MEETING OF THE BOARD FOR 1854-5. PHILADELPHIA, May 19, 1854. Immediately after the adjournment of the American Baptist Missionary Union, the Board of Managers met, according to the requirements of the Constitution, the Hon. Ira Harris presiding. The following members were present: Prayer was offered by the Rev. J. C. Burroughs, Ill. Messrs C. D. Gould and S. Colgate having been appointed tellers, the Board proceeded to ballot for a Chairman and Recording Secretary, and elected The Hon. IRA HARRIS, LL. D., Chairman, The Rev. SEWALL S. CUTTING, Recording Secretary. Messrs. J. M. Linnard, Sanderson, Train, Lathrop, and Ives, were appointed a committee to nominate an Executive Committee, two Corresponding Secretaries, a Treasurer, and an Auditing Committee, and the following persons, having beeen nominated, were elected an Executive Committee, &c., by ballot: Minister's. BARON STOW, D. D., JOSEPH W. PARKER, D. D., ROBERT W. CUSHMAN, D. D. Laymen. HEMAN LINCOLN, SOLOMON PECK, D. D., Corresponding Secretary for the Foreign Department. Edward BRIGHT, D. D., Corresponding Secretary for the Home Department. Resolved, That the salaries of the Corresponding Secretaries and Treasurer be $1,600 each for the current year. The report on the Karen missions was amended and accepted. REPORT. The Committee to whom was referred that part of the Annual Report which relates to the Karen Missions in Maulmain, Tavoy, Bassein, Shwaygyeen, and Toungoo, present the following as their report: The history of these missions the past year affords increasing evidence of the truth and appropriateness of the sentiment so often applied to this singularly interesting people, that they are a people especially prepared of the Lord. Not only are they ready to receive the gospel message when announced to them, but they are waiting, and with importunity asking, for the bread of eternal life. And while this desire for the knowledge of Christ and of his salvation is increasing, the field is at the same time widening, and thus a two-fold claim is presented for an increase of laborers to gather in the whitening and extending harvest. The report furnishes also the most gratifying evidence of the enlightened, progressive and scriptural piety of the Karen Christians, as seen in the fortitude and firmness with which they have endured the trials and sufferings to which they have been subjected, and in the zeal and self-denial which they have manifested for the salvation of their benighted countrymen. These facts furnish also the most triumphant proof not only of the power of the gospel of Christ, but also of the efficiency of the laborers engaged in these missions, and of the wise and judicious adaptation of the means and instrumentalities employed in the prosecution of their missionary work. Your committee have also learned with joy and thanksgiving to God that during the past year the bible has been given entire in one of the dialects of the Karen language, so that they may now read the wonderful works of God in the redemption of man, in their own tongue in which they were born; and that portions of the Holy Scriptures have been translated and printed in another dialect spoken by the Karens, a work which it is hoped will be prosecuted to its consummation, and that copies of these divine oracles will be multiplied and circulated judiciously, yet in numbers adequate to meet the wants of the people. Another important truth confirmed by the history of these missions as set forth in the report before us, is that a native ministry is the grand, though not the only, instrumentality by which the Karen people are to be, and by which they speedily ́may be, converted to Christ, and become emphatically a Christian nation. That the great Head of the church has designed to honor this instrumentality above every other in the accomplishment of this work is alike manifest, both from the number of native Christians who are ready to become preachers of the gospel, and from the signal manner in which the word preached by them has been accompanied by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and thereby made the power of God unto salvation. To furnish suitable and ample means for the thorough training of a native ministry is therefore, in the opinion of your committee, an object of the highest importance to these missions. Your committee are also impressed with the conviction that the Karen missions have reached, or soon will reach, a point where provision should be made for the training not only of a native ministry to preach the gospel, but also of native teachers, that a system of education may be introduced on a broader scale, than merely, or only, to embrace the instruction of church members, and the children of Christian parents. That provision be made at least broad enough to embrace the education of ail the children and youth of such villages as are mainly Christian, that in the fulness of time we may see there, as we now see here, in every Christian village the preacher and the school teacher, the meeting-house and the school-house; and thus, while we Chris tianize the individual and save the souls of them who believe, at the same time elevate the whole Karen people to the dignity of an enlightened Christian nation,—a position and destiny to which the gospel of Christ, if all its moral forces be rightly and vigorously applied, is able at no distant day to raise that and every other nation on the face of the whole earth. In submitting this report, your committee are deeply conscious of their incompetency to form in every respect correct and enlightened opinions on matters so remote, and attended with circumstances so dissimilar from those under which they have been educated and with which they have been conversant. They would however take the liberty to express their conviction that, in the prosecution of the foreign mission work, it is especially desirable that men who are in the foreign field should be consulted with reference to the means and manner of prosecuting their work; that each missionary laborer should be consulted with reference to his, or to her own particular field, and particular work; and that every missionary have a fair opportunity to develop himself, and to work in the way in which he can work to the best advantage and effect; and that it were even better to recall a missionary at once from his field of labor, than to fetter and trammel him in such a way as to irritate his temper and embarrass his action, and compel him to work either with half a heart or with no heart.* And in conclusion, they would only add that it is devoutly hoped that the Karen Missions, missions which have so glorious a past, may be provided with all the means requisite to secure the still more glorious future which from the beginning its friends have so justly anticipated. All of which is respectfully submitted. The report on Reinforcements and Supplies was adopted. REINFORCEMENTS AND SUPPLIES. It has been customary for the Executive Committee to present to the Board of Managers annual estimates of the means and reinforcements needed to carry forward the work of the Missionary Union. Several causes, but chiefly the transition state of the missions in Burmah, render it impracticable now to submit an exact estimate of the expenditures of the year 1854-5. The hope is cherished, however, that the outlays of the year can be so adjusted as not materially to exceed those of the past year, but if to them be added the deficiency in the receipts of that year, not less than $155,000 should be received from all sources, in the year ending with March, 1855, to meet its probable expenditures, and to reduce existing liabilities to what they were at the beginning of the last financial year. The propriety and importance of making good this deficiency, the current year, are so manifest, that if the Board are of the opinion that $155,000 cannot be provided, the Committee would earnestly invite them to consider the practicability of so curtailing the expenditures that the existing indebtedness of the Union can be reduced from year to year until the whole is cancelled. In five years from April 1, 1846, these liabilities were reduced more than fifteen thousand dollars, but in the three years from April 1, 1851, they have been increased by upwards of eleven thousand dollars. It is grateful to know that in the eight years which have passed since the reörgnization, the augmenting annual expenditure has been met, and the indebtedness *It is due to the Executive Committee to state that this report was accepted at so late an hour as to make it impracticable for the Board to consider it deliberately; but the order of the Union to report at the next Annual Meeting on the whole subject of the relations of missionaries to the Board, makes it unnecessary here to explain the facts, a misapprehension of which appears to have caused the insertion of this paragraph in the present report. 1854.] Report on Reinforcements and Supplies. 245 lessened so much as four thousand dollars. But there is nothing in this view to weaken the necessity of liquidating the whole debt now existing as speedily as it can be done without injury to operations which should be sustained. The facts and views respecting the claims and prospects of the missions which have been or will be brought before the Board, in other forms, supersede the necessity of a formal statement of them in this paper. From these communications, oral and written, it will be seen that the missions to China, Siam, Burmah, Assam, to the Teloogoos, if continued, to the Bassas, and to France, need reinforcements the current year. Ten additional missionaries is the lowest number that should be sent to them, and twenty could be advantageously placed where they would either "strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die," or enter upon labor promising fruit equal to the demands of the largest faith. But where are the men? The senior classes in the theological institutions of Newton, Hamilton, and Rochester, do not at present number more than twenty persons, and of these three only have been willing to regard themselves as candidates for missionary appointment. One or two others now engaged in the active duties of the ministry, have given some grounds. for hope that they might be induced to "preach the unsearchable riches of Christ" to the heathen. But the whole number now under appointment is three, and there is no reason to believe that it will be more than doubled from among those with whom correspondence has been commenced. The questions are, therefore, submitted to the Board, Where shall the Committee look for the men needed to reinforce the missions this year? And by what means, appropriate to a missionary organization, can the number from year to year, be made equal to the necessities of the work of foreign evangelization? The men needed in this work are of the class who can make weak churches strong, and succesfully retain the charge of them after they are strong. A well educated mind will prove of as much worth to the missionary as to the pastor. But no amount of intellectual training will compensate for the want of those cardinal excellences which constitute the devoted, safe, successful and courteous Christian minister at home. The missions need such men and no others. The Deputation became impressed with the greatness of this necessity, and they urge upon the Committee the importance of sending men, as far as possible, who have been proved to be good ministers of Jesus Christ. A few individuals have gone forth as missionaries from the pastoral office, after having given the desired proof, and the Committee would be grateful for such aid from the Managers as should increase the number twenty-fold. REPORT. Your committee on reinforcements and supplies would simply state that they have examined the paper submitted to the Board by the Executive Committee, and approve generally of the suggestions contained in it. It is our opinion, that not less than $155,000 should be raised the coming year for foreign missionary purposes, and that the Executive Committee be directed to operate with that understanding. This will be some $15,000 more than was realized from all sources the last year. This, it is thought, will meet the expenditures of the year and reduce the liabilities The great want is of men to enter the foreign field. From ten to twenty are Respectfully submitted. The following preamble and resolution, offered by Thomas Wattson, Whereas, this meeting has been informed by the report of the Execu- Resolved, That the said churches are hereby earnestly requested to respond to said call at their earliest convenience, that the receipts of the coming year may not be taken to pay the debts of the past. The following order, from the proceedings of the Union, was read, and the Executive Committee were instructed to comply with the request therein named. Ordered, That the Board of Managers be instructed to obtain from Resolved, That the proceedings of the Board and of the Union be SEWALL S. CUTTING, Recording Secretary. IRA HARRIS, Chairman. |