Rev. HENRY L. MOREHOUSE, D.D., Corresponding Secretary All communications for the American Baptist Home Mission Society should be addressed to Rev. Henry L. Morehouse, D. D., Corresponding Secre- tary, Temple Court, New York City. In the transmission of funds, all Drafts, Checks, and Post Office Orders should be made payable to the order of the American Baptist Home Mission The single subscription price of the BAPTIST HOME MISSION MONTHLY is fifty cents per year; DISTRICT SECRETARIES AND GENERAL MISSIONARIES. NEW YORK ANd Northern NEW JERSEY.-Rev. C. P. Sheldon, SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY, PENNsylvania, DELAWARE, AND E. B. Palmer, D. D., 1420 estnut Street, Philadelphia, Penn. FOR THE SOUTHWEST.-Rev. S. W. Marston, D. D., 16 Comp- FOR THE PACIFIC COAST.-Rev. J. C. Baker, Salem, Oregon. WEST VIRGINIA. Rev. W. E. Powell, Parkersburg. WISCONSIN.-Rev. D. E. Halteman, Delavan. KANSAS.-A. S. Merrifield, Newton. IOWA.-Rev. D. D. Proper, Des Moines. NEBRASKA-Rev. J. W. Osborn, Fremont. COLORADO.-Rev. T. R. Palmer, D. D., Boulder. DAKOTA.-Rev. E. Ellis, Sioux Falls. NORTH DAKOTA and NorthweST MINN.-Rev. G. W. Huntley, HOME MISSION: MONTELY. Vol. VI. AUGUST, 1884. OUR CONTRIBUTORS. No. 8. NOTES OF A TOUR TO THE SOUTH- of 350,518, of whom 105,013, or nearly one WEST. BY THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. MISSOURI. The great Eastern gateway to Missouri is through St. Louis, whose chief approach is the tubular bridge a mile and a quarter long, a third of a mile covering the Mississippi, and built at a cost of about $10,000,000. Here, in 1764, the French had a colony and a trading station; and here, until 1803, when by the "Lousiana purchase” a vast region beyond the Mississippi was ceded to the United States, European ideas and customs were dominant. To what extent irreligion and infidelity prevailed in St. Louis during the early part of this century is shown in the correspondence of Rev. John M. Peck, who came to this city as a missionary of the General Baptist Convention in 1817. He found an infidel club which went through the mock celebration of the Lord's Supper, and even burned the Bible amid coarse songs and blasphemy. The common boast was that "The Sabbath never has crossed and never shall cross the Mississippi." The Gospel, therefore, from the first, had to encounter powerful opposition in this city; and, with the influx of a large foreign element in recent years, it is not to be wondered at that no more rapid progress has been made. Sunday desecration in St. Louis is an inheritance from the old French infidelity, to which inheritance there has been a large increment from the German immigration of later years. The census of 1880 gave St. Louis a population third, were foreign-born, more than half being from the German Empire. On the other hand, however, we find that the progress of Christian institutions has been gratifying. The little Baptist church organized by John M. Peck in 1818 has grown to great proportions, and occupies a magnificent edifice in the finest portion of the city. Rev. W. W. Boyd, D.D., is the well-known and eloquent pastor, whose ministrations have been greatly blessed in the building up of a large congregation. This church, gratefully recognizing the timely aid of the Home Mission Society in its earlier history, is now a generous contributor to the Society, for the upbuilding of feeble churches in the farther West. Having spoken on Home Missions to this congregation in the morning, in the afternoon, by invitation, we addressed the congregation of the Third Baptist Church, of which Rev. Mr. Green is the able, scholarly and successful pastor, and found among this good people much interest in our work. In the evening we spoke in the Fourth Church, and afterward visited the Colored Church, of which Rev. Mr. Jones is pastor. This brother, formerly a student in Nashville Institute, and who subsequently pursued a medical course of study, is well spoken of both as a physician and a preacher of the Gospel. Our time was too limited to visit all the Baptist institutions of St. Louis, but from what we saw and heard we are satisfied that the outlook for the denomination in this city has never been brighter than now. The development of interest in the work of the Home Mission Society is very gratifying. A The faithful labors of Dr. S. W. Marston, District Secretary of the Society for the Southwest, are bearing fruit, and doubtless will be more productive in days to come, as the churches are better informed concerning . the Society's work. With the exception of the partial labors of a District Secretary in Missouri from 1874 to 1877, the Society, since the adoption of the plan of District Secretaryship, in 1862, has not had its representative in Missouri, until Dr. Marston was appointed in 1881. thousands of Missourians have gone, and where the Society strives to give them and others Gospel privileges. Now, glance at the great railroad lines from the East, converging at St. Louis, and the lines radiating therefrom to the West and Southwest. The city has over 26,000 miles of railroad communication. The Missouri Pacific, one of the finest roads in the country, has nearly 6,000 miles of track—a great trunk line with branches running throughout the Southwest, and carrying thither thousands amount. This and other lines run through Kansas, the Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, conveying the traveler to the borders of old Mexico, and all through these States and Territories former residents of Missouri are numerous. Thus by iron bands the State is united in business with these Southwestern States and Territories, in nearly all of which the Home Mission Society alone is supporting missionaries and helping to build houses of worship. It may be proper, here, to refer to some of of people and merchandise of fabulous the reasons that led to this recent action. In the first place, the Society, which from 1832 to 1848, and again from 1865 to the present, has expended about $80,000 in sustaining missionaries in Missouri, and has also aided in the erection of many church edifices, felt that now the Baptists of this prosperous State would cheerfully respond to appeals to aid in building up the feeble interests in the farther West. In the second place, the relations of Missouri to the regions beyond, place it under moral obligation to participate in the great missionary work attempted therein by American Baptists, exclusively through the agency of the Home Mission Society. Glance a moment at the position of Missouri in its relation to the remoter West. It is the Keystone State of the Trans-Mississippi region. Here is St. Louis, whose increase in population during the past decade was sixtynine per cent., and which numbers now not less then 400,000 souls. Whence its prosperity? In part, from the vast area tributary to it by the 16,000 miles of navigable streams which bear from it supplies to the peoples beyond and bring back to its levees the products of those rich regions. Look on the map and observe how this great city is related to the mission fields of the Northern Mississippi River. Look again, and see how the Missouri River, more than 3,000 miles in length, and with few interruptions navigable for about 2,500 miles, links the great Northwest to this city and the State. The people of St. Louis drink the waters that bubble forth in the valleys of Nebraska, Dakota, and Montana, whither Hence we see how closely related is Missouri with Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Montana, Colorado, Indian Territory, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexico, to say nothing of the Pacific Coast, and how natural, therefore, it is to expect that the Baptists of the State will take a lively interest in the spiritual condition of the rapidly growing commonwealths beyond, where thousands of their friends and brethren dwell, and where a great expenditure of missionary funds is required to establish Christian institutions on a permanent basis. Really it would be unnatural for the Baptists of a State so related to the great West, to be indifferent to the character of the communities therein. Hence the Society, persuaded that the mere statement of the case and of the needs of the field would elicit a generous response from the Baptists of Missouri, decided to include the State in the territory of a District Secretaryship for the Southwest. Enriched in temporal things by the immense traffic with the farther West, Missouri is now asked to bear a part in giving |