Statistical bureau (U>!~C The World Call to Southern Baptists By T. B, RAY FOREIGN MISSION BOARD SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 1919 ELDS (Shaded Areas) FOREIGN MISSION BOARD, SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTIO 60 a o T3 y u y +J fl 0> CO fl Ei O Oi 00 o •-< Ih o f—I >» rt H 6 N £ x 60 rf M m >s X co co 00 a o +j a y £ o X * a $ o O y S o a a fl a> x y y .fl O c/3 y ^ 6 ^ w . m in «j ^ VH •fl S fl 2 CJ V > o . Oi * +-> rt) O- 2:3 „ .-4 fl "fl s |s C -3 £ g' S - 3 .S . .S "O £ 03 (•_> -u n — - w fl h a> a >,g>3.fl O ‘.Q £f S ■*■> 03 -o< " £*a s dags p g.S.O.rt cj > Cj . V-H fH £ O CO ^2 s| ~Q V G >13 x W fl >> y -Q •§2 y Os as y 'fl c fl — ’"‘•a fl a « S •rH dJ N Cj^ U « BO 3* oa: a a c s o£ a . lO oo X fl |o ■4-> • ®a - 5 ’ a fl a,j — CD Ph Os m r £oo^ y oo 2; A3 00 fl I c o so y Ih o »—H K^> cj . H fl ^ y P3 I a PQ o y ‘O >. o X t" 60 — Ch fl fl oo — o r- 03 G 1—I I 03 <*3 +-> C~ .22 00 4-1 4-4 G (-4 fl £ M o fl u o y x y M l-H O £ >4 fl o c rt 60 . >4 «>, W fl £ c 2 . —A t-4 Ih O) W) Cj "5 c o.2 w S C a - CO 4 A 3 o y’O w -e A C C fl £ y 4i — fl y a o 2 1 > | £ r,M *4 O >•3 rt O -a o ►—> o oo co “The Field, is the World IN FOUR CONTINENTS (A lesson in Missionary Geography.) THE work of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention extends into four great continents of the world. Asia claimed attention first. Our first Mission was opened in South China in 1845. We now have four great Missions in that land. The South China Mission is in Kwong Tung and Kwong Si Provinces, with r. t. Bryan Canton, Wuchow, Yingtak, Shiu Hing, Kweilin, Kong Moon and Macao as the centers. (Recently a new Mission, with one missionary family, has been opened at Pakhoi.) The Central China Mission is in Kiangsu Province, with Shanghai, Chinkiang, Soochow and Yangchow as centers. The North China Mission is located in Shantung Province, with Chefoo, Tengchow, Hwanghien, Pingtu, Laichow, Laiyang and Taian as centers. The Interior China Mission is located in Honan Province, with Kaifeng, Chengchow, Pochow and Kweiteh as centers. Japan is the other country in Asia in which we have work. Our Mission occupies Kyushu and the southern part of Hondo Islands, with Nagasaki, Shimonoseki, Fukuoka, Kokura, Kumamoto, Kago¬ shima and Tokyo as centers. We classify the Latin-American world as a continent. The near¬ est of these countries is Mexico, which touches our southwestern border. We have occupied as centers of our Mexican work Juarez, Chihuahua, Saltillo, Torreon, Durango, Zacatecas, Guaymas, Guada¬ lajara, Leon, Morelia and Toluca. Next comes the vast country of Brazil—a country larger than the United States. In it we have two Missions. The North Brazil Mission, with centers at Manaus, Para, Pernambuco, Therezina, Bahia, the South Brazil Mission, with centers at Rio, Victoria, Bello Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Curityba and Rio Grande do Sul. Our Mission on the River Plata extends into Argentina and Uruguay. We are in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Rosario, Sante Fe, LaPlata and Mendoza in Argentina. Recently, we have extended our efforts into Chile. Missionaries are located at Santiago and Temuco. Our position on the Dark Continent is in Nigeria, the great British Protectorate, about the midle of the West Coast of Africa. Centers 3 of our work are Lagos, Abeokuta, Oyo, Ogbomoso and Saki. The work is amongst the Yorubas. On the continent of Europe our forces are found in Italy and Bohemia. Rome is the center of the Italian work, which stretches through the length and breadth of that land in the majority of the chief cities. The work in Bohemia is new. Beginnings have been made in Prague, the capital. THE STRATEGY OF OUR POSITION Dr. Geo. Green Africa iHAVING taken this brief geographical glance at our work, now run back over it and note how well it is placed. You will see that it is laid out with a fine strategy, which puts us in excellent position for the wider work we must now undertake. We are where we ought to be for the great advance our ability and our opportunities demand that we should make. It is both a comfort and an encouragement to realize that we do not need to abandon any of the old work we have loved so long, but rather that what we have done constitutes a good base for future operations. Think of our different fields. One quarter of the human race is in China. Out of her ancient exclusiveness, she is breaking into the world’s life, with all the weight of her millions. Shall she come into the sisterhood of the nations as heathen or Christian? She looks, with peculiar trustfulness, to the United States for instruction. Into that vast host we must cause to flow in mighty volume the message of the Gospel. If we wish to do evangelizing anywhere, we could not overlook this tre¬ mendous field. Japan is the leader of the Orient, which makes her leader of about one-half of mankind. What kind of a leader Japan will be is a most important consideration. The obligation to give the Gospel to this country is second to none. If we were not there already, we would open a Mission at once. Our immediate task is to strengthen what we have. Where could missionaries be placed more favorably than those we have in the Latin-American world to the south of us? The war has drawn the two Americas together in a remarkable way. From the Rio Grande, on our border, to the southernmost point in South America, the call of a friendly people, a people of distressing spiritual need, comes to us. On the fields of this wider friendship, we must win new laurels for our King. South America will receive from the Old World the largest stream of immigration in the future. It con- tains the only extensive free lands in the world. There is no other place for humanity to go in large numbers. It is estimated there will be in Latin-America within the next two centuries possibly four hundred million people. Will they be Christians? Not many have realized as they should the peculiarly fortunate position of our African Mission. Two great missionary religions are battling for the great continent of Africa—Christianity and Mohammedanism. In the northern part of Africa there are already forty million Mohammedans. In the far southern end of the continent, Christian forces have made considerable progress and ten millions of people have been won to Christianity. Between these Moham¬ medan and Christian forces are the eighty million pagans of Central Africa. The battle is for the winning of these pagans. It is a colossal religious conflict. The Mohammedans are gaining rapidly. There is the greatest necessity for the Christian forces to press forward with a great reinforcement. Our Mission in Nigeria is in the thick of the fight. We are situated along one of the main routes to the great central region known as the Sudan. We are, in a very im¬ portant sense, holding the left wing of the Christian forces. How sorely do we need reinforcements. It is fortunate that we are in position to take a large share in the redemption of Europe. The New Italy, where we have labored since 1870, is to play a mighty part in European life in the days to come. It is no accident that the center of Roman Catholic life is in Italy. It is there as a tribute to leadership. It is there because the genius of the Italian fixed it. This fact should not be ignored, as we lay out our work—and it has not been ignored. We are on the ground in Italy, ready for a great advance. Then, too, we are in Bohemia, the leading State of the new Czecho¬ slovak Republic. We began in Prague a promising work a short while before the outbreak of the war. This nation of about ten millions in the heart of the continent, is destined to have a great influence in European life. The percentage of literacy is higher in Bohemia than in any other European State. In this new liberty- loving Republic, surely we can thrive. We are on the ground, ready for service. Touching Czecho-Slovakia are the vast peoples of Russia and the Balkans. Doubtless amongst the peoples of Southern Russia our Board will find a congenial place in which to preach the Gospel. With the start we have already made in Europe, we are in position to make an extensive enlargement of our work when the opportune time comes. And the opportune time seems to be at hand, because opportunities thrust themselves upon us from every direction. We cannot accept 5 all of them. We shall be compelled to choose our fields. When we enter into the new fields, we should do so with force enough to make a real impression. In connection with the work we have laid out already, by following the natural course of progress, we shall find our share in the great world task. The good hand of our God has graciously led us in mapping out the work that has been done hereto¬ fore. We can trust Him to guide us now when we come to assume wider responsibilities. OUR FORCES YOU will be interested in the following brief review of our foreign mission forces. The Foreign Mission Board is now supporting 316 foreign missionaries in ten great mission fields. We have 787 native workers, 192 of whom are or¬ dained. We have 464 churches, with a membership of 53,629; d. G. whittinghiii 141 of these churches are self-supporting. In addition, Italy there are 1,037 out-stations; 258 have houses of worship. We have 482 schools of all grades, in which were gathered last year 13,866 students. Eleven of these are Bible schools, with 302 students. Three are colleges, with 195 students. Twenty-three are high schools, with 1,250 students. The others are schools of elemen¬ tary grades, including fourteen kindergartens. We have twelve foreign physicians, six foreign trained nurses, twenty-one native physicians and twenty-three native nurses. We have eleven hospital buildings, and last year our physicians gave 104,271 treatments. We have four Publishing Houses now in operation and two more in process of development, which are distributing millions of pages of Christian literature. We need 122 missionaries for the work as it is now organized, and a great many more for new work we ought to undertake. The kinds of missionaries we need is as follows: 19 families for evangelistic work; 19 families for educational work; 7 men physicians; 2 women physicians; 5 trained nurses; 9 single women for evangelistic work; 16 single women for educational work. Our call for new missionaries is certainly modest when we take into consideration the fact that, China has four times as many people as has the United States, Japan has half as many, Italy has one-third as many, Latin-America has three-fourths as many, 6 Nigeria has as many as are in all the Southern States east of the Mississippi River. Bohemia has as many as Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Surely we cannot be counted as extravagant when we ask for 122 new missionaries to go into these populations, which total more than five times as many people as there are in the United States. We could not ask for fewer. We have done much toward erecting buildings and providing equipment for our missionary force, but we are far behind in our building and equipment program. A great many church buildings are needed. Every school we have in the world needs other buildings and more equipment. We need residences for missionaries in practi¬ cally every station we occupy on the face of the earth. If we could provide the buildings and equipment for which our missionaries are now asking, it is estimated that we could increase the efficiency of our present missionary force at least three-fold. Wouldn’t it be splendid to send out the reinforcements now requested and multiply by three the effectiveness of those we already have? If Southern Baptists should raise a million and a half dollars this year for foreign missions we can meet the most urgent needs for new missionaries and provide additional equipment to such an extent that we shall be in good position for making a decided advance in our mission work. THE CALL OF THE HOUR W. B. Bagby Brazil 'THE Foreign Mission Board finds itself in a most serious situation. There are a number of features of this situation which should receive the most thoughtful and careful attention of our brethren. 1. Our denomination has neglected for many years to provide a sufficient number of missionaries and a sufficient amount of equipment even for those it sent forth. These facts have given to the needs of our fields a strained urgency which makes it practically impossible for us to deny them. They must not be forced to wait any longer. 2. Another fact that contributes to the tenseness of our foreign mission situation is that our work has grown at such a rapid rate that we are having great embarrassment in caring for it. We have not sufficient men to supervise and to meet the new demands that rise out of our growing work. If God has enlarged us on so little, what might we expect were we to carry forward His work as we are able to do? 3. The World War has diffused a wonderful spirit of inquiry throughout all the world. Great changes have been wrought; all doors have been opened; the opportunity of the ages has come for shaping the most plastic state of mind that has ever existed in the earth. Surely, the most urgent hour for preaching the Gospel is at hand. 4. In this time when Democracy is spreading over the earth, we find our day of Baptist opportunity. If we believe in our message we should be ready to set it forth in a worthy way. To halt now is to discount our faith. The measure of our sacrifice now will be the measure of our sympathy for the crying needs of mankind and of our gratitude for the favor of God. This is the testing time of our devo¬ tion. Shall we, as faithful men and women, go to the very limits of our ability to press forward our glorious cause in this wonderful day of Baptist opportunity? 5. Our situation is so critical that we must not fail to raise the one million, five hundred thousand dollars set for our goal for foreign missions this year. Manifestly, we must, first of all, take care of the work already undertaken. The one million, five hundred thous¬ and dollars will provide for the current expenses of the work. It will send out at least fifty new missionaries. It will, in connection with the Judson Centennial Fund, so equip our work that we shall be able to go forward mightily. Besides all this, the one million, five hundred thousand dollars will enable us to enter some new fields. Certainly, Southern Baptists wish to have a good and faithful part in the larger program at this critical time in the world’s history. The raising of the one million and a half would enable us to make a beginning in some desperately needy fields. Surely, surely, surely, in this hour when the spiritual destiny of such multitudes hinges upon our faithfulness, we will not raise less than a million and a half dollars for foreign missions. Every consideration that can be imagined calls for the putting forth of our utmost effort this year. 6. According to their habits of raising money, Southern Baptists gather the larger portion of their foreign mission offerings during the months of January, February, March and April. This is a very short time in which to crowd the interests of this greatest of all our enterprises. Even so, we can accomplish our task. But to do it, every resource must be employed and the greatest care exercised to make certain a successful effort. Let us leave nothing to accident. Let us pray. Let us make our plans to take our offerings early and then to glean to the last dollar in order that we may win a crowning victory this year. By raising this one million, five hundred thousand dollars, we shall infuse life and power into our missionaries at the front and marshal our hosts for a great forward movement in foreign missions. Above all things, we must raise the total of one and one- half millions this year. Let every one of us do his duty. 8