The Presbyterian 
 Church 
 
 and the 
 
 Great Commission 
 
 An Address Delivered at the 
 184th General Assembly of the 
 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., 
 Des Moines, Iowa, May 25th, 1922, 
 by Rev. William P. Schell, Secretary 
 of the Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 The Board oi Foreign Missions 
 of the 
 
 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 156 Fifth Avenue. New York City 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE GREAT COMMISSION 
 
 The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis¬ 
 sions—your Board of Foreign Missions— 
 presents its 85th Annual Report to this 
 Assembly. The 85th year which has just 
 closed, a year of financial depression and 
 unusual difficulties, was one of the most 
 fruitful and encouraging in the entire his¬ 
 tory of the work. The Board’s receipts, in¬ 
 cluding the gifts of the Woman’s Board, 
 amounted to $4,067,758.24. The Board closed 
 the year with all bills paid and with a sur¬ 
 plus of $66,075.52, which has been applied 
 to the old deficit, reducing the latter to $129,- 
 000. On April 1st, 1919, the financial con¬ 
 dition of the Board showed an accumulated 
 war deficit of $620,000. It will thus be noted 
 that during the past three years the Board 
 has not only conducted the work as the Agent 
 of the Church without incurring any new 
 deficit, but has also reduced its old deficit 
 by nearly $500,000. 
 
 The encouraging record of the year just 
 ended was largely due to three factors: (1) 
 The receipts from living donors held up 
 unusually well. For the regular work the 
 decrease was only $130,000, the balance 
 being for property and equipment; (2) The 
 Woman’s Board broke all records by 
 securing $110,000 more than during the 
 previous year; (3) The total cost of the work 
 was less than had been anticipated because 
 of the steady decline in foreign exchange. 
 During the past two or three months it has 
 
 1 
 
been necessary for the Board to increase its 
 budget by over $400,000 to care for increases 
 in the salaries of missionaries, allowances for 
 the children of missionaries, and continua¬ 
 tion of the salaries of the veterans in the serv¬ 
 ice, and for other emergency expenditures. 
 This means that during the fiscal year we 
 have just entered it will be necessary for the 
 Church to contribute a minimum of nearly 
 $500,000 more for its regular Foreign Mis¬ 
 sion work than was required during the fiscal 
 year 1921-22. 
 
 The General Assembly at Winona Lake, a 
 year ago, authorized the Board to raise a 
 Memorial Fund in memory of the late Secre¬ 
 tary Abram Woodruff Halsey, D.D., who had 
 served the Board with conspicuous devotion 
 and success for 22 years—this Fund to amount 
 to $100,000, and to be expended for a Mis¬ 
 sion Press in West Africa, a memorial build¬ 
 ing in connection with the Mission Press in 
 Syria, and for a memorial building in Mexico. 
 We are happy to be able to report that cash 
 and pledges have been received covering the 
 entire amount, and that word has already 
 been sent to Africa to commence the con¬ 
 struction of the Halsey Memorial Press. The 
 other buildings in Syria and Mexico will be 
 constructed as rapidly as the pledges are paid. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH ON THE FOREIGN FIELD 
 
 Encouraging as is the financial statement, 
 it is more important and more encouraging 
 to note the extraordinary success of your mis¬ 
 sionaries in the loyal and self-sacrificing 
 prosecution of the missionary enterprise. 
 
 2 
 
There are today more than 25,000 Pro¬ 
 testant missionaries making Christ known in 
 non-Christian lands. Compare these figures 
 and results with the beginning of the enter¬ 
 prise when our Lord sent out twelve men and 
 said to them: “As ye go, preach, saying ‘The 
 Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the 
 sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast 
 out demons; freely ye have received, freely 
 give’;” and when, on a later occasion He 
 gave them the great commission to preach 
 the Gospel to every creature and to make 
 disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost. 
 
 What is the aim of Foreign Missions as 
 recognized by the Presbyterian Church? If 
 you will look at the charter of the Board, 
 you will find that it was organized by the 
 General Assembly “for the purpose of estab¬ 
 lishing and conducting Christian Missions 
 among the unevangelized or Pagan nations, 
 and the general diffusion of Christianity.” In 
 June, 1920, 83 years later, the Board called 
 a Post War Conference at Princeton, New 
 Jersey, which was attended by officers and 
 members of the Board and the six Women’s 
 Boards of Foreign Missions; members of 
 the Executive Commission of the General 
 Assembly; members of the Chosen (Korea) 
 Commission, and official delegates, both men 
 and women, from all of our Missions in the 
 15 countries in which the Presbyterian 
 Church is working. At that Conference, by 
 unanimous vote, the following definition of 
 the aim of Foreign Missions was adopted, and 
 
 3 
 
has since been approved by all of our 27 
 Missions: 
 
 “The supreme and controlling aim of For¬ 
 eign Missions is to make the Lord Jesus 
 Christ known to all men as their Divine 
 Saviour and to persuade them to become His 
 disciples; to gather those disciples into Chris¬ 
 tian Churches which shall be self-propagating, 
 self-supporting and self-governing; to coop¬ 
 erate as long as necessary with these churches 
 in the evangelizing of their countrymen and 
 in bringing to bear on all human life the 
 spirit and principles of Christ. ,, 
 
 This stands today, at the end of 85 years, 
 as the unanimous official expression of the 
 missions and the Board of a position which 
 has also been endorsed on more than one 
 occasion by the General Assembly. 
 
 THE OFFERING OF YOUTH 
 
 One of the mysteries in the eyes of skeptics 
 and one of the great joys in the heart of the 
 Church is to note how, year after year, thou¬ 
 sands of young men and women, leaving 
 everything behind them, apply for service 
 for life in foreign lands. Do you know in 
 what numbers they do apply? During 1921-22, 
 515 candidates, in addition to those already 
 listed, began correspondence in regard to 
 missionary service. Some failed to meet the 
 standards which the Board requires. With 
 others correspondence was continued as to 
 further preparation. From those immediately 
 available 106 were commissioned. 
 
 How do you account for this wonderful 
 offering of young life? Why do they do it? 
 
 4 
 
For the fun of it? For adventure? To see 
 the world? To teach Mathematics? So some 
 would fain believe. No; that is not why 
 they go. Last Summer, at the Synod of Cali¬ 
 fornia, I asked a group of missionaries there 
 present to state the reasons which had 
 prompted them to volunteer as missionaries. 
 Among the reasons given these were the first: 
 The Great Commission of our Lord; and the 
 need of the world for which He died. There 
 are over 60 missionaries in attendance at this 
 General Assembly, some of them as Commis¬ 
 sioners from foreign Presbyteries, and others 
 as delegates from Missions or as visitors. If 
 there were time to summon them to the plat¬ 
 form and to ask them to state why they are 
 missionaries, they would tell the same story. 
 
 The missionaries know perfectly well that 
 “other foundation can no man lay than that 
 which is laid, even Jesus Christ.” The Mis¬ 
 sionaries know that “there is no other name 
 given under heaven among men” by which 
 men can be saved. The greatest blessing that 
 can fall upon the Presbyterian Church at home 
 which commissioned these missionaries and 
 sent them out will come when the Church 
 believes as implicitly and wholeheartedly in 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His power as 
 do the missionaries; and when it is possessed 
 and moved by the same spirit of unselfish 
 consecration to Him and His cause. 
 
 A LOOK AT THE WORK 
 
 The year just completed was a year of en¬ 
 couraging evangelistic results on the Foreign 
 Field, 20,145 non-Christians having been won 
 
 5 
 
to Jesus Christ and received into the Church 
 on confession of faith. This represents a net 
 gain of 3,000 for the year. In the foreign 
 held the evangelistic results last year repre¬ 
 sented a larger number of accessions to the 
 Church than we had all told in 1882, after 
 the first 50 years of our Foreign Mission 
 work. 
 
 When our distinguished Moderator was 
 nominated on the opening day of this As¬ 
 sembly, the strength and influence of the 
 Synod of Pennsylvania were pictured id 
 graphic and striking terms. Every word in 
 praise of the Synod of Pennsylvania was well 
 deserved, for that Synod represents a larger 
 number of Presbyterian Churches, Presby¬ 
 terian Church members, Presbyterian min¬ 
 isters and Presbyterian wealth than does any 
 other Synod of the entire Church; but in 
 spite of that fact, in 1920-21 the number of 
 converts received by our missionaries was a 
 greater number than were received that year 
 by the powerful Synod of Pennsylvania— 
 although the work of our churches in Penn¬ 
 sylvania was not carried on among heathen 
 people and was supported by a hundred in¬ 
 fluences which the Missions lack, and although 
 the Synod of Pennsylvania had three times 
 as many ordained men as we have ordained 
 foreign missionaries and spent nearly half as 
 much again on its work. 
 
 The Mass Movements towards Christianity 
 are not taking place in America nor in the 
 home Church. They are taking place in 
 Africa, India, Korea and in parts of China. 
 Some of the most encouraging revivals today 
 
 6 
 
are in Latin America and in Moslem lands, 
 and the ice is breaking in Japan. 
 
 The largest Presbyterian Church in the 
 world is not in America. It is in West 
 Africa, at Elat, and it numbers over 6,000 
 communicant members. Including the mem¬ 
 bership of the affiliated churches, the total 
 membership of the Elat Church is 16,000— 
 and that church is not yet thirty years old. 
 Less than 20 years ago the Board seriously 
 considered the question of abandoning the 
 work in West Africa because of the meagre 
 results. Today the total enrollment of ac¬ 
 tual church members is over 25,000. The 
 total Christian constituency of our Church 
 is placed at 62,000. Efulen has 7,000 Chris¬ 
 tians with only one minister; Lolodorf has 
 10,000 Christians with only one minister; 
 Metet has 6,000 Christians with only one 
 minister; Foulassi has 11,000 Christians with 
 only two ministers; Elat has 16,000 Chris¬ 
 tians with only two ministers; Sakbayeme 
 has 12,000 Christians with only one minister. 
 
 This General Assembly has had the high 
 honor and privilege of welcoming the dis¬ 
 tinguished Moderator of the Church of Christ 
 in Japan, Dr. Masahisa Uemura, in celebra¬ 
 tion of the 50th anniversary of that Church. 
 The Church of Christ in Japan, the result of 
 the work of the missionaries and Japanese 
 Christians of the Presbyterian and Reformed 
 Churches, has 82 self-supporting churches, 
 146 mission churches, 33,668 adult communi¬ 
 cants, and more than double that number of 
 adherents. The larger Church of Christ in 
 Japan, including all denominations, has 
 
 7 
 
137,000 communicants, and has grown to such 
 an extent that today there are 1,224 organ¬ 
 ized churches of which 359 are self-support¬ 
 ing. There are besides, schools for boys and 
 girls, from kindergarten to university; hos¬ 
 pitals, orphanages, and other forms of phil¬ 
 anthropic work of the Church and Missions. 
 
 The first missionary entered Korea in 1884. 
 Ten years later there were only 140 believers 
 in the whole country. Now there are 472 
 Protestant missionaries working in Korea. 
 The total number of baptized adults is 92,000 
 and there are over 35,000 catechumens pre¬ 
 paring for baptism. There are more than 
 240,000 Christian adherents associated with 
 the Protestant Churches. The total contribu¬ 
 tions of these Christians were $465,560 U. S. 
 Gold—a sum equivalent to 1,600,000 days’ 
 labor or $4,500,000 from 3,000 American 
 Christian Churches. 
 
 THE WORK IN DETAIL 
 
 When our Lord sent out His Twelve 
 Apostles He said to them: “As ye go, preach, 
 saying, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’ 
 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the 
 lepers, cast out demons; freely ye have re¬ 
 ceived, freely give.” In another command— 
 the great Commission, He told them to teach 
 —to make disciples of all the nations. 
 
 The methods of work of your Board of 
 Foreign Missions are based on Christ’s com¬ 
 mand to “preach, and heal, and teach.” 
 What is the proper relation of these methods 
 to one another and to the main purpose of 
 evangelism? We quote from the Board’s 
 Manual: 
 
 8 
 
“The spiritual aspects of the missionary 
 work are entitled to the foremost place in 
 the thoughts and affections of all who en¬ 
 gage in it. Applicants for appointment as 
 missionaries should set before their minds 
 the authority, glory and grace of Christ and 
 the honor of His Name in the salvation of 
 souls as their great aim. They should offer 
 their services in the work of spreading the 
 Gospel under a sense of being divinely called 
 to it, and they should seek their reward in our 
 blessed Lord’s approval.” 
 
 “The great end of missionary life and serv¬ 
 ice is the preaching of Christ Crucified . All 
 forms of work must be subordinate to this 
 end, and all methods of missionary effort, 
 medical, educational, industrial, etc., will be 
 sanctioned and supported by the Board only 
 as they contribute to a wider and more effec¬ 
 tive proclamation of the Gospel and give 
 promise of vital missionary results.” 
 
 Let us now look at these forms of work 
 in turn, saving the first till the last. 
 
 ••AS YE GO, HEAL” 
 
 Last year the Presbyterian Church sup¬ 
 ported 191 hospitals and dispensaries in for¬ 
 eign lands, in which 704,026 individual treat¬ 
 ments were given in the Name of Christ. If 
 the Church had done nothing more than bring 
 physical relief to nearly three-quarters of a 
 million suffering bodies, it would, to that 
 extent, have obeyed the command of the 
 Great Physician Who, Himself, went about 
 healing suffering bodies, with no thought of 
 reward and many times with no apparent 
 spiritual results. Out of ten lepers healed 
 
 9 
 
by Him only one returned to give thanks, 
 and many patients treated by Him never ac¬ 
 cepted Him at all. 
 
 But our hospitals are turning many not 
 only to the Great Physician of the body but 
 to the Great Physician of the soul. In scores 
 of cases they are reaching for Christ persons 
 who cannot be reached for Him in any other 
 way, and in all cases they open the way for 
 the evangelist. 
 
 The Severance Union Medical College 
 and Hospital in Seoul, Korea, stands as 
 strongly for evangelism as for intellectual 
 training and physical welfare. The charter 
 as a medical college lays down as its aim the 
 carrying on of its work on Christian prin¬ 
 ciples; it insists that every member of its 
 Board of Managers and every teacher shall be 
 an active Christian, and every one of its nearly 
 100 graduates has been a Christian. The 
 hospital evangelist preached last year to 
 16,820 men, of whom 4,424 decided to become 
 believers. The Hospital Bible Woman 
 preached to 3,826 women, of whom 189 de¬ 
 cided to believe. The doctors and nurses 
 teach in Sunday Schools in connection with 
 the city churches. 
 
 As the patients come to the hospitals to be 
 healed and as they await their turn to be 
 treated, the missionaries and native workers 
 circulate among them and tell them the Old, 
 Old Story, and dispose of copies of the Bible 
 or the New Testament. As one of the mis¬ 
 sionaries from Teheran, Persia, wrote: “The 
 Hospital seems to me one of the biggest op¬ 
 portunities in the evangelistic line.” 
 
 10 
 
One day, in the Autumn of 1919, it was my 
 great privilege to baptize the baby boy of 
 two of our missionaries in one of the most 
 attractive Mission Compounds in China. It 
 was a beautiful day with the sun shining 
 through the trees, and, gathered on the lawn 
 in a circle were the missionaries and their 
 families, the doctors and nurses from the hos¬ 
 pital, the Bible women, native pastors and 
 elders. In the administration of the rite of 
 baptism I was assisted by two Chinese Chris¬ 
 tians, one standing at my left holding the 
 baptismal bowl; and the other at my right 
 to offer prayer. I learned later that the man 
 who held the baptismal bowl was a converted 
 opium victim who had been won to Christ by 
 a Christian worker in the hospital, and that 
 the man at the right had been a drunkard and 
 had been saved by the personal work of some 
 devout Christian in the streets of the city. 
 The thought came over me, what could be 
 more appropriate than that a representative 
 of the Board of Foreign Missions from Amer¬ 
 ica should baptize the child of Christian mis¬ 
 sionaries from America, in a Mission Com¬ 
 pound in China, and that he should be as¬ 
 sisted in that ceremony by two men in whose 
 lives had been worked out the miracle of 
 Christianity? 
 
 “AS YE GO, TEACH ” 
 
 The Presbyterian Church has always em¬ 
 phasized the need of Christian education, and 
 has insisted on the educational training of 
 its leaders. The growth and influence of the 
 Church in the educational field in the United 
 States is evidenced by the large number of 
 
 11 
 
Presbyterian Colleges. This growth and edu¬ 
 cational leadership is paralleled on the for¬ 
 eign field. Last year, in foreign lands, there 
 were 2,562 Presbyterian schools from kinder¬ 
 garten to university with over 200,000 
 scholars. 
 
 What is the purpose of these schools? The 
 purpose is threefold:—direct evangelism of 
 non-Christian students, the Christian educa¬ 
 tion of the children of the Church and the 
 training of Christian leaders in the life and 
 activities of the countries concerned. 
 
 The Assembly will be happy to learn that 
 last year 1,414 students in our Christian 
 schools and colleges in foreign lands were 
 led to confess Jesus Christ as their Saviour 
 and to unite with the Church on confession 
 of faith in Him. Last evening you heard the 
 wonderful story of the conversion of Miss 
 Christiana Tsai, a daughter of Christian 
 China. You must have been impressed by 
 her statement that it was in our Presbyterian 
 school in Nanking that she first heard of 
 Jesus Christ and that it was through the 
 influence of that school that she became a 
 Christian. 
 
 The people of all lands who have come in 
 contact with these Christian schools need no 
 persuasion as to the value of the schools as 
 evangelistic agencies. One of the delegates 
 to this Assembly, the Rev. Frank S. Niles, 
 of Hwai Yuen, China, is the Principal of a 
 Boys School at Hwai Yuen. One day last 
 year a gun-boat official turned up at the 
 school bringing with him his son, a very 
 intelligent boy. The father asked the Prin- 
 
 12 
 
cipal of the school to examine his son. Mr. 
 Niles told him that it was useless to examine 
 him, for even if he should pass the examina¬ 
 tion there was no place for him because of 
 crowded conditions in the school. 
 
 Said the official, “I will rent a house in 
 town and he can live at home.” 
 
 “But,” said the Principal, “there is no 
 desk.” 
 
 “Ah,” said the official, “I will buy a desk.” 
 
 “But there is no place to put it even if you 
 do buy it,” said the hard-hearted Principal. 
 
 “Well, then,” said the father, “let him stand 
 up for a year. I have already heard so much 
 about the goodness of the Christian Church; 
 now, let some of that goodness shine forth 
 so that we can see it. Please take pity on my 
 son and let him stay and learn. Your school 
 is the only school that I know of where I 
 can leave my son to be educated and never 
 worry about him. I want him to grow up 
 to be a Christian.” 
 
 In spite of this appeal it was necessary to 
 turn the boy away, and he was the fifty-first 
 boy who had had to pass through that ex¬ 
 perience in one term for lack of room in the 
 school. 
 
 One of our missionaries in Ningpo, in 
 writing of the evangelistic influence of her 
 Boys’ School, said, “I dread to turn a boy 
 away for fear it may mean that he loses his 
 chance of finding Christ.” In the Presby¬ 
 terian Industrial School at Yihsien, China, 
 28 boys united with the Church on one Sun¬ 
 day; 60 boys and students of the Boys’ 
 School at Ningpo accepted Christ during the 
 
 13 
 
year, and the school this past year has broken 
 records in attendance, there being 190 stu¬ 
 dents in all departments. Last Winter a series 
 of evangelistic meetings was held in the In¬ 
 stitute Ingles in Santiago, Chile, with a 
 Chilean pastor in charge. From 60 to 100 
 boys attended these daily evangelistic serv¬ 
 ices, and 62 boys signed cards given out at 
 the close of the services and promised to take 
 Jesus Christ as their Saviour. In the Girls’ 
 School at Bangkok, Siam, a very strong leader 
 among the girls of the graduating class de¬ 
 cided to become a Christian. She had been 
 brought to Christ as the result of the daily 
 prayers of the five Christian girls of her 
 class, and is today one of the leaders in 
 Christian work. 
 
 About forty years ago, a man named Li 
 came to Peking from his home over 100 miles 
 away wheeling his five year old daughter on 
 a wheelbarrow, to have her educated in the 
 Presbyterian School. One of the missionaries 
 wrote recently of her life and influence: 
 “Although she was too young to come in as a 
 regular pupil, some of the missionaries took 
 her as a ward and brought her up. From 
 then until this year she has been in the Mis¬ 
 sion, a cultured, capable and devout woman, 
 lately the Principal of the Girls’ School in 
 Paotingfu. Last Spring, when she decided 
 to go into Home Mission work in southwest 
 China, the alumnae and students of the school 
 had a farewell reception for her, at the end 
 of which they had Miss Li face the audience 
 with a lighted candle in each hand. Then 
 the alumnae and students from the oldest to 
 
 14 
 
the youngest walked past her, each one light¬ 
 ing a candle from hers. Thus did they 
 symbolize the way her life had been multb 
 plied. Toward the last of the line. Miss Li 
 added to the symbol by modestly suggesting 
 that the little girls light their candles from 
 the candles of the older girls. Then, still 
 silently, except for an occasional song from 
 various classes or groups, the line of about 
 200 girls with their lights filed out into the 
 darkness of the Chinese night/’ 
 
 “AS YE GO, PREACH ” 
 
 Preach in isolated and lonely places; 
 preach among the masses of India, and Africa, 
 and Korea; preach in the market-places of 
 the great cities; preach along the highways 
 of the countries of the world; preach by 
 word of mouth, by written word or by the 
 distribution of literature; by daily walk and 
 conversation. As ye go, preach the Gospel 
 of Jesus Christ. In fifteen countries of the 
 world your missionaries are obeying this in¬ 
 struction of our Lord. 
 
 For many years it has been considered in 
 some quarters of the Mohammedan world as 
 almost impossible to win converts from Islam 
 to Christianity, but this past year 65 con¬ 
 verts were won from Mohammed to Christ in 
 the great Shrine City of Meshed, on the border 
 of Afghanistan, where are perhaps the farthest 
 removed outposts of missionary forces in the 
 world. Some of these converts are already 
 at work preaching the Gospel themselves, and 
 all over the Near Eastern world converts are 
 being won to Christianity in increasing num¬ 
 bers. 
 
 15 
 
In the great city of Canton in South China, 
 a series of evangelistic meetings developed 
 extraordinary interest. A site was secured in 
 one of the prominent localities, and a large 
 mat shed was erected at a cost of $1,600, 
 the members of all the churches freely con¬ 
 tributing. Two meetings were held daily for 
 ten days. The meeting for women was held 
 at two o’clock, and at this service more than 
 2,000 were frequently present. In the even¬ 
 ing the meeting was crowded with men, 
 though the seating capacity was almost 3,000. 
 In the audience were officials, scholars, mer¬ 
 chants, seated often side by side with men 
 of laboring classes. No distinction in class 
 or rank was made, yet in no instance was 
 there the slightest evidence of any resentment 
 or disorder. The preaching was entirely by 
 the Chinese, the missionaries aiding in every 
 other possible way. The power of the 
 Chinese preachers was greatly in evidence. 
 Among those who gave great assistance were 
 the students from the Canton Union Theo¬ 
 logical College. At these meetings more than 
 100,000 persons were present, and 2,900 
 signed cards expressing determination to be¬ 
 come Christians. More than 1,000 were or¬ 
 ganized into Bible Classes. In Canton are 
 some large department stores having hun¬ 
 dreds of clerks. From one of these, 130 men 
 came forward to make confession of faith. 
 The entire cost of the meetings, $6,000, was 
 oversubscribed, leaving $1,500 in the treas¬ 
 ury for a similar series in the future. 
 
 In Japan 22 business men were baptized 
 at their places of business. In Chile 700 
 
 16 
 
persons were converted to Christ in a great 
 Easter Evangelistic Campaign—the largest 
 number of decisions ever made in an equal 
 length of time since our work began in Chile 
 fifty years ago. 
 
 A Presbyterian missionary in the city of 
 Etawah, in India, tells the following story of 
 the power of the Gospel: 
 
 “Two culprits in the district jail sentenced 
 to be hanged. They were face to face with 
 death. In all of their lives they had not 
 given a particle of thought to religion or to 
 their future. When their sinful condition 
 was pointed out to them they sighed for the 
 cleansing of the waters of the Ganges and 
 Jumna. When the minister proved these to 
 be futile they inquired the way to be saved, 
 and were told to believe on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The minister repeated to them a de¬ 
 scription of Christ’s abounding love and of 
 what He has accomplished for sinners. They 
 were moved to tears, and were won to Christ 
 even in their dying hour. The next day there 
 were a few people from the city to see the 
 two men hanged, and the two culprits—re¬ 
 deemed of the Lord—declared from the 
 scaffold their faith,—the peace and the cour¬ 
 age they had to face death as they had with 
 them the One Who had crossed the river of 
 death. 
 
 A Hindu engineer who was present was 
 greatly touched and sought from the minister 
 the way he also could with ease of mind 
 meet death.” 
 
 In hearing this story one is reminded of 
 the words in the Acts of the Apostles, in the 
 
 17 
 
story of the stoning of Stephen,—“The wit¬ 
 nesses laid down their clothes at a young 
 man’s feet, whose name was Saul.” 
 
 We close with the story of Tokichi Ishii, 
 one of the most notorious criminals in the 
 Japanese Empire, for twenty-nine years a 
 burglar, and a murderer condemned to life 
 imprisonment in the penitentiary at Tokyo. 
 During his imprisonment, in order to save the 
 life of an innocent fellow prisoner who had 
 been condemned for the murder of a geisha 
 girl with whom he was in love, Tokichi Ishii 
 himself confessed to the murder and thus 
 brought on himself sentence of execution. 
 At one place in his journal we read, “One day 
 a person by the name of Miss West came 
 purposely to visit me and talk to me about 
 Jesus Christ. . „ . Although I thought it 
 very kind of Miss West to come to talk to 
 me, I did not pay much attention to what she 
 said. Of course I behaved with decorum as 
 the occasion demanded. These visits con¬ 
 tinued from time to time.” 
 
 “The person named Miss West,” to whom 
 Tokichi Ishii refers in his journal is Miss 
 Annie B. West, one of your Presbyterian mis¬ 
 sionaries, who, for thirty-nine years with con¬ 
 spicuous devotion, great consecration and 
 power and success has been making Christ 
 known to the people of the Japanese Empire. 
 Further on in the journal Tokichi Ishii 
 writes: 
 
 “Miss West came to see me today and I 
 was even more pleased than usual with her 
 visit as I had not seen either of my friends 
 for some time. . . . She asked mp to re* 
 
 18 
 
member especially the words of the twenty- 
 third Psalm. ... I was so grateful for 
 Miss West’s visit that I prayed after she left 
 me: ‘Lord Jesus, I thank Thee from the 
 bottom of my heart that Thou hast answered 
 all the prayers I have ever made to Thee. 
 In the coming days when enemies attack my 
 soul from all quarters, lend me Thy power 
 to conquer them all’.” 
 
 In his prison cell, on reading the story 
 of the death of our Lord on the Cross, Tokichi 
 Ishii gave his heart to Christ. Shortly be¬ 
 fore he died he gave utterance to two extra¬ 
 ordinary expressions. The first one was, “No 
 Christian is ever afraid of death.” Dr. John 
 Kelman, who wrote the Foreword to the story 
 of the life of this extraordinary man, re¬ 
 marked that the only Christians Tokichi Ishii 
 had ever known were the two women who told 
 him of Jesus in his cell, Miss Annie B. West 
 and Miss Caroline McDonald. His last 
 words, which are in the form of a poem, are 
 as follows: 
 
 “My name is defiled, 
 
 My body dies in prison, 
 
 But my soul purified 
 
 Today returns to the City of God.” 
 
 Any Church which, through its missionaries, 
 can win to Christ this notorious criminal of 
 Japan, can, with the power of Christ win the 
 Japanese Empire, and the missionaries of 
 such a Church deserve the prayerful and 
 loyal support of the Church which sent them 
 out. 
 
 Stand by your missionaries. They have 
 gone out to the ends of the earth leaving 
 
 19 
 
their country, their homes and many of the 
 comforts and privileges of life which you 
 enjoy. Today nearly sixteen hundred of 
 them are preaching the Gospel of Christ in 
 obedience to the Great Commission, and their 
 labors, which are not in vain in the Lord, 
 are being blessed by Him with ever encourag¬ 
 ing results. Stand by your missionaries. 
 They are giving their lives for the faith in 
 which you believe. 
 
 20 
 

 DATE DUE 
 
 1 im i 
 
 .’0 
 - -f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 
 
 P*l NT CO 5N U S. A .