REV. WM. A. BROWN, SUPERINTENDENT.

The Modern Missionary Awakening.

The passing generation has registered so large an advance in missionary interest and activity, that today we are living in the greatest missionary age the Church has ever known. Not since the morning of the Resurrection and the lifetime of the Apostles has there been so strong a desire to carry the Gospel to the uttermost part of the earth. Upon us has literally come another "fullness of time." And had we eyes to see we might easily discern these very days to be big with promise of the missionary hope for the speedy evangelization of the world. For the battle line of our Lord's surely conquering army of peace and good will is farther flung today than ever before. An innumerable company, countable, confess faith in the Son of God and believe in the Saviour of the World. The name of Jesus-that name "which charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease''-the name of Jesus is fast coming to be the sweetest word in all the myriad tongues of men.

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Many factors enter into making this present age an unparalleled missionary opportunity. There is, first of all, the fact that the world itself is so well known and now lies open to the largest possible freedom of

travel. Intrepid souls have sailed every sea and surveyed all the continents. The last dwelling place of the most remote citizen of the globe has been found. And through modern means of transportation and communication, all the people on our planet are now accessible to the Gospel story. The past century has made of the entire world one vast neighborhood, and some day the dissemination of the Truth as it is in Jesus, will make of all mankind a Christian brotherhood-an all-embracing empire of love.

Then, too, missionary successes single out the present age as one of real opportuneness. One short generation ago, the first Christian convert was baptized in Uganda: today Uganda is nearly a Christian nation. A few years ago Korea was a hermit kingdom, tightly sealed against every influence of the Gospel: today a Korean Christian community of a hundred thousand is asking God for the conversion of a million souls. Our generation has seen as many souls baptized in one day as were baptized on the day of the first Pentecost. And not long since there passed into the more radiant presence of his Master, the soul of him who saw the stacked bones of a cannibalistic feast, and yet who lived to see the day when these Christianized cannibals partook of the Lord's Supper. The record of such marvelous work is the Acts of the Apostles lived over again.

However, by far the greatest heritage from the modern missionary enterprise, is the mastery of the languages of men. It is almost past belief that today the story of the redemptional love in Christ Jesus has been translated into the tongues of all but a few fractions of millions of the children of men. And the truth that is to make all men free, is now proclaimed in thirty times as many languages as were spoken on the day of Pentecost. Many noble foundations have been laid by the apostles and prophets of the divine enterprise of Christian missions. Growing Christian communities witness the faithful planting of that seed whose harvesting shall make glad the angels of God. Established hospitals which bear the sufferings of many, printing presses whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, Christian churches and educational opportunities as free as the air in a multitude of heathen lands are saying, "Whosoever will, may come." And they are coming-coming faster than in any other age, not excepting the early days of the Christian church. And, too, the missionary enterprise itself is becoming more Christian every day, as the beautiful spirit of charity and coöperation is winning an ever widening sway over the minds and hearts of men.

And the present is an age of almost missionary enthusiasm in the Church at home. Missions have so far captured the imagination of our

youth that the largest gathering of students on the American continent is the convention of the Student Volunteers for Foreign Missions. And the men of Christendom-no less devoted than the rest, but lacking leadership-have lately undertaken their full share of responsibility in obedience to the Master's final command. Few greater sights have ever gladdened the eyes of the oft weary watcher on the walls of Zion than to see the hosts of men assemble to plan the Christian conquest of the continents. The field campaign of the Laymen's Missionary Movement will long remain one of the most inspiring events in recent church history, and prophetic of what will be when the Church is thoroughly militant and missionary. While the successful Woman's Jubilee-commemorating fifty years of beautiful ministry on the part of Western woman in Eastern lands-is of unusual missionary significance, as well as a tribute to the organizing ability of the consecrated women so well trained in missionary leadership. That during the past few years several million copies of missionary books have been sold, is an evidence of the depth and the genuineness of the present missionary awakening. And lately the effectiveness of large missionary expositions has been successfully demonstrated by the "Orient in London" and a similar striking presentation of the "World in Boston." Then, too, it is not to be lost sight of that the recent World's Sunday School Convention in Washington was a great missionary gathering. And we may well believe, with the best informed, that the World's Missionary Conference last year in Edinburgh marked the beginning of a new era in the missionary enterprise.

Missions in the Sunday School.

Into a needy world so full of promise for evangelization and into a Church finally awakening to its supreme missionary obligation, comes the modern Sunday School, gathering in its vast membership the most responsive ages in life and holding in its possibilities the key to the missionary situation. The place of the Sunday School in the missionary enterprise is in every way strategic. For in the Sunday School there is room for every one. It has been said, "Missions is a man's job." If by that it is meant that men share with all others in the missionary responsibility, it is altogether true. But in reality missions is everybody's job. And it has been said, "This is the only generation we can reach.”’ How true it is that in an evangelistic sense, we alone can reach the generation now living. But in the methods of the Sunday School and in the plan of reaching the childhood of the race, we shall reach not only this present generation but shall also preëmpt all coming generations to the end of time.

So then the missionary organization in the Sunday School is providential. Yet the Missionary Department of the International Sunday School Association is rather an opportunity than an achievement. But like everything missionary, the prospects are as bright as the promises of God. During the larger part of the last triennium the work was ably cared for by the nine members composing the Missionary Department, of which Mr. George G. Wallace of Omaha, Nebraska, is the Chairman. The missionary literature was prepared by members of the Department. Leaflet No. 1, "How to Develop Missionary Spirit and Activity in the Sunday School," and "Round Table Leaflet No. 15" were prepared by Rev. A. L. Phillips, D. D. Leaflet No. 2, "Missionary Books for Sunday Schools," was prepared by Mr. Delavan L. Pierson. An edition of the booklet, "Missionary Education in the Sunday School,' was also issued during the triennium.

I became the Missionary Superintendent of the International Sunday School Association on the first day of February, 1910, coming to this most gracious privilege of service from the office of the Western Field Secretary of the Young People's Missionary Movement. Practically four of my first six months with the International Association were devoted to fulfilling a large number of important engagements entered into while Secretary of the Movement, Mr. Warren and Mr. Lawrance saying they did not wish me to begin keeping faith with the International by breaking faith with anybody else. During the sixteen months, eighty-four visits have been made into twenty-nine States and Provinces. Conferences, conventions and rallies were attended in one hundred and sixty towns and cities. Nine hundred and twenty-nine addresses were delivered. Two hundred and fifty-three conferences and interviews were had with various committees and officials. During this time forty-nine thousand one hundred and fifteen miles were covered, and twenty-four thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight dollars was raised for the support of local work.

Missionary Organization.

There must be efficient organization if we are to secure such supervision of the missionary campaign in the Sunday School as will yield the largest returns. The progress in missionary organization is seen in the following encouraging facts:

Three years ago there was one State Missionary Superintendent in the entire International field; at the time of this Convention all but sixteen of the State and Provincial Associations have appointed Missionary Superintendents.

Texas added another to her galaxy of brilliant stars by being the first

State Association to appoint a Missionary Superintendent. Kansas is the first State Association to place a Missionary Superintendent in the field for full time, one-half of the total budget for this new Department being provided by Mr. A. A. Hyde of Wichita.

There are three banner Associations with a Missionary Superintendent in every county: Alberta, Delaware and Ohio.

Of County Missionary Superintendents, Texas has the largest number: one hundred and two. Ohio ranks second with eighty-eight. Illinois ranks third with eighty-seven. Kansas ranks fourth with seventy-three. Among the County Associations the most effective missionary organization is in Michigan, with a county in Kansas a close second, and a county in Ohio ranking third.

Of Township or District Missionary Superintendents, Chicago, through the Cook County Association, has the largest number. Of Sunday Schools with Missionary Committees, Detroit, through the Wayne County Associa tion, reports the highest percentage.

But the greater value of the Missionary Department is largely independent of the actual working of the Department itself. For the mere fact of the International Sunday School Association having created such a department, has been of inestimable value to the ever enlarging missionary campaign. Missions is now no longer incidental to the Sunday School world, but integral to the entire system. And no succeeding generation trained in the Sunday School can regard Missions as an elective. The aim of the Missionary Department of the International Sunday School Association is to forward the Christianization of America and to hasten the Evangelization of the World. The plan of organization in the Department calls for the appointment of a Missionary Superintendent in each State or Provincial Association. Through the coöperation of these State or Provincial officials a Missionary Superintendent is to be appointed in every County or Parish Association. Where the organized work is sufficiently developed into Township or District Associations, there, also, Missionary Superintendents are to be appointed. The plan of or ganization further provides, through the work of the County or Township Missionary Superintendent, for the appointment of a Missionary Committee in every Sunday School. The Missionary Committee in the local school is to be large enough to be efficient, and thoroughly representative of all departments and every grade in the school, such Committee to work always in harmony with the Denominational plans.

Missions in the Sunday School is largely aided by the present effective plans for the Organized Classes. In the Intermediate and Senior Departments one of the two Committees necessary to effect an organization