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 HAND BOOK 
 
 FOR 
 
 CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 ^ERICAN BOARD OF 
 COMMISSIONERS FOR 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 9 $ 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 1915 
 
 i 
 
HAND BOOK 
 
 FOR 
 
 CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 Issued By 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 
 FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE 
 
 1915 
 
EXTRACT FROM THE BY-LAWS 
 
 Duties of Members. Inasmuch as 
 membership in this corporation is not an 
 honor merely, hut is a trust which cannot 
 he discharged without labor and sacrifice; 
 therefore, every member shall be considered 
 as pledged to perform its duties, and espe¬ 
 cially to he a constant attendant at the 
 meetings of the Board, whenever such 
 attendance is possible. Absentees are 
 expected to send to the Recording Secretary 
 letters giving the reasons for their absence. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Name of the Board.5 
 
 What the American Board Stands for.6 
 
 The Old Board and the New.lo 
 
 Organization and Administration.12 
 
 Keeping Informed.13 
 
 Publicity.18 
 
 Prayer for the Missionaries.18 
 
 Attendance upon Annual Meetings.20 
 
 The Young People’s and Educational Department . 20 
 
 Personal Contributions.23 
 
 Regular and Special Gifts.24 
 
 Legacies.25 
 
 Conditional Gifts .27 
 
 The Apportionment Plan.27 
 
 Leadership in the Local Church.29 
 
 Leadership in Ecclesiastical Bodies.30 
 
 Illustrated Lectures.31 
 
 The American Board and the Woman’s Boards . . 32 
 
 Interdenominational Co-operation.33 
 
 A Policy of Frankness.35 
 
 In Conclusion .36 
 
 Appendix.38 
 
 Milestones in the Board’s History.38 
 
 What Foreign Missions Have Done.47 
 
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HAND BOOK FOR CORPORATE 
 MEMBERS 
 
 THE NAME OF THE BOARD 
 
 When Rev. Samuel Spring and Rev. Samuel Worcester, 
 in that famous ride from Andover to Bradford in i8io, 
 discussed the project of forming a Foreign Missionary 
 Society, and decided to recommend to the General 
 Association of Massachusetts that the new organization 
 be called “The American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions,” they chose a title which has proved 
 of incalculable benefit in promoting and conducting the 
 work. This is increasingly evident as the years go by. 
 We do not refer to the accuracy of the title as setting forth 
 exactly what was in mind, or to its dignified and sonorous 
 sound, which seems to impress many. The value of the 
 name is found primarily in the fact that it stands for 
 America and American Christianity, and is regarded in 
 this light in many parts of the world. It brings to the 
 work the prestige of the United States. Nor is this infer¬ 
 ence entirely unwarranted, since the Board was organized 
 for the purpose of providing an outlet for the foreign mis¬ 
 sionary enthusiasm not only of the Congregationalists, 
 but of the Presbyterians and other ecclesiastical bodies. 
 For many years no other society stood for American 
 Christianity in foreign parts, and so by an entirely natural 
 process, the government officials and natives of the lands 
 to which the missionaries went came to look upon this 
 organization as broadly representative of our country. 
 Although the Board has now become Congregational, 
 the original, evangelical, non-sectarian policy has been 
 continued. The Board has sought to live up to its great 
 name. 
 
6 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 WHAT THE AMERICAN BOARD STANDS FOR 
 
 The American Board, the oldest foreign missionary 
 society in America, has achieved for itself a place of lead¬ 
 ership which is one of our most precious possessions. Not 
 only among the American societies which have sprung up 
 in its wake, but among the older European societies it has 
 exerted an influence far beyond its numerical strength. 
 
 Whether in the great General Missionar>^ Conferences, 
 like those held in London in 1878, in New York in 1900, 
 and in Edinburgh in 1910, or in the deliberations of the 
 united Missionary Boards as in the Committee of Refer¬ 
 ence and Counsel, representing the Protestant missionary 
 organizations of America, or the Continuation Committee, 
 representing the Protestant missionary organizations of 
 the world, the American Board holds a place of large 
 influence and leadership. 
 
 The operations of no other Mission Board cover a wider 
 range of activities or stand for policies that more univer¬ 
 sally demand the respect and confidence of the missionary 
 leaders of all Communions. Its work is carried on in the 
 great countries of the world and among the leading non- 
 Christian races, as the Chinese, the Japanese, the Indian 
 races, the Ceylonese, the Zulus, the Turks and Armenians 
 and Greeks, the Bulgarians, Austrians, Spaniards and 
 Mexicans, to say nothing of many African races, the wild 
 tribes of the Philippines and the scattered peoples in the 
 Micronesian Islands. Of these races, seventy-five million 
 have been set apart as the American Board’s exclusive 
 field. 
 
 The character of its work covers every phase of endeavor 
 that has for its purpose the salvation of the body, mind 
 and soul of every individual, the creation of a society that 
 shall be pervaded by the spirit and power of the Christ 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 7 
 
 and, in a word, the establishing of a permanent Christian 
 civilization. These phases of work include the creation 
 and promotion of the Church of Christ, the organization 
 of the Sunday School, the establishment of hospitals and 
 dispensaries where modern medicine was unknown, the 
 development of the printing press, and the creation of a 
 permanent as well as periodical educational and Christian 
 literature, the promotion of saving and civilizing industries, 
 leadership in moral, social and religious reformation, the 
 creation and enlargement of every form of education from 
 the kindergarten to the college and theological seminary. 
 In fact, the Board is carrying on one of the most compre¬ 
 hensive and world-embracing propaganda for the uplift 
 and redemption of the race that can be conceived. 
 
 In its policies it stands for progressive conservatism. 
 It adheres to old methods that, according to present ex¬ 
 perience, seem to be the best and at the same time adopts 
 new measures that give assurance of better results. A few 
 of these fundamental policies, for some of which the Board 
 stood almost alone for years, but which are now accepted 
 generally by other Boards as the sane and effective method 
 of work, are the following: 
 
 1. That natives of every missionary country must be 
 relied upon to lead in the work of evangelization as well 
 as in all other departments of the enterprise. 
 
 2. That the Native Church, humanly speaking, must 
 find its life and strength not in the foreign missionary, but 
 in the hearts and minds of its native membership. 
 
 3. That the Church which is to dominate the East 
 cannot be a transplanted Occidental Church with its 
 Western secretarian creeds and polity, but it must spring 
 from the Gospel of Christ, from the soil of the land watered 
 from its own Oriental heavens, beaten by its own Oriental 
 storms and warmed by its Oriental life-giving sun. 
 
8 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 4. That the native churches must have their own native 
 pastors, conduct their own services, carry on their own 
 missionary organizations and pay their own bills. 
 
 5. That the missionary’s most important function is to 
 search out and train the men and women in every country 
 who will be able to assume positions of leadership among 
 their own people in every department of missionary en¬ 
 deavor, and to lead the Church in all its varied depart¬ 
 ments, evangelistic, educational, moral and social, to a 
 commanding place of power. 
 
 6. That, in order to secure such leaders, training institu¬ 
 tions must be created and sustained; and this means schools 
 of every grade, academies, colleges, normal schools, theo¬ 
 logical seminaries and professional schools, and in fact every 
 kind of institution that can take untrained boys and girls 
 and make of them leaders of conspicuous power. 
 
 7. That for the training of the people as a whole and for 
 the use of the leaders in particular, the printing press is 
 one of the mighty forces of growth and civilization and so 
 is an indispensable agency in every mission field. 
 
 8. That sectarianism has no just place in missions, and 
 that rivalry among missionaries is a sin. Hence the Ameri¬ 
 can Board puts little emphasis upon the word “Congrega¬ 
 tional” but stands always and everywhere for “the Gospel 
 of Christ and Christianity.” It readily joins with other 
 denominations, wherever such a step promises greater 
 efficiency and economy in educational, literary, medical, 
 theological and even in church organization. 
 
 9. That permanence shall be aimed at rather than quick 
 and superficial returns. The temptation to sacrifice 
 strength and permanence for the sake of superficiaJity is 
 ever present, and to this many societies yield to a greater 
 or less degree. The American Board is not working for 
 today but for eternity, and its endeavor aims at planting 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 9 
 
 permanent, self-supporting, self-directing, self-promoting 
 Christian institutions which shall continue with increasing 
 force and efficiency long after the work of the foreign mis¬ 
 sionary shall have been finished and the Church of Christ 
 in every mission country shall have become triumphant. 
 
 10. There is no need to add that in the selection of mis¬ 
 sionaries, upon whom so much depends for carrying out 
 these policies and directing this stupendous enterprise, 
 men and women of the highest physical, intellectual and 
 spiritual attainments are sought for missionary service. 
 Devotion, unquestioned faith, absolute confidence in the 
 power of the Gospel to redeem the world, intellectual gifts 
 of a high order, ability to comprehend the greatness of the 
 task, statesmanship, Christian daring and self-forgetful 
 heroism, characterize the missionary force of the American 
 Board in all its missions and in every department of its 
 work. 
 
 The great reputation of the Board in America, as in 
 foreign lands, has come largely through the quality of the 
 missionaries. A representative of another Board expressed 
 this with a pleasantry, when he said, “You can tell an 
 American Board missionary as far as you can see him." 
 Such men as Samuel Newell, Gordon Hall, Pliny Fiske, 
 Levi Parsons, William Goodell, Cyrus Hamlin, Titus 
 Coan, Hiram Bingham, Peter Parker, S. Wells Williams, 
 Dr. John Scudder, Aldin Grout, Jerome D. Davis, Daniel 
 Crosby Greene, J. H. De Forest, have given the Board a 
 name and a quality which is beyond computation. 
 
 It is easy to enumerate the things for which the Board 
 stands, as above, because our ideals and policies are now 
 accepted quite generally by all progressive Boards; but it 
 is worth remembering that it was not ever thus. When 
 Rufus Anderson (whom Robt. E. Speer says was the great¬ 
 est missionary secretary America has produced) pro- 
 
10 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 pounded the ideal of “a self-governing, self-supporting, 
 self-propagating Native Church” he was a voice cr>dng 
 in the wilderness. To many such an idea was quite im¬ 
 practicable, if not rank heresy. At the Edinburgh Con¬ 
 ference, 1910, Anderson’s slogan was heard on every side, 
 as the accepted theory of missions. Few, however, re¬ 
 called where it originated. 
 
 By common consent the greatest living authority on 
 missions is Julius Richter, of the Berlin Missionary Society. 
 A few years ago, when invited to sit with the Prudential 
 Committee of the American Board at one of their meetings, 
 he told us that the American Board had made a distinct 
 and invaluable contribution to missionary science in the 
 development of the democratic ideal, that our emphasis 
 upon the rights and responsibilities of the Native Church 
 had led certain British and Continental societies to look 
 upon us wdth disapproval if not with alarm, as advocating 
 a dangerous policy; but that our undoubted success in 
 such lands as Turkey and Japan had convinced them that 
 we are right. He added “You do not exalt as you should 
 the importance of this your contribution to the science of 
 missions.” 
 
 THE OLD BOARD AND THE NEW 
 
 The American Board was organized in 1810 as a private 
 corporation and so it has continued through most of its 
 history. This has sometimes been used as a reproach, 
 but never by those wTo have known the quality and spirit 
 of the corporation, or those who have understood the cir¬ 
 cumstances of its origin and early development. 
 
 It is an historical fsict that the Board, like nearly all the 
 societies in Europe and America organized for foreign 
 work, arose at a time when the churches, with rare excep- 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 II 
 
 tions, “cared for none of these things.” The advocates of 
 foreign missions were an exceedingly small minority, the 
 fragment of a remnant, a voice crying in the wilderness. 
 Under such conditions, there was nothing else to do but 
 to organize independently. To this was added the neces¬ 
 sity of having an interdenominational society, so that 
 others than Congregationalists might participate in the 
 enterprise. Yet it is significant that in our case the action 
 was taken on the advice of an ecclesiastical body, the 
 General Association of Massachusetts. 
 
 Thus arising in enforced freedom from denominational 
 direction and responsibility, the Board has grown into its 
 present dimensions. It has done its work and borne its 
 witness all these years to a world gospel. In the midst 
 of general indifference and occasional opposition, step by 
 step it has won its way, until it has found a large place for 
 itself in the life of the churches. It was indeed a signifi¬ 
 cant event when the churches through their ecclesiastical 
 organizations began to express a willingness to become 
 responsible for the foreign work, and when at the meeting 
 in Worcester in 1893 steps were taken by the Board looking 
 to a corporate membership selected by ecclesiastical 
 bodies, it was recognized that a new era had come. It is 
 not necessary to trace the process of adjustment which 
 grew out of this new attitude; but when in 1913, the Con¬ 
 gregational churches through the National Council agreed 
 to accept full responsibility and to accredit the Board as 
 their agent for foreign work, it should be considered as the 
 consummation of a century-long process of education and 
 persuasion. At last we have the church taking unto itself 
 the task Christ committed to it at the first. Let us not 
 overlook the spiritual significance of this change. Per¬ 
 plexing administrative and financial questions are bound 
 to arise from the new arrangement, but overshadowing all 
 
12 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 these is the great fact that the churches claim the foreign 
 missionary enterprise as their own. This should mean a 
 gain in every way, especially in the matter of locating the 
 place of financial responsibility. There remains not the 
 shadow of excuse for any Congregational Church or Con¬ 
 gregational member not to share in the expense of this 
 work. This new responsibility must be expressed and met 
 in the main by the voluntary service of the delegates to 
 the National Council in their capacity as Corporate Mem¬ 
 bers of the Board. 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 It is a peculiarity of the Board that the officers are not 
 elected by the Prudential Committee, after the manner 
 of banking and commercial corporations, but by the Board 
 itself. They, therefore, constitute a co-ordinate body, 
 deriving their authority from the parent organization, yet 
 working under the direction of the Prudential Committee. 
 Efforts have been made at various times to change this 
 system, but the Board has expressed itself strongly as 
 favoring the present plan. The Prudential Committee is 
 charged with the direct responsibility of administering 
 the affairs of the Board between Annual Meetings. They 
 are the Board in operation. They make the appropria¬ 
 tions, appoint the missionaries, and regulate the affairs of 
 the missions, under the Charter and By-Laws. The 
 executive officers sit with the Committee, present the 
 various items of business, enter freely into the discussions, 
 but have no vote. The officers among themselves are 
 organized for co-operative work by means of the Cabinet, 
 which meets before each Prudential Committee meeting,and 
 at such other times as may be necessary. Every matter 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 13 
 
 coming before the Prudential Committee is first considered 
 in the Cabinet, and is presented by the appropriate officer, 
 with recommendation. When a decision has been reached, 
 the matter is then referred to the officers to be carried out. 
 Thus the officers are both the advisers and the executives 
 of the Committee. The relationship has proved its value 
 through many years, and never was working more harmo¬ 
 niously and effectively than now. 
 
 For executive purposes the administration is divided 
 into the following departments: Foreign Department, 
 Home Department, Treasury Department, Editorial 
 Department. Secretaries assigned to the several depart¬ 
 ments not only have responsibility for the affairs of their 
 department, but they also are charged with a responsibility 
 toward all the work of the Board, the relation among them¬ 
 selves being a collegiate one. Thus each officer is kept 
 intelligent upon all the activities of the Board abroad and 
 at home. 
 
 The Prudential Committee subdivides its work by a 
 system of minor committees on the various missions and 
 departments, finance, appropriations, legacies, etc. The 
 Finance Committee, acting with the Treasury Depart¬ 
 ment, is charged with so many and such grave responsi¬ 
 bilities in the matter of the Board’s investments and 
 financial problems arising from the field, that it meets not 
 less than once a week. The Prudential Committee meets 
 about thirty times a year, on Tuesday afternoons, from 
 two to five. 
 
 KEEPING INFORMED 
 
 If any corporate member asks what is his first duty, the 
 answer should be: The first duty of a corporate member is 
 to keep informed upon the work and needs of the Board. 
 
14 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 Information underlies both prayer and work. This in¬ 
 formation is to be obtained in the various publications of 
 the Board, and so the first duty comes down to this, read 
 what the Board sends out. 
 
 First of all comes the Missionary Herald, the monthly 
 illustrated magazine (75c. a year; in clubs of ten or more 
 50C. each) which portrays what is happening not only on 
 the Board’s fields, but in all the foreign mission lands. 
 It is a modern, wide-awake and effective publication, “the 
 sort of magazine,’’ one of the corporate members said, 
 “that a man likes to see lying on his library table.’’ It 
 has news value, artistic merit and literary charm. 
 
 The Missionary Herald is the oldest and best known 
 missionary magazine in the country. It began as the 
 Panoplist in 1805 and became the Missionary Herald in 
 1818. It holds a unique place among religious periodicals 
 —a place which other foreign Boards are quick to recog¬ 
 nize. Talcott Williams, Head of the Pulitzer School of 
 Journalism, and other students of publicity have expressed 
 their admiration for the Herald, and their constant indebt¬ 
 edness to it. Edward Everett Hale used to speak of the 
 influence of the Herald in making New Englanders ac¬ 
 quainted with foreign lands, and in keeping them from 
 provincialism. 
 
 The Herald is one of the Board’s choicest assets. The 
 large legacies, those running above $100,000, can usually 
 be traced to the influence of this magazine, as well as mul¬ 
 titudes of smaller legacies. 
 
 The largest legacy which the Board has received was 
 from Asa Otis, of New London, Conn., amounting to nearly 
 $1,000,000. It was reading the Missionary Herald that 
 led Mr. Otis to make this princely bequest. In the matter 
 of individual gifts and special donations for property and 
 equipment, the Herald is unquestionably our greatest ally. 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 15 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that anything which should hinder, 
 limit or complicate the distinctive appeal of the Herald in 
 behalf of foreign missions would be a disaster to the Board. 
 
 The Herald, too, serves as an organ and circulating me¬ 
 dium among the missionaries and native workers on the 
 field. If it performed no other function than this, the 
 magazine would be worth while. It binds us all together 
 in nineteen missions and in the home land, making each 
 one acquainted with what all the others are doing. 
 
 The constituency of the Herald is not as large as it should 
 be, but it is an exceedingly choice one, and by common 
 consent we are reaching this constituency in an effective 
 way. No money appropriated by the Board in the line 
 of home cultivation, produces such large returns as what is 
 spent on this publication. The large free list (all corpo¬ 
 rate members, honorary members, pastors) makes a paying 
 magazine out of the question, but what business firm would 
 hesitate to spend $10,000 a year if it was certain to bring 
 in $100,000? The Herald has done even better than that. 
 
 The upshot of it all is that the corporate members should 
 read the Herald, commend it to their friends, and push it 
 in their churches. Is it too much to ask that we should 
 have a Herald Club in every Church to which a corporate 
 member belongs? 
 
 Two quarterly publications are the Envelope Series and 
 and News Bulletin. The former (loc. a year) presents in 
 handy pamphlet form single articles of note, usually illus¬ 
 trated, describing some department of work, or some field, 
 the career of a distinguished missionary, or a fresh putting 
 of the foreign missionary argument. Each number is 
 complete in itself, and has a special message to declare. 
 
 The News Bulletin is issued by the Home Department 
 (without charge) in circular form and relates in crisp fash¬ 
 ion some of the most recent and most stirring facts from 
 the many fields. It is somewhat of a free lance among the 
 
i6 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 publications of the Board and, as it is sent to a carefully 
 gathered list of individuals all over the United States, it 
 carries the personal greetings of one of the Board’s officers 
 to a large and responsive branch of our constituency. 
 
 The annual publications are two: The Annual Report, 
 and the Almanac. If the title Annual Report looks some¬ 
 what formal and uninviting, the volume (30c. a copy) is 
 quite the contrary. It contains facts and figures as, of 
 course, it should in reviewing the work of a year. It 
 locates all the missionaries, describes all the institutions, 
 surv^eys the several departments of activity in each field. 
 It narrates the events of the year at the home base; sum¬ 
 marizes the work of the officers, the Prudential Committee, 
 and the District Offices. It preserv^es the minutes of the 
 Annual Meeting, and records the actions there taken. 
 The full report of the Treasury is included, with lists of 
 the trust funds and investments held by the Board and 
 detailed statement of expenditures. It is the authorita¬ 
 tive record of that year in the Board’s history which it 
 reviews, and as such is of quite exceptional importance. 
 From its pages too may be got a bird’s eye view of the mis¬ 
 sion fields and their currents of life, together with numer¬ 
 ous incidents and experiences of the year just closed that 
 are specially significant. There is a wealth of information, 
 accurate and effective information in one of these Reports, 
 which an enterprising Corporate Member could use in mis¬ 
 sionary addresses, and in planning programs. 
 
 The Almanac (loc. a copy) is one of the most attractive 
 publications of the Board. It abounds in pictures and 
 appears each year in a cover of fresh and striking design. 
 Within its small compass it presents the usual information 
 of an almanac together with the facts and figures of foreign 
 missionary work for the preceding year. Its descriptions 
 of the situation and outlook of the several countries passed 
 in review are of themselves worth more than the cost of 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 17 
 
 the annual. The Almanac holds a unique place and is 
 greatly admired by other boards. 
 
 Besides these regular issues, the Board provides, as has 
 been said, occasional leaflets and pamphlets, descriptive 
 of some phase of its work or enforcing one or more of its 
 appeals. The names of a few of these (for which no charge 
 is made) will indicate their nature: The American Board, 
 What It Is, How It Works, Where It Works, The Forces at 
 Work, Our Conditional Gift Plan; The Missionary Reading 
 Circle; Some Things the War Hasn't Stopped. A booklet 
 entitled Maps of the Missions (15c.) contains a series of 
 thirteen maps in four colors, showing all the mission fields 
 with location of mission stations and of many outstations. 
 
 We have dwelt with some detail upon this matter of 
 the Board’s publications because we believe it to be of 
 prime importance in addressing our new corporate mem¬ 
 bers. We feel sure they will be eager to learn as to how 
 they can inform themselves concerning the American 
 Board and its work. A prerequisite to rendering service 
 is a knowledge of that which one would serve. To get 
 acquainted with the foreign missionary enterprise—that is 
 the first step to promoting it. 
 
 Several of the publications of the Board are sent to Cor“ 
 porate Members without charge. The list includes the 
 Missionary Herald, the Annual Report, and the Quarterly 
 News Bulletin. The others are obtainable upon applica¬ 
 tion without charge or at the nominal price indicated. We 
 commend them all to your attention; we urge that you read 
 them regularly, carefully and sympathetically. Back of 
 your interest, your prayers, your gifts, your support in 
 every way, lies the need of information. The publications 
 of the Board are meant to furnish you that information. 
 They will make you intelligent and capable corporate 
 members. 
 
i8 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 PUBLICITY ' 
 
 The American Board is sending every week to thirty 
 metropolitan papers in the country and every month to 
 two hundred or more papers in smaller centers, items of 
 news from its mission fields, stories of persons and events 
 that reflect some of the aspects of foreign missionary work 
 that are full of human interest. It finds a warm welcome 
 for this material. The newspapers are glad to get it and 
 print it conspicuously. Partly because its name. The 
 American Board, is broad and unsectarian in sound, partly 
 because care is given to the selection and preparation of 
 the material, in part too because the secular press has 
 waked up to the fact that foreign missions are a world 
 force and produce information having news value, this 
 newly organized Publicity Department of the Board finds 
 an open and rewarding field for its activity. Corporate 
 Members rendered valued service at first, in introducing 
 the Department and its wares to papers in their localities. 
 Now that the connection is made the Board finds itself in 
 direct and cordial touch with many of the leading news¬ 
 papers of the country. 
 
 PRAYER FOR THE MISSIONARIES 
 
 The missionaries have expressed at various times, and in 
 various ways their deep longing for more prayer in their 
 behalf on the part of the home constituency. It was at 
 their own request that a cycle of prayer for the entire 
 missionary force was formed, and a calendar of prayer 
 issued annually. In this calendar each missionary is 
 mentioned by name on a certain day. The Corporate 
 Members can easily imagine what it means to a given mis- 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 19 
 
 sionary when his day arrives, and he knows that all his 
 fellow missionaries are remembering him by name at the 
 Throne of Grace, and that in addition to this, many per¬ 
 sonal friends and devout Christians at home are also pray¬ 
 ing that he may be guided, strengthened and blessed. 
 Letters from the missionaries showing the appreciation of 
 the prayer-calendar are pathetic and appealing. Could 
 our Corporate Members realize the value of this service of 
 intercession, we are confident that each one would secure 
 one of these calendars, keep it on his desk or close at hand, 
 and use it as a guide to prayer throughout the year. 
 
 In this connection, mention might be made of the daily 
 prayer meeting in the Board rooms from 12.20 to 12.30, 
 when the officers and office staff pause in their work, and 
 when they invariably mention by name the missionary for 
 the day. It would greatly strengthen the hands of the 
 officers of the Board, if they could feel that the Corporate 
 Members occasionally remembered them as well as the 
 missionaries at this or some other convenient time. 
 
 One of our Corporate Members, who has only missed 
 two annual meetings in twenty-seven years, has been mak¬ 
 ing a study of the matter of missionary intercession in the 
 pulpit, and he finds a sad lack in this respect. We pass 
 his observation along, hoping that it may bear fruit in 
 many of our churches. Should these words result in 
 definite prayer for the American Board and the American 
 Board Missionaries being introduced in scores of pulpits 
 every Sunday, may we not be assured that the year upon 
 which we are entering, so full of practical difficulties and 
 baffling problems, will prove to be the greatest year in the 
 history of the Board? “Brethren pray for us.” 
 
20 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 ATTENDANCE UPON ANNUAL MEETINGS 
 
 It is taken for granted that Corporate Members will 
 plan to attend the Annual Meetings which correspond with 
 the biennial sessions of the Council, but we wish to urge 
 that the intervening meetings on the even years are of 
 equal if not of greater importance. In Council years it is 
 impossible for the Board to be given sufficient time for the 
 proper presentation of its work. We, therefore, rely the 
 more upon the full program of a nine session meeting in 
 other years. In former days the Annual Meetings of the 
 American Board were noteworthy occasions throughout the 
 country. These occasions, for spiritual power and mis¬ 
 sionary enthusiasm were unique. It is the hope of the 
 officers of the Board that under the new arrangement the 
 meetings in the even years will be of the old time character. 
 This will only be possible if we have a large attendance of 
 Corporate Members. Is it unreasonable to expect that a 
 person accepting this office will make it an annual engage¬ 
 ment to attend the meetings so long as his term runs, 
 in even years alternating between home and foreign 
 missions? 
 
 THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S AND EDUCATIONAL 
 
 DEPARTMENT 
 
 This is not a separate department but is a section of the 
 Home Department of the Board. It aims to spread mis¬ 
 sion study plans among young people’s societies and in¬ 
 formation from the field through every department of the 
 church. Each autumn circulars outlining new plans and 
 material are sent to the Sunday School superintendents. 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 21 
 
 while from time to time during the year printed messages 
 are sent to pastors and to the leaders of young people’s 
 work. Through correspondence with a selected list of 
 leaders in the denomination; through addresses at asso¬ 
 ciations, conferences, conventions and individual churches; 
 through the writing of articles on missionary education; 
 through various pamphlets and through a system of report 
 letters, representing the work of many stations and indi¬ 
 vidual missionaries on the field, this department strives 
 to stir interest. 
 
 Anything that Corporate Members can do to turn the 
 attention of missionary chairmen, Sunday School super¬ 
 intendents and pastors toward the plans proposed by us 
 would be a genuine help. 
 
 I. Mission Study 
 
 There are mission study plans for each department of 
 the church. We urge the use of the regular Missionary 
 Education Movement text books as prepared from year 
 to year. We would like to see a mission study class in 
 every young people’s society. It is not easy to run a suc¬ 
 cessful class, but it is the best method for producing in¬ 
 tensively trained leaders. The official text book for the 
 year ought to be reviewed by every pastor in a course of 
 two or three consecutive talks in his mid-week prayer 
 meeting. The assistance of three or four young people in 
 preparing and presenting assignments from the book will 
 add interest. Some pastors have given this course^ in 
 their evening services with great success. Sunday School 
 teachers often give an outline course from these books to 
 their classes. 
 
22 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 II. In the Sunday School 
 
 Each fall we send to every superintendent and pastor» 
 plans for brief and simple missionary programs. The 
 material is usually taken from our pamphlets with sugges¬ 
 tions on how to make it interesting to young people. 
 Some schools try to present a missionary incident in five 
 minutes from Sunday to Sunday, while others prefer a 
 ten-minute program once a month or an occasional full 
 program. 
 
 The autumn months are set aside hy joint agreement with 
 the Homeland Societies for foreign missionary education in 
 the work of the American Board. 
 
 The Christmas Exercise is sent out free of cost by the 
 Board for use in the Schools. This exercise is prepared 
 with great care, using the famous Christmas hymns of 
 the Church and reducing the preparation to a mimimum. 
 A Supplement explains the preparation and gives the full 
 words of all assigned parts. It is hoped that Corporate 
 Members will speak to pastors and superintendents and 
 have these Exercises used wherever possible. Collection 
 Envelopes are furnished so the children can collect their 
 gifts and bring them in at the Christmas celebration. 
 
 III. Missionary Offerings 
 
 The Board has a right to expect a gift from every Con¬ 
 gregational Sunday School, yet a very small percentage 
 now send us anything at all. These gifts are applicable 
 on the Apportionment Plan, and are reported carefully in 
 the Year Book, unless they are sent as “specials.” No 
 department of the church ought to send “specials” to the 
 field. These should come from individuals as extra gifts 
 over and above regular subscriptions. Corporate Mem¬ 
 bers can help this-department by urging our Sunday 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 23 
 
 Schools and Young People’s Societies to keep in touch with 
 us, and by asking from time to time whether the young 
 people of the church have made their regular gifts to the 
 American Board. There is a wide-spread, but fallacious 
 idea, that the young people are expected to give to the 
 Woman’s Board more than to the American Board. No 
 such principle has ever been stated or suggested. The 
 Board expects gifts from every Sunday School and every 
 young people’s society. 
 
 This department offers four report letters a year to 
 Sunday Schools and Societies who wish to make a definite 
 investment under the Station Plan." These letters are 
 now prepared from a dozen stations. We try to encourage 
 these definite assignments of gifts so long as the money 
 comes to the Board’s regular treasury and is not sent as a 
 “special.” 
 
 PERSONAL CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the history of the Board 
 know full well how much the success of the work financially 
 has depended upon the generosity of individual Corporate 
 Members. Not only have the Corporate Members felt 
 the special obligation in the matter of contributing through 
 the local church, but not a few of them have considered 
 it a privilege and joy to make additional gifts directly to 
 the Treasury of the Board, especially in times of great 
 need, as at the close of the year when a debt is impending. 
 Many instances of this kind could be cited. We recall 
 one Corporate Member who never left on a long vacation 
 without inquiring of the Home Department as to the 
 financial situation, and sending a sizeable check in response, 
 at one time running into four figures. Dotted over our 
 
24 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 nineteen missions are hospitals, schools, college buildings, 
 churches, which are the silent memorials of generosity of 
 this kind. The Board is what it is today in no small 
 measure because of the splendid devotion of the Corporate 
 Body. Now that the number of Corporate Members is 
 so greatly enlarged, some think that the sense of personal 
 responsibility will become so attenuated as to deprive us 
 of this important source of income. It should work in 
 exactly the opposite way, and the receipts of the Board 
 under the very first year of the plan, ought to demonstrate 
 the fallacy of the above criticism. 
 
 REGULAR AND SPECIAL GIFTS 
 
 The Corporate Members, as those officially charged 
 with fundamental responsibility, should be jealous to 
 guard the interests of the general treasury of the Board, 
 and should never contribute toward special funds and 
 needs at the expense of our regular work. At the same 
 time, there are so many important and beautiful tasks 
 to perform in our growing fields that the one who, after 
 fulfilling his duty toward the general work, is able to make 
 a special offering, should be counted most happy. 
 
 The distinction between “Regular gifts” and “Specials” 
 should be kept clearly in mind. Regular gifts are those 
 which come to the Board undesignated, so that they may 
 apply on the general budget of appropriations. “Specials” 
 are those which are designated by the donor for objects 
 outside of the appropriations. An examination of the 
 Treasurer’s Report will show that the Board received 
 last year $127,994.15 in special gifts. This was made up 
 of a multitude of small items—gifts from Sunday Schools, 
 Endeavor Societies, personal friends of missionaries, 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 25 
 
 and others for work under the hand of some particular 
 missionary; but also of large items for property and equip¬ 
 ment. The acquiring of land and the erection of suitable 
 buildings for schools, colleges, hospitals, etc., from the 
 beginning has been provided for by specials, it being im¬ 
 possible for the Committee to cover these unusual outlays 
 under the regular budget. It should not be inferred, 
 therefore, that the officers of the Board deprecate the 
 making of special gifts. They simply urge that the needs 
 of the general Treasury should be met before these other 
 things are attended to. 
 
 LEGACIES 
 
 The American Board has a wonderful record in the 
 matter of legacies. Recently Dr. Halsey, the Home 
 Secretary of the Presbyterian Board, made an investi¬ 
 gation for the benefit of the Foreign Missionary Confer¬ 
 ence, of the record of the four leading Foreign Boards in 
 the matter of legacy receipts. This record shows that 
 our Board led all the others at that time, namely in 1910, 
 the totals for the twenty preceding years being as follows: 
 
 Congregational. $6,136,285.00 
 
 Presbyterian. 3.387,615 • 00 
 
 Baptist. 2,241,729.00 
 
 Methodist. 1,829,643.00 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the American Board, during 
 that period, received nearly as much as the other three 
 Boards combined. 
 
 The remark is frequently made that the day of large 
 and many legacies is past. There is no ground for this 
 assumption. On the contrary, we have every reason to 
 
26 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 believe that the Board will receive an increasing revenue 
 from this source. The Treasurer has on his files all the time 
 anywhere from one hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 pending legacy cases, estates in various stages of settle¬ 
 ment. The Board is so well grounded in the confidence 
 and affection of its constituents that the number and size 
 of legacies should steadily increase. Through the opera¬ 
 tion of the Twentieth Century Fund, all receipts of legacies 
 are equalized through the years, so that we are able to 
 maintain a fairly calculable level of income from this 
 source, with a general tendency toward increase. 
 
 It is sometimes said that no reputable citizen of Boston 
 v/ith property would dare to die without making his will 
 in favor of Harvard University. Perhaps sometime a 
 similar remark will be made in regard to the Congregation- 
 alists with reference to the American Board. Great 
 sums, running far up into the millions, are needed if we 
 are to meet our responsibilities toward the evangelization 
 of the seventy-five million souls placed under our care in 
 different parts of the world. Even though the gifts of 
 the churches should steadily increase, we shall always 
 need the larger sums coming by bequest. Looking ahead 
 twenty or twenty-five years, we should expect that in 
 this way the work of the Board will be greatly enlarged 
 and strengthened in every field. With nineteen colleges 
 and thirty-three hospitals on our hands, not to mention 
 other institutions, there is an insistent call for sizeable 
 gifts. 
 
 The Board issues a leaflet entitled “The American 
 Board and Your Will.” It also issues a special leaflet 
 for the use of lawyers and others whose advice is sought 
 in the matter of legacies. We should be glad to have the 
 Corporate Members commend these leaflets to their 
 friends. A pastor, by a few words of commendation of 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 27 
 
 the Board's work and claims, may cause a legacy to be 
 written which will bring more money to the Board’s 
 Treasury than would come through the offerings of his 
 church for many years. Here is a fruitful field for activity 
 on the part of the Corporate Body. 
 
 CONDITIONAL GIFTS 
 
 A similar opportunity is found in building up our Con¬ 
 ditional Gift Fund. This is an arrangement, now well 
 understood, whereby people can bestow their property 
 upon the Board during lifetime, and receive an annuity 
 for the same, the rate varying with the age at the time the 
 gift is made. The character of this work, together with 
 the Board’s financial standing, has made it possible for 
 this fund to be built up to an impressive figure ($955,394 
 in 1915). Over three hundred persons are now receiving 
 a stated income through this fund and one and all, they are 
 delighted with the arrangement. This fund can be built 
 up indefinitely if its advantages are made known. It 
 offers one of our largest encouragements for the future. 
 We have special literature on the subject, and shall be glad 
 to equip the Corporate Members with all the needed 
 information. 
 
 THE APPORTIONMENT PLAN 
 
 So much has been written and said on this subject, that 
 the matter may be dismisssed here with brief mention. 
 By the suggestion of the Commission on Missions, with the 
 approval of the National Council, the churches are asked 
 to raise for the general work of the American Board, in 
 
28 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 distinction from the Woman’s Boards $560,000. For the 
 Woman’s Boards the sum of $300,000 is asked as a sepa¬ 
 rate apportionment. On the percentage basis the Board’s 
 share of the entire denominational benevolence would be 
 28 per cent,—The Woman’s Boards’ share 15 per cent. 
 Total percentage, 43. This was the ideal set when this 
 important plan was inaugurated. In some of the states, 
 however, it has been felt that on account of the heavy 
 pressure of Home Missionary work, the above percentage 
 could not be raised for Foreign Missions, and the figures 
 have been changed to suit the local situation. It is not 
 in the province of the officers of the Board to decide this 
 matter, nor would they think themselves competent to 
 express any definite opinion in a given case. The churches, 
 through their state organizations, have the matter in their 
 own hands, and must of course be trusted to act conscien¬ 
 tiously with reference to the whole task which Christ has 
 given us to do. We merely call attention to the danger, 
 where changes are made in the national apportionment, of 
 slighting the foreign work. The non-Christian world 
 seems far oft to many, and the appeal of the heathen 
 nations so vague that this aspect of our common task is 
 more easily relegated to the rear than any other. In the 
 State Conference, the District Association and the local 
 church, w^e trust the Corporate Members will have it on 
 their hearts to see that the Board is properly provided for 
 when the allotments are made. 
 
 The Commission on Missions has pointed out the grave 
 danger of our benevolence becoming mechanical through 
 over emphasis upon apportionment. Perhaps the Ameri¬ 
 can Board can be of special help to the churches at this 
 point. Its work is so entirely altruistic that it can be 
 advanced only on the basis of a genuine spiritual appeal. 
 Mechanical and mathematical conceptions of benevolence 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 29 
 
 would be absolutely fatal in a work of this kind. The 
 more should we seek to emphasize its relation to our Lord’s 
 command and program for the world, and its bearing upon 
 the development of the Christian life. 
 
 It has sometimes been said that the reflex influence of 
 the foreign work is as great as the service rendered abroad. 
 However that may be, the Board should render a spiritual 
 service to the churches of incalculable amount. The 
 church which omits to contribute to the Board injures 
 itself. 
 
 LEADERSHIP IN THE LOCAL CHURCH 
 
 The Board has about nine hundred Corporate Members 
 under the new plan. They possibly represent six hundred 
 churches. This should mean that the Board has an ac¬ 
 credited, responsible agent in all these organizations. Is 
 it unreasonable to expect that each Corporate Member will 
 consider himself in that light, and that in his own church 
 he will seek to advance the interests of the Board by per¬ 
 sonal giving, by pushing the educational and financial 
 plans of the Board, by cultivation of the prayer-life of 
 the people, and by seeking out likely young men and 
 young women who may be led to offer themselves for the 
 foreign service? 
 
 Through the Apportionment Plan, now fairly well es¬ 
 tablished, such efforts will at the same time advance all 
 our interests as a denomination, and there should be no 
 sense of competition on our part. Most of the educa¬ 
 tional and financial plans in which we join relate to all 
 our benevolent societies, so that what is done for one is 
 done for all. 
 
 Certain things may be urged as widely accepted and 
 as necessary to an efficient church. These are: A Mis- 
 
30 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 sionary Committee, representing all the benevolent in¬ 
 terests and departments of the church; An educational 
 program running through the year, involving missionary 
 sermons, illustrated lectures, addresses by missionaries 
 and secretaries; missions in the Sunday School; Mission 
 Study Classes; the observance of special missionary occa¬ 
 sions, like Christmas and Easter; the every member 
 canvass. The whole range of missionary activity in the 
 local church should be studied each year, and suitable 
 plans made. Here almost any Corporate Member will 
 find a fruitful field. 
 
 The Every Member Canvass, originating with the 
 Laymen’s Missionary Movement, has come to be recog¬ 
 nized far and wide as, under ordinary circumstances, the 
 best method of financing the missionary budget. It 
 involves a definite goal or budget, the securing of pledges 
 by a personal canvass conducted by a large number of 
 teams working two by two on a given Sunday afternoon, 
 and the gathering in of the pledges throughout the year 
 by the weekly envelope system. Undoubtedly there are 
 churches with plans of benevolence well established where 
 it might not be wise to undertake this method; but in the 
 vast majority of cases, by common consent, this is the 
 way. Much literature on the subject is issued by the 
 Laymen’s Missionary Movement and by our National 
 Council. 
 
 LEADERSHIP IN ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES 
 
 Delegates to the National Council represent District 
 Associations and State Conferences, who elect them also 
 with reference to Corporate Membership in the American 
 Board. They are the ones naturally, to advance the 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 31 
 
 interests of the Board in the Districts and States. Lines 
 of activity which some have followed are: Seeing that 
 Foreign Missions are strongly represented on Association 
 and Conference Programs; visitation of the churches where 
 no interest in this work obtains; correspondence with 
 pastors and laymen in non-contributing or small contribut¬ 
 ing churches; careful attention to making up of appor¬ 
 tionment figures to see that the American Board does not 
 suffer when the allotments are suggested to local churches; 
 arranging with the District Officers of the Board to have 
 missionaries on furlough visit the churches of a certain 
 locality or district. 
 
 One Corporate Member in a western state had the work 
 of the Board so much on his heart that he made up a team 
 for the visitation of the leading church centers, consisting of 
 himself, another pastor, a District Secretary of the Board, 
 and a missionary. With this team he toured the state, 
 stirring up great interest, and endeavoring to have each 
 church assigned a definite share of the Board’s work under 
 the Station Plan. If a Corporate Member is qualified 
 for such work, and could give a week of his time in the 
 service, it would be of immense value. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED LECTURES 
 
 Let us speak also of the illustrated lectures which can 
 be obtained at any office of the Board. Some thirty in 
 number, these lectures cover all the fields of the Board, 
 and the various departments of the work. They were 
 used over two thousand times the past year. Some of the 
 lectures are in such demand that they are booked a year 
 in advance. Stereopticon slides are selected from the best 
 material available and are accompanied by reading notes 
 
32 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 made as interesting as possible. The Board is seeking to 
 improve its lectures, and we feel that we can commend this 
 method of education to all our members. We find the 
 lectures particularly effective at the mid-week prayer 
 meeting. 
 
 THE AMERICAN BOARD AND THE 
 WOMAN’S BOARDS 
 
 The relationship between these is frequently misun¬ 
 derstood. Every Corporate Member should have the 
 matter clearly in mind. The women have developed their 
 work to its present splendid proportions largely because 
 they have been willing to assume such a large measure of 
 administrative and financial responsibility. These organ¬ 
 izations are not, as in some denominations, mere collect¬ 
 ing agencies, turning their gifts over to the general Board 
 without being charged in any manner with the conduct of 
 the work. On the contrary, the Woman’s Boards have 
 been asked to become entirely responsible for the support 
 of the unmarried women missionaries and for the conduct 
 of the work under their hands. This constitutes about one 
 third of the entire task. The responsibility is a grave one, 
 and under the most favorable conditions can only be met 
 by the untiring and self-sacrificing labor of the women of 
 our churches. The success of this plan of co-operation 
 through nearly fifty years should be sufficient answer 
 to those who criticise minor details and occasional in¬ 
 felicities. 
 
 Each Woman’s Board has its separate Treasury, collects 
 its own gifts and legacies, and makes its own appropria¬ 
 tions. These appropriations are incorporated with those 
 of the general Board, so that there may not be confusion 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 33 
 
 on the field, and, for a similar reason, each missionary of 
 a Woman’s Board is a missionary of the American Board. 
 The arrangement is becoming increasingly efficient. We 
 trust the appeals of the parent society and of the co-op¬ 
 erating organizations among the women may be kept 
 distinct, so that each may receive its share in a scheme of 
 well balanced benevolence. 
 
 INTERDENOMINATIONAL CO-OPERATION 
 
 The Foreign Boards of the various communions in the 
 United States and Canada, together with other agencies 
 carrying on foreign work, are organized for consultation 
 and co-operation in the “Foreign Missions Conference of 
 North America” (Secretary, W. Henry Grant, 156 5th 
 Ave., New York). This organization has been in existence 
 for twenty-three years, and is proving to be a large factor 
 in promoting efficiency in the various Boards, as well as in 
 developing union movements. It meets once a year at 
 Garden City, Long Island. The Conference between 
 meetings carries on its business mainly through two com¬ 
 mittees, the Committee on Reference and Council and the 
 Committee on the Home Base. The former committee 
 considers all matters relating to the actual conduct of the 
 work on the field, and conducts such negotiations with 
 Governments as require joint action. It also acts as the 
 Executive Committee of the Conference. The Home 
 Base Committee is charged with direction of the action of 
 the Boards in all matters relating to the home constitu¬ 
 ency. The Conference also conducts the Board of Mis¬ 
 sionary Preparation, of which F. K. Sanders, D. D., is the 
 secretary. This Board, of recent creation, is performing 
 an invaluable service in promoting special missionary 
 
34 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 training. It has issued a series of pamphlets on the 
 preparation of missionaries for each field, and for each 
 department of the work. It also co-operates with theologi¬ 
 cal seminaries and missionary training schools in the 
 development of suitable courses for the training of foreign 
 workers. 
 
 There are three other interdenominational agencies 
 which have proved their value to the Foreign Boards. 
 These are: The Student Volunteer Movement, The 
 Missionary Education Movement, The Laymen’s Mis¬ 
 sionary Movement. 
 
 The Student Volunteer Movement (25 Madison Ave., 
 New York) is a recruiting agency for the Foreign Boards. 
 Through its traveling secretaries it reaches all the colleges 
 and academies of the country every two years, and brings 
 together a great convention of student volunteers once in 
 four years. The work of this organization is becoming 
 increasingly valuable. Since the .supply of Congrega¬ 
 tional candidates is quite inadequate to meet the needs of 
 our missions, we are obliged to depend upon those coming 
 to us from other bodies. Without the aid of the Student 
 Volunteer Movement, candidates from these other bodies 
 would rarely find their way into our ranks. In our own Con¬ 
 gregational institutions, also, the influence of the Student 
 Volunteer Movement is found to be of great value. Natu¬ 
 rally, this is an organization which deals mainly with the 
 secretaries of the Home Department, but its service should 
 be appreciated by a wider circle. 
 
 The Missionary Education Movement (156 5th Ave., 
 New York; General Secretary, Mr. Harry Wade Hicks) is 
 a federation of the Foreign and Home Boards for the pro¬ 
 motion of missionary education at the home base. Its 
 main activities are: The publishing of text books for 
 Mission Study Circles and Sunday Schools, holding Sum- 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 35 
 
 mer Conferences for the training of teachers and workers, 
 and arranging for missionary exhibitions. 
 
 The La^^men’s Missionary Movement (i Madison Ave., 
 New York) is a direct outcome of the Haystack Centen¬ 
 nial of the Board in 1910. Following our great meetings 
 at Williamstown, Mass., around the Haystack Monument, 
 there was held in New York City a meeting of prominent 
 laymen of the different denominations to devise a plan 
 for promoting the cause of Foreign Missions among busi¬ 
 ness men along interdenominational lines. Out of this 
 conference arose the Laymen’s Missionary Movement. 
 Throughout the churches in the United States and Canada, 
 the movement has been singularly blessed, especially in 
 the matter of enlarging the lay constituency of the Boards 
 and in promoting efficient plans of church beneficence. 
 Of late it has enlarged its scope to include Home Missions. 
 
 A POLICY OF FRANKNESS 
 
 The Corporate Members may count upon the officers 
 of the Board and the Prudential Committee dealing with 
 them in an entirely frank and sincere way. This perhaps 
 should not need mentioning, but we occasionally hear 
 remarks and receive letters in response to our appeals 
 based upon the idea that the real condition of the Board 
 is not always made known to the constituents. The 
 friends of the Board should realize that in a work of such 
 magnitude, involving operations all over the world, and 
 where all sorts of contingencies are liable to arise, it is 
 impossible for the Treasurer to know exactly how we stand 
 at a given time, or to estimate with mathematical preci¬ 
 sion the outcome of the year. 
 
 The Treasurer reports to the Prudential Committee 
 
36 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 periodically, both as to income and outgo, and toward the 
 close of the fiscal year, he presents a careful estimate of the 
 situation. The appeals which are sent out to the Cor¬ 
 porate Members and other friends are as accurate and as 
 candid as the circumstances allow. Never is it sought to 
 alarm our constituents unduly. If there is encouragement, 
 we make the fact known. If there are rocks ahead, we 
 point them out. It should, however, be kept clearly in 
 mind that unless the Board kept appealing in the most 
 earnest way throughout the year, and especially at the 
 end, there would invariably be a large deficiency when the 
 books closed. The fact that we come through successfully 
 in a given year, after solemn warning as to danger of debt, 
 is no evidence that the appeal was unwarranted. Quite 
 the other way. Were it not for the appeal, with its note 
 of alarm, there would have been a debt of considerable 
 size. 
 
 At all times, the books of the Board and the records 
 of the Prudential Committee, and in fact all the on-goings 
 of the organization are open to the inspection of the Cor¬ 
 porate Members. The officers of the Board heartily wel¬ 
 come calls by Corporate Members and letters of inquiry, 
 if any point needs clearing up. We love to think of the 
 Board as one grand partnership with our missionaries on 
 the field, each standing to his task as God has assigned 
 that task. 
 
 IN CONCLUSION 
 
 Three generations of missionaries abroad and givers 
 and workers at home have brought the American Board 
 to its present strong position. Those who have served as 
 Corporate Members in the past have regarded the position 
 as bringing great honor and great responsibility. It is 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 37 
 
 recognized that we have now started upon a new era. 
 The full development of the representative principle has 
 led to linking up the Board with the National Council and 
 the other benevolent agencies of the Congregational 
 churches. The possibilities for good in this plan are great. 
 But there are dangers. The chief danger is that Cor¬ 
 porate Members standing for so many denominational 
 interests will not be inclined or able to render effective 
 service to any one interest. The old idea was to elect to 
 membership those who have shown themselves genuinely 
 interested in Foreign Missions. That this theory has 
 proved effective on the whole, none will deny. The 
 status of the Board today attests it. Unfortunately there 
 was involved in the theory the assumption that most of 
 our pastors and church members are not interested in 
 Foreign Missions. We believe the time has come when 
 the Church at large should be trusted with this enterprise, 
 that the Church is ready for it, and that the Board should 
 gain by the process. There should be more general giv¬ 
 ing, more generous giving, and more educational work 
 under the new plan. It is in the hands of the Corporate 
 Members to bring thjis about. Let us all, officers, mem¬ 
 bers of the Prudential Committee, Corporate Members, 
 work in close harmony to this end. It is a glorious fel¬ 
 lowship. 
 

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 " APPEND^ 
 
 
 MILESTONES IN THE BOARD’S HISTORY 
 
 18o^—.Great revival in Yale College. Mothers conse¬ 
 crated their children to the cause of missions, among 
 them the mother of Samuel J. Mills. Lyman 
 Beecher said that “the American Board originated 
 in the revivals at the end of the eighteenth and the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century.” 
 
 1806—Meeting of five students of Williams College under 
 a haystack to pray for the evangelization of the 
 world, when Mills uttered the famous words, “We 
 can do it, if we will.” “Then and there began the 
 preparations for a new Turkish empire, a consti¬ 
 tutional government for Japan and a modernized 
 China,” said Dr. J. L. Barton, at Minneapolis, 1909. 
 
 1810—The American Board organized with nine commis¬ 
 sioners at Bradford, Mass., June 29, by the General 
 Association of Congregational Ministers. First 
 meeting, September 5, at the home of Noah Porter, 
 Farmington, Conn., with five present. “Scarcely 
 had the Board gone from my house,” said Mr. 
 Porter, “when my father, seventy-four years old, 
 said to my wife, ‘How much ought I to give to 
 this object?’ ‘Five hundred dollars,’ was the 
 instant reply. This was probably one-fourth or 
 one-fifth of all he possessed. ” 
 
 1812—Five young men ordained as missionaries at the 
 Tabernacle Church, Salem, February 6—Adoniram 
 Judson, Samuel Nott, Jr., Samuel Newell, Gordon 
 Hall and Luther Rice. On reaching Calcutta, they 
 were ordered home by the British East India Co. 
 
cy 
 
 .wPw---. ^ .Any'^ i/lcr-f/-. 
 
 -t.y 
 
 
 
 
 vi*^7 
 
 
 . - .. FOR-CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 Eight commissioners added from the Presby¬ 
 terian Church, at the annual meeting in Hartford. 
 
 Charter obtained from the State of Massachu¬ 
 setts, June 20, after strong opposition during two 
 sessions of the Legislature. The objection that “we 
 have no religion to spare” was answered by saying, 
 “Religion is a commodity of which the more we 
 export the more we have remaining.” 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Ir 
 
 f 
 
 
 i s- 
 
 1813— First mission of the Board started in Bombay, 
 among the Marathas of W. India, by the party 
 expelled from Calcutta. 
 
 1814— American Baptist Union formed as the result of 
 Messrs. Judson and Rice having changed their 
 views on baptism. They begin work in Burma. 
 
 1816— Second mission of the Board opened in Ceylon. 
 
 Henry Obookiah, a waif from Hawaii, found 
 weeping on the steps of Yale College. This led to 
 the organization of a school in Cornwall, Conn., for 
 education of heathen youth in the United States. 
 Seven nationalities among the students. (Fore¬ 
 runner of Hampton and Tuskegee, International 
 College in Springfield and Schauffler Training School 
 in Cleveland.) 
 
 1817— Beginning of schools and industrial missions among 
 the Cherokees. Extended later to many other 
 tribes. President Madison ordered government 
 assistance in making explorations. President Mon¬ 
 roe visited the schools in 1819. 
 
 1818— Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society formed, 
 four years after the Baptists, showing that our 
 Board had started a movement as well as a society. 
 
 The Panoplist, organ of the Board started in 
 
40 HAND BOOK 
 
 1805, becomes the Missionary Herald, A Mission¬ 
 ary Library started, 
 
 1819— Meeting in Park Street Church, Boston, October 15, 
 when Hiram Bingham, Asa Thurston, five assist¬ 
 ants, the wives of these seven, and three Hawaiian 
 youths educated at Cornwall, were organized into a 
 church. They sailed, October 23, for the Sandwich 
 Islands, to open the third mission of the Board. 
 
 1820— The Board entered Turkey at Smyrna, not far from 
 the place where Paul said, “A great door and effec¬ 
 tual is open unto me.” Pliny Fisk and Levi Par¬ 
 sons first arrivals. Rev. Daniel Temple set up on 
 the island of Malta the first printing press seen on 
 the Mediterranean. He had three presses, with 
 fonts of type in seven languages. 
 
 1822— Headquarters of the Board removed from basement 
 of Secretary Evart’s house to second floor of a 
 tenement on Cornhill. Four years’ later to base¬ 
 ment of Lyman Beecher’s church on Hanover 
 Street. Erection of the Missionary House in 
 Pemberton Square, in 1838, gave a permanent 
 home until the Congregational House was occupied 
 in 1873. 
 
 1823— Opening of the first school for girls in Oodooville, 
 Ceylon. Object: “to provide suitable companions 
 for the graduates of the (boys’) seminary at Batti- 
 cotta!” Nearly 250 girls were in schools in Ceylon 
 at that early period. 
 
 Remarkable revivals, during this decade, in 
 Ceylon, among the North American Indians and in 
 the Sandwich Islands, where there were now 900 
 schools with over 44,000 pupils. The king and 
 twelve chiefs among the first to learn to read. 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 41 
 
 1830— China entered by the first American missionaries, 
 Elijah C. Bridgman and David Abeel. 
 
 First English railroad opened from Manchester 
 to Liverpool. First one began in America from 
 Albany to Schenectady. In 1837 steamers began 
 to cross the Atlantic (Cunard Line) and the P. & O. 
 Line to India was established. 
 
 1831— Opening in Constantinople of what is now the 
 Western Turkey mission. Other stations occupied 
 during this decade were Brousa, Trebizond and 
 Erzroom. Among the pioneers w’ere William 
 Goodell, Cyrus Hamlin, William Schaufher, Elias 
 Riggs, Eli Smith, and H. G. O. Dwight. 
 
 1833— Missions started in Siam, Singapore, Persia and at 
 Cape Palmas, West Africa. The Chinese Mission 
 reinforced during this decade by S. Wells Williams, 
 Ira Tracy and Dr. Peter Parker. 
 
 1834— Opening of the Madura Mission by missionaries from 
 Ceylon. 
 
 Titus Coan and William Arms explored Pata¬ 
 gonia. Messrs. Lyman and Munson, seeking to 
 establish a mission in Sumatra, killed by natives. 
 
 1835— Opening of the Zulu Mission by Rev. Messrs. Grout, 
 Lindley, Champion, Wilson, Venable and Dr. 
 Adams. 
 
 1836— Opening of missions to Indians in the Northwest- 
 Of fifty-one Americans who occupied the vast area 
 now covered by California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, 
 New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Alaska, thirty 
 were missionaries. Marcus Whitman among the 
 pioneers. He and his wife killed (in 1847) by 
 Indians, who destroyed the Oregon mission. 
 
42 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 1837—Great financial panic in United States. Large 
 shrinkage in receipts and sixty-four missionaries 
 held back. In Ceylon, 5,000 pupils dismissed from 
 171 schools. Nearly all the schools for Indians in 
 the United States disbanded. 
 
 This period marked by extent of new territory 
 covered. The Board now had twenty-five missions, 
 nine among North American Indians and 365 work¬ 
 ers in the field, not including native helpers. 
 
 1842—China opened five treaty ports. Canton, Amoy, 
 Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai, at close of the 
 Opium War. Soon occupied by twelve missionary 
 societies, ours among them. 
 
 1844—First telegraph line opened between Baltimore and 
 Washington by Samuel F. B. Morse. 
 
 1846— Difference of views concerning slavery led to organ¬ 
 ization of the American Missionary Association, 
 which eventually took charge of our foreign work 
 in the Lhiited States. 
 
 Protestant Armenian Church founded in Con¬ 
 stantinople. 
 
 1847— Foochow Mission started by transference of two 
 missionaries from Siam. 
 
 1849— Central Turkey Mission opened in Aintab. Five 
 stations increased to twenty-four within twenty 
 years. Seat of Central Turkey College, for which 
 a Mohammedan gave the site. 
 
 1850— Twelve printing establishments, with publications in 
 thirty languages, now in operation. Several of the 
 Board's presses have been a source of revenue. One 
 in Bombay earned $46,743 in eight years. In China 
 alone, present issues of Christian literature exceed 
 a hundred million pages annually, just from mission 
 presses. 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 43 
 
 1852—Micronesia entered by Messrs. Snow, Sturges and 
 L. H. Gulick, under the newly organized Hawaiian 
 Board of Missions. Four years later, first Morn¬ 
 ing Star launched to carry the mail and supplies. 
 
 1854—Commodore Matthew G. Perry entered Japan. 
 North China Mission opened at Peking. 
 
 1857—The Dutch Reformed Church withdrew and formed 
 a separate Board. Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen 
 resigned the presidency of our Board and was suc¬ 
 ceeded by Mark Hopkins, who served until his death 
 in 1887. His successors have been Richard S. 
 Storrs, Charles M. Lamson, Samuel B. Capen, and 
 Edward C. Moore. 
 
 Great Sepoy rebellion in India, when nearly a 
 thousand English were killed. Queen Victoria 
 assumed control, and in 1877 was proclaimed 
 Empress of India. 
 
 1859— Message received over the new Atlantic cable, at 
 annual meeting in Philadelphia, saying: “The Chi¬ 
 nese empire is to be open to all trade; the Christian 
 religion is to be allowed and recognized; foreign 
 diplomatic agents are to be admitted to the empire.” 
 
 1860— Semi-centennial meeting in Boston. Native Chris¬ 
 tians of Ceylon sent a thank-offering of over $500. 
 Rev. Samuel Nott only survivor of the original band 
 of five missionaries. Receipts for fifty years were 
 $8,632,315. Over 1,200 workers had been sent out, 
 39 missions established, 18 languages reduced to 
 writing, millions of pages printed in 40 languages, 
 149 churches with 55,000 members, and 369 schools, 
 with over 10,000 pupils, established. The Sandwich 
 Islands and some of the Indian tribes were recog¬ 
 nized as Christian nations. 
 
44 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 1868—Peaceful revolution in Japan which ushered in the 
 extraordinary epoch of western civilization. 
 
 Woman’s Board of Missions organized in Bos¬ 
 ton and Board of the Interior in Chicago, followed 
 in 1873 by Board of the Pacific in San Francisco. 
 
 1870— Two branches of the Presbyterian Church unite and 
 form their own Board. The Persian, Syrian and 
 Gaboon missions, and two among North American 
 Indians, transferred to them. 
 
 1871— Formal opening of the Bulgarian mission signalized 
 at Eski Zaghra by placing upon a table the first 
 bound copy of the Bible in that language, around 
 which kneeled in prayer its translator. Dr. Riggs, 
 Dr. E. E. Bliss of Constantinople and Secretary N. G. 
 Clark of Boston. 
 
 1872— Opening of missions in Spain, Austria, Mexico and 
 Italy, the last suspended in 1874. 
 
 1873— Japanese removed sign-boards with edicts against 
 Christianity which had been in force 250 years. 
 
 1879— Bequest of nearly a million dollars from Asa Otis. 
 
 1880— Within four years, missions were opened in North 
 Mexico, in West Central and East Africa, in Shansi, 
 China, and Hong Kong, the last with special ref¬ 
 erence to Chinese returning from the United States. 
 
 1885—Seventy-fifth Anniversary in Boston. The Board’s 
 aggregate receipts from the beginning over $21,000,- 
 000. Number of church members nearly 95,000, 
 and about 400,000 pupils under instruction in Chris¬ 
 tian schools. 
 
 Thirty-two societies in America now engaged in 
 foreign missionary work. 
 

 
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 FOR CORPORATE MEMBER'S^^ 
 
 
 . i^^vvo / \ id 
 
 1886—Student Volunteer Movement began in TTnited 
 States. “Has any such offering of living young 
 men and women been presented in any age, in any / 
 country, since the day of Pentecost?” asked 
 
 < 
 
 McCosh. 
 
 1888—First World’s Missionary Conference in LondonC^ 
 
 y' < ^ 
 
 Second in New York in 1900. Third in Edinburgh 
 in 1910. 
 
 1889—Full religious liberty proclaimed in Japan. 
 
 1890—Banner year of the century in number of missionary 
 societies organized—22 new ones formed. Began 
 a decade of our greatest development in educational 
 and medical missions. Appeal of the Shanghai 
 Conference for 1,000 new missionaries in five years 
 more than responded to. 
 
 Mission premises on Ponape destroyed by 
 Spaniards. Indemnity of $17,500 paid four years 
 later by Spain, but missionaries not allowed to 
 return till Caroline Islands came into possession of 
 Germany. 
 
 1895—Terrible Armenian massacres. Large destruction of 
 mission property in Harpoot and elsewhere. Ten 
 native pastors and many others killed, 13 chapels 
 and 22 schools wrecked. 16,000 orphans on hands 
 of missionaries. 
 
 1898—Forward Movement inaugurated. Object: “to 
 secure direct support of individual missionaries by 
 single churches or persons.” 
 
 Admiral Dewey entered Manila Bay and the 
 Philippine Islands became United States territory. 
 Four years later, complete civil government was 
 established under William H. Taft as Governor. 
 
 I 
 
46 HAND BOOK 
 
 1900—Boxer uprising in China, resulting in the killing of 
 uncounted multitudes of native Christians, nearly one 
 hundred missionaries of all Boards, and the destruc¬ 
 tion of nearly all the mission property in North 
 China. Sixteen American Board missionaries and 
 missionaries’ children were martyred, together with 
 half our native Christians in Shansi. Today all 
 the stations have been rebuilt out of indemnity 
 funds, the ranks of the workers have been filled and 
 enlarged and there are more than twice as many 
 native Christians as in 1900. 
 
 1906—Celebration of the Haystack Centennial at North 
 Adams and Williamstown. 
 
 1910—Celebration of the Board’s Centennial at Boston, 
 Andover and Bradford. Erection of monuments at 
 the last two places. 
 
 1912— Celebration of the Centennial of the ordination and 
 sending out of first missionaries in Tabernacle 
 Church, Salem. Following the course of the original 
 event, five theological students were ordained by a 
 great council and set apart for work in foreign lands. 
 These students sat on the identical settee used by 
 Judson and his companions one hundred years 
 before, and the same bass-viol was used in leading 
 the singing. 
 
 1913— Meeting of the Board with the National Council 
 at Kansas City where it was decided by practically 
 a unanimous vote to have delegates of the Council 
 become Corporate Members of the Board. 
 
 1914— The Great War. 
 
 1915— Unparalleled Armenian atrocities in Asia Minor by 
 which the larger part of this race was deported or 
 killed. Mission stations left desolate. 
 
FOR CORPORATE MEMBERS 
 
 47 
 
 WHAT FOREIGN MISSIONS HAVE DONE 
 
 They have made the name of Jesus the best-known and 
 best loved name in the world. 
 
 They are preaching the gospel statedly in over ten 
 thousand different places. 
 
 They have planted in the leading foreign lands the 
 Church of Christ, with a membership of 2,644,170. 
 
 They have created a great system of Christian schools 
 and colleges, having a present enrolment of over a million 
 and a half pupils. 
 
 They have stimulated the governments of the leading 
 nations of the East to establish educational systems. 
 
 They have introduced modern medicine, surgery, and 
 sanitation into the darkest quarters of the globe, by means 
 of 675 hospitals and 963 dispensaries. 
 
 They have been the principal agents of relief in famines, 
 and have made scientific investigation of the causes which 
 lie at their root. 
 
 They have taught people habits of cleanliness and the 
 laws of health, thus lessening the spread of plague. 
 
 They have upheld the idea of the dignity of labor among 
 those who regard toil as menial. 
 
 They have established a multitude of trade schools in 
 which development of Christian character keeps pace with 
 growth in manual skill. 
 
 They have taught the use of modern tools and agricul¬ 
 tural implements and thus increased the efficiency and 
 wealth of many nations. 
 
 They have greatly extended the markets of America 
 by creating in Oriental peoples a thousand appetites which 
 only international trade can supply. 
 
 They have helped to abolish human slavery, and shown 
 the Christian way of caring for the aged, orphans, blind, 
 deaf mutes, insane, and lepers. 
 
48 
 
 HAND BOOK 
 
 They have lifted women from a condition of unspeakable 
 degradation and trained a new generation of Christian 
 mothers, wives, and daughters, who are making homes 
 and introducing new ideals of social life. 
 
 They have translated the entire Bible, or portions of 
 the Scriptures, into 500 languages and dialects, distributing 
 last year alone 9,272,211 copies of the Word of God. 
 
 They have reduced many strange tongues to writing and 
 have created a literature for whole races, producing annu¬ 
 ally a vast amount of good reading in the shape of books, 
 hymnals, and papers for all ages. 
 
 They have transformed the people of the Fiji Islands, the 
 New Hebrides, Melanesia, and other island groups from 
 cannibals to civilized human beings. 
 
 They have enabled Bulgaria to rise to the level of national 
 independence. 
 
 They have furnished the incentives which made possible 
 Japan’s peaceful evolution from feudalism to constitutional 
 government, and from opposition to Christianity to the 
 granting of full religious liberty. 
 
 They have been the main agent in the extraordinary 
 awakening of the people of China by which, turning their 
 backs on the history of 4,000 years, they have adopted 
 Western ideas in government, education, and commerce, 
 and are showing an amazing readiness to receive the Gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 They have started a movement in Korea which is going 
 forward with such unparalleled rapidity that this nation 
 bids fair to become Christianized within a generation. 
 
 They have held the home churches true to the essential 
 purpose of the Gospel, have broadened their outlook, 
 deepened their devotion, and demonstrated the universal 
 and all-conquering character of Christianity.