SEEING OUR MISSIONS ACROSS THE SEAS BXS&78 .76.A57^ tihmry of t1\e trheological ^eminarjp PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Rufus K. LeFevre .7(1>.A57Z Seeing Our Missions Across The Seas THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST DAYTON, OHIO Post Office Addresses of United Brethren Foreign Missionaries Rev. A. T. Bovrard. D.Dm Blahop ot the Forelsrn SlUslon Dlatriet. ••rvic* beeran SnSRRA. LBONB, WKST AFRICA. 1906 Hursh. Rev. E. M., Supt., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1907 Hursh, Mr». B. M., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1904 Akin, A. Eliza, Taiama. Sierra Leone, Went Africa, 1914 Clipplngrer, Lula, Moyamba, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1894 Eaton, Minjiie E., Taiama, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1915 Emery, Rev. E. W., Shenge, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1915 Emery, Mrs. E. W., Shenge, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1916 Evans, Rev. D. M., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1915 Evans, Mrs. D. M., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1900 Origps, Zenora B., M. D., Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 191 3 Hoerner, L. May, Moyamba, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1914 Hoerner, Jessie, Moyamba, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1907 Kingman, Rev. B., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1908 Musselman, Rev. J. F., Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa, 1907 Musselman, Mrs. J. P., Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1916 Ney, Emma J., Taiama, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1916 Odle, Etta, Moyamba, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1916 Thomas, H. H., Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1899 Todd, Mrs. Delia, Rotifunk, Sierra, Leone, West Africa. 1915 Vesper, Nora May, Rotifunk, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1912 Weidler, Professor D. E., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1915 Weidler, Mrs. D. B., Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1910 Wimmer, Rev. W. N., Hangha, Sierra Leone, West Africa. 1910 Wimmer, Mrs. W. N,, Hanglia, Sierra Leone, West Africa. CHINA. 1897 Ward, Rev. H. B., Superintendent, Canton, China. 1897 Ward, Mrs. E. B., Canton, China, 1892 Bigler. Regina M., M. D.. Canton. China. 1912 Davis, Rev. P. W., Siu Lam, Heung Shan DlsL, via Canton. China. 1912 Davis, Mrs. F. W., Siu Lara, Heung Shan Dist., via Canton, China. 1914 Dick, May, Canton, China. 1916 Funk, Rev. C. A., Canton, China, 1916 Punk, Mrs. C. A., Canton, China. 1916 Kintigh, Professor S. W., Canton, China. 1916 Kintigh, Mrs. S. W., Canton, China. 1905 Myers, Belle, Siu Lam, Heung Shan Dist., via Canton, China. 1905 Oldt, Frank, M. D., Siu Lam, Heung Shan Dlst., China. 1906 Oldt, Mrs. Frank, Siu Lam, Heung Shan Dlst., China. 1914 Potts, Hortense, Siu Lam, Heung Shan Dlst., via Canton, China. 1912 Shoop, Rev. C. W., Canton, China. 1912 Shoop, Mrs. C. W., Canton, China. JAPAN. 1901 Cosand, Rev. Joseph, Supt.. 1929 Shimo Shlbuya, Tokyo Fu, Japan. 1916 Hayes, Rev. W. H., 1912 Shimo Shlbuya, Tokyo Pu, Japan. 1916 Hayes, Mrs. W. H., 1912 Shimo Shibuya, Tokyo Fu, Japan. 1900 Knlpp, Rev. J. B.. 18 Mia No Waki, Okazakicho, Kyoto, Japan. 1900 Knlpp, Mrs. J. B., 18 Mlya No Waki, Okazakicho, Kyoto. Japan. 1912 Moore. Ellen. 1929 Shimo Shibuya, Tokyo Fu. Japan. 1907 Shlvely, Rev. B. P., Nashinokl-Cho, Kyoto, Japan. 1907 Shlvely, Mrs. B. P., Nashlnoki-Cho, Kyoto, Japan. PORTO RICO. 1901 Drury, Rev. P. W., Superintendent, Ponce, Porto Rico. 1901 Drury, Mrs. P. W., Ponce, Porto Rico. 1907 Caldwell, Rev. L B., Juana Diaz, Porto Rico. 1907 Caldwell. Mrs. L B., Juana Diaz, Porto Rico. 1908 Mohler, Rev. C. L, Yauco, Porto Rico. 1908 Mohler, Mrs. C. I., Yauco, Porto Rico. 1907 Reed. Elizabeth, Ponce, Porto Rico. PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 1908 Wlddoes, Rev. H. W.. Superintendent, San Fernando, Union, P. I. 1903 Wlddoes, Mrs. H. W., San Fernando, Union, P. L 1918 Drury. Agnes, San Fernando, Union, P. L 1901 Kurtz, Rev. S. B., 607 Tennessee St., Manila. P. I. 1906 Kurtz, Mrs. S. B., 607 Tennessee St.. Manila. P. L 1910 Weber, Matilda C., San Fernando, Union, P. L 1916 Witmer, Rev. C, San Fernando, Union, P. I. 1914 Witmer. Mrs. C, San Fernando, Union. P. L MAR 31 195b Seeing Our Missions Across the Seas CONTENTS A Word in Advance 2 Porto Rico 3 West Africa 11 The Philippines 27 Japan 41 China 50 Exhibit of Progress and New Recruits 60 Week of Prayer and Self-Denial 61 The Foreign Missionary Society, United Brethren in Christ, 404 Otterbein Press Building, Dayton, Ohio, A WORD IN ADVANCE In this booklet we are taken on a swift journey to each of our five foreign mission fields. We shall visit our mis- sionaries and get a glimpse of the work at the leading stations. "Seeing Our Missions Across the Seas" is the first of a series of four booklets to be issued during the cjuadren- nium. It is our aim to make these annual booklets rich in facts and illustrations for the use of pastors, Sunday-school and Christian Endeavor workers ; also inspiring and help- ful to every member of the United Brethren Church. The booklets to be issued during the next three years, while reporting current facts concerning the work in gen- eral, will give particular emphasis to "Christian Schools in Our Mission Fields," "Medical and Industrial Work," and "A Christian Literature in the Vernacular." It is hoped that through these annual messages every family in our Church will Ijecome acquainted with our faithful missionaries at the front, and the work they are seeking to do, and through daily prayer release God's power upon them. A. copy of this booklet can be secured for ten cents ; twelve copies for $1.00. and 100 copies for $8.00, postpaid, by writing to The Foreign Missionary Society United Brethren in Christ 404 Otterbein Press Building- Dayton. Ohio February 1, 1918. PORTO RICO Population of Island, 1,250,000; Mission Opened, 1899: Number of Missionaries, 7 ; Native Workers, 17 ; Organized Churches, 12. We are to visit our missions across the seas. The first will be Porto Rico. By leaving New York on Saturday, February 16, in the midst of winter, we will probably see on the following- Wednesday afternoon, in the hazy dis- tance ahead, an island that seems to be rising out of the sea. It is the top of a giant mountain, whose sloping sides descend abruptly into the water to the depth of five miles. That mountain top above the sea is the Island of Porto Rico. After a voyage of fifteen hundred miles from New York, we land at San Juan, the capital of the island, in the midst of tropical heat, vegetation, and scenery. Porto Rico is 100 miles in length, thirty-six miles in width, and has a population of a million and a quarter. Spain ruled here for four hundred years until the American troops took possession of the island, July 25, 1898. Great Change in Seventeen Years. The years since have been characterized by rapid progress along all lines. Roads have been built, schools opened in large numbers, and a participation in the government has been granted the people. The development of education by the Government and the religious work of the Protestant churches are closing the great gap that existed between the poor and the rich, the educated and the ignorant. A substantial middle class is rising which in the very near future will be the determining factor in the aft'airs of the island. Dividing the Field. When Porto Rico was freed from the unwarranted restrictions of Spanish rule, the Protestant churches of the United States were alert to their opportun- 3 ity, and missionaries were sent to inaugurate the work of evangelization. The field was small, but the needs were great, and in view of these conditions it became evident that a policy unlike that followed in the United States should be mapped out here. Hence, a common under- standing was reached regarding the division of territory which prevents overlapping and at the same time makes some church responsible for the evangelization of every part of the island. A Visit to Ponce. Ponce, a city of forty thousand, second in size to San Juan, and the largest city on the south side of the island, is the center of United Brethren territory and headquarters of our mission. To reach Ponce we travel by stage from San Juan for ninety miles over the famous military road across precipitous mountains. Rev. Philo W. Drury and family and Miss Elizabeth Reed have their home at Ponce. In addition to superintending our work. Rev. Mr. Drury is secretary of the Evangelical Union of Porto Rico, and chairman of the interdenominational committee on Christian literature. Here at Ponce about seventeen years ago Mr. Drury began issuing, from a small hand press, Christian tracts in the language of the people. Later, he edited a religious periodical for our mission, which grew in such favor with other communions that seven of the leading evangelical denominations have now entered into co-opera- tion in the publication of the splendid religious weekly, "The Puerto Rico Evangelico." The printing plant at Ponce has been made the depository of the American Bible Society and the best evangelical literature in the Spanish language. This printing press had much to do in winning the recent prohibition victory for Porto Rico. Our church in Ponce, which has a membership of three hundred, is regarded as a model. Its Sundav school has an average attendance of two hundred. A splendid class of young- people will soon complete the International Bible Teachers' Training- Course. The pastor of this church is one of our first converts and was the first ordained evangelical minister on the island. The mission early decided on the following policy: To open Cliristiaii zvork in the center of each of the five districts allotted to us, and to make these central churches strong, and then, from these project the 7cork to adjacent tozvns and rural places. From Ponce as our chief center three Sunday schools and prcacliing ])laces ha\e been opened in nearby towns. Progress in District of Juana Diaz. Leaving Ponce we tra\el o\er the military road to the northeast about eight miles to reach Juana Diaz, the center of a district of 3?,- 000 people. This is the home of Rev. and Mrs. I. E. Caldwell. Our Juana Diaz church has a membership ol three hundred, a large Sunday school, and a splendid young people's society. This has been a strong evangelistic center. From here mission work was opened at Coto Laurel, Villalba, and Guayabal. Coto Laurel has furnished a number of native workers and has fostered mission work in two other places. A^illalba is an important center in a vast coffee region. A large sugar mill is being built, also a coffee drying plant, which will mean the employment of many more people. This town is becoming an attractive commercial center. A permanent chapel has just been erected, the gift of a farmer near Dayton, Ohio. A Trip to Tallaboa and Guayanilla. Returning to Ponce, we take the train, and about ten miles west of the city we come to Tallaboa. The native church of Tallaboa was aided in the erection of its church house by our Christian Endeavor societies in the United States. Some of the mission's most faithful workers have come from this church. Three other preaching places are maintained from this point. Continuing our journey westward five miles we reach Ciuayanilla. This district has a population of 10,000. Our church here is large and aggressive. Its pastor is a gradu- ate of the Theological Seminary. Three other places are being evangelized from this center. The Gospel Winning in Yauco. Ten miles west of Gaa}anilla we reach Yauco, the center of a municipal dis- trict of 35,000. The town of Yauco has a population of 8,000. This is the home of Rev. and Mrs. C. I. Mohler. }{ere the gospel has had a hearty reception, and we ^.wt a strong native church and Sunday school. Other towns adjacent have been reached with the good news. Dr. J. F. Morris and wife, Christian physicians in the employment of a sugar factory a few miles away, give their services free in a dispensary here. It is always opened with a religiou:- service and followed by personal work. Additions to our church have come as a direct result of this dis- pensary work. The outstanding, insistent need in Yauco is a new church buildii^::. Rev. Mr. Mohler, our iiiissioiiary, 7crifes: "Yauco for many years has been pleading for a church building. A con- gregation of a Iiundred members lias been gathered. They pay their current e.vpenscs and $8 a month on pastor's salary, zvJiicli is a large amount considering their poverty. The best classes of people are ready to co-operate with us. Recently a banker, and a prominent mercJiant said to me, 'Why don't you build? JVe ore ready to help and the tozvn is ivith you:' .4 missionary family is on the ground with nine years' e.vperi- ence, and the time will soon come when Yauco should be left entirely to native workers, so surelv now is the time to build." Prayer + Bible Study -)- Personal Work = A Revival. Twelve miles northwest from Ponce is the town Penuelas, in the center of a district of 13,000. Our church at Penuelas has just had a refreshing revival. For months the native pastor, who is strong in prayer, had been pleading for an awakening. When the time seemed to be ripening he arranged for daily meetings for prayer, also street meet- ings to prepare the people. Bibles, Testaments, and tracts were sold and distributed free. When the meetings opened the people were possessed with an unusual prayer spirit. From the third night on there were conversions every night and during the four remaining days there were thirty decisions for Christ. The revival fire continues to burn. Many barrios (country districts) are reached with the gospel from Penuelas. Illiteracy and Immorality. Tavo facts will slunv the great need of mission work in Porto Rico : When the Americans took possession of the island, eighty-five out of every one Jiundred above the age of five could neither read nor write. For the 700,000 persons who lived in rural districts there were only fourteen so-called schools with an enrollment of possibly two hundred and fifty pupils. The second startling fact is this : The first census talcen showed that one-fliird of the people Irving as husband and wife acknoivledged that they were not married. The priests had put an insuperable barrier in the way of legal matrimony by charging excessive fees. During the past seventeen years a wonderful change has taken place in education. There are now 240,000 bright boys and girls in the public schools of Porto Rico. And through the Christian churches and Sunday schools a new conviction concerning marriage and all moral questions is taking hold of the people. 8 Intensive and Co-operative Work. It has not been pos- sible in this brief survey to touch all the centers of work. A worthy achievement of our native Christians in Porto Rico is this: Through their ozvii contributions they have erected nine chapels and a parsonage for congregations beyond their ozvn communities. The Christian workers of all denominations in Porto Rico furnish a good illustration of what can be done by co-operation in evangelism, in the training of a native ministry, and in the production of a Christian literature. The ability of the Christian forces of the island to work together was one of the strong factors in the recent sweep- ing victory for prohibition. A Gateway to Other Fields. Porto Rico is receiving large attention as a mission field because of its strategic relation to all Latin-American countries. Situated as it is between North and South America it serves as a link between Anglo-Saxon and Latin civilization and stands in a position where it will be able to interpret the one to the other and promote such intercourse as will be mutually helpful. The Agricultural School, located at Mayaguez, has already been called upon to furnish young men for the development of the agricultural possibilities of South America. Since the prohibition victory, calls have come to Porto Rico from South and Central America for help to inaugurate similar campaigns there. It is the hope of Christian leaders that this island will soon be used of God in projecting the gospel to its near neighbor, Santo Domingo. hich shall win Africa, Christianity or A Mohammedan Leader. Moh ammedanism ^ THE NEXT TWENTY-FIVE YEARS MAY DECIDE Every third person in Africa is a Mohammedan MOHAMMEDANISM RULES NEARLY ALL OF AFRICA NORTH OF THE EQUATOR UNITED BRETHREN MISSIONS ARE ON THE FRONT LINE OF ITS ADVANCE Will you help stem the tide? A United BreHiren Pastor and Family, Son of a MoIia?nmPdan f'liief. WEST AFRICA Population of Africa, 160,000,000; Mission Begun, 1855; Missionaries, 25 ; Native Workers, 80 ; Organized Churches, 27. We now visit our oldest mission, that of Sierra I.eone, West Africa. To start this mission our pioneer missionar- ies crossed the Atlantic sixty-three years ago in a sail vessel which required thirty-four days. It is now more difficult to reach Africa than then, because of war conditions. It is necessary first to get a permit from the British Embassy which requires three or four months, then a passport, and to avoid the submarine zone the journey must be made by relays across the Atlantic. The size of Africa is a surprise to many. There is room on the Dark Continent for the whole of the United States, Europe, China, and India. Activities in Freetown. Our mission is located in Sierra Leone, a British possession on the West coast about eight degrees north of the equator, where the weather is always hot. Freetown is the harbor city and the capital of Sierra Leone with a population of 45,000. There are at least forty distinct tribes found in the city and the diversity of languages and dialects spoken makes it a difficult mission field. The headquarters of our mission and the homes of Superintendent and Mrs. E. M. Hursh, Professor and Mrs. D. E. Weidler, and Rev. and Mrs. D. M. Evans are in this city. Albert Academy, in charge of Professor D. E. Weidler, is also located here. The curriculum of this school equals that of a good high-school course. Emphasis is laid on religious training. The industrial and manual training de- ll partment of the Academy, under the direction of Rev. D. M. Evans, aims to teach the students the dignity of labor. Agriculture is taught, also wood work and furniture making, which are creating great interest. There is also a printing department in which our monthly religious paper, "The Sierra Leone Outlook" is printed, which is the only Christian paper published in Sierra Leone. Hymn books, catechisms, and thousands of pages of religious reading matter are being disseminated. Professor A. T. Sumner, one of the teocliers in the Albert Academy, zvlio is a product of our ozvn schools, is the autJwr of a new book in the Mcndi language zvhich has recently been published by the English Government. This book is the first of its kind ever pro- duced by a native of Sierra Leone. The science department of the Academy, which is urgently in need of a specialist, is doing much to destroy the old animistic ideas of the native men. The ordinary phenomena of nature are being explained by natural science. A spring is no longer to them the abode of demons who cause the water to bubble forth, but simply water seeking its own level. Storms, thunder, and lightning are not the fighting and spitting of demons in the air, but the natural operations of atmospheric cur- rents and electricity. An Itinerants' League among the students carries the gospel in many different tongues to various sections of the city every week. There is a fine congregation of United Brethren people in Freetown. They have a simple but very comfortable church building and are entirely self-supporting. Seeing Rotifunk. Starting from FreetOAvn back into the country we will travel by the Sierra Leone Government rail- way. It is a narrow gauge and carries mixed trains that cover about ten miles an hour when they make good time. Half a day's travel by this train brings us to Rotifunk, fifty-five 13 miles east of Freetown. This is one of our oldest stations. It is in charge of Rev. and Mrs. J. F. Musselman. A pros- perous school is in progress \Yhere 150 children arc Ijcing trained by Christian teachers. Near at hand is the boys' home for boarding students and not far away stands the dispensary built in memory of our martyred Doctors Hat- field and Archer. This is where the tribes come to be healed of their physical suffering and find heart healing as well. People sometimes walk 200 miles to obtain aid. On dis- pensary mornings scores of people may be seen waiting at day-dawn for treatment. JVJiat a pitiful crozvd they arc! Some until acliinq teeth to be fulled, others zcith sore eyes, ulcerous sores zvhicli are slowly cousuming the face or head or parts of the limbs, smallpox, and leprosy! Dr. Zenora Griggs and Miss Nora Vesper begin the day early, for that is the only way they can hope to get through. First of all comes the message from the Book of God and prayer is made for his blessing upon the day; then dispensing begins. It is usually late in the day before they are all treated. Sometimes as many as eight thousand sufferers are treated in a year at this station. Situated just at the side of the path leading from the dispensary to the Mission House stands the Martyrs' Memorial Church. Nearly the entire cost of the building was contributed by native Christians in memory of those who loved them unto death. Meetings are held in the church almost every day of the week. The church is wholly self-supporting and gives each year $100 for the extension of mission work. In the town of Rotifunk there are perhaps ten different languages spoken. Services are held in various parts of the town, either in the open air or under the shelter of the native harries. Mrs. Delia Todd gives her entire time to itinerating and evangelistic work in towns surrounding 14 Rotifunk. Rev. E. Kingman is evangelist-at-largc for our entire territory. From a Slave Pen to a Training School. Shenge in the .Sherbro Country, our oldest mission station, may be reached by boat from Rotifunk, fifty-ti\e miles down the Bompeh River and across the bay. If the wind, tide, and boatmen !)ehave well, the trip may be made in twelve hours. If not, then we must possess our souls in patience and believe we shall reach there sometime if nothing more serious turns up. Shenge is said to be one of the most beautiful spots in Sierra Leone. The mission buildings are located on a peninsula commanding a view far out to sea. Just off the coast lies Plantain Island with its ruins of John Newton's famous slave pen, hinting of many blood-curdling tragedies whicli were there enacted in the old slave days. Stones taken from these very ruins now form the walls of the Rufus Clark and Wife Training School. Graduates from this school have gone out to become efficient teachers and preachers and to fill the places of trust and responsibility. A farm of sixty acres gives plenty of opportunity for in- dustrial training among the boys. They are also trained in practical Christian work in the Shenge church and by doing itinerating work in the adjacent towns. Rev. and Mrs. Emery are in charge of this station and surrounding territory. Industrial Work. An easy trip up the Cockboro River from Shenge will bring us to Mofus, our industrial station, where Mr. H. H. Thomas is the lone missionary. Here we find a large farm planted with kola and rubber trees which, when the war is over, and commerce is resumed, will find a good market. This farm is intended as an object lesson to the people to show them what can be done to train men industrially. A Glimpse of Bonthe. If we wish to visit Bonthe our 15 best way to do it is to return to Shenge and go south sixty miles by boat. Here we find our largest church and con- gregation ; also a large and prosperous school. The church building was erected by Rev. R. Cookson Taylor, a former pastor, who spent almost eight years in gathering funds and materials for the church, nine-tenths of which were contributed by native Christians and their friends. This church has for some time been self-supporting and is doing much in giving the gospel to others. A building is now being erected on the mission grounds for the accommoda- tion of boys coming from the river districts who would otherwise have no opportunity to secure an education. Again we take a boat and journey up a river as far as Sembehu. AVe have time merely to greet the native pastor and his faithful wife in charge of this station. He is the son of one of our early native pastors who died a few years ago. This pastor, as many others, teaches the mission school every day of the week and preaches and itinerates on Sunday. A Supply Station for Christian Homes. From Sembehu we take a day's tramp overland to Moyamba located on the railroad, seventy-five miles east of Freetown. Moyamba is the government headquarters for the Ronietta district. As we near the mission house, fifty neatly clad girls of various ages rush out to meet us, for here is where our splendid Girls' Boarding School is located, and here one learns the secret of the well-kept native Christian homes we have entered at every stage of our journey. The wives of most of our native workers have been trained in our girls' schools. Miss Odle and Miss Hoerner are the present missionaries in charge of this station and school. They teach these girls sewing, raffia work, laundry work, cooking, and general house work. In the school house nearby, these girls, with a crowd of other girls and boys from the town, put in many 16 hours each day "learning book." Fifty girls seem to us a large family at first, but soon we begin to feel that they are fewer than they ought to be as Miss Odle tells of the many she has been obliged to turn away during the past year for lack of room. The dormitories are overcroivded and the girls have to go to bed and get up by relays for there is not room for them all to dress and undress at the same time. And what about those girls who were turned away? What will become of them? With tears in her eyes Miss Odle will tell yon how they just go back to their heathen homes to be sold as wives to the most likely man who seeks them. There is no other chance for them. A dark curtain has fallen over their ivhole future. As you listen you begin to wonder why some one with means to do so, does not send funds to enlarge the dormitories that fifty more girls might be admitted. The girls in the school are active workers in the church and assist in itinerating work in nearb}^ towns. Mohammedans Become Christians. Near Moyamba are many towns where Christian work is being done, two of which are Kwellu and Yonnie Banna. At the latter place Thomas Hallowell superintends the flock. He is a re- markable man ; converted from Mohammedanism after he was grown to manhood he secured his education by study- ing nights. His life is full of the power of God and many souls have through his ministry been led to the light. In this humble little mud church at Yonni Banna, meetings are often held nearly all night long. Letters from Africa bring news of recent victories at Kwellu where Mrs. Thompson, a Christian native woman, daughter of the famous Bishop Crowther, began work fifteen years ago. Under her ministry the old chief Kon- gomo was converted. He died a little later and in less than a year Mrs. Thompson also died, but the work still lives. 17 Chief Kongomo had several sons and before his death he endeavored to influence them to become Christians. One of them, John Bull by name, was taken away from his Mohammedan teacher and placed in the mission school where he soon found Christ whom he served till the day of his death in spite of severe persecution from Mohammedans. He testified that he neier found any light in following the Mohammedan zvay, but that in the Christian faith he had found and tasted a szi'eetness he had never before ktiozcn. It is believed that his recent death was due to the intrigue of Mohammedans, but before his death he won three of his brothers and they are soon to be received into the church. Just as he was passing aw^ay he urged the native pastor to guard his brothers and keep them close to the church. The Blood of Martyrs the Seed of the Church. Leaving Moyamba we take the train and travel about thirty miles farther to Mano, where we visit our native pastor, the church, and school, and then prepare for a fifteen mile march overland to Taiama. All the belongings will be packed into sixty-pound loads and carried on the heads of native men. Reaching Taiama we find ourselves in the largest town in the Mendi Country — a strategic center for missionary activity. Here we meet Miss Minnie Eaton and Miss Angie Akin and Miss Emma Ney. These workers, as those in our other stations, maintain evangelistic, educa- tional, medical, and industrial work. The school, though but about twelve years old, has already sent out three teachers for mission schools, and two graduates from Albert Academy, while four others are now studying at the Academy, and several more expecting to enter soon. A large percentage of boys have become members of the church. There are more ilian ninety towns in the Taiama eliief- 18 fancy, and beyond these many more that have no gospel light except that zvhieh is brought to them by the mission- aries at this station. The stones used in the foundation of the Taiama church were taken from the big sacrificial rock in the Taia River, where our missionaries, Rev. and Mrs. L. A. McGrew, were massacred during the uprising of 1898. The people feared to kill these missionaries in the town lest some terrible disaster follow, so they took them to this rock, slew them there, and threw their bodies into the river. "They met the tyrant's brandished steel, The lion's gory mane. They bowed their necks the stroke to feel ; Who follows in their train?" Upon, this rock and tlic blood of martyrs God is build- ing a church against ivhich the poivers of heathenism can- not prez'ail. Taiama mission farm consists of over a hun- dred acres of good land and several thousand copal gum trees have been planted which will in a few years yield a good income for the mission. Other products are raised by the boys in the school. A Surgical Operation with a Razor Blade. The medical department at Taiama has had a great growth in recent months under the direction of Miss Emma Ney. People come with all sorts of ills. Miss Ney writes of an operation she recently performed with the blade of a Gillette safety razor. It was a case that had been neglected till it was almost too late and she went to it amid the wails of a great crowd who had about given the patient up to die. She says : "When I arrived at the place, I singled out tlie big man at once, and told him to get the town out of his house, and in a little tvhilc all ivas quiet. If ei er I zvished I zi'as a full- fledged M. D. it zcas then. I went to tvork with one man hold- ing the lantern and a roll of cotton, and one of my boys 19 The Salvation of the World The rock npiiii which the McGrevvs were beheaded. IT COST GOD HIS ONLY SON IT COST CHRIST CALVARY IT COST THE MARTYRS THEIR LIVES IT COSTS THE MISSIONARY HIS HOME HIS LIFE, HIS ALL What is it costing you? stationed at tJic door to keep out the people and the fozvls. The native pastor was sitting at the head of the sick man telling him I knezv zvJiat I zvas about, that it zvas his only ehanee. We zvorked for three solid hours and because of my generous application of hot zvatcr, I zvas standing in a small mud puddle. "If a picture of that operation could have been taken yon zi'ould have fifty medical men ready to come out here at once. After dressing and bandaging zve transferred the patient to a dry mat before the tire zvhich zvas burning in the middle of the hut, and zve then received the thanks of his zvives in turn, from the oldest to the youngest. A zveek later tire patient zvas able to be up and soon zvent to zvork. My 'fee' for the operation zvas a chicken." Kono, the Land of the Waiting People. To journey to the Kono Country from Taiama, it is necessary to return to Mano and from there we will go to Bo on the Sierra Leone railroad, and stay over night; then the next day continue our trip until we reach Hangha, 200 miles from Freetown. We are on our way to Jaiama, sixty miles north of Hangha in the Kono Country. Again our belongings are packed on the heads of men and we travel for five hours over a good road, then by nar- row winding bush paths, up and down steep hills, till on the third day we come upon a "Garden in the Wilderness" away up among the Kono Hills. It is the United Brethren mission station and grounds. Fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers are planted all over the place. Mr. W. N. Wimmer is holding the fort alone. The mission house, boys' dormi- tory, and school house are all built of mud. Inside the school house are rudely built benches and mud seats, but the pupils have bright faces and look as if they v/ere doing something worth while in spite of such limited equipment. When the regular school hours are over the boys are taught tailoring, basket making, hammock and 21 mat weaving, agriculture, cooking, the laying out of roads, and building of bridges. lUit to appreciate what Christian- ity means to the Kono Country we must accompany the boys to the gospel services and listen to them as they sing Christian hymns. The words are strange, hut the tunes are old familiar ones, and they are singijuj in the rich, major key — a thing unknoivn in a heathen country zvhere songs are all in minor keys till they begin to sing the glad songs of salvation. Until our missionaries, Rev. and Mrs. J. Hal Smith answered the call of this tribe, they had no written language and, of course, no literature. But through the untiring work of Mrs. Smith, they now have many Christian songs and the entire four Gospels which are now being published by the British and Foreign Bible Society of London. A great change is already seen in the faces of the people and in their homes because of the work of the few years since this mission was opened. In a secluded spot is the lonely grave of Rev. J. Hal Smith, first missionary to the Konos. From the mission house to the grave you will follow a path cut and cleared by the hands of loyal native Christians, and lilies line the path on both sides. What a challenge this lone grave should be to the Church to send re- inforcements, that this zvhole country of the Konos, the waiting people, may be taken for Christ! Preferring Christ to Riches. Bidding Mr. Wimmer good-by and leaving him alone once more, we take a long journey on foot to the eastward to Pendembu, or else return to Hangha and go up on the train twenty miles to this town at the end of the railway line. This outpost of the mission is almost on the boundarv separating Sierre Leone from Liberia, and has been maintained by native workers. A wicked chief, probably influenced by Mohammedans, has persecuted the Christians and tried to keep them from 22 attending- church, but they are standing the test well and are willing to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. One of the chief's own sons refused to be weaned away from the faith by the flattering inducements of his father who offered him many wives, which meant wealth and preferment. He is an outcast from his family, but is proving- himself a modern Daniel. Native Churches Going and Growing. We have now reached our most interior station and in all our travels have visited but a few of our organized churches. But we have a glimpse of the native church coming to self-support and a sense of personal responsibility in sending the gospel to others. One-fourth of all funds contributed by these native Christians is given to send the light to waiting tribes. The church at each station is assuming responsi- bility to carry the gospel regularly to all the towns adjacent. At the close of each quarter all the workers and leading laymen from all local churches gather at the central station of their district for a three days' conference in Bible study and prayer, for reviewing the work of the quarter, and to counsel over problems and to plan for the future. Nine such conferences are held each quarter covering the entire territory. These are proving to be a wonderful uplift and are increasing the efficiency of all the native workers and Christians. On Journeys for the King. God is giving our Church a noble band of native workers ■ — pastors of the churches and teachers of the schools. Many times during the week and on Sunday these conduct Bible classes, Sunday schools, and preaching services. See this native man of God with Bible under his arm, treading the hard paths of the jungle. His feet are black and perhaps bare and calloused, but beautiful zvith frequent journeys for the King. As he 23 How Long Shall We Keep Them Waiting? Five Thousand Towns in our Territory in West Africa Are Without the Gospel. What Does This Mean To Them— To Him— To You ? travels he sings perhaps a hymn learned from his little red- covered Sankey hymn book : "Sozvn ill the darkness or sozvn hi the light, Sozvn in our zveakncss or sozvn in our might. Gathered i>i time or eternity. Sure, ah, sure zvill the harvest be." Stopping in many towns during the day he gathers the people and tells them of a wonderful God who loves them. After nightfall we see him in another town — his only light being that of the open tire in the center of the town. He sings a song and dark shadowy figures gather around the fire. Then he opens the zvouderful Book — a black hand turns its zvhite pages, and lips that once prayed to devils nozv speak the Word of Life. If we stand close enough we may see branded on his neck the marks of the "Poros," that society so full of dark secrets, but that neck nozv bears the yoke of Christ. As he speaks, oh, how they listen ! Per- haps it is the first time they have ever heard of that loving Savior who can free them from the awful bondage of demons. Every hand is raised when he asks how many wish to follow that Christ, but he knows that they need much personal teaching for they cannot read the Bible. Some one must come back to them again and again. They plead for a teacher and the worker promises to come back again, but there are so many towns where the people are just as hungry and the need just as great! The Challenge of 5,000 Unevangelized Towns ! ]'cs, there are 5,000 tozvns by actual investigation for zvhich the United Brethren Church is responsible in Sierra Leone. This is the thing that is breaking our missionaries faster than the zvork they do. They must live day after day in the midst of multitudes whom they cannot reach — innocent children doomed to live all their lives with no Christ, no school, no Christian homes 25 — young men and young women, the haggard appealing faces of old people soon to pass away without a ray of light ! The tragedy of it all, how it grips the missionary's heart! Mohammed or Christ — Which? Added to this appalling need is the awful menace of aggressive Mohammedanism, which is now sweeping down over our territory. It has already overrun the northern half of our field and our thin line of missionaries and little native churches realize that they are in the front line of trenches in a hand-to-hand conflict with the greatest peril of Africa. When ivill our people in America pray prevailingly for their hard pressed missionary substitutes iu Africa^ When zvill reinforce- ments be sentf Must the ground icon at such an aivfnl cost of life and suffering be surrendered because the Church at home fails them at this time of great crisis? The government is planning to open vernacular schools all over Sierra Leone. Teachers must be supplied. They zvill eitlier be Mohauuncdan or Christian. Shall our Chris- tian schools in Africa be reinforced now and others opened in order to train these teachers ; or shall we allow wide- awake Mohammedanism to supply the need and our Lord's cause go down in defeat? We must answer and we must answer NOW. Let our answer be such as shall not cause regret when we meet Him and them at the judgment. 26 THE PHILIPPINES. Population, 9,000,000; Mission Permanently Opened, 1904 ; Missionaries, 8 ; Native Workers, 23 ; Organized Churches, Z7 . To see the mission work of the Philippines we must cross our country to the Pacific Coast by railroad, and from there journey by steamship. It requires about five weeks to go from Dayton, Ohio, to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. For three hundred years Spain ruled the Philippine Islands with a strong hand. There was no liberty of con- science, no open Bible, no freedom of speech, no free press, and no guarantee of personal and property rights. Every municipality was in charge of a Spanish priest or friar who was the real government no matter who occu- pied the civil ofiicial's chair. Every Spanish official who attempted to reform conditions in opposition to the clerical party died a violent death or was sent back to Spain in dis- grace. The friars having a monopoly on the religious and governmental powers grew corrupt and became famous for dissensions, dissipation, gambling, sensuality, and greed. These conditions obtained everywhere save in the interior where live about a million Pagans and Moros, who were never subject to Spanish sovereignty. The American Flag Brings a New Day. In 1898 came Dewey with the Stars and Stripes and the victory of Manila Bay and a new and glorious day broke upon the Filipino people. Schools were opened, liberty of conscience, freedom of press and of speech, and guarantees of personal and property rights were declared and upheld by the authority of the United States. Is it any wonder that all this flood of new liberties, rights, and knowledge has produced intellectual rioting and 27 m % t=3 72L.t •: LEPANTm- ; B EJS G U E T \. / ' -z^ TniluUd -;*'■• \ iifflifliS: -1^*— -^v — — or T\n PHILIPPINE MISSION OF THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST. .Organized Churches (D San Fernando Me&dqu&rters PublLshmg Plant Younj Women's BibleTraining Mission Residence. .School ® Manila Union Theologic&l Seminarv' Dormitory for Young Men 9 TACUDin - Mission Residence 9 BACUIO ■ RestHonie * School tor Bo>3 that the student world is groping in uncertainty, in a mael- strom of social, political, and religious ideas? It is gratifying that with the entrance of all these new ideas the open Bible and the gospel were introduced to furnish new moral motives to a newly awakened race. Thank God, the open Bible takes the place of domineering priest and tyrannical church. Earnest preachers proclaim the gospel and hold up challenging and satisfying ideals of spiritual and social life. Population and Division of Responsibility. The islands have a population of nine millions in round numbers. One million or more are primitive unchristianized Pagans and Mohammedans. The other millions have assimilated more or less of the fifteenth or sixteenth century Spanish Roman Catholic ideals. When Protestant missionaries entered they organized "The Evangelical Union," the aim of which is to make a solid impact of Christianity on the islands. They divided up the responsibility for the evangelization of the territory so that each mission has its own field, and no time, money, or energv is wasted duplicating each other's efforts or traveling over each other's field. The districts assigned to the United Brethren Church in addition to the city of Manila, which is common territory, consists of Union and the sub-provinces, Benguet, Am- burayan. Lepanto, and Ifugao. This territory contains 150.000 Ilocanos and 230,000 Igorrotes or primitive peoples. Manila and the Union Theological Seminary. In visit- ing our mission in these islands we will begin with Manila, a city which has a population of 350,000. The United Brethren are working among the 25,000 Ilocanos of the city. A large building has been rented, containing a chapel in which our vigorous Ilocano congregation worships. It also provides dormitory room for about forty young men 29 who are attending the private and commercial schools of the city. Under the influence of such a center many of these young men become Christians. One recent convert is a very efficient teacher and author of several pamphlets on teaching. This congregation is the center for evangel- istic work carried to diiTerent sections of the city. In this city is the Union Theological Seminary where the h'ilipin(j ministers of all evangelical churches working in the islands, receive their theological training. Rev. and Mrs. S. B. Kurtz, whose furlough is now due, have ably represented our mission in this school. Rev. and Mrs. C. C. Witmer, of San Fernando, will take up this work in June, 1918. All of our ordained Filipino pastors received the major part of their training in this seminary. The man thus trained in all the communions are leading the Filipmo churches throughout the islands to victory. Permanent buildings must soon be erected for this training school. Our share will be about $5,000. San Fernando a Strong Center. Let us take the train and ride north from Manila 150 miles through the fertile plains of Luzon to San Fernando, our mission headquarters. San Fernando, with a population of 20,000, is the capital of Union Province. This is the home of Superintendent and Mrs. H. W. Widdoes, Miss Matilda C. Weber, and Miss Agnes Drury. Here we have a missionary residence, the Young Women's Bible Training School, the publishing house of the mission, called The Evangel Press, and a beautiful concrete chapel. Adjoining the chapel and resi- dence lots we have purchased three acres on which to locate the new training school building 'and the hospital. From this center the evangelistic, publishing, and super- visory activities of the missions are directed. Seeing the necessity for touching life at its source — in 30 the home, the Young Women's Bible Training School was opened seven years ago in a bamboo building. Every year since, it has been taxed to its capacity. Last year and this, the mission house has also been partly given to the use of the training school. The Evangel Press building is located in a part of the city where students from the Provincial High School con- gregate, and in it we have the Arford reading room which is open every day for young men. It is widely used and a popular place. From this publishing house nearly two and one-half million pages of literature are issued annually. A weekly family religious paper is published and has a wide circulation. We have the leading publishing house among nearly a million people speaking Ilocano. New equip- ment is urgently needed if we are to meet the future de- mands for Christian literature. Our mission also provides dormitories for young men and young women students attending the Provincial High School, thus providing for the development of their devo- tional and religious lives. No part of our field is yielding more attractive results to-day nor giving so certain promise of the leadership which we shall need in the years to come. Medical Aid Without a Doctor. The missionary in charge of San Fernando wakes every morning to find his porch lined with people needing medical help — wounds, fevers, babies covered with ulcers, boils to be lanced, teeth to be pulled. He is frequently called out to attend surgical cases that should have the attention of a trained physician. Frequently the patient hovers between life and death, yet the missionary must take the responsibility, for there is no one else to whom they can go. A doctor and a hospital is a most urgent need. Our San Fernando Sunday school has a membership of three hundred. A young men's Bible class is composed 31 Winning the Worlc = United Brethren Suntlul A teacher-training class in this scliool is just completing its c< ill (4 44iM^ Part of Our Sunday ^ The Sanday school in the Pliilippines is but sixteen years old and has reaohet Tvan attended Young Life for Christ (hool. Ponce, Porto Ri<'0. e. Its examination g;rados equal tlie best in our schools in tlie States. >ol, Snn Fernando, P. I. I enrollment of over 60,000. A recent Sunday-school con-mention held in Manila 5.000 delegates. almost entirely of high school boys, and has a membership of from sixty to ninety-five young men annually. The Ex- celsior class for young- women enrolls regularly more than thirty young women, (iospel teams from this church go out every Sunday to hold from four to eight services in out- lying districts of the town. Two churches and two Sunday schools have been organized about two miles out from this center, and are conducted by these teams. They also hold regular meetings with prisoners in the provincial jail, where some glorious conversions have occurred. These gospel teams report their afternoon meetings at Christian Endeavor meeting every Sunday evening. Suffering Loss But Winning Christ and Many Souls. Leaving San Fernando for a visit to the southern part of the province, we journey for eight miles to Bauang. Here we have a concrete chapel erected by the joint effort of the mis- sion and local congregation. One of the leading members of this congregation is supervising teacher in charge of all schools of the southern half of the province of Union. From this congregation have come two of our strong Filipino pastors. One of them was the son of a wealthy, influential man, who bitterly opposed his son's accepting the gospel. He even borrowed the priest's Bible in order to convince his son that the missionaries were in error. One day the young man met the missionary on the north bank of the Baong River, where he had been waiting from morning until afternoon in order that he might not miss God's messenger on his way home from his work. He told the missionary that he wished to be baptized. The two moved up the river, a little way from the prying eyes of persons crossing the river, and there together the pledges of loyalty to Jesus Christ were made and he was baptized. But, oh, the persecution which followed! His father was very angry and sent him into the world disinherited. Friends 34 forsook him and he could with Paul say that for Christ he had "suffered the loss of all things." Later he was gradu- ated from the Theological Seminary, was ordained, and sent to the town of Segay, among the Igorrotes, who ran away and hid at the approach of the missionary party. He soon had a hundred boys and girls in his school, teaching them the llocano Bible, as well as other branches. xA.fter a little more than six months' work in this town, he called the missionary to come and baptize forty-five converts and organize a church. Last year a party of trained llocano workers held an institute for local church workers in this town. At the close of the institute thirty new members were received into the church and baptized. Now all but two or three old men in the whole village are members of the United Brethren Church and rejoice in a new faith. A zvhole village of more than 300 people ivon to Jestis Christ in the short space of seven years. The Bauang church has also sent out from its homes two of our trained and most efficient deaconesses. From the church in Bauang North has sprung- the Second Church on the south side of the river. Second Church has bought a lot and is now building a chapel, the mission merely furnishing the corrugated iron for the roof and the cement for the floor, Bauang North and South has a population of 10,000. Municipal Officer Installed in Protestant Church, It has been customary in the Philippines for municipal officers to solemnize their inauguration into office at the altar of the church. At the last election, the new municipal presi- dent of Bauang- refused all offers of service from the Roman priests and insisted on taking his oath of office in the Protestant chapel, with an address by the mission- ary, and readings from the Word of God. Tithing Grain. Up the river six miles from Bauang we 35 come to the town of Naguilian with a population of 11,000. Here our congregation is busily engaged in constructing a commodious chapel. They have secured one of the most desirable lots in the entire municipality located between the new municipal building, the new market, and the new school. The church has the distinction of having a group of tithers who separate the Lord's grain from their own, when they put it in their granaries. Here, last confer- ence, a young woman was converted and baptized and then cruelly beaten by her father until there were great black and blue marks all over her body. She said, "Father, you may kill me if you will, but I shall not give up my faith in my Savior Jesus Christ." Her sweet spirit melted her father's iron will and latest reports say he too is now listen- ing to the old, old story. About thirty miles southeast of Naguilian, one mile high, is the famous city of Baguio, the great summer resort of the Philippines. Here we have a very earnest congrega- tion which would long ago have grown to be many had it not been for the shifting character of the population. The treasurer and leading member of this church a few years ago was a naked Igorot boy. To-day he is a fine property clerk and very influential witness for the gospel. Because of the shifting character of this population it will be necessary for the mission to furnish a larger amount of the capital needed to erect a suitable chapel than elsewhere on the field. (The Roman Catholic Church has spent literally hundreds of thousands in preparing chapels and homes and schools and dormitories for the difl^erent orders of their church in this splendid resort.) Returning to Bauang and going south we come to the Httle city of Cava, containing 4,000 population. Here was organized the first United Brethren Church in the Philip- pines. It is a beautiful concrete chapel, made possible by 36 gifts from the men of the Otterbein charge, East Ohio Con- ference. Four annual conference preachers have come from this church, two of whom are graduates of the seminary and ordained. The municipal government in Cava is the cleanest in the whole province which is an evidence that the United Brethren churches in the Philippines are exerting an ever-growing influence. Churches Rising Through Persecution. About four miles south of Cava is the city of Aringay with a population of about 8,000. Here the gospel met most determined resist- ance, but for the fact that a Spanish teacher had the license to own a Spanish Bible in other days, it would have been more difficult for the gospel to win any standing. Through the use of this Roman Catholic Bible the teacher was con- verted and has since been an enthusiastic and insistent preacher of the Word and an advocate of Bible study. This church has the promise of a very fine lot in a strategic position and has a building enterprise under way. This is one of the churches which has grown up through great persecution and tribulation. Four miles south of Aringay we come to Agoo with a population of 13,000 and the center of commerce and agri- culture for the southern half of the province. Here our church has a large chapel, built almost entirely by the people. This church has a number of strong, consecrated laymen and lay preachers among whom may be mentioned Pio Dungan. Old Brother Pio is instant in season and out of season. He never ceases to fight sin and supersti- tion. He gives half of his time to witnessing in nearby villages. His sons and daughters, most of whom are now married, are substantial members of the church. One daughter is a student in the Young Women's Bible Training School. 37 Priests Seek to Hinder the Work. Five miles northeast of Agoo we come to the city of Tubao, containing a popula- tion of 8,000, and situated in a very fertile valley. This is one of the congregations which has suffered much because of persecution. Two Belgian priests were stationed here to off- set the influence of our work. On a recent occasion when the Roman Catholic bishop visited Tubao the priests were anxious to have the officers of the municipality meet him and do him homage, but every officer refused to take part in the public reception. On the occasion of the visit of Bishop Howard, twenty-one days later, when our new chapel was dedicated, these municipal officers were invited to attend the ceremony. They all came and seemed to be pleased, and one made the remark. "Your bishop talks like a brother and not like a ruler." Returning to Agoo and going south we pass through Santo Tomas, where our church has endured many hard- ships. Southeast of Santo Tomas about fifteen miles we reach Rosario, adjacent to which we have five other congrega- tions. Rosario has a population of about 2,500, and some of the municipal officers and best people of the place are members of our local church. They are planning for a substantial chapel and will need some help from America. A Visit to Churches North of San Fernando. Returning to San Fernando we journey northward and pass through San Juan and Bacnotan, cities of 10,000 and 9,000 respec- tively, in each of which we have growing churches. Our next stop is at Balaoan, which has a poplation of 10,000. Here we have two congregations, one in the central part of the towMi, and another some three miles in the country. Other churches will soon be organized from Balaoan as a center. A pastor and a deaconess have come from our local church at this place. 38 Walked All Night To Attend Bible Conference. Four miles north on the Manila North Road we come to the city of Bangar, in the valley of the Amburayan. In this city of 10,000 people we have an energetic congregation. The head of the first family of this church at the advanced age of seventy, walked all night in order to attend one of the first Bible conferences held in San Fernando. This congre- gation is planning to build a larger and more substantial chapel. Crossing the river at Bangar, we reach Tagudin, a town of 8,000 population. The capital of the sub-province of Amburayan. Tagudin is connected with the Inland Prov- ince by a good mountain road. Our congregation here has a splendid chapel, largely the gift of the Women's Mission- ary society of Canton, Ohio. The keen, energetic pastor has organized gospel teams with which he is winning great victories. The Roman Catholic Church has put about fifteen Belgian nuns and two priests in Tagudin in order to estab- lish headquarters for the mountain province, and to smothei the little evangelical congregation, which has been making a steady growth year by year. This congregation gvive last year the largest missionary ofi:ering of any of our churches in the islands. Over a five thousand foot divide through beautiful mountain scenery we travel forty miles to Cervantes, at the cross roads of the mountain province and a most strate- gic center. The present pastor is the one who led the congre- gation at Segay to such a glorious victory. The Call of the Untouched Tribes. Going south from Cervantes on horseback we come to the practically un- touched field of the Igorrotes. This country is rich in gold and minerals. Two years ago the Filipino church organized its own missionary society and sent its first missionary to the field. They entered the Igorot center of Cabayan. The 39 government has a boarding school for boys at this place, and is doing a very constructive piece of educational work. Our Filipino missionary has been winning victories and has organized a congregation. To the northeast lies the land of the Ifugao people, numbering 160,000. For them no evangelistic work has yet been done. The only book printed in their language is the book of Luke, translated by an American teacher who lived eight years among them, and published l)y the American Bible Society. 40 JAPAN Population, 52,000,000; Mission Opened, 1895; Mission- aries, 8; Native Workers, 21; Organized Churches, 19. Fifty years ago it would have been impossible for us to visit Japan on a mission for the kingdom of God. Sign boards in every town bore the following edict : "Hitherto the Christian religion has been for- bidden, and the order must be strictly kept. "The corrupt religion is strictly forbidden. "Done in the third month of the fourth (year) of Kyo. (March 1868.)" Early missionaries and Christians suffered great perse- cution. As late as 1872 there were but ten Japanese Prot- estant Christians in the Empire. Not until 1887 did the Japanese publish the Bible in their own language. But the day of Christ's miracle working power is not passed. Japan to-day is open, receptive, teachable, and eagerly seeking for the best from every nation. Five United Brethren Churches in Tokyo. In visiting Japan our steamship brings us to Yokohama. Looking east- ward we see clearly the famous Fujiyama snow-capped. On going ashore we get into a jinrikisha, Japan's time- honored conveyance, in order to catch the first train for Tokyo, eighteen miles away. Tokyo is the capital of Japan and has a population of more than 2,000.000 people. This is the headquarters of our mission. Here live our superin- tendent. Dr. Joseph Cosand, and his aunt. Miss Ellen Moore, and Rev. and Mrs. Warren H. Hayes. Scattered throughout tJiis qrcat city, zvhich ranks sixth in siac among the largest cities of the ivorld, are five organi.':ed United Brethren churches. Our Honjo Church in this city furnishes a practical illustration of the influence of our Sunday school and church. One member, who in his student days was superintendent of this school, is now a major in the navy, and was recently in England on an important mission. He is an active 41 'Y~''^9t} worker in the church. Among- other members who were won as boys through the Sunday school is an architect, a banker, and an influential dentist. The latter is the present Sunday-school superintendent. The young men of this church go out frequently and hold meetings in different sections of this manufacturing district, and also in neighbor- ing towns. Right dozvn in the very heart of the business section of this great city is located our Nihombashi Church. It is situated in the oldest and most congested section of Tokyo. Our pastor here was an honor student in a law school before he decided to enter the ministry. He likewise carried the honors later in the Theological Seminary. This church is beginning a campaign to raise funds for a new church. Their plan is to put up a building which will be open every day in the week and be the social center for the young men employed in this congested business district. They will need help from friends in America in order to build a church which will meet their needs and opportunities. In the zvestern part of the city in a Hue residence section is located our Oknbo Church. Wide awake and aggressive with Sunday school, Women's society, and Young Men's association. The membership is divided into three groups which meet regularly for Bible study and prayer. Doctor Cosand writes of a recent meeting in this church at which he and the Japanese pastor spoke. There were sixty-five present who were not Christians and when the opportunity was given to decide for Christ, forty-five made the decision. The pastor of this church was a lieutenant in the Russo- Japanese War. One day while resisting a Russian charge at Port Arthur a bomb fell at his feet. With the hope of saving his men he picked it up to throw it back, but it exploded and tore off his right arm at the elbow and tore out his right eye. Later he became a Christian and took a theological course and has been wonderfully used of God in the ministry. His people are now in a campaign to raise $3,000 for a new church. Their present rented building cannot accommodate the people who come, 43 Other churches in Tokyo are Harajuku, in a great student center, and Shimo Shibuya, which has a splendid kindergarten, and where Mr. Hayes conducts student Bible classes for young men from the dormitory of the Keio University nearby. Our Churches Adjacent to Tokyo. Taking a short trip from Tokyo by steam car we reach Noda, about twenty- five miles north of the city. Noda has a population of 8,000 and is an important manufacturing town. The neighboring territory is so densely settled that one hardly gets out of one village before reaching another. Our church in Noda is one of the oldest of our mission in Japan. The Sunday night services are well attended, but the morning Sunday school is made up largely of children, for working people and merchants have no Sunday. Twelve miles from Noda by boat we reach Matsudo, the county seat with a population of 12,000. This is a great agricultural center and has a splendid horticultural school. It is a very difficult field for Christian work. There are nine temples and many shrines in the town, but the church is winning, especially among the young people and student class. The pastor holds services regularly in six other towns surrounding Matsudo. On an eastbound train from Tokyo we reach Funabashi in twenty minutes. The population is 13,000. Our little church here h?s just finished a splendid new church build- ing, which meant much in sacrifice on their part to build it. Six miles away is a great military cantonment. A number of officers and soldiers attend our services. A colporteur has been giving all his time to the work in this Chiba Ken district which surrounds Tokyo to the north and east. He has organized Sunday schools in new towns, and is completing a canvass of 40,000 homes, selling Bibles and Testaments, and distributing other Christian literature. He has secured a long list of names and addresses of persons who want to know more about Christianity. A Trip Westward. We will now journey westward by train from Tokyo and pass through a number of towns and cities ranging from 6,000 to 50,000 in population — Odawara, Numazu, Shizuoka, and Nagoya. In each of these places 44 we have successful mission work. The church at Shizuoka conducts two missions. The excellent church house here was made possible by gifts from the Christian Endeavor societies of our churches in America. Our train passes on to Kusatsu, Otsu, and Kyoto. We will pay a visit to the Shiga Ken province in which Rev. Monroe Crecelius laid down his Hie ten years ago. Rev. and Mrs. J. Edgar Knipp and Rev. and Mrs. Kiyoshi Yabe have taken up this work with enthusiasm. Coming Into the Kingdom Through Great Difficulties. We will appreciate something of the difficulties and opposi- tion to be overcome in Shiga Ken when we meet the prin- cipal of the public schools in one of the county seats. He was born before the first Protestant Christian was baptized in Japan. lie grew up at a time when Christianity was hated as an evil sect and was strictly prohibited. This school principal naturally has a strong prejudice against Christianity, and again and again he has exerted his in- fluence to prevent the boys and girls of his school from attending our Sunday school. Another example of opposition occurred one Sunday morning just as the Sunday school was about to open. The superintendent noticed one of the older girls crying as if her heart would break. She had partly fallen to the ground, and a young woman was trying to pull her away from the gate. Upon inquiry he learned that it was her older sister who had been sent by the father to prevent her from attend- ing our school. The girl was one of the active Junior Endeavorers and had always been regular at Sunday school. Now she never comes. The reason is that her father hap- pened to be at church one Sunday evening when Mr. Yabe was explaining that while every Japanese should give respect and reverence to the Emperor, God must have the supreme place in the heart of a Christian. The man went away angry and said, "If that is Christianity, I do not want any of it for myself or family," and he forbade the mem- bers of his family to come. These two incidents illustrate somewhat the difficulties under which the work is being conducted in Japan, espe- ciall}^ in the smaller towns and country places. The vast 45 Conj^reKation at Okubo, .Inpnn, on Its Seventh Anniversary. i\Ir. Vahe and His "Vaiijjnard" at Zoze. (Ready to distriitute posters anuouuciug: evangelistic meetings.) majority of the people have no knowledge of what Chris- tianity really means, and the}' are prejudiced against it. In spite of this, however, we are making real progress. For instance in the town of Zeze, where our work was begun less than three years ago, twenty-five of the leading men, including the ex-mayor, and the principals of four schools gave their public endorsement to the campaign to secure money for purchasing a lot for the "Zeze Christian Taber- nacle," which is the name of the new church now being constructed. IMr. Knipp and Mr. Yabe are doing a great work among the students of the thirty-five public schools in Otsu, the capital of this province and in the two neigh- boring counties. Their personal work among these young- people is destroying the age-long prejudice against Chris- tianity and preparing the way for a large and rich harvest in coming years. The two kindergartens conducted by Mrs. Knipp in Zeze and Otsu are factors in starting the little ones aright and in gaining an entrance into homes. To the south and west of Kyoto are the cities of Osaka and Kobe, large commercial centers where the throb of industrial action reminds one of American cities. In each of these centers we have prosperous churches. The Power of One Christian Layman. Returning to our West Kyoto Church we will be inspired by the story of one humble Christian layman, fully consecrated to God. About fifteen years ago a young man employed as a prison guard came to the English Bible class carried on in the home of one of our missionaries. English, rather than Christianity, was what he was after. At the Bible class meeting attention was called to a service in Japanese con- ducted in the evening by Mr. Ishiguro, who was then a student in the theological department of the Doshisha. The young man attended and after about a year he was baptized and at once was anxious to have a service held in his own home which was about two miles from our First Church. A Sunday school was started there which was the beginning of our West Kyoto Church. A few years later he moved to Osaka which is the largest commercial port in Japan. He at once invited to his home 47 young high school and commercial students, presumably to help them in English, but at the same time he wanted to help them to know his Savior. He asked Mr. Ishiguro to come down from Kyoto and speak to them and thus our church in Osaka was started. A Service in Mr. Ishiguro's Church. Let us visit our First Church in Kyoto. As we come near we notice a group of young men on a street corner, with a large crowd of people gathered about them. They are singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" in Japanese. Then one of them gives a gospel message and invites the crowd to the evangelistic services in the church. We peep through the door of the church and find the auditorium filled. Those long strips of paper hanging in front give the subjects of the speakers. One reads, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," and the other "About Sin." That is one of the subjects hard for a Japanese to understand since their word for sin means "crime" or an oft'ense against the government, and has no reference to one's relation to God. The result is that the very foundation of Japan's national life is unstable and many of her leaders are realizing that the nation needs a spiritual power which she does not have. She is seeking for it. America has it and must give it to this nation which is strongly influencing the entire Orient. Many will be glad to learn that Mr. Ishiguro, who has been su'itering with serious heart trouble, has in addition to his work in the church, opened a free dispensary for the aid of the sick and unfortunate. In this noble work he has the co-operation of five hundred others who are each pay- ing at least five cents a month for its promotion. Co-operating with the Doshisha University. Japan gives more attention to education than any other of our foreign fields. The United Brethren and Congrega- tional missions are co-operating in the Doshisha University. This Christian school, which enrolled the past year 1,549 students, has done a great work in training leaders for the evangelization of Japan. Rev. B. F. Shively is our mission- ary professor in the theological department of this school. He is specializing on religious education and practical Sun- day-school work. He has a large field and one that is 48 destined to grow in favor as the Sunday school becomes a larger and larger factor in foreign missionary work. A Far Reaching Campaign. A great interdenominational evangelistic campaign has just closed in Japan. It was organized for the purpose of bringing the message to wholly untouched rural regions. Nearly 800,000 attended the meet- ings and 27,000 decisions for Christ were recorded. Many of these have been enrolled in Bible classes for further instruction. As a result of this campaign the Protestant missionaries have united in a call for 474 new missionaries, for they found that fully thirty millions of Japan's fifty-two millions have never had an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ. A Challenge to the Difficult. Japan to-day presents a mighty challenge to the church. Buddhism and Shintoism are entrenched everywhere. Not a single emperor in all Japan's history has been anything but a Buddhist or a Shintoist. Temples and shrines crowd every city and town and country side. There are more Buddhist priests in Japan than all the Protestant church members combined. But Japan is a plastic nation. The student and educated classes are breaking away from their old religions and many, very many of them, knowing nothing better, are plunging into rationalism and skepticism. Her destiny will largely be determined by either the obedience or the indifference of the Christian church which alone has it in her power to give or withhold Jesus Christ — Japan's greatest need. The multitudes who still bow in ignorance to heathen gods challenge us ; the thousands of students whose faith in these gods has been destroyed and who are spiritually be- wildered, challenge us ; the missionaries, so few in number for such a great task, challenge us ; the noble bands of native Christians who have faced ridicule and persecution for Christ's sake, challenge us to show in our lives marks of sacrifice for him. But louder than the call from all these is the call of our crucified Lord. "If any man will come after me let him deny himself . . and follow me." Only as the church to-day follows in the footsteps of her Lord through the garden to Calvary will she be able to bring a living Lord to these waiting multitudes. 49 CHINA Population of China, 400,000,000; Our Mission Opened, 1889 ; Missionaries, 16 ; Native Workers, 47 ; Organized Churches, 7. Strange that a country whose history dates 2,810 years before the angels announced the l)irth of the world's Re- deemer should have to wait more than 1,800 years after that Redeemer told his disciples to "Go, tell" before they receive a messenger with the "good news." Yet this has been true of China. Before Abram went out from his home at Ur, China was a growing nation, developing her industries, literature, religion, etc., which remained unchanged through all these centuries. Other nations rose and fell but she con- tinued shut in from all the outside world — the biggest nation in all history. Only during the past one hundred years has China been coming to her own. Her doors, so hermetically sealed to 3II the outside world, yielded to the ceaseless knocking of Christian missionaries and to-day we find her knocking at the doors of Christian nations asking for that Light which has so long been denied her. We cannot touch upon the marvelous work of mission- aries through the century nor the price they paid in order to plant the seed of the gospel on native soil. We can take but a bird's-eye view of what our own United Brethren missionaries are doing to-day. Planting the Church in Largest Pagan City on Earth. Landing at Hong Kong we take the river steamer and go north ninety miles to Canton. We will find the river in Canton congested with small boats anchored close to the shore. These are the life long homes of 300,000 of her people. Canton is the largest non-Christian city in the world, and it is about the size of Chicago. The Pearl River flows through the citv dividing it into Canton proper and Honam which means "south of the river." The United Brethren mission is located on the Honam side which has a population of 400.000. There is only one other missionary and his wife besides our own missionaries 50 OF CANTON AND ENVIRONS UNITED BRETHREN TERRITORY 50UTn CHINA t ORQANIZED CHURCHES O PREACHING PLACES © Canton @ -Siu Lam Headquarters Missionary Residences *rouNDLiHc Home Medical Dispensary BoY'i Crammar School MIASIONABY RLSIDEncU Miller Seminars' Hospital working among this dense population. Here are located Superintendent and Mrs. E. B. Ward, Rev. and Mrs. C. W. Shoop. Dr. Regina M. Bigler and Miss May Dick. Prof, and Mrs. S. W. Kintigh, and Rev. and Mrs. Cliff Funk, who went to China about a year ago, are living in Canton at present studying the language and helping with the ac- counts, the educational and evangelistic work. Our mission is located within a stone's throw of the house in which Robert Morrison, the first missionary to China, lived in disguise for long years, mastering the language and trans- lating the Scriptures. We have in this city, which is the headcjuarters of our mission, one church, a boys' grammar school, a girls' day school, a kindergarten, and a dispensary. We also co- operate with other missions in the Union Theological Seminary, for the training of native pastors. The local church, which is self-supporting, is coming to self-conscious- ness and reaching out to help others. Winning Souls in a Street Chapel. On one of the busi- est, narrowest streets, for they average from but six to twelve feet wide, is located a street chapel, which is open every day. The Chinese are too poor to afiford more than two meals a day. These are eaten at 9 : 00 a.m. and 5 : 00 p. m., so the service in this chapel begins about noon. The preacher with a few members of the church gather and begin to sing hymns. Passersby are attracted and begin dropping in, while others crowd about the door. What a motley crowd it is ! Here come chicken peddlers, fish sellers, business men of good class, thieves, opium smokers, ha- bitual loafers, etc. The native pastor or missionary will begin talking, or it may be a layman from the local church, or each may take a turn. Questions are asked and answered. The audience will be constantly changing. Some, however, will be interested enough to remain through the entire service. It is in these street chapels that points of contact are established, which can later be followed up. Others are led to accept Christ and enroll in Bible study classes preparatory to baptism and membership in the local church. A man who was a gambler by trade chanced into one of these services. He became interested and came again and 52 again and finally accepted Christ. Then came the struggle to change his form of business, but Christ won, and he surrendered it with nothing else in sight. After six months of preparation he was taken into the church. He sold Gospels at a salary of $3 a month. For two years he went without regular work but remained faithful. Reaching the Heart by Healing the Body. Another great evangelistic agency is the dispensary. Here gather from two to three hundred patients every dispensary day — men, women, and children, the rich, and poor, with every form of disease. To this waiting throng, the faithful Bible woman or native pastor brings the message of a Physician who can cure the soul and bring peace and joy. Here in this dark, crowded waiting room many for the first time catch a glimpse of that great Light. This dispensary in which Doctor Bigler treats 18,000 to 20,000 patients every year is conducted in two small rooms in the rear of the chapel. The chapel is old and dilapidated and altogether inadequate for the crowds who gather. Friends have already agreed to contribute funds for a new dispensary, but the building in which the dispensary, Sunday school, and preaching services are held cannot be torn down for the new dis- pensary until a new church building is erected, for there is no place in which to hold these services. We have an ex- cellent lot for the new church. What a limitless opportunity this — for some one to build a church in the midst of 300,000 Christless people ! Itinerating in a Boat. We must get a glimpse of a number of our other stations, and since our only means of circuit riding in China is in slow river boats, we must plan for an early start from Canton. The alarm clock is set for 3 : 00 o'clock a. m. The boat leaves any time between four and six o'clock. If you have not finished your night's rest you may engage a "berth" — a board covered with Chinese matting and a good substantial pillow of glazed tile. Any- where from a dozen to several hundred passengers may be crowded in the boat, a heterogeneous company in pursuit of a variety of missions. Opportunities without number for forming friendships and for personal work present them- selves. Frequently after a heart-to-heart talk and the ques- 53 tion, "W'liy are you not a Christian?" the missionary will receive the reply, "Nobody ever asked me." On our way down the river we pass Kwai Chau. a city of fifty thousand, where we have an earnest consecrated band of Christians. They are zealously reaching forward to self-support and are also conducting meetings in a neigh- boring town. Through great sacrifice and with the help of Christian Endeavor societies of Allegheny Conference they have secured funds for a much needed church home. Evangelizing a Great City, x^fter about six hours we land at Siu Lam, a city of 400,000 people. It is situated in a good agricultural district and its citizens are of the better class, aggressive and favorable to all progress and greatly interested in education. An electric plant has been installed in the city during the past year. Here, where our missionaries were once stoned and driven out, we now have a strong mission with Rev. and Mrs. F. VV. Davis in charge. Our church is the only one in all the city. We have one central church which is self- supporting and wide awake in evangelism. Their goal for the year is one hundred souls and at the time of their latest reports were making good progress toward it. Daily noon prayer meetings are being held at the church and the mem- l:»ers gather to pray particularly for the salvation of those of their own households and neighbors. During the summer vacation the students are organized into preaching bands with good results. The city has been canvassed and thou- sands of Gospels sold. A few years ago members from this church began hold- ing services in a densely populated section of the city which resulted in the opening of another chapel. This church is experiencing unusual interest. A service is con- ducted every night in the week as well as on Sunday. The present chapel is all too small to accommodate those who seek to get in, and there is urgent need for a new and larger building. Our church at Hillsboro, Ohio, is supporting this district of Siu Lam with its prayers and gifts, and great results are hoped for in the coming years. A few laymen assisted by the pastor of the central church were the means of opening a third chapel. Continuous and insistent calls 54 from all parts of the city must go unheeded because of in- sufficient workers and funds. Not until at least ten missions have been planted will we in any adequate measure meet tlic needs of this great city. An Illustration of How the Gospel Spreads. A farmer living near Siu Lam heard the gospel in this city and became interested. He came again and again and then decided to accept Christ. He went home to his own town and told them of his newly found Savior. Some scofifed, a few scolded, others persecuted, but he continued to witness until one young man after another took the stand with him. When he had won about lialf a dozen he felt they should have a place to meet. Tlie mission could not help. The people themselves were very, very poor, for wages range from eight to twenty-five cents a day, but they decided to deny themselves and have a chapel. They collected about two-thirds of the amount needed and the members of Siu Lam church gave the balance. They rented a small house and fitted it with seats, etc., fnr services. They had no preacher and the mission had none to send, so this "Andrew," each evening after coming from his fields, gathered the people ; they prayed, sang together, and he read the Bible. He had no training but he did have an experience to tell. He himself was a living interpretation of the gospel and how it will turn a man from worshiping dead idols to the living God. For two years he was the leader of the little group of Christians in that village until they had an organized church with thirt}^ members. Since then they have had a native pastor. Only one of all the converts ■K'on and trained by this farmer, zvas ever found unprepared for baptism zvhen examined by the missionary. A beautiful illustration of one of his couAcrts is told by Mr. Davis : A young man came to him for advice — his tincle had died leaving $L000 and no heir. Chinese custom required that he buy water from the gods and wash the corpse and per- form a few heathen rites and then become the heir. This looked big to a poor Chinaman. Llis father commanded that he do it, if he refused it meant persecution from friends, but he heroically faced it and refused to compromise with heathenism. 55 Our central church in Siu Lam is crowded out of its present building- by its own membership. When an evangel- istic meeting is to be held, a mat shed must be erected in order to accommodate the crowds. The general public can- not be accommodated in the present building. Their Sunday school too has been crowded out and meets in sections. Here is a call for an investment of a few thousand dollars, which will bring large returns. There are inconceivable possibilities for this church in this great city. A New Era for the Miller Seminary, Siu Lam is the home of the Elizabeth Kumler Miller Seminary for girls, in charge of Miss Belle Myers and Miss Llortense Potts. Two splendid new buildings have just been dedicated for this school. A mat shed was erected for the dedicatory services and one thousand tickets of admission were issued to the leading people of the city. Because of lack of room more could not be invited. Days before the dedication people were offering good prices to get a ticket, but since none were sold and all had been given out, they could not be admitted. The service and exhibit of work done by the girls made a deep impression upon those present. There are ninety girls in the school and others coming. For years they have been turned away for lack of room. This school now enters upon a new era which will be felt all over South China in the years to come. Two day schools are also con- ducted by our mission in Siu Lam. A New Hospital. The medical work in Siu Lam is in charge of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Oldt. For many years the work was greatly hindered on account of poor facilities. But the number of patients treated has been growing right through the years. A new hospital is now being erected with money given by Mr. James M. Ramsburg, and his sainted sister Lucretia, of Dallas Center, Iowa. It is im- possible to conceive of the far-reaching good that will result from this new hospital, not only for the 400,000 of Siu Lam, but for thousands of persons living in towns adjacent. A Quarterly Meeting at Lung Kong. About thirty miles from Siu Lam we reach Lung Kong, a city of 75,000. It is 56 Saturday, and to-morrow will be quarterly communion, so the missionary spends the evening with the members and inquirers in a meeting- for Bible study and prayer. After the meeting many converts are examined for baptism and membership in the church. This little congregation had almost reached full self-support when a disastrous flood swept away almost everything owned by its members ; following the flood the city was invaded by a mob of pirates who stripped the people and their homes of all that re- mained. With wonderful heroism they resumed their work. One of their leading members is a converted opium smoker whose conversion came in answer to the united prayers of the church. At a late hour the missionary climbs to the loft of the chapel, sets up his folding cot, and lies down, the only white man in town. He is awakened early by the noise of early traders, for in China there is no Sabbath. Long before the hour of service the people come until the chapel is filled. AVhat a blessed fellowship with hungry souls ! How intently they listen as though fearful of miss- ing a word and then gather around the table in memory of their common Savior and Lord. A Hilltop Vision. After the service we climb a long stone stairway that winds its way among thousands of graves and some unburied coffins to the top of the mountain. Our hearts are deeply stirred as we see sacrifice being made to spirits of ancestors. Here is an old Chinese mother burn- ing paper clothes on the graves of her loved ones in the hope that in the spirit world they may be transformed into real garments. Poor, darkened souls to whom no message has ever come of a Savior who has gone to prepare a place for them ! From this hilltop we get such a vision of wide-spread need as stirs the souls to its depths. At our feet lies Lung Kong with but one little chapel ; heathen temples and shrines crowd the city. Not far away we see the city of Lung Shaan, with a population of a hundred thousand, and not one messenger to tell of Jesus. Ofit" to the east is Lak Lau where our United Brethren chapel is the only light- house; directly south is Kum Chuk, the strategic center of a district of a million people. As far as the eyes can reach 57 China Is Choosing Her Destiny. AVliy Sut Help To Make It Christ? we see cities and towns teeming with men, women, and little children. We ask the native pastor who stands by onr side, "Is there any one to tell these of their Savior?" and he answers, "No one." We turn away sick at heart with the cry, "How long, oh how long, must they continue to wait?" No wonder our superintendent from this field writes: "When one reflects upon the size of the field, the readi- ness of the people to respond, and the urgency of the situa- tion in the great Christless districts, one wonders as we take account of the meager resources made available by the home church, whether she is taking the responsibility for this work seriously." China is now choosing her destiny. She is open, eager, expectant. She looks to the United States as to no other nation. Shall she have all that our commerce and trade can give, but be deprived of that which she needs most — Jesus Christ? He counted her millions worth Calvary. Oh, Christian friends, what a day this is for us who follow the Christ of Calvary, we who have in our power the giving or the withholding'of this priceless possession. It is a test of our love not alone for these vast perishing millions, but a test of our love for our Lord. "Lovest thou me?" "Feed my sheep." 59 PROGRESS DURING TWELVE YEARS Native Workers 1905 SI 1917 ISS Organized Native Churches 1905 38 1917 102 Communicant Members 1905 1.429 1917 7.315 Gifts Toward Self-Support 1905 $ 4.5 ^)9 1917 $24,502 NEW RECRUITS NEEDED We invite all to pray earnestly that the following new recruits may be sent forth soon to reinforce our missionaries abroad : Three doctors: One for the Philippine Islands, one for China, and one for West Africa. Seven Evangelistic Missionaries :07!^ to open up the un- touched Ifugao Country in the Philippines, two to give all their time to evangelistic work in China, and four to supervise large areas in Africa ar,d help train the native forces, whose habits are noiv being fixed in Bible studv, soul-winning, and Christian stezvardship so as to bring the gospel to the 5.000 untouched towns in our territory. Five Educational Missionaries: One for China and four for Africa. The government of Sierra, Leone has decided to educate the children of the various tribes in their own language. The question is, Shall the children now have Christian or Mohammedan teachers? Well does Superin- tendent Hursh say, "// the Christian Churcli fails to grasp this opportunity, 7ve sell our birthright to the Moslem faith, and our cause goes doivn in defeat." 60 WEEK OF PRAYER AND SELF-DENIAL March 17-24, 1918 The United Brethren Church is facing a critical hour. The millions of men, women, and children in our mission fields, unjustly deprived of their heritage, have a right to an answer from every member of our Church. "Have you a God zi'ho can save and satisfy f" "Will you help usf" Our thin line of missionaries at the front are demanding an answer from the Church that sent them out. They are hazarding their lives and are breaking under the pressure of unanswered opportunities — ungathered harvests. "When ivill the long called for reinforcements come?" The mission board cannot answer. It is but the medium through which the Church works. Every member of our churches and Sunday schools must, in the fear of God, answer these ques- tions. Unlocked for Financial Crisis In this time of unparalleled opportunity, when seven evangelistic missionaries, four teachers, and three doctors should be on their way to the front, the war has sent the rate of exchange and the cost of supplies and transportation soaring so high that our present missionary work is im- periled. The cost of Chinese currency has so advanced that $36,000 is now necessary to do the same work that $24,000 did two years ago. Every other denomination is facing the same problem and meeting it heroically. The German Reformed Church has increased its annual income to foreign missions from $130,000, the amount received a few years ago, to $201,000 for the year just closed. The Presbyterian Church is raising $535,000 as an extra fund to meet war conditions, and the Episcopal Church has raised $432,000 by observing a "one day's income" plan, and thus not only did they save their work from retrenchment, but provided for a strong advance. Shall We Advance or Retrench? In addition to the income from all present sources for our foreign work, there must be brought to God's altars before April 1, 1918, $51,000, if our Church is to keep all her 61 ])resent force of missionaries and native workers in the field, and maintain the work on the basis of the past ; $25,000 additional must be given if reinforcements are to be sent. One of tzi'o aiiszvcrs must be given between now and March 24, 1^18. "Retrench" or "Advance." Which shall it be? If it is "retrench" then some of the missionaries must be called home. Boys and girls eager for the truth must be taken out of school and sent back to their heathen homes. Chapels in the midst of dense darkness must be closed and multitudes left to grope in the night. Shall our answer be "advance"? Then the summons is to such earnest praying and sacrificial giving as we have ne\'er known. 77; r iveek of March 17-24, 1918, has been set apart for the United Brethren Church to register her atiszver. It is hoped that through this week of prayer and self-denial the poiver of God may be released mightily upon our entire chnrch member- ship, that hundreds may be called of God for the ministry and missionary zvorh, and that self-denial offerings to the extent of at least one day's income may be brought to God's altars by every man, ivoman, and child in our communion to provide for tJiis imperative need. Many Answering the Call From all sections of the Church responses are coming — "We have heard the call and through prayer and self-denial we will meet it." Bishops, members of the foreign board and committee, and missionaries home on furlough are among the first to agree to pray and practice self-denial to the extent of at least one day's income. One family has decided to do without meat for weeks in order to give $25. One woman gave up a new coat. A conference superintendent who has two sons in the war says : "I will gladly live on corn bread and milk during the week of prayer and self-denial to help the work of the kingdom." A girl of seventeen voluntarily gave up a new dress for her high school commencement, that its value might bring school privileges to girls across. the seas. 62 WEEK OF PRAYER AND SELF-DENIAL MARCH 17-24, 1918 All this have I done for thee What hast thou done for ine? Is the sacrifice which you are making for the spread of the gospel worthy of the Christ of Calvary ? Arc there not thousands of men and women, and boys and g'irls who will be glad for the opportunit}- to practice self-denial for Christ, and to win souls to him? In these da}s of great sacrifice for the nation, Christ is surely calling us to intercession, to privations, and to real sacrifice for his kingdom, that through these he may reveal his riches and power, and lead his church to certain and glorious victory. TOO LATE TO SACRIFICE FOR CHRIST. A soldier in France saw a great vision, but too late to realize it. He had been around the world. He was not a Christian, and did not believe in missions. About a year ago he was wounded in battle and taken to a hospital. A month before his death he wrote to his friend, Mr. Robert Holmes, in Canada : "You sent me a new Testament. Reading at random I was struck by these words, 'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.' How precious I have found these v/ords. They cause me to care not a jot for this poor, maimed body soon to be set aside, for, 'I've found a Friend, oh, such a Friend.' "I realize now that this Friend cares for every savage even as he cares for me. "It is sweet to die for England, but to die for the sake of, and in the service of, the King of kings — that will never be my part. I envy you fellows who have done so much for the cause. I would gladly die for it now when it is too late. Perhaps I might have done so had somebody taken me in hand early enough. I don't blame any mortal. I am saying that something is wrong with the scheme of things, which fails to put the whole world for Christ right on the forefront as the battle cry of the Christian church. My little money will presently be found devoted to the cause, but what is that? We can carry nothing out whither I go. My message is that all who are wise should work in the great service while it is day, remembering the coming night." "We must ivork the zvorks of Him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work." 64 THE] BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSION!. Bishop W. M. Bell. D.D,. President. S. S. Hourh. D.D., Qeneral Secretary, G. A. Lambert, Recordlnff Secretary, li, O. Miller, Treasurer, Mrs. J. Hal Smith. Special Support Secretary. Bishops G. M. Mathews, D.D., H. H. Fout, D.D., C J, Kephart. D.D., A. T. Howard. D.D., W. H. Washlnger, D.D., N. Castle. D.D.. W. M. Weekley, D.D., Mrs. L. R. Harford, Mrs. J. P. Landls, Mrs. Albert Kelster, Rev. A. A. Long, D.D., Rev, W. E. Snyder, D.D., Rev. J. R. Kine. D.D., Professor J. H. Reubush and Mr. S. C. Caldwell. executive: committcsj. Rev. W. O. Fries. D.D.. Chairmam. Rev. S. S. Hough, D.D., Secretary, Mrs. A. T. Howard. Rev. J. Q. Huber, D.D., Rev. A. R. Clippinger, D.D.. Mr. I. S. Richmond, Mrs. Alva Kauffman. INFORMATION, INSPIRATION, AND AMMUNITION. 1. Beelns Our Mlaslons Across the Seas. . One «opy, ten cents, twelve copies, fl.OO; 100 copies, $S.OO. t. The "War and Missions. A strong booklet by an Inter- denominational committee, especially for pastors. Price, ten cents. 8. The Life of Prayer. Five cents per copy. 4. The Confession of a Business Man. Five cents a copy. i. A Map of Bach of Our Five Fields In Tvro Colors. Size. 20 X 24 Inches. The five maps mailed in one tube, fifty cents. 6. Our Church Abroafl. A concise story of the beglnnlnsr and grrowth of each of our foreign missions; their victories and needs, and how the Sunday schools and churches can promote our foreign missionary work. One copy, thirty cents; four copies. $1.00. T. Missionary Stereoptlcou Lecture. We send a set of slides and manuscript lecture with each set. Charges, $1.00 plus transportation both ways. The above supplies can be secured by writing to 8. S. Hough, Sec'y., 404 Otterbeia Press BIdg., Dayton. Ohio. Shall Christianity Be Less Sacrificial Than Patriotism? ««. The nations of the world to-day have risen to the heights of an unlimited sacrificial devotion. Is the church to shovi^ less loyalty to Christ and his honor? Every soldier dying for his country on a European battlefield, every home giving up its blood and tears, is a summons and a reproach to us men and women who have accepted the Christ of the Cross, but not the Cross of Christ. If they have counted their cause above their lives and the^ir every possession, why not we? What they freely yield for their country, shall not Christians give with joy to their Lord of Life and Peace? ROBERT £. SPEER ^ ijlifa v3^^ t^Q3 1.^ '^M^k. '^^^Utan^k^S K^' '■^•^ 9 m ^ h A / Jrw^^ t \:^