The Portland daily press., 1896-02-10
THE CHURCHES DAY.
What the Good People Of Portland
Heard Yesterday.
CONGREGATIONALTSM AND TIE
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
Prominent Divines of the American Board
Taiked Elcquently and Pleaded for
Continued Sustenance of the Work

Iaiked frequently and Pleaded for
| Continued Sustenance of the Work
| Abstracts of Various Addresses.
Yesterday was observed by the several
| congregational churches in this city as q
Foreign Mission field day. Prominent
olergymen connected with the American
Board and with mission work filled the
pulpits at the morning and evening SER
vices and made eloquent appeals in MD of
the cause. The congregations were of
1alr size notwithstanding the heavy damp
snow storm that preya He'd
STATE STREET.
At State street, the pastor, Rev. DR..
Jenkins officiated and Rev. DR.. Barton,
one of the secretaries of the American
Board was the speaker. DR.. Barton read
as text the eleventh verse of the 55th
chapter Of Isaiah as exceedingly pertinent
to the occasion. Whoever puts himself
aga inst these words of the Lord is bound
| to fail. Victory is on the side of Gcd,
and His Kingdom and is bound to
prosper. In the early days of the war
when man came back from the front
with an empty sleeve the question was
| asked chow of the battle; who is win
| ning? We are apt to think of the foreign
work Of the missions as an auxiliary
while it is in fact the main work. There
are 50 900 church members in the foreign
field; 5000 in Bulgaria. But that number
does not cover the Christian work OF the
missions there. If you write 500, 600
~ Rx,Ix,
the fact and that means Christianity.
For the 50,000 in Turkey write million
for those who have Gods work in their
hearts. In the same proportion We
find the missionary spirit and work
pervading Japan, China, India, with
marvellous results. The laying of tha
| foundation is the great thing, the build
effort in Japan only ten converts were
made. That was in 1871 and now the
control organs OF government in that
country are invaded and supported by
missionary work.
| capital idea was given Of the true
missionary who not only gathers the
| heathen together and reads to them from
the Bible but who endures privation and
suffering in the cause of Christ without
| ever giving murmur or letting any
| one know what his sufferings have been.
Those who think they have soft job are
woefully mistaken. Every missionary
lays foundations for institutions that
shall propagate themselves. and he self
supporting. There are thousandsrOf these
churches In these foreign lands today,
composed of native converts, who are SELF
supporting and as independent in their
way as State street church ID independent
of the other churches of New England.
The speaker olsa referred to the fact that
the missionaries taught these converts
s14s~ L
no term for homo in tho oriental
| languages. The salaries Of missionaries
are small and they earn all they get.
When convert Is secured he becomes
such at great self sacrifice. He is abiured
by other members of his family and he
becomes Christian in the face of violent
persecution. To show the extent of these
convert faith it is enough to say that to
save themselves from torture, their
families from death and worse than
death, and make their property secure.
all they had TO say was, "God is God and
Mahomet is his prophet" and wrap q
white turban about their head and but
few Of them would do it. That's the
strength of their Christianity. He spoke
of the courage of DR.. Wheeler of Maine.
and Rev. Mr.. Ellis of Portland in pro-
teoting the Armenians, and told how
strong was the missionary force from
Maine. In conclusion he referred to the
need of the Board for friends. The mis-
sionary salaries had been cut down, and
the fund for tho spread OF literature and
for poor churches reduced 30 per cent.
Now is the time to back up the mission
ary work abroad and show these converts
that our religion is a fact and not name
abroad. The doctor spoke mnst eloquent
ly and made deep impression on his
congregation. The music was fine,
especially the "Te Dedium.'
EVENING SERVICE AT STATE
STREET.
Rev. George M. Rowland, missionary
who labored for many years in Japan,
delivered in State street church after
evening worship yesterday, an address
upon that country and its people, with
special regard to history. conditions
and prospects of Christianity, and the
nature of the missionary work among
them. Rev. J. Z. Jenkins, D. D., pastor
of the church introduced Rev. George
M. Rowland, who showed the position
Of tho places he referred upon large
map of the Japanese Islands. He began
by explaining the entirely different as
peot which the principles of Christianity
when first presented to the average native
Of Japan, from the view taken of them
by an Ameri can or European. Love for
God and our fellow man forms the base
upon which the religion of Christ is
built. The civilization of Japan W hich
is older than ours, rests upon the prinoi-
pie of flial piety. Beginning with love
and reverence Of the son to his father it
ended in another worship. and was dis
played formerly in the loyalty of the
vassal to his feudal lord, as it is now in
loyalty to the emperor. The family, not
the individual, is the unit Of civilization
inJ apan more than anywhere else. Every
aot of each individual is directed to-
wards the benefit Of his family. The
young men marry not for either love or
money, but in order to perpetuate their
family names. He illustrated this by
the history of young japanese Chri
tian, who, having failed to find Chris
tian wife to suit him in any of the
Christian schools for females, was finally
com pelled to marry heather girl whom
his father had selected for him. When