The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-13

eration. The Board looked all over
 this Held at it's last meeting. saw the possibilities and the need of their work. and despite the fact that they i knew too the privations and self sae- rifice that would be the portion of the mission workers. assumed for those
 wrokers and with their. permission, the responsibility of 76,00o.00 souls in twenty different parts ow the world.
 When the society was first organized there were only seventeen states ln the union. the great Louisiana Pur- chase had only just been completed, Texas, New Mexico and a great part Of the far Southwest were a part of Mexico, the, north western states were Of undecided ownership. and Alaska was practically unknown land. Of the 7'25O. 00o1 people who then consti- tuted the population of the United States only small percentage was of the Congregational faith. only a scant dozen or SO were volunteers for mis- sion service in foreign countries. There were grave dangers by land and sea, and communication between home and the mission was an annual event, If at all. Since then. by war, by treaty and by purchase, the United States has more than trebled its area; the population has been multiplied by eleven; steam engines and steam boats have brought the lands and the people of the world closer, and the telegraph has removed the missionary from complete isola. ton from the rest of the world. The merbership of the Congregational Church approximates 700,00 and these are supporting an enormous mission work. Their interest and their efforts are supporting six other benevolent boards besides the Foreign Missions.
 The American Board of Foreign Mis- stons conducts, all told, twenty mis- sions in twelve foreign lands, by means of 566 American missiona ries and 4,O64 native workers. Every Sum day. through the instrumentality of the Board the gospel is preached in twen- ty-seVen different tongues and in l.s43 different places. It conducts the largest educational missionary enter prises in the world. having fourteen theological seminaries, eighteen col leges and over i,50O other schools with an enrolment of over 64.OOo pupils. Knowing that on the training of Idle hands and the development of In- dustrialism much of the worlds fu- ture progress depends, the Board has established and maintains a system of industrial schools where 13,000 chill dren of many lands are taught carpen- try, masonry. blacksmlthing, weaving, spinning. cooking and other useful arts. Seeing the vast need for help for those afiicted with disease or de- formity. the Board has established hospitals and dispensaries, seventy in all, in Turkey. India, Ceylon. China and Africa. and in the past year 37O.- 900 cases were treated in these.
 Wherever the Gospel has gone. the medical missionary has gone; some times it was he who took the gospel to the people His diploma is oftau from one of the finest medical colleges. and his salary is that of a young, in, experienced clerk. $1.400 for each phy- Sician to pay his own salary and pro- vide for assistants supplies and ex- penses. The paths taken by the men of this kind are widely diversified. Several hundred miles Into the heart of Africa, far into the Arctic regions. into the heart of the HlmaIayas on far islands of the sea the medical nis. slonary has taken his way. He may travel on elephant or camel, in canoe or sled. in rickshaw or palanquln. in a wheel-barrow or a hammock slung on poles, or he may walk lonE. long distances. His dispensary is often a tiny hut and his patients are men and women won over from superstitious rites in healing. Ills instruments are the simplest that can be packed for lonB Jourueyb ana ms operations are l often performed by roadside or in l the porch of his cabin. Of the 370. oOO cases treated last year by the men | of tho Board nearly one-third were in | Turkey, where government restrictions
 make 1t almost impossible for a na- | two to practice medicine. Ninety l seven thousand more were in China
 whero the prejudice against the for eign devil and hia medicine Is slowly l passing away.
 Tn northern Mesopotamfa there is a
 mission hospital. the only one of ita
 kind in all that big section of the
 country. and to which Arab. Turk | Koord. Syrian and Armenian come for | treatment. For thirty-tAree years one | devoted medical missionary has .heen | working there and his successes have been many, despite the many dlscour- agements. Tt is not so much what
 we have done" he writes. "as how we have been compelled to do it wlthAni