Oily? nf f ma Story of Thirty -Nine Years By Mrs. A. M. Bacon. H ay 9, 1871, was a day big with high endeav- or and world-embracing plans. Mrs. C. F. Tolman had a vision. She saw the hosts of Baptist women in the West sending mes- sengers of the Cross to tell the story of redeeming love to their sin-bound sisters in the East. Others felt the thrill of her burning words. A goodly com- pany met in the old First Church, Chicago, in re- sponse to her call to the women of the Northwest. Mrs. A. M. Bacon presided. Mrs. Robert Harris had a vision of an opportunity to use her social position in direct service for the unloved wives . and children in pagan countries — and, was made president; Mrs. Tolman, corresponding secretary; Mrs. J. O. Brayman, recording secretary; Mrs. S. M. Osgood, treasurer; Mrs. Bacon, western editor of the Helping Hand. This Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the West, with its sister society in Boston, offered themselves as Helping Hands to the American Baptist Missionary Union with these solemn words: “Here and now, forming an alliance for Christ and Christ’s work, with a Christly self- denial and sacrifice, we would pledge ourselves to give for Christ, to do service for Christ, to live for Christ and in this work perform, so far as we shall be able, all that is implied in woman’s work for women in heathen lands.” 2 This infant organization had no “rooms,” but had its monthly meetings in private parlors, hotel par- lors, or later at the headquarters of the Publication Society, each officer devoting a place in her own home to the archives and carrying with her to the meetings such letters and records as were needed. So the work began. An earnest appeal was made “that every church, however small, and every woman, however humble, should have a share in the work.” At the close of the first year there were one hundred and thirty- four foreign mission circles in seven states, Illinois having fifty-eight; Michigan, twenty; Ohio, eighteen, and Wisconsin, seventeen. Five other states had fewer circles. The receipts were $4,244.69. No sooner had the word gone forth that a Woman’s Society was organized to send single women mis- sionaries than many were heard saying: “Here am I, send me,” hailing with joy this auspicious day, for which they had waited long. Two were sent the first year., THE HOME DEPARTMENT grew as the years went by. At the close of the first decade advance steps were taken with a view to or- ganize young women, and the Temple Builders came into being, to interest and instruct children in the Sunday Schools and to enlist the colored Baptist women. Studies were prepared by Mrs. Justin Smith and Miss Ella O. Patrick, and both German and Swedish leaflets were issued for our large and zeal- ous foreign constituency. s Of the first officers, Mrs. Robert Harris, the in- imitable president, held her position eight years; Mrs. C. F. Tolman served as foreign secretary four years; Mrs. A. M. Bacon as Home and Foreign sec- retary thirty years; Mrs. Osgood as treasurer four years and Mrs. J. O. Brayman as recording secretary twenty-six years. Note. — To complete the story of those early years, one should consult the “Ten Years’ and Twenty Years’ His- tory’’ and “Memories of Twenty-flve Years.” See also “What and Why.” SCHOOLS. The school question has from the first been a live one in the Board and on the field. Shall chil- dren of heathen parents be admitted? Shall advance work be undertaken? Shall English be taught? Shall government inspection and government grants be accepted? Shall we teach and then disciple, or dis- ciple and then teach? The years have answered these questions. Schools have proved to be centers of evangelism, have mul- tiplied and extended the curriculum. So that we now support twenty-three graded schools, most of them reaching the eighth standard (grade), five Bible training schools, one of higher grade with academic and normal courses. Village, jungle and country schools have been the outgrowth of the central or town school, many of them taught by pupils during their vacation. These in turn become feeders of the central school. The subject of self- support is a vital one. It has been much discussed, strenuously advocated and successfully practiced 4 by some. On one hand there is danger of giving something for nothing and developing a class of dependents. On the other hand, there is danger of debarring many from school if tuition is required. Opinions vary; practices vary. Conditions vary, of course. No school fee, a small fee, and entire native support are the three conditions the student of the missionary school system will meet. Self-support is the ultimate aim. Our schools are for girls only, with the exception of Karen Schools in Burma, which are co-educational. Note. — A booklet, “Our Schools In the Orient,” and school leaflets, just published, will give a complete view of this department of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the West. EVANGELISM. Some missionaries sent by the Board have heard a voice saying: “Do the work of an evangelist," and have given themselves to this definite service. But this is of necessity twofold. It demands trained native helpers, and Bible Training Schools have grown up and are more and more in demand. The older one, in Swatow, China, is poorly equipped. As much of the year is spent in touring, a Bible Woman’s house has often been a secondary consid- eration, and consequently small and inconvenient, but the growth of this department of work and the fact so often stated, that orientals must be evan- gelized by orientals, have demanded better equip- ment and longer school terms. In Japan our school is expected to train women for the entire field, which 5 can be done successfully because of the more lim- ited territory. Note. — At headquarters may be had: “Bible Woman’s Work,” “The Ministry of the Bible Woman,” “Ongole Bible Women,” “Osaka Bible Training School,” “Chin Po and Slmprosa.” MEDICAL WORK. China. — Teachers and evangelists met so much of physical suffering in their work that without di- ploma or license, they were obliged to play the part of doctors. “Perry Davis’ Pain Killer” and “Pond’s Extract” could not meet every case, and the call for physicians oft repeated was first met by send- ing Dr. Caroline H. Daniells to Swatow, China, in 1879. Within three years two hospital buildings accomodating twenty patients adorned the com- pound hillside. The following year drove the de- voted and beloved physician home. For five weary years the Chinese women waited for the healer and she came in the person of Dr. Anna K. Scott in 1889. Years passed under her blessed ministries. The buildings, once ample, were now too small to accommodate the inflowing tide of patients. After numerous repairs and additions, having done good service twenty years, they were replaced by the commodious, three-story Martha Thresher hospital for women and the Edward Payson Scott hospital for men. Dr. Scott still cares for them both and treats the women patients. Kityang is an outgrowth of Swatow medical as well as evangelistic work. Dr. Josephine M. Bixby, after one year in Swatow, removed to this strategic 6 point. Hospital accommodations were inconvenient and unsanitary, and she set herself about forming plans for improvement, which, after years of hard work and patient waiting, became a reality. A large and convenient building stands as a testimony to her energy and persistency. But she who had so wisely and bravely planned and executed was called up higher, and the doors were closed until Dr. R. E. Adkins took temporary charge, awaiting the com- ing of a woman doctor, which will leave him free to enter upon his permanent work in Chaochowfu. Of the work he says: “It cannot be gainsaid that there is a unique opportunity for ‘individual work for individual souls’ in the hospital, where hearts are tender and peculiarly open because of bodily minis- trations, where the gospel has a free hearing and the ‘wonderful words of life’ can be sung and preached ‘over and over again’ to many of the same people day after day, where the individual inquirer can be sought out and talked with sympathetically for hours at a time and may be won. You don’t have to ‘go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in’; your audience is right there every day and in a listening mood. “Surely the medical work is abundantly justified from a purely humanitarian standpoint, even if it did not provide such exceptional facilities for getting close to the hearts of the Chinese and furnish in concrete form a daily demonstration of the spirit of brotherly love. We only wish its influence might be multiplied a hundredfold.’’ 7 HOSPITAL STATISTICS FOR 1909. (Six months’ active service.) House patients, men 227 House patients, women 99 House patients, children under nine 58 Total 384 Out-patients seen in dispensary, men 1,174 Out-patients seen in dispensary, women 587 Out-patients seen in dispensary, children under nine 237 Total 1,998 Total treatments in dispensary, exclusive of in- patients after first day, but including return of out-patients 5,118 Out calls 25 Obstretic cases 9 Operations under general anaesthesia 31 Operations under local anaesthesia 110 Dr. Margaret Grant had an auspicious opening for medical work in Kaying. But the beginning only was made before her return home with Dr. Bixby in 1907, and she has never been able to return. The story of our medical work would not be com- plete without mentioning Dr. Lydia A. Wykoff, who spent some time in Hanyang and later in Huchow, China, and Dr. Alice Ross, who made a brilliant beginning in Swatow and was driven home by sick- ness after a brief service. Burma. — This Board opened medical work in Bas- sein, Burma, by sending Dr. Marie M. Cote in 1888. 8 She had scarcely put her hand to the work when an imperative need took her to the Lady Dufferin hos- pital, and she has since been self-supporting and is located in Rangoon. The Bassein vacancy was filled by Dr. May Fowler — now Mrs. Thompson — in 1891. For five years she had charge of the Carpenter Memorial Hospital. She made a specialty of train- ing nurses and Karen assistants, cared for the sick in both the Pwo and Sgau schools, and had her hos- pital constantly filled. She practiced among Bur- mese, Indian and Karen patients and wished for a Hindustani and Burman tongue, as well as a Karen, that she might tell the wonderful story of God’s love for sinful man to everyone. Karen doctors ed- ucated in America took charge of the Carpenter Memorial Hospital. Woman’s medical work was carried on in Toungoo by Dr. Naomi Garton from 1883 to 1890. Without a hospital or necessary apparatus, she used one room of the girls’ dormitory for the sick and visited out- patients in their homes. After a long furlough. Dr. Garton again opened medical work in 1905 under somewhat improved conditions on the Burman Com- pound in Toungoo, which service was interrupted again by a brief stay in Bhamo and a return home in 1909. Note. — Consult Catalogrue of Publications for further facts on Medical Missions. Read “Leaves from the Journal of Dr. Anna K. Scott” and the “Josephine M. Blxby Memorial Hospital.” 9 THE SENT ONES. "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” To this question one hundred and forty-five of the many hundreds who have answered “Here am I, send me,” have been sent. Mrs. Randall, in her “Memories of Twenty-five Years,” has graphically characterized those heroines of faith who during the quarter century had given themselves to God for work among the heathen. Of the hundred and forty- five, eight received appointment while on the field. In 1890 ten were added to our working force, three of them being already on the field. In 1907 ten new appointees sailed from this country — the largest number sent in any one year. Never yet has the demand been met; never yet ha%'e the urgent calls to fill important vacancies found prompt response. The story of the years must tell of schools without teachers, of broken health and weary waiting for recruits. Burma. — This peculiarly Baptist field — the one to which we sent our first missionary — with a popula- tion of 10,490,624 Buddhists, Burmans and Karens, who were looking for the “White Brother and the White Book,” has heard the gospel message from forty-eight. Is this our share of these heathen? “India is not a province, but a continent. It is not a single, seamless robe, but a coat of many colors. It is a jumble of races, a chaos of variant customs, a babel of tongues, a medley of castes and classes, a jangle of warring creeds. 10 India has within its borders 300,000,000 people. It comprises eleven distinct nations, besides various small tribes. These diflFer widely, both in physical and mental traits. It has seventy distinct languages and well-developed dialects. India! It is the cradle of philosophies, the ancient home of mysticisms, the motherland of religions. Hinduism claims 200,000,000 followers. The other faiths, in the order of their numerical precedence, are the Mohammedan, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh, Jain. Parsee and Jewish.” — Dr. de Blois. We have but just touched the edge of India, have reached a few Hindus only, have trained and sent out a mere handful of Bible women, gathered chil- dren in schools — alas! too few for the waiting mul- titudes. These Telugus and Assamese have together heard the “old, old story” from thirtj’-one of those who have gone for us. Is that our share of India’s heathen? China. — New China, wide-awake China, is reaching out for western learning, deliberately moving to- ward constitutional and parliamentary government. It seems scarcely believable that in all these years since Mrs. Fielde began training our Bible women in 1878 only forty-two women have represented this Board in China. The cry today from that empire is: “Send us doctors, send nurses, send teachers, send e\-angelists — and send them now.” What re- sponse shall be given to this cry? Two hundred mil- lion Chinese women and children to be saved in this generation, if at all. What is our share? 11 Japan is not second to China in its wide-open doors, its demand for higher education and its call for more workers. It is rapidly making history. What shall it be? Fourteen able women have helped to make it a Christian nation. Only six are now in active service. What are these among so many? What is our share of the 44,360,000 Japanese? Africa. — The work in .Africa has been sporadic. Between 1884 and 1895 we had five missionaries on the field. Since then we have sent one and in many ways supported the work. The Philippines. — The opening of the Philippine Islands in 1898 offered a new and most interesting field for Christian work. Miss Johnson, zealous, wide-awake, went to Jaro in 1903 to work hand to hand with the women to win them to Christ and train them as Bible women. She now has a Bible Training School with dormitory and sixty-seven pu- pils; one Sunday School at Jaro, one hundred and fifty pupils; one Baptist Young People’s Union at Jaro; one Woman’s Society at Janiway; one country Sunday School and three Bible women. She has proved herself an evangelist and a leader. Miss Kuhlen, dowered with a large experience in India, entered upon dormitory work in Bacolod in 1904. She makes a Christian home for girls attend- ing government schools, gives Bible instruction and personal oversight in the home — a most blessed and fruitful service, fruitful in saved souls. Miss Bis- singer, an enthusiastic teacher, went in 1907. Miss 12 Whelpton, a nurse, went in 1909. Though these live under the stars and stripes, they must learn a for- eign language before they can commence effectively to reach the Filipinos. Miss Bissinger speaks of her projected plan in these stirring words: “On the triple foundation of faith, hope and en- thusiasm, we begin the superstructure of our Chris- tian educational work for girls. It has been decided to name our school ‘The Academia.’ The one un- faltering, determined aim of the school shall be to make strong, sturdy, self-reliant, well-poised charac- ters, fit to establish homes wherein they as Chris- tian women shall shape the thought of future gen- erations. With a conviction that grows in intensity each day, I foresee for this school a prosperous future, and I base all my optimistic predictions on this one fact: that the work is God-ordained, and that therefore it is bound to attain to a glorious de- velopment.” The Philippine Islands, with a population of 7,635,- 426, offer Christian -work for not only different de- nominations, but for those who sing “My country, ’tis of thee,” and those who sing, “From Greenland’s icy mountains, From India’s coral strand.” Note. — For further information concerning individuals reference may be had to “Pencil Sketches” and “Pictures” of our missionaries ; concerning their work, “The Annual Report” and “The Work and the Workers” series. 13 CROWNED. “Lest we forget.” In our backward glance over the passing years those who have fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith and received the crown rise before us. When our numbers were few Miss Bron- son, after a brief service, was called up higher. This first break in our ranks was followed by others. Misses Harris, Ambrose, McGee, Duffield, Anderson, Simons and Bixby all died while in active service or on furlough. Others took the names and brightened the homes of missionaries of the Union, and have one by one joined the innumerable company. Twen- ty-three have ceased their labors, some having wrought only through the morning hours, some till the noontide, and some till the westering sun cast lengthened shadows. On this side the waters we recall the sweet-spir- ited Mrs. Howe, for thirteen years president; the alert Mrs. Randall, who served as vice-president and president most effectively; the faithful Mrs. Os- good; the spirituelle Mrs. Tolman, who for four years as secretary shaped and fostered the new or- ganization; the enthusiastic Mrs. Mitchell, first chairman of the Board, and wide-awake and ag- gressive Mrs. Stilwell, for many years vice-presi- dent. PROBLEMS AND POLICIES. In the dimly remembered past of this Society, when we bought no land and built few houses, there 14 was more money than the work then in hand de- manded, and this Board paid the salaries of the wives of several missionaries for two years. Later we turned over to the Union undesignated all surplus over $200. But the problem today is not what shall we do with our surplus, but what shall we do with our deficit? The logical answer is. Raise the money, though at the cost of great sacrifice, and pay it. The problem still unsolved by missionary mathe- matics is whether consolidation with the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society will be a more economical and more efficient force in evangelizing the pagan world. Have women’s societies fulfilled their mission as separate organizations? Another problem — shall there be more than one Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society? If one, where shall the headquarters be located? If two, how shall their work in the home department and on the foreign field be affiliated? A partial solution of the last problem has been reached by the appointment of a council of three members from each Board to formulate plans for a better cultivation of the home field and to consider all problems and difficult ques- tions concerning the relations of our missionaries on the foreign field. The Budget is a most difficult problem. What ad- vantages from going into the Budget? How shall it be made to cover all our liabilities? How shall it be apportioned to the constituency and how col- lected? 15 When all these problems are solved, we need not expect a missionary millennium, but we may hope to help usher in the day when the kingdom of this world shall become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Note. — See “Outlook for the Future of Women’s Foreign Mission Societies.” 4-87-10— 3M 16