At the first, it was thought by some that the Association was too
tardy in advancing the church process. Soon it was learned that
the right policy had been pursued in developing the educational
interest, which was itself really missionary work, and which
was the necessary preparation for a more organic way of Gospel
propagandism. In connection with all our high schools and colleges,
churches have been organized. These have been immediate sources of
power and influence. They have also served as models and stimulus
for others that have grown up around them. In almost every case our
churches have been an outgrowth from these educational centres, or
have been developed by the teachers and preachers who have been
trained in them. Thus far, in the main, we have been preparing our
machinery. I remember that our Elgin Watch Company spent its first
two and a half years in erecting the factory and in manufacturing
its own machinery. Now it is in competition even with London and
Switzerland for the trade of Europe. We have been building up our
Elgins—the Fisk, the Howard, the Straight, Atlanta, Talladega,
Tougaloo, and Berea. They are furnishing us their approved
mechanism. This correlation of the school work to the church work
is after the wisdom of all successful missionary enterprise in
foreign lands. In India the American Board tried the experiment of
dispensing with the school process, only to put the mission back
for years.
4. Another advantage is that by their slower growth, we can the
more completely assimilate and mold the material of our churches.
Drawn together by affinities of character, the more readily do they
receive instruction and take over the ideas and the style of our
system; the more certainly can discipline be maintained, purity and
sobriety secured. Heterogeneous masses would swamp church order.
At one of our Conferences, some of the brethren were bemoaning the
slow growth of our churches. A Baptist minister being present,
turned the tide by asserting that, for the present, there were
advantages in that state of things, and that his denomination had
suffered somewhat from the embarrassment of numbers. He said that
when as a farmer’s boy he stood at the tail end of a steam thresher
for shoving away the straw, if left alone, he found himself unable
to keep up, and was soon covered down with the accumulation. So
they were sometimes bothered in handling their great numbers in the
way of discipline, and of effort at moral elevation.
* * * * *
THE NEED AND THE OPPORTUNITY.
PROF. WM. J. TUCKER, D. D., ANDOVER, MASS.
In the midst of the struggle and the difficulties attending work
among the Freedmen, there has been one point about which we have
allowed our minds to be at rest. As we have been vexed with the
problems of education and with the problems of citizenship, we
have said to ourselves, one thing is sure: the colored race is
religious. And so we have allowed the religious question to remain
comparatively in abeyance; we have said, this can wait; we have
work in hand which we must attend to; by and by we will look after
this.
But in that strange haste with which God has been forcing questions
upon the American people as touching the Freedmen, we have come,
sooner than we thought, upon the religious question at the South.
I think we have made a mistake in that we have not given it more
prominence heretofore. I think we shall make a grievous mistake if
we do not carefully look this subject in the face now.
In what sense is it true that the colored race is religious? How
far does the religion of the negro of the South fit him for the
essential work which his race has now before it? His religion, it
seems to me, has been peculiarly, by God’s providence, the religion
of the slave, and now the religion demanded is the religion of the
man. The most beautiful illustration in all history has been given
us by the negro, of the words of Scripture touching God’s gift to
his people: “He giveth songs in the night.” The great, happy heart
of that people has been singing through all these dark years, while
the great heart of the North has been heavy in its shame. The negro
of the South has been living for half the century in another world
than this. It his been literally true—“his citizenship was in
Heaven.” He had no citizenship anywhere else. Now he is a citizen
of this world, and the religion that fits a citizen of this world
must be his, or he will fail religiously in the problem which is
now working out in this country.
I think the question is very much, to-day, with reference to the
Freedmen of the South, as it would be if the Christian of the
second century could have been taken out from his persecution,
from his sense of that other world, from his prayer for the speedy
coming of Christ, and plunged into the hard, practical uses of
this nineteenth century. We have taken the Freedman out of his
Heaven where he was living with something of joy; we have brought
him before the great duties of this world and this century. How
is his religion fitting him for the change? I have said that
his religion has been a religion of joy, fitting him to bear,
fitting him to endure; but life has become something more serious
than suffering—life has become to him a practical work. What De
Tocqueville said to Charles Sumner in his youth, may be said to
the young Freedman to-day: “Life is neither a pain nor a pleasure,
but a most serious business, to be taken up with courage, to be
laid down, if need be, in self-sacrifice.” The nation has made a
change necessary in the type of his religion. He must be refitted
religiously to the work which attends citizenship, its rights and
its duties. How is he fitted for it? If we do not answer this
question practically, ten years will show us how he is unfitted for
it.
Meanwhile, too, we, as an Association, through our educational
work, have been robbing him of his past religion. We have been
letting in the light upon his superstitions; we have dissolved his
dreams; we have put his Heaven a little farther off—he cannot fly
into it so quickly as before; we have let in the strong, hard light
of this world. We must give him something. If we simply give him
education, even though it be so much of religious education as may
be given in the schools, we are doing no more than sowing the seeds
of scepticism—as when the Romanists of the old country lose their
faith, it were better for them to stay in their faith with its
tinge of superstition, than simply to be sceptics. We cannot afford
to have this pure, tender, loving, spiritual life, developed during
these last years, caught up by the scepticism of this century and
hurried on into ruin. We have sceptics enough at the North; we
have sceptics enough through the South; the nation is drifting
fast enough into that way. Let us keep what religious sense there
is in this race trained of God, pure, by making it strong, hard,
substantial enough to stand the difficulties and the trials of
their present condition.
The question then comes up, Can the Freedman be made a pure,
honest, reasoning, intelligent Christian man? Can the type of piety
be changed? Still his music if you will; take away something of
the glow of his faith; push his Heaven a little further off—can
he be made a man fit to live, and act, and do his work, in this
our century, and assume the great duties of Christian discipleship
here and now? Can he be made sufficiently moral, can he be made
sufficiently intelligent, to do practically the work which all
Christians must do, with clean hands and with pure hearts?
Well, Mr. President, there have been a great many theories on the
matter, and very many men are ready to say, “You can do nothing
with the Freedmen at this point.” I think it is the simple office
of this Association to fly in the face of the theories of men
in this century, to take one race after another, treat it for
ten years, and then say to men, “There are your theories; here
is the _fact_.” Men have said of the Indian, “He won’t work.”
This Association takes men who say that, and quietly shows them
the Indian at work. Men have said of the Chinaman, “You cannot
change the type of his religion and give him any sense of faith in
Christ,” and this Association is quietly showing souls won to the
Redeemer. Men used to say, “The negro won’t fight; put him before
the eye of his master and he will quail.” The negro saw his master
in battle, he never quailed, he fell at his feet only in death.
A friend told me yesterday coming on the cars, that when the
question was agitated as to whether a steamship could carry coal
enough to cross the Atlantic, one of the scientific men of the
day addressing a large audience in New York, made this statement,
“If you load a steamship when it shall leave Liverpool with coal
sufficient to last over the voyage, as you withdraw the coal,
gradually the ship will lighten and lift, and by the time the ship
is half over the sea the wheels will be out of the water.” Six
days after he made that statement, the first steamer came plowing
steadily up the Narrows into New York harbor. Men say of the negro,
“He can’t do this, he won’t do that.” Meanwhile, the American
Missionary Association is doing its strong work with him, and he
is just plowing his way steadily into public notice and disproving
everything flung in his face.
There are signs—and some of them very manifest—of the capacity
of the Freedmen for great moral strength. Have you read Judge
Tourgee’s reference to the fact that when the opportunity was
given, after the war, for the negroes to register themselves for
marriage—to be married by the laws of the State in wholesale—how
eagerly they availed themselves of that opportunity, that they
might have the form and reality of marriage, and the stamp of
legitimacy upon their children? The negro knows what a home means;
he has been wanting it; now he will have in time as clean a home as
you or I may have. What do you think I discovered a few days ago
in one of the historic towns of New England? A friend looking over
the records of that old town, came upon the list of baptisms, and
this fact came out: in early Puritan days in a town not twenty-five
miles from Boston more children were born out of wedlock than in
wedlock; and the Puritan says to the negro, “You don’t know what a
home is.” Wait;—give him a chance.
You see how it is with regard to his industries. Men say he is
lazy: why does he go to work as soon as he leaves the land which
induces laziness? The reports come from Kansas that he is thrifty,
that he is putting his hand to the plow, that he is doing the work
he is given there to do. Individuals taken as types of the race are
declaring their capacity for strong industrial development. You
know his record in matters of education; you know he is beginning
to make himself, so far as he has the chance anywhere, a power in
citizenship. I believe that this question of morality will settle
itself, that the negro can at least show, under right training, an
average development in the morals of religion.
One question then remains: What is the true way of approach to
this religious question of the South? Something has already been
done through the strong, patient work, known as the _church work_
of this Association—taking the products of the school, young men
and women as trained in the schools, and organizing them into
churches, for the churches are merely the outgrowth of the schools.
The old churches of the South are not fit to be transferred into
the churches of this Association. We are all the weaker for any
church that might be allowed to come in in that way. The greater
approach—and that which I believe the Association, so soon as it
has the means, will endeavor to carry out—is in the larger training
of leaders, to meet what will be within ten or twenty years the
enormous demand for Christian leadership through the South. In
other words, give to the millions of the colored race at the South
a sufficient number of trained, educated, common-sense ministers,
and they will make that people in half a century the joy and the
pride of our land.
We need to do this to save the bright, strong men among the
negroes from going elsewhere. A young man of good parts came to
his church five years ago, and said to them, “Take my name off the
church-roll; I am going into politics.” His brethren said to him,
“Wait a little; you do not want your name off the church-roll if
you are going into politics. But must you go there?” They showed
him the more excellent way, and to-day he is one of the most
effective ministers in the South. We want to lay our hands, while
we can, while we have the material, on the very pride of the youth
of the colored race, and secure them to the ministry. We want
hundreds of men—the best men, who have the instinct of leadership
about them—men who have that strong, organizing, executive force,
as well as the sympathetic power, by which they can build up
churches in the name of the Redeemer throughout that country.
What is the furnishing for this at present? Here are four schools:
Howard commands the north-eastern section, situated at Washington;
Fisk, in Tennessee; Talladega, in Alabama; and Straight in New
Orleans; and nearly a hundred men from these departments are in the
process of studying for the Christian ministry. We want to enlarge,
and that speedily; for, as I have suggested, the ratio of increase
through the educational work within ten years will be enormous. We
want to enlarge greatly this productive power for the ministry;
and to that end I believe, as the report has stated, we need
substantial endowment for permanent work of this nature. It has
been suggested in the report that we need men for more than home
affairs. England, with generous look, is ready to enter into Africa
and do large work there for Christ. What she wants is men. Fisk
University has consecrated itself largely to the work of supplying
Africa with missionaries. We want to respond to England, with her
generous means, by the gift of men, sending out worthy men, by
which the two nations shall go hand in hand in bringing light into
the dark continent.
Meanwhile, I say as I sit down, that, with regard to this whole
question touching the South, there seems to me to be two aspects of
it; the one of which will give us at present only discouragement,
the other giving us the largest hope and joy.
When Henry J. Raymond was editor of the _New York Times_, some of
you may remember, after one of his stirring editorials, some one
at the South sent him this laconic letter: “Henry J. Raymond. Sir:
Come down South, and we will tar and feather you.” To which Mr.
Raymond replied in equally laconic fashion: “Sir: I think I will
wait; the inducements are not sufficient.” Capital, looking South,
says, “The inducements are not yet sufficient.” Society, looking
South, says, seeing the ostracism there, “I think I will wait; the
inducements are not sufficient.” The North, ready to pour in its
own civilization there so far as it might be accepted, has come
to say to itself, “I will wait; time on this continent is on the
side of the Puritan.” But the American Missionary Association,
touching the conscience and the heart of many strong souls at the
North, said, long ago, “I wait no longer; the inducements _are_
sufficient.” Knowing the ostracism, knowing the persecution,
knowing the difficulties, the inducements for Christian work,
for education, prevailed upon that heart; and to-day we have the
result of what that spirit has been that has looked the South
in the face, that has taken the Freedman by the hand, that is
pushing the glorious work of reformation and reconstruction; not
in the name of a party, hardly in the name of the country, but in
that ever-blessed name above party—even greater than country—the
Crucified.
* * * * *
AFRICA.
* * * * *
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
The Committee, to whom was referred those portions of the Report of
the Executive Committee relating to the work of the Association in
Africa, beg leave to submit the following report:
We stand at the opening of a new era in the history of African
missions. No real cause for discouragement in the present aspect
of affairs presents itself. There is, on the contrary, abundant
reason for gratitude to God, that through the darker experiences
of the past, in which He has revealed to us more clearly what are
His plans, He is leading us to the brighter issues of the future.
The logic of events is irresistible. We, of this Association, are
driven to certain hopeful conclusions.
1st. Africans for Africa. This is the evident teaching of God’s
providence. It is the great lesson of the Mendi mission. The
long list of the heroic dead, martyrs for the Gospel in Africa;
the vast expenditure of resources necessary in supporting white
missionaries; the peculiar dealings of God’s providence with the
negro in this country, especially fitting him for this work—all
point in this direction. This is the fact which gives peculiar
significance to the work of this Association, both in this land
and in Africa, and we hail it with encouragement and hope as one
element of the new and happier era of lasting success, which we
believe will, in the future, attend, under God, the missionary work
of that waiting continent.
2d. Need of careful supervision. In view of the facts laid before
us, and in view, also, of the important enlargement of the work
contemplated, we most heartily commend the determination of the
Executive Committee to appoint a general superintendent of the
work of this Association in Africa. Such a superintendent appears
to us to be a necessity. We believe that he would have more than
he could conveniently do in devoting himself to systematizing the
work in its various phases, providing a suitable literature for the
people, supervising educational and industrial enterprises, keeping
account of the financial matters of the missions, giving character
and direction to the counsels of the missionaries, studying new
regions for advance movements, reporting needs and plans, and thus
enlisting interest at home and abroad. We urgently hope, therefore,
that the appointment of such a superintendent, residing at some
healthful point, easily accessible to the missions, will be made at
the earliest practicable moment.
3d. The subject of the Arthington Mission is no longer an open
question. You have already determined, upon conditions believed
to be practicable, that you will occupy that land for Christ. The
money, we have some reason to hope, is coming, the men are coming,
the Association is only waiting to begin wisely. In an enterprise
of such vast moment to all concerned, care is better than cure.
Your Committee believe that they only give voice to the earnest
desire of the churches, when they express the hope that, as soon
as the necessary funds are received, you will go forward with the
same judicious care as in the past, and take the proper steps to
ascertain more fully the best ways of entering this open door for
enlarged work and greater results.
4th. In view of the events of the year, so full of sadness in the
history of many African missions, your Committee recognize the fact
more clearly than ever before, that the call of God rests, in an
especial manner, upon this Association, to maintain and enlarge
this African work in the way of His own appointment. The great
results it is achieving for the negro of the South have received a
new meaning and impetus in the light of African missions. The whole
problem of the negro in America is finding its solution slowly but
surely. In the providence of God this Association, in the two-fold
relation which it holds to the Freedmen of America on the one hand,
and to the pagans of their fatherland on the other, more truly
than any other, we believe, holds the key to the evangelization of
Africa.
Your Committee, therefore, feel warranted in suggesting that
the true attitude of this Association, in view of the report of
its missions in Africa, should be one of thankfulness for the
experience of the past, encouragement in the work of the present,
and earnest expectation for the future.
HENRY M. LADD, _Chairman_.
* * * * *
THE MENDI MISSION.
PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.
In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby,
asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which
invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was
separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for
that land.
My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of
missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to
obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.:
The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial
work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope
station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of
the Mendi language.
Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I
could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts
have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the
Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper
will be supplementary to that report.
Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of
steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira,
Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the
twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small
steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of
the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land
and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into
it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the
inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern
extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its
southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The
buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river,
several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a
beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good
Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a
branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a
recent number of the _Missionary_.
Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty
miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to
Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with
mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose
trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of
stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth
numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an
almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene
changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite
high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface,
with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the
river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the
component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a
saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.
The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to
command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each
direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly.
In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the
superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and
girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as
the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in
saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s
Prayer, and saying, “Good night, sir,” at their hour for retiring.
Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt.
Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E.
Strieby.