Univ.of in. Library 
 
 54 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF 
 COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 1909-1910 
 
 WITH A LOOK BACKWARD 
 
 BY FOREIGN SECRETARY 
 
 JAMES L. BARTON, D.D. 
 
 BOSTON, CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, 1910 
 
# 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS, 1909-1910 
 
 By JAMES L. BARTON, Foreign Secretary 
 
 The American Board has suffered 
 during the year under review the loss 
 of three of its time-honored and notable 
 missionaries, Mrs. Daniel Crosby Greene, 
 of Japan; Rev. Herman N. Barnum, d.d., 
 of Harpoot, Turkey; and Miss Corinna 
 Shattuck, of Oorfa, Turkey. Mrs. Greene 
 and her husband were the pioneer mis¬ 
 sionaries of the American Board in 
 Japan, and from the beginning of the 
 mission until her death this year she has 
 stood as the mother of the mission. 
 Dr. Barnum was among the earlier mis¬ 
 sionaries at Harpoot, and was one of 
 the famous group of three families that 
 worked together in that station for some 
 forty years. Miss Shattuck achieved an 
 international reputation because of her 
 signal bravery at the time of the Arme¬ 
 nian massacres in 1895, and for the con¬ 
 structive work that she has carried on 
 since for widows and orphans. The 
 combined period of service of these three 
 veterans under the American Board 
 
 393 
 
 1630 1660 1665 1910 
 
 aggregates 130 years, or an average of 
 forty-three and one-third years each. 
 Who can measure the length and breadth 
 and depth of the influence of these mis¬ 
 sionaries on the countries in which they 
 lived and labored? 
 
 AREA OF THE WORLD’S UNREST 
 
 SPAIN 
 
 Our missions occupy at the present 
 time the area of the world’s greatest 
 unrest. Spain has been for months al¬ 
 most upon the verge of revolution. This 
 uprising is not primarily political, but 
 intellectual and religious. It marks the 
 struggle of the thinking people of Spain 
 against the oppressive measures of a 
 government itself under the domination 
 of religious orders and of a Church that 
 refuses to give liberty of conscience to 
 its followers. One cannot predict the 
 outcome, but the fact remains that think¬ 
 ing Spain will not long be content with 
 the suppression of thought, judgment, 
 and of conscience which has been so 
 long practiced by the ruling powers in 
 that country. Spain is struggling to be 
 free while she is watching Portugal’s 
 endeavors in the same direction. 
 
 TURKEY 
 
 In the Turkish empire the situation 
 does not materially differ from what it 
 was a year ago, except that constitu¬ 
 tional government is now a year older, 
 the men in control have learned much by 
 experience, and there is a greater hope¬ 
 fulness in the country that government 
 by the people will not be overthrown. 
 There are indications that the party in 
 power is becoming not a little anxious 
 over the evidences that so large a num- 
 
 INCREASE IN MISSIONARIES 
 
2 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 ber of progressive Mohammedans are 
 demanding the right to think. During 
 the last few months a reaction has been 
 manifest against the spirit of progress, 
 which prevails especially among the 
 Albanians of Western Macedonia. The 
 government has not yet declared itself 
 on the question of popular education. At 
 the same time, the country is opening 
 to a spirit of progress. Foreign capital 
 is going into the empire for the con¬ 
 struction of railroads and other general 
 public improvements, all of which will 
 tend to make permanent the new order. 
 
 INDIA 
 
 In India the unrest that was so prom¬ 
 inent a year ago has been in a measure 
 allayed through concessions granted by 
 the Indian government, putting a larger 
 share of responsibility upon the Indians 
 themselves. The government is endeav¬ 
 oring so to reform in lines of education 
 that the Indians, through the schools of 
 the country, will become more adequately 
 equipped for life in India and for doing 
 that which India demands of her edu¬ 
 cated men. The Christian movement 
 has gone forward with even greater 
 progress than last year. We are un¬ 
 doubtedly approaching a period when we 
 piust be ready to deal with mass move¬ 
 
 ments, with entire castes seeking for 
 Christian instruction, and with villages 
 and groups of villages breaking away 
 from their old religions and asking to 
 come under the tuition of the Christian 
 missionary. 
 
 In order better to meet these condi¬ 
 tions, the missionaries of the Madura 
 Mission have so organized their forces 
 that the responsibility for the conduct 
 of primary education and evangelistic 
 work in the mission shall rest in larger 
 measure upon the trained native Chris¬ 
 tian leaders. This plan has been in 
 operation for a year or more, and its 
 results give great encouragement. 
 
 CHINA 
 
 In China the progress in breaking 
 away from the old conservative tradi¬ 
 tions of the empire has been, if possible, 
 more rapid than in the previous year. 
 Constitutional government, already as¬ 
 sured, is demanded by the people even in 
 advance of the time when it has been 
 promised. Local assemblies to discuss 
 national affairs have been gathered in 
 various sections of the country, while 
 the imperial government has issued a 
 decree making the English language the 
 national foreign language of the empire. 
 This latter decision is of supreme im- 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 3 
 
 portance, since it will compel every 
 student in the higher schools to study 
 English, and will undoubtedly lead to 
 the introduction of English into all of the 
 national schools. This action cannot fail 
 to make the schools of the missionaries 
 more sought after than ever, while it 
 opens up to the missionaries avenues of 
 approach to the Chinese people hitherto 
 closed. Of the great number of Prot¬ 
 estant missionaries in China, a large 
 proportion are English-speaking. These 
 are scattered throughout the country 
 and have many schools of all grades well 
 established. The time is abundantly ripe 
 to put special emphasis upon the work 
 of Christian education, since it is at this 
 point that the Chinese are now especially 
 approachable. 
 
 JAPAN 
 
 The line of national unrest which we 
 have been following reaches also into 
 Japan, although politically Japan is more 
 quiet now than a year ago. We cannot 
 lose sight of the fact, however, that dur¬ 
 ing the last few weeks Korea has been 
 constituted formally a part of the Jap¬ 
 anese empire. When we recall the great 
 progress which Christianity has made in 
 Korea during the last decade, and when 
 we also remember the significant fact 
 that in Japan itself today there is only 
 one registered Christian for every six 
 hundred of its population, we cannot 
 escape from the feeling that more should 
 be done in Japan, not only for Japan it¬ 
 self, but for the sake of Korea. The 
 Japanese Christian leaders are urging us 
 to send missionary reenforcements to 
 that country, and the members of the 
 Kumi-ai churches are turning their at¬ 
 tention to Korea, not for work among 
 the natives of that land, but for their 
 own people who are going to Korea in 
 such large numbers, in order that these 
 may become Christian and their influ¬ 
 ence upon Korea may be for Christ. 
 These conditions present an unprece¬ 
 
 dented and immediately urgent call to 
 strengthen the Christian forces in Japan. 
 
 Without dwelling upon the situation as 
 here briefly outlined, we cannot but draw 
 the conclusion that, throughout the prin¬ 
 cipal countries in which the American 
 Board has planted missions there is a 
 spirit of dissatisfaction with the situa¬ 
 tion as it affects intellectual, religious, 
 and political conditions. We cannot be 
 blind to the fact that the movements in 
 those countries are along the lines of 
 genuine progress, preparing the way for 
 the establishment of Christian institu¬ 
 tions and for the promulgation of Chris¬ 
 tian truth as it is in the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 OUR OPPORTUNITY 
 
 As the people of the East break with 
 their old traditions they are unusually 
 susceptible to the teachings of the West. 
 For many years they have been criti¬ 
 cally studying Christianity in its relation 
 to the national life of America and Eng¬ 
 land. It is time, therefore, for us to 
 bring all our forces to bear upon these 
 countries, that they may have before 
 them the demonstration of what Chris¬ 
 tianity can do for the salvation of the 
 individual as well as of society and of 
 a nation. There has probably never 
 been any period when the Christian 
 nations as such were given so wide an 
 opportunity to put the stamp of Chris¬ 
 tian thought and Christian living upon 
 the people of the East. This is specially 
 true for us with reference to Moham¬ 
 medans in the Turkish empire, to China, 
 where we are in direct contact with 
 25,000,000 of her vast population, and 
 to Japan, where our mission stands 
 among the first in its strength and 
 influence. 
 
 POLICY OF CONCENTRATION 
 
 During the year the Committee has 
 continued to follow the policy which has 
 
4 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 INCREASE IN MISSION STATIONS 
 
 been in practice more or less during the 
 century of its operations, namely, that 
 of concentration. In the earlier days of 
 missionary work the policy was to scatter 
 missionary families in a great number 
 of stations. As the work progressed it 
 became evident that concentration was 
 necessary for the most effective and 
 permanent results. There are but few 
 more mission stations today in all the 
 mission fields of the Board than there 
 were seventy years ago. The same 
 policy of concentration has been carried 
 on with reference to missions. Not a 
 few missions have been opened by mis¬ 
 sionaries of this Board which have not 
 been continued, since it was later dis¬ 
 covered that some other missionary 
 organization could carry on the work 
 more effectively and economically than 
 could we. 
 
 It is inevitable that in entering upon 
 new and often unknown fields there 
 must be some temporary occupation at 
 different points. At the same time, some 
 fields develop much more rapidly and 
 with greater promise than do others. If 
 the funds of the Board and reenforce¬ 
 ments were ample for all of the work, 
 
 there would be little or no withdrawal 
 from any field once occupied. Because 
 during the last few years the receipts of 
 the Board have not been sufficient to 
 furnish an adequate support for the 
 work to which we were committed, the 
 mission fields of Ponape and the Mort- 
 lock Islands in Micronesia have been 
 passed over to the Liebenzeller Mission¬ 
 ary Society of Germany. Because of the 
 great demands of the work in Guam for 
 funds and reenforcements, while the 
 mission could possibly reach only ten 
 thousand people, the Prudential Com¬ 
 mittee have decided, during the year, that 
 it would not be justified in sending to 
 that comparatively narrow field the 
 money and men so desperately required 
 for maintaining work at several of the 
 great mission centers. It has been de¬ 
 cided for this reason not to continue the 
 work in Guam, but to pass over whatever 
 has been begun to any evangelical mis¬ 
 sionary society that is ready to continue 
 the mission. At the present time we are 
 in correspondence with the Methodist 
 Missionary Society of New York with 
 reference to their taking over the work 
 \yhich has been established by this Board 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 5 
 
 and carried on for many years in Spain, 
 exclusive of the Woman’s Board school, 
 recently moved from Madrid to Barce¬ 
 lona. The Methodist Board has missions 
 in Southern Europe and a complete 
 organization for supervising the work in 
 Spain, which the American Board has 
 not. 
 
 In the Eastern Turkey Mission corre¬ 
 spondence is now in progress with a 
 German missionary society, already at 
 work in three places in that mission, with 
 a view to passing over to that organiza¬ 
 tion one of the stations of the mission, 
 they to withdraw from the other places 
 where they are at work. All of these 
 plans of withdrawal and concentration 
 are in the interests of greater efficiency, 
 a more economical use of the funds and 
 forces of the Board, and a closer co¬ 
 operation with other missionary socie¬ 
 ties in the division of territory. 
 
 In the face of enforced reductions and 
 of rapidly developing responsibilities in 
 some of the important missions, such 
 withdrawal is inevitable. If it is the 
 will of this Board that no territory now 
 occupied be given up or passed over to 
 any other society, the only effective way 
 in which this desire can be expressed is 
 by an adequate and permanent increase 
 in the regular income of the Board. 
 
 On the other hand, it has seemed in¬ 
 evitable that the Board should strengthen 
 and in a measure increase its work at 
 two comparatively new points, viz., in 
 Albania, within the boundary of the 
 European Turkey Mission, and in Min¬ 
 danao, which constitutes the mission field 
 assigned to it by the United Missionary 
 Societies of the Philippine Islands. In 
 both of these missions a large part of 
 the funds for their conduct have come 
 from gifts received especially for this 
 purpose. In view of the fact that there 
 is no other missionary society which can 
 go into Albania and take up the work, 
 accompanied also by the fact that this 
 country is now opening to outside influ¬ 
 
 ences in a way that gives assurance for 
 the future, it seems inevitable that we 
 should enlarge the work and seize the 
 opportunity for reaching that warlike 
 but most interesting and virile race. 
 Something of the same arguments hold 
 for Mindanao, and the Committee has 
 decided to open as soon as possible two 
 new stations, in order that that great 
 island may be brought out from its sav¬ 
 agery into the light and privileges of 
 Christian civilization. Some of the lead¬ 
 ing Beys of Albania are among the 
 strongest friends of our missionaries, 
 and the government officials in Minda¬ 
 nao, together with local planters, are 
 rendering substantial assistance to the 
 work there. The Mindanao Medical 
 Association of New York has furnished 
 the funds for the medical work at Davao, 
 and personal friends of the work in 
 Albania have supplied the funds hitherto 
 used for that work. It should be said, 
 however, that these funds are now nearly 
 exhausted, while the openings in Albania 
 have extended in a wholly unexpected 
 manner. 
 
 Within the limits of this survey it is 
 impossible to give space for a general 
 review of the work of the year in all 
 the missions of the Board. This work 
 has reached such proportions that to give 
 a review that is at all adequate to the 
 situation would require a volume rather 
 than a few pages in an Annual Survey. 
 It seems more important that for this 
 centennial year we stretch the survey 
 back not only over the year but over the 
 century, in order that from this view we 
 may catch a vision of the possibilities 
 opening before this Board for the new 
 century upon which we are now entering. 
 
 A CENTURY OF MISSIONS 
 
 During this first century of the Amer¬ 
 ican Board seven of the ioi annual 
 meetings have been held in Boston, 
 namely, in 1813, 1819, 1823, 1830, the 
 
6 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 semi-centennial in i860, the seventy-fifth 
 anniversary in 1885, and the present 
 centenary in 1910. It may not be amiss 
 at this time to glance back over the 
 stages in the work of the Board repre¬ 
 sented by the last four of these meetings, 
 in order to establish the trend of its 
 progress. 
 
 In making comparisons it has seemed 
 best to eliminate the statistics of the 
 work for the North American Indians 
 as well as that carried on in the Sand¬ 
 wich Islands, since both of these depart¬ 
 ments have been mostly eliminated from 
 our consideration for a half century. 
 There will remain then, after these ex¬ 
 clusions, that constant factor in our 
 work which has continued through the 
 ; entire period with little change except 
 enlargement. 
 
 STATIONS 
 
 We begin with the stations occupied 
 in the foreign field as places of resi¬ 
 dence for missionaries of the Board, 
 and*' find that in 1830, when the first 
 meeting was held in Boston, there were 
 only eight of these. It should be said 
 that up to that time the emphasis of the 
 
 work was laid upon the Indians in 
 America and upon the Sandwich Islands. 
 In i860, when the semi-centennial of 
 the Board was celebrated, the eight 
 stations had become eighty-eight, which 
 again through a process of concentra¬ 
 tion had become eighty-three in 1885, 
 and stands now in 1910 at 102. The 
 comparative decrease in the number of 
 stations indicates greater organization 
 and centralization. 
 
 ORDAINED MISSIONARIES 
 
 Let us now look at the force of 
 ordained American missionaries. In 
 1830 there were fourteen, which in¬ 
 creased in i860 to 136, in 1885 to 156, 
 and in 1910 to 173. This shows a net 
 increase in the ordained missionary force 
 during the past fifty years of only 
 twenty per cent, in spite of the enor¬ 
 mous advance in the work. The reason 
 for this is that the ordained native pas¬ 
 tor has in many respects taken the place 
 and is now doing the work of the earlier 
 missionary. 
 
 MISSIONARIES 
 
 The number of missionaries as a whole 
 has increased more rapidly since i860, 
 when the Woman’s Boards have added 
 their strength accounting for about one- 
 third of the increase in the mission¬ 
 ary forces. Enumerating the wives as 
 well as the unordained men and the 
 single women, but only those who are 
 under full appointment, we find that the 
 number of missionaries in active serv¬ 
 ice at the four periods were, in 1830, 
 forty-six; in i860, 287; in 1885, 422; 
 and in 1910, 593, showing a rather uni¬ 
 form rate of increase, upon the average 
 of about 180, or about forty per cent, 
 for each twenty-five years since i860. 
 
 NATIVE LABORERS 
 
 It is when we come to the native 
 laborers that we begin to note signs of 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 7 
 
 marked progress. These figures in 
 themselves make clear the possibility of 
 broad and fundamental advances of the 
 work without a corresponding increase 
 in the number of missionaries from the 
 United States. In 1830 it is almost im¬ 
 possible to find in the reports of the 
 missions any allusion to native Chris¬ 
 tian workers. It would hardly be ex¬ 
 pected that in the eighteen years during 
 which work of any kind had been car¬ 
 ried on in India a native agency could 
 have been created. At that time, as 
 will appear later, there were but a mere 
 handful of native Christians of any kind. 
 In i860 reports refer to 640 persons in 
 all of the stations who are called “na¬ 
 tive helpers.” Not a few of them are 
 shown to be little more than missionary 
 assistants of the crudest sort, mostly 
 teachers of small children in the rudi¬ 
 ments of reading. In 1885 this number 
 had risen to 2,183, an d included men and 
 women of recognized ability. This num¬ 
 ber of native Christian leaders, who in 
 1885 outnumbered the missionaries five 
 to one and the ordained missionaries 
 fourteen to one, has become in this our 
 day an army of 4,718, outnumbering the 
 entire missionary force eight to one and 
 the ordained missionaries twenty-seven 
 to one. It should also be stated that the 
 
 
 
 56£ 
 
 1 
 
 > 
 
 a 
 
 L92 
 
 1 
 
 
 1630 1660 1665 1910 
 
 standard of education and general equip¬ 
 ment in this native body at the present 
 time is much higher than it was twenty- 
 five or even ten years ago. 
 
 INDIGENOUS CHURCHES 
 
 When we turn to the number of the 
 native churches we find that the figures, 
 while most striking, are not so signifi¬ 
 cant. In the earlier period there were 
 no native churches, strictly speaking. 
 The churches then reported were mis¬ 
 sionary organizations, with but few 
 native members. In i860 we find a 
 record of eighty-nine churches and in 
 1885 of 292, while we report this year 
 568. The number of native churches 
 has practically doubled each twenty-five 
 years, while their aggressive strength 
 has more than quadrupled in that period. 
 
 CHURCH MEMBERS 
 
 The increased strength of the churches 
 is made more apparent by comparing the 
 membership of these churches at the 
 four designated periods. In 1830 none 
 were reported, and in i860, while there 
 was no attempted tabulation, references 
 are made to about three thousand native 
 church members. This was the fruit of 
 
 INCREASE IN CHURCHES 
 
 INCREASE IN CHURCH MEMBERS 
 
8 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 nearly fifty years of missionary effort 
 and sacrifice in the fields abroad. The 
 number had become 23,000 in 1885, and 
 in 1910 we are able to report a church 
 membership of 73,000. A net threefold 
 increase is indicated in native commu¬ 
 nicants during the last twenty-five years, 
 and during the last fifty years a twenty- 
 four-fold increase. 
 
 PUPILS UNDER INSTRUCTION 
 
 When we turn from the churches and 
 their membership to the number of pupils 
 under missionary instruction, we recog¬ 
 nize the unfairness of the statistics, since 
 the earlier schools were almost wholly of 
 the lowest primary grades, while in the 
 latest period students of collegiate and 
 preparatory institutions in large numbers 
 are included. The lifting of the stand¬ 
 ards of scholarship has been even more 
 marked than the increase in the number 
 of pupils. Twenty-five years ago prac¬ 
 tically all children that could be per¬ 
 suaded to enter missionary schools were 
 accepted, and the courses of study and 
 instruction were adapted to their capac¬ 
 ities. At the present time, in a great 
 number of schools, standards of schol¬ 
 
 arship, together with other requirements, 
 are fixed, and those who do not comply 
 with those standards are not enrolled. 
 At the same time it must be stated thiat 
 on account of limited accommodations 
 many who would otherwise be received 
 are turned away. 
 
 In 1830 we learn that there were 4,770 
 children in schools conducted by mission¬ 
 aries. Thirty years later 8,000 pupils 
 are recorded; in 1885, when the period 
 of higher collegiate institutions was be¬ 
 ginning, there were 35,561, and at the 
 present time we report a student clien¬ 
 tele of 70,451. Among this last num¬ 
 ber is a great body of both men and 
 women in collegiate and theological 
 courses, while many more are in pre¬ 
 paratory schools with the college course 
 in view. 
 
 4991 
 
 661 
 
 1665 1910 
 
 11365 
 
 1174 
 
 1665 1910 
 
 Pupils 
 
 Communicants 
 
 INCREASE IN CHINA ALONE 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 9 
 
 CHINA 
 
 As an illustration of the advance 
 made in a single country let us take 
 China and note the progress there dur¬ 
 ing the past twenty-five years, or since 
 the last meeting of this Board in Bos¬ 
 ton in 1885. At that time we had sixty- 
 five American missionaries, while today 
 we have about twice that number. This 
 does not indicate much advance for so 
 long a period. But when we note the 
 sixty-one native Christian workers then 
 and compare that number with the 666 
 ,at the present time, we see that in this 
 permanent and effective arm of the 
 service there has been more than a ten¬ 
 fold increase. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago all of the 
 churches connected with the Board in 
 China reported a membership of 1,174, 
 while today there are ten times that 
 number, or 11,363. Then there were 
 but 661 Chinese pupils under mission¬ 
 ary instruction in our missions in China, 
 while today there are 4,991, an increase 
 of nearly eightfold. 
 
 We note then that while the mission¬ 
 aries have only doubled in number, there 
 has been a multiplication of Chinese 
 Christian workers, pupils, and commu¬ 
 nicants from eight to ten fold. 
 
 CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE 
 PEOPLE 
 
 The value and importance of all that 
 has been here said of the enlargement 
 of the work are made vastly more sig¬ 
 nificant by that which follows. Since 
 this Board began its operations in the 
 East there have not failed to appear 
 from time to time those who have re¬ 
 ferred to the Christians in the mission¬ 
 ary churches as purchased by mission¬ 
 ary funds. Many have refused to 
 believe that so large a number of Asi¬ 
 atics could have abandoned their old 
 religions and identified themselves with 
 Christianity without some more tangible 
 
 motive than their acceptance of Jesus 
 Christ. The term “rice Christians” 
 has become classic with critics as a‘ 
 term by which to designate those who 
 in the Nearer or Farther East have 
 professed Christianity. These critics 
 
 INCREASE IN CHINA ALONE 
 
 have been quite content to call names 
 without proof. 
 
 Whatever reasons there may have 
 been during the first half century for 
 casting doubt upon the sincerity of the 
 native Christians, we have positive evi¬ 
 dence in these latter days that they are 
 not only ready to face persecution for 
 conscience’ sake, as so many have suf¬ 
 fered from the first, but they actually 
 
IO 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 make financial sacrifices, which for some 
 Orientals are harder to bear than physi¬ 
 cal pain. Reference is here made to the 
 amounts of money members of the mis¬ 
 sionary churches have contributed for 
 the support of their own churches and 
 church schools, for the higher Christian 
 education of their children, and for the 
 propagation of Christianity among their 
 own people. 
 
 In 1830 there was no allusion to con¬ 
 tributions from the people for support 
 of the work, and probably few, if any, 
 missionaries or Board officers thought it 
 possible that the people they were seek¬ 
 ing to Christianize would ever pay any 
 appreciable part of the cost of the work 
 In i860 we find the slightest allusions 
 in the reports about the people them¬ 
 selves being even invited or permitted 
 to make any contributions. Even in 
 1885, only twenty-five years ago, while 
 the reports of different places refer to 
 “contributions by the people,” amount¬ 
 ing in all the fields to some $21,762, the 
 fact was not regarded by the officers of 
 the Board of sufficient importance to 
 tabulate in the reports or to exhibit 
 or allude to in any special manner. A 
 new impulse was given to the policy 
 of self-support in mission fields during 
 the last two decades, which has revealed 
 a storehouse of resources and a means 
 
 of discipline and testing never before 
 imagined. It is probably true that there 
 are few, if any, phases of missionary 
 work that have given more confidence 
 in the faith, sincerity, and purpose of 
 the native churches of the East than the 
 fact that in the midst of chronic poverty 
 as viewed from our Western standpoint, 
 and often of abject want, the 73,000 
 members of the missionary churches and 
 their colleagues connected with this 
 Board’s work abroad, gave last year for 
 the very purposes for which the Amer¬ 
 ican constituency of this Board con¬ 
 tributed, namely, the support of their 
 own Christian and educational institu¬ 
 tions and for the propagation of the 
 gospel among their own people, nearly 
 $263,000. It is a fact of tremendous 
 significance that for every dollar our 
 700,000 church members gave for the 
 support of the native work, as separate 
 from the support of the missionaries, 
 the 73,000 native church members gave 
 one and one-half dollars. Had our 
 church members given in the same per 
 capita ratio, they would have contributed 
 $14.50 in place of every dollar they did 
 give; and if our American churches 
 had given in proportion to the value of 
 an average day’s wage there and here, 
 this amount must needs be multiplied by 
 ten. 
 
 Let no one say hereafter that these 
 brethren and sisters in the East are not 
 as true followers of Jesus Christ as are 
 we, the favored members of the churches 
 of the West. 
 
 RECEIPTS OF THE BOARD AT 
 HOME 
 
 The receipts of the Board from the 
 constituency at home show a steady 
 growth at the four periods taken as the 
 basis of our present comparison. It will 
 be noticed that the advance made here is 
 not so marked as that made by native 
 Christians themselves, and that it does 
 not correspond with the increase in the 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 membership of our churches and their 
 added wealth. The figures show, never¬ 
 theless, an advance that indicates con¬ 
 fidence in the work done and in the 
 Board that is directing it. 
 
 Starting with less than $1,000 received 
 during the first year of the history of 
 the Board, its receipts became $83,019 
 in 1830, $429,799 in i860, $625,833 in 
 
 
 *26 
 
 1 
 
 2.764 1 
 
 1 
 
 m .761 
 
 1630 1660 1665 I 
 
 1910 
 
 INCREASE IN GIFTS FROM NATIVES 
 
 1885, and during the fiscal year just 
 closed the Treasurer reports receipts 
 amounting to $989,408. In other words, 
 the contributions of the native Christians 
 increased during the last quarter century 
 elevenfold, while contributions of our 
 American constituency increased a little 
 less than fifty-two per cent. What might 
 have been the results had our own 
 beneficence kept pace with that of our 
 Christian brethren and sisters abroad! 
 
 HIGHER EDUCATIONAL WORK 
 
 Since the American Board had its 
 birth in a college and was cradled in a 
 theological seminary, and since from the 
 first its missionaries have, for the greater 
 part, been college trained men and also 
 graduates of theological schools, it was 
 
 11 
 
 but natural that education should have 
 early found place in the missionary work 
 they established abroad. Who could 
 know and appreciate better than they the 
 value of the college and training school, 
 not only to the church, but to society 
 and the state? It was to be expected 
 that in their plans for creating in the 
 East a new religious order as well as a 
 new society they should give large place 
 to the training of the youth and the cre¬ 
 ation of an educated native force able 
 to command a hearing among their own 
 people and recognized everywhere as 
 capable of safe and wise leadership. 
 
 It is also a most significant fact that 
 in 1830 of the sixty-six Corporate Mem¬ 
 bers of the Board nearly one-third, or 
 twenty-one, were college and theological 
 seminary presidents or professors in such 
 institutions. It is therefore no wonder 
 that college men were sent out and that 
 the education of native youth had a large 
 place in the plans of the Board and the 
 missions. 
 
 The school, organized according to the 
 best known methods, has from the first 
 had large place in the missionary econ¬ 
 omy and practical methods of this Board. 
 While there have been discussions as to 
 the place of education in the work of 
 permanent evangelization, the end of all 
 has been renewed efforts to reach the 
 bright youth of the East through the 
 Christian teacher, and to give unusual 
 training to select young men and women 
 for special positions in the church and 
 society and state. 
 
 As one would expect, this has resulted 
 in an increasing number of higher insti¬ 
 tutions of learning for both young men 
 and women in all of the great countries 
 where we have planted missions. All of 
 these institutions have had a gradual and 
 wholesome growth, always under the de¬ 
 sire of the people of the country for a 
 safe, sane, and modern education for 
 their children and the demands of the 
 missionary work for the product of the 
 
 OF nmm 
 
12 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 college and seminary. These two im¬ 
 pulses have worked together in produc¬ 
 ing the chain of collegiate and theolog¬ 
 ical institutions that are an honor to this 
 Board and that belt the earth today. 
 Without these the work of the Board 
 could not be aggressively continued, and 
 the hold we now have upon the races 
 of the East would be loosened if not 
 largely dissipated. 
 
 Under the impulse now sweeping over 
 the Asiatic and even African races 
 towards a modern education, amounting 
 almost to an intellectual revolution, the 
 importance and need of our higher edu¬ 
 cational work have been enhanced. What 
 was of great value before has become 
 imperative now. Through these institu¬ 
 tions we have been forced into a position 
 of leadership in the movement towards 
 modern education not anticipated and 
 not sought, but impossible to escape. 
 
 Hitherto an annual appropriation from 
 the Board for the support of the Amer¬ 
 ican teachers and missionaries engaged 
 in this higher educational work has been 
 the method of the Board’s support. A 
 few of these colleges have already se¬ 
 cured small endowments, but for the 
 most part they have been compelled to 
 rely for support upon receipts from stu¬ 
 dents, special gifts from various sources, 
 and the inadequate and precarious grant 
 from the Board. 
 
 The time has arrived when more per¬ 
 manent and dependable support must be 
 secured; in this the missionaries, the 
 Prudential Committee, and the Board 
 itself are united. The plan agreed upon 
 is to secure a permanent endowment of 
 not less than two millions of dollars, the 
 fund to be held by the Board, the income 
 each year to be appropriated according 
 to need to this higher educational work. 
 The first charge upon the fund will 
 probably be the salaries of the American 
 missionaries and teachers, followed by 
 the support of the native teachers, equip¬ 
 ment, library, apparatus, etc. The pres¬ 
 
 ent plan contemplates only colleges and 
 schools for men, but it is hoped that 
 similar endowment may be secured'for 
 accomplishing the same relief for the 
 women’s colleges. For them the need is 
 equally appealing. 
 
 A glance at some of these Christian 
 educational institutions and the place 
 they occupy in the different countries 
 establishes their supreme importance in 
 the work of planting the kingdom of 
 Christ in lands that are not now 
 Christian. 
 
 A FEW ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 In Turkey greater freedom has been 
 accorded to all forms of teaching, while 
 the people themselves are unprecedent¬ 
 edly awake to the need of a thorough 
 education for their children. In Bul¬ 
 garia the Collegiate and Theological 
 Institute, the only evangelical training 
 school in the country, had accepted in 
 August all the students it could accom¬ 
 modate, although the most of its pupils 
 register about the middle of September. 
 
 Anatolia College at Marsovan has 
 become the resort for Russian young 
 men seeking an education, its Russian 
 students, among the best upon its rolls, 
 having about doubled each year for the 
 last four years. 
 
 The International College for men in 
 Smyrna has for years drawn all its 
 support, except the salary of its mission¬ 
 ary president, from the people, and is 
 overwhelmed with students. 
 
 Euphrates College at Harpoot, in the 
 heart of Armenia, and Central Turkey 
 College at Aintab, as well as St. Paul’s 
 Institute at Tarsus, are all in the closest 
 touch with the dominant Mohammedan 
 leaders, and are directing forces that are 
 shaping the new life and thought of 
 New Turkey. 
 
 In addition to these collegiate institu¬ 
 tions there are the five theological train¬ 
 ing schools, whose task it is to train the 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 *3 
 
 men who are to direct the 141 Protes¬ 
 tant churches as they demonstrate to the 
 people of that country the practical and 
 vital principles of Christian living. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the call for 
 advance from the six colleges and five 
 theological training schools in Turkey 
 seems imperative? 
 
 In India the educational reforms con¬ 
 nected with the universities are compel¬ 
 ling all colleges to better equipment, 
 under penalty of loss of charter. We are 
 in full accord with the new order, but 
 its application demands radical advance 
 in expenditures for apparatus, libraries, 
 and teachers, as well as for buildings. 
 A crisis confronts our higher educational 
 work in the American College at Mad¬ 
 ura, such a crisis as only increased 
 financial aid can avert. 
 
 In our two theological schools in India 
 we have eighty-one students, and the call 
 of the land is for more and better trained 
 men for leadership in the churches. 
 
 When we contemplate the place of 
 higher education in China at the present 
 time, words fail to reveal the situation 
 as it confronts us. The entire empire is 
 looking to the United States for counsel 
 and instruction in matters educational, 
 while the English language has been 
 made by imperial decree the official for¬ 
 eign language of its national schools and 
 of the Educational Department. We 
 ought at once to quadruple, at the very 
 least, the strength and capacity of every 
 one of our educational plants, and so far 
 as we can now see we may be called 
 upon next year to make a similar ad¬ 
 vance. China is taking on Western 
 thought and learning with astounding 
 rapidity. She will have the learning 
 whether we give it or not, but the oppor¬ 
 tunity is ours to see that it is obtained 
 from Christian teachers and in Christian 
 surroundings. Our collegiate and theo¬ 
 logical institutions at Peking, Tung-chou, 
 Shansi, Shao-wu, Canton, and Foochow 
 stand at the center of this movement. 
 
 The Doshisha in Japan holds a place 
 in the nation it never before commanded, 
 and its influence is wider than at any 
 other period in its history. 
 
 What can we say regarding the new 
 educational situation in South Africa 
 and in Mexico, all of which adds to the 
 demonstration that in the history of this 
 Board we have never occupied so many 
 positions of strategic importance or faced 
 such possibilities for effective and per¬ 
 manent advance as we hold today in 
 twenty-six institutions of higher learning 
 for young men in eight of the great 
 countries of the world. 
 
 ENDOWMENTS SECURED 
 
 At the last meeting of the Board the 
 following action was taken:— 
 
 “In view of the unquestioned need 
 for the immediate creation of a Two 
 Million Dollar Endowment Fund for the 
 educational work of the American Board, 
 and in order that as Corporate Members 
 we may do our share towards its achieve¬ 
 ment during the coming year, be it Re¬ 
 solved, that the President be asked to 
 appoint a special committee of seven 
 from our membership to cooperate with 
 the officers of the Board in bringing this 
 about before the meeting in Boston in 
 1910.” 
 
 This action is definite and easily under¬ 
 stood. It was easier to pass the vote 
 than to secure the consent of Corporate 
 Members who could give the time and 
 strength which service upon such a com¬ 
 mittee demanded. After a series of 
 declinations upon the part of various 
 Corporate Members of the Board, the 
 President decided to ask that longer time 
 be given for making up the committee. 
 
 This does not mean, however, that no 
 progress has been made. Corporate 
 Members of this Board, a score of them 
 and more, who did not wish to serve 
 upon a committee have interested them¬ 
 selves in the plan for the permanent 
 
14 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 endowment of the higher educational 
 institutions of the Board, the need for 
 which was never so acute as at the 
 present time. 
 
 If the importance of the completion 
 of a permanent endowment fund of at 
 least $2,000,000 was recognized at the 
 meeting of this Board two years ago, 
 and again last year, it is vastly more 
 important today. Much quiet work has 
 been done during the year, as has been 
 suggested, and that, too, with not a little 
 encouragement. Already good pledges 
 and money have been received from less 
 than a dozen people for something over 
 $1,100,000, and others have the question 
 under advisement. These funds are given 
 with the understanding that they are to 
 constitute a general permanent endow¬ 
 ment fund to be held by the Board, the 
 income alone to be appropriated from 
 year to year for the support of the 
 higher educational work of the Board 
 abroad. Only $100,000 of this amount is 
 conditional upon the completion of the 
 $ 2 , 000 , 000 . 
 
 This fund, when completed, will ac¬ 
 complish more for the education of the 
 leaders in the great, restless Eastern 
 nations than ten times that amount could 
 do in this country, while the relative in¬ 
 fluence of one educated son of the Orient 
 will be at least a hundred times that of 
 a graduate in our own land of universi¬ 
 ties and colleges. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 This brief survey of the year and of 
 the century affords a glimpse of the 
 assets which belong to this Board, and 
 which are at its disposal for the begin¬ 
 ning of its second century of Christian 
 service. These assets are the accumu¬ 
 lation of capital and experience, native 
 and foreign missionary forces, and pres¬ 
 tige, as well as established bases of 
 operations in the great centers of the 
 non-Christian world. 
 
 A century ago our mission work was 
 begun with none of these assets. The 
 missionary Board and its missionaries 
 faced the great problem of bringing this 
 world to Christ with only the promises 
 of God as their assurance, and their 
 faith in those promises and in Jesus 
 Christ as their capital. Under divine 
 guidance they went forth and have ac¬ 
 complished mighty things in the name 
 of the Master whom they served. No 
 one, a century ago, would have been 
 so bold as to predict that within a hun¬ 
 dred brief years the missionary forces 
 should have thus won their position and 
 gained such a foothold, not only mate¬ 
 rial, but spiritual also, in the capitals of 
 the non-Christian nations as well as 
 throughout their territory. 
 
 We now witness the patent fact of 
 mission progress, and see in it an indi¬ 
 cation of what we may expect in the 
 period which is before us. We have 
 our great mission plants in excellent 
 working order, manned by some of the 
 ablest missionaries in the world, with 
 whom are cooperating a vast army of 
 trained native leaders. We face the 
 new century with the assurance that 
 the Lord who has owned and directed 
 this work during the century that has 
 passed will continue to direct it in the 
 century to come. The fields we occupy 
 are strategic, none more so in all the 
 world, and our stations are central and 
 influential even beyond the borders of 
 the territory occupied. We have reason 
 to take new courage and press forward 
 in every department of our work, with 
 the assurance that only victory lies in 
 advance. With the prestige now estab¬ 
 lished through the accumulations of the 
 century, and with the support from the 
 churches of this country in accordance 
 with their numbers and their resources, 
 there is no reason why the work of this 
 Board abroad should not double in vol¬ 
 ume and in results every five years for 
 the next quarter of a century. 
 
SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 STATISTICAL SUMMARY 
 
 When we turn to the purely statistical 
 side of the work of the year we find 
 much that gives us courage. The num¬ 
 ber of missionaries has slightly increased, 
 owing not to any special reenforcement 
 of any fields, but because of the sending 
 out of new candidates to take the place 
 of those who must soon retire from the 
 work. The force of native laborers upon 
 whom greatest reliance is placed has 
 made considerable advance over last 
 year. Last year we were able to report 
 4,564 trained natives at work in con¬ 
 nection with the missionaries of the 
 Board; this number is increased more 
 than 150 this year, and we report 4,718 
 at the present time, of whom 306 are 
 ordained and 648 unordained preachers 
 and evangelists. The 568 churches re¬ 
 port a membership of over 73,000. There 
 has been in many of the mission fields 
 a revision of the church rolls during the 
 year, which has had a tendency to reduce 
 the number of communicants reported. 
 To these churches were added last year 
 over 5,000 on confession of their faith. 
 There is a constituency outside the 
 church membership numbering over 
 170,000, who in some countries are clas¬ 
 sified as Christians, although they have 
 not yet joined the church. It is among 
 this number that the catechumens are 
 found, from whom the church is to be 
 reenforced. The mission Sunday schools 
 report nearly 88,000 on their rolls dur¬ 
 ing the year. The fourteen theological 
 schools have 204 students preparing for 
 the Christian ministry. The entire num¬ 
 ber under Christian instruction in con¬ 
 nection with the various missions is 
 70,451. In the medical work of our 
 missions there were given last year over 
 350,000 treatments, while the printing 
 
 *5 
 
 presses have turned out over 27,000,000 
 pages of Christian and educational liter¬ 
 ature, the most of which is sold to the 
 people for whom work is carried on. 
 
 During the first century of modern 
 missions now closing we have witnessed 
 achievements in the Christian conquest 
 of the world of which the originators of 
 the movement did not dare to dream. 
 Barriers have been removed, opposition 
 turned into cooperation, and enemies into 
 allies, as Christianity and the institutions 
 for which it always stands have become 
 indigenous in the great centers of the 
 Orient. Christian native forces are 
 assuming with joy and efficiency burdens 
 the missionaries bore a few decades 
 ago. The point of view of the great, 
 restless East is rapidly changing, and 
 while not ready to adopt Christianity as 
 a national religion, few indeed are they 
 who refuse to speak well of it. 
 
 In the meantime, through improved 
 methods of travel, the international post, 
 and the telegraph, distance has been 
 greatly annihilated and the non-Chris¬ 
 tian nations are brought to our very 
 door. Not only are the barriers of 
 approach removed, but the great Asiatic 
 nations and races have become our 
 actual neighbors and await the message 
 we have to deliver. 
 
 We need them as truly as they need 
 us. We of America require this vast 
 field for the exercise of our religion, 
 in order that it may not perish of idle¬ 
 ness. We can never fully know the 
 Christ whom we preach until he is in¬ 
 terpreted to us by every race and in 
 every language of earth. That any one 
 may know him in completeness all must 
 know him in part. There can be no 
 faltering as we turn our faces to the 
 unfinished task of the century before us. 
 
i6 
 
 SURVEY OF THE FIELDS 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY, 1909-1910 
 Missions 
 
 Number of Missions .. 20 
 
 Number of Stations. 162 
 
 Number of Outstations.1,329 
 
 Places for stated preaching.1,722 
 
 Laborers Employed 
 
 Number of ordained Missionaries (9 being Physicians) .. 176 
 
 Number of Male Physicians not ordained (besides 14 women). 26 
 
 Number of other Male Assistants. 12 
 
 Number of Women (14 of them Physicians) (wives 188, unmarried 198) .... 386 
 
 Whole number of Laborers sent from this country. 606 
 
 Number of Native Pastors. 309 
 
 Number of Native Preachers and Catechists .. 648 
 
 Number of Native School teachers.2,577 
 
 Bible-women. 417 
 
 Number of other Native Laborers. 775 
 
 Total of Native Laborers.4*723 
 
 Total of American and Native Laborers.5*3 2 3 
 
 The Churches 
 
 Number of Churches. 568 
 
 Number of Church Members ..73,114 
 
 Added during the year. 5*096 
 
 Whole number from the first, as nearly as can be learned.210,423 
 
 Number in Sunday Schools.87,876 
 
 Educational Department 
 
 Number of Theological Seminaries and Training Classes ...... 14 
 
 Students for the Ministry. 204 
 
 Students in Collegiate Training ........... **695 
 
 Boarding and High Schools. 132 
 
 Number of Pupils in these Schools ........... 13*984 
 
 Number of Common Schools. 1,335 
 
 Number of Pupils in Common Schools.56,467 
 
 Whole number under instruction. 73*868 
 
 Native Contributions, so far as reported .......... $276,715 
 

 
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