{145}
The American Missionary
* * * * *
Vol. XLII. June, 1888. No. 6.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
FINANCIAL
A NOBLE WORD FROM THE OHIO CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION
FACTS AND FIGURES
THE COLOR-LINE QUESTION: WHAT IS IT?
PARAGRAPHS
FROM ADDRESS OF REV. E.T. FLEMING OF GEORGIA
A STRIKING STATEMENT
MISAPPLIED BENEFACTIONS
IN MEMORIAM
THE RADICAL FORCES OF CHRISTIANITY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE WORK
OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. By Rev. J.W. Cooper,
D.D.
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE
THE ALABAMA ASSOCIATION
TEMPERANCE WORK IN OUR SCHOOLS
THE INDIANS.
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN CHIEF IN DAKOTA
THE CHINESE.
EVANGELISTIC WORK
CHINESE GRATITUDE
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION OF ALABAMA
LESSON LEAVES
WOMAN'S WORK IN THE SOUTH
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance. Published by the American
Missionary Association.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
{146}
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT,
------ ------
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
_Auditors._
PETER McCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A.S. BARNES,[1]
J.R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
_For Two Years._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE,
_For One Year._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston._
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 _Washington Street, Chicago_.
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON,
_Secretary of Woman's Work._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, 56 _Reade Street, N.Y._
* * * * *
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to
the Editor, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A
payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person
who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
* * * * *
{147}
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
Vol. XLII. May, 1888. No. 5.
* * * * *
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
This Number of the Missionary will reach our friends, the pastors and
the churches, about the first of June, one month before the usual
vacation time sends many of the pastors to their much-needed summer
rest, and when the churches enter upon the months of small
congregations. We wish to remind our friends that the expenditures of
a missionary society have no vacation, and to ask them that in this
remaining month, special efforts be made to prepare us for the months
when there is the usual outflow with only a small stream coming in.
The showing of our receipts is favorable. For the seven months to
April 30th, they aggregate $158,921.20, an increase of $5,082.75 over
last year. The increase in collections and donations is $9,241.84, but
there is a decrease in legacies of $4,159.09, leaving the net increase
as above stated. On the other hand, however, the expenditure that has
been absolutely demanded by our growing work has been $23,778.24 over
the receipts. Our committee has denied many appeals pressed upon it,
from the workers in the field, for needed growth and strengthening;
but some calls have come with such urgency to save the work already in
hand, that it felt constrained to grant the additional appropriations,
and we are very confident that if our constituents had been present,
they, too, would have concurred heartily and unanimously in the votes.
We might reasonably hope that this debtor balance would be wiped out
during the five months of our fiscal year yet before us, but there is
a special reason for anxiety that it should soon be materially
reduced. It is at this time that we are compelled to plan the work,
and make estimates, for the next fiscal year, beginning October 1st.
We are now endeavoring to cut down these estimates to the lowest
possible point, but if, before the close of June, there shall be no
marked reduction of this balance, we shall be obliged to cut still
further, even to the arresting or crippling of work already begun. We
ask our friends to rally to the rescue.
* * * * *
{148}
A NOBLE WORD FROM THE OHIO CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
REPORT ON THE A.M.A. BY REV. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D.
The work of the American Missionary Association appeals to the
churches of Ohio with cumulative urgency. "A.M.A.," as our stalwart
brother Pike used to say, are letters that stand for the darkened
races of this continent--the American, the Mongolian and the African.
To the Christian people of America, these tribes are entrusted; for
their enlightenment and Christianization, we are responsible. The
Government at Washington can do something toward protecting these
people in their political rights; but there is very little, after all,
that can be done for any people which does not know how to assert and
maintain its own rights. Liberty can never be a gratuity, it must
always be an achievement. Peoples, as well as individuals, must work
out their own salvation. The Negro at the South is cheated out of his
political rights, simply because he does not know how to claim them;
the Indian on the plains is defrauded of his property, because he does
not know how to protect himself. No matter how favorable the laws may
be to these hapless people, they will be oppressed and impoverished
and kept in a condition of semi-slavery, unless they know how to use
the laws in their own advantage. Education, therefore, is the only
effectual remedy for their wrongs. To awaken their minds, to arouse
the energies of hope, to show them that they are made in God's image
and that they have a right to all the liberties of the laws of God, is
the only way to complete and secure their emancipation from bondage
and from barbarism.
This is the work to which the American Missionary Association calls us
all. It is our just pride as Congregationalists that through this
Association more has been done for the true enfranchisement of the
freedmen than through any other agency, and it is our duty to see that
this great work, in which we have borne so large and honorable a part,
halt not nor slacken in its energy because of our failure to keep its
treasury replenished and its faithful laborers re-enforced and
supported by our gifts and our prayers.
* * * * *
FACTS AND FIGURES.
The sum total of all the contributions of all the benevolent agencies
for the evangelization and education of the Negro in the South, is
seventeen cents per year for each person.
This seventeen cents includes whatever is done in missionary colleges
and in all educational missions, as well as in the direct church work.
In twenty-one years from 1841 to 1861 there were twenty-one crops of
cotton raised by slave labor, which aggregated 58,441,906 bales.
{149}
In the twenty-one years from 1865 to 1885 there were twenty-one crops
of cotton which aggregated 93,389,031 bales.
That is, by free labor there was an excess over the productions of
slave labor of 34,947,125 bales, or nearly 35,000,000 bales. The value
of 35,000,000 bales of cotton produced by free labor in excess of the
product of slave labor cannot have been less than $2,000,000,000, or
about the full valuation of all the slaves who were made free by the
war, had they been sold at the ruling prices. The gain is due not only
to the emancipation of the blacks, but to the emancipation of the
whites from enforced idleness.
The cotton factories of the world annually require about 12,000,000
bales of cotton, American weight. Good land in Texas produces one bale
to the acre. The world's supply of cotton could be grown on less than
19,000 square miles, or upon an area equal to only seven per cent. of
the area of Texas.
* * * * *
THE COLOR-LINE QUESTION: WHAT IS IT?
1. It is not the question of _social_ equality. No one doubts the
right of individuals, or the family, or the social circle, to draw
their lines of association and fellowship at their own pleasure,
whether at wealth, rank, fashion, talent, or anything else. To
confound this with the real question, is not candid.
2. Still less is it the question of the inter-marriage of the races.
Here, individual preference is undeniable. To claim that this is the
question, and to ask tauntingly: "Do you want your daughter to marry a
_nigger_?" is ungentlemanly and unworthy of an answer.
3. The question is: Shall a line be drawn between the white and black
races, giving rights and privileges in Church and State to the one
race, which are denied to the other, solely because of race or color?
In other words: Shall a line be drawn which shall separate the
Negroes, and assign them as a race to the position of inferiors
irrespective of merit or character, and merely on the ground of race
or color?
To narrow the discussion, we leave out of view the civil or political
aspect of the question and confine ourselves to the religious, and we
propose to give a few illustrations. A Negro in every way qualified,
in character, piety, and intelligence, applies for membership in a
white church. Shall the color-line be drawn and he be refused
admission for no other reason than that he is a Negro? This does not
imply that the whites and blacks should be urged or persuaded to unite
in all churches or in any church. It may be conceded that the blacks
generally do not desire to unite with white churches, and that, in
their present state of culture, it may not always be for their
edification to do so. But where an individual Negro _does_ believe
that it would be for his edification and growth in grace to belong to
a white church, shall the color that God stamped on him, or the race
in which God gave him his birth, be a sufficient reason {150} for
refusing him? The question and the principle apply equally if the
Negro should be given to understand that while he would not actually
be refused admission, yet the preference of the church would be that
he should not apply; nay, we do not see why the principle is not the
same if the well-known attitude of the church on the race question
should be such that the Christian self-respect of the Negro would not
allow him to make the application.
Again, shall colored churches, conferences or presbyteries be formed
on the same territory _in order that_ the colored members may not
unite with the white churches, conferences or presbyteries? Shall a
line be run between the races on the simple ground of race or color,
and irrespective of character, convenience or choice, so that the
Negro as a church member shall not be allowed to choose the church he
shall join, or as a minister the option as to his conference or
presbytery? For one race to demand such a line of separation, is to
consign the other race to a position of inferiority as humiliating as
it is discouraging. Such is the demand of race prejudice, and such the
position of inferiority in which it insists on placing the Negro.
Slavery held the Negro there, and since emancipation, this
race-separation is intended to accomplish the same purpose. The
Southern white man makes no objection to the race or color of the
Negro, but only to his position as an equal. He was not merely
tolerated, he was more than tolerated, as a slave, and he is now as a
servant.
The present controversy in regard to the color-line is calling forth
some frank admissions from intelligent white men at the South. Thus
the Rev. Wm. H. Campbell, an Episcopal clergyman of South Carolina,
vindicates his refusal to sit in Convention with the Negroes by the
inferiority which the Almighty has stamped upon them. Mr. Campbell
says:
"The Bishop does not understand or appreciate the reasons why some
of us cannot, under any circumstances, sit in Convention with
Negroes. The objections commonly made need not here be referred to.
The difficulty with some of us is not 'on account of color,' as it
is usually, but not with strict accuracy, put; for some Negroes are
as white as some white men, but because they are of an inferior
race, so made by the Almighty and never intended by him to be put
on an equality with the white race, in either Church or State."
The question at issue is not one of expediency, but of principle; and,
among Christians, whether in the individual church or the
ecclesiastical body, it is a question of Christian duty to be settled
by the Divine authority of the Master himself. We propose no argument
on the subject, but content ourselves by quoting a few well-known
passages of Scripture, which, though familiar, have lost neither their
significancy nor their authority. In the end, the voice of God must be
decisive.
"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all
the face of the earth."
"God hath showed me that I should call no man common or unclean."
{151}
"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in
every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is
accepted with Him."
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ."
"Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto one of the least of these, my
brethren, ye have not done it unto me."
* * * * *
Secretary Roy, in the _Advance_, controverts the statement of the
_Herald and Presbyter_, that the Congregationalists have come to
consent to separate ecclesiastical bodies on the ground of color. Dr.
Roy supposes that this conclusion may have been jumped at because of
the formation of a new Congregational Association in Georgia, which is
an outcome from the Congregational Methodist churches there. The
_Interior_, evidently with gladness, makes the same assertion. The
_Christian Union_ replies to this, saying, "We do not think this is
true; _but, if it is, so much the worse for the Congregationalists!_"
We may say with Dr. Roy, that nothing is more certain than that in the
New Empire that is growing before our eyes, the Congregational
churches of this century will not turn towards the dark ages, and will
not put themselves to shame by refusing to fellowship with the
disciples of Christ on the ground of caste. Such a proposition would
have the scorn of our National Council.
The Christianity of our churches will not fall behind the humanity of
Victor Hugo, who said, "I have had in my hand the gloved and white
palm of the upper class and the heavy black hand of the lower class,
and have recognized that both are the hands of man."
The Congregational churches may not be quoted as countenancing this
great wickedness against God and man.
* * * * *
FROM ADDRESS OF REV. E.T. FLEMING OF GEORGIA, IN THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE
OF NEW YORK.
"I suppose it will be necessary to tell you that I am a Negro, that I
was born a slave. We are struggling against difficulties. We meet with
a great deal of opposition. A case comes to mind which shows something
of this opposition. I went out into what we call the Bottom District.
The church there was dirty. I went to work and got a sufficient amount
of money to buy a barrel of lime. It took me a week to get enough
money to buy a barrel of lime. Another brother and myself got the
barrel of lime there on a wheel-barrow. We whitewashed the church
inside and out, and finished the job about half-past eleven o'clock.
It was too late to return to the city, and we agreed to sleep in the
church. The next morning, I was surprised to hear a great noise on the
outside, and opening the door, looked out and saw a lean, lank, white
woman. She was calling to her daughter, "Louisa, Louisa, come here."
Her daughter {152} came to her mother and said, "My ---- ----, they
have painted the nigger church white. We must put a stop to that."
They said we would have to move the church, on the ground that they
were not going to stand anything of that kind. These are the things
that meet us in opposition there. I was myself refused admittance to a
Gospel Tent where a distinguished evangelist from the North was
preaching."
* * * * *
A STRIKING STATEMENT.
In one of the hotels in Columbia, South Carolina, among the
collections of an excellent library, is a book which bears the seal of
the State of South Carolina, giving much statistical information as to
the geological character of the State, its agricultural resources, its
mineral products and the peculiarities of its population. From its
pages, the following extract is taken, which is reproduced here for
its suggestiveness. It seems incredible, and yet the authority is
wholly Southern and has the imprint of the State. It is as follows:
"No effort adequate to even an approximate determination
statistically of the intermixture of the White and Negro races has
as yet been undertaken. Mr. Patterson, quoted in an authoritative
work upon '_The Resources and Population of South Carolina_,' and
published by the _State Board of Agriculture_ in 1883, as one who
has given much attention to the subject, says, even now there are
no longer Negroes. One-third has a large infusion of white blood,
another third has less, but still some, and of the other third it
would be difficult to find an assured specimen of pure African
blood. This, continues the report, is a startling statement; but in
the absence of statistics, whoever puts it to the test among his
Negro acquaintance will be surprised at the degree in which it
conforms to the facts. If the lineage of those Negroes whose color
and features seem most unmistakably to mark them as of purely
African descent, be traced, indubitable evidence may often be
obtained of white parentage more or less remote."
* * * * *
MISAPPLIED BENEFACTIONS.
The judicious placing of benefaction is a large part of the good of
it. Is it wisely located? Will it be permanent? Will it be
reproductive? Will it be in the hands of persons suitably responsible
for the administration of it? Will it be under a fitting supervision?
The cause appeals to sympathy; does it also carry the mark of good
judgment? For lack of this double endorsement, not a little of
generous giving is thrown away. It is a fine piece of romance; does it
proffer a sufficient security upon the proffered investment of the
Lord's money?
A worthy Christian woman brings the scheme. It is laid upon the
mountains of East Tennessee, thrust up into notoriety by the writing
of Charles Egbert Craddock. A lady of faith and hope and energy, {153}
proposes to build up an industrial farm-school of high quality for the
neglected girls of that mountain district. She has already been
teaching a common-school among them. She comes up to a city of New
England. She lays her plan before some of the noble women there. They
take it up without further inquiry as to the feasibility of the
undertaking. With their first contributions an old worn-out farm is
bought in the lady's name, and in the cheap farm-house a small school
is opened. The location is in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, three or
four miles from the little, old, tumble-down county seat. Now a fine
building is to be secured. The lady patrons raise their offerings up
to six thousand dollars. Fine architectural plans are devised at the
North. Meantime, speculators on the ground, who for a few cents an
acre have bought up a great quantity of land adjoining and would be
glad to sell it at a dollar an acre, have donated a hundred acres,
more or less, to the school. On this tract the building is located and
goes forward. The frame is put up and pretty much enclosed. For want
of money the enterprise comes to a stand, and now for these four years
the stranded structure has been taking damage from the storms.
The place has been visited repeatedly by the superintendents of the
A.M.A., to find the state of the case and to see if anything could be
done to utilize the partial plant. The pastor of the lady donors
became interested to save the investment through the A.M.A., or to
stop the pouring of more funds into the venture, but after all his
correspondence and personal conference, he found that, if the whole
property were to be offered to the Association, it could not afford to
accept it and undertake to carry forward the school. It already has a
prosperous academy in that county and another in an adjoining county,
and these, wisely located in congenial communities, are all that is
needed for those and for contiguous counties. There is no way to
utilize it, Alas, "Wherefore this waste?"
An Orphanage for colored children is a tempting charity. The A.M.A
early undertook such work. At Wilmington, N.C., and at Atlanta, Ga.,
it bought lands and erected ample buildings, but the experiment
satisfied the authorities that the Association was not called to that
department of work. The children's god-fathers and god-mothers, in
devotion to their covenant, or grand-parents from personal interest,
would soon be taking them out, and others having care of them would
call them out as soon as, by some growth and training, the scholars
were made profitable for work, and so those properties were sold and
the avails put into the ordinary educational process. Then the
conclusion was reached that this was the obligation of the local
communities, and _not of foreign charity_. According to this idea, an
Orphanage in a Southern city, undertaken not by the patronage or
approval of the A.M.A., though made to appear so because the
originator had been under its commission there as a missionary, has
been transferred to a local board and to the support of the city {154}
and county. That is as it should be. Those local authorities ought to
take care of their own orphans, and not appeal to the charity of the
North to relieve them of their proper burdens of humanity.
Another so-called Orphanage at still another Southern city, started as
an individual venture. It was allowed for a short time to have a
conditional endorsement from the A.M.A., which was soon withdrawn and
the enterprise disowned. This has swallowed up thousands of dollars of
the money of benevolence, and yet it has all the time been a sham and
a falsehood. There was nothing of it. When a lady newspaper
correspondent called to visit the institution, ten or a dozen children
from a neighboring private school were borrowed and paraded as
orphans, when at the time there were only two little children in the
concern, and they had grandparents living near and abundantly able to
take care of them. "Wherefore this waste?"
In yet another Southern city, a couple of young ladies start a school.
Having once been under commission of the A.M.A., in connection with
its institutions, they appear to many to have its endorsement and they
make appeal to its constituents. Money comes along for a work
irresponsibly begun and without supervision. Only a year goes by
before they appeal by their leaflet-paper for several thousand dollars
to buy land and build a home and school property. Who but they shall
hold and own the property? Whose shall it be when they marry or grow
weary of the work and leave? What protection is there for such
misplaced benefaction?
By no means would the Association seek to interfere with donations to
individuals where the donors investigate for themselves and assume the
responsibility, but it is not fair that we should be held as
apparently responsible for movements that we disown, and it is not
fair to our constituents that we should allow them to remain under the
impression that in giving to irresponsible projects, they are favoring
such as are endorsed by us.
Thirty-five years ago the Congregational Union was initiated in the
Albany Convention on purpose to protect Eastern friends from the
miscellaneous and irresponsible and persistent solicitation for
individual church enterprise. It is the business of that Society to
receive, inspect and decide upon all such applications. Take it away
and the flood gates would be lifted again. No less in the cause of
missionary education is such discretionary service needed.
* * * * *
THE NEGRO QUESTION.
This is the title of a recent brochure by George W. Cable, published
by the American Missionary Association. With the most vigorous and
courageous devotion to the question that "is the gravest in American
affairs," Mr. Cable addresses himself to the problem and to the answer
that should be made to it. His apprehension of injustice is so keen
and true, {155} and his seriousness, in view of the weariness and
offence that the whole subject gives to a great majority of the
people, is so urgent, that the paper has been criticized as
pessimistic, and as an impatient cry against evils that are speedily
being rectified. We may say that the optimistic view of evils never
did much to correct them, and that those who are patient with wrongs
will never create a sentiment against them. To us, this seems the
voice of a prophet pleading for righteousness to man and righteousness
in the land.
* * * * *
OUR WHOLE COUNTRY.
Among the recent issues of the press, none has been more effective and
deservedly popular than the pamphlet entitled, "OUR COUNTRY," written
by our esteemed friend, Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. It has aroused public
attention in a remarkable degree, and has opened the way for a career
of most promising usefulness to the author.
Our only regret in reading these stirring pages, has arisen from the
fact, that in its survey it leaves almost entirely out of account
nearly one third part of our country, namely, the South, a part, too,
that contains as many elements of future trouble to the nation, and
elements, too, that if properly dealt with, can minister as largely to
the nation's future prosperity, as any other portion. Our object in
penning this item is to suggest that some man of equal diligence in
collecting facts, and of equal skill in handling them, shall write a
book entitled, "Our _Whole_ Country," that shall omit no part of it.
* * * * *
A SAMPLE OF SOUTHERN CHURCH WORK.
The Rev. G.W. McClellan, a graduate of Fisk University and recently a
student at Hartford Theological Seminary, has formed a "_Boys'
Christian Association_" in connection with his church work in
Louisville. The boys meet on Friday evenings for literary exercises,
and the following are some of the questions debated this winter.
1. _Resolved_, That Washington was a greater general than Grant.
2. _Resolved_, That capital punishment ought to be abolished.
3. _Resolved_, That strikes are right and necessary.
4. _Resolved_, That boys, as a rule, after graduation from the High
School, should go to College.
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM EXAMINATION PAPERS.
Question. _What was the Dred Scott decision?_
Answer. "The Dred Scott decision declared that slave owners could
carry their slaves into any territory except their own."
{156}
Another Answer. "Dred Scott decision was, that protected tariff should
be kept out of the territories."
Question. _What are ocean currents?_
Answer. "The Ocean currant is a celebrated meal-storm on the coast of
Norway."
* * * * *
A STRAW.
A few days since, there was an examination of candidates for positions
as teachers in the New Orleans public schools. Four of our Straight
University girls presented themselves, three graduates and one an
undergraduate, and all passed the examination, receiving respectively
94, 93, 92 and 87 per cent., and three were at once given good
positions.
* * * * *
IN MEMORIAM.
Another good man has gone to his reward. Rev. Geo. J. Tillotson, who
has perpetuated his name in the Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas,
died March 29th, at his home in Wethersfield, Conn. His useful life
was spent in that State. He was born in Farmington, Feb. 5, 1805, was
graduated at Yale in 1825, studied theology in the Yale Seminary one
year and at Andover for two years, completing his theological studies
in 1830. He had several long pastorates, which he filled with great
fidelity and success. From 1876 he was not employed as a pastor, but
devoted himself with great assiduity to various modes of promoting the
Redeemer's kingdom. He had practised economy and had the means to
give, and this he did with a discriminating, and yet a liberal, hand.
To the founding of the Tillotson Institute, he gave not only from his
own resources, but devoted his time and energies to collecting funds
from his friends. But his benefactions were not confined to one
object; he had a broad sympathy for every good cause. He was a man of
genial temperament, and closed his useful career after a short illness
in the 84th year of his age.
* * * * *
THE RADICAL FORCES OF CHRISTIANITY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE WORK OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
BY REV. J.W. COOPER, D.D.
The work of Christ is the work of Christianity. By the "radical forces
of Christianity," we mean the simple spirit of the Master, in its
original and energetic operation. We are dealing with no abstractions,
neither are we considering the operation of human agencies. What
Christ was in his earthly ministry, that Christianity is, because of
His living presence {157} in the church to-day. Wherever we discover
the working of those principles which were exemplified in his life,
there He is present in living power, the inspirer of the endeavor, and
the strength of it. The claim that the work of the American Missionary
Association makes upon our attention, may be presented in a variety of
forms. Its work is commended to us, for example, because it is
patriotic, that is, it makes its appeal to our self-interest. The
instinct of self-preservation demands that we sustain it. Four and a
half millions of Negroes in our Southern States are utterly
illiterate. Half that number of Southern whites are in the same
deplorable condition. These men are citizens. They hold the ballot.
Our free institutions are not safe in such hands as these. Education
is an absolute necessity. This wide-spreading and dense ignorance,
among masses of free American people, must be speedily overcome. We do
not wonder, therefore, that Andrew D. White in his scholarly address,
"The Message of the 19th Century to the 20th," puts the education of
the South first among the many great and pressing problems that claim
the attention of statesmen. It is a matter of self-interest and
self-preservation.
This work commends itself, also, because of its justice. It appeals as
a duty, to every enlightened conscience. The ignorance of the Negro,
and the degradation of the Indian, are more our fault than theirs. We
owe it to them, as a matter of simple justice, that we now make
reparation, as best we can, for the wrong done to them in the past. If
we, as a nation, have helped push them down, we ought to help lift
them up. It is a burden which stern justice lays upon us.
But I turn from all such impressive arguments as these, to find
another and altogether different motive to this work, one which the
statesman may consider of little worth, the appeal of which mere
conscience may not feel, but, which to the Christian heart must ever
be more powerful and persuasive than all other motives that can be
named. This work commends itself to us, because it is a Christly work.
The spirit of the Master is in it. The radical forces of Christianity
are exemplified by it. This Society may stand forth before the world
to-day, and without any sacrifice of humility or reverence, opening
the book and finding the place where it is written, it may say, in
concert with the Master himself, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he
hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord that He might be glorified."
And here is its strongest claim upon our sympathy and support.
That this representation is not an exaggerated one, and that the claim
is in no way over-stated, we shall see more clearly as the comparison
is followed out in detail. The work which this Association has in hand
will {158} bear the test of analysis. It is not only a Christian work,
it is a work which, from the beginning, has called into exercise the
fundamental principles of Christianity. It exemplifies Christianity in
its most original and essential features.
I.--A RADICAL FAITH.
As I look into this work, the first thing that impresses me is the
faith that inspired it. It was a most sublime undertaking. It began,
so far as relates to its present fields of labor, with the millions of
freedmen just emancipated from two and a half centuries of bondage.
What this bondage signified, this present generation will find it
difficult to realize. For years it had been a crime to teach them the
alphabet. They had been bought and sold like cattle. Their lives were
a daily school in sensual immorality, deceit and dishonesty. Every
manly aspiration, and womanly feeling, was smothered at its birth.
They had come from savagery to slavery, and in a day, without training
or preparation, they were set free. It is no wonder that they were
ignorant, indolent, degraded and despised. As one of their own number
says, "We came into bondage naked and destitute of worldly goods, we
went out of it penniless, homeless and almost characterless." Now it
was this mass of degraded humanity that this Association set itself to
elevate and Christianize, and it did it with a calm assurance and
serene hope which no obstacle has as yet been able to disturb. The
road has been a long and hard one, but it did not anticipate an easy
time or miraculous success. It has met with new and perhaps unexpected
difficulties. It may be that all the workers would say what the
President of Talladega writes in a recent letter, "The magnitude of
the obstacles are more and more real to me as I live and work." But
they still live and they still work, never doubting the final result.
If you want to find men who have undying faith in the future of the
black race, go to those who, in the spirit of their Master, are
toiling night and day, under the commission of this Society, for its
elevation.
In the same spirit, also, this Association has welcomed new labors and
entered into new fields. When Chinamen were to be Christianized,
immediately it had great faith for the Chinese. When the Indian
missions were laid upon it, then it saw wonderful possibilities in the
red man. And now, last of all, when some million or two of
long-forgotten and neglected "Mountain Whites" are brought to its
attention, it sees in these abjectly poor, dispirited and
superstitious people, only another opportunity for elevating humanity,
and proving the power of Christianity to restore the lost manhood of
every race.
These servants of God are not engaged in a forlorn hope. They have
faith. Wherever they work there they expect results, not only in the
saving of individual souls, but in regenerating whole races of men. A
Christian woman, missionary to the poor whites among the mountains of
East {159} Tennessee, under the inspiration of her great faith, writes
home to her friends, "We can almost hear the bells ring in unreared
steeples, and hear the songs from choirs that are as yet totally
oblivious to the spirit of melody, and enter into the heart-worship of
the prayer meetings that are to be when shall have been fulfilled the
prophecy, that 'to the people which sat in darkness and the shadow of
death, light is sprung up'." Such buoyant, hopeful faith as this, so
clear and beautiful in its confidence in the promises of God, is one
of the "radical forces" which command, while they inspire, this holy
work.
II.--A RADICAL LOVE.
But what may be called the special characteristic of this Society
among missionary organizations doing work in our own land, that which
establishes its special claim upon hearts of Christian people, is the
radical spirit of love there is in it. It exemplifies in a most
practical way, the brotherhood of man. It repudiates caste. It is
absolutely color-blind. It works for the despised. It helps those who
are themselves the most helpless. This is no newly-discovered fact. I
remember the first sermon I ever heard in behalf of this work, more
than twenty years ago; it was drawn from the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. The text was, "Who is my neighbor?" The address of the
honored late President of this Association at the close of the last
Annual Meeting which he attended, was in the trend of this very same
Scripture. "This organization," he said, "is the Good Samaritan,
loving to bestow its aid upon the poorest and most despised, the most
severely wounded races of our country." The sermon, a score of years
ago, told us that our neighbor was the Negro, just then made free. So
said President Washburn, "If you can point out to this organization
any race that needs its assistance, whether colored or white, there is
the legitimate field of this Association."
It would seem that a law so emphatically taught by Jesus Christ as the
common brotherhood of man, and so familiar to the world, would long
ago have been accepted and adopted in the practice of Christian
nations, especially by a Christian Republic within its own borders.
But, instead of that, it is the hardest of all laws for us to learn
and the most difficult of all to put in operation. Our policy toward
the general colored races in this land has been one of cold-hearted
and cruel selfishness. As ex-Senator Brace has said, speaking in
behalf of his own people, "From the red race was taken their lands,
from the yellow their labor, from the black their persons. The red
race was gradually driven toward a setting sun; the yellow race, the
rabble demanded to be driven from the country; the black man was a
slave in chains, with no rights which the Constitution recognized."
These unjust prejudices are by no means altogether a thing of the
past. They are not as violent as they once were, thanks to the
influence {160} of this Association, but they still exist. "Niggers,"
are still ordered out of Southern churches. Many a professed Christian
still wants his Indian "dead." This work has all along been compelled
to fight its way against suspicion, bigotry and hatred; it must do so
still, because it recognizes man as man, whether his skin be white or
black, red or yellow; and, in taking this radical ground, it is
interpreting to the world the benevolent spirit of the Saviour, and is
preparing the way for that universal reign of love on earth which He
came to establish. Such a work as this is the salvation of our
Christianity. Without it, one of the chief evidences for Christianity
would be taken away, and the spirit of it would die. Standing before a
congregation of white men, Negroes and Indians, with a Chinamen or two
to make the tale complete, President Mark Hopkins last May dedicated
the new chapel at Hampton to the worship of Almighty God. He voiced
the sentiment of this whole Association when he said, "Here will be
taught and promoted a Christianity as narrow in its creed as revealed
truth, and as broad in its love as humanity!" "A creed as narrow as
revealed truth." Yes! we want no inspirations from outside the sacred
book. "A love as broad as humanity." By all means, yes! for no smaller
measure will satisfy the demands of that book or fulfil the will of
the Master.
III.--A RADICAL CONSECRATION.
Another principle required in this work and exemplified by it, is a
thorough-going consecration. The men and women who have taken up this
work, have followed Christ in his self-abnegation. There is no worldly
honor in it. It is not an easy life. You know well enough how these
devoted missionaries have braved social ostracism, and shut themselves
in to their lowly ministry. With the Christly "sympathy of
identification," they have made themselves one with their despised
brethren, bearing their burdens, sharing their privations, stooping to
meet their needs. What almost infinite patience it has sometimes
required, what forbearance and charity, we cannot know, but they have
served willingly and cheerfully, and found the sacrifice to be a joy.
And there are many of them, in school and church and home, in our
Southern land and in the Western wilds, who are serving there in a
spirit of self-abnegation and patient sacrifice, and whom God will
honor. These faithful workers are not martyrs; but there is something
heroic in their lives. It is the heroism of those who lay upon
themselves the lowliest duties, and perform them in the spirit of the
loftiest devotion. The work that calls forth such consecration as
this, so disinterested and sincere, bears its own letter of
commendation. The spirit of Him, who "came to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many," is exemplified by it.
IV.--A RADICAL METHOD.
There is one thing more that I would mention. It is the radical {161}
method which this Association has adopted in doing its work. It has
never been satisfied with surface culture. It strikes down to the
roots of character. Not "quantity," but "quality," is manifestly its
motto. As an illustration of intelligent thoroughness in Christian
service, therefore, this Association commends itself to our regard.
A decided advance was marked in missionary work when the church came
to see that not only the conversion of the heathen, but their
establishment in Christian character, was a legitimate object of
missionary endeavor. Francis Xavier in ten years visited fifty
kingdoms and baptized a million converts, but the ten years' labor of
some of our modern missionaries, spent in laying solid foundations and
thoroughly training a few chosen men, may, after all, come to more in
its permanent results upon the world, than all that was done by Rome's
great apostle. Jesus gave the best part of his three years of public
ministry to the training of twelve men. He might have baptised a
million. He preferred to do thorough work with a few. This Association
has acted upon this principle. It has sought to develop manhood and
womanhood after the pattern and by the power that is in Jesus Christ.
It calls to its aid every possible force. It educates the mind, the
heart, the conscience, the hand. It uses the church, the school, the
workshop and the Christian home. Character-building is its vocation,
the foundation Jesus Christ, the superstructure such as should stand
the test of fire. These oppressed races need above all things else
leaders from among themselves. It has been the endeavor of this
Society to furnish them--men and women of such moral and mental
quality as shall be fitted for the responsible position. They have
been taught to think, to work and to live. Because labor is a moral
force in establishing character, industrial education is introduced.
Nothing is too great to be attempted, nothing too trivial to be
omitted, the object always being the substantial development of moral
and Christian character.
Such is this mission. It has gone forth in the spirit of Christ, with
faith and love and consecration, seeking to do an honest work with
thoroughness. God's blessing has been upon it. It has results to show
in the renovated and ennobled lives of thousands who have been the
subjects of its ministry; and its broader influence in the elevation
of the oppressed and despised races, begins even now to be clearly
apparent. It has been a faithful monitor to the churches which have
sustained it, an inspirer of their benevolence, an almoner of their
gifts, and an honor to their name. And beyond all this, standing for
those principles which are most essential and fundamental in
Christianity, it has glorified God by exhibiting to the world the
power of Christian faith and sacrifice. Those who have been bound of
Satan, lo, these many years, are loosed from their bonds and made free
in Christ. War has struck off the chains of human bondage. Love shall
now complete the emancipation.
* * * * *
{162}
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
"NOTES IN THE SADDLE."
BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.
The following, which was taken from the public records of a _white_
school in Tennessee, illustrates the intellectual condition of a
portion of the white citizens of that and the other Southern States.
It also shows what kind of men have charge of public instruction in
some districts throughout the South.
"TENN July --, 188-.
"Rulus for scoul No 4.
Teacher will not low the scoulars to scouful or clime or swhisparn
in time of Books; the Teacher can ad eney rulus to this he thinks
needud and eney Larg secular can not comer ounder rulus will have
to quit the scoul."
These "rulus," as the word is spelled, were signed by two members of
the School Board by whom they were written. How strange, that in
localities in which there is such frightful illiteracy the school
authorities should fail to welcome, with large-hearted cordiality,
teachers who come among them. The white people, as well as the
colored, need missionary schools, as the illiteracy among them is
appalling.
Think of it! Seven-tenths of one per cent. of the native white
population of Massachusetts are illiterate, while twenty-three per
cent. of the native white population of Georgia, and thirty-one per
cent. of the same population of North Carolina are illiterate!! Why
should not Georgia be proud of her educated (?) citizens, and do all
she dare to drive some of the best teachers there are in the State
outside her borders?
* * * * *
Right in this connection it would be interesting to read the following
letter. A brief word of history, however, is necessary that it may be
understood. In 1878, a young man, a graduate of one of the leading New
England colleges, enlisted in the great army of A.M.A. teachers. He
was a quiet, unassuming, Christian student. The amazing ignorance of
the Southern people, both white and black, awoke his pity; and his
love, for his Saviour, and for his country, led him to give himself to
this most needy field. He was embarrassed and badgered by those who
ought to have welcomed him, and helped him in his work. This mean and
unworthy opposition with which our A.M.A. teachers are so familiar,
culminated in his case, in a series of letters in which his _life_ was
threatened. It was just before the election of President Cleveland.
There was evidently, a well-matured plan to drive him out of the
community, and to intimidate the Negroes so that they would not dare
to vote. The following was one of these letters:
{163}
"Mr ---- deer Sir It is for your own good That I write This letter
to you you are an advocate for Social Equality with the white and
the Black race and the People are not going to Put up with any Such
doings and I write you this letter to warn you of The danger and
the great danger That you are in You must leve The country right
away for The People have Pledged Them Seves to get you out of the
contry or Kill you and That in a mity Short time Now as a frend I
do beg you to give this matter your emmediate attention I am very
truly your well wisher meaning Exactly wat I Say"
I saw all these letters, and received this one from the hand of this
Christian hero. He said to me:--"I went to bed a good many nights
thinking that quite possibly I should be dragged out of my bed, and
beaten or hanged before morning." Notwithstanding this, he wrote on
the outside of the envelope the following words, and passed them
around among those whom he knew to be conspirators against him: