Part II, Chapter IX — The Home-church Lags (1886-87)
During 1886 and 1887 five ordained missionaries were at work in the Mission, each one busily engaged in his district or department, and steady progress was made; but the Church at home lagged behind in its support of the Mission.
The Rev. William Groenning was the ninth foreign mis- sionary of the General Council. He was born September 29, 1852, at Guntur, Madras Presidency, India, where his father, the Rev. Charles William Groenning, was then stationed as a missionary of The Foreign Missionary Society of the Gen- eral Synod. When he was six years old WiUiam, with his two younger brothers, was taken by his parents to Europe to be educated. He was left in the family of Mr. Dierks, a teacher in Gross-Borstel, near Hamburg. At the age of eleven his uncle, Mr. Nagel of Hamburg, took him into his home and sent him to a private school. When his parents returned from India, having permanently given up the missionary life, the whole family was reunited and lived for a while in Hadersleben, North Schleswig, where William attended the gymnasium. At the age of nineteen he entered the Uni- versity, studying in turn at Leipsic, Erlangen and Kiel. At Eriangen he spent a year in military service in the Sixth Bavarian battalion. He took a special course in theology at the North Schleswig-Danish Theological Seminary at Haders- leben. After serving as an assistant to Inspector Hoeber of the newly established Breklum Mission Institute, he was chosen to succeed the latter after his death in March, 1879. On August 6, 1880, he married Caroline, daughter of Valen- tine L. Meyer, a merchant of Hamburg. Called by the Foreign Missions Committee of the General Council to enter its service as a missionary in its Telugu field in India, January 26, 1885, he accepted the call and left Breklum on April ist to spend six months in Berlin in the study of medicine and
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS ( 1 886-8 7) 235 pharmacy, having been advised that some knowledge of these sciences would be useful in mission work. He was ordained on August 23d, in Bruegge, Schleswig, by Consistorialrath Claussen, assisted by Pastors Langreen and Selk. The Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Groenning sailed from Liverpool, England, September 26th, and reached Colombo, Ceylon, October 28th. From Madras they went to Tripaty to visit the Mission High School of the Hermannsburg Mission, and to Mayavaram, Tranquebar, Poriar, Tanjore, Trichinopoly and Kumbakonam, to study the educational work of the Leipsic Mission.^ On December 3d Dietrich met the Groennings at Coconada with the "Dove of Peace." Henry who thirty years before had been a servant in the household of the elder Groenning in India, who had carried William as a babe in his arms, and who had been one of the first converts of the elder Groenning, had insisted on being one of the first ones to welcome the son at Coconada, and was there to meet him. A visit of a few days was paid the Poulsens at Samulkot, both of whom Groenning had learned to know in Europe. Here and at Ragampetta, whither Groenning accompanied Poulsen and his catechist Lakshmiah, he got his first glimpse of mission work in our Mission. Rajahmundry was reached on December 6th. Groenning at once took charge of the Rajahmundry Mis- sion school when it was reopened on January 15, 1886. He found it graded into three classes. Instruction was given in rehgion, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history, music and drawing. Thirty-four boys were accommodated in the boarding house in which they slept on the floor, side by side, "packed like herring in a box." Twelve older boys were housed in a shed in the Riverdale compound. Groenning and his wife were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt until the bungalow in the compound of St. Paul's Church had been repaired. Groenning planned to add, in the course of time, three higher grades with some instruction in the main branches of theology, at least in an elementary man- ner, so as to make the institution a reasonably efficient train- ing-school for native workers. He did not include the Hindu
' The expense of this trip w'as borne by Groenning.
236 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL High School nor the Mohammedan schools in his educational program, and the Caste Girls' School remained in charge of Mrs. Schmidt, assisted by Mrs. Groenning, who also helped Mrs. Schmidt in the zenana work in the munsiff' s house. The Hindu High School for boys was continued in the bungalow opposite the church compound to the close of the year 1886, when its relation with the Mission was severed. It was moved to another part of the town and existed for a while as a private school, Dietrich being able to get Rs. 700 for it annually as a grant from the government. In February, 1888, it was combined with two other Rajahmundry High Schools, and the union school was managed by a board of trustees, one of whom was Dietrich, and another E. P. Metcalf, Esq., the principal of the Government College. In 1893 it became a part of the Government School.
On February 5, 1886, the first sheets were printed on the press which the Junior Missionary Society of Holy Trinity Church, Lancaster, Pa., had sent to India. They contained the Lord's Prayer in Telugu, two boarding pupils having set the type under the direction of Schmidt. Schmidt also began the pubHcation of a small sheet in Enghsh, called "Rajahmundry Mission News." Luther's Small Catechism in a small form and "The First Telugu Book" were pubhshed in the course of the first year. On February 24, 1886, the Rev. Mr. McCready and Miss Catharine Taylor, a granddaughter of Captain and Mrs. C. Taylor, were united in marriage at Rajahmundry.
During the month of February Schmidt toured in the Velpur district. Extracts from his account of this tour are here given because they furnish an insight into the methods of dis- trict work. "The Christians of Vandra have built a nice schoolhouse with mud walls and palmyra-leaf roof. Most of the Christians of Vissakoderu (66) gathered with us for divine service in the same place where we met in 1883. It was at one time a cattle-shed, and is now used for school and church purposes. During the ten days we stopped at Vissako- deru Paulus and I visited twelve villages within a radius of six miles. In some places, like Gorlamudi, the school is held in an
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS ( 1 886-8 7) 237 open yard and divine services are conducted there. The huts of the Christians are very small and have generally only one opening which serves as a door, so that it is impossible to conduct services in them. We have, therefore, no alternative and must frequently conduct divine services in streets, lanes and yards. I have found it very awkward under such circum- stances to administer the Holy Sacraments. Paulus, however, manages it very well. It does not seem to disturb him if a calf runs through the audience or a bird flies over our heads. He waits quietly until order is restored. . . . No bells are rung to gather the people, for the simple reason that there are none. In some places, hke Velpur, the teacher blows a whistle a Httle while before service begins. The people are generally lacking in punctuality, and several opening hymns must be sung so as to allow the stragglers plenty of time for gathering. On Sunday morning the service of our Telugu Church Book is used. ... I naturally consented in every place to preach to the congregation, as my visit was a kind of inspection; but because Paulus is the pastor, I never baptize any of the people in his field. The Christians must be taught that there is no difference between the office of a missionary and that of a native pastor, in spite of our difference in nationahty, edu- cation and other respects. . . . The natural center of this part of the country is Bhimawaram, where the Government is build- ing a court-house and where the native judge will live. Paulus is very anxious to build a church for all the surrounding vil- lages in this place. ... As far back as 1875, some people of Gorlamudi asked me for a teacher. How glad we now are to find here the largest congregation in Rev. Paulus' district." Some effort was made by Schmidt in the Korukonda district, north of Rajahmundry. In March, 1886, he visited a number of villages, going in a bullock cart. At Balladupadu, eighteen miles north of Rajahmundry, near Korukonda, after staying a week he baptized five persons.
About this time V. Jacob, a convert of the Madiga or Chuckler caste,^ passed his matriculation examination at the 1 Madigas or Chucklers are workers in leather, shoe-makers or tanners, and are regarded as the lowest and most despised people.
238 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL Madras University, probably the first one of this caste in the Telugu country to pass. Schmidt said that he came to him full of joy and pride, saying, "I and three other Brahmins passed the examination!" "Just as if his success entitled him to rank with the Brahmins," was Schmidt's comment.
Iq Dowlaishwaram Dietrich started a separate girls' school with Annama as teacher, early in 1886. It enrolled twenty pupils. During the first six months of the year he spent fifty-two days on tour in the district. Most of McCready's time was occupied in superintending the erection of the bungalow at Tallapudi. He instituted a monthly teachers' meeting on the first Monday of each month, hoping thereby to increase their efficiency. He prepared for them in advance a schedule of duties, hours and lessons of instruction, and of preaching appointments on Sunday and during the week, in an endeavor to systematize the work. It was almost a hopeless task, for the teachers were generally lazy and inefficient. The same conditions prevailed in other parts of the field. Dietrich wrote: "The children are few in number, irregular in attendance and carelessly taught. The teachers are indifferent. ... I am anxiously looking forward to the time when we can obtain the men who are now being trained by Rev. Groenning." Schmidt, dealing with the same subject, said: "There are many who wish to enter mission employ, but, alas, very few of them are fit for the work ! They hardly satisfy the most meagre expectation as to Scriptural knowledge and gifts of teaching. Our mission work constantly reminds us of Luther's saying, that we must plow with asses until we get horses."
Poulsen described the moral life of the Telugus in the follov/- ing language: "The longer I live among these people, the more corrupt I find them, especially the low castes. Here at Samul- kot there are a great many Malas; but few live with their real wives. Free love is in practice an established doctrine. Those who practice it, however, must pay a fine of Rs. 2 or be ex- communicated. In the hot season, when we come to a Mala village in the evening, they are all drunk. Samulkot is known for its dancing girls and its burglars. . . To have enough rice
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS (1886-87) 239 without working for it seems to be the people's idea of bliss. It often reminds me of what I was told in my school days; how when the Chinese desired to picture eternal happiness they drew a man with chop-sticks in his hands, eating rice as fast as he could from a huge heap in front of him. But when I see the many pretty children, their innocent and bright faces seem to tell me that of such is the kingdom of heaven." The parochial reports at the close of the fiscal year, ending June 3, 1886, showed progress everywhere, but again especially in the Velpur district.^ So busy was Schmidt with the supervision of repairs on the bungalow in the church compound and on the "Dove of Peace" that he spent only seven days on tour from July to December, 1886. Referring to this work he wrote: "Want of funds prevented me from engaging experienced workmen, and I had to do much of the repairing of the boat with my own hands. It is especially gratifying to see, however, how much of the work has been done by native Christians, who thus are edu- cated for honest labor; and every step onward to civilization is a small victor}'^ won." Schmidt was very proud of his industrial school. The Rev. W. P. Schwartz of Guntur, after a visit at Rajahmundry in 1886, wrote in the Guntur Mission Journal that on the evening of the first day in Rajahmundry he was conducted by Schmidt to the lime-kiln and brick-yard along the river bank, which Schmidt had "established for the
1 The following is a summary of the reports: Foreign missionaries, 5; mission- aries' wives, 4; native pastors, 2; catechists and evangelists, 7; teachers in Rajahmundry, 10; in other places, 46; pupils in boys' boarding department, 48; in girls' boarding department, 10; day pupils: boys, 33; girls, 21; total pupils in Rajahmimdry schools, 112; baptized in 1885: Rev. Schmidt, 6; Poulsen, 25; Dietrich, 24; McCready, 31; N. Paulus, 211; T. Joseph, 14; total, 311. From January to June, 1886, 457 persons were baptized, of whom 276 were in the Velpur district. The total number of Christians, adult and children, was 1901, distributed as follows: Rajahmundry town, 194; Korukonda district, 12; Dowlaishwaram town, 28; Jegurupad district, 276; Velpur district, 1044; Samulkot dis- trict, 147; Tallapudi district, 200. The total number of pupils in the village schools exclusive of Rajahmundry was 587, of whom 325 were in the Velpur district.
The receipts in India for this fiscal year were $6227.91; the expense, not including the missionaries' salaries, $5415.77, divided as follows: Rajahmundry, $1089.56; Boarding department, $648.20; Velpur and Korukonda, $947.33; Samulkot, $588.54; Dowlaishwaram, $489.50; Jegurupad, $438.95; Tallapudi,
30.45; miscellaneous, including part payment for Tallapudi bungalow,
5.24.
240 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL benefit of the Mission and native Christians." "Besides this," wrote Schwartz, "brother Schmidt has a carpenter-shop, a blacksmith's forge and a saw-pit. He tells me that in this way he is able to make the Christian community less dependent upon the heathen and hence more truly Christian ; that their sons learn useful trades and become, what is so uncommon in India, artisans who can read and write and cipher; that the dignity of labor is shown and the community in general is benefited by these works; and that all this is accomplished without expense to the mission treasury and without hindering him in his work in the district." Concerning the progress at Dowlaishwaram Dietrich wrote on January i, 1887: "The Dowlaishwaram schools are three in number, namely, our boys' school and our girls' school in town and a boys' school just outside of town. There are now 40 girls and 50 boys in these schools. I put them under government grant, because it does not in any way interfere with their Christian character and much improves them. They are visited monthly by a government school inspector. The grant received this year was sufficient to pay off the expenses of the three schools for two months. As Mr. Van Stavern paid the head teacher for the year 1885, this grant went to him." Concerning the congregation he wrote: "When I look back two years and see the few (6 or 8) who came then, and now look at the crowded room, I feel very thankful to our Heavenly Father." Before the close of the year Dietrich had secured one and a half acres of government land in Dowlaishwaram at a rental of Rs. 5 a year, was negotiating for the purchase of an adjoining three and a half acres and had sent plans for a missionary's dwelling to the Committee in America.
Poulsen spent seventy-one days on tour during the last six months of the year 1886. His boarding school enrolled only 5 boys and 3 girls, and could scarcely be called a success. His report contained the following description of the effect of the caste system: "He who has not seen the workings of this system can have only a faint idea of it. The prevalent conception of sin is not immorality but the breaking of any of the many absurd caste rules. Let a man live ever so wick-
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS (1886-87) 241 edly, he is honored according as his caste is high or low; but let him drink water out of a pot belonging to a lower caste man or eat what is prohibited, and he is ostracised. Educa- tion, however extensive, has not been able to change this. Hindu graduates, college professors, judges and collectors observe their caste rules as well as others."
Despite the efforts of the P^oreign Missions Committee to increase the home income so as to meet the increasing ex- penses of the Mission, the indebtedness of the treasury remained.^
In one direction, however, the outlook for increased inter- est in foreign missions was very favorable, for in many con- gregations missionary societies were being organized. The General Council at its meeting in Chicago, in 1886, encouraged the formation of such societies.
Because of its financial embarrassment the Foreign Mis- sions Committee was unable to pay the salaries of its mis- sionaries promptly and to remit regularly in advance, as usual, for each quarter of the year the sums required for the general expenses of the mission work. The missionaries were asked to exercise every economy, while reduced amounts were sent for general expenses. How this affected the work may be learned from a quotation taken from one of Schmidt's semi-annual reports: *Tor the first three months of the year I was able to pay only a few mission agents. Rev. N. Paulus and others lost much time by coming to Rajahmundry and waiting for money. P. V. Ratnam, the headmaster of the Caste Girls' School, thought it best to resign and seek government employment. As soon as funds arrived in April our prospects improved. Somewhat later Ratnam withdrew his resignation, and at the end of the summer holidays he returned to the Caste Girls' School; but the number of pupils had dwindled ' To cancel this indebtedness the Rev. H. Grahn generously loaned the Committee $1000 without interest. ^ With the exception of the Rev. C. G. Fischer and Mr. J. C. File the Foreign Missions Committee was re-elected by the General Council in 1886, and the following were added as new members: the Revs. J. P. Deck, H. V. Hilprecht and Messrs. H. Frank and F. R. Bauer. To these the Committee at its meeting in November added Mr. J. Washington Miller whose name, however, does not appear in the Minutes of the General Council.
242 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL during his absence, some of the girls having gone to the Maharajah's school." The first Mission Conference held after the new Rules and Regulations went into effect convened in St. Paul's Church, January 4-6, 1887. Besides the five missionaries and the two native pastors about 60 agents and lay-delegates were present. Schmidt was elected chairman; Poulsen, English secretary; and C. James, Telugu secretary. Groenning ex- plained to the Conference that only promising boys should be sent from the districts to Rajahmundry, that all who ap- plied would be required to pass an entrance examination in the Second Telugu Book, and that girls would be admitted as boarders only after having reached the age of eight years, and would not be allowed to remain after having passed the age of twelve years. Dissatisfaction was expressed with the use of Dawson's Telugu hymn-book in the Mission, because its language was not sufficiently simple and intelligible. The evil of drunkenness was severely condemned and measures were proposed to check it among the Christians. The treasurer of the Rampa Fund (Groenning) was instructed to deposit this fund m a bank and secure the same rate of interest as the Postal Savings Bank allowed. One-half of this fund was to be used for the support of an evangelist or catechist, while the other half was to be expended for teachers' widows and poor Christians, no district, however, having the right to claim more than one-half of the amount contributed by it to this fund.
None of the pupils of the Anglo-vernacular School in Rajahmundry were graduated at the close of the year 1886, because Groenning had added a fourth class and introduced a new plan of instruction.
A Brahmin was employed as the Telugu teacher for the two higher classes. "I could, perhaps," wrote Groenning, "have secured a graduate Christian teacher from the South for Rs. 30 a month, but believed that this Brahmin would teach equally as well for Rs. 6. As he gives instruction only in lan- guage, there is little danger of his doing injury to the Christian character of the school." The text-books of the Government
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS ( 1 886-8 7) 243 in Telugu reading and grammar, English and history were introduced as being superior to any others; and an effort was made to secure a number of copies of the Telugu Bible History published by the Hermannsburg Mission, but that Mission declined to sell any of them, whereupon Groenning prepared a similar book.
When the school was reopened in the repaired bungalow opposite the church compound on January lo, 1887, so many applied for admission that 25 had to be refused, principally because of the lack of accommodations. The average attend- ance during the first half of the year was 114; 47 boys and II girls were boarders; the others were day pupils. Stricter discipline was introduced and soon every phase of the school work showed the marks of Groenning's master- hand.
That a missionary naturally becomes a center of missionary interest for the community from which he comes may be clearly seen in the case of Groenning. Through his father, then pastor in Ballum, Schleswig, regular and Hberal contri- butions were received by the Mission, especially for the Rajahmundry school.^ He used the money, thus sent, for the repair of the schoolhouse, for a brick wall enclosing the compound and for gymnasium and scientific apparatus and charts.
Early in 1887 Mrs. Schmidt again began sending lace to America, having received many orders while on furlough in America.
Schmidt spent almost a month—from March loth to April 7th—on a mission to Guntur, whither he was sent by the 1 In July, 1887, Groenning reported the following receipts: From Mr. Stokes, Bath, England, Rs. 60; Mr. Knuth, Flensborg, Rs. 60; Christian Thomsen, Ballum, Rs. 10; Miss Helem, Ballum, Rs. 5. All but Mr. Stokes' contributions were for the repair of the schoolhouse. Rev. C. W. Groenning also sent Rs. 67.6, collected at a mission festival in Ballum for the erection of a church at Velpur. Mr. Val. Lor. Meyer, Hamburg, Groenning's father-in-law, sent Schreiber's wall-charts and other school apparatus. "Since January last," wrote Groenning, "my father has sent in addition, from Neils Neilsen, Rs. 37.8; Helena Mickelsen, Rs. 22.8; Sewing Society, Rs. 22.8; from his own mission box, Rs. 67.8. Lorenz Meyer, brother of Mrs. Groenning, sent Rs. 40, and Pastor Schelig of Hamm, Rs. 138.5.4. All of these contributions were placed at my disposal for the mission school." During the second half of the year 18S7 Groenning received through his father and brother Rs. 211 ($100); and during the first half of the year 1888, from the same sources, $394.61.
Foreign Missions Committee to help the General Synod's missionaries settle certain problems in their Mission.
Dietrich spent sixty days on tour during the first six months of the year 1887. He arranged that Pastor Joseph should meet all of his teachers in the Jegurupad district one day each month to review the lessons they had been teaching, and that they should spend from two weeks to a month during the long vacation in the study of the branches they were required to teach. He purchased as the site for his proposed bungalow four and a half acres of land at Dowlaishwaram for Rs. 600, adding them to the lot secured from the government and making six acres in all. A small organ was purchased for the Dowlaishwaram congregation and the full liturgical service of the Telugu Church Book was introduced in that congre- gation.
Poulsen wrote: "When I first came here I got no workers at all from our old fields, so I had to take dismissed and rejected ones from the English Church Missions and from our boarding school in Rajahmundry. As one might expect, some were unfit. Here I am with only a few workers and no prospect of getting more for a long time to come. The pastors in the old fields, Velpur and Jegurupad, naturally want their own boys back again when they have been gradu- ated."
McCready, after having practically completed and occu- pied his new bungalow at Tallapudi, devoted himself to work in the district. He made a special effort to reach the Mala population, and succeeded in making 4 converts from that caste. In addition he baptized 21 Madigas during the first half of the year 1887.
The statistics submitted at the close of the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1887, showed only a slight increase over the previous year, but gratifying progress had been made in the matter of increased benevolent contributions from the native Christians.^
*The total amount of benevolent contributions during the year 1877 was Rs. 226. 13. 1, of which Rs. 34 was contributed in Rajahmundry, Rs. 68.11 in the Velpur district, Rs. 20.2.10 in the Tallapudi district, Rs. 19.15 in the Jegurupad district and Rs. 15.5.3 ^^ the Dowlaishwaram district.
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS (1886-87) 245
Pastor Joseph's house at Jegurupad was finished before the close of the year at an expense of Rs. 350, about $125. Imagine a minister in the United States being satisfied with a parsonage costing as Httle as that!
The Gorinta congregation in the Samulkot district was severely tried during the year 1887. "A young man from a village in which the Baptists have converts returned to heathenism and came to live in Gorinta. 'Do as we did in our village,' he advised, 'excommunicate .e Christians and they will soon give in, and we shall all be one, as before.' One young man from among the Christians joined him and became the chief enemy of the congregation. It is not possible to get a lot of ground to build a prayer-house, so the Christians of Gorinta have been meeting in an open place, whither the villagers frequently resort. When they were not left to worship in peace, they retired to the teacher's house which belongs to the head Mala, the principal Christian of the village. Even then the mob broke in during prayer and abused the Chris- tians, especially the women, in all the foul language in which Telugu is so rich and of which the low people are so fond. . . . The heathen no longer acknowledge this Christian as their headman and threaten to fine him for being a Christian. If he pays the fine, it is a sign that he renounces Christianity; if he does not, they will shut him out of their community. Nobody must then visit him, or give him fire, or work for him; and if anyone dies in his house, no one must help him to carry out the dead. He has hitherto bravely resisted all tempta- tions but has been obHged to lodge a complaint in court against the disturbers; yet justice for the few Christians here is a rare thing, and no one has scruples about swearing falsely against his neighbor. Of course, the caste people. Brahmins and Sudras, are behind the disturbers and uphold them, while they, in turn, are dependent on the caste people for a liveli- hood."
The schools for Mohammedan boys and girls, which McCready after Artman's death succeeded in keeping up with the aid of some government grant, were little more than an experiment. The boys' school enrolled 39 pupils taught by
246 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL four teachers; the girls' school, 26 pupils taught by two teachers. The Caste Girls' school in charge of Mrs. Schmidt closed the year 188 1 with 40 pupils. P. V. Ratnam was still the headmaster. In this school, as well as in the Christian schools in Rajahmundry, Christmas was celebrated as usual in a manner resembling, as far as possible, the celebration of the festival in Christian lands. The chief attraction was always the distribution of clothing, toys and other gifts sent to India from America in so-called Christmas boxes, or provided by the missionaries out of their private purses, or with money contributed by friends in India and America. On one of the days immediately preceding or following December 25th, all the Christians in Rajahmundry and its vicinity were given a dinner of rice and curry, usually at the expense of the English judge of the district.
"We generally use a tamarind branch as a Christmas tree," wrote Mrs. Schmidt, describing the celebration in the Caste Girls' Schools, "but because they are so crooked, Mr. Schmidt this year tried to improve on nature and made a frame with a point, on which he tied leaves and branches so as to look more like our Christmas trees at home. Each child got a basket made of palmyra leaves decorated with colored paper, the skirts and jackets being tied around them; and inside the baskets were fruits and sweets and the dolls standing on the toys. The children came in a procession, singing a hymn. It is a fine sight to see them in their bright clothes and loaded with jewelry. Sometimes, I think, all the jewels of a family are displayed on a child. Generally the jewelry is the one valu- able possession of a family. After some singing Rev. Dietrich dehvered an address on the Christmas tree. Then there were some recitations of the Christmas story and the smaller children repeated some Scripture texts. After another hymn the regular and best pupils received their prizes and the others their presents from the tree. Next day we went to Dowlaishwaram for the celebration there."
The giving of alms to beggars, inaugurated by Valett, fol- lowing Heyer's example at Guntur, had not yet entirely ceased, for Dietrich in a letter under the date of December 8,
Hans Christian Schmidt Augustus B. Carlson William Groenning Tver K. Poulsen Horace G. B. Artman Christian F. J. Becker
MISSIONARIES IN INDIA
A TELUt;U FAMILY A nativf C'liristian teacher, wife and child.
A CONFERENCE OF NATIVE CHRISTIAN WORKERS
This picture was taken on the north side of St. P'aul's Church, Rajahmundry. in 1910.
THE HOME-CHURCH LAGS (1886-87) 247 1887, wrote: "On the first and second of every month I give the beggars that gather in my compound their 'dubs.' Quite a number gather on the mornings of these days. When I had charge of the school and had a Bible reading in Rajahmundry, I made them sit down and listen to preaching for half an hour or so. I often wished that man would be as anxious for the Gospel as he is for money; how soon every soul on earth would be converted!"
In its report to the General Council at Greenville, Pa., in 1887, the Foreign Missions Committee, after stating that the indebtedness of $1600, reported the previous year, had not yet been canceled, continued as follows: "We are persuaded that, notwithstanding the urgent demands of all the various objects of benevolence presented to our people, they are ready to give to the cause of foreign missions the funds needed to maintain and enlarge the work of our Mission. Two things seems to us to be chiefly necessary to secure these funds. The first is to bring the subject more fully to their attention; the second, to secure a more complete organization of the agencies for collecting funds and distributing information. The two papers issued by the General Council devoted to foreign missions, one in English and one in German, have done much and could do much more were the}^ more generally cir- culated. ... It is greatly to be desired that the Council should devise some mode of securing for the work a more active and efficient administration."
What the Committee sought to accomplish was done in the ninth session of the Council, when it was resolved, "That the Foreign Missions Committee at their discretion appoint a Secretary of Foreign Missions, assign his duties and fix his salary." The Council, furthermore, sought to relieve the finan- cial burden of the Committee by resolving that one-third of the surplus income of the German and English publications of the Council should be turned into the treasury of the Foreign Missions Committee.