Board of Foreign Missions
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The Eightieth Annual Report OF THE Board of Foreign Missions OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA / f t £ - AND THE FIFTY-FIFTH YEAR OF SEPARATE ACTION ©rjjanijrti 1832 Intepsnoent 1857 Incorporateii I860 IS K te sto n s ^Lmog, Cijina, 18^2 &trot, Entiia, 1853 Nortfj Sapan, 1859 Souti) Japan, 1859 •^taina, 189.4 Presented to The General Synod at Grand Rapids, Michigan June, 1912 THE REV. JAMES H. BALLAGH, D. D. The first missionary to complete fifty years of service in Japan 18C1 JUBILEE l!)ll PRESS OF t h e U n 'O N IST -G A Z ë t t c ^ r / r c,AT,oN ^ 2 > c ix REPORT. The Board of Foreign Missions respectfully presents to the General Synod its Eightieth Annual Report, the Fifty-fifth of its separate and independent action. The year has perhaps been peculiar in the circumstance of its having been somewhat more normal than those immediately pre ceding it. No special emphasis or unique stimulus has accom panied the events of the year. It has, therefore, been characterized by the fact that it records occurrences and accomplishments that represent the normal progress of church life in its outward activi ties. Five Missionaries have been commissioned and have entered upon the work of preparation on the field, but changes and with drawals have left the number representing the Church in Asia the same as at the conclusion of the previous year. Two Missions have been called upon to mourn the loss by death each of one of its members. After a singularly beautiful and active life of seven years amongst the Chinese people whom she served with great de votion Miss Alice Duryee passed to her reward in January, 1911, leaving her associates, both American and Chinese, the richer for her life and her spirit. After a very brief experience in India in which they gave promise of large usefulness Rev. and Mrs. J. R. Sizoo were compelled to withdraw from that country owing to the sudden and serious illness of the latter, which in a few months, resulted in her death. This was a sad interruption to the plans and expectations of Mr. Sizoo and of the Mission. More than 50 out-stations have been added during the year ^fco these centers of regular evangelistic activity, and the roll of min isters of the indigenous churches has increased by two. There have been added to the Church 227 communicants, although not so many as in the previous year. The growth in Sunday School work has been conspicuous, more especially in China, where it is a new form of organized activity in the Church and in Japan where iv FOREIGN MISSIONS. especial emphasis has long been placed upon this work among the young. The scholars in the Day Schools continue to increase in number, this year by 1 ,375, bringing the total number under this form of instruction up to 9,500. The Church in the East is happily a gen erous Church in its offerings to the Lord, having advanced about 20 per cent, in this single year. These facts certainly give evi dence of vitality and progress in the work of our Church in Asia. It is peculiarly gratifying to the Board that this record of steady progressive development in the Mission Fields under its care prevails also in the Church at home in this relation. While a con servative list of appropriations for the maintenance of our Mis sions abroad for the year was adopted, it was based upon a 10 per cent, increase in the contributions of the Churches and their allied agencies, similar to that of previous years. Although this expectation has not been fully realized receipts from other sources, notably from gifts to special objects and from legacies, were so much beyond expectation that the full amount of the appropria tions has been received. A comparatively small deficit stood upon our books when they were closed for the year, but this has since entirely disappeared owing to special gifts received from friends for that purpose. W e therefore add another to the long succession of years which have left us without the shadow of a deficit to fall across the pathway of our progress, an experience somewhat peculiar to the Reformed Church. The Board realizes that during this year, as last, the receipts from legacies have been unusually large and that they have saved us from deficits, even as the unusual paucity of receipts from this source in 1909-10 left us in that year with the only deficit of that decade. At best this is an unreliable source of income. Our de pendence must be upon the steady continuous giving of the living. The purpose of the Church can only be interpreted by the Board in the expression of interest and confidence on the part of the active membership of the Church. At the same time we continu ally encourage and gratefully receive these testamentary remem brances of those who have held these things precious in life. The total receipts of the year from all sources were $284,369, as against $282,230 of the previous year, or an advance of about JUNE, 1912. V $2,000. To have thus maintained the somewhat extraordinary advance of $75,000 of last year with its special stimulus of the Women’s Jubilee Meetings is indeed an occasion for congratula tion. W e must note, however, in passing, that the gifts to the reg ular work of the Board from the Churches were $143,272 as against $150,765 for the year 1910-11, or a loss of about $7,500. This is in part made up by an advance in this item in the receipts of the Arabian Mission of about $3,250. Deducting Legacies and Interest from the total gifts we have $246,413, which is $5,500 more than these receipts from the living during the previous year. If to this we add the amount contributed to meet the deficit the total gifts become $249,913, and the advance $9,000. THE MISSION FIELDS. That universal ferment of ideas which Asia now shares with the rest of the world has produced in all our Mission Fields what is euphemistically termed unrest. It means a new East, a new Asia, a new China and Japan and India and Arabia; but only after long years of strife and of the unfolding of new ideals which must gradually bring about new conditions and a new life. The assertion is made and probably with good reason that there has never been any period when the Christian nations as such were given so wide an opportunity to put the stamp of Christian thought and Christian living upon the people of the East, more especially upon those of the lands where we are represented. It would seem to be the time of all times, therefore, for us to bring all our forces to bear upon these countries that they may have before them a demonstration of what Christianity can do for the salvation o'f the individual, as well as of society and of a nation. If now we turn to these vast fields of Asia where the interest of our Church lies, what do we find ? In China, a nation born in a day. In India, the testimony of a recently completed Government Census to the rapid growth of the Indian Church. In Japan, the official recognition of Christianity as a force in national develop ment. In Arabia, a body of informed and capable Missionaries planning definitely to enter into that long closed and neglected peninsula. v i FOREIGN MISSIONS. The story of the revolution in China, accomplishing a social and political upheaval within a twelve month is familiar. The emergence of Christian men in places of large responsibility in the new order of things is but another and a striking illustration of the observation of a great historian that history knows nothing of revivals of moral living apart from some new religious impulse, and the motive power needed has always come through leaders who have had communion with the Unseen. It is the deliberate judgment of the experienced correspondent of The London Times at Peking that it is on the wisdom, justice and power of sympathy of the Missionaries that the renaissance of China very largely depends. The recent census of India has laid bare certain conditions in the religious life of that Alma Mater of religions. While the population itself has grown slightly in the last decade, Christianity has increased in the number of its followers by 33 per cent. At the same time Hinduism and Muhammadanism have barely held their own. This increase in the number of Christians follows upon a similar advance in the previous decade. Christianity is no longer a negligible factor in that ancient empire. So evident is this that a leading Indian paper, commenting upon these significant circum stances, admitted recently that there is a marked general increase of Christianity all over the country and that this means “the wip ing out of the hoary Hindu civilization. If the apathy of the Hindu continues the Christianization of India is only a question of time. The statistics we have quoted point that way.” Japan also has been sharing in this new religious life of the Orient. In view of the long continued attitude of the Educational Department Christianity has been discriminated against, notwith standing the constitutional guarantee of religious equality. Dur ing the past year the Home Department of Government initiated a Conference of the representatives of the three religions, Budd hism, Shinto and Christianity, with a view to their co-operation with Government in improving the moral and ethical standard of the people.