THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS
THE AMERICAN BAPTISTS I.FOREIGN MISSIONS--ASIA A.American Baptists were called to foreign mission work in 1814 on this wise.
1.In 1812 Rev. Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann Hasseltine Judson, with Rev. Luther Rice, were appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to establish missions in Asia. Messrs. a)Judson and Rice sailed in different vessels to India, and on their voyage, without consultation with each other, they re-examined the New Testament teaching on baptism. b)The result was that they both adopted the views of the Baptists c)once they made this change known to the world, they were cut off from their former denominational support.
2.Mr. Rice returned to the United States to awaken in the Baptist Churches a zeal for the establishment of missions in India a)thirty-six delegates from eleven States and the District of Columbia, who met in Philadelphia, May 18th, 1814 b)a society was formed, called The Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions c)the Convention enlarged its work by appropriating a portion of its funds (1)to domestic missionary purposes,
(2)and also by determining ’to institute a classical and theological seminary’ to train young men for the ministry, (3)these measures diverted the Convention considerably from its’ missionary purpose.
3.Meanwhile, Mr. and Mrs. Judson were driven by the intolerance of the government from Bengal and preceded to Rangoon, to commence missionary work in Burma, where they arrived July 13th, 1813 a)without an English-speaking helper, a grammar, a dictionary or a printed book, They began the study of the language b)twenty-one years later, Mr. Judson was able to lay the whole Bible, faithfully translated, before the Burman people. c)Their first congregation numbered fifteen d)The first convert, Moung Nau, was baptized six years later on June 27th, 1819; two others were immersed in November of that year.
4.As the laws of Burma made it a capital crime for a native to change his religion, Judson and Coleman thought it prudent to visit the Emperor at the capital, that they might, if possible, secure toleration for the converts who had become Christians. a)They went up on this errand to Amarapura in December, carrying to the Emperor an elegant Bible in six volumes, enveloped, according to Burman taste, in a beautiful wrapper. b)A tract, also, was prepared and presented, containing a brief summary of Christianity. c)The Emperor read but two sentences of the tract and threw it from him in displeasure; he also declined to accept the Bible. d)During the war a native preacher remained in Rangoon; e)after the war, however, the Church numbered twenty members, nearly all baptized by him. f)The terms of peace annexed a large portion of Burman territory to British India, and from that time the mission fell under British protection.
B. TAVOY was the third of the Burman missions: its establishment being due to a suggestion of the first native Burman preacher, who proposed to make a missionary journey there in 1827. Here that great work amongst the Karens commenced; here the first Karen preacher was baptized, and near Tavoy Mr. Mason performed his first official act as a missionary in baptizing thirty-four Karens.
C. HENTHADA was opened as a mission station after the war of 1852.
1. Mr. Thomas was the first missionary to the Karens of this mission, and Mr. Crawley to the Burmans. At first many of the natives, attracted by curiosity, thronged as visitors to the missionaries, who, after the Gospel was introduced, became zealous converts; for at the end of the first year the Karen department reported 8 churches and 150 members.
2. At the end of ten years, the mission reported 751 Burman converts and five preachers.
D. ARRACAN, on the western coast of Burma, became a mission station in 1835, and, at different times, thirteen missionaries and their wives labored there with much success.
E.PROME has ever been a scene of missionary interest, on account of the visit paid to that city by Dr. Judson in 1830, although for twenty-four years after that visit no missionary returned there 1.All upper Burma is now included in the territory cultivated by the American Baptists.
F. ASSAM was opened as a mission in 1836 by Messrs. Nathan Brown and O. T. Cutter, who had been previously stationed in Burma.
G. The GAROS were first visited in 1857, and that movement opened one of the brightest chapters in the history of the mission to Assam. A torn tract, swept out of a building which had been cleaned and prepared for a new tenant, was picked up by a Sepoy guard and read. It led to his conversion; he became an efficient preacher to his tribe, and in 1867, a Church was formed amongst them, numbering 40 members.
1. Dean joined the mission in 1834; and devoted himself to the Chinese department; left Siam in 1842, and returned to Bangkok in 1864.
2. In August, 1835, he preached his first sermon to 34 natives, and in 1841, formed a class of Chinese preachers, which he continued till he left for Hong Kong.
H. THE TELUGUS. This Indian mission has been amongst the most successful and renowned in modern times. The Telugu nation numbers about 18,000,000, residing mainly in India, west of the Bay of Bengal, and between Calcutta on the north and Madras on the south.
1. The mission was commenced in 1836, by Messrs. Day and Van Husen.
2. For the first twenty years the work was discouraging and many proposed to abandon it, but a few pleaded for its continuance and prevailed.
3. The first permanent station of the mission was Nellore. Rev. Mr. Jewett joined the mission in April, 1849, and preached his first sermon in Telugu in December, eight months after his arrival.
4. Mr. MeLanrin came to the help of the missionaries in 1870, when 1,000 villages had heard the Gospel
5. Many asked for baptism, but he refused to baptize any while the famine lasted lest they should profess Christianity from wrong motives.
6. In the mission, at the same date, there were 287 stations, 40 missionaries, male and female, 160 native preachers, 46 churches, 292 schools, and 4,270 pupils.
II.FOREIGN MISSIONS--China A.CHINA.
1. The Missionary Union has two missions in the empire of China, the Southern and the Eastern. Mr. Shuck and Mr. Roberts founded the Southern mission, being followed by Dr. William Dean, who readied Hong Kong in 1842.
2. Thirty-three services were held every week in Chinese, and in 1844 nineteen were baptized.
3. In 1848 Mr. Johnson joined the mission, and in that year 20,000 tracts were distributed; also, Dr. Dean’s ’ notes on the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Genesis.’
B. Inmoro, or the Eastern China mission, has its principal station at Ningpo.
1.It has been occupied from 1843, when Dr. Maegowan opened a hospital. a)In eight months of the next year 2,139 cases were treated. b)A chapel was opened in 1846, and a congregation of from eighty to one hundred attended, some also being baptized. c)In 1853, Mr. Goddard, who had joined the mission at Ningpo, completed an independent version of the New Testament, pronounced by competent judges the best Chinese version that has been made. d)The first Baptist Chinese Association was formed there, numbering six Churches, with twenty-three delegates III.FOREIGN MISSIONS -JAPAN.
A. This mission was commenced by the appointment of Dr. Nathan Brown, once missionary to Assam, in May, 1872.
1. He arrived on his field in February, 1873.
2. A Church of eight members was formed at Yokohama in 1873.
3. . The first baptism in Tokio was in October, 1875.
4.At Yokohama a daily Bible class was established and a Sabbath-school; a native preacher labored, and by 1876 the Church numbered twenty-two members IV.Foreign Missions - Africa
A. AFRICA. The mission to the continent of Africa was commenced almost simultaneously with that in Burma, and several devoted missionaries sacrificed their lives in that inhospitable climate.
1. The mission, begun in MOUROVIA, LIBERIA, was continued with indifferent success and under many discouragements, until 1856.
2. The labors of Lott Carey (a Black minister), Skinner and others, were amongst Africans restored to their own country from America, and the Bassa tribe in the vicinity. Mr. Clarke, one of the missionaries, prepared a dictionary of the Bassa language, and nine Bassa young men were converted.
3. One native came to the United States, was baptized here, learned the printer’s trade, and was about to return to his own people when he died.
4. So many of the missionaries died after a brief period on the field that the mission was suspended in 1856
5. in 1868, the work was renewed, and Robert Hill (A Black Minister) was appointed a missionary; he never reached his field.
6.In 1869-70, 153 were baptized, and the mission reported 218 converts 7.in 1871 two Churches were organized and a place of worship dedicated.
8.Two years afterwards, 19 Bassas cast off idolatry and embraced Christ B.THE CONGO MISSION, in Central Africa,
1. was first sustained by Mr. and Mrs. Guinness, of London, and much money was expended, largely out of their own possessions, in buildings and the maintenance of a steam-boat to ply on the river Congo and its branches, with other provisions for prosecuting mission work.
2. They proposed to turn over to the American Baptists all the mission property in the Congo country, including land, buildings, the steam-boat and the missionary force, on condition that the work be carried forward on the principles of the Missionary Union.
3. In 1885 this proffer was accepted, and the work undertaken.
4. On grounds of expediency, some of the stations were transferred to another society laboring near them, and arrangements were made to bring the work into line with the general methods of work pursued by the Union.
5. In 1886 five stations were reported, thirteen male missionaries, two black ministers, and two single women.