Missionary station

“ Even should the overcrowded ministry be of the same denomination, it works badly, but far worse if made up of rival sects. For a time at least, all must operate upon nearly the same persons. In the rural districts, the missionaries reside in the centres of population, and generally where two families can dwell together, and where each missionary can have a distinct field of labor. But even there it is deemed expedient for the churches to have native pastors; nor there alone. The aim is to have constellations of churches with native office-bearers, around every missionary station. ”

“ The missionary, wherever he goes from his station, is sure to get a large, patient, inquiring auditory, whether in a hut, or in a rude heathen temple, or in the temporary Christian Church, or beneath the shade of the palm, upon the passing highway. Sometimes the chief of a tribe refuses an escort through to a neighboring town, lest the missionary should stay with the other people and not come back and proclaim the good news to him and his people. ”

“ In provinces, large cities and towns, which are not reckoned as part of any mission station district, have to be taken into account. These large cities, capitals of provinces, countries, or empires, need special consideration, and must often be surveyed separately. They are centres in which many societies have their head-quarters, and many missionaries live, yet the work done in them is not always so impressive or extensive as the numbers of missionaries might suggest: occasionally the missionaries are all congregated in one quarter of the city, and large portions are practically untouched. ”

“ The missionary who is there for the evangelistic work must as a rule have nothing to do with the carrying on of the daily work of the station; he must be free to undertake every day his longer or shorter journeys for the purpose of visiting the villages, nor must he be obliged to be back at the mission on a particular day. He may be invited while out on one of his journeys to go to this or that village which was not included in his plan, because the people there want to hear the Gospel. ”

“ The success of out station work depends so largely upon the native worker, his tact, his Bible knowledge, his spirituality, that in pushing out-station work we must never be unmindful of the mission boarding-school where he must be trained. ”

“ The out-station work among the Indians is a feature almost peculiar to the Indian Missions of the A.M.A. These stations are the picket-lines pushed forward into the Reservations beyond the line of established schools and missions. Each one consists of a cheap home connected sometimes with a cheap school-house, and these are occupied by one or two native Indian missionaries who teach and preach, and thus accomplish an immediate good and lay the foundation for the more permanent church and school. ”

“ I know eleven missionary societies working in West Africa, and in most of those societies there is need of a policy based upon reality versus romance. In most of them the missionaries agree that the stations are seriously undermanned. I know one mission station at least which has been opened for more than sixty-five continuous years, and missionaries are still there without the least likelihood of their moving on; for the simple reason that the station has been so undermanned in all these years that they have not yet trained a native ministry ”

“ The expense of establishing and supporting a Mission would not, it is hoped, prove large. Fish and game are extremely cheap. Fuel, both coal and wood, is cheap and abundant. It is proposed that the first missionary station should be at Fort Simpson, on the mainland, as it offers many advantages for prosecuting the objects of the Mission. There the Missionaries would enjoy the protection, and, it is hoped, the cordial co-operation, of the Hudson's Bay Company ”

“ It is natural for young people to want to set up housekeeping for themselves, and it is the same with the Church. The near approach of the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Missionaries amongst us makes our hearts all aglow with the desire for the independence of our Churches. There is no day which we should more like to see than that on which we shall go with the last Missionary to the railway station. ”

“ The daily routine of the mission station is most methodical. At seven o’clock in the morning a bell calls the servants to their duties; at nine o’clock it rings again, granting a half hour’s rest; at a quarter to twelve a third ringing sends them to dinner; they return at one o’clock to work until dark. Every night at five o’clock the bell summons them to religious service in the chapel, where worship is conducted in Eskimo by either the missionary or the storekeeper. The women sit on one side, the men on the other, and are always in their seats before the last tone of the bell dies out. ”

“ Look in upon a single mission station. A group of three buildings attracts our attention as a bit of New England transplanted, a church, a good-sized school-house, and between the two a neat white painted cottage. The missionaries number four, of whom three are ladies from the North. Over 200 children and youth come daily to the school, where these missionary teachers instruct in branches usual in primary to grammar grades, and also in Christian morals and manners, with the Bible for [18] a text-book, seeking earnestly to develop heart, mind and body to honor and righteousness. ”

“ Usually single women workers were sent to one station, and a man (or men, if there were that many) to another. Missionary travel, except for going to a summer resort, was usually confined to [Pg 59] one's own district, and missionaries working outside that district met very infrequently. ”

“ At other times the missionary is engaged in preaching and labouring at the central station, which is intended to be a model for the out-stations, in preaching to the heathen, and in visiting the various villages under his care. Schools for the education of children, both boys and girls, and higher seminaries for the training of native preachers and teachers, afford full employment for all the men upon the ground. ”

“ The five years between 1895 and 1900 were years fraught with much danger and many difficulties to the missionaries at the new station at Changte. The anti-foreign, anti-missionary attitude of the people was hard to live down. It became quite a common thing for the missionary to be called hastily to the front to quiet a threatening crowd. ”

“ Four of the missionaries disembarked—a bishop and his wife, and one other couple, who were located at a mission station a short distance from this port.
Three hundred whites live in this treacherous place and 30 per cent. die each year. The permanent missionary and his wife had both been fever victims, and if they fail soon to get out of the Inhambane district they will never come out alive. The husband is a powerfully built man, and his wife's skin as fair as a lily. She would be called pretty. They both had a good education, and both were hard workers. ”

“ It seems evident that the industrial work at this station, which gives employment to many, is a means of good both to mission and people. It was deemed fit to organize a church at Avery, to be known as the Second Congregational Church of the Mendi Mission. ”

“ Missionary Maddox utilizes many members of the churches in providing preaching at these missions. There are only a very few paid evangelists in this mission, but a great many church members are glad to go to these stations and tell the gospel story.
Besides our Baptist work, the Southern Methodists are conducting a very prosperous mission. They have several churches and a station for settlement work. The Presbyterians and the Congregationalists have some excellent churches and the YMCA is one of the most flourishing in South America. ”

“ Of the 175 ladies appointed to the various departments of missionary labor, twelve are engaged for special home visitation among the people. You can see at a glance that this number is insufficient for that line of duty. Although our teachers are missionaries, and accomplish much through the schools and various agencies set at work for the elevation of the people, yet we ought to have at least one experienced and efficient woman at every mission station, whose entire time should be given to special work in the homes of the people. ”

“ Snow were going to explore the Upper Nile with reference to locating the Arthington Mission if the project should prove feasible. Mr. St. John was to be the business manager and to have charge of the John Brown steamer which was to be built. Mr. Hall, from the theological department of the Howard University, was to take charge of the Good Hope Station. He readily got hold of the work and proved himself an acceptable and successful missionary. He has the church, and a native teacher has the school under his supervision. ”

“ Every one who has to travel ruins his health if he has to do it for a long time. The settlers could then easily reach the Mission Station or the missionary could in one day get to the place where he is wanted. ”

“ The plan about to be adopted by the Baptists is to establish missionary stations in the country; while one missionary makes the circuit of the surrounding country, another shall always be in the way to receive enquiries and to explain. I should think that a zealous woman, acquainted with the language, and especially if assisted by native brethren, might be of use in this way without moving from her house.... Three such men as Carey, Marshman, and Ward, so suited to one another and to their work, are not to be found, I should think, in the whole world. ”

“ There are scores of out-station schools, but the station school is the centre of influence. Here it is that the young lady missionary finds her grandest opportunity for usefulness. It is hard work,—this steady day-in-and-day-out routine, nothing [Pg 276] harder in the whole round of missionary endeavour.
But there is also fascination in it. With a large body of Christian pupils, as in the Karen schools, there is stimulus in it. Here are scores of young men who are soon to go out as preachers and teachers, in their native villages, or as missionaries to unevangelized tribes. ”

“ 'Oh, not much. All I know about it is that a year or so ago I got a letter from Mackenzie, the Scotch missionary, whose station, "The Highlands", is placed at the highest navigable point of the Tana River, in which he said something about it.'
'Have you the letter?' I asked. ”

“ TRADING WITH INDIANS.
The various missionary stations were much alike. They consisted of a chapel (commonly of logs) and one or more houses, with perhaps a store-house and a workshop; the whole fenced with palisades, and forming, in fact, a stockade fort, surrounded with clearings and cultivated fields. It is evident that the priests had need of other hands than their own and those of the few lay brothers attached to the mission. They required men inured to labor, accustomed to the forest life, able to guide canoes and handle tools and weapons. ”

“ But the native population of that distant land must not be neglected nor crushed under the pressure of hordes of gold hunters. The work at our mission station at Cape Prince of Wales should be enlarged and made more effective. [Pg 5]
American Missionary Association, CONGREGATIONAL ROOMS, Fourth Avenue and Twenty-second Street, New York. THE FIELD. 1897-1898.
The following list gives the names of those who are in the work of the Churches, Institutions and Schools of the American Missionary Association. ”

“ I was both pained and irresistibly amused by an incident that occurred not two hundred miles from New York, when the horse was in the first stage of training, and stoutly resisted allowing its ear to be touched.
The missionary was announced to speak in the church on a given Sunday, when the annual collection would be taken up. A good member of the church—the pastor says a sincere Christian—was very much put out about it; had heard enough of these old missionaries, and was not going to hear any more; did not believe in foreign missions—we had heathen enough at home. ”

“ Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most fruitful, the most abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that was ever opened to any Christian people. It is right here at your doors. It is not across the Pacific Ocean and it is not down yonder around the Cape of Good Hope. Right here at our doors is the greediest people for education and the gospel there is on the face of this earth, not counted among our white race. ”

“ The definition of districts for the mission stations is commonly recognised, and in planning new work directors of missions frequently allow themselves to be influenced, in some way and in some degree, by the position of existing mission stations. There are also in some parts of the world bodies composed of leading members of many of the missions that work in the country, who meet to consider the progress of the Christian faith in the province or the country as a whole, and deliberately plan their work with some consideration of the position and character of the work done by the others. ”

“ It has eight mission stations, in four of which the missionaries of the C.I.M. only reside. The number of missionaries labouring in the province in March, 1884, was 31, exclusive of 13 unmarried ladies, or 44 in all; of whom 34 live in three cities; and while they work around them, and sometimes take long missionary journeys, there are scores of cities and large towns without the gospel. ”

“ The whole country is dotted with subsidiary mission stations, each one a centre of philanthropic and Christian effort. There are good hospitals, with skilful doctors and nurses or sisters of charity, in connection with all the missions. The largest of these, belonging to the Church Missionary Society, is a model of what a tropical hospital for natives ought to be. ”