and the American Board was organized with nine commissioners, five from Massachusetts and four from Connecticut, selected by the association for one year's service. The next year the General Association of Connecticut selected its own commissioners. The receipts for the first year were $999.52. The next year, by the will of Mrs. Mary Norris of Salem, whose husband had been one of the founders of Andover Seminary, the Board received $30,000. This bequest probably was one of the reasons which prompted the Prudential Committee to apply to the Massachusetts Legislature for a charter, which however was bitterly opposed, and not granted till 1812. By the charter the Board was made a self-perpetuating body. In that year, February 6, Judson, Hall, Newell, Nott and Rice were ordained in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, to establish a mission in Asia. In June Judson and

Newell, with their wives, landed at Calcutta, but were ordered home by the British East India Company. They found passage on a vessel bound for the Isle of France, which they reached after a long voyage with many hardships. There Mrs. Harriet Newell died at the age of eighteen, after sending home to her friends messages of faith and love. The story of her brief life, and her devotion to the cause to which she gave it, kindled in this country an enthusiasm for missions which doubtless accomplished far more than she could have done if she had lived to do actual service in the field. Not only did money for the work flow freely into the treasury, but multitudes dated their conversion from the time of their reading the memoir of this missionary girl, and churches sprang into being from the story of her willing self-sacrifice.

Judson and Rice became Baptists, and their change of views led to the formation of a Baptist Missionary Society in 1814. Hall and Nott finally reached Bombay, where they gained permission to remain, and by them the first mission of the Board, that to the Mahrattas of Western India, was established, in 1813. In 1816 Daniel Poor, with four associates, opened a mission in Ceylon on the Island of Jaffna. In 1817 a mission was begun with the Cherokee Indians in Georgia, and in 1818 with the Choctaws in Mississippi.

In 1819 a company of seventeen persons sailed from Boston to begin a mission in the Hawaiian Islands, then known as the Sandwich Islands. Henry Obookiah, one of the islanders, had found his way to New Haven, Conn., when fourteen years old, in care of a kind sea captain, and the story of the conversion and early death of the heathen boy produced a flame of missionary zeal like that kindled by the missionary girl whose body had been buried in the Isle of France. That same year two young missionaries sailed for the Holy Land to win back to Christ the people who lived where He had lived.

In 1823 the Syrian mission was begun by Messrs. Goodell and Bird at Beirut. In 1829 Bridgman and Abell began the work of the Board in China, at Canton. In 1830 Smith and Dwight went on an exploring tour through Armenia and Persia. In 1831 Joseph King opened a mission at Athens for the Greeks, and Goodell began at Constantinople what is now the Western Turkey Mission. In 1833 missions were commenced in Siam, Singapore, Persia and West Africa. The Madura mission was begun in 1834, and that to the Zulus, in southeastern Africa, in 1835.

ried on.

During these earlier years of missions comparatively little was known of the countries where they were carCommunication between these lands and our own was slow and infrequent. News of the travels and explorations of missionaries was received with great interest. Accounts of their hardships and often of early death kindled among the young people in the churches at home the spirit of self-sacrifice for the salvation of the world. Tidings came of revivals of religion in mission fields, of the brave endurance of persecution by native converts and of the eagerness with which some of the heathen welcomed the gospel of Christ. The Hawaiian Islands were especially a center of great interest. A wonderful revival there in 1837-38 brought multitudes into the churches, whose membership in 1840 numbered sixteen thousand five hundred and eighty-seven. Ten years more passed, and the Hawaiian Missionary Society was formed at Honolulu to carry the gospel to the islands of Micronesia. In 1863 the Hawaiian Islands were regarded as practically Christianized, and the American Board withdrew from that field.

But not less interesting tidings during all these years came from other countries. India, Turkey, Syria, China and Africa furnished wonderful experiences of the providence of God opening closed doors for His Word to enter in. The children of American churches took part gladly in the great work of converting the world. In 1856 they contributed over $28,000 to equip the first missionary vessel, the "Morning Star," for service in the Pacific Ocean. Since then this "Star" has had three successors, all built by children's gifts. In 1869 Rev. D. C. Greene sailed for

Japan, the first missionary of the Board to that country. The history of missions in Japan has not been surpassed by the wonderful records of any land where missionaries have preached.

The Doshisha, founded at Kyoto in 1876 through the zeal of Joseph Neesima, has become one of the

leading educational institutions of that country, while the story of his life is unsurpassed in interest in missionary annals. To Hon. Alpheus Hardy, a Boston merchant, for many years chairman of the Prudential Committee of the Board, is largely due the successful establishment of this university for Japan. Mr. Hardy first befriended Neesima, when he had found his way to this country on one of Mr. Hardy's ships, received

him into his family, enabled him to gain a thorough education at Phillips Academy, Amherst College and Andover Seminary, and gave generously toward the work which, under the wise counsel of his benefactor, Neesima successfully inaugurated in his native land. The Board has had a no less honorable part in establishing missions in the great continent of Africa as during the last fifteen years that country has been explored and opened to travel and commerce.

Certain other denominations, attracted by the enthusiasm for the work, had very early co-operated with this parent society, but later they successively withdrew and organized missionary societies of their own. The Old School Presbyterians took this step at the time of the division in 1837, the Dutch Reformed Churches in 1857, and the New School Presbyterians soon after the reunion in 1870. Some missions were thus amicably transferred to the care of the new societies, but the work of the Board and its receipts have nevertheless been constantly enlarging. In 1810 its income was not quite $1000 for the year, in 1820 nearly $40,000, in 1840 over $240,000, in 1870 over $460,000 and in 1892 $840,804. At present, in 1894, the field includes 20 missions with 183 ordained missionaries, 10 of whom are physicians, 18 men not ordained and 356 women, making the total of missionaries of the Board 557. There are also 2741 native workers, of whom 768 are pastors and preachers. There are 444 churches with a membership of 41,522. In 1893, 3461 were received. on confession of faith. During its history the churches of the Board have received to membership over 120,000 persons.

In recent years, especially, the educational work has