Part II, Chapter XII — Increasing Fruitfulness (1892-93)
In order to secure the necessary funds for the Zenana Home which was being built to accommodate the zenana sisters, a unique method of raising money was proposed by Schmidt and adopted by the Board of Foreign Missions. The cost of construction was divided as follows:
Masonry, 18 shares, at $20 a share $360.00 Doors, 16, at $8 a door 128.00 Windows, 10, at $6 a window 60.00 Pillars, 10, at Sio a pillar 100.00 Beams, 12, at $6 a beam 72.00 Rafters, 200, at $1 a rafter 200.00 Staircase 40.00 Roofs, 4, at $80 a roof 320.00 Roof, I, at $100 100.00 Trusses, 4, at $15 a truss 60.00
The responses to this method of appeal were prompt and enthusiastic, and by the time the building was completed enough money had been contributed to pay the total cost of construction, which was approximately $1500. The Misses Schade and Sadtler moved into the Zenana Home in May, 1892. As usual, the new year began with the conventions of the Mission Conference and Council, beginning on the first Sunday in January.'^ Church Missionary Society missionaries from Dummugu- ;» dem had gone into the hill country and made a number of con- | verts, but, realizing that the territory in that direction really I belonged to our Mission, urged our missionaries to provide for a more thorough and systematic evangelization of the dis- trict. Some time during the first half of the year 1892, there- fore, Edman visited that part of the field and baptized a few persons. In September Schmidt went up the Godavery River 1 Schmidt, as the senior missionary, was continued in the office of president McCready was elected English secretary.
beyond Sitanagaram, accompanied by his wife. Mrs. Schmidt described this tour as follows:
"On the morning of September 2 7th^ we started up the Godavery. At this time of the year the water is high and the current strong. Six sturdy men were engaged to take up the house-boat. Not one of them would go without the promise of double wages. It was hard work. At evening we anchored near a sand-bank. The gorgeous sunset, covering the mountains with golden light, was followed by a fine moon- light. The cooHes got out their prepared rice which they had brought from home wrapped in a piece of cloth, and sat down on the sand and ate it. Afterward they stretched them- selves out on a cloth spread on the sand to rest for the night. The boat started in the morning before we arose. While we were eating our breakfast, which we had to take without milk, because none could be gotten, we reached the village of Moonakodavelli. We went up to see the Christians who lived in this village. Many people gathered as we sat on the veran- dah. After singing a hymn Mr. Schmidt read the parable of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to seek the one lost sheep, and used it as a text for a sermon. The sermon was followed by a conversation during which the people asked for a teacher, because they wanted to be instructed in the truth. They had a teacher some time ago, who got the cholera, from which he recovered; but he had not the courage to remain. Nobody has since been found willing to go up there.
"We went to Sitanagaram, where the Christians came to the shore to welcome us. In the evening we went to Vangalapudi and sat down under a large tamarind tree in an open place, where a large crowd gathered. Most of them were caste people. The pariahs stood apart on one side. The catechist William played the vioHn and we commenced to sing 'Raro janulara' (Ye sinners come). Mr. Schmidt preached on the text, 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden.' When we
' Her description begins with an interesting paragraph. "There is gener- ally nothing we enjoy so much," wrote Mrs. Schmidt, "as going out on mission tours. Not for the saice of the pleasure or the comforts of travel, but because the missionary feels himself at such times in his real element, proclaiming the blessed word of salvation to the masses of various people wherever he goes."
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 283 returned to the boat a large crowd followed, among them the village munsiff. The next day Rapaka and Rahitavaram were visited in the morning, and Mr. Schmidt addressed three crowds of people in these places. Saturday morning Konda- pudi was visited, and in the evening we went again to Vangala- pudi. There is a school here with about twenty boys enrolled. Not a single girl could read. The munsiff's daughter, who is about twelve years old, and a few other girls of her age had mastered a few words; but the boys read fluently and wrote correctly on the ground as we dictated to them.
"Sunday morning we went to the house of the evangelist Joseph, where the Christians from other places had gathered to partake of the Holy Communion. In a stable under a roof of palm leaves supported by a number of posts, with a Httle bench for a communion table, Mr. Schmidt using a box and I a bench for seats, mats being spread on the floor for the Christians, one could not help being reminded of Him who for our sakes was born in a stable. We felt assured that He was just as near to us gathered there in His name, few though we were, as in any other hallowed place of worship. Beautiful, large trees shaded us from the hot sun, and the birds seemed to join in the singing. Only two heathen were present, one an old man who confessed his faith in Christ and wished to be baptized, and the other an elderly woman who sought salva- tion through the Redeemer.
"As we passed Tallapudi on our way down we made a call there, and reached home at noon on Monday, where we at once found plenty to do, as it was the beginning of the month, when all agents had to be paid."
Correspondence was opened by Schmidt, in 1892, with the missionaries of the Ontario and Quebec Baptist Mission, which was beginning to encroach on the territory of our Mission, asking for an amicable adjustment of boundary lines, but fourteen years were to elapse before an agreement could be effected.
J. John, who had been a teacher in the Seminary, became Edman's catechist in the Samulkot district, and together they visited one hundred and twenty-five towns and villages during
284 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL the first half of the year 1892. Those in which Christians resided were districted, so that each teacher had charge of from ten to fourteen villages, in each of which a service was held at least once a month.
Pastor Joseph, who for a number of years had suffered from a disease of the eyes, became totally blind in one eye in 1892, and in other respects began to show signs of advanced age. St. Peter's Church at Tallapudi was completed in 1892. A baptismal font, donated by Professor and Mrs. Garber of Allentown, and a pulpit, the gift of Mrs. Mary Hunter of New York, were placed in the chancel. As a consequence of his supervision of the erection of the buildings at Tallapudi McCready became interested in the manufacture of tiles, and proposed to the Board of Foreign Missions that industrial work along this line should be begun at Tallapudi. Most of the converts in his district, he argued, being of the Madiga or Chuckler caste—the lowest and poorest people—desired after their conversion to better their conditions. McCready was convinced that this problem could be solved by teaching them to make tiles. The Foreign Mission Board, however, decUned to finance the undertaking or to include it as a regular branch of mission work. Mrs. McCready taught some of the Christian women and girls in Tallapudi and neighboring villages how to crochet, knit and make lace. In 1892 she had a class of about twenty at work.
In March, 1892, the Board of Foreign Missions authorized the erection of a church at Bhimawaram, which was to be a memorial to the late Rev. Dr. B. M. Schmucker and was to receive the name of The Church of the Transfiguration, because Dr. Schmucker at the time of his death was the pastor of a church of the same name in Pottstown, Pa. A scheme for raising funds in America similar to that employed for the Zenana Home was adopted, but it met with less pronounced success. The church was planned to seat 1000 people and to cost $3000.^
^ Building operations in the lower portions of the Godavery delta are more expensive, because all the building material must be brought from Rajahmimdry a distance of nearly fifty miles, in boats or bullock-carts.
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 285 The excellent condition of the Seminary at Rajahmundry under the supervision of Pohl was attested by the result of the examination by the government school-inspector, in January, 1892, when seventy-five of the ninety pupils in the school passed creditable examinations, and a government grant of 600 rupees was allowed. Pohl left the Mission on March 2, 1892, bound for Germany, on furlough. He had raised the standard of the Rajahmundry school from the grade of a Primary to that of a Lower Secondary school. On the last Sunday he spent in Rajahmundry, February 28th, he consecrated seven graduates of the school for work as teachers in the Mission. As a farewell token of esteem the teachers in the Seminary gave him a watch charm in the form of a gold cross.
"On Monday we left the house," wrote Pohl, "where we had experienced so many hours of good fortune and peace hours filled with consolation in times of need and with joy in the pursuit of duties. Tuesday afternoon we went aboard the 'Dove of Peace' which, ten years ago, when I first came to India, carried us a good part of the way to our destination. The whole congregation and school assembled at Riverdale. Brother Kuder spoke a few farewell words in English, the people sang 'Jesus still lead on,' Pastor Paulus offered a prayer and I pronounced the benediction. A last warm hand- shake, a last kiss, and the bond of our common labor was severed. Many waded into the water a short distance after the boat to shake our hands again. As long as we could see the mission compound the people stood on the river-bank wav- ing us adieu. The setting sun plated the town with a golden glow. Oh, how beautiful will be that city of golden streets, in which there will be no more farewells!"
How much the service of Pohl was appreciated may be learned from the following letter, dated January 19, 1892:
"r/?e Board of Foreign Missions of the General Council to the Rev. E. Pohl, Greeting:
"Reverend and Dear Brother: Your active connection with our Mission in Rajahmundry, that has been accompanied by such happy results, being now terminated to our , 286 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL sincere regret, we take occasion to express to you our estimate of your work and our sense of what we owe you for the good and valuable service you have been enabled to render. The confidence with which we were led to trust in you from the beginning has been fully justified; and the satisfaction we have felt in your mode of working and in its results con- tinued to increase to the end. You have co-operated with your colleagues in the spirit of intelligent enterprise, Chris- tian harmony and brotherly love. Your care of the schools has been wise, unwearied, devoted and successful; and we fondly cherish the hope that the results of your faithful administration of the schools will, by the divine favor, prove to be a blessing for many years.
"We thank you with our whole heart and commend you to the favor of Him whose we are and whom we serve, trusting that wherever your lot may be cast, every blessing may rest upon you and upon all your work of faith and labor of love."^
The Rev. and Mrs. C. F. Kuder moved into the old mission house after the Pohls had vacated it, Kuder taking charge of the school and Mrs. Kuder succeeding Mrs. Pohl as the supervisor of the sewing-class.
When Kuder assumed charge of the Seminary on March i 1892, there were 10 teachers and 150 pupils of whom 50 were day pupils and 26 boarding girls, the rest being boarding boys. That was the largest number of pupils in the school up to that time. For a young man just arrived in India and un- familiar with the vernacular, the supervision of the Seminary was anything but a light task. A number of changes in the staff of teachers was unavoidable. M. Devadas was em- ployed in the place of J. John who had become Edman's catechist at Samulkot; R. Charles took V. Jacob's place, who resigned; C.James, the headmaster, M. William and Gopalam were retained.
In a description of the Seminary written a few w.eeks after taking charge, Kuder wrote: "The school is under the rules
1 To the Breklum Missionary Society the Board of Foreign Missions addressed a communication expressing its deep gratitude for the loan of the Rev. E. Pohl whose wcrk had been so satisfactory as to merit its praise.
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 287 of the educational department of the Madras Presidency. This body annually issues carefully prepared curricula to which all schools receiving aid from government must conform. The curriculum for our class of schools is thoroughly suited to the work to be done, and we receive yearly a grant of several hundreds of rupees. The Department divides schools into Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary. The Seminary embraces the first three of these divisions, the highest class being the seventh standard, called also the third form. For this class or standard the curriculum demands a knowledge of arith- metic up through present worth and discount, thorough familiarity with Telugu and ability to write well. Under optional branches of study are a general knowledge of the geography of the world with special attention to Asia and India, English and English history, the four simple rules in Algebra, about fifty propositions in elementary geometry, simple physics, and an acquaintance with English grammar, reading and writing. The boys who pass out of these stand- ards are fairly well equipped to teach. They are well edu- cated in comparison with the masses whom they are to teach and our school, it is hoped, will constantly improve, so that still better men may be sent out. The immense progress made since Mr. Groenning's coming and especially during Mr. PohFs time, may be judged from the fact that we now have boys of twelve years more than twice as far advanced than men of twenty were then. This is due in part to better schools in the villages. We are now beginning to insist on having only young boys in the school, who have passed the second, if not the third, standard in the village schools."
Speaking of the boarding department, Kuder said: "The greatest obstacle to thorough work is the uncomfortable and insufficient accommodations we have for our boys. There are three boarding houses, one for girls and two for boys. The one for girls has two stories, of which the lower is used as a dining-room for the boys and the upper for the girls' sleeping room. Of the six rooms for our boarders only one has a table, and chairs are not to be found at all. In all the rooms but one
288 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL the only furniture is a small kerosene-oil lamp and a number of little boxes in which the children keep their clothes and books. There are no beds. Nearly all the boys sleep on the floor, often in dust half an inch thick, lying down in the panchis and coats which they wear during the day and expect to wear the next day."
At the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1892, the missionaries reported 4 stations, 149 out-stations or villages, 93 native Christian workers, 2 church buildings, 97 adults baptized from January i to June 30, 1892, 118 children and infants baptized during the same period, 3388 Christians of whom 1205 were communicants, 84 schools, 1465 pupils in school, 4 married ordained foreign missionaries and 2 woman mis- sionaries. The estimates for the first half of the year 1892 called for Rs. 7100; for the second half, Rs. 8100.^
During the year 1892 S. Abraham, the evangelist supported by the Rampa Fund, brought quite a number of inquirers from the Rampa district to Rajahmundry to be examined, and Schmidt baptized twenty-four of them, three from the village of Rampa and the rest from the Yellavaram Division. Edman also baptized a number from the region around Addatigula.
Concerning the future of the Seminary Schmidt wrote in 1892 : 'Tt will and must develop into a Theological Seminary and ought to have proper buildings and endowment. I bought land for its endowment many years ago and am ready to present our Seminary with this lot of about thirty acres as soon as our Conference and the Home Board are prepared for operations in this direction and decide to accept my offer. "2
Schmidt was still deeply interested in his industrial mission work. "When I left for India the second time," he wrote,
^ The estimates for the several districts and departments were as follows: First half: Velpur, Rajahmundry, Dowlaishwaram and Jegurupad districts, Dr. Schmidt, Rs. 4000; Tallapudi district, Rev. McCready, Rs. 600; Samulkot district, Dr. Edman, Rs. qoo; The Seminary, Rev. Kuder, Rs. 1600.
^ The Board at its meeting on February 27, 1893, instructed its corresponding secretary to write to Dr. Schmidt and say that it had heard with pleasure his proposal of a gift of thirty acres of land in our Mission in India, and that when the time had come for more definite action, the Board would gladly take such action. This land is now the site of the Boy's Central School.
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 289 "I expressed it as my wish and aim during my second term of service to see an independent native congregation established. The last part of my second term is ebbing away, and still the steadily growing native church makes no visible effort toward self-support. By industrial training some have become useful artisans, but they show little pride in their church and hesi- tate to sacrifice a portion of their income for its support. To the Mission the industrial work has brought no profit, not even the lime-kiln. By land endowments and investments in land we have come so far that one or two native pastors can be supported by local funds. If we had two candidates for the ministry we would be able to pay them each a salary of Rs. 25 or 30 a month from the income of landed property and investments."
In 1892 Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., conferred the degree of doctor of divinity upon the Rev. H. C. Schmidt, in recognition of his long and successful labor as our missionary in India.
A decided forward step was taken by the Board of Foreign Missions when, in November, 1891, it called the Rev. J, Telleen, a member of the Swedish Augustana Synod, then located at Lindsborg, Kan., to be "Missionary Superintend- ent" to visit synods, conferences, congregations, missionary societies and individuals, to deliver addresses on foreign mis- sions and endeavor to increase the interest of the Church in the work of the Board. He was instructed to take up col- lections for the foreign missions of the General Council, to solicit contributions from individuals, to pay over all moneys received to the treasurer of the Board at least once a month, and to report monthly to the Board about his work. He entered upon the duties of this office on March i, 1892. In 1892 the Rev. Prof. A. Spaeth, D. D., resigned as President of the Board of Foreign Missions, having served in that position for sixteen years. The Rev. Prof. C. W. Schaeffer, D. D., was elected as his successor.^ 1 In the place of the Rev. P. J. O. Cornell, resigned, the Rev. C. Elofson, Ph. D., was chosen a member of the Board in 1892.
McCready was given a leave of absence from the Mission in 1893. He had cabled to the Board in May, 1892, and afterward written to explain that he desired to study the manufacture of tiles in various parts of India with the view of estabhshing a factory at Tallapudi, where Christians could secure work. In granting the desired permission the Board said that "under the circumstances, if Mr. McCready's con- science assures him that such a course is right, he is justi- fied to do so, in which event he will be expected to report to the Board every three months as to his whereabouts and work, and to return to his position in the Mission at the end of the year, and that this leave of absence be without pay." McCready accepted the conditions, leaving Tallapudi in Feb- ruary, 1893. After his return he established a small private tile-works at Tallapudi. During his absence Kuder and Edman looked after the mission work in the Tallapudi district.
Dr. Schmidt spent the month of February on tour in the Velpur-Bhimawaram district, visiting more than thirty-four villages in which Christians and inquirers resided.^ In April he toured the Jegurupad district and then went up to Rampa, where he had not been for twenty years. ''A prayer meeting was held in Peter's house, who was baptized in Rajahmundry last Christmas with his two children. Several expressed the wish to become Christians, among them a young man who had been in our mission school which was kept there for some time about twenty years ago. Peter had also attended this school at Rampa. It was a wonderful thing to us that the seed sown so long ago had not been sowed in vain but had borne fruit after so many years," wrote Mrs. Schmidt. The evangelist Abraham gathered a number of Christians from the district at Chodawaram, where a service was held, "very likely the first ever held in that place." Gokaram, Gonegudem and ' The villages mentioned are: Mahadevipatnam, Annawaram, Kowada, Narasimhapalam, Gollalakoderu, Undi, Agraharam, Kolamur, Cheraigudem, Garrakaparru, Chilukur, Sagapadu, Aredu, Gutlapad, Annakoderu, Seesali, Kamarada, Bhimawaram, Ennamaduru, Dirusumarru, Peddamiram, Chinnamirara, Jakkaram, Bondada, Kopella, Ballasamudi, Gunapudi, Komadavelli, Vissakoderu, Srungavruksham, Konitallapalli, Taderu, Korapad.
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 291 other villages were visited and the Gospel preached to the villagers.
Edman revisited Addatigula in March, 1893, and preached there and in the surrounding villages, where there were about fifty baptized Christians. Among those whom he interested was a rajah. "I have visited him twice," wrote Edman, "and preached in his house. He called all of his servants for the services and they listened attentively. He gave me a piece of land on which to build a schoolhouse and another in Addatigula to be used as a cemetery. I have two boys from the hills in the school at Rajahmundry." On this tour Edman baptized twelve persons. The growth of the Mission^ led the Mission Council at its meeting in July, 1893, to pass the following resolution: ''Re- solved, That we suggest to the Board that two stations be opened, one at Pittapur, nine miles northeast of Samulkot, the other at Tadepalligudem, a railway station half-way between Rajahmundry and Ellore." Pittapur was never occupied, but Tadepalligudem became a regular station several years later.
In August, 1893, Dr. Schmidt went to Bellary to attend a meeting of the Telugu Bible Revision Committee and to arrange for the shipment of the India boxes sent from America, which were held at Madras for the customs duty. Among other things sent in the boxes that year was a solid silver communion set for the church of the Transfiguration, about to be built at Bhimawaram, donated by Mrs. Hunter of New York.
Edman, who had studied medicine in America and secuied a physician's certificate, found abundant opportunity to use his medical knowledge and skill. He claimed, moreover, that the government hospitals with their high caste native dressers were of little benefit to low caste people, and he urged the establishment of a Mission Hospital.
Three additions were made to the force of ordained mis- ^ The total number baptized by the missionaries during the year 1893 was 1224; confirmed, 42. There were 3757 Christians and 1441 communicants reported. The number of pupils in all schools was 1794.
292 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL sionaries in 1893; and, moreover, the Board of Foreign Mis- sions succeeded in securing the continued service of the Rev. E. Pohl after the expiration of his furlough in Germany. The Schleswig-Holstein Society agreed to transfer him to our Board with the understanding that in case of emergency he was to be recalled to serve in the Society's field in X.1^^
India.
Paul Baehnisch was called by the Board of Foreign Mis- sions to enter its service as a foreign missionary while he was a senior in the Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, Philadel- phia. He was ordained by the New York Ministerium in 1893. He was commissioned on July 23, 1893, in St. James' German Lutheran Church, Philadelphia. Three days later he sailed for Germany, where he married, his wife accompany- ing him to India. They reached Rajahmundry on December 15, 1893. Rudolph Arps, a son of Hans Adolph Arps, and his wife, Matilda Jeanette, nee D'Aubert, was born in Neuminster, Holstein, Germany, March 20, 1869. He was about to be graduated from the Mission Institute of the Schleswig-Hol- stein Society at Breklum, when, in October, 1892, he received and accepted the call of the Board of Foreign Missions of the General Council. Shortly after his graduation he married Anna, a daughter of the Rev. Edward Reuss. He came to the United States in the company of the Rev. E. Pohl, arriving in New York on September 6, 1893. He was ordained by the officers of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in St. John's German Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, on Sunday, September 24th, the Rev. E. Pohl preaching the ordination sermon. He was commissioned, together with the Rev. H. E. Isaacson, in St. Luke's Enghsh Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, on October 2d, and sailed from America two days later. Hans Eric Isaacson, a son of Isaac Eden, and his wife, Johanna, nee Lundgren, was born in Odalslinden, Sweden, April 27, 1862. He attended Hermosamd College, Surden, Sweden, and then came to the United States. He studied theology at Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island,
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS ( 1 89 2-93) 293 Illinois. He married Olivia, a daughter of Alfred and Annetta Lundgren, who was born in Youngly, Sweden. After his ordination by the Swedish Augustana Synod he served a congregation at Port Allegheny, Pa. He was called in April, 1893, by the Board of Foreign Missions to go to India, and accepted the call. He was commissioned at the same time and place as the Rev. R. Arps. During their sojourn in America Pohl and Arps visited a number of conferences and congregations and presented the cause of our India Mission. They sailed from New York in the company of the Rev. and Mrs. Isaacson, on October 4, 1893. In Europe the missionaries separated to meet again at Genoa, where they took ship for Colombo. Pohl took his two younger daughters to India, but left his three elder sons at Liegnitz, Germany, to be educated. Coconada was reached on Christmas Day. Mr. and Mrs. Isaacson remained for some time at Samulkot, while the rest went on to Rajahmundry, the Pohls going to Riverdale bungalow as the guests of Dr. and Mrs. Schmidt, and the Arps finding temporary shelter in the Zenana Home.
Urgent representations had been made by the missionaries in 1892, asking the Board to rule that new missionaries should be free during the first two years of their residence in India to study the language and customs of the natives. It was felt that a vital mistake had been made in assigning them work at once and thus burdening them with heavy responsibilities before they were familiar with Telugu or the mission opera- tions. The Board accordingly ruled that new missionaries should devote one year or, if possible, two years after arrival in India to the study of the vernacular. The Mission Council prescribed a curriculum under native munshis (teachers) and appointed an examining committee. After having passed an examination at the end of the first year, the missionary was to become the assistant of some older missionary and to con- tinue his study of Telugu during the second year. At the end of the second year, after having passed a second and final examination, he was to be given independent charge of some district or department. It was also decided that a missionary
294 THE TELUGU MISSION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL should be allowed a vote in the Mission Council after having passed his first examination.^ As a result of the progress and growth of the Mission in India and the sending out of three ordained missionaries and their wives in 1893, the cause of foreign missions attracted more attention and aroused more interest in the Church at home. The treasurer of the General Council, who was still the treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions, ^ reported receipts for the biennium, ending September 28, 1893, amount- ing to $32,856.52, which was $7504.92 more than during the previous biennium, and a total expenditure of $30,844.30. While the "Missionsbote" account showed a balance of $1923.81, turned into the General Fund, "The Foreign Missionary" account had a deficit of $301.36, which was drawn from the General Fund of the Board. With the September, 1893, issue of "The Foreign Missionary" the Rev. Professor C. W. Schaefifer, D. D., and the Rev. William Ashmead Schaeffer, his son, severed their relations with the paper as the editor and associate editor, respectively; the Rev. E. E. Sibole, D. D., was elected editor and the Rev. E. R. Cassaday, associate editor.^
In 1893 the General Council decided to set apart the first Sunday in Epiphany, each year, for the holding of foreign mission services and the collection of foreign mission offerings in every congregation and Sunday school.
The introduction to the report of the Board of Foreign Missions to the convention of the General Council in 1893 ends as follows: "In this connection it must be remarked that the missionary societies and leagues in our congregations, ' These regulations are still in force, except that the missionary is given a vote only after having passed the final examination, and that the curriculum of the Board of Examiners of the Protestant Missions in South India has been adopted and that the examinations are conducted by a committee of the South India Missionary Association.
^ Mr., now Judge, William H. Staake, of Philadelp>hia.
' The General Council at its meeting in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, October 5-10, 1893, elected the Rev. J. F. C. Fluck, the Rev. S. A. Ziegenfuss and the Rev. G. Nelsenius in the places of the Revs. M. C. Horine, A. Cordes and H. V. Hilprecht, Ph. D. The only layman retained on the Board, apart from the treasurer, William H. Staake, Esquire, was Mr. J. Washington Miller, Mr. William F Monroe having withdrawn some time during the biennium.
INCREASING FRUITFULNESS (1892-93) 295 many of which are united in general bodies and hold conven- tions, have been of very great assistance in the presentation of our work. They keep the cause constantly before all the members of the churches they represent, they circulate our papers, they send out Christmas boxes, and some of them the leagues of the Pittsburgh Synod and the women's societies of the First and Second Conferences of the Pennsylvania Ministerium—contribute toward the salaries of the two zenana sisters, the Misses Schade and Sadtler.
"On every side it seems to be possible to discern a widen- ing and increasing interest in the work of the Board. Word comes to us of young men and young women, who are con- sidering the question of preparing themselves for the service of the Lord in the foreign field. New names appear on our Hst of contributors. The cause of foreign missions is more generally recognized as entitled to a place among the works of the Church, claiming the attention of all her faithful members."