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 DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
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 THE SUCCESSES OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 
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DO MISSIONS PAT? 
 
 OR THE 
 
 COMMERCIAL VALUE, COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES, AND 
 THE SUCCESSES OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. GEORGE HOOD, 
 Chester, Pa. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 MISSION HOUSE, 23 CENTRE STREET. 
 
 1872. 
 
DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 
 Americans are peculiarly practical; they examine an enterprise to see 
 if it will pay ; if it will, they give it their hearty approval and co-opera¬ 
 tion. The question of missions is not an exception. Home Missions long 
 ago were universally acknowledged to be not only a necessary, but a paying 
 investment. Foreign Missions have not so generally come to that point of 
 acceptance ; but they will bear satisfactorily the same tests. 
 
 It is the design of these pages to look at 
 
 I. The Commercial Value of Missions. 
 
 II. Incidental Advantages of Missions. 
 
 TTI. Their Direct Successes. 
 
 I. the commercial value of missions. 
 
 I 
 
 The day we Christianize a heathen, we create in him a desire for a better 
 physical condition. One of the first manifestations for good among the 
 Sandwich Islanders, was the desire for clothing. The same is seen in 
 other missions. In Africa the naked Grebbo buys an English silk hat, and 
 regards himself as dressed, until his ideas of propriety demand additional / 
 articles of clothing. They see in the mission dwelling and family, that , 
 civilization is better than savagism; industry, than idleness ; and cleanli- J 
 ness, than filth. So they seek knowledge, and begin to adopt the ameni¬ 
 ties of life. Their laziness gradually disappears, and with it their utter desti¬ 
 tution. Soap obtained from America is used to remove their superabund j 
 ant dirt. They see the impropriety of nakedness, and cloth and clothing are 
 required of our manufacturers. Instead of floorless and windowless huts, 
 they aspire to houses with doors, windows, floors and furniture ; and com- f 
 merce supplies this from a nail to a sofa. Husbandry is improved, and all 
 kinds of farming implements, as plows, hoes, shovels, forks, etc., are de¬ 
 manded, so that the value of plows alone exported from Boston to the 
 Zulus in 1870, amounted to more than all that was expended on that mis¬ 
 sion during that year. “ One missionary at Harpoot, East Turkey, has or¬ 
 dered, for natives in that region, more than a hundred fanning mills. In. 
 deed, all sorts of implements for use in agriculture and in the mechanic 
 arts, and school furniture, to the amount of thousands of dollars a year- 
 are passing through the mission house at Boston, ordered and paid for by 
 the natives at the instance of the missionaries.” 
 
 There is an increasing demand from the countries where we have mis- 
 
 n 
 
4 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 sions, for almost every kind of manufacture. During the year ending 
 I June, 1871, twenty-five grain-mills, the first reaper, two Lamb’s knitting 
 machines, and a hundred dollars’ worth of out-line maps were sent to East 
 Turkey ; improved plows, mowing and reaping machines to Turkey and 
 South Africa; seventy-five sets of out-line maps to Ceylon, with sewing 
 machines and cabinet organs to various fields. Such improvements have 
 created a commerce amounting to $4,406,426, with the Sandwich Islands 
 | alone ;* while the whole expenditure for Foreign Missions, by all denomina¬ 
 tions in our country was, in 1870, only $1,633,891, less than one and three- 
 fourths millions against a trade of $4,406,426; which trade has been 
 created by our missions, and one-half of which is with the different ports 
 of the United States. Now $4,406,426 to $1,633,891 is nearly as eleven to 
 four ; that is, we pay out four dollars for missions in all the world, and 
 t commerce receives in return trade, eleven dollars from the one mission of 
 ' the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 Again, the whole cost of the A. B. C. F. M. for the year 1871, for all its 
 missions, was $420,844. The profit on the trade with the Sandwich Islands 
 I for 1871, at 15 per cent., would be $660,964. But $420,844 to $660,964 is 
 as two to three, nearly. Now, if all the profit of that trade for the year 
 1871, were given to the A. B. C. F. M., whose missionaries have created it, 
 it would pay the expenses of all their missions for 1872, and leave a surplus 
 of $240,120 to enlarge their operations more than one-half. 
 
 Again, the whole amount expended on the Sandwich Island missions, 
 from the beginning, is $1,250,000. The profit on the trade with the Is¬ 
 lands, as above, at 15 per cent., would be $660,964, which is 53 per cent, of 
 the entire cost of civilizing and Christianizing that people ; or the profits 
 of the commerce, which the mission has made, would now pay the whole 
 expense, from the beginning, in less than two years. 
 
 Again, the commerce between the British Possessions in Africa and the 
 ports of New England, during the year ending June 30, 1871, amounted 
 to $2,671,913.f Fifteen per cent, gain on the trade gives $400,786 profit. 
 The whole amount expended by the American Board, in all its missions, the 
 same year, was only $420,844; so that New England received in real gain, 
 from Africa alone, within $20,000 as much as the American Board expended 
 on all its Foreign missions in the whole world ; and probably $75,000 more 
 than the people of New England gave to support that Board. 
 
 But there are large exportations to Africa,f Syria, Northern Turkey, 
 India, the Islands of the Pacific and many other ports. We have no means 
 of knowing the extent of this commerce, which Christian missions have 
 created, but from the facts already given, we confidently claim, that the 
 gains of trade are many times greater than the cost of missions. These 
 exports have brought increased business profits to our manufacturers ; they 
 have given work and competence to our mechanics; they have added to 
 the business of railroads and vessels, increasing the wealth of individuals, 
 * Annual Report of A. B. C. F. M., 1870. p, 91. f See Appendix—Table II. 
 
DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 5 
 
 companies and the nation. It has been estimated that for every dollar 
 England expends in missions, she receives ten back in trade. We are send¬ 
 ing to mission fields for the natives, in sufficient quantities to be noticed, 
 farming implements, machinery, furniture, household utensils and conven¬ 
 iences, clothing, books and various other articles; and we receive from 
 them importations of native productions. These increase commerce, and 
 commerce enriches a nation by its transportation, by the sale of its exports 
 and imports, by revenue on imported articles, and by its competition, giv¬ 
 ing better articles or cheaper rates. 
 
 We affirm, then, that missions do pay, cent for cent, dollar for dollar; 
 two, five , ten dollars per dollar even now, and that every year their commer¬ 
 cial value shows an increasing ratio. 
 
 H. INCIDENTAL ADVANTAGES OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 
 
 Suppose 
 
 • 6 es. suppose a vessel sailing from 
 moisco, to experience heavy adverse winds, with severe 
 
 The first advantage, though not the greatest, we shall mention, is that 
 Christian Missions produce and provide safe Christian ports. Our vessels 
 are scattered ever every ocean and sea, and nowhere are they free from 
 disasters. In all waters ports are needed in which to repair damages, refit 
 and take in water and provisions. Eat it needs no argument to prove that 
 this is next to impossible among s 
 Sumatra to San Era] 
 storms, her spars carried away, her provisions short, and pumps at work, 
 how they would, rejoice to make a Christian port of Micronesia, or reach 
 Honolulu ? What could savages do for them ? Could they supply medi¬ 
 cines and nursing for the sick, rigging or sails for the ship, or provisions 
 for the future voyage ? But at Honolulu,* a Christian port of only thirty 
 years, the work of missionary effort, every needed thing for the ship or 
 crew, can he as readily supplied as in Philadelphia. The voyage to and 
 from China, for sailing vessels, is long and irksome, and it is all the easier 
 and safer, for these Christian ports, all the more endurable and healthy, for 
 the fresh provisions and water, now easily obtained, where the missionary 
 has not only brought in Christianity, but trade and commerce as well. We 
 aver that the mere commercial advantage of these Christian ports, by fur¬ 
 nishing to commerce comparative safety, comfort and health, is a good in¬ 
 vestment of money, giving back ten-fold more, every year, than the entire 
 aggregate of their cost. 
 
 But the same Christian ports are needed at Alaska and on the Fox Is¬ 
 lands for the North Pacific; for in 1870 our fleet of whalers numbered, 
 according to the Protectionist, two hundred and twenty-six, averaging three 
 hundred tons each, and most of these in the North Pacific. In the Southern 
 Ocean, and in all waters, we need Christian ports to facilitate and increase 
 commerce and to add to its permanent safety and comfort. 
 
 * As early as 1840 the United States Exploring Squadron, under Commodore Wilkes 
 spent $60,000 for supplies at this one port. See History of Sandwich Islands by Dr. 
 Anderson, p. 177. 
 
 f 
 
0 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAY ? 
 
 Not alone upon the highways of the ocean do we need Christianity, but 
 also on the land. Had we sent as many missionaries into our Western Ter¬ 
 ritories as we have soldiers, at one-tenth of the expense, how many scenes 
 of bloodshed and massacre might have been spared, and the traveler or the 
 sojourner be as safe there as here. Even the railroads across the continent 
 would be safer, more profitable and far pleasanter, were all our Aborigines 
 converted to Christianity. 
 
 Christian Missions incite enterprise and thus facilitate intercommunica¬ 
 tion. The day has come when the great highways of the world must be 
 shortened. And this is being done. Fifty years ago a short voyage to 
 China occupied many weary months. Now w T e see emblazoned, “ Round 
 the World in Seventy-four day t s.” We can no longer endure or afford 
 the old ways of travel. They are too slow, too long. Rapid communica¬ 
 tion is essential to the present condition of the activities of life. Hence 
 the great thoroughfares must be shortened, new routes opened, and greater 
 speed in travel attained. The first visitors to California were content to 
 go around Cape Horn. Soon dreams of gold urged them across the 
 Isthmus of Panama by great labor and exposure. Now it is crossed by 
 rail; and not content with that, commerce seeks a ship canal across the 
 south of Mexico, from the Bay of Campeachy to the Gulf of Tehuantepec, 
 shortening the distance to San Francisco more than 16,000 miles. And 
 this is no light matter when the annual trade with the western coast 
 will not be less than $300,000,000. 
 
 The commerce of Europe and Asia was formerly carried on around the 
 Cape of Good Hope. Now a ship-canal across the Isthmus of Suez short¬ 
 ens the distance to Calcutta, Bombay, or Canton, more than one-half. Soon 
 that will be too long, and a railroad from Beyrut, on the Eastern coast of 
 the Mediterranean, by Tadmor, in the Wilderness, to the Euphrates and 
 thence to the Persian Gulf, will be demanded. This will again greatly 
 shorten the time to Bombay. From Beyrut to the Euphrates is about 350 
 miles, and thence to the Persian Gulf about 500 miles—a railroad no longer 
 than from Philadelphia to Louisville, Ky. 
 
 Now, the success of new routes depends upon the civilization and Chris¬ 
 tianization of the people among whom they are laid. Christianity creates 
 enterprise, begets commerce, inspires energy and ensures success. Com¬ 
 merce and its facilities do not prosper with ignorance and barbarism. The 
 light and energizing spirit of true, living Christianity are necessary. Spain 
 is not barbarous, but for lack of vital religion she is inactive, and hence 
 almost without railroads and lighthouses. Mexico is the same. They are 
 each missionary fields, and must have the Bible and the true Gospel to pre¬ 
 pare the way for the success of commercial enterprise. Cupidity has open¬ 
 ed Australia and New Zealand. But in those lands the missionary has gone 
 with the pioneer gold digger, making his life tolerable and his work a suc¬ 
 cess. But gold is not found in most heathen countries, and the Gospel 
 must be the pioneer, and commerce and trade be content to follow in its 
 
DO MISSIONS PAT? 
 
 
 wake. As the vernal sun and rain must prepare the earth for the plow and 
 the seed, so must the Gospel and education prepare a people for commerce 
 and trade. 
 
 Missions increase permanent wealth. “ God created this world not in 
 vain ; he formed it to be inhabited.’’ It is Christ’s; and we, as loyal sub¬ 
 jects, are bound to bring it into subjection to him. He is our elder brother, 
 and love to him should prompt us to subdue and beautify his domain. The 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ alone has power to make the desert bud and blos¬ 
 som as the rose. Its gentle reign brings peace and prosperity ; its magic 
 touch thrills every nerve, awakes every power of man, and sets the grand¬ 
 est machinery of society at work. Some of the richest portions of the 
 earth are yet to be subjected to civilization and to Christ. The basin of the 
 Amazon contains over 2,000,000 square miles, over 1,280,000,000 square 
 acres, or more than 64,000,000 farms of twenty acres each. Allow six per¬ 
 sons to each farm and it gives a population of 384,000,000, or one-third of 
 the present population of the earth. Its present population is only two or 
 three millions, with an average of over two hundred acres to each person, 
 when, with its vast fertility, every rood might yield bread for a man. 
 Carry the Gospel thither and people the country with active, intelligent 
 Christians, and what treasures of wealth will be created for commerce and 
 for Christ! With its plentitude of vegetation all utilized, what a magnifi¬ 
 cent domain for him who created it! Think of our own country increased 
 ten fold in population and in wealth, and you have what the basin of the 
 Amazon will be. 
 
 We have not time to speak of those vast peninsulas, Southern Asia and 
 Africa, the heart of the latter extending 3,000 miles east and west, and 
 nearly 2,000 miles north and south, embracing a territory of almost 
 6,000,000 square miles, producing the choicest indigenous products of the 
 Torrid Zone, and capable of supporting the entire present population of 
 the earth. Cotton, that king of products, is perennial, the same plants 
 lasting several years, and often giving two crops of good staple a year. 
 
 What missions propose is to open such countries to commerce, to de- 
 velope their various resources, to improve and increase their agriculture, 
 to cultivate the arts, to establish manufactories, to enrich the world with 
 their products, to educate and convert the people, and make them product¬ 
 ive in commerce, arts, literature, civilization and Christianity. 
 
 Christian missions aid science, art and literature. Missionaries to our 
 Indians first explored and demonstrated the practicability of a wagon 
 route over the Rocky Mountains. The missionary, Whitman, saved for 
 us Oregon and Washington Territory, and perhaps California. American 
 missionaries have explored and mapped out Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Persia, 
 etc.; German missionaries, Abyssinia and Eastern Africa; the English, 
 Madagascar and the Islands of the Pacific; the Moravians taught us about 
 all we know of * the Greenlanders and the Esquimaux; while Moffat and 
 Livingstone have been leading geographical authorities on Southern and 
 
8 
 
 - "> 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAY % 
 
 Central Africa. In astronomy, botany, mineralogy, in collecting rare 
 specimens of Oriental curiosities illustrative of almost unknown nations, 
 their labors are invaluable. The learned Karl Ritter says: “ Their con¬ 
 tributions, diffused through essays, quarterlies, and various other publica¬ 
 tions, have become a part of the world’s knowledge.” The value of these 
 contributions has been acknowledged by many of our most learned men. 
 For important labors, then, in favor of science, literature, art, commerce 
 and religion, the world of commerce and letters owes Foreign Missions a 
 large balance over and above what they have cost. 
 
 Had a World’s Congress appointed a High Commission to make the 
 same scientific investigations, collect and communicate the same informa¬ 
 tion, and set at work the same educational and philanthropic influences, to 
 say nothing of the cultivation of morality and religion, .their main work, 
 instead of costing $5,242,716* annually, it would have required a greatly 
 increased sum. 
 
 in.-THE SUCCESS OF FOKEIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 It is a very common impression among those not well read in the his¬ 
 tory of missions, that their support is a very doubtful kind of charity— 
 that much of what is given never reaches the foreign field, being swallowed 
 up in the salaries of agents and officers, rents, exchange, etc., little being 
 left for direct mission work. Pertinent to this impression is the sarcasm of 
 one who being asked for a donation, said, “ Here is a dollar for the heathen 
 and four to get it to them.” 
 
 The following statement from “ The Hand-Book of Foreign Missions,” f 
 is a definite and sufficient answer for all such objections: “ During the 
 first seventeen years of its history, the Board expended in its administra¬ 
 tion 111 per cent.; for the next seventeen years 4-i- per cent. ; for the last 
 four years 4 per cent.” 
 
 Our Missionary Boards will not suffer in comparison with any other 
 charitable or commercial financial management in our land ; and if put in 
 comparison with some of our popular commercial institutions, they will 
 command unlimited confidence for their financial sagacity, prudence and 
 economy. 
 
 Again, there is a common impression that very little has been done by 
 our missionaries—that they work under great discouragements, and are to 
 be praised for the constancy of a cheerful hope, rather than for the abund¬ 
 ant fruits and success of their labor. A few facts will correct this false 
 impression. 
 
 The foreign field for the past ten years has yielded more converts in pro¬ 
 portion to the labor expended, than the home field. 
 
 * Land of the Veda—Table IV. 
 
 f Published by the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 9 
 
 The number added to the Presbyterian Church in our land in 
 1870 on profession of faith, compared with the whole 
 
 membership was .... 
 The gain of Foreign Missions as a whole . 
 Gain of the A. B. 0. F. M. as a whole 
 “ Presbyterian Missions in India 
 A. B. C. F. M. in Eastern Turkey 
 Presbyterian Missions in China . 
 
 et 
 
 u 
 
 6 per cent. 
 12 “ 
 
 14 per cent. 
 
 16 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 u 
 
 <c 
 
 « 
 
 This statement shows a heavy preponderance in favor of conversions on 
 the foreign field. In the Sandwich Islands alone, “the number of persons 
 received into church fellowship on profession of faith, is more than equal 
 to the present population over four years of age, amounting in all to 55,300, 
 or on an average about 1400 to each ordained missionary.”* “ The number 
 received into twenty churches in the twenty-six years following 1837, was 
 49,713, which is an annual average of about 1900.” f 
 
 Not much less than 300,000 Christian converts in communities having 
 renounced heathenism, and numbering 1,151,721, testify to the eminent 
 success of Christian missions. Over 31,000 Christian laborers are to-day 
 in the field of the world. More than 626,000 youth are in Christian schools. 
 In India and Burmah there are 7,480 missionaries, native preachers and 
 catechists ; nearly 3,000 stations and out-stations ; 70,857 communicants ; 
 137,326 youth in schools, and 3,584 pious hoys being educated for a life of 
 Christian labor.”;]; The Baptists have made the Karens of Burmah a Chris¬ 
 tian people; the American Board have done the same for the Sandwich 
 Islands ; the Moravians for Greenland ; the Wesleyans for the Feegee and 
 Friendly Isles, and the Independents for Madagascar. Extensive self-sup¬ 
 porting churches, and even whole conferences, have been organized in Aus¬ 
 tralia, Eastern British America, Canada, France, Siberia, Sandwich Isles 
 and Oceanica, all of which were once “ missions,” and are now not only 
 self-supporting, but even aiding the parent church in their evangelizing 
 efforts, or else supporting missions of their own. 
 
 In more than three hundred Islands of the Pacific, in Northern Turkey, 
 in Persia, in Hindoostan, in Burmah, in China, in Madagascar, South Africa, 
 Liberia and Sierra Leone, a great multitude have been won to Christ. The 
 largest church in the world, numbering 4,500 members, is in Hilo, on the 
 •island of Hawaii, not yet fifty years removed from the most debased sav- 
 ageism. Over 90,000 Feegeeans gather regularly for Sabbath worship, 
 who, within a score of years, feasted on human flesh. In 1860 Madagas¬ 
 car had only a few hundred scattered and persecuted converts. Now the 
 queen and her prime minister, with more than 200,000 of her subjects are 
 adherents to Christianity. The island is Christian. Fifty years ago there 
 was not a native Christian in the Friendly Islands. Now 30,000 regularly 
 
 f Annual Report of A. B. C. F. M. for 1870, p. 29. 
 
 Anderson’s History of Sandwich Islands, p. 135. 
 \ Tables in the Land of the Vedas. 
 
10 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAT? 
 
 meet for worship, and $15,000 are yearly contributed to religious objects. 
 “ Sixty years ago there was not a solitary native Christian in Polynesia. 
 Now it would be difficult to find a professed idolator in the islands of East¬ 
 ern or Central Polynesia, where Christian missions have been established. 
 On the return of the Sabbath a very large proportion of the population at¬ 
 tend the worship of God, and in some instances more than half the adult 
 population are recognized members of Christian churches.’’ On the western 
 coast of Africa “are found over 100 organized churches and some 15,000 
 converts. In Sierra Leone 50,000 civilized Africans worship God every 
 Sabbath.” Two thousand miles of coast have been wrested from the slave- 
 trade, and the church and school-house substituted for the slave-pen. 
 
 The various mission boards or societies are taking possession of the world 
 in the name of Christ. All the important heathen countries are more or 
 less occupied, and influences set at work which will soon and certainly 
 evangelize them. There remain but few countries to enter, and those of 
 little influence among the nations. The principal exceptions are Central 
 and Northern Asia, Arabia, the heart of Africa and the Indians of British 
 America. Scattered over China, Japan, Hindoostan, Persia, Turkey, 
 East, South, West and North Africa, Madagascar, Greenland and the isles 
 of the Pacific, occupying the best stragetic points, are the 31,000 Christian 
 laborers of all kinds, instituting a system of operations, which, with God’s 
 blessing, will, in reasonable judgment, within the next generation, leave not 
 a vestige of heathenism on now occupied fields. 
 
 In China so recently opened to the Gospel, “ missions have been estab¬ 
 lished in 40 walled-cities and 360 villages, making a total of 400 stations 
 and out-stations, which constitute centres of Christian light and knowledge 
 to regions adjacent.”'* “ Over 400 native preachers have been raised up who 
 are constantly employed in preaching the Gospel to their countrymen. 
 About 10,000 converts have been received into the churches, of whom some 
 have already gone home to be with Jesus, while some 7,000 are at present 
 communicants, f 
 
 There are at this present time being educated in primary or common 
 schools, in female seminaries, in training schools, in colleges and in theo¬ 
 logical seminaries, over 600,000 youth of both sexes, nearly all of whom 
 are Protestant, and many hopefully pious. These are to go out and work 
 for Christianity. 
 
 “ To compute the results of modern missions is simply impossible. 
 Figures cannot express them; nor are they visible to the human eye. 
 But it is interesting to know, that outside the bounds of Christendom 
 there are four thousand centres of Christian work and Gospel teaching; 
 2,500 congregations, 273,000 communicants, and 1,350,000 nominal Chris¬ 
 tians.” The Rev. Dr. Mullens, Corresponding Secretary of the London 
 Missionary Society, says: “ In more than three hundred islands of Eastern 
 
 * There are 1700 walled cities in China with scores of thouscrads of villages. 
 
 f Premium Tract by Rev. J. Knowlton. 
 
DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 11 
 
 and Southern Polynesia, the Gospel has swept heathenism entirely away. 
 The missionaries of the four great societies (English) have gathered 400,000 
 people under Christian influences, of whom a quarter of a million are liv¬ 
 ing, and 50,000 of these are communicants.” 
 
 But the success and value of Christian missions are not manifested alone 
 by the number of converts; they are seen as well in the fact that the 
 work of missions has blest the Church with a new love and devotion to 
 the Master’s work. It is a significant fact that the revivals that blest the 
 churches in 1815-20 followed the development of the spirit of missions in 
 1812; and those churches that have been most prayerful and liberal, have 
 ever been most blest. And the same truth is patent in our missions. Their 
 reflex spirit has richly paid in souls at home as well as in heathen lands ; 
 and this is only the fulfilment of the Master’s promise: “ He that watereth, 
 shall be watered also himself“ Give, and it shall be given unto you.” 
 
 Missions have taught the Church lessons of self-denial, benevolence 
 and consecration, by such labor and self-sacrifice in converts , as have seldom 
 been witnessed since the days of the Apostles. The converted Friendly Is¬ 
 landers of their deep poverty, during the year 1870, raised all the expenses 
 of their mission, and contributed beside, $17,500 to send the Gospel to re¬ 
 gions beyond. The native Christians of India contributed, in 1870, $43,101 
 towards the support and extension of missions.* The Hawaiian churches 
 gave, in 1870, $31,070 in gold, and last year $40,000 to carry the Gospel to 
 the Marquesas Islands. Fourteen of that group have been Christianized 
 solely by the labor and at the expense of the Hawaiian Churches, the mem¬ 
 bers of nine native churches giving upon an average $4.10 for each mem¬ 
 ber.} One single church, in 1867, had in the field five Foreign Missionaries 
 with their wives, and others preparing to go. China has over 400 native 
 preachers—one in every twenty-five of their converts. Native teachers 
 at Corisco, on three dollars a month, give one-fifth of their earnings to 
 Christ. Fifty-seven churches in the Sandwich Islands sent abroad seven¬ 
 teen Foreign Missionaries. At the same ratio the Presbyterian Church 
 should send 1372, or ten times our present number. Their 14,000 church 
 members gave, last year, $40,000. At the same ratio, our 446,000 communi¬ 
 cants should give $1,274,000, supposing our members no richer than theirs. 
 
 Missions have developed a better way of giving, and a higher standard 
 of Christian Faith. Blind Johannes’ sermon on Tithing is worth to the 
 Christian Church tenfold more than all the Turkish missions have cost. It 
 
 is like a new revelation ; and its Biblical spirit wull certainly make it in 
 the Church the manner and measure of giving. The mission churches and 
 converts are a living example to us of self-denial and almost Apostolic zeal; 
 and they have given renewed witnesses to the power of Christian faith ; 
 thus refreshing the Church with the assurance that the constancy of the 
 martyr is not lost. The persecutions in Madagascar, in India and Turkey, 
 
 * Christian World, , Jac. 1872. p. 19. 
 f History of Sandwich Islands, by Dr. Anderson, p. 323. 
 
1 o 
 
 Ijj 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 are illustrious examples of unwavering faith and love even unto death. 
 Old Soman persecution and its Christian firmness, have hardly exceeded 
 
 examples in our own missions. 
 
 Do you say the Gospel is not needed to help commerce ? that the products 
 of enterprise are independent of religion ? In reply we only ask, why 
 commerce, arts, manufactures, agriculture and literature, flourish only in 
 Christian lands ? Why inventions are only found there ? Why knowledge, 
 virtue, enterprise, skill and success grew in the light of a pure Christianity, 
 and ignorance, degradation and poverty, so repugnant to the progress 
 of society, cluster in the darkness of its absence ? Look where you will 
 and just in proportion to the knowledge and purity of the people, just in 
 proportion to their Bible piety, are the industries flourishing, and wealth, 
 comfort and happiness equally distributed. 
 
 We say, then, missions do pay. Not only are they a good investment, 
 but the best a Christian nation can make. They give returns as coon as 
 their machinery is at work, and continue in a constantly increasing ratio. 
 We ourselves, and the very land on which we live, bear ample testimony to 
 their value as an investment. Our ancestry, “immeasurably more de¬ 
 graded than the natives of China and India are to-day/’ were raised from 
 that condition by Christian missionaries; and every rood of our land, ser¬ 
 viceable to commerce and the arts, has been reclaimed from the waste of 
 heathenism by Christian labor. 
 
 In conclusion, the world is white, all ready to harvest, and the Church 
 has ample means and power to carry the Gospel ever the whole earth by 
 this generation, so that our children’s children might be translated from the 
 millennium church to the church glorified. Did we possess a tithe of the 
 spirit of the Apostles, and first Christians, when they went everywhere 
 preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, or the spirit of many of cur con¬ 
 verts from heathenism, with our vast facilities, how mightily vU 0 Oi VJ spel 
 would roll on, until the earth should be filled with the glory of the nord 
 as the waters cover the sea. We have money enough. Drinking con¬ 
 sumes $600,000,000 annually, more than one hundred times as much as 
 Foreign Missions. Tobacco nearly as much more. What the Church needs 
 is to get rid of her carnality, and to “arise, and shine,” and “ put on her 
 beautiful garments.” She needs consecration to the Master’s work—deep, 
 intense, unaffected, personal holiness. She needs the same energy, enter¬ 
 prise and perseverance in her work for Christ’s Kingdom, as we now give to 
 the world ; and then speedily might the nations join in that glorious jubi¬ 
 late : “ The kingdoms of this Would are become the Kingdoms of cub 
 Lord and of his Christ ; and ee shall reign forever and ever.” 
 
DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 13 
 
 APPENDIX. —Table I. 
 
 Statement showing trade with the Sandwich Islands during the year ended June 30, 1871, 
 supplied by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 Domestic Merchandise 
 and Produce. 
 
 Foreign Merchandise. 
 
 Boston, Mass.. 
 
 New Bedford, Mass. 
 
 New London, Conn. 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
 ....$5,357 
 ....59,675 
 •.... ..105 
 
 .$152,980 
 
 .$1,504 
 
 .359 
 
 
 
 
 .33 
 
 Oregon, Oregon. 
 
 . ..108,957 
 
 . 26,744 
 
 
 Puget Sound, W. Terr’y. 
 San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 .4018 
 
 .38,537 
 
 
 .. .901,114 
 
 . 604,424 
 
 .41,509 
 
 Willamette, Oregon.... 
 
 .... 73^928 
 
 .17,700 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 $1,153,154 
 
 .$840,385 
 
 .$43,730 
 
 APPENDIX.— Table II. 
 
 Statement showing trade with the British Possessions in Africa during the year ended June 
 30, 1871, supplied by the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 Ports. 
 
 Baltimore, Md. 
 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 New Bedford, Mass.... 
 New London, Conn.... 
 
 New York, N. Y. 
 
 Salem, Mass. 
 
 Total, 
 
 Imports. 
 
 $1,710,492 
 
 .2,319 
 
 .1,498 
 
 ...229,585 
 
 ....10,350 
 
 $1,960,250 
 
 Domestic Merchandise 
 and Produce. 
 
 $16,038 
 
 905,139 
 
 146,067 
 
 ,.23,376 
 
 .$1,091,220 
 
 Foreign Merchandise. 
 
 ,$11,843 
 .774 
 
 .116 
 
 $12,733 
 
 APPENDIX.— Table III. 
 
 Statement showing trade with Liberia during the year ended June 30, 1871, supplied by the 
 Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. 
 
 / 
 
 Ports. 
 
 Imports. 
 
 Expc 
 
 Domestic Merchandise 
 and Produce. 
 
 )RTS. 
 
 Foreign Merchandise. 
 
 Baltimore Md. 
 
 . ..$11,642 
 
 .$9,246 
 
 .$1,396 
 
 Boston Mass. . 
 
 
 .24,620 
 
 .622 
 
 New York, N Y 
 
 .62 322 
 
 .57,960 
 
 .1,425 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 .$91,826 
 
 .$3,443 
 
14 
 
 DO MISSIONS PAY? 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 As we have referred in this tract prominently to the Sandwich Islands, 
 for any who may doubt, or wish to know concerning the present civil and 
 religious status of that people, we copy the following brief testimonies from 
 the Rev. Dr. Anderson’s “ History of the Sandwich Islands/’ 
 
 The Hon. C. C. Harris, Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a speech at the 
 National Jubilee of the Islands, held at Honolulu, June, 1870, says: “In 
 1825, the Hawaiians were ignorant and debased. ... In 1870, we see them 
 advanced to a high degree of Christian knowledge, general education, civ¬ 
 ilization and material prosperity. The result is due for the most part, 
 under God, to the labors of the American Missionaries.” See p. 351. 
 
 The Rev. N. G. Clark, D. D., Foreign Secretary of the American Board 
 of Missions in his address at the Jubilee of 1870, said of the Islands : “ A 
 heathen nation has become Christian; the Bible, a Christian literature, 
 schools and churches are open and free to all; law and order have taken 
 the place of individual caprice ; an independent government shares in the 
 respect and courtesies of the civilized world ; a poor, wretched barter with 
 a few passing ships, has been changed for a commerce that is reckoned by 
 millions of dollars ; but more than all, and better than all, the seeds of 
 Christian culture, ripened on this soil, have been borne by the winds and 
 found lodgment in lands thousands of miles away—in Marquesas and in 
 Micronesia.” See p. 348. 
 
 The missionaries assembled at Honolulu in the year 1857, bore the fol¬ 
 lowing testimony in their annual letter to the A. B. C. F. M. 
 
 “ Our towns are rising, our roads are improving. Agriculture and in¬ 
 dustry are assuming increasing importance. Our government, in its legis¬ 
 lative, executive, and judiciary departments, has acquired organic form, 
 and is moving on in the discharge of its functions. Our schools are sus¬ 
 tained. Our islands are being dotted over with improved church edifices. 
 Law is supreme; order prevails ; protection of all human rights is nearly 
 complete; there is little complaining or suffering in the land; shocking 
 crimes are rare ; and it may be doubted whether the sun shines upon a 
 more peaceful people.” See p. 266. 
 
 As early as 1853, Chief-Justice Lee, recorded this testimony: cc In no 
 part of the world are life and property more safe than in the Sandwich Is¬ 
 lands. Murders, robberies, and the higher class of felonies, are quite un¬ 
 known here ; and in city and country we retire to our sleep conscious of 
 the most entire security. The stranger may travel from one end of the 
 group to the other, over mountains and through woods, sleeping in grass 
 huts, unarmed, alone and unprotected, with any amount of treasure on his 
 person, and without a tithe of the vigilance required in older and more 
 civilized countries, go unrobbed of a penny.” See p. 267. 
 
CHRISTIANITY PROMOTES COMMERCE. 
 
 “The £3,000 we have just paid from the Samoa Islands to the Bible 
 Society, what does that represent ? So much native produce passed into 
 the stores of merchants. And when you hear that the Samoans give to 
 the London Missionary Society a contribution of £1,000 a year, mark the 
 commercial side of that; it represents £2,000 of native produce—cocoa- 
 nut oil, arrow-root, cotton (for the natives are now cotton-growers)—passed 
 into the stores of merchants. It is just the same with clothing, which 
 they require nowadays. Why do they require clothing ? Ask a young 
 woman, selecting her dress at the counter of the merchant, what she is 
 going to do with it ? She will stare at you for putting such a question, 
 and, if she condescends to reply, it will be some such curt reply as this, 
 £ Why should I not be as other people in the house of God on the Lord’s 
 day ?’ Ask the young man, while he is selecting a black coat, what he is 
 going to do with it; he will give you the same reply, perhaps; or, per¬ 
 haps, he will tell you that, as this is the month in which they are in the 
 habit of giving a present to their native ministers, that he is going to give 
 this year the minister a present of a black coat. These natives now expend 
 from £50,000 to £100,000 a-year; and if you ask them why, simply that 
 they may appear decent in the house of God on the Lord’s-day. Thus 
 you perceive to what a large extent the advancement of Christianity is at 
 the same time the advancement of the interests of commerce. Nay, more 
 —I would say, blot out Christianity from Samoa, and send the people back 
 to their native heathenism, and what then ? The merchants may shut up 
 their stores to-morrow, the trading vessels may be sent elsewhere, nothing 
 would remain there. I say, nothing would remain there. There might 
 be a little traffic in powder and shot, spirits and tobacco—at the best a 
 disreputable traffic among such a people. It would not pay expenses ; for 
 it could only be carried on amid treachery of every name and form.” 
 
 Spiritual Results. —“ There are now, I believe, in heaven, 5,000 Samoans; 
 and if you could ask them to-night, they would tell you that they were led 
 there through the instrumentality of the Missionary Society. I believe 
 we could gather up from among our 250 villages, from among our church¬ 
 going population in these villages, as many as 5,000 men; men and women 
 who believe that they have found peace with God through the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and are striving by the help of the Divine Spirit to live a new life; 
 men and women who, I believe, have just as good a hope of reaching heaven 
 
16 
 
 CHRISTIANITY PROMOTES COMMERCE. 
 
 when they die as you and I have. If one soul is of more value than a 
 whole world, tell me what we have to say ? of these twice five thousand ? 
 No combination of the most gifted minds is sufficient to answer the question. 
 Eternity, and the vantage-ground of the intelligence of the angels of God, 
 are required to form even a distant approximation to the solution of the 
 great problem, Would that the men who speak against missions knew 
 what they were talking about; would that they would cease speaking on 
 a subject of which they know so little ! For their incoherent revilings are 
 just as absurd as might be the utterances of a man born blind, if he were 
 to attempt to describe the colors of the rainbow. After all, it is not so 
 much to wonder at. You hear these men talk about the failure of missions. 
 The same men will, perhaps, tell you that salvation through Christ is a 
 failure. They will tell you that the Christian Sabbath is a failure—that 
 the preaching of the Word of God is a failure—nay, more, that the very 
 Bible itself is a failure. The secret of it, I think, we have in the simple 
 "words of the Apostle Paul, * The carnal mind is enmity against God.’ 
 Given the carnal mind, and you can easily conclude what will follow its 
 enmity towards God’s servants and God’s work, of whatever name and 
 form.”— Dr. Turner .