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HISTORY OF AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

A History I ^ ^ov i - ir
American Baptist Missions

Revised Edition with Centennial Supplement

Edmund F. Merriam

Editor of " The Baptist Missionary Magazine "
" The Watchman "

Author of "The American Baptist Missionary
Union and its Missions," etc.

Philadelphia

American Baptist Publication Society

1913

Copyright 1910 by the
American Baptist Publication Socibty

Copyright 1913 by
A. J. Rowland, Secretary

from tbe Societig's own press

7o

The heroic and devoted men

and women from the ranks of American

"Baptists tchoy in the name of the Lord Jesus, have

left their native land and often in privation and peril have given

their lives to carry to strange peoples and to distant

lands the good news of salvation through

a crucified and risen "Redeemer

PREFACE

For many years Prof. William Gammell's "His-
tory of American Baptist Missions," printed in
1849, was the standard and the only authority and
storehouse of information on the subject accessible
to the public. Professor Gamraell had the hapi)i-
ness to write when the work of American Baptist
missions was yet limited in the scope and number of
its fields, and in his volume, issued only a few years
after the separation of the Northern and Southern
Baptists in their missionary work, he was able to
consider the missions as a unit. Both the extent and
nature of the subject permitted him to treat his topic
with a minuteness and fullness of development and
literary finish which have made his volume the ad-
miration and delight of successive generations of
Baptists in America. It has never had a successor,
and in one respect, at least, it can have no successor,
since the great expansion and enlargement of Bap-
tist missionary work, as well as the multitude of
divisions into which it has separated itself in the
latter half of the nineteenth century, makes it im-
possible for any historian to treat the subject in the
elaborate manner possible to Professor Gammell.
A history of American Baptist missions on the lines

VIU PREFACE

of his work would extend into so many volumes as
to be practically beyond the reach of the general
public, even if the history were taken up at the
point where he completed his task. It has seemed
better, therefore, to rewrite the history from the be-
ginning on a scale which, while comprehensive, must
necessarily be far less elaborate and more condensed,
in order to bring the entire work within the com-
pass of a volume of readable size.

One of the first impressions of the writer in be-
ginning his work as editor of the " Baptist Mission-
ary Magazine," in September, 1880, was the paucity
of information available to the general public in
regard to the history of our Baptist foreign missions.
At that time Professor GammelPs work and a vol-
ume of " Missionary Sketches," by Samuel F. Smith,
D. D., and a pictorial illustrated volume entitled
"Our Gold Mine," by Mrs. Ada C. Chaplin, were
the only books to which inquirers for information
in regard to American Baptist foreign missions
could be directed. The first was out of print and
so far past the date of publication that it was useful
only for the history of the earlier stages of the mis-
sions ; while the special purposes for which the last
two were prepared, — the first for " The Examiner,"
and the second for the " Baptist Missionary Maga-
zine,"— limited their scope and therefore their useful-
ness for the purposes of general historical reference.
Under these circumstances the writer at once ad-
dressed himself to the task of preparing some ma-

PREFACE IX

terial which would quickly supply the increasing
demand for information in regard to the history of
our missions. A series of ten pamphlets was begun,
which, continued as exigencies of regular office and
editorial work allowed, was finally completed, cov-
ering the history of the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union in the features of its development at
home and abroad.

As arrangements for the preparation of a special
history of the work of the Missionary Union, by
Dr. J. N. Murdock, long the corresponding secre-
tary, came to naught, these ten pamphlets were
bound together in 1897, in a volume entitled "The
American Baptist Missionary Union and its Mis-
sions," to serve for historical reference and reading
regarding the work of the Union pending the com-
pletion of that full and elaborate history which the
importance and absorbing interest of the subject
suggests and demands.

Impelled by a desire to supply in some measure
the same demand, Mrs. Sophie Bronson Titterington,
daughter of the venerated missionary in Assam, Dr.
Miles Bronson, prepared an outline sketch entitled,
"A Century of Baptist Foreign Missions," which
was issued by the American Baptist Publication
Society, in 1891, and has done good service, espe-
cially as a text-book for classes in missionary study,
for which purpose it was peculiarly designed. Rev.
J. Winfred Hervey issued in 1892 a work entitled,
" The Story of Baptist Missions in Foreign Lands,"

PREFACE

which exhibited a large amount of research, and
which supplies in a convenient form much material
on our missionary history obtained from volumes
which are out of print and have become rare. Mr.
Hervey is entitled to credit for preserving many
features of the early Baptist missionary work which
might otherwise have been lost sight of, but his
volume makes no pretensions to being an analyzed,
comprehensive, and complete history of our Baptist
foreign missions.

In the preparation of the present volume, the
writer has not only made use of the before-named
volumes, but also of many works on peculiar features
of our missionary history which have been issued,
especially within the last few years. Among the
most important of these are, "The Memoir of
Adoniram Judson," by Francis Wayland, which is
out of print, the place of which is supplied by " The
Life of Adoniram Judson," by his son, Edward
Judson ; " Self Support in Bassein," by Chapin
Howard Carpenter ; " The Story of a Working
Man's Life," the autobiography of Francis Mason,
D. D. ; "A Good Fight," a life of George Dana
Boardman, by Alonzo King, and other biographies
of missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary
Union and of the Southern Baptist Convention, and
also the two large volumes by Henry A. Tupper,
D. D., for so many years the corresponding secretary
of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Bap-
tist Convention, entitled, " The Foreign Missions of

PREFACE XI

the Southern Baptist Convention " and " A Decade
of Foreign Missions," In these bulky vohimes Dr.
Tupper has gathered a large amount of material for
the history of Southern Baptist missions and has
rendered a valuable service to the denomination and
the religious world. The jubilee volumes of the
American Baptist Missionary Union and the Amer-
ican Baptist Home Mission Society have also been
consulted, as well as "A Story of Six Decades,"
covering the principal features of the work of the
American Baptist Publication Society, by Dr. C. R.
Blackall. Reference to all these and other works
is made for those who desire more full and detailed
information in regard to the special features of our
missionary work than could be given in the present
volume. But the great treasure house of original
and exact information to which the writer is chiefly
indebted is the " Baptist Missionary Magazine,"
which has been and must continue to be the stand-
ard authority on the special and detailed features of
the work of Baptist foreign missions in all the years
since their beginning.

The suggestion for the preparation of this volume
in its present form came from the admirable " Dis-
trict Baptist History Series," prepared under the
auspices of the American Baptist Publication So-
ciety. It seemed that so excellent and well-planned
a series should be completed by a history of Amer-
ican Baptist missions, embracing the work of Amer-
ican Baptists outside the limits of the United States,

XU PREFACE

in order that the series may then cover the entire
work of the Baptists of this country in all its fea-
tures. The preparation of this volume is not de-
signed to supersede the volumes on special features
of missionary work already mentioned, nor those
volumes of the same character which will hereafter
appear ; but it is hoped that it may supplement and
complete the series above referred to and supply a
book which for the purposes of the general public
shall be sufficiently adequate on our Baptist mis-
sionary work in foreign lands. It has been recog-
nized that, within the limits set for the volume,
completeness of detail, especially in regard to bi-
ographical features, could not be attained, but by
grouping the entire history about the epochs of
greatest interest and most vital importance the at-
tempt has been made to supply a history of our
missions which may be a compendium for general
use. With the prayer that it may be used by the
Lord of the harvest for arousing a larger interest in
the work of the conversion of the world to the Lord
Jesus the volume is submitted to the kindest consid-
eration of the Baptists of America.

E. F. M.

Boston, August 1, 1900.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
The Missionary Enterprise xv

CHAPTER I

American Baptists in 1812 1

CHAPTER II

Formation of the General Missionary Convention 9

CHAPTER III

Beginnings in Burma 20

CHAPTER IV
To the End of the First Burman War 29

CHAPTER V

Growth and Expansion 38

CHAPTER VI
The Southern Baptist Cona'ention 53

CHAPTER VII

The American Baptist Missionary Union 70

CHAPTER VIII
The American Baptist Publication Society .... 81

CHAPTER IX

The American Baptist Home Mission Society ... 88

CHAPTER X
The American Baptist Free Mission Society ... 91

CHAPTER XI

Woman's Baptist Missionary Societies 95

xiii

XIV CONTENTS

CHAPTER XII
American Baptist Missions in Burma 102

CHAPTER XIII
Baptist Mission Work in Assam 122

CHAPTER XIV
Baptist Missions in Southern India 132

CHAPTER XV
Baptist Missions in Siam 152

CHAPTER XVI

American Baptist Missions in China 159

CHAPTER XVII

Baptist Missions in Japan, the Liu Chiu, and the
Philippine Islands 173

CHAPTER XVIII
American Baptist Missions in Africa 182

CHAPTER XIX
American Baptist Missions in Europe 191

CHAPTER XX
Baptist Missions in South America 203

CHAPTER XXI

Baptist Work in Mexico, Cuba, and Porto Rico . 206

CHAPTER XXII
Civilization and American Baptist Missions . . . 213

CHAPTER XXIII
The Past and the Future 235

Appendices A, B, C, D 243

Centennial Supplement 253

INTRODUCTION

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE

FROM the time the Lord Jesus Christ founded
the work of Christian missions, there have not
been wanting in all ages some to carry the glad ti-
dings of salvation to those who had not heard. The
first chosen messengers of the gospel were the twelve
apostles, who might as appropriately have been
called missionaries, since the two words mean ex-
actly the same thing, the former being derived from
the Greek and the latter from the Latin word mean-
ing " to send." Jesus Christ himself gave the model
and methods of missionary work in his missionary
tours in Galilee, where he went about preaching the
good news of salvation and healing the sick. No
advance or innovation has ever been able to supple-
ment the lofty ideals of the mission of Jesus Christ
himself, which was characterized by that highest of
all commendations, " He went about doing good."

After the death of Jesus the disciples were com-
manded to tarry in Jerusalem until they should be
endued with power from on high. This power came
on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit de-
scended with mighty influence upon the disciples.

XVI INTRODUCTION

The command whicli kept them in Jerusalem then
expired ; but they still remained, and it was left for
persecution to furnish the first missionary impulse,
which scattered the disciples from the capital city
of Judea to all parts of the then known world, and
it is said of them that " they went everywhere
preaching the gospel."

The Holy Spirit was the first moving agent in
foreign missions. In Acts 13 : 1-4 we read: "Now
there were in the church that was at Antioch certain
prophets and teachers ; as Barnabas, and Simeon that
was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen,
which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch,
and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord, and
fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their
hands on them, they sent them away. So they,
being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto
Seleucia ; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus."

After hands of consecration had been laid upon
Barnabas and Saul, they went forth to all parts of
Asia Minor, preaching the gospel and establishing
churches. As yet, however, the gospel was con-
fined to Asia Minor. Again the agency of the Holy
Spirit was necessary for the enlargement of the
work, and of Paul, when he essayed to go to Bi-
thynia, we read, " The Spirit suffered him not " ;
but by a vision a man called him across the sea
to Europe, to become a missionary to Macedonia.

INTRODUCTION XVU

The means for the extension of Christianity were
apparently as inadequate then as now. Beginning
with Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth, and his disci-
ples, the humble fishermen of Galilee, the gospel
was carried into distant regions by men unknown to
fame, and it was Paul, the prisoner, who became the
great agent in the expansion of the kingdom of Jesus
Christ in Asia, Greece, Italy, and perhaps Spain and
Britain. Of him we learn that his bodily presence
was weak. But the power of the Holy Spirit was
with him, and wherever he went churches were es-
tablished. Through these humble agencies the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ was extended and the disciples
mightily multiplied, until within a little more than
three centuries we find it established on the throne
of the Roman Empire by the Emperor Constantine
in A. D. 311.

The places chosen for missionary work are worth
noting. Beginning at Jerusalem, the second great
center of Christian labor was Capernaum, the chief
commercial town in busy, thronging Galilee, on the
northwest shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, at the
meeting-place of the chief commercial highways of
that day from Damascus, Tyre, and Egypt. After
the death of the Lord the first great center of Chris-
tian life was established at Antioch, the capital and
chief city of the East. Here the disciples were first
called Christians, the name being given as a term of
reproach, as indicated by the Latin ending, " anus, '
denoting inferiority. Next in order came Ephesus,

XVlll INTRODUCTION

the greatest port of Asia Minor ; then Corinth, on
the isthmus of Corinth, and through which, accord-
ing to the methods of transportation then in vogue,
a large part of the commerce of the East was
obliged to pass. Then came Alexandria, the great
center of commerce and learning in Egypt, and next
Rome, the capital of the world. After the days of
the apostles the same great central idea of the propa-
gation of Christianity prevailed, and the most pow-
erful centers of life and influence were seized.
Britain, which God foresaw was to be the ruling
nation of the world and Rome's successor, was
one of the earliest Christian mission fields. The
Goths, a virile stock of Central Europe, soon to be
mingled with the Angles to form the great Anglo-
Saxon race, were also among the earliest objects of
missionary endeavor. In this was recognized the
great ethnological fact that mixed races have always
proved stronger than a single stock. For centuries
the Anglo-Saxon race was the first in the world, and
according to all the principles of ethnology and im-
perial development, its power is to be merged in the
great American race, compounded of all the nations
of the earth.

At the time when Christianity became dominant
in the Roman Empire by the decree of the Emperor
Constantine, the number of actual Christians was
small, being estimated at about one in every one
hundred and fifty of the human race, and though
Christianity has now attained to the rule of the

INTRODUCTION XIX

earth, the number of real Christians is still small.
Although the population of the earth is increasing
arithmetically faster than the converts to Chris-
tianity, the latter is gaining rapidly in a geometrical
ratio. From the proportion at the time of Constan-
tine of one in every one hundred and fifty of the
population of the world, there is now one nominal
or real Christian in every four of the people of the
earth.

The history of early missions has largely per-
ished, or is known only by incidental references ;
but we learn that in the first great ecumenical
council of Christianity, that at Nicea, in 325,
among the bishops there were John the Persian, the
bishop of India, and Theophilus the Goth, from
Northern Europe ; and that in 535 there were
Christians in Persia, on the Malabar coast of India,
in Sokotra, Ceylon, Bactria, as well as in all the
countries about the Mediterranean Sea, and in Gaul
and Britain. The Mohammedan conquests swept
away all Christian churches in ^Yestern Asia and
Northern Africa as by a devouring fire, leaving only
a remnant in Southern India on the southwest coast,
at Goa.

The gospel was sent to Britain and Scotland from
Rome by unknown messengers before the time of
Augustine, the representative of the Roman Church.
From Scotland this primitive type of Christianity
was carried to Ireland by Patricius (Patrick), from
Ireland back to the Scottish Islands, with head-

XX INTRODUCTION

quarters at lona, by Columba, and the lona mission-
aries preached the gospel all over Western and Cen-
tral Europe. Traces of their labors are visible to the
present day. The spirit of these missionaries was
purer than was that of those who came later. Alcuin
of France " was determined to carry on the publication
of the divine word according to the example of the
apostles." Anscar said : " When I was asked whether
I would go for God's name among the heathen to
publish the gospel, I could not decline such a call.
Yes, with all my power I wish to go hence, and no
man can make me waver in this resolution." No
missionary of modern times could express himself in
nobler words or possess a purer missionary conse-
cration and ideal.

It w^as the labors of these men which, when the
Mohammedan power was overrunning Avith flame
and sword all the earlier fields of Christianity in
Western Asia and Northern Africa, saved Europe
for Christianity, since they forged the weapons by
which Charles Martel drove back the Saracens
from Southern France, in 732, and made possible the
army of John Sobieski, which hurled back the Turks
from Vienna in 1683, thus confining the Moham-
medan conquests to Asia and Africa, with the ex-
ception of Turkey in Europe and a temporary lease
of power in Spain.

In the more distinctive missionary movements of
Christianity, Francis of Assisi was the first in the
line of medieval Roman Catholic missionaries. It

INTRODUCTION XXI

was his aim to establish colleges for the training of
Christian missionaries in connection with every
large Christian university. From his labors sprang
tlie order of the Franciscans, by which monks were
transformed into missionaries. Raymund Lull was
filled with the spirit which later animated William
Carey and Adoniram Judson, and only lacked a
sympathetic and sustaining church to found the era
of modern missions. He gave his life to simple
gospel labors among the JSIohammedans, and died
a martyr to missions on the voyage to his home.
Francis Xavier, the Jesuit, had more of the military
than the purely missionary spirit, but in his eiForts
to establish the standard of the church in India, in
the East Indies, in China, and in far Japan, he ex-
hibited a devotion to his ideal worthy of all praise
and imitation.

Of the purer missionary movements preceding
the Reformation, John Wycliffe, of England, in-
spired the Lollards, who were itinerating mission-
aries to all parts of central and western Europe,
and was the predecessor of John Huss and Jerome
of Prague, who were the real pioneers of the Mo-
ravians. Of the leaders of the Reformation,
neither Luther nor Melanchthon were foreign mis-
sionary in spirit, being wholly engaged in theologi-
cal disputations and the founding of the Faith of
the Protestant church upon correct principles ; but
Erasmus wrote a treatise on "The Art of Preach-
ing," which was as distinctly missionary in charac-

XXll INTRODUCTION

ter as the later " Inquiry " of "William Carey.
From this time the missionary impulse of tlie
Christian churches began to develop more strongly.
In the seventeenth century began the era of
Christian missions under the auspices of temporal
authorities. The Dutch sent missionaries to their
East India possessions. Peter Heyling went to
Abyssinia in 1 632 and translated the New Testa-
ment. In 1664 Baron von Welz published a pam-
phlet entitled " Invitation for a Society of Jesus to
Promote Christianity and the Conversion of Hea-
thendom." Leaving his title and the ease and com-
forts of home, he went to Dutch Guiana, where he
died a martyr to his missionary enthusiasm. No-
vember 29, 1705, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg sailed
for India, and about forty years later. Christian
Frederick Schwarz, both under the auspices of the
Danish Government, but with the object of spread-
ing the knowledge of Christian truth among the
people of Hindustan. In the same general line,
Christian chaplains and missionaries were sent out
by various governments to their colonial possessions
in the East and West for the spread of the truth.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was
founded in England in 1701, but was limited to the
sending out of chaplains, some of whom began the
work of Christian missions in the New World. The
colonial possessions of England only became in-
spired by the distinctively modern missionary spirit
after the formation of the first missionary societies,

INTRODUCTION XXlll

at the close of the eighteenth century. In 1721
the Danish Missionary Society was founded, and la-
bored much on the same lines. The Moravian
Church began, in 1732, the first missions to the
heathen under the auspices of the Christian
churches as separated from the State authorities, but
they were still maintained from the ordinary reve-
nues of the church. Missionaries went to the West
Indies, Greenland, and, later, to Africa and other
parts of the world. All these movements were
leading up to the inauguration of the era of modern
missions, the distinctive characteristic of which is
the voluntary organization and co-operation of Chris-
tians for the sending forth and support of mission-
aries to heathen lands.

It was in 1792 that a small company of Baptist
ministers assembled in a private house at Kettering,
England, and organized the Baptist Missionary
Society, the pioneer of all modern missionary socie-
ties sustained on the principle of voluntary contri-
butions. The celebrated thirteen pounds, two shil-
lings, and six pence then subscribed was the fore-
runner of the millions now contributed every year
to missionary societies for the purpose of sending
forth missionaries to all parts of the Avorld. The
first missionaries of this society were AVilliam Carey
and John Thomas, M. D., who sailed June 13, 1793,
for India. It is noteworthy that the first mission-
aries to go forth under the auspices of the first mod-
ern missionary society represented both the evangel-

XXIV INTRODUCTION

istic and medical branches of missionary work. In
1795 was formed the London Missionary Society,
sustained by tlie Independents and other Noncon-
formists of England, and the first missionaries were
sent forth to Tahiti and the Society Islands of the
South Seas. The Established Church of England
followed in 1799 by the establishment of the Church
Missionary Society for Africa and the East. Its
purposes are indicated in its title, and the first mis-
sionaries were sent to the west coast of Africa in
1804, a mission at Sierra Leone being established
in 1816 and the mission in the ports about the
Mediterranean Sea in 1815.

It is both surprising and significant to find that
the next step in the forward march of the mission-
ary enterprise was taken in the new world, across
the Atlantic, by the organization in 1810 of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions, then supported by the Congregational ist
and Presbyterian Churches of the United States.
The first party of missionaries sent out by this so-
ciety established the Marathi mission in India,
from whicli has sprung the Madura mission and all
the work in India under this Board. Of the first
party sent out under this Board, three changed
their denominational views soon after their arrival
in India ; Luther Rice returned to America to
inform the Baptists that they had missionaries in
India while as yet they had no missionary society;
while Adouiram Judson, and his wife, Ann Hassel-

INTRODUCTION XXV

tine, after being tossed about between India and
Mauritius, fled at last for refuge to the savage and
heathen kingdom of Burma. They hmded July
13, 1813, thus founding the first Christian mission
in Asia in an entirely heathen country and wholly
under the power of a heathen government. From
this movement sprang the American Baptist Mis-
sionary Union, formed in 1814. In the same year
the growing missionary spirit in England manifested
itself in the formation of the Wesleyan Missionary
Society, which at once interested itself in the Wes-
leyan work in the West Indies, which had been
conducted independently for about twenty-five years,
and which soon established an independent mission
in South Africa.

The next aggressive missionary society to be es-
tablished was again in the new world, being the
Methodist Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, formed in 1819, which began its prep-
arations for opening a mission in Liberia, in West
Africa. In 1820, on the continent of Europe, the
Basle Evangelical Missionary Society was consti-
tuted, an outgrowth of a movement started in 1815,
and in 1819 the Leipsic Evangelical Lutheran Mis-
sionary Society was begun. Both of these societies,
however, confined themselves for a number of years
to the training of missionaries for other societies,
and it was not until 1824 that the Basle Society
established its first mission in Persia. From these
nine missionary societies have sprung all the later

XXVI INTRODUCTION

missionary organizations and movements. The
Scottish churches separated from the London Mis-
sionary Society and organized a society of their own
in 1829. By similar processes of division and
branching all the more than five hundred missions
and missionary societies existing at the close of the
nineteenth century have sprung into being.

It is significant also to note that the fields selected
by these earlier societies have supplied the founda-
tion for the spread of Christian missions into all
parts of the world. The earlier missions in India
extended to the limits of the widely extended
British Empire in India, to the Indo-Chinese Pen-
insula, and to China and other parts of the East.
Early missions in the South Seas have spread until
now, out of the multitude of islands which dot the
Pacific and Indian Oceans, there are but few which
have not been reached by the gospel ; while Africa,
its interior long closed to the efforts of Christian
missionaries by natural disadvantages and the sav-
age nature of its people, has in later years opened
for the advance of the Christian hosts who had
planted themselves at numerous stations on the east,
west, and south coasts.

Of all the widely extended work in the enter-
prise of Christian missions six chief successes, some-
times called " miracles of missions," may be noted :
the work of the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions, by which the Sandwich Islands,
known better as Hawaii, have been transformed

INTRODUCTION XXVll

from a savage territory to a civilized community,
now a Territory of the United States of America.
Entirely similar, and wortliy to be compared with
this, is the work of the Wesleyan Missionary So-
ciety in the Fiji Islands, by which a people given to
cruelty and cannibalism of the worst sort has been
transformed into a Christian community, with a
larger proportion of the people attending the church
services on the Sabbath than may be found in any
other part of the world. With this may be ranked
the work of the London Missionary Society in the
Society and other South Sea Islands, where life and
property are safe, and the necessity of police for
protection is reduced to a minimum, and a friendly
relationship is established, not only among the peo-
ple themselves, but toward all foreign visitors to
these beautiful gems of the Pacific Ocean. In Asia
there are also three great triumphs of Christian
missions to be noted : that of the American Baptist
Missionary Union in the Karen mission in Burma,
whereof five hundred churches four hundred and fifty
are wholly self-supporting, and all other branches
of Christian development and education have attained
a high state of advancement. The Karen Baptist
mission in Burma has been the chief example of self-
support, self-dependence, and self-propagation among
Christian missions in the world for many years.
Another great success in Christian missionary work
is that of the Church Missionary Society of England,
among the Tamil people of South India, where many

XXVIU INTEODUCTION

thousands have been gathered into the churches and
every element of Christian life is in an encouraging
state of growth and development. The third great
miracle of modern missions in Asia is that of the
American Baptist Missionary Union among the
Telugus of southeastern India. Here a mission
maintained for many years amid the most discour-
aging circumstances has within twenty years sprung
to the front rank of Christian missions in numbers
and influence. A larger number of the Telugus are
now converts to the Christian faith than of any other
people known as heathen. There are more than
fifty-five thousand members of Baptist churches
among this peo})le, and the great prosperity of the
mission to the Telugus has become a model in
missionary methods in India. The earlier missions
devoted themselves largely to education, but the
great success of the purely evangelistic methods in
vogue in the Telugu Baptist mission has so revolu-
tionized missionary sentiment in India that there is
not a mission of any name within the bounds of
British India which has not felt its influence. While
education and other missionary methods are not
neglected, especially in the development of the
Christian church, the main reliance for the progress
of the truth is becoming more and more the verbal
proclamation of the gospel, especially by converts
from the people speaking to their own tribes in their
own tongues.

From the simple beginnings of missionary work

INTRODUCTION XXIX

in Judea and Galilee by Jesus Christ and his hum-
ble associates, the enterprise of Christian missions
has gone forward until all the leading nations of the
world have become Christian in name if not in fact.
All laws and procedures of courts, as well as the
conduct of public affairs in all important nations of
the earth, are founded upon the Bible. Aside from
the millions of Christians in lands not known as
missionary, the summary of the statistics of foreign
missions throughout the world, prepared by James
Dennis, d. d., for the Ecumenical Missionary Con-
ference, held in the city of New York, in April,
1900, gives the figures as they appear below.^
When considered with a view to the vast and man-
ifold agencies represented in these summaries and
the widely extended work which they embrace, these
figures suggest encouragement to every lover of the
expansion of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Missionaries, 13,607 ; native missionary helpers of all classes,
73,615; principal stations, 5,233, with 25,586 oiitstations ; 10,993
churches, with 1,289,298 communicants and 83,895 additions in
1899. The Sunday-schools in foreign mission fields number 14,-
940, with a membership of 764,684, and there was an estimated
Christian population of 4,327,283, from which were received con-
tributions for Christian work amounting to $1,833,981.

A HISTORY

OF

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

CHAPTER I

AMERICAN BAPTISTS IN 1812

THE greatness of the achievements of any peo-
ple is determined by the difficulties under
which they were wrought and the effects which they
produced. Judged by these standards the mis-
sionary work of American Baptists holds a high
place among those forces which have operated for
the advancement of the human race in civilization
and in religion. The beginning of the missions oc-
curred at a time in the history of the nation ap-
parently the most unpropitious for the founding of
an enterprise involving large foreign expenditures
with no prospect of domestic advantage. The
country was engaged in a second war with Eng-
land. At the close of the war of the Revolu-
tion the independence of the United States had
been recognized, but neither equality of rights nor
freedom of action had been secured. The mother

1

2 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

country still claimed and exercised the right of
search of American vessels, the control of Amer-
ican commerce, and excluded her former colonies
from many of the privileges usually accorded to an
independent nation. Exasperated beyond endur-
ance by the humiliations and wrongs imposed by
this attitude of England, the young and still feeble
country had resolved in desperation to again sub-
mit her cause to the dread arbitration of war rather
than endure longer the deprivation of those rights
and privileges which belonged to her.

Under these circumstances communication with
foreign countries had become difficult and uncer-
tain, and there was every reason to believe that the
entire resources of the people would be needed at
home. The commerce of New England, which had
become prosperous, was in danger of entire destruc-
tion. Even the integrity of the new republic was
seriously threatened. Several of the States were
still acting under their original charters from the
kings of England, and the sense of nationality was
as yet weak. The separate States viewed with
jealousy any attempt of Congress to legislate in
matters which involved that supreme authority
which the States claimed for themselves. But more
than all, the perils of the commerce of New Eng-
land menaced the unity of the nation. Massachu-
setts, which had been the foremost in spirit and in
arms in beginning the war of the Revolution,
viewed with alarm the loss of her foreign trade.

AMERICAN BAPTISTS IN 1812 3

While, therefore, the rest of the country was hot
with resentment against the arrogant assumptions of
England, in New England the love of gain smoth-
ered for a time the fires of patriotism. The intense
feeling which culminated in the famous " Hartford
Convention " augured ill for the harmony and en-
thusiasm of the people and the success of the
weaker nation in its resistance to the aggressions of
a vastly superior power.

Neither was the condition of the people in
the United States such as to encourage extensive
plans of benevolence for the benefit of outside na-
tions. Almost every existing branch of industry
was in a formative state, and many lines of mining,
manufacture, and trade which were to contribute so
largely to the enormous future development of the
country, had not been started or even projected.
Internal communication was generally slow, diffi-
cult, and expensive. A striking illustration of the
condition of the country in 1812, is the fact that at
that time the "Baptist Missionary Magazine" was
compelled to decline subscriptions from the South
since the mail service was so imperfect that copies
could not be delivered with certainty and regu-
larity. Processes of manufacture were rude, and
profitable lines of business were few. Up to 1830
only three men in the whole country were reckoned
as millionaires, John Jacob Astor, of New York,
Stephen Girard, of Philadelphia, and William Gray^
of Boston, and the distance which separated these

4 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

men of fortune from the general condition of the
people was greater than is known at tlie present
time. As a whole, the people were poor, and with-
out the resources or the opportunities of financial
accumulation which exist in more modern life.

Among the people of the United States in 1812
the Baptists occupied a humble position. The so-
cial prestige of founders of the State enjoyed by the
Congregationalists in Massachusetts, by the Dutch
churches in New York, by the Friends in Penn-
sylvania, and by the Episcopalians in Virginia, be-
longed to Baptists only in the small State of Rhode
Island ; and even here they were torn by divisions
on minor points, remnants of which remain to the
present day. Their homes were bare of most of
the comforts of modern life. The large living
room, dining room, and kitchen, all in one, with
unplastered walls, contained only plain furnishings
of strong but simple make. Stoves were rare and
the great fireplaces, liberally fed with wood, cooked
the food and supplied the heat which had the pecu-
liar and unpleasant quality of warming only one
side at a time. In the sombre and seldom used
" front room " of the better class of homes might
be found a stiif and straight-backed sofa, uphol-
stered in black haircloth, the only sign of luxury,
unless the great four-post canopied bedsteads, with
their mountains of monster feather beds, the pride
of the housekeeper's heart, be excepted. These,
however, were reserved for " company " and the

AMERICAN BAPTISTS IN 1812 5

more mature members of the family, while the boys
and girls were assigned to the attics, guiltless of
heating arrangements even in the coldest weather.
Many a crack furnished a whistle for the roaring
winds of winter and admitted the drifting snow to
test the courage and endurance of the hardy inmates.

The churches of these people, like their homes,
were bare of comforts, with straight-backed pews
and narrow, uncushioned seats. No heat was pro-
vided except that Avhich the worshipers carried in
their own sturdy physique and warm hearts, or in
the case of the elderly matrons, individual foot-
warmers, fed with coals from the fires at home.
Multitudes of the churches of our fathers lacked
even a house in which to worship God, and they
held their meetings in schoolhouses or irr the homes
of the people. Many of the powerful movements
which characterized the early history of Baptists in
this country and which were the foundations of the
present great prosperity, began and were carried on
to the glory of God without houses of worship, in-
quiry rooms, an organ, or other accompaniments
considered necessary to the success of a modern re-
vival.

Nevertheless, amid these apparently rigorous con-
ditions the Baptists thrived and grew. In this
year of 1812 they numbered in the States which
then formed the Union, two thousand four hundred
and seventeen churches, one thousand nine hundred
and sixteen ministers, and one hundred and eighty-

b AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

eight thousand two hundred and fifteen members;
and Benedict, the Baptist historian, after extensive
travel among them, writes that " the Baptists are
scattered in every part of the United States. Scarce-
ly a mountain or valley in which they are not to
be found." He estimated them to form one-fifth
of the population of the whole country. They were
scattered, however, and also divided. The Baptist
churches of different sections of the country had
little communication with each other. Few com-
mon bonds of interest existed, and no general or-
ganization for any purpose whatever. The Phila-
delphia Association had been definitely organized as
early as 1707, followed by the Charleston Associa-
tion in 1751, the Sandy Creek Association, of North
Carolina, in 1758, and others in the South still
later. The Warren Association of churches in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts was formed in
1767, and four Associations in Vermont before
1796, but it was not until 1812 that the Boston
Association, later divided into four, was established.
The formation of the English Baptist Missionary
Society in Kettering, England, in 1792, and the
early movements, trials, and successes of the Eng-
lish Baptist mission in India, were viewed with deep
interest by many Baptists in this country, and did
much to arouse a missionary spirit among them.
Several Baptist ministers of this country, notably
Rev. John Williams, of New York, and Rev.
Thomas Baldwin, of Boston, maintained a regular

AMERICAN BAPTISTS IN 1812 7

correspondence with William Carey and liis asso-
ciates of Serampore, and contributions for the Ser-
ampore mission were sent from the Baptists of the
United States to the missionary society in London,
amounting in one year to as much as six thousand
dollars. The first crystallization of the missionary
spirit was in the organization of the Massachusetts
Baptist Missionary Society, which held its first
meeting in Boston, May 26, 1802. The object of
this pioneer Baptist missionary society of America
was stated to be, " To furnish occasional preaching
and to promote a knowledge of evangelistic truth
in the new settlements within these United States, or
farther, if circumstances should render it proper."
This society immediately began the publication
of the " Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Mag-
azine," the first number being issued in Septem-
ber, 1803. In 1817 the name of this oldest of
American Baptist periodicals Avas changed to the
" American Baptist Magazine," and again, in 1836,
to the " Baptist Missionary Magazine," under which
title it still continues. Letters from William Carey,
and other missionaries in India, frequently appeared
in this magazine, which became the chief instru-
ment in fostering the rising enthusiasm for missions
among American Baptists. This zeal for the ex-
tension of the kingdom of the Redeemer found ex-
pression in a rapid succession of missionary societies
organized in various parts of the country. A Bap-
tist Youths' Missionary Society, formed in the city

8 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

of New York, July 23, 1806, was the first Baptist
young people's society of America. The Female
Mite Society, started in Providence, R. I., in 1808,
was the pioneer woman's Baptist missionafry so-
ciety. Other organizations of a character similar
to these three pioneer societies quickly followed.
At the meeting of the Ncav York Baptist Associa-
tion, in 1806, a missionary society was established,
and in 1808 this society united with that in Massa-
cluisetts in the support of a mission to the Tusca-
rora Indians. The Philadelphia Baptist Mission-
ary Society Avas also formed in 1806, and missions
were started by various Baptist Associations in
South Carolina and Georgia without the formation
of special societies. The first strictly foreign mis-
sionary society of American Baptists was the Salem
Bible Translation and Foreign INIissionary Society,
organized at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1812, for the
purpose of aiding in the translation of the Bible
then being made at Serampore, India, by William
Carey and his companions, or, " if deemed feasible,
to assist in sending a missionary or missionaries
from this country to India."

CHAPTER II

FORMATION OF THE GENERAL MISSIONARY CON-
VENTION

SUCH Avere the people and such their condition
when the call came for American Baptists to
arise and enter independently into the work of
preaching the gospel in distant lands and to un-
known peoples. But if the circumstances of the
people were unpromising, the nature of the call was
so singular and so significant with divine meaning
that it roused the scattered and separated Baptists
of America as the trumpet peal of the archangel
calling the dead to life.

In 1810 the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions had been formed in Boston, in
response to the demand of a few students in An-
dover Theological Seminary that they be sent on a
mission to the lieathen. It was the first independ-
ent American movement in foreign missions. After
a preliminary, but providentially unsuccessful, at-
tempt to become auxiliary to the London Missionary
Society, nine missionaries had sailed from America
for India, in the month of February, 1812, under the
auspices of the American Board, to inaugurate the
enterprise of American foreign missions. Adoniram

10 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Judson and Ann Hasseltine, his wife, and Samuel
Newell and Harriet, his wife, sailed from Salem,
Mass., on the nineteenth, while on the twenty-fourth
Gordon Hall and Samuel Nott, with their wives, and
Luther Rice, sailed from Philadelphia. The facil-
ities for rapid transit known to more modern times
were lacking, and the long voyage of four to six
months to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope
afforded ample time for study and serious reflection
upon the new and daring enterprise on which they
had entered. The thoughts of two of the young
men turned in the same direction. Judson on the
" Caravan," and Rice on the " Harmony," remem-
bered that they would be called upon to lead the
converts, whom by the favor of God they hoped to
win, into knowledge of the principles of Christianity,
and if churches should be gathered, to see that they
were established on correct foundations. They ac-
cordingly addressed themselves to more careful study
of the true source of knowledge in these matters, the
word of God.

It is related of Judson, that during his course of
study at Andover Theological Seminary, in a dis-
cussion concerning baptism, the professor had ap-
pointed him to present the views of the Baptists. He
entered into the discussion with such zeal for victory
that he convinced himself of the truth of the Baptist
position. But the astute professor immediately as-
signed to him the duty of answering his own argu-
ments, and his intense and ardent nature engaged

FORMATION OF GENERAL CONVENTION 11

in the task with such enthusiasm that he speedily
reconverted himself to Pedobaptist views. Appar-
ently, however, this experience had left an impres-
sion on his mind, and soon after reaching Calcutta,
Judson, not now in polemic controversy, but as a re-
sult of sincere study of the New Testament, adopted
fully the views of Baptists as to the church and its
ordinances. Mrs. Judson, at first greatly distressed
|at the change in her husband's views, soon as a re-
sult of her independent studies, became one with her
husband in this matter, and they were baptized in
Calcutta by Rev. William Ward, September 6, 1812.
Later their hearts were cheered and strengthened by
learning that Luther Rice, pursuing the same studies
on the other vessel, had also become a Baptist. Mr.
Rice was baptized in Calcutta, jSTovember 1, 1812.

Baptists engaged in the missions of other bodies
are not noAv unknown, but in the state of denomina-
tional feeling existing in America in 1812 such a
thing was impossible. Mr. Judson therefore wrote
at once to the American Board resigning his connec-
tion, and at the same time to Thomas Baldwin, d. d.,
pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Boston, in-
quiring if the Baptists of America would form a
society for foreign missions, and offering himself as
its first missionary. It Avas also arranged that Mr.
Rice should return to America to interest the Bap-
tists in the new Baptist missionaries in India. On
the receipt of Mr. Judson's letter to Doctor Baldwin,
in the spring of 1813, a society was at once formed

12 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

in his home in Boston called, " The Baptist Society
for Propagating the Gospel in India and other For-
eign Parts," which assumed the support of Mr. and
Mrs. Judson. Under the influence of Mr. Rice's
stirring appeals the Baptist Missionary Society of
Virginia was formed at Richmond, October 28,
1813. A similar society was formed in Philadel-
phia, December 1, and the Savannah Baptist So-
ciety for Foreign Missions was organized December
17, 1813. The Baptist Foreign Missionary So-
ciety of New York was formed February 21, 1814,
another in Baltimore at about the same time, and
others in various parts of the country in rapid suc-
cession.

In 1814 the principal centers of Baptist influence
in America were in Boston, in Rhode Island, in
Philadelphia, and Virginia, South Carolina, and
Georgia, but until the rise of the foreign mission
movement they had no common bond of interest.
In all these centers, except at Rhode Island, the
Baptists were overshadowed by other bodies which
antedated them in time and exceeded them in num-
bers. There Avas no general Baptist society, but one
Baptist educational institution, now Brown Univer-
sity, and no Baptist periodicals except the " Baptist
Missionary Magazine," already mentioned, which
was coming to have a wide circulation. It is a
striking fact that tlie influence which called the
Baptists of America from their lowly, unorganized
condition, united and consolidated their strength.

FORMATION OF GENERAL CONVENTION 13

encouraged thera to more vigorous efforts at liomo
as well as abroad, and started them on the career
which has given them power and standing among
the foremost religious denominations of America,
was the call to engage in foreign missions.

The first suggestion for a general movement ap-
pears to have been made at the meeting of the
Philadelphia Baptist Association, in 1813, when it
was decided to form a foreign missionary society,
and a general meeting of delegates from all Baptist
missionary societies was suggested for the purpose
of forming a general committee. As a result of this
suggestion there assembled in Philadelphia in the
following May the most representative and the most
notable gathering of the Baptists of America which
up to that time had ever been brought together.

The meeting was composed of twenty-six clergy-
men and seven laymen, from eleven different States
and from the District of Columbia, most of whom
now for the first time looked upon each other's faces.
Their names were : Thomas Baldwin, D. d., Rev.
Lucius Bolles, a. m., of Massachusetts ; Rev. Stephen
Gano, A. u., of Rhode Island ; Rev. John Williams,
Mr. Thomas Hewitt, Mr. Edward Probyn, Mr. Na-
thanael Smith, of New York ; Burgiss Allison, D. D.,
Rev. Richard Proudfoot, Rev. Josiah Stratton, Rev.
William Boswell, Rev. Henry Smalley, A. m., Mr.
Mathew Randall, Mr. John Sisty, Mr. Stephen Us-
tick, of New Jersey ; William Rogers, d. d., Henry
Holcombe, D. d., William Staughton, d. d.. Rev.

14 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

AVilliam White, a.m., Rev. John P. Peckvvorth, Rev.
Horatio G. Jones, Rev. Silas Hough, Rev. Joseph
Mathias, of Pennsylvania ; Rev. Daniel Dodge, of
Delaware ; Rev. Lewis Richards, Rev. Thomas
Brooke, of Maryland ; Rev. Luther Rice, a. m., Dis-
trict of Columbia ; Rev. Robert B. Semple, Rev.
Jacob Grigg, of Virginia ; Rev. James A. Ranald-
son, of North Carolina ; Richard Furman, d. d.,
Hon. Mathias B. Tallmadge, of South Carolina ;
and Rev. W. B. Johnson, of Georgia.

Rev. Dr. Furman, of South Carolina, was chosen
president, and Rev. Dr. Baldwin, of Massachusetts,
secretary, and the following constitution was finally
adopted, after full discussion :

We, the delegates from missionary societies and other
religious bodies of the Baptist denomination, in various
parts of the United States, met in convention, in the city
of Philadelphia, for the purpose of carrying into effect
the benevolent intentions of our constituents by organ-
izing a plan for eliciting, combining, and directing the
energies of the whole denomination in one saci'ed effort
for sending the glad tidings of salvation to the heathen
and to nations destitute of pure gospel light, do agree to
the following rules as fundamental j^rinciples, viz :

1. That this body shall be styled "The General Mis-
sionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the
United States of America for Foreign Missions."

2. That a triennial convention shall, hereafter, be
held, consisting of delegates, not exceeding two in num-
ber, from each of the several missionary societies, and
other religious bodies of the Baptist denomination, now
existing, or which may hereafter be formed in the

FORMATION OF GENERAL CONVENTION 15

United States, and which shall each regularly contribute
to the general missionary fund a sum amounting at
least to one hundred dollars per annum.

3. That for the necessary transaction and dispatch of
business, during the recess of said Convention, there
shall be a Board of twenty-one commissioners, who shall
be membei'S of the said societies, churches, or other re-
ligious bodies aforesaid, triennially appointed by the said
Convention, by ballot, to be called the "Baptist Board
of Foreign Missions for the United States," seven of
whom shall be a quorum for the transaction of all busi-
ness, and which Board shall continue in office until suc-
cessors be duly appointed, and shall have power to make
and adopt by-laws for the government of the said Boai'd,
and for the furtherance of the general objects of the in-
stitution.

4. That it shall be the duty of this Board to employ
missionaries, and, if necessary, to take measures for the
improvement of their qualifications ; to fix on the field
of their labors, and the compensation to be allowed
them for their services ; to superintend their conduct,
and dismiss them, should their services be disapproved ;
to publish accounts, from time to time, of the Board's
transactions, and an annual address to the public ; to
call a special meeting of the Convention on any extraor-
dinary occasion, and, in general, to conduct the execu-
tive part of the missionary concern.

5. That such persons only as are in fall communion with
some regular church of our denomination, and who fur-
nish satisfactory evidence of genuine piety, good talents,
and fervent zeal for the Redeemer's cause, are to be em-
ployed as missionaries.

6. That the Board shall choose, by ballot, one presi-
dent, two vice-presidents, a treasurer, a corresponding
and a recoi'ding secretary.

IC AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

7. That the president, or in case of his absence or dis-
ability, the senior vice-president present, shall preside
in all meetings of the Board, and when application
shall be made in writing by any two of its members,
shall call a special meeting of the Board, giving due
notice thereof.

8. That the treasurer shall receive and faithfully ac-
count for all the moneys paid into the treasury, keep a
regular account of receipts and disbursements, make a
report thereof to the said Convention, whenever it shall
be in session, and to the Boai*d of Missions annually, and
as often as by them required. He shall also, before he
enters on the duties of his office, give competent secu-
rity, to be approved by the Board, for the stock and
funds that may be committed to his care.

9. That the corresponding secretary shall maintain
intercourse by letter with such individuals, societies, or
public bodies, as the interests of the institution may re-
quire. Copies of all the communications made by the
particular direction of the Convention or Board shall be
by him handed to the recording secretary, for record and
safe keeping.

10. That the recording secretary shall, ex-offido, be
the secretary of the Convention, unless some other be by
them appointed in his stead. He shall attend all the
meetings of the Board, and keep a fair record of all
their proceedings, and of the transactions of the Con-
vention.

11. That in case of the death, resignation, or disability
of any of its officers or members, the Board shall have
power to fill such vacancy.

12. That the said Convention shall have power, and
in the interval of their meeting, the Board of Commis-
sioners, on the recommendation of any one of the con-
stituent bodies belonging to the Convention, shall also

FORMATION OF GENERAL CONVENTION 17

have power, to elect honorary members of piety and dis-
tinguished UberaUty, who, on their election, shall be en-
titled to a seat, and to take part in the debates of the
Convention ; but it shall be understood that the right of
voting shall be confined to the delegates.

13. That in case any of the constituent bodies shall be
unable to send representatives to the said Convention,
tliey shall be permitted to vote by proxy, which proxy
shall be appointed by writing.

14. That any alterations which experience may dic-
tate from time to time, may be made in these articles at
the regular meeting of the Convention, by two-thirds of
the members present.

At the meeting of the Board immediately after
the adjournment of the Convention, Mr. and Mrs.
Judson were appointed its first missionaries, and the
Board pledged itself to their support in mission
work in India. Luther Rice was also appointed a
missionary, but instructed to continue his services
in arousing the churches of this country to greater
interest in the work of foreign missions. William
Staughton, d. d., of Philadelphia, svas appointed the
first corresponding secretary of the Board, the head-
quarters of which were to be in Philadelphia, and
Mr. John Cauldwell, of New York, was named as
the first treasurer. As communication between dif-
ferent parts of the country was slow and difficult, it
was arranged that the Convention should meet only
once in three years, whence arose the common name
by which the Society was known in its earlier years,
" The Triennial Convention."

B

18 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Thus was inaugurated the movement "whicli made
the scattered and separate Baptists of America a de-
nomination. The feeling among them regarding this
Convention is indicated by the words of the editor of
the "Baptist Missionary Magazine/' in introducing
his account of the meeting in Philadelphia :

Perhaps no event has ever taken place among the
Baptist denomination in America, which has excited
more Uvely interest than the hate missionary Convention
held in the city of Philadelphia. It was indeed a sight
no less novel than interesting, to behold brethren who
had hitherto been unknown to each other by face, col-
lecting from North to South, from nearly all the States
from Massachusetts to Georgia (a distance of more than
one thousand miles), for the important purpose of form-
ing a General Convention, in order to concentrate the en-
ergies and direct the efforts of the whole denomination
throughout the United States in sending the gospel to
the heathen.

This high resolve of the Baptists of this country
to engage in the enterprise of foreign missions was
further exalted by the condition of the country at
that time. War with England was still dragging on
its tedious and exhausting course. Although many
splendid victories had been won by the navy of the
Americans on the sea and on the great lakes, the
British were far from embarrassed by their reverses
and the army of the United States had made little
headway against the land force of the enemy. By
her conflict with Napoleon, England had been for a
time hampered in the prosecution of the war with

FORMATION OF GENERAL CONVENTION 19

America ; but the victories of Wellington made it
evident that his forces would soon be released, as
they were, and Great Britain be able to turn her full
energies upon the struggling American republic.
Although the Embargo Act was repealed in April,
1814, the peace party in New England continued
vigorous and aggressive. By demanding payment
of every note of the banks in the Middle and
Southern States, and ))y introducing English bills
in large quantities and at low rates, these portions
of the country were drained of their financial re-
sources, while British fleets harassed the Southern
coasts and showed the disposition of the enemy to
prosecute the war with increasing and relentless
vigor.

Undaunted by these unpropitious circumstances
American Baptists launched the bark of their for-
eign mission enterprise with cheerful courage, trust-
ing the Lord, who had led them into the task by
such a signal exhibition of his providence, to prosper
and bless the work in behalf of the kingdom of his
Son.

CHAPTER III

BEGINNINGS IN BURMA

TIDINGS of the action of American Baptists for
their support did not reach the lonely mission-
aries in India until more than a year after the for-
mation of the missionary Convention. Driven from
Calcutta by the hostility of the English East India
Company, the Judsons fled to the Isle of France
(Mauritius) ; then, determined not to abandon India,
they went back to INIadras. At last, in instant fear
of being forcibly returned to England, they em-
barked on an unseaworthy brig, the " Georgiana,"
which bore them, amid many perils, to Rangoon,
in the then native empire of Burma, where they
landed July 13, 1813, almost the only white per-
sons among that savage and barbarous peo})le.
Here, for more than two years, in loneliness and
peril, they lived and labored without companions of
their own race. On September 5, 1815, however,
came the joyful news that American Baptists had
rallied to their support and a fully organized mis-
sionary convention had adopted them as its mission-
aries and had pledged the funds needed for the con-
tinuance of the work upon which they had entered
at so much personal sacrifice and peril.
20

BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 21

On their arrival at Rangoon, the Judsons found
a house occupied by the wife of Felix Carey, who
was partly of native blood, and here they made
their first home in Burma. This eldest son of
William Carey Avas one of the company sent to
Burma by his father in an attempt to establish a
mission in that country. At the time of the arrival
of the Judsons, the English mission had been prac-
tically abandoned, as Carey, the only remaining
missionary, had entered the service of the Burman
government, in which he remained. This is the
son of whom his eminent and devoted father wrote
to Doctor Ryland, ''Felix is shriveled from a mis-
sionary to an ambassador." In the interval be-
tween their arrival in Burma and the opening of
communication Avith the American Baptist Conven-
tion, the Judsons AAere sustained by the Baptist
mission at Serampore, Avhich made monthly grants
for their support, and they Avere recognized for a
time as members of the English Baptist mission.

In 1813, Burma furnished a typical example of
savage and cruel Oriental governments and peoples.
The Avill of the king was the only and the absolute
law. Every officer Avas a despot in his sphere and
the sla\'e of his superiors. The people, in person
and property, Avere subject to the Avill and the
caprice of the officers of the king. By his medical
skill, Felix Carey had secured the fa\'or of the
viceroy at Rangoon and obtained from the king
permission that the Bible might be translated into

22 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

the Biirman language. Under these partially favor-
able conditions the new missionaries began their
labors, and Mr. Judson applied himself to the study
of the language with all his native intensity of
application and great mental powers. His aids
were few. Dr. Felix Carey had made some begin-
nings of literary work, but, for the most part, Mr.
Judson was compelled to prepare his own dictionary
and grammar as he went on with his study, gather-
ing and comparing words and idioms day by day
with that care and accuracy which made his trans-
lation of the Burman Bible one of the notable bibli-
cal versions of all times and tongues.

While exposed to much peril from the lawless
character of the people and from the location of
their house without the limits of the city, the life of
the Judsous was by no means so unhappy or unfa-
vorable for mission Avork as they had expected from
their previous impressions of Burma. In addition
to the conciliatory attitude of the viceroy of Ran-
goon, won by the medical skill of Carey, Mr. Jud-
son had now gained his personal favor and protec-
tion for himself. Of his pleasant impressions of
Burma he wrote to Dr. William Carey on September
28, 1814:

This is a delightful climate. We have now seen all
the seasons and can therefore judge. The hot weather
in March and April is the chief exception. Nature has
done everything for this country and the governnient is
very indulgent to all foreigners. When we see how we

BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 23

are distinguished above all around, even in point of
worldly comforts, we feel that we want gratitude. Oh,
that we may be faithful in the improvement of every
mercy and patient under every trial which God may
have in store for us ! We know not how the gospel can
ever be introduced here ; everything in this respect ap-
pears as dark as midnight.

The work of preaching the gospel was necessarily
held largely in abeyance until the language coukl
be acquired, and this proved so difficult Avith the
inadequate aids at his command, that Judson con-
fessed that he gained a better knowledge of French
in a few months than of Burman in three years.
However, by diligent application he had translated
the Gospel of Matthew by 1816, and prepared sevr
eral tracts on phases of Christianity which seemed
fitted to attract Burman minds and acquaint them
with the fundamental principles of the gospel. On
October 15 of this same year arrived the first
reinforcements of the infant Baptist mission in
Burma. Rev. George H. Hough and his wife, na-
tives of New Hampshire, were the first to sail from
America under the auspices of the Baptist Mission-
ary Convention, which indicated its sense of the
importance of the printed word by appointing a
printer as the first to start for the mission field
under its direction. The Serarapore mission sup-
plied him with a printing press and all applia^jces
necessary to place the truth in the printed page
before the Burman people.

24 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIO^'S

The delay in giving the gospel to tlie people in
oral form, caused by the difficulty in gaining a com-
mand of Burman speech, led Mr. Judson to under-
take a voyage to Chittagong, Arakan, to secure
Christian converts to assist him, since the dialect
used there was similar to that of the Burmans. He
also hoped that his health, which had become some-
what impaired, would receive benefit from the
change. This journey, entered upon from such
high motives, proved a source of untold anxiety
and distress to the little mission circle in Rangoon.
Mr. Judson had expected to be absent three months.
At the end of that time the startling intelligence
was received from Chittagong that neither he nor
the vessel in which he sailed had reached that port.
Imagine the dismay of Mrs. Judson and her com-
panions, helpless amid their uncivilized surround-
ings. In addition, a sad change had come to the
circumstances of the mission. The friendly official
was supplanted by one of entirely different charac-
ter, who, by calling Mr. Hough before him and by
threats, endeavored to extort bribes for toleration
and protection. Still more ominous were the threat-
enings of war between Burma and England. British
merchants hastily closed their business and departed
from Rangoon. Ship after ship sailed away until
only one foreign vessel Avas left in Rangoon River.
On this the Houghs determined to embark, and with
much difficulty persuaded Mrs. Judson to accompany
them. She went on board, but before the ship had

BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 25

left the river, she heroically resolved to return and
in the Rangoon home await the coming of her
husband, or some certain news of his fate. The
Houghs were compelled to return with her, as she
could not be abandoned in the unsettled condition
of the country. In a week Mr. Judson arrived
safe and well, having been driven from place to
place by contrary winds and unable to reach his
destination. Thus was the heroism of the devoted
wife rewarded, and in this trial brightly shone forth
the exalted traits of character which in after years
have made immortal the name of Ann Hasseltine
Judson.

Disheartened by the continued and increasing
perils, the Houghs soon sailed with all the printing
materials for Calcutta, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Judson
again alone in Rangoon. Their lonely lot was soon
cheered, however, by the arrival of Rev. James
Colman and Rev. Edward W. Wheelock, of Boston,
Avith their wives, w ho reached Rangoon in Septem-
ber, 1818, after a tedious delay of several months
in Calcutta, because of the infrequent and uncertain
communication with Burma. For the help of the
new missionaries, Mr. Judson began the preparation
of his grammar, which was afterward published,
and has remained a foundation for an accurate
knowledge of the Burman language. Their joys
were also heightened by the opening of a zayat for
preaching the gospel, in April, 1819, the first house
distinctively devoted to Christian worship in Burma,

26 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

the stronghold of Buddhism; and on June 19, after
six years of toil, privation, and peril, their hearts
were gladdened by the baptism of the first Burman
convert. This was Moung Nau, who was also, as
far as history shows, the first convert from the big-
oted beliefs of Buddhism to the truths of the religion
of Jesus Christ. Two others were baptized on No-
vember 7 of the same year, and the first Christian
church, composed of the three converts and the little
band of American missionaries, began to shed its
rays of divine light amid the darkness of Buddhist
Burma.

As their previous life in Burma had been a suc-
cession of pleasures and perils, so the new joys of
the Judsons were destined to an early eclipse. Both
Wheelock and Colman began to show symptoms of
fatal disease, and it became necessary for Mr. Whee-
lock to sail for Calcutta in hope of recovery. On
the voyage, in a frenzy of delirium, he threw him-
self from his cabin windoAv and was drowned in the
bay of Bengal, the first of the long succession of
American Baptists who have given their lives for
the salvation of the people of Burma. The daAvn-
ing success of the mission aroused the hostility of
the Buddhist priests and Burman officials. Threats
were uttered against any who might be disposed to
follow the new religion. The preaching zayat,
which had often been crowded with hearers, was
almost deserted, although located on one of the
most frequented streets of the city. It became evi-

BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 27

dent that the mission work would become increas-
ingly difficult unless the favor of the despot at Ava
could be secured, and Judson, with Colman, made
the long journey to the capital in a small boat to
seek an audience with the king. They were intro-
duced by the friendly official, formerly viceroy of
Rangoon ; but their petition was rejected, and they
were compelled to return disappointed and almost
crushed under a sense of the difficulties and dangers
Mhich threatened their beloved work. So strong
was their feeling of the impossibility of success in
Christian mission work in Burma without the toler-
ance of the arrogant and powerful officials, that it
was proposed to remove the Avhole mission to Chitta-
gong. In this crisis the faith and courage for con-
tinuance came from the few native converts, who
argued that not even the powerful emperor could
destroy the w^ork of God, and entreated the mission-
aries not to leave them. It was arranged that the
Judsons should remain in Rangoon and Mr. and
Mrs. Colman should go to Chittagong to t)pen a
mission, which should serve as a place of retreat in
case the missionaries were compelled to leave Burma.
Thus for a second time, so early in its history, did
the Baptist mission in Burma narrowly escape aban-
donment.

The Colmans arrived in Chittagong June 5, 1820.
Mr. Colraan's health, never firm, soon succumbed to
the climate, and he died at a place in the interior
called Cox's Bazar, July 4, 1822. Mrs. Colman

28 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

labored for a time at Serampore as a teacher of
oliildron, and afterward married Rev. Amos Sutton,
an English Baptist missionary in Orissa, thus be-
coming a link in the chain which led to the found-
ing of the great American Baptist mission to the
Telngus. It was Mr. Sutton who, while on a visit
to his wife's relatives in America, brought the needs
of the Telngu people to the notice of the Missionary-
Convention at its meeting in Richmond, Va., in
1835.

He also called to the attention of the Free
Baptists of America the promising opening for
a mission in Bengal Province, north of Orissa, and
was thus the means of establishing the Bengal Free
Baptist Mission.

CHAPTER IV

TO THE END OF THE FIRST BURMAN WAR

n^HE second meeting of the General Missionary
-L Convention, commonly known as "The Second
Triennial Convention," was held in the Sansom
Street Baptist Church, Philadelphia, in May, 1817,
and was an occasion of great interest. The foreign
missionary movement had greatly grown. Dele-
gates were present from twelve States, including
Kentucky, it being the first time that Baptists west
of the Allegheny Mountains had been represented.
At this epochal meeting, which lasted a full week,
five important measures were adopted, all of which
are still in force and have had a profound influ-
ence on the development of the Baptist denomina-
tion in this country. (1) "The Baptist Missionary
Magazine" was adopted as the organ of the Conven-
tion. (2) A seminary for the training of young men
for the ministry was authorized, an action which re-
sulted in the founding of Columbian University, at
Washington. (3) The churches were earnestly rec-
ommended to observe the first Monday in every
month as a concert of prayer for missions. These
three measures were passed by the Convention. At
the meeting of the Board of Managers, immediately

29

30 AMERICAN BAl'TIST MISSIONS

after, steps were taken (4) for opening missions
among the American Indians, and (5) two mission-
aries. Rev. John M. Peck and Rev. James E. Welch,
were appointed to labor among the new settlements
in the vicinity of St, Louis, in Missouri. This re-
markable Convention thus inaugurated movements
covering the whole ground of denominational jour-
nalism, education, unity in church life and home
missions, both among Indians and white people, ac-
tions which speak loudly of the piety, breadth,
courage, and mental calibre of the leading minds
among those present. The annual income of the
Convention, which at first had been estimated at
five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars, had
advanced to twenty-six thousand and fifty-two dol-
lars and one cent.

The measures thus adopted Avere carried steadily
forward until the Fifth Triennial Convention, which
was held in the Oliver Street Church, in New York
City, in May, 1826. This meeting, lasting twelve
days, marked a turning-point in the history of the
Convention. Columbian University, which had be-
come well established, was placed under a separate
Board of trustees for better legal and internal ad-
ministration, and the headquarters of the Conven-
tion were removed from Philadelphia to Boston,
where they have since remained. This latter action
was taken for two reasons : first, because passages
to India could then be more easily arranged from
Boston, but more especially because the funds of the

TO THE END OF THE FIRST BURMAN WAR 31

Convention were running low, and the Baptists of
New England came forward and became responsible
for the entire support of the missions. Because of
this removal, Doctor Staughton resigned as corres-
ponding secretary of the Convention, and Lucius
Bolles, D. D., who had been chosen assistant in 1824,
became sole secretary in 1826. In this same year,
and just before the meeting of the Convention, the
Baptist General Tract Society, formed in Washing-
ton, in 1824, now known as the American Baptist
Publication Society, had been removed to the city
of Philadelphia, an action which was destined to
exercise a profound influence on Baptist missionary
work at home and abroad. As the year 1814 had
marked the union of the Baptists of the United
States in a common society and work, so the year
1826 signalized the beginning of that division of
labor among organizations sup})orted by the same
constituency for the more efficient prosecution of
diverse lines of denominational activity, which was
continued by the founding of the American Baptist
Home Mission Society in 1832, and later by other
organizations for local and special purposes and
aims.

For the benefit of her health Mrs. Judson had
been compelled to visit Serampore, in 1820, and in
August, 1821, sailed for America, leaving Doctor
Judson alone in Burma until the arrival in December
of Rev. Jonathan Price, m. d., who had been sent
out by the Convention. The following month Mr.

32 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Hough returned to Rangoon from Serampore, bring-
ing back the printing press, the loss of which had
been a serious hindrance to the work of the mission,
which now went on with renewed vigor. Within a
few months reports of the medical skill of Doctor
Price reached the king at Ava, and he was sum-
moned to the capital. Although reluctant to leave
his work, Doctor Judson was compelled to go with
him as interpreter. They left Rangoon August 28,
1822, and were well received by the king, who de-
sired them to remain in Ava, and caused a house to
be given them. After much thought it seemed best
to take advantage of this very favorable opportunity
to open a mission in the capital of Burma, and Doc-
tor Judson went to Rangoon to meet Mrs. Judson,
who arrived there December 5, 1823, on her return
from America, with Rev. Jonathan Wade and his
wife. Mrs. Judson's presence in the United States
had aroused great interest, and she was urged to
remain longer. But although her health was not
fully restored, she decided, against the entreaties of
her friends, to return to her husband and her work,
a decision which in the providence of God led to
the preservation of the life and the securing to the
world of the later labors of the pioneer of Baptist
foreign missions.

At this time the whole New Testament had been
translated into the Burman tongue, and a church of
eighteen members gathered in Rangoon. This
promising work the Judsons left to the care of Mr.

TO THE END OF THE FIRST BURMAN WAR 33

Hough and Mr. Wade, and went to Ava with re-
joicing hearts in view of the bright openings and
prospects before the mission in Burma. Their
ardent hopes were destined to be rudely shattered.
Already the ominous whisper of threatening war
was in the air. Rangoon was bombarded by the
English forces and captured May 23, 1824. Dur-
ing the attack Messrs. Hough and Wade were ar-
rested and threatened with death by the Burmans,
and tlieir unprotected wives exposed to great peril.
By the good hand of the Lord they were delivered
and set free by the English on the capture of the
city. But the Burmans had fled. Rangoon was in
ruins. All hopes of useful missionary work was
destroyed, and Messrs. Wade and Hough, with their
wives, removed to Calcutta, where they remained
during the war, known in English history as the
First Burman War. Having a copy of Mr. Judson's
translation with him at Serampore, Mr. Hough
printed five hundred copies of the Gospel of Matthew
in the Burman language, and Mr. Wade supervised
the publication of Judson's Burman dictionary issued
at the expense of the British government.

Mr. Judson and Doctor Price, at Ava, were ar-
rested by the Burmans on June 8, 1824, simply be-
cause they were foreigners, and supposed to be in
sympathy with the English, and for more than a
year and a half they were in prison at Ava, Amara-
pura, or Oungpenla (now spelled Aungbinle) under
the most cruel tortures of body and mind which it

c

34 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

is possible for the human constitution to survive.
The Burmans gave no food to their prisoners, who
were entirely dependent upon their friends or the
kindness of strangers for subsistence. That Mr.
Judson did not die of starvation in prison, that he
survived the severe suflferings of his long imprison-
ment, was entirely due to the heroism of Mrs. Jud-
son, who bought supplies as long as she had money,
and then begged from house to house in order to
obtain the food necessary to sustain her husband as
well as herself. No words could describe the agony
of those long months, both to the prisoner and to
his feeble but heroic wife. Mrs. Judson writes :
" Of our suiferings and distresses none can form an
idea but those who were in confinement with us.
You will hardly believe when I say that so entirely
occupied were our minds with afflictions and seek-
ing means for deliverance, that months have elapsed
without thinking of home or those dear friends on
whom our thoughts have been so constantly fixed."
Doctor Judson wrote : " We survive a scene of suf-
fering which seems not a reality, but a horrid
dream."

At one time Mrs. Judson's house was plundered
by the natives and nearly everything of value which
she possessed was taken from her. Twice during
the nineteen fearful months of Doctor Judson's im-
prisonment at Ava and Aungbinle she was brought
to the gates of death, once on the birth of little
Maria, that child of sorrow, and a second time with

TO THE END OF THE FIRST BURMAX WAR 35

the terrible spotted fever. During this last sickness
the life of little Maria was preserved by the sad-
hearted father, who obtained a short daily release
from his prison, and iu his chains bore his little
daughter from house to house, begging that she
might be fed by the Burman mothers. Even
heathen hearts could not refuse such a pitiful re-
quest. Amid all the gloom and terror of these
terrible months two comforts supported Mrs. Jud-
son during her sufferings and suspense. A faithful
Burman Christian, Moung Ing, with great devotion,
stayed unflinchingly by her side. She also found
friends among the women of Moung Shawloo's
family. Shawloo was governor of the north palace,
and it was through him that the release of Doctor
Judson was at last obtained. With what joy did
the heroic wife hail the day of deliverance, when
with her husband and child they were set free by
the Burman authorities and sailed away to safety.
But like other heroines in other times the tremen-
dous strain was too great for the frail strength of
Mrs. Judson, and only six months after their release
the heroine of Ava was laid to rest beneath the Hopia
tree at Amherst. The closing scenes of her life
were most pathetic. After reaching Amherst, Doc-
tor Judson was called to the British headquarters to
act as interpreter to the embassy charged with ne-
gotiating a treaty of peace. During his absence
Mrs. Judson died alone, October 24, 1826, with
only natives to care for her in her last moments.

36 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

So passed away one of the genuine heroines of
earth. She gave her life for others, following in
the footsteps of her Lord. To the noble army of
Christian women, who have offered themselves as a
sacrifice for the salvation of the heathen, she has
been an example and an inspiration. She was the
first woman to enter upon Christian labors in a
purely heathen kingdom in the East, and was the
heroic })ioneer of those who have followed her as
she followed the Lord Jesus Christ. May the
church never lack those ready with the same heroic
courage to surrender all, even life itself, when duty
calls to service for others and sacrifice for Christ.

At the close of the war the provinces of Arakan
and Tenasserim were ceded to the English, and
Amherst was selected as headquarters of the English
in Burma. Hither the Judsons removed, reaching
that place July 2, 1826, the Wades coming Novem-
ber 23, a month after the death of Mrs. Judson.
Mr. Hough and Doctor Price both retired from the
mission, the former becoming an interpreter and
teacher, and the latter entering the service of the
Barman king at Ava. During the long captivity
of Judson the manuscript of the Burman Bible, as
far as translated, was preserved by an evident mani-
festation of divine care. It was concealed from the
suspicious Burmans by being sewed into a pillow.
At one time during Doctor Judson's confinement
this was taken from him and thrown upon a heap
of refuse as entirely worthless. Here it was provi-

TO THE END OF THE FIRST BURMAN WAR 37

dentially seen by Moiing Ing, who, since all the
other possessions of the Judsons had been destroyed
or stolen, took this old pillow simply as a memento, not
knowing its value. Later the precious manuscript
was discovered and taken with the liberated prison-
ers within the British lines. By this remarkable
exhibition of the care of the Lord, Judson was en-
abled to resume his work of translation at the point
where it had ended before the war began, and to
give the Burman people the whole Bible in their
own language in a version so accurate and idiomatic
that comparatively little revision has ever been
called for.

CHAPTER V

GROWTH AND EXPANSION

WHILE the mission in Burma naturally en-
gaged much of the attention of American
Baptists, their missionary activity was by no means
limited to this one field. The missions among vari-
ous tribes of American Indians, founded before the
organization of the General Convention, were con-
tinued, usually under the auspices of local societies.
But in 1817 the Board of the Convention appointed
Rev. Isaac McCoy to labor among the Indians of vari-
ous tribes in Indiana and Illinois. Later Rev. Evan
Jones and others were sent to the Cherokees in North
Carolina. Other Baptist missionaries labored among
various tribes in the East, and several of these mis-
sionaries accompanied the Indians in their cruel and
unjust removal by the United States Government
from their homes to the new territories allotted to
them in the West. Many of these Indians had be-
come Christianized and comparatively civilized and
had accumulated property in their Eastern homes,
and the forcible rending of the ties which bound them
to their ancestral lands was one of those wholesale
crimes which stain the pages of history, like the ex-
pulsion of the Moors and of the Jews from Spain,
38

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 39

the Acadians from Nova Scotia, and the Jews from
Russia. From lack of materials its harrowing his-
tory can never be fully written and it yet awaits its
Longfellow to bring its shameful features to the
hearts of the American people.

The tribes which enjoyed the labors of Baptist
missionaries were the Miami, Kickapoo, Putawato-
mie, Shawanoe, Cherokee, Creek, Oneida, and Tus-
carora, Ottawa, Choctaw, Ojibwa, Chippewa, Otoe,
Omaha, Delaware, and Stockbridge. The work
Avas greatly broken by the removal of many of these
tribes to the West, by which they were reduced to
poverty and largely lapsed into barbarism. Yet
missionary work was still continued with several
tribes, notably the Cherokee and the Shawanoe, and
nearly two thousand converts were baptized. With
the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1861, the mission
work among the Indians, which had been carried
on with diminished force for several years, practi-
cally ceased. In 1865 it was formally transferred
from the foreign Board to the American Baptist
Home Mission Society, whose successful work among
the Indians in later years is a part of the history of
Baptists in the United States.

Africa also early claimed the missionary attention
of American Baptists. Inspired probably by the
rise of interest in missions among the whites, the
Negro Baptists in 1814 organized the "African
Baptist Missionary Society," in Richmond, Va., for
the purpose of sending missionaries to Africa, Be-

40 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

cause of poverty, funds came in slowly, but in 1818
they had gathered tlie sura of seven hundred dollars.
Under these circumstances the General Convention
came to their aid, and at the meeting of the Board
of Managers held in Baltimore, April 28, 1819,
two men selected by the Richmond Society, Colin
Teague and Lott Carey, both of whom were free
men and preachers, were appointed as missionaries
to Africa. They sailed in January, 1820, in the brig
" Nautilus," from Norfolk, Virginia, and settled
first near Free Town, Sierra Leone. The mission-
aries were connected with a colony sent out by the
American Colonization Society, which afterward
permanently located at a place called Montserado,
the name of which was soon changed to Monrovia,
and for the country the name of Liberia was adopted.
I\Ir. Teague soon left the mission, and Mr. Carey
was joined by Rev. C. M. Waring, also from Vir-
ginia. A Baptist church was formed in 1824, a
school was opened by Mr. Carey, and nine persons
were baptized in that year. Mr. Calvin Holton, a
graduate of Waterville College and the first white
man to be sent to Africa by American Baptists,
joined the mission at Monrovia in 1826. A deep
interest in the Christianization of Africa was shown
by Baptists in this country. Five missionaries were
sent out in the decade between 1830 and 1840.
But the climate of Liberia proved unfavorable to
the residence of missionaries from America and
only a feAV have gone forth since the latter date.

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 41

Prosperity attended the labors of the missionaries,
however, and the work extended from Monrovia to
other parts of Liberia, especially to Grand Cape
Mount and to Grand Bassa. With the growth
of Liberia, the Baptist churches have been greatly
strengthened by colonies from the United States,
and have attained an enrollment of more than three
thousand members. Aid from this country was
gradually withdrawn and wholly ceased previous to
1880, and the Liberian churches have continued in
a course of moderate prosperity on the basis of self-
support. Within a few years some assistance on
educational lines has been afforded by the Negro
Baptists of the South, and there were in 1900 some
indications of a revival of interest in missionary
work in Liberia among American Baptists.

The four years from 1833 to 1837 form a nota-
ble period in the history of American Baptist mis-
sions. Previous to 1833 the rising tide of mission-
ary zeal among American Baptists had expended
its force almost M'holly in Burma, in Liberia, among
the American Indians, and in the more sparsely set-
tled regions of the United States. But now the
swelling flood began to overleap the barriers and
flow forth to other lands in accordance with the
divinely given impulse of obedience to the Saviour's
last command, " Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature." In that year the
mission in Burma having occupied the three impor-
tant centers of Rangoon, Moulmcin, and Tavoy,

42 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

with outlying laborers at Mergui, Amherst, Kyoiik
Phyii in Arakan, and several minor points, the mis-
sionaries commissioned Rev, John Taylor Jones of
'their own number to open a mission in Bangkok,
,Siam, where he was joined in 1835 by Rev. William
Dean. In 1833 was also founded the Baptist mis-
sion in France on the recommendation of Professor
Irah Chase, of Newton Theological Institution, who
with Rev. J. C. Rostan, had been sent as a deputa-
tion to report on the advisability of opening a
Baptist mission in that country. Rev. Isaac Will-
marth was sent by the General Missionary Conven-
tion to this field in 1 834, and Avas followed by Rev.
Erastus Willard and others. On April 22, 1834,
Johann G. Oncken and six others were baptized in
the river Elbe, near Hamburg, Germany, by Pro-
fessor Barnas Sears, and thus was begun that great
German Baptist Mission which has spread all over
Central Europe and to which the Baptist missions
in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia owe
their inspiration and their birth. In 1834 also, a
mission in Hayti was begun by the appointment of
Mr. William C. Monroe as a missionary to labor in
that part of the West Indies, but this was discon-
tinued in 1837 with the retirement of Mr. Monroe
from the work.

At the eighth triennial meeting of the General
Missionary Convention held in the city of Richmond,
Va., in 1835, the missionary enthusiasm of Ameri-
can Baptists reached a higher point than had before

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 43

been attained. By the liberal contributions of the
denomination all the expenses of the missions and
their administration had been fully met, and a grati-
fying surplus was in the treasury. The state of the
missionary movement among the churches was such
that enlargement was felt to be imperative in order
to allow full scope for the growing zeal for the ex-
tension of the kingdom of the Redeemer. Two cor-
responding secretaries were chosen, instead of one
as heretofore ; the services of the treasurer, which
had been gratuitious up to this time, had become so
arduous and important that arrangements Avere made
that he should receive suitable compensation ; it
was resolved to " endeavor, by the blessing of God,
to raise during the coming year at least one hundred
thousand dollars, for the purpose of sending the
gospel to the heathen," and the following general
instruction to the Board of Managers was passed
" after animating remarks by different brethren."

Resolved, That this Convention, feeling deeply the duty
of the American Baptists to engage in far more enlarged
and vigorous efforts for the conversion of the whole world,
instruct the Board to establish new missions in every un-
occupied place where there may be a reasonable prospect
of success ; and to employ in some part of the great field,
every properly qualified missionary whose services the
Board may be able to obtain.

The immediate establishment of a mission among
the Telinga, or Telugu, people of India, was also rec-
ommended by a special committee appointed to con-

44 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

sider the subject as presented in an address before
the Convention by Rev. Amos Sutton of the English
Baptist Mission in Orissa, India. Mr. Sutton, as
already stated, had married in India, the widow of
Rev. James Colman, one of the early martyrs of the
American Baptist Missions in Arakan, and was at
this time visiting her relatives. In this providential
way was brought to the attention of American Bap-
tists the Telugu mission field, which has witnessed
the most inspiring triuniplis of the gospel, and which,
with the Karen mission, has made the name of
American Baptists illustrious in the missionary
annals of the world.

The first result of this great Convention was the
appointment of Rev. Howard Malcom as a deputa-
tion to visit the mission fields in Asia. He sailed
from Boston in September, 1835, with a large com-
pany of missionaries, among whom were Rev. Elisha
L. Abbott and Rev. Samuel S. Day, designated to
open a mission among the Telingas as the people
were then called, or Telugus, as they are now known.
Before arrival in India it was decided by Mr. Mal-
com and the missionary company that Mr. Abbott
should go to the Karen mission in Burma, which he
did, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Day to open the Baptist
mission among the Telugus. They landed first at
Vizagapatam, after a time removed to Madras, and
in 1840 located at Nellore, which for twenty-six
years continued the only station in the Telugu mis-
sion— the " Lone Star."

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 45

A second result of the action of the Convention
at Richmond was the opening of the mission in
Greece. Its headquarters were first established at
Corfu, but gradually other points were occupied.
Although the gospel found ready listeners among
the Greeks, there has never been any large number
who were impelled to leave the national church.
The Greek mission was carried on for a long series
of years, often amid persecutions and usually in the
face of obstacles and indifference, until the work was
finally discontinued in 1886.

Inspired also by the glowing zeal of the mission-
ary spirit among American Baptists at this period,
Rev. Nathan Brown, of the mission in Burma, with
Mr. O. T. Cutter, a printer, responded to the invita-
tion of an English official in Assam, and opened
mission work at Sadiya in the extreme northeastern
part of that province of India, in the year 1836.
The missionaries had become acquainted with a race
of people called Shans, occupying the hills of north-
eastern Burma, and learning that this race or tribe
extended over the mountains into Assam, wdiere they
are called Khamti, the mission in Assam was begun
under the name " mission to the Shans," and also
with the idea of ultimately effecting an entrance to
the western provinces of China, a plan which was
formally endorsed and encouraged by the Board of
Managers of the Convention.

While these stirring advances were being made in
the missionary work abroad, events of great interest

46 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

and importance were occurring at home. At the
same Convention held at Richmond at which the
establishment of the Telugu mission was authorized,
the following resolution in regard to the Bible work
was adopted :

Besolced, That the generous donations which have re-
peatedly been made to the funds of the Convention by
the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society,
and the Baptist General Tract Society, are regarded by
this body as a delightful indication of that increasing
spirit of Christian union and fraternal co-operation which
is the promised precursor of Messiah's promised reign.

The translating and giving to the peoples on the
mission fields the word of God had always been
considered an object of the highest importance by
American Baptists. Large sums had been expended
by them out of the general contributions to the Con-
vention, in addition to the amounts received from
various Bible Societies, chiefly those noted in the
above resolution.

The harmonious and delightful course of affairs
referred to in this resolution was however destined
to a speedy and rude disturbance. Versions made
by the Baptist missionaries had ahvays been pre-
pared on the principle of giving to people of every
language the exact meaning of the Bible in the
original, by translation. This had aroused a protest
on the part of Pedobaptist missionaries in India,
which had led to a refusal on the part of the British
and Foreign Bible Society to further assist in the

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 47

printing of the Bengali translation of the Bible made
by the English Baptist missionaries. The same pro-
test was ibrwarded to the American Bible Society,
and after prolonged consideration and discussion
that society adopted a resolution that they would
aid only such versions as conformed in the principle
of their translation to the Common English version.
This made it impossible for the society to continue
its appropriations for the versions made by Judson
and other Baptist missionaries in India, and led to
the separation of the Baptists from the American
Bible Society. At the meeting of the Board of
Managers of the General Convention, held in Hart-
ford, in 183G, a special committee was appointed on
this subject, which presented the following report :

The committee, to whom was referred the communi-
cation from the Board of Managers of the American
Bible Society, unanimously report :

That these communications present two subjects, for
the decision of the Board :

1. Mr. Brigham, in his letter dated March 25, 1836,
states that on the 17th inst., at a meeting of the mana-
gers, the sum of five thousand dollars was appropriated
to the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, to promote
the circulation of the Scriptures in foreign tongues.

This appropriation, however, was made in accordance
with certain resolutions of the Board of Managers,
adopted Feb. 17, 1836, one of which resolutions declares,
"That in appropriating money for the translating, print-
ing, or distributing of the sacred Scriptures in foreign
languages, the managers feel at libertj^ to encourage only
such versions aj conform in the principles of their transla-

48 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

tion to the Common English version, at least so far as that
all the religious denominations represented in the society
can consistently use and circulate said versions in their
several schools and communities." Another resolution
declares, "That the several INIissionary Boards be in-
formed that their applications for aid must be accom-
panied with a declaration that the versions which they
propose to circulate are executed in accordance with
the above resolutions."

The committee recommend to the Board the adoption
of the following preamble and resolution :

Whereas, This Board, at their annual meeting, held
in Salem, in April, 1833, adopted the following resolu-
tions :

Resolved, That the Board feel it to be their duty to
adopt all prudent measures to give to the heathen the
pure word of God in their own languages, and to furnish
their missionaries with all the means in their power to
make the translations as exact a representation of the
mind of the Holy Spirit as may be possible.

Resolved, That all the missionaries of the Board, who
are, or who shall be, engaged in translating the Scrip-
tures, be instructed to endeavor, by earnest prayer and
diligent study, to ascertain the exact meaning of the
original text ; to express that meaning, as exactly as the
nature of t\ie languages into which they shall translate
the Bible will permit ; and to transfer no words which
are capable of being literally translated.

And Whereas, The Board still adheres firmly to these
resolutions, as expressing, in their judgment, the only
true principle on which translations can be made ; and
as uttering what they believe to be the decided opinion
of the great mass of the denomination whom they repre-
sent : Therefore,
Resolved, That the Board of Managers of the American

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 49

Bible Society be respectfully informed that this Board
cannot, consistently and conscientiously, comply with
the conditions on which appropriations are now made,
and cannot therefore accept the sum appropriated by
the Board of Managers on the 17th of March, 1836.

2. Mr. Brigham further informs the secretary of the
Board, that it is in contemplation to send Bible agents
to several of the large missionary stations abroad, to
take charge of the interests of the Bible cause so far as
the American Bible Society is concerned. It is designed
that the agent, in each case, be of the denomination to
which the missionaries on the ground belong. Would
it, Sir, be agreeable to your Board, to have such an agent
sent to any of your stations?

The committee recommend the adoption of the fol-
lowing resolution :

Resolved, That in the present state of things, the Board
cannot perceive that the appointment of an agent of the
American Bible Society, at any of their stations, would
subserve any valuable purpose.

The committee further recommend the adoption of
the following preamble and resolution :

Whereas, The Board have been impelled, by a con-
scientious conviction of duty, to decline accepting the
appropriation of funds made, on certain conditions, by
the Board of Managers of the American Bible Society ;
as the translation, printing, and distribution of the sacred
Scriptures in the languages of the heathen are vitally
connected with the glory of God and with the salvation
of men ; and as the American Baptists enjoy great facili-
ties for prosecuting this important work : Therefore,

Resolved, That our brethren throughout the Union be
most earnestly requested to adopt measures in their
churches, Associations, missionary societies, or by any
other suitable means, so to augment the funds of the

50 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Board, that the work of traiishiting, printing, and dis-
tributing the word of God, in heathen tongues, niay be
prosecuted with dihgence and energy commensurate
with the grandeur and surpassing importance of the
enterprise.

Under these circumstances there was formed in
the city of New York, May 12, 1836, by a company
of Baptists, the American and Foreign Bible Society,
but its attempt to obtain incorporation in the Legis-
lature of New York was defeated by the friends of
the American Bible Society, and it could not obtain
legal authority to act until the passage of the gen-
eral Act for chartering societies, in 1848. How-
ever, it received the support of American Baptists,
and large sums were raised and forwarded to the
missions for the publication of versions made by
Baptist missionaries, in the Burmau and other lan-
guages.

While insisting on full translation of the versions
made abroad, the American and Foreign Bible Society
refused to commit itself to an English version in
which the terms referring to baptism were accurately
translated. Hence on May 27, 1850, was formed
in the city of New York, the American Bible Union,
for the avowed purpose stated in its Constitution,
" To procure and select the most faithful versions
of the sacred Scriptures in all languages throughout
the world." During the years of its existence the
receipts of this society amounted to more than one
million dollars, and " its versions influenced every

GROWTH AND EXPANSION 51

translation by Protestants, in Europe, Asia, Africa,
and America." The purpose of the Bible Union in
calling attention to the importance of full and accu-
rate translation of tiie original Scriptures into all
languages having been accomplished, it was practi-
cally absorbed by the American and Foreign Bible
Society before 1881.

Various attempts were made to effect some modi-
fication by which Baptists could again co-operate
with the American Bible Society, but none were
successful. In 1879 the Bible Society revised its
by-laws and omitted the article which had driven
Baptists from co-operation with that society in Bible
work. It was for a time believed that this would
enable the Baptists to return to affiliation with this
society, and to test the attitude of the society toward
translations made by Baptist missionaries, the Ex-
ecutive Committee of the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union, in October, 1880, made an application
to the American Bible Society for a grant to aid
in the circulation of Doctor Judsou's Burman and
Doctor Mason's Karen versions. The application
was refused, which plainly showed that while there
had been a change in language, the attitude of the
American Bible Society was the same as before.
By this act the whole question of Bible work by
American Baptists was again opened, and a confer-
ence called by various committees was held in Sara-
toga, N. Y., May 22 and 23, 1883, at which the
whole question was fully considered. This great

52 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Bible Convention was the largest and most repre-
sentative delegated convention which had ever been
held by American Baptists. After prolonged de-
liberation the harmonious result of the Convention
was that the foreign Bible work of the American
Baptists should be committed to the American Baptist
Missionary Union, and the home Bible work to the
American Baptist Publication Society, and that the
American and Foreign Bible Society and the Ameri-
can Bible Union, should be merged into the Ameri-
can Baptist Publication Society/

' A full account of the Bible work of American Baptists will
be found in " Bible Societies and the Baptists," by C. C. Bitting,
D. D., published by the American Baptist Publication Society in
1897.

CHAPTER VI

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

AS early as 1840 a restlessness in the relations
between the Northern and Southern Baptist
churches on the subject of slavery was evident.
This was seen in a circular issued by the Acting
Board of the Convention, November 2, 1840, stating
that the Board held itself aloof from the question of
slavery as not coming within the scope of its opera-
tions. In 1842 a missive was addressed to all the
missionaries of the Convention, by a body calling
itself "The Provisional Foreign Mission Committee
of the American Baptist Anti-slavery Convention,"
charging the Board of Managers of the Convention
with yielding its neutrality in the matter of slavery,
with adopting a humiliating attitude toward slave-
holders, asserting that the entire North would aban-
don the Convention, and asking if the missionaries
receiving the circular would receive their support
from an anti-slavery Convention to be formed. The
Board denied the charges and disclaimed all sub-
serviency either to the South or North, in a circular
dated November 15, 1842. At the meeting of the
Board of Managers held in April, 1843, the follow-
ing preamble and resolution were adopted :

53

54 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Whereas, It appears to have been extensively under-
stood that by certain transactions at Baltimore, during
the last session of the Convention, the neutral attitude of
tlie Board in relation to slavery was changed, therefore,

Resolved, That the Circular issued by the Acting Board
in the year 1840, asserting their neutrality on all sub-
jects not immediately connected with the great work to
which they were specially appointed, be reissued and
printed with the Report of this year, as expressive of
the sentiments and position of the present Board.

The eleventh triennial meeting of the Baptist
General Convention was held in the city of Phila-
delphia, April 24, 1844. The conflict of feeling in
regard to the question of slavery instead of being
allayed, had rather increased. At this Convention,
however, the following resolution was adopted with
great unanimity :

Whereas, There exists, in various sections of the
country, an impression that our present organization
involves the fellowship of the institution of domestic
slavery, or of certain associations which are designed to
oppose that institution,

Therefore, Resolved, That, in co-operating together as
members of this Convention in the work of foreign mis-
sions, we disclaim all sanction, either express or implied,
whether of slavery or of anti-slavery ; but, as individuals,
we are perfectly free both to express and to promote,
elsewhere, our own views on these subjects in a Christian
manner and spirit.

Notwithstanding the conciliatory attitude of the
Convention this was the last meeting at which the

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 55

whole country was represented. Of the thirty-two
members present at the organization of the Conven-
tion only six members were living. The Convention
of 1844 adjourned to meet in Cincinnati, in April,
1847, but before that date events occurred which
made another meeting of Baptists of all the States
in the Convention impossible. The Convention, as
representing the whole country, was a thing of the
past. In the city of Philadelphia, where it began
with the union of the Baptists of the whole country
for the first time in an organization, there it ceased
to live as representing all the States.

At the annual meeting of the Board of Managers
held in Providence, R. I., April 30, 1 845, the fol-
lowing report on the subject which was exciting the
attention of Baptists throughout the whole country,
was adopted :

The committee to whom was referred the con-espond-
ence between the Alabama State Convention and the
Acting Board, have attended to the duty confided to
them, and ask leave to present the following statements,
as embracing, substantially, their views on the subject
to which the correspondence refers. They are happy
also to add, that in these views the members of the Act-
ing Board present, in general, coincide.

1. The spirit of the constitution of the General Con-
vention, as well as the history of its proceedings from
the beginning, renders it apparent that all the members
of the Baptist denomination in good standing, whether
at the North or the South, are constitutionally eligible
to all appointments emanating either from the Conven-
tion or the Board.

56 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

2. While this is the case, it is possihle that contin-
gencies may arise, in which the carrying out of this
principle might create the necessity of making appoint-
ments by which the brethren of the North would, either
in fact, or in the opinion of the Christian community,
become responsible for institutions which they could not,
with a gf)od conscience, sanction.

3. Were such a case to occur, we could not desire
our brethren to violate their convictions of duty by
making such appointments, but should consider it in-
cumbent on them to refer the case to the Convention
for its decision.

All which is respectfully submitted, in behalf of the
committee.

F. Wayland, Chairman.

This report was not satisfactory to the Baptists
of the South, and the committee of the Alabama
Convention addressed a direct inquiry to the Acting
Board in Boston, asking if a slaveholder would be
appointed as a missionary. The reply was that in
accordance with the conscientious convictions of the
members of the Board they could not appoint any
person as a missionary who was the owner of slaves.

The inevitable result of the controversy had been
foreseen, and in response to a suggestion of the
Foreign Missionary Society of Virginia, a large and
enthusiastic gathering of Southern Baptists met in
Augusta, Georgia, by whom on May 8, 1845, the
Southern Baptist Convention, with two Boards, one
for foreign and one for home missions, was formed.^

1 An account of the formation of the Southern Baptist Conven-
tion will be found in " A History of the Baptists in the Southern

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVP^NTION 57

The separation of the missionary efibrts of the
Baptists of the Northern and Southern portions of
this country was deeply deplored by many of the
leaders of the denomination in both sections. Ear-
nest efforts were made by some to avert what
seemed to them a serious disaster, but it was ap-
parent to multitudes that separation was unavoid-
able. If it had not occurred at that time it would
unquestionably have been necessarily made at a
later date. It is but fair to say, however, that the
forebodings of disaster were not fully justified.
While division, in itself and for many reasons, was
to be deplored, the missionary cause suff(ered no in-
jury, but was rather advanced by the separation.
The distance of the Southern States from the head-
quarters of the Acting Board of the General Con-
vention, in Boston, caused the general interest of
the churches in the South in the conduct of the
Board to be of the weakest character. While many
of the most prominent leaders of the Southern
churches were ardently interested in the prosperity
of the missions, the remoteness of the active man-
agement was a serious disadvantage. By the sepa-
ration of the missionary activities of the Northern
and Southern Baptists the responsibility of both was
increased. The Baptists of the North became aware
that by the loss of the help of the Southern Baptists
the whole support of the missions was thrown upon

States East of the Mississippi," p. 206, by B. F. Riley, d. d., pub-
lished by the American Baptist rublication Society, in 1898.

58 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

them, and if they were to be maintained in full
power and effectiveness greater zeal and greater
liberality on their part were called for ; while the
Southern Baptists, by the organization of their for-
eign mission Board in connection with the Southern
Baptist Convention, had the question of missions
brought home to their hearts and local loyalty in
the strongest and most convincing manner. While
undoubtedly there was considerable feeling, which
was to be regretted as between different sections of
the same Christian body, yet on the whole the sepa-
ration served to provoke each section of the denom-
ination to love and good works. Their ardor was
aroused, their local interest was engaged, and the
missionary activities of both the Northern and
Southern Baptists were largely increased, and since
that time have gone forward harmoniously and, in
some instances side by side, with always increasing
magnitude and power.

Of all the missionaries under appointment by the
General Convention two, the Rev. J. Le^vis Shuck
and the Rev. I. J. Roberts, of China, preferred to
continue their labors under the auspices of the newly
formed Southern Convention. Mr. Roberts was lo-
cated at Canton, where Mr. Sliuck had already been
associated with him ; but after his visit to America
Mr. Shuck was transferred to Shanghai, where he
was associated with that missionary afterward so
eminent in the annals of the Southern Baptist mis-
sions, Matthew T. Yates, d. d., and others.

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 59

It is related of Mr. Shuck that shortly after his
conversion a collection for missions was taken in the
church of which he was a member. After the col-
lection, as the offering was being couutecl, there was
found upon the plate a card upon which was written
the word " myself." This was the young Christian
convert's first offering to the cause of missions, and
it is the noblest which any person can ever make.

The Rev. I. J. Roberts had first gone to China
in 1836, to be supported on the basis of a fund sup-
posed to amount to about thirty thousand dollars,
which he had himself given into the hands of the
Kentucky China Mission Society, formed for the
purpose. As the income of the fund failed to pro-
vide his support he joined the staff of the General
Convention, but was soon transferred to the South-
ern Board. Mr. Roberts was a man of unques-
tioned Christian devotion, but of somewhat erratic
and peculiar character. M'^hile laboring under the
auspices of the Southern Board he yet continued in
a semi-independent relation to the other missionaries
at Canton, the property which he occupied having
l>een acquired by means raised by himself. Yet his
hibors were generally successful and continued with
a reasonable degree of harmony, until finally his re-
lations with the Convention were dissolved in 1852.
He, however, continued his mission work independ-
ently. AYang, the leader of the great Taiping re-
bellion, had studied with Mr. Roberts in his mission
school at Canton, and after the breaking out of that

60 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

rebellion Mr. Roberts visited the leader in his camp.
He was by him appointed as foreign minister of the
Taiping government in 1860, and it was probably
through his influence that a decree was issued by
the rebel government abolishing idolatry. In the
time-honored literary examinations it was decreed
also that Bible themes should be substituted for
Confucian subjects, and in this and other ways the
leader showed his contempt for the ancient ideas
which had ruled China, and his desire to inaugurate
a new order of affairs. He sought the friendship
of foreign nations ; and it has always been a ques-
tion whether the future of China would not Lave
been greatly advanced by the success of the rebel-
lion. It may be that with all his conscientiousness
General Gordon committed the great mistake of his
life in aiding to subdue the army of the Taiping
rebels. It had become evident that without for-
eign aid the rebellion would be successful, and it
is possible that if the hands of the foreign troops
had been withheld, thirty-five years ago, China
would have been farther advanced in the arts and
sciences of civilization as well as in receptivity
toward the truths of Christianity than she was in
1900, and the troubles of that year would not have
occurred. After a time, however, Mr. Roberts
quarreled with the leader of the rebellion and
turned against him. The whole career of this mis-
sionary was of the most romantic and thrilling char-
acter, from the devotion of his whole property to

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 61

the missionary work, as a young man, to his death
at Upper Alton, Illinois, Dec. 28, 1871, of leprosy,
contracted while ministering to the unfortunate vic-
tims of that terrible disease.

The principal stations of the Southern Baptist
mission in China were located in the midst of the
scenes of the Taiping rebellion, at Canton and
Shanghai, and shared in the vicissitudes of that
contest. They were never molested, however, by
the leaders of the rebellion and experienced much
prosperity in the places in which they held control.
Rev. R. H. Graves, m. d., was for many years the
leader of the work in Canton, rendering eminent
services in evangelistic, literary, and in educational
work in training native assistants in the mission.
The most eminent figure in the mission at Shanghai
continued to be M. T. Yates, d. d. An interesting
and singular physical phenomenon is recorded of
Doctor Yates. He went to China at the age of
twenty-seven. During his first stay of several years
in China he gained one inch in height ; during his
second stay he gained two inches more, making
three inches in stature gained after the age of
twenty-seven. His physical proportions in other
directions increased correspondingly. This could
hardly have been considered as a testimony to the
unhealthfulness of missionary life in China.

From 1860 to 1865 the China mission, in common
with other missions of the Southern Baptists, was
embarrassed by wars both in China and in the United

62 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

States. Daring these troublous times the mission-
aries showed great lieroisni and self-denial. They
declared that even if funds were entirely cut off the
mission should be continued, and some of the mis-
sionaries pursued their labors for several years with
but scanty and occasional remittances from the
Board in this country.

Soon after the formation of the Southern Conven-
tion it began operations in the Republic of Liberia.
The work was carried on chiefly by Negroes, the
few white missionories sent to that country not being
able to remain because of the failure of health.
The mission, however, had a large prosperity,
twenty-four mission stations being established and
continued, and about one thousand five hundred
converts being gathered into the churches. Sierra
Leone was occupied by missionaries in 1855, but
was soon abandoned. A mission was established
in Yoruba, a country in the interior from the gold
coast of Africa, in 1849, which had gained some
success, but was necessarily closed on account of the
opposition of the chiefs in the interior from 1870 to
1875. At the latter date the missionary work of
the Southern Board in the Republic of Liberia was
discontinued. Rev. W. J. David and Rev. W. W.
Colley were transferred from that field to the Yoruba
mission, which was then reopened, and has been
continued in an era of prosperity and blessing.

The Southern Baptists entered the city of Rome
almost in the train of the victorious army of Victor

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 63

]<]mmanucl, in the person of Rev. Wni. N. Cote, M.
D., of Paris. Doctor Cote established himself in
the imperial city, and his labors at once received the
approval of the Lord. A church was formed in
January, 1871, and much prosperity was experienced
here and in the city of Bari, on the coast of the
Adriatic, where a church of seventy-five members
was baptized in one day. Funds to the amount of
about twenty-seven thousand dollars were raised in
this country, by which a chapel was built in the city
of Rome under the auspices of George B. Taylor,
D. D., for many years the superintendent of the
Baptist mission in Italy. This became one of the
foremost agencies for the evangelization of the
people in that country, having prosperous and suc-
cessful churches at Rome, Florence, Naples, and
other cities in the Italian peninsula.

The beginning of Southern Baptist mission work
in South America was marked by one of the most
striking incidents of Christian devotion to be found
in the history of the church. Lough Fook, con-
verted in the Baptist church in Canton, China, went
to Demarara with a heart burning with zeal for the
salvation of his people, who were in practical slavery
in that city. Finding himself unable to reach them
otherAvise he sold himself into slavery in order that
he might more freely preach the gospel among them.
This was in 1861. In a short time a Baptist church
was formed, the first in South America, which rap-
idly grew until it numbered one hundred and fifty-

64 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

six members. In one year they raised four hundred
dollars for missionary purposes, besides supporting
their own religious work, and maintained for several
years a missionary to China. This consecrated
servant of the Lord, Lough Fook, died in May,
1884. Dr. R. H. Graves, of Canton, calls him
"one of the brightest jewels that Christianity re-
covered from the dust heaps in China."

In 1850 the Southern Convention voted to es-
tablish missions in Central and South America, and
continued to consider the matter until 1860, when
Rev. T. J. Bowen, founder of the Yoruba mission,
was transferred to Brazil, since his health would not
allow of his return to Africa. His strength proved
insufficient, however, for missionary labors in Brazil,
and the mission was abandoned in 1861. In 1871
citizens from the Southern States, living in Sao
Paulo, formed a Baptist church, and the Southern
Baptist mission in Brazil was opened in 1879 in
response to an application from this new church, not
for help for themselves, but for missionaries to the peo-
ple of Brazil. Churches have been formed at Santa
Barbara, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and other places.
At times there has been much freedom in missionary
work, and at other times the mission has suffered
from severe persecution. This, however, has dis-
appeared, except in limited areas in the interior, and
the Baptist missions have experienced large pros-
perity. The church in Rio de Janeiro especially
has been greatly prospered in membership and in

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 65

spiritual power and influence among the people of
tliat city.

As early as 1860 the Southern Convention con-
templated missions in Japan, and Rev. J. Q. A.
Ilohrer and his wife were appointed to open the
work. They sailed Aug. 3, 1860, in the ship
" Edwin Forrest," in company with Rev. A. L.
Bond and wife, destined for the China mission.
Mrs. Robinson, the mother of Mrs. Rohrer, ac-
companied her daughter on board the " Edwin
Forrest." The ties between mother and daughter
had been peculiarly close and tender, and the mother
was expecting to sail in a short time to rejoin her
daughter in Japan. Before saying farewell she
knelt in agony on the deck of the vessel and prayed
that God would forgive her for consenting to even
a temporary separation from her only child. Mi's.
Rohrer replied, in what proved to be prophetic
words : " Mother, with the exception of parting from
you, this is the happiest day of my life. If we are
lost at sea death will find us in the path of duty."
The ship was never heard from after sailing ; and
in the history of the Southern Baptist missions this
disaster is one of the most touching and pathetic
incidents, associated with the loss of Dr. and Mrs.
J. S. James, who were drowned by the capsizing of
a schooner while entering the harbor of Hongkong.
The question of the mission in Japan was held in
abeyance from this time until 1889, when mission-
aries were sent to that country, who have established

£

66 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

themselves at several points, and labor in harmony
and co-operation with the previously established
missions of the American Baptist Missionary Union.

The Southei'n Baptist Mission in Mexico was
founded in 1880, and as in many other cases, its
initiation was attended by disaster. The Rev. John
O. Westrup, who with his brother, Rev. T. M.
Westrup, had been supported in Coahuila by the
Texas Baptist State Convention, were accepted by
the foreign Board of the Southern Convention in
1880. In December of that year, however. Rev.
John O. Westrup was murdered by a band of Indians
and Mexicans, and the work was left in the hands
of his brother. Rev. T. M. Westrup. Other mis-
sionaries were appointed at later dates and the mis-
sion in Mexico, with that of the Northern Baptists,
has experienced considerable prosperity.

One of the most romantic and deeply interesting
missions under the auspices of American Baptists
is that founded in the city of Havana, Cuba, by
Albert Jose Diaz, and carried on chiefly under the
auspices of the Home Mission Board of the South-
ern Baptist Convention.

INIr. Diaz, a native of Cuba, having received a
liberal education in the university of Havana, in both
the academic and medical departments, was estab-
lished as a successful physician in his native island.
His natural heroism and enthusiasm led him to
identify himself with the insurgents against Spanish
rule in Cuba, among whom he rose to the rank of

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 67

captain ; but with the temporary defeat of that
movement he was compelled to escape to America.
No other means of fleeing offering he was obliged
to leave his native shores with the simple support
of a plank. He narrowly escaped drowning, but
after twenty-six hours of drifting was taken up by
a fishing vessel and carried to New York City,
where an illness from pneumonia came upon him.
In the hospital he was cared for by a devout Chris-
tian woman, by whose means he was led to a knowl-
edge of the Saviour. After the rebellion was over
and amnesty proclaimed, Mr. Diaz returned to
Havana, but was rejected by his family, and soon
again returned to America, where he was baptized
in the Gethsemane Baptist Church, Brooklyn. He
first applied to the American Baptist Home Mission
Society to send him back as a missionary to Cuba,
but his request was declined for lack of funds, and
he was accepted as a missionary by the Woman's
Bible Society, of Philadelphia, and returned to
Cuba in 1883. His work, however, was soon
transferred to the Home Mission Board of the
Southern Baptist Convention, under which it has
been mainly continued. A large number of con-
verts rewarded his early labors and in 1889 the
Jan6 Theatre, of Havana, was purchased for mis-
sion work at a cost of sixty-five thousand dollars,
the original cost being one hundred and forty thou-
sand dollars, and was dedicated as the Gethsemane
Baptist Church. This has been the center of a

G8 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

work of remarkable extent aud interest, between
two and three thousand members being gathered
into the Gethsemane Church and its branches. The
work also extended to other parts of Cuba outside
of Havana, and it was reported at one time that
there were as many as twenty native missionaries,
seven churches, aud twenty stations.

The success of the work excited the hostility of
the Roman Catholic bishop and priests, and Mr.
Diaz, as well as several other of the missionaries,
were imprisoned at various times, but were soon
released on application to the United States Consul.
During the war between Spain and Cuba, Mr.
Diaz was prominent in the establishment of Red
Cross stations for the care of the wounded of each
army. He was, however, imprisoned, and released
only on his promise to leave the island ; but after
the intervention of the United States in behalf of
the Cubans he was appointed on the staff of the
commanding general, and rendered great service as
an interpreter. Since the war and the release of
Cuba from Spanish rule Mr. Diaz has returned to
his native island. The missionary work was com-
pletely disorganized during the two successive wars,
but is now being re-established. By agreement
between the Home Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention and the American Baptist Home
Mission Society the island of Cuba is divided, the
Southern Board retaining the west part of the island,
including the city of Havana, and the towns which

THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 69

have been the theatre of its previous successful work,
and the Home Mission Society taking as its fields
the two eastern provinces and Porto Rico. Further
accounts of the work may be found in the appropri-
ate chapters.

CHAPTER VII

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION

THE eleventh triennial meeting of the General
Missionary Convention held in Philadelphia,
Pa., in April, 1844, adjourned to meet in due course
in Cincinnati, Ohio, in April, 1847, and the thirty-
first annual meeting of the Board of Managers,
which was held in Providence, R. L, in April, 1845,
adjourned to meet in Brooklyn, N. Y., in May, 1846.
Stirring events caused an early change in this pro-
gramme. Soon after the meeting of the Board in
1845 the action of the Baptists of the South in the
formation of the Southern Baptist Convention be-
came known, and a special meeting of the General
Convention was called, which assembled in the city
of New York, November 20, 1845. At this meet-
ing a new constitution was provisionally adopted,
and arrangements were made for obtaining an act
from the Legislature of Pennsylvania changing the
name of the Convention to " The American Baptist
Missionary Union," and also for procuring an act
of incorporation in the State of Massachusetts under
the same title. At an adjourned meeting of the
Convention held in Brooklyn, N. Y., May 19, 1846,
the Acting Board reported that these measures had
70

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 71

been secured, and the Convention adopted the fol-
lowing resohitions :

Resolved, That this Convention do now accept the Act
of Incorporation granted by the Legislature of Pennsyl-
vania, March 13, 1846, entitled "An Act changing the
name of the Association known as ' The General Con-
vention of the Baptist Denomination in the United
States for Foreign Missions and other important objects
relating to the Kedeemer's kingdom,' to that of 'The
American Baptist Missionary Union,' and for altering
and amending the charter of the same," and that the
same be recorded on the records of the Convention.

Resolved, That this Convention do now accept an Act
of the Legislature of the Commonwealth of Massa-
chusetts, passed March 25, 1846, entitled "An Act to
authorize the General Convention of the Baptist Denom-
ination in the United States for Foreign Missions and
other important objects relating to the Redeemer's
kingdom, to take and use the name of 'The American
Baptist Missionary Union,' and to define more clearly
the purpose, rights, and powers of the said Corporation,"
and that the same be recorded on the records of the
Convention.

The Convention then adjourned to meet on the
following Thursday, May 21, for organization under
the new constitution and name, when the following
preamble and resolution were adopted :

Whereas, In pursuance of the recommendation of the
committee on legal questions in their report accepted by
the General Convention at its evening session, on Thurs-
day, November 20, 1845, in the city of New York, cer-
tain resolutions in said report, numbered five and six,

72 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

were adopted by said Convention ; and Whereas, Such
resolutions predicate that a certain constitution at such
time conditionally adopted, and a certain organization
and election of managers then conditionally made,
should become unconditional and definitive on the pro-
cural of certain legislative acts ; and, further, Said reso-
lutions provide for a transfer in such case of all books,
records, property, rights, interests, and duties, from said
Triennial Convention to the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union ; and Whereas, Such legislative acts have, by
the blessing of Divine Providence, been i)rocured ; there-
fore,

Resolved, That in as far as such transfer may be now
necessary, the transfer be and hereby is made, to the full
extent recoinniended in such fifth and sixth resolutions ;
that the constitution adopted conditionally, be and here-
by is adopted unconditionally and definitively ; that the
election then made conditionally be now regarded as un-
conditional, and the persons so elected take office from
this time.

Undismayed by the loss of the sympathy and help
of their brethren in the South the Baptists of the
Northern States took up the work of foreign mis-
sions with renewed energy and zeal. The receipts
of the society advanced from eighty-two thousand
three hundred and two dollars and ninety-five cents
in 1845, to one hundred thousand two hundred and
nineteen dollars and ninety-four cents in 1846, and
continued to average more than fifteen thousand
dollars in excess of the last years of united action
until in 1851 they reached the sum of one hundred
and eighteen thousand seven hundred and twenty-

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 73

six dollars and thirty-five cents, and thereafter never
fell below one hundred thousand dollars, except in
1857, the year of the greatest financial depression
this country has ever known, and in 1861 and 1862,
the opening years of the Civil War. When the for-
eign mission activity of the Southern Baptist Board
is considered also, it will be seen that the separation
of the Baptists of this country, however much to be
deplored in other respects, acted as an incentive
rather than a check to their missionary efforts.

Much of the credit for the large receipts of the
Missionary Convention under its new name, the
American Baptist Missionary Union, must be ac-
corded to Edward Bright, D. d., the corresponding
secretary for the Home Department from 1846 to
1855. Appreciating the vast responsibility which
the Baptists of the Northern States had assumed in
undertaking practically the entire support of the
foreign missionary work as already established, he
perceived the necessity of more systematic and reg-
ular methods of increasing the interest and gather-
ing funds than had hitherto prevailed. Up to this
time the natural response of the Baptists of America
to the impulse of obedience to the last command of
the Saviour, " Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature," had been sufficient to
supply and sometimes run beyond the needs of the
missions. Doctor Bright understood clearly that the
partial impulse of enthusiasm aroused by the new
sense of responsibility thrown upon the Baptists of

74 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

the North would not be sufficient to carry on and
enlarge the missions as their increasing needs would
demand. He therefore applied himself vigorously
to the inauguration of systematic plans of benefi-
cence and thorough arrangements for the conduct
of the home work of the Missionary Union. His
papers presented at the annual meetings of the
Union indicated wise and prudent foresight and a
clear understanding of the fundamental principles
of Christian benevolence. These papers are still
classics on the subject of the development of mis-
sionary interest and giving among the home churches,
and the methods which he inaugurated and the prin-
ciples upon which they were founded have had an
abiding influence upon the home work of the Union
which continues even to the present time.

Previous to the withdrawal of the Southern Bap-
tists from the General Missionary Convention, a
movement had started in Burma which was des-
tined to have a profound and lasting influence not
only upon the future of the missionary work in that
country, but upon Christian missionary operations
throughout the world. In the itinerancy of mission-
aries and native preachers from Rangoon through-
out the Bassein district an extraordinary interest
in Christianity had been aroused, and a leading
native chief having become a convert had also
become a leader and inspirer of his people in the
movement toward Christianity. Rev. Elisha L.
Abbott had been first designated to the Telugu mis-

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 75

sion in India, but was assigned to the Karen mission
while on the voyage out with Doctor Malcom and
his company. He entered into this movement with
great vigor. As usual in such cases, the Burman
Government, Avhich had viewed with comparative
indifference the small beginnings of the mission,
now became roused as hundreds of the Karens
turned toward Christianity, and it instituted most
vigorous measures for the suppression of this new
movement, which to the ignorant Burman officials
seemed to threaten the overthrow not only of
their religion, but even of their political i)ower.
Hundreds of the Karens were imprisoned, killed,
and driven from their homes, and the measures
against the preaching of the gospel by the mission-
aries and native preachers were so vigorously en-
forced that it was found impossible to carry on
direct missionary work in the district. Under these
circumstances Mr. Abbott arranged to meet some of
the leaders of the Karens in Sandoway, in the Ara-
kan district, which was under the rule of the British
Government. To him here came not only the
leaders, but many thousands of the Karen Christians,
with others who were inquiring the M^ay of life.
As many as two thousand were baptized in a single
year, and the movement became not merely an im-
migration of a small scattered body of disciples, but
the migration of a people driven from the Burman
dominions into the province of Arakan. The entire
depopulation of the Bassein district was threatened,

76 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

and at last the Burman officials, finding themselves
defeated, and alarmed at the prospect of the loss of
so many thousands of their subjects, abandoned their
persecution and permitted the converts to return
and dwell in peace at their homes. Under these
more fiivorable conditions the movement toward
Christianity still continued with power, and the
headquarters of the mission were removed from San-
doway, in Arakan, to Bassein, in 1852. This became
the center of and gave the name to the great Bassein
Sgaw-Karen Mission, which has always stood first
among the missions in Burma in numbers and in
self-support. As early in the history of the mission
as 1849, the native preachers adopted a resolution
that they would not receive any further money
from America, and this rule has prevailed in the
mission to the present day. So that the Bassein Ka-
ren mission not only became the foremost mission
in self-support, but its influence has gone abroad
and been felt upon every mission field throughout
the world, and has been to the present day the
chief illustration and example of the possibility and
benefit of self-support, self-direction, and self-prop-
agation in Christian missions. Mr, Abbott was
succeeded in the mission by Rev. John S. Beecher,
Rev. Henry L, Van Meter, Rev. Chapin H. Car-
penter, and others fully in sympathy with the prin-
ciples early prevailing in the mission, and under
the leadership of these and other men these methods
and principles have continued to the pi'esent time.

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 77

The enlargement of missionary operations in
Burma had for some time indicated tlie propriety
of some common methods in the missionary work,
and this great necessity was accentuated by the
result of the second Burman war, by which, on De-
cember 20, 1852, the whole province of Pegu, com-
prising the larger part of lower Burma was declared
a portion of British territories in the East. By
this event the largest and most populous territory
in lower Burma was thrown open to missionary
operations, and the executive committee of the Union
at once appropriated fifteen thousand dollars for en-
larged operations. For consultation with the mis-
sionaries in regard to the enlargement, and also to
attempt to settle certain questions which had been
under consideration for some years, a deputation
consisting of Solomon Peck, d. d., the corresponding
secretary of the Missionary Union for the Foreign
Department, and James N. Granger, d. d., of Provi-
dence, R. I., sailed from America in October, 1852.
To meet the deputation a general convention of all
the missionaries in Burma met in Moulmein, April
4, 1853, and continued its sessions for six weeks.
All the conditions of missionary labor in Burma
were fully considered, and the measures adopted at
this convention have had a profound and decisive
influence upon missionary operations in that country.
As a result of these deliberations three new stations,
Henzada, Toungoo, and Shwegyin, were opened in
1853, followed by the establishment of a station at

78 AMERICAN BAPTIST AflSSIONS

Prome in 1854, and one at Thongze in 1855. By
this advance movement the newly opened territory
was fully occupied, as far as centers of influence
were concerned, and no further stations were opened
in Burma for a period of twenty-one years. The
policy of centralization, which had begun to prevail
in the mission, was thoroughly broken up by this
distribution of the missionary force among the old
and new stations, and while some of the decisions of
the convention, especially in regard to schools, have
necessarily been modified by the results of experi-
ence, yet this convention must be considered as one
of the most important and influential events in the
history of the Baptist missions in Burma.

Under the stress of the commercial depression of
1857, the income of the Missionary Union was re-
duced to ninety-seven thousand eight hundred and
eight dollars and seventy-seven cents, as given in
the Annual Report for 1858, and only two years
passed before the country was plunged into the ex-
citement and distraction which culminated in the
dreadful Civil War of 1861-18G5. In common
with all charitable and religious enterprises, except
those connected with the war, the Missionary Union
suffered greatly in the loss of income and inte*'-
est. The energies of the people of the whole United
States were directed to the prosecution of the strug-
gle between the North and the South in a contest
unparalleled in the vast expenditures of money and
of life. The funds and the sympathies of the

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION 79

c'liaritable were largely absorbed in support of the
Christian and the Sanitary Commissions, for the
care and comfort of the soldiers, and the income of
the Missionary Union dropped to a lower figure
than it had touched since 1845, being only eighty-
four thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars
and ninety-three cents in 1861, and eighty-five
thousand one hundred and ninety-two dollars and
twenty-six cents in 1862. It is not surprising to
find that on none of the mission fields was there
any notable advance during these years of financial
dearth. However, the receipts of the society rap-
idly recovered to one hundred and three thousand
nine hundred and fifty-six dollars and ninety-six
cents in 1863 and rose in 1865 to the highest
mark attained in its history, one hundred and
fifty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-five
dollars. Since that time the growth of the in-
come of the society has been rapid and steady, pass-
ing two hundred thousand dollars in 1870, three
hundred thousand dollars in 1882, four hundred
thousand dollars in 1890, and reaching a normal
annual average of above five hundred thousand
dollars previous to 1900. Under the stimulus
of this large and liberal support and by the
blessing of the Lord, the missions of the society
on all the fields have experienced a like rapid
growth, and although standing the eighth among
the large missionary societies of the world, in the
amount of its annual receipts and expenditures, the

80 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

American Baptist Missionary Union has long been
first in the number of Christians in the churches on
its mission fields, and its work has been blessed
with surprising success, as will be related in connec-
tion with accounts of Baptist missions in the various
countries of the world. In 1910 the name of the
society was changed to "The American Baptist
Foreign Mission Society."

CHAPTER VIII

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY

IT is deeply significant to note that as the foreign
missionary movement had been the source of
the first general denominational society among the
Baptists of the United States and of the establish-
ment of the first educational institution looking to
all the Baptists of the country for support, so the
leaders in foreign missions were among the first to
assist in founding the second national Baptist so-
ciety. The first two names signed to the call for a
meeting to form " The Baptist General Tract So-
ciety," were William Staughton, the corresponding-
secretary, and Luther Rice, the general agent of the
Baptist Missionary Convention. This meeting was
held at the house of Mr. George Wood, in the city
of Washington, D. C, February 25, 1824, and re-
sulted in the organization of a society under the
above name " for the publication and distribution of
evangelical tracts." Mr. AVood was chosen the first
agent, and the depository was in the office of " The
Columbian Star," first in charge of Mr. John S.
Meehan, and later of Mr. Baron Stow, then a stu-
dent in Columbian College and afterward widely
known as pastor in Boston, Mass., and as a member

f 81

82 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

of the executive committee of the Missionary Union
for many years. The society at once received a
cordial welcome from the denomination. Its receipts
for the first year were three hundred and seventy-
three dollars and eighty cents, and in the first ten
months of its existence eighty-five thousand copies
of nineteen tracts were printed and distributed.
The next year the receipts were doubled and the
number of auxiliai'ies increased to seventy-one. In
order to avail itself of larger facilities for printing,
the society was removed in December, 1826, to the
city of Philadelphia, where it has since remained,
the name being changed in 1840 to "The American
Baptist Publication and Sunday-school Society."
For the sake of brevity the words " and Sunday-
school " were afterward dropped without a change
in the purposes of the society, and later as the Bible
work of the whole denomination in the United States
came into its hands the title was made to read, "The
American Baptist Publication and Bible Society."
This addition was also shortly cancelled, and the
title remains as at the head of this chapter.

Although the chief objects of the Society were the
publication and circulation of religious, and espe-
cially of Baptist, literature in the United States, it has
throughout its entire history afforded large and gen-
erous aid to Baptist missions in other lands. In
1832 an appropriation was made to print tracts in
the Burmese language for use in the missionary
work in Burma, and another for supplying Christian

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 83

literature to the Negro Baptist missionaries in Li-
beria. In 1838, among the special objects which
the society had in view were the republication of
the life of Ann H. Judson, the publication and dis-
tribution of tracts in Germany, and the raising of a
fund of ten tiiousand dollars for the publication of
Christian literature for China. These objects were
not immediately attained, but they indicate the
breadth and extent of the ideas of the management.
The year 1847 was especially marked by the exten-
sion of the work of the society abroad, grants of
money and of Christian literature being recorded to
twelve foreign fields — Canada, France, Africa, China,
Burma, the West Indies, Germany, Denmark, Swe-
den, Assam, Greece, and South America. In Ger-
many the aid of the American Baptist Publication
Society had been especially useful. Tracts furnished
by the society had a large influence in confirming
and establishing the great founder of the German
Baptist mission in his views, and the grants of tracts
made to him were freely and eifectively used in
spreading the knowledge of Baptist principles and
practices throughout the German States of central
Europe. After the death of Doctor Oncken and in
a special emergency in the German mission, his suc-
cessor, Philip Bickel, D. D., was sent out and sus-
tained for six years by the society. The formation
and prosperity of the German Baptist Publication
Society is due in no small degree to the example, aid,
and inspiration of the American society.

84 AMEUICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Other countries of the continent of Europe also
felt the helpful and uplifting influence of the society.
In Sweden especially was its work fundamental and
important. On reading some of the Baptist litera-
ture scattered broadcast throughout central and
northern Europe by Doctor Oncken, Rev. Andreas
Wiberg, a minister of the Lutheran Church in Swe-
den, was led to adopt Baptist views. His applica-
tion to the American Baptist Missionary Union for
appointment as a missionary was declined, and in
1855 Mr. Wiberg was appointed a missionary col-
porter by the Publication Society. This change
seemed to be providential. In Sweden, preaching
not in accord with the teachings of the State Lu-
theran Church was at that time forbidden, but the
l)ress was free. As a missionary pastor or evangelist
Mr. Wiberg would have encountered the ban of the
law, but as a missionary colporter and translator he
was technically within his legal rights. A large
work was done by him for the sjn-ead of Baptist
views in Sweden, second only to the phenomenal
labors of Doctor Oncken in the German States, and
when the Swedish mission was turned over to the
Missionary Union in 1866 it could report after only
eleven years of labor, one hundred and seventy-six
churches, with six thousand six hundred and six
members. From 1882 to 1885 the Publication So-
ciety supported Rev. Jonas Stadling as a missionary
in Sweden. By this aid Baptist publication work
in Sweden was established on a firm basis.

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 85

As the literature sent out from Germany liacl been
the means of opening the way for Baptist missionary
work in Swetlen, so the influence of Swedish J^aptist
literature passed over into the sister State of Nor-
way, a country which also felt the eflects of the Bap-
tist movement in Denmark, being thus the meeting-
])lace of two currents of truth which harmoniously
blended into one. In 1900 the American society
undertook to do for the Baptist cause in Norway
what it had already done for the missions in Ger-
many and Sweden. A Publication Society's secre-
tary is to be supported until the Baptists of Norway
are well established in publication work and able to
assume its entire support. From 1872 to 1877 Rev.
W. C. Van Meter was supported by the American
Baptist Publication Society as a Sunday-school and
evangelistic missionary in Rome, Italy. Large
amounts of Christian literature have been supplied
to the Baptist missions in France and Spain, and
whenever opportunity has offered the Society has
not been wanting in willingness to assist Baptist
work in Europe along its special lines.

Somewhat aside from its usual methods was the
mission in Turkey, sustained through the Publica-
tion Society from 1883 to 1891. For several years
previous to the opening of this work great pressure
had been brought to bear on the American Baptist
Missionary Union to open a mission among the
Armenians of Turkey in Asia. Several Armenian
ministers, formerly connected with missions of other

86 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

denominations, had visited America and been re-
ceived into Baptist clmrches in New York City and
elsewhere, and there was a desire on the part of
many to send them back as missionaries to their
own people. As the Missionary Union did not see
its way clear to open a new mission in Turkey, the
Publication Society agreed to become the medium
through which those wishing to support these mis-
sionaries in Turkey could transmit funds, but as-
sumed no responsibility beyond the amounts contrib-
uted specially for this purpose. Five missionaries
Avere thus maintained for several years until in
1891 the mission, interest in which had been de-
clining from various causes, was discontinued. In
other foreign fields, however, the society has been
an efficient and active helper to the missionary
work. The aid of the society was a large factor in
founding and encouraging the Telugu Baptist Pub-
lication Society in India.

Grants of Bibles, of literature, and of money
have been numerous on nearly all the mission fields
where Avork is carried on by the Missionary Union ;
and since the great Bible Convention of 1883, by
special agreement between the Union and the Pub-
lication Society, the latter has become the chief
agency in the collection of funds for Bible work
from Baptists in America, sharing a proportion of
the receipts of the annual '' Bible Day " with the
Union, and also Avith the Foreign Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Com-ention. From time

AMERICAN BAPTIST I'UBLICATION SOCIETY 87

to time also grants are made from the general funds
of the society.'

Oolporters have been supported in Mexico, which
has also been visited by one of the six "chapel
cars," which carry on so useful and successful a
work under the auspices of the Publication Society.
Rev. A. J. Diaz, at first connected with the Home
Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention,
during the war between Spain and the United
States, in 1898, labored in Mexico, and after the
close of the war returned to Cuba and labored for
a time under the direction of the Publication So-
ciety. This Society has been and must continue to
be the chief supplier of Bibles and Christian litera-
ture to Baptist missionaries in these latest conquests
of the United States, as well as in Mexico and the
home States.

1 See " Bible Societies and American Baptists," Bitting, Amer-
ican Baptist Publication Society.

CHAPTER IX

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY

THE influence of the foreign missionary move-
ment on the development of Baptist interests
at home was seen in the formation of the American
Baptist Home Mission Society. While the General
Missionary Convention itself was formed by the
union of a large number of local missionary socie-
ties, some of which Avcre engaged in carrying on
home mission work, and while the Convention took
up work among the Indians and attempted other
home mission work as well as educational work in
this country, it was soon found that the entire ener-
gies of the Convention were needed for the main-
tenance and enlargement of the foreign mission
Avork. Therefore its educational work was placed
upon an independent basis and the missionary work
in this country Avas more and more committed to
local societies. A growing conviction was felt
among the Baptists of America as to the need of en-
larged mission work at home, and this Avas crystal-
lized by the visit of Jonathan Going, d. d., of Wor-
cester, Mass., to the West. On his representations
to the Massachusetts Missionary Society steps Avere
taken toAvard a united and enlarged effort for domes-

88

AMERICAN BAPTIST HOME MISSION SOCIETY 89

tic missions. The deputation appointed to consult
with the New York Baptist Missionary Convention
consisted of Daniel Sharp, D. D., pastor of the Charles
Street Church, Boston, a prominent member of the
Foreign Mission Board, Lucius Bolles, D. D., cor-
responding secretary of the Foreign Mission Board,
and Jonathan Going, D, D. Their representation
met with a cordial response from the New York
brethren and a provisional committee was formed,
which resulted in the calling of a general meeting
in the Mulberry Street Church in 1832, for the
formation of the American Baptist Home Mission
Society.

It is interesting to note that this meeting was
appointed during the meeting of the General Mis-
sionary Convention, and that Convention gave up
one of its sessions for the formation of the Home
Mission Society. The first president of the Home
Mission Society was the Hon. Heman Lincoln, of
Boston, chairman of the Executive Board of the
Foreign Mission Union for many years.

At this first meeting it Avas proposed that the
work of the society should be limited to the United
States, but finally the Home Mission Society adopted
as its field North America, and since that time
its motto has been, "North America for Christ."
However, the limits of the United States furnished
an ample field for its labors in all the early years
of its history. As early as 1836 the attention of
the society was called to Texas and Mexico as com-

90 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

ing fields for missionary effort, Texas being then an
independent republic, and anticipations of work on
these fields were cherished by the society. It was
not, however, until 1862 that missionary Avork in
Mexico was inaugurated. As the result of the con-
version of Mr. Thomas M. Westrup, a young mer-
chant of Monterey, and the active efforts of Rev.
James M. Hickey, of Matamoras, the First Baptist
Church of Monterey was organized January 30,
1864, being the first Baptist church established in
Mexico. Obstacles were encountered in persecution
from the Catholic authorities and from other sources,
and Mr. Westrup was not appointed a missionary
of the society until 1870. Before Mr. Westrup
left Mexico, however, in 1869, there were six con-
gregations with about one hundred and twenty
members. On account of the lack of funds and
heavy responsibilities in the limits of the United
States the society discontinued its appropriations in
1876, but resumed them in 1881 by the reappoint-
ment of Mr. Westrup as a missionary at Monterey,
and soon after the principal headquarters of the
mission were established in the city of Mexico, the
capital of the republic.

CHAPTER X

THE AMERICAN BAPTIST FREE MISSION SOCIETY

THE American Baptist Free Mission Society was
a result of tlie agitation regarding the subject
of slavery, which besran in 1840. There was formed
in the year 1843 by some Baptists who were dis-
satisfied with the attitude of the Managing Board of
the General Convention, " The American and
Foreign Missionary Society," on the basis of the
following principles :

A separation from all connection with the known
avails of slavery in the support of its benevolent pur-
poses, the sovereignty of all the churclies over their own
missionary organizations and the representative character
of the latter, the rejection of titles of distinction in the
ministrj'^, such as "Doctor of Divinity," and an uncom-
promising opposition to all oath-bound, secret brother-
hoods, as being thoroughly opposed to the genius of
Christianity and the republican government.

Later the name was changed to " The American
Baptist Free Mission Society," and in consequence
of certain differences of opinion between the exec-
utive committee of the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union and its missionaries, the further principle
was added to the platform of the Free Mission

91

92 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Society, " That Christian missionaries are the serv-
ants of Christ and not of man/' the society an-
nouncing itself to be only a channel through which
the churches might conveniently do their appro-
priate work of evangelization. " The American
Baptist" was established as the organ of the society
upon the above principles, the first editor being
Rev. Wareham Walker. Rev. Albert L. Post, of
Montrose, Pa., was for many years president of the
society and a leader in its affairs throughout its
entire history. Missions were maintained for a few
years in Hayti, in the West India Islands, and in
Africa, but its most important work outside of the
United States was in connection with the missions
in Burma.

Some of the decisions of the convention held in
Moulmein, in 1853, in connection with the visit of
the deputation from America, were not agreed to by
several of the most important missionaries in Burma ;
especially from the restrictions which were placed
upon the establishment and conduct of the school
work, they felt obliged to dissent. As the decisions
of the convention and deputation were upheld by
the executive committee of the Missionary Union,
these missionaries, with the missions conducted by
them, withdrew from connection with the Mission-
ary Union. This division continued for seventeen
years in the case of the Rangoon Sgaw-Karen mis-
sion, and for thirteen years as to the Bassein Sgaw-
Karen mission. During this interval the missionaries

AMERICAN BAPTIST FREE MISSION SOCIETY 93

conducting these missions were sustained by contribu-
tions of the natives, assisted by independent contri-
butions from this country, the American contributions
being sent to Burma chiefly througli the agency of
the American Baptist Free Mission Society.

Rev. Nathan Brown, missionary of the Union in
Assam, had sympathized with the missionaries of
the Rangoon and Bassein missions in their attitude,
and on his return to America, in 1855, felt obliged
to resign his connection with the society. Becom-
ing acquainted with the Free Mission Society he
found its principles to be in accord with his own
views, and in 1859 became editor of its organ,
"The American Baptist," and also the correspond-
ing secretary of the society, a position which he
occupied until 1872. This society had the honor
of establishing the first Baptist mission work in
Japan by the appointment as missionary of Rev.
Jonathan Goble, who had visited that country as a
seaman in the fleet under the command of Commo-
dore Perry. The society supported Messrs. Brown
and Goble for several years, but in 1872 all causes
of differences which had led to the formation of the
Free Mission Society having passed away, the work
of that society was transferred to the American
Baptist Missionary Union, and Mr. Brown and j\Ir.
Goble were appointed as its missionaries. The
Japan mission at that time was the only work
carried on under tlie auspices of the Free Mission
Society, and by the oUer of the Japan mission to

94 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

the American Baptist Missionary Union, and its
acceptance by that society and the appointment of
its only missionaries as missionaries of the Union,
the termination of the work of the American Baptist
Free Mission Society came about, which by this
action transferred all its salaried officials and all its
rights to the American Baptist Missionary Union.
A. nominal corporate existence was continued for the
purpose of h(jlding beCj[uests and funds which must
otherwise have been lost, but the last annual meet-
ing, being the thirty-second anniversary, was held
in Franklin Hall, Jersey City, June 12, 1875,
Rev. John Duer, being corresponding secretary and
William Howe, Esq., 77 Baldwin Avenue, Jersey
City, N. J., treasurer. The organization and ex-
istence of the American Baptist Free Mission So-
ciety, like that of the American and Foreign Bible
Society and the American Bible Union, thus became
a historical waymark of the existence of certain con-
troversies among the members of the Baptist denom-
ination, which passed away with the lapse of time
and in a clearer light, a better understanding, and
perhaps a larger liberty among the members of the
denomination.

CHAPTER XI

woman's baptist missionary societies

HEATHENISM hears heaviest on woman. The
ignorance, the superstition, the physical deg-
radation, and the spiritual darkness which are the
accompaniment of all forms of paganism, woman
shares equally with man; but in every heathen land
she is Aveighed down with an additional social deg-
radation which makes her lot vastly more full of
anguish and terror than is the portion of her hus-
band and brotliers. Heathenism is everywhere a
religion of force and fear. Might is the only right,
and in the struggle for existence woman as the
weaker sex bears the heaviest burdens. There is
no form of heathenism, however some of its pre-
cepts may be exalted by would-be admirers from
Christian lands, which suggests anything substantial
in alleviation of the lot of woman. In at least one
of its features, the cardinal principle of Hinduism,
explained by the Brahman as"t]ie sacrcducss of the
cow and degradation of woman," is common to all
heathenism. Christianity is the only religion which
exalts woman to her true position as the equal asso-
ciate and helpmeet of man.

It was the increasing recognition of these truths

95

96 AMKRICAX BAPTIST MISSIONS

which led to the formation of the first woman's mis-
sionary societies. In all the earlier years of our
Baptist foreign missions the women in the churches
were among the most anient and efficient workers
and contributors to the enterprise. In many churches
the work of the collection of funds had been largely
left to them. There came a time, however, when
many of the most earnest and devoted friends of
missions among the women of the churches felt
pressing upon them more heavily the special and
urgent needs of their sisters in heathen lands. The
sentiment gradually crystallized until it I'esulted in
the formation of separate foreign missionary soci-
eties for women. Not that it was proposed that the
w^omen of the churches should separate themselves
from the general societies, but it was hoped that by
separate organization, while still continuing their
efforts and gifts on behalf of the general work,
special funds might be raised for woman's work for
women in heathen lands, without encroaching upon
the income of the general societies. This sentiment
led to the formation, in 1871, of the Woman's Bap-
tist Foreign Missionary Society, with headquarters
in Boston, and The Woman's Baptist Foreign Mis-
sionary Society of the West, with headquarters in
Chicago. It was not at any time proposed that
these societies should be entirely independent of the
American Baptist Missionary Union, but that they
were to be auxiliary, and while the missionaries to
be supported by the woman's societies were to be

WOMAN^S BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETIES 9^

selected and recommended, and tlie funds they should
gather designated by them, the appointment of the
missionaries was to rest with the executive committee
of the Missionary Union, and all the funds of the
woman's societies, with the exception of those for
home expenses, were to pass through the treasury of
the Union and be disbursed as the gifts of the women
had been heretofore.

As a movement among women, the formation of
these societies has been a great success, both societies
having had a large growth and been very success-
ful in the raising of funds. While it cannot be
said that they have wholly avoided diversion of
moneys from the general funds of the Missionary
Union, it is still undoubtedly true that the special
efforts of the woman's societies have largely increased
the contributions of the women in our churches for
foreign missions over the natural increase that might
have been expected without these agencies. The
increase of the funds of the woman's societies has
been in larger proportion than that of the general
funds of the Missionary Union, and as their funds
have been devoted especially to school and evangel-
istic work among women it has been thought to
have led to a disproportionate increase of these
branches of mission work in contrast with the gen-
eral evangelistic work of the missions. In later
years a larger proportion of the funds of women has
been designated to general work, so aiding directly
the principal feature of the missionary enterprise.

98 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

The success of the woman's societies with head-
quarters in Boston and Cliicago, led to the formation
of the Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society
of California, in 1875, and the Woman's Baptist
Foreign Missionary Society of Oregon, in 1878, for
similar work among the women of the Baptist
churches on the Pacific coast. Recognizing the pos-
sibility of undue development of school and evan-
gelistic work among women the society of California
took the new departure of assuming the full support
of a missionary and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. J. H.
Scott, in Osaka, Japan. This suggestive initiative
has had an influence upon the other woman's soci-
eties. Woman's foreign missionary societies have
also been organized in Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Ohio, and other States, but they are entirely sub-
sidiary to the other societies — that in Pennsylvania
to the society with headquarters in Boston, and those
in Michigan, Ohio, and the Western States to the
Woman's Society of the West. The fields of the
four woman's societies, organized as auxiliary to the
American Baptist Missionary Union, are entirely
conterminous with those of the Union itself. Each
society has the privilege of taking up work in any
of the fields of the Union, and of engaging in any
portion of the work which may commend itself
especially to the managers of the societies. The
Boston and Chicago societies are carrying on work
in all the fields on which the missionaries of the
Union are engaged, while the society of California

woman's baptist missionary societies 99

has hitherto limited its efforts to Japan. The Ore-
gon society has had missionaries in India.

Stimnlated by the action of these sisters in the
Northern States the Baptist women of the Sonth
began to be inspired by a desire for more aggressive
and independent action on behalf of missions. In
their organization, however, they were able to learn
lessons of value from the experience of the Northern
societies, and owing somewhat also to the closer and
more vital church life of the Baptist churches in the
Southern States the Woman's Missionary Union, or-
ganized in 1888 as auxiliary to the Southern Bap-
tist Convention, is more strictly identified with and
subordinate to the Convention, and their relations
to the general society are more intimate than those
of the woman's societies in tlie Northern States with
the Missionary Union. While having a special in-
terest, of course, in the evangelization of women in
heathen lands, the Woman's Missionary Union aux-
iliary to the Southern Baptist Convention in its
constitution defines its purpose to be :

1. To distribute missionary information and stimulate
effort, through State Central Committees, where they
exist ; and, where they do not, to encourage the organ-
ization of new societies.

2. To secure tlie earnest, systematic co-operation of
women and children in collecting and raising money for
missions.

It will thus be seen that the women of the
Southern Baptist churches limit their special and

100 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

separate endeavors to the spread of missionary in-
formation and interest among the churches, and that
the funds raised by them are wholly and without
special designation devoted to the general purposes
of the work of the Mission Boards.

All these societies, as well as the Women's Home
Mission Societies hereafter named, hold their inde-
pendent annual meetings and have a full organiza-
tion and a full complement of officers.

Inspired by the same general impulses there was
formed in 1877 the Women's Baptist Home Mission
Society, having its headquarters in Chicago. In this
case, however, the organization is entirely independ-
ent of the general missionary societies of the Baptist
churches, while working on the same general lines
and for the same purposes. This society has estab-
lished a Missionary Training School in Chicago,
where women missionaries are trained for both home
and foreign missionary work. Naturally its chief
work has been within the limits of the United
States, but aside from this it has maintained mis-
sionaries in Mexico since 1886, and has already in-
augurated missionary effort for the more lately
opened missionary fields of Porto Rico and Cuba.

In the same year the Women's American Baptist
Home Mission Society, with headquarters in Boston,
was organized for work in needy fields in North
America. This society, however, is auxiliary to the
American Baptist Home Mission Society, through
the treasury of which all its funds are disbursed,
with the exception of the expenditures for Alaska,

woman's baptist missionary societies 101

official salaries, and for some miscellaneous work. In
addition to educational work for girls in the South
and other mission work, this society has taken as its
special field, missionary work in Alaska, where it has
assumed the full support of missionary families for
general evangelistic work. It has also established
an excellent Avork on Wood Island in an orphan-
age for the children of the Indians. This has at-
tracted great interest and has commended itself, not
only because of the needy field which it occupies,
but by the usefulness of its work, which embraces
not only Christian education for the children but
training in many features of industrial work.

While, as above stated, it cannot be claimed that
the woman's societies have entirely avoided encroach-
ment on the fields and funds of the general societies,
this has not been due to the intention or efforts of
the management of the societies, but to certain nat-
ural and inevitable tendencies connected with any
special or partially disconnected work, and they have
unquestionably made good their claim to a large in-
crease of missionary interest and effort among the
women of our churches all over the land.

In 1910 the "Woman's American Baptist Home
Mission Society," with headquarters in Boston,
Mass., united with the " Woman's Baptist Home
Mission Society," having its headquarters in Chi-
cago, the latter society then taking the name of the
former, the "Woman's American Baptist Home
Mission Society." A branch office of the society
is still maintained in Boston.

CHAPTER XII

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA

BURMA, the earliest, and for many years the
only, foreign mission field of American Bap-
tists, has always retained a peculiar hold upon the
interest and affections of the Baptist churches of
this country. While beginnings of missions had
been made in Siam, China, Assam, and Southern
India, previous to the formation of the Southern
Baptist Convention in 1845 and the consequent
division of the missionary work of the Baptists of
the United States, yet these beginnings were so small
as not to have obtained a firm grasp upon the interest
of the people at that time, and Burma was then, and
continues to be, in a peculiar sense, the well beloved
mission child of all the Baptists of this country.
North and South. The nature of the country and
its peoples furnishes a just basis for the deep and
abiding interest which has been felt in missions in
that country. Although now but one of the prov-
inces of the British Empire in India, when Baptist
missions were begun in Burma by Adoniram and
Ann Hasseltine Judson, in 1813, it was entirely
under the rule of a savage king, and their enter-
prise was the first attack made by Christian mis-

102

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 103

sionaries on the native kingdoms of the East, Carey
and his companions were located in the Danish set-
tlement in Serampore, and Swartz and others of the
earliest missionaries in India had also been under
the protection of civilized governments. The pecu-
liarly heroic character of the assault of the Judsons
on the notoriously savage and cruel native kingdom
of Burma, was recognized by their missionary asso-
ciates in India and made a deep impression upon
the whole Christian world.

AVhen American Baptists began their foreign
missions in Burma, it was then as now a country
of extraordinary fertility and productiveness. Great
progress, whether commercial or Christian, was im-
possible under native rule. But the successive con-
quests of the English and the annexation to their
dominions of Arakan and Tenasserim in 1826, of
Pegu in 1854, and of all Upper Burma in 1885,
have gradually opened the entire country to civil-
ization, commerce, and the free and uninterrupted
labors of Christian missions, and Burma is to-day
recognized as the most prosperous and most prom-
ising province of British India. Wages are more
than three times as high as in the peninsula of
Hindustan across the bay of Bengal, and the inter-
nal resources of Burma are increasing with remarka-
ble rapidity. Although the population numbers
but little more than eight millions, and from this
point of view it might seem to offer only a minor
field for missionary effort, yet the variety of races

104 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

and languages represented, numbering as many
as forty-seven, and their relations to the peo-
ples of the surrounding countries, India, Assam,
China, Tonking, and Siam, vastly enlarge the
importance of Burma as a field for Christian mis-
sions. The additional fact that it is also the strong-
hold of Buddhism, as well as the residence of many
animistic tribes, makes Burma the religious key to
southeastern Asia.

In this extraordinarily and exceptionally attractive
country Baptists have from the first found an ample
and encouraging field for missionary effort, and they
have cultivated it Avith such assiduity that the num-
ber of Christian missionaries in proportion to popu-
lation has always been greater in Burma than in
any other foreign mission field, and the success of
the Baptist mission has been so great as to lead
other religious bodies to leave this field largely to
the Baptists. In recent years a few missionaries of
the English Wesleyan and American Methodists
have located at some points in Burma, and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, repre-
senting the High Church element of the Church of
England, has sustained missionaries there, but aside
from these the entire responsibility for giving the gos-
pel to Burma has devolved upon American Baptists.

Just previous to the separation of American Bap-
tists into two foreign missionary organizations in
1845, the labors of Judson and his associates, alluded
to in the earlier chapters of this volume, had begun

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 105

to bear abundant fruit. The work of Rev. Justus
H. Vinton among the Karens of Rangoon district
had been greatly blessed. During the prevalence
of a famine, Mr. Vinton, after distributing all the
rice in his storehouses, had pledged his personal
credit to the rice merchants for a large quantity,
aud freely distributed it, not only among the starving
Christians, but among the heathen who applied.
As afterward among the Telugus at Ongole, this
action paved the way for the gospel. Mr. Vinton
in his tours among the people was everywhere wel-
comed as " the man who saved our lives," and the
gospel which he preached was freely received by
those whose hearts had been opened by gratitude
for material blessings. Hundreds were baptized,
and the Rangoon Karen mission, the headquarters
of which were then located on the premises which
they still occupy in the Kemendine district of Ran-
goon City, was started on that career of prosperity
which continued in succeeding years, and which
placed the mission second in numbers in Burma.
The remarkable religious interest among the Karens
in Southwestern Burma, first centered at Sandoway
across the mountains in Arakan, had grown in num-
bers and in self-reliance, so that in 1849 the Karen
pastors of Bassein, where the headquarters of the
mission had then been located, resolved to relin-
quish all assistance from mission funds and to rely
wholly upon their churches for support. In 1850
a Karen Home Mission Societv was formed in

106 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Bassein, and in 1854 a similar society among the
Karens of Rangoon, for missionary work among
their own people, these being, it is believed, the
first two societies of the kind ever formed in heathen
lands. The practice of entire self-snpport, then
inaugurated by the Bassein Karens, has prevailed
in that mission to the present day, and the work at
the same time has experienced large spiritual pros-
perity, so that it stands first in point of numbers
among the missions in Burma, and has been an
illustrious example of self-support, self-management,
and liberality to Christian missions in all heathen
lands. On May 16, 1878, fifty years after the
baptism of the first Karen convert, Kothahbyu,
the Bassein Karens dedicated the Kothahbyu Me-
morial Hall for the use of the Sgaw-Karen Normal
and Industrial Institute. The cost of this building
was twenty-two thousand dollars, and for the build-
ing and its endowment the Bassein Karens raised at
that time more than thirty-one thousand dollars, a
record seldom if ever equalled by any Christian
community in heathen lands. The Rangoon Karens,
with the assistance of English residents of Rangoon
and friends in America and England, also erected a
fine chapel called " Franc's Chapel," — from the fact
that the first gift to the chapel was a five franc
piece from a poor woman, — which furnished accom-
modations for their school and religious worship on
the mission compound in Rangoon.

With the rapid increase in the number of con-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 107

verts, the pressing importance of education, and es-
pecially of training religions leaders for the people,
was early pressed upon the attention of the mission-
aries. In 1838 a Burman theological school was
started by Edward A. Stevens, D. D., which after
his death was continued by A. T. Rose, d. d., and
later incorporated as the Burman department of the
theological seminary at Insein. The Karen Liter-
ary and Theological Institution was organized in
1846, in Moulmein, by J. G. Binney, d. d., and was
afterward removed to Rangoon as the Karen Theo-
logical Seminary, and later to Insein, nine miles
from Rangoon, where the scope of the seminary was
enlarged in 1894 to include the training not only
of Karens, but Burmans, as above noted, and of
Christian preachers and pastors for all the races of
Burma. The Rangoon Baptist College, for the
higher education of young men of all races in Burma,
was begun in 1872 by Doctor Binney, who also con-
tinued at the same time to be the president of the
theological seminary. Associated with him in the
early work of the college were John Packer, D. D.,
afterward for many years president of the college,
and Rev. Chapin H. Carpenter, who, however, soon
removed to the care of the Karen work in Bassein,
with which his labors in Burma were principally
identified.

Connected with the removal of Mr. Carpenter to
Bassein was the first use of the Atlantic cable for
Baptist mission purposes. Rev. B. C. Thomas had

108 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

been compelled to leave Bassein, where he had worn
himself out in the service of the mission, and had
died in New York City but one day after reaching
America. The question of the leadership of the great
Bassein Sgaw-Karen mission was pending, and the
executive committee of the Missionary Union con-
sidered the matter at a special meeting held Oct.
26, 1867, and sent this message by cable to the
Missionary Convention assembled in Rangoon :
''Carpenter transferred to Bassein, and Smith to
Rangoon." The message was delivered in three
days after leaving Boston and produced a profound
impression on the missionaries in Burma. It was
recognized as the beginning of a new era in the con-
duct of missionary work. When four months were
required for the quickest communication between
the missionaries and the official headquarters of the
Union, even the most important questions were de-
layed in settlement oftentimes to the serious injury
of the work. Now that the time of question and
answer was reduced to a few days, as later to a few
hours, a new ease and facility in the adjustment of
all missionary questions was afforded.

An important feature of the missionary Avork in
Burma in all its stages has been the printing press,
which, starting from the small hand press used by
Felix Carey, and afterward given by the Serampore
mission to the American Baptist mission for the use
of Rev. George H. Hough, the associate of Judson,
has increased to the large establishment now known

AMERICAN BAFl'IST MISSIONS IN BURMA 109

as the American Baptist Mission Press in Rangoon.
From the Baptist Mission Press in Burma four
complete editions of the Bible have been issued.
The Burman Bible, translated by Adonirani Judson,
was put to press in Moulmein in 1840 by Rev. S.
M. Osgood, afterward agent of the Missionary Union
in New York City. He also printed there a second
edition of the same work. The Tavoy and Moul-
mein presses were afterward united and removed to
Rangoon, where they have remained to the present
day. Here was printed in 1853 the translation of
the Bible in Sgaw-Karen made by Rev. Francis
Mason, the translation of the Bible into Pwo-Karen
by Rev. D. L. Bray ton in 1883, and the Shan Bible
by J. N. Gushing, D. D., in 1891. Many editions
of the New Testament and portions of Scripture
in these languages have also been issued from the
mission press, as well as portions of Scripture in
four or more additional languages and dialects of
Burma. " The Religious Herald," a Burman paper
started in 1842, and "The Morning Star," in
Karen, begun in 1843, have been issued from this
press continuously from the beginning, as well as
millions of tracts and many Christian books for the
use of the growing Christian community in Burma.
It is the only printing press in the world which has
facilities for printing in several languages used by
many millions of people. The name longest connected
with the press is that of Rev. Cephas Bennett, who re-
tired in 1881, after fifty years' service as superinten-

110 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

dent. Pie was succeeded by Mr. Frank D. Phinney,
under whose efficient management the work of the
press has been greatly enlarged, employing in 1900
about one hundred and thirty persons in all depart-
ments. Lately a fine building has been erected.

By the conclusions of the Moulmein Convention^
held in connection with the deputation from the
Missionary Union in 1853, the Karen missionaries
felt themselves to be aggrieved, and Rev. Justus
H. Vinton, Rev. Durlin L. Brayton, Rev. Norman
Harris, and Rev. John S. Beecher, as well as Rev.
A. T. Rose, of the Burman Department, resigned
their connection with the Missionary Union. The
separation continued in the case of the Bassein
Karen mission for thirteen years, and of the Ran-
goon Karen mission for seventeen years. During
these years the missionary work was carried on
without interruption on both these fields, the mission-
aries and various departments of the work being
supported by the contributions of the Karens, by
the liberal contributions of the English residents of
Rangoon, who in the year 1857 gave as much as
sixteen thousand and thirty-nine rupees, and by re-
mittances from friends in England. American con-
tributions for the missions were forwarded, as has
been stated, through the American Baptist Free
Mission Society, the secretary of Avhich, Nathan
Brown, d. d., sympathized with the missionaries
and the reasons which led them to withdraw from
the Missionary Union. The misunderstandings

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 111

which led to the separation having passed away, the
Bassein mission was reunited with the Union and
the other mission work in Burma in 1867, and the
Rangoon Karen mission in 1871, and the mission-
aries cordially resumed their connection with the
society and their co-operation with the other brethren
in Burma. The points of difference were especially
in regard to the establishment and conduct of local
schools and the measure of individual liberty which
was to be accorded to the missionaries. In the
light of clearer understanding of the needs and best
methods of missionary work all differences on these
points have been removed.

In 1855 there were nine Baptist mission stations
in Burma : Rangoon, Moulmein, Tavoy, Bassein,
Henzada, Toungoo, Shwegyin, Prome, and Thongze,
all of which except the first four had been opened
since 1853, in consequence of the deliberations of
the Moulmein Convention. From this time for
twenty-one years no new mission stations were
opened in Burma ; but with the centers already es-
tablished large progress continued to be made, es-
pecially in the Rangoon, Bassein, Henzada, and
Toungoo Karen missions, which continued to be
the strongest and most prosperous departments of
labor in the Burman missions, the Rangoon and
Bassein missions having two departments, the Sgaw-
Karen and Pwo-Karen, while the two tribes of
Karens in the Henzada district remained in union
in their Christian work. At Toungoo two princijjal

112 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

divisions exist, that among the Paku and the Bwe-
Karens. The Sgaw and the Pwo are the principal
tribes of the Karens, being about equally divided
in number, the Pwos being more nearly allied in
habits and custom to the Burmans, while the Sgaw-
Karens are more primitive in their manners, less
affected by Buddhism, and have received the gospel
more largely than any other division of the Karen
people or any other race in Burma.

During the years previous to 1876 the missionary
work was strengthening and extending on all the
fields in Burma preparatory to a rapidity of expan-
sion similar to that which had been experienced in
1853, 1854, and 1855. In 1876 two stations were
opened, at Tharrawaddi among the Karens and at
Zigon among the Burmans, and the next year a
mission w^as begun by J. N. Gushing, D. D., at
Bhamo, eight hundred miles north of Rangoon, in
Upper Burma, with the design of reaching the
Shans and tribes on the borders of Western China.
For several years the Bhamo mission had a check-
ered history, having a rapid succession of mission-
aries; at one time the city was taken by marauding
bands of Chinese robbers and the missionaries were
compelled wholly to retire from the field. With the
capture of Upper Burma by the English in 1885,
the mission in Bhamo w^as permanently re-estab-
lished, and there the missionaries have continued
their labors among the Burmans, the Shans, and the
Kachius, with peculiar success among the last-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 113

named people. The war between the English and
Thebaw, the last king of Burma, was brought on
by the interference of the king with the operations
of the British-Burma Lumber Company, whose
business he had agreed to foster and protect. As
in the previous wars with the English, the Burmans
entered upon this contest with perfect confidence in
their speedy success ; but their army was defeated
at the first assault, and in December, 1885, Manda-
lay, the capital, was captured with King Thebaw and
his cruel and bloodthirsty queen, Soopayalat. The
victory over the Burman army was an easy task for
the British, but the pacification of the country
proved far more difficult. The Burman soldiers
formed themselves into bands of marauders, or da-
coits, and hiding in the depths of jungle fastnesses,
by sudden raids, robberies, and murder, kept the
whole country in turmoil and fear. British soldiers,
even though natives of India, found it impossible to
follow these bands to their hiding-places, and made
little progress in bringing them into subjection even
after gaining the victory, having the same experience
as the American army operating in later years under
similar conditions in the Philippine Islands. These
circumstances afforded opportunity for one of the
most remarkable displays of the political benefits
of Christian missions which history has supplied.
Moved by distrust, the English government had de-
creed that no native of Burma should be allowed to
carry arms. After a time some of the missionaries

H

114 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

obtained permission for the Karens in their churches
to keep firearms to protect their villages from the
dacoits, the missionaries becoming responsible for
the good conduct of their converts. Tiiese Karens
pursued the robber bands to their secret retreats in
the jungle, captured their leaders and dispersed the
bands of dacoits with such success that the govern-
ment itself at once established a force of Karen
military police, largely composed of Christians, and
by this body was eifected in a few months what the
British army had vainly striven to accomplish —
the complete pacification of Burma. For this serv-
ice the government gave the Christian Karens and
their leaders the warmest praise.

For convenience, the headquarters of the Ran-
goon Pwo Karen mission were removed to Maubin
in 1879, the extension of facilities for travel having
rendered possible residence in the jungle among the
people. In 1886 the dream of Judson, the pioneer
of American Baptist missions in Burma, was re-
alized by the permanent establishment of a mission
station in Mandalay, the capital of Upper Burma.
This field included the sites of Ava and Oungpenla
(Aungbinle), where Judson suffered his terrible im-
prisonment. It is the chief city of Upper Burma
and exercises an important influence upon the whole
territory. The next year was signalized by the
opening of three new missionary stations, one at
Thayetmyo, on the Irawadi river, near the boundary
of Upper Burma, one at Myingyan, one hundred

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 115

miles south of Mandalay, and another at Pegu, forty
miles northeast of Rangoon, on the railroad running
from Rangoon to Mandalay by the way of Toungoo.
The succeeding year, 1888, was marked by the
opening of two mission stations, one at Sagaing, on
the west side of the Irawadi, fifteen miles below
Mandalay, and opposite Ava, the scene of Judson's
imprisonment, which is now included in the field of
this station. An interesting event of this year also
was the opening of a mission station at Sandoway,
the sanitarium of Arakan, and in the earlier years
of the mission the headquarters of the Bassein Sgaw-
Karen mission. The new station, however, is for
work among the Burmans and the Southern Chins,
the northern being reached from Thayetmyo. The
next year, 1889, also witnessed the opening of two
stations, one at Insein, nine miles north of Rangoon,
where the Baptist theological seminary -was then lo-
cated, and one at Meiktila, the military sanitarium
of Upper Burma, between Toungoo and Mandalay.
INIissiou work among the Shans had hitherto been
carried on only among the scattered communities of
this people found in Lower Burma and in Bhamo ;
but with the complete pacification of the country
under English rule the time had come to establish
stations in the Shan territory of the eastern part of
Burma, and one was opened at Hsipaw (Thibaw), in
1890, by Rev. M. B, Kirkpatrick, m. d., and another
at Mongnai (Mone), in 1892, by A. H. Henderson,
M. D. The next year another Shan station was

116 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

opened by Rev. AV. W. Cochrane at Nainkhani in
Upper Burma, about twenty-five miles soutlieast of"
Bhamo, in a beautiful valley and within one mile
of the boundary line of China. Myitkyina, north
of Bhamo, opened in 1894 for missionary work
among the Kachins, is the most northern station
in Burma, and this and the new station among
the Chins, opened in 1899 by Rev. A. E. Car-
son, near the highway between Burma and Assam
marks a large advance in the complete occupation
of Burma by the Baptist missions and the nearer
approach to the project cherished in the early days
of the mission, when there should be a complete
union between the missions in Burma and Assam.

While the earlier missionary efforts in Burma
were confined to labors for the Burmans and the
principal tribes of the Karens, — the Sgaw and the
Pwo, — in later years they have been extended until
they included special and distinctive labors for all
of the forty-seven tribes and peoples represented in
the limits of Burma who are sufficiently numerous
to be mentioned in the British census of India, the
latest mission to be established being work among
the Chinese immig-rants and traders and laborers
in the city of Rangoon. These extended and com-
prehensive labors of the Baptists for the peoples of
Burma have so preoccupied the field that with the
immense territories in other heathen lands still
awaiting Christian labors there would seem to be no
peculiar or pressing opening for the labors of repre-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 117

sentativcs of other bodies for the polyglot and mul-
tifarious peoples of Burma.

The Baptist missions in Burma have been blessed
with a fruitfulness which can only be compared
with the extraordinary fertility of its own productive
soil. In 1900 the members of Baptist churches
numbered about thirty-five hundred Burmaus, and
thirty-five thousand Karens, with a total church-
membership of all races approaching fifty thousand,
and representing a Christian population of half a
million, occupying the most strategic and influential
territory of southeastern Asia. From their success-
ful missions in Burma as a fulcrum, American Bap-
tists have facilities already provided for reaching
out in eveiy direction to the varied peoples and
tongues of all surrounding countries.

From the earliest years of their history the missions
in Burma have called for the services of some of the
ablest representatives of the Baptist ministry in this
country, and oftentimes the sacrifice of precious
lives. Adoniram Judson, the founder of the mis-
sions, died at sea, April 12, 1850, when three days
out on a voyage from Rangoon ; and many others of
his companions and his successors in labors have
passed to their reward after long years of useful
service for Christ in Burma. The earliest youthful
martyrs to the missions, Wheelock and Colraan,
have also had their successors, who, after but a few
months or years, having scarcely entered upon mis-
sionary service for the people of Burma, have been

118 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

called to withdraw their strong and youthful liands
from the plow to join the praises of the redeemed
in the heavenly country. The mission to the Shans
has been peculiarly afflicted in this respect, no less
than three young and promising missionaries, Rev.
Edwin D. Kelley, Rev. Albert J. Lyon, aiid Rev.
Bennet J. Mix, being lost to the mission within a
few years, when just on the threshold of their work ;
and the number of those who have passed from earth
to heaven after service for Christ in Burma com-
prises an honored roll of heroic spirits, of whom we
can now think as rejoicing in the presence of the
Lord with the multitudes of Burmans, Karens, Shans,
and representatives of other peoples of Burma, re-
deemed from idolatry and sin and gathered as ripe
sheaves in the harvest of heaven. As one by one
these have passed on before, others like them in
mind and in spirit have been raised up to enter upon
their labors.

Among these are many whose fathers and mothers
gave their lives for the people of Burma. The " Bap-
tist Missionary Magazine" for January, 1900, gives
a list of seventeen of these honored sons and daugh-
ters of venerated parents, who have entered most
usefully upon the fields and services of their fore-
bears— in some instances to the second generation.
There is not only peculiar appropriateness in the
children following in the footsteps of their fathers
in missionary labors, but many practical advantages.
Few natives of America can ever acquire an Eastern

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 119

tongue so as to speak it with the same facility as a
native of these countries. Correct grammatical un-
derstanding of a language may be obtained and
ability to preach the gospel with clearness, and pos-
sibly Avith some force, but few, if any missionaries,
natives of the West, have ever been able to preach
the gospel of Christ in any Eastern tongue with
genuine fluency and eloquence. Children of mis-
sionaries, however, born in an Eastern land, and
having acquired some facility in pronunciation of
the languages while young, even though they may
have spent years of residence in America for educa-
tion, on their return to Asia soon acquire an enviable
facility in the use of the native dialects. Men like
J. B. Vinton, Edward O. Stevens, and Willis F.
Thomas have peculiar advantages in missionary
work for the people among whom they were born,
both in facility in speech and in familiarity with
the customs, sentiments, and habits of the people.

Baptist missions in Burma among all races have
been advancing with a sure and steady progress
from year to year. On no other field of American
Baptist missions has there been gained so much de-
velopment in all the elements of Christian and
church life as understood among the churches in
America. Self-support has become the rule in by far
the larger number of the fields of Burma. In the re-
port of the American Baptist Missionary Union for
1900, of the six hundred and eighty-five churches in
Burma no less than four hundred and eighty-two were

120 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

entirely self-supporting, and this satisfactory indica-
tion of genuine strength and growth of the churches
of Burma is rapidly increasing from year to year.
This self-support is supplemented by an encour-
aging degree of self-dependence and self-manage-
ment, Avhich has found expression not only in the
local Associations established on the plan of Bap-
tist Associations in America, but in the Burman
Baptist Missionary Convention, organized in 3865.
This Convention, aside from its usual offices as rep-
resenting all Baptist interests in Burma, is carry-
ing on independent missions at its own cost, having
maintained for several years missionaries to the
Karens in Northern Siam, as the Bassein Karens
have sustained several representatives of their own
among the Kachins in the region of Bhamo, Upper
Burma.

This large development of all the substantial
features of Christian life and growth has made neces-
sary increased efforts for the training of leaders for
the Baptists in Burma in their important and grow-
ing enterprises. Rangoon Baptist College has in-
creased to an attendance of more than five hundred
in all the departments. The theological seminary
at Insein is the largest in Asia, and has grown in
numbers and usefulness, sending out yearly Burmans,
Karens, Slians, and representatives of other races,
in numbers, who become qualified and successful
leaders of their own people in the work of the
Lord. In short, in all the elements of an estab-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN BURMA 121

lished Christian community, the Baptists in Burma
have achieved marked success and a satisfactory
growth, and stand with the Sandwich Islands and
a few other of the island groups in the Pacific
Ocean, as the only representatives of fields in
which foreign missions have shown a near approach
to the ultimate object of all missionary work, the
establishment of an indigenous, self-supporting, self-
managing and self-propagating Christianity.

CHAPTER XIII

BAPTIST MISSION WORK IN ASSAM

A SSAM, tlie most northeastern province of Brit-
-^-*- ish India, is a territory that is marked l)y a
large variety and peculiarity of conditions. While
the area as ordinarily computed is named at forty-
nine thousand square miles, the limits of the coun-
try are indefinite. The central part of Assam for
the whole length is occupied by the fertile Brahma-
putra Valley, while both the Himalaya Mountains
on the north and the ranges of mountains intervening
between Assam and Burma on the south, offer great
changes of climate and homes for a large number
of wild tribes. In its population of five million
and a half are found almost as great a variety of
races as in Burma ; but the whole population may
be roughly divided between the Hindu Assamese of
the Brahmaputra Valley and the animistic tribes
occupying the hills to the north and south. In ad-
dition to these there are coming an increasing popu-
lation of immigrants from Chota Nagpur and other
provinces of Central India, who labor in the tea
gardens. Baptist missionary work in Assam has
found its field of operations among these three divi-
sions of people, the greatest success being among

122

BAPTIST MISSION WORK IN ASSAM 123

the animistic peojale and tlie immigrants, or labor-
ers in the tea gardens.

Sadiya, the first station occupied in Assam, was
in the extreme northeastern portion of the country.
This station was soon abandoned on account of the
turbulence of the people, whose fierceness was be-
yond the control of the English authorities. Before
its abandonment, howev'er, it became the scene
of one of the tragedies of our Baptist foreign mis-
sions. In 1837 Rev. Jacob Thomas was sent as a
missionary to reinforce the laborers at Sadiya. He
made the journey by vessel from America to Cal-
cutta in safety, and the long journey by land and
river across Bengal and the length of the Brahmapu-
tra, until within a few miles of Sadiya. The voyage
of the missionary party up the Brahmaputra was made
in canoes, and after his long and perilous journey,
just before arriving at his destination, while the
canoe was tied to the bank preparatory to rest for
the night, a tree from a part of the bank which had
been undermined by the floods, falling across the
canoe, crushed Mr. Thomas, and this young and
promising life was ended when just entering upon
missionary labor.

After the abandonment of Sadiya, Sibsagor, to
the southwest, opened in 1841, Nowgong, still
farther to the southwest, opened the same year, and
Gauhati, still nearer Bengal, opened in 1843, con-
tinued to be the centers of missionary work in
Assam for a period of thirty-three years, with the

124 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

exception of Goalpara, opened as a station for work
among the Garos in 18(37. This long period, with-
out any sensible expansion of the work, is a true
index of the character of the early missionary labors
in the Brahmaputra Valley. The Hinduized As-
samese are bigoted in the extreme, and although a
large amount of persistent and devoted labor has
been given to their salvation, even at the present
day but a comparatively small number have been
won to the gospel of Christ. If it had been only
among the Assamese that our missionaries labored,
Assam would have been abandoned as a mission
field long ago. In 1842 was establislied by Rev.
Miles Bronson the Nowgong Orphan Institution, in
which a considerable number of preachers and other
laborers among the Assamese were trained, and which
has furnished nearly all the leading native laborers
among the missions to the Assamese to the present
day. Rev. Nathan Brown translated the New Tes-
tament into Assamese, and others various books of
the Old Testament, but the completion of the Bible
was assigned to Rev. A. K. Gurney, who went to
Assam in 1875 for this special work. In 1889,
after twenty-four years devoted to this service, the
translation and revision of the Old Testament and
also the revision of the New were declared completed
and ready for publication. Dr. Miles Bronson was
the author of an Assamese Dictionary, which re-
mains a useful monument to his long-continued and
faithful labors for the Assamese.

BAPTIST MISSION WORK IN ASSAM 125

As already intimated, the most promi,sing fields
for missions in Assam have been found amono; the
animistic tribes on the hills and the laborers in the
tea gardens. The first of these tribes to feel the in-
fluence of the truth in a decided manner was the
Garos, in the southwestern portion of Assam. These
were reached from Goalpara, and the first converts
showed a marked independence and energy in
evangelistic labors for their fellow-tribesmen. So
much interest was excited that in 1878 Rev. Marcus
C. Mason and Rev. E. G. Phillips decided to re-
move the headquarters of the Garo mission from
Goalpara to the English government station on the
Garo Hills, at Tura. This movement proved wise
and the cause of great prosperity in the Garo mis-
sion. Messrs, Mason and Phillips Avere class com-
panions in their studies in college and in the theo-
logical seminary. They married sisters in Hamil-
ton, N. Y., and throughout their missionary life
have labored in the same fellowship and unity which
marked their earlier years. Under their leadership
the Garo mission, with headquarters at Tura, has
made remarkable progress and proved to be one of
the most aggressive, self-reliant, prosperous, and
promising missions of the American Baptist Mis-
sionary Union, reporting in 1900 more than four
thousand church-members. This mission, however,
is not more noted for its prosperity and increase in
the number of converts than for the independence
and self-reliance of the Garo Christians. They

126 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

have their Associations, organized on the plan of
the Baptist Associations in America, which are con-
ducted wholly by the natives, missionaries being;
present simply for interest and occasional advice.
They not only maintain their own churches, but the
Associations have their own missionaries who labor
among their own people, and they are also sending
out gospel laborers to adjoining tribes. Tura itself
is a model of what a central missionary station
should be, having its schools of various grades, with
industrial features, and a training school for native
workers, which supplies the virile and vigorous
Garo churches with preachers and teachers.

Next in prosperity after the Garo mission comes
that to the immigrant laborers in the tea gardens of
Assam. Tea culture in Assam is in a high state of
development, the teas of Assam being the choicest
in the world, and this commercial enterprise in the
Brahmaputra Valley is rapidly extending. The
successful extension of this business calls for a large
number of new laborers, who are brought in from
the central provinces of India, principally from
Chota Nagpur. These people in their early homes
have become somewhat familiar with Christianity
from the missionaries of the Gossner Society, of Ger-
many, and being little affected by Hinduism, and
having a religion similar in its nature to that of
the animistic tribes in the hills of Assam, they
proved ready and willing hearers of the gospel
and have been received into the churches in

BAPTIST MISSION WORK IN ASSAM 127

large numbers. The Gologliat station, the most
recently opened field among them, received one
hundred and seven members into the church in
the first year of its existence, 1898 ; hundreds
also have been baptized in connection with the mis-
sion at Sibsagor by Rev. C. E. Petrick, and the
work at North Lakhinipur, on the north side of the
river, under Rev. John Firth, and among the same
people, is rapidly extending.

The successful work among the large and power-
ful Naga tribes in the southern hills of Assam was
inaugurated bv Rev. E. W. Clark, who in 1875 re-
solved to abandon the comparatively fruitless work
among the Assamese and devote himself especially
to work for the Naga tribes. Mr. and Mrs. Clark,
with remarkable heroism, established themselves at
Molung in 1876, far in advance of the farthest out-
posts of the British government and among a com-
paratively wild and uncivilized and presumably
savage people. They were, however, received with
cordiality, and with one or two exceptions have been
exposed to little peril from their savage surround-
ings. Their long and persistent labors have been
rewarded by the conversion to Christianity of almost
the entire people of the village of Molung, where
there is now the largest and most prosperous church
in the Naga mission. For various reasons the head-
quarters of the mission were removed a few years
ago to Impur, where a training school for native
Nagas was opened by Rev. S. A. Perrine in 1898.

128 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

A station among the Nagas was also opened, in 1881,
at Kohiiua, the headquarters of the English govern-
ment among the Angami Nagas, and later, in 1896,
a station among the Tangkul Nagas was founded by
Rev. William Pettigrew at Ukrul, Manipur. Both
Kohima and Ukrul are on or near the high road
between Assam and Burma, Ukrul being only about
one hundred and lifty miles north of the most re-
cently opened station at Haka, among the Chins of
northwestern Burma. The establishment of these
stations points to an early and intimate union of the
Baptist mission work in Burma and Assam.

The success of the work among the Garos, Nagas,
and other animistic tribes of the hills, encouraged
the establishment of missionary work among other
tribes of this same class of people. Rev. Penn E.
Moore, brother of Rev. Pitt H. Moore, long the
leading missionary in the work for the Assamese in
Nowgong, with Rev. J. M. Carvell, established a
work among the Mikirs to the south of Nowgong,
about 1895. Tiie Garo Baptist churches are send-
ing missionaries to a neighboring tribe called the
Rabhas, for whom the old Garo station at Goalpara
has recently been reopened by Rev. A. E. Stephen.
The Garos have also sent a missionary to labor
among the tribes to the north of the Brahmaputra.
From past experience and present success mission-
ary labor in Assam will be directed chiefly to these
simple animistic tribes, who are more ready to re-
ceive the gospel than the bigoted Hindu Assamese.

BAPTIST MISSION WOKK IN ASSAM 129

An extremely interesting development of later
missionary work in Assam appeared in the opening
of a mission station in Dibrugarh, in the extreme
northeast of Assam, as a center for work on the same
field occupied by the first missionaries, who chose
Sadiya as their headquarters. The British govern-
ment has now established itself so that labors in this
region are pursued with entire safety, and the
growth of the tea industry and mining operations
and the development of oil wells in this region
has made it one of the most prosperous in Assam,
in a commercial sense, and one of the most interest-
ing for missionary work. The reoccupation of north-
eastern Assam also brings toward an early realiza-
tion the dream of the first missionaries in Assam,
that the Brahmaputra Valley might prove a highway
for the gospel of Christ to Western China and
Tibet. Both of these territories are within com-
paratively easy reach of the latest opened missionary
station at Dibrugarh.

Owing partially to the diversity of interests rep-
resented in the missions, but more to the slow prog-
ress of the work in its earlier years, the literary,
educational, and church development of the missions
in Assam has far from equaled that accomplished
in the missions in Burma during the same length of
time. Aside from Dr. Bronson's Dictionary, the
translation of the Bible already referred to, and a
hymn book in Assamese, the missions in the Brah-
maputra Valley have accomplished little along

130 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

literary or educational lines. A paper in Assamese,
called the " Orunodoi," started in 1846 for the
benefit of the native Christians, was discontinued
after a number of years. In the Garo mission, how-
ever, more advancement in literature can be re-
corded. The " Achini Ripeng," or " Garo Friend,"
founded by Messrs. Mason and Phillips, in 1876,
the year of removal to Tura, has continued, and
has been a source of great helpfulness in the mis-
sionary work and in the enlargement of the intelli-
gence and activity of the Garo Christians. The
church life among the Garo Christians is also dis-
tinctly in advance in independence and self-reliance
as well as self-support, of the older churches of the
valley. The schools in the Garo Christian villages
are entirely independent of mission support, and
furnish, with the central boarding and training
schools at Tura, a complete course of education and
training for the teachers and preachers needed in
the Garo mission. The recently rapidly growing
churches among the Nagas also have shown great
independence, liberality, and self-reliance — qualities
in which the churches among the tea-garden labor-
ers are yet lacking, although these are advancing
rapidly in point of numbers. According to the
common opinion of the missionaries in all depart-
ments of the work in Assam, the great need of the
missions is a central training or biblical school for
preparing pastors and leaders for the Christian
churches of all races within the limits of Assam.

BAPTIST MISSION WORK IN ASSAM 131

The rapid increase iu numbers in the tea-garden
churches in the valley, tlie Garo churches, and
the Naga churches on the hills, point to this central
educational institution as an imperative necessity.
By the prosperity of the missions among the Garos,
the Nagas, and the tea-garden laborers, in recent
years, the character of the missions in Assam has
been transformed, and the years of discouragement
changed into a future bright with hope.

CHAPTER XIV

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA

THE American Baptist mission among the Telu-
gus of Southern India is universally regarded
as one of the miracles of modern missions. Its his-
tory is a story of the most striking contrasts and
the greatest successes. The story of the mission
may be divided into three periods. First, the long
years of faithful labor with little fruit, from the
beginning of the mission in 1836, when Nellore
was the only station — the " Lone Star " of the
Telugu mission. Second, the gradual growtli of
the mission, from the establishment of Ongole,
tlie second station, in 1866, to December 31, 1876,
when there were four thousand three hundred and
ninety-four converts ; and third, the era of Pente-
costal blessings following the great ingathering after
the famine of 1877 and continuing to the famine
of 1900.

The founding of the work among the Telugus is
one of the romantic stories of our missionary history.
After the death of the Rev. James Colman, of Ar-
akan, referred to in the earlier chapters of this vol-
ume, Mrs. Colman spent some years in Calcutta
as a teacher and in religious work, and was after-

132

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN .SOUTHERN INDIA 133

ward married to Rev. Amos Sutton, a missionary of
the English Baptist mission in Orissa. In 1835
Mr. and Mrs. Sutton were on a visit to her relatives
in America, and Mr. Sutton took occasion to be
present at the meeting of the Baptist General Mis-
sionary Convention held in Richmond, Virginia.
For the first time in its history the Convention found
itself with a surplus of funds in the treasury, and Mr.
Sutton's address in which he called attention to the
needs of the Telugu people to the south of Orissa
received immediate response. The next year, Rev.
Samuel S. Day went out to India and became the
founder of the American Baptist mission among the
Telugus. After a brief sojourn at Vizagapatam and
Chicacole, and a longer stay at Madras, he located
the permanent headquarters of the mission at Nel-
lore, in February, 1840, where he was joined by
Lyman Jewett, D. d., in 1848. For a long time the
Telugu people proved unresponsive to the ftuthful and
diligent labors of the missionaries. All the usual
methods of missionary work were pursued with
diligence but Avith scant success. The gospel was
faithfully preached by the missionaries and the
native helpers they had gathered about them in all
the district round about Nellore, and the evangelistic
tours extended even as far north as Ongole.

So small was the encouragement in the number
of converts gained in the mission that, in 1848, the
question of the abandonment of the Telugu mission
Avas raised at tlie annual meeting of the Union in

134 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Troy, N. Y. The feeling of opposition to the mis-
sion continued to grow until, at the annual meeting
held in Albany, N. Y., in 1853, it found deciiled
expression. At this meeting the abandonment of
the mission, or rather its transfer to the more prom-
ising field of Burma, across the bay of Bengal, was
earnestly advocated in a long discussion by many of
the ablest leaders in the denomination. It was at
this meeting that the historic phrase, the " Lone
Star," was coined as applied to Nellore, the single
station of the Telugu mission. After many argu-
ments for the transfer of the mission, one speaker,
presumed to be Edward Bright, d. d., tlien the home
secretary of the Missionary Union, pointing to the
map, declared that he would never write the letter
calling for the blotting out of the " Lone Star " on
the map of India. The name fixed itself upon the
mind of Samuel F. Smith, d.d., the author of " Amer-
ica," and in the night he penciled on some stray
sheets of paper he happened to have by him the
famous poem, " The Lone Star." The poem was
read in the meeting of the Union the next morning ;
but already the tide had turned and it was resolved
to continue the Telugu mission. The number of
converts not increasing, however, again the opposi-
tion to the mission arose at the annual meeting in
Providence, in 1862, and after discussion it was re-
solved to await the arrival of Rev. Lyman Jewett,
then on his way to America. After Doctor Jewett's
arrival, upon meeting the executive committee.

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 135

the situation was placed before him, and his reply
was, that whatever the executive committee or the
Missionary Union did, his determination was never
to abandon the Tehigus. The reply of Jonah G.
Warren, d. d., then foreign secretary of the Union,
was equally historic : " Well, Brother Jewett, if you
are resolved to return to India, we must send some
one with you to give you a Christian burial in that
heathen land." So the Telugu mission was not
only continued, but reinforced.

On the first Monday in January, 1854, was held
one of the most celebrated prayer meetings in the
history of Christian missions. It was attended by
only five persons, Doctor Jewett, Mrs. Jewett,
Christian Nursu, a native preacher, and two Chris-
tian Bible women, Julia and Ruth. The meeting
was held on top of a hill overlooking the village of
Ongole. A heathen temple adorned the slope of
the hill and below them stretched the large village,
as yet utterly given over to heathenism. Each of
the five earnestly prayed in turn for a missionary
for Ongole. Mr. Jewett's faith arose to the height
of believing that the prayers would be answered,
and pointing to a lovely and sightly spot, as yet en-
tirely overgrown with cactus, he said : " Julia,
would not that be a good place for a mission house ?"
That was the spot on which the house of the first
missionary to Ongole was situated. In April of that
same year Mr. James Wilkins was sent from Nel-
lore to take up government work in Ongole. He

136 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

chose this very spot for which prayer had been
made and built a house upon it. AVhen he was
transferred from Ongole his house passed into other
hands. In 1860, Lieutenant Lugard, a Christian
officer appointed to Ongole, took tea with Mr. Jewett
at Nellore. When he arrived at Ongole he bought
this house, and on leaving the place the next year
he notified Mr. Jewett that he could have it for
fifteen hundred rupees. Mr. Jewett borrowed five
hundred rupees to pay the cash required and wrote
to Mr. Reuben AVright, a gentleman living in the
West and an old schoolmate of Mr. Jewett's in
Worcester Academy, for help. Mr. Wright sent
the balance needed for the purchase of the house.
So the prayers offered on Prayer Meeting Hill, as
it has long been known, began to be answered. The
complete answer came in 1866.

In 1864, just as the American Baptist missions
were entering upon the second half-century of their
existence, a young man from Iowa presented him-
self to the executive committee of the American
Baptist Missionary Union as a candidate for ap-
pointment as a missionary. The impression which
he produced at first was not the most favorable.
As he was leaving the committee room after re-
lating his Christian experience and call to mis-
sionary labor, Doctor Baron Stow asked him what
he would do if the committee should not decide
to send him as a missionary to India. His modest
but firm reply, was, " Then I must find some other

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 137

way to go." The committee decided to appoint
him, and the result of this appointment was the
securing of John E. Clough to the American Bap-
tist Tehigu mission in India. There were certain
indications of special providence in the connection
of Doctor Clough with this mission. First, he was
born the same year in which the mission was estab-
lished. God raised him up at the same time that
he organized the mission, and through the long
years of its slow progress he was gradually reaching
man's estate and obtaining his preparation for mis-
sionary work. Secondly, he had some acquaintance
with civil engineering before going as a missionary,
and so was prepared to take the contract for digging
four miles of the Buckingham Canal, by which he
was enabled to save the lives of many thousands
during the great famine of 1876-1877. Thirdly, his
eminent executive abilities were such as to keep
everything in the completest order and efficiency
when the converts began to come into the mission
in such multitudes.

The story of the famine and the great ingathering
among the Telugus of the Ongole District in India
is one of the most thrilling of Christian history.
It has often been related, but even at the risk of
repetition cannot be omitted from such a work as
this. The following account was taken down from
the lips of Doctor Clough himself during one of his
visits to America :

In July, 1876, the usual southwest monsoon.

138 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

which sprouts and waters the young rice crop, failed
entirely, and also the northwest monsoon in October.
All now saw that a famine was inevitable, and word
was sent to England and America, and to every
place from which aid could be expected that unless
help was received many thousands of the people
must perish. Generous responses were received,
and the starving Telugus were carried on till the
next June when they were furnished with seed
grain, and their fields planted. But no sooner was
the young crop fairly up than a long rain came on,
and all the rice rotted in the ground. Again was
seed grain furnished for the October monsoon, and
the growing crop gave promise of a harvest when
clouds of locusts came, obscuring even the sun at
noonday and the crop was again destroyed before
the hungry eyes of the helpless people. But help
was received from every quarter, and through the
committees and sub-committees of the relief fund
food was distributed and the lives of the people
saved.

One of the measures of relief adopted by the
government was the construction of the Buckingham
Canal from Madras to a point near Ongole, which
furnished employment to thousands of Telugus and
enabled them to keep themselves and their families
from starvation. Doctor Clough took the contract
for the construction of four miles of this canal. He
sent couriers throughout all the Ongole district to
tell the people that there was plenty of work for

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 139

all, and that he would see that they were well
treated, and all who could not work should be cared
for, so the people came by thousands to his camp
on the line of the canal. The native Christian
preachers he appointed overseers in the work. Each
had his appointed number of laborers, and when they
were not at work the preacher read the Bible to
thera and taught them of the gospel. After gain-
ing a little strength and money some would return
to their homes, and others would come in their
places, so that while the camp contained perhaps
six thousand people at a time, the population was
constantly changing, and many times that number
became familiar with its blessings before the work
was finished and the famine ended. In all this
time none were received into the church, although
many applied for baptism. On Christmas morning,
1877, Doctor Clough awoke to find the mission
compound at Ongole filled with a multitude of two
thousand three hundred persons, who had come to
him to ask to be baptized, but he declined to re-
ceive them, fearing they were moved by a desire to
obtain help in their distress, rather than by a sin-
cere love for the truth.

In June, 1878, after the fourth distribution of
seed grain was planted, word was sent through all
the district that the people must care for them-
selves, the people of England and America could
do no more. And now that the Telugus could ex-
pect no more aid from him ns chairman of the re-

140 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

lief committee, Doctor Clough thought he might
begin to baptize those who were applying. He told
the preachers to give him the names of the most
important men in the villages, of heads of families,
whom they believed to be true Christians, and these
to the number of about three hundred were sum-
moned to Ongole, and after proper examination,
baptized. A few days after, about three hundred
more, having heard of the baptism of the others,
came in and, with the same preliminary care, were
received. Doctor Clough now began to see that it
would be necessary to take more adequate measures
to deal with the wonderful work which God was
evidently doing among this people. He, therefore,
sent each preacher to his field with instructions to
carefully examine all who desired baptism, and call
a limited number to meet him on a certain day at
Vilumpilly, on the banks of the Gundalacuma
River, north of Ongole, but not to let a large multi-
tude of the people come. The morning after his
arrival there, to his astonishment, Doctor Clough
found the fields about his bungalow filled with a
multitude of people who had disregarded the com-
mands of the preachers, and although still weak
from the effects of the famine, had come, many of
them, long distances to claim the privilege of put-
ting on the Lord Jesus in his appointed way. Then
was the Scripture fulfilled, " Tlie kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence and the violent take it l)y force."
Each preacher was told to gather the people from

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 141

his field about him under the shade of a particular
tamarind tree, and soon in ''God's first temples"
forty or more inquiry meetings were in progress,
superintended by the missionary passing from one
to another. July 1, the careful examinations
were all completed, and the names of those con-
sidered prepared for baptism taken down and handed
to Doctor Clough.

At Vilumpilly the government road from Ongole
to Hyderabad crosses the Gundalacuma River,
whose banks rise precipitously about twenty feet
above high water mark. The macadamized road
slopes down through the bank from about one hun-
dred and fifty yards away from the river to the bed
of the stream, which is nearly dry in the dry season.
It was now high water and the stream backed up
into the cut made for the road, with its hard and
sloping bottom forming a natural baptistery un-
surpassed for convenience and fitness. Early in the
morning the people gathered on the sides of the cut
above the road. Two preachers descended the slop-
ing bed of the road into the water, two clerks on
each side the cut called the names of the candidates
in order, and thus, first one preacher baptizing a
candidate and then the other, the holy work pro-
ceeded from six in the morning till ten in the fore-
noon. The preachers were relieved by two others
every hour, so that they might not become weary
or chilled, and thus all the six ordained native
preachers connected with the Ongole mission were

142 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

permitted to have a part iu this marvelous scene.
At two in the afternoon the baptizing was resumed,
and between five and six o'olock in the evening all
was done. Two thousand, two hundred and twenty-
two persons had been baptized in a single day, July
3, 1878, only two persons administering the ordi-
nance at one time, and all was done decently and in
order. Thus was forever disproved the argument
that it was impossible for three thousand to be im-
mersed in a day as related in the Acts of the Apos-
tles. All the circumstances being considered, it
must be confessed that this Avas the most wondrous
scene which the church of Christ has ever witnessed
since the day of Pentecost. Some of the monks and
bishops of the Middle Ages may have baptized
larger numbers in a single day, but they are not
supposed to have been genuine spiritual converts,
carefully examined before reception, as were these,
and the firmness and consistency with which these
Christians have since maintained their profession
has proved how thorough and careful was the work
of the preliminary examination.

But this was not the end. Doctor Clough called
Mr. Williams, of Ramapatam to his aid, and the one
to the West and the other to the North, they jour-
neyed with their native preachers throughout all
the Ongole field of ten thousand square miles,
preaching and baptizing, until, before the end of the
year, nine thousaud were added to the church, and
the largest Baptist church in the world was found.

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 143

not in England, America, or Germany, but in India
among the Telugus, "Hindus of the Hindus," in
that mission which less than twenty years before
the Baptists of America had well-nigh abandoned
because of its unfruitfulness.

The people of India are divided into five classes,
the Brahman, or priest, Kshatrya, or warrior,
Vaisya, or merchant, and Sudra, or farmer castes.
The fifth class is composed of those who from va-
rious reasons have no standing in the castes, and
are called in general, pariah, or out-caste people.
Each one of the castes, however, and peculiarly the
out-castes, is subdivided into almost innumerable
classes, principally according to occupations. In
India it is customary for sons to follow in the foot-
steps of their fathers in regard to trade or occupa-
tion, and so in time these distinctions come to have
the force of castes, and are insisted on with as
much strength as the divisions between the four great
and original castes of India. Nearly all the con-
verts at Ongole were from the pariahs, and almost
all from one special division of the pariah, or out-
caste people, called Madaga, who are leather
workers. It is a fact worthy of note that in the
various missions, while caste distinctions have not
been allowed to be retained by the converts, the
progress of the gospel has been chiefly along class
lines. For example, while the very large majority
of the converts of the American Baptist mission
among the Telugus has been from the Madaga

144 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

caste, an equally large proportion of the converts
in the Canadian Baptist mission among the Tel-
ugus to the north are from the Mala, or weaver
caste. This peculiarity of the extension of Chris-
tianity in India is not the result of methods of mis-
sionary work, but rather goes to show that the gos-
pel has moved along the lines of least resistance in
the various missions. Whenever it has obtained a
hold upon one class it has gained a greater number
of converts in that class, while in other missions
other castes or classes have been affected in a sim-
ilar manner.

A peculiar providence in the early history of the
mission at Ongole led to the opening of the gospel
to the Madaga people. When Mr. and Mrs. Clough
first began missionary work in Ongole, the caste
people were greatly interested and were the first to
visit the mission compound, and the most ready
hearers of the gospel. Numbers of them came
daily to be taught in the truth. After a time a few
of the out-castes also became interested in the gos-
pel. The missionaries preached to both alike. But
as the number of pariahs visiting the mission com-
pound began to increase, the prejudices of the caste
people were aroused, and after consultation a dele-
gation informed Mr. Clough that their religion
would not allow them to associate with the pariah
people, and if these were allowed to come to the
compound to listen to the gospel, they, the higher
castes, would be obliged to withdraw. This an-

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 145

noiincement brought great perplexity to tlie devoted
missionaries, for they were greatly interested in the
more intelligent and prosperous caste people, and
earnestly desired to retain their influence on the
side of the mission and of Christianity, realizing
what a power it would be if some of these high
caste people should be brought to a knowledge of
the truth. While the missionaries were in this per-
plexity, not knowing what course to pursue, it is re-
lated that Mr. Clough, in passing by a pile of Tel-
ugu New Testaments and taking the one from the
top of the pile, it seemed to open of itself to 1 Cor.
1 : 26-29: "For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble are called : but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to con-
found the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty ; and base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea,
and things which are not, to bring to nought things
that are : that no flesh should glory in his pres-
ence." This incident, which appeared to him prov-
idential, brought comfort and clearness and decision
to his perplexed mind. On consulting with Mrs.
Clough he found that her mind had also been turned
to the same passage, and their resolve was taken ;
they would preach the gospel to all who were will-
ing to hear without regard to class or condition.
The representatives of the caste people, on receiv-

K

146 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

iiig this decision, withdrew from the mission, and
even to the present day but few have been converted
to Christ, while the despised pariahs by thousands
have been received into the kingdom.

The necessity of a trained ministry for the mul-
titudes of converts whom the missionaries saw by
faith gathered into Christian churches was early
recognized, and in 1869 a mission station was
founded at Ramapatam by Kev. R, R. Williams,
with a theological school for the training of pastors
and evangelists for the Baptist Telugu mission.
Its foundations were laid broad and deep. Rama-
patam was selected as a central locality, and a large
amount of land was pre-empted which has proved
helpful and exceedingly valuable in later years.
During his visit to America in 1872 Doctor Clough
raised thirty thousand dollars for the endowment of
the Ramapatam Theological Seminary, a large part
of it being given in notes, the interest of which
was to be paid year by year. Many of these notes
have from one cause and another remained unpaid,
but the income and the amount of principal realized
has had a profound influence on the prosperity of
the seminary, which at one time stood first in num-
bers among the Baptist theological seminaries in the
world. It still retains a position of prominence,
although the prosperous years of some of our
American seminaries have caused them to surpass it
in later years. Scores of young men and women
have been sent forth from this seminary, to whose

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 147

labors the later growth aud prosperity of the Bap-
tist Telugii mission are in a large measure due.

The impulse given to the mission by the great in-
gathering of 1878 continued in the baptism of
thousands of converts year by year. This large
increase, however, brought too great responsibility
upon the missionaries stationed at the headquarters
at Ongole and led to the first subdivision of the On-
gole field in 1882, when four additional stations
were opened at Cumbum, Vinukonda, Nursarava-
petta, and Bapatla. Each of these stations was occu-
pied by an American missionary family. This di-
vision of the work led to a still further increase in
the ingathering of converts, and on Sunday, Dec. 28,
1890, was seen a repetition of the wondrous spectacle
at the Vilumpilly ford of the Gundalacuma River,
when one thousand six hundred and seventy-one
converts were baptized in the baptistery of Doctor
Clough's mission compound at Ongole. The baptism
of this large number was accomplished in all decency
and good order in four hours and twenty-five minutes,
emphasizing the lesson of July 3, 1878, and afford-
ing an additional commentary on the baptism of
three thousand on the day of Pentecost at Jerusa-
lem. Again more than ten thousand persons were
baptized within five months. The ingathering also
continued in later years. Doctor Clough on his
visit to America, in 1891-92, raised twenty-five
thousand dollars for a special reinforcement for the
Telugu mission, and in 1892-93 occurred the sec-

148 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

onJ subdivision of the original Ongole field, when
in addition to the five stations already established,
including Ongole, again four new stations were
opened, at Kanigiri, Kundakur, Podili, and Sat-
tanapalli. The first three of these stations were in
parts of the field where the Christian population
was most dense. By this additional division the
original Ongole field was divided into nine, and the
number of church-members included in these fields
reached the great total of more than forty-four
thousand, indicating the wondrous growth accom-
plished in this the original field of the Ongole mis-
sion.

Expansion in the Telugu mission, however, was
not simply confined to the Ongole field, but it
experienced large prosperity, not only at Nellore
and other stations established in the Presidency of
Madras, but extended over into the Deccan, or do-
minions of the Nizam in Hyderabad, a native ruler,
whose authority is continued under the supervision of
an English Resident. The first station to be founded
in his dominions was at Secunderabad, the English
military cantonment, a few miles north of Hyder-
abad, the Nizam's capital. This was opened by
Rev. W. W. Campbell. The second station to be
opened in the Deccan was at Hanamaconda, eighty-
six miles northeast of Secunderabad, by Rev. A.
Loughridge ; and in 1898 Nalgonda station was
opened, fifty miles to the southeast. This station has
been marked by the large assistance which it has re-

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 149

ceivcd from the Mennonite Brethren of Russia and
the United States, who are Baptists both in belief and
practice. The station was founded by Rev. Abram
Friesen, a Baptist of Russia, educated in the Baptist
theological seminary in Hamburg, Germany. He
was joined by others appointed by the Missionary
Union, but supported, as is Mr. Friesen, by the
Mennonite Brethren, who have also given largely
for the building and work of this mission. Both the
coast missions and those in the Deccan are within
the limits of the territory occupied by the Telugu
people; but in 1878 Madras was reopened as a mis-
sion station. It is outside of Telugu territory, yet
several hundred thousand of the Telugus have settled
in the vicinity of this great city as laborers, and a
large field for Telugu mission Avork is opened to the
missionaries residing at Madras. The only other
station in South India occupied by American Baptist
missionaries, outside of Telugu territory, is at Oota-
camund, the sanitarium on the Nilgiri hills.

The success of the evangelistic methods used in the
Ongole Baptist mission has revolutionized mission-
ary policy in India. In the early years of missions
in India the influence of Doctor Duff and others led
to a preponderating development on educational
lines, which in the earlier history of Indian missions
occupied the foremost place. Their influence favored
formality and a slow upbuilding of Christianity in
India. Doctor Clough, and others of the Baptist
missions, swung the pendulum toward the evangel-

150 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

istic side, and at Oiigole the masses flowed in tu-
multuous tides to the gospel of Christ. This large
development of the Ongole Mission has led to a re-
vision of missionary policy in all the other missions
in India, and resulted in a large increase in converts
in this first field of Christian foreign missions.

Yet education has been by no means neglected in
the American Baptist Telugu mission. In addition
to the theological seminary early founded at Ra-
mapatam and diligently fostered, which has been a
great means of development to the mission, even
before the great revival steps were taken toward
the establishment of a Baptist mission college. In
March, 1874, a piece of land was secured at Ongole
by Doctor Clough for the establishment of a college.
Rev. A. Loughridge was sent out as the first head
of the school, and began the work of building in
April, 1876. The first bungalow was completed in
1877, in the midst of the terrible scenes of the
famine. The school was opened, but shortly closed
again, and it was not until July, 1879, that the
Ongole High School, as it was known at that time,
was permanently reopened. The first head of the
school was Rev. W. I. Price, who soon removed to
Burma. He was followed by Mr. Edward A.
Kelley, a native of India, and later by Rev. W. R.
Manley, of America, and later by Principal L. E.
Martin, a son-in-law of Doctor Clough. The col-
legiate department was formally established in
August, 1883, when the institution was affiliated

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTHERN INDIA 151

with the University of INIadras as a second grade
college, with the privilege of teaching a full First
Arts course, the examinations being under the super-
vision of the university, and the graduates holding
rank as having received diplomas from the Madras
University. Industrial and educational work has
also received large attention at Nellore, the original
station of the mission, under David Downie, D. d.,
the successor of Lyman Jewett, and an industrial
school, for which the funds were largely raised in
1900, is projected at Ongole. The growth of the
Telugu mission in numbers was so rapid as to sur-
pass the advance in the substantial elements of Chris-
tian and church life. Greater emphasis is placed in
later years on self-support and the development of
liberality and self-propagation. Progress in these
directions was greatly retarded in the famine of
1900, the most severe which has affected India
within historical times, and in which the northern
and western portions of the Telugu field were in-
volved. Surprising progress was made, however,
when the deep poverty of the people is considered,
and the growth of the mission in the Christian graces,
as in numbers, is remarkable even in the wonderful
annals of Christian missions.

CHAPTER XV

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SIAM

THE intimate relation of Siara to the adjoining
countries of Southeastern Asia is illustrated
by the fact that the Baptist missions in Siara were
the first outgrowth of the missions in Burma and
the foundation of the missions in China. While yet
only three fields were opened in Burma the Baptist
missionaries in that country felt the call to reach
out to the needy countries about, and recommended
that Rev. John Taylor Jones, who had arrived in
Burma in 1831, should go to Siam for the purpose
of establishing a mission in that country. This he
did, reaching Bangkok March 25, 1833. The first
purpose of the mission was to preach the gospel to
the Siamese, and Doctor Jones proceeded to acquire
the language, and translated the New Testament
into Siamese in an elegant version which is justly
considered as a classic. He also prepared a large
Christian literature in Siamese, and gained the con-
fidence of the king, which has always been retained
by our missionaries in Siam. In no fields have our
Baptist missions enjoyed so much favor from the
authorities, or received so much encouragement from
the government, and it is a peculiar fact that in no

152

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SIAM 153

field have our missions experienced so little of genu-
ine success.

Although the first efforts were to preach the gospel
to the Siamese, in the providence of God the first
converts in Siam were among the Chinese laborers
who had come to Siam for purposes of employment,
three Chinese being baptized December 18, 1833,
and while there have been some conversions among
the Siamese, and a Baptist church formed of Siamese
Christians is in existence in Siam, yet as a matter of
fact by far the larger proportion of converts in Siam
has been from among the Chinese. All the early
missionaries in the Baptist missions in China served
their apprenticeship in Siam; Rev. William Dean,
who arrived at Bangkok, July 18, 1835, was the
first Baptist missionary to study the Chinese lan-
guage, and he continued to be the principal figure
in the missions in Siam for many years. Rev. J.
L. Schuck reached Bangkok in 1836, but soon re-
moved to China, first to the Portuguese colony in
Macao and later to Canton, where he became the
founder of Southern Baptist missions in China.
Rev. Josiah Goddard arrived at Bangkok Decem-
ber 16, 1840, and eight years after removed to
Shanghai, and then to Ningpo, where he established
the evangelistic work of the Eastern China Baptist
mission. Rev. William Ashmore arrived in Bang-
kok April 14, 1851, removed to Hongkong, Janu-
aiy 19, 1858, and later to Swatow, where he and his
son, William Ashmore, Jr., continued for many years

154 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

to be the leader of the Baptist mission in Southern
China. Rev. Sylvester B. Partridge and Miss
Adele M. Fielde, both prominent in the work of
the Southern China mission, began their mission
services at Bangkok, later removing to Swatow.

In 1851 a severe disaster visited the mission in
Bangkok, by which all the mission buildings were
destroyed by fire, entailing the loss of fifteen thou-
sand dollars, with the destruction of the printing
press and a large amount of printing materials, and
nearly the whole of the second edition of Doctor
Jones' Siamese New Testament, which had been
printed by Mr. John H. Chandler. The buildings
were soon restored, and being situated in a favorable
part of the city, later became of great value. Mr.
Chandler was succeeded as a missionary printer by
Rev. S. J. Smith, a native of Siam who was educated
in America, and who rendered a large service to the
government and the Siamese people by printing
Siamese books. The evidence of the favor of roy-
alty toward the mission was exhibited by the fact
that when the first Mrs. Smith died the king sent a
State carriage to the funeral as a mark of his respect.
It was also in the year 1851 that a decree of tolera-
tion was promulgated on behalf of Christianity in
Siam.

In 1869 the missionary work for the Siamese,
which had not received great encouragement, was
suspended, but a Baptist church of this people has
continued in Bangkok to the present time. The

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SIAM 155

mission to the Chinese was more favored, as many
as five hundred members being reported in the
Chinese Baptist Church in Siam at one time ; but
owing partly to the floating character of the Chinese
population in Siam and partly to the fact that many
were drawn to a confession of Christianity by the
well-known favor of the missionaries with the court,
many of those who were received into the church
proved not to be steadfast, and the number of Chris-
tians in the Chinese churches has in later years
rapidly declined.

From the earliest days of the Karen mission in
Burma it has been known that considerable num-
bers of Karens were resident in Siam, and many
attempts have been made to reach them with the
gospel. Multitudes of Karens have been found ;
but on account of the scattered locations of the
Karen villages in Siam, it has been impossible to
estimate the exact number, and the propagation of
the gospel among them has been a matter of great
difficulty. Rev. D. L. Brayton and Rev. Norman
Harris crossed the Siamese boundary in about 1850
in an effort to reach the Siamese Karens. In 1872
Rev. C. H. Carpenter and Mrs. Carpenter, on their
way to America, began their journey by an overland
trip from Moulmein to Bangkok, for the purpose of
visiting the Karens in Siam. On the formation of
the Foreign Mission Board of the maritime provinces
of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Baptists
of these provinces, who had hitherto been co-

156 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

operating with the American Baptist Missionary
Union, selected as their first field the Karens in
Siam, and Rev. Mr. Churchill and his wife spent a
year in Bangkok in efforts to reach this people.
Rev. W. F. Armstrong, Rev. Mr. Sanford, and
Miss Norris, afterward Mrs. Armstrong, also made
efforts to reach the Karens of Siam from Moulmein
and Tavoy ; but the number that they were able to
find did not encourage them in their efforts to reach
this peoj)le, and the Canadian mission was finally
removed to the northern part of the Telugu country
in India, and established in territory adjacent to the
American Baptist Telugu mission. The first con-
siderable number of converts among the Karens iu
Siam were gained by Christian Karens, teak lumber
dealers, who visited the Lakon district in the vi-
cinity of Chiengmai, and on their return interested
the Burma Baptist Missionary Convention in that
field. Native Karen preachers were sent, and the
field was visited by Rev. David Webster, of Moul-
mein, who later resided a year at Chiengmai, or, as
it is known in the Karen language, Zimm^, being
the only American Baptist missionary actually hav-
ing had a residence among the Karens in Northern
Siam. They have been visited by various mission-
aries at different times — by Rev. Walter Bushell and
Rev. J. L. Bulkley, of JNIoulmein ; by Rev. A. E.
Seagrave, of Rangoon, and Rev. W. C. Calder, of
Moulmein ; and later by Mr. Seagrave again, ac-
companied by Rev. E. N. Harris, of Shwegyin.

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SIAM 157

Three Baptist churches Avere formed in the Lakon
district, which have continued under the care of the
Burma Baptist Missionary Convention.

In later years considerable Christian interest has
been developed among the Mons, or, as they are
known in Burma, Talaings. Dr. John T. Jones
compiled a vocabulary of four thousand Talaing
words, and the gospel was preached to many of the
Talaings who were found in the country in the
general vicinity of Bangkok. In 1896 two Talaing
missionaries, a man and his wife, were sent by Ed-
ward O. Stevens, d. d., of Moulmein, the wife
having been a native of Burma, captured in youth
by robbers and carried to Siam, whence she finally
escaped and returned to Burma. She now went
back with her husband to carry to the people of
Siam the word of life. In 1897, Doctor Stevens
visited Bangkok and baptized five Talaings, also
the mother of Rev. Hans Adamsen, m. d., a native
of Siam educated in America, who was in charge of
the mission. A church of twenty-five or thirty
Talaings was organized at Sampawlerm, in the dis-
trict of Ayuthia, and the work among the Mons
appeared to be the most promising of any of the
missions in Siam.

On account of the want of success in the work
among the Siamese, and the fleeting character of the
Chinese population, the abandonment of the Baptist
mission in Siam has often been considered ; but it is
possible that the revived interest in missionary work

158 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

among the Karens in the north, and among the
Talaings in the south, may give greater encourage-
ment for a continuance of Baptist missionary work
in Siam. The American Baptist Missionary Union
still retains a valuable property in Bangkok, the
Siamese Baptist Church is self-supporting, and a
valuable property, still under the private control of
Rev. S. J. Smith, is yet in existence, ready to be
used in the interest of Baptist missionary work.

For several years the mission in Siam has been
in charge of Rev. John M. Foster, D. D., Swatow,
China, who visits Bangkok at least once a year.

CHAPTER XVI

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA

IN their work for the four Imndred milh'on popu-
lation of the vast empire of China, American
Baptists occupy seven diiferent fields, or locations,
admirably selected with reference to their strategical
importance in religious work and for decisive in-
fluence upon the Chinese people. Three of these
fields are under the care of the Foreign Mission
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and four
are cultivated by the American Baptist Missionary
Union. The Southern Baptist missions include
the South China mission, with three stations, the
chief of which is at Canton ; the Central China mis-
sion, which has four stations, the principal head-
quarters being at Shanghai ; and the North China
mission, with three stations, with headquarters at
Tengchan, in the Shantung province. For the work
of the American Baptist Missionary Union there is
the Southern China mission, with five stations, of
which the oldest and most important is Swatow, on
the coast north of Hongkong ; the Eastern China
mission, also w-ith five stations, the principal one
being at Ningpo ; the Central China mission, at Han-
yang, on the Yangtze River, one of the three great

159

IGO AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

central cities of China — Hankow, Hanyang, and
Wuchang; and the Western China mission, with
three stations, the first being at Suichaufu, on the
Yangtze River, and the latest established, Yachau,
in the extreme west of Szehuau province, not far
from the borders of Tibet. From these widely ex-
tended fields American Baptists have admirable op-
portunities for reaching and affecting the entire
population of China proper.

While the first Baptist convert in China was bap-
tized by Rev. J. L. Schuck at the Portuguese colony
of Macao, January 31, 1837, and the first Baptist
church was formed there, the second being formed in
Hongkong, Canton, the chief station of the South
China mission of the Southern Baptists is the oldest
location continuously occupied by American Baptist
missionaries in China, and has always been the cen-
ter of aggressive and expanding work. Still under
the care of this mission is the church in Hongkong.
The Canton mission has prospered not only in num-
bers and in increased influence, but in development
in every line of Christian activity. Self-support
has been largely developed among the native Chris-
tians, schools of all grades have been established,
from Sunday-schools and primary grades to an
academy and an English school, the last two, however,
being entirely self-supporting and independent of
mission funds. The chief name connected with the
Canton mission is that of Roswell H. Graves, d. d.,
eminent for literary as well as direct evangelistic

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA IGl

work, he having compiled two hymn books in
Chinese and published a book on the " Parables of
our Lord," a book of homiletics, for the training-
class for preachers under his care, a " Scriptural
Geography," and a " Life of Christ," besides the
translation of several books of the New and Old
Testaments. Associated with him, from time to time,
have been men of devotion and ability, particularly
Rev. E. Z. Simmons, who has had charge more par-
ticularly of the evangelistic work of the outstations.
In 1885—86 the Canton mission suffered much
from the hostility to foreigners incident to the war
with France. Its activities were for a time para-
lyzed, but it rapidly recovered, and while it has
suffered more than many other mission fields from
the recent anti-foreign feeling in China following
the Japanese war, the work has been continued on
its upward course with energy and success. The
Southern Baptist Convention was the first Protestant
missionary Board to hold property and gain a foot-
ing in the interior of China. In 1898, on the invi-
tation of the Canton missionaries, all Baptist mis-
sions in China were invited to send representatives
to Canton to consider the formation of a Chinese
Baptist Publication Society, which was organized in
February, 1898, Doctor Graves being president.
This society is not considered as peculiarly under
the auspices of the Southern Baptist mission, but is
intended to facilitate and assist the work of all Bap-
tist missions in China.

L

162 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

The Central China, or Shanghai mission, has
been equally happy in its leading spirit, the station
having been founded by Matthew T. Yates, D. D.,
in 1847, who continued to be the controlling factor
until his greatly lamented death. Shanghai being
the principal port of the central coast of China,
furnishes to this mission large opportunities for
most important influence upon the flowing tides
of Chinese always passing through the city. Its
influence is by no means measured by the records
of conversions or the statistics of church-member-
ship. To the remotest ends of China has gone
the word of the truth as preached in Shanghai.
Here also is the gathering point of missionaries
of all denominations, and Baptist missionaries of
all fields have here found a hospitable welcome
and God-speed as they went forth on the way to
their special stations. The Shanghai Baptist Church
is strong and a leading feature in Baptist work in
China.

By a similar gracious providence the North
China mission of the Southern Baptists, with head-
quarters at Tungchau, has been blessed by the labors
of T. P. Crawford, d. d., who established the station in
1863, and continued to be its guiding spirit for many
years. Chefu, an important city of this field, was
occupied by Rev. J. L. Holmes and wife, but Mr.
Holmes was murdered by the rebels a year after
his settlement, being one of the bereavements in
which the missions of the Southern Baptists in China

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA 163

liave had a peculiarly sad experience. The Nortli
China Baptist mission, in common with other mis-
sions in that part of the empire, has suffered severely
from the repeated overflows of the Hoangho or Yel-
low River, and especially by the southern overflow
of 1898 and the consequent famine, which greatly
affected the progress of the missionary work, the
energies of the missionaries being largely devoted
for a time, as in the various famines in India, to
relieving the sufferings of the people.

The Southern China mission of the American
Baptist Missionary Union, begun at Swatow in 1860
by Rev. J. W. Johnson, and reinforced by Rev.
William Ashmore in 1 863, has been generally re-
cognized as one of the best organized missions in
China — a reputation gained chiefly by the efficient
leadership of Doctor Ashmore through a long series
of years. Bible principles have been constantly ap-
plied to the conduct of the churches, every little
group of believers being called upon to appoint
elders or leaders who should be responsible for the
conduct of services in the absence of the missionary
or the native pastor. The churches have also been
trained in self-reliance and in self-help, and in a
desire to achieve complete self-support as soon as
the number of members and their financial condition
would permit. In 1864, the city of Swatow itself
being unhealthful, Mr. Ashmore bought property at
Kak Chieh, across the bay one mile to the south,
for eight hundred dollars. This barren and rocky

1G4 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

tract of laud was developed with taste aud care
and industry, until it forms probably the most beau-
tiful, couveuieut, healthful, and attractive head-
quarters possessed by any of our Baptist missions.
In 1900 the land, aside from all the buildings which
have been erected, was valued at twenty-five hun-
dred dollars, gold. For many years but one central
church was recognized, with headquarters at Swatow,
to whicli all the Christians came as far as possible
for quarterly meetings and communion ; but with
the growth of the mission and the demands of the
outer fields enlargement became necessary, and in
1890 work was begun by Rev. George Campbell in
the city of Kayin among the Hakka people. The
Chinese about Swatow are known as Tie Chiu, or
lowland people, while the Hakkas, or highland peo-
ple, live in the interior, the latter being the most
literary and intelligent among the people of China.
As is usual in religious work, these literary people
have been among the most difficult to reach with
the gospel, but there is encouragement that when
once they receive the gospel they will become a
striking and efficient means of spreading the truth
among their countrymen. A special feature of the
Swatow mission has also been the work of Bible
women as developed under the efficient leadership
of Miss Adele M. Fielde. It was Miss Fielde's
practice to gather the Christian women for instruc-
tion and to teach them thoroughly one lesson from
the Gospels, and when they had learned it to send

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA 165

them out, two by two, into the country about to tell
the lesson to their Chinese sisters in their villages.
After a time, again they were gathered at Swatow
and received another portion of the truth, and
having obtained a thorough grasp of it went forth
to carry the good news of salvation. By these
methods Miss Fielde built up an organized corps of
Bible women, whose work under her direction has
been a model for the work of Bible women through-
out China. In the later years, the little country
churches, which were first considered as branches of
the Swatow Church, have been organized into in-
dependent churches. Several new stations have
been established, and as supplementary to the or-
ganization of the churches and the excellent work
of the Bible women, a system of Bible study at
central points in the country districts has been in-
augurated by the Rev. John M. Foster in order to
reach and touch the members of the churches who
are not able to visit Swatow. These Bible classes
are maintained for a period of a month or more,
the most intelligent of the church-members being
gathered for the purpose. By these admirable and
efficient methods of organization, with elders in
every little church, with the leading members trained
in Bible study, and Christian women taught in the
word, the Southern China mission has been welded
into an eifective force for carrying on the work of
the gospel among the people in these neighbor-
hoods, and for reaching out into the region beyond.

166 AMERICAN BAI'TIST MISSIONS

Medical missionary work was the means of open-
ing Ningpo to the gospel. A hospital was opened
by D. J. MiicGowan, m. d., in 1843, but was closed
for a time, and re-opened in April, 1845. Some
gospel services were also held, and in the first year
Doctor MacGowan prescribed for more than two
thousand patients. The real inauguration of evan-
gelistic work in the Ningpo, or Eastern China mis-
sion, was due to the coming of Rev. Josiah God-
dard, who arrived in Ningpo in March, 1848. He
was soon reinforced by Rev. E. C Lord, who sailed
from America in 1847. In addition to his evan-
gelistic and distinctively missionary work, Mr. God-
dard completed, in 1853, a translation of the New
Testament into Chinese, which has enjoyed a high
reputation for accuracy and idiomatic force, and is
still in use. A class for the training of native
preachers was established and conducted for several
years at Ningpo by Doctor Lord, which later was
removed to Shaohing, and continued under the care
of Horace Jenkins, d. d., who joined the mission
in March, 1859. Another strong leader in the
Eastern China mission was M. J. Knowlton, d. d.,
who reached Ningpo in June, 1854. On account of
an unusual combination of earnestness, sincerity,
humility, and scholarly abilities in Doctor Knowl-
ton, he was known as the "Western Confucius,"
perhaps the highest compliment which the Chinese
could pay to any foreigner. Rev. J. R. Goddard,
the son of the founder of evangelistic work in

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA 167

Ningpo, reached the field in 1868, and continued
for many years to be the leader and strength of the
mission, which at many times was left wholly to his
sole care. In 1899, he completed the translation of
the Old Testament into the Ningpo colloquial. Med-
ical work having been the earliest feature of the mis-
sion, has been continued without interruption, and
forms a strong element in the progress of the work.
Doctor MacGowan was succeeded by S. P. Barchet,
M. D., who was followed by Dr. J. S. Grant in
1889. The Eastern China mission is now estab-
lished in four of the largest and most influential
cities in the Chekiang Province, which form centers
of influence for the spread of the gospel into all
that portion of China. In December, 1872, the Che-
kiang Baptist Association Avas formed, including the
churches of the Eastern China mission of the Amer-
ican Baptist Missionary Union, and of the Shanghai,
or Central China mission of the Southern Baptist
Convention. This union continued with most happy
results until the spread of the missions and the
growth of the churches and the difficulty of reaching
the more distant points at which the Association
was held, led to the formation of two Associations
by the churches of the Southern and Northern Bap-
tist missions respectively. The intimate relation
of these two missions was illustrated by the fact
that Suchau, first opened as a station by Doctor
MacGowan, of the Eastern China mission, later
formed a station of the Southern Board.

168 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

In 1889 the West China mission in Szchuan
Province was opened at Suichaufu, under the Amer-
ican Baptist Missionary Union, by Rev. William
Upcraft and Mr. George Warner. Mr. Upcraft had
before been a representative of the British and For-
eign Bible Society in China. He had traveled ex-
tensively in the interior, and became acquainted
with the language and customs of the people. He
had also endured great persecution, at one time
having- l)een stoned and, like Paul, left without the
city for dead. He rose up and returned to the
AVest, came to America, Avhere he visited friends,
especially in the State of Minnesota. The forma-
tion of the West China mission M'as due to his
proposition, and on going out under the Missionary
Union, the support of Mr. Upcraft and his compan-
ion, Mr. George Warner, was pledged by the Bap-
tist young people of Minnesota. They established
themselves first at Suichaufu, on the Yangtze River,
one thousand five hundred miles from the sea. As
soon as reinforced, Mr. Upcraft moved on and
opened another station at Kiating, to the north, and
soon still another station at Yachau, northwest of
Kiating, and well on toward the border of Tibet.
Mr. Upcraft made several journeys over the bor-
der and into Tibet, and this outpost of the West
China mission furnishes the nearest approach of
Baptist missions to that isolated country.

In the conduct of the Western China mission, on
account of its great distance from the coast, an in-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN CHINA 169

tenuediate post for the entertainment of missionaries
on the way, and for the supply of financial and pos-
tal facilities became necessary, which led to a station
being opened at Hanyang, which, in connection with
the neighboring cities of Hankow and Wuchang,
forms the largest center of population in China, and
constitutes the great receiving and distributing
center for the products and imports of Central
China. The three cities have, according to the
national preferences of the speakers, been called the
" Liverpool " and the " Chicago " of China. The
station was opened by Rev. Joseph Adams, of the
American Baptist Missionary Union, who was later
joined by Rev. G. A. Huntley, m. d., for the con-
duct of medical work. Great tides of population
are surging to and fro in this immense center, and
offer the largest opportunities for casting on the
waters the bread of life. A small church has been
gathered, and while the visible results of labor have
not been large, yet the immense opportunities stimu-
late the zeal of the servants of Christ, and encour-
age the belief that the scattering of the seed, as
promised by the divine Master, shall not be in
vain, but that the harvest shall be gathered in the
Lord's OM'n time.

In the extensive uprising against foreigners, which
occurred in 1895, the Baptist missionaries in West-
ern China, in common with those of all other mis-
sions to the number of nearly two hundred, were
compelled to flee for their lives, and their work was

170 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

suspended for nearly a year. Their experience is a
story of hairbreadth escapes and great perils hero-
ically endured ; but, by the care of the Lord, no
missionary life was lost, although a large amount
of missionary property was sacrificed. Prompt
measures were taken by the Chinese government,
under foreign pressure, for the suppression of the
anti-foreign riots, the United States government
taking the most effective measure, by sending an
embassy to Szchuan Province, which, in order to
produce a wider impression on the Chinese, made
the entire journey by land. The sight of this peace-
ful official deputation marching in state across their
territory with the approval of the Peking govern-
ment, exerted an influence on the Chinese people of
the interior almost equal to that which would have
been effected by an invading army. In consequence
of this, and measures adopted by other governments,
the officials of Western China experienced a change
of mind, if not of heart, the missionaries were re-
ceived back with distinguished consideration, and
were aided officially in re-establishing their work
and restoring their mission premises, for the loss of
which full indemnities were paid by the Chinese
imperial government. Again in 1899, the security
of the missionaries in Western China was threatened
by another anti-foreign rebellion, raised by a leader
known as Yumantse. But this was also against the
imperial power, and while several missions were
wrecked, and for a time missionary work was greatly

AMERICAN BArXIST MISSIONS IN CHINA 171

hindered, the rebels were at last overcome by the
govern meut forces and a measure of peace and se-
curity restored to AVestern China. In this excite-
ment the Baptist missions escaped all actual injury
except the inevitable loss of effectiveness in their
work. High hopes were aroused by the advanced
reforms ordered in the edict of the emperor,
Kwangsu, in 1899, which contemplated the over-
turn of the ancient methods in Chinese literary ex-
aminations, the founding of a system of public edu-
cation, and the placing of official administration on
a basis of strict accountability and responsibility.
These expectations were put in suspense by the ar-
bitrary action of the empress dowager, Tsi An, who
placed the young emperor under arrest, executed all
of his chief counsellors who could be caught, re-
sumed her former place at the head of government,
revoked the reformatory edict, and with the support
of the conservative Tsung li Yamen, placed the
affairs of China back in their old ruts, as far as her
efforts and influence could effect. For a short time
the progressive party in China was paralyzed by the
action of the empress dowager, but soon shoAved
signs of renewed life. Both within and without the
limits of the Chinese Empire indications rapidly ap-
peared that the attitude of the Chinese government
under the control of the Conservatives would not be
accepted, and the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty,
which has long been distasteful to the Chinese people
in the great Yangtse Valley, was freely predicted

172 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

as a result of this reactionary movement of its most
powerful representative.

The terrible outbreak of hostility against foreign-
ers and native Christians in the summer of 1900,
was started by a secret society popularly known as
"The Boxers," but they were soon joined by the
Peking government. The clash of arms at Tien-
tsin between the Allies and the Chinese, resulting in
the defeat of the latter, followed by the rescue of
the imperiled legations at Peking, intensified the
anti-foreign feeling. The minds of all the Chinese
were more or less aroused, and these events seriously
embarrassed all Christian missionary work in China
during the closing months of the nineteenth cen-
tury. The missions everywhere were more or less
imperiled, and the lives of many missionaries were
lost. Indeed, missionary operations almost wholly
ceased, and the missionaries, Avith few exceptions,
were withdrawn. The overthrow of the Manchu
dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of
China are more fully treated in the Centennial
supplement.

CHAPTER XVII

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN JAPAN, THE LIU CHIU, AND
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

THE remarkable progress of Japan, from one of
the most exclusive to the foremost nation of
Asia, and its unique position as the only country com-
monly known as pagan which has proved its right to
a position among the most influential nations of the
world, has attracted universal attention to that
country and greatly emphasized the importance of
Christian missionary work in Japan. The history
of Christian missions for the Japanese exhibits every
phase of experience known in missionary life. Begun
amid the greatest difficulties and under severest
prohibitions, they have been carried on sometimes
amid persecutions, and again wath almost universal
favor. Slow and difficult progress has blossomed
suddenly into an ease of winning converts almost
unknown in any other missionary land, and again
brightening hopes have suffered opposition and
blight from the anti-foreign prejudices of the people.
No element of romance and interest in missionary
work is wanting to the history of Christian missions
in Japan. This work is also distinguished from
missionary work in other countries by the fact that,

173

174 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

whereas, almost universally, as in India and in
China, Christian missions have obtained their first
and greatest progress among the lower classes of
the people, owing to the peculiar political condition
of Japan upon being opened to the entrance of
foreigners, the class to view foreigners and their re-
ligion with the most favor was the great Samurai
or middle class. There is found, therefore, a wide
extension of Christianity among the middle classes
of Japan, Mdiereas the coolie or laboring class has
hardly been touched and the upper classes but
slightly affected. It has been said that Christianity
rises from the bottom. This has been found to be
true from the early history of the religion of Jesus
Christ in its small beginnings in Galilee and Judea,
to the missions of the present time ; and even in
Japan the same tendency is exhibited, since the
spread of Christianity among the Samurai has had
far more influence upon the aristocratic or noble
class than upon the farmers and laborers. How this
latter class will be reached is one of the problems
which Christian missions have to solve in Japan.

The first Baptist missionary to Japan was a sea-
man in Commodore Perry's expedition in 1854.
Returning to this country, Jonathan Goble told of
his experiences and interest in Japan, and was sent
out by the American Baptist Free Mission Society
in 1860, as the first Baptist missionary to Japan.
He translated portions of the New Testament and
did much work in extending the circulation of such

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN JAPAN 175

Christian literature as was obtainable, as well as in
preaching the gospel. AVhen the Free Mission
Society turned over its work, in 1872, to the Ameri-
can Baptist Missionary Union, that society accepted
Mr. Goble as its missionary and appointed Nathan
Brown, d. d., then Secretary of the Free Mission
Society, to be associated with him in Japan. Doctor
Brown translated the Avhole New Testament into
Japanese, having before translated the same for the
Assamese, and thus enjoyed the high distinction of
giving to two entirely distinct peoples — the As-
samese and Japanese — the New Testament in their
own tongues, both versions being so nearly perfect
that little revision has been needed. In 1873 the
edict for the exclusion of Christianity from Japan
was abrogated, the calendar of the country was
changed to modern style, old holidays w^ere abolished
and Sunday was made a legal holiday. The same
year the first Baptist church in Japan was formed
at Yokohama, with eight members, three of whom
were Japanese. The mission was reinforced by the
addition of Rev. J. H. Arthur and of Henry H.
Rhees, d. d., who built the first Baptist mission
house in Tokyo, and afterward removed to Kobe,
where he completed his life-w^ork. In 1879 Rev.
Thomas P. Poate, a teacher in the Imperial Uni-
versity of Japan, joined the Baptist mission, and
also Rev. Albert A. Bennett and wife from America.
A training class for biblical students was soon
opened by jNIr. Bennett at Yokohama, which grew

176 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

in importance, and about 1895 was reorganized with
John L. Bearing, d. d., as president and A. A. Ben-
nett, D. D., Rev. C. K. Harrington, and Rev. W.
B. Parshley, as professors. The recognition of the
fact that leaders must be furnished for the intelli-
gent and enterprising people of Japan led to the
establishment of Tokyo Baptist Academy, which in
its early stages was nurtured by Samuel W. Duncan,
D. D., Foreign Secretary of the Missionary Union,
and after his sudden and lamented death his name
was given to the academy. The funds for the
erection of the first dormitory and for placing the
school upon a substantial basis were furnished by
Mr. Duncan's sister, Mrs. Robert Harris, and it
therefore forms a worthy memorial of the family.
The work in Mito, to the north of Tokyo, was in-
augurated by Rev. C. H. D. Fisher, who while re-
siding in Tokyo made evangelistic journeys to the
north. Impressed with the importance and needs of
this large city he took a contract for teaching in the
government school there before residence for mis-
sionary work was lawful, with the agreement that his
spare time should be devoted to preaching the gos-
pel and that he would secure a man from America
for the position as soon as possible. In accordance
with this arrangement, Professor E. W. Clement,
later the principal of Duncan Academy, Tokyo, went
out to Mito from America. After Mr. Clement's
return to America, Rev. J. L. Dearing, of Yoko-
hama, conducted evangelistic work in the city and

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN JAPAN 177

vicinity, and in 1898 Rev. J. C. Brand and wife
were specially authorized to undertake Mito and
the surrounding country as their fields. Sendai,
still farther to the north, was occupied as a Baptist
mission station by Rev. T. P. Poate, in 1882, and
Shimonoseki and Osaka, to the southwest, in 1886
and 1892.

Rev. Chapin H. Carpenter and Mrs. Carpenter,
whose names became eminent in missionary histoiy
by their notable work in charge of the vigorous
Bassein Sgaw-Karen mission in Burma, later turned
their attention to Japan, after it was discovered that
Mr. Carpenter's health would not allow further
residence in Burma. It was thought that in the
cooler climate of Japan, and especially in the northern
portion, he might continue in the missionary work
to which he had consecrated his life. Mr. and Mrs.
Carpenter opened work in the year 1886 in Nemuro
on the island of Yezo, as formerly known, but now
called Hokkaido, but Mr. Carpenter's health proved
to be undermined by his long residence in Burma,
and he passed from his active duties on earth to his
heavenly home, February 2, 1887. The work at
Nemuro, however, has been continued by Mrs. Car-
penter, supported at her own expense, as was the
mission from the beginning by herself and her hus-
band. Although the entire cost of the work is paid
by Mrs. Carpenter, she and her co-laborers in the
work are enrolled on the lists of the American Bap-
tist Missionary Union as a self-supporting mission.

M

178 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

In 1889 the Foreign Mission Board of the South-
ern Baptist Convention began work in Japan. This
had been contemplated much earlier, but after the
loss of Rev. J. Q. A. llorer and his wife, in the
" Edwin Forrest/' as previously mentioned, no fur-
ther attempt was made until this latter date. Their
missionaries have established themselves in the
island of Kiushiu, the most southwestern of the
larger islands of Japan, with stations at Fukuoka,
Nagasaki, and Kokura. Much encouragement has
been met with, and the same obstacles have been
encountered, as in the missions of the Northern Bap-
tists and other Christian missions in Japan, owing
to the political and uncertain attitude of the people
and the political authorities of Japan toward foreign-
ers and Christian missions. The Southern Baptist
missionaries unite with the Northern Baptists in
missionary conferences, and share the privileges of
the theological seminary at Yokohama and all other
movements which relate to the general progress of
Baptist mission work in Japan.

In 1892, Mrs. Allan, of Scotland, visited Japan,
— one among the multitude of those who have had
the curiosity to visit this extremely interesting and
even fascinating people and country. In Kobe,
Mrs. Allan became interested in the missionary
work of Rev. R. A. Thomson and his wife. Mr.
Thomson mentioned to her the Liu Chiu Islands as
a needy field for Christian missions. On her return
to Scotland a definite offer was made by Mrs. Allan

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN LIU CHIU ISLANDS 179

to Mr. Thomson, as a representative of the American
Baptist Missionary Union, of a sum of money suffi-
cient to open missionary work in the Liu Chiu Is-
lands and carry it on for a number of years, with
the understanding that the M'ork, if successful,
should be continued by the society. The oifer was
accepted and the Liu Chiu Island mission was es-
tablished, and it has been conducted by Japanese
missionaries under the general direction of Mr.
Thomson, who visits the islands every year. A
church has been formed at Naha, the capital.

On the first visit of Mr. and Mrs. Thomson in
January, 1892, the most interesting and even ex-
citing experiences were encountered. No foreign
lady had been seen in the Liu Chiu Islands for many
years, and the appearance of Mrs. Thomson was a
signal for a general suspension of business. The
market places and shops were deserted when it was
known that Mrs. Thomson was taking a walk
through the street. The city was so upset by this
strange and interesting visitor that the authorities
were compelled to request Mrs. Thomson to remain
indoors during the day, in order that the business
of the city might be resumed. She, therefore, con-
fined her outings to the night and to going out in a
covered jinrikisha in the daytime. Considerable
response to the gospel has been found among the
people in the Liu Chiu Islands, and several have
been baptized at every annual visit by Mr. Thomson
or other missionaries from Japan.

180 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

The acquisition of the Philippine Islands by the
United States naturally directed the attention of
Protestant Christians in America to them as a field
for missionary eiFort. Upon agreement ^Yith the
Home Mission Society the Philippines were taken
by the Missionary Union as a part of the foreign
mission field, and the missionary w'ork in Japan and
in the Liu Chin Islands, six hundred miles to the
north, furnished a natural line of approach to the
Philippines. In the providence of God, a native
of the Visayan group of the Philippines who visited
Spain, was converted in the Baptist mission in Bar-
celona, under Rev. Eric Lund. Mr. Lund feeling
at once the importance of the new convert, with his
assistance began the translation of the Gospels and
other books of the New Testament, as well as sev-
eral Christian tracts, into the Yisayan tongue. An
appropriation of one hundred and fifty dollars by
the American Baptist Missionary Union for print-
ing these translations was the first American Baptist
money appropriated to missionary work in the Philip-
pine Islands. On account of the continuance of the
war in Luzon, the northern island of the Philip-
pines, the authorities of the Union had already
looked toward the Visayan group as a more fhv-
orable field for beginning missionary operations.
The providential coming of this convert to the mis-
sion in Spain confirmed this opinion, and arrange-
ments were at once made for the establishment of
Baptist missionary work in the Visayan group of

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 181

the islands. It was considered Iiighly important
that the first missionary to be entrusted with the
establishment of this work should be some one
thoroughly known to the authorities of the Union
as a missionary of experience and discretion, and
although Mr. Lund's services in Sj)ain were of
great importance, the more commanding require-
ments of the opening of the Philippine mission led
the executive committee to request Mr. Lund to
proceed to the Philippines to establish the work,
looking toward the island of Negros as an espe-
cially promising field — an opinion which was con-
firmed in an interview with President J. G. Schur-
man, of Cornell University, who had been chair-
man of the first United States Commission to the
Philippine Islands. Early in 1900 Mr. Lund ac-
cordingly proceeded to the Philippines, accompanied
by Mr. Braulio Manikan, the Filipino converted
in the mission in Spain. By the establishment of
this mission American Baptist work covers a line of
outlying stations off the eastern coast of Asia, more
than two thousand miles long, from Nemuro, on
Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, to the
Visayan group of the Philippine Islands.

CHAPTER XVIII

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN AFRICA

THE history of the adoption of the Congo mis-
sion by American Baptists is one which clearly
illustrates that providential leading of the Lord
which has characterized in a marked degree all
their mission M^ork. Baptists in America have
always felt a deep interest in missions in Africa,
the mission in Liberia having been one of the earli-
est established by the General Convention. In
1820 two colored brethren, who had gone out from
Richmond, Va., were recognized as missionaries
in Liberia, and the work in that country was car-
ried on without interruption until 1856. At that
time, on account of various complications, especially
because of the difficulty in making satisfactory
business arrangements in regard to the mission, it
was suspended, and comparatively little mission
work in Liberia has been done by American Bap-
tists since that time. Small appropriations have
been made to various persons, but Avithin recent
years they have been wholly discontinued. Yet
there was continually manifest an earnest de-
sire on the part of many to resume Baptist mis-
sion work in Africa. An examination of the records

1S2

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN AFRICA 183

of the aimual meetings of the American Baptist
Missionary Union shows that almost every year
resolutions were introduced, instructing the Board
of Managers to reopen mission work in Africa at
the first favorable opportunity. These repeated at-
tempts are a proof of the warm interest of many of
our people in African missions.

Only a few months after Henry M. Stanley had
completed his journey through the Dark Continent
(August 7, 1877), and opened to the world a knowl-
edge of the real extent of the Congo, a few friends
in England sent missionaries to the mouth of the
Congo to open a mission. This was called the
Livingstone Inland Mission, the name being taken,
not from the missionary, but from the name "Living-
stone," which Mr. Stanley gave to the Congo River.
The old name of the river has, however, been re-
tained by the judgment of the world. This mission
was carried on by the friends in England from 1878,
increasing year by year, and the chief burden of
management and support finally came upon Dr. and
Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness, of London. After
coming to the missionary rooms, in 1880, the w'riter,
having noticed the persistent determination of many
to reopen missions in Africa, made a complete study
of the entire coast line of Africa with reference to
the opening of a new mission work. While en-
gaged in this study it came to his knowledge that
Rev. George Pearse, who had opened a mission in
Algeria, had expressed an intention of offering his

184 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

mission to the Missionary Union. As a part of his
investigation the writer accordingly addressed a let-
ter to Mr. Pearse asking for information about the
mission, and inquiring whether he still entertained
the idea of placing his work in the hands of Ameri-
can Baptists. This letter was addressed to the care
of the editor of the " Orphans' Mission Press," at
Leominster. Since Mr. Pearse was in Algeria, the
letter was forwarded to Mr. and Mrs. Guinness, who
were acting in an advisory capacity to Mr. Pearse's
mission.

It is necessary to go back for twenty-five years
previous to this time, in order to take up another
link in the chain of providential circumstances
which placed the Congo mission in the hands of
American Baptists. At that time J. N. Murdock,
D. D., for about thirty years corresponding secretary
of the Missionary Union, was pastor of the Bowdoin
Square Church in Boston. Dr. Kirk, of the Mount
Vernon Congregationalist Church, had invited Mr.
Guinness, a young and rising evangelist in England,
to come to America to hold revival meetings in his
house of worship. Just before leaving for America,
Mr. and Mrs. Guinness were baptized by immersion,
and upon arriving in this country it was found that
a knowledge of this had preceded them, and they
were on that account excluded from the Mount Ver-
non Church. Greatly distressed at this turn of
circumstances, Doctor Kirk asked Doctor Murdock if
he would admit the young English evangelist to his

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN AFRICA 185

church in Bowdoin Square, near-by. Consent was
cordially given ; and so Mr. and Mrs. Guinness began
their evangelistic labors in America in the Bowdoin
Square Church, under the auspices of Doctor Mur-
dock, afterward the secretary of the Missionary
Union. Accordingly, when the letter to Mr. Pearse
was placed in their hands, they recognized it as
coming from the society with which their old friend,
Doctor Murdock, was connected, and received it
with special interest. By this time the Congo mis-
sion had so much expanded that it was becoming
too large to be conducted as a personal mission, and
the Guinnesses had been feeling that for its proper
development it should come under the management
of some established society. Their hearts turned
warmly and cordially toward their old benefactor
and the society of which he was the head, and, being
informed by the receipt of this letter to Mr. Pearse
that American Baptists had thoughts of mission
work in Africa, they wrote at once to Doctor Mur-
dock offering him the Livingstone Inland Mission
on the Congo. After several months of negotiation
and careful deliberation, the mission was at last
accepted in September, 1884, and has since been
conducted wholly by the Union and on the princi-
ples established by its constitution.

In 1886, the opportunity came to Doctor Edward
Bright, the defender of the Telugu mission in India,
to speak a decisive word in another important crisis
in our missionary liistory. The mission on the

186 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Congo had been adopted by the Missionary Union
in 1884. The addition of this work was received
with large enthusiasm by the majority of the de-
nomination, but with some opposition on the part
of others, who were perhaps moved more by their
fears than by their faith, and were afraid that the
additional burdens would embarrass the work on
the older fields of the Union. Doctor Bright was
then editor of " The Examiner," and for a time
seemed to view the Congo mission with something
of doubt. In the s^mng of 1886, Doctor Sims, of
Leopoldville, visited this country. He was the first
of the missionaries on the Congo to come to America.
His statements regarding the mission were of great
service to the executive committee of the Missionary
Union, and it was arranged that in cdmpany Avith
A. J. Gordon, d. d., who was an ardent advocate of
the mission, Doctor Sims should visit some of the
chief cities of the country to lay before the leading
Baptists of America a clear statement of the condi-
tion of the mission on the Congo. Among others a
parlor conference was held in New York City at wliich
Doctor Bright was present. He listened with deep
interest to the statements of Doctor Sims, and his
explanation of the difficulties, dangers, and oppor-
tunities of the Congo mission. He became fully
convinced that this was, indeed, a work placed upon
the American Baptists by God, and the next week
he came out in " The Examiner " with a powerful
and decisive editorial in favor of the vigorous pro-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN AFRICA 187

secution of the work on the Congo. The annual
meeting of the Union, held soon after at Asbury
Park, confirmed his judgment, and was one of the
most inspiring anniversaries ever held by the society.
Far sooner than in the case of the Telugu mission
Avas his faith and courage rewarded. Within six
months came the tidings of the revival at Banza
jManteke, " the Pentecost on the Congo," in which
more than one thousand of the natives threw their
idols at the feet of the missionary, Rev. Henry
Richards, and professed themselves followers of
Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Since that
time the work has gone on at this station, until in
1900 there were more than fifteen hundred church-
members, with fifty-seven native preachers and
teachers, gathered in three large Christian churches.
The field of the Congo mission in its characteris-
tics is akin to that among the Karens of Burma
and the natives of the Pacific Islands. The peo-
ple have no organized form of religion, but have a
simple, natural worship which has been proved by
missionary experience to oifer the most favorable
openings for the progress of Christian work. The
possibilities of work on the Congo are already indi-
cated by the great revival in Banza Manteke, re-
ferred to above, when more than one thousand threw
away their idols. All these might have been bap-
tized at once ; but the prudence of the missionary,
Mr. Richards, led him to baptize only those whom
he found by test to be worthy of admission to a

188 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

pure Christian church. A similar work, although
more gradual in its progress, has gone on at Lu-
kunga, and at other stations which have been blessed
in a less degree. But none of the ten stations of
the Congo mission are without converts. The prog-
ress of the mission since its adoption is paralleled
among our own missions only by the early triumphs
of the Karen mission in Burma. The work has
been carred on in the face of great obstacles, on ac-
count of the unsettled nature of the country and the
absence of banks, trading facilities, and means of
communication. While, however, the material prog-
ress of the work has met many difficulties, the spirit-
ual advancement has been most encouraging.

After the transfer of the Southern Baptist Mis-
sion from Liberia to the Yoruba country, in 1875,
the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist
Convention continued its work on the Gold Coast,
principally at Abbeokuta and Ogbomoshaw in the
interior, and at Lagos on the coast. The work at-
tained considerable prosperity, especially at Lagos,
where a large degree of self-support was realized,
the church contributions in 1898 amounting to five
hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety cents,
and the membership reaching one hundred and fifty-
five. The mission, however, has encountered the
difficulties common to missionary work on the western
coast of Africa, resulting from the unhealthfulness
of the climate and the uncertain character of the
population. Only Christian heroes are fitted for

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN AFRICA 189

this work. They must take their lives in their
hands for the sake of the work of Christ among the
heathen, and counting notliing dear, not even life
itself, they go into these unhealthful regions, sus-
tained simply by confidence in God and the love of
souls dying in darkness without the light of the
gospel. A personal history of Christian missions
on the west coast of Africa, if it could be pre-
pared, would be a story of heroism and martyrdom
unequaled in the annals of the Christian church.

After the closing of the Southern Baptist mission
in Liberia and the discontinuance of work by the
American Baptist Missionary Union, little mission
work was done there for several years by American
Baptists ; but toward the close of the nineteenth cen-
tury the Lott-Carey Foreign Missionary Convention,
formed by Negro Baptists of the Southern States,
sent out Rev. John O. Hayes, and continued to main-
tain him in missionary work in connection with the
Ricks Institute in the vicinity of Monrovia, and
later at other fields. The National Baptist Mis-
sionary Convention of the Negro Baptists also from
time to time sent several missionaries to Liberia,
but from failure of health and other causes they re-
turned to America, and in the year 1900 they had
no missionary on this field. Inspired by a visit of
Rev. Charles S. Morris, formerly pastor of the Ne-
gro Baptist church in West Newton, Massachusetts,
a movement sprang up in 1900 which may lead to
a reopening of missionary work in Liberia, perhaps

190 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

with some industrial features. During his stay in
Africa, Mr. Morris also visited South Africa, and
reported excellent results from the work of Mr.
Yale, supported by the Lott-Carey Missionary Con-
vention in labors near Capetown. An interesting
feature of Mr. Morris' visit was also tlie baptism at
Queenstown of thirty-three leaders of " The African
Native Church." This is a body formed under the
labors of Rev. Jonas Goduka, who was formerly a
preacher in connection with the Wesleyan mission
in South Africa. Becomino; dissatistied with tlie
views of the Wesleyans he withdrew from their serv-
ice and upon personal study of the Bible, without
knowledge of the Baptist denomination, he reached
largely Baptist views ; and this group of churches,
seventeen in number, was formed under his labors,
he being considered as the general overseer. On
coming in contact with Mr, Morris and learning
that there was a large body of Negro Baptists in
America holding views practically the same as his
own, excepting that his church had not yet received
baptism by immersion, he, with the leaders of the
churches, was baptized by Mr. Morris, and they dis-
persed with the intention of leading their churches
into full fellowship with the Baptists.- The name of
this group of churches was changed from "The
African Native Church " to " The African Baptist
Church."

CHAPTER XIX

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE

THE story of Baptist missions in Europe reads
like a romance. It is probable that through- j
out Europe from the early ages of Christianity there
were always scattered communities holding sub-
stantially Baptist views. One of these scattered
communities existed in the northeastern part of
France. Early in the present century, led by a
study of the New Testament, a few earnest and
pious souls had abandoned the errors of the Roman
Church and formed societies on New Testament
principles. They were ignorant of the fact that
there were others in the world liolding; the same
views as themselves ; but isolated and persecuted,
these loyal and earnest souls held fast to the princi-
ples of the pure gospel. In 1835 these brave New
Testament Christians were rejoiced by a visit from
Rev. Isaac Willmarth, of America, wlio told them
of the large body of Christians across the ocean
with views like tlieir own, based solely and strictly
upon the New Testament. The American Baptist
mission in France had been begun in 1832 by
Professor Irah Chase, of Newton Theological Insti-
tution, with whom was associated a native French-

191

192 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

man, J. C. Rostan. Rev. Isaac Willmarth was the
first American missionary designated to labor per-
manently in France, and he organized the First
Baptist Church in Paris, May 10, 1835, and the
Baptists in northeastern France gladly associated
themselves with the new mission. The work grcAV,
until in 1839 there were seven Baptist churches in
France with one hundred and forty-two members,
and Rev. Erastus ^A^illard as the only American
Baptist missionary in the country. For many years
the work has been carried on wholly by French-
men.

Great persecutions were suffered by the early
Baptists, and one chapel built by them was closed
by the Roman Catholics for eleven years. It was
opened in 1848 by the French revolution, which
brought nominal religious freedom to all. But
much local persecution still existed. Rev. Mr.
Lepoids, who was pastor of the First Church in
Paris for twenty years, and others, were arrested
and thrown into prison and fined ; yet in spite of
persecution the number of churches multiplied.
During the Franco-Prussian w ar a large part of the
male membership entered the army, but work still
went on. The Baptist mission in France has felt
a beneficial influence from the w'ork of the McAll
mission, and Rev. Reuben Saillens, who was the
chief helper of Rev. R. W. McAll, withdrew from
that work and devoted himself to the Baptist mis-
sion. He organized a second Baptist church in

AlVIERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE 193

Paris whicli has greatly prospered and gained sev-
eral hundred members. Mr. Saillens also visited
other portions of France on evangelistic tours, during
which many churches were organized, especially in
the southeastern part of France and in French
Switzerland. The prevalence of New Testament
views among pious and devoted Christians of other
churches has been characteristic of the work from
the beginning. In later years the most important
accessions to the Baptist membership have been
from among those who have become Baptists from
independent study of the Scriptures and afterward
identified themselves with the mission. Large serv-
ice in this direction has been done by Rev. J. B.
Cretin, who has written and published and circu-
lated at his own expense a large number of tracts
on Baptist doctrine. Many of the pastors of Bap-
tist churches were first pastors of the State churches,
and came independently to Baptist views before
uniting witli the mission. Several entire churches
have come over bodily from the Eglise Libre (Free
Church) and joined the Baptist Associations — par-
ticularly one body of very intelligent believers in
Neuchatel, Switzerland. Baptist views are still
very largely represented in the pastorates and mem-
bership of the Free and Reformed Churches, and tiie
future progress of Baptist work in France will
doubtless be largely in the line of its early develop-
ment.

About the same time with the starting of the

194 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Baptist movement in France, certain Christians in
Germany had also come to embrace scriptural views
regarding baptism and the church ; notable among
these was Johann Gerard Oncken, of Hamburg.
Barnas Sears, d. d., of Boston, was providentially
led to Hamburg in 1834, and on April 12 of that
year, at midnight, a little band of seven rowed in a
small boat to a point sevei-al miles from the city and
were scripturally baptized by Doctor Sears. This
was the beginning of the great Baptist mission of
central Europe, of which Mr. Ouckeu was the founder
and apostle. By his labors and those of Rev. Julius
K5buer, of Denmark, Rev. George W. Lehmann,
of Germany, and others, the Baptist movement was
rapidly and widely extended throughout the German
States of central Europe. Always have there been
found in Germany persons of deep piety and com-
munities holding scriptural views of the church and
its ordinances. Many of these united with Mr.
Oncken and his associates, and the Baptist move-
ment gained strength with every year. Severe per-
secutions were encountered, but within a few years
the Baptists had extended from the little circle of
seven to Russia, Denmark, Switzerland, Lithuania,
Silesia, and Poland, and in 1849 the first German
Baptist Conference was held in Hamburg, repre-
senting about thirty churches and two thousand
eight hundred members. In 1859 twelve young
men, who had been instructed in Hamburg, were
ordained to the Baptist ministry in one day, Septem-

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE 195

ber 12. Later, Baptist work extended to Bul-
garia and Holland, and in 1875 the government of
Prussia passed an act for the incorporation of Bap-
tist churches.

In Cassel there is now a large publishing house un-
der the charge of Philip Bickel, d. d,, which was first
established in Hamburg by and continued for many
years by Doctor Oncken. A theological seminary in
the care of Rev. Joseph Lehmann and Rev. J. G.
Fetzer is found in Hamburg and Baptist churches
are found in all the leading cities of central Europe.
These are rapidly multiplying year by year in Ger-
many and in all the countries of Europe. The
Baptist churches suffer greatly every year by the
emigration to America of some of their brightest
and best members, so that the increase in financial
strength is not proportioned to the growth in num-
bers. They still need the help of their brethren in
America, and in turn the Baptist churches in Amer-
ica receive large and important accessions from the
Baptist churches in Europe.

The large and flourishing Baptist work in Sweden
is at once an outgrowth of the German Baptist mis-
sion and a remarkable illustration of the power and
value of religious literature. Before Baptist preachers
were suffered to openly preach in Sweden, large
quantities of literature were circulated among its
reading people by the valuable assistance of the
American Baptist Publication Society, especially
through Rev. A. Wiberg, who was practically the

196 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

founder of the Baptist mission in Sweden. Not al-
lowed to preach or to form churches, he devoted him-
self to the preparation and dissemination of Baptist
literature throughout the country, with the result
that, when missionary work by preaching of tlie
gospel began, Baptist churches were rapidly multi-
plied. There is a Baptist theological seminary in
Stockholm, under the care of Knut O. Broady, D. d.,
and six or seven Baptist churches in Stockholm, the
capital city of Sweden, besides churches in almost
every other important town in the country. Tlie
Swedish Baptist Missionary Union carries on both
home and foreign missionary work. Under its
auspices the work throughout Sweden has largely
extended and been carried into Norway, Finland,
and other countries.

The Baptists in Sweden occupy a position toward
the State Church which we find in no other country.
Owing to the peculiar laws of the country, Swedish
Baptists still continue to be nominally members of the
State Church ; but, taking advantage of the breadth
of freedom in worship which is allowed, they main-
tain their own churches and their own worship, and
are pushing their vigorous missionary operations
from the north to the south of the country. There
is nothing disingenuous or deceitful in the position of
the Swedish Baptists toward the religious laws of
Sweden, since they are framed to allow such a state
of things. Formerly Baptists suffered more or less
persecution from the prejudices of the priests and

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE 197

occasionally of the local authorities ; but these have
largely passed away, and everywhere in Sweden the
Baptist work is carried on without legal opposition.

Closely allied with the Baptist work in Sweden is
that in Norway. Aid in this work has been more
recently granted by the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union, some of the pastors of Norwegian
churches being graduates of the Bethel Theological
Seminary at Stockholm. Here, also, are found the
sturdy aggressiveness and enthusiasm which charac-
terize the Scandinavian race ; and although the Bap-
tists in Norway are still weak, yet within the last
four or five years they have received a new impetus
under the assistance given from America.

Another offshoot of the Swedish mission is the
Baptist work in Finland, which, although within
the boundaries of Russia, is more nearly joined to
that in Sweden. Here there sprang up in the last
few years of the nineteenth century a most encour-
aging work, which was carried on at the first amid
great opposition, but later secured a legal standing
in the State. The establishing of a school for
preachers is proposed, and the future of our Baptist
work in this extreme northern country is one of
promise, unless the recent act of the Czar of Russia
in withdrawing from Finland the measure of inde-
pendence it formerly enjoyed and bringing it wholly
under the control of the laws of Russia shall place
Baptist mission work in Finland at the same disad-
vantage as in Russia.

198 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

The Baptist mission in Denmark was also an off-
shoot of that in Sweden, but was afterward, and
more naturally, allied to the work in Germany, and
was carried on for a number of years under the
patronage of the German-American Baptist Com-
mittee. It has now attained such standing that a
separate committee has been organized, and the ap-
propriations for the Danish Baptist churches are
made directly from the headquarters of the American
Baptist Missionary Union. As in all the rest of
Northern Europe, there is found in Denmark a
«trong tendency toward Baptist views, and the
progress of the Baptist churches is one of increasing
hopefulness. The net increase of the Baptists in
Denmark, in the five years from 1879 to 1883, was
only thirty-six; in the following five years it ad-
vanced to three hundred and eighty-five, and during
the following five years the net gain was five hun-
dred and ninety-one.

One of the most interesting outgrowths of the
German Baptist mission has been the work in Rus-
sia. It began among the German colonies in South-
ern Russia, and has largely extended, having at the
present time more than eighteen thousand members.
In common with all dissenters in Russia, the Bap-
tists of that country have suifered severe persecution.
In the popular mind and in the eye of the priests of
the Greek Church, they are identified with the
Stundists. Multitudes of Baptist families have
been torn asunder, their children placed in Greek

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE 199

nunneries or monasteries, or with families who
would bring them up in the accepted doctrines of
the State Church, and the parents transported to Si-
beria. Whole churches have been exiled in a
body. One church from the Baltic provinces
sold all its property, and tlie members left their
homes and emigrated to South America rather
than endure the persecutions and trials to which
they were subjected. Hundreds of Baptists are
in exile in the desolate regions of Siberia, includ-
ing many pastors of Baptist churches, and many
have fled from their homes to central Europe to es-
cape a like fate. Of all tlie Baptists in the world,
those of Russia most greatly need the sympathy and
prayers of their brethren for the severe trials and
persecutions to which they are subjected. In spite
of these the work goes on. The Baptist cause
prospers amid persecutions ; now, as of old, the
" blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," and
the most active opposition of the Greek Catholic
priesthood and of tlie officials of the Russian gov-
ernment cannot hinder the progress of the truth,
which must triumph in the end.

The same movement for expansion which led to
the establishment of the Baptist mission among the
Telugus of India, prompted the opening of the Bap-
tist mission in Greece. Rev. Horace T. Love and
Cephas Pascoe arrived as missionaries of the Amer-
ican Baptists at Patras, December 9, 1836, and re-
ceived permission to circulate the Bible and preach

200 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

the gospel. They also opened missionary schools. In
1840 the mission was changed to Corfu. The first
convert to be baptized was very appropriately named
" Apostolos," and was received in the year 1840.
In 1844 Rev. Albert N. Arnold and wife and Miss
S. E. Waldo arrived at Corfu, and Rev. R. F. Buel,
who had labored at Corfu for several years, removed
to Pirteiis, whence the mission later penetrated the
city of Athens. There was great opposition and
some persecution on the part of the Greeks ; but, as
a whole, while the people have shown considerable
interest in listening to the gospel, they have never
felt the force of the truth sufficiently to lead them
to leave their State Church in large numbers, and
the membership of the Baptist churches in Greece has
always been small. Mr. Demetrius Z. Sakellarios,
one of the early converts, has been the most promi-
nent native laborer in the mission, preaching the
gospel in Athens for a series of years, and continuing
his work even after the American Baptist Missionary
Union suspended its operations in 1856, for fifteen
years. In 1871 Rev. George W. Gardner and Rev.
D. W. Faunce visited Athens, and on their recom-
mendation the mission in Greece was resumed. Mr.
Sakellarios having visited in America and studied at
the Newton Theological Institution, was then ap-
pointed a full missionary of the Missionary Union.
He married an American lady. Miss Edmands, of
Charlestown, Mass., and returned to Greece and
continued his labors, although the Missionary Union

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS IN EUROPE 201

again discontinued its appropriations to Greece in
1886, except a small honorarium to Mr. Sakellarios
in his old age. After long-continued and faithful
efforts, it seems to be apparent that while the Greeks
are of high intelligence and have great interest in
religious subjects, they are not open to that influence
of religious truth which will enable them to endure
separation from their own people and church for the
sake of a purer gospel and a more living faith.

All the American Baptist missions in Europe
have been under the auspices of the American Bap-
tist Missionary Union, except the work in Italy,
maintained by the Foreign Mission Board of the
Southern Baptist Convention. This was begun
in 1870 by Rev. W. N. Cote, m. d., in the city of
Rome. In 1873 George B. Taylor, D. D., was ap-
pointed missionary and superintendent of the Italian
mission. To his long services and able leadership
are largely due the success of Baptist missions in
Italy. He raised the funds in America for the
building of a chapel in Rome, which was completed
at a cost of thirty thousand five hundred and nineteen
dollars and seventy-three cents. An able coadjutor
of Doctor Taylor has been J. H. Eager, d. d.,
who has labored at Rome, Naples, and Florence.
Baptist churches have been established in the cities
of Rome, Naples, Florence, Torre Pellice, Modena
and Carpe, Bari and Barletta, Venice, Bologna, and
on the island of Sardinia. A steady and substan-
tial progress has been achieved, not only in church-

202 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

membership, but especially in the influence of
pure spiritual ideas upon the people of Italy.
Instances have several times occurred in which
whole villages have expelled the priests, taken pos-
session of the churches, and turned them over to
Protestant ministers for services. In 1885 the
" Apostolic Baptist Union " was organized, which
has been the means of the wider extension of the
truth and of a large circulation of the Scriptures
and Christian literature.

CHAPTER XX

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA

THE natural interest felt in the southern portion
of tjie Western Hemisphere by the people of
the United States early led the attention of Baptists
to be directed toward missions in South America.
It was not, however, until 1879 that the Southern
Baptist Convention authorized its Foreign Mission
Board to begin a mission in Brazil, and a station
was opened at Santa Barbara, in Sao Paulo Prov-
ince, South Brazil. This province is commer-
cially, intellectually, and politically the most impor-
tant province of Brazil, having a comparatively
temperate climate, and being populated by a class
of people of exceptional intelligence, industry, and
prosperity. The exports of the province are large
and its wealth is increasing. Considerable prosper-
ity was enjoyed by this mission from the first, and
a Baptist church has been continued, which, how-
ever, in 1900 was without a resident missionary.

The second mission to be established was at Bahia,
on the coast, in the north. Here also large success
has been achieved, the number of baptisms amount-
ing in 1897 to sixty-two, and the church rais-
ing about two thousand dollars for various relig-

203

204 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

ioiis purposes. In this mission there are now six
churches, one church being formed in the year
1898. A prosperous school has been established,
with American school furniture, and conducted on
the American system of education. The school en-
joys the large favor of the best people of the city,
and at the inauguration many of the prominent
men of the city were present, including the secre-
tary of State. The governor sent a band, and the
oration was delivered by the leader of the House
of Representatives. The Baptist church estab-
lished in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, has
been largely prospered. A special revival of relig-
ion was enjoyed in the year 1899, by which many
were added to the church. A large expansion has
been experienced by the Southern Baptist Mission
in Brazil, and in 1898 the ideal was realized in a
line of mission stations from Manaos, on the Ama-
zon River, to Sao Paulo, in Southern Brazil. The
principal stations occujiied are Sao Paulo, Rio de
Janeiro, Juiz de Fora, Bahia, Valenca, Campos, San
Fidelis, Pernambuco, Para, and Bello Horizonte.

In spite of the prosperity granted to the mission,
or perhaps because of it, severe persecutions have
visited the native Brazilian Christians in many
places, especially at Campos and in the vicinity of
Bahia. This is not due to the laws of the country^
which afford entire freedom to Protestant mission-
aries in the prosecution of their work, but to the
hostility of the Roman Catholic priests and the

BAPTIST MISSIONS IN SOUTH AMERICA 205

prejudices of the people. Under their influence
many of the Christians have been injured in pro-
perty, and in one or two cases have given their
lives for their faith in Jesus. Yet the mission con-
tinues to prosper, and an association has been
formed in the southern part of Brazil called the
" South Brazil Baptist Association." A paper
called the " Good News " is published by the mis-
sion for the furtherance of the gospel. Several
new churches were formed in 1898 and 1899, and
the mission enjoys increasing prosperity.

Some time near 1880 Rev. Paul Besson, a worker
from the Baptist Mission in France, removed to
Buenos Ayres, in the Argentine Republic, and com-
menced the work of preaching the gospel. He
gathered a considerable church and enjoyed much
favor of the people. In 1899 a fine new church
was erected, of which an extended account was
given, with a description of views of the Baptists, in
the leading journal of Buenos Ayres. The growing
prosperity of the Argentine Republic and the south-
ern States of Brazil points to these countries as in-
creasingly important fields for Baptist missionary
work.

CHAPTER XXI

BAPTIST WORK IN MEXICO, CUBA, AND PORTO RICO

IN the Republic of Mexico Baptist missionary
work has been carried on by the Foreign ]\Iis-
sion Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and
by the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
As early as 1836 the attention of the latter Society
was turned toward Mexico, but not until 1870 was
the first missionary appointed. Previous to this
some interest in Baptist views had been aroused by
the labors of Mr. John W. Butler, an Englishman,
and Rev. James Hickey, who settled in Monterey.
On January 30, 1864, Mr. Hickey baptized Mr. T.
M. Westrup, then an Episcopalian, and two Mexi-
cans, and the first Baptist church in Mexico was
formed at Monterey with five members. On the
appointment of Mr. Westrup as missionary by the
Home Mission Society in 1870, a printing press
Avas supplied him, which partly under the care of
this society and part of the time in charge of " The
Board of Baptist Missions of the Republic of Mex-
ico," continued as a helpful feature of the mission-
ary work. The rapid growth of the new move-
ment was indicated by the fact that in 1871, five
years after the founding of the first church, a report
206

BAPTIST WORK IN MEXICO 207

called for by the newly established Juarez govern-
ment, gives five churches with one hundred and ten
members. Owing to lack of funds the support of
the mission in Mexico was intermitted for a time,
and in 1880 Rev. T. M. Westrup, with his brother,
Rev. John O. Westrup, were accepted by the For-
eign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention as its first missionaries in Mexico. The
work of the Home Mission Society in Mexico was,
however, never wholly abandoned. Other mission-
aries were sent to the field, and in 1887 a strong
mission plant was established in the city of Mexico
under the cure of Rev. William H. Sloan, formerly
superintendent of the American Baptist Mission
Press in Rangoon, Burma. A fine church was
erected and excellent printing facilities provided,
which, by his thorough knowledge both of the Span-
ish language and of the art of printing, Mr. Sloan
has been able to use to the great advantage of the
mission. The paper, " La Imz" " The Light," issued
on behalf of both the Northern and Southern Bap-
tist missions in Mexico, is truly a messenger of
light and salvation to the people of the Mexican
Republic as also to the Spanish-speaking peoples of
the southwestern territories of the United States.
In 1900 work of the American Baptist Home Mis-
sion Society in Mexico was conducted from eleven
centers, the city of Mexico, Monterey, Puebla, San
Luis Potosi, New Laredo, Santa Rosa, Linares,
Montemordos, Sabinas, Balinas, and Cadereita, with

208 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

six hundred and forty-tliree members iu the mission
churches.

Previous to 1880 there were thirteen small Bap-
tist churches in Mexico, composed chiefly of immi-
grants from Texas and elsewhere. One year after
the appointment of the Westrup brothers in this
year as missionaries of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention, Rev. John O. Westrup was barbarously
murdered. His place was soon supplied, and in
1882 Rev. W. D. Powell settled in Saltillo. Al-
though meeting witli favor from many, the success
of the Baptist movement aroused intense hostility
on the part of the Roman Catholic priests and their
more bigoted adherents. The narrative of Mr.
Powell's missionary labors is a tale of exciting ad-
venture. He was driven out of places of worship
he had secured, attemi)ts were made on his life, and
in one of his evangelistic tours he was attacked by
a highwayman. After a search to find what of
value the Baptist preacher might have about his
person, the highwayman offered to loan him money
enough to enable him to get home. Not all of Mr.
Powell's assailants were so generous, and only the
hand of God kept him amid all the perils he en-
countered. But he continued his labors. In 1884
the Madero Institute, for the education of girls, was
founded by Mr. Powell. It accomplished an ex-
cellent service in a time when needed, but with the
advance of public educational facilities in the re-
public its work seemed to be unnecessary and it was

BAPTIST WORK IN CUBA 209

discontinued in 1898. In Saltillo also is the Zara-
gosa Institute, for boys and for training preach-
ers. The churches of the Southern Baptist mission
continued to increase, and before 1890 a line of
Baptist mission stations was established from the
Rio Grande, the boundary of Texas, to the Pa-
cific Ocean, and hundreds of converts were bap-
tized. Because of this growth it was thought ad-
visable to divide the mission into two, the North-
ern and the Southern, for greater facility of admin-
istration. The chief centers of the missions were, in
1899, at Saltillo and Torreon, in the State of Coa-
huila, at Zacatecas ; at Doctor Arroyo, in the State
of Nuevo Leon ; at Morelia, in the State of Micho-
acan ; and at Toluca, in the State of Mexico. The
last three form the South Mexican mission. Larger
prosperity has been experienced in the North Mexi-
can mission, which is also the older. In both mis-
sions there were, in 1900, one thousand two hundred
and thirty-two members in thirty-two churches.
The relations between the United States and the
neighboring republic, which must grow more inti-
mate year by year, emphasize the increasing im-
portance of Mexico as a field for the labors of
American Christians.

CUBA.

Upon the conclusion of the war between Spain
and the United States in 1899, by which the sov-
ereignty of Porto Rico and the protectorate of

210 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Cuba came to the latter, movements were at once
set on foot for the re-establishment of Baptist mis-
sion work in Cuba and the founding of a Baptist
mission in Porto Rico. A conference between spe-
cially appointed representatives of the American
Baptist Missionary Union and of the American
Baptist Home Mission Society to arrange an ami-
cable division of fields in the new United States pos-
sessions, allotted the Philippine Islands to the for-
eign mission society and Cuba and Porto Rico as
home mission fields. The very successful work
which the Home Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention had inaugurated in Havana and
Western Cuba made it proper that those fields should
be left to that Board, which was agreed upon in
a conference between its representatives and the
American Baptist Home Mission Society, the latter
taking the responsibility of maintaining Baptist
mission work in Eastern Cuba, including Santiago
de Cuba, and in Porto Rico. The work in Santiago,
under Rev. H. R. Moseley, met with marked en-
couragement, especially in the conversion from
Roman Catholicism of Dr. Jose P. Dikins, presi-
dent of the Pan-American Commercial and Ex-
press Company, who became at once an influential
advocate of his new faith. At the close of the
war the Home Mission Board of the Southern Bap-
tist Convention at once resumed its work in Cuba,
sending Rev. J. R. O'Halloran to Santiago. Great
success attended his labors. By January 1, 1899,

BAPTIST WORK IN PORTO RICO 211

he had baptized one hundred and fifty persons and
organized two churches. According to the division
of territory agreed upon tliis work was transferred
to the American Baptist Home Mission Society.
Rev. A. J. Diaz, m. d., whose marvelous story has
been given in the chapter on the Southern Baptist
Convention, for a time in the emph)yment of the
United States Government as interpreter, and later
in the service of the American Baptist Publication
Society, resumed his work in Havana under the
Southern Board, and he continued to experience the
great prosperity which had previously been given
to his labors. Matanzas, Santa Clara, and Piuar
del Rio have also been occupied for missionary
work, and from these four centers it is proposed to
extend the work until the whole portion of Cuba
allotted to the Southern Board shall be filled with
Baptist stations, centers of light in a fair but shad-
owed land.

PORTO RICO.

Rev. H. P. McCormick, for twelve years mis-
sionary of the Southern Baptist Convention in Mex-
ico, on January, 1899, was appointed the first Bap-
tist missionary to Porto Rico by the American Bap-
tist Home Mission Society, and was soon joined by
Rev. A. B. Rudd and Mrs. Janie P. Duggan. They
were received with favor by the people. But be-
cause of the destructive tornado which, in 1899,
devastated this beautiful island in common with

212 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

many other of the West Indies, and also in conse-
quence of the suffering brought upon the isk^nd by
the delay of the United States Government in estab-
lishing a settled order of finance and administra-
tion, the work of the missionaries was turned to re-
lief of the people. This opened the way in the
most favorable manner for the preaching of the
truth, and may be expected to lead to large spirit-
ual harvests in the future.

CHAPTER XXII

CIVILIZATION AND AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

THE indebtedness of science and civilization to
Baptist missions is large and important, but has
hitherto been made known only as the work of the
different fields lias been presented. The chief empha-
sis has been placed upon oral preaching of the gospel,
and the incidental advantages which have accrued to
the peoples of the various lands in which the mis-
sions have been maintained, and to the world at large
have scarcely been realized even by those well ac-
quainted with the progress of missions. Evangeli-
zation, and not civilization, has been the aim. But,
while the gospel has been preached and many hun-
dred thousand persons have been brought into the
kingdom of Christ, both these and many others have
received large and manifold blessings, the incidental
accompaniments of all work for the advancement of
the kingdom of Christ. That which raises and helps
any people is a blessing to the whole human race.
The reflex benefits of American Baptist missionary
work may be mentioned under seven different heads :
First, geography ; second, science ; third, languages ;
fourth, literature ; fifth, education ; sixth, social
improvement j and seventh, commerce.

213

214 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Geography. — The aid which exploration and the
science of geography have received from Baptist
missions has never been properly recognized. Adoui-
ram Judsou, the pioneer Baptist missionary of Amer-
ica, was also the first Protestant missionary to live
under an absolutely lieathen government in Asia.
Before him, the idea of Christian missions had been
to labor among heathen populations in colonies of
Christian governments. So Ziegenbalg and Schwartz
went to the Danish possessions in India ; Carey,
Marshman, and Ward, to the domains of the East
India Company and the Danish colony in Seram-
pore ; but Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann
Hasseltine, driven from the possessions of the East
India Company, and by the hand of Providence led
to Burma, heroically established themselves in resi-
dence and missionary work under the heathen gov-
ernment of that country, one of the w^orst that has
ever cursed any part of Asia. In this they set an
example which has been an inspiration to pioneer
missionaries in heathen lands in all subsequent
times. In their footsteps and under their inspiration
many others have followed, including such illustrious
names as John Williams, the martyr of Erromanga ;
David Livingstone, the heroic missionary and ex-
plorer of Africa ; and William Morrison, of China.

Judson's great services in opening Burma have
been followed by others of the Baptist missionaries.
Almost every missionary of the early days was to a
certain extent an explorer, and the geography of

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 215

the wild portions of Burma often became known to
tiie English officials through the reports and labors
of Baptist missionaries. Special reference should
be made to the early travels of Eugenio Kincaid in
Upper Burma. He penetrated to Mogaung, almost
to the mountains bordering on Assam, when he was
driven back by the natives and nearly lost his life
in his heroic pioneering exploration. The travels
of Josiah N. Gushing, D. D., in opening up Shan-
land, are well known to the scientific world, and
have received high appreciation from the British
Government and officials, who availed themselves of
his reports in planning their expeditions through
that country, and of his services as interpreter to
their exploring parties.

In most of the countries in which American
Baptist missions have been planted, explorers have
preceded the missionaries, except in some portions
of the Garo and Naga Hills, in Assam, where serv-
ices as explorers have been rendered by Rev. E. W.
Clark, Rev. M. C. Mason, and Rev. E. G. Phillips.
It is not until we come to Africa that we find addi-
tional large and eminent service to the science of
geography performed by our Baptist missionaries.
After Henry M. Stanley came down the Congo in
his famous journey " Through the Dark Continent,"
he began the construction of a road along the north
bank of the river, for the accommodation of the large
possibilities of commerce with the Upper Congo.
There the first stations of the Li vino-stone Inland

216 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Mission uere also established. But the members
of that mission saw more clearly than did Mr. Stan-
ley himself that the difficulties in the way by the
north bank of the river were so excessive as to be
almost prohibitive to an easy transport. They es-
tablished stations on the south side, first at Pala-
bala, then at Banza Manteke, and finally Doctor
Sims and Messrs. Banks and Petterson pushed on
and were the first white men to reach Stanley Pool
by the south side of the Congo. Their discovery,
which opened a way so much easier than along the
north bank, led to the abandonment of Mr. Stanley's
road, and for years since then all commerce has
passed from the lower to the upper river over sub-
stantially the way discovered by the raissionarien,
and running through the line of stations planted by
them. The railroad up the Congo also follows the
general contour of country adopted for their travel.

Physical Science. — The chief contribution made
by Baptist missionaries to physical science is un-
doubtedly the vast and exhaustive work of Francis
Mason, D. d., entitled " The People and Productions
of Burma." The preparation of this work furnished
the amusement and relaxation of his busy mission-
ary life, and was first published by private means.
Since the death of Doctor Mason it has been revised
by an eminent specialist and published by the Brit-
ish Government in a costly official edition. It still
remains as the standard authority, not only on the

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 217

ethnology but on the flora and fauna of Burma,
and holds a high rank among similar works of that
class.

It would be impossible to enumerate the exten-
sive services of Baptist missionaries in the collection
of scientific specimens for museums of various sorts
in this country. Probably few Baptist missionaries
to any land have ever gone forth without returning
with more or less valuable examples of the geology,
botany, entomology, etc, of the lands to which they
have gone. The physical departments and collec-
tions of every Baptist institution in this country
will testify to the diligence of the missionaries in
this respect. Few can be found where there are
not at least some contributions made by our Baptist
missionaries, and many institutions outside of Bap-
tist ranks have been glad to acknowledge their in-
debtedness to our missionaries for valuable contri-
butions to their scientific collections. If these scat-
tered contributions could be gathered in one, the
aggregate would be found to be a large and valuable
collection of objects of scientific value, illustrating
not only the geology and botany of various countries,
but all departments of scientific research, including
the chiefest of all sciences, ethnology and social life.

In this connection special mention ought to be
made of the large collections of scientific objects
brought from Central Africa by Mr. J. H. Camp,
who was for several years in charge of the mission
.steamer, the "Henry Reed," on the Upper Congo

218 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

River. Twice the Smithsonian Institution at Wash-
ington, D. C, sent out to him through the Ameri-
can Baptist Missionary Union, full collecting out-
fits and supplies, and on his last return to this
country he brought with him more than one hun-
dred cases of specimens illustrating the geology,
mineralogy, entomology, zoology, etc., of Central
Africa, as well as specimens of the valuable and
precious woods of those vast interior forests which
must be the supply for the civilized world in years
to come. The whole expense of the transport of
this collection was paid by the Smithsonian Insti-
tution.

Philology. — By the circumstances in which
they have been placed, the service of Baptist mis-
sionaries to linguistic science have been of peculiar
value and importance. Placed among many peo-
ples whose languages had never been reduced to
writing, they have performed this service in the
interests of the missionary work, and at the same
time added an immense store of information to com-
parative linguistic study. The brilliant achieve-
ments of Baptist missionaries in this work have
been widely acknowledged. In Burma alone the
number of languages reduced to writing embraces
the Sgaw-Karen and Pwo-Karen, as well as many
minor variations of these two leading dialects, such
as the Bwe, Paku, etc. The Chin language has
also been reduced to written form, and, last of all.

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 219

by the labors of Doctor Gushing, Rev. W. H.
Roberts, and especially Rev. Ola Hanson, who was
sent out for that particular work, the Kachin lan-
guage, spoken by several millions of people, has
been put into Avritten form, and a full system of
romanizing perfected, which has been accepted by
the government of British India. These linguistic
services in Burma alone liave been sufficient to earn
the gratitude of all scientists. In addition, we find
that in Assam the same service has been rendered,
and the dialect of the large, active Garo tribe has
been reduced to written form, and also two dialects
of the numerous and powerful Naga tribes — the
Angami and the Ao — while a beginning has been
made in several minor dialects, as the Mikir, etc.

In no other of the American Baptist mission
fields has this service been necessary except in
Africa, The various dialects of the Gongo people
are branches of the great Bantu group of languages,
but the variations in different localities are such
that each dialect can be understood only over a
limited area, and all printing, to be comprehended,
must be of different form for the varied dialects.
The Kikongo has been reduced to writing by vari-
ous persons, and Doctor Sims, of Leopoldville, who
has received the cross of the Legion of Honor from
the French Government, and has also been deco-
rated by the government of Belgium for his eminent
medical services, has made a dictionary of the
Kiteke, and also a vocabulary of the Kiyansi. Much

220 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

work in other Congo dialects has been done by other
missionaries, and similar services have been ren-
dered to the world by missionaries of the Southern
Baptist Convention in the Yoruba country of West
Africa.

Literature. — In enumerating the services of
Baptist missionaries to literature, the first place
must be given to Judson's translation of the Bible
into the Burman language. That language was
already in a written form when Judson went to
Burma, but no real attempt had been made to con-
nect it with the English, and no literature of West-
ern nations existed in the Burman tongue. Judson,
making his own vocabulary as he went along, made
a translation of the Bible into Burman, which has
done for that language what Luther's Bible did for
the German, and the translation of 1611 did for the
English tongue. The translation was so wonder-
fully accurate that but little revision has ever been
necessary, and the work of translation need never
be repeated. Doctor Judson also prepared an
English-Burman dictionary, which has been, and
still is, the standard work of that character. A
large amount of literature, religious and secular,
has been produced by Baptist missionaries in Burma,
especially in the way of tracts and school-books.
All the literature in the various Karen tongues owes
its existence entirely to the Baptist missionaries.
The whole Bible was translated into the Sgaw-

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 221

Karen dialect by Francis Mason, d. d. ; into the
Pwo-Karen by Rev. D. L, Brayton ; into Shan by
J. N. Gushing, D. d., who has also prepared a dic-
tionary of that language for Englisli readers. School-
books of all grades, from primary to scientific, philo-
sophical, and theological, have been brought forth
in great numbers by the missionaries, as well as a
vast quantity of religious literature which has been
circulated largely and freely among the people.

Passing to Assam, Dr. Nathan Brown, one of the
early Baptist missionaries in that country, enjoyed
the high privilege of first giving the New Testament
to the Assamese. Other books of the Bible were
translated by several missionaries, but the work of
completing the translation of the Old Testament,
and giving to the Assamese the full Bible, has been
in charge of Rev. A. K. Gurney for a number of
years. The translation is completed and the full
Bible in Assamese will be offered to the people in
1901. Aside from this may be mentioned the As-
samese English dictionary, prepared by Dr. Miles
Bronson ; and much work of revision and transla-
tion of Scriptures, tracts, and other religious litera-
ture has been done by Rev. P. H. INIoore, of Now-
gong. In Garo many portions of Scripture have
been prepared by Rev. M. C. Mason and Rev. E.
G. Phillips in the dialect of that enterprising peo-
ple, as well as school-books and other translations,
especially those made necessary by the progress of
their missionary work.

222 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Passing to India we find the whole New Testa-
ment translated and revised by Dr. Lyman Jewett,
in a form which is still in use in the Baptist mis-
sions among the Telugus. Their beautifnl language,
the Italian of India, has also been enriched with
other portions of Scripture, school-books, theologi-
cal works, and a large number of religious tracts
and smaller publications. In Burma, Assam, and
among the Telugus, religious periodicals in the ver-
nacular are prepared and issued regularly by the
missionaries, especially for the benefit of the Chris-
tian converts.

While the Chinese and Japanese were written
languages before the Baptist missionaries reached
those countries, yet a vast amount of work has been
done by them in the translation of the Scriptures
and the preparation of religious and secular litera-
ture. Rev. Josiah Goddard translated the whole
New Testament into the colloquial dialect of Ningpo
in a version which is still widely in use in that sec-
tion of China. His son, Rev. J. R. Goddard, com-
pleted the translation of the Old Testament and
the work of father and son was united in 1900, giv-
ing the whole Bible to the people of the Ningpo
district in the dialect read by the common people.
At Swatow, much work has been done by Dr. Wil-
liam Ashmore, Dr. S. B. Partridge, William Ash-
more, Jr., and others, in the translation of Scrip-
tures and preparation of religious literature along
the same lines. Dr. Nathan Brown, who first gave

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 223

the New Testament to the Assamese, later in life
became a missionary to Japan, and enjoyed the
unique distinction of having given the New Testa-
ment also to the Japanese in a version which is by
many considered to be the best in use among the
Japanese people. He led the way also in using the
kana, or pure Japanese native character, in printing,
the usual method of printing Japanese having been
so to interlard the Japanese characters with Chinese
as to make it difficult for the common people to
learn to read. Doctor Brown's example has had a
large influence upon Japanese printing, and the use
of Chinese characters is to be abolished in Japan,
and either Doctor Brown's method or the Roman
characters adopted for printing for the Japanese
people.

The same service which has been rendered to
the Karens of Burma and the hill tribes of Assam
by our Baptist missionaries, is now being rendered
for the people of the Congo by their Baptist brethren
in that region. The Gospels have been translated
into the Kikongo, the Kiteke, and other dialects,
and a beginning made in the preparation of school-
books, especially those of a primary character, for
these untaught but intelligent people. The services
which Baptist missionaries have rendered to the
various peoples among whom they have labored, by
the introduction of an elevated and elevating litera-
ture, both religious and secular, are inestimable,
and cannot be properly judged by the bare state-

224 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

nients wliicli have been given. How much of spirit-
ual and intellectual life has come and will come
from these services can only be rightly known by
the future development of those to whom they have
been given.

Education. — Next to the preaching of the gospel
and the translation of the Bible, schools must be con-
sidered as an important element of missionary work.
While American Baptist missionaries have never
placed the principal emphasis on schools as an evan-
gelizing agency, they have ever been ready and zeal-
ous in establishing and conducting schools for the
broadening and deepening of the religious interest
and the training of Christian workers who should be
prepared to labor intelligently and usefully among
their own people. In Burma, aside from the theo-
logical seminary at Insein, near Rangoon, which
has now been enlarged to include work for all
races, there is also in Rangoon a Baptist college in
affiliation with the University of Calcutta, and for
all the numerous races of Burma. The Sgaw-Karen
Normal and Industrial Institute at Bassein, and nu-
merous high schools at Rangoon, Moulmein, and at
other of the larger stations, the Baptist Mission Girls'
School at Kemendine in Rangoon, and the Morton
Lane Seminary at Moulmein, also the schools for
boys and girls of all the various races of Burma found
in every mission station, as at Tavoy, Toungoo,
Shwegyin, Henzada, Mandalay, etc., and the hun-

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 225

dretls of primary schools in the scattered villages
throughout the length and breadth of Burma, are
rendering a service to the civilizing and enlighten-
ing of the polyglot people of that country which
cannot be suitably estimated or described.

The same sort of work is being done on all the
mission fields. In Assam we find the high school
at Tura and the industrial school, which has also
done much for the Garo people. There are many
schools in all the Christian Garo villages, as well as
at the various missions stations, both in the plains
and on the hills. A school for training Christian
workers among the Nagas is maintained at Impur.

At the head of Baptist educational work in the
Telugu mission is the theological seminary at Rama-
patam, occupying one of the finest educational build-
ings in southern India, erected at a cost of fifteen
thousand dollars. The Baptist Mission College at
Ongole, established by the energy of Dr. John E.
Clough, has been affiliated with the Madras Uni-
versity as a second-grade college. The Bucknell
Memorial Industrial School, at Nellore, is a prom-
ising feature of the mission, as well as schools at all
the mission stations throughout the Telugu mis-
sion. The value of the education which these Bap-
tist mission schools has given to the peoples of
Burma, Assam, and India is fully recognized by the
government of India, which cordially appropriates
money for school buildings, as well as for the con-
duct of the school work every year.

226 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

In the missions in China there is a biblical school
at Shaohing, for the training of native preachers, a
biblical class at Swatow, also, for the same purpose,
a training school for Bible women, and schools for
Christian girls and boys at Swatow, Canton, Teng-
chow, Ningpo, Kiuhwa, and other places, which
are doing much to prepare the Christian converts
for that development of China which is sure to come
in the near future. As China recovers from the
social and political earthquake of 1900 the value
of the training acquired by the Christian converts
in Baptist and other mission schools will be recog-
nized and will bring them to the front ; and instead
of being despised and persecuted, as they now very
generally are, these Christians educated by the mis-
sionaries will be fitted to be leaders of their people
in the onward march of enlightenment and civiliza-
tion.

Baptist educational work in Japan is not yet ex-
tensive, but most excellent work is being done by
the Baptist theological seminary at Yokohama, in
the preparation of preachers for the Baptist mis-
sions. A Baptist academy has been established at
Tokyo, a boys' school in Osaka, and most excellent
service is being done for Japanese girls in the
Sarah Curtis Home at Tokyo, the Mary L. Colby
Home at Yokohama, in the Heinrich Memorial
Home at Chofu, a suburb of Shimonoseki in south-
western Japan, and at the Ella O. Patrick Home
in Sendai.

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 227

The educational force of the Baptist mission on
the Congo is represented by a biblical training
school at Banza Manteke for the preparation of
native preachers and evangelists, a normal school at
Lukunga for the training of teachers and Christian
workers, and a school at Leopoldville, under the care
of Doctor Sims, which combines both literary and
industrial features. Eight different tribes have been
represented at the same time in this school, the most
of them coming from the upper river, to which in
due time they will be fitted to return and become
leaders and centers of light among their own peo-
ple. There are also smaller schools at each of the
mission stations. The Yoruba mission sustains
schools needed for the education of the children of
Christians and the training of Christian helpers.
The excellent school for girls in connection with
the Southern Baptist mission, in Bahia, Brazil, has
already been mentioned, as well as the schools for
the higher education of young men and young
women at Saltillo, Mexico.

Sociology. — The advantages which accrue to
every nation through the presence of missionaries
are well known in every country and community
into which our Baptist missionaries have gone. They
have performed a service for the social improvement
of the people which has been widely and cordially
recognized by all those competent to form a judgment
in the matter. In Burma, the wild and oppressed

228 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

and scattered Karen tribes have been largely brought
to become obedient and loyal citizens through the
efforts of Baptist missions and the Karen Christians
connected with them. In speaking of the develop-
ment of the Karens of Burma, the Administration
Report for 1880-1881 says :

Foremost in this work have been American mission-
aries of the Baptist persuasion. There are now attached
to this communion no less than four hundred and fifty-
one Christian Karen parishes, most of whicli support
their own church, their own Karen pastor, and their own
parish school, and many of which subscribe considerable
suTns in money and kind for the furtherance of mission-
ary work among Karens and other hill races beyond the
British border. Christianity continues to spread among
the Karens to the great advantage of tlie commonwealth,
and the Christian Karen communities are distinctly more
industrious, better educated, and more law-abiding than
the Burman and Karen villages around them. The Karen
race and the British government owe a great debt to the
American missionaries who have, under Providence,
wrought this change among the Karens of Burma.

The same sort of service has been rendered by
Baptist missionaries wherever they have labored
among other wild tribes. In Assam, the Garos
have been reduced to order and submission to Brit-
ish authority largely through the influence of the
Baptist missionaries and the Christian converts.
Rev. E. W. Clark established his residence among
the Angami Nagas far in advance of government
outposts, and when the English annexed the Naga

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 229

territory, those in his immediate locality submitted
without opposition. Prof. Haraprasad Sastri, senior
professor of Sanscrit in the Presidency College,
Calcutta, says : " Christian missionaries of various
denominations have done much good in advancing
education, in reclaiming hill tribes, and giving shape
to their languages."

One of the most illustrious examples of social
improvement by missionary effort is found in its
effect upon the degraded outcaste population of
India. Of the fifty-five thousand converts of the
American Telugu mission, all but a very few belong
to the outcastes, who were despised and oppressed,
and, in fact, in practical slavery to the higher classes
and castes. The great multitude of these converts
have been but recently Avon to Christianity, and
Christian education has not had time to have its
full effect upon the most of them. Yet enough has
been done to show what Avill be the final influence
of this elevating force upon that people. Children
of Christian Telugu converts, trained in the mission
schools, the college, and theological seminary, come
out on a full intellectual equality with the proud
and haughty Brahma ns and members of the upper
castes. In conversation and in religious contro-
versy with tliese representatives of the despised out-
castes, the Brahman often finds himself at a dis-
advantage. His intellectual acumen and training
are in vain against the broad and trained intelli-
gence of these Christians. In the civil service ex-

230 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

arainations, the member of the upper caste finds
himself seated side by side with the despised out-
caste trained in Christian schools, and very fre-
quently, to his shame and indignation, finds the
coveted prize awarded to one whom he has consid-
ered beneath his contempt. The haughty Brahman
is humbled, his pride is brought low, and even in his
shame and anger he cannot help recognizing the
power of the Christian influence and the training
which has raised these despised outcastes to a rivalry
with himself in intelligence and power.

Another special influence of Christian training
and illustration of its power is found in the mis-
sions in Africa. The curse of the coast region of
Africa is the rum and gin introduced from civilized
countries. By his temperament the untaught Afri-
can is incapable of resisting the taste for alcoholic
liquors. The art of self-control is unknown to him.
Once he tastes alcohol it becomes his master, and it
is for this reason that the introduction of rum and
alcoholic liquors among the native peoples of Africa
means death and destruction to the people, and often-
times depopulation of whole districts. Against this
onrushing tide of destruction the only opposing in-
fluence which has been found to stand is the Chris-
tian convert. He has learned the art of self-control.
He has been taught the benefits of self-mastery ;
he has learned to subordinate selfish desires and
passions to higher thoughts and to nobler good ; and
it is safe to say that where rum is introduced on the

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 231

coast of Africa the only temperate people to be
found are the Christians. If Africa is to be saved
from the destruction of drunkenness, that twin curse
to African slavery, the salvation must come through
the converts of the Christian missions. In this
respect our American Baptist missionaries are ren-
dering most noble service. Total abstainers them-
selves, as being connected with an American mission,
they insist on total abstinence on the part of the
native converts ; and wherever the heathen about
them are capable of appreciating social order, pros-
perity, health, and happiness, their example and in-
fluence will have a profound effect for good upon
all the peoples of Africa.

Commerce. — The influence of Christian missions
in the development of trade is at the present time
Avell understood. Wherever missionaries go the
character of the people is elevated, and their de-
mands are increased. As one missionary says,
" The first call of a convert from heathenism is for
clean clothes and a better house." The spirit of
the gospel is a spirit of order. The missionary work
is a standing illustration of the truth that " cleanli-
ness is next to godliness." In all countries where
Baptist missionaries have gone, they have had a
pronounced effect on the development of trade with
the natives. The Karens as a heathen people have
almost no wants which they cannot themselves
supply. They build their own simple houses,

232 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

make their own clothing, and provide their own
food. The introduction of Christianity among
tlie Karens is an example of its effects upon any
people of a similar wild and degraded character.
The Karens are not deficient in business enterprise,
nor are they lacking in men of property and wealth.
Converted to Christianity, these men have demanded
better homes ; others around them become desirous
of the same. Their clothing becomes more ample,
and of a better character. No longer are their sim-
ple and rude arts able to supply their wants. All
the Christian communities in Burma are on the way
to development to the condition of the Karen Chris-
tian communities in Bassein. This is a model and
a standard for the social effects of missionary work.
Here we find a people, formerly wild and savage,
become a prosperous, orderly, and enterprising com-
munity. Their churches they have built by their
own means ; their schools are largely supported by
themselves ; for their normal and industrial insti-
tute they have built a fine and ample building,
called the Kothabyu Memorial Hall, and this school,
largely maintained by their own resources, turns
out every year teachers and artisans fitted to labor
for the development of their own people. They
conduct a lumber business, with a sawmill, having
all the improved facilities of civilized commerce.
This mill is a public enterprise, and all its income
is devoted to the maintenance of their school.
Here we find a brilliant and impressive illustra-

CIVILIZATION AND BAPTIST MISSIONS 233

tion of what Christianity will do for the lowest of
peoples.

The whole business of Burma in all departments
has also received an immense impetus from the
labors of Baptist missionaries and the converts they
have gathered. Meclianical and agricultural im-
plements are imported from America ; clothing of
every sort is demanded ; the arts of the printing
presses are brought into use ; the improved houses
required by the people, as well as the schoolhouses
and churches which they erect, create a demand for
builders' hardware and other materials, and there is
hardly a line of the manufacturers of civilized lauds
wliich is not required to some extent by the con-
verts gained from heathenism.

What is true of Burma is true also of Assam in
a less degree, and of the converts in every heathen
country. Civilization will not produce Christian-
ity, but Christianity always produces civilization.
Wherever the missionary goes, there follows an in-
crease of trade. This is true in China, in Japan,
but more especially of the Christian converts start-
ing from a lower state, as among the hill tribes of
Burma, Assam, and the peoples of Africa. Here
in Africa a larger commerce will find its chief en-
couragement from Christian missions. Secular com-
merce seeks its own aim and the largest profit.
It seeks to obtain the productions of Africa at the
lowest cost, and to pay for them as largely as possi-
ble in alcoholic liquors. This policy is sure de-

234 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

struction to every form of legitimate commerce. It
depopulates the country, ruins the people, renders
them drunken, worthless, lazy. A section of country
treated in this way soon ceases to yield any possi-
ble profit to those who have introduced the means
of destruction. Even the governments of large por-
tions of Africa are now finding it necessary to pro-
hibit the importation of alcohol in the interests of
commerce alone. Only vigorous, healthy, enter-
prising peoples can be of assistance in the develop-
ment of the commerce of Africa. If rum goes in
trade goes out. In the development of a larger
trade in the Congo Valley, and other parts of Africa,
the Baptist missionaries are rendering and will ren-
der most judicious and helpful service, and their
contributions toward commerce in the highest and
best sense are larger than can be estimated in figures.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

THE diversified missionary activities of the Bap-
tists of the United States, as described in the
preceding pages, although experiencing abundant
prosperity, yet because of the separation of interests
involved, have never made that impression upon the
religious world which their importance would justify.
The American Baptist Missionary Union has long
stood at the head of the foreign missionary societies
of the world in the number of converts gathered
into its mission churches, but is ranked as the eighth
among the large missionary societies of the world in
point of income. It has even been attempted to
show that the Baptists of America are divided into
several denominations because of their separation in
missionary work, and the head of the religious de-
partment of the United States census in 1890 actu-
ally reported the Baptists of this country as three
denominations. It is easily discovered, however,
that there is no real foundation for such a division,
since all the churches are one in polity, both mem-
bers and pastors are transferred among the churches
without any of the formalities which exist in passing
from one denomination to another, and to all intents

235

236 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

and purposes they are one denomination. It is also
easily discovered that if diversity of missionary ac-
tivities should be held to form a denominational
distinction, the Baptists of the United States must
be divided not only into two or tliree, but into seven
or eight different denominations, since there are at
least this number of separate and independent mis-
sionary societies enjoying the peculiar loyalty and
support of the Baptists in different portions of the
country. It is greatly to be regretted that the
authority of the United States census has been given
to so unjust and unwarranted a division of those who
are really one.

The separation in missionary activities has also
operated to cause the benevolent contributions of
Baptists to appear smaller than they really are. In
other denominations, where we find the whole de-
nominational effort in foreign missions and in home
missions concentrated into one society, which not
only carries on all the foreign missions, but all home
mission work of every character, with perhaps a
separate Board for educational work, and a few
other minor societies, the contributions are massed
in a sura which appears large in comparison with
the receipts of even the largest of our Baptist mis-
sionary societies. In order to stand on a parity
with other denominations, the contributions of the
Baptists of the United States for the two foreign
missionary societies, the American Baptist Mission-
ary Union and the Foreign Mission Board of the

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 237

Southern Baptist Convention, should be consoli-
dated, including the contributions to the woman's
foreign missionary societies; and the contributions
for home missions should include not only the re-
ceipts of the American Baptist Home Mission
Society, and the Home Mission Board of the
Southern Baptist Convention, and Missionary De-
partment of the American Baptist Publication Soci-
ety, but the combined receipts of the Baptist Con-
ventions of all the States and Territories, and the
multitude of other missionary societies, none of
which are reported in the general denominational
statistics, but all of which represent activities which
are included in the home mission work of the larger
Boards of other denominations which, because of
this combination, have been supposed to contrib-
ute more largely to home as well as to foreign
missions than do the Baptists. If, however, all the
sums contributed to similar work as that reported
in the larger societies of other religious bodies were
added together in one sum it would be found that, so
far as can be gathered, for the year 1899, for exam-
ple, the entire contributions of Baptists for missionary
purposes amounted to the grand total of one million
nine hundred and fifty-three thousand seventy-eight
dollars and twenty-nine cents, a sum in excess of the
largest contributions for similar purposes reported
by any other religious denomination in the United
States. This is only for current benevolent pur-
poses, and does not include contributions to educa-

238 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

tional and other institutions for endowment, nor the
income of the multitude of city missions and other
enterprises of that character supported by Baptists.
After a careful study through a series of years, it is
the conviction of the writer that in regard to the
amount contributed for benevolence, the Baptist de-
nomination does, as a matter of fact, stand first in
the United States. Of the above amount, seven
hundred and thirty-six thousand one hundred and
twelve dollars and twenty-eight cents was given for
foreign missionary work, and one million two hun-
dred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and sixty-
six dollars and one cent for missions in the United
States.

In this volume an attempt has been made first to
tell the story of American Baptist missions as begun
and carried on under the name of the General Mis-
sionary Convention, then to give an account of the
founding of the other missionary societies of the Bap-
tists in this country, and to indicate the lines of work
in the foreign missionary enterprise to which each
of these societies addressed itself, and finally to give
as full and comprehensive a history as the limits of
the volume would allow of the later years of the
missions of American Baptists on the different fields,
combining in one view the operations of various so-
cieties which are engaged upon the same field. The
narrative covers a period of only eighty-eight years ;
but what a marvelous growth from the small, weak,
and disunited body of Baptists in America in 1812

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 239

to the magnificent denomination of 1 900 ! Then there
was not a single institution or interest which engaged
the attention of all the Baptists in this country.
Now six theological seminaries and a multitude of
colleges and other schools of a lesser grade indicate
the growth in educational lines from one college,
now known as Brown University, to the present
large development. In churches and denomina-
tional strength the Baptists stand among the first
in the country, and by means of their great and
powerful missionary organizations, they exercise a
potent influence in the religious activities of the en-
tire world.

On April 23, 1900, there died in the city of
Rangoon, Burma, a missionary at the age of ninety-
two years, whose life more than spanned the entire
period covered by American Baptist foreign mis-
sions. At the birth of Rev. Durlin L. Brayton,
both his nation and his denomination were weak
and insignificant among the civil and religious forces
of the M'orld. He lived to see his country advance
from a little people, not yet wholly freed from the
domination of the mother country and without influ-
ence in the world at large, to a powerful nation of
seventy millions of people, whose word is acknowl-
edged to carry the balance of power in the delicate
international questions pending among the nations
of the earth. He saw his denomination spring with
almost startling rapidity from its despised position
among the religious bodies of America to hold a

240 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

foremost position, not only at liome but in world-
wide missionary work in all the earth. He entered
upon his missionary labors the same year that Queen
Victoria was raised to the throne of Great Britain
and Ireland, and saw the small area of British
possessions in India extended to cover the entire
peninsula of Hindustan, with the added provinces
of Burma and Assam, and the title, " Empress of
India," added to that of "Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland." When he entered the missionary field
the countries open to Christian missions were few, and
the labors of the missionaries were surrounded with
immense difficulties, manifold perils, and obstacles
apparently almost insurmountable. He lived to see
every nation of importance on the face of the earth
open to the labors of the messengers of Christ, the
powerful and dominant religions of Asia gradually
lading before the increasing splendor of the Sun of
Righteousness, to view the nations of the earth
largely subdued to the power and influence of na-
tions bearing the name of Christ, and to behold the
religion of Jesus Christ established as the leading
and dominant religion of the earth, by which not
only the laws and customs of Christian nations and
their intercourse with each other are shaped, but to
the principles of which the legislation and political
conduct of even pagan nations were compelled, in
some measure, at least, to conform. If any prophet,
pointing to the little boy among the green hills of
Vermont, had ventured at that time to predict one-

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 241

half of the growth of the United States in power, in
wealth, and in the appliances of civilization, or the
splendid progress of the religion of Jesus Christ in its
missions and its influence among the nations of the
earth, and had named the results which this history
has shown to have been achieved by the Baptist
denomination at home and abroad, he would have
been esteemed as unworthy of attention and as in-
dulging in the wildest vagaries manufactured out of
the stuff that dreams are made of.

In view of the marvelous development of Chris-
tian missions in the United States of America, and
of the spread of Christianity and civilization through-
out the nations of the world, who will dare venture
to predict what may be seen by the boy now living
among the hills of New England ? Even before the
beginning of the twentieth century, China, the only
great and powerful purely pagan nation remaining
in the earth, lies at the feet of the leading Christian
powers. The future of her government, her social
and commercial development, and largely her relig-
ious progress, is to be indicated by those who bear
the name of Christ. It has often been said that
with China Christian two-thirds of the battle for
the world-wide extension of the kingdom of Jesus
Christ would be won. Considering the marvelous
progress, especially in the latter half of the nine-
teenth century, what may not, on the most reason-
able anticipations, be predicted of the twentieth?
Long before its first half shall have passed away,

Q

242 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

shall not the vision of the prophet be realized when
a nation shall be born in a day, and the brightest
visions of the Old Testament prophets, and even of
the book of Revelation, be realized? In view of
the triumph of the gospel in the nineteenth century,
there are substantial grounds for the assurance, so
cheering to every servant of Christ, that long before
the close of the twentieth century the era shall dawn
when the Redeemer of the world shall become the
King of nations, and " to him every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

APPENDIX A

ENGLISH BAPTISTS AND THEIR MISSIONS

WHILE American Baptists form by far the larger
portion of the Baptist body in the world, num-
bering more than four millions in the United States,
the Baptists occupy an important and influential
position in Great Britain, and number between
three hundred and fifty and four hundred thousand.
They are divided into two bodies, the General Bap-
tists and the Particular Baptists, both holding to
immersion as the only form of baptism, the General
Baptists being somewhat freer in their views in
regard to the Communion, but resembling the Bap-
tists in the United States in a general Calvinistic
trend in their theological attitude ; while, on the
other hand, the Particular Baptists are more strict
in their views in regard to the Lord's Supper, but
tend toward Arminian views in theology. For
many years these two bodies conducted their foreign
missionary work separately ; but a feAV years ago the
society of the Particular Baptists was amalgamated
with the English Baptist Missionary Society, the
pioneer of modern missionary societies, formed at
Kettering in 1792. This society, therefore, repre-

243

244 APPENDIX A

sents the entire Baptist body of Great Britain in its
foreign missionary work.

The largest missions of the society are in India ;
but it has also an important work in China, in the
Congo Free State, West Africa, in the West Indies,
in France, in Italy, and in Palestine.

The missions in India have about seventy-five
missionaries and one hundred and twenty-five native
evangelists. The college founded by William Cai'ey
at Serampore is still maintained as an institution for
the training of native miuisters under this society,
and the native churches in the vigorous and grow-
ing mission have recently established the Indian
Baptist Missionary Society for aggressive work
under native auspices in various parts of India.
This society now has branches in the Northwest
Provinces, in Bengal, East Bengal, and Orissa. It
is entirely supported by contributions from the
native churches and already employs four native
missionaries. A printing press is maintained at
Calcutta, the continuation of that established by
William Carey at Serampore, in which a large
amount of religious printing is done, not only for the
English Baptist Society but for the American Bap-
tist Missionaiy Union and other bodies maintaining
missions in India. Several Anglo-Indian Baptist
churches are in affiliation with the missions of this
society, which also has a special work among the
natives who speak English. The Orissa mission of
this society is of special interest to American Bap-

APPENDIX A 245

tists, as being that with which Rev. Amos Sutton
was couuected, whose address at the meeting of the
General Missionary Convention at Richmond, in
1835, was the means of establisliing the American
Baptist Telugu Mission. The society also maintains
an extremely interesting mission in Ceylon, where
an affiliated body has been formed called the Ceylon
Baptist Union.

The missions of English Baptists in China are
located in the provinces of Shangtung, Shensi, and
Shansi. The whole work has been conducted with
great vigor and success, employing about thirty mis-
sionaries and more than one hundred and fifty native
evangelists. A large amount of self-support and
native management had been developed in connec-
tion with these missions before the terrible events
of the year 1900 in China, which resulted in the
entire removal of the missionary force, as all three
of these fields were located in the centers of great-
est disturbance. About ten of the missionaries be-
came martyrs for the gospel at the hands of the
murderous mobs, and like all other missions, the
situation of the English Baptist work in China at
the close of 1900 was in abeyance awaiting the
developments of the future.

The English Baptist mission in the Congo Free
State has been the most aggressive in advance
toward the interior and in exploration of any of the
missions on that field. Especially Rev. George
Grenfell has done more exploring in the region of

246 APPENDIX A

the Upper Congo Valley than any other one man,
and perhaps more than all others together, with the
exception of the officers of the Congo Free State.
By special request of the king of Belgium, Mr.
Grenfell was released from missionary duties for a
time that he might become commissioner of the
State in the delimitation of the frontier between the
Congo State and the Portuguese territories adjoin-
ing. The mission occupies ten stations, extending
from Matadi in Lower Congo, and San Salvador in
Portuguese Congo, to Yakusu at Stanley Falls, in
Central Africa. This mission has been conducted
with great good-will in connection with the Congo
mission of the American Baptist Missionary Union,
and in many ways, especially in regard to steamer
transportation on the Upper Congo, both missions
have been able to afford assistance one to the other.
American Baptists have to acknowledge with grati-
tude many favors which the English Baptist mis-
sion, with their two steamers, the " Peace " and
" Good Will," have been able to afford the Ameri-
can Baptist mission on the Congo.

The West Indies missions of the English Bap-
tists report about thirty-five thousand church-mem-
bers and have largely become self-supporting, espe-
cially those in Jamaica and in the Bahama group
are entirely so, with the exception of assistance af-
forded to Calabar College, in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Jamaica Baptist Union has been in existence
fifty years, has held its annual meeting with regu-

APPENDIX A 247

larity throughout the half-century, and been of great
aid in the development of Baptist work on that
island.

English Baptist work in France is confined to
Brittany, and engages the attention of but one mis-
sionary with six native evangelists, while the mis-
sions in Italy are more extended, embracing a very
successful mission in Rome itself, also the missions
in North Italy, in the Tuscan district, the whole
comprising six missionaries, with twelve native
evangelists.

An exceedingly interesting feature in English
Baptist missions is that at Nablous, near Jacob's
Well, in Palestine, maintained by Rev. El. Karey,
with sub-stations at Samaria and five other places.
]VIr. and Mrs. Karey have suffered much persecu-
tion, but still continue their work, and much is
being done by the maintenance of a prosperous girls'
school, where the future mothers of the district are
trained in principles of Christianity.

APPENDIX B

CANADIAN BAPTISTS AND tHEIB MISSIONS

THE Baptists of Canada, who number about one
hundred thousand, have two foreign mission-
ary societies, that of the Maritime Provinces, in-
cluding Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince
Edward Island, and the Ontario Board, which is
also supported by the Baptists in Quebec, Manitoba,
and the Northwest Territory, as well as the province
of Ontario. The missions of these two societies,
however, are practically one, occupying a field of
the Telugu territory of southeastern India, north of
the mission of the American Baptist Missionary
Union. They have felt the influence of the large
ingathering experienced by the American mission.
A very successful theological seminary is maintained
at Simnlcotta, and the missions are well organized,
co-operating with each other in every respect as if
under the administration of one Board, and uniting
with the American mission in a Quinquennial Con-
vention for the consideration and better prosecution
of Baptist mission work among the Telugu people.
The native papers and Sunday-school lessons pre-
pared by the American mission are used in common

248

APPENDIX B 249

by the Canadian laborers and mission churches. For
all practical purposes the missions of the three so-
cieties might be considered as one eifective force for
the propagation of the gospel among the Telugus.
Since 1911 the two Canadian Baptist Foreign Mis-
sionary Societies have been united in one.

APPENDIX C

BAPTISTS IN AUSTRALASIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

ACOIMPLETE view of Baptists in the world
outside of the United States, will also include
the very respectable and vigorous body of Baptists
in Australasia, including Australia, Tasmania, and
New Zealand, where they now number nearly twenty
thousand. Several large and important churches
are found in the principal cities of Australia, while
the Baptists of New Zealand have shown nuich
energy and vigor in their work. Australian Bap-
tists also maintain an independent and separate mis-
sion of their own in Bengal, India, which, however,
is working in complete harmony and co-operation
with the English Baptist mission in that province of
British India.

In South Africa Baptists number somewhat more
than three thousand, covering the territories for-
merly known as Cape Colony, the Orange Free
State, and Transvaal, with one church at James-
town, on the island of St. Helena, which is affiliated
with the South African Baptist Union. They have
a periodical called the " South African Baptist," and
in the rapid development which will come to this
250

APPENDIX C 251

territory, Baptists will undoubtedly sliare. During
the war between the English government and the
Transvaal Republic the work of the Baptist churches,
especially in the Transvaal and the Orange Free
State, was entirely interrupted, and the circulation
of " The South African Baptist " was necessarily
suspended for a period of six months, as it was im-
possible to distribute the paper to its subscribers on
account of the interruption and disorganization of
the mail facilities. Several of the Baptist pastors
were compelled to leave their fields, but a number
heroically remained, although without the promise
of support, and ministered to the sick and wounded,
and the prisoners. Several entered the Ambulance
Corps of the British army, and one Baptist pastor
was wounded at the battle of Spion Kop. With
the restoration of peace the work of the churches
was largely resumed, and the Baptists of South
Africa look forward with hope and confidence to
aggressive and prosperous Avork under better auspices
than have prevailed in the past.

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CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT

TWO HEROIC MISSIONARY PIONEERS

THE honor of establishing the first Protestant
Christian mission in a heathen land, under
a purely heathen government and amid absolutely
heathen surroundings, belongs to Adoniram Jud-
son and his heroic wife, Ann Hasseltine. Some
Roman Catholic missionaries had, with great devo-
tion, exposed themselves to the perils of life in
purely pagan lands from the time of Francis
Xavier. There were also Protestant missionaries
to the heathen before Adoniram Judson; but
they all began their labors amid certain helpful
surroundings of civilization. The occupation of
posts in Southwestern India by the Danes opened
the way for Bartholomew Ziengenbalg and Chris-
tian Frederick Schwartz, the pioneers of Christian
missions in India. The operations of the East
India Company in Bengal and the establishment of
their political power and commercial operations
were the magnets which drew to India John
Thomas, and after him William Carey. Driven
from the possessions of the East India Company,
they simply removed to Serampore, twelve miles
from Calcutta, which was then under the control of
the King of Denmark. Even in Burma there were

253

254 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

missionaries before the Jiulsons. Messrs. Chater
and Mardon, Engfish missionaries, had gone from
Calcutta to Rangoon and begun missionary oper-
ations, but they retired from the field discouraged
by the dangers and difficulties of the attem])t.
Doctor Carey's son, Felix, had also entered upon
missionary labors in Burma, but at the time of the
arrival of the Judsons he had been called to Ava to
render advice to the King of Burma, whose service
he afterward entered, retiring completely from mis-
sionary work. It was the peculiar glory of the
Judsons not only to enter Burma, but to endure
bravely a life of privations and perils amid the
barbarous surroundings of Burman heathenism.
They steadfastly persevered, even when other mis-
sionaries associated with them retired from the
field ; and in the providence of God firmly estab-
lished the great Christian mission in Burma, the
first to be begun and maintained in its early years
amid absolutely heathen surroundings.

The heroism of Mr. and Mrs. Judson is greatly
emphasized by the dread of Burma, which had been
inspired by what they had learned of that land and
its people. Such had been the accounts of the wick-
edness and cruelties of the Burman officials and
people, that Mr. Judson writes: "A mission to
JRangoon we had been accustomed to regard with
feelings of horror." And Mrs. Judson writes, after
arrival at Rangoon : " It is not three months since
I looked at this situation with all that dread and

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 255

horror which you can imagine." Yet when their
only choice lay between an easy acquiescence in
the decision of the East India Company to return
them to England and a life in a country which Mrs.
Judson called "a land of darkness and the shadow of
death," they unhesitatingly and eagerly decided for
Burma.

Another element which gives the heroic character
of this act an added luster is the fact that the Jud-
sons went to Burma, committing themselves to the
tender mercies of the heathen, when as yet they had
no assurance of support in their work, or even pro-
vision for their lives. In becoming Baptists they
knew that they severed their connection with the
body which had sent them forth. They no longer
looked to the American Board, and they had not yet
learned the response of American Baptists to their
appeals, through Luther Rice, for support. At
Rangoon they were almost wholly cut off from com-
munication with the civilized lands. Although
they arrived there in July, 1813, they did not write
to America until January 7, 1814, six months after
reaching Burma, since there was no means of com-
munication in all that time. Even then they were
obliged to send their letters to England, in the hope
that peace might have been declared between that
country and the United States, and means would be
found to forward their letters to their friends. Seldom
had they any news from civilized lands. Mrs. Jud-
son writes : " You can hardly form an idea with

256 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

what eagerness we receive every scrap of intelli-
gence from any part of the civilized world."
For two years and a half they were without intelli-
gence from America. Utterly separated not only
from friends but from every possible help from their
former associates in civilization, they were yet calm
and hopeful in their work. Mr. Judson writes that
he was studying the Burman language, " trusting
that for all the future 'God will provide.' We
have this consolation that it was the evident dispen-
sation of God that brought us to this country, and,
still further, that if the world was all before us
... we should not desire to leave Burma."

Of the sufferings which they endured in this
pagan land, and the tremendous struggle which it
cost them to maintain their infant mission among
the Burmans, the whole Christian world is already
fully informed. The house which they occupied
was outside of the walls of the city of Rangoon, in
a district infested with numerous bands of robbers
and murderers, and they were daily exjwsed to
peril of insult and nightly to danger of robbery and
murder. They afterward removed their home within
the city, where there was more security, but a great
fire, which destroyed about one-third of the town,
again compelled them to go outside of the walls.
How they escaped the numerous perils from tlie
savage people and from the cruel whims of the
officials cannot be explained, except that the hand
of the Lord delivered them.

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 257

After a short time Mr. and Mrs. Judson were
joined by other missionaries. At one period it be-
came necessary for Mr. Judson to go to Avakeu to
endeavor to obtain native assistants. He expected
to be absent only a few weeks, but a storm drove
his vessel to the coast of India, and the privations
endured on board brought him to the verge of the
grave. During his absence of more than three
months there was such a disturbance among the
Burmans that the missionaries who were there all
left the country and abandoned the mission, with
the exception of Mrs. Judson, who, single-handed
and alone, heroically resolved to remain in that hos-
tile land, to maintain the mission and to await the
return of her husband. Almost unparalleled dan-
gers threatened the infant mission ; but, maintained
by the courage and consecration of its founders, it
survived the perils of its earlier years, and has
become one of the brightest ornaments in the vic-
torious crown of the church of Christ on earth. The
Burman Mission stands as the perpetual memorial
of Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine Judson, the first
Protestant missionaries to a purely pagan land.

CENTENNIAL DATES IN AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

1812.

February 6. Adoniram Judson and four other Con-
gregationalists were ordained in Salem, destined
to establish an American mission in the East.

February 7. Initial steps were taken in the First

R

258 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Baptist Churcli of Salem to form a Baptist auxil-
iary to Carey's work at Serampore.

February 18. Rev. Luther Rice and Messrs. Nott
and Mills sailed from Philadelphia, in the Har-
mony, for Calcutta, India.

February 19. The American Board missionaries,
Adoniram Judson and Samuel Newell, with their
wives, sail out of Salem Harbor on the "Cara-
van," bound for Calcutta.

April 23. In the First Baptist Church was formed
the Salem Bible Translation and Foreign Mission
Society to aid Eastern translations principally,
and possibly to assist in sending a missionary
from America to India — the first Baptist society
formed to promote foreign missions.

May (date of course unknown). Judson began
study of the subject of baptism.

June 17. The ship "Caravan" arrived at Calcutta.

August 27. Judson communicates to English mis-
sionaries his changed views, and requests immer-
sion for himself and wife.

August 31. Wrote a letter to Thomas Baldwin,
D. D., pastor of Second Baptist Church, Boston,
acknowledging the helpfulness of his book on
baptism and enclosing a copy of the letter above
referred to.

September 1. Wrote the secretary of the American
Board, advising him of his changed views, and
proposal to obtain scriptural baptism, at the same
time formally resigning his appointment.

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 259

Wrote a letter to Doctor Baldwin enclosing
a copy of the above letter, and indicating his
willingness to become the missionary of a Baptist
society in America, should such be formed.

Wrote a letter to Rev. Lucius Bolles, of Salem,
Mass., referring to interview before his sailing,
advising of his changed views, revealing his new
plans, and throwing himself on the sympathies of
his new " Baptist brethren in the United States."

September 6. Judson and his wife immersed in
the Lai Bazar Chapel, Calcutta, by Rev. William
Ward.

September 19. "Tartar" sails for Boston with let-
ters conveying these startling announcements.

October 20-22. Letters written by Judson, Rice,
Carey, and Marshman to Baptists in Boston,
New York, and Philadelphia, announcing the
changed views of Luther Rice and proposing the
establishment of an American Baptist Mission
in the East.

November 1. Rev. Luther Rice baptized in Cal-
cutta by Rev. William Ward.

November 30. Judson, Rice, and Mrs. Judson,
now Baptists, leave Calcutta, at the order of East
India Company.

1813.

January 17. Arrive at Isle of France, off Mada-
gascar.
January 19. "Tartar" arrives in Boston, with let-

260 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

ters written on September first, bringing news of
the change in the Judsous' situation.

January 25. Union Missionary Concert started in
Boston.

January 31. Public Anniversary of the Salem
Bible Translation and Foreign Mission Society,
with aroused enthusiasm to assume the tasks
providentially set before it.

February 8. Baptist Society for Propagating the
Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts formed
in Boston.

March 4. Money voted by Salem Society for For-
eign Missions for Carey and for Judson.

March 5. Letter from above Society to Baptist
Missionary Society of England, requesting Jud-
son's appointment by that society, the Boston
Society to contribute to his support.

March 15. Luther Rice, by mutual agreement be-
tween Judson and himself, sails from Isle of
France for United States, via St. Salvador.

N. B. While Boston Baptists are formulating
a policy of administration for sustaining Judson,
the future organizer of American Baptist Mis-
sions is sailing toward his stupendous task.

May 6. Letter from the society to Judson announ-
cing the decision appointing him as its mission-
ary. Thus American Baptists about Boston
formally assumed definite foreign missionary
obligations.

May 7. Judson and wife left Isle of France.

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 261

June 4. Arrive at Madras.

June 22. Sail from Madras for Rangoon.

July 13. Arrive after tempestuous voyage at Ran-
goon, Burma.

September. Luther Rice arrives in Boston. Con-
ference with leaders of the new society in Boston.

October. First annual meeting of the society.
About one thousand dollars had been raised for
the purposes of the society.

October 28. Baptist Missionary Society of Vir-
ginia formed at Richmond, Va.

December 1. A Baptist Missionary Society formed
in Philadelphia.

December 17. Savannah Baptist Society for For-
eign Missions organized in Savannah, Ga.

1814.

February 21. The Baptist Foreign Missionary
Society of New York organized.

February-April. Twelve other local Baptist Mis-
sionary Societies formed in various parts of the
United States.

May 18. Formation at Philadelphia of « The
General Missionary Convention of the Baptist
Denomination in the United States of America
for Foreign Missions." (See pp. 9-19.)

CENTENNIAL OBSERVANCES

The centennial of the permanent establishment of
the First Modern Christian Mission in a purely

262 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

pagan country by Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine
Judson will be appropriately observed both in
America and in Burma. In the United States the
centennial observances will follow the locations and
dates given in the preceding list of centennial dates,
and the most noteworthy of these dates will be ob-
served by Baptist churches throughout the country,
culminating in the anniversary of the American
Baptist Foreign Mission Society in Boston, Mass.,
in May, 1914.

The centennial of most peculiar interest will,
however, occur in Rangoon, Burma, in the cele-
bration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the
landing of the Judsons in that city, July 13, 1813.
Because of the hot season, which precludes all un-
usual exertions in July and during the summer
months, the celebration is jDostpoued until 'the
autumn. This is especially for the benefit of the
visitors from America, of whom it is expected there
will be a large number. A party is announced to
sail from San Francisco August 23, 1913, to reach
Burma by way of Japan, China, and the PhilijD-
pines, and another party will sail from Boston
in October, both meeting in Rangoon, Burma, in
November, for the elaborate series of celebrations
which are being arranged. These will include not
only proper observances in Rangoon in commemora-
tion of the centennial, but journeys to the principal
mission stations in Burma, making the American
visitors familiar with the methods, difficulties, and

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 263

successes of practical missionary work. These visits
and the inspiration afforded by them cannot fail to
arouse a deeper and more widely spread interest in
missions among the churches at home.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONS SINCE 1900

Burma.

Since the publication of the first edition of this
history, in 1900, the growth of the Baptist missions
in Burma has not been rapid. Only four new
stations have been established : at Kengtung, Pyin-
mana, Taunggyi, and Pyapon. Only one of these
may be considered an advance movement, that
at Kengtung on the border of China, which repre-
sents the new interest in the gospel among the
Shans and other wild tribes of that region. The
other stations are divisions of other fields made
necessary by the growth in the number of converts.
The advance in the missions in Burma continues to
be chiefly among the Karens and other tribes. The
Burmans as yet resist the gospel. In connection
with the Judsou centennial celebration an effort
is being made to raise the number of converts
in Burma to one hundred thousand, and the contri-
butions of native Christians to one hundred thou-
sand rupees. Of the nine hundred and sixteen
churches in Burma, seven hundred and seventeen
are entirely self-supporting, a record unequaled in
the history of Christian missions.

264 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

Assam.

Two new stations have been opened in Assam ;
one at Jorhat, for the immigrants that come from
other parts of India to work in the flourishing tea-
gardens of Assam. The training-school for native
preachers in the Assam Valley is also located here.
The other new station is at Sadiya, the most ad-
vanced post in northeastern Assam. It is worthy
of note that the first Baptist missionaries to Assam
established themselves at Sadiya; but the station
was abandoned in 1839 as being too far from the
base of supplies, and is only now reopened. The
latest, and a very interesting, feature of the mission
in Assam is the return of Rev. William E. Witter,
D. D., a former missionary, but for many years Dis-
trict Secretary of the Society for New England.
Doctor Witter goes out to establish a special gospel
work among the hundreds of students in the Gov-
ernment University at Gauhati. He finds a large
and hopeful opening for his labors. Educational
work in Assam is well planned.

India.

The continued growth of the wonderful Baptist
Telugu Mission in Southern India has compelled
the opening of six new stations since 1900. They
are all divisions of older fields in which the expan-
sion of the work has surpassed the ability of one
missionary at one station to care for it. The growth
of the mission is indicated by a comparison of the

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 265

statistics on page 252, with those of the foreign
missions given later.

An interesting feature in the development of the
missions in India is the union of the missions of the
Free Baptists in Bengal with those under the man-
agement of the American Baptist Foreign Mission
Society. By the union of the Baptists and Free
Baptists in missionary work the latter become mem-
bers of the society on the same terms as Baptists
and are represented on the Board of Managers, and
continue their contributions to the mission treasury.
The Bengal mission was begun by the Free Baptists
in 1838, as the result of a communication from
Rev. Amos Sutton, an English Baptist missionary,
which was printed in the " Morning Star." Mr.
Sutton had married Mrs. Coleman, of the Baptist
mission in Arakan, and while visiting her relatives
in America was the means of arousing the interest
which led to the founding of the Telugu Mission in
India by the Baptists, and of the Bengal Mission by
the Free Baptists. Both missions have become
strong and successful, and honored the manifest
providence which led to their founding.

ChiTia,

The development of China since 1900 is one of
the wonders of the twentieth century. The most
ancient and autocratic empire in the world has be-
come a republic. The most ancient and thoroughly
oigauized system of education the world has ever

266 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

known has been utterly discarded, and replaced by
modern methods. The most wide-spread and
deadly vice which has ever afflicted any people
of the world has been largely suppressed in one
decade. And the most secluded and conservative
people in the world have thrown themselves open
to new ideas, modern methods, and to a career
of progress. One-fourth of the population of the
Avorld has waked up from a sleep of ages, and is
moving to take the prominent and powerful j)lace
which awaits it among the nations of the earth.

All this is chiefly the result of Christian missions.
Mission converts gained the idea of freedom ; mis-
sion schools proved the superiority of modern over
the ancient educational methods, and started the
most of the leaders in the revolution in China on
their careers. It is fair to say, however, that the
positive evangelistic results of the missions in China
have not kept pace with the educational and gov-
ernmental effects. Yet there has been advance
especially in opportunity, and six new stations indi-
cate in some degree the progress of our American
Baptist Missions in China : two of these are in
the South China Mission, two in the East, and
two in the West China Mission. All missionaries
in China are facing the future with eager anticipa-
tion. And it is noteworthy that in China union
movements in missions have far outrun those in all
other mission fields. The vast opportunities demand
the strength which comes from union.

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 267

Japan.

It must be admitted that the golden prospects of
the earlier years of missions in Japan have not been
fulfilled. This is partly due to the apathy of the
Christian world, which neglected full improvement
of the years when social and religions life in Japan
was in flux and most easily molded. And it is
partly due to the bright but fickle nature of the
Japanese, who soon tired of the spiritual features of
Christianity while eagerly availing themselves of
the material advantages of Christian civilization.
American Baptists have, however, opened three new
stations in Japan in the last decade. The Northern
and the Southern Baptist missionaries from the
United States have united in one theological semi-
nary at Yokohama, and are laboring in the heartiest
cooperation. While no longer flushed with antici-
pations of speedy and complete victory, mission-
aries in Japan are sturdily and steadily forging
ahead in a contest with not too favorable conditions.
God grant that the Christian world may not make
the same mistake in China in its day of transforma-
tion that it made in Japan, by not seizing the day
of revolution to put a Christian spirit into the
changing people !

The Congo, Africa.

The Congo country people have never recovered
from the murderous and desolating policy of King
Leopold of Belgium, which depopulated whole dis-

268 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

tricts by slaying men and women by tens of thou-
sands in the mad pursuit of more rubber. By this,
missionary advance into the interior, which at one
time appeared so promising, was effectually checked.
Two new stations, have, however, been opened
nearer the coast, and the work at the older stations
has been carried on with a fair degree of success.

The Philippine Islands.

Thirteen years ago Baptist mission work in the
Philippine Islands had just begun. Early in the
occupation by the United States, the islands were
divided by agreement between the different Chris-
tian missions, in order that there might be no over-
lapping, and that the work might be carried on in
the most effective manner. To American Baptists
were assigned Negros and Panay, in the Visayan
group. The work centers at three stations, Iloilo
and Capiz on Panay, and Bacolod on Negros, and
the success has been most gratifying, the number
of converts already surpassing those in the churches
in Japan. The United States has done a splendid
work in introducing general education in the Philip-
pines. The people, as a whole, can read, and the
Baptist mission press at Iloilo is an effective
mission agency. The New Testament has been
translated into Visayan by Rev. Eric Lund. The
Filipinos are cordial and easily won to the gospel,
and the future of the mission would appear most
encouraging were it not for the proposal before

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 269

Congress at the date of this writing to give the
Philippines their full independence in eight years.
In the minds of those most familiar with the numer-
ous races of the islands, this means interracial war
and internal disorder. The future of the islands
under independence it is impossible to predict.

Europe.

Not much worthy of special note has occurred in
the Baptist missions in Europe during the last
decade, except in Russia. Here the ardent hopes
raised by the Manifesto of Religious Freedom issued
by the emperor have been crushed by a resurrection
of the reactionary and oppressive measures of the
priesthood of the National Church. Recently sev-
eral of the Baptist preachers who visited America at
the time of the Baptist World Alliance in Phila-
delphia in 1911 have been again imprisoned. Rev.
Wilhelm Fetler, of St. Petersburg, whose addresses
while in the United States aroused such extraordi-
nary interest, has been enabled, by contributions
from England and America, to complete his taber-
nacle and preaches to crowds, and wins multitudes
of converts. The opportunities for Baptist advance
under the special conditions existing in Russia appear
limitless, if more freedom could be secured. The
efforts of the delegation of Baptists from England
and America, led by Rev. Robert S. MacArthur,
D. D., LL. D., President of the Baptist World Alli-
ance, do not appear to have gained the greater lib-

270 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

erty for Baptists which was asked. It is difficult to
forecast the future of Russia iu religion or in poli-
tics. The Southern Baptist Mission in Italy continues
to make progress, and the Baptist work in central
Europe holds its glorious course. The organization
of the Baptist World Alliance has brought new
courage and strength to the Baptists of Europe, by
bringing them into organic relations with the power-
ful Baptist bodies of England and America.

South America.

In 1903 the Southern Baptist Convention opened
a mission in Argentina, the most advanced and
rapidly growing country in South America. The
work is growing hopefully with the progress of the
country. The missions in Brazil are extraordinarily
prosperous in spite of persecutions and difficulties.

Mexico, Cuba, and Porto Rico.

In Mexico the missions of both the Northern and
Southern Baptists have been seriously affected by
the revolutionary disturbances which have afflicted
that unhappy country during the last few years.
Nearly all the American missionaries of all bodies
have been obliged to return to the United States for
safety. The future of the missions is linked witli
the political outcome of the present internal warfare.
In Cuba the missions of both Southern and North-
ern Baptists are full of promise. The Southern
Baptists are pushing Sunday-school work for the

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 271

children, and have found great encouragement. The
Northern Baptists have fifty-four cluirches, thirty-
eight houses of worship, and eight parsonages in
Cuba. Both missions have large accessions every
year. Baptist work in Cuba is tiie most prosperous
work on the island. The work of the American
Baptist Home Mission Society in Porto Rico is also
full of encouragement. It has there now ninety-
one churches, with four thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight members, and property valued at two
hundred and seventy-three thousand four hundred
and fifty dollars. The same society has recently
adopted a mission on San Salvador.

Changes in Organization.

The most important step taken by American Bap-
tists in recent years in missionary organization was
the formation of the Northern Baptist Convention.
This was decided on at the Anniversaries in Wash-
ington in 1907, and the organization was consum-
mated at Oklahoma City, Okla., in 1908, and
further perfected at Portland, Ore., in 1909. In
a preamble the convention declares " its belief in
the independence of the local church, and in the
purely advisory nature of all denominational organi-
zations composed of representatives of the churches."
The convention is a strictly delegated body, and the
By-laws provide that the delegates to the conven-
tion shall be annual members of all coo})erating or-
ganizations, and that these shall regulate their

272 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

expenditures, solicit funds, incur indebtedness only
with the approval of the convention, and shall sub-
mit their books and accounts to the convention. All
the missionary societies of the Northern Baptists
have come into cooperation with the Northern Bap-
tist Convention, and the eifect of the organization of
the convention has been to transfer the management
of the missionary societies and the missions from
those who contribute to their support to the dele-
gates of the churches as a whole, changing from a
financial to a representative basis. A system of ap-
portionment of the budgets of all the missionary
societies among the churches has also been adopted,
and this centennial year is signalized by a strong
effort to raise the contributions of the Baptists of
the Northern States to a standard of three million
dollars.

1813-1913.

A survey of the first century of American Baptist
foreign missions is a cause for wonder and gratitude
for the past, and an incentive to more ardent and
aggressive enthusiasm for the future. The little
body of Baptists, numbering about seventy thousand,
which adopted Adoniram and Ann Hasseltine Jud-
son as its first foreign missionaries in 1813, has
now grown to five million four hundred and fifty-
four thousand one hundred and ninety-eight. De-
spised by the stronger religious bodies of one hun-
dred years ago, it has now become, if the relative

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 273

rate of increase shown in the United States census
of 1900 has continued, as will probably appear when
the census of religious bodies taken in 1910 is pub-
lished, the largest body of Protestant Christians in
the United States. But more gratifying even than
the growth in numbers has been the develop-
ment of spiritual breadth and power. The Baptists
of America in 1813 were scattered and weak and
without regular and adequate means of communica-
tion or of united action. The unity inaugurated
by the formation of the first foreign missionary
societies has gone forward in lines indicated in the
preceding pages, until to-day the numerous mission-
ary and other organizations furnish facilities and
methods for the exercise of every form of Christian
activity. In the Southern States these activities
center in the Southern Baptist Convention, a direct
offshoot of the General Missionary Convention of
1814, and in the Northern States all the principal
organizations are cooperating in the more recently
formed Northern Baptist Convention. And the ulti-
mate unity of all Baptists in America is expressed
in "The General Convention of the Baptists of
North America," the quadrennial meetings of which
supply an occasion for all the Baptists of the West-
ern Hemisphere to come together to consider those
questions which are of common concern. In these
hundred years the Baptists of America, who, in
1814, hardly merited the name of denomination
assumed in the first article of the General Mission-

274 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

ary Convention formed in that year, have become a
complete Baptist denomination, organized not on
Episcopal or hierarchical lines, but in accordance
Avith that polity of pure democracy which has always
been the pride and the glory of the Baptists.

The good providence of God, which sent to
American Baptists a missionary already on the field
and in need of support to arouse them to the
formation of their first missionary society, has con-
tinued to lead them in all their missionary oper-
ations abroad. It is a remarkable fact that in no
single instance in the selection of the missionary
fields has the original impulse proceeded from the
management of the societies at home. Every field
now occupied by our Baptist missions has been
brought to the attention of the denomination by in-
fluences from abroad of one sort or another. It
is not wrong in itself for a people to choose a field
and send forth missionaries to any field they may
select ; but it has been the peculiar happiness of
American Baptists always to follow the guiding
hand of the Lord in the selection of their mission-
ary fields.

They were led to Burma by the conversion of
Adoniram Judson and his wife to Baptist views.
They entered Assam by the invitation of the Chief
Commissioner of the Province. The Telugu Mis-
sion in South India and the Bengal Mission were
established because of the appeals of an English
Baptist missionary visiting the relatives of his

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 275

American wife. Missions to the Chinese were
begun by the noble act of the missionaries in Bur-
ma, in sending one of their own number to open
Christian work among that great people. The
founding of Baptist missions in Japan was the work
of a sailor who first landed on the shores of that
then secluded country on the first expedition of
Commodore Perry, of the United States Navy. The
Congo Mission in Africa came to American Baptists
because of the kindness shown to two young English
evangelists by one who was afterward secretary of
our foreign missions. The beginning of Baptist
mission work in South America was due to the
devotion of Lough Fook, a free Chinaman, who
sold himself into slavery that he might preach the
gospel to his countrymen in Demarara. The Baptist
mission in Mexico was begun by two Englishmen,
in whose work the Baptists of the United States
later became interested. And it was the occupation
of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, as de-
pendencies of the United States, which led to the
establishment of American Baptist Missions in these
islands ; while all the great and prosperous missions
in Europe can be traced directly to the midnight
baptism of Johann G. Oncken and his companions
in the river Elbe, near Hamburg. In every mis-
sionary field of American Baptists God has gone
before, like a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of
fire by night, to indicate the places where the mis-
sionary feet of American Baptists should rest. And

276 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

he has wondrously blessed them in the fields which
he selected for their labors.

That the spirit of missions is a spirit of unity has
been shown not only in its effect upon the Baptists
of America, but in the conduct of missions on vari-
ous fields. It is a fact worthy of careful consider-
ation that nearly all the most effective appeals
for Christian cooperation and union in service have
come from the mission fields. In Japan the North-
ern and Southern Baptist missionaries devised the
plan for a common theological seminary, urged
it upon the home Boards, and have put it into
practical and harmonious operation. Northern and
Southern Baptist missionaries have also united in
one Baptist college at Shanghai, China. It is coop-
peration in missionary work which has brought to-
gether the Baptists and the Free Baptists of the United
States. And beyond Baptist limits the sjDirit of cooper-
ation and union in Christian work is extending. A hos-
pital supported by the missionary societies of four de-
nominations has been opened at ChengtUjWest China ;
and an English Baptist, Rev. Timothy Richards,
D. D., has, by the consent of the missionaries of all
bodies, been placed at the head of Christian educa-
tional work, to meet the tremendous demands of the
present exigency in that great empire, now in the
throes of a vast but peaceful revolution. The
scheme contemplates local primary schools under
denominational control and support ; secondary
schools sometimes denominational and sometimes

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT 277

union as circumstances may indicate ; but all colleges
and professional schools are to be wholly interde-
nominational and union.

Is not this the practical union for which our
Saviour prayed, " that they all may be one " ?
What does it matter if there are diiferent local and
subsidiary names, and varying forms of worship, if
all the followers of Christ are known by the com-
mon name, Christian, and all are working in har-
mony for the crowning of Christ as King in all
the earth?

This spirit of union, in practical Christian work
so manifest on the mission fields, is leavening the
churches of all bodies at home. It appears in the
frequent consultations of missionary officials, in the
formation of such bodies as the Home Missions
Council, including all evangelical denominations, the
Woman's Home Missions Council, the Woman's
Interdenominational Committee for Missionary
Education, the Laymen's Missionary Move-
ment, the Young People's Movement for Mis-
sionary Education, the more recent development
of the Student Volunteer Movement, the Ecumen-
ical Missionary Councils, the Men and Religion
Movement, and the Federation of the Churches
of Christ in America.

In these early years of the twentieth century the
Christian world is becoming one as never before,
and is moving grandly on as a united army, to the
conquest of all the world for our Lord. Let the

278 AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS

motto of the Moravian Church be emblazoned on
all the banners of the churches of Christ : "Noster
Agnus Vincit: Eum sequamur" "Our Lamb is
conquering: let us follow him."

Protestant 3Iissionary Statistics of the World, 1910.

Home income, $26,890,104; income on fields,
$5,249,405 ; ordained missionaries, 6,637 ; laymen,
3,287; wives, 6,758; unmarried women, 4,791;
total missionaries, 21,248; ordained natives, 6,159;
total native helpers, 91,513; total missionary force,
113,207; stations and outstations, 45,540; com-
municants, 2,222,892; added in 1910, 139,899;
adherents, 4,951,325; schools, 30,216; scholars,
1,562,039.

CENTENNIAL SUPPLEMENT

279

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GENERAL INDEX

Abbott, Elisha L. : sailing of, 44 ;
and the Bassein mission, 74.

Adams, Joseph S., opened mission
at Hanyang, 169.

Adamsen, Hans, missionary in
Siam, 157.

Africa : beginning of missions in,
39, 182; nature of missions in,
188.

African Baptist Missionary So-
ciety, organization, 39.

African Native Cliurch, tlie,
changed to Baptist, 190.

Allan. Mrs., gift for Liu Chiu mis-
sion. 178.

American and Foreign Bible So-
ciety, formation of, 50.

American and Foreign Missionary
Society, formation of, 91.

American Baptists: growth of,
238; first in United States in be-
nevolent contributions, 238 ; one
denomination, 235.

" American Baptist," the, 92.

American Baptist Anti-Slavery
Convention, formation, 53.

American Baptist Free Mission
Society, formation of, 91.

American Baptist Home Mission
Society : founding of, 88 ; mis-
sion of, in Mexico, 206 ; its work
in Cuba, 210; worli of, in Porto
Rico. 211.

American Baptist Missionary
TTnion, the, change of name of
convention to, 70.

American Baptist Publication So-
280

ciety : takes Bible work of Bap-
tists, 52 ; formation of, 81 ; aid to
missions in Sweden, 195.

American Bible Society, relations
with, 46.

American Bible Union, formation
of, 50.

American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions, formation
of, 9.

Amherst, occupied, 36.

Arakan : Judson's voyage to, 24 ;
ceded to the English, 36.

Argentine Republic, Baptist work
in, 205.

Arnold, Albert' N., missionary in
Greece, 200.

Arthur, J. H., missionary in Japan,
175.

Ashmore, William: arrival of, at
Bangkok, 153 ; arrival of, at Swa-
tow, 163.

Assam : opening missions in, 45,
122 ; missions to animistic races
in, 128 ; new stations in, 264.

Atlantic cable, first use of, for Bap-
tist missions, 108.

Aungbinle. imprisonment at, 33.

Ava : first visit to, 27 ; second visit
to, 32; imprisonment at, 33.

Baldwin, Thomas: correspond-
ence of, with William Carey, 6;
with Adoniram Judson, 11.

Bangkok : opening of mission at,
152: burning of mission build-
ings of, 154.

GENERAL IXDEX

281

Banks, C. B., first to reach Stan-
ley Pool, 216.

Bauza Mautcke, revival at, 187.

Baptism : of two thousand two
hundred and twenty-two in one
day, HI ; of one thousand six
hundred and seventy -one in one
day, 147.

Baptist (ieneral Tract Society : re-
moval to Philadelphia, 31 ; for-
mation of. HI.

"Baptist Mis.sionary Magazine":
circulation of, in South declined,
3; adopted by the General Con-
vention. 29 ; name of, changed, 7.

Baptist Missionary Society for
Propagating the Gospel in India
and other Foreign Parts, forma-
tion of, 12.

Baptist Young People's Society,
the first, 8.

Baptist Youth's Missionary So-
ciety, New York, formation of, 7.

Baptists, position of, in 1812. 4.

Barchet, S. P., missionary at Ning-
po, 167.

Bari, Italy, baptism of church of
seventy-five members, 63.

Bassein : beginning of Sgaw-Karen
mission in, 74, IO-t ; separation of,
from the Missionary Union, 92,
110; self-support in, 10-5.

Beecher, John S. : missionary at
Bassein, 76; separation of, from
Missionary Union, 110.

Bunnett, A. A., founded Yokohama
Theological Seminary, 17.i.

Bennett, Cephas, superintendent
of Baptist Mission Press in Bur-
ma, 109.

Bhamo, course of mission at, 112.

Bible Day, arrangements for, 86.

Bickel, Philip: appointed by
American Baptist Publication
Society, 83 ; manager of German
Baptist Publication House, 195.

Biuney, J. G. : founded Karen

Theological Seminary, 107:
founded Rangoon Baptist Col-
lege, 107.

Bolles, Lucius : corresponding sec-
retary of the General Conven-
tion, 31 : and formation of Home
Mission Society, 89.

Bond, A. L., loss of, 65.

Boston Association, formation
of, 6.

Boston, headquarters transferred
to, 30.

Bowen, T. J., transferred to Bra-
zil, 64.

Brand, J. C, missionary at Mito,
177.

Brayton, Durlin L. : translator of
Pwo-Karen Bible, 109: separa-
tion of, from tlie Missionary
Union, 110: saw whole mission-
ary growth, 239.

Brazil, opening of mission in, 64,
203.

Bright, Edward : and the Telugu
mission, i;S4 ; and the Congo
mission, 185 ; home secretary of
the Missionary Union, 73.

Broady, Knut O., president of
Stockholm Theological Semi-
nary, 196.

Bronson, Miles : founder of Now-
gong Orphan Institution, 124 ;
dictionary of, 124.

Brown, Nathau : opened mission
in Assam. 45 ; connection with
American Baptist Free Mission
Society, 9:> : translated New Tes-
tament into Assamese, 124 : into
Japanese, 222 ; missionary in Ja-
pan, 175.

Brown University, the first BaptLst
educational institution, 12.

Buel, R. F., missionary in Greece,
200.

Burma : character of native king-
dom of, 21, 103 ; climate of. 22 ;
Baptist missions in, 102, 119 ; con-

282

GENERAL INDEX

quest of upper, 112; editions of
the Bible in, 109 ; martyrs in mis-
sions of, 117; other missions iu,
104; self-support iu, 119; Baptist
missionary convention in, 120.

Burman Bible: Judson's, produc-
tion of, 22 ; providentially saved,
36.

Burman church, the first, 26.

Burman dictionary printed, 33.

Burman theological school, be-
ginning of, 107.

Butler, John W., founder of Bap-
tist work in Mexico, 206.

Camp, J. H., collections of, for
Smithsonian Institution, 217.

Campbell, George, opened mission
iu Kayin, 164.

Campbell, W. W., opened mission
in the Deccan, 148.

Canadian Baptist mission at-
tempts in Siam, l.'io.

Canton Station of Southern Bap-
tist Convention, 58, 160.

Carey, Felix, in Burma, 21, 254.

Carey, Lott, appointed missionary,
40.

Carpenter, C. H. : missionary at
Bassein, 76 ; and Rangoon Bap-
tist College, 107 ; use of cable for,
108; death of, in Japan, 177.

Carpenter, Mrs. C. H., supported
mi.ssion in Hokkaido, 177.

Carson, A. E., opened station for
the Kachins, 16, 116.

Cauldwell, Thomas, treasurer, 17.

Chandler, John H., mission printer
in Siam, 154.

Charleston Association, formation
of, 6.

Chase, Irah, deputy to France, 42 ;
191.

Chekiang Baptist Association, for-
mation of, 167.

Children of missionaries in serv-
ice, 118.

China: plan to reach west prov-
inces of, by Assam, 45 ; missions
in, 159; formation of Baptist
publication society in, 161 : up-
risings in, 169; since 1900, 265.

Chittagong, mission at, 27.

Civil War, its effect on Baptist
missions, 61, 78.

Clark. E. W. : as an explorer, 215;
opened mission to the Nagas,
127.

Clement, E. W., principal of Dun-
can Academy, Tokyo, 176.

Clough, John E. : appointment as
missionary, 126 ; founded Ongole
College, 225.

Cochrane, W. W., opened station
at Namkham, 116.

Colley, W. VV., transferred to
Yoruba mission, 62.

Colman, James: arrival of, in
Burma, 25 ; death of, 27.

Colman, Mrs. James, married
Amos Sutton, 132.

Columbian University: fouuding
of, 29 ; transfer of, to Board of
Trustees, 30.

Commerce, services of Baptist mis-
sions to, 231.

Concert of prayer for missions
recommended. 29.

Congo mission, story of, 182, 267.

Cote, W. N., missionary in Rome,
63, 201.

Crawford, T. P., missionary in
China, 162.

Cretin, J. B., author of " Tracts on
Baptism," etc., 193.

Cuba: opening of mission in, 66;
division of, between Northern
and Southern Baptist Boards, 68,
210 ; reopening of mission work
in, 209, 270.

Cushing, J. N. : made Shan dic-
tionary, 221 ; reducing Chin lan-
guage to written form. 219 : trans-
lator of Bible into Shan, 109;

GENERAL INDEX

283

founder of mission at Bhamo,
112 ; travels of, iu Shanland, 215.
Cutler, O. T., opened missiou in
Assam, 45.

David, W. J., transferred to Yoruba
mission, 62.

Day, Samuel S., first missionary to
the Telugus, U. 13o.

Dean, William, arrival of, in Siam.
42, 153.

Dearing, John L., president of
Yokohama Thfiological Semi-
nary, 170.

Deccan, opening of mission in the,
148.

Demarara, Baptist mission in, 63.

Denmark, Baptist mission in, 198.

Deputations, 44, 77.

Diaz, A. J. : conversion of, and
founding Baptist mission in
Cuba, 66, 211 ; with American
Baptist Publication Society, 87.

Dibrugarh, opening of station at,
129.

Dikins, Jos6 P., converted in San-
tiago, 210.

Dowuie, D., and Nellore mission,
1.51.

Duncan Academy, opening of, 176.

Duncan, Samuel W., interest in
Tokyo Baptist Academy, 176.

Eager, J. H., missionary in Italy,
201.

East India Company, the, expelled
the Judsons from India, 20.

Education, services of Baptist mis-
sions to, 224.

" Edwin Forre-st," loss of the, 65.

English Baptist Missionary So-
ciety, formation of, 6.

Faunce, D. W., visit of, to Greece.

200.
Female Mite Society, Providence,

R. I., formation of, 8.

Fetzer, J. G., professor in Ham-
burg Theological Seminary, 195.

Fielde, Miss Adele M., organiza-
tion of Bible women by, 164.

Finland, mission in, 197.

Firth, John, work of, among tea
garden laborers, 127.

Fisher, C. H. D., opened work in
Mito, 176.

Fo.ster, John M., organized Bible
classes, 105.

France, Baptist missions iu, 191.

" Franc's Chapel," ]06.

Friesen, Abrum, opened Nalgonda
station, 149.

Gardner, George W., visit of, to
Greece, 200.

Garo Missiou, character of, 125.

General Missionary Convention of
the Baptist Denomination in the
United States of America for
Foreign Missions: delegates to
the meeting of, for organization,
13 : organization of, 14 ; constitu-
tion of, 14.

Geography, services of Baptist mis-
sions to, 214.

German Baptist mission, begin-
ning of, 42, 193.

German Baptist Publication So-
ciety. 83.

Goble, Jonathan, missionary in
Japan, 93, 174.

Goddard, Josiah, founded mission
at Ningpo, 166 ; arrival at Bang-
kok, 153 ; translated New Testa-
ment, 222.

Goddard, J. R., translated Old
Testament, 167, 222.

Goduka, Jonas, founder of the Af-
rican native church, 190.

Going, Jonathan, formation of
Home Mission Society and, 88.

Gold Coast, mission on the, 18S.

Gordon, A. J., and the (;ongo mis-
sion, 186.

284

GENERAL INDEX

Granger, James N., deputation to
Burma, 77.

Grant, J. S., medical missionary at
Ningpo, 167.

Graves, R. H., missionary in
China, 61, 160.

Greece, mission in, 45, 199.

Guinness family and the mission
ou the Congo, 183.

Gurney, A. K., completed transla-
tion of Assamese Bible, I'Jl, 221.

Hakkas, opening of mission
among, 164.

Hall, Gordon, sailing of, 10.

Hanson, Ola, reduced Chin lan-
guage to written form, 219.

Hanyang, opening of mission at,
169.

Harrington, C. K., professor in Yo-
kohama Seminary, 176.

Harris, Norman, separation of,
from Missionary Union, 110.

Harris, Mrs. Robert, gift of, to Dun-
can Academy, 176.

Hayti, mission in, 42, 92.

Henderson, A. H., opened station
at Mougnai, 115.

Hickey, James M., founder of first
Baptist church in Mexico, 90, 206.

Holmes, J. L., murder of, 162.

Holton, Calvin, missionary to Li-
beria, 40.

Hough, George H. : his arrival in
Burma, 23 : retired from mission,
36 ; leaves Rangoon, 24.

Huntley, G. A., missionary at
Hanyang, 169.

Indians, missions among Amer-
ican, 30, 38.

lusein, site of theological semi-
nary, 106, 107.

Italy, mission in, 63, 201.

James, J. S., loss of, 65.

Japan : opening of Southern Bap-

ti.st mi.ssion in, 65 ; the progress
of missions in, 173, 267.

Jenkins, Horace, principal of Bible
.school at Shaohing, 166.

Jewett, Lyman : at Prayer Meet-
ing Hill, 135; missionary to the
Telugus, 133, 134 ; translated New
Testament into Telugu, 222.

Johnson, J. W., opened mi.ssion at
Swatow, 163.

Jones, John Taylor, first mission-
ary to Siam, 42, 152.

Judson, Adoniram : .sailing of, 9;
appointed missionary of the
Baptist Convention. 17; arrival
of, in Burma, 20; baptism of, II ;
first missionary tu heathen king-
dom of the East, 102; imprison-
ment of, 33 ; incid ent at Andover
Seminary, 10 ; services to geog-
raphy, 214; translated the Bible
into Burmau, 220 ; also 253f.

Judson, Ann Hasseltine; sailing
of, 10 ; baptism of, 11 ; return
of, from America, 33 ; death of,
35 ; also 253f.

Karen home mission societies,
formation of, 105.

Karen military police, formation
of, 114.

Karen missions in Siam, 155.

Karen theological seminary, be-
ginning, 107.

Karens, tribal divisions among,
111.

Khamti, the same as Shans, 45.

Kincaid, Eugenio, travel of, in
Upper Burma, 215.

Kirkpatrick, M. B., opened station
at Hsipaw, 115.

Knowlton, M. J., "the Western
Confucius," 166.

Kobner, Julius, missionary in Den-
mark, 194.

Kols, mission to, 126.

Ko Thah Byu Memorial Hall, 106.

GENERAL INDEX

285

Lagos, self-support at, 188.
Lehmanu, George VV., missionary

in Germany, 194.
Lehmanu, Joseph, professor in

German Baptist Theological

Seminary, UJ.
Liberia: opening of missions in,

■10, 62, 182 ; discontinuance of

missions in, 62, 182.
Lincoln, Heman, first president of

American Baptist Home Mission

Society, 89.
Literature, service of Baptist mis-
sions to, 220.
Liu Chiu Islands, mission in,

178.
Livingstone Inland Mission, the,

las.

Lord, E. C, missionary at Ningpo,

166.
Lott Carey Foreign Missionary

Convention, the, 189.
Lough Fook, sold himself into

slavery. 63.
Loughridge, A., principal of Ou-

gole High School, 150.
Love, Horace T., missionary In

Greece, 199.
Lund, Eric, opened mission in

Philippine Islands, 180.

MacGowan, D. J., opened mission
at Ningrpo, 166.

Malcom, Howard, deputation to
the missions in Asia, 44.

Mandalay, opening of mission in,
114.

Manikan, Braulio, the first Fili-
pino Baptist, 181.

Mason, Francis : "The People and
Productions of Burma," 216 :
translated the Bible into Sgaw
Karen, 221.

Mason, Marcus C. : as an explorer,
21.5 ; opened station at Tura, 125.

Massachusetts Baptist Mission So-
ciety, formation of, 7.

McCormick, H. P., missionary in
Porto Rico, 211.

Meehan, John S., and Baptist Gen-
eral Tract Society, 81.

Mennonite Brethren, support by,
of missionaries to the Telugus,
149.

Me.xico: opening of mission in, 66,
206 ; work of Publication Society
ill, 87 ; first Baptistchurch in, 90.

Mikirs, opening of work among,
128.

Millionaires in 1812, 3.

Mito, opening of work at, 176.

Monroe, William C, missionary in
Hayti, 42.

Morris, Charles S., visit of, to Af-
rica, 189.

Moseley, H. R., missionary in
Cuba, 210.

Moulmein, missionary convention
at, 77.

Moung Ing, faithfulness of, 35.

Moung Nau, baptism of "the first
Burman convert," 26.

Murdock. John N., and the Congo
mission, 184.

Nagas, opening of mi-ssion to, 127.

Nalgonda, opening of station at,
148.

National Baptist Missionary Con-
vention, the, 189.

Nellore, opening of station at, 44.

New England, commerce of, and
efTects of war of 1812 on, 2.

New York Baptist Missionary Con-
vention, 89.

New York Baptist Missionary So-
ciety, formation of, 8.

New York, the Baptist Foreign
Missionary Society, formation
of, 12.

Newell, Samuel and Harriet, sail-
ing of, 10, 258.

Nin!-'-7)o, opening of mission at, 166.

Norway, mission in, 85, 197.

286

GENERAL INDEX

Notfc, Samuel, sailing of, 10, 258.
Nowgoug Orphan Asylum, found-
ing of, 124.

O'Halloran, J. R., missionary in

Cuba, 210.
Oncken, Joliann G., baptism of.

42, 194.
Ongole : evangelistic methods of,

influence other missions, 149 ;

Srst mission liouse at. 130 ; great

Ingathering at, V.i6: Prayer

Meeting Hill at, 135 ; subdivision

of its held, 147 ; Baptist college

at, l.M.
Osgood, S. M., printer of Judson's

Bible, 109.
Oungpenla, imprisonment of Jud-

son at, 33.

Packer, John, and Rangoon Bap-
tist College, 107.

Parshley, W. B., professor in Yoko-
hama Theological Seminary, 176.

Pascoe, Cephas, missionary in
Greece, 199.

Peck, John M., appointed mission-
ary, 30.

Peck, Solomon, deputation to
Burma, 77.

Pentecost on the Congo, the, 187.

Perrine, S. A., established training
school in Assam, 127.

Petrick, C. E., labors among tea
garden workers, 127.

Philadelphia Association, forma-
tion of, 6.

Philadelphia Baptist Missionary
Society, formation of, 8. 12, 13.

Philippine Islands mission, the,
180, 268.

Phillips, E. G. : as an explorer,
215; opened station at Tura,
125.

Philology, contributions of Bap-
tist missions to, 218.

Phiuney, Frank D., superintend-

ent of Baptist mission press in
Burma, 110.

Poate, Thomas P., missionary in
Japan, 175.

Porto Rico, Baptist work in, 211.

Post. Albert L., president of .Amer-
ican Baptist Free Mission So-
ciety, 92.

Powell, W. D., missionary in Mex-
ico. 208.

Prayer Meeting Hill, history of,
135.

Price, Jonathan : arrival in Bur-
ma, 31 ; retired from mission, 30.

Printing press in Burma, use of,
108.

Ramapatam, theological s e m i -
nary at, 146.

Rangoon Baptist College, found-
ing of, 107.

Rangoon, capture of, by the Eng-
lish, 33.

Rangoon Sgaw-Karen mi.ssion :
beginning of, 105 ; separation of,
from the Missionary Union, 92,
110.

Revolution, war of the, results of,
1.

Rhees, Henry H., missionary in
Japan, 175.

Rice, Luther: sailing of, 10; bap-
tism of, 11 ; return of, to Amer-
ica, 11 ; appointed missionary of
the Baptist Convention, 17.

Richards, Henry, missionary at
Banza Manteke, 187.

Roberts, I. J. : withdrawal o f,
from the General Convention,
.58; missionary career of, 59.

Roberts, W. H., reduced Chin lan-
guage to writing, 219.

Rohrer, J. Q. A., loss of, 6.5.

Rome : opening of mission in, 62 ;
chapel in, 63.

Rose, A. T. : head of Burman theo-
logical school, 107 ; separation

GENERAL INDEX

287

of, from the Missionary Union,

110.
Rostan, J. C, deputation to

France, -12, 192.
Russia, Baptist work in, 198.

Sadiya, first station in Assam, 123.

baillens, Reuben, wittidrew from
MiiAll mission, 192.

Sakellarios, Demetrios Z., mis-
sionary in Greece, 200.

Salem Bible Translation and For-
eign Missionary Society, forma-
tion of, 8.

Sandoway : resort for persecuted
Karen Christians, 75 ; reopening
of mission work at, 115.

Sandy Creek Association, forma-
tion of, 6.

Saratoga, Bible conference of, 1883.
51.

Savannah Baptist Society for For-
eign Missions, formation of, 12.

Science, contributions of Baptist
missions to, 216.

Scott, J. H., supported by the
Woman's Society of California,
98.

Sears, Barnas, baptism of Oncken
and others, 42, 194.

Self-support, beginning in Bas-
sein mi-ssion, 76.

Serampore mission, India : cor-
respondence of, with America,
6 ; aid of, to the Judsons, 21, 23.

Shanghai, station of the Southern
Baptist Convention, 61, 162.

Shans, mission to the, 45.

Sharp, Daniel, and formation of
Home Mission Society, 89.

Shuck, J. Lewis: joined the
Southern Baptist Convention, 58,
153 : baptized the first convert
in China, 160.

Siam : opening of mission in, 42
152 ; mission to Chinese in, 155 ;
mission to Karens in, 155.

Sierra Leone, Baptist mission in,

62.

Simmons, E. Z., missionary at Can-
ton, 161.

Sims, A. : first to reach Stanley
Pool, 216; made dictionary of
Kiteke and Kiyansi, 219; visit
of, to America, 18ii.

Slavery, division of Baptists on
the subject of, 53.

Sloan, W. H., missionary in Bur-
ma and Mexico, 207.

Smith, Samuel F., author of "The
Lone Star," 134.

Smith, S. J., mission printer in
Siam, 154.

Sociology, services of Baptist mis-
sions to, 227.

Southern Baptist Convention :
formation of, 56 ; first Mission
Board to hold property in inte-
rior of China, 161 ; opened mis-
sion in Japan, 178 ; mission of, in
Mexico, 206, 270.

Stadling, Jonas, missionary of the
American Baptist Publication
Society, 84.

Staughton, William : elected cor-
responding secretary of M i s -
sionary Society, 17: resignation
of, 31.

Stevens, Edward A., founded the
Burman theological school, 107.

Stevens, Edward O., visit of, to
Siam, 157.

Stow, Baron, and Baptist General
Tract Society, 81.

Suichaufu, opening of mission at,
168.

Sutton, Am.os : married Mrs.
James Colman, 28, 133; address
by, on Telugus, 44, 133.

Swatow, opening of mission at, 163.

Sweden, Baptist mission in, 195.

Taiping rebellion, relation of, to
Baptist missions, 59.

GENERAL INDEX

Talaings in Siam, mission to the,
157.

Taylor, George B., superintendent
of Baptist missions in Italy, 201.

Tea garden laborers, uiissiou to,
126.

Teague, Colin, appointed mission-
ary, 40

Telugu Bapti.st Publication So-
ciety, 86.

Telugu converts from out-ca.stes,
144.

Telugu mission : discussions re-
garding abandonment of, 133 ;
education in the, 1.50.

Telugus, mission to, 43, 132.

Tena-sscrim, ceded to English, 36.

" The Lone Star," 44, 1.32, 134.

"The Morning Star," 109.

" The Religious Herald," 109.

"The Triennial Convention," 17.

Thomas, Jacob, death of, 123.

Thomson, R. A., opened mission
in Liu Chiu Islands, 178.

Tura, mi.ssion at, 125.

Turkey, Baptist mission in, 85

Upcraft, William, opened mission
in Western China, 168.

Van Meter, Henry L., missionary
at Bassein, 76.

Van Meter, W. C, missionary in
Rome, Italy, 85.

Vinton, Justus H. : "The man
who saved our lives," 105; sep-
aration from the Missionary
Union, 110.

Virginia, Baptist Missionary So-
ciety of, formation of, 12.

Wade, Jonathan, arrival of, in

Burma, 32.
Waldo, Miss S. E., missionary in

Greece, 200.
Walker, Wareham, editor of "The

American Baptist," 92.

I Waring, C. M., missionary to Li-
beria, 40.

Warner, George, opened mission
in West China, 168.

Warren Association, formation of
0.

Warren, Jonah G., reply of, to Ly
man Jewett, 13.5.

Webster, David, only Baptist mis
slonary resident in North Siam
156.

Welch, James E., appointed mis
siouary, 30.

Wheelock, E. W. : arrival of, in
Burma, 25 ; death of, 26.

Westrup. John O. : murder of, 66 ;
missionary of the Southern Bap-
tist Convention, 207.

Westrup, T. M., missionary in
Mexico, 0(3, 90, 206.

Wiberg, Andreas, appointed by
American Baptist Publication
Society, 84, 195.

Willard. Ej'a.stus, missionary to
France, 42, 192.

Williams. .John, correspondence
with William Carey, 6.

Willmarth, Isaac, missionary to
France, 42, 191.

Woman's Baptist Missionary Soci-
ety : the first, 8 ; formation of, 90.

Woman's Bible Society of Phila-
delphia, accepted Mr. A. J. Diaz
as missionary, 67.

Woman's Home Mission Societies,
formation of, 100.

Woman's Missionary Union, for-
mation of, 99.

Wood, George, agent of Baptist
General Tract Society, 81.

Yates, Matthew T., missionary in

China, 61, 162.
Yokohama, formation of Baptist

church at, 175.
Yoruba : opening of mission in,

62 ; re-opening of mission in, 6Z

Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries

1 1012 01173 0860

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