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rhe Outlook Missions
Easter, 1924
SUMMER MISSIONARY CONFERENCES
1924— THE DATES— 1924
Hood College Frederick, Md.... July 7 to July 13
Rev. Scott R. Wagner, D.D., Hagerstown, Md., Chairman
Bethany Park Indianapolis, Ind July 12 to July 18
Rev. F. W. Knatz, Fort Wayne, Ind., Chairman
Kiskiminetas Academy Saltsburg, Pa. July 19 to July 25
Rev. A. B. Bauman, Johnstown, Pa., Chairman
Heidelberg University. Tiffin, Ohio .....July 26 to August 1
Rev. R. W. Blemker, Canton, Ohio, Chairman
Theological Seminary Lancaster, Pa. August 2 to August 8
Rev. John B. Noss, Ephrata, Pa., Chairman
Ursinus College Collegeville, Pa. August 11 to August 17
Rev. H. I. Stahr, Bethlehem, Pa., Chairman
Mission House Plymouth, Wis August 18 to August 24
Rev. E. H. Opperman, Sheboygan, Wis., Chairman
Announcements of the North Carolina Conference will be made later
For Further Information Address
Rev. a. V. Casselman, D.D., Department of Missionary Education
Room 417, Schaff Building, 1505 Race Street, Philadelphia
Q 1
The Outlook of Missions
HEADQUARTERS: SCHAFF BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Published Monthly by the Board of Foreign Missions, the Board of Home Missions and the Woman's Missionary Society of General Synod, Reformed Church in the United States.
CONTENTS FOR APRIL
THE QUIET HOUR 146
GENERAL
A Prayer for Easter 147
"If It Were Not So" 147
"As a Wise Master-Builder" 149
HOME MISSIONS
Death of Missionary Thomas J. Hacker 151
Notes 152
Organization of Trinity Reformed Church, Sherman, Cal 153
Hungarian Students 154
The Sacrifices and Struggles of Our Early Ministers 155
California and the Reformed Church 157
Observations of the Treasurer 161
The Commission on Social Service and Rural Work 165
Religious Dramas 164
FOREIGN MISSIONS
Can We Give Too Much? 165
A Young Wilson for Japan 166
Kanda Church, Tokyo, Japan 167
Travel Sketches 168
Has Japan the Stamina to Recover? 171
After Many Days 172
First Christian Funeral in Yungsui 173
The Task of Our Church in China 174
New Castles of Cathay 176
Book Reviews 178
THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY
Gaps in the Field of Home Missions 179
Notes 180
Miss Iske Will Go to China 182
"Das Kreuz Bringt Rosen" 183
A Great Christian Institute at Vassar College 184
Japanese Kindergarten, San Francisco 185
Girls' Missionary Guild Celebrations 186
The Slum-Life in Japan 187
Stewardship in the Home 189
Literature Chat 190
Japan on the Upward Trail 191
A Spring Hike 192
SUBSCRIPTION, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE
Send all Remittances to "The Outlook of Missions," Room 310, Schaff Building Fifteenth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, Pa.
Entered as Second-class Matter June 12, 1909, at the Post Of?ice at Philadelphia, Pa., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on June 29, 1918.
JUI.IA Hall Bartholomew
(HifvxBt bnttg tuisth from tljp liFali btrtly no mor?; htutb iyatly no mor^ Jiominton otipr htm. — Somaitfi fi:3.
"A new day! Fresh from His eternity God sends this cloudless bit of time in which we may work and dream and pray. How price- less is it, and yet our Father sends it to us as a free gift of love ! Shall we not carry the joy and song and radiance of the early morn- ing into all the hours of this gracious day?"
Every day is a fresh beginning.
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain.
And in spite of old sorrow and older sinning, And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain. Take heart with the day and begin again !
— Susan Coolidge.
"Humanity has taken on new dignity since Jesus walked this earth. . . . It is the goal and not the beginning that determijies a jour- ney's meaning. And Jesus is the goal of all our striving. To His perfection we seek to approach. In His likeness alone shall we be satisfied."
"To know that our life is fulfilling its divine destiny gives us power to dispense with many things and to reinterpret all untoward things in the light of ultimate triumph."
Out of eternity this new day is born ; Into eternity at night will return.
— Thomas Carlyle.
We come into the mount not only to speak, but to listen. How seldom we wait to hear what God the Lord will speak ! And yet the most important part of prayer is not what we say to God, but what God says to us.
— Samuel Chadwick.
No prayer did ever speed aright,
But forth it steals anon And hangs in heaven a little light
To lead its brothers on.
— Frederick Langbridge.
We do so little good because we have little resource. We dream of the vast things we should have accomplished with talent and for- tune. Yet is not the whole history of Chris- tianity designed to teach the contrary idea — the wealth of the poor, the power of the feeble? — W. L. Watkinson.
How become a little child, you cry. Look to Jesus ! The feebleness of Bethlehem and the manger, of Calvary and the grave, was Christ's way to enter the kingdom. For us there is no other way.
— Andrew Murray.
"For all the joys Thou sendest. For gifts so full and free —
We raise, O Lord, a grateful song Of heartfelt praise to Thee."
So let us walk in the sunshine ! About us, invisible, ever is a ministering host of angels. Close to us ever is the benignant Master. Why should we hurry, or strive, or be vexed?
— Margaret E. Sangster.
Where God is reigning in the heart there will be an ever-deepening detestation of sin on its own account; of sin because it is sin, because it is so infinitely hateful to God himself.
— Joseph Parker.
Like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. — Romans 6 : 4.
O for a song, a glad ne\y song,
A song of joy and praise. To sing the name all names above. The name that tells of saving love,
The blessed name of Jesus !
— R. M. Ofeord.
OGOD, who for our redemption didst give Thine only-begotten Son to the death of the Cross, and by His glorious resurrection hast delivered us from the power of the enemy. Grant us so to die dailv from sin, that we may evermore live with Hini m the joy of His resurrec- tion, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.— Book of Common Prayer.
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of Missions
Volume XVI Number 4 Aprie, 1924
OUR MOTTO: The Church a Missionary Society — Every Christian a Life Member
A Prag^r Irfnr? EaBt^r
OUR Father, we open with joy the gates of our souls to let the King come in. Not for a passing hour of triumph would we receive Him, to send Him hence away with broken heart and prostrate purpose ; but we welcome Him to abide forever as Lord and King. Prepare us for His coming. May our hearts be cleansed of sin and our purposes purified from evil. Search us with candles. ^ Create in us clean hearts, and renew right spirits within us. Then with gladness and the voice of praise we shall greet Him whose right it is to reign. Amen.
"IF IT WERE NOT SO, I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU"
OUR dear Saviour spoke these strange words to His chosen disciples a few- hours before His tragic death on the cross. He told them of His departure, and the sad tidings threw them into a tumult of trouble. They could not bear the thought of separation, even though it was for their benefit. Hope, the guest of their hearts, took wings and flew away. Despair laid hold of their souls, and made everything appear dark and sad. When Jesus saw their distress, He said: 'Xet not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Faith in Christ is the arm that lays hold of the promises of God in the hour of sorrow. The Mas- ter points every troubled heart to the end of all earthly trials in that "rest which remaineth to the people of God." He assured His followers: "In my Father's house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to pre- pare a place for you." Here, then, is the great anchor of hope, for the cable of faith, which "entereth into that within the veil." What matters it, if we have trials and tribulations here, all, all, shall be well in the home of the blest. But there hangs that impenetrable curtain, which hides from our present view the reality of the heavenly world. If we could only grasp the unseen and eternal, I am sure we would shed no tears and carry no wounds in our hearts when friend after friend departs. Here, too,
we find the secret of the sadness of the disciples. Their sore experience found an echo in the wail of Thomas: "Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way.*' Oh, let us pray God to open our eyes that we may behold the wondrous beauty in the reply of Jesus to Thomas : "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me."
Words derive their significance from the circumstances under which they were spoken. The last words of our Lord must be read under the shadow of the Cross. We are treading on holy ground. We are listening to the final message of a friend who sticketh closer than a brother. These dying words of Jesus should be spoken with the same reverence and love as we are wont to feel in speaking of the dying word or look of our precious dead.
Our Saviour told His disciples many things, but He said very little in regard to the future life. The Lord Jesus evi- dently meant to teach them and us a great lesson by His strange silence about heaven. There is a familiar proverb which says that "speech is silver, but silence is golden." The grasp of the hand, the glance of the eye, the quiver of the lip, often stirs us more than the peal of the trumpet. No word of mouth could have made such a deep impression on Peter as the silent look of Jesus.
147
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The: Outlook of Missions
[April
Let us ever remember that the Bible is not a full revelation of God and of the eternal world. St. Paul knew this, for he wrote to the Christians at Corinth : ''No-w we know in part, but then shall we know even as also we are known." Only truths essential to salvation are given to man. Much was left to inference. It is God's glory to conceal a matter. Secret things belong to Him. We are to walk by faith, not by sight. Jesus did not say to the disciples: ''Believe in the future life, or accept the promise of heaven," but "believe in Me/' He is the essence of true faith, and they that trust in Him shall know the truth and be freed from
the limitations of the man who walks by sight.
The words, "If it were not so, I would have told you," form a parenthesis in the midst of one of our Lord's greatest prom- ises. There can be no doubt but that the whole passage is a most precious prom- ise of a glorious future. As Christians we would like to know more about heaven, the place, the people, the occu- pation and the kind of life there, but we can safely trust our future into the care of One who loves us dearly and who has gone to prepare a place for us in the Father's House on high.
Ai.i.e:n R. Barthoi^omew.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPEN TO CHRISTIAN TEACHING IN
TOKYO
The amazing news has just been received from Tokyo, Japan, to the effect that the primary schools in that capital city are now open to Christian teaching once a week.
There has been a conviction growing for some time in the minds of many leaders in Japan, that their educational system is weak in imparting the moral fiber to their children and youth that they would like to see. It may be a result of this conviction that the Mayor of Tokyo recently called into consultation the Rev. S. Imamura^ General Secretary of the National Sunday School Association of Japan, and asked him to suggest the best method for the spiritual and moral education of the young citizens of Tokyo.
Mr. Imamura accordingly presented a plan by which they could begin to do something at once by sending speakers to the different schools once a week and he agreed to secure the speakers. This, the Mayor at once accepted, and a pro- gram for the next few months was made out.
This is a wonderful door of oppor- tunity as well as a great responsibility for the Sunday School workers in Japan. After March, the National Sunday School Association will be solely respon- sible for the speakers and the money to provide the same. Mr. Imamura reports that $2,500 may be needed per year to carry on this work and that a group of
lay Christians are already organizing to get behind the proposition.
There are untold possibilities in the movement. Sunday School workers in Japan have been sowing seed in Japan for years, of course, but one of the things that has doubtless contributed to it was the World's Sunday School Convention in Tokyo, in October, 1920.
There was the great demonstration of the Convention itself, and for Tokyo there was the wonderful exhibit that was attended by 44,000 people, and the spe- cial lectures throughout the city, attended by 35,000 people, that were planned by a committee under the direction of the Edu- cational Secretary, Mr. H. E. Coleman, | who is the representative of the World's I Sunday School Association. Mr. Cole- I man is now in America on furlough and ^ will participate in the World's Conven- tion in Glasgow next June before return- ing to Japan. Some of these lecture meetings were held in school buildings and definitely promoted by the Superin- tendent of Education for the city and a personal friend, who was a business man. There could hardly be a better proof of the wisdom of investing money in the Sunday School work in Japan. The proposed Brown Memorial Sunday School Building is greatly needed to make the carrying out of their growing program possible.
1924]
The: Outlook of Missions
149
Will You LOOK OUT For Us?
IT IS A JOY TO DO THINGS FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE PLEASED WITH WHAT IS BEING DONE FOR THEM.
THE READERS OF THE OUTLOOK OF MISSIONS DO ENJOY THE FEAST OF GOOD NEWS THAT IS SPREAD BEFORE THEM EACH MONTH, IF ONE MAY TAKE AT THEIR FACE VALUE THE MANY FINE THINGS THAT ARE SPOKEN AND WRITTEN ABOUT IT.
WHAT WE DESIRE NOW IS TO ADD ONE THOUSAND NEW NAMES TO OUR SUBSCRIPTION LIST, DURING THE FIRST WEEK IN MAY, 4-11.
THERE ARE TWO FRUITFUL SOURCES FROM WHICH SUB- SCRIBERS SHOULD BE EASILY SECURED— THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY. EVERY SUPERINTENDENT OF MISSIONS AS WELL AS EVERY TEACHER IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL AND EVERY MEMBER OF THE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY SHOULD HAVE THIS MISSION- ARY MAGAZINE, FOR IT IS THE BEST MEDIUM IN OUR CHURCH TO BROADCAST THE NEWS FROM OUR MISSION FIELDS.
"AS A WISE MASTER-BUILDER" A Personal Tribute to Dr. James I. Good
THE writer's earliest recollection of drew, however, to what was, to him, a
Dr. Good carries him back not far still more congenial atmosphere, in the
from half a century. It was at the old-fashioned sitting room, where mother
writer's country home in CoUegeville ; he and others, with some of the children,
a lad of twelve, the visitor a young min- were assembled, indulging in the kindly
ister of twenty-eight, always welcome conversations of the heart, and where
there, and none' more dearly loved. dogma dared not tread. Presently he
The Commencement season at the col- turned to the piano, and, attuned to the
lege had brought with this gracious visi- simplest, sweetest melody, this is what he
tor a numerous company of older and sang:
more distinguished leaders in the Church, "We are building in sorrow or joy,
some of whom had gathered in my A temple the world cannot see,
father's commodious study, where they Which time cannot mar or destroy;
were ardently engaged in the theological We build for eternity."
discussions of that historic time. -p^en followed the equally unpreten-
Dr. Good enjoyed associations such as ^-^^^^ ^^^^ melodious refrain, which was
these ; and he took the keenest, yet a g without display, and finally repeated
wmsomely boyish interest in all his grave -^^ appealing cadences :
and reverend seniors had to say, an inter- ..-r. •, i- u -u- a
est thoroughly earnest, but always bub- ^^^1,^^^"-; huMmg every day;
bhng with peculiar personal delight, not- Building for eternity,
withstanding the fact that he himself was I do not recall having seen or heard
not inclined to heated controversy. that song since then ; but through all the
After a little while he quietly with- years the efifect it produced on the lad's
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The Outlook oi^ Missions
[April
mind has lingered. Nor will the memory of that song be lost till God call. Unaf- fected, subdued, pure voiced as it was pure hearted, it found an house for itself, even the altar of a youthful soul.
And was it not, after all, a pulsating epitome of the unsullied personality and diligent service of the singer himself, the very sum of essential Christianity? Sweetness, simplicity, and constructive, constant industry in the winning of the world for God, was the joy-song of his very being, the whole rapt story of his busy life —
"Building, building, every day; Building for eternity."
For me, in that impressive introduc- tion to this gracious man was all the later fulness and final consummation of his long and useful career, the man himself, ever intensely and busily here, yet seem- ing from some other sphere — "His dear Redeemer's throne, Where only Christ is heard to speak, Where Jesus reigns alone"— a sphere of which we see so little in these days of strenuous strife and cruel selfish- ness. And if it were left to me to write his epitaph, it probably would read like this:
Thy Gentleness hath made him Great ;
great only in his victorious desire
to be Gentle himself, gentle and
Gracious in all his relations
with Thee and with Thine, with Mine,
And with Everybody. His life displayed the great glory of a beatitude in an age of battleships, the triumph of grace over force, the beauty of benevolence, the prevailing power of a pure heart.
Henry A. Bomberger.
THE BUSINESS OF MISSIONS
It would be difficult to find a publica- tion on the work of Foreign Missions that equals this latest volume from the pen of Dr. Cornelius H. Patton, Home Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The title, "The Business of Missions," will arrest any one who is alert to the signs of the times. That the work of Missions is a business, and the biggest of its kind in the world, finds abundant proof in these pages. There is such a reliable tone to all the statements that even the skeptic must sit up and take notice. The author's style is attractive and his art of putting things convincing. In the seven chapters, of about thirty pages each. Dr. Patton sets forth the mis- sionary enterprise in all its vastness, variety and success. He is not blind to the great problems that its promoters must face on the field and at the home base. Those who know this genial mis- sionary statesman would expect him to give a large place to the spirit of co-oper- ation that prevails in every department of the work. The chapter on "Business at Headquarters" gives a clear-cut analy- sis of the administrative work and shows that this cannot be done without a Board and its officers. That the Church is in the midst of a new world era is defined in no uncertain tone, and that the Church has the word for which humanity waits. Every one who has the welfare of man- kind at heart will want to buy, read and ponder this popular book, issued by The Macmillan Company, New York. Price $2.00.
Will You Help to Bring
EASTER JOYS
To the Missionaries of the Church in Japan, China
and America
By Paying This Year's Apportionment IN FULL?
Home Missions
Charles E. Schaeffer, Editor
^ Come, all who love the Kingdom, and all who serve the King,
Together lift your voices, and let our glad song ring. The song of our Salvation, the Christian's only praise. To Christ, the world's Redeemer, hymns of worship raise.
DEATH OF MISSIONARY THOMAS J. HACKER
ON the morning of March 4th, Rev. Thomas J. Hacker, D.D., our Mis- sionary at Wyomissing, Pa., fell asleep in Christ. Dr. Hacker served as a Mis- sionary under the Board of Home Mis- sions for a period of nineteen years, half of which time was spent at Roanoke, Vir- ginia, and the other half in the Bausman Memorial Church, at Wyomissing, Pa. Dr. Hacker was one of our most loyal and devoted Missionaries. He had the interests of the Church warmly at heart. He was always punctual in sending in his stated reports and championed the cause of Home Missions on the floor of Classes, Synods and General Synod. Before he became a Missionary he served for fifteen years as a member of the Bi-Synodic Board in the Eastern and Potomac Synods, and in this way became thoroughly acquainted with the Home Mission work and policy of the Reformed Church. He was a Church
parliamentarian and knew the Constitu- tion and customs of the Reformed Church as few men understood them. He was a member of the special Commit- tee appointed by the Eastern Synod, together with a similar Committee of the Pittsburgh Synod, to co-operate with the Board of Home Missions in receiving the national Hungarian Churches into our fellowship. It should be stated that Dr. Hacker prepared the tentative plan which subsequently became the basis of the Tiffin Agreement, which was the legal document signed by the officials of the Conventus and which brought these Hungarian congregations into organic fellowship with the Reformed Church in the U. S.
Dr. Hacker was universally beloved and respected by his brother ministers. He was the Treasurer of Lehigh Classis while he was pastor of Zion's Church, Allentown, and also of Reading Classis at the time of his death. We was a builder of churches. The magnificent St. John's Church, at Shamokin, was built during his pastorate there, where he began his ministry, and the beautiful building at Wyomissing, which was the crowning act of his ministerial career, is just nearing completion. It is a thing of beauty and shows the remarkable good taste and judgment of our departed brother. By his own efforts he collected a splendid sum of money for this build- ing. It was one of the last hopes of his life that he might live to see the structure completed, but this desire was not granted him.
He was buried on March 8th with services at his late residence in Wyomis- sing and in the Bausman Memorial Church and also in the Bergstrasse
(Continued on Page 162)
151
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The; Outi^ook of Missions
[April
NOTES
THE Sunday evening Picture Services at Centenary Church, Winchester, Va., are proving to be very popular and helpful to the many people who attend. The films used are largely based on stories of the Old Testament, making them very real and living when before, because of their ancient date, people thought they had no vital message for the present age. The pictures are attracting all ages and classes of people, and many have testified to their spiritual value. The boys and girls of the Sunday School know their lessons better and show a greater interest in them. People who never attend Church elsewhere are being brought into the Christian life by means of these services. During the Lenten season, the pastor, Rev. Francis R. Cas- selman, is planning to use a series of pic- tures on "The Five Crises of the Life of Christ," which it is beHeved will bring all who see them to a closer relationship with the life of our SavioUr.
ik 5|< ^■
On February 28 an organ recital and concert were given in Emmanuel Church,
Allentown, Pa., Rev. J. P. Bachman, pastor, by Prof. Frederick E. Starke, who is at present organist in the great Baptist Temple, Philadelphia, of which Dr. Russell H. Conwell, the noted lec- turer, is the pastor. Prof. Starke is an organist of high rank. He was assisted by Emily Stokes Hagar, one of the best of American sopranos. This was the first concert of this kind since the instal- lation of the pipe organ, and it was greatly appreciated and enjoyed. The proceeds were placed in the Organ Fund. On February 24 the monthly musical service was rendered, the program hav- ing been arranged by Mrs. J. O. Linda- man, organist and choir leader.
^ 5jj ❖
The East Market Street Mission, Akron, Ohio, of which the Rev. W. E. Troup is the pastor, conducted evangel- istic services, March 16-30, with Rev. and Mrs. Aldridge, of Syracuse, N. Y., as the evangelists. hc
Miss Martha Zierdt, formerly social worker in Grace Mission, Detroit, has now taken up the work in the Mission at Omaha, Neb., which is without a pastor.
V
4
Emanue:Iv Reforme:d Church, Warren, Pa. Rev. J. Frederick Reimers,
Pastor
1924]
Home Missions
153
Centenary Mission, Winchester, Va., of which Rev. F. R. Casselman is the pastor, is meeting the needs of the com- munity in many ways. Miss Kathryn Y. Allebach, the social worker, recently organized a Mothers' Meeting for the mothers of the 55 cradle roll babies. This meeting is held once a month with a special speaker and a social hour, all of which promises to be very helpful. ^ ^ ^
The Mission at Warren, Pa., of which Rev. J. F. Reimers is the pastor, recently enlarged its church building most satis- factorily, and we take pleasure in show- ing a picture of it as it now appears. This Mission is making excellent prog- ress and is meeting all its obligations incurred in the building project.
* * *
In a remittance received by the Treas- urer of the Board from Mrs. Anewalt, Treasurer of the Woman's Missionary Society of General Synod, was included $1,000 which she informed us had been raised by the Japanese members of our Mission in San Francisco, Cal., to pay for some extras on the building opera- tions and also to complete the furnish- ings. This shows a very fine spirit and shows how willing these people are to help.
Dr. Charles E. Vermilya, who suc- ceeds Dr. Alfred Williams Anthony, as Executive Secretary of the Home Mis- sions Council, has been for several years Superintendent of Frontier Work of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with office in San Francisco, having charge of vari- ous forms of Methodist Home Mission work west of the Mississippi River and comes well qualified for his new duties.
* * *
Mrs. John Ferguson, the new Presi- dent of the Council of Women for Home Missions, succeeding Mrs. Fred S. Ben- nett, after a term of about eight years, brings experience as a member of the Executive Committee and many other committees of the Council and also per- sonal qualities fitting her for this impor- tant position.
ORGANIZATION OF TRINITY REFORMED CHURCH, SHERMAN, CAL.
Rev. Milton Monroe Noacker, Pastor.
W^ill the friends of the Reformed Church in the East rejoice with us in the fact that in this great city on the Pacific Coast, growing by leaps and bounds, until now we count them by the millions, Trin- ity Reformed Church, in Sherman, Cal. (a suburb of Los Angeles), was form- ally organized under extraordinary cir- cumstances Sunday, February 24, 1924? At. 9.45 A. M. the Sunday School opened its services with an attendance of 53. Sunday before we had an attendance of 57. At 11 A. M. the regular morning service opened with an attendance of 70 people. Rev. E. F. Evemeyer, of San Francisco, Superintendent of Missions on the Pacific Coast, was present and preached the sermon. The pastor, Rev. M. M. Noacker, read the names of 40 people who will constitute the charter membership of Trinity Church in Sher- man. Of these, 28 were received by letter, representing Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Missionary Alliance, and the Church of England. One was received by reprofes- sion of faith. Six infants were baptized at the morning service, and two in the eve- ning, a total of 48 additions to the fellow- ship of the Church. It was truly an auspicious event. In the language of one of the members of the Church, ''This was a great day for the beginning of Trinity Church in Sherman." In all my ministry, which extends over a period of more than a quarter of a century in the Reformed and Presbyterian Churches, East and West, I have never had such a unique and happy experi- ence. God has blessed the development of this work in a remarkable way. The foundation is solid and upon it we hope with Divine Guidance to build a Church strong in the faith, working mightily to extend the Kingdom in this fast-growing city. We ask the interest, prayers and help of our Reformed brethren through- out the Church.
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The: Outlook of Missions
[April
HUNGARIAN STUDENTS
There are at present sixteen Hunga- rian students in our three educational institutions at Lancaster, in the Academy, FrankHn and Marshall College, and the Theological Seminary. On the afternoon of March 6th the heads of these insti- tutions, together with Professor A. Toth and representatives of the Board of Home Missions and of the Hungarian Federation, met at Lancaster to deter- mine the policy of caring for these stu- dents and providing for the funds which may be necessary to support them. At the close of the conference a very delight- ful dinner was served by Mrs. Toth in the newly acquired home of the Profes- sor. It was a very delightful social afifair. After dinner the Hungarian stu- dents entertained the company with songs and addresses in both the English and Hungarian languages. Suitable responses vere made by Dr. George W. Richards, President of the Theological Seminary ; Dr. Charles E. Schaeffer, General Secre- tary of the Board of Home Missions; and Dr. D. A. Souders, Superintendent of the Immigrant Department.
There are also three Hungarian stu- dents attending the Central Theological Seminary at Dayton, Ohio, under the instruction of Rev. John Azary.
GOING HOME
WHEN I go home at the close of day A path by the woods I choose as the way,
I love to watch the lingering light, The golden sun — its beauty bright.
I am not alone as I walk along, A laugh I hear and a burst of song — Just happy toilers, their day's work done, There by the woods in the setting sun.
Then a house I see, a door opened wide, And a welcome, too, from those inside — I linger awhile but I go my way Toward my home now at the close of day.
At last a door is open for me. My home is reached, too, and I'm glad you see,
For I'm thinking the while of the Home above
Where toilers rest — where all is love.
Elizabeth W. Fry.
1924]
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155
THE SACRIFICES AND STRUGGLES OF OUR EARLY MINISTERS
Rev. J. Nevin Bauman
REMEMBRANCE is frequently en- joined in the Scriptures. Sometimes as a virtue, the discharge of an obligation of gratitude to those who have gone before us in the way and in the work of the Lord ; sometimes as a lesson to guide us ; and then again as an inspiration and incentive to patient, trustful, manly endurance.
Were there hardships in the experi- ence of the early ministers, that differ- entiate their experience from that of min- isters in these later times?
I have before me an article written by the wife of one of the early ministers of our church, in response to a request that she tell some of the hardships in the church's work of her day. In it she told of conditions and experiences on w^hat was then the Western border of our Mis- sionary activities. She told it with the cheerful optimism that ever character- ized her life, and closed with these words :
"Hardships ! nay all joy." But, after all, the joy she knew was largely wrought out of great trials, and distilled out of stern privations. Yes, there were hard- ships peculiar to those early days, the result of those times of national begin- nings. Theirs, was pioneer work on the border that gradually moved from the Atlantic coast ever westward. It accom- panied the process of our country's settle- ment, and was a vital part of that great experience.
The experience of our earlier ministers answered to the experience of the earliest settlers of our great country, who out of hitherto untamed natural and physical conditions, established homes, prepared the soil for cultivation, and battled with hardships in their new task and faced dangers for which they were none too well equipped. The conditions which confronted the early colonists of Amer- ica, forced them to rise to the plane of the heroic.
Very like that, though in a grander conquest, the pioneers of our Church, toiling on the missionary fronts, wrote
in deeds the story of their lives. Their work was mainly digging the trenches, and laying the foundations of a super- structure that was to rise in beauty and grandeur, which few of them were to live to see. With skies cleared of the clouds which then lowered, and looking from the towers of structures which they made possible, that work in the trenches seems glorious, and a halo, to our vision, encircles it. But to those unfolding the glory, and framing the halo, it was all seen, at that time, in aw4ng obstacles, in depressing hardships, in heroic self- sacrifice, and in a magnificent faith that grasped the promise whose fulfillment the physical eye could not see. The real story of it all has never been written. I dare say it will never be w^ritten. The bare outline — often cruelly bare — may be found on the pages of the Church's his- tories. The real living facts are found, partly, in time-faded diaries, much of it too sacred for the public ear ; and the still greater part is written in the annals of the recording angel, whose proclama- tion waits the great day of the revelation of all things.
To one source of information I have had some access. To have witnessed in childish wonder and incomprehensibility, was what I now regard a precious privi- lege.
Forget the progress of a hundred years. Blot out from memory the ever thickening settlement of our vast coun- try, the building of automobiles and even carriages, and the threading of our land with its great railroad and telegraph sys- tems. Imagine there had never been, the things that now stand as the main factors in our comforts and conveniences. See, as though you had never seen anything else, the conditions of the log-cabin and candle-dip era, and you will be able to realize the general handicaps under which those pioneers lived and wrought their work.
The social cheer that comes through frequent contact with fellow workers, and that means so much to a normal min-
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ister, was largely denied them because of wide separations and wretched means of travel, or of any form of communication. A sense of loneliness is a burden on the mind and heart and soul, which only they who have experienced it know.
Congregations had to be gathered and organized, and churches to be built. The work of many of those ministers was to create a source of income for their own support. How they lived through those creative years, may sometime be recog- nized as among the notable wonders of the world. Mission boards were in all but a helpless infancy. Their treasuries were a far off dream; and the average pioneer minister was as poor as the pio- neer Mission Boards. These are among the hardships that made up the daily and life-time routine of their ministry.
Today a new system prevails, possible under the better conditions of today, and now regarded as essential. Missionary Avork is, at least, reasonably supported, financially. Built churches are regarded necessary for missionary enterprises. How, it is asked, could they work effec- tively without such an encouragement? And few today see how they could. And yet, without such support and encour- agement, those early ministers — and for nearly all it was a missionary work — did work effectively; though God alone knows the hardships involved, and the heroism it forced into exercise.
Born on what was then the frontier, both of sentiment and of missionary work, and in the home of a frontier min- ister, I can recall and can now in a way understand what I could not then grasp — the trials which perhaps a dozen ministers in that general section experienced. Ill supported, I always feel as if I understood the miracle of the widow's oil and meal, and as though the miracle had all been pressed out of the incident. I had seen so much of practi- cally the same thing, and extending through a so much longer stretch of time. Even making all due allowance for the different economic conditions of the times, it is hard to reason out how a minister could live and maintain a home on one hundred and fifty dollars a year.
I have never been able to reason it out, but I saw its reality.
The ministers were, as a rule, widely separated from each other. Their occa- sional meeting required a day's or even a two days' hard journey. Except by irregular, at best by a weekly mail, they had no communication with the centers of the nation's or of the church's life. Long journeys were necessary on horse back, and often on foot, to preaching points forty or sixty miles away, and often through piled and drifted snow that blotted out every so-called highway, and every landmark.
One such journey in particular I read from a minister's diary. He had gone to fill an appointment twenty-five miles dis- tant. On his return, a blizzard swept the country, piercing in its cold, and blinding in its snowy veil. Soon all sem- blance of a road was gone. There were no landmarks to guide. The horse which conveyed him labored on and on, far into the night, and then stopped all but exhausted. It was before a little cabin, miles away from the road they were sup- posed to be traveling. With difficulty the minister dragged his benumbed body to the door and knocked. Was that miser- able little cabin tenanted? It seemed Hke a last hope shadowed by a great and depressing doubt. But to his joy a voice called, heavy with Hibernian brogue: 'Tn God's name who is out in a night like this ?" The door was opened, a welcome extended, and a provision made out of most straitened means, for the unex- pected guest. Two days later he was able to reach his home where, during this time, a wife had waited in wasting anxiety, and who afterward wrote and said, ''Hardships! nay all joy!"
Why have I written as I have?
1. Because those early struggles of our pioneer ministers are worthy the honor- ing remembrance and recognition that has here found too weak an expression.
2. Because, here and there, there still remain in the flesh, those who battled through those hard experiences, and who bear in their bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus. May this modest tribute
(Concluded on page 162)
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CALIFORNIA AND THE REFORMED CHURCH By Theodore P. Bolliger, D.D.
THE Reformed Church in the U. S. now has six congregations in the State of California, six ministers in active service, and not quite 500 mem- bers. Of the six congregations, two are Japanese, two are German and two are English. These congregations own five Churches, one community house, and one parsonage. As the Japanese work richly deserves separate treatment, I shall con- fine myself in this article to the other congregations only.
When I think of what the Reformed Church has in California today, my mind insists in bringing up a bit of past his- tory. We are just a little further now than we were forty years ago. Once there was a San Francisco Classis. It led a humble existence from 1874-1889. This Classis belonged to the Potomac Synod and the missions were supported by the Home Mission Board of that Synod. At the time of its greatest promise there were five congregations and about eight preaching places. A total membership of 360 had been gathered, at least three Churches had been built, and two parsonages had been secured. The locations of these last hopes may well be recalled : San Francisco, Ala- meda, Oakland, Stockton, Napa. These congregations were all German. Why did this noble effort of the Potomac
Synod so quickly sink into its grave? From the records the answer is as clear as it is distressing; short pastorates, long vacancies, insufficient supervision, two unworthy shepherds, lack of funds. Possibly back of it all was the fundamen- tal reason that the vision of the Potomac Synod as to the home missionary possi- bilities of the Far West seemed foolish- ness to the greater part of the Church. Even today, forty years after, the vision is not yet very vivid.
To secure a proper background a few words about California itself must be slipped in here. California is popularly called the ''Golden State.'' The name is well deserved. None other has such an amazing variety of fauna, flora and physical features. Its bigness is over- whelming. To cover the State it would be necessary to take Maine, New Hamp- shire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecti- cut, Massachusetts, New York and Penn- sylvania. The highest mountain in the U. S. (Whitney), and the deepest depres- sion (Death Valley, 480 feet below sea level), are both in California. Every fruit and grain of the temperate zone and every plant of the tropics flourish within its boundaries. Even a partial list makes the mouth water in joyful anticipation: Oranges, lemons, grape fruits, figs, dates, pomegranates, pineapples, olives, grapes.
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California also specializes in "nuts." Every variety, both human and edible, grows luxuriantly. California supplies the world with half the fruit it consumes, including oranges, grapes and raisins. The oldest living things known — gigantic trees — flourish there. These mighty sequoias are common. The highest sends its top 315 feet into the air; the thickest has a circumference of 95 feet. While David was still playing his harp among his sheep in the hills about Bethlehem, the aborigines of America already rested under the shade of those same California trees. They are good for some thousands of years more.
The Eastern and Central States have poured their best and most vigorous blood into California. At a picnic of lowans in Los Angeles County held some years ago, there were more native lowans present than are found in any city of Iowa with one exception. Seven-eighths of the inhabitants are ''outsiders." Forty years ago Los Angeles had about 12,000 people. About that time, from my fath- er's congregation in Kansas two families moved to California and bought land sev- eral miles from the little city at $100 an acre. Today a small lot from these farms is worth more than the entire 80 acres cost then; and at least 1,000,000 people call Los Angeles their home. When I preached in the First Reformed Church of Los Angeles, the pastor asked the folks hailing from a number of States to hold up their hands. When I asked the native Californians to do the same, I found that they were outnumbered by both the Pennsylvanians and Ohioans. This pouring in of Reformed people into Los Angeles has been going on for forty years, and most of them have gone to other denominations.
Lodi-Shafter was the first charge I visited. It is served by Rev. William Thiel. The two congregations are located in the famous San Joaquin Valley, more than 250 miles apart. The pastor had arranged for special missionary services and thus gave me an opportunity to pre- sent both the home and the foreign mis- sionary activities of our Church. The people of the charge are German Rus- sians. They are a Church-going people,
Ebenezer Reformed Church^ Shafter, California
who love their Bible and the House of God, and are not afraid of long sermons. They proved this that day. A Reformed congregation was organized three miles from Lodi in 1903. Some years later a congregation was also organized in the beautiful little city itself. In 1921, these two united to form the present prosper- ous and promising congregation. The following pastors have served this flock : M. Nuss, J. F. Youngblut, F. C. Schnu- elle, F. A. Ritterhaus, and William Thiel. The congregation possesses a good Church and a good parsonage, well located near the heart of the town.
The San Joaquin Valley is a little empire in itself stretching 300 miles from north to south between the mighty Sierra Nevada and Coast Range, varying in width from forty to eighty miles. Long ago the valley was the home of great cattle ranches ; then followed an era of gigantic wheat farms even to 50,000 acres. A long series of dry years caused the break-up of ranches and farms and ushered in the era of irrigation. The valley is very level, with a slight dip towards the center; from the snow-clad mountains countless streams flow down ; great irrigation projects have carried these streams to the thirsty acres; from
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the earth wells of moderate depths yield almost inexahustible supplies ; and in twenty-five years that valley has been transformed into an Eden of almost unbe- lievable productiveness. Lodi is at the northern end of this valley. It is a thrifty, prosperous community, located in one of the finest table-grape sections of what is now considered the greatest grape-rais- ing valley in the world. Though every variety of grapes is raised in that local- ity, fine table grapes are their specialty. Our Reformed people there are nearly all engaged in some form of this industry. Shafter is more than 250 miles to the south of Lodi, and is located in a part of the valley recently opened up to cul- tivation. Here also the raising of fruit and grapes is the chief industry. The Reformed congregation was organized five years ago by Rev. F. C. Rittershaus. The people are German Russians. They built their own Church without any aid from the Board. It is a neat frame struc- ture adequate to their needs. On the Wednesday night that I visited them the building was well filled. The people asked for a sermon, but also wanted a mission- ary address, hence I gave them both. This community and its congregation have bright prospects for growth. The time is not far distant when Shafter should have its own pastor, even though it may be necessary to grant missionary support for a time.
The San Joaquin Valley has wondrous possibilities for development. As irriga- tion projects multiply still more, the population will greatly increase. More opportunities for the Reformed Church will show themselves. As it was my good fortune to have a number of near rela- tives living in the Valley I was afiforded the opportunity of going through the entire length of it, and also to and fro by auto. Bakersfield, about twenty-five miles south of Shafter, was the most con- venient starting point for my onward journey. It is the center of one of the most remarkable oil fields in the country. The hillsides are covered with gaunt der- ricks. Numberless tanks covering an acre and more litter the landscape. The ''chug chug" of gasoline engines fills the ear, the vapors and odors of gas fill the nostrils, and streams of black, sticky crude
oil are running on all sides. We had allowed ourselves several hours before train time to make a long drive through these unaesthetic but mighty profitable scenes. Automobile owners were enjoy- ing to the full a merry gasoline war then raging. Eight to thirteen cents per gal- lon were prevailing prices. California has more autos per capita than any other State. They all seemed in use, too. Everybody was madly rushing to get somewhere else and doing it at thirty miles per. The ride from Bakersfield to Los Angeles presented some unique features. Over a mountain range we went. Down into the Mohave desert the train rolled. Strange, weird vegetable growths that looked like the freaks of a nightmare adorned the hot sands. The thermometer was skylarking around 115 degrees. There was a ghastly fascina- tion about it all that got hold of my imagination and heart. Some time I hope to spend a few weeks in that desert and enjoy myself. Only, alas, by that time those enterprising Californians will prob- ably have it irrigated and transformed into a garden of delights. Thus progress often ruins our dreams.
Towards evening Los Angeles was reached. The Reformed Church has two congregations there, the First Church and the Japanese Church. I shall confine my- self now entirely to the First Church. For forty-five years Reformed Church members have been pouring into that region and been promptly absorbed by other denominations or entirely lost to the Church ; for there was no Reformed congregation until 1913. The impetus to the organization came in a strange way. More than forty years ago from a little Swiss congregation in Kansas which my father was serving at the time several families moved to the vicinity of Los Angeles, then a city of 12,000"^. Others followed during the years until about thirty souls from that Church had yielded to the pull from the west. Among the first group that went was Mrs. Verena Leuzinger. She was staunchly Reformed, and through the long years cherished the hope that some day a Reformed congre- gation might be organized. She remained faithful in her devotions and contributed liberally to other denominations ; but kept
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First Reformed Church, Los Angeles, Cae.
on hoping for the coming of a Reformed minister. In 1913 her hope became a reahty. The First Reformed Church of Los Angeles was organized and the fol- lowing year a Church was secured. Mrs. Leuzinger personally gave two-thirds of the purchase price. At the organization two former members of that little Kansas congregation, boyhood friends of mine, were elected into the Consistory. For these reasons I had a special desire to spend a few days with this Church. The Reverends A. Steinebrey, A. F. Lien- kaemper and G. Grueningen have been the pastors. The congregation has had a hard struggle. The location has become unsuitable, as negroes have moved into the neighborhood. A relocation is im- perative, and steps towards that end have already been taken. With a suitable building, rightly located, the future is assured. The mission was begrm by the Tri-Synodic Board, and transferred to the Home Mission Board of the General Synod about three years ago. No small credit for keeping the congregation from dissolution belongs to Rev. G. Gruenin- gen, the present pastor. During a long vacancy, when no man could be found to take up the work, he supplied the pul- pit. Finally the little flock succeeded in persuading him to give up a promising
business career and accept the permanent pastorate. The Lord has signally blessed his labors. To me it was a great Sun- day that I spent with the Loj-^ Angeles people. I gave them a home missionary sermon in the morning, an address on the Winnebago Indians in the afternoon, a sermon to the Japanese in the evening, and a final farewell talk at the reception which the Japanese brethren arranged. Then came a fifteen-mile ride to Pasa- dena to Rev. Mr. Grueningen's home, and a conrerence on the CaHfornia work that lasted until long after midnight.
Of the instructive drives about the city and surrounding country, of the beauty of mountains and canyon and ocean, of the quaint old missions and famous spots, space does not permit me to speak. Just one little picture would I give. Before breakfast, while guest of the pastor, I walked out into his yard and picked me a few ripe figs, some oranges, a grapefruit or two, a handful of plums and a bunch of grapes. I might also have picked lemons and a dozv^n other kinds of fruits and nuts; but I felt that I already had enough for breakfast. No other active pastor of our Church has such a variety of good things growing in his yard. Verily Rev. Mr. Grueningen dwells beneath his own vine and fig tree, in a land where milk and honey flow ; and there is none to make him afraid.
My general impression of the status of the California work and the prospects is very favorable. The future holds bright hopes. The most necessary immediate step is the organization of a California Classis. There are now five charges, and a sixth has recently been enrolled. That is enough to start a Classis. The Jap- anese congregations belong to the Kansas Classis, 2000 miles away. The other con- gregations belong to the Portland-Oregon Classis, 1,000 to 1,400 miles away. The pastors cannot attend their respective Classes on account of the time and expense involved. This Classis should come soon. The Reformed Church has been pretty slow in getting the Western vision; but there are abundant oppor- tunities still left. We can yet go in and grow up with the State of the golden future.
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OBSERVATIONS OF THE TREASURER /. S. Wise
IN the maze of every day office work, one encounters many interesting things. Opening the mail is, of course, the first thing to be attended to in the morning. Most people would think that the Treas- urer's mail consists chiefly of those very welcome letters which usually begin with, ^'Enclosed please find check." How^ever, such is not the case. After having been away the week end and on my return early this Monday morning, I found the usual accumulation of mail awaiting me. I traveled all of Saturday and Sunday nights, and made five addresses on Sun- day in three Churches in the vicinity of Altoona. Three small checks were received on Saturday and taken care of by my assistant. In today's mail, I found four checks, none of them for very large amounts, one urgent request for a check for the Jewish work in Philadelphia, one bill, two notices from Banks giving due dates for notes amounting to $40,000.00 and thirteen other letters on a variety of subjects, all of which must be answered. They can not be answered ''right off the reel" for each one involves the searching of records, conferences with the archi- tect, with Dr. Schaeffer, or with one of our District Superintendents before an intelligent reply can be given. Those per- taining to the Church-building Depart- ment are more or less technical and may be answered easily after conferring with the Architect, but one from Superinten- dent Horning concerning the purchase of a parsonage at Cedal Rapids, Iowa, is not quite so easy. Only partial provision for this has been made by the Board. We must decide at once. Shall we go beyond the Board's instructions or shall we run the risk of having our Missionary deprived of a home within a month or so ? Superintendent Horning asks me to decide. Now what shall I do ? Even Dr. Schaeffer is not in the office today and so I can not confer with him. A telegram must be sent. Shall I say, "we can not go beyond our instructions" and by that act bring distress and perhaps actual suffer- ing to our faithful Missionary and his
good wife and children, or, shall I say ''Go ahead and close the deal"? The lat- ter course will bring hope, comfort and good cheer to the Missionary and undoubtedly stimulate his enthusiasm for the work he is commissioned to do. On the other hand it places me in a position for censure for going beyond instruc- tions. Such decisions must be made quite frequently. The Board usually approves, but sometimes says, "don't do it again." Now, every officer always wants the full approval of the Board. Such a problem places him between his satanic majesty and the deep sea (no reflection on either the Board or the Mission). But the answer must be given and the "swivel chair" job loses its lustre by becoming a real task.
Dr. Bolliger, the Secretary of the Mis- sion Board of the Northwest, after acknewledging the receipt of a check and some notes, I sent him last week, "comes back at me" with this puzzling proposi- tion : "Now since I shall have to discount the one or the other and possibly both of the notes that will fall due in May, I am going to ask you, by any or all means, to take care of the note that is due on April 15, so that I will be in a position to present your other notes to my bank." The note he refers to is for $5000.00 and between now and April 15 there is a month intervening. If that were the only note coming due between now and then, I would cheerfully O. K. his proposition. But alas, there are many other notes com- ing due in the meanwhile and to definitely promise compliance is another one of the problems that must be faced almost every day. My task would be a very easy one if it only involved the receiving and pay- ing out of money, with a sufficient income. But it becomes anything but a sinecure when the income is nearly a half million short on the Forward Move- ment promises and less than half of the apportionment paid in the present fiscal year, now nearly ended. Dependent upon the hope that the apportionment for this year will be fully met and that hundreds
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of delinquent subscribers to the Forward Movement will pay up during the next few months, promises have been made to our bankers that our notes will be very materially reduced. Therefore, Mr. Bol- liger's proposition is in reality a real poser.
A month ago, I sent out a follow-up letter regarding the offerings of Home Mission Day. In the haste of sending them out and the difficulty for our office help to connect cert^ain pastors with Charges and congregations that were vacant, on their checking lists, some of these letters went to pastors whose offerings had been sent in. Of course, such mistakes are bound to occur when lisjts are checked up by persons who are not thoroughly familiar with the changes in pastorates that are constantly occur- ring, and likewise, when remittances are nikde through the Classical Treasury. For example, the Treasurer of East Pennsylvania Classis reported a certain amount given by Kreidersville Charge. The young lady in checking the lists, failed to associate the Rev. George E. Koperihaver, of Cherryville, Pa., with Kreidersville Charge and hence the letter stating that their Home Mission Day o^ffering had not been received, was sent in error. There is plenty of room for just such errors to occur. Had I person- ally had time to check up, I am sure there would have been very few, if any, errors. The point I wish to make, however, is that after all, there were only a limited number of such errors made and the effect of the Circular was that the Home Mission Day offering was increased over $1000.00 within a few weeks, with some still coming in. It is surprising how much specified money, that is greatly needed, is permitted to remain in local treasuries for months at a time, some of it often forgotten and finally absorbed in the apportionment or in the congre- gational expense account. That is very discouraging to us who are daily strug- gling to make ends meet.
Some of the replies I received are very illuminating. One is offended, another is kind and polite. One apologizes, ai>other explains. But on the whole, the answers are satisfactory and heartening. Sometimes I am discouraged and then I
receive a timely, sympathetic and hopeful letter which causes me to take fresh hold and go on my way rejoicing. Rejoicing because the problems are hard to solve for there is, after all, no glory in solving the easy ones.
Thus you see, my friends, that we have much to do. I have written these obser- vations in order to let you see just a few of our daily tasks, knowing full well that your good wishes for the success of our work are genuine and sure. What I have said concerning my problems, I know pertains to practically all of the depart- ments and phases of our Church work as represented by all the Boards that are housed in the Schaff Building.
One good brother writes that all of the work represented here is ''top heavy." But that is another story. I wish it were possible for him to come and see. Those wko come usually see so much that they go away well satisfied and are ready to endorse what is being done.
LITERATURE FOR THE BLIND
Estimates indicate between 70,000 and 105,000 blind people in the country. Christian Literature available in form for their use is most limited. The first volume of Dr. George Matheson's book, entitled ''Representative Men of the Bible," and a short sketch of Dr. Mathe- son's life will be published and dis- tributed.
(Continued from Page 151) Church near Ephrata, where interment was made. The following ministers offi- ciated at the services: J. M. Mengle, C. E. Schaefter, C. E. Creitz, L. M. Erd- man, Martin Schweitzer.
(Conthmed from page 156) bring some cheer and compensation to their far spent lives.
3. That it may serve to awaken a ful- ler appreciation and a larger sense of gratitude in those who under better con- ditions labor on in their work, and that it may be an inspiration to a more patient endurance, and to a more daring heroism in the Christian conflicts of today. — The Christian World.
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THE COMMISSION ON SOCIAL SERVICE AND RURAL
WORK
James M. Mullan, Executive Secretary
REPORTS OF SYNODICAL COMMITTEES
FROM the reports of the several Syn- odical Committees to their respective bodies at the last annual meetings we note the following significant utterances and recommendations : Eastern Synod:
"Your Committee earnestly reiterates its faith in the social message and min- istry of the Christian Church. That faith alone will overcome the world . . . Besides this militant faith, the Church greatly and most urgently needs to face the question: By what method can the kingdom of God be most efficiently propagated and consummated? . . . The Church is beginning to see that the organic and effective way of establishing the kingdom of God is through the con- servation of her children and youth by means of genuine Christian education in home, church and school. We are per- suaded that it is the Spirit of God who is leading the Church into these new paths of vision and venture. And we believe that our Reformed Church, with her noble educational heritage, is called of God to take a foremost place in this great endeavor to place the child into the midst of all our labors for the kingdom." Potomac Synod:
"Your Committee on Social Service and Rural Work is pleased to report that there is an increasing interest in our sub- ject and that a considerable amount of work is being done in some localities, both urban and rural, for the betterment of living conditions. The human social needs are greater in the country than in the city and many of our rural churches have put on programs that have afforded both adults and young people a more ade- quate opportunity to live under con- structive environment. We heartily commend those pastors and congrega- tions that are trying to work out for their communities the social needs as they see them, and we believe that with the con-
tinued study of the subject we may expect to see increased results from year to year."
Pittsburgh Synod:
"Your Committee fears that all too many persons think of Social Service in terms of a program to be executed, rather than a spirit to be cultivated and utilized. A harmonious life is to be developed and that includes both all individuals and all relationships. 'Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them,' has surely a wider application than merely considering it in reference to a church meeting. Where two or three are gathered together in the home, in the school, in a business trans- action, in an industrial concern, in poli- tics, in the office, on the playground, in church, in any relationship whatsoever, there Social Service is involved and is possible, and is obligatory upon the Christian. Too many men are waiting for a program for Social Service unmind- ful of the fact that public worship, religious education and the various agen- cies of the Church to meet local needs are fundamental forms of Social Service. A socialized church is a church that by sermon, worship, education and agencies to meet local needs, seeks to make the Gospel of Christ and the principles of His teachings effective in social relation- ships, with the great objective of a Chris- tian Social Order always in view. . . . The Church must concern herself about work and play, home and health, educa- tion and ideals, beauty and art, as well as religion. We must see the rural prob- lem in this larger social aspect also."
Ohio Synod:
"That in view of the urgent needs of the rural chruches and the extensive ter- ritory to be covered, with only one gen- eral Rural Worker, this Synod provide a full-time Synodical Rural Field Worker to co-operate with General
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Synod's Commission." (This recom- mendation was adopted, to take effect at once^ and Rev. C. W. Brugh was elected to fill the position.) Mid- West Synod:
''That the Synod help to the extent of $75.00 to create a loan library of books on Rural Church Work, at the Mission House, for use by pastors at the cost of the postal charges for the transmission of the books.
"That the program committee be instructed to set aside adequate time for two simultaneous open forum discussions on the city and rural church's conditions and methods; these conferences to be planned and conducted by the Synodical Commission on Social Service and Rural Work."
Synod of the Northwest:
"The social service of the Christian Church is founded upon the human rela- tionship to God as brought about through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
"The social service of the Church can be accomplished efficiently only as the Church recognizes and acknowledges the
absolute authority of the Word of God, seeks its direction in this Word, and works by this Word.
"That social service must be borne by the spirit of brotherly love.
"The goal of social service must be the glorification of God in Christ Jesus.
"The officers of Synod are instructed to make arrangements for a lecture at the next session of Synod on the topic, 'The Christian's Attitude on the Social Question.' "
The above Synods all have provided for a Committee on Social Service and Rural Work, and authorized the sending of the chairman in each instance to the annual meeting of the General Synod's Commission. They called attention of classes or pastors to the Summer Schools, and with one exception solicited the co-operation of the rural pastors in the Commission's efforts to complete the survey being made of the entire Rural Reformed Church. Other important actions were also taken in support of social service and rural work.
RELIGIOUS DRAMAS
There is a Committee on Religious Dramas that should be of considerable value to church leaders and organizations in search of religious plays and pageants for amateur production. The Committee was appointed some time since by the Commission on the Church and Social Service of the Federal Council in response to increasing demands for mate- rial not only for the purpose of enter- tainment, but also, and chiefly, for relig- ious educational purposes on the part of young people's groups.
The Committee expects to issue an annual volume of religious dramas which it is hoped will be a standard collection to which religious leaders in search of such material will turn instead of being obliged to go through numberless pam- phlets and manuscripts.
The first book has been prepared and published, entitled "Religious Dramas, 1924." It contains ten plays, selected after a most conscientious and painstak- ing work of reading and evaluating liter- ally hundreds of plays. The plays were
selected with regard to religious mes- sage, dramatic technique, literary qual- ity, and educational merit. They consist of three types : First, Biblical Dramas ; second, fellowship plays and projects, centering around Christian community building both at home and abroad ; and third, extra-Biblical plays of the individ- ual spiritual life.
Rev. Fred Eastman is chairman of the Committee. He says of the plays in this book — they have "come through fire," referring to the process of selection through which they were chosen. "Never before has any such collection been made. It was attempted because of the increas- ing demand from churches and various religious organizations for plays and pageants that could be produced by ama- teurs in churches and parish houses."
The book has been published by the Century Company and can be obtained through our Publication and Sunday School Board, at 1505 Race Street, Phila- delphia, Pa. Price, $2.00.
Foreign Missions
Allen R. Bartholomew, Editor
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty Rock within a weary land ;
A home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way.
From the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day.
CAN WE GIVE TOO MUCH?
SO much is being said about giving, in our day, that some of us have come to believe that we are giving too much. It is no proof that much is given because we hear so much about it. On the con- trary, may it not be true that too little is given to the work of the Lord ?
Giving is a test of living. Christians who give not, do not live. They cannot grow and they do not prosper. They may have a name to Hve, but are dead. We can be like Christ only as we give like He gives. "He gave Himself for us." There should be no Hmit to our giving, except it be the Hmit of need and ability.
"There's a wideness in God's mercy, Like the wideness of the sea."
Giving is a test of faith. It is a testi- mony of the love we bear for Christ in our hearts in the face of an unbelieving world. We should give as unto the Lord, and not for self-glory.
St. Paul gave the Christians at Corinth a plan that we do well to adopt in our giving. It is sound, simple and scrip- tural. Set apart each week a certain amount as the Lord has given us earning capacity. This is a very convenient method for most people. Giving "every week" insures that we give regularly. The great trouble with so many people is that they give too seldom. Paul's plan also helps us to know how much we give. Those who do not give regularly think they give many times as much as they really do give. Some Christians must blush when they find out how little they give for the spread of the Gospel in all the world.
"The first day" of the week is fixed as the most suitable time for giving to the
Lord. How appropriate the day — "the day of all the best, emblem of eternal rest." We receive our most sacred thoughts on the Lord's day. It is a reminder of the great resurrection gift of Christ to the Church. What act can be more beautiful, than giving, for the holy day ! Who could refuse to give then ?
The amount of our giving is to be determined by our getting. If we receive little, our gifts can be small. If we receive much, our gifts should be large. In either case, the blessing will be sure. Our prosperity is to be the measure of our liberality. God gave to us that we may give to others. He trusts us, and we are to trust Him that He will give us all things richly to enjoy.
Every Christian should be a giving Christian. The chief cause of trouble in many congregations is that so few of the members are giving according to their ability. We are to give freely, willingly, heartily. Whenever people are forced to give, the gift loses its value. Where com- pulsion begins, their love ends. Jesus said, "I lay down my life for the sheep." His was a voluntary death. As we think of Jesus, and what He did for us, should we not in all sincerity say : "Were the whole realm of nature mine.
That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine.
Demands my soul, my life, my all" ?
"My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
Their guilt I never knew Till with Thee in the desert
I near Thy passion drew ; Till with Thee in the garden
I heard Thy pleading prayer, And saw Thy sweat-drops bloody
That told Thy sorrow there."
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A YOUNG WILSON FOR JAPAN
YEARS ago there was a fine boy in the Middle School Department of North Japan College. His name was Gidan Suzuki. He was reared in the home of a Christian rninister, and him- self early gave his heart to God. He was bright in his studies, and a good writer and speaker. In the Inter-school Ora- torical Contest of the city he took first prize.
After graduation from the Middle School he entered the government col- lege, and from there the Law Depart- ment of the Tokyo Imperial Universitiy. His standing in the University was such that he was asked to become a university professor after graduation and proper preliminary preparation. He remained in his university for two years, pursuing post-graduate studies. Then the gov- ernment sent him for three years of study in Europe. His subject was the science of government. He studied under the best men in Europe in his line — in Italy, France, Germany and England.
On his way back to Japan he stopped in America for some time. As was nat- ural he visited his former teacher in Lan- caster, Pa., and told his experiences and
Prof. Gidan Suzuki
plans. He is to be professor of the science of government in the Tohoku University, located at Sendai. He will be right across the street from North Japan College, his mother school. With the splendid training he has had he will be one of the greatest authorities on the science of government in the Far East. And he will not only be an authority, but he will be a leading force in realizing his political ideals in his own country. He will be a young Wilson in Japan. And what are his ideals ? They are the ideals of democracy, brotherhood and interna- tional good will — the same as those of the lamented ex-President, whom he admired as one of earth's greatest.
And what is there beneath these ideals, and what is their dynamic? It is a sin- cere and earnest Christian heart. He told me that his happiest hours in Europe were when he attended the services of a little church in the outskirts of Berlin, where a faithful pastor broke to his pious flock the bread of life. This young man will be one of the makers of a newer, more Christ-like Japan. And so the leaven of North Japan College goes working on. D. B. Schneder.
100 PER CENT HONOR ROLL
The following Societies are 100% — every member a subscriber to The Out- look OF Missions :
Salem, Buffalo, N. Y.
Emanuel, Lincolnton, N. C.
Dubbs Memorial, Allentown, Pa.
St. John's, Bucyrus, O.
Ohmer Park, Dayton, O.
First, Greensboro, N. C.
First, Nashville, Tenn.
Immanuel, Indianapolis, Ind.
St. John's, 4th, Baltimore, Md.
(Continued from Page 172)
world in the best sense. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmov- able, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
Sincerely yours,
William Edwin Hoy.
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KANDA CHURCH, TOKYO, JAPAN Henry K. Miller, D.D.
VERY few, if any, members of the Kanda Church, when they read or heard about the Jewish tabernacle in the wilderness imagined that the time would ever come when their house of God also would be a tent. As soon after the great earthquake of September 1, 1923, as arrangements could be made, church services were held in some of the mem- bers' homes and in the Tokyo Mission- ary Residence. This was a very incon- venient way of doing things and in the course of time. Pastor K. Kodaira secured from the Japan Sunday School Association two U. S. Army tents and had them pitched on the lot where the burnt church building had stood. The larger one was used for meetings, and the smaller for the missionary's Adult Bible Class and other purposes. In the larger tent army cots were used for seats. Attendance under the circumstances was a rather shivering experience, but it is surprising how many people came.
The urgent need for a building of some sort was quickly recognized. With a view to modernizing Tokyo, the authori- ties announced that the erection of per-
manent buildings would not be permitted for some years. Even had there been no such prohibition, it would have been impossible for us to put up a permanent church building, for, first, we have no land, the former building having stood on a very small rented lot of ground, and, second, we did not have the needed money. Hence, it was decided to build a shack or ''barrack" on the site of the .old building at an estimated cost of $2500. The inevitable complications soon arose, the contractor not being able to handle the job, and thus the work was delayed. However, the temporary building was sufficiently near completion to permit it to be dedicated on December 23rd. Also the Christmas celebration of the Sunday School was held in it December 25th. The presents distributed to the children, aside from the usual cakes and oranges, consisted of articles for school use. Sun- day morning church services have been held in the ''barrack" regularly since then. In due time the other services will be resumed.
There is an attendance of more than sixty at the Sunday School service. At
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first the pupils were all newcomers, but gradually a few of the former ones put in an appearance.
As a form of relief work, a kinder- garten was started. In this the Japan Sunday School Association co-operated with the Kanda Church. It paid the kindergartner's salary for three months and later made a monetary contribution. Since January 1st, 1924, this work has been under the care of the Mission's Kin- dergarten Committee. A casual visitor, noting the lack of equipment and other deficiencies, might form a poor opinion of the enterprise, but things will get into good running order in due time. Mean- while some of the many children whose homes were burnt are kept off the streets and are under good influence.
In Kanda Ward there lived few abjectly poor people. The population, aside from a considerable number of stu- dents, was largely made up of the mer- cantile class. Of course, these suffered heavy losses, but, with a little aid in the way of food and clothing, many are making a new start. However, members of Kanda Church that were burnt out have not been able to contribute much to the support of the church. The Mission has assumed the entire support of the church for at least six months after
the earthquake. By the end of February the congregation financially will be nearly where it was before the great calamity.
While there is need for relief work, the chief emphasis ought to be placed on reconstruction, and our Reformed Church people can afford a vast amount of real aid by making it possible for the congre- gation to acquire a new church home, for the members cannot under present circumstances do much themselves along this line. To acquire land and erect a suitable church building adapted to mod- ern metropolitan conditions will cost $50,000 or even more.
A beginning in this important work has been made. In a suburb called Kofu a good lot at a moderate price has been secured, and work has been started on the parsonage for Kanda church. The rented house at present occupied by Mr. Kodaira was so badly damaged by the great earthquake that the owner decided to sell it rather than spend a large sum of money on repairs. Hence, Mr. Kodaira received notice to quit, and the building of a parsonage became a pressing neces- sity, it being practically impossible to rent another house. This project will cost nearly $4,500, which amount is to come out of the Kanda church building fund.
TRAVEL S
Christopher
December 2, lizaka. Here is a tiny lot and a tiny chapel built some years ago, the whole having cost $500. Pastor Seo is an old friend ; he delights to tell how he got his first impression of Christianity from hearing me sing and preach at a big meeting at Sakata twenty-odd years ago. He has called me to baptize two young men and two young women. He and his wife and four children haVe no place to lay their heads except on the mats in the rear of the little chapel. I promise to do all in my power to secure the little sum necessary to help build a decent house for them. At the same time I remind him that the congregation owes the Mission a small sum borrowed when the lot was bought and the present chapel built. He
Noss, D.D.
says that the people who incurred that obligation are gone. I tell him that it will not- do to allow the stigma of an unpaid debt to rest upon the church, and he says that he will see to it that it be wiped out.
I lodge in a large Japanese inn built on the edge of a ravine over one of the hot springs, rich in radium salts, that have made lizaka famous. The builder, Mr. Horie, a former member of the church, has lately gone to his reward. Mrs. Horie treats me as if I were a prince. I vow once more that next trip I will bring Mrs. Noss to enjoy with me the rare scenery and the wonderful o yu (hot water.) A Mr. Nozaki from the nearby village of Amarume calls, and we
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talk of the old days when our mutual friend, Pastor Ichimura, boarded at the little inn kept by the Hories down in the town and sowed the good seed of the Gospel in this region.
December 15, Hizume. Here is a young pastor, Mr. Sabanai, who believes in country folks, especially country chil- dren. He runs a kindergarten at Hizume in a building belonging to the community. I am asked to speak to the audience gath- ered in that building Saturday evening. On the way from the railway station to Hizume we pass through the village of Akaishi, where one of the branch Sunday Schools (really a Saturday afternoon school in this case) has been started, and I must needs talk to these children also. How one's heart goes out to them ! They may be uncouth, but so wbolesorrie and unspoiled. At Hizume I ask the leading member what he would wish me to speak of. His face lights up and he says, 'Tlease talk about 'The Joyful Life.' " Then he shows me a copy of a little tract
which I wrote three years ago, urging personal Christian work. I sent out sev- eral thousand copies, and never heard of them afterwards. Concluding that the appeal had fallen flat, I forgot the very existence of the tract. But here in Hizume I find one who seems through it to have learned the secret of a happy Hfe.
After a restful night at the inn in the village, I rise early and walk down the valley to the railway station, Mr. Sab- anai accompanying me. Sleet and snow have fallen in the night, and the scenery is intoxicating. Sabanai San tells me that he is raising money to buy a lot this year, and to build a chapel next year, taking advantage of the new one-third and two-thirds offer.
December 16, Kawamata. Stopping at home just long enough to eat a bit with the family at the noon-meal, I go on by train again to Kawamata. From the rail- way station at Matsukawa one rides in an overcrowded autobus. This ride I do not
Pastor Se:o and FamiIvY, Iizaka, Japan -For lack of parsonage, they live on a few mats in the rear of the tiny chapel built 10 years ago. Wanted: $1,500 for a parsonage at this place
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enjoy. I reflect with satisfaction that papers are in order in the vault at the Mission Office. It is a rough mountain road down the side of the valley of the Abukuma River, over a dizzy swaying bridge with precipitous approaches, up out of the valley and over the hills. Moreover the seats are arranged for Japanese thighs, so that there is no place for a westerner's knees except under his chin.
Kawamata is pastorless. Mr. Utsugi, a valiant man, has been drafted into the army. There is a woman evangelist, formerly Miss Seki, of my own Waka- matsu, now married to Mr. Higashi, of the San Francisco Y. M. C. A. They were friends at school and became engaged. Then he slipped off without a proper passport, got into California somehow, and later sent for her. The Japanese Foreign Office refused her a passport. Then he came over after her and got into trouble with the authorities in consequence. But he was able at last to get permission to return to California, and the two are about to sail as these lines are being written. These two friends gather for me a fine congregation.
January 12, Kogota. Elder Momma, who is a Christian first and incidentally a man of affairs, acts here as agent of the Lord of Soma (Nakamura), who owns a great deal of land in the vicinity. In the local Agricultural School there are twelve Christian students, who with the cordial permission of the authorities are today organizing a Y. M. C. A. I am asked to address the whole student-body at the close of the week's work, Satur- day noon. I dine with the master of the dormitory, a Greek Christian, who is most cordial. The afternoon is spent with the young men. Various speeches are made; but I think that the best is that of Mr. Momma, who says that the young men should feel free to go in and out of his home as if it were their own. In the evening a large meeting for the pub- lic is held at the home of Mr. Momma. I am entertained overnight at the home of a young man whom I baptized some time ago, who hopes to enter the Semi- nary in April. The home is spacious, having been formerly a hotel, now put
out of business by the coming of the rail- way. Another young man is pathetically eager to become a minister. His father, who formerly held the position now occu- pied by Mr. Momma, has lost his health. Mr. Momma and I have a talk with the family and succeed in persuading the young man that in the circumstances it is his duty to remain a layman and help his father.
January 13, Ishinomaki. The new chapel has just been finished. Only the hardware ordered from America has been delayed by conditions at Yokohama. So the windows are temporarily fastened with nails. Consequently we are almost suffocated by the odor of the fresh var- nish. But we have a delightful service of worship in the new sanctuary. Pastor Nakayama is one of my disciples. I found him at the potter's wheel thir- teen years ago at Hongo, near Waka- matsu. In my sermon I discuss the thesis of Stoddard's "Revolt Against Civiliza- tion," saying that we need not worry about bad heredity, which, after all, is very much the same for all of us, but have confidence that by the power of Christ we all may be made over into new men, especially if we take good care of our children.
Then we have a long session with the Committee of the Church. The congrega- tion has promised to raise $2,750 toward the cost of the project, but recently there have been signs of flinching. We at the Office are asked to credit certain expendi- tures which are of a local character and do not belong to the project itself. Elder Sugano is quite emphatic at times. He is the treasurer and has to bear the brunt of it all. But finally all see the reason- ableness of our position, and it is heartily resolved to pay up in full. The pastor invites Elder Sugano to stay for dinner, Mrs. Nakayama serves a delightful repast of rice and eels, and the Pastor, Elder and I climb the hill to enjoy the view of the Bay of Sendai and the mouth of the Kitakami River.
January 20, Wakuya. This is one of the principal towns in Miyagi Ken. There are two churches, Congregational- ist and ''Christian;" hence we have not started one. The Congregationalist
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Church is pastorless; but it carries on, having the powerful support of the chief banker and business-man of the place, Mr. Yokoyama. He was wild in his younger days, but was impressed by the preaching of Dr. DeForest. Then came a serious illness and a sudden conversion. He has Professor Kajiwara visit his home once a month, inviting the princi- pal men of the town to hear a lecture on the Bible, and they come, from the
Mayor down. On this occasion it is my privilege to address the gathering in Mr. Yokoyama's mansion and be the guest of the family. One could ask no more delightful opportunity. I have heard since that a delegation from the Congre- gationalist Church has inspected the new chapel planned for Ishinomaki by Mr. Guinther, announcing the intention of building one like it in Wakuya.
— Jottings from Japan.
HAS JAPAN THE STAMINA TO RECOVER? (Excerpts from an article by Dr. Charles S. Reifsynder, of Tokyo)
'*Before the earthquake Japan had decided on a new foreign policy ; namely, the attainment of national power, not through imperial, militaristic expansion, but through industrial development. . . The earthquake has unquestionably fixed this policy. . . .
"Immediately after the earthquake, one of the first acts of Premier Yama- moto and his partially formed cabinet was to cut the army and navy appropria- tion in the budget. ...
''Out of the earthquake Japan has won a sounder esteem than that which fol- lowed the Russo-Japanese War. Then, together with admiration for the plucky little nation successfully fighting the giant, there was a feeling of amused con- descension, which soon turned to dislike. It became mutual. But I have seen a transformation in attitude take place in both Japan and the United States. . . . The immediate response of America to Japan's need came as a tremendous sur- prise to the Japanese people. In travel- ing in and out of Tokyo on the trains and afoot, with the refugees, I heard over and over such words as these: 'We have suspected the intentions of the United States towards us. As we saw its power revealed in the war, we felt that sooner or later this power would be used against us.' . . . 'But now that you have so wonderfully come to our relief, we know that your friendship must be real.'
"The certainty that Japan after the earthquake has a greater destiny than before lies in the nature of its leadership and the character of its people. . . .
There has been some adverse comment on ministerial leadership as exhibited during the disaster. There is the specific charge that the government obstructed the American destroyer fleet in its relief work. In this case I happen to know the facts. . . . The action of the Japanese admiral was based on a standing order, and he had not been notified of the spe- cial permission granted by the Navy Department. There was no opposition to foreign relief but rather a lack of co-ordination between the Navy Depart- ment and the lesser officers. The matter was closed and there were no further incidents of similar character. . . . •
"In most cases, charges of official slow- ness, listlessness and lack of control came from the port-city foreigner, who has a chronic complaint against the gov- ernment. In my opinion the government met the crisis with energy and resource- fulness.
"Again, the holding up of the cable- grams of foreigners is charged against the government. The truth of the matter is that the government gave foreigners precedence over its own people. I heard a man at American Embassy headquar- ters say that he had been at the Foreign Office when a Japanese remarked that Ambassador Hanihara, at Washington, must be happy to have found out his fam- ily in Tokyo is safe. 'But he doesn't know,' answered those to whom the man was speaking, 'we haven't yet sent him word.'
"As a phase of its thoughtfulness in ( Concluded on page 178)
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AFTER MANY DAYS
Dear Friends in the Reformed Church :
I recently visited Shanghai and Nan- king on business and in attendance at a large educational conference. I do not wish to write about the educational con- ference at this time. I wish to repro- duce, in spirit at least, some of the experi- ences I had on board steamers down the river and up the river.
I sailed from Hankow on a Japanese steamer. I found the captain one of the most genial men I have ever met ; and we had many conversations on things Japa- nese in general and on Christian educa- tion in Japan in particular. He knew a great deal about the history of North Japan College and he had some knowl- edge of the two founders of North Japan College and also of Dr. Moore, Dr. Schneder, Dr. Noss and Dr. Faust. It did my heart good to hear him speak in the warmest commendation of our work in Tokyo and in Sendai and vicinity. This man went out of his way in his attentions to my daily comfort while on board. We encountered cold rain and snow storms; and it was his great care that I should be comfortable.
On board the steamer were several Japanese families from Hankow going home on furlough. Imagine, if you can, the pleasure that broke forth on the coun- tenances of the women when they learned that I knew, years ago, their old teach- ers in the Girls' School which they attended in Tokyo and that I knew some of the teachers there today. I could tell them many things about their teachers.
These women, their husbands and children are Christians, and I know that they carry in their lives a likeness unto Him whom they love. One of the little boys came to me one day and said in English, as well as in Japanese, 'T love Jesus and I love you." It was indeed a pleasure to have prayer with these people. It brought home to me the fact that those who labor in Christian schools in the Far East build better than they know and that their work is multiplying and carried out into the various duties, rela- tions and services in life and reproduced in this way as good seed, many times
in good soil. I am convinced that the Far East is being leavened in many, many ways.
On my return trip I again met with the kindest personal appreciation and attention on the part of the captain. Among the passengers was a middle-aged man, born in Sendai. Our conversation was like unrolling an old-time manuscript of the earlier years in Sendai. He knows many of our missionaries and quite a number of missionaries of other denomi- nations throughout Japan; and he con- stantly spoke in the highest terms of appreciation of the work in Sendai, and he mentioned some of the missionaries by name. He had heard of the efforts of the early founders of North Japan Col- lege and the Girls' School. Of the Girl's School products he had this to say. ''My wife and her two sisters and nine other girls from among our relatives are grad- uates of the Reformed Church Girls' School in Sendai." Then he told me a long story about his grandfather who was at one time a prominent figure in Sendai and whom I knew and who is now way down in Formosa living an official life in a small way and yet living a Christian life in a big way, and who writes today, "I am serving Christ in Formosa; I am following Him ; I am making Him known in every way I can. I am over eighty years of age. Sometimes in a family way I am lonely; but in God's way I am always at peace."
Dear friends, this is but a side light on my experience on board steamers up and down the great Yangtze within the last few weeks. You see in a few words how I came into contact with streams of Christian life that have issued from Christian work in Tokyo and Sendai; but what all these experiences mean to me I am not able to tell you. It is impos- sible for you, or any other person, to follow the life currents that issue from Christian centers of religious work. No doubt the same thing occurs in all Christian countries; and what a blessed assurance it is that wJien we sometimes get tired and are discouraged, the great source of life is pulsating through people whom we influenced for Christ and the (Continued on Page 166)
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FIRST CHRISTIAN FUNERAL IN YUNGSUI
WHO ever heard of a person dying where the family did not call in any priests to bang drums and mumble incantations? Why everybody burns paper money and fragrance sticks at a funeral ! Don't these Christians burn any paper money? These and a number of other questions passed about among the crowds who came to see how the Chris- tians would conduct the first Christian funeral in Yungsui.
Mr. Tang was an old style school teacher and very well known in the city and the country round about. He was sixty-four years of age. He had two daughters but no son, which is considered a great misfortune in China. His teach- ing in country schools brought him little more than his food. His wife and one widowed daughter made their own living at home by making bean curd for sale. The old gentleman had been teaching school about twelve miles from Yungsui. His old malady of consumption renewed its ravages. The family w4th whom he was staying in the country, fearing he would die, had him carried to the city at night. After getting home he soon appeared to be much better. On Sunday before Christmas he was present at the communion service. On the following morning he met with the Christians at the organization of the Yungsui Church. He was in the best of spirits and spoke sev-
FiRST Christians Baptized at Yungsui, China, Easter, 1923 Mr. Tang sits at the extreme right
eral times in the meeting. On the way home he became very weak and had to be helped to his room. Soon after reach- ing home he peacefully passed away. Since the" family were in such straitened circumstances the Christians took up a donation toward the purchase of a coffin.
It is customary in the Chinese Church to have several preaching services at a house while the corpse is waiting burial. The friends of the deceased in China think they are not respecting their dead unless they are making a show with noise,, firecrackers, feast and so on. They like lots of noise instead of the quiet which is the sign of Christian training. Early Christmas morning about sixty or seventy people gathered on the street in front of the house for a service. The house was too small for even a small crowd. The coffin was placed in the room opening into the street. Another meeting was held that evening at which several hundred people gathered and packed the narrow street for some dis- tance each way from the house.
The next morning about eight o'clock, the Christians, enquirers, Sunday School children and friends collected at the house to escort the body to the grave about a mile and a half from the city. The coffin was one of the ordinary Chinese heavy, wooden type. It required sixteen men to carry it. The children sang hymns as we passed through the street. Flags and banners were carried for a short distance beyond the town limits. At the grave there was a hymn, prayer and a few words of comfort and exhortation to the bereaved.
We have heard from many sources that people are saying that if the Christians care for their dead in this manner then we will not believe the rumors formcrly spread about. It had been reported that believers of the foreign doctrine had no regard for the dead.
Ward Hartmax. Yungsui, Hunan, China.
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THE TASK OF OUR CHURCH IN CHINA
Matt. 11:4, 5. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see ; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good tidings preached to them.
HOW frequently are we missionaries struck by the fact that conditions in China often give an illuminating insight into our Bible study. The same social conditions against which Amos thun- dered are daily disclosed before our eyes. The same worship of Mammon against which Jesus fought an apparently losing battle presents a Chinese wall which we find it most difficult to pene- trate. Paul was called by the Spirit into Macedonia but no large delegation of Philippians welcomed him when he entered that city. Even so, we who have been called to preach the Gospel in China find most of the people quite indifferent to our efforts. And yet we know that we have been called to this work and that the Spirit of Jesus is leading us in it. Ion Keith- Falconer has said, ''A call is a need made known and the power to meet tJtat need." With this definition in mind, per- haps there can be no better way to show the task of our Church than to show briefly conditions in China today.
Any student of economics soon notices the extremes of wealth and poverty in this country. The Bible student at once thinks of the Israelites who lounged on ivory cots, fattened by their ill-gotten gains. There are poor people in America but really we Americans do not know the meaning of poverty. We mission- aries see it at its worst daily. We Amer- icans pride ourselves on having the rich- est men in the world, but if one bears in mind comparative values, China has men as rich, probably richer, than our Rocke- fellers and Fords.
Going hand in hand with such extremes in wealth is found its twin brother, exploi- tation of the poor by the rich. The scale of wages is so low that a workman can- not support his wife and children on his wages. His wife and children must go out and work. Clerks in the store are paid a very poor wage because, says the astute shopkeeper, '*He is sure to steal
enough to make it up." When sickness or death comes into a poor family money must be borrowed. Two to seven per cent a month is by no means an unusual rate of interest. The result is financial slavery.
As for the blind, the insane, the lepers, and the like, their case is simply hopeless. Like Lazarus, they sit at the rich man's door and beg. Just the other week a man in the hospital chose to die rather than have his leg amputated. Such cases are not rare.
Aggravating these conditions in the Port-cities, not yet in Hunan — is the introduction of the factory system. Large factories in Shanghai, Hankow, and other cities most shamefully exploit labor, especially women and children. We people in Western Hunan must look forward to such conditions in the future, for coal is plentiful and of good quality while the many rapids of the rivers are all waiting for their electrical harness.
We do not wish to give the idea that the rich people of China are unusually heartless. Just as in America and Europe, greed and selfishness are found in extreme forms. How many years has it taken the Gospel of Jesus to penetrate into the social life of America and Europe, and how far are we from the goal that Jesus set for us ! Before Chris- tianity came to China, the rich had organ- ized many philanthropic societies such as Life Saving Societies on Rivers and Lakes, orphanages, public granaries where food is stored for the poorer classes against famines. Societies for Furnishing Coffins to Paupers, etc. These societies are often very well man- aged. But they lack the motive spirit and too often are merely alleviating. No preventive measures have been taken except — in so far as I know — where mis- sionaries have opened schools for the blind, hospitals both general and leper, orphanages filled with the loving Spirit
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of Jesus Christ, etc. The missionaries are being imitated by the Chinese, usually Christian Chinese, in forwarding such work. Missionaries have also taken the lead in establishing playgrounds, cleaning cities, and in fighting girl-slavery, opium, intoxicating liquors, fool^-binding, and other harmful practices.
M11.1TARY — Bandits — Opium The above conditions in China are aggravated at the present time by the military — bandit — opium situation. I deliberately treat soldiers and bandits together as the soldiers and bandits are viciously intertwined. Estimates of the number of soldiers in China vary from one million to two million five hundred thousand, the latter number being prob- ably the more nearly correct. The excuse for such a large number of soldiers is bandit suppression. But no real organ- ized attempt is made to suppress the ban- dits. In fact, one is often forced to the conclusion that the military and the ban- dits have a thorough understanding. Only those bandits who are at enmity with the soldiers are suppressed. In fact, soldiers become bandits and bandits become soldiers daily. Many of the most prominent military officials in China have been bandits at some time in their career, usually getting their start as successful brigands. I am in no sense a military man, but from what I have heard and seen I venture the assertion that if Chi- nese officialdom really wished to sup- press the bandits, two hundred thousand well drilled and equipped soldiers — properly led — could utterly crush ban- ditry in a comparatively short time.
Under present conditions the people suffer grievously. Soldiers and bandits are alike feared by farm villages and small cities. In fact, many of them frankly state their preference for the bandits. When fighting takes place, either between soldiers and soldiers, ban- dits and bandits, or soldiers and bandits, villages and cities are looted and burned, women are raped, girls are carried off as slaves to soldiers and bandits, men, women and children are murdered. At such times the only hope of the people is the missionary and his home as a haven
of refuge. And even this hope is gradu- ally disappearing. Bandits are every- where seizing foreigners and holding them for ransom. We of Western Huhan have again and again been fortu- nate in escaping such danger. At present our district is in the hands of competent military men who are gradually suppres- sing all bandits, either by driving them out or taking them into the army.
Hand and glove with militarism goes opium. A few years ago opium-growing was almost wiped out in China. But the military men need money to keep up their establishments. Unable to get it from legitimate sources, they have encouraged the growth and trade in opium, in some cases even forcing it upon the people. The pipe is everywhere seen, used openly in many cases. Calling on the commander of our district the other week, I was unable to see him because he was smok- ing opium. Going from his headquar- ters directly to the headquarters of an under-officer, I was escorted into his office where he was stretched out on a couch cooking his pill preparatory to a smoke. Apparently no shame attaches to the use of opium today. General Chen has established quite large and efficient schools in Paotsing, the money for which all comes from the taxes and sale of opium.
The great mass of the Chinese, both educated and illiterate, are ignorant of hygienic laws. Diseases and suffering are everywhere found. Chinese doctors have undoubtedly found good remedies for some diseases, but medical charges are so high that the poor cannot afford them. For many diseases they have no remedy. Of surgery they are woefully ignorant. Missionary hospitals and Western preventive methods taught by missionaries are doing much to meet these conditions.
While the Chinese have several forms of religion, Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism confusedly intertwined — only sporadic efforts are made to teach the religious truths in them. To most of the people — again I say educated and illit- erate— these religions are crass supersti- tion. But the Christian Church is teach- ing the Gospel to poor and rich alike, and
176
The: Outi^ook of Missions
[April
the list of those who have found life in Christ Jesus is daily growing longer.
The conditions which I have mentioned above have had several inevitable results on China. Most noticeable is the wor- ship of money. The one aim of a Chinese is to get rich. Poverty and its attend- ant sufferings can be escaped only by amassing riches. While it may seem improbable, yet I am sure the power of money for either good or evil is greater in China than in America. Rich and poor alike think and talk money. Inquir- ers turn cold when they face the burden of the cross. They can remain in good standing at their temple by an expendi- ture of a dollar or two a year. Worship at the temple once a year is all that is required. The Christian Church, with its teachings of perpetual service and stewardship, asks entirely too much. Many Chinese are willing to become rice Christians, that is, to join the Church for the sake of a good job. Mixed motives are often found among American Chris- tians. Jesus Christ fought Mammon from one end of Palestine to the other, and Mammon finally hung Him on the cross. And we know that the Risen Christ is walking by our sides through Western Hunan leading and guiding us in our fight against Mammon in China. By His Grace, we are winning many from the service of wealth to the service of God.
I would not have you think that the Chinese are a miserable, forlorn-looking people. Many of them are certainly mis- erable and forlorn. Yet with it all they are a happy and cheerful people. This is no doubt in part due to the fatalism that is everywhere found. Their fight against conditions has been hopeless, if indeed one can find any fight against conditions. As a result, in cases of dis- tress or suffering, the one comforting word offered is "Muh yu deh fah-dz." (There is no way.) In answer to this we bring a message that in Christ Jesus there is a zvay, and that the way of salva- tion.
We Americans can do one of two things. We can either draw into our shells like fat slimy snails, or we can lend the helping hand. The Christian American has no alternative. He must lend the helping hand. Jesus Christ, Son of God, came to His people, the Jews. They did not want Him. They hung Him on a cross. But thank God, He came. I have tried to show above how sadly the Chinese need Him. Our Church in America must answer the question whether or not Jesus Christ shall walk through China causing the blind to sec, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, to preach the Gospel to the suffering people.
J. Frank Buche:r. Shenchow, Hunan, China.
NEW CASTLES OF CATHAY
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure dome decree,"
WHEN reading Coleridge in high school and college many of us per- haps have wondered just what sort of a palace the famous old Emperor of China built for himself. Unfortunately we know little about it beyond the dream of the poet. There are, however, new castles in Cathay which we can more eas- ily investigate, to discover in what man- ner they have been erected. These new castles of Cathay, like the young Lochin- var, have come out of the West. They are the churches, the hospitals and the schools which American zeal and gener- osity have placed in China.
Lest to some the comparison of Mis- sion buildings to old time castles seem somewhat strained, I hasten to mention briefly a few of the facts which lead to this resemblance. Where do we find buildings created with infinite labor, every stone and stick being carefully cut by hand ? Where do we find the artisans banding themselves together into guilds to protect themselves from the rapacity of military governors ? Where do we find these governors, like petty despots, forc- ing the merchants who pass up and down the rivers to pay illegal toll on all their goods? Surely not in the history of our
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own age and nation. However, the his- tory of the Middle Ages records all of these conditions which are also to be found in China today. There are also some outward and perhaps more strik- ing resemblances between our own past and the present as it is in seen in China.
Our Mission buildings are perched high upon a hill overlooking the river, in true medieval style; the night watch still makes a clamor at night to inform citi- zens that all's well ; in case of threatened attack by outlaws the city gates are still closed and each citizen hangs his lantern in his doorway and stands ready, spear in hand, to defend his altar and his family.
In Shenchow at present we have four buildings nearing completion, two resi- dences and the two school buildings. These require the labor of about one hundred and twenty workmen. Earlier when there was more sawing and stone cutting to be done, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred persons were employed. These figures seem imposing when compared with the amount of work but one must not lose sight of the fact that in America the work could be done by one quarter the number. Here we have no machines and so every bucket of cement, every plank and every lath must be made by hand. Were it not for the fact that the price of labor is very cheap, the cost of building would be prohibitive. The contractor pays wages that are per- haps slightly higher than those paid by others for the same class of work, yet the day's wages of a sawyer would not pay the postage on two letters to America and the price of a "movie" ticket would more than pay the highest priced work- man.
If economies are made in wages, the money thus saved must help to pay the cost of materials. Local building sup- plies are not especially high but every- thing which must travel any distance is sure to be taxed wherever there is a local customs station (and their name is legion) and frequently between. By the time supplies from America reach their destination, the freight and custom duties frequently amount to practically as much as the original cost of the order.
Another difficulty encountered in building in China is the obstinacy of the local workmen about adopting new methods. The apprentice system is still in vogue in China and the workmen are very loathe to depart from the time- honored methods. Even such a simple matter as the use of a plumb line requires constant supervision. The workmen insist on following old customs and cere- monies, and, as an example of this, all the scaffoldings have a twig of evergreen placed at the top to bring good luck.
The slowness with which the workmen adopt new methods is one of the reasons why building is such a slow process in China. Another reason is the difficulty of navigation. The Yuan river has a great number of rapids and would not be considered a navigable stream in any other country. At some seasons of the year there is only a few inches of water at certain places and supplies arrive very slowly. Sometimes forty or fifty large junks may be held up at one of these rapids, waiting for rain to swell the river so that they can pass and this delay may last for weeks or even for months. As this is written we are still waiting for an order of goods which left Changteh, one hundred and twenty miles below, more than six weeks ago.
However, the buildings are now practi- cally completed. A few more months will see us installed in them and blessing the names of those who have made this increased equipment possible. How much of a blessing it will be, can be evi- dent only to one who knows the cramped quarters in which the schools have been working. The expansion will give us opportunity to do many things which we have dreamed of doing but which, up until now, we have had no possibility of carrying out. The efficiency of our work will be increased one hundred per cent by this improvement.
Ethelbert B. Yosx. Shenchow, Hunan, China.
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The OUTI.00K OF Missions
[April
BOOK REVIEWS
Labour in India. A Study of the Conditions of Indian Women in Modern Industry. By Janet Harvey Kelman. Published by George H. Doran Company. Price $4.00 net.
Within an almost incredibly short time eco- nomic and social conditions in India have undergone great changes. Miss Kelman spent sixteen months studying these changed and changing conditions, v^^ith special attention to the work of women in factories and indus- tries. She writes of the causes of poverty, aspects of village life, habits and customs of the people. She then describes the coming of modern industry, tells where the cotton and jute grow, and how women are employed in the fields, mills and factories. She discusses wages and methods of payment, conditions within mills, housing, health, and relations with the employers. One is rather startled to learn how vast a number of the women in India are employed in work outside the home ; how they give opium pills to babies so that they may keep quiet while the mother is ai work ; how underfed and tired are the mothers and children. It is well that this book has been so ably done. It should be widely read. Women in India and industrial problems there are important subjects of the times. India is not remote ; it constitutes a large part of the great British kingdom, and it is so near to us that all of its problems are of deep interest.
William Carey. The Biography of the Great Missionary Pioneer. By S. Pearce Carey. Published by George H. Doran Company, New York. Price $3.50 net.
Not a few books have been written about "the great cobbler missionary," certainly one of the most unusual and fascinating characters in missionary literature. Even those, how- ever, who have read all others will find a great deal that is quite new in the present book, by the great-grandson of Carey. It is a complete story of Carey's life, giving details of every period and exhaustive information
gained from family letters, diaries and the like. The author spent some years in India and tells us he "sojourned in every place Carey dwelt in," while he studied all the situ- ations of Carey's labors and searched libraries in Calcutta, where he procured much perti- nent information. Much is told also of the family life of this devoted missionary; he was married three times ; the wives are individually portrayed; one learns of the character and experiences of each. Many vivid and inter- esting incidents are described; many stories told which reveal almost marvelous experi- ences. The great subject, wealth of material and literary quality make this exhaustive and authoritative life one of the great missionary books. It is excellently illustrated and has a good index.
The Apostolic Age. By William Bancroft Hill, D.D. Published by Fleming H. Revell Com- pany, New York. Price $2.00 net.
It is quite probable that many students are needing and wantmg just this sort of a book. In the Introduction the author says : "The Apostolic Age is for every student, the most important period of church history except his own." Undoubtedly this is a very true state- ment; and therefore this book should reach the library of many a missionary and Chris- tian worker. To have a clear knowledge of the beginnings of Christianity is very essen- tial for the intelligent thinker. Professor Hill has made such a comprehensive study of these earliest days of the Christian Church and analyzed the methods and plans of the Apostles in such a manner that he has given us a most helpful book. The foreign mission- ary is constantly coming into contact with the same situations, problems and characteristics as those of the Apostolic Age. To know that age intimately is a great asset to his effective life. From the pages of this book he may get in close touch with those first missionary times and see clearly the plan of his work.
(Continued from page 171) the treatment of foreigners, the govern- ment displayed toward the Chinese caught in the disaster an attitude worth remembering in view of the usual idea of Japanese feeling toward China. The gov- ernment is expatriating all Chinese in Tokyo providing them with free trans- portation to Shanghai and in addition giving students fifty yen and merchants, coolies and the destitute ten yen. There
are still in Tokyo about 500 Chinese whom the government is housing.
'T regard Japan today as a greater, stronger nation than before its tremen- dous losses. I believe the earthquake has given it the opportunity to become the moral, spiritual and material leader of Asia. . . . Fortunately, Japanese fear of the attitude of the world, as well as Western mistrust of Japanese intentions, has been eliminated. Beyond a doubt, in my opinion, Japan will recover." — Asia.
The Woman's Missionary
Society
Flora Rahn Lentz, Editor, 311 Market St., Bangor, Pa.
r
Go labor on; spend and be spent, thy joy to do the Father's will; It is the way the Master went; should not the servant tread it still? Go labor on; enough, while here, if He shall praise thee, if He deign Thy willing heart to mark and cheer: no toil for Him shall be in vain.
GAPS IN THE FIELD OF HOME MISSIONS
THERE live in America some people who come between, who do not fit into any denominational missionary pro- gram, whose handicaps cause great gaps in an otherwise fairly adequate Home Mission program. Time has come when Mission Boards can no longer maintain an oblivious attitude toward the situa- tions, when they can no longer afford the spiritual escape through these unoccupied gaps in the Home Mission Field.
During the last few years, at the Annual Meeting of the Home Mission Council and the Council of Women for Home Missions, considerable discussion has been directed toward ways and means of reaching with the Gospel these neglected groups of people. This year the discussion led to adopting a budget for Joint Co-operative Service as fol- lows: Religious Work Directors in Gov- ernment Indian Schools, $11,200; Stu- dent Fellozvship for Christian Life Serv- ice, $6,000; Follow-up of New Ameri- cans, $4,800 ; Literature for the Blind, $1,200; Funds for Special Work of Joint Committees, $1,500.
The twenty-two Women's Mission Boards constituent to the Council of Women for Home Missions will be responsible for one-third of the total, or $8,233. The Woman's Missionary Society of General Synod is one of the Constituent Boards and is requested to give $150 toward this Co-operative Service.
We think we hear some one ask, "Why contribute toward putting Relig- ious Directors in Government Indian Schools when we have a school at Neills-
ville for Indian children?" A great many other Mission Boards have their Indian Schools and yet there are more than thirty thousand children enrolled in Government Schools. The first Religious Work Director was placed in a Govern- ment Indian School in 1921 ; this year eight of the schools have such directors,, who are responsible for all Protestant young people in the schools, irrespective of denomination. The officials in these schools have always objected to denomi- national and sectarian teaching but wel- come the inter-denominational effort. The opportunity for personal work is very great.
Either the thirty thousand children in Government Schools must be deprived of religious instruction or Mission Boards must do the work co-operatively.
The Student Fellowship for Christian Life Service — that portion of the Student Body which stresses the needs of the Home Mission Field — will need the financial and moral support of Mission Boards at least until it gets a real start in its work.
Another most worth while piece of Home Mission service is the recently established system of Follow-up of New Americans from the Port of Entry until they are settled in their first American home. When the fear of detention or deportation is a memory, imagine what it must mean to have a Christian friend call and help the family get settled, find a suitable Church home, get the children into school, etc. The year 1923 was the first complete year of Follow-up of New American service. In that year 7,300
179
180
The Outlook op Missions
[April
cases were referred to local churches. Most of the cases were families with three or more members. It is estimated that at least 21,000 persons were touched by this work. Some of these were Reformed people and were helped into Reformed Churches. Before we organ- ized this Protestant Follow-up, we admired the efficient system as it was used by the Roman Church and Hebrew Societies. Shall we share in the Protes- tant responsibility?
One of the first questions likely to be asked when we speak of Literature for the Blind, is "How does that fall into the sphere of Home Missions?" If people who see need the inspiration of missionary literature, why do not the blind who have their missionary prob- lems as they come into contact with •other blind people? There are in Amer- ica about 100,000 blind persons. The ■supply of Christian literature in braille is most limited and the expense involved in publishing and distributing it so great that there is no danger of overlapping in this work even if many organizations and Boards supply literature. The American Bible Society provides Bibles, the State •Commissions for the Blind are interested but the cost of producing has greatly limited the supply of general literature. If there is to be missionary literature the Mission Boards must make suitable pro- vision. We are preparing the children to think about their responsibility to the blind through a chapter devoted to the subject in the 1924-25 "Better American Series" for leaders of Junior Mission Study Groups. What the Mission Boards are asked to do this year is furnish $1280 to co-operatively publish and distribute the first volume of Dr. George Mathe- son's book, entitled "Representative Men -of the Bible," and a short sketch of his life. This book by the brilliant blind preacher and author, who became blind :at the threshold of his career, whose han- dicap made it necessary to adjust his plans for marriage and work, will be an inspiration to those who cannot see but ■can read.
We trust this brief outline of the pro- posed plan for co-operative service will open further inquiries. The Executive
Board of the W. M. S. G. S. will be requested to give $150 toward it. So far the W. M. S. G. S. contributes $200 annually toward the work of Farm and Cannery Migrants With the additional $150 it will mean $350 toward co-opera- tive work in the Home Mission Field. The wisdom of doing it in this way must appeal to everyone as an economical and logical Protestant approach to handi- capped and neglected groups of Ameri- cans. At this writing it seems as though it might be a seed for thought that the district synods should take responsibility for one or more pieces of the proposed lines of service. A proportional division of the $350 gives $200 for Farm and Cannery Migrants ; about $70 for Direc- tors in Government Indian Schools; $35 Student Fellowship, $25 Follow-up of New Americans; $10 Christian Litera- ture for the Blind; $10 special work of Standing Committees.
When the Protestant Church learns to co-operate. Christian progress will reg- ister accordingly as the speed of the auto- mobile exceeds that of the old time horse and buggy method of travel.
NOTES
The article entitled "Slum Life in Japan," by Sohei Kowta, a senior in Central Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, gives valuable supplementary read- ing for Chapter Six of "The Woman and the Leaven."
* * *
The theme of the Prayer Calendar for 1925 will be Stewardship.
Missionary enthusiasm in St. Paul's Church, Butler, Pa., Rev. H. A. Robb, pastor, is manifested through the fine study programs of the two missionary societies, the Girls' Missionary Guild and the Mission Band. In connection with the mission study on Japan, the Girls' Mis- sionary Guild is studying and preparing the pageant, "The Cross Triumphant," which they hope to present at one of the Summer Missionary Conferences.
* * *
Rev. Lee H. Downing, of the African Inland Mission, gave his interesting illus-
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181
trated lecture on the "Black Savages of the Uganda Colony," before the Woman's Missionary Society of St. Paul's Re- formed Church, Lancastei, Pa., at one of their recent monthly missionary meet- ings.
* * *
The address of Miss Katharine Laux, Corresponding Secretary of the W. M. S. of Eastern Synod, is changed to 209 N. 5th Street, Reading, Pa. Please make a
note of the change in your directory.
* * *
Ickesburg, Carlisle Classis, Potomac Synod, organized a missionary society with six charter members, January 20th, 1924. Organizer, Mrs. William H. Mil- ler. Mrs. Miller also organized a mis- sionary society in the same charge at
Blain, Pa., with six members.
* * *
Milltown, N. J., New York Classis, German Synod of the East, organized January 21st, 1924, twenty-nine mem- bers; organized by Miss Carrie M. Kerschner.
* * *
Student Secretary, Miss J. Marion Jones, upon invitation from the students of Cedar Crest College, Allentown, Pa., visited the college on March 12th. Plans are being arranged for visits to Ursinus, Hood and the Normal Schools in Eastern
Pennsylvania during March and April.
* * *
Potential leaders — that is what we hope the 278 Reformed girls who are at this time in our denominational colleges, may become. For the first time in its history the Woman's Missionary Society is in position to challenge the girls in college.
* * *
During the year 6,500 copies of the Thank Offering Service, entitled "Among the Sheaves," and 1400 copies of "Broken Bridges," the Thank Offering pageant, were sold.
A NEW "AD" FOR EVERYLAND
At the recent services in Bangor, Pa., for the United Day of Prayer for Mis- sions, the twenty-seven children who sub- scribed for the magazine told what they liked best about it. The small children
told that their mothers, brothers or sis- ters read it to them and the older children told about the stories, clubs, conundrums, etc.
The price of the magazine and the rea- son for its publication was told by the Secretary who had secured the subscrip tions not only from children connected with the Reformed Church but from other Churches in the town.
THE PRAYER CALENDAR The prayer for the fifth month in 1924 was written by Mrs. Vornholt, of New Bremen, Ohio, another missionary mother who longs for a glimpse of a mound in the Orient, for her daughter Mary A. Vornholt is buried in Sendai,. Japan.
We recall the sad circumstances which accompanied the early death of Miss Vornholt, from diphtheria on March 2nd, 1920. Her career as missionary teacher was brief in time but she crowded so much of love into it that hex influence had touched many young lives.
It is a strange coincidence that the May, 1920, Outlook of Missions was the memorial number for Miss Vornholt and that Mrs. Vornholt, four years later, should write the prayer for the same month. It will be an inspiration to again read the beautiful tributes recorded in that number.
Miss Nau, Mrs. Krietk, Mr. Kriete, Miss Weed, Miss Otte ; Mrs. Watanabe, Wife of Japanese Pastor at Yamagata, Japan, with Her Baby in Center
182
Th^ Outlook of Missions
[April
MISS ISKE WILL GO TO CHINA
At the recent meeting of the Board of Foreign Missions, Miss Alma Iske, of Tiffin, Ohio, accepted the challenge to go to China as a missionary. Miss Iske is the third woman connected with the Woman's Missionary Society of General Synod to accept the challenge for foreign service since January, 1923. At that time Miss Mary V. Hoffheins accepted the challenge to go to Japan. The fol- lowing July Miss Mildred Bailey — for a number of years the efficient Secretary in the Philadelphia office — decided to go to China and now Miss Iske makes the third one to be chosen.
Since September, 1921, Miss Iske has l)een Organizer for Girls' Missionary Guilds and Mission Bands. The record of her service will show her success in the field of organization. Under her enthusiasm and untiring efforts the Girls' Missionary Guilds increased in large numbers throughout the entire Church.
Mingled with the feeling of regret for the loss to the departments in which she was so deeply interested, her friends nevertheless rejoice that the Foreign Mission Board has seen well to recognize and appreciate her qualifications for the larger work which awaits her in China.
THE MONTHLY QUIZ
1. — Give the number of Indian children
enrolled in Government Indian Schools.
2. — JVhat service ushers in the National
Convention of the Y. W. C. A.?
3. — Hozv did the Japanese Kindergarten
children help zvith their mothers' Thanksgiving party f
4. — How many Reformed girls h
Reformed colleges?
5. — Have you read ''Das Kreiiz Bringt
Rosen
6. — Give the title of a mentioned book
that has gone through 300 editions?
7. — Name the man who founded the
first Christian university in Japan. What does the name mean?
8. — Who was Dr. George Mathesonf
9. — Name the nezv missionary from the
Executive Board of the W. M. G. S. S. under appointment for China. 10. — Who zvrote the Prayer in the Prayer Calendar for May?
FORM OF BEQUEST I give and bequeath to the Woman's Missionary Society of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, of which Mrs. Lewis L. Anewalt, of 814 Walnut Street, Allentown, Pa., is treasurer, the sum of dollars.
A PARTIAL LIST OF INTERDENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS OF
MISSIONS
Dates and Chairmen for 1924
Boulder, Colorado— June 18-26— Mrs. Albert A. Reed, 670 Marion St., Denver, Col. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin— June 23-30— Mrs. C. W. Peterson, 11132 S. Hoyne Ave., Chicago, 111.
Minnesota-St. Paul— June 9-14— Mrs. J. F. Marlatte, 419 Newton Ave., Noith Minnesota, Minn.
Mt. Hermon, California— July 5-12— Mrs. Paul Raymond, 90 Santa Monica Way, San Francisco, Cal.
Northfield, Massachusetts— July 7-14— Mrs. T. Raymond St. John, 341 Webster Ave., Long Island City, N. Y.
Southern California (Los Angeles) — June 2-6 — Mrs. Q. J. Rowley, 181 S. Virgil St., Los Angeles, California.
Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pa. — June 27- July 5 — Miss Mary Peacock, Torres- dale, Pennsylvania.
Winona Lake, Indiana — June 16-23 — Mrs. C. W. Peterson, 11132 S. Hoyne Ave., Chicago, 111.
Chautauqua, New York — August 9-15 — ^Mrs. John Ferguson, 156 Fifth Ave., N. Y.
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"DAS KREUZ BRINGT ROSEN"
(The story of two German girls, twin sisters, whose parents many years ago were married in Zion Reformed Church, Decatur, Indiana, later returning' to Ger- many to take up their permanent residence ; who through an interesting and fortu- nate experience are now residents of the fair little city of Decatur and members of the church in which their parents were wed.)
Dear Readers :
Tarry a moment and ponder upon this word: "Das Kreuz bringt Rosen" (The cross brings roses). Does it mean any- thing to you? Or does it express some- thing you cannot appreciate? Then let us tell you the story of our life and per- haps you will.
In faraway Germany, in the Rhein- pfalz, noted for its natural beauties as well as for its historic scenes, is the place we call home. There, in the blessed fam- ily circle, we spent the beautiful, carefree days of our childhood. Never can we forget those hours when at our Mother's knee we listened to the Bible stories or in company with our Father wandered through the green woods of mid-summer.
Only too soon those wonderful years sped by and we were rudely awakened to the stern realities of life. Our youth- ful ambitions were to obtain an educa- tion, see the world and become famous ; hut God's thoughts are not our thoughts ; instead we must needs bear the cross. In 1914, when we were just 14 years of age, those dark clouds, which soon broke into that terrible maelstrom of the great world war, gathered ominously on the political horizon. War, with its destruction, sac- rifice and degradation was especially hard for us because of the location of our home near the western front. Four years the thunder of cannon shook to its foun- dation the ancient home in which we lived. It was built in the fifteenth cen- tury and had seen many wars before this one, but the structure was getting weak in some parts and often we feared it must soon crumble and fall. Praise God, it still stands. We saw thousands of men and boys take leave of their loved ones, most of them never to return. Our own brother-in-law left us to follow the call of his country and never came back. His final resting place is among the thousands of others in the blood-soaked earth of
Compress Hill near Verdun, in France. He was the second son to be taken within two months, from his mother by the war. O, the nerve-shattering reports that daily came from the front. But such times drive the people to God. \Miere could we have found any comfort or hope had not He who carried the cross before us been constantly at our side? Friends, do not curse your cross^ but remember that your Lord will eventually convert it into a crown.
How wonderfully the Lord has helped us! At last in 1918— peace ! The can- non were silenced and hearts began to glow with new hope. It seemed that con- ditions would soon become much Detter for people. Instead, especially in Ger- many, things became worse. The struggle for bare existence soon grew to a stern reality and finally, worst of all, came hunger, constantly and always there, never satisfied. Our widowed sister with her four little orphaned children was especially hard-pressed. Then God showed us a way out.
Our parents, who had spent a number of years in America, in fact had been united in marriage there, but had not remained, suggested to us the thought of coming to this land of unlimited possi- bilities. On the 8th of January, 1922, we wrote a letter asking if someone would be kind enough to forward the means and open the way for us to come. Having no relatives and not knowing if the former acquaintances of our parents in America were still living we addressed the letter to "Das Pfarramt" (To the Pastor), Decatur, Indiana. The letter, after some delay, reached its intended destination and an answer came back. To our great surprise and gratitude it contained an oflPer to help us come to America and give us a home after we should reach there with Mr. and Mrs. F. H. Heuer, who were totally unknown to
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our parents. After some correspondence and the making of necessary arrange- ments, for the most of which we grate- fully acknowledge the kindness of Mr. Matthias Kirsch, of Decatur, who is well known to many Reformed people, we were finally ready on the 15th of August, 1922, to bid farewell to home and loved ones.
You may imagine that it was not an easy thing to say good-bye to all that was near and dear to us ; to a good mother and a godly father, to brothers and sis- ters, friends and companions of youth, to our mother t(3ngue and the homeland and finally to strike out into a new world and an uncertain future. On the 19th of August we boarded ship in Hamburg. Often during the trip across the Atlantic our courage nearly failed us when we thought of the past and present and most of all the uncertainty of what the future had in store for us. At such times we could comfort ourselves with the words: *'E'en though the way I cannot see; Thou, O God, leadest me." We landed safely in New York on September 2nd. Our first night in America was spent in the Hudson House, that well-known refuge of immigrants and emigrants. We gratefully acknowledge the help and
kindness of the Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Land. The next day we continued our journey by rail and after a 24-hour ride we reached the beautiful little city of Decatur in the grand old Hoosier state. Here we were heartily welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Heuer, who received us into their hospitable home.
We have been in our new home more than a year and have gfr^-at cause for thankfulness. We hav .eceived many kindnesses from Mr, anc Mrs. Heuer and other friends and have been enabled to be of great help to our loved ones in the old homeland. And, O, how thankful they are for even the smallest gift that we have been permitted to send them. We are employed in the local branch of the General Electric Company and feel quite at home in these United States.
That^ dear reader, is our story. Do you not agree that God has wonderfully led us? We feel that it has been dis- tinctly a work of missions. You may feel that missionary work is confined to the heathen lands ; but we assure you that there are hundreds of opportunities both here in America and in the old Father- land across the sea to do missionary work.
LiNA AND Emma Guth.
A GREAT CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE AT VASSAR COLLEGE
Vassar College has announced that during the ten days, June 14-23, 1924, an Institute of International Relations on a Christian Basis will be held on the campus of Vassar College under the joint auspices of the Federation of Woman's Boards of Foreign Missions and the Council of Women for Home Missions of all evangelical denomina- tions, the National Y^ W. C. A., the American Federation of University Women, the Student Volunteer Move- ment and Vassar College.
The purpose of the Institute of Inter- national Relations on a Christian Basis, as announced by Vassar College, will be to study the practicability of the appli- cation of Christian ideals to changing national and international aims and con- ditions, and to initiate research into the
problem of readjustment of present agencies under Christian auspices in the light of this realignment of ideals in ^\'Orld service.
The central committee responsible for drafting the program and issuing invi- tations to speakers is composed of mem- bers of Vassar College, Board of Trus- tees, Faculty and Alumnae, members of the Federation of Woman's Boards of Foreign Missions of North America and the Council of Women for Home Mis- sions, National Board of the Y. W. C. A., and the Student Volunteer Movement, with one from the World Alliance for International Friendship and other kin- dred Christian organizations, with an Advisory Committee from the Women's Colleges which have been invited to appoint members.
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It is expected that the program of the sessions will be made public shortly after March 1st. President MacCracken stated, in making the announcement :
"Diplomacy and statecraft have thus far failed to give us a basis of enduring peace acceptable to the world. It re- mains for religion and education to attempt the task of creating throughout the world a public opinion and a fervent faith consecrated to the development of a just and lasting peace. The World Con- ference on Education at San Francisco last summer, at which hundreds of school
teachers from all over the world consid- ered the problem from the point of view of education, is now to be followed by the Vassar Conference, at which women of all denominations will consider the problem from the point of view of religious duty. Out of such conferences ought to grow a program for the future to build upon."
Mrs. John W. Blodgett, Trustee of Vassar College, made the announcement for the College at the meeting of the Federation of Woman's Boards of For- eign Missions.
JAPANESE KINDERGA: September, 1923,
THE Kindergarten of the First Reformed Church of San Fran- cisco opened on August 13th for the fall and winter term. The enrollment to date is thirty-eight. Sessions are from 9 A. M. to 2 P. M. The children range from 3 to 6 years of age.
The Kindergarten work in general has been conducted from the standpoint of individual interests. Because of the difference in ages the children represent very many stages of development. Dur- ing the first two hours the play is entirely individualistic, each child meeting his own play problems and receiving such help as is needed. Later a group is formed for social experiences, games, songs, story, and for criticising and admiring the handwork of the morning.
Luncheon period has been an opportu- nity for lessons in English, table manners, proper diet and hygiene. The children have been taught to lay the table, brush up crumbs, etc. — ^in short to be inde- pendent in these matters.
The outstanding feature of the term was the opening of the splendid new Kindergarten room in the Community House on November 22nd. The children participated in the moving, carrying practically all of the smaller material, and making trip after trip with little arms loaded. It was a very valuable experi- ence.
RTEN, SAN FRANCISCO to February, 1924
Mothers' meetings have been held, the most successful ones being on Hallow- e'en, Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Thanksgiving party was the climax of real experiences which emphasized the food idea. The children went to the store for cranberries, apples, etc., and helped in the making of jelly. They churned butter from cream and helped in the cut- ting of biscuits which were served at the mothers' party.
In this, as indeed in all of the activi- ties of the kindergarten, vocabulary building is stressed. Vital experiences with English associations form the basis for the acquiring of the new language. The six year old children who left Feb- ruary 1st for the Pubhc School had con- siderable power of Enghsh expression which will unquestionably make for prog- ress in their primary work.
The joy of the Christmas tree cele- bration was greatly enhanced by gifts from the following Church societies:
Tiffin, Ohio.
Bluffton, Ohio.
Harrisonburg, Virginia.
La Fayette, Indiana.
Linton, Indiana.
Linfield, Pennsylvania.
Respectfully submitted, BeIvLA H. DeComp, Teacher.
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GIRLS' MISSIONARY GUILD CELEBRATIONS
A Decatur Guild Begins to Recoru History
Upon request of the Woman's Mis- sionary Society of Southwest Synod that there be a Y. W. M. A. in every church of the synod, the Woman's Missionary Society of Zion Reformed Church, Decatur, Indiana, appointed Mrs, L. W. Stolte, a committee of one, to organize an auxihary to its society.
On December 6th, 1915, six young women met with Mrs. Stolte. After prayer and the explanation of the work of the auxiliary, an organization was effected with the following officers : President, Miss Matilda Sellemeyer; Vice-President, Miss Letta Wetter; Sec- retary, Miss' Lulu Gerber; Treasurer, Miss Ella Mutschler.
Following the ruling of the W. M. S. G. S. to change the name of the Young Woman's Missionary Auxiliary to Girls' Missionary Guild, this auxiliary auto- matically became the Girls' Missionary Guild of Zion Reformed Church. At present the membership is twenty-six. Miss Esther Sellemeyer, one of the few Guild members on the Foreign Field, is
a member of this Guild, having become a member in July, 1915, while on vaca- tion from Heidelberg University. In July, 1917, upon her departure for China she was made an honorary member and later, in 1924, a Life Member of the Guild.
Sunday evening, February third, the members presented the beautiful pageant, "A Quest for Happiness," closing with the pantomime, "Take My Life and Let It Be." The occasion not only commemo- rated the Tenth Anniversary of the Guild but also the consecration of Miss Esther Sellemeyer to her work in Shenchow, who being at home on her furlough represented the Chinese girl in the pageant.
SYNODICAL BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY An elaborate banquet and a fine pro- gram marked the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the "Synodical Girls' Missionary Guild," at St. Paul's Reformed Church, St. Marys, Ohio, February 15th. The local Woman's Missionary Society, with Mrs. Wm. Brodbeck, as chairman, assumed the responsibility for the birthday dinner. The girls, under the direction of Mrs. F.
Girls' Missionary Guild of Zion Reformed Church, Decatur, Indiana, Observed Its Tenth Anniversary by Presenting Pageant, "A Quest for Happiness"
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Reed, gave the program and entertain- ment. The guild colors, blue and gold, were used in favors and decorations. A large golden birthday cake decorated with ten blue candles served as centerpiece. A unique arrangement of tables to form
the letter M suggested the motive for the occasion. Mrs. F. Reed was toastmis- tress. After brief talks by the pastor. Rev. W. S. Rickards, and the guest of honor, Mrs. N. Vitz, an interesting pro- gram was presented.
THE SLUM-LIFE IN JAPAN
(The following is the translation of Mr. Kagawa's article which appeared in a Japanese magazine about two years ago. ^Iv. T. Kagawa is one of the outstanding Christian leaders, of Japan. Besides being a preacher, he is a philosopher, writer, poet, lecturer, political-economist and labor leader. Three years ago, he published a novel entitled "Crossing the Death-line" which has gone through three hundred editions. The novel is nothing but his own biography, and is distinctly Christian. It is now translated into English, German and French. He is truly a modern Francis of Assisi, because of the wonderful work he is doing for the slum people in Kobe. About his life and work, read Fisher's ''Creative Forces in Japan," pp. 100-106; and the October, 1923, number of Missionary Review of the World. — Sohei Kowta.)
The Interests in the Slum There are some interesting things in the slum. Otherwise, how could I stay in this slum so long? This makes my tenth Christmas here. Indeed the slum is a very interesting place. The people are interesting. The children are inter- esting. The women are interesting. Their stories are interesting. There are gamblers, street-walkers, black-mailers, pick-pockets, and so on. But oh, the efforts and struggles of these fallen ones of humanity ! They are to me all poetry. I am an ardent admirer of the slum. Though I tremble even to think of it, still I love it so much that I cannot very well get out of it.
Angel the Second Readers, the child is an orphan whom the angel has left on this earth. There are no flowers in the slum, but the face of the child is the flower of the Alammal- ian animal, which is much prettier than the flower of the plant. The faces of the children here are as pretty as the faces of the children in the New York slums. I love children. The reason why I cannot leave this place is that I do not want to go away from the owners of these pretty faces. The children in this slum love me most dearly. There are eight hundred chil- dren here between the ages of four and twelve and all of them love me much.
Readers, think of it! Just imagine a father who is loved by eight hundred children. Isn't it a grand privilege? They all love me, because I constantly play with them. And as you know, every child likes the ones with whom he plays.
Here in this slum, I am known by the name, "Ten-tei" which means teacher. One of the peculiar things in this connec- tion is that the first word some of these babies learn to say is *'Ten-tei." When I learned this fact for the first time from a few mothers, I was certainly proud of myself ! I am more loved by these tots than their parents are. But to be frank, isn't this very unfair from the standpoint of the parents? The children were born to them, and the fathers work hard from early in the morning till late at night to support their tots, yet the first word these children learn to say is not ''Daddy," but "Ten-tei." If I were in their position, I would get angry. If those children were mine, I certainly would like to hear "Daddy" from them, instead of some one's else name. As a father I want to get at least that much right. Yet today the laborers in the slum cannot demand that kind of "extravagant right" because of the low wages. "Ten-tei" stays in the slum all day long. He is the children's playmate, teacher, nurse and physician. But the fathers stay at home only several times a month. When they come back,
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the children are in bed. So the fathers at home are looked upon as strangers by their children. This is the true home life in the slum. Ah, how long a time we ^hall have to wait until these laborers work eight hours a day that even in this slum the fathers might play with their ■children ! But judging from the present -conditions such hope is an idle dread. At any rate those children like me very much. I call them my disciples. "Tako- •chin" was my first disciple.
'Tako-chin/' My First Disciple The real name of ''Tako-chin" is "Taichi," but in the slum no one calls others by their real names. "Tako-chin" was born in the third year I came to this slum. His father was very poor and was a day-laborer, working for the undertakers. (The work for the under- takers is one of the lowest types of work in Japan.) "Tako-chin" did not like school. He attended school only a little while. His mother died of syphilis some time ago. His brother has only one eye. He is sixteen years old, working also for the undertakers. ''Tako-chin," too, works for the undertakers, but his par- ticular job is to take care of the shoes. He gets four yen a month, that is two dollars in American money. He often comes around my house, and laughs and dances very heartily. I often talk with him through the door of my house while writing my manuscripts. This boy, as T said before, was my first disciple. My second disciple was a girl by the name of ^Tto-chan," and the third one was "Deko- suke." The death-rate in the slum is very high. So many people die here. The mother of "Ito-chan" died only a short time ago.
I had one time a girl disciple called '"Osei-chan." She was an adopted child of a certain house of ill-fame. Little while ago I vigorously attacked the insti- tution of prostitution in Japan, and her family somehow had to leave the city. Just before she left here, she came to say good-bye to me. Unfortunately I was not at home that day, and "Osei-chan" waited almost half a day, crying, "Oh, I want to see my teacher. I cannot forget Mr. Kagawa and Jesus as long as I live.'' I
learned this from my neighbor when I came back home that night and could not help but crying myself, thinking of what a pure, grateful heart that little girl had for me. I had attacked the business of her home and she knew it very well. But she had never stored any ill-feeling against me. On the contrary, she always loved me much. She knew that I was fighting a battle of righteousness. Chil- dren are always the friends of justice! And that's why I love children. When- ever I think of the tragedy I caused upon that little innocent girl's heart, I can not help but weep for Her. I think it was a great honor for me to have little "Osei-chan" as my disciple.
I made in this slum many disciples, and I am still making many. But while I was in America for three years, most of them became pick-pockets, gamblers, tramps, and some of them died of small- pox. When I think of these little chil- dren of the slum, I really feel sorry for them. Why can't I have the power to save them ? In the slum I am now living, there are three hundred and sixty illegi- timate children. These children are naturally wild in their character. They are forever cursed by the god of poverty.
The Fate oe the Girls The girls, on the other hand, become prostitutes. ''Yukie-san" and "Hisae- san" of the next door have become pros- titutes. Both of them were my Sunday School pupils. I don't understand the psychology of their becoming prostitutes. Nevertheless they are now engaging in that shameful profession. Yukie-san's mother was the daughter of a noble fam- ily and she herself was a woman of high character, but poverty had ruined her home. When she died *'Yukie-san" was too poor to hold the funeral service, and I volunteered to have it for her. ''Yukie- san" had then her nephew with her, who was crippled, blind and deaf. Oh, how devotedly this little girl served her nephew !
It is impossible for beautiful girls to keep themselves pure in the slum. Many professional gamblers want to exchange the purity of these girls with their money. I know personally many girls
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who were forced to become the victims of those vicious gamblers. There are so many devilish beasts, how could the inno- cent girls keep their purity? Because of poverty those girls go through most piti- ful experiences even before they become of age. It is quite natural for them to have the spirit of revenge against men and society in general. It is very natural for them to think of becoming prostitutes or street-walkers, and thereby secure beautiful clothes which otherwise they could not afford, and make men their playthings, instead of being themselves played by men. "Hisae-san" is another girl who became a street-walker, though
her circumstances were different from those of '*Yukie-san."
There are some people who talk about prostitutes and street- walkers from sta- tistics. They really do not understand what unfortunate circumstances these girls have to endure. I know these girls personally. Both of them are bright. They had with them splendid possibilities to grow into noble womanhood, but they were sold only because they were in the slum. Don't blame them, kind reader. They were all sold because of their pov- erty. Oh, if I had enough money, I would surely buy them back !
(To he Continued)
DEPARTMENT OF STEWARDSHIP
Mrs. D. A. Winter, Secretary
STEWARDSHIP IN THE HOME
WHERE does Stewardship begin? The church professes it and urges it upon its members. Its increasing influ- ence is observed in the expanding work of the church but the need of its spirit is felt in the untouched fields of the world and above all in the unresponsive minds of many professing Christians. The church is the instrument of God through which its spirit is engendered. It is the great link that unites the home with God and His great work in the world. The spirit of stewardship begins with God and its results start from the Chris- tian home. If stewardship is invisible in the home, it will be lost in the church and unknown in the world.
Stewardship in the home is based upon a love of God's word and communion with God in prayer as a family unit. There can be no stewardship in the home unless the family altar is established. Individual prayer life creates personal acknowledgment of stewardship, likewise an atmosphere of prayer brings steward- ship into the home.
Methods of stewardship of money in the home depend upon the division of the family funds. If the family money is
divided conscientiously between hus- band and wife, it is a question of faith- fully administering the individual share. Each child may be taught his responsi- bility for the Lord's work by the example of the parents, especially so, if he is taught the duty of sharing his bit with the Lord. However, if parents keep a common treasury, the Lord's share should not be forgotten whenever the wage or salary is received. The Lord's box should be replenished proportion- ately to the amount received, and this box should be accessible to each member of the family for his benevolent giving.
Stewardship in the home implies the giving of any life to the work of our Master. Where the flame of stewardship is kept burning, there can be no snuffing out of the flame of love in the heart of the Lord's work in any capacity, be it as a Sunday School teacher, preacher or missionary. Stewardship of life is implied as well as of possessions, and the prayers and good wishes of the family will not be contented until any call of the Lord is faithfully complied with.
Mrs. W. C. Beckmann. Plymouth, Wis.
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Literature Ghat
Carrie M. Kerschner
SEVEN girls may be chosen from your Girls' Missionary Guild to present Chapter 5 of **The Woman and the Leaven in Japan." One girl may repre- sent an old type Japanese woman for part I of Outline on page 134. Other imper- sonations may be easily worked out. For additional material on Madame Yajima consult pages 813-816, October, 1923, Missionary Reviezv of the World. A few copies are still available at 25 cents each.
Are you spelling Japan in different terms than when you began your study? How much credit shall we give Chris- tianity for the new place women are hold- ing in Japan?
Japanese novelties for sale may be secured from the Japanese Art and Nov- elty Co., ICQ Payson Avenue, New York City.
About three hundred Societies are using the Stewardship Packets. Are you? 10 cents each.
Celebration Packets have been popular. 35 cents each.
Playlets on Japan for Women and Girls are "The Cross Triumphant," 35 cents each ; "Adoption," seven characters, three men and four women, an every day story of Japan, 25 cents; "Sunlight and Candlelight," two men and three women, 25 cents; "The Other Point of View," a scene from Japanese country life, four women, two men, 25 cents ; "Alice Through the Postal Card," sixteen Jun- iors, 15 cents each. Japanese Jaunts, 10 cents. Japanese Games, 10 cents.
We have three Japanese songs, easily rendered, for 10 cents.
Budget Envelopes, 25 cents per 100; $1.50 per 1000.
For Temperance Workers a new poem by Mrs. C. C. Bost, "My Task," 2 cents each.
Have you begun to use the Thank Offering boxes? They are sent free. Prayer Calendars, $2.00 per dozen. Program Packets for use with all the
Japanese Study books, sell for 35 cents each. Interdenominational, "How to use," 15 cents each. Books as follows: "The Woman and The Leaven," "Cre- ative Forces," "Japan on the Upward Trail," 50 cents each; cloth, 75 cents. "The Honorable Japanese Fan," for Jun- iors, 40 cents, paper.
Everyland, our magazine for children, $1.50; in clubs of five, $1.25 each. The Missionary Review of the World, $2.50; clubs of five, $2.00 each.
LIFE OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
IN 1843, just at the time when the world was astir, Joseph Hardy Neesima was born in Tokyo. Reared in the period of Japan's awakening Neesima realized that if his country was to play her part in the world aifairs as she undoubtedly would be forced to do, she must have the edu- cation of the West. Determining to acquire this education he set out for America at the time when it was a crime punishable by death for a national to leave the country. It was nothing short of miraculous that in 1864 Neesima eventually arrived in Boston. Here he was fortunate to find a friend in Mr. Alpheus Hardy, the owner of the vessel which had brought him to America. Dur- ing the year of study which followed the young Oriental found Mr. Hardy a wise counselor and a generous benefactor while Mrs. Hardy mothered him as her own child. He applied himself with great earnestness to his task of acquir- ing an education and was graduated with distinction from Amherst College.
Almost immediately his usefulness began. In 1872 Neesima was asked to tour the world with the Japanese Embassy, acting as their interpreter. He was asked also to prepare an essay on the subject "Universal Education for Japan." This essay did much toward lay- ing the foundation for Japan's excellent educational system. Before leaving America, Neesima was of the definite conviction that he must establish in Japan a college of his own. Although many high government positions were repeat- edly offered him he held fast to this one
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purpose and finally, after facing severe hardships and seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, Doshisha College (Doshisha means "one purpose") was founded in Kyoto.
Forty students were enrolled the first year and for years in this center of Shiritoism and Buddhism the college struggled for its very existence. Finally after a nation-wide fight for religious education, Neesima, with the aid of his friends of the Embassy, was instrumental in having a clause granting religious edu- cation incorporated in the constitution. Neesima not only labored in founding Doshisha but gave a large share of his time to evangelistic work. He worked so continuously that at length he suffered a complete physical collapse.
Despite this condition, in 1883, Nee- sima began planning to make Doshisha a Christian University for the college had now grown to 900 students. His cam- paign to raise funds was most successful. Doshisha University was assured — but physically Neesima was spent.
In 1890 he died and in the city where fifteen years before he had to fight for existence, four thousand people now gathered to pay him homage. Neesima had gone to the ends of the earth in search of truth and having found it had given his life that his countrymen might know it.
Girls' Missionary Guild
Mrs. J. Edward Omwake, Secretary
JAPAN ON THE UPWARD TRAIL Chapters III-IV
CHRISTIANITY has entered Japan, and as ever, its leavening influence is permeating all the relationships of life. It is revealing men and women to them- selves, to their neighbors, and it is call- ing loudly for them (and they are responding in no mean way) to join hands with other nations in world friend- ship and in world peace.
The Japanese are very courageous, chivalrous, self-controlled, loyal to friends, magnanimous to foes. They possess a high sense of justice, and an unswerving faithfulness to the plighted word. An open mind and a passion to learn are among the chief characteristics of these people. The most humble homes and the most remote villages in the empire boast their quota among the stu- dents of the land.
"In their thinking and in their ideals, the students stand nearer to Christ than any other group." They are beginning to "recognize that man is a man no mat- ter where he stands, and that in the scale of values character tips the beam highest."
The Japanese are also beginning to learn the meaning of "service." Chris- tian missionaries and evangelists, both native and foreign, are reaching the masses by such contacts as are afforded by the Y. M. C. A., a Red Cross launch, a Ford car equipped with a cinemato- graph, and by playgrounds and Vacation Bible Schools for the children. Once a month the secular press carries a mes- sage of "the glad tidings" to 180,000 readers. Through all these agencies is felt the impact of Christianity upon the life of modern Japan.
Use the program in the G. M. G. Packet which follows the lives of some of these Christian pioneers of Japan, and also gives a splendid account of our denominational work in Sendai.
During the social hour you will enjoy the games suggested in the leaflet, "Jap- anese Games," which can be obtained for 10 cents, from Miss Carrie M. Kersch- ner, 416 Schaff Building, Philadelphia, Pa., or from the Woman's Missionary Society, 8 Remmele Block, Tiffin, Ohio.
"Could ye not watch with Me one hour?
Deep pain was in Thy voice That day. Jesus, have men still power
To grieve Thee, or rejoice? Then is Thy joy this day fulfilled,
Christ of Gethsemane ! For everywhere hearts Thou hast stilled
Keep wakeful watch with Thee."
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The Mission Band
Mrs. M. G. Schucker, Secretary
A SPRING HIKE
"Go forth under the open sky and list to nature's teaching."
"Nature rightly interpreted, speaks of God."
The Mission Band Leaders can be the interpreters to the children, who wait to hear for they are naturally filled with a sense of wonder. Is there any time so opportune to study the miracle of God in nature as a day in May, when vegeta- tion has a resurrection, when birds call and gurgling brooks summon? Jesus said: "Consider the lilies." "Behold a sower went forth to sow." "Look at the fig tree and all the trees." "Look at the wild birds." If we will look upon the things of nature as Jesus did, they will tell us wonderful things of God.
Announce that on a certain Saturday morning, at ten o'clock, the Mission Band children will meet at the church for a hike. Each child to take his own lunch. It will be surprising how many instances of new life will be observed by the chil- dren— birds, flowers, insects, frogs, etc.
One object of such a hike is to get in healthy touch with nature; a second object is to know nature's God; and, in the third place, there are missionary lessons to be culled even from nature. God wakes to new life the sleeping earth in other lands as well as in our own and in some lands more wonderfully and beautifully than in our own. God is just as mindful to send the sunshine and the rain in those lands as in ours. He is just as mindful apparently of children of non-Christian lands as of us, excepting only that they needs suffer from lack of the true knowledge of God and of Christ.
Also, we can give a direct missionary feature to this hike. Lunch having been eaten, let the children gather wild flowers — azaleas, hepaticas, anemones, colum- bines, spring beauties, etc. These may be pressed and dried between blotting paper or even between leaves of news- papers and mounted on a tag-board card
of the size of a post card. The dried flower may be protected by a piece of tis- sue paper, the same size of the card and pasted along an edge on the tag-board card. The child may letter the name of the flower, an appropriate verse front Scripture, and his own name and address on the card. These flower specimens may be included in a collection of post cards or in a missionary box you may be intending to send to Japan or China. A foreign child, not unlike our own chil- dren, will treasure the dried flower curio- from a boy or girl in far-off" America.
"In the hour of my distress, When temptations me oppress,
And when I my sins confess, Sweet Spirit, comfort me!"
Pkof. and Mrs. George S. Noss, Sendai, Japan, and Baby Margaret
VALUABLE HELPS IN YOUR STUDY OF JAPAN
NEW MAP OF OUR JAPAN MISSION FIELD
Showing all the stations, churches, preaching places and Sunday Schools where the Reformed lurch is at work — almost one hundred !
Map measures 30x60 inches and is ideal for use in a Mission Study Class, for Missionary Talks in e Sunday School or posting in the Lecture Room of the Church. Price 60 Cents, Postpaid
PICTURE SHEET OF OUR MISSIONARIES IN JAPAN
All of our workers totaling 51 — Several Family Groups, Useful as a Poster or as Cut-outs for the ission Band. Printed on good heavy paper. Price 10 Cents, Postpaid
THE DAWNING AND THE TURNING IN JAPAN AND CHINA
By Rev. Daniei, Burgh alter, D.D.
This book is the result of many years of extensive reading and deep comprehensive thought ncerning the Mission lands and the work carried on in them. It also shows corrective influences of avel and observation in the most important of those lands, namely, Japan and China. It is, therefore, a lok that can be relied upon. Its statements are correct, and it is well balanced. It is not apt to leave ly false impressions. Withal it is written in a manner so interesting that it will surely be read with •y by many, both young and old. It is like taking a journey through Japan and China,
Scarcely anything else is so important at this time as a better knowledge of the Orient and of the liritual forces operating there. This book will be a decided contribution toward that end, and is, there- )re, to be very heartily welcomed. D. B. Schneder.
Every Pastor, Sunday School Superintendent and Mission Study Class Leader will find it most ilpful. Price 25 Cents, Postpaid
OUR PUBLICATIONS ON JAPAN (For your convenience in ordering we have grouped them as follows): Selection No. 1 Selection No. 2
ew Map of Our Japan Mission Field $0.60 Tohoku, the Scotland of Japan (Noss) . . . $0.40
icture Sheet of Our Missionaries in Japan .10 (Invaluable for Mission Study and
he Apostle of Ryo-U 25 ^ , , ^ "^""'^-^
(The Life Story of Rev. Herman O ^^^^ San (Mrs. Schneder) 25
H. Cook.) Miss Wistaria at Home (Mrs. String) 35
Triennial Report of the Board of Triennial Report of the Board of
Foreign Missions Foreign Missions
(Fully illustrated) (Fully illustrated)
Japan Number" of the "Missionary "Japan Number" of the "Missionary Review of the World" 25 Review of the World" 25
*acket of Pamphlets (see below) 10 Packet of Pamphlets (see below) 10
Sent for One Dollar Sent for One Dollar
PACKET OF PAMPHLETS
'he Genesis of the Board and the Growth oe O Yoshi San — Rev. Christopher Noss, D.D.
Its WoRK-Rev. Allen R. Bartholomew, D.D. ^ p^^^^^ Japan-Rcv. Daniel Burg-
liss Pine Bough — Miss Kate I. Hansen. halter D.D.
""^B^^chfede^r.^DS"''^ Japan-Rcv. D. Christian AcTmTY in Japan-Rcv. T. Tan.
-^HE Women oe Japan 1 Mrs. Allen R. Bar- Jottings from Japan (Special Earthquake Num- ^HE Children of Japan/ tholomew. ber).
)uR Work of Evangelism in Japan and China Shiambo — The Japanese Meditation Stick — —Rev. Jacob G. Rupp. Rev. Henry K. Miller, D.D.
Address
BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS, REFORMED CHURCH IN THE U. S.
310 Schaff Building, Fifteenth and Race Streets PHILADELPHIA. PA.
THE BOARDS OF MISSIONS OF GENERAL SYNOD
Headquarters: Fifteenth and Race Streets, Philadelphia, Pa.
BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS
President, Rev. Charles E. Miller, D.D., LL.D. Vice-President Rev. C. B. Schneder, D.D. General Secretary, Rev. Charles E. Schaeffer, D.D. Recording Secretary, Rev. Frederick C. Seitz, D.D. Treasurer, Joseph S. Wise. Superintendents, Joseph S. Wise, Church-building. Rev. David A. Souders, D.D., Immigration. Rev. Tames M. Mullan, Eastern. Rev. John C. Horning, D.D., Western. Rev. Edward F. Evemeyer, Pacific Coast. Rev. T. P. Bolliger, D.D., German.
Attorneys for the Board, C. M. Boush, Esq.
F. C. Brunhouse, Esq.
Members of the Executive Committee, Rev. Charles E. Miller, D.D., LL.D., Rev. C. B. Schneder, D.D., Rev. Frederick C. Seitz, D.D., Rev. I. Calvin Fisher, D.D., Elder F. C. Brunhouse, Esq.
Members of the Board, Rev. Charles E. Miller, D.D.. LL.D., Rev. C. B. Schneder, D.D., Rev. I. Calvin Fisher, D.D., Rev. John Sommerlatte, Rev. Frederick C. Seitz, D.D. Rev. Josias Friedli, Rev. J. C. Leonard, D.D., Elder F. C. Brunhouse, Esq., Elder E. L. Coblentz. Esq Elder E. J. Titlow, Elder D. J. Snyder.
BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS
President, Rev. Charles E. Creitz, D.D. Vice-President, Hon. Horace Ankency. Secretary, Rev. Allen R. Bartholomew, D.D. Assistant Secretary, Rev. John H. Poorman.
Trectsurer, Rev. Albert S. Bromer. Treasurer Emeritus, Elder Joseph L. Lemberger, Phar.D. Legal Advisor, Elder John W. Appel, Esq. Field Secretaries, Jacob G. Rupp, Allentown, Pa.
Rev. Daniel Burghalter, D.D., Tiffin, Ohio. Medical Examiner, Dr. John H. Dubbs.
Members of the Executive Committee, Rev. Charles E. Creitz. D.D., Hon. Horace Anke- ney. Rev. Allen R. Bartholomew, D.D., Rev. Albert S. Bromer, Rev. George W. Richards. D.D.. LL.D., Elder Joseph L. Lemberger, Phar.D., Elder David A. Miller, Elder J. Q. Truxal, Esq.
Members of the Board
Rev. Charles E. Creitz, D.D.. Rev. Allen R. Bartholomew, D.D., Rev. Conrad Hassel, Rev. Albert S. Bromer, Rev. Frederick Mayer, D.D., Rev. John M. G. Darms, D.D., Rev. Albert B. Bauman, Rev. George W. Richards. D.D.. LL.D.. Elder John W. Appel, Esq., Elder George F. Bareis. Elder William W. Anspach, Elder Horace Ankeney, Elder David A. Miller, Elder J. Q. Truxal, Esq., Elder Henry C. Heckerman.
Meetings,
Annual Board Meeting, first Tuesday in March. Executive Committee meetings are held monthly except in July and August.
FORMS OF BEQUEST FOR MISSIONS
For the Board of Home Missions. I give and bequeath to the Board of Home Missions of the Reformed Church in the
United States, of which Elder Joseph S. Wise, of Philadelphia, Pa., is treasurer, the sum of dollars.
For the Board of Foreign Missions. I give and bequeath to the Board of Foreign
Missions of tlie Reformed Church in the United States, of which Rev. Albert S. Bromer, of Philadelphia. Pa., is treasurer, the sum of dollars.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY
President,
Mrs. B. B. Krammes, 14 Clinton ave.. Tiffin, Ohio.
Vice-Presidents, Mrs. W. R. Harris, 279 Wiles street, Morgantown, W. Va.
Mrs. L. W. Stolte, 205 Jones street, Dayton, Ohio.
Recording Secretary, Mrs. Joseph Levy, Somerset, Pa,
Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. F. W. Leich, 119 Klee Court, Dayton, Ohio. Treasurer,
Mrs. Lewis L. Anewalt, 814 Walnut street, Allen- town, Pa.
Statistical Secretary, Mrs. Anna L. Miller, 534 Sixth street, N. W., Canton, Ohio.
Executive Secretary , Miss Carrie M. Kerschner, 416 Schaff Bldg., Phila- delphia, Pa.
Literature and Student Secretary, Miss J. Marion Jones, 416 Schaff Bldg., Phila- delphia, Pa.
Director, Educational Commission, Mrs. Irvin W. Hendricks. Chambersburg, Pa.
Secretary of Thank Offering, Mrs. Allen K. Zartman, 1354 Grand ave., Dayton, O.
Secretary of Life Members and Members in Memoriam, Mrs. J. W. Fillman, 2213 Tioga street, Philadel- phia, Pa.
Secretary of Girls' Missionary Guilds, Mrs. J. Edward Omwake, Greencastle, Pa.
Secretary of Mission Band Department, Mrs. M. G. Schucker, 1306 Lancaster ave., Swiss- vale, Pa.
Field Secretary, G. M. G. and Mission Bands, Miss Alma Iske, 14 Remmele Block, Tiffin, Ohio.
Secretary Central West, Miss Ruth Nott. 1192 Ninth street, Milwaukee, Wis.
Secretary of Temperance, Mrs. C. C. Bost, Hickory, N. C.
Secretary of Stezvardship, Mrs. D. A. Winter, 329 Walnut street, Jefferson- villc, Ind.
Secretary of Printing, Mrs. C. A. Krout, Tiffin, Ohio.
Historian,
Mrs. Daniel Burghalter, Tiffin, Ohio.
Secretary Organization and Membership, Mrs. L. W. Stolte, Dayton, Ohio.
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