and nearly every one of the officers with whom I had any acquaintance. There has been a change here also. When I came to this wilderness and to these bands of ignorant, and by many esteemed, savage men I was alone — the first white man that took up residence here. Now I am a band numbering ten, and in this fact may be found one, and perhaps the greatest reason for my now asking release from connection with the Board that has sustained this mission. . . . I will briefly state some facts that show the work of the Board among these ignorant and degraded people has not been without many good fruits. Instead of heathen bands, ignor- ant, indolent, intemperate, clothed with a filthy blanket, and living in smoky wigwams, we now see civilized families in comfortable houses, with farms and teams, industrious and ex- ercising all the rights and duties of citizens — reading the Tes- tament, family prayer, social meetings for prayer, regular 32 REUNION ADDRESS. attendance on the House of God, and many giving pleasing evidence of heart piety. During these years there were gathered into the church here some one hundred and thirty, of whom twenty-five have passed into the eternal world, and we hope to join the song of the redeemed. . . . Many chil- dren have been baptized in the name of the triune God whom we hope may yet be gathered into the fold. May the Lord direct you and us is the prayer of your missionary. P. Dougherty. I have referred to the success that has attended one of our Indian missions, for the reason that the General Government has recently invited this with kindred Boards to co-operate in its present policy for civilizing the tribes in the new Territories. Never before were such facilities offered the Church to pro- mote the good of these heathen neighbors as at the present time. Incidents in Nortl Indin jVlissions. In the early Spring of 1833, when Samuel Irenaeus Prime, a member of Princeton Theological Seminary, was lying sick in his room and as it was feared nigh unto death, he was aroused one day by a shout near the entrance of the hall below, and on inquiring its meaning was answered ^* Lowrie is off for India.'' The sick man arose from his bed, moved to the window over- looking the crowd of students and joined his feeble voice to theirs. From that hour he began to gather strength and soon was able to accompany his parents, who had been summoned to his bedside, to the parental home. The departing student who created this interest had left Allegheny under appointment as a missionary of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, and had come to Princeton, attracted by the fame of its professors, to round out his seminary course and, if possible, enlist others in the cause which he had espoused. At the meeting of the General Assembly of 1882, after an address by Secretary Lowrie of the Foreign Board, in which he referred to his fifty years' service in the cause. Dr. Irenseus Prime, thus reminded of their early association in Princeton, offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted : "The General Assembly recognizes with gratitude the good- ness of God in continuing the life and usefulness of its vener- able senior Secretary for Foreign Missions, the Rev. John C. Lowrie, D. D., until he has completed fifty years of faithful and continuous labor in this blessed service ; the Assembly thanks the Secretary for his fidelity, hopes that he may live to see the annual income of the Board one million of dollars, and prays that after this life he may enjoy an everlasting crown of righteousness in the kingdom of glory." 34 NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. On the occasion of the eighty first birthday of the subject of the foregoing resolution, which occurred during the last mis- sion year (i8S8), the Board reproduced and incorporated it in their minutes, with added words of appreciation of the seven years' service since rendered by their venerable and beloved Secretary. On the 30th May, 1833, four persons sailed from New Cas- tle, Delaware, as pioneer missionaries of the American Presby- terian Church to the Eastern world. They arrived in Calcutta in October, where one of their number died and soon after two others re-embarked for home, only one reaching it, while the other, for whose failing health they had left, was buried in the sea. The survivor of this little band, in pursuance of the commis- sion with which he was charged, after months of necessary delay in Calcutta, proceeded on his way to plant the Gospel among the hardy independent tribes of the northwest provinces where as yet no missionary of any society had gone. The journey by boat of this solitary stranger, with the sad memories of the recent past, presents a picture of Christian heroism and perseverence rarely excelled. The perils by the way during two and a half months of continuous voyaging are epitomized in his published journal. After en- countering a storm in which the tender conveying part of his effects was lost, he writes: " Every year many boats are lost, I have heard of two since I left, and have several times seen that it was almost the direct power of an Almighty hand that saved mine from the same fate when rapid currents, contrary winds, miserably managed sails and inefficient boatmen seemed almost to make certain such a result." At Cawnpore, Mr. Lowrie left the river for a land journey of over four hundred miles in a palankeen, when he reached the northern boundary of British protection, and on the 5 th of November, 1834, founded the Lodiana Mission. He would have proceeded farther north into the Punjab, but what he learned then was confirmed by a visit later to Runjet Sieng, the ruler of the land, that the way was not yet open for the en- NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. 35 trance of the Gospel among his people. By and by this noted chieftain was brought to his funeral pyre, and with his dead body were burned eleven living females. His successors provoked wars with the Anglo-Saxon power, and with their overthrow British rule was extended over the Sikh tribes, and with it the suppression of the suttee ; and in 1850 the central station of the Lodiana Mission was Lahore, the capital of the Punjab. The day before Mr. Lowrie alighted from his palankeen at Lodiana two ordained ministers and their wives sailed from Bos- ton to join him, one of them, the late Dr. John Newton, the historian of the mission at its jubilee celebration in 1884, then in active service, with children and grandchildren his regularly- commissioned co-laborers in this field. Accompanying this first reinforcement was a young lady who at Calcutta yielded to social attractions for another sphere of usefulness, whose example has not been without imitators since, to the disap- pointment of those in whose service they originally embarked. The second reinforcement, consisting of four ministers and their wives, of whom the venerable Dr. Jamieson, now of Schuy- ler Presbytery, is the sole survivor, sailed from New Castle on the i6th November, 1835, one year from the founding of the mission, and arrived in Calcutta in time to receive advice and direction from Mr. Lowrie, who was there waiting for a passage home, his health not permitting a longer stay in the country. The voyage of this company up the Ganges was attended with the loss of a mission library and press, and resulted in the per- manent occupancy of Allahabad as a new mission centre. Two years later, in October, 1837, the third reinforcement of four ministers and their wives sailed from New Castle, who, after a voyage of nearly six months, landed in Calcutta, and three weeks thereafter (April 27, 1838), Mrs. AnnaM. Morrison, from Bloomfield, New Jersey, passed in triumph to her reward, and her remains, at her own request, were laid by the side of Mrs. Louisa Lowrie, of the pioneer band. One year later, in 1838, the fourth reinforcement of three ministers and their wives left our shores, and on their arrival 36 NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. out both Allahabad and Futteghur were occupied, which at a later date became central stations of the Furrukhabad Mis- sion, In 1870, on application of Rev. R. G. Wilder, who was conduct- ing an independent mission at Kolapur, and of the friends who supported it, the same was adopted and has since been sus- tained by the Presbyterian Board. Historical sketches of these three missions — the Lodiana, the Furrukhabad and the Kolapur — were prepared for the jubilee celebration of the first named in November 1884, and are published in a volume of marked interest to those who seek for details of the work of the American Presbyterian Church in India. It is not the purpose of this paper to sum- marize the work therein sketched. Nearly two generations have passed since it was begun. Yearly reinforcements have gone forth from our seminaries and churches, and scores of our sainted ones have found their graves in that foreign soil. The names of the earlier laborers are perpetuated, more than is the case with any other of our missions, in their children, who are treading in the same field the steps of their parents. The success of this self-denying work cannot be judged by the numerical roll of baptized converts. Of these over one thousand are embraced in the five Presbyteries of the Synod of India, and there are the uncounted ones who are enrolled in the church of the first-born in heaven. Of the twenty-one or- dained native pastors, a representative was with us in 1S87, Rev. R. C. Chattergee, a Brahmin of the Brahmins, who ap- peared before the General Assembly and some of our Synods and churches, whose noble bearing, elegant scholarship and zeal for Christian work received the just appreciation of all who were favored with hearing his addresses, or meeting him and his accomplished wife in the social circle. In regard to comparative results, one well qualified to judge, Dr. John Murdock, author of " Indian Missionary Manual," gives this testimony : "After having made the circuit of the India Missions from the Punjab to Cape Comerin about twenty limes, I venture to say that the American Presbyterian Mission NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. 37 has as much if not more to show than any other mission in In- dia under the same circumstances : i. Perhaps no mission in north India has done more in the way of direct preaching to the heathen. 2. Superior schools have been maintained in the principal cities, and there has been greater care to preserve the evangelistic character than, I am sorry to say, is sometimes shown in British mission schools. 3. By means of the press the American Presbyterian Missions have done as much in north India and the Punjab as all the other missionaries taken together for the diffusion of Christian truth through this agency." The chief hindrance to the reception of the Gospel by the multitudes to whom its claims have been made known is the dominating power of caste which holds its subjects in social and religious bondage. Unhappily for themselves, as well as for the natives, this inhuman system has been upheld and sanctioned by the ruling powers who, while professing Christ- ianity, have ignored it as an agency entrusted to them for the good of the Indian race. Such is the arraignment of Sir Her- bert Edwardes, in his address at the Liverpool Mission Con- ference of i860. Not only does this charge hold good in respect to state education, which cultivates the intellect and allows the conscience to lie buried in heathen superstition, but also in respect to enlistments in the army, which are made subservient to the demands of caste. It was subjection to this demand that made possible the Se- poy mutiny of 1857. The Enfield rifle cartridge, greased with the fat of animals alike unclean to Hindoo and Mohammedan, as a spark of fire to a continuous train of gunpowder, excited the simultaneous revolt of 100,000 armed men. As Sir Herbert, after long official service in India, testifies, " The greatest rev- olution, perhaps, the world has ever seen, the Indian mutiny of 1857, if anything in this world was made of material ele- ments, was made with grease." In this awful tragedy our American missionaries had their full share of suffering and sorrow. Behold that martyr band at Futtehgurh — Freeman and John- 38 NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. son and McMuUen and their wives, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell and their two children leaving their bungaloes and floating on boats down the Ganges. They have written their last messages to dear ones at home. "What is to become of us and of the Lord's work in this land," writes one, "we cannot tell ; but God reigns, and in Him will we rejoice." And the tone and spirit of this letter characterizes the correspondence of them all. And now their passage down the river is arrested by the guns of the enemy. They bring their boats to land, throw away their carnal weapons, and gather in a praying circle. Mr. Freeman offers prayer, reads a portion of Scripture, makes remarks and then they sing a hymn. Mr. Campbell follows with remarks and prayer, and another hymn is sung. Then the Sepoys advance upon them. They are tied together two and two. Mr. Campbell carries in his arms one of his chil- dren; a friend among their English fellow-captives carries the other. They are permitted to lie down at night, suffering from want of food and water. In the morning the Prince of Bithoor, whose captives they are, sends carriages for the ladies, and on their reaching Cawnpore all are mercilessly shot by his order, and their bodies cast into a well. Nana Sahib — and I need no epithet to paint his character — that Maharetta name is a word of significance which no English can express. Nana Sahib, the Prince of Bithoor, was an educated East India gentleman of pleasing address and polished manners, the true type of Anglo-India civilization. Army officers and civilians and their families felt honored in being invited guests at his sumptuous entertainments. He was trained in the government institutions, where the Koran and Shasters are text-books taught by professors of Oriental litera- ture, and from which the Bible and Christian instruction are excluded that the East India policy of neutrality might be maintained. Behold the product of that policy in Nana Sahib, the deceiver and betrayer of scores of England's confiding sons and daughters, the murderer of our beloved missionaries, their wives and little ones. But happily this anti-Christian policy was modified and to a NORTH INDIA MISSIONS. 39 large extent overruled by the evangelical spirit pervading the government of the Punjab. In the glare of the mutiny Sir John Lawrence advised the missionaries to intermit no part of their work, and from a community where, as we have seen^ " the American Presbyterian Mission had exerted a wider in- fluence than all other missions combined," that noble Christian commander raised a native force, which, joined to his few Brit- ish troops carried the breach in the walls of Delhi and crushed the head of the mutiny. The following year the political power of the East India Company was merged in the British crown, and a change of policy has been looked for in harmony with the Christian sentiments of the English people. But the supremacy of caste as a social and religious force in society will yield only to the opposing power of the religion of Christ. On this subject our pioneer missionary expressed his views more than half a century ago, and holds to them still- " No great number of Hindoos," he says, " could ordinarily be expected to become Christians until this system of caste is broken. . . . Eventually it will become a great means of its own overthrow. This will result from the leavening influ- ence of the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit reaching each member of each subdivision ; but no one moving until all moved, and then conversions would be multiplied by thous- ands and scores of thousands. May we not fondly hope that these prophetic words will be fulfilled, not in the distant, but in the near future, and then not only India will be emancipated, but the home Church, through whose agency this great deliverance has been effected, will receive into her own bosom double for all her sacrifices. The waters from the sanctuary that shall overflow the plains of Hindooism and kindred superstitions, will find their level in lands where are now their spring sources only. They will be waters to swim in. September, 1889. Eorly Teiirs of ttie Ceiitrnl Ctiina Missioij. While looking in one day upon the General Assembly of 1843, then sitting in Philadelphia, a young physician of that city was tapped on the shoulder by Walter Lowrie, Secretary of the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board, who said he was in search of a medical missionary for the north of China, and asked him what he was doing and if he would go. He replied that he would go, his parents consenting. This interview oc- curred a few months after the Treaty of Nanking, of August, 1842, was signed, which opened five Chinese ports to foreign commerce, with the right of residence and Christian worship. Among them was the walled city of Ningpo, then regarded the most important of the northern treaty ports, but shortly after outranked by Shanghai. Three ordained missionaries had been secured for this northern field — Walter M. Lowrie, who had already reached Macao, Augustus W. Loomis and M. Simpson Culbertson, and now the want of a medical associate was supplied in the appointment of D. Bethune McCartee, M. D. He was personally well known to the executive officers of the Board, His father was pastor of the old Canal Street Presbyterian Church in New York, where the son was reli- giously trained, and where on a week-day afternoon Elder William Steel drilled the boys from four years old and upward in the Shorter Catechism. At the end of this interview with the Secretary, young McCartee, then in his twenty-fourth year, was preparing a medical work for a publisher, and was a part- ner in practice with a physician in whose office Andrew P. Happer, the distinguished veteran missionary of Canton, re- cently retired, was then a student. Being released from these engagements, and receiving the paternal sanction and blessing. CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. 4I he sailed for China, October 6, 1843, in the ship Huntress, owned by Talbot Olyphant and Company, of missionary mem- ory. He had as fellow-passengers for Macao, Mr. Richard Cole, a printer sent by the Board, with its press and accompani- ments, and Mrs. Cole, all of whom received from the ship- owners free passage. After a voyage of four and one-half months, he arrived in Hong Kong in the latter part of Feb- ruary, 1844, where he was detained until the 12th of June, waiting for a passage north. During this detention he occa- sionally visited his future associate, Walter M. Lowrie, at Macao, who, while acquiring the Chinese written language, was assisting Mr. Cole with the press, adding his scholarship to the practical skill of the printer in arranging for use the newly invented metallic type, which press was soon after removed to Ningpo, and in i860 to Shanghai, where it now is. Dr. Wells Williams was also at Macao, and in close fellow- ship with Mr. Lowrie. These visits were attended with no little danger. Twice he fell into the hands of robbers. The first time, being alone, he was garrotted and pinioned. On the other occasion he was in company with Williams and Lowrie, when he was knocked senseless with a stone, and Lowrie was severely cut and bruised about the head, and all were over- powered and robbed. No report of these mishaps was sent home, lest it should cause anxiety to friends. Sailing from Hong Kong, Dr. McCartee had a favorable passage to Chusan, an island near the mouth of the Ningpo River, then held by British forces as a guarantee for the fulfill- ment of the stipulations of the Nangking Treaty. An officer kindly aided him in chartering a Chinese junk to convey him to the mainland, and up the river twelve miles to the city of Ningpo. Not knowing how long the voyage would be, and be- ing unable to ask, he " turned in " and went to sleep (when within half an hour of his destination), and awoke only when the Chinese Custom House officer came on board the next morning to examine the cargo of the junk. His arrival was on the 21st of June, 1844, the date of the founding of the Ningpo Mission, the first Presbyterian mission 42 CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. in Central or Northern China. Of the four pioneers assigned to this field, the last appointed was the first on the ground. On the north bank of the river, opposite the city, in a rice field, a British consul and clerks, and a British merchant and his clerk, were living. The consul entertained with hospi- tality the young missionary, and assisted him in renting a small, one-story house near the consulate. The place proving very sickly from the heat, malaria, and bad drinking water, the doc- tor retreated to Chusan as a health station, where he remained three months, opening for the natives a dispensary, and acquir- ing their colloquial language, which is the same as that at Ningpo. The reading of a portion of a Chinese tract by his heathen teacher was the only means he could use for their spiritual good. Here at this British camp he enjoyed the Christian society of some Irish officers and European artillery men. To the same island had also come Miss Mary Ann Ald- ersey, an English lady of moderate wealth, who had been conducting an independent mission school in Java, and had re- moved to China for the same purpose, bringing with her two baptized native girls of the island, and also an adopted child, who became on profession of her faith one of the early members of the Presbyterian Church of Ningpo, and is now the widow of the late Rt. Rev. Bishop Russel, of the Church Mis- sionary Society. During his stay at Tinghai, the chief city of Chusan, Dr. McCartee was joined by Mr. and Mrs. R. Q. Way, of his own Board, who had been assgined to Siam, but on learning at Singa- pore of the temporary suspension of that mission, had proceeded north to join the brethren in China. They brought with them from Singapore a servant. Hung Apoo, a native of the Canton Province, who was taught by Mrs. Way to read the English Bible without learning the alphabet. He became converted, not a servant only, but a brother beloved, and before a church was organized was baptized in Ningpo by Mr. Way, after an examination in the presence of Dr. McCartee and Miss Alder- sey. T\\\s first Christian convert in the north of China is still living in his native province, holding fast his profession, and, CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. 43 like Abraham, he has commanded his children and his house- hold after him to keep the way of the Lord. During the Summer, Miss Aldersey moved to Ningpo, where she spent thirteen years of her consecrated life in conducting a boarding school for girls, which, on her leaving China, in 1857, was, at her request, merged in the mission school of the Pres- byterian Board. The other missionaries on the island left it in the Autumn, and for a short time lived together in Dr. McCar- tee's hired house on the north bank of the river, until Mr. Way found a more suitable home for his family within the city. His colleague, also, near the close of the year secured apartments for himself, and a hospital in a Tavist Temple or Monastery, within the city walls. On the arrival of Mr. Lowrie in April, 1845, he engaged rooms in the same building, and the two brethren were together until near the close of the following year, when the latter opened a chapel and lived in a small house in another part of the city. In referring to this joint occupancy nearly forty years afterwards, Dr. McCartee says that he ** never hears or calls to mind Dr. Watts' hymn, ' Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice ascending high,' without the Tavist Temple and Lowrie's clear and pleasant notes coming back to his memory, as though it were but yesterday." A residence in this Monastery doubtless afforded some advantages for mission work, as the people came together there for heathen ceremonies, but the chanting of monks, the beating of gongs and cymbals, were a serious hin- drance to comfort and study. Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson arrived in Ningpo a short time before Mr. Lowrie, and rented a house in that city. Mr. and Mrs. Loomis were their fellow passengers toChusan, and on advice of the mission, settled there until the island was evacuated by the British troops, in August, 1846, when, on request of the Mandarins, they left it and joined their associates within the Treaty limits. On the i6th of May, 1845, a Presbyterian Church was organized in Ningpo. Mr. Culbert- son >yas chosen pastor. Dr. McCartee elder, and formally or- dained to that office, Messrs. Way and Lowrie acting as assistant elders in the ordination service. Besides the three clerical 44 CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. brethren, the church membership consisted of Dr. McCartee, Mrs. Culbertson, Mrs. Way, Miss Aldersey and her two Java girls, and Hung Apoo, the recently baptized convert. During the Summer a boys' boarding school was opened, and not long after one of the boys and two members of Miss Alder- sey's family united with the Church. In the examination of native candidates Dr. McCartee acted as interpreter. From necessity, at first, the Lord's Supper was celebrated in English, but when the elements were handed to the Chinese converts, the elder repeated to them in their own language our Lord's words at its institution. Dr. McCartee's facility in acquiring the Ningpo colloquial, enabled him early to add to his medical duties a chapel service in a room adjoining the boys' school, which he kept up for eleven years. Mr. Lowrie, in a letter to his father, near the close of 1846, thus speaks of him ; " Dr. McCartee, who has more fluency of tongue than I have, talks like a native, and has a command of words quite unexampled for a person who has been so short a time in China." His medical practice was not limited to his patients and dispensary in the city, but in the villages around he had opportunities of relieving physical ills, and imparting Christian truth by distribution of the issues of the press. In his annual report for 1850, we find the number of patients dur- ing the year 2,238, of whom 302 are women, and later he reports as many as 200 daily. From the journal of Mr. Lowrie it would seem that most of the earlier cases calling for treatment were of opium poisoning. The same journal gives an illustra- tion of native medical practice. Mr. Lowrie accompanied his colleague to a respectable family, where a man was afflicted with dropsy. The diagnosis of his native doctor was that he had clotted horse blood that had feet and could walk. His loathesome prescription not killing the monster, another pro- fessional native was sent for, who administered a toad to be swallowed, which was equally ineffectual. In 1847, Rev. John W. Quarterman, brother of Mrs. Way, from Liberty County, Georgia, joined the mission. His princi- pal work was in the boys' boarding school, being at first assist- CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. 45 ant of Mr. Way, and then in full charge as principal, until his death in 1857, which occurred during the ever regretful absence from the country of his medical colleague. Two years after the death of his brother-in-law, Mr. Way, with his family, returned to the United States, from failure of health, and for most of his subsequent life has been a pastor in his native State of Georgia. From the single-minded devo- tion of these two superintendents, especially of Mr. Quarterman, who resided in the school building, came the first native teach- ers and evangelists and pastors of the mission. One of these early pupils and converts was Ming Geen, from Bao-ko-Tah, an account of whose Christian character and peaceful death in July, 185 1, written by Dr. McCartee, maybe found in the Foreign Missionary of January, 1852, the first fruits of the Ningpo Mission gathered into the harvest above, and the first to carry the Gospel to his native village, where is now a flourishing church. Another of these boys was Kying Ling Yin, the first ordained pastor of a self-supporting church in China. In 1845 Dr. McCartee was called to see a man se- verely wounded, about two miles in the country. Here he be- came acquainted with a bright lad ten years old, a nephew of the wounded man, and was permitted to take him home with him, and place him in the boys' boarding school, where he de- veloped first into a teacher, then became a student of theology, was licensed and ordained, and in 1866 died pastor of the Yu Yiao Church, soon after the death of his wife, who was a grad- uate of the girls' boarding school. The surviving daughter was adopted by Dr. and Mrs. McCartee, and is the brilliant Ymay King, M. D., graduate of the Medical College in New York, with its first honors, and now medical missionary in Japan. The year 1847 was made memorable by the martyr death of Walter M. Lowrie, who was cast into the sea by pirates, when on a return voyage from Shanghai to Ningpo. This event cast a deep shadow of sorrow over all the mission circles of China, and testimonials of his distinguished worth and promise by eminent men from the four continents form a conspicuous ap- 4^ CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. pendix to the volume of his Memoirs, edited by his father. There is no guide book so valuable to a candidate for the mis- sion field of China, next to the inspired one which he drew from his pocket when sinking under the waves and threw back into the vessel for his captors and murderers, as the Memoir of Walter M. Lowrie. In 1848 Rev. Henry V. Rankin and Rev. J. K. Wight, and their wives, sailed for Ningpo. The Sabbath School of the Second Presbyterian Church of St. Louis had assumed the en- tire support of Mr. Lowrie, and on his death, this pledge was transferred to Mr. Rankin, and gratefully acknowledged in a . monthly correspondence with his young patrons. He died July ,w>^nnv2, 1863, at Shanglun ^ , to which place he had gone in great j feebleness as a health resort. The Civil War was raging in his native land, and in his last communion with his church at Ningpo, as he wrote to friends at home, " the elements used were bread from Southern wheat fields and wine from Northern vineyards." A brief memoir of his active life, written by his brother. Rev. Dr. Edward E. Rankin, is among the biographies appended to Dr. Lowrie's " Missions of the Presbyterian Board," published in 1868. For many years his widow has filled a use- ful sphere in the position of a pastor's wife at home, and a daughter, Mrs. C. Rodney Janvier, is serving the Master in In- dia. Mr. Wight was detailed with Mr. Culbertson to open a new mission in Shanghai in 1850. After two attempts to with- stand the effects of the climate upon his constitution, he was compelled finally to return to the United States in 1857, where he has since engaged in pastoral work. One of his daughters has recently entered the field from which he sorrow- fully withdrew in his early days. Dr. Culbertson, the first pastor of the Ningpo Church, died August 28, 1862. He was a graduate of West Point, and resigned a captaincy in the United States Army to enter a Theological Seminary and become a Foreign Missionary. When the Civil War in his native land broke out, he struggled for a while with the question of duty to the country which had educated and fitted him for military service. But he had spent CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. 47 eleven years (ten of them as the associate of Dr. Bridgman un- til the death of that distinguished missionary of the American Board) in the work of re-translating the sacred Scriptures, which was now nearing its completion. Happily he continued in it until his own sudden removal, as he was giving his last touches to the only five remaining chapters of this invaluable legacy to China. He is still represented in the land of her birth by a daughter, Mrs. Leonard Kip, of Amoy, and his widow, re- turning home, was, until her recent death, the adviser and helper of many about to enter the field. In 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Loomis were compelled to succumb to the effects of a malarious climate, and return home, but not to leave the mission work, in which they had sixteen years of united service, when she was called to her rest. Dr. Loomis, until his lamented death in July last, was the veteran mission- ary to the Chinese on the Pacific coast, and the efficient helper and counsellor of fellow-laborers passing through the Golden Gate to and from the eastern world. The year of their departure brought to Ningpo Mr. and Mrs- Coulter, he to take charge of the press, with a view, also, after fur- ther preparatory study, of entering the ministry. But from the first the climate marked him for a victim, and in December 1852, his sorrowing colleagues laid his manly form in the mission cemetery. The following year, 1850, the mission was reinforced by Rev. W. A. P. and Samuel Martin and their wives. The failing health of the latter, eight years later, obliged him to leave this field, since which he has done good service among one of our Indian tribes, and also as a Home Missionary. The former is the distinguished President of the Government Col- lege at Peking, having in 1869 resigned his connection with the Board on his appointment to that office. The foregoing sketch embraces all the missionaries connected with the Ningpo, or Central China Mission, with its outgrowth, the North China Mission, during the first six years of its his- tory, at the end of which time (1850) the names of such as were in active service, either at Ningpo or Shanghai, in the order of their arrival out, were Dr. McCartee, Mr. and Mrs. Way, Mr. 48 CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. and Mrs. Culbertson, Mr. Quarterman, Mr. and Mrs. Rankin, Mr. and Mrs. Wight, Mr. and Mrs. Coulter and the two brothers Martin and their wives, sixteen in all, the greater part of whom remain to this day, but not one in the field where they began their evangelistic labors, and some, as we have seen, have fallen asleep. At the end of the same period, the Church records show but six native members. It was a time of seed sowing, the reaping was to come later. It was a time, too, when the painful exer- cise of discipline was called for and applied, and hence the number remaining of the faithful corresponds with the number of years since the Gospel message first reached them. One of the great necessities of this early day was a Christian literature and words to express to the native mind Bible truth. Mr. Cole having left the mission in 1847, the press came under the direc- tion of Mr. Loomis, and then Mr. Coulter, until his death. Tracts and portions of the Bible were printed and circulated, and text-books prepared for the schools. The introduction of Romanized type in printing the vernacular language, opened the way for wider popular instruction than was possible through the use of the Chinese character, and was specially helpful in the girls' school. The ability to read was not reckoned among the accomplishments of a Chinese lady, rather a deep-rooted prejudice existed against it, but to read her own colloquial by means of the Roman alphabet, was found to be an easy task for her, and thus old prejudice began to give way. In 1846 Mrs. Cole secured with difficulty two native girls as a nucleus of a boarding school, which soon after her leaving the mission was assumed by Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, under whom the number of girls increased to sixteen. In 1840 the superin- tendence devolved upon Mr. and Mrs. Rankin, and was con- tinued in them so long as they remained in Ningpo. Under their care the school increased, and when united with that of Miss Aldersey, numbered seventy. This girls' boarding school, in connection with the one for boys, laid the foundation of many Christian households. It also opened a new chapter in CENTRAL CHINA MISSION. 49 the history of all the missions of the Board in the eastern world. Not long after the assumption of the girls' school by the last named superintendents, a young lady residing in Newark brought me a letter she had received from them, inviting her to become a member of their family and associate teacher in this school. It was my own brother and her own sister who had ex- tended this invitation, and she said that her answer, favorable or otherwise, was for my judgment to decide. My conclusion was soon reached, in which she cordially acquiesced, and the Annual Report for 1852 records the name of Miss Juana M. Knight among its Ningpo missionaries, and the roll of no other of the Board's Eastern missions is graced in like manner. True, her maiden name does not again appear, but in the change to which she yielded, she became the pioneer of many of her sex, who, entering on mission work unmarried, have ad- ded to their strength as well as joy by a new departure. Dr. D. Bethune and Mrs. Juana McCartee, after long service together in China, are spending their later years in like manner in Japan, and missionaries now in the former fields are reaping a rich harvest from the seed planted by them and their asso- ciates forty-eight years ago. January, 1892. Ihe Presbyterittii Press in Ctiip. The Presbyterian press in China was established as an essen- tial agency in the evangelization of that empire, and has an interesting and instructive history. The art of printing, as practiced by the Chinese, antedates by centuries the art as practiced by Christian nations. There are on the shelves of the mission library in New York nearly one thousand volumes printed after the manner of their earlier editions, which were read by Chinese scholars during the dark ages of Europe. But this method of printing is not adapted to the exigencies of the Church in her missionary work. Briefly explained, the matter to be printed is written on a sheet of transparent paper of the size of the page, which is then pasted on a block of wood, the written side down. The engraver cuts away all the blank spots in and around the written letters, leaving them in relief upon the block. An impression taken from this by hand or mallet will give the counterpart of the written sheet. The substitution of movable metal types for these manipu- lated wooden blocks encountered the difficulty of requiring some 4,000 types instead of the smaller number used in our own language, and this was preceded by the greater difficulty of reducing the 30,000 or more characters found in Chinese literature to this fewer number. While our Foreign Board was in its non-age as a missionary society in Pittsburgh, a mission to China, from which the Gos- pel was wholly excluded, was one of its declared objects. The Hon. Walter Lowrie, then Secretary of the United States Sen- ate, also Vice-President of the Society, as a means to that end, acquired a knowledge of the written language of China, and offered to give direction in his study to missionaries for that PRESBYTERIAN PRESS IN CHINA. 5 1 field. By correspondence with Dr. Robert Baird, then in Paris, it was learned that the discovery had there been made that a portion of the Chinese characters were divisible, and that by different combinations of their elements all the lan- guage now in use could be expressed. On the advice of Mr. Lowrie, with a pledge from Mr. James Lenox of meeting the expense, an order was sent in 1836 to a typographer of Paris for the required number of matrices, at first supposed to be 9,000, though afterwards less than half that number was deemed sufficient. Two years later 2,000 of these were re- ported as finished, but it was not until 1844 that about 3,500 in all reached Macao in charge of an American printer, Mr. Robert Cole. In December, 1837, the first missionaries of the Board em- barked for China, just one year from the time Mr. Lowrie en- tered upon the office of Corresponding Secretary, and more than a year after the engagement for the type matrices had been authorized. Thus the press was the herald of the mis- sion. Then missionaries were instructed to locate at some convenient place outside the empire, study the language, labor among such Chinese as were accessible, and wait the open- ings of Providence. On October 31, 1837, a committee of the General Assembly received the transfer of the Western Mis- sionary Society and organized the present Board, Mr. Lowrie retaining the office of Corresponding Secretary, on which he had entered the year before. In May following, 1838, he pub- lished his first annual report, and in referring to the station to be occupied by the brethren sent to China, among other es- sentials to be sought for was " a printing office on a scale ca- pable of extension, so as to require a printer and such assist- ants as may be necessary to print Bibles and books to the best advantage, and in any numbers that the means of the Board will permit." Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, son of the Secretary, arrived in Macao, from the United States, in June, 1842, the year of the treaty of peace, and after two years study of the language, was prepared on the arrival of Mr. Cole, with the font of type and 52 PRESBYTERIAN PRESS IN CHINA. a hand-press, to render essential assistance in putting the ap- paratus in working order. This took months of close applica- tion and hard labor. Mr. Cole did not understand Chinese, and the proper arrangement in cases of between 3,000 and 4,000 types, and the setting them up for the use of the press, required qualifications which he did not possess. When the Treaty port of Ningpo was occupied in 1844, the press was removed to that city. Mr. Cole leaving soon after, the duties of superintendent devolved upon Rev. A. W. Loomis, one of the brethren of the mission, until the arrival in 1849 of another printer, Mr. M. S. Coulter. Mr. Coulter gave promise of great usefulness in the important ofifice for which he was sent out, as also in other departments of mission work, but was not permitted long to labor. He died near the close of 1852. The superintendency then devolved upon another of the mis- sionary brethren, Rev. Richard Q. Way, until the arrival of Mr. William Gamble in October, 1858, a practical printer, who brought with him a new set of matrices and electrotype machine, and by whose energy and genius an important impulse was given to the power of the press. Dr. John C. Lowrie, in a paper on Chinese Missions, published in 1868, says " that but for the order of the committee in 1836, for a set of these matrices, this great invention would not have come into use. So little confidence was felt in its practicability, that no other missionary institution would give it their patronage — only two other orders were received by the artist, and without at least three orders he would not proceed with the work." And I may add that but for the knowledge of the language acquired by his revered father, in the midst of official duties at Wash- ington, this important order would not have been suggested. Dr. William M. Paxton, in his address at the funeral of Mr. Lowrie, says: " It seemed singular to see a statesman, amid the cares and labors of public life, rising two hours earlier in the morning, to study the language of a people so distant from us, and in so little sympathy with ourselves." Soon after the establishment of the press in Ningpo, by a joint arrangement between Dr. Wells Williams, of the American PRESBYTERIAN PRESS IN CHINA. 53 Board, and Mr. Lowrie, an order was sent to Berlin for another set of matrices, of a different size from the Paris font, which was the set taken with him by Mr. Gamble in 1858, some twelve years after the order was given. These matrices were received in New York in separate parcels, at long intervals, when they underwent the close inspection, with a magnifier, of the venerable Secretary, who would occasionally detect a de- fect or a duplicate, to be rejected and returned. One day, after a long and wearisome study of these punches, he said to me: "When this font is completed, I shall consider my work for China as ended." This was more than twenty years after he began his encounter with the great obstacle to the indefinite multiplication of the Scriptures in that Empire. Both these fonts of type when sent out to do their work were yet incomplete. China is called the Flowery Land, and in the exquisite finish of its printed characters her artists emu- late the Divine skill displayed in the flowers of the field. The same degree of excellence was required in the new method introduced among them as in their own. After all the minute- ness of inspection and corrections before the matrices were sent out, Chinese criticism could detect blemishes. Five years after the press had been in operation, the Annual Report of 1849, reads : "After long delay the font of Chinese divisible metal type has been completed. It was found that between 200 and 300 of the combinations did not form perfect charac- ters, though perfectly legible. The matrices for replacing these have been received and sent out, with the exception of sixty daily expected." In i860 the press was removed to Shanghai, as the commer- cial mart and as affording easier and more extended commu- nication for its publications with the interior of the empire. The same year a power press was added to the two hand- presses then in use. The superintendency of Mr. Gamble from 1858 to 1869 was marked with great and permanent improvements. It was no longer necessary to send to Paris or Berlin to supply defects or enlarge the fonts. He created his own foundry and formed 54 PRESBYTERIAN PRESS IX CHINA. types at far less expense, from which he filled orders sent from both those cities for a smaller font than any in use. In this, small pica, he printed the New Testament at a cost of six and seven cents, and in forms convenient for a native to carry about in the pocket of his sleeve. In 1867 he refers to the success- ful commencement of electrotyping, and to twenty-five mil- lions of pages printed, of which ten millions were the Scriptures. Among the books are Dr. Hepburn's Japanese and English Dic- tionary, and he adds, "the demand for books is so great that after the addition of three new presses during the year, the supply is still insufficient, and expresses regret that the Secretary, who, more than any other man, was the founder of the press, could not visit the establishment in its present advanced condition." After the resignation of Mr. Gamble, Rev. John Wherry and Rev. John Butler successively took charge of the Press, and were succeeded by Mr. John L. Mateer, who was sent out for that special purpose. In his yearly report for 1872, Mr. Ma- teer refers to the four sizes of matrices that have been made, and of a fifth (double pica), then under way, saying that " he is prepared to make several sizes and varieties of Japanese type, and that eight printing presses are running constantly and are hardly sufficient to do all the work, that he has re- ceived orders from the Government authorities at Peking for type and materials, and believes that the Chinese are begin- ning to throw away their cumbersome block system and adopt ours." Mr. Mateer was obliged to leave Shanghai in 1876 from failure of health, and the office of superintendent has since (until 1891) been filled successively by Rev. Messrs. W. S. Holt, J. M, W. Farnham and G. F. Fitch. The last reports by Dr. Farnham describe the plant as consisting of a foundry with seven cut- ting machines constantly at work, which casts six sizes of Chinese type, besides English, Korean, Manchu, Japanese and Hebrew ; machinery for stereotyping, electrotyping, matrix making, type cutting and engraving ; eight presses, of which three are run by gas ; bindery, for both native and foreign styles. About 100 workmen are employed ; over fifty-nine PRESBYTERIAN PRESS IN CHINA. 55 million pages printed in one year, and the yearly profits aver- age $5,000. The publications of all or nearly all the mission- ary societies in China have been issued from this press, also those of the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies and the various Tract Societies. In short, Chinese Christian literature, both in its wider and stricter meaning, to a large extent, bears the imprint of the "American Presbyter- ian Mission Press." It seems hardly proper that an ordained missionary should be charged with such a many-sided business establishment. It has been the aim of the Board from the beginning to engage for this service Christian laymen who are practical printers. Such were Messrs. Cole, Coulter, Gamble, and J. L. Mateer, and the Annual Report of 1892 states that the press is now in charge of one of like experience and character with these, Mr. Gilbert Mcintosh, and that the issues for the preceding year were 41,677,300 pages, more than half being Scrip- tures. The question may soon arise whether the control of this great interest may not wisely be surrendered by the Board. Printing by divisible metallic types has become an institution in China which will gradually supplant its an- cient system. There is money in it, and this is an argument for the coming change which a native printer appreciates. Over $50,000 profits on job work have within the last nine years been paid into the mission treasury. Rival presses run by natives and foreigners are coming into use, and are sure to multiply, some of them, unhappily, to counteract the work of Christian missions. But whether the establishment at Shanghai continues under the control of the Board or is parted with, the Chinese Press, with its movable metallic type, will remain a monument of the missionary zeal and wisdom of its founder, and will increase in power and efficiency year by year, and by its agency the Gos- pel will be made known throughout every province of the Chinese Empire. Hdissioii to tlie Chinese iii Colifornio. In 1852 the General Assembly sitting in Philadelphia, de- tached from the Synod of New York the Presbytery of Cali- fornia, and constituted with it and the newly formed Presbyteries of Stockton and Oregon, the Synod of the Pacific. There were at the time within these three Presbyteries but two settled pastors, and less than two hundred church-members. The next year, 1853, Elder W. W. Caldwell, from San Fran- cisco, was enrolled a commissioner of the General Assembly, and was an object lesson of the growth of the Presbyterian Church, being the first representative of that body from the Pacific coast. The same year that this Synod was constituted, the Board of Foreign Missions, acting upon a memorial of the Presbytery of California, established a mission to the Chinese within its bounds. The fame of the gold mines had during three years brought to our shores many thousands of this peo- ple, nearly all from the Canton Province. It was regarded as an omen for good to China that her heathen should be attract- ed to this Christian land to be taught our religion and go back as light-bearers to their own country. It is needless to say that the more sanguine hopes of that early day have not been fully realized, and yet the duty of the Christian Church to meet this tide of Mongolian immigration with the Gospel is no less clear now in its decline, than when it was in its full swell. The most successful agencies for evangelizing the Chinese as well as other heathen nations, are those established in the home land. Rev. William Speer, having regained at home the health he lost in a four years' service as missionary at Canton, was ap- pointed to this new field, for which his experience and knowl- edge of the Canton dialect specially qualified him. On the 5th of October, 1852, he and Mrs. Speer sailed from New York for MISSION TO THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 57 Aspinwall in the crowded steamer Georgia, and on the 6th of November they entered the Golden Gate- His account of the voyage on the two oceans, of the journey through the Isthmus by rail and boat and mule-back, of delays and exposure at Panama, is replete with incidents in striking contrast with most missionary journeys at the present day. His fellow- passengers, bent upon the one object of engaging in the lottery of gold digging, and for which they had abandoned quiet homes and useful occupations, were not a choice compan- ionship, but the journey ended without harm, and at the end of a month and a day from their parting with Christian friends in New York, our missionaries found a welcome in Christian homes in San Francisco. This welcome was exten- ded not only by American citizens, but several Chinamen who had been instructed in Christian schools at home, received them gladly. Dr. Speer at once entered upon his mission work with de- voted earnestness, and secured the confidence of the com- munity, both native and foreign. On the 5th of November, 1853, he organized a Chinese church in San Francisco, the first on this continent, consisting of four members, one of whom was elected ruling elder, and who the next year had a seat in Presbytery. He took early and vigorous measures to secure a permanent home for the mission, and succeeded through a local association, which became incorporated. A lot was bought, and a building suitable for parsonage, chapel, and school erected and dedicated, in July, 1854. The subscriptions for the same were $14,000, of which $2,000 was from Chinese merchants. An additional sum of $5,000 being needed, this was loaned by the Board, having been do- nated to it for that purpose by Mr. James Lenox. Subse- quently, the original subscribers relinquished their claims upon the property in favor of the Board, whose title to it was then perfected. In 1881, the Board requiring more ample accommo- dations, purchased the First Presbyterian Church building for $22,500, and recently the original mission house was sold. Besides Dr. Speer's acquaintance with their language, his So MISSION TO THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. knowledge of medicine and former practice of it among them, gave him opportunity for securing the confidence and good will of the Chinese. He opened a dispensary, and many pa- tients resorted to it, some from the mines and some from emi- grant vessels on arrival in port, whose experience was often not unlike that of African slaves on the middle passage. Old, decayed hulks were used for passenger ships, which were over- crowded, and in one instance, out of 520 who embarked in China, one-fourth of them died at sea. The wards of the public hospitals gave no welcome to sick Chinamen, and the lives of not a few were saved by means of the mission dispen- sary, and the Mission House in all its history and changes has been a bureau of information, both religious and secular, for the Mongolian stranger. In connection with the church was a Sabbath school, also a week day evening school was opened, at first for pay scholars, afterwards for all. A periodical called " The Oriental," was issued from the Mission House in English and Chinese, and found circulation in the mining regions and in the cities. Dr. Speer was aided in his work by his elder, and also by one of the church members as colporteur, but his abundant labors overtasked his physical strength as they had done in Canton. He took a short vacation to the Sandwich Islands, and, being invigorated by exercise and mountain air, returned to his ac- customed duties only to find that the relief experienced was but temporary, and that a protracted visit to his Pennsylvania home was his most judicious remedy. His departure from the coast, where he had spent four years of faithful service, was attended with many tokens of esteem and affection from the better class of the Chinese. A formal complimentary address was inscribed on a banner of silk, to which were added other personal presents. In acknowledging these testimonials, the subject of them says : " Here was a moving proof that this quick-witted and suspicious race are alive to the same tender feelings with ourselves ; that they can appreciate acts of kind" ness, patience and disinterestedness on our part, and that our MISSION TO THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 59 people little fathom the susceptibility of mind and heart which lies beneath their still and passive countenances." The work accomplished by Dr. Speer was enduring in its re- sults. "Its fruits appear in various forms," says his immediate successor, "and his name is held in grateful remembrance by many of the Chinamen, who love to speak of him as the Chi- naman's friend." He left California with his family in the Summer of 1857, hoping to resume his work there, but a fur- lough of over a year convinced him and his friends that this was impracticable, and his resignation as a missionary of the Board was reluctantly accepted. It is much to be regretted that a missionary life so useful and so attractive to himself should have been cut short by what he ascribed " to error and imprudence in overtasking bodily strength" etc., and this error has a wider application than to him alone who confesses it. In 1866 Dr. Speer was chosen Secretary of the Board of Education, and for several years found congenial employment in encouraging candidates for the ministry and in planning for their support. For more than two years the California field was unoccu- pied, save by native and local helpers. In 1859, Rev. Augustus W. Loomis and wife accepted an appointment to it, both having had experience as missionaries in China. But the dialect of Ningpo, where their lot had been cast, is as unlike that of the Canton emigrants, as German is unlike English. Dr. Loomis, however, had acquired the Chinese written language, and pre- pared and printed books in it. Besides, he entered into the preparatory work of his predecessor, and made grateful ac- knowledgment of it. Having secured a Chinese Christian teacher, formerly from Hong Kong, he commenced Sabbath services at first through an interpreter ; also a Thursday even- ing prayer-meeting, " some three or four leading in prayer and engaging in the service with fervor and humility." A suspen- ded Sabbath-school was resumed and a day school taken in charge, which was supported from the public school funds. In referring to this department of mission work some years later, Dr. Loomis says : " This field is very unlike those 6o MISSION TO THE CHINESE IN CAI IFORNIA. which our brethren have spread out before them in China, In- dia and Africa. Here the population is uneasy and changing, like the shifting sand hills along our shore." Again he writes: " From the character and condition of most of the women brought to this country, our work lacks that feature which af- fords most grounds for hope in all other mission fields." He refers in this to the influence which in heathen lands Christian schools have upon households. The lack of families and of children is the special discouragement of missions to the Chinese in the United States. Dr. and Mrs. Loomis continued their joint labors on the coast, until the failing health of the latter compelled their re- turn to her early home in the State of New York, where as her brother, the venerable Dr Henry Kendall, writes, "she beheld the King in His beauty, and fell asleep December 13, 1866." The stricken husband then resumed his work, and continued in it till his own lamented death in July, 1891. It was one of the favoring providences of God that a man of such practical wisdom and business methods was assigned to this field. Be- sides his special mission work, he was for a score of years an almost indispensable agent of the Board, as adviser and helper of its long list of Eastern missionaries, going and returning through the Golden Gate. The mission to the Chinese in California may properly be regarded as a branch of the Canton mission. The relations of the two are closer from identity of spoken language than what exists between Canton and Shanghai. Some of the brethren returning from Canton have found permanent or temporary employment on our coast, and in this change of location and climate, re-established health without intermitting missionary work. While admitting that the American soil has been less favorable than their own for evangelistic labor among the Chinese, yet the vine planted forty years ago has spread and taken root in the chief cities on the Pacific coast, and in some of the mining districts of Nevada and Idaho ; woman's sym- pathy has been enlisted in behalf of her own sex, has provided for the stranger a house of refuge, and rescued unwilling cap- MISSION TO THE CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA. 6 1 tives from brutal owners. On the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the mission, Dr, Loomis, in grateful remem- brance of God's mercies, writes : *' Some of the tokens that He has owned these labors, may be found in such consistent lives and triumphant deaths as that of Mung Man ; in the fact that amongst the members of our mission church and those who first heard the Gospel here, are such men as Tam Ching, an able assistant and eloquent preacher ; such colporteurs as Sit Moon, Shing Chak, Kum Lum in Idaho, Ah For in Nevada, and Chan Chi in Canton. With few interruptions, your mis- sionaries on this coast and at this port, have met the thousands of people which each year arrive just from the darkness of heathen homes. They have encountered also the returning tide, the thousands that revisit their native country, and as far as possible have endeavored to impart to them some knowledge of the true God and of the way of life through the merits of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ." Since these words of cheer were written, the mission has nearly doubled its years, and the writer has forever laid down his pen, but his work abides. The mission force was enlarged by men of like spirit who survive him. New fields have been opened and occupied, not only on the Pacific coast and in the mining regions beyond, but also in some of our central and eastern cities, and many of our American churches are caring for the Mongolian stranger at their door. The inflowing tide of the Chinese has been stayed as the re- sult of restrictive and oppressive laws, and hundreds are yearly leaving the country, but, says a late annual report, "no year has yet failed to bring forward marked instances in which the leaven of the Gospel has accomplished blessed results," and these results are seen not only in this country, but even " in the interior towns of the Canton Province are found traces of the good work done on our Pacific coast." January, 1892. IncideRls in tlie Siam oiid loos lyiisslons. The religion of Siam is Buddhism, and the government is an absolute despotism. Formerly every ofificial, from the prime minister through all the lower grades, approached his sovereign crouching on knees and elbows, so that the flesh of the latter became callous from their unnatural use. The chief end of a Buddhist life is to make and store away merit for an after ex- istence through its several transmigrations. The king accum- ulates it by daily gilding a temple or an idol, and the people add to their future store of good as well by nursing worthless quadrupeds and noxious reptiles as by observing the natural laws of morality. The first commandment of the Buddhist decalogue is, "from the meanest insect up to man thou shalt kill no animal whatever." The temples are the schools of the boys, where nine-tenths of them are taught to read by the priests, white more than nine-tenths of the girls remain wholly untaught. The books read are the history of the kingdom and of the neighboring provinces, much of it legendary. Other than this there is little but obscene plays and stories. There is nothing in native Siamese literature to inspire manliness of character or aspiration for a better life. The capital of the kingdom is Bangkok, a city of more than half a million souls, among whom is a large admixture of Chinese. The Presbyterian Board established a mission here in 1840, which was suspended at the end of three years by the failure of health and return to the United States of the first family sent out. The American Baptists and the American Board both occupied the field before this, their work being mainly among the Chinese. The lalter withdrew from it in 1848, transferring their property to the American Missionary Association, with which also their two missionaries on the ground — Dr. D. B. Bradley and Rev. J. Caswell — connected themselves. INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS. 63 In 1847 the Presbyterian Board re entered Siam, sending out Rev. Messrs. S. Mattoon and S. S. Bush and their wives, and S. R. House, M. D. Property was needed by them at once for their dwellings, but all negotiations for it were prevented by the government. Punishment even to death was threatened to any subject disposed to sell or rent. The embarrassment arising from this bitter enmity led the missionaries at length to an appeal to the Board for authority to remove to another field, or for such other advice as this trying situation might suggest. Letters of December, 1S50, from all the missionaries brought news of increasing hostility on the part of the king and his prime minister. Teachers and servants employed in the mission were threatened and obliged to flee or conceal themselves. The Board deliberated and prayed for light and divine guid- ance at three consecutive meetings, held March 10, 17 and 24, 1 85 1, and then referred the question back to the missionaries themselves, expressing consent to their removal, if it should appear to be expedient, to Penang, Sarawak or China. But prayer had been heard and answered, and Providence settled the question for them. Pending these deliberations, the king was in the throes of a disease which ended his cruel reign in April ; and when the advice of the Board reached the mission- aries, they were already in the full sunshine of royal favor. The new king was their friend, and thenceforth every facility was afforded for prosecuting their missionary work. Before this favorable change, Dr. House, by his medical skill, had shown the people what Christian civilization could accomplish for their relief. In June, 1849, the cholera burst like a whirlwind upon Bangkok, carrying off in a single month thirty thousand of its population. All the local doctors fled from their patients. As evil demons were supposed to have caused the pestilence, to ward them off a strand of cotton yarn blessed by the priests was tied around the wrist and neck, and a cordon of cotton cloth was looped from battlement to battle- ment around the walls of the royal palace, one mile in circum- ference. During this time and the Spring following, on a sec- 64 INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS. end visitation of the scourge, our medical missionary treated, with uniform success, hundreds and hundreds of cases. Of thirty boys in the school, some with urgent symptoms, not one died. In 185 1 the physician's skill was again engaged to arrest an- other scourge which visited the capital. The small-pox was carrying off its victims in great numbers, and, though vaccin- ation had been introduced at an earlier date, there was at this time no preventive matter in all the city. At this juncture, one of the ladies of the mission returned from a health visit to Singapore with her recently vaccinated child, from whose arm the preventive virus was obtained and transferred until its saving influence was widely experienced. Not long after the little child was taken from his mother's into his Saviour's arms, bequeathing a Christian infant's boon to a stricken heathen city. The new king who came to the throne in 1851 had learned the English language and cultivated a fondness for science, especially astronomy, for which he was largely indebted to Mr. Casswell, of the Missionary Association, on whose death the grateful monarch bestovved upon his widow a mamorial gift of fifteen hundred dollars. In the early part of this reign, treaties of commerce and amity were formed with the United States and some of the western nations, for the drafting of which, and for interpret- ing and advising in the iaterest of Siam and the other contract- ing powers, missionary aid was indispensable. In furthering these national interests, Mr. Mattoon, by the advice of his brethren and with the consent of the Board, for some years acted as United States consul. Thus immunity was secured to missionaries as American citizens from future annoyance, and the way was open for itinerating and distributing Christian literature and for settling in any part of the kingdom. The mission having now secured popular favor and treaty protection, schools being established, the word of God circu- lated and undergoing revised translations, there still remained the great want — converts to Christ. After twelve long and INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS, 65 anxious years of waiting, there came with the annual report of 1859, a note of cheer. One convert, Nai Chune, a Siamese in middle life, was baptized. Nine years later, in 1868, we find this native a sympathizing Christian helper in an emergency which is without a parallel in missionary experience. Dr. House was on a visit of urgency and affection to Chieng Mai, where two missionary families had recently settled, and where was no physician. After twenty-five days' tedious boat- ing, he mounted his elephant at Rahang. For twelve days he rode in the howdah through the forests and over the mountains, parched with the heat of the dry season, resting only at night and over the Sabbath, until within three days of his destina- tion. For a change and rest he was walking in front of the elephant, when the brute, with madness in his eye, attacked him with his trunk, throwing him against a tree, and tearing into his body with his tusk. Its sharp point penetrated his ab- domen, making a rent three inches wide and of unknown depth. His attendants soon unpacked his case of instruments, and with his own hands he replaced what was protruded, and stitched together the gaping wound. A litter was constructed from bamboos growing by the roadside, on which he was borne five hours through the sultry roads to the nearest village, where for fourteen days, under an open shed, in extreme weakness and much suffering, he awaited the result. The only Christian friend that could come to him from Chieng Mai was Nai Chune, who was temporarily there, and who came and ministered to him and proved a brother indeed. Fever supervened ; and after two weeks' detention, a litter and a boat conveyed him to his destination, where for a month longer he was confined to his room, receiving sympathy and kindness in a Christian home. Additions to this one nucleus of a native church were slow in forming. In 1861, Petchaburi was occupied by Messrs. Mc- Farland and McGilvary, and two years later a church was there organized and three baptisms reported. Some natives of Laos, a country bordering on the north of Siam and tributary to it, occupied villages in the neighborhood 66 INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS of Petchaburi, in whom the mission became interested. In 1863, Messrs. McGilvary and Wilson made a visit to their country and to its capital, Chieng Mai, which led them to oc- cupy this distant post in 1867. This was twenty years after the Siam mission was re-established. The mission at Chieng Mai was encouraging from the be- ginning. No missionary had preceded those who now entered the field, and Christianity was wholly unknown. The Laos people had no books in their spoken dialect, their only written language being Siamese. But the preaching of the Gospel was blessed in the early conversion of some who publicly professed Christ in baptism. Persecution and martyrdom quickly fol- lowed. The two earliest converts were cruelly massacred by their Buddhist king, and to the last witnessed a good confes- sion. Others were sought after for the same revengeful pur- pose, but escaped by flight and concealment. This was base treachery, for the Laos king, meeting these missionaries at Bangkok when on a visit there, had invited them to his coun- try, had welcomed them on arrival, and given them land for building and a permanent settlement. But when some of his people received the Gospel and Buddhism was renounced, his wrath knew no bounds, and even the mission families were ia peril. The missionaries, regarding their work as virtually sus- pended, sought relief from the government at Bangkok, The king of Siam, their friend and protector, had just died, and was succeeded by his son, a youth of sixteen years. The regent dispatched a government ofhcer, accompanied by two mission- aries anxious for the fate of their brethren, to Chieng Mai with a royal order to allow the missionaries settled there to remain undisturbed, or, if they wished to leave, to provide a safe conduct by the way. This order was not all that the mis- sionaries had hoped for, as it afforded no protection to native converts, and was so interpreted by the enemy, who continued to breathe out threats against such. The missionaries were not anxious for themselves, but for the ark of God which they had borne into this wilderness, and on which the shekinah rested, and for this they prayed. Their INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS. 67 deliverance came in a way not expected ; as was the case with the old king of Siani who obstructed a new missioa among his people, so it happened to the king of the Laos. A fatal dis- ease seized him, and at his death all hindrance to the propaga- tion of the Gospel was for the time removed. Some years later his successor began a similar course of persecution, when another appeal for redress was made to the Siamese govern- ment. Then the young king of Siam, whose authority was supreme in the Laos provinces, adopting the liberal policy inherited from his father, issued a proclamation of free tolera- tion in its fullest extent, even exempting native Christians from unnecessary Sabbath labor. This monarch has moreover publicly thanked missionaries "for the many benefits his coun- try has received from their labors in the past," and together with the queen and his prime minister has enconraged their educational and hospital work by the bestowment of liberal gifts in money ; and all this while Buddhism controls the re- ligion and morals of his court. Most truly "the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord." If we turn now from the historical record of God's provi- dence in the Siam and Laos missions to the statistics of His grace, we find abundant cause for thanksgiving. As we have seen, the first twelve years of missionary labor and sacrifice were rewarded with one convert. In 1867, at the end of twenty years, the roll of church members numbered 25. Ten years later, in 1877, it numbered 123. After another decade, in 1887, it reached 676, and four years later the aggregate was 1,411. Unfriendly criticism of foreign missions may see in these sta- tistics an answer to her charge that converts cannot overtake heathenism by reason of the greater increase of population. But the arithmetic of grace finds in this rapidly-growing per- centage of conversions in decades of years the triumph of Christianity at no far distant future, which is verified by the national history of Europe. But aside from the statistics of numbers, there is growth in other directions, for which there is no arithmetic or measuring rod. Who can measure the influence upon a heathen com- 68 INCIDENTS IN THE SIAM AND LAOS MISSIONS. muriity of a twenty years' settlement among them of such men as Drs. McGilvary and Wilson at Chieng Mai, or of fourteen hundred and more converts, many of them living witnesses for Christ to their benighted neighbors, or of the dissemination in their own language of the word of life ? This uplifting pro- cess is going on unobserved day by day, but at longer periods clearly marked, and from a missionary's standpoint it is the breaking of the morning. To the Presbyterian Church this double-leafed door in Siam and Laos, now officially thrown wide open, shows their peculiar claims for enlarged occupancy. " The withdrawal of all other boards from the Siamese portion of the field throws upon the Presbyterian Church a solemn re- sponsibility." May this review of the sacrifices and deliver- ances of the past emphasize this responsibility. IijGiileiils ill tlie Japoii ^imi On the ninth day of January, 18515; the Executive Committee of the Presbyterian Board of For/ign Missions, on motion of Dr. James W. Alexander, resolved to take measures to estab- lish a mission in Japan. At the same meeting a letter was read from Dr. Wells Williams to Talbot Olyphant, recommending such action ; also one from James D. Hepburn, M. D., offering himself and wife as missionaries for that field, who were then accepted and appointed. Dr. Hepburn's acquaintance with the Chinese language, acquired during six years missionary labor among that people, and which the state of his wife's health obliged him to leave, was one among his other qualifi- cations for this pioneer work. Dr. Hepburn arrived in Kanazawa in October, 1859, and rented, by permission of the authorities, a temple with the priest's house adjoining, which house he sub-let to Rev. C. Q. S. Brown, missionary of the Reformed Church, who arrived out about the same time. Turning the idols out of the temple he partitioned it off into convenient rooms, converting it into a comfortable residence, where he lived over two years, when for greater personal security he moved across the bay and bought land and built a house in Yokohama, the property of the Board. The treaty which Commodore Perry secured from the Jap- anese authorities provided simply for amity between their country and the United States, for the privilege of vessels in distress putting into the two ports of Samona and Hakodadi for repairs and supplies, also for consular residence in the former, and a limited trading under government supervision. Commodore Perry entered the Bay of Yeddo as the representa- tive of a Christian nation, and on a Sabbath morning, with an open Bible upon our national flag spread out upon his capstan, 70 INCIDENTS IN THE JAPAN MISSIONS. the officers and crew of his squadron united in singing the one hundredth Psalm, in which " all nations are exhorted to praise God." " This," says Dr. Oilman, Secretary of the American Bible Society, " was the beginning of influence brought to bear upon Japan that opened the way for Christian missions." Following this treaty was the one of 1858, secured by Town- send Harris, consul-general of the United States, after two years' quiet negotiation, the most important and difficult con- cession being the toleration of Christianity. The Jesuit missions of two hundred and thirty years before had been stamped out, as was supposed, by the massacre of tens of thousands of their devotees, the remembrance of which was perpetuated through subsequent generations by the yearly ceremony of trampling upon the cross. The Secretary of State, Mr. Marcy, had instructed the consul-general "to do his best by all judicious measures and kind influence to obtain full toleration of the Christian religion and protection of all mission- aries who should go there to propagate it." Mr. Harris was in full sympathy with these instructions, and succeeded in convincing the Japanese negotiators that the Jesuit system which interfered with State affairs as formerly practiced was not the Christianity he represented. Success having crowned his efforts, on the first Sabbath of August, 1858, he invited the naval officers and resi- dent foreigners to assemble for worship at the consular resi- dence, formerly an idol temple, which was the first Christian service publicly held oxv shore in Japan for more than two cen- turies. It was an appropriate expression of gratitude to God for further opening the way for Christian missions. A fitter man than Dr. Hepburn for the peculiar service required in this new field could not have been found. Conse- crated to the mission cause in early manhood, with six years' experience among Chinese, skillful and successful in profes- sional practice, with a quiet manner and unfaltering faith, and with a companion of like spirit, he entered upon this field as the sower of the first handful of Gospel seed, and remains there still to aid in gathering its wonderful harvest. Very little INCIDENTS IN THE JAPAN MISSIONS. 7 1 could be done for a time in the way of direct missionary work. A new language was to be learned, and suspicions and jeal- ousies overcome by deeds of kindness and service such as the good physician knows how to render. Months and years were required to win his way into public confidence. From the first a watch was set upon his every movement. Of his two men servants, one, the most useful, was known by him to be a gov- ernment spy, and everything done in his house was reported. But there was no effort at concealment, and this openness and frankness were his safeguard. On one occasion after his rented temple had been cleansed of its idols and rooms fitted for oc- cupancy, while unpacking and arranging his goods, he received a visit from the official, who made a demand for his Chinese books, which he refused to deliver up, and would have ap- pealed to the United States consul, but the demand was not pressed. While making their inspection, a picture of the cru- cifixion was found, which some friend in New York had sent Mrs. Hepburn. This discovery was thought at first a mishap, but instead of confiscating the contraband picture, to the sur- prise of its owners, the men were curious to know the signifi- cance of the two thieves, who they were, etc., which led to an explanation of the whole transaction why Jesus was crucified, what brought him into the world, and why Christians wor- shiped him. This was the first Christian sermon ever preached by an American missionary to a Japanese audience. It will be understood that the toleration of Christianity as secured by treaty for foreigners did not include permission to propagate it or exempt natives from the death penalty for pro- fessing it. Hence the search of Chinese books and the system of espionage were among the methods used in its restraint. " The opening of Japan," said one of our naval officers at the time, " is an opening where Gospel truth may enter wedge- like." And our missionary found a very narrow cleavage for his wedge, and great caution necessary in driving it. After two years, Dr. Hepburn, in full confidence of the future, ad- vised that a single man be sent out to join him, study the lan- guage and be prepared for aggressive work when the way 72 INCIDENTS IN THE JAPAN MISSIONS. should be more fully open. He continued to minister to the physical wants of all classes, opened a dispensary for the poor which official suspicion and interference led him after a time to close, made successful operations in surgery, and was con- sulted in difficult cases by native doctors from Yeddo. While thus engaged and co-operating with missionary brethren of other societies in the distribution of Chinese Christian books and tracts and making translations into the native language, he was also preparing his Japanese and English Dictionary, which was published in 1867. Discretion in present methods, noting encouraging providences and looking with the eye of faith into a hopeful future, eminently characterized this pioneer work. In May, 1863, after three and a half years thus spent, he gladly welcomed a fellow laborer from his own Board, Rev. David Thomson, who has remained such until now. The Gospel wedge continued to be driven cautiously, while outside changes were helping the missionary cause. In 1868 the government was revolutionized, and the Mikado, or spirit- ual ruler, who had been secluded from public responsibilities for centuries, resumed his ancient prerogatives, and with his advent came some relaxation of the exclusive policy of the Tycoon and his feudal associates and rivals. But as yet Christianity received no official favor, and in 1870 Dr. Hep- burn writes that "no direct preaching of the Gospel to Japan- ese assemblies has, as far as I know, been attempted by any missionary," The exclusion of Christianity was a fundamen- tal law of Japan, and the national hatred of it found expression even in private contracts. As an illustration of this, in the indenture of an apprentice, among other qualifications for faithful service, he is described "as having no connection with the sect of Jesus Christ, which is contrary to law." The two forces at work in the upheaval of society were the Gospel and the English language. The latter early received governmental favor, and with it came the civilizing agencies of the Anglo-Saxon race. Mr. Thomson for a time found full employment in teaching English in a government school at Yeddo. The ambition to learn it was stimulated by acquisi- INCIDENTS IN THE JAPAN MISSIONS. 73 tion, and no longer Chinese, but English, became the classic of the nation. The study of American institutions received favor from the higher classes and help from the government, and many of their brightest youth were sent for instruction to the United States, and entered our colleges and universities. Among these came two bearing a letter from Dr. Hepburn to the Presbyterian Mission House, who had expressed a prefer- ence for Princeton College. They brought funds to meet their expenses, were dressed in their native costume, and spoke but a few words of English. It seemed proper that I should accompany them to Princeton and see that responsibility was assumed by the authorities there for their care and education. President McCosh convened the faculty to meet us ; and upon my statement that these young men had heard in their own land of the fame of Princeton College, had expressed a prefer- ence for it above the institutions to which their comrades had gone, and desired to place themselves under its government and instruction, the president gave them a cordial and hearty wel- come, and expressed the wish of the faculty that others of like mind would join them. A committee was appointed to make suitable arrangements for their comfort and education ; and as an earnest of the care they would receive, he invited us to his house, and while at tea their baggage was brought in from the hotel, and for a time they were his guests. I left for my home that evening, full of gratitude to the generous hearted presi- dent, who had thus relieved me of a delicate and responsible charge. With the advent of Japanese youth into the United States there was a simultaneous inflow of missionaries into Japan. In 1873 the edict against Christianity was taken down, and in 1877 the first ordination to the gospel ministry took place. In x88o the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States received a delegate from the " Union Church of Christ in Japan," recognizing it as a corresponding foreign body ; and the same Assembly dissolved its own Presbytery of Japan, its constituent members being enrolled in that foreign body. The spirit of Japanese Christianity runs strongly in the 74 INCIDENTS IN THE JAPAN MISSIONS. direction of separation from the mother churches and for a united sisterhood, and the prophecy may yet be verified that even those mother churches that differ widely in polity and creed may yet find their offspring in Japan merged in the one National Union Church of Christ. June, 1889. lilGldents of Missions in Western Hiricii. The most conspicuous character in the opening history of American foreign missions, Samuel John Mills, lost his life while seeking the amelioration of the Negro race. He was buried at sea April 15, 1818, when on a home-bound voyage from an exploring expedition on the African coast with the view of there planting a colony of American freedmen. His biographer, Dr, Gardiner Spring, sings his requiem in strains of more than poetic melody. "Thus, in the thirty-fifth year of his age, did this beloved man close his life of distinguished useful- ness and leave Africa and the world to mourn. No monumental marble records his worth. No fragrant dews descend upon his tomb. His dust sleeps unseen amid the pearls and corals of the ocean, and long shall his name swell upon the breeze and be echoed from the wave." The Presbyterian Board has two missions on the west coast of Africa — the Liberia and the Gaboon and Corisco. The for- mer is ecclesiastically connected with the Synod of Pennsyl- vania as the West African Presbytery, and the latter with the Synod of New Jersey as the Corisco Presbytery. The West- ern Foreign Missionary Society in 1833 sent Rev. J. B. Pinney as the pioneer of the Liberia mission, which is within the na- tional boundaries of the Liberia republic, and embraces in its scope not only colonists and their descendants, but subject na- tive and neighboring tribes. The Gaboon and Corisco mis- sion is so called from the union of two distinct missions retain- ing their respective names. The Gaboon was transferred from the American Board in 1870, whose pioneer missionary, Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, first settled at Cape Palmos in 1834, and thence, with his associates, removed to the Gaboon river in 1842. The Corisco mission was planted in 1850 by mission- 76 INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. aries of the Presbyterian Board on Corisco Island, lying twenty miles from the mainland and in the neighborhood of the Ga- boon. This united mission has for its present and prospective field of operations the valley of the Congo, extending eastward from the Atlantic Ocean, with adjacent islands above and below the equator. The death rate of missionaries in Africa is greater than that of any field, and yet I do not know that this has deterred any candidates from entering it who, enjoying normal health, de- sired to go where their services at the time were most needed, nor am I aware that business agencies on the coast, employing together a much larger number of white men than the aggre- gate force of missionaries, are at a loss for applicants to fill all vacancies. Africa has drawn as largely upon the resources of worldly enterprise as any other country in the world, and it would be strange if a loving obedience to our Lord's last command should be held in check by an unfriendly climate in which such worldly enterprises thrive. It should be consid- ered, moreover, that missionary experience has led to sanitary precautions and remedies for the better security of human life, and also that malarial coast stations furnish no criterion of mortality in the table lands beyond, toward which all mission enterprise is pushing. The Liberia mission prior to 1850, when my connection with the Board began, had its full share of losses from death and the return home of its members with impaired health. Its pioneer. Dr. Pinney, had been constrained reluctantly to enter the service of the American Colonization Society, first as gov- ernor of the Liberia colony and subsequently and for many years as its popular general agent. In that year the mission consisted of four colored men, two of whom were ministers, and was reinforced with Rev. David A. Wilson and wife, who joined it specially to superintend the Alexander High School, then recently established. Mr. Wilson remained in the field seven years, the longest term of service there of any white mis- sionary of the Board, when he was compelled by failure of his wife's health to return permanently to the United States. Dur. INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. ^^ ing his last two years he had as an associate Rev. Edwin T. Williams, who also left two years later and settled as pastor in Florida, where he died in 1866. The fruits of Mr. Wilson's labors are thus summarized in the annual report of the Board of 1859 : "Important results have already begun to flow from this institution, the Alexander High School. Two of its earli- est pupils have now entered the ministry and promise to be useful men in this calling ; two are prosecuting the study of medicine in this country ; two others are actively engaged in teaching in Liberia, and several others are filling important offices in connection with the government." One of the stu- dents thus referred to was a commissioner to the General As- sembly of 1880, held at Madison, Wis., Rev. Edward W. Blyden, of West Africa Presbytery. In an address before the Assembly, he made grateful mention of his former teacher, David A. Wilson, who was sitting before him, and also of a fellow commissioner. Rev. J. P. Knox, of Long Island, under whose ministry he had professed Christ, and through whose instrumentality he was, in his young manhood, sent out as a Liberia colonist. Dr. Blyden succeeded Mr. Wilson by ap- pointment of the Board as principal of the Alexander High School until his acceptance of a professorship in the Liberia college. He has held distinguished offices under his govern- ment and has written much of Africa, one of his latest publi- cations being a discourse before the American Colonization Society at its annual meeting in Washington in 1890, when he presented the Liberia republic as an inviting field for the emi- gration of the American Negro race. In 1859 the Board sent to this mission three ordained grad- uates of the Ashman Institute, now Lincoln University. One died within six years and one a few months earlier, after his return to the United States, and the third in the field at the end of ten years. No other graduate from that institution was obtained until 1878, when Rev. Darius E. Donnel was sent out, and died six months after his arrival. Rev. Edward Boeklen, a German member of New York Presbytery, and the last white 78 INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. man sent to Liberia, died there after two years of service, in 1868. The present staff of laborers consists of five ordained min- isters and as many lay teachers, as large a number as has occupied the Liberia field in any previous year. The Annual Report of 1888 makes this pertinent inquiry : *' Why should not the Board return to its former usage of sending white missionaries to Liberia ? But little difference between white and colored laborers there as to health is shown by the statistics of over thirty years. The missionary field from the coast to the interior is now partly open. It is wait- ing for Gospel laborers." And it maybe added that it is more open now, by reason of national complications, than is the mission near the equator. The special need is the more ad- vanced education of young Liberians as an elevating power m the State, and as a means for disseminating the Gospel among the native tribes within and beyond the limits of the republic. After the lapse of thirty years, a successor of David A. Wil- son, in all respects his equal, is greatly needed. The oft-repeated bereavements on the Liberia coast led to the inquiry whether a more healthy location could not be found in a lower latitude. The comparative exemption from fever of missionaries of the American Board on the Gaboon river was a strong inducement to form a new mission near the equator ; and, after consultation with the brethren of that Board, Corisco Island was selected and occupied by Rev. James L. Mackey and Rev. George W. Simpson in 1850, who, with their wives, were sent out the preceding year. Be- fore entering this field, Mrs. Mackey died, though not from climatic causes; and a few months later — April, 185 1 — Mr. and Mrs. Simpson were lost in a typhoon at sea. The respon- sibility of founding a new mission and giving shape to its fu- ture history thus devolved upon the sole survivor, Mr. Mackey, who proved himself in all respects equal to the emergency. In his early consecration to this African work he met with strong opposition at home. Even his presbytery would not give it its sanction. He thus narrates his experience with that body : INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. 79 " One member asked me, * Have you determined to throw away your life? Go to Africa, and you will lay your bones on her sands with the multitudes who have gone before you, and who should be a warning to you.' Another said, ' Well, I admire your spirit, but I fancy you are throwing away your life,' And such was the almost unanimous expression of the members." Mr. Mackeymet with no opposition from the barbarous peo- ple on the island. On the contrary, they showed him no little kindness, and gave him land, and assisted in constructing his Evangasimba Mission House. Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, in his book on western Africa, illus- trates from his own experience the native respect shown white missionaries. "During my nineteen years' residence in that country," he says, "I have traveled many thousand miles among these people, among tribes who had never seen a white man, in times of peace and in times of war, at their homes and on the way to shed the blood of their fellow men, and yet I never thought it necessary to furnish myself with a single implement of defense or had just cause for using one. I have passed through the largest villages alone in the middle of the night with a feeling of as much security as I could possibly have felt in traveling the streets of any city of these United States. During the whole time of my residence in that country I scarcely remember to have heard a single syllable from the lips of one of these people which could in any sense be construed as an intentional insult to myself ; and yet they are heathen in the full sense of the word, and no missionary can live among them without finding ample cause of perplexity and annoy- ance." Forty years later Miss Isabella Nassau writes from her home on the Ogove river: "In lonely places, with only three or four trusted Christian natives, surrounded by crowds of wild people, neither by day nor by night have I feared, though doubtless there was at times reason for doing so. What kind womanli- ness some of these women have shown me ! What manly courtesy and hospitality some of these uncultivated sons of the wilderness ! No wonder that I feel at home in this low, dark, 8o INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. not overclean bamboo hut. But I love their souls. I long to see their conversion." Mr. Mackey's first business was to acquire the language of the people and reduce it to writing, and in a comparatively short time he produced the Benga grammer and primer. Into this language we have now over fifty-two hundred printed pages, including a large portion of the Scriptures. His knowledge of medicine and its practice gave him an influence which greatly weakened that of the native doctors, who in their fetich super- stitions sometimes resorted to human sacrifice. The remark- able fact is recorded that during his first eight years on the island he had treated over one hundred cases of sickness brought from trading vessels, some of malignant fever, and not one had died. From the beginning a boys' school was opened ; and when the mission was reinforced by a lady who in 1852 became his wife and by Rev. George McQueen, a girls' school was added. Soon a house of worship was built, and in 1856 a church organized, and two natives were received as members. At the same date twenty boys could read the New Testament in English, and some repeat the Shorter Catechism entire. Four years later, or ten years after founding the mission, fifty-seven adults had been baptized, of whom fifteen were females. While thus prosecuting his work, aided by brethren who from time to time had joined him, Mr. Mackey, in the Summer of 1858, was visited by officers of a Spanish war vessel bearing a proclamation from the governor of Fernando Po, that no other than the Roman Catholic religion should be publicly taught on the island. Instructions were asked from the Board, and the answer was returned that the missionaries remain at their post and prosecute their accustomed work, unless compelled to leave by violence. A memorial to the United States govern- ment was prepared and laid before the Secretary of State, Gen. Lewis Cass, by Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, Secretary of the Board. An investigation was at once made of this Spanish claim over Corisco, and was found to be without foundation, and in this view the Minister of Spain at Washington seems to have con- curred. The proclamation was virtually withdrawn or not INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. 8l heard of afterwards, and the newly-imported priest and nuns left the island. Some five years ago these Spanish claims were revived, chiefly, as is supposed, against the pretensions of France, and Romish priests are again on Corisco. The policy of these two governments touching the work of the Mission Board differs in this : that, whereas Spain prohib- its all Christian teaching of the natives except in connection with the rites of the papal Church, France allows Protestant teaching in the French language, but prohibits it in their own vernacular, American missions in Africa are thus hampered in those districts that fall within the jurisdiction of these two rival powers. Surely, the word of God now translated in Mponwe and Benga cannot long be thus bound. After sixteen years of conspicuous service in the field, mak- ing in the meantime three or four visits to the United States, Mr. Mackey finally returned home in 1866, though not without hope of again resuming his life work. We met as members of the Synod of New Jersey in October of that year, where the policy of sending white missionaries to Africa was discussed and which he strongly advocated. One member who seemed to compute the usefulness of human life by the number of its years, illustrated his argument for colored men as alone adapted to that country by the obviously broken health of his mission- ary opponent. Mr. Mackey's work was done, and though his heart was in Africa to the last, he was buried in his native soil the follov/ing Spring. Several consecrated men and women became in succession the associates of this pioneer missionary to Corisco. I have named George McQueen, who joined him in 1852 and died six years later, leaving his last message for his native boys : " I came from America to tell you of these things of God," and to the chief of the district saying : " Remember the words I have told you, '/ am going home.' " Following him, in 1853, was William Clemens, buried nine years later in the sea over which he was homeward bound to recruit impaired health. His com- panion on this voyage, Mr. DeHeer, says of him : " He exe- cuted his office in season and out of season, by night and 82 IN'CIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. by day, on the land and on the sea, the mountain top and the valley, the chapel as well as the poor African hut." Thomas T. Ogden, after scarcely three years of service, fell at his post May 12, 1861. His last words were : "Who will go — will you go — who will go to preach on the mainland ?" George PauU reached Corisco in May, 1864, and died the same month the next year ; of whom his home Presbytery says : "Having a spirit akin to that of a Brainard, an Eliot, a Schwartz — akin to the spirit of him who said, 'the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ' — a zeal for the salvation of Africa, which prematurely and almost literally consumed the vessel in which it burned." Solomon Reutlinger closed three years of active service in 1869, leaving a widow who then became the devoted companion in labor of Mr. and Mrs. DeHeer until their return to the United States, and is still the loving companion of the one who has so recently joined her in widowhood. To these might properly be added the names of other missionary ladies who counted not their lives dear unto them, and whose bodies sleep in the cem- etery at Evangasemba. It is not the purpose of this paper to refer, save in a general way, to the Gaboon and Corisco mission since the union of 1870, nor to the early history of that portion of it which was transferred from the American to the Presbyterian Board, which history suggests honored names in the Christian Church — J. Leighton Wilson, Albert Bushnell, William Walker and others. Before this union, Mr. DeHeer and Rev. R. Hamel Nassau, M. D., and his sister Isabella had entered the Corisco field — the first named recently taken to his reward and the remaining two still sowing and reaping. Mr, DeHeer's connection with the Board extended over a period of thirty-three years. Like some of his brethren before him, he remained too long in Africa to regain impaired health by a visit home. His station for some years was on the mainland at Benita as its centre, with eight out sta- tions along a line of fifty miles, having access to five different tribes, all of whom received with a welcome this messenger of Christ and his message. He left this attractive field in the midst of a rich harvesting, thirty-two adults being baptized at his fare- INCIDENTS OF MISSIONS IN WESTERN AFRICA. 83 well communion season. He died at Clifton Springs October 20, 1889, and the secretary, who wrote his brief memorial, truly and affectionately speaks of him " as one of the most successful missionaries of the Cross on the Dark Continent." Dr. Nassau entered this field in 1861, six years after Mr. De- Heer, and his sister in 1868. Their African home is on the Ogove river, some two hundred miles inland from the ocean, where they are prosecuting their blessed work, with the strange interference of the French authorities hovering over them and the black wing of cannibalism flapping near them. But it is through such personal sacrifices and by persistent occupancy, with a base of supplies and lines of communication open to the sea, that the Church may look for further advances in the near future into the interior regions of the Dark Continent. There dwell the myriads of Africa. There, amid the cruelties of fetichism and slavery, Satan holds undisputed sway. There bright triumphs of divine grace are to be won. 1890. Ipdenls in Iiidicii Missions iii Konsos mi flebroskd. Preparatory to Kansas and Nebraska being organized into territories by the Act of Congress of May, 1854, and the country within their bounds open to white settlement, treaties were made with several of the Indian tribes, pre-occupants of the soil, in which their possessory rights were ceded to the United States, save the several reservations to which they were to be removed and confined. These treaties stipulated for the payment of annuities according to population, a portion of which, with the consent of the Indians, was set apart for edu- cation and the purchase of the implements of civilized labor. The commissioner of Indian affairs submitted certain meas- ures which were approved by President Pierce, and which, if carried out, it was believed would give every child on the reser- vations an English education, and thus prepare the coming generation to stand on equal terms in every respect with their white neighbors. The most important of these measures was the establishment of manual labor boarding-schools, to be con- ducted by such missionary societies as were willing to enter into contracts with the government, at stipulated rates for each scholar, and which were to receive protection and encourage- ment from government agents. The essential element in this plan was the Christian character of these schools. The Secre- tary of the Interior, in his annual report of 1856, sets this forth in no equivocal terms. "Above all," he says, "should Christ- ian instruction be introduced and sedulously prosecuted by teachers devoted to the cause in the true spirit of their divine mission. Without this, all the subordinate means will be in vain, and the great duty which humanity imposes on us to rescue this unhappy race from entire degeneration and speedy extinction will be but a delusive dream of impracticable phil- anthropy. As a race, in mental and moral capacity, they are inferior to no other." INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 85 The Presbyterian Board had for some years been conducting missions among three of these tribes, viz., the lowas, Sacs and Omahas, and gladly entered into contracts with the government to carry out the avowed policy of both in respect to these, and including with them also the Ottoes and Kickapoos. By the terms of these contracts, three new buildings, each adapted for from seventy-five to one hundred children of both sexes, were to be erected by the Board on the reservations. The lowas and Sacs had already sufficient accommodation in the mission house built for them jointly ten years before. The Omahas also had their mission house at Bellevue ; but as their reservation was seventy-five miles further north, another was needed, being one of the three new buildings required. The erection of these manual labor boarding-schools, with the appliances and outfits, in an unsettled country, where labor was high and mechanical skill difficult to obtain, where lumber had to be drawn long distances by ox teams, and where doors and sashes and shingles and supplies generally had to be purchased in St. Louis, Cincinnati and New York, involved an amount of detail and anxiety by the executive officers and the missionaries on the ground superintending the work which cannot now be appreciated. The missionaries re- ferred to were the late Rev. S. M. Irvin, of the Iowa, and Rev. William Hamilton, of the Omaha mission. The heavy expense incurred was met in part by advances of the government from the Indian funds within the contracts, but mainly by the Board, though none of it from its ordinary receipts. By the provisions of the Omaha treat}--, a grant of four con- tiguous quarter sections of land, embracing the mission prem- ises at Bellevue, was made to the Board, with the consent of the Indians and as an expression of gratitude for past services rendered them. This land almost immediately acquired a speculative value, Bellevue being the first seat of the territorial government of Nebraska, and opposite whose bluffs it was sup- posed the Union Pacific Railroad would find its most eligible Missouri river crossing. Before reasonable expectations from such advantages died out and the city of Omaha rose into 86 INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. prominence and became a successful rival for the railroad bridge, the six hundred and forty acres were surveyed into city lots, put into the market, and a sufficient number sold to cover the expense of the new buildings and to stock them with clothing and provisions. Teachers also were engaged, whose salaries and traveling expenses were met not from the Indian annuities, but from funds furnished by the churches, as in the case of other missionaries. Thus the Board's equipment was complete for carrying out the beneficent plans of Commissioner Manypenny and Secre- tary McClelland of President Pierce's Cabinet. Missionary teachers were on the ground, with abundant supplies for the naked boys and girls in the wigwams, anxiously waiting for their coming into the school, and using what power they pos- sessed to induce them to come. But the children were kept at home, and no compulsory inducement by the government agent or the department at Washington was applied to over- come native indifference, or, rather, native prejudice, fostered by unprincipled white men. Another administration had succeeded the one that proposed and executed the contracts, and at the end of five years, in i860, notice was given the Board that these would not be re- newed, except in the case of the Omahas, and that, as re- quested by the Indians, their educational funds would be applied to day schools under government control. This changed policy of the government resulted in the Iowa and Sac building being converted for a time into an Indian orphan school for children of any of the tribes, and supported exclusively from funds of the Board, and in the abandonment of the Ottoe and Kickapoo buildings, which, being erected on the reservations, were lost to the Board, though not without long and fruitless efforts to secure its equities in them. During the existence of the contracts with the government, it was my duty and privilege to visit these Indian missions in company with the late Walter Lowrie, secretary of the Board. We were both members of the General Assembly which met in INDIAN MISSIONS IN KENSAS AND NEBRASKA. 87 New Orleans on the first Thursday in May, 1858. On the last day of the session, Monday, 17th, we left that city by steamer, and arrived in Cairo Saturday morning and in St. Louis by rail the same evening. On Monday we took the cars for Jefferson City, and that evening a boat for Donaphan, Kan. The next morning, while dressing, Mr. Lowrie discovered that his state- room had been entered and a valuable gold watch stolen which had served him faithfully during his senatorial and official career in Washington. The unloading war materials at Fort Leaven- worth for the army then on its march to subdue the Mormon rebellion detained us one day. We landed at Donaphan Sat- urday morning, and in the afternoon by private conveyance twenty miles further came to the Iowa and Sac mission. Here we found Rev. S. M. Irvin and wife in charge, as they had been since they began their work among these Indians in con- nection with Rev. William Hamilton and wife in 1837. There were but thirty-seven scholars of both sexes in attendance, though the building could accommodate from eighty to one hundred, and there were other children of these tribes of proper age sufficient to make up the larger number. Those in attendance were nearly all brought into the school before the existing contracts, and when as yet there were no public land sales to attract white settlers. Mr. Lowrie had visited the school two years before (in 1856), and his account of it then would describe it now — "Here one would see young men and young women rescued from the deep degradation of their tribes, civilized in the full sense of the word, numbers of them converted Christians, sitting down with their teachers at the table of the Lord. On week-days he would see them in their school or engaged in their work, cheerful and contented, just as he would see any industrious and well-regulated white family in any part of our wide and happy country." Of one of these school girls an interesting account was pub- lished three years later. Sophia Roubete, of the Sac tribe, was the eldest of three orphans, whom Mr. Irvin took, on the death of their mother, from a heathen lodge to the mission house, carrying the youngest in his arms. Sophia died at the age of 88 INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. eighteen, in the full assurance of that rest of which Baxter wrote, and with whose writings her mind was stored. It was a great disappointment to find that children were not now brought into the school ; but the parents were told that their annuities were all needed for corn and blankets and ponies, and that education could do them no good. Then, too, the whiskey trader was at hand, and the tribes were be- coming more demoralized than before the country v/as open to white settlements. It was bad enough in those earlier days, when, as a government interpreter told Mr. Hamilton, five hundred dollars' worth of whiskey could be bought on credit, and, after paying for it, the trader would clear one thousand dollars. Now combined with this destructive traffic the land speculator covets the reservations, would drive the occupants to the wild and hostile tribes further west, and ridicules any at- tempt to improve their condition or educate their children. We left our kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Irvin, both of whom have since gone to their reward, on the ist of June, and a half day's drive in their two-horse curtained wagon brought us to the Kickapoo reservation and mission house. The same adverse influences existed here as among the lowas and Sacs. There were teachers and provisions and clothing in abundant supply, but only twelve boys and no girls. We remained here three days, comforting as well as we could the superintendent and teachers, negotiating with an interpreter to aid in preaching services for the Indians and endeavoring to sound the policy of the government agent in respect to the school, a most difficult thing to do. An intelligent Pawnee youth, Henry Mancrovier, who had accompanied us from the Iowa Mission, then drove us seventy miles further to the Ottoe reservation. On the way we passed in the evening United States troops encamped on the prairies, the tents stretching in long and regular lines, their horses and oxen feeding in the distance. They are on the march to Salt Lake to subdue the rebellious Mormons. The Ottoe Mission was seventy-five miles west from the Mis- souri river, a few rods south of the fortieth parallel of latitude, INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 89 which divides the States of Kansas and Nebraska. It stood on a rich prairie, with running water near at hand, and with wood- land views in every direction. The mission house, a large three- story building of concrete, was a conspicuous object at the dis- tance of several miles. The Rev. H. W. Guthrie and wife were here as superintend- ents, and Miss Sarah Conover as teacher ; also Kirwan Murray and Rebecca, his wife, Isaac Coe and Margaret, a Pawnee, as assistants, all graduates of the Iowa school. We found en- gaged also a practical farmer, who had planted twenty-five acres in corn and potatoes. Thus provided with teachers and assistants and a commodious building, forty or fifty children could be accommodated, but not one was present. The Ottoe encampment was six miles from the mission, and the day after our arrival we made a visit to it, sending word in advance of our coming. We were accompanied by the superintendents and assistants, with our driver Henry to act as interpreter, and together with the assistants to be object lessons of what educa- tion can do for Indian youth. The Ottoe village or encampment lay along the edge of a grove, near a running stream — the Blue — with a broad, open prairie in front, on which a large number of ponies were feed- ing. We passed two or three burial places, and saw in one of the picket enclosures two mourning women by the remains of children who had died the day before. The dead are buried in a sitting posture, as these cone-like mounds of earth indi- cate. The tribe numbered 800, and there may have been 100 tents or lodges. Besides the ponies, there was a good supply of dogs, of which the Indians are very fond, treating them as they do their children, feeding them from the same dish. Our arrival awakened little interest in the camp ; a few came around us, but most of them took no notice of the strangers. Groups of men and boys were playing marbles, others were stretched full length on the grass ; some were grotesquely orna- mented. One young Indian was passing by on a pony, with his head shaved and his nude body painted throughout. Not 90 INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. a man or boy was at work. Their cornfield was a little dis- tance off, but it was tilled by the Government farmer, and for all other work, when not on their hunt, the women are hewers of wood and drawers of water and bearers of burdens. A number were shifting tents, and one woman was bent under a load of tent poles that would have borne down a strong labor- ing man, while another had upon her back all the utensils of her lodge and its canvas covering. One squaw standing near turned up to me her infant's face, as it lay in its blanket-bed on her shoulders, and said, with a pleasant smile, "pappoose." One cannot but admire these Indian children, with their bright, intelligent faces and athletic forms. I do not wonder that our missionary teachers among other tribes become so much at- tached to them. I looked into some of the tents ; nothing was to be seen but a little fire in the centre and a few cook- ing and eating utensils. Men, women and children, with yelp- ing dogs, were sitting or lying down on deer or buffalo skins. All wore blankets, save some of the younger children, who were naked. We were disappointed in finding most of the chiefs away on a friendly visit to the Pawnees and Kaws, and that no general council could be held. But one of them was at home, Big Soldier, who came up and saluted us. He was a fine speci- men of the red man, with an expression of intelligence and en- ergy. He held together with one hand his blanket thrown loosely over his shoulders, while in speaking he gesticulated with the other. Several times, when specially animated, his blanket fell partly aside and disclosed a manly form, entirely naked, save a bandage of dressed skin bound round his loins, with rings and beads pendant from three openings slit in his ears. Mr. Lowrie shook hands with the chief and introduced to him Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie and myself. He then, through Henry, as interpreter, addressed hira as follows: "I have come all the way from New York to see you and the other chiefs. I am sorry to find so many are absent, but I am glad to meet you and find you well. I wanted to see how the mission house was getting on which your grandfather, the President, has built for INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. 91 you. I am grieved to find that none of the children are in the school. It grieves me to see them here running about naked or in blankets when they might be dressed like Kirwan and Henry, who were sent to school, and, as you see, are just like white men. That mission house was built for you that your children might be taught to work, to speak English, to read and write. Your grandfather wants you to be equal to your white neigh- bors, to stand up by their side and not be imposed on. These bright children that I see about me may all become white men and women. These good friends [pointing to Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie] have come here from a great distance to do them good and to do you good. They will feed and clothe and teach your children. When sick, they will take care of them. If any of your people are sick, let them know it and they will come and give them medicine. I expect soon to visit your grandfather at Washington, and I will tell him that I have been here ; and what do you think he will say when he hears that none of these boys and girls are yet in the school ? I think he will say that you are doing very wrong, and that you must have no more annuities until your children are sent to school and kept there." Big Soldier replied that the chiefs would return in four or five days, and they would then talk over what had been said. He believed they would send the children to school. They had better be there than playing about here, doing nothing. Some of them had been sent and had run away, because they did not like to stay. He thought the chiefs would make them stay. He was glad they were to have medicine, for yesterday two of the children died. He then changed the subject ; said the Pawnees were coming to make war on them and take their horses. Mr. Lowrie told him that the Pawnees would not make war on them ; their father, the agent, would not permit it, and again referred to the duty of the chiefs and what would be expected of them in regard to their children. We then shook hands with Big Soldier and a number of others who were standing about. It was a sad sight, next to being in an insane retreat, to see 92 INDIAN MISSIONS IN KANSAS AND NEBRASKA. such childishness on the part of full-grown men and women. It was, moreover, unfortunate that the chiefs were not all present, that we might, by possibility, have exacted from them in solemn council the pledge that the children should at once enter the school. It is not probable, however, that any such pledge would have been made, or if made would have been kept. Neither the chiefs nor the government agent favored the school, and no inducement could draw the children into it. Later in the season these Indians returned from an unsuccess- ful hunt, became embroiled with a hostile tribe, lost some of their braves, and in the winter many died from actual want. The end of the Ottoe Mission was near. The remnant of the tribe leaving their Kansas reservation are to be found, I know not where. After remaining three days at the mission Henry drove^ us the seventy-five miles to the Missouri river, most of the way in a drenching rain, in which bridges were swept away and fording was dangerous. We arrived, however, safely at Nebraska City, and caught a passing up-river steamer for Bellevue, leaving Henry to cross into the State of Iowa with our conveyance, and so return to the Iowa and Sac Mission. At Bellevue we tarried ten days as the guests of Rev. William Hamilton, then acting pas- tor of the Presbyterian church, and also agent of the board in its property interests there. The swollen streams made a land journey to Blackbird Hills, the seat of the Omaha Mission, im- practicable, and after long waiting for a boat to take us up that contemplated visit was abandoned. Mr. Hamilton was re- quested to perform this service later, which he did, and subse- quently resumed mission work among the Omahas and con- tinued in it until his death, in September 1891. Mr. Lowrie and myself took a descending steamer for Jefferson City, where we spent a Sabbath, and thence, traveling six days, all the way by rail, but not in a Pullman, on June 28 safely reached our homes. The Wttldepioii Endownjeiit Fuiil The treasurer of the Foreign Mission Board has charged among his annual payments for several years past "interest of the Waldensian Endowment Fund, $1,326." This at the rate of six per cent, is the income from $22,100, held in trust by the Board, and invested for the use of the theological seminary at Florence, Italy. The General Assembly of 1853, held in Philadelphia, of which I was a member, received a distinguished guest and delegate, Rev. Jean P. Revel, from the ancient Vaudois church, which five years before emerged from its Alpine vales where it had been shut up for centuries, and was now planting itself in some of the prominent towns of the kingdom of Sardinia. Dr. Revel received marked attentions from the Assembly. Besides the usual time given for his reception and leave-taking, two evenings were devoted to popular addresses from distinguished members expressive of sympathy for him and his historic church. He came as the representative and moderator of a synod formed from a poor community of 23,000 souls, asking for aid in its aggressive missionary work. He spoke our language imperfectly but not unintelligibly, and in tones tender and magnetic. As described by another, " He was a man of rare good sense, indefatigable zeal, beautiful simplicity and piety, full of gentleness and all good fruits." His farewell address to the Assembly closed with these touching words : " I pray you remember me and my church. We meet soon in another place. Then I speak to you not in broken English but in language of immortals." Dr. B. M. Palmer, of Charleston Presbytery, brought in a paper responsive to this appeal, which was adopted by the As- sembly and is published in the appendix of its minutes. It 94 THE WALDENSIAN ENDOWMENT FUND. speaks of "this ancient and venerable church as standing on the same platform of doctrine and order with ourselves, being Calvinistic in the one and Presbyterian in the other." Of "its lineage in a direct historical line from that primitive church which for aught we know was founded by apostolic labors, that through the long night of a thousand years kept the beacon light of truth and godliness upon her Alpine watch-towers, and which during six centuries the grace and power of God have preserved like the burning bush amid the fires of persecution and now in the first lull of that storm which has so long beat- en upon her she comes forth from the cleft of the rock and girds herself anew to the propagation of Christianity." In many like stirring words this paper transmits an appeal to the churches for substantial aid, especially for the endowment of a theological seminary to train a native ministry adapted to the great work of Italian evangelization. It was understood that our church should raise $20,000 as a permanent investment to be held by the Board of Foreign Missions. Subscriptions were at once opened and pledges made, but the required amount was not completed until some ten years later. In the mean- while the Board from its general funds made good the interest of $20,000, carrying out the spirit of the action of the General Assembly, and both before and since the completion of the endowment has made annual appropriations for the missionary work of the Waldensian church. The same year (1853) that Dr. Revel was in Philadelphia, he also visited the Assembly that met at Buffalo, where the follow- ing resolution, introduced by Dr. Samuel H. Cox, was adopted : "The General Assembly having heard and considered the mission to this country of Rev. Jean P. Revel, the present moderator of the Waldensian Synod, express their confidence and cordial esteem toward him and his object, and recommend both to the favor of the churches as especially worthy." In accordance with this action contributions were made for the mission work of the synod and transmitted mainly through the American and Foreign Christian Union, of which Dr. Baird was secretary, who took a special interest in the Waldensian THE WALDENSIAN ENDOWMENT FUND. 95 cause, and generally accompanied Dr. Revel in his visits to the churches. In i860, when Sardinia extended her liberalizing rule over Tuscany and other Italian provinces, the theological seminary was removed from its seat in Piedmont to Florence. Here her students had the advantage of a training in a purer Italian than by living among those who spoke their provincial ver- nacular ; and it was also a central point for aggressive work. Here also Dr. Revel lived as one of its professors until his death, which occurred in June, 1871— the year after his second visit to the United States, where he received a like cordial re- ception as in 1853. Not long after the death of Dr. Revel, Mr. John Aikin, an elder of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, New York, visited Florence, and learning that an inadequate support had been left his widow, collected from a few friends $2,100, the interest of which was to be used to supplement her narrow income, and at her death the amount was to be added to the seminary fund. Mr. Aikin paid this money into the treasury of the Board. The interest was applied as intended until Madame Revel joined her husband " among the immortals," since which time the Waldensian Endowment fund, as already stated, has been $22,100. In 1873 the Waldensian Synod was represented in the Gen- eral Assembly at Baltimore by Rev. Matteo Prochet, now pas- tor of their church in the city of Rome and president of their national committee of evangelization. Mr. Prochet spoke not in broken English, as did his distinguished predecessor, but in eloquent Anglo-Saxon, and in his address repelled in earnest words the charge that his church was French and not Itahan. "Victor Emmanuel did not think so," said he, "when he sum- moned his subjects to fight for Italian liberty and unity." In 1884 Dr. Prochet received at the hands of his sovereign, King Umberto, the order of knighthood. In reference to this distinguished honor he writes to the Mission House, " I have been knighted by a descendant of those dukes of Savoy who 96 THE WALDENSIAN ENDOWMENT FUND. persecuted so fiercely the Waldenses of old, and in the city of Rome, where another Waldensian, Pastor Pascal, was burnt." Besides these two official heads of the Waldensian Synod, our churches and ecclesiastical bodies have received as dele- gates Rev. George Appia, who appeared before the General Assemblies of 1868; Rev. G. David Turino, who was with us in 1879 ^^ led him to accept this trying and responsible position to which he was now called. During his twenty years of service, Dr, Irving performed an amount of labor which only a strong physical constitution could have undergone, and which the volumes of ofificial correspondence on our shelves, the carefully prepared papers on mission subjects, the annual reports and the Foreign Missionary, of which, for most of the time, he was sole editor^ are the evidence. Dr. Irving's experience as a missionary, added to his thorough knowledge of the work of our own and kindred societies, and his wide acquaintance with the churches, gave to his judgment of all questions brought before the Board a commanding in- fluence. His official correspondence was characterized by clearness of conviction and expression, tempered with gentle sympathy. He loved the brethren and loved the cause in which they together labored, and would cheerfully have ex- changed places with any of them had Providence so ordered No one could work by the side of Dr. Irving without loving him. No one applied to him in times of trial and perplexity Il8 REV. DAVID IRVING, D. D, without finding a sympathetic brother and counsellor. We have secured a pleasing likeness of our deceased Secretary. But our friend and brother is not in the picture ; the genial face that smiled so kindly in his daily greetings, is wanting. We laid carefully his remains in Greenwood cemetery ; but Dr. Irving is not there. He has gone to be with his loving Lord and Saviour. His works do follow him. W. R. Rei). WilliDiii Hmiiiltoii. During the summer and early autumn of 1891 three mission- aries were removed by death whose united terms of service in the foreign field extended over a period of more than one hun- dred and fifty years. Rev. John Newton went to India in 1835 A^ and died on the 2d of July, Rev. A. W. ^re wio -to China in 1844 / . -^ , and died on the 26th of July, and Rev. William Hamilton to'^ the Iowa Indians in 1837 and died on the 17th of September. For the last two years, by reason of the transfer of the Indian missions, the last named was under the Home Board. On see- ing a notice that some of Mr. Hamilton's friends and neighbors had been celebrating his eighty-first birthday, I wrote him a few lines of congratulation on his lengthened and useful service in the field. On the loth of September he replied on eight pages of full-sized letter-paper, and one week thereafter he was suddenly called to his reward. Much of this letter is taken up with his personal affairs. Some of his bodily ailments and other trials are referred to ; also his family and work. Refer- ring to the late Walter Lowrie, he says " His love to me seemed to be that of a father to a son." Of his work he writes : "With you I can say my missionary life has been a happy one. I am strictly in a foreign field preaching to the people in their own language. Since my seventieth year I have been with- out an interpreter. I spend my Sabbaths in going from house to house among those who do not attend church, reading and singing and praying and talking to them. I see some of my acquaintances are ' honorably retired.' If I were offered a larger salary to give up my work and rest, I would not like to do it. In looking back through all my missionary life, I can say 'the Lord has dealt well with His servant according to His word.' " I20 REV. WILLIAM HAMILTON. On his birthday, August ist, he rode thirty miles and preached a funeral sermon at the house of a lady who had died and whom two days before her death he had baptized "in the full assurance that she was a true child of Christ." On return- ing home in the evening he found his house full of friends, both white and Indian, with a band of music at the door. " After the band had ceased their musical performances I thanked them for their kindness and told them all I could do was to sing for them, and sang a verse in German, one in Greek, one in Latin, one in Iowa and one in Omaha, to differ- ent tunes." Mr. Hamilton's second wife survives him, and their two daughters, who are receiving their education at Bellevue Col- lege, and one son, a minor. He leaves no property for their support save the house which he built for his home some years ago at Decatur, near the Omaha Reservation. The family have depended for their support on his salary of $8co. The Territory of Nebraska was organized at the mission house in Bellevue in 1854, where Mr. Hamilton resided as Su- perintendent of the Omaha Mission, having been transferred from the Iowa Station, and where he preached the funeral ser- mon over the remains of its first Governor. In 1858 the late Secretary Walter Lowrie and myself passed ten days in his home, where an acquaintance ripened into a friendship which led to a correspondence of thirty-three years' continuance. Mr. Hamilton was the son of a farmer in Western Pennsyl- vania, received his theological training in Allegheny Seminary, was ordained by the Presbytery of Northumberland in 1837 and immediately left for the Indian field. The young wife who accompanied him, died some thirty .years thereafter. She was a woman of rare excellence. Ijev. J Dines P. Wilson, D. D. By the enabling act of 1870 the Synod of New Jersey was constituted to meet on the 21st of June of that year in West- minster Church, Elizabeth, and to be opened with a sermon by Rev. James P. Wilson, D. D. The selection of Dr. Wilson as the moderator of the reorganized synod under the reunion within whose bounds he was pastor, shows the prominence he then held in the Presbyterian Church. The same year he was chosen a member of the Board of Foreign Missions, and con- tinued as such until his death, which occurred on the 22nd of May last, having been present at a meeting held early that month, which passed upon the annual report of the year just closed. At the last regular meeting of the Presbytery of Newark, pending some question involving the integrity of our Church standards, Dr. Wilson referred to his own ecclesiastical history, saying, that *' he was a Presbyterian through and through, as were also his ancestors of several generations." The history of the Presbyterian Church verifies that claim with the further fact that they were eminent ministers and leaders in it. His father, whose name he bore, was for twenty-two years pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, of whom Dr. Samuel Miller says: " In piety, in learning, in talents and in power as a preacher he had few equals." The same high authority, referring to his grandfather, Matthew Wilson, D. D., says. " He ever held a high place in public estimation. Ingen- ious, learned, pious, patriotic and benevolent in an eminent degree, all that knew him respected him, and he had no enemies but the enemies of truth and righteousness. In the Revolutionary contest his patriotic efforts were unremitted — he took the side of his country with great decision and zeal." 122 REV. JAMES P. WILSON, D. D. It cannot be said of the subject of this notice that he was inferior in any of the above characteristics to his distinguished ancestors. The normal laws of heredity find in him a conspic- uous example. His first public life was in the pastorate, then he became president of Delaware College, then professor in Union Theological Seminary, New York, from which he was called to Newark, N. J., and in October, 1853, became the first pastor of the South Park Presbyterian Church, then recently organized, and which enjoyed his administrations during the remainder of his life, extending to his eightieth year. No infirmity incident to his advanced age suggested to any of his parishioners that he was too old to remain their pastor or that a young minister would be their preference. The founders of the church had nearly all passed away, and his large congregation was composed mainly of his own spiritual children, all of whom loved and revered him. He had been with them, as is believed, at every communion season, and rarely omitted in all these years the monthly catechetical in- struction of the children. No wonder that his people, individ- ually and collectively, clung to him as the prophet Elisha clung to his great Master. Dr. Wilson's sermons were all that would be expected from one of his profound scholarship and deep convictions of the scriptural truthfulness of the Calvinistic system. He believed that the Westminster standards were none other than the Paul- ine teachings of the word of God, and his preaching, while characterized by a free and full salvation for all men was at times charged with solemn and affecting warnings of the wrath to come. He shunned not to declare all the counsel of God, The closing sentence of his last sermon to his people was, " I have now preached to you one thousand times, and what more can I say ? " and these words are remembered by them as bearing a peculiar significance. As a man, he was instinct with those social qualities which endeared him to a large circle beyond his own congregation, and a Catholic priest sent a message to the dying minister of Christ that his church was praying for him. REV, JAMES P. WILSON, D. D. 1 23 While faithful and untiring to the last in pulpit and parish duties, he was abreast of the foremost of his brethren in seek- ing the well-being of the community in which he lived and the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom at home and abroad. He honored his citizenship, and identified himself with the Law and Order League to promote the observance of the civil Sab- bath and public morals. He was zealous in the cause of de- nominational church extension within his own Presbyterial bounds. Besides being a director in the Union Seminary of New York, he was one of the founders of the German Theo- logical School of Newark, served on its most important com- mittees, and, on the death of Dr. Fewsmith, became president of its Board of Directors. He never sought exemption from any public or presbyterial duty on the ground of advanced age- He stood erect in the pulpit and on the street the month in which he died, and walked with as elastic a step, with no staff in his hand, as on the day of his first arrival in Newark. It was a green old age, and he left the world, as he had desired to do, still harnessed to his work, carrying forward the full load of duties and responsibilities. Several years ago the family secured an inexpensive plat of ground on the borders of Lake George, on which was erected a modest cottage for a vacation resort. It was on a return from a day's visit to this Summer home that Dr. Wilson re- ceived his first warning that the end was near, and six days thereafter, in great peace, took his last look in the faces of his wife and only child — a widowed daughter and her children. For the church, who have known no other pastor, our best wish is that his mantle may ere long be taken up by one who in the beginning of his pastorate will be able to work as un- tiringly and devotedly as did his venerable predecessor when that mantle dropped from him. For his bereaved family our prayer is that the tender sympathies now so overflowing from that large and loving circle only less bereaved than themselves may remain unabated to the end, and that the divine Comforter may be their unfailing support. The Board of Foreign Missions, at the instance of one of 124 REV. JAMES P. WILSON, D. D. whose secretaries these memorial lines are penned, has lost a member than whom no other took a deeper interest in its wel- fare. Though conspicuously in its deliberations the silent member, he was ever ready to serve on committees requiring thorough investigation and the wisest counsel. Though not one of that fold, yet as an occasional hearer the writer can re- call no more instructive and earnest appeals in the cause of foreign missions than he has heard from the pulpit of the South Park Presbyterian Church of Newark. Newark, N. J., June i, 1889. Jlppropriotioiis for tlie Coming Yeiir. In 1832 Charles Stoddard, of Boston, became a member of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions, and "from the time of his appointment," says his biographer, " he never failed to be present in his place at the Tuesday afternoon meetings of the Committee." This devotion to the interests of that Board continued through the remainder of his life, a period of about forty years. He died in 1872. In one of his letters to a brother, he writes: " The work we are engaged in is a work of faith, and eminently so. We spent two days this week in earnest, exhausting labor, looking over the estimates for all the missions, and making appropriations for 1870. These must be made in time to reach the missions all over the earth about the first of January each year. But when made, we have no money on hand. How can we know what the churches will give ? Whether they give or not, the missionaries must be fed and sustained. We trust in the Lord Jesus, whose servants we are. We think He has placed us where we are, and that He has guided the missionaries in their work. When we finished our appropriations and the amount was ascertained, with one accord we looked up to our Master and Lord, and committed the whole case to Him." Visiting the Mission House, 53 Fifth avenue, one day last week, I came unexpectedly upon a meeting of the Finance Committee of our Foreign Board, who were engaged in the same kind of work referred to in Mr. Stoddard's letter. Upon the table, around which these business men gathered, were many sheets of paper and estimates from missions all over the world, which were there undergoing review. The Committee were endeavoring to adjust and reduce these, so that their 126 APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE COMING YEAR. aggregate should not go beyond a reasonable estimate of the receipts of the coming year. That the appropriations asked for by the missionaries would have to be reduced, goes without saying, especially in view of a prospective debt carried to the new year. Our Presbyterian Church is not yet prepared to overtake the expanding work in her mission fields. There is no money in the treasury for the new account. What is there, and will be there on the 30th inst., from present outlook, will fall short of covering deficiences in the old. When the Boards therefore, ratifies and transmits to the missions the appropria- tions, they perform an act of faith. They cannot know what the churches will give, though they may reasonably look for an amount equal to the receipts of the preceding year, with a small percentage of advance. It would be an easy matter in adjusting appropriations, so as to equalize estimated receipts and expenditures, to cut off from the latter, all around, ten or twenty per cent. But some of the missions and some departments of work, can bear the knife with less injurious effects than others, and hence an intimate knowledge of the details of field work is essential to a wise dis- crimination. For this knowledge the Board, and especially the Finance Committee, must rely mainly upon the executive ofii- cers. After final results are reached, the Board may appropri- ately, as in the case of the Prudential Committee quoted above, "with one accord look up to our Master and Lord, and commit the whole case to Him.' There will be disappointment in some mission fields, and should the estimated receipts from the churches not be realized, there will be criticisms at home for involving the Board in debt ; but the case is now beyond human review. The great Head of the Church has it in His own hands. Newark, April 18, 1891. \ IjeniipceiiGe. HOW I CAME TO BE TREASURER. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (O. S.) of 1850 met in Cincinnati, and was opened with a sermon by Dr. Nicholas Murray, the retiring Moderator. Drs. Murray and S. Irenaeus Prime were my guests during the sessions of the Assembly. The latter at the time was one of the editors of T^e Presbyterian, his connection with the New York Observer being suspended for a few months. Dr. Murray came to the Assembly by way of St, Louis, where he had received a call to the pastorate of one of its churches, and which he declined in a letter written from Cincinnati. He had also been called to the recently organized Seventh Presbyterian Church of Cincin- nati, and had deferred his decision until after his visit. As a member and officer of that church, the duty had been assigned me of corresponding with him and using what arguments I could to secure his acceptance. To this end also I visited him at his home in Elizabeth. In all my mtercourse with him hope was uppermost that he would accede to our request and become the first pastor of our new and promising church. On his arrival in Cincinnati, and after a conference with our ses- sion and trustees, and preaching and administering the com- munion, this hope was strengthened ; and I know that Dr. Prime, who was his close friend, and with him for ten days under the same roof, then believed that our call would be accepted. Dr. Murray, however, labored under one embarrass- ment, which I suppose was the controlling factor in leading to his declination, which was received shortly after his return to his home in New Jersey. It was expected if he became pastor of the Seventh Presby- terian Church he would also become professor in the new the- ological seminary which Dr. N. L. Rice was endeavoring to 128 A REMINISCENCE. establish in Cincinnati, and for which he had received some pledges of support, especially the co-operation of Dr. James Hoge, of Columbus. To such enlargement of his sphere of usefulness Dr. Murray could make no objection. As he in- formed me, he had one thousand carefully prepared sermons, and the opportunity to train young men for the ministry would have been an inducement for his acceptance. But on the way from St. Louis to Cincinnati he stopped at Louisville, saw the brethren of that place and New Albany, and learned much of the controversy then pending between them and Dr. Rice in relation to the projected Cincinnati Seminary and the one then established at New Albany, which it was proposed to merge in the new enterprise. He greatly loved his Kentucky brethren, and fearing what their conflicts of opinion might lead to in his personal relations to them, at length prudently concluded not to identify himself with either party, and thus the Seventh Presbyterian Church, after long waiting and hoping, failed to secure their pastor-elect. In the summer of that year (1850), while on a visit to my parents in Newark, I called upon my friend Charles D. Drake, Esq., then Treasurer of our Foreign Board, at 23 Centre street. He informed me that he had resigned that office and was about to resume the practice of the law in St. Louis, and more- over stated, much to my surprise, that my name had been brought prominently before the Executive Committee of the Board as his successor. This was not only a surprise, but at first did not meet my own approval. Dr. Murray was the only member of the Board known to me at the time, and on calling on him at Elizabeth he informed me that he had attended the meeting of the committee where he nominated me, giving his reasons for so doing, and added, in pleasantry, "in retaliation for your attempt to draw me to Cincinnati." Within a day or two, on request of Secretary Walter Lowrie, I called at the Mission House, when he explained briefly the duties of the office to which he said I had been nominated, and expressed his own judgment that "next to that of preaching the gospel, the Treasurership of the For- A REMINISCENCE. I29 eign Board was the most responsible and important office in the gift of the church." Just before leaving for my home in Cincinnati there came another message from Mr. Lowrie, on answering which he handed me my commission as treasurer. Two or three weeks later I sent him a letter of acceptance, and removed East with my family, and on November i, 1850, entered upon what has since been my life work until June 11, 1888, when my resignation took effect, though my salary and services for the Board were continued until the following November. Doubtless, other friends interested themselves in securing my appointment, though without my knowledge at the time, among them my predecessor, Judge Charles D. Drake. Note. — The late Judge Drake had prior to 1850 been long an intimate personal and family friend, and at his death I was requested by the Board to draft a memorial for its records, which was accepted, adopted, and a copy transmitted to Mrs. Drake. It is as follows : The name of Charles D. Drake, whose death occurred April I, 1892, was for over thirty years prominent in the councils of the nation and in the assemblies of the elders, and for half that period as Chief Justice in one of our Federal courts. In all his civic, ecclesiastical and social relations his Christian character was conspicuous. For two years he was Treasurer of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, which office he resigned in October, 1850, to resume the profession of the law in the city of St. Louis, where also in 1852 he was or- dained a ruling elder in the Second Presbyterian Church. None of the present members of the Foreign Board were the cotemporaries of Mr. Drake when he had charge of its finances, but in this notice of his death they desire to repro- duce in their minutes the recorded testimony of the Fathers "of the fidelity with which he performed the duties of his office, and of their regrets at his withdrawal," and to add the expression of their tender sympathy for her who was his help- ful companion in those earlier years of service in the Mission House, and is now his bereaved widow. Resigndtion. Mission House, 23 Centre Street, ) New York, March 21, 1887. ) Rev. John D. Wells, D. D., President of the Board of Foreign Afissions : Dear Friend and Brother — The last day of October next is the beginning of the second semi-centennial of our Board, and should I continue until then it closes my thirty-seven years of service as its treasurer, and finds me on the western slope of that decade of human life when the pride of strength suc- cumbs to labor and sorrow. It must be the common judgment of all that a relation existing so long, and involving so many interests at home and abroad, should not be severed suddenly and unexpectedly, if by a timely provision it can be avoided. Were the duties of the treasuryship simply of a routine nature, then the experience and habits acquired in days of strength might serve profitably far into those of weakness; but the com- plications of the office keep pace with the advance of the work; and as the common law cannot be codified by reason of the growth of civilization, no more can these varied duties be held by specific and defined rules. Hence the necessity of a treas- urer possessing discriminating judgment combined with unim- paired mental and physical strength. Our secretaries may be multiplied to meet the increasing demands of the work or to accommodate the weakness of age, where long experience and mature judgment are of more value than physical endurance. But there can be only one treasurer — a single eye to watch and control the balance-wheel of this complicated machinery. For reasons thus indicated, and these alone — consulting only members of my own family — after much thought and anticipating RESIGNATION. I3I many sad afterthoughts for the step now taken, I ask the Board to designate the time within the remnant of my thirty-seven years of service, ending Nov. i, when I shall lay down this office and surrender the keys of the treasury to my successor. Should the Board, to prevent a vacancy, reappoint me after the rising of the General Assembly, such appointment will be understood as subject to the request made in this communication. Very respectfully, Wm. Rankin. After the ist of November following the date of the above letter, being the time designated in it for my retirement, as no successor had been selected, on request of the Board I con- tinued temporarily in office. At its meeting April 23, 1888, the following action was taken: Resolved, i. That Mr. Rankin's resignation be accepted, to take effect June nth, next. 2. That Mr. Rankin be invited to sit as an honorary member of the Board, with the privilege to participate in its discus- sions, and that he have the privilege of a desk in the building, to be used at his discretion. Hon. Hooper C. Van Vorst also introduced the following, which was unanimously adopted: Resolved, That in accepting the resignation of William Ran- kin as its treasurer, after a continued service in the office for upwards of thirty-seven years, this Board directs to be entered upon its minutes its unanimous expression of its appreciation of the able, faithful and conscientious manner in which he has, during all the years he has held the office, discharged its constantly increasing and varied duties, and which on account of his advanced age he now surrenders. Mr. Rankin has so wisely managed the office as to constitute himself and it effi- cient instruments in the prosecution of the work of Foreign Missions in which the church we represent is engaged. 132 RESIGNATION. ACTION OF THE PRESBYTERY OF NEWARK. High St. Church, April 6th, 1887. "Mr. Rankin, who has served the Board of Foreign Missions as its Treasurer for 37 years, having presented the members of Presbytery with a printed manual of Foreign Missions, and having also informed the Presbytery that he had submitted his resignation to the Board as its treasurer, the following resolu- tions were unanimously adopted: 1. Resolved, That the thanks of the Presbytery be presented to Elder William Rankin for his instructive and able report on Foreign Missions made to this body at this time, and 2. Resolved, also. That our thanks are due to the great Head of the Church for the able and faithful manner in which Mr. Rankin has been enabled to administer his great public trust as the Treasurer of our Board of Foreign Missions for the past thirty-seven years." A true copy from the minutes of the Presbytery of Newark. Attest: Julius H. Wolff, Stated Clerk. ACTION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1888. Reported by Dr. Herriek Johnson, Chairman of the Standing Committee. "Resolved, That we here make record of our heartfelt grati- tude to God for the long and faithful service of Mr. William Rankin, who for nearly thirty eight years has been the Board's capable and efficient Treasurer, and who bears with him in his voluntary retirement the affectionate and prayerful interest of the entire Church. That the resolution of the Assembly appreciative of the ser- vices of Mr. William Rankin be suitably engrossed, signed by the Moderator and Stated Clerk, appropriately framed and conveyed to Mr. Rankin by the Stated Clerk." Address Before llie Essex County, N. J., Bible Society, in 1885. We have met on this thirty-ninth anniversary of the Essex County Bible Society, which as I trace its history, is a continu- ation and enlargement of the Nfewark Bible Society, founded in the year 1814, and has now completed seventy years of con- tinuous life and growth. I remember being present at the ninth and tenth anniversar- ies of the earlier organization. Its tenth filled this then newly dedicated house of God, (Third Presbyterian), and was presided over by Joseph C. Hornblower, Esq., who later in life became chief justice of our commonwealih. Its ninth was held in the First Presbyterian Church, where the annual report was read by its secretary, a member of the Essex County bar (Archer Gifford, Esq.,) and the address was delivered by another member of the same profession (Wm, W. Miller, Esq.,) whose brilliant talents drew together a crowded assembly. The ad- dress was published, and passages from it were reproduced in my school exercises in declamation. I do not know that the practice is now commended in our public schools of advoca- ting the claims or free circulation of our old English Bible; in those early days it was often made a text book for our youth, and the easy lessons in John's Gospel became the first reader in the children's primary department. Thus the foundation of our morals and our laws was laid in the teaching of the word of God. The Newark Bible Society was organized as a purely benev- olent institution, and followed in the order of time the " Newark Female Charitable Society," which provided for the bodily as this for the spiritual destitutions among us. Nor were its operations limited to the town, but extended to destitutions in 134 ADDRESS BEFORE ESSEX CO. N. J., BIBLE SOCIETY, 1885. remote parts of the county. Thus it widened its scope and in time received its new and broader name. Then it early was made auxiliary to the American Bible Society, though its senior in years, and became one of the streams flowing into that capacious reservoir which aims to flood the world with the water of life. We need not stop to prove by any process of argument the obligations of the world to the Bible. It is light from heaven to illuminate darkness, and they who have the light are charged with the high trust of disseminating it. We accept as true the words of an eminent judge of our Federal District Court who presided over the Wycliffe semi-millennial celebra- tion at Trenton in 1880. Says Judge Nixon, "All our person- al hopes and the hopes of our children are involved in accept- ing the doctrines and living the precepts of God's Holy word, and all our hopes for the country are bound up in the adoption of its principles in the administration of public affairs." There is a beautiful blending of these two thoughts in the picture of an Essex County mother giving her son on setting out in life a copy of the Sacred Scriptures, and that son in after years hold- ing up that same mother's gift as an added sanction to the in- augural oath of office as President of the United States. We cannot ignore the facts of history or illustrations from strong contrasts and their causes in national developments. Just one hundred years before our Pilgrim Fathers brought the Bible in the Mayflower to this continent and founded our in- stitutions social and political upon it, Hernandez Cortez erected on its southeast coast a wooden crucifix and called the place La Ville de Vera Cruz — the town of the true cross. Thence he marched with sword and crucifix to the Aztec capital, where the latter was planted through the power of its companion, and where its influence under the teaching of its priesthood has ever since moulded the charact^ and shaped the destinies of the Mexican people. The cross has been held up, not as the symbol of Christ, but of the Mother of our Lord. Some thirty years after the conquest there appeared a le- gendary form of the Virgin Mary as "our Lady of Guadal- ADDRESS BEFORE ESSEX CO. N. J., BIBLE SOCIETY, 1 885. 1 35 oupe," who became thenceforth the patron goddess of Mexico. A magnificent temple or church, so called, was erected for her worship, perhaps the most costly on this continent. No open Bible was ever exposed to view within its walls. Not long since I had the opportunity to enter this shrine of "Our Lady" and witness its splendid service. Without attempting any de- scription of this I recite the testimony of an American minister plenipotentiary to the Mexican government: "On the anniver- sary of this miracle," says the Hon. Waddy Thompson, "I went to the church of Guadaloupe, where more than 50,000 peo- ple were assembled. Among them was President Bravo and all his cabinet, the archbishop, and, in short, every person of high state in Mexico. An oration was delivered by a dis- tinguished member of the Mexican Congress, who described the circumstances of the affair just as one of our Fourth of July orators would narrate the events of the E evolution. The President and others exchanged all the while smiles and glances of pride and exultation." Behold the contrast. Mexico and the United States ! These two sister republics stand face to face to-day, linked together by iron bands and exhibiting in their national characteristics the results of their respective religious faiths — the one the so- called Roman Catholic Apostolic exclusively, the other an open Bible and freedom to worship God. Until that moral power which was landed on this continent from the Mayflower shall permeate the institutions of our sister republic the contrast will continue, though the interchanges of commerce multiply. The operations of our county society during the past year are set forth in the secretary and treasurer's reports. The two great National Societies, the British and Foreign and the American Bible Societies, are multiplying translations of this blessed book into the languages of the nations, co-operating with all missionary agencies in giving the Gospel to the world. During the year the revised version of the Old Testament has been published, after the labor of fourteen years of emi- nent Biblical scholars. No other book from the press since the 736 ADDRESS BEFORE ESSEX CO. N. J., BIBLE SOCIETY, 1885. New Testament revision has created so great an interest or met SO large a demand. Our own Parent Society has been pushing its noble endeavor to canvass the whole country with a view to carry a Bible to every destitute family, and a million visitations are the reported results of the year. The British Society has in its own sphere made an advance in multiplying and distributing, and cheap- ening the cost of the Sacred Scriptures, unprecedented by anything done in the past — its distribution amounting to four million copies. But while these mighty and beneficent agen- cies have moved on with accelerating power, the year has been saddened by the removal of both their distinguished heads. Our own Frelinghuysen, with honors clustering upon him, was never more honored than in his election as President of the American Bible Society. Alas! that it was an election and acceptance only, for, before any official act by him, our city and State and nation joined in a requiem over their illustrious dead. Later in the year, since the Autumn leaves began to fall, the venerable and saintly Shaftesbury, whose presence in great feebleness at the last annual meeting of the British So- ciety — over which he had presided more than thirty consecu- tive years — was an inspiration, exchanged his earthly titles and estates for a heavenly inheritance. In looking over the published records of the Newark Bible Society of 1818, I find first on the roll of directors the name that I now bear; and I close with an expression of gratitude to my Maker that I am the son of one who prized above all other books the Book of God. 1 1012 01092 4860 l^^-. ^ m:. DATE DUE Q^' ^ "^ '9