nurch 
 
 mes 
 
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 THE TASK OF THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 IN THE 
 
 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
 
 As seen by the Deputation party of the 
 Board of Foreign Missions who visited 
 the Islands in 1915, consisting of Secre- 
 tary Robert E. Speer, Treasurer Dwight 
 H. Day, Medical Advisor, Dr. David 
 Bovaird, and Mr. T. Guthrie Speers. 
 
 2 
 
THE PHILIPPINE MISSION 
 
 Manila: on the Island of Luzon; occu- 
 pied 1899. Missionaries — Rev. James B. 
 Rodgers, D.D., and Mrs. Rodgers, Rev. 
 George W. Wright and Mrs. Wright, Miss 
 Clyde Bartholomew, Mr. Charles A. Gunn 
 and Mrs. Gunn, Miss Emma J. Hannan, 
 Miss Julia M. Hodge. 
 
 Iloilo: on the Island of Panay; occupied 
 1900. Missionaries — J. Andrew Hall, 
 
 M. D., and Mrs. Hall, Rev. Paul Doltz and 
 Mrs. Doltz. 
 
 Dumaguete: on the Island of Negros; oc- 
 cupied 1901. Missionaries — Rev. David S. 
 Hibbard, Ph.D., and Mrs. Hibbard, H. W. 
 Langheim, M.D., and Mrs. Langheim, Mr. 
 Charles A. Glunz and Mrs. Glunz, Mr. 
 James P. Eskridge and Mrs. Eskridge, Mr. 
 Carlos E. Smith, Rev. Wm. J. Smith and 
 Mrs. Smith, Mr. Christian H. Hanlin and 
 Mrs. Hanlin, Rev. Herman R. Berger and 
 Mrs. Berger. 
 
 Cebu: on the Island of Cebu; occupied 
 1902. Missionaries — Rev. Fred Jansen and 
 Mrs. Jansen, Rev. George W. Dunlap and 
 Mrs. Dunlap, Miss Florence C. Heywang. 
 
 Laguna: P. 0., Santa Cruz., on Laguna 
 de Bay, Luzon; occupied 1903. Mission- 
 aries — Rev. Charles R. Hamilton, D.D., and 
 Mrs. Hamilton. 
 
 Leyte: P. 0., Tacloban, on the Island of 
 Leyte; occupied 1903. Missionaries — Rev. 
 Charles E. Rath and Mrs. Rath, Warren 
 J. Miller, M.D., and Mrs. Miller. 
 
 Albay: P. O., Albay, in the southeastern 
 part of the Island of Luzon; occupied 1903. 
 Missionaries — Rev. Roy H. Brown and Mrs. 
 Brown. 
 
 Tayabas: P. O., Lucena, 80 miles south- 
 west of Manila, on the Island of Luzon; 
 occupied 1906. Missionaries — Rev. Charles 
 
 N. Magill, D.D., and Mrs. Magill. 
 
Bohol: P. O., Tagbilaran, on the Island 
 of Bohol; occupied 1909. Missionaries — 
 Dr. James A. Graham and Mrs. Graham, 
 Miss Margaret M. Barnett. 
 
 Camarines: P. O., Naga, on the Island of 
 Luzon, between the Provinces of Tayabas 
 and Albay; occupied 1910. Missionaries — 
 Rev. Kenneth P. MacDonald and Mrs. Mac- 
 Donald. 
 
 4 
 
THE TASK OF THE PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 I. AS SEEN BY A LAYMAN 
 
 The achievements of the Government of 
 the United States in the Philippine Islands, 
 for the Filipino people are probably un- 
 rivaled in the history of Colonial develop- 
 ment. The wisdom with which the work 
 has been planned, the skill and honesty 
 with which it has been executed, and the 
 spirit of true brotherliness by which it has 
 everywhere throughout the Islands been 
 pervaded, cause a thrill of pleasure to 
 spring up in the heart of a visiting Am- 
 erican. 
 
 Great, however, as has been the leadership 
 of the United States for the Philippines, 
 and true as has been the spirit of officials 
 and teachers toward their wards, these have 
 not been adequate to meet the deepest needs 
 of these 8,000,000 Malaysians. No wise 
 person ever would have thought that ma- 
 terial development, education, and sanita- 
 tion would be sufficient. No place has been 
 made for religion, and without God in the 
 life of the Nation, consciously apprehended, 
 the people can never truly live and pro- 
 gress. 
 
 So Christians, looking at the situation, 
 and appreciating the awful responsibility 
 laid upon them, have gone into the Islands 
 for the purpose of leading the Filipino 
 people into a knowledge and love of God. 
 
 How is this task to be accomplished? 
 
 I. Evangelistic Work 
 
 The supremely important purpose to be 
 held steadfastly in view in all Christian 
 missionary work is the establishment and 
 development of Church organizations, (a) 
 5 
 
Because the church congregation is the 
 body appointed to hold and disseminate the 
 truth about God and Christ, (b) It can 
 best do this because it secures the co-oper- 
 ation and combination of individuals and 
 families, the latter being the units of so- 
 ciety. (c) By meeting together they grow 
 in the Christian life through having spirit- 
 ual development in common. (d) The 
 church is the reservoir out of which must 
 flow the life which must be consecrated to 
 the evangelization of any nation. No 
 amount of foreign assistance can ever evan- 
 gelize a nation. The work must be done 
 by the nation itself, and by those in the 
 nation who have been born and reared in 
 the native church. The church is the 
 source of this supply and without the 
 church there will be no supply and nations 
 will not be evangelized. Our task in the 
 Philippines then, is too establish churches 
 of Filipino people, teaching them that they 
 must be self-supporting, self-governing and 
 self-propagating. 
 
 II. Education 
 
 But churches need leadership, their own 
 pastors must be educated and trained and 
 made capable of guiding their people. More- 
 over churches will be built up all the more 
 quickly if children are early taught in the 
 things pertaining to the Christian life. The 
 600,000 children of the Government Schools 
 learn nothing about God or Christ in the 
 schools. The Bible is forbidden to be 
 taught and no public school teacher is per- 
 mitted to hold classes in Bible instruction. 
 The task of the missionaries, therefore, is 
 to (a) provide theological training for 
 Christian young men, that they may be- 
 come true and competent ministers for the 
 Filipino churches. (b) To get into per- 
 sonal relationships with school boys and 
 girls in such ways that the Bible and Chris- 
 tian truth can be taught them. This is ac- 
 complished through the building of dormi- 
 6 
 
tories near Government Schools where boys 
 and girls can be housed under the super- 
 vision of the missionary and where instruc- 
 tion can be freely given. Very little needs 
 to be done by the mission in secular educa- 
 tion, as the Government assumes the re- 
 sponsibility for this in the Islands. 
 
 III. Medical Work 
 
 All good medical work in the missions 
 contributes its influence toward the estab- 
 lishing of churches. People who find help 
 and healing in the hospitals are made into 
 friends of the missionaries. Prejudice is 
 disarmed and instead of bigoted criticism 
 and opposition the benefited ones are ready 
 for counsel and advice and further leading. 
 So it is that under a good system of fol- 
 low-up, patients are sought out and brought 
 into church fellowship with Christians. 
 Often they could not be gotten hold of at 
 all, were it not for the beneficent work of 
 the missionary physician and his wife, and 
 the nurses. At Tagbilaran a priest had 
 bitterly denounced the hospital to his 
 people, but a plague coming upon him, he 
 himself became a patient and his friend- 
 ship was won. Our task for the medical 
 work is to see that our missionary phy- 
 sicians have good hospitals, that they are 
 supplied with good equipment, and that 
 where a home for nurses is required, this is 
 provided. 
 
 Evangelistic, educational and medical 
 work, all these lines of endeavor are lead- 
 ing the Filipino people into the light of the 
 free Gospel of Christ, centered and bound 
 up in self-sustaining churches. 
 
 OUPv TASK IN THE PHILIPPINES 
 CALLS FOR (1) PRAYER FOR THE 
 PEOPLE AND ESPECIALLY THAT GOD 
 WILL SEND FORTH FILIPINO LABOR- 
 ERS INTO THE HARVEST, (2) FOR 
 LIFE TO GO OUT TO THE ISLANDS 
 TO RADIATE LIFE, (3) FOR SACRI- 
 7 
 
FICE AND DEVOTION BY THOSE WHO 
 REMAIN AT HOME TO THE END 
 THAT GIFTS WILL BE MADE ADE- 
 QUATE TO THE NEEDS THAT CALL 
 LOUDLY TO US FROM THESE OUR 
 WARDS. 
 
 Dwight H. Day, 
 
 Treasurer of the Presbyterian 
 Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 8 
 
II. AS SEEN BY A STUDENT 
 
 “Our Government would not be a suc- 
 cess unless we had our religion in it, and 
 so it will be in the future also.” Thus 
 spoke a young Christian Filipino student. 
 We were visiting a school on the island of 
 Panay. A special meeting had been called 
 to welcome Mr. Speer, during which some 
 of the older boys spoke briefly, telling what 
 the school had done for them. The fellow 
 who uttered these words, was, as I remem- 
 ber it, the president of the senior class. 
 Now as he neared the end of his school 
 years, his thoughts turned, as did those of 
 the other members of his class, towards the 
 part that each one of them hoped to play 
 in the government of his country in the 
 years that were to come. And to us who 
 listened, it was inspiring to note that his 
 dreams of political activity could not be 
 dissociated from his love for the religion 
 to which he had given his allegiance dur- 
 ing those years spent in a Christian school. 
 
 An overwhelming proportion of the grad- 
 uates of the high schools in the Philippine 
 Islands have political and professional am- 
 bitions. Of the twenty-five graduates of 
 one provincial high school about which 
 we were told, all but two took up the study 
 of law in order to fit themselves to take 
 an active part in politics. If the govern- 
 ment of the Islands is in the future to be 
 based upon Christian principles, if its aim 
 as a nation is to be the upbuilding of 
 God’s kingdom of righteousness and love 
 on earth, then must the youth of this pres- 
 ent generation be won to the service of 
 Christ, and firmly grounded in the prin- 
 ciples which He taught. 
 
 Are the forces of the Presbyterian church 
 coping with this problem? Not for a mo- 
 ment would I give the impression that this 
 comprises the whole of our duty in the 
 Islands. There are other tasks to which 
 the church must turn its hand and its brain. 
 9 
 
But, being a student myself, this is the part 
 of our responsibility which appealed to me 
 most strongly during our visit last summer. 
 
 There are 620,000 Filipino boys and girls 
 attending school to-day. Between 1012 and 
 1914 there were 22,336 boys graduated 
 from the primary grades of the public 
 schools. These are potential electors for 
 they may now claim suffrage on the basis 
 of having fulfilled the educational require- 
 ments of the law. What are we doing for 
 these boys? 
 
 We have a large and splendid school at 
 Dumaguete on the island of Negros, where 
 it is hoped that a thousand students may 
 be taken care of each year. These boys 
 are learning Christianity. What they re- 
 ceive they pass on to others. While at 
 Silliman Institute a letter from a mission- 
 ary on the island of Mindanao informed 
 us that during a recent tour of the north- 
 ern coast of that island he had found that 
 though no missionary was at work there, 
 the whole coast had been evangelized by 
 the boys from Silliman returning to their 
 homes in the summer and telling their 
 friends of the new life which had been 
 given them. It is such boys as these who 
 must be made not only the leaders in poli- 
 tics but also the ministers of the Filipino 
 church if the future of the Islands is to 
 be conserved for Christ. Educated leaders 
 are in demand everywhere, but as yet there 
 are all too few of them in the Philippines. 
 
 It does not follow, however, that the Pres- 
 byterian cnurch should attempt to found 
 more of such schools. For one of the finest 
 things that our government has accom- 
 plished is the establishment of a splendid 
 public school system. It is true that these 
 schools have been carefully non-religious 
 just as they are in the United States, but 
 in connection with them we must find our 
 greatest opportunity for reaching the Fili- 
 pino youth with a knowledge of Christ. In 
 each provincial capital a high school is 
 10 
 
located, and to these the boys and girls 
 come, literally by the hundreds. The great 
 majority of them thus are from out of 
 town. In Tacloban, which stands second 
 in schools in the Islands, 95 per cent, of 
 the high school pupils are non-resident. 
 They live wherever they can find accommo- 
 dations, some boarding together in little 
 groups, others scattered far and wide over 
 the city. In many cases their lodgings are 
 unsanitary or the light for study is bad, 
 and only too often they are surrounded 
 with temptations to which we would fear 
 to have our Christian high school boys sub- 
 mitted. Could there be any greater oppor- 
 tunity offered to our church in the Philip- 
 pine Islands? 
 
 We have not neglected this opportunity. 
 In nearly every station that we visited, 
 dormitories had already been built or were 
 in the process of erection. Here the boys 
 find clean, well-lighted rooms, good food, 
 recreation that is wholesome, and influ- 
 ences that are Christian. Sometimes a 
 young missionary lives with them. In every 
 case much of his time is spent in their so- 
 ciety, playing with them, helping them to 
 study, teaching them and talking with them 
 about Christ. Think of the opportunity 
 thus offered for the moulding of young 
 lives. It is a wonderful work! 
 
 But how little of it there really is, — 
 one Christian dormitory containing per- 
 haps 40 boys, in a town where hundreds are 
 attending school. It is impossible to have 
 a large number of boys in a dormitory for 
 one man cannot give them the attention that 
 he should. THERE MUST BE MORE 
 DORMITORIES, AND MORE MEN TO 
 CARE FOR THEM. IS THE PRESBY- 
 TERIAN CHURCH EQUAL TO THIS 
 TASK? IS SHE FULLY AWAKE TO 
 HER OPPORTUNITY? WHO WILL 
 HELP TO MAKE HER SO? 
 
 Thomas Guthrie Speers, 
 
 Asst. Pas. in the University Place Church , N. Y. City. 
 
 11 
 
III. AS SEEN BY A PHYSICIAN 
 
 Dean Worcester in his ‘‘Philippines Past 
 and Present/’ tells us that at the time of 
 the occupation of the islands by the United 
 States troops there was not in all the 
 islands a surgeon capable of opening the 
 abdominal cavity and performing an ordi- 
 nary abdominal operation. At that time 
 also contagious diseases ran riot everywhere 
 throughout the islands. As many as 40,000 
 people are said to have died of small-pox in 
 a single year. Plague, cholera, and the like 
 were frequent invaders. The meaning of 
 hygiene and sanitation was practically un- 
 known. Outside Manila and the larger cit- 
 ies there were few physicians, and large 
 numbers of the people were altogether with- 
 out medical attendance. Eighteen years of 
 hard, intelligent work on the part of the 
 authorities have changed all this. A year 
 ago the great San Lazaro Hospital, which 
 is expected to care for all the cases of dan- 
 gerous contagious disease originating in 
 Manila and its environs in mid-summer, 
 housed only a few diphtheria-carriers and 
 a group of lepers, the latter there only 
 pending their removal to the leper colony 
 on the Island of Culion. All the virulent 
 diseases which had so long ravaged the 
 country and made Manila famous as a dis- 
 ease center had been brought under more 
 or less complete control. Manila and its 
 surroundings are rapidly approaching in 
 healthfulness the standards of the aver- 
 age American city. Furthermore, there 
 has been established in Manila a univer- 
 sity with a medical school so well equip- 
 ped and staffed as to rank in Class A of 
 the American Medical Association, the 
 group to which our best home schools be- 
 long, and that school is now annually turn- 
 ing out a number of thoroughly educated 
 medical practitioners. The Philippines 
 General Hospital, which is part of the uni- 
 versity organization, contains 350 beds and 
 has an exceptionally well-planned and or- 
 12 
 
ganized out-patient department. Both hos- 
 pital and clinic are equipped and conducted 
 in a manner to call forth most sincere ad- 
 miration. So long as these institutions are 
 kept at the high standard they have al- 
 ready attained, the future of medical edu- 
 cation in the islands seems assured and 
 before many years the Philippines should 
 have a thoroughly educated native medi- 
 cal profession. 
 
 In the provincial capitals the government 
 has placed sanitary officers and established 
 hospitals. Everywhere throughout the 
 islands hygiene is being taught and works 
 of sanitation carried on by the gov- 
 ernment representatives so thoroughly that 
 from the viewpoint of health the condi- 
 tions have been revolutionized. And yet 
 the work is not all done by any means. A 
 large part of the population, especially the 
 so-called non-Christian tribes, is practically 
 without medical care. 
 
 Just how many physicians there were in 
 the islands at the time of the occupation is 
 not known, certainly not enough to begin to 
 care for all the people, even if they had 
 been thoroughly trained men, and very few 
 of them could make that claim. In 1913 
 the Board of Examiners, the official licens- 
 ing body of the islands, granted licenses to 
 60 practitioners and to 15 cirujanos minis- 
 trantes, the latter a curious survival of the 
 ancient regime representing men who have 
 spent two years in medical study in the old 
 University of St. Thomas and are not fit- 
 ted to pass the examinations for license 
 and yet desire to exercise some of the ele- 
 mentarv functions of the physician. In 
 1914 the Board licensed 35 practitioners and 
 11 of the second grade; in 1915, 53 prac- 
 titioners and 7 of the second grade. The 
 United States, with approximately 12 
 times the population of the Philippines, in 
 1914 licensed 5,797 practitioners, or 160 
 times as many as qualified in the islands 
 m that year. It would be safe to say that 
 13 
 
we have at least 10 physicians for every one 
 in the islands. Perhaps we have too many, 
 but it is certain that the Philippines have 
 too few. The wild tribes have practically 
 not been touched and, as Worcester says, 
 they offer a rich field for missionary effort. 
 
 Just how much has our church done to 
 meet these needs of the people of the 
 islands? One of the first missionaries sent 
 out by our Board was Dr. J. Andrew Hall. 
 Dr. Hall located at Iloilo, on the Island 
 of Panay, and there with the co-operation 
 of the Baptist Board has developed a hos- 
 pital, which is one of the outstanding fea- 
 tures of the mission work in the islands. 
 
 Each board is supposed to be represented 
 by a physician and an American trained 
 nurse, but several years ago the Baptist 
 physician, Dr. Thomas, was obliged to re- 
 turn to the home-land, and last year the 
 nurse representing our Board resigned, so 
 that at present the work is being carried 
 on by Dr. Hall and Miss Benedict, of the 
 Baptist Mission. So successful has the 
 work of the hospital been that it commands 
 the enthusiastic support of the people of 
 Iloilo and its environs, and the neighboring 
 province of Occidental Negros. A consider- 
 able enlargement and improvement of the 
 equipment of the hospital are planned, and 
 Dr. Hall is confident that the funds for 
 these purposes can readily be obtained from 
 the field. The hospital takes pride in the 
 fact that the first attempt to train the 
 Filipino young women as nurses was made 
 within its walls. The training school is now 
 an important part of !the work of the 
 hospital. 
 
 At Dumaguete in connection with the 
 Silliman Institute, Dr. Langheim has car- 
 ried on another successful medical mission 
 of the Board. The small hospital origi- 
 nally established beside the institute, has 
 recently been replaced by a modern build- 
 ing of concrete construction, capable of 
 caring for 40 patients. This institution is 
 14 
 
invaluable as an adjunct of Silliman Insti- 
 tute, with its more than 700 students, and 
 with its increased facilities should be able 
 to exert a powerful influence over the whole 
 province of Oriental Negros. 
 
 At Tagbilaran, on the Island of Bohol, 
 Dr. Graham, with the aid of Miss Barnet, 
 an American trained nurse, conducts a 
 medical mission centering about a small 
 hospital. This is a comparatively new sta- 
 tion, but the work gives promise of influ- 
 ence over the whole island. Another new 
 station has recently been opened at Tac- 
 loban, on the Island of Leyte, by Dr. Miller, 
 who is working enthusiastically among the 
 people of the town and of as wide an area 
 of the country round about it as can be 
 reached by the aid of a motorcycle. Down 
 on the southeastern corner of Luzon, in 
 the city of Albay, Dr. Robert Carter was 
 stationed for a brief nine months, but two 
 years ago he was forced to return home 
 on account of illness. During the short 
 period of his service in the citv he made 
 a deep impression upon the people, so that 
 he is gratefully remembered and his return 
 longed for. 
 
 This brief summary of the conditions pre- 
 vailing in the islands and the work under- 
 taken by our Board, gives indications of 
 the duty that rests upon us. In the first 
 place we need to strengthen the work al- 
 ready in hand. The prime need is an unat- 
 tached physician who can be used to carry 
 on the work in any station from which 
 the regular incumbent is absent, whether 
 on furlough or for any other reason. Since 
 furloughs are necessary, not only for health 
 but to permit the physicians to keep abreast 
 of the progress of medicine and maintain 
 their enthusiasm for their work, and since 
 sickness will come from time to time, it is 
 absolutely essential to the proper conduct 
 of the work of the Board to have at least 
 one physician in a position to act as a sub- 
 stitute. 
 
 15 
 
Every institution in the field is also in 
 need of improved equipment. As already 
 stated in connection with the Union Hos- 
 pital of Iloilo, this need can in some cases 
 be met by contributions from the field. In 
 other instances the aid must come from 
 home. In one way or the other the need 
 must be met. This is one of the great 
 problems of medical mission work. Hos- 
 pitals at home call for heavy and increas- 
 ing outlay. If medical mission work is to 
 worthily represent the gospel it preaches, 
 it must keep step with progress and con- 
 duct its work efficiently. That can only 
 be done where funds are available for the 
 renewal and improvement of equipment and 
 is specially needed in the Philippines be- 
 cause of the excellence of the institutions 
 provided by the government. 
 
 The second great need is for medical 
 missionaries in stations where there are 
 none at present. One is needed at Albay 
 to replace Dr. Carter. Mr. Hamilton is 
 eager for the aid of a medical man at 
 Tayabas, and Mr. McDonald makes the 
 same plea for Naga. Can these pleas be 
 answered? 
 
 Let not the reader think that there is 
 any confusion as to the prime purpose of 
 the Presbyterian Church in the Philippine 
 Islands. We have gone there to help the 
 people of the archipelago. We devoutly be- 
 lieve that we shall help them most by giv- 
 ing them to know the faith which means 
 salvation to us. But the Christian message 
 has always included healing for the body 
 as well as the soul. Dr. Rogers has weil 
 said that the representatives of mission 
 boards have not been the only missionaries 
 in the islands. To make of the pestilential 
 moat that formerly bounded the walls of 
 Manila a healthful park and playground, 
 to drill artesian wells and thus provide the 
 people with safe drinking water, these 
 works of beneficence are surely Christian 
 service. Wherever there are sick and suf- 
 16 
 
fering men and women to whom we may 
 lend help, there is a proper field for mis- 
 sionary effort. 
 
 And finally there are the wild tribes, a 
 million men, women and children without 
 the gospel and without medical care! The 
 government has begun efforts for some of 
 these people. The Episcopal church under 
 the inspiring leadership of Bishop Brent 
 has also undertaken work in some places 
 among them. The great body of them re- 
 mains untouched. CAN OUR CHURCH 
 AFFORD TO LEAVE THIS FIELD TO 
 OTHERS? DOUBTLESS THE WORK 
 WILL BE ATTENDED WITH DIFFI- 
 CULTIES AND PERILS, AND DOUBT- 
 LESS FOR MANY YEARS THE RE- 
 TURNS WILL BE SMALL, BUT THE 
 CHALLENGE TO NOBLE, SACRI- 
 FICIAL SERVICE IS THERE. CAN 
 OUR CHURCH NOT ANSWER IT? 
 
 David Bovaird, M.D. 
 
 Medical Advisor of the Presbyterian 
 Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 17 
 
IV. AS SEEN BY A SECRETARY 
 
 It is easy to learn the names of the main 
 islands of the Philippines, and to picture to 
 oneself their general geographical relation- 
 ship. At the north and the south are the 
 two largest islands, Luzon and Mindanao, 
 and it is interesting to hear almost every- 
 one who knows these islands comparatively, 
 speak with chief enthusiasm about Min- 
 danao as the greatest and most attractive 
 and valuable of them all. Between Luzon 
 and Mindanao, in a row stretching from 
 west to east are the islands of Panay, 
 Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar. 
 The Spaniards discovered them from east 
 to west, but in their present development 
 and commercial expansion, they can be al- 
 most ranged in the contrary order. 
 
 A New Day in Manila 
 
 At the southwestern corner of the old 
 walled city of Manila, beyond the sunken 
 gardens which were once the moat of the 
 city and near the little part of Luneta, 
 looking out upon the sea, stand two monu- 
 ments. One is in memory of the two great 
 forces which shaped the life and history 
 of the Philippine Islands for four hundred 
 years. The other is in memory of Rizal, 
 the Filipino natriot, shot as a revolutionist 
 in 1896, whose protests against the ancient 
 order of injustice were the forerunners of 
 the new day that has dawned. The Amer- 
 ican Government reared them in candid 
 recognition of all that has been worthy 
 in the past, and in fearless acknowledg- 
 ment of the spirit of liberty. 
 
 Our interest is deepest, of course, in the 
 contribution which evangelical Christianity 
 has been making toward this great praise- 
 worthy advancement of a worthv and lov- 
 able people, and we have studied as was our 
 business, the agencies and forces through 
 which the free and living Gospel, borne 
 by the evangelical missions, is operating, 
 the Episcopal, Methodist and Christian hos- 
 18 
 
pitals, the Presbyterian, Episcopal and 
 Methodist dormitories to provide the moral 
 helps and sympathies needed by the young 
 men and women crowding the higher schools 
 of the capital, the Union Theological Semi- 
 nary, on which Methodists, Presbyterians, 
 Baptists, Christians, United Brethren, each 
 recognize themselves to be a component 
 part, the training schools for Bible women 
 of the Methodists and the Presbyterians. 
 
 The last Sunday evening of our stay in 
 the Philippines, I spoke at a union meeting 
 of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, 
 in the Tondo District of the city. The large 
 church and Sunday School room were 
 packed to the walls, and the doorways 
 jammed with listeners. As I looked out 
 over the multitude of eager and reverent 
 worshipers, I could not but contrast this 
 day with the day that I passed by the Phil- 
 ippine Islands through the China Sea eigh- 
 teen years ago. Then there was not an 
 evangelical church in the island, now there 
 are nearly five hundred. Then, I suppose 
 there was not a Filipino who was a member 
 of an evangelical church. That evening I 
 was looking out over hundreds and hundreds 
 of them, and knew that for every one hun- 
 dred in the room that night there were ten 
 thousand more throughout the islands. Who 
 can forecast the fruitage of the future 
 when the tides of life which are just be- 
 ginning to flow, have risen to their flood? 
 
 Through the Cocoanut Groves of Laguna 
 and Tayabas 
 
 Scattered through these two provinces 
 is some of our most fruitful and encourag- 
 ing work in the Philippine Islands. In 
 Laguna, with its population of 156,000 and 
 area of 629 square miles we have eighteen 
 congregations in sixteen towns, six of which 
 are regularly organized churches, with 
 elders and deacons. The church in San 
 Pablo, like many of our churches now, has 
 a young pastor trained in the Union Theo- 
 19 
 
logical Seminary in Manila conducted by 
 the Methodists, the United Brethren and 
 ourselves. The graduates are active, vigor- 
 ous young men, some of them with sur- 
 prisingly good theological libraries in Eng- 
 lish. There is a great deal needing to be 
 done in the development of methods of edu- 
 cation of the church membership in knowl- 
 edge of the Bible and in active work, and 
 most of our Filipino churches are very 
 backward in the matter of self-support, 
 but the Union Seminary, having the train- 
 ing of all the men of these different denomi- 
 nations, has also the opportunity of send- 
 ing almost the entire evangelical ministry 
 of the Philippine Islands out to its work 
 with right ideals and true spirit. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the beginnings 
 of the work in the different congregations 
 and to see how almost invariably the first 
 seed was brought by some lay Christian. 
 The work at Bay, the town from which the 
 lake takes its name, was begun by a road 
 foreman who was a member of the Tondo 
 Church in Manila and who, removing to 
 Bay, at once began talking with his friends 
 and acquaintances concerning his faith in 
 Christ, and holding small meetings at which 
 he preached the Gospel as well as he could. 
 How can we ever hope to evangelize the 
 world unless we do it in this way? If 
 only every professing Christian man and 
 woman who has ever gone out from Ameri- 
 ca or Great Britain to the foreign field, 
 on business or for pleasure, had gone with 
 this Christian obligation to spread the Gos- 
 pel, we should have double the fruitage 
 from missionary work which we now have. 
 
 The Tayabas province surrounds the 
 Laguna on the south and east. It has a 
 population of about 250,000 people, and 
 one specially encouraging feature in its 
 work is the report by the native ministers 
 of a larger number of people in the Sunday 
 Schools than in the church membership. 
 Lucena, the capital of the province, is a 
 20 
 
pleasant town on the west coast of the 
 island. Wherever we have gone in the 
 islands, we have visited the high schools 
 and intermediate schools, and have accepted 
 every invitation that offered to speak to 
 them. One could not find more attentive, 
 responsive and enthusiastic audiences. And 
 here at Lucena they seemed specially open 
 to such an appeal in behalf of duty and 
 character, as was appropriate to make in 
 a government school. On the wall near 
 the piano in the main school room, hung 
 the motto, “ Think the truth, speak the 
 truth, do the truth.” 
 
 In Southern Luzon 
 
 One missionary is alone in charge of the 
 work in the two provinces in Albay with a 
 population of 350,000 and of Sorsogon with 
 a population of 150,000. Two ordained Fil- 
 ipino ministers and three evangelists are 
 working with him in the eight congrega- 
 tions of Albay, the seven of Sorsogon and 
 their fifteen Sunday Schools. 
 
 We visited the congregations at three of 
 the municipios outside of Albay. At Guina- 
 batan it was the annual Sunday fiesta of 
 the saint of the Roman Catholic Church of 
 the town, and the people in their best 
 clothes were gathered as at a country fair 
 at home. It was a strong contrast that 
 was presented to us when we turned from 
 this innocent but non-religious revelry, with 
 a church as its center, to go into the neat 
 and simple chapel, built by the people them- 
 selves, and filled with quiet and intelligent 
 worshipers reading their Bibles and sing- 
 ing their hymns with no less happiness in 
 their hearts, than the revelers in the old 
 church and in the village square, but with 
 a quite different conception of religion and 
 of what it is that gave their sainthood to 
 the saints when they lived on earth, and 
 gives them joy now where they live in God. 
 A few days later, on a week-day night 
 when they thought it would be appropriate, 
 21 
 
the church at Camalig showed that even 
 though they were evangelisticals, they had 
 a fiesta spirit, too, and as we approached 
 their church, welcomed us with the full 
 tumult of the municipal band, loaned for 
 the occasion by the Presidente of the town. 
 
 In Albay itself, the capital of the pro- 
 vince, the work opens up a limitless oppor- 
 tunity. There is a battalion of American 
 soldiers here without a chaplain. There is 
 a Filipino church in the city with out- 
 stretching missionary efforts in Legaspi 
 and Deraga. The provincial high school 
 is in Albay, and here hundreds of earnest 
 boys and girls come up from all over the 
 province. There is a little American com- 
 munity also to be shepherded, personal work 
 with all classes of people to be done, and the 
 duties of an apostle and bishop to be met, 
 as far as a modern missionary can meet 
 them in these two wide provinces. 
 
 Immediately to the north of Albay and 
 Sorsogon, lies the province of the two Cam- 
 arines. A large province full of forests, 
 with many sections unreached as yet by 
 the wonderful system of roads which the 
 American administration is spreading over 
 the Islands. Much of the itinerating has 
 still to be done on foot or by native boats; 
 but by itineration, by the work of the young 
 Filipino evangelists, through the provincial 
 high school in Naga, and the boys who 
 have come up to the school, by a^ little 
 chapel in the heart of Naga into which the 
 students thronged, and the doors and win- 
 dows of which were packed with outside 
 listeners when we were there — the seed has 
 been sown far and wide across the fields 
 and the mountains of the province, and the 
 seed has life in it and a promise upon it. 
 “It shall not return unto me void” is the 
 word that cannot be broken. Nowhere in 
 the Philippine Islands, however, has it 
 seemed harder to win the women ; but 
 surely if anyone can do it by tact and love, 
 our missionary will succeed. 
 
 22 
 
Christ in Cebu 
 
 The Island of Cebu is one of the most 
 populous though not most prosperous of 
 all the Philippines. In the old times it was 
 one of the most lawless and disorderly, and 
 its mountain valleys were hotbeds of insur- 
 rection in the early days of the American 
 occupation. Now it is one of the most tran- 
 quil, happy, well-contented of all the pro- 
 vinces. It has suffered from drought and 
 famine and grass-hopper plagues, but the 
 good government and complete suppression 
 of brigandage, the increase of the cul- 
 tivated areas, the security of the people in 
 the possession and enjoyment of their crops, 
 the development of beautiful roads, the 
 opening of a railroad running a good part 
 of the length of the island, the increase of 
 enlightenment and the growth of true re- 
 ligion, have been some of the influences 
 which have spread a spirit of peace and 
 happiness throughout the island. 
 
 And if any American thinks meanly of 
 his country, or doubts the value of the work 
 it has done in the Philippines he should 
 make this visit to Cebu, for he could not 
 visit the island without an overwhelming 
 realization of the beneficence of the work 
 which our nation has done here. 
 
 The itinerating work of the station many 
 years ago, in the insurrecto days, resulted 
 in congregations which grew up and are 
 scattered from one end of the long island 
 to the other. One day of our visit was 
 spent back in the mountains, with one of 
 the hill country congregation. The beau- 
 tiful little chapel which the people had 
 built unaided, was on a high hill looking 
 out to the distant sea. 
 
 It was a weekday, but the people had 
 left their work and come from their 
 little farms scattered among the hills 
 the men, women and children all to- 
 gether. Ten years ago these people, 
 half fed, cultivating only little patches 
 of ground, dressed in rags and naked 
 23 
 
to the waist, were dwelling on the 
 edge of life. Now with the country at 
 peace, and sure of their property, they are 
 cultivating eight or ten times the soil they 
 formerly cultivated, and none of our Sun- 
 day congregations at home could appear 
 with more dignity and propriety, or look 
 more attractive than this congregation at 
 Cabangahan. We had meetings all morning 
 and afternoon, and nowhere at home would 
 one find more eager, responsive listeners 
 than these were, or hearts that answered 
 with more overflowing joy to the appeal 
 of Christian faith and love. Missionary 
 unbelief or indifference is simply impos- 
 sible to one who has seen the reality of the 
 work as we have seen it amid such true and 
 simple-hearted Christians as these. 
 
 On the Island of Leyte 
 
 In Leyte, the new tides of life are stir- 
 ring. Between eight and nine hundred boys 
 and girls have poured up from all over the 
 province to the provincial high and inter- 
 mediate school in Tacloban, and over two 
 hundred more have come up to the trades 
 school. The province claims more first class 
 school buildings than any other province, 
 and between a third and a half of all its 
 children of school age are in school. Ten 
 evangelical congregations have sprung up 
 along the whole length of the island and the 
 work in the provincial capital among the 
 high school pupils is scattering, as it is in 
 every province where we have missionaries, 
 an intelligent and sympathetic interest in 
 the Bible and the Christianity of the Bible 
 through all the municipalities and out into 
 many of the 1 barrios, or villages of the 
 province. 
 
 The happy arrangements of missionary 
 comity which prevail in the Philippine 
 Islands have assigned the islands of Leyte, 
 Bohol and Cebu and one-half of Negros 
 and a little less than half of Panay, to the 
 Presbyterian missionaries. In Tacloban 
 24 
 
only the church has been completed as yet. 
 The hospital is to come next, and no one 
 could see the missionary’s clinic without ap- 
 preciating the necessity for it. The wait- 
 ing patients were packed together on the 
 front porch of his house, some, of them 
 were cared for there, while others were led 
 through the living-room into the dispensary 
 and operating room adjoining the doctor’s 
 bedroom. Under the house, one large room 
 was filled in part with patients, in part 
 with high school boys using the room as a 
 dormitory. A specially serious case was 
 cared for in a temporary room boarded in 
 under the front steps. 
 
 The foolish things common in South 
 America and in the earlier years here, such 
 as jeers on the street at Protestants, and 
 stones on the chapel roof, are still met with 
 in Tacloban. But all this is wearing away. 
 One of the very priests who still publicly 
 warns his people against the Protestant 
 doctrine is privately the Protestant Doctor’s 
 patient. And the old blindness and bigotry 
 are gone forever from the minds of the 
 eager and responsive boys and girls who, 
 away from their homes, many of them 
 living in lonely little groups in cheap board- 
 ing places throughout the town, are wide 
 open to friendship and interested in all 
 that they hear, when they come to the 
 evangelical church. 
 
 Here as everywhere we have seen the 
 clean and efficient work which the American 
 government has done for the benefit of the 
 Philippine Islands. Services like these 
 penetrate deep, but they cannot penetrate 
 deeply enough. Something more is needed 
 in the regeneration and mastery of life, 
 which only Jesus Christ can supply. 
 
 A Joint Mission Field 
 
 This island of Panay is a joint mission 
 field, occupied by our missionaries and by 
 the northern Baptists. There are three 
 25 
 
provinces in the island. One of these is 
 cared for wholly by the Baptists, another 
 wholly by ourselves, and the third and 
 largest containing the city of Iloilo, is 
 divided between the two. Our part of the 
 population of 750,000 is perhaps 250,000 
 or 300,000 and the evangelization of this 
 population scattered over a large area in 
 small towns and little barrios; bur share 
 in the maintenance of a union mission 
 hospital and dormitory for boys attending 
 the government high school in Iloilo, a 
 necessary and fruitful ministry to the 
 American population, and the establishment 
 and supervision of day schools in districts 
 which the government has not been able to 
 touch, fall upon two men with their wives 
 and one nurse in the hospital. They could 
 not care for this work in the effective and 
 fruitful way in which they are caring for 
 it, were it not for the fact that they work 
 with a half a dozen efficient Filipino pastors 
 and evangelists, who with them, constitute 
 the Presbytery of Panay, one of the three 
 Presbyteries which make up the indeoend- 
 ent Filipino Synod in which the ambitions 
 and efforts of the mission and the natural 
 desires of the Filipinos have secured for the 
 Presbyterian church in the island, complete 
 self-government. The action of our home 
 church in promoting this independence of 
 the church in the Philippines has been 
 justified. 
 
 We carry on with the Baptist as has been 
 said, a union hospital and a union dormi- 
 tory for government students who come 
 from all over the province. We have a 
 most happy distribution of responsibility 
 which enables us to cover the whole field of 
 the island as well as can be done with an 
 inadequate staff of missionaries. We send 
 our boys and girls and Bible women to 
 the educational institutions of the Bap- 
 tists at Jaro, and they make equally free 
 use of our institution at Dumaguete which 
 is in the eastern half of this Visayan 
 26 
 
group of islands, of which Panay is the 
 westermost. 
 
 The Union Hospital is the only hospital 
 in Iloilo, except St. Paul’s, conducted by 
 the Roman Catholics, but without an Am- 
 erican medical missionary. 
 
 Life after life has passed beneath the 
 influence of the missionary in the hospital, 
 to emerge wdth health and strength re- 
 stored, and also with character regener- 
 ated, and with a new and living Christian 
 faith. 
 
 This young Filipino life is all eager and 
 plastic now. In a heavy storm which put 
 out the electric lights, a crowd of students 
 came to the chapel and listened with an 
 attention as silent as death and as eager 
 as life, to what we had to say to them 
 about character, and not the form of gov- 
 ernment and material wealth, as con- 
 stituting the true strength and power of 
 nations. Most of the time the meeting was 
 in absolute darkness, and Mr. Moody’s old 
 lesson that character is what a man is in 
 the dark, came home, I think, with real 
 meaning to many of those warm-hearted, 
 attractive Filipino lads. 
 
 A Fountain of Living Waters 
 
 Silliman Institute at Dumaguete has be- 
 come a fountain of living water for all the 
 central and southern Philippine Islands. 
 The morning of the day of our arrival, 
 it enrolled 699 students, and two more 
 came in during the day. Three hundred 
 boys, eager to come to work their way, had 
 to be refused, as the school has no room 
 for more ; and cannot, without extension, 
 enabling it to take more pay-students, or 
 endowment, increasing its resources, carry- 
 ing the burden of these hundreds of addi- 
 tional working students. A movement for 
 enlargement has met with enthusiastic sup- 
 port among the parents of the boys, and 
 those fathers who are eager to make it pos- 
 sible for their sons who have not been able 
 27 
 
to get in to enjoy the benefits of the insti- 
 tute. Fifty thousand pesos, nearly, have 
 been pledged and the missionaries hope to 
 raise $50,000 gold in the islands them- 
 selves, which they ask the home church 
 to duplicate with another $50,000. 
 
 Silliman aims to be a sort of combination 
 of the Mt. Hermon School, Hampton In- 
 stitute and Williams College for the 
 Philippines, and has already laid its hold 
 upon the confidence and affection of the 
 islands. It is one of the four institutions 
 whose arts degree is recognized by the Uni- 
 versity in Manila. The other three are two 
 Roman Catholic Schools and the Arts de- 
 partment of the University itself. Wher- 
 ever one goes through the islands, he hears 
 only praise of the work of the Institute 
 as a school, and yet more of its influence 
 on manliness and character. It is beauti- 
 ful to see the pride of the province of Ori- 
 ental Negros in the Institution, and the 
 good will of the insular educational authori- 
 ties toward it. One of the most inspiring 
 meetings that we attended on this trip, 
 was held in the great hall of the insti- 
 tute. Five hundred students from the pub- 
 lic high school and lower grades, marched 
 in a body from their own buildings at the 
 other end of the town. All the leading 
 officials of the province came, the Governor, 
 the ex-Governor, the Treasurer and three 
 members of the assembly, the local judge 
 and the land holders who from the begin- 
 ning have welcomed the school and re- 
 joiced in it. 
 
 On our way home from visits to the out- 
 lying chapels, which cheered our hearts 
 and in which we sought to cheer the hearts 
 of others, we passed, just before reaching 
 Dumaguete, through the village of Sibulan 
 with its little chapel conducted by its lead- 
 ing elder who is also the presidente of 
 the village, and who with his wife, at 
 their own charges, studied last year in the 
 theological school of the mission at Manila, 
 28 
 
that they might be better fitted to teach 
 the living Gospel. 
 
 Five ordained Filipino pastors are work- 
 ing in this province, one of them with a 
 church of nearly a thousand members, and 
 another with a church of over five hun- 
 dred. In addition to these pastors, there 
 are twelve elders and five evangelists, sev- 
 eral of them supported by the churches. 
 
 On the Coast of Bohol 
 
 Bohol is one of the smaller of the large 
 islands of the Visayan group of the Philip- 
 pines, and Tagbilaran on the southwestern 
 corner of the island, and its capital is the 
 home of three missionaries. Who are re- 
 sponsible for the evangelization of its 
 275,000 people? 
 
 The population of Bohol is in villages 
 around the edge of the island or only a 
 little distance inland. They were held here 
 in the old days by the influence of the 
 church whose parishes, scattered along the 
 sea shore, sought to keep the people near 
 at hand, and discouraged the development 
 of the interior. In fourteen different cen- 
 ters there are now groups of evangelical 
 believers gathered. We met with repre- 
 sentatives of a number of these congre- 
 gations, and nothing could have been more 
 natural, and at the same time more super- 
 natural than the way in which the Gospel 
 had been brought and taken rootage. The 
 most northwesterly congregation had grown 
 out of the work of a man who had gone 
 to the medical missionary then in Cebu, 
 to get a piece of steel removed from his 
 eye, and who after he had secured relief, 
 lingered about watching the missionary, 
 and studying the religious teaching which 
 he had brought. Convinced of its truth, 
 and with a personal experience of its love, 
 he came back to spread Christian litera- 
 ture, and to gather a group of believers. 
 
 In still another center the church had 
 grown from a beginning with one man who, 
 29 
 
thirty-eight years ago, heard the Gospel 
 in Singapore, who had been a friend of 
 Rizal, the Filipino patriot, in Manila, in 
 the days before there was any religious 
 liberty, and who with the American occu- 
 pation heard the Gospel once again, and 
 believed. At Antoquera the Gospel had 
 been brought in by young men who were 
 peddlers, and who obtained New Testaments 
 in their wanderings. And so in just the 
 natural ways in which numan influence al- 
 ways spread, the truth of the Gospel had 
 gone abroad, and in the supernatural way 
 that is characteristic of it, had germinated 
 and borne living fruitage. 
 
 The mission chapel was packed to the 
 walls, and the windows and front door aw r ay 
 out to the middle of the road were crowded 
 with listeners at the evening meeting dur- 
 ing our visit. The Governor, the school 
 teachers, the leading men and women of 
 the community, were present, and the even- 
 ing bell from the beautiful picturesque old 
 Roman Church on the bluff overlooking the 
 bay, called none of the audience away. If 
 ever there was an open door for the Gospel 
 in any land, it is in the Philippine Islands 
 to-day. 
 
 The Task 
 
 The population of the sections of the 
 Philippine Islands entrusted to our mission 
 for evangelization is about 2,500,000. To 
 meet this responsibility we have 22 men 
 of whom four are physicians and five are 
 teachers, with 21 married and 5 single 
 women. 
 
 Our field embraces 14 provinces. Mis- 
 sionaries live at present in but ten of these, 
 the others are entirely open. To adequately 
 occupy the territory, fill present vacancies, 
 and staff Silliman Institute properly, the 
 Mission asked when it had 19 men that the 
 number be doubled. 
 
 “THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH/’ IT 
 IS SAID, “IS NOT ACCUSTOMED TO 
 30 
 
SHIRK ITS FULL RESPONSIBILITY 
 AND WE ARE ASSURED THAT IT 
 WILL NOT DO SO IN THE PRESENT 
 INSTANCE. WE ARE SURE IT WILL 
 HELP US TO COME UP TO THE FULL 
 MEASURE OF DUTY. There is no rea- 
 son for looking- on this work as one never 
 to be finished, stretching out eternally and 
 our never reaching the end. There is no 
 need of another generation. Double our 
 force and we promise with God’s help, not 
 that every soul shall accept His Gospel, 
 but that every soul shall have a chance to 
 do so during the coming ten or at the most 
 fifteen years. The Philippine government 
 covered the islands with its schools in three 
 years, and has a complete, successful sys- 
 tem of education running in ten. IS OUR 
 BELOVED CHURCH LESS ABLE?” 
 
 Robert E. Speer, 
 
 Secretary , Pres. Bd. of For. Missions. 
 
 Administration Building:, University of the Philippines. 
 Manila, the crown of the new educational system. 
 
 Board of Foreign Missions 
 
 of THE 
 
 Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 
 
 156 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 Form 2457 
 
 October, 1916 
 
 31 
 
Tlie old men fight cocks — the young men play 
 baseball . 
 
 32