There is no form of Christian missions within the circuits of the
earth more worthy of being done, and of being done with all possible
alacrity and vigor, than this. The American Missionary Association is
exactly the Society to do it. It is the glory of this Society to
hasten to the rescue of the despised and the exceptional races and
classes in our own land. It has already done grand things toward the
evangelization of the Chinese among us. It has set an example, most
conspicuous in the eyes of all the people, of definitely planning to
make known to this peculiar people the Gospel of Redemption; a Gospel
whose supreme peculiarity it is, that it is fitted to meet the inmost
necessities of all men, of all men alike.
The success in winning the disciples of Confucius to the cross and
the grace of Christ has been signal enough to show how completely
practicable the undertaking is.
If it were not worth while to press our missionary effort among the
Chinese right here in America, it would be absurd to talk of
missionary effort among the Chinese in China. The importance of this
work cannot be measured by its bulk. Nor is it to be estimated by any
census of countable immediate results. It is a kind of work, which,
according as it is done, or left undone; or as it is done with slack
and nerveless hand or with vim and vigor, will test the very
character of our churches; will touch the conscience and well-being
of the nation; and will, without a doubt, have vital and decisive
connection with the future of that most populous empire on the globe.
There is China, with its four hundred million souls, subject to a
single sovereign--a heathen empire. Here is America, Christian
America; the foremost republic among the nations, and soon to be the
leading power among the Governments of the earth. It holds already
the position of moral leadership in the far East. What shall be done
with this leadership? Right here in our midst are some two hundred
thousand representatives of that empire, every one of whom with
hardly an exception hopes some time to return to his native Orient.
What will the Christianity of America do for them?
There is an unmistakable providence of God in the presence, in the
country, at such a time as this, of so many representatives of the
great empire. Such providences are to be reverently heeded. They are
as the banners of the Almighty, meant to lead forth His loyal people
to the gracious conquest of the world. As for ourselves, what are we
disposed to do about it?
This conquest of the world for Christ is not to be achieved by
hap-hazard dashes. There is need of transcendent wisdom in the
strategic methods of the campaign. We have not wisdom enough for this
except as we have the wisdom to note which way the manifest hand of
God is pointing for us. Then is the time for assurance, for
obedience, and for enthusiasm in the fullest meaning of the term.
A few thousand Chinamen are here. The Chinese Empire is open to
us--and more too! To doubt the practicability of the Christianization
of the Chinese would be treason to the Gospel of Christ; would be
blindness to the facts of Christian history, as well as to the
foreshadowings of prophecy.
The success already in this department of the work of the American
Missionary Association has been signal enough to amount to a
demonstration. If suitably reinforced and pushed it might presently
be made vastly greater than it has as yet been.
It is the glory of this Society to do precisely this kind of work.
All its history and traditions, all the confidences and affection of
the people in our churches toward it, favor the most resolute pushing
forward of what has been undertaken.
The reactionary effect of this peculiar form of home-foreign mission
work upon the Christian character and culture of our own people is of
importance; of too much importance for it to be either safe or wise
for us to neglect it. Suppose this work were to be neglected, this
duty ignored, this clear providential summons slighted, what a
mockery it would be of our professed zeal for foreign missions. The
spectacle of what the Society is doing for the Chinese, especially of
what it ought to have the power and the commission given it to do, is
fitted to be peculiarly impressive, as an object lesson, to the
nation. The radical character of a nation comes out in no other way
so distinctively, as in the way it treats its weakest and most
helpless subjects.
A grand part of the good done by the American Missionary Association
has been in its influence, first on the conscience of the churches,
and then, through this, on the moral sense and the moral sentiments
of the nation itself. This has been the case as regards the nation's
treatment of the emancipated negroes. It was this Society which, so
promptly and gloriously, lifted up and bore aloft with something of a
divine intrepidity, God's own banner of human rights and the divine
sympathy. It is this Society which has done more than any other one
agency, to revolutionize and harmonize the national sentiment as
regards the rights of the Indian to civilization and to
Christianization. If now the churches of our country will hasten to
do their duty, as in sight of him who is Father of us all, towards
our Chinese neighbors, it will not be long before the National
Government will wake to its shame and wipe off the deep disgrace of
its recent demagogy and international perfidy.
Moreover, a more complete mistake could not be made than to imagine
that the Imperial Government of China is unobservant, whatever the
seeming invincibility of its pride and exclusiveness. China is
neither blind nor insensible. Japan has awakened; China is wakening.
Its hour is at hand; the dust of ages is stirring. The Chinese wall
is vanishing. The Supreme Government of the four hundred millions of
the Empire is at length getting in touch with the other great and
advancing Powers of the world. And the startling sublime fact of the
new _world sociability_, if we will but see it, is giving tremendous
urgency to every possible means of originating, multiplying,
communicating, and sending on and around from nation to nation, the
forces of the world-redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, therefore,
are most earnestly agreed in the conviction that, not only is the
noble work of missions among the Chinese in our country, now being
done by this Society, of inestimable value, but that it ought by all
means to be greatly and immediately enlarged and re-enforced.
That great missionary, St. Paul, once said--and he may have often
said it--that he gloried in his own infirmities; adding that the
power of Christ might rest on him. This is our glory--if we have any.
Here is this American Missionary Association; and over against it,
face to face, is China. What proportion is there between the two? How
preposterous, one may say, the thought which we are trying to frame
into actual purpose for the regeneration of this enormous part of the
human family? Most true. And yet, along with Paul's thought, how
infinitely inspiring this purpose should be. Just the thing for us to
do is to "build better than we know." It is not our eye, but His,
which sees the end from the beginning. And it is his
providence--sometimes as a pillar of fire, sometimes as a pillar of
cloud--which shows us the way. Then it is for us to follow close up.
When some fifteen years ago, that slender, forlorn-seeming Japanese
lad landed in Boston, with the strange, vague, resistless,
heaven-enkindled longing in his heart; what if there had been no
kindly hand to grasp his own, no heart to discern and respond to his?
How easily might young Neesima have been lost, and the fateful turn
in the destiny of Japan at the moment of its supreme opportunity for
regeneration been vastly, disastrously different! What Chinese
Neesimas to-day God's eye may have under His gracious watch and
merciful leading, we cannot know beforehand; but this is certain,
that we know enough to know that we do well to walk softly all the
day long as seeing things invisible, and that with these thousands of
Chinese among us, walking so noiselessly, so observantly in and out
beneath the very tree of life that grows beside the river of life
clear as crystal, and which proceeds direct from the throne of the
Lamb, there are doubtless God's hidden ones, whose lives, if we will
do our part; shall yet be woven in as shining and mighty threads into
the divine plan wider than any nation, larger than the world, sure
and strong as the word of Him who, at the first, said, "Let there be
light," and there was light.
* * * * *
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.
BY DR. L.C. WARNER, CHAIRMAN.
Your Committee have made a careful examination of the books and
reports of the Treasurer, with special reference to the methods of
keeping the various accounts, the security of the invested funds and
the economy and prudence of the expenditures.
We find the system of bookkeeping as thorough and complete as that of
any business concern. Each item of receipts or expense appears in its
proper place, where it can be found without delay. The different
departments of the work are classified and separated so that a broad
and comprehensive knowledge of the work is always before the officers
and Executive Committee. All payments are made by checks, and each
check requires the signature of two officers of the Association; thus
reducing to a minimum the chances of error or loss in the
disbursement of the funds. At the end of each quarter the
disbursements of the Association are carefully examined by the
Auditors, two responsible business men, who go over and verify the
accounts item by item. The Treasurer and other officers of the
Association are to be especially commended for the thorough and
business-like methods which prevail in the conduct of their business.
The invested funds of the Association amount to $230,375.78, yielding
an income last year of $10,936.46. These funds are chiefly invested
in mortgages in the city and State of New York and in Government
bonds. In view of the forgeries of real estate mortgages recently
discovered in New York City, the mortgages of the Association in New
York and Brooklyn have, at the request of the attorney of the
Association, been personally examined by a member of the Finance
Committee and all found to be valid and correct. An examination of
the schedule of securities held by the Association shows that there
is not a single poor investment among them, or one on which the
interest is in default.
Besides the invested funds the Association owns real estate in
various Southern States and in the Northwest to the value of
$600,274. This is the working plant of the Association. The
buildings, apparatus and fixtures upon this property are protected by
insurance.
The expenditures of the Association during the past year have been
$328,788.43. This is an increase over the expenditure of last year.
The Association commenced the year with a balance of $2,193.80; it
closes the year with a debt of $5,641.20. It has therefore spent
$7,835.01 in excess of its receipts. This debt is to be greatly
regretted, for it should be the policy of the Association to plan its
work in accordance with the funds at its disposal. They are obliged,
however, to make their plans partly on faith, and it is not to be
expected that their faith will always exactly measure the benevolence
of the people.
The increase in expenditure has been entirely in the work done upon
the field; the cost of agencies and administration being less this
year than last. This increase has been mostly in the Southern field,
and has been imperatively demanded by the natural growth of the work.
Very little new work has been undertaken, four new schools only being
added during the year; but the schools already organized have grown
in size and therefore in expense. Eleven hundred and twenty more
pupils are in attendance than one year ago, an increase of over 12
per cent. This has required the employment of twenty additional
teachers.
Friends of the Association have added new buildings at some of the
schools, and these new buildings, greatly needed and greatly
increasing the effectiveness of the schools, also bring increased
expense. The churches and schools of the Association are doing all
they can for their own support. The spirit of self-help is constantly
encouraged among them, but they are too poor to bear any considerable
part of the expense.
The Association must therefore meet one of the three following
alternatives: First, the growth of its work must cease, and the
increasing number of pupils who apply to its schools year by year be
denied admittance; or second, some of the schools which have been
fostered by the Association for years must be abandoned, that funds
may be left to strengthen and develop the remainder; or third, the
churches and Christian givers of America must largely increase their
gifts to this Association to meet its increasing wants.
The work of the Association for the coming year cannot be efficiently
carried on without increased appropriations; $300,000 is the smallest
amount which should be expended in the South, and a much larger
amount could be wisely used. The mountain work among the poor whites
is full of promise, and calls loudly for our aid, and the Association
only waits for the necessary funds to greatly enlarge its efforts in
this field. In addition to the Southern field, the Indian work
requires at least $60,000, and the Chinese work $15,000. This makes
the total amount needed by the Association next year $375,000. This
we believe to be a moderate and conservative estimate.
This great work for the Negro, the Indian and the Chinese has been
laid upon the American Missionary Association, and upon our
denomination, as it has not been laid upon any other society or
denomination in this country. It is our duty, yea, rather, our great
opportunity. Shall we not then meet it as the stewards of God, whose
servants and disciples we are?
* * * * *
MEMORIAL SERVICE.
ADDRESSES IN EULOGY OF THE LATE DR. JAMES POWELL.
An interesting and impressive memorial service was that held in honor
of the loved and venerated Secretary, Dr. James Powell. Tender,
loving, graceful and eloquent eulogies upon his life and character
were pronounced by Rev. Dr. Gilbert, Rev. Dr. Ide, Secretary Strieby
and President Taylor, followed by an earnest prayer by Rev. Addison
P. Foster, Roxbury, Mass.
EULOGY BY REV. DR. GILBERT.
It would be impossible for the officers and friends of this Society
to convene on this occasion and not feel profoundly the absence of
one whose presence for so many years has done so much to fill these
occasions with the spirit of welcome, of lofty animation, joyance,
cheer and renewed courage.
Last Christmas the "sweet chariot" of God "swung low," and our
brother Powell was suddenly taken up from these great services here
to other and larger tasks and joys in the heavens. A life so radiant
and beneficent on earth, what must it be now that it has been
translated, and transfigured into the celestial?
Among the richest inheritances of any people is that of the living
names and ever living influence of its noblest men and women. Even
though they have joined "the choir invisible," they still remain, a
possession and a power for all time. For there are no influences more
real, if any that are stronger, than the silent-working influence of
personal ideas; and whoever it is that helps to ennoble our ideal
conceptions of character, and to make these clearer and more vivid,
does us a vital service for which we may fitly be thankful, both to
God and to them. This American Missionary Association is already rich
in its "inheritance in the saints."
It is no exaggeration to say, although it is very much to say, that
James Powell had come to be the most peculiarly and widely beloved
man in our denomination. That this was so was not owing to any one
quality, but must have been due to a singularly happy combination and
balance of qualities. Every one thought of him as a man having a
genius for popular eloquence. But he had also as truly unique gifts
and graces for personal friendship. Without a particle of cant, he
possessed profound religious faith and devotion. He walked with God
and had no gifts which were not consciously devoted to his service.
At the same time he was intensely human. He never affected to be
ethereal. He was a son of man, a child of nature. And he touched life
at many points. His sympathy was immensely more than mere pity. He
was instinctively, as well as religiously generous. Open hearted,
open minded, genuine to the core, quick, sensitive, responsive,
impulsive, enthusiastic; whatever he did, he did with a will and
noble zest. Happy in a certain "divine sense of victory and success,"
he also delighted keenly in the successes of others; and there was
that about him which made every one wish him to succeed, expect him
to succeed, and apt to tell him so when he had done well. And yet he
was, to a singular degree, free from any promptings of personal
vanity. He had pride but was not proud; least of all was he
conceited. He never did poorly; he almost always did brilliantly;
there was not an indolent fibre in his being. He did well because he
exerted himself to do his best. He was happy in the power God gave
him, and accepted joyously the opportunities which others eagerly
offered him for doing the things that were in line with the main
purpose of his life.
He had an exquisitely sure and alert sense of honor. He could not do
a mean thing. He won friends, and never lost any; because all felt
that he was not only so genuine and unselfish, so bright and full of
happy humor, so deep and exuberant in affection, but that he was so
perfectly to be trusted. No one knew better his own rights, or was
less wanting in any courage that might be needed to maintain them. He
was capable of high degrees of indignation, and his life work,
championing the rights of wronged and depressed classes and races,
furnished him with but too many occasions for holy anger. His soul
often burned with intensest indignation. When one night the people in
Quitman, Georgia, burned over their heads the seminary for colored
girls, or when the Georgia Legislature was enacting the infamy of the
Glenn Bill, his heart was hot as any Babylonian furnace, aflame with
indignation, as though touched with the divine wrath, the anger of
love. And yet not for a moment could one detect in him any spark of
bitterness or malice.
But chilled now is that heart of flame; stilled now are the mighty
pulsations of that better than chivalric spirit, which up and down
the land, all over the East and the West, during those fourteen
years, did so much to _educate the churches_, and to remind the
country of the "kindness and love of God our Saviour, which hath
appeared toward man," and which ought with all possible celerity to
be manifested by men, by men of all races and of all classes, toward
one another, and to promote which this American Missionary
Association finds supremely its reason to be.
The Society has had, has, and will have, other men in its service of
splendid personal characteristics and having peculiar fitness for the
signally providential parts assigned them in this great work, which
ought to fire the heart of every Christian in the land. One we have,
thank God, still among us, equally loved and revered, who has long
stood at the front in this mighty and benignant enterprise--may the
day be slow in coming when his great heart shall be missed from these
yearly councils! And still we may be sure that the resources neither
of our humanity nor of the grace of God are in any danger of being
exhausted.
James Powell's Welsh blood was in his favor. His American boyhood and
training helped fit him for what was to come. That whispered word of
a Christian lady to a young man whose conversion, in turn, led to the
conversion of young Powell, proved to be a word of destiny. And his
experience abroad with the Jubilee Singers, in whose tones was voiced
the pathos of three silent centuries, had, also, not a little to do
in fitting him for the work God had in store for him.
It is, therefore, easy to see how fortunate this society was in
having such a man for its personal representative; and, how fortunate
the churches also were in having the most characteristic spirit and
motive and aim of the cause he stood for so fittingly impersonated.
That fond mother of the famous English missionary who is reported to
have said, that "as for her son, the race of God could find but
little to do in him," did not speak for James Powell. God had given
him splendid gifts to begin with, but it was the grace of God in him
that first saved him from making shipwreck of those gifts, and then
taught him how to use them so exhaustively in his service.
This Society represents above all things an educational enterprise.
It has many schools, chartered and unchartered, throughout the South
and West. We can never admire too much this far-reaching educational
undertaking. But, the Society is itself, in certain most fundamental
respects, the very "head-master" in the school of the churches, in
the school of the nation. And how beautifully, how superbly, how
effectively did this brother of ours shine and burn among the
churches of our land, as one commissioned of heaven to help teach us
the reality of meaning there is in this word of our Lord, how he
said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me."
His memory we shall all, and always, affectionately cherish. For the
service which he rendered to the cause which we also love, we will be
devoutly thankful. If we have gotten any good from the life which he
lived before us, we can show it by the growing warmth and
completeness of our own enlistment in the same cause. Cries Mrs.
Browning at Cowper's grave:
O Poets, from a maniac's tongue was poured the deathless singing;
O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging;
O men, this man in brotherhood your weary paths beguiling
Groaned inly while he taught you peace and died while ye were
smiling.
But not in _that_ way was Powell the teacher of hope and of peace and
of joy to us. He showed the way of the cross and all the morning
light of hope, because he himself had found it! And how lustrous and
mighty and winning did his own way of life serve to make all this way
appear to be.
O face, all radiant with light of love;
O eyes, so laughing in their tenderness.
So quick to read the language of distress;
O lips, so touched with flame as from above--
We have seen that sweet vision, and all the way before us shall be
the clearer, and we the stronger, because of it. And the sweet memory
of our brother shall remain to us.
Like some clear large star, which pilgrims,
At their back leave, and see not always;
Yet wheresoever they list, may turn,
And with its glories gild their faces still!
For himself, he has ascended to the mountains of myrrh and the hill
of frankincense, and has seen the day break and the shadows flee
away. But, brothers, let us cherish no such idle notion as though
James Powell had now forgotten, or has ceased to be interested in the
Chinaman, the Indian and the Negro, in America.
EULOGY BY REV. DR. IDE.
If there is any special fitness in inviting me to speak on this
occasion, it lies in the fact that Dr. Powell was an intimate friend
of mine. Outside of the circle of my own home, there was no one with
whom I ever held such close and familiar relationship as with him.
Our acquaintance began in the early days of college life, when our
nation was in the throes of a civil war. We were not members of the
same class, but were brought together quite frequently through the
literary society to which we both belonged. During this period our
relations were simply cordial. Unconsciously the advice of that witty
old divine, Thomas Fuller, was being followed: "Let friendship creep
gently to a height; if it rush to it, it may soon run itself out of
breath."