Part II, Chapter XI — Woman Missionaries (1890-91)
As the work of a foreign mission develops it becomes more complex. New departments of work are added and new insti- tutions are founded. The district mission work is augmented by educational and philanthropic efforts for the improvement of the mental and material as well as the moral and spiritual welfare of the converts to Christianity. Primarily and funda- mentally, mission work is the preaching and teaching of the truth of the Word of God, in order that the heathen may be converted from their idols to the worship and service of the One, True, Living God, the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, such preaching and teaching leads inevitably to the establishment of institutions and departments of work which, though subordinate to the primary purpose of the Mission, are essential to its growth and development in every direction.
Next in importance to the estabhshment of congregations is the estabhshment of schools for the education of the children of converts in the knowledge of the principles and practice of the truths of Christianity, and in such branches of secular knowledge as will fit them to be intelligent and useful citizens. Such mission schools also serve the purpose of bringing children of heathen parents under the influence of the Gospel, and of reaching, to some degree at least, the parents of such children. The educational program of every mission, furthermore, must include institutions for the training of native converts for work in the mission as teachers, evangehsts, catechists and pastors. Some missions beHeve that they must also maintain High Schools and Colleges, but the existence of such schools of higher learning is justifiable only when the management and staff of the school is distinctly Christian.
Institutions of mercy, such as hospitals, dispensaries, or- phans' homes and asylums of various kinds often become auxiliary departments of mission work in its developed stages.
Mission work in India calls for a large number of trained native workers. On them depend the character and growth of the Mission. The foreign missionary who increases the number and efficiency of his native Christian assistants is making the best possible contribution to the success of the Mission.
The lowest grade of native Christian workers in a mission in India, apart from the Bible colporteur, is the village school- teacher. It is his duty to teach the children of the Christians of his village and such children of heathen parents as may be sent to his school the elementary branches of secular knowl- edge required by the government, and, above all things, to impart such Biblical knowledge as he may be able to teach and the children may be able to learn. He is also, as a rule, the lay-preacher for the Christians of the village in which he resides ; and sometimes he is placed in charge of a number of villages. He conducts the Sunday and mid-week services, prepares the inquirers for adult baptism and the catechumens for confirmation by the foreign missionary. His immediate superior is the catechist of his circle, to whom he reports, and who, in turn, is responsible to the foreign missionary for a given circle of ten or more villages. The evangelist who, also, is subject to the direction of the catechist under the foreign missionary, works in new and unoccupied villages, preaching and conversing with non-Christians in order to bring them to Christ. The extension of the mission depends to a large extent on the work of the evangelists.
The foreign missionary who is in charge of a district visits the villages of his district in which Christians or inquirers reside and in which schools are conducted, as often as possible each year. If his work lies along the river or canal, he uses a house-boat, furnished by the mission; if he must travel over- land, he uses a horse or a bullock-cart and takes with him a tent and such utensils, provisions and servants as may be necessary for the journey. From some central point, where the boat is moored or the tent is pitched, he goes to sur-
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (1890-91) 267 rounding villages on foot or, sometimes, on a bicycle or a pony. He is generally accompanied by the catechist of the circle in which he is working at the time and by one or more native assistants. Where there is no native pastor, he performs all the ministerial acts, examines the school children, the catechumens and inquirers, and baptizes or confirms them, if found to be properly prepared; he adminis- ters the Holy Supper to the communicants and exercises whatever discipline may be called for in a congregation; he directs the work of the school-teachers and other native Christian helpers, whose employment, dismissal or transfer lies in his hands; and, as time and opportunity are given him, he preaches to the heathen. This district work is, therefore, partly pastoral and partly evangelistic.
Besides ordained foreign missionaries, woman missionaries are also employed in almost every mission in India, because of the peculiar position of women in India. Many of these are confined in zenanas or women's apartments, which they are not permitted to leave unless accompanied by some male member of the household, and to which no man outside of the household is admitted. The only way to reach these zenana women is through woman missionaries, who may enter the zenanas to instruct them and their children. Usu- ally a Bible-class is formed in each zenana, and one or more hours of instruction are given each week. Besides the religious instruction, the woman missionary may undertake to teach the zenana women and children sewing, needle-work, English, Telugu or music, in order to gain and hold their attention.
Associated with this zenana work are the Hindu Girls' schools, sometimes called Caste Girls' schools, because, at first, outcast children were not allowed to attend them. Medical work for women and children is another department in which woman missionaries are engaged. This work calls for hospitals and dispensaries for women and children, and for visits to private homes to attend patients. Daily devotional exercises are conducted in the various institu- tions of this department, and Sunday schools are established for the caste children who can be induced to come.
In the zenana and medical work native Christian women are employed as so-called Bible-women to assist the woman missionaries in teaching the classes or as nurses.
For the higher education of Christian girls, Central Schools, in charge of woman missionaries, are established, usually with a Normal Training Department to fit some of the pupils for work as village school-teachers. These Central Schools are boarding schools, and their primary object is to raise the standard of the education of the Christian women.
Where industrial work is carried on in a mission, it aims to furnish converts with a means of livehhood or, at least, with some opportunity to improve their time and their con- dition in life by remunerative occupation.
The credit of having begun women's missionary work in Rajahmundry is due to Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Artman, when, in 1 88 1, they started to teach a class of zenana women in the home of the munsiff Narasimham. Then in January, 1882, Mrs. Schmidt began the Hindu Girls' School at River- dale. In 1884, after her husband's death, Mrs. Artman took full charge of the zenana work and the Hindu Girls' School, as the first salaried woman missionary in the service of the General Council. The wives of the other missionaries also rendered some assistance in teaching the boarding boys and girls to sew; and, as early as 1878, Mrs. Schmidt had begun the industrial work of lace-making with the older girls in the boarding school.
The question of sending woman missionaries to labor by the side of the ordained missionaries and their wives was first raised in December, 1879, when Mrs. Emma Victoria von Noxendorf offered her service to the Foreign Missions Com- mittee; but the Committee rephed as follows: "Resolved, That the Rev. Dr. A. Spaeth, chairman of the Committee, inform her that we have not yet progressed far enough in our school work to send out a woman teacher, but hope to be able to do so at some future time."
Ten years later a similar application was received from Miss Agnes I. Schade, then a teacher in the Orphans' Farm School
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (1890-91) 269 at Zelienople, Pa. Still the Committee hesitated. The mis- sionaries on the j&eld were asked for their opinion and unan- imously declared in favor of sending a single lady as a woman missionary. The Committee, however, decided to delay the matter until it had ascertained the mind of the Church at home. In an editorial in the May, 1890, issue of "The Foreign Missionary" every friend of the Mission was invited to write on a postal card his or her view of the matter of sending out woman missionaries. All of the replies received favored the undertaking. Meanwhile Miss Kate S. Sadtler, daughter of the Rev. Dr. B. Sadtler, of Baltimore, Md., also volunteered to serve in the India Mission as a woman missionary. Finally, at its meeting in June, 1890, the Committee resolved in the name of the Lord to begin zenana work, and called Miss Agnes I. Schade and Miss Kate S. Sadtler "as assistants in the mission work in India. "^
After the Committee had called its first woman missionaries, it published and distributed the following circular
'To the Members of our Ladies^ and Dorcas Societies: "At the last convention of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania it was unanimously resolved that the pastors of the Minis- terium be instructed to call the attention of their congrega- tions, and particularly of the Dorcas and Ladies' societies, to the fact that the Foreign Missions Committee of the General Council is about to undertake the establishment of a zenana mission among the Telugus, and that the special in- terest and co-operation of our devout women in this work is solicited. There was also a full report of the committee on Woman's Work in the Church, received by the Synod and referred to the Conferences for consideration, in which the organization of women's missionary societies under the con- trol and direction of the Ministerium and congregations, in which such societies exist, is strongly recommended. "The undersigned Foreign Missions Committee of the General Council takes the liberty to call the attention of our ^ The salary of a single lady sent out as a woman missionary was fixed at $500 a year; $ioo were allowed for an outfit. Miss Sadtler, however, provided her outfit at her own expense.
270 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL Dorcas and Ladies' societies to the action of the Pennsylvania Synod and solicit, through the kind assistance of their respec- tive pastors, their hearty and prompt co-operation.
"The word 'zenana' is used by the Hindus to designate that part of the house, particularly among the wealthy classes, which is assigned to the female members of the household the wives, mothers and daughters of the Hindu families. As throughout the Orient, so in India also, this part of the dwell- ing is considered the most secluded and inaccessible, to which no stranger and, above all, no man, is ever admitted. Zenana Mission, then, in general designates that mission work which is carried on in the zenana; but how can the Gospel ever enter these places if no missionary or evangelist, no minister of the Gospel, is ever admitted into them, and the inmates are forbidden to meet with the Christians in their preaching stations and churches? The importance of reaching these sanctuaries of the family life with the regenerating influences of the Gospel will not be denied by any one, for in India, as well as in America, England or Germany, the nursery is the place from which the whole life of the nation grows out to its future development. . . . "In one of the last meetings of our Foreign Missions Com- mittee of the General Council, held at the Mary J. Drexel Home and Motherhouse of Deaconesses, Philadelphia, the resolution was uaanimously passed that, in the name of the Lord, we undertake the establishment of a zenana mission in Rajahmundry; and Miss Kate Sadtler and Miss Agnes Schade were called to go out as the first laborers sent by our Com- mittee in this field. Both have accepted the call, and on the sixteenth of October we expect to hold a solemn service in St. John's Evangehcal Lutheran Church, Race Street, be- tween Fifth and Sixth Streets, Philadelphia, and send them out with our prayers and benediction to their distant field of labor.
"On the day following, at 2.30 p. m., we propose that a Con- ference be held at St. John's Church, of ladies delegated by the Dorcas, Ladies' and Missionary Societies of our congrega- tions in and around Philadelphia—say, three from each con-
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (189O-91) 27 gregation—to take into consideration what could be done by the harmonious and simultaneous action of these different societies toward the support of our zenana work in India and, if possible, to organize a general society in aid of this particular mission branch. The ladies of the Lehigh Valley' have shown to the Church how much can be accomplished by the united and hearty co-operation of our devout women. Let those of the city of brotherly love not stand back. Come to the service and remember in your prayers the sisters who are to go out to Rajahmundry, Come to the Conference. Let us have a full discussion of this subject of woman's work. Let us organize it and carry it forth in humble faith and unremitting devotion. Surely the Lord will be with us and establish the work of our hands for His Name's sake.
The Foreign Missions Committee."
Agnes I. Schade, daughter of Michael Schade and his wife Justina nee Klotz, was born at Water Cure, Pa. When she was six years of age her parents moved to Monaca on the Ohio River, thirty miles from Pittsburgh. After a pubhc school education she entered the State Normal School at Millersville, Pa., from which she was graduated in 1886. In 1889 she became a teacher in the school connected with the Orphans' Home at Zelionople, Pa. In June, 1890, she was formally called by the Foreign Missions Committee to go to India as a woman missionary.
Katharine S. Sadtler, the eldest daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Sadtler,^ D. D., of Baltimore, Md., was born at Shippensburg, Pa. During her early childhood her parents moved to Easton, Pa., where her father served as the pastor of St. John's Church. In 1862 her father became the Principal of the Lutherville Female Seminary, from which she was graduated. In 1889 her cousin. Miss Amy Sadtler, offered ' At the call of the Rev. C. J. Cooper, D. D., and under the leadership of Mrs. E. Pfatteicher, Mrs. R. A. Diehl, Mrs. J. A. Bauman and others, the Women's Missionary Society of the Second or Allentown Conference was organized in March, 1885, in St. Peter's Church, South Bethlehem. ^ The Rev. B. M. Schmucker, D. D., the secretary of the Foreign Missions Committee, was Miss Sadtler's uncle.
272 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL her services as a woman missionary to the Foreign Mission Board of the General Synod and was accepted. This revived an old desire within her to serve in the General Council's Mission in India, in which she had become deeply interested after a visit of the Rev. Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Schmidt at her father's house during the summer of 1885. She was accepted and called by the Foreign Missions Committee of the General Council at the same time Miss Schade was called, on June 9, 1890. The commissioning service for these two zenana sisters^^ was held on the evening of October 16, 1890, in St. John's Church, Philadelphia. The Rev. A. Spaeth, D. D., Chairman of the Foreign Missions Committee, in delivering the charge, said: "I ask you, dear sisters in the Lord, are you willing and ready to go out as helpers in our Mission and to give your- selves wholly to this service, into which you now enter, for Jesus' sake, who loved you and gave himself for you?" To this question the sisters responded, saying, "Yes, I will by the help of God." Thereupon the Rev. Dr. Spaeth took the hand of each one, and said: "God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, bless, protect and sanctify you in your service, filling you with faith, wisdom, love and humihty, to serve Him to the honor of His Holy Name and the good of His Holy Church. Amen." Appropriate passages of Holy Scripture were recited in German by the Rev. H. Grahn, D. D., and in Enghsh by the Rev. Wilham Ashmead Schaeffer, D. D., and during the prayer of commissioning the sisters knelt before the altar. The next day the woman missionaries-elect left for New York, where the Rev. G. F. Krotel, D. D., pastor of Holy Trinity Church, had arranged with the women of his congre- gation for an informal farewell meeting. As arranged, the women of the Lutheran congregations of Philadelphia and its vicinity met on October 17th, the day after the commissioning, to organize a Women's Missionary Society. Ninety women, representing fourteen congregations, 1 On the motion of the Rev. A. Cordes, pastor of the Deaconesses' Home, the title of "zenana sisters" was applied to these woman missionaries after November, 1891.
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (1890-91) 273 assembled in St. John's Church for this purpose. At an adjourned meeting on November 14th a constitution was adopted and officers were elected.^ The Misses Schade and Sadtler sailed from New York on October i8th, reached Colombo on December 6th, Madras on the nth, and Rajahmundry on the 20th of December, 1890.
During the year 1890 Schmidt, McCready, Pohl and Edman carried on the work of the Mission. At the meetings of the Mission Conference and Council in January of that year, held in Tallapudi, the new church, though not entirely completed, was consecrated on January 8th. The bell had been donated by Mrs. Mary Hunter of New York, who also contributed several hundred dollars toward the building fund. About Rs. 2200, or $750, had been secured by McCready from friends, relatives and native Christians in India, and at least $700 from friends in America. Pohl, as the superintendent of the educational work in Rajahmundry, proved to be a worthy successor of the lamented Groenning. His mildness and gentleness won for him the confidence and love of his pupils and their parents; his piety and spiritual-mindedness, their esteem and respect; his ability as a teacher, their obedience and loyalty.
The school opened with an unusually large number of pupils in January, 1890. An additional class, the sixth standard, was organized, and the school was awarded a government grant. That no change was contemplated or expected in the character of the school as a training-school for native workers, even though financial aid was received from the government, is evident from the following explanation of the manager: "Because the preaching of the Cross and not the spread of scientific knowledge is the chief aim of the Mission, our school is of great importance. It is our purpose to train our Christian youth so that they may be able to sow 1 The first officers of the Women's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the Philadelphia Conferences of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania were: President, Mrs. Samuel Laird; Secretaries, Mrs. J. L. Sibole, Mrs. H. M. Vanderslice and Miss C. Probst; Treasurer, Mrs. H. E. Jacobs.
274 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL the good seed of the kingdom. We wish to instruct them so that they may give a reason for the hope that is in them. We are very careful to make them familiar with the precious treasures of divine truth which the Lord has given to our Church, so that they may hold up the banner of our Con- fessions faithfully unto the end. To this, then, is added such general knowledge as they may be able to gain."
Pohl described the schoolbuildings as well adapted to their purpose. The main building contained three smaller and four larger rooms, the largest having been added by Groenning. The lowest class, however, had to meet on the verandah; 103 boys and 42 girls were enrolled in January, 1890. They were taught by six teachers, all but one of whom were Chris- tians; 95 boys and girls were housed in the boarding department, consisting of four small buildings in the church compound, which were filled to overflowing. Pohl furnished the following interesting description of a day in the life of the school
"Before sunrise the children, after washing, eat the cold rice that was left from the supper of the previous day. At sunrise the church bell summons them for morning prayer. The school begins at 7 o'clock and closes for the morning at 11.30. At noon dinner is served. At 2 p. m. the girls and some of the boys spend some time at sewing and mending under the direction of my wife. During the afternoon some of the children are employed in sweeping the schoolrooms and putting them in order for the next day. The larger pupils, however, spend the hour from four to five in class. After that comes the recreation hour. Some engage in gymnastics, others in some useful work on the grounds, watering the plants, removing rubbish, etc. Some go to Mr. Schmidt's compound to learn carpentering. The girls, carrying vessels on their heads, hasten to the Godavery River to bring drink- ing-water, filling up five large vessels for the next day. At 6 o'clock the boys go to bathe in the Godavery. The evening is spent in study or singing, and evening prayers in the several boarding houses close the day."
Soon after coming to Rajahmundry Mrs. Pohl took charge
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (1890-91) 275 of the Mohammedan Girls' School which was now called the Artman Poor Mohammedan Girls' School. Sarah, a Christian, assisted her by giving some instruction in the Christian re- ligion in Telugu. The teachers in the Hindu Girls' School were P. V. Ratnam, Ramachandra Rao and a Hindu, while Goraza conducted the girls to and from the school.
Edman and his family at first occupied Mrs. Taylor's bungalow, which was leased by the Mission. On June 16, 1890, they moved to Samulkot, Edman having been assigned to that district.
Besides touring in the Velpur district, spending most of his time in and around Bhimawaram, where within a radius of five miles over 1000 Christians resided and where he planned to build a large church for them, Schmidt erected a house in the Riverdale compound, adjoining the Caste Girls' School, for use as a printery and book-store. The latter enterprise was managed by Mrs. Schmidt who, in 1890, sold as many as 4238 Bibles, books and pamphlets. Schmidt also began the erec- tion of the so-called Zenana Home, the residence of the zenana sisters, and continued the building of the Dowlaishwaram bungalow.
On Pentecost, 1890, an unusually interesting ceremony was performed in St. Paul's Church, when a Brahmin, Jaganatham, and a Mala, Veera Emmanuel Razulu, were baptized at the same time, thus showing how Christianity breaks down the caste distinctions.
The parochial reports for the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1890, were summarized as follows:^
Rajahmundry, Tallapudi, Korukonda. Jegurupad. Velpur. Samulkot. Totals. Villages 6 20 55 19 100 Christians 201 356 1580 296 2433 Communicants 95 229 426 155 905 Baptisms, six months 11 17 178 39 245 Schools 4 10 26 9 49 Teachers 9 25 8 52 Pupils 224 19s 393 117 899 1 At the July, 1890, Mission Council meeting the missionaries requested that they be granted allowances to enable them to spend the hot season at some health resort. The Board granted the request. This allowance now is Rs. 75 for each adult and Rs. 25 for each child.
276 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL In August, 1890, Mr. John G. Haas of Lancaster, Pa., whom Dr. Schmidt on his visit to America and afterward through correspondence had interested in the enterprise, began to send money to him for the endowment of a Christian community, centered around a church with a native pastor. Schmidt selected Lankapuram near Mahadevipatnam as the location of the community and began the purchase of land there and elsewhere in the Bhimawaram taluk, which he arranged to rent or to sell on easy terms to poor but deserving Christians who were to form the community. Gradually this enterprise, financed entirely by Mr. Haas, assumed con- siderable proportions; but it was altogether a private under- taking, of which the Foreign Missions Committee had no official knowledge and over which it never attempted to exercise control.
According to the agreement between the Breklum Society and the Foreign Missions Committee Pohl had been loaned to the Rajahmundry Mission for only a year. At the end of the year, however, no one had been found to take his place as the head of the educational work, and the Breklum Society, at the earnest sohcitation of the Committee, extended the period to the close of the year 1891.
March 4, 1891, was a high day in the history of the Rajahmundry school which that year received the name of The Seminary, when twenty-one students, the largest number sent out from this school up to that time, were formally and solemnly installed as teachers. "On Tuesday," wrote Pohl, "the schoolhouse was tastefully decorated with palm branches, and the students who were to be graduated gave what may be termed a farewell luncheon to the pupils who were to remain in the school. What impressed me most favorably was the fact that, as they were now all together for the last time, they, first of all, united in singing to the Lord a hymn of praise and, then, on bended knees, oft'ered prayers and suppUcations. In the evening we all attended the Preparatory Service in the church, for we wanted to mark the ending of our past work and the beginning of the new with the assurance of the divine pardon of our sins. The solemn
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (189O-91) 277 commissioning of the teachers to their respective fields of work occurred on Wednesday morning. After we had all joined in prayer once more in our home, we proceeded to the church. After the regular liturgical service and the lesson, Brother Schmidt addressed the young men. Then I, who had taken so much delight in teaching them, delivered a brief address. After the chanting of Psalm loo the teachers- elect came to the altar and Brother Schmidt asked them: "Dear Brethren in the Lord, in the presence of Almighty God and of this congregation, I now ask you: Are you ready and wilUng to devote yourselves fully and sincerely to the service to which you have been appointed this day; and, for Jesus' sake, Who gave Himself for you, will you fulfill your calling with all fidelity, and adorn it with a holy life in con- formity with the teachings of our Evangelical Lutheran Church?" Each in turn answered: *'Yes, with the help of God." Then they were set apart for their work as teachers by the laying on of hands and the following form of consecra- tion: "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless, protect, sanctify and cause you to abound in faith, wisdom, love and sincerity, in order that you may serve Him for the glory of His Name and for the edifying of His Holy Church; and in the end may you obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ, our Lord." Thereupon the congre- gation said, "Amen." Then I laid my hand on the head of each one, repeating appropriate passages of Holy Scripture. Prayer was offered by Brother Schmidt and the Holy Communion followed. The service closed with the benediction and the hymn "Abide with us, our Saviour." At the special request of the teachers who had graduated from the Seminary and with the approval of the Mission Council, Pohl devoted the months of June and July to a special normal course for their benefit. Thirty-three attended this course, which was pronounced to have been a decided suc- cess. In recent years more attention has been given to the normal training of teachers, which has been found to be a necessary preparation for efficient work on the part of the native assistants.
Miss Schade took charge of the Artman Poor Mohammedan Girls' School in April, and Miss Sadtler, of the Caste Girls' School in July, 1891. Both resided with the Schmidts in the Riverdale bungalow until the Zenana Home was completed.
Some time in 1891 "The Telugu Lutheran," a four page sheet, 8 by 13 inches, was begun as a regular pubhcation of the Mission.
Before the close of the year a new missionary was on the field to take the place of Pohl. The Rev. Calvin F. Kuder was the twelfth ordained missionary sent out by the General Coun- cil to India. He was born April 10, 1864, at Laurys, Lehigh County, Pa. After having been graduated from Roanoke Col- lege, Salem, Va., he entered the Evangelical Lutheran Theo- logical Seminary at Philadelphia. While a member of the middle class in the Seminary he volunteered to go to India in the service of the Foreign Missions Committee. He was called subject to his ordination which occurred at the meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium in Emmanuel Church, Pottstown, Pa., on May 26, 1891. On August i8th, that year, he was united in marriage to Mattie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Ferguson, at Salem, Va. The service of commissioning was held on August 31st, in St. John's Church, Allentown, Pa., the chairman of the Foreign Missions Committee, the Rev. A. Spaeth, D. D., delivering the charge to the mis- sionary. The Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Kuder sailed from Phila- delphia on September 2d, and reached Rajahmundry on November 14, 1891. The year 1891 marked quite an advance in the foreign mission activity of the Church at home, due largely to the increase of women's missionary societies, mission leagues and kindred organizations. A beginning had been made, also, in the publication of special literature on our foreign mission work. Mrs. J. A. Bauman, of Allentown, Pa., pubhshed a small catechism on foreign mission work in India with special reference to the Telugu Mission of the General Council, which was prepared by the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. H. C. Schmidt; and the Rev. G. H. Trabert, D. D., wrote and published a book on "Missions Among the Telugus." Both appeared
WOMAN MISSIONARIES (189O-91) 279 with the hearty endorsement of the Foreign Missions Committee.
In its report to the General Council at Buffalo, in 1891, the Foreign Missions Committee, besides giving the names of forty-two individuals, schools and societies supporting boys' scholarships, and eighteen supporting girls' scholarships, reported twenty teachers and other native workers supported by patrons in America. The Riverdale Hindu Girls' School was being supported by the Sunday schools of St. John's and St. Mark's churches of Philadelphia; the Mohammedan Girls' School, by the Young Ladies' Society and the Sunday school of Holy Trinity Church, New York City; the school at Gorlamudi by the Children's Missionary Society of Emmanuel Swedish Church of Chicago, and the school at Srirangapatnam, by the Ladies' Missionary Society of the church last men- tioned.^
The average annual contribution from all sources for the biennium 1890-91 was $12,675.80; the average annual ex- penditure, $12,989.32, showing an excess of expenditure. The floating indebtedness of $1000 remained unpaid. Among the items of income noted were several hundreds of dollars each year, derived from the net proceeds of the German and English publications of the General Council.-
The committee of the General Council on Woman's Work presented a report to the convention at Buffalo, which, in view of the development of the Women's Missionary Society, is of unusual interest. It reads, in part, as follows: "Whereas, In the providence of God a wide and effective door has been opened for zenana work, inviting effort and giv- ing encouragement to the labors of those who are concerned for the elevation and christianization of heathen homes, we * The plan of supporting schools, stations or districts is now being preferred by Mission Boards to that of supporting teachers and other native workers. ^ From October, 1889, to October, 1890, the cash transferred from the Genera Council's general expense fund to the treasury of the Foreign Missions Committee was: One-third of the net proceeds of the German publications, $139.82, and one-third of the net proceeds of the English publications, $46.61:—From October, 1890, to October, iSoi: One-third of the net proceeds of the Germao publications, $333,34, and one-third of the net proceeds of the English pub- lications, $166.66. No income is derived from this source to-day.
28o THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL earnestly call upon the women of our churches to embrace the opportunity presented of bearing the precious Gospel to those who can be reached only through their instrumentality. "Whereas, In view of the enlarged demands made upon the churches for the home and foreign fields, it is recommended that missionary societies be established in all our congrega- tions, wherever practicable, as a means of fostering a fervent missionary zeal through the collection of mission intelligence, of quickening responsibility in regard to mission work and of securing more general contributions to the treasuries of our various boards.
"We further recommend the organization of local societies within the bounds of a Conference into one central body; and these Conference organizations shall unite in forming a general body, composed of delegates from the Conference societies, in such ratio as may be determined. "We recommend that the constitutions of the local societies be submitted to the Councils of the respective congregations for approval, and those of the Conference societies to the re- spective Conferences, and that of the general body to the Gen- eral Council.
"We recommend that specific work undertaken by the general body shall be with the approval and under the direc- tion of the proper committee or board of the General Council." It is necessary to notice that, at the 1891 convention of the General Council, the official title of the Foreign Missions Com- mittee was changed to that of the Board of Foreign Missions of the General Council. In the place of the Rev. Dr. Mann and the Rev. G. C. Gardner, the Revs. A. Cordes and E. R. Cassaday were chosen, and in the place of Mr. F. Bauer, Mr. W. F. Monroe. The Board reorganized after the convention of the General Council by re-electing its former officers, the office of Enghsh recording secretary having already, in February, 1891, been separated from that of corresponding secretary, the Rev. J. L. Sibole having been elected to fill the former, and the Rev. WilHam Ashmead Schaeffer, D. D., the latter office.
John II. IIarpster E. PoHL
Calvin F. KurER Rudolph Arp3 Andrew S. Fichthorn" Hans Eric Isaacson
MISSIONARIES IN INDIA
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