Retrospect 
 
 ^ and 
 
 j Rropltecu 
 
 THE 1IO.VKI) OK FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 OF XX IK 
 
 PHI3.SBYTEHIAN ClUTRCH UT THE TT.S.A. 
 l.">0 1'ifthAveixue 
 Nkw York 
 
Amount Appropriated for the Wc 
 Receipts from all Sources and C 
 
 Deficit Reported April 1, 1914 - 
 
 Will the CHURCH see 
 ANTICIPATIONS of AD' 
 
 U NDER the manifest guidance of the 
 Holy Spirit, the Christians of the 
 country churches in the Tsingtau field 
 have gone on to the tithing basis. They were 
 giving about $12.50 gold a year but now they 
 are beginning to give about $70 and even 
 more and this out of poverty. The missionary 
 calculated the average income of each family 
 and posted the result on the church wall, 
 together with the amount each family was 
 giving, and then contrasted it with one-tenth 
 of the income. The contrast in some cases 
 was startling. The people had not realized 
 they could do so much. In the mountain 
 regions the income from firewood was also 
 estimated. 
 
 IMAGINE IN THE HOME CHURCHES, 
 THE ASSETS of each member being posted 
 on the church wall, together with THE 
 AMOUNT HE ACTUALLY GIVES to the 
 evangelization of the world. And contrast 
 this with HIS SHARE AS IT SHOULD BE 
 on the basis of the tithe. 
 
 A wonderful old woman of 75, of mighty 
 praying power, who cannot read a character, 
 and who has been persecuted by her family 
 for 50 years has been used to break down the 
 opposition in several villages praying faith¬ 
 fully for her own persecuting family. About 
 60 people in one village have been baptized 
 through her efforts, and a school of 20 pupils 
 started in another heathen center. THIS OLD 
 WOMAN OUT OF AN INCOME OF about 
 $15 gold, GIVES THREE-TENTHS OF IT 
 toward a new church building which will cost 
 the munificent sum of $100 gold. 
 
THE CLOSE < 
 
 rk of the Board of Foreign Missions for 
 redits Amounted to - - - - - $2,2 
 
 Surplus on the Year’s Accou 
 
 .$292,000 
 
 Deficit Stands April 18, 19 
 
 o it that this year, 1916-17, this DIMINI 
 ANCE and ENLARGED WORK in all the ir 
 
 I NSTEAD OF THE THORN SHALL 
 COME UP THE FIR TREE. During the 
 winter of 1911, a great famine came upon 
 all the region north of the Yangtse River. 
 Famine Relief was taken up in a most 
 thorough and systematic way, working through 
 a central committee in Shanghai, but the suf¬ 
 fering was appalling, and thousands of people, 
 worthy farmer folk, saw their scanty supply 
 of rice fail, until there was nothing to eat. 
 Those who could get away fled with their 
 families, and some forty thousand came to 
 Nanking and lived in tiny mud or straw huts, 
 outside the city wall. 
 
 A meeting was called at the American Con¬ 
 sulate, and Mr. Jos. Bailie was given the 
 leadership of plans for local relief work; 
 some funds being made available by the Gen¬ 
 eral Famine Relief Committee. The following 
 year land was granted by the government on 
 the slopes of Purple Mountain. 
 
 Last spring the Governor GeneraTYjf the 
 Philippines sent a Yale college man, who is 
 at the head of the forestry department in 
 Manila, to investigate conditions in China, 
 with a view to co-operating in a SCHOOL OF 
 FORESTRY. He was the guest of the Uni¬ 
 versity, and from his report we quote: “To the 
 writer the most astonishing thing in China 
 was the amount of land lying idle on hill and 
 mountain. The population is overcrowded and 
 desperately poor, yet in the very vicinity, per¬ 
 haps on the outskirts of the congested villages, 
 rise fertile and unused hills. Fruit trees grow¬ 
 ing wild prove that they could easily be re¬ 
 forested. Every consideration urges that these 
 waste lands be put to the uses for which they 
 are adapted. 
 
 “An admirable beginning was made on 
 Purple Mountain. It has given employment 
 to thousands and many families are now 
 making a comfortable living on land which 
 would have otherwise remained unproductive 
 and has resulted in a department of agricul¬ 
 ture, which was opened in 1914.” 
 
OF THE YEAR 
 
 the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 1916 
 !85,930.45 
 
 int.$30,012.16 
 
 Deficit Reduced During 1914-15 i 
 16.$44,500 
 
 ISHING CLOUD shall DISAPPEAR ENTIRE!/ 
 nission fields shall NOT BE DARKENED by 
 
 A N evangelist and Bible woman work all 
 day amongst the patients of the Seoul 
 “Hospital. No one can tabulate the 
 number of conversions that result from this, 
 any more than we can know how many be¬ 
 lieved among the throngs whom the Master 
 healed. But we hear again and again of 
 those who come with no thought but that of 
 physical help, and go away with their hearts 
 full of love for God and man. Such was the 
 rich man who came from a village not far 
 from Seoul and who when he went home 
 found his way at once to the little Chapel 
 and joined the humble band of Christians 
 there, making himself felt from the first for 
 Christ. Such was the one who said “You are 
 all so kind, so good to a sick man, that though 
 I do not understand the Jesus Doctrine, I know 
 it is good and I want to do it from now on.” 
 
 The physician in charge of the medical work 
 at Urumia pays the following tribute to the 
 native physicians, one of whom was the as¬ 
 sistant in the hospital, a most efficient and 
 faithful man since his graduation in 1908: 
 During the first awful days of 1915 it was 
 his hands that dressed and redressed the 
 wounds of those brought to the hospital. He 
 thought not of himself and literally wore him¬ 
 self out for others. His life was given in 
 noblest self-sacrifice. The services of some 
 of the physicians were given reluctantly at 
 first, but this was not surprising when the 
 conditions under which they had to live and 
 the losses they had suffered are taken into 
 consideration. Before the troubles were over 
 they gave themselves unstintedly. 
 
 THE YEAR HAS BEEN ONE OF HIGH 
 PRIVILEGE. 
 
) was - - - - $2,255,918.29 
 
 Budget for the Year Covered 
 
 to.$101,013.49 
 
 LY, and that the BRIGHT 
 OVERHANGING DEBT? 
 
 DWIGHT H. DAY, TREASURER. 
 
 T HE picture shows THE RESULT OF 
 THE DESTRUCTIVE FORCES OF 
 MASSACRE AND RUIN that were 
 at work in Urumia last year. It is one 
 of the Christian villages of that beautiful 
 plain, wrecked and plundered by Persian 
 neighbors and Kurdish invaders. In the 
 massacres of January, 1915, some of the 
 men, women and children were murdered, 
 many more died in the epidemics of the 
 winter, and some of the women and girls 
 were taken away as captives. It is a cause of 
 humiliation that this terrible force was let 
 loose by a war that began in Europe. On the 
 other hand, it must be remembered that these 
 destructive forces have been at work in 
 Western Asia for centuries. 
 
 What constructive force can be set to work? 
 Only Christ and His Gospel, only Christian 
 love working in Christian life, and, this is 
 what the missionaries have been doing. The 
 people who survived massacre owe their lives 
 to the missionaries, and the missionaries are 
 still engaged and will be in helping the people 
 to get a new start in life. With a new start 
 in their homes, let us pray that they may have 
 a new start in spiritual life and that a new 
 and better Christianity may rise out of the 
 ruins. THE PICTURE SHOWS THE NEED 
 AND MAKES THE APPEAL. Gifts for the 
 re-construction of ruined mission property 
 may be sent to the Board of Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions. Gifts for the relief of the people in 
 these villages and for the 40,000 refugees who 
 have come from Turkey into Urumia and Sal¬ 
 mas, should be sent to the Committee for the 
 Armenian and Syrian Relief, No. 70 Fifth 
 Avenue, New York City. 
 
 The picture represents ANOTHER HAP¬ 
 PIER CRUMBLING OF WALLS. The courage 
 and sacrifice of the missionaries have broken 
 down walls of prejudice, opened doors of op¬ 
 portunity, and given the Gospel of Salvation to 
 the persecuted survivors of the old Christian 
 Churches as well as to the persecutors. 
 
Itinerating through flood in the Philippines 
 
 Village school children at lunch, China 
 
 Medical patients with present for the physician, India 
 
 AL1AWA—destroyed by Kurds and village Mohammedans 
 
MEDICAL 
 
 Hospitals . . 77 In-patients . 18,573 
 No. of beds . 3,010 Dispensaries . 95 
 
 Out-patients . 681,864 
 
 Receipts in fees and gifts . . . $155,079 
 
 PHILANTHROPIC 
 
 Among the LEPERS in Africa, India, China, 
 Chosen and Siam. 
 
 In the MILLS in Japan. 
 
 In PRISONS in Japan and China. 
 
 In RELIEF WORK in China, among the 
 Chinese in the U. S. 
 
 In WAR EMERGENCY RELIEF in Africa, 
 Mexico, India, Persia and Syria. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL 
 
 In AFRICA — Cement blocks, brick making, 
 chair making, tailoring, printing and gar¬ 
 dening. 
 
 In CHINA — Cooking, wood work, carpentry, 
 agriculture. 
 
 In INDIA — Weaving, boot and shoe making, 
 furniture, scientific farming, masonry. 
 
 In the PHILIPPINES — Agriculture, printing, 
 mining, electrical work, building. 
 
 In SIAM — Leather work, improved rice culti¬ 
 vation. 
 
PROPHECY 
 
 T he work of the year has been 
 
 CARRIED ON IN A WORLD TORN 
 BY WAR, BRUISED BY BRUTALITY, 
 SPIRITUALLY SENSITIZED BY SUFFER¬ 
 ING, THROWN INTO CHAOS FINAN¬ 
 CIALLY AND CONFUSED SPIRITUALLY 
 AND INTELLECTUALLY BY ATTEMPTS TO 
 UNDERSTAND LIFE’S MYSTERIES. 
 
 That the world’s tragedy has affected Mis¬ 
 sion work there is no doubt; that it will affect 
 it still more is equally true; but he would be 
 a bold man who attempted to prophesy what 
 will be the exact outcome, and whether the 
 results will retard or accelerate the Christian 
 enterprise. When one surveys the field of 
 Missions at large, he is surprised to find that 
 while there is evidence that the sight of 
 Christian nations at war has aroused adverse 
 criticism on the part of many thoughtful non- 
 Christians, it has not apparently interrupted 
 the great onward movement of the purposes 
 of Christ. It is significant that in the survey 
 for the year 1915, there is a story of evangel¬ 
 istic success such as has not hitherto been 
 rendered. 
 
 In spite of the fact that this past year has 
 not shown a large increase in contributions, 
 the Board felt it necessary to ask the Budget 
 Committee to approve for the coming year a 
 larger sum than last by $100,000. 
 
 IT HAS DONE THIS BY OPENING ITS 
 EYES TO THE VISION AND REFUSING TO 
 LISTEN TO THE COUNSEL OF TIMIDITY 
 AND FEAR. IT IS CONFIDENT IN THE 
 LOYALTY OF THE CHURCH AND IT 
 DARE NOT DISREGARD THE CALL TO 
 GO FORWARD. 
 
 Stanley White. 
 
EVANGELISTIC 
 
 Native Force (not including teachers) 3,007 
 
 Organized Churches . 914 
 
 Unorganized groups . 2,822 
 
 Churches and groups entirely seli- 
 
 supporting . 1,436 
 
 Communicant members .148,638 
 
 Added during the year. 16,380 
 
 Adherents and Catechumens.376,591 
 
 Sunday-school membership.176,168 
 
 Contributions on the field for Evan¬ 
 gelistic Purposes .$102,740 
 
 EDUCATIONAL 
 
 Total number of schools. 1,857 
 
 Native teachers . 3,090 
 
 Kindergartens . 56 
 
 Primary and Intermediate. 1,797 
 
 High Schools . 89 
 
 Colleges or collegiate departments.. 12 
 
 Other schools . 143 
 
 Theological pupils . 847 
 
 Medical pupils . 258 
 
 Total of all pupils. 74,763 
 
 Received on field for Educational 
 
 Purposes .$398,107 
 
 Form 2395 
 
 May, 1916