tmtmu A Monthly Missionary Paper, published by the WOMAN’S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH . PRICE, 50 Cts. PER YEAR. MRS. W. F. WARREN, Editor. MISS PAULINE J. WALDEN, Agent. 36 Bromfield St., Boston, Mass. TWENTY YEARS OF THE Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 1869 — 1889 . Mrs. J. T. Gracey. “ Hit tier to Liatli tlie Lord Lielped us.' 1880. Heathen Woman’s Friend, 36 Bromfield St., BOSTON, MASS. TWENTY YEARS’ WORK OF THE “ All things can be to him who will believe, All might, all grace, to him who will receive; And they that know their God shall valiant be,— He leads His people on to victory.” -- INITIAL HISTORY. I N a review of work accomplished by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in a period of twenty years, a brief summary of the his¬ tory of the Society becomes a necessity, that we may more clearly see “all the way which the Lord led ” us. On a stormy day in the month of March, 1869, a few Meth¬ odist women met in the Tremont Street Church, Boston, Mass., and organized the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The necessity was upon them because of the millions of women in heathen 4 TWENTY YEARS OF THE lands who could be reached and helped only by the aid of Christian women. Returned missionaries had told the story of woman’s degradation without the gospel, and urged the sending out of women as teachers who should enter the homes of heathendom, which only women could enter. The prejudices of ages had been weakened, and missionary work had come to a point when it must have this help. The few godly women who determined to try to unite the women of Methodism in this new organization communi¬ cated with Rev. Dr. Durbin, then corresponding secretary of the Missionary Society, in a letter bearing date March 8tli, 1869, and sought advice in regard to methods of work. In a reply, dated March 20, 1869, Dr. Durbin advised that two things should be aimed at: first, to raise fuuds for a particular portion of the work in India, perhaps also in China; aud, second, to leave the administration of the work to the Board at home, and the missions in India. The organ¬ ization was then completed by the election of managers and Vice-Presidents, representing different parts of the country, and one central Treasurer in Boston. On May 7th, Drs. Durbin and Harris met the friends of the new organization, and after full and free consultation, ex¬ pressed entire satisfaction with the action, and after¬ wards commended the new Society most heartily in the church papers. woman’s foreign missionary society. 5 The women of the church in all sections of the country were immediately invited to unite in this work, and soon auxiliary societies were organized. The first public meeting of the Society was held in the Bromfield Street Church, Boston, * May 26, 1869, at which addresses were made by returned missionaries and others, setting forth the great need for such a Society. At the close of this public occasion, the women held a special meeting, and voted to send out their first missionary. This was an important hour in the history of the Society. With large faith in God, and in their work, but with very little money in the treasury, they took this advanced action. Miss Thoburn, of Ohio, had been highly recommended, and, after a general discussion, one of the committee said: “Shall we lose Miss Thoburn because we have not the needed money in our hands to send her? No, rather let us walk the streets of Boston in our calico dresses, and save the expense of more costly apparel. I move, then, the appointment of Miss Thoburn as our missionary to India.” And they all said, “We will send her.” Part of the money for her expenses was borrowed, but it was soon paid. Very soon after this, came an appeal from our missionaries in India, for a medical woman, if such could be found, to take charge of a medical class which had been organized in the orphanage in Bareilly. The hope was expressed that such a person might find her way into the zenanas, help the 6 TWENTY YEARS OF THE sick and suffering who were without any medical attention, and thus be able to present the gospel to them. This seemed rather a heroic venture. In a few months the name of Miss Clara A. Swain, M.D., was presented. The highest tes¬ timonials were given to her ability, and she was accepted for this responsible undertaking. These two representatives, Miss Thoburn and Dr. Swain sailed from New York Novem¬ ber 3d, 1869,via England, for India, and reached their destina¬ tion early in January, 1870. They were cordially received by the North India Confer¬ ence in appreciative resolutions concerning this Society and its first laborers. Miss Thoburn was appointed to the city of Lucknow, and Dr. Swain to Bareilly. This was the beginning of the work abroad. REVISED ORGANIZATION. After a few months, however, it became evident that the Constitution which had been framed to meet the requirements so far as could then be anticipated, was inadequate to meet the necessities caused by the rapid increase of auxiliaries and members all over the country. Hence, in December of that year, a new constitution was framed, on another plan, arranging for Branch societies, comprising certain districts with headquarters at specified cities. This constitution provided for a General Executive woman’s foreign missionary society. < Committee, composed of delegates from each Branch, who should have the general management of the affairs of the Society. This was submitted to the parent board of the Missionary Society for their approval and sanction, which it received. The Society, as organized, had six Branches, viz.. New England, New York, Philadelphia, North-Western, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Auxiliary Societies sprang up everywhere, and missionary enthusiasm was kindled in the home and in the church. The method adopted for raising funds and prosecuting the work of the Society was not by public collections for special work, but by every Christian woman laying aside two cents a week, or the payment of one dollar a year, which should constitute membership. So small was the amount that all women, even the most humble, could have a share in the work. The aim was to have an Auxiliary in every church, and each Branch to have its assigned woik in the foreign field. Throughout the Church a missionary enthusiasm was en¬ kindled. Women, touched by the Spirit’s power, came for¬ ward, and by voice, pen, and tears, pleaded for their heathen sisters. There came a new inspiration and hope to the mis¬ sionaries in the foreign field from this new organization. “I believe,” said one, “that God will make this Society a choice agent for good; our faith in its success has not the first symptoms of weakness in it.” Many of them wrote rejoicing that such a Society was an accomplished fact. 8 TWENTY YEARS OF THE A year soon passed, a year of labor, of new experiences ; a year in which prejudices had to be overcome among both ministers and members of the Church, for some feared that the Society in its operations might interfere with the col¬ lections of the Parent Board. The women who were working had not been trained in business methods, but they realized they were being divinely led. The time drew near for the first Annual Meeting under the revised constitution. It was a gathering looked forward to with the deepest interest. Women who had been called out from the quiet seclusion of their homes to do this untried work, were to assemble from all parts of the country to rehearse their experience. They had undertaken a work re¬ quiring human love, and superhuman faith. The objects of their prayerful interest were thousands of miles away, far over the seas ; women they had never seen. They had tried, during the year, to represent their condition to the women of the church. They were to report their success in gleaning financial fields and in gathering the sheaves which had been let fall, “some of the handfuls, of purpose, for her.” This gathering meant much, and many eyes were turned towards this meeting place of the tribes, and many hearts were up¬ lifted iu prayer. This first General Executive Committee convened iu Boston, at the house of Mrs. T. A. Rich, on Wednesday, woman’s foreign missionary society. 9 April 20th, 1870, and the six organized Branches were repre¬ sented by the following persons: The New England Branch, by Mrs. W. F. Warren, Mrs. D. Patten, Mrs. L. Flanders; the New York Branch, by Mrs. William Butler, Mrs. H. B. Skidmore and Mrs. J. Olin; the Philadelphia Branch, by Mrs. J. T. Gracey, Mrs. A. V. Eastlack; the Cincinnati Branch, by Mrs. E. W. Parker, who had just organized that Branch; the North-western Branch, by Mrs. J. F. Willing, Mrs. F. Jones ; and the St. Louis or Western Branch, by Mrs. L. E. Prescott. Mrs. Dr. Patten presided at this meeting. The report showed that $4,546.86 had been raised during the year, and one hundred auxiliaries had been organized. On Thursday, April '21st, an anniversary was held and four returned missionaries were present who made addresses on different phases of the foreign mission work. A report of this meeting appeared in Zion's Herald, which stated : “This anniversary was eminently successful and worthy of its place in the history of the Society.” During the session of this committee, estimates from India were received ask¬ ing for $10,000, which was appropriated; and $300 was appropriated to China, for work in Foochow, Kiu Kiang, and Peking. This seemed a large task to undertake. The previous year had been successful, possibly because the enterprise was new; but would it be wise to attempt to raise so large an amount for another year? But these were 10 TWENTY YEARS OF THE women of large faith, and Mrs. E. W. Parker made a motion that the amount for the coming year be made twenty thou¬ sand dollars. The motion was unanimously adopted. It seemed almost impracticable for an association of ladies pledged to make no special efforts like church collections, towards raising money, but simply by membership dues and private donations, to bring together in so few months, so many thousands of dollars. This amount of money was apportioned among the branches as follows : New England ..... .$3,000 New York.6,000 Philadelphia.2,500 Chicago.6,000 Cincinnati.1,800 St. Louis. 700 $20,000 Previous to this, some money had been paid over to Dr. Harris for the support of a Bible reader in Moradabad, which was really the first work actually adopted by the Society. The Girls’ Orphanage at Bareilly, India, in which at that time were about 150 girls, was made over by the General Missionary Committee of the church, to the Society at this meeting. Reports were made concerning girls’ schools that woman’s foreign missionary society. 11 had been opened at special stations, and Bible women em¬ ployed during the year. The magnitude of the work became clearer at this meeting than ever before. These women went out to the work of another year, burdened but hopeful, to make a combined mbvement forward. The next year the work became more thoroughly systemized at home, and they began to “strengthen the stakes, and lengthen the cords.” At the second session of the General Executive Committee, which convened in Chicago, May, 1871, we find the number of Auxiliary Societies increased to 614, and over 26,000 mem¬ bers, and not only the $20,000 in hand, but $2,000 more. The first business was the division of the Philadelphia Branch territory, ceding to the Baltimore ladies the terri¬ tory of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Eastern Virginia. These had given up their former organization, under which they had earnestly worked for years in behall of the mission at Foochow, China, and had re-organized as a Branch of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. During this session came the news from Georgia, that the eighth Branch had been formed. It received, according to request, permission to establish headquarters at Atlanta, Ga. The estimates which came from India this year were nearly double in amount those of the previous year. This budget included the cost of sending out several new missionaries, 12 TWENTY YEARS OF THE and the support of those already in the field, and increased appropriations for schools and Bible readers. China now asked to be heard. From Peking a petition was received for over $5,000; besides, they desired the support of lady teach¬ ers and of school work. Two ladies were appointed for Pek¬ ing. In the autumn of 1870, Miss Fannie J. Sparkes had gone, under the auspices of the New York Branch, to join the two other representatives of the Society in India, Miss Thoburn, and Miss Swain. From these ladies, and from the faithful wives of the missionaries, there came most encouraging and inspiring reports of the work in the mission field, proving that the year’s labor here at home in collecting funds had been balanced by a year of constant activity in the mission, the results of which had been in every respect as great as those of the home-workers. Miss Thoburn, at Lucknow, had organized schools, and put them in excellent operation; made many personal visits to the native women, and super¬ intended the work of Bible readers. Miss Swain’s medical ability had had constant exercise, gaining for her admission to many places which otherwise had remained resolutely closed, and preparing the way for others to follow, and care for the good seed sown. The class of girls she had uuder medical instruction made good progress. In these early davs, a word of encouragement meant very much. The Bishops, almost without exception, most heartily woman’s FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIE1Y. 1*0 endorsed the work of the Society. The General Conference of 1872 took action, granting the Society the most cordial recognition and encouragement, and each succeeding session they have put themselves upon record to the effect that the Society is a most important auxiliary in missionary work. In 1872, important action was taken in regard to tenure of property, both at home and abroad, by which the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church were to hold property for this Society. In 1873, very earnest applications were received for extending the work into Mexico and South America. At this Executive Committee Meeting, eight mis¬ sionary candidates were recommended, four of whom were accepted. Two of these were sent to open the work in these Roman Catholic countries. In 1874, the Committee decided to take up work in Africa. This they prosecuted under great disadvantages for five years. The death of one missionary and the inability to establish permanent work, caused the abandonment of the field. This same year arrangements were made for commenc¬ ing work in Japan. This was made possible by a donation of a thousand dollars for that specific purpose. The de¬ velopment in Japan is of the most remarkably aggiessi\e character. A young lady from Illinois was appointed to that field. She proceeded there alone, selected property in Tokyo, rented a heathen temple, started a Christian school in u TWENTY YEARS OF THE one room, while a Buddhist priest taught in another room; she laid large plans for future work. That school now num¬ bers 160 pupils, and is a model of its kind. Other important cities were occupied, Yokohama, Hakodati, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka, and flourishing schools were established in each. In 1877, Italy and Bulgaria were opened by the employ¬ ment of Bible readers at various points. In all these fields every Christian agency was utilized for reaching and saving the women and girls. Direct evangelistic work through missionaries, Christian women, and Bible women; indirect evangelistic work by establish¬ ing and sustaining day and boarding schools; through benevolent agencies, such as orphanages, and medical work, carried on by American and native workers; the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries; and by creat¬ ing a native Christian literature. At the close of 1879, or first decade, we find the work well established in India, China, Japan, Africa, Italy, South America and Mexico; with 38 missionaries in the field, 200 Bible women and native teachers, six hospitals and dispensaries, 15 board¬ ing schools with 696 pupils, 115 day schools with nearly 3,000 pupils, three orphanages with 347 pupils, and two homes for friendless women, the annual appropriations for the work having increased to $89,000. Homes had been built for the missionaries, school buildings erected, and permanency given to every branch of the work. woman’s foreign missionary society. 15 SUBSEQUENT HISTORY. The history of the Society for the next ten years is simply that of continued and increased activities as the way opened, and as there came the ability to occupy. Every effort was made to establish and strengthen the work in hand. Into all fields more missionaries were sent. In China, the girls’boarding-school in Eoochow, and the day schools in the contiguous villages, taught by the wives of native preachers, and girls trained in the boarding-school, were as great lights shining in a dark place, and as leaven working amidst the ignorance and degradation of the girl¬ hood of China. In the training-school for women, the mem¬ bers bound themselves by a written contract to be mutually prayerful and helpful, admonishing and watching for one another’s welfare. In the school at Peking, at one time, twenty of the girls had their feet unbound, and as there was a growing sentiment in favor of this reform among the church members, it became a rule that no child would be received who would be unwil¬ ling to have the bandages taken off, and this, we believe, is the only school in North China that makes this requirement. In 1884 Chin-Kiang was opened, a physician and teacher sent, and buildings have since been erected. In 1886, by the aid of a special donation, Nanking was occupied. 16 TWENTY YEARS OF THE In 1882 the Society sent a representative to West China, a field whose vastness, population, resources, strategic im¬ portance and promise, very few comprehend. To open this held, and to plant mission work in Chin-Iviang necessitated a perilous journey, only possible at certain seasons of the year, over rocks and waterfalls; but the Society sent its rep¬ resentative there, a home was built, a school opened with 40 pupils, and the promise for work among the women seemed very hopeful, and for nearly four years the seed of gospel truth was scattered in hearts never before reached. But through the violence of a Chinese mob in 1886, the mission property was all destroyed, and Missionaries of the Parent Board with those of our own Society, were compelled to fly for their lives, and the work was necessarily aband¬ oned. Nothing daunted or discouraged, these Missionaries hope soon to return and commence work again. In India, every department of the work has extended, until in the territory of the North India Conference, girls’schools, and a system of house visitation, are carried on by the Society in all the large cities, and in villages. Every kind of school is to be found in the seventy stations occupied. In 1879 the Society commenced a new phase of work, of special interest and promise, among the Eurasians, a class of intelligent people, speaking English, and of native and English woman’s foreign missionary society. 17 parentage. A school for the daughters of these people was opened in Calcutta, which has done a marvellous work in raising up teachers and Christian workers from among the people they sought to influence. A new building for such purposes in Calcutta,was dedicated in 1886. Another school of this character was begun in Rangoon, Burmah, in connection with which a kindergarten class is being started, the first in Burmah, and another in Cawnpore; and in these, many of the pupil 3 have been converted and received into the Church, while some have gone out to teach. In Madras, one hundred zenanas are not only open, but systematically visited. In Roorkee and Poona are flourishing schools. In Bombay a foothold has been secured in the very heart of Mohammedanism. In this great city, the workers represent that they have openings in the native homes of luxury, and in the wards of squalor. In 1887 a lady was appointed to commence work among the women and girls in the far-away station of Singapore, in the Straits Settlements. In 1888 work was started in Muttra, one of the greatest strongholds of heathendom in all India. Here, where eight thousand women do temple-service, the Society has arranged for a training-school, and for general Missionary work. 18 TWENTY YEARS OF THE In 1884 the first missionary was sent to Bulgaria, although the Society had worked for some time there by employing Bible readers. Now a system of itinerating is kept up among the villages. A successful boarding-school is at Loftcha, and day schools at Sistof, Orchania., and Rustchuk. In 1877 our first missionary was sent to Italy, although previous to this the work was carried on at various points. There are agencies in fifteen cities. In South America the work, though still confined to Rosario, Montevideo, and Buenos Ayres, has been strength¬ ened, and some fourteen schools are supported, and large numbers of Bibles have been distributed. In Mexico the Society has moved forward, and there has been much good work done. In eleven stations evangelistic agencies are bringing about wonderful results. The Or¬ phanage in Mexico city has educated and sent its pupils out as teachers. In Pachuca and Puebla the schools are of a high order, and so popular as to give the Romanists great concern. In the school in Puebla this past year there has been a remarkable awakening. A regular Pentecost has been reported, and many Mexican girls have been saved. Nearly every girl in the school has been brought into the Church. woman’s foreign missionary society. 19 The property where this revival has been in progress, con¬ sisting of Theological school, Parsonage, Chapel and Girls’ school, was formerly a part of the Romish Inquisition build¬ ings, where victims were confined or walled up to die. How marvellously has God worked for us in Mexico. In Japan the developments during this decade have been beyond the highest and most sanguine hopes. Property has been purchased, school buildings erected, a large number ol missionaries sent to reinforce the workers, and in nine sta¬ tions the openings are so great it seems impossible to enter all. The desire for female education, and the spirit of revival in church and school, have scarcely a parallel in modern Mis¬ sionary work. The Society entered Korea in 1885, by sending one Mission¬ ary. For two years she held the situation alone, but re-in- forcements have been sent, and now in a beautiful home, on a hill-top, overlooking the city of Seoul, these missionaries reside, having a school of seventeen girls. Twenty women have been trained, and three of them having given satisfac¬ tory evidence of changed lives were recently baptized, receiv¬ ing the Christian names of Martha, Miriam, and Salome, the first fruits of that “Hermit nation.” 20 TWENTY YEARS OF THE While all this was being developed abroad, a corresponding development was taking place at home. The German work was commenced in 1883, and is now dis¬ tributed over seven Conferences in the United States, also in the Swiss and German Conferences in Europe. There are 122 Auxiliary Societies, with 3,061 members, and 28 Life Members. In Germany 35 Auxiliaries, with 487 Members; in the Swiss Conference 15 Auxiliaries with 488 members. The contributions in the United States amounted last year to $3,414.10; in Germany $134.97; in Switzerland $137.38, mak¬ ing a total of $3,686.45. In 1883 the territory of the Western Branch was divided into three separate Branches, viz. : the Des Moines, Topeka, and Minneapolis; and thus the work throughout the West was more thoroughly and systematically organized. In 1888 a memorial was presented from the Pacific Coast, asking to be included iu the sisterhood of Branches, and for the first time the Pacific Branch appears in the Report with an apportionment of $2,400 for the coming year. Thus the Society stretches from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Society was incorporated under the Laws of the State of New York in 1884. It now holds real estate in foreign lands to the amount of two hundred and seventy-seven thousand dollars. woman’s foreign missionary society. 21 LITERATURE. 0 The Heathen Woman's Friend .—The Society realized at once upon its organization that it was necessary to have some method of communication simongst the members, and be¬ tween them and the Missionaries on the field. Hence airange- ments were made to issue a monthly paper of their own, appropriately called Heathen Woman's Friend, the first num¬ ber of which appeared in June, 1869. From an appeal in its pages we extract the following. It is proposed by our Executive Committee to issue a monthly paper containing the latest intelligence from our missions, with contributions respecting the claims, methods and pro¬ gress of our work among heathen women. The design is to furnish just such a paper as will be read with interest by all friends of the cause, and which will assist in enlisting the sympathies of the children, and educate them more fully in Missionary work.” This was indeed a new venture—to publish a paper in the interests of heathen women. Mrs. Warren, wife of Rev. William F. Warren, D.D , was appointed editor, and has continued to fill this position uninterruptedly during these twenty years. The paper started modestly with eight pages, and at the low subscription price of thirty dents. The first year, the list of subscribers reached four thousand. In the 22 TWENTY YEARS OF THE annual report of the Society, the following statement was made, contrary to all expectations: “This paper has paid all its expenses the first year.’' So successful had been the venture that arrangements were made for an enlargement to twelve pages, without increase of price. For the first year Mr. James P. Magee acted as general agent. During 1870, the circulation of this paper increased from four thousand to twenty-one thousand; an increase unprecedented in the his¬ tory of any missionary paper. In 1871, the name of Mrs. L. H. Daggett appears as publishing agent. The price that year was raised to thirty-five cents. From all quarters, and es¬ pecially from the Church press, came appreciative words con¬ cerning the paper and its management. In July, 1872, tour more pages were added, and it became a sixteen-paged paper, and its circulation reached twenty-four thousand. In May, of this year, it appeared with its first illustration. The en¬ graving was that of the Mission House and Orphanage at Bar¬ eilly, a place about which so much of interest has clustered; since then it has furnished many engravings of school buildings, missionary homes and other edifices, and also of some of the missionaries, Bible readers, and teachers. Again in 1875, the size of the paper was increased from sixteen to twenty-four pages ; and the subscription price was raised to fifty cents. In this year also a new feature known as “ The Home Department ” was incorporated, the material being woman’s foreign missionary society. 23 contributed by the Branch Corresponding Secretaries. In 1882, at the close of twelve years of service, Mrs. L. H. Daggett retired as agent, and Miss Pauline J. Walden was appointed in her place. In 1878, at the Executive Committee meeting in Boston, a “ Standing Committee on Publication ” was made, consisting of the corresponding secretaries ot the several branches, which was to have charge of the paper. In July, 1871, the paper contained a map of the Mission stations of the Methodist Episcopal Church in India; the first map of the kind ever given to the Church. It was prepared by a missionary of this Society. The paper has furnished full reports of the proceedings of the General Executive Com¬ mittee in annual session; and the acknowledgment of all moneys to the Society through the several Branch tieasuiies ; and kept the thread of the history of the work on every mis¬ sion field abroad, as well as much of the detail of the work by the auxilaries at home. Since 1878, it has furnished the outline of what is entitled the Uniform Study of each month, by means of which the women of all the Societies unite in pursuing a systematic course of study of missionary subjects. It has received uniformly the heartiest commendation from missionaries, and ministers, and laymen. At the close of 1888, its subscription list enrolled 19,977 addresses. This paper has from the first paid all expenses, and so wisely have its finances been administered, that it has paid for nearly all the miscellaneous literature issued by the Socieiy 24 TWENTY YEARS OF THE Leaflets and other Literature : In 1877, the necessity was felt for more general information on missionary topics and mission countries, and a committee was appointed to prepare a class of literature for general circulation that might aid in meeting this want. This department of the work has grown until from one to two millions of pages are issued annually, the most of them in English, but some in German. Amongst the other literature which has proven of interest, is a history of the medical work of this Society during the -twenty years, entitled “ Woman’s Medical Work in Foreign Lands.” A large wall map on cloth of our missions in India, China and Japan, was prepared by a member of the Society; a large edition was printed and has been sold. In 1885, an eight-paged monthly paper was begun for the use of German members of this Society, called “ Heiden Frauen Freund” also edited by Mrs. Dr. W. F. Warren. Of its 1,776 subscribers, eighty are in Germany, and 57 in Switzerland. Apart from all the foregoing literature, a quar¬ terly paper is issued for children, called “ Children’s Leaflet.” An illustrated Christian paper was established by this So¬ ciety in India, in the year 1883, called The Woman’s Friend. It is an eight-paged paper published fortnightly, in four of the leading languages of the country. Thousands of women receive it in their homes. Nothing shows more clearly the woman’s foreign missionary society. 2a advance of Christian sentiment, and the breaking down of prejudices than the demand among these women for this paper—women who a few years ago thought it impossible that a woman should learn to read. It is estimated that not less than twenty-five thousand women are reached by this paper. As we have already seen it has an endowment of $25,000, raised for the purpose by this Society. Christian literature is also being prepared in nearly all our Mission fields. In Japan, the life of Susanna Wesley has been translated by one of our missionaries. In India, much miscellaneous literature is being provided for the women of our native churches. MEDICAL. WORK. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has the honor of having sent to the continent of Asia the first regularly graduated medical woman. The development of this important adjunct of all missionary work during twenty years has been nothing short of marvellous. It was a new and untried department. Prejudices were to be met at home, as well as abroad. Eastern women, in their seclusion, would not receive help given by male physicians Thousands of deaths occurred 26 TWENTY YEARS OF THE annually from want of proper attention. Our missionaries in India plead for a woman physician, saying: “Such a one could get access into the zenanas.” To inaugurate and develop such a responsible work, the Society was exceedingly fortunate in securing Miss Clara A. Swain, M.D., who in 1869 was appointed to India. She sailed Nov. 3, 1869, and ar¬ rived in Bareilly, January, 1870. She was warmly received by the members of the mission, and every facility was offered her for pursuing the new and arduous work. She commenced with a class of fourteen girls in the orphanage, and in two weeks after she arrived, had one hundred and eight patients. This was the small beginning; a seed plant¬ ed, which has grown to such proportions that its fruit is seen all through India and China. So eminently successful was this branch of the work, that other medical missionaries were appointed, and now, in various stations in India, we have medical women, hospitals and dispensaries; and in these twenty years, thousands of patients have been reached in the zenanas; thousands more treated in the dispensaries and hospitals, and many difficult surgical operations have been performed. Multitudes of women have had the Gospel of Christ made known to them through the instrumentality of the medical woman. The prejudices of ages have given way, and confidence has been won by the quiet and lov¬ ing ministrations of one who could help the suffering. woman’s foreign missionary society. 27 At first it was a cautious experiment, but now it is an abso¬ lute necessity. Into the royal palace, aud the homes of the poor has the medical missionary been welcomed. The property in Bareilly, India, owned by the Society for medical work, consisting of hospital, home, and dispensary, was the gift of a native prince, aud was valued at $15,000. The original buildings were altered and additions made suit¬ able for the work, and they became the first of their kind in all India. Medical work has been established inNaini Tal, Cawnpore, Lucknow, and in Moradabad. And we get some little idea of the magnitude of it when we read in the India reports that 400 patients were treated in the zenanas in one year; 600 another year; 3,000 in another; and that 17,000 women came to the dispensary one year for treatment; 21,030 another year; 23,000 another; and so on. Of the twenty-five medical missionaries sent out, ten have gone to India. Miss Dr. Swain, who inaugurated and gave fifteen years to this work, and saw it develop so marvellously, received a call to what has proved a most remarkable opening in Raj- putana. She was sent for to visit the wife of the Rajah ol Khetri. She took with her a trained native Christian woman. After a month, the Rajah made arrangements with her to remain permanently as physician to the Court, she consenting to do so provided she could do Christian work, 28 TWENTY YEARS OF THE r establish schools, etc. No restrictions were placed upon her, and the Rajah meets all the expenses incident to her work. She attends the women of the palace, teaches them the truths of Christianity, sings our Christian hymns, and in this way Christianity is planted in that great native kingdom. The work in China was commenced in 1873, by Miss L. Combes, M.D. In Peking, the very capital of this old empire, alone, and yet not alone, she started influences which have broadened and deepened, until in six large and important centres, our medical missionaries are at work. In 1878, Miss Howard, M.D., reached Peking, and the story of her call to Tientsin to attend Lady Li, the wife of the Vice¬ roy, is as familiar as it is thrilling. In Foochow, Miss Dr. Trask was the first to open medical work. For ten years she devoted herself to it, and made it a great power. So wonderful was her influence over the people, that when she appeared on the street the natives were ready to fall down and worship her. So greatly has this work devel¬ oped, that it seems almost impossible to meet the demand. We now have hospitals and dispensaries in Foochow, Tientsin, Peking, Chin Kiang, and Nanking. These very buildings on heathen ground, are great object lessons, teach¬ ing the natives Christian love and sympathy. Thirteen American medical Missionaries have been sent to China, but at present there are only five at work. Miss Dr. WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 29 Terry during the past year was called professionally into Mongolia—into that great country, where there is but one missionary. Here she dispensed medicines, and talked of Christ to the people. The training of native medical students, both in China and India, has been a marked feature of the work. The intense prejudices of China, strengthened through centuries, gave way so far as to allow a native Chinese girl, a graduate of the Foochow school, to be sent to this country for general and medical education, to qualify her for usefulness in her own land. The indirect influence of this work has also been very marked. In India, native gentlemen have contributed large amounts of money to build hospitals and dispensaries for women. A native princess in Calcutta made a donation of $30,000 to the English Government for the purpose of eudowiug a hospital for women of Bengal. One of the direct outgrowths of medical missionary work, is the movement which has been made by Lady Duffer in to establish medical work for the wo¬ men of India. During her residence in that country, she saw the great necessity for medical aid for women, and formed a National Association for supplying female medical aid to the women of India. The Society has its Branches all over the country. It proposes to give medical tuition to female stu¬ dents, medical attention to female patients, and to supply 30 TWENTY YEARS OF THE trained nurses. There are hospitals where these nurses are trained, colleges where a full medical course is given in the vernacular, and degrees given to those who acquire the course in English. So favorable has been the sentiment, that Lady Dufferin, leaving Calcutta a few weeks since, held a recep¬ tion, which was attended by seven hundred native ladies of the city. These ladies broke through all the prejudices of the past, and showed their appreciation of the work done in securing medical help for the ladies and girls in India. So far only Christian girls, and most of them educated in our own schools, were found prepared to avail themsel\es of the help offered by this fund. The Society has received handsome donations from native gentlemen. In the city of Agra, India, a medical school has been estab¬ lished, with classes for women. A Hindoo widow, trained in our Moradabad school, passed her examination for this college, and stood first in her class. The natives of India have become so impressed with this medical work that a Brahman woman, the first of her class, came to America to procure a medical education. These facts are but indicative of the marvellous change in sentiment. Only twenty years have passed, and no eloquence of rhetoric is needed in the presence of such results, which have been largely brought about by the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. woman’s foreign missionary society. 31 Other denominations, both in England and America, have their medical missionaries on the field, and no more power¬ ful agency is at work to-day in the home, than the Chiistian medical woman. Dr. Elmslie writes: “India needs female medical missionaries; India will welcome them; India will bless them for their work, and many homes now dark will be lighted up through their labors.” What is true ol India, is also true of China. Japan and Korea have both opened their doors to welcome the medical woman. OUR MISSIONARIES. It was a difficult matter twenty years ago to find two women ready and willing to undertake missionary work. Heathenism seemed a fortress to human sight well-nigh im¬ pregnable, and many thought it foolishness that young, inexperienced women should dare assail these strongholds ol evil. But into the darkness they went, with the W ord in their hands, and on their lips, and Christ’s love in their hearts, to proclaim a full and free salvation to women. They went from homes of refinement, from Christian asso¬ ciations, to lands of strange languages and customs, and among people of intense prejudices. They went to face and 32 TWENTY YEARS OF TI1K combat some of the most stupendous problems of the age, such as heathen systems of religions, the oppression of women, caste, infant marriages, etc. They must be as ‘'wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” It may seem to some that the work of a lady missionary is very humble, unostentatious in its methods, and monoto¬ nous in its daily routine. But it has all variety. She is called to almost every service. Unaided and alone, she has opened work in stations, often selecting the land for a home, planning a school building, superintending the erec¬ tion of it, translated books, made beef tea for the sick, given practical lessons in housekeeping, had the care of a mother in providing food and clothing for her pupils, done her own teaching, led prayer and class-meeting, played the organ, if she had one, trained native women for Christian work, made itinerating trips, spoken in towii and village to the women, kept the financial accounts of the Society, held services in chapels, administered to the sick, compounded medicine, sung our hymns, read the Bible, prayed with the sorrowing, com¬ forted the dying, and in some instances, has conducted funeral services. In this silent work of conquest, she does not get discour¬ aged. In twenty years the Society has sent out 151 of these workers. Every missionary thus sent has awakened in her home, city, village, Conference, State, aud Branch, a personal woman’s foreign missionary society. 33 interest in the work for heathen women. The interest has been deepened by her letters and reports. Those who have returned have given a more intelligent idea of the vastness of the work in which they have been engaged. Of the 151 sent to the field in these years, three have retired. One was called to undertake a very important work with large oppor¬ tunities for usefulness, in the territory of a native prince. Twenty-six have married and ten are home, uncertain as to retiring. Some of those married have remained in the work, while ninety-two are in the foreign field, and nine at home on health furlough, hoping soon to return, and ten have died. Miss Buddencame from the London Missionary Society, and has charge of the Home for Homeless Women, in the hills of India. Miss Phoebe Kowe was converted through the influence of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, and was a student in the Lucknow school. She is now in charge of work as a full missionary. Miss Guelfi was a talented, consecrated lady of South America, who also did full work as a missionary. Miss Blackmore, who has the Society’s work in Singapore, came to us from Australia. The Society has not been without its shadows in these twenty years, for ten of its workers have passed on beyond. The band of laborers sent out was unbroken for nine years, 34 TWENTY YEARS OF THE until May 18, 1878, when Miss L. Campbell fell at her chosen work, in Peking. While the General Executive Committee was doing its work at its ninth session in Boston, she was struggling with disease, and before the Committee adjourned she passed to her reward, and was laid to rest in the English burying ground in the capital of the Chinese Empire. September 30th the same year, Mrs. Cheney, nee Miss L. Green, M. D., our medical missionary in Bareilly, was sud¬ denly called away by an attack of cholera, and, with many other missionaries, was buried in the beautiful Naini Tal cemetery, far up among the Himalaya mountains. She was the daughter of a Methodist minister, and her heart was consecrated to the work. The following year, Miss Susan B. Higgins, who had been permitted to work but a few months in Japan, was called, and died most triumphantly July 3d, 1879. A daughter of a Methodist minister, she seemed unusually qualified for her position. She sleeps in the cemetery at Yokohama, and her memory is as “ointment poured forth.” Miss Emma Michener, who loved Africa, gave her life to help its people, suffered, and died Dec. 11th, 1881, on board an English steamer, and was carried to Monrovia, and laid away in the historic burying ground, beside the immor¬ tal Cox. woman’s foreign missionary society. 35 Miss Dr. Gilchrist, who went to China, remained only a short time, was seized with consumption, and came home and died, April 23, 1884. Miss Beulah Woolston, who had spent twenty-five years in China, worked with a superhuman patience, and breathed her life into the women and girls with whom she was associ¬ ated, came home for rest, and the weary wheels ceased to move October 24th, 1886. She led the van of Methodist women in the East, and her influence goes on, multiplying in power through time and eternity. In New Jersey, her native state, she awaits the resurrection morn. Miss Guelfi, whom not having seen, we loved for her work’s sake and devotion to her Master, died in 1886, and was buried in Montevideo, South America. Miss H. Kerr, did efficient work in India, came home, and after long months of suffering, died Dec. 11th, 1886, at her home, Ann Arbor, Mich. Miss H. Woolston, M.D., who spent several years in medical work in Moradabad, came home and after weeks of suffering, went to her reward. Miss Florence Nickerson, went to India in 1880, worked with intense devotion, and was compelled to leave, that the change of climate and needed rest might restore her. But God ordered otherwise, and she died on an English steamer, and was buried in the Gulf of Aden, January 31st, 1887. 36 TWENTY YEARS OF THE Japan, China, Africa, India, South America, hold our dead, and now the ever restless sea, enfolding the remains of one of the most faithful, sends back from its restless waters a call that others may be borne onward, to fill up the vacant ranks. YOUNG PEOPLE. Not until 1879 is there a record of Mission Bands as sep¬ arate organizations. Since then, the development of a mis¬ sionary spirit among the young ladies and children has been a very marked feature of the work. Some one has said* “Brand ‘Love for Heathen’ on a child’s heart, and it can never be effaced ” The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, in all these years, has been making an effort to win the children to love and care for heathen children. In many places the young ladies are associated with exist¬ ing Auxiliaries, but more frequently have separate organiza¬ tions been formed, and thus have the sympathies of hundreds of young hearts been secured. These young girls have joined hand and heart in the good cause. The work done has been educational, the results of which cannot be calculated. They have learned to conduct their business with intelligence and skill, many have been led into a deeper spiritual life through their connection with, and planning for the work. These woman’s foreign missionary society. 37 are as “corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace ” in the superstructure of the Society. Some of these Young Ladies’ Societies have assumed special work. In one Branch, they assumed the entire support of a missionary; in another,one-fifth of the whole amount con¬ tributed was by their efforts. Not only in churches, but in schools and colleges, have Auxiliaries been formed, and not only talents, gifts, and zeal laid upon the altar, but some of the students have consecrated themselves as living sacrifices to the work, and are now in the foreign field. The younger children also have been trained in intelligent methods. Many of them are as familiar with the names of our missionaries, and their stations, as most of the older members. Mite Boxes have been distributed among them, and they have learned not only to save their money, but to earn it for the great cause. The “Busy Bees,” “Earnest Workers,” “Buds of Promise,” “Helping Hands,” “Willing Workers,” are to be found everywhere, and these are not only doing a work for themselves, but helping the childhood of the heathen world to know something of God. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society has been wise in train¬ ing and moulding the character of the children, in the most receptive and formative period of their being. Only ten years has this been a feature of the work, and now there are 408 Young Ladies’Societies, with 6,689 members; and 777 Children’s Bands, with 11,218 members. 38 TWENTY YEARS OF THE FINANCES. “ Two cents a week and a prayer ” A tiny gift, may be: But it helps to do a wonderful work For our sisters across the sea. Every woman in the Methodist Church can give “two cents a week,” was the sentiment of those who organized the Society. No wiser arrangement could have been made. The Society was not to ask for public collections, or for large contributions, but to glean in the fields after other reapers. Bishop Simpson, in an address in a public meeting of the New York Branch, in the early days, said : “If you will ad¬ here to the plan of arranging for a small weekly contribution from every woman, you can raise an amount of money the church never raised before, for missionary purposes.” Ob¬ serving this method, the contributions have increased from four thousand dollars the first year, to two hundred and six thousand in 1888. The entire amount in the twenty years has reached nearly two millions of dollars. The annual increase can be studied in the financial table at the close of this paragraph. The entire missionary collections go directly to the foreign field. There are no salaries, no clerk-hire, no rent of rooms. If money is needed for some emergency, a special collection is made. These results have not been brought about without the most earnest work and devotion of persons connected with the Society. The Corresponding WOMAN^ foreign missionary society. 39 Secretaries, some of whom have been at work all these years, have given of their time and means, have planned and ex¬ ecuted, have sacrificed their comfort in all weather, to go out from their homes to encourage Societies by a word, or in¬ spire them by their own devotion. This spirit has been communicated throughout the organization. Conference and District secretaries, and officers of Auxiliaries, have all contributed to these results. From the beginning to the present date, with the collec¬ tion and disbursement of nearly two millions of dollars, and the administration and development of work at home and abroad, the Society has been able to accomplish all on the basis of unpaid, voluntary labor. Love has been the con¬ trolling motive. The task of judiciously disbursing from one to two hundred thousand dollars annually, has been no small work. Money collected for missionary purposes needs to be carefully and wisely appropriated, and their wisdom and judgment in all these years has been most warmly com¬ mended. Patiently and prayerfully each year, as they come up to the General Executive Committee, day after day, and often far into the night do they study and plan how they may strengthen and extend the work on the amount of money raised. In all these years no debt has been incurred, nor has a Branch ever failed to meet its appropriation. 40 TWENTY YEAR8 OF THE There have been in these years some special thank-offerings and some Christmas offerings. Mite Boxes and Consecrated Banks have been distributed in the homes, reminding many a thoughtless woman of multiplied mercies, and “benefits at a cent apiece.” Some have given of their abundance, many of their poverty. Young girls and children have helped by their consecrated giving to educate and Christianize the girls of heathendom. 1st year, No. of Auxiliaries 100, Am’t money raised $ 4,546 86 2d “ 4 4 4 4 614 4 4 4 4 * 22,397 99 3d “ 4 4 4 4 1,083 4 4 4 4 44,477 46 4th “ 4 4 4 4 1,061 4 4 4 4 54,834 87 5th “ 4 4 4 4 1,839 4 4 4 4 64,309 25 6th “ 4 4 4 4 2,039 4 4 44 61,492 19 7 th “ 44 4 4 1,952 4 4 4 4 55,276 06 8th “ 4 4 4 4 2,196 44 4 4 72,464 30 9th “ 4 4 4 4 2,302 4 4 4 4 68,063 52 10th “ 4 4 4 4 2,172 4 4 4 4 66,843 69 11th “ 4 4 4 4 2,291 4 4 44 76,276 43 12th “ 4 4 4 4 2,578 4 4 4 4 107,932 45 13th “ 18 mos. 4 4 4,093 44 44 195,678 50 14th “ 4 4 3,379 44 4 4 126,823 33 15 th “ 4 4 3,664 4 4 4 4 143,199 14 16th “ 44 3,760 4 4 44 157,442 66 17th “ 4 4 3,961 4 4 4 4 167,098 85 18th “ 44 4,383 4 4 44 191,158 13 19th “ 4 4 5,499 4 4 44 206,308 69 Total, since organization, $1,886,624 37 WOMAN’S foreign missionary society. 41 SPECIAL DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS. Rarely has a cause been sanctified by offerings represent¬ ing more of sacrifice and devotion, than in some of these special gifts to the treasury. Gifts have been brought, hal¬ lowed by the touch of those whom God has taken from hearts left desolate. Memorial buildings have been erected, and orphans supported, in memory of the loved. These have been baptized with affection and prayer, and we find here some of the secrets of the success, under ’God, of the Society’s work. “These have come up for a memorial.” Among the first, if not the very first donation made for specific work, was that from a native prince in India, of property valued at about $15,000, for woman’s medical work, in the city of Bareilly. Li Hung Chang, viceroy of China, requested the services of one of the medical ladies of the Society, in behalf of his aged mother, and although the woman died without accepting Christianity, she contributed one thousand dollars for the medical work. Above and beyond the income of the Society, twenty-five thousand dollars have been raised for the endowment of the zenana paper in India, five thousand of which was contrib¬ uted by Mrs. E. Sleeper Davis of Boston, one thousand by a gentleman in Baltimore, and two thousand by a lady in Penn¬ sylvania. 42 TWENTY YEARS OF THE Mrs. Dr. (now Mrs. Bishop) Newman, donated $2,000 for building a “Home for Homeless Women,” in Northern India; Mrs. Dr. Goucher, of Baltimore, $5,000 for building the “Isabella Fisher Hospital” in Tientsin, China; Mrs. C. A. Wright, of New York, $1,800 for building a memorial school in Hakodati, Japan. From Mrs. D. C. Schofield, of Elgin, Ill., came $7,000, of which $3,000 was given to a medical educational fund, and $1,000 each for orphanages • in Japan, China, India, and Mexico. From Mr. Philander Smith, $5,000 for the general work of the Society. In one Branch we find miscellaneous donations and bequests amounting to about fifteen .thousand dollars. Mrs. Bertha Sigler, of Iowa, gave $3,000 to build a school in Budaon, which is called the “Sigler Memorial School;” Mrs. J. T. Harrison, of Minneapolis, $5,000 for an Industrial Home in Tokyo, Japan. One Branch by special contributions purchased the “Higgins’ Memorial Home,” in Yokohama, Japan. Another Branch placed a memorial stone over the grave of Miss Michener, in Monrovia, Africa.. The Society at large has met the expense incurred in removing the remains of Mrs. Ann Wilkins from Newburg, N.Y., to Maple Grove cemetery, L. I. Some donations have been made, with ref¬ erence to opening new work. Mrs. F. C. De Pauw, of New Albany, Ind., gave $1,000 for commencing our woman’s woman’s foreign missionary society. 43 work in Japan; Mrs. Philander Smith, of Oak Park, Ill., $4,000 to open work and build a home in Nanking, China; Mrs. Mary C. Nind, $3,000 for opening work and sending a missionary to Singapore. Mr. Wm, E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Ill., donated $3,000 as a memorial of his mother, for a “Deaconess Home” in Muttra, India, while Mrs. Black- stone gave $3,000 for building a Home in Korea; Mrs. Slater, of Grand Rapids, Mich., contributed for the school in Naini Tal, which is called Slater Hall. A gentleman in Bombay, con¬ tributed $1,000, for the work in that city. One or two other items deserve special mention. Miss Michener not only gave her life to Africa, but left her entire effects to the Philadelphia Branch, and $431.06 was received by the treasurer from this bequest. Another, a Chinese girl, whose last thoughts went out to Christian friends in America, to whom she owed so much for Christian training, when dying, sent as a legacy her little store of cherished “cash,” to be given to the Society through whose agency she had been saved. Was it the first legacy left in the Chinese Empire to the cause of Christ? These gifts have imparted fragrance to the whole work. He who “sat over against the treasury” in the Jewish temple, has been keeping the record. 44 TWENTY YEARS OF THE FOREIGN AUXILIARIES. As early as 1871 Missionary Societies were organized in India, among the girls in the orphanage, and the native Christian women. As soon as these were brought into a knowledge of the truth, they were taught they must do something for others, that their hands must reach out to help those in their midst less favored, and so it was esteemed a privilege to give part of their little earnings to aid others. Indeed some thought it a great humiliation if they had noth¬ ing for the treasurer, at the regular monthly meeting. In the native church, organized at Moradabad, every woman was a member. The officers of these meetings were selected from their own numbers, their minutes kept and read in the native language, and essays written upon subjects given them by the missionary. This education had its practical bearing. Some of the women requested that the villages surrounding Moradabad be formed into a circuit, and every afternoon certain of their number be appointed to visit, sing, and talk with the women. As many as twenty-five have gone out in a day to do this work, in companies of twos and threes. As missionary work developed, these Societies were organized at various points; and in the report of woman’s work in India seventeen organizations are reported, contributing about $200.00, this past year. woman’s foreign missionary society. 45 It is interesting to note what disposition was made of much of this money. Some was appropriated for helping a school among the sweeper caste; one sent ten dollars to the boarding school for Christian girls ; another hired a con¬ veyance to take a teacher to her school; another helped send » a Bible woman to District Conference and Camp Meeting; a donation was sent to the “ Home for Friendless Women,” in Lucknow; another supported a girl in school; and another sent something to help ‘ 4 The Woman's Friend while others gave to the general missionary collection. Some, too poor to give money, gave work. Japan. An Auxiliary was organized in the school in Tokyo, in March, 1887. The girls show great interest, and the meetings are generally attended by the entire school, whether members or not. Last year the sum of twenty-five dollars was contributed for the support of a Bible reader in Yokohama. An Auxiliary, with thirty members, pledging the support of one scholarship in the training school, is organized in Yokohama, and the women are praying that the time may soon come, when, in every church in Japan, there shall be an Auxiliary of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. In Fukuoka, every woman in the church is a member of the Auxiliary, and twenty dollars collected by them was sent home to the New York Branch; a flourishing Society is 46 TWENTY YEARS OF THE sustained also in Nagasaki and Hakodati; aud comprehend¬ ing the true missionary spirit, the girls in the Nagasaki school not only give their offerings, but one or two offered themselves, to help open work in Korea. In Peking, China, early in the history of the Society, an Auxiliary was organized, which contributed forty dollars to help an interesting woman who travelled several hundreds of miles, to get instructions in Christianity. In Bulgaria, Mexico, Germany, aud Switzerland, are found organizations. The Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, girdles the globe. “ So we being many, are one body in Christ.” TRAINING SCHOOLS. Possibly no more important work has been done by the Society in these years, than the training of native Christian women for Bible women and teachers. Mothers’ meetings, class and prayer meetings, and sometimes day schools, are kept up for them. Many of them are required to pass a pre¬ scribed course of study, and committees for examinations are arrauged for in the different districts. Their training has reference to Christian doctrine, experience, living, and methods of work. These women then go out to the villages, aud are able to enter the homes, and become most important factors in helping to Christianize the women. woman’s foreign missionary society. 47 And not only to the homes do they go, but to public gather¬ ings, to the bathing places, and wherever they can reach a soul with song, or word of Christian cheer. Some of these are to be found in company often with the missionary in the Jinrikisha of Japan, the Palanquin of India, the Sedan chair of China, going over mountains and valleys, and through crowded city, in sunshine and in rain, to tell of Christ, carry¬ ing in their own changed lives an example of his transforming power. One woman in China, giving her report, said : “I have presented the gospel this year to seventeen hundred women.” In Bulgaria, one of our girls thus trained goes from town to town, through all weather, on evangelistic tours, and the missionary writes: “She is eminently fitted to work among all classes. Really she is a better preacher than any man in the mission.” A woman, from one of our training schools in China, returned to her home, but for some years she had no communion with Christians, and no one seemed to know whether she was dead or living. A native, making inquiries at her village, was surprised to find that during the intervening years, that woman, alone, had been striving, amidst heathenism, to live up to the faith she had professed, and to keep the Sabbath. Her Christian life had influenced others, so that a church with eleven probationers was started in her village. 48 TWENTY YEARS OF THE Another, trained in Japan, goes out on itinerating tours. Often, after she addresses an audience, many follow her to her stopping place to inquire more deeply into the truths of the Christian religion. In one town where Buddhism had a strong hold, nine persons from influential families have ac¬ cepted her teachings. Thus in all our Mission fields, even in Korea, our last organized effort, these women are becoming a great power. NATIVE WOMEN’S CONFERENCES. It is a wonderful story, that twenty years ago a very few women in our missions could be found to read, but now there are regularly organized conferences in many of our Mission fields for the women. In 1886, a woman’s conference was held in Foochow, China, composed of those native women who had been trained by our mission. These were gathered from all parts of the work, to be examined and instructed as Bible women and teachers, and for a general discussion of methods, exchange of views, and a deepening of Christian experience. This was something new. At the conference, a Chinese brother prayed for this woman’s conference, as one of the most wonderful woman’s foreign missionary society. 49 events, stranger to the Chinese than the electric telegraph. “ This,” he said, “ is wonderful, and we never thought to see it here; but last year the telegraph came, and this year, the woman’s conference! ” At the last session of this conference the women came up, to read carefully prepared papers on such subjects as, “ The importance of the Holy Spirit’s aid in preparing for work.” “Can Christian women be admitted to schools?” “The importance of attending prayer meetings.” If, as Sia Sek Ong of China, says, “the conversion and Christian train¬ ing of one Chinese woman is of more value for God’s work than of twenty men,” then, indeed, does this conference show that a remarkable work has been done in China. At one of these Conferences in Japan last year, with Bishop Fowler presiding, a Japanese woman interpreted, another read the scripture, and another prayed. Here they have a four years’ course of study, and the graduates of the regular course are recommended as Deaconesses. In India these Conferences have been a great power. Re¬ cently, in the City of Lucknow, a camp meeting and district conference were held. One day the missionaries’ wives, the Zenana Missionary, and a host of Bible women and teachers held a separate conference with examinations, essays and religious services. Twenty years ago such a religious 50 TWENTY YEARS OF THE gathering in that great Mohammedan City would have been thought an idle dream, but the reality was a congregation of six hundred Methodists. CONTRASTS. We note the following incident as an index of contrasts in our own history. In 1822, at a missionary meeting held in Georgetown, D.C., the Rev. George Raszell was considered visionary, when he said : “I believe the time will come when the Baltimore Conference alone will give in a single year one thousand dollars to the missionary cause.” Last year the Baltimore Branch of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, the smallest Branch in territory, covering much less territory than the Baltimore Conference did in those days, raised over nine thousand, five hundred dollars. Twenty years ago the women of the Methodist Episcopal Church had but one school as their distinct work. Now they have about 250 of all kinds—day, city, village, boarding, Sunday schools and orphanages, etc. Then they had but two ladies on the field; now they have 92. Then they had but one medical woman; now they have 12 in active service. Then with difficulty native Bible women were found; now they have under their direction over 300. Then woman’s foreign missionary society. 51 they were not caring for an orphan in any heathen country; now they are supporting nearly 500. Then they had no real estate, save a small investment in Foochow; now they own $277,000 worth of property outside of the United States. Then they had no missionary paper; now they have one with a circulation of 20,000, a German paper, and a zenana paper published in India, in four editions. Then they had no literature; now they scatter annually thousands of pages of a miscellaneous character. Then woman’s medical work was an experiment; now it is considered one of the most efficient agencies for reaching the women with the gospel. Then there was not a woman’s hospital in any heathen land; now they are to be found in Korea, scattered through the great countries of China and India. The first year they had only 100 Auxiliary Societies; now they have over 5,000. Then there was but a small company of women interested ; now there are 137,000 registered work¬ ers. The first year they collected $4,000; in 1888, $206,000. Then they had no experience in the selection of workers; now they have settled rules and matured judgment in select¬ ing their workers. Then they started in one field; now there are representatives in nine different countries. Then they had no worker in Burmah; neither was Malaysia or Korea dreamed of. Then the women of the heathen world were 52 TWENTY YEARS OF THE scarcely accessible; now they are everywhere stretching out their hands for help, and our missionaries and agents can go everywhere. Then the home workers thought it impossible to speak except to very select and small audiences of women ; now they are everywhere addressing large and promiscuous audiences. Then the Society was scarcely recognized: now committees are appointed by the annual conferences and reso¬ lutions passed by the members, fully endorsing the Society and pledging themselves to help in every available way; and a column is to be found in the conference minutes for the re¬ ceipts of the Society. The first year $11,000 were appropriated for the work; now $228,000; and to one mission field alone, over $70,000. Then a few lines of the Report were given to the details of the home work in hand; and now a volume of 150 pages, gives but a bare outline. Then the foreign work was represented in a column or two of “The Heathen Wo¬ man’s Friend”; now India, alone, prints a report of woman’s work of a hundred pages, and Japan prints one of fifty, and China, one of twenty pages. In Moradabad, for years after the establishment of the mission, there was not a house in the city where they could go to visit the women in any capacity : now they are welcome everywhere. At the beginning of this Society’s work, only a few women could be seen in even the congregations in the church, and these generally attached in some way to the woman’s foreign missionary society. 53 mission. Now, numbers of them are to be found in all the congregations. RESULTS. We canuot summarize the results of all this work on the activity, the spirituality, and the efficiency of the home church. How, then, may we estimate the results abroad? All the classes of work conducted by the Society have started new ideas, and aroused the passive intellect of the women of these lauds. Much of this work is carried on in the seclusion of the zenana, and the quiet retreat of the school-room, among those who shrink from observation and know little of the outside world. The missionaries have kept steadily in view the development of the peculiar life of these women from their own native stand-point, and the infusion of Christian¬ ity; and whether in the domestic, educational, or spiritual, departments of work they have had but this one end in view. “ When I goto live in my own house,” said a child in one of these schools, “ I will keep it so clean that everyone will say: See how nice Christians are! And I will talk with everybody, and persuade them to be Christians.” A pure light has dawned upon, and a new era has come to these women. They have received a better ideal of family rela¬ tions, of womanhood and of home. 54 twenty years op the A new living and transforming power has entered their hearts and lives. One says to a missionary, “ your words are very precious, we could listen all day.” Another, “ It is wonderful how Jesus cares for me. I want nothing but wisdom to tell my people of Him.” A priestess, becoming interested in the Christian hymns she had heard sung by the way side, by one of these Bible women, gave her heart to Christ. Another said : “ Before I heard you, I did not think it wrong to worship idols. I know now they cannot help me, and I do not go any more to the river to wash away my sins, for that cannot cleanse my heart.” A woman, unable to walk, talks of Jesus to the women who come to her house. One said, “ I was standing outside listening to your hymns, when the song went to my soul, and I want you to come to my house and sing these beautiful words.” Another says, “ tell our guests who have come from a long distance, what you have told us about Christ.” Another, “ I am saved, and fear not death.” We have elsewhere given some of the statistics of the schools and scholars, Bible women and hospitals, the thou¬ sands reached in the zenanas, and through this medical work; but, after all, these statistics give a very inadequate con¬ ception of the work that is being done. Statistics can not tell the uncounted hundreds of heathen women in China, India, and elsewhere, who, in these twenty years have for the woman’s foreign missionary society. 55 first time in their lives heard that Christ came to save women as well as men; the glad tidings have been carried to the Zenanas of Lucknow, the villages of Rohilkund, the stone- built hamlets of the Himalayas, to the homes of rich and poor in China, to the sinful people of Japan, to darkened Africa, to awakening Mexico, to far-away South America, and to Korea and Italy. These women have learned that in the morals of Confucian¬ ism, the rites of Brahmanism, the “ light” of Buddhism, the superstitions of Fetichism, and the hard fate of the false prophet of Mecca, there is not that which elevates woman¬ hood, that these have neither power nor purity, that “ ’Tis Jesus blood, His blood alone Hath power sufficient to atone. His blood can make them white as snow,” No sacred streams “ could cleanse them so.” The influence of the Bible readers has made hundreds of the heathen women of India more familiar with the facts about Jesus Christ, than they are with those about the favorite gods, Ram and Krishna. The numbers seem small compared with the women not reached, yet these little cir¬ cles of women, with their class-meetings, their Chautauqua* and prayer circles, and groups of their “King Daughters,” are leavening whole bodies. Sometimes the results are not seen for years. 56 TWENTY YEARS OF THE A little girl in the Foochow school was brought in one evening; her salutation, uttered with sprightliness and em¬ phasis, was : “I am seven years old, and I have come to read books for seven years.” There never was a child in the school more studious, and giving always more cheerful obedience than she. She became a Christian. Her school¬ days ended, she went to her heathen home and was married. Her husband treated her well, but—the mother-in- law !—one look at her hard face was enough to show that she was a tyrant. The daughter-in-law was sent into the fields to work, and was not allowed to attend church, yet she bore patiently for years all the mother’s ill-treatment. It really seemed as though the labor and teaching bestowed upon her were in vain. Time passed on, and the mother be¬ came less harsh and exacting, then kind, and then she permit¬ ted the daughter to gather together each day in her house, twenty of the village children to teach them hymns, the Gospels, and Psalms. “Take but a half dozen out of the baptized converts” in the Tokyo Home, says one missionary, “and look at their present positions ; two or three are wives of native preachers, standing side by side with their husbands in work for Christ; gathering children in Sunday-schools, and women into prayer-meetings and Bible classes. And another two or three going back to their heathen homes with the Bible in woman’s foreign missionary society. 57 their hands, and by word and example winning their friends to accept of its truths; and by being “instant in season and out of season,” causing their heathen neighbors to ex¬ claim : “This Jesus Christ teaching must be a good thing.” In these twenty years we perceive in these lands no changes in the hills and mountains, the rivers and valleys, in fertile plains and sandy wastes; the winds blow, the rains fall, the sand-storms whirl, the everlasting snows remain as brilliant as aforetime, but upon society, upon souls, has come a great, a wondrous change. A little over twenty years ago, a heathen in India said to a native Christian : “You Christians are but a handful, while the world is filled with Hindoos and Mohammedans ; what can you accomplish?” The Christian smiled, and pointing to a newly ploughed field, said : “Behold that bare field, in which not a blade of grass is now to be seen; when God sends rain from heaven, a single night will cover it with green.” We now have only to look out upon the fields, and there bursts upon our delighted vision a scene like that pictured by the prophetic bard three thousand years ago, when he so sweetly sang : “ The wilderness and the solitary place SHALL BE GLAD FOR THEM, AND THE DESERT SHALL REJOICE AND BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE.” SUMMARY OF HOME WORK. 58 TWENTY YEARS OF THE •paaRI ‘AY H 0 !} sjgquogqng r- 2,822 3,742 1,898 704 2,315 4,634 1,505 657 1,520 19,797 •pajnquisxa spaing ajipi 2,366 3,525 745 5,600 1,035 307 13,578 •sau^rjjoag ?ou;siq 30 40 28 5 1 44 69 27 • • f 36 I- •s 91 .raj 9 . 109 g '. 19.41103 C^COCOrHOSC^tHCiO fH 1 —* CO tH •suo-ung 9jig 14 19 5 8 14 10 1 pH tH •s.i9Srubj\[ AraaouoH 48 89 24 6 98 98 34 34 21 O •sJ9qai9j\[ ojig 1,190 1,318 458 182 1,420 3,162 876 296 549 9,451 •diqsj 9 qui 9 j\[ jnpx 13,416 30,156 15,063 5,814 13,860 26,386 10,529 3,739 8,215 127,178 •saorjnzianS.io iniox 584 967 456 176 954 1,220 570 166 356 a> 0 *sa 9 qiu 9 j\[ 1,954 4,070 640 2,782 1,426 346 11,218 •spang s ( U 9 apiiq 3 O^OO^GOt-HOOI^ rH OI tJ 4 rH CO *—* pH • rH pH < tH ri pH • tH tH tH 'S.I9qui9J\[ 1,108 720 1,500 981 140 2,240 6,689 •S9I!}9t90g «S9ipng SunoA H4 • • tH O (M pH t— t- ^ Ot tH 07) • • rH QO O •SJ9qUl9J\[ 10.354 30,156 10,993 5,814 12,500 22,104 8,122 3,253 5,975 109,271 •sgunigxnv 430 846 308 145 716 1,017 401 142 259 CO Branch. New England. New York. Philadelphia. Baltimore. Cincinnati. North-Western. Des Moines. Minneapolis. Topeka . Total . SUMMARY OF FOREIGN WORK, BY BRANCHES. woman’s foreign missionary society 59 •saSBUBqdJO nisaBqdJO COCOCOt^CO’— ^(NQO©CON-^