V' t- 
 
 
 5 Farthest Front 
 
 '* T2mt# were giants in those dags —/' 
 
 HE world lias rwong back to elementary conditions. 
 
 Only stalwart men can survive in future conflicts 
 
 and only nations with a world outlook and programme 
 can stand the strain of coming storms. 
 
 The hope of Christianity is that out of the chaos that now 
 rules there shall emerge a world-brotherhood. 
 
 The men and the nations that will do most to bring this 
 about are those alongside of whom we may write the plus 
 sign—^the thing added—the thing that makes them different 
 —The Sign of the Cross I 
 
 These mil he the ** giants ” that shall swrvive in the 
 eomiaig world-conflict. 
 
 Isstied by the 
 
 METHODIST NATIONAL CAMPAIGN 
 
 
 Wc*Ic7 Balldlaist, Toronto 
 
 
(SUBSCRIPTION CARD) 
 
 METHODIST NATIONAL CAMPAIGN 
 
 (A) CURRENT CONNEXIONAL FUNDS, 1919-20 
 
 .Circuit February. ...1920 
 
 I hereby record my subscription to Current Funds of The Methodist Church 
 for the conference year ending April SO, 1920, as follows:-— 
 
 Amount Cash 
 
 Subscribed Herewith 
 
 Missions - - - - - $. . . .. $ 
 
 Educational Society - - - $. $ 
 
 Evangelism and Social Service 
 
 and Repatriation - - - $. $ 
 
 Total - - - $. $ 
 
 Name. 
 
 Address. 
 
 Subscriptions to Current Connexional Funds are payable through the local 
 church in cash or before the end of the conference year, April 30, 1920. 
 
 METHODIST NATIONAL CAMPAIGN 
 
 (B) SPECIAL OBJECTIVES—FEBRUARY 9-14, 1920 
 
 In addition to my subscription to Current Funds, I hereby subscribe to 
 The Methodist National Campaign Four Million Dollar Fund 
 
 the sum of ..Dollars 
 
 Canvasser 
 
 Signature 
 
 Subscriptions are payable 20% Cash 20% September 15th, 1920 
 
 20 % Juno 15th, 1920 20% December 15th, 1920 
 
 20% March 15th, 1921 
 
 (Make cheques payable to Tho Methodist National Campaign). 
 
 NAME AND ADDRESS OF SUBSCRIBER Amount Subscribed 
 
 M 
 
 $ 
 
 Address. 
 
 (Please write name and address clearly) 
 
 Cash herewith 
 
 $ . 
 
 Conference 
 
 District 
 
 Circuit 
 
The Farthest Front 
 
 K IPLING'S east is east and west is west —^irre¬ 
 movable, irrevocable, unchanging—no longer holds. 
 Asia has awakened. 
 
 China may still be stumbling—but the sleep of cen¬ 
 turies cannot be shaken off at once. 
 
 Just as every great movement must pass through its 
 period of hysteria, so every newly aroused nation must 
 be expected to blunder and often to stand baffled in its 
 march toward progress. 
 
 But rememhm^—CMna is atvaJcel 
 
 ND Japan I 
 With scarcely 
 any help outside her 
 own resources she 
 has steadily moved 
 in this generation 
 from the place of an 
 obscure nation to the 
 position of the most 
 powerful state in 
 Asia, and she has be¬ 
 come one of the lead¬ 
 ing nations of the 
 world. 
 
 Her story is a romance bordering on the miraculous. 
 Here is leadership which may dominate all of Asia. 
 But—Japan is not only not Christian, but in many 
 respects she is anti-Christian. 
 
 There was a time when, if the Church had been alert, 
 it might have wonderfully influenced Japan while this 
 great country was in the making. 
 
 3 
 
The result is that to day the life of Japan, political 
 and industrial, intellectual and moral, social and per¬ 
 sonal, is built upon a system which is far removed from 
 the ideals of Christianity. 
 
 If Japan were to succeed finally in the attempt to 
 build up a world power on her present moral and reli¬ 
 gious bases of conduct, it would seem a veritable triumph 
 for the non-Christian and anti-Christian conceptions of 
 life. 
 
 Let us at lemt give Christianity a fair chance in this 
 test! 
 
 W E must hold no illusions as to the character of the 
 people and the countries to which we would present 
 the claims of the gospel of Christ. 
 
 There are still poor and wretched and degraded and 
 ignorant among them—^but their leaders are men who . 
 stand in ^^the councils of the mighty,” although often they 
 ^^sit in the seats of the scornful.” 
 
 In a few years China and Japan will be challenging 
 the world of commerce and industry. 
 
 The uprising of the people in both countries must re- - 
 suit in social improvement. 
 
 Political agitation and social reform will undoubtedly 
 lift the people to higher levels, and we should rejoice in 
 their progress. 
 
 But no country can hold a happy and contented people 
 unless its Cod is the Lord. 
 
 4 
 
I 'N tlie ProYidence of God, the Metiiodist Church iu 
 Canada and Newfoundland has all of its foreign mis¬ 
 sion. work in Japan and China, the two great countries 
 in wMch so much will develop in the near future. 
 
 In Japan our own distinct responsibility is to bring 
 the gospel message to four million people—equal to half 
 the population in all Canada. 
 
 To cari-y out this commission—assigned to us by the 
 Conference of Federated Missions—we have a staff of 
 thirteen evangelistic workers, each worker having a 
 parish as populous as Toronto or Montreal, although cov¬ 
 ering an area scores of time^ as great. 
 
 In West China we are responsible for a strip of terri¬ 
 tory seven hundred miles in length, with varying widths, 
 but having ten million people—a population as great as 
 all Canada, plus eight times the population of Newfound¬ 
 land—^which must look to us exclusively for the Gospel. 
 
 In tMs territory we have twenty Canadian evangelis¬ 
 tic workers—one worker for every 500,000 persons! 
 
 What a responsibility! But ivliat an opportunity! 
 
 T he men who first went forth from Canada to preach 
 the gospel in Japan were fired with the evangelistic 
 spirit. They were genuine Christian pioneers, blazing 
 
 new trails into un¬ 
 reached parts of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 With every pass¬ 
 ing year it becomes 
 more clear that 
 these early mission¬ 
 aries builded well 
 —and the spirit 
 with which we be¬ 
 gan our work in 
 Japan still abides 
 in our mission. 
 
 Practically all 
 the effort of our 
 foreign mission¬ 
 aries is directed to- 
 
ward the uneyangelked sections of their respective com 
 munities. As soon as they have won a sufficiently large 
 body of converts in a given area and are able to organize 
 them into a church of reasonable strength, this church 
 is then absorbed into the Japan Methodist Church. 
 
 Then (mr missionaries direct their efforts once more 
 to the people who yet remain unreached. 
 
 T owns and cit¬ 
 ies in Japan 
 are growing in phe¬ 
 nomenal fashion— 
 faster, in many 
 cases, than many of 
 our Canadian 
 cities. 
 
 Tsuruga, a town 
 of 25,000, is the 
 port of Japan for 
 Russia. Soon it will 
 be erected into a city and it will become the most import 
 ta.nt port in the newly-developed trade between these 
 
 two countries. It is also the centre for a large country 
 population. This is an almost unparalleled opportunity 
 for our ChurcJi. to hold a great city for Christ. 
 
 Tokyo has doubled its population in the last twenty- 
 five years—it is now the fifth largest city in the world, 
 with all the problems of the modern city, only greatly 
 intensified. 
 
 During this period we have organized no new work in 
 the city. Twenty-five years ago we opened the Central 
 Tabernacle, which then contained the largest auditorium 
 in Tokyo. 
 
 To-day the Tabernacle is in the very centre of the edu¬ 
 cational district of the city. It is within a stone’s throw 
 of the Imperial University, and within ejisy reach of the 
 First High School, the Higher Normal School, the Foreign 
 Languages School, the Higher Commercial School, the 
 Higher Technical School, the Women’s Higher Normal 
 School, the Neno Conservatory of Music, the School of 
 Fine Arts, Waseda University, the Women’s University, 
 
 6 
 
and the Tokyo Christian College for Women. These 
 schools have an enrolment of not less than 20,000, and, 
 in addition, there is in this section of the city, a large 
 number of middle schools and Higher Girls^ Schools. 
 
 Our work at the Tabernacle should he greatly strength¬ 
 ened if we are to make the most of our chance. 
 
 T he educational work in Japan requires that really 
 high-grade schools and colleges shall be maintained. 
 Indeed, the Government has insisted upon educational 
 standards which will not permit us to do less than this. 
 
 In co-operation with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South, we are conducting at the Kwansei Gakuin at 
 Kobe, the largest educational institution of our Church 
 at home or abroad. Here we have 70 professors and 1,500 
 students—and we have by no means reached the limit of 
 development and usefulness. 
 
 Our very success has made more imperative the need 
 for larger development. We are using temporary sheds 
 for “ class rooms ” and no serious additions have been . 
 made to the equipment of the science and other depart¬ 
 ments during the past ten years. 
 
 We need more land, more buildings, more equipment, 
 
 more teachers. 
 
 7 
 
T he work in Japan has been encouraging and in¬ 
 spiring, as the following facts, briefly stated, will 
 testify: 
 
 1. Onr mission has contributed her full share in estab¬ 
 lishing a self-propagating, self-governing, and almost 
 self-supporting Japan Methodist Church, which extends 
 from one end of the empire to the other, including the 
 Liuchiu Islands and Korea. The two conferences of the 
 Japan Methodist Church have 235 native pastors and 
 evangelists, 23,000 members, 35 self-supporting churches, 
 162 Epworth Leagues, with a memberhsip of 4,200. 
 
 2, In Sunday-school work the Japan Methodist Church 
 is the leading Church in Japan, having 585 Sunday 
 schools with 38,000 scholars. 
 
 3. To the missionaries of our Church belongs the honor 
 of leading into the Kingdom many of the most prominent 
 Christian workers in Japan. 
 
 4. Reference has already been made to the highly 
 successful educational work being dona at the Kwansei 
 Gakuin. 
 
 5. Under our Mission Council, and in close co-operation 
 with the Japan Methodist Church, we are carrying out a 
 great evangelistic ministry among the unevangelized sec¬ 
 tions of Japan, through 11 foreign missionaries, 62 native 
 helpers, and 15 Bible women and kindergarten teachers. 
 These workers have 120 preaching places, two Young 
 Men^s Christian Clubs, a Bible store, two day nurseries, 
 eight dormitories, two orphanages and seven night-schools* 
 
 
I N West China onr work centres around the Church, 
 the School, the Hospital and the Press. 
 
 Twenty years ago the opposition to our missionaries 
 was so great that the announcement that the churches 
 were to be closed and the preachers were to go would 
 hare been hailed with joy. To-day, even those who do 
 not profess Christianity would count it a public calamity. 
 
 The main burden of initiating and carrying out a 
 really aggressive evangelistic programme continues to 
 rest very heavily upon the shoulders of a small body of 
 Canadian ministers, and a limited number of capable 
 Chinese ministers. To meet the evangelistic • situation 
 there is need on the one hand of a larger number of 
 Chinese preachers and more adequately trained ones, and 
 at the same time we . need a reasonable addition to our 
 staff of foreign evangelistic workers. 
 
 Ten new m.en are asked for within the next five years. 
 
 W E are utterly unable to render adequate medical 
 service wdth our present staiff—and the work is 
 increasing. 
 
 We should establish at once a medical college in con¬ 
 nection with the Union University at Cliengtu. 
 
 Even for the work within our own hospitals there is 
 great need for the assistance of well-trained Chinese doc¬ 
 tors, while for dealing with the great masses of their 
 
countrymen an army of qualified men is called for. Our 
 medical workers are insistent in maintaining, therefore, 
 the wisdom and necessity of making provision for the 
 training of Chinese students to become physicians. 
 
 Again, it is unreasonable to expect that one foreign 
 doctor shall bear the whole responsibility of a hospital 
 in our larger centres. In such cities as Chengtu, Tzeliut- 
 sing and Chungking, at least, each hospital should have 
 not less than two foreign doctors. 
 
 In many of our cities we have no hospitals~and there 
 is great need for dentists, both for the missionaries and 
 for the Chinese. 
 
 l^ine new doctors and sixteen new nurses are needed 
 immediately for our medical work. 
 
 O UR educational needs in West China are equally 
 imperative. China’s great scheme of educational re¬ 
 form remains largely on paper. 
 
 Our programme for West China involves: 
 
 1. The opening of elementary schools in all our sta¬ 
 tions and out-stations. 
 
 We now have ninety-seven. These schools are very 
 inexpensive to maintain and the chief problem presented 
 in connection with them is the securing of a sufficient 
 number of reasonably trained teachers. 
 
 2. The establishment of ten boarding schools for 
 higher primary scholars. 
 
 Among other advantages secured by these boarding 
 schools are: first, a far better opportunity to influence 
 for good the character of the boys than is possible in the 
 ordinary day school; and second, the possibility of getting 
 a far better type of young men for the various depart¬ 
 ments of work in our missions—young men who later will 
 become teachers, doctors, preachers, or other workers of 
 importance. Without question, these schools are the hope 
 of the future so far as our mission is concerned. Our 
 
missionaries are pointing out the dignity of manual 
 labor to tlie students; and are doing much to inspire in 
 
 the hearts of the 
 boys wholesome in¬ 
 dependence and an 
 honorable desire to 
 fit themselves for 
 lives of service to 
 their country and 
 people. 
 
 3. Co-operation in 
 two middle schools 
 and the probability 
 of opening one or 
 
 two more within our Mission. 
 
 4. Co-operation in the West China University. 
 
 There has been very gratifying progress made during 
 the past four years in the erection of new buildings by 
 our own mission, and also by other missions which are in 
 the union. Our own Hart College is now under roof, and 
 will, it is hoped, be ready for occupancy within a year. 
 An additional grant is also needed in order to complete 
 and equip Hart College. 
 
 For the next five years an average of about ten thou¬ 
 sand dollars a year is needed from each of the co-operat¬ 
 ing boards in order to complete the building projects of 
 the University. 
 
 Owr contribution will, it is hoped, be inainly used in 
 the erection and equipment of the Medical College, 
 
 11 
 
O URS is the only 
 Mission Press 
 of any Protestant 
 Church within a rad¬ 
 ius of more than a 
 thousand miles, and 
 it seizes the workers 
 of all the missions 
 laboring among a 
 population of over 
 one hundred million 
 —^which equals the 
 entire population of 
 the United States, 
 
 Last year no less than twenty-one million pages of 
 literature were printed in the Chinese, Thibetan, Miao 
 and English languages. It is impossible to value the 
 contribution which the Press has made to all the depart¬ 
 ments of Christian work in West China. 
 
 But to do our work more efficiently we need a new 
 cylinder press and a man to run it. 
 
 T he success of our work in West China cannot be 
 reduced to statistics, but the following facts will be 
 illuminating: 
 
 1. In the past 
 twenty-seven years 
 we have established 
 ten central stations 
 and opened eighty- 
 one outstations. 
 
 2. We have an 
 enrolled membership 
 of 2,089, 214 bap¬ 
 tized children, 1,584 
 catechumens, 3,890 
 enquirers, 2,534 
 others under Chris¬ 
 tian instruction. 
 
3. We have 101 Sunday schools, with 8,956 gcholans, 
 the largest number in any mission in West Ohina. Also 
 32 Guilds and Young People’s Societies, with a member¬ 
 ship of 2,157. 
 
 4, There are in our Mission two kindergartens and 
 109 Lower Primary Schools, with 4,156 pupils; 13 Higher 
 Primary Schools, with 470 pupils; we share in the work 
 of two Union Middle Schools; also in the West China 
 Union University, and in a Union Normal School for men. 
 
 6. We have opened 10 hospitals, containing in all 439 
 beds. In 1918 we had 3,771 in-patients, rei|uiring in the 
 aggregate 9,181 days of treatment. The total number of 
 new patients treated in our hospitals and dispensaries 
 last year was 36,441, and the total number of treatments 
 given 116,339. We have opened four Schools for Nurses. 
 We have one Dental Hospital and three dentists. 
 
 6, As indicating the widening influence of our Mis¬ 
 sion, and as typical of what is taking place at a number 
 of our stations, we may mention the erection at Chung¬ 
 king of what is known as the Guild Building, with funds 
 provided almost wholly by local Chinese subscriptions. 
 It serves as a meeting place for our missionaries and 
 hundreds of leading merchants, bankers, and gentry of 
 the city, as well as an educational and religious centre, 
 and it furnishes wholesome recreation for large numbers 
 of the young men of the city. 
 
 7. We have eight ordained Chinese ministers, and 105 
 unordained preachers, a large number of whom are pro¬ 
 bationers for the ministiy. 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY OF NEEDS. 
 
 Without going into details in this statement—which, 
 however, we shall be glad to furnish upon request—^the 
 summary of our needs for both Japan and China are as 
 follows: Evangelists, 26; Educationalists, 8; Special 
 Workers, 6; Doctors, 9; Nurses, 16; Houses, 35; Churches 
 and preaching places, 50; Institutions—such as hospitals, 
 schools, dormitories, kindergartens, etc., 35; sites for 
 buildings, 85; besides equipment for old and new 
 enterprises. 
 
A nd what will 
 be the cost? 
 
 Keep in mind two 
 important facta: 
 
 First, the tremen¬ 
 dously high cost of 
 exchange, which has 
 nearly doubled the 
 cost of maintenance. 
 
 Second, the 
 greatly increased 
 cost of living, which 
 has amounted to an¬ 
 other hundred per cent, within the past few years. 
 
 This condition must be honestly met—no method of 
 administration can seriously reduce these items. 
 
 For the year just closed we spent for maintenance: 
 
 In Japan . f98,581.52 
 
 In West China . 225,777.81 
 
 1324,359.33 
 
 At least twenty per cent, must be added to this 
 amount in order to keep the work in hand at its present 
 strength this year—and we dare not do less. 
 
 As to the cost of land and buildings the increase in 
 all probability will be thirty per cent, at the least. On 
 this new basis of cost, the following are the estimated 
 expenditures: 
 
 Japan. 
 
 For Maintenance (Annual) 
 
 Continuing at present strength.|119,473.00 
 
 With addition of new missionaries and 
 Japanese helpers, according to pro¬ 
 gramme, annual maintenance. 153,682.00 
 
 ' China. 
 
 For Maintenance (Annual) 
 
 Continuing at present strength.|270,000.00 
 
 With addition of new missionaries and 
 helpers according to programme, an¬ 
 nual maintenance. 388,965.00 
 
 14 
 
But to carry out the increased programme for equip¬ 
 ment which we have presented, there will be required 
 for new property and plants, covering the needs of the 
 next five years: 
 
 For Japan .. .. !. 1535,707.00 
 
 For West China .. 914,678.00 
 
 $1,450,47.5.00 
 
 THJ5 SUM Represents less tha«^ 
 
 FOUR DOLLARS PER MEMBER 
 
 PER YEAR 
 
 ILESS THAN — 
 
 THE PRICE OF A 
 DAILY NEWSPAPER, 
 
 EACH MORN»MG 
 
 
 OR ONE TEN CENT 
 GLASS OF SODA 
 PER WEEK 
 
 OR ONE TEN CENT 
 CIGAR PER WEEK 
 
 Trrr: 
 
 OR ONE TIP 
 (ten cents) per week 
 
 TO THE HAT BOY 
 
And this will pay for only the pressing needs. It 
 must he obvious tJmt this sum, large it may seem, can- 
 not possibly take care of our total responsibility. 
 
 For convenience, let ns take the variona items and 
 
 group them— for both Japcm and China. 
 
 For maintenance at present strength for 
 
 coming year.f409,473.00 
 
 With addition of new missionaries and 
 
 helpers. 542,647.00 
 
 For new property and plants, covering 
 
 needs of next five years. 1,450,475.00 
 
 For annual maintenance, including new 
 missionaries and h«dpers, and one-fifth 
 of cost of new property and plants... 832,742.00 
 
 For total of five years, including entire 
 
 programme . .. .4463,710.00 
 
 } T should be borne in mind that thc^ items are for 
 Japan and China alone. They do not permit us to look 
 beyond to fields in Africa and in India, which are call¬ 
 ing to ns. We have no foreign mission station anywhere 
 nndcr the British flag. We have left these great fields 
 to other countries. Shall we not soon take another for¬ 
 ward step by sharing in the great work which is facing 
 British Christianity throughout the Empire? 
 
 Dare we fall short when every other great Church is 
 pushing forward in the great task of conquering the whole 
 wide world for Christ? 
 
 U