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Fo reign M ission Aspects 
 
 of the 
 
 Five Ye ar Pr ogram 
 
 W E are living in an age in which everything is judged in terms of bigness 
 and immensity. The day of small things has passed away. World 
 events are measuring up to gigantic proportions. War is waged on a 
 scale hitherto unknown in military history. Industrial corporations wax great and 
 mighty. In international politics colossal armaments and strategic positions are 
 the deciding factors. Because they have discovered the secret of huge organ¬ 
 ization the forces of evil are intrenching themselves more firmly into every 
 realm of human life. Mammonism and materialism have seemingly reached the 
 zenith of their power. 
 
 In a world situation such as this the Church must rise to the emergency. 
 Feeble efforts cannot conquer mighty evils. When Adoniram Judson sent back 
 his appeal from Burma it was the bigness of the challenge that organized Baptists 
 into a missionary denomination. Any undertaking that demands vision, courage, 
 heroism, always appeals and generally wins. So the Church in order to make the 
 world crisis of today a turning point in the history of the Kingdom of God must 
 present a program of effort so big, so tremendous and so compelling as to challenge 
 the attention of the world. Let there be no misunderstanding. A mere program 
 however gigantic will not challenge unless there is behind it a mighty spiritual 
 emphasis that will assure success. 
 
 The Five Year Program adopted by the Northern Baptist Convention at 
 Los Angeles, California, May 24, 1915, will probably be recorded in denominational 
 history as the greatest forward step since the days of Judson. Its bigness is seen 
 in its heroic, statesmanlike missionary aims. The realization of its objective 
 would give the Baptist denomination a world influence heretofore unreached. 
 The several goals of the program as they relate to the work °f the American Baptist 
 Foreign Mission Society are therefore worthy of special consideration. 
 
 ' THE FIRST GOAL IS THE BAPTISM OF ONE MILLION CON¬ 
 VERTS AT HOME AND ABROAD WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, 
 The number mentioned is by no means too high. If every one of the 1,552,016 
 Baptists at home and abroad today would be the means of winning one individual 
 each for the Kingdom during a period of five years there would result an 
 addition by baptism of 552,016 more than the desired million. A revived 
 emphasis on personal evangelism would easily accomplish this result. One danger, 
 however, needs to be recognized at the beginning. In the endeavor to win a 
 million additions to our churches great care must be exercised that every one of the 
 
FOREIGN MISSION ASPECTS 
 
 million comes as a sincere and genuine convert. The Baptist principle of regener¬ 
 ated church membership must not be placed in jeopardy by the lust of statistics. 
 
 The missionaries of the Foreign Mission Society have always emphasized evan¬ 
 gelism. Since the days of Adoniram Judson 317,790 converts have been baptized 
 in non-Christian lands and 282,151 in Europe, a total of 599,941 baptisms. 
 
 The opportunities presenting themselves to the missionaries at the present time 
 give assurance that even larger results may be expected in the immediate future. 
 Present indications point to an evangelistic ingathering within the next five years 
 which will easily constitute the foreign field share of the coveted million accessions. 
 The mass movements in India are well known to all Baptists who remember the 
 name of Dr. John E. Clough. Spiritual forces at work in India today are be¬ 
 ginning to give evidence of results and the near future will undoubtedly witness 
 an acceptance of Christianity on a gigantic scale never before experienced in 
 Christian history. Recently a report came from one of our missionaries in Burma 
 that in the Kengtung field the Christian leaven had been working its way for 
 fifteen years and now there are hundreds of villages with a total population of 
 several thousand anxiously begging for missionaries and workers and expressing 
 a readiness to accept the gospel immediately. The wonderful results of the 
 recent evangelistic meetings among the educated classes in China have challenged 
 the attention of the entire Christian world and missionaries are of the opinion 
 that these are but the beginnings of a great awakening in China, if only adequate 
 advantage is taken of the present favorable situation. The three year evangelistic 
 campaign throughout Japan has already experienced remarkable success although 
 little more than a year has passed since it was inaugurated. These and many 
 other opportunities lie before the missionaries of the Society today and there 
 is every prospect that the period covered by the Five Year Program will witness 
 the greatest foreign mission achievements in the history of the denomination. 
 
 In view of the foregoing the Board of Managers of the Society desire to place 
 on record the following recommendations: 
 
 First: That there be a fresh recognition of the primary importance of evangelism 
 in all foreign mission endeavor. 
 
 Second: That there be effected a thorough use of other agencies in foreign 
 mission work not specifically known as evangelistic for securing greater evange¬ 
 listic results. 
 
 Third: That there be a re-emphasis on adherence to the fundamental principle 
 of genuine conversion before acceptance for baptism. 
 
 THE SECOND GOAL IS A TOTAL MISSIONARY FORCE OF 
 FIVE THOUSAND MEN AND WOMEN IN AMERICA AND IN 
 THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD. The force at present numbers 3612 
 of whom 559 are in the service of the American Baptist Foreign Mission 
 
 [ 2 ] 
 
of the FIVE YEAR PROGRAM 
 
 Society, not including those connected with the Woman’s Society. If the 
 present proportion of workers in America and on the foreign field is main¬ 
 tained the foreign missionaries ought to number 774 at the end of five years. 
 
 A study of the totals of recent years is of particular interest. Since 1911, the 
 year after the Society assumed responsibility for the mission in Bengal-Orissa, 
 formerly maintained by the Free Baptists, the number of missionaries reported 
 each year was as follows: 
 
 Year Missionary Staff New Missionaries Sent Out 
 
 Woman’s Woman’s 
 
 
 A.B.F.M.S. 
 
 Society 
 
 Total 
 
 A.B.F.M.S. 
 
 Society 
 
 Total 
 
 1911 
 
 543 
 
 179 
 
 722 
 
 31 
 
 16 
 
 47 
 
 1912 
 
 535 
 
 162 
 
 697 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 33 
 
 1913 
 
 536 
 
 165 
 
 701 
 
 25 
 
 10 
 
 35 
 
 1914 
 
 559 
 
 153 
 
 712 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 30 
 
 Thus it will be observed that although 104 new missionaries sailed for the field 
 there was a net increase of only 16 in the total during the four years. The loss was 
 occasioned by death, illness, retirement and numerous other contingencies. Con¬ 
 sequently, if the foreign mission force is to be increased to 774 at the end of five 
 years it means that not alone must 225, the difference between 774 and 559 be 
 added to the current workers, but in addition a sufficient number of new mis¬ 
 sionaries must be sent out to take the places of those who may die or become 
 incapacitated for further service. In other words the 225 must represent a net 
 increase in five years as compared with a net increase of only 16 in four years. 
 
 The importance of increasing the foreign missionary staff cannot be over¬ 
 emphasized. The demand for reenforcements merely to provide for the normal 
 development of the work already begun is prodigious. It is difficult to forecast 
 whether a total force of 774 at the end of five years will be able to undertake more 
 than the supervision of this normal development without even thinking of advance 
 work. The opportunities indicated above, of reaping a harvest of more than Pen¬ 
 tecostal dimensions show clearly how tremendous is the need of additional workers. 
 
 Aside from this there are loud calls for reenforcements for purposes of relief. 
 Scores of missionaries, because their associates have been disabled or are on furlough, 
 are overburdened with work. In some cases one missionary is doing the duties 
 of three thereby placing a heavy mortgage upon his own future strength and 
 efficiency. Missionaries coming home on furlough frequently are compelled to 
 leave their entire work in charge of native preachers because no other missionaries 
 can be assigned to take their places. The unspeakable loneliness of the mis¬ 
 sionary’s life also cries aloud for reenforcements, even if for no other reason than 
 companionship. A missionary and his wife are today alone in a jungle station in 
 Africa surrounded by cannibal tribes. Another missionary, whose wife because 
 of illness is in America, is absolutely alone in the hills of Assam, the nearest white 
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
FOREIGN MISSION ASPECTS 
 
 man being a government officer forty miles away. Recently a new recruit nearly 
 lost his life because no medical missionary was available in an hour of emergency. 
 For these and many others in dire need of help the second goal of the Five Year 
 Program has not been advocated too soon. 
 
 In view of these representative facts the Board recommend the following: 
 
 First: The appointment of a sufficient number of new missionaries within the 
 next five years to result in a net increase of 225 in the total missionary force (it 
 being understood that this total would represent the proportion of the desired 
 five thousand at home and abroad). 
 
 Second: The cooperation of every agency and institution having relations 
 with the young people of the denomination in emphasizing the claims and needs 
 of foreign mission service. 
 
 Third: The placing of fresh emphasis upon the divine call and the sacrificial 
 consecration involved in a missionary career. 
 
 THE THIRD GOAL IS AN ENDOWMENT OF TWO MILLION 
 DOLLARS FOR THE MINISTERS* AND MISSIONARIES’ BENEFIT 
 BOARD. It is within the facts to say that the denomination as a whole has 
 failed heretofore to make provision for the adequate support of its ministers and 
 missionaries who have given the best years of their lives to the work of the King¬ 
 dom and are now physically incapacitated for further service. The Ministers’ and 
 Missionaries’ Benefit Board, although of recent origin, has already demonstrated 
 the need and importance of its existence. The appeals that have come for aid to 
 servants of the denomination, crippled, nervously wrecked, in poverty and dis¬ 
 tress, often with families dependent upon them for support, have been pitiful 
 and worthy of every consideration. The denomination which they have served 
 owes them not charity but justice, and in their closing years they deserve that 
 relief from earthly care and the horror of want which they were not able to 
 guarantee for themselves because of meagre salaries while in active service. The 
 recent large gifts to the Board ought to prove a great inspiration in the effort to 
 secure the full endowment of two million which is not by any means too large. 
 
 The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society is vitally interested in this 
 matter. The work of the missionary is such that even the most physically 
 robust frequently give way under the terrible strain of loneliness, climatic con¬ 
 ditions and other features of environment. Often their health is so impaired and 
 irretrievably wrecked as not only to make return to the field impossible but also 
 to disable them permanently for any service at home. Consequently the 
 Society is morally bound to provide for them so long as their lives are spared. 
 A broken constitution, return to America, the abandonment of a career, the shat¬ 
 tering of noble ambitions, the gloomy prospect of future years of physical suffering 
 and distress and with it all the knowledge of the vast untouched opportunity and 
 need on the field—these are some of the tragedies that come into a missionary’s life. 
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
of the FIVE YEAR PROGRAM 
 
 There are today twenty-five missionaries, including widows, who because of 
 age, infirmity and ill health cannot render active service. Of these fourteen have 
 spent thirty years and more on the distant frontier lines of Christianity. During 
 the past four years the Society has paid a total of $61,197.79 in the form of aid, 
 grants and allowances for the support of these missionaries and dependent widows. 
 The total was distributed as follows: 
 
 1914-1915 
 
 1913—1914 
 
 1912-1913 
 
 1911-1912 
 
 $17,525.67 
 
 15,150.00 
 
 13,284.12 
 
 15,238.00 
 
 Thus the average annual expenditure for the care of retired veterans amounts to 
 $15,299.45, which would represent the income of a fund of approximately $400,000 
 figured at four per cent. Could provision be made for these missionaries from 
 other funds, there would be released more than $15,000 for the regular work of 
 advancing the Kingdom in the ten mission fields now maintained. 
 
 In view of this the Board of Managers recommend in connection with the 
 third goal in the Five Year Program the following: 
 
 The ultimate assumption by the Ministers* and Missionaries’ Benefit Board 
 of the care of all retired missionaries and dependent widows, the support of whom 
 is now being provided for out of current funds of the Society. 
 
 THE FOURTH GOAL IS A FUND OF SIX MILLION DOL- 
 LARS FOR ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT AND 
 EQUIPMENT AT HOME AND ABROAD. In the realization of this 
 aim the Foreign Mission Society is deeply concerned for the reason that 
 in its broadest sense educational work on the foreign field in importance is 
 secondary only to that of evangelism. While the preaching of the gospel by 
 foreign missionaries will continue indefinitely, it must inevitably give place as soon 
 as practicable to evangelization by native Christian forces. This demands an 
 educational work adequate to the task of training native leaders, for if an educated 
 and trained ministry is of pressing importance in America it is of infinitely more 
 importance in the foreign field. Without primary and secondary schools the 
 native church may be evangelized but remains unintelligent and inefficient. With¬ 
 out institutions of higher education native leaders cannot be trained to take the 
 initiative in the growth and development of the church and in influencing and 
 moulding the life and thought of the nation. Evangelism and education are there¬ 
 fore both essential for the successful achievement of the foreign mission enterprise. 
 
 A brief survey of the educational work of the Society would indicate even to 
 a casual observer how inadequate are the present institutions maintained by the 
 Society, both in number and equipment, for the successful training of native 
 workers who in cooperation with our foreign missionaries shall carry on the work 
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
FOREIGN MISSION ASPECTS 
 
 of evangelizing their people. The educational opportunities are vast while the 
 needs are overwhelmingly great. Out of every 1000 children in China only eight 
 are attending schools, the other 992 grow into manhood and womanhood ignorant 
 and illiterate. Compare this with the United States where 720 children out of 
 every 1,000 are in school. In India after decades of reformatory and educational 
 work on the part of the British government ninety per cent, of the population 
 are still illiterate. Concerning Africa no statistics are available or necessary to 
 convey a picture of the ignorance in the dark continent. For such needs the 
 Society is maintaining independently and in cooperation with other societies five 
 colleges, twenty-nine training schools or theological seminaries and 2344 secondary 
 and primary schools with a total enrolment of approximately 81,000 pupils. In 
 view of the need for educational privileges for the Christian communities and in 
 view of the countless population which ought to be reached and could be reached 
 by Christian schools, the number of such institutions, especially of primary and 
 secondary grade, ought to be greatly increased. 
 
 Moreover, the equipment of practically all our institutions of higher education 
 is so inadequate that the attainment of even a reasonable degree of efficiency is 
 surprising and the recorded success from year to year is therefore all the more 
 remarkable. While the Rangoon Baptist College has the best equipment of any 
 of our higher schools there nevertheless is urgent need for a students’ dining hall 
 and a chemical laboratory. Buildings for the Bible school, high school, and in¬ 
 dustrial department of the Jorhat Christian Schools in Assam are an immediate 
 necessity. In West China the Society is asked to contribute at once $12,500 for 
 the erection of the central buildings for the West China Union University. Mis¬ 
 sionaries’ residences and a students’ dormitory are needed for the Baptist 
 College and Seminary at Shanghai, and $15,000 should be provided at once for 
 buildings for the Japan Baptist Theological Seminary. A central recitation build¬ 
 ing is greatly needed for the Congo Evangelical Training Institution at Kimpesi. 
 Numerous school buildings are urgently required for the lower schools in South 
 India, Bengal, Assam, Burma and China. These are but typical of many 
 needs that might be mentioned for which funds have been insufficient. 
 
 The Society has thus far found it financially impossible to perform adequately 
 the dual function of an evangelistic and educational agency. Baptist institutions 
 at home are cared for by separate boards of trustees and have distinct constituencies 
 to whom appeals are made for funds. A church and a school might make separate 
 appeals even to the same constituency. On the foreign field the evangelistic 
 and educational tasks are so intimately related and so interdependent as to make 
 such a separation unwise, if not impossible. The Society therefore has 
 been obliged to use for both education and evangelism funds raised on the 
 basis of a single appeal. Immense relief would be afforded if special sources of 
 support could be opened for supplying the distinctive and heavy demands of the 
 educational work. 
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
of the FIVE YEAR PROGRAM 
 
 The amount appropriated annually by the Board for the maintenance of educa¬ 
 tional work on the field approximates $140,000. This fund includes the salaries 
 of missionaries and native teachers, educational material, and upkeep of buildings, 
 and assistance to students. If an endowment were to be sought sufficient to 
 provide for this annual expenditure not less than $3,500,000 would be required. 
 It is the judgment of the Board, however, that funds for endowment should be for 
 educational work in general rather than for specific institutions in order to 
 secure the largest possible cooperation of the native Christian community in 
 support of these institutions which ultimately will come under their control. 
 
 The Board of Managers therefore recommend the following: 
 
 First: That of the proposed fund of “six million dollars for additional educa¬ 
 tional endowment and equipment at home and abroad,” at least one million dollars 
 be assigned for equipment and endowment of educational institutions now main¬ 
 tained and hereafter organized by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 
 
 Second: That there be accorded to educational work on the foreign field a 
 fuller recognition of its importance in the transfer of responsibilities from the 
 foreign missionary to native leadership. 
 
 THE FINAL GOAL IS AN ANNUAL INCOME OF SIX MILLION 
 DOLLARS FOR MISSIONS AND BENEVOLENCE. Since the contribu¬ 
 tions to the work of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society are greater 
 than those to any other organization within the denomination, it is only natural 
 that the Society should be vitally concerned in the realization of this goal. The 
 desired total is by no means high when compared with the amount now raised 
 each year for missions and benevolence. According to the financial reports of 
 the several societies as published in the Northern Baptist Convention Annual 
 for 1915 the amounts received from all sources for all missionary purposes 
 during the preceding financial year reached a total of approximately three 
 million, five hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 It will be observed, therefore, that the goal of six million dollars means 
 an increase of about seventy per cent, of the amount now raised annually. 
 This is not expected immediately, but by gradual increases over a period of 
 five years, so that for the fiscal year closing March 31, 1920, every one of 
 the denominational missionary organizations will be able to report receipts 
 approximately seventy per cent, more than they reported March 31, 1915. 
 
 The Foreign Mission Society has today abundant opportunities calling for 
 increased appropriations which because of lack of funds are not available. One 
 reason for the adoption of the intensive policy was that the normal development of 
 the work already begun could not be provided for out of present financial resources. 
 A large increase in the Society’s income would permit the increase in missionary 
 force required by the second goal. There would be adequate provision for the 
 maintenance and equipment of hospitals and the construction of church buildings 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
FOREIGN MISSION ASPECTS 
 
 and residences so sorely needed on all the mission fields. Numerous additional 
 native evangelists and preachers could be engaged thereby making possible a 
 thorough, adequate and systematic cultivation of every field. Furthermore such 
 an increase would permit large advance work in fields now unoccupied by any 
 foreign mission organization. Moreover, so large a sum could be administered 
 and expended annually without any appreciable increase in home expenditures. 
 In fact the percentage of home expense could actually he greatly reduced . 
 
 In view of this the Board recommend: 
 
 The gradual increase in contributions for foreign missions so that the annual 
 income at the end of five years shall show an increase of seventy per cent, of what 
 is now received in order to make possible 
 
 First: Provision for the addition of $100,000 in expenditures for the current 
 year as authorized by the Northern Baptist Convention to prevent actual retrench¬ 
 ment in the work now conducted. 
 
 Second: Adequate financial support for the normal development of the work 
 already begun, and 
 
 Third: Enlargement and expansion of the work as rapidly as the increase in 
 resources will permit. 
 
 From the foregoing brief consideration of the foreign mission aspects of the 
 Five Year Program it will be noticed that there is a logical sequence in the five 
 goals which probably has not been noticed heretofore. The winning on the foreign 
 field of the desired proportion of the one million converts obviously depends, hu¬ 
 manly speaking, on a large increase in missionary forces and a larger use of native 
 agencies. This in turn shows the necessity of making more adequate provision for 
 the closing years of missionary veterans who have placed their health and life’s 
 strength upon the altar of foreign service. Again the larger force of missionaries can¬ 
 not do justice to their calling or their tasks without equipment for the education and 
 training of native leaders. And as indicated in the final goal, this advance in 
 missionary endeavor can be possible only with a corresponding increase in mis¬ 
 sionary resources. 
 
 One consideration remains. Above all else the spiritual emphasis must be 
 maintained. Without it the five goals are but mere denominational dreams 
 beyond all possibility of realizatisn. Theological conceptions may change 
 and dogmas may come and go but truth abides. The world is still lost in 
 sin and the gospel is still the only cure. With this truth continually 
 emphasized, with a revival of denominational prayer and with the inspiration 
 that comes from a recognition of human cooperation with the divine, the five 
 year program can be realized and it will prove to be a worthy accomplishment for 
 a denomination such as ours to undertake. 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 —20M—11-1-1915 
 
F OR additional copies 
 of this pamphlet or 
 information regarding 
 the work of the American 
 Baptist Foreign Mission 
 Society, write to any of 
 the following: 
 
 The nearest District 
 Secretary. 
 
 Department of Missionary 
 Education, 23 East 26th 
 Street, New York City. 
 
 Literature Department, 
 Box 41, Boston, Mass.