THE LIBRARY 

of 

VICTORIA UNIVERSITY 
Toronto 



MEMORIAL VOLUME 



OF THE 



FIRST FIFTY YEARS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 
FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 



" Large designs, systematic and vigorous exertions, humble dependence on God, and entire 
consecration to the work, should characterize all our enterprises for the salvation of this 
revolted world." RESOLVE OF THE BOARD, 1835. 

FIFTH EDITION. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD. 

MISSIONARY HOUSE, 33 PEMBERTON SQUARE. 
1863. 



Bv 

23GO 

A5AG 

IEG3 



EMMANUEL 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by the 

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, 
In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



ELECTROTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



1 5574 i 



PRINTED BY 
GEO. C. RAND AND AVERY. 



PREFACE. 



THE issue of a Memorial Volume by the Board, at 
the end of its first half-century, seemed a thing of 
course almost as much as that of a Eeport at the 
close of the year. The only serious question was, 
how to produce the volume. It must obviously be 
prepared by one intimately acquainted with the con 
stitution of the Board, its missions and agencies, and 
the modifications that have taken place in its policy 
and proceedings. But how could either of the Sec 
retaries, already occupied to the extent of their 
ability, perform such an additional service ? It was 
decided, however, by the Prudential Committee, that 
the work ought to be done, and that it ought to 
devolve on the senior Secretary, he having been 
thirty-eight years connected with the correspondence. 
As the subjects were familiar to him, he felt it to be 

his duty to undertake the work, even at a consid 
er 



VI PREFACE. 



statements and opinions, it is obvious that neither 
they, nor the Prudential Committee, can be held 
strictly responsible. 

This volume is the first of its kind. Other Socie 
ties may be expected, in their order, to make similar 
contributions to the stock of missionary experience. 
Should many of the facts here embodied strike the 
reader as not new, he will at least see them for the 
first time in their natural combinations. The author s 
prayer is, that this Memorial Volume, which he re 
gards as among the closing labors of his somewhat 
protracted official life, may be accepted by the Head 
of the Church, and blessed to the extension of his 
kingdom. 

RUFUS ANDERSON. 
MISSIONARY HOUSE, BOSTON, 
August, 1861. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

THE JUBILEE MEETING . . . 1 



DK. HOPKINS S SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 



THE BOARD. 

CHAPTER I. 
ORIGIN OF THE BOARD. 

Immediate Occasion of its Formation. Society of " The Brethren." The Memo 
rialists. Author of the Memorial. Samuel J. Mills. Gordon Hall. Influ 
ence of the Andover Seminary. Response of Leading Men in the Churches. 
Institution of the Board. Who first suggested the Idea. Remoter Influences. 
Mr. Judson s Visit to England, and its Result. State of the Times. Hall s 
Letters from Philadelphia. Mr. Rice. Ordination of the First Missionaries. 
Previous Misgivings of the Prudential Committee 39 

CHAPTER II. 
REMINISCENCES. 

Reference to Missionary Histories. Recollections at the Jubilee Meeting. Rev. 
John Keep s Recollections. Recollections of Rev. Samuel Nott. Recollec 
tions of Dr. Porter. Dr. Worcester s Retrospective Address 48 

CHAPTER III. 
THE CHARTER AND THE LEGISLATURE. 

Difficulties in obtaining a Charter. Occasion of them. The Petition. In the 
House of Representatives. Provisions of the Charter. Proposed Amendment 
and its Object. A Salem Shipmaster. Defense by Mr. Morris. The Bill 

(vii) 



Till CONTENTS. 

fails. Next Legislature. Charter voted by the House. Opposed in the Sen 
ate. Mr. White s Reply. Rejected. Claimed by the House. Disagreement 
in Conference. Passed in Senate, with Amendments. Amendments rejected 
by the House. Mr. Crowninshield. Charter granted. Spirit of the Times. 
Charter concurred in by Patrons. Its Value 6 

CHAPTER IV 
CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 

Object of the Board. Range of its Duties. Not a State Institution. At first 
Congregational. Proposal to the General Assembly. Assembly s Reasons for 
not forming a Separate Organization. The Board ceases to be Denominational. 

Becomes National. The Founders. Officers. Corresponding Members. 
Honorary Members. Number of Members. In each State. In Foreign Lands. 

Summary. Duties of Prudential Committee. Working Capacity of the 
Board. Wide Range of its Meetings. Attendance of Members-. Identity of 
its Meetings. Its Hold on the Affections of its Patrons 

CHAPTER V. 
RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 

Relations to Contributors and to Missionaries. To Ecclesiastical Bodies. By the 
Elements of its Existence. By Formal Recognitions. By Donations from 
Churches. - By Resolutions, and other Formal Acts of General Associations, 
Synods, and Assemblies. General Assembly in 1825 and 1831. General Synod 
of Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. Compact of 1832. How understood, 
and the Effect. Minute of Prudential Committee. Objections to the Plan. 
Letter to General Synod. Synod s Response, and subsequent Proposal. 3Iu- 
tual Conviction. The Compact dissolved. How the Connection with Mission 
aries was dissolved. Mutual Tokens of Respect. Western Foreign Missionary 
Society. Old School General Assembly s Board of Foreign Missions. The 
New School Presbyterians. Ecclesiastical Relations. A Second Statement. 
Embarrassment of Prudential Committee. Explanatory Resolve. The Board 
not an Ecclesiastical Body. - Has no Ecclesiastical Powers. No Effect on the 
Ecclesiastical Relations of its Missionaries. Scope for the two Bodies. The 
Board not a Voluntary Association. The Practical Working 86 

CHAPTER VI. 
EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 

The Character and Prosperity of Institutions affected by the Views of Founders 

first -Administrators. -Early Corporate Members of the Board. -From 

different Communities, States, and Professions. -Presidents of Colleges and Pro. 

fessors in Theological Seminaries. - Other eminent Ministers of the Gospel - 

Eminent Civilians 



CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER VII. 
MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 

The Earlier Meetings. Where held. In what Buildings. Attendance. North 
ampton, 1825. New York, 1827. The Lord s Supper. Boston, 1830. Phila 
delphia, 1841. The Meeting held under Excitement-of a Debt. Of Extraor 
dinary Interest and Influence. Treasurer s Statement. Mr. Hubbard s Speech. 

Mr. Greene s Speech. Session prolonged. Affecting Scene. The Roll 
called, and Members pledge themselves. The Assembly testifies its Sympathy. 

Special Meeting at New York, 1842. Results of the Pledges. Meeting at 
Norwich, 1842. Rochester, 1843. Dr. Chapin s Letter. Worcester, 1844. 
Brooklyn, 1845. First Vote by Yea and Nay. Other Cases. Boston, 1848. 
Mr. Greene s Letter. Pittsfield, 1849. Cincinnati, 1853. Attendance of Mem 
bers. Tendency westward. Hartford, 1854. Mr. Hill s Letter. Special Meet 
ing, 1856. Mr. Frelinghuy sen s Letter 126 

tf 

CHAPTER VIII. 
THE PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE PLACES OF BUSINESS. 

Members. Constitution of the Body. Growth of the Meetings. Attendance of 
Executive Officers. Manner of doing Business. Duties of the Committee. 
Place of Business, 1821. Pressure of Duties. Place of Business, 1822. New 
Laborers. Place of Business, 1826. Destroyed by Fire. Place of Business, 
1830. The Missionary House. Its Cost and Advantages 145 

CHAPTER IX. 
CORRESPONDENCE LIBRARY CABINET. 

Early and Later Correspondence. Postage. Manuscript Volumes. Copying of 
Letters. Advantage of this Practice. Freedom of the Correspondence. 
Responsibilities of the Secretaries. Instructions to Missionaries. Number of 
Secretaries. Library of the Board. Missionary Cabinet 151 

CHAPTER X. 
THE FINANCES. 

Obtaining Funds the greatest Difficulty . Means employed. Worth of an Exi 
gency . Striking Fact. Receipts in Periods of Four Years. In Periods of Ten 
Years. General Summary. Whence derived. Gradual Increase. Expendi 
ture in Periods of Four Years. Comparative View. The Expenditure almost 
necessarily Progressive. Influence of Faith on Missionary Confidence. On the 

2 



X CONTENTS. 

Cost of the Missions. Limitation necessary. Dissent of Missionaries. Duty 
and Powers of the Prudential Committee. Estimates and Appropriations. 
New Responsibilities. On the Cost of the several Agencies. Remittances. 
Investments. Permanent Funds. Indebtedness, and the Responsibility for it. 
Not prevented by Ruinous Reductions 158 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE AGENCIES. 

The Two Branches. Agents early in the Half-Century. Growth of System. 
Brookfield Auxiliary . Laws of Benevolent Giving. Productiveness of Agen 
cies. Organizing of Associations and Auxiliaries. A Model Collector. Causes 
of Decline in Associations. Missionaries as Agents. Action of the Board on 
Deputations to Auxiliary Meetings. General Agents. District Secretaries. 
Proper Sphere of Agencies. Cost of the Agents. Home Publications of the 
Board, and their Cost. Cost of the Two Branches of Agency K177 

CHAPTER XII. 
RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 

Massachusetts and the Charter. English Admiral in the War with England. The 
" Alligator." East India Company Charles Grant. Sir Evan Nepean and the 
Effective Appeal. Relations of American Missionaries to their own Govern 
ment. Not affected by the Nature of their Mission, nor by their Circumstances 
and Relations. Dispatch of Daniel Webster declaring the Equal Rights of Mis 
sionaries. Subsequent Declarations. Government of Holland. Netherlands 
India. French Government. Result as regards Supreme Governments, and as 
regards Local Governors, Embassadors, Consuls, and other Officials. Duty of 
Praying for Governments 195 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 

Dr. Worcester. Mr. Evarts. Dr. Cornelius. Dr. Wisner. Dr. Armstrong. . , 206 



CONTENTS. 



THE MISSIONS. 

CHAPTER I. 
THEIR CONSTITUTION AND ORIGIN. 

What constitutes a Mission. Stations and Outstations. Natives not Members of 
Missions. Relations of Missionaries to the Native Churches. Territorial Extent 
of Missions. The Missions conformed to the Habits of the American People. 
Their Responsibility. Origin of the Missions. Missions in India. Religious 
Destitution of India. Missions to Western Asia. Instructions to the first Mis 
sionaries. Growth of the Enterprise 225 

CHAPTER II. 
ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS, CONTINUED. 

Missions to the Islands of the Pacific. Missions to Africa. Missions to China. 
Missions to the North American Indians 234 

CHAPTER III. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONS THEIR LAWS OF GROWTH 
THEIR COMPLETION. 

Object of Missions to plant the Gospel Institutions. Apostolical and Modern 
Missions. Development in Preaching and Schools. Missions necessarily Pro 
gressive. Evidences of Progress. Progress essential to their Prosperity. 
Consequences of disregarding this Law. Early Preeminence given to Preaching. 
Schools and the Press. Subordinate Agencies falling into their Places. How 
the Work may be completed. An Unsettled Problem. Difficulties in Native 
Churches. Similar Difficulties in the Apostolic Churches. Allowance for Fail 
ings in Mission Churches. Hard to reach the Self-sustaining Point. Necessary 
Modifications. A Fixed Limit to the Ability of Missionary Societies. A Limit 
to the Number of Missionaries. The Native Agency should have Room for 
Growth. Too much required of Missions. A Mission may grow, and yet not 
increase its Cost to the Society. When the Work of a Mission is completed. . . 242 

CHAPTER IV. 
PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 

Communities that have been Christianized. SANDWICH ISLANDS. Missionaries 
and their Children. Solution of the Problem. Present Dangers. The Found 
ers and Fathers of the Mission to remain. CHEROKEES. The Mission discon- 



x ii CONTENTS. 

tinued. CHOCTAWS. Dr. Kingsbury s Testimony. Hindoranccs to Progress. 

The Missions successful. Discontinued. TusCARORAS. Long since Chris 
tianized. Why the Mission was not sooner discontinued. STATIONS. What is 
meant by a Christianized Station. Illustrations. Pastors of Station Churches. 

The Centralizing Policy, and its Effect on Village Stations. When it should 
be changed. Education for Native Preachers of the First Generation. Histori 
cal Catalogue of the Missions 253 

CHAPTER V. 
THE MISSIONARIES. 

The Missionary described. The Principle underlying his Engagement. Makes 
the First Advance. Appointment, Designation, and Support. Age, Constitu 
tion, Habits. Ordination. Marriage. The Number of Missionaries. Whence 
they came. Education. Length of Service. Protective Care of Providence. 
Missionary Physicians. Unmarried Females. Farmers and Mechanics. Sala 
ries. Disabled Missionaries. Children of Missionaries. Schools, Asylums, 
Permanent Funds. The Present System found to work well 270 

CHAPTER VI. 
THE CHURCHES. 

Relation of Missionaries to Native Churches and Pastors. Organization of Churches 
among the Armenians. In Syria. Among the Nestorians. Among the Mah- 
rattas. In the Arcot Mission. At Madras. In the Madura District. Corpo 
rate Powers of the Missions. Churches in Ceylon. Caste and Polygamy. 
Churches in the Sandwich Islands. Among the Cherokees. Among the Choc- 
taws. Slavery. Tabular view of the Churches 281 

CHAPTER VII. 
SCHOOLS. 

Schools in Early Stages of the Missions. COMMON SCHOOLS. Largest Numerical 
Development. Sandwich Islands. India Missions. Whole Number of Pupils. 

Value of the Schools. With Heathen Masters. With Christian Masters. 
China. North American Indians. Western Asia. General View. HIGHER 
SCHOOLS. India. Before and after the Introductory Stages. Tamil People. 
Batticotta Seminary. Oodooville Female School. Pasumalie Seminary. Ma 
dura Female School. English Language. Higher Vernacular Education. 
Schools for Small Boys. Schools at Ahmednuggur. At Bombay. The Amer 
ican Mission Institution. In Syria. Armenians. Nestorians. Choctaws and 
Cherokees. The Past and Present. Use of the English Language. General 
Results. The Board preeminently concerned in Education. The Oahu College. 



CONTENTS. Xiii 

Foreign Youth in this Country. School at Cornwall. Great Interest awak 
ened. The Disappointment. Discontinuance. Greek and Armenian Youth. 
Result.- Foreign Youth to be educated in their own Countries 304 

CHAPTER VIII. 
PREACHING AND THE PRESS. 

PREACHING. What the Preacher needs. What is meant by Preaching. Prerequi 
sites for Success. Gathering of Congregations. Their Nucleus a Church. 
Christian Congregations in the Madura Mission. Signs of Progress. The 
School and the Congregation. Successful Preaching. Street and Itinerant 
Preaching. Preaching Houses. Cost of Village Churches. Houses of Wor 
ship at the Sandwich Islands. Wise Suggestions on Church Building. THE 
PRESS. Number of Languages reduced to Writing. Cherokee Alphabet. 
Choctaw and Hawaiian Alphabets. Arabic Type Syriac Type. Number of 
Languages employed. Number of Printing Establishments. Amount of Print 
ing in the Missions 333 



CHAPTER I 
DEPUTATIONS. 



Visits to Missions necessary. Mr. Evarts to the Indian Missions, 1818. Dr. 
Worcester, 1821. Mr. Evarts, 1822 and 1824. Changes required by Experience. 
Mr. Greene, 1827, 1833, and 1842. Changes. Mr. Anderson to the Mediterra 
nean, 1828, 9. Messrs. Anderson and Hawes, 1843, 4. Results. Mr, Treat to 
the Cherokee and Choctaw Missions, 1847. Objects of the Visit. Christian Fel 
lowship. Mr. Treat to Cattaraugus, 1849, and to Dakotas and Ojibwas, 1854. Dr. 
Wood to Cherokee and Choctaw Missions, 1855. Messrs. Anderson and Thomp 
son to the India Missions, 1854, 5. Dr. Anderson to the Mediterranean, 1855. 
Proceedings in the India Missions.- Reports and Letters. Main Object of the 
Discussions. Course of the Deputation arraigned at Utica, 1855. Special Meet 
ing of the Board in Albany, 1856. Report of the Deputation. Case referred to 
a Special Committee. Correspondence with the Missionaries. Report of the 
Special Committee, and Resolutions of the Board. Resolutions of the Pruden 
tial Committee. Results of these Occurrences. , e 



CHAPTER X. 
LITERATURE OF THE BOARD AND OF ITS MISSIONS. 

Missionary Literature a Necessity. AT HOME. Sermons. Periodicals. Reports. 
Missionary Tracts. ABROAD. School Books. Versions of the Scriptures. 
Helps for understanding the Scriptures and then- Application. RESULTANT 
LITERATURE. Biographies. Exploring Tours. Works Historical, Descrip 
tive, and on the Results of Missionary Experience 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 
FIELD AND WORK AT THE CLOSE OF THE HALF-CENTURY. 

Fifty Years ago. The Field and Work at the Present Time. Knowledge of the 
World and its Inhabitants. Political Ascendency of Protestant Christianity. 
General Acknowledgment of Missions as a Duty. Extent of Missionary Organ 
izations. Success of Missions. Islands of the Pacific. Africa. West Indies. 
Eastern Asia. Madagascar. Tahiti. Sandwich Islands. Turkey. Nes- 
torians. India. Distribution of the Holy Scriptures. Estimated Pecuniary 
Value of the Missionary Enterprise. The existing Missions will fill the Earth 
by their Growth. The Call to the People of God 



APPENDIX. 

I. ACT OF INCORPORATION 405 

II. CORPORATE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD 408 

III. OFFICERS OF THE BOARD 411 

IV. CORPORATE MEMBERS DECEASED OR RESIGNED 412 

V. MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES SENT FORTH 

BY THE BOARD 414 

VI. REGULATIONS FOR THE EXPENDITURE OF THE MISSIONS. . . 433 
VII. LITERATURE OF THE BOARD AND ITS MISSIONS.. . 435 






THE JUBILEE MEETING. 



THE American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis 
sions completed its first half-century in the year 1860. As 
the Board had its origin in the State of Massachusetts, it was 
proper that the meeting commemorative of the event should 
be held in Boston. The people of the city and its extensive 
environs, connected with it by steam and horse cars, made pro 
vision for some two thousand guests ; and probably a yet 
greater number had their own arrangements with friends or 
at public houses, and very many came from their homes each 
morning, from the distance of ten and even twenty miles, 
returning by late evening trains. 

The names of ninety-five Corporate members, and nine 
hundred and seventy-four Honorary members, were entered 
by the Recording Secretary, though many who were present 
doubtless failed to report their names. The sessions were 
held in the Tremont Temple, commencing Tuesday, October 
2, at four o clock, P. M., and closing Friday noon, October 5. 

The Temple was full at every meeting, except perhaps the 
opening session, and on several occasions was densely crowded. 
The number present to listen to the President s Historical Dis 
course could hardly have been less than thirty-five hundred ; 
and nearly as many were again assembled on Friday morning 
at the closing meeting. 

The Annual Sermon was delivered on Tuesday evening, by 
Dr. Samuel W. Fisher, President of Hamilton College. His 

(i) 



2 THE JUBILEE MEETING. 

text was Isaiah xlv. 1-6, and xliii. 21. On Wednesday even 
ing, Dr. Mark Hopkins, the President of the Board, delivered 
the Semi-centennial Discourse, which forms an important 
portion of this volume. As the number of persons in attend 
ance was much greater than could be accommodated in the 
spacious Temple, Park-street Church was opened in the 
morning, afternoon and evening of Wednesday, and in the 
morning and evening of Thursday, as was also Winter-street 
Church on Wednesday evening, for meetings that were ad 
dressed by returned missionaries and others, and very numer 
ously attended. According to the custom of the Board, the 
sacrament of the Lord s Supper was observed on Thursday 
afternoon ; and it was necessary to occupy four churches, the 
communicants in attendance being probably not far from forty- 
five hundred. Prayer meetings were held on Wednesday and 
Thursday mornings, at a quarter past eight o clock, at Park- 
street Church ; and by returned missionaries and their friends 
in the vestry of Tremont Temple, These meetings were fully 
attended, and of deep interest. 

This annual meeting being specially commemorative, Thurs 
day morning was devoted to reminiscences. It was at this 
session the speeches were delivered, which are for the most 
part embodied in the second chapter of this work. At this 
time, also, Pastor Fische, from Paris, representing the French 
Evangelical Missionary Society, Dr. Warren, Secretary of the 
Baptist Missionary Union, and Chancellor Ferris, from the 
Board of Missions of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, 
severally addressed the Board, with assurances of cordial 
Christian sympathy and a spirit of cooperation in the great 
missionary work. The President of the Board responded, 
heartily reciprocating the salutations and Christian sympathies 
of each of these gentlemen. 

In consequence of the almost unexampled embarrassment 
of the times for the past year or two, the Board had com 
menced its fiftieth year with a debt of sixty-six thousand three 
hundred and seventy-four dollars ; and its necessary annual 
expenditure was about three hundred and sixty thousand dol 



THE JUBILEE MEETING. 3 

lars. To place it above all embarrassment at its Jubilee Meet 
ing, it was needful to aim at raising some four hundred and 
thirty thousand dollars during the year. Much gratitude 
and joy pervaded the meeting, that the receipts had been 
four hundred and twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and 
ninety-nine dollars and eight cents, being one thousand four 
hundred and sixty-six dollars and nineteen cents more than 
the united sum of the debt and the expenditure. This auspi 
cious result was owing to the spirit of uncommon liberality 
which God was pleased to give to the friends of the enterprise 
generally, but more especially to a well-planned effort for the 
removal of the debt, suggested by a mercantile friend in Bos 
ton. The plan was to raise sixty thousand dollars among 
merchants and others, by subscriptions of one thousand dol 
lars each. It was somewhat modified, but the result was 
secured by comparatively a small number of persons. Twenty 
thousand dollars were raised in Boston ; as much more in New 
York and Brooklyn ; and New England (out of Boston) 
responded with gratifying cordiality, Massachusetts and Con 
necticut each contributing more than ten thousand dollars. 

The subject of missionary expenditure not being well un 
derstood in the Christian community, the current impres 
sion being that the Prudential Committee might justly be held 
responsible for incurring a debt, whatever the amount of the 
receipts, a brief statement was made to the meeting, show 
ing that the Committee had but a limited responsibility for 
the late indebtedness. This gave rise to a protracted, earnest, 
and very profitable discussion. It was (as it is still) a topic 
for the times, and every body seemed interested. It had such 
an obvious bearing on the vital interests of the great cause, 
and also upon the personal duty of every Christian, that it did 
not perceptibly interfere with the spirituality of the meeting. 
In view of the unexpected and very grave national agitations 
which have since arisen, and of their depressing influence on 
the commercial and religious interests of the country, it was 
perhaps well that the main current of the meeting took this 
direction. That, and the disinthrallment of the treasury, may 
3 



4 THE JUBILEE MEETING. 

be thankfully regarded as a providential preparation for pass 
ing through the national judgments so soon to follow. The 
discussion did not reach its climax until the closing session 
on Friday morning, when the following resolution was pro 
posed, viz. : " That the Board express the hope that the Pru 
dential Committee will see their way clear to appropriate three 
hundred and seventy thousand dollars for the coming year ; 
and that the friends of the cause will aim to raise not less 
than four hundred thousand dollars, that sum being desirable 
for the proper growth and development of the missions." 

As soon as this resolution had been adopted by the Board, a 
wish was expressed that an opportunity might be given for 
the whole assembly to manifest their feelings. The President, 
therefore, requested those who desired to express concurrence 
with the sentiment of that resolution, to do so by rising. The 
whole great congregation rose at once ; one voice unexpectedly 
struck the note instantly many caught it and a multitude 
of voices, like the noise of many waters, sang the well-known 
verse, 

" Shall we, whose souls are lighted 
With wisdom from on high, 
Shall we to men benighted 

The lamp of life deny ? 
Salvation ! O, salvation ! 

The joyful sound proclaim, 
Till earth s remotest nation 
Has learned Messiah s name." 

* 

It was a scene long to be remembered. Many an eye filled 
with tears, and many a bosom swelled with emotion. 

The Committee and Executive Officers of the Board had con 
templated a different course of thought as likely to enter into 
the main business of the meeting, and proposed the following 
resolutions to the Board ; which were very cordially adopted, 
but with regret that there was no more time to discuss them. 
They have an historical importance. 

" Resolved, That in the history of this Board, at home and 
abroad, from the beginning hitherto, we gratefully recognize 
the good hand of our God upon us ; and especially on this 



THE JUBILEE MEETING. 5 

anniversary, we would remember, with humble thankfulness, 
all the way which the Lord our God has led us these fifty 
years. 

"1. We praise him for giving to the pioneers in this en 
terprise, on the one hand, such simplicity of faith, such ear 
nestness of purpose, such compassion for the lost, and such 
love to the Saviour ; and for giving to our fathers, on the. other 
hand, such a readiness to assume the new and unknown re 
sponsibilities which were so unexpectedly thrown upon them. 

" 2. We praise him for inclining so many of our sons and 
daughters, in all the years that are past, to go forth and preach 
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ; and 
for inspiring our churches to such a degree with the willing 
ness so to provide for their wants, as to leave them without 
carefulness in the prosecution of their work. 

" 3. We praise him for sparing so many of our missionaries, 
some of them far advanced in. life, to see this day ; and we 
praise him as well for those who are not, (for the Lord hath 
taken them,) because of the serene trust and the radiant hope 
with which they passed from their earthly tabernacle to a 
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

" 4. We praise him because, in these last days, the first and 
chief Missionary has gone forth, glorious in his apparel, and 
traveling in the greatness of his strength, that he may pre 
pare away for his people in all the earth, by turning backward 
the two-leaved gates, and breaking the scepters of the mighty, 
and so making hundreds of millions accessible to his own life- 
giving word. 

" 5. We praise him for other achievements of unspeakable 
value, in that he has set his seal upon missions, as the cheap 
est, readiest, and truest reforming and civilizing agency ; in 
that he has proved, beyond all contradiction, the perfect adap 
tation of his gospel to all classes of men, even the most de 
graded and the most depraved; in that he has rescued, 
through our instrumentality, tens of thousands from the 
ineffable woes of heathenism, and made them kings and priests 
unto God forever. 



THE JUBILEE MEETING. 

" 6. We praise him, above all, for doing so much for us, 
and so much by us, notwithstanding our grievous unbelief, 
our covetousness, our indifference to the worth of the soul, 
our neglect of prayer, our imperfect sympathy with Christ, 
and our disposition to exalt ourselves ; for all which we desire 
to humble ourselves, saying with one heart, 6 Lord, right 
eousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, 
as at this day. 

" Resolved, That we record it as the deliberate judgment 
of the Board, that the churches sustaining its operations are 
summoned to higher obligations and higher privileges. 

" 1. God has committed to our spiritual husbandry some of 
the largest and noblest fields in the world. 

"2. He has blessed our work to such a degree, that for us 
to remain stationary has become impossible, without a man 
ifest and perilous disregard of duty. 

" 3. Having the undoubted ability to do much more than 
we have yet done, it will be for our spiritual enlargement, and 
our comfort of hope, that we place ourselves at once in har 
mony with the merciful designs of our enthroned Immanuel. 

" 4. In that season of prosperity, more dangerous than ad 
versity, which is beginning to diffuse its cheerful light in all 
our borders, our best safeguard against worldliness and lux 
ury, the love of gain and the love of pleasure, will be a ready 
and hearty consecration, day by day, of our property, as well 
as of ourselves, to Christ s honored and chosen work. 

" 5. The honor of our ascended Lord imperatively requires 
that we go forward, seeing that he has opened the world so 
widely to his people, and placed in their hands such multi 
plied facilities for speedy and efficient action, and given them 
the silver and the gold for this very end, that now at length, 
when this nineteenth century is waning to its close, his people 
should go forth, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord 
in all the world." 

Thus ended the first Half-Century of the Board, and thus 
commenced the second. It was well remarked, at the close 
of the published minutes of the meeting, " If the impressions 



THE JUBILEE MEETING. 7 

produced during the meeting could be retained by all who 
were present, and if they would do all they might to extend 
such impressions among others, then, indeed, might the Pru 
dential Committee expect to be enabled to sustain the missions 
in a healthful and vigorous growth, and to carry forward the 
work which the Lord has so greatly prospered during the past 
fifty years, to results within another half-century, more glo 
rious, by far, than have ever yet been witnessed in connection 
with any missionary enterprise of the Christian church." 



DE. HOPKINS S 

SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 



"THERE SHALL BE A HANDFUL OF CORN IN THE EARTH UPON THE TOP OF 
THE MOUNTAINS } THE FRUIT THEREOF SHALL SHAKE LIKE LEBANON." 

Ps. Ixxii. 16. 

THERE are no contrasts like those of Christianity. The con 
trasts of nature are great, but nature is subordinate, and, like 
every subordinate system, is not only a condition of that which 
is higher, but serves for its illustration and prefigurement. 
The chief value and significance of nature are from its rela 
tion to a higher system of moral government. Great as are 
its contrasts, compared with those of Christianity, they are but 
as the shadow to the substance, but as the type to the thing 
typified. 

In nature we have contrasts of opposition, as between light 
and darkness, heat and cold, life and death. In Christianity 
the contrasts are not merely of elements that exclude each 
other, but of those that conflict, and with a struggle that is 
conscious and intense. They are between holiness and sin, 
love and hatred, heaven and hell. 

We have also, in nature, contrasts between beginnings and 
consummations. These are from growth and increase. Between 
the " little leaven " and the "whole lump;" between the "mus 
tard seed," which is,indeed, the least of all seeds, and the " tree," 
in the branches of which " the birds of the air come and lodge ; " 
between the "little fire " and the " great matter" it kindleth ; 
between the fountain and the river ; between the infant and the 
4 (ii) 



12 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

monarch ; between the " handful of corn in the earth " and 
" the fruit thereof," the contrast is great. Every thing that 
grows, all organization, however huge and ponderous it may 
become, has its beginning in a point, often too minute for our 
inspection. But in Christianity the contrast is not between the 
leaven and the lump ; it is between a single individual, on the 
one hand, without learning, or rank, or wealth, gathering 
around him his twelve disciples and teaching them ; and, on 
the other, a whole world in ignorance and moral death, that 
is to be enlightened, quickened, transformed, regenerated ; 
and, instead of being tossed by passion and turbid with sin, is 
to reflect over its whole surface the image of heaven. It is 
not between the mustard seed and the tree that reaches its 
limit and then decays, but between the " incorruptible seed " 
and a growth that shall know no end. It is not between the 
infant in his cradle and the general at the head of armies, or 
the monarch on his throne, but between the babe of Bethle 
hem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, and 
the leader of the armies of heaven, having on his head many 
crowns, and on his vesture and on his thigh a name written 
"King of kings and Lord of lords." It is between Him 
who stood at Pilate s bar, and Him who shall come in the 
clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with him, and be 
fore whom shall be gathered all nations. It is between the 
Man of sorrows, expiring upon the cross, and Him who shall 
sit upon the great white throne, and before whose face the 
earth and the heaven shall flee away. 

This contrast, which we thus find in the person of our Sa 
viour, and in the beginning of his religion compared with its 
consummation, has been reproduced in the history of every in 
dividual Christian and of every revival of religion, and in every 
great movement in which Christianity has begun to reassert 
its purity, or its claims to universal supremacy. It is in these 
contrasts that we find that method of God by which he shows 
continually that the " foolishness of God is wiser than men, 
and that the weakness of God is stronger than men ; " " that 
no flesh should glory in his presence." 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 13 

Tims it was in the Reformation. There was a poor boy sing 
ing from house to house for bread ; there was a solitary monk 
burdened with a sense of sin, and reading a chained Bible in 
his convent ; and in that boy, in that monk, in that Bible was 
the Reformation. There were great men then councilors, 
princes, emperors ; bishops, cardinals, popes ; but from them 
this light did not proceed. There were churches splendid with 
all that wealth could procure, magnificent cathedrals ; there 
was St. Peter s itself; but "it Was in an old wooden chapel, 
thirty feet long and twenty broad, whose walls, propped on all 
sides, were falling to ruin, that the Reformation was first 
preached." So, too, it was with that second and more complete 
reformation, when Puritanism had its rise in England, from 
which was English liberty ; and especially with that movement 
which led to the exodus of our fathers. There were a few 
students in the universities ; there were prohibited meetings for 
prayer in private houses of the humbler class ; there were 
poor, but zealous and faithful men in the prisons ; and there 
were the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock ; and now there is a 
continent upon either shore of which the tide of emigration is 
setting in, where the free elements are heaving and tossing like 
the ocean, and where there is, as nowhere else, freedom to 
worship God. 

So again, at a later period, four young men at the most 
celebrated English university formed a club. They were ridi 
culed as the Holy Club, and as Methodists. But persecution 
did its wonted work. Driven from the churches, they Reached 
in the open air ; and from them, in connection with the organ 
izing power of Wesley and the wonderful eloquence of White- 
field, there went forth a movement that shook England and 
this continent, and that must go on in circles still widening 
till the end of time. 

And what was the origin of modern Protestant missions ? 
It was from deep poverty abounding to the riches of liberality. 
" When the Moravians sent out their first missionaries, in 1732, 
their entire congregation did not exceed six hundred persons, 
and the greater part of these were suffering exiles. ; The 



14 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

world knew them not; but they established numerous mis 
sions, and were doing God s work as no other people were. 

How, too, did the great movement in England, sixty years 
afterward, originate? It was from no university, from no 
established church, from no distinguished man. It was in the 
mind of a shoemaker, the honored Carey. For years the idea 
was within him, as a fire shut up in his bones. When he ven 
tured to speak of it he was regarded as infatuated ; his breth 
ren called him an enthusiast ; and when they were won over, 
and the work was begun, literature and wit, in the person of 
Sydney Smith, ridiculed the " cobbler," and scoffed at the un 
dertaking. 

Of this great principle, or method of contrast, which we thus 
find every where, both in nature and in Christianity, we have, 
in the history of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, whose fiftieth anniversary we now celebrate, 
a striking illustration ; and this we recognize, and accept, and 
rejoice in, as an evidence that the movement was of God. 

And not merely from the analogies of the past, do we, in 
this connection, find evidence of the divine origin of this work. 
Whenever small beginnings increase to great magnitude, or 
great results flow from causes and means apparently inade 
quate, there must be previous conditions, and concurrent 
agencies, which no power of man could arrange or control. 
The little leaven will not leaven a lump of clay. Falling at 
another time or place, the spark that has fired a train and 
blown tfp a fortress would have simply expired. There must 
be adaptation, congruity, proclivity, a meeting of some great 
want, a falling in with concealed tendencies, a special divine 
power ; and if, as in this case, the results be such as only a 
divine power could or would produce, we must refer them to 
that. Historically our thoughts follow the order of visible 
causes, but without conditions and agencies far above these, 
they are of little account. Hence the chief agents in such 
movements are often quite as much astonished as others at the 
prospects which the winding and widening river of God s 
providence opens up, and at the results accomplished. Nei- 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 15 

ther Luther, nor Wesley, nor Mills anticipated, at the begin 
ning, what the end would be. Said Whitefield, in entering 
upon his work, " I have thrown myself blindfold, and I trust 
without reserve, into His almighty hands." 

Like the movements of which I have now spoken, this for 
foreign missions had its origin with young men. A boy over 
heard his mother say, that she had devoted him to the service 
of God as a missionary. Here, so far as we can trace it, we 
find the fountain head of this broad river. When this boy 
was converted, his thoughts were immediately turned toward 
missions. He entered college, and in connection with the 
study of the geography of Asia, the idea of a mission to that 
continent was suggested and revolved. At a stated prayer 
meeting, held at hours when most students are either engaged 
in sport or are doing nothing, this idea was presented. Driv 
en by an approaching thunder-storm from the grove where 
the meeting had usually been held, they took shelter behind 
a neighboring haystack, and there, in the language of one 
who was present, " Mills proposed to send the gospel to that 
dark and heathen land, and said we could do it if we would." 
The subject was then discussed, and as the storm was pass 
ing away, Mills said, " Come, let us make it a subject of 
prayer under this haystack, while the dark clouds are going 
and the clear sky is coming." So they prayed, and continued 
to pray and consult together through that and the following 
season. Then a society was formed, the object of which was, 
in the language of its constitution, " to effect, in the person of 
its members, a mission to the heathen." This was the first 
foreign missionary society on this continent. A similar society 
was soon formed at Andover, by Mills and those who went with 
him, and from that the proposition was made that resulted in 
the formation of the American Board. 

What a contrast is here ! On the one side is that vast con 
tinent, the cradle of the race, and of Christianity, with its 
myriads of people, now seen, not in the purple light of the 
imagination, as the Orient filled with palaces and pageants ; 
nor with the eye of traffic, as the land of spices and of gems ; 



16 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE, 

but as the abode of a perverted Christianity, of intrenched 
paganism, of darkness, and cruelty, and degradation; as a 
land where missionaries would be murdered, and fortresses 
could be stormed only by those who should lead a forlorn hope. 
On the other side are five young men, from the two lower 
classes in an infant college, in a place so secluded that no mail 
from any one direction reaches it oftener than once a week, and 
with an ocean and a continent intervening. They are seated 
by a haystack. Dark clouds are above them ; but they heed 
not these, nor the quick flash of the lightning, nor the thun 
der echoing among the mountains. They are speaking of " the 
moral darkness of Asia ; " they propose to send the gospel 
thither ; they say they can do it ; they kneel together in prayer ; 
and as they pray, the heavens grow brighter, and the dark 
clouds roll away. 

Here was "the handful of corn among the mountains." It 
fell in a soil prepared. What, now, has been its fruit ? The 
American Board, devised by Drs. Spring and Worcester, was 
formed. At its first meeting but five persons were present, 
and at its second but seven. Its receipts, the first year, were 
but a thousand dollars. Now its meetings are like the going 
up of the tribes to Jerusalem ; and its annual receipts are three 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Then it had no missions, 
and it was not known that any heathen country would be open 
to them. Now its mission stations belt the globe, so that the 
sun does not set upon them, and the whole world is open. It 
has collected and disbursed, with no loss from defalcation, and 
no suspicion of dishonesty, more than eight millions of dol 
lars. It has sent out four hundred and fifteen ordained mis 
sionaries, and eight hundred and forty-three not ordained ; in 
all, twelve hundred and fifty-eight. These have established 
thirty-nine distinct missions, of which twenty-two now remain 
in connection with the Board; with two hundred and sixty- 
nine stations and out-stations, employing four hundred and 
fifty-eight native helpers, preachers, and pastors, not including 
teachers. They have formed one hundred and forty-nine 
churches, have gathered at least fifty-five thousand church 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 17 

members, of whom more than twenty thousand are now in 
connection with its churches. It has under its care three 
hundred and sixty-nine seminaries and schools, and in them 
more than ten thousand children. It has printed more than 
a thousand millions of pages, in forty different languages. It 
has reduced eighteen languages to writing, thus forming the 
germs of a new literature. It has raised a nation from the 
lowest forms of heathenism to a Christian civilization, so that 
a larger proportion of its people can read than in New Eng 
land. It has done more to extend and to diffuse in this land 
a knowledge of different countries and people, than any or all 
other agencies, and the reaction upon the churches of this 
foreign work has been invaluable. 

But what has been done by this Board is not to be estimated 
by the results already realized. This is the smallest part. 
Foundations are laid ; experience is gained ; materials are 
gathered ; the leaven is deposited and at work ; fires are set. 

Nor do we find the fruit of that same handful of corn only 
in what has been done directly by this Board. On reaching 
India, Judson and Rice, two of its first missionaries, became 
Baptists. This fact made a powerful appeal to the Baptist 
churches. Mr. Rice, from the class in college next after that 
of Mills, returned immediately, and expressly for the purpose 
of stirring up those churches. He went through the land 
with great zeal and success, and thus the Burman mission, 
which has been so remarkably prospered, as well as the other 
Baptist missions, sprung from this seed. 

In 1811 " the Secretary, in behalf of the Board, suggested 
to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church the ex 
pediency of forming an institution similar to theirs, between 
which and theirs there might be such cooperation as should 
promote the great object of missions among the unevangelized 
nations. The Assembly, however, while they urged the 
churches under their care to aid in the good work, thought 
the business of foreign missions might probably be best man 
aged under a single Board ; and thus the undivided Presby 
terian church, so long as it was undivided, cooperated with 



18 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOUKSE. 

this Board. This union continued till 1837, when the Old 
School Presbyterians withdrew, and established foreign mis 
sions of their own, now extensive and flourishing. 

In apostolic times, Paul and Barnabas had a contention and 
separated. In 1846, owing to a difference of views respecting 
the best method of dealing with slavery, numbers ceased to 
cooperate with the American Board, and the American Mis 
sionary Association was formed. This has prosecuted, with 
success, the work both of foreign and domestic missions. 

Finally, in 1857, our beloved Dutch brethren, under the 
impression that they might thus work more effectively, formed 
a separate Board, and have now their own missions. 

Thus are there now five Boards, through which the great 
mass of missionary feeling and effort on this continent finds 
expression ; and while we joyfully recognize what is done by 
others, it must yet be said that they are the direct fruit of the 
handful of corn that was on the top of the mountains. All 
have conscientious and devoted laborers in the field, and self- 
denying and prayerful supporters at home. All recognize the 
authority of the last command of Christ, and the brotherhood 
of the race in him. Thus do they find enlargement of intel 
lect and of sympathy, and must, we should suppose, be led, 
more and more, so to work in harmony, that their good shall 
not be evil spoken of. 

Nor has the work of enlargement been confined to this con 
tinent. Through a generous appreciation of our missionaries 
and their work, and with a spirit of magnanimity and Christian 
liberality worthy of England and of this age, the Turkish Mis 
sions Aid Society was formed in 1854, and in the freest and 
most cordial manner has cooperated with this Board. 

Is there any where a more striking illustration of the great 
principle of contrast adopted by God ? Does not the fru^; 
thereof shake like Lebanon ? Come, thou wind, thou strong 
west wind, from the great sea, sweep up the sides of Lebanon, 
enter into his thickets, lay hold on the boughs of his cedars. 
Ah, how do the forests bend, and the thickets roar, and the 
cedars shake ! But what is all this, thou mighty Lebanon, to 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 19 

the shaking that now is, and that shall be, of that fruit among 
the nations that has sprung, and that shall spring, from the 
handful of corn that was in the earth upon the top of the 
mountains ! What is it to that upon thine own sides, where 
the feet of him that brought glad tidings have been beautiful, 
and where thy children are now fed by Christian bounty, 
when they have fled and gathered to the house of the mis 
sionary as a refuge from death ! 

Having thus seen what has been done, we next look at some 
features of the work, and inquire how it has been done. 

And here we must notice the two great elements from which 
this movement originated, and which have pervaded and 
molded the whole policy of this Board. 

The first is, a transcendent estimate of what belongs to 
Christianity in its relation to a future life ; that is, of essential 
and spiritual Christianity, as compared with modes and forms, 
and all that in which evangelical Christians have agreed to 
differ. 

The second is, a transcendent estimate of the cross of Christ 
as a reformatory power, as compared with any educating, or 
civilizing, or reforming process, aside from that. 

In virtue of the first, our aim has .been simple, spiritual, 
grand ; and we have been guarded, as fully, perhaps, as such 
an enterprise can be, from sectarianism and ecclesiasticisin. 
In virtue of the second, our means have been simple and spir 
itual, and we have been guarded from much complication with 
secular schemes and side projects of partial reform. 

In accordance with the first of these elements, I observe, as 
a first feature of the work, that what has been done by this 
Board has been done by honoring Christianity, and seeking to 
send that, without any denominational or sectarian object. 

, In every established religion, the grounds of interest and 
activity on the part of those who adhere to it, or seek to pro 
mote it, are of three kinds. 

The first are those that are personal and temporal, often 
involving pecuniary interests, as well as those of position, and 
rank, and power. These are always strongest with ecclesias- 
5 



20 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

tics and hierarchs, and with any whose "craft" is to be fur 
thered, or is in danger. 

A second ground is found in things which are unessential, 
but which may, or may not, be denominational. Often, per 
haps generally, these are magnified and clung to in proportion 
as they are distinctive, and so, unimportant. They include, 
sometimes, doctrines, but chiefly forms of government and 
modes of administration. It is here that sincere but weak 
and undiscriminating minds fall into bigotry, and superstition, 
and formalism. 

It is from a combination of this with the preceding, of the 
Phariseeism, the Brahminism, the Ecclesiasticism of all ages, 
with popular credulity and superstition, that the most active 
and malignant opposition has always arisen when error has 
been attacked. From these it will arise ; and its force will be 
the greater as the error is more incorporated into the business, 
the amusements, the life of a community. As opposed to 
evangelical religion, Sadduceeism will fall in, Herod and 
Pilate will be made friends. But infidelity is a Gallic. It 
does not care enough for these things to build inquisitions ; it 
does not think it is doing God service. 

A third ground of interest is in a rational comprehension 
and estimate of the essential elements of the Christian reli 
gion. If Christianity has the power to transform, elevate, and 
save men, it is to be valued for precisely those elements which 
give it that power ; and the purity of efforts to promote it 
will be as the respect paid to those elements. It is only in 
the apprehension of these, and in acting from them and for 
them, that we can have simplicity of aim and of method ; can 
exclude the possibility of fanaticism and malignity ; and can 
hope for union, or for great success. 

What, then, are these elements ? They include those which 
relate to the interests of another life to salvation from sin 
and its consequences. It was for these that Christ came ; it 
is for these that we send his gospel to the heathen. They 
include those great but simple requisitions of Christianity, 
which lie between its system of doctrines on the one hand, 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 21 

and its temporal results and outward forms on the other. Its 
system involves the whole sweep of God s moral government, 
and the highest questions that can arise under that govern 
ment. Its results are as multifarious and complex as human 
life. They involve whatever pertains to the highest forms of 
domestic and social life, and to the most perfect civilization. 
In the system there are depths that the angels desire to look 
into, and that eternity may not suffice to fathom. Its results 
are like the outgoings of the morning an outburst of be 
neficence that no human sagacity can follow out fully in its 
details. But while the system is so unfathomable, and the 
results so complex, the requisitions that lie between them are 
of marvelous simplicity ; so that between these and the results 
that hinge upon them, there is the same great contrast of 
which we have already spoken. 

These requisitions may all be comprised in the one word 
faith. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." " Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom." " To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise." 
It is only to feel the need of Christ, to look, and to trust. 
It is as when one plants a seed. It matters not that he does 
not comprehend the great system of nature, the whole of 
which is required for the growth of that seed ; or the processes 
of its growth ; or that he does not know of the waving har 
vests that may spring from it in future years. He performs 
an act of simple, I may say of sublime, faith in the system of 
nature, and God does the rest. " God giveth the increase." 
So he, be he child or philosopher, be he Greek or Jew, who 
simply trusts in Christ as a Saviour from sin, and so, as he 
must, becomes conformed unto him, plants the seed, and opens 
the way for the sunshine and the rain, for the processes, and 
growth, and results of that higher system of redemption for 
which the system of nature stands. Than this act nothing 
can be simpler. A child can do it ; the heathen can do it. 
It is but the acceptance of a gift. " Thanks be to God for his 
unspeakable gift." 

And as Christianity is thus simple in its requisitions when 



22 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

it is to be received by the individual, calling for dependence 
on Christ, so is it when it is to be communicated to others, 
calling for dependence on the Holy Ghost ; and the simplicity 
in the one case arises from that in the other. The simplicity 
of that faith in Christ, and in him crucified, which was ".fool 
ishness to the Greek," finds its counterpart in that " foolish 
ness of preaching " by which it has " pleased God to save them 
that believe." Preaching, believing, salvation ! this is all ; 
and how do they correspond ! Here is a gift, make it known ; 
an offer of liberty, proclaim it ; a fountain opened, stand by it 
and cry, " Ho, every one that thirsteth ; " and he that believes 
will take the gift, and come out of his prison house, and drink 
of the living waters. So only could a spiritual religion be 
propagated. 

So did the apostles and primitive Christians. Were there 
divisions among them ? Inspiration condemned them. Did 
any say, " I am of Paul ? " The apostle asked at once, " Who 
is Paul? " They were sent, and they sought simply to turn 
men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
God, that they might what? Belong to a sect? No; but 
" receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them 
which are sanctified by faith that is in Him." In declaring 
that he " kept back nothing that was profitable," the apostle 
simply says that he " testified both to the Jews, and also to the 
Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord 
Jesus Christ." 

When therefore the spirit of missions, which is that of CUris- 
tianity, vas revived, it is not strange that a desire was imme 
diately felt to leave behind, in the onset upon heathendom, all 
minor questions which had divided Christians. Accordingly, 
in 1795, but three years after the formation of {he British 
Baptist Society, the London Missionary Society, in which all 
evangelical denominations were united, was formed. In its 
original constitution there is an article in which " it is declared 
to be a fundamental principle of the Missionary Society that 
our design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Epis 
copacy, or any other form of church order and government, 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 23 

(about which there may be a difference of opinion among seri 
ous people,) but the glorious Gospel of the blessed God to 
the heathen ; and it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the 
minds of the persons whom God may call into the fellowship 
of his Son from among them, to assume for themselves such 
form of church government as to them shall appear most 
agreeable to the word of God." 

The adoption of this principle drew the hearts of Christians 
together wonderfully. We are told that " the visible union of 
Christians of all denominations, who, for the first time, forget 
ting their party prejudices and partialities, assembled in the same 
place, sang the same hymns, united in the same prayers, and 
felt themselves one in Christ, rendered their meetings inex 
pressibly delightful ; " also that the " unanimity and fervor 
of the assembly in entering upon this greatest of all schemes 
the evangelizing of the world created bursts of joy which 
nothing could express but tears." Blessed meetings ! Blessed 
upheaval of great truths, where, as upon a high table land, 
Christians could walk and work together, and look down upon 
their differences, and claim the same promises, and with the 
eye of faith sweep the horizon of the whole world as their 
common field, and feel how much more there is that unites 
than there is that divides them. Such meetings, fathers and 
brethren, we .have held ; and there was in them a millennial 
aspect and atmosphere that could not have been without such 
union. In this, most of all, do we miss the brethren who have 
left us. Why should not we at home be united as the mission 
aries often are, and must be, on the foreign field ? " We," 
says one of them, " are all one here ; we can not afford to be 
jealous the common foe is too strong ; and the missionaries 
are bound together neither by creeds nor human ties, but by 
the fear of God and the love of Jesus." Were Christians thus 
united in sending and planting the gospel, the church the 
church, in distinction from a church would be carrying on 
the work of foreign missions. 

If, indeed, there be any denomination that so claims to be 
exclusively the true church, that they think others are not com- 



24 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

petent to administer, or fitted to receive, all the ordinances of 
the church, that denomination must, so far as they thus think, 
work by itself. But I am unable to frame a definition of the 
church, that would meet the wants of those who accept others 
as Christians in full standing, as equally with themselves mem 
bers of the one church of Christ, and yet insist on denomina 
tional action on the ground that it is the duty of the church, 
as such, to carry on missions. In the present state of the 
churches, denominational action may be more efficient, and so, 
expedient. Possibly it may be so from other causes, some 
" present distress," as Paul said of single life, but I can not 
believe it to be God s permanent method. No ; as surely as I 
expect to see the sun advance in the heavens, do I expect that 
the hearts of Christians will be more and more drawn together 
in love, and that the principle of cooperation will, in some 
form, be more and more honored. We may not live to see it ; 
present indications there are, not auspicious ; the spring may 
seem to go back ; but we have seen the first violet, we have 
heard the note of the first bird, and it will come. "We may 
die in the wilderness, but it will come. " Swift fly the years, 
and rise the expected morn ! " 

On this great principle the American Board has always acted. 
What we have done here we have done simply as Christians, 
and we thank God for the privilege. It has been good for us 
thus to do it. And what we have thus done, may God give 
us grace always to do. 

This feature of cooperation and of un sectarianism has been 
the more dwelt upon because it involves so fully the first great 
molding element mentioned above. Having faith in God as 
the ground of our confidence, and love to Christ and sympa 
thy with him in saving men from their sins as our motive, our 
method is to send no, not to send, but to give the means of 
going to^nen qualified and authorized, and whom we believe 
the Holy Ghost sends, and to leave to them the largest dis 
cretion compatible with a faithful administration of the means 
intrusted to us. We say to them, So make known the truth 
as to bring men into a filial relation to God, and we are 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 25 

content to leave minor questions to the good sense of those on 
the ground, guided by the Scriptures and the Spirit of God. 

A second feature of the work, accordant with the- above, if 
not a necessary part of it, is the entire separation of the mis 
sionary work from any ecclesiastical organization or machinery. 

This has lifted up, practically, a catholic standard ; has con 
secrated the work in the hearts of Christians as one free from 
sectarian feeling and strife ; and has led to united and special 
prayer. It has also left the missionaries free from outward 
ecclesiastical pressure, to take their own time and way in giv 
ing form to the new Christian communities which they have 
gathered from the heathen. They have been left as were the 
primitive missionaries, and this has often led to the precise 
reproduction of no one of our forms. When called upon to 
give their churches a name according to our shibboleths, the 
missionaries have declined, and have called them "apostolical." 
They are so. They were founded as were the apostolical 
churches, and going with the Scriptures instead of inspiration, 
the missionaries hold much the same relation to those churches 
that the apostles and evangelists did to the churches founded 
by them. They found churches ; they decide in the first instance, 
and afterward with those churches, who may unite with them ; 
they ordain elders, bishops, pastors ; and pass on to other re 
gions. In all this they act as ministers of Christ, amenable 
to the Board only as it furnishes their support, and because, 
having confidence in them, it does thus furnish it that they 
may labor for Christ. How could the missionary be more 
independent ? We say to him, he having it in his heart, and 
offering to go, We have confidence in you, brother. Take 
the lamp of life, ask counsel if you need it, but find your own 
way in the darkness, and we will send you oil. 

A third feature of our work, in the same line and spirit, is, 
that each mission is a self-governing body. 

In this our missions differ from the European ; but it is in 
accordance with the spirit of our institutions, and general 
habits of thought and action, both civil and religious. It is 
also said in the Scriptures, that " the spirits of the prophets 



26 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

are subject to the prophets." This makes each mission a de 
pository of experience of great value, and forms a permanent, 
practical, working body, into which succeeding missionaries 
are received, and to which they naturally conform. It thus 
operates as a check upon inexperience and one-sidedness, and 
those excessive developments of individuality which never fail 
to appear where motives are stimulating and complex, and 
numbers are working independently for the accomplishment 
of a great and many-sided end. 

A fourth feature of the work is directly from our estimate 
of the cross of Christ, and the power of that, as already 
mentioned. 

The power is in the cross. Nothing but the mingled holi 
ness and mercy revealed in that can quicken and regenerate 
the world. Holiness seen in God shows man the necessity 
of it to himself, and mercy renders its attainment possible. 
Forgiveness ! Ultimate likeness to God ! Let the hope of 
these dawn on the soul, and there is a spring of spiritual 
activity that will work toward its end, and in accomplishing 
that, will accomplish all else that we desire. The greater 
includes the less. Life started at the heart will work outward. 
Hence we make the cross of Christ the center, and value and 
use all else as related to that. 

But can we thus reach and quicken the religious nature of 
the heathen ? Yes, just as of others. The vital air is the 
same to them as to us ; and so, when accompanied by the Spirit 
of God, are the truths revealed in the cross. He who opened 
the heart of Lydia can open every benighted heart, and our 
great hope is that he will. Hence, the conversion of men 
being our object, and the Spirit of God the agent, the presen 
tation of spiritual truth and prayer must be our chief instru 
mentalities. 

This is the spiritual side of missions ; from it is their life ; 
but with this many have no sympathy. Denying, either theo 
retically or practically, the efficacy of prayer, the reality of 
spiritual influence, and the necessity of conversion, both means 
and end seem to them foolishness. They either contemn the 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 27 

whole process and results, or, in a more dignified way, regard 
the missionaries and their supporters as well-meaning people, 
who do good on the whole ; or, appreciating candidly the out 
ward changes wrought, they fail to connect them with their 
true cause. 

These persons we are " not careful to answer." If we 
choose, we may say to them as philosophers, that we regard 
human destiny as turning upon character ; that great trans 
formations of character have been known only from the truth 
as it is in Jesus ; and that character being right, all desirable 
results of political economy and social order, and a high, pure, 
and permanent civilization, will follow. Or, historically, we 
may point them to the Sandwich Islands ; or to the Zulus in 
Africa ; or to unimpeachable testimony, both English and 
American, that our " devoted and spiritual missionaries have 
done more within the last twenty-five years for the enlighten 
ment and liberty of the Turkish Empire, than all other agen 
cies for the last fifty years ;" and we might challenge them to 
show similar results from other causes. But we walk \>j faith. 
It is enough for us that the Master has said, " Go preach my 
gospel." That we have done this in its primitive simplicity 
and power, we do not claim. There has been some diversity 
of views. In the different missions the general spirit and ten 
dencies may have been somewhat different. But this has been 
our general aim. Experience has confirmed its wisdom, and 
has led and is leading us to feel more and more, that here, 
in distinction from all direct efforts at general enlightenment 
and civilization, our great strength lies. 

But leaving other features of the work, we turn to the 
agencies the human agencies employed, and their relation 
to each other. These are the Missionaries, and the Mission 
ary Board. 

Of these, the Missionaries were first. This was no scheme 
of men seeking agents to accomplish their own ends. The 
missionaries were ready and importunate to go, and the Board 
was formed simply as a means of sending them. From the 
first, missionaries have been sent only as they have offered 
6 



28 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

themselves, and (with the single exception of some delay in 
the crisis of 1837) every one thus offering, and regarded as 
duly qualified, has been sent. 

It is these missionaries who have done the work. All that 
has been done has been done by and through them. Quick 
ened by the spirit of apostolic times, which has begun to 
reappear in our day, obeying the command of the Saviour, 
" Go ye," and sustained by his promise, " Lo, I am with you," 
they have not hesitated to take the one simple gospel and 
apply it alike to a hideous Cannibalism, to a polished Brah- 
minism,to an Atheistic Buddhism, to an intolerant Mohamme 
danism, to a besotted Fetishism, and .to a paganized Chris 
tianity ; and, as blindness and deafness and leprosy, palsy and 
fever and demoniacal possession, yielded at the touch of the 
Great Physician, so has every form of moral evil given way 
before his one great remedy for the deeper maladies of man. 

In thus carrying the gospel, the missionaries have exhib 
ited the highest type of heroism, which is self-sacrifice for the 
highest object ; while they have yet fallen so far short of 
Christ that there is no danger of hero-worship. Eternity alone 
will reveal the self-sacrifice there has been, in partings from 
iriends and country ; in exposures from climate ; in priva 
tions ; in standing as representatives of a foreign and antag 
onist system, avowing its purpose, not only, as here, to destroy 
all cherished wickedness of the heart, but to overthrow those 
external forms of religion around which the most sacred asso 
ciations cluster ; in the yearnings and long patience required 
by stolidity, by deception seemingly bottomless, by malignity ; 
in those sunderings of affection when loved ones have died in 
a foreign land, and when the Christian mother, compelled to 
send her children from her, has turned from the shore, and 
with streaming eyes has said, " I do this for thee, Jesus." 

For our missionaries thus devoting themselves, we claim no 
exemption from the common weaknesses and infirmities of 
men. In them, as in others, there have sometimes been 
strange blendings of the good and the evil ; but, looking over 
the whole ground, this Board has special occasion for thank- 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 29 

fulness iii view of a body of missionaries so competent and 
efficient. I deem it no presumption to say, that in qualifica 
tions for such a work some of them have not been exceeded 
since apostolic times. This has been owing partly to the high 
qualifications demanded of candidates, and partly to the 
responsibility thrown upon them* 

For a missionary, the two essential qualifications are, conse 
cration and common sense. Consecration comes from piety 
directed into the missionary channel ; but common sense, 
though generally supposed to be the gift of Nature, is yet her 
gift only in connection with the repeated and vigorous exercise 
of the faculties in the spheres where it is to be used, and no 
power is more capable of improvement. Let, then, the mis 
sionary be required, as he often has been, to provide a written 
language, implements, dwellings, institutions ; to advance an 
imperfect, or to renovate an effete civilization, being thus 
brought into practical contact with life and man at every vital 
point ; and whatever there is in him of a capacity for common 
sense will be drawn out, and the more fully the more the 
responsibility is laid upon him. 

So have the men been formed, who, after the period of 
nearly a generation, have returned, and have surprised and 
delighted the churches by their tact, and broad experience, and 
thrilling eloquence, and ripe wisdom. So, as far as they have 
been tested, has it come to pass that the high encomium passed 
by the Earl of Shaftesbury upon one of our missions is not less 
applicable to others. This encomium, from the position and 
relations of its author, demands a place here. " I do not 
believe," says he, " that in the whole history of missions, I do 
not believe that in the history of diplomacy, or in the history 
of any negotiations carried on between man and man, we can 
find any thing to equal the wisdom, the soundness, and the 
pure evangelical truth of the body of men who constitute the 
American Mission. I have said it twenty times before, and 1 
will say it again, for the expression appropriately conveys 
my meaning, that they are a marvelous combination of com 
mon sense and piety. . . . There they stand, tested by years, 



30 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

tried by their works, and exemplified by their fruits ; and 1 
believe it will be found that these American missionaries have 
done more toward upholding the truth and spreading the 
gospel of Christ in the East than any other body of men in 
this or any other age." 

From the missionaries we {urn to the Board. Of this the 
true conception is, that it is simply an instrumentality to, 
enable Christians who can not go themselves, to fulfill by proxy 
the last command of the Saviour. When it does this in the 
best way, it answers its end ; when it fails to do this, or does 
any thing aside from this, it does not answer its end. With 
every Christian the question is, or ought to be, How, soonest 
and best, may the gospel be preached to every creature ? And, 
except as accomplishing this, instrumentalities and Boards are 
nothing. It does not appear that there were Boards of any 
kind in the primitive church, or that Christianity was origi 
nally propagated by any kind of associated action, whether of 
a church, or churches, or the church. The command to preach 
the gospel was not to churches as such, but to individuals. 
Sent by the Holy Ghost, as were Barnabas and Saul, scattered 
by persecution, they " went every where preaching the word ; " 
but there was no central body with annual meetings to direct 
them, and to which they were required to report. It does not 
even appear that there was any general contribution for the 
spread of the gospel, the only one mentioned having been for 
the poor saints at Jerusalem. The method was that of indi 
vidual action, with occasional consultations, as circumstances 
required. And this was the true method. It was this that 
was in the mind of Mills when he said he wished we could 
" break forth upon the heathen like the Irish rebellion, forty 
thousand strong." There is no good reason why Christian men, 
merchants, farmers, artisans, men of property, and men with 
out it, should not go into heathen lands, and establish them 
selves there for the purpose of spreading Christianity, just as 
men go to California or Pike s Peak to get gold. A move 
ment like this, spontaneous, irrepressible, requiring no agents 
and no Boards, would speedily do the work. 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 31 

But if Boards are not required in the New Testament, nei 
ther are they forbidden. If, for the present, an intermediate 
instrumentality must be had, and Boards are the best, let us 
use them, only having them so constituted that they will be 
the most effective. This, this only, do we wish for this Amer 
ican Board. It is the pioneer and parent Board ; and for the 
work it has had to do, and has done, perhaps it could not have 
been better constituted. That that work has been free from 
mistakes we do not claim ; but we do claim that God has set 
his seal upon it as his ; and we believe that it will stand in the 
past as a granite hight, looming up more and more as the dis 
tance becomes greater. 

But while fifty years have but Lightened our respect for 
that wisdom by whicli this Board was founded, have they not 
wrought silent changes in public sentiment, requiring in it some 
modification ? If so, let it be modified. Let us have no con 
servatism for its own sake. When change becomes necessary 
to accomplish the original end of an institution, then change 
is conservatism. We now stand upon a hight where it be- 
, comes us to use every light of Scripture, and reason, and expe 
rience, and to be flexible to every indication of the will of God 
in regard to the future. Now is the time to cast off hinder- 
ances, and lay aside weights, and gird ourselves anew. We 
wish an organization that shall be the most efficient abroad, 
and work without* friction at home. That we can not have till 
men shall be perfect. But while we would feel, economy and 
efficiency being secured, that the question of organization is 
wholly secondary, so the water of life be only carried, it 
matters little how, we would yet have, and feel that we have, 
the best that is practicable. We wish the churches to feel this, 
and would welcome I think I may speak for the members 
of this Board in this would welcome suggestions to this end. 
So would we work on in this imperfect way of organizations, 
till the Lightened zeal and swelling bounty of Christians shall 
rise and overflow all channels of Boards, and swamp all ma 
chinery, and sweep on as a mighty tidal wave, bearing salva 
tion around the globe. 



32 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

Thus have I sought to meet the appointment of this Board, 
in commemorating this work of God, its features, and its in 
struments. 

The great lessons to us of the text, and of the retrospect, 
are two. 

The first that, it may be, specially needed now is one of 
humility. " Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to 
the hole of the pit whence ye are digged." Our beginning, 
so feeble, was in self-consecration, in dependence upon God, 
in humility, and in prayer ; and the method of God for the 
increase of his kingdom involved in such a beginning, it be 
comes us to weigh well. That method has not been reversed. 
" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth 
alone." The handful of corn upoir the "top of the mountains 
must germinate unseen, and give itself up to a process in 
which itself shall be lost, before its fruit can shake like Leba 
non. So was it with Christ ; so must it be with us. It is from 
self-sacrifice, and consecration in the very spirit of Christ, that 
fruit comes in this work from these always, from these only. 
In carrying his gospel to others, his people must " fill up that 
which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." "When the secret 
sympathy with him, the hidden work at the root, decays or 
ceases, the outward work will decay or cease. It is in vain to 
talk of philosophies here. The work is of God, or it is noth 
ing ; and what we have to do is to put ourselves in such a 
position that we can work with him. That this position is one 
of humility God has been fain to teach us, not by our origin 
alone. In various ways has he humbled us, and proved us, in 
all the way which he has led us these fifty years ; and if now, 
in coming up to these hights, and looking over so great a 
work, there should be any of that spirit which once said, " Is 
not this great Babylon, that I have builded ? " that spirit will 
be rebuked. To no place could it be more unsuited. Far 
rather does it become us to humble ourselves that we have 
done so little, to wonder at the grace that could accept of such 
an instrumentality, and to cry, " Not unto us, Lord, not 
unto us." 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 33 

Our second great lesson is one of hope. Humility and hope 
these are the whole teaching of the buried seed. Seeming 
opposites, they are typified in nature ; but Christianity alone 
could blend them in mutual support and augmented beauty. 
Humility and hope ! a hope as high as the humility is pro 
found, because both are from our relation to the Saviour now 
as crucified, now as risen. " God forbid that we should glory, 
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is humility. 
God forbid that we should not glory in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
as triumphant over the death of the cross, and as having all 
power given unto him in heaven and upon earth. That is 
hope. The work that God has begun, and to which he has 
pledged himself in the death of his Son, we believe that he 
will carry on. We look to a personal being ; we are soldiers 
under the Captain of our salvation, and obey a command and 
rest on promises. We make a distinction, strongly pro 
nounced, between confidence in a personal being, which is 
faith, and a knowledge of uniform facts and tendencies, which 
is philosophy; and we adopt faith as the principle of our 
action, not as opposed to reason, but as reason itself in its 
highest form. As our confidence is wholly in a personal being, 
it is faith ; as it is confidence in God, it is also reason ; and 
if we may but have, as we have in this work, a command that 
is explicit, then tendencies are no more to us than the tenden 
cy of water to a level was to the Israelites when they passed 
through the Red Sea. Let the waters pile themselves to the 
heavens, let them overarch us if they will we move on. 
Let us but have such a command, and the wisdom of faith is as 
much higher than that of philosophy, as the wisdom and power 
of God are higher than those of man. Balancing tendencies 
alone, we should have no hope. Looking at the command and 
the promises, we have no doubt. We do not disregard tenden 
cies. We think the set of the long currents is with us ; but 
there are now, there always have been, calms, and shoals, and 
counter-currents, and it is only by faith that we can believe 
that the breeze shall ever spring up, and the tide rise, that shall 
bear us beyond them. 



34 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

What the precise blending is to be of those two great ele 
ments of change, tendencies and personal interposition, or how 
long the unchecked current of tendencies is to run, it is not 
for us to say. God makes haste slowly. The bud is formed, 
and then winter intervenes. The baffled spring lingers. Ac 
cording to geology, the days were long while tendencies did 
their tardy work of upheavings and deposits. For four thou 
sand years the ages were in preparation for the coming of 
Christ. But at length God said, " Let us make man ; " at 
length " the Desire of all nations " came. Personality asserted 
a visible supremacy, tendencies were seen to be flexible to will, 
and special interposition reached its high-water mark, up to 
the present time. 

But we now wait for another and broader movement. We 
think that prophecy and converging tendencies both indicate 
that we are nearing, and rapidly too, a point from which a new 
epoch is to open. As at the coming of Christ there were mus 
ings and forebodings, and the quickened sense caught presage 
of coming change, so it is now. The very air is full of its 
voices. The fig tree puts forth leaves. For the first time since 
the dispersion of men, is the world waking up to the conscious 
ness of itself as one whole. Hardly yet do we comprehend 
fully the great thought of the Master, that " the field is the 
world." In their early dispersions, men diverged as upon a 
plain. That plain they now find to be a globe, upon which 
divergence becomes approximation and ultimate unity. The 
circuit of that globe, with every continent, and island, and 
ocean that it rolls up to the sunlight, or buries in its shadow, 
is now known ; and this it is that we are to conquer for Christ. 
How wide the field, compared with that of primitive missions ! 
How wide the work now, compared with it then ! Never before 
was there sucli a theater for the action of moral forces ; never 
before were there such forces to act ; or such subordination of 
nature to them, giving them new facilities, and instruments 
of mightiest power ; and never before were these forces taking 
their positions, and mustering themselves in such relations, as 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 35 

now. The old issues and specters of fear are passing. The 
papacy is reeling ; the crescent is waning ; idolatry is totter 
ing ; infidelity is shifting its ground and hesitating ; the masses 
are upheaving. The power of those great principles of liberty 
and equality, which are Christ s gospel on its human side, is 
beneath them, like that of the earthquake, and oppression and 
slavery are seeing the hand writing upon the wall, and the joints 
of their loins are being loosed. And Christians are praying 
and giving, and when the cry comes for special help they hear 
it ; and there is joy and thanksgiving in ten thousand hearts 
this night that they do ; and the battalions in the great army 
are Hearing each other, and the shout of each becomes more 
distinct in the camp of the other ; and to-night we lift our 
shout, and hold forth the hand of fellowship in this work to all 
who love the Lord Jesus. And more than all, the Spirit of God 
is poured out, and revivals are extending, and these showers 
of divine grace so descend as to show what " the great rain of 
his strength " may be. Now the field rounds itself out into some 
proportion to the love of God in sending his Son ; now that 
achievement comes up into its place for which the mighty ener 
gies that have been perverted in war and worldliness were 
intended ; now we see the full contrast between the solitary 
Sufferer upon Calvary and his work ; and looking upon him 
and upon it, we say, Yes, thou Man of sorrows, thorn-crowned 
and buffeted, it shall all be thine. He " shall give thce the 
heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." Looking upon him and upon it, 
we join our voice to that of the heavenly host, saying, " Wor 
thy is the Lamb, that was slain, to receive power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." 

Brethren, we rejoice that we live in this day, and may have 
a part in this work. It is not for us " to know the times or the 
seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." It is 
not for the husbandman to bring on the summer. It is for 
him to sow and plant, and wait the movement of the heavens. 
7 , 



36 SEMI-CENTENNIAL DISCOURSE. 

So let us, so let every Christian go forth weeping if need 
be bearing precious seed; let us sow beside all waters; let 
us see that there shall be the handful of corn upon the top of 
every mountain, and God will see that " the fruit thereof shall 
shake like Lebanon." 



THE BOARD. 



THE BOARD. 



CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN OF THE BOARD. 

Immediate Occasion of its Formation. Society of " The Brethren." The Memorial 
ists. Author of the Memorial. Samuel J. Mills. Gordon Hall. Influence of 
the Andover Seminary. Response of Leading Men in the Churches. Institution 
of the Board. Who first suggested the Idea. Remoter Influences. Mr. Jud- 

son s Visit to England, and its Result. State of the Times. Hall s Letters from 
Philadelphia. Mr. Rice. Ordination of the First Missionaries. Previous Mis 
givings of the Prudential Committee. 

THE American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis 
sions had its origin in the desire of several young men in the 
Andover Theological Seminary to preach the gospel in the 
heathen world. The four names appended to the memorial 
to the General Association of Massachusetts, which was the 
immediate occasion of forming the Board, were Adoniram 
Judson, Samuel Nott, Samuel J. Mills, and Samuel Newell. 
Mills is known to have come under a written pledge to engage 
in a mission to the heathen ae early as September, 1808. He 
was a member of "Williams College ; and then and there a 
society was formed, through his agency, called " The Breth 
ren," which had for its object " to effect, in the persons of its 
members, a mission or missions to the heathen." This society 
was transferred, with its constitution and records, to the Sem 
inary at Andover, in the year 1809, or early in 1810, and has 
continued to the present time. It is distinct from the " Society 
of Inquiry respecting Missions," though its members are of 

(39) 



40 THE BOARD. 

course connected with that well-known and useful body. The 
memorialists were each from a different college ; Judson being 
a graduate of Brown, Nott of Union, Newell of Harvard, and 
Mills of Williams. There is good reason for the belief that 
the hallowed flame in each of these brethren had not its origin 
in man. Mr. Nott distinctly avers that the " starting point 
and early progress " of the movement in his mind, was " with 
out any knowledge of the existence " of those who were so 
soon to be his associates. He spent only one year at Andover, 
going thither in November, 1809. Hall, Judson, Newell, and 
Nott were of the class that finished its course in 1810, which 
was the earliest class except one in that institution. Mills 
was in the class of 1812. Hall was there during only a part 
of the last year, coming about the time of the General Asso 
ciation ; which is presumed to be the reason his name was not 
on the memorial. When Judson came to Andover in 1808, 
he had not attained even to a confirmed belief in Christianity ; 
but his mind was in an inquiring state, and he soon united 
himself heartily to the people of God. The reading of Bu 
chanan s " Star in the East," in 1809, led liim to reflect upon 
his duty to the heathen, and in February of the next year he 
resolved to devote his life to a foreign mission ; not then 
knowing that there were others in the Seminary, or even in 
the country, who had come to the same resolution. The 
memorial to the General Association was drawn up by Mr. 
Judson ; and his standing as a scholar and great energy of 
character make it quite certain that he exerted a leading 
influence in the measures which gave occasion to the forma 
tion of the Board at that time. But the fact that the name 
of Mills was attached to the memorial, though he was then in 
the Junior class, shows that he also was acknowledged by his 
brethren as a leader in this movement. Such was his shrink 
ing from the public eye, that we may believe his name was 
there, and the third on the list, only at the earnest solicitation 
of all his associates. The names of Luther Rice and James 
Richards were appended to the paper, but happening to stand 
last, " they were struck off," as we learn from Dr. Judson. 



ORIGIN OP THE BOARD. 41 

" at the suggestion of Dr. Spring, for fear of alarming the 
Association with too large a number." Rice was in the class 
of 1811. Richards had subscribed the pledge in Williams 
College as early as 1808, and was in the class of Mills both 
at college and at Andover. Hall was one of the ablest mis 
sionaries from the American churches. His graduation at 
Williams College as was Judson s at Brown was with the 
highest honors of his class. Mills was two years the junior of 
Hall in college ; but, upon the conversion of the latter, in the 
third year of his course, the sagacity of that remarkable man 
singled him out for a foreign missionary ; and so strong were 
Milk s convictions, that he declared Hall to be " ordained and 
stamped a missionary by the sovereign hand of God." 

In the autumn of 1809, Hall received a call to become pas 
tor of a church in Connecticut. " Then," says Dr. Ebene- 
zer Porter, who was his theological teacher in Connecticut, 
" then the heart of the missionary came out. Then was 
revealed the secret so long cherished between himself and his 
beloved brother Samuel J. Mills. These kindred spirits, 
associates in college, often interchanged visits afterward, 
mutually enkindling that holy flame which nothing but dea.th 
could extinguish in their own bosoms, and which has since 
extended its s.acred influences to so many thousands of other 
hearts. The general purpose of these devoted young men was 
fixed. Sometimes they talked of c cutting a path through 
the moral wilderness of the West to the Pacific/ Sometimes 
they thought of South America ; then of Africa. Their object 
was the salvation of the heathen ; but no specific shape was 
given to their plans till the formation of the American Board 
of Foreign Missions. Before this period the churches were 
asleep. Even ministers were but half awake. To many it 
seemed a visionary tiling in Mr. Hall, that he should decline 
an invitation to settle, attended with so many attractive cir 
cumstances, and so much prospect of usefulness. But I can 
never forget with what a glistening eye and firm accent this 
youthful pioneer of foreign missions, full of faith and the 
Holy Ghost, said, No ; I must not settle in any parish of 



42 THE BOARD. 

Christendom. Others will be left, whose health or engage 
ments require them to stay at home ; but I can sleep on the 
ground ; can endure hunger and hardship ; God calls me to 
the heathen ; woe to me if I preach not the gospel to the 
heathen. He went ; and the day of judgment, while it 
tells the results of his labors, will rebuke the apathy with 
which others have slumbered over the miseries of dying 
pagans." 

The institution of the Andover Seminary, at the time when 
the Holy Spirit was interesting the minds of graduates from 
different colleges in the work of a foreign mission, is worthy 
of grateful notice. It was the only way in which they coula 
be brought into circumstances favorable to personal acquaint 
ance, and for associating and acting together. Nor should we 
omit to notice the important fact, that the missionary spirit 
should have been enkindled in the hearts of such men as 
Worcester, Spring, Evarts, and the Professors at Andover. 
The Seminary brought the young men where they could com 
bine their action ; and these fathers for such they now 
seem, though most of them were then in the very prime of 
life responded at once and cordially to their appeals. Hence 
the institution of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions at Bradford, by the General Association of 
Massachusetts, on the 29th of June, 1810. These young men 
and their memorial were the occasion that gave rise to the 
Board, but the idea and plan of it arose in other minds. The 
idea would seem to have first occurred to Dr. Worcester, on 
Wednesday morning, June 27, as he and Dr. Spring rode 
together in a chaise from Andover to Bradford ; and the plan 
of it was discussed between them as they rode along. But 
the whole was of God, and to him be the glory. 

The Rev. Kiah Bayley, writing to the Secretaries of the 
Board from Vermont in the year 1854, being then eighty-five 
years old, communicated the following incidents, which are 
worthy of preservation. He says, "A short time before my 
ordination at Newcastle, Maine, in 1797, the Rev. Alexander 
McLean, of Bristol, had received from his friends in Scotland 



ORIGIN OF THE BOARD. 43 

the sermons delivered in London by Dr. Haweis and others at 
the formation of the London Missionary Society. He was 
charmed with them, and lent them to me. I took the pamphlet 
to my wife, who was then at Newburyport, and she lent it to 
her friends, who read it with great avidity. A subscription 
paper was immediately issued, and a printer engaged. The 
work was soon in circulation. Dr. Samuel Spring and others 
in Newburyport caught the sacred flame. I know not that 
there was any other reprint of those sermons in America. 
Thus I have pointed out one little rill from which your Soci 
ety rose. There were others, no doubt, but I believe this was 
the leader. The sermons preached in London were sent to 
Scotland, and from Scotland to Maine, and from Maine to 
Newburyport. There the seed germinated, and the fruit will 
yet shake like Lebanon." 

Messrs. Hall, Judson, Newell, and Nott completed their 
theological course in September, 1810, but were not able to 
proceed on their mission until 1812. Meanwhile, as is well 
known, Mr. Judson visited England to see if the London Mis 
sionary Society would arrange with the Board for a joint sup 
port of the mission ; an embassy which happily failed of suc 
cess. The London Directors rightly judged that two control 
ling powers, so widely separated, could not act with unity and 
decision. They also expressed the hope that as soon as the 
American churches became properly informed, they would 
furnish the means of sustaining " not only four, but forty 
missionaries." Those were times of non-intercourse, embargo, 
and commercial embarrassments in this country, and the ter 
rible Napoleon conflicts shook the civilized world. As a 
passage to India seemed not likely to occur soon, Messrs. Hall 
and Newell went to Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1811, to 
pursue medical studies. Mr. Nott has shown us two letters 
from Mr. Hall, setting forth the feelings of himself and asso 
ciates in view of their contemplated foreign mission. The 
first was written on the 9th of January, 1812. 

" All hands upon deck ! The Lord seems to be opening 
the door for us to enter speedily upon the mission. This even- 
8 



44 THE BOARD. 

ing I providentially fell in with Captain Gumming, of the ship 
Amiable, of this city, who told me that his vessel would be the 
first to sail for India, and that by the middle of April at fur 
thest. ... It is currently reported that a messenger has arrived 
in this country from England, with a proposal to rescind the 
Orders in Council on a certain easy condition, to which it is 
said to be ascertained that our government will readily assent. 
But if this good news should not prove to be true, it is almost 
universally believed that, at any rate, the offending order will 
expire as soon as February, and the intelligent merchants here 
confidently believe that our commerce will be revived early in 
the spring. This is Mr. E/alston s opinion ; he thinks we 
should get away in the spring. The prospect is such that no 
time should be lost. What will our Commissioners do ? We 
shall immediately communicate this to Mr. Worcester and 
brother Judson. Let us bless the Lord and rejoice, but with 
trembling." 

On the 13th of January he wrote thus : " I have seen Mr. Ral 
ston to-day. The good man s hopes in our favor are strength 
ened. He has some fears. He will see the owner of the ship 
Amiable. Under present circumstances, we can not tell when 
we shall return to New England. If possible, I shall remain here 
until the lectures are closed, which will be the last of Febru 
ary. We must continue here till we learn more about a voy 
age to India. We should not be surprised to find that the 
Commissioners were not able to support us, and ourselves cast 
on the London Society. We have too long been in suspense." 

Their suspense was relieved sooner than they expected. The 
Harmony, Captain Brown, proposed sailing on short notice, 
from Philadelphia to Calcutta, and could take the missionaries 
as passengers. The narration will be continued from the state 
ment of the Prudential Committee to the Board at its next 
annual meeting in September. 

" In the latter part of January the resolution was taken. 
The ordination of the missionaries was appointed to be on the 
Thursday of the next week the latest day which would leave 
time for them to get on to Philadelphia in season. Notice was 



ORIGIN OP THE BOARD. 45 

immediately given to the friends of the mission in the vicinity, 
and means were put in operation with all possible activity, and 
to as great an extent as the limited time would allow, for rais 
ing the requisite funds. 

" In the mean time, Mr. Luther Eice, a licentiate preacher 
from the Theological Institution at Andover, whose heart had 
long been engaged in the missionary cause, but who had been 
restrained from offering himself to the Board by particular 
circumstances, presented himself to the Committee with good 
recommendations, and with an earnest desire to join the mis 
sion. The case was a very trying one. The Committee were 
not invested with full powers to admit missionaries, and they 
still felt a very heavy embarrassment from the want of funds. 
In view of all the circumstances, however, they did not dare 
to reject Mr. Rice, and they came to the conclusion to assume 
the responsibility, and admit him as a missionary, to be or 
dained with the four other brethren, and sent out with them. 

" While the preparations were making, it came to the 
knowledge of the Committee, that the brigantine Caravan, 
of Salem, was to sail for Calcutta in a few days, and could 
carry out three or four passengers ; and after attention to the 
subject, it was deemed advisable that two of the missionaries, 
with their wives, should take passage in that vessel. This 
lessened the general risk, and was attended with several ad 
vantages. 

" According to appointment, on the 6th of February, the 
missionaries were ordained at the Tabernacle in Salem. A 
season of more impressive solemnity has scarcely been wit 
nessed in our country. The sight of five young men, of 
highly respectable talents and attainments, and who might 
reasonably have promised themselves very eligible situations 
in our churches, forsaking parents, and friends, and country, 
and every alluring earthly prospect, and devoting themselves 
to the privations, hardships, and perils of a mission for life, to 
a people sitting in darkness and in the region and shadow of 
death, in a far-distant and unpropitious clime, could not fail 
deeply to affect every heart not utterly destitute of feeling. 



46 THE BOARD. 

Nor less affecting were the views which the whole scene was 
calculated to impress of the deplorable condition of the pagan 
world, of the riches of divine grace displayed in the gospel, 
and of the obligations on all on whom this grace is conferred, 
to use their utmost endeavors in making the gospel universally 
known. Gtad was manifestly present ; a crowded and atten 
tive assembly testified, with many tears, the deep interest 
which they felt in the occasion ; and not a few remember the 
scene with fervent gratitude, and can say, it was good to be 
there." 

The Report from which this is quoted was written in Sep 
tember. It will illustrate the advance made by the Prudential 
Committee in faith and courage since the 27th of the preced 
ing January, if we copy from their Records the results of their 
deliberations at that time. " The Prudential Committee met 
at Newburyport, for the purpose, especially, of considering the 
expediency of embracing, or attempting to embrace, an oppor 
tunity presented for conveying the missionary brethren to 
India by the Harmony, Captain Brown, of Philadelphia. After 
a solemn consideration of the very interesting question, they 
came to the following Resolves : 

" 1. That, in the opinion of this Committee, the present state 
of the funds of the Board does not warrant the Committee to 
incur the expense of sending out the four missionary breth 
ren, with their wives, with what is estimated to be an adequate 
sum in advance for their support. Therefore, 

" 2. That, in the opinion of the Committee, under existing 
circumstances, it is advisable for the missionaries to go, if con 
sistently they can, without their wives, and wait the openings 
of Providence for their wives to join them in the missionary 
field. But, 

" 3. Should it be found that going without their wives would 
be incompatible with indispensable engagements or arrange 
ments, the Committee will, by the leave of Providence, fit out 
the four brethren with their wives, and make an advance to 
them for their support of what is estimated to be an adequate 
sum for two, under the idea that, should means for supporting 



ORIGIN OF THE BOARD. 47 

them all not be supplied here, a part of them may be resigned, 
in the last resort, to the London Missionary Society." 

But what a loss of precious influence, had those wives not 
gone ! Little was it thought by any one who saw Ann H. 
Judson and Harriet Newell accompanying their husbands on 
board the Caravan, at Salem, how soon those devoted females 
would both be embalmed in the memories of the church, and 
have an imperishable record in its history. 

Referring to this meeting of the Committee, Dr. Worcester 
says, in one of the last letters he wrote, " When, after serious 
and anxious deliberation, the views of the Prudential Commit 
tee were first expressed on the question of sending the missiona 
ries out, only one member was found decidedly in the affirma 
tive." He does not name that member, but there is no reason 
to doubt it was himself. He adds, " The question was sol 
emnly and prayerfully reconsidered. The indications of Prov 
idence, in the series of facts and circumstances which had 
brought the matter to that crisis, were reviewed. It seemed 
to be clearly the will of God that the missionaries should be 
sent ; and the resolution was taken for the purpose, in the con 
fidence that, by proper means, with his aid, the requisite funds 
could be obtained. That confidence was amply justified by 
the event. A lesson of immense importance was indelibly 
impressed upon the minds of the Prudential Committee ; and 
on the principle then adopted, of following as Providence leads, 
trusting in the same sovereign Providence, with assiduous 
attention to the proper means for the needed supplies, have 
the operations of the Board ever since been conducted. From 
this principle may neither the Board nor the Prudential Com 
mittee ever depart. It is, I am persuaded, the vital principle 
of the missionary cause." 



CHAPTEE II. , 

REMINISCENCES. 

Reference to Missionary Histories. Recollections at the Jubilee Meeting. Rev. John 
Keep s Recollections. Recollections of Rev. Samuel Nott. Recollections of Dr. 
Porter. Dr. Worcester s Retrospective Address. 

FOB more ample statements concerning the rise of the Board, 
the reader is referred to the Memoir of the Life and Labors of 
the Rev. Samuel Worcester, D. D., by his son, Dr. S. M. Worces 
ter ; and also to the Memoir of the Life and Labors of Rev. 
Adoniram Judson, D. D., by the Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland. In 
both these works, the able authors have stated the case with 
great fullness and accuracy.* 

It will be proper, however, that we here give place for some 
of the recollections which were called forth by the Jubilee 
Meeting. There were then living only two of the members 
of the General Association which met at Bradford in 1810 ; 
namely, the Rev. Thomas Snell, D. D., of Brookfield, Mass., 
and the Rev. John Keep, now residing in Oberlin, Ohio. The 
infirmities of age kept the former from this meeting ; but the 
latter was present, and the vast assembly were pleased to see 
how much of youthful vigor he still retained. The following 
statement by Mr. Keep, (from which a few passages have been 
necessarily omitted,) read in a firm voice audible over the 
whole house, added not a little to the interest of the occasion. 

* See, also, an article by Dr. S. M. "Worcester, in the American Theological 
Review for November, 1860, on the Origin of American Foreign Missions; and 
a Discourse by the same author at the Semi-centennial Anniversary of the Insti 
tution of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Brad 
ford, Mass., June 29, 1860. 

(48) 



REMINISCENCES. 49 



EECOLLECTIONS OP THE REV. JOHN KEEP. 

The extremes of a half-century, at any period, furnish stand 
points for surveys of marvelous interest. The extremes of 
fifty years back from to-day afford a contrast probably unsur 
passed when judged by intervening occurrences. Of these but 
one claims the precedence, as characterizing the present Jubi 
lee, viz., the rise, progress, and existing attitude of that 
branch of the missionary work in charge of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 

The popular record is, that its origin was in the General 
Association of Massachusetts, during its sessions in Bradford, 
June, 1810. But, more truthfully, its birth was at an earlier 
period, and the Association simply wrapped it in its swaddling 
clothes, and appointed a nurse to collect its nutriment from 
the people of the country. In this there was little to attract 
public attention. The rise of this enterprise, like other 
marked movements of divine wisdom deeply freighted with 
good for mankind, was amid surroundings which lead us to 
exclaim, " Behold the stillness of God, when he rises to bless 
the world ! " 

Prayer was answered in the great revival in Yale College in 
1802. Mothers were quickened to consecrate their sons and 
daughters to the cause of missions.. Among them was the 
mother of Samuel John Mills, who had followed Hannah in giv 
ing her Samuel to the Lord, and whose struggling soul was at/ 
this point comforted by the conversion of her son. A child con 
secrated by such a mother I knew her well could not but 
experience the interfusion of her spirit. The spiritual birth 
of the son, then in mature age, rapidly developed the mission 
ary equipped for service. The union of kindred spirits in 
Williams College, and in the Andover Theological Seminary, 
developed the bold, noble purpose, on their part, to begin the 
work of preaching the gospel to the heathen in some portion 
of the foreign field. 

On my way to the meeting of the General Association in 
Bradford, June, 1810, I met, in Andover, my -college class- 



50 THE BOARD. 

mate, Jeremiah Evarts. He invited me to be present at a 
gathering in the parlor of Professor Stuart, for a conference 
with the young men who had set their hearts upon a 
foreign mission, and whose memorial on the subject was to be 
offered for the consideration and decision of the Association. 
Dr. Griffin, Dr. Worcester, Rev. Mr. Sanborn of Reading, 
Rev. F. Reynolds of Wilmington, Professor Stuart, and Mr. 
Evarts, were all who had convened in answer to the appoint 
ment.* Mr. Newell gave the purposeN and the wishes of the 
youthful missionary band. The conference was solemn, intel 
lectual, and devotional. The conferees were not united. Mr. 
Sanborn expressed a deep sense of the importance of the 
object, and a very affectionate regard for the motives and 
moral courage of the young men. To him, however, the 
project seemed to savor of infatuation. The proposal was 
premature. We had work at home, more than we could do. 
It would be impossible to meet the expense. This was the 
form and substance of all opposing views in the Association. 
In reply, brother Worcester calmly grouped the prominent 
facts connected with the case. Mr. Evarts expressed his con 
victions that the facts justified efficient action in accordance 
with them. Brother Griffin, with the divine purpose deeply 
surging in his great soul, and God s covenant in his eye, 
addressed to brother Sanborn argument bathed in emotion. 
Professor Stuart introduced the element of faith, and brother 
Reynolds significantly intimated that we had better not attempt 
to stop God. The conference closed. 

At Bradford, the statement in writing, signed by Judson, 
Nott, Mills, and Newell, was presented and read before the 
Association. It was heard with profound attention. It was a 
sound in the tops of the mulberry trees, and some of us held 
our breath. 

This was followed by a frank and full statement of their 
views and personal experience, and the process through which 

* Mr. Keep speaks from memory, after a long period. There is conclusive 
evidence that Drs. Spring and Snell were also present. 



REMINISCENCES. 51 

they reached their decision. The result was the appointment 
of a Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and the 
advice that the young gentlemen put themselves under the 
direction of this Board. So far as I recollect, there was very 
little discussion. Conservatism suggested caution. All were 
interested in the movement ; and the members generally 
seemed disposed to follow, in the matter, the load of some few 
then present who had fully canvassed the subject. Perhaps 
never was the value of an intelligent leading influence more 
clearly seen ; perhaps never was such an influence more 
needed or more gladly acknowledged. One thing was prom 
inent and universal, viz., a deep sense of the sublime position 
and devout spiritual consecration of this missionary band. 
They were unpretending, modest, of a tender, child-like spirit, 
well understanding their aim, consecrated, a felt power. The 
attitude of the meeting was about this : no direct opposition, a 
weak faith, a genial hope, rather leaning to a waiting posture. 
It obviously was a relief to a portion of the body, that the 
subject was put into the hands of such men as those who com 
posed the Board. In the right sense they were marked men, 
well suited to the emergency. This seemed to lift somewhat 
the pressure of the responsibility. The feeling was, Try it ; 
if the project fail, it would have, from such men, an honorable 
burial. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. 
Every feature in the opening of this great missionary move 
ment calls us to contemplate the stillness of God. No torch 
light processions, no flourish of trumpets. The kingdom 
of God is not in word, but in power, the gentle footfall, 
the silent tread of divine love and truth to revolutionize 
mankind. 

It is well known that the divine power, quickening the 
hearts of the praying people at that period, took its form, as 
bearing on foreign missions, in connection with the religious 
exercises and mutual consultations of the young men who 
applied to the Association. And verily they were men tall 
men in the best sense. The moral power of their position 
before the Association was intensified by the fact, known 
9 



52 



THE BOARD. 







among the members, that Harriet Atwood, afterward the wife 
of Newell, and Ann Hasseltine, afterward the wife of Judson, 
young ladies of prominent mental culture, were bathed in the 
same spirit of consecration to the missionary work, and with 
hearts aglow with the intelligent purpose to enter the field 
when and where God might call them ; divine Providence 
thus early indicating that the contemplated mission should 
open before the heathen with the genial influence *6f the 
Christian family. But the start of this mission lies further 
back, and has its origin in the spirit of prayer among the 
people at the opening of the present century. And here let 
there be no strife about names ; only keep in mind that Han 
nah, Dorcas, and grandmother Lois are a power nearer the 
throne than corporate bodies and boards of managers. . . . 
The Lord Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom for the people, 
and the peo*ple heard him gladly. The people compose his 
church on earth, and to this very people, his church, he gave 
the commission to preach the gospel to all mankind. It was 
a significant question at Bradford, Will the churches sustain 
the movement ? Happy was it that leading men there had 
well pondered this question. Griffin held his hand upon the 
pulse. You could read the answer in his eye "Ay, the 
Church is ready ! " We breathed easier. The work was begun. 
Two prominent points claim the marked regard of this 
Jubilee Meeting : 

1. This Society sprang from t\\Q people a fact which should, 
and which does, occupy my vision at the stand-point of 1810, 
where I now am. 

2. Its safety in the future lies in faithfully expressing and 
rying out the sentiments of the people. 

It is for the people, as such, that this world was made. All 
its constituent parts and elements belong to mankind, to be 
owned, enjoyed, used, and directed with reference to the best 
good of the people. 

I stand to-day, and here, as I never stood before. I am 
alone. My present stand-point is 1810. The foreign mis 
sionary enterprise an infant but a smiling babe prayer- 



REMINISCENCES. 53 

fully committed to the guardianship of Dwight, Treadwell, 
Lyman, Huntington, and others. I look across the track of a 
half-century, and, in the name of its primitive guardians, I 
hail its now colossal stature at the stand-point of 1860 ; and 
to the present guardians of this movement I put the question, \ 
What shall be its future ? What shall be its future ? You 
reply, The cross of Christ is our strength. Who but the people j 
support the cross? Among the people are found the sons and 
daughters consecrated to missions. Duty done gilds the future.] 
A present, living Christ in the soul is the inherent power. 
May a correct, comprehensive view, at the stand-point of 1860, 
infuse unction and healthful stimulants, as the coming half- 
century moves on, that you may reach your next Jubilee, 1910, 
in the fullness of the stature of perfect ones in Christ Jesus. 

The Rev. Samuel Nott, now residing in Wareham, Mass., is 
the only survivor of the four memorialists to the General As 
sociation, and of the first company of missionaries. At the 
request of the Prudential Committee, he prepared the follow 
ing letter, brought it with him to the meeting at which the 
Historical Discourse was delivered, and, not being in sufficient 
health for further attendance, sent it to the senior Secretary, 
to whom it was addressed : 

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE REV. SAMUEL NOTT. 

REV. AND DEAR SIR : I proceed, according to your request, 
to record such memoranda of my connection with the Board 
as my time and strength shall permit. 

The most obvious reminiscence is that forced upon me, 
impromptu, at my meeting with Judson in 1845, and repeated 
in my letter to the Rev. Mr. McCullom, at Bradford, last June, 
as having been for fifty years prominent in my thoughts: "All 
flesh is as grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower 
of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the 
word of our God shall stand forever." " You can expect but 
little," said Dr. Lyman to me on his way to the second meet- 



54 THE BOARD. 

ing of the Board, " from an old man of more than three 
score." It was just as true that little could be expected from 
the youthful agents ; for youth and age were soon to vanish 
away as the grass, and the only just hope could be in the vital 
powers and divine aids which insure success to the word of 
God. While they perish, it lives and grows, indestructible and 
progressive. 

My whole recollection of my youthful companions is, of 
their honest and earnest intention to publish the word of God 
to obey the command, " Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." Their chief momentum seemed 
to me to be a duty to be done, and not at all a spirit of 
romance and adventure, or the vain conceit that they were 
more devoted than others who did not adopt the duty which 
was so plainly their own. Their perseverance through great 
trials to their death justifies this life-long remembrance. I 
may bear a like testimony to the fathers who adopted their 
cause. It may have been with slow steps, but they entered 
fully and heartily into the views and purposes of the young 
men, and, as it seemed to me, with the same simple intention 
to publish the word of God, and with the same sense of a duty 
to be done* In both cases, it was not a mere missionary 
spirit, but rather an essential piety taking the direction of 
missions ; not a special earnestness belonging to a special work, 
but Christian devotedness accepting a specific duty, as it 
accepts all known duties. No disparaging expressions can be 
just in regard to the state of religion previous to the formation 
of the Board. For, if there had not been a substantial Chris 
tianity ready to undertake any Christian duty, the appeal of 
the young men would not have been welcomed by the public, 
and followed by earnest and successful labors at home and 



* The expression of the great moving principle the sense of duty which 
began the Foreign Missions, was providentially given to me in the first mission 
ary sermon preached before the Board, at Worcester, in 1811. No arrange 
ments had been made for a public service, and, on motion of Dr. Lyman, I 
was appointed to preach, because I had just delivered, at Union College Com 
mencement, an oration illustrating the duty from our Lord s command. 



REMINISCENCES. 55 

abroad. The expression of Christian devotedness actually ex 
isting, was given by Dr. Woods, at the ordination at Salem, 
February 6, 1812, in adopting for his guide Psalni Ixvii. : " God 
be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine 
upon us ; that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving 
health among all nations." The incidents and circumstances 
of the early stages of the work are superseded by the facts 
obvious to all, that the direct agents of fifty years ago, with a 
single exception, have passed away, and are of as little account 
as the dust of their graves ; and yet, that the word which they 
attempted to publish has had living and glorious results. All 
the weakness and insufficiency are man s ; all the strength and 
sufficiency belong to God and his word ; and to God and his 
word all the successes of fifty years are to be humbly and de 
voutly ascribed. 

My recollections of the course of events from June, 1810, 
when the Board was instituted, to October, 1815, when I 
left Bombay, may be summed up in Isaiah xl. 4, introdu 
cing the contrast of dying men and the ever-living word, 
varying it from the prophetic future to the historic past : 
" Every valley was exalted, and every mountain and hill made 
low ; the crooked was made straight, and the rough places 
plain." I can not expect others to receive the impression made 
upon my own mind by difficulties which seemed impossibilities 
to all human skill and strength, forcing the mind to look to 
HIM who calleth those things which be not as though they 
were, and by deliverances which seemed only the work of Him 
" who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." The 
whole history of the five years of my connection with the 
Board made upon my own mind the deepest impression of the 
weakness and insufficiency of all human agencies, and of the 
divine aids and vital powers on which the progress of the word 
of God is acknowledged to depend. 

From the first appointment of the Board, at Bradford, June 
29, 1810, to the embarkation of the missionaries in February, 
1812, there was every thing to discourage in the financial, 
commercial, and political condition of the country. The em- 



56 THE BOARD. 

bargo had been succeeded by non-intercourse ; and the war, 
which soon actually took place, was in the highest degree prob 
able. Under these circumstances, the institution of the Board, 
and its special organization, equally adapted to the small work 
in hand, and the larger work which events have shown they 
were to do ; their readiness and promptitude in seijding the 
mission to England, and thus preparing for the unforeseen work 
of February, 1812 ; their decisive action on the arrival of the 
brethren Hall and Newell from Philadelphia, and fixing on 
February 6th as the day for ordination, with insufficient funds 
in prospect, are not only evidences of their sincere desire to 
do their duty, but of the favor of Providence, making them 
equal to emergencies which only subsequent events have shown 
in all their importance. 

A similar acknowledgment may be made in regard to the 
movements of the young men themselves. It was rather a 
guiding and overruling hand, than the foresight of an unde 
veloped course of events, which induced the brethren Hall and 
Newell to make their movement at the close of January, 1812, 
when there was no human prospect of funds or favor, and 
brought together in season the scattered missionaries within 
the brief time allowed. The same hand is to be acknowledged 
in the bequest of Mrs. Norris,* giving to the Board good hopes 
for the future, but requiring energetic movements for the pres 
ent exigency ; and in the providential arrangement, which sent 
forth the first mission from two places, the proper centers of 
the Congregational and Presbyterian churches, and united 
these churches in contributions sufficient for the actual neces 
sities. The sailing of the Caravan from Salem, and of the 
Harmony from Philadelphia, almost exactly at the same time, 
and pledging both churches to the work, was an event not to 
have been expected ; and its vast importance appears only in 
the light of subsequent events. How unpromising was the 
prospect, may be made more fully manifest by mentioning the 
fact, that Dr. Dwight, who was himself a member of the Board; 

* Of thirty thousand dollars. 



REMINISCENCES. 57 

did not forbear to express himself in decided disapprobation 
of the action of the Prudential Committee in sending forth the 
mission under the actual circumstances of the case. This he 
did to me personally on the fourth day after the ordination at 
Salem; and yet, in the light of subsequent events, the rash 
undertaking is seen to have been wise and most important. 

The course of events after the arrival of the missionaries in 
India was for a long time unpropitious. On the arrival of the 
Harmony, Mr. and Mrs. Newell were already gone to the Isle 
of France, and Mr. Judson was under an engagement to fol 
low. Moreover Mr. and Mrs. Judson had already changed 
their sentiments on the subject of baptism, and Mr. Rice, not 
long after, changed his. With every conviction of their ear 
nest sincerity, their change was deeply regretted as a hinder- 
ance to our united purpose ; but it must now be acknowledged 
to have engaged a great denomination in the work of foreign 
missions, and to have blessed India beyond the Ganges with 
blessings above all price. 

As to ourselves, remaining in connection with the Board, it 
is sufficient to say, that when all hope of escape from being 
sent to England had vanished, after we were forced to see and 
feel that God only could deliver us, we were delivered, as it 
seemed to us, by the hand of the Almighty. Our names had 
been already published in the Calcutta papers as passengers on 
the fleet, which we saw under sail for England at the mouth of 
the Hoogly, twelve miles in advance of the ship on which we had 
embarked for Bombay. On our arrival at Bombay, in February, 
one year after our ordination, we were met by an order from the 
general government that we should be sent to England from 
there an order which, after friendly delays on the part of the 
governor of that Presidency, was upon the point of being exe 
cuted, when Providence favored our escape with the intention 
of joining brother Newell in Ceylon, and giving up the attempt 
at Bombay. The same good Providence prevented the carry 
ing out of this purpose, as it appeared afterward, that it might 
accomplish our original design. Arrested at Cochin, brought 
back to Bombay, detained under surveillance for several weeks 



58 THE BOARD. 

in order to be sent by tbe next ship, we were delivered again, 
after all hope had passed, after all arrangements had been com 
pleted, and even after our baggage had been made ready for 
the ship, and the coolies were assembled to carry it to the boat. 
This deliverance, it appeared afterward, was due, under God, 
to the appeal to the governor of Bombay, prepared in the last 
extremity by Mr. Hall, and, as it seemed to me at the time, 
divinely fitted for the occasion. This, and all the communi 
cations of the missionaries with the governor of Bombay, were 
sent to the Court of Directors by the ship which was to have 
carried ourselves ; and tl^e result was permission from the 
highest authority for the missionaries to remain; but again 
not without the utmost hazard, and the most marked deliver 
ance from utter defeat. This last deliverance I learned only 
after my connection with the mission ceased. The Court of 
Directors, on reviewing the papers of the missionaries, were 
on the point of refusing permission for them to remain, requir 
ing their removal, and censuring all their servants who had 
aided them, when Mr. Charles Grant made an elaborate argu 
ment from the documents of the missionaries, which turned 
the vote in their favor. I regret to learn that this important 
paper, which Mr. Grant permitted me to copy for the Board, 
has been lost. 

In recalling these scenes, I have reviewed several letters 
from our friends in India, and from Mr. Newell himself, writ 
ten at the different stages of apparent defeat, on the presump 
tion that the mission had been already defeated. 

Among the providential and gracious aids to the establish 
ment of the first foreign mission may be named the Christian 
death of Mrs. Newell, of which we had in Bombay full ac 
counts from Mr. Newell. I remember its influence upon our 
minds in strengthening our missionary purpose, while the 
influence of the fuller narrative, and its wide-spread publica 
tion, is manifest to all. There may also be noticed the perfect 
unanimity of the two missionaries in every plan and move 
ment ; their unhesitating decision at every new and unexpect 
ed point of difficulty ; their unshaken adherence to their united 



REMINISCENCES. 59 

decisions, in the midst of objections to their course, and the 
counter advice of their best friends ; their perseverance to 
extremity again and again, in the expectation of defeat and 
then, of censure for their rashness ; and finally, their persist 
ency in learning a language which they had no prospect of 
iising, while yet they were intensely occupied in the most diffi 
cult affairs all, to be ascribed to that wonder-working Provi 
dence, and I would hope to those gracious aids, which make 
the undertakings of frail and short-sighted men available far 
beyond their own foresight, expectation, or purpose. I may 
properly repeat, that the whole course of events, including all 
the decisions and movements of the leading agents at home 
and abroad, made upon my own mind the deepest impression 
of the weakness and insufficiency of all human agencies, and 
of the importance of the vital powers and divine aids on 
which the word of God entirely depends. 

It was under these impressions of divine favor, making that 
to succeed which seemed as impossible as it was improbable, 
that my connection with the mission ceased, not in desponden 
cy as to the future but, it may be, with too sanguine hopes of 
rapid progress to the word of God at home and abroad. What 
ever disappointment has come, is partly in myself; and I can 
only pray that I and all may more entirely adopt the prayer 
given by Dr. Woods at the ordination at Salem, February 6, 
1812, as the expression of the spirit which must continue, as 
well as begin, the missionary work : " God be merciful unto 
us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us ; that thy 
way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all 
nations." 

With great respect, your friend and servant, 

SAMUEL NOTT. 

Another testimony, which should have a place here, is that 
of Rev. Noah Porter, D. D., at whose house, in the year 1810, 
the Board held its first meeting, and where, in fact, it received 
its organization. The letter is dated Farmington, Conn., No 
vember 23, 1860. 

10 



60 THE BOARD. 

RECOLLECTIONS OP THE REV. NOAH PORTER, D. D. 

DEAR SIR : The General Association of Massachusetts, at 
Bradford, in 1810, designated three of the gentlemen ap 
pointed by them as " Commissioners for Foreign Missions," 
" to consult with other members for the purpose of appointing 
the time and place of the first meeting of the Board." These 
all belonged to Massachusetts ; and it must, as I think, have 
been in deference to the gentlemen appointed on the Commis 
sion in Connecticut, and particularly in deference to His 
Excellency Governor Tread well, that in Christian civility they 
appointed the place of meeting where it would best accommo 
date them, in Connecticut, and at Farmington, the residence 
of Governor Treadwell. He, as the first appointed of the 
whole number, was their chairman ; and no doubt was chosen 
first in the expectation that he would be the first President 
of the Board. He was among the foremost of Christian lay 
men in New England; had been extensively known in the 
churches as a distinguished Christian of the Edwardean school, 
and an able theological writer, as well as an eminent civilian 
and jurist ; had for many years been chairman of the Board 
of Trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut, and of 
its Prudential Committee ; and was at that time Governor of 
the State of Connecticut. On receiving notice of the appoint 
ment of the meeting to be held in Farmington, foreseeing that 
circumstances beyond his control would make it inconvenient 
for the meeting to be held at his own house, he requested that 
it might be at mine, to which a ready consent was given. 
Fifty years ago, I and my wife were just starting in our course 
together, were in the second year after our marriage, and I 
was in the fourth of my pastorate. Most gladly we opened 
the parlor of our new house to these venerable men, and wel 
comed them to such hospitalities as we were able to afford. 
Strangers to us indeed they were not, at least in character 
and standing, for their praise was in alj, the churches, and 
some of them were our familiar acquaintances ; but it has 
ever since been to us a subject of pleasing reflection, that, in 



REMINISCENCES. 61 

a peculiar and very interesting sense, we may be said, in hav 
ing received them, to have entertained angels unawares. 
Here they sat from the 10th of September, 1810, till the 12th, 
in prosecution of the work of their high behest Samuel 
Spring, Jonathan Lyman, Samuel Worcester, and Calvin 
Chapin, inclusive of Governor Treadwell, five of the nine 
chosen at Bradford to constitute the Board. Why the other 
four were not present, I do not remember to have been in 
formed, except that Dr. Dwight sent word that the concerns 
of the college demanded his presence, commencement being 
just at hand. At their invitation, I was privileged to sit with 
them and listen to their deliberations ; to go with them, as 
they were feeling their way along an untrod path ; to observe 
the very process of the formation of the American Board, 
for however Commissioners had been chosen at Bradford, 
their formation as a Board was consummated at Farmington ; 
to see the springing up, at the fountain head, of the little rill 
that in its course of fifty years has become so mighty a river, 
bearing life and salvation to the nations ; or rather to see this 
angel of God pluming his wings for his flight in the midst of 
heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them 
that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and 
tongue, and people. Dr. Worcester was their scribe. Both 
the Constitution of the Board, and the Address which they 
sent out to the Christian public, while they were the fruit of 
the anxious deliberations and united counsels of all the mem 
bers of the Board present, were, in style and form, the prod 
uct of his classic pen. 

Their meeting excited no general interest among the people 
here at the time. There was no public religious service on 
the occasion ; nor do I remember any mention of the meeting 
to have been made to the congregation on the Sabbath pre 
ceding, or any notice of it to have been sent to the ministers 
in this vicinity. This would not have been after the customs 
of those times. Meetings of this kind were arranged rather 
for the business to be done, than for popular effect. Trustees 
and Committees of Missionary, Bible, and Tract Societies were 



62 THE BOARD. 

accustomed to meet together in some private room, do the 
work assigned them, and go home, without even a knowledge 
of their meeting by people generally where the meeting was 
held. Some eight or ten years after the formation of the 
American Board of Commissioners, if I do not mistake the 
time, I was present at an anniversary meeting of the Amer 
ican Bible Society, in a hall of moderate dimensions, in New 
York, where but little was said or done for popular impression, 
and not more than two or three hundred people were present. 
There was, however, a deep-felt interest in the Foreign Mis 
sionary enterprise, here and elsewhere, at the time. The 
impulse that had been given to Christian feeling in our 
churches by the missions of the London Missionary Society, 
and their appeals to the Christian public in behalf of the hea 
then world, had not been lost ; able writers on the prophecies 
in England and this country had brought the millennium near 
in the apprehension of leading men, both ministers and lay 
men, in the churches ; and now that measures were instituted 
to embody them in the work, they were prepared to give these 
measures their ready and hearty support. A single instance, 
which I well remember, I may, at this distance of time, men 
tion to you, as a specimen of what then began extensively to 
appear. Scarcely had the Board gone from my house, when 
my father, then seventy-four years old, and spending the even 
ing of life chiefly in my family, said to my wife, " And how 
much do you think I ought to give to this object?" Her 
instant reply was, " Five hundred dollars" which he soon 
afterward pledged himself to give ; though, as I suppose, it 
was a fourth or fifth part of all that he possessed. Indeed, it 
seems to me that there was an enthusiasm in the missionary 
spirit of that day which we but rarely see now ; though un 
doubtedly it was less diffused, and I would fain hope that it 
has now more of the stability and power of Christian prin 
ciple and habit. In consideration of these things, I may 
hope to be pardoned if my attachment to the Board may seem 
to have something of the partiality of an early friendship; 
if I consider my relation to it as a member one of the highest 



REMINISCENCES. 63 

honors that I could have received ; and if, though my infirmi 
ties will probably prevent my attendance on its future meet 
ings, I desire to die, as I have so long lived, in connection 
with it. I am, sir, with great personal respect and esteem, 
yours truly, NOAH PORTER. 

Probably no one has more thoroughly investigated the early 
history of our foreign missions than the Rev. Samuel M. 
Worcester, D. D., the biographer of the Board s first Corre 
sponding Secretary. Through his kindness we are enabled to 
insert portions of a speech which he delivered at the Jubilee 
Meeting. 

RETROSPECTIVE ADDRESS OP DR. S. M. WORCESTER. 

There have been great mistakes in what has often been said 
of the missionary spirit of those days, and of the origin of 
this Board. If I were at the mouth of the Mississippi, where 
the waters of that mighty river are emptying themselves into 
the Gulf of Mexico, I should not think of seeking their source 
by ascending to the Ohio, and thence to the fountains of the 
Alleghany or the Monongahela. Not any more should I refer 
the origin of this Board to any one individual, or to transac 
tions in any one locality. Our God has a wide sweep in the 
circle of his providence, embracing manifold causes, influences, 
means and instrumentalities. In that providence he was 
pleased to lay broad and deep the strong foundations of this 
Board of Missions. It was once said by Dr. Lyman Beecher 
and he never spoke more truly that the American Board 
originated in the revivals at the end of the eighteenth and the 
beginning of the present century. The same testimony has 
just been given us by the venerable witness, [Mr. Keep,] 
whom God has permitted to survive to this day, and whom I 
am most happy to see and to hear on this occasion. 

It is to me a delightful thought, that the Board thus origi 
nated not with man, but so evidently with God only wise and 
only good ; and in such circumstances that every one, both of 
the missionary candidates and of the fathers and brethren who 



64 THE BOARD. 

instituted this Board, should be constrained most devoutly to 
say, " Not unto us, Lord, not iinto us, but unto thy name 
give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth s sake." I derive 
from this view the most animating encouragements of hope 
for the future. This Board, be assured, has foundations 
which are not soon to be moved. Whatever may be the em 
barrassments of the hour, there is yet a great work to be 
accomplished. In the fifty years to come before the Jubilee 
of Nineteen hundred and ten, I can not doubt, as I look back 
upon the fifty years now completed, there will be far more 
wonderful revelations of the providence of God in this glo 
rious enterprise for the world s evangelization, than it is our 
high privilege this day with profoundest gratitude to acknowl 
edge and to commemorate. 

We have not the slightest reason to despond. My brother 
Lindley and other missionary brethren need not be troubled 
and alarmed, because some of us have so spoken of the 
importance of carefulness, that the expenditures of the Board 
shall not exceed the probable receipts. Let no one of them 
hang his harp on the willows. 

When, in January, 1812, the decisive step was taken to send 
out the first missionaries, the first Secretary of the Board 
but for whom that step would not then have been taken, and 
who, as his honored friend, Dr. Spring, declared, " seemed to 
have all the faith there was in the world " had no adequate 
idea of the missionary feeling which actually existed, notwith 
standing his very extensive and intimate knowledge of the 
state of the churches. The circulars and appeals which he 
sent out to different parts of New England, that if possible 
the means might be furnished for the new enterprise, met 
with a response, as I well know, even from the upper counties 
of New Hampshire and Vermont, which perfectly surprised 
and electrified his great and noble heart. 

Mr. President, I hold in my hand the first subscription book 
ever used by an agent employed in soliciting donations. And 
here, sir, in the handwriting of that Secretary, is the first 
subscription paper circulated among the female friends of the 



REMINISCENCES. 65 

cause. At the head of the list of names is that of Elizabeth 
Bartlett, with a donation of one hundred dollars ; and at the 
end, that of Judith King, with forty dollars. There were 
thirty other donors, chiefly of small sums, and with no other 
designation than " A Friend." The whole amount subscribed 
by those Salem ladies was two hundred and seventy-one dol 
lars and seventy-five cents. Mrs. Bartlett was a warm personal 
friend of the ever-to-be-remembered Mrs. Mary Norris, who, 
during the year previous, had deceased, bequeathing to the 
J3oard the munificent legacy of thirty thousand dollars. Her 
will was contested, and no part of the legacy was available 
until more than four years after her decease. 

It is impossible now to realize the formidableness of the dif 
ficulties encountered in the earliest operations of this Board. 
Before the first missionaries had found a resting place for their 
feet on heathen ground, the discouragements presented to 
friends at home were so great and portentous, as to demand 
an exertion of the strongest and most heroic faith and forti 
tude. Let me read to you some passages from a missionary 
sermon, that you may see how the first Corresponding Secretary 
met the crisis of complicated embarrassments, which appalled 
so many of the sincere friends of missions, after the sailing of 
the Caravan from Salem, and the Harmony from Philadelphia. 

The sermon was preached before the Foreign Missionary 
Society of Salem and the vicinity, on the first anniversary, 
January 6, 1813. I quote from the conclusion : 

" But, my brethren, it is not enough that you submit as the 
willing subjects of our glorious King ; you must assist in ex 
tending his kingdom. For what purpose, indeed, do you give 
yourselves and all that you have to him, but to be employed 
in his service, that you may share in the glory of his triumphs, 
and sit down with him on his throne ? Do you ask how you 
shall assist ? The answer is ready. The great work is before 
you that of giving his word to all people , in their own lan 
guages, and sending faithful men, according- to his appoint 
ment, to preach it to every creature under heaven. And every 
one in this house, every person in the Christian world, has an 



66 THE BOARD. 

opportunity, by showing a friendly countenance to the work, 
by praying for its success, and by contributing as ability is given 
for its support and furtherance, to do something for the honor 
of Christ and for his possession of his kingdom. 

" But some do not approve of this design? And were 
there not some, and of those, too, who made their btiast in 
God, who did not approve of the first publication of the gos 
pel ? In what age, indeed, in what part of the world, have 
the friends of Christ ever engaged in a design for the advance 
ment of his kingdom which was not regarded with coldness 
by some, with jealousy by others ? which was not discoun 
tenanced with Derision by some, with frowns by others ? which 
was not opposed with insidious artifice by some, with open 
violence by others ? 

" But it is not necessary to propagate the gospel among the 
heathen; they will do very well without it. For what pur 
pose, then, did Christ give his blood, and command that his 
gospel should be preached to all people ? 

" But it is a vain attempt the heathen will not change their 
religion? It is the word, however, of eternal truth, that all 
the ends of the world shall turn unto the Lord, and all the 
kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. Whom shall 
we believe ? Is the arm of the Lord shortened ? Is his Spirit 
straitened ? 

" But the missionaries will be sent back? That is yet to be 
known. But what if they are ? What if some men in another 
part of the world, of a similar spirit with those here who hope 
it will be so, should undertake to obstruct the mission ? Is a 
large and populous part of the world, for such a reason, to be 
blotted from the map of Christ s dominions ? Or, if he per 
mit one attempt for evangelizing a nation to fail, are his peo 
ple, whose faith and perseverance he would thus try, pusillani- 
mously to relinquish the design ? Is it so, my brethren, that 
we have learned Christ ? Then let us never more mention his 
name ! 

" But, if permitted to stay, they must encounter great hard 
ships and perils? And pray how was it with the apostles them- 



REMINISCENCES. 67 

selves, the first missionaries of the cross ? Were they not treat 
ed as the filth of the world the offscouring of all things ? 
Did not bonds and imprisonments await them at every place ? 
Were they not in perils continually, and in deaths oft ? And 
did not their gracious Lord know it would be so when he sent 
them forth ? 

" But they are changing their sentiments. Men, we know, 
are liable to change are liable to defection. Nevertheless the 
foundation of God standeth sure ; nor will the grace of God 
fail of furnishing stable and faithful men for the missionary 
service. 

" The expense must be great it will impoverish the coun 
try My brethren, how many thousands of dollars have been 
sent from this country to India in one year ? More than 
enough to support, for the same time, a thousand missionaries. 
And for what ? For articles more valuable than the souls of 
men ? for interests more important than those of Christ s king 
dom ? Then, indeed, the souls of men are not worth the cost 
of their salvation ; the kingdom of Christ is not worth the 
expense of extending it. 

" But the present is an unfavorable time, for people are los 
ing, rather than gaining property Well, then, let them secure 
at least a small portion of what they yet have, by investing it 
in that kingdom which shall endure forever ; by committing 
it to Him who will repay them with imperishable treasures. 
My brethren, these objections, when weighed in the balances 
of the sanctuary, will be found lighter than air. Men may say 
what they please ; the profane may taunt, the pharisaical may 
decry, the ivise may demur ; but it is all vain. Christ will 
advance, and take possession of his kingdom. Every valley 
shall be filled before him, and every mountain and hill shall 
be made low. The faces of those who < make a wide mouth 
shall be covered with confusion ; the wisdom of the wise shall 
be turned into foolishness ; and every opposing power shall be 
broken into pieces. If you decline the pleasure, the honor, 
the everlasting reward of aiding this work, others will be found 
11 



68 THE BOARD. 

who will not ; and the work will proceed till the shouts of 
salvation are heard in every clime. 

I would that I could feel at liberty to proceed with some 
further illustrations of the events, aspects, and responsibilities 
of those times of trial. Indulge me a moment longer, and 
listen to the dying testimony of the first Secretary to the high 
and transcendent importance of the missionary enterprise. 

" It is no light matter," he says, " to live and act for an ever 
lasting state ; and especially in public situations, connected 
with the momentous interests of the kingdom of God, under 
that eye, from which no deed, or word, or thought, or feeling 
is concealed, and which never loses sight of what the cross 
demands of every man. 

" One thing is consummated, and settled in my mind ; and 
that is, a full and delightful conviction that the cause of mis 
sions has never held too high a place in my estimation, or 
engaged too large a share of my attention. This is saying- 
nothing, and less than nothing. It transcends, immeasurably 
transcends, the highest estimation of every created mind. 
And what is the sacrifice of health, what the sacrifice of life, 
to such a cause ? Be the event what it may, recovered health, 
or early death, I never can regret what I have done in this 
work ; but only that I have done so little, and with a heart so 
torpid." * 

* Missionary Herald, 1821, p. 157. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHARTER AND THE LEGISLATURE. 

Difficulties in obtaining a Charter. Occasion of them. The Petition. In the House 
of Representatives. Provisions of the Charter. Proposed Amendment and its 
Object. A Salem Shipmaster. Defense by Mr. Morris. The Bill fails. Next 
Legislature. Charter voted by the House. Opposed in the Senate. Mr. White s 
Reply. Rejected. Claimed by the House. Disagreement in Conference. Passed 
in Senate, with Amendments. Amendments rejected by the House. Mr. Crown- 
inshield. Charter granted. Spirit of the Times. Charter concurred in by Pa 
trons. Its Value. 

No history of the proceedings by which the charter of the 
Board was obtained, has been-written. The facts now to be 
given were collected from the scanty records of the Massachu 
setts Senate and House of Representatives, and from a few 
eminent men who were then in public life. Tradition relates, 
and the Journals of both branches of the legislature show, 
that the charter was obtained with difficulty, and not without 
some disappointment and delay. We should not greatly won 
der at this, considering that the effort was made in the very 
year when war was declared against England, and how strong 
the influence of party feeling is in all such seasons of national 
agitation. We must also take into view the decline of evan 
gelical doctrine and feeling in Boston and its vicinity at that 
period, and how large a number of professional men in the 
Commonwealth had received their education under influences 
adverse to such doctrine. Nor should we be unmindful that 
the great mass even of evangelical Christians were at that 
time slow to admit the feasibility and obligation of foreign 
missions; 

The petition for a charter, dated February 12, 1812, and 
signed by Drs. Morse and Worcester, was as follows : 



70 THE BOARD. 

To the Honorable the Senate and Honorable the House of 
Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
in General Court assembled : 

The subscribers, for themselves and their associates, beg 
leave respectfully to represent : That on the twenty-seventh 
day of June, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and 
ten, a society was instituted " for the purpose of Foreign 
Missions, and for promoting the spread of the Gospel in hea 
then lands ; " that in pursuance of the object of this associa 
tion, very considerable funds have been raised ; that five 
young gentlemen are now going on foreign missions under 
the directions of the said society, to the use of which mission 
aries they have appropriated the sum of about five .thousand 
dollars; that the said society find it very inconvenient to 
manage and transact their business without an incorporation. 
Wherefore they pray that they may be incorporated under a 
suitable name, and invested with the powers and privileges 
usually granted to similar institutions, and authorized to do 
and transact business as a body politic and corporate ; and as 
in duty bound will ever pray. 

This petition was read in the House of Representatives on 
the 15th of February, and committed to Messrs. Rantoul of 
Beverly, Hathorne of Salem, and Cushman of Middleboro . 
Mr. Rantoul was a gentleman of much intelligence. Though 
not of Orthodox sentiments, he is understood to have inter 
ested himself in the success of the petitioners, and to have 
enjoyed their confidence. The petition was read the same day 
in the Senate, and Messrs. Day and White were joined to the 
committee of the House. This committee recommended 
leave to bring in a bill, and it was granted. As the bill came 
originally before the legislature, it provided that the Board 
might hold real estate to the yearly value of six thousand 
dollars, and personal estate yielding an annual income of 
twelve thousand. These sums respectively were afterward 
reduced to four and eight thousand, it is presumed to 



THE CHARTER AND THE LEGISLATURE. 71 

diminish the force of objections. What are now the seventh 
and eighth sections were not in the bill as originally reported. 
The first reading in the House was -on the 25th of February, 
after which the bill was committed to Messrs. Prentiss of 
Roxbury, Redington of Vassalboro (in what is now the State 
of Maine), and Smith of West Springfield. Dr. Prentiss was 
the friend and early teacher of Samuel Newell, one of the 
first missionaries of the Board. He lived to an advanced age, 
dying only a few years since, full of joy in view of the prog 
ress of the Redeemer s kingdom. It is matter of vain regret 
that Dr. Prentiss s early relations to the enterprise were not 
known until after his decease. The second reading was on 
the 26th, and then, or on the third reading, some one moved 
to add the following section : " That one quarter part of the 
annual income of the said Board of Commissioners shall be 
exclusively appropriated to defray the expense of translating 
the Holy Scriptures into foreign languages, and of printing 
and circulating the same." The object of the mover must 
have been unfriendly, for the act could not have been accepted 
in this form. So large a proportion of the entire income of 
the Board could not properly have been expended in translat 
ing and circulating the Scriptures in foreign languages. The 
amendment was greatly modified, but whether by this or 
the next legislature does not appear, so as to read that " one 
quarter part of the annual income from the funds [that 
is, the permanent funds] of said Board shall be faithfully 
appropriated to defray the expense of imparting the Holy 
Scriptures to unevangelized nations in their own languages ; " 
and a clause was added, that nothing in the act should be so 
construed " as to defeat the express intentions of any testator 
or donor." 

The Hon. Oliver B. Morris, of Springfield, was then a mem 
ber of the House, and took part in the debate. In reply to 
inquiries, Judge Morris says, " I have very little recollection 
of the incidents attending the debate to which you refer. 
Nearly forty-nine years have since passed away, and almost all 
the particulars respecting the subject have faded from my 



72 THE BOARD. 

memory. I was then a very young man, the youngest in the 
House, and, as I now think, quite too young to sit among the 
c elders of the land, as a lawgiver of my people. The debate 
occurred in the evening, at or very near the close of the ses 
sion. A good many members participated in it, and some of 
them, as I thought, exhibited an illiberal spirit. A member 
from Salem, who had been a shipmaster trading to India, rid 
iculed the idea of attempting to carry the gospel to that por 
tion of the heathen world, and said that all efforts of that 
kind would be worse than vain. I have no recollection of the 
names of other men who took part in the debate that evening. 
I think, however, a member from Roxbury advocated the pas 
sage of the bill. I confess I then knew nothing about foreign 
missions. I was induced to take the floor for the purpose of 
rebuking the illiberality of the opposers of the bill. I remem 
ber that I stated, on rising, my entire ignorance of the views 
of the petitioners, and that I had no communications from 
them or their friends on the subject ; but I knew they were 
men of high standing and honest purpose, and I thought they 
were entitled to the favor they asked. I also remember that, 
while on my feet, I received suggestions from several gentle 
men from Essex, friendly to the bill, so that with their aid I 
occupied the time of the House much longer than I intended 
when I first addressed the Chair. I also remember that, on 
the rising of the House, several gentlemen, strangers to me 
till then, met me and thanked me for the part I had taken. 
I dare not, my dear sir, after the lapse of so many years, 
attempt to state any thing further on the subject about which 
you inquire." 

The gentleman from Salem, who took so active a part in 
the opposition, though not named by the writer, was Benjamin 
W. Crowninshield, afterward Secretary of the Navy under 
President Madison. Elbridge Gerry was at that time Governor 
of the State, and the ruling party in the House were in strong 
sympathy with him, and with the war spirit of the times, and 
more influenced, it may be, by the fact that the petitioners 
and their clerical supporters in the Commonwealth were 



THE CHARTER AND THE LEGISLATURE. 73 

generally on the other side, than by a feeling of direct hostility 
to missions. The bill failed to pass ; for when the question 
was put, " Shall this bill be engrossed ?" it was ordered " that 
the further consideration of it be postponed till the first session 
of the next General Court ; " yeas, one hundred and thirty- 
nine ; nays, one hundred and twenty. And so that House of 
Representatives refused to incorporate the Board. 

The next legislature met on the last Wednesday of May 
following. Caleb Strong had been elected Governor, and there 
seems to have been a corresponding change in the political 
character of the new House, though it was otherwise with the 
Senate, owing to a peculiar arrangement in the senatorial 
districts of the Commonwealth, which the reigning party had 
made in the year previous. The bill was called up in the 
House, on the 2d of June, by Mr. Russell, of Boston, then 
widely known as editor of the " Columbian Centinel." It was 
referred to Messrs. Russell, Banister of Newburyport, and Dr. 
Prentiss, who reported it, somewhat enlarged, in a revised draft, 
which is in the handwriting of Mr. .Evarts, with the names of 
Hon. William Phillips, of Boston, then Lieutenant Governor, 
and Hon. John Hooker, of Springfield, as additional corpora 
tors. Having been twice read, it was recommitted to Messrs. 
D wight, Rantoul, and Hammond, and the final reading as 
signed for Saturday, June 6 ; when it passed to be engrossed, 
and was sent up to the Senate. 

The bill seems not to have met with favor from the major 
ity in the Senate, at least in the first instance. The Hon. 
Daniel A. White, of Salem, who has recently deceased,* was 
at that time a resident of Newburyport, and had been re 
quested, as he informed the writer a few months since, by 
" his venerable friend Dr. Spring," to attend to the case. 
Mr. Crowninshield had been elected to the Senate, and re 
newed his zealous opposition to the bill, which, early in the 
year, had been so successful in the other body. Professing 
to speak from personal knowledge of missions in the East, he 

* Judge White died in Salem, Mass., March 30, 1861. 



74 THE BOARD. 

represented the conduct of missionaries there as unworthy, 
and their labors as worse than useless. Of course the project 
of sending money out of the country for their support, when 
it was so much needed for religion at home, was to be repro 
bated. Mr. White replied to Mr. Crowninshield ; but the 
newspapers made no report of speeches in our State legislature 
in those days, and our friend was unable to recall his argument 
after so great a lapse of time. In an address to the public on 
the subject of missions, in the year following, supposed to have 
been written by Mr. Evarts, it is said, that " when it was ob 
jected on the floor of the Senate of Massachusetts to the act 
for incorporating the Board, that it was designed to afford the 
means of exporting religion, whereas there was none to spare 
from among ourselves, it was pleasantly and truly replied, that 
religion was a commodity of which the more we exported the 
more we had remaining." There is no reason to doubt that 
this beautiful and suggestive reply was made by Mr. White. 
But it does not seem to have carried conviction to the Senate ; 
for on the llth of June, wlien the President put the question, 
" Shall this bill pass to be engrossed, in concurrence with the 
House ? " the vote was in the negative. " Whereupon," says 
the Journal of the Senate, " Mr. White gave notice that at four 
o clock in the afternoon he should move for a reconsideration 
of this vote." No record is preserved of such a motion, though 
it was doubtless made, and there is no record of the precise 
state of the votes in the Senate. Bat the other House had en 
tered into the measure with a- different spirit from their prede 
cessors, and too deeply to give up the point ; and hearing the fate 
of their bill, they sent a request that it might be returned to 
them. The Senate s Journal thus records the fact : " June 13. 
Mr. Knapp, of Newburyport, came up with a message from the 
Honorable House, to request the Senate to send down the bill 
entitled An Act to incorporate the American Board of Commis 
sioners for Foreign Missions ; which was sent down according 
ly." After two days the House proposed a conference, an un 
usual proceeding where a bill has been rejected by one branch, 
and appointed Messrs. Mellon of Cambridge, Stevens of Stone- 



THE CHARTER AND THE LEGISLATURE. 75 

ham, and Osgood of Newbury, a committee on their part. 
The Senate agreed to the conference, and appointed Messrs. 
Moody, Crowninshield, and Ripley. The conference was 
unsuccessful ; and the Senate s committee reported on the 17th 
of June, the very day when war was declared with England, 
that the joint committee "could come to no agreement on 
the subject-matter of the difference between the two Houses, and 
that the Senate ought to adhere to their former vote." But 
the Senate, having obtained a somewhat better understanding 
of the case, or of the state of public opinion on the subject, 
rejected the report of their committee, " and the said bill, hav 
ing had two several readings, passed to be engrossed, in con 
currence with the Honorable House, with amendments." The 
Journal of the Senate does not inform us what these amend 
ments were, and no one of the surviving members recollects their 
nature. But whatever they were, the House refused to con 
cur in them. The Senate thereupon receded from all amend 
ments, save one. The House Journal states, that on the 19th 
of June, the " Hon. Mr. Crowninshield came down from the 
Honorable Senate, proposing an amendment in the bill respect 
ing Foreign Missions, and requesting the concurrence of the 
House, which amendment was debated, and non-concurred ; 
and therefore Mr. Stevens was charged with a message to the 
Honorable Senate, stating the non-concurrence of the House." 
It would be interesting to know the precise ground of this last 
stand of the opposition, but there are no means of ascertaining 
it. Neither Mr. White, nor the Hon. Marcus Morton, who was 
then Secretary of the Senate, recollects it ; though Governor 
Morton testifies to the fact, which might be inferred from 
the Journals of the two bodies, " that the subject excited a 
good deal of interest at the time." He states also his recol 
lection, " that the opposition to the bill was very strong, and 
that the speeches against it were very animated and pretty vio 
lent." But the House would not recede from the stand they 
had taken, and so the Senate at length yielded. The Act of 
Incorporation, as it now stands, was passed by the House of 
Representatives on the 19th of June, and by the Senate on the 
12 



76 THE BOARD. 

20th ; and thus the Board acquired a legal existence, which 
has been of incalculable value to it, and to the cause it rep 
resents. 

This narrative illustrates the opinions and spirit, which were 
moro or less prevalent in those early times, in regard to send 
ing Christian missionaries to the heathen. It would be grati 
fying to consult the debates on a measure, the importance of 
which not the wisest of the men concerned in it were then able 
to appreciate. No report, not even an abstract of the debates, 
probably exists. Not one of five Boston newspapers that have 
been consulted gives even an intimation of the discussion. 
Two mention the rejection of the bill by the Senate, and sig 
nificantly attach a couple of exclamation points. There were 
then no religious newspapers, as now, to look after such matters. 

On the 25th of the same month in which the charter was 
obtained, the General Association of Massachusetts, Drs. 
Spring and Morse being present, voted, " That the measures 
adopted by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, in procuring the act of incorporation for securing 
its funds, and in the commencement of missions, meet the 
entire approbation of this body." In an address of the Pru 
dential Committee, soon after, it was stated that the advan 
tages of perpetual succession, and of holding funds under the 
immediate protection of the law, which could be obtained only 
by an act of incorporation, were highly important to secure 
the confidence of the American public. 

This incorporation of the Board has been virtually acknowl 
edged in all the States of our Union ; and even in the remote 
territories of the East India Company it has been only neces 
sary to furnish an authenticated copy of the act to secure an 
admission of the right of the Board to hold property in those 
territories. The Board has thus acquired an acknowledged 
legal personality, which has been found sufficient for all finan 
cial interests throughout the world. In no other way, proba 
bly, could it have gained that credit in the commercial world, 
which has made its bills as good as gold to its missionaries in 
every land. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 

Object of the Board. Kange of its Duties. Not a State Institution. At first Congre 
gational. Proposal to the General Assembly. Assembly s Keasons for not forming 
a Separate Organization. The Board ceases to be Denominational. Becomes Na 
tional. The Founders. Officers. Corresponding Members. Honorary Members. 
Number of Members. Tn each State. In Foreign Lands. Summary. Duties of 
Prudential Committee. Working Capacity of the Board. Wide Range of its Meet 
ings. Attendance of Members. Identity of its Meetings. Its Hold on the Affec 
tions of its Patrons. , 

THE " Board of Commissioners " was designed, as its name 
indicates, to act for others. For whom ? For all who should 
choose to employ it ; for individual Christians, churches, de 
nominations, whoever saw fit to act through the agency it had 
to offer. It was created for " devising ways and means, and 
adopting and prosecuting measures, for the spread of the gos 
pel in heathen lands." It was incorporated, and now exists, 
" for propagating the gospel in heathen lands by supporting 
missionaries and diffusing a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures." 
The Board, in its " Laws and Regulations," declares ite object 
to be " to propagate the gospel among unevangelized nations 
and communities by means of preachers, catechists, school 
masters, and the press." It thus explains its sense of the 
meaning of " heathen lands," in the charter, to be the same 
with " unevangelized nations and communities." The North 
American Indians are of course within its province, until they 
shall have been Christianized.* So are all pagan nations, and 

* " This Board is limited, by charter, to the purpose of propagating the gos 
pel in heathen lands by supporting missionaries and diffusing the knowledge 
of the Holy Scriptures. It hence became a serious question with the Board, 
whether the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States and their 
territories were within our limits. This question has been determined in the 
affirmative. The Indian tribes, but no other people of these States and Terri- 

(77) 



78 THE BOARD. 

the Mohammedans. In respect to the nominal Christians of 
Western Asia, it is at least true, that their evangelization is an. 
indispensable means of effecting that of the Moslems among 
whom they dwell. Perhaps the Board might properly have 
extended its missions into some of the more benighted parts 
of the Roman Catholic world. It did no more, however, than 
explore a considerable portion of South America in the years 
1823-1826.* 

The number of Commissioners was originally nine, all resi 
dents of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and belonging to the 
Congregational body. It should be noted that four of the eleven 
gentlemen incorporated by the Massachusetts legislature be 
longed to the State of Connecticut ; and that the first meeting 
of the Board under the charter was not held in Massachusetts, 
but in Connecticut, under an appointment distinctly authorized 
by the charter. Though both of these facts would seem to 
have been casual, they were important. The first settled the 
principle, that the members of the Board need not be restricted 
to the State which gave the act of incorporation ; and the 
Board has felt at liberty to elect its members from every part 
of the Union, and so has become a national institution. The 
other sanctioned the holding of its meetings in any one of the 
United States, and countenances the extended range of places 
in which they have been held from Portland in Maine, to 
Detroit in Michigan and Cincinnati in Ohio. 

The Board seems at first to have had no thought of becom 
ing any thing more than a Congregational body. At its sec 
ond meeting, in 1811, it suggested to the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church the forming of a similar body of 
its own, with which the Board might cooperate in the work 
of foreign missions. The attendance of Drs. Lyinan and 
Worcester at the General Assembly, a few months before, as 
delegates from the General Association of Massachusetts, may 

tories, are regarded by the Board as coming within the description of heathen 
lands." Letter from Dr. Worcester, Nov. 15, 1815. 
* Missionary Herald, 1824-1826. 



CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 79 

have prepared the way for this proposition, and perhaps also 
for the reply. The Assembly s response, dated June 2, 1812, 
was as follows : 

Having had under consideration the important and inter 
esting vote of the American Board of Commissioners, by which 
they submit to the Assembly the expediency of forming an 
institution similar to theirs, between which and theirs there 
may be such cooperation as shall promote the great object of 
missions among the unevangelized nations, it appears proper 
to state, 

1. That it is matter of sincere joy, in their apprehension, 
to all who love the Lord Jesus Christ and the souls of men, 
a joy in which the committee doubt not that the Assembly has 
a lively participation, that the brethren of the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions have, by the 
exertions they have used, and the success of these exertions, 
demonstrated that the churches of America are desirous to 
embark, with their Protestant brethren in Europe, in the holy 
enterprise of evangelizing the heathen. 

2. That as the churches under the care of the Assembly 
rejoice in the foreign missions organized, and about to be 
organized, by the American Board of Commissioners, so, as 
opportunity favors, they ought to aid them, as they have in a 
measure already aided them, by contributions to their funds, 
and every other facility which they could offer to so commend 
able an undertaking. 

3. That, as the business of foreign missions may properly 
be best managed under the direction of a single Board, so the 
numerous and extensive engagements of the Assembly, in 
regard to domestic missions, render it extremely inconvenient, 
at this time, to take a part in the business of foreign missions. 
And the Assembly, it is apprehended, may the rather decline 
these missions, inasmuch as the committee are informed that 
missionary societies have lately been instituted in several 
places within the bounds of the Presbyterian Church, which 
make foreign missions a particular object of their attention. 



80 THE BOARD. 

With this document before them, the Board was led to 
extend its membership into the Presbyterian Church ; and, at 
the annual meeting of 1812, eight Commissioners were added 
from among the more prominent members of that Church, 
residing in the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl 
vania. Others were also elected from New Hampshire, Ver 
mont, and Khode Island. 

Thus did the Board prepare itself to act as a national insti 
tution in this great work ; and perhaps there was never an 
equal number of good men associated together, for any cause, 
who were more deserving of general confidence. At the close 
of the year 1813, the Board was composed of the following 
persons, of whom but one now survives the venerable Dr. 
Nott, of Schenectady, New York. 

From MASSACHUSETTS, Samuel Spring, D. D., Samuel 
Worcester, D. D., William Bartlet, Esq., Joseph Lyman, 
D. D., Jedediah Morse, D. D., Hon. William Phillips, Hon. 
John Hooker, and Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. 

From CONNECTICUT, John Tread well, LL. D., Calvin Cha- 
pin, D. D., Timothy Dwight, D. D., LL. D., and General 
Jedidiah Huntington. 

From NEW HAMPSHIRE, John Langdon, LL. D., and Seth 
Payson, D. D. 

From MAINE, Jesse Appleton, D. D., and Gen. Henry Sewall. 

From VERMONT, Henry Davis, D. D. 

From RHODE ISLAND, Hon. William Jones. 

From NEW YORK, John Jay, LL. D., Samuel Miller, D. D., 
Egbert Benson, LL. D., Eliphalet Nott, D. D., and Alexander 
Proudfit, D. D. 

From NEW JERSEY, Elias Boudinot, LL. D., and James 
Richards, D. D. 

From PENNSYLVANIA, Ashbel Green, D. D., and Robert 
Ralston, Esq. 

These twenty-seven persons constituted the Board, when it 
actually assumed its broad, national character, and some ac 
count of them will be given in a subsequent chapter. 

The charter provides for the election of a President, Vice 



CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 81 

President, Prudential Committee, and such a number of Cor 
responding Secretaries and other officers as the Board shall 
deem expedient, who hold office till others are elected. Con 
tracts and deeds require the signature of the chairman and 
clerk of the Prudential Committee, and are to be sealed with 
the common seal of the corporation. Members must be 
elected by ballot, at an annual meeting ; and not less than 
one third of the body must be composed of respectable lay 
men, not less than a third of respectable clergymen, and the 
remaining third of " characters of the same description, whether 
clergymen or laymen." 

At the annual meeting in 1819, a class of members called 
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS, was added to the Board, to be chosen 
by ballot, who should be composed of clergymen and laymen, 
residing in different, and especially in distant parts of the United 
States, and in other lands ; and who, though it was no part 
of their official duty to attend its meetings, or to take part in its 
votes and resolutions, might yet assist in its deliberations when 
present, and in various ways facilitate its operations. A score 
of distinguished men were accordingly then chosen in the 
different Southern and South-western States, and about half 
as many in foreign lands. It soon appeared, however, that 
the expectations of the Board with regard to the utility of 
this measure were not likely to be realized ; and no elections 
having been made in that class of members for several years, 
it is now nearly extinct. 

The plan for another class, called HONORARY MEMBERS, 
adopted in 1821, has proved eminently successful. These are 
constituted by the payment of fifty dollars, if clergymen, or 
Q{ one hundred dollars, if laymen. Though they may not vote, 
they have all the rights of Corporate members to move resolu 
tions, serve on committees, and assist in the deliberations of 
the Board. 

The following is a tabular view of the Honorary members, 
carefully prepared from the list in the Report of the Board 
for the year 1860 : 



82 



THE BOARD. 



HONORARY MEMBERS. 



UNITED STATES. 


Clergy 
men. 


Others. 


Total. 


FOREIGN LANDS.* 


Clergy 
men. 


Others. 


Total. 




193 
231 

208 
790 
29 
480 
1034 
162 
133 
8 
20 
16 
235 
43 
127 
85 
38 
25 
7 
21 
3 
64 
20 
18 
24 
4 
6 
18 
46 
9 
7 
2 
6 
5 
3 

8 
2 
1 
105 


263 
453 
330 
2992 
119 
1095 
1843 
260 
264 
13 
20 

266 
19 
148 
76 
32 
16 
4 
29 

62 
5 
25 
45 
4 
8 
9 
16 
14 
13 
1 
9 
2 
1 
1 
9 
3 

35 


456 
684 
538 
3782 
148 
1575 
2877 
422 
397 
21 
40 
23 
501 
62 
275 1 
161 
70 1 
41 
11 
50 
12 
126 
25 
43 
69 
8 
14 

62 
23 
20 
3 
15 
7 
4 
1 
17 
5 
1 
140 




37 
4 
23 
10 
5 
1 
6 


1 



3 
1 
57 
13 
47 

1 
1 
19 
3 

35 
5 
2 
3 
2 

1 
1 
1 
11 
6 


52 
3 

21 
13 


1 
1 
4 

1 
4 


40 
18 
25 
2 


1 


1 
55 



2 
4 

1 
4 


89 
7 
44 
23 
5 
1 

1 
6 
1 
1 
4 
3 
1 
97 
31 
72 
2 
1 
2 
26 
3 
1 
90 
5 
2 
3 
4 
5 
1 
2 
15 
8 


New Hampshire, . . . 
Vermont, 


New Brunswick, . . . 
England, 


Massachusetts, .... 
Rhode Island, .... 


Scotland, 




Wales, . . 


New York, 


France, .... 


New Jersey, 


Belgium, 


Pennsylvania, .... 


Switzerland, 


Italy, . 


Maryland, . . . 


Prussia, . . 


District of Columbia, 
Ohio, 


Russia, . . 


Greece, 




Malta 




Turkey, 
Persia, . . 


Michigan, 


Wisconsin, 


Inclja, 


Iowa, 


Ceylon, 


Siam, 




Singapore, 


Arkansas, . . . 


China, 
Borneo . 


Virginia, 


North Carolina, . . . 
South Carolina, . . . 




Sandwich Islands, . . 


Florida, . . . 


Other Pacific Isles, . 
West Indies, 


Alabama, 


Kentucky, 


New Granada, .... 
Chili, 






Buenos Ayres, .... 
St Helena 


Louisiana 


Texas, 


South Africa, . 


California, 


West Africa, .... 


Ore< r on, . 


In Foreign Lands, . 
In the U. States, . . 

Total,. . . 


Kansas Territory, . . 
Washington Territory 
Choctaw Nation, . . . 
Cherokee Nation, . . 
Chickasaw Nation, . . 


301 
4236 


262 
8520 


563 
12756 


4537 


8782 


13319 


Total, . . . 


4236 


8520 


12756 


SUMMARY. 


Clergy 
men. 


Others. 


Total. 




1931 
1034 
295 
44 
136 
490 
45 
46 
64 
21 
11 
3 
11 
301 
105 


5252 
1843 
524 
40 
149 
509 
36 
45 
25 
37 
11 
2 
12 
262 
35 


7183 
2877 
819 
84 
285 
999 
81 
91 
89 
58 
22 
5 
23 
563 
140 




New Jersey and Pcnn? 
Delaware, Maryland, a 
Virginia, and five State 
Ohio, Michigan, Indiai 
Wisconsin and Minnes 
Iowa and Missouri, 


ylvani 
nd Di 
s sout 
la, anc 




strict of Columbia, 
l 


lilino 








Kentucky and Tenness 
Mississippi, Louisiana, 
California and Oregon, 
Kansas and Washingto 
Indian Nations 




Arkansas, and Tex 






n Territories 










T 


otal, 


4537 


8782 


13319 




* The members in foreign lands are believed to be, for the most part, American citi/eus. 
In countries where the Board has missions, nearly all of them are missionaries. 



CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 83 

Three hundred and fifty-eight persons have been elected 
Corporate members from the beginning. Of these, one hun 
dred and fifty-three were from the New England States, one 
hundred and forty-one from the Middle States, forty-three 
from the Western States, and twenty-one from the Southern 
States. The number at the close of the half-century is two 
hundred and fourteen, distributed as follows : eighty-eight in 
New England, the same number in the Middle States, thirty- 
four in the Western States, and four in the Southern. The 
clergymen are one hundred and twenty-four, and ninety are 
laymen. As many as thirteen thousand three hundred and 
nineteen persons have been constituted Honorary members. 
One third have been clergymen, or, to speak more accurately, 
four thousand five hundred and thirty-seven ; leaving the 
number of persons not clergymen eight thousand seven hun 
dred and eighty-two. It is impossible to say how many of 
these are now living, but probably not far from ten thousand. 

The business of originating and conducting the missions, 
appointing and directing the missionaries, and collecting and 
expending the funds, is intrusted to the Prudential Committee, 
who make a summary report of their proceedings to the Board 
at the close of each financial year. It is then the business of 
the Board to revise their proceedings. The duties of the 
Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, the Treasurer, and 
the District Secretaries, are distinctly and fully specified in. 
the Laws and Regulations of the Board, and need not be 
stated here. 

It is probable that improvements may be made in the con 
stitution of the Board during the second half-century, as the 
result of experience and the progress of events. But, in point 
of fact, no other method of organizing missionary societies 
is believed to have worked with less friction, or with more 
power and effect than this, in the past fifty years. For an 
eminently experimental age of missions, for a mixed commu 
nity (ecclesiastically considered) such as the Board has rep 
resented, and for the time of unsettled relations of the foreign 
missionary enterprise to the greaj; moral reforms of the age, 
there was special need of a conservative element in the con- 
13 



Oi THE BOARD. 

stitution of the Board ; and perhaps no better method of 
organization could have been devised, than the one our fathers 
were providentially led to adopt. Of the fifty-three meetings, 
annual and special, forty %ave been held, in nearly equal pro 
portions, in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Of 
the twenty-five different places of meeting, Maine, Rhode 
Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Mich 
igan have each one, Connecticut five, Massachusetts six, and 
New York seven. The annual meetings, alternating between 
New England and the other States, have ranged from Port 
land to Cincinnati, a distance of more than a thousand miles. 
With its present organization, and the acknowledged obligation 
resting upon the Corporate members to attend, there is no 
difficulty in the Board s holding its three-days deliberative 
meetings in any portion of the land. The Honorary members 
attending the meetings in the places most remote from each 
other, constitute in great measure different bodies, but it is 
not so with the Corporate members ; and for all the purposes 
of trusteeship, responsibility, and an intelligent and wise 
administration, the incorporated Board sufficiently preserves 
its identity at the several meetings. Of the forty-seven Cor 
porate members present at Cincinnati, in 1853, twenty-four 
were from New England and New York, and nearly forty had 
attended most of the meetings from the time of their election. 
It was so with the whole number from New England. The 
following table shows the attendance of the Corporate 
members : 



36 have each attended 1 meeting. 


13 have each attended 14 meetings. 


20 




2 meetings. 


11 15 




30 




3 




9 " 16 




27 




4 




2 17 < 




15 




5 




4 18 




23 




6 




4 " 19 




15 




7 




1 20 




12 




8 




8 21 




19 




9 




3 26 




11 




10 




1 27 




14 




11 




1 31 




6 




12 




1 34 




4 




13 




52 have attended none. 



CONSTITUTION AND MEMBERSHIP. 85 

Of the thirty-six who attended but one meeting, it is certain 
that want of interest, in most cases, was not the reason. Of 
the fifty-two who never attended, fourteen were in New Eng 
land, sixteen in the Middle States, eight in the Western, and 
fourteen in the Southern. A considerable number belonged 
to the Old School Presbyterian Church, which formed a Board 
of its own in the year 1837. In others, the southern feeling, 
or the infirmities of age, or early death prevented. Ninety- 
three of the members have averaged an attendance on fifteen 
meetings. The advantages afforded by such an attendance on 
deliberative meetings of three days ) continuance, for under 
standing the work of missions, and acting intelligently in 
relation to the same, must be obvious. 

Our fathers were providentially led to the existing form of 
organization as best adapted to their day. It was instituted 
solely for the spread of the gospel among the heathen, and 
has worked better hitherto than any one of its founders ven 
tured to expect. The attendance and interest at its annual 
meetings, the responses to its appeals for funds, the number 
and character of the men who go as its missionaries, the 
success of its missions, and the standing it is permitted to 
hold in the estimation of Christians generally, place it on a 
footing with the most favored kindred institutions of modern 
times, whether voluntary or ecclesiastical. Nor does it appear 
to have IBSS hold than any other one of the societies on the 
confidence and affection of its missionaries, nor upon the com 
munity to which it looks for support. 



CHAPTER V. 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 

Relations to Contributors and to Missionaries. To Ecclesiastical Bodies. By the 
Elements of its Existence. JBy Formal Recognitions. By Donations from 
Churches. By Resolutions, and other Formal Acts of General Associations, Syn 
ods, and Assemblies. General Assembly in 1825 and 1831. General Synod of 
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. Compact of 1832. How understood, and 
the Effect. Minute of Prudential Committee. Objections to the Plan. Letter to 
General Synod. Synod s Response, and subsequent Proposal. Mutual Convic 
tion. The Compact dissolved. How the Connection with Missionaries was dis 
solved. Mutual Tokens of Respect. Western Foreign Missionary Society. Old 
School General Assembly s Board of Foreign Missions. The New School Pres 
byterians. Relations to Ecclesiastical Bodies. A Second Statement. Embar 
rassment of Prudential Committee. Explanatory Resolve. The Board not an 
Ecclesiastical Body. Has no Ecclesiastical Powers. No Effect on the Ecclesias 
tical Relations of its Missionaries. Scope for the two Bodies. The Board not a 
Voluntary Association. The Practical Working. 

THE primary relations of the Board are to its contributors, 
and to the missionaries under its care. To the former it is 
directly responsible for carrying out their known intentions ; 
and to the latter for a wise and equitable distribution of the 
funds which are placed at its disposal. It is directly amenable 
to its patrons, and must retain their confidence and good will, 
or come to a speedy close. There can be no more effective 
control of a great working body, than the patrons of the Board 
silently exercise over its operations. And this controlling 
influence is believed to be just as effective with its present 
constitution, to secure conformity to the general sentiment of 
its patrons, as would be possible with any other constitution. 

But there exist also important relations between the Board 
and Ecclesiastical Bodies, as such Churches, Associations, 
Conferences, Presbyteries, Synods, General Assembly. Its 
missionaries come from these, and must receive ordination 
from them, and look to them for an authoritative guardianship 

(86) 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 87 

of their ministerial faithfulness. To a great extent, moreover, 
these bodies are an ecclesiastical embodiment of the very 
people who sustain the missions ; and since the Board lives on 
the popular Christian favor, the confidence of these bodies is 
indispensable to it. From the beginning, therefore, the Board 
has shown great deference to the ecclesiastical bodies ; and it 
has had little reason to complain of a want of candor, kind 
ness, and cooperation on their part. 

1. It has had, from the outset, a positive connection with eccle 
siastical denominations by the very elements of its existence. 
The original members belonged to the Congregational body, and ; 
at the first meeting after their incorporation, elected eight of the 
more distinguished members of the Presbyterian Church. The 
Board thus became as really Presbyterian as before this it was 
Congregational. In the following year, a member was elected 
from the Associate Reformed Church, along with two more 
from the Congregational. In 1816, one was elected from the 
Reformed Dutch Church, and five others within the next ten 
years. The membership determined, of course, the character 
of the institution, and connected it with these denominations. 
Of the present members, one hundred and five are Congrega- 
tionalists, eighty-one are Presbyterians connected with the New 
School Church, seventeen are Presbyterians connected with the 
Old School Church, nine are members of the Protestant Re 
formed Dutch Church, and two belong to the Reformed Ger 
man Church. 

2. The Board has been fully and formally recognized by the 
ecclesiastical bodies of these several denominations, (unless 
the last be an exception,) as a proper foreign missionary 
agency for their churches. It is not necessary to speak again 
of its formation by the General Association of Massachusetts ; 
of the concurrence in this act by the General Association of 
Connecticut ; of the approval of its legal incorporation by the 
Massachusetts Association ; of the ordination and recognition 
of its first missionaries by Congregational churches at Salem ; 



88 THE BOARD. 

nor of the affectionate and confiding letter received from the 
Presbyterian General Assembly in the same year. But other 
kindred facts should be recorded. 

(1.) A very large portion of the donations received by the 
Board are more or less the result of church action. The 
number of churches and congregations in New England, from 
which donations were acknowledged as the result of associated 
effort in the year 1839, was eight hundred and sixty-nine ; 
and the number in the whole country, including cooperating 
societies, doubtless exceeded two thousand. Contributions 
were received, also, from not less than a thousand monthly 
concert meetings. The Board has been recognized and ac 
credited as an agent in the work of foreign missions by res 
olutions and other formal acts of General Associations, Syn- 
ods, and General Assemblies. 

(2.) The amalgamation of the United Foreign Missionary 
Society with the Board, in the year 1825, gave occasion for a 
formal and emphatic recognition of the Board by the General 
Assembly. That Society was formed in New York City in the 
year 1817, by a joint committee of the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church, the General Synod of the Reformed 
Dutch Church, and the General Synod of the Associate 
Reformed Church. The sphere of the Society s labors was 
among the North American Indians ; and in August, 1825, it 
had under its care ten missionary stations, seven ordained 
missionaries, and twenty male and thirty female assistants. 
In that year, a committee from the Society attended the 
annual meeting of the Board at Northampton, with proposals 
for an amalgamation with the Board. A joint committee 
reported in favor of the union, and the following reasons were 
assigned by the commissioners from the Society : 

" That the most friendly relations and feelings now exist 
between the General Assembly and the Synods, and the 
Orthodox Associations of New England. 

" That the spirit of controversy having subsided, the intelli 
gent and candid of the Christian public are all satisfied that 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 89 

the same gospel which is preached in the Middle, and Southern, 
and Western States, is preached also in the Eastern States. 

" That the missionaries of both societies preach precisely 
the same gospel to the heathen ; and that the same regulations 
are adopted by both in the management of missions. 

" That both derive much of their funds from the same 
churcfies and individuals ; that the great body of Christians 
do not perceive or make any distinction between the two 
institutions, and consequently do not perceive any necessity 
for two, and regret the existence of two ; and that many 
churches and individuals, unwilling to evjnce a preference for 
either, are thus prevented from acting promptly, and from 
contributing liberally to either. 

" That both societies are evidently embarrassed and 
cramped, through the fear of collision and difficulty ; and 
that the agents of both are discouraged, and limited in their 
operations by the same apprehension. 

" That the objects, principles, and operations of both are so 
entirely similar, that there can be no good reason assigned for 
maintaining two. 

" That the claims upon the churches are becoming so 
numerous and frequent, and the necessities of the destitute so 
urgent, that all institutions are sacredly bound to observe the 
most rigid economy ; and that by the union, much that is now 
expended for the support of offices, officers, agents, &c., will 
be saved for the general objects of the societies. 

"And, lastly, that the prevailing feeling in the churches 
demands a union between the two societies, and will event 
ually make it unavoidably necessary." 

The union agreed upon at this meeting was afterward 
approved by the General Assembly and the General Synod ; 
and the former, by a formal vote, commended the Board to 
the favorable and Christian support of the churches and 
people under its care. The General Synod was not ready for 
such a commendation at that time. 

(3.) In 1831, the General Assembly appointed commis 
sioners to confer with the Board relative to measures best 



90 THE BOARD. 

adapted to enlist the energies of the Presbyterian Church 
more extensively in the cause of missions to the heathen. A 
conference was held with the Board in the autumn of the 
same year. These commissioners reported to the General 
Assembly that, in their judgment, the Board was a national 
institution, belonging as much to one section of the country 
as to another ; that it fully represented the Presbyterian, 
Reformed Dutch, and Congregational Churches, and sustained 
the same relation to each ; that its proceedings had been in 
strict accordance with this relation ; that the Board, its Pru 
dential Committee, and its missionaries, were under very high 
responsibility to the three denominations and to the Christian 
public responsibility peculiarly adapted to insure the purity 
and efficiency of the whole system ; that in raising funds and 
in other proceedings at home, the various ecclesiastical habits 
of the people had been, and there was every reason to feel 
assured would be, regarded ; that it was wholly inexpedient 
to attempt the formation of any other distinct organization 
within the three denominations for conducting foreign mis 
sions, at least until the concern should become too extensive 
and complicated (if that should ever be) for management by 
one institution ; and that it was of the highest importance to 
their own spiritual prosperity, and to the extension of the 
Redeemer s kingdom on earth, that the ecclesiastical bodies 
and the individual churches in these connections should give 
the Board their cordial, united, and vigorous support. 

(4.) The following year, a committee from the General Syn 
od of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church attended the 
annual meeting of the Board at New York, and proposed that 
a plan be arranged for the unrestricted action of that Church 
through the Board. Drs. Miller and Edwards, Judge Platt, 
Mr. Lewis, and Mr, Anderson (now the only survivor) were 
appointed a committee of conference. At that time, there were 
six members of the Reformed Dutch Church connected with 
the corporation of the Board, and two of its members were in 
the missions under the care of the Board. From the year 
1816, that Church had stood in precisely the same relation 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 91 

to the Board as the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, 
and perhaps needed only a more explicit understanding of 
the subject. Accordingly the report of the joint committee 
was chiefly occupied with explanatory statements. Having 
been drawn up by the writer of this, and not by the venera 
ble chairman, he may be allowed to say, that it was not with 
sufficient forethought of consequences. For being understood 
by the Reformed Dutch Church to provide expressly for ex 
tending the distinctive organization and forms of the Church 
into heathen lands, that idea took such strong hold as to im 
pair the value of the connection. Its effect was mainly to 
concentrate the feeling, prayers, and efforts of that Church 
upon the mission or missions composed exclusively or*her sons. 
In the compact of 1832, as understood and carried out in the 
Reformed Dutch Church, there was another infelicity. The 
body responsible for the agencies at home and for procuring 
funds and missionaries, was not the body which appointed and 
directed the missionaries and was held responsible for the mis 
sions. The agencies were exclusively managed by a Board of 
Missions within the Church. In August, 1845, the Prudential 
Committee adopted a minute which was designed to be sent to 
the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Dutch Church, 
unless the members of that Church present at the next annual 
meeting of the Board should advise to the contrary. As it is 
important that the working of such peculiar relations in for 
eign missions should be understood, a few extracts are copied 
from the minute. They are as follows : 

" In the opinion of the Prudential Committee, it would be 
favorable to the interests of the Redeemer s kingdom, were the 
agencies for foreign missions in the Reformed Dutch Church 
committed to the Prudential Committee, just as they are in 
respect to the churches in the Congregational and Presbyterian 
denominations, which furnish missionaries and funds for the 
system of missions under the care of the Board ; but if that 
can not be, tlion it would be advisable to request the Reformed 
Dutch Church to assume the direction of the missionaries from 
that Church in the Borneo and Amoy missions ; with the 
14 



92 THE BOARD. 

understanding that it shall receive every facility for so doing 
within the power of the Prudential Committee, the Secreta 
ries, and the Treasurer of the Board. 

" In making this movement for bringing the missions sent 
out from the Reformed Dutch Church, and for the nine years 
past under the care of the Prudential Committee, into connec 
tion with a more effective system of support, the Committee 
are happy to say, that their relations with their brethren of the 
Reformed Dutch Church have ever been most happy ; while 
the defect they desire to see remedied is not one that can be 
avoided on the present system. If the home and foreign depart 
ments of the enterprise are committed to two entirely distinct 
Boards, iff is inevitable that the missions will suffer from inad 
equate reinforcements, however well the different Boards are 
constituted, and however disposed to do their duty. The 
entire responsibility must needs rest on one and the same body. 

" It might seem natural, after having gone through the night 
of adversity and trial which God usually sees fit to appoint to 
missions at their outset, and after the daystar has arisen at 
least upon a part of the enterprise, that the Prudential Com 
mittee should feel some unwillingness to have the missions go 
into other hands. It would not be strange if the Committee 
had some feeling of this sort. But they see conclusive reasons 
against proceeding on the present arrangement, and such dif 
ficulties may be found in the way of transferring the care of 
the agencies for foreign missions in the Reformed Dutch Church 
to the Board, that it shall be better to transfer the missions to 
that Church than to attempt it." 

After some conference and correspondence, the Prudential 
Committee resolved, but not until December, that it was not 
then advisable to take any further action in the case. Two 
years later, one of the Secretaries had a personal confer 
ence with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed 
Dutch Church, on this and other points. In the year 1851, a 
letter was addressed to the General Synod of that Church, stat 
ing the difficulty of obtaining missionaries. The following 
extracts from that letter have an historical importance : 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 93 

" If tlio cause of this lack of missionaries be in the nature 
of the connection existing between the General Synod and the 
Board, while we greatly value our relations to our brethren of 
the Reformed Dutch Church, we should still wish the cause 
of so great an evil removed. 

" It must be obvious to the Synod, however, that the plan of 
operation, as agreed upon by the joint committee nineteen 
years ago, has been but partially carried into effect. Upon 
the going forth of the mission to Netherlands India, nearly the 
whole attention and interest of the Church appeared to concen 
trate upon it. It became the mission of the Church ; and after 
the Amoy mission was commenced, the two missions were re 
garded as a proper and complete exponent and representative 
of the influence of Reformed Dutch funds and missionaries iu 
heathen lands. The students for the ministry, and the young 
ministers in the Church, when pressed with the duty of becom 
ing missionaries, have felt themselves shut up to these two 
missions. The appeals for new missionaries have necessarily 
been based upon facts belonging to these missions. 

" But this was not in accordance with the joint report form 
ing the basis of our union and cooperation. The report was 
designed to connect the missionary spirit and movement of the 
Reformed Dutch Church with the whole missionary enterprise 
under the care of the American Board ; and by interesting 
Christian people in the whole, to secure their greater interest 
in the several parts ; and especially in those portions of the 
system, those missions which, because they were new, for that 
very reason were but partially developed, and had little in 
themselves, excepting their necessities, to awaken an interest. 
We have long felt, and we feel it more and more, that the 
former part of this plan is important, if not essential, to the 
success of the latter ; that the young men, especially, of the 
Reformed Dutch Church should realize that they are free to 
direct their attention to any part of the unevangelized world 
occupied by the missions under the care of the American 
Board to Western Asia, Africa, India, Polynesia, and the 
Indian tribes, as well as to Borneo and China. Thus will they 



94 THE BOARD. 

come under a broad and diversified system of missions, in dif 
ferent quarters of the world, in varied climates, religions, lan 
guages, and civilizations, and some of the missions ripening 
already to harvest. Thus the motive power will be greatly 
increased ; and there is stronger probability, under the ordi 
nary ministrations and callings of the Spirit, that the young 
heralds of the cross will be drawn into a favorable contempla 
tion of the subject, and be led to a hearty self-consecration to 
the cause and the work of foreign missions. And thus we may 
expect that a greater number will be found ready to labor in 
the service of Christ at Amoy and in Borneo. This is the sort 
of scattering in missions which is sure to increase ; and greatly 
have we desired to feel more freedom to try the effect of this 
plan upon the young men in the seminary at New Brunswick, 
and upon the younger ministers, and to see it every where in 
full experiment throughout the Reformed Dutch Church. In 
deed, we almost despair of seeing the Borneo mission revived, 
as we think it should be, and the Amoy mission speedily en 
larged, and a new mission established in India by missionaries 
from the Reformed Dutch Church, at least through the 
agency of the American Board, unless the prayers and efforts 
of the ministers and members of the Church are directed to a 
wider and more varied field than is presented by these missions 
alone. 1 

The Synod, in their reply, after renewing their assurance of 
unabated confidence in the Board, stated that they regarded 
the manner in which the missionary operations had been con 
ducted hitherto, as a proper interpretation of the wishes of the 
Church in respect to the future, and that they deemed it their 
duty to sustain their own distinctive missions. 

All parties became at length convinced, that the interests of 
the missionary cause would be promoted by a different arrange 
ment. As a consequence of this, the General Synod adopted 
the fallowing resolutions in the year 1857 : 

"1. That, considering the growth of our missions abroad ; 
the duty of the Church, in her distinctive capacity as such, to 
take charge of these missions ; the growing sentiment among 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 95 

our people in favor of such a course ; and the hopeful prospect 
that this action will tend to call out far more largely and 
promptly the resources of our denomination, we are satisfied 
that the time has come to dissolve the union with the Ameri 
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and hence 
forth conduct our operations among the heathen through the 
exclusive agency of our own Board. 

" 2. That the intimate relation which has existed for a quar 
ter of a century between the Reformed Protestant Dutch 
Church and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, in the prosecution of this work, has confirmed our 
confidence in the wisdom, the integrity, and catholic spirit of 
that great and noble institution ; nor shall we ever cease to 
feel a lively interest in the growth of its operations and the 
success of its plans. 

" 3. That, in dissolving the pleasant and useful connection 
we have maintained with the officers and members of that 
Board for the last twenty-five years, we are not influenced by 
any dissatisfaction with their modes of action, or any want of 
fidelity on their part to the terms of this connection. 

" 4. That we take pleasure in expressing to the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions our grateful 
sense of the benefits derived from their experience, foresight, 
and enlarged views, and of the uniform Christian kindness and 
courtesy which have marked their intercourse with our Board. 

" 5. That the Board of Foreign Missions, now composed of 
fifteen members, be increased to twenty-four, the additional 
members to be chosen by the Board itself; that they be, and 
hereby are, empowered to arrange with the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions the terms of an amica 
ble separation, and to assume the management and control of 
the missions in Arcot and Amoy ; and that they be authorized 
and directed to employ all suitable means, such as the use of 
the press, the appointment of agents, the holding of mission 
ary conventions and the like, for the purpose of developing the 
power and exciting the interest of our churches in the great 
work of evangelizing the world. 



96 THE BOARD. 

These resolutions being submitted to the American Board 
the same year, at its meeting in Providence, the Board re 
sponded in the resolutions which follow : 

" 1. That, in accordance with the proposal received from 
the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church, the Board 
assents to a dissolution of the compact, for the prosecution of 
foreign missions, which was formed with that Synod in the 
year 1832. 

" 2. That the appointment of a missionary being a personal 
matter, involving a mutual contract and obligation between 
the missionary and the Board, therefore, should the mission 
aries of the Amoy and Arcot missions, formed and prosecuted 
on the basis of this compact, request a release from their con 
nection with the Board, the Prudential Committee is instructed 
to grant such a release ; and also to transfer the property in 
those missions to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Re 
formed Dutch Church. 

" 3. That all financial questions, growing out of this busi 
ness, be referred, for mutual adjustment, to the Prudential 
Committee and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed 
Dutch Church. 

" 4. That in assenting to a dissolution of this compact, now 
of twenty-five years duration, the Board gratefully acknowl 
edges the expressions of respect, esteem, and confidence which 
are embodied in the resolutions of the General Synod ; and it 
would also bear testimony to the Christian kindness and 
urbanity which have uniformly and eminently characterized 
the pastors and members of that Church, and especially the 
officers of its Board of Foreign Missions, in their intercourse 
with the officers and agents of this Board, and would give 
assurance of our earnest hope and prayer, that the results of 
the step now taken may equal the highest expectations of the 
Reformed Dutch Church in the promotion of the Redeemer s 
kingdom." 

(5.) Notwithstanding the action of the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church in 1831 and 1832, there were por 
tions of that Church which did not act cordially through the 



EELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 97 

Board. The "Western Foreign Missionary Society was formed 
by the Synod of Pittsburg as early as 1831. After the divis 
ion of the Presbyterian Church into two bodies, called Old 
School and New School, in 1837, the Old School Assembly 
adopted that Society, under the name of The Board of For 
eign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. The Old School 
churches, however, withdrew their support so gradually from 
the Boai;d, as not to occasion any serious embarrassment in 
the support of its missions. None of the Presbyterian mis 
sionaries withdrew from the Board in consequence of these 
changes ; and the churches of the New School continued their 
relations and patronage as before. 

(6.) In accordance with a recommendation from the Special 
Committee on the Report of the Deputation to India, in 1856, 
the Board gave a more definite expression to its relations to 
ecclesiastical bodies, in the following resolution : 

That, on the whole subject of ecclesiastical relations and 
organizations, the principle of the Board is that of entire 
non-intervention on the part of the Board and its officers ; 
that missionaries are free to organize themselves into, or to 
connect themselves with, such ecclesiastical bodies or churches 
as they may choose, either on missionary ground or in this 
country ; and that in organizing churches, provided the prin 
ciples held in common by the constituencies of this Board be 
not violated, the persons to be thus organized are free to 
adopt such forms of organization as they may prefer. 

At Philadelphia, in the year 1859, the General Assembly 
proposed, .through a committee, that the appointments of 
missionaries be so disposed, whenever it is wise and practicable, 
as to facilitate the formation of foreign presbyteries: The 
report of a committee of conference, in reply to this and other 
propositions, was not presented to the Board until the last 
morning of the session ; and it was afterward found by the 
Prudential Committee, that the portion which treated of the 
designation of missionaries, and the formation of foreign pres 
byteries, was somewhat indeterminate, and capable of a more 
or less enlarged application. They accordingly signified their 



98 THE BOARD. 

embarrassment to the Board at its fiftieth meeting, and sug 
gested the expediency of further conference with the General 
Assembly. The committee to whom this subject was referred 
unanimously reported, through Dr. Poor, that such conference 
was not called for ; " it being their firm belief, that the Pru 
dential Committee, while exercising its discretion in the 
appointing of missionaries, in view of all circumstances, as 
they may occur, and acting on the clearly-declared .principle 
of non-intervention in ecclesiastical affairs, will be able to 
carry out the full intent of the phrase in question, to the satis 
faction of all parties concerned." 

From all that has been said concerning the constitution and 
ecclesiastical relations of the Board, it must be obvious that 
it is not an ecclesiastical body. This is true, notwithstanding 
its origin ; notwithstanding its members are all in the Chris 
tian church ; notwithstanding relations it may have formed 
with the general ecclesiastical bodies of the denominations. 
Appointment by an ecclesiastical body, responsibility to such a 
body, and individual relations sustained by members to the 
churches, are not of themselves sufficient to confer ecclesiasti 
cal powers on a Missionary Board. The American Board can 
neither organize churches, nor associations, nor presbyteries ; 
it can not admit members to the church, nor excommunicate 
them ; it can not ordain ministers of the gospel, nor silence 
them ; nor can it transfer them from one denomination to 
another, nor change their ecclesiastical relations. The same 
is doubtless true of the other Missionary Boards, whether 
formed by ecclesiastical bodies or otherwise. Not one of them 
possesses ecclesiastical powers ; not one of them, properly 
speaking, is an ecclesiastical body. All are equally powerless, 
in the respects above mentioned, with the American Board, 
which has no ecclesiastical power whatever. 

Hence, if a missionary, when he comes under the direction 
of the Board, is connected with a presbytery, or association, 
that connection is not thereby in the least affected. There is 
no feature in the constitution of the Board which prevents 



BELATfONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 99 

the body to which he belongs from having the same authority 
over him after the connection has been formed, as it had 
before ; and the ecclesiastical body is just as much bound to 
watch over him as a minister of the gospel, to counsel him, 
and to discipline him, in case there is need of it. And when 
his connection with that ecclesiastical body ceases, (if it ever 
does,) it can not be by any act of the Board, but by a regular 
dismission from his ecclesiastical body, that he may join some 
other which has grown up in the field of his missionary labors. 

This is a beautiful feature in the existing methods of con 
ducting foreign missions. For neither the churches at home, 
nor their ecclesiastical bodies, as such, can devote the time, 
nor acquire the experience, for the management of a great 
system of missions. It is therefore necessary to appoint trust 
worthy boards of agency, or else to recognize existing boards, 
for that purpose. The American Board has, in this respect, 
been signally favored, having been employed by the churches 
for a long course of years, and having never had its wisdom 
or faithfulness seriously impeached. 

The Board takes ordained missionaries and lay assistants 
from the denominations with all their ecclesiastical relations 
upon them ; and experience has shown that there is scope for 
all the direction necessary on the part of the Board, without 
interfering in the least with those relations, or with the per 
formance of any of the duties growing out of them. 

On the other hand, the Board is not, in the common ac 
ceptation, a voluntary association. A voluntary benevolent 
association, in the strict technical sense, is one which any man 
may join by paying a certain sum of money annually. Most 
of our national societies are constituted in this manner ; and 
when it is alleged that the Board is otherwise constituted, it is 
by no means intended to imply that the mode of organization 
in those great societies does not combine ample means of effi 
ciency and security. No person becomes a voting member 
of the Board by merely contributing to its funds. The Hon 
orary members have the right to attend the meetings, and assist 
in all the deliberations $ and they do attend, in far greater 
15 



100 THE BOARD. 

numbers than the Corporate members, and render most val 
uable assistance in the discussions at the annual meetings. 
But only the Corporate members vote. Hence the Board can 
not properly be called a voluntary association, and is not liable 
to the objections alleged (whether justly or not) against such. 
At the same time it secures most, if not all, of the advantages 
claimed for that class of associations, as well as most, if not 
all, the advantages claimed for associations created by ecclesi 
astical bodies. 

There has been no practical difficulty, thus far, in the great 
ecclesiastical machinery, arising from the Board s operations. 
It has had only to keep within its own peculiar province. Its 
responsibility is for all that is legitimately involved in the col 
lecting and use of funds. This responsibility is perfect, and 
is not shared with ecclesiastical bodies. It claims not to be 
the plenipotentiary of the churches, nor to stand in the place 
of the churches. Its relations are to the donors, as such, and 
to missionaries, as such ; its responsibilities are to them. 
This of course involves the right and duty of judging whether 
a candidate is adapted to the work, and whether the mission 
ary is faithful to his engagements. If either denies a leading 
gospel doctrine, as that Christ is divine, or that regeneration 
is by the Holy Spirit, or that everlasting punishment awaits 
the finally impenitent, and persists in these errors, and such 
as these, he may be adjudged unworthy of support, and his 
connection with the Board be dissolved, even though his 
ecclesiastical position remain unaffected. The Prudential 
Committee have always exercised the fullest liberty of judging 
as to the fitness of candidates, from whatever church, and of 
missionaries, however related, to receive the funds placed at 
their disposal. The missionaries have almost always, received 
their appointment, necessarily, before ordination, and even 
before licensure. But in whatever stage they came, and from 
whatever quarter, in so momentous and costly an affair as 
sending preachers of the gospel to the ends of the earth, it 
was impossible to take for granted their adaptation to the 
missionary work ; or to allow the determination of it to rest 



RELATIONS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BODIES. 101 

with ecclesiastical bodies, or to be adjusted by the eccle 
siastical status. The Church Missionary Society of Great 
Britain, many years since, had occasion to assert the same 
right, as regards its missionaries, against the claims of certain 
Bishops. The Society admitted, as unreservedly as the Board 
does, that every missionary and candidate must be rectus in 
ecclesid, and that this is a point to be decided by ecclesiastical 
bodies ; but held that the whole question of the use of the 
funds was exclusively for the Society to determine. It should 
be added, that from the first, excepting in the case of the 
Reformed Dutch Church, the missionaries of this Board have 
had their designation determined on purely missionary grounds, 
wholly irrespective of their denominational relations. 

The experience of half a century shows, that in this there 
is nothing onerous. All the missions being self-governing 
bodies, the main responsibility rests with them. But it is for 
the Prudential Committee to see that the funds go, in the 
highest possible degree, for the propagation of the gospel. 
Both the missionary and ecclesiastical principles have all 
along worked side by side without interference. ** 



CHAPTER VI. 

EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 

The Character and Prosperity of Institutions affected by the Views of Founders and 
first Administrators. Early Corporate Members of the Bbard. From different 
Communities, States, and Professions. Presidents of Colleges and Professors in The 
ological Seminaries. Other eminent Ministers of the Gospel. Eminent Civilians. 

EVERY great institution takes its character, more or less, 
from its originators, and those who first administer its affairs. 
The almost unexampled prosperity of the American Board 
may, therefore, be safely attributed, in no small degree, to the 
eminently enlightened, comprehensive, and evangelical views 
of its founders and early members. Its leading founders 
were undoubtedly among the nine original Commissioners ap 
pointed at Bradford, in June, 1810. These, with a single ex 
ception, were embraced in the Act of Incorporation, and two 
were then added ; and sixteen others were elected by the Board 
in 1812 and 1813. The members of the Board, thus constituted, 
were from several Christian communions, and from different 
States, professions, and walks of honorable usefulness. With 
out question their well-known and distinguished names, irre 
spective of any personal share in the deliberations of the 
Board, exerted a decided and auspicious influence upon its 
interests, by increasing its influence on the Christian public, 
and encouraging a more extensive and liberal cooperation, at 
the critical period of its inceptive or experimental enterprises. 
Our limits will allow us to notice them only in the most gen 
eral manner. It may be most satisfactory to contemplate them 
in the different classes or groups, into which they naturally 
range, themselves. We will bestow a few words upon each of 
them in the order of their birth. 

(102) 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 103 

PRESIDENTS OP COLLEGES AND PROFESSORS IN THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARIES. 

First on the list comes TIMOTHY DWIGHT. He was born in 
Northampton, Mass., in 1752, a maternal grandson of the 
great Edwards ; exhibited in his early years a degree of intel 
lectual precocity almost unparalleled ; was graduated at Yale 
College in 1774, after which he taught a grammar school in 
New Haven, and then was for some time a tutor in the college ; 
was a chaplain in the army of the revolution for about a year, 
commencing shortly after he was licensed to preach ; spent 
several years subsequently in his native place, dividing his 
time between preaching the gospel, working on a farm, con 
ducting a school of great celebrity, and serving the State in 
the capacity of a legislator ; was ordained pastor of the Con 
gregational church in Greenfield, Conn., in 1783, and remained 
there, in the double capacity of a minister and the head of a 
most flourishing academy, until 1795, when he was transferred 
to the presidency of Yale College ; which office, in connection 
with that of professor of divinity, he held with almost unri 
valed popularity till the beginning of 1817, when he was 
summoned to his reward. President D wight had a most 
attractive and impressive exterior his form was erect and 
stately ; his face finely formed, and his eye and whole expres 
sion kindling with animation and intelligence, and his move 
ments the very perfection of grace and dignity. His mind 
was at once profound and brilliant, logical and imaginative ; 
his memory was a vast and well-ordered storehouse, that suf 
fered nothing to escape from it. In the pulpit he showed him 
self equally at home in the heights and in the depths : there 
was a majesty, a comprehensiveness, and yet a simplicity, in 
his presentation of Scripture truth, that left it at no one s op 
tion whether or not to listen ; and there was a distinctness of 
utterance, and general ease, freedom, and impressiveness of 
manner, that formed an appropriate channel for his eloquent 
thoughts and expressions. As a teacher, the vast fertility of 
his mind, and his almost endlessly diversified stores of kiiowl- 



104 THE BOARD. 

edge, combined with his graceful facility of communication, 
gave him a prominence which few of his cotemporaries could 
claim ; while, as the presiding officer of the college, he was a 
model of thoughtfulness, dignity, firmness, and efficiency. As 
an author, he is quite voluminous ; and his System of Theol 
ogy, especially, is known and admired wherever the English 
language is read. There are not a few still living, who will 
show the estimation in which they hold him by saying, " Take 
him all in all, we do not expect ever to look upon his like again." 

Next comes the venerable ASHBEL GREEN, another honored 
name, which the Church will never suffer to die. He was a 
native of New Jersey, and the son of an honored Presbyterian 
minister; was graduated at Princeton College in 1783, and 
afterward served his Alma Mater both as tutor and as pro 
fessor of mathematics and natural philosophy ; commenced 
preaching in 1786, and the next year was settled as a colleague 
of the venerable Dr. Sproat, of Philadelphia ; was for several 
years a chaplain to Congress, and in intimate relations with 
General Washington ; had much to do in organizing the Pres 
byterian Church on its present basis, as well as in establishing 
the Theological Seminary at Princeton ; accepted a call to the 
presidency of the College of New Jersey in 1812, and contin 
ued in the faithful discharge of its duties until 1822, when he 
resigned the office and returned to Philadelphia to spend his 
remaining days ; was occupied during his latter years in 
preaching up to the full measure of his ability, in writing for 
the press, especially in conducting a religious periodical, and 
in helping forward all the good objects that came within the 
range of his influence ; and closed his eventful life, after a 
somewhat protracted period of decline, in May, 1848, when 
he had nearly completed his eighty-sixth year. Dr. Green was 
a man of commanding presence and intellect. He had a large 
frame, a fine, intellectual head, an earnest and rather stern 
expression of countenance, and, especially toward strangers, a 
somewhat stately and distant manner. His mind was logical 
and discriminating, his taste highly cultivated, and his knowl- 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 105 

edge extensive ancj, varied. His discourses in the pulpit were 
always luminous and instructive, and delivered in an impres 
sive manner, though his elocution was rather forcible than 
graceful. He had great energy and strength of purpose, while 
yet he was most conscientious in all his movements. Some 
things about him, especially in his more public demonstrations, 
seemed rugged and severe ; but those who knew him well, knew 
that there was a warm and tender heart beating in his bosom. 
He was an eminently devout man, and his habit of devotion 
survived almost the entire wreck of his mental faculties. He 
had long been regarded as one of the fathers of the Presbyte 
rian Church, and few had so much to do as he in the mold 
ing of its destinies. 

The third on our list of worthies is JAMES RICHARDS. He 
was born in New Canaan, Conn., in 1767 ; evinced at an early 
period much more than ordinary intellectual tastes, but was 
obliged by his straitened circumstances to learn a trade ; after 
struggling with various difficulties, became a member of Yale 
College in 1789, but was compelled by his poverty to withdraw 
at the close of the Freshman year ; engaged for a while as a 
teacher, and then went to Greenfield and prosecuted both his 
academical and theological course under Dr. D wight ; com 
menced preaching in 1793, and was settled as pastor of the 
Presbyterian church in Morristown, N. J., in May, 1797; re 
signed his charge there, and became pastor of the first Presby 
terian church in Newark, as successor to Dr, Griffin, in 1809 ; 
accepted a call to the professorship of theology in the Auburn 
Theological Seminary in 1823, where he remained, greatly 
honored and beloved, until August, 1843, when he closed his 
earthly career. Dr. Richards was every way a fine specimen 
of a man. He was upwards of six feet in height, well propor 
tioned, with a countenance indicative of fine intellectual 
powers, and a most genial and kindly spirit. And his counte 
nance was a faithful index to his character. He had a mind 
of great comprehensiveness and discrimination, that delighted 
in tracing every thing back to first principles, and especially 



106 THE BOARD. 

in unraveling the intricacies of error. Hg was distinguished 
for nothing more than for practical wisdom ; he saw, as if by in 
tuition, the right and wrong of every subject that was presented 
to him, in connection with practical life ; and hence, in all 
difficult and embarrassed circumstances, especially in public 
bodies, his presence was regarded as an element of safety. In 
the pulpit his manner was characterized by great solemnity 
and earnestness ; and his discourses were full of well-digested 
evangelical thought, expressed in clear, forcible, simple lan 
guage. As a professor of theology, he was eminently success 
ful in conveying to the minds of his pupils the exact shade of 
thought as it existed in his own mind, and, while he encour 
aged them to independent thinking, he discouraged them, both 
by precept and example, from rushing into wild extremes. He 
adorned every relation that he sustained. He lived emphat 
ically to bless the Church, and the Church has already testified 
her gratitude for his services by embalming his memory. 

The name of SAMUEL MILLER (another of this honored 
group) will awaken grateful and tender emotions in many 
hearts. His father before him, though of New England ori 
gin, was an excellent Presbyterian minister in Delaware ; and 
there the son was born, in the year 1769. He was graduated 
honorably at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1789 ; studied 
theology under the direction partly of his father, and partly 
of the celebrated Dr. Nisbet, of Dickinson College ; was or 
dained and installed in June, 1793, as colleague pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church in New York; was transferred to 
Princeton, as professor of ecclesiastical history and church 
government in the Theological Seminary, in 1813 ; and after a 
long course of honorable usefulness in that relation, died in 
January, 1850. What first impressed one on meeting Dr. 
Miller, was his uncommonly attractive person ; his face a very 
mirror of benevolent feeling and social refinement ; his man 
ners evincing not only great kindliness, but a degree of cul 
ture that would not have dishonored a court. In short, he 
was an admirable model of a Christian gentleman. His mind, 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 10T 

though not uncommonly rapid in its operations, always moved 
in a luminous path, and usually reached a result which it was 
not easy to gainsay. His manner in the pulpit was a com 
pound of solemnity and dignity, and was probably more thor 
oughly conformed to rule than is consistent with the highest 
efforts of pulpit eloquence. His sermons were, in a very high 
degree, methodical ; were written always with great correct 
ness, and sometimes with high rhetorical beauty, and were 
always designed and adapted to accomplish an important ob 
ject. In the professor s chair, he always showed himself thor 
oughly at home on the subject of the recitation, though his 
lectures were perhaps less remarkable for bold and stirring 
thoughts than for well-digested and interesting details. He 
never tired in offices of good will to his pupils, and they in 
turn looked up to him with a reverence and gratitude truly 
filial. In his character the graces of nature beautifully com 
bined with the graces of the Spirit to render him at once one 
of the most attractive of men, and one of the loveliest of 
God s saints. 

HENRY DAVIS (the next in order) was born at East Hamp 
ton, L. L, in 1771 ; was graduated at Yale College in 1796; 
studied theology under the direction of the excellent Dr. 
Backus, of Somers, Conn. ; then served for several years as a 
tutor in the college at which he graduated ; was appointed pro 
fessor of divinity in the same institution in 1801 ; but before 
he felt prepared to enter upon the duties of the place, his 
health became so much enfeebled that he was obliged to with 
draw from the college altogether ; accepted the professorship 
of the Greek language in Union College in 1806 ; became 
president of Middlebury College in 1809, and president of 
Hamilton College in 1817, where he remained until 1833, 
when, owing to some adverse circumstances in connection with 
the economy of the institution, he resigned his office, though 
he continued to reside at Clinton till his death, which occurred 
in March, 1852. Dr. Davis was a man of vigorous mind, of 
very liberal acquirements, of ardent temperament, of heroic 
16 



103 THE BOARD. 

resolution in adhering to his own honest convictions, and of 
much kindliness of spirit in his social intercourse. In his 
preaching there was great directness, both of matter and of 
manner, and much to indicate that his heart was in all his 
utterances. He had a great distaste for all the ultraisms of 
the day, not caring to trust himself to any other guides than 
the Bible and common sense. He was the subject of a pro 
tracted decline in his latter years ; but to the close of life he 
joined the humility and cheerful trust of the Christian with 
the dignity of the sage. 

JESSE APPLETON (the sixth in the series we are presenting) 
was born at New Ipswich, N. II., in 1772; was graduated at 
Dartmouth College with high honor in 1792 ; spent nearly two 
years after his graduation in teaching a school, first at Dover, 
N. H., and then at Amherst ; studied theology under the ven 
erable Dr. Lathrop, of West Springfield ; was ordained and 
installed pastor of the church in Hampton, N. H., in 1797 ; 
was chosen president of Bowdoin College in 1807, where he 
spent the residue of his life, which came to a close in Novem 
ber, 1819. President Appleton combined with the graces of a 
fine person, a striking countenance, and cultivated manners, 
an intellect of rare comprehensiveness and analytical power ; 
a taste the most cultivated and exact ; an exuberance of 
keen but delicate wit ; a high sense of honor, and the most 
genial and kindly sympathies ; and finally, a profound rever 
ence for the great realities of religion, and a deep interest in 
whatever had a bearing on the spiritual welfare of his fellow- 
men. He was a highly attractive preacher, especially to the 
more intellectual portion of his audience, and his published 
sermons and lectures will leave no one in doubt as to the 
reason of it. His influence upon the college was eminently 
auspicious, and his name, throughout the whole region in 
which he lived, is a synonym at once for greatness and for 
goodness. 

The last in this group, and the only survivor of the whole 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 109 

number, is ELTPHALET NOTT, to whom we can now only allude, 
because thanks to a gracious Providence the grave has not 
yet claimed him. His birthplace was Ashford, Conn., and the 
year of his birth was 1773. He spent several of his early 
years with his elder brother, the Rev. (afterward Dr.) Sam 
uel Nott, of Franklin, Conn. ; studied for a while at Brown 
University, and received the degree of Master of Arts from 
that institution in 1795 ; studied theology with his brother at 
Franklin, and after he was licensed to preach, went as a mis 
sionary into the State of New York, and not long after became 
pastor of the church in Cherry Valley, where also he was the 
preceptor of an academy ; accepted a call from the First Pres 
byterian Church in, Albany, in 1798, where lie remained till 
1804, when he became president of Union College. Here lie 
has been ever since, exerting an influence more varied and 
powerful than almost any other man of his generation. It will 
be time enough to attempt an analysis of his remarkable charac 
ter when the last chapter of his eventful life can also be written. 

OTHER EMINENT MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL. 

At the head of this list (adopting the principle of arrange 
ment already referred to) stands SAMUEL SPRING. He was 
born at Northbridge, Mass., in 1746 ; was graduated at the 
College of New Jersey, under the presidency of the great Dr. 
Witherspoon, in 1771 ; prosecuted his theological studies part 
ly at Princeton and partly in New England ; commenced 
preaching in 1774, and the next year served as chaplain in the 
continental army ; was ordained and installed pastor of a 
Congregational church in Newburyport, in 1777 ; and contin 
ued in that relation till his death, which occurred in March, 
1819. He belonged to the class of ministers in New Eng 
land commonly known as Hopkinsian. He had a large, well- 
proportioned frame, a countenance expressive at once of- high 
intellect and great benevolence, and more than common urban 
ity and dignity of manners. As a preacher, he was both di 
dactic and forcible ; and on some occasions he is said to have 



HO THE BOARD. 

risen to a very high pitch of pulpit eloquence. He had an 
almost intuitive discernment of human character a trait 
which eminently qualified him for the adjudication of involved 
and difficult cases. When asked on his death-bed what por 
tion of his life gave him most pleasure in the review, he re 
plied, " That I have been permitted to preach the gospel ; that 
I have been enabled to preach what I believe to be the system 
of truth ; and that I have been the unexpected instrument of 
establishing the Seminary at Andover." 

JOSEPH LYMAN was born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1749 ; was 
graduated at Yale College in 1767 ; served as tutor there in 
1770-71 ; was ordained and installed pastor of the Congrega 
tional church in Hatfield, Mass., in 1772, and continued in 
that relation (having a colleague during his last two years) 
until his death, which occurred in March, 1828. Dr. Lyman 
had much of nobility eristamped upon his person, his counte 
nance, his movements, his whole external bearing. His intel 
lect was of a high order, and was especially distinguished for 
the bold and iron grasp which it took of every subject to which 
it was directed. His preaching was always sensible and logi 
cal, but never in a high degree popular. He was especially 
at home in deliberative bodies and ecclesiastical councils, al 
ways showing a clearness of discernment, a promptness of de 
cision, a firmness to encounter opposition, and a perfect famil 
iarity with parliamentary usage and rule, that were sure to 
make him the master-spirit of the body. He was an earnest 
politician, and regarded Federalism as so nearly allied to Chris 
tianity, that, in common with many other ministers of his day, 
he did not scruple to enter into a vigorous defense of it in the 
pulpit. Every thing that occupied his thoughts he saw in a 
strong light, and, as he was incapable of concealment, or of a 
temporizing policy, it was not strange that some of his deliv 
erances did not sit easily upon every body. He had qualities 
that would have graced the head of a nation, and especially 
the head of an army. Those who have visited him at his 
house in old Hatfield will not need to be told that he always 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. Ill 

received his friends in a spirit of the most simple, dignified, 
generous hospitality. 

SETH PAYSON, a son of the Rev. Phillips Payson, was born 
in Walpole, Mass., in 1758 ; was graduated at Harvard Col 
lege in 1777 ; was ordained and installed pastor of the Con 
gregational church in Rindge, N. H., in 1782, and continued 
in that charge until his death, which occurred in February, 
1820. He possessed a vigorous intellect, a fertile imagination, 
a retentive memory, and a large fund of varied and useful 
knowledge.- He had fine powers of conversation, and great 
facility at adapting himself to any peculiar circumstances into 
which he might be brought. He was a luminous and highly 
interesting expounder of divine truth, and all his services in 
the pulpit were characterized by great propriety and solemnity. 
As a pastor, he was at once eminently faithful and greatly be 
loved. He was for two years a member of the Senate of New 
Hampshire, and evinced great wisdom and tact in the busi 
ness of legislation. He had a high reputation as a counselor 
and peacemaker, and not a few distracted congregations were 
indebted to his influence for their recovery of a spirit of har 
mony and good will. And we must not omit to state, as not 
the least of his distinctions, that he was the father of the late 
Rev. Dr. Payson, of Portland, whose life was a glowing epistle, 
now known and read of almost the whole of evangelical Chris 
tendom. 

JEDEDIAH MORSE was born at Woodstock, Conn., in 1761 ; 
was graduated at Yale College in 1783 ; and from that time 
till 1785 taught a young ladies school in New Haven, at 
the same time pursuing the study of theology under Drs. Ed 
wards and Wales ; was licensed to preach in 1785 ; accepted 
a tutorship in Yale College in 178G ; spent several months 
preaching in Georgia and South Carolina in 1787, and returned 
the same year ; and after occupying several different pulpits 
at the North for a short time, was selected as pastor of the 
Congregational church in Charlestown, Mass., in April, 1789. 



112 THE BOARD. 

Here lie continued till the spring of 1820, when, owing to 
various circumstances more or less affecting his comfort, he 
resigned his pastoral charge, and removed to New Haven, 
where he continued to reside till the close of his life. Dr. 
Morse s life was a scene of uninterrupted labor, and was a 
much more than ordinarily eventful one. In the department 
of geography, his labors must undoubtedly be considered as 
marking an epoch in the science. With most of the benev 
olent institutions of the country that sprung up in the early 
part of the present century, including also the Andover The 
ological Seminary, he had much to do, not only in originating 
them, but in nursing them through the period of their 
infancy. In his latter years he directed much time and atten> 
tion to the Christianization of our Indian tribes ; and, as the 
result of his inquiries tinder a commission from the War 
Department, he made a report, of great and enduring inter 
est, which was published in an octavo volume, in 1822. He 
was very prominent in the controversy which attended the 
introduction, or rather the avowal, of Unitarianism in New 
England ; first, by publishing his " True Reasons " for oppos 
ing the election of Dr. Ware to the professorship of divinity 
in Harvard College ; next, by projecting, and for many years 
sustaining, the Panoplist ; and finally, by issuing a pamphlet 
entitled " American Unitarianism," consisting of extracts 
from Belsham s Life of Lindsey, which opened the controversy 
in which Channing and Worcester, and afterward Stuart, 
Woods, and Ware, were the principal writers. Dr. Morse 
was a man of very pleasing person and address, of great 
mental activity, of boundless industry, of unquenchable 
ardor, and of a perseverance that was proof against every 
thing not absolutely insuperable. He had high executive 
talent, as was evident from the fact of his being a prominent 
member or officer of so many public institutions. He was an 
easy, perspicuous, and classical writer, and his sermons were 
always evangelical and instructive, and delivered in a clear, 
musical voice, and with perfect simplicity of manner. Circum 
stances conspired to make him somewhat a man of war in his 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 113 

day ; but it was not in that respect only that he was a man of 
mark. His name survives, not only in his own manifold 
works, but in the character and achievements of an illustrious 
progeny. 

CALVIN CHAPIN was born in Springfield, Mass., in 1764; 
was graduated at Yale College in 1788 ; afterward spent 
two years in Hartford in teaching a school ; studied theol 
ogy under the Rev. Dr. Perkins, of West Hartford ; and, 
shortly after being licensed to preach, was chosen tutor in 
Yale College, which office he held till 1794, when he accepted 
an invitation to the pastoral charge of the church in Rocky 
Hill, Conn. In 1847, he retired from the active duties of his 
office ; and in March, 1851, was called to his rest. He was 
a tall man, not very symmetrically built ; very quick, and 
somewhat angular in his movements ; shrewd, clear-headed 
and witty ; earnest, energetic, and persevering ; and caring 
little what others might think or say of him, so long as he was 
convinced that he was in the right- He was a most entertain 
ing companion, an able preacher, and a vigorous laborer in 
every good cause that came within the range of his efforts or 
his influence. He was one of the earliest and most active 
promoters of the cause of temperance. He was intensely 
solemn in his public ministrations, but his boundless good 
humor in private amounted well-nigh to a passion. 

SAMUEL WORCESTER was born at Hollis, N. H., in 1770 ; 
was graduated at Dartmouth College, with the highest honors 
of his class, in 1795; immediately after, accepted the charge 
of the New Ipswich Academy, at the same time pursuing 
fiis theological studies ; was ordained and installed pastor 
of the church in Fitchburg, Mass., in 1797; resigned his 
charge, on account of the dislike of some of his people 
for his Calvinistic doctrines, in 1802; and the next year 
was installed pastor of the Tabernacle Church in Salem. 
When the American Board of Foreign Missions was formed 
in 1810, he was chosen its Corresponding Secretary. In 1817, 



114 THE BOARD. 

finding tlie duties of this office, in connection with those of 
his pastoral charge, an overmatch for- his strength, he received 
the Rev. Elias Cornelius as a colleague in his ministerial 
labors. In January, 1821, with a view to the improvement of 
his health, as well as to see for himself the condition of the 
missions in the South-west, he sailed from Boston to New 
Orleans, and thence passed on to the Cherokee tribe of Indians. 
He had the pleasure of meeting the missionaries at May hew 
and Brainerd ; but by this time his health had declined so far 
that he was unable to proceed further ; and there, among the 
children of the forest, he died, on the 7th of June following. 
He was a man of great comprehensiveness and power of 
mind, as well as of remarkable executive tact and ability. 
What he accomplished for the cause of foreign missions espe 
cially is a monument to his honor, alike noble and imperish 
able. There was a certain manliness and force of character, 
a far-reaching insight into the future, and an heroic fidelity 
to his own convictions, that always made his presence an 
acknowledged element of power. He wielded a most vigorous 
pen, and in controversy was well-nigh matchless. His letters 
to Dr. Charming, in connection with the Unitarian contro 
versy, especially the last letter, have been considered as almost 
unrivaled specimens of polemic theological discussion. His 
published sermons are rich in evangelical thought, logically 
and luminously presented, and show that his ministry must 
have been a highly edifying one. Intellectually, theologically, 
practically, he might well be reckoned among the giants of 
his day. 

ALEXANDER MONCRIEF PROUDFIT was the fourth son of the 
Rev. James Proudfit, who emigrated from Scotland to thie 
country in 1754, and settled first as pastor of the Scottish 
Presbyterian congregation in Pequea, Pa., and in 1783 re 
moved to Salem, N. Y., where he died in 1802. The son was 
born at Pequea in November, 1770. He was fitted for college 
partly at Salem, and partly at Hackensack, N. J., and in the 
latter place was under the instruction of that celebrated clas- 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 115 

sical teacher, Dr. Peter Wilson. In March, 1789, he joined the 
Sophomore class in Columbia College, and, in 1792, graduated 
with the highest honors of his class. The Rev. Dr. John M. 
Mason was one of his early friends, and was very influential 
in determining the choice of his profession. He commenced 
the study of theology, under the direction of his father, at 
Salem, but after a year placed himself under the Rev. Dr. 
John H. Livingston, then residing in New York, and a Pro 
fessor of Divinity in the Reformed Dutch Church. He was 
licensed to preach at Galway, N. Y., on the 7th of October, 
1794, by the Associate Reformed Presbytery of Washington, 
of which his father was a member. 

About three months after he was licensed, he was called by 
the congregation of Salem to settle as colleague with his father : 
he accepted the call, and was ordained and installed on the 
13th of May, 1795. In 1802, while Dr. Mason was in Europe, 
soliciting funds in aid of the Theological Seminary founded by 
the Associate Reformed Church, Mr. Proudfit, by appointment 
of Synod, supplied his pulpit, laboring in the congregation 
with great fidelity and to general acceptance. In 1812, he 
was honored with the degree of Doctor of Divinity from both 
Middlebury and Williams Colleges. In June, 1819, he was 
elected Associate Professor with Dr. Mason in the Theological 
Seminary of the Associate Reformed Church. He accepted 
the appointment, but as the session commenced in November, 
he had little time to prepare for the arduous duties which he 
thereby assumed. His connection with the institution seems 
to have been a source of considerable disquietude to him, and 
it continued only during a single session. The Seminary, after 
suspending its operations seven years, was at length revived 
and established at Newburgh, and during the summer of 1833, 
as well as at a later period, he was occupied chiefly in endeav 
oring to promote its interests. In 1835, the Synod appointed 
him Professor of Pastoral Theology, but finding it inconvenient 
to reside at Newburgh, he retained the place but a short time. 
The same year he resigned his pastoral charge, and became 
Secretary of the New York Colonization Society, in which 
17 



116 THE BOARD. 

capacity lie labored with untiring zeal to the close of 1842. 
He had one or two favorite objects yet unaccomplished when 
he was called to a higher sphere. He died of catarrhal fever 
at the house of his son, Rev. Dr. John Proudfit, of New Bruns 
wick, in the perfect possession of his faculties, and the full con 
fidence of entering into rest, on the 17th of April, 1843. 

Dr. Proudfit was a man of a high order of intellect, of an 
amiable and kindly spirit, rather staid and formal in his man 
ners, with a highly cultivated mind, and a heart always glow 
ing with the fervors of devotion. Though his manner as a 
preacher was not attractive to the multitude, it was charac 
terized by a deep sincerity and earnestness very likely to open 
a way to the heart. His printed discourses are of a deeply 
evangelical tone, sensible, pathetic, and often truly eloquent. 
He had great executive talents, and labored efficiently in 
many ways for the advancement of the cause that was most 
dear to him. His memory is embalmed in the gratitude and 
reverence of the church. 



EMINENT CIVILIANS. 

JOHN LANGDON was born in Portsmouth, N. H., in 1739, 
and was educated at a grammar school in his native place. 
Though the commencement of the revolution found him 
engaged in a profitable mercantile business, he entered with 
great spirit into the contest, and, at the peril of his property, 
and even life, he participated in the removal of the armament 
and military stores from Fort William and Mary, in Ports 
mouth harbor. In 1775, he was a delegate to the Continental 
Congress, but resigned his office in 1776, on account of being 
chosen navy agent. In 1777, he was Speaker of the New 
Hampshire House of Assembly ; and subsequently was a 
member and Speaker of the State legislature, a member of 
the Continental Congress, a delegate to the convention that 
framed the constitution of the United States, and President 
of New Hampshire. He was one of the first United States 
senators from New Hampshire, and held the office until 1801. 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 117 

On the accession of Jefferson to the presidency, the post of 
Secretary of the Navy was offered him ; but he declined it. 
From 1805 to 1812, with the exception of two years, he was 
Governor of New Hampshire ; and in 1812 was offered by the 
republican congressional caucus the nomination for the office 
of Vice President of the United States, which, however, on 
account of the infirmities of advancing age, he declined. 
Several of his last years he spent in retirement. During the 
latter part of his life, he was a member of a Congregational 
church, and seemed to place a high value upon Christian 
ordinances. His disposition was eminently social, his manners 
urbane, and his whole bearing exceedingly attractive. 

ELIAS BOUDINOT was born in Philadelphia, in 1740, and, 
after receiving a classical education, studied law under Richard 
Stockton, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ 
ence, and very soon became eminent in his profession. He 
early espoused his country s cause, and in 1777 was appointed 
by Congress commissary general of prisoners, and during the 
same year was elected a member of that body, of which also 
he became president in 1782, and in that capacity signed the 
treaty of peace. He now .resumed the practice of law, but 
was again elected to Congress, under the new constitution, in 
1789, and continued a member for six years. In 1796, Wash 
ington appointed him director of the mint of the United. 
States, as the successor of Rittenhouse, which office he held 
until 1805. He was first president of the American Bible 
Society, and made to it the munificent donation of ten thou 
sand dollars. Hc^ distributed his property with a most liberal 
hand while he lived, and by his last will bequeathed the 
principal part of his large estate to charitable uses. He was 
a man of an originally strong and highly cultivated mind, of 
most enlarged views, of glowing patriotism, of gentlemanly 
and honorable bearing, and consistent and elevated piety. 

JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON was born in Norwich. Conn., in the 
year 1743 ; was graduated with high honor at Harvard 



118 THE BOARD. 

College in 1763 ; and soon after engaged in commercial pur 
suits. He entered the continental army in command of a 
regiment in 1775, and in 1777 was appointed by Congress a 
brigadier general. After the war, he served as sheriff of the 
county in which he lived, and as treasurer of the State. In 
1789, he was appointed collector of the port of New London, 
and held the office twenty-six years. He served his country 
honorably during the stirring scenes of the revolution, and he 
served his God faithfully from early manhood to the close of 
his life. He was not only a member, but an officer of the 
church, and was a fine model of a finished gentleman. God 
had given him not only large means, but a large heart, thus 
rendering him a great public benefactor. 

JOHN TREADWELL was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1745 ; 
graduated at Yale College in 1767 ; studied law under Titus 
Eosmer, of Middletown, and then settled in his native town, 
but without engaging in the practice. He was a zealous 
patriot in the revolution, and was a representative of the town 
to the General Assembly for many years, commencing with 
1776. In 1785, he was elected one of the assistants, and was 
annually reflected to this office till 1798, when he was chosen 
Lieutenant Governor. In the autumn of 1809, on the decease 
of Governor Trumbull, he was chosen, by the legislature, to 
the office of Governor ; and, by a renewal of the appointment 
at their session in May, he was continued in that office during 
the following year. He occupied also, at different periods, 
several respectable judicial positions, and was for a long time 
one of the most influential members of the corporation of 
Yale College. He was distinguished rather for excellent 
common sense and good judgment, than for any of those 
qualities which enter into the idea of genius. His opinions 
were carefully formed, and were held with great tenacity, and 
no temptation Was powerful enough to occasion the least 
faltering of his fidelity to the true and the right. He was a 
most diligent student of the Scriptures, an earnest friend of 
evangelical religion, and a humble and devout worshiper of 
God. He died in August, 183 ? aged seventy-seven years. 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 119 

JOHN JAY was born in the city of New York, in 1745 ; was 
graduated at King s College in 1764, after which he stvidied 
law, and in 1768 was admitted to the bar. The high pro 
fessional reputation which he very soon acquired, as well as 
his unyielding integrity and fervent patriotism, attracted the 
eyes of his fellow-citizens toward him as a suitable person to 
be put forward in the opening contest for independence, Ac 
cordingly, he was appointed to the first American Congress in 
1774 ; and he was the writer of the eloquent address to the 
people of Great Britain, which was adopted by Congress in the 
autumn of that year. In 1776, he was recalled to assist in 
framing the government of New York. After the fall of New 
York and the removal of the Provincial Assembly to Pough- 
keepsie, his mind was constantly at work, and his pen often, in 
performing good service for his country. From 1777 to 1779, 
he was Chief Justice of the State, but resigned the office in 
consequence of his duties as President of Congress. In 1779, 
he was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of 
Spain. In 1782, he was appointed a commissioner to negoti 
ate a peace with Great Britain ; and he signed the definitive 
treaty at Paris, in September, 1783. In 1784, he returned to 
this country, and, even before his arrival, had been appointed 
by Congress Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 1789, 
he was appointed by Washington Chief Justice of the United 
States. In 1794, he was appointed Minister* Plenipotentiary 
to Great Britain, and was instrumental in effecting the famous 
treaty which bears his name. In 1795 he was elected, and in 
1798 he was reflected, Governor of the State of New York. 
In the summer of 1800, he withdrew from the cares of public 
life, and took up his residence in Bedford, N. Y., where, in 
dignified retirement, he passed the residue of his days, and 
died in May, 1829, aged eighty-four years. With splendid 
powers of intellect, cultivated by the best educational advan 
tages, he combined the most unswerving integrity and intense 
devotion to the interests of his country and his race. He never 
held any public office but that his character reflected honor 
upon it. He was a devout member of the Protestant Episco- 



120 THE BOARD. 

pal Church, and much of his time during his last years was 
given to studying the Scriptures, and devout meditation on 
religious subjects. His patriotism was of a truly Christian 
type ; his religion was at once calm, earnest, and consistent ; 
and both the church and the state are pledged that his memory 
shall be fragrant with coming generations. 

EGBERT BENSON was born (it is believed in the city of New 
York) in the year 1747. He was graduated at King s (now 
Columbia) College in 1765 ; studied law, and rose to eminence 
in his profession. He was a member of Congress from 1784 
to 1788 ; and was subsequently Judge of the Supreme Court 
of New York, and also of the Circuit Court of the United 
States for the district of New York. In person he was rather 
short and thick-set, with an expression of countenance that 
betokened much kindly feeling. He was highly intellectual 
in his tastes, and had acquired a vast amount of general in 
formation, while he was more especially versed in literary and 
historical antiquities. He was for many years an exemplary 
member of the Reformed Dutch Church, and his life was in 
beautiful harmony with his Christian profession. He was a 
most genial and entertaining companion, having always some 
thing to impart from the vast and varied stores of facts and 
incidents treasured in his memory, suited to every occasion. 

WILLIAM BARTLET was born in Newburyport, Mass., in the 
year 1748. He began life in comparative poverty, and spent 
the years of his minority with his father, sharing with him the 
labors of a humble occupation ; but he succeeded at length 
in becoming owner, in part, of a vessel employed in trade. 
This was the first step in the course that resulted in his becom 
ing one of the most opulent men in the country. Though he 
was not a little embarrassed in his commercial pursuits by the 
war of the revolution, the return of peace marked a decided 
epoch in his pecuniary prosperity, and from that period to 
nearly the close of his long life, he might be said to be actively 
engaged in business. He was a man of a firm, athletic frame, 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 121 

of a vigorous and discriminating mind, of great decision, and 
most persevering industry, He took a deep interest in all that 
pertained to the well-being of society, was a warm friend to 
divine institutions, and a diligent student of the Holy Scrip 
tures ; but it is believed that for some reason, known perhaps 
only to himself, he never made a public profession of religion. 
But that for which he was most distinguished, was the prince 
ly munificence which he manifested in relation to the numer 
ous and varied objects of public and private charity. His 
well-known liberality toward the Theological Seminary at An- 
dover would alone be sufficient to place him among the most 
distinguished of our public benefactors. He died at Newbury- 
port, where he had spent his whole life, on the 8th of Feb 
ruary, 1841, aged ninety-three years. 

WILLIAM PHILLIPS was born in Boston in the year 1750, and 
being prevented by a feeble constitution from receiving a col 
legiate education, he engaged in mercantile pursuits with his 
father, from whom, in due time, he inherited an immense for 
tune. He was for a long time a representative in the State 
legislature, was more than once an elector at large of the 
President of the United States, and was for several years 
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. In stature, he was 
scarcely up to the medium height ; his countenance was ex 
pressive of the utmost benignity ; and his manners, though 
highly polished and worthy of his exalted position in society, 
were as simple as childhood. In his natural disposition, he was 
generous and affectionate ; he abhorred every thing like in 
trigue or cunning, and in all his business relations was scru 
pulously exact in meeting all the claims of justice. He was 
thoroughly evangelical in his creed, and eminently blameless 
and consistent in his life. His benevolence scarcely knew a 
limit ; for many years before his death, his annual contribu 
tions to charitable objects were from eight to eleven thousand 
dollars ; and by his will he contributed to the same class of 
objects upwards of sixty thousand dollars. He died in Boston, 
on the 26th of May, 1827, aged seventy-seven years. 



122 THE BOARD. 

HENRY SEW ALL was born in York, Me., in 1752. From 
his father he learned the mason s trade, and worked at it in 
his earlier years. He early became deeply imbued with the 
spirit of the revolution, and having joined the army in 1775, 
he continued his connection with it until the peace. As he had 
the title, for many years, of " General " Sewall, it is presumed 
that subsequently to the revolution he was connected with the 
militia of his own State. When the Congregational church 
was formed in Hallowell, in 1791, he united with it and be 
came its deacon. He was a man of more than ordinary tal 
ents ; of highly cultivated mind, considering his opportunities ; 
of an uncommonly meek and benevolent spirit ; and of most 
earnest devotion to the cause of Christ. He studied the Bible 
closely and critically, and admitted nothing as an article of his 
creed for which he could not give what was to himself, at least, 
a satisfactory reason. He was greatly respected and honored 
throughout the whole region in which he lived for his intelli 
gence, benevolence, piety, and active usefulness. He died at 
Augusta, Me., in September, 1845, aged ninety-three years. 
He was brother of the venerable Jotham Sewall, whose name 
is so fragrant throughout all the Congregational churches of 
Maine. 

WILLIAM JONES was born in Newport, R. I., in 1754. Dur 
ing the war of the revolution, he was a captain of marines, 
and at the capture of Charleston was made a prisoner. He 
was for several years the Speaker of the House of Representa 
tives in Rhode Island, and in 1810 was chosen Governor of- the 
State, and remained in office till 1817. He died at Provi 
dence, in April, 1822, aged sixty-seven years. He was highly 
respected for his talents and virtues, and acquitted himself 
honorably in the various posts of public responsibility and use 
fulness that he occupied. 

ROBERT RALSTON was born in Chester County, Pa., in 1761 ? 
and, with little more than a common-school education, he en 
gaged iii mercantile business in Philadelphia, not far from the 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 123 

time that he reached his majority. By his bland manners, skill 
ful management, and incorruptible integrity, he gradually rose 
to the highest point of commercial respectability, and accumu 
lated a fortune which gave him a place among the most opu 
lent citizens of Philadelphia. At the same time, his liberality 
was proportioned to his affluence : he was the watchful and 
generous friend of many of the benevolent institutions of his 
day ; and of the Philadelphia Bible Society, the first institution 
of the kind on this continent, he was the acknowledged origi 
nator. He was distinguished for sterling good sense, and close 
observation of men and things : for uncommonly active hab 
its ; for great urbanity of manners ; for the most whole-souled 
and graceful hospitality ; and for whatever enters into the 
character of a devout and earnest Christian. From the year 
1802 till his death, he held the office of ruling elder in the 
Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He was a model 
of dignity, consistency, and kindliness, in all his relations. 
He died in Philadelphia, in August, 1836, in the seventy-fifth 
year of his age. 

JOHN HOOKER was born in Northampton, Mass., in the year 
1761. His father was the Rev. John Hooker, the immediate 
successor in the pastorate to Jonathan Edwards, and one of 
the brightest lights of the New England pulpit. He was grad 
uated at Yale College in 1782, after which he studied law with 
his uncle, Colonel John Worthington, and commenced the prac 
tice of it at Springfield. Here he continued till the close of life. 
On relinquishing the practice of law in 1810, he was appoint 
ed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and held the 
office for about ten years. Pie was also for a long time Judge 
of Probate, and in various ways exerted an influence that ex 
tended much beyond his own town or county. He was a man 
of excellent sense, and of great practical wisdom. When 
thrown among strangers, he was more inclined to hear than to 
talk ; but with his intimate friends, he was as social and genial 
as could be desired. His judgment was greatly confided in by 
men of different religious creeds and different political parties. 
18 



124 THE BOARD. 

Ho possessed the most unyielding integrity, and no one ever 
thought to move him a hair s breadth from the line of his hon 
est convictions. He had withdrawn from the practice of the 
law many years before his death, but he was always doing good 
by his pure and devoted example, and was ready to render 
efficient aid to any good object that solicited his attention. He 
was for many years a deacon in the First Congregational 
Church in Springfield, and was a steady and stanch friend to 
the interests of evangelical Christianity. He died in 1829, 
carrying with him to his grave the blessings of the community 
of which he had been for so many years a valued and honored 

member. 

, 

JEREMIAH EVARTS was born in Sunderland, Yt., in the year 
1781. After going through his preparatory course under the 
Rev. John Eliot, of Guilford, Conn., he entered Yale College, 
where he was graduated in 1802. He was hopefully the subject 
of a revival that occurred in college early in his senior year ; 
and he connected himself with the college church. After 
spending some time in teaching an academy at Peacham, Yt., 
lie studied law under Judge Chauncy, of New Haven, and 
commenced practice there in 1806. In 1810, he removed to 
Charlestown, Mass., to take the editorial charge of the Pano- 
plist, a monthly religious periodical, which had been originat 
ed, and for several years conducted, by Dr. Morse ; and he 
continued to be thus engaged until 1820, when the work was 
superseded by the Missionary Herald, published under the 
direction of the American Board. In 1812, he was chosen 
treasurer of the Board, and the next year a member of the 
Prudential Committee. The former of these offices he held 
until 1822. In 1821, he succeeded Dr. Worcester as Corre 
sponding Secretary, and during the next and last ten years 
of his life he devoted himself with a martyr-like zeal to the 
duties of this most responsible office, accomplishing for the 
cause of missions what could scarcely have been expected in 
an ordinary life. In the early part of 1831, his health had be 
come so much reduced, partly, no doubt, from his excessive 



EARLY CORPORATE MEMBERS. 125 

labors, that lie found it necessary to intermit his active exer 
tions, and use some special means for his restoration. He 
accordingly sailed for Cuba in February, and, after remaining 
there a few weeks, came to Charleston, S. C., where he stopped 
with his friend, the Rev. Dr. Palmer, and on the 10th of May 
entered into his rest. His personal appearance was by no 
means imposing, but he had a mind and a heart that made 
him a prince in the domain of intellect and of goodness. He 
was far-seeing, cautious, earnest, firm, conciliatory, every 
thing, iii short, to render him an eminently suitable person to 
conduct one of the grandest of human enterprises. His me 
morial is in the record of his wise plans successfully carried 
out, of his untiring labors cheerfully performed, of his mani 
fold sacrifices patiently submitted to, and of the joy unspeak 
able and full of glory that filled his soul while the gate of 
heaven was opening to receive him. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 

The Earlier Meetings. Where held. In what Buildings. Attendance. North 
ampton, 1825. New York, 1827. The Lord s Supper. Boston, 1830. Philadel 
phia, 1841. The Meeting held under Excitement of a Debt. Of Extraordinary 
Interest and Influence. Treasurer s Statement. Mr. Hubbard s Speech. Mr. 
Greene s Speech. Session prolonged. Affecting Scene. The Roll called, and 
Members pledge themselves. The Assembly testifies its Sympathy. Special 
Meeting at New York, 1842. Results of the Pledges. Meeting at Norwich, 1842. 
Rochester, 1843. Dr. Chapin s Letter. Worcester, 1844. Brooklyn, 1845. 
First Vote by Yea and Nay. Other Cases. Boston, 1848. Mr. Greene s Letter. 
Pittsfield, 1849. Cincinnati, 1853. Attendance of Members. Tendency west 
ward. Hartford, 1854. Mr. Hill s Letter. Special Meeting, 1856. Mr. Freling- 
huysen s Letter. 

THE annual meetings of the Board are held in the autumiu 
Dr. Porter, of Farmington, informs us that the first meeting 
was in his parlor. Only five members were present, and he 
seems to have been the only spectator. Five others of the an 
nual meetings were in parlors ; one at Worcester, in the 
boarding house of the Misses Kennedy, where the gentlemen 
all lodged ; three at Hartford, all in the house of Henry Hud 
son, Esq. ; the other at Salem, in the house of Mrs. Elizabeth 
Bartlett, one of the earliest large contributors to the Board. 
The last was in 1820. Eleven were in halls of moderate size, 
the last of these in 1831 ; nine were in lecture rooms, the 
last in 1839. The first business meeting in a church edi 
fice was in 1833, and such meetings were always with a small 
attendance until 1842. It was long the impression that what 
were called business sessions could not have much popular 
interest. 

Only seven members were in attendance at the second meet 
ing ; nine at the third ; and twelve at the fourth. The wri 
ter s first attendance was at Northampton, in 1825, when the 

(126) 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 127 

meeting was in the town hall. Eighteen Corporate and twelve 
Honorary members were present, who were generally seated 
around a long table ; and his most distinct remembrance of 
them is in debating the question of discontinuing the Foreign 
Mission School at Cornwall. Mr. Evarts was the chief speaker 

n favor of the discontinuance, and Dr. Beecher against it, but 

ill in the best feeling. 

The meeting at New York city, in the year 1827, was 
remarkable for its animated and protracted discussions on the 
duty of a far more extended liberality. Josiah Bissell, Jr., 
who must still be well remembered in the interior of New 
York for his self-sacrificing efforts to sustain a line of Sab 
bath-keeping stage coaches on the great route of western trav 
el, was present, and the moving spirit of the occasion. Some 
of the proceedings of that meeting are noted in the chapter 
on agencies. The Lord s Supper was then administered for 
the first time, in connection with the meetings of the Board ; 
and so well pleased were the members with their experience 
on that occasion, that they voted to repeat the celebration 
ever after. 

The meeting of 1830, at Boston, was the last which Mr. 
Evarts attended, as the one just ten years before was the last 
attended by Dr. Worcester. Thirty years have passed since 
that meeting. Of the twenty-eight Corporate members then 
present, twenty are- now in their graves ; and so are one 
third of the five-and-twenty Honorary members. The sessions 
were in the chapel of the Old South Church, an irregular 
building, of one story, in Spring Lane, since replaced by a 
more commodious edifice. The room was at no time more 
than half filled; but what an amount of character and 
influence ! Speaking only of a few of the departed, there 
was Governor Smith, the President of the Board, dignified, 
courteous, the most accomplished of presiding officers. There 
was General Yan Rensselaer, the " Patroon," alike distin 
guished for wealth, personal standing, modesty, and true dig 
nity of character ; he was the Yice President. Dr. Calvin 



128 . THE BOARD. 

Chapin was there, the Recording Secretary, and then the only 
clerical survivor of the original members. His Records lie 
open before us, in two volumes, bound by himself, distinctly 
legible, but with not an inch of unoccupied paper. We 
remember him for his laconic replies, his irrepressible wit, the 
occasional flashes of his rigid countenance, and the interest 
of his conversation and familiar letters. Dr. Chapin lived to 
see the rule abolished giving to the Corporate members the 
right to draw their traveling expenses in attending the meet 
ings; and he was apprehensive as to the measure, lest it 
should diminish the attendance and influence of that class. 
Eighteen years have passed, and those apprehensions have not 
been realized. Dr. Miller and Dr. Alexander, of the Prince 
ton Theological Seminary, were there ; both remarkable men, 
who evinced a deep interest in the deliberations. There were 
three lay members, successively chairmen of the Prudential 
Committee : William Reed, for some time a member of Con 
gress ; Samuel Hubbard, afterward a Judge of the Supreme 
Court ; and Samuel T. Armstrong, subsequently Lieutenant 
Governor of Massachusetts. Each of them, through a course 
of years, devoted a large amount of valuable time, thought, 
and influence to the cause ; and they too have gone from 
earth.* Dr. Woods, from the Andover Seminary, was there, 
watching the flow of the river which he was able to trace back 
better than almost any other one present ; and Dr. David 
Porter, every faculty of whose great soul was enlisted in 
Christ s cause ; Dr. Justin Edwards, whose rare grasp of the 
relations and powers of general principles afterward gave 
wonderful effect to his labors in the cause of temperance and 
the Sabbath ; Dr. Benjamin B. Wisner,- who, with his fine 
executive talent, was soon to be enlisted as a Secretary of the 
Board, alas! for so short a time; and Dr. Elias Cornelius, 
then approaching, as it soon appeared, the close of his brilliant 
and most useful career. It was at this meeting that Mr. Evarts 

* A lifelike portrait of Mr. Reed, along with an equally truthful one of 
Dr. Worcester, now graces the committee room, and it would be well if 
similar memorials of the others were also there. 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 129 

read the conclusion to the twentieth Report, containing a 
prospective view of our own country one of the most elo 
quent productions that have resulted from the modern mis 
sionary enterprise. 

The meeting at Philadelphia, in 1841, is worthy of an 
extended notice ; not so much on account of the attendance 
of members, though that was unusual, as for its remarkable 
character, and its extended, powerful, and permanent influ 
ence upon the community. It was held under the excitement 
of a debt, which had been accumulating for several years, and 
had become nearly as large as the one that so occupied the 
attention of the Jubilee Meeting. That was one of the great 
pecuniary crises of the Board ; and such was the effect of the 
meeting, through the divine blessing, that this debt was 
removed before the next anniversary, through the ordinary 
channels of contribution. An excellent account of the meet 
ing, in the New York Observer, by the editor, Dr. S. I. Prime, 
contributed much to its influence on the community ; and a 
free use will be made here of that report. 

The meeting was held in the First Presbyterian Church, 
commencing on Wednesday, September 8, at ten o clock, A. M. 
The receipts of the year had been two hundred and thirty-five 
thousand one hundred and eighty-nine dollars and thirty cents ; 
the expenditure, two hundred and sixty-eight thousand nine 
hundred and fourteen dollars and seventy-nine cents ; and 
the debt was fifty-seven thousand eight hundred and eight 
dollars and ninety-one cents. Of course more than three 
hundred thousand dollars would be needed the next year. 
The Treasurer brought the case distinctly before the Board. 
As to the probable receipts, he said it had been stated at the 
last annual meeting that three hundred thousand dollars could 
be raised, but it had not been ; and the Committee saw no 
reason to suppose an equal amount would be raised in the 
year to come ; and they considered it unsafe to go on unless 
means were devised for a substantial increase of the funds. 
" As the times are now, we can go on," continued Mr. Hill ; 



130 THE BOARD. 

" but if money should be greatly in demand, and this debt 
be suddenly called for, we might be in most unpleasant cir 
cumstances. Our credit, a most precious jewel, that can not 
be too carefully preserved, would be endangered, and there 
would be no relief but in falling back on the permanent 
funds, which, by our charter, may not be touched for the 
ordinary expenses of the Board. And many of us have 
doubts whether it is right for a religious institution to contract 
debts to a large amount. With the prospect before us that 
the receipts will fall far short of the appropriations, to say 
nothing of the debt, we are ready to ask, WJiat shall be 
done ?" He conjured the members to speak out, and tell 
what ought to be done. 

Dr. William J. Armstrong, the Home Secretary, submitted 
the views of the Prudential Committee on the necessity of 
greater system in efforts to raise the funds ; which were ably 
responded to by a special committee through Chancellor Wai- 
worth. A series of resolutions was appended to the com 
mittee s report. 

" After the reading of this paper," says the Observer, 
" there was a solemn and anxious pause of some moments. 
The members of the Board were called on to express their 
views, but no one appeared willing to break ground in this 
great emergency. The wisdom of the wise seemed to fail, 
while all were disposed to ask, 6 Lord, what wilt thou have 
us to do ? 

" The venerable Dr. Yale called the attention of the Board 
to a memorable declaration, made twenty-five years ago, that 
the energies of Christendom, wisely directed, and attended 
with the blessing of the Spirit, might send the gospel over the 
world in a quarter of a century. If it were my own expres 
sion, said he, < I would not make it ; but it is not mine ; it 
was made by a beloved man who has been resting from his 
labors twenty years ; he died in the Cherokee country, June 7, 
1821.* Nor was it his expression only, but that of the Pru 
dential Committee ; nor theirs merely, but it was formally 

* Dr. Worcester. 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 131 

adopted by the American Board at Hartford, Conn., Septem 
ber 18, 1816. Of the members then present, only three now 
survive ; one [Dr. Chapin] is present to-day ; the quarter of a 
century is gone, and the most of those who made the declara 
tion are gone ; but the work is not done. 1 feel a pang of 
sorrow when I reflect that since that declaration was made, 
six hundred millions of pagans have gone down to the grave. 

" Having said these words, Dr. Yale sat down, and the 
silence was again prolonged." 

The impressive scene is well remembered. This report was 
made on Thursday, and the members had begun somewhat 
to realize the proportions of the impending evil. It was no 
time for rhetoric, and none felt able to propose a solution 
of the difficulty. The silence was broken by the Rev. Chavm- 
cey Eddy, one of the general agents of the Board, lately de 
ceased. He was followed by Mr. S. T. Armstrong, a mem 
ber of the Prudential Committee already mentioned, who af 
firmed that the Committee had acted in the fear of God, and 
in reference to their responsibility to the Board ; and now they 
looked to the Board to justify their conduct, and to furnish the 
means for carrying on the work. And unless they should 
meet this emergency and furnish the means, there was a calam 
ity coming upon us, and a shame to cover our faces which no 
vail could screen. The excellent remarks of Mr. Hubbard, 
then chairman of the Prudential Committee, are deserving of 
remembrance. 

" Mr. Hubbard felt a deep interest in the subject, as one of 
the Committee. Agents who incur debts for their principal 
are often regarded as unfaithful, and made thr subject of re 
buke. And unless the Committee had had good grounds for 
the course they had taken, they ought to be rebuked. He then 
proceeded to show, from documentary history, that the Pru 
dential Committee had been guided from year to year by the 
intelligent direction of the Board. In 1839, the debt was 
nineteen thousand one hundred and seventy-three dollars ; and 
then the Board advised that no reduction be made, and that 
uo missionaries be detained who were willing to be sent out. 
19 



132 THE BOARD. 

Ill 1840, the debt was twenty-four thousand and eighty-three 
dollars, and the Committee were again authorized to continue 
their appropriations. Acting on these instructions, the Com 
mittee had gone on sustaining the missions, and raising the 
funds as rapidly as possible, and now find themselves in debt 
fifty-seven thousand dollars, in consequence of doing what the 
Board told them to do. Suppose we go on, and do as we are 
told during another year, while no more is contributed, and 
the debt is raised to one hundred thousand dollars. Do you 
suppose we will do it ? I will resign rather than do it. The 
Committee feel the pressure of their responsibilities. The 
Secretaries are not able or willing to bear it. Their energies, 
health, strength, are sinking under it. It is their duty to re 
sign unless the Church comes up to their aid. Mr. Hubbard 
said the subject must now be met as a matter of business. 
Votes and resolutions do not pay debts. They would not meet 
the drafts of this Board in London. Resolutions are not bills 
of exchange. He enforced the necessity of preserving untar 
nished the integrity of the Board, let it cost what it might. 

f< He showed, with great clearness, how there was no reason 
to fear that increased contributions to this cause would dimin 
ish the receipts of other benevolent institutions ; they would 
rise or sink together. Mr. Hubbard went on to demonstrate 
the identity of the missionary spirit with the religion of Christ ; 
remarking, that when a great effort was made in the city of 
Hartford for foreign missions, some one said there would be a 
revival there within a year. The prophecy was true. One 
thousand souls were added to the churches. Not that he would 
propose to purchase such blessings, but he believed they were 
connected as means and ends. There would be no lack of 
funds from Hartford the coming year ; and if the Spirit was 
poured on the churches every where, we should not come here 
saying, we are in debt, and know not what to do. He then 
went on to illustrate his doctrine by reference to the order of 
nature in the production of crops, &c., and to quote the prom- 
ises of God, and to show his dealings with his people in an 
cient days. If we use the means, God will bless them. If we 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 133 

neglect the work, it will nevertheless go on ; the Lord will 
raise up friends, if need be, from the stones of the field ; but 
we shall lose the honor and happiness of cooperating with the 
Son of God in giving his gospel to the world. Those of us 
who can not go personally to the heathen may send others ; 
and every man who contributes bears a part with Christ in 
this work. No one is so poor as not to be able to do some 
thing. The lay members. of the Board should put their shoul 
der to the wheel, and, with the active labor of all, the debt 
might be paid." 

The subject was resumed on Friday. There is a permanent 
value in the speech of Mr. Greene, then one of the Corre 
sponding Secretaries, and the reader will be pleased to see 
copious extracts. 

" As yet, through all the remarks that had been made," 
said Mr. Greene, " he saw no more light than when we com 
menced our sessions. We have the same means proposed as 
in 1838, 1839, and 1840. We have calls, appeals, pledges, rec 
ommendations, but we are now deeper in debt than ever, and 
provisions made for an increase of funds in time past are not 
adequate to the present emergency. The plans, and pledges, 
and resolutions are all encouraging, but there are two or three 
difficulties in the way. 

" They are not quick enough in their operation. If our 
system of agencies could be greatly increased, if we could 
cover the whole field with them at once, and they were wel 
comed by the churches, the work might be done. But many 
churches will not admit agents among them. Some churches, 
near to Boston, have refused to have an agent sent to them. 
A large association has recently passed a resolution to that 
effect, and addressed a letter to the various benevolent societies, 
informing them of the fact. We know, as well as if we saw 
the result, what the effect will be. There will be a falling off 
of thirty-three per cent, in their contributions, unless God 
should in a wonderful manner pour out his Spirit on some one 
man among them, who will see that the work is done. And 
if we should send a dozen more agents into the field, the 



134 THE BOARD. 

churches would say they were coming too thick and too fast, 
and would not tolerate them. 

" But where shall we find the agents ? We have been look 
ing for a year or more for the right kind of men, but we can 
not find them ; at least, those who are willing to make the 
requisite sacrifices of habits of study, family relations, and local 
attachments, and who are, at the same time, the men we want. 
We must have those who have a heqrt in the work, and men 
of talents and tact, who are qualified for other spheres ; and 
these are not so easily found. We might send men who would 
answer the purpose of a wooden clock, to tell the people the 
time had come to take up a collection ; but these are not the 
agents for us, or for the people. It is much easier to find fault 
with agents than it is to find the right kind of agents. 

" In 1837," continued Mr. Greene, " we were compelled to 
curtail all branches of missionary labor. It broke the health 
and hearts of many of our self-denying missionaries ; it led 
them to distrust the interest of the churches at home in 
their support ; it brought the missionaries into discredit with 
the heathen, who saw them disbanding their schools and 
reducing their stations ; but, worse than all this, the Christian 
community became familiar with the idea of curtailing mis 
sionary operations. No greater disaster than this could befall 
us. The Church has thought that the missionaries might re 
trench their expenses, or come home , or that the Prudential 
Committee might retrench ; or, in any great emergency into 
which the Board might come, that some wise scheme would 
be devised, by which they might for a season stand still, or go 
back, without disgrace and disaster. There can be a breaking 
up of the missions ; we can disband the schools ; we can go 
back to where we were in 1810 ! But to beg-in again; to 
recover lost ground ; to, revive the abandoned work is not 
so easy a task. 

" And few realize the difficulties in the way of reaching the 
distant and most expensive missions with orders of curtail 
ment. No vessel may be ready to sail. After the order is 
dispatched, some months must elapse before it reaches the mis- 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 135 

sion ; and when it does, the mission has laid out its plans for 
the year, has hired printers and teachers, established free 
schools, contracted engagements with the natives, and made 
known to them its plans ; and would you have the faith of the 
missionaries dishonored in the eyes of the heathen ? Must 
they break their pledges, and confess that the Christian world 
will not sustain their efforts to save the perishing ? 

" Suppose our missionaries in the East, who have eight thou 
sand children around them learning to read the Bible, and 
through whom they have access to multitudes of natives, re 
ceive an order to curtail their operations. They return us the 
question, Do you want us to send these children back to 
heathenism ? If we must, we will do it. But shall we, can 
ive, be so hardhearted or indifferent as to compel them to do 
it ? If the Prudential Committee are able to make such a 
requirement of the missionaries, they are unworthy to fill the 
seats they occupy. Well did one of the missionaries say, as 
he disbanded the schools of five thousand children, and let 
them go back to the embrace of heathenism, What an offer 
ing to Swamy ! * 

" In this crisis, Mr. President, are we now placed. The trial is 
growing more and more severe and perplexing every day. We 
have heard much of praying for the Spirit, and the answer to 
our prayers has brought us into these straits. God has opened 
the way ; he has given our missionaries an abundant entrance 
into the fields of labor ; and the Church falls back ! If the 
world was shut up as it was when Hall and Newell went out, 
we could not use the funds now asked, if we had them. But 
God has opened the door wide, in answer to prayer, and the 
Church falters. It is true we do not pray enough, or feel our 
dependence on God as we ought. But if our prayers would 
find acceptance with God, we must lay ourselves on the altar 
to which we come, or no incense will go up. 

"It has appeared strange to me," continued Mr. Greene, 
" that a Church which has come up from nothing to this, should 
falter now. If in 1810 the Church had said, * A wall as high as 
heaven is around the heathen world ; we can not gain access 



136 THE BOARD. 

to them ; they are joined to idols ; let them alone ; it would 
not have been strange. But now that the world is open, and 
the heathen are casting away their idols, and God calls us 
to come on an,d bear a part with him in the victory, that the 
Church should draw back is amazing ! 

" When there were none willing to go to the heathen, that 
the Church should be at ease, is not so strange ; but when our 
missionaries are ready to go to distress, and privations, and 
death, that the Church should say, We are not willing to sus 
tain you, is indeed amazing. Why is not every one coming 
up with his thank offering- for what has already been done ? 
Why are we so indifferent about the heathen ? Why is not 
every heart broken, and every eye a fountain of tears ? ! 
did we realize what momentous consequences hang on the 
issue of this meeting, we should feel. Do we think that one 
soul will have its destiny for eternity changed by the decision 
to which we come ? Bring that soul here, and place him in 
the aisle of this house, and no man dare hold up his head, no 
man dare go to the communion table, who has voted to with 
hold from that soul the means of salvation. But we know, as 
well as we know that we sit here, that thousands of immortal 
souls are suspended on the issues of this hour. 

" It is very solemn business, this consulting for the souls of 
men, saying whether this and that soul shall or shall not 
have the bread of eternal life. And yet there is no other 
light in which the subject is worth looking at. If this is not 
the true issue, call home your missionaries, appoint no more 
officers, pay off your debt, stop all your operations, and let 
the heathen alone." 

Friday noon, when it is usual for the Board to terminate its 
sessions, there was a deeply interesting conversation as to the 
necessity of prolonging the meeting. After a prayer by the 
Eev. Mr. Danforth, the Board resolved to continue together 
until it should reach some more favorable result. The session 
in the .afternoon can not be adequately described. It was 
unique in the manifestations of feeling. Venerable men, of 



MEETINGS OP THE BOARD. 137 

eminent position, were seen weeping under their irrepressible 
emotions, in view of the infinite interests that seemed in jeop 
ardy. At length Dr. Justin Edwards asked whether the Pru 
dential Committee had any thing more to communicate. 
Learning that they had not, he requested that the resolutions 
introduced by Chancellor Walworth, the day before, might be 
adopted. These had pledged the Corporate and Honorary 
members now attending the Board, individually and collec 
tively, to exert themselves to excite an interest in others hi 
the cause of missions, and to contribute liberally of their sub 
stance to the support of missions. 

Dr. Edwards then said he wanted something to secure per 
sonal responsibility ; and he proposed that the roll be called, 
and that every member should answer to three questions, 
which were in substance as follows : 

1. Will you increase your subscription, this year, at least 
twenty-five per cent, above that of last year ? 

2. Will you endeavor to influence others, so far as in your 
judgment may be proper and right, to do the same ? 

3. Will you come to the meeting of this Board next year, 
and report what the Lord hath done by you ? Or, if unable 
to attend, will you communicate by writing ? This proposi 
tion he supported by a spirited and effective address. 

" The proposition of Dr. Edwards was agreed to, the roll 
called, and each member, both Corporate and Honorary, who 
was present, was called upon to answer these questions ; and 
nearly all promptly answered in the affirmative ; though some 
few preferred not to pledge themselves explicitly, some qual 
ified their answers, and a considerable number pledged them 
selves to increase their subscriptions fifty or one hundred per 
cent. The Prudential Committee were instructed to propound 
these questions to the absent members of the Board, and also 
to send a circular letter, embracing substantially the same, to 
all the churches which patronized the Board, whose ministers 
were not members." 

Dr. Chapin has the important additional fact, in his record 
of the meeting, that those present, not members of the Board, 



138 THE 

were respectfully invited to answer the same questions, and 
that nearly or quite the whole assembly rose in an affirmative 
reply. 

Further to insure the success of this effort, at the suggestion 
of Mr. Hubbard, it was resolved to hold a special meeting 
of the Board in New York city on the 18th of the following 
January. Perhaps it would have been better to have author 
ized the Prudential Committee to call such a meeting, in ca:;e 
they should deem one expedient. The apparent necessity for 
it had actually ceased when the time arrived, the debt being 
then reduced two thirds, and in a fair way for liquidation. 
The Prudential Committee and Secretaries were in some per 
plexity how to prevent the meeting from being a failure ; but 
it was not such. Among the statements then made, it was 
said that besides the responses forwarded to the Committee by 
individual members of the Board, there had been a more 
informal, though perhaps not less hearty, response from an 
equal or greater number of ministers and laymen at meet 
ings of ecclesiastical bodies and auxiliary societies ; embra 
cing one Synod and some Presbyteries and Associations in the 
State of New York, and some in the States of New Hamp 
shire and Maine. The members had answered the first two 
of the three questions proposed at the annual meeting with 
great unanimity. At the annual meetings of nearly all the 
auxiliary societies in the State of Connecticut, of eight in 
Massachusetts, and nearly all in Vermont, embracing most 
of the auxiliary meetings held since the anniversary of the 
Board, the questions just alluded to were put and affirma 
tively responded to with great promptness and unanimity. 

As one of the consequences of the meeting at Philadelphia, 
and of the extended and interesting notices of the same, the 
meeting at Norwich, in the following year, was thronged ; and 
from that time the Board has had no occasion to lament the 
want of an audience, as well at its business sessions, as at 
those designed to be of a more popular character. 

At the meeting in Rochester, N. Y., in 1843, the venerable 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 139 

Dr. Chapin declined holding any longer the office of Record 
ing Secretary. His letter, which is of permanent interest, 
coming from the last of the original members of the Board, 
and from one of the five composing the meeting to which he 
refers, is given here, with a few omissions. It was addressed 
to the President of the Board. 

The undersigned would respectfully, through you, request 
the Board not to consider him as a candidate for any office in 
its power to confer. At the same time, he trusts that it will 
not be inexcusable presumption in him to express, retrospec 
tively and in a word, his devout wonder and joy. 

Thirty-three years ago, a meeting of the Board consisted 
of no more than five persons, and our much-esteemed brother 
Noah Porter, and his excellent family and house, afforded 
every accommodation. That meeting was distinguished by 
fervency of prayer, strength of faith, and the perfection of 
such hope as Christian faith warrants. At that trying mo 
ment, however, the Board had neither missionaries nor money. 
It seems quite remarkable, too, that every opening of access 
to " the dark places of the earth " was entirely conjectural and 
imaginary. 

Just compare that meeting with the experience of the 
Board at Norwich, twelve months ago. In this, more than 
four hundred names were offered and received, of members 
Corporate and Honorary. Such a fact, combined with the 
affectionate testimony of absent members, presents invincible 
proof of hearty friendship and zeal in thousands, or rathor in 
millions, for the accomplishment of the heavenly object to 
which the Board is religiously self-consecrated. Furthermore, 
truly encouraging and- animating is the evidence in numer 
ous and widely-separated stations selected, in many missions 
established, and in the great success realized that Christ 
superintends, approves, and blesses the benevolent enterprise. 

The undersigned assumes leave to say, that, through inex 
haustible grace, he feels no measured satisfaction in the clear 
anticipation of a speedy union with the glorified spirits of 
Treadwell, and Lyman, and Spring, and Dwight, and Worces- 
20 



140 THE BOARD. 

tcr, and Evarts, and their cotemporaries and successors. 
Allow him to add, that while his probationary life and faculties 
are continued, his unceasing and affectionate prayer will be, 
that Zion s King may promote human well-being and Jeho 
vah s praise, by annually increasing the means of the Board, 
by wisely directing its measures, and by crowning its benev 
olent efforts with the salvation of the world. 

CALVIN CHAPIN. 

The attendance at Worcester in 1844 was very large, owing 
to its being in the midst of a dense missionary population. 
There were present eighty-seven Corporate and five hundred 
and seventeen Honorary members ; and of patrons, male and 
female, a far greater number. Two churches were filled with 
the communicants on Thursday. Many clergymen and others, 
not being able to find seats, assembled in still another church 
for prayer. 

The first time in which the Board is known to have decided 
a disputed question by a call of the roll of members, and the 
formal response of " Yea " or " Nay," was at Brooklyn, N. Y., 
in the year 1845. It was upon the adoption of a report on 
the subject of slaveholding in churches under the care of mis 
sionaries of the Board, made by a committee appointed the 
previous year. There have been only two other occasions on 
which this method was resorted to, and those were in connec 
tion with the same subject at Hartford in 1854, and Phila 
delphia in 1859. The reader is referred, for the more impor 
tant proceedings of the Board in relation to this matter, to the 
minutes of the annual meetings at Brooklyn in 1845, Boston 
in 1848, Hartford in 1854, Utica in 1855, and Philadelphia 
in 1859. 

The minutes of the meeting in 1848 contain a letter from 
the Rev. David Greene, declining a reelection as Correspond 
ing Secretary, in consequence of impaired health. From this 
letter it will be proper to make the following extract : 

I must be permitted to say, that during the almost twenty- 
one years of my official connection with the Board, a period 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 141 

extending over more than half the Board s history from its 
organization, and a longer period than any other executive 
officer has been connected with it, except the present Treas 
urer and the senior Corresponding Secretary, it has been my 
happiness to be associated intimately with the present Treas 
urer, six persons in the office of Secretary, and fourteen as 
members of the Prudential Committee, six of whom have been 
removed, as we doubt not, to the heavenly rest ; and I would 
here record, with thankfulness to God, that in all the meet 
ings for business held during this whole period, (and they have 
been, on the average, more than one a week,) and in all our 
mutual private intercourse, there has never been, so far as I 
have reason to believe, one offensive word, one uncourteous 
act, or one unkind feeling. Though often differing, of course, 
in opinion on some of the many delicate and perplexing sub 
jects which have come up for discussion and action, in feeling 
all without a single exception have been harmonious and fra 
ternal. The scenes of prayer and anxious consultation and 
wearisome labor, passed with these brethren in the committee 
room and in the private apartments of the Missionary House, 
have made impressions which no other scenes, nor time itself, 
can efface. From all my respected and beloved fellow-laborers 
there, including the Prudential Committee, I have received 
unvarying kindness and forbearance. A willingness to share 
in and lighten each other s burdens has ever characterized the 
relations and intercourse there. For all this they have my 
hearty thanks, as they shall ever have my affectionate remem 
brance, my sympathy, and my prayers. 

Justice requires me further to say, that I feel confident 
that the interests of the Board are safe in their hands. From 
their systematic and laborious attention to the business intrust 
ed to them, their singleness of aim, and their prayerfulness, 
the divine guidance and blessing will not be withheld. Borne 
down with burdens, responsibilities, and anxieties, which those 
who have not participated in them can but poorly appreciate, 
and oftentimes grieved and weakened by the suspicions, cen 
sures, and counteraction of brethren, whose wishes it would 
be far more easy and pleasant to conform to than to contra- 



142 THE BOARD. 

vene by pursuing another course, which a knowledge of the 
facto and bearings of a case and a single regard to the inter 
ests intrusted to them demand, I most earnestly commend them 
to the prayers, the sympathy, the confidence, and the coopera 
tion of all the friends of missions ; and I have no doubt that 
the more fully their motives and proceedings are understood, 
the more cheerfully will this sympathy, confidence, and cooper 
ation be accorded to them. 

No one can read the speech of the Secretary, already quoted, 
without being impressed with the great loss which the Board 
experienced on this occasion. The effects of a railroad col 
lision created the necessity. Having retired upon a farm, 
Mr. Greene is still living in the midst of his numerous family, 
and takes an unabated interest in the progress of the Redeem 
er s kingdom. 

The meeting at Pittsfield, in the year 1849, is known to 
have been preceded by an extraordinary amount of prayer, 
owing to a prevalent anxiety lest alienating discussions should 
arise ; and it will be remembered by those who were present, 
as a season of the most elevated Christian enjoyment. Other 
meetings had been more fully attended, and took a deeper hold 
on the feelings and sympathies by reason of some question of 
general and absorbing interest ; but on no previous occasion 
had there been such a constant, delightful commingling of the 
sweetest, tenderest emotions of the Christian heart. The re 
flection often arose in many a breast, We are sitting in heav- 
enly places in Christ Jesus. 

The first meeting beyond the Alleghanies was in the year 
1853, at Cincinnati. There were fears that comparatively few 
of the Corporate members would be present, on account of the 
distance and the expense of the journey. But there were for 
ty-seven ; twenty-six from New England, and nine from New 
York and New Jersey. Twelve were from the Western States. 
One hundred and four of the hundred and eighty Honorary 
members were from that side of the mountains. Not till 1843 
had one of these anniversaries been held as far west as Roch 
ester, and not till 1847 was it as far as Buffalo. And what 



MEETINGS OF THE BOARD. 143 

were those three cities, and where indeed was the West, when 
the Board was organized ? There has since been a successful 
meeting at Detroit, and the next is appointed at Cleveland. 
The forty-fifth annual meeting of the Board at Hartford, in 
1854, was perhaps the largest ever held, save the fiftieth. Nine 
ty-nine Corporate and five hundred and ninety-six Honorary 
members were actually enrolled. There was a greater number 
of members at Boston in 1848, but not so many persons com 
mended to the hospitality of families in the city and vicinity. 
At this meeting, Henry Hill, Esq., having reached the age of 
sixty, and having served thirty-two years as Treasurer, declined 
a reelection. In his letter to the President he states, that 
when he entered on his official duties in 1822, the annual re 
ceipts were about sixty thousand dollars, and the whole amount 
in the previous twelve years was little more than three hun 
dred thousand dollars. The annual receipts, at the date of his 
letter, exceeded three hundred thousand dollars, and the sum 
total was over six millions. The salary of the Treasurer, de 
ducting his donations to the Board, had averaged less than 
fourteen hundred dollars. This was below his necessary ex 
penses ; but he had declined receiving more, though often 
kindly urged to do so, having an income on property acquired 
previous to his connection with the Board. His letter concludes 
thus : " A female, connected with the Gaboon mission, on her 
death-bed gave to the Board about fifty dollars, as a dying 
thank offering for having had the privilege of laboring thirteen 
years on the shores of Western Africa. With the same spirit, 
as I would hope, and in testimony of my continued confidence 
and interest, the Board will please accept the inclosed dona 
tion, which I also make as a thank offering that I have been 
so long allowed to serve the Board as its Treasurer." The 
check was for two thousand dollars. 

The visit of a deputation to the missions in India in 1854-5, 
which will be spoken of in the chapter on deputations, gave 
rise to a special meeting of the Board at Albany, in March, 
1856. Misapprehensions had arisen, at the annual meeting in 
the preceding autumn, as to the proceedings in India, and the 



144 THE BOARD. 

Prudential Committee was requested to call the Board together 
when the deputation should have returned. The special meet 
ing was necessarily held in the most inclement season of the 
year ; and its size, while evincing an apprehension that grave 
errors had been committed, showed the strong hold of the 
cause upon the hest feelings of the community. Eighty-two 
Corporate and at least two hundred Honorary members were 
in attendance. A special committee of thirteen, appointed on 
this occasion, presented a printed report to the Board at its 
next annual meeting in Newark, the main result of which will 
be stated in the chapter treating on deputations. 

In the year 1857, at the meeting in Providence, the Hon. 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, President of the Board, retired from 
office on account of the withdrawal of the Reformed Dutch 
Cl lurch, of which he was a member, from its connection with 
the Board. In a letter to the Prudential Committee and Sec 
retaries, subsequent to the meeting, the esteemed and beloved 
President, speaking in behalf of that branch of the missionary 
community, as well as for himself, thus gave expression to 
his feelings : 

In parting from you, I feel as a child parting from a ven 
erated and beloved mother. Like a mother you have cher 
ished us, when we were few and feeble. You took us under 
the wings of your care, and linked our interests together. We 
thank you for all your kindness. We thank God for the pre 
cious seasons of Christian privilege that we have enjoyed to 
gether. We have often gone up to the heights of Zion, and 
looked down upon this dark world, and traced the footsteps of 
our wonder-working God and Redeemer. And from these 
" heavenly places" we have together hailed the first streaks of 
the morning, the sure tokens of that coming glory which the 
Sun of Righteousness shall shed upon this benighted and sin- 
stricken world. These hallowed seasons will be for grateful 
thanksgiving in that blessed world where partings never grieve, 
and the past shall be recalled only to augment the pleasures 
of a sanctified memory. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE PLACES OF BUSINESS. 

Members. Constitution of the Body. Growth of the Meetings, -r Attendance of 
Executive Officers. Manner of doing Business. Duties of the Committee. 
Place of Business, 1821. Pressure of Duties. Place of Business, 1822. New 
Laborers. Place of Business, 1826. Destroyed by Fire. Place of Business, 1830. 
The Missionary House. Its Cost and Advantages. 

THE PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE. 

THE Prudential Committee has now twelve members, one 
of whom is from the city of New York, and one from Brook 
lyn. No member receives compensation for his services. The 
stated meetings are held weekly, on Tuesday, at three o ? clock, 
P. M., and occupy the afternoon. Five members are a quorum 
for business. There is a remarkable uniformity in the attend 
ance. Of the eight from Boston and its vicinity who were in 
the country, the past year for instance, the average attendance 
was seven at the fifty-two meetings. Gentlemen in full city 
business will appreciate this sacrifice of time, which was cheer 
fully made. 

The meetings of the Prudential Committee had a very small 
beginning. There were but three members at the outset 
Dr. Worcester, of Salem, who was the Corresponding Secre 
tary, and Dr. Spring and Mr. Bartlet, both of Newburyport. 
For years the meetings were migratory. Only two are 
recorded in 1810, the same number in the second year, six in 
the third, two in the fourth, and four in the fifth. There 
were eight meetings in 1815, ten in 1816, twelve in 1817, the 
same number in 1818, and nineteen in 1819, which was the 
year preceding Dr. Worcester s death. Mr. Evarts came into 
the Committee in 1812, and Dr. Morse in 1815. Both resided 

(145) 



BOARD. 

in Charlestown. Until the close of 1816, the places of meet 
ing seem to have been casual. Newburyport and Salem had 
each eight of the thirty-four meetings, Charlestown seven, 
Boston and Audover four each ; the remaining three were at 
Worcester and Hartford, in connection with meetings of the 
Board. Mr. Reed, of Marblehead, entered the Committee in 
1818, and Dr. Woods, of the Audover Theological Seminary, 
in 1819. About that time, the meetings began to be held 
usually in Boston. At this early period, when principles were 
unsettled, when the business was tentative and not usually 
urgent, when the members were scattered, and the time for 
railroads had not come, the Secretary would often seek a solu 
tion of his missionary problems by correspondence, or by con 
ference with individual members whom he chanced to meet. 
The meetings began to be held weekly in the year 1832. 

The meetings have been attended for many years by the 
Corresponding Secretaries, the Treasurer, and the Editor of 
the monthly publications, in virtue of their office, but they do 
not vote. The Chairman is appointed from among the mem 
bers, and the Senior Secretary has been Clerk. A long table, 
in the center of the committee room, allows the whole seven^ 
teen to gather around it, each one with pen and paper before 
him. After an opening prayer, and the reading of the min 
utes of the previous meeting, for correction (if need be) and 
approval, the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Sec 
retary for New York City (if present), and the Treasurer, are 
called upon successively to bring forward the business needing 
attention in their several departments. They are expected to 
state it clearly, and to be prepared for a concise and accurate 
presentation of all the documents and facts needful for its 
elucidation/ This is their business ; and when this is done, 
the Chairman calls upon each person present to express his 
opinion ; then gives his own ; and, should a result have been 
reached, he declares it, or a formal vote is taken. 

The discussions, in this small deliberative body, are in the 
conversational tone, the members being seated, are sel 
dom protracted, almost never controversial. There is often a 



THE PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE. 147 

diversity of opinion at the outset, and a point is regarded as 
unsettled until there is a substantial unity. If there be not, 
the case is reserved for a future meeting, perhaps referred to 
a sub-committee for a written report. The large number of 
reports now on file form a valuable repository of facts and 
experience. Sometimes these reports are extended and elab 
orate. Where there are such diversity of mind and disposition 
and such varied and delicate interests, as in an extended sys 
tem of foreign missions, intricate cases must needs arise, 
requiring careful investigation and nice discrimination. A 
single case has been known to occupy the chairman of a sub 
committee all the time he could spare for it, which was a por 
tion of almost every day, for some five or six weeks. Such 
cases, however, occur but seldom. It might be hard to find a 
body of Christian men in our own land, of different profes 
sions, and so largely occupied with business of their own, who 
devote such an amount of time to the oversight of a benev 
olent enterprise. The by-law, prescribing their duties, is as 
follows : " It shall be the duty of the Prudential Committee 
to carry into effect all resolutions and orders of the Board, 
the execution of which shall not have been assigned to some 
other committee ; to cause the more inviting fields for mis 
sionary enterprise to be explored, if necessary ; to appoint the 
places where missions shall be attempted, and to determine 
the scale upon which they shall be conducted, and to superin 
tend them ; to appoint, instruct, and direct all the missionaries 
of the Board ; to prescribe where the Treasurer shall deposit 
the moneys of the Board, and the times and modes of invest 
ments and remittances ; to draw orders authorizing the pay 
ment of moneys from the treasury ; to ascertain the state of 
the treasury at least twice a year, and as much oftener as they 
see cause ; to appoint agents at home and abroad, with such 
powers and duties as they may think are demanded by the 
best interests of missions ; and, generally, to perform all 
duties necessary, in their opinion, to promote the objects of the 
Board ; provided the same shall not be contrary to any resolu 
tion or by-law of the Board, nor to the Act of Incorporation. 
21 



148 THE BOARD. 

They shall annually elect a chairman and clerk, the former of 
whom shall keep the bond of the Treasurer." 

PLACES FOR TRANSACTING THE BUSINESS. 

Coming from the Theological Seminary at Andover, in 1821, 
shortly after the decease of Dr. Worcester, to assist Mr. 
Evarts during a vacation, the writer found that the executive 
business of the Board was all transacted in one small room in 
the basement of Mr. Evarts s dwelling house. Here that inval 
uable man was well-nigh prostrated by the combined duties of 
Treasurer, Corresponding Secretary, and Editor. It seems, 
indeed, looking back after near forty years, that all these 
duties could not, at that time, have equaled those of either 
one of the departments in the present secretaryship. But 
this view is in some respects illusory. The missionary work 
is peculiar in its nature, and these pioneers had every thing to 
originate, learn, and settle. There are embarrassments enough 
now, and they are painful enough, and doubtless always will 
be, for the trial of faith and patience ; but there has been 
great progress in simplifying and systematizing the modes 
of operation. Problems and cases which caused those men 
protracted and anxious deliberations, have long since been 
settled, and now serve as precedents, like adjudicated eases 
in courts of law. 

In the spring of 1822, the writer was required to spend a 
few months at what were then called the Missionary Rooms, 
while Mr. Evarts visited the Indian missions. These Rooms 
were in the second story of a tenement in what is now known 
as Cornhill. The Correspondence and Treasury had each a 
separate apartment, and the editing was connected with the 
former, which devolved upon the writer ; while Mr. Lev! 
Chamberlain, an intelligent and successful young merchant 
of Boston, who had relinquished his business for the mission 
ary service, had the temporary charge of the latter. Mr. 
Chamberlain s health requiring a milder climate, he joined 
the Sandwich Islands mission in 1823, and, until his death in 



PLACES OF BUSINESS. 149 

1849, was the able and faithful secular agent in that mission. 
These two young men were of course under the general over 
sight of the Prudential Committee ; but it illustrates the 
infancy of the work, that, for half a year, it could be com 
mitted to such inexperienced hands. Mr. Evarts returned in 
the following summer. Henry Hill, Esq., entered upon his 
long and faithful service as Treasurer in the autumn. Mr. 
Hill was born in Newburgh, N. Y. ; received his mercantile 
training in the city of New York ; and, after one or two busi 
ness visits to Europe, he was for some years a merchant in 
Chili. Having acquired a moderate competency, he returned 
to the United States, resolved to devote himself to a life bear 
ing more directly on the cause of Christ. The knowledge of 
this fact led to his election by the Board. At that time, also, 
the writer, having completed his course in the Seminary, 
became a permanent laborer at the Missionary Rooms. 

The building of an edifice in Hanover Street, in 1826, for 
the church under the pastoral care of Dr. Lyman Beecher, 
furnished more convenient apartments for the Board. These 
were in the basement story, and were secured to the Board, 
by the liberality of a few individuals, free of rent for five 
years. The rooms were three in number, one for the Treas 
ury, and two for the Correspondence ; and into them the 
offices of the Board were removed in the spring of that year. 
Early in the morning of February 1, 1830, the Hanover-street 
Church was consumed by fire. A part of the property of the 
Board was insured ; and through the kindness of Providence, 
and the laborious exertions of friends, nearly all the account 
books, records, correspondence, and other valuable papers in 
the offices of the Secretary and Treasurer, which no insurance 
could have made good, were saved ; together with a consid 
erable portion of the Annual Reports, and of the back vol 
umes of the Missionary Herald. 

The offices were again removed to Cornhill ; and here the 
business of the Board was transacted until the erection of 
the Missionary House on Pemberton Square, in the year 1838. 

The Prudential Committee had increasingly felt the need 



150 THE BOARD. 

of a house to be owned by the Board, and better adapted to 
its business. A record of the desirableness of such a building 
appears as far back as the year 1823. The national Bible, 
Tract, and Sunday School Societies had erected such buildings. 
The inconvenience and loss resulting from repeated removals 
were not small, and must needs increase with the property at 
the Rooms. The general depression of business in the year 
1837 afforded a good opportunity for building, since the 
expense was not to be met by donations, nor by a loan, but 
simply by a change in the investment of a portion of the per 
manent funds. The lot and building cost some thousands 
less than they would have done before, or probably at any 
time since. The Missionary House stands on one of the cor 
ners of Pemberton Square, and is built of brick, thirty-one 
feet by fifty, with two one-story offsets, in the rear, some forty 
feet in length. The higlit of the building is three stories, 
exclusive of basement and attic ; and it is economically 
and neatly finished throughout. In the basement are offices 
for the agent for publications, and the purchasing agent, 
with storerooms for every kind of article on the way to the 
several missions, and also an ample safe-room for the ar 
chives. The offices of the Treasurer and Corresponding Secre 
taries are in the first and second stories, each having a room 
of convenient size, with a small retiring room contiguous 
to it ; and there is a safe in each of these stories. The 
Library and Cabinet occupy the third story, and the meetings 
of the Prudential Committee are held in the Library, which is 
also called the Committee Room. The attic is mostly devoted 
to pamphlets, chiefly publications of the Board. The Mission 
ary House is central, quiet, airy, and near the great horse-car 
lines running through and out of the city. The cost of the 
house and land was twenty-two thousand six hundred and 
thirteen dollars and sixty-one cents. The house, besides 
greatly facilitating the operations of the executive officers in 
their various departments, has given to the Board the appear 
ance of stability and permanence, and has had the effect to 
strengthen its hold on the public mind, and also its credit in 
the commercial world. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CORRESPONDENCE LIBRARY CABINET. 

Early and Later Correspondence. Postage. Manuscript Volumes. Copying of 
Letters. Advantage of this Practice. Freedom of the Correspondence. Respon 
sibilities of the Secretaries. Instructions to Missionaries. Number of Secretaries. 
Library of the Board. Missionary Cabinet. 

THE CORRESPONDENCE. 

THE correspondence of the Board is carried on by the Sec 
retaries and Treasurer. The District Secretaries have, of 
course, a correspondence of their own. Thirty years ago, the 
cost of postage at the Missionary House was nearly six hun 
dred dollars, very little of which was for sea-letters, those 
to missions in foreign lands being nearly all sent by ship from 
the port of Boston, and the greater part received from them 
being first deposited on their arrival in the Boston post office. 
There were then no ocean mail-packets, and of course there 
was no ocean postage. 

Seven years later, the number of sheets received from the 
missions in one year exceeded fifteen hundred. The num 
ber of letters in the domestic correspondence, during a 
year, was about twelve hundred. The annual postage on 
letters and pamphlets was nearly a thousand dollars, though 
a large portion of the letters from beyond sea was subject to 
little or no charge. 

For many years after the Board commenced its operations, 
the rates of postage were high. Up to July, 1845, a single I 
sheet, under thirty miles, cost six cents ; from thirty to eighty j 
miles, ten cents ; from eighty to one hundred and fifty miles, j 
twelve and a half cents ; from one hundred and fifty to four 
hundred miles, eighteen and three fourths cents ; and over! 

(151) 



152 THE BOARD. 

^four hundred miles, twenty-five cents. From 1845 to 1851, 
: the postage was five cents the half ounce under three hundred 
miles, and ten cents for a greater distance. The present 
standard of three cents for any distance short of three thou 
sand miles, and six cents beyond that, was adopted in 1851. 
The postage on letters to the missions beyond sea, by the 
" overland " mails, is from thirty-three to forty cents for every 
half ounce ; excepting to the Sandwich Islands, where it is 
seventeen cents. The postage, in periods of ten years, was as 
follows : 



First period $330 74 

Second, 3,920 33 

Third, 8,270 23 



Fourth 8,215 79 

Fifth 8,951 72 



Total, . $29,688 81 



The letters and other documents received, during thirteen 
years, from the Armenian mission alone, were somewhat more 
than three thousand sheets. The proportion was not so great 
from the other missions. The missionaries are expected to 
write to the Missionary House on paper furnished for the pur 
pose, and always with a proper margin for the binding of the 
letters and journals. Manuscripts of every kind are bound in 
volumes convenient for reference, which are deposited in a 
room secure from fire, forming the archives of the Board. 
An inventory of the contents of this room gives the following 
results, viz. : 

Volumes. 

Letters and other Documents received from Missions and Missionaries, 157 

Miscellaneous Foreign Letters, 4 

Autograph Letters from Officers of the Board, chiefly the Secretaries, 9 

Letters from Candidates, and Testimonials, 30 

Letters from Persons in the United States, 59 

Documents, 17 

Copies of Letters, made by letter press, to Missionaries and others in 

Foreign Lands, 47 

Copies of Letters, made by letter press, to the Indian Missions, . . 22 
Copies of Domestic Letters, made by letter press, sent from the Mis 
sionary House, 58 

Copies of Letters in Folio Volumes, made by pen, viz. : 

Foreign and Domestic, 5 

Domestic and Indian, .... 4 



CORRESPONDENCE. 153 

Volumes. 

Foreign 4 

Indian 2 

Domestic, 9 

Agencies, 1 

From the Treasurer, 8 

Foreign Letters, copied from the letter-press volumes, since the year 

1837, 25 

Instructions to Missionaries 1 

Records of the Board, (including duplicates of the first two volumes,) 6 

Minutes of the Prudential Committee, 3 

Records of the Prudential Committee 11 

Whole number of volumes, .... 482 

Letters from the Missionary House are always copied before 
being sent. Since the year 1835, the copies have been taken 
by a press ; and the foreign letters are afterward fairly copied 
out by hand. This is found needful for a distinct and perma 
nent record ; and the advantages of it to the Board have 
appeared on several occasions ; as, for instance, in the investi 
gations of the special committee on the proceedings of the 
deputation to the India missions. That committee reported 
themselves to have read twenty-five hundred pages of the cor 
respondence, extending through many years. 

As all that is written from the Missionary House, and all 
that is received there, are thus preserved and arranged, it 
will be readily seen that there is an historical value in the 
collection. 

The correspondence of the Secretaries with particular mis 
sions has been more or less extended, at different times, ac 
cording to circumstances ; and great freedom has always been 
awarded to them in reasoning upon all subjects, on which 
they believed it useful to correspond with their brethren, 
always observing the radical distinction between suggestions, 
opinions, and arguments, on the one hand, and decisions, in 
structions, and rules, on the other. The like freedom is 
awarded to the missions and missionaries. On subjects resolv 
able only by experience, an interchange of views has sometimes 
extended through several years, before the opinions of the 
Prudential Committee and their brethren have become settled 



154 THE BOARD. 

and consentaneous ; and not unfrequently, as the result of 
this free correspondence, the sentiments at first entertained on 
both sides have been considerably modified. 

Correspondence is very far from having been the whole duty 
of the Secretaries. Until within a few years past, they edited 
the Missionary Herald. They have always been responsible 
for the preparation of the Annual Report, though of late they 
have sometimes had aid in writing it. They have written ap 
peals, circulars, and most of the missionary tracts. The whole 
intercourse with candidates for missionary employment, up to 
the time when their papers come before the Prudential Com 
mittee, belongs to the Secretaries ; and so, afterward, until 
their embarkation. The Secretaries have also, at different 
times, been at great pains to prepare and deliver Instructions, 
on behalf of the Prudential Committee, to missionaries about go 
ing forth to their several fields. The writing of these has been 
useful in various ways, but especially as it required a thorough 
research into the condition of the countries whither the mis 
sionaries were going. The Instructions were usually delivered 
in the presence of crowded assemblies, in cities or in central 
places ; though some of the most elaborate of them, develop 
ing the missions to the Oriental Churches, were given in the 
presence of theological students at some one of the Semina 
ries. Dr. Worcester s Instructions to Messrs. Parsons and 
Fisk, in the year 1819, who were then " bound in spirit to 
Jerusalem," and also those to the first missionaries to the 
Sandwich Islands in the same year, are among his most elo 
quent productions. Not far from sixty of these documents 
are preserved at the Missionary House, in a printed or written 
form. About two thirds of them belong to the period between 
1830 and 1847. It will suffice to give extracts from two or 
three of these official documents when treating of the rise of 
the missions, in the second part of this volume. To the Sec 
retaries it belongs to see the numerous visitors to the Mis 
sionary House ; and it is important that they give personal 
attention both to missionaries coming home on a visit, and to 
those who are going forth to their distant fields. It is, more- 



LIBRARY. 155 

over, their duty and pleasure to give attention to the returned 
.children of missionaries on their arrival. There are also 
missionary conventions and meetings of auxiliaries, which it 
is often desirable for them to attend, in connection with dis 
trict secretaries and returned missionaries. Add to this the 
personal visits to the missions, of which an account will be 
given in a subsequent chapter, and the reader will have 
some idea of the multifarious and onerous duties connected 
with the secretaryship. Still, without a nearer view than 
these pages give, there can not be an adequate impression. 

At first, and until 1832, there was but one Corresponding 
Secretary. An assistant was employed in 1822, who was 
formally appointed Assistant Secretary in 1824, and a second 
Assistant Secretary was appointed in 1828. These were really 
the editors of the Missionary Herald ; and one of them acted 
as Assistant Secretary for the foreign correspondence, and 
the other for the Indian and home correspondence. They 
were appointed Corresponding Secretaries in 1832 ; one for 
the foreign correspondence, the other for the Indian, and for 
editing the Missionary Herald ; and a third Secretary was 
then appointed to take charge of the home correspondence. 

In compliance with the earnest desire of patrons in the city 
of New York, a Corresponding Secretary, to reside in that 
city, was appointed in 1852, and the appointment has been 
continued until the present time. The care of the depart 
ments of correspondence is necessarily put upon the Secreta 
ries residing in Boston. There being an Editor for the 
monthly publications, the Board has now but two Corre 
sponding Secretaries in Boston, who respectively have charge 
of the Foreign and Home Departments. 

LIBRARY OF THE BOARD. 

In November, 1821, the Prudential Committee directed, 

that notice be given of an intended collection of a Missionary 

Library, and that the public be invited to contribute books, 

not only for the Library, but for the use of the various inis- 

22 



156 THE BOARD. 

sions of the Board. Such a notice was given, and this was 
the first step toward collecting the present Library of the 
Board, which now more than fills the sides of the large 
Committee Boom. It is perhaps the most valuable collection 
of works in what may be called the literature of benevolence, 
that is any where to be found. The Library has ever been an 
object of interest to the executive officers. It is largely made 
up of the reports and periodicals of benevolent societies in 
America and Europe, received for the most part by donation 
or exchange ; and possesses, of course, the more important do 
mestic and foreign serials, and the standard works in mission 
ary biography, travels, and history. It has been found pro- 
motive of economy to possess some, at least, of the more 
reliable works on the countries where the Board had planted, 
or was expecting to plant, its missions. One illustration of this 
is well remembered. Many years since, yielding to strong 
advice from India, the Prudential Committee went so far as to 
appoint two missionaries for commencing a new mission among 
the Rajpoots of Western India. It was afterward deemed 
advisable to consult Lieutenant Colonel James Tod s Annals 
and Antiquities of the Central and Western Rajpoot States, 
in two quarto volumes, then recently published. According 
ly the work was imported from England, and showed conclu 
sively that a mission to Rajpootana would then be premature. 
The enterprise was relinquished, and subsequent events amply 
proved the correctness of this conclusion. As an aid in edit 
ing the monthly publications of the Board, and in preparing 
the annual reports, addresses to the public, and instructions 
to missionaries, as well as in the correspondence, this Library 
has been of great value. 

The collection is nearly complete in respect to foreign and 
domestic Missionary Societies, and Bible, Tract, and other be 
nevolent institutions of this country, and also in the similar 
publications of kindred societies in Great Britain. Mr. Evarts 
bequeathed to it a valuable portion of his own library. The 
present number of volumes is six thousand one hundred and 
fifty two. 



CABINET. . 157 

THE CABINET. 

The Cabinet, to which a room in the Missionary House has 
been devoted, is a collection of articles from heathen coun 
tries, illustrative of their religions, manners, and customs. It 
is. open to the public, and its influence has doubtless been good. 
The Cabinet owes its existence more to the care exercised to 
preserve the articles of curiosity which have naturally come to 
the House from the different missions, than to any set purpose 
to create such a thing. The number of articles might easily 
be enlarged, were there room for more. The most interesting 
object in this room is a revolving case, containing more than 
four hundred daguerreotype, ambrotype, and photographic 
portraits of missionaries and assistant missionaries of the 
Board, male and female, many of whom are now no longer in 
the land of the living. This collection of portraits was begun 
in the year 1845, and has been attended with little cost. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FINANCES. 

Obtaining Funds the greatest Difficulty. Means employed. Worth of an Exigency. 
Striking Fact. Receipts in Periods of Four Years. In Periods of Ten Years. Gen 
eral Summary. Whence derived. Gradual Increase. Expenditure in Periods of 
Four Years. Comparative View. The Expenditure almost necessarily Progres 
sive. Influence of faith on Missionary Confidence. On the Cost of the Missions. 
Limitation necessary. Dissent of Missionaries. Duty and Powers of the Pru 
dential Committee. Estimates and Appropriations. New Responsibilities. On 
the Cost of the several Agencies. Remittances. Investments. Permanent Funds. 
Indebtedness, and the Responsibility for it. Not prevented by Ruinous Reduc 
tions. 

THE financial history of the Board admits of great expan 
sion, yet must be briefly treated. The greatest difficulty in 
propagating the gospel through the world is believed to be 
obtaining the funds. The chief root of all the evils that have 
come upon the enterprise from the beginning until now, has 
been "the love of money" in the professed people of God. 
Who can tell how much of thought, feeling, and labor, of 
solicitude, fatigue, and disappointment, how many convoca 
tions, speeches, and resolutions, journeyings, consultations, and 
pledges, and how much of prayer and faith, it has required to 
obtain only a few hundred thousands ? And what frequent 
hal tings for lack of pecuniary means what backward marches 
what territory lost that had been gained for the King of Zion ! 
This is one view of the subject. A more reasonable and hope 
ful view is, to regard the enterprise as in its infancy and in 
experience, and its economic nature as yet imperfectly under 
stood. Perhaps it is true, that as large funds have been prov 
identially committed to Missionary Societies in the past fifty 
years, as they had the knowledge to administer judiciously ; 
and that it is impossible to have the necessary steadiness and 

(158) 



THE FINANCES. 159 

increase of contributions until there shall be a more intelligent, 
pervading conviction of the essentially progressive nature of 
the work, and of the wasteful, destructive consequences of not 
providing for it. This knowledge is extending and increas 
ing ; and the very exigencies, by creating anxiety and alarm, 
tend to awaken thought and inquiry, and so increase this 
knowledge. Hence the first Corresponding Secretary used to 
say, that an exigency was worth a thousand dollars to the 
Board. It is worth much more now ; but this presupposes a 
faithful and wise administration, that will bear a searching 
investigation as to the cause of the exigency. 

It is believed to be a fact, that the great permanent advances 
iii the receipts of the Board all stand in immediate connec 
tion with its larger debts, and would seem to have resulted 
from the effort to throw them off. But indebtedness has thus 
proved useful only as it could not be avoided. 

The subject of missionary finance naturally divides into re 
ceipts and expenditures. The former are mainly from dona 
tions and legacies ; but inasmuch as these are sometimes re 
quired by the donors to be invested, there comes at length to 
be an income from permanent funds. Moreover, in the prose 
cution of foreign missions, houses and lands must sometimes 
be owned, and printing-presses, and other property ; arid hence 
another, though very limited source of income, in the sale of 
books and other properties. 

The expenditures are for the missions, for collecting the 
funds, and for the administration. Estimates, appropriations, 
remittances, regulations for the expenditure, investments, and 
the whole subject of indebtedness, come under the second di 
vision, as does the discussion of the various permanent funds, 
and of the economical questions which develop those laws of 
missionary finance, that are as really beyond the control of 
missionaries, and the directors and patrons of missions, as the 
laws of nature. A proper treatment of all these topics would 
require more space than can be afforded in this volume. 



160 



THE BOARD. 



RECEIPTS IN PERIODS OF FOUR YEARS. 



Years. 


Period 


Receipts. 


Periods of 4 Years 


Increase. 


Av. An. Rec t 


Increase. 


1811 

1812 
1813 
1814 
1815 

1816 
1817 
1818 
1819 

1820 
1821 
1822 
1823 

1824 
1825 
1826 
1827 

1828 
1829 
1830 
1831 

1832 
1833 
1834 
1835 

1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 

1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 

1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 

1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 

1852 
1853 
1854 
1855 

1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 

1860 


1 

2 
3 

4 

5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 

12 

Fotal, 

7 1 


$99952 


$46,732 13 
114,698 01 
202,151 21 
253,157 90 
392,891 36 
592,148 18 
908,649 50 
1,039,531 30 
964,983 64 
1,072,526 22 
1,232,862 19 
1,381,185 31 


$67,966 
87,453 
51,006 
39,734 

199,257 
316,501 
130,882 
74547 

Less than in 

107,543 
160,336 
148,323 


$11,683 
28,674 

50,537 
63,289 
98,222 

148,037 
227,162 
* 259,882 
241,245 

he preceding 

268,131 
308,215 
345,296 


$10,684 
16,991 
21,863 
12,752 
34,933 
49,815 
79,125 
32,720 
18,637 

period. 

26,886 
20,084 
37,081 


13,611 50 
11,361 18 
12,265 56 
9,493 89 


12,501 03 
29,948 63 
34,727 72 
37,520 63 


39,949 45 
46,354 95 
60,087 87 
55,758 94 


47,483 58 
55,716 18 
61,616 25 
88,341 89 


102,009 64 
106,928 26 
83,019 37 
100,934 09 


130,574 12 
145,847 77 
152,386 10 
163,340 19 


176,232 15 
252,076 55 
236,170 98 
244,169 82 


241,691 04 
235,189 30 
318,396 53 
244,254 43 


236,394 37 
255,112 96 
262,073 55 
211,402 76 


254,056 46 
291,705 27 
251,862 28 
274,902 21 


301,732 70 
314,922 88 
305,778 84 
310,427 77 


307,318 69 
388,932 69 
334,018 48 
350,915 45 


429,799 08 


8,632,315 55 



*S&?$SnS, have S ^r^teXlWr? 6 T^- period was ^ 1 466 19 The footin S of thi8 table 
of receipts, prepared to show fhe amouni i SfdiSttioS ?andTSsf arosefromthe use of some l ? tables 



THE FINANCES. 



161 



RECEIPTS IN PERIODS OF TEN YEARS. 



1. 


4. 


Year. 


Donations. 


Legacies. 


Year. 


Donations. 


Legacies. 


1811 


$97596 




1841 


$213,236 39 


$20,506 65 


1812 


13,597 40 




1842 


277,495 04 


39,088 31 


1813 


11,209 90 




1843 


222,014 90 


20,761 32 


1814 


11,791 91 


$1500 


1844 


217,902 66 


16,446 85 


1815 


9,122 54 


29100 


1845 


220,863 92 


32,437 01 


1816 


10,412 51 


10183 


1846 


195,208 37 


63,436 90 


1817 


24,505 66 


2,620 00 


1847 


192,816 92 


16,548 29 


1818 


31,712 53 


8000 l 


1848 


225,595 01 


26,157 49 


1819 


33,676 25 


29037 


1849 


261,431 41 


28,271 29 


1820 


35,224 49 


97315 


1850 


217,839 26 


31,474 84 




$182,229 15 


$4,371 35 




$2,244,403 88 


$295,128 95 


2. 


5. 


1821 


45,433 65 


36383 


1851 


244,521 43 


28,169 36 


1822 


57,625 87 


1,816 61 


1852 


263,683 46 


36,020 44 


1823 


48,509 70 


5,054 52 


1853 


269,899 42 


35,156 16 


1824 


44,657 55 


1,642 18 


1854 


264,951 97 


32,238 89 


1825 


50,624 03 


3,101 45 


1855 


256,855 57 


44,482 60 


1826 


57,645 75 


2,075 36 


1856 


250,486 22 


48,730 36 


1827 


82,435 25 


4,088 03 


1857 


321,432 98 


55,035 12 


1828 


95,784 00 


3,721 88 


1858 


269,827 29 


34,248 76 


1829 


94,870 90 


9,671 34 


1859 


276,597 38 


49,963 03 


1830 


75,408 73 


5,379 43 


1860 


373,241 72 


52,597 53 




$642,995 43 


$41,285 98 




$2,791,497 44 


$416,642 25 


3. 




1831 


89,068 26 


9,235 76 


SUMMARY. 


1832 


117,392 00 


10,349 93 




1833 


132,565 68 


8,828 85 




1834 


138,919 00 


6,709 66 


Periods. Donations. 


Legacies. 


1835 


148,896 35 


6,997 25 










1836 


164,817 55 


8,757 84 


1811-1820 182,229 15 


4,371 35 


1837 


233,443 39 


14,030 32 


1821-1830 642,995 43 


41,285 98 


1838 


227,338 11 


5,491 35 


1831-1840 1,705,205 73 


99,914 73 


1839 


223,987 84 


17,700 24 


1841-1850 2,244,403 88 


295,128 95 


1840 


228,777 55 


11,813 53 


1851-1860 2,791,49744 


416,642 25 




$1,705,205 73 


$99,914 73 


Total, $7,566,331 63 


$857,343 26 



THE BOARD. 

Legacies to the Permanent Funds are not included in the 
preceding tables of receipts. These funds are two the 
General Permanent Fund, consisting of $64,715, and the 
Permanent Fund for Officers, amounting to $39,840. 

GENERAL SUMMARY. 

From Donations, $7,566,331 63 

From Legacies, 857,343 26 

From Other Sources, 208,640 66 

Grand Total, $8,632,315 55 

* 

An inquiry, prosecuted some twenty years since, made it 
seem highly probable, that not more than two thirds of the 
church members, even in the State of Massachusetts, then gave 
any thing for the cause of foreign missions. It appeared, 
moreover, that eight parts out of nine of all that was given, 
was by church members. In most districts of country, the 
proportion of giving church members must be considerably 
less, and the proportion contributed by the visible church 
more. It is matter for grateful acknowledgment, however, 
that from the beginning there has been, on the whole, an up 
ward tendency in the receipts. Dividing the time of the 
Board s existence into periods of four years, in every one of 
these periods, with but a single exception, there has been an 
increase of receipts. That exception was owing to the extraor 
dinary impression made on the Christian community by the 
meeting of the Board in Philadelphia, in the year 1841, which, 
through the divine blessing, carried the income of the follow 
ing year up to the unprecedented amount of three hundred 
and eighteen thousand dollars. The table presents a striking 
illustration of the advance of the mighty cause of the gospel, 
slowly, but steadily, surely, from period to period, as by invin 
cible laws. 



THE FINANCES. 



163 



EXPENDITURES IN PERIODS OF FOUR YEARS. 



Years. 


Periods 


Expenditures. 


Periods of 4 Years. 


Increase. 


Av. An. Exp s 


Increase. 


1811 

1812 
1813 
1814 
1815 

1816 
1817 
1818 
1819 

1820 
1821 
1822 
1823 

1824 
1825 

1826 
1827 

1828 
1829 
1830 
1831 

1832 
1833 
1834 
1835 

1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 

1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 

1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 

1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 

1852 
1853 
1854 
1855 

1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 

1860 


1 

2 
3 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 
10 
11 

12 

Total, 




$30,415 
113,102 
231,246 
258,068 
383,320 
593,893 
923,129 
1,033,349 
983,576 
1,084,907 
1,209,369 
1,427,049 


$82,687 
118,144 
26,822 
125,252 
210,573 
329,236 
110,220 
*49,773 
101,331 
124,462 
217,680 


$7,603 
28,275 
57,811 
64,517 
95,830 
148,473 
230,782 

258,337 
245,894 
271,226 
302,342 
356,762 


$20,672 
29,536 
6,706 
31,313 
52,648 
82,309 
27,555 
* 12,443 
25,333 
31,115 
54,420 


$9,699 
8,611 
7,078 
5,027 


15,934 
20,485 
36,346 
40,337 


57,621 
46,771 
60,474 
66,380 


54,157 
41,469 
59,012 
103,430 


107,676 
92,533 
84,798 
98,313 


120,954 
149,906 
159,779 
163,254 


210,407 
254,589 
230,642 
227,491 


246,601 
268,914 
261,147 
256,687 


244,371 

216,817 
257,605 
264,783 


282,330 
263,418 
254,329 
284,830 


257,727 
310,607 
322,142 
318,893 


323,000 
355,590 
372,041 
376,418 


361,958 


$8,633,381 



23 



* Less than in the preceding period. 



164 THE BOARD. 

There was an excess of the expenditure over the receipts in 
seven of the twelve periods, and in five of them the receipts 
exceeded the expenditure. The difference formed the debt, 
as it stood July 31, 1859, which was so happily removed in 
the following year. The annual increase in the Board s ex 
penditure from the beginning, has averaged about seven thou 
sand six hundred dollars. During the last six periods, the 
annual increase was about eight thousand eight hundred dol 
lars. Considering the prosperity and extent of the system of 
missions, as a whole, perhaps it is not more than their natural 
growth, under the ordinary blessing of Heaven. Foreign mis 
sions are essentially progressive, as much so as a family. The 
analogy is most striking. The children advance physically, 
intellectually, morally, making increasing demands for food, 
clothing, and education. This is the family constitution, and 
violence is done to the laws of domestic life whenever the 
growth is resisted, or even not promoted. Up to a certain 
period, it involves a regular increase of expense, which no 
enlightened parent would withhold, except from necessity. 
Thus we see in a mission a regular growth and development 
up to a certain period of its life. But experience shows, that 
an invariable yearly increase in the receipts is not to be 
expected. There was a decrease in fifteen of the past fifty 
years. There have been vacillations analogous to those in the 
business of the country, and more or less resulting therefrom ; 
and it is one of the unsolved problems in foreign missions, 
how to provide against these. Perhaps our only solution is in 
the principle of faith. The main ground of confidence in the 
success of missions to the heathen world, is in that principle. 
Our hopes and expectations concerning their progress and 
final triumph are sustained by the command, promise, faith 
fulness, power, and agency of Almighty God. 

The experience of the Board in its first twenty-five years 
did not warrant any serious apprehension of danger in leaving 
the several missions to exercise a discretion, under general 
directions from the Committee, as to the amount of their 



THE FINANCES. 165 

annual expenditures. But in the year 1836, the expenditures 
of the Board rose from one hundred and sixty-three thousand 
dollars which was the expenditure of the previous year * 
to two hundred and ten thousand dollars ; and the debt from 
four thousand six hundred dollars to thirty-eight thousand 
eight hundred dollars. The expenditures of the year 1837 
were two hundred and fifty-four thousand dollars, or ninety- 
one thousand dollars more than the receipts of the previous 
year, and the debt forty-one thousand dollars. Had not the 
receipts of the Board, in that year of general gloom and bank 
ruptcy in the country, exceeded those of the previous year by 
more than seventy-five thousand dollars, the Board would 
have met at Newark under an overwhelming load of debt. 
Had no more been contributed in 1837 that year of com 
mercial disaster and distress than in the two years of plenty 
immediately preceding, the missions, without a miracle of 
mercy, would have suffered all but starvation and ruin ! For 
how could the Board, in such circumstances, have had credit 
in the commercial world to draw its bills of exchange on Lon 
don in sums sufficient to supply their wants ? or, resorting to 
the only other mode of remittance, where could it have pro 
cured specie, when there was none in the market ? Moreover, 
had not the Committee, in the summer of 1837, reduced the 
expenses of the missions some forty thousand dollars, the debt, 
instead of being only thirty-five thousand dollars, would have 
risen to seventy-five thousand dollars. 

The Prudential Committee attributed no blame to the 
missions for this increase in their expenditures. At the 
commencement of every mission, circumstances for a time 
prescribe narrow limits to a judicious expenditure. The mis 
sionaries do not know the language, and have no press, no 
schools, no native helpers. They need money only for food, 
clothing, shelter, occasional tours, and for procuring instruc 
tion in the language. But with advancing time there are 
changes. Beginning to preach, they need preaching houses 
of some sort, which, at the least, the natives must have help 
in providing. They prepare books, and require a press. 



166 THE BOARD. 

They have a printing establishment, readers, a demand for 
books, and need paper, ink, workmen. They have free 
schools, training schools, native helpers, preaching tours, and 
calls for new stations, more laborers, more and more extended 
and vigorous operations. In such circumstances, it might be 
judicious, if the funds can be obtained, to increase the expen 
ditures considerably. Nay, to the missionaries on the ground, 
a great increase may seem a matter of obvious necessity, and 
not to make it they may feel to be a neglect and exposure 
of the harvest in the field no better than a waste of money, 
labor, and influence. And yet, in the actual state of the treas 
ury, as better known to the Committee at home than it can 
be to them, such an increase of expenditure may involve 
other and greater evils, which ought on no account to be 
incurred. 

About the years 1835 and 1836, many of the missions felt 
impelled to enlargement by motives like these ; and the 
number of the missions had now become such, that a 
small increase of expense in each made a large sum in the 
aggregate. So distant were the missions from each other, 
that they could not act in concert ; and so distant from the 
seat of the Board, that a long time was required to modify 
their expenditures in an emergency. There was no way, 
therefore, to prevent the evil of an overdrawn treasury, but 
by assigning bounds to the annual expenditure of each mis 
sion. Indeed, so great was the exigency, in the early part of 
1837, as to constrain the Committee at once to put a limit 
upon the expenses of each mission, making use of such facts 
as they had in deciding what it ought to be. This they did in 
a circular letter, which, though it did not require reductions, 
served to effect them in many cases. The missions generally 
appreciated the motives which governed the Committee, and 
conformed to their instructions. In one mission, however, a 
portion of the missionaries called in question the right of the 
Prudential Committee so to restrict their expenses. They 
resolved, that, in their opinion, it was the duty of the Board 
fully to sustain the schools, or be chargeable with a dereliction 



THE FINANCES. 167 

of Christian and missionary duty fatal to the best interests of 
the people. They also passed the following, among other 
resolutions : 

That as the Board, in their late letter, seem to withhold 
from the schools that aid which we had reason from their 
instructions to expect, therefore we can not but feel deeply 
grieved at such a procedure, without a full knowledge of our 
circumstances, and the difficulties in which such a measure 
might involve us. 

As a vital principle was here involved, which needed settle 
ment before going further, the case was referred to the Board 
at its meeting in 1838. The response of the Board was as 
follows : 

1. That our missionaries, in passing these resolutions, evi 
dently acted under a misapprehension as to the facts in the 
case ; and we have good reason to believe that had they pos 
sessed more definite information on the subject, they would 
not have adopted the resolutions. 

2. That it is, and always will be, the duty of the Prudential 
Committee, under the superintendence of the Board, faith 
fully to employ all the means furnished by the charities of the 
community in providing for the comfortable support of the 
missionaries, and for the enlargement and success of their 
operations. 

3. That, both as a right and a duty, it unquestionably 
belongs to the Prudential Committee, under the supervision 
of the Board, to regulate the expenses of every mission, and 
of every missionary ; that this principle is clearly implied in 
the standing rules of the Board, and that the uniform practice 
has been in accordance with it, ever since the commencement 
of our foreign missions ; that the Board deem this principle 
of vital importance in the prosecution of missions ; and that 
it can not be overlooked or neglected without opening the 
door for great irregularities and embarrassments in their 
pecuniary concerns, and thus forfeiting the confidence of the 
public. 



1(58 THE BOARD. 

4. That it is the indispensable duty of all the missionaries 
of the Board to govern themselves, in regard to their expen 
ditures, and all their proceedings as missionaries, according 
to the directions of the Prudential Committee. 

5. That although in ordinary cases it is altogether proper, 
and a matter of course, that the Prudential Committee should 
have free consultation with the missionaries in every station 
before making important changes in relation to expenditures, 
or other subjects pertaining to the conduct of missions, yet 
they have a perfect right, and are bound in duty, to make any 
changes at once, without such consultation, whenever the cir 
cumstances of the case render it necessary. 

Thus it was that the present system of Estimates and Ap 
propriations arose. The missions are expected to make out a 
carefully prepared estimate of the expenditures needed for the 
next year in every department of their labors, going as much 
as possible into detail, and to forward it in time to reach the 
Missionary House before October; and upon these estimates 
the appropriations for the following year are made but by the 
Prudential Committee ; and by these the Treasurer of the 
Board is governed in his remittances. As the missions are 
expected to be governed by them, it might seem that nothing 
more is needful to keep the expenditure within the appropria 
tion. The success has not been complete. The appropria 
tions are to be made beforehand. The missions are in distant 
countries ; and it is not possible for the Board to proceed on 
the principle of remitting only as the funds are actually 
in the treasury. No foreign missionary society is able to 
do this. Those distant expenditures must be authorized 
months before they are actually incurred ; and of course with 
reference to the probable and not the actual receipts. In the 
working of an extended system of foreign missions, this is the 
wisest economy. Suppose it possible to obtain the funds be 
forehand for a six months or a year s outlay : on such a finan 
cial system, there must be large sums constantly on hand, with 
the difficulties of safe investment, with interest, with losses, 



THE FINANCES. 169 

and with the uncongenial reputation of a money-lending insti 
tution. The Christian public will not make such advances to 
a missionary society, nor are they desirable. It has been, 
however, the tacit understanding of the missions, that the Board 
is to make good to them the nominal value of all the appro 
priations. Had this applied in practice only to losses on ex 
change, the evil would not have been great. But the principle 
once admitted, naturally had a broader application ; and so 
the year has been apt to close with a considerable excess of 
the expenditure above the appropriations. Losses, war prices, 
extra appropriations, etc., instead of being met on the ground 
by modifications in the enterprise itself, have come home upon 
the central treasury ; and, if no special fund had been re 
served for such contingencies, they of course created a debt, 
and went out in that repulsive form and aspect to the churches. 
The inconvenience of this has been seriously felt. It has 
seemed desirable, therefore, so to arrange the appropriations 
that the missions will go through the year, and meet all 
their outlays, with the money actually appropriated. This 
would necessarily involve the right of the missions to modify 
the several departments of expenditure. A sum being placed 
at their disposal, all the Board is able to assign for the 
year, the missions will so manage as to make it meet 
all the exigencies of the year in immediate connection with 
their field. The Board is too remote from the missions for 
prompt intervention ; but the missions are in the midst of their 
work and expenditure, and so can stop short at any time, where 
they must. Skill, thought, resolution, painstaking, will be 
required ; but, if this be carried out in all the missions, it will 
leave the Board, at the close of its year, with nothing extra to 
meet, except the possible excess of the appropriations above 
the receipts. 

The Agencies will be treated historically in a subsequent 
chapter ; but this is the place to remark upon their cost. The 
salaries of the district secretaries are necessarily larger in 
some districts than in others. For obvious reasons, this class 



170 THE BOARD. 

of laborers need to reside in central places, where railroads and 
post-routes meet, and from which they can most readily visit 
and communicate with the different sections of their respec 
tive districts ; and it is found that such men as pastors and 
churches will gladly welcome, are not obtainable at less sala 
ries than are paid by the Board. The traveling expenses 
form no part of the salary. These represent the amount of 
travel performed in prosecuting the agency. The one thou 
sand seven hundred and seventy-nine dollars paid last year on 
this score, if all for the road expenses alone, would represent 
some sixty thousand miles of travel. The distance traveled 
can be scarcely less than fifty thousand miles. The roads are 
often long and wearisome. As with postages in the case of sec 
retaries, so with road expenses in respect to agents, the greater 
the amount, the greater, almost of course, the labor performed. 

The value of the PRESS, as a missionary agent, is inestima 
ble. The Board has relied much on the self-supporting reli 
gious newspapers and periodicals of the day, which form so 
prominent a feature in the religious life of the age. But every 
large society finds it necessary to have channels of its own for 
communicating with the public. It has been so with the 
Board during the greater part of its existence. The Missionary 
Herald has been its main reliance. That publication was once 
more than supported by subscribers paying a dollar and a 
half for the volume. The question arose at length, whether 
the cause would not be promoted by sending the Herald gra 
tuitously to every donor of ten dollars and upward who did 
not prefer taking it as a subscriber, to every collector of not 
less than fifteen dollars, to treasurers of associations contribut 
ing not less than twenty dollars, and to pastors in congrega 
tions which statedly contribute to the treasury of the Board 
through the monthly concert or otherwise. Such was the 
opinion of the Board ; and these donors, collectors, treasurers, 
congregations, are justly reckoned among the supporters of 
the Missionary Herald. Somewhat more than two thousand 
copies are paid for by subscribers, who are often, by the rule, 



THE FINANCES. 171 

entitled to gratuitous copies, and about thirteen thousand 
copies go as is stated above. Similar remarks would apply to 
the gratuitous distribution of some forty thousand copies of 
the Journal of Missions and Day Spring. 

The cost of printing the Annual Report has ever been re 
garded as a judicious expenditure. The Report would not 
have been elaborately written if it were not to be printed ; 
the motive would not have been sufficient. It would have 
been little more than the brief general abstract usually read 
at the annual meeting. A thorough digest was the thing need 
ed, a careful resume*, an intelligent exhibition, of the proceed 
ings and events of the year ; and such has been the Annual 
Report. It has put the Board and the churches in commu 
nication with the executive and the missions. Its influence 
upon the officers in preparing it, has been like taking an ac 
count of stock with the merchant. It has been the winding 
up of the mainspring. The Board would not have felt that 
it understood or could understand the business, but for the 
Report. The document is believed to be no larger than is 
needful for an intelligible account of such extended and pros 
perous operations ; nor is the edition greater than the number 
of associations and donors who rightfully expect to receive it. 

The MISCELLANEOUS expenditure scarcely needs remark. The 
payment .for postage represents a large amount of correspond 
ence. Within our own country, it is paid for letters written at 
the Missionary House. With the missions, and individuals in 
foreign lands, it is only for communications from or to the exec 
utive officers of the Board. More than five hundred dollars, 
not in the treasurer s account, was paid for letters passing 
through the Missionary House from missionaries or their per 
sonal friends, and of course charged to the private account of 
the missionaries. As to salaries, it may be proper to say, that 
the Secretaries have never been able to live upon their salaries 
alone ; though, having always received as much from the Board 
as they themselves deemed expedient, they have never seen 
reason to complain. 

24 



172 THE BOARD. 

. REMITTANCES. 

The remittances to tlie missions, previous to the year 1830, 
were usually in specie. The exception was in the years 1826 
and 1827, when an arrangement was kindly entered into by 
Edward A. Newton, Esq., now of Pittsfield, Mass., then a 
merchant in Calcutta, to advance funds for the expenses of 
the India missions, for which bills were to be drawn payable 
in London. Since 1830, the Board has made its remittances 
through Messrs. Baring, Brothers, & Co., the well-known bank 
ers in London. The Treasurer draws no bills until authorized 
by the Prudential Committee, and a certified copy of their 
vote is required by the agent of the bankers, before he gives 
the sanction of his house. During the thirty years past, the 
Board has remitted nearly four and a half millions of dollars 
through the Messrs. Barings to the several missions. From 
fifteen to twenty-five thousand pounds sterling have generally 
been out at one time, but there has never been a time when 
any security was demanded. 

Almost all the missions are thus sustained. These bills of 
exchange form a better remittance than specie, as they can be 
sent by mail, oftener, in smaller sums, with less trouble, with 
out the cost of insurance and freight, and without the loss of 
interest. In general they are remitted monthly, and about 
the same amount is sent from month to month. The bills are 
sold by the missions, and thus are converted into money. The 
monthly remittance is equal to a twelfth part of the annual 
allowance to the mission. Of course the bills do not accumu 
late in the hands of the treasurers of the missions, and those 
which arrive and become due in London are about the same 
in amount from month to month with those which are sent 
from Boston. After these bills of exchange have once com 
pleted a revolution in their appointed orbits, it makes little 
difference in the amount of the Board s indebtedness, at what 
period in their revolution they are charged in the Treasurer s 
accounts ; for they are scattered along through every month 
in the year in nearly equal proportions, and while new bills of 



THE FINANCES. 173 

exchange commence their revolution and are entered to the 
debit of the Board, the like number terminate theirs, and 
come up for final adjustment. While, therefore, this mode of 
remittance continues undisturbed, it makes little difference, on 
the debit side of the accounts, whether the bills are charged 
when remitted, or on reaching the mission, or on coming to 
maturity in London. 

The usage of the Treasurer is to charge the bills as soon as 
they are remitted. This is due to the banking house in Lon 
don, which, through its agent in Boston, makes itself respon 
sible for the payment of these bills of exchange before they 
are sent. This is due also to the community ; for these bills 
of exchange are as truly a remittance of money as the send 
ing of so many bank bills from Boston to New York, and the 
Board is held firmly bound to redeem them in specie, or its 
equivalent, and the community ought to know the extent of 
the liabilities. Moreover, and this consideration alone 
would be decisive, if the bills were not charged until they 
had completed their circuit, and a war, or any other cause, 
should break up the present arrangement, and compel the 
Board to resort again to the remittance of specie, all the mis 
sions which are sustained by this means would inevitably be 
charged with double their actual expenditure for the greater 
part of a year following this event; and the Board would 
suddenly fall into arrears, and that too, probably, in circum 
stances very inauspicious. For not only would specie have to 
be bought to take the place of the bills of exchange in the 
monthly remittance, (which of course would have to be 
charged at once,) but for months the bills that were perform 
ing their revolution would be arriving in London, and demand 
payment there. 

INVESTMENTS. 

The Permanent Funds of the Board are divided into two 
classes the General Permanent Fund, and the Fund for 
Officers. The former amounts to sixty-four thousand seven 
hundred and fifteen dollars, as has been stated, and the latter 



THE BOARD. 



to thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and forty dollars. The 
foundations of the General Fund were laid in Mrs. Norris s 
legacy of thirty thousand dollars, at the outset of the Board s 
history. It is chiefly made up of legacies bequeathed for it 
expressly, and embraces the Missionary House. The Fund 
for Officers, the income of which goes to pay part of their sal 
aries, had its origin many years ago in the dissatisfaction 
which some excellent patrons, living in rural districts, felt at 
the amount it was needful to give the officers for their support. 
It was made up in part by contributions for this specific object, 
and in part from the profits of the Missionary Herald, when 
the paying subscription list was much larger than it is at 
present. It is deemed prudent to retain such permanent 
funds as are now held by the Board, in order that there may 
be a sure reliance in case of emergency. The credit of the 
Board might otherwise, under circumstances of unexpected 
difficulty, be impaired, which would prove an incalculable evil. 

At the meeting of the Board in Utica, in 1855, the com 
mittee on the Treasurer s report proposed that a select com 
mittee be appointed to consider the propriety and expediency 
of making some permanent provision for the support of super 
annuated and disabled missionaries, and also to inquire into 
the expediency of revising the present rules respecting the 
children of missionaries, and that the said committee report 
at the next meeting of the Board. Such a committee was 
appointed, and presented a written report at the following 
meeting, which was * ordered to be printed for circulation 
among the members, and to come up for consideration at the 
meeting in Providence in 1857. Two able reports were then 
presented ; one by the majority, in favor of establishing a 
fund for the relief of superannuated and disabled missionaries, 
and the children of missionaries. The other was a minority 
report against such a fund. After considerable discussion, the 
following resolutions were unanimously adopted as a substitute 
for those proposed by the committee : 

1. That it is highly desirable to cherish and strengthen a 
warm Christian sympathy in behalf of those who have been 



THE FINANCES. 175 

disabled in their work as missionaries, and toward their wid 
ows and children, and that it is desirable to open all suitable 
channels for the practical expression of such sympathies. 

2. That the Prudential Committee will receive and cheer 
fully appropriate, according to the same principles which have 
hitherto governed them in the premises, whatever legacies or 
contributions may be made from year to year, and designated 
by their donors for this specific object. 

The subject will be treated somewhat more largely in the 
chapter on missionaries. 

INDEBTEDNESS. 

The Board has been obliged often to report a debt, greater 
or less in amount ; but this has not been because its annual 
expenditure in so many instances exceeded its income. When 
a debt is once incurred in a great system of operations, and 
where the demand on the treasury is constant and increasing, 
it is not easily removed ; because there must be a sum large 
enough to pay both the current expenses and the debt. In 
truth, the missions have grown faster than the habit of giving 
in the churches. The expenditure has consequently pressed 
hard upon the receipts. In two or three instances, owing to 
unusual prosperity in some of the missions, and it may be to 
commercial distress at home, the indebtedness has become 
such as to occasion some uneasiness. But it has always been 
paid without impairing the credit of the Board, or bringing 
any damage on the Christian community. Taking one time 
with another, the expenditure has probably been no more in 
advance of pulftic sentiment, than to operate as a really health 
ful stimulant. It is quite certain that the restriction upon 
the expenditure has always been as stringent as seemed to 
comport with a proper observance of the law of continued 
progress, which God has prescribed for the missionary enter 
prise. The missions can not be healthy, contented, pros 
perous, without a free growth and expansion. And it has 
ever been the policy of the Board to protect, as far as possible, 
the results of labor in the missions. 



176 THE BOARD. 

The public admission of debt, on the part of the Board, has 
never affected its credit. When the debt has become large, 
effectual measures are taken to reduce it. The banking 
house in London, however, on whom its bills of exchange 
are chiefly drawn, appears to be aware that Christian benev 
olence, directed to a commanding religious object of enduring 
interest, like the conversion of the world to God, is more to be 
depended on than mere skill in trade. It is also a fact, that 
the permanent funds of the Board are greater than the debt 
has ever been ; and, as a last resort, even that portion of them 
which the Board has no power to spend, because the donors 
gave only the interest to be expended, might, doubtless, by a 
process of law, be made available to the discharge of its liabil 
ities. A permanent fund to a certain amount, that can not be 
applied to current expenses, is an important, if not an indispen 
sable, safeguard to the credit of the Board in the commercial 
world. It has been deemed proper always to state the accounts 
of the Board so that the community may see just how far the 
institution is within the line of safety. 

The Prudential Committee has often had but a very limited 
responsibility for the balance, which the closing year has left 
standing against the Boar.d. The elements composing it were 
perhaps scarcely within their legitimate control. Only by an 
exercise of power, it may be, in disregard of the laws of mis 
sionary finance, could they have done any thing effectual to pre 
vent it. Reducing missions, and holding back missionaries, 
besides being contrary to the command of Christ, are not 
found to exert a beneficial effect on the treasury. They have 
a disastrous influence on the missionary spirit in our colleges 
and theological seminaries, and indeed every where. If new 
missionaries fail to come forward, and there is actually a 
decline in the number of missionaries abroad, it is found to 
be hard to induce the churches to advance in the amount of 
their subscriptions. In consequence of an error of this sort 
in 1837, the Board, ten years afterward, stood in its receipts 
nearly where it did at that time. Here it is emphatically true, 
that " there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it 
tendeth to poverty." 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE AGENCIES. 

The Two Branches. Agents early in the Half-Century. Growth of System. Brook- 
field Auxiliary. Laws of Benevolent Giving. Productiveness of Agencies. Or 
ganizing of Associations and Auxiliaries. A Model Collector. Causes of Decline 
in Associations. Missionaries as Agents. Action of the Board on Deputations to 
Auxiliary Meetings. General Agents. District Secretaries. Proper Sphere of 
Agencies. Cost of the Agents. Home Publications of the Board, and their Cost. 
Cost of the Two Branches of Agency. 

THE Agencies, or means for raising funds for the support of 
missionaries, are of two kinds the living agent, and the 
publications. The outlay for these two departments is nearly 
the same. The cost of working a large missionary system 
does by no means increase in proportion to its extension ; nei 
ther does the comparative cost of the agencies. 

THE AGENTS. 

The Board has always found it necessary to employ agents. 
The first was the Rev. John Frost, from the Andover Semina 
ry, who performed a successful work in New England and New 
York toward the close of 1811, and early in 1812. Agents 
were afterward employed from year to year, as their services 
were needed, and they could be obtained. It is known that 
about seventy have been thus employed who pursued their the 
ological studies at Andover. Pastors of churches have also 
engaged in temporary agencies. Among the most noted of 
these was the Rev. Dr. Edward Payson, of Portland, Me. ; and 
this service he performed more than once. The nature of his 
agency in the year 1816, is thus indicated by Dr. Worcester : 
" The Prudential Committee request you, Rev. and Dear Sir, 
to spend as much time in the agency, during the present year, 

(177) 



THE BOARD. 

as may be consistent with your other engagements and duties. 
They wish you to visit the principal places, first in the District 
of Maine, and theli in other parts of the country ; to animate 
and strengthen the associations already formed for aiding the 
Board ; to promote the forming of societies wherever it may 
be suitable, and to do what you can to unite and engage the 
hearts of ministers and people in the heavenly design of im 
parting the knowledge of salvation to the many millions who 
are perishing in pagan darkness and corruption." 

In July of the same year, the late Dr. Elias Cornelius began 
his agency for promoting the objects of the Board, and especial 
ly for improving the character and condition of the Cherokee, 
Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians. After conferring with 
the government at Washington, he was to visit Mr. Kingsbury s 
station in the Cherokee country, afterward called Brainerd, and 
to do what he could to encourage that infant establishment. 

In the year 1821, the Prudential Committee recorded the 
fact, " that the clergy belonging to the Brookfield Association 
(in Massachusetts) have generally entered upon a plan for 
receiving the regular and systematic contribution of a small 
stipulated sum from each member of the church, who may be 
disposed thus to contribute, at a stated season frequently re 
curring, the aggregate of which contributions is to be applied 
to the support of missions among the heathen." Whereupon 
it was resolved, " That the Committee highly approve of this 
method of increasing and concentrating the benevolent exer 
tions of the professors of godliness ; and that they respectfully 
suggest to their brethren who have manifested a peculiar in 
terest in the success of this plan, the utility and propriety of 
making it known to ministers of the gospel extensively, and 
of inviting their cooperation." The Auxiliary Society, subse 
quently formed within the bounds of this Association, adopted 
the practice, in 1826, of printing not only their Annual Re 
port and proceedings, (which they had done before,) but also 
the names of all the subscribers and donors, and the amount 
of their several contributions ; and this they have continued 
to do, annually, to the present time. The Library of the 



THE AGENCIES. 



179 



uoard contains a collection of the Reports of this Auxiliary, 
from 1825 to 1859. The volume is of value, as affording 
means for determining the laws which govern benevolent giv 
ing in rural districts. Such a use was made of these Reports 
in a Statistical History of Benevolent Contributions, laid before 
the Board at its meeting in 1852. The Auxiliary then em 
braced sixteen churches, each with its own male and female 
Missionary Associations. The following tables, constructed 
from the Reports for 1838 to 1841 inclusive, and for 1847 to 
1850, show the number of subscribers under several sums, 
from six cents up to ten dollars. 

SUMMARY FOR THE YEARS 1838-1841. 















(3 m 




Years. 


Dollars. 


Fractional parts of a dollar. 


8 o 

I! 


Amount 
con 
tributed. 


1838. 

Gentlemen, 
Ladies, . . . 


10 


5 


4 


a 


2 


1 


75 60 


50 


4037 


:;< 


25 


a 


12 


10! e 


725 
1,493 


$1,184 15 
917 39 


20 

4 


41 

10 


2 
1 


21 


75 
64 


279 
246 


7 
27 


1 

7 


153 
415 


2 

C 


1 
9 


2 

14 


75 
441 




19 
144 


5| 4 
3051 


24 


w 





6< 


139 


525 


34 


8 


508 


8 


10 


It 


516 




163 


35 


55 


2,218 


$2,101 54 


1839. 














































Gentlemen, 
Ladies, . . . 

1840. 


jo 
3 

23 


36 

8 

11 


4 
ft 

9 


43 
15 

58 


77 

58 


283 
264 


18 


8 


176 
450 


1 
2 

3 


1 
13 

14 


4 

1! 

15 


120 

528 

648 


c 

33 


43 

140 

183 


5 
37 

12 


11) 
41 

60 


856 
1,655 


1,211 45 
1,019 39 


135 


547 


63 


8 


626 


2,511 


$2,230 84 


Gentlemen, 
Ladies, . . . 

1841. 


37 


29 
15 


13 

8 


4C 


98 
69 


324 

281 


11 
24 


5 


225 

478 


1 
3 


1 

11 


11 


137 
535 


42 


42 

161 


18 

17 


24 
67 


1,013 

1,767 


1,571 13 
94264 


37 


44 


21 


66 


167 


605 


35 


6 


703 


4 


12 


11 


672 


49 


203 


55 


91 


2,780 


$2,513 77 


Gentlemen, 
Ladies, . . . 


34 


44 
i- 

71 


11 
18 


41 
19 


92 

85 

177 


267 
290 

557 


21 

54 

-,~ 


3 

28 

31 


184 
424 

608 


1 

8 

9 


1 
16 

i<; 


r 
23 

29 


144 
556 

700 


- 


28 
163 

191 


6 

H> 

55 


19 
93 


902 

1,822 

2,724 


1,526 85 
1,16937 


60 


$2,096 22 


GENERAL SUMMARY. 


Years. Dollars. 


Fractional parts of a dollar. 


No. of con 
tributors. 


Amount 
con 
tributed. 


10 


5 4 


3 


2 


1 


75 


SO 


50 


40 


3730 


25 


20 


12 


u 


6 


2,218 
2,511 
2,780 
2,724 

10,233 


$2,091 54 
2,230 84 
2,513 77 
2,696 22 


1838 ... 24 
1&39 ... 23 
1840 ... 37 
1841 ... 34 

118* 


51 
44 
442 

71 1 


B 60 

E) 58 
1 66 
S 60 


139 
135 

1C.7 
177 


525 
547 
605 
557 


34 

63 
35 

75 


8 
8 
5 

!1 


568 
626 
703 
608 


s 
3 

4 
9 


- 
10 16 
14 15 
1211 

162 .) 


516 
648 
672 

700 


13 

11) 


63 

S3 
. 03 

1)1 


3 

4 
6 
5 


5 55 
2 60 
5 91 
5 93 


2105 


4244 


Ufl 


2,234 


207 


52 


>,505 


24 


52 71 1 


>,53682 


-40 


18 


7299 


$9,532 37 


Average 29 


521 


3 61 


151 


558 


51 


13 


626 


6 13|l7 


63420 


as 


41 


3 74 


2,558 


$2,383 09 



* This should be stated $10 and upward; thirty-five of the subscriptions were over $10. 

25 



180 THE BOARD. 



. . . . 647 97 

" . . 584 45 



1838, Contributions at the Monthly Concert, .... $465 3 
1839, 

1840, " 

. . 509 82 
lb41 $2,20755 

Amount of Subscriptions, $9,532 37 

From other sources, . _ 

Contributions from 1838 to 1841 inclusive, $12,016 06 



SUMMARY FOR THE YEARS 1847-51. 



Subscriptions. No. of subscribers. 

Under ten cents, 333 

Ten cents, 315 

Twelve and a half cents, . . 448 

Twelve to twenty-five cents, . 173 

Twenty-five cents, .... 2,343 

Twenty-five to fifty cents, . . 133 

Fifty cents, 2,088 

Fifty cents to one dollar, . . 177 

One dollar, 1,624 



Subscriptions. No. of subscribers. 

One to two dollars, . . . . 151 

Two dollars, 484 

Two to three dollars, ... 50 

Three dollars, 250 

Three to five dollars, ... 52 

Five dollars, 233 

Five to ten dollars, .... 63 

Ten dollars, 113 

Over ten dollars, 83 



Whole amount from Subscriptions, $10,525 58 

From Monthly Concerts and other sources, 3,396 40 

Total, $13,921 98 

Whole amount for four years, including Monthly Concert, . . $13,921 00 

Average annual amount, $3,480 00 



* The following results were obtained from an examination of the valuable 
statistics published by the Brookfield Auxiliary : 

While the number of subscribers diminished on the whole, the amount of 
the subscriptions increased. In the first period, the whole amount raised in 
these towns, including monthly concert contributions, was eleven thousand 
seven hundred and seventeen dollars and ten cents ; in the last period, it was 
thirteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-one dollars and ninety-eight cents, 
or three thousand four hundred and eighty dollars and fifty cents annually, 
upon the average. This is about one dollar and thirty-six cents to each church 
member. In the former period, the average annual amount was about one 
dollar and three cents to each church member. One town increased in its 
contributions one hundred and forty-two per cent., another one hundred and 
five per cent. The increase in the whole Association was about eighteen and a 
half per cent. ; though, according to the number of church members, it was 
thirty-two per cent. 

The figures show that many members of these churches did nothing for the 



THE AGENCIES. 181 

Number of church members in 1850, 2,403 

Average annual amount to each, $1 36 

Amount raised by the Gentlemen s Associations, $6,027 

Average annual amount, $1,506 

Male members of the church in 1850, 702 

Average number of male subscribers, 763 

Average annual amount to each, $1 96 

Average annual amount to each male member of the church, . . . $2 14 

Amount raised by Ladies Associations, $4,208 

Average annual amount, $1,052 

Female members of the church in 1850, 1,701 

Average annual number of female subscribers, 1,433 

Average annual amount to each, $0 73 

Average annual amount to each female member of the church, . . . $0 62 



Board. In fourteen of the churches, the number of members in 1850 was 
two thousand four hundred and three, but the average annual number of sub 
scribers in the last period, in these towns, was but two thousand one hundred 
and ninety-six. Now, many subscribers were not members of the churches. 
In one parish, the number of subscribers was more than twice as great as the 
number of church members. There must, then, have been several hundreds 
of professing Christians in these churches who did nothing for this society. 
How large a part of them contributed to the cause of missions through other 
channels, is not known. 

The average annual number of male subscribers in these fourteen towns, in 
the latter period, was seven hundred and sixty-three sixty-one more than 
the number of male members of the churches in 1850. The female members 
of the same churches in 1850 were one thousand seven hundred and one, and 
the female subscribers in these towns Avere, on the average, only one thousand 
four hundred and thirty- three annually, for this period two hundred and 
sixty-eight less than the number of female church members. In the former 
period, the whole average annual number of subscribers in the same fourteen 
towns was two thousand three hundred and fifty-three: viz., males, eight 
hundred and twenty-six ; females, one thousand five hundred and twenty- 
seven ; number of church members in 1840, two thousand six hundred and 
thirty-two : males, eight hundred and fifteen ; females, one thousand eight 
hundred and seventeen. 

In both periods, therefore, the annual number of male subscribers slightly 
exceeded the number of male members of the church, while the annual number 
of female subscribers was considerably less than the number of females in the 
churches. 

The figures show, also, an increase in the number of large contributions. 
In the former period of four years, there were but thirty-five subscriptions 



182 THE BOARD. 

The receipts of the Board were more than doubled in 1817, 
though it was a year of scarcity and pressure, the agencies 
having been considerably enlarged. The number of agents 
employed in the Eastern, Middle, and Southern States was 
eight. Mr. Cornelius was one, and Samuel J. Mills another, 
the latter laboring in Maryland and Virginia. A similar 
result followed the use of the same means in 1822. In 1823, 
there was a falling off in the receipts. This deficiency was 
not attributed, at the time, to any diminution of interest in 
the missionary work, but to the want of agents. In the year 

exceeding ten dollars in amount, and eighty-four of just ten. In the latter 
period, there were eighty-three exceeding ten dollars, and one hundred and 
thirteen of just ten. The number of subscriptions exceeding two dollars, in 
the former period, was six hundred and twenty-six ; but in the latter it was 
eight hundred and forty-four, though the whole number of subscriptions, as 
stated above, had diminished. But though the number of large subscriptions 
increased, it was still painfully small. 

Again. The figures show that, though some had gone forward, a very large 
part of the subscribers still did but very little. Of nine thousand one hundred 
and thirteen subscriptions, the whole number, in the last period, omitting 
some juvenile associations, three thousand six hundred and twelve were in 
sums not exceeding twenty-five cents each ; and six thousand and ten, or one 
thousand five hundred and two annually, in sums of less than one dollar each. 

The figures show, also, quite too conclusively, that the amount subscribed, 
generally, was by no means regulated by the exact ability of the subscribers, 
Subscriptions were in convenient sums in sums which constitute a kind of 
units in our currency. Thus there were three hundred and thirteen subscrip-. 
tions of ten cents, and four hundred and forty-eight of twelve and a half cents, 
but only one hundred and seventy-three between twelve and a half and twenty- 
five cents, and then two thousand three hundred and forty- three of twenty-five 
cents. There were only one hundred and thirty-three between twenty-five 
and fifty cents, but two thousand and eighty- eight of fifty cents ; one hundred 
and seventy-seven all the way between fifty cents and one dollar, and one thou 
sand six hundred and twenty-four of one dollar. From one dollar, the gen 
eral rule was to go to two ; from two, to three ; from three, not to four, but to 
five ; and from five, to ten. So that people need not be urged to double their 
subscriptions, but only to increase. If they increase, they will at least double, 
in a large majority of cases. The twenty-five cent subscribers will not go to 
twenty-eight or thirty-one cents, nor will the one dollar subscribers often go 
to one dollar and twelve and a half, or one dollar and twenty-five cents. Men 
do not calculate so closely upon what they can give. Some, who give by hun 
dreds or thousands, may make such a proportionate increase, but not the great 
number of small contributors. 



THE AGENCIES. 183 

1839, the Board declared, that the contributions of the public 
generally would not be called forth, unless agents were em 
ployed to make personal applications, and bring the matter 
home to all classes of people.* 

The effort to raise funds has, from the first, assumed more 
or less an organized form. The Missionary Herald for 1818 
opens with an address to Foreign Mission Societies, other 
Associations auxiliary to the Board, and individual patrons 
and contributors, signed by Dr. Worcester. He says there 
were then fifty Foreign Mission Societies, as auxiliary soci 
eties of the first rank were styled, some embracing entire 
counties, but the greater part established in large towns, in 
cluding the vicinities. There were also about two hundred and 
fifty Associations smaller bodies, male and female, com 
posed of persons who could not conveniently belong to the 
county or district society, but were willing to do something 
for all or for some of the objects of the Board. 

In the first two months of the year 1821, donations were 
acknowledged from as many as seventy-eight organized bodies, 
in about one third of the towns from which donations were 
received. These Associations contributed just one half of the 
amount received in those months ; and not far from one half 
of what came through these Associations came from forty-eight 
composed exclusively of females. 

In the year 1823, an important effort was commenced to 
systematize and extend the organization for raising funds, 
which was prosecuted through several of the subsequent years. 
A plan of organization was carefully considered by the Pru 
dential Committee, and published in the Missionary Herald 
for 1823. Two kinds of societies were desired, one large, the 
other small, the larger to include the smaller. The larger 
societies were for cities, collections of towns, or counties. 
They were immediately auxiliary to the Board, and called 
Auxiliary Societies. The smaller were for towns, parishes, 
school districts, and were immediately auxiliary to the larger 

* Report for 1839, p. 36. 



184 THE BOARD. 

societies, and called Associations. The Auxiliary Societies 
were the medium of communication between the Associations 
and the Board. It was also deemed expedient that every town 
or parish should have two Associations, one of males, the other 
of females. The reason for this arrangement was, that in 
most places greater funds would thus be secured, and in the 
manner least objectionable. 

The Auxiliary Society was composed of the members of the 
several Gentlemen s Associations within certain prescribed 
limits. It should have included also ladies. The contri 
bution of any sum annually, from a gentleman or lady, was 
all that was needful to membership in the Association. The 
main object of this local organization was to secure the 
annual appointment of a sufficient number of collectors, male 
and female, to present the application to every suitable person 
within the limits of the Association. This was the essential 
thing ; and it was proposed to have both male and female 
collectors, and separate societies of ladies. 

The subscription, if subscriptions were taken, was only for 
the year, and of course would have to be repeated annually. 
Supposing an active, faithful body of collectors, this was the 
best arrangement. It would tend to create a feeling of re 
sponsibility in the collectors ; unless they acted, the Associa 
tion died. It secured a good share of action, which would 
conduce not a little to the life and perpetuity of the Associa 
tion. It might fairly be presumed that the standard of lib 
erality would rise from year to year in a place where this 
system was in operation ; and persons would be likely to sub 
scribe more liberally, where the subscription was to be made 
for one year only, than where it was for several years. 

The first Associations organized were by ladies in the Old 
South, Park-street, and Union Churches, of Boston, in No 
vember, 1823. From this time, the work of organization was 
prosecuted rapidly in New England, by means of agents em 
ployed for the purpose ; and a monthly statement of the exact 
progress of the work was made in the Missionary Herald. 
The greater part of the organization was effected in the four 



THE AGENCIES. 



185 



subsequent years. The result of this effort, in 1839, is exhib 
ited in the following tabular view : 



STATES. 


Gentlemen s 
Associations. 


Ladies 
Associations. 


Whole 
number. 


STATES. 


Gentlemen s 
Associations. 


Ladies 
Associations. 


Whole 
number. 


Maine, 


63 
92 
91 
222 

151 
96 
36 

Nun 


45 
86 
83 
209 
1 
152 
26 
17 

iber of 


108 
178 
174 
431 
1 
303 
122 
53 

the A 


Pennsylvania, .... 


69 
3 
5 
10 
81 

3 
1 


18 


4 
35 
1 
2 
1 


87 
3 
5 
14 
116 
1 
5 
2 


New Hampshire, . . . 


Maryland, 


District of Columbia, 
Virginia, 


Massachusetts,. . . . 
Rhode Island, .... 
Connecticut, 


Ohio, 


North Carolina, . . . 
South Carolina, . . . 


New York, 


New Jersey, 






923 


680 


1603 





To a great extent, these sixteen hundred Associations were 
embodied in near fifty larger associations, called Auxiliaries. 
Supposing each Association to have had, on an average, four 
collectors, then more than six thousand local agents were thus 
designated, by their own people, for the service of collecting 
funds.* 



* A description of one of these collectors, a fine specimen of his class, has 
been furnished by Dr. A. C. Thompson : 

" Deacon Lewis M. Norton, of Goshen, Conn., commenced acting as a col 
lector the second year after the formation of the Litchfield County Auxiliary, 
and continued in the service more than thirty years. He performed this entire 
work for the town alone, and every year, with one exception when he was sick. 
His son then acted for him. He commenced his work in season, at least one 
week before the county anniversary, and was always ready to report in full at 
the general meeting. His private affairs required great activity on his part, yet 
he devoted an entire week, annually, to this business. His visits to families 
were always pleasant, and he laid out his routes in such a way as would enable 
him to dine where he expected to get no money. His subscription lists, 
receipted by the treasurer of the Auxiliary, are all still on file among his 
papers. The treasurer was for many years the venerable Colonel Talmadge, 
of Litchfield, at whose house the collectors and their wives were expected to 
dine on the day of the anniversary. My impression is, that that Auxiliary 
was, at least in its earlier years, one of the most successful of the kind ; and 
that, in proportion to property and population, more was contributed in Goshen 
than in any other town in the county or state. I have at least heard that 
affirmed, but have no data for substantiating the same." 



186 THE BOARD. 

After the lapse of twelve or fifteen years, in the year 1839, 
it was found that remittances were made by only one fourth 
of the Gentlemen s Associations, while more than two thirds 
of the Associations composed wholly of ladies gave proof of 
an actual and healthful existence. The system had naturally 
suffered from the lapse of time, but more from the fact that 
other benevolent societies, seeing its efficacy, had adopted it 
in many places ; and so many objects were thus presented 
in some districts, as to bring the use of collectors into disre 
pute. In some of the best portions of New England, pastors 
interfered, and insisted that only the more expensive depart 
ments of benevolence should send collectors through their 
parishes ; and there the system still exists substantially, and 
works to general satisfaction. 

The Prudential Committee early declared their conviction 
that it was useful to the cause, and to missionaries under ap 
pointment but not yet entered upon their work, that they 
serve in agencies at home, until ready to go forth on their 
mission. From forty to fifty were thus employed in the first 
thirty years of the Board s history, and with all the advan 
tages anticipated by the Committee. In process of time, 
however, this species of agency lost much of its power to in 
terest and move the churches. The mere fact of missionary 
consecration ceased to confer the prestige it did at first, and 
the general diffusion of information concerning missions and 
the heathen world had greatly abated the power of this class 
of agents to impart novelty to their addresses. Thencefor 
ward the chief demand for the services of missionaries in the 
churches was during their visits to their native land, after years 
of toil in the foreign field ; and their reports of what they had 
seen of the Lord s doings among the heathen seem not yet 
to have lost any of their interest. 

At the meeting of the Board in New York city, in the year 
1827, one of its more influential meetings, a committee 
was appointed to consider the duties of members of the Board. 
That committee made the following report : 



THE AGENCIES. 187 

" As far as has come to our knowledge, it is the opinion of 
the friends of missions generally, and decidedly the opinion 
of your committee, that the plan now in operation, of keeping 
alive the missionary spirit in this country and supplying the 
treasury of the Board through the instrumentality of Asso 
ciations and Auxiliary Societies, is the most simple, effective, 
and desirable that has been devised for this purpose ; that all 
previous measures have been abandoned as unsatisfactory, 
and could not easily be reverted to, even were they desirable ; 
and that the most serious ill consequences are to be appre 
hended, should the favor of the community toward the Aux 
iliary Societies be lost, or in any great degree diminished. 

" It is the common belief, that this Board has become pledged 
to its Auxiliaries to send them a deputation of persons to be 
present at their anniversary meetings, with the view of en 
couraging and stimulating to continued exertions, and of 
communicating such useful and interesting intelligence in 
respect to the missionary enterprise, as is always received with 
satisfaction, and commonly with advantage. 

" The persons, in time past, who have been deputed for this 
purpose, when Auxiliaries were few in number and confined 
within narrow limits, were missionaries returned from foreign 
stations, members of the Prudential Committee, and members 
of the Board. 

" It is understood, that persons of the first description will 
always be employed for this object, when obtainable ; that the 
pressing and increasing employment of the Prudential Com 
mittee renders it wholly impossible that much of their time 
should be spared for the purpose ; arid that it remains, there 
fore, for the members of the Board to assume this important 
duty, which, in the opinion of your committee, they should 
assume, and discharge with punctuality and care. 

" It will of course be expected of the Prudential Committee, 
that they make those requisitions upon the members as gen 
erally, and appoint them to places of meeting as near to their 
residences, and otherwise study their convenience, as circum 
stances will allow." 

26 



188 THE BOARD. 

This report was adopted, with the following resolutions: 

1. That it shall be the duty of the Corporate members of 
the Board to attend the anniversary meetings of Auxiliary 
Societies when required by the Prudential Committee, as a 
deputation from this Board ; and that the traveling expenses 
of such members, in going to and returning from the places 
of meeting, be paid out of the treasury of the Board. 

2. That the Prudential Committee be authorized and requested 
to take such measures as they may think proper to engage the 
active exertions of the Honorary members of the Board, and 
of such other clergymen and laymen as they may consider dis 
posed and qualified to promote the interests of the Board, either 
at the meetings of Auxiliaries, or on any other occasions. 

Historical truth requires the admission, that far less came 
from these proceedings of the Board than was anticipated by 
the remarkable man with whom they originated, Josiah Bissell, 
Jim., and by those kindred spirits who acted with him. 

The Rev. George Cowles was the first of the General 
Agents, receiving his appointment in 1826. After him, at 
different times, until the year 1848, and in different parts of 
the country, were more than a score of agents sustaining the 
same appellation, which are here named in the order of their 
appointment, viz. : Rev. Oman Eastman, Rev. Artemas Bui- 
lard, Rev. Horatio Bardwell, Rev. Chauncey Eddy, Rev. 
David Magie, Rev. William J. Armstrong, Rev. Richard C. 
Hand, Rev. Harvey Coe, Rev. Edwin Holt, Rev. Jacob D. 
Mitchell, Rev. William M. Hall, Rev. Erastus N. Nichols, Rev. 
William U. Foote, Rev. William J. Breed, Rev. Frederick E. 
Cannon, Rev. William Clark, Rev. Harvey Curtis, Rev. David 
Malin, Rev. Orson Cowles, Rev. Isaac R. Worcester, Rev. Ira 
M. Weed, Rev. Samuel G. Specs, and Rev. James P. Fisher. 

In the year 1848, the General Agents received the appella 
tion of District Secretaries, as best comporting with their 
official duties. That portion ,of the country from which the 
Board derived its funds was divided into thirteen districts, 
each of which was to have its secretary. The number was 
afterward reduced to eleven, and ultimately to eight. The 



THE AGENCIES. 189 

following persons have held or now hold this office, viz. : Rev. 
Messrs. William Clark, Isaac R. Worcester, Orson Cowles, 
David B. Coe, James P. Fisher, Frederick E. Cannon, D. D., 
David Malin, "Harvey Coe, A. S. Wells, Ira M. Weed, S. G. 
Clark, H. A. Tracy, 0. P. Hoyt, J. H. Pettingill, William 
Warren, John McLeod, A. Montgomery, and Calvin Clark. 
Ten District Secretaries were under appointment in the year 
1849 : the number has heen somewhat reduced. 

Whatever name may be given to the agency, it is strictly 
auxiliary to the pastoral office, and to be employed only where 
it can operate with advantage to the cause. Some look for 
the day when agents will no longer be necessary ; but that 
day is still in the future. A great and good change, however, 
has long been in progress among the agencies employed by 
the Board. Since the year 1823, the effort has been to throw 
responsibility for raising the funds upon parochial agencies, 
upon collectors appointed by the people themselves, and of 
course upon those also whose duty it is to see that collectors 
are appointed. The whole responsibility ought, evidently, to 
rest there. The difficulty has been to create and sustain a 
sufficient local feeling of responsibility. Adverse events are 
constantly occurring. Pastors and active church members die, 
or are removed; there are ebbings in the missionary spirit ; 
adverse influences arise ; the minister is in need of aid. Just 
in these circumstances, and such as these, the District Secretary 
finds his vocation ; and, with a large district, the best talents 
will have ample scope. Even his indirect usefulness, in 
quickening the piety of the churches into a more active and 
vigorous life, may be more valuable to the cause of Christ at 
home, than his pastoral labors could be if in charge of a con 
gregation ; and the experience of the Board has been very 
decisive as to the necessity for such labors in the present state 
of the churches, as a means of sustaining the missions. 

The annual cost of agencies employed by the Board in its 
second decade, varied with great irregularity from two hun 
dred and forty to three thousand three hundred and twenty- 
five dollars ; in the third, from one thousand one hundred and 



190 THE BOARD. 

four to eight thousand nine hundred and seventeen dollars, the 
largest outlays being in the middle years ; and in the fourth, 
from six thousand two hundred and forty-one to fifteen thou 
sand seven hundred and three dollars. The fifth and last decade 
began witli fourteen thousand one hundred and ninety-one, 
and ended with ten thousand six hundred and eleven dollars. 
The amount of agency, from year to year, was determined by 
the exigencies of the cause. Regarding each decade, how 
ever, as a whole, the increased expense of the agencies is 
quite noticeably proportioned to the increase of the receipts. 

The cost of the agencies, as compared with the gross re 
ceipts of the Board from the beginning of its operations, is a 
little more than three and one third per cent. 

THE PRESS. 

The home publications, in this department of the Agencies, 
have been Annual Reports ; Annual Sermons ; the Missionary 
Herald ; the Day Spring, for fourteen years ; the Journal of 
Missions, for the last eleven years; Quarterly and Monthly 
Papers, for a few years subsequently to 1831 ; occasional Mis 
sionary Sermons ; Missionary Tracts ; Appeals in times of ex 
igency. The number of these publications, (not including 
Appeals, of which there is no record,) so far as issued at the 
cost of the Board, is as follows : 

Annual Reports, 166,750 copies. 

Missionary Sermons, 115,250 " 

Missionary Tracts, 1,582,879 " 

Missionary Heralds, (gratuitous copies in the eighteen 
last years ; the number in the previous distribution 

is not known,) 199,074 " 

Day Springs, gratuitous copies, 616,854 " 

Journal of Missions, gratuitous copies, 416,320 " 

Total, 3,097,127 

The titles of the more important of the Missionary Tracts 
are given below.* 

* Conversion of the World ; or, The Claims of Six Hundred Millions, and the 



THE AGENCIES. 191 

The Panoplist was the medium of communication with the 
Christian public in the first years of the Board. The Missionary 
Herald was first issued in connection with the Panoplist, and 

Ability and Duty of the Churches respecting them. 1818. By Rev. Gordon 
Hall and Rev. Samuel Newell. 

Hints to Collectors. 1824. By a Secretary. 

Missions will not Impoverish the Country. 1826. By Rev. David T. Kim- 
ball and Lyman Beecher, D. D. 

Duty of Christians to support Missionaries to the Heathen. 1826. By Rev. 
Stephen Fronds. 

Vindication of American Missionaries at the Sandwich Islands. 1828. 

The World to be Reclaimed by the Gospel. 1828. By Archibald Alexan 
der, D. D. 

Letters of William Penn. 1829. By Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. 

The Future Destinies of America, as affected by the Doings of the Present 
Generation. 1830. By Jeremiah Evarts, Esq. 

A Comparison of the Apostolic Age with the Present, in respect to Facilities 
for Conducting Missionary Operations. 1832. By Lyman Beecher, D. D. 

Trials of Missionaries. 1832. By Eli Smith, D. D. 

Essay on the Right Use of Property. 1832. By William G. Schauffler, D. D. 

Character and Condition of Females in Heathen Countries. 1833. By Rev. 
Henry Lyman. 

The Spirit of Primitive Christianity. 1833. By Rev. Samuel Munson. 

A Call to Personal Labor as a Foreign Missionary. By William S. Plumer, 
D. D. 

The Extent of the Missionary Enterprise. By Gardiner Spring, D. D. 

The Moral Condition and Prospects of the Heathen. 1833. By B. B. Wis- 
ner, D. D. 

Duty to the Heathen. 1833. By Rev. Ira Tracy. 

When a Christian may be said to have done his Duty to the Heathen. 1834. 
By Rev. David Greene. 

The Saviour s Injunction to his Disciples. 1834. By Rev. Isaac Bird. 

On Deciding early to become a Missionary to the Heathen. 1834. By a 
Secretary. 

Letters on the Constitution of the Board. 1836. By a Secretary. 

What will you do for the Heathen ? 1837. By Rev. Reuben Tinker. 

Pray Less, or Do More. 1838. By Rev. Hollis Read. 

Appeal to Physicians. 1838. By Asahel Grant, M. D. 

Missionary Schools. 1838. By a Secretary. 

The Work of Missions to be Progressive. 1840. By a Secretary. 

Abstracts of Donations for 1839, 1840, 1844, 1856. 

Manual for Missionary Candidates. By the Secretaries. 

The Promised Advent of the Spirit. 1841. By a Secretary. 

Proposals for raising up a Native Ministry. 1841. By a Secretary. 

On the Use of Maps at the Monthly Concert. 1843. By Edward W. 
Hooker, D. D. 



192 THE BOARD. 

both were edited by Mr. Evarts. It became a separate publica 
tion in 1819, and the property of the Board in 1821. Owing to 
difficulties, delays, and cost in distributing the Herald, be- 

Christian Public Spirit ; or, Living for the Kingdom of Christ. By Rev. 
David Greene. 

Report of a Visit to the Levant. 1844. By Drs. Rufus Anderson and 
Joel Hawes. 

Refutations of Charges against the Sandwich Islands Missionaries. 1844. 
By Rev. Joseph Tracy. 

The Theory of Missions to the Heathen ; or, Office and Work of the Mission 
ary to the Heathen. 1845. By a Secretary. 

Divine Method of raising Charitable ^ Contributions. 1845. By Elisha 
Yale, D. D. 

Control to be exercised over Missionaries and Mission Churches. 1845. By 
a Secretary. 

Cultivation of the Spirit of Missions in Literary and Theological Institu 
tions. 1845. By Edward W. Hooker, D. D. 

Letters to Pious Young Men. 1846. By Rev. John Scudder, M. D. 

The Agency devolving on White Men in Missions to Western Africa. 1848. 
By Rev. John Leighton Wilson. 

Labors and Hinderances of the Missionary. 1846. By Rev. David Greene. 

On Missions to the Jews. 1849. By a Secretary. 

The Missionary Age ; or, The Time for the World s Conversion come. 1851. 
By a Secretary. 

Missionary Responsibilities of Pastors. 1851. By S. L. Pomroy, D. D. 

Grand Motive to Missionary Effort. 1852. By S. L. Pomroy, D. D. 

Statistical History of Benevolent Contributions in the past Sixteen Years. 
1853. By a Secretary. 

Claims of the Missionary Work upon the Mental Strength of the Ministry. 
1855. By Rev. David Bliss. 

The Oriental Churches and Mohammedans. By Cyrus Hamlin, D. D. 

Ought I to become a Missionary to the Heathen ? By Rev. Reuben Tinker. 

Outline of Missionary Policy. 1856. By Rev. S. B. Treat. 

Letters on Polygamy. 1856. 

Oahu College. 1856. By a Secretary. 

Report of the Deputation to India. 1856. By R. Anderson and A. C. 
Thompson. 

Report of the Select Committee on the Deputation to India. 1856. 

Can the Board be kept out of Debt, and in what Manner? 1859. By a 
Secretary. 

Historical Sketch of the Board. 1860. By Rev. Isaac R. Worcester. 

Value of Christianity at the Sandwich Islands. By Rev. Ephraim W. Clark. 

Missionary Schools. (Second Tract on the subject.) 1861. By a Secretary. 

It is proper to add, that the Author of this volume is responsible for the 
tracts which are attributed to a Secretary. 



THE AGENCIES. 193 

fore the existence of railroads, the experiment was made, in 
1823 and some subsequent years, of printing an edition of the 
work at Utica, N. Y., and in 1853 at Cincinnati, 0. ; but it 
was not wholly satisfactory in either case. In a special report 
made to the Board at its meeting in 1841, the Prudential Com 
mittee thus remarked upon this work, and on the importance 
of a wider dissemination of missionary intelligence : 

" Aside from the Missionary Herald," they say, " there is 
no vehicle by which missionary information is systematically 
and widely disseminated among the patrons and friends of this 
Board. Of this periodical, not more than twenty-two thou 
sand have ever, in one year, been circulated in this country. 
This number, if they were all equally distributed among the 
three thousand churches from which the Board may look for 
its funds, would give only about seven copies to a church. 
But the manner in which these are distributed leaves many 
whole churches without a single copy, and oftentimes many 
contiguous churches, not poor nor small, nor in parts of the 
country remote or difficult of access, with not more than one 
or two copies each on an average. Yet considerable effort has 
been made to extend the circulation of this work. It is well 
received, and nearly twice as many copies of it are issued as 
of any similar periodical in this country, or England. Still, 
.probably less than a tenth part of those from whom, if they 
were well informed on the subject, the Board might expect to 
receive patronage, ever see the Missionary Herald, or in any 
other manner obtain regular and full information on mission 
ary subjects. Hence, with regard to the nature and objects of 
the missionary work, the manner of proceeding in it, the his 
tory, success, or present state of the several missions, there is, 
even among those friendly to the cause, a want of information 
greatly to be lamented, and which must be removed before 
this work can be expected to move on vigorously and rapidly." * 

This gave rise to a small monthly publication called the 
Day Spring, designed to be an auxiliary to the Missionary 

* Report for 1841, p. 39. 



194 THE BOARD. 

Herald ; and, after some years, that gave place to a monthly 
paper somewhat larger, called the Journal of Missions. 

The cost of the publishing branch of the Agency, for the past 
fifty years, as compared with the gross receipts, has been exactly 
three per cent. ; which is also the cost of it in the year 1860. 
To this cost of publications add the cost of the agents, and it is 
found that the entire cost of the Agency that is, of all the 
means for cultivating the missionary spirit in the churches and 
procuring the funds has been between six and one third 
and six and one half per cent, on the gross receipts. Who 
that has had experience of the reluctance with which even 
good men give their money, will not have a feeling of grati 
tude that the cost has been no more ? 



CHAPTER XII. 

RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 

Massachusetts and the Charter. English Admiral in the War with England. The 
Alligator. East India Company. Charles Grant. Sir Evan Nepean and the 
Effective Appeal. Relations of American Missionaries to their own Government. 
Not affected by the Nature of their Mission, nor by their Circumstances and Relations. 
Dispatch of Daniel Webster declaring the Equal Rights of Missionaries. Subse 
quent Declarations. Government of Holland. Netherlands India. French Gov 
ernment. Result as regards Supreme Governments, and as regards Local Govern 
ors, Embassadors, Consuls, and other Officials. Duty of Praying for Governments. 

THE difficulty experienced by the Board in procuring its 
charter from the legislature of Massachusetts, in the year 1812, 
has been already explained with sufficient fullness. The war 
with England pommenced in that year, and the merchants of 
Salem, having a large trade with India, were desirous of send 
ing an agent to Calcutta, for the purchase of goods to be sent 
to the United States on the return of peace. Knowing that 
the Board was anxious to forward letters, books, and supplies 
to its missionaries who had embarked early in the year, they 
offered to send out a small vessel that would take gratuitously 
whatever the Board wished to transmit, if Dr. Worcester would 
procure a license from the British Admiral, Sir John Borlase 
Warren, commanding on the coast. This license he succeed 
ed in obtaining. A note from the Admiral gives the contents 
of his letter of protection, which ascribed to the Alligator 
a coasting schooner or pilot-boat of only seventy tons 
more of a missionary character than had been claimed for her. 
On reaching Calcutta, the little vessel was seized and con 
demned ; but the letters and parcels for the missionaries were 
forwarded, after some delay. The Calcutta agents freely ac 
knowledged the mercantile objects of the voyage, and it is un 
derstood that in these the shrewd merchants were successful ; 

27 W 



196 THE BOARD. 

but the Company s government suspected, or professed to sus 
pect, some political plot concealed under the guise of religion, 
and were consequently the more severe upon the missionaries.* 
Doubtless the Secretary and the Admiral were led, in their 
interest for a better cause, to overlook the evidences of a com 
mercial speculation, which were upon the very face of the 
enterprise. 

The East India Company have been quite as tolerant of 
American as of English hiissionaries. Even from the first, 
there have been true-hearted and influential persons, both in 
India and England, upon whose friendly intervention the 
Board and its missions have been wont to rely. Such were 
William Wilberforce and Charles Grant in England. The 
latter, when a resolution seemed about to pass in the Court 
of Directors, excluding the first American missionaries from 
the Company s possessions, presented a written argument in 
their defense, showing that the governments in India had 
assumed powers not authorized by the laws of the British 
empire, nor by the law of nations. The Directors avowed 
their belief that the object of the missionaries was simply the 
promotion of religion, and authorized the Governor to allow 
them to remain. Such friends, too, were the Rev. Thomas 
T. Thomason, Dr. William Carey, and George Udney, Esq., of 
Calcutta, and William T. Money, Esq., of Bombay. Among 
these should be numbered also Sir Evan Nepean, Governor of 
Bombay in 1813, to whom, at the close of that year, Messrs. 
Hall and Nott addressed their eloquent and successful plea for 
liberty to remain and preach the gospel in India. No wonder 
that such an appeal as the following overcame the official 
scruples and fears of a man so well disposed toward their 
object as Sir Evan,. 

" It is our wish, that your Excellency would compare, most 
seriously, such an exercise of civil authority upon us with the 
general spirit and tenor of our Saviour s commands. We most 
earnestly entreat you not to send us away from these heathen. 

* Life of Dr. Worcester, vol. ii. p. 237. Tracy s History of the Board, 2d 
edition, p. 40. 



RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 197 

We entreat you by the high probability that an official per 
mission from the supreme government for us to remain here 
will shortly be received ; and that something more general, 
and to the same effect, will soon arrive from England. We 
entreat you by the time and money already expended on our 
mission, and by the Christian hopes and prayers attending it, 
not utterly to defeat its pious object by sending us from the 
country. We entreat you by the spiritual miseries of the 
heathen, who are daily perishing before your eyes, and under 
your Excellency s government, not to prevent us from preach 
ing Christ to them. We entreat you by the blood of Jesus, 
which he shed to redeem them. As ministers of Him who 
has all power in heaven and on earth, and who, with his fare 
well and ascending voice, commanded his ministers to go and 
teach all nations, we entreat you not to prohibit us from teach 
ing these heathen. By all the principles of our holy religion, 
by which you hope to be saved, we entreat you not to hinder 
us from preaching the same religion to these perishing idola 
ters. By all the solemnities of the judgment day, when your 
Excellency must meet your heathen subjects before God s tri 
bunal, we entreat you not to hinder us from preaching to them 
that gospel, which is able to prepare them, as well as you, for 
that awful day. We entreat your Excellency not to oppose 
the prayers and efforts of the Church, by sending back those 
whom the Church has sent forth in the name of the Lord to 
preach his gospel among the heathen ; and we earnestly be 
seech Almighty God to prevent such an act, and now and ever 
to guide your Excellency in that way which shall be most 
pleasing in his sight."* 

England and America were then at war, but these two mis 
sionaries were recognized by the Governor in^their higher 
relations to the peaceful kingdom of the Lord Jesus. 

Circumstances led to a formal discussion of the relations of 
American missionaries to their own government, at the meet 
ing of the Board in 1842. The question affected the rights 

* Report of the Board, 1814. 



198 THE BOARD. 

of persons. It was argued, that there is nothing in the nature 
of a foreign mission to weaken the missionary s claims as an 
American citizen, and the argument was thus stated : 

1. The Christian ministry, besides having an express divine 
appointment, is an original and essential element of all Chris 
tian society. It forms a portion of the community, a dis 
tinct profession, having its peculiar and appropriate employ 
ments, as much so as any of the secular professions, whether 
of law, or medicine, or commerce. In the practice of its ap 
propriate duties, the clerical profession is as much entitled to 
claim the protection of the government of its country, as any 
of the other classes composing the body politic. If the views 
which, as a citizen, he has a right to take of the duties apper 
taining to his profession, lead him to go and preach the gospel 
abroad, wherever he may go, he is as much entitled to the pro 
tection of his government, while demeaning himself like a 
good citizen, as if he were a merchant. 

2. The Christian ministry exists for a twofold object, viz. : 
to sustain the institutions of the gospel in evangelized nations, 
and to propagate them in nations that are unevangelized. 
This has been the common opinion in all ages. Indeed, the 
propagation of the gospel by the ministry has a special prom 
inence given to it in the Scriptures, as well as by the moral 
condition of the world hitherto. 

3. Those clergymen who engage in foreign missions not 
only pursue a business which belongs appropriately to their 
profession, and in performing which they may, of their own 
right, claim the protection of their country, but they are also 
the agents, in this business, of a very numerous and respecta 
ble body of citizens. There are many hundred thousands in 
our community who have an interest more or less in this en 
terprise of Christian benevolence. They contribute for its 
support. The missionary is their agent. Their rights are 
involved with his. They are partners with him in this 
business. 

4. The Act of Incorporation given to the Board in the year 



RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 199 

1810, by the legislature of Massachusetts, recognizes missions 
to unevangelized nations as a lawful and proper work for 
American citizens to engage in. The Board is incorporated 
and made a body politic by the name of the American Board 
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for the purpose of 
propagating the gospel in heathen lands by supporting mis 
sionaries and diffusing a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. 
This is the language of the charter. The Act, though given 
by a single State, is practically recognized by all the States 
in the Union, as giving the Board an unquestionable right to 
receive and hold funds for the purpose of sending Christian 
missionaries to heathen nations. Though this fact may have 
no direct bearing on the question of a missionary s citizenship, 
it must be regarded as legalizing his business. 

5. Our national government is accustomed to give passports 
to missionaries, knowing them to be missionaries, when they 
are about going forth to their work. The passports given to 
missionaries are the same as are given to other citizens, certi 
fying that they are American citizens, and commending them, 
as such, to the representatives of the nation abroad, and to 
the governments of the world. Nor could these documents 
with any propriety be refused. 

Nor is there any thing to destroy these claims in the cir 
cumstances and relations into which the foreign missionary is 
brought. 

1. The first fact that meets us, is his dependence on his native 
land. He derives his support from thence. He looks to those 
whose agent he is for the means of living from year to year. 
To these patrons, or rather to the Missionary Board acting in 
their behalf, he looks also for direction in his labors ; and be 
tween him and his directors there is an active and intimate 
correspondence as long as he lives. In point of fact, his rela 
tions to his native land are as fresh and strong, so far as feel 
ing, interest, and dependence are concerned, at the end of 
twenty years, as at the outset of his mission. 

2. Another fact is this that the government of the country 



200 THE BOARD. 

to which the missionary goes, never recognizes him in any 
other relation than that of a missionary or American citizen. 
He never becomes a citizen of the country. Indeed, no mis 
sionary of the Board could conscientiously comply with the 
conditions on which citizenship is conferred upon aliens in the 
British empire ; and in barbarous pagan countries there would 
be folly in the attempt to procure it. He never sustains any 
other relation to the land of his sojourn than that of a mis 
sionary. He is neither banker, nor merchant, nor trader, nor 
cultivator of the soil. He does not own even the house he 
inhabits. He has the fewest possible ties to the country, the 
least possible hold upon it, that will comport with the per 
formance of his missionary work. It would perhaps conduce 
more to the prosperity of the cause of missions, if facts were, 
in some respects, less favorable to the strength of this case 
if missionaries, for instance, find it easier to gain rights and 
privileges in the countries where they labor, and have more 
inducement to aim at the permanent settlement of their fami 
lies. The facts must be stated as they are. Even his children 
he regards as having their home in the fatherland ; he looks 
upon them as Americans, though the laws of our country in 
relation to children born out of the country are not what they 
should be. 

3. It is important to consider the theory of foreign missions 
in determining the relations which missionaries sustain to their 
native land. Regarded theoretically, missions are not perma 
nent institutions. They are movable, itinerant. As soon as 
their object is accomplished in one place, or country, they are 
to be transferred to another. They are designed to plant the 
institutions of the gospel, and then they leave them to the 
conservative influences that have been gathered about them. 
This is true theoretically, and it will come out in fact, as soon 
as the Church shall prosecute the work with becoming vigor. 
Missions are not colonies ; they are not settlements ; they are 
mere temporary instrumentalities, employed indeed to accom 
plish permanent results, but having a foreign origin, and a 
foreign support, and to be withdrawn as soon as they can be 



RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 201 

spared. Hence the missionary is emphatically, in the essen 
tial principle of his calling, a sojourner, pilgrim, stranger, 
having no continuing city.* 

Early in the year 1842, it was found necessary to bring the 
subject to the notice of Daniel Webster, then Secretary of 
State, and he kindly furnished a copy of a dispatch which he 
sent, under date of February 2, to the Minister Resident at 
Constantinople, who had taken too restricted a view of the 
purport of our treaty with the Ottoman government. As this 
is believed to have been the first formal declaration of our 
government on this important subject, it is due to that eminent 
statesman that the dispatch should be quoted. It was as fol 
lows : 

" It has been represented to this Department, that the Amer 
ican missionaries and other citizens of the United States, not 
engaged in commercial pursuits, residing and traveling in the 
Ottoman dominions, do not receive from your legation that aid 
and protection, to which, as citizens of the United States, they 
feel themselves entitled ; and I have been directed by the 
President, who is profoundly interested in the matter, to call 
your immediate attention to the subject, and to instruct you 
to omit no occasion where your interference in behalf of such 
persons may become necessary or useful, to extend to them all 
proper succor and attentions, of which they may stand in need, 
in the same manner that you would to other citizens of the 
United States, who, as merchants, visit or dwell in Turkey. 

" Inclosed is a letter addressed to me this day, by Ex-Gov 
ernor Armstrong, of Massachusetts, a gentleman of high char 
acter, which will explain to you the nature of the representa 
tions that have been made upon this subject, and which it 
appeared due to you, as well as to those interested in the cause 
it is the object of the representation to shield and to promote, 
frankly to communicate ; and the Department believes, that it 
will only be necessary to invoke your attention to its contents, 

* Report of the Board for 1841, p. 36. 



202 THE BOARD. 

to insure from you, in future, to the individuals described, what 
this government expects from its representatives abroad, in all 
cases where citizens of the United States are concerned/ 

Edward Everett and Lewis Cass, when afterward in the 
same high office, distinctly recognized this claim of the foreign 
missionary. Mr. Marcy did the same, virtually, in measures 
for a decisive rescue of Dr. Jonas King from unjust oppression 
by the Greek government at Athens. 

It has sometimes, though rarely, been found expedient for 
the Board to seek relief from grievances by direct appeals to 
foreign governments. In the year 1839, the Rev. Dr. Robert 
Baird, who was then living in Paris, made, at the request of 
the Prudential Committee, a very satisfactory visit to Holland 
in relation to the restrictions imposed on missionaries from the 
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, whom the Board had sent 
to Netherlands India in the preceding year. 

Two years later, as a means of obtaining information, and of 
conciliating the government of Holland, the Committee, in con 
currence with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed 
Dutch Church, sent the Rev. Isaac Ferris, D. D., to that coun 
try. Dr. Ferris reached Rotterdam in June, and was received 
with great kindness and respect by Mr. Ledeboer, Secretary 
of the Netherlands Missionary Society, and by the Board of 
Directors of that institution. He found that society not a lit 
tle embarrassed by a late restriction of the government, re 
quiring them to send to Netherlands India only native Dutch 
missionaries, of whom few were to be obtained. A committee 
had gone to the seat of government to effect the removal of 
this restriction ; and the Directors instructed them to seek the 
removal of the restrictions imposed on the missionaries from 
the Reformed Dutch Church of the United States. The com 
mittee no doubt pleaded the cause of their American brethren 
with ability and faithfulness ; but the result was unfavorable 
in every respect. Dr. Ferris now went to the Hague, and had 
an interview with the Minister for the colonies, who expressed 
the most friendly regard for the American branch of the Dutch 
Church, and confidence in its missionaries ; but stated that the 



RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 203 

exclusion of foreigners from their interior possessions in the 
Indian Archipelago was a principle of settled state policy. 
The American missionaries would be restricted to Borneo, and 
required to spend some time in Batavia before going thither. 
The Minister, however, assured Dr. Ferris that the colonial 
authorities would be instructed to give countenance and facil 
ities to our mission in Borneo, both on the coast and in the 
interior.* The mission of Dr. Ferris, though not successful 
in its main object, led to the transfer of the Chinese branch of 
the Borneo mission to Amoy, in China, and threw light upon 
the subsequent duty of the Board with respect to Netherlands 
India. In June, 1843, the members of the Borneo mission, 
being no longer able to endure the embarrassments thrown in 
their way by the Dutch Resident at Pontianak, addressed a 
memorial to the Governor General of Netherlands India, in 
which their missionary office appears to good advantage in 
their respectful but dignified and decisive appeals. 

The Queen of Louis Philippe, King of France, is understood 
to have been a woman of strong religious sentiment, and to 
have taken an interest in the success of Roman Catholic mis 
sions. Missionaries of the Board in Western Africa were led to 
believe, from their intercourse with French naval officers, that 
some of them looked for advancement through her influence, 
as a consequence of the zeal they should manifest for these 
missions ; and that much of the annoyance of Protestant mis 
sions in the Pacific Ocean from French naval officers, during 
the reign of Louis Philippe, was from this cause. To dimin 
ish, if possible, the evils resulting from such interference at 
the Sandwich Islands, the Rev. Dr. Baird, being in Paris in 
1841, was requested to convey to the king, if possible, a letter 
from the Prudential Committee in relation to the disastrous 
visit of Captain La Place and the frigate L Artemise at the 
Sandwich Islands. Aided by General Cass ? the American 
Minister, Dr. Baird obtained the desired interview, presented 
the letter, and stated to the king its more important points- 

* Report of the Board, 1842, p. 167. 

28 



204 THE BOARD. 

His Majesty promised to read the letter, and its accompanying 
documents, and to give the whole subject his most serious atten 
tion ; but it was evident that he had previously heard the state 
ments of the Romish missionaries as to their unpleasant rela 
tions to the government of the islands. Dr. Baird afterward 
saw Guizot, the Prime Minister, and stated the case to him. 
The Minister heard with evident surprise and regret, and 
promised, with every appearance of sincerity, to have the 
whole matter investigated and equitably adjusted. 

While the experience of the Board favors the fewest possi 
ble direct communications by Missionary Societies to national 
governments, where, however, it has never had occasion to 
complain of disrespect, it has had abundant occasion grate 
fully to acknowledge kind and generous acts from the colonial 
authorities of Southern Africa, from local governors and offi 
cial men of every grade in British India, from the successive 
English embassies in Persia, and in a notable instance from a 
Russian embassy at that court. The same may be emphatical 
ly said of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, for many years English 
Embassador in Turkey, whose comprehensive and enlightened 
views as a statesman led him always to advance the interests 
of his own great nation by means of skillful national reforms 
and religious toleration in the Turkish empire. Nor has there 
been occasion, since Mr. Webster s dispatch, to complain of 
our own representatives at the Porte ; though their power to 
protect has been less than it would have been were their mis- 
. sioii raised, as it should be, to the embassadorial grade. Eng 
lish consuls in Turkey and Persia have generally been as kind 
and obliging to our missionaries as if they had been of the 
same nation. In Western Africa, even French admirals and 
their subalterns, after the first rough experience about the year 
1844, have been gentlemanly in their deportment, and ready 
to oblige. Excepting the disgraceful scenes connected with 
Lieutenant Percival and the United States schooner Dol 
phin at the Sandwich Islands in 1826,* the visits of our own 

* Annual Report for 1827. 



RELATIONS TO GOVERNMENTS. 205 

national ships have every where contributed to the respectabil 
ity and safety of our missionaries, and added not a little to 
their happiness. 

All who desire the success of missions should make con 
tinual " supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of 
thanks," " for kings and for all that are in authority," that 
missionaries, in the several countries where they labor, " may 
lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty." 
The unevangelized world is in great part subjected to the con 
trol or paramount influence of governments that are with us 
far more than they are against us, and that may be expected 
to extend to us a reasonable protection. What a progress in 
the past half-century ! " This is the Lord s doing, and it is 
marvelous in our eyes." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE DECEASED SECKETAKIES. 
Dr. Worcester. Mr. Evarts. Dr. Cornelius. Dr. Wisner. Dr. Armstrong. 

DR. WORCESTER and Mr. Evarts were among the founders 
of the Board ; and the well-drawn outline of their lives and 
characters in the sixth chapter will suffice for a notice of them 
in that relation. But it will be proper to speak somewhat 
more fully concerning them as Corresponding Secretaries; 
and also to commemorate the three other deceased Secretaries 
Cornelius, Wisner, and Armstrong. This will be done as 
far as possible in the language of their immediate associates, 
who were in circumstances to know them thoroughly. 

SAMUEL WORCESTER, D. D. 

Excellent and useful as Dr. Worcester was in ecclesiastical 
controversy, and as a preacher, pastor, and councilor, his 
greatest claim on the gratitude of posterity is ,in the official 
relation he sustained to foreign missions. The failure of great 
and good enterprises, or at least the disasters which befall 
them, are often the inevitable consequence of some radical 
error in the incipient stages ; and the absence of fatal errors 
in the scheme and working of the Board must be attributed, 
under God, to the admirable sagacity of the first Secretary, 
acting in fraternal understanding and sympathy with Mr. 
Evarts. Moreover, while not many of the great missionary 
problems of the Board were actually wrought out and demon 
strated until after his death, he put not a few of the more 
important in the most hopeful way of being resolved. The 
Board itself was shaped for a wise and steady policy, as if the 

(206) 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 207 

great disturbing influences of fifty years had all been foreseen. 
The missions beyond sea were also made deliberative, self- 
governing bodies, with entire freedom in ecclesiastical matters, 
and with all the discretionary power, and consequent respon 
sibility, in the use of funds, that comported with the wishes 
and claims of the donors. Had the master builder been ena 
bled to look down through the ages, he would not, perhaps, 
have done so well. Human wisdom is less a matter of fore 
knowledge, than a correct perception of the present relations 
of things, and a simple conformity to the present indications 
of Providence. It is being correct in the step next to be 
taken. With this instinctive perception, this heavenly tact, 
Dr. Worcester was eminently endowed. There were hardly 
facts enough then for constructing a theory of missions to any 
great extent ; and where the Board did act, as it must needs 
have acted more or less, upon the popular notions of the times, 
it found great occasion for subsequent modifications ; as in the 
value of direct civilizing agencies in missions, the influence 
of the higher education on savage minds, and the training of 
heathen youth amid the civilization of our own country. But 
then these experiments were the way to come at the truth, and 
they led to the more correct experience, upon which the mis 
sions are now being prosecuted. Mr. Evarts, writing under 
the influence of Dr. Worcester s recent decease, shall say what 
more is necessary concerning that great and good man. 

The faithful pen of our revered associate Mr. Evarts 
writes has recorded, in the last letter of considerable length 
which he ever wrote, the formation and the early history of 
this society. He recorded it as an act of gratitude to God 
for his favor to the rising institution, and as an attestation 
(the event has proved it to be his dying attestation) to the 
great truth, that trust in God is the only safe principle of the 
missionary enterprise. 

When the Board was first organized, it was little suspected 
by any one that its concerns would soon become so weighty 
and complicated as they actually became, or that the duties 



208 THE BOARD. 

of the Corresponding Secretary would be so arduous as they 
actually were. Yet the choice was just as it would have been 
had all these things been foreseen. Before the embarkation 
of the first mission, in February, 1812, there had been little 
opportunity for active labor. No funds had been received, no 
plans of extensive operations had been adopted. The Secre 
tary, however, had not been slumbering at his post. Always 
an observer of missions, and well acquainted with the modern 
history of attempts to propagate the gospel, he applied him 
self with new diligence to obtaining a correct knowledge of 
the heathen world ; to learning the difficulties and discourage 
ments which every missionary society must expect to en 
counter ; and to the consideration of those great motives to 
action which the steady view of a world lying in wickedness 
will impress upon a pious mind. 

From 1812 to 1817, the concerns of the Board were 
increasing in number and in interest. Several cases of great 
delicacy occurred, and the occasions of anxious deliberation 
were much more numerous than any person, not intimately 
acquainted with matters of this kind, would ever imagine. 
The labor of maintaining a correspondence with the mis 
sionaries ; with others, who were preparing to be employed 
in various departments of the missionary work ; with the 
officers of similar societies, at home and abroad ; and with pa 
trons and friends in our widely-extended country, must have 
occupied much of his time. Add to this the weight and 
responsibility of planning and commencing new missions ; of 
providing for the comfort and usefulness of numerous families 
already employed or to be employed ; of preparing for meet 
ings of the Board and of the Committee ; and of laying before 
the public, at stated intervals, the proceedings and results, the 
hopes and prospects, the occurrences, both adverse and favor 
able, which had any bearing on this great concern, and no 
one can doubt that great courage and industry were necessary 
to carry a man through these efforts, amidst the cares insep 
arable from the oversight of a large congregation, and the 
public consultations to which reference has been made. Yet 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 209 

a vigorous exertion was continually sustained, that, while the 
general operations of the Board were going forward, parochial 
duties and services should not be neglected. 

At the annual meeting of the Board in September, 1817, 
the Secretary informed his associates that he could no longer 
continue to labor as he had done, intimating, at the same time, 
that it would be a great relief to him if some other person 
could enter upon the duties of his office. The concerns of 
the Board were constantly multiplying and enlarging. He 
had for a long time been obliged to give up all seasons of 
relaxation, all that species of intercourse which is commonly 
denominated social and friendly, in distinction from the details 
of important business, and the performance of solemn profes 
sional duty. 

To dispense with his services was out of the question ; and 
the best that the Board could do was to propose a measure 
which, if acceded to by himself and his people, should release 
him from the greater part of his parochial duties. This meas 
ure could not go into immediate operation, and it was not till 
the summer of 1819 that the Rev. Elias Cornelius was settled 
as colleague pastor of the Tabernacle Church and congrega 
tion, with the express provision that the senior pastor might 
devote three quarters of his time, without interruption, to the 
missionary cause. In the mean while, occasional relief had 
been obtained by means of candidates for the ministry, and 
the kindness of his clerical brethren, who appreciated the 
value of his services. It was a matter of no small difficulty 
to gain the consent of an affectionate people to an arrange 
ment which should deprive them of so large a share of a 
beloved pastor s ^labors ; and we are warranted in asserting 
that nothing but an enlarged regard to the interests of the 
Church, and a firm persuasion that the cause in which he was 
embarked might well demand great sacrifices from every pro 
fessed Christian, could have gained so complete a victory over 
private attachments and personal friendship. To the honor 
of the deceased it should be added, that he was never urged 
to continue in the office of Secretary, and to consent to a 



210 THE BOARD. 

modification of the pastoral relation, by any other arguments 
than such as require the followers of Christ to surrender their 
own ease and advantage at the call of their Master. It was 
clearly seen by many, and not less clearly by our departed 
friend than by others, that a continuance of his labors, on the 
plan proposed, would render the support of his family more 
precarious than if he were simply a parish minister ; that it 
would fasten upon him unceasing care and toil, exhaust his 
strength, probably shorten his life, and leave his family with 
out those claims upon the kind and generous feelings of his 
people, which would be promptly acknowledged were his 
undivided services bestowed upon them. All this he saw, 
and then cheerfully made the sacrifice. 

During the remainder of his pilgrimage, though able to 
accomplish much, and that in a very effectual manner, his 
body seemed gradually falling a prey to disease. In very few 
instances, we apprehend, have the mental powers been pre 
served in so vigorous exercise, to the very close of life, amidst 
pain, weariness, extreme debility, and the indications of 
approaching dissolution. 

JEREMIAH EVARTS, ESQ. 

The Rev. David Greene came into the correspondence of 
the Board in 1824, six years before the death of Mr. Evarts, 
and married his eldest daughter. He has communicated the 
following estimate of Mr. Evarts s character, and of his public 
services in the missionary cause : 

Mr. Evarts labored for the Board twentytyears, the first 
ten as its Treasurer, and afterward, upon the death of Dr. 
Worcester, ten years as Secretary. Indeed, during the ten 
years that he was Treasurer, Dr. Worcester residing at Salem, 
while the business of the Board was transacted at Boston, no 
inconsiderable portion of the correspondence and other labors 
pertaining to the Secretary s department was performed by 
Mr. Evarts. Excepting the individual efforts of the Eliots 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 211 

and Mayhews, the Brainerds and Edwardses, and a few others 
of former generations, this was at the very commencement of 
the foreign missionary enterprise in this country. There were 
no precedents to guide the executive officers of the Board, 
no examples to be followed. Whether for raising funds and 
obtaining missionaries at home, or for conducting operations 
in missionary fields abroad, principles were to be established, 
methods of procedure devised ; in short, the very foundations 
were to be laid for operations so extended as to correspond 
with the rising abilities of the American churches, and as per 
manent as the wants of the unevangelized nations. Into this 
work Mr. Evarts entered with all his heart, taking a leading 
part from its very beginning ; and for it he was well qualified. 
Probably no man in the country was better informed, or had 
thought more earnestly, on the subject of missions than he. 
As editor of the Panoplist and Missionary Magazine, he had 
collected and become familiar with all the accessible publica 
tions in this department of beneficence ; and by the intelli 
gence from the English missions, which he, as editor, had dis 
seminated through the churches, he had done much to prepare 
the way for the organization of the Board in 1810. 

Mr. Evarts came early into public life ; and though, at the 
organization of the Board, he was not thirty years of age, he 
was widely known as a leading man in the Christian commu 
nity ; and wherever known was beloved and confided in as a 
man of sterling integrity, wise as a counselor, liberal and 
candid in his judgments, sober and conservative in his views, 
and yet eminently enterprising, public-spirited, and in all 
respects trustworthy. Plans and measures which came under 
his consideration were carefully studied till he was confident 
that he understood their bearings and results, and in his con 
clusions he had great self-reliance. Hence he seldom or never 
had to renounce crude or hastily-formed opinions, or to aban 
don ill-concerted plans or measures. Few public men have 
laid themselves open so little to the charge of indiscretion. 
He was a laborious business man. Work, any kind of work, 
which would honor Christ and do good to men, was a pleasure 
29 



212 THE BOARD. 

to him. His mind was so well furnished and so thoroughly 
disciplined to habitual effort, that, though possessing little 
bodily vigor, he could perform a great amount of intellectual 
labor, especially with the pen, without weariness. He was 
not fastidious as to the particular labor assigned him. It was 
a remark of his, that while he would not wish to direct what 
sphere of labor Providence should assign to him, he would 
prefer to be employed in the foreign missionary work ; but in 
what department of it, whether as Secretary, Treasurer, 
Agent, or Editor, at home or as a missionary, he cared 
little, only let him be employed for Christ and the heathen. 
This expressed the spirit which he manifested through the 
twenty years of his connection with the Board. Whether as 
accountant and financier, or in correspondence, or addressing 
the friends of missions, or defending the Indian tribes against 
meditated wrongs, or as an officer of a church, or a promoter 
of temperance, or of the observance of the Sabbath, he was 
always the earnest, laborious man ; never declining labor 
because it did not belong to him, or because he was doing 
more than his share. The motto in the books of his library, 
" Nil sine magno labore vita dedit mortalibus" * well exhibits 
his view of life ; and he cheerfully accepted and acted upon 
the arrangement. 

The social qualities of Mr. Evarts contributed not a little to 
his influence and success in his work. His ability to adapt 
himself to all classes of persons to be the intelligent, affable, 
kind, sympathizing, Christian friend of persons of all habits, 
and at all stages of life eminently fitted him to hold inter 
course with the friends and patrons of the Board, and with 
missionaries and their families, while his intelligence, manli 
ness, and gentlemanly deportment gave him welcome access 
to men in all the highest stations. 

In those early periods of the Board s history, when almost 
the whole Christian community, both ministers and laymen, 
doubted the wisdom of entering the foreign field, and thought 

* It is the lot of mortals to accomplish nothing without great labor. 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 213 

the time for such a work had not come, little sympathy and 
encouragement from beyond their own circle could be expected 
by those who assumed the responsibility of carrying it forward. 
Then there was need of trust in God, of faith in his promises, 
and in the power of gospel truth and motives. These graces 
Mr. Evarts possessed. In those dark times, when helpers were 
comparatively few and timid, and their views contracted, when 
doubters and objectors were many and bold, and multiform 
difficulties were to be encountered both at home and abroad, 
Mr. Evarts s courage never failed. His trust was in God s pur 
pose and promise to convert the world. However numerous 
were the opposcrs, or formidable the obstacles, or faint-hearted 
the friends, he was not disappointed ; for he had taken all this 
into account, and was still hopeful, assured that what God 
had promised he was able to perform, and that his time and 
manner of carrying his purposes into effect were the best.* 

ELIAS CORNELIUS, I). D. 
* 
Dr. Cornelius was born at Somers, N. Y., July 31, 1794, 

and hopefully converted while in Yale College, where he was 
graduated in 1813. He studied divinity under the direction 
of President Dwight, and afterward with Dr. Lyman Beechcr, 
and was licensed to preach June 4, 1816. Immediately aftef 
this he was commissioned to act as an agent of the American 
Board. After performing a highly successful agency in the 
States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, on the 
9th of April, 1817, he received ordination as an evangelist. 
He was then sent on a special mission to the Indian country 
in the south-west, in aid of the now venerable pioneer of the 
Indian missions, Dr. Cyrus Kingsbury. At Washington he had 
repeated interviews with the heads of departments, as to the 
best means of meliorating the condition of the aborigines, by 

* A Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., Corresponding Secre 
tary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by E. C. 
Tracy, 8vo., pp. 448, was published by Messrs. Crocker & Browster, Bos 
ton, 1845. 



214 THE BOARD. 

schools, husbandry, and the mechanic arts. Arriving at Brai- 
nerd, he was joyfully welcomed by the missionaries, and his 
services to the mission were various and important. He sub 
sequently spent three months in New Orleans, principally in 
the service of the Missionary Society of Connecticut. At the 
close of his useful and highly acceptable sojourn in that city, 
he presented the subject of foreign missions to the considera 
tion of the people, and obtained more than a thousand dollars. 

The following touching passage is from a sketch of Dr. 
Cornelius s life and character, by Dr. Bela B. Edwards, after 
ward a professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover, who 
was associated with the subject of this brief notice while Sec 
retary of the American Education Society. The occurrences 
were on his homeward journey from New Orleans. 

" In one of his letters, Mr. Cornelius thus pours out the 
fullness of his feelings in reference to the American Board : 
If there be an institution in the world which I love most, I 
speak the sincere sentiment of my heart when I say, it is the 
American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions. I 
have all that confidence in their wisdom, their efficiency, and 
their piety, which excites to the most vigorous exertion in 
their behalf of which I am capable ; and I need not add, that 
these remarks apply most emphatically to the Prudential 
Committee, and their indefatigable Secretary and Treasurer. 
To forward their views, I have toiled two years, and never 
anticipate greater happiness in my life than has been asso 
ciated unceasingly with those toils. The following animated 
description of the interview of Mr. Cornelius with Mr. Evarts, 
forcibly reminds us of that more sublime and rapturous meet 
ing which they have since enjoyed in the temple not made 
with hands, where they shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more, where tears are wiped from off all faces, and where 
the Lamb, who is in the midst of the throne, is leading them 
to living fountains of water. < After great fatigue and consid- 
erable impediment from ill health in the low country, I had 
the indescribable joy of arriving at the missionary station 
[Brainerd] on the 14th of May, twenty-two days from the time 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 215 

I took leave of Natchez. I know not that it is possible for a 
human heart to beat with higher joy than did mine, in once 
more meeting the precious brethren and sisters of the mission. 
This joy was rendered more intense by the presence of Mr. 
Evarts. It seemed as if the ends of the country had come 
together. It far more than repays one for the most fatiguing 
joiirney ; and such is the reward of Christian missionaries. 

In this tour of eight or nine thousand miles, Mr. Cornelius 
preached three hundred times in behalf of the Board, and 
collected seven thousand two hundred dollars. He was pres 
ent at the formation of a church at Brainerd the first of the 
Indian churches. 

To enable Dr. Worcester to devote the greater part of his 
time to official duties as Secretary of the Board, Mr. Cornelius 
was installed colleague pastor of the Tabernacle Church in 
Salem, July 21, 1819. His services as a pastor, and subse 
quently in connection with the American Education Society, 
do not come within the range of this notice. Yet it should 
be said that, in the service of the Education Society, he trav 
eled from fifteen to twenty thousand miles, and raised funds 
to the amount of between one hundred and twenty and one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Upon the decease of Mr. 
Evarts, he was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Board, 
but did not see his way clear to accept the office till near the 
close of the year. He came to Boston in the January follow 
ing to consult on future operations, preached on the cause of 
missions in several churches, and early in February left for 
New York, where was his family. At Hartford, he was pros 
trated by a fever on the brain, which terminated his invaluable 
life, February 12, 1832, when he was scarcely thirty-eight 
years of age. 

Dr. Cornelius was not spared to enter upon his work as 
Secretary of the Board, and nothing can be said of him in 
that relation. He died on reaching the middle period of 
life. His powers were developed very early ; he was not 
twenty-two when sent on his special agency to the Indians. 
With great versatility of powers, there was a remarkable liar- 



216 THE BOARD. 

mony in his character. His talents for business were extraor 
dinary ; his integrity was beyond all suspicion ; his rare energy 
of character was founded on a thorough knowledge of his 
duties ; and his early removal occasioned great lamentation in 
the churches.* 

BENJAMIN B. WISNER, D. D. 

Benjamin Blydenburg Wisner was born September 29, 
1794, in Goshen, Orange County, N. Y. ; was graduated 
at Union College in 1813, where he performed the duties of 
tutor from 1815 to 1818 ; afterward went through a course of 
theological studies in the Seminary at Princeton ; and was 
ordained pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, February 
21, 1821. In 1832, he was elected one of the three Corre 
sponding Secretaries of the American Board, and continued 
in the discharge of the duties of that office till his death, 
which occurred, after a brief sickness, February 9, 1835, in 
the forty-first year of his age. 

The author can not give a better delineation of Dr. Wisner, 
as he appeared to his associates in office, than the one, sub 
stantially, which he communicated to Dr. Sprague, in the year 
1851, for his " Annals of the American Pulpit." 

Dr. Wisner became one of the three Corresponding Secre 
taries of the Board in the autumn of 1832. His was the 
home department in the correspondence, having special 
charge of the system of means for raising funds and procur 
ing missionaries. This was before the General Assembly s 
Board for Foreign Missions was formed, and the entire broad 
field covered by the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Re 
formed Dutch Churches was open to him. In fact, the Pres 
byterian churches of the South were organized for action in 
aid of foreign missions in direct connection with his official 
agency. He had been four years a member of the Prudential 
Committee of the Board previous to his election as Secretary, 

* A Memoir of the Rev. Elias Cornelius, by B. B. Edwards, was published 
by Messrs. Perkins & Marvin, Boston, 1833, pp. 360. 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 217 

and was thus enabled to enter at once on his duties with the 
advantage of a large stock of appropriate information. 

Dr. Wisner had the rarest qualifications for a secretaryship 
in a great missionary institution. His spirit, naturally some 
what overbearing, had been softened by a partial failure of 
health and pastoral trials. Cheerful, social, rejoicing in the 
usefulness of his associates and of all about him, his fine con 
versational powers made him a most agreeable companion. 
His public spirit made him ready for every good work ; and 
such was his love for work, that he seemed never to grow 
weary in well-doing. He did every thing promptly and thor 
oughly, and little things and great things equally well ; not 
with eye service, or to have glory of men, but because he 
loved to be doing good, and because nature and grace made 
him happy in doing with his might what . his hand found to 
do. So it was always and every where ; and this made him 
the man for committees and sub-committees, on which he was 
generally to be found, when work was to be done trenching 
largely upon the hours usually appropriated to rest and sleep. 
He was a model of a business man wakeful, cheerful, col 
lected, judicious, laborious, devoted, disinterested. It was no 
mere official interest he had in his duties. The public welfare 
was his own. He felt a responsibility for the course of events. 
His heart was in the great cause of missions in every part 
of it. 

His forte was executive. But he had great, power also in 
debate in deliberative bodies. As a writer, he did not readily 
adapt himself to the popular mind. There was a lack of 
fancy and imagination, of the discursive and illustrative 
power, and of flow in thought and style defects that may 
have been owing to some infelicity in the manner of his edu 
cation. But, as an extemporaneous debater, he would have 
commanded attention on the floor of either House of Congress. 
At the very outset of the discussion, he seemed to have an 
intuitive perception of the leading points, in their natural 
relations and order, and to be at once prepared for a logical, 
instructive, convincing argument. This always gave him in- 



218 THE BOARD. 

| 

fluence in deliberative bodies, where his tact and ability 
seemed never to be at fault. 

His mental powers came early to maturity ; and comparing 
his labors and influence with those of other men, he needed 
not threescore years and ten to stand with the more favored 
men in the impression made upon his age. Yet his early death 
has ever seemed among the greater mysteries of God s holy 
providence. 

WILLIAM JESSUP ARMSTRONG, D. D. 

The biographical sketch of Dr. Armstrong, which appeared 
in the Missionary Herald soon after his decease, was prepared 
by Mr. Greene, one of his associates in the correspondence of 
the Board. It is necessary very much to abridge this account, 
in order to find it place in this volume. 

Dr. Armstrong was born at Mendham, N. J., October 29, 
1796. He became hopefully pious while a member of the 
college at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1816. After 
a course of theological studies, under the direction of his father 
and in the Seminary at Princeton, he devoted two years to 
a home mission in Albemarle County, Va., laboring princi 
pally in Charlottesville and its vicinity, near the residence of 
President Jefferson. Infidelity and irreligion greatly pre 
vailed at that time. No church had been organized there, 
and the Lord s Supper had never been administered. With 
the young missionary s ardor and singleness of aim, and with 
the peculiar pathos of his eloquence, he could not but com 
mand attention. Success attended his labors. A number of 
interesting conversions occurred even among infidels. A 
Presbyterian church was gathered, which still exists, and the 
face of society was much changed for the better. He after 
ward labored three years as pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church in Trenton, N. J. In the spring of 1824, he succeed 
ed, Dr. John H. Rice in the First Presbyterian-Church in Rich 
mond, Va., where he remained ten years, his Christian influ 
ence all the while extending through the State. 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 219 

Dr. Armstrong had a large share of public spirit. He 
prayed much for the success of missions ; uniformly prepared 
for the monthly concert of prayer ; was an example of liber 
ality in his contributions ; endeavored to awaken and foster a 
missionary spirit among his people ; and had the satisfaction 
of seeing a number of his spiritual children go on missions to 
the heathen. He was repeatedly invited to engage in agen 
cies for promoting a missionary spirit in that part of the coun 
try. But the time when his soul seemed peculiarly moved for 
the heathen, and he was, as it were, newly baptized with the 
missionary spirit, was at a union meeting for prayer for the 
conversion of the world, held on* the first Monday in January, 
1833. Standing among the ministers, and before the assem 
bled churches of Richmond, with a countenance glowing with 
love, he said, " My brethren, I am ashamed that there are so 
many of us here in this Christian land. We must go to the 
heathen." " That day of prayer," says one who was present, 
" made an impression on many hearts which was deep and 
lasting." This was doubtless the way in which God was pre 
paring him to perform the labors to which he was soon to be 
called in connection with the foreign missionary work. When 
the Central Board of Foreign Missions, embracing the Presby 
terian friends of missions in Virginia and North Carolina, was 
formed in 1834, to act through the American Board, Mr. 
Armstrong was elected its Secretary. This involved the dis 
solving of his pastoral relations, which was a sacrifice he 
made at much expense of feeling. 

Dr. Wisner attended the first meeting of this Society, going 
by invitation ; and Mr. Armstrong was soon after appointed 
General Agent of the American Board for the States of Vir 
ginia and North Carolina. The contributions within the 
sphere of his agency, in fourteen months after he commenced 
his work, were about ten thousand dollars. This was before 
the division of the Presbyterian Church and the formation of 
the General Assembly s Board of Foreign Missions. On the 
death of Dr. Wisner, in 1835, Dr. Armstrong was elected a 
Secretary of the Board for the home correspondence. In this 
30 



220 THE BOARD. 

office he remained till November 27, 1846 ; when, on his 
way from Boston to New York, in the steamer Atlantic from 
Norwich, in a furious tempest, the vessel was dashed in pieces 
upon the shore, and among the lifeless bodies found on the 
beach was that of this excellent servant of God. His watch 
had stopped soon after four o clock, and it was probably at 
that time, on Friday morning, he entered the haven of rest. 
Survivors relate that he was conspicuous among the passengers 
throughout the day and evening of Thursday, as a minister of 
Christ, addressing to his companions in danger appropriate 
religious instruction and consolation, and commending them 
to God in prayer. Some of the passengers, seeing the dread 
crisis rapidly approaching, drew near and stood by his side, 
" because," as one remarked, " it seemed safer to be near so 
good a man." Just before the wreck broke upon the reef, and 
the falling deck and the overwhelming waves swept him life 
less into the sea, he said to one, " I hope we may be allowed, 
if God will, to reach the shore with our lives ; but if not, I 
have perfect confidence in the wisdom and goodness of Him 
who doeth all things well." This was his dying testimony to 
the goodness of God and his own faith in him. The vital 
spark was probably extinguished instantly by the falling tim 
bers. The same expression of calm confidence in God 
remained enstamped on his features in death, significant of 
that heavenly peace with which he closed life here, and entered 
on that life where are no perils, anxiety, suffering, or death. 
His remains were forwarded to New York, where was his 
bereaved family, and where the funeral solemnities were 
attended in Dr. William Adams s clmrch, November 30, a 
vast assembly testifying how greatly lie was beloved. 

Dr. Armstrong excelled in the pulpit, and his labors as a 
preacher, during the twelve years he was connected with the 
Board, were incessant, and every where acceptable. He was 
truly a faithful Christian brother, sympathizing with his asso 
ciates in all their perplexities and trials ; endeavoring to alle 
viate their burdens ; bearing with them, counseling them, 
and praying for them; never tenacious of his rights, and 



THE DECEASED SECRETARIES. 221 

always scrupulously careful not to wound their feelings. A 
plesanter man to cooperate with they could not desire. His 
wisdom did not arise from uncommon grasp of mind or saga 
city; but its elements were goodness of heart, honesty and 
singleness of purpose, and trust in God. His love of what 
was right and Christian, his guilelessness and frankness, 
led him, as it were, instinctively, and almost intuitively, to 
discern and aim at the best results, and to pursue them by 
means and in a manner which could hardly fail to conciliate 
and secure approbation. This, with his promptness and assi 
duity, enabled him to accomplish his objects more surely and 
effectually than most other men.* 

* A volume was published in 1853, entitled Memoir and Sermons of Rev. 
William J. Armstrong, D. D., late Secretary of the American Board of Com 
missioners for Foreign Missions. Edited by Rev. Hollis Read. 12 mo. pp. 411. 



THE MISSIONS. 



THE MISSIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THEIR CONSTITUTION AND ORIGIN. 

What constitutes a Mission. Stations and Outstations. Natives not Members of Mis 
sions. Relations of Missionaries to the Native Churches. Territorial Extent of 
Missions. The Missions conformed to the Habits of the American People. Their 
Responsibility. Origin of the Missions. Missions in India. Religious Destitution 

of India. Missions to Western Asia. Instructions to the first Missionaries 

Growth of the Enterprise. 

THE by-laws of the Board declare, that " a majority -of 
missionaries and assistant missionaries in, any mission shall, 
in their regular meetings, decide all questions that may arise 
in regard to their proceedings and conduct, in which the mis 
sion is interested ; the decision being subject to the revision 
of the Prudential Committee. At such meetings, every male 
missionary and assistant missionary present, having arrived at 
the age of twenty-one years, is entitled to a vote." The mis 
sions are designed, therefore, to be self-governing communities ; 
and there is of course a necessity for their assembling for busi 
ness. The meeting may be of the whole body, or of delegates 
from the stations. A station is a local establishment, occupied 
by one or more missionaries. An outstation is occupied by a 
native helper, who may be a preacher, or only a catechist. A 
catechist is a native evangelist not formally licensed. No na 
tive helper has a vote in the missions. He is employed, paid, 

(225) 



226 THE MISSIONS. 

supported by the mission, and accountable directly and only 
to the mission. The mission and the native Christian commu 
nity are kept organically distinct, that the work of the mission 
may be completed in the shortest possible time. The Board 
sends forth and sustains missionaries, evangelists, as founders 
of the gospel institutions. The most important of these insti 
tutions is the native church, with its pastor and office-bearers ; 
and its value is enhanced by its being homogeneous with the 
people. Its ministry is expected to be of the people as soon 
as may be, in race, social condition, sympathies, and style of 
living. The better educated native helpers, on becoming 
preachers and pastors, have sometimes aspired to the rank, if 
not to the salary, of missionaries. But it has been deemed 
vital to success, in rearing a self-governing, self-supporting na 
tive community of Christians, not to separate the preachers 
and pastors from their own people, as would be done by ad 
mitting them to membership in the foreign missionary body. 
Their direct relations never extend to the Board. Readers, 
catechists, preachers, pastors, they may be, but not in a tech 
nical sense missionaries to their own people. Missionaries 
are on the ground only for a time. Hence they are dis- 
suj,ded from becoming permanent pastors of native churches, 
lest those churches should never feel able to stand alone. 
For the same general reasons, it has been deemed undesir 
able that missionaries should become members of native eccle 
siastical bodies. 

Regard for convenience has had much to do with the terri 
torial extent of missions. Three missions are now on the 
ground once occupied by the Armenian mission, called the 
Western, Eastern, and Central Missions to Turkey. The three 
Mahratta missions, owing in part to increased traveling facili 
ties, have been combined in one. The missionaries in China 
are divided into three missions, because of the difficulty of 
meeting for business. For the same reason there are three 
missions among the Tamil people of Southern India and Ceylon. 

The. missions derive their organization from the taste and 
habits of the American people ; and persons of foreign birth 



ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS. 227 

and education have found it somewhat difficult to work happi 
ly and well in them. The missions are held to be responsible 
for the proceedings of the several stations and members, but 
can not set aside instructions received from the Prudential 
Committee. These must accord, however, with the laws and 
regulations of the Board, and the doings of the Committee are 
subject to revision by the Board. The several missionaries 
have the right of appeal from the missions to the Prudential 
Committee ; and both the missionaries and the missions may 
appeal from the Committee to the Board. This right has sel 
dom been exercised by individual missionaries, and never yet 
by a mission. 

ORIGIN OP THE MISSIONS. 

The first mission of the Board, as is well known, was that 
to the Mahrattas of Western India. The first station was at 
Bombay. Here Hall and Newell lived and died. It is notice 
able that neither of the fields now occupied by the Board in 
India seems to have been contemplated by the Prudential 
Committee, when they sent forth the first missionaries. Bir- 
mali, the only country named in their Instructions, was reserved 
by Providence for our Baptist brethren. The three missiona 
ries who retained their connection with the Board, driven 
westward by the persecutions of the East India government, 
obtained a footing in Bombay. At that time, from Cape Co- 
inorin through the whole western coast of India to Bussora, 
Mocha, Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius, and on to the 
Cape. of Good Hope, there was not one Protestant missionary. 
Gordon Hall, in an appeal to the churches of his native land, 
in February, 1826, just before his lamented decease, takes this 
affecting view of the moral desolations of the world at that 
time : 

" From Bombay we look down the coast for seventy miles, 
and we see two missionaries ; and fourteen miles further on, 
we see two more. Looking in a more easterly direction, at 
the distance of about three hundred miles, we see one mis 
sionary, chiefly occupied, however, as a chaplain among Euro- 
31 



228 THE MISSIONS. 

peans. In an eastern direction, the nearest missionary is about 
one thousand miles from us. Looking a little to the north of 
east, at the distance of thirteen hundred miles, we see ten or 
twelve missionaries in little more than as many miles in length 
on the banks of the Ganges. Turning thence nortnward, at 
nearly the same distance from us, we see three, four, or five 
more, separated from each other by almost as many hundred 
intervening miles. And looking onward beyond these distant 
posts, in a north-east direction, through the Chinese empire 
and Tartary, to Karnschatka, and thence down the north-west 
ern coast of America to the River Columbia, and thence across 
the mountains to the Missouri, the first missionaries we see, 
in that direction, are brethren Yaill and Chapman among the 
Osages. 

" Again we look north, and at a distance of one hundred 
and eighty miles, we see two missionaries ; but from thence, 
with two or three doubtful exceptions, through all the north 
of Asia to the pole, not a single missionary is to be seen. In 
a north-western direction, it is doubtful whether there is now 
one missionary between us and St. Petersburg. Westerly, 
the nearest is at Jerusalem or Beirut. South-west, the nearest 
is at Sierra Leone ; and more to the south, the nearest may be 
among the Hottentots, or on Madagascar." * 

The only Mahratta station which the Board now has on or 
near the coast, is in Bombay, a city containing half a million 
of inhabitants. Stations were formerly occupied at Mahim 
and Tannah, on the adjacent continent, but only for a short 
time. In the Deccan, or great upland east of the Ghauts, is 
one of the most interesting clusters of missionary stations to 
be found in India, with Ahmednuggur for its center. 

The missions to the Tamil people, in Northern Ceylon and 
Southern India, grew out of Mr. Newell s wanderings, subse 
quent to his visit to Mauritius with his admirable wife. Com 
ing to Ceylon, which was under the English government and 
not the East India Company, and finding the governor favora- 

* Missionary Herald for 1826, p. 313. 



ORIGIN OP THE MISSIONS. 229 

ble to a mission, he recommended sending one to the District 
of Jaffna, where the Tamil language was spoken. It was thus 
the Board was led to commence its Ceylon mission, in the year 
1816, Messrs. Richards, Poor, Meigs, and Warren being the 
first missionaries. Out of this grew the missions to Madura, 
Madras, and Arcot. 

The first movement of God s people in this country for the 
spiritual renovation of the countries of Western Asia, was 
directed toward Jerusalem, and primarily to the Jews of Pal 
estine. The best exposition of the views and feelings with 
which this enterprise was commenced, is in the Instructions 
already mentioned, delivered by Dr. Worcester to Messrs. Par 
sons and Fisk, in the Old South Church, Boston, October 31, 
1819. It falls in with the object of this volume to make copi 
ous extracts from these Instructions. They were printed at 
the time, but have long been inaccessible to the public. To 
the first of the American missionaries to Western Asia the 
Prudential Committee spoke as follows : 

Your mission is to be regarded as a part of an extended 
and continually extending system of benevolent action for the 
recovery of the world to God, to virtue, and to happiness. In 
the prosecution of it, respect is to be had, not merely to what 
may be effected by your own efforts directly, but also to the 
lights and facilities, the aids and inducements, which you may 
afford to the efforts of others, either acting cotemporaneously 
with you, or successively to come after you. Facts are lights ; 
clear inducements are lights ; fair results of experiments are 
lights; correct notices of evils and of remedies are lights. 
To lay open to the view of Christians the state of the world, 
or of any portion of it, and to point out ways and means of 
melioration, is to do much toward the accomplishment of what 
is possible. 

Yours is a field of no ordinary description. It comprises, 
either within itself or by intimate association, all that is most 
affecting to Christian feeling, or most interesting to Christian 



230 THE MISSIONS. 

hope. There patriarchs, and prophets, arid apostles, and mar 
tyrs, and He who is their Lord and ours, lived, and 
labored, and died. There the revelations of heavenly mercy 
were given, the sacrifice for the world s redemption was 
offered, and the commandment of the everlasting God, that 
the gospel should be made known unto all nations for the 
obedience of faith, was delivered ; and there the first churches 
of the exalted Redeemer, which once shone with his glory in 
all its brightness resting upon them, now lie in ruins. The 
candlesticks have long since been removed, the light has 
been, for dismal centuries, almost totally extinguished, and 
the powers of darkness have triumphed and trodden down 
and led captive at their pleasure. " But the Lord will arise 
and have mercy upon Zion ; for the time to favor her, yea, the 
set time, is come. For his servants take pleasure in her 
stones, and favor the dust thereof. Her old waste places are 
to be builded, and the foundations of many generations to be 
raised up. 

That the hearts of all Christians may be engaged in this 
mighty work, that the exertions for its accomplishment may 
be wisely directed, and the proper means in the best manner 
applied, the scene must be laid open in as clear a light as pos 
sible, and every thing comprised in it must be examined with 
care. The doing of what you can for this purpose will con 
stitute no small share of the business, the interest, and the 
utility of your mission. For a lucid illustration of what we 
here mean we refer you to the Christian Researches of Dr. 
Buchanan, who desired to see the things which you are sent 
forth to see, and into whose design, with a like activity of 
benevolence and diligence of inquiry, it may be your privilege 
to enter. 

From the hights of the Holy Land from Calvary, from 
Olivet, and from Zion you will take an extended view of 
the wide-spread desolations and variegated scenes presenting 
themselves on every side to every Christian sensibility, and 
will survey with earnest attention the various tribes and classes 
of fellow-beings who dwell in that land, and in the surround 
ing countries. 



ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS. 231 

At Jerusalem and in Judea you will find people of many 
nations, Jews, Arabs, Turks, Asiatics, and Europeans, 
of different and distant countries, and of various religions 
Judaism, Paganism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. The 
professed Christians are not only of different nations, but of 
various communions and names Romanists, Grecianists, 
Armenians, Nestorians, Jacobites, and Protestants. With this 
mingled people, in all its varieties, you will endeavor, by 
attentive observation and diligent inquiries, to make your 
selves as thoroughly acquainted as possible in regard to their 
general state, their religious opinions and rites, their moral 
and civil habits and manners, their means of improvement 
in a word, the circumstances favorable and unfavorable to the 
propagation of the gospel, in its purity, and with its blessings, 
among them. 

The two grand inquiries ever present to your minds will be, 
What good can be done ? and, By what means ? What can 
be done for the Jews ? What for the Pagans ? What for the 
Mohammedans ? What for the Christians ? What for the 
people in Palestine ? What for those in Egypt ? In Syria ? 
In Persia ? In Armenia ? In other countries to which your 
inquiries may be extended ? 

The fruits of your researches, consisting of facts, descrip 
tions, notices, reflections, comparative views, and suggestions 
of methods and means of usefulness, you will regularly enter 
in your journals, and transmit to us as opportunities are 
afforded. Possibly also you may be able to send home some 
books or ancient manuscripts, interesting to the student in the 
Scriptures, in ecclesiastical history, or in general literature, or 
at least gratifying to a laudable veneration for antiquity, or to 
a reasonable curiosiffy. 

This business, however, of procuring and communicating 
information, interesting and important as it will be, is not all 
that you are to attempt. You go to that land, still of promise, 
as Christian missionaries as ministers of Christ commis 
sioned to testify the gospel of the grace of God to Jews and 
Gentiles, to people of every nation, and name, and con- 



232 THE MISSIONS. 

dition. This character you are sacredly to maintain in every 
place, and this commission you are faithfully to execute as you 
have opportunity. 

The abettors of those different religions, and the adherents 
to the different sects, regard each other with mutual jealousy ; 
and you will not think it strange if they all regard you with 
something more than suspicion. You will take all prudent 
care that you do nothing rashly, nothing inconsiderately or 
unadvisedly ; that you do not inadvertently or needlessly 
expose yourselves to resentments, rapacities, stratagems, or 
acts of violence; startle prejudices, excite suspicions, or offend 
against laws, or customs, or ceremonies, or opinions ; and that, 
by avoiding all appearance of earthly wealth or distinction, 
by Christian courtesy and kindness, and meekness and gen 
tleness, and by all fair and lawful means, you conciliate civil 
ity, confidence, favor, and respect. 

The Jews have been for ages an awful sign to the world. 
But the period of their tremendous dereliction and of the 
severity of God is drawing to a close. You are to lift up an 
ensign to them, that they may " return and seek the Lord their 
God, and David their king." They will return. The word 
of promise is sure, and the accomplishment of it will be as life 
from the dead to the Gentile world. The day is at hand. 
The signal movements of the age indicate its dawn. It may 
be your privilege to prepare the way of the Lord. It may be 
your felicity to see some of the long-lost children of Abraham 
returning with dissolved hearts, and confessing, with unutter 
able emotions, that the same Jesus whom on that awful spot 
their fathers crucified, is indeed the Messiah, the Hope of their 
nation, and of all the nations of the earth. It may be your 
distinguished honor to be leadingly instrumental in " building 
again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, and the 
ruins thereof, and in setting it up, that the residue of men 
may seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom his 
name is called." It will be our unceasing prayer, and the 
unceasing prayer of many, that your mission may be crowned 
with all this joy and all this glory. 



ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS. 233 

Since the Instructions were delivered, from which the fore 
going extracts are made, a little one has become a thousand, 
a small one a strong nation. From that mission to Jerusalem, 
which it was not found expedient to continue long, arose the 
missions to Syria, to Greece, to the Jews of European Turkey, 
to Assyria, to the Nestorians, and to Western, Eastern, and 
Central Turkey, all of which, excepting those to the Greeks 
and the Jews, are now in operation. 

The mission to the Nestorians resulted from the explorations 
of Messrs. Smith and Dwight. While employed in drawing 
up Instructions for these brethren, the eye of the writer cas 
ually fell upon the mention of a people in North-western Per-^ 
sia called " Chaldeans," by Dr. Walsh, chaplain of the English 
embassy at Constantinople ; and this occasioned the visit to 
Oroomiah, and the interesting revelations concerning the 
Nestorian people, which led the Board to institute the suc 
cessful and prosperous mission among them. Thus are events 
of the most unequal magnitudes often providentially con 
nected together as cause and effect. 



CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS, CONTINUED. 

Missions to the Islands of the Pacific. Missions to Africa. Missions to China. 
Missions to the North American Indians. 

MESSRS. BINGHAM, Thurston, and others composing the first 
mission to the Sandwich Islands, received their Instructions in 
Park-street Church, Boston, from Dr. Worcester, October 15, 
1819. Only that part of this official document will be copied, 
which illustrates the nature of the compact of the members 
of the mission with each other, and with the Prudential 
Committee. 

The kingdom of the Lord Jesus is a kingdom of order. 
Missions for the advancement of this kingdom are to be main 
tained by a regular, though simple and free polity. The 
free-will offerings of many churches and many thousands of 
individuals are cast into one treasury, and committed, for 
application to the intended objects, to persons duly appointed 
to the high trust. Upon these sacred funds, and under this 
constituted direction, approved persons, freely offering them 
selves for the holy service, are sent forth to evangelize the 
heathen. The compact, explicit or implied, engages to them 
affectionate and provident patronage, maintenance, and aid, 
so long, and only so long, as they conform themselves to the 
instructions and regulations of the service. Contempt or 
disregard of the instructions and regulations would tend to 
confusion and every evil work. The humble and devoted 
missionary, therefore, will consider a due observance of the 
directions of those who are intrusted with the weighty con 
cerns of the mission, as a point of sacred duty, on which much 

(234) 



ORIGIN OP THE MISSIONS. 235 

is depending. If in his judgment the service might be ben 
efited by an alteration or modification of any part of the sys 
tem, or any special order, he may reasonably confide that his 
representations, made in a proper manner, will receive kind 
and considerate attention ; for, of all men in public trust, the 
managers of missionary concerns have evidently the least 
inducement to treat those who act under their direction with 
unkindness or neglect, and the strongest motives to render 
them every facility, encouragement and aid in the faithful 
prosecution of their work. 

Like the members of other missions, you will find it con 
venient and necessary to form yourselves into a body politic, 
having rules and regulations of your own, but conformable," 
or not repugnant, to the directions of the Board, or Pruden 
tial Committee, for the orderly management of your joint 
concerns ; for the due distribution of your means of support, 
your trusts, and your labors ; for the keeping of regular 
records and journals ; for your correspondence with the Sec 
retary and accounts witli the Treasurer of the Board ; and 
for various purposes, important to the welfare and success- 
of the mission. 

The Micronesian mission, commenced in 1852, was an off 
shoot of this mission, and is composed in part of natives of 
the Sandwich Islands. 

The first missionary of the Board to the African continent 
was the Rev. John Leigh ton Wilson, who spent twenty years 
on the western coast, near the equator, first at Cape Palmas, 
and then on the Gaboon River. The Instructions of the Pru 
dential Committee to Mr. Wilson were delivered in the First 
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, September 22, 1833, by 
Mr. Anderson, Secretary for the Foreign Correspondence. 
The reader may be interested to observe with what animating 
hopes the first mission to these dark countries was commenced. 

Eight years ago, the Board, by a formal resolution, enjoined 
32 



236 THE MISSIONS. 

it upon the Prudential Committee to embrace the earliest 
opportunity for establishing a mission in Africa. Nor have 
the Committee been unmindful of this injunction, but have 
attentively observed the indications of Providence unto this 
day, not only in reference to Western Africa, but also to the 
northern and eastern shores of that continent. In the year 
1829, a missionary of the Board made a visit of inquiry to two 
of the principal cities on the northern shore. But on the 
eastern, until within a few months past, no cloudy pillar was 
seen to invite our labors. Through the space of forty degrees 
of latitude, from the port of Natal to the Strait of Babelman- 
del, it seems quite impracticable for the Board to establish and 
sustain a mission. At length, after the Committee had direct 
ed one of their Secretaries to address a letter of inquiry to the 
Rev. Dr. Philip, of South Africa, light gleamed unexpectedly 
from the south-eastern shore, and laid open to our view a prom 
ising and accessible field ; and now we wait for nothing but 
suitable men for the service to commence a series of stations 
on the eastern, as well as the western coasts of Africa. And 
from De la Goa Bay we may hope to advance northward upon 
Mozambique, and perhaps ascend into the interior. 

But it has been toward Western Africa that the Committee 
have looked with the most intense desire to labor for the spir 
itual good of that benighted continent. Soon after the reso 
lution just referred to was passed by the Board, which had 
special reference to Western Africa, a colored Presbyterian cler 
gyman, in one of our Western States, was appointed a mission 
ary of the Board to the native tribes within the colony of Li 
beria. He has since died in that colony ; but, for reasons 
which it is not important to relate, did not go thither as a mis 
sionary of the Board. 

Since that time, until your disposition to consecrate yourself 
to the liberation of Africa from her thralldom of ignorance and 
sin became known to the Committee, no man offered his ser 
vices to the Board, whose constitution and habits were thought 
to be adapted to the climate. But now the time appears to 
have come for us to enter the arena of that spiritual conflict, 



ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS. 237 

which is to extend itself with invincible power, until Africa 
shall rejoice under the peaceful reign of Jesus Christ. 

The Committee will now briefly advert to the probable course 
of the mission in future years. 

It is generally admitted that the churches of this country 
owe to Africa a debt which nothing except the gospel of the 
grace of God can ever cancel. This evening we acknowledge 
that debt to the full extent, and promise to cooperate with our 
brethren of other kindred associations in paying it. Though 
it be greater than the debt which England owes, it must be 
paid not with silver and gold, but witli the gospel. Through 
all her vast extent, Africa must hear the glad tidings her 

" mountain tops 
From distant mountains catch the flying joy " 

and all her plains and valleys become vocal with the high 
praises of God. 

Within twenty years, the coasts around the Gulf of Guinea 
will probably be occupied, to a great extent, by colonies of 
colored emigrants from different parts of this western world. 
These colonies will take the place of the chain of forts that 
were reared long since to protect that most nefarious com 
merce by which the coast of Guinea has been signalized. 
These colonies will be important auxiliaries to Christian mis 
sions in Western Africa. Without them, the blighting influ 
ences of climate and of the slave trade, combined, would wither 
all the missions we might plant upon the coast, and we could 
scarcely proceed at all into the interior. They will serve for 
landing places, for places of rest and refreshment, for defense, 
and for posts of observation and inquiry ; and by the informa 
tion they collect, the *roads they open, and their commercial 
intercourse, tlifty will greatly facilitate our entrance among the 
several tribes and nations of the interior. 

An object of primary importance, in respect to the inland 
parts of Western Africa and the central portions of the con 
tinent eastward of the Niger, is the exploration of the country 
with a view to missionary operations. None of this vast region 



238 THE MISSIONS. 

lias been thus explored, unless it be some districts immediately 
behind the colony of Sierra Leone. It was the solution of 
geographical problems, that governed the inquiries of most of 
the travelers in Western and Central Africa. Now that the 
problems of chief interest have been solved, and the Niger has 
been traced to the sea, mere curiosity may subside ; but Chris 
tian benevolence will awake, and investigate the intellectual 
and moral condition of the whole people. Between the coast 
of Guinea and the Desert of Sahara there may, perhaps, be 
twenty-five millions of souls. Concerning most of these, our 
knowledge is exceedingly vague and general. We can distin 
guish, however, two races of men, viz. : the original inhabit 
ants of the country, and the descendants of Arabs and other 
emigrants from Asia. The latter are daily advancing south 
ward, and carry with them the religion of the false prophet. 

The great region now before us is broken in the center by a 
chain of mountains extending east and west. The southern 
slope toward the sea is occupied by several barbarian states, 
of which Ashantee and Dahomey are considerably known to 
the civilized world. The great, fertile, and populous valley 
of the Niger extends along the northern side of these moun 
tains, through twenty degrees of longitude ; then, breaking 
the chain of mountains, it pours the united floods of two ma 
jestic rivers into the Gulf of Guinea. 

Two steamboats are now upon the Niger, and it is the inten 
tion of the company to which they belong to keep them there, 
if it be possible. In process of time we may expect to ascend 
that river, and, entering the Tshadda, we may advance to 
ward the rising sun. Eastward of the Niger, the mountains 
ascend to a loftier hight than on the west, and are known as 
the Mountains of the Moon. What sort of a country and 
what kind of people we shall find in our progress eastward, is 
uncertain. Geographers suppose that the central regions rise 
and spread out into a vast table land, extending from the 
Mountains of the Moon southward. Possibly this, like the 
high central regions of Asia, affords an extensive range to wan 
dering, hordes; but whether they be mild or savage, pagans. 



ORIGIN OP THE MISSIONS. 239 

Mohammedans, or nominal Christians, is yet wholly unknown,, 
Indeed, it is true, that almost the whole of Africa is yet 
to be explored by the Christian missionary, before missions 
can be prosecuted on that benighted continent with intelli 
gence and efficiency. 

Having made a successful beginning among the tribes of the 
coast, around the colonies, we shall, as our laborers increase 
and the roads are opened, advance into the interior with our 
permanent establishments. The native races promise the 
speediest results, and the progress of the Mohammedans must 
be checked. From the English fort on the Gold Coast, we may 
enter the country of the Ashantees ; and when the Niger is 
open, we may- ascend to the kingdom of Borgoo, northward 
of the Kong Mountains. 

Wherever we go, schools must be opened for educating school 
masters, catechists, pastors, and preachers. The languages 
must be learned and reduced to writing. Printing-presses 
must be erected, and the natives taught to work them. Con 
stellations of Christian churches must be called into being, and 
shine around these. The preacher must revolve in his orbit, 
and truth from the pure word of God come down upon the 
people, like rain upon the mown grass, and showers that water 
the earth. 

From these illuminated districts the light will radiate, the 
heavenly influence will spread, and God the Holy Spirit will 
bless the means of his own appointing when used in obedience 
to his command. 

Meanwhile, the mission which we hope soon to commence 
on the south-eastern coast may be expected to extend its out 
posts more and more, and ascend the coast, and advance upon 
the central highlands. Our European brethren, also, of dif-. 
ferent denominations, whose line of march already extends 
across the continent on the south, will advance from that 
quarter ; the English Episcopal missions will advance from the 
Mountains of Abyssinia, and our brethren of the same de 
nomination at Sierra Leone, and those of various names at 
Liberia, will move with us from the west ; and our children 



240 THE MISSIONS. 

may hear of tho meeting of these upan some central moun 
tain, to celebrate in lofty praise Africa s redemption. 0, what 
a meeting, what a day ! And it will surely come ; and Africa, 
all Africa, shall rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ maketh 
his people free. 

The mission to Southern Africa was the immediate result 
of strong representations from Rev. Dr. Philip, of Cape Town, 
superintendent of the London Missionary Society s mission in 
that part of the continent, along with a desire for a more health 
ful African climate than was to be found in the equatorial 
regions. Two missions were sent thither in the year 1834 ; 
one composed of brethren from the Southern States, destined to 
the interior ; the other of brethren from the Northern States, 
whose field of labor was to be among the Zulus of the south 
eastern coast. The interior mission, after traveling twelve 
hundred miles from Cape Town, was soon after broken up by 
the wars of the Dutch Boers upon the natives, and its mem 
bers joined the Zulu mission. . This mission also came near 
being discontinued, the Prudential Committee at one time 
having resolved to abandon it ; but its establishment was ulti 
mately effected through a series of providences, clearly indi 
cating the duty of retaining that field. 

The attention of the Board was drawn to China by a well- 
known Christian merchant, the late D. W. C. Olyphant, Esq., 
then a resident at Canton. His vessels were always open and 
free for missionaries to China. One, named the Morrison, of 
four hundred tons, a large vessel for those times, was 
almost a missionary ship. Her exploring voyage to Japan in 
1837, with Mr. King, a partner, and Dr. Peter Parker and Mr. 
S. Wells "Williams of the mission, will entitle her to a place 
in all the histories of missions to those remarkable islands. 
Since then, the operations of divine Providence, with the ap 
parent design of opening not only China but also Japan to the 
gospel, have been upon a grand scale. While we are writing, 
it is credibly reported that not only the chief cities of the 



ORIGIN OF THE MISSIONS. 241 

coast, but the great rivers of China, are rendered accessible to 
the commerce of Christendom, and of coarse to its Christian 
ity. The Board has established missions at Canton, Amoy, 
Fuhchau, and Shanghai ; and at last it has a missionary resid 
ing at Teintsin, near the metropolis of the Chinese empire. 

The rise of the missions among the North American Indians 
will be sufficiently indicate^ when treating on deputations to 
the missions, and in the historical catalogue of missions, at the 
close of a subsequent chapter. 



CHAPTEE III. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONS THEIR LAWS OF 
GROWTH THEIR COMPLETION. 



Object of Missions to plant the Gospel Institutions. Apostolical and Modern Mis 
sions. Development in Preaching and Schools. Missions necessarily progressive. 
Evidences of Progress. Progress essential to their Prosperity. Consequences 
of disregarding this Law. Early Preeminence given to Preaching. Schools and 
the Press. Subordinate Agencies falling into their Places. How the Work may be 
completed. An Unsettled Problem. Difficulties in Native Churches. Similar Dif 
ficulties in the Apostolic Churches. Allowance for Failings in Mission Churches. 
Hard to reach the Self-sustaining Point. Necessary Modifications. A Fixed Limit 
to the Ability of Missionary Societies. A Limit to the Number of Missionaries. 
The Native Agency should have Room for Growth. Too much required of Missions. 
A Mission may grow, and yet not increase its Cost to the Society. When the 
Work of a Mission is completed. 

ENOUGH has been said to illustrate the origin of the mis 
sions, in their larger extent. It will now be in order to treat 
of their development, and laws of growth. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONS. 

Experience has shown, that the great object of missions 
the introduction of the gospel among the imevangelized 
can be effectually accomplished only by a course of measures 
fitted to secure the establishment of the gospel institutions. 
These the apostles introduced wherever they went, but with 
far less difficulty than we experience. Were the heathen coun 
tries of our times like Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Achaia, 
we should need to provide only for the personal and family 
expenses of missionaries, and for printing the Scriptures and 
religious books and tracts ; and even a part of this expense, 
and soon the whole, would be defrayed by the converts. More 
over, owing to the present state of the heathen nations, we 

(242) 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE MISSIONS. t 243 

have found stronger reasons than the apostle Paul had at 
Corinth and Thessalonica, for not looking to converts for the 
personal support of missionaries. The most we can expect from 
them is, that they shall support their own native teachers and 
preachers, and gradually assume the support of their schools, 
and of the press. 

Among the developments common to the missions, the most 
important has been in the matter of preaching. While this 
has by no means been restricted to the Sabbath, there has 
been a tendency to give more and more significance to the 
day, by regular preaching in some one place. It has gen 
erally required long time and patience to collect and sus 
tain even a small adult congregation, but not otherwise has it 
been possible to keep up the tone of the enterprise. The mis 
sionary has needed the preparation for such a duty, as well as 
its reacting influence upon his own mind and heart. He has 
needed a service where he could speak authoritatively as an 
embassador, without the humiliation of rude objections and 
foul abuse. The native Christians have also needed regular, 
well-studied exhibitions of the plan of salvation, and of their 
duty as Christians. They could not be adequately informed 
and elevated to the self-governing, self-sustaining basis by 
means of mere conversational preaching. They required the 
benefit, indeed, of every one of the auxiliary means of grace, 
but could never reach their full stature as Christians without 
the regular, stated, formal preaching of the word. The 
heathen then saw the missionary in his true place and dignity. 
If they did not often go to hear him, they knew there was a day 
which he regarded as specially set apart by the God of heaven 
for declaring and for hearing the truths of the Christian reli 
gion ; and also a time when the missionary assumed authority 
to speak, and when it was the sole business of all others 
to hear. 

Not only has he preached the gospel orally, statedly, for 
mally on the Sabbath, and more familiarly during the week, 
but as a good Protestant Christian he has sought to give 
the Bible to the people. And as that could benefit them only 
33 



244 THE MISSIONS. 

as they were able to read, he found it needful to open schools , 
not with the expectation of teaching the whole population to 
read, nor even a considerable portion of it, that being 
impossible, but to form such a public sentiment as in the 
end would insure this result. A demand was thus created 
for school books and for the press. The schools served as an 
introduction and a tie to the people at the outset of the work, 
and as a means of infusing Christian ideas into the language. 
As converts multiplied, it became an interesting question how 
to provide native pastors for them, and how to convert the 
more promising of the pious youth into evangelists and teach 
ers. Without such, the mission could never finish its work ; 
hence institutions arose for training both males and females. 
When natives had thus been prepared to be helpers in the dif 
ferent departments, it became needful to aid in their support 
until the native churches should be able and willing to sustain 
them ; otherwise some of the most valuable and costly results 
of missionary labor would be wholly sacrificed and lost. 

LAWS OP GROWTH. 

The more important indications of progress in the missions 
have been these collecting hearers, reducing languages to 
writing, translating the Scriptures, forming Christian schools, 
creating a desire for education, awakening anxiety to learn 
the way of life, multiplying converts, gathering churches, 
training up a native ministry, and leading the people to sup 
port it ; and whatever else goes to improve and elevate the 
domestic, social, civil, and religious life of the people. And 
this leads to the remark, that continued progress has been 
found essential to the prosperity of the missions. Regarded 
in their spiritual nature, missions seem to be under the same 
laws with individual Christians, in whose spiritual life there is 
no such thing as standing still, but advancement is the con 
dition of health. A living mission must needs grow and 
spread its branches, like a tree. It increases in its demands 
for labor, oversight, nutriment, and expenditure. We learn* 



LAWS OP GROWTH. 245 

this from experience. The greater the disposition to hear, the 
greater is the need of preaching and of preaching houses. 
The more diffused and earnest the desire for schools, the 
greater is the demand for teachers, school houses, and school 
books. In proportion to the progress of mind and feeling 
upward from barbarism, has been the cost of printing, (if the 
means were at hand,) and the demand for the lights and 
advantages of general knowledge. But the most urgent 
among the growing expenses in a prosperous mission have 
been those for the training and support of helpers in the 
higher classes of native agency ; and the measures for rearing 
this agency having been commenced, they have been found 
essentially progressive, but with this redeeming feature, that 
at length they begin to diminish the demand for foreign 
laborers. 

A reference to the varying expenditure of the Board would 
not invalidate this statement ; because the expenditure has 
been more or less subject to arbitrary limitations, determined 
by the amount of receipts, rather than by the actual necessities 
of the missions. Who can tell what an amount of good in 
missions has been thus annually sacrificed ? Who has not 
sympathized with the disappointments and griefs of the mis 
sionaries ? It is melancholy to think of the waste of influence 
thus occasioned in the missions, since they reached the stages 
of manifest success. The churches have not seemed prepared 
for rapid progress. Instead of glad praises to God for thus 
answering prayer for the extension of his kingdom in foreign 
lands, the officers of the Board have often been put upon the 
painful task of showing that they have labored to the utmost 
to check the speed of their missionary trains. 

There has been a growth of experience and skill in the con 
duct of missions during the past half century. It is indeed 
true that our fathers, at the outset, gave the preeminence to 
the preaching of the gospel, in their theory of missions, as 
really as do their successors. Thus they wrote as far back as 
the year 1813, and nothing stronger can be said now : " Im 
portant as the distribution of the Scriptures among the 



246 THE MISSIONS. 

heathen in their own language, is held to be by us and by 
the Christian public generally, it should never be forgotten, 
that the preaching of the gospel, in every part of the earth, is 
indispensable to the general conversion of mankind. Though 
the Scriptures alone have, in many individual cases, been 
made the instrument of regeneration, yet we have no account 
of any very extensive diffusion of Christianity except where the 
truths of the Scriptures have been preached. Were the heathen 
generally anxious to receive the Scriptures and to learn divine 
truth, they would, like the Ethiopian eunuch, apply for instruc 
tion to those who had been previously acquainted with the 
same Scriptures, and, when asked if they understood what 
they had read, would reply, How can we, except some man 
should guide us ? The distribution of the Bible excites in 
quiry, and often leads those who receive that precious book 
to attend public worship in the sanctuary. But the preaching 
of the gospel is, after all, the grand means appointed by Infi 
nite Wisdom for the conversion and salvation of men. With 
out this, the Scriptures, however liberally distributed, will 
have comparatively little effect among any people, whether 
Pagan or nominally Christian." And again, in 1817.: " The 
translation and dispersion of the Scriptures, and schools for 
the instruction of the young, are parts, and necessary parts, 
of the great design. But it must never be forgotten, or over 
looked, that the command is, to 6 preach the gospel to every 
creature, and that the preaching of the word, however foolish 
it may seem to men, is the grand mean appointed by the wis 
dom of God for the saving conversion of the nations." 

From this practical view of the work, taken by the Board at 
the opening of its career, there has been no intentional depart 
ure, either by the Prudential Committee or by the missions. 
Schools and the press have always been regarded as subordi 
nate to preaching. When agriculture and the mechanic arts 
have also been taught, as in the Indian missions, and at first 
on the Sandwich Islands, it has been as a subordinate means. 
At the same time, there has been a tendency in the more 
important of the auxiliary influences to transcend their proper 



HOW THE WORK MAY BE COMPLETED. 247 

limits. Book-making has sometimes acquired an undue prom 
inence, especially in the early periods, when some brethren 
may have found it easier even to translate the Scriptures, 
than to preach in a foreign tongue, and when preaching 
yielded little apparent fruit, and schools were easily multi 
plied, and tracts and books could be circulated to any extent. 
In the chapter on the difficulties in obtaining the Board s 
charter, it was seen how translating and circulating the Scrip 
tures then preponderated, in the public mind, over preaching 
as a means of converting the heathen. 

The subordinate agencies have been gradually falling into 
their places, and it is reasonable to expect, under the lead of 
the Great Captain, that the progress of the gospel will be more 
rapid in the second half-century than it has been in the first. 

How THE WORK MAY BE COMPLETED. 

It is an unsettled problem how the work of missions may be 
so finished, that the missionary force can safely withdraw, 
leaving the new Christian community to take care of itself. 
There are spiritual, intellectual, and social difficulties to be 
first overcome ; and these are often much aggravated by 
adverse influences from abroad. Out of what depths of moral 
and social degradation is every heathen convert raised before 
he is fitted for membership of the church of Christ ! " And 
such were some of you," " fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, 
effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, cov 
etous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners." (1 Cor. vi. 10, 11.) 
But though "justified in the name of the Lord Jesus," they 
are sanctified only in part, "babes in Christ." continually 
needing to be taught " which be the first principles of the ora 
cles of God." Who can realize what it is, and what it must 
be, for an entire community of Christians to have had their 
home, for a long course of years before conversion, where truth 
had fallen in the street, and equity could not enter, with 
out rule or protection of law, with no standard of morality, no 
domestic virtue, no culture of the affections, no correct public 



248 THE MISSIONS. 

sentiment, and almost no conscience ? And who, that has 
closely observed the weaknesses and imperfections of human 
nature in its most favored conditions, is not prepared for occa 
sional and violent outbreaks of ingratitude, passion, wayward 
ness, and wickedness, in churches gathered from the lower, 
and sometimes the lowest, depths of humanity ? That such 
churches should live, thrive, and ever reach the self-sustaining 
point, is a miracle of grace. 

Causes such as these had their influence in churches gath 
ered by the apostle Paul, as we see in his Epistles. At Cor 
inth he had occasion to lament the many who had been carried 
away by false teachers, their disorderly worship, their irreg 
ularities at the Lord s Supper, their negligent discipline, their 
party divisions, their litigations, debates, envyings, wraths, 
strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults. And 
how soon were the Galatians seduced from their loyalty to the 
truth, so that the apostle feared he had labored among them in 
vain ! He exhorts the Ephesian church members to put away 
lying, to steal no more, to have nothing more to do with cov- 
etousness and fornication. Four years after this he speaks 
of his helpers in Lesser Asia as all turned away from him. 
That he had not full confidence in all the native pastors 
appears from his address at Miletus. At Rome, there were 
those who preached Christ of envy and strife, supposing to 
add affliction to his bonds ; and at his first arraignment before 
. Caesar, not a member of the Roman church had the courage 
to stand by him. To the Philippians he declares his belief 
that many professed Christians were enemies of the cause of 
Christ, and gloried in their shame, minding earthly things. 
In this same Epistle he speaks in desponding terms of his 
native helpers, who sought their own, and not the things of 
Jesus Christ. He thought it needful to exhort the Colossians 
not to lie one to another, and the Thessalonians to withdraw 
from such as walked disorderly. He cautions Timothy against 
fables, endless genealogies, and profane babblings, as if such 
were prevalent in some of the churches ; and speaks of 
preachers destitute of the truth, with corrupt minds, ignorant, 



HOW THE WORK MAY BE COMPLETED. 249 

proud, addicted to controversies that engendered envy, strifes, 
disputations, and railings ; and of some who had even made 
shipwreck of the faith, and added blasphemy to their heresies. 
The apostle John, somewhat later, declares that many " anti 
christs" had gone out from the church, denying the Father 
and the Son. 

Yet it is generally supposed that the Apostolical Churches 
possessed as much piety as the best portions of the visible 
Church of our times. Indeed, the great apostle speaks of 
Roman Christians, only a few years before the date of his 
Epistles to Timothy, as being noted for their faith throughout 
the world. At the very time of his censures on the Corinthi 
ans, he declares that church to be " enriched by Jesus Christ 
in all utterance and in all knowledge," so that it came behind 
in no gift. While he so seriously cautious the Ephesians, he 
ceases not to give thanks for their " faith in the Lord Jesus, 
and their love unto all the saints." He thanked God upon 
every remembrance of the Philippians ; and when he wrote to 
the Colossians, he gave thanks for their faith in Christ Jesus, 
and their love in the Spirit, and to all the saints. And how 
remarkable his testimony in behalf of the Thessalonians ! He 
remembered, without ceasing and with constant gratitude, 
their work of faith, and labor of love, arid patience of hope in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, wherein they had become followers of 
him and of the Lord, having received the word in much afflic 
tion, with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that they were examples 
to all that believed, in Macedonia and Achaia. 

The fact undoubtedly is, that visible irregularities and dis 
orders, and even certain immoralities, are more to be expected 
in churches gathered from among the heathen, than in the 
churches of Christendom ; and they are, at the same time, 
more consistent with grace in the church, than in countries 
that have long enjoyed the light and influence of the gospel. 
While the primitive converts from paganism were remarkable 
for the high tone of their religious feelings, and the simplicity 
and strength of their faith, they were wanting in respect to a 
clear, practical apprehension of the ethical code of the gospel. 



250 THE MISSIONS. 

It is obvious, that Paul found the burden of his " care of the 
churches " much enhanced by the thoroughly wicked character 
of the age. His manner of treating the native pastors and 
churches is a model for missionaries and their supporters in 
our day, who ought to expect greater manifestations of igno 
rance, weakness, and sin in churches that are gathered in 
Africa, India, and the Sandwich Islands, than at Ephesus, 
Colossi, and Corinth, in the palmy days of Roman civilization. 

This imperfect state of the native churches, and the circum 
stances in which they exist, have made it difficult for the mis 
sions to reach a point where these churches might be safely 
left, even after the native community had become Christianized. 
There is a limit beyond which it has not been found practi 
cable to go, in procuring and supporting a foreign missionary 
force in any one field ; as there has been in the support of an 
English army in India : nor are nations conquered by one 
simultaneou^s, universal onset, but by successive victories. It 
has been found, too, that a less number of foreign missionaries 
is needful for the work in a heathen country, than was once 
supposed. There must be room for the free growth and action 
of a numerous native ministry, and for devolving upon that 
ministry the heaviest responsibility it will bear. 

The popular sentiment at home is believed to have required 
too much of the missions. A standard has been prescribed 
for their ultimate success, which renders their satisfactory ter 
mination quite impossible, or at best throws it into the far, 
uncertain future. The Christian religion has been identified, 
in the popular conception of it, with a general diffusion of 
education, industry, civil liberty, family government, and social 
order, and with the means of a respectable livelihood and a 
well-ordered community. Hence our idea of piety in native 
converts has generally involved the acquisition and possession, 
to a great extent, of these blessings ; and our idea of the prop 
agation of the gospel by means of missions is, to an equal 
extent, the creation among heathen tribes and nations of a 
state of society such as we enjoy. And for this vast intellect 
ual, moral, social transformation we allow but a short time. 



HOW THE WORK MAY BE COMPLETED. 251 

We have expected the first generation of converts, even among 
savages, to come pretty fully into our fundamental ideas of 
morals, manners, political economy, social organization, jus 
tice, equity, although many of these are ideas which old 
Christian communities have been ages in acquiring. If we 
have discovered that converts under the torrid zone go half 
clothed, are idle on a soil where a small amount of labor sup 
plies their wants, sometimes forget the apostle s cautions to 
his converts, " not to lie one to another," and " to steal no 
more," in communities where the grossest vice scarcely affects 
the reputation, and are slow to adopt our ideas of the rights 
of man, we at once doubt the genuineness of their conversion, 
and the faithfulness of their missionary instructors. 

It is an important and encouraging consideration, in the 
effort to bring missions to a successful issue, that an increas 
ing outlay is not always necessary to meet the demands of a 
growing and prosperous mission. This results from an increase 
of intelligence, experience, and piety in missionaries, thus aug 
menting their superintending and executive power ; from a 
similar growth in the native ministry ; from substituting the 
less expensive native agency for the missionary, thus multi 
plying stations without increasing the foreign force ; from de 
veloping the native churches ; from new discoveries in the 
relations and powers of the missionary enterprise, increasing 
the simplicity and economy of its spiritual machinery ; and 
from new arrangements and combinations, to meet the con 
stantly increasing expenditure in some parts of the system, by 
a constantly diminishing outlay in others. 

The work of the missionary has been performed mainly at 
central points ; and when this work shall have been completed 
at all these points, and there is no more need of new stations, 
when it is possible for gospel institutions to exist, through 
divine grace, without the longer presence of the missionary, 
then the work of the mission in that community is obviously 
completed. The missionary, having " no more place in those 
parts," should go and preach the gospel elsewhere. It is a 
great point to know when to do this. After a native church is 
34 



252 THE MISSIONS. 

formed, it should have, as soon as possible, a native pastor and 
the needed church officers ; and the native pastor should have 
ample scope for preaching, and for all his ministerial and pas 
toral abilities and duties. The local church is the divinely 
appointed illuminating power for its district. It is the great 
power in missions. It is a leaven, which may be expected in 
time to leaven the whole lump. With a somewhat reserved 
and discreet superintendence on the part of the nearest mis 
sionary, it will thrive best, after a proper organization, by being 
left to itself. Thus station after station may be finished, and 
new conquests be continually made, with almost no enlarge 
ment in the number of the foreign force, and also without 
any material increase of expenditure ; provided the native pas 
tors have not been rendered too expensive by an injudicious 
education, doing less to fit them for their work than to make 
them dissatisfied in it, and provided the duty of self-support 
has been properly urged upon the native churches. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 

0| 

Communities that have been Christianized. SANDWICH ISLANDS. Missionaries and 
their Children. Solution of the Problem. Present Dangers. The Founders and 
Fathers of the Mission to remain. CHEROKEES. The Mission discontinued. 
CHOCTAWS. Dr. Kingsbury s Testimony. Hinderances to Progress. The Mis 
sions successful. Discontinued. TUSCARORAS. Long since Christianized- Why 
the Mission was not sooner discontinued. STATIONS. What is meant by a Chris 
tianized Station. Illustrations. Pastors of Station Churches. The Centralizing 
Policy, and its Effect on Village Stations. When it should be changed. Educa 
tion for Native Preachers of the First Generation. Historical Catalogue of the 
Missions. 

THE Board can not be said to have completed the work of 
any one of its missions, if this involve the idea of a native 
Christian community able to stand alone. Yet several of the 
heathen communities in which it has labored have been Chris 
tianized, in the popular acceptation of that term. 

The SANDWICH ISLANDS have been thus Christianized. In 
the year 1853, at Cincinnati, Ohio, the Prudential Committee 
made the following statement to the Board : 

The mission to the Sandwich Islands left the United States 
October 23, 1819, and first saw the Islands early in the follow 
ing April. -God prepared their way ; one of the strangest of 
revolutions having occurred just before their arrival. The 
national idols had been destroyed, the temples burned, the 
priesthood, tabus, and human sacrifices abolished. All this, 
however, was only a removal of obstacles. It really did noth 
ing to improve the character of the people, nor could it alone 
have ameliorated their condition. 

The horrid rites of idolatry had ceased ; but the moral, 
intellectual, social desolation was none the less profound and 

(253) 



254 THE MISSIONS. 

universal. Society was in ruins, and could not exist at a 
much lower point ; and it was there the mission commenced 
its work. What desolation was there in the native mind, as 
regards all useful knowledge ! The language was unwritten, 
and of course there were neither books, schools, nor education. 
The nation was composed of thieves, drunkards, and debau 
chees. The land was owned by the king and his chiefs, and 
the people were slaves. Constitutions, laws, courts of justice 
there were none, and no conception of such things in the 
native mind. Property, life, every thing was in the hands of 
arbitrary, irresponsible chiefs, who filled the land with discord 
and oppression. 

But that people has become a Christian nation ; not civil 
ized, in the modern acceptation of the term ; not able, perhaps, 
to sustain itself unaided in any one great department of 
national existence. Laws, institutions, civilization, the great 
compact of social and political life, are of slower growth than 
Christianity. A nation may be Christian, while its intellect is 
but partially developed, and its municipal and civil institutions 
are in their infancy. In this sense, the Hawaiian nation is a 
Christian nation, and will abide the severest scrutiny by every 
appropriate test. All the religion they now have claims the 
Christian name. A fourth part of the inhabitants are mem 
bers in regular standing of Protestant Christian churches. 
The nation recognizes the obligations of fche Sabbath. Houses 
for Christian worship are built by the people, and frequented 
as among ourselves. So much, indeed, was the blood of the 
nation polluted by an impure commerce with the world, before 
our Christian mission, that the people have a strong remaining 
tendency to licentiousness, which the gospel will scarcely 
remove till a more general necessity exists for industry and 
remaining at home. The weakness of the nation is here. 
But Christian marriage is enjoined and regulated by the laws, 
and the number of marriage licenses taken out, in the year 
1852, exceeded two thousand. The language is reduced to 
writing, and is read by nearly a third part of the people. The 
schools contain the great body of the children and youth. 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 255 

The annual outlay for education, chiefly by the government, 
exceeds fifty thousand dollars. The Bible, translated by the 
labors of eight missionaries, was in the hands of the people 
before the year 1840 ; and there are elementary books in the 
ology, practical religion, geography, arithmetic, astronomy, 
and history, making together a respectable library for a 
people in the early stages of civilization. Since the press first 
put forth its efforts in the language on the 7th of January, 
1822, there have been issued nearly two hundred millions of 
pages. Through the blessing of God on these instrumental 
ities, a beneficent change has occurred in all the departments 
of the government, in the face of fierce outrages from seamen 
and traders, and deadly hostility from not a few foreign res 
idents. The very first article in the Constitution, promulgated 
by the king and chiefs in the year 1840, declares " that no law 
shall be enacted which is at variance with the word of the 
Lord Jehovah, or with the general spirit of his word ; " and 
that " all the laws of the Islands shall be in consistency with 
God s law." What was this but a public, solemn, national 
profession of the Christian religion, on the high Puritan basis ? 
And the laws and administration of the government since that 
time, have been as consistent with this profession, to say the 
least, as those of any other Christian government in the world. 
The statute laws organizing the general government and 
courts of justice, the criminal code, and reported trials in the 
courts, printed in the English language, make five octavo vol 
umes in the library of the Board. Court houses, prisons, 
roads, bridges, surveys of lands, and their distribution, with 
secure titles, among the people, are in constant progress. 

Here, then, let us, as a Board of Foreign Missions, in the 
name of the community for which we act, proclaim with shout 
ings of grace, grace ! that the people of the Sandwich Islands 
are a Christian nation, and may rightfully claim a place among 
the Protestant Christian nations of the earth ! 

While there could be no question that the Hawaiian nation 
was at that time a Christian nation, in every sense in which 



256 THE MISSIONS. 

the term is applicable to the nations of Christendom, yet it 
was certain that the missionaries could not then be spared 
from the field ; nor was there any institution, save the Ameri 
can Board, to sustain them in that remote position. The prob 
lem to be solved was one of great difficulty. There were no 
precedents. The Prudential Committee had to feel their way 
step by step. The missionaries, with but few exceptions, were 
fearful and backward to loose their hold upon the Board. A 
new and peculiar arrangement was therefore entered upon to 
meet the new and peculiar emergency. The plan was to sub 
stitute the home missionary system for the foreign ; the Board 
occupying the place of a Home Missionary Society. This 
change was brought about gradually. The plan was first pro 
posed in the year 1848, and received its form from the manner 
in which the case first came before the Committee. 

There were then about one hundred and thirty children of 
missionaries at the Sandwich Islands, nearly fifty of whom 
were ten years old and upward. An application was received 
from five families, containing twenty-five children, for permis 
sion to come to this country, and provide for the support and 
education of the older children ; and there were then sixteen 
other families which would soon be similarly situated. The 
bearing of this upon the welfare, and even the existence, of the 
mission was at once perceived. It resulted from the modern 
method of conducting missions to the heathen mainly by mar 
ried missionaries, in connection with the extraordinary health- 
fulness of the Islands, favoring the enlargement of families. 
But this very oceanic climate, along with the growing commer 
cial relations of the Sandwich Islands, and the Christianized 
state of the people, ga.ve occasion for a method of retaining 
the families there. The missionaries were encouraged to take 
a qualified release from their connection with the Board, and 
become Hawaiian citizens ; and if they should declare their 
intention of remaining at the Islands in the gospel ministry, 
they were to receive their proportional part of the property 
held by the Board at their respective stations ; and the gov 
ernment also engaged, on this condition, to insure them an abso 
lute right in the lands thus held. 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 257 

Through the divine blessing, this arrangement was success 
ful. The five families referred to are still at the Islands, and 
so, with but a single exception, are the others. The missiona- 
ries have passed the ordeal with far less damage than was 
feared. The Board is advancing prosperously in the second 
stage of its work, except that there is yet no definite prospect 
of a time when it may safely withdraw its expenditure. Dur 
ing this critical period, Providence has made it Tor the interest 
of the great commercial nations to restrain each other from 
any considerable interference with the native government. 
The obstacles arising from a wicked -and lawless foreign com 
merce, once so formidable, have been coming under the re 
straints of law and public opinion, somewhat as in older 
Christian lands. The reckless zeal of Roman Catholic mis 
sionaries has been one of the chief influences requiring tli 
presence of a strong Protestant force. This hostile influence 
is not, however, without its advantages to the missionaries and 
to the native Christians ; and perhaps the most effectual bar 
rier against Papal inroads will be the multiplication of native 
churches with a native ministry those spiritual fortresses 
which our Lord requires to be erected all over the world, and 
which he engages to defend. But in the way of securing a 
competent native ministry, there are all those inherent diffi 
culties in the nature of man, which so impede and impair the 
graces of the churches in our own land, and they are en 
hanced and aggravated by the long reign of heathenism. 
Churches with such a ministry, and so situated, would seem 
to need the continued presence and guardianship of the found 
ers and fathers of the new Christian community. 

The CHEROKEES may be regarded as, in the popular sense, a 
Christian nation. At the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Board, 
the following announcement respecting the mission to the 
Cherokees was made by the Prudential Committee : 

This mission, one of the oldest under the care of the Board, 
has been in operation about forty-three years, and has employed 
eighteen clerical missionaries, twenty-nine laymen of different 



258 THE MISSIONS. 

occupations, and sixty-six female assistant missionaries, or one 
hundred and thirteen in all ; and three hundred and fifty-six 
thousand four hundred and twenty-one dollars have been 
expended in it from the treasury of the Board. As the result 
of these and other kindred efforts, the Cherokees have been 
elevated from the savage state to their present degree of civil 
ization. Doubtless, among the ignorant portions of the peo 
ple, there are remains of superstitious notions and habits 
greater than are found in older Christian communities ; but 
however low may be the standard of their Christianity, it is 
their only religion. The people are generally, as with us, 
ranked in one of the evangelical denominations. And they 
are accessible to Christian preachers, and listen to them with 
the same deference as do their white brethren in the adjoining 
States. They inhabit chiefly the eastern section of their ter 
ritory, which borders on the State of Arkansas, extending 
north and south about one hundred miles, and east and west 
about seventy-five miles, and their number is reckoned at 
twenty-one thousand. Our three missionary brethren residing 
among them, concur in the opinion that they reckon them 
selves, and are to be acknowledged, a Christian people. Mr. 
Torrey says, " Christianity is recognized among them, as much 
as in any portion of the United States. Their constitution 
provides that no person who denies the being of a God, or a 
future state of reward and punishment, shall hold any office 
in the civil department of this, nation." Mr. Ranney says, 
" The nation, as such, I presume, would claim to be called a 
Christian nation. Some laws have been passed by the Chero 
kee Council which have recognized Christianity as the religion 
of the nation. This has been done incidentally, rather than 
directly and positively. I suppose that almost universally they 
would desire to be called Christians." And Mr. Willey bears 
a similar testimony. " I think," he says, " that the Cherokees, 
as a nation, may justly be called a nominally Christian nation. 
The Cherokee Constitution recognizes the Christian religion, 
and requires a belief in it by all who hold office under the 
government. All teachers in the public schools are required 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 259 

by law to have the Bible read in their schools daily ; and when 
they are prepared for it, they are requested to pray daily in 
their schools." 

* 

It is our privilege to make the like record concerning the 
CHOCTAWS. Of their title to the Christian name we have 
the high testimony of the pioneer in both the Choctaw and 
Cherokee missions the Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, D. D., already 
mentioned. Writing from Pine Ridge, in the Choctaw nation, 
March 11, 1861, in reply to inquiries, Dr. Kingsbury says, 

" I unhesitatingly answer, that the Choctaws are a Christian 
nation, in the popular acceptance of that term. 

" 1. There is no other religion known among this people 
but the Christian religion. All who make any pretensions to 
religion receive the Christian Scriptures, as containing those 
doctrines which they are to believe and those duties which 
they are to practice. 

" 2. As large a proportion of the Choctaws, it is believed, 
are professors of the Christian religion as are to be found in 
any other portion of our country. The numbers connected 
with the different churches I am not able to give ; probably 
it amounts to between one fifth and one fourth of the whole 
population. A large proportion of those who are not members 
of the churches are believers in the Christian Scriptures, in 
the popular acceptation of that phrase. 

" 3. In the transaction of all public business, the Christian 
Sabbath is observed as a divine institution ; no public business 
is transacted on that consecrated day. 

" 4. The sessions of the General Council are, I believe, uni 
formly opened and closed with prayer. 

" 5. All public officers and jurymen are required to take 
the oath usually administered in the United States, and in the 
usual form. 

" 6. No man is considered competent to be a witness who 
denies the existence of a Supreme Being. 

" The progress of the Choctaws in agriculture and general 
improvement," Dr. Kingsbury adds, " has suffered much from 
35 



260 THE MISSIONS. 

the want of that necessary stimulus, a good market. This, 
together with their natural indolence, has kept the larger 
portion of the nation in very humble circumstances. For the 
last three or four years there have beea short crops, and in 
the past year almost an entire failure. This has greatly re 
duced their means of support, and put it out of the power of 
most of our church members to do more than to provide for 
their own most pressing wants. And, indeed, this could not 
have been done without very considerable aid from abroad. 

" In the peculiar and trying circumstances," he continues, 
" in which the Choctaws have been, and still are, placed, they 
have felt the necessity of reliable, intelligent men, to give 
influence and direction to their public councils. This has led 
the Choctaws to press into the service of the nation all our 
[native] ordained, and most of our licensed, preachers. This 
has had a tendency to divert the preachers more or less from 
the great work of the gospel ministry. Party feelings having 
been strong, they have, as a thing in course, lost influence 
with those on the opposite side. The necessity there has been 
for intelligence and integrity in the public service of the nation, 
and the better remuneration for those services, have proba 
bly induced some to turn attention to those pursuits, who 
otherwise might have entered the ministry. These and other 
circumstances have much retarded our progress in bringing 
forward a native ministry." 

The Board began its labors among this people as early as 
1818, and prosecuted them forty years, receiving into the 
church of Christ during that time, and mainly in the latter 
half of the period, some twenty-seven hundred members. It 
found the Choctaws a nation of pagans ; it left them as really 
a Christian nation, in the year 1859, as can be truthfully 
affirmed of the other nations of Christendom. The appro 
priate work of the Board, under its charter as a foreign mis 
sionary institution, had then been accomplished. The twelve 
churches connected with it, containing thirteen hundred and 
sixty-two members, had long been in connection with the 
Presbyterian Church, (old school ;) and, upon the withdrawal 



PROGRESS OP THE WORK. 261 

of the Board, it was a thing of course for that body to assume 
the responsibility of rendering the aid that might yet be need 
ful for sustaining the gospel institutions among that Christian 
ized people, upon the home missionary or some other plan. 
There are now fifteen hundred church members, who were all 
admitted upon the strict principle, and chiefly by missionaries 
in connection with the American Board. 

The TUSCARORAS, a remnant of one of the." Six Nations " 
of Indians, are a Christian people. For nearly sixty years, 
indeed, they have enjoyed the fostering care of different mis 
sionary organizations. The New York Missionary Society 
directed its attention to these Indians early in the present 
century. A church of eight members was organized prior to 
1813. On the 3d of July, 1826, the mission was transferred 
to the Board. These people appear to have been Christianized 
long ago ; for the United Foreign Missionary Society, which 
received them from the New York Society, made the following 
statement concerning them, in the year 1821 : " The whole 
nation, now residing at Tuscarora, have taken a decided stand 
in favor of the Christian religion. They have already made 
considerable progress in acquiring the arts and habits of civilized 
life. Having in a great measure abandoned the chase as the 
means of subsistence, they now depend for their support prin 
cipally upon the produce of the soil. They occupy comforta 
ble dwellings; and in passing through their villages, you 
behold wagons, plows, and other implements of husbandry, 
arranged around their doors. Some of their youth have made 
considerable proficiency in the elementary branches of an 
English education." 

That the Tuscarora people should have been continued 
under the pupilage of a foreign missionary institution for forty 
years after such a testimony, is to be accounted for by the fact, 
that the proper responsibilities of such institutions had not a 
clear definition in the public mind. The Prudential Committee 
declared to the Board their belief, in 1860, that such a people 
were not the proper objects of a foreign mission ; that they 



262 THE MISSIONS. 

had the ability to sustain in great measure the preaching of 
the gospel ; and that some home missionary organization 
would be ready to meet any reasonable deficiency. 

It is by finishing the work at STATIONS, in the influential 
centers of population, that missions are to be brought to a 
successful close. Such a result at a station implies indeed a 
great deal, as all, who are practically conversant with mis 
sions, know full well. It implies not only the greater light of 
the central church at the sta tion, but also lesser lights in 
adjacent villages. In an extended territory, there may be 
many a dark intervening space between these constellations, 
as there was in the Roman empire for ages after history 
recognizes it as Christian ; and it may even be desirable for 
missionary societies to leave these dark spaces for the native 
churches to illuminate with the gospel, and thus to exercise 
and strengthen their graces. 

The progress yet made by the Board in establishing the 
institutions of the gospel in other countries than those just 
named, admits of only a brief illustration. 

One of the first stations occupied by the mission to the 
Armenians of the Turkish empire, was at Pera, the portion of 
Constantinople where the missionaries first had their residence. 
Pera has now a self-supporting church, composed of evangel 
ical Armenians, with a native pastor the whole independent 
of the missionaries, who reside elsewhere. The pastor of this 
church, Mr. Eutujian, attended the Jubilee Meeting, and made 
an address in the Armenian language, which was interpreted 
by Dr. Hamlin. Difficulties have indeed arisen in this church, 
perhaps as a consequence of this very independence, just as 
they arose in the churches at Corinth and Galatia ; and such 
are of course to be expected. 

At Aintab, in the interior of Asia Minor, the regions of 
Cilicia, where a station was commenced in 1848, there is now 
a self-supporting church of near three hundred members, with 
a native pastor, a Sabbath congregation of nine hundred, and 
schools of six hundred youths and almost four hundred adults, 
and a Sabbath school of sixteen hundred members. 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 263 

At Brusa, near Mount Olympus, in the ancient Bithynia, 
tvfo missionaries were residing in 1844. The last of these 
was removed in 1852, and a native pastor took charge of the 
church. Nothing more has since been needed there, except 
an occasional missionary visit, and some pecuniary aid. 

Trebizond, on the sQuth-western shore of the Black Sea, 
had two missionaries, and afterward one ; but since 1857 it 
has had none : the whole being left, as at Brusa, to the native 
church and pastor, with some pecuniary aid and spiritual care. 
From the nature of the case, like the churches of Macedonia, 
most mission churches are, for a time, in " deep poverty." 

The station at Marash, fifty or sixty miles from Aintab, 
dating only from the year 1854, has a church of two hundred 
and twenty-seven members, a congregation of near a thousand, 
a numerous Sabbath school, and a native pastor.* 



* Dr. H. G. O. D wight, from Constantinople, visited Aintab and Marash in 
the spring of 1861. He arrived at the former place on Saturday. "The next 
day was the Sabbath," he writes, " and it was to me a most delightful day. I 
had the privilege of preaching to more than a thousand people, and of address 
ing a Sabbath school, all assembled in one room, of sixteen hundred and sixty- 
eight members, including the teachers. In the evening of the same day, I 
attended the monthly concert, at which probably seven hundred were present." 

Speaking of Marash, he says, " This place is indeed a wonder. Twelve years 
ago, there was not a Protestant here, and the people were proverbially ignorant, 
barbarous, and fanatical. Six years ago, the Evangelical Armenian Church 
was organized, with sixteen members. The congregation at that time consisted 
of one hundred and twenty. 

"On the last Sabbath, I preached in the morning to a congregation of over 
a thousand; and in the afternoon, at the communion, I addressed nearly or 
quite fifteen hundred people, when forty new members were admitted to the 
church, making the whole present number two hundred and twenty-seven. 
Nearly one hundred of these have been added since Mr. White came here, two 
years ago. Previous to the late communion, one hundred and sixteen persons 
were examined, but only forty were admitted to the church. It is confidently 
believed by our brethren that many of those who were told to wait are truly 
converted persons ; but, as the cases are recent, prudence seemed to dictate that 
they should be put on a longer trial. One entire half of the body of the church 
was filled with females, packed closely together on the floor. The other half, 
and the broad galleries around three sides of the house, were completely 
crowded with men. A new church, in the other end of the town, is needed 
immediately." 



264 THE MISSIONS. 

The cases thus far instanced are among the benighted, but 
still nominally Christian, people of Western Asia, and the 
tendency is more or less strongly to similar results at the 
thirty other stations, and even at very many of the hundred 
outstations belonging to the several missions in that great and 
interesting field. 

When we speak of a Christianized station, however, we 
ought not to be understood as implying all that is meant 
when speaking of a Christianized people. At neither of the 
places named above has evangelical Christianity yet become 
the predominant religion among the people. We mean only 
that the Christian church has acquired an actual, influential 
footing there, somewhat analogous to that of churches in the 
young cities and towns of our new western settlements. 

This is more or less true at many of the local stations in 
the missions among pagan nations. The church at Chavaga- 
cherry, in Ceylon, where a missionary once resided, is now 
consigned, together with its district, to a native pastor, and 
the same is true of the churches and districts of Karadive and 
Yalaney ; and none of the other native churches are more 
flourishing than these. The church at Bombay the first 
gathered by missionaries of the Board has now a native 
pastor, though he is not supported by the church ; so have the 
first and second churches in Ahmednuggur ; so has the church 
at Seroor. These are all churches at stations, and the pastoral 
relation has been well sustained. The Madura mission has 
native pastors for six of its twenty-eight churches, and one of 
these is a station church. 

The opinions of the executive officers of the Board, and of 
the Prudential Committee, have inclined toward the ordain 
ing of native pastors at all the station churches, as fast as the 
suitable men can be found ; but, excepting the Mahratta mis 
sion, it can hardly be said that the missions of the Board in 
pagan nations are yet prepared to come fully into the practice. 
It seems to be gaining ground in the missions of Western Asia ; 
and, as far as is known, the experiment there has been gener 
ally successful. 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 265 

It has been found hard to overcome the difficulties in the 
way of raising up self-sustaining churches, whether at stations 
or outstations, whether in nominally Christian or pagan lands. 
These difficulties are so various as to allow of only the most 
comprehensive notice, if indeed the time has come for treat 
ing the subject very positively. 

Preaching, congregations, churches, schools, native helpers, 
every thing, of course centers at first at the station, cluster 
ing around the resident missionary. But there is danger of 
continuing the centralizing policy too long, and it is believed 
that this has frequently been done. This tendency in the 
working of missions is natural and strong, both in the mis 
sionary and his converts, as was singularly manifested, a few 
years since, in one of the India missions. The ground 
inclosed around the mission house is there called a " com 
pound," and being of some extent, and vested with certain 
privileges, it had an attractive power on the minds of village 
converts throughout the region. These converts, being chiefly 
from a caste not attached to the soil as cultivators, were able 
to leave their villages, and many were drawn, with their fam 
ilies, to the mission compounds at the central stations, thus 
forming small Christian villages, built up, and in part sus 
tained, by the Board, and invested, to some extent, with Euro 
pean protection and privilege. It was thus an asylum for the 
poor, oppressed converts. But though it brought them around 
the missionary, where, besides being easily cared for, they 
made up a numerous station church, its nature as an asylum 
fostered the feeling of dependence in the native mind, gave to 
the centers an appearance of prosperity and strength which 
they had not in fact, and discouraged the forming of rural 
stations and churches, and the extension of the mission. 
Self-sustaining native Christian churches could not thus be 
formed, and the villages might be as long in coming to the 
Christian light, as in the Roman empire of the first Christian 
centuries. The thing had grown up insensibly, and upon 
discovering the evil, it* was speedily corrected. The villagers 
were generally sent home, village stations and village churches 



266 THE MISSIONS. 

were formed, and dispersion and diffusion became the order 
of the day. 

The natural reluctance of missionary brethren to diminish 
the number of members in the station churches by forming 
churches in the villages, and the number of hearers at the 
station by forming congregations in the villages, and the array 
of Christian life about them by pushing it off to the outposts, 
will be understood and appreciated by pastors. It is an evil 
hard to overcome, seeing that the missionary s family state 
obliges him to have a fixed habitation, where he must needs 
be much at home.* 

* The Rev. Henry Ballantine thus refers to this change of missionary policy, 
writing from Ahmednuggur, February 7, 1861 : 

"A glance at the following table, showing the gradual increase in the number 
of members of the churches belonging to the mission since its establishment in 
1831, is instructive and encouraging. The whole period has been divided into 
terms of rive years, that the progress of the mission may be more easily seen. 
Members received from 1831 to 1835, inclusive, ... 9 
" " 1836 to 1840, " ... 7 

" " " 1841 to 1845, " ... 75 

" " " 1846 to 1850, " ... 63 

" " 1851 to 1855, ... 78 

" " 1856 to 1860, " ... 363 

Total 595 

"The members received into the churches during the last five years are as 
follows : In 1856, 30 ; 1857, 56 ; 1858, 86 ; 1859, 64 ; 1860, 127 : total, 363. 

" From this it will be seen that the average for each term of five years from 
1840 to 1855 was just 72, exactly nine times the average of the first two terms 
of five years ; while the number received during the last term of five years was 
five times as great as the average for five years from 1840 to 1855, and forty- 
five times as great as the average for five years from 1831 to 1840. Again, it 
appears that the number received during each year of the last five years was, 
on an average, 72 the same as the average number received during each period 
of five years from 1841 to 1855. 

" Should it be asked how the sudden increase in the number of converts in 
the last term of five years can be accounted for, I would say, there is no doubt 
that the new policy inaugurated in the mission in 1855, putting missionaries out 
in the districts to labor among the people, has been the means, in the hands of 
God, of greatly extending the knowledge of the truth, and of bringing many 
more converts into our churches. Some members of the mission desired to see 
this policy pursued ten years before it was adopted ; but at length the Deputa 
tion, coming to India in 1854, decided the matter which had been discussed in 
the mission so long, and the plan was at once put in execution." 



PROGRESS OF THE WORK. 267 

No doubt the delays consequent upon this slow development 
of the lessons of experience, have greatly enhanced the obsta 
cles to self-sustaining church organizations in the fields occu 
pied by the Board. There is a time for all things. As, in del 
icate processes of crystallization, complete success depends on 
allowing the crystals to form at the right time, so, in missions, 
there is a time for reversing the centralizing policy, when the 
native elements will crystallize most perfectly under their own 
proper laws of social life, and not under those of the foreign 
countries from whence the missionaries ame. In some such 
manner, converts have too often been disqualified in a measure 
for a patient attendance on the ministry of even the best edu 
cated native preachers, and the native preachers have thus 
been disqualified for living on the proper native salary, if they 
have not been also for the retirement and obscurity of rural 
life. The secular education of adults, though exceedingly 
below the common standard in old Christian countries, has 
still been too much in advance of the religious ; and our native 
preachers have been educated more for the demands of the 
future, than for those of churches in their earliest possible 
existence ; while both churches and pastors were, and must 
needs be, in leading-strings held by the missionaries. The 
opinion is now becoming general in the missions of the Board, 
that the study of the English language, except in special in 
stances, has not facilitated the rearing up of self-relying native 
churches. It was at least premature. Perhaps, too, there has 
been a higher standard than was expedient for the mere intel 
lectual culture of native preachers and pastors, in the first 
generation. 

36 



268 THE MISSIONS. 



HISTORICAL CATALOGUE OF THE MISSIONS. 

The following missions are now, or have been, connected with the 
Board : 

1. Mahratta Mission, in Western India; instituted in 1813 ; in two mis 
sions from 1842 to 1852 ; in four, from 1852 to 1858 j one discontinued, 
1858; the three others reunited in one, 1860. 

2. Ceylon Mission, 1816. 

3. Cherokee, (N. A. Indians,) 1816 ; discontinued, 1860. 

4. Choctaws, (N. A. Indians,) 1818 ; discontinued, 1859. 

5. Sandwich Islands^\.S20 ; discontinued on the foreign missionary basis, 
and continued on the home missionary basis, 1853. 

6. Palestine, 1821 ; merged in the Syria mission, 1845. 

7. Malta, 1822, for the press, which was removed to Smyrna in 1833. 

8. Syria, 1823. 

9. South America, (exploring,) 1823-1826. 

10. Turkey, 1826 ; North and South, 1856-1860 ; Western, Eastern, and 
Central, 1860. 

11. Osages, (N. A. Indians,) commenced by United Foreign Missionary 
Society, 1820; transferred to the Board, 1826; discontinued, 1837. 

12. Maumee, (N. A. Indians,) commenced by Western Missionary So 
ciety, 1822 transferred to United Foreign Missionary Society, 1822, and to 
the Board, 1826 ; discontinued, 1835. 

13. New York Indians, commenced by New York Missionary Society, 
1801 ; transferred to United Foreign Missionary Society, 1821, and to the 
Board, 1826 ; Tuscarora Branch discontinued, 1860. 

14. Mackinaw, (N. A. Indians,) commenced by the United Foreign Mis 
sionary Society, 1823 ; transferred to the Board, 1826 ; discontinued, 1836. 

15. Chickasaws, (N. A. Indians,) commenced by Synod of South Carolina 
and Georgia, 1821 ; transferred to the Board, 1827 ; discontinued, 1835. 

16. Stockbridge Indians, 1828 ; discontinued, 1848. 

17. Greece, 1830 ; discontinued, except the station at Athens, 1841. 

18. China, 1830 ; at Canton, 1830 ; at Amoy, 1842, transferred to 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Dutch Church, 1858 ; at Fuh- 
chau, 1847; at Shanghai, 1853; at Tientsin, 1860. 

19. Ojibwas, (N. A. Indians,) 1830. 

20. Siam, 1831 ; missionaries in part transferred to Fuhchau, 1847; dis 
continued, 1850. 

21. Creeks, (N. A. Indians,) 1832 ; discontinued, 1837. 

22. Sumatra, (exploring,) 1833. 

23. Patagonia, (exploring,) 1833 and 1834. 

24. Madura, 1834. 

25. Nestorians, 1834. 



PROGRESS OP THE WORK. 269 

26. Singapore, 1834 ; discontinued, 1843. 

27. Paivnees, (N. A. Indians,) 1834 ; discontinued, 1844. 

28. Sioux, or Dakotas, (N. A. Indians,) 1834. 

29. Western Africa, at Cape Palmas, 1834-1843 ; removed to the Ga 
boon, 1843. 

30. Cyprus, 1834 ; discontinued, 1840. 

31. Oregon, 1835 ; broken up by the massacre of 1847. 

32. Southern Africa, 1835; one mission at Mosika, 1836, broken up 
by war, 1837 ; the other at Port Natal, 1836. 

33. Abenaquis, (N. A. Indians,) 1835 ; discontinued, 1858. 

34. Madras, 1836. 

35. Borneo, (exploring,) 1836 and 1837. 

36. Persian Mohammedans, 1838 ; discontinued, 1841. 

37. Borneo, 1838 ; in part transferred to Amoy, in China, 1844 ; discon 
tinued, 1852. 

38. To the Jews in Turkey, 1844 ; discontinued, 1856. 

39. Arcot, in India, 1851 ; transferred to Board of Foreign Missions of 
the Reformed Dutch Church, 1857. 

40. Micronesia, in the N. Pacific Ocean, 1852. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MISSIONARIES. 

The Missionary described. The Principle underlying- his Engagement. Makes the 
First Advance. Appointment, Designation, and Support. Age, Constitution, 
Habits. Ordination. Marriage. The Number of Missionaries. Whence they 
came. Education. Length of Service. Protective Care of Providence. Mis 
sionary Physicians. Unmarried Females. Farmers and Mechanics. Salaries. 
Disabled Missionaries. Children of Missionaries. Schools, Asylums, Permanent 
Funds. The Present System found to work well. 

A MISSIONARY is described in the by-laws of the Board, as 
one who has been ordained a minister of the gospel, and has 
actually come under its direction. All others licensed 
preachers, physicians, schoolmasters, printers, etc. arc as 
sistant missionaries ; but, in the reports of the Board, they 
are to be designated by their specific occupations. 

Underlying the theory of missions, as prosecuted by the 
American Board, is the principle that the missionary goes forth 
in the discharge of his own personal responsibility to Christ. 
The Board, the churches, are helpers, co-workers in his 
mission. There is an implied covenant, and he is one of the 
parties. The enlistment is voluntary; and so are the contribu 
tions of the donor. Both arc alike servants of Christ. Chris 
tians at home are indebted to the missionary only as the mis 
sionary is to them. The missionary is doing their work no 
more than they are doing his. The Board declared this prin 
ciple many years ago, as best comporting with the happiest 
and most successful prosecution of missions, during a pro 
longed period, and on an extended scale. 

The missionary candidate has therefore been expected to 
make the first advance, and to offer himself for the service. 
The Secretaries, when visiting theological seminaries, have, been 

(270) 



THE MISSIONARIES. 

accustomed to inquire for tho students whoso minds were 
known to bo exercised on this subject, and to confer with such. 
It has devolved on tho Prudential Committee, when the candi 
date presented himself, to bo satisfied as to tho reality of his call 
of God to tho work of missions. That was to bo determined 
by tho proper evidence, and on the presumption that whom tho 
Lord calls to this work he will endow with the requisite phys 
ical, mental, and spiritual abilities, and allow no insuperable 
providential barriers to stand in the way. Tho engagement is 
not for a specified term of years, but for life, " if the Lord 
will." 

The appointment and tho designation of missionaries are 
not always decided at tho same time. By accepting an 
appointment, tho missionary accepts also tho rules and regula 
tions of the, Hoard, tho nature of which ho is supposed to 
understand. Tho Board pays no expenses of missionary can 
didates in their preparation for tho ministry, and no debts con 
tracted after appointment, unless expressly authorized ; nor 
does it assume tho expenses of appointed missionaries before 
tho time arrives to prepare for their departure. On the prin 
ciple stated at tho opening of this chapter, the missionary s 
claim upon the Board for support, when in the Hold, has al 
ways been understood as for no more than an equitable pro 
portion of tho funds placed at its disposal ; the Board being 
able to divide only what it receives. Missionaries have gone 
forth trusting in God that there will always be enough for 
their wants, incurring whatever risk there may be ; which past 
experience shows to bo very small, since no missionary of tho 
Board has ever yet been compelled to retire from the Held or 
to remain at home for want of funds. 

The reply made by a convention of delegates from the three 
Tamil missions, in 1889, to an inquiry as to tho age, constitu 
tion, and habits most suitable for ;t missionary to India, has 
been found applicable to tho missions generally. It was this: 
" A missionary to an old mission should be young, that ho may 
easily g<-t the language, and that his habits may more easily 
be shaped to the climate. If ho goes to form a new mission, 



272 THE MISSIONS. 

more age may be an advantage ; but generally a missionary 
should not be above thirty, where he is expected to acquire 
the language, unless he have a peculiar turn for it. As to 
habits, they should be rather active than sedentary, but he 
should be capable of study ; if not learned, he should be able 
to learn, and ready to teach. His constitution should be good, 
but the most sanguine and robust need not expect the best 
health. There may be a proper distinction between pliancy 
of constitution and weakness. A bilious habit is undesirable, 
but too much may be feared from it, as too much may be 
hoped in favor of pulmonary tendencies ; though the climate 
is friendly to the latter, and unfriendly to the former. The 
advice of a skillful and candid physician should have much 
weight." The average of the ages of seventy-five ordained 
missionaries at the time of their appointment since the year 
1851, is twenty-seven years. 

For a number of the first years, the Prudential Committee 
was accustomed to invite the ordaining council for the mis 
sionary, (if he belonged to the Congregational body;) and when 
the ordination was over, they passed votes of thanks to those 
who had performed the services. But for a long time past, the 
missionary has been left, after receiving official notice of his 
appointment, to arrange for his ordination with his friends, or 
his church, or some other ecclesiastical body. Where the judg 
ments and hearts of the people have been with the candidates, 
the ordination services have proved a blessing. Hence the 
missionary is usually advised to seek ordination among his 
own people. 

The experience of the Board favors the marriage of mission 
aries, as a general rule, and always when they are going to a 
barbarous people. Wives are a protection among savages, and 
men can not there long make a tolerable home without them. 
When well selected in regpect to health, education, and piety, 
wives endure " hardness " quite as well as their husbands, and 
sometimes with more faith and patience. 

The number of missionaries and assistant missionaries sent 
forth from the beginning, is indicated in the following table: 



THE MISSIONARIES. 



273 



MISSIONS. 


"d 
6 


Phys ns who 
had received 
Ordination. 


Phys ns not 
Ordained. 


Male Assist 
ant Mission 
aries. 


i i 

1 

7 Z 


Total. 


Dr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice, 
West Africa, 


2 
16 
21 
3 
62 
- 27 
6 
19 
28 
24 
24 
5 
3 
10 
4 
8 
2 
7 
4 
3 
7 
46 
7 
2 
18 
16 
9 
4 
4 
1 
5 
1 
3 
1 
2 
1 
9 
1 


1 
2 

4 
1 
1 
1 

2 

2 

2 




1 
1 

3 
2 

1 
1 
1 













1 


1 
2 
2 
2 

1 
2 


1 




1 




6 


1 
2 





1 
1 







1 

1 


2 
1 

1 
4 
1 

1 


1 






1 



21 



34 
26 
3 
7 


6 
2 
2 

2 
1 
3 




1 

18 
23 
3 
73 
36 
9 
26 
39 
30 
30 
9 
4 
9 
5 
11 
1 
9 
4 
3 
6 
80 
7 

90 
66 
15 
14 
6 
1 
15 
4 
5 
9 
4 
4 
22 



3 

36 
45 
6 
138 
66 
17 
48 
71 
56 
56 
15 

21 
9 
19 
3 
17 
9 
6 
13 
153 
14 
2 
143 
110 
27 
25 
10 
2 

26 
8 
11 
17 
8 
6 
34 
1 








Syria, including Cyprus, .... 






Ceylon 
























Sandwich. Islands, ... ... 




South America, 


Choctaw Indians 


Cherokee Indians, 


















Stockbridge Indians, 
Maumee Indians 






Total, 


415 


26 


24 


128 


691 


1258 




GENERAL SUMMARY. 


MISSIONS. 


"d.SJ 
11 

5 


!i 

j- 3 
t^ 




S 

1 

<i 


I 

& 



a 




Total. 


Africa, .... 


37 
117 
28 
56 
45 
53 
2 
75 
2 


i 
7 

3 
2 
6 

5 


43 
151 
43 
75 
50 
108 

348 
1 


40 
128 
32 
61 
49 
80 
2 
173 
2 


41 
147 
39 
73 

48 
87 

255 
1 


81 

275 
71 
134 
97 
167 
2 
428 
3 


\V. Asia, European Turkey, Greece, 
\Vestern India . ... 


Southern India and Ceylon, . . . 
Eastern Asia and the Islands, . . 
North Pacific Ocean 






Dr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice, 
Total, 


415 


24 


819 


567 


691 


1258 





274 



THE MISSIONS. 



It thus appears, that the five ordained missionaries sent forth 
into the heathen world in the year 1812, have been followed 
by others to the number of four hundred and ten. The eight 
males and females, composing the first company, now stand 
associated, on the historic page, in a company of twelve hun 
dred and fifty-eight. 

Whence came these missionaries ? It would cost too much 
labor to ascertain the colleges where the greater part of the 
ordained missionaries were graduated. The seminaries in 
which they obtained their theological education, so far as their 
history is known, may be chronologically arranged in the fol 
lowing order : The first class at the Andover Seminary com 
pleted its course in the year 1809 ; at Princeton, in 1812; at 
Bangor, in 1820 ; at Auburn, in 1825 ; at New Haven, in 
1826 ; at the Western Reserve, in 1832 ; at Lane, in 1833 ; at 
East Windsor, in 1836 ; at Union, in 1838. The number of 
the missionaries derived from each of these institutions is 
indicated in the following table : 



SEMINARIES. 


Whole 
number. 


Now in 
the field. 


SEMINARIES. 


Whole 
number. 


Now in 
the field. 




130 
15 
13 
20 
41 
28 
31 

eater p 
ogical 
sions 1 


G6 
10 
6 
4 
29 
9 
7 

art su] 
semin, 
;o Nort 


New Brunswick N J 


14 
9 
16 
2 
7 
2 


5 
6 
7 
1 
1 





Western Reserve, Ohio, . . 
Lane, Ohio, 


East Windsor, Conn., . . . 


Quincy, 111 , 


Union, New York City, . . . 
Auburn, N. Y., 
Princeton N J 


Union, Va., 


Southern, S. C., 


Total from Seminaries, . . 
>posed not to have been con- 
iries, the larger portion of 
]i American Indians 


Unknown, but the gr 
nected with theo] 
these being in mig 


328 

87 


151 
15 


Grand total, 


415 


166 





It will be seen, that nearly all the missionaries who went to 
countries beyond sea, enjoyed the advantages both of the four 
years in college, and of the additional years (generally three) 
in the theological seminaries. 

The average length of missionary service performed by one 
hundred and thirty-four brethren, who went from the Andover 



THE MISSIONARIES. 275 

Seminary up to the year 1858, will doubtless admit of a gen 
eral application. The sum total of these one hundred and 
thirty-four missionary lives was eighteen hundred and seventy- 
three years, (reckoning from their departure, and, when they 
returned home, to the time of their arrival,) so that the 
average for each is fourteen years. The average length of 
service of the thirty-four who died in the field, was eleven 
years. The sixty-six then living and prosecuting their mis 
sionary work, had seen #n average of seventeen years and a 
half, and the period was of course growing longer. Two, who 
died on the islands of the Pacific, averaged seventeen years 
and six months ; and twelve then living there, averaged eigh 
teen years and four months. Five, who died in Southern India 
and Ceylon, attained to the average of thirteen years and 
nine months, (which is larger than any where else, save the 
Pacific,) and the average period of nine then living in India, 
was twenty-one years and nine months. Dr. Mullens, a 
highly intelligent English missionary at Calcutta, states, from 
a careful induction of the lives of two hundred and fifty mis 
sionaries in India, that he found the average duration of mis 
sionary labor in that country was sixteen years and three 
quarters. 

It should be added, that fifteen of the Andover brethren 
were in the field from thirty and a half years to forty-two and 
three fourths. Two saw forty-two years of foreign service ; 
and the highest average among the older men was in India.* 

There should be grateful acknowledgment made of the pro 
tective care of Providence over the missionaries and their 
families, when going to and returning from their respective 
fields, and in their numerous explorations, their long and 
perilous voyages and journeys, in all manner of conveyances, 
over all continents and seas, and in all climates ; and so too 
of the travels of officers and agents of the Board. The length 
of these travels is not much short of a million of miles. One 

* Memorial of the Semi-centennial Celebration of the Founding of the 
Theological Seminary at Andover, pp. 55, 56. 

37 



276 THE MISSIONS. 

of the Secretaries has traveled considerably over fifty thou 
sand. Of the nearly fifteen hundred persons, only two suffered 
the loss of life by shipwreck Dr. Armstrong, one of the 
Secretaries, and Mr. Pohlman, a missionary in China. Messrs. 
Munson and Lyman and Dr. Satterlee died by the hands of 
savages, while on tours of exploration. Mr. Benham, of the 
Siam mission, was drowned while crossing a river near his own 
dwelling; and the massacre of Dr. Whitman and others by 
the Oregon Indians, in 1848, was in their own houses. 

The fifty physicians, ordained and unordained, were all 
expected to be missionary physicians, that is, to make their 
medical practice subservient to the grand object of the mis 
sions. The employing of missionary physicians grows mainly 
out of the practice of employing married missionaries. Their 
first care is of the mission families ; but they are expected to 
exert a conciliating influence among the natives by the kindly 
offices of their profession. Missionary physicians have not 
been sent where the needful medical attendance was believed 
to be otherwise attainable. 

The tables show an excess of one hundred and twenty-four 
females above the number of males. The greater part of these 
unmarried women were in missions to the American Indians. 
The practice of sending unmarried females beyond sea, has 
obtained only to a very limited extent. It has been so difficult 
to secure for them permanent and agreeable homes, and well- 
defined and appropriate spheres of labor in no danger of 
failing, that the appointments are now in great measure re 
stricted to female boarding schools at the central points of 
the larger missions. Every considerable mission needs one 
such school, and one or two competent female teachers for its 
instruction. It is the correlative institution with the school 
for training a native ministry. 

In the year 1825, there were sixteen farmers and mechanics 
in the missions among the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. 
The expectations connected with this class of agents not having 
been realized, it has gradually been withdrawn. The civilizing 
agencies, as they may be called, have been found the most 



THE MISSIONARIES. 277 

expensive, the most troublesome, and the least productive. 
The first company sent to the Sandwich Islands contained a 
farmer ; but it soon appeared that he, though a worthy Chris 
tian man, had no vocation there, and he returned home. 
Mere civilization, coming in contact with savages, is an un- 
healthful influence : it must come to them through the gospel. 

The support of the missionaries and their families has been 
provided for in various ways, and the manner is doubtless still 
open to improvement. In the North American Indian and 
the Sandwich Islands missions, it was for a long time on the 
principle of common stock ; and at the Islands there was a 
secular agent, and a depository of such goods as the missionaries 
needed. Salaries have taken the place of this system, as 
being every way more economical. There was much difficulty, 
after the year 1848, in bringing the depository at the Islands 
to a satisfactory close. The missionaries obtained their goods 
there at cost, and even without charge for duties: what would 
they do when thrown upon the market and merchants of 
Honolulu ? But the matter was at length adjusted ; and, 
through the skill and faithfulness of the agents, a considera 
ble sum was realized out of the settlement of the depository 
toward the expenses of the mission. In India, the salaries 
were originally based on the usage of English missionary soci 
eties, giving a certain sum to each married couple, and addi 
tional sums for each child, house rent, etc. The Board also 
adopted their plan of outfit. The English manner of deter 
mining the salaries not proving altogether satisfactory, the 
missionaries in Western Asia were induced to receive their 
support nearly as pastors do in the United States the sala 
ries covering every thing, and varying with the circumstances 
of the individual. 

The Board allows no pensions, and has no permanent funds 
for disabled or superannuated missionaries, or for the widows 
or children of missionaries. It provides for them in a differ 
ent way. Its rules in respect to the former classes of persons 
are as follows : 

When superannuated or disabled missionaries or assistant 



278 THE MISSIONS. 

missionaries, or the widows of missionaries or assistant mis 
sionaries, return to this country with the approbation of the 
Prudential Committee, it shall be the duty of the Committee 
to make such grants toward their support as the circum 
stances of each case shall require, and as shall best comport 
with the missionary character and the interests of the mis 
sionary cause ; it being understood, 

1. That no pensions or annuities are to be settled on any 
person, and that no grant is to be made, except in extraordi 
nary cases, for any other than the current year. 

2. That, except in extraordinary cases, after the lapse of a 
year from their return, no grant is to be made to returned 
missionaries or assistant missionaries, who are neither super 
annuated nor disabled by sickness, and yet are not expected 
to resume their missionary labors. 

3. That missionaries and assistant missionaries, who return 
on account of sickness, and recover their health, and remain 
in this country, are no longer to be regarded as having claims 
upon the Board for pecuniary assistance. 

4. That missionaries and assistant missionaries, who return 
on account of sickness, and partially recover their health, so 
as to attend to the ordinary business of life for a number of 
years, are not to be regarded, when they again lose their 
health, as having the same claims upon the Board as they had 
when they first arrived. 

The rules concerning the return of the children of the mis 
sionaries to the United States, and their subsequent support, 
are the following : 

1. When missionaries or assistant missionaries desire to 
send their children to this country for education, and when it 
is decided, in a manner conformable to the rules and usages 
of the Board, that the children may come, the arrangements 
for the passage, so far as they involve expense, shall have the 
concurrence of the mission, and the allowance, extraordinary 
cases excepted, shall be only for a passage direct to this 
country. 

2. When the children arrive in this country, the Prudential 



THE MISSIONARIES. 279 

Committee will see that they have a suitable conveyance to 
the places where they are to be educated or to reside ; and 
the Committee may make grants, on application from the 
parents or guardians, to an amount not exceeding sixty dollars 
a year for a boy, and fifty dollars for a girl, until the children 
are eighteen years old. 

3. Children who are left orphans, and without a suitable 
home in the mission, or responsible guardian, will receive the 
immediate and kind consideration of the Prudential Com 
mittee, who will make an arrangement for their return home, 
and provide for them the best guardianship in their power. 

4. The allowances made on account of the children of living 
missionaries or assistant missionaries, wherever the children 
may be educated, shall be charged to the mission to which the 
parents belong ; and the allowances made on account of orphan 
children shall, in ordinary cases, be charged to the mission to 
which the parents belonged at the time of their decease. 

5. Such are the multiplied cares and duties of the Pruden 
tial Committee, and the Treasurer and Secretaries, that it is 
not regarded as practicable or expedient for them to undertake 
the guardianship of the children sent to this country. 

The sixty dollars given to a boy, and the fifty to a girl, 
annually, until eighteen years of age, when applied for by the 
parent or guardian, admitting of exceptions in extraordi 
nary cases, were not designed to be sums so large as to 
interfere with outgoings from the natural fountains, which 
exist in blood relationships, early friendships for the parents, etc., 
but rather to stimulate and facilitate their flow. These sums 
have been found neither too large, nor too small, but the happy 
medium. The somewhat peculiar circumstances of this coun 
try have of course been considered the assimilating, absorb 
ing power of society ; the constant intermingling of the great 
social currents ; the ease of obtaining employment and self- 
support ; and the almost unhealthful stimulus to activity in 
all the departments of life, often rendering it difficult to re 
tain children long enough under parental guardianship and 
control ; the whole inseparable from the rapidly developing 



280 THE MISSIONS. 

resources of a vast, new country. The leading object is to 
bring returned missionary children into the great social cur 
rents ; and this is best secured by giving free scope for the 
operation of blood relationships and friendships, and for the 
freest intermixture with native-born children in the schools 
and employments of the parental home and country. 

Every human system has its hardships, but the results to 
the returned children of missionaries now a considerable 
number have been at least as favorable as with the children 
of pastors. 

To facilitate the working of the entire system, books are 
kept by the Secretaries, in which a page is devoted to each 
returned missionary, widow, and child, with such entries of 
facts and grants as secure a prompt action on every request. 

Schools and asylums for missionary children have some 
times been urged upon the Board. It is believed that the 
missionaries would now generally object to them, for the 
reasons above stated. Some of the best friends of the cause 
have also been in favor of instituting a permanent fund for 
superannuated and disabled missionaries, and for the children 
of missionaries. But it is the opinion of the Board, that the 
existing mode of providing for disabled missionaries and the 
children of missionaries, is preferable to one which should 
have a permanent fund for its basis more simple, more 
humane, more effective, more in accordance with the social 
condition and institutions of our country ; no more a charity ; 
much less like a pension ; less liable to perversion ; with bet 
ter effect on missionaries and their children ; more accordant 
with the natural laws under which God places his children ; 
and less likely to interfere with the ordinary receipts of the 
Board. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE CHURCHES. 

Relation of Missionaries to Native Churches and Pastors Organization of Churches 
among the Armenians. In Syria. Among the Nestorians. Among the Mahrattas. 
In the Arcot Mission. At Madras. In the Madura District. Corporate Powers 
of the Missions. Churches in Ceylon. Caste and Polygamy. Churches in the 
Sandwich Islands. Among the Cherokees. Among the Choctaws. Slavery. Tab 
ular View of the Churches. 

IT will be a convenient and suitable introduction to this 
chapter, to quote the response made by the Prudential Com 
mittee, in the year 1856, to the request of the Committee of 
Thirteen on the Deputation to India, for their views on the 
relation of missionaries to the native churches and pastors. 

ORGANIZATION OP CHURCHES. 

In general, a missionary will gather his first church at his 
station. But he will find, sooner or later, that God has given 
him seals of his ministry in other places ; and the question 
will be forced upon him, Ought I to form these scattered sheep 
into a separate flock ? It may be difficult at times to answer 
this inquiry. The proper solution will not depend solely on 
the number of candidates for membership in the new church, 
for ten in one case may be worth more than twenty in another ; 
or on the number of men who are to join it, as five may be 
enough in one case, while more would hardly suffice in 
another ; or on the materials for office-bearers, as it may some 
times be expedient to organize a church without any officers ; 
or on the installation of a native pastor at an early day, for 
this is by no means indispensable. It would seem, however, 
that the missionary should be able to answer the following 

(281) 



282 THE MISSIONS. 

questions in the affirmative : Can I provide a competent guide 
and teacher, ordained or unordained, for the proposed church ? 
Will the gospel have a freer entrance to the unevangelized 
masses by reason of such a step ? 

As soon as possible, every church should have its own native 
pastor, the members, on their part, contributing for his sup 
port according to their ability, and he, on his part, adapting 
himself in a reasonable degree thereto. Such aid as the mis 
sion may render should be considered as supplemental and 
temporary. And not only should the pecuniary burden be 
thrown upon the church as fast as possible ; the responsibility 
of government should also be assumed at the proper time. 

In the first instance, missionaries are obliged to form 
churches and ordain pastors. They have the requisite power, 
because it is essential to their work. What they are to do 
beyond this early stage of ecclesiastical development, it is not 
for us to say. The subject is not within our sphere. It is 
wholly in the hands of the missionaries ; and on no account 
should it be interfered with. They have the right to decline 
forming any ecclesiastical organization for themselves, retain 
ing their connection with presbyteries, classes, associations, 
etc., in this country ; or, to assume one that shall embrace the 
native churches and pastors. In the contingency first sup 
posed, they will give to the native churches and ministry such an 
organization as they may think best, to be afterward modified 
by the latter or not, according to their own free choice. In 
the second contingency, it is presumed, they will not feel at 
liberty to go outside of the principles of ecclesiastical order 
which are recognized by the denominations represented in the 
Board. 

And in no case should there be any ecclesiastical control 
exercised by missionaries over the native churches and minis 
ters, save that which may grow out of the action of bodies 
composed of both elements. A wise disbursement of funds 
will provide all the checks which are necessary or proper. 

And this leads us to speak of a fundamental principle of 
great importance. The expenditure of money should always 



THE CHURCHES. 283 

be the act of a mission. It can never be intrusted to an eccle 
siastical body, however constituted ; because, in such an event, 
there can be no just accountability. By our present system 
the Prudential Committee are responsible to the Board for all 
the moneys received into the treasury ; and the missions are 
responsible to the Committee for all the moneys sent to their 
respective fields. The Board, therefore, know where to look ; 
and the Committee know where to look. Every dollar can be 
followed to its place of disbursement. Any other plan would 
be fatally defective. 

We are expected to state our convictions in regard to the 
expediency of forming ecclesiastical bodies that shall combine 
the missionary and the native elements. This is a question of 
peculiar delicacy. Still, as we have disclaimed all right of 
interference in such matters, and shall be understood to express 
an opinion merely, we will venture to say that we consider 
such a union undesirable. 

At this point it will be necessary to inquire more particularly 
into the exact position which a missionary occupies. 

He is a foreigner. No matter how closely he may have 
identified himself with his calling ; in his relations to the peo 
ple among whom he dwells, he is only a stranger. He remains 
a citizen of the United States. If laid aside from his labors, 
he returns here. If he dies, his family return here. On the 
other hand, the natives will always regard him as one from a 
distant land. His speech, his dress, his food, each bewrayeth 
him. They may honor him greatly, and love him much ; but 
one of themselves he can never be. 

His work is temporary. It may, indeed, outlast his life ; 
still, it is destined, with God s blessing, to have an end. When 
the churches shall have reached a certain point, he expects to 
move forward. He is like the general who penetrates the ene 
my s country just as fast as he can secure the key-points. 

His duties are peculiar. He is an evangelist. When he 
gathers churches, it is not to be their pastor ; he raises up 
others to take this charge and burden. True, he may act as a 
pastor for a time ; but it is simply from necessity. His sphere 
is aggression, conquest. 

38 



284 THE MISSIONS. 

He is also a disbursing agent. He must have money, not 
only for his own support, but for other objects. He must sus 
tain schools, employ assistants, and scatter abroad the word 
of life. To this end a weighty trust is committed to him. 

Is it expedient that such men should form ecclesiastical rela 
tions with the native churches and pastors ? We think not. 
It seems to us that simplicity of arrangement is against it. 
The true and abiding elements in the ecclesiastical body are 
the native churches and the native ministry. Why, therefore, 
should the missionary element be introduced, when there is no 
necessity for it ? And congruity is against it. The mission 
ary and the native pastors can never sustain precisely the same 
relations to their common work. "There is a radical, insur 
mountable diversity. 

Separate action will be for the advantage of all parties. 
The independence of the native element will be more sure. 
If missionaries are in the ecclesiastical body, they will exert, 
almost of necessity, a predominating influence: The power 
of self-government will be best developed in this way. The 
native churches and ministers must have responsibilities to 
bear before they can learn how to bear them. By this plan 
there will be less danger of embarrassment and disorder when 
the missionaries leave for " regions beyond." 

On the other hand, the mission will do its work with the 
greatest freedom if it act only as a mission. United with the 
native element, it will often be obliged to consider questions in 
a twofold capacity. This may be very undesirable. Suppose, 
for example, the missionaries to be outvoted by the native 
churches and pastors, in a matter which involves the expendi 
ture of money. When they take up the subject as a mission, 
they will find themselves in a position of special difficulty. 
As members of the ecclesiastical body, though in a minority, 
they are bound to yield to its decision ; as members of the 
mission, in view of their pecuniary accountableness, they may 
feel constrained to nullify the act. 

It may be said that the native body will need the wisdom 
and experience of the missionaries. But all the assistance 



THE CHURCHES. 285 

which is desirable, it would seem, may be obtained in the form 
of counsel. The advisory influence which may be exerted 
according to some natural arrangement, and the regulating 
power which necessarily grows out of the disbursement of 
money, will probably suffice for the happiest development of 
the churches that may be formed in any part of the world. 

The actual proceedings of the missionaries will appear in the 
concise statement which follows, concerning native churches 
and other ecclesiastical bodies in the several missions. 



WESTERN ASIA. 

The mission to the Armenians was the first to give a regular 
organization to its native churches. This it did at its annual 
meeting in June, 1846, at the request of native brethren after 
they had been expelled from their national church for not 
conforming to its idolatrous practices. Three forms of church 
government were represented at the meeting of the missiona 
ries, but there was a perfect agreement among them.* 

The first three articles of the plan of organization were 
these : 

1. The officers of the Evangelical Armenian Church shall 
consist of elders or bishops, (called also pastors, etc.,) and 
deacons, to be chosen by the male members of the church, 
and set apart by prayer and the imposition of hands. 

2. In the first Evangelical Armenian church in Constanti 
nople there shall be, for the present, one elder or bishop, and 
two deacons ; it being understood that the number of either 
may hereafter be increased, as circumstances demand. 

3. Inasmuch as discipline, according to the Scriptures, 
(1 Cor. v. 4 and 2 Cor. ii. 6,) belongs not to the clergy alone, 
but with them to the people, and inasmuch as it is not always 
convenient nor expedient for the whole church to come together 

* For a full statement of the Plan of Organization, Confession of Faith, 
Covenant, Rules of Discipline, etc., see Appendix to the Annual Report for 
1846, pp. 238-244, and Missionary Herald for 1846, pp. 317-320, 



286 THE MISSIONS. 

for this purpose, they shall choose three or more brethren as 
" helps," " governments," (1 Cor. xii. 28,) to form, with the 
pastor and deacons, a church session or standing committee, 
for the examination of candidates for .admission into the 
church and the administration of discipline. 

The fourth provides that one half of the session or com 
mittee be elected annually. The next article is quoted 
entire : 

5. The first bishops or pastors and deacons, chosen by the 
church, shall be set apart to their office by prayer and the 
imposition of hands, in the presence of the church, by mis 
sionaries of the American Board, and such other ministers of 
Christ as may be invited to assist ; it being understood that 
this is merely a rule of present expediency and convenience ; 
and also, that it belongs to the Evangelical Armenian church 
to provide, thereafter, for the ordination of its own officers, 
according to the apostolic example. 

Candidates for admission to the church, who give satisfac 
tory evidence of piety to the standing committee or church 
session, are to be proposed by the pastor at a regular meeting 
of the church, two weeks previous to the communion : the 
male members vote on the question of their admission ; and 
they are received on assenting to the confession of faith and 
the covenant, which is done in the presence of the church. 

The rules of discipline provide for the trial of offenders as 
follows : " The trial of persons for offenses shall be conducted 
by the standing committee or church session, who, after a 
thorough and impartial investigation of the case, shall report 
their decision to the male members of the church, with the 
written evidence for and against the accused, the final sen 
tence being passed by vote of the church." 

Obstinate cases of disagreement between the church and the 
standing committee are to be referred to a meeting of the 
pastors and delegates of the associated churches. And mem 
bers aggrieved by the decision of the standing committee or 
session and church, may, in like manner, appeal to the same 
body, whose decision, in all cases, is to be final. To this body 



THE CHURCHES. 287 

it belongs, also, to try an accused minister, with power to sus 
pend or depose him from the ministry.* After being thus 
deposed, he is to be " subject to the discipline of the church 
to which he belongs, in the same way as other private 
members." 

The first church was organized July 1, 1846, at Pera, the 
suburb of Constantinople, in which the foreign embassadors 
reside, and where the missionaries commenced operations. It 
soon afterward elected a pastor, two deacons, and three helpers. 
The ordination was on the 8th of July, by an ecclesiastical 
council invited by the church, consisting of missionaries of 
the Board, and one from the mission of the Free Church of 
Scotland to the Jews. The services were in the Turkish and 
Armenian languages. This church is now self-supporting, 
and its pastor, the Rev. K. H. S. Eutujian, addressed the 
Board at its Jubilee Meeting. 

Churches on this ecclesiastical basis were soon after formed 
in Nicomedia, Ada Bazar, and Trebizond. At the present time 
there are forty churches among the Armenians, and twelve 
hundred and seventy-seven members. The number received 
the past year exceeded two hundred, and the number from the 

* In a volume called The Evangelical Church Member s Guide, published 
by the mission in Armenian, this body is spoken of under the name of the 
Presbyterial Assembly, or Presbytery. Dr. Wood, one of the Secretaries of 
the Board, was formerly connected with the Armenian mission, and has trans 
lated from this Guide as follows : 

The ecclesiastical assemblies, commonly denned, are of four kinds or 
grades : 

1 . The gathering of all the members of a particular church, with its pastors 
and officers. This is called the Assembly (or meeting) of the Church. 

2. The pastor of the church, with the helpers and deacon or deacons. This 
is the Assembly of the Care-takers, (session, consistory, standing committee.) 

3. The pastors and representatives of all the churches in a particular district. 
This is the Presbyterial Assembly, (presbytery, classis, consociation.) 

4. A general ecclesiastical convocation, composed of representatives of all 
the churches of every district. This is designated the General Assembly. 

The words in parentheses were supplied by the translator as explanatory ; 
and he says, "The office of these several bodies is denned in accordance with 
the plan adopted in 1846 the General Assembly being declared a bond of 
union merely, without legislative or judicial functions." 



288 THE MISSIONS. 

beginning is fourteen hundred and fifty. There are seven 
native pastors, and somewhat more than thirty licensed native 
preachers. 

The native Protestants in Syria were probably induced to 
move for an ecclesiastical organization among themselves by the 
action of their Armenian brethren. On the 9th of February, 
1848, they presented a petition and a plan for organization to 
the mission, then assembled at Beirut. Certain modifications 
were suggested by the mission to the native brethren, in view 
of the Constitution and Discipline of the Evangelical Arme 
nian Church, " in order that their organization might not ma 
terially differ from that already recognized in other parts of 
the empire." * The only important divergence is in the fol 
lowing article : " When the evangelical churches in Syria 
become three or more in number, the cases of disagreement in 
the particular churches shall be referred to a regular council 
of the elders and delegates of the other sister churches, each 
church choosing one delegate ; and the decision of such coun 
cil shall be final." 

Three churches have been formed within the bounds of the 
Syria mission, containing an aggregate of one hundred and 
nineteen members, of whom nineteen were added the past 
year. As yet there are no native pastors. 

The- reason for organizing distinct evangelical churches in 
Turkey has been stated. The converts were subjected to 
excommunication, and even outlawry, by their ecclesiastical 
authorities. Matters have not gone to such an extreme among 
the Nestorians of Persia. Though the Patriarch, lately de 
ceased, has been hostile to the reformation, he has ventured 
to excommunicate no one, not even the Bishop Mar Yohanan, 
who had violated the usage of the bishops of his church by 
marrying, after the example of Luther and the apostles. A 
brother of the Patriarch has been one of the most efficient 

* For the Petition, Constitution, and Discipline in full, see Missionary Her 
ald for 1848, pp. 266-270. 



THE CHURCHES. 289 

fellow-laborers of the mission. The good old bishop, Mar 
Elia, " dispensing with the usual mummeries and readings in 
a dead language," lately united with the missionaries in the 
ordination of a promising young mountain Nestorian, " ac 
cording to apostolic forms," as an evangelist. The mission 
has believed that the cause of Christ would not be promoted 
among that people, thus far, by the organizing of distinct 
local churches. But a separation of the true church from 
the world has been deemed needful, and about the year 1855, 
the mission adopted the practice of inviting the hopeful con 
verts to communion with the mission church, after there had 
been a careful personal examination into the experience and 
life of each individual. A communion season in January, 
1858, is thus described : " The whole day was given up to 
religious services. An early morning prayer meeting was 
held, and soon after breakfast the people assembled again for 
the same purpose, and continued together till near noon, when 
there was a recess for refreshments. This might not inaptly 
be termed a love-feast, where large companies sat down to a 
plain repast, and ate bread together with gladness and single 
ness of heart, praising God. Previous to the administration 
of the Lord s Supper, a translation of the covenant of the 
mission church was read, and the communicants all rose with 
us and gave their assent to it. It was a scene of solemn and 
thrilling interest to the Nestorians, and we have reason to 
believe its effect was most happy. The great severity of the 
season prevented many females at a distance, most of them 
mothers of little children, from coming. Some incidents will 
show how the ordinance, administered in the primitive sim 
plicity of apostolic usage, is prized as a means of grace. One 
poor woman came about sixty miles, through deep snow, in 
piercing cold, crossing a bleak mountain, to enjoy the hal 
lowed occasion. Two individuals came a greater distance, 
from another direction. These seasons are growing in inter 
est, and are eminently a means of advancement in the divine 
life, and of spiritual edification to Christ s chosen ones here." * 

* Missionary Herald for 1858, p. 155. 



290 THE MISSIONS. 

Four hundred persons had been thus recognized by the mis 
sion, at the close of the year 1860, of whom three hundred 
and eighty-five were then in full communion. The native 
communicants have become so numerous, that the ordinance 
is now administered in different places. Lights thus kindled 
without the pale of the Nestorian Church, (yet, in another 
sense, within,) are working a gradual but sure separation 
between the precious and the vile, and exerting a strong 
reforming influence.* 

INDIA. 

In the oldest mission of the Board that among the Mah- 
rattas of Western India churches existed in 1854 at Bom 
bay, Ahmednuggur, Seroor, and Satara, with an aggregate of 
about one hundred and sixty members, with no native office 
bearers at that time, and with the most primitive simplicity of 
form. A Presbyterian church had been formed at Ahmed 
nuggur in March, 1833, consisting of fourteen members, ten 
of them Hindoos, with a native elder and a native deacon ; 
but the denominational character of the church was not long 
preserved. We have no information as to the time when it 
ceased, or of the reasons for the change. The church at Ah 
mednuggur was divided into two churches in 1854, a native 
pastor was ordained over each, deacons were appointed, and 
arrangements made for forming village churches. Eight such 
churches now exist in the region about Ahmednuggur ; and 
the number of members in the thirteen churches of the whole 
mission is three hundred and ninety-six. Nearly seventy new 
members were received in the year 1859. There are at pres 
ent four native pastors. 

In June, 1856, before the reunion of the several missions, 
the Ahmednuggur mission drew up the following plan for the 
native churches, on which it is supposed those churches will 
manage their ecclesiastical affairs : 

* Annual Report of the Board, 1860, p. 85. 



THE CHURCHES. 291 

The native churches under the care of the Ahmed nuggur 
mission shall each have a deacon, or deacons, and a pastor 
when one can be obtained. When a pastor can not be ob 
tained, the missionary in charge of the field in which the 
church is situated shall act as pastor of the church. 

In the introduction of members to the church, in the dis 
cipline of the church, in the election of a pastor and deacons, 
and in all other business which may come before the church, 
the male members of the church in good standing shall be 
regarded as the fountain of authority, and the majority of 
votes of these members, assembled in a meeting regularly 
called, shall decide every question. 

At the meetings of the church, the missionary acting as 
pastor shall have no vote, though he may express his opinions 
when he thinks best. 

It shall be competent for any church to choose a committee, 
or appoint elders, who, with the pastor, shall be empowered to 
perform the business of the church, and decide all those ques 
tions which are mentioned above as to be decided by the major 
ity of votes of male members of the church. 

The native pastors shall be formed into a Presbytery, (if 
they approve this plan,) the duties and forms of which are 
hereafter explained. 

The Presbytery shall consist of the pastors of I churches 
under its care, and of a delegate from each church. 

Three pastors shall form a quorum competent to perform 
the regular business of the Presbytery. 

The missionaries shall form no part of the Presbytery ; but 
the mission may appoint some one or more of its members to 
attend the meetings of the Presbytery, to give advice in mat 
ters of difficulty ; but no one shall be allowed to vote on any 
question of business except the regular members of the Pres 
bytery. 

The Presbytery shall have power to Ifcense men to preach 

the gospel, and to withdraw the license ; to ordain pastors and 

evangelists, and to depose ministers who, after a regular trial, 

are found unworthy to remain in that office; and to do all 

39 



292 THE MISSIONS. 

other acts connected with the discipline of ministers usually 
devolving upon the Presbytery thus relieving the mission 
entirely of those ecclesiastical duties which from necessity it 
has temporarily been called upon to perform. 

The Presbytery shall also receive appeals from churches 
under its care in reference to difficulties which the church can 
not settle, and shall adjudicate the same according to the 
teachings of the word of God, and the principles laid down 
in the Book of Discipline of the Presbyterian Churches of 
Scotland and America. 

The Arcot mission had five churches in 1857, with one hun 
dred and twenty-six members. These churches are formed 
on the doctrines and rules of the Reformed Dutch Church, 
with which the members of the mission are connected. Native 
pastors are to be united with the missionaries in a classis. 

The two churches in the Madras mission contain seventy- 
four members. They are assimilated to the Scotch churches 
of that city, and perhaps form a part of the Presbytery of 
Madras. 

The ten churches in the Madura mission numbered five 
hundred and seventy-one members in 1855. The number in 
the following year was six hundred and seventy-seven. The 
present number is ten hundred and twelve ; and there are now 
twenty-eight churches eleven being at the stations, and sev- 
eventeen formed elsewhere. The Mandahasalie district has 
nine churches ; Periaculum, seven ; and Madura city, Dindigul, 
and Tirumungalum, two each. There are six native pastors. 
A seventh, ordained in 1855, and the first in the series, has 
removed to Madras, and is acting pastor of the church at 
Eoyapurum. 

The mission wrote as follows in 1851 : " When the Holy 
Spirit blesses the truth, and converts a portion of the people. 
we are to receive all who give evidence of piety into the visible 
catholic church, and afterward to form them into associations 
resembling, so far as circumstances admit, the churches planted 
by the apostles. We are then to watch over and teach these 



THE CHURCHES. 295 

Christians to act for themselves, and in due time ordain over 
them suitable native pastors." A constitution of the Ecclesi 
astical Association of the American Madura Mission, as revised 
in 1851, lies before us. There is no account of its formation, 
and the deputation heard no mention made of it during their 
sojourn with the mission in 1855. It was composed of the 
members of the mission de facto. While the churches were in 
their infancy, every ordained missionary was recognized as hav 
ing the right, in his own proper district, to organize churches, 
judge of the qualifications necessary for church membership, 
receive members, and excommunicate for immoral conduct. 
As the native helpers sustained a general relation to the mis 
sion, they could not be disciplined without the consent of the 
Association. Licensure to preach the gospel belonged to the 
Association, as also the discipline of its own members ; and it 
was made its duty, as soon as practicable, to prepare and rec 
ommend to the mission churches a system of church and 
ecclesiastical polity best adapted to promote their purity and 
increase. Except, perhaps, in a single church, no native office 
bearers were appointed previous to 1855. 

The district of Mandahasalie was, and still is, under the care 
of the Rev. H. S. Taylor. On the 25th of May, 185T, Mr. Tay 
lor met the two native pastors, with delegates from six of the 
seven native churches within the bounds of his district. Cer 
tain rules for an ecclesiastical union had been previously sent 
to the several churches for their consideration, and these were 
now adopted. The Mandahasalie Christian Sungkum, or 
Society, was thus formed, composed of the native pastors and 
delegates of the churches in the Mandahasalie district. The 
missionary was enrolled merely as an adviser. Village con 
gregations where no churches had been formed were allowed 
to send delegates, who might speak in the meetings, but not 
vote. Churches must hold the common confession of faith in 
order to come into the union. The object of the Sungkum 
was to seek the good of the churches. The churches could ask 
its advice, or it could give advice unasked, if it thought proper. 
Respecting the organization of new churches, and the ordina- 



294 THE MISSIONS. 

tion of pastors, the Sungkum could do these things, or seek 
to have them performed by the mission.* 

The Madura mission denied the right of this body to ordain 
native pastors with an understanding or implied pledge, that 
those pastors should be aided in their support by the mission 
funds, unless the previous consent of the mission had been 
obtained. The matter was referred to the Prudential Com 
mittee, and it will be seen, from their reply, that they fully 
sustained the judgment of the mission. They wrote as fol 
lows : 

Having no ecclesiastical authority, the Board can confer 
none. Its principle is " entire non-intervention, on the part of 
the Board and its officers, on the whole subject of ecclesiastical 
relations and organizations." And the province of the mis 
sions, in all that they do in virtue of authority derived from 
the Board, is, in the language of the Board, " to decide upon 
the places where labor shall be performed, and the persons 
and instrumentalities to be employed, and the distribution of 
funds." In respect to all matters such as these, the brethren 
assemble and act under the authority of the Board, and 
appeals may be taken, on all such matters, to the Prudential 
Committee. These, indeed, are among the positive duties of 
the mission, as an agency constituted by the Board, which it 
may not delegate to any other bodies. 

But, as indicated above, ministers and missionaries of 
Christ, however brought together, have other relations besides 
those sustained to the Board, and other responsibilities and 
duties besides those for which the Board holds them directly 
accountable to itself. It is from another and higher source 
they derive their authority to organize churches, and ordain 
preachers and pastors. It is not for us to say how these duties 
can best be performed, except that all can see, since one part of 
the work namely, the financial is necessarily managed by 
the entire body of missionaries, how desirable it is that there 
be unity of action in the management of the other part. 

* Missionary Herald for 1857, p. 306. 



THE CHURCHES. 295 

There is nothing in the rules or proceedings of the Board to 
prevent the brethren acting together for these objects, under 
Christ s commission, as a mission, if they choose so to do. 
Only it should be distinctly understood by every one, that 
they are then acting as a body of ministers, in their ecclesias 
tical relations and capacity ; and it will be found useful, and 
it is recommended, that there be a record of these proceed 
ings, distinct and separate from that of the other class of pro 
ceedings. 

What is said of the ecclesiastical organizations in connec 
tion with the Ceylon mission, rests chiefly on the very com 
petent authority of the Rev. Benjamin C. Meigs, one of the 
first company of missionaries sent by the Board to that island. 
The missionaries formed themselves into a church on their 
first arrival in 1816. Being all from the Congregational body, 
the church of course assumed that form. Native converts 
were received into this church until 1831, when, for greater 
convenience in exercising necessary discipline, separate 
churches were formed, one at each station ; the missionaries, 
at the same time, constituting themselves into an association 
" for mutual aid in regulating the concerns of the different 
churches." This body was called the " Consociation or Pres 
bytery." There being no elders in the local churches, there 
were of course none in this body, nor was there ever a lay 
representation from the churches. At the quarterly com 
munions, when the churches all met in one place, some of the 
native preachers were requested to distribute the bread and 
wine. Deacons do not appear to have been appointed in more 
than one of the station churches : they certainly were in the 
village churches, when they received native pastors. " In 
the government of the church," says the venerable missionary, 
" the native members seemed disposed to put the laboring oar 
into the hands of the missionaries. This, however, we resisted. 
It was our constant object to train all the male members of 
the church to feel their responsibility ; and that they had an 
important part to perform, both in the examination of candi- 



296 THE MISSIONS. 

dates for communion, and in the discipline of the church. 
We very rarely took any step without their approbation, or at 
least the concurrence of a majority of the male members." 
From 1835 or 1836 to 1840, the word Consociation was 
dropped from the name of the mission when acting as a gen 
eral ecclesiastical body, and then it was resumed ; but there 
were no other changes. The body was made up of the ordained 
missionaries, the unordained missionary physician, and the 
missionary printer, who was a layman. It obviously had more 
authority than an Association, and less than a Presbytery, but 
differed in its constitution from an Association, Consociation, 
or Presbytery. Cases of discipline in the mission families, 
should such arise, were to be attended to in this body, and not 
in the native churches. In 1855, the mission began the 
organization of village churches separate from those which 
had their centers at the residence of the missionaries, and the 
ordination of native pastors over those churches ; and about 
the same time they discontinued the somewhat indefinite 
ecclesiastical name, acting simply as a body of missionaries. 
There are now three village churches and pastors. In what 
manner these are to be ecclesiastically united, seems not yet 
decided. It was thought best to reorganize the missionaries 
and their families in a church, as on their first arrival ; but 
this was a private matter, for the benefit of those families, 
with no direct bearing on the natives. 

Caste is one of the greatest social evils in India, and is 
thoroughly discountenanced by all the missions under the care 
of the Board. It is an evil, like intemperance in our own 
country, that requires a perpetual watch and perpetual effort ; 
and thus it will be for a long time to come. It connects itself 
with notions of family rank and consequence, and of the value 
of dowry ; and many native Christians seem too desirous of 
retaining their connections with their heathen relatives, and 
too fearful of the consequences that would follow from break 
ing wholly with the world. The following pledge was signed 
by about ninety of the leading members of the church, in con- 



THE CHURCHES. 297 

with the Ceylon mission, in 1855, namely : " We, the 
undersigned, do solemnly pledge ourselves and affirm, that we 
will wholly renounce in ourselves, and discountenance in oth 
ers, all caste and other distinctions and usages in society, which 
tend to ^foster pride, impair the affections, and hinder the 
kindly offices of Christian love, and that we will not object to 
eating any kind of food, on account of the caste of the person 
or persons by whom it was cooked or offered to us." And the 
mission declared its intention of carrying out this declaration, 
both in the spirit and letter. " In the formation of future vil 
lage churches," they say, " in the appointment of officers, and 
in the ordination of pastors over them, every precaution will 
be taken to proceed upon correct principles in reference to 
caste." 

The action of the India missions during the visit of the 
deputation, with regard to polygamy, was explicit and satisfac 
tory. The Mahratta mission came to the following result: 
" When a legal divorce can be effected, it should always be 
required before an individual be admitted to the church. The 
only cases of real difficulty which present themselves to our 
minds are when a legal divorce can not be effected. We be 
lieve, however, that it is not expedient to admit any one to the 
church, even in such cases, without his giving a written pledge 
to the church that he will no longer cohabit with more than 
one wife, and that he will also, if necessary, support the wife 
thus put away so long as she shall lead a virtuous life. Such 
a man, though unable to free himself from the legal relation 
of husband to the person thus put away, we believe to be free 
from the guilt of polygamy, and hence a proper candidate for 
admission to the church." 

The Madura mission laid down this principle : " That as 
polygamy is contrary to the original design of the Deity in the 
institution of the marriage relation, and opposed to all the 
teachings of Christ, and as there is no positive evidence that 
the apostles ever admitted polygarnists into the churches estab 
lished by them, no polygamist, however well fitted he may be 
in other respects, should be admitted to any of our churches 



298 THE MISSIONS. 

until he has entered into covenant with the church that he 
will henceforth be the husband of only one wife." 

No polygamists have ever been received into the church in 
the Ceylon mission, nor, indeed, into those of any other of our 
India missions ; and it was the expectation of the^missions 
that none ever would be received. The brethren in Arcot say, 
" Polygamy has not existed, and will not be allowed to exist, 
in any of our churches." 

Among the Zulus, polygamy prevails in its most revolting 
and debasing form, and constitutes one of the greatest obsta 
cles to the introduction of the gospel. A high English eccle 
siastic having declared his intention not to interfere with the 
married life of the Zulus, and having reflected on the prac 
tice of his American brethren, a public discussion was the con 
sequence. ".The discussion," they state, "has resulted in 
confirming us more and more in the conviction, that our rule," 
excluding polygamists from the mission churches, " is good 
is right just what God and the interests of his kingdom 
demand of us, and demand of the people among whom we 
labor." 

SANDWICH ISLANDS. 

The first missionary company for the Sandwich Islands was 
constituted a church in Boston, October 15, 1819, just before 
embarkation. The mission church consisted of seventeen 
members, viz. : the two missionaries and the five assistants, 
with their wives, and three natives of the Sandwich Islands, 
all of whom had previously belonged to other churches, and 
were in regular standing. The covenant and articles of faith 
were drawn up with great care and solemnity The religious 
services were in the vestry of Park-street Church, by Drs. Morse 
and Worcester, and by Rev. Sereno E. Dwight, pastor of the 
church. The articles and covenant were assented to and sub 
scribed by the members, in the presence of many Christian 
friends.* For several years the new missionaries appear to 

* Missionary Herald for 1819, p. 263. 



THE CHURCHES. 299 

have joined this church on arriving at the Islands. The first 
mention that has been found of the formation of native 
churches was in 1829. In 1834, there were seven churches, 
and the number of members up to that time was seven hun 
dred and ninety-five. The years 1837 and 1838 were distin 
guished for one of the most remarkable outpourings of the 
Spirit on record. About five thousand converts were received 
in one year, from June, 1837, into the seventeen churches then 
existing.* The admissions in the following year were ten 
thousand seven hundred and twenty-five ; and there were 
then fifteen thousand nine hundred and fifteen members in 
regular standing. This number was increased, the next year, 
to eighteen thousand four hundred and fifty-one. The average 
number of persons admitted, annually, to the churches, in the 
eighteen years subsequent to 1841, (1842-1859,) was one 
thousand four hundred and twenty-three. At the latest date 
there were twenty-three churches, and fourteen thousand four 
hundred and thirteen members. The number from the begin 
ning is forty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight; 
and sixteen thousand three hundred and fifty-two have died. 

The mission has been accustomed to hold a general meeting, 
in the month of May, for Christian fellowship and the transac 
tion of business. But it having been virtually discontinued, 
some eight or ten years since, as an organized body, the Ha 
waiian Evangelical Association took its place, holding its annual 
meeting at the same time, and transacting the customary busi 
ness of the missionary body. This association was formed as 
early as 1823, " for mutual improvement and aid in laying the 
foundation, maintaining the order, and building up the house 
of the Lord in these islands of the sea." In 1830, the origi 
nal missionary church composed then, it would seem, only of 
persons who were or had been members of the mission was 
converted, by the Association, into a superintending body for 
the native churches. In the following year, the missionary 
pastors at the several stations were requested to prepare some 

* Report of the Board, 1839, p. 128. 
40 



300 THE MISSIONS. 

of the more promising church members to be set apart as 
elders. In 1835, the Association adopted the Presbyterian 
rules of discipline as their general guide. The act of 1830, 
respecting the mission church, was set aside by the Asso 
ciation in 1839, which then recommended, that the several 
pastors and churches elect ruling elders, and that the pastor 
and elders of each church constitute a session, or committee, 
for the government of that church. It was also recommended 
" that those churches which may prefer the Congregational 
form of government, be at liberty to a$opt it at their discre 
tion ; providing always, that the doings of such churches be 
subject to the review and control of the Presbytery, and also 
that they be represented in the Presbytery by their pastor and 
a delegate from each church." It entered into this plan of 
organization, that there be a Presbytery on each of the four 
large islands, to be composed of ministers and ruling elders, or 
delegates, which should " unite in one General Council, to 
meet at such times and places as shall be agreed upon from 
time to time, and exercise a general review and control over all 
the individual Presbyteries." Appeals were to be " from the 
church session, or congregation, to the Presbytery, and from 
thence to the General Council." 

It afterward appeared that there were brethren who dis 
sented from this action ; though Presbyteries are said to have 
been formed on the Islands of Katiai, Maui, and Hawaii, prior 
to 1841. Neither of them was permanent, and it may be they 
were premature. They could hardly have been in operation 
in 1846, for we find the Association then adopting the follow 
ing resolution : " That the brethren, clerical and lay, of each 
island, or a number of clergymen not less than three, be ap 
pointed a committee of this body, to examine and license such 
native church members as they shall judge suitable candidates 
for the ministry." 

In 1854, the mission, as has been intimated, voted to transact 
their annual business in the sessions of the Hawaiian Evan 
gelical Association, having first revised and enlarged its consti 
tution. The Association was now empowered, 1. To examine, 



THE CHURCHES. 301 

license, and ordain candidates for the gospel ministry, install 
and dismiss pastors, and perform all proper ecclesiastical busi 
ness that might come before them ; 2. To entertain references 
from pastors, churches, or any other ecclesiastical bodies, and 
labor by its counsels to promote the purity and unity of the 
churches ; 3. To exercise the functions of an ecclesiastical 
court, in respect to any of its members who might be cited 
before it on charges of criminal or disorderly conduct, or for 
heretical opinions. 

A Presbytery was formed for the Islands of Maui and Mo- 
lokai in July, 1860= At its first meeting it licensed two 
young natives as preachers, and ordained a native pastor as 
assistant of Mr. Alexander, at Wailuku. In October follow 
ing, an Evangelical Association was formed at Hilo for the 
Island of Hawaii, consisting of all the missionaries on the 
island, with an equal number of lay delegates from the native 
churches. About a hundred honorary delegates were ad 
mitted to sit and deliberate with the Association, but not to 
vote. There are as yet no native pastors on Hawaii. Two 
preachers received license. The exercises, continued through 
a week, were all in the Hawaiian tongue, and greatly inter 
ested the native members and spectators.* These organiza 
tions, and other similar ones to be formed on the other islands, 
will have an auspicious bearing on the native pastorate, and 
on the perpetuity of the native churches. f 

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

The first church among the Cherokees was organized at 
Brainerd, during the visit of Mr. Cornelius, on the last Sab 
bath in September, 1817. Churches were subsequently 
formed at Carmel, High Tower, Willstown, Candy s Creek, 
and Creek Path. The churches of the mission were con- 

* Missionary Herald, 1861, pp. 65, 67. 

f " We are glad to inform you that an Association or Presbytery has been 
formed in each of the four large islands that of Maui including the church 
in Molokai." Letter of Jum 1, 1861. 



302 THE MISSIONS. 

nected with the Union Presbytery of East Tennessee and the 
Presbytery of North Alabama. The breaking up of the sta 
tions within the chartered limits of the States of Georgia, 
Tennessee, and Alabama, in 1838, and the removal of the 
Cherokees beyond the Mississippi, of course, toroke up these 
churches. The missionaries, in reorganizing churches at 
Dwight, Honey Creek, and elsewhere, after the removal, 
adopted the Congregational rule, which continues to this day. 
John Huss, who was ordained as an evangelist in 1833, took 
the pastoral charge of the church at Honey Creek in 1840, 
where he remained till his death, in 1858. He could speak 
only his own language, but showed what excellent preachers 
and pastors, through the grace of God, we once hoped to find 
among the Cherokees. For thirty-five years he adorned his 
Christian profession, " walking in all the commandments and 
ordinances of the Lord blameless." The only other ordained 
Cherokee preacher was Stephen Foreman, who studied theol 
ogy at the Union and Princeton Seminaries, and was licensed 
by the Union Presbytery in 1833, and by the same ordained 
to the work of the ministry in 1835. He still lives, but has 
been chiefly employed as a translator under the late Dr. 
Worcester. The five churches connected with the mission in 
1859, contained two hundred and forty-eight members. 

The first church among the Choctaws was organized at 
Elliot, March 28, 1819, in the Indian territory east of the 
Mississippi. It consisted at first of only the ten missionary 
brethren and sisters. The mission has since, through the 
divine blessing, taken a strong religious hold upon the Choc- 
taws. After the lapse of forty years, in the year 1859, there 
were twelve Choctaw churches connected with the mission, 
with thirteen hundred and sixty-two members ; and the ac 
cessions to the church in that year were one hundred and 
thirty-two. The churches were under Presbyterian rules, and 
have long been united in a presbytery. Their geographical 
position, both east and west of the Mississippi, naturally con 
nected them with the Presbyterian Church; and after the 
division of that Church, the Choctaw churches preferred to 
be in connection with the Old School body. 



THE CHURCHES. 



303 



The relation of the mission churches to slavery, where that 
has existed, has been the same as that sustained to caste, 
polygamy, and other evils and sins. The qualification required 
for admission to the ordinances of the gospel, has been com 
mon to all the churches in the missions, and also to the 
churches in this country supporting them ; namely, a credible 
profession of faith in Christ, in the judgment of those whose 
duty it is to act in the case. With that principle the Board, 
not being an ecclesiastical body, has had no power to interfere. 
The churches among the Cherokees and Choctaws, acting on 
that principle, have admitted holders of slaves to their com 
munion ; but the statistics show that this class of church 
members has been decreasing for some years. 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE CHURCHES. 



MISSIONS. 


Churches. 


Received the 
last year. 


Present 
number. 


Number from 
tho begin ng. 




1 


6 


15 


38 


Zulu Mission, . 


7 




186 






40 


226 


1,277 


1,450 




3 


19 


119 


157 




1 




19 




Nestorian Mission, 




51 


385 


401 


Mahratta Mission, 


13 


69 


396 


466 


Madras Mission, . . 


2 


11 


74 




Arcot Mission, (1857,) 


5 




126 






28 


78 


1,012 


1,278 




9 


46 


457 






3 


13 


28 


35 




5 




126 


130 


Sandwich Islands, 


23 


573 


14,413 


43,758 


Micronesia Mission, .... 


1 




4 


4 


Cherokees, (1859,) 


5 




248 




Choctaws, (1859,) 


12 


132 


1,362 






2 


5 


91 






3 


27 


283 














Total, 


163 


1,256 


20,621 





CHAPTER VII. 



SCHOOLS. 

Schools in Early Stages of the Missions. COMMON SCHOOLS. Largest Numerical De 
velopment. Sandwich Islands. India Missions. Whole Number of Pupils. 
Value of the Schools. With Heathen Masters. With Christian Masters. China. 

North American Indians. Western Asia. General View. HIGHER SCHOOLS. 
India. Before and after the Introductory Stages. Tamil People. Batticotta Semi 
nary. Oodooville Female School. Pasumalie Seminary. Madura Female School. 

English Language. Higher Vernacular Education. Schools for Small Boys. 
Schools at Ahmednuggur. At Bombay. The American Mission Institution. In 
Syria. Armenians. Nestorians. Choctaws and Cherokees. The Past and Pres 
ent. Use of the English Language. General Results. The Board preeminently 
concerned in Education. The Oahu College. Foreign Youth in this Country. School 
at Cornwall. Great Interest awakened. The Disappointment. Discontinuance. 
Greek and Armenian Youtho Result. Foreign Youth to be educated in their own 
Countries. 

THE American Board has gone largely into education as a 
means of propagating the gospel, especially in the former part 
of the half-century. It results from the nature of the foreign 
missionary enterprise, that schools will be more prominent at 
the outset, than in the more advanced stages of progress. 
They form a part of the machinery most readily put in motion, 
and most appreciated hy the heathen. And where heathen 
teachers are employed, it is possible to institute schools at 
once, and with little danger of opposition. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 

The common schools, or free schools, as they are often 
called, regarded as a part of the missionary organization 
and action, are subject to considerable variety and fluctuation. 
Their largest numerical development has generally been in 
the earlier stages of the mission. This was remarkably the 
case at the Sandwich Islands. In 1830 and the two following 

(304; 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 305 

years, the number of pupils on these Islands was reported for 
those years respectively, in round numbers, at thirty-nine 
thousand, forty-five thousand, and fifty-three thousand. This 
was before the great religious awakening, which commenced 
in 1837 Learning to read was easy, with their simple alpha 
bet, and it seemed to form a part of the great national revolu 
tion. By far the largest portion of the pupils were adults, 
who attended as their ordinary occupations would permit. 
The teachers were from among the people, and gained their 
knowledge by spending a few months at the station schools, 
under the immediate supervision of the missionaries. The 
number of these teachers in 1831 was nine hundred. Their 
qualifications were extremely moderate, and after 1832 the 
schools declined rapidly for want of teachers able to instruct 
beyond the mere rudiments. Yet more than a fourth part of 
the eighty-five thousand Hawaiian s had learned to read the 
word of God ; some in every place had learned to write, and 
some- to use the elementary principles of arithmetic. The 
cheapness of this instruction was wonderful. Not a dozen of 
the teachers were paid any thing by the mission. The supply 
of books was almost the only expense, and even these were 
not distributed gratuitously ; though, for want of a circulating 
medium, the people could pay for them only with the products 
of the Islands, or by their labor. A reorganization of the 
schools became at length indispensable, and a school was com 
menced for the education of teachers. The number of pupils 
reported in the common schools in 1837 was little more than 
two thousand, the greater part of whom were probably chil 
dren. The number had risen in 1843 to eighteen thousand 
seven hundred, which is larger than any number since reported. 
Four years later, the Hawaiian government assumed the entire 
support of the common schools, including the wages of the 
teachers, and have continued to expend some thirty thousand 
dollars annually for the free schools, the high school at Lahai- 
naluna, (which was made over to the government by the Board 
in 1849,*) and the high school at Honolulu for the children 

* Report of the Board for 1849, pp. 198, 239. 



306 THE MISSIONS. 

of chiefs. The Island government has also given ten thou- 
sand dollars toward the endowment of the Oahu College, now 
an independent institution, which the Board had commenced 
at Punahou, near Honolulu. Aside from a portion of the 
expenses of the college until it shall have completed its 
endowment, the only charge for education at the Islands now 
resting on the American Board is for a select school on Hawaii, 
arid for another on Kauai. An effort by the government to 
introduce the study of the English language into some of its 
schools, did not prove successful. 

Next to the Sandwich Islands, the most remarkable devel 
opment of common schools, in connection with the missions 
of the Board, has been in India. This class of schools had 
reached the numerical meridian in the Mahratta and Ceylon 
missions, just as the Madura mission was commencing its 
career. In 1831, the number of pupils was one thousand 
nine hundred and forty in the Mahratta mission, and in 1836 
it was six thousand and thirty-five in the Ceylon mission. The 
great financial crisis of 1837 obliged the latter mission to send 
away some five thousand pupils ; and would have brought a 
similar catastrophe upon the Mahratta mission, but for the 
interposition of English residents, who generously contributed 
two thousand five hundred dollars for the schools. The 
largest numbers in the Mahratta schools, since that time, were*; 
between the years 1844 and 1851 ; in the Ceylon schools, 
between 1841 and 1854 ; and in the Madura schools, between 
1838 and 1849. The pupils in the Mahratta schools were but 
half as many in 1842 as they were sixteen years before. The 
number in the Madura schools had been reduced one half in 
1850, as compared with the year 1841 ; but it is as large at 
the present time as it was ten years ago. The Ceylon schools, 
though containing fewer pupils, in 1854, by some thousands, 
than eighteen years before, had numbered four thousand for the 
ten preceding years, and have as many now as the mission 
aries, with all their other cares and labors, are able to super 
intend efficiently. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 307 

The whole number of pupils taught in the free schools of 
these three missions from the beginning until 1860, is estimated 
at seventy thousand ; namely, twelve thousand in the Mah- 
ratta mission, thirty-three thousand in the Ceylon, and twenty- 
five thousand in the Madura. The character and value of the 
schools are best known to the members of the several missions. 
The Mahratta missions, in a report on education in common 
schools, adopted in 1854, gave the following; testimony : " We 
can not point to a single case of conversion from among all this 
number. A few instances of conversion have occurred among 
the superintendents and teachers of these schools, and these 
men arc among our most valuable helpers at the present time. 
While preaching in the villages, we occasionally meet with 
those who were formerly pupils in these schools. Often such 
persons are interested and attentive hearers, and often they are 
among the abusers of us and our work. The result seems to 
show, that these schools have failed of accomplishing, except 
to a very slight extent, what was hoped from their establish 
ment, in the way of influencing the people, and gaining them 
over to the truth. From this result follows, as a general rule, 
the inexpediency of employing heathen teachers in common 
schools. The main ground upon which such schools are urged 
at present is, that they are a means of communicating with the 
people, of forming some kind of connection with them, of get 
ting a congregation. It is probable, however, that in most 
cases the missionary can secure a hearing for his message with 
out the aid of such schools." 

The Ceylon mission stated, in their report on the subject in 
1855, that about thirty cases were recollected of hopeful con 
version in the common schools ; but that the children usually 
left the school at so early an age as not to justify the expecta 
tion of any considerable number of conversions. Of heathen 
schoolmasters, employed because so few Christian masters 
could be had, eighty had joined the church, and twenty-five 
of these had shown by their subsequent conduct that they were 
unworthy members. People assembled in considerable num 
ber, and with some regularity, in many of the school bunga- 
41 



308 THE MISSIONS. 

lows ; but it was not certainly owing to the children s being 
taught there, for the people often assembled readily in many 
other places. Moreover, the schools had depreciated in value, 
because the parents were less willing to spare the children from 
their gardens and fields. " Hence," it is said, " we have a 
succession of little children in our schools, who can not, from 
the nature of the case, be expected to receive as much benefit 
as those who are older." * 

Similar causes have operated in the Madura mission. " When 
there are several children in a family," says the report of the 
mission in 1855, " one will be sent to tend cattle, another sheep ; 
others, who are able to labor, will accompany the parents into 
the field, while those who are too young for this will be left at 
the house to watch the infant. Our people are not all so poor 
as this, but many are. In these facts we see a sufficient reason 
why our schools have declined. When first commenced, nearly 
all the children attended ; but the parents soon discovered 
that they had undertaken more than they were able to perform, 
and withdrew them." 

The practice of employing heathen schoolmasters had nearly 
ceased previous to the year 1855. At the outset of the mis 
sions, if none such had been employed, there could have been 
no mission common schools. The value of their service was 
doubtless over-estimated at the time. The schools thus taught 
were in a degree delusive both to the missionary and his sup 
porters. It was not unlike employing infidel schoolmasters in 
Christian lands. The religious value of the education thus 
received, or of the influence of these masters on the whole, 
admits of considerable doubt. The large houses of worship 
in Jaffna, and in certain parts of the Madura district, once 
filled every Sabbath by the pupils of those congregated schools, 
are monuments of the power of that system to create congre 
gations for the time being, and of the unreasonableness of 
trusting to it for stated congregations after the pay of the 
teachers was withdrawn. Yet the experience thus gained was 

* Mission Report, 1855. 



COMMON SCHOOLS. 309 

worth what it cost. Were it not for that experience, schools 
under the instruction of heathen masters would perhaps be 
thought even now a deserving branch of the missionary work. 
Nor should we forget that in the early stages of modern mis 
sions, when the good seed of the word had not begun to 
3"ield its harvests of converts, such schools exerted an impor 
tant influence among the churches at home. The teaching 
of so many thousands of heathen youth to read the Scrip 
tures, and to repeat the leading facts in the gospel history, 
was itself a result ; it was a success ; and being highly valued, 
it did much to sustain and extend the missionary spirit in 
the churches. And though more excellent ways of employing 
funds can now be pursued, it is presumed that those schools 
will hereafter appear to have been a labor by no means lost 
upon the native mind of India. 

Common schools taught by Christians must needs be useful 
every where, and are to be employed to the extent of the avail 
able funds for that purpose, and of the available superintend 
ence ; first, for the children of native Christians, and then for 
heathen children. Considering, however, the other increasing 
demands on the missionary treasury, the Board has of late 
years found itself much restricted in the educational depart 
ment 

The ability to read among the males in China is extensive, 
and there is not yet much access to the females. There is 
n ttle to be said, therefore, concerning missionary schools 
among the Chinese. An inquiry into the history of the com 
mon schools in the missions of Western Asia, would show, 
that the number of pupils has there steadily increased to the 
present time from six hundred in 1837 to sixteen hundred 
and ninety-five in 1852, and five thousand five hundred and 
thirty-seven in 1860, Perhaps the reason of this is, that the 
schools among the Armenians have been mainly restricted to 
the children of Protestants and of those who were inclined to 
the Protestant faith, and so have grown continuously with the 
progress of the reformation. Schools have been prominent 



810 THE MISSIONS. 

among the efforts to reclaim the Indian tribes in North Amer 
ica. For a long course of years, the pupils in the schools 
among the aborigines numbered from six to eight hundred ; 
but with a decline after 1856. 

Taking a general view of common-school education in the 
missions, it appears that the highest number of pupils was in 
the year 1832, when it was sixty thousand ; of whom fifty- 
three thousand were at the Sandwich Islands, and five thou 
sand five hundred in the Ceylon and Mahratta missions. The 
smallest number since that time was in 1837, when it was 
twelve thousand. The largest subsequent number was twenty- 
nine thousand eight hundred and thirty ; and this was in 
1846. The present number is eighteen thousand, including 
the free schools supported by the government of the Sandwich 
Islands. The whole number of pupils in the common schools 
from the beginning, is believed to have exceeded two hundred 
thousand. 

THE HIGHER SCHOOLS. 

The higher schools, for the most part, have been boarding 
schools. Most of the earlier pupils in the Ceylon boarding 
schools (which were in operation a long time before those 
of any other missions of the Board beyond sea) were hea 
then youth. The object of these schools, as well as of the 
similar early boarding schools in the Mahratta and Madura 
missions, was twofold : first, the conversion of the pupils, and 
secondly, the procuring of native helpers. As the missions 
passed beyond their introductory stages, there was an increase 
in the demand for native Christian helpers, and the higher 
schools were progressively modified, becoming more and more 
of the nature of training institutions for schoolmasters, 
catechists, preachers, and pastors. The exigencies of the 
work and the state of the funds both required this. The 
change, however, was gradual, rendering the schools more and 
more directly and effectively missionary institutions. 

The earlier boarding schools were composed of small boys, 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 311 

isolated from heathen friends and from idolatrous festivals. 
The average number of the pupils in the Ceylon schools was 
eighty-five. These schools were superseded in 1831, or soon 
after, by the English Preparatory Schools, which had no board 
ing pupils. The main design of these schools was to pre 
pare pupils for the Batticotta Seminary, and the instruction 
was therefore both in English and Tamil, and for the most 
part by Christian teachers. The English schools, with an 
average of two hundred and seventy-six pupils, were continued 
twenty-five years, and ceased to be sustained by the mission 
only when the Batticotta Seminary was made more exclu 
sively a Training and Theological School, with its studies in 
the vernacular language. 

The Batticotta Seminary was instituted in the year 1823, 
and continued in operation thirty-one years. The Rev. Dan 
iel Poor was its principal during the first thirteen years. 
Being familiar with the Tamil language, his instructions, 
especially those of a religious nature, were mostly in that 
language. During Mr. Poor s connection with the institution, 
great prominence was given to religious instruction in the ver 
nacular, and the number hopefully converted and gathered 
into the church was greater than during any other period of 
equal length in the history of the mission. Great efforts 
were made by him to bring mathematical and astronomical 
studies into conflict with the fallacies of Hindoo science. The 
Rev. H. R. Hoisington was principal from 1836 to 1841, and 
again from 1844 to 1849. Though in delicate health during 
much of the time, he was eminently devoted to his profession, 
and labored earnestly to make the Seminary subsidiary to the 
great purposes of the mission. The study and use of the 
English language had now become so prevalent and absorb 
ing as to retard the acquisition of the Tamil by new mission 
aries ; and those who had the care of the institution after 
Dr. Poor, are said not to have been able to communicate 
readily with the students, except in the English language.* 

Report of the Mission, 1855. 



312 THE MISSIONS. 

In the year 1844, the instruction in the biblical department 
was assigned to the Rev. Samuel S. Whittelsey ; who, it was 
hoped, from his knowledge of the vernacular, would be able 
to give greater prominence to biblical instruction, and to create 
an enthusiasm in that direction which would check the ten 
dencies in favor of English and science. These fond hopes 
were disappointed in the early removal of Mr. Whittelsey by 
death. Others, who were afterward connected with the insti 
tution, did what they could to bring the truth to bear upon 
the minds and hearts of the students, and, by the blessing of 
God, their labors were not in vain.* 

The whole expense of the pupils was for a long time borne 
by the mission ; but subsequent to the year 1848, all who 
were able were required to pay for their board. An unfore 
seen result of this requirement was the introduction of a class 
of students from wealthy families, whose sole object was to fit 
themselves for government service, or some lucrative post in 
agriculture or commerce. It was the prevalent opinion in the 
mission, before the visit of the deputation in 1855, that it was 
time to cease any longer cultivating the excessive passion 
among the natives for the English language ; and it was also 
the general opinion at that time, that there was not sufficient 
numerical force in the mission to make the Seminary what it 
needed to be, either on the existing basis or on any other. 
The mission therefore made certain important changes in the 
institution. They excluded the English language from the 
regular course of instruction ; reduced the number of students 
to the demands for mission service ; made the board and 
instruction gratuitous ; shortened the period of residence ; and 
decided to receive none under fourteen years of age, and none 
but Christians or the sons of Christians. After a brief sus 
pension, the institution resumed operations as a Theological 
and Training School, and nearly on the basis above described. 
As had been expected, the natives continued to prosecute their 
studies of the English language, at their own cost, with a view 

* Report of the Mission, 1855. 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 313 

to secular advantages, and with no apparent diminution in 
numbers an English high school having been formed at Bat- 
ticotta under competent native instruction, with English pre 
paratory schools in the villages. This was an important step in 
the direction of self-sustaining institutions ; and it is a striking 
evidence of the hold Christianity had obtained in Jaffna, that 
all these were, and still are, decidedly Christian schools. 

The number of graduates and students on the catalogue of 
the Batticotta Seminary, in the year 1855, was six hundred 
and seventy, of whom four hundred and fifty-four were then 
living. At that time the mission had eighty-one of these in 
its employ, and thirty-one were in the employ of other mis 
sionary societies. Of the rest, one hundred and lifty-eight 
were in government service in Ceylon and India ; one hundred 
and eleven in different kinds of secular business on the island 
and continent ; and seventy-three were not reported. In the 
religious statistics of the institution, three hundred and fifty- 
two are recorded as having been church members. Deducting 
ninety-two excommunicated persons, and sixty-four who had 
died, there were one hundred and ninety-six still living in full 
membership of the Christian church. The present helpers of 
the mission and native pastors were nearly all educated at the 
Batticotta Seminary. 

Correlative with the Batticotta Seminary was the Oodooville 
Female Boarding School, established in 1824. It was designed 
to impart a careful Christian education to a select number of 
females, under circumstances that would exclude them from 
heathenish influences, and be most hopeful for their moral 
and intellectual improvement. By this means more suitable 
and acceptable companions would be provided for the young 
men educated in the Mission Seminary.* The school was 
alternately under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Miron Winslow 
and Mr. and Mrs. Levi Spaulding until 1833, when it came 
permanently under the care of the latter, who still sustain a 
parental relation to the members and graduates of the school. 

* Report of the Mission, 1855. 



314 THE MISSIONS. 

The influence of the Oodooville school has been excellent. 
Many Christian families, scattered over the province, the 
island, and the continent, exerting a silent but important 
influence, testify to its usefulness. Tokens of God s special 
blessing have been granted in frequent revivals, and in the 
uniform prosperity of the institution.* More than two hun 
dred had left the school prior to the year 1855, of whom one 
hundred and seventy-five were members of the church. The 
studies were in the English and Tamil languages. 

In 1855, changes were made in the school corresponding 
with those in the Batticotta Seminary. The age for admis 
sion was raised ; the length of residence was reduced ; the 
studies were restricted to the vernacular language ; and the 
pupils, somewhat less in number, were to be either Christians 
themselves, or from families at least nominally Christian ; 
with such occasional exceptions as should be deemed advisable 
by the mission. With these modifications, the Oodooville 
Female Boarding School is now in successful operation, with 
thirty-nine pupils.f 

The boarding schools in Ceylon illustrate those of the 
Madura and Mahratta missions in their earlier stages. The 
English language, as well as the vernacular, entered into their 
course of instruction. This was true of the Pasumalie Sem 
inary, near the city of Madura, established in 1842, and of the 
Female Boarding School at Madura, formed in 1846 by the 
union of two that had been only a short time in existence. 
Some decisive action of the Madura mission adverse to caste, 
in 1847, greatly reduced these schools for a time, but exerted 
a permanently healthful influence upon them. It was soon 
after determined by the mission, that the exclusive object of 
the Seminary is to raise up a native ministry, and that the 
course of instruction ought to be mainly in Tamil, the English 
language being studied as a classic but two hours a day. 

In the year 1855, the Madura mission resolved to exclude 

* Report of the Mission, 1855. f Annual Report, 1860, p. 110. 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 315 

the English language from the Female Boarding School, and 
also from the Pasumalie Seminary, as a medium of instruc 
tion, in all cases where proper text-books in Tamil, could be ob 
tained. Catechists of approved talent and piety were admitted 
for a short course of study preparatory to the pastoral office. 
Experience has since proved the advantages of a purely ver 
nacular training in a mission sent to people in the lowest walks 
of life. The boarding schools for small boys in this mission 
were brought to a close in 1858. 

The Rev. Henry Ballantine, in a review of the twenty-five 
years of his missionary life at Ahmednuggur and its surround 
ing country, speaks as follows : 

" In 1836, a boarding school for heathen boys was put in 
operation, and soon after a boarding school for heathen girls. 
They continued several years, but not much fruit was realized 
from these labors. In 1852, our educational efforts took a 
different direction. The number of Christian children had 
become quite large, and it became necessary for us to provide 
means for their education. We were anxious also to provide 
Christian teachers for schools in the villages, and to prepare 
catechists for the work of reading the Scriptures and explain 
ing them to their countrymen. We determined to devote our 
attention principally to the education of Christian children, 
and to preparing them for the work for which there appeared 
to be such a loud calL We ITOW have in Ahmednuggur a 
school containing twenty-five boys, mostly professed Chris 
tians, drawn from all the churches in the mission, who are 
preparing to be teachers and catechists ; and a school contain 
ing more than forty girls, many of whom are members of the 
church, who, we trust, will be fitted to become wives of teachers 
and catechists. We have also schools in different places, 
taught by young men and young women, who have been 
trained in these schools at Alnnednuggur ; and in them are 
collected the children, not only of Christians, but also of all 
who are favorable to Christianity, and of any who will send 
their children to be taught Christian truth. The teachers of 
42 



816 THE MISSIONS. 

these schools are all Christians. This is a great advance upon 
the system put in operation twenty-five years ago, when we 
had no Christian teachers. We have also, now, a class of ten 
young men studying for the ministry. These are engaged, 
during several months of the year, in giving religious instruc 
tion in the villages." * The boarding school for heathen boys, 
mentioned above, was closed in 1851. 

A boarding school for females, collected and superintended 
by Mrs. Hume, at Bombay, was discontinued at the close of 
1854, in consequence of her return to the United States. The 
average number of pupils, for the last eight years, was from 
twenty to twenty-five, all born in the country, but not exclu 
sively Hindoos ; and the school was in part sustained by dona 
tions received in India. Eleven of the pupils were received 
into the church during ten years, and several are now in sta 
tions of usefulness. 

Earnest representations were received by the Prudential 
Committee, at the close of 1853 and early in 1854, from their 
brethren in Western India, in favor of establishing an expen 
sive school at Bombay, like those of the Scotch and English 
Societies already existing in that and other large cities of 
India, in which the English language should be taught, and 
made the chief medium of instruction. The Committee did 
not see their way then clear to go into precisely this class 
of institutions ; but they authorized the Bombay mission to 
commence a high school, in which the vernacular language 
should be the chief medium of instruction, especially in the 
inculcation of religious truth, the annual expense not to ex 
ceed fifteen hundred dollars. These resolutions were passed 
May 2, 1854; but. the brethren at Bombay felt unable to wait 
for the action of the Committee, and opened the school on their 
proposed plan in June, 1854. It was called the American 
Mission Institution, and the number of pupils rose to one hun 
dred and seventy-five. The annual expense, not including the 
support of the principal, was eighteen hundred and eighty- 

* Missionary Herald for June, 1861. 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 817 

two dollars. The deputation were authorized by the Pruden 
tial Committee to sanction such an institution, should they be 
satisfied that there were conclusive reasons for it. Such rea 
sons not appearing, the school was not adopted among the 
institutions of the Board. 

As the brethren in the Mahratta missions had before recom 
mended the establishment of such a school at Bombay, it is 
proper that they should state the reasons which afterward 
induced them, upon a broader view of the subject, to advise its 
discontinuance. They were as follows : 

Such an institution, when founded, must be modeled with 
reference not only to its results on the mission with which it is 
immediately connected, but also with reference to the general 
policy and plans of the Board, of whose system of operations 
it forms a part. What would be expedient and highly desira 
ble, viewed only in reference to a particular station, may be 
inexpedient on the whole. The following considerations seem 
to us to weigh against the present high school at Bombay, and 
to render it undesirable that it should be continued on its 
present basis. 

1. The English language is made, to too great an extent, 
the medium of communicating instruction. Experience has 
seemed to show that such schools are not the most efficient 
instruments in forwarding the great work of missions that 
of making known the gospel to the heathen, and saving souls. 
The vernacular of any people is believed to be the most suita 
ble language in which to communicate truth, and through 
which to affect the heart. Schools in which the vernacular is 
the grand medium of instruction, and the English, if intro 
duced, is only taught as a classic, seem to be founded on the 
best basis, and to promise and produce the best results. 

2. The expense of such a school as that at Bombay is an 
objection to continuing it. It must be able to compete with 
other schools of a similar character at Bombay, or it can not 
be successfully maintained. To do this, it must have those 
advantages and appurtenances which money alone can procure. 
It does not appear that the present expense can be essentially 



318 THE MISSIONS. 

reduced, consistently with making the school what it should 
be in order to answer the ends for which it was established. 
The funds of the Board are limited ; they are not sufficient to 
carry forward all operations that would seem desirable or 
highly useful. There must, consequently, be a choice of fields, 
and in each field a choice of means. If there are two kinds 
of labor which promise equally well in all other respects, the 
selection must be made with reference to economy. It is 
known that such high schools are among the most expensive 
operations undertaken by the mission Boards ; and with the 
present amount of funds, and a choice of the means to be em 
ployed, it does not appear that a due regard to economy would 
warrant the necessary expenditure for sustaining such a school 
at Bombay. 

3. The influence of such schools on other mission fields is 
undesirable. If the High School at Bombay is continued, 
there are other missions of the Board which will feel that they 
have equal claims to be allowed such an institution. It will 
be impossible to convince them that there are good reasons for 
allowing such a school in one large city, and not in another. 
Thus the decision in respect to the institution involves, prac 
tically, a decision in respect to several other places where the 
same want exists. It becomes, in fact, a question of mission 
policy. Shall a large part of the funds be appropriated to 
maintain these expensive English schools in the different fields 
occupied by the Board ? The question is not one on which 
there is no experience to guide us. The experiment has been 
tried elsewhere, under the most favorable auspices, and the 
results, if not actually disastrous, have at least proved unsat 
isfactory. The system seems to be a forced, artificial one, and 
produces artificial fruits. In view of these facts, it does not 
seem desirable to make it a part of our mission policy ; and 
we think the institution at Bombay should not be made an 
exception to the general policy of the mission.* 

The mission in Syria commenced a high school for training 

* Report of the Missions, 1854. 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 319 

native helpers in the year 1836, and closed it in 1842. The 
English language was taught in the school, and when the war 
with Mohammed Ali brought the English forces to the Syrian 
shore, the officers needed dragomans, and the pupils were 
drawn away, and to a great extent demoralized. When the 
present Seminary was opened, in 1846, at Abeih on Lebanon, 
it was on the basis of almost wholly excluding the English 
language, and of preserving, as far as possible, the Oriental 
manners and customs among the students. And it was on the 
same principle that the Female Boarding School has been lately 
revived, and placed at the Suk el Ghurb on the mountain, 
under the care of two ladies from this country. The former 
school was at Beirut, ahd excellent in its kind. 

The mission for the Armenians has had two processes for 
training its native ministry. The first is thus described in a 
report adopted at Constantinople in 1855 : " There is one 
class that will enter the work without any extended course of 
preparatory study. But they should be men of earnest piety, 
and good judgment, and well instructed in Bible doctrines. 
Almost every missionary station will produce some such men, 
and no missionary can do a better work than to prepare them, 
to the extent of his ability, for the ministry of the word. This 
preparation, however, will be partial. They will remain in 
their own community, will maintain their native habits of 
living, and need have no connection with the family of the 
missionary. It will be somewhat like taking the strong artisan, 
and preparing him, by a few days training, for the exigencies 
of a great campaign. Too great reliance must not be placed 
upon these. They will be like the elders ordained by the 
apostles in every city, but probably far inferior in spiritual and 
intellectual attainments. They will often make mistakes, will 
sometimes be found incompetent ; but still Christ will be 
preached, and his truth, though committed to such imperfect 
instruments, will triumph, that the excellency of the power 
may be of God, and not of man." 

The other process is exemplified in the Bebek Seminary, 
commenced in 1840 ; in the Theological School commenced 



320 THE MISSIONS. 

at Tocat a few years since, and, in consequence of the burning 
of the mission premises, removed from thence to Kharput in 
1859 ; and in the Theological School recently commenced in 
the Central mission to Turkey. The Bebek Seminary is at 
the metropolis, in the center of Mohammedan civilization, and 
embraces a liberal course of study, including the English 
language and its sources of knowledge. The plan of the school 
at Kharput embraces four years of study, with a long winter 
vacation for evangelical labors in the villages. A female 
boarding school has been for some years in operation in Con 
stantinople, and there is also one of recent date at Aintab ; 
both taught by females from the United States. 

Nowhere have the higher schools been more signally blessed 
with hopeful conversions, than among the Nestorians. That 
for males was commenced in 1836, and the one for females in 
1838. Two thirds of those who have been educated in the 
male seminary give hopeful evidence of piety. The same 
may be said of an equal portion educated at the female sem 
inary. A large portion of the educated young men are preach 
ers of the gospel, or teachers in the schools ; and the greater 
part of the pious graduates of the female seminary have 
become wives of those missionary helpers. Both of these 
institutions have been signally favored with revivals of 
religion. The instruction has been almost wholly in the 
native tongue. 

The boarding schools among the American Indians have all 
had a peculiar nature from the beginning, owing to the cir 
cumstances and character of the people for whom they were 
designed. 

The first schools among the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians 
were for boarding pupils. While the Choctaws were east of 
the Mississippi, there were among them four large schools of 
this description. After their removal westward, four female 
boarding schools were instituted. One of these, at Good 
Water, was transferred, in 1854, to the Board of Foreign Mis 
sions of the Presbyterian Church. The pupils east of the 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 321 

Mississippi were about one hundred and seventy, one third 
being females. West of the river, nearly all were females, 
numbering one hundred and thirty. The boarding pupils in 
the Choctaw schools, from the beginning, may have been two 
thousand ; there were not so many among the Cherokees. 

The remarks that follow upon the character and value of 
the schools, are founded substantially upon the testimony of 
one of the oldest missionaries, and relate to the recent Choc- 
taw schools. As schools for the cultivation of truth and 
piety, the hopes of their founders have not been fully real 
ized. The schools deriving nearly five sixths of their sup 
port from the national annuities, the missionaries had but 
little influence in the selection of pupils, and were often 
obliged to continue those in school who were an injury to the 
others. The object, with most of the parents, was not the 
spiritual good of their children, but their social and material 
elevation ; and it was a remark of Mr. Evarts, that the patrons 
of the missions were impatient for the civilization of the 
Indians, and would not give them time. The missions were 
constrained to adopt a kind of hot-bed process. Large annui 
ties, always disastrous in their effect upon Indians, had been 
settled upon them by the United States in return for lands 
which had been ceded ; and as ample reserves from these 
funds had been made for schools, it seemed desirable that they 
should be under the control of religious men. This was the 
inducement to missionaries and missionary Boards to take 
charge of them ; and the schools, under such auspices, and 
with such means at command, were led to aim at a literary 
character too high for the actual civilization of the Indians. 
Had the Choctaws, for instance, been sufficiently isolated to 
have retained the use of their own language, and to have used 
none but the vernacular in the schools, it would have been 
better for their moral and religious interests. With few 
exceptions, those who acquired most knowledge of the Eng 
lish language were furthest from embracing the gospel. The 
tendency was to elevate them so far above their parents, 
and the mass of their people, that " they became vain in 



322 THE MISSIONS. 

their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." 
Intelligence and civilization were advanced, and the schools 
were productive of much general improvement; but it was 
found, with some happy exceptions, that those who remained 
longest at them were most headstrong and ungovernable. 
Could the schools have been strictly missionary, with a few 
select youth of both sexes training with special reference to 
their becoming teachers and preachers, the result might have 
been more favorable as regards these objects, and the labor 
and expense would have been far less. Yet, as it was, quite a 
number of Choctaw men, who for years have had a leading 
influence in the nation, were indebted to these schools, wholly 
or in part, for their education. This is true of four persons, 
who, at different times, have held the highest national offices ; 
of the three candidates for the office of principal chief in a 
late election ; of the two native pastors, and three of the four 
licentiates in the churches connected with the mission ; and 
of two of the supreme judges among the Choctaws, the national 
attorney, and two district attorneys. It should be added, that 
the Methodists, the Presbyterian Board, and the Cumberland 
Presbyterians, have boarding schools among the Choctaws, 
from which some good preachers have issued. But few edu 
cated in the boarding schools west of the Mississippi have as 
yet given evidence of piety. 

In a general view of the boarding schools it may be said, 
that where youth have been taken into them at a very early 
age, and where the isolation has been complete, the proportion 
of hopeful conversions has been considerable. But the con 
verts, in such cases, have generally been found less practical, 
less devoted and self-denying, than was expected. Hence 
some of the changes that were made in the boarding-school 
system, as recorded in this chapter ; such as requiring more 
age for admission, a shorter residence, a Christian parentage, 
(if not actual piety,) and a more purely religious course of 
study, thus making the high schools more exclusively and 
effectively missionary institutions. 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 323 

The following quotation from the Report of the Deputation 
to the India Missions, made to the Board at its special meet 
ing in 1856, will serve to show the present state of opinion on 
the use of the English language in the higher schools : 

The Board will kindly bear in mind the distinction we have 
made between the means to be used in the large cities and in 
the rural districts of India, and that our remarks are not 
designed to have a special bearing upon the former. We 
make a distinction also between teaching English as a study, 
and using it as a medium of instruction. The Prudential 
Committee and the Secretaries have said little heretofore on 
the use to be made of the English language, because they did 
not know what were the proper metes and bounds to its use. 
It is a question to be settled by experience, and there has not 
yet been experience enough to harmonize the views even of 
missionaries. The Mahratta missions have recorded it as their 
opinion, that " there is no reason for the study of English in 
their schools for catechists and teachers, at least in the Deccan. 
They should be strictly vernacular schools. Our ordinary 
catechists and teachers," they say, " are to be employed in 
laboring for their countrymen in the Mahratta language. It 
is important that their training should be vernacular. The 
vernacular of any people," they add, " is believed to be the 
most suitable language in which to communicate truth, and 
through which to affect the heart. Schools [for the higher 
education] in which the vernacular is the grand medium of 
instruction, and the English, if introduced, is only taught as 
a classic, seem to be founded on the best basis, and to promise 
and produce the best results." 

The Madura missiom decided, that the class of young men 
of promise and piety between the ages of fifteen aild twenty- 
five, preparing for schoolmasters, catechists, and eventually, 
in some cases, pastors, should be restricted to purely Tamil 
studies. But they say that a part of the higher class should, 
in their opinion, " study the English language, both for mental 
discipline, and that they may have access to English litera 
ture. But as a medium of instruction, the English should be 
43 



324 THE MISSIONS. 

excluded where proper text-books in Tamil can be obtained." 
The Ceylon mission declared it to be their opinion that it was 
not expedient to continue the study of English in the Female 
Boarding School. They affirm their ability to show by many 
facts, " that efforts to evangelize a people through a foreign 
tongue, have not proved successful." They also state that 
the system of instruction pursued in the Batticotta Seminary 
" has tended to give a prominence to instruction in the Eng 
lish language and the sciences, which has led many of the 
students to neglect their own language. Though great efforts 
have been made on the part of the missionaries in charge to 
give special prominence to biblical instruction in the vernac 
ular, and bring in science to illustrate and impress the truth, 
the current in favor of English and the sciences has steadily 
advanced, with little interruption. A class of men, too," 
they affirm, " has been raised up, who, though well educated, 
and in some respects well qualified for service among the 
people, are not in the best manner fitted by their course of 
training for that kind of humble and persevering labor which 
is most needed in making known the gospel, and giving it a 
footing permanently in the villages, on a self-sustaining basis." 
And they add, that the " missionaries connected with the 
institution have been hindered in the acquisition of the collo 
quial language of the country. They have not been compelled 
by circumstances to speak in Tamil, and the temptation to use 
their own mother tongue has too often prevailed. The same 
may be true to some extent of other missionaries, who have 
catechists under their care that can speak the English lan 
guage." 

The mission accordingly gave it as their conviction, " that 
no instruction in English should be given in the regular 
course ; " and that " the course of study, being wholly in the 
vernacular, should be eminently biblical, such as will, by the 
blessing of God, prepare the pupils to wield the sword of the 
Spirit, which is the word of God. Sacred history, geography, 
and science, should be brought in to aid in this work, and all 
should center in the Bible, and be made to explain its truths." 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 325 

It has been already stated, that we suggested the expediency 
of teaching the English language to a select advanced class in 
theology, but that the mission did not deem it expedient at 
that time to make a formal provision for such an arrangement. 
After so extensive a use of the English language in their 
school system, none can be more competent than our brethren 
of the Ceylon mission to judge and speak of its real value as 
a missionary instrument. How far the mission has had an 
agency in creating the passion for it, which seemed to pervade 
the district at the time of our visit, we do not know. It 
seemed to us that the mission acted on the very best reasons 
in excluding the English language from their schools, and 
from the course of study in the Seminary. The English lan 
guage, as acquired by the Tamil young man, found no market 
in his native village, nor within the territory occupied by the 
mission, except as the mission became the purchaser by giving 
him a salary that would meet his own views. The consequence 
was, that it was needful to give larger salaries than the village 
churches would be able to pay ; and too often the graduate 
went into the more lucrative service of the government, or of 
some merchant or planter, and thus his labors and influence 
were lost to the mission and to his native village. Were our 
object merely to educate and civilize the people, this might 
do ; but the churches can not afford to prosecute their work in 
this manner.* 

Such is the relation which the Board now sustains, and has 
sustained, to education and missionary schools. 

1. In the present advanced state of most of its missions, it 
finds a more profitable use for its funds than in the support 
of heathen schoolmasters. Nor does past experience encour 
age any great outlay for common schools, composed of very 
young heathen children, even with Christian masters ; nor for 
boarding schools, that are chiefly made up of such children. 
Christian children should of course receive a Christian educa 
tion ; but, even here, it is not wise to be forward to relieve 

* Report of the Deputation to the Board, 1856, p. 44. 



326 THE MISSIONS. 

parents of one of their most obvious and sacred duties. Into 
these schools as many heathen children should have admission 
as can find room ; and there should be schools also expressly 
for such, if there be reliable teachers for their instruction, and 
funds for their support. 

2. The Board has, been obliged, in the progress of its work, 
to decline connection with expensive educational institutions 
for general education, to prepare young men for secular and 
worldly pursuits. Its higher schools, whether for males or 
females, have been more strictly training institutions, with 
express and direct reference to carrying out the great purposes 
of the missions. Moreover, it has been found necessary to 
exclude the English language, in great measure, from the 
training schools for educating village teachers, preachers, and 
pastors. 

3. The education in the missions under the care of the 
Board, regarded as a whole, was never so effective, in a mis 
sionary point of view, never so valuable, as at the present mo 
ment. Perhaps there are as many common schools as the 
missionaries can well superintend. What these schools most 
need is better teachers, and to derive more of their support 
from the parents of the pupils. The self-supporting principle 
among native Christians, in all its applications, needs an un 
sleeping guardianship and culture. It is here that the grand 
practical difficulty lies in the working of specific charities. 
Where a man can support himself, it would be cruel to sup 
port him. 

4. The following is a summary of the educational depart 
ment as it was at the close of the year 1859 : 

Number of Seminaries, a , 11 

Number of other Boarding Schools, . *. 13 

Number of Free Schools, (omitting those at the Sandwich 

Islands,) ....... 345 

Number of Pupils in Free Schools, (omitting those at S. I.,) 9,744 

Number of Pupils in Seminaries, 530 

Number of Pupils in Boarding Schools, , 341 

Whole Number of Pupils in Seminaries and Schools, . . . 10,615 



HIGHER SCHOOLS. 327 

Dr. Wood, one of the Secretaries, has furnished a view of 
the educational work^of the American Board at the close of 
1859, as compared with that of other foreign missionary insti 
tutions of this country, 

Whole Yearly 
Pupilc. Expenditure. 

Board of the Presbyterian General Assembly, . 4,524 . $234,037 

Baptist Missionary Union> 2 ; 678 . 96,214 

Board of the Episcopal Church 4 1,018 . 89,738 



Total, 8,220 , $419 P 989 

American Board, exclusive of Sandwich Islands, 10,615 . $361,959 

If to the three societies named above are added the Board 
of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, the foreign depart 
ment of the American Missionary Association, and the Indian, 
African, Bulgarian, India, and China missions of the Methodist 
Episcopal Society, the aggregate of pupils is about nine thou 
sand eight hundred, while that of the expenditure is about six 
hundred thousand dollars. 

It thus appears that the American Board now has, in pro 
portion to its expenditure, a larger number of pupils in its 
missionary schools, than any other foreign missionary organi 
zation in this country, and seventy-nine per cent, more than 
the average of those six societies. The reports of some of 
these societies do not enable us to determine the comparative 
number of pupils in the different grades of schools. It is 
ascertained, however, that in the missions of the Episcopal 
Board, a somewhat larger part are in boarding schools than 
are found in the similar institutions of the American Board. 
The same is true of the General Assembly s Board, in 
cluding schools in the Indian missions for which aid is ob 
tained from the United States government ; but, in the other 
missions of that Board, the proportion falls a little below 
that in the corresponding missions of the American Board. 
The proportion is presumed to be still smaller in other socie 
ties. The American Board is thus seen to be doing more, 



828 THE MISSIONS. 

proportionally, in the educational department, than other 
American Missionary Societies have been led to undertake 
in missions beyond sea. 

THE OAHU COLLEGE. 

The Oahu College at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, is not 
numbered among the institutions of the Board, though grow 
ing out of its operations, and hitherto partly supported from 
its funds. It was commenced in 1841, as a school for the 
children of missionaries. In 1851 it was opened also to other 
children ; and two years later it received an act of incorpora 
tion as a College from the Hawaiian government. The charter 
declares that u no course of instruction shall be deemed lawful 
in said institution, which is not accordant with the principles 
of Protestant Evangelical Christianity, as held by that body 
of Protestant Christians in the United States of America, 
which originated the Christian mission to the Islands, and to 
whose labors and benevolent contributions the people of these 
Islands are so greatly indebted." There is an additional 
security for the institution in the following article, namely : 
" Whenever a vacancy shall occur in said corporation, it shall 
be the duty of the trustees to fill the same with all reasonable 
and convenient dispatch. And every new election shall be 
immediately made known to the Prudential Committee of the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,. and 
be subject to their approval or rejection, and this power of 
revision shall be continued to the American Board for twenty 
years from the date of this charter." The property of the 
College, in buildings, land, etc., in 1856, was valued at twen 
ty-seven thousand dollars, which was derived chiefly from the 
Board. To this the Hawaiian government have added ten thou 
sand dollars toward an endowment of fifty thousand dollars, 
and subscriptions were obtained in this country to the amount 
of six thousand dollars. The effort was arrested by the great 
commercial crisis of 1857. 



FOREIGN YOUTH IN THIS COUNTRY. 329 

FOREIGN YOUTH IN THIS COUNTRY. 

In its earlier years, the Board expected much from the edu- 
cation of foreign youth in this country. Though the effort was 
unsuccessful, it was not fruitless, so much did it add to the 
stock of useful missionary experience. The first efforts in 
behalf of this class would seem to have been called forth by 
the interest awakened in Henry Obookiah, and other Sandwich 
Islands youth, whom commerce with the Pacific had thrown 
upon our shores. 

A Foreign Mission School was instituted for such in 1816, in 
?:, pleasant part of Cornwall, Conn. A small farm was pur 
chased, with two dwelling houses. The people of Cornwall 
gave, in consideration of the school being established there, a 
convenient academical building, with -woodland, etc., to the 
value of about thirteen hundred dollars. 

The object of the school was the education, in this country, 
of heathen youth, so that they might be qualified to become 
useful missionaries, physicians, surgeons, schoolmasters, or 
interpreters, and to communicate to the heathen nations such 
knowledge in agriculture and the arts, as might prove the 
means of promoting Christianity and civilization. Mr. Edwin 
W. D wight, the friend of Obookiah, was the first principal. 
He was succeeded, after a year, by Rev. Herman Daggett ; and 
he, in 1824, by Amos Bassett, D. D. There were ten pupils 
from heathen lands the first year, chiefly from the Sandwich 
Islands ; two were young natives of Connecticut, who after 
ward spent several years as teachers at the Sandwich Islands. 
" The raised hopes, founded, under Providence, on the unques 
tioned piety, the distinguished talents, and the excellent char 
acter of Obookiah, terminated in his triumphant departure 
from these earthly scenes before the first year of the school 
had expired." * In 1820, the number of pupils was twenty- 
nine ; four from the Sandwich Islands, one from Tahiti, one 
from the Marquesas, one Malay, eight Cherokees, two Choc- 

* Report of the Board for 1820, p. 307 



330 THE MISSIONS. 

taws, three of the Stockbridge tribe, two Oneidas, one Tusca- 
rora, two Caughnewagas, one Indian youth from Pennsylva 
nia, and three youth of our own country. The report for that 
year the last drawn up by Dr. Worcester speaks thus of 
the school : " Besides being taught in various branches of 
learning, and made practically acquainted with the useful arts 
of civilized life, the pupils are instructed constantly and with 
especial care in the doctrines and duties of Christianity. Nor 
has this instruction been communicated in vain. Of the thirty- 
one heathen youth, including, with the twenty-six now at 
school, the deceased Obookiah, and the four who have gone 
with the mission to their native Islands, seventeen are 
thought to have given evidence of a living faith in the gospel, 
and several others are very seriously thoughtful on religious 
concerns." At the end of five years, the number of pupils 
was thirty-four chiefly from the isles of the Pacific, and from 
the Indian tribes. Five were youth of our own country. 
Nineteen were then members of the church. The school was 
very popular. We learn from the Report of the Board for 
1822, that it was becoming a subject of conversation among 
intelligent Christians, and of serious inquiry, whether more 
extensive measures could be adopted to educate young foreign 
ers cast upon our shores. In 1823, two lads from the Greek 
Islands were placed in the school, but this class was not found 
to mingle happily with the other pupils. 

In the year 1825, a considerable number of the youth edu 
cated at the Cornwall School had been returned, where there 
were missions, to their native lands, and the theories of the 
past were corrected by experience. This experience is stated 
in the Report of that year. " It is now nine years," says the 
Report, " since this seminary was founded. The favor of God 
has been extended to it, and much good has been effected by 
its instrumentality. Still, every human institution has its 
defects, and is exposed to evils which can not always be fore 
seen. Difficulties have been experienced, in regard to the 
youth who have returned to their native lands, which were 
not fully anticipated. It was always supposed that stead- 



FOREIGN YOUTH IN THIS COUNTRY. 331 

fast religious principle was necessary to their support against 
the numerous temptations by which they would be assailed. 
This is indeed the case. But even those who continue to sus 
tain a character of undoubted piety, are under some disadvan 
tages with respect to missionary service. The abundant pro 
vision which was made for them while in this country, added 
to the paternal attention which they every where received, but 
ill prepared them for the privations which they must bear 
among their uncivilized brethren. The expense of maintain 
ing them in any tolerable state of comfort, is much greater 
than it would be if they had never become habituated to the 
modes of life in an improved state of society, There is great 
reason to believe that youth in a heathen country can be so 
instructed at missionary stations as to be very useful to their 
countrymen at an early period ; and, while they are greatly 
raised in their manner of living, and in their whole character, 
they may yet preserve a large share of their original hardihood, 
and be able to associate with their uninstructed countrymen 
more freely and acceptably, than if they had spent several years 
in a strange land. The indications of Providence seem to 
teach, that the best education of youth born heathen, having 
reference to their success as teachers of their brethren, must 
be given through the instrumentality of missionary institutions 
in their respective countries. Some individuals may derive 
great benefit from a residence in a Christian land ; but, judg 
ing from the experience of missionary societies in Great Brit 
ain, and from what has come to the immediate knowledge of 
this Committee, and considering the dangers of climate, the 
exposures to immorality at sea, the temptations presented on 
returning to places where previous restraints are withdrawn, 
it is questionable whether young men of the class here referred 
to, may not almost universally be better prepared for efficient 
labor under the paternal care of missionaries, than in any other 
way. In regard to this subject, the Board eminently need the 
guidance of divine wisdom. If it should seem best that the 
Foreign Mission School be discontinued, there should be no 
regret that it was founded. It has answered valuable pur- 
44 



332 THE MISSIONS. 

poses, which, so far as man can discern, could not have been 
answered without it." 

The reasons for discontinuing the school are fully stated in 
the B.eport of the Board for 1826. They are an amplification 
of the above statement. It was closed in the following year ; 
but not without some manifestations of divided opinion as to 
the expediency of the measure, and some dissatisfied feeling, 

The experiment was continued in another form, for a time, 
by placing several Greek and Armenian youth in academies 
and colleges. The experience proved so unsatisfactory in the 
end, that all thought of educating foreign youth in this coun 
try, whether from heathen lands or from the Oriental churches, 
was abandoned ; and it became a settled policy of the Board 
to do all its educational work in the countries where it has its 
missions. The cost of the Foreign Mission School, in the ten 
years of its existence, was thirty-four thousand five hundred 
and ninety-eight dollars. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



PREACHING AND THE PKESS. 



PREACHING. What the Preacher needs. What is meant by Preaching. Prerequisites 
fcr Success. Gathering of Congregations. Their Nucleus a Church Christian 
Congregations in the Madura Mission. Signs of Progress. The School and the 
Congregation. Successful Preaching. Street and Itinerant Preaching. Preaching 
Houses. Cost of Village Churches. Houses of Worship at the Sandwich Islands 
Wise Suggestions on Church Building. THE PRESS. Number of Languages re 
duced to Writing. Cherokee Alphabet. - Choctaw and Hawaiian Alphabets. - Arabic 
Type. Syriac Type. Number of Languages employed. Number of Printing Es 
tablishments. Amount of Printing in the Missions. 



PREACHING. 

THE missionary preacher needs an idiomatic and free use of 
the native language, and he needs hearers. It is not easy to 
say how far the four hundred and fifteen ordained missionaries 
sent forth by the American Board have been able to preach 
idiomatically and fluently in the vernaculars. We speak of 
preaching in the popular sense, by those who have been spe 
cially and solemnly set apart for it, " with the laying on of the 
hands of the presbytery." There have been signal instances 
of success in preaching, where the missionary entered the 
field beyond the age of thirty ; but it is apprehended there 
have been a considerable number of failures. For such lan 
guages as the Arabic, the Tamil, and the Chinese with its 
intonations, the organs are then becoming too rigid, and the 
power of ceaseless attention to sounds difficult to acquire. 
Most of those who became masters of the language went 
under that age. Yet it would not be easy to lay down a pos 
itive rule. A burning desire to save souls, wisely applied to 
the appropriate means, will make itself understood and felt by 
the people of any language. 

(333; 



334 THE MISSIONS. 

The gathering of a congregation is, in most unevangelized 
countries, a work of time and faith, requiring patience and 
perseverance. It seems to need the presence of a working 
body of believers ; and their efficacy is much increased by 
becoming an organized church. The church is the proper 
nucleus of a congregation. The "Christian congregations" 
of the Madura mission are not Christian churches, and fre 
quently exist without them ; they are a sort of Christian asso 
ciation, a peculiar institution, bound together by some sort of 
agreement with the local missionary, growing out of peculiar 
ities in the social condition. They are an outer court, and will 
probably lose their present form as the local churches acquire 
influence under native pastors. A small congregation in un- 
christianized countries is a much stronger proof of religious 
interest, than a large one is in countries where attendance 
involves no personal hazard. Much more is this true of a 
small church, where every earthly interest is periled by a 
Christian profession. Large stated congregations as at the 
Sandwich Islands, and at Kessab and Aintab in Northern 
Syria imply a preponderating Christian influence where they 
exist, repressing persecution. Where, too, serious hearers are 
readily found in every direction, though in small numbers, 
as in Asiatic Turkey, among the Nestorians, and in regions 
around Alimediiuggur, it is certain that the gospel has 
gained headway, and that the time of harvest is near. 

Experience has shown that neither the common school nor 
the boarding school forms a good nucleus for the congrega 
tion. However useful, and even necessary, in other respects, 
the schools have failed in this. They furnish an audience, but 
seldom a congregation that survives them. The insufficiency 
of both classes of schools for this purpose was exemplified in 
one of the oldest of the India missions. The five older stations 
of the mission enjoyed, for nearly forty years, the labors of 
some of the ablest of missionaries, familiar with the language, 
good and faithful preachers, with every facility, during all this 
time, which popular schools of varied form could give. Yet, 
as was ascertained by a careful analysis, when the pupils in the 



PREACHING. 335 

mission schools, and persons in the employ of the mission and 
depending on it for their support, were separated from the 
congregations, there remained only about one hundred adults 
who were not members of the church, for the whole of these 
five older congregations. This did not prove the impracticabil 
ity of the field, but the insufficiency of the schools as a means 
of securing permanent congregations. We have elsewhere 
spoken of their utility and importance in other respects as a 
part of the missionary enterprise. The schools just adverted 
to, besides contributing materially to the stock of missionary 
experience, did much to prepare the way for the spread of the 
gospel. In another of the India missions, where there had 
been a similar experience, the missionaries, enlightened by 
the past, very forcibly insist on direct efforts for gathering 
local churches, as the only effectual method of filling a coun 
try with Christian congregations. The subject is so important 
that we copy their very intelligent remarks upon it: 

The course of the missionary in regard to preaching, 
they say, must be different in the same place, according to 
the different stages of the work. When he first enters upon 
his labors at a new station, his great effort will be to draw 
people around him, and interest them in the presentation of 
gospel truth. In doing this, it will not probably be found 
necessary to make use of schools in order to collect a congre 
gation, as has been hitherto deemed important in most of our 
missions. The missionary who declines to establish schools 
for this purpose, must go forth to one place and another, 
preaching in the streets to small companies, or gathering 
larger companies around him at chaudis, or in the chapel. 
When conversions occur, he must instruct his converts in the 
Christian faith. He must have his regular congregations on 
the Sabbath, for which he must exert himself in preparing 
religious instruction, feeding the flock of God, over which the 
Holy Ghost hath made him an overseer. But he must not be 
satisfied with this. He must look beyond the mere pastorate 
of a church. He must endeavor to collect native churches in 



336 THE MISSIONS. 

different places, and he must train up some of his converts to 
be the pastors of these churches. He should be prepared to 
commit the truths of the gospel to faithful men, that they may 
teach them to others also. As they increase in knowledge of 
the distinctive doctrines of the gospel, and in adaptation to 
the work of making them known to others, he must give them 
the opportunity of exercising their talents, standing out of 
the way when necessary, that they may gradually be prepared 
to come forward and perform the duties of faithful ministers 
of Jesus Christ. He should ever himself be aiming at further 
extension, seeking how he may collect new churches, and pre 
pare pastors for them, thus making all his plans subserve the 
one object of fully planting the gospel of Christ in the country 
where he resides, by the establishment of churches with their 
appropriate pastors and other officers. The missionary should 
feel it to be his business to go forward and find out where new 
churches can be established, collect the nucleus, and then 
furnish the native laborer who shall carry on the work. Dr. 
Judson said, when he had succeeded in collecting a church of 
one hundred members in Birmah, that he was satisfied ; his 
anticipations of success were fully realized. The days of the 
pioneers of Christian missions are now past. Henceforth 
let it be the aim of the missionary to collect, not one church 
of a hundred members, but twenty, fifty, or a hundred 
churches, over which native pastors shall be placed. With 
such an object in view, the minor plans of a missionary will 
all be arranged more wisely, than if he makes his arrange 
ments to remain an indefinite time in one spot. And not only 
so, the views of the churches which he gathers will be more 
correct, than if he settles down in one place, feeling little 
interest in the regions beyond. If he labors to extend the 
gospel with its privileges to the whole country round, his 
churches and their pastors will be churches and pastors of the 
right kind, possessed of a missionary spirit, and laboring with 
one heart for the spread of the gospel among their country 
men. On the contrary, if the missionary becomes absorbed 
in teaching, or in home labor, there is great danger, as we all 



PREACHING. 337 



have had opportunity to observe, that his young men will also 
be absorbed in study, or teaching, or some other local occupa 
tion, and their views ~will thus become very much confined ; 
and instead of being good soldiers of Jesus Christ, there is 
great reason to fear they will become effeminate, delicate, 
worldly, and unfit to do the work of an evangelist, or to labor 
efficiently in the cause of their Master.* 

These wise suggestions have been since carried into practice 
by the missionaries on the ground where, six years ago, they 
were written. They had then only two churches, and now 
they have fifteen. The average annual accession of members 
has risen from twenty-eight to seventy-two, and the last year 
it was one hundred and twenty-seven. These churches are 
effective nuclei for stated congregations, with a steady and 
remarkable increase of power for accelerating the spread of 
the gospel and the multiplication of new churches and con 
gregation s.f 

Street preaching, where crowds are collected, requires a 
peculiar combination of talents, as well as great readiness in 
the language, and a quick and accurate perception of the 
manners and prejudices of the people. It is now practiced 
in a more quiet way than formerly, avoiding what would bring 
together a crowd or excite a. tumult, and aiming to present the 
truths of the gospel in a conciliatory manner. 

Much time and labor have been expended by the India 
missions in preaching tours to villages and towns in the rural 
districts. The missionary sometimes carries a tent, and, pitch 
ing it at some central place, holds daily religious services 
there and in the neighboring villages ; then passes on to an 
other convenient center. It is desirable that the missionary 
stay long enough in a place to see if an interest is awakened 
in any mind ; and if there is, to follow it up with further 
instruction. It is important, also, that there be repeated visits 
to places where the Holy Spirit seems to be operating on the 

* Report of the Mahratta Missions, 1854. t See p. 266. 



338 THE^ MISSIONS. 

minds of men. " By thus cooperating with God, following 
where he leads, and laboring where his providence directs, we 
may expect the most satisfactory results. And wherever sev 
eral individuals are converted to God, there a native catechist 
should be placed, and the interest be extended as far as possi 
ble. New centers of light being thus established one after 
another, we may hope for the more rapid diffusion of the 
knowledge of the gospel through the country." 

There has been no small amount of needless expense in 
preaching houses, in the early stages of the missions. These 
houses should obviously be such as the heathen will be most 
disposed to frequent. It is the recorded judgment of the 
Ceylon mission, after ample experience, that buildings for 
worship there should be open bungalows, with an ola roof, 
supported by plain wooden posts, costing only from twenty- 
five to seventy-five dollars. When the people desire something 
more costly, they should build for themselves. f 

The Madura mission recommend, for churches at the sta 
tions, a plain structure, costing from one hundred and fifty to 
two hundred and fifty dollars, according to different circum 
stances. For the village churches they recommend a plain 
mud building, with a thatched roof, the cost of which migUt 
vary from twelve to twenty-five dollars. f The cost of village 
churches in the Mahratta mission was estimated at from 
twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars, all of the plain 
est description, and no larger than necessity demands 
" reference being had to the time when the congregations will 
bear the whole expense of erecting their places for worship." 

Missionaries, assembled at Constantinople in 1855, declared 
it not to be desirable to erect a church edifice in any place, 
whether city or village, at the very commencement of an evan 
gelical work. They thought the spiritual building should 
precede the material ; that a church should first be formed, 
and a congregation gathered. When a church, congregation, 
and preacher exist, then a suitable house of worship would be 

* Report of Mahratta Missions, 1854. f Mission Report, 1855. 



THE PRESS. 339 

important. The building should be adapted to the existing 
prospects of the congregation, not for the distant future. 
" While it should allow some room for growth, it should never 
be such a structure as to appear naked or empty when the 
usual congregation is gathered into it. In most cases, there 
fore, it will be advisable, that the first buildings should be 
churches and school houses in one. If the building be simple, 
neat, and somewhat churchly in its appearance, and have good 
light and air, every reasonable aim will be attained." * 

The Sandwich Islands people have built their own churches, 
and have generally furnished them with bells ; so that the 
traveler is often agreeably reminded that he is in a Christian 
country. Their churches, built of stone, have cost much 
labor, but no great amount of money. 

It takes a long time to correct the views of ministerial edu 
cation, and of church building, which we carry with us into 
the heathen world. The saving in church building, which 
grew out of the discussions in the Eastern missions, in the 
years 1854 and 1855, is already very considerable, and will 
ultimately become a large sum ; with a decided advance, at 
the same time, toward meeting the tastes and habits of the 
people, and securing the construction of the buildings at the 
cost of those for whom they are intended. Expensive church 
edifices at the mission stations have resulted more from the 
taste or convenience of the resident missionary, than from 
forethought of their effect on the natives after the spread of 
the gospel and the organization of native churches shall have 
required the erection of preaching houses in the rural dis 
tricts ; and they often prevent the forming of new congrega 
tions in neighboring villages. 

THE PRESS. 

The missionaries connected with the Board have found it 
necessary to reduce twenty languages to writing, preliminary 

* Report of the Missionaries, 1855. 

45 



340 THE MISSIONS. 

to the preparation of books. These were the Greybo, Mpongwe, 
Dikele, Zulu-Kaffir, Modern Syriac or Nestorian, Dyak, Hawai 
ian, Micronesian, Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Osage, Ottawa, 
Ojibwa, Abenaquis, Sioux or Dakota, Pawnee, and three lan 
guages of the Oregon Indians. The Roman character was 
employed, with some modifications, in all these languages, 
excepting the Syriac and Cherokee. In the former, the Syriac 
character was used ; and in the latter, the syllabic alphabet 
invented by Guess, or Sequoyah, a Cherokee, past the middle 
age, who knew only his native tongue. " Having become 
acquainted with the principle of the alphabet, that marks 
can be made the symbols of sound, this uninstructed man 
conceived the notion that he could express all the syllables in 
the Cherokee language by separate marks, or characters. On 
collecting all the syllables, which, after long study and trial, 
he could recall to his memory, he found the number to be 
eighty-two. In order to express these, he took the letters of 
our alphabet for a part of them, and various modifications of 
our letters, with some characters of his own invention, for the 
rest. With these symbols he set about writing letters ; and 
very soon a correspondence was actually maintained between 
the Cherokees in Wills Valley and their countrymen beyond 
the Mississippi, five hundred miles apart. This was done by 
individuals who could not speak English, and who had never 
learned any alphabet, except this syllabic one, which Guess 
had invented, taught to others, and introduced into prac 
tice." Either Guess, or some one else, discovered four other 
syllables, making the syllables of the Cherokee language 
eighty-six. This is a singular fact, considering that the lan 
guage is very copious in some directions, a single verb under 
going some thousands of inflections. The late Dr. Samuel A. 
Worcester, of the Cherokee mission, thus speaks of this 
invention : 

" A few hours of instruction are sufficient for a Cherokee 
to learn to read his own language intelligibly. He will not, 

* Report of the Board for 1825, p. 51. 



THE PRESS. 341 

indeed, so soon be able to read fluently ; but when he has 
learned to read and understand, fluency will be acquired by 
practice. The extent of my information will not enable me 
to form a probable estimate of the number in the nation who 
can thus read ; but I am assured, by those who had the best 
opportunity . of knowing, that there is no part of the nation 
where the new alphabet is not understood. That it will pre 
vail over every other method of writing the language, there is 
no doubt. If a book were printed in that character, there are 
those in every part of the nation who could read it at once, 
and many others would only have to obtain a few hours 
instruction from some friend, to enable them to do so. They 
have but to learn their alphabet, and they can read at once."* 
Dr. Worcester subsequently spent many years, until his death 
in 1859, in translating the Scriptures and preparing other 
books in the Cherokee language, using only the syllabic alpha 
bet, as the public sentiment required that to be used exclu 
sively in Cherokee books and schools. 

Every sound in the Cherokee language has a vowel termina 
tion. Such not being the case in the Choctaw, the sounds of 
that language were too numerous to admit of a separate char 
acter for each. Every sound has a vowel termination, also, in 
the Hawaiian language, and five vowels and seven consonants 
suffice to express all the sounds. A few diphthongal combi 
nations are needed, but each letter retains its original sound. 
A syllabic alphabet was of course possible for the Hawaiian, 
but it is said that ninety-five characters would have been 
required. With the few characters now in use, each having 
but one sound, the native very easily learns to read, spell, and 
write. Nine additional consonants are employed to preserve 
the identity of foreign and Scripture names, and these are 
imparted to the pupil after he has learned to read pure na 
tive words. 

This curious specimen of Cherokee literature will be found 
on the following page, with the sounds of the letters, and the 
Lord s Prayer in the Cherokee language. 

* Missionary Herald for 1826, p. 48. 



342 



THE MISSIONS. 



CHEROKEE ALPHABET. 



D a 




R e 


* ga 


ka 


iv ge 


o*- ha 




? he 


w la 




<f le 


V ma 




Of me 


e na IT 


hna 


Jl ne 


x gwa 




gwe 


sa <* 


s 


4 se 


T. da W 


ta 


8= de 


A dla 


tla 


L die 


a dsa 




T dse 


GU wa 




iS9 we 


c&ya 




ye 



te 



T 1 


(5 O 


u 


i v 


y gi 


A gO 


J gu 


E gv 


J9 hi 


* ho 


r hu 


Y 
& hv 


I? li 


(S lo 


M lu 


*iv 


H mi 


*S mo 


y mu 




h. ni 


z no 


=0. nu 


0* nv 


<S> gwi 


V*gwo 


cc) g WU 


8 gWV 


B si 


* so 


t 3 su 


R SV 


J di JT ti 


V do 


s du 


0* dv 


c dli 


<* dlo 


w dlu 


p dlv 


h>dsi 


K dso 


J dsu 


CK dsv 


wi 


C5 wo 


S wu 


6 WV 


& yi 


fi yo 


GT yu 


B yv 



Sounds represented by Vowels, 

a as a in father, or short as a in rival, 

e as a in hate, or short as e in me, 

i as i in pique, or short as i in pit, 

o as aio in law, or short as o in ?io, nearly, 

u as oo in moon, or short as u 

v as u in 6w, nasalized. 



Consonant Sounds, 

The sound of g is nearly as hard g in English, 
but approaching to k. That of d nearly as in 
English, but approaching tot. Other consonants 
as in English. 

In some words g, 1, n, d, w, and y are aspirated, 
as if preceded by h. Aspiration gives to g the 
power of k, and to d the power of t. 



THE LORD S PRAYER 



CHEROKEE. 



Dh 



. I1T.VWR 



Kh-Sy. Drf 

I^R IiA^-^T. 



, DcT 



D(T 



INTERPRETATION, WITH PRONUNCIATION ACCORDING TO THE ALPHABET. 

aw gi daw da J ga Iv la di ehi | ga Iv quo di yu | ge se sdi | de tsa daw 
dsa gv wi yu hi ge sv | wi ga na nu gaw i | a ni e law hi | wi dsi ga 



li sda J ha da nv ste gv i j na sgi ya | ga Iv la di | tsi ni ga li sdi ha n 
da daw da qui sv J aw ga li sda yv di | sgi v si | gaw hi i ga | di ge sgi 
v si quo naw [ de sgi du gv i | na sgi ya | tsi di ga yaw tsi na haw | tsaw 
tsi du gi | a le tla sdi | oo da gaw le ye di yi ge sv \ wi di sgi ya ti nv 
sta nv gi | sgi yu da le sge sdi quo sgi ni | oo yaw ge sv i | tsa tse li ga 
ye naw | tsa gv wi yu hi | ge sv i | a le | dsa li ni gi di yi | ge sv i | a le | e 
dsa \v quo di yu j ge sv j ni gaw hi \v i | e me n 

Our Father | heaven dweller, | Hallowed | be | thy name. | Thy king 
dom I let it make its appearance, j Here upon earth | take place | Thy 
will, I the same as | in heaven | [it] is done. | Daily [adj.] | our food 
give to us | this day. | Forgive us | our debts, | the same as | we for 
give J our debtors. | And do not | temptation being | lead us into [it]. | De 
liver us from | evil existing. | For thine J the kingdom | is, | and | the 
power | is, | and | the glory j is, | forever | amen. 

I* 



THE PRESS. 

The late Dr. Eli Smith, of the Syria mission, with the aid 
of Mr. Homan Hallock, formerly in charge of the press at 
Malta and Smyrna, introduced a new and beautiful form of 
Arabic type into the books printed at the mission press in 
Syria, based on the perfect calligraphy of the smaller Koranic 
manuscripts. The printed page, thus resembling the manu 
script, falls in with the Arab prejudice, and all the printing 
has since been in this type, which is thus described by the 
mission after it had been three years in use : " It is vastly 
superior in respect to the form of the letters. Such is the 
uniform and decided testimony of intelligent natives every 
where. Our books are incomparably more acceptable than 
those which were printed with the old type ; more acceptable, 
we may safely say, in respect to typography, than any that 
were ever printed in the language. And not only are the let 
ters more beautiful than the old, but, bearing a closer resem 
blance to the best calligraphy, they are, of course, far prefera 
ble for the use of schools, and especially for all who are 
learning to write."* 

Mr. Edward Breath, who has long had the management of 
the press and fouiidery at Ooroomiah, has satisfied the Nesto- 
rian taste by his success in cutting a type in exact imitation 
of the plain, heavy letter of the Syriac manuscripts. 

The number of languages in which books have been printed 
at the presses owned by the Board is forty-three ; namely, the 
Modern Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Armenian, Turkish,! Bulga 
rian, Arabic, Syriac, Mahratta, Gujarate, Sanscrit, Hindoostanee, 
Portuguese, Persian, Tamil, Telugu, Siamese, Malay, Bugis, 
Dyak, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiian, Marquesas, Micronesian, 
Greybo, Mpongwe, Dikele, Zulu-Kaffir, Cherokee, Choctaw, 
Creek, Osage, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Seneca, Abenaquis, Sioux or 
Dakota, Pawnee, three in Oregon, and the English. The fact 
is worth recording, that no less than twenty of these languages 
were spoken by missionaries assembled at the house of the 

* Report of the Board, 1844, p. 135. 

f Armeno-Turkish and Greco-Turkish do not denote languages so much as 
the manner of writing the Turkish language. 



344 



THE MISSIONS. 



writer of these pages, on the evening following the fiftieth 
anniversary of the Board. 

A tabular view will show the number of printing establish 
ments that have been owned and employed at different times 
by the missions under the care of the Board ; when they we 
instituted and discontinued; the number of presses, fonts, 
founderies, and binderies ; the number of languages, and the 
amount of printing. 



MISSIONS. 


Printing 
Establishments. 


Instituted. 


Presses. 


3 



E 


Founderies. 


Binderies. 


Languages em 
ployed. 


Discontinued. 


"Sa 

ij 

1*4 

$h 


West Africa, . . . 
South Africa, . . . 
Turkey 


1 

1 
1 


1837 
1836 

1822* 


1 

1 
9 


1 
1 

10 


1 




3 

1 
fi 


1852f 


2,500,000 
2,000,000 
191 805 860 




1 


1835 


3 


4. 


1 




1 




28 472 800 


Nestorians, . . . 
Mahrattas, .... 


1 
1 
1 


1841 
1816 
1839 


1 

9 
12 


5 
15 
16 


1 
1 
1 




1 
6 
3 


1859 


15,263,720 
130,000,000 
357,969 621 


Ceylon, 


1 


1821 


4 


3 


1 




1 


1855 


171,747,198 




1 


1835 


9 


3 


1 




1 


1848 


11,600,813 




1 


1834 


9, 


8 


1 




5 


1842 


14,071,168 


China, 
Sandwich Islands, . 
Cherokees, . . . 
Choctaws, .... 


1 

1 
1 


1833 
1820 
1835 
1825 


2 
2 
1 


4 
4 
2 


1 


1 


1 
2 
1 
1 


1857i 
1859 
1861 
1848 


25,000,000 
200,000,000 
13,918,800 
3,788,300 


Sioux or Dakotas, . 
Creeks, * 














1 
1 




991,000 
68,000 


Oiibwas 














1 




1 841 000 


Osages, . . . 














1 




63,0 )0 


New York Indians, . 


1 




1 


1 






1 
1 




459,676 
4,907,100 


Oregon, 


1 




1 


1 






3 


1848 


300 000 


Abenaquis, . . . . 














1 




63,000 


Total, . . . 


15 




44 


78 


9 


9 


43|| 




1,176,831,056 



There have been fifteen printing establishments. At Constan 
tinople, the Board now owns only the Armenian types. In 

* Commenced in Malta, afterward at Smyrna and Constantinople. 

t Types owned from this time, but not the presses. 

J Destroyed by fire in the war of that year. 

The Cherokee printing was begun at New Echota, at a press owned by the 
tribe, in 1829. The Choctaw printing began in 1825, and, with that in the 
.greater part of the Indian languages, was executed out of the nation. 

|| The number of languages, not including the English, is really forty-two- 
The Ceylon and Madras presses both made use of the Tamil. 



THE PRESS. 345 

Ceylon, the establishment was sold to native Christian printers 
in 1855. Those at Bombay and the Sandwich Islands were 
sold because the needful printing could be executed at other 
presses. The Siamese and Singapore presses were transferred 
to Canton ; and the Cherokee and Oregon establishments 
ceased with the missions. The printing establishment at Can 
ton was burned by the Chinese in their war with England, but 
they have since refunded the value of it. The Armenian, 
Arabic, and Syriac types were cast from matrices prepared at 
the expense of the Board. The number of pages printed in 
the forty-two foreign languages employed by the missionaries 
of the Board, exceeds the number mentioned in the table ; 
which is eleven hundred and seventy-six million eight hun 
dred and thirty-one thousand and fifty-six. 

Several of the printing establishments have at times been 
sources of income, especially where they went into job-print 
ing in the English language. The Bombay press earned forty- 
six thousand seven hundred and forty-three dollars in the 
eight years ending with 1853. The presses at Madras, Can 
ton, and elsewhere, have been productive in this way. But it 
has not been deemed expedient, on the whole, to contiiYiie job- 
printing in the English language ; nor, indeed, to keep up the 
establishments on a scale for any great amount of remunera 
tive job-printing even in the vernaculars, with the single ex 
ception of the one at Madras ; it being found that there was 
necessarily too great a tax upon the time of the missionary 
superintendent. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

DEPUTATIONS. 

Visits to Missions necessary. Mr. Evarts to the Indian Missions, 1818. Dr. Worces 
ter, 1821. Mr. Evarts, 1822 and 1824. Changes required by Experience. Mr. Greene, 
1827, 1833, and 1842. Changes. Mr. Anderson to the Mediterranean, 1828, 9. Messrs. 
Anderson and Hawes, 1843, 4. Kesults. Mr. Treat to the Cherokee and Choctaw Mis 
sions, 1847. Objects of the Visit. Christian Fellowship. Mr. Treat to Cattaraugus, 
1849, and to Dakotas and Ojibwas, 1854. Dr. Wood to Cherokee and Choctaw Missions, 
1855. Messrs. Anderson and Thompson to the India Missions, 1854, 5. Dr. An 
derson to the Mediterranean, 1855. Proceedings in the India Missions. Reports 
and Letters. Main Object of the Discussions. Course of the Deputation arraigned 
at Utica, 1855. Special Meeting of the Board in Albany, 1856. Report of the Depu 
tation. Case referred to a Special Committee. Correspondence with the Missiona 
ries. Report of the Special Committee, and Resolutions of the Board. Resolutions 
of the Prudential Committee. Results of these Occurrences. 

THEY whose posts of duty are at the centers of great mis 
sionary systems, are more favorably situated than the members 
of any one mission can be, for obtaining comprehensive, prac 
tical views of missionary principles and measures. All the 
rays of missionary experience converge to the center ; and a 
wise disbursement of the funds requires a constant applica 
tion of principles to missions in their ever-varying circum 
stances and relations. Generally, sufficient information for 
this purpose is gained from correspondence, and from personal 
intercourse with returned missionaries. But sometimes it is 
needful for some one of the executive officers generally the 
Secretary in charge of the correspondence with the mission 
to go and confer with the brethren face to face. The larger 
English and European Missionary Societies have been in this 
practice from an early period. This has not been with the 
expectation of obtaining information which the brethren in 
the field, can not embody in their correspondence, but to secure 
the advantages of the freest possible interchange of opinions. 

(346) 



DEPUTATIONS. 347 

To go, when it can be done, is better than to write., A cor 
respondence across, a thousand or ten thousand miles is a 
slow process ; and when much is pending, and there is a con 
sequent liability to excited feelings, misunderstandings are apt 
to arise, and to retard, if they do not prevent or impair, the 
proper results ; while a few days or weeks of familiar con 
ference would suffice for their easy and perfect attainment. 

The earliest deputation sent by the Board was in the spring 
of 1818, when Mr. Evarts, the Treasurer, visited the Cherokee 
mission, then just entering its untried and complicated labors. 
He was met there by the Rev. Elias Cornelius, who com 
menced his career of usefulness as an agent of the Board. 
The visit was alike satisfactory to the mission and to the Pru 
dential Committee. 

In the spring of 1821, Dr. Worcester, the Corresponding 
Secretary, principally with the hope of restoring his failing 
health, undertook a visit to the missions among the Choctaws 
and Cherokees. On his arrival in the Choctaw country, going 
up from New Orleans, he had become so much enfeebled that 
he could only make brief visits to some of the stations, speak 
ing words of Christian sympathy and encouragement to the 
mission families. He proceeded to Brainerd, among the Cher 
okees, and there, sinking under the weight of disease and the 
fatigue of the journey, he closed his earthly labors. His 
heavenly spirit and his prayers were a source of strength and 
comfort to all who were favored with his presence. 

Mr. Evarts, as Corresponding Secretary, made a second 
visit to the Cherokee mission in 1822, having, as on the former 
occasion, a partial reference to his impaired health. He was 
accompanied by the Rev. William Goodell, now of the mission 
to Turkey, then an agent of the Board, and under appoint 
ment as a missionary. The Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, who had 
gone from the Cherokee mission to commence one among the 
Choctaws, met him at Brainerd for a free conference on the 
affairs of both missions. 

Mr. Evarts made a third visit to the Cherokee mission in 
tho early part of 1824, and extended his official tour to the 
46 



348 THE MISSIONS. 

stations ,of the Choctaw mission. The Indian missions had 
then a complicated system of labors, including missionaries, 
schoolmasters, farmers, and mechanics of several kinds. This 
may have arisen partly from the cooperation of the United 
States government in the support of the schools and secular 
operations of the missions ; but the religious sentiment of 
those times was in favor of this mixed operation, to civilize 
the savage while aiming at his conversion and the institution 
of Christian communities. The difficult question was, how to 
keep this complicated machinery in easy, constant, vigorous 
motion. 

Dr. Worcester was too ill, when he reached the Cherokee 
mission, to do any thing there. But in his brief address to 
the Choctaw mission, he said, " The mission among the Choc- 
taws is one. It is designed to occupy different stations, and 
to be in different divisions ; all to be under a general superin 
tendence. Each primary establishment is to have a head, or 
rector, who is to be also an ordained minister. The work, 
besides, is to be divided into several parts, and to be assigned 
to different persons, according to their respective qualifications. 
You are all indeed brethren, and are always to regard your 
selves as such. Nevertheless, there are, and must be, distinc 
tions of a very important kind. So it is in the church. It 
has its distinctions of office, of labor and service, order and 
subordination, distinctions according to the will of God. 
Besides the general principles of the Bible, which imply order 
and subordination, there are several chapters in the Epistles 
on the subject. This order is of no less importance on mis 
sionary ground than elsewhere. * 

The evils naturally attendant on this system had become de 
veloped at the time of Mr. Evarts s third visit. The plan pro 
posed by Dr. Worcester for the Indian missions was upon the 
supposition that when a considerable number of individuals are 
laboring together, they may be saved the inconvenience of joint 
consultations by explicit directions from the Committee, or by 
a delegated power of superintendence to some one of their 
number. Mri Evarts found, that whatever explicit directions 



DEPUTATIONS. 349 

the Committee had given, had been promptly followed ; but 
that it was impossible for persons at a distance to enter into 
the details of different operations, carried on simultaneously 
at the same place, and changing daily. He was more than 
ever impressed with the fact, that the system of missionary 
operations must be a system of mutual confidence, and that 
the services to be rendered by those who devote themselves to 
the work, must be in the largest sense voluntary and free. It 
was a delicate matter to establish any system of subordination 
that should even seem to encroach upon this freedom, or to 
have the effect of placing one class of laborers under the direc 
tion of another. Those to whom authority might be intrusted, 
would feel a hesitation in using it, so that it would in fact 
avail but little ; and those who were placed under their breth 
ren would be apt to feel a constraint and unwillingness which 
might grow into a settled disaffection to the work. " It is well 
known," Mr. Evarts said, " that where a considerable number 
of persons are to act together, though they all possess the best 
intentions, the same economy can not be practiced as would 
be practiced by the same persons individually. This state of 
things arises from a commendable disposition to yield to each 
other, as far as possible ; from different habits of economy ; 
from a divided responsibility ; and from a constant tendency 
to relax in exertions which are shared by many. It has been 
supposed, that a division of labor, which should render each 
individual accountable for a particular department, would 
answer the end of securing individual responsibility, and pre 
vent interference with each other s duties. This course has 
been repeatedly attempted ; but so numerous are the interrup 
tions of any regular plan at a missionary station, from the 
visits of natives and travelers, from sickness, from a failure of 
supplies, and from a great variety of unexpected events, that 
very soon the arrangement has been broken up, one person 
after another has been called from his assigned sphere to meet 
exigencies in some other part of the system, and affairs have 
relapsed into their original state." 

These difficulties would never have been thoroughly under- 



350 THE MISSIONS. 

stood except by experience ; but being understood, the Com 
mittee came thus early to the following conclusions, which 
subsequent experience has fully sustained : " That the instruc 
tion of the heathen in Christian knowledge and true piety is 
the great object of missions, and should never be merged in 
a mass of secular cares ; that mission schools are principally 
to be valued as a means of communicating divine truth ; that 
the main reliance should be on the plain doctrines of the gos 
pel for any permanent melioration of the character and con 
dition of any heathen people ; that the secular labors in a 
mission should be as few and as simple as possible ; and that 
but few missionaries and assistants ought to reside at one sta 
tion." The changes now brought about in the internal ar 
rangements of the Cherokee mission, were based upon these 
principles. 

At the meeting of the Board in 1826, an arrangement was 
concluded with the United Foreign Missionary Society, by 
which the missions of that society among the Osages, the Otta- 
was, and the Indians at Mackinaw, and in Western New York, 
were transferred to the Board. Preliminary steps were also 
taken for receiving the Chickasaw mission, instituted by the 
Synod of South Carolina and Georgia. In view of this pro 
spective enlargement of the Board s operations, and in order 
to become personally acquainted with the new missions, a plan 
was formed for an extended visitation, by Mr. Evarts, of all the 
stations among the south-western Indians, accompanied by the 
Rev. David Greene, who had been appointed an Assistant Sec 
retary, and to whom the correspondence with the Indian mis 
sions was to be specially confided. Events prevented Mr. 
Evarts from making this tour, and Mr. Greene, in the autumn 
of 1827, entered upon it alone. After meeting the Synod of 
South Carolina and Georgia in Charleston, and consummating 
the transfer of the Chickasaw mission, he proceeded to the 
country of the Cherokees, and visited all the stations, aiding 
the mission families in arrangements for the more efficient 
prosecution of the labors in the several departments of their 
work. During this visit, the font of Cherokee type in the 



DEPUTATIONS. 351 

peculiar alphabetical character of Guess, and the printing- 
press which had been purchased at the expense of the tribe, 
were put in operation. It was the first press ever owned by 
an Indian tribe, or devoted exclusively to their use ; and it 
employed the only new alphabetic character that had been 
invented for many centuries. 

Having finished his work among the Cherokees, Mr. Greene 
proceeded to the Chickasaw country, and visited all the sta 
tions, aiding the missionaries in adjusting their affairs to their 
new relations. Passing on to the Choctaw mission, he spent 
several weeks in labors similar to those performed among the 
Cherokees. 

In company with Mr. Kingsbury, whom the Prudential 
Committee had associated with him for the stations beyond the 
Mississippi, he proceeded to the Arkansas Cherokees. The 
affairs of the several stations were carefully inspected, and 
such changes brought about as promised to render the opera 
tions of the missions more harmonious and efficient. 

The deputation then visited the mission among the Osages, 
where, in consequence of its unsettled state during the process 
of transition from the United Foreign Missionary Society to 
the Board, their arrival seemed most opportune. This mission 
presented some new features and difficulties, in consequence 
of its being among a migratory and untutored tribe. As the 
result of consultation, the mission was placed on a new and 
more satisfactory footing. 

Having finished their work in the Osage mission, Mr. Kings- 
bury returned by way of St. Louis, and Mr. Greene pursued 
his way to the Ottawas, in the north-west part of Ohio, and 
then to the Tuscaroras and Senecas, in Western New York. 
With these missions the tour was concluded, having extended 
through eight months, and required about five thousand miles 
of travel. 

In the summer of 1829, Mr. Greene visited the mission at 
Mackinaw, and the one near Green Bay the only missions 
among the Indians which he had not previously seen. The 
former was among those transferred from the United Foreign 



352 THE MISSIONS. 

Missionary Society, and the latter had been recently estab 
lished by the Board. Important necessary changes were 
effected. Mr. Greene made a second visit to Mackinaw in 
1833. In 1842, the Indians in Western New York having 
disposed of one of their reservations on which was a mission 
ary station, it was deemed expedient for the same Secretary 
to repeat his visit to that mission. 

These official visits had the effect to dimmish the expendi 
tures of the missions to an amount far greater than their cost. 
They also threw much light on the path of the Prudential 
Committee, and were an important means of increasing the 
harmony and efficiency of the several missions. The changes 
resulted for the most part, at least in later years, from the free 
action of the missions. Still, to a very great extent, they 
could not have been as well effected, if at all, without a visit 
of this sort. The presence of a deputation of course created 
a necessity for the mission s reviewing its entire system of 
action, and subjecting every important part of it to a delib 
erate conclusion of some sort ; and all under the advantage of 
the presence of one intimately conversant with the views of 
the Prudential Committee, and with the general operations of 
the Board. 

In the year 1828, the members of the Syria mission, com 
pelled by war to leave Beirut, were all on the Island of Malta. 
They were the only missionaries of the Board then in the 
countries of the Mediterranean. There had been a temporary 
occupation of Smyrna on two occasions, and a short sojourn 
of a missionary at Constantinople. The mission to Greece 
was of later origin, and so was that to the Armenians ; while 
the Nestorians were as yet unknown to the Protestant Chris 
tian world. The battle of Navarino had liberated Greece, 
after nearly the whole of the Morea had been ravaged and 
burned by Ibrahim Pasha ; and our countrymen were send 
ing shiploads of supplies to the destitute and famishing inhab 
itants. 

A variety of circumstances conspired to make it seem impor 
tant to the Prudential Committee, that some one conversant 



DEPUTATIONS. 353 

with their views and proceedings should visit Malta for an 
extended conference with the missionaries assembled there ; 
and it was decided to send Mr. Anderson, then Assistant Sec 
retary in the foreign department. He was instructed, after 
having completed his business at Malta, to visit Greece, which 
was then supposed to present a very promising field for mis 
sionary enterprise. It was among the reasons for this agency, 
as in the similar mission of Mr. Greene to the Indian 
stations, that it would add materially to the ability of the 
Secretary for the future discharge of his official duties. He 
reached Malta on the 1st of January, 1829 ; and near the 
close of February, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, one 
of the missionaries, afterward extensively known by his 
explorations in Armenia and the Nestorian country, and by 
his labors in the Arabic translation of the Scriptures, he 
visited the Ionian Islands, the Morea, several of the Greek 
Islands, and Smyrna. From thence they returned to Malta. 
While at ^Egina, the seat of the Greek government, Mr. 
Anderson, in conformity with his Instructions, sought an inter 
view with Count Capodistrias, the President of Greece, who 
gave written replies to his inquiries. Perhaps the most 
important thing in these replies was the declaration, which 
there is good reason to believe was sincere, that the Holy 
Scriptures in Modern Greek should be among the books for 
use in the common schools. The Rev. Jonas King, who was 
then in Greece in charge of one of the cargoes of provis 
ions sent to the impoverished people, assisted in some part 
of this intercourse. Mr. King soon afterward renewed his 
connection with the Board, having for several years subse 
quent to 1823 been the associate of the Rev. Pliny Fisk in 
Syria, and has continued his useful labors in Greece down 
to this day, residing first on the Island of Tenos, and then in 
Athens, which he was one of the first to reoccupy subsequent 
to the war of revolution. It was mainly through an influence 
exerted at that time, and continued by Dr. King, that the 
Modern Greek Scriptures, or at least the New Testament, 



354 THE MISSIONS. 

became, and has ever been, a school book in Greece. Mr. 
Anderson returned to Boston near the close of 1829.* 

The Greek mission, during thirteen years from the time of 
its institution, went through a process of growth and decline, 
till the Prudential Committee were at a loss what to do 
with it. The Armenian mission was then having a pros 
perous development in the populous suburbs of Constanti 
nople, and in some of the northern sections of Asia Minor ; 
and, both there and in Syria, fundamental questions in mis 
sionary policy had ripened for discussion, which was needful 
both for the missions and for the Committee. It w^as therefore 
decided, in 1844, to send Dr. Anderson, who had long been 
Secretary for the foreign department, once more to the Med 
iterranean. Happily, the Rev. Joel Hawes, D. D., of Hart 
ford, Conn., had resolved to visit the East at that time, in 
company with his only daughter, Mrs. Yan Lennep, going, 
with her husband, to join the Armenian mission, and he 
was requested to render such aid to the Secretary as his plans 
and convenience might allow. In point of fact, the two 
brethren were associated in every journey and in every meet 
ing while on mission ground ; and the service rendered by Dr. 
Hawes was highly appreciated by the missions, and of much 
value to the cause. The more important places visited were 
Athens, Smyrna, Constantinople, Brusa, Trebizond, Beirut, 
and Jerusalem ; and somewhat more than sixty meetings were 
held with the brethren of the missions. The results can not 
here be enumerated. Those in Syria on the best manner 
of cultivating the field will serve as a specimen. " It was 
agreed, that the grand aim of our mission is of course the 

* Some are yet living, who may remember how much the interest of the 
United Monthly Concert in Park- street Church was increased, on the first 
Monday evening of January, 1830, by the choir under the direction of Dr. 
Lowell Mason, when, at the close of a statement by Mr. Anderson, they sang 
the hymn, 

Watchman, tell us of the night, 
What its signs of promise are," 

in the well-known strains, then recently composed by Dr. Mason, and for the 
first time heard in public. 



DEPUTATIONS. 355 

converting of men to God ; that the preaching of the gospel 
is the great, divinely-appointed means to this end ; that when 
ever and wherever there are small companies of natives ready 
to make a credible profession of piety, they are to be recog 
nized as churches, entitled to the ordinances of baptism and 
the Lord s Supper, and to such a ministry as can be given 
them ; that the reformed churches are to have no reference to 
any of the degenerate Oriental churches, and may be expected 
to combine persons from several, and perhaps all, the various 
sects existing in the mountains ; and that the method of 
church organization and administration should involve the 
principle of throwing such responsibility on every individual 
member, as will develop his talents and Christian graces to 
the utmost possible extent." 

As the closing of the Greek mission except so t far as it 
could be prosecuted by Dr. King alone at Athens was one 
of the more important results of the inquiries and consulta 
tions in Greece, Asia Minor, and Constantinople, the dark pic 
ture of the religious state of the Greek mind, at that time, 
given by the Secretary in his report, will interest the thought 
ful reader. " To me," he says, " the condition of the Greek 
mind, in relation to evangelical efforts for the benefit of the 
Greek people, appears altogether extraordinary. We are not 
mistaken in the material facts in the case. The Greeks have 
retired from us. To a most affecting extent they have become 
inaccessible to our preaching, our books, and our influence. 
They will no longer hear us ; and there is reason to believe it 
is now true, that few of them read when we address them 
through the press on the subjects of vital godliness. I do not 
see where or in what way the Greek mind is, to any consid 
erable extent, approachable, just now, to a spiritual influence 
from Protestant ministers of the gospel. The political state 
of the Greek mind grasping after the recovery of Constan 
tinople and the restoration of the Eastern empire, and relying 
on the unity of the Greek Church as a means to this end 
has a wonderful influence on the thoughts and feelings of the 
whole community, especially the higher classes. I am reluc- 
47 



356 THE MISSIONS. 

tant to mention also the national pride of the Greeks, which 
has been much increased since the revolution, and their strong 
aversion to strangers, and certain other traits in their character, 
all combining to render it difficult for foreigners to gain their 
confidence or awaken their gratitude by acts of kindness and 
benevolence. And then there are the high, arrogant assump 
tions of the Greek Church, which is more exclusive than the 
Roman ; claiming for her clergy the only apostolical succes 
sion, and for her trine immersion, performed by her clergy, 
the only baptism ; and regarding that baptism as having a 
regenerative power, and all who are not thus baptized as 
beyond the pale of the Christian church and the hope of salva 
tion. Of course all Protestant preachers of every name, epis 
copal and non-episcopal, are looked upon as unbaptized here 
tics. There is, moreover, the tyranny of the Greek Church, 
and the dreadful terror of excommunication on the part of 
the people, requiring the deepest convictions of the truth to 
sustain the inquirer against the threats of his spiritual guides ; 
and, connected with this, there is the almost universal and 
decided hostility of the Greek clergy to every Protestant move 
ment. The patriarch and synod at Constantinople are believed 
to be not less opposed to the circulation of the Scriptures in 
the vernacular tongue, than the pope and cardinals at Rome. 
And it is time for us to consider the disproportion that exists 
between the means that have been employed and the results. 
Twenty-seven ordained missionaries of different denominations 
have labored more or less in this field. A million copies of 
books and tracts have been printed by different missionary 
societies, and scattered broadcast over the Greek community. 
Two hundred thousand copies of the New Testament, and 
parts of the Old, have been put in circulation in the Modern 
Greek language. Not a small number of Greek young men 
have been educated in America and England, by benevolent 
individuals and societies ; and more than ten thousand Greek 
youth have been more or less educated in Greece and Turkey 
at the schools of the various missions. And yet, not ten per 
sons are known, who are confidently believed to have been 



DEPUTATIONS. 357 

truly converted to God by these means ! How unlike these 
results to those we find among the Armenians ! " 

In 1847, the Prudential Committee thought it desirable 
that a visit should be made to the Cherokee and Choctaw 
missions. Mr. Greene was designated for this service, in the 
first instance ; but, after the Annual Meeting at Buffalo, it 
was found that his health would be unequal to such a journey. 
It became necessary, therefore, that Mr. Treat, one of the Cor 
responding Secretaries, should take his place. 

The object of the Committee was twofold. They wished to 
become thoroughly acquainted with the state and prospects 
of the missions, and with their relations, and those of the 
churches under their care, to the subject of slavery. 

Mr. Treat left Boston on the 30th of November. His route 
was by New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to Pittsburg ; 
thence by the Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas Rivers to Little 
Rock. The rest of the way to the Cherokee Nation he trav 
eled on horseback, arriving at Dwight, January 4, 1848. It 
has been practicable, quite recently, to reach the same point 
in one week. Among the Cherokees, he visited every station 
of the Board, in company with Mr. Willey, as also the stations 
of the Baptists and Moravians, and conferred freely with such 
persons as were most competent to impart the information 
which he needed, wherever they might be found. Mr. But- 
rick, who had identified himself with the interests of the red 
man for thirty years, and Messrs. Butler and Worcester, who 
had suffered imprisonment for the maintenance of his rights, 
were then among the living. To sit down with these breth 
ren, and hear them speak of their labors, their trials, the 
changes which had passed over the Indians, the triumphs 
which the gospel had achieved in the transformation of indi 
viduals, and their confident belief that nothing but the gospel 
could save the aboriginal race, was no ordinary privilege. 

A meeting of the Cherokee mission was held at Dwight, 
after the different stations had been visited. Various ques 
tions were discussed, the subject of slavery in its relations to 
the work of Indian evangelization receiving its due share of 



358 THE MISSIONS. 

attention. The time spent in devotional exercises threw a 
hallowed influence around the deliberations of each successive 
day. The fourth Sabbath in January was a memorable occa 
sion. The mission families, the Indian communicants, and 
the colored communicants, in the afternoon, sat together 
around the table of their common Lord, with the feeling that 
" Christ is all and in all." 

Owing to an unexpected rise of the Choctaw rivers, an 
entire week was required for the journey from Dwight to Pine 
Ridge, the station occupied by Mr. Kingsbury. On his way 
thither, the Secretary visited the boarding schools at Fort 
Coffee and Mount Hope, in charge of the Methodist brethren ; 
also the academy at Spencer, under the direction of the Pres 
byterian Board. The institution last named has exerted a 
greater influence upon the intellectual progress of the Choc- 
taws than any other. 

Mr. Treat proceeded at once to visit the mission families, in 
doing which he became acquainted with many intelligent men, 
church members and others, with more or less of aboriginal 
blood in their veins ; and, as four Sabbaths were spent in the 
Choctaw country, he had considerable opportunity to become 
acquainted with the churches. 

The mission assembled at Piue Ridge near the close of the 
month ; but in view of what is already known to the public, 
there is no occasion to speak of its deliberations. The condi 
tion and prospects of the missionary work, at that time, were 
fully set forth in the Annual Report for 1848. Various docu 
ments, growing out of the relation of the Indian churches to 
slavery, were submitted to the Board at its meeting in Boston, 
and published in the Report for the same year. 

. Mr. Treat arrived at the Missionary House after an absence 
of seventeen weeks, having journeyed (including eleven hun 
dred miles on horseback) more than six thousand miles. 

Several visits have also been made by Mr. Treat to the mis 
sions in Western New York. The first of these, and the only 
one that will be mentioned here, occurred in 1849, when 
he repaired to Cattaraugus by direction of the Prudential 



DEPUTATIONS. 359 

Committee, in consequence of certain complaints which had 
been preferred against the brethren stationed on that Reser 
vation. The year 1848, it will be recollected, was memora 
ble for its revolutions. The last of these was inaugurated 
among the Senecas ; the government, which had been in the 
hands of the chiefs from time immemorial, having been sud 
denly transferred to the people. Those who lost place and 
power so unexpectedly, as was very natural, felt aggrieved by 
the change ; and they could not be persuaded that the mis 
sionaries had done all in their interest which they had a right 
to expect ; on the contrary, they affirmed that the influence 
of these brethren had been employed adversely to them. Mr. 
Treat soon discovered that no attempt at conciliation was like 
ly to succeed ; hence he permitted the complainants to prefer 
their charges in a formal manner, and support them with such 
evidence as they could adduce, the missionaries being at lib 
erty to introduce rebutting testimony. Two days were de 
voted to an investigation which certainly could shelter itself 
behind no precedent, ancient or modern. The allegations 
were peculiar, both in form and substance ; and the witnesses 
could not be dissuaded from faking the widest range in sub 
mitting their statements. There was a profusion of Indian 
oratory, moreover ; and the " summing up " threatened at one 
time to become an indefinite debate. The result was favorable 
to the missionaries ; and the Indian character appeared well 
throughout the investigation. With a large share of persist 
ency, there was mingled a good degree of shrewdness and 
intellectual power. Though some of the witnesses exhibited 
the deepest interest in the issue of the question, all appeared 
to be honest. 

In July, 1851, treaties were entered into by the United 
States government and four bands of Dakota Indians, whereby 
the latter agreed to surrender to the former, at the end of two 
years, the immense territory lying east of Lake Traverse and 
the Sioux River, with the exception of a tract about one hun 
dred and fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, including the 
valley of the Minnesota River from Lake Traverse to the mouth 



860 THE MISSIONS. 

of Little Rock River. The Senate of the United States, how 
ever, refused to confirm the reservation above described, but 
substituted a provision which allowed the Indians to occupy 
the same during the pleasure of the President. To this 
change the Dakotas subsequently assented. As the labors of 
the missionaries had been chiefly upon the ceded territory, a 
modification of the plans of the Committee became indispen 
sable. Mr. Treat was therefore directed to visit the brethren 
who remained in connection with the Board (two having 
already take-n their release) in the spring of 1854. He left 
Boston on the 10th of May, and was absent till the 30th of 
June. Having reached Traverse des Sioux by steamboat, he 
proceeded on horseback from that point (then the western 
limit of civilization) to Lac-qui-parle, distant one hundred 
and thirty miles. Thence he returned with Mr. Riggs to Yel 
low Medicine, the station of Dr. Williamson, where the annual 
meeting of the mission commenced its sessions on the 2d of 
June. The results of the conference which followed, are 
stated in the Annual Report for 1854, p. 173, and need not be 
repeated here. 

Having returned to St. Paul, Mr. Treat proceeded north 
ward to Crow Wing, where Rev. S. Hall, with others, was 
commencing a new station. Here the Secretary was obliged 
to contemplate the obstacles which the feud between the Da 
kotas and Ojibwas, so formidable and so relentless, had sud 
denly interposed. There were other hinderances, moreover, 
which made it a grave question whether the Board could 
be justified in continuing its labors in that locality. When 
the facts were reported to the Committee, they concluded to 
abandon a field which seemed to promise so much of trial 
and so little of success. In consequence of this step, Mr. 
Hall became a home missionary at Sauk Rapids, Minne 
sota. 

In 1856, Mr. Treat visited Odanah, the station which Mr. 
Wheeler occupies among the Ojibwas. He was able to take a 
hopeful view of a field that was comparatively new, and 
measures were considered with reference to a more vigorous 



DEPUTATIONS. 361 

prosecution of the missionary work, which in due time re 
ceived the sanction of the Prudential Committee. 

In the spring of 1855, Dr. Wood, the Corresponding Secre 
tary resident in New York, was commissioned to visit the 
Choctaw and Cherokee missions, to make further efforts for 
removing the difficulties growing out of the question of slavery. 
He spent a part of the months of April and May in the two 
missions, in the most free and fraternal conference with the 
brethren. His subsequent report to the Prudential Commit 
tee was approved by the Board assembled at Utica, and was 
published in the minutes of that meeting. Dr. Wood s object 
was fully attained in the Cherokee mission ; and though, in 
the final result with the Choctaw mission, he was disappointed, 
his visit prepared the way for the Board to retire from that 
field in 1859. 

The third official visit of Dr. Anderson to the foreign field, 
was to the missions in India, in the years 1854, 5, in company 
with the Rev. Augustus C. Thompson, a member of the Pru 
dential Committee. These brethren sailed from Boston in 
August, 1854. The time of departure, and the times for vis 
iting the several missions, were adjusted to the varied seasons 
as they occur in India, with the expectation of reaching home 
before the meeting of the Board in 1855. They arrived at 
Bombay in November, just after the rains ; visited the Deccan 
in the cool of winter ; finished their work in the Madura mis 
sion before the hot season ; reached Ceylon when the dry south 
west monsoon had begun to send its healthful breezes across 
the district of Jaffna ; and so were at Madras and in Arcot 
when the hot season was nearly over. The time allotted to 
this tour having more than expired, Mr. Thompson s pastoral 
duties called him home ; and the visit to Calcutta, the politi 
cal, intellectual, and religious center of India, which then 
seemed important and useful in various respects, was per 
formed by the senior member of the deputation alone. This 
was in midsummer, which is the rainy season in Bengal ; and 
the visit, after so long a course of severe labor, was not with 
out risk of health and life. On his way home, the Secretary 



362 THE MISSIONS. 

visited the Syria mission, and Kessab, Aritioch, Aleppo, Ain- 
tab, and Constantinople. More than seven months were spent 
among the India missions, near a month at Calcutta, and two 
months in the Syria and Armenian missions. 

On reaching a mission, the first business of the deputation 
was to visit the several stations, that they might gain an accu 
rate acquaintance with them by a free, personal intercourse 
with the brethren. The object of this visit was not to dis 
cuss questions of missionary policy, but to perfect their knowl 
edge of facts, and to ascertain the individual impressions of the 
missionaries as to the proper method of dealing with the facts. 
In this, which was the most toilsome part of their duty, they 
were generally successful ; and this was an essential prepara 
tion for the protracted meetings of the missions which followed. 
The number of stations thus visited was thirty-seven. There 
were formal conferences with the Mahratta, Madura, Ceylon, 
Madras, Arcot, and Syria missions, and with such members of 
the Armenian mission as could assemble at Aintab and Con 
stantinople. The aggregate number of missionary brethren 
present at these meetings was fifty-eight ; the number of ses 
sions was one hundred and six, occupying the business hours 
of seventy-eight days ; and the number of written reports 
discussed and adopted in these sessions was eighty-seven. The 
reports upon the basis of which the several missions have 
been since acting successfully were drawn up after the dis 
cussions, as a fair embodiment of the opinions of the meeting, 
and were printed, together with letters from the deputation 
commenting upon them, for the use of the missions and of the 
Prudential Committee.* 

* These Reports and Letters, bound up with the Report of the Deputation 
to the Board, and that of the Special Committee on their case, make a consid 
erable octavo volume. The documents written in India were printed there ; 
and the mode of proceeding at these meetings was followed by several Con 
ferences of Missionaries in other parts of India ; as, also, by a Conference on 
Missions held in Liverpool in the year 1860. The Rev. Joseph Mullens, 
D. D., one of the London Society s missionaries in Calcutta, to whom mis 
sions in Lidia and all missionary bodies are under great obligation, was one 
of the secretaries of the last-named Conference. It is gratifying to be able to 



DEPUTATIONS. 363 

The missions of the Board in India being chiefly in rural 
districts, the main drift of the discussions, and of the reports, 
was in favor of carrying the gospel into the villages in such a 
way, that gospel institutions might speedily take root in them. 

At a meeting of the Board in Utica, in September, 1855, 
the committee on that part of the Prudential Committee s 
Report relating to the Tamil missions, stated to the Board, 
that, from other sources than the Report, they had derived 
information of changes brought about by the deputation, 
which involved "the abandonment of the English language, 
the relinquishment of schools for the heathen, a total change 
in the ecclesiastical constitution of the [Ceylon] mission, and, 
in a word, a new basis of missionary effort ; " and they recom 
mended the appointment of a special committee to examine 
into the case. The Board could not know how far such state 
ments were founded in misapprehension, as neither member 
of the deputation had then returned to the country. The 
report was, therefore, after a discussion of some length, laid 
upon the table ; and the Prudential Committee was requested 
to call a special meeting of the Board, whenever the matters 

quote the following opinion of these documents from Dr. Mullens s Historical 
Account of previous Missionary Conferences, in the very instructive volume 
issued by the Liverpool Conference, of which twenty-five thousand copies were 
circulated the first year. "They are contained," he says, " in a volume of six 
hundred pages, printed privately for the use of the Board and its friends ; and 
it is not too much to say, that no volume of equal size, published during the 
era of our modern missions, contains so much valuable information on all the 
details of missionary experience, on several most important fields of labor, as 
that volume of missionary papers. It might be published with great advantage 
to the friends of all missionary societies ; and deserves the careful study of all 
missionaries, and the managers of all missionary agencies, especially in the 
countries and provinces of Asia." Referring to similar documents issued by 
Conferences of English Baptist Missionaries in India, and E. B. Underbill, 
Esq., Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, then in India as a depu 
tation, Dr. Mullens says, "A range of topics was discussed similar to that 
of the American brethren ; and the result, as in their case, was embodied in 
reports by the missionaries, and letters by the deputation. They are also 
equally valuable. To the missionary in India, no works will give a more com 
plete insight into the worth and working of all sorts of plans, than the nine sets 
of Papers and Letters contained in these volumes of the two Societies." 

48 



364 THE MISSIONS. 

connected with the visit of the deputation to India should be 
ready for its consideration. Mr. Thompson arrived home in 
the following month, and Dr. Anderson in January. A spe 
cial meeting of the Board was held in Albany, in March, 1856, 
as related in a previous chapter, to which the deputation pre 
sented a printed report in a pamphlet of about sixty pages, 
the leading object of which is thus described in the conclu 
sion : 

A main object of this report, fathers and brethren, has 
been briefly to describe the more important adaptations of 
means, by our respected brethren in India, to the progressive 
demands of the work in the three older missions. You have 
seen the Ahmednuggur, Madura, and Ceylon missions succes 
sively in that more advanced stage of progress, when they 
were enabled to form centers of operation distinct from the 
stations, with that best of all spiritual germs the church. 
Such churches you have seen organized, for the first time, in 
each of those missions, and furnished, also for the first time, 
with native pastors. As an important means to the same end, 
you have seen the way opened for commencing village stations 
in the Deccan of Western India, with resident missionaries, re 
mote from the cities, thus providing for successive constellations 
of light and influence in that most interesting region. Next 
you have seen the schools subjected to modifications, to adapt 
them to this new position of the work. Men may be converted 
by preaching, without schools ; but how, without them, can we 
build up and perpetuate churches and congregations ? You 
have seen that one of the main inquiries in the Madura mis 
sion was, how to strengthen the large system of vernacular 
schools connected with the village congregations. It was to 
invigorate them, and through them the congregations, and 
thus to lead on to the gathering of village churches, that the 
boarding schools at four of the stations in that mission were 
to be progressively relinquished, and that more variety was to 
be imparted to the studies of the Seminary at Pasumalie. So 
in Ceylon, where the work of preparation had beeii elaborately 



DEPUTATIONS. 365 

performed^ and had been much longer in progress, where 
were scores of native Christians ready to be formed into 
village churches, and educated natives for pastors, the Board 
has seen that the time had fully come for entering at once 
and earnestly into the only method of planting gospel institu 
tions effectually in all parts of the Jaffna district. Going, 
then, as the mission did, for the establishment of village 
churches, it perceived the need of having Christian schools, to 
be under the especial care of those churches, and to look 
mainly to them for support. Without such, the churches 
could not live and grow. The Board will remember, that 
twenty Christian schools were instituted in Jaffna ; while the 
heathen were not overlooked, an equal number having been 
provided for their children, besides the privilege of attending 
the Christian schools. Nor will it be forgotten that, among 
the reasons for discontinuing the English station schools, was 
their evident incompatibility with the success of the vernacular 
village schools. And it must have been seen, that the Batti- 
cotta Seminary could not meet the high spiritual demands 
upon it, in this new order of things, without some such thor 
ough reconstruction as it received from the mission, even at 
the expense of a temporary suspension of its functions in 
order more effectually to secure that result ; and also, that the 
Female Boarding School at Oodooville must needs be adapted 
in form and character to its correlative institution. Sim 
plicity, order, economy, spirituality, are essential to the high 
prosperity of these arid all other missions ; and to the attain 
ment of each of these great excellences the missions aimed in 
their late discussions, and not without success. 

After a protracted discussion, in which the deputation took 
little part, preferring to have the matter go to a committee, 
which should take time for correspondence with the mission 
aries, a committee was appointed, consisting of thirteen 
members, to whom the whole case was referred ; and they 
were to report at the next annual meeting of the Board. 
This committee was composed of the following persons: 



366 THE MISSIONS. 

Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D., Mark Hopkins, D. D., Leonard 
Bacon, D. D., David H. Riddle, D. D., Hon. Erastus Fairbanks, 
Hon. Linus Child, Benjamin C. Taylor, D. D., Horace Holden, 
Esq., Asa D. Smith, D. D., Hon. William Jessup, Richard T. 
Haines, Esq., Ray Palmer, D. D., and Philemon H. Fowler, 
D. D. In accordance not less with the wishes of the deputa 
tion than with the evident proprieties of the case, the Special 
Committee addressed a series of questions to each member of 
the missions that had been visited ; and the same was also 
sent to the retiirned missionaries in this country, several of 
whom came before the committee. The annual meeting was 
delayed until the 28th of October, that the Special Committee 
might receive answers from all the missionaries before making 
up their report. This report, as printed, makes a pamphlet 
of fifty-nine pages. The following is their result, as regards 
the proceedings and influence of the deputation : 

" In regard to the late visit of the Deputation to the Eastern 
Missions, the Special Committee believe they have performed a 
great and needful work ; that they have discharged their high 
trust as faithful, devoted men ; that they ought to receive the 
cordial thanks of this Board ; and that we may confidently 
hope, that a new spirit may pervade and animate our missions 
abroad, and a strong missionary impulse be given to our 
churches by this labor of love. It is true, some diversity of 
opinion exists in relation to missionary policy ; but it is not a 
diversity which respects the kind of agencies to be employed 
in order to save the soul and evangelize the world, but such 
as respects the specific form.s and relative proportions in which 
these agencies are to be used. And in looking over the whole 
missionary field, there is great unanimity even on this latter 
point." 

The report has the names of all the committee appended, 
and was accepted by the Board at Newark, with no debate 
on any part relating to the proceedings of the deputation. 
It was, also, 

"Resolved^ That the Deputation to the Eastern Missions have 
performed a great and needful work ; that they have discharged 



DEPUTATIONS. 367 

their high trust as faithful, devoted men ; that they receive 
the cordial thanks of the Board ; and that we may confidently 
hope, that a new spirit may pervade and animate our missions 
abroad, and a strong missionary impulse be given to our 
churches by this labor of love." 

On the 2d of December following, the Chairman of the 
Prudential Committee, by direction of the Committee, reported 
the following Minute, which was unanimously adopted, viz.: 

In view of the proceedings of the Board at Utica, the Pru 
dential Committee deemed it inexpedient to take any action on 
the doings of the deputation to India, or of the missions during 
their visit, until after the subject should have been acted upon 
by the Board, at their special meeting to be called for that 
purpose. After the appointment of the Special Committee by 
the Board at Albany, though the Prudential Committee early 
took occasion to satisfy their own minds as to the general cor 
rectness of those proceedings, and had an informal interchange 
of opinions on the subject, they abstained from all formal 
action upon the same ; waiting the final action of the Board 
on the report of the Special Committee. But now that the 
Special Committee have made their report, and that the Board 
has passed upon it, sustaining the deputation and the missions, 
there is no reason why the Prudential Committee should 
longer abstain from the action, which, under ordinary circum 
stances, it would have been their duty to take, in the first 
instance, on the doings of the deputation and the missions. 
Now, therefore, in order to givo a proper effect and influence 
to the reports which were adopted by the several missions in 
India and Turkey, during the visit of the deputation, it is 

Resolved, 1. That, in the several instances where the depu 
tation gave a formal sanction to the proceedings of the missions 
embodied in these reports, the Prudential Committee confirm 
their action. 

2. That the Secretaries be instructed to report hereafter, as 
they shall find it convenient, the cases, in the proceedings of 
the India missions, which were reserved by the deputation for 



368 THE MISSIONS. 

the consideration of the Prudential Committee after their 
return home. 

3. That the Prudential Committee approve of the proceed 
ings of the Syria mission, embodied in the reports adopted 
during the visit of Dr. Anderson in the autumn of 1855. 

4. That the reports adopted by a meeting at Constantinople 
of such missionaries as could conveniently assemble there dur 
ing Dr. Anderson s visit, though not viewed as the action of 
the Armenian mission, and of course not binding on the mis 
sion, are regarded by the Prudential Committee as of much 
value, and are in general accordance with the views entertained 
by the Committee on the subjects discussed in the reports. 

These occurrences resulted in much good. Attention was 
awakened to a subject but little understood, namely, the true 
policy of foreign missions. The Board, and still more the 
Special Committee, added largely to their stock of valuable 
information in respect to the working of missions, and to the 
principles underlying the whole enterprise. And by means 
of the religious newspapers, which were discussing the matter 
for a whole year, and by the report of the Special Committee, 
of which a large number of copies were circulated, a great 
amount of practical knowledge was widely diffused through 
the Christian community. 



CHAPTEE X. 

LITERATURE OF- THE BOARD AND OF ITS MISSIONS. 

Missionary Literature a Necessity. AT HOME. Sermons. Periodicals. Reports. 
Missionary Tracts. ABROAD. School Books. Versions of the Scriptures. Helps 
for understanding- the Scriptures and their Application. RESULTANT LITERATURE. 
Biographies. Exploring Tours. Works Historical, Descriptive, and on the Results 
of Missionary Experience. 

A RELIGION must have a literature. Dealing with the deep 
est problems of philosophy, existence, its ground and laws ; 
good and evil, their nature, tendencies and results ; with the 
principles, rules and motives which should govern all hun&an 
action of body or of mind, it must, in order to be a religion, 
have certain ideas, and must have forms of expression, more 
or less settled and uniform, for conveying them from one mind 
to another. The character of a religion must depend on the 
character of those ideas ; and the best expression of them is 
indispensable to its most successful propagation. 

The American Board, laboring to procure the intelligent, 
hearty and practical reception of truth on these great subjects 
by heathen minds, and calling the friends of truth and of 
human welfare to its aid, must of necessity produce a various 
and valuable literature in many languages. It must furnish 
to vast multitudes of intelligent Christians, the means of un 
derstanding and appreciating its labors ; it must furnish to 
those for whose good it labors, the means of understanding 
and appreciating the truths to be taught ; and, in prosecut 
ing these labors, it could not fail incidentally to cause the 
development of many thoughts and the collection of much 
information which the civilized world would desire to pos 
sess. 

(369) 



370 THE MISSIONS. 

HOME LITERATURE. 

In commending its labors to those whose aid it might ex 
pect, the Board has resorted, from the first and extensively, 
to the literature of the pulpit. Forty-seven sermons before 
the Board at its annual meetings, twenty-six before auxiliary 
societies, thirteen at ordinations of missionaries, fourteen 
funeral sermons, and thirteen others on various subjects con 
nected with the work, have been printed by the Board and 
others, and are in the library of the Board. Most of these 
are by men selected for their eminent fitness for the work. 
They present the work of missions, or parts of it, in more 
than a hundred different aspects setting forth the scriptu 
ral authority for this form of Christian effort ; the scriptural 
encouragement for engaging in it ; the wretchedness of the 
heathen for the want of it ; the spirit and modes in which it 
should be prosecuted ; the traits of character developed in its 
prosecution ; the indications of God s favor attending it ; the 
value of results already secured ; the certainty of its ultimate 
triumph ; and numerous other topics, which sanctified genius 
has been able to seize upon and illustrate. They exhibit 
more than a hundred different styles of thought and of elo 
quence, and, in almost every case, of a high order, as may be 
seen by a single glance at the names of the preachers. Taken 
together, they form almost a complete encyclopedia of argu 
ment on subduing the world to Christian civilization and to 
its glorious Author. 

Next to these discussions of principles, based on divine rev 
elation, and of binding force prior to any teaching of experi 
ence, comes the record of facts, proving that the divine will is 
understood and successfully obeyed. These facts are spread 
out, mainly, in several periodicals. 

The oldest and most important of these is the Missionary 
Herald, commenced in January, 1818, in connection with the 
Panoplist, and published by itself since January, 1819, in a 
monthly pamphlet of thirty-two pages, making, in its separate 



HOME LITERATURE. 371 

form, thirty-nine octavo volumes of three hundred and eighty- 
four pages. Its leading contents are, selections and compila 
tions from the correspondence of missionaries ; in other words, 
the accounts given by some hundreds of educated men, during 
about forty years, of their travels, labors, and observations in 
many countries, from Eastern Canada to Oregon ; in North 
ern, Western, Southern and Eastern Africa; from Paris and 
Malta to the Caspian Sea and Ispahan ; in India, the Malayan 
Archipelago, China, and the Islands of the Pacific ; describing 
countries and climates, routes, means and modes of travel and 
transportation ; tribes, races and nations ; their characteris 
tics, physical, mental and moral ; their social condition and 
habits ; their institutions of religion, education and govern 
ment; their industrial pursuits, and the means of subsisting 
and preserving health among them. These and many other 
like things must be observed and described, not fully, but so 
far as they afford facilities or oppose obstacles to the great 
work, or modify the manner of Its prosecution. 

But all this is merely preliminary to the history of the work 
itself the history of Christian civilization, its beginning and 
progress, in many nations, of a great diversity of character, 
and in a great variety of circumstances ; not compiled by the 
orists, a thousand years afterward, from fragmentary notices 
that accident has preserved and time has spared, but carefully 
and minutely recorded at the time, by the very men who com 
menced and guided the upward movement. The details show 
by what efforts men of diverse characters and genius suc 
ceeded or failed in first gaining the confidence of communities 
as diverse as themselves ; in awakening the desire for improve 
ment, and securing interested attention to new ideas of human 
life and destiny ; the multifarious workings of mind when 
imbruted by heathenism, and when misled by corrupt Chris 
tianity, both in seeking and in resisting Christian truth ; the 
action of hierarchies and governments, half civilized and un 
civilized, when disturbed by the advance of light into their 
dominions ; how schools, where schools were wanting or worth 
less, have been started, conducted, modified according to cir- 
49 



372 THE MISSIONS. 

cumstances, multiplied, made to grow into systems of popular 
education, leading on to the establishment of higher institu 
tions, literary, scientific and professional ; the Christian expe 
rience of individual converts, showing the inward struggles 
through which a multitude of minds, of various character and 
condition, have attained to the intelligent and cordial recep 
tion of Christian truth, and the resulting transformations of 
character; the planting and training of churches, in forms 
varying as the exigencies of each required, and their various 
degrees of success ; the influence of advancing Christian light 
and morality on the action of governments, even to the extent 
of their peaceful reconstruction in better forms and on better 
principles ; the transformation of society by the gradual adop 
tion of the industry, the commerce, the arts, the comforts and 
the decencies of civilized Christian life. The men and women 
by whose labors all these things have been done, have described 
them from day to day as they occurred, that the Christian 
world might understand, appreciate and sustain their labors, 
and that minds competent to the task might suggest every 
possible improvement in the modes of conducting them. These 
accounts, either in the words of their authors, or carefully and 
skillfully condensed, fill the greater part of these thirty-nine 
octavo volumes ; forming a library which has been and is stud 
ied with intense interest, not only by the prince of geogra 
phers, and other literary and scientific men, but by statesmen 
of the highest order of intellect, who have no sympathy with 
its religious spirit. 

Parts of the same information, and other similar matter, 
but adapted to the use of those who have little leisure for 
reading, and of youth, have filled the volumes of the Day 
Spring and the Journal of Missions since January, 1842. 

Annually, the Secretaries of the Board, under the direction 
of its Prudential Committee, prepare a careful summary of all 
the doings of the Board, foreign and domestic, of the labors 
of its missionaries and their results, and of the progress and 
condition of their work. This is laid before the Board at its 



FOREIGN LITERATURE. 375 

annual meeting. The several parts are referred to appropri 
ate committees, and after a rigid scrutiny by them, and, if 
need be, discussion "and amendment by the Board itself, the 
whole is adopted and published as the Annual Report of the 
Board. The fifty Annual Reports, of perhaps two hundred 
octavo pages each on an average, contain therefore, in the form 
of annals, a carefully-prepared history of the operations of the 
Board and its missions, and of their results. 

Copious as have been these regular periodical issues, they 
have been found insufficient to meet all exigencies. New 
questions, new situations of affairs, new subjects for discussion 
and appeal, spring up unexpectedly, or present themselves to 
the industrious observer of the missionary work, and demand 
attention. To meet these demands, missionary tracts have 
been issued from time to time, during the whole history of the 
Board, till the number of copies amounts to one million five 
hundred and eighty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy. 

Such is the home literature of the Board, preliminary, pre 
paratory, and subservient to its foreign labors. 

FOREIGN LITERATURE. 

The foreign work of the Board consists, in a great measure, 
of the creation of a literature, or rather of many literatures, 
for the use and benefit of many peoples and tongues and na 
tions, each adapted to the peculiar character and wants of 
those for whom it is designed. 

Next to the oral proclamation of the gospel, the great work 
of a mission is, to enable and induce a people to read and 
understand, that they may believe and obey, the sacred Scrip 
tures. In order to this, the people must have those Scrip 
tures in their own language, and must be able to read ; and 
in order to any thing more than very imperfect success, they 
must be furnished with the literary helps and mental cultiva 
tion necessary to an intelligent study of the Scriptures, and 
application of their doctrines to the conduct of their lives. 



374 THE MISSIONS. 



The literature created by a mission, then, must include pro 
visions for elementary education, the Scriptures in the ver 
nacular, and helps in understanding and applying them-. 

First in the order of time, after oral preaching, is providing 
the means of elementary education, and this, often, in lan 
guages that have no alphabet. In such case, the words of the 
language must first be learned by conversation with those who 
speak it. The words must then be analyzed into the simple 
sounds of which they are composed, and then a character must 
be selected or invented to represent each of those simple 
sounds. As almost every language has some sounds peculiar 
to itself, and as every person has peculiarities of utterance, 
and as an unlettered people has no recognized standard of cor 
rect pronunciation, the formation or adaptation of an alpha 
bet is sometimes a very laborious task. It hag, however, been 
done in four African languages, the Grebo, Mpongvve, Dikele, 
and Zulu-Kaffir ; in thirteen American, the Cherokee, Choctaw, 
Creek, Osage, Pawnee, Dakota, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Seneca, Aber- 
naquis, and three in Oregon ; in the Hawaiian, Marquesas, and 
one or two of the Micronesian languages ; and in the Modern 
Nestorian and Dyak in Asia. 

In all these languages, of course, the books necessary to 
teach the art of reading must be prepared and published. 
And in several other languages, having alphabets, some of them 
ancient, it has been found necessary to prepare or adopt, 
commonly to prepare, and to publish, books for instruction in 
spelling and reading ; for example, the Seneca, in America ; 
the Grebo, in Africa ; the Modern Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, 
Hebrew-Spanish and Modern Greek, in Europe ; the Arabic, 
Mahratta, Tamil, Siamese and Chinese, in Asia ; making, with 
the former, some thirty or forty languages, in which it was 
necessary to furnish children and youth with proper means of 
learning to read. Where some of these languages were spoken, 
there were indeed schools, as in Greece, in which children were 
taught to read the words of the ancient language, without 
understanding it ; but for years, primary schools in Modern 



FOREIGN LITERATURE. 375 

Greek depended on the " Alphabeterion," a primary school 
book of one hundred and thirty-two pages, of which the press 
at Malta and at Smyrna had furnished forty-two thousand 
copies before 1837. It has also been found necessary to the 
best progress of the work to publish grammars of the Modern 
Greek, Armenian, Arabic, Ancient and Modern Syriac, He 
brew, Tamil, Hawaiian, Dakota, Grebo, Mpongwe, and Zulu, 
and dictionaries, more or less complete, of the Armenian, He 
brew, Tamil, Chinese, Hawaiian, Grebo, Mpongwe, Zulu, and 
Dakota. A dictionary of the Modern Syriac, of about ten 
thousand words, has been prepared, but is not yet published. 
In nine of these languages, schools have been furnished with 
works on arithmetic ; in three, on algebra ; in three, on astron 
omy ; in ten, on geography ; and in six, on history ; and others, 
doubtless, have escaped notice. in this brief enumeration. In 
the higher studies, in some countries, much use has been made 
of books in the English language, some of which it has been 
necessary to prepare and publish. 

This immense contribution to the school literature of the 
world has cost a great amount of labor ; but it has been found 
indispensable to the raising up of intelligent Christian popu 
lations, capable of maintaining themselves permanently at the 
elevation to which missionary labors had raised them. The 
aid thus rendered to the sciences of comparative philology and 
ethnography, though merely one of the incidental results of 
these labors, has a value which only scholars in those depart 
ments can fully appreciate. 

But all this is merely preparatory to the reading of the 
sacred Scriptures, that they may be understood, believed, and 
obeyed. That it may be of any religious use, these nations 
must be furnished with the Scriptures, each in its own spoken 
language. In some of these languages, as the Modern Greek, 
the Arabic, the Chinese, and some of the languages of India, 
versions already existed, of such character that they might be 
usefully circulated, but still needing careful revision. In 
others, new translations were indispensable. 



076 THE MISSIONS. 

In this latter class may be placed all those languages in 
which the creation of an alphabet was necessary. In some of 
these, the Scriptures have been published entire. In others, 
portions have been published, sufficient to guide the honest 
inquirer into the way of eternal life. 

Of new translations into languages already having alpha 
bets and versions of the Scriptures, perhaps the most impor 
tant is the Arabic. As the Arabic is the language of the Koran, 
and therefore the sacred language of the whole Mohammedan 
world, it seemed a duty to furnish the millions who read 
that language with the Scriptures in a form that would 
command their respect, for both its literary and its mechanical 
execution. There had been for centuries two Arabic versions, 
both esteemed respectably good, and they had long been in 
print ; but they failed to commend themselves to the taste of 
native Arabic scholars, and it was commonly supposed in 
Europe and America that the Mohammedans regarded the 
printing of sacred books as a profanation, and would never 
allow the Koran to be printed. This was found, on more 
perfect acquaintance with native readers of Arabic, to be a 
misapprehension. Their objection to printed books arose from 
the bad, tinscholarly appearance of the letters, and not from 
the manner in which they were produced. With great labor 
and patient research, numerous specimens of approved Arabic 
calligraphy were collected, the letters in the best of them were 
taken as models, and types were made, and books were printed, 
acceptable to the critical taste of literary Arabs. The new 
type was not only used by the mission at Beirut, but was 
immediately adopted by the most respectable publishers in 
Europe. By this achievement, the art of printing was first 
made practically available, to any considerable extent, to the 
nations whose native or sacred language is the Arabic. 

It was also found that the old Arabic versions of the Scrip 
tures were far from being satisfactory, either in idiomatic 
elegance of style or accuracy of rendering, and that a new 
translation was indispensable. This, in a language having 
such an extensive and cultivated literature as the Arabic, was 



FOREIGN LITERATURE. 377 

no ordinary task ; but it must be accomplished. Besides the 
best dictionaries, grammars and other philological helps known 
in Europe, others, some of them very extensive, the work of 
Arab scholars, still in manuscript, were collected.- Native lin 
guists, competent and cordially interested in the work, were 
engaged as assistants. After years of intense labor, the New 
Testament has been translated, printed, and put in circulation, 
and the publication of the Old Testament is far advanced. 
This gives the New Testament now, and will give the whole 
Bible soon, in a suitable and acceptable form, to all who read 
the Arabic language, and through them to all who speak it, 
and in an important sense to the whole Moslem population, 
among whom the language of the Koran is sacred and under 
stood by their literary men a population extending from 
Morocco and Timbuctu on the west, beyond Calcutta on the 
east, and numbering at least one hundred and twenty millions. 

An examination of the proper tables will show to what 
peoples, and nations, and languages, in various regions of the 
earth, the Board has furnished the Holy Scriptures, what 
have been furnished with parts of them, and in what abun 
dance each has been supplied. 

It will be noticed that a work very similar to that done for 
the readers of Arabic, has been done in the Modern Syriac, 
spoken by the Nestorians. For the Armenians, acceptable 
printing could be done at an Armeno-Catholic convent near 
Venice ; but the convent kept the type for its own exclusive 
use. Type equally good, from the foundery of the Board at 
Smyrna, broke up that monopoly, and naturalized good print 
ing among the Armenians. 

The helps which the Board has furnished for understanding 
and applying the Scriptures, besides what it has furnished in 
school books, are mostly such books and tracts as are used in 
the more enlightened parts of Protestant Christendom, to 
impart doctrinal knowledge and promote practical piety and 
Christian morality. A large part of them are translations of 
well-approved English works. Others are English works 



378 THE MISSIONS. 

translated and modified, or works originally written to meet 
some peculiar wants of the people for whom they are pub 
lished. The Pilgrim s Progress and the Saints Everlasting 
Rest speak .the language of universal Christianity, and are 
appropriate every where. Tracts on opium-smoking are 
needed in China and Siam. Where practical and devotional 
works have their proper effect, the mind is put on the right 
road to the understanding of the Scriptures, and of all litera 
ture and science. From minds thus moved flow living waters. 
David Malo writes Hawaiian Tracts. Leang Afa utters, in 
Chinese, " Good Words, to admonish the Age." Meshakah 
discusses skepticism in Arabic, in a style worthy to be printed 
and circulated in Mount Lebanon, and translated and pub 
lished in the Bibliotheca Sacra. 

In attempting to speak particularly of the extent and value 
of this department of the literature of the Board, time and 
space would fail. They must be estimated from a considera 
tion of the appropriate tables. 

RESULTANT LITERATURE. 

There is, also, what may be called the resultant literature 
of the Board, consisting of works for which its operations have 
afforded materials, inducements and facilities. Among these, 
the first place seems due to Missionary Biography. 

Memoirs have been published of all the deceased Secreta 
ries of the Board of Worcester, Evarts, Cornelius and Arm 
strong in volumes, and of Wisner in the Herald. The first 
and second, taken together, give, perhaps, the most complete 
account any where to be found of the religious condition and 
history of New England during the period in which the Board 
was formed of the influences which led to its formation, and 
of the struggles by which, and the difficulties through which, 
it grew to its maturity. Besides Samuel J. Mills, whose close 
connection with the origin of the Board renders it proper to 
include him, and besides numerous biographical sketches in 
the Herald and Journal, biographies have been published, 



RESULTANT LITERATURE. 379 

nearly all in separate volumes, of seventeen male and eleven 
female missionaries, all of them persons of good education, 
and several of them of superior mental power, giving accounts 
of their labors, travels and observations in the Islands of the 
Pacific, in China, Siam, the Malayan Archipelago, India, Per 
sia, Eastern and Western Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and 
Greece, besides what they did and witnessed in lands more 
civilized and Christian. 

To these should be added several memoirs of children of 
missionaries, born and educated on missionary ground, and of 
native converts among the most important of which, for the 
knowledge they incidentally afford of the countries and peoples 
to which they relate, are those of Catharine Brown, the Cher 
okee, of Obookiah and " Blind Bartimeus," the Sandwich 
Islanders, and of Babajee, the converted Brahmin. 

Of the many exploring tours preparatory to the establish 
ment of missions, the accounts, for the most part, have been 
published only in the Missionary Herald ; but three have 
resulted in the publication of volumes which demand particu 
lar notice. 

In 1829, Grecian independence having just been achieved, 
the Morea and Greek Islands were explored by the Rev. Rufus 
Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the Board, and the Rev. Eli 
Smith, one of its missionaries. Mr. Anderson, on his return, 
published a volume, which received honorable notice from the 
Royal Geographical Society in London as a valuable and much 
needed contribution to geographical science. 

The " Researches of the Rev. Eli Smith and Rev. II. G. 0. 
D wight in Armenia, including a Journey through Asia Minor 
and into Georgia and Persia, with a Visit to the Nestorian and 
Chaldean Christians of Oroomiah and Salinas," was published, 
in two volumes, in 1833. It was soon reprinted in London, 
and highly commended in some of the leading English re 
views. 

Rev. Samuel Parker s " Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky 
Mountains," made, under the direction of the Board, in 1835, 
50 



380 THE MISSIONS. 

1836 and 1837, brought to light no field for a great and suc 
cessful mission ; but it added much to the science of geogra 
phy, and is remarkable as having first made known a practi 
cable route for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific. 

Kindred to these are about twenty works giving general 
information collected by their authors during their missionary 
labors. Among the more important of these is the Rev. Hiram 
Bingham s " Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich 
Islands," which gives " the civil, religious and political history 
of those Islands," in six hundred and sixteen octavo pages. 
The Rev. Justin Perkins has given an account of his " Resi 
dence of Eight Years in Persia," among the Nestorians and 
Mohammedans, in five hundred and twelve octavo pages. 
Both of these include particular accounts of the missions with 
which their authors were connected. The Rev. J. L. Wilson 
has condensed into a small duodecimo volume, the well-matured 
results of his observations and inquiries during eighteen years 
of missionary labor in Western Africa. Williams s " Middle 
Kingdom," in twelve hundred and four pages, is probably the 
best account ever published of the Chinese Empire as it had 
been and was in 1848. " India, Ancient and Modern," has 
been described, in six hundred and eighteen octavo pages, by 
Rev. D. 0. Allen, who had been twenty-five years a missionary. 
For the same number of years the Rev. W. M. Thompson had 
been a missionary in Syria and Palestine when he published, 
in two volumes, eleven hundred and seventy-one pages, 
" The Land and the Book ; or, Biblical Illustrations, drawn 
from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of 
the Holy Land." 

And here it is not improper to claim, as belonging, in 
an important degree, to this department of the literature 
of the Board, the great modern authority on the geography 
of Palestine, Robinson s " Biblical Researches." Without 
the preparations made by the mission at Beirut, and espe 
cially by the Rev. Eli Smith, who accompanied Dr. Robinson 
in his explorations, such a work would have been impossible. 



RESULTANT LITERATURE. 381 

To a great extent, the present Arabic names of places men 
tioned in the Bible are the old Hebrew names, modified 
according to certain rules which Mr. Smith perfectly under 
stood. With the assistance of well-informed natives, he had 
prepared a complete list of all the small districts into which 
Palestine is divided, with their several locations, and lists, 
nearly perfect, of all the names of places in each of these dis 
tricts. By means of these lists, every day s work could be 
planned to the best advantage, as the travelers knew what 
they could search for with any hope of success, and very 
nearly where to search for it. Nor was it a slight advantage, 
that Mr. Smith was perfectly familiar with the language, char 
acter, and habits of the people among whom these explorations 
were to be made, whose aid they often needed, and whose 
acquiescence in their proceedings was always necessary ; and 
that he was personally known and esteemed by many of them, 
and especially by those whose friendly influence was most im 
portant. Dr. Robinson, in his published " Researches," has 
fully acknowledged the value of this assistance ; but it re 
quires a better understanding of the circumstances than many 
readers possess, fully to appreciate the amount of his acknowl 
edgment. 

The " History of the American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, compiled chiefly from published and unpub 
lished Documents of the Board,"* was published in four hun 
dred and fifty-two octavo pages in 1842, and brought down 
the history of the Board and its missions to the previous year. 

In prosecuting the missionary work for so many years, in so 
many countries, so distant and diverse, and by the labors of 
so many educated, thinking men, a great amount of experi 
ence must be accumulated ; modes of operation, the best that 
could be devised at first, will be found capable of improve 
ment, or the progress of the work will have made them inap 
propriate ; differences of opinion as to the best mode of 

* By the writer of this chapter. 



382 THE MISSIONS. 

proceeding will show themselves, and there must be, occasion 
ally, reconsiderations and revisions of system and method, in 
the light of all that experience. So it has been in respect to 
several missions of the Board ; especially in the Sandwich 
Islands, in the Turkish Empire, and in India. The results of 
such revisions, when published, are of special value to Mis 
sionaries and the conductors of missionary societies. Of this 
class of publications, the Report of the Deputation to the Mis 
sions in India, in 1856, and the documents connected with it, 
are the most important in the history of the Board, and per 
haps in the whole history of modern missions. 

A glance at the lists of publications, in the appropriate 
tables, will show, and a careful examination will show more 
clearly, in proportion to its carefulness, that an appreciative 
review of the literature of the Board and of its missions, 
doing justice to each of the numerous works which it com 
prises, would fill volumes, and require years of labor. Noth 
ing of that kind, therefore, has been attempted here. Perhaps, 
however, this brief and imperfect classification may aid the 
thoughtful in forming some estimate of its extent, its variety, 
and its value. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE FIELD AND THE WORK AT THE CLOSE OF THE HALF- 
CENTURY. 

Fifty Years ago. The Field and Work at the Present Time. Knowledge of the World 
and its Inhabitants. Political Ascendency of Protestant Christianity. General Ac 
knowledgment of Missions as a Duty. Extent of Missionary Organizations. Suc 
cess of Missions. Islands of the Pacific. Africa. West Indies. Eastern Asia. 
Madagascar. Tahiti. Sandwich Islands. Turkey. Nestorians. India. Distri 
bution of the Holy Scriptures. Estimated Pecuniary Value of the Missionary Enter 
prise. The existing Missions will fill the Earth by their Growth. The Call to the 
People of God. 

" SOME effort of attention is necessary," says Dr. Leonard 
Bacon, " to any just view of what the condition of the world 
was, and what, 011 any merely human calculation of probabil 
ities, were the prospects of the Christian religion in this world, 
fifty years ago. The great wars, which had begun in the first 
French revolution, nearly twenty years before, were still agi 
tating all European Christendom ; and, only two years later, 
the United States were drawn into that vortex. Political lib 
erty was almost annihilated on the continent of Europe, the 
despotism of the first Napoleon being then at its hight. In 
France, in Switzerland, in every country on that continent, 
evangelical religion was, to human view, almost extinct ; no 
general or effective reaction having taken place against the 
tendencies to mere formalism, and to unbelief, which had so 
widely characterized the preceding century. Our own country 
had hardly begun to be recognized as a power among the 
nations ; the present form of our federal government had been 
in existence only twenty-one years, and only twenty-seven 
years had passed since the close of our revolutionary war. 
Outside of Christendom there was no recognized preparation, 
and hardly a visible opening, for the spread of the gospel. 

(383) 



384 THE MISSIONS. 

The great Mohammedan empire of Turkey had only ceased to 
be terrible to Christian nations ; it had not begun to fall, or to 
be dismembered ; nor had any change taken place, either iii 
the spirit and policy of its rulers, or in the character of its 
people. The East Indian empire, which a corporation of 
British traders had established, with its center at Calcutta, was 
a recent thing, and was, in fact, as completely an anti-Christian 
power, and as jealous of all Christian propagandism, as that 
of the Mogul emperors had been, when they reigned in abso 
lute dominion at Delhi. China, like Japan, was closed and 
guarded against Christianity in every form. Africa, except 
along its ravaged and pestilential coast, was a continent of 
mystery, hardly visited, save by the traders in slaves ; for even 
in the United States, whose government was earlier than that 
of any other country in prohibiting the slave trade, the impor 
tation of slaves from Africa had been unlawful only two years. 
On our own frontier, the pagan savage, who had learned noth 
ing from civilization but its vices, and had been enriched by it 
only with new implements and means of destruction, was still 
encamped in Ohio, was hunting the buffalo on all the prairies, 
and his canoe had not begun to be displaced by the raft and 
the flat-boat on the waters of the Upper Mississippi. What is 
now our western coast was hardly known to commerce ; Cali 
fornia was one of the remotest and least valued possessions of 
Spain, and no eye of avarice had caught the sparkle of its 
golden sand. The first overland journey up to the sources of 
the Mississippi, and down along the leaping waters of the 
Columbia to the Pacific, had just been accomplished at the 
expense "of our national government. At that time, the entire 
census of the United States included less than one fourth of 
the population which will be counted in the census of the 
present year, and the capability of the wealth which has now 
been realized on this continent had never been estimated. To 
draw out a full comparison of the civilized world as it then 
was, with the civilized world as it now is, both in itself and 
in its relations to what lies beyond the realm of civilization, 
would require a volume ; but it may help us to conceive the 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 385 

difference, if we remember that then the scientific law or 
principle, on which the electric telegraph depends, had not 
been discovered or conjectured ; that the idea of railways was, 
at the most, no more than a vague, and visionary thought; 
and that all the steamboats that had ever been successfully 
constructed two or three in number were creeping on 
the Hudson and the Delaware at the rate of perhaps five miles 
an hour. 

" The spirit that prays for the coming of God s kingdom in 
all the earth," continues this writer, "and that longs to preach 
the gospel to every creature, has never wholly slumbered in 
any Christian land ; for it is inseparable from a living Chris 
tianity every where. From the days of the apostolic Eliot, 
who was at once the pastor of the church at Roxbury and the 
laborious missionary to Indians within ten miles of his own 
door, the saintly succession of evangelists among the heathen 
has never failed from the churches of New England. But 
prior to 1810, the spirit of evangelism in the American 
churches had i lacked opportunity for full manifestation and 
development. In Connecticut, there was a missionary society, 
which was the organ of all the Congregational churches in the 
State, and which, though first and chiefly occupied with mis 
sions to the new settlements, had once, for a short time, 
attempted a mission among the Indians of the far north-west. 
A Connecticut Bible Society was instituted in 1809, to pro 
mote the distribution of the Scriptures. In Massachusetts, 
and in two or three other States, similar institutions existed 
for missions, especially to the new settlements, and for aiding 
in the supply of Bibles ; but, as lately as fifty years ago, the 
idea of a widely-extended cooperation for spreading the knowl 
edge of Christ, either abroad or at home, had never been 
shaped into a plan. In some other countries, and especially 
in free and Protestant Great Britain, the missionary spirit was 
waking up, and was organizing institutions of various names 
and forms for sending the gospel through the world. For 
more than a century there had been in the Church of England 
a Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which 



386 THE MISSIONS. 

employed its resources chiefly in sending missionaries into the 
British colonies ; among which the New England colonies, and 
especialty Connecticut, though better provided with the means 
of religious instruction than England itself had ever been, 
were liberally cared for, till they were separated from the 
mother country. The Moravians, few and feeble, but full of 
Christian zeal, had been at work for almost eighty years a 
silent but constant rebuke to the Christian world. The Eng 
lish Wesley ans, at an early day in their history, had begun to 
do something for the conversion of the slaves in the West 
Indies. In 1792, Carey and others had brought about the 
formation of a Missionary Society for the Baptists in England. 
Three years later, the London Missionary Society came into 
being on a liberal basis of cooperation, though chiefly sus 
tained by Congregationalists, or, as they were then called in 
England, Independents. The Church Missionary Society, sus 
tained and controlled by the evangelical party in the Church 
of England, was instituted under the name of the Society for 
Missions to Africa and the East, in 1801 nine years before 
our Board of Missions offered itself to the American churches 
as their almoner and servant in the foreign missionary work. 
In 1810, there were a few English and Scotch missionaries in 
India ; a few were laboring in the British African colony of 
Sierra Leone, and a larger number in Southern Africa. The 
London Society had its missions in Tahiti and the Society 
Islands ; and Morrison, in their service, had set himself down 
before the gates of China, patiently striving to master the 
language of that great empire, that it might learn to tell the 
story of redemption. There were missionaries among the 
slaves in various West Indian colonies. The Moravians had 
their stations in Greenland and Labrador, a few among the 
North American Indians, and a few elsewhere few when 
compared with the vastness of the field, but many when com 
pared with the weakness and the poverty of the body by which 
they were sustained. Nothing was done or attempted by the 
American churches ; a little more than a beginning had been 
made by our British kindred in the work of spreading the 
gospel through the world. 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 387 

" We may say, then, that fifty years ago, when the foreign 
missionary work of the American churches had not been be 
gun, the entire movement of these modern times for the evan 
gelization and conversion of the world was only in its earliest 
stage of progress. Every where that was the day of small 
things, in comparison with what we see to-day." * 

It should be added to this well-drawn statement, that the 
foreign missionary was scarcely recognized as entitled, when 
abroad in his distant field, to that protection which the mer 
chant and traveler might lawfully demand ; nor was his voca 
tion then recognised as among the legally authorized pursuits 
of life. Even in the Christian Church, notwithstanding the 
parting injunction of its ascending Lord, to PREACH THE GOS 
PEL TO EVERY CREATURE, the work of missions was but par 
tially acknowledged as among the standing Christian duties. 
It may be that those who shall look back to the present time 
from the close of the second half-century, will regard the 
.period we are now commemorating as itself comparatively a 
day of small things. May they have reason so to do. But 
contrasting the present with our own past, we are constrained 
to say, What hath God wrought ! A brief survey will now be 
taken of the field, and of the work, as they are at the present 
time. 

Many things, besides the sending forth of heralds of the 
cross, and the publication of the gospel, are indispensable to 
the conversion of the world. Though merely preparatory to 
it, they are nevertheless essential, and therefore a part of the 
work, and of God s plan and providence for its accomplish 
ment. Among them may be mentioned, 

1. A Knoivledge of the Geography of the Earth. How 
little our fathers knew of Africa, of Central Asia, India, and 
China, and of the islands of the sea ! But the entire world, 
with the exception of some few portions, and those hastening 

* New Englander, 1860, p. 712. 

51 



388 THE MISSIONS. 

to the light, is now well known. So far as the world s conver 
sion involves a knowledge of its surface, that part of the 
enterprise is far advanced toward completion. 

2. A Knowledge of the Social and Religious Condition of 
Mankind. What more needs to be learned concerning the 
governments, manners, customs, habits, and religions of our 
race ? What more needs to be done in collecting and record 
ing facts for awakening the sympathies and enterprise of the 
Christian Church ? This part of the work has been substan 
tially accomplished. When the Board sent forth its first mis 
sionaries, it was impossible to say what particular field they 
should occupy. The Prudential Committee could now easily 
assign definite locations to many scores of new missionaries. 

3. The Political Ascendency of Protestant Christianity. 
India, with its hundred and fifty millions, bows to Protestant 
rule ; and that has created a political necessity for throwing a 
protecting shield over evangelical missionaries in Birmah, Chi 
na, Persia, and Turkey. Every war in Asia, for the past half- 
century, has been fulfilling the prophecy, that the valleys shall 
be exalted, and the mountains and hills made low, the crooked 
made straight, and the rough places plain. The apocalyptic 
angel has hold upon " the dragon, that old serpent, which is 
the Devil and Satan." The great anti-Christian powers are 
acting under mighty restraints. We see it in the Pacific, in 
China, in India, and in Turkey. And these providential influ 
ences are more and more evidently preparing the way for 
Christ s progress, with his gospel, through the unevangelized 
nations. Just at the close of the half-century, we saw the 
representatives of the four great powers of Christendom assem 
bled in China, and uniting in the declaration that the Chris 
tian missionary ought to receive the respect, confidence, and 
protection of all governments, and treating upon this basis 
with a third part of the heathen world for the toleration and 
safety of these gospel messengers and of their converts.* 

4. A General Acknowledgment by Evangelical Protestant 

* Missionary Herald for 1858, p. 364. 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 389 

f 

Churches of the Duty to propagate the Gospel among 1 all Na 
tions. This appears, indeed, in many Christians, and in many 
churches, to be little more than the result of an intellectual 
conviction, and so is yet but feebly operative. Though it be 
really as much a duty to propagate the gospel, as it is to attend 
on public worship, or at the Lord s table, yet comparatively few 
Christians take this view ; nor do pastors often press the duty 
thus upon their people. But the diffusion of even a mere intel 
lectual conviction of the claims of foreign missions, is a great 
point gained ; and this part of the work is in a good measure 
accomplished. 

5. The Extent of Organization for performing the Work. 
What are called voluntary associations for religious pur 
poses, in distinction from local churches, are not a new thing. 
They have existed from an early period. Through them the 
gospel has ever been propagated by the Church beyond the 
influence of its own immediate pastors. Monasteries were vol 
untary societies ; and so were the different orders of monks. 
It was by means of such associations that Christianity was 
propagated among our ancestors, and over Europe. These 
are the Papal forms of missionary societies and missions. 

The Protestant form is what we see In Missionary, Bible, 
Tract, and other kindred societies ; not restricted to ecclesias 
tics, nor to any one profession ; combining all classes ; embra 
cing the masses of the people ; free, open, responsible. They 
are associations formed by the contributors of the funds ; not 
so much the American Board, not so much the Board of the 
General Assembly, as individuals, churches, congregations, 
freely acting together, through, such agencies, for a common 
object. 

This free, open, responsible, Protestant form of association, 
embracing both sexes, and all classes and ages, the masses 
of the people, is peculiar to modern times. It could not 
have been worked, could not have existed, even, with sufficient 
energy for the conversion of the world, without facilities for 
intercommunication among the nations, civil and religious lib 
erty, extended habits of reading, and a wide-spread intelligence. 



390 THE MISSIONS. 

The success which has attended the missions, is all that is 
needful to animate to greater zeal in this good work. Dr. 
Joseph Mullens, of Calcutta, who has given great attention to 
this subject, spoke thus at the closing session of the late Liver 
pool Missionary Conference : 

" What a glorious position do we occupy, compared with 
that in which the fathers and founders of our missionary soci 
eties stood when they commenced the work, only a few years 
ago ! Our modern missions are only sixty years old, and 
already we see the face of the wide world rapidly changing 
under their mighty influence. I doubt if a single convert had 
been made through those labors before the year 1800. Dr. 
Carey had gone to India ; his few brethren had joined him, 
and they had settled at Serampore as the center of their labors. 
A few of our brethren had sailed for the South Sea Islands. 
There were one or two missionaries in Africa, one or two in 
the West Indies, and the rest of the world was an awful blank. 
But now we look abroad upon the earth, and, without reck 
oning the work carried on in our English colonies, we see at 
this moment sixteen hundred foreign missionaries from Europe 
and America, laboring in heathen countries, and in many lan 
guages. As one result of our work, we have already gathered 
two hundred thousand communicants, in many thousands of 
native churches, now sitting beneath the banner of the gospel, 
rejoicing in Sabbath ordinances, and all the blessed privileges 
that cluster round the gospel of Christ. Our work began 
amidst the apathy of friends, and the loudest obloquy on the 
part of our enemies. Society in England was thoroughly 
devoted to worldliness, and steeped in the most shameless 
wickedness, and vice. French infidelity, the great product of 
the revolution, was all the rage among the so-called thinkers 
of the day, an infidelity which found its way to our colonies, 
and to the English settlements in India, and which there, as 
elsewhere, brought forth its bitter fruit. But just when the 
enemy had come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifted 
up a standard against him ; and now, thanks be to God, that 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 391 

glorious standard has been lifted high, and all branches of the 
Christian Church, throwing aside their doubts and casting 
away their apathy, are delighted to enlist in its service, and to 
go forth under the great Captain of our salvation, conquer 
ing and to conquer in his name. 

u We go to Africa ; and where, at the beginning of this 
century, the Hottentot, and Fingoe, and Kaffir were shot down 
without mercy, there we find a people, one hundred thousand 
in number, saved from destruction, brought to Christ, and 
adorning the doctrine of the Saviour, whom their fathers never 
knew. We go to the negro settlements in the West Indies. 
How many thousands there have become Christians, redeemed 
not only from the slavery of earth, but from the slavery of 
sin ! They who, only thirty years ago, were sold in the open 
market, have proved the most liberal supporters of gospel 
schemes that the modern Church has known, and were the 
first converts to maintain ministers of their own. Only seven 
teen years ago, the various ports of China were open to gospel 
teaching for the first time ; and now we see in those ports no 
less than eighty Protestant missionaries, of many Churches, 
working for Christ. Already, in the course of those seven 
teen years, they have been permitted to gather into their 
churches some fourteen hundred communicants. We pass on 
to Birmah ; and there we find, rejoicing in the light and lib 
erty of the truth, many thousands of Karens ; every one of 
whom, thirty years ago, was entirely ignorant of its very exist 
ence. There they are, meeting like ourselves on the Sabbath ; 
working like ourselves for their ignorant brethren ; supporting 
their pastors with the most active and self-denying zeal ; con 
templating the destitution of their heathen countrymen with 
compassion ; and sending forth one and another of their breth 
ren, with their lives in their hands, to preach Christ among the 
barbarous tribes still living in the mountains and the dense 
jungles of their own wild land. We pass on to India; and 
again we see, in several provinces of that extended empire, 
churches and Christians gathered, and the foundations of a 
great work in the future, laid by the hand of missionaries, 



392 THE MISSIONS. 

who have been working there for many years. Obstacles to 
our entrance, to our permanent residence, to our safety in the 
country, have all passed away ; and, blessed be God, after the 
appalling history of the recent mutiny, we rejoice to know 
that India has found not only order and peace, not only the 
services of faithful missionaries within her own borders, but 
has at last found a place, deep and firmly fixed, in the hearts 
of our brethren at home ; and we feel sure that, when the 
claims of that mighty continent are faithfully pressed upon 
them, our voice will be heard, and a hearty response given to 
our appeal. And let us not forget the successful toil of our 
brethren in Turkey, to revive the decayed Churches, and to 
grapple with Mohammedan error at its very heart. 

" Not only may we rejoice in these great successes, but, with 
all my missionary brethren here present, I cheerfully acknowl 
edge, that in securing them, we have been largely indebted to 
our native brethren, working side by side with us in these 
fields of labor. We were told in very affecting terms, by Dr. 
Tidman, the other day, to look at the poor Island of Mada 
gascar. More than twenty years ago the English missionaries 
were driven from that island by the unrighteous queen, and 
scarcely fifty native Christians were left behind. They possessed 
but very small portions of the word of God, some little tracts, 
and a few hymns. They have been bitterly and unrelentingly 
persecuted, with satanic cunning and satanic hate. They have 
been fined, imprisoned, degraded, and made slaves ; they 
have been poisoned by the tangena water ; they have been 
speared to death ; they have been cast over lofty precipices ; 
they have been burned at the stake, while the glorious rain 
bow arched the heavens and inspired them with more than 
mortal joy. They have given more than a hundred martyrs 
to the Church of Christ ; but are far from being rooted out of 
the land. While, twenty years ago, when the persecution 
began, there were not fifty Christians on the island, it is 
believed that there are now at least five thousand ; all of 
whom have been raised up by the special blessing of the divine 
Spirit upon the teachings of native agents and the secret study 
of God s holy word. 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 393 

" We pass away to the Island of Tahiti ; and there we see 
that, whilst French Popery has endeavored to exert its influ 
ence, and to present its blandishments to those who were 
despised as the poor and ignorant natives of the country, they 
have adhered most faithfully to their Protestant religion. We 
find that when the missionaries were compelled to leave the 
country, their own native pastors came forward ; received 
from heaven all the grace ever promised to Christ s children 
in the time of need ; and at this hour, in spite of French 
Popery, and in spite of French brandy, the members of the 
Tahitian churches are more numerous than when the mission 
aries were compelled to leave them." 

Richard H. Dana, Esq., a respected member of the Episco 
pal Church, and of the Boston bar, after being two months at 
the Sandwich Islands in the year 1860, thus speaks of the 
value of the missionary work on those Islands : 

" It is no small thing to say of the missionaries of the Amer 
ican Board, that in less than forty years they have taught this 
whole people to read and to write, to cipher and to sew. They 
have given them an alphabet, grammar, and dictionary ; pre 
served their language from extinction ; given it a literature, 
and translated into it the Bible and works of devotion, science, 
and entertainment, etc., etc. They have established schools, 
reared up native teachers, and so pressed their work that now 
the proportion of inhabitants who can read is greater than in 
New England. And whereas they found these islanders a 
nation of half-naked savages, living in the surf and on the 
sand, eating raw fish, fighting among themselves, tyrannized 
over by feudal chiefs, and abandoned to sensuality, they now 
see them decently clothed, recognizing the law of marriage, 
knowing something of accounts, going to school and public 
worship with more regularity than the people do at home, and 
the more elevated of them taking part in conducting the 
affairs of the constitutional monarchy under which they live, 

* Missionary Conference at Liverpool, p. 331. 



394 THE MISSIONS. 

holding seats on the judicial bench and in the legislative 
chambers, and filling posts in the local magistracies." 

The missions of the American Board in Turkey require a 
more particular notice than they have yet received in our sur- 
.vey of the field arid the work at the close of our half-century ; 
and here we can not do better than to quote again from Dr. 
Bacon. 

" Still more important in respect to the progress of civiliza 
tion," says Dr. Bacon, " are the results which are beginning to 
be developed in Turkey. Thirty years ago, all the Protestant 
ism within the limits of the Turkish empire was in the souls of 
not more than ten earnest inquirers after truth and duty, who 
had rejected the superstitious doctrines and practices of the 
nominally Christian communities in which they were born, and 
from which they had not seceded. To-day the Protestantism 
of Turkey, profoundly interesting in a religious view, and 
regarded with wondering thankfulness by evangelical Chris 
tians every where, has already become a political fact of great 
significance. Not only is it recognized by alarmed and jealous 
ecclesiastics, Armenian, Greek, and Papal, combining to main 
tain their several hierarchies, it has long been known as a 
stubborn fact in the deliberations of the Sublime Porte ; it is 
already an element in the international diplomacy of Europe. 
There are now in Turkey more than forty evangelical churches, 
including nearly thirteen hundred communicants. The Prot 
estant population connected with these churches, attending 
upon their worship, and professing to acknowledge theirs as 
the true Christianity, is counted by thousands, and is continu 
ally increasing. These Protestant churches, formed and guided 
by our missionaries, have obtained from the government, not 
merely a promise that their existence shall be winked at, but 
a legal standing and a recognized place among the distinct 
communities that constitute the empire. Turkish Protestant 
ism has its charter of incorporation as a civil community, its 
own internal government, its civil chief and representative at 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 395 

the imperial metropolis. In an empire which consists of many 
distinct nations, dispersed and interspersed through various 
provinces, religious and ecclesiastical connection, rather than 
country or community of origin or of speech, being the essence 
of nationality, the native Protestantism, that had no exist 
ence till within the last few years, has become a nation. And 
among those nationalities, it is distinguished by two charac 
teristics equally American and Christian. First, in that inter 
nal self-government which is its chartered privilege, it is purely 
republican. Its local officers are chosen by popular election, 
each local community being (like the inhabitants of a New 
England town, though with far less of personal liberty) a mu 
nicipal democracy. Its civil chief and his official council at 
Constantinople are chosen by the united suffrages of all the 
local communities throughout the empire. Thus Protestant 
ism in Turkey is an organized and chartered republic, with 
limited powers, under the sovereignty of the Sultan ; while in 
all that empire there is no other rudiment or germ of repub 
licanism. The second characteristic is, that by the Protestants 
in Turkey, the distinction between church and state is clearly 
drawn and persistently maintained. Every other nationality 
is recognized and governed simply as a national church, 
through its ecclesiastical officers, its patriarch or metropoli 
tan bishop being the organ of communication between the 
community and the imperial government. 

" These two peculiarities of the Protestant organization are 
not without a marked effect on the character and position of 
the Protestants as a body, and the influence of the unique 
institution is beginning to be felt in other communities. This 
Protestantism, or, as we might say, this Americanism, with 
its internal democracy, civil and religious, and with its careful 
and palpable separation of secular offices from ecclesiastical 
functions, is the most vital and growing thing in Turkey. To 
its converts from the old Monophysite communion of the Ar 
menian nation, from the Jacobite Syrian Church, from the 
Greek Church, and from the various Papal sects, it is now add 
ing converts from Islamism. The spirit of inquiry concerning 
52 



896 THE MISSIONS. 

this reformed Christianity, that abhors idolatry, and that rests 
on no other authority than the Holy Scriptures, is manifesting 
itself in every direction. Nothing but the embarrassment of 
the Board, with its limited resources, and with its burden of 
indebtedness caused by the successes in that field, seems to 
prevent an almost indefinite expansion of the work. The mis 
sions in Turkey have become in some respects without a par 
allel among the missionary enterprises of the age. No other 
mission opens such prospects. In none is the crisis so immi 
nent. In none are such results dependent on the question of 
seizing or neglecting the present opportunity. More than one 
third of all the annual expenditure of the Board has been con 
centrated there, and twice as much might be expended there 
to advantage. If those who make the Board their almoner 
fail not in the exigency, there is good reason for the confidence 
that in a few years more, unless some great catastrophe shall 
intervene, the Protestantism of Turkey will be able to provide 
for itself."* 

The Nestorians are partly in Turkey, partly in Persia. A 
spiritual reformation is in progress among them ; though it has 
been retarded by the extreme ignorance and poverty of the 
people, by an unprincipled hierarchy, an oppressive govern 
ment, and the wiles of Popery. So many Nestorian priests 
have become " obedient to the faith," that the missionaries 
have felt encouraged to labor for a spiritual reform, without 
radical ecclesiastical changes. The truly pious Nestorians are 
being gradually drawn together, under the force of circum 
stances, for the simple observance of the Lord s Supper, for 
Christian fellowship, for mutual watch and care, for securing 
an edifying ministry and pastoral oversight. Thus a reformed 
church seems to be actually growing up, with an appropriate 
ministry, ritual, and worship. Among a people so few in 
number, so poor and oppressed as the Nestorians, surrounded 
by enemies, in the heart of Asia, it remains to be seen whether 

* New Englander, 1860, p. 721. 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 397 

this evangelical community can live and flourish. If it prove 
indeed a part of the true Church, though it be but a small 
flock in the wilderness, the Good Shepherd may go before it, 
and guard it from every danger. Perhaps it really is in no" 
more need of his grace and power, than is every other portion 
of the Church in this depraved and hostile world. Certainly 
the Nestorians have an imperishable missionary history. The 
fruits of their missions in Central and Eastern Asia, existed 
for more than a thousand years. From the fifth to the ninth 
centuries, they had schools at Edessa, Nisibis, Seleucia, Dor- 
kena, Bagdad, and elsewhere in Assyria and Persia. They 
occupied the region which forms the modern kingdom of Per 
sia, in all parts of which they had churches. They were nu 
merous in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had 
churches in Syria, in the Island of Cyprus, and among the 
mountains of Malabar in India. They had numerous churches 
in the vast regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount 
Imaus, and beyond, through the greater part of what is now 
known as Chinese Tartary, and even in China itself. It would 
seem that such a people, now revisited and revived by a purer 
gospel than they once propagated with so much zeal and sac- 
cess, had yet an evangelical work to perform in the vast and 
benighted regions of Central Asia. It will be for those, on 
whom it shall devolve to investigate and record the missionary 
developments of the next half-century, to state the results, as 
yet imperfectly unfolded, of this mission of the American 
Board to the Nestorians. 

Of the fields that are occupied by the Board still further 
east, _ the Mahratta and Tamil, it may suffice to say, that 
they are among the best in India. The people are accessible ; 
the government is tolerant, and reasonably protective ; there 
is freedom to sow, and security in reaping, and promise of an 
ample harvest in due season. 

Auxiliary to these great movements of the age for the uni 
versal propagation of the gospel, are the efforts for multiplying 



398 THE MISSIONS. 

versions and copies of the sacred Scriptures, and for distrib 
uting them, in the different languages of the world. In the 
first fifty years of the British and Foreign Bible Society, from 
"1804 to 1854, nearly twenty-eight millions of copies of the 
Scriptures were distributed, in whole or in integral portions, 
in connection with the labors of that Society; and above 
twenty millions more were distributed by kindred institutions 
in different parts of the world ; making a total of nearly fifty 
millions. These were in more than one hundred and fifty 
different languages or dialects, in one hundred and twenty-five 
of which no portion of the sacred volume had previously 
appeared in print.* 

It is not known that an attempt has ever been made to affix 
a pecuniary valuation to this mighty system of means for the 
spiritual renovation of the heathen world. It is clear, indeed, 
that some of its results will not submit to human valua 
tion. Such are the many thousand converts, who have been 
received into the Christian Church. Such are the ideas 
imparted to the understanding ; the impressions made upon 
the conscience and heart ; the intellectual and religious influ 
ences exerted upon the heathen. The precious metals of all 
the mines of the world would not express their value ; for the 
world itself is of no account in comparison with a single soul. 
But there is an aspect, in which a specific value may be 
assigned to the work. Regarding it as an enterprise, a busi 
ness, a system of means and agencies, there is no more impro 
priety in an inquiry as to its value, than there is as to the 
value of any other enterprise of man. What, we may ask, is 
the value of these organized agencies, at home and abroad ? 
"Were there a mart for the sale and purchase of such commod 
ities, what might be the estimate put upon this vast system of 
means and agencies ? In other words, what would it cost to 
reproduce the system, with all its means for direct action and 
reaction in the Christian and heathen world ? 

* History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by Rev. George Brown, 
1859, vol. ii. p. 487. 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK, 899 

We shall venture to suggest a conjectural answer in respect 
to the system under -the care of the American Board. The 
aggregate expenditure for these missions has exceeded eight 
and a half millions of dollars. The most valuable results of 
this expenditure, through the grace of God, namely, the sal 
vation of souls, must, for the reasons already mentioned, be 
left entirely out of the account. But the system of agencies 
is a thing distinct from its results. It involves property, in 
the common sense buildings in different parts of the world, 
printing establishments, libraries, apparatus, etc. And there 
are the home organizations : the Board, with its thousands of 
members ; the Prudential Committee and executive officers, 
with a large and valuable experience ; the agencies ; a vast 
organism of auxiliaries, associations, collectors, annual ser 
mons and reports ; widely-circulated periodicals ; a multifari 
ous acquaintance with ministers, churches, and people ; and a 
financial credit, the growth of half a century, now extended 
through the commercial world. There is a vast organism 
abroad, the growth also of fifty years : missions, many of them 
established long ago, in different and widely-distant parts of 
the unevangelized world, after much suffering and disappoint 
ment, at great expense of money, labor, health, and even life ; 
numerous missionaries, liberally educated, conversant with 
the people and their languages, able to preach the gospel, and 
to do all the work of an embassador of Christ to the heathen ; 
acclimated, experienced, and of tried character ; the result of 
a large expenditure in the case of each individual. There 
are churches, congregations, schools of every grade ; native 
helpers, not a few with the training of many years ; and a 
large acquaintance, a widely-extended, long-established influ 
ence in the several countries ; a name, a prestige, a character, 
a moral power, not easily nor soon acquired in any country, 
and least of all in heathen lands. 

What would it cost to reproduce the means and agencies, 
the results and influences, which stand connected with the 
American Board ? 

Such has been the progress of facilities for access to distant 



400 THE MISSIONS. 

parts of the world, and for sustaining missions in them, and 
also the growth of experience as to the mode of conducting 
missions, that the reproducing of the system would cost less 
time, money and labor, now, than it did originally. But 
would it not require thirty years, and an expenditure of six 
millions ? Then, the money expended upon it has not been 
thrown away. It has been a good investment more pro 
ductive, more secure, than it would be in any banking institu 
tion of the world. Much of the gain is already deposited in 
heaven ; but the trading, working capital has a visible, tan 
gible existence, in an array of means, instrumentalities, facil 
ities, opportunities for bringing the gospel to bear broadly upon 
peoples and nations, upon myriads of immortal beings. 

Extending our view, and embracing the foreign missions of 
all the Protestant Churches, and all the organizations, agen 
cies, and influences which keep them in vigorous and success 
ful operation, the value of the whole is at once seen to be 
immense. Is it thirty is it forty is it fifty millions ? Who 
is able to make out the valuation ? It is a property, that 
is built upon faith in the command, promise, power, and truth 
fulness of Him, who is Head over all things to the Church. 
Who ever made a wiser, more profitable investment of money, 
labor, health, and even life, than was made by the partners, 
living and dead, in this glorious enterprise for the salvation 
of the heathen world ? 

It was evidently the design of Providence to develop more 
fully the evil nature of sin, before the gospel should be made 
the common inheritance of mankind. That has been accom 
plished. The " Mystery of. Iniquity," the " Man of Sin," the 
" False Prophet," were to be revealed ; and they have been. 
The False Prophet has appeared, and uttered his lies ; the 
Man of Sin has come, and done as wickedly as was pre 
dicted ; the Mystery of Iniquity has been unfolded, until 
there is no longer room for doubt as to the evil and destruc 
tive nature of sin. And now the set time would seem to 
have come for the great remedial influences. These are to be 



THE FIELD AND THE WORK. 401 

applied by means of Christian missions ; and, few as these yet 
are, they have been so diffused, under the leadings of Provi 
dence, that they have only to grow, in order to cover the earth 
with leaves which are to be for the healing of the nations. 
Every man and woman may now operate upon the most dis 
tant nations. The frequent and urgent calls upon the benev 
olent, result from the character impressed upon our age, and 
from our own multiplied, far-extending relations. The pall 
of death has been lifted from the nations ; they have been 
brought near ; and our eyes are filled with the sight, and our 
ears with the cry, of their distress. God has leveled moun 
tains, bridged oceans, and made highways into every land; 
and now he speaks to us with an emphasis such as he never 
used in addressing his people of former times. 



APPENDIX 



53 



APPENDIX. 



I. ACT OF INCORPORATION. 

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

In the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twelve : An 
Act to Incorporate the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions. 

Whereas WILLIAM BARTLET and others have been associated under the 
name of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, for 
the purpose of propagating the gospel in heathen lands, by supporting mis 
sionaries and diffusing a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and have prayed 
to be incorporated in order more effectually to promote the laudable object 
of their association, 

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in 
General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That WILLIAM 
BARTLET, Esq., and SAMUEL SPRING, D. D., both of Newburyport, JOSEPH 
LYMAN, D. D., of Hatfield, JEDEDIAH MORSE, D. D., of Charlestown, SAM 
UEL WORCESTER, D. D., of Salem, the Hon. AViLLiAM PHILLIPS, Esq., of 
Boston, and the Hon. JOHN HOOKER, Esq., of Springfield, and their asso 
ciates, be, and they hereby are incorporated and made a body politic by the 
name of the AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOR 
EIGN MISSIONS, and by that name may sue and be sued, plead and be 
impleaded, appear, prosecute, and defend, to final judgment and execution ; 
and in their said corporate capacity, they, and their successors forever, may 
take, receive, have, and hold in fee-simple or otherwise, lands, tenements, 
and hereditaments, by gift, grant, devise, or otherwise, not exceeding the 
yearly value of four thousand dollars ; and may also take and hold, by dona 
tion, bequest, or otherwise, personal estate to an amount the yearly income 
of which shall not exceed eight thousand dollars ; so that the estate afore* 

j[405) 



406 APPENDIX. 

said shall be faithfully appropriated to the purpose and object aforesaid, and 
not otherwise. And the said corporation shall have power to sell, convey, 
exchange, or lease all or any part of their lands, tenements, or other prop 
erty for the benefit of their funds, and may have a common seal, which they 
may alter or renew at pleasure. Provided, however, that nothing herein 
contained shall enable the said corporation, or any person or perspns, as 
trustees for or for the use of said corporation, to receive and hold any gift, 
grant, legacy, or bequest, heretofore given or bequeathed to any person in 
trust for said Board, unless such person or persons could by law have taken 
and holden the same if this act had not passed. 

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the said Board may annually choose 
from among themselves, by ballot, a President, a Vice President, and a Pru 
dential Committee ; and also, from among themselves or others, a Corre 
sponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, an Auditor, and 
such other officers as they may deem expedient ; all of whom shall hold 
their offices until others are chosen to succeed them, and shall have such 
powers and perform such duties as the said Board may order and direct ; 
and in case of vacancy by death, resignation, or otherwise, the vacancy may 
in like manner be filled at any legal meeting of the said Board. And the 
said Treasurer shall give bond, with sufficient surety or sureties, in the 
judgment of the Board, or the Prudential Committee, for the faithful dis 
charge of the duties of his office. 

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That all contracts and deeds, which the 
said Board may lawfully make and execute, signed by the chairman of the 
said Prudential Committee, and countersigned by their clerk, (whom they 
are hereby authorized to appoint,) and sealed with the common seal of said 
corporation, shall be valid in law to all intents and purposes. 

SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That the first annual meeting of the said 
Board shall be on the third Wednesday of September next, at such place as 
the said William Bartlet may appoint, and the present officers of said Board 
shall continue in office until others are elected. 

SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That the said Board, at the first annual 
meeting aforesaid, and at any subsequent annual meeting, may elect, by 
ballot, any suitable persons to be members of said Board, either to supply 
vacancies, or in addition to their present number. 

SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That the said Board shall have power to 
make such by-laws, rules, and regulations, for calling future meetings of 
said Board, and for the management of their concerns, as they shall deem 
expedient ; provided the same are not repugnant to the laws of this Com 
monwealth. 

SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That one quarter part of the annual income 
from the funds of said Board shall be faithfully appropriated to defray the 
expense of imparting the Holy Scriptures to unevangelized nations in their 
own languages : Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be so con- 



ACT OP INCORPORATION. 407 

strued as to defeat the express intentions of any testator or donor, who shall 
give or bequeath money to promote the great purposes of the Board. Pro 
vided, also, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to restrict 
said Board from appropriating more than one quarter of said income to 
translating and distributing the Scriptures whenever they shall deem it 
advisable. 

SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, That not less than one third of said Board 
shall at all times be composed of respectable laymen ; and that not less than 
one third of said Board shall be composed of respectable clergymen; the 
remaining third to be composed of characters of the same description, 
whether clergymen or laymen. 

SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, That the legislature of this Common 
wealth shall at any time have the right to inspect, by a committee of their 
own body, the doings, funds, and proceedings of the said Corporation, and 
may at their pleasure alter or annul any or all of the powers herein granted. 

In the House of Representatives, June 19, 1812. This bill, having had 
three several readings, passed to be enacted. 

TIMOTHY BIGELOW, Speaker. 

In the Senate, June 2Wh, 1812. This bill, having had two readings, passed 

to be enacted. 

SAMUEL DANA, President. 

June 20, 1812. By the Governor, Approved. 

Copy Attest. 

ALDEN BRADFORD, 

Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

N. B. The Associates, alluded to in the foregoing act, were the Hon. 
JOHN TREADWELL, LL. D., the Rev. TIMOTHY D WIGHT, D. D., LL. D., 
President of Yale College, Gen. JEDIDIAH HUNTINGTON, and the Rev. 
CALVIN CHAPIN, all of Connecticut. 



408 



APPENDIX. 



II. CORPORATE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. 



MAINE. 

Ehction. 

1832. Enoch Pond, D. D., Bangor. 

1838. Benjamin Tappan, D. D., Augusta. 

1842. William T. Dwight, D. D., Portland. 

1843. Swan Lyman Pomroy, D. D., Portland. 
1851. George F. Patten, Esq., Bath. 

1854. John W. Chickeriug, D. D., Portland. 
1856. George E. Adams, D. D., Brunswick. 

1856. William W. Thomas, Esq., Portland. 

1857. Amos D. Lockwood, Esq., Lcwiston. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

1832. Nathan Lord, D. D., Hanover. 
1840. Zedekiah S. Barstovv, D. D., Keene. 
1842. Rev. John Woods, Fitzwilliam. 
1842. John K. Young, D. D., Laconia. 
1857. Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., Concord. 

1859. Hon. William Haile, Hinsdale. 

1860. Hon. George W. Nesmith, Franklin. 



VERMONT. 

1838. John Wheeler, D. D., Burlington. 

1838. Charles Walker, D. D., Pittsford. 

1839. Silas Aiken, D. D., Rutland. 

1840. Willard Child, D. D., Castlcton. 
1840. Edward W. Hooker, D. D., Fairhaven. 
1842. Hon. Erastus Fairbanks, St. Johns- 
bury. 

1842. Benjamin Labaree, D. D., Middlebury. 
1842. Rev. Joseph Steele, Middlebury. 
1859. Lewis H. Delano, Esq., Hardwick. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 

1820. William Allen, D. D., Northampton. 
1823. Heman Humphrey, D. D., Pittsfleld. 

1827. John Tappan, Esq., Boston. 

1828. Henry Hill, Esq., Boston. 
1832. Rufus Anderson. D. D., Boston. 
1832. Rev. David Greene, Westboro . 
1832. Charles Stoddard, Esq., Boston. 
1834. Rev. Sylvester Holmes, New Bedford. 

1837. Nehemiah Adams, D. D., Boston. 

1838. Thomas Snell, D. D., North Brookfield, 
1838. Aaron Warner, D. D., Amherst. 
1838. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., Wil- 

liamstown. 

1840. William Jeuks, D. D., Boston. 
1840. Alfred Ely, D. D., Monson. 
1840. Horatio Bard well, D. D., Oxford. 
1840. Ebenezer Alden, M. D., Randolph. 



Election. 

1842. Richard S. Storrs, D. D., Braintree. 
1842. Ebenezer Burgess, D. D., Dedham. 
1842. John Nelson, D. D., Leicester. 

1842. Hon. Samuel Williston, Easthampton. 

1843. Rev. Selah B. Treat, Boston. 

1845. Hon. William J. Hubbard, Boston. 
1845. Henry B. Hooker, D. D., Boston. 
1845. Hon. Linus Child, Lowell. 

1845. Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., Andover. 

1847. Samuel M. Worcester, D. D., Salem. 

1848. Andrew W. Porter, Esq., Monson. 

1848. Hon. Samuel H. Walley, Boston. 

1849. Augustus C. Thompson, D. D., Rox- 

bury. 

1850. Hon. William T. Eustis, Boston. 
1850. Hon. John Aiken, Andover. 

1852. William Ropes, Esq., Boston. 

1853. John Todd, D. D., Pittsfield. 

1854. Seth Sweetser, D. D., Worcester. 

1854. James M. Gordon, Esq., Boston. 

1855. Amos Blanchard, D. D., Lowell. 
1857. Hon. Alpheus Hardy, Boston. 

1800. Hon. Reuben A. Chapman, Springfield. 
1860. William S. Southworth, Esq., Lowell. 

RHODE ISLAND. 

1846. Rev. Thomas Shepard, D. D., Bristol. 
1850. John Kingsbury, LL. D., Providence. 

CONNECTICUT. 

1817. Jeremiah Day, D. D., LL. D., Nevr 
Haven. 

1832. Noah Porter, D. D., Farmington. 

1836. Thomas S.Williams, LL. D., Hartford. 

1838. Joel Hawes, D. D., Hartford. 

1838. Mark Tucker, D. D., Vernon. 

1838. Hon. Thomas W. Williams, New Lon 
don. 

1838. Hon. Joseph Russell, Ellington. * 

1840. Hon. Seth Terry, Hartford. 

1840. John T. Norton, Esq., Farmington. 

1842. Alvan Bond, D. D., Norwich. 

1842. Leonard Bacon, D. D., New Haven. 

1842. Henry White, Esq., New Haven. 

1843. Joel H. Linsley, D. D., Greenwich. 
1843. Rev. David L. Ogden, New Haven. 
1852. Gen. William Williams, Norwich. 

1854. Samuel W. S. Dutton, D. D., New 

Haven. 

1855. George Kellogg, Esq., Rockville. 



CORPORATE MEMBERS OP THE BOARD. 



409 



Election. 

1859. Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., LL. D., 
New Haven. 

1859. Hon. Wm. A. Buckingham, Norwich. 

1860. Lucius Barbour, Esq., Hartford. 
1860. Elisha L. Cleaveland, D. D., New 

Haven. 
1860. John A. Davenport, Esq., New Haven. 



NEW YORK. 

1812. Eliphalet Nott, D. D., Schenectady. 

1823. Lyman Beecher, D. D., Brooklyn. 

1824. Gardiner Spring, D. D., New York. 
1826. Thomas DeWitt, D. D., New York. 
1826. Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D., Troy. 
1826. Thomas McAuley, D. D.,LL. D., New 

York. 

1834. James M. Mathews, D. D., New York. 
1838. Isaac Ferris, D. D., New York. 
1838. Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., New York. 
1838. William W. Chester, Esq., New York. 

1838. Pelatiah Perit, Esq., New York. 

1839. William B. Sprague, D. D., Albany. 

1840. Reuben H. Walworth, LL. D., Sara 

toga Springs. 

1840. Diedrich Willcrs, D. D., Fayette, Sen 
eca County. 

1840. Hon. Charles W. Rockwell, New York. 

1840. David H. Little, Esq., Cherry Valley. 

1840. Charles Mills, Esq., Kingsborough. 

1842. Samuel H. Cox, D. D., Leroy. 

1842. Aristarchus Champion, Esq., Roches 
ter. 

1842. Hon. William L. F. Warren, Saratoga 
Springs. 

1842. Horace Holden, Esq., New York. 

1842. William Adams, D. D., New York. 

1842. Joel Parker, D. D., New York. 

1843. William Wisner, D. D., Ithaca. 

1843. Edward Robinson, D. D., New York. 
1843. William Patton, D. D., New York. 
1843. William W. Stone, Esq., New York. 

1845. John Forsyth, D. D., Newburgh. 

1846. Hon. Henry W. Taylor, Canandaigua. 
1846. James Crocker, Esq., Buffalo. 

1846. Calvin T. Hulburd, Esq., Brasher 
Falls. 

1848. David Wesson, Esq., Brooklyn. 

1848. Laurens P. Hickok, D. D., Schenec 
tady. 

1848. William M. Halsted, Esq., New York. 

1848. Simeon Benjamin, Esq., Elmira. 

1850. Robert W. Condit, D. D., Oswego. 

1851. Rev. Simeon North, LL. D., Clinton. 

1851. Samuel W. Fisher, D. D., Clinton. 

1852. Walter S. Griffith, Esq., Brooklyn. 
1852. Isaac N. Wyckoff, D. D., Albany. 



Election. 

1852. Hon. William F. Allen, Oswego. 

1852. George W. Wood, D. D., New York. 

1853. Asa D. Smith, D. D., New York. 
1853. Oliver E. Wood, Esq., New York. 
1853. Rev. Montgomery S. Goodale, Amster 
dam. 

1853. Rev. William S. Curtis, Clinton. 

1854. Walter Clarke, D. D., New York. 

1854. Ray Palmer, D. D., Albany. 

1855. Philemon H. Fowler, D. D., Utica. 
1855. George B. Cheever, D. D., New York. 
1855. Samuel T. Spear, D. D., Brooklyn. 
1855. Jacob M. Schcrmcrhorn, Esq., Homer. 
1857. William E. Dodge, Esq., New York. 
1860. Jonathan B. Condit, D. D., Auburn. 
1860. James W. McLane, D. D., Brooklyn. 
1860. William A. Booth, Esq., New York. 
1860. SimeonB. Chittenden, Esq., Brooklyn 



NEW JERSEY. 

1823. S. V. S. Wilder, Esq., Elizabethtown. 

1826. Theodore Frelinghuysen, LL. D., New 
Brunswick. 

1&32. Hon. Peter D. Vroom, Trenton. 

1838. David Magie, D. D., Elizabethtown. 

1838. Richard T. Haines, Esq., Elizabeth- 
town. 

1840. Hon. Joseph C. Horublower, Newark. 

1840. David H. Riddle, D. D., Jersey City. 

1842. J. Marshal Paul, M. D., Belvidere. 

1843. Benjamin C. Taylor, D. D., Hudson. 
1848. Abraham B. Hasbrouck, LL. D., New 

Brunswick. 

1848. Hon. Daniel Haines, Hamburg. 
1853. Jonathan F. Stearns, D. D., Newark. 

1855. Rev. Thornton A. Mills, Newark. 

1856. Lyndon A. Smith, M. D., Newark. 
1860. Hon. William Pennington, Newark^ 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

1832. John McDowell, D. D., Philadelphia. 
1838. William R. DeWitt, D. D., Harrisburg. 
1838. Ambrose White, Esq., Philadelphia. 
1840. Hon. William Darling, Philadelphia. 
1840. William Jessup, LL. D., Montrose. 
1840. Bernard C. Wolf, D. D., Easton. 
1840. Rev. Albert Barnes, Philadelphia. 
1840. Jo W, Nevin, D, D., Mercersburg 

1842. Harvey Eiy, Esq., Erie. 

1843. Samuel H. Perkins, Esq., Philadelphia. 
1855. John A. Brown, Esq., Philadelphia. 
1855. Hon. William Strong, Philadelphia. 
1855. George A. Lyon, D. D., Erie. 

1857. Matthias W. Baldwin, Esq., Philadel 

phia. 



410 



APPENDIX. 



Election. 

1859. Thomas Brainerd, D. D., Philadelphia. 

1859. James W. Weir, Esq., Harrisburg. 

MARYLAND. 
1838. James G. Hamner, D. D., Baltimore. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

1842. Rev. John Cross Smith, Washington. 

VIRGINIA. 
1826. Gen. John H.Cocke, Fluvanna County. 

MISSOURI. 

1851. Henry A. Nelson, D. D., St. Louis. 
1857. Truman M. Post, D. D., St. Louis. 

1860. John B. Johnson, M. D., St. Louis. 

TENNESSEE. 

1842. Samuel Rhea, Esq., Blountsville. 

OHIO 

1838. George E. Pierce, D. D., Hudson. 

1843. Samuel C. Aiken. D. D., Cleveland. 
1851. D. Howe Allen, D. D., Walnut Hills. 
1851. Henry Smith, D. D., Walnut Hills, 
1853. Douglass Putnam, Esq., Harmar. 
1853. Robert W. Steele, Esq., Dayton. 
1853. Henry L. Hitchcock, D. D., Hudson. 
1855. M. LaRue P. Thompson, D. D., Cin 
cinnati. 

1857. T. P. Handy, Esq., Cleveland. 



MICHIGAN. 

Election. 

1838. Eurotas P. Hastings, Esq., Detroit. 
1851. Harvey D. Kitchell, D. D., Detroit. 
1851. Hon Charles Noble, Monroe. 



INDIANA. 

1842. Charles White, D. D., Crawfords- 

ville. 

1851. Hon. Jeremiah Sullivan, Madison. 
1853. Rev. John W. Cunningham, Laporte. 

ILLINOIS. 

1842. Ansel D. Eddy, D. D., Wilmington. 
1845. Baxter Dickinson, D. D., Chicago. 
1851. Julian M. Sturtevant, D. D., Jackson 
ville. 

1851. Rev. Aratas Kent, Galena- 
1851. Robert W. Patterson, D. D., Chicago. 
1851. William H. Brown, Esq., Chicago. 
1853. Rev. Augustus T. Norton, Alton. 
1853. David A. Smith, Esq., Jacksonville. 
1853. Rev. William Carter, Pittsfield. 
1860. Prof. Samuel C. Bartlett, Chicago. 

IOWA. 

1851. Rev. John C. Holbrook, Dubuque. 
1857. Rev. W. Henry Williams, Keokuk. 

WISCONSIN. 

1840. Rev. Chauncey Eddy, Beloit. 
1851. Aaron L. Chapin, D. D., Beloit. 
1851. Eliphalet Cramer, Esq., Milwaukie. 
1860. Rev. Enos J. Montague, Summit. 



OFFICERS OF THE BOARD. 



411 



III. OFFICERS OF THE BOARD. 



_ . PRESIDENTS. Death or 

Election. Resignation 

1810. John Trcadwell, LL. D., 1823, 

1823. Joseph Lyman, D. D., 1826, 

1826. John Cotton Smith, LL. D., 1841, 
1841. Theodore Frelinghuysen, LL. D., 1857, 
185?. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D. 



VICE PRESIDENTS. 
1810. Samuel Spring, D. D., 1819. 

1819. Joseph Lyman, D. D., 1823. 

1823. John Cotton Smith, LL. D., 1826. 
1826. Stephen Van Rensselaer, LL. D., 1839. 
1839. Theodore Frelinghuysen, LL. D., 1841. 
1841. Thomas S. Williams, LL. D., 1857. 
1857. William Jessup, LL. D. 



PRUDENTIAL COMMITTEE. 

1810. William Bartlet, Esq., 1814. 

1810. Samuel Spring, D. D., 1819. 

1810. Samuel Worcester, D. D., 1821. 

1812. Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., 1830. 

1815. Jedediah Morse, D. D., 1821. 

1818. Hon. William Reed, 1834. 

1819. Leonard Woods, D. D., ia34. 
1821. Samuel Hubbard, LL. D., 1843. 
1821. Warren Fay, D. D., 1839. 
1828. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D., 1&35. 
1&31. Elias Cornelius, D. D., 1832. 
1832. Hon. Samuel T. Armstrong, 1850. 
1832. Charles Stoddard, Esq. 

1834. John Tappan, Esq. 

1835. Daniel Noyes, Esq., 1845. 
1837. Nehemiah Adams, D. D. 

1839. Silas Aiken, D. D., 1849. 

1843. William W. Stone, Esq., 1850. 

1845. Hon. William J. Hubbard, 1859. 

1849. Augustus C. Thompson, D. D. 

1850. Hon. William T, Eustis. 

1850. Hon. John Aiken. 

1851. Hon. Daniel Safford, 1856. 
1854. Henry Hill, Esq. 

1856. Isaac Ferris, D. D., 1857. 

1856. Asa D. Smith, D. D. 

1856. Walter S. Griffith, Esq. 

1857. Alpheus Hardy, Esq. 

1859. Hon. Linus Child. 

1860. William S. Southworth, Esq. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES. 

1810. Samuel Worcester, D. D., 1821. 

1821. Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., 1831. 

54 



,-,, . Death or 

Election. Resignation. 

1831. Elias Cornelius, D. D., 1832. 

1832. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D., 1835. 
1832. Rufus Anderson, D. D. 

1832. Rev. David Greene, 1848. 

1835. William J. Armstrong, D. D., 1847. 

1847. Rev. Selah B. Treat. 

1848. Swan L. Pomroy, D. D., 1859. 
1852. George W. Wood, D. D. 



ASSISTANT CORRESPONDING SEC 
RETARIES. 

1824. Rev. Rufus Anderson, 1832. 

1828. Rev. David Greene, 1832. 



RECORDING SECRETARIES. 

1810. Calvin Chapin, D. D., 1843. 

1843. Rev. Selah B. Treat, 1847. 

1847. Samuel M. Worcester, D. D. 



ASSISTANT RECORDING SECRETA 
RIES. 

1836. Charles Stoddard, Esq., 1839. 

1839. Bela B. Edwards, D. D., 1842. 

1842. Rev. Daniel Crosby, 1843. 



TREASURERS. 

1810. Samuel H. Walley, Esq., 1811. 

1811. Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., 1822. 
1822. Henry Hill, Esq., 1854. 
1854. James M. Gordon, Esq. 



AUDITORS. 

1810. Joshua Goodale, Esq., 1812. 

1812. Samuel H. Walley, Esq., 1813. 

1813. Charles Walley, Esq., 1814. 

1814. Chester Adams, Esq., 1817. 
1817- Ashur Adams, Esq., 1822. 
1822. Chester Adams, Esq., 1827. 
1827. William Ropes, Esq., 1829. 
1829. John Tappan, Esq., 1834. 
1829. Charles Stoddard, Esq., 1832. 
1832. Hon. William J. Hubbard, 1842. 
1834. Daniel Noyes, Esq., 1835. 
1&35. Charles Scudder, Esq., 1847- 
1842. Moses L. Hale, Esq. 

1847. Hon. Samuel H. Walley. 



412 



APPENDIX. 



IV. CORPORATE MEMBERS DECEASED OR RESIGNED. 



[The names under each State are arranged according to the time of decease or resignation. The year is 


that ending with the annual meetings in September or October.] 


MAINE. Death or 


Death or 


Election. Resignation. 


Election. designation. 


1813. Jesse Appleton, D. D., 1820. 


1826. John Codman, D. D., 1848. 


1826. Edward Payson, D. D., 1828. 


1832. Hon. Samuel T. Armstrong, 1850. 


1842. David Dunlap, 1843. 


1826. Hon. Lewis Strong, r., 1852. 


1813. Gen. Henry Sewall, 1845. 


1835. Daniel Noyes, 1852. 


1842. William Richardson, 1847. 


1839. Bela B. Edwards, D. D., 1852. 


1842. Eliphalet Gillett, D. D., 1849. 


1842. Hon. Alfred D. Foster, 1852. 


1836. Levi Cutter, 1856. 


1826. Justin Edwards, D. D., 1853. 


1845. Asa Cummings, D. D., 1856. 


1819. Leonard Woods, D. D., 1854. 


1838. John W. Ellingwood, D. D., 1860. 


1821. Joshua Bates, D. D., 1854. 




1840. Hon. David Mack, 1854. 


NEW HAMPSHIRE. 


1851. Hon. Daniel Safford, 1856. 
1840. Daniel Dana, D. D., 1859. 


1812. John Langdon, LL. D., 1820. 





1812. Seth Payson, D. D., 1820. 
1820. Hon. Thomas W. Thompson, 1822. 


RHODE ISLAND. 


1830. Hon. George Sullivan, 1838. 


1812. William Jones, Esq. 


1820. John Hubbard Church, D. D., 1840. 




1842. Hon. Mills Olcott, 1845. 
1842. Rev. Archibald Burgess, 1850. 


CONNECTICUT. 


1840. Hon. Edmund Parker, 1856. 


1810. Timothy Dwight, D. D., LL. D., 1817. 


1838. Samuel Fletcher, 1859. 


1810. Gen. Jedidiah Huntiugton, 1819. 




1810. John Tread well, LL. D., 1823. 




1836. Henry Hudson, 1843. 


VERMONT. 


1819. John Cotton Smith, LL. D., 1846. 


1818. Hon. Charles Marsh, 1849. 


1842. Rev. Thomas Punderson, 1848. 


1840. William Page, Esq., 1850. 


1840. Daniel Dow, D. D., 1849. 




1810. Calvin Chapin, D. D., 1851. 




1848. Nathaniel O. Kellogg, 1854. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


1823. Bennet Tyler, D. D., 1858. 


1810. Samuel H. Walley, r., 1811. 


1851. Charles J. Stedman, 1859. 


1810. Samuel Spring, D. D., 1819. 


1830. Roger Minot Sherman, r., 1830. 


1810. Samuel Worcester, D. D., 1821. 


1842. Chauncey A. Goodrich, D. D., 1860. 


1818. Zephaniah Swift Moore, D. D., 1823. 


1852. Abel McEwen, D. D., 1860. 


1811. Jedediah Morse, D. D., 1826. 




1812. Hon. William Phillips, 1827. 


NEW YORK. 


1810. Joseph Lyman, D. D., 1828. 




1823. Edward A. Newton, ?-., 1828. 


1818. Col. Henry Linclean, 1822. 


1812. Hon. John Hooker, 1829. 


1819. Divie Bethune, 1825. 


1812. Jeremiah Evarts, 1831. 


1812. John Jay, LL. D., 1829. 


1822. Samuel Austin, D. D., 1831. 


1824. Col. Henry Rutgers, 1830. 


1831. Elias Cornelius, D. D., 1832. 


1826. Col. Richard Varick, 1831. 


1828. Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D., 1835. 


1812. Egbert Benson, LL. D., 1833. 


1818. Hon. William Reed, 1837. 


1822. Jonas Platt, LL. D., 1834. 


1821. Warren Fay, D. D., r., 1&39. 


1826. William McMurray, D. D. 1836. 


1810. William Bartlet, 1841. 


1826. John Nitchie, 1838. 


1842. Rev. Daniel Crosby, 1843. 


1816. Stephen Van Rensselaer, LL. D., 1839. 


1821. Samuel Hubbard, LL. D., 1847. 


1824. Eleazar Lord, r., 1841. 



CORPORATE MEMBERS DECEASED OR RESIGNED. 



413 



Death or 
Election. Resignation. 


1832. Zechariah Lewis, 


1841. 


1840. Gerrit Wendell, 


1841. 


1812. James Richards, D. D., 


1843. 


1813. Alexander Proudfit, D. D., 


1843. 


1832. OrrinDay, 


1847. 


1835. William J. Armstrong, D. D., 


1847. 


1843. Walter Hubbell, 


1848. 


1843. Asa T. Hopkins, D. D., 


1848. 


1838. Henry White, D. D., 


1850. 


1842. John W. Adams, D. D., 


1850. 


1824. David Porter, D D., 


1851. 


1838. D. W. C. Olyphant, r., 


1851. 


1839. Eliphalet Wickes, 


1851. 


1848. Erskine Mason, D. D., 


1851. 


1812 Henry Davis, D. D., 


1852. 


182G. Nathaniel W. Howell, LL. D., 


1852. 


1824. Philip Milledoler, D. D., 


1853. 


1838. Elisha Yale, D. D., 


1853. 


1840. AnsonG. Phelps, 


1854. 


1840. Hiram H. Scelye, 


1855. 


1836. Kev. Henry Dwight, 


1857. 


1842. Charles M. Lee, LL. D., 


1857- 


1854. Anson G. Phelps, Jr., 


1858. 


NEW JERSEY. 




1812. Elias Boudinot, LL. D., 


1822. 


1823. Edward Dorr Griffin, D. D., 


1838. 


1812. Samuel Miller, D. D., r., 


1839. 


1826. James Carnahan, D. D., r., 


1849. 


1826. Archibald Alexander, D. D., r., 


1850. 


1855. F. T. Frelinghuysen, r., 


1859. 


PENNSYLVANIA. 




1812. Robert Ralston, 


1836. 


1812. Ashbel Green, D. D., r., 


1840. 


1834. Alexander Henry, 


1847. 


1826. Samuel Agnew, M. D., 


1850. 


1832. Cornelius C. Cuyler, D. D., 


1850. 


1826. Thomas Bradford, 


1852. 


1838. Matthew Brown, D. D., 


1853. 


1842. Eliphalet W. Gilbert, D. D., 


1853. 


1838. Thomas Fleming, 


1855. 


1826. John Ludlow, D. D., 


1857. 


1848. Charles S. Wurts, r., 


1858. 


1835. William S. Plumer, D. D., r., 


1859. 


1826. William Ncill, D. D., 


1860. 


MARYLAND. 




1834. William Nevins, D. D., 


1836. 



Death or 

Election. Resignation. 

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

1819. Elias Boudinot Caldwell, 1825. 

1826. Joseph Nourse, 1841. 

VIRGINIA. 

1823. John H. Rice, D. D., 1831. 

1832. George A. Baxter, D D., 1841. 

1826. William Maxwell, 1857. 

1834. Thomas P. Atkinson, r., 1859. 

NORTH CAROLINA 

1834. Joseph Caldwell, D. D., 1835. 

1834. W. McPheters, D. D., 1843. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

1826. Moses Waddell, D. D., 1840. 

1826. Benjamin M. Palmer, D. D., 1848. 

1839. Reuben Post,.D. D , r., 1855. 



GEORGIA. 

1826. John Cummings, M. D., 1838, 

1834. Thomas Golding, D. D., * 1848. 
1834. Hon. Joseph H. Lumpkin. 

TENNESSEE. 

1826. Charles Coffin, D. D. 
1834. Isaac Anderson, D. D. 

ILLINOIS. 

1821. Gideon Blackburn, D. D., 1839. 



INDIANA. 

1838. Elihu W. Baldwin, D. D., 1841. 

1853. Samuel Merrill, 1855. 



OHIO. 

1832. James Hoge, D. D., r., 1847. 

1826. Robert G. Wilson, D. D., 1856. 

1834. Robert H. Bishop, D. D., 1855. 

1851. Gabriel Tichenor, 1855. 

1845. Rev. Harvey Coe, 1860. 

MISSOURI. 

1840. Artemas Bullard, D. D., 1856. 



414 APPENDIX. 



V. MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES 
SENT FORTH BY THE AMERICAN BOARD OF 
COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 

[Pages 2G8 and 273.J 

NOT a few of those mentioned in the following list, have been connected 
with two or more of the missions, and their names are of course repeated. 
Hence an enumeration from this catalogue would not correspond with the 
table referred to in the body of the work. The true number is there indi 
cated. The star ( * ) denotes the decease of the missionary. The letter r. 
means that the individual is not now in connection with the Board. The 
occasion of these discharges, in the missions beyond sea, has generally been 
a failure of health in - the wife or husband. In the missions among the 
North American Jndians, those missions being peculiar in their nature, 
and near home, the connection of laymen, as farmers, mechanics, or 
teachers, has been less permanent than in the remoter missions, and not 
unfrequently has been entered upon for a specified time. This was specially 
true in respect to unmarried females, a great number of whom have been 
employed in the Indian missions. The list is intended to contain all such, 
and only such, as actually received from the Prudential Committee the ap 
pointment as assistant missionary ; but perfect accuracy here is a matter 
of some difficulty. 

Among those connected with the missions beyond sea, where death has 
occurred since their connection with the Board was dissolved, the fact, when 
known, is denoted by r.* A considerable number of deaths among those 
formerly connected with the Indian missions, may have escaped notice. 

WESTERN AFRICA. 

CAPE P ALMAS, AFTERWARD GABOON, MISSION. 

r. J. Leighton "Wilson, r. Mrs. Jane E. Wilson. 

* David White, * Mrs. Helen M. White. 

* Alexander E. Wilson, M. D., from * Mrs. Mary H. Wilson, afterward Mrs. 

the Zulu Mission, Griswold. 

William Walker, * Mrs. Prudence K. Walker. 

* Mrs. Zerviah L. Walker. 
Mrs. Catharine H. Walker. 

* Benjamin Griswold, * Mrs. Mary H. Griswold. 

* John M. Campbell. 

Albert Bushnell, * Mrs. Lydia A. Bushnell. 

Mrs. Lucina J. Bushnell. 

Ira M. Preston, . . , Mrs. Jane S. Preston. 

r. William T. Wheeler. 

Jacob Best, Mrs. Gertrude Best. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 415 

* Rollin Porter, * Mrs. Nancy A. Porter. 

Epaminondas J. Pierce, * Mrs. Susan Pierce. 

* Hubert P. Herrick, . . . _. r. Mrs. Julia Herrick. 

* Henry M. Adams. 

r. Andrew D. Jack, r. Mrs. Mercy E. Jack. 

r. Morris L. St. John, M. D., r. Mrs. Sarah A. St. John. 

r Walter H. Clark. 

Missionary Physician. 

* Henry A. Ford, M. D., r. Mrs. Olivia Ford. 

Assistant Missionaries. 
r. Benjamin V. James, now at Liberia. r. Mrs. Margaret E. James. 

r. Miss Olivia Smith, afterward Mrs, 

Ford. 
Miss Jane A. Van Allen. 



SOUTH AFRICA. 

ZULU MISSION. 

* George Champion, * Mrs. Susan Champion. 

Aldin Grout, * Mrs. Hannah Grout. 

Mrs. Charlotte Grout. 

Daniel Lindley, Mrs. Lucy Lindley. 

r. Henry I. Venable, r. Mrs. Martha A. Venable. 

* Alexander E.Wilson, see West Africa, * Mrs. Mary J. Wilson. 

* Newton Adams, M. D., r. Mrs. Sarah C. Adams. 

* James C. Bryant, r. Mrs. Dolly F. Bryant. 

Lewis Grout, Mrs. Lydia Grout. 

Silas McKinney, , Mrs. Fanny M. McKinney. 

* Samuel D. Marsh, r Mrs. Mary S. Marsh. 

David Rood, Mrs. Alzina V. Rood. 

William Ireland, . . Mrs. Jane Ireland. 

Andrew Abraham, Mrs. Sarah L. Abraham. 

Hyman A. Wilder, Mrs. Abby T. Wilder. 

Josiah Tyler, Mrs. Susan W. Tyler. 

r. Jacob L. Dohno, r. Mrs. Caroline Dohne. 

Seth B. Stone, Mrs. Catharine M. Stone. 

William Mellen, Mrs. Laurana W. Mellen. 

Stephen C. Pixley, Mrs. Louisa Pixley. 

Elijah Robbing, Mrs. Adaline Robbins. 

Henry M. Bridgman, Mrs. Laura B. Bridgman. 

Assistant Missionaries. 
r. J. Q. A. Butler, r. Mrs. Anna S. Butler. 



EUROPE. 

MISSION TO GREECE. 

Jonas King, D. D., Mrs. Anna A. King. 

Elias Riggs, see N. Arm. Miss Mrs. Martha J. Riggs. 

r. Samuel R. Houston, r. Mrs. Mary R. Houston. 

* Nathan Benjamin, see N. Arm. Miss., r. Mrs. Mary G. Benjamin. 

r. George W. Leyburn, r. Mrs. Elizabeth W. Leyburn. 



416 APPENDIX. 

WESTERN ASIA. 

MISSION TO CYPRUS. 

* Lorenzo W. Pease, r. Mrs Lucinda Pease. 

r. James L. Thompson. 

Daniel Ladd, see N. Arm. Miss., . . . Mrs. Charlotte H. Ladd. 

MISSION TO THE JEWS. 

* Eliphal Maynard, r. Mrs. Celestia A. Maynard. 

Wm. G. Schauffler, see N. Arm. Miss., Mrs. Mary R. Schauffler. 
Edward M. Dodd, see N. Arm. Miss., Mrs. Lydia H. Dodd. 
Justin W. Parsons, see N. Arm. Miss., Mrs. Catharine Parsons. 

Homer B. Morgan, see S. Arm. Miss., * Mrs. Harriett G. Morgan. 

NORTHERN ARMENIAN MISSION.f 

* Daniel Temple, * Mrs. Rachel B. Temple. 

r.* Mrs. Martha Temple. 

William Goodell, D. D., Mrs. Abigail P. Goodell. 

r. Josiah Brewer. 

* Elnathan Gridley. 

Harrison G. O. Dwight, D. D., * Mrs. Elizabeth Dwight. 

* Mrs. Mary Dwight. 

William G. Schauffler, D. D Mrs. Mary R. Schauffler. 

Elias Riggs, D. D., Mrs. Martha J. Riggs. 

r. Thomas P. Johnston, r. Mrs. Marianne C. Johnston. 

r. John B. Adger, r. Mrs. Elizabeth K. Adger. 

r. Henry A. Homes, r. Mrs. Anna W. Homes. 

* Nathan Benjamin, r. Mrs Mary G. Benjamin. 

Daniel Ladd, Mrs. Charlotte H. Ladd. 

r. William C. Jackson, r. Mrs. Mary A. Jackson. 

r. Cyrus Hamlin, D. D., at Constantino 
ple, * Mrs. Henrietta A. L. Hamlin. 

* Mrs. Harriet M. Hamlin. 
r. Mrs. Mary E. Hamlin. 

Henry J. Van Lennep, * Mrs. Emma L. Van Lennep. 

* Mrs. Mary Van Lennep. 
Mrs. Emily A. Van Lennep. 

Geo. W. Wood, D.D., now Cor. Sec., * Mrs. Martha B. Wood. 

Edwin E. Bliss, Mrs. Isabella H. Bliss. 

* Joel S. Everett, * Mrs. Seraphina Everett. 

Josiah Peabody, Mrs. Mary L. Peabody. 

r. Isaac G. Bliss, at Constantinople, . . r. Mrs. Eunice B. Bliss. 

Edward M. Dodd, Mrs. Lydia H. Dodd. 

Justin W. Parsons, Mrs. Catharine Parsons. 

Oliver Crane, Mrs. Marion D. Crane. 

r. George W. Dunmore, r. Mrs. Susan Dunmore. 

* Joseph W. Sutphen, Mrs. Susan H.Sutphen, now Mrs. Mor 

gan. 

Wilson A. Farnsworth, Mrs. Caroline E. Farnsworth. 

r. William Clark, r. Mrs. Elizabeth W. Clark. 

Jasper N. Ball, Mrs. Caroline W. Ball. 

t The former division of the missions is retained, as more convenient in this catalogue of the missionaries. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 417 

Sanford Richardson, Mrs. Rhoda A. Richardson. 

r. Edwin Goodell, r. Mrs. Catharine J. Goodell. 

r. Benjamin Parsons, . . . ~ r. Mrs. Sarah W. Parsons. 

r. Alexander R. Plumer, r . Mrs. Elizabeth B. Plumer. 

Ira F. Pettibone. 

Orson P. Allen, Mrs. Caroline R. Allen. 

George A. Pollard, Mrs. Mary H. Pollard. 

Tillman C. Trowbridge, Mrs. Margaret Trowbridge. 

Crosby H. Wheeler, Mrs. Susan A. Wheeler. 

Charles F. Morse, Mrs. Eliza D. Morse. 

Oliver W. Winchester, Mrs. Janette S. Winchester. 

Julius Y. Leonard, ..... Mrs. Amelia Leonard. 

Theodore L. Byington, Mrs. Esther Byington. 

r. William Hutchison, r. Mrs. Foresta G. Hutchison. 

William W. Meriam, Mrs. Susan Meriam. 

Joseph K. Greene, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Greene. 

James F. Clarke, Mrs. Isabella G. Clarke. 

Herman N. Barnum, Mrs. Mary Barnum. 

George F. Herrick. 

William F. Arms, * Mrs. Emily Arms. 

William W. Livingston Mrs. Martha E. Livingston. 

Missionary Physicians. 

r. Fayette Jewett, M. D., r. Mrs. Mary Ann Jewett. 

Henry S. West, M. D., Mrs. Lottie M. West. 

Treasurer of the Mission. 
George Washburn, Mrs. Henrietta Washburn. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Homan Hallock, r. Mrs. Elizabeth Hallock. 

* Miss Harriet M. Lovcll, afterward Mrs. 

Hamlin. 

Miss Maria A. West. 
r. Miss Melvina Haynes. 
r. Miss Mary E. Tenney, now Mrs. Ham 
lin. 
Miss Sarah E. West. 



SOUTHERN ARMENIAN MISSION. 

Benjamin Schneider, D. D., * Mrs. Eliza C. Schneider. 

Mrs. Susan M. Schneider. 

Philander O. Powers, * Mrs. Harriet Powers. 

Mrs. Sarah L. Powers. 

* Azariah Smith, M. D., r. Mrs. Corinth J. Smith. 

Homer B. Morgan, Mrs. Susan H. Morgan. 

Andrew T. Pratt, M. D., Mrs. Sarah F. Pratt. 

George B. Nutting, * Mrs. Sarah E. Nutting. 

Mrs. Susan A. Nutting. 

r. Alfred G. Beebe, * Mrs. Sarah J. Beebe. 

r. George A. Perkins, at Constantinople, r. Mrs. Sarah E. Perkins. 

Jackson G. Coffing, Mrs. Josephine Coifing. 

George H. White, Mrs. Joanna White. 

Alvin B. Goodale, M. D., Mrs. Mary E. Goodale. 

Zenas Goss. 

Assistant Missionary. 

Miss Myra A. Proctor. 



418 APPENDIX. 

SYRIA MISSION. 

* Pliny Fisk. 

* Levi Parsons. 

Jonas King, see Mission to Greece. 

r. Isaac Bird, v. Mrs. Ann Bird. 

William Goodell, see N. Arm. Miss., . Mrs. Abigail P. Goodell. 

* Eli Smith, D. D., * Mrs. Sarah L. Smith. 

* Mrs. Maria W. Smith. 

T. Mrs. Hetty S. B. Smith. 

* George B. Whiting, r. Mrs. Matilda S. Whiting. 

William M. Thomson, D. D., * Mrs. Eliza N. Thomson. 

Mrs. Thomson. 

* Story Hebard,- * Mrs. Rebecca W. Hebard. 

r. John F. Lanneau, r. Mrs. Julia H. Lanneau. 

r. Elias R. Beadle, r.* Mrs. Hannah Beadle. 

r. Charles S. Sherman, r. Mrs. Martha E. Sherman, 

V. Samuel Wolcott, * Mrs. Catherine E. Wolcott. 

r* Nathaniel A. Keyes, r. Mrs. Mary Keyes. 

r. Leander Thompson, r. Mrs. Anne E. Thompson. 

Cornelius V. A. Van Dyck, M. D., . . . Mrs. Julia Van Dyck. 

Simeon H. Calhoun, Mrs. Emily P. Calhoun. 

r. William A. Benton, r. Mrs. Loanza Benton. 

J. Edwards Ford, Mrs. Mary Ford. 

r. David M. Wilson, r. Mrs. Emeline Wilson. 

r. Horace Foote, * Mrs. Roxana Foote. 

William W. Eddy, Mrs. Hannah M. Eddy. 

William Bird, Mrs. Sarah F. Bird. 

J. Lorenzo Lyons, Mrs. Catherine N. Lyons. 

r. Edward Aiken, * Mrs. Susan D. Aiken. 

r. Mrs. Sarah Aiken. 

Daniel Bliss, Mrs. Abby M. Bliss. 

Henry H. Jessup, Mrs. Caroline Jessup. 

Missionary Physicians. 

* Asa Dodge, M. D., r. Mrs. Martha W. Dodge. 

* Henry A. DeForest, M. D., r. Mrs. Catharine T. DeForest. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

George C. Hurter, Mrs. Elizabeth Hurter. 

* Miss Rebecca W. Williams, afterward 

Mrs. Hebard. 
r. Miss Betsey Tilden. 

* Miss Anna L. Whittlesey. 

r. Miss Sarah Cheney, now Mrs. Aiken. 
r. Miss Jane E. Johnson. 

Miss Amelia C. Temple. 

Miss Adelaide L. Mason. 

ASSYRIAN MISSION. 

William F. Williams, * Mrs. Sarah Williams. 

* Mrs. Harriet B. Williama 
Dwight W. Marsh, * Mrs. Julia W. Marsh. 

* Henry Lobdell, M. D., r. Mrs. Lucy C. Lobdell. 

Augustus Walker, Mrs. Eliza M. Walker. 

George C. Knapp, Mrs. Alzina M. Knapp. 

Lysander T. Burbank, Mrs. Sarah S. Burbank. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 419 

Missionary Physicians. 

David H. Nutting 1 , M. D., Mrs. Mary E. Nutting. 

Henri B. Haskell, . . _. Mrs. Sarah J. Haskell. 

NESTORIAN MISSION. 

Justin Perkins, D. D., Mrs. Charlotte Perkins. 

r* Albert L. Holladay, r. Mrs. Anne Y. Holladay. 

* William R. Stocking-, r. Mrs. Jerusha E. Stocking-. 

r. "Willard Jones, r. Mrs. Miriam Jones. 

Austin H. Wright, M. D., Mrs. Catherine A. Wright. 

* Abel K. Hinsdale, r* Mrs. Sarah C. Hinsdale. 

* Colby C. Mitchell, * Mrs. Eliza A. Mitchell. 

r. Thomas Laurie, * Mrs. Martha F. Laurie. 

* David T. Stoddard, * Mrs. Harriet Stoddard. 

r. Mrs. Sophia D. Stoddard. 

Joseph G. Cochran, Mrs. Deborah W. Cochran. 

George W. Coan, Mrs. Sarah Coan. 

Samuel A. Rhea, * Mrs. Martha A. Rhea. 

Mrs. Sarah J. Rhea. 

* Edwin H. Crane, r. Mrs. Ann E. Crane. 

Thomas L. Ambrose. 

John H. Shedd, Mrs. Sarah J. Shedd. 

* Amherst L. Thompson, Mrs. Esther E. Thompson. 

Benjamin Labaree, Jr., Mrs. Elizabeth E. Labaree. 

Henry N. Cobb, Mrs. Matilda E. Cobb. 

Missionary Physicians. 

* Asahel Grant, M. D., * Mrs. Judith S. Grant. 

Frank N. H. Young-, M. D. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

Edward Breath, Mrs. Sarah Ann Breath. 

Miss Fidelia Fisk. 

* Miss Mary S. Rice. 

Miss Catherine A. Myers, now Mrs. 

Wright. 
* Miss Martha A. Harris, afterward Mrs. 

Rhea. 

Miss Aura J. Beach. 
Miss Harriet N. Crawford. 

MISSION TO PERSIA. 
r. James L. Merrick, r. Mrs. Emma Merrick. 

SOUTHERN ASIA. 

r.* Adoniram Judson, D. D., r.* Mrs. Ann H. Judson. 

r.* Luther Rice. 

MAHRATTA MISSION. 

* Gordon Hall, r. Mrs. Margaret Hall. 

* Samuel Newell, * Mrs. Harriet Newell. 

r. Mrs. Philomela Newell, afterward Mrs. 

Garrett. 
r. Samuel Nott, r. Mrs. Nott. 

55 



420 APPENDIX. 

r. Horatio Bard well, r. Mrs. Rachel Bard well. 

* John Nichols, r.* Mrs. Elizabeth Nichols, afterward Mrs. 

Woodward, Ceylon. 

* Allen Graves, Mrs. Mary Graves. 

* Edmund Frost, * Mrs. Clarissa Frost, afterward Mrs. 

Woodward, Ceylon, and Mrs. Todd, 
Madura. 
r. David O. Allen, D. D., * Mrs. Myra Allen. 

* Mrs. Orpah Allen. 

* Mrs. Azuba C. Allen, formerly Miss 

Condit, Borneo Mission. 

r. Cyrus Stone, * Mrs. Atossa Stone. 

r. Mrs. Abigail H. Stone. 

* William Hervey, * Mrs. Elizabeth H. Hervey. 

r.* William Ramsey, * Mrs. Mary Ramsey. 

r. Hollis Read, r. Mrs. Caroline Read. 

r. George W. Boggs, r. Mrs. Isabella W. Boggs, 

Sendol B. Munger, * Mrs. Maria L. Munger. 

* Mrs. Mary E. Munger. 

Amos Abbott, Mrs. Anstice Abbott. 

Henry Ballantine, Mrs. Elizabeth Ballantine. 

r. Ebenezer Burgess, * Mrs. Mary Burgess. 

* Mrs. Abigail Burgess. 
r. Ozro French, r. Mrs. Jane French. 

* Robert W. Hume, r. Mrs. Hannah D. Hume. 

r. Royal G. Wilder, r. Mrs. Eliza J. Wilder. 

Samuel B. Fairbank, * Mrs. Abbie Fairbank. 

Mrs. Mary Fairbank. 
William Wood, * Mrs. Lucy M. Wood. 

* Mrs. Eliza M. Wood. 
r. George Bowen. 

Allen Hazen, Mrs. Martha R. Hazen. 

Lemuel Bissell, Mrs. Mary E. Bissell. 

William P. Barker, Mrs. Lucelia U. Barker. 

Samuel C. Dean, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Dean. 

Charles Harding, Mrs. Julia M. Harding. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

* James Garrett, r.* Mrs. Philomela Garrett, formerly Mrs. 

Newell. 

* William C. Sampson, r. Mrs. Mary L. Sampson. 

r. George W. Hubbard, r. Mrs. Emma Hubbard. 

r. Elyah A. Webster, r. Mrs. Marietta Webster. 

Miss Cynthia Farrar. 

CEYLON MISSION. 

* James Richards, r.* Mrs. Sarah Richards, afterward Mrs. 

Knight, Church Mission. 

* Edward Warren. 

Benjamin C. Meigs, Mrs. Sarah M. Meigs. 

* Daniel Poor, D. D., * Mrs. Susan Poor. 

r.* Mrs. Ann Poor. 

Levi Spaulding, Mrs. Mary Spaulding. 

Myron Winslow, see Madras, .... * Mrs. Harriett W. Winslow. 

* Henry Woodward, * Mrs. Lydia Woodward. 

* Mrs. Clarissa Woodward. 

* George H. Aptliorp, * Mrs. Mary Apthorp. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 421 

r.* Henry R. Hoisington, r. Mrs. Nancy Hoisington. 

r. Samuel Hutchings, r. Mrs. Elizabeth C. Hutchings. 

r. James R. Eckard, . . ~. r. Mrs. Margaret E. Eckard. 

* Nathan Ward, M.D., Mrs. Hannah W. Ward. 

* John M. S. Perry, * Mrs. Harriet J. Perry. 

* Samuel G. Whittlesey, . . . . r. Mrs. Anna C. Whittlesey. 

John C. Smith, * Mrs. Eunice P. Smith. 

Mrs. Mary Smith, formerly Mrs. 
Steele, Madura. 

* Robert Wyman, r. Mrs. Martha Wyman. 

r. Adin H. Fletcher, r. Mrs. Elizabeth W. Fletcher. 

Wm. W. Rowland, Mrs. Susan Rowland. 

r. William W. Scudder, * Mrs. Catherine E. Scudder. 

Eurotas P. Hastings, Mrs. Anna Hastings. 

r. Cyrus T. Mills, see Sandwich Islands, r. Mrs. Susan L. Mills. 

Marshall D. Sanders, Mrs. Georgiana Sanders. 

Nathan L. Lord, M. D., Mrs. Laura W. Lord. 

r. Milan Hitchcock, r. Mrs. Lucy A. Hitchcock. 

James Quick, Mrs. Maria E. Quick. 

James A. Bates, Mrs. Sarah A. Bates. 

Missionary Physician. 
Samuel F. Green, M. D. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Eastman S. Minor, * Mrs. Lucy Minor. 

r. Mrs. Judith M. Minor. 

Miss Eliza Agnew. 
r. Miss Sarah F. Brown. 

MADURA MISSION. 

r. William Todd, . * Mrs. Lucy Todd. 

* Mrs. Clarissa Todd. 
r.* Alanson C. Hall, * Mrs. Frances A. Hall. 

* John J. Lawrence, r. Mrs. Mary Lawrence. 

* Robert O. Dwight, * Mrs. Mary D wight, afterward Mrs. 

Winslow. 
r. Henry Cherry, * Mrs. Charlotte H. Cherry. 

* Mrs. Jane E. Cherry. 
r. Mrs. Henrietta Cherry. 

r. Edward Cope, r. Mrs. Emily Cope. 

r.* Nathaniel M. Crane, r. Mrs. Julia A. J. Crane. 

Clarendon F. Muzzy, * Mrs. Samantha B. Muzzy. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Muzzy. 

William Tracy, Mrs. Emily F. Tracy. 

r. Ferdinand DeW. Ward, r. Mrs. Jane Ward. 

Horace S. Taylor, Mrs Martha E. Taylor. 

James Herrick, . .* Mrs. Elizabeth H. Herrick. 

Edward Webb, Mrs. Nancy A. Webb. 

John Kendall, Mrs. Jane Kendall. 

r. Gco. W. McMillan, r. Mrs. Rebecca N. McMillan. 

John E. Chandler, Mrs. Charlotte M. Chandler. 

r. George Ford, r. Mrs. Ann J. Ford. 

r. Charles Little, * Mrs. Amelia Little.* 

r. Mrs. Susan Little. 

Joseph T. Noyes, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Noyes. 

Thomas S. Burnell, Mrs. Martha Burnell. , 

William B. Capron, Mrs. Sarah B. Capron. 



422 APPENDIX. 



Charles T. White, Mrs. Anna M. White. 

Edward Chester, Mrs. Sophia Chester. 

George T. Washburn, Mrs. Eliza E. Washburn. 

David C. Scudder, Mrs. Harriet L. Scudder. 

Missionary Physicians. 

* John Steele, M. D., Mrs. Mary Steele. 

r. Charles S. Shelton, M. D., r. Mrs. Henrietta M. Shelton. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Alfred North, from Singapore * Mrs. Minerva North. 

Miss Sarah W. Ashley. 

MADRAS MISSION. 



Myron Winslow, D. D., see Ceylon, 



* John Scudder, M. D., . . 
r. Henry M. Scudder, M. D., 

r. John W. Dulles, 

r. Isaac N. Hurd, 



Mrs. Catherine Winslow. 
Mrs. Ann Winslow. 
Mrs. Mary Winslow. 
Mrs. Ellen A. Winslow. 
Mrs. Harriet Scudder. 
. Mrs. Fanny Scudder. 
Mrs. Harriet L. Dulles. 
Mrs. Mary C. Hurd. 



Assistant Missionaries. 
Phinehas R. Hunt, Mrs. Abigail Hunt. 

ABCOT MISSION. 

r. Henry M. Scudder, M. D., from Madras, r. Mrs. Fanny Scudder. 

r. William W. Scudder, from Ceylon, . . * Mrs. Elizabeth O. Scudder. 

r. Joseph Scudder, . r. Mrs. Sarah A. Scudder. 

r. Ezekiel C. Scudder, r. Mrs. Sarah R. Scudder. 

r. Jared W. Scudder, r. Mrs. Julia C. Scudder. 

4fe 

Assistant Missionary. 

r. Miss Louisa Scudder. 

EASTERN ASIA. 

CANTON MISSION. 

Elijah C. Bridgman, D. D., see Shanghai, Mrs. Eliza J. Bridgman. 

* David Abeel s D. D., see Amoy. 

* Edwin Stevens. 

r. Peter Parker, M. D., r. Mrs. Parker. 

Dyer Ball, M. D., from Singapore, . . * Mrs. Lucy H. Ball. 

Mrs. Isabella Ball. 

* James G. Bridgman. 

Samuel W. Bonney, Mrs. Catherine Bonney. 

i * William A. Macy, see Shanghai. 

Daniel Vrooman, * Mrs. Elizabeth C. Vrooman. 

Mrs. Maria W. Vrooman. 

* Frederick H. Brewster, r. Mrs. Mary G. Brewster. 

Missionary Physician. 
r. William B. Diver, M. D. 

Assistant Missionaries. 
r.S. Wells Williams, LL.D r. Mrs. Williams, 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 



42b 



AMOY MISSION. 

* David Abeel, D. D. 

r. Elihu Doty, from Borneo, * Mrs. Clarissa D. Doty. 

r. Mrs. Eleanor A. Doty. 

* William J.Pohlman, from Borneo, . . * Mrs. Theodosia R. Pohlman. 
r. John Van Nest Talmage, r. Mrs. Abby P. Talmage. 

r. John S. Joralman, r. Mrs. Martha C. Joralman. 

FUHCHAU MISSION. 

r. Stephen Johnson, from Siam, . . . . r. Mrs. Caroline M. Johnson. 

LymanB. Feet, from Siam, * Mrs. Rebecca C. Peet. 

Mrs. H. L. Peet. 

* Seneca Cummings, r. Mrs. Abigail M. Cummings. 

Caleb C. Baldwin, Mrs. Harriet Baldwin. 

* William L. Richards. 

Justus Doolittle, * Mrs. Sophia A. Doolittle. 

Mrs. Lucy E. Doolittle. 

Charfes Hartwell, Mrs. Lucy E. Hartwell. 

Simeon F. Woodin, Mrs. Sarah L. Woodin. 

SHANGHAI MISSION. 

Elijah C. Bridgman, D. D., from Canton, Mrs. Eliza J. Bridgman. 
Henry Blodget, Mrs. Sarah F. Blodget. 

* William Aitchison. 

* William A. Macy, from Canton. 

MISSION TO SIAM. 

* David Abeel, D. D., see Amoy. 

* Charles Robinson, Mrs. Maria Robinson. 

r. Stephen Johnson, see Fuhchau, . . . Mrs. Maria Johnson. 

Mrs. Mary Johnson. 

r. Dan B. Bradley, M. D., Mrs. Emilie Bradley. 

r. Samuel P. Robbins, Mrs. Martha R. Robbins. 

* Nathan S. Benham, Mrs. Maria N. Benham. 

r.* Jesse Caswell, Mrs. Anna T. Caswell. 

* Henry S. G. French Mrs. Sarah C. French. 

r. Asa Hemenway, Mrs. Lucia Hemenway. 

L.B. Peet, see Fuhchau, Mrs. Rebecca C. Peet. 

Missionary Physician. 

r. Stephen Tracy, M. D., r. Mrs. Alice Tracy. 

Assistant ARssionary. 

* Miss Mary E. Pierce. 

SINGAPORE MISSION. 

r. Ira Tracy, r.* Mrs. Adeline Tracy. 

r. James T. Dickinson. 
r.* Matthew B. Hope, M. D. 

r. Joseph S. Travelli, r* Mrs. Susan Travelli. 

Dyer Ball, M.D., see Canton, .... * Mrs. Lucy H. Ball. 
George W. Wood, see N. Armenian 

lJ iBBpj * Mrs. Martha M. Wood. 

Assistant Missionaries. 
r. Alfred North, -see Madura, * Mrs. Minerva North. 



424 APPENDIX. 

MISSION TO THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 

* Samuel Munson, r. Mrs. Abigail Munson. 

* Henry Lyman, r. Mrs. Eliza Lyman. 

r. William Arms, * Mrs. Mary Arms. 

MISSION TO BORNEO. 

r. Elihu Doty, see Amoy, * Mrs. Clarissa D. Doty. 

r. Jacob Ennis, r. Mrs. Henrietta B. Ennis. 

r. Elbert Kevins, r. Mrs. Maria L. Nevins. 

r.* William Youngblood, r. Mrs. Josephine Youngblood. 

* Frederick B. Thomson, * Mrs. Catharine Thomson. 

* Mrs. Emma Thomson. 

* William J. Pohlman, see Amoy, ... * Mrs. Theodosia R. Pohlman. 
r. William T. Van Doren, r. Mrs. Jane A. Van Doren. 

* Isaac P. Stryker. 
r. William H. Steele. 

Assistant Missionary. 

* Miss AzubaC. Condit, afterward Mrs 

Allen, Bombay. 

NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 

SANDWICH ISLANDS MISSION. 

r. Hiram Bingham, * Mrs. Sybil Bingham. 

r. Asa Thurston, at the Islands, .... r. Mrs. Lucy Thurston. 

* Samuel Whitney, r. Mrs. Mercy Whitney. 

r. Artemas Bishop, at the Islands, ... * Mrs. Elizabeth Bishop. 

r. Mrs. Delia Bishop, 
r.* William Richards, died at the Islands, r. Mrs. Clarissa Richards. 

r. Charles S. Stewart, r* Mrs. Harriet B. Stewart. 

r, James Ely, r. Mrs. Louisa Ely. 

r. Joseph Goodrich, r.* Mrs. Goodrich. 

r. Lorrin Andrews, r. Mrs. Andrews. 

r. Ephraim W. Clark, at the Islands, . . * Mrs. Mary Clark. 

Mrs. Sarah H. Clark. 

r. Jonathan S. Green, at the Islands, . . r.* Mrs. Theodosia Green. 
r. Peter J. Guliek, at the Islands, . . . Mrs. Fanny H. Gulick. 
r. Dwight Baldwin, M. D., at the Islands, Mrs. Charlotte Baldwin. 

* Sheldon Dibble, * Mrs. Maria M. Dibble. 

r. Mrs. Antoinette Dibble. 

r* Reuben Tinker, r. Mrs. Mary T. Tinker. 

?. William P. Alexander, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Mary Ann Alexander. 
r* Richard Armstrong, D. D., died at the 

Islands, r. Mrs. Clarissa Armstrong, atthe Islands. 

r. John S. Emerson, at the Islands, . . . r. Mrs. Ursula S. Emerson, 

r. Cochran Forbes, . r. Mrs. Rebecca D. Forbes. 

* Harvey R. Hitchcock, r. Mrs. Rebecca Hitchcock, at the Islands, 

r. David B. Lyman, at the Islands, . . . r. Mrs. Sarah Lyman. 

r. Lorenzo Lyons, at the Islands, . ... * Mrs. Betsey Lyons. 

r. Mrs. Lucia G. Lyons. 

* Ephraim Spaulding, r. Mrs. Julia Spaulding. 

r. Benjamin W. Parker, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Mary E. Parker, 
r. Lowell 1 Smith, at the Islands, .... r. Mrs. Abba W. Smith. 
r. Titus Coan, at the Islands, . ..... r. Mrs. Fidelia Coan. 

r. Isaac Bliss, r. Mrs. Emily Bliss. 

r. Daniel T. Conde, * Mrs. Andelusia Conde. 

r. Mark IveSj T. Mrs. Mary A. Ives. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 425 

r. Thomas Lafon, M.D., r.* Mrs. Sophia L. Lafon. 

r. Edward Johnson, at the Islands, . . . r. Mrs. Lois S. Johnson, 
r. Daniel Dole, at the Islands, * Mrs. Emily H. Dole. 

r. Mrs. Charlotte Dole, formerly Mrs. 
Knapp. 

r. Elias Bond, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Ellen M. Bond. 

r. James W. Smith, M. D., at the Islands, r, Mrs. Mellicent K. Smith. 
r. John D. Paris, at the Islands, .... * Mrs. Mary Paris. 

r. Mrs. Mary Paris. 
r. George B. Rowell, at the Islands, . . r. Mrs. Malvina J. Kowell. 

r. Asa B. Smith r. Mrs. Sarah G. Smith. 

r. Eliphalet Whittlesey, . . r. Mrs. Elizabeth K. Whittlesey. 

r. T. Dwight Hunt, r. Mrs. Mary Hunt. 

r. John F. Pogue, at the Islands, ....?*. Mrs. Maria K. Pogue. 
r. Claudius B. Andrews, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Anna S. Andrews,, 
r. Samuel G. Dwight. 

* Henry Kinney, r.* Mrs. Maria L. Kinney. 

r. William C. Shipman, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Jane Shipman. 

r. William O. Baldwin, r. Mrs. Mary Baldwin. 

r. Anderson O. Forbes, at the Islands, r. Mrs. Forbes. 

r. Cyrus T. Mills, from Ceylon; at the 

Islands, ,. r. Mrs. Susan L. Mills. 

Missionary Physicians. 

r.* Thomas Holman, M. D., r- Mrs. Lucia Holman. 

r. Abraham Blatchley, M. D., r. Mrs. Jemima Blatchley. 

r. Gerritt P. Judd, M. D., at the Islands, r. Mrs. Laura Judd. 

r. Alonzo Chapin, M. D., r. Mrs. Mary Ann Chapin. 

r. Seth L. Andrews, M. D., * Mrs. Parnelly Andrews. 

r. Charles H. Wetmore, M. D., at the 

Islands, r. Mrs. Lucy S. Wetmore. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r.* Daniel Chamberlain, r. Mrs. Chamberlain. 

r. Samuel Ruggles, r. Mrs. Nancy Ruggles. 

r.* Elisha Loomis, r. Mrs. Maria T. Loomis. 

* Levi Chamberlain, r. Mrs. Maria Chamberlain, at the Islands. 

* Stephen Shcpard, r. Mrs. Margaret C. Shepard. 

r.* Andrew Johnstone, died at the Islands, r. Mrs. Johnstone. 

* Edmund H. Rogers, * Mrs. Mary Rogers. 

* Mrs. Elizabeth M. Rogers. 
r. Lemuel Fuller. 

r. Henry Dimond, at the Islands, . . . . r. Mrs. Ann Maria Dimond. 
r. Edwin O. Hall, at the Islands, . . . . r. Mrs. Sarah L. Hall. 
r. Edward Bailey, at the Islands, . . . . r. Mrs. Caroline Bailey. 
r. Samuel N. Castle, at the Islands, ... * Mrs. Angeline L. Castle. 

r. Mrs. Mary Castle. 
r. Amos S. Cooke, at the Islands, . . . . r. Mrs. Juliette Cooke. 

* Horton O. Knapp, r. Mrs. Charlotte Knapp, now Mrs. Dole 

* Edwin Locke, at the Islands, * Mrs. Martha L. Locke. 

* Charles McDonald, died at the Islands, r. Mrs. Harriet T. McDonald. 
r. Bethuel Munn, * Mrs. Louisa Munn. 

r. William S. Van Duzee, r. Mrs. Oral Van Duzee. 

r. Abner Wilcox, at the Islands r. Mrs. Lucy E. Wilcox. 

r. Miss Maria Ogden, at the Islands. 

r. Miss Lydia Brown, at the Islands. 

r. Miss Marcia M. Smith. 

r. William H. Rice, at the Islands, . . . r. Mrs. Mary S. Rice, 
r. William A. Spooner, at the Islands, . . r. Mrs. Eliza A. Spooner. 



426 



APPENDIX. 



MICRONESIA MISSION. 

Benjamin G. Snow, Mrs. Lydia V. Snow. 

Luther H. Gulick, M. D., Mrs. Louisa Gulick. 

Albert A. Sturges, Mrs. Susan M. Sturges. 

Edward T. Doane, Mrs. Sarah W. Doane. 

George Pierson, M. D., Mrs. Nancy A. Pierson. 

Hiram Binghain, Jr., Mrs. Minerva C. Binghain. 

Ephraim P. Roberts, Mrs. Myra H. Roberts. 

SOUTH AMERICA. 

EXPLORING MISSIONS. 
r. John C. Brigham. 

r. Theophilus Parvin. 

r. William Arms, ~ see Indian Archipelago. ) 

r. Titas Coan, see Sandwich Islands. $ Patagonia. 

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

CHEROKEE MISSION. 
r. Cyrus Kingsbury, D. D.,-see Choctaws, * Mrs. Sarah B. Kingsbury. 

Loring S. Williams, see Choctaws, . . r. Mrs. Matilda Williams. 

Daniel S. Buttrick, * Mrs. Elizabeth Buttrick. 

Ard Hoyt, r . Mrs. Esther Hoyt. 

William Chamberlain, r . Mrs. Flora Chamberlain. 

Alfred Finney, * . * Mrs. Susanna Finney. 

Cephas Washburn, r. Mrs. Abigail Washburn. 

Elizur Butler, * Mrs. Esther Butler. 

r. Mrs. Lucy Butler. 
r. William Potter, r. Mrs. Laura Potter. 

* Samuel A. Worcester, D. D., * Mrs. Ann Worcester. 

Mrs. Erminia Worcester. 

r. Marcus Palmer, M. D., * Mrs. Clarissa Palmer. 

r. Mrs. Jerusha Palmer. 
T. John Thompson, r. Mrs. Ruth B. Thompson. 

* Jesse Lockwood, r. Mrs. Cassandra Lockwood. 

Worcester Willey, * Mrs. Mary Ann Willey. 

Mrs. Annie S. Willey. 

Timothy E. Ranney, Mrs. Charlotte Ranney. 

r. Edwin Teele, r. Mrs. Sarah E. Teele. 

r. Horace A. Wentz. 

Charles C. Torrey, Mrs. Adelaide L. Torrey. 

Missionary Physicians. 

r.* Roderick L. Dodge, M. D., r. Mrs. Emeline Dodge. 

r. George L. Weed, M. D., see Creeks. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Moody Hall, r . Mrs. Isabella Hall. 

r. Abijah Conger, r . Mrs. Conger. 

r. John Vail, r . Mrs. Julia Vail. 

r. John Talmage, r . Mrs. Talmage. 

r. James Orr, * Mrs. Minerva Orr. 

r. Mrs. Julia F. Orr. 
r. Jacob Hitchcock, r. Mrs. Nancy Hitchcock. 

* Daniel Hitchcock. 

r* John C. Ellsworth, r. Mrs. Eliza Ellsworth. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 



427 



John F. Wheeler, 

Henry K. Copeland, Bee Choctaws, 



Henry Parker, r, Mrs. Philena Parker. 

Erastus Dean, * Mrs. Sarah Dean. 

Sylvester Ellis, . . . . v r. Mrs. Sarah Ellis. 

Ainsworth E. Blunt, . , r. Mrs. Harriet Blunt. 

Isaac Proctor, r. Mrs. Fanny Proctor. 

Frederic Ellsworth, r. Mrs. Ellsworth. 

William Holland, r. Mrs. Electa Holland. 

Josiah Hemmingway. 

Asa Hitchcock, * Mrs. Sophronia Hitchcock. 

r. Mrs. Lucy Hitchcock. 

Samuel Wisner, * Mrs. Judith Wisner. 

Samuel Newton, * Mrs. Mary H. Newton. 

r. Mrs. Newton, formerly Mrs. Joslyn. 
William H. Manwaring. 

Fenner Bosworth, r. Mrs. Bosworth. 

Luke Fernal, * Mrs. Joanna Fernal. 

Kellogg- Day, r. Mrs. Mary L. Day. 

Aaron Gray. 

r. Mrs. Wheeler. 

r. Mrs. Abigail W. Copeland. 

* Miss Ellen Stetson. 
r. Miss Sophia Sawyer. 

* *Miss Cynthia Thrall. 
r. Miss Lucy Hutchinson. 
r. Miss Delight Sargent. 
r. Miss Nancy Thompson. 
r. Miss Hannah Kelly. 

r. Miss Catharine Fuller. 
r. Miss Ffcma Post. 
r. Miss Esther Smith. 
r. Miss Sarah A. Palmer. 
r. Miss Theresa M. Bissell. 
r.* Miss Mary A. Avery. 
r. Miss Hannah Moore. 
r. Miss Eliza Giddings. 
r. Miss Julia S. Hitchcock. 
r. Miss Jerusha E. Swain. 
r. Miss Lois W. Hall. 
T. Miss Julia F. Stone, see Mrs. Orr. 
r. Miss M. E. Denny. 
r. Miss Lucina H. Lord, 
r. Miss Harriet A. Sheldon. 
r. Miss Elizabeth T. Hancock. 
r. Miss Mary R. Spooner. 
Miss S. Elizabeth Kenney. 
Miss Sarah Dean. 

CHOCTAW MISSION. 



r. Cyrus Kingsbury, D.D., in the Mission, 



Loring S. Williams, 

Joel Wood, 

Alfred Wright, 

Cyrus Byington, in the Mission, . 

Samuel Moscley, 

* Harrison Allen, 

r. Henry R. Wilson, 

56 



Mrs. Sarah B. Kingsbury. 
Mrs. Electa Kingsbury. 
Mrs. Matilda Williams. 
Mrs. Clarissa H. Wood. 
Mrs. Harriet Wright. 
Mrs. Sophia Byington. 
Mrs. Sarah Moseley. 
Mrs. Nancy Allen. 
Mrs. Sarah Wilson. 



428 APPENDIX. 

r. John R. Agnew. 

r. Ebenezcr Hotchkin, in the Mission, . r. Mrs. Philena Hotchkin. 

r. Charles C. Copeland, in the Mission, . r. Mrs. Cornelia Copeland. 

r. Joshua Potter, see Senecas, r. Mrs. Jane Potter. 

r. John C. Strong, r. Mrs. Celia S. Strong. 

r. Oliver P. Stark, in the Mission, ... * Mrs. Margaret W. Stark. 

r. Mrs. Harriet Stark. 

r. John Edwards, in the Mission, . . . r. Mrs. Ilosanua H. Edwards. 
r. George Picrson, M. D., afterward at 

Micronesia, * Mrs. Salome Pierson. 

r. Simon L. Hobbs, M. D., in the Mission, r. Mrs. Mary C. Hobbs. 

r. Elias L. Boing, r. Mrs. Anna M. Boing. 

Missionary Physician. 

r. William W. Pride, M. D., r. Mrs. Hannah Pride. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

* Aries V. Williams, * Mrs. Judith Williams. 

r. Peter Kanouse. 

r. Moses Jewell, r. Mrs. Jewell. 

r. John G. Kanouse, r. Mrs. Kanouse. 

* Isaac Fisk. 

r. Anson Dyer, * . * Mrs. Dyer. 

r. Zcchariah Howes, r. Mrs. Lucy Howes. , 

r. John Smith, r. Mrs. Smith. 

r. Calvin Cushman, . r. Mrs. Laura Cushman. 

r. Elijah Bardwell, r. Mrs. Lavina Bardwell. 

* William Hooper, * Mrs. Vina Hooper. 

r. Mrs. Eliza Hooper. 

r. David Remington, r. Mrs. Esther Remington. 

r. Philo P. Stewart, r. Mrs. Eliza Stewart. 

r. Stephen B. Macomber, r. Mrs. Macomber. 

r. Anson Gleason, see Senecas, r. Mrs. Bethiah W. Gleason. 

r. David Wright, * Mrs. Lucinda Wright. 

r. Ebenezer Bliss. 

r. David Gage, r. Mrs. Betsey Gage. 

r. Samuel Moulton, r. Mrs. Lucinda Moulton. 

r. Elijah S. Town, 7*. Mrs. Hannah E. Town. 

#. John Dudley. 

* Matthias Joslyn, r. Mrs. Sophia M.Joslyn, afterward Mrs. 

Newton, of Cherokee Mission. 
r. Abner D. Jones, r. Mrs. Eunice G. Jones. 

* Jared Olmstead, r. Mrs. Julia S. Olmstead. 

r. Peter Auten, r. Mrs. Lydia Auten. 

r.* Miss Anna Burnham. 
r. Miss Eliza R. Buer. 
r. Miss Pamela Skinner. 
r. Miss Nancy Foster. 
r. Miss Eunice dough. 
r. Miss Louisa M. Williams. 
r. Miss Elizabeth A. Merrill 
r. Henry K. Copeland, from Cherokees, r. Mrs. Abigail H. Copeland, 

* Mrs. Nancy Barnes. 
r. Miss Sarah Kerr. 
r. Miss Harriet Arms. 
r. Miss Susan Tracy. 

* Miss Harriet E. Crosby. 
r.* David H. Winship, r. Mrs. Winship. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 429 

r. Lewis Bissell * Mrs. Mary Bissell. 

* Mrs. Mary J. Bissell. 

r. Edwin Lathrop, . . . ." r. Mrs. Cornelia F. C. Latlirop. 

r. Miss Cornelia F. C. Dolbear, see Mrs. 
Lathrop. 

* Miss Catharine Belden. 

* Miss Luciuda Downer. 
r. Miss Lydia S. Hall. 

?. Miss Laura E. Tilton. 
r. Miss Harriet N. Keyes. 
?. Miss Catharine A. Fay. 
r. Miss Marcia Colton. 

* Miss Harriet Goulding. 
r. Miss Caroline Dickinson. 
r. Miss Juliette Slate. 

r. Miss Hannah Bennett. 

r. Miss Mary A. Root. 
r. David Breed, * Mrs. Sarah A. Breed. 

?. Miss Jerusha Edwards. 

r. Miss Caroline A. Fox. 

r. Mrs. Ann B. Dana. 

r. Miss Elizabeth J. Hough. 

r. Miss Angelina Hosmer. 

r. Miss Eunice Starr. 
r. Horace D. Smith. 
r. John A. Beals. 

r. Miss Maria P. Arms. 

r. Miss Harriet McCormick, see Mrs. 
Stark. 

r. Miss Chloe M. Bigelow. 

r. Jason D. Chamberlain, r. Mrs. Elsey G. Chamberlain. 

r. Abraham G. Lansing, r. Mrs. Sarah M. Lansing. 

r. Samuel T. Libby, in the Mission, . . r. Mrs. Hannah E. Libby. 

r. Miss Priscilla G. Child, in the Mission. 

r. Miss Mercy Whitcomb. 

r. Miss Elizabeth Backus. 

r. Miss Mary M. Curtis. 

* Miss Laura M. Aiken. 
r. Harvey E. Schermerhorn. 

r. Miss Frances W. Sawyer. 

r. Miss Helen E. Woodward. 

r. Miss Hannah E. Pruden, see Mrs. 

Libby. 

r. Miss Harriet A. Dada. 
r. Miss Charity A. Gaston. 
r. Miss Lucy E. Lovell, in the Mission. 
r. Miss Mary "W. Lovell. 
r. Miss Mary Ann Greenlee, in the Miss. 
r. Miss Mary J. Semple, in the Mission. 
r. Miss Eliza C. Kendall, in the Mission. 

DAKOTA MISSION. 

Thomas S. Williamson, Mrs. Margaret Williamson. 

r. Jedediah D. Stevens, r. Mrs. Julia Stevens. 

Stephen R. Eiggs, Mrs. Mary A. C. Riggs. 

r. Samuel W. Pond, * Mrs. Cordelia Pond. 

r. Mrs. Rebecca Pond. 



430 APPENDIX. 

r. Gideon H. Pond, * Mrs. Sarah Pond. 

* Robert Hopkins, r. Mrs. Agnes C. Hopkins. 

r. Moses N. Adams, r. Mrs. Nancy A. M. Adams. 

r. John F. Aiton, r. Mrs. Nancy Aiton. 

r. Joseph W. Hancock, * Mrs. Martha M. Hancock. 

r. Mrs. Sarah Hancock. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Alexander G. Huggins, . . . r. Mrs. Lydia Huggins. 

r. Miss Lucy C. Stevens. 

r. Jonas Pettijohn, r. Mrs. Fanny Pettijohn. 

Hugh D. Cunningham, Mrs. Mary B. Cunningham. 

Miss Jane S. Williamson. 
r. Miss Sarah Rankiu, afterward Mrs. 

Hancock. 

r. Miss Lucy Spooner. 
r. Miss Mary R. Spooner, see Cherokees. 
Mrs. Anna B. Ackley. 

OJIBWA MISSION. 

r. Sherman Hall, i r. Mrs. Betsey Hall. 

r. William T. Boutwell, r. Mrs. Hester Boutwell. 

r. Frederick Ayer, r. Mrs. Elizabeth Ayer. 

Leonard H. Wheeler, Mrs. Harriet Wheeler. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Edmund F. Ely, r. Mrs. Catharine Ely. 

r. Joseph Town, r. Mrs. Hannah Town. 

r. John L. Seymour, r. Mrs. Jane B. Seymour. 

r. Greenville T. Sproat, r. Mrs. Florantha Sproat. 

r. Miss Delia Cooke. 
r. Miss Sabrina Stevens. 

r. Woodbridge L. James, r. Mrs. Fhcbe G. James. 

r. Miss Abigail Spooner. 

r.* ChaVles Pulsifer, . * r. Mrs. Hannah H. Pulsifer. * 

r. D. Irenjeus Miner, r. Mrs. Lydia J. Miner. 

David B. Spencer, Mrs. D. B. Spencer. 

Miss Rhoda W. Spicer. 

CHICKASAW MISSION. 

r. Thonjas C. Stuart, r. Mrs. Stuart. 

r. William C. Blair, r. Mrs. Blair. 

r. Hugh Wilson, r. Mrs. Ethalinda Wilson. 

r. James Holmes, r. Mrs. Sarah A. Holmes. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

* Miss Prudence Wilson. 

r. Miss Emeline H. Richmond. 

MISSION TO THE CREEKS. 

r. John Fleming, r. Mrs. Margaret Fleming. 

Missionary Physicians. 

r. Geo. L. Weed, M. D., from Cherokees, r. Mrs. Eliza H. Weed, 
r. Roderick L. Dodge, M. D., from the 

Cherokees, r. Mrs. Emeline Dodge. 



MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANT MISSIONARIES. 431 

MISSION TO THE OSAGES. 

r. William F. Vaill, r . Mrs. Asenath Vaill 

r. Nathaniel B. Dodge, r . Mrs . Sally 

r. Benton Pixley, r . Mrs . Lucia F 

* William B. Montgomery, * Mrs . Harriet Montgomery. 

r. Amasa Jones, . r . Mrs> R Oxanna Jones. 

Assistant Missionaries. 
r. William C. Requa, * Mrs . Susan RequU 

* Mrs. Jane Requa. 
r. George Requa, * Mrs. Sarah S. Requa. 

r. Mrs. Mary H. Requa. 

r. Daniel H. Austin, r . Mrs. Lydia Austin. 

r. Abraham Redfield, r . Mrs. Phebe Redfleld. 

r. Samuel B. Bright, r . Mrs. Charlotte Bright. 

r. Richard Colby. 

r. Miss Mary B. Choate. 

r. Miss Mary Etris. 

r. Miss Elvira G. Perkins. 

MISSION TO THE PAWNEES. 

r. John Dunbar, r . Mrs. Esther Dunbar. 

Timothy E. Ranney, see Cherokees, . Mrs. Charlotte Ranney. 

Missionary Physician. 

* Benedict Satterlee, * Mrs. Martha A. Satterlee. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Samuel Allis, r . Mrs. Emeline Allis. 

r. George B. Gaston, r . Mrs. Gaston. 

MISSION TO OKEGON INDIANS. 

r. Henry H.Spalding, in Oregon, ... * Mrs. Eliza Spalding. 

r. Gushing Eells, in Oregon, r. Mrs. MyraEells. 

r. Asa B. Smith, see Sandwich Islands, . r. Mrs. Sarah G. Smith. 

r. Elkanah Walker, in Oregon, r. Mrs. Mary Walker. 

Missionary Physician. 

* Marcus Whitman, M. D., * Mrs. Narcissa Whitman. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. William H. Gray, r. Mrs. Mary A. Gray. 

r, Cornelius Rogers. 

MACKINAW MISSION. 

r. William M. Ferry, r. Mrs. Ferry. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Martin Heydenburk, r. Mrs. Huldah W. Heydenburk. 

r. John S. Hudson, r. Mrs. Hudson. 

r. John Newland, r. Mrs. Newland. 

r. Abel D. Newton. 

r. Lucius Garey, r . Mrs. Frances M. Garey. 

r. Mason Hearsey. 

r. W. R. Campbell, r . Mrs. Dolly Campbell. 



432 APPENDIX. 

r. Miss Betsey McFarland. 
r. Miss Hannah Goodale, 
r. Miss Persis Skinner. 

MISSION TO THE STOCKBRIDGE INDIANS. 

* Jesse Miner, r. Mrs. Amanda Miner. 

r. Cutting Marsh, r. Mrs. Eunice O. Marsh. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

* Augustus T. Ambler. 

r. Chauncey Hall, r. Mrs. Matilda Hall. 

r. Miss Sophia Mudgett. 

MISSION AT MAUMEE. 

r. Isaac Van Tassel, r. Mrs. Van Tassel. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. Sidney L. Brewster r. Mrs. Sarah Brewster. 

r. Miss Hannah Riggs. 
r. Miss Rebecca Newell. 

NEW YORK INDIANS. 

r. Thompson S. Harris, r. Mrs. Marrianne Harris. 

r.* Joseph Lane, r. Mrs. Rebecca Lane. 

r. John Eliot, r. Mrs. Mary Eliot. 

Asher Wright, * Mrs. Martha Wright. 

Mrs. Laura M. Wright. 

r. Asher Bliss, . r. Mrs. Cassandra Bliss. 

r. William Williams, r. Mrs. Mehetibel Williams. 

r. William Hall, r. Mrs. Emeline Hall. 

r. Gilbert Rockwood, r. Mrs. Avis Rockwood. 

r. Joshua Potter, from Choctaws, . . . r. Mrs. Jane Potter. 

Ansou Gleason, from Choctaws, . . . Mrs. Bethiah W. Gleason. 

Assistant Missionaries. 

r. William A. Thayer, r. Mrs. Susan Thayer. 

r. Hanover Bradley, r. Mrs. Catharine Bradley. 

r. Miss Asenath Bishop. 

r. Miss Nancy Henderson. 

r. Miss Emily Root. 

r. Miss Elizabeth Stone. 

r. Miss Relief Thayer. 

r. Miss Fidelia Adams. 

r. Miss Hannah T. Whitcomb. 

* Miss Margaret N. Hall. 
Miss Mary L. Gleason. 
Nathaniel H. Pierce, Mrs. Agnes D. Pierce. 

r. Miss Sophia Mudgett. 

r. Miss Mary Jane Thayer. 

r. Miss Caroline A. Fox, see Choctaws. 

r. Miss Jerusha Edwards, see Choctaws. 

r. Miss Eunice Wise. 

r. Miss Mary Kent. 

r. Miss Harriet S. Clark. 



REGULATIONS FOB THE EXPENDITURE OF THE MISSIONS. 433 



VI. REGULATIONS FOR THE EXPENDITURE OF THE 

MISSIONS. 

[Adopted October, I860. See p. 169.] 

1. The annual appropriations to the several missions should cover every 
probable expenditure within the mission, including exchange on sale of bills 
by the treasurer of the mission. 

2. The missions should keep rigidly withm the amount appropriated, 
but should be allowed to transfer appropriations from one department of 
service to another, when considered necessary by the mission. 

3. No mission should ask for a special grant during the year, except for 
very cogent reasons, nor unless it is willing the special grant should be 
charged to the appropriation for the next following year. In case the Pru 
dential Committee make such grant, they should charge it to the next annual 
appropriation, unless the contingent fund for the year will bear it, or the 
state of the receipts indicate that it may safely be added to the annual ap 
propriation without occasioning a debt. The mission should be informed 
whether it is charged to the contingent fund, or carried forward as a charge 
for the next year, or covered by a supplementary appropriation. 

4. The appropriations, or reserved fund, for new missionaries, should 
embrace : 1. Estimated outfit of the missionaries to be sent during the year ; 
2. The cost of their outward passage ; and, 3. Their expenses after reaching 
the field, until they can be put on salaries under the regular appropriations. 
If the expenses of a new missionary, after his arrival in the mission and before 
he is placed on a salary, are borne by the funds in the hands of the mission, 
the mission should charge the sum so expended to the Board, to be reim 
bursed by a supplementary appropriation chargeable to the fund reserved for 
new missionaries. After this fund has been exhausted, no more new mis 
sionaries should be sent out during that year, unless the receipts clearly 
indicate that it may be done without the hazard of thereby creating a 
debt. 

5. The fund reserved for missionaries returning to their fields (whether 
by itself, or consolidated with that for new missionaries) should embrace the 
passage money, refit if any, and traveling and other expenses after their 
arrival, until they are put upon salaries. These last expenses, if paid by the 
mission from funds otherwise appropriated, should be charged to the Board, 
to be reimbursed and charged as in the case of new missionaries. 

6. The reserved fund for homeward-bound missionaries should embrace 
the expenses of their return home. The homeward expenses should be 
borne by the mission, to the extent of the unexpended balance of the appro 
priation for the salary and other expenses of the returning missionary. If 
the mission pay more than this balance, the excess should be charged to the 



434 APPENDIX. 

Board, and should be reimbursed by the Committee, and charged to this 
reserved fund. The appropriations for missionaries while in this country 
should be provided for by a distinct fund ; and their expenses should be 
compensated for, as far as circumstances will permit, by the labors of those 
missionaries in behalf of the Board, under the direction of the Secretaries. 

7. One of tho Regulations of the Board is as follows, viz. : " When any 
missionary or assistant missionary of the Board shall desire, on account of 
ill health or any other cause, to return to the United States, he is required 
to obtain permission from the Prudential Committee so to do, when it is 
practicable, (always sending with his request the opinion of his mission,) and 
when impracticable to obtain such permission, he is required to obtain the 
consent of his mission ; which consent shall always be subject to the revision 
of the Prudential Committee." If a fission, or its authorized committee, 
consent to the return of a missionary in disregard of this rule of the Board, 
the expense of the return should be charged to the mission, unless the return 
shall be approved by the Prudential Committee, after being informed of the 
facts. But, if the Committee shall subsequently approve of the return, the 
rights and liabilities of the parties are to stand as if there had been a pre 
vious consent. 

8. The annual appropriation shall contain an item for contingencies ; and 
this item shall be such percentage of the estimated receipts of the year, as 
experience shall show to be necessary. This appropriation is designed to 
cover such necessary expenditures as can not be foreseen when the annual 
appropriations are made. Balances remaining to the credit of either of 
these reserved funds, namely, for new missionaries, missionaries returning to 
their fields, missionaries in this country, or contingencies, may be transferred 
to either of the other reserved funds that shall most need them. 

9. If, at the end of any year, there shall remain in the treasury of any 
mission an unexpended balance from previous appropriations, the treasurer 
of the mission shall certify the amount of such balance to the Treasurer of 
the Board, in order that he may take it into account in his remittances for 
the next following year 



LITERATURE OP THE BOARD. 435 



VII. LITERATURE OF THE BOARD AND OF ITS 
MISSIONS. 

[See pp. 190-194, 369-382.] 

THE limits of this work do not admit of any thing like a full catalogue of 
the publications which come properly under the above heading. For gen 
eral views, and for all that need s to be said concerning the Reports, Period 
icals, and Tracts of the Board, the reader js referred to pages 190-194, 
369-382. The titles of the Biographies, Histories, Travels, Sermons, and 
Miscellanies are necessarily very much abridged. Of the publications by 
the Missions, in various languages, some of the more important will be 
noted, with the number of titles in each language, so far as known. 

MISSIONARY BIOGRAPHY. 

Life and Labors of Samuel Worcester, D. D., Corresponding Secretary of the A. B. C. 
F. M. By his son, Samuel M. Worcester, D. D. 2 vols. Boston, Crocker & Brewster, 
1852. pp. 468 and 488. 

Memoir of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M. By 
E. C. Tracy. Boston, 1845. pp. 448. 

Memoir of Rev. Elias Cornelius. By B. B. Edwards. Boston, Perkins & Marvin, 
1833. pp. 360. 

Memoir and Sermons of W. J. Armstrong, D. D., Corresponding Secretary of the 
A. B. C. F. M. By Rev. Hollis Read. New York, 1853. pp. 411. 

Memoir of Mrs. Harriet Newell, Missionary to India, who died at the Isle of France, 
Nov. 30, 1812, aged nineteen years. By Leonard Woods, D. D. Boston, Samuel T. Arm 
strong, 1818. pp. 258. 

Memoirs of Samuel J. Mills. By Gardiner Spring, D. D. New York, 1820. pp. 247. 
Also, an Improved Edition, 1829, edited by E. C. Bridgman and c. W. Allen, pp. 259. 

Memoir of Adoniram Judson, D. D. By Francis Wayland, D. D. Boston, 1853. 
2 vols. pp. 544 and 521. 

Memoir of Mrs. Ann H. Judson. By James D. Knowles. Boston, 1829 and 1856. 

Memoir of Rev. Levi Parsons, Missionary to Palestine. By Rev. Daniel O. Morton. 
Smith & Shute, 1824. pp. 431. 

Memoir of Rev. Pliny Fisk, Missionary to Palestine. By Alvan Bond. Boston, 
Crocker & Brewster, 1828. pp. 437. 

Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, one of the First Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. 
By Horatio Bardwell. Andover, Flagg, Gould & Newman, 1834. pp. 260. 

Life and Letters of Rev. Daniel Temple, Missionary in Western Asia. By his son, 
Rev. Daniel H. Temple. Congregational Board of Publication, 1855. pp. 492. 

Memoirs of American Missionaries, formerly connected with the Society of Inquiry 
respecting Missions in the Andover Theological Seminary. Boston, Peirce & Parker, 
1833. pp.367. 

Memoirs of Rev. Samuel Munson and Rev. Henry Lyman, Missionaries to the Indian 
Archipelago. By Rev. William Thompson. New York, 1839. pp. 196. 

The Martyr of Sumatra : A Memoir of Henry Lyman. New York, 1856. pp. 437. 

Memoir of Asahel Grant, M. D., Missionary to the Nestorians. By Rev. A. C. Lath- 
rop. New York, M. W. Dodd, 1847. pp. 21G. 

Dr. Asahel Grant and the Mountain Nestorians. By Rev. Thomas Laurie, surviving 
Associate in that Mission. Boston, Gould & Lincoln, 1853 and 1856. pp. 418. 

57 



436 APPENDIX. 

Memoir of David Abeel, D. D., Missionary to China. By Rev. G. R. Williamson. New 
York, Robert Carter, 1848. pp. 315. 

Memoir of Rev. Henry Lobdell, M. D., Missionary at Mosul. By W. S. Tyler, D. D. 
Boston, American Tract Society, 1859. pp. 414. 

Memoir of Rev. David Tappan Stoddard, Missionary to the Nestorians. By Joseph 
P. Thompson, D. D. New York, Sheldon, Blakeman & Co. pp. 422. 

Memorial of Rev. Henry Martyn Adams, Missionary to Western Africa. By Rev. 
Albert Bushnell. Boston, Mass. Sabbath School Society, 1859. pp. 09. 

American Missionary Memorial. By II. W. Pierson. New York, Harper & Brothers, 
1853. pp. 504. [This volume contains sketches of Gordon Hall, James Richards, Adoni- 
ram Judson, Pliny Fisk, Levi Parsons, Daniel Temple, Azariah Smith, David Abeel, 
Frederic B. Thomson, Samuel Munson, and Henry Lymau ; also of Harriet Newell, Ann 
II. Judson, Harriet L. Winslow, Catharine H. Scudder, and Sarah L. Smith.] 

Sermons by Rev. Reuben Tinker, Missionary at the Sandwich Islands ; with a Bio 
graphical Sketch. By M. L. P. Thompson, D. D. Buffalo, N. Y., 1856. pp. 421. 

Memoir of Mrs. Myra W. Allen, Missionary in Bombay. By Cyrus Mann. Boston, 
Mass. Sab. School Society, 1834. pp. 250. 

Memoir of Mrs. Harriet Wadsworth Winslow, of the Ceylon Mission. By Myron 
Winslow. New York, Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1835. pp. 408. 

Remains of Mrs. Catharine Winslow, of the American Mission at Madras. By Rev. 
Jared B. Waterbury. Boston, Mass. Sabbath School Society, 1851. pp. 357. 

Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith, of the Mission in Syria. By Edward W. 
Hooker, of Bennington, Vt. Boston, Perkins & Marvin, 1839. pp. 407. 

Memoir of Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Van Lennep, Missionary in Turkey. By her Mother. 
New York, 1847 and 1800. pp. 382. 

Memorial of Mrs. Henrietta A. L. Hamlin, Missionary in Turkey. By Margarette 
Woods Lawrence. Boston, Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1854. pp. 321. 

Memoir of Mary M. Ellis, Wife of the Rev. William Ellis, Missionary to the South 
Seas and the Sandwich Islands, and Foreign Secretary to the London Missionary Soci 
ety. By William Ellis. London. 

Memorial of Mrs. Seraphina Haynes Everett and Mrs. Harriet Martha Hamlin, Mis 
sionaries at Constantinople. By Mrs. Mary G. Benjamin. Boston, American Tract 
Society, 1860. 

Bartimeus of the Sandwich Islands. By Rev. Hiram Bingham. New York, American 
Tract Society, pp. 58. 

Memoir of Charles Lathrop Winslow. Boston, William Pierce, 1834. pp. 108. 

Memoir of Lucy Goodale Thurston, of the Sandwich Islands. By Mrs. Cummings. 
New York, Dayton & Newman, 1842. pp. 233. 

Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins, of Oroomiah, Persia. By her Father. Boston, John 
P. Jewett & Co., 1853. pp. 224. 

Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, of Hawaii, a Member of the Foreign Mission School. 
Philadelphia, Am. S. S. Union, 1829. pp. 126. 

Memoirs of the Converted Brahmin B:ib;ijee. By Rev. Hollis Read. 2 vols. New 
York, Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1836. pp. 264 and 275. 

Sketches of Pious Nestorians who have died at Oroomiah, Persia. By Members of 
the Mission. Boston, Mass. S. S. Society, 1857. pp. 284. 

Memoir of Catherine Brown, a Christian Indian of the Cherokee Nation. By Rufus 
Anderson. Boston, Crocker & Brewster, 1824. pp. 144. 

Memoir of John Arch, a Cherokee Young Man. Mass. S. S. Union, 1832. pp. 33. 

The Little Osage Captive. By Elias Cornelius. Mass. S. S. Society, 1832. 



LITERATURE OF THE BOARD. 437 



HISTORICAL WORKS BY MISSIONARIES. 

A Sketch of Missions. By Myron Winslow, Missionary to Ceylon. Andover, Flagg 
& Gould, 1819. pp. 432. 

India and its People, Ancient and Modern. By Rev. Hollis Read, Missionary to India. 
Columbus, Ohio, J. & H. Miller, 1859. pp. 384. 

The Civil, Religious, and Political History of the Sandwich Islands. By Hiram Bing- 
ham, Twenty-one Years a Missionary at those Islands. Hartford, Hezekiah Huntiugton, 
1847. pp. 616. 

History of the Sandwich Islands Mission. By Rev. Sheldon Dibble, Missionary to 
those Islands. New York, Taylor & Dodd, 1839. pp. 268. 

Western Africa, its History, Condition, and Prospects. By Rev. John Leighton Wil 
son, Eighteen Years a Missionary in Africa. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1856. pp. 527. 

Residence of Eight Years among the Nestorians in Persia. By Rev. Justin Perkins. 
Andover, Allen, Morrill & Wardwell, 1843. pp. 512. 

The Middle Kingdom ; a Survey of the Geography, Government, Education, Social 
Life, Arts, Religion, etc., of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants. By S. Wells Wil 
liams, LL. D., Missionary to China. 2 vols. New York, Wiley & Putuam, 1848. 
pp. 590 and 614. 

Christianity Revived in the East ; or, A Narrative of the Work of God among the 
Armenians of Turkey. By Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, Missionary at Constantinople. 
New York, 1850. pp. 290. 

Christianity in Turkey. The Protestant Reformation in the Armenian Church. By 
H. G. O. Dwight, D. D. London, 1854. pp. 360. 

India, Ancient and Modern, Geographical, Historical, Political, Social, and Religious ; 
with a Particular Account of the State and Prospects of Christianity. By David Oliver 
Allen, D. D., Missionary for Twenty-five Years in India. Boston, John P. Jewett & Co., 
1856. pp. 618. 

MISSIONARY TRAVELS. 

Journal of a Residence in the Sandwich Islands during the Years 1823, 1824, and 1825. 
By Charles Samuel Stewart, Missionary at the Islands. London, Fisher & Jackson, 
1828. pp. 407. 

A Residence at Constantinople in the Year 1827. By Josiah Brewer, Missionary to the 
Mediterranean. New Haven, Durvie & Peck, 1830. pp. 372. 

Observations upon the Peloponnesus and Greek Islands. By Rufus Anderson. Bos 
ton, Crocker & Brewster, 1830. pp. 334. 

A Residence in the Sandwich Islands. By Charles Samuel Stewart, Missionary at the 
Islands. Boston, Weeks, Jordan & Co., 1839. pp. 348. 

A Visit to the South Seas, in the United States Ship Vincennes. By Charles S. Stew 
art, Chaplain in the U. S. Navy. 2 vols. New York, John P. Haven, 1831. pp. 357 
and 360. 

Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains. By Rev. Samuel Parker. Ithaca, N. Y., 
1838. pp.371. 

The Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes. By Asahel Grant, M. D. London, John Murray, 
1841, and New York, 1841. pp. 33S. 

Researches of the Rev. E. Smith and Rev. H. G. O. Dwight, in Armenia. By Ell 
Smith. Boston, Crocker & Brewster, 1833. pp. 328 and 348. Republished in London. 

The Land and the Book; or Biblical Illustrations drawn from the Manners, Customs, 
Scenes, and Scenery of the Holy Land. By William M. Thomson, D. D., Missionary in 
Syria and Palestine. 2 vols. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1859. pp. 557 and 614. 

Life in India ; or, Madras, the Neilgherrics, and Calcutta. By Rev. John W. Dulles. 
Philadelphia, 1855. pp. 528. 

Journal of a Residence in China and the Neighboring Countries, from 1829 to 1833. 
By David Abeel, D. D. New York, Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1834. pp. 398. 

Journal of a Missionary Tour in India, performed by the Rev. Messrs. Read and Ram 
sey. By William Ramsey. Philadelphia, J. Wetham, 1836. pp.367. 



438 APPENDIX. 



MISSIONARY SERMONS BEFORE THE BOARD. 

Tear. Place of Meeting. Preacher. Text. 

1813 Boston * Timothy Dwight, D. D John 10 : 16. 

1814 New Haven. ... * James Richards, D. D Ephes. 3 : 8. 

1815 Salem * Calvin Chapin, D. D Ps. 90 : 10. 

181C Hartford * Henry Davis, D. D Ps. 119 : 96. 

1817 Northampton. . . * Jesse Appleton, D. D 1 Cor. 1 : 21. 

1818 New Haven. ... * Samuel Spring, D. D Acts 8 : 30, 31. 

1819 Boston * Joseph Lyman, D. D Isaiah 58 : 12. 

1820 Hartford Eliphalet Nott, D. D Mark 16 : 15. 

1821 Springfield * Jedediah Morse, D. D Ps. 2 : 8. 

1822 New Haven. . . . * Alexander Proudfit, D. D Mai. 1:11. 

1823 Boston Jeremiah Day, D. D Neh. 6 : 3. 

1824 Hartford * Samuel Austin, D. D Gal. 1 : 15, 16. 

1825 Northampton. . . * Joshua Bates, D. D John 8 : 32. 

1826 Middletown. ... * Edward D. Griffin, D. D Matt. 28 : 18, 20. 

1827 New York Lyman Beecher, D. D Luke 11 : 21, Rev., &0. 

1828 Philadelphia. . . . * John H. Rice, D. D 2 Cor. 10:4. 

1829 Albany * Archibald Alexander, D. D. . . . Acts 11 : 18. 

1830 Boston Thomas DeWitt, D. D Matt. 9 : 37, 38. 

ia31 New Haven. . . . * Leonard Woods, D. D Isaiah G2 : 1, 2. 

1832 New York William Allen, D. D John 8 : 36. 

1833 Philadelphia. ... * William Murray, D. D 2 Cor. 10 : 4. 

1&34 Utica Gardiner Spring, D. D Matt. 10: 6. 

1835 Baltimore * Samuel Miller, D. D Numb. 14 : 21. 

1836 Hartford. ..... . * John Codman, D. D Matt. 10:8. 

1837 Newark John McDowall, D. D Acts 4 : 12. 

1838 Portland Hemau Humphrey, D. D Ps. 102 : 13-16. 

1839 Troy Thomas McAuley, D. D Isaiah 11 : 9. 

1840 Providence Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D. . . .Ps. 72:17. 

1841 Philadelphia. . . . * Justin Edwards, D. D Zech. 4:6. 

1842 Norwich. William R. DeWitt, D. D 2 Cor. 5 : 14. 

1843 Rochester Thomas H. Skinner, D. D Phil. 3 : 13. 

1844 Worcester Rev. Albert Barnes Luke 14 : 28-32. 

1845 Brooklyn Mark Hopkins, D. D Ps. 55 : 22. 

1846 New Haven. . . . Joel Hawes, D. D 1 Sam. 7 : 12. 

1847 Buffalo David Magie, D. D Isaiah 33 : 15. 

1848 Boston Isaac Ferris, D. D Matt. 6:10. 

1849 Pittsfield Samuel H. Cox, D. D Dan. 7:27.- 

1850 Oswego Richard S. Storrs, D. D 1 Cor. 15 : 58. 

1851 Portland David II . Riddle, D. D Isaiah 41 : 14, 15. 

1852 Troy Leonard Bacon, D. D 2 Cor. 5 : 7. 

1853 Cincinnati William Adams, D. D Matt. 13 : 38. 

1854 Hartford Charles White, D. D Matt. 6:10. 

1855 Utica Nehemiah Adams, D. D Gal. 2 : 20. 

1856 Newark George W. Bethune, D. D. ... 1 Tim. 1 : 15. 

1857 Providence, .... M. LaRue P. Thompson, D. D. . Matt. 28 : 20. 

1858 Detroit George Shepard, D. D Luke 11: 41. 

1859 Philadelphia. . . . Robert W. Patterson, D. D. . . . Matt. 13 : 33. 

I860 Boston Samuel W. Fisher, D. D Isaiah 45 : 1-6, 43 : 21. 



LITERATURE OF THE BOARD. 439 



BEFORE AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. 

The Kingdom of the Messiah. For. Miss. Soc. of Salem and Vicinity, 1813. By Samuel 
Worcester, D. D. 

For. Miss. Soc. of Litchfield County, 1813. By Bennet Tyler. 

The Enlargement of the Church of Christ. For. Miss. Soc. of Norwich and Vicinity, 
1813. By Levi Nelson. 

The Burden and Heat of the Day borne by the Jewish Church. At Shelburne, Mass., 
1813. By Joshua Spaulding. 

Soc. of For. Miss, of Boston and Vicinity, 1813. By Abiel Holmes, D. D. 

Soc. of For. Miss, of Boston and Vicinity. By William Grecnough. 

Revelation necessary to Salvation. For. Miss. Soc. of Windham County, 1815. By 
Zebulon Ely. 

Thy Kingdom come. For. Miss. Soc. of Boston and Vic., 1820. By Sereno E. Dwight. 

The Relation of the Present State of Religion to the Millennium. For. Miss. Soc. of 
Boston and Vicinity, 1823. By James Sabine. 

The Duty of Christians to the Jews. -Palestine Miss. Soc. in Halifax, Mass., 1823. 
By Daniel Huntington. 

The Moral Condition and Prospects of the Heathen. For. Miss. Soc. of Boston and 
Vicinity, 1824. By Benjamin B. Wisner. 

Bible, For. Miss., and Education Societies of the County of Hampden, 1823. By Wil 
liam B. Sprague. 

Palestine Miss. Soc., 1824. By Daniel Thomas. 

Signs of the Times. Formation of an Aux. Miss. Soc., 1824. By Rev. Thomas Snell. 

The Obligations of Christians to the Heathen World. Aux. For. Miss. Soc. of Boston 
and Vicinity. 1825. By Warren Fay. 

Signs of the Times. For. Miss. Soc. of New York and Brooklyn, 1850. By Erskine 
Mason, D. D. 

Christianity, its Destined Supremacy on the Earth. For. Miss. Soc. of New York and 
Brooklyn, 1851. By Richard S. Storrs, Jr. 

Personal Piety, as related to the Missionary Work. For. Miss. Soc. of New York and 
Brooklyn, 1852. By Asa D. Smith, D. D. 

For. Miss. Soc. of New York and Brooklyn, 1853. By M. S. Button, D. D. 

Dr. George B. Cheever s Sermon, 1854. Same Society. 

Dr. William Adams s Sermon, 1855. Same Society. 

Rev. William Hogarth s Sermon, 1856. Same Society. 

Rev. Samuel T. Spear s Sermon, 1857. Same Society. 

Dr. Joel Parker s Sermon, 1858. Same Society. 

Rev. Rufus W. Clark s Sermon, 1859. Same Society. 

Dr. Walter Clarke s Sermon, 1860. Same Society. 

Palestine Miss. Soc., 1857. By Rev. Ezekiel Russell. 

ORDINATION SERMONS. 

In the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Nov. 5, 1818, at the ordination of the Messrs. Pliny 
FiFk, Levi Spaulding, Myron Winslow, and Henry Woodward. By Moses Stuart. 

The Promised Land. In Goshen, Conn., at the ordination of the Messrs. Hiram Bing- 
ham and Asa Thurston, as Missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, Sept. 29, 1819. By 
Heman Humphrey. 

At North Bridgewater, Oct. 31, 1821, at the ordination of the Messrs. Daniel Temple 
and I|fcac Bird, as Missionaries. By Rev. Richard S. Storrs. 

At New Haven, Conn., Sept. 12, 1822, at the ordination of the Messrs. William Goodell, 
William Richards, and Artemas Bishop, as Missionaries. By Samuel Miller, D. D. 

In the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Sept. 25, 1823, at the ordination of Rev. Edmund Frost, 
as a Missionary to the heathen ; and .the Rev. Messrs. Aaron Warner, Ansel D. Eddy, 
Nathan W. Fiske, Isaac Oakes, and George Sheldon, as Evangelists. By Elias Cornelius. 

In Park-street Church, August 25, 1825, at the ordination of the Messrs. Elnathan 
Gridley and Samuel Austin Worcester, as Missionaries. By Leonard Worcester. 



440 APPENDIX. 

Rev. Joseph Tracy s Sermon at the ordination of Rev. Ira Tracy, Oct. 28, 1832. 

Theory of Missions to the Heathen : a Sermon at the ordination of the Rev. Edward 
Webb, Oct. 23, 1845, as a Missionary. By Rufus Anderson. 

The Moral Unity of the Human Race. At the ordination of Luther Halsey Gulick, 
M. D., as a Missionary to the Micronesia Islands, 1851. By Joseph P. Thompson, D. D. 

In the North Church, New Haven, Nov. 9, 185G, at the ordination of Rev. Hiram Bing- 
ham, Jr. By Leonard Bacon, D. D. 

FUNERAL SERMONS. 

On the Death of Jeremiah Evarts. In Andover, July 31, 1831. By Leonard Woods, D. D. 

At the Funeral of Benjamin B. Wisner, D. D., 1835. By Warren Fay, D. D. 

The Christian Missionary desiring- to be with Christ. At Westboro , Mass., June 30, 
1840, at the Funeral of Rev. Ephraim Spaulding, Missionary. By Rufus Anderson, D. D. 

Ministerial Fidelity exemplified. At the Funeral of the Rev. Daniel Crosby, Pastor of 
the Winthrop Church, Charlestown, March 3, 1843. By David Greene. 

A Father s Memorial of an Only Daughter. In the First Church in Hartford, Dec. 9, 
1844, on the death of Mrs. Mary E. Van Lenn ep, in Constantinople, Sept. 27, 1844. By 
Joel Hawes, D. D. 

Occasioned by the Death of William J. Armstrong, D. D., 1846. By Nehemiah Adams. 

In the North Dutch Church, Albany, May 6, 1849, on the death of Rev. William J. 
Pohlman, Missionary to China. By Duncan Kennedy, D. D. 

The Rest of Heaven. At Reading, Mass., August 13, 1851, at the Funeral of the Rev. 
Daniel Temple. By William Goodell, Missionary at Constantinople. 

At Oroomiah, Persia, July 9, 1854, occasioned by the death of Rev. William R. Stock 
ing. By Justin Perkins. 

At Seir, Persia, Sept. 17, 1854, occasioned by the death of Rev. Edwin H. Crane. By 
Rev. Samuel A. Rhea. 

At Oroomiah, Oct. 11, 1857, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Martha Ann Rhea. By 
Rev. Austin H. Wright, M. D. 

Occasioned by the death of Mrs. Harriet B. II. Williams, Missionary at Mosul, 
preached at Auburndale, Newton, Mass., Feb. 28, 1858. By Rev. Edward W. Clark. 

OCCASIONAL SERMONS. 

The Duty of the American Churches in respect to Foreign Missions. Preached in the 
Tabernacle, Philadelphia, Sabbath morning, Feb. 16, 1812 ; and in the First Presbyterian 
Church, on the afternoon of the same day. By Rev. Gordon Hall, a Missionary to the East : 
delivered the day but one before he sailed for India. Philadelphia, 1812 ; Andover, 1815. 

At the Old South Church, Boston, June 7, 1819. By Myron Winslow. 

The Dereliction and Restoration of the Jews. In Park-street Church, Boston, Sab 
bath, Oct. 31, 1819, just before the departure of the Palestine Mission. By Levi Par 
sons, Missionary to Palestine. 

The Holy Land an Interesting Field of Missionary Enterprise. In the Old South 
Church, Sabbath evening, Oct. 31, 1819, just before the departure of the Palestine Mission. 
By Pliny Fisk, Missionary to Palestine. 

A Sermon in the Old South Church, Boston, Dec. 16, 1821. By Rev. Daniel Temple, 
just before his departure as a Missionary to Western Asia. 

In the First Church in Hartford, July 7, 1844, on occasion of the Author s Return from 
a Missionary Tour to the Countries east of the Mediterranean. By Joel Hawes, D. D. 

Rev. Stephen Johnson s Thanksgiving Sermon, at Gouverneur, N. Y., Nov. 24, 1853. 

Rev. Lewis Grout s Sermon at the Dedication of a Congregational House of Worship 
in Durban, South Africa, June 8, 1856. 

Rev. Lewis Grout s Discourse on the Religion of Faith and that of Form. At Dur 
ban, 1857. 

Rev. Lewis Grout s Discourse on the Christian Ministry. At Durban, 1857. 

Rev. E. G. Beckwith s Discourse at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, July 25, 1858, at the 
Funeral of Captain Richard Coady. 

The Promise to Abraham. A Missionary Sermon. By Mark Hopkins, D. D. 



LITERATURE OF THE MISSIONS. 



441 



MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. 

Essays on the Present Crisis of the Condition of the American Indians ; first published 
in the National Intelligencer, under the signature of William Perm. By Jeremiah Evarts, 
Secretary A. B. C. F. M. Boston, Perkins & Marvin, 1829. pp. 112. 

Letters from the East. By John Scudder, M. D ., Missionary in Ceylon. Boston, 1833. 

Missionary Sermons and Addresses. By Eli Smith. Boston, 1833. 

Letters to Children. By Rev. E. C. Bridgman, Missionary in China. Boston, ia34. 

Meditations on the Last Days of Christ. By William G. Schauffler, Missionary of tho 
A. B. C. F. M. Boston, William Pierce, 1837. pp. 380. Improved edition, 1858. 

The Conquest of India by the Churclv By Rev. Sendol B. Munger. Boston, 1845. 

Letters from Broosa, Asia Minor. By Mrs. Eliza C. A. Schneider. Chambersburg, 
Pa., 1846. pp. 210. 

Daughters of China ; or, Sketches of Domestic Life in the Celestial Empire. By Eliza 
J. Gillett Bridgman. New York, Carter & Brothers, 1853. pp. 234. 

Reports and Letters connected with Special Meetings of the Mahratta and Tamil Mis 
sions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. 1855. Also, 
Reports of the Syria Mission, and of a Conference at Constantinople ; the above connected 
with the Visit of the Deputation, pp. 472. 

Hints on Missions to India. By Myron Winslow, Missionary at Madras. New York, 
M. W. Dodd, 1856. pp. 236. 

Thoughts on Missions. By Rev. Sheldon Dibble, Missionary hi the Sandwich Islands. 
American Tract Society. 



IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES. 

The whole number of distinct publications in each language is stated, as 
far as known. As the aggregate of the titles in the lists that are at command 
approaches TWO THOUSAND, it will be seen that only a few of the larger and 
more obviously important works can be named. These will suffice to justify 
what is said with respect to the Literature of the Missions in the chapter 
on that subject. It should be stated, that the Scriptures and religious 
Tracts were generally printed at the expense of Bible and Tract Societies. 



ARABIC LANGUAGE. 

Forty-four Titles. 

Elements of Arabic Grammar, 12mo.,pp. 168. 
Arabic Syntax, 16mo., pp. 74. 
Summary of Evangelical Doctrines, 12mo., 

pp. 60. 
Office and Work of the Holy Spirit, 12mo., 

pp. 25f>. 

On Good Works, 16mo., pp. 87. 
Nevius s Thoughts on Popery, 16mo., pp. 156. 
Letter to Syrian Clergy, 16mo., pp. 20. 
Pilgrim s Progress, 12mo. 
Bistany s Arithmetic. 
Alexander s Evidences of Christianity. 
Calhoun s Companion to the Bible. 
Van Dyck s Geography, and Algebra. 
Meshakah on Skepticism. 
On Rites and Ceremonies. 
New Testament, with references. 
New Testament, pocket edition. 



Genesis, 16mo., pp. 136. 
Psalms of David, 12mo., pp. 276. 



MODERN ARMENIAN. 

One hundred and nineteen Titles. 
Armenian and English Grammar, pp. 112. 
Worcester s Astronomy, 16mo., pp. 104. 
Abercrombie on Mental Culture, 24mo., 

pp. 84. 
English and Armenian Grammar, 8vo., 

pp. 112. 

Mother at Home, 16mo., pp. 292. 
Dairyman s Daughter, 12mo., pp. 48. 
Mary Lothrop, 16mo., pp. 96. 
Pilgrim s Progress, 12mo., pp. 814. 
New Testament, in the Ararat dialect, 8vo., 

pp. 548. 
New Testament, with Ancient Armenian in 

parallel columns, 8vo., pp. 1020. 



442 



APPENDIX. 



Book of Psalms, in the Ararat dialect, 16mo., 

pp. 275. 

New Testament, pocket ed., 24mo., pp. 768. 
New Testament, with marginal references, 

12mo., pp. 948. 

New Testament, 12mo., pp. 340. 
Old Testament, 4 vols., 12mo., pp. 3094. 
The Bible, 12mo., pp. 1406. 
The Bible, with references, 8vo., pp. 804. 
Concordance, 8vo., pp. 506. 
Assembly s Shorter Catechism, with Proofs. 
D Aubigne s History of the Reformation, 

2 vols., 8vo., pp. 1088. 

Flavel on Keeping the Heart, 12mo., pp. 180. 
Summary of Christian Theology, 2 vols., 8vo. 
Doddridge s Rise and Progress, 12mo., 

pp. 450. 

Work of the Holy Spirit, 12mo., pp. 173. 
British Martyrology, 12mo., pp. 222. 
Scripture Text Book, 12mo., pp. 838. 
Whately s Evidences, 16mo., pp. 192. 
Church Member s Guide, 12mo., pp. 167. 
Cause and Cure of Infidelity, 12mo., pp. 277. 
Hymn Book, and Church Music, pp. 149. 
Twenty-two Reasons for Attending Public 

Worship, 12mo., pp. 20. 
Protestantism not a New Religion, pp. 44. 
Exposition of an Apostolical Church, pp. 48. 
Protestant Confessions and Catechisms, 

16mo., pp. 265. 

Rule of Faith, 12mo., pp. 402. 
Am I a Christian ? 16mo. and 12mo., pp. 54. 
Life of Zwingle, 12mo., pp. 74. 
Upham s Intellectual Philosophy, pp. 60. 
Bible Dictionary, 8vo., pp. 72. 
Daily Meditations, and Great Truths. 
Mental and Written Arithmetic, 12mo., 

pp. 168. 

Grammar of the Modern Armenian Con 
stantinople Dialect, 8vo., pp. 84. 

ANCIENT ARMENIAN. 

Six Titles. 

New Testament, 16mo., pp. 836. 
The Psalms, 16mo., pp. 285. 
Christian Teacher, 16mo., pp. 500. 
Daily Food for Christians, 16nio. pp. 62. 

ARMENO-TURKISH. 

Turkish in the Armenian Characters. Fifty- 
three Titles. 

Old Testament, 12mo., pp. 2232. 
New Testament, 12mo. pp. 768. 
New Testament, with references, Svo.pp. 336. 
Commentary on Matthew, 8vo., 718. 
Commentary on the N. Testament, pp. 128. 
Chrysostora on Reading the Scriptures, 
12rno., pp. 106. 



Child s Book on the Soul, 16mo., pp. 168. 
Natural Theology, 12mo., pp. 233. 
Abbott s Young Christian, 12mo., pp. 350 
Dialogues on Sin and Salvation, pp. 140. 
Memoir of Dr. Capadose, 12mo., pp. 52. 
False Claims of the Pope, 16mo., pp. 112. 
Head of the Church, 12mo., pp. 52. 
Guide to the Use of the Fathers, 16mo. t 

pp. 318. 

Good Works, 16mo., pp. 44. 
Tract on Intemperance, 12mo., pp. 46. 
Tract on Self-Examiuation, 16mo., pp. 48. 
Light of the Soul, 16mo., pp. 48. 
Mary Lothrop, 24mo., pp. 172. 
Selections from Pike s Persuasions to Piety, 

12mo., pp. 70. 

The Sabbath, 16mo., pp. 116. 
Spelling Book, pp. 64 ; Arithmetic, pp. 68. 
Geography, 12mo., pp. 135. 
Hymn Book, 16mo., pp. 112. 
Fourteen Sermons, 8vo., pp. 316. 
Bogue s Essay, 12mo., pp. 444. 
Scripture Titles of Christ, 16mo., pp. 104. 
Earth s Church History, 12mo., pp. 408. 
Volume of Narrative Tracts, 16mo., pp. 152. 
Essay on Fasts, etc., 12mo., pp. 220. 
Rites and Ceremoniesj f*12mo., pp. 192. 
Lives of Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 428. 



ARMENO-KOORDISH. 

Tliree Titles. 
The Four Gospels, 12mo., pp. 398. 

GR^CO-TURKISH. 

Two Titles. 
The Bible, 8vo., pp. 1128. 

HEBREW-SPANISH. 

Eleven Titles. 

Hebrew Grammar, 8vo., pp. 183. 
Hebrew Lexicon, 8vo., pp. 400. 
Old Testament, 4to., pp. 1498. 
Psalms, pp. 258 j Hymns, pp. 20. 

MODERN GREEK. 

One hundred and eighty-six Titles print 
ed chiefly at Malta and Smyrna. 
Church History, 12mo., pp. 354. 
Sermons of Dr. Jonas King, preached at 

Athens. Athens, 1859, sin. 8vo. pp. 540. 
Miscellaneous Works of Dr. King. Athens, 

1859, sin. 8vo.,pp. 843. 

ITALIAN. 

Forty-eight Titles chiefly at Malta. 



LITERATURE OF THE MISSIONS. 



443 



BULGARIAN. 

Three Titles. 

MODERN SYRIAC. 

Forty-three Titles. 
A Collection of Hymns. 
Scripture Question Book. 
The Pilgrim s Progress. 
Arithmetics ; Geography. 
The Saints Everlasting Rest. 
Doddridge s Rise and Progress. 

Earth s Church History. 
A large Scripture History and Geography. 
A System of Theology. 
The Old Testament, with references. 
The New Testament. 
Grammar of the Modern Syriac. 

ANCIENT AND MODERN SYRIAC. 

Three Titles. 

New Testament, the Peshito version, with 
translation into Modern Syriac, in par 
allel columns, large 4to. 

Old Testament, the Peshito, with translation 
in parallel columns, large 4to., nearly 
1000 pages. 

MAHRATTA. 

One hundred and eighty Titles. 
Old Testament, pp. 942 ; New Test., pp. 268. 
History of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 

Christ, 12mo., pp. 304. 
Child s Book on the Soul, 12mo., pp. 211. 
Arithmetic, pp. 186 ; Grammar, pp. 110. 
Hymns, 18mo., pp. 148. 

GUJARATI. 

Thirty Titles. 

HINDOSTANI. 

Four Titles. 

SANSKRIT. 

Two Titles. 

TAMIL. 

Three hundred and seven Titles in Ceylon 

and at Madras. 

Coming to Christ ; The True Way. 
The Accepted Time ; Bible Doctrines. 
Scripture History, 12mo., pp. 156. 
Rise and Progress, 12mo., pp. 109. 
Pilgrim s Progress, pp. 370. 
Instructor, 5 vols., 18mo., pp. 455. 
Elementary Arithmetic, 18mo., pp. 170. 
Geography of India, 12mo., pp. 206. 

58 



Hymn Book, pp. 506. 
Tamil Dictionary, 8vo., pp. 897. 
Anatomy, by Dr. Greene, pp. 149. 
Algebra, by D. L. Carroll, pp. 252. 
Manual of Private Devotion, pp. 292. 
Barth s Church History, 18mo., pp. 656. 
Watts s Scripture History, 12mo. pp. 458. 
Body of Divinity, 12mo., pp. 600. 
Rhenius s Tamil Grammar, pp. 216. 
The Bible in Tamil, pp. 2158. 
New Testament, 8vo., pp. 372. 
English and Tamil Dictionary, 8vo., pp. 800. 
Old Testament, in part, ISrno., pp. 2580. 

TELUGU. 

Number exceeding onekundred at Madras. 
Generally each work in both Tamil and 
Telugu. 

CHINESE. 

One hundred and fifty Titles. 
A Chrestomathy, in Canton Dialect, pp. 698. 
Easy Lessons in Chinese, 8vo., pp. 287. 
An English and Chinese Vocabulary, in the 

Court Dialect, 8vo., pp. 440. 
Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, 

in the Canton Dialect, 8vo., pp. 832. 
Sermon on the Mount ; The Four Gospels. 
Acts of the Apostles ; Epistle of James. 
Genesis, Chapter 1, with a Commentary. 
New Testament, in the Fuhchau Dialect. 
The Chinese Repository, in English, 20 

vols. A part of the edition destroyed 

by fire in 1857. 

JAPANESE. 

One Title. 

BUGIS. 

Two Titles. 

MALAY. 

Three Titles. 

SIAMESE. 

Forty-four Titles. 
Gospel of Mark , Gospel of John. 
Acts of the Apostles, 2 ed., 8vo., pp. 75. 
The Three Epistles of John. 
The Epistle to the Colossians. 
Genesis, 2 ed. j Life of Christ, pp. 168. 
Geography, pp. 118. 
Histories of the United States, Great Britain, 

France, Spain, and Portugal. 
Old Testament History, in six parts. 
Church History, 8vo., pp. 15S. 
Treatise on Midwifery, 12mo., pp. 156. 



444 



APPENDIX. 



ZULU. 

Thirteen Titles. 

Book of Psalms ; Epistle to the Romans. 
Gospels of Matthew and Mark. 
An Arithmetic and Geography. 
A Grammar, 8vo., pp. 432. 
A Zulu-Kaffir Dictionary, 8vo., pp. 459. 

MPONGWE. 

Twenty-one Titles. 

Colloquial Sentences ; Grammatical Tables. 
Extracts from the New Testament, pp. 84. 
Grammar, with Vocabulary, 8vo. 
Gospels of Matthew and John. 
Exodus, Proverbs, and Acts. 



Seven Titles. 

GREBO. 

Forty-three Titles. 
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John, 12mo., 

pp. 159. 

Dictionary, Grebo and English, 8vo., pp. 126. 
Grammar, 8vo., pp. 30. 

HAWAIIAN. 

Two hundred and thirty-eight Titles. 
Old Testament, 2 vols., 12mo., pp. 1031. 
New Testament, 12mo., pp. 520. 
Child s Arithmetic, 24mo., pp. 48. 
Linear Drawing, 12mo., pp. 32. 
Astronomy, 12mo., pp. 12. 
Mathematics, 12mo., pp. 16. 
Surveying, 8vo., pp. 16. 
Algebra, 8vo., pp. 96. 
Logarithms, 8vo., pp. 16. 
Hymn Book, ICmo., pp. 48. 
Moral Philosophy, 12mo., pp. 48. 
Elements of History, 12mo., pp. 60. 
Scripture Evidences, 12mo., pp. 120. 
Scripture History, 12mo., pp. 282. 
Sacred Geography, 12mo., pp. 88. 
History of Hawaii, 12mo., pp. 224. 
Hawaiian Grammar, 8vo., pp. 156. 
Vocabulary, pp. 96. 
Trigonometry, 8vo., pp. 16. 
Geography, 12mo., pp. 198. 
Colburn s Arithmetic, 24mo., pp. 140. 
Leonard s Arithmetic, 12mo., pp. 156. 
Political Economy, 8vo., pp. 80. 
Church Music, 8vo., pp. 148. 
Dying Testimony of Christians and Infidels. 
Keith on the Prophecies, 12mo., pp. 12. 
Natural Theology, 12mo., pp. 178. 



Church History, 12mo., pp. 349. 
Tract for Parents, 12mo., pp. 12. 
Pilgrim s Progress, 18mo., pp. 432. 
Reading Book for Schools, pp. 340. 
Compend of Ancient History, pp. 76. 
Study of the Globes, 16mo., pp. 40. 
Hawaiian and English Dictionary, pp. 40. 

CHEROKEE. 

Thirty-nine Titles. 
Isaiah, in part, 24mo., pp. 32. 
Psalms and Proverbs, in part, 24mo., pp. 34. 
Genesis and Exodus, in part. 
New Testament, 12mo. ; Hymns, pp. 51. 

CHOCTAW. 

Sixty-one Titles. 
The New Testament, 1848. 
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2d Samuel, 

and 1st and 2d Kings. 
Memoir of Catherine Brown. 
Choctaw Reader ; Choctaw Hymns. 
The World to Come. 

CREEK. 

Five Titles. 

OSAGE. 

Two Titles. 

OTTAWA. 

One Title. 

OJIBWA. 

Fourteen Titles. 
New Testament ; Hymns ; Spelling Book. 

DAKOTA. 

Fifteen Titles. 

Grammar and Dictionary, 4to., pp. 338. 

Dakota Scriptures Genesis, part of Psalms, 
Gospels of Luke and John, Acts, Paul s 
Epistles, and Rev., 2 vols., pp. 528. 

Hymns. 

ABENAQUIS. 

Two Titles. 

SENECA. 

Not fully reported. 
Spelling Book. 
Gospel of Luke. 
Hymns, 1852, 16mo., pp. 230. 



LITERATURE OF THE BOARD. 445 



ADDITIONAL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS. 

Sermon at the Tabernacle Church in Salem, February 6, 1812, at the Ordination of Messrs. 
Samuel Newell, Adoniram Judson, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall, and Luther Rice, as Mis 
sionaries to the Heathen. By Leonard "Woods, D. D. 

Paul on Mars Hill ; or, A Christian Survey of the Pagan World. A Sermon preached 
at Newburyport, June 21, 1815, at the Ordination of Messrs. Samuel J. Mills, James 
Richards, Edward Warren, Horatio Bardwell, Benjamin C. Meigs, and Daniel Poor, as 
Missionaries to the Heathen. By Samuel Worcester, D. D. 

The Duty and Reward of Missionary Labors. A Sermon preached at Newburyport in 
the Year 1815. By Rev. Horatio Bardwell, late Missionary at Bombay. 

Idolatry of the Hindoos. A Sermon preached November 20, 1816, at the Annual Meet 
ing- of the Female Foreign Missionary Society of Franklin, Conn. By Rev. Samuel Nott, 
late Missionary at Bombay. 

The Bible a Code of Laws. A Sermon delivered in Park Street Church, Boston, Sep 
tember 3, 1817, at the Ordination of Sereno Edwards D wight, as Pastor of that Church ; 
and of Messrs. Elisha P. Swift, Allen Graves, John Nichols, Lcvi Parsons, and Daniel 
Buttrick, as Missionaries to the Heathen. By Rev. Lyman Beechcr. 

Instructions from the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, to the Rev. Levi Parsons and the Rev. Pliny Fisk, Missionaries 
designated for Palestine. Delivered in the Old South Church, Boston, October 31, 1S19. 
By Samuel Worcester, D. D., Corresponding Secretary. 

Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Samuel Worcester, D. D., delivered in the 
Tabernacle Church, Salem, Mass., July 12, 1821. By Leonard Woods, D. D. 

God s Ways not as our Ways. A Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Samuel 
Worcester, D. D., Senior Pastor of the Tabernacle Church, iu Salem, Mass. By Elias 
Cornelius, Surviving Pastor. 1821. 

India and the Hindoos. Being a Popular View of the Geography, History, Government 
Manners, Customs, and Religion, of that Ancient People ; with a new and correct Map 
of India. By Rev. F. DeW. Ward. New York, London, and Edinburgh. 

Remarks on the Best Term for God in Chinese. By Rev. L. B. Peet, Missionary at 
Fuhcliou. Canton, 1852. 

Discourse at the Semi-centennial Anniversary of the Institution of the American Board 
of Commissioners for Forcigfn Missions, preached at Bradford, Mass., June 29, 1800. By 
Samuel M. Worcester, D. D. 

The following publications were in the Journal of the American Oriental 
Society : 

Treatise on Arab Music, chiefly from the work of Mikhail Meshakah, of Damascus. 
Translated from the Arabic, by Eli Smith. 1847. 

Comparative Vocabularies of some of the principal Negro Dialects of Africa. By John 
Leighton Wilson. 1849. 

The Zulu Language. By James C. Bryant. 1849. 

The Zulu and other Dialects of Southern Africa. By Lewis Grout. 1849. 

Translation of an Imperial Berat, issued by Sultan Selim III., A. H. 1215, appointing 
the Monk Johannes Patriarch of all the Armenians of Turkey, with Notes. By Rev. 
H. G. O. Dwight. 1849. 

Condition of the Medical Profession in Syria. By C. V. A. Van Dyck, M. D. 1849. 

Plan for a Uniform Orthography of South African Dialects. By American Mission 
aries. 1850. 

Contribution to the Geography of Central Kurdistan. By Azariah Smith, M. D. 1850. 

Shabbatlmi Zevi and his Followers. By William G. Schauffler. 1851. 

On Japanese Syllabaries. By Samuel AVells Williams. 1851. 

Journal of a Tour from Oroomiah to Mosul, through the Kurdish Mountains, and a 
Visit to the Ruins of Nineveh. By Justin Perkins, D. D. 1851. 

Notes of a Tour in Mount Lebanon and the Eastern Side of Lake Huleh. By Henry 
A. De Forest, M. D. 1851. 



446 APPENDIX. 

Remarks on the Mode of Applying the Electric Telegraph in Connection with the 
Chinese Language. By William Macy. 1852. 

Catalogue of all the Works known to exist in the Armenian Language of a date earlier 
than the Seventeenth Century. By H. G. O. Dwight. 1853. 

Notes on Ruins in the Buka a and in the Belad Ba albek. By Henry A. De Forest, 
M. D. 1853. 

On the Relations of the Maratha to the Sanscrit. By Henry Ballantine. 1853. 

Brief Notes on the Tamil Language. By Henry R. Hoisington. 1853. 

An Essay on the Phonology and Orthography of the Zulu and kindred Dialects of 
Southern Africa. By Lewis Grout. 1853. 

Tattuva-Kattalei, Law of the Tattuvam. A Synopsis of the Mystical Philosophy of the 
Hindus, translated from the Tamil, with Notes. By Rev. Henry R. Hoisington. 1853. 

Siva-Gnana-Potham, Instruction in the Knowledge of God. A Metaphysical and Theo 
logical Treatise, translated from the Tamil. By Rev. Henry R. Hoisington. 1853. 

Siva-Pirakasam, Light of Sivan. A Metaphysical and Theological Treatise, translated 
from the Tamil, with Notes. By Rev. Henry R. Hoisington. 1854. 

State and Prospects of the English Language in India. By David O. Allen, D. D. 1854. 

Letters from H. Lobdell, M. D., respecting recent Discoveries at Koyunjik. 1854. 

Grammar of the Modern Syriac Language, as spoken in Oroomiah, Persia, and in Koor- 
distan. By Rev. D. T. Stoddard. 1855. 

Observations on the Prepositions, Conjunctions, and other Particles of the Isizulu and 
its Cognate Languages. By Rev. Lewis Grout. 1858. 

Translation of the Sarya-Siddhanta, a Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy, with Notes and 
an Appendix. By Rev. Ebenezer Burgess, assisted by the Com. of Publication. 1860. 

Inverted Construction of Modern Armenian. By Elias Riggs, D. D. 1800. 

On Dr. Samuel Wells Williams s Tonic Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Can 
ton Dialect. By Rev. William A. Macy. 18GO. 

The following were in the Bibliotheca Sacra and Am. Biblical Repository : 

Contributions to the Climatology of Palestine. By H. A. De Forest, M. D. 

The Produce of the Vineyard in the East. By Rev. Henry A. Homes. 

Description of Seleucia, Anticoh, Aleppo, etc. By Rev. William M. Thomson. 

Journey from Aleppo to Mount Lebanon by Jeble El-Aala, Apamia, Riblah, etc. By 
Rev. William M. Thomson. 

The Kingdom of Congo and the Roman Catholic Missionaries. By Rev. J. L. Wilson. 

India as a Field for Inquiry and Evangelical Labor. By Rev. H. R. Hoisington. 

Caste in the Island of Ceylon. By Rev. Benjamin C. Meigs, Rev. Daniel Poor, D. D., 
and Rev. William A. Howland. 

Notes upon the Geography of Macedonia. By Rev. Edward M. Dodd. 

Notes on Palestine. By Rev. William M. Thomson. 

The Wines of Mount Lebanon. By Eli Smith, D. D. 

Turkish Toleration. By Eli Smith, D. D. 

Journal of a Visit to the Yezidees. By Rev. Thomas Laurie. 

The Sources of the Jordan. By Rev. William M. Thomson. 

Tour from Beirut to Aleppo in 1845. By Rev. William M. Thomson. 

Life, Character, Writings, Doctrines, and Influence of Confucius. By Rev. Ira Tracy. 

The Mandingo, Grebo, and Mpongwe Dialects. By Rev. John L. Wilson. 

Maps of Palestine. By Rev. Samuel Wolcott. 

Geographical Notes on Palestine. By Rev. Samuel Wolcott. 

Iii most of the other accessible periodicals, to which missionaries of the 
American Board may be supposed to have contributed articles, the names of 
the writers are not usually given. Discussions of important subjects may 
be found -appended to several of the Annual Reports of the Board ; and the 
Missionary Herald is well known to be mainly composed of Letters and Jour 
nals from the Missionaries. 



INDEX. 



Act of Incorporation, 405. 

Africa, Southern, origin of mission to, 240. 

Africa, Western, instructions to first mis 
sionary to, 235-240. 

Agencies, 177-194 ; cost of, 169, 189, 190, 194 ; 
of two kinds, 177 ; usefulness of, 182 ; 
their proper sphere, 189. 

Agencies, subordinate, in missions, falling 
into their places, 247. 

Agents, 177 ; pastors as such, 177 ; mission 
aries, 183 ; general agents, 188 ; district 
secretaries, 18 J. 

Ahmednuggur mission, prosperity of, 266. 

Aintab, self supporting church at, 262. 

Alleghanies, first meeting beyond the, 142. 

Allen, David O., D. D., 380. 

" Alligator," and her India voyage, 195. 

Alphabet, Guess s Cherokee, 340 ; specimen 
of, 342 ; Arabic, 343 ; Syriac, 343. 

American Board of Commissioners for For 
eign Missions, its origin, 15, 39-63 ; act 
of incorporation, 405 ; first subscriptions 
to, 64 ; object of, 77 ; growth, 76, 78, 80- 
83 ; magnitude, 16 ; results, 16, 17 ; pol 
icy, 19 ; founded on a principle of union, 

24, 87, 88 ; national, 80 ; free from secta 
rian strife, 25 ; its missions self-govern 
ing, 25 ; true conception of, 30 ; may be 
open to improvements, 31, 83, 85, 86 ; 
first meeting, 60; difficulties in obtain 
ing its charter, 69-76 ; value of the char 
ter, 76 ; constitution and membership, 

25, 77-85, 409 ; relations to ecclesiastical 
bodies, 86-101; founders, SO, 102-125; 
meetings, 126-144 ; Prudential Commit 
tee, and places for transacting the busi 
ness, 145-150; correspondence, library, 
and cabinet, 151-157 ; finances, 158-176 ; 
agencies, 177-194 ; relations to govern 
ments, 195-205 ; deceased Secretaries of, 
206-221 ; for whom it acts, 77 ; corporate 
members, 83, 407 ; corresponding mem 
bers, 81 ; honorary members, 81, 82 
attendance at meetings, 84 ; relations of 
the Board, 86, 97 ; its responsibility, 86 
not an ecclesiastical body, 98 ; has no 
ecclesiastical powers, 98 ; not a volun 



tary association, 99 ; its practical work 
ing, 85, 100. 
American Missionary Association, 18. 
Anderson, Rev. Ruius, 126, 148, 353, 361, 379. 
Andover Theological Seminary, its influence 

on missions, 42. 
Annual Meeting of the Board, spontaneous 

vote of, 4, 137 ; pledges at, 137, 138. 
Annual Report, 171, 190. 
Apostolical churches, difficulties in, 248; 

piety of, 219. 
Apploton, Jesse, D. D., 108. 
Appropriations and estimates, origin of, 

108. 
Arabic letters, 343, 376; versions of the 

Scriptures, 37G. 
Armenian type, Modern, 377. 
Armstrong, lion. Samuel T., 128, 131. 
Armstrong, William Jessup, D. D., 218. 
Asia, its religious destitution described by 

Gordon Hall, 227. 

Associations and Auxiliaries, extensive or 
ganization of, 183-185 ; cause of decline 
of, 186. 

Bacon, Leonard, D. D., 383, 394. 

Bailey, Rev. Kiah, 42. 

Baird, Robert, D. D., visit to Holland, 202 ; 

interview with Louis Philippe, 203. 
Benevolent giving, laws of, 179. 
Benson, Egbert, LL. D., 120. 
Bible, to be given to the people, 243, 246. 
Bingham, Rev. Hiram, 380. 
Biography of missionaries, 435. 
Board of Foreign Missions of Reformed 

Protestant Dutch Church, 18, 90. 
Book-making, when unduly prominent, 247. 
Boudinot, Elias, LL. D., 117. 
Breath, Edward, 343. 
Brookfield Auxiliary, 178 ; use made of its 

reports, 179. 
Brusa and the native church, 263. 

Cabinet at Missionary House, 157. 
Capodistrias, Count, President of Greece, 

353. 
Caste, 2%. 

(447) 



448 



INDEX. 



Catechist described, 225. 

Centralizing policy, effect on village sta 
tions, 265 ; when it should be changed, 
265 5 striking effect of a change, 266. 

Chapin, Calvin, D. D., 113, 128, 139. 

Chavagacherry and native church, 264. 

Cherokee alphabet, 342. 

Children of missionaries, returned, 278. 

China, origin of missions to, 240. 

Christianized communities, 253-264. 

Churches, 281-303; relation of missionaries 
to native churches, 281-285 ; tabular view 
of, 303. 

Collector, a model, 185. 

Communities Christianized, 253-204. 

Conference at Liverpool, 363, 393. 

Contrasts in nature and Christianity, 11. 

Copying letters, 153. 

Cornelius, Elias, D. D., 128, 178, 213-210. 

Cornwall, Foreign Missionary School at, 
329. 

Correspondence, earlier and later, 151 ; free 
dom of, 153. 

Corresponding Secretaries, number and du 
ties of, 154. 

Crowninshield, B. W., 72, 74. 

Dana, Richard H., 393. 
Davis, Henry, D. D., 107. 
Day Spring, 190, 193. 

Debt, liberation from, 3 ; discussion con 
cerning, 3. 

Deputations to the missions, 346-368, 382. 
Deputations to auxiliary meetings, 187. 
District secretaries, 188. 
Donations, as the result of church action, 88. 
D wight, Dr. H. G. O., 233, 263, 379. 
Dwight, Rev. Sereno E., 298. 
Dwight, Timothy, D..D., 56, 61, 103. 

East India Company, tolerance of, 196. 

Education, the Board preeminently con 
cerned in, 327. 

Edwards, Justin, D. D., 128, 137. 

English admiral in the war with England, 
195. 

English friends of the Board, 196. 

English language, use of, in schools, 323. 

Epoch, a new, anticipated, 3 4 ; signs of its 
approach, 35. 

Estimates and appropriations, origin of, 
168 ; a new arrangement, 169, 433. 

Eutujian, Rev. K. H. S., 287. 

Evarts, Jeremiah, 50, 73, 124, 210, 347, 348. 

Exigency, worth of an, 159. 

Expenditures of the Board, 163. 

Exploring tours, 379, 437. 

Faith, its place in missions, 21, 27 ; influence 
on missionary confidence, 164. 



Ferris, Isaac, D. D., 2 ; his visit to Holland, 

202. 
Field and work, at the close of half-century, 

383-401. 

Finances of the Board, 158-176. 
First missionaries, ordination of, 44. 
Fische, pastor, from Paris, 2. 
Fisher, Samuel W., D. D., 1. 
Fisk, Rev. Pliny, 229, 353. 
Foreign missions, origin of, 15. 
Foreman, Rev. Stephen, a Cherokee, 302. 
Frelinghuysen, Theodore, LL. D., 144. 
Funds, difficulty in obtaining, 158. 

General agents, 188. 

General Assembly of Presbyterian Church 
declines forming a Foreign Missionary 
Board, 17, 79 ; commends the Board to 
its churches, 79, 89, 90 ; Old School As 
sembly forms a new Board, 97. 

General Association of Connecticut, 87. 

General Association of Massachusetts, 49," 87. 

General Synod of Reformed Protestant 
Dutch Church, arrangement with, 90- 
94 ; dissolved, 94-96. 

Geography, progress in knowledge of, 387. 

God s people, addressed now, as never be 
fore, 401. 

Government of United States, relations of 
missionaries to, 197-202. 

Governments, relations to, 195; acts of 
kindness, 204 ; duty of praying for, 205. 

Greek mind, singular state of. 355. 

Green, Ashbel, D. D., 104. 

Greene, Rev. David, speech of, 133 ; letter 
from, 140; visit to Indian missions, 
350. 

Hall, Gordon, 40, 41, 43 ; letters from, 43. 

Hawes, Joel, D. D., 354. 

Haystack, prayer under the, 15. 

Hill, Henry, Esq., letter from, 143. 

Historical catalogue of the missions, 268. 

Historical works by missionaries, 380, 437. 

History of the Board, 381. 

Hooker, Hon. John, 73, 123. 

Hopkins, Mark, D. D., Semi-centennial Dis 
course of, 2, 10-36. 

House of Representatives, their stand for 
the Board, 74. 

Hubbard, Hon. Samuel, 128, 131. 

Huntington, Gen. Jedidiah, 118. 

Huss, Rev. John, a Cherokee, 302. 

Incorporation of the Board, how extensive 
ly recognized, 76. 

Indebtedness, 175 ; responsibility for it, 176. 

Instructions to missionaries, extracts from, 
229, 234, 235. 

Investments, 173. 



INDEX. 



449 



Jay, John, LL. D., 118, 119. 
Jones, Hon. William, 80, 122. 
Journal of Missions, 190, 194. 
Jubilee Meeting, account of, 1-7; resolu 
tions at, 4-0 ; interesting scene, 4. 
Judson, Adoniram, D. D., 39-41, 43, 48, 50, 57. 
Judson, Mrs. Ann H., 47, 52. 

Keep, Rev. John, his reminiscences, 49-53. 
King-, Jonas, D. D., 353, 355. 

Langdon, John, LL. D., 110. 

Languages reduced to writing, 339 ; number 

employed, 343. 

Laws of benevolent giving, 179-182. 
Letter-books, 152. 
Library of the Board, 155. 
Literature of the Board and its missions, 

3G9-382, 435. 
Lyman, Joseph, D. D., 110. 

Mahratta mission, origin of, 227. 
Manuscript volumes at the Missionary 

House, 152. 

Marash, great power of the gospel at, 203. 
Mason, Dr. Lowell, 354. 
Meigs, Rev. Benjamin C., 295. 
Memoirs, 378, 435. 
Micronesian mission, origin of, 235. 
Miller, Samuel, D. D., 108. 
Mills, Samuel J., 15, 39, 40. 
Missionaries, ecclesiastically free, 25. 
Missionaries, 270-280 ; described, 28, 29, 270 
principle underlying their engagement 
270; make the first advance, 27, 270 
their appointment, designation, and sup 
port, 271 ; prerequisites, 29, 271 ; ordi 
nation and marriage, 272 ; number sen 
forth, 273 ; where educated in theology 
274 ; length of service, 274 ; providentia 
care of, 275 ; as physicians, unmarrio 
females, farmers, mechanics, 270 ; sup 
port of, 277 ; when disabled or superan 
nuated, 277 ; their returned children 
278 ; portraits of, 157 ; as agents, 186 
claims of as American citizens, 198. 
Missionary Biography, 435. 
Missionary enterprise, pecuniary valuatio 

of the, 398. 
Missionary expenditure, current impressioi 

concerning, 3. 
Missionary experience, works descriptiv 

of, 382. 

Missionary Herald, 179, 190, 193, 372. 
Missionary Histories, reference to, 48. 
Missionary House, its cost and advantages 

149. 
Missionary organizations, extent of, an 

Protestant and Papal forms of, 389. 
Missionary Sermons, 190, 438. 



lissionary societies, a limit to the ability 

of, 250. 
Missionary spirit promotive of union, 22. 

lissionary tracts, 373 ; number published, 
190 ; list of, 191, 441. 

lission churches, 25 ; allowance for failings 
in, 249 ; hard to reach the self-sustain 
ing point, 250. 

Vlissions, acknowledged as a duty, 388 ; their 
power in the cross, 26 ; success of, 27, 
390-397 ; cost of, 1G4 ; object of, 242 , 
constitution of, 225 ; natives not mem 
bers of, 226 ; territorial extent of, 22u . 
conformed to the habits of the Ameri 
can people, 226 ; responsibilities of, 227 ; 
origin of the, 227-241 ; compact of mem 
bers of, 234 ; development of, 242 ; laws 
of growth, 244 ; how the work may be 
completed, 247; difficulties to be sur 
mounted, 247 ; necessarily progressive, 
244 ; an unsettled problem, 247 ; too 
much required of, 250 ; may grow and 
yet not increase their cost to the Socie 
ty, 251 ; when their work is completed, 
251 ; historical catalogue of, 268 ; in 
Western Asia, 229-233, 202, 394, 396 ; in 
Africa, 235-240, 391 ; in India, 264, 265, 
391, 397; in Eastern Asia, 240; in Isl 
ands of the Pacific, 234, 253, 393 ; among 
North American Indians, 257; success 
of, 390 ; their reactionary influence, 74 ; 
pecuniary value, 398. 

Modern Syriac version of Scriptures, 377. 

Morris, Hon. Oliver B., letter from, 71. 

Morrison, ship, free for missionaries, 240 ; 
voyage to Japan, 240. 

Morse, Jedediah, D. D., 70, 111, 298. 

Morton, Hon. Marcus, 75. 

Mullens, Joseph, D. D., 362, 390. 

Native agency, should have room to grow, 



Native church, value of, 226 ; should be ho 
mogeneous with the people, 226; rela 
tions of missionaries to, 226. 

Native pastors, 262-264. 

Native preachers of the first generation, 267. 

Nepean, Sir Evan, appeal to, 196. 

Ncstorian missions, extent of ancient, 397. 

Nestorians, origin of mission to, 233. 

Newell, Samuel, 39, 40. 

Newell, Mrs. Harriet, 47, 52. 

Norton, L. M., a model collector, 185. 

Nott, Rev. Samuel, 39,40 ; letter from, 53-59. 

Oahu College, 328. 
Olyphant, D. W. C., 240. 
Ordination, the first missionary, 45. 
Organization, extensive systematic, 183. 
Outstations, meaning of, 225. 



464 



INDEX. 



Panoplist, The, 191. 

Parker, Key. Samuel, 379. 

Parsous, Rev. Levi, 229. 

Pastors as agents, 177. 

Payson, Seth, D. D., 111. 

Pera, self -supporting- church at, 262. 

Periodicals, 1 ( JO, 370. 

Perkins, Justin, D. D., 380. 

Permanent Funds, 173. 

Petition for charter, 70. 

Philadelphia,remarkable meeting in, 129-138. 

Phillips, Hon. William, 73, 121. 

Political ascendency of Protestant Chris 
tendom, 388. 

Polygamy, 297. 

Porter, Noah, D. D., letter from, GO-63. 

Portraits of missionaries, collection of, 157. 

Postage of the Board, 151, 171. 

Preaching, 333-339 ; the leading agency in 
missions, 243, 246 ; its relation to faith, 
22. 

Preaching houses, 338. 

Prentiss, Dr. Nathaniel, 71. 

Press, 190-194, 339-345. 

Prime, S. Irenaeus, D. D., 129. 

Printing, amount of, 190, 344. 

Printing establishments, list of, 344. 

Proudflt, Rev. Alexander M., D. D., 114-116. 

Prudential Committee, members and meet 
ings, 145 ; constitution of the body, at 
tendance of executive officers, and man 
ner of doing business, 146; places for 
transacting the business, 148 ; duty and 
powers of, 167 ; early misgivings of, 46. 

Ralston, Robert, Esq., 44, 122, 123. 

Receipts of the Board, 160-162. 

Reed, Hon. William, 128, 146. 

Remedial influences for the world, now the 

time for their application, 400. 
Remittances, 172. 
Reports of the Board, 190, 372. 
Resolutions, historical, 4. 
Rice, Rev. Luther, 17, 40, 45. 
Richards, James, D.D., 105. 
Richards, Rev. James, 40. 
Robinson, Edward, D. D., 380. 

Salaries of officers, 171. 

Sandwich Islands, instructions to first mis 
sionaries, 234 ; Christianized, 253-257. 

School books, 374, 441. 

Schools, common, 304-310 ; higher, 310-327 ; 
for foreign youth at Cornwall, 329; 
place in missions, 244. 

Scriptures, versions of, 375; helps for un 
derstanding the, 377 ; distribution of, 397. 

Secretaries, deceased, notices of, 206-221. 



Sermons, missionary, 190, 370, 438. 

Sewall, General Henry, 122. 

Slavery, 140, 303, 357, 358, 361. 

Smith, Eli, D. D , 233, 343, 353, 379, 380. 

Smith, John Cotton, LL. D., 127. 

Social and religious condition of mankind, 

progress in knowledge of, 388. 
Society of The Brethren, 15, 39. 
Special committee on India deputation, 366. 
Spring, Samuel, D. D., 41^3, 50, 73, 109. 
Station, what is a, 225. 
Stations, nature of, 225 ; what is implied in 

Christianizing them, 262, 264. 
Syriac alphabet, 343. 

Tamil missions, origin of, 228. 
Taylor, Rev. H. S., 293. 
Thompson, Rev. Augustus C., 361. 
Thomson, William M., D. D., 380. 
Traveling expenses of agents, 170. 
Travels, missionary, 437. 
Treadwell, John, LL. D., 118. 
Treat, Rev. Selah B., visit of to Indian mis 
sions, 357. 
Trcbizond and the native church, 263. 

Union to be the ultimate condition of the 
Church, 24. 

United Foreign Missionary Society amalga 
mated with the Board, 88. 

Van Renssclaer, Stephen, LL. D., 127. 
Votes by Yea and Nay, 140. 

Walworth, Reuben H., LL.D., 137. 

Warren, Rev. Dr., Secretary of Baptist Mis 
sionary Union, 2. 

Webster, Hon. Daniel, dispatch of, 201. 

Western Asia, first mission to, 229; in 
structions to first missionaries, 229-232 ; 
missions to, 233. 

Western Foreign Missionary Society adopt 
ed by Old School General Assembly, 97. 

White, Hon. D. A., his reply to Crownin- 
shield, 74. 

Wilson, John Leighton, D. D., 380. 

Wisner, Benjamin Blydenburg, D. D., 128, 
216-218. 

Wood, Rev. George W., visit to Indian mis 
sions, 361. 

Woods, Leonard, D. D., 128, 146. 

Worcester, Samuel, D. D., 42, 47, 50, 61, 65, 
70, 113, 114, 206, 229, 298, 347. 

Worcester, S. M., D. D., address of, 63-68. 

World, fifty years ago, 383, 390 ; at the pres 
ent time, 387. 

Yale, Elisha, D. D., 130. 



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