A. B. C. F. M.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.

These, according to St. Matthew, are the last words of Jesus Christ before he ascended into Heaven. Accordingly, the initials A.B.C.F.M. have gone out unto the uttermost parts of the earth. They stand for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the missionary enterprise of the Congregational Churches, and the chief one in which all the Congregational Churches of the U. S. are organically united.

The annual meeting of the A.B.C.F.M. was held at Providence, R. I., last week. At its first meeting, in 1840, it reported $241,691 receipts for the year. Last week, it reported over $2,000,000 receipts.

These figures gave point to the speech of James L. Barton, guiding spirit, who said that none can understand the vast scope of the missionary enterprise of this one denomination unless he has seen the far-flung work of its departments of evangelism, education, philanthropy, sanitation and hygiene, literature, industry, uplift of womanhood.

The meeting reported Bulgaria crying for American schools and social help; Turkey officially opposed to any form of foreign penetration, but unofficially craving the civilizing influence of the missionary; Japan calmed in her anger by the missionaries, who explained that the Japanese Exclusion Act passed by the U. S. is not because of Christianity but in spite of it; scores of other countries seeking the aid that the Church can give.

In one respect, this year's meeting differed completely from that of 1840. Today there are native Christian leaders in all the countries to which the first missionaries went as solitary exponents of the Gospel.