Read Ebook: The American Missionary Volume 34 No. 11 November 1880 by Various

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Another thing that has struck me is this: in listening to what we have heard here to-day, I have seemed to find not merely a fulness and vitality of the missionary sentiment, but associated with that, a keen, political outlook, the statesman's thought about the demand of the hour and the special adaptations that are necessary in service for the carrying out of the great work that these societies have in view. It is especially encouraging in view of this, to which no one can be blind, that God is calling America to a singularly honorable, because singularly difficult, vocation, in dealing with the races with which her life of intelligence and faith is here being brought into contact.

It is quite true, sir, that the Head of the Church, as has been proclaimed from this platform, and from that at Lowell, again and again, is imposing on you the discipleship of the world, the duty of carrying the Gospel to all the nations of the earth. It thus lies upon the Christian nations so honored to stretch out their hands to lift the other nations up to the plane on which they are themselves living. But there has been brought to America, it seems to me, a specially difficult task. She has had thrust within her national boundary at least three separate races, that are on a different stage of intellectual development and civilization from that which she has reached; or if it be too much to say that these races have been thrust within her boundaries, then that the high and laudable ambition, which has moved you as a people to keep this great continent to yourselves, and to take as much more as you can get, has brought upon you this obligation in connection with the great races which are to be found on your soil. We are aware that the spirit and the policy of the world is hounded on, perhaps now more than ever, by that proud and insolent dictum of science, falsely so called, ready to be applied to the affairs of races as to other things--"the survival of the fittest." No doubt there are men among you who are ready to take up the spirit of this maxim and to apply it all around, and to feel, as has been said here about the dead Indian, that it is the province of the stronger people simply to overrun, and press out, and hustle over the frontiers, or over the shores of your continent, the weaker races. Now, sir, as I understand it, you have been called to this vocation of bringing up these weaker races, of incorporating them into your own national life, of clothing them with all the honors and responsibilities of citizenship, of giving them a full status in the Church and in the township, of making them what you are yourselves, gradually scattering their darkness by the light of your intelligence, and vitalizing their enfeebled and degraded manhood by the overflow of the surplus energy of your own manhood. There has been given to you this great task to perform, to show the nations a better way of dealing with the weaker races than any nation has yet reached; and if the spirit of the American Missionary Association can but be breathed into the American people as a whole; if you can control your political action, if you can determine the issues in your Congress by that spirit, and control all your dealings with those peoples by it, one of the very brightest of the many crowns which will sit on the brow of the American nation will be the crown which you will win in that service. This is the work to which you are called.

I have been asked since I came here how I could explain the fact that the citizens of America seem to meddle so much in politics. I do not think we of England meddle enough with them. The existence of a political church among us forces a certain political contention upon us with which you here have nothing to do. But I take it that it is one of the highest, most urgent vocations of the Church of Christ, in this and in all lands, to see to it, that, so far as her influence shall go, by teaching and by testimony, by debate, by criticism, by all kinds of fair mental conflict to penetrate the political life of the nation with the spirit of Christ. It will not be well with you in America, any more than with us in England, whether with regard to your work for the black man and the Indian and the Chinese, or with regard to your own national stability and progress, until this work has been gone earnestly about. We can afford to rise above party politics, but we are bound to preach that righteousness, that truth, that spirit of self sacrifice, without which neither church nor nation can be made great and stable.

GENERAL SURVEY.

The battle cry of the American Missionary Association now is ENLARGEMENT. We are called to this by recent encouragements, and by the demands of the future.

THE ENCOURAGEMENTS OF THE PRESENT.

FINANCES.

Such a balance sheet, carrying on the one side our regular work and these new and greatly needed buildings, yet held in even poise by the generous donations of our friends, is an argument for enlargement at other points calling for it with increased importunity. We dare not be presumptuous, but may we not trust still further to the God of the poor, and will not his people sustain us in the trust?

FREEDMEN.

The State of Mississippi was represented at the Commencement exercises at Tougaloo by her Superintendent of Education and other influential citizens, who, after careful inspection, gave public assurance of State aid. The first instalment, we are confident, will reach us this fall. Soon after the war, when this State was under Republican rule, it granted aid to Tougaloo. Under changed political control, this grant was for a time withheld, but now while overwhelming Democratic majorities are regularly reported, the proffer of aid is renewed. The significance of the fact is that both political parties, much as they may differ on other points, are agreed in sustaining the Tougaloo University.

Another evidence of such appreciation is found in the attendance at our school anniversaries, of persons who represent public sentiment. At Hampton, President Hayes, Secretary Schurz, the Governor and an ex-Governor of Massachusetts were present; at Berea, the audience numbered probably 1,800 or 2,000 persons, two-thirds being of the white race; at Fisk, there was reported "a crowded house;" at Atlanta, the audience was packed; at Straight University, New Orleans, it is reported that "the audience, both in numbers and intelligent appreciation, was one of the best ever gathered for the purpose in the city." Our work is not now done in a corner, nor under the ban of good people, North or South.

The colored people show their appreciation of the schools by an increased attendance. The roll is larger than last year in the aggregate, and in nearly all the departments. The total number of pupils reported this year is 8,052 against 7,207 last year. The largest proportionate increase is in the theological, grammar and normal grades.

With such a record before us, a work so useful and that needs almost indefinite expansion, invites to that expansion by its very success.

In the four new churches organized, and in the six new edifices erected, and two in the process, five repaired, and in the parsonages improved and built, we see the additions to the outward scaffolding, within which is going forward the spiritual work of preparing the polished stones of the sanctuary; and we see the added force of workmen ascending this scaffolding, in the ordination of four young men to the Gospel ministry, and in the reports from our Theological Departments of well trained young men graduating and entering the service.

That spiritual work is indicated in part by the reports of precious revivals and ingatherings into the churches. The pastor at New Orleans writes: "It is my happiness to record one of the most precious revivals in the history of the Central Church." From Shelby Iron Works, Ala: "The meetings closed with twenty-one conversions reported. Last Sunday fifteen came forward, entered into covenant with the church, and were baptized on profession of their faith. Some eight or ten are to unite by letter the first opportunity, who were not ready to join last Sunday." From Savannah, Ga,: "There has been an unusual work of grace among this people, and the meetings have been quiet and orderly as with a New England congregation."

"You have been told of the new era in our work, marked by the opening of half a dozen of the homes of the first families in Selma, Alabama, for the entertainment of the white members of the Conference. It was not merely the offer of their houses as eating and sleeping places, but it was a delicate and attentive Christian hospitality, which invited the guests around from home to home in order to the extension of acquaintance. When grateful words were said to Major Joseph Hardie for having led the way, he answered that that gave him too much credit; that the places had all been opened cheerfully, and that, after the sessions were over, other families had said: 'Why didn't you give us a chance? We would like to have had some of those folks.' Another host, referring to the mutual satisfaction, said: 'It is just because we are getting better acquainted.' In the same line was the opening of the Presbyterian pulpit, morning and night. The exercises of the Conference were of a high order and well sustained throughout. It was much like one of the Western General Associations."

THE INDIANS.

The experiment of educating Indian youth at Hampton and Carlisle is a confirmed success. We have in the office two pictures--one representing a company of these young Indians as they came to Hampton, in their blankets and with their stolid countenances, and the other taken after they had spent a year in the school. The change in dress is less significant than the bright and intelligent look of the faces in the last picture. A visit among them, as they are engaged in the school-room and at various mechanical employments, accounts for the change. The joint education of the two races, the black and the red, seems helpful to both.

Four agencies, the same number as last year, are under our nomination, and we have favorable reports from each. At the Lake Superior Agency some years ago, the Indians wanted blankets, beads and trinkets; now they want a boarding school. At Fort Berthold, 40 new houses were built this season; at the Sisseton Agency, the Indians dress entirely in citizen's clothing, live in log houses and cultivate 4,025 acres of land, and the scholars in the boarding and day schools show marked improvement; at the S'Kokomish Agency, the morals, manners, health and homes of the Indians are improving--most of the houses have been ceiled and furnished with good, tight floors. More land has been cleared, and 1,000 fruit trees have been set out.

CHINESE IN AMERICA.

Of our mission on the Pacific coast, the efficient Superintendent, Rev. W. C. Pond, says that not only more, but better work has been done this year than ever before. The total enrolment of pupils is 67 greater than last year, but the most marked gains are in those reported as having ceased from idol-worship, and as giving evidence of conversion; in the former, 180 against 137 last year, and in the latter, 127 against 84.

AFRICA.

After maintaining this mission for 30 years with white missionaries, with a rapid death-rate and meagre results, Providence seemed to open to us a plan for using the Freedmen of America, trained in our schools, as missionaries to Africa. Three years since a company was sent out, with Rev. Floyd Snelson as a leader. His age and experience guided the mission well, and the next year new recruits were added. But the failure of Mrs. Snelson's health compelled him to return with her to this country. The management fell into younger and less experienced hands, and dissensions and complaints ensued. Prof. T. N. Chase, of Atlanta University, accepted our invitation to visit and inspect the mission. Accompanied by Rev. Jos. E. Smith, the pastor of our church in Chattanooga, he spent two months at the mission, making most careful examinations, the result of which he embodies in an extended report. It may suffice here to say that Mr. Chase found many things in an unsatisfactory condition, chargeable in some degree to moral delinquency, but more largely to immaturity of experience and of judgment.

From Mr. Chase's report and our own knowledge of the affairs of the mission, we reach these results:

In the missions growing out of the new impulse for Tropical Africa discouragement and trial have been nearly everywhere encountered. Of the sixteen missionaries sent so promptly by the Church Missionary Society to establish the mission in Mtesa's kingdom, some have died, some have returned on account of sickness, and the whole work is now in abeyance. The mission of the London Missionary Society at Ujiji is still pushed forward, yet with much sickness and several deaths, among which is numbered that of the lamented Secretary Mullens. The Livingstonia Mission on Lake Nyassa is compelled to abandon its first station on account of the tsetse fly. The Scotch Blantyre Mission has had the sad experience of wrongs practiced by the missionaries upon the natives, attracting the attention and stirring the sorrow of Great Britain.

We are not alone, then, in the trials of our African Mission, nor must we, more than others, be discouraged. Africa was not forgotten in the Redeemer's plan. His people must meet and overcome difficulties. The assurance that the colored American can endure the African climate is worth all the effort we have made.

THE DEMANDS OF THE FUTURE.

The noble gift of Mrs. Stone, while supplying some of the great and most pressing wants in certain directions, creates new ones in others. It gives additional buildings, but these mean more students, more teachers, more student aid, more libraries, and more apparatus.

Buildings are needed where the gift of Mrs. Stone, great as it is, does not reach--needed as imperiously as where it does. At Talladega, the original building erected before the war at a cost of ,000, bought by us after the war, used and oft repaired, is thus described by President DeForest: "The walls are staunch, but the roof leaks, and within and without, from foundation to bell-tower, it needs repair. It is estimated that ,000 are required for this purpose." A house is also needed as a home for the President, to save room for teachers and pupils in the main buildings. In addition to the ,000 from the Stone donation, Talladega needs for these buildings and repairs, ,000. The wants of Tougaloo are even more pressing. The crowd of students defies all means of accommodation. Temporary barracks have been erected, out-buildings and garrets have been used as lodging places, and yet students have been turned away for want of room. The buildings now on the ground need extensive repairs to save them from decay, and additions should be made to the farm buildings to give adequate shelter to the stock and products of the 500 acres of land connected with the school. But what shall we more say? for the time would fail us to tell of the needs of Wilmington, N. C., of Greenwood and Orangeburg, S. C., Mobile, Montgomery and Athens, Ala.

Besides all this we ought to establish, at some eligible point in North Carolina, a chartered institution of higher grade, with a boarding department. We have for a long while felt the need of this, and have only been deterred by the lack of means. We ought also to found an institution in Arkansas, similar to that in Austin, Texas. We are just beginning efforts among the Refugees in Kansas, and these should be greatly increased, and include churches, schools and lady missionaries.

There were in 1875 in this country, 3,647 libraries, numbering 300 volumes and upwards in each. Of that number, the colored people of the South have access to 25! The same disparity is found here in regard to the size and quality of the libraries open to them as in regard to the schools and colleges.

It will not do to say that these people need only primary schools. No race can rise unless it has leaders who can teach and encourage the masses; nor will it suffice to say that the few seeking special advantages can go to colleges at the North. The people of the West cannot send their sons to Eastern colleges in adequate numbers. The West has, and must have, its own colleges. How can the poor ex-slaves of the South send their children to the North for education, when most of them have a life struggle with the wolf at the door?

Here, then, are glimpses at the great duty that this nation owes to the Freedmen for its own sake as well as theirs. But that duty involves enlargement, fifty-fold, of what is now done for them.

The Chinese schools in California need the permanency of having buildings under their own control, and Bro. Pond earnestly desires the means to reach the "Chinese in the mines."

The work of educating Indians at the East should be extended. It is not a substitute for schooling among the tribes; it helps it. Capt. Pratt, who inaugurated this movement in Hampton, and who now conducts the large Government school for Indian youth at Carlisle, is very earnest that more--much more--should be done in this direction. The power of the movement, in his opinion, will be measured by its extent. He is anxious that every school of the American Missionary Association in the South should be prepared to receive Indians. This broad plan deserves the careful thought of the Association, but if adopted, it will necessitate not a little enlargement of accommodations and of the teaching force.

But Africa! what does the future ask at our hands in her behalf? When we recall the struggles of the past for her enslaved children in this country, when we think of the graves of our missionaries in the Mendi country, and when we hear her children in our schools asking to be sent thither, we feel called to a new and strong effort to equip completely the mission on the West coast. The East coast calls to us also. The Arthington Mission, though we have moved cautiously, is neither forgotten nor abandoned. The generous offer of Mr. Arthington still remains; considerable sums have been collected in this country and in Great Britain, and as soon as the adequate amount can be secured, we shall feel called to go forward.

From all these considerations, we ask for a new and wide enlargement of our work. The duty to America and to Africa demands it. Especially do we urge that America owes it to its own safety and honor that it shall adequately care for the Freedmen. But who will take the lead in the movement to enlarge? The Pilgrims and Puritans of New England were the first to plant liberty, education and religion on these shores; they were on the crest of the wave that carried these blessings across the continent to the Pacific slope; they were foremost in the great anti-slavery struggle; they were in the van of the armies that fought for the unity of the nation and the freedom of the slave; they were the first, through this Association, to take the school and the Gospel to the Freedmen at Fortress Monroe; and who but they should see the great need of the hour, and step forth to meet it?

SUMMARY OF THE TREASURER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPT. 30TH, 1880.

RECEIPTS.

EXPENSES.

The receipts of Berea College, Hampton N. and A. Institute, and Atlanta University, are added below, as presenting at one view the contributions of the same constituency for the general work in which the Association is engaged.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND ENLARGEMENT.

Your Committee on Finance and Enlargement, to whom was referred the financial exhibit of the Association for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1880, as presented by the Treasurer, beg leave to report that they have examined the accounts and found them duly audited. These accounts include a minute and detailed statement of receipts and expenditures, a list of the endowments, and also a full account of the property owned by the Association, and were accompanied by the account books of the Treasurer.

We are unanimous in vouching for the faithfulness and economy which characterize all branches of the financial administration. Nor can we refrain from a word of most emphatic commendation of the thorough explicitness of the Association's financial statement.

But passing from this to the substance of the Report, we notice three points suggested by it which seem to call for special mention.

In the first place, it is ground for gratitude and thanksgiving that the year closes without leaving us burdened with a debt. On the contrary, there is a balance in the treasury of nearly eight hundred dollars. Not a very large surplus, surely, but the fact that the year's work has been done and left us anything besides a disheartening deficiency, is itself occasion for thankfulness and cheer.

In conclusion, therefore, your Committee respectfully suggest the adoption of the following resolution:

WHY WE SHOULD ENLARGE.

I have been invited to the privilege of additionally sustaining the report of your Committee in their recommendation of an enlargement of the work of this Association; and, as a member of that Committee, I may say that we could not possibly have reported otherwise than we did. I could not have read the record of this last year, and have seen its events as our honored Secretary has presented them, without feeling that the movement must be toward an increase in every department.

Sir, you were entirely right in drawing your inspiration in part from the wonderful past. I, too, have recalled the years gone by, and they seem to say, as with one voice, that the time has come for the yet greater effort. My brethren, what a history sweeps back from this thirty-fourth anniversary, to the day when, in this same Commonwealth, the Amistad captives were bravely released, and an additional impulse was given to the anti-slavery sentiment of the participants! At that hour, the men who afterwards founded this Association, looked out on a tumultuous sea of discouragements. Themselves only a handful; the press absolutely unfriendly; the market-place contemptuous; the State frowning; the Church in general incredulous and silent; scarcely anything anywhere that did not wear a hostile front. And then, at last, one missionary commissioned and one teacher sent out; one paper persuaded into partial support; a few dollars given into the treasury; and a few steadfast souls pledging themselves to maintain the cause. But, to-day, what a different record! A great, honored organization, with an annual income approaching the fifth of a million; three hundred and thirty ministers, missionaries and teachers; seventy-six mission, and yet, for the most part, self-sustaining churches; more than five thousand intelligent church members, and nearly ten thousand pupils in the Sunday-schools; seventy-one common schools, normal schools, colleges and theological seminaries, with more than ten thousand eager and advancing students. An organization that takes effective hold on four millions of Freedmen, and then enlarges its bounds to take in the resident and emigrant Chinese, and the tribes of original Indians. An organization able to inspire the churches with missionary zeal, and making even our national Government respect its requests and its advice.

What a review is that, and almost within the space of a single generation. The success that has already been accomplished is reason why, at the very outset, we may call you to a hopeful and an enlarged interest in this work; for history is telling us to-day, if she tells us anything, that it is not a hopeless thing to attempt to provide efficiently for all the despised of our land. And, let me say, I should not hesitate to make that hopeful appeal, if there were no such glowing record to present. I would not change the tone of it, though the years rolled back, and you and I stood to-day where those men stood thirty and four years ago; for Christ has said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and has said distinctly that our neighbors are pre-eminently those who have fallen among thieves and are lying wounded by the way. That simple command is enough to assure us that our labor shall not be in vain. You and I know whom we have believed, and we know that whatever He commands is commanded in infinite wisdom and infinite love. We know that what He says we are to do, it is possible to do, and that in some way it shall be done. The stars in their courses, and earth, and hell, may fight against Christ, but sooner or later He is to reign.

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