:fl3cacou press j 
 
 THOMAS TODD, 1 4 BEACON STREET, 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
UNTABULATED RESOURCES* 
 
 KY REV. JAMES L. BARTON, D.D., SECRETARY. 
 
 [A Paper from the Pradential Committee, presented at the Annual Meeting of the American 
 
 Board at Oberlin, Ohio, October ij, igo2i\ 
 
 What has been accomplished in the ninety years of missionary work of this 
 Board? You will at once reply : We have planted twenty strong missions, in which 
 there have been organized 524 churches, with a present membership of 56,000. We 
 have sixteen collegiate institutions for both boys and girls, with some 61,000 pupils 
 in all our mission schools. Our missionaries are assisted by 3,500 native pastors, 
 preachers, teachers, and Bible readers, who are engaged in the work of education and 
 evangelization. To this is to be added the mission plant, consisting of premises, 
 houses, college and school buildings, churches, hospitals, and equipments of every 
 kind, owned by the Board, and constituting a necessary part of its resources, valued 
 at nearly two million dollars. 
 
 These are tabulated results of our long labors in foreign lands, and they con¬ 
 stitute, also, tabulated assets, upon which we are to depend and with which we are 
 to work in the years to come. 
 
 Yet we grievously err if we allow our minds to dwell upon these tabulated 
 statements of our work, and consider them the principal part of what we have ac¬ 
 tually gained. If after ninety-two years of direct effort for the coming of the 
 Kingdom of God on earth, we can point only to mission plants, buildings, pupils, 
 Christian workers, and church members, we have not the fullest returns to show for 
 the opportunities that have been open to us as a mission Board. 
 
 We have been so accustomed to estimate the results of our work by the annual 
 tabulated statements, and measure our resources by the columns of receipts, the 
 number of contrilmting churches, the inventory of property possessed at home and 
 abroad, and the tables of statistics gathered upon the fields, that there is danger 
 that we overlook some of ou*" largest and most striking victories. 
 
 Have we not in our thoughts confined the operations of the Holy Spirit too 
 much within narrow limits prescribed by our own short vision, failing to see how 
 widely He has been organizing forces which have not and cannot have place 
 in our statistical tables ? 
 
 Let it not be thought for a moment that we make little account of individual 
 conversion. Too much emphasis has not been placed upon this phase of our 
 work, which must always stand first in every plan and have supreme place in every 
 operation. When missionaries cease to work and pray for the conversion of 
 individual souls, the work of missions is doomed. 
 
 But we make also a grave mistake when we limit the operations of the Holy 
 Spirit to that of conversion alone. As we look at the work abroad, far beyond the 
 borders of the native Christian church, outside of the large body of adherents, out 
 in the pagan communities, amid government officials and in circles remote from 
 mission station or the offices of Mission Boards, we trace the workings of the 
 Spirit of God preparing the way quietly, unostentatiously, yet in a thousand subtle 
 forms. 
 
 We desire to call attention to five positions of vantage, gained during the 
 ninet\-two years of our mission operations, which are clear indications of the 
 
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 Untahulated Resources. 
 
 Spirit’s aid and power. It is not unfitting to refer to these as “resources ” which 
 may not have been fully recognized as such hitherto, but which we are to use as 
 divinely given forces put at our disposal for immediate, continuous and vic¬ 
 torious employment. 
 
 The first that we will mention is : — 
 
 I. THE HONORABLE STANDING OF THE BOARD AND ITS MISSIONS 
 
 IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD. 
 
 In order to carry on the work of this Board it is necessary to have dealing 
 with the financial world. Last year the treasurer of our Board sent over six 
 hundred thousand dollars to other countries, and this large sum represents probably 
 no more than one-half of the amounts which passed through the hands of various 
 missionaries and mission treasurers. The above mentioned amount is the regular 
 annual payment made by the Board in not less than a dozen different countries, 
 and in widely remote and interior sections of those countries. The vai;ious treas¬ 
 urers of the missions reside at central stations and establish financial relations 
 with every mission station in their precinct, and even with every missionary of 
 our Board. This business system is now so thoroughly established and so com¬ 
 mands the confidence of all the financial houses within the sphere of our operations 
 in all these countries, and even far outside of them, that any money transaction can 
 be consummated by telegraph over the name of the Treasurer of the Board, in 
 the quickest possible time and at a lower rate of cost than the same could be 
 done by any banking house in the world. In fact, many of the sections reached 
 by our missionaries and Board could not be reached by any commercial house. 
 
 The credit of the station treasurers within their fields is not inferior to that of 
 the mission treasurers in the larger centres. Checks drawn by our mission treas¬ 
 urer in Japan are frequently sent to Europe to pay small local bills. These checks, 
 bearing the printed name of the “ American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions,” and signed by the treasurer of the Japan Mission, are cashed in Europe 
 at their face value as readily as International Money Orders. I have seen the 
 station treasurer’s check at Harpoot, Eastern Turkey, drawn upon the mission 
 treasurer at Constantinople, sell at 2 per cent premium when Baring Brothers’ drafts 
 on London could be purchased at par in the open market. At tiie time of the 
 massacres in Turkey, every banking system throughout the interior of the country 
 suspended operations, or completely failed. When the Mansion House Relief Fund 
 of London, amounting to 100,000 pounds, was sent to the British Ambassador at 
 Constantinople, and parties for the distribution of that relief were dispatched 
 throughout the interior of the country, there was no way for the British Ambas¬ 
 sador to send these funds to the places where they were needed except by putting 
 them into the hands of the Treasurer of this Board at Constantinople. When 
 Clara Barton went out with her Red Cross funds and workers, her money was 
 passed into the American Board Treasury at the Porfe, and from there all dis¬ 
 tributions were made. At that time there were hundreds of Armenians in this 
 country who had relatives in the stricken districts in Armenia and Koordistan. It 
 was impossible for them to reach their friends with aid except through the agency 
 of the American Board. During one year about $150,000 were taken in Boston 
 for thousands of different persons in all parts of the interior of that disordered 
 country. In the year following the disturbances in Turkey, our treasurer at Con¬ 
 stantinople received one million, two hundred thousand dollars ($1,200,000) in 
 addition to the regular mission funds, and transmitted the same according to 
 
Ufitabulated Resources. 
 
 5 
 
 directions to all parts of the country and not a dollar was diverted, lost, or unduly 
 delayed. It is not extravagant to affirm that but for this financial system, managed 
 by the missionaries alone under the Treasurer of the Board in Boston, in which 
 everybody, both in Turkey and outside, had absolute confidence, the most of this 
 relief money could not have reached its destination. We have no reason to place 
 the business confidence held by our missionaries in Turkey above that enjoyed by 
 the mission treasurers and missionaries in every other mission of this Board. 
 
 About a year ago one of the leading men in the banking house of Baring 
 Brothers in London, told the writer, that American Board paper passed through 
 their house almost daily, and that, with all their world-wide operations, no name 
 was rated higher and carried with it more fully the confidence of the market than 
 the name of the Treasurer of the American Board. He said, “American Board 
 paper is gilt-edged everywhere.” 
 
 This confidence of the commercial world, embracing the heaviest banking 
 houses in every large city and extending down through every grade of operation 
 to the man from whom the missionary purchases a site for a schoolhouse or a 
 chapel in the most remote districts in the interior of Asia or Africa, is a divinely 
 given resource of the Board which has been secured by ninety-two years of Chris¬ 
 tian business dealing, through a Board and missionaries who have never promised 
 what they could not perform and have never failed to perform what they 
 promised. This commercial confidence is of incalculable value to an organization 
 of this kind which must necessarily have continuous business relations with the 
 ends of the earth. 
 
 The second point to be noted is:— 
 
 II. COOPERATION ALREADY ACHIEVED IN THE CONDUCT OF THE WORK. 
 
 The missionaries of all Boards have already learned much, and are rapidly 
 learning more, of the value of combination and direct cooperation. This has been 
 a hard lesson to learn, as there was no example in any country to follow. The 
 waste in rivalry and competition was so apparent to the missionaries of leading 
 Boards, that mutual conferences have been held and even organizations were formed, 
 embracing different denominations. These organizations now exist in all of the 
 larger mission countries of the world as part of the regular method of conduct and 
 operation. Great interdenominational missionary conferences, participated in by 
 all evangelical denominations, with possibly one or two exceptions, have been held 
 in India, China, and Japan, and in these, “methods of work,” “cooperation,” 
 ^‘policies,” and “the field,” and many other practical topics, have been discussed 
 from all standpoints. The last great conference of this kind was convened in Japan 
 a little more than a year ago, where some six hundred missionaries were present, and 
 one is now consummating in India, in which it is expected every evangelical Chris¬ 
 tian body working in Ceylon and India, and possibly Burma, will take part. As a 
 result of these conferences, there has grown up a mutual understanding between 
 various missions, so that denominational differences are put into the background, 
 and the one idea of the “ extension of the Kingdom of God ” is forced to the front. 
 Missionaries and mission Boards no longer work against each other, but with 
 each other, and the strength and force of all are marvelously augmented. 
 
 Some of the results of this cooperation are inter-denominational hymn books 
 for use in different missions, as in Japan; union Christian periodicals, as in southern 
 India; colleges in which the students from various missions study under teachers 
 provided by different missions, as the Christian college in Madras and the Union 
 
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 Untabiilated Resources. 
 
 University of North China ; local inter-denominational conferences for the discussion 
 of plans and methods, as in Mexico, China, Japan, Ceylon, and India, and even in 
 nearly every city in which different denominations meet; theological schools in 
 which men are trained for pastoral work in different missions by teachers of various 
 denominations, as in the Arcot Mission, in India, and elsewhere; and union 
 summer schools for deepening the intellectual and spiritual life, as in India and 
 Bulgaria. 
 
 The associations of Christian leaders in Bombay, Poona, and Madras, com¬ 
 posed of men of all evangelical denominations, have already become recognized 
 forces in their respective communities. 
 
 Over twenty denominations in Japan have been united for more than a year in 
 a general evangelistic effort in that country, which promises to result in the most 
 sweeping revival that empire has ever witnessed. At this very time in Jaffna, 
 Ceylon, three missions from two continents are conducting a series of evangelistic • 
 meetings in which all the Christian workers of all of the missions unite. 
 
 But we need not prolong this catalogue. This fraternal cooperation has already 
 become a part of the regular method, in many countries, for the conduct of mission 
 operations. This not only prevents waste of spiritual and physical energy and 
 mission funds, but it adds greatly to the strength of all mission effort and to the 
 influence of the missionaries and their institutions. 
 
 These are days of commercial combination, especially in our own country. It 
 is universally acknowledged that in this way America is rapidly becoming the 
 strongest commercial nation in the world. The secret of this strength lies in 
 the cooperation of those who possess commercial experience, wisdom, and resources, 
 under the leadership of men who work together for a common purpose. Have we 
 not a right to maintain that the combination of mission experience, wisdom, and 
 resources, directed by men and women of God, under the leadership of the Holy 
 Spirit, and working for one common purpose, and that the establishment on earth 
 of the Kingdom of our Blessed Lord, is one of the mightiest resources of our work 
 today? It seems as if, in this respect, we are just reaching a condition which God 
 can use for a sweeping victory throughout the world. 
 
 Among the resources of which we are speaking we mention thirdly:— 
 
 III. THE PERSONAL RESPECT WHICH THE MISSIONARIES COMMAND FROM 
 
 ALL CLASSES OF PEOPLE. 
 
 I. From the Commo?t People. — Two or three generations of Christian living 
 among the people for whom we are working, has wrought marvels in the position of 
 respect and confidence conceded to the missionaries. Th'S is little understood by 
 those who have never been with the missionaries and watched them as they go out 
 and come in among the people. In the older missions of this Board, the mission¬ 
 aries’ motives are now almost never questioned. The people have learned, to their 
 own satisfaction, that the missionary leads a pure life and is unselfish, that he is 
 among them to do them good, and that he will always be honest, fair, and true. 
 It has required, in some countries, half a century and more of self-sacrificing toil to 
 secure this exalted position. Such a life and such a purpose is incomprehensible to 
 those who have never known Christianity and the life it produces. Steadily have 
 the missionaries pursued their course of Christian living and Christian dealing, 
 until the very name “missionary,” to a vast multitude of people who have never 
 yet heard a word of gospel truth nor know the name of Jesus Christ, has come to 
 mean a man or woman who will not lie or deceive in order to gain a personal point. 
 
Untahulated Resources. 
 
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 and whose chief desire is to be of genuine help to the people of the country where 
 they live. This is to them an impossible life, but it has been so fully demonstrated 
 that they have accepted it as possible for a missionary and a Christian. 
 
 A few months ago, in southern India, I saw a large company of men gathered 
 about the door of a missionary’s residence. In response to inquiries it was ex¬ 
 plained that they represented the two parties to a controversy that had disrupted 
 a remote village. Both sides had agreed that they would lay their case before the 
 missionary and abide by his decision. None of them were Christians. 
 
 A missionary who was riding through a disturbed district in Koordistan, was 
 told by a Koord that he would be in peril upon a part of his journey because the 
 country was full of brigands, “ and,” said he, “ they may take you for a governor, 
 inspector or traveler.” “ But,” he added, “ there is not a Koord in the country 
 who would lift his hand against a missionary. If you are molested, tell them you 
 are a missionary and they will do anything for you you may ask.” 
 
 Another missionary was robbed of his money and watch, but when he told the 
 robbers who he was and why he was in the country, they returned all they had 
 taken from him and sent one of their men to guard him from other bands. 
 
 A man of a commercial race, a stranger and not a Christian, recently brought 
 a considerable sum of money to a missionary for safe keeping. The missionary 
 gave him a receipt. “What is this?” inquired the man. “A receipt, stating that 
 I have today received this money from you,” said the missionary. The man im¬ 
 mediately asked, “You have the money all right, haven’t you?” “Yes,” said the 
 missionary. “ You are a missionary, aren’t you ? ” “I am,” replied the missionary. 
 “Then what do I want of this paper? ” asked the man, as he tore up the receipt 
 and threw it upon the floor. 
 
 Funds raised for charitable purposes by communities, having no relation to 
 us, have frequently been put into the hands of our missionaries for distribution, 
 “because,” they said, “we cannot trust our own people.” In the eyes of the 
 common people whoever bears the name missionary has their confidence. 
 
 2. Not only the common people but the official classes have learned to look 
 upon our missionaries as worthy of confide 7 ice. — Probably there is no mission field 
 where it has been more difficult to attain to this position than in Turkey. It has 
 been almost impossible for a Turkish official to conceive that a man can tell the 
 truth when a falsehood would serve his purpose as well. And yet it is clear that 
 the government officials, from one end of that Empire to the other, have accepted 
 the conclusion that missionaries will not lie, neither will they cheat. When Dr. 
 Hepworth went through Armenia six years ago, at the invitation of the Turkish 
 Government, to investigate the facts of the Armenian massacres, he was given, by 
 one of the highest officials in the Interior, a letter of introduction to Dr. Barnum 
 at Harpoot, with the verbal statement, “You can depend absolutely upon what that 
 man says, he will tell only the truth, and he knows the country as no one else 
 knows it.” This official has been Governor at Harpoot and had come into per¬ 
 sonal relations with Dr. Barnum and the missionaries, and knew hov/ they were 
 regarded by the official classes. 
 
 One of the highest officials in India told a member of the recent Deputation, 
 that the Government had unbounded confidence in the missionaries of the American 
 Board. He added, “ Your missionaries can have anything they ask from the Indian 
 Government, provided the Government has power to grant their request.” The 
 confidence had in our missionaries in Japan is perhaps best illustrated by the fact 
 that during the last few weeks a charter has been granted to six members of our 
 
8 
 
 Untabulaied Resources. 
 
 Japan Mission, giving them power to add to their number, but only from our 
 missionary body, and fully legalizing them to hold real estate in all parts of the 
 Empire, when the law denies that right to all foreigners. It is safe to say that no 
 such authority would have been given were not the Japanese officials confident 
 that the privileges thus granted will not be abused. 
 
 After the disturbances in China, both the people and the officials were desirous 
 of having missionaries assist in adjusting the claims for damages presented by the 
 Christians in different parts of the country. The non-Chrislians knew that if the 
 missionaries did the work, they would not be called upon to pay more than was 
 just, and the officials knew that only by the missionaries could adjustments be 
 made that would satisfy all. The rapid recovery of the mission work in North 
 China is due, under God, to nothing so much as the confidence with which the 
 missionaries were regarded by all classes there. 
 
 This position of confidence and trust which our missionaries have won in so 
 many countries of the world, is a measureless power for righteousness and salvation. 
 It raises inquiries as to the secret of the Christian life, and guarantees a respectful 
 hearing for the Gospel message. The missionary no longer needs to justify his 
 calling or apologize for his profession. Multitudes in all classes of society are 
 ready to defend him against attacks, and the circle of his friends is wider than he 
 knows, and this influence is deepening and strengthening with every passing year. 
 
 The fourth point under our theme is:— 
 
 IV. THE WIDE INTELLECTUAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 This does not signify that those who accept intellectually the truths of Chris¬ 
 tianity are Christians, but it shows how the Lord is preparing the way for a wide 
 and perhaps rapid extension of His kingdom in the future. This marks a real 
 Christian conquest in the minds of men, which is rapidly m.aking its way also to 
 their hearts. We have no method of measuring the extent to which this acceptance 
 of many of the teachings of the gospel has gone, or how deeply it is influencing the 
 lives of the people. We do see, however, evidence on every side that the power 
 of the life and precepts of Jesus Christ is already an irresistible force making itself 
 felt with rapidly increasing energy in the laws, literature, society, and thought of 
 every country in which we are carrying on our mission operations. A Hindu, a high 
 official and a bearer of several university degrees, met by two members of the recent 
 Deputation in the regular course of their work in India, said “ that he was a con¬ 
 stant reader of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he believed that Christianity was 
 the only true religion for the world.” He bore at that time the marks of Shiva 
 upon his forehead, which revealed the form of his worship, but he was intellectually 
 convinced that Christ is the true Saviour of the world. 
 
 Throughout Ceylon and India the Deputation met with only one plea from the 
 leading thinking Hindus, and that was that our Board should send to that country 
 more missionaries, open more schools, found more hospitals; “ for,” said they, 
 “ India must have the enlightened civilization which your missionaries bring and 
 which springs up everywhere around them.” Great societies in India, like the 
 Brahmo, Arya, and Prarthena Somajes, and the various Theosophical societies, 
 have at their foundation the principles of Christianity. They represent a hopeless 
 attempt to provide for India a Christian civilization without a full surrender to 
 Jesus Christ. Many an intelligent Hindu is ready to declare today, and many 
 did so maintain to the Deputation, “ that some of the principal practices of Hinduism 
 
Untilbulatcil Resources. 
 
 9 
 
 are the curse of India, and tliat its cure lies only in the acceptance of the practices 
 taught by Jesus." 
 
 There are large numbers in the Turkish Empire who freely confess in private 
 conversation their belief in Christ as the Saviour of the world. An official in that 
 country, in a conversation with the writer, late one night and alone, said that he 
 was a constant reader of the New Testament, and that “ he regarded Jesus Christ 
 as the only Saviour, and His religion as the only religion for the world.” For 
 reasons that cannot be explained here, these people remain unknown and unnum¬ 
 bered, cherishing in their minds a belief which they dare not utter, and looking in 
 faith to a Saviour they dare not profess. 
 
 It is significant of a marked change in the mental attitude of the intelligent 
 classes in Catholic countries, that the evangelical bodies and their leaders are re¬ 
 ceiving recognition. It means much when an evangelical pastor in Spain receives 
 official appointment for an address upon a public platform together with men of 
 national reputation and leaders in the state church. It is indicative of a changed 
 sentiment when the Imperial University at Madrid opens wide its doors to students 
 from our Evangelical Institute, upon whom it gladly confers its degrees, and when 
 in other countries the government schools are ready to employ Christian teachers, 
 trained in Protestant schools. It marks almost a revolution in Mexico when one 
 of our schools was officially asked, last month, to take part in a national celebration 
 on a par with the national schools. 
 
 Perhaps nothing shows more clearly the changes that are rapidly taking place 
 in Japan than the fact that two of the most popular novels of the last few months 
 in that country are Christian stories, written by Christian men and based upon 
 Christian teaching and morality. These were first printed in serial form in a 
 secular paper, and have since passed through several editions m book form. 
 
 And so we might multiply incident after incident, showing that the hostility 
 of the intelligent people in all of the countries in which we are carrying on work 
 is rapidly giving way to an intellectual tolerance, and even open acceptance, of 
 Gospel truths and of Jesus Christ Himself. It has required years and generations 
 of maintaining Christian schools and circulating Christian literature and living 
 and orally propagating Christian truth, to bring about this result. It means every¬ 
 thing for the future to have the hostility of the best intellects of mission lands 
 converted into intelligent and sympathetic cooperation. It means that the way of 
 the Lord in the hearts of men has already been made straight and that we are 
 upon the eve of a mighty advance. 
 
 There is now little hostility manifest anywhere. The one report that comes 
 to us from most mission fields is a report of tolerance, of friendliness, even of 
 sympathetic assistance rendered in a multitude of different ways. Comparatively 
 large sums of money have been contributed by non-Christian peoples and com¬ 
 munities to aid the mi.ssionaries in the prosecution of their regular and legitimate 
 Christian work. This is probably the most convincing proof that can be given to 
 show the changed mental attitude of many leaders in the Pagan world. Every 
 mission of our Board, and every missionary, can give numberless instances to 
 illustrate and prove the proposition, that a measureless conquest has already been 
 made in the minds and hearts of those who, a generation ago, were violently hostile 
 to every Christian effort. 
 
lO 
 
 Untabulated Resources. 
 
 One more untabulated resource which must be included is:— 
 
 V. THE INCREASING CIRCLE OF FAITH AND PRAYER IN THE BOARD’S 
 
 CONSTITUENCY. 
 
 After all of our survey of the wealth of our resources, we are compelled to 
 acknowledge, that nothing in the entire list can compare in true value and effective¬ 
 ness and can afford more assurance of success in the future than the fact that the 
 number of those has been constantly increasing who daily, in secret prayer, and 
 at the family altar, remember the Board and its workers. Go where we will among 
 the churches of our constituency, our hearts are always thrilled by the words of 
 some faithful brother or sister who says, “ I love the work of the American Board, 
 and at our home it is never forgotten as we pray.” 
 
 There is now such a wide circle of churches which have adopted individual 
 missionaries, and so many Young People’s Societies and branches of Women’s 
 Auxiliaries interested in the person, work and field of some missionary, that the 
 prayer circle for missions now embraces a far greater number than ever before. 
 More people are learning to love the entire work of the Kingdom and pray for 
 it, because they have become interested in a single field or laborer. Missionaries 
 speak of the tower of strength this circle of home sympathy and prayer is to 
 them. When the future has seemed dark and the way of escape was hidden 
 from our vision, we have seen the effect of the exercise of this measureless power 
 of united prayer. Every missionary’s person and work are borne upon the faith and 
 prayer of an ever-widening circle of Christians. When the missionary lays down 
 his office, the prayer does not cease, and whenever a new missionary goes to the 
 field, new prayers are enlisted and a new sympathy and faith are aroused. Thus 
 we can trace a rising tide of united confidence in this mission work, an increasing 
 faith and more systematic, intelligent and devout prayer for its success. 
 
 It is this that must be counted as the one priceless treasure in the rich 
 resources which we now possess. Should all the others be dissipated and this 
 remain in its simplicity and power, we need not be discouraged. Should this fail 
 us, hopeless indeed would be our efforts. If we can but claim as our only 
 resource an ever-widening constituency of devoutly praying men and women, we 
 need not falter, for we will still have upon our side the dynamics of the spiritual 
 universe. 
 
 In summing up the resources upon which we may rely in the conduct of our 
 great work, without fear of contradiction or charge of exaggeration, we confidently 
 affirm that, 
 
 Never in the history of this Board has its credit been so firmly established in 
 the commercial houses of every banking center of the world, as well as with the 
 great number of men and women who come into relations more or less financial 
 with our missions and missionaries in every country where we are at work. 
 
 Never has there been a time when the evangelical missionaries of all Boards 
 have been so united in cooperating endeavor to husband resources and economize 
 money and men in the interests of a larger and more aggressive effort for the con¬ 
 version of the world. This is not a spasmodic effort made under the leadership of 
 a few idealists, nor is it an experiment which may be abandoned; but a tried and 
 fixed policy in which the missionaries profoundly believe, and which is endorsed by 
 the best Christian conscience of the evangelical denominations. 
 
Ufifabiilati'd Kcsoiirces. 
 
 11 
 
 Never in the history of foreign missions has there been such a concensus of 
 judgment upon the part of all leading missionary boards and their missionaries, 
 upon the best policy and methods of operation in the fields. Experiments have 
 been many in this respect during the last century. But now, in the matter of self- 
 support of the native churches, the training and employment of a native agency, 
 the importance of a Christian literature, the independence of the native churches, 
 the relation of education to evangelization, and in many other things, the period of 
 experiment is past, and we are ready to carry on the work along lines that have 
 been proven to be economical and effective, and that produce results that are 
 permanent. 
 
 There has never been a period since foreign mission work was entered upon, 
 that the missionary himself and the cause for which he stands was more respected 
 than at the present time. Never were missionaries more esteemed as people of 
 unselfish purposes, unquestioned integrity, genuine sympathy, and well-recognized 
 ability. 
 
 There has never been a time since Jesus Christ entered upon His earthly life, 
 that the words He spoke and the life He lived have had such charm and beauty 
 for the multitudes who have caught, as yet, but glimpses of His glory, but who are 
 showing by their words and acts that they are fast becoming His disciples. We 
 find today that vast numbers of Africans, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Moham¬ 
 medans, and a host of other races and peoples for whom we are at work, are, upon 
 their own confession, the friends of Jesus Christ, although they have not yet sur¬ 
 rendered their lives to Him. 
 
 There has never been an hour since the work of this Board was first inau¬ 
 gurated, that there was so much to encourage an advance movement in nearly every 
 one of its missions. We have never been confronted with so many unique oppor¬ 
 tunities for taking permanent possession of fields for which we have contended for 
 years and at great cost and sacrifice. Vast regions have already capitulated, and 
 all we need to do is to take possession in the name of Christ. 
 
 There has never been a time in the history of our work when so much could 
 be accomplished with so little help from home as is the case today. In actual 
 results, one dollar today accomplishes more than many times that amount half a 
 century ago; but, on the other hand, failure to provide the essential support now 
 entails a loss far greater than a similar failure in the earlier stages of the work. 
 To retrench then, was to fail to occupy; retrenchment now, is to tear down and 
 destroy not only institutions, but the expectations and the flickering faith of im¬ 
 mortal men. 
 
 There has never been a time when all over the world our missionaries have 
 been prevented, as for the last ten years, from making efforts to plant new institu¬ 
 tions, organize new work, and enter new fields; for on every side the institutions 
 already planted, and the fields already occupied, are so rapidly enlarging that, with 
 our present force of men and women, and our present financial support, they are 
 wholly unable to keep pace with the rapidly developing work. Men and women 
 and children, villages, tribes, and races, now come in numbers beyond the ability 
 of the missionaries to receive, and they plead for Christian instruction. The 
 burden of the letters that come to our Rooms from the missionaries is not of 
 fields to be explored and work to be undertaken in the face of opposition and per- 
 
Untabulated Kesources. 
 
 I 2 
 
 secution, but of pupils for whom there are no accommodations; schools of children 
 for whom there are no teachers; crowds of people pleading for the gospel message, 
 and no provision for sending a preacher; calls from the people for missionaries to 
 reside among them, and no missionary on the field can be spared and no new ones 
 to send. We are simply overwhelmed by the abundance of our opportunities and 
 the richness of our resources on the field. 
 
 There has never been a time in the history of this Board when its work and 
 workers were more borne upon the hearts of a united constituency as it gives and 
 prays that the God of Missions guard with loving care and guide with unerring 
 wisdom, and endue with Divine power all those who are connected with the Board 
 both at home and abroad. The circle of praying supporters in the foreign field is 
 rapidly increasing. On this very day the Christians in our Cevlon Mission are 
 uniting in special services of prayer for a blessing upon this meeting of the Board 
 they honor and love; and thus the prayer circle for us and our work has enlarged 
 among our own constituency, until it embraces the world. 
 
 There has never been a time when the voice of God was more clearly under¬ 
 stood as He points his followers to the ends of the earth and bids them go in the 
 name of the Master and make Christ known to all. Never has He spoken more 
 clearly, demanding that we sacrifice that which we hold dearest and best, in the 
 name of Him who kept nothing back, in order that a world might be redeemed. 
 A generation of obedience upon the part of those who profess allegiance to our 
 crucified Lord would carry the Gospel of salvation to the remotest corners of the 
 earth, and give every race and kindred and tongue and people an opportunity to 
 personally know Him Whom to know aright is life eternal. 
 
 Few of us realize what a rich and fruitful work we possess and how full it is 
 of promise. However much we may have failed in the past to catch the far- 
 reaching influence of the Spirit of the God of Missions, we now see Him moving 
 over the century, demonstrating the truth of the declaration of our Lord when He 
 said, “ All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth,” and “ Lo, I 
 am with you.” We can now cast aside for the moment all narrow and forced 
 standards of measurement and catch the mighty sweep of the Kingdom as it has 
 been conquering to itself principalities and powers in the domain of commerce, 
 science and law, literature and society, intelligence and conscience. 
 
 The Kingdom has already come while we have been waiting to tabulate its 
 approach and measure its coming by our human observations. As we look at what 
 God has wrought and at the resources He now places at our disposal and bids us 
 use for Him, it seems as if all things are possible to us, if we will only rise in the 
 might of the Son of God and, with His spirit of consecration and sacrifice, enter 
 into the inheritance that is ours.