A CONTRIBUTION 
 TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 One Hundred 'iJears in the XOorK of the 
 American "Baptist Foreign Mission Society 
 
 By 
 
 THE REV. THOMAS S. BARBOUR, D.D. 
 
 Foreign Secretary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society^ ^^99 1912 
 
 ADONIRAM JUDSON 
 The Pioneer and Apostle of Burma 
 
 This interesting contribution to the history of Christian Missions was’^preparect 
 for “The Missionary Review of the World,” and is to appear 
 
 in the August Number 
 
 Copyright, 1914 
 
 FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
CUSHING MEMORIAL BUILDINGS^ RANGOON BAPTIST COLLEGE, BURMA 
 
 A Contribution to Christian 
 
 Missions 
 
 ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN BAPTIST 
 
 FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
 
 BY REV. THOMAS S. BARBOUR, D.D. 
 
 Foreign Secretary of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, 1899-1912 
 
 HE General Convention 
 for Foreign Missions 
 of American Baptists 
 was constituted at 
 Philadelphia, May 21, 
 1814. The occasion 
 was given unique interest by the fact 
 that the work of the first mission¬ 
 aries of the new organization had be¬ 
 gun many months before. Two 
 earlier days are memorable in the 
 story of the birth of this movement— 
 the first, that on which Adoniram 
 Judson, a student at Andover Sem¬ 
 inary, read Buchanan’s “Star in the 
 
 East,” and paced the floor in un¬ 
 controllable excitement; the second, 
 that of the arrival in Boston of a 
 vessel from British India with let¬ 
 ters through which the Baptist 
 leaders learned that Mr. and Mrs. 
 Judson had become virtually repre¬ 
 sentatives of American Baptists in 
 the Far East. 
 
 The Beginnings 
 
 Like the American Board of Com¬ 
 missioners for Foreign Missions, 
 constituted four years before the 
 meeting in Philadelphia, the con- 
 
4 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 A GROUP OF HEATHEN KACHINS, BURMA 
 
 vention of Baptists was linke 4 in its 
 origin with the group of young men 
 at Andover whose minds ‘Vere 
 imprest with the duty of personally 
 attempting a mission” to the non- 
 Christian world. The later work, 
 like the earlier movement, was the 
 product of forces long active in the 
 life of American churches. From 
 an early time Baptist churches had 
 been characterized by evangelistic 
 zeal, and in the increasing interest 
 in which at the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century the Western 
 world was reflecting the glow of the 
 missionary awakening in England, 
 they had prominently shared. With 
 most, if not all, of the interdenomi¬ 
 national organizations constituted at 
 this time for work in the home fields. 
 Baptists were identified. A note¬ 
 worthy indication of this is afforded 
 in the fact that, in the founding in 
 1800 of the “Boston Female Society 
 for Missionary Purposes”—the first 
 woman’s society known in the his¬ 
 tory of the country—the originator 
 and seven others in the total of four¬ 
 teen members were connected with 
 the Baptist churches of Boston. And 
 in distinctively foreign work, among 
 
 Baptists as in other bodies, interest 
 was steadily growing. The corre¬ 
 spondence maintained by a number 
 of Baptist leaders with William 
 Carey ensured this. A significant 
 manifestation of this development 
 was seen in the city in which the 
 young men of Andover were set 
 apart for their life-work. A few 
 days after the memorable service in 
 the Salem Tabernacle, there was 
 constituted in the Baptist Church of 
 Salem the “Bible Translation and 
 Foreign Mission Society,” the first 
 known organization in America for 
 promoting the work of foreign mis¬ 
 sions established by a single local 
 church. 
 
 It was thus to a body in which 
 the beginnings of a true missionary 
 fervor had appeared that the sum¬ 
 mons to active enlistment in the 
 great enterprise came suddenly from 
 the forefront of the conflict. Yet 
 tile influence of the change of con¬ 
 viction reached by Mr. and Mrs. Jud- 
 son and by Luther Rice, with the 
 resulting change in their denomina¬ 
 tional relations, was very powerful 
 in promoting the action taken by 
 Baptists. “Your letter awakened pro- 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 5 
 
 A GROUP OF CHRISTIAN KACHINS, BAPTIST MISSION SCHOOL, BURMA 
 
 found emotion/’ Rev. Daniel Sharp 
 writes to Mr. Judson. “We considered 
 it the voice of God.” So a Southern 
 leader, Rev. Dr. W. B. Johnson of 
 Savannah, Georgia, in informing his 
 constituency of the proposed con¬ 
 vention in Philadelphia, refers to 
 the signs appearing in England of the 
 opening of a new Messianic era, and 
 to the action taken in America, “to 
 the immortal honor of our Congre¬ 
 gational and Presbyterian brethren,” 
 and adds: “That our brethren of 
 these denominations should not be 
 alone in this great work; God, in the 
 arrangement of infinite wisdom, has 
 been pleased to bring some of their 
 missionaries over to the Baptist per¬ 
 suasion.” 
 
 The incident was of large influence 
 also in the internal development of 
 the body of American Baptists. For 
 the first time they met in a national 
 fellowship. Indeed, this drawing to¬ 
 gether of churches widely scattered, 
 independent, and acutely apprehen¬ 
 sive of the loss of independency 
 through development of organic ties, 
 may be regarded as one of the most 
 notable of the early results of the 
 missionary awakening. 
 
 The churches thus united with the 
 growing missionary enterprise formed 
 a less prominent body than that rep¬ 
 resented four years before in the 
 constitution of the American Board. 
 Its numerical strength of about 
 180,000 was for the most part of re¬ 
 cent development. Thirty years before 
 this time, at the close of the War 
 of the Revolution, Baptists num¬ 
 bered but 35,000; at the beginning 
 of the war, there were but twelve 
 Baptist churches in Massachusetts. 
 Yet the meeting in Philadelphia was 
 truly memorable. For this delegated 
 company of twenty-six ministers and 
 seven laymen was gathered out of a 
 territory extending from northern 
 New England through the State of 
 Georgia. The great distances, the 
 primitive modes of travel, had 
 seemed at first a truly formid¬ 
 able difficulty. But the significance 
 of the occasion was powerful in its 
 appeal—the united response to the 
 Lord’s command—the meeting of 
 brethren hitherto known to each 
 other by name alone. “It was as if 
 the interviews of heaven had been 
 anticipated,” the Missionary Maga- 
 
6 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 zine said in its report of the meet¬ 
 ing. 
 
 The delegates to the convention at 
 Philadelphia were appointed by local 
 
 JOHN E. CLOUGH^ APOSTLE TO THE TELUGUS 
 
 missionary organizations established 
 mainly through the labors of Luther 
 Rice. The organization thus con¬ 
 stituted was known popularly as 
 ‘‘The Triennial Convention.” The 
 name “The American Baptist Mis¬ 
 sionary Union” was adopted in 1846, 
 to be succeeded in its turn, in 1910, 
 by the name “The American Baptist 
 Foreign Mission Society.” 
 
 Historical Landmarks 
 
 Certain dates are landmarks in the 
 history of the society. 
 
 In 1846, as a result of the in¬ 
 fluences then pervasive in the coun¬ 
 try, Southern Baptists separated 
 from the society and began an inde¬ 
 pendent work, which has proved of 
 continually increasing extent and in¬ 
 fluence. 
 
 In 1872, the distinctive work of 
 Baptist women in foreign missions 
 was initiated. Separate organiza¬ 
 tions were maintained for a time in 
 the eastern and western sections of 
 the country. A new era of far- 
 reaching activities has now been en¬ 
 tered upon by the united body. 
 
 In 1908, in the organization of 
 the Northern Baptist Convention, the 
 work of the Foreign Mission So¬ 
 ciety, together with that of other 
 missionary organizations, was brought 
 into close relation with the churches 
 and formally recognized as represent¬ 
 ing an obligation of their entire mem¬ 
 bership. 
 
 In 1909, the missionary work of 
 the Free Baptist churches was united 
 with that of the larger body of 
 Northern Baptists. 
 
 The Fields Occupied 
 
 The work in foreign lands was 
 begun in Burma, where Mr. and 
 Mrs. Judson had landed, July 13, 
 
 WILLIAM ASHMORE, APOSTLE TO THE CHINESE 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 7 
 
 1813. This country had attracted 
 the attention of Mr. Judson in his 
 iirst thought of missionary work. 
 But on the arrival of the missionary 
 party in India, hostile conditions in 
 Burma had seemed to compel the 
 choice of another field, and it was 
 only through extraordinary providen¬ 
 tial circumstances, resulting in a con- 
 
 service hy this country to the world’s 
 civilization which it would be diffi¬ 
 cult to overestimate. 
 
 Work for the American Indians 
 was entered upon by the convention 
 in 1817. It embraced tribes in the 
 State of New York and on the west¬ 
 ern frontier, but reached its largest 
 development among tribes in the 
 
 viction of divine leading which never 
 left them, that the two young mis¬ 
 sionaries passed beyond the protec¬ 
 tion of European governments un¬ 
 der the rule of a despotic and cruel 
 king. “Our sole encouragement to 
 remain,” wrote Mrs. Judson, “is in 
 our conviction of dependence in a 
 peculiar way on the interposing hand 
 of providence.” The strategic posi¬ 
 tion of Burma has been recognized 
 from the beginning by missionary 
 and official. Its great river consti¬ 
 tutes the most direct highway to 
 Western China and the territories 
 lying still farther in the interior of 
 Asia, and gives promise of an ultimate 
 
 South. With the Cherokees of 
 North Carolina and Georgia a re¬ 
 markable success was realized, which 
 continued even in the long journey 
 to the Indian Territory to which this 
 people were compelled to remove in 
 1838. One hundred and seventy 
 converts made Christian profession 
 during this journey. In the new ter¬ 
 ritory a prosperous work was con¬ 
 ducted for the Cherokees and other 
 tribes. This work, in 1865, was 
 transferred to the American Baptist 
 Home Mission Society, by which or¬ 
 ganization it has been continued with 
 very gratifying results 
 
 The peculiar claim of Africa re- 
 
 DR. CATHERINE MABIE HOLDING A BABIES' CLINIC, BANZA MANTEKE, BELGIAN KONGO 
 
8 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN AlISSIONS 
 
 ceived early recognition. This work 
 in its origin was connected with an 
 interesting movement among freed- 
 men in Virginia. In 1820 a station 
 was opened in the Sierra Leone sec¬ 
 tion of West Africa; this was soon 
 removed to Monrovia, where a 
 precious offering of heroic lives was 
 made. The fatal climate compelled 
 withdrawal from this work soon 
 after 1840. In 1884, in response to 
 
 a proposition received from Dr. H. 
 Grattan Guinness of London, the 
 work of the Livingstone Inland Mis¬ 
 sion, in the Kongo State, was taken 
 over by the society. Its mission¬ 
 aries, with others, were prominent 
 in the movement for relief of the 
 Kongo people from the heartless op¬ 
 pression of King Leopold, and the 
 improved conditions now reached 
 in the Belgian Kongo are in part at¬ 
 tributable to their courage and 
 fidelity. 
 
 A work in Siam, largely directed 
 to the Chinese immigrant popula¬ 
 tion, was begun in 1833. 
 
 In 1835, invitation of the Brit¬ 
 ish East India Government, whose 
 
 rule at the close of the first Burman 
 war was extended to Assam, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Nathan Brown, with a 
 companion missionary under appoint¬ 
 ment as a printer, removed from 
 Burma, and, dragged in native boats 
 against the swift current, made the 
 two months’ journey up the Brah¬ 
 maputra. The work in Assam 
 presses close upon the boundaries of 
 Tibet, and gains importance both 
 
 from the sturdy character of the 
 peoples reached and from its rela¬ 
 tion to neighboring parts of Asia, 
 whose millions offer a field for future 
 service by Christian converts. 
 
 In the same year, 1835, a work 
 was opened among the Telugus of 
 southeastern India, and American 
 Baptists were brought thus into par¬ 
 ticipation in the great conflict with 
 the Hindu faith. Of a population of 
 twenty millions of Telugus, eight 
 millions are in the immediate field of 
 the society. 
 
 The work of Free Baptist churches, 
 while quite independent of the work 
 of the Triennial Convention, began 
 in British India in the same year in 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 9 
 
 which the mission to the Tehigiis 
 was opened. This work has been 
 conducted in the densely populated 
 district southwest from Calcutta in 
 the Bengal and Orissa provinces. 
 The character of the population in 
 this stronghold of Hinduism and 
 Mohammedanism has made the ser¬ 
 vice one of peculiar difficulties, but 
 while thus unavoidably restricted in 
 
 results for a time, the work has pre¬ 
 sented strong features and is rich 
 in promise. 
 
 Four fields have been occupied in 
 China. Two of these were entered 
 at the time of the opening of five 
 port cities after the first war with 
 England. A mission in Southern 
 China, opened in Hongkong in 1842 
 and afterward transferred to Swatow, 
 was an extension of work in the 
 dialect used by the Chinese in Siam. 
 Ningpo in Eastern China was occu¬ 
 pied in 1843. Ill 1889 a work was 
 entered upon in the great Szchuen 
 province in the far west of China. 
 This step was taken as a result of 
 
 recognition of changing conditions 
 ill the country and conviction of the 
 importance of early occupation of 
 advantageous positions. Two mis¬ 
 sionaries were supported for a few 
 years by the young men of Minne¬ 
 sota; in 1893 a strong reinforce¬ 
 ment was sent by the society to this 
 field. Favor toward this work was 
 heightened by recognition of a pur¬ 
 
 pose in view at the time of the open¬ 
 ing of work in Assam—that of en¬ 
 trance to China through its western 
 provinces. As a connecting link be¬ 
 tween the eastern work and the far 
 western field, a station was estab¬ 
 lished in 1895 at Hanyang, in Central 
 China, a city which, with the neigh¬ 
 boring cities of Hankow and Wu¬ 
 chang, constitutes a great center of 
 population and industries. 
 
 In Japan a beginning was made in 
 1872. A feature of this work of 
 exceptional interest is that conducted 
 by a mission vessel among the islands 
 of the Inland Sea and the Goto 
 Islands. Those familiar with the 
 
lO 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 plans followed in this work and with 
 the steady advancement which has 
 characterized it, confidently anticipate 
 for it, in the not distant future, re¬ 
 sults to which the history of mis¬ 
 sions offers few parallels. 
 
 The responsibility laid upon Ameri¬ 
 can churches in the acquisition of 
 the Philippine Islands by the Ameri¬ 
 can Government was recognized by 
 the society in 1900 by the establish¬ 
 ment of a mission in the central 
 Visayan group of islands. 
 
 In addition to the missions among 
 non-Christian peoples, the society 
 has conducted an extended coopera¬ 
 tive work in many countries of con¬ 
 tinental Europe. In this work con¬ 
 cern for the spread of a vital, spiritual 
 Christianity was reinforced by sym¬ 
 pathy for those engaged in the con¬ 
 flict for religious liberty. The work 
 was opened in France in 1832, and 
 in Germany in 1834. From these 
 centers it has extended, in the one 
 case into Belgium, Switzerland and 
 Spain; in the other into well-nigh all 
 countries of northern Europe. A 
 work was begun in Greece in 1836, 
 soon after its achievement of national 
 independence; but like other Protes¬ 
 tant work entered upon at this time, 
 it was fatally impeded by the opposi¬ 
 tion of the established ecclesiastical 
 order to the principles of religious 
 liberty as formulated in the national 
 constitution. 
 
 Statistics 
 
 The results reported at the close 
 of 1913 for the work in non-Chris¬ 
 tian lands are as follows: 
 
 Mission stations. 127 
 
 Missionaries. 701 
 
 Organized churches . 1,575 
 
 Church members . 166,330 
 
 Native workers . 6,106 
 
 Native contributions.$160,253 
 
 The number of missionaries and 
 church-members by countries is as 
 follows: 
 
 Mission- Church 
 aries. Members. 
 
 Burma . 191 65,912 
 
 Assam . 66 ' 13,317 
 
 South India . 113 66,826 
 
 Bengal-Orissa. 25 1,621 
 
 China . 139 6,339 
 
 Japan . 58 3,978 
 
 Belgian Kongo. 47 4,506 
 
 Philippine Islands. 29 3,831 
 
 The membership of Baptist 
 churches in Europe resulting from 
 work in which the society has co¬ 
 
 operated is: Germany, 42,930; Swe¬ 
 den, 54,268; Finland, 3,190; Den¬ 
 mark, 4,196; Norway, 3,599; France 
 (including parts of Belgium and 
 Switzerland, 2,123; Spain, 64. In 
 
 Russia 28,900 members are con¬ 
 nected with the Russian Baptist 
 Union, which represents in the main 
 Germans and other immigrant peo¬ 
 ple resident in Russia, a number be¬ 
 lieved to be much in excess of this 
 are native Russians organized in 
 Baptist churches. The total Baptist 
 membership in Europe, exclusive of 
 the pure Russian churches, is 139,270. 
 
 Financial contributions for the 
 first three years of the history of 
 the convention were in excess of 
 $10,000 annually. Through various 
 causes the total of contributions de¬ 
 clined for a time and an advance 
 was not reached until a little before 
 1830. In 1834 donations were $23,- 
 941.20. In 1844, $63,062.29. In 
 1864, the Jubilee Year, $109,519.74. 
 In 1874, $261,530.90. In 1894, $465,- 
 943.73. In 1904, $738,585.02. In 
 1912, $1,150,474.47. 
 
 Characteristics and Ideals 
 
 An outstanding feature of the his¬ 
 tory of the organization has been 
 its work among primitive peoples 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 - 11 
 
 tries a leading ethnologist writes: 
 “Few of the wilder parts of the 
 world possess so vast a variety of 
 savage tribes of so great ethnological 
 interest. Scattered detachments 
 from China, India, Tibet and 
 Burma have developed into innumer¬ 
 able tribes differing widely in ap¬ 
 pearance, customs, language, but all 
 alike engaged in bloodthirsty feuds, 
 head-hunting, and murderous raids. 
 Through this call of the wild, rein¬ 
 forced by a series of remarkable 
 providences, the work in Burma, be- 
 
 the Mikirs, the Abors and Miris, in 
 addition to the work for the As¬ 
 samese and for the immigrants from 
 Central India who form the coolie 
 population of the tea-garden dis¬ 
 tricts. Thus the work in these two 
 oldest fields of the society has in¬ 
 cluded labors in the most isolated 
 sections of Asia, perpetuating all the 
 romance and calling for all the 
 physical heroism of the earliest 
 periods of the missionary enterprise. 
 
 In Southern India circumstances 
 equally controlling resulted in a 
 
 and among* classes socially deprest. 
 The choice of Burma, a country 
 with a great commingling of peo¬ 
 ples, as the original field of effort 
 made this development practically 
 inevitable, and the tendency was 
 confirmed through the entrance 
 upon work in Assam. Of the 
 mountain region forming the con¬ 
 necting territory of the two coun¬ 
 
 side the people for whom it was 
 originally designed, has included the 
 Karens, the Talaings, the Shans, the 
 Kachins, the Chins and, during re¬ 
 cent years, the Lahu and Wa races. 
 It includes also a work for the immi¬ 
 grant Telugus and Tamils, the Chi¬ 
 nese and English-speaking peoples. 
 In Assam, work has been conducted 
 for the Caros, the Rabhas, the Nagas, 
 
 YATES HALL OF THE SHANGHAI BAPTIST COLLEGE 
 
12 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 large development of work among 
 a people of the lowest social posi¬ 
 tion. When the prejudices of the 
 caste peoples forced upon the mis¬ 
 sionary a choice between the loss of 
 their patronage and rejection of out- 
 caste converts he was true to his 
 trust. 
 
 These labors among humble pen¬ 
 
 sionary annals. The record has been 
 continued by notable revival move¬ 
 ments in the Kongo mission, among 
 the Visayans, and in the past few 
 years among the Lahu and Wa races 
 in the Kengtung State and adjoining 
 districts of China, of whom it is 
 believed that 10,000 persons have 
 sincerely embraced the Christian 
 
 pies have been identified with some 
 of the most extraordinary results 
 witnessed in missionary history. 
 There have been great ingatherings. 
 The remarkable movement among 
 the Karens of Burma, which began 
 during the lifetime of Dr. Judson, 
 was followed in 1877, ^^d subse¬ 
 quently, by results among the Telugus 
 recognized as constituting one of the 
 most remarkable triumphs in mis- 
 
 faith. And other proofs of the 
 power of the Gospel have appeared 
 among the aboriginal and lowly peo¬ 
 ples, in the renewal of individual 
 lives and the transforming of civili¬ 
 zations. Indeed, the work among 
 the lower classes of India is promis¬ 
 ing to solve the baffling problem of 
 the spiritual conquest of the land 
 which has seemed so hopelessly 
 bound in the fetters of Hinduism. 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 
 VINTON MEMORIAL HALL, RANGOON, BURMA 
 
 Already the surprizing results wit¬ 
 nessed among the outcastes are prov¬ 
 ing a disintegrating force among the 
 caste peoples. Missionaries of the 
 society concur fully in the conviction 
 exprest so strongly by the English 
 
 Bishop of Madras that it is the de¬ 
 sign of providence that India shall 
 be regenerated from the bottom up¬ 
 ward. 
 
 A foremost characteristic of the 
 work of the society is apparent in 
 
14 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 even the most cursory view of its 
 history. In a preeminent degree the 
 work has been that of evangelization 
 by direct preaching of the Gospel. 
 ]\Ir. Judson, when deeply engaged in 
 the work of translation of the Scrip¬ 
 tures, writes in 1829 to the Mission 
 Rooms: “We beg still to be allowed 
 to feel that our great work is to 
 preach the Gospel viva voce!' Of 
 seven “Resolutions” which he wrote 
 
 resolution thus shown are expressive 
 of the inmost spirit of the missionary 
 body. A profound conviction of the 
 indispensableness of personal regene¬ 
 ration as the condition of all true ad¬ 
 vancement for individuals and peo¬ 
 ples, of the possibility of this ex¬ 
 perience for every human soul, and 
 of the promise of the direct working 
 of the Spirit of God in connection 
 with the preaching of the Word has 
 
 SOME OF THE WASEDA DORMITORY BOYS, TOKYO, JAPAN 
 
 in 1837, the fourth reads, “Embrace 
 every opportunity to preach the 
 Gospel to every soul’' and the 
 seventh, “Preach the Gospel every 
 day!' The history of one hundred 
 years has no more representative 
 scene than that of John E. Clough 
 making his way, soon after his ar¬ 
 rival in India, to a public place in 
 Madras and repeating over and over 
 the single verse of Scripture which 
 he had mastered in the Telugu 
 tongue, “God so loved the world that 
 He gave His only begotten Son.” 
 The definiteness of aim and the fixt 
 
 been the basis of this representative 
 practise. 
 
 This central ideal determined the 
 typical characteristics of the work. 
 The missionaries mingled with the 
 people. Multiplying of stations 
 rather than a large development of 
 v/ork at single centers found favor. 
 I’ersonal conversation, wayside 
 preaching, tours in the jungle, were 
 habitual features. Confidence in the 
 power of the Gospel to reach the 
 old as well as the young was strong. 
 “The first profession of the religion 
 of Jesus,” President Wayland wrote 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 15 
 
 in commenting upon Dr. J nelson’s 
 lidelity to this ideal, ‘hnust of neces¬ 
 sity expose the disciple to obloquy 
 and persecution. No one can sup¬ 
 pose it to be the will of God that 
 these are first to be borne by little 
 children.” 
 
 Stress was laid very definitely 
 upon mission work as germinal 
 
 in some instances, been maintained 
 for a time after the manner of the 
 Israelites of old, this has been 
 recognized as temporary; local 
 churches bearing full responsibil¬ 
 ity of administration and work, with 
 no human authority above them, 
 have been fundamental factors in 
 the policy observed. Stewardship in 
 
 THE UNION HOSPITAL AT ILOILO, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
 
 rather than comprehensive and com¬ 
 plete. It was a planting of the acorn, 
 'hhe egg of forests.” While the 
 Gospel holds within itself the potency 
 and promise of every form of social 
 and national good, these were to be 
 thought of as later products, to* be 
 realized in the development of re¬ 
 generated peoples. 
 
 Emphasis has been constant upon 
 early establishment of the local 
 church as to the divinely appointed 
 agency for Christian nurture and de¬ 
 velopment of efficiency in Christian 
 service. While under extraordinary 
 conditions of large ingathering re¬ 
 sort to a single place of worship has. 
 
 the use of money and the importance 
 of development of self-support have 
 been strongly emphasized. Recogni¬ 
 tion of this obligation appeared, in 
 an almost unexampled degree, among 
 the Karens; almost from the begin¬ 
 ning a great section of this people 
 have maintained worship without 
 pecuniary assistance. Recent statis¬ 
 tics show a ratio of native workers 
 to missionaries of eight to one, and 
 a ratio of native workers to ordained 
 missionaries of twenty-one to one. 
 
 A gratifying development of mis¬ 
 sionary activities by the native 
 churches has been seen particularly 
 in the older fields. Home and for- 
 
i6 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 eign missionary organizations have 
 been constituted. The Karen 
 churches support missionary workers 
 in remote districts of Burma and in 
 Siam. The Telugu Christians sus¬ 
 tain a work in Natal, Africa; two 
 of their number have gone as mis¬ 
 sionaries to this land. The new 
 development of self-reliance in the 
 
 the work of evangelization and their 
 aim has been mainly that of develop¬ 
 ment of the Christian community. 
 
 Elementary and intermediate edu¬ 
 cation have had marked attention, 
 particularly in the more western 
 fields. In Japan and the Philippine 
 Islands the presence of a public 
 school system has modified this de¬ 
 
 native body, which is appearing so 
 strongly at the present time, is recog¬ 
 nized by representative missionaries 
 as the fulfilment of ideals cherished 
 in all true missionary work from the 
 beginning. 
 
 Educational Work 
 
 The ideals cherished in respect to 
 the central aim and method of mis¬ 
 sions were certain to afifect plans in 
 educational work. These ideals, at 
 'an early time, led to disfavor for a 
 large development of schools as an 
 agency for gaining access to non- 
 Christian peoples. As a rule schools 
 have followed rather than preceded 
 
 velopment, and in China, until re¬ 
 cently, the number of converts was 
 small and development of schools 
 was correspondingly restricted. In 
 British India, elementary school 
 work—the type of education to which 
 the Government is now giving so 
 conspicuous attention — has been 
 widely extended in the work of the 
 society. Schools for girls have been 
 favored for all fields and are now 
 showing a flourishing development. 
 
 The schools have been openly and 
 strongly Christian; of no other so¬ 
 ciety is this more true. 
 
 Schools for ministerial training 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 '7 
 
 have been opened in all lields. The 
 type of work for a time was adapted 
 intentionally to the needs of the 
 common people. But, while retain¬ 
 ing this ideal, a number of the 
 schools have reached now a high 
 intellectual standard. 
 
 The convictions primarily deter¬ 
 mining the work of the society were 
 unfavorable to an early development 
 of institutions of higher education. 
 The absorbing demands created by 
 the extraordinary results which at- 
 
 h.ighly develoi)ed educational work in 
 the supply of native teachers for the 
 schools so rapidly multiplying, it is 
 seeking to cooperate strongly with 
 the general movement by provision 
 of American teachers and by finan¬ 
 cial support of this work. It is rec¬ 
 ognized that a claim of exceptional 
 urgency has developed through the 
 sudden overflowing of Western in¬ 
 fluences and Western institutions 
 upon the life of China. Through 
 these conditions, indeed, the work of 
 
 tended the work of evangelism, partic¬ 
 ularly in the fields first occupied, 
 strengthened this tendency. The be¬ 
 ginnings of collegiate work appeared 
 in Burma in 1872, in South India in 
 1894, in China in 1906. Develop¬ 
 ment of this work is now strongly 
 enlisting the attention of the society. 
 Establishment of a comprehensive 
 educational work is sought in gen¬ 
 eral and in the more advanced lands 
 the maintenance, or joint support, of 
 a Christian institution of higher edu¬ 
 cation for each section of its work. 
 In China, while the society can not 
 compete with organizations with a 
 
 higher education is brought into di¬ 
 rect relation to a permanent universal 
 evangelism since dififusion of Chris¬ 
 tianity through China is largely de¬ 
 pendent upon the Christianizing of 
 the schools. And this work, through¬ 
 out the East, is related obviously to 
 the work now disclosed as belonging 
 to an adequate discharge of the duty 
 of the Christian Church—the full 
 Christianizing of non-Christian lands 
 by the transfusion of their life with 
 Christian ideals and forces. 
 
 The higher educational work of 
 the society is represented by the Ran¬ 
 goon Baptist College, which for 
 
i8 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 many years has confronted incalcu¬ 
 lable benefits upon the peoples of 
 Burma, and by the Shanghai Baptist 
 College, founded jointly by Northern 
 
 SAW MILL, JARO INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, JARO, 
 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
 
 and Southern Baptists of America in 
 1906, and doing already a work of 
 large promise. The society cooper¬ 
 ates in the work of Madras Univer¬ 
 sity in India, and is about to enter 
 into cooperation with the collegiate 
 work of the Presbyterian and Dutch 
 Reformed bodies in Tokyo, Japan. 
 In China, the society is represented 
 in the University of Nanking, and is 
 one of four missionary organizations 
 conducting the work of the West 
 China Union University at Chengtu, 
 in Szchuen Province. Participation 
 in the work of Canton University is 
 in contemplation in South China. 
 
 The Theological Seminary for 
 Karens, which together with a Semi¬ 
 nary for Burmans and other races is 
 conducted at Insein, Burma, is said 
 to be the largest institution for minis¬ 
 terial training in the East. The 
 Telugu Seminary at Ramapatnam is 
 one of the largest in India. A theo¬ 
 logical school in Tokyo, Japan, is con¬ 
 ducted in conjunction with the South¬ 
 
 ern Baptist Board, and, in the Bel¬ 
 gian Kongo, a Biblical Training 
 School is supported jointly by the 
 society and by English Baptists. 
 
 Educational statistics are: 
 
 Pupils in colleges, 143. 
 
 High schools, 8; pupils, 3,676. 
 
 Secondary schools 98; pupils 10,- 
 717. 
 
 Primary schools 2,092; pupils 57,- 
 
 686 . 
 
 Theological and training schools 
 23; pupils 869. 
 
 Total number under instruction 
 73,091. 
 
 The opening of the hostel, or 
 dormitory, as a Christian home for 
 students in Government or private 
 schools, has formed a valued ad¬ 
 junct of educational work in several 
 of the society’s fields. In the Philip¬ 
 pines and in Japan these institutions 
 have been notably influential in work 
 for both young men and young wo¬ 
 men. Peculiarly favorable conditions 
 have been enjoyed in Japan, through 
 the friendliness of the authorities of 
 W'aseda University, in which the mis¬ 
 sionary under whose guidance this 
 interest has developed holds an ap- 
 •pointment as a lecturer in the depart¬ 
 ment of religion. 
 
 Other Forms of Work 
 
 Statistics in medical work are: 
 Missionaries 58, hospitals 27, dis¬ 
 pensaries 57, patients treated in 1913, 
 In-patients 6,232, Out-patients 94,- 
 234. The Society cooperates in those 
 of the union medical schools in China. 
 
 Industrial work has been main¬ 
 tained at many stations as a means 
 of partial self-support for pupils. 
 In India the entire service of one 
 missionary has been given to the 
 problem presented in the industrial 
 
A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 19 
 
 SINCLAIR ORPHANAGE BUNGALOW, FOR GIRLS, AT BALASORE, BENGAL 
 
 depression of the people. In the 
 Philippine Islands solution of the in¬ 
 dustrial problem is sought through 
 a flourishing school which has won 
 high commendation from the people 
 and from American officials—a school 
 of industry rather than that of tech¬ 
 nical training, which by development 
 of habits of work seeks to meet a 
 fundamental need in the islands. 
 
 From the outset the Press has been 
 widely utilized. Three printing and 
 publishing plants are now maintained ; 
 
 the Rangoon Press, which for 
 many years has done a widely in¬ 
 fluential work; the Iloilo Press, es¬ 
 tablished in 1906, and the press at 
 Canton, China, strongly developed 
 by the Southern Baptists, with whom 
 the Northern Society is now co¬ 
 operating. 
 
 A remarkable succession of gifted 
 men has contributed to a wide lin¬ 
 guistic work. Languages have been 
 caught from the lips of unlettered 
 races and reduced to writing. The 
 
 HIGH SCHOOL AT BALASORE, SHOWING GHARRI OR CARRIAGE USED BY BIBLE WOMEN 
 

 20 
 
 A CONTRIBUTION TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 
 
 Bible has been translated, as a whole 
 or in part, into upward of thirty 
 languages and dialects. Thorough¬ 
 ness and accuracy have characterized 
 this work in a marked degree. Dr. 
 Tudson’s recognized ‘‘lust for finish¬ 
 ing” having been shared by his suc¬ 
 cessors. 
 
 In general, a review of the his¬ 
 tory of the society indicates that it 
 has prized greatly, and has sought 
 to enrich, the fellowship maintained 
 by the brotherhood of missionary or¬ 
 ganizations. It is now widely repre- 
 
 MR. BILLIXGTON AND HIS MONOCYCLE, IN THE 
 BELGIAN KONGO 
 
 sented in cooperative work. In all 
 new undertakings inquiry is made 
 habitually, in the interest of economy, 
 efficiency and fraternity, as to the 
 practicability of conducting the work 
 jointly with other bodies. 
 
 It may be noted as a singular fact 
 that the annals of the society show 
 no record of martyrdom through vio¬ 
 lence. While the early history pre¬ 
 sents a story of suffering and perils 
 almost unrivaled in their severity 
 and duration; and while, in later 
 years, representatives of the society 
 have been brought repeatedly into 
 positions in which escape from 
 
 death seemed humanly impossible, it 
 would appear that not one member 
 of the mission force has received 
 formal enrolment in “the glorious 
 company of martyrs.” 
 
 If a general characterization of 
 the work of the organization be 
 sought, it may be said that it has had 
 to do, perhaps in an unusual degree, 
 with peoples who are yet in the 
 making, but who, through their na¬ 
 tive endowments and their Christian 
 development give promise of filling 
 ultimately a place of large influence 
 in the divine world-plan. It repre¬ 
 sents a great service for the uplift¬ 
 ing of deprest classes. It is bearing 
 an important part in the spiritual 
 conquest, not only of Hinduism, but 
 of Buddhism, to which at the outset 
 it laid siege in a central stronghold. 
 In its work in the farther East it 
 has laid a sound substructure and 
 has secured a vantage ground for a 
 strong cooperation in the use of all 
 agencies through which the triumph 
 of Christianity is to be achieved. 
 
 The past reveals much that is in¬ 
 spiring to the constituency of this 
 organization as it is observing its 
 centenary. Opportunities of illimit¬ 
 able reach invite. With a devoted 
 and confident body of missionary 
 workers, with increasing emphasis at 
 home upon the missionary obliga¬ 
 tion as binding upon the entire 
 church, with a strong body charged 
 with the task of missionary adminis¬ 
 tration, and with reminders in which 
 no other organization can have sur¬ 
 passed them, that all success is con¬ 
 ditioned upon recognition of depend¬ 
 ence upon Almighty God, the North¬ 
 ern Baptists of America should 
 make a genuine and ever-enlarging 
 contribution to the spread of the 
 Gospel through all the earth.