PRESBYTERIAN WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES 1899-1912 PROGRESS; Missionaries number . . 44 Churches number ... 63 Church members . . . 13000 Hospitals .... 3 Schools . 3 Students . 600 Stations— 104, covering 14 provinces. Ordained Filipinos . . . 11 Evangelists — local — Who can say ? PROBLEMS: How to man our fields— American workers. How to man our fields— Filipino workers. How to get a hold on the new generation. How to deepen spiritual life of the members. How to secure money — ( a ) To put up new building for Ellin- wood Girls’ School. ( b ) To greatly increase the plant at Silliman. How to train the Eilipino Church to self- support and direction. PROSPECTS: A united Evangelical Church for the Philippines. The Union College projected— Plans now being studied. “Silliman”, the College for the Visayas. “Union Christian”, the College for the Luzon Provinces. Girls’ School— Ellinwood in larger building. New School at Dumaguete. Dormitories in every provincial capital. A Union Bible Training School, growing from the present institutions. THE PHILIPPINE MISSION Progress — Problepis — Prospects * Rev. J. B. Rodgers, D.D. The first years of the life of the Philip- pines Mission of our church were character- ized by remarkable progress as far as outward signs go. For several years the numbers reported to the Board doubled yearly. Great movements took place where- by many large groups were brought into the communion of our church. This last seven years however have seen no such increase in numbers. The old restless desire for some- thing better at times scarcely distinguishable from the desire for something different has diminished almost to the point of vanishing. The social and party lines which in the first years aided greatly in making people acces- sible to our work, have hardened into walls of division and each man is content in the state wherein he finds himself. There is, however, none the less, progress — in fact the advance is just as real, for the churches have become “consolidated”; that is, to use the Portuguese expression, to become solid. Depth rather than breadth has character- ized the work of these last years. It has been a most genuine advance for the organ- ization of the congregations has become a reality and they are managing their own affairs with courage and skill in many places. As one glances back over the thirteen years which have elapsed since our work began in Manila — the first and greatest blessing that the Protestant Churches have brought to the Philippines — has undoubtedly been the ♦ Dr. Rodsers was the first missionary sent by the Presl)yterian Board to the Philippine Islands. — I EOilor) . open Bible in the dialects and languages of the country. In the Spanish days a few people owned Spanish Bibles which were so expensive that few could afford them. Special license had to be obtained in order that one might read them. In the new order of things in the Roman Church, we firmly expected that the Ameri- can leaders would take steps immediately to put into the hands of their people authorized versions of the Scriptures, but as far back as the public knows not a thing has been done toward this most necessary reform. The people still study the “Mahal na Pasion”, a blank verse paraphrase of the principal incidents in the Gospel history, with a mention of the story of creation. The title means the “Sacred Passion”. This book is chanted and repeated in thousands of homes in all the islands and is a real bene- fit, although its history is faulty and much of its teaching erroneous. The two Bible Societies were early on the ground. The British Society had transla- tions of the Gospels in Pangasinan ready ten years before American occupation, and the work on the Tagalog Gospels began with the war with Spain and versions of three Gospels and the Book of Acts were ready for distribution in the city of Manila very soon after the occu- pation. This society has followed up this good beginning with the completion of the translation of the whole Bible in this prin- cipal dialect, has this past year published a revision of the New Testament and is now working on the revision of the Old Testa- ment. They have also published the New Testament in Bicol, the dialect of Southern Luzon, completed the early work in Panga- sinan and issued some gospels in Ibanag, the dialect of the Gagayan Valley. The Ameri- can Society has not been behind in its good 2 work. It took the responsibility of the Ilo- cano and Visayan dialects, two of the most important in the archipelago. They have completed the Bible in Ilocano and one of the Visayan dialects, the New Testament in one and the Gospels in another of the same general group. They have also published the Testament in Pampangan. It may seem that this has had little to do with the progress of our Mission or of the Evangelical Church, but it has been of the greatest benefit to all, and we can claim our share in the work, for the support of the Societies comes from the different churches and the missionaries have helped to a large extent in making the translations. The printed word is establishing a litera- ture for these dialects, many of the smaller of whigh had nothing printed beyond a few tales and religious books of the olden time. The missions and churches have reaped the benefit of the work of the Societies. The blessing of this work cannot be estimated. Again once the word was printed and sold or distributed, there came next the task of explaining it, of calling the attention of the people to it, of exciting their interest in the same and of applying it to their consciences. The word is scattered and becomes the seed, the germ of a beneficent plague that, con- tagious as the cholera, has made its way rapidly across the provinces. Like the Bureau of Health, the Missions watch for the breaking out of the new influence in the towns, and whenever indications appear of an awakening or a promising inquiry, they are there as soon as possible to take the opportunity offered. Thus groups of believ- ers arose spontaneously in hundreds of towns and some prospered and became churches and others disappeared because of the stones or thorns. 3 The Filipino is a natural born talker and sometimes the good talker makes a good preacher. A great many try to preach. Our churches are thus cared for, the Gospel News is scattered by the members rather than by any ordained or special ministry. Believing as we do that the preached word is the great need of the people and that through it only can the Filipinos make any real progress, our evangelists have not hesi- tated to appeal to the “aspirations” of their fellow countrymen on the ground of patriot- ism to accept the Gospel. Great progress is noticeable in the im- provement in the preaching. At first, before we were able to speak or understand well the preaching, much of it was, no doubt, profitless, because the preachers had not the real grasp of the Gospel. As one of our evangelists, a man entirely devoted to Christ in the later years of his life, said: “At first my services consisted of ‘a hymn, a prayer, a sermon on ‘Death to the Friars’; ‘Let us sing the Doxology, Amen.’ ” The study of the word has so deepened the lives of some of the ministers that they are now really preaching the whole Gospel of Christ. The next point in which progress is noted is in the organized church. Some feel that our whole duty is to preach the Gospel and then tell the people who listen to continue in the communion in which they were born and brought up. This plan has the serious fault that, however hard people have tried to do this, the church in which they were born seems to have no place for them. Common belief, sympathy born of the pressure of persecution, lead believers to- gether, and the only thing to do is to give them such an organization that will conserve the teaching they have already received and show the way to better and higher things of the Christian life. These last years have 4 shown marked progress in the life of the congregation as well as that of the individual Christians. Some who scoffed were inclined to say in the early days that the faith of the Filipino convert was like the chapels they built at first of perishable and inflam- mable material, bamboo and nipa thatch. If such were the case then the fact that many of the churches are replacing their old buildings with neat little wooden buildings with galvanized iron roofs is an indication of the stability of their faith. The Home Missionary Society of the Pres- bytery of Manila has raised a small sum for each of the last three years and has kept one or two evangelists in the field. This has given them greater courage to undertake self support. There are now five churches which have their own pastors either supported in whole or part by the congregations. This does not mean that the others have pastors supported by foreign funds. They get along with such help as an occasional visit from a missionary or traveling evangel- ist can give them, and preach to each other or are led by their elders and local evangelists. The larger organizations of Presbytery and Synod are gradually taking their part in the managing of the church. Owing to the wide distances which now separate our Presby- teries, all our emphasis is placed on the de- velopment of the individual Presbytery and the Synod of the Philippines is for the time a council which exercises little supervision or authority. It is here, however, and ready to take its place as the grand council of the church in the islands. Almost all missions are looking forward to the uniting at no dis- tant date of all the Filipino churches in one Evangelical Church of the Philippine Islands. The missions will, of course, continue their separate identity, but there is no reason why 5 the result of our labors should not some day form one body. Our Evangelical Union has been a great blessing during these ten years that have elapsed since its foundation. Out of the needs of our new congrega- tions have grown the many institutions which are managed or supported by the missions. Our own Silliman Institute, with its five hun- dred students, is easily the first of the schools. The Baptists have an excellent in- dustrial school at Iloilo. Our theological — or better called — our Bible training work, is done in the Ellinwood Seminary, which is united for practical purposes with the Metho- dist Training School, and with the like In- stitution of the United Brethren Mission. The Christian Mission has smaller training schools for Evangelists in Manila and Via- gan and the Baptists — its school at Iloilo. All the larger missions have their semi- naries or Bible schools for girls; our own, the Ellinwood, at Manila, is second to none in its efficiency. Medical work has been de- veloped. Our hospitals at Iloilo, Dumaguete and Tagbilaran are treating thousands of patients. Money is on hand for another hos- pital to be under the direction of Dr. Carter, who has done a most blessed medical work in southern Leyte. The Methodists have an orphan asylum in the north and the Episcopalians one in Manila. Both missions have hospitals in the city of Manila. The attention of all missions has been turned to the getting hold and caring for the young men who flock to the centres for education. Dormitories or hostels have been opened in many of the provinces and in Manila the original dormitory of our mis- sion is being followed by the establishment of similar institutions, far better housed, by 6 the way, of the Methodist, the Episcopal missions and the Y. M. C. A. They afford a splendid opportunity for the getting hold of the new Filipino and of bring- ing him in touch with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Master alone knows the value of the ' service that we have been enabled to do. I Maybe we have valued it too highly, maybe too lightly. No doubt exists in our minds I that there is need for better service on the part of the force already on the field and I for a greater force for the undertaking and I fulfilling of our duty. Our responsibility as ' a church is for certain sections of the islands ' and to really undertake it we should about double our present force. Our work is so bound up with the work of all the missions that this article has at- ! tempted to review them all. What we have 'i said of our work is true in large measure of the others. You can pray as easily for us all as for a few, so remember to help. 7 WONDERFUL CHANGES IN THE PHILIPPINES Rev. C. N. Magill After a very pleasant and profitable fur- lough in the States for nine months and a four months’ trip back via England, Europe, and Palestine, the latter of which being es- pecially interesting and helpful, we are again in Tayabas. We were not aware of the rapid changes taking place here until we had been absent fourteen months and then returned and were forcibly impressed by our observa- tions on every hand. When we landed in Manila, we observed that she is making won- derful material progress. We observed that since we left a great modern hotel had been built at a cost of P 1,000,000 (1,000,000 pesos, or S500.000 gold); the new Civil Hospital, costing almost as much, had been put into operation, a commodious Normal School building had been erected and a new Medical College had been opened. Besides these we noticed the Army and Navy Club, the Elks’ Home, the large Government Docks, the new business buildings, many new homes, improved streets, enlarged and beautiful botanical gardens, aquarium, and many other improvements that have all been installed within a short time. The Philippine University has been estab- lished, the Y. M. C. A. has been put on a very successful working basis, with large plans for more buildings, and the extension of the work among the Filipinos, and a large union plan is on foot by which the work of the Evangelical Churches will be strength- ened and broadened by the organization of a Union Church, and establishing the Union Christian College of the Philippines. The material, intellectual and spiritual, 8 progress that is so marked in Manila is spreading out into the provinces and to all parts of the islands. It can be noticed on every hand. We were pleased to learn that we could almost reach our Tayabas Station by train, whereas in the past it has had to be reached by a two days’ hard “hike” over bad roads, or on slow, dirty little boats. Going by train as far as Tiaon, the first town in our province, we observed that the railroad had reaehed many towns in Laguna Province, through which we had to pass. At Tiaon, the terminus at present, we were sur- prised to find automobiles “for hire” at the station instead of the little, old two-wheeled karromata. So, within a little more than an hour, we traveled by auto to Lucena, our destination — a distance of twenty-five miles, with much more comfort and with less ex- pense than ever before. We observed prog- ress in Lucena, the capital of our province. A new Municipal Building has been built at a cost of P 50,000; new streets have been made and two fine steel bridges have been built over the small rivers that run on each side of the town; new homes have been built and a contract has been let for the new High School, Intermediate and Trade School, which is to cost P 1,000,000, and also a contract has just been let for the building of an electric light and ice plant. The railroad is being pushed to this point and trains are promised by December 1st. This will enable us to reach Manila in five hours, and will put six or seven towns in easy reach of Lucena, and also give us two mails daily. After looking around a long time, we finally found an old Spanish house for rent at POO per month, which had been fitted up by a Filipino doctor for a hospital, but being actively engaged in politics and other things, he did not have time to run it, and 9 10 ''1)1:111 jii.miii.i.iAii; ) .'.iii.(.iii piin.i jo udi iipiiii, > gave up the plan and turned the “hospital” over to us permanently. So, although just back from furlough, we are in the hospital all the time. The house has nine or ten rooms, small and large, and proves very satisfactory for our purpose. We have ten boys and girls living with us, and all attend the Public Schools and High School. They have come up from their respective towns, having finished their grades there and are continuing their studies here in the provincial seat. Our house is a kind of “dormitory” and the students run a co-operative boarding club, paying cost of their food, etc. We help them with their studies, teach them English, and throw the influences of a Christian home about them, and have family worship with them each evening. We have services on Sabbaths in our basement, and the children help us with the singing and in various ways, as they are most all active Christians. Our work here is new, having no organization yet, but hoping to have one before very long by the help of the Lord. We have been very much impressed with the need of a Medical Missionary and hospital, and a dor- mitory for students who come up to the High School here. Many of them have no good place to stay and there is a fine opportunity to throw Christian influences around them, if we had a dormitory in which they could board and receive the benefits of some super- vision, a reading room, Bible classes, etc. We are especially in need of a Medical Mission- ary, for the Army Doctor has been trans- ferred, and the little hospital at the Scout Post has recently been abolished and will no more be installed here, and hence there is at present no permanent American doctor in this very large province with its popula- tion of 225,000 people. A small hospital here would be a great blessing to the people and a great help to our work. 11 12 Improvements in same road sliown in preceding iliustratiou two years later. Tliese oliangos are l)eiug made all tlirongh the' Islands We have been very busy since we re- turned studying the Tagalog language, visit- ing our churches, setting up housekeeping, calling and receiving callers, writing, etc. We have been over our field and find the congregations in good condition, some of them having made advances both in num- ber, spirituality, and efficiency, and also in the improvement of their chapels. During our visits to the churches we held classes and services for about a week in each place, and it was gratifying to see how the people attended and took part. We had a special Bible Class and Con- ference in Lukban in April conducted by Dr. Rogers, Pastor, Estrella, Misses Kalb (now Mrs. Rath) and Rodenburg and ourselves. One thing that added special interest to this occasion was the ordination of Mr. Francisco Beltran, a native of Lukban, our first station, and who has been working with us as an Evangelist for five years. He has done good work as an Evangelist and now that he is ordained, we believe that he will become even more efficient and useful. 13 THE NURSE PROBLEM AT THE MISSION HOSPITAL Dr. J. Andrew Hall. The training of nurses presents slight dif- ference among the cities of the United States where nurses exist as a distinct class, but as there has never been any who could be called by that name in the Philippine Islands prior to six years ago, some of our experi- ences may be interesting to the people of America. Anticipating the opening of the new hos- pital building in Iloilo in 1906, two of our converts were selected for training and con- sented to try it for a time at least. They received such instruction as could be given apart from the wards during the most of the year 1905, but when the hospital was finally opened in 1906 they were treated by the patients as the most menial servants and addressed as such by some of the pa- tients, while others regarded them with even less respect. Consequently they both left the hospital at the end of the two months’ probation, refusing to assist any longer in such work. Mrs. Brinton (now Mrs. Bordman) who had come from America to take charge of the nursing, was left alone with more patients than she could care for and had no one to assist her. One of the patients in the hos- pital at the time was a widow woman with one daughter, a girl of 17, who constantly visited her invalid mother. Also there were two country girls engaged in the laundry. These three, seeing the situation in which Mrs. Brinton was placed, came to the rescue and offered to help. They thus became the first class, two of whom, together with an- other graduating in 1909 as the first trained 14 nurses in the Islands. *The fourth, mentioned above, was a young girl of 15 or 16 who sought shelter in the hospital, having run away from her home to get rid of marrying a man who she disliked and who was the choice of her parents. She took the full three years’ training, became an efficient nurse, neat and gentle and acceptable to all classes of patients, and then was dismissed from the hospital along with one of the dis- pensary clerks — in disgrace. The same treatment had to be meted out to one of the other three only a few months before the time of graduation for the same cause. These unfortunate occurrences are all too common among the people despite the most careful vigilance on the part of the parents or guardians. But the ball was rolling. Word had reached acquaintances of the girls that the work at the hospital was novel and pleasant, the food was good, and the life agreeable. Applicants became numerous. Some stayed a week, others a month or two, but most of them had to be dismissed sooner or later because for one reason or another they gave no promise of ever making nurses of even a poor grade. The number of those in train- ing consequently grew slowly. The two American nurses, Mrs. Brinton and Miss Klein, had to depend upon themselves to do the nursing in all the more serious cases, and even the work left to the Filipinos had to be very closely watched. Then the applicants grew less in number and the work increased. We searched for other girls who might pos- sibly serve and begged them to take training, but to no purpose. Friends were asked to help us get girls with the same result. As fast as one entered, another had to be dis- missed or left to get married at the request Note. — See cover page for socoDd class — 1010. 15 of the parents. Finally, about a year ago, a letter was circulated among the missionaries far and near asking for applicants. Mr. Jansen, of Cebu, came to the rescue, first with three and later with six more, and later Dr. Graham sent us one from Bohol to be trained in order to assist him in the hospital at Tagbilaran. These latter are all girls who have had some education in the public schools and have passed from three to five grades. They know a little English and can read and write to some extent, whereas the earlier ones had to be taught really every- thing they now know. The training of these has been exceedingly difficult for they were not only ignorant, but lacked mental dis- cipline and had no fixed habits of life that were helpful. The training has been an edu- cation to them. Felipa, irresponsible at first and deceptive, hot tempered and saucy, has become serious and bears her burden of responsibility, is in charge of the operating room and com- pares favorably with nurses in other parts of the world. Concepcion, at first stupid, giddy and careless, has become neat, quiet and efficient, a general favorite and a good moral influence among the others. Solidad, a mere child of 15, who had run away from home to avoid marrying a man she disliked, supersensitive, childish and naughty, has be- come a dignified, careful and efficient nurse and is especially good with children. A prominent Filipino of the old school, when a patient in the hospital, said to me one day: “These girls have something I have not seen in others, a spirit of self-reliance and quiet attentiveness to their work which I think must come from the influence of the Gospel.” This is true at least in part. They can be appealed to in a way that others cannot and are more trustworthy. We now have a staff of 20, including 3 of the 6 that have already graduated. There is being developed an 16 esprit de corp, a pride in efficiency and a realization of the responsibility placed upon them. Ours is the oldest training school in the Islands and we are endeavoring to keep it second to none in efficiency and training; not only is it our aim to send out trained nurses but to train them to be, by their work and conversation, true witnesses in the sick room for the Great Master whose work they do. 17 THE TRAINING OF THE FILIPINO CHURCH Rev. George Wm. Wright The training classes are in session for one to two weeks and we put as much into them as we feel is wise. There is a devotional service from 8.00 to 8.30 each morning, and at 8.30 the classes proper begin. This year the Rev. Guillermo Zarco took the first hour, giving the men and women together talks on practical matters with which the Batangas churches are especially dealing at this time. Then the men and women were separated into two classes and a third class of young men and women understanding English was also formed. Miss Kalb, of our Ellinwood School for Girls, taught the women along the lines of woman’s work in the churches, and Miss Rodenberg, another of the teachers, taught the young men and women in Bible study, using English. I took the men and for the first hour gave them homiletic work, making sermon plans and elaborating them. They are always anxious to get hold of homiletic material, for the Filipinos are ready speakers and enjoy preaching the Gospel. For the second hour I gave them instruction in Hurlburt’s Teach- er’s Training Lessons, which we have had translated into Tagalog and find very help- ful. We also used the large wall maps pub- lished by the Pi'esbyterian Board of Educa- tion. The endeavor is, of course, to help toward intelligent Bible study. The morn- ing classes close at 11.30. We begin again in the afternoon and this year we have put emphasis on the Sunday School work. From 3.00 to 3.45 the men and women separately are taught the Sunday School lesson for the weeks just ahead and then for the next hour 18 we have a model Sunday School. The Sun- day School idea is taking deep root among the churches and the people realize what great opportunity there is in it. A year ago the Philippine Islands Sunday School Associ- ation was organized and Sunday School work is now being pushed everywhere over the Islands. The model Sunday School is, of course, designed to be an object lesson, and the more of these Sunday School hours we have the more they seem to want, and the more intelligent they grow in Sunday School methods the more they seem to feel there is yet to learn. As the class is gathered from all over the Province this means much for the cause. We have the same jolly times in these model Sunday School hours that people have at home, and the touch with the children keeps all the members young. After the Sunday School hour half an hour is spent in learning new hymns. The Fili- pino people, as I told you when at home, are passionately fond of music, and they like the same songs that we do in the United States. In the evening we hold preaching services and the crowd that listens is as large on the outside as on the inside of the chapel. The chapel is quite open and many can therefore hear on the outside. One of the preachers was a last year’s graduate from the Semi- nary and we are very proud and happy in him. He has a splendid spirit and an open, frank, kindly face. Everybody loves him and the last Sabbath he spent with us in Manila the Malate Congregation, to whom he had preached a great deal during the years of his seminary course, was very much in tears at the thought of his leaving. But he has gone to a fine work and is getting splendid results. If we could multiply such as he all over the Islands we would have many godly, happy people in every town. He married one of the young ladies in the Girls’ School and 19 20 (Miapol at Uiiian. ainl pai't of tlic <‘ony:r»'y;atioa they make a very efficient and lovable couple. Another one of the preachers was a young man who has not come to the Seminary yet but who is taking his college course in our Silliman Institute at Dumaguete. He has a fine command of English, speaks beautiful Tagalog and was born for the platform. He is but twenty-one years of age but has the poise of a mature man and the grace of a finished, polished speaker. He neither rants nor grows stupid. We have much hope of the value he will be to his people and his province when he goes into the field as a minister of the Gospel. Another man we have working in this field is very acceptable to the churches and much loved by the people. But he was the utter despair of all his teachers while he was try- ing to go through the Seminary. No one has the record of his ever having passed an ex- amination and it was a great day when he managed to make a recitation. In one ex- amination I had asked an interpretation of the parable of the Sower, and found the fol- lowing paragraph on his paper when he handed it in. Said he (in Spanish) : “Our Lord Jesus Christ has given such a fine ex- position of this parable that I could not pos- sibly improve upon it, and professor, please excuse me — I have not time to write any further on this examination.” But whether he could pass an examination or not he certainly has a manner so simple and kindly and moreover seems so in sym- pathy with his message and his hearers that people greatly enjoy hearing him, and I pre- sume in many ways he, in his own fashion, carried away from the course as much as his classmates, for he has certainly proven himself a helpful, earnest man. Perhaps he will stick to the plan of not trying to im- prove upon the explanation of the Master and that may in part account for his success. 21 Somehow there is a sweetness and sim- plicity in the way the Gospel is received by those who count it precious that gives to the heart a deep satisfaction. To these people the story of the Christ is full of romance and c’^arm, and to them the telling of it to others is a blessed privilege. They accept His commandments as the rule of their lives, and although they have their failings, as sadly enough do we all, we be- lieve they are honestly and consistently try- ing to live the Christ life among their fellow men and because of such the world is richer and all life made happier. 22 THE STORY OF SILLIMAN — AN OPPORTUNITY H. W. Langheim, M.D. Fourteen years ago the thirteenth of last August the U. S. Army occupied Manila. In the same year, 1898, the Presbyterian Church sent its first missionaries “to occupy the land,” and in August of 1901, three years after the stars and stripes had been unfurled over the 8,000,000 Filipino people, our mis- sion established an outpost at Dumaguete, the capitol of Oriental Negros, situated near the southern end of the archipelago. To the late Flon. H. B. Silliman, of Cohoes, New York, a friend of Mount Hermon, Tuske- gee. Park and Hampton and numerous other institutions of learning, the Filipinos are in- debted for the establishment of an institu- tion doing more than any other agency for the moral and spiritual uplift of their race, and the church for a work which, to use Dr. Silliman’s own words, “challenges compari- son with any other mission agency of our church.” The readers of this leaflet are, or should be, familiar with the phenomenal growth of Silliman Institute. How, in August of 1901, it began with 15 students who ate and slept in the home of the missionary in charge, and classes were held in the basement of the home, and how, year after year, the number of students has increased, always so much beyond the ability of the Board to supply teachers and provide quarters to accommo- date them, so that each year dozens and in recent years hundreds of bright young men, eager for knowledge and seeking to know “what they must do to inherit eternal life” are turned away. 23 24 Wiiuiiis I’l-om tliii'lr('ii hii;li schools and Sill'Miiin Institute at a tnick rnoet Indd on Silliinan Field That the harvest being reaped from the seed sown by Dr. Silliman is not an im- aginary or empty one is evident whether we consider it solely as an evangelizing influ- ence or whether we consider the by-products of the effort. As far back as 1904 President W. H. Taft, then Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands, said that “Silliman Institute had done more to pacify the island of Negros than all the efforts of the American government.” In April of this year. Acting Governor- General Newton W. Gilbert, in a communi- cation to Dr. Hibbard, president of Silliman, said : “In my judgment you are doing a very impor- tant and meritorious work in your institution. On the occasions on which I have visited 5’our school I have always been impressed with the -spirit of earnestness and singleness of purpose which has seemed to characterize both the faculty and the students.” And Mr. P. S. O’Reilly, Government In- spector of Private Schools, writes with par- ticular reference to the industrial work of Silliman : "This work I consider of the greatest impor- tance to the Filipino youth, and the work now l)elng done by Silliman Institute will be of great- est value in solving the economic questions. With the new Iniildings you propose to build and with the development of the large agricultural lands at your disposal (the institution owns a farm, purchased by Dr. Silliman) Silliman Institute should play a very important part in the uplift and betterment of those with whom we have to deal.” The above statements are given that the reader may appreciate the attitude of the officials of the government toward this im- portant branch of the work of our church. That it has the approval of the rank and file of the Filipino people is evidenced by the freedom and eagerness with which the parents send their sons to Silliman. Prac- tically every one of the more than 30 prov- 25 inces is represented in the enrollment. They come from every walk of life, rich and poor. Filipino, Spaniard, Mestizo, Chinese and Siamese throw Castillian training and tradi- tion and oriental custom to the wind and live as one big family. Here Catalino, the son of Casillo, the mountain bandit, who de- fied the authorities so many years, sits at the same table with the son of the Ex-Gov- ernor of the province and Jose, son of one of the wealthiest and most influential hacien- deros of Negros, comes to study hour and sits with Claudio, a former servant of the family. Here the proud Tagalog sits in class with his peaceable Visayan brother and his war-loving, fanatical neighbor, the Moro, or his more distant neighbor from the new re- public of China, or Siam. Esteban and Miguel, sons of Don Emelio Aguinaldo, the famous insurrecto leader, the man who made General Funston famous, and Thip, the son of a major surgeon in the Siamese Army are among the students. The students are in demand for positions in every department of the government and in every part of the archipelago. In fact offers come so frequent and such flattering inducements are held out that it is a great temptation, to which many of the students yield, to leave school and go to work before they finish their course. The Fiscal (prose- cuting attorney) of one of the northern provinces, is an old Silliman student and the deputy treasurer of another province. At the elections held in the Islands last June, three former Silliman students were elected to the office of Municipal President, and so in the Bureau of Education and the Bureau of Public Works and in banks and business houses throughout the islands, and as min- isters of the Gospel and Evangelists, these young men who have been under the influ- ence of the Gospel are to be found. Who 26 will attempt to estimate what the influence of these young men will be in raising the moral and spiritual status of this 8,000,000 people who ha%’e been in a school of des- potism and bigotry for 300 years: a school where the spiritual leaders of these people were, as a class, guilty of every crime in the calendar and degenerate to such a de- gree of profligacy and debauchery that we, of western training and ideals, can hardly conceive. Last spring the commencement exercises of the third graduating class to go out from Silliman Institute were held. Seven young men received the degree of B.A. Five of the seven are members of the church. Six are continuing their studies at the University. Three will study medicine, two law and one agriculture. The other member of the class is at Ellinwood Seminary preparing for the ministry. The present Senior Class is composed of twelve young men of whom Silliman is justly proud. Nine of the twelve are members of the church, six of the number taking the step after entering the Institute. Two of the three Filipino ministers of the Gospel in Oriental Negros are from the ranks of Silliman and all the Evangelists in charge of the churches in the towns where it is impossible to supply an ordained man. Thus the school is caring for churches and congregations of many thousand members. One church alone, that of Quijulr.gan, has a membership of over 1,000. The total enrollment of students last year was 589. Note the increase in 1 1 years from 15 to 589. Two hundred and fifty of this number lived in the dormitories. Silliman opened its twelfth school year June 4, 1912. There are at present 325 students living in the college, an increase of 75 over last year. It would have been im- 27 possible to care for this increase but for the generosity of Hon. Demetrio Larena, for five years Governor of Oriental Negros, a Presbyterian elder and the only Filipino trus- tee of Silliman, who vacated his own resi- dence, near the campus, to take care of the increase. In addition to the increase of 75 over last year, more than 100 young men, seeking light, were turned away. Last year more than 100 students con- fessed Christ by joining the church. Con- sider these figures also: One-fifth of the entire student body in one year. Did Dr. Silliman exaggerate when he said the result of his investment “challenges com- parison with any other mission agency of our church?” The business needs to be enlarged that the results may be increased. Fifteen thou- sand dollars added to the investment will supply a dormitory to care for 150 Filipino young men who, if given an opportunity, will go out prepared, physically, mentally and morally, to help in the emancipation and up- lifting of their race. 28 1S27 Itoiii-d of Foroign Missions of the I’resb.vtiH'ian Church in the TT. S. A. l.M! Fifth Ave., Xew York Price, 2 cents Oct. 1, -012 THE D.Mil.INi: I'liES.S, NEW VOUK