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 THE 
 
 Work of the American Board. 
 
 A THREE YEARS’ REVIEW. 
 
 1886-S9. 
 
 By rev. JUDSON smith, D.D., FOREIGN SECRETARY. 
 
 
 [Presented to the National Congregational Council at its session at Worcester, October g-JJ, i88q.]^ 
 
THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN BOARD. 
 
 A THREE YEARS’ REVIEW. 
 
 1886-89. 
 
 BY REV. JUDSON SMITH, D.D., FOREIGN SECRETARY. 
 
 The following report of the work of the American Board for the last three years has 
 been prepared and is submitted in accordance with a usage, now well established, of 
 bringing to the view of the Congregational churches of the land, assembled in 
 National Council, the progress and present state of the various forms of Christian work 
 sustained by these churches. 
 
 It seems not only proper but almost imperative to preface this record with a 
 reference to the “ World’s Foreign Missionary Conference,” in session at Exeter Hall, 
 London, June 9-19, 1888, the most striking event in foreign missionary annals during 
 the three years here reviewed, and one of the most notable Christian assemblies of all 
 the centuries. Following similar gatherings in England, in i860 and 1878, it far 
 surpassed them both in breadth of representation and in the range and value of its 
 discussions. One hundred and forty-one societies, in Great Britain and Ireland, the 
 United States and Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Denmark, 
 Sweden, Norway, Australia, and South Africa, one hundred and nineteen of them 
 belonging to Great Britain and America, were represented by 1,500 delegates, 
 including missionaries from nearly every part of Asia, Africa, America, and the Pacific 
 Islands where Christian missions have been planted. No assembly so well entitled to 
 the designation ecumenical has ever been gathered within the limits of Christendom. 
 
 The spirit of the meeting and the tone of the discussions were nobly catholic and 
 Christian from first to last; And though every Protestant denomination in the world 
 which has any part in foreign missionary work was represented, no sectarian note was 
 struck, but the sense of unity and brotherhood was everywhere strong and controlling. 
 The strength of the forces which are combined in this enterprise; the marvelous 
 successes which have been already won; the signal blessing of God upon this work, 
 in its inception and progress, in opening wide and effectual doors, in breaking down 
 barriers, in raising up advocates and supporters; the marvelous conspiring of political 
 and scientific and literary events to open its way and hasten its growth; the greatness 
 and intricacy of the problems to be solved; the vast ness of the field still to be 
 occupied; the unmistakable and supreme call to this work which God lays upon the 
 English-speaking people of the world, — these and similar facts were brought vividly to 
 light, and a mighty impulse given to the deeper consecration and the more abundant 
 commitment of universal Christendom to the speedy evangelization of the globe. The 
 honorable place accorded to the American Board in this Conference, the frequent and 
 hearty recognition of its work and the deference paid to its representatives, were not 
 the least significant and agreeable features of the occasion. 
 
 THE MISSIONS OF THE BOARD. 
 
 The Board sustains twenty-two distinct missions in widely separated fields, of which 
 ten have been organized within the last two decades, and twelve have a history 
 covering from thirty to seventy-six years. Beginning with the mission in Spain and 
 moving eastward, we reach in succession the mission in Austria, that in Bulgaria, three 
 
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 in Asia Minor, two in India, one in Ceylon, four in the Chinese Empire, two in Japan, 
 three in Africa, two in the Pacific Islands, and coming to the two in Mexico we 
 complete the circuit of the world. The field thus occupied remains the same as when 
 reported three years ago ; but it would give a wrong impression if we did not add that, 
 while the missions remain numerically the same, within each of these fields we see an 
 ever-enlarging area and more numerous population reached by the evangelical agencies 
 that are at work. Within these missions the Board occupies as stations for missionary 
 residence ninety-three principal cities and strategic centres and more than a thousand 
 other cities and villages in which the gospel is regularly preached or Christian schools 
 are maintained. Making all due allowance for the presence of other missionary socie¬ 
 ties, and computing numbers according to conservative standards, the population in 
 these several countries to whom under God the American Board must bring the 
 gospel, if it is to come to them at all in our day, amounts to at least 130,000,000, or 
 about twice the total population of the United States. These millions are in great part 
 unevangelized in a sense unknown in this land; there is not to be found among them a 
 church, or a school, or a page of the Scriptures, or a Christian life, which is not the 
 direct fruit of our missionary labors. Paganism, pure and simple, or false faiths like 
 Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism, or corrupt forms of Christianity, in addition 
 to the natural skepticism and antagonism of the unregenerate soul, occupy the minds 
 and deprave the lives of the people and offer a steadfast opposition to the message and 
 faith we bring. There are great and very striking differences among the peoples 
 whom we seek to evangelize. In Turkey, India, China, and Japan we deal with 
 people civilized in higher or lower degrees, with settled forms of government, a litera¬ 
 ture of their own, holding a recognized place among the political powers of the world. 
 In Africa and the Pacific Islands, missionaries must reduce languages to writing, create 
 a literature, and initiate at one and the same time evangelizing and civilizing 
 movements. 
 
 THE FORCE EMPLOYED. 
 
 To man this great enterprise, carried on in so many widespread regions, and employ¬ 
 ing so numerous agencies, the Board has now under commission a force of 506 mission¬ 
 aries and assistant missionaries, of whom 177 are ordained men, 15 other men are phy¬ 
 sicians or business agents, and 314 are wives of missionaries or single women engaged 
 in teaching and evangelistic work. In cooperation with these is a native agency of 
 2,383 laborers, pastors, preachers, teachers, and helpers in other ways, who constitute 
 a most important part of the service and the main reliance for the prosecution and 
 direction of labor when the foreign force is withdrawn. Keeping steadily in view the 
 great aim of all missionary work, to introduce the gospel and call out the native resources 
 of the people at the earliest time to sustain it and still further spread it abroad, the 
 foreign force must always be small compared with the native agency; and must grow 
 relatively smaller from year to year while the native force is multiplied and comes 
 into an increasing prominence of service and responsibility. 
 
 The number of new missionaries sent out by the Board for each of the three years 
 covered by this report is as follows: In 1886-87, forty-four, nine ordained men, five 
 other men, and thirty women; in 1887-88, twenty-nine, seven ordained men, one phy¬ 
 sician, and twenty-one women ; in 1888-89, fifty-two, twelve ordained men, four physi¬ 
 cians, and thirty-six women. The average, forty-one, is much above that for any three 
 consecutive years during the last three decades, and exceeds the average for the last 
 twenty-five years by sixteen. A greater number have gone out for the first time 
 during the year just closed than in any single year since 1837. The grand movement 
 toward the foreign field among the students in all our colleges and seminaries, which 
 is almost precisely contemporaneous with the period under survey, by which above 
 
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 3,000 young men and women in America have declared their readiness to go into the 
 foreign field if God shall open the way, has already brought many scores into this 
 service, a fair proportion of them under the Board, and there is most cheering 
 promise from this source for the future. In the providence of God the wide opening 
 of the unevangelized nations to the entrance of the gospel and the powerful summons 
 God thus makes on the Christian nations speedily to conquer the world for Christ 
 are wonderfully timed to this uprising of the youth in Christian lands to meet the 
 call, and also to the amazing and unparalleled increase of wealth in the hands of 
 the leading Christian peoples of the earth. America and England, which in God’s 
 providence sustain the heaviest responsibility in this work, are the very nations where 
 wealth and educated youth multiply the fastest. The meaning of this is unmistakable. 
 
 During the past three years a discussion has arisen within the constituency of the 
 Board relative to the qualifications, especially in point of Christian belief, appropri¬ 
 ately to be required of candidates for missionary appointment; and at two successive 
 annual meetings this question received extended consideration. The action taken, 
 while not unanimous, seemed decisively to approve of the course of the Prudential 
 Committee in declining to commission candidates whose views were not in harmony 
 with the faith “ commonly held by the churches supporting the missions under the 
 care of the Board.” Dissatisfaction with these decisions of the Board has existed in 
 some quarters, and has expressed itself in practical forms, and is not yet wholly 
 allayed; how far it extends, and what further expression it may seek, time alone can 
 determine. It is to be hoped, in view of the rapidly growing demands and the 
 unexampled opportunities of the foreign work, that complete harmony in sentiment 
 and action will soon be realized. 
 
 THE .RESOURCES AT COMMAND. 
 
 The receipts of the Board for the support of its extended operations show a cheering 
 gain from year to year. This gain does not keep pace with the enlargement of the 
 work, and the problem of providing for the urgent calls from the several mission 
 fields becomes more and more difficult of solution year by year. The importance of 
 self-supporting Christian work is well understood and heartily accepted by all the 
 missionaries of the Board, and is urged by them upon the people among whom they 
 labor with presistent faithfulness. The degree to which this result is reached varies 
 with the ability of the people, the extent to which the spirit of the gospel is 
 apprehended and accepted, and the length of time during which the field has been 
 cultivated. In all fields that have been occupied for some time the proportion of the 
 total expense involved in Christian work which is borne by the people themselves is 
 steadily on the increase. The receipts of the Board during the past three years, 
 outside the income of all investments and including the donations from the 
 
 Woman’s Boards, are thus presented in the Annual Reports submitted to the 
 
 Board: for 1886-87, from donations, $366,958; from legacies, $98,419; in all, 
 $465,377; for 1887-88, from donations, $394,568, from legacies, $146,352; in all, 
 
 $540,920; for 1888-89, from donations, $395,045, from legacies, $153,654; in all, 
 
 » $548,699. The average for the three years — $385,524 donations, and $132,808 
 
 legacies, $518,332 in all — is in excess of the average for any other three consecutive 
 years during the last three decades, exclusive of the years when the great Swett and 
 Otis legacies were received; and the year just closed shows larger receipts from 
 donations and from legacies than any previous year in the history of the Board. 
 These facts are most encouraging, and are stated with sincere gratitude. But the 
 receipts of the Board are still far from keeping pace with either the growing demands 
 of the work or the far more rapidly increasing resources of our constituency. The 
 great legacies have been expended gradually, according to a wise policy of the Board, 
 
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 and have brought an incalculable blessing to the work, providing for the opening and 
 support of new missions, and for the enlargement of most important educational and 
 evangelistic work. But they are rapidly disappearing; and the need of enlarged 
 receipts from regular sources, in order to provide for the work thus temporarily 
 sustained as well as to keep pace with the natural growth of our work, is already 
 urgent and must grow more urgent every year. The extent of the opportunity which 
 lies open to the Board in all fields where it now labors is practically boundless. The 
 reason why we have only ninety men and women at work in China, instead of the 
 hundreds that could instantly be set to work, is because the resources of the Board are not 
 sufficient. The same might be said of almost any other field we occupy. We do not 
 need to look for fresh fields ; those we have already entered call for men and means 
 far beyond our present ability to provide. Definite requests from our several missions 
 are in the hands of the officers of the Board calling for sixty families and sixty single 
 women the current year, all of which are reasonable in view of work already in hand. 
 And the men and women are ready to go, are already offering themselves in unpre¬ 
 cedented numbers for this very work. The main reason why these calls are not 
 answered, and these boundless spiritual harvests reaped, is the want of sufficient means. 
 The income of the Board needs to be enlarged by $250,000 annually, fairly to meet the 
 emergency that is already upon us in Turkey, in India, in China, in Japan, in Africa, 
 in all our fields. And the money is in Christian hands in abundance to meet this call at 
 once and to make an equal addition five years hence. It is a responsibility such as 
 few generations have had to face, to look out over the great continents with their 
 1,000,000,000 unevangelized souls all open to the gospel, all waiting for the gospel, and 
 to know that it is in our power, if we wish to do it, to bring them the gospel before 
 the century ends. 
 
 THE EXPANSION OF THE WORK. 
 
 The enlargement of the work of the Board appears in many facts, only a few of 
 which can be distinctly measured and brought forward in definite statements. It 
 appears in the heightened personal character of the native converts; in the growing 
 amount and value of the part they are bearing in Christian labors; in the increasing 
 demand for the Scriptures and for Christian literature; in the better manners, nobler 
 sentiments, and manlier bearing of those who have come within the uplifting influence 
 of the gospel. It appears also in the line of political, industrial, and intellectual life, 
 giving promise of better homes and freer governments and abler men in time to come. 
 All these things are significant of the radical and sweeping change that comes over the 
 soul and the people that are redeemed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 There are, however, other aspects of the work which can be presented more 
 adequately in statistics, to some of which we call attention. The number of churches 
 within the limits of the missions of the Board have increased, during these three 
 years, from 310 to 358, and the communicants from 26,126 to 33,099. During the 
 last year 22 new churches have been organized, and 4,529 have been received to the 
 churches on confession of faith. The work in Sunday-schools is steadily enlarging 
 and its influence is most helpful. Statistics of these schools have not yet been 
 carefully reported from all the missions; but it is quite within the truth to say that 
 38,000 pupils old and young are regularly gathered for Sunday-school instruction among 
 the missions of the Board. This form of Christian work is peculiarly adapted to 
 the mission field, and the benefits of the systematic study of the Word of God are 
 becoming increasingly manifest. This agency is proving an admirable means of 
 reaching new centres and drawing fresh populations within the hearing and influence 
 of the gospel. Young Men’s Christian Associations are organized and working with 
 
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 efficiency in Turkey, China, Japan, and Africa, and Young People’s Societies of 
 Christian Endeavor are proving their adaptation to every field and people where the 
 Church is found. The native pastorate is well established in nearly all the older 
 missions of the Board, and now numbers 174 against 151 three years ago. The princi¬ 
 ple of systematic giving is introduced into many of these churches, with encouraging 
 results. The native contributions for all purposes connected with our missions 
 last year amounted to $84,076. If the sums put into buildings for schools and 
 churches could be ascertained, it would show a still more encouraging rate of giving 
 on the part of these native Christians. 
 
 Perhaps in no one respect does the advance in the work of the Board register itself 
 more emphatically or with nobler promise than in the schools of the missions. These 
 schools now include 14 theological seminaries, 66 colleges and high schools for boys, 
 53 girls’ boarding schools, besides 932 day schools. In the higher schools are reported 
 4,541 young men and 3,212 young women, 7,753 in all, against 2,352 young men and 
 1,958 young women, or 4,310 in all, three years ago, a gain of more than 75 per cent. 
 The significance of this remarkable gain is more evident when we add that nowhere 
 are hopeful conversions so numerous as among the pupils in these schools, the great 
 majority who leave the higher schools being converted during their studies there. 
 These students are the picked youths of both sexes, from whom the native ministry and 
 the force of native teachers are drawn. Influences go out from these schools over 
 and above all that can be tabulated, changing insensibly the thoughts and sentiments 
 and aims of multitudes of homes and even of whole villages and towns. In the college 
 at Kyoto, out of some 700 pupils in attendance last year nearly 200 have been 
 received to the church. A similar record has been made in Anatolia College, at 
 Marsovan, in Central Turkey College, Aintab, in Euphrates College, at Harpoot, 
 and in the high schools and boarding schools on every field. The importance of 
 the common schools as an evangelizing agency will be seen at once when it is observed 
 that native Christian teachers are employed in them who give a positive Christian 
 character to all their instruction, and that these schools are often preaching places 
 as well, centres whence the light of the gospel penetrates far into the interior of 
 native life and thought. These are often the growing points of the work, by means 
 of which new fields are entered and the work extended. They cannot be too care¬ 
 fully guarded or too rapidly multiplied. It is interesting to note that in the colleges 
 and theological seminaries native teachers of ability in increasing numbers are taking 
 their place by the side of the foreign teachers, and the way is thus naturally preparing 
 for the native forces to assume the entire support and direction of these institutions. 
 
 woman’s work. 
 
 The part borne by the Christian women of our land in this great evangelizing work 
 steadily increases, to the great advantage of the work in every respect. The Woman’s 
 Boards of Boston and Chicago, organized more than twenty years ago for the more 
 effective prosecuting of work in behalf of women in foreign lands, and the Woman’s 
 Board of the Pacific, of more recent origin, gather an increasing volume of funds and 
 wield an increasing weight of influence in behalf of Christian missions. While the 
 number of ordained men in the field remains almost stationary, the numbers of single 
 women rise from year to year, and are reported as 138 this year, against 126 last year, 
 and 101 three years ago. The value of this arm of the service, wielded in perfect 
 harmony with all the rest, but greatly widening its reach, it would be hard to overstate. 
 In addition to the varied and invaluable service rendered by those who preside over 
 missionary homes, which has been an indispensable part of the missionary work from 
 the first, these young women are in charge of the girls’ boarding schools, and much of 
 
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 the evangelistic work in behalf of women. They are thus reaching the homes of the 
 lands where they labor, bringing to them the light and hope and sweetness and comfort 
 of the gospel which they teach and embody, and raising up a noble company of young 
 women to become centres of Christian life and refinement in hundreds of villages and 
 towns all over the unevangelized world. A few, as physicians, in China and India, 
 add the ministry of medical service to the other attractions of the gospel and win 
 great numbers to faith and the Christian life. There is no more important or 
 hopeful feature of our work than this which women sustain and administer; it touches 
 society at its centre, and enters thousands of homes, and plants the gospel thus at 
 the very fountain-head of national life. 
 
 The scene which rises to view, as we take a broad survey of the work which this 
 venerable parent of all the foreign missionary organizations of this land has in charge, 
 is one well calculated to sober and inspire the mind. The vast extent and thronging 
 populations of the fields it seeks to fill with the life and institutions of the gospel; the 
 greatness of the interests involved in its work — both the salvation of so many 
 million souls and the uplifting and civilizing of such great nations; the absolute 
 unselfishness and sublime Christian beneficence of its aim; the divine message it 
 bears abroad and the glorious fruits that follow its proclamation; the gradual yielding 
 of darkness and superstition, the gradual dawn of the true light in so many hearts and 
 homes and cities and peoples of the earth, where unbelief and gloom and despair 
 once reigned supreme and alone, — these features at once arrest attention and challenge 
 admiration. There is no fairer spectacle beneath the sun, there is no nobler work on 
 which to expend life and strength and means; its successful achievement is the 
 unmixed and unmeasured blessing of the race, the goal of history, sacred and profane, 
 the coming of the kingdom of God in all the earth!