/3(^Y 
 
 1i[(tman’s ^narb of Htsstons. 
 
 Twenty-Five Years 
 in the Foreign Field. 
 
 By Mrs. J. O. Means. 
 
 ^O0ton: 
 
 Frank Wood, Printer, 353 Washington Strkkt. 
 
 *893- 
 

BRIEF review of the foreign work 
 
 of our Woman’s Board of Missions 
 
 during the twenty-five years of its exist¬ 
 ence, reminds us first of all that we are 
 the successors of a goodly company of 
 faithful and believing women who 
 labored for the same object in years 
 long gone ; whose prayers we inherit, 
 whose faith we follow, and with whom 
 we now magnify the Lord. It was a 
 woman who eave the first larg-e sum 
 ever ofiered in our country for carrying 
 the gospel to the regions beyond ; and 
 Mary Norris, with her noble legacy of 
 $30,000, was but one of many whose 
 hearts God had touched with compas¬ 
 sion for the heathen, and with a long¬ 
 ing to obey our Lord’s last command. 
 Those happy spirits who behold his face, 
 their labor ended and their reward 
 begun, are still one with us as we praise 
 the eternal name, “Faithful and True,” 
 
 ( 3 ) 
 
of him who has brought us to this good 
 hour. We ‘know not what company of 
 witnessing and ministering spirits may 
 gather with us to-day from the general 
 assembly before the throne ; one thing 
 we know, they rejoice in our joy, and 
 they look with us for the glorious, long- 
 promised day when Christ shall reign 
 on earth as he reigns in heaven. He 
 himself is certainly here, according to 
 his Word, as we recount the past, and 
 gather courage from success for the 
 larger task of the future. 
 
 The history of our quarter-century is 
 the only argument we need offer for 
 woman’s missionary work. Experience 
 has been ever more strongly confirming 
 the belief of our founders that, under 
 God, it is woman who must work out 
 the redemption of woman. As a recent 
 confirmation of 'this view we recall the 
 statement of an ardent young mission¬ 
 ary who plunged alone into the central 
 wilds of Africa, in the enthusiastic be¬ 
 lief that he could live among the natives 
 unsupported by outside aid, and could 
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
win them to the service of the true God. 
 After two or three years of patient and 
 earnest labor, he wrote home that he 
 was becoming convinced the gospel 
 would never reach the hearts of the 
 people until Christian women should 
 come who could gain access to the 
 native women. 
 
 Our opportunities have grown to be 
 practically measureless. Thibet has 
 recently been the only shut-in nation 
 on the face of the globe, and Thibet is 
 yielding at last. It is exhilarating to 
 live in this day of wonderful change 
 and advancement. ‘‘ Woman’s sphere ” 
 is now wide as the world, and, without 
 leaving our homes, the humblest of us 
 may lay our hands upon the springs of 
 action, and wield “ power over the 
 nations.” Our missionaries, who see 
 this as we cannot, call to us with accord-, 
 ant and urgent voices from every land 
 for helpers at home and abroad. Ready 
 regions invite us, deepest needs cry out 
 to us, and willing hearers await us the 
 world around. 
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
OUR MISSIONARIES. 
 
 There have been in all two hundred 
 and fifteen missionaries supported by 
 this Board. Time and language would 
 fail to describe their personal qualities. 
 Their record is on hiorh. There we 
 hope to meet and thank them, when 
 their toil, and self-denial, and the anguish 
 of their partings are all over. On earth 
 they have lived m blessed trust, extract- 
 ing joy from sorrow, and reaping a hun¬ 
 dredfold reward now in this time, in 
 their noble work itself, in its success, 
 and in the conscious fellowship of the 
 Lord Jesus, and the growth of every gift 
 and grace of their own character. In 
 heaven they will shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament, and as the stars for¬ 
 ever and ever. How glorious will be 
 their part in the eternal rejoicings of that 
 innumerable multitude “ of all nations, 
 and kindreds, and people, and tongues,” 
 who shall stand before the throne. 
 
 No figures or statements can fully set 
 forth our foreip’u work. There is an 
 
 O • 
 
 unwritten history of labors and results. 
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
and of joys and griefs, laid up in store 
 for the revelations of the great day ; and 
 there are streams of influence, novy mak¬ 
 ing their almost unnoticed way, which 
 are yet to broaden into rivers of blessing, 
 and flow on forever, to make glad the 
 cit}^ of God. Moreover, our work is so 
 intertwined with the work of our sister 
 Boards of the Interior and of the Pacific, 
 and with that of the American Board, 
 that it is in some cases diflicult to take 
 account of what is distinctively ours. 
 We gladly record our indebtedness to 
 the fathers and brethren of the Elder 
 Board for the cordial welcome which 
 encouraged our first eflbrts, and for that 
 wisdom in council which has ever been 
 our strong stall'. 
 
 RATE OF PROGRESS. 
 
 In order to mark the progress of the 
 work, it may be helpful to divide our 
 twenty-five years into fifths, and notice 
 what growth is indicated by the statistics. 
 In 1868, its first year, the Woman’s 
 Board adopted seven young ladies, who 
 
 (7) 
 
entered missionary families in South 
 Africa, Ceylon, Turkey and China. It 
 also supported seven Bible women. 
 The gifts that year were a little over 
 $5,000. At the end of the first five 
 years, in 1873, we had entered Persia 
 and India, Japan and Spain ; but Persia 
 was soon transferred to the Presbyterian 
 Board. The number of missionaries 
 had increased fivefold, to thirty-six, and 
 the number of Bible women and teachers 
 nearly fourfold, to forty. We had thir¬ 
 teen schools. The receipts of the treasury 
 had multiplied nearly tenfold—to $48,791 
 in 1873. During the next five years 
 Austria and Dakota, Micronesia and 
 Mexico had been added to our list of 
 countries ; and the number of mission¬ 
 aries had nearly doubled, reaching sixty- 
 seven in 1878. The Bible women were 
 fifty-eight; there were eighteen board¬ 
 ing schools, forty-nine village and day 
 schools, with a number of other schools 
 attended by both boys and girls, and in 
 part supported by us. The “Home” 
 schools for higher education in Con- 
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
stantinople, Kyoto, Osaka, Madura and 
 Dakota were all in operation. The 
 treasury received in 1878, $77,363. 
 
 At the close of the third five years, 
 in 1883, we counted thirty more mis¬ 
 sionaries, one of them in West Central 
 Africa,—ninety-seven in all, with eighty- 
 one Bible women. At this time we had 
 resigned the Dakota Home to the Amer¬ 
 ican Missionary Association. There 
 were twenty-five boarding schools, 
 which with the “Homes” contained a 
 thousand girls, while one hundred and 
 twenty-three village and day schools 
 brought up the number under school 
 instruction to three thousand five hun¬ 
 dred. During the fifteen years then 
 completed, the Board had received and 
 disbursed over one million of dollars. 
 
 Again, at the end of twenty years, in 
 1888, the work had taken on greatly in¬ 
 creased proportions. The number of 
 missionaries had risen to one hundred 
 and two, and of Bible women to one 
 hundred and thirty-two; there were 
 twenty-eight boarding schools, contain- 
 
 (9) 
 
ing not far from eighteen hundred pupils, 
 and the common schools numbered two 
 hundred and fifteen. The receipts for 
 that year, 1888, were $123,968. 
 
 And now, as we complete our first 
 quarter-century, we render all praise to 
 God for a record still more Inspiring. 
 Our Bible woman In East Central Africa 
 brings up the number of the regions in 
 which we have our representatives to 
 twelve. We have one hundred and 
 twenty-three missionaries, twenty-nine 
 boarding schools, one hundred and forty- 
 three Bible women and native teachers, 
 and two hundred and fifty-nine village 
 and day schools. 
 
 REVIEW OF OUR MISSIONS. 
 
 Time forbids anything but the most 
 rapid glance at each mission. Our dear 
 absent toilers must forgive the utter in¬ 
 adequacy of this sketch to represent the 
 growth or the admirable character of 
 their work. The Annual Report has 
 set fo^’th its present condition. 
 
 (10) 
 
CEYLON. 
 
 From a missionary point of view the 
 story of Ceylon is ancient history. The 
 number of women in her churches is 
 much greater than in most missions. 
 Twenty-five years ago there were four 
 hundred and seventy-three church mem¬ 
 bers in Ceylon, of whom more than 
 half were women ; now there are one 
 thousand five hundred and twenty-one 
 church members, of whom about three 
 fourths are women. Then there were 
 five hundred and forty-six girls in the 
 schools; now there are two thousand. 
 In all, more than one thousand girls have 
 been graduated from the Oodooville 
 school, and two thousand women and 
 girls are now under instruction. There 
 has been a gradual elevation of women 
 of all grades in the respect of the com¬ 
 munity and in influence over heathen 
 relatives. Full preparation for the 
 Lord’s coming in power seems to have 
 been made in that beautiful island, and 
 devoted teachers wait in hope for the 
 day of his appearing. 
 
 (o) 
 
INDIA. 
 
 India leads all our educational work 
 in numbers. In the Marathi and Ma¬ 
 dura missions we have seven boarding 
 schools, one hundred and twenty-one 
 other schools, and fiftv-one Bible women. 
 These native women find ready access 
 to an ever-increasing multitude, telling 
 the glad tidings each “in the tongue 
 wherein she was born,” and understand¬ 
 ing and meeting the needs of their 
 people as foreigners cannot do. 
 
 Twenty-four years ago no door was 
 open in Madura to any Christian teacher. 
 To our beloved Mrs. Chandler was 
 given, in 1868, the joy of the first invi¬ 
 tation to enter a zenana for the purpose 
 of instructing Hindu women. Twenty 
 years later there were fourteen thousand 
 women under instruction, and seventy- 
 two thousand had thus heard the gos¬ 
 pel message in this way. Of woman’s 
 work, Mr. Jones, of the Madura Mis¬ 
 sion, says : “I consider it invaluable not 
 only in its direct influence on the women, 
 but also in its reflex influence on the 
 
 (12) 
 
men. The more I study the domestic 
 and social condition of the people, the 
 more assured I become that the salvation 
 of the whole people depends much more 
 upon the condition of the women than 
 the men. The religious destiny of the 
 land is preeminently in the hands of the 
 women.” And to these women, only 
 those of their own sex can have access. 
 
 Our medical missionary ladies have 
 yearly visited many hundreds in their 
 homes, and received many thousands in 
 their dispensaries. In 1890, Dr. Pauline 
 Root treated fifteen thousand five hun¬ 
 dred and seventy cases ; nearly ten thou¬ 
 sand of them being new ones. The sick 
 have been taught by Scripture texts on 
 the back of prescription cards, and by 
 Scripture readings to patients in hos¬ 
 pitals. A bond of grateful confidence 
 has bound the sufferer to the physician, 
 disarming prejudice and winning en¬ 
 trance for the truth. There are now 
 secret Christians all over the Marathi 
 and Madura regions, and great will be 
 the outburst of joyful confession when 
 
 (13) 
 
the seal of fear is taken oft their lips. 
 Many will then say, as one of them 
 recently said, “I wholly believe in Jesus, 
 and consider his Bible sweeter than 
 honey, and I have endeavored to make 
 known his truth.” 
 
 There are already many bright ex¬ 
 amples of the power of the gospel, and 
 many great changes in the land. IrTdia 
 widows who, twenty-five years ago, 
 were in the lowest depths of wretched¬ 
 ness and ignominy, upon them, also, 
 has the light shined. The law now 
 forbids the marriage of girls under 
 twelve, and thus diminishes the number 
 of child widows. Hundreds of educated 
 Christian widows go freely as Bible 
 women from house to house, welcomed 
 among all castes. The admirable schools 
 in Bombay and Ahmednagar and 
 throughout the Marathi and Madura 
 -missions, whose names, even, we cannot 
 mention here, have done much to under¬ 
 mine the vast fabric of Idolatry and of 
 caste. The changes of the last quarter 
 century-have been as rapid as could take 
 
 (*4) 
 
place without political convulsion, and 
 the future is full of hope. 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 In this country, also, the Lord’s work 
 was well begun before our Board was 
 born. We entered into the labors of 
 others, and reaped in fields already white. 
 Nearly fifty American women now help 
 to carry on this mission, which has been 
 so signally blessed. We have three col¬ 
 leges, nine boarding schools, and ninety- 
 three day schools in Turkey ; and Sun¬ 
 day schools, evening schools, and kin¬ 
 dergartens add their forces to the goodly 
 number, and here, as elsewhere, Chris¬ 
 tian Endeavor and King’s Daughters 
 Societies lend their aid. Our character¬ 
 istic agency, the girls’ school, has here 
 been carried from the lowest to the 
 highest grade. 
 
 It is especially true In non-Christian 
 lands that work must begin with the 
 children, since the mothers are hardened 
 in evil ways. Our chief object and 
 ultimate aim is to train Christian workers 
 
who shall teach and live the gospel 
 among their own people. This is the 
 best work, since foreign missionaries 
 can never reach a whole nation unless 
 in this way. Everywhere our schools 
 have been favored of God. In 1880 the 
 female department of Euphrates College 
 reported: “There is always more or 
 less of a steady religious work going on 
 here. Twenty-five girls have united 
 with the church during the year.” Of 
 one hundred and two graduates up to 
 that time, eighty-five had become Chris¬ 
 tian workers. “The power and influ¬ 
 ence of these educated girls as they go 
 out for pastors’ or teachers’ wives, or to 
 have schools of their own, can hardly be 
 estimated.” In 1883, Miss Pierce wrote 
 from Aintab : “We have been accus¬ 
 tomed to say of our pupils and native 
 teachers that, considering their ante¬ 
 cedents and disadvantages, they do very 
 well. We have forgotten antecedents ; 
 we have overcome disadvantages; we 
 claim a place beside your best schools.” 
 
 The need of a higher education to 
 
 (16) 
 
prepare capable pupils for positions of 
 influence, is better understood if we re¬ 
 flect that the graduates have few outside 
 helps after leaving school. They must 
 be furnished with resources within them¬ 
 selves to resist the downward drag of 
 surrounding heathenism or ignorance. 
 A wider range of knowledge and of 
 thought, with access to helpful books, 
 must brace their minds against deterio¬ 
 rating tendencies. They also need some 
 attractive accomplishments to secure in¬ 
 fluence over others. This explains the 
 teaching of music, of the English lan¬ 
 guage, and of some other things which 
 at first sight may seem wide of our 
 mark,—the saving of souls from sin. 
 Such teaching is for those who in after 
 life may win the souls which mission¬ 
 aries cannot reach. 
 
 The Constantinople Home began to 
 furnish this more thorough education in 
 1871. In 1872 our auxiliaries roused 
 themselves to specific efibrt for provid¬ 
 ing a suitable building, and in 1876 it 
 was completed and furnished. In eight 
 
 (17^ 
 
years the school had outgrown its rooms, 
 so that in iSSo, was given for 
 
 enlargement by our Board, and $10,000 
 by the American Board, an anonymous 
 giver adding $20,000. In 1890 the 
 school received a college charter, under 
 the name ot the “American College for 
 Girls at Constantinople.” It is now per¬ 
 manently established upon the beautiful 
 height of Scutari, through the blessing 
 of God upon self-denying gifts and be¬ 
 lieving prayers. With competent teach¬ 
 ers and with students from ten or more 
 nationalities, we look to it for ever¬ 
 growing usefulness in the conversion and 
 training of those who shall be Christian 
 laborers in the lands of their birth. 
 
 At Marash College for girls, estab¬ 
 lished ten years ago, all but one of the 
 thirty graduates have become Christian 
 teachers or Bible women. Every true 
 convert is an assistant missionary, but 
 this is especially true of the Bible 
 women. A spirit of inquiry and a desire 
 for knowledge have been awakened 
 throughout Turkey, from Bulgaria to 
 
 (18) 
 
her eastern borders, by missionary teach¬ 
 ing, so that within these twenty-five 
 years a vast system of common schools 
 has been developed in the empire. The 
 whole skv has chano-ed. The common 
 
 ^ O 
 
 contempt of men for women is abating, 
 in view of the remarkable unfolding of 
 mental capacity in their own daughters. 
 Once girls must be paid for attending 
 school ; now our Christian schools annu¬ 
 ally receive thousands of dollars in tui¬ 
 tion fees. 
 
 We have had no more efficient work¬ 
 ers than those who go forth upon evan¬ 
 gelistic tours. We cannot help men¬ 
 tioning in this connection those dear 
 travelers. Miss Seymour and Miss Bush, 
 who for almost twenty years have 
 traversed the soil of Eastern Turkey, 
 sowing beside all waters, through storm 
 and cold, through difficulty and danger, 
 in weariness and painfulness, yet always 
 in the joy of the Lord. 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 Our work in Africa has gone on with¬ 
 out interruption since the beginning of 
 
 (19) 
 
our life. 'The march of ev^ents has been 
 rapid in Natal during these twenty-five 
 years. English rule has founded the new 
 republic, and the discovery of gold and 
 diamonds has brought in the railroad, 
 which extends three hundred miles from 
 north to soutli along the land, and which 
 with four other roads has opened a way 
 not only for modern commerce, but for 
 the Word of the Lord. The telegraph 
 connects all central places, and two sub¬ 
 marine cables put Natal into quick com¬ 
 munication with all parts of the world. 
 Clusters of neat, well-ordered homes, in 
 which dwell Christian families, have 
 here and there taken the place of the 
 dark and filthy kraal. A generation of 
 Christians has been reared, among whom 
 are some who stand forth as shining ex¬ 
 amples of what Africans may be. That 
 sweet woman Yona, who with her brave 
 husband went as our first foreign mis¬ 
 sionaries from Natal to the cruel Mata- 
 beles, would have adorned any church 
 anywhere ; and her voice has added new 
 joy to the new song of the Church tri- 
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
umphant. After her husband’s death 
 she returned home to be an invaluable 
 helper, modest, intelligent, and devoted. 
 In health her influence was widely felt; 
 in sickness she seemed to see “the King 
 in his beauty.” “ The Bridegroom is 
 coming,” she said; “why don’t' you 
 shout, why don’t you sing.^ The bells 
 of heaven are ringing ! Is that the bell 
 of the Church on earth ? Oh, that is not 
 so sweet as the bells of heaven.” Zulu 
 women from our excellent schools are 
 now teaching in the East Central African 
 mission, a thousand miles northward. 
 Are they not our messengers, also ? 
 
 In West Central Africa our one mis¬ 
 sionary has been helping, with ladies 
 from our sister Boards, to lay the foun¬ 
 dations of the Western Church. At her 
 station twelve are now preparing for 
 baptism, and forty are enrolled in her 
 girls’ school. Twelve years ago not a 
 ^leam of li^ht irradiated the moral mid- 
 
 o o 
 
 night of Bih^ and Bailundu. Now, 
 these little communities of young Chris¬ 
 tians are as a light in a dark place, and 
 
 (21) 
 
one of them is already constituted into 
 a Home Missionary Society, to send out 
 and support native teachers in the 
 regions beyond. Truly does an eminent 
 Englishman say, that “the missionary 
 force has effected greater changes in the 
 condition of savage Africa, than armies 
 and navies, conferences and treaties, 
 have yet done.” 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 Twenty-ffve years ago there were only 
 two girls’ boarding schools in our North 
 China and Foochow missions, and their 
 pupils numbered thirty-ffve. There 
 were only seventeen girls in our six 
 North China day schools. Great prej¬ 
 udice has existed against these girls’ 
 schools. No story was too absurd to be 
 believed, and it was said that mission¬ 
 aries wished to carry off', or destroy, or 
 “convert into opium,” the girls under 
 their care. There were then only one 
 hundred and nineteen members in our 
 mission churches against the one thou¬ 
 sand nine hundred and seven of the year 
 
 (22) 
 
1892. Meanwhile our own work has 
 grown broader and deeper, until there 
 is imperative need of more workers. 
 China’s millions of toiling women call 
 to us no less by their degrading apathy 
 than by their wrongs and opj^ressions, 
 for the light, the love, and the freedom 
 of the gospel. Education must go hand 
 in hand with the gospel as the only way 
 of deliverance from the bonds of super¬ 
 stition. Changes have been slow, but 
 the missionary crusade—in the matter, 
 for instance, of footbinding—has met 
 with as mu'ch success as could be ex¬ 
 pected,-considering that for ages the two 
 or three inch foot has been the sign not 
 only of rank, but of good character. 
 Many a crippled, foot unbound has be¬ 
 come strong and useful, though it must 
 always remain deformed ; and Christian 
 families are generally glad to conform 
 to Christian usage. Clean clothes once 
 a week is a Christian custom ; a prepara¬ 
 tion for Sabbath worship. This new 
 idea has entered China, where, as in all 
 non-Christian nations, the disregard for 
 
 C23) 
 
cleanliness has been universal. “ Re¬ 
 form has begun,” says a missionary, 
 “for clean clothes once a week means, 
 in the course of time, cleaner houses, 
 cleaner streets, and better health. Chris¬ 
 tian communities have initiated a nation¬ 
 al movement in the direction of neat¬ 
 ness.” Now the country is open and at 
 peace, and offers the most vast and 
 grand of mission fields for women. Its 
 dense population enables one missionary 
 to reach a multitude. Noble women 
 have labored there for fifty years, but 
 since our Board was established, single 
 ladies have greatly augmented the work¬ 
 ing force. Their excellent medical, 
 evangelistic, and educational work has 
 wonderfully aided everywhere, but their 
 number should be multiplied many fold. 
 We have now three boarding schools 
 and day schools, but only five mission¬ 
 aries and a few Bible women in that 
 great land. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 When we began, in 1868, Japan was 
 a hermit nation. A band of praying 
 
 (^4) 
 
women in Brookline, Mass., had long 
 been besieging her doors by the way of 
 prayer, and in the fullness of time the 
 Lord answered them by the way of our 
 Government and navy. “ Over and 
 over again, doubtless,” says that sound 
 and cautious thinker. Professor Austin 
 Phelps, “ prayer has really achieved the 
 things which men have ascribed to war, 
 to science, to civilization, to literature, 
 to the march of intellect. The longer I 
 live, the more profoundly am I impressed 
 with the conviction that the mightiest 
 power ever put forth in the world is this 
 mysterious influence with God which is 
 at the command of the poorest and 
 feeblest of us.” The country has been 
 only a few years open to foreigners, but 
 it now allows our missionaries a freedom 
 of labor almost as great as heart could 
 wish. Those praying women had been 
 working beforehand, earning money for 
 the Christianization of Japan, and with 
 others they have entered in and reaped 
 the wonderful first fruit of the harvest. 
 
 Twenty years ago when Miss Talcott 
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
went to Kobe, the American Board had 
 been there but four years. We have 
 now the honor of working' through 
 twenty-four teachers and missionary 
 wives, and through many women evan¬ 
 gelists, graduates of the Kobe Training 
 School, for the moulding of the New 
 Japan. To have a part in these marvel¬ 
 ous changes, to be making history at a 
 rate so rapid, to help save such a jewel 
 as Japan for the crown of our King, is 
 enough to satisfy the ambition of any 
 woman, there or here. The stir of new 
 life in that “Sunrise Kingdom” has 
 been almost as great among the women 
 as among the men. Little attention had 
 been paid to the education of girls. 
 They have received with joy the gospel 
 message and the hope of heaven, for 
 “ they had expected nothing better after 
 death than to enter into a crow.” The 
 knowledge of what Christian familv life 
 may be has affected the public opinion 
 of the country. 
 
 The miseries of the frequent divorce 
 or abandonment of wives are more 
 
 (26) 
 
clearly seen, and a check at least has 
 been put upon the awful practice of 
 Japanese parents who sold the honor of 
 their young daughters as the method of 
 gaining their own living. The country 
 which Neesima left, at a call as clear as 
 that of Abraham, and with the distinct 
 purpose of seeking moral enlightenment 
 for his people, the country where Chris¬ 
 tianity was a crime, has now over thirty- 
 three thousand Christians, an earnest 
 and well educated native ministry, 
 Christian schools of high character, and 
 a considerable Christian literature. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 In 1868 our Spanish mission was not 
 in existence. Our boarding school, 
 which began twenty years ago at Barce¬ 
 lona,- has had a happy and useful life. 
 Many of its pupils have become Chris¬ 
 tians, and all have amply repaid their 
 teachers’ care. In its present fine loca¬ 
 tion at San Sebastian, government exam¬ 
 inations have proved the high character 
 of the teaching, have awakened the ad- 
 
 (27) 
 
miration and secured the interest of the 
 people, and have proved a great intel¬ 
 lectual stimulus to the pupils. 
 
 AUSTRIA. 
 
 Here our six Bible women have won 
 such advantage upon the hard-fought 
 field as inspires hope for the time to 
 come. Our two boarding schools at 
 Krabschitz and at Briinn have been ably 
 managed and greatly blessed. Shall not 
 our faith rise to the occasion until larger 
 liberty is allowed and the Word of life 
 has free course ? 
 
 MICRONESIA. 
 
 We have had many rejoicings in days 
 past over the great things done in the 
 uttermost parts of the sea. Recent re¬ 
 verses and losses have wrung the hearts 
 of our banished ones, some of whom are 
 still kept out of their chosen work and 
 away from the converts who need them. 
 But many thousand of islanders have 
 known and believed the truth of God, 
 and surely this knowledge can never die 
 
 raS) 
 
out. His word shall not return unto him 
 void. Our share in this mission is the 
 work of six ladies, beginning in 1878 
 with Mrs. Pease, at Kusaie. 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 The work of our Board in Southern 
 Mexico, begun in 1874, was dropped in 
 1877, when that mission was transferred 
 to the Presbyterian Board. In 1882 we 
 took a part in the new mission to North¬ 
 ern and Western Mexico, and our school 
 work has gone on till parents came 
 heartily to desire the education of their 
 children, and in some cases to “ grudge 
 even a short vacation, as lost time,” and 
 till the training of teachers for country 
 schools could not keep pace with the 
 demand. Our four Mexican missionaries 
 are thankful and hopeful in the midst of 
 their toil. Have they not reason, while 
 “every Christian woman in Chihuahua 
 feels it her duty to take part in enlighten¬ 
 ing her sisters” ? Could we say as much 
 at home? Mexico has now her confes- 
 
sors like Maria Gonzales, cheerfully 
 enduring persecution for the truth’s sake. 
 
 In the comity of missions, “fifty mil¬ 
 lion of women and girls are dependent 
 on our Congregational churches for the 
 bread of life.” A recent writer, while 
 making some distressing statements as 
 to the small proportion of the women of 
 our churches who are engaged in any 
 missionary work, points out that these 
 facts are in one aspect encouraging. If 
 so few have done so much and in so 
 short a time, what may we not expect 
 when all of us, so highly favored among 
 wmmen, shall hear and heed our Lord’s 
 last command. 
 
 The day is, indeed, breaking over all 
 the islands and continents of the earth. 
 A long and toilsome work in the dark 
 has preceded the dim dawn, athwart 
 which are now shooting upward the 
 ravs of the Sun of Righteousness. And 
 there are still eight’hundred and fifty 
 million of the races of men untouched 
 by the gospel light! Almost two thirds 
 of the people of the globe are yet igno- 
 
rant of the love of God in Christ. To 
 us, who are stewards of this manifold 
 grace, is given the high and strenuous 
 joy of carrying it around the earth. The 
 wonderful blessing which has been re¬ 
 counted upon our humble beginnings, 
 should cheer us on to ever-enlarging 
 effort. 
 
 We go not alone to the warfare against 
 the rulers of the darkness of this world. 
 Our almighty and all-loving Father pre¬ 
 pares the way ; our Saviour’s heart is set 
 upon our success, and the blessed Spirit 
 of Power is pledged to convince the 
 world of sin. We go in the strength of 
 the Lord God. Here at this altar let 
 us give ourselves with new devotion to 
 the highest service that God commands 
 or we can render,—the bringing in of 
 his kingdom of light and love upon this 
 sin-distracted earth. Our own time is 
 short. When we reach the other shore 
 and see our past life in the light of eter¬ 
 nity, what rapture will it be if we may 
 hear the King say of each of us, “ She 
 hath done what she could.” 
 
 (30 
 
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