The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-05-04

In 1850 ........................ lb.l
In 1880 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 22.5
In 1880 Observation-Disclosures. 800
In 1900 over .......-......,............. 1888
And within recent years a full share of
this amazing growth of cities is found in
the south. Long a peaceful, pastoral
people, living on farms and in villages.
we are now rapidly becoming a manu-
featuring and commercial population re-
siding in busy towns and crowded cities.
Years ago a distinguished minister of
another church made this public state
ment; THE frontiers of modern civiliza-
ton are i'm the great cities, and America
expects methodism to man the frontiers"
The rugged faith of the spiritual from
tiersman and pathfinder that made so
brilliant the. history of our itinerant
fathers is the demand of these strenuous
times. The forces that confront and
menace the church are not tyrannous
and bloody, as in the days when martyrs
died in flood and flame. but are none
the less dangerous and dreadful. Our
prayer is that Methodsm will not dis
appoint the expectations of Christian
America.
And this drift from country to city has,
in hlany sections, so seriously weakened
the circuits as to constitute the gravest
embarrassment to the conference boards
of mission. Strong pastoral charges have
become dependent upon missionary aid
How to provide for those thinly popu-
lated districts without practically aban-
doning the entire field is often a supreme
question in annual conference admins
tration.
All of these stupendous facts suggest
the wisdom of considering what changes
In our missionary organization are neces-
sary in order to adequately meet condi-
tons that are growing more urgent every
hour. You may find it best to make
missionary organizations in cities of
20,OO0 inhabitants and more auxiliary to
the parent board and provide that the
missionaries there employed shall be un-
der the missionary rule as to qualifica-
tons and tenure of service.
Foreign Missions.
The past quadrennium has been the
greatest in the history of the missionary
operation of our church. The discussion
of missionary obligation in sermons and
In addresses at missionary institutes and
the survey of the fields and the facts
in the numerous mission study classes
held by our young people, have deepened
conviction and intensified interest to such
an extent that the church has responded
as never before. Seventeen annual con-
ferences 121 districts and 1927 pastoral
charges have paid their assessments In
full for foreign missions; and yet less
than on-third of our people give to this
cause.
total receipts of the board of missions
for foreigns missions have been as fol-
lows.
1923 ........ ........................$ 366,1S0
1904 ,.......,............... Oo6
190i-5 .............. .................. 436'S5s
l9O5-6 ..... -.....,..........'.'..... 46"soa
Total . ...............$1,65 $50, 1917
During this quadrennium one who was
always a princely giver left the board
its largest bequest-s35,000. All honor to
the blessed memory of Richard M.
Scruggs!
China is at once the greatest and most
difficult OF mission fields. We have been
working there for over half century,
and the numerical results seem meager.
Eut it must not be forgotten that an
Immense amount of preparatory work
had to be done in mastering the lam
guage-in the preparation of litera-
ture--in the provision of an adequate
equipment of churches. schools and hos
pitfalls. The work is now well organized
and is making progress beyond anything
we have known in the history of our mis-
sion.
The establishment of the SoOchow uni
versity and the Laura Haygood memorial
for the higher education of women, the
enlargement Ct our medical work, the
Changchow--as evangelstic centers, and
the establishment of the Union Publish
ing house In Shanghai are fair indica-
lions of the aggressive policy which is
being pu1.ued.
The empire is in state of unrest, due
probably more 10 the leaven of new ideas
than to the existence primarily of anti
foreign spirit. We are humiliated, how
ever, to confess that much of the recent
agitation in China against American
commerce, and which, of necessity af-
fects more or less all missionary opera
lions, has teen largely occasioned by the
unsympathetic and sometimes vexatious
Il not vicious administration of the
Chinese exclusion law. The Chinese gov
eminent and people make no complaint
against the EXCLUSION of coolie labor
from America, but they do resent the
hardships TO which The merchant and
student classes have been subjected. We
cannot make TOO strong protest against
the infiction ,of res soral indignity upon
the representatives. OF any nation, and
sincerely hope the measures recon-
mended by President Roosevelt will lead
tn the :.melioration of present condi-
items.
In April, 1907, there will be held in
Shanghai a general conference of mis-
sionaries in commemoration of the open
ing of Protestant missionary work in
China by Robert Morrison, just 100 years
ago. An invitation has been extended
our church to send one or more repre-
sentatives to this great gathering.
Japan.
Marvellous changes have been wrought
in Japan She has turned her back
rather scornfully upon the dead past and
is facing an ambitious future. She has
welcomed the mighty stir and energy
of western civilization, without its Chris
tan religion. She has appropriated the
enterprise of the west without its ethics
Its utilitaranism without Its faith.
1t is the sublime opportunity and mis-
sion of the church to challenge this
eager thought, and, while not arrestlng
its movement, direct 1t into divine chan
nels. When the mind is most alert the
Holy Spirit can more speedily and saw
ingiy work. So as the island kingdom
is emerging from the rigid, stolid con-
servatism of the past and is feeling after
the power and thrill of a new life, the
church must act promptly and vigorously
or superstitution will give way to rank
infidelity That wonderful change has
been wrought. the faded shrines and
weatherworn temples of the country am
ply and eioquently testify. The old falths
have largely lost their grasp upon the
national mind but the true light has not
yet shined upon it. Japan Is in the eye
of the world and must command the
special concern of the church OF CHRIST.
AS goes Japan, so will be the Orient.
The increasing influence of the japanese
In China and their dominance in Korea
give almost perlous Significance TO Japan
as a field for missionary endeavor Inc
times will not wait We must move