Our Missions In India 1834-1824 (Paperback)

Our Missions in India 18341924 By Rev. E. M. Wherry, M. A., D. D. Author of the Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran Islam in India and the Far East Islam the Religion of the Turk The Sinless Prophet of Islam For Forty-Six Years a Missionary of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., in India 1926 THE STRATFORD COMPANY, Publishers BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Copyright, 1926 The STRATFORD 00., Publisher Boston, Mass. TO MY WIFE CLARA MARIA WHERRY COMPANION AND CO-LABORER IN MISSIONARY SERVICE FOR FIFTY-EIGHT YEARS A Fore Note THE Presbyterian Church in the United States o America was from the very beginning a Missionary Church. The first general assembly, comprising four Synods, met in Phila delphia in May, 1789. The matter of missions occupied the attention of this Assembly. The Synods were enjoined to se cure two missionaries each, and present them at the next meet ing of Assembly. The Presbyteries were urged to arrange for the taking of regular collections for missionary purposes. All around them were vast regions, occupied by European settlements and Indian tribes. There was need of a great missionary work among these. For three quarters of a cen tury, a Board of Correspondents had been established in New York forming a kind of auxiliary to the Scottish Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge 5 This Board of Correspondents appointed the Rev. Azariah Horton a missionary among the Indians in Long Island. Later on the devoted David Brainerd was ordained by the Presbytery of New York and became a missionary to the Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This occurred in 1744, but this zealous and indefatigable worker wore himself out in scarcely more than three years, dying at the ageof thirty years. He was succeeded by his brother, the Rev. John Brainerd, who had visited his dying brother and who had comforted him by the assurance that his beloved Indian Christians would not be left as sheep without a shepherd. The salaries of these missionaries were provided by the Scottish Society, but their expenses were supplied by the Colonial Society from funds chiefly contributed by the American Presbyteries. Such was the beginning of the Foreign Missionary Enter prise which now occupies so large a place in the hearts of American Christians. It was in the year 1831 that the Synod A Fore Note of Pittsburgh, which, from the day it was organized, had been distinguished for its interest in the missionary work, founded a society called the Western Foreign Missionary Society, and chose as its secretary the Rev. Elisha P. Swift. Mr. Swift was the pastor of a large congregation, but so great was his interest in the movement that he resigned his pastorate and devoted all his energy to the work of furthering the cause of Foreign Missions. The salary of this Secretary was pro vided by the liberal gift of the Hon. Walter Lowrie at that time the Secretary of the Senate of the United States. In the year 1810, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was established. The Presbyterian churches were interested in the work of this society. The feeling of denominational responsibility, however, soon led Presbyterians to believe that as a Church they had always re garded themselves as a Missionary Church, and had carried on missionary work among heathen tribes in America, they should have a Foreign Missionary work - for which they should be solely responsible, they believed thatthey should thus cul tivate a larger interest in the work of carrying the Gospel into all lands. It was, therefore, with no purpose of rivalry that this new Society was formed. Many churches and individual Christians continued to contribute to the American Board. A few years after the organization of the Western Foreign Missionary Society the General Assembly established the Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and then the Western Foreign Missionary Society united with it...