care for our representatives abroad.

Our friends of other denominations are greatly ahead of us in this
matter of provision for their missionaries. Not only are the bungalows
built for their residences better than ours, but their plants of church
and school buildings show a larger outlook for the future than ours
show. The English Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Methodists, the
Church of England, yes, even the Theosophists and Buddhists, furnish
object-lessons to us in this regard. And yet, such has been the
inventiveness and large-mindedness of our missionaries themselves, that
in all the great centers of our work, they are housed better than the
average pastors of our churches at home. I wish we could double their
strength by the establishment of summer rest-houses in the hills, and by
presenting every one of them with a motor-car. But even now, the days of
extreme hardship are past, and no man of ordinary vigor need fear coming
to the foreign field on account of its physical discomforts.

When our Lord sent out his first missionaries, he sent them two by two.
The real trial of the missionary is more mental than physical. He
greatly needs companionship. Silence in the midst of the beating of
heathen tom-toms becomes enervating and appalling; it may make a man
insane. We are learning the value of team-work in missions. What one man
alone could never accomplish, he can do with the help of others. The
American Board in its mission at Madura, India, has acted upon this
principle, and the result is seen in an aggregate of twenty-two thousand
church-members. Our own most successful work has been among the Burmans
and Karens, where we have seventy thousand members, and among the
Telugus, where we have as many more. In these fields there are enough
workers to constitute a homogeneous society, with frequent conferences
to help the discouraged and to stimulate the weak. Let us be generous
in providing additional helpers and furloughs to men so far removed from
our Christian civilization.

But let no one go to the foreign field expecting to get all his strength
from his brethren. Missionary work is no sinecure. It requires not only
a sound body and a sound mind, with a cheerful and hopeful temperament,
but also a willingness to endure hardship for Jesus' sake, and, if need
be, with him alone for helper. There are more alleviations of missionary
conditions than were known in its early days, but they still require
self-s