make laws; Congress only declares and interprets them. There is but
one law-giver—God Almighty; and all that judges and governors and
law-makers and Congresses and Parliaments can do, is to ascertain
what are God’s laws and interpret them. And God’s law is the law
of liberty, and all His laws are to conserve liberty. Never in
the history of the world has a nation succeeded in stopping one
of these great migratory movements. Out of four hundred million
people, in one year almost as many corpses lie upon the ground in
China as were strewed on all our battle-fields, and over every
one a grave-stone might be erected with the inscription, “Died
of hunger!” Why, you might better expect to stop the charge of a
herd of buffaloes rushing madly along with the prairie on fire
behind them, by means of a Virginia rail fence, than to stop the
immigration of a great nation, driven from its home by pursuing
famine, with an act of Congress. You could easier dam up the waters
of the Gulf Stream with bulrushes.
In the year 250 the Goths and Vandals won their first victory
over Roman arms on the Roman boundary. The Roman empire adopted
Dennis Kearney’s platform; it said, “We will not have the Goths
and Vandals on our territory.” The Roman empire was clad in mail
from its head to its foot; it was an army of soldiers; it put forth
the greatest military power the world has seen to stop the great
migration. For a hundred and fifty years the conflict went on,
but year by year the valiant warrior was beaten back, and it was
ended at last with the sack of Rome. But 250 years before these
immigrants made their first appearance on the border line, a little
decrepit Jew made his appearance in Rome as a prisoner. He lived
there two years, bound, chained to the soldier that guarded him,
and he brought there the story that God had shown himself in Jesus
Christ, His Son, who had lived, suffered, died, risen, and ever
lived for them. In those 250 years, Christianity under various
persecutions, had grown little by little, until, when the Goths and
Vandals made their appearance, it comprised one-twentieth of the
population of Rome—fifty thousand out of a million. It sent Bishop
Ulfilas with his Gothic Bible, to the north; it sent Augustine
into England; it sent St. Patrick—Protestant before the time of
Protestantism—to preach a pure gospel in Ireland. One and another
and another went forth, bearing the cross; and when at last the
Goths and Vandals had conquered the armed Romans, so thoroughly
had that Christian church done its work, that, says Lecky, the
Christian church conquered the barbarian world almost in the same
hour in which the barbarian world conquered Rome.
We are told that we cannot convert the Chinese. Why, Christianity,
while it was yet in its cradle, without churches, without schools,
without a printing press, without literature, Christianity
infantile vanquished the serpents that had strangled the military
Hercules. If we cannot, with the Christianity that we possess
to-day, vanquish the semi-civilized paganism of China, we had
better get a new Christianity, for we sorely need it.
Let us look, then, at the other method of protecting our nation
from the incursion of the Chinese. The one is the barbaric method,
the method of military Rome; the other is the Christian method,
the method of the successors and followers of the Apostles and of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is this method? What does it involve?
It involves welcoming the Chinese to our shores; throwing open
the gates; recognizing the truth that the earth is the Lord’s,
and that all peoples are entitled to make their home here if they
will; welcoming them to all the protection—I do not say to all
the powers—of citizenship; holding over them the shield of the
Declaration of Independence, and declaring for them the right to
“life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” It involves bringing
them into our schools and into our churches; teaching them that
which we teach ourselves and our children; teaching them those
things upon which our own intelligence and prosperity and our own
national life are based. Above all, it involves teaching them those
great principles of Christianity which are the very conservation of
national force and the saviours of the nation. It involves teaching
them that there is one God; that we are all one family, brethren in
the Lord Jesus Christ, doubly brethren—born of God and redeemed by
Christ; it involves teaching them immortality, and all the glorious
hopes and liberations that come from the faith of immortality; it
involves all the assimilating and unifying force and power that
come from teaching the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of the
human race.
And, observe, you cannot carry on these two methods
simultaneously. You cannot say, “We will exclude the Chinese, but
if they do come here we will convert them.” You cannot ask the
Chinaman to kneel down with you and say, “Our Father which art in
Heaven,” and then, when he has finished, take him by the throat
and toss him into the Pacific. You cannot say to a Chinaman, “You
are my brother, get out of here!” You cannot be both Christian and
Pagan; you must take your choice.
It is said that the Chinese cannot be converted, that they are
impervious to Christian influences, and that they repudiate and
reject all such. What have been the Christian influences that have
been showered upon them? They have been impervious to the guns of
England when they flamed out, “You shall take opium!” they have
been impervious to the influence of Dennis Kearney’s brick-bats
when they have been flung at them in the street. I do not wonder
that they were impervious to that kind of Christianity. Cannot be
converted? Men call this an age of scepticism; but the unbelief
that doubts the first chapter of Genesis, that thinks the story
of the Fall is a parable, that is uncertain whether the whale did
really swallow Jonah or not, that doubts whether those three men
went into the fiery furnace unconsumed, is as nothing compared with
the unbelief that lurks sometimes in our pulpits and oftener in
our pews, that doubts the declaration that the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every man that
believeth—not to every Anglo-Saxon man, not to every white man,
not to every cultured man, but to every black man, and red-skinned
man, and copper-colored man, and Indian man, and Chinaman,—to
_humanity_. It is as nothing compared with the infidelity that puts
under its foot the obligation: “I am debtor to the Jew, and to the
Greek, to the bond and to the free, to the white, to the black, to
the Indian, to _every_ man, because for every man my Christ died.”
We cannot convert the Chinese? Really it does not lie in us to say
they are beyond hope. Let me read you the features of a portrait:
“Huge, white bodies, cool-blooded, with fierce blue eyes and
reddish flaxen hair; ravenous stomachs, filled with meat and
cheese, heated by strong drinks; of a cold temperament, slow
to love, home stayers, prone to drunkenness! * * pirates at
first; * * sea-faring, war, and pillage, their only idea of a
freeman’s work; * * of all barbarians the strongest of body
and heart, the most formidable, the most cruelly ferocious;
* * torture and carnage, greed of danger, fury of destruction,
obstinate and frenzied bravery of an over-strong temperament, the
unchaining of the butcherly instincts; * * with a great and coarse
appetite.”—[Compiled from Taine’s English Literature, vol. I pp.
30–33.] Do you recognize it? It is the portrait of your ancestors
and mine; and if Christianity can make out of that picture such an
audience as I see before me to-night, what may it not make out of
China?
To-night again we see in the heavens, brighter and clearer by
far than ever Constantine saw in his fabled vision, that flaming
cross, and under it the motto, “By this sign I will conquer.” That
motto, enforced by the history of eighteen centuries of triumph,
I set before you; the Roman spear on the one hand and the flaming
cross on the other: choose you by which sign you will vanquish the
Chinese.
* * * * *
OUR GROUNDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.
REV. SAMUEL SCOVILLE, STAMFORD, CONN.
[Mr. Scoville compared the work of the Association to the
river which went out of Eden and became into four heads, the
Pishon, flowing to the land of gold and the Havilah of the East,
representing its Chinese work. After forcibly depicting the
importance of the work as involving the regeneration of China, the
good name of the Christian Church, the honor of Christ, and the
perpetuity of our political institutions, the address closed with a
statement of the grounds for encouragement that this work can and
shall be done. It is this latter part only for which we have room,
as follows]:—
I turn now to the grounds we have for encouragement that this work
can and shall be done.
1. The first is found in God’s word. We ask ourselves, Is it His
purpose that this work shall be done, that those heathen on our
Western coast and in China shall be converted, or must they be
given over to destruction? And we read the promise of God to His
dear Son: “I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance,” and
that means the people of California, a large part of them, “and the
uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession,” and that means
China.
Is there anything special about the Chinese nature that puts them
outside the recuperating, renewing forces that exist in Jesus
Christ? And I read: “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,”
and again, “that He by the grace of God should taste death for
every man.” And I know that in that humanity and in that provision
the Chinese are included. I hear Him say, “Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden,” and I know that the wretched millions
of China are meant.
But may it not be true that the Chinese are so lost to spirituality
that this whole power of renewing forces will be lost upon them? I
read: “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” And I
know there is a sweet attractiveness in the Saviour of men dying
for them, that is able to break up the dull apathy of Chinamen as
well as others.
But is there power enough to wake up the Christian churches as
well as the Chinese from their apathy? And I read that prayer for
us, “that ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power
toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power
which He wrought in Christ when he raised Him from the dead, and
set Him at His own right hand in the Heavenly places,” and I know
that individuals and churches, even the whole Christian land, can
be breathed upon and quickened by that resurrection life. And then
the Divine Commission breaks in upon all our delay, saying, “Go ye
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” and I
know that that means us, and that the time is now. I am confident
that we have God’s word for it that this work can be done, and that
we are to set about it without delay; and having this foundation I
care for little else. But we have more if we require it.
2. We have God’s providence. His providence that has pushed the
column of progress forward from the moment the Life came forth from
the tomb in the garden, and began to be preached to the nations,
until now its head occupies the slopes of the mountains that
overhang that distant continent, and looks upon it inevitably as
its next field of conquest. That providence that has pushed this
advance forward upon two parallel lines, that of spiritual and of
political liberty, and has made them converge and come together for
the first time in history upon this broad domain; that has brought
along in the slow conflict and march, institutions and rights, the
spoil of nineteen centuries of conflict, and planted them upon this
continent, and opened the door of invitation to the East through
a sea-coast line of twelve thousand miles, and another to the
far West of four thousand. These providences of God, making our
duty clear, are endorsed by those others that have broken up the
seclusive habits of that people, and have turned the thoughts of
her educated men, and the hopes of her commerce, and the needs of
her industrious poor, toward our shores.
This writing of God’s providence seen in the majestic progress
of events from the East and West meeting here, seen in the
configuration of the continent, seen in the harsh language of war
breaking open closed doors, and in the voice of peace, endorses
that other word which God has given us, and proves that our
interpretation was correct, and that we have an especial duty to
this people, both at home and abroad.
3. Another ground for encouragement is the character of the Chinese
that are now in California. They have the mind and disposition of
the mother country; nothing less, not much more. And what kind
is that? We answer, it is that which created and still keeps the
most ancient literature in existence. It is that which worked out
for itself most of the inventions that made the fifteenth century
remarkable in Europe, but more than a thousand years before. It is
a mind and spirit that has obeyed, and does now obey, the fifth
commandment more thoroughly than any nation upon the earth; that
educates formally but more widely than any other people. It has
had the tenacity and recuperative power to hold on to its ancient
seats while Babylon was rising and falling; while Greece was coming
to the zenith and sinking behind the Western horizon; while Rome
was growing and dying; while mediæval Europe was going through
its changes, and modern nations were being born and attaining
their growth. All this time it has held on. What think you of
the natural capacity of a soil that has produced such results,
that has such staying power? It has lain long fallow, but let the
process of breaking up their exclusiveness go forward; let the
Gospel, not as a destructive force, illustrated by brick-bats and
cannon-balls, but as a quickening power made beautiful to their
eyes by the kindness and sympathy of those who profess its truths,
be brought to bear upon them like the sun-light; and what harvests
of righteousness shall not that great field bear for enriching the
Redeemer’s kingdom!
The soil here or at home has not lost its native force nor its
receptive power. Yung Wing, picked up by a missionary in the
streets of Canton, converted by the faithfulness of one of the
mothers of New England, sent to Yale College, where he stood
among the first in his class, especially in English composition,
returning to his own land to reach one of the highest places in
the government, and now leading one of the greatest educational
enterprises in the world, and Jee Gam as a disciple and a preacher,
are but illustrations of what this soil, found among the common
ranks of the Chinese, is capable of producing.
The twelve thousand dollars saved by the Chinese of California out
of their hard-earned wages, and sent to the sufferers from the
yellow fever in the South, proves that the common sentiments of our
humanity are still surpassingly strong in them. The numbers and
faithfulness of those who have joined the churches prove that they
are susceptible to the influences of the Gospel, while the very
tenacity with which they cling to their old faith but proves the
toughness of the fibre that may some day be employed to conserve
the interests of the Redeemer’s Kingdom.
4. Again, we may gather courage from the experience we have
already had in conquering difficulties. If this was the first
difficult matter the American Christian people had ever faced, we
might expect them to be puzzled by its intricacy or appalled by its
magnitude; but it is not, for from the moment our fathers planted
their feet upon these shores, we as a people have had to face
obstacles and to overcome them. A color-line, black as night, lay
in the way of citizenship, education, and Christian labor, but we
have crossed it, and we can cross the yellow line as well.
5. Again we may take courage from the very strait and necessity to
which we are brought. When God brings His people down to the sea,
and all ways are shut up, and still His voice and command are to
go forward, we know that the waters of the sea will be divided,
and we shall go over dry-shod and singing songs of victory beyond.
We cannot shut out the one hundred thousand Chinamen now here,
nor prevent others coming. We cannot go back to the old Chinese
policy of exclusiveness, neither can we permit them to remain as
a foreign element, unsubdued by our institutions or our religion.
Only one thing remains, and that is to subdue them by the power of
the living Saviour brought to them by patient, loving, faithful
Christian hearts and bands. Brethren all, _shall this be done_?
6. And last of all, I mention the moving forward of Christian
thought and Christian feeling in this direction.
When the plan was devised to exclude the Chinese, and the President
vetoed the bill, the Christian public upon the Atlantic coast waked
up to the importance of the matter. They opposed his action, they
began to look at this immigration in its true light, to see in it
a grand opportunity, and to lay their plans to avail themselves of
its advantages for the cause of Christ. The greatness of the work
is touching the imagination; its difficulty is awaking a spirit
of heroism, and it is believed by many that we stand upon the
threshold of one of the grandest missionary movements, one of the
grandest crusades that the world has ever seen. Asia, that once
responded to the call from the West, “Come over and help us,” is
now herself uttering the cry, and the Christian world will not long
be insensible to her voice.
In view of the importance of this work in California among the
Chinese, involving the interests of that great nation beyond the
Pacific, involving the good name of Church and Redeemer, involving
as we believe the perpetuity of our institutions: in view of the
encouragements afforded in God’s word, endorsed by His providences,
by the excellent elements found in the Chinese character, and
by the trophies already gathered; in view of the very necessity
that is laid upon us, and the quickened attention of the churches
toward that people, what is your answer, Christian brethren,
to the practical questions: “Can the Chinese of California be
conquered for Christ? Can the waters of that wide-spreading river
flow to them here, and beyond to the continent of Asia, and shall
they do it? Can the work be done? Will you do it?” These are the
questions for this time, made solemn as the closing hour of your
deliberations, councilings, and prayers.
I look along the ages, and all is changed. We no longer sit here
in the darkness, the dust, and the noise of the conflict, but stand
upon the Heavenly heights above. The world, in alternate shade and
sunshine, rolls at our feet, and its song, the song of salvation,
pulses up to our listening ears. Both the question that is here
asked, “Will you do it?” and the answer, which I see in your looks
you are giving, “By God’s grace we will!” are mingled with the
sounds of the far past, and in their place rises the word, half
song, half benediction, “Glory to God! we have done it.” To those
high seats we are moving; for that good word we are working and
waiting.
RECEIPTS
FOR SEPTEMBER, 1880.
* * * * *
MAINE, $152.54.
Augusta. John Dorr, $15; Deacon Joel Spaulding, $5 $20.00
Bangor. Hammond St. Cong. Ch. 100.00
Hampden. Cong. Ch. 6.86
Hallowell. M. E. W. 0.50 North Bridgton. Cong. Ch.
and Soc. 7.00
Norway. Second Cong. Ch. 18.18
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $894.39.
Acworth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.85
Atkinson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.00
Bristol. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.22
Brookline. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Concord. “A Friend,” 1.00
Derry. First Cong. Sab. Sch., $20, _for
Student Aid, Talladega C._;—First Cong. Ch.
and Soc., $15 35.00
Durham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Fitzwilliam. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 28.50
Gilmanton Iron Works. Cent. Charitable Soc. of
Cong. Ch. 7.50
Goffstown. Mrs. Mary A. Stinson 5.00
Haverhill. Eliza Cross 2.00
Hillsborough Centre. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.00
Keene. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 79.86
Mason. Ladies, _for Wilmington, N. C._ 7.50
Meredith Village. Cong. Ch. to const. MRS.
IRENE SMITH, L. M. 30.00
Merrimack. Cong. Ch. 17.65
Milford. ESTATE of Mrs. Rhoda B. Hutchinson,
by Rev. E. H. Greeley 400.00
Mount Vernon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.24
Nelson. Dea. A. E. W. 1.00
New Boston. Levi Hooper 100.00
Pelham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 32.37
Pittsfield. “A Friend,” 3.00
Reed’s Ferry. Miss H. McM. 0.50
Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 1.75
Swanzey. Miss M. W. 1.00
Thornton’s Ferry. Mrs. E. R. and Mrs. H. N.
E., 50c. ea. 1.00
Warner. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 23.12
Westmoreland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.33
Wilton. Second Cong. Ch. 52.00
VERMONT, $1,844.55.
Burlington. Sarah Parker 2.00
Chester. “A Friend” 15.00
Cornwall. Mrs. C. Ellsworth 2.00
Bridport. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.00
Coventry. Moses C. Pearson 5.00
Danville. Cong. Sab. Sch. 10.00
Dummerston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.06
East St. Johnsbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc.,
$22.50; Mrs. S. L., 25c. 22.75
Enosburgh. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 17.00
Grafton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Jamaica. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Montgomery Centre. Heman Hopkins 3.00
Morrisville. Mrs. Hannah E. Bailey 2.00
North Craftsbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 23.00
Pittsfield. Cong. Ch. 12.00
Ripton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.42
Royalton. A. W. Kenney 10.00
Saint Johnsbury. “Friends of Missions” 1,000.00
Saint Johnsbury. North Cong. Ch. 230.00
Saint Johnsbury Centr. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.25
Sheldon. Cong. Ch. 5.07
Springfield. “A Friend,” $200; Mrs. F. Parks,
$100; Cong;. Ch. and Soc., $28 328.00
West Dover. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Westminster. “A Thank Offering” 1.00
West Salisbury. Mrs. Esther Spencer 5.00
West Wardsborough. Mrs. T. W. 1.00
Woodstock. Hon. Frederick Billings 100.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $3,469.30.
Amherst. Mrs. R. A. Lester 50.00
Amesbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Ayer. Mrs. C. A. Spaulding 50.00
Barre. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $24.07, and Sab.
Sch., $29.54; Evan. Cong. Sab. Sch., $21.26 74.87
Bernardston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.50
Boston. Miss E. P. 0.50
Boston Highlands. Highlands Cong. Ch. and Soc. 76.24
Brimfield. Ladies’ Charitable Soc. Bbl. of C.
and $2 _for freight, for Savannah, Ga._ 2.00
Brocton. Porter Evan. Ch. and Soc. 21.70
Brookfield. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 60.00
Brookline. Harvard Cong. Ch., $84.84; Wm. H.
White, $10 94.84
Cambridge. Geo. F. Wade 25.00
Cambridgeport. Pilgrim Cong. Ch., Mon. Con.
Coll. 8.06
Charlton. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $14; Clarissa
Case, $5 19.00
Chelsea. Anna F. Page, $5; Mrs. A. E. P., 50c. 5.50
Dorchester. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 1,112.94
Douglass. Rev. W. W. Dow 5.00
East Hawley. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.25
East Wareham. M. F. & J. H. Martin 10.00
Enfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 45.00
Georgetown. “A Friend” 10.00
Grantville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 69.29
Great Barrington. A. C. T. 1.00
Greenfield. Jeanette Thompson 5.00
Holland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.00
Holliston. H. B. 1.00
Lancaster. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 46.32
Lexington. Hancock Cong. Ch. 2.59
Malden. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 38.02
Marlborough. Union Cong. Ch. and Soc. 56.00
Medford. Mrs. E. L. Cummings, Bbl. of C. and
$2, _for freight, for Talladega, Ala._ 2.00
Melrose. Orth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 40.31
Middleborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.41
Milford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 38.40
Monson. E. F. Morris 50.00
Newbury. First Cong. Sab. Sch. 10.75
North Andover. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 60.00
North Brookfield. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.
ad’l to const. REV. S. P. WILDER and MRS.
JENNIE WATSON WILDER, L. M’s 50.00
North Chelmsford. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 29.00
North Hadley. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.56
North Reading. Cong. Ch. and Soc., Mon. Con.
Coll. 4.00
Norton. Trin. Ch., by “E. B. W.,” $100; Cong.
Ch. and Soc., $5.50 105.50
Orange. Mrs. E. W. M. 1.00
Petersham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.20
Reading. Bethesda Cong. Ch. and Soc., $151.42
($100 of which _for Student Aid, Atlanta,
Ga._,) Bethesda Cong. Sab. Sch., $25 176.42
Rockland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 75.00
Rockport. Cong. Ch. and Sab. Sch., _for
Student Aid, Talladega C._ 40.00
Salem. Tabernacle Sab. Sch., $20, and Infant
Class, $14, _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 34.00
Sandwich. Mrs. Joseph French 5.00
Sherborn. “A Friend” 3.00
South Hadley Falls. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
South Weymouth. Second Cong. Sab. Sch., Miss
Grover’s Class, _for Student Aid, Atlanta U._ 7.00
Springfield. Mrs. A. C. Hunt 5.00
Sudbury. Ladies Miss. Soc., B. of C. and $2.50
_for freight, Atlanta, Ga._ 2.50
Taunton. Winslow Ch. 29.00
Templeton. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.22
Topsfield. Charles Herrick 20.00
Upton. Miss M. E. C. 1.00
Walpole. Mrs. C. F. M. 1.00
Waltham. R. C. 1.00
Wayland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Worcester. David Whitcomb, $600, G. Henry
Whitcomb, $100 700.00
Worcester. Salem St. Cong. Ch. 6.41
RHODE ISLAND, $45.56.
East Providence. Cong. Ch. 20.56
Providence. Dea. W. S. King, $20, G. H. Dart,
$5, _for Talladega C._ 25.00
CONNECTICUT, $2,414.86.