Your ShelfYour Projects

Progress in Missions

3%

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 4, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 9.

Read the full edition

Progress in Missions

FIRST of all, we thank the Missionary Review of the World for its splendid chart of statistics for 1912, collected and tabulated by the Rev. Louis Meyer, D.D. This chart gives the statistics of church missionary societies in Canada, the United States, West Indies, Great Britain, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand, the continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, and a summary of Christendom. As far as it is able to gather, it gives the date of the organization, the total home income in dollars, the total income from the field in dollars, the foreign missionaries, ordained ministers, physicians—male and female—laymen, wives of missionaries, and unmarried women engaged in the foreign mission work. It gives of native workers the ordained, and other helpers; and the total for the whole field. The report gives the number of stations, of out-stations, of organized churches, of communicants, and the total number of other baptized Christians and other adherents. It gives the number of heathen baptized during the last year, both of adults and children; the catechumens at the close of the year, that is, those taking instruction preparatory to full church-membership; the number of Sunday-schools, pupils in the same; colleges, theological seminaries, training schools, students in the same; other schools, pupils in the same; hospitals, free dispensary and treatment rooms; with the foreign countries in which missions are sustained, and the number of missions. The report must have cost an immense amount of labor.

Missions Supported by Americans

The total home income of the American societies amounts to ...$14,942,523.00
The total income from the mission fields to ...$3,641,585.00
The ordained ministers ...2,330
Male physicians ...258
Female physicians ...115
Laymen who are working in foreign missions ...751
Wives of missionaries ...2,475
Unmarried women ...2,108
The total number of foreign missionaries from America amounts to ...8,037
Among the native workers there are, ordained 2,497
Other native helpers ...35,354
Making the total number of native workers laboring under these various missionary organizations ...37,951
The grand total of native and foreign missionaries ...45,988
These are laboring in 2,024 stations, 11,420 out-stations. There are organized churches to the number of 5,514, and the communicants number 199,116. There were baptized last year 46,583 heathen converts (adults), and 27,985 children. Many of these we suppose were simply sprinkled.
Sunday-school children are reported to the number of 892,500.
The Seventh-day Adventists' total home income is reported at $357,588, and from the field $135,235; 106 ordained ministers; 17 male physicians, and 7 female.
In all Christendom, including Canada, United States, South America, West Indies, Great Britain, continents of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, the grand total of home income is given as $30,404,401; reported from the field, $7,902,256. Engaged in the foreign mission field: 5,769 ministers, 563 male physicians, and 23 female physicians. These figures would seem to indicate that there is a very large field, indeed, for self-supporting medical missionaries. The total number of all kinds of workers in the foreign mission field, including native, as given in this report, are 111,862. Total number of organized churches in mission fields is given as 15,396, with communicants to the number of 2,644,170.
It would have been interesting if there could have been given in this report the amount per capita paid by the different organizations, churches, societies, etc. We believe that it would have formed a text which could have been used with good effect in stirring up missionary zeal on the part of many Protestant churches. There is a decided increase, especially in the amount of means given for missionary work.
We do not know how detailed were the reports which Dr. Meyer received for Seventh-day Adventists. He has noted the work only in heathen and Catholic fields. He has given them only in a very general way,—Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, South America,—while other missionary societies have been listed in various countries in the continents wherever they had missions. For instance, in Asia Seventh-day Adventists have missions in Korea, Japan, more than half of the provinces of China, Siam, Burma, India, Persia, Syria, Caucasus, Siberia, etc., and in every country of South America, and the Catholic countries of Europe.
It may be well to make comparison of all missionary organizations between 1911 and 1912:
The home income of foreign missionary societies in 1911 (we give round numbers) was ...$25,297,000
Home income of foreign missionary societies in 1912 ...$30,404,000
Income from the fields, 1911 ...$5,519,000
Income from the fields, 1912 ...$7,902,000
Total number of Protestant missionaries in the field, 1911 ...22,000
Total number of Protestant missionaries in the field, 1912 ...24,000
Total number of native workers, 1911 ...98,000
Total number of native workers, 1912 ...111,000
Number of communicants, 1911 ...2,304,000
Number of communicants, 1912 ...2,644,000
Total adherents, including communicants, 1911 ...4,876,000
Total adherents, including communicants, 1912 ...6,055,000
Added, adults and children, 1911 (incomplete) ...152,000
Added, adults and children, 1912 ...212,000