Baptist Missionary Society

These Seventy Years: Autobiography of Thomas Lewis

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Picture of Thomas Lewis [1859-1929]
Thomas Lewis [1859-1929]

Thomas Lewis served with the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) in Africa in the areas known today as Cameroon, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

My thanks to Book Aid for making a copy of this pulic domain book available for digitisation.

Thomas Lewis [1859-1929], These Seventy Years. An Autobiography. London: The Carey Press, 1930. Hbk. pp.300. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. Early Years
  2. At College
  3. Before the Candidate Committee
  4. Sailing For Africa
  5. Along the West African Coast
  6. Vixtoria and its Peoples
  7. My First Christmas in Africa
  8. Germany Annexes Cameroons
  9. Lasts Days in Cameroons
  10. My First Furlough
  11. First Voyage up the Congo River
  12. San Salvador and the First Baptisms
  13. Mostly Concerning Colleagues
  14. The King’s Golden Necklace
  15. Developments of the Native Church
  16. Building a Mission Station
  17. Pioneering in Zomboland
  18. Moving the Tent
  19. Travels from Kibokolo
  20. Difficulties and Setbacks
  21. A Critical Period
  22. Further Travels
  23. Changes
  24. Kimpese and the Valley of the Shadow
  25. Unsettled Days and the Return to Kimpese
  26. A Fresh Start at Kibokolo
  27. “The Stones of Kibokolo”
  28. Reflections
  29. Nkand’a Nzambi—Book of God
  30. Final Words
  • Index

W. Holman Bentley, Congo Pioneer

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Hendrina Margo Bentley [1855-1938], W. Holman Bentley: The Life and Labours of a Congo Pioneer.

An important biography on the noted Baptist Missionary Society pioneer in the Congo W. Holman Bentley, written by his widow. My thanks to Redcliffe College for making a copy of this public domain title available for digitisation.

Hendrina Margo Bentley [1855-1938], W. Holman Bentley: The Life and Labours of a Congo Pioneer. London: The Carey Press, 1907. pp.446. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. Early Life and Home Influences
  2. The Voyage Out
  3. The San Salvador
  4. Early Days
  5. To Stanley Pool
  6. Manyanga
  7. ‘In Journeys Oft’
  8. ‘A People in Darkness’
  9. Arthington at Last
  10. First Furlough, and Many Labours
  11. To the Field Once More
  12. Up the River
  13. Settles at Wathen
  14. The Man and His Methods
  15. Mission Policy and Personal Dealings
  16. Itinerating: Privlieges and Perils
  17. Progress, Encouragement, and Trials
  18. Third Period in the Congo
  19. Last Days and Home-Call
  20. Recollections and Testimonies
  • Appendix
  • Index

John Thomas, First Baptist Missionary to Bengal

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John Thomas (1757-1801)
Photo credit: Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford

Dr John Thomas [1757-1801] was a founding member of the Baptist Missionary Society and accompanied William Carey to India in 1793. Charles Bennett Lewis’s biography is one of the standard works on Thomas. The original from which this digital copy was made is held in Spurgeon’s College Library. This book is in the public domain.

Charles Bennett Lewis [1821-1890], The Life of John Thomas. Surgeon of the Earl of Oxford and First Baptist Missionary to Bengal. London: MacMillan & Co., 1873. Hbk. pp.417. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

  • Preface
  1. Mr Thomas’s Early Life—1757-83
  2. Calcutta in the Latter half of the Eighteenth Century
  3. Voyages to Calcutta and engagement as a Missionary—1783-87
  4. The First Year at Malda—1787-8
  5. Controversy and Disaster—1788-89
  6. Harla Gachi—1789-90
  7. Reconciliation and Return to England—1790-92
  8. Missionary Projects in Bengal
  9. The Baptist Missionary Society and its First Enterprise
  10. How the Lord made Room for His Servants, that they might dwell in the Land—1793-4
  11. Moypaldiggy—1794-7
  12. Having no certain dwelling-place—1797-9
  13. Serampore—1799-1800
  14. Cast down, but not destroyed—1799-1800
  15. Dinajpur and Sadamahal—1801
  16. Concluding Observations
  • Appendix

Pioneering in the Congo by William Holman Bentley

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William Holman Bentley [1855-1905], Pioneering on the Congo, 2 Vols.

William Holman Bentley was one of the first missionaries to serve with the Baptist Missionary Society in the Congo. He worked on a Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo Language (published in 1887, butstill in use today) and translated the New Testament and portions of the New Testament. My thanks to the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide for making a set of these copiously illustrated public domain books available for digitisation. The number of pictures explains the larger than usual size of the files.

William Holman Bentley [1855-1905], Pioneering on the Congo, 2 Vols. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1900. Hbk. pp.478+448. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents – Volume 1

  • Preface
  1. Ancient History: 1484-1670
  2. The Old Slaving Days: 1670-1877
  3. The Inception of the Mission: 1877-8
  4. Congo-wards: 1879
  5. The Establistment of the Mission: 1879
  6. Developments at San Salvador and Explorations Therefore: 1879-80
  7. The Congo Basin and its Inhabitants; The Kongo Language
  8. Religion: The Knowledge of God, and Fetishism
  9. The Opposition Outflanked; Stanley Pool reached: 1881
  10. Development of the New Route to the Upper River: 1881-2

Contents – Volume 2

  1. The Transport of the Peace to Stanley Pool: 1883
  2. Exploration of the Upper River: 1884-6
  3. New Stations on the Upper River: 1886-90
  4. Progress on the Upper River: 1890-9
  5. Development in the Cataract Region: 1887-99
  6. Other Missions on the Congo
  7. The Government of the Congo Free State

Appendices

  • Congo Missionaries
  • The Lord’s Prayer in Eight of the Kongo Languages and Dialects
  • Malarial Fever, its Genesis and Effect
  • Index

1890 Deputation Visit to North China by Rev T.M. Morris

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Cover: T.M. Morris [1830-1904], A Winter in North China with an Introduction by the Rev. Richard Glover of Bristol.

This is an account of a deputation tour of Baptist Missionary Society stations in Northern China by the Rev. T.M. Morris and Rev. Richard Glover.

My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of this public domain title for digitisation.

T.M. Morris [1830-1904], A Winter in North China with an Introduction by the Rev. Richard Glover of Bristol. London: The Religious Tract Society, 1892. Hbk. pp.256. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Author’s Preface
  1. From San Francisco to Yokohama
  2. Chefoo and Tien-Tsin
  3. From Tien-Tsin to Tsing-Chow-Fu
  4. Tsing-Chow-Fu
  5. Chow-Ping
  6. Chi-Nan-Fu
  7. The Great Plain of China
  8. T’ai-Yuen-Fu
  9. Peking
  10. An Interview with Li-Hung-Chang
  11. Shanghai
  12. Hankow, Hong-Kong, and Canton
  13. The Religions of China
  14. Fung-Shui
  15. Missionary Works and Methods in China

Author’s Preface

The question of sending out a deputation to China had long been considered by the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, and our missionaries in China had been long asking that a deputation should be sent. ‘Our work,’ they said, ‘has been criticized by those who have never seen it, and who have known little or nothing of the circumstances in which and the conditions under which that work is being carried on. Our work has never been described but by ourselves, and there are many who think, and some who say, that we are not the fittest people to estimate the value of our own work. Send out, then, two men in whom you have confidence, and in whom we shall have confidence. Let them visit our stations and see our work with their own eyes, and on their return give a faithful, unbiassed report of what they have seen and heard. With that report, whatever may be its character, we shall be satisfied, and we trust you will be satisfied.’

The request was felt to be reasonable, but it was one which could not be easily complied with. In 1890, however, the committee felt that a deputation ought to be sent: out without further delay, and Dr. Glover and myself were asked to undertake the work. For myself, I may say that I never entered upon any work with more hesitation and reluctance; but there is now scarcely any part of my life upon which I look back with feelings of greater satisfaction. I am thankful, and ever shall be thankful, that I have been permitted to see something of that great work which God is carrying on in China.

Our instructions were to visit our own missionary stations in the two provinces of Shantung and Shansi, and report upon the work done. Further, we were to see all that could be seen of the work of other societies in those parts of China which we might visit. During our brief stay in that great empire we had the opportunity of inspecting the work of many missionary societies, and we were constantly moved to thank God for what we saw. We had read about missions in China, we had heard about them, and we were not disappointed when we were brought face to face with them; for extent, character, and worth they far exceeded our largest expectations; and so far from feeling that we had been deluded by exaggerated, extravagant, or garbled statements, we felt, as we passed from one mission station to another, that ‘ the half had not been told.’ Again and again have we said to missionary brethren as they have quietly unfolded to us the extent and results of the work in which they were engaged, ‘Why have you not told us this at home? It has all the charm of a romance.’

Pages 11-12

Women’s Missionary Work in India and China

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Cover: Glimpses of Women's Missionary Work in India and China.

Written shortly after the Jubilee of the Baptist Missionary Society (1867-1917), this book aims to provide a series of snapshots of the work done by female Baptist missionaries. It is illustrated by six photographic plates from India and China.

My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing a copy of this public domain title for digitisation.

George Hawker [1857-1932], Open the Window Eastward. Glimpses of Women’s Missionary Work in India and China. London: The Carey Press, [1917]. Hbk. pp.170. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

  • Preface
  1. Pioneers
  2. Zenana Echoes
  3. Zenana Schools
  4. Women’s Influence
  5. Village Itineration
  6. Boat-Tours in the Beels
  7. “Going-a-Plaguing”
  8. Famine Relief Work
  9. “Doctor Sahiba”
  10. An Industrial Settlement (Salamatpur)
  11. Education: Dehli, Entally and Ballygunge
  12. India: Review and Outlook
  13. Country Work in Shantung
  14. Bessie Campbell and Her Biographer
  15. Certain Women and their Stories
  16. In the Days of the Second Revolution
  17. The New Opportunity

Chapter 2: Zenana Echoes

When our missionary sisters entered the grudgingly opened doors of the zenanas, they were constrained, more markedly in some districts than in others, to make haste slowly. In a speech delivered in London in 1881, when the Mission was just fourteen years old, the Rev. R. F. Guyton described the evolution of zenana work proper in the city of Delhi, the scene of his own memorable labours. At first our sisters could attempt little more than the establishing of friendly relations by means of conversation on general topics. Later they were able to give lessons in reading, writing and secular subjects. Then they taught lace-work and other, feminine employments, which provided new interests and relieved the monotony of seclusion; and finally, when confidence had been secured and minds opened, they were able to introduce the Scriptures and urge the claims of Christ.

Mr. Guyton was of opinion that this policy of patience was entirely justified, and that more precipitate evangelism would have resulted in exclusion. Since that time zenana doors have been opening ever more swiftly and widely, and if the missionary staff were immensely increased, the members of it and their native assistants would find more than enough to do of actual gospel work.

In reading this address of Mr. Guyton’s, and relating it to other records, one is driven to reflect upon the appalling amount of inane and trivial talk which must have afflicted our women missionaries, taxing their patience to the point of exhaustion, in those early days, and, indeed, all the way along. Of course small talk is not peculiar to any race or to either sex, and if the conversation of the world were stenographed for a single day, and the, volume of it appraised by some commissioned angel of adequate endurance, it is gravely doubtful whether the talk of women would be adjudged to be vainer or more wearisome than that of men. That men think lightly of women’s matters is irrelevant. The angel critic, superior to masculine limitations and unbiased by masculine conceit, would weigh with equal scales….

Pages19-20.

Centenary of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1892

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John Brown Myers [1844/45-1915], editor, The Centenary Volume of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1892, 2nd edn.This is a detailed summary of the first hundred years of the Baptist Missionary Society with over 35 illustrations. These are included in greyscale to preserve their quality, which makes the download larger than usual. My thanks to Redcliffe College library for providing a copy of the book for digitisation. This volume is in the public domain.

John Brown Myers [1844/45-1915], editor, The Centenary Volume of the Baptist Missionary Society 1792-1892, 2nd edn. London: The Baptist Missionary Society, 1892. Hbk. pp.344. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  • Holding the Ropes by Rev William John Henderson
  • India and Ceylon by Rev Samuel Vincent
  • China by Rev Ricahrd Glover
  • Africa by Rev Edward Medley
  • West Indies by Rev David Jonathan
  • East Europe by Rev William Landels
  • The Orissa Mission by Rev John Clifford
  • Bible Translation by Edward Bean Underhill
  • Appendix

Preface

The Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society publish this Volume on the hundredth anniversary of the existence of the Mission, with the prayerful hope that the perusal of these pages may excite fervent gratitude for past manifestations of Divine favour, and may lead to larger consecration, in view of the world-wide opportunities and urgent claims of the present day. If the century just closing furnishes, in the review of it, abundant occasion for encouragement, what will not the second century of modern missions, upon which we are now entering, witness, provided the Christian Church be faithful, expectant, and zealous l May every reader be prompted to inquire : “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”

Whilst the occasion and scope of this publication do not permit the writers to make more than passing references to the work of kindred institutions, the Committee are not unmindful of the labours connected with other missions… [Continue reading]

Baptist Mission to the Congo

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John Brown Myers [1844/45-1915], Congo For Christ. The Story of the Congo MissionJohn Myers brings up to date the story of the work of the Baptist Mission to the Congo, building on the account of Joseph Tritton using official BMS records. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of this book to scan. This title is in the public domain.

John Brown Myers [1844/45-1915], Congo For Christ. The Story of the Congo Mission, new edn. London: S.W. Partridge & Co., [1905]. Hbk. pp.190. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

  • Preface
  • Preface to the Third Edition
  1. The Country, People, Language and Climate
  2. How the Congo Mission Began
  3. Early Difficulties Overcome
  4. Ingathering of the First-Fruits
  5. The Work Amongst the Congo Boys and Girls
  6. Literary Labours
  7. The Services of the Mission to Civilisation and Philanthropy
  8. The Native Christian Churches
  9. The Native Christian Churches (Continued)
  10. The Evangelistic Efforts of the Native Christian Churches
  11. The Death Roll and How to Regards it
  12. The Future of the Congo Mission
  13. Other Missions in the Congo
  14. Changes and Progress in the Lower Congo
  15. Developments on the Upper Congo River

Preface

Numerous inquiries have been made for’ a concise history of the Congo Mission, brought up to date: With the view of meeting this demand the present volume has been written. The late esteemed Treasurer of the Baptist Missionary Society, Mr. Joseph Tritton, published “The Rise and Progress of the Congo Mission” in 1885, which. publication has for some time been out of print, and during the last ten years the Missions has greatly developed. Considerable information is also to be found in the Memoir of Thomas J. Camber; appearing in this. Series, but that work· is necessarily restricted by its biographical character. [Continue reading]