Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-31
MISSION WORK BY STUDENTS
Volunteer Movement Recruiting
Agency for Foreign Field.
OVER FOUR THOUSAND TO CREDIT
Increase I'm Missionary Giving An
other Result Of Organization,
According TO Report of tx
ecutive Committed.

ROCHESTER,, N. Y. Dec. 3O.-The report
Of the executive committee of the Student
Volunteer Movement OF Foreign Missions.
at present In session in this city, sets forth
that the primary and permanent function
Of the movement Is that Of a recruiting
agency seeking to enroll a sufficient num-
Der OF qualified volunteers to meet
the requirements of the mission boards of
North America.
The best evidence of the efficiency and
power Of the Student Volunteer Movement
is the number OF sailed volunteers. At the
Toronto convention in 1902 II was reported
that $50 volunteers had sailed during the
preceding four years. In the quadrennium
following the Toronto convention and end
Ing with the Nashville convention In 1906
1000 volunteers sailed. During the four
years which have since elapsed, ending
with the Rochester convention, I.2S3 volun-
teers have sailed, or nearly 300 more than
for the quadrennium ending with the Nash
Vile convention. The total number OF
volunteers who have sailed since the be-
ginning Of the movement in 1886 is 4.346.
Students More Liberal Givers.
Another test OF the rising tide OF prac-
.tical missionary interest among students
is the increase in their missionary giving.
~ No'i AAiO IL NdS AtDOIl Una TIC SUI
dents OF North America were contributing
$500 % a year to missionary objects. They
are now giving S127, 900 a year toward such
objects. or an increase in four years OF
nearly 90 per cent. There are literally
scores Of colleges and schools each sup
porting entirely or in large part its own
representative on the foreign field. The
students OF Yale head the list at present
with their contribution last year of fully
500 to missionary objects. Among
women's colleges the students Of Vassar
made the largest contribution, having given
last year 80, 1856.
The last four years have been a record
breaking period in the promotion of mis-
sion study among students. In the year
preceding the Nashville convention there
were 1,09 mission study classes In institu-
lions of higher learning in the United
States and Canada. Last year there were
2,0s4. In the year before the Nashville con-
vention the total number engaged in mis-
sion study was Il, 629. During the last year
1t was Is, 208. The number has doubled in
four years.
Volunteers for Mission Fields.
9TH most important concern of the
Volunteer Movement and it's friends
says the report, lis to augment greatly,
probably to double, the number of we'll
equipped volunteers who can in the i'm
mediate or near future press out to the
mission fields. Today throughout the
entire Far East, in all the principal parts
OF the Near East, such as Turkey and
Russia, in Southern Asia, in the East
Indies, throughout the larger part of the
African continent, and even in parts Of
Latin America, the Christian Church
faces nothing less Than an acute and
momentous crisis. This crisis can be
met only by the sending out of a larger
number than are now forthcoming of
thoroughly capable and we'll furnished
missionaries. On the home side we are
subject to the growing pressure of the
expanding ability of the church to send
forth an army Of workers, primarily as a
result of the uprising OF Christian lay
men in the Laymen's Missionary Move
ment, not to speak of the various For
ward Movements in some of the Christian
commissions and of the very effective
work of the Young Peoples Missionary
Movement in the Sunday Schools and
among the large numbers of other young
people"