On This Day in 1855, 1876 - Give This Great Empire the Gospel of Christ!
On May 11, 1855 at a meeting in the great city of Montgomery, Alabama, Southern Baptists decided that though they recognized a need to go to Japan, it was not possible to send laborers into the field...yet:
The Board have not been indifferent to the question of establishing new missions, in accordance with the suggestions and instructions of the convention. But they have hitherto deemed it unadvisable to attempt the occupancy of any untried positions expecting at Sierra Leone, the British colony on the western coast of Africa. To this the Board allude under the head of African Missions.
Enquiries respecting South and Central America have been made, but the Board have not been satisfied of the expediency of entering these fields. The same is true of Japan. God will yet prepare the way for the establishment of effective missions in those portions of the globe, and it will be ours to stand prepared to obey the summons, which he may sound in our ears.
Then in 1876 on the same day, from Richmond Va:
The prospect everywhere is good for a steady increase of the work abroad; but the apparent want of foreign missionary spirit at home causes us the deepest solicitude for the future of our life work. Shall we take no part in giving Japan, and the interior cities of this great empire, the gospel of Christ? The Lord revive his work in the hearts of his people!"
The Board have not been indifferent to the question of establishing new missions, in accordance with the suggestions and instructions of the convention. But they have hitherto deemed it unadvisable to attempt the occupancy of any untried positions expecting at Sierra Leone, the British colony on the western coast of Africa. To this the Board allude under the head of African Missions.
Enquiries respecting South and Central America have been made, but the Board have not been satisfied of the expediency of entering these fields. The same is true of Japan. God will yet prepare the way for the establishment of effective missions in those portions of the globe, and it will be ours to stand prepared to obey the summons, which he may sound in our ears.
Then in 1876 on the same day, from Richmond Va:
The prospect everywhere is good for a steady increase of the work abroad; but the apparent want of foreign missionary spirit at home causes us the deepest solicitude for the future of our life work. Shall we take no part in giving Japan, and the interior cities of this great empire, the gospel of Christ? The Lord revive his work in the hearts of his people!"
