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Minutes of the German Mission Society
of the Mississippi Valley
The Tennessee Baptist, 1854

      Some one has kindly favored us with a copy of the Fourth Annual Meeting of this Society, in the perusal of which we have been deeply interested. We have heard of the existence of such a Society, but have never before seen its Constitution, or a report of its labors.
      It is an important Mission, scarcely second to any, and it richly deserves the prayers and contributions of our churches in the South-West.
      We learn the astonishing fact from the Report of the Committee on Fields of Labor, that there are "already MORE THAN TWO MILLIONS of Germans in this great Central Valley," and the number rapidly increasing!! This mass of foreign minds is either Infidel or Catholic, which renders it, if possible, more dangerous to the civil and religious liberties of our country. The enemy is coming in like a flood, and where is there a standard raised against them, unless it is the infant German Mission?
      The Society finds it far more difficult to find laborers than funds. May God in His mercy to our land and to this benighted multitude, raise up the men, and when funds are wanting, let the Society send out a strong appeal, and it will be liberally responded to by the Christians of this Valley. We are ready to double, if necessary, our contributions to Missions, to assist this Society, so soon as it can use the funds. The great battle between the witnesses of the truth, and the powers of Protestant and Papal anti-Christ, will be fought in this great Central Valley. It is destined to be the Thermopylae of the religious world. We hail the organization of this New Mission with thanksgiving and heartfelt joy. May this "little one become a thousand."

BOARD OF OFFICERS
Wm. McPherson, President.
S. B. Johnson, Cor. Secretary.
D. J. Hancock, Rec. Sec'y.
D. A. Spalding, Treasurer.
      It has a large and efficient Board of Managers, among whom are those old veterans, Eld. J. M. Peck and Adiel Sherwood.
      The Board is located in St. Louis.

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[From The Tennessee Baptist, January 14, 1854. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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