The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-10-05


MY faith looks up to thee"
was followed with prayer by Rev. John w
Chickering, D. d., of AOakefeld, Mass. and
Rev. John 6 Wilson, of Portland. These
interesting and tender devotional exercises
were closed with singing the verse,
s'May thy rich grace impaIt."
Rev. DR.. Clarke, Foreign Secretary, read a
special paper on the Growth and Need of the
foreign work. II reads as follows
GROWTH AND NEED OF THE FOR
EHGN WORK.
By Rev. N. q. Clark, ID. d., Foreign
Secretary.
The question is often asked of the Score.
taries of the American Board, GLOW many
men do you need for the foreign field?''
The answer usually given, Twenty five OF
thirty in addition to those already in SER
vice." refers only to the pressing wants OF
existing missions. If regard were had TO
the extent and actual needs of the entire
field which in the providence of God has
been left to the constituency of the Board,
the answer would be a very different one.
That field now embraces population OF
over one hundred million of souls. Many OF
the current statements in regard to its needs
are very misleading, and tend to belittle its
claims in the popular mind. Because as
many men are needed for Vermont or for Da-
kota Territory as the Prudential Committee
of the American Board ask to supply the
urgent demand of the missions under its
care, it by no means follows that the work
in these different fields is in equal need or
of equal Importance to the promotion of the
kingdom of Christ. Nor does it follow that
because only few men are called for, and
relatively small advance is asked in con-
tributions to the treasury, that more is
not needed. 1t is due to our constituency to
set forth occasionally full view fthe whole
work, its opportunities and its needs. This
is only practicable as we take into account
its growth and development, the princi-
Piles on which it is conducted, and the pop
ulations that have become accessible to
effort. Our purpose may be best served By
brief review of successive decades.
1. 1slO-1S2O,
At the first annual Meeting of the
Board in 1910, the Prudential Committee
and the Corresponding Secretary were in
tructed to obtain information concerning
unevangelized nations to be reported at the
next meeting; and the young men at An
dover who had offered their services were
advised to pursue their studies till
such information was secured. The vast
populations of the heathern world were in
deed sitting in darkness, but they were ap.
parently inaccessible. The next year, after
securing all the information at command.
Messrs. Judson, Mott, Newell, and Hall
were appointed missionaries s'to labor in
Asia, either in the Burman Empire, in Su-
rat, or in the Prince of Wales Island, or
elsewhere, as Providence should open the
most favorable door" The vagueness of
these instructions is evidence of the practi-
cal inaccessibiity of the heather world at
that time. This inaccessibility is further
shown by the fact that in neither of the
particular regions mentioned did the Board
ever establish a mission, and also by the
difficulty experienced in finding sselse.
where an opportunity for missionary la.
Dor; yet by persistent effort beginning
was made in the Maratha field and three
years afterward in Ceylon. The rising
missionary spirit, not to be baffled by diff
culties abroad, was directed towards the In.
dian tribes within our borders, and vigo
rous mission was begun among the Chero
KEGS IN 1917, and another among the Choc
taws, the year after
pairing the way fer labor in another quarter
and the tears of poor waif from the Sand
wich Islands sitting on the threshold o.
Yale College, fell not in vain. A party o.
fourteen missionaries, led by Bingham anC
| Thurston, sailed from Boston in October
1910, for the Sandwich Islands, to begin .
| work which was to give a new impulse t,
foreign missions the world over A few
| days later Fisk and Parsons left for Pales
tine in the hope of republishing the gospe
| at Jerusalem.
| had been organized, twenty-three station
occupied, and lightweight missionaries, in
| GLIDING twenty-six ordained ministers ha,
been sent out. The energy and boldnes
displayed in the first decade marked tn
faith of the fathers, who walked not b
sight, but by the light of Divine command
| and promises. The expenditure for th
year 1926 was $4,000. The accessible pop
ulation, including all the inhabitants of tn
Sandwich Islands, the two Indian tribes
and the few thousand reached in Bomba
and Ceylon did not probably exceed OIL
hundred and fifty thousand. OF the entir
missionary force, fourty-four were employee
among the Indians. The first convert
were enrolled among them, and woman
work, which has since grown to such mag
nificent proportions, was begun by two I'LL
married women in 1917, among the CherC
KEGS. 1t was not yet time for a native ageI
cy. The missionaries were sufficient for til
population within their reach. ~
~ Two experiments were began, of value 70
the information thereby acquired; one that {
educating youth from abroad in this country
intthe hope of their return to preach the gospt
to their own people; the other that of introdu,
ing the arts OF civilized life in connection wit
the gospel. The Foreign School, establishe
at Cornwall, Connecticut, in 1916, to whic
youth from different mission fields wei
brought for education, began with gres
promise had at one time over thirty student
in attendance. many of whom made professio
OF religion, but was closed after ten years tria
The young mon educated here at great g,
pense, were of little, if of any, value to til
missionary cause. OF twelve Greek youtl
eleven of whom finished their studies at An
herst or Yale, only two names appeared in sui
sequent years as HELPERS to the missionarie
One of these left his post to study medcn
aud the name of the other was soon missing G
the roll Of laborers. The experiment. howeve
was not in vain. It proved that natiye agen
should be educated in the countries where the
are to labor and thus be kept in sympathy wit
their own people; and it justified all needf
expenditure in the founding of schools al
semnaries for higher Christian education
| mission ground.
The second experiment, the introduction
the arts and usagss of civilized life, was trio
among the Indians, and later in the SandwiC
Islands, and the result in each case was I'll
conviction that preaching of the gospel shou
be first, and civilization afterwards; that ed
cation, even, valuable as il is is to be used as
missionary agency only so far as it may seeu
attention to gospel truth, and be a means
preparing native teachers and preachers
take up and carry forward the work begun
missionaries. The gospel must give the il
pulse to an intellectual movement, and instit
tions to foster it, once fairly begun, must
The first decade in the history of the Boal
was thus fruitful in its lessons for after time
II. 1S20-1S30.
During the next ten years, exploration