PAM. 
 
 women 
 
 A HIST0 1>^V 
 
 VVoMflN'S Oroanized Missionary V\|oRK 
 
 PROMOTED BY AMERICAN M'OMEN. 
 
 Hy Kliss Kllcn O. Parsoriis, 
 
 Kditor of yVo/na/i'r: Work for Woman, York. 
 
 UI:.\l) A’r riiC CONGRUSS or /AISSIONS. CHICAGO. IS93. 
 
iCarly 
 
 .Societies. 
 
 tiislory ot Woman’s Oroanized Missionary Work, 
 
 AS PROMOTED BY AMERICAN WOMEN. 
 
 When Columbus came to the Spanish court with his reason- 
 able eloquence it fell on many indifferent or .suspicious ears, but 
 Isabella believed. "Amid the general incredulity." he says. •• the 
 .Vlmighty infused the Queen, my Lady, with a .spirit of intelligence 
 and energ>% and, while every one else e.xpatiated on the inconven- 
 ience and co.st, she gave all the support in her power." That 
 country which she cheered on an enthusiast to find, the women 
 whose birthright it is have determined shall be presen'ed. Isabella 
 l>lead with every fresh out-going commander across the Atlantic 
 that he would be pitiful to the poor slaves in the We.st Indies; in 
 our time we have seen cultivated women go down themselves 
 to the degraded black race, the abiised red race, the scorned yellow 
 race. The devout Queen of the fifteenth century yearned to send 
 the Holy Faith abroad and to save souls in India, China and 
 .lapan. Ye.s, lovely Isabella, you took the longest way round but 
 it was the shortest way home to the consummation of your wish, 
 .American women, rank upon rank, re.sj>ond to your longing. They 
 have torn off the XV century clasp from your Bible and .sent the 
 Word of God to have free course in the real China. India and 
 Japan. If, after four hundred years of Heavenly training, she has 
 developed anything in proportion to the goodness of her life on 
 earth, it would rejoice Isabella more, to-day. to know that, than 
 the flistinguished fact of a civilized world celebrating the Dis- 
 (wery with which her name is linked. 
 
 The history of organized missionai-j- work as promoted by 
 women in this country is the history of a di.sciplined army 
 developed in place of volunteer pickets. There was a short and 
 wavering picket line of women's .societies which api)eared in 
 advance of the main column at Boston in 1800. at New Haven in 
 18T2. New York City. 1814; Norwich, Connecticut. 1816; Tall- 
 madge. Ohio, 1816 ; Derry, Pennsylvania. tw(j years after ; Phila- 
 delphia. 182.S; Bedford. New York, 1831; Newark. New Jersey. 
 183.J; Washington. Pennsylvania, the same year; Allegheny. 
 Pennsylvania, 1838 ; Rockford, Illinois, the same year ; Sut- 
 ton. Vermont. 1847 ; Baltimore, Maryland. 1848. Some of 
 the.se pioneers never lowered their colors but lived to cel- 
 ebrate their jubilee, and when the modern movement began they 
 were the first to come forward with their old banners flying, to 
 
constitute the nuclei of the more comprehensive Woman’s Boards. 
 Early in the century. Cent Societies (sometimes pathetically named 
 "Female Cent Societies"), were general in Xew England and 
 sporadic in the Middle States : one in X"ew London. Penn.sylvania. 
 as late as 183:2 sent contributions to the Presljj-terian Board of 
 Foreign Missions. The Xew Hampshire Cent Institution, founded 
 in 1801. is with us still. After 86 years it had contributed .8120.(XX) to 
 Home Missions, besides accumulating a Fund of ST2.(.X)0. Xothing 
 but the grit of the granite hills could have kept alive a society so 
 loosely organized, hamng members in 10.) churches, only one 
 officer, and never holding a meeting for 76 years. After 1812. 
 "Ladies' Associations" multiplied, and. by 1839. 680 such were col- 
 lecting funds for the American Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 The history of this woman’s missionary movement is a history 
 of holy fellowship that was impossible to the ancient world. It 
 overlooks denominational boundaries : the active missionary 
 spirits in different branches of the Church are those who are 
 cdosest together in Clu-istiau .sympathy. Xo ocean can affect this 
 tie. A British sister has but to step into one of our Mission 
 Rooms and inquire for a leaflet, and we recognize at once the bond 
 of fellowship. What did the Aspasias. the Alcinoes or Penelopes 
 of old Greece, whose very goddesses lived in envy and jealousy of 
 one another, know of such comradery and enthusiasm between 
 women ? It could never have drawn the breath of life except in 
 the atmosphere of Christianity. 
 
 This history is a record of women called forth from con- 
 servatism in which they were intrenched. Our English and Scotch 
 sisters were twenty years in advance of us in organized missionary 
 work. There was a terrifying phrase abroad and every self- 
 respecting woman shuddered at the thought of "woman’s rights." 
 Then there was the conservatism of the Church, for the new 
 version of Psalm 68:11 was not yet revealed. The story is given as 
 authentic of a pastor in Michigan who insisted on being always 
 present in the women’s meetings: Xo one knew what they would 
 
 pray for. if left alone." "I cannot recommend." said the venerable 
 Dr. Anderson, of the American Board, to his associate. Rev. X. G. 
 Clark. "I cannot recommend bringing the women into this work. 
 l)ut you are a young man : go on and do it if you can." It is safe 
 to .say that, without encouragement from such Secretaries as Dr. 
 Clark and others of like spirit, the history which this occasion 
 calls for would have been far other and t)riefer than it is. 
 
 But did devout women of the Clmrch wait for the advantages 
 of general organization before attempting misssionary work ? By 
 
4 
 
 Karly 
 
 Sarrifices 
 
 for 
 
 Missions. 
 
 uo means. From the first they were offering personal service, gifts, 
 prayers. The first ship that carried American missionaries to the 
 heathen world bore away Harriet Newell and Ann Haseltine Jud- 
 son. In 1817 two unmarried ladies were teaching among North 
 American Indians, and by 1880, one hundred and four had been 
 sent to different tribes l)y a single Board. For forty years before 
 the modern movement, the silent partners in hardships of the 
 missionary cabin on the frontier were recognized, if unnamed, 
 hei’oines of the Church. This was the era of the universal sewing 
 society and the home missionary box. Before railroads, in the 
 days of canal boats, when postage was twenty-five cents and 
 purchasing by sample through the mail was yet uninvented ; in 
 those days when Daniel Webster was in the habit of referring to a 
 trip to Pittsburg. Pennsylvania, as “my visit to the West" oh, 
 then, great was the BOX ! Small need for the mothers in Israel to 
 spend their time in surmising what would be acceptable as they 
 gathered round to pack it, for. after perhaps a decade of years since 
 she went out from the East with her bridal trousseau, at a distance 
 of, it may be, .300 miles from the nearest trading po.st and the fron- 
 tier cabin filling with little heads all the while, what was there that 
 fingers could make, which the missionary mother did not need ? 
 No small contribution of sympathy, constancy and substantial aid 
 did a generation of women put into those boxes. Occasionally a 
 brother started for the frontier clad in a suit of homespun, 
 which their hands had made from the raw product of the fiax 
 field and sheep's back. Beyond computation were the pairs of 
 socks they knit and sent after the box«s. or, when little money was 
 in circulation, turned into cash in the East. The early pages of 
 Treasurers' books of every missionary society in this country 
 record our grandmothers' tithes of self-denial and plain toil. 
 
 On page 1.59 of the PaHoplist published in Boston in 1813. 
 appears the following letter, addressed to the Treasurer of the 
 American Board. 
 
 B.vth, N. H.. August 17, 1813. 
 
 De.\e Sir : 
 
 Mr. M will deliver .8177 into your hands. The items are as 
 
 follows ; 
 
 From an obscure female who kept the money for 
 many years, waiting for a proper opportunity 
 
 to bestow it upon a religious object SlOO.lXi 
 
 From an aged woman in Barnet. Vermont, being 
 
 the avails of a small dairy the past year .50.(K) 
 
 From the same, being the avails of two superfiuous 
 
 garments 
 
 From the Cent Society in this place, being half 
 
 1().(K) 
 
■) 
 
 their annual snb.seription 11.00 
 
 My own donation. l)eins the sum hitherto exi^euded 
 in ardent spirits in my family, but now totally 
 
 discontinued 5.00 
 
 Prom a woman in extreme indigence 1.00 
 
 Total 8177.00 
 
 The same Board in 1813 also, received its lir.st legacy. 8315.83. left 
 by Sally Thomas, a domestic, whose wages had never exceeded fifty 
 cents a week : and. two years after, the largest legacy received for 
 many years. 830.(X)0. from Mrs. Norris, of Salem. Massachussets. 
 By faith, ladies of Brookline. Massachussetts, made regular con- 
 tributions for the work of the gospel in Japan, while as yet that 
 country was sealed against foreigners. The 8600 which they 
 placed in the treasury had become, with its accruing interest. 
 84.104.23 by the time the American Board was ready to send its 
 first missionary to Japan, and was used for that purpose. 
 
 Glancing down the columns of The Missiouaru Reporter 
 ( Presbj’terian ). published in 1830. one discovers that pa.stors were 
 often made life members of the Board of Missions by ladies of 
 their congregations. Interspersed among gifts from the ■‘Female 
 Benevolent Society" (a very common designation), the “Female 
 Association." •‘Young Ladies." from “Miss B's scholars." “Two 
 little girls." “Widow Fulton." and. (rare) “Female Praying So- 
 ciety." one finds frequent gifts from individual women, whose 
 names are suppressed while that of the transmitting pastor is 
 given in full, as: ‘‘Donation from a Lady; ditto, from a poor 
 
 woman, by Rev.- ." There was another species of gift essen- 
 tially woman like, and characteristic of the past rather than the 
 present. It was the gem loosened from the finger, the heirloom, 
 the souvenii-. the memorial of a child, the token found in the 
 purse of a dead friend, the piece of family plate like a certain 
 memorable silvei' coffee-pot. the offering of a Connecticut parson- 
 age. The latter went to one missionary meeting and the mothers 
 dropped in their silver coins ; * after fifty years it went to another 
 meeting and the daughters put in their bank billst and now it has 
 come to the World’s Fair. The money value of such relics was 
 not commensurate with the devotion which they illustrated -per- 
 haps the treasurer regarded them askance but after all. these 
 trinkets shine down the years, like Isabella’s .jewels, with a glow of 
 womanly sincerity, the evidence of woman’s resourcefulness. 
 
 But all these gifts were transmitted uneconomically. Local 
 societies were inadequate. Prayer for missions more precious and 
 
 *AmouTiting to $300. 
 i Ainouniiny: to 
 
G 
 
 I iiitiation 
 of the 
 Modern 
 Movement. 
 
 availintr was never breathed, but it rose isolated. It lacked the 
 social element and needed quickening through knowledge. The 
 time came when a new order was demanded. The lamp of woman's 
 love would always have burned on within the Church. Always, 
 individual hearts would have been loyal to missions. Local 
 societies would have continued to spring up. and. like their 
 predecessors, few would have suiuived an ephemeral life. But 
 without a specific call and a new method, the mass of women in 
 the Church would never have been svifflciently informed upon 
 missions nor siifficiently in touch with them to make sacrifices for 
 fhem. What was it that .shook the Church, roused the women to 
 united, systematic, concentrated action : that moved on and on. a 
 compelling force, until we now have in this country a spectacle of 
 hundreds of thousands of women, representing every branch of the 
 Christian Church, banded together in chartered societies and 
 disbursing from one to one-and-a-half million of dollars every 
 year ? Only one other movement, that of the Temperance Lhiion. 
 compares with it in numbers and moral jjower. Whence came 
 that powerful voice which evoked so much energy and action ? It 
 was not patriotism warning of the menace in an incoming tide of 
 emigrants- that came later. It was not national remorse demand- 
 ing reparation for the exiled Indian. It was not even the last 
 command of Jesus. "Disciple all nation.s." like a clarion call to the 
 conscience. It was a Inniiaii cn/ appealing expressly to woman's 
 tenderness, and it pierced her heart. It sounded out from black 
 heathenism, ages old. lost. vast, awful the heartbreak of mother- 
 hood, the stifled cry of distorted childhood tluK was what happy 
 women heard in their hajjpy. protected homes. 
 
 ".\re there any female men among you to come and teach iis/" 
 asked a group of Chinese women, twenty-nine years ago. of the 
 -\merican missionary. " You must send us single women." wrote 
 the wife of a Baptist missionary in Burmah. and she painted the 
 picture of zenana life. David Abeel came home on purpose to 
 make English-speaking women under.stand in what bondage and 
 despair their oriental sisters were. Women, and only women, could 
 meet the need. Something less strenuous might have caught the 
 ear. but it recpiired a call ,]ust so terrible, importunate, so shut up 
 to woman, to fasten irresistibly upon her heart. 
 
 How societies have developed that sprang into being from this 
 motive and with the aim to answer this call, is matter of history, 
 to be foxind in printed Annual Reports (many of them thick 
 pamphlets I of thirty-three separate Boards or Societies, represeut- 
 iua- fwentv different branches of the Church, in our country. An 
 
I 
 
 extended account may also l>e found in the Encyclopedia of 
 Missions published in 1891. 
 
 Orfjauized missionary work as prompted by American women 
 practically began in 1861. with the Union Society in Xew York 
 City. It was founded by Mrs. Doremus. “ While others expati- 
 ated on the inconvenience and cost," if not the fanaticism of such 
 a project, she. like Isabella, believed in things not seen and acted 
 with “ intelligence and energj’ " inspired from above. 
 
 Just at this time the civil war broke out in the Republic, and 
 it seems hardly necessarj’ to remind oui-seiv^es how for the five 
 years that followed, the leisure of patriotic women was absorbed 
 in equipping regiments, in administering soldiers' hospitals, or in 
 Sanitarj' Commission service. It was a training-school, and the 
 end of the war found many women who had learned to co-operate 
 \vith others in work, to bear responsibility, to value method, and 
 whom the war had left with more power than ever to bless others, 
 while with fewer personal claims upon them. Much of this 
 training was providentially turned into the channel of missions. 
 
 The Union Society was independent of denomination and 
 composed of members from six branches of the Church. It stood 
 alone for seven years; then. Congregational Church women 
 organized Boards at Boston and Chicago, to work on Church lines 
 and in co-operation with the General Board already existing. 
 This thought communicated itself; the torch was quickly carried 
 from one chiuch altar to another. Now began the massing of 
 forces which should be as much more effective than the old order 
 as the onset of an army is superior to the desultory firing of a 
 picket guard. Distinguished authorities have e.xpressed their 
 estimate of the value of this movement. 
 
 At a meeting of the Woman's Society of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, held in Chicago in 1886. Bishop Doane spoke as 
 follows ; “ The two principles of this whole work are loving 
 organization and organized love. The two things need to be 
 together. Unloving organization is dead machinery, a steamless 
 engine, a water wheel in a dried up stream ; and unorganized love 
 is a spring freshet, a tidal wave. The one is dry and stiff and hard, 
 the other is gushing and sentimental and short-lived. B\it organ- 
 ized love and loving organization, which are the essential and 
 characteristic features of this auxiliary, have in them the power of 
 an endless life. When you add to this the value of associated and 
 directed work and remember how these women have touched every 
 *lass and condition of men ; and add to this the value of their 
 Quiet Days and Conferences, you can perhaps begin to estimate 
 the value of what has been done." Rev. P. F. Elliuwood, D. D., 
 
8 
 
 Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
 Church (North), is accustomed in his pui)lic addresses to directly 
 orsaiiization connect the beginnings and progress of the woman's societies with 
 the Student Volunteer Movement. He points out that twenty-five 
 years ago Christian women began to carry foreign missions into 
 the home^ that, unitedly in social meetings and alone in the 
 closet, they have all these years since been pouring out prayer for 
 this cause, and. now, here ai’e the living answers ; young men and 
 maidens in their teens and early twenties, offering themselves 
 for foreign service. ”If the women's societies had not done 
 another thing." says Dr. Ellinwood, “this is ten thousand times 
 worth all their efforts." And where such seers on the watch 
 towers have discerned general value, the women themselves have a 
 thousand times testified to personal blessings : to deliverance from 
 frivolous occupations , to eidargement in narrow circumstances, 
 joy in the use of talents shaken from the napkin. A Canadian 
 delegate to the London Conference in 1890 said: “ It is sometimes 
 claimed that we (women) are much disposed to talk and not always 
 to talk wisely. We have not always had vei-y great things to talk 
 about, but now we have something worthy of our time and 
 trouble." 
 
 The track of the societies is marked by intellectual and 
 spiritual growth of the members. There has been a steady evolu- 
 tion from the timid objection to read a letter in public or hold an 
 office, to the be.st utterances of gifted and devout women. There 
 has been a steady development in the com^eption of the scope of 
 missionary work. For e.xample : from ( 1 ) interest in “ one child " 
 whose photograph we must own and whose conversion must be 
 assured in advance ; (2) a •• scholarship (8) a "share in a school 
 (4) (coming, if not already attained) "share in educational work of 
 a mis.siou." 
 
 Tiic Every one will admit that the.se results at home, as well as all 
 
 .\(ivaiiiaK«s that has been accomplished upon the field, have been immeasur- 
 ably greater with the stimulus and momentum of concerted 
 orsaui/.ition than if every individual had acted alone. Take the matter 
 
 of contributions. Though there were always women givei’s to 
 missions, is it not true that, in a former generation, the majority of 
 wives .sat at the upper end of the pew and beheld their husband.s. 
 at the other end. dropping the family contribution into the 
 passing box, comfortably free, themselves, from either responsi- 
 bility, or motive for self-denial? Through jxaiicipatiiig in the 
 direction of missionary work, multitudes of women have acquired 
 the sense of responsibility and give their money with the feeling 
 of a share-holder. Without the society and the appointed solicitor 
 
9 
 
 much would be lost both to meetings and treasury. The iutere.sted 
 woman goes to the uninterested woman and brings her to the 
 au.xiliary. She comes and bears her part becamse she is invited. 
 Add to this that the society has. by precept and pledges, cultivated 
 systematic and Biblical giving, and we may reasonably claim that 
 the pronounced aim “ to secure funds which would not otherwise 
 be given." has been to a great e.xteut fulfilled. This is the opinion 
 held by Church Boards and by leading lousiness men connected 
 with them. Tins training of women to give and interesting them 
 in something worthy of their gifts came none too soon, for the last 
 quarter-century has seen an enormous advance in this country in 
 the amount of property that has come under the absolute control 
 of Christian women. 
 
 The organization of these societies occurred, in the order of 
 time, as follows ; 
 
 1861. Woman's Union Missioiiai-j* Society. Xew York. 
 
 18G8. Woman's Board of Missions. (Bo.stoii) Congregational Church. 
 
 1868. Woman's Board of the Interior. (Chicago) Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 1869. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. (Boston) Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. North. 
 
 1870. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. (Philadelphia) Presby- 
 terian Church, North. 
 
 1870. Woihan's Board of Missions of the Northwe.st. (Chicago 
 Presbyterian Church. North. 
 
 1870. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions. (New York) Presbyterian 
 Church. North. 
 
 1871. Woman's Au.xiliary to the Board of Mission.s. (New York) 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 1871. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. ( Boston ) Baptist Chirrch. 
 Northern Convention. 
 
 1871. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the We.st. (Chicago). 
 
 Baptist Church. Northern Convention. 
 
 1871. Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of Northern New York. 
 
 (Albany) Presbyterian Church. North. 
 
 1871. Woman's Board of Missions of the Pacific Islands. (Honolulu) 
 Cf)Ugregational Church. 
 
 1873. Woman's Mis.siouary Society. Free Baptist Church. 
 
 187.3. Woman’s Occidental Board of Foreign Missions. (San Fran- 
 cisco) Presbyterian Church. North. 
 
 1873. Woman's Board of the Pacific. (San Francisco) Congi-egational 
 Church. 
 
 1874. Woman's Mite Missionary Society. African Methodi.st Episco- 
 pal Chiu-ch. 
 
 Date of 
 the 
 
 Soeieties. 
 
10 
 
 Variety 
 
 in 
 
 Metliod, 
 Vuity 
 of Aim- 
 
 1875. Woman's Board of Foreign AGssious. (Xew York) Reformed 
 (Dutch) Church in America. 
 
 187.5. Woman's Board of Mission.s. Christian ( Disciple i CTaurch. 
 
 1875. Woman's Missionary Association, United Brethren in Christ. 
 1875. Woman's Foreign Missionarj- Society of California, Baptist 
 CTiurch, Northern Convention. 
 
 1877. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions of the Southwest. (St. 
 Louis) Presbyterian Church. North. 
 
 1878. Woman's Missionarj* Societj*. (Nashville i Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. South. 
 
 1879. Woman's Home and Foreign Missionarj* Societj* of General 
 Synod. Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
 
 1879. Woman's Foreign Missionary Societj*. Methodist Protestant 
 Church. 
 
 1880. Woman's Board of Foreign Missions. Chunberland Presbjder- 
 ian Chm-ch. 
 
 1881. Woman's Foreign Missionarj* Union, Friends. 
 
 188.3. Woman's General Missionarj* Societj*. (Xenia, Ohio.) United 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 1883. Woman's Missionarj* Societj* Evangelical .\ssociation. (Ger- 
 man Churches) North America. 
 
 1884. Woman's Missionarj* Union. Southern Baptist Convention. 
 1884. Woman's Board of General Conference. Seventh-daj* Baptists. 
 1888. Woman's Board of the North Pacific, (Oregon) Presbyterian 
 
 Church. North. 
 
 1888. Woman's Foreign Missionarj* Societj* of Oregon. Baptist 
 Church. Northern Convention. 
 
 1889. Woman's Foreign Missionarj* Society. ( Boston i Reformed 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 general Woman's Board is now found in nearly everj* 
 leading denomination of Christians, the chief exception being that 
 of the Presbyterian Church in the South. This has. however, the 
 potentialitj* of a strong organization in 7*29 societies existing in as 
 manj* congregations. They are directly auxiliary to the Board of 
 tlie Church and have been forming since 1874. 
 
 .\11 these different organizations work with varj*ing methods, 
 each according to the genius of the Church it represents. While the 
 majoritj* of them .su.stain missionaries appointed by the Church 
 Board, or at most onlj* •“ recommended " from themselves. Metho- 
 dist women, the Friends, and the Union Societj* are accoimtable to 
 no Board above them. While the Methodist Societj* (in the North) 
 sends out oulj* unmarried women, most societies adopt wives as 
 well, and the Christian Woman's Board enrolls more men than 
 women missionaries. In auxiliaries of the Methodist Protestant 
 
11 
 
 Church iu West Virginia, meu were appointed officers because 
 women could not be induced to serve. But. with divergence in 
 method, all the societies have the same aim ; looking abroad, to 
 carry the gospel where, without women, it cannot be efficiently 
 carried : looking homeward, to give every woman in every parish a 
 chance to share in the evangelization of the world. In nearly 
 every society a membership fee is required and. in all. labor and 
 responsibility are diffused down, from officers of the Board 
 through smaller organizations called " Branche.s," “ Presbyterial 
 Societies" etc., to the local "parish " or "auxiliary" society. All 
 hold meetings to transact business, for their own spiritual good, 
 to pray for missions and to spread information on the subject. 
 
 All avail themselves of the printing press and annually scatter 
 broadcast 
 
 " Like leaves of the forest when summer is green. " 
 millions of pages in reports, mission lessons, calendars of prayer, 
 leaflets, newspaper columns and magazines for young and old. Of 
 the latter the three largest. iro//io//'.s Work for Woman, The Heathen. 
 
 Woman's Friend and The Helping Hand have respectively 18.000. 
 
 ‘dl.lXK) and 2.3.0(K) subscribers. All these societies undertake to 
 train the children to missionary service, and the talent and 
 ingenuity expended in jDroviding in-ograms for their meetings, 
 opening channels for their self-denial and encouraging their zeal, 
 and the solid results of this outlay, constitute an important 
 chapter in the histoiy of missioiiaiy effort. Through one child- 
 ren's paper. 88.000 were raised in 1892 for a building in California. 
 
 In 1892 these thirty-three societies combined were represented SummarieR, 
 l)y l.O.jl missionaries. The greater number of them were teachers 
 of schools, many engaged in evangelistic work and 65 were 
 physicians (this year the number is increased to 71) graduated 
 with full diploma. Almost eveiy society sends out at least one 
 woman physician to the field. The Seventh-day Baptists have 
 one ; the United Presbyterians have two ; the United Brethren in 
 Christ, with an auxiliary membership of only T.tKK). have three 
 physicians ; the Congregational Church has seven ; the Baptist 
 Church (Xort hern Convention) has 12 ; the Methodist Episcopal 
 Society (North), the noble pioneer in this direction, has 11. and 
 the Presbjderian Church (North) with her 22 skilled women, 
 every one at her post, has at present outrun any other single 
 society in the world. In not less than 70 hospitals and dis- 
 pensaries. nursing, medicine and surgery are administered l)y 
 these American women, with a yearly result of from 5.(XX) to 25.(HK) 
 patients iu each, and incalculable relief of suffering. 
 
 total of more than 2.000 schools of which about 175 are 
 
12 
 
 Modern 
 
 Movement 
 
 in 
 
 Home 
 
 hoarding or high go-ade schools for girls ; a total, as far as reported, 
 of 76.(XK) pupils; of 1..500 native assistants employed; represent 
 some Christian agencies sustained by the women's societies. 
 In addition to these larger items, they have aided in building and 
 furnishing homes for missionary children, missionarj- residences 
 and sanitariums, orphanages, training-schools for nurses, leper 
 and other asylums ; they have established scholarships, medical 
 classes and industrial plants in connection with schools; have 
 translated the Bible, school-books, tracts and hymns into foreign 
 languages and printed them ; have built boats for African and 
 Siamese Rivers and South Pacific Seas ; have published Marathi. 
 Hindustani. Tamil. Japanese. Romanized Chinese, and Mexican 
 newspapers ; have met all expenses at home. and. in many cases, 
 paid a given per cent of their receipts into the Treasury of the 
 Chiu’ch Board for contingent expenses cunnected with their o\vn 
 work. The whole amount contributed for these purposes for 
 1892-93. was .?1.4T.5.933. 
 
 Take a single illustration of how these contributions have 
 l)een increasing. In 1870. as the Treasurer of a gieat Board said, 
 "there rolled into the Treasm-y a little cake of barley bread 
 labelled • Woman's work for woman. 87.000.' " The speaker referred 
 to the first contribution under the new movement from Presby- 
 terian women of the North. This year, that barley cake has 
 become a wheaten loaf of more that 8.3(Ki.000. 
 
 The genesis of this woman's missionarj* movement was foreign 
 missions, but everything that has been .said relating to expansion 
 in that direction, the manner of growth, the conduct of societies, 
 the .sijirit called forth, applies eqiially to home mis-sions endeavor. 
 For. when Christian women began to save their heathen sisters, 
 was there a general stampede from the churches to Asia and 
 Africa ? Not at all. 
 
 "The lights that shine farthe.st 
 Shine brightest near home." 
 
 Just as might have been expected, when that effectual crj* from 
 out the darkness probed woman's selfishness and broke up the 
 fountains of her heart, she was readj*. as never before, to ac- 
 knowledge everj* claim. Now began more intelligent and aggressive 
 effort in Home Missions. The old-fashioned sewing society could 
 not answer the requirements of the nineteenth century. Now. 
 school-houses must be built and parsonages and chapels. 
 Methodist women hold proper! j* in .sc-hools and Indus- 
 trial Homes in this countrj* to the value of 822.5.(KHi. 
 The Presbj-teriau Church i North i holds propertj* in build- 
 
inss and real estate from North Carolina to Alaska, 
 amounting to a half million dollars, all of which has been acquired 
 through the Women’s Home Missions Committee, since 1S7S. 
 
 Now. scholarshijis must be established and teachers sent forth 
 and maintained, in flocks, to the colored people of the South, on 
 an enlaig:ed scale to the Indian, to the congested centers of foreign 
 emigrants, to the poor whites and the Chinese. The Congrega- 
 tional Church has sent .3,000 women to teach the Freedmen since 
 the war. It has 20> men in the United States, preaching the 
 <iospel in foreign languages, who are mainly supported by the 
 women’s societies. With "Our Land for Christ.’” their watchword, 
 and "America must be saved by Americans” inscribed on their 
 l)anner. the women have gone into Utah resolving that "every 
 foot of the 350.000 square miles covered by the Mormon Church ” 
 •ihall be " redeemed to Christ.” In about fifty separate towns in 
 Utah they have planted their common schools. Where is that 
 banner not flying? The itinerant missionary woman has l>een 
 introduced, a reclaiming force, among the deserted farms of New 
 Hampshire. The evening lamp of the missionary’s home shines 
 across the Florida swamp, and up on the farthest parallel toward 
 the pole stands the royal gift of a woman’s hand, a school for 
 -\iaskan children. Not only the ordinary field of former years 
 must be worked, but extraordinary situations must be opened up 
 to Gospel light and atmosphere. Simday-schools mu.st be planted 
 in clefts of the mountains and among the scattered sheep in the 
 •^age brush. Christian investments must follow the trail of Ixjom- 
 ing towns. The missionary mnst be on hand with his sermon the 
 first Sunday after Oklahoma is entered. His wife is there, too. and 
 it is not long before she is leader of a boy’s club who are put upon 
 their honor to neither swear nor use tobacco in her presence. The 
 women organize their "paper mission" and .send millions of new.s- 
 papers and pictures where they cannot penetrate thenaselves ; to 
 light-hou-ses. prisons, the militarj- jxjst. the lumberman’s camp, 
 the dugout, the prairie schooner. People in the far West have 
 gone fourteen miles this Columbian year to borrow old magazines. 
 -Vnd stilL with all their greater undertakings, the women continue 
 to fill up niches in mission needs. Their ^xes snipplement 
 meagre salarie.s. Single parishes send twenty-five to thirty in a 
 sea.son. Every year bells mirst be set ringing in new prairie 
 churches, and freight cars carry west and southward Sunday- 
 school libraries and chapel organs. Here goes a horse, there a 
 saddle or a tent. Women of the Reformed Dutch i Church sent 
 seven communion sets to feeble churches la.st jear. Every 
 
14 
 
 Dates of 
 Home 
 Missions 
 .Soc’ieties 
 in the 
 I'liurelies. 
 
 facility which the mind can devise, from a bath to a hundred- 
 thonsand-dollar building, if it will promote true citizenship and 
 Christianity in o\ir country, is laid claim to by Home Missions. 
 One of the mottoes of this patiotic army is. "The foreigner must 
 be Americanized " and that calls for the Training-school, where 
 workers are practiced both in the English tongue and in whatever 
 speech is native to the foreigner's trans- Atlantic home. Such a 
 school is that of the Bapti.st Society in Chicago, where young 
 women of ten races are in training to teach, each, in her own 
 tongue. In Springfield. Mass., is an institution conducted in the 
 French language, where young women, as well as men. are trained 
 for gospel work among that great deposit of French Canadians 
 which ha.s lately been precipitated into New England. Other train- 
 ing-schools. on ail English basis only, are well-known. Metho- 
 dist (Episcopal I women of the South opened one at a cost of 
 •i^T.o.OOO, in 1892. Methodist women in the Xorth have erected 
 eleven Deacone.ss* Homes in as many cities, as centers of work. 
 
 Every class must be sought out and benefited. The emigrant 
 girl must be met on the wharf when she lands. The good Samari- 
 tan nimst pour oil into the wounds of the Alaskan girl fallen 
 among thieves. The Huguenot blood and the Covenanter blood in 
 the mountains of Kentucky. Tennassee and Xorth Carolina, must 
 be searched out and put to school. There must be Sunday-schools 
 for the cowboys, witli first-class organ plajnug. and the Jews even 
 the .Jews must not be overlooked any longer. One woman, 
 single-handed, carries a struggling school of Spanish chihlren in 
 X’ew York City for years, till friends come to its rescue and now 
 there is a church of fifty-si.x members. Similar efforts are put 
 forth for Italian laborers along tlie beds of great railway lines and 
 for Slovack miners in Pennsylvania, and if anybody is generally 
 left out he is .specially gathered in under the term "neglected 
 populations." which is one of the very shibl>oleths of Home 
 Mission speech in our day. 
 
 Women undertook, at the out.set. both Home and Foreign 
 Missions, in several branches of the Church : in others the old 
 method of aiding Home Missions, already doing good .service, was 
 slower to give place to the modern society. Special organization 
 in the interests of Home Missions occurred as follows : 
 
 Baptist Church (X'orthi in 187t> 
 
 Baptist Church (South) 1888 
 
 Baptist Free Church 187J 
 
 BaptLst Seventh-day Church 188.'> 
 
 Christian Church 18fX» 
 
15 
 
 Congregational Church State Unions 1883 
 
 Episcopal Church 1871 
 
 German Church (Evangelical Association) 1884 
 
 Lutheran C?hurch 1879 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church (Xorth) 1880 
 
 Methodist (Episcopal) Church South 1878 
 
 Methodist Protestant 1893 
 
 Presbyterian Church ( Xorth i 1878 
 
 Presbyterian Church (Cumbei-land) 1880 
 
 Presbjderian ( United ) Church 1883 
 
 Reformed (Dutch) Church 1875 
 
 United Brethern in Christ 1875 
 
 These societies are working among forty tribes of Indians, 
 and in neaily 20 European languages. The five largest of them 
 are represented by 1,084 missionaries and teachers, and the sum 
 disbursed in 1892-93 by all these societies, so far as reported, was 
 81.1(K\(XKJ in money, outside of other gifts. 
 
 But. it is time to ask. with all this outside demand upon city 
 Christian women did the local church die of neglect ? Were :uission 
 Bible classes vacated by teachers, bedsides deserted by nurses ? 
 
 Was family religion no more cultivated ? Carried away with this 
 enthusiasm for the black race and red race and the yellow, for 
 missions in Colorado and missions in Japan, did Dorcas and 
 Tryijhosa now cease to lodge strangers, to wash the saints' feet, 
 to relieve the afflicted ? 
 
 By no means. How mtach was heard of City Missions before 
 the foreign missionary wave toirched our shores ? A priori, city 
 missions were first, for unless wn love the brother that we have 
 seen, how can we love him that we have not seen ? But in the 
 order of spiritual sequences, it was after God pressed home upon 
 us the radical truth that He had made tiJl nations of one blood and 
 if we love Him we must love our brother to the ends of the world. 
 that the light of city missions blazed out from a more than seven- 
 branched candlestick. Xow. began the flower missions, fresh-air 
 funds, girls' “ Friendlys." midnight missions. King's Daughters, 
 boot-black brigades, free kindergartens. Young Women's Chri.stian 
 -Yssociations. day-nurseries, night-schools, protection against 
 cruelty to children and animals, and all those specialized forms of 
 rescue work which characterize our time, which women always 
 aid. often both conduct and maintain. Beautifid is the interplay 
 between departments of this work. It is all so informed by one 
 aim and spirit that it is perfectly easy for the same heart to have 
 jjlace for missions in their different phases. 
 
16 
 
 Proportion 
 
 of 
 
 Woiiien 
 
 Knlistert. 
 
 JSpecimeii 
 Results 
 in the 
 I'nitecl 
 States. 
 
 An historical survey like this may seem open to the charge of 
 boastfulness. God forbid that we should in anjuvise boast. In all 
 things we have come short. Have any women on earth received 
 so much from God, do any owe so much to His dear Sou, as we of 
 America ? But. listening to summaries, we are apt to be deceived. 
 Totals sotind large. When we come to place facts in right 
 proportion we are disillusionized. In what proportion are the 
 women of our Churches represented in these efforts ? 
 
 " One-fourth of our half a million women," say Methodists of 
 the North ; “Eighteen per cent of adult women in Yearly Meet- 
 ing," say the Friends ; "IGO auxiliaries out of 1.I50 congregations- - 
 what of the 1,000 congregations ? say Lutherans ; “ contributions 
 from a little more than half our parishes," say Episcopalians : 
 “ foreign missionary auxiliaries in two-thirds of our churches," say 
 Pre.sbjderians in Pennsylvania not more than one-.sixth of our 
 church members in any missionary work." say Presbyterians of 
 Oregon ; “ one-eighth of our church members in twenty -two states 
 enrolled in Home Missionary Society," say Baptists of the North ; 
 “one-sixth of our church women in foreign missionary member- 
 ship," say Congregationalists on the Atlantic seaboard ; “ less than 
 one-sixth," they say about Chicago ; “ five hundred dead societies," 
 reports one Board. But. just because this muster of His hand- 
 maidens has been so reluctant and incomplete, the name of the 
 Lord is the more magnified in results achieved. In view of .so 
 much accomplished by such weak agencies, we can only look up 
 and wonder and adore. What blessing God could pour out and 
 what the victory would be. if instead of this fraction from our 
 churches, every woman in them would add the weight of her 
 warmhearted devotion to missionary sei-vice, can hardly be 
 conceived. 
 
 Thus far this history has restricted itself to a review of 
 Efforts. l)ut, in clo.sing. we cannot restrain one swift glance at 
 Results. 
 
 In our own country they are apparent. The record of them is 
 not confined to missionary magazines ; it is in all the newspapers. 
 The missionary woman labors uiider limitations in Oriental 
 countries and. especially if unmarried, must often endure to have 
 her motives and conduct rest under the suspicions of degraded 
 minds. But her peculiar arena is our deal- land where, even in 
 rudest communities, the air breathes of chivalry towards woman- 
 hood. The sun in its course looks down on no spot of earth 
 where the opinions of good women and the i-esolute actions of 
 good women have so much influence on the public mind and 
 
IT 
 
 public weal. Were all their active and afJKressive part in philan- 
 thropic work to be suppressed to-day. not only would every Home 
 Missionary Society be in despair, but protest would arise from 
 worldly men. It is more difficult to point to what is di.stinctively 
 fruit of woman’s work in mis.sions at home than abroad, because 
 the peculiar barriers of the East are wanting here. Nowhere in 
 our coimtry is the ordained man prohibited from carrying the 
 Gospel into the home, or pressing the claims of religion upon any 
 individual. And, yet. that young colored woman at Augusta. 
 
 ( ieorgia. in charge of a school having eight a.s.si.stant teachei’s and 
 400 pupils : the Omaha Indian girl regularly graduated as a 
 physician and practicing among her people : the Dakota women’s 
 missionary societies and their notable offerings ; the rescued 
 Chinese slave-girl assisting, in the English language, at a corner- 
 stone laying in San Francisco last July, twenty churches of 
 <-onverted Mormons born out of women’s schools- these are 
 specimen fruits of what is not likely to be brought to perfection 
 without a woman’s hand. 
 
 But what of tho.se farther shores *? Have the toils of all these 
 societies at home and the sacrifices of our countrywomen been 
 also blessed in the Turkish Empire, in Persia. India. Siam, China. 
 Japan, Korea. Africa, and the Islands of the Sea ? There, results 
 are farther out of sight than results at home ; we must draw 
 nearer to them. Yes, God has answered us with his seal of 
 approval. It is imprinted on the personal transformation frcjm 
 wild, unruly beings, such as met the first missionaries in Persia, to 
 those dignified ladies who now conduct Quarterly Meetings on 
 Oroomiah Plain and furnish columns to the mission paper. 
 Travelers in Syria and Egypt tell us they are often al)le. by their 
 faces, to select out of a casual company whom they see, those 
 women who have attended mission school. A visitor in Mexico 
 could scarce believe that the thoughtful-faced women in the 
 mission congregation w’ere of the same class as those she met on 
 the plaza. Let a European light down upon any village in Asia 
 Minor or the Chinese Empire, and the tidiest house there, with 
 the cleanest tablecloth and the most inviting bed, is the home of a 
 mission school graduate. The transformation appears in the 
 deaths they die : like the old Siamese woman, a few months ago. 
 whispering " My Savioixr" with her latest breath ; like the young 
 wife on the Ogowe River, Africa, when heart and flesh failed, still 
 resisting the witch doctor and charging her husband to be "faithful 
 to God.” These women are transformed by happiness. Christianity 
 encourages them, wakes their intellect, kindles aspiration, as well 
 as offers peace. Where for thousands of years they have said. 
 
 General 
 
 Result!) 
 
 Abroad. 
 
18 
 
 We are donkeys," a corps of intelliKeiit teachers and evangelists 
 are now raised up. 
 
 As women rise, they bring the home uj) with them. A 
 missionary of long experience points to the “ new affection and 
 respect showai l>y husband and children toward Christian wives 
 and mothers, because their religion has made them worthy of 
 respect and affection which as heathen women they did not 
 merit." 
 
 Without this woman's work for woman, touching life at .so 
 many and such sensitive points, some missions would have been 
 a failure. Church membership which formerly preponderated 
 entirely in favor of men has, in .some older missions, approached 
 nearly to ecpialization. Among their trophies are women who 
 have borne persecution ; those who zealously prosecute Home 
 Missions as among (lilbert Island women, and the Japanese who 
 have been known to .sell their dresses for the cause. They have 
 their foreign missionary heroines like Yona. the Harriet Newell of 
 Zululand. 
 
 Look at this woman's work for woman in Japan. Prayei- 
 Unions holding their annual meeting, attended by delegates from 
 different cities, whose traveling expenses were paid by sisters of 
 their respective churches. A Japanese girl leaving a legacy of 86') 
 to the school where she became a Christian. Bible women in 
 demand beyond the supply, and Japanese churches paying a part 
 or all of their salary. “Such deep Christian experience" an 
 Osaka missionary writes, ” that it seems impossible they grew to 
 womanhood in ignorance of Christ." 
 
 Look at this woman's work for woman in India. It has found 
 out the class resting under the heaviest curse, the widow, and 
 lifted her to a place of honor. While Christian girls have been 
 passing entrance examinations to the University for twenty years, 
 t he first Mohammedan girl has matriculated this year 1 1898 ). “Chris- 
 tian women." Miss Thoburn says. “ are much more prominent and 
 important than Christian men. If they live in a village the.v are 
 the onl.v women there who can read and write. No others go to 
 a i)lace of worship with men. Their daughters go away to board- 
 ing-school and return to be consulted l)y their own fathers. MTien 
 the Dufferin medical schools called for students, three-fourths of 
 those who came forward were Christian girls." Even indirect 
 results begin to show themselves on the far horizon. The jxtrdoh 
 is drawn aside for a fete day at the Exposition in Calcutta. A 
 class of barbarous midwives .study anatomy with a Philadelphia 
 graduate. An appeal against child-marriage is .sent to the English 
 Parliament. Brahmo Soma.j women gather together into a prayer- 
 
19 
 
 meeting at Lahore. " It i.s your women and your doctors we are 
 afraid of," say the men of India. 
 
 In Persia, the respectful term Khanum (Lady) is frequently 
 applied to Christians by Persian me.n, but to Mohammedan 
 women, never. A priest asked a missionary lady to offer prayer 
 beside him at the burial of a child. When the American Misssion 
 was opened, only two women in the whole country could read. At 
 their Jubilee in 1885, the question was put, How many present 
 can read ? " and six hundred women rose to their feet. 
 
 Look at this woman's work for woman in China. A Canton 
 girl, imitating her college sisters in England and America takes 
 the prize for Bible examination, over the heads of all the compet- 
 ing pastors. Up in Shantung several women, without preacher, 
 teacher or sexton, have maintained a house of worship and Sun- 
 day .services in their community for a period of years. “ Direct 
 work for women." says a cautious missionary in that province, 
 " has contributed fully one-half to the improved sentiment towanl 
 foreigners." “ Conv^eys the idea that they amount to something,” 
 says another, ‘‘ sadly needed for those so near the vanishing point 
 in .social life. Necessary to the stability of the family. When 
 husbands become Christians and wives adhere to heathenism, they 
 are at cross-purposes, and, after a year or two of conte.st. the 
 hnsband surrenders. The family can be won in no other w’ay. 
 There is a kind of fascination about the missionary lady ; the.se 
 heathen women fairly run and troop around her. and when they 
 are won the whole family becomes a fixed institution in the 
 Church. I am of the opinion." continues our mi.s.sionary from 
 North China. " that for permanent hold of Christianity upon the 
 people, work among women is more important than among men. 
 The request comes from all our stations, ‘ Send us more ladies.' " 
 
 Encouraged by such evidences as these, incited by grati- 
 tude and the promise of (xod’s Word and sustained by the Spirit 
 of God. the woman's missionary societies propose to tarry not nor 
 falter, but to hand on their work to children and children's 
 I'hildren, enjoining upon them to save America, to save the world, 
 and to l>e found so doing when our Lord shall come. 
 
 women's B0.\RD of FOREIGN' MISSION'S OF THE PRESBYTERI.^X CHURCH. 
 
 58 FIFTH AVKXUK, N. Y. CITY. 
 
 Pri(*e, 3 rents earh; 82,50 per luuuired. 
 
 \