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 A WORLD 
 SURVEY 
 
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 Rev. a. B. LEONARD, D.D. 
 
 Corresponding Secretary Emeritus of the 
 Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 
 
 150 Fifth Avenue 
 New York 
 

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A World Survey 
 
 HE ministers and laymen of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 should carefully read th e Annual 
 Report of the Board of Foreign 
 for 1912 from cover to cover. 
 By SO doing they will get a view of 
 our foreign work such as cannot be ob¬ 
 tained elsewhere. There are'many im¬ 
 portant volumes extant on missions in 
 general and on specific fields, but they 
 do not give a complete survey of the 
 fields occupied by the Methodist Episco¬ 
 pal Church. The Annual Report alone 
 gives full and satisfactory information. 
 Here are found the facts needed as a 
 basis for addresses and sermons, and an 
 answer to the question so often asked: 
 Is the foreign mission enterprise a suc¬ 
 cess ? This report might be entitled the 
 romance and reality of missions. 
 
 Here we find the names of the Board 
 of Managers and the General Committee; 
 the Treasurer’s Report for 1912; the ap¬ 
 propriations for 1913; the names of the 
 missionary bishops and the fields to 
 
 
which they are assigned; the names of 
 all missionaries of the Board and of the 
 Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, in 
 alphabetical order, and the countries 
 where they toil; and a summary of sta¬ 
 tistics including all matters that can be 
 expressed by numerals. 
 
 A World Survey 
 
 Preliminary to the detailed account of 
 the several countries in which our work 
 is carried forward is A Survey of the 
 Fields,” including **The Home Base,” 
 by Dr. S. Earl Taylor; **India, Malaysia 
 and the Philippines, South America and 
 Mexico,” by Dr. W. F. Oldham Africa, 
 China, Japan, Korea and Europe,” by 
 Dr. F. M. North. In these surveys is 
 given a perspective of the world-encir¬ 
 cling sphere of our missionary activities. 
 
 China 
 
 And now let us make a rapid journey 
 through our missions, beginning wiih the 
 Republic of China, until recently known 
 as the Chinese Empire, with its 4,000,000 
 square miles of territory and the more 
 than 400,000,000 people. Our first 
 mission in this great country was founded 
 in 1847, in the city of Foochow. There 
 are now five great mission centers in the 
 Republic; Foochow, Hinghwa, Central 
 
China, North China and West China, and 
 our membership is aporoximately 40,000. 
 
 The reports of the missionaries and 
 the district superintendents give descrip¬ 
 tions of the country, including agricultural 
 and mineral resources; business, social, 
 moral and political conditions. Their 
 reports furnish reliable and satisfactory 
 information concerning the recent revolu¬ 
 tion, that dethroned suddenly the most 
 oppressive and most corrupt monarchy 
 know to modern times. Having read 
 the newspaper reports of the revolution, 
 the writer is prepared to say that the 
 missionaries and district superintendents 
 of our five Conferences give the most 
 satisfactory accounts of the events as 
 they transpired of any that he has seen. 
 The information is first hand and 
 thoroughly reliable. 
 
 Japan 
 
 Our report takes us from China to 
 Japan, where our mission was founded 
 in 1873. In 1884 the Japan Mission 
 became an Annual Conference and in 
 1899 the South Japan Mission was 
 organized into an Annual Conference. 
 In May, 1907, the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 South and the Methodist Church of Can¬ 
 ada united on organizing the Japan 
 
Methodist Church, which from the date 
 named has been self-governing. The 
 three churches named continue mission¬ 
 ary work in connection with the new 
 organization, but do not maintain churches 
 of their respective denominations. 
 However, they do retain the ownership 
 and management of their educational 
 institutions, and the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church owns and controls a publishing 
 house in Tokyo. We publish the Japan 
 Evangelist, the chief Christian paper in 
 Japan, and widely disseminate Christian 
 literature. We support and control the 
 Anglo-Japanese College and Theological 
 School in Tokyo, and the Chinzei Gakuin, 
 at Nagasaki, an institution of high school 
 rank. Although its capacity is large, it 
 is crowded to the limit. 
 
 Korea 
 
 Korea, once and for many centuries 
 the Hermit Kingdom, is now a province 
 of the Japanese Empire. The Koreans 
 have lost their earthly kingdom, but 
 they have large compensation in the 
 founding of the Kingdom of God within 
 their bounds, which identifies them with 
 a world kingdom over which reigns the 
 King of Kings. The membership of the 
 church is 26,125 and all its institutions 
 are prospering. 
 
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Southern Asia 
 
 Turning our steps westward we enter 
 the great mission field known as South¬ 
 ern Asia, which includes India, Burma, 
 Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Java and 
 the Philippine Islands. It is divided 
 into eight Annual Conferences and a 
 Mission Conference, with a membership 
 of 209,271. A wonderful mass movement 
 has been in progress in this vast field for 
 several years and seems to be increasing 
 in momentum. Bishop Warne says; A 
 careful observer has described our Indian 
 revival as the greatest continual revival 
 movement Methodism has ever seen. It 
 began in 1905 and has increased in 
 momentum yearly from then until now. 
 As proof of this, our mission alone has 
 had over 200,000 baptisms during the 
 past eight years.” 
 
 A missionary writes: **Last week I 
 baptized 718 people ... I am olf this 
 evening to baptize 1,300 . . . At pres¬ 
 ent I have more than 8,000 applicants 
 for baptism.” Another reports 762 bap¬ 
 tisms; another 131; another 3,230 in 
 one year; another 2,000; another 3,605. 
 These are specimens of what is going on 
 in many other places. Bishop Warne 
 continues: This marvelous revival has 
 
 all the signs of genuineness and perma¬ 
 nence. It began with great demonstra- 
 
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tions and very noisy meetings, with 
 singing and shouting. On several occa¬ 
 sions I have seen the jerks, just as Peter 
 Cartwright saw them. I have seen 
 members become unconscious and lie in 
 that condition for hours and then come 
 out with their countenances lighted with 
 a light from the other world.” 
 
 All other departments of the work are 
 prosperous—educational, publishing and 
 philanthropic. As one reads of the 
 wonderful progress of Christianity from 
 the Himalayas to Singapore and the 
 Philippine Islands, one involuntarily 
 exclaims What hath God wrought ? ” 
 
 Africa 
 
 From Southern Asia, the report leads 
 us to Africa, where our first foreign mis¬ 
 sion was founded in 1833. The work 
 in Liberia, so long at a standstill, has 
 taken on new life and reports 7,686 
 communicants. Marked progress has been 
 made among native tribes. In one dis¬ 
 trict there w^ere 1,000 baptisms during 
 one year. Among the Americo-Liberians, 
 the ruling class in Liberia, the work is 
 everywhere prosperous. 
 
 In the East Central Africa Mission 
 Conference, which includes the work in 
 Portuguese East Africa and Southern 
 Rhodesia, there is stead)- advance along 
 
all lines. A missionary says: ‘‘A large 
 portion of the natives living in the terri¬ 
 tory occupied by our mission in Rhodesia 
 are in a state of semi-civilization . . . 
 The transition period is full upon them. 
 The question is no longer one of emanci¬ 
 pation from superstition and savagism. 
 They are coming out in spite of any 
 effort to stop them. How shall we guide 
 them ? What shall we do with them ? 
 . . . It is an opportunity that means 
 life or death to the native and for us it 
 spells responsibility to God. ’’ The pres¬ 
 ent membership is 5,059. 
 
 The West Central Africa Mission Con¬ 
 ference is in the Portuguese Province of 
 Angola and extends into the interior, in¬ 
 cluding the Lunda country, 200 miles 
 from north to south, and 900 miles from 
 west to east. The Conference also in¬ 
 cludes the Madeira Islands. The prog¬ 
 ress is slow, but a missionary says: The 
 outlook is as hopeful and promising as 
 one could expect. We have several 
 cordial invitations from important chiefs 
 to establish stations near them . . . The 
 people are wide awake and alert, even 
 eager. ’ ’ 
 
 Our youngest Africa mission was es¬ 
 tablished in 1908, with headquarters at 
 Algiers on the Mediterranean. Besides 
 Algiers, there are stations at Oran, Con- 
 
stantine, Tunis and other points. This 
 mission was founded for the purpose of 
 making an attack upon Mohammedanism 
 in one of its strongholds. In the terri¬ 
 tory included in the missions there is a 
 Moslem population of about 15,500,000. 
 There is also a mixed population consist¬ 
 ing of French, Italian and Spanish, 
 numbering about 1,500,000. The assault 
 upon the religion of the false prophet is 
 in the beginning and contemplates a 
 long, intense and costly struggle, but the 
 final outcome will be victory, for He 
 must reign till He hath put all enemies 
 under His feet. ’ ’ Our total membership 
 in Africa is 13,572. 
 
 South America 
 
 We now cross the Atlantic to South 
 America, where our Church was organ¬ 
 ized in 1836, in the City of Buenos 
 Aires. From 1836 to 1864 the work 
 was limited to English speaking people. 
 Since the latter date the work has ex¬ 
 tended amongst the natives in Argentina, 
 Uruguay and Paraguay. Our English 
 Church in Buenos Aires has recently 
 been described as a veritable light¬ 
 house as well as a beehive of activity. ” 
 The Spanish work is aggressive and in¬ 
 creasingly successful. 
 
 Crossing the Andes range we enter 
 
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Chile to find that the Chile Conference 
 stretches along the Pacific Coast from 
 Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan 
 to Peru, including the Republic of Boli¬ 
 via. The schools at Concepcion, Santi¬ 
 ago, Iquique, in Chile, and at La Paz and 
 Cochabamba in Bolivia, are prosperous 
 and the evangelistic work is making 
 steady headway. The North Andes Mis¬ 
 sion Conference includes all South 
 America not included in the two Con¬ 
 ferences above named, viz, : Peru, Ecua¬ 
 dor, Colombia, Panama, Venezuela and 
 the Guianas. We have work only in 
 Peru and Panama, so that there is much 
 land still to be possessed. The intoler¬ 
 ance of the Roman hierarchy makes 
 rapid progress impossible, but public 
 sentiment is becoming more and more 
 liberal and the future is increasingly 
 hopeful. In Panama, along the canal 
 strip, evangelistic and school work has 
 the right of way. The membership in 
 South America is 10,943. 
 
 Mexico 
 
 Following the Isthmus, we pass 
 through Central America into Mexico 
 and find ourselves in the Mexico Confer¬ 
 ence. In Mexico revolution has succeeded 
 revolution for two years and still there is 
 unrest everywhere. It is amazing to 
 
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know that in the midst of all the turmoil 
 and strife our work should be so little 
 disturbed and that there has been neither 
 loss of life or property. Dr. Butler 
 says: In our missionary families there 
 were fourteen people and twenty-six 
 in the families of our native workers, not 
 one of whom was injured. We have 
 three valuable properties in Mexico City 
 and the only damage was that of broken 
 glass . . . Indeed shells fell and ex¬ 
 ploded on every side of us, one of them 
 just in front of our door, and yet our 
 building, which protected over twenty 
 people through the ordeal, was not 
 touched by anything but bullets. We 
 seemed to dwell under the shadow of 
 the Almighty.” Except occasional 
 temporary suspension, the schools have 
 been continued and all departments of 
 the work have been maintained. Our 
 membership is 7,127. 
 
 Europe 
 
 Following our guide, we recross the 
 Atlantic to glance at our work in Europe, 
 which stretches from Hammerfest, Nor¬ 
 way, so near the midnight sun that for 
 several months in midsummer there is 
 no night there,” to Sicily at the ex¬ 
 treme southern point of Italy. The 
 countries we occupy are Norway, Den- 
 
 it 
 
mark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Austria- 
 Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, France, 
 Italy and Bulgaria, where we have in all 
 eight Annual Conferences, two Mission 
 Conferences and two missions, with a 
 total membership of 71,796. In all 
 these countries Methodism has taken 
 deep root and is steadily moving for¬ 
 ward. Our total foreign membership is 
 approximately 400,000. 
 
 We have made a rapid survey of our 
 vast mission fields, with the hope that 
 many ministers and laymen will send for 
 the Annual Report and read it from first 
 page to last. It is sent out free for 
 postage, which is 14 cents per copy. 
 
 New York City. 
 
 BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 150 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 2$ cents per hundred 
 
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