Board of Porei^I} ^Issiops

■ . ^ UNIVE% > ■ D A Y M iS S IO N S \ / / f? R £ R ^ The Scvcnty-Sccond Annual Report— ^ OF THE Board of porei^i} ^issiops OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA AND FORTY-SEVENTH OF SEPARATE ACTION With the Treasurer’s Tabular and Summary Reports Receipts for the year ending April 30, 1904 BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA 25 EAST 22d STREET NEW YORK PRESS OF HE UNIONIST-GAZETTE ASSOCIATION. SOMERVILLE, N. J. REPORT. The Board of Foreign Missions presents to the General Synod its Seventy-second Annual Report, (the forty-seventh of separate and independent action), with mingled satisfaction and regret. It is happy to report, for the third time in succession, the clos ing of the fiscal year without debt. It also rejoices and congratu lates the Synod and the Church that, while the lives of all our be loved missionaries have been preserved, the Board has been able to put into the field more missionaries than in any single year for a long time past. Three ordained men and six women have been sent out from this country and two women added on the field, one in China and one in Arabia. There were thus eleven additions made to the force, all greatly needed and cordially welcomed by the Missions to whom they were added. On the other hand, the receipts for the work of these Missions, under the regular appropriations of the Board, show a decided falling off from last year, and are less than for any year since 1900. They fall $25,000 short of the $135,000 proposed by the last Synod, as the lowest estimate of what should be raised for the foreign work of the Church during the year. The hope of further advance, desired by the Board, demanded by the needs of the work itself, and our obligations to it, and invited by favorable conditions and multiplied opportunities in the fields we occupy, is again de ferred. STATE AND WORK OF THE MISSIONS. None of the Missions has been able to accomplish the full amount of work desired, or possible in other circumstances, be cause of insufficient force, both of missionaries and of trained native helpers. For what has actually been accomplished under unfavorable conditions, there is much to be grateful, as a reading iv FOREIGN MISSIONS. of the detailed reports on other pages will show. To these the careful and sympathetic attention of the Church is invited. The arrival of reinforcements, Rev. and Mrs. H. P. Boot, Rev. Frank Eckerson and Misses Susan R. and Alice Duryee and Mrs. Ruigh, has greatly cheered the members of this long-depleted Mission. Still others, especially a doctor and a trained educator, are greatly needed at once, to enable it to do its proper work. In the twelve organized churches, all of them supporting their own pastors, there are 1,447 communicant members, 120 being received on confession during the year. The year has been marked by a quickening of spiritual life, notably in the two churches in Amoy. “A new spirit of consecration, more Christlike spirit and more unselfish devotion” have been manifested. Much evan gelistic work has been done by Chinese Christians, both men and women, and by the students in the Theological Seminary. The benevolence of these churches is still conspicuous, their contribu tions amounting to $9,639 Mex., or $4,815 U. S. gold. The formation of the “ Fukien Prayer Union,” of all the mis sionaries and churches in the province, has had much to do in bringing about this hopeful change. Even in the schools a new spirit of prayer is manifested, with promise of the best results. The one object of the “Union” is “to pray that God may be pleased speedily to give an outpouring of His Spirit upon the churches of Fukien.” Christians at home are urged to join with those on the field in regular daily prayer for this most desirable object. New out-stations established, some of them of great promise, and new buildings planned or erected, afford additional evidence of life, resulting in a “ normal and healthy growth.” Next to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the greatest need is that of competent helpers, both for evangelistic and educational work,—of “self- denying, courageous, steadfast native leaders.” Such men can accomplish, with the aid and counsel of missionaries, results which the missionaries themselves could never hope to achieve without such agency. The training of such native workers, men and women, is the most important, though by no means the exclusive, object of the educational work carried on by the Mission. Considerable advance JUNE, 1904. Y has been made or provided for in this work. The Synod (Chong- hoey) has taken in hand the improvement of the parochial schools, of which there are thirteen, with about 250 scholars. These form the lowest round of the ladder. They reach the families in the churches with which they are connected, and from the brightest of their scholars come the pupils in the boarding schools. The Boys’ Primary School, the next round for boys, on Ko- longsu, has had a very encouraging and prosperous year, with 75 scholars, filling it to overflowing. The Middle School (Talmage Memorial), one step higher in grade, had, at the close of the year, twenty-eight scholars, of whom sixteen were from the churches of our Mission. A new and advanced curriculum has been adopt ed, including the introduction of English as a subject of instruction, —the latter a “ new departure” which has been too long delayed. No feature of the awakening of China is more marked than the wide-spread desire for English and for Western learning. Anglo- Chinese schools are being multiplied—several of them in Amoy. The Board has heretofore been slow in yielding to the demand, for various reasons. It now desires and is seeking to find thor oughly trained and competent hands to which to commit this im portant work. The importance of such an accession to the mission ary force is further emphasized by the need and the introduction of a normal class or department, for the better training of teach ers for the various schools. In the Theological School, (maintained, as is the Middle School, by the English Presbyterian Mission and our own) there were seven students from our own churches. The weakness of the Mis sion is shown by the fact that it had no member who could be assigned to the work of instruction in this most important school. As a consequence, several important branches were of necessity omitted. This is just neither to the students themselves nor to our co-operating English brethren, on whom the entire work of in struction is thus devolved. The five schools for girls and women, at Amoy, Chiang-chiu, Sio-khe and Tong-an, report 279 scholars. In all of them good work has been done. It is impossible to exaggerate their influ ence for good. The school building at Chiang-chiu has been com pleted and occupied, to the great satisfaction of teachers and schol vi FOREIGN MISSIONS. ars. The funds generously provided by the Woman’s Board for a similar building at Tong-an were as yet unused at last accounts, through inability to secure a proper site. When this is completed, each station occupied by missionaries will be provided with a boarding-school for girls, all of them through the Woman’s Board. The same Board, nearly two years ago, provided funds for building a house for missionary residence at Chiang-chiu. Only toward the close of 1903 was it possible finally to secure land suit ably located. This has now been acquired and when the house is completed Chiang-chiu, hitherto occupied by Misses Cappon and Morrison, will, it is hoped, become the permanent residence also of a missionary family. Owing partly to the absence of Dr. Otte, in this country, and in part to illness in the family of Dr. Stumpf, the Neerbosch Hospital at Siokhe was closed during a portion of the year, Dr. Stumpf coming to Amoy and assuming temporary charge of Hope Hos pital. In these two and the Netherlands Woman’s Hospital, 12,- 485 patients were treated during the year and 679 operations per formed. Of the patients, 1,812 were in-patients, remaining for a longer or shorter time. Among these a large amount of evangelis tic work was done. The medical work at Sio-khe having developed the need of some better provision for the reception and treatment of women, the Woman’s Board, with its accustomed liberality, responded to the appeal. The sum of $2,000 was raised and given by it for the building of a Woman’s Hospital, land has been purchased and the building will proceed as soon as suitable plans and arrangements can be made. Through detention in the mail or delay in trans mission, full reports have not been received from the Arcot Mission. This is the more to be regretted as the Mis sion celebrates in 1904 its Jubilee year. For the appropriate com memoration of such an epoch in its history, suitable arrangements have been made. These embrace: 1. A Conference of Christian Workers, for all the agents of the Mission, in March. JUNE, 1904. vii 2. A Students’ Conference, for the pupils of all the schools under the care of the Mission, about the middle of the year. 3. A Historical Commemoration, with a Historical Address by Rev. John H. Wvckoff, D. D., and other appropriate services, to be held in January, 1905.

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