would come as an impact of the gospel, this went against the nature of mission in his time which started with civilisation of the natives. The missionary was not to be a pastor or ruler but an evangelist, moving on to the next place as soon as possible; their business was with unbelievers, not believers. The society existed solely to help the missionary discharge their duty rather than making them a servant. Native ministers were to be the spiritual leaders. Though there is dispute as to who wrote about the idea first, the "three-self" method is attributed to both Anderson and Henry Venn. They both wrote about the need for creating churches in the missions field that were self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. He published several books, as well as many articles in The Missionary Herald. He is remembered in Sri Lanka for shutting down American Ceylon Mission's popular Batticotta Seminary because it was not converting enough locals to Christianity. He traveled from Boston to the Hawaiian Islands in 1863, crossing the Panama Isthmus by rail, later describing the trip in a book. After retiring in 1866 wrote a history of the missions there. He died May 23, 1880, in Boston and was buried in Forest Hills Cemetery after a funeral at Eliot Congregational Church. His son Edward Anderson became a chaplain in the American Civil War. See also Indigenous church mission theory References External links American Congregationalist missionaries 1796 births 1880 deaths Bowdoin College alumni American Ceylon Mission People from North Yarmouth, Maine Burials at Forest Hills Cemetery (Boston)