• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

THE FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESENTED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, MAY, 1890. NEW YORK: MISSION HOUSE, 53 FIFTH AVENUE, i8qo. 4 FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. time of its removal to New York, and its adoption by the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He had been a large contributor to the Board, as well as a safe adviser in its counsels. His gifts were also extended to every form of missionary and charitable work. Though very quiet in his bestowments, it has been a matter of surprise to many, even of his friends, to learn the aggregate of his gifts and the proportion thereof to his means. Mr. Carter was pre-emi- nently a man of prayer, in the closet, in the home, in the Board, and in the ecclesiastical meetings of the Church. His faith and spirit of supplication were elements of power in the Board and in every form of Christian enterprise. In accordance with the action of the last General Assembly authorizing the enlargement of the Board from fifteen to twenty-one members, the following have been chosen, and their names are submitted to the General Assembly for its ratifi- cation : Joseph R. Kerr, D.D. ; Rev. William R. Richards ; Rev. John Balcom Shaw ; Edward Wells, Esq. ; Alexander Mait- Sloane ; D. W. McWilliams. land ; John Mr. William Dulles, Jr., entered upon his duties as Treas- urer of the Board June 4, 1889, and his administration has been found eminently satisfactory. During the year the Board sent Rev. Arthur Mitchell, D.D., on a tour of inspection among the Missions in Japan, Korea, China, Siam, and India. He was accompanied by Mrs. Mitchell, and visited first our missions on the Pacific coast. Thence proceeding to Japan, he made a very thorough survey of the missions in the Japanese Empire, then in due course the mis- sion at Seoul, Korea, whence he proceeded to North China. Though experiencing great discomfort on account of the ad- vance of the season and the difficulties attending the close of navigation, he was enabled to visit the Pekin Mission and to return to Chefoo in time to meet the brethren of the Shantung Mission at their annual meeting, at that place,—a meeting memorable in the history of the mission. The missions of Central and Southern China, and also the Siam Mission (not including the Laos), were visited in turn, but owing to great prostration Dr. Mitchell proceeded direct from Singapore to Aden, being obliged to pass by the India Missions. He arrived in Syria on the 29th of March greatly in need of rest and re- cuperation. MISSIONS TO THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE IN THIS COUNTRY. Sax Francisco : mission begun 1852 ; missionary laborers—Rev. Messrs. Augustus W. Loomis, D.D., and A. J. Kerr and their wives ; Miss Maggie Culbertson, Miss E.R. Cable, and Miss M. M. Baskin ; three teachers in English ; three native helpers. Among the Japanese : one native superintendent and two native helpers. Oakland : mission begun 1877 ; two teachers ; one native helper. Los Angeles: Rev. I. M. Condit and wife ; two native helpers; four teachers in English. Portland, Oregon : Rev. W. S. Holt and wife. New York : one native superintendent. San Fra?icisco. The work among the Chinese in Cahfornia still labors under the great discouragements which affect the social and political status of these people. A change of administration in the Government had e.xcited the hopes of the Chinese that the Exclusion Law would be modified, and that people, even though laborers—formerly resi- dent here, but now in China—would be permitted to come back, and that all who are now in this country might go and come at pleas- ure. These hopes, however, have been disappointed ; the Exclusion Law is still carried out ; and, from the indications of the public press, the anti-Chinese feeling is spreading through other cities as well as San Francisco, especially against the laundrymen. The Chinese population is stead'ly decreasing. Every steamer carries back from two to five hundred. The morning and evening services in the Chinese church are well attended, though not quite as largely as in previous years. The Sab- bath-school is still well sustained, and the evening mission school for boys and young men has also given much encouragement. One young man, Ng Poon Chew, who has been studying in the mission school for some time in preparation for the ministry, is so far advanced that last September he was able to enter the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in San Francisco, where he has proved himself a bright and promising student. He still keeps up his Chinese study, and looks forward with the confident hope of becoming a missionary to his native land. The missionaries in San Francisco have been called upon as in for- mer years to act as agents for missionaries in China, Japan, and Siam, —forwarding various bills of goods, at the same time that they have had no easy task in rendering assistance to those missionaries who were going and coming through the Golden Gate. 4 FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. time of its removal to New York, and its adoption by the Gen- eral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He had been a large contributor to the Board, as well as a safe adviser in its counsels. His gifts were also extended to every form of missionary and charitable work. Though very quiet in his bestowments, it has been a matter of surprise to many, even of his friends, to learn the aggregate of his gifts and the proportion thereof to his means. Mr. Carter was pre-emi- nently a man of prayer, in the closet, in the home, in the Board, and in the ecclesiastical meetings of the Church. His faith and spirit of supplication were elements of power in the Board and in every form of Christian enterprise. In accordance with the action of the last General Assembly authorizing the enlargement of the Board from fifteen to twenty-one members, the following have been chosen, and their names are submitted to the General Assembly for its ratifi- cation : Joseph R. Kerr, D.D. ; Rev. William R. Richards ; Rev. John Balcom Shaw ; Edward Wells, Esq. ; Alexander Mait- Sloane ; D. W. McWilliams. land ; John Mr. William Dulles, Jr., entered upon his duties as Treas- urer of the Board June 4, 1889, and his administration has been found eminently satisfactory. During the year the Board sent Rev. Arthur Mitchell, D.D., on a tour of inspection among the Missions in Japan, Korea, China, Siam, and India. He was accompanied by Mrs. Mitchell, and visited first our missions on the Pacific coast. Thence proceeding to Japan, he made a very thorough survey of the missions in the Japanese Empire, then in due course the mis- sion at Seoul, Korea, whence he proceeded to North China. Though experiencing great discomfort on account of the ad- vance of the season and the difficulties attending the close of navigation, he was enabled to visit the Pekin Mission and to return to Chefoo in time to meet the brethren of the Shantung Mission at their annual meeting, at that place,—a meeting memorable in the history of the mission. The missions of Central and Southern China, and also the Siam Mission (not including the Laos), were visited in turn, but owing to great prostration Dr. Mitchell proceeded direct from Singapore to Aden, being obliged to pass by the India Missions. He arrived in Syria on the 29th of March greatly in need of rest and re- cuperation. — FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 5 General health has characterized the year in most of the missions under the care of the Board, though there have been some sad losses. Rev. William Calderwood, of the India Mission, died May 22, 1889, after a long term of service. Rev. C. DeHeer, long a faithful and successful missionary in West Africa, died October 20, 1889, at Clifton Springs, N. Y. Miss Addie C. Ramsay and Professor W. T. Findley, both of whom contracted yellow fever on their passage, died in the Republic of Colombia,—Miss Ramsay at the home of her sister in Bar- ranquilla, and Professor Findley on a river boat upon which he had taken passage for his mission field, —Bogota. The un- timely death of these two young missionaries just at the thresh- old of their field of labor, has impressed not only the Mission and the Board, but the whole Church. The year has been marked by great events, some of which have affected the mission fields occupied by the Board. The peaceful revolution in Brazil completes the list of Republics in Central and South America, and it has been followed by a proclamation of religious liberty to the very fullest extent. The auspices under which the mission year opens are brighter than those of any previous period in the history of Brazil. In Japan a Constitution has been adopted, but at the same time there have been some symptoms of reaction against the advanced ground which had been taken with respect to foreign treaties. Meanwhile an intense intellectual activity is being developed, and whatever may be the relations of Japan to for- eign countries, the tide of civilization cannot be stayed. The missionary labor of all Boards and Societies has continued to prosper, and Japan is to-day—as it has been for two decades a mission field of wonderful promise. The famine in the Shantung Mission has been followed, as was anticipated, by a greatly increased readiness to receive the message of the Gospel.

Load more

  31

Copy Link