The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-27
MINISTERS AND MISSIONS.

A circular has been received show
ing the number of Protestant preachers
and missionaries now in the field A
brief reference to the statistics COM
piled by Rev E. v. Strong of Boston,
was sent out by the Associated Press
the other day.
The reports for the United States
Canada, Great Britain, Germany, con-
tinental Europe Except Germany,
Asia, Australia and Africa, in totals,
are:
Numbers of societies engaged in
work, 242: stations, 4,779: out-stations,
1864; missionaries, 1889; native Ia
borers, 81, 754; communicates, LASS, sci;
under instruction, S1O,949; income in
dollars, $16,244;372.
This is a remarkable showing. And,
while massacres are reported from At
RIGA. from China and from the islands
of Oceanica every now and then, it
does not check the work that is being
done. The report shows further that
the number of Protestant missionary
organizations laboring within the Chi
nese empire is "a, with 2,241 mission
aries, SOL native assistants and S0,6S2
communicates. There are "a Protest
ant organizations engaged in mission
airy work in Japan, with a total men,
bership of 4O,7SS
Some are inclined to criticise this
outlay and this expenditure of effort
abroad on the ground that it means
corresponding neglect of evil and ig
norance nearer home. But the churches
in every civilized country are we'll sup
piled. 1t has even been a matter of
complaint among the clergymen of this
country and Great Britain that their
profession, like all the others, is over
crowded, and that the pulpit no longer
presents the opportunities for success,
prominence and living that it once
did
Not long ago a number of New York
clergymen got together a resolved
that something would have to be done
to keep their number from increasing
too rapidly, saying that for every va
can't pulpit there is a scramble that
closely resembles the rush of the poll
ticians for offices when there is
change of administration.
A prominent Philadelphia minister,
in a letter to the New York Post, said
that the competition has reached
point in church affairs where many
self-respectin preachers absolutely re-
fuse to make any effort to obtain more
satisfactory positions than they oc-
cupy. They plod along year after year,
wasting their talents in an unappre-
ciative and uncongenial environment,
rather than give up their charges and
join in the mad strife for the better
positions. The conditions are such that
it is impossible for ministers to do the
best thinking of which they are capa-
BILE"
This shows that the missionary work
done among the benighted heather of
the world is not robbing the local field
of usefulness or talent it could well en-
ploy. But the very fact that minis
ters representing different denomina-
tions can get together and discuss
these and other matters in harmony
and to their mutual satisfaction, is
most encouraging. 1t has not been
long since SUCH conference was out
of the question. 1t shows that the
churches are progressing with the rest
of the world; that the time is ap-
preaching when they may work in uni
son for the good of humanity, for the
destruction of selfshness, for the bring
ing together of the divided religious
forces of the world.