Va. m • Objectives of the Committee on Christian Literature S INCE 1912 the Committee on Christian Liter- I ature of the Federation of Woman’s Boards of North America has made real progress in its task. As we enter upon 1925 a statement of the work accomplished is desirable. Happy Childhood in China In 1914, Mrs. Henry W. Peabody and Mrs. Helen Barrett Montgomery while visiting China were impressed with the need of a Christian maga¬ zine for children. They found that Mrs. Donald MacGillivray, a missionary of the Canadian Pres¬ byterian Board in Shanghai, would be glad to edit such a periodical, provided funds for printing and distribution could be supplied by the Christian Literature Committee. The China Sunday School Union agreed to do the printing for a very moder¬ ate compensation and the next year the little bark with the felicitous name of Happy Childhood was launched. It is an unpretentious monthly of six¬ teen pages, with stories, puzzles, Sunday school lesson comments and many features novel to Chinese child life. The subscription price is fifty cents gold a year and may be sent to the Sunday School Union, Shanghai, direct, in United States postage stamps. For ten years Mrs. MacGillivray has given unremitting, devoted service, without a dollar of compensation from the Committee, the Canadian Presbyterian Board generously providing her sup¬ port and allowing her to give a large share of her time to this project. Picture blocks have been supplied by Everyland as well as by native draw¬ ings, and the edition and budget have been in¬ creased year by year until, in 1 924, 7,000 copies were printed each month, reaching, at a modest estimate, at least 60,000 readers. Christmas Picture Books have for several years been compiled from Happy Childhood and have met with great demand—an edition of 12,000 be¬ ing quickly sold out and proving insufficient for the call. The magazine was said at one time to go into almost every province in China. High officials take it for their children and General Feng has subscribed for copies for his soldiers. Old and young welcome it, as is shown in the following extracts selected from many letters re¬ ceived by Mrs. MacGillivray. Mrs. Anne Matheson of the Rickshaw Mission, Shanghai, writes: “The interest in Happy Childhood is not confined to our mission schools. Many men and women are eager to receive a copy. Their delight in the pictures and stories is every bit as real as that of the children.” Another missionary writes: “The children love the magazine. I use it in day school and Sunday school. When I asked a class of third grade children what they enjoyed most in their work, they answered with one voice, ‘Foh Yu Pao ’—Happy Children.** Mrs. MacGillivray has had a Chinese helper. Miss Sung, who during her furlough in Canada this year will assist Miss Martha E. Pyle, gener¬ ously loaned for this work by the Southern Metho¬ dist Board. The amount pledged for the Happy Childhood staff is $1,000. In addition to the magazine a “Series of Happy Childhood Stories” has been prepared and has met with much favor. Among these stories are “Lovey Mary” and “Just David.” Last year 1,828,000 pages were issued. Mrs. MacGillivray’s last work before leaving for furlough was the bringing out of a ‘‘Life of Christ” in four small volumes, in attractive form, suitable for children and ignorant women who are ‘‘slow at the learning and dismayed at the sight of big books.” There was an increase of 50% in sales in 1923 over 1922, yet all that has been done has been but ‘‘drop, drop, drop, into an empty river bed.” But no one else is giving the children of China just this kind of Christian teaching and it is the responsibility of the Woman’s Boards to provide it. The Woman’s Messenger In all the endeavors to give Christian reading to the women and girls of China, the name of Miss Laura White of Shanghai shines as a pioneer light. She is a missionary of the W. F. M. S. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but her work has been both interdenominational and interna¬ tional. She has at times lent a willing hand to the Happy Childhood staff and is at all times engaged in training the Chinese assistants without whom the best type of translation and authorship is impossible. It is the pledge of the Committee to provide $500 for Miss White, in 1925, to enable her to carry out her far-reaching plans and to give her needed assistance while she recovers from a severe illness. The Phoneme Script in China has thrown wide open doors to thousands of humble homes, but the Christian forces are not keeping up with the demand for good reading. A Love Offering for Japan Our second venture was a bit of help for our sisters in the ‘‘Sunrise Kingdom.” In Japan the Society for Christian Literature has a woman’s department with Miss Amy Bosanquet of the Anglican Mission in charge. Our Committee had been giving $300 each year to help in publishing a little newspaper sheet Ai No Hi^ari for the coolie and fisherwomen of Japan. In 1922, in response to an appeal that a special grant be made for the translation and publication of Dr. Hurl- but’s “Stories of the Bible’’ a generous donor gave $1,200. When in September, 1923, the earth¬ quake brought such wide-spread distress, demolish¬ ing the plant and presses of the Christian Litera¬ ture Society in Tokyo, this translation had been completed and the manuscript was in the home of the Japanese Christian who had been at work on it. His home was destroyed, but in a way al¬ most miraculous the precious document was saved and is now ready for distribution among the teachers and mothers of Japan, who are eagerly waiting for it. In January, 1924, our Committee authorized an “Emergency Grant” for the Christian Literature work in Japan and an appeal was made at many services held on March 7, the “Day of Prayer for Missions.” About $1,000 has been received in small sums coming from all parts of the United States, from little, remote towns as well as from the larger cities. In nearly every accompanying letter has been some word of the privilege of uniting in such a gift for Japan. Miss Bosanquet writes in response to the first inst? 11r nent of this “Emergency Grant,”—“The Japanese well know that many of the people of the U. S. A. are their friends and are touched to hear of the many small gifts which have made up this sum.” Another thousand dollars is needed to complete this grant. A Magazine for a Million Boys and Girls—The Treasure Chest In India are a million boys and girls who can read. But until recently there has been no maga¬ zine for these eager young students with a dis¬ tinctively Christian, non-sectarian basis, in which all the great communions can cooperate. For several years the Committee on Christian Literature for Women and Children canvassed the possibility of starting such a monthly. In 1922 funds were in hand with which to launch it, and again we were fortunate in finding an editor deeply interested to undertake the new venture and a Board generous in providing her support. Miss Ruth E. Robinson, formerly connected with Isa¬ bella Thoburn College, a missionary of the W. F. M. S. of the M. E. Church, now residing in Bangalore, gladly accepted the responsibility and the first number of the English edition appeared in July, 1922. The success of The Treasure Chest has been phenomenal. One missionary writes: “I have never, in long years in India, known any missionary enterprise which has won such quick and enthusiastic support from Christian and non-Christian alike.” The first edition was published in English, as it was felt that thus readers would be secured in all the great language areas. The subscription price in India is two rupees a year, in the U. S. A. one dollar. Attractive illustrations, often furnished by In¬ dian students, prize contests in short stories, nature study sketches, current news from other lands and many original and interesting features have put this magazine on a very high plane. The editor is confident that before 1924 closes 3000 paid subscriptions will be secured in India. Vernacular editions, less ambitious in appearance, but filling a real need, have been started in Urdu, Tamil and Marathi, for which the Committee has pledged $500 each per annum. Capable editors have been found and readers are increasing month by month. The Marathi edition is the successor of a magazine formerly published by the American Board Mission in Ahmednagar, and has as its editor Miss Emily Bissell, whose experience in literary work makes her a most successful promoter of this new Dnyanodaya for juniors, which has re¬ ceived a joyful welcome. The Tamil edition is the newest, starting this summer with an edition of 1 000, prepared by Mr. Passmore of Madras. A publishing firm in India has offered to reprint the biographical sketches which have appeared in The Treasure Chest under the title “The Child¬ hood of India’s Heroes and Heroines,” and to pay a royalty of 10% on every copy sold. The many testimonials to the success of this periodical cannot here be quoted. Among the most significant is that from a woman missionary who says, “I think of The Treasure Chest as among the leaves of the tree which shall be for the healing of the nations.” For 1925 a budget of $2500 for the English edition will be required, but we may reasonably expect that year by year the amount needed will decrease as the magazine approaches self-support. The Seed Sowing and the Harvest Such has been the seed-sowing—a few thou¬ sands of dollars given by the Woman’s Boards and their interested adherents, by great interde¬ nominational organizations, like the National Board of the Y. W. C. A. and the Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions, whose child in a sense this Committee is, by offerings from the Summer Missionary Conferences and from the Day of Prayer services. The harvest has been truly a hundred fold of happiness to many children and poor women in dark and meagre surroundings, to whom a Chris¬ tian book brings a new “light of love.” Pernicious reading is scattered far and wide freely by emis¬ saries of evil in all these lands. The Church of Jesus Christ has been slow in seizing strategic op¬ portunities in a wide-open world. But now the Christian Literature Committee of the Foreign Mis¬ sions Conference of North America, with which our Committee cooperates, is making extensive sur¬ veys and laying deep foundations. Christian Liter¬ ature for Moslems is making its great appeal and the Woman’s Committee with its golden sheaves from its scanty seed sowing is facing the most cru¬ cial year of its history. For 1925 we need a budget of $7,000. If we fail to secure this we shall not only disappoint those who are depending on us for support but we shall take a step which will result in tearing down the constructive work of the past ten years, so patiently and lovingly wrought. Will not every Woman’s Board pre¬ sent this object to possible givers in its constituency and also make an appro¬ priation, large or small, to save the day for good literature for women and chil¬ dren in the year 1925? Published by Committee on Christian Literature for Women and Children in Mission Fields Address—25 Madison Ave., New York City or Miss M. H. Leavis, West Medford, Mass. Alice M. Kyle, Chairman and Treasurer 63 Parsons St., Brighton P. O., Boston, Mass.