Untitled article | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 4, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 14.

FROM THE PRESS COMMITTEE OF THE ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE.

ONE of the special features of the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions to be held in New York in April 21 to May 1, will be a missionary exhibit. Material is being gathered from every mission land in order to vividly present, through the eye, the social and moral conditions of the peoples among whom the missionaries are laboring. It will be the endeavor also to make it as far as possible a progressive exhibit, showing the results of a hundred years of missionary effort. It will combine a library and a museum, and will comprise publications of all kinds,—books, Bibles, and magazines from the field, in English and many other languages; maps and charts, pictures, models, curios in dress and workmanship, and objects of religious worship, such as idols and fetishes, all intended to illustrate the actual surroundings of the missionary in his work.

Germany and England already have very complete museums, but America is as yet deficient in this respect. In England these exhibits have proved not only helpful in arousing intelligent interest in missionary fields and work, but popular as well. Thus the Church Missionary Society has fine collections, which are sent about from city to city, where they are publicly displayed for a number of days, attracting in some cases as many as 50,000 visitors.

In order to secure the continuance of the exhibit of the coming conference as a permanent illustration of missionary endeavor, and also to furnish an opportunity for additions in years to come, a corporation has been formed, including Alexander Maitland, Esq., a member of the board of foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church and manager of the New York Library; the Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, D.D., of the New York Independent; Harlan Page Beach, Esq., of the Student Volunteer movement; the Rev. W. I. Haven, D.D., of the American Bible Society; Luther D. Wishard, Esq., representing the "forward movement" in the American board, and the Rev. H. Allen Tupper, D.D.