Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 11, November, 1888», страница 5

THE CHINESE

The special interest of the year centres in the evangelistic work that was commenced early in the winter. Of our 39 workers reported, fourteen are Chinamen, who have been converted in our schools. Two of these brethren were set apart last December as special evangelists, one going to our missions in Southern California, and the other to our more Northern missions. Subsequently another one entered the field. The intention was to give one month of service at each mission, and the gratifying experience has been that at no point has this one month been deemed sufficient. At the end of five months the harvest reported was forty souls brought to repentance.

Three new missions are upon our list this year; those at Los Angeles, San Buenaventura, and Tucson. At Los Angeles no less than 75 pupils were enrolled the first month, and at all these places Christian Associations have been formed.

A minister on the Pacific Coast not in connection with our schools, after giving a sketch of work accomplished which could not be tabulated, says: "Socially, intellectually, spiritually, the Chinese mission school does its beneficent work. But everything is made but the means to the spiritual end. The whole drift of the teaching, the songs, the pictures, the Scripture text, is to make known Christ. Every evening's lesson ends with worship. In no year, may I add, have there been so many conversions among the Chinese on this coast as in the one just passed."

WOMAN'S BUREAU

There are thirteen Woman's State Organizations which co-operate with us in our missionary work. These are in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Alabama, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota. Other States, also, not yet organized, are assisting in definite lines, as Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Our Bureau of Woman's Work has for many years proved its wisdom. The state of black womanhood and girlhood taken together is pitiful. The permanent and uplifting Christianization and civilization to be engrafted on the Negro race in this land, can come only as the womanhood of that people is imbued with right principles and led to right practices. Unless the life of the woman is reached and saved, there can be no true religion, family life, or social status. Hence our industrial and boarding schools for the training of girls in domestic work, in the trades of dressmaking and such like, in the art of cooking, the cultivation of small fruits and flowers, so that the sacred influences of Christianity shall circle around the thousand firesides where now everything is coarse, and ignorant, and senseless. With our large corps of lady teachers, the Woman's Bureau, as an intermediary between the Woman's State Association and their sisters who are teaching in the field, and the women and girls to whom they are sent, has proved during the year its increasing efficiency.

FINANCES

The receipts have been, $320,953.42, which with the balance on hand, September 30th, 1887, of $2,193.80, makes a total of $323,147.22. We have received in addition to this $1,000 for an Endowment Fund. The total disbursements for the year have been $328,788.43. The churches through the National Council have asked us to keep abreast with the providence of God. "It is our duty," said the Ohio State Association, "to see that this great work in which we have borne so large and honorable a part, halt not, nor slacken in its energy because of our failure to keep its treasury replenished and its faithful laborers re-enforced and supported by our gifts and our prayers."

Said our good friend, the Congregationalist, in an editorial after our inspiring meeting at Portland in October last: "Never did the magnitude of the field, and the complex character of its labors, appear in such startling lines. Either of the four departments of labor demands the money and the force which is distributed among all. But, in the providence of God, this society is called upon to prosecute this fourfold work. It cannot abandon a single field and must not be asked to. It can do in the next five years a work for Christianity and for Congregationalism in the South and West which will tell on the coming century. As Christians, and as Congregational Christians, we must see to it that it be not obliged to pinch its workers and to turn away from promising openings in order to keep free from debt the coming year."

Thus charged, we have yet gone within our instructions. We have made every dollar do more than its work. We have gathered up the fragments that nothing be lost; and yet to-day our payments anticipate our receipts by the sum of $5,641.21. We do not regret the anxiety and pain which it has cost us to effect what we have. The generous words of sympathy and confidence that have come to us of late, with noble gifts, large and small, repay the solicitude and incessant care. We thank God and his people, and hold firmly our faith in Him who said, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." He opened the door. Our faith is in Him who also said, "Ask, and ye shall receive."

The year opened with the Association bereft of its honored President. We come to this new year happy in our choice of the Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., of New York, to fill this most important position. In his acceptance we congratulate the Association.

Since the year began, the churches have missed the stirring appeals of our beloved Secretary Powell, who had the especial oversight and burden of the collecting fields. Such a life as that of James Powell is not common. It was a grand sacrifice of undeviating love for those whose poverty made him a debtor to them. His consecration will not be forgotten.

His sudden departure—our great bereavement—made necessary the transfer of the Rev. C.J. Ryder from the field to the District Secretaryship of the Eastern District in New England, who has brought with his energy and zeal such an experience, and personal knowledge of the entire field, as to insure him the most hearty welcome and co-operation on the part of our pastors and churches.

The Rev. F.E. Jenkins, a graduate of Williams College and of Hartford Theological Seminary, for some time earnestly engaged in our Southern work, has been appointed a field superintendent for personal examination and supervision of our churches and schools, and has already entered upon his duties.

The Association, with its Superintendents continually in the field, who report every fact to the Secretaries at the office, who in turn submit the entire work to the churches, is thus continually made better prepared to direct the sacrifices of the benevolent in ways that shall not be irresponsible or unwise, than those which are subject to no such scrutiny or supervision, and are held to no responsibility. Much less money would be diverted from this authorized and recognized servant of the Congregational Churches, and far greater efficiency would be secured, if our friends would remember that their own ordained agency can open as many missions as they will make possible, which shall have, at least, one advantage over independent and unsupervised work, in that, through us, they shall be under your own constant Christian watch and care.

We may not close this review of our year's work and attendant suggestions without remembrance of our indebtedness to the American Bible Society, for its grant of Bibles; to the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society for the help given to our struggling churches and Sunday-schools in its grant of books and lesson helps. We rejoice in the unity of our societies, which make all one in the blending of the parts for the great common purpose of redeeming the lost and gathering them into the family of Christ.