The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-10-06

c1eS.
 Last year. at New Haven, Conn.,, a | committee of fifteen, Rev, MT, Smyth D. D., of New Haven chairman, was ap- | pointed to report on the working plans and policy of the board in the conduct of it's missions. Hon. J. M, w, Hall of | Cambridge, Mass, a member of the | prudential committee, took the initia- tive in suggesting the broad scope and vital importance of the questions sug- gested The report as submitted Is as | follows:
 Our missions in papal lands are al- ready reduced to small dimensions, and are not carried on in antagonism to Ro- man Catholicism, but serve rather as an evangelistic and educational leaven which may prove needed and saluta- | ny element in the larger providential l development of papal lands. The with l draWal now of our few faithful labor CTS, who for long years have been rep resenting the best influences of Protes- tantism in papal lands, would not be expedient Our missionary school at San Sebastian, Spain, has withdrawn during the war to the French border, but it is still doing its quiet educational work, and It's maintenance now, even more than hitherto, may be part or our Christian duty toward spain. Shall approximately less amount of 1 the funds of the board be devoted to educational work? temporary abridgement of evangelistic work does not involve permanent loss, as such work may easily be expanded when in creasing revenues permit it's enlarge ment; while, on the other hand a tenn porary retrenchment in educational work might involve a permanent loss loss not easily to be repaired when increased revenues might permit it.
 Native churches may become self supporting, self-governed and self taught; but we cannot conceive of them as not requiring from without for many years the stimulating and re- freshing streams which have their chief sources of supply in the springs of a pure literature and an exacting Biblical scholarship. Until the funds devoted to evangelistic work have become less than those given to Christian educa- tion, we are therefore of the opinion that the question submitted to us by the paper of the prudential committee | ohOuId pc dHoWClCN py oii SAiiliAeieiN negative. Our survey also makes it evident that all mission boards are feeling their way along the direction of self-support in missions. Our own American board stands in the front rank as to this essential principle. Any too sudden withdrawal of aid or too radical insistence upon self-support might bring loss instead of gain to for
 eign missions. We commend our mis- sionaries for the efforts which they are
 steadily making towards this goal. We
 do not think that in any of our mis-
 sions a complete change of policy in
 this respect would at present be desira-
 ble.
 There are sixteen self-supporting , churches in the eastern Turkey mis-
 sion. There are aIfew in both western
 and central Turkey. Also some in the Marathi mission. In the Madura mis-
 sion all the thirty-eight churches are , self-supporting. The same is true of the eighteen in the Ceylon mission and , In Japan about forty churches main- tain themselves. Several in China do this, likewise. Tn Japan, indeed, the ctluTCHtS udNe Deeu ldISSly iHueDSU- l dent from the first The contributions } for their own support by native church l es advanced from $5,000 to over $f00 COG ! during the thirty years previous to 1894 ) Your committee would report in favor r of more frequent visitation of our mis- sion fields in the A. B. c. F. M. The touch of home which a deputation
 brings with 1t to the isolated workers
 in the foreign field is of great inspira- tional value in the intellectual and so- 3 cial life of the mission in it's spiritual reinforcement. For all questions oi 2 policy, for adjustment to changed con- ditions, the harmonizing of differences
 and the questions of enlargement or re- duction of work in evangelistic and ed ? ucational lines, the presence and judg- ment of such deputation are worth : much to the local administration, and r even more to the governing boards al l home. We find a growing disposition to recognize this need in all branches ot
 missionary work.
 A personal visit reveals atmosphere and temperature which the statistics ot , annual reports and budgets can never register and so the home office gets i'm
 pfeSSlOnS or p0llCleS ana WOrk anC ,, workers which are oftentimes as essen l. tial to successful administration as tabulated facts. Such deputations i1
 their official reports to the board itsel1 and the churches at large arouse great
 public interest and attention in the special fields of their visit. Such meth. ods of creating and popularizing mis. : sionary enthusiasm are both education al and widely remunerative to the A treasury of the board and are wortf
 much m ore than their cost in these
 ways of increased intelligence and pop
 ular interest. Such visiting delegation: ;, must be spiritually sympathetic ant x clear headed, and as widely representa- tive as possible-both of the admins : tration of the board and of the church
 es. Their selection must be guarded
 from all favoritism and dictated by nt
 prejudgments in the questions commit ted to their study, and would wisely bt
 made, we think, from the executiv,
 staff of the board, such as one of tn, | secretaries and from the churches in cluding both laymen and pastors. Thi = policy of visitation may become sys t tematic and regular so that each anC
 every one of our mission fields, within