Gob b 
 
 i awi ■ 
 
 WicjO 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Reformed Church in America 
 
 1796=1896 
 
 I. Original Movements 
 
 II. Period of Cooperation 
 
 III. Period of Independent Action 
 (Statistics to May, 1900.) 
 
 OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 Church Building 
 25 East 22<J Street 
 New York 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS IN OUR REFORMED 
 CHURCHES: 1796-1896. 
 
 I. ORIGINAL, MOVEMENTS. 
 
 I T is quite proper to celebrate the completion of a century of 
 missionary activity on the part of the Reformed Church. 
 Its own Board was not organized till 1832. But long pre¬ 
 vious to that time its members had united with those of other 
 churches in evangelistic labors and organizations. 
 
 In November, 1796, just a century ago, the 
 New York New York Missionary Society was organized 
 M issionary in New York City. In it were represented 
 Society, 1796. the Baptist, Presbyterian and Reformed 
 Churches. Monthly meetings were held on 
 the second Wednesday of each month, in the Baptist, Dutch 
 and Presbyterian churches in rotation, “ for the purpose of 
 offering their prayers to the God of grace, that He would be 
 pleased to pour out His Spirit 011 His Church, and send His 
 Gospel to all the nations.''' This society opened correspond¬ 
 ence with similar societies in Great Britain and received replies 
 from several of them. It was no doubt due to the example set 
 by the society that the Northern Missionary Society was formed 
 at Ransingburgh, N. Y., a few months later. In this the same 
 denominations were represented. 
 
 The immediate object of these societies was 
 Objects. to send out and support preachers among 
 the various tribes of American Indians. The 
 New York society also undertook to educate proper persons to 
 be sent out as missionaries. Neither of them seems to have 
 aimed to extend its operations to the great heathen world beyond. 
 
2 
 
 A CENTURY OR MISSIONS 
 
 The first missionary, the Rev. Joseph Bullen, 
 M issionaries. of Vermont, was sent to the Chickasaws of 
 Georgia, and others to the Stockbridge In¬ 
 dians of Connecticut, the Indians of Suffolk County, Long 
 Island, and the Tuscaroras and Senecas of Western New York. 
 In 1800 the New York Missionary Magazine was established, 
 and in it reports were given of the operations of the society, 
 with letters from the missionaries, as well as accounts of the 
 work of the London Missionary Society and others. It was 
 issued for four years and then discontinued for lack of support. 
 
 In November, 1797, Dr. John M. Mason 
 Influential preached his famous sermon entitled, “ Mes- 
 Sermons. siah’s Throne,” before the New York society 
 in the Presbyterian Church on Wall street. 
 The audience is described as “crowded, attentive and serious, 
 and the collection made after the sermon was large, and did 
 great honor to the liberality of the citizens of New York.” 
 This sermon, as also one by Dr. John H. Livingston, almost 
 equally famous, preached in April, 1799, before the same so¬ 
 ciety, entitled, “ Christ is all in all,” was afterward widely pub¬ 
 lished. A similar, and perhaps more eloquent, sermon was 
 preached by Dr. Livingston before the same society in 1804, en¬ 
 titled, “Tue Everlasting Gospel.” These did much to awaken, 
 extend and perpetuate a missionary spirit among the churches. 
 The last is believed to have been reprinted and widely circulated 
 by Samuel J. Mills, and so to have contributed to the creation of 
 that spirit which resulted in the formation of the American Board. 
 
 Both of the societies mentioned were entirely voluntary 
 in their character. They had, I believe, no formal ecclesiastical 
 sanction whatever. The missions and property of the New 
 York society were handed over to the United Missionary Society 
 in 1821. The Northern continued its operations some years later. 
 
 The first distinct reference to foreign Mis- 
 ftAissions in sions in the proceedings of the General Sy- 
 General Synod," nod, occurs in the Minutes of June, 1816. 
 
 1816. The Synod had, indeed, in 1789, appointed 
 
 “a Commission to engage, upon reasonable 
 and Christian terms, one or more missionaries to visit those who 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 3 
 
 are dispersed upon the outskirts of our land.” So early as 1800 
 the attention of this Commission and the Synod was directed to 
 Canada as a hopeful field of missionary effort, and mission¬ 
 aries were sent thither. These efforts, however, were not 
 directed to the Indians of this country or Canada. In them lay. 
 no doubt, the germ of our Board of Domestic Missions. But, 
 taken in connection with what has been already said, they 
 serve to show that the missionary spirit was becoming active in 
 the Church. 
 
 In 1816 an invitation was received from the 
 United General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
 
 M issionary by the General Synod “ to appoint commis- 
 Society, 1816. sioners to meet commissioners of the General 
 Assembly, for the purpose of arranging a 
 plan for the formation of a Society for Foreign Missions.” 
 Seven commissioners were appointed, five ministers and two 
 elders. The result of their deliberations was the formation of 
 the United Missionary Society, “ composed of the Presbyterian, 
 Dutch Reformed and Associate Reformed Churches, and all 
 others who may choose to join with them.” The Constitution 
 of the new society was submitted to the General Synod in 1817. 
 The object stated therein was “To spread the Gospel among 
 the Indians of North America, the inhabitants of Mexico and 
 South America, and in other portions of the heathen and anti- 
 Christian world.” Missionaries were to be “elected from the 
 three Churches indiscriminately,” and an annual report to be 
 made to the highest judicatory of the three denominations for 
 their information. The constitution was approved by Synod, 
 and it was “ recommended to all ministers and churches to give 
 the measure their active support.” A committee was also ap¬ 
 pointed, consisting of Dr. Philip Milledoler and Elder Stephen 
 Van Rensselaer, to meet with other committees for the purpose 
 of carrying the plan into execution. Thus was the Reformed 
 Dutch Church, for the first time in this country, formally com 
 mitted to the work of executing the high commission of her 
 Lord and Head. 
 
 In 1818 the above recommendation was earnestly renewed, 
 and it was also resolved that, “ at some convenient time during 
 
4 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 the session of every Synod, a missionary sermon be preached 
 before Synod and a collection be taken for missionary pur¬ 
 poses.” This excellent provision continued in force until i860, 
 though the “collection” seems to have lapsed at an earlier 
 period, and many of the most eminent names in the ministry 
 of the Church are found in the list of preachers. 
 
 In 1826 two important acts were proposed : 
 
 Amalgamated 1. Consenting to th£ amalgamation of the 
 with American United Missionary Society with the Ameri- 
 Board, 1826. can Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions. This was accomplished and the 
 United Society ceased to exist. 
 
 2. Recommending to the Missionary Board of the Church, 
 which had been hitherto wholly domestic in its operations, “to 
 consider the propriety of taking measures to begin missionary 
 operations among the aborigines of our own country and else¬ 
 where.” Gentle as was this latter recommendation, and sanc¬ 
 tioned by the course of other churches, it seems to have fright¬ 
 ened some in the Church who afterwards became leaders in the 
 cause of Foreign Missions. 
 
 The Committee of 1827 reported : “ Your Committee are not 
 
 aware what considerations led the last Synod to recommend a 
 Foreign Mission by our Church in her individual capacity. 
 Yet as it has been recommended, as the Board has made pro¬ 
 gress in preparatory steps, and it has gone before the churches, 
 they feel themselves to be so delicately situated as to be unable 
 to suggest any measures in relation to it, though as a Commit¬ 
 tee they consider it matter of very doubtful expediency .” 
 
 It is not difficult, now, to perceive what the 
 Ca uses reasons were which moved some in the 
 of Growing Church to propose action of such “ doubtful 
 Interest. expediency.” The earlier missions of the 
 American Board had been successfully estab¬ 
 lished ; through the baptism of Judson and Rice the great 
 Baptist denomination had become interested in Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions and the Baptist Missionary Union organized ; the life and 
 death of Harriet Newell, the character, remarkable career 
 and heroic sufferings of Mr. and Mrs. Judson;—these and 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 5 
 
 many other influences had awakened a widespread interest in 
 the subject throughout all the churches. Added to this the 
 departure of Dr. John Scudder for Ceylon, in 1819, his letters 
 and addresses, may easily be supposed to have quickened the 
 faith and zeal of many in the Church to which he belonged, and 
 to have suggested the idea of a distinct call to and responsi¬ 
 bility for such work which could only be met by effort “in her 
 individual capacity.” The spirit that would finally lead to such 
 effort was present and growing. 
 
 In 1829 the Rev. David Abeel sailed for China as a chaplain 
 of the American Seamen’s Friend’s Society. In 1830 he became 
 a missionary of the American Board in Java. He travelled 
 much, in the Indian Archipelago and elsewhere, seeking hope¬ 
 ful fields of labor. His character and wprk increased the 
 interest already existing. In 1831 the Committee on Missions 
 reported to the General Synod : “We believe the time is not 
 far distant when it (a Foreign Mission) may be undertaken with 
 good prospect of success. But the committee are of the opinion 
 that the time has not yet arrived.” It was probably nearer 
 than this Committee were ready to believe. 
 
 The Minutes of the Particular Synod of New York for 1832 
 contained “ a recommendation of the subject of Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions to the immediate and prayerful consideration of the 
 General Synod.” A similar recommendation was found in the 
 Minutes of the Particular Synod of Albany. As these were the 
 only Synods at that time, it was manifest that the entire 
 Church was, to a greater or less extent, awakened to the im¬ 
 portance of this subject. The statement of reasons for such 
 action presented by the Synod of New York could hardly be 
 improved, even at this day of missionary zeal and progress, but 
 they cannot be given here. 
 
 To these recommendations the General Sy- 
 Board of the nod wisely listened. A committee was ap- 
 R. P. D. Chu rch pointed at its session in June for the purpose 
 .832. of conferring with the American Board, and 
 
 in the hope that such a connection might be 
 formed with it “as would enable us to maintain a foreign mis¬ 
 sion of our own and at the same time avail ourselves of all their 
 
6 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 experience.” The proposition was cordially received by that 
 body, and at the October session of the Synod the Committee 
 were able to report a plan of co-operation with it. The plan 
 was approved and adopted by the Synod. A Board of Foreign 
 Missions of the Reformed Dutch Church, consisting of fifteen 
 members, was appointed, and the whole subject was “ affection¬ 
 ately recommended to the churches and ministers under the 
 care of the Synod, and their prayers and exertions for the pro¬ 
 motion and success of Foreign Missions earnestly solicited.” 
 
 II. PERIOD OF COOPERATION. 
 
 As organized in 1832, the Board of Foreign 
 Original Missions consisted of fifteen members, nine 
 M embers. ministers and six laymen. They were among 
 the most honored representatives of the 
 Church,—Drs. Knox, McMurray, De Witt, Ludlow, Matthews, 
 Ferris; Revs. Strong, Gosman and Dubois ; Messrs. Peter D. 
 Vroom, Isaac Young, Wm R. Thompson, J. V. B. Varick, John 
 D. Keese and Jeremiah Johnson. 
 
 Under the agreement with the American Board, the con¬ 
 tributions of our churches were allowed “to flow into our 
 own treasury, to be appropriated through the medium of the 
 American Board to missionaries from our own Church, or to 
 such missionaries and such objects as may be speciaily selected 
 and approved.” Missionaries approved by our Board were to 
 be recommended to and accepted by the Prudential Committee, 
 and the conduct of the Missions was to be left in the hands of 
 that Committee. Thus the new Board was to have all the ad¬ 
 vantage of the experience and facilities of the older. 
 
 The American Board, as has been seen, al- 
 First ready numbered among its missionaries two 
 
 Missionaries, honored sons of the Dutch Church, the Rev. 
 
 John Scudder, M.D., at Panditeripo, Ceylon, 
 and the Rev. David Abeel, D. D. Dr. Scudder was a member 
 of the Franklin Street Church .when, in 1819, he left this coun¬ 
 try for Ce)don as a medical missionary He had afterwards 
 been ordained by brethren in the field, *and had been remark¬ 
 ably successful both as preacher and physician. Dr. Abeel had 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 7 
 
 been educated in our Theological Seminary and pastor of the 
 church at Athens, N. Y. Going to China in 1829 as a Chaplain 
 of the Seamen’s Friends’ Society, he entered the service of the 
 American Board at Canton in 1830, and under its direction had 
 voyaged extensively in the Indian Archipelago and to Siam, in 
 search of suitable openings for mission work. 
 
 One of the first steps taken by the new Board, after its organ¬ 
 ization, was formally to take, in April, 1833, these two brethren 
 “ under its patronage.” A letter addressed to the ministers of 
 the Reformed Dutch Church, calling their attention to “the 
 state of the heathen in these parts; 1 ’ ’ was shortly after received 
 from Dr. Scudder and published by order of the Board By its 
 direction, also, Dr. Livingston’s great sermon, preached in 1804 
 and entitled “The Everlasting Gospel”, was republished and 
 widely circulated. Dr. Abeel was invited to return to this 
 country and present the cause of Missions among the churches. 
 The interest thus fostered grew apace, and the Board soon felt 
 warranted in attempting to establish a new Mission, to be 
 manned entirely by the Church and supported by it. 
 
 For such an enterprise the way soon opened. 
 
 M ission to The islands of Netherlands India — the 
 
 Borneo, 1836. Dutch East Indies—were represented by Dr. 
 
 Abeel as offering most “delightful oppor¬ 
 tunities” for such a Mission. It was hoped that some special 
 advantages might accrue to it if established under the Dutch 
 government by missionaries of this Church. Dr. Abeel was 
 therefore requested by the Board to visit Holland, on his way 
 home, and ascertain how far it might be desirable and practic¬ 
 able to cooperate with the Netherlands Missionary Society in 
 the islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra, etc. Out of this grew 
 the Mission to Borneo. 
 
 Four missionaries, Revs. Jacob Ennis, Elihu Doty, Elbert 
 Nevius and William Youngblood, with their wives, and Miss 
 Condict, a sister of Mrs. Nevius, formed the first party. They 
 had, before their departure, circulated freely among the churches 
 and by their addresses greatly stimulated missionary zeal. The 
 Classis of Poughkeepsie, the Missionary Society of the Broome 
 Street Church of New York, and the First Church of Fhiladel- 
 
8 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 phia, of which Dr. Bethune was pastor, all offered to support 
 missionaries of their own, the last named choosing Mr. and 
 Mrs. Nevius. The party sailed during the session of the General 
 Synod of 1836. Additions were made in 1838, 1840 and 1842. 
 In all nine missionaries were sent out, all but two being married, 
 together with Miss Condict. 
 
 But the hope of advantage from locating 
 Discontinued under the Dutch government proved delu- 
 •849. sive. The opening of China in 1842 seemed 
 
 to offer larger opportunities, and Messrs. 
 Doty and Pohlman were sent to Amoy in 1844. The Mission 
 was reduced in 1849, by sickness and death, to a single member, 
 the Rev. Wm. H. Steele. He was then recalled, to this country 
 for the benefit of his health and to seek reinforcements. All 
 efforts in this direction failed, and this first mission was aban¬ 
 doned. Of its missionaries one still survives, the Rev Wm. 
 H. Steele, D. D., afterward for fourteen years the President 
 of the Board. 
 
 The disappointment felt at the failure of this Mission 
 would probably have been more keen had not a second been 
 already established, with far brighter prospects of success. 
 
 The close of the “Opium War,” by which 
 Amoy Mission, five ports in China were opened to foreign 
 China, 1842, trade and residence in 1842, found Dr. Abeel 
 at Macao. He immediately proceeded to 
 Amoy and established himself on the island of Kolongsu, then 
 in possession of British troops, and opposite the city of Amoy. 
 There he was joined, in 1844,'by Messrs. Doty and Pohlman 
 from Borneo, where their labors had been chiefly directed toward 
 Chinese settlers. The first converts, two old men, were bap¬ 
 tized by Mr. Pohlman in 1S46. The first church building erected 
 by Protestants at Amoy, “probably the first in China for 
 Chinese worshippers only,” was built by him with funds ob¬ 
 tained from this country, and still stands in the heart of the 
 city as his monument. 
 
 In 1851, a church had been gathered of eleven members. 
 This was completely organized by the setting apart of elders 
 and deacons in 1856. In 1857, the Mission and its missionaries, 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 9 
 
 with their full and hearty concurrence, were handed over by the 
 American Board to the independent care and control of the 
 reorganized Board of the Reformed Dutch Church. 
 
 In 1847, the Board was invited, by the Pru- 
 Arcot Missions dential Committee of the American Board, 
 India, 1853. to consider the expediency of undertaking 
 a Mission among the Tamil-speaking people 
 of southern India, and in the neighborhood of its Madras 
 Mission, to be composed entirely of missionaries from the 
 Reformed Protestant Dutch Church.’’ Dr. Scudder had been 
 transferred from Ceylon to Madras in 1836, and had made 
 extended tours through the regions lying west and south, preach - 
 ing the Gospel to great multitudes, distributing tracts, and 
 healing the sick. In this work he had been joined, in 1846, by 
 his eldest son, Henry Martyn. A wide and open field had been 
 developed by their labors, and to it the attention of the Board 
 was now directed. On November 9th the Board resolved that 
 the establishment of such a Mission would be expedient. In 
 1850, Henry Martyn Scudder removed to Arcot, where he was 
 joined, in 1852, by his brother William from Ceylon, and a 
 second brother Joseph from America. In 1S53. the Mission was 
 constituted, and in 1854 the Classis of Arcot was organized. 
 The stations of Arcot, Arni, Chittoor, Coonoor and Vellore were 
 all occupied before 1857. In that year this Mission also, with its 
 missionaries, was surrendered to the independent Board of the 
 Reformed Dutch Church, of which they were sons and ministers. 
 
 It is impossible, in the space allowed, to give, even in briefest 
 outline, the history of the two Missions thus adopted by the 
 Church as her own. But their growth during the more than forty 
 years that have supervened shows how richly they have been 
 blessed of God and have rewarded the faith and benevolence of 
 the Church that claimed them for its own and took them under 
 its fostering care. 
 
 The arrangement entered into with the 
 Opposing American Board, continued in operation, 
 Tendencies. with uninterrupted harmony and mutual 
 satisfaction to the two Boards, until 1857. 
 The interest and contributions of the Reformed Dutch Churches 
 
IO 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 were concentrated on the Missions in India and China. The 
 missionaries were all from their membership, and naturally- 
 looked to the Dutch Church for their support and that of their 
 work. Other churches, of other denominations, also cooperated 
 with the American Board. The fond dream of many—of one 
 national, undenominational agency for the prosecution of 
 Foreign Missions—was still cherished. There seemed nothing 
 in the constitution, or in the conduct, of the American Board to 
 prevent the indefinite continuance and enlargement of such 
 cooperation. 
 
 It was a fact, however, that union with so large a body of 
 Christians and churches contributing to the American Board, 
 seemed in a measure to relieve the cooperating denomination of 
 a sense of responsibility, since its deficiencies could be and some¬ 
 times were made up from other sources, though on the whole 
 our churches contributed much more than the amounts expended 
 on those Missions. There were many, therefore, and in increas¬ 
 ing numbers, who were convinced that greater things would be 
 done, and the entire Church roused to a deeper sense of respon¬ 
 sibility, if its missionary work should be conducted indepen¬ 
 dently by a Board of its own. They therefore desired the 
 termination of the relations with the American Board which had 
 existed harmoniously for twenty-five years, and the institution 
 of a distinct organization. 
 
 For such independent action the time was 
 Independent ripe, and the pressure at length became too 
 Action strong to be resisted. In 1856, the Board of 
 
 Proposed. Foreign Missions, thoroughly convinced of 
 1856. the wisdom and desirability of such a step, 
 
 unanimously recommended “that the Gen¬ 
 eral Synod conduct their Foreign Missions in an independent 
 manner.” An exceedingly able report from the pen of Dr. 
 Isaac Ferris, its President, presented with great force the 
 reasons for such a proposition. But the Synod was not then 
 ready to take action, and the whole subject was referred to the 
 next General Synod. 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 II 
 
 This step was taken in 1857. The General 
 Separation Synod of that year met at Ithaca, and re- 
 Accomplished ceived from the hand of the late Dr. Cham- 
 1857. bers, as Chairman of the Committee 011 
 
 Foreign Missions, a convincing and masterly 
 report in advocacy of such separation, and elaborating the 
 reasons for it adduced by Dr. Ferris. The discussions were 
 earnest, elevated and of a highly spiritual tone. The Holy 
 Spirit’s presence was distinctly manifested, and under His 
 guidance this course was resolved upon, though not without 
 dissent from those who thought the time had not yet come, or 
 clung with affection to the Board with which, and its work, 
 they had been so long and happily associated. A committee 
 was appointed to negotiate for a separation. A satisfactory 
 agreement was arrived at and the two Boards parted company 
 with mutual expressions of regard, gratitude for the past and 
 hope for the future. The history of the Board and its Missions, 
 in succeeding years, shows how amply, in the providence of 
 God, the hopes of that day have been realized, and the wisdom 
 vindicated. 
 
 A simple comparison may here be introduced, 
 Comparison to show how the Church and its benevolence 
 1832-57. toward Foreign Missions had increased dur¬ 
 ing the twenty-five years of cooperative ac¬ 
 tion. In 1832, when the first organization was accomplished, 
 the Reformed Dutch Church reported 15,800 families and 20,222 
 communicants. From December, 1832, to May, 1833, these 
 gave for Foreign Missions $2,106.12 1-2. In 1857 the number of 
 families was 32,579 and of communicants 44,443. The contri¬ 
 butions for Foreign Missions for the year were $12,303.99, and 
 for the whole period, $245,469. Seventeen missionaries fifteen 
 wives, and one unmarried woman, thirty-three in all, had been 
 sent to Borneo, China, and India. 
 
12 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 III. PERIOD OF INDEPENDENT ACTION. 
 
 The Board was reorganized by the addition 
 The Board of nine members, making twenty-four in 
 Reconstituted, all, and was incorporated by the Legislature 
 
 of New York in i860. The Hon. Theodore 
 Frelinghuysen was elected President, Dr. Isaac Ferris, Corres¬ 
 ponding Secretary, and Mr. Ezra A. Hayt, Treasurer. The 
 entire support of the Amoy and Arcot Missions was at once as¬ 
 sumed, and it was unanimously agreed, informally, in February, 
 1858, “that the committee feel themselves bound to take the 
 responsibility to send any qualified young men who might ®ffer 
 themselves for this work.’’ 
 
 The sincerity of this pledge was soon put to 
 Opening in the test. In January of the following year 
 Japan. the Board received “ an intensely interesting 
 
 letter ’’ from the Rev. E. W. Syle, relative 
 to the commencement of a Mission to Japan. Similar letters 
 were received from Dr. S. Wells Williams, as well as from other 
 sources. The brethren named, both missionaries in China, had 
 agreed, while on a visit to Nagasaki, to write letters to the 
 Boards of the Presbyterian, Episcopal and Reformed Churches 
 of this co.untry, urging them to send missionaries to Japan. The 
 matter was taken, under serious consideration by the Board, 
 especially for the reason that, owing to privileges long extended 
 by the Japanese to the Dutch at Nagasaki, and the intercourse 
 maintained with them, it was urged and might be hoped that 
 missionaries from the Reformed Dutch Church would be re¬ 
 ceived, if not with special favor yet with less disfavor than 
 those of other churches. Yet, so far as the Board knew or could 
 see, there were neither men nor means for the undertaking. 
 
 The way was opened, in the providence of 
 Remarkable God, in a remarkable manner. In January, 
 Providences. 1859, the Rev. S. R. Brown, formerly mana¬ 
 ger of the Morrison Chinese School at Can¬ 
 ton, but at that time pastor of the Church at Owasco Outlet, 
 offered his services to go to Japan with his wife and daughter. 
 At the same meeting a letter was read from Mr. Thomas C. 
 Doremus, an elder in the South Church, New York, offering to 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 13 
 
 sustain a missionary in Japan for a period of five years. Another 
 gentleman in the same church offered to sustain another mis¬ 
 sionary for the same period in the same country. The latter 
 lived long enough to bless God for the wonderful results of 
 missionary work m Japan for which his far sighted liberality 
 helped to prepare the way. The church itself, also, to which 
 these gentlemen belonged, agreed to maintain a third mis¬ 
 sionary. Small wonder that it was immediately resolved 
 “ that this Committee will forthwith commence the establish¬ 
 ment of a Mission in Japan.” 
 
 In May, 1859, the first missionaries sailed. 
 
 ' M ission to The party consisted of Dr. Brown, with his 
 
 Japan. 1859. wife and daughter, the Rev. G. F. Verbeck 
 and D. B. Simmons. M.D., and their wives. 
 Drs. Brown and Simmons proceeded to Kanagawa, near the 
 city (then a village) of Yokohama, and Dr. Verbeck to Nagasaki. 
 Similar companies were sent from the Presbyterian and Epis¬ 
 copal churches, and all arrived in Japan within a very few 
 months of each other. Into the history of the Mission thus 
 established, and divided into two—the North and South Japan 
 Missions—in 1889, it is impossible to enter here. 
 
 For many years these three continued to be the only Missions 
 under the care of the Board, though opportunities and invita¬ 
 tions were not wanting to engage in missionary enterprises else¬ 
 where. Manv of them were most inviting in their character, 
 bu-t. with two exceptions, the Board has felt compelled to 
 desline them all, through lack of means to incur additional 
 responsibility and, at the same time meet its obligations to the 
 Missions already under its care. As these are a part of its 
 history, it may be of interest briefly to mention some of these 
 opportunities offered to and declined by the Board. 
 
 So early as in 1858 an application was re- 
 South Africa, ceived from the Rev. Andrew Murray, of 
 1858. South Africa, to furnish the Mission (of the 
 
 Netherlands) there with missionaries from 
 the Dutch Church in this coun:ry, to aid them in their work. 
 Two years later the Rev. Daniel Findley, a missionary of the A. 
 B. C. F. M. to the Zulus of Southeastern Africa, presented in 
 
A CENTURY OE MISSIONS 
 
 *4 
 
 person a similar request, with “ interesting statements touching 
 the condition and needs of the Dutch churches in that region” 
 (Natal). In neither case was the Board able to give a favorable 
 response. 
 
 In the winter and spring of 1864 there oc- 
 M issionary curred a remarkable “outburst of zeal for 
 Ship, 1864. missionary labor on a grand scale” among 
 the churches in the Classes of Holland and 
 Wisconsin. Africa was to be the objective point of the new 
 missionary movement. A brother, then a licentiate, now and 
 for long years highly honored in the ministry of the Church, 
 offered himself and was ordained for the service. A plan was 
 formed, and strongly favored by Dr. Van Raalte and others of 
 influence, for the building of a ship that would reach the ocean 
 through the Welland Canal, and convey missionaries, etc., to 
 and from the field. The General Synod, in June, 1894, by for¬ 
 mal resolution, expressed its pleasure and devout thanksgiving 
 to Almighty God for this determination, and commended the 
 enterprise to the liberality of the churches. A model was pro¬ 
 cured in New York, and the keel of the projected ship was laid 
 at Holland, Mich., on June 24, 1864, amid much enthusiasm 
 and appropriate religious exercises, in which the Corresponding 
 Secretary of the Board, the Rev. Philip Peltz, D.D., and Dr. 
 J. V. N. Talmage, of the Amoy Mission, participated. The ship 
 was never built. The keel, laid with such enthusiasm, was 
 allowed to rot. Nothing material appeared permanently to 
 result from this movement, though considerable contributions 
 found their way into the treasury of the Board. But there can 
 be no doubt—there is none in the minds of those best convers¬ 
 ant with the facts—that a mighty spiritual and missionary in¬ 
 fluence was exerted among our Holland brethren, the effects of 
 which are visible to this day. 
 
 It would be unjust to pass over, in such a 
 Japanese record as this, the connection of this Board 
 Students, witn the education of young Japanese stud- 
 1866. ents in this country. Two young men pre¬ 
 
 sented themselves in the office of the Board, 
 in 1866, to Dr. Ferris, then Corresponding Secretary. They 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 15 
 
 brought letters of introduction from Dr. Verbeck, stating that 
 “ they were of good family and worthy of attention.” They 
 had come at the peril of their lives, and brought $100. They 
 sqid they had come to “ learn navigation, and how to make big 
 ships and big guns.” The matter was laid before the Board by 
 Dr. Ferris and the support and care of the young men assumed 
 until word could be had from Japan. This was the beginning 
 of a great movement. About 500 Japanese students, within a 
 few years, entered the schools cf the United States. Of these, 
 more than 200 passed through the office of the Board. 
 
 Much interest w T as awakened at a meeting of 
 M exico, 1870. the Executive Committee in August, 1870, 
 
 * by the presence of two Mexicans with an 
 
 interpreter. Interesting statements were made by them con¬ 
 cerning a work in progress for six years in the City of Mexico 
 and its vicinity. More than forty congregations had been 
 gathered, averaging forty souls. They had separated from the 
 Roman Church, and conducted their worship after the pattern 
 of the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting. They sought to be taken 
 under the care of the Board. The question of thus beginning a 
 new Mission in Mexico was held under advisement for several 
 months, but the Board being heavily in debt, with no prospect 
 of relief, the proposition was ultimately declined. 
 
 In 1870, in common with other similar socie- 
 American ties, the Board accepted the invitation of 
 Indians, 1870. the general government to nominate agents 
 among the Indian tribes of the West, in pur¬ 
 suance of what was styled “ General Grant’s Quaker policy.” 
 The Government agreed to appoint and pay the agents so nomi¬ 
 nated, the Boards “to advise the agent, superintend his work as 
 far as possible, and to send out and maintain Christian school 
 teachers and missionaries.” The Pima and Maricopa Agency, 
 having 5,000 Indians, and the Colorado River Agency, having 
 some 23,000 altogether, were offered to and accepted by the 
 Board. The plan worked with measurable but diminishing satis 
 faction for some years. Difficulties arose which were found to be 
 insuperable, and, in October, 1880, the Board formally withdrew 
 “ from all co-operation with the government.” 
 
i6 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 In 1884, the recent opening of Korea was 
 Korea, ;884. drawing to the “Hermit Kingdom” the 
 eyes of those who desired the evangelization 
 of its people and longed to attempt it. One such, a graduate of 
 our Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, (the Rev. Horace 
 G. Underwood,) made application to the Board, in February of 
 that year, to be sent thither as a missionary of the Board. But 
 it was not deemed either expedient or even possible to establish 
 a new Mission at that time, even by The appointment of a single 
 missionary. The application was, therefore, reluctantly de¬ 
 clined, and Mr. Underwood cordially recommended to the 
 Presbyterian Board, which was known to be considering the 
 establishment of such a Mission. The Reformed Church has 
 reason to rejoice in the work he has been permitted to do in 
 that field, though unable to send him forth to it herself. 
 
 The same subject was brought before the 
 Korea again Board again in January, 1891. Inthatmonth 
 1891. a proposition was received from a gentleman 
 
 of known liberality in the city of New York 
 to furnish the sum of $5,000, “ on condition and for the purpose 
 of establishing a Mission of the Reformed Church in Korea.” 
 But, aside from the fact that other churches already had flourish¬ 
 ing missions in that country, the claims of its existing missions 
 were too great, and were too scantily met, to admit of its under¬ 
 taking this new responsibility. The proposition was therefore 
 necessarily though reluctantly declined. 
 
 Similar reasons delayed the assumption by 
 Arabian the Board of the Arabian Mission. In 1889, 
 
 Mission, just before the meeting of the General Synod 
 
 1889. in June, Prof. J. G. Lansing, of our Theolog¬ 
 
 ical Seminary in New Brunswick, appeared 
 before a special meeting of the Board, together with three 
 students of the Seminary—Messrs. Cantine, S. M. Zwemer and 
 Phelps. Their desire was to establish a mission among some 
 Arabic-speaking people, with special reference to Moslems and 
 slaves. Their personal presentati< 5 h of the matter, accompanied 
 as it was by the offer of their own services, was listened to with 
 profound interest and sympathy by the members of the Board 
 
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 17 
 
 who were present. The whole matter was referred to the 
 General Synod, where it was received with interest equally 
 profound. Though it was evidently the desire of the Synod that 
 it should do so, the Board, to whom the subject was referred 
 back, did not then see the way clear to incur the responsibility 
 of a new mission at that time. Nor was it till 1894 that, in 
 accordance with the strong desire of many throughout the 
 Church, and by direction of the General Synod itself, the 
 Board accepted the management of the Mission already estab¬ 
 lished and in good working order. 
 
 Three missionaries and their wives, seven 
 Comparative catechists, two churches and two parochial 
 Statement, schools, were received at Amoy from the 
 1858-1896. A. B. C. F. M. in 1859. With the Arcot 
 Mission were received five missionaries and 
 their wives, and one unmarried lady; five churches, with 117 
 communicants, five native helpers, eight school masters and four 
 colporteurs. The following table shows the increase God has 
 given up to January, 1900 ; 
 
 Comparative, 
 
 Summary, 
 
 1858 1868 
 
 1858 - 
 
 1878 
 
 1900 . 
 
 1888 
 
 00 
 
 O' 
 
 00 
 
 1900 
 
 Stations, ..... 
 
 6 
 
 IO 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 Out-Stations and Preaching Places, 2 
 
 l8 
 
 49 
 
 123 
 
 241 
 
 230 
 
 Missionaries, men, 
 
 Missionaries, married women, 
 
 . 8 
 
 x 4 
 
 16 
 
 28 
 
 36 
 
 35 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 3 1 
 
 3 1 
 
 Missionaries, unmarried women. 
 Native Ordained Ministers, 
 
 1 
 
 .... 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 
 26 
 
 • • • • 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 26 
 
 3 ° 
 
 31 
 
 Other Native Helpers, men, 
 
 22 
 
 76 
 
 86 
 
 !73 
 
 211 
 
 237 
 
 Native Helpers, women, 
 
 • » • • 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 47 
 
 41 
 
 112 
 
 Churches, .... 
 
 7 
 
 *3 
 
 3 i 
 
 47 
 
 47 
 
 39 
 
 Communicants, .... 
 
 297 
 
 816 
 
 U563 
 
 4.559 
 
 5,564 
 
 4,597 
 
 Boarding School, boys, 
 
 . 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 IO 
 
 10 
 
 Scholars, ..... 
 
 • • • • 
 
 55 
 
 40 
 
 308 
 
 5*7 
 
 577 
 
 Boarding School, girls, . 
 
 . . . 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 Scholars,. 
 
 • • • • 
 
 46 
 
 97 
 
 300 
 
 456 
 
 45 i 
 
 Theological Shudents, . 
 
 • . . . « 
 
 7 
 
 l 9 
 
 3 2 
 
 61 
 
 50 
 
 Day Schools, .... 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 44 
 
 106 
 
 201 
 
 ■63 
 
 Scholars,. 
 
 Hospitals and Dispensaries, 
 
 88 
 
 4 i 3 
 
 I i 34 I 
 
 2,162 
 
 6,059 
 
 5 , 7 J 5 
 
 • • • • 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 . . • • 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 Patients Treated. 
 
 ■ • • • • 
 
 15,507 
 
 9. 6 73 
 
 .... 
 
 18,046 
 
 26,622 
 
 Native Contributions, 
 
 .... 
 
 Si,134 
 
 $i, 59 ° 
 
 $8,325 $ 
 
 w 
 
 0 
 
 Cn . 
 00 
 
 11,136 
 
 The whole number of missionaries connected with the 
 
 Board from the beginning is 196. Of these 82 were men, 71 
 married and 43 unmarried women. Of the total number, 17 
 went to the Borneo Mission, 51 to China, 58 to India, 57 to 
 Japan, and 13 to Arabia. 
 
i8 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 In no particular has the growth been greater 
 Woman’s Work or more marked than in that of work for 
 for Women. women in our mission fields. And any 
 sketch, however slight, of the Board’s his¬ 
 tory, would be fatally defective that did not make mention of 
 the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Abeel, returning 
 from China in 1834, visited London, and so interested Christian 
 women there in the condition of women in the Far Fast that the 
 Society for Promoting Female Education in the Bast was organ¬ 
 ized the following year. In 1861 the Woman’s Union Missionary 
 Society of America for Heathen Lands was organized in New 
 York, chiefly through the efforts and zeal of Mrs. Thomas C. 
 Doremus, a member of the Reformed Church, who became its 
 first President. In June, 1871, the Board directed its Corre¬ 
 sponding Secretary “to prepare a Constitution for Woman’s 
 Societies Auxiliary to this Board.’’ 
 
 It was not till January, 1875, however, that 
 Woman’s the Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions of 
 Board, 1875. our Church was organized. In that month a 
 few earnest souls met in New York, in the 
 midst of storm and rain, and established this Board which, for 
 twenty-one years, has been the invaluable and indispensable 
 helper of Synod’s Board. Its efforts were immediately directed 
 to the formation of Auxiliaries and Mission Bands in the several 
 churches, and as the result of continuous labor, it was able to 
 report in June, 1900, the existence of 569 such auxiliaries. In 
 1880, when the Board was hard pressed financially, it assumed 
 the support of all the work for women and girls in all our 
 mission fields. That responsibility it still cheerfully assumes, 
 though the cost has increased from about $5,500 to more than 
 $30,000 per year. Its special contributions, also, for the erection 
 of schools, chapels, dwellings, etc., have been many and gener¬ 
 ous, amounting to many thousands of dollars. The total of its 
 receipts,'from the beginning, is $498,479,^3 May, 1900. In 
 1899 it received from Mr. Robert Schell of New York, a dona¬ 
 tion of $10,000 for the building and equipment of the Mary 
 Taber Schell Hospital for women, at Vellore, India. In Jan¬ 
 uary, 1900, its Twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated with 
 appopriate religious services and a Birthday Reception. 
 

 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 19 
 
 The financial history of the Beard has been 
 Finances. characterized by three principal features : 
 
 i. Constant pressure and difficulty, amount¬ 
 ing often to extremity. 2. Signal deliverances. 3. Steady 
 growth in receipts, through the growing interest and liberality 
 of the Church. 
 
 It would be amusing if it were not so painful 
 Pressure. to note, in the records of its meetings, how 
 often the evidences of embarrassment and 
 sometimes desperate straits appear; how often appeals -were 
 ordered to the churches, showing “ the immediate and pressing 
 wants of the Board,”—how often, too, “the contraction of its 
 work,” “the giving up of a Mission,” and even “ the recall of 
 a sufficient number of missionaries from the field,” have been 
 presented as the only and sad alternative. 
 
 But side by side with these gloomy passages, 
 Relief. like gleams of light appear the notices of 
 help received, often in ways totally unex¬ 
 pected and of a character to fill the heart with gratitude and 
 wonder. During the dark days of the civil war, perhaps the 
 darkest the Board has ever seen, there are gleams like these : 
 In 1862 the London Missionary Society offered ^200 for that 
 and the following year, for the salary of Dr. Jared W. Scudder. 
 In 1863 the English Presbyterian Committee placed ^2,000 at 
 the service of the Amoy Mission, ‘‘in case of any special need 
 arising out of our civil troubles.” Even the native Christians 
 in India came to the help of the Board in 1862 and pledged $Soo 
 for the return of Dr. Jared Scudder. 
 
 When in 1866 the Board found itself oppressed and over¬ 
 whelmed by a debt of $47,000, and anxious meetings were held 
 to consider expedients for relief, one of those meetings “was 
 electrified by the announcement by Dr. T. W. Chambers that a 
 member of the Collegiate Church, (Mr. Warren Ackerman), 
 had that morning engaged to give $46,500 to remove the debt 
 of the Board, and $10,000 to be invested for the support of the 
 Missions in the future.” Prayer was turned to praise- -thanks¬ 
 giving to God and thanks to the generous giver. The tidings 
 were received with tears of thankful joy in India and China. 
 
20 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 In 1S80 a debt of almost equal amount had accumulated. 
 A General Missionary Conference (the first of the kind), was 
 held in Poughkeepsie, at which the state of each Mission and 
 of the treasury was presented in carefully prepared papers. It 
 proved to be an occasion of thrilling interest. A committee 
 was appointed, with the late Dr. Chambers as chairman, by 
 which the amount of the debt was raised and the Board again 
 relieved of its heavy and discouraging burden. More recently, 
 iu 1892, and still later, in 1895, debts of nearly equal amount 
 have been raised through the instrumentality of committees 
 appointed by the General Synod and the liberality of the 
 Church. 
 
 Noth withstanding these recurring debts,— 
 Progress. due largely in the first instance to the dis¬ 
 turbed state of the currency during the war 
 for the Union, and subsequently to the rapid growth of the 
 Missions, outstripping the ability of the Board to keep pace 
 with it,—there has been a continued, if not uniform, growth in 
 the contributions of the Church for its Foreign Mission work. 
 The receipts of the Board during the first decade of independ¬ 
 ent action, from 1858-67, were $469,057 ; from 1868-77, $644,572 ; 
 from 1878-87, $745,428; from 1888-97, $1,150,197, and from 1898- 
 1900, $361, 369. During the whole period, and including about 
 |45,ooo raised in 1888 by Dr. Chamberlain for the Theological 
 Seminary in the Arcot Mission, the Board has received 
 $3,415,939 Adding the amount given during the period of co¬ 
 operation with the A. B. C. F M., $245,469, the total sum of 
 $3,661,408 is the contribution of the Church in sixty-five years 
 to this work, beside about $49,000 for the Arabian Mission, 
 chiefly from its own members. As Dr. Ferris said at Albany 
 in 1881 ; “The Church has sustained its Missions with a noble 
 liberality, God has given his people a willing mind.” 
 
 As we face a new century of effort and prayer, may we not 
 hope that all the former things will be as nothing when com¬ 
 pared with the far greater things the Lord will enable us to do, 
 in this thrice blessed service for His glory and the redemption 
 of mankind.