[Illustration: DECEMBER, 1883.
VOL. XXXVII.
NO. 12.
The American Missionary]
CONTENTS
* * * * *
PAGE.
PARAGRAPHS 353
PROCEEDINGS AT ANNUAL MEETING 354
TREASURER’S REPORT 356
ABSTRACT OF THE GENERAL SURVEY 357
SAVINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING 359
ADDRESS OF REV. J. E. RANKIN, D.D. 360
MISSIONARY LITERATURE, BY REV. GEO. M. BOYNTON 362
REPORT ON CHINESE WORK 366
ADDRESS OF REV. WM. A. BARTLETT, D.D. 367
REPORT ON INDIAN WORK 370
ADDRESS OF REV. DR. ANDERSON 371
ADDRESS OF REV. J. C. PRICE 373
CASTE IN AMERICA, BY SECRETARY STRIEBY 376
REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL WORK 382
ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT S. C. BARTLETT 383
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AT THE SOUTH, BY REV. DR. GLADDEN 385
ADDRESS OF PROF. C. G. FAIRCHILD 391
REPORT ON CHURCH WORK 393
ADDRESS OF REV. T. P. PRUDDEN 396
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FINANCE 397
ADDRESS OF REV. D. O. MEARS, D.D. 398
ADDRESS OF REV. W. M. TAYLOR, D.D. 401
ADDRESS OF REV. DR. DENNEN 404
ADDRESS OF PROF. BARBOUR 406
RECEIPTS 408
CONSTITUTION 412
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y.,
as second-class matter.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
REV. C. L. GOODELL, D.D.; REV. F. A. NOBLE, D.D.;
REV. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D.; REV. J. E. RANKIN, D.D.;
REV. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.—REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D.,
_56 Reade Street, N.Y._
TREASURER.—H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
AUDITORS.—WM. A. NASH, W. H. ROGERS.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman; A. P. FOSTER, Secretary; LYMAN ABBOTT,
A. S. BARNES, J. R. DANFORTH, CLINTON B. FISK, S. B. HALLIDAY,
EDWARD HAWES, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES A. HULL, SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD, S. H. VIRGIN, WM. H. WARD, J. L. WITHROW.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _Boston_.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D.D., _New York_.
Rev. JAMES POWELL, _Chicago_.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to
the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting
fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of
the “American Missionary.” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New
York Office; letters for the Bureau of Woman’s Work, to Miss D. E.
Emerson, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
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 112 West 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.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Count Rumford.]
HORSFORD’S
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(LIQUID.)
FOR DYSPEPSIA, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL
EXHAUSTION, NERVOUSNESS,
DIMINISHED VITALITY, URINARY
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PREPARED ACCORDING TO THE DIRECTION OF
Prof. E. N. Horsford, of Cambridge, Mass.
There seems to be no difference of opinion in high medical
authority of the value of phosphoric acid, and no preparation has
ever been offered to the public which seems to so happily meet the
general want as this.
It is not nauseous, but agreeable to the taste.
No danger can attend its use.
Its action will harmonize with such stimulants as are necessary to
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It makes a delicious drink with water and sugar only.
Prices reasonable. Pamphlet giving further particulars mailed free
on application.
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RUMFORD CHEMICAL WORKS,
Providence, R.I.,
AND FOR SALE BY ALL DRUGGISTS.
* * * * *
MANHATTAN
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DESCRIPTION—One of the oldest, strongest, best.
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RISKS carefully selected.
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GENERAL AGENTS AND CANVASSERS WANTED in desirable territory, to
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Address
H. STOKES, President.
H. Y. WEMPLE, Sec’y. J. L. HALSEY, 1st V.-P.
S. N. STEBBINS, Act’y. H. B. STOKES, 2d V.-P.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXVII. DECEMBER, 1883. No. 12.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
We send this number of the MISSIONARY to some who do not receive
it regularly, hoping they will find it of such interest, and the
work it represents of so much concern, that they will be induced to
become regular subscribers. The price is 50 cents.
* * * * *
_Fifty Gold Dollars._—One of the newly-elected members of our
Executive Committee has placed in our treasury fifty gold dollars,
given to him to be used in charity, at his discretion, by a friend
in New Haven, who adopted this method of commemorating his fiftieth
birthday. The example is a good one, and we hope there are scores
of others who will follow it without necessarily waiting until they
are fifty before doing so.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
The Annual Meeting of this Association, held in Brooklyn, will be
remembered as one of special interest for several reasons: (1.)
The work done during the year was unusually encouraging; and the
reports of the committees on the several parts were discriminating
and full. (2.) The financial exhibit, showing once more a surplus
of receipts over expenditure, with, however, a falling off in
the income from the living, was examined with candor and with
warm recommendations for more liberal gifts. (3.) A topic of much
interest to the Association and to an honored sister missionary
society was considered at length in several papers, which we
present to our readers in full, without, however, intending to
hold the Association responsible for the individual views therein
expressed.
The great number of the reports, papers and addresses compels us
to select and abridge, reserving some for publication in future
numbers of the MISSIONARY or in the Annual Report. Papers relating
to work for women will appear in the January number of the
MISSIONARY, and the Sermon, as usual, will be found in the Annual
Report.
* * * * *
ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association was held in the commodious Central Congregational
Church, Brooklyn, N.Y., beginning Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 3 P.M. In
the absence of the President, detained by illness, Rev. J. E.
Rankin, D.D., one of the Vice-Presidents, presided. Rev. C. P.
Osborne was appointed Scribe, and Revs. F. E. Snow and G. P. Lane
Assistant Scribes. Committees were appointed as follows:
_On Nominations._ Rev. G. R. W. Scott, D.D., Rev. Wm. A. Robinson,
Hon. David N. Camp, Rev. E. O. Bartlett and Rev. P. B. Davis.
_Business._ Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., Rev. W. W. Scudder, D.D.,
Rev. Frank Ayer, Rev. E. B. Palmer, H. H. Ricker, Esq.
_Arrangements._ A. S. Barnes, Esq., Chas. A. Hull, Esq., Rev. G. D.
Pike, D.D., Wm. G. Hoople, Esq., Richard M. Montgomery, Esq., G.
Johnson, Jr., Esq. and Rev. S. B. Halliday.
_Indian Missions._ Rev. Joseph Anderson, D.D., Rev. C. C. Painter,
Gen. S. C. Armstrong, Rev. Cushing Eells, D.D., and Mr. Wm. H.
McKinney.
_Chinese Missions._ Rev. Wm. Alvin Bartlett, D.D., Rev. Geo. M.
Boynton, Rev. Evarts Scudder, Rev. S. L. Blake, D.D., and Rev. Geo.
S. Smith.
_Educational Work._ President S. C. Bartlett, D.D., Rev. Washington
Gladden, D.D., Rev. C. G. Fairchild, Rev. G. L. Ewell, Rev. E. W.
Bacon.
_Church Work._ Prof. Llewellyn Pratt, Rev. T. P. Prudden, Rev. C.
L. Woodworth, D.D., Rev. Isaac Hall, Rev. G. F. Gleason.
_Finance._ Dea. Eliezur Porter, Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D., Rev.
D. O. Mears, D.D., Hon. H. D. Smith, Rev. Erastus Blakeslee.
H. W. Hubbard, Esq., Treasurer, read his annual report, which
was referred to the Committee on Finance. Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D.,
presented the report of the Executive Committee, which was referred
to the appropriate committees. Rev. G. M. Boynton read the report
of the Committee on the Constitution, which was referred to a
special committee. A half hour was spent in prayer and song.
Tuesday evening, at 7:30, Rev. Joseph Anderson, D.D., conducted
devotional services, and Rev. J. L. Withrow, D.D., of Boston,
preached the annual sermon, from Luke, 9:24. Rev. A. J. F.
Behrends, D.D., made an address of welcome. The Lord’s Supper was
administered by Rev. Samuel Scoville and Rev. W. S. Palmer, D.D.
Wednesday morning, Rev. R. B. Howard conducted a half-hour
prayer-meeting. At 9 o’clock Dr. Rankin took the chair and read
an address on “The Gospel of Christ our only Solvent for Race
Difficulties.” A committee to confer with the Conference Committee
of the Am. Home Miss. Society selected at Saratoga, was appointed
as follows: President, S. C. Bartlett, D.D.; Rev. J. L. Withrow,
D.D., Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., Rev. D. O. Mears, D.D., and
Rev. Wm. H. Ward, D.D.
Rev. D. K. Flickinger, D.D., Secretary of the Board of the United
Brethren in Christ, gave an account of the Mendi Mission.
Rev. A. H. Bradford read a paper on “Woman in Modern Charity
and Missions.” Rev. G. M. Boynton read a paper on “The Place of
Missionary Literature in the Conversion of the World.”
Prof. Albert Salisbury, of Atlanta, Ga., read a paper entitled:
“For What are We Sent?” Rev. A. A. Myers, of Williamsburg, Ky.,
read a paper on the “Mountain White Work.”
Five-minute speeches were made by Rev. Isaac H. Hall, of New
Orleans, La.; Rev. Geo. S. Smith, of Raleigh, N.C., and Rev.
Alfred Connet, of McLeansville, N.C.
Wednesday afternoon, Rev. W. H. Ward, D.D., made a report on a
visit to the Dakota mission. The report of the Committee on Indian
Missions was read by Rev. Joseph Anderson, D.D., Chairman, and
addresses upon Indian affairs were made by Dr. Anderson, Rev.
Cushing Eells, D.D., Rev. Samuel G. Rankin and Rev. Anson Gleason,
formerly missionary to the Choctaws. The report of the Committee on
Chinese Missions was presented by Rev. Wm. Alvin Bartlett, D.D.,
Chairman, who also made an address.
On motion of Rev. S. Wolcott, D.D., Resolved, That we place
on record our thorough disapproval, as an Association, of the
exclusive and prohibitory legislation of our government relative
to the Chinese. The report of the Committee on the Constitution
was presented by Rev. W. S. Palmer, Chairman, and accepted. After
discussion the Amended Constitution was adopted with no dissenting
vote.
Evening Session.—Devotional Services were conducted by Rev. J. M.
Whiton, Ph. D. Addresses were made by a Chinaman, Ju Sing, from
Oakland, Cal.; by an Indian, Wm. Harrison McKinney, of the Choctaw
Nation, Indian Territory, a recent graduate of Roanoke University;
by a negro, Rev. J. C. Price, of Salisbury, N. C., graduate of
Lincoln University in 1879, and by Secretary James Powell. The
exercises were interspersed with singing by a choir of nine young
Chinamen, resident in Brooklyn and members of the Central Church
Sunday-School.
Thursday Morning.—The half-hour prayer meeting was conducted by
Rev. Geo. S. Smith. At 9 o’clock Dr. Rankin resumed the chair.
Secretary M. E. Strieby read a paper on “Caste in America.”
President S. C. Bartlett read the report of the Committee on
Educational Work and made an address on that subject. A committee
to consider Secretary Strieby’s paper on “Caste in America”
was appointed, consisting of Deacon Samuel Holmes, General E.
Whittlesey, Rev. S. Wolcott, D.D., Rev. G. M. Boynton, Rev. D.
L. Furber, D.D. Rev. Washington Gladden, D.D., made an address
on “Illiteracy in the South.” Rev. Edward W. Bacon, Rev. C.
G. Fairchild, and Rev. John L. Ewell, made addresses upon the
different phases of educational work at the South. Brief remarks
were also made by Rev. A. P. Foster and Rev. R. B. Howard.
Thursday Afternoon.—After devotional services, Professor Llewellyn
Pratt, D.D., read the report of the Committee on Church Work, and
Rev. T. P. Prudden followed with an address. Rev. Erastus Blakeslee
read the report of the Committee on Finance. Dr. Wm. M. Taylor
made an address on “What the Bible Says About Giving.” Rev. D. O.
Mears, D.D., made an address on “The Function and Privilege of
the Churches.” Mrs. A. A. Myers, of Kentucky, read a statement
regarding the mountain people of the South.
The following resolution was passed: “Whereas, the Finance
Committee, after careful examination of the needs of the
Association, have recommended that the contributions of churches,
Sunday-schools and individuals for the coming year be increased
50 per cent, above the amount given by them during the past year,
therefore, Resolved, That we approve this recommendation of the
Finance Committee, and urge contributors everywhere to increase
their contributions accordingly.”
The Committee appointed to consider Secretary Strieby’s paper on
Caste in America made report through the Chairman, Dea. S. Holmes.
Officers for the coming year were elected as printed on second page
of cover.
The following resolution offered by Rev. E. Blakeslee was adopted:
Resolved, That if the Executive Committee now elected have any
question as to their legal status under the Constitution, they
be and hereby are authorized to take legal advice thereon, and,
if competent to do so, to arrange themselves in three classes
according to the terms of the new Constitution.
Thursday Evening.—Rev. A. P. Foster conducted the devotional
services.
Addresses were made by Rev. S. R. Dennen on “Spiritual Life
the Supreme Power in Your Work,” and by Dr. Wm. M. Barbour, on
“Spiritual Vitality the Crowning Necessity in Missionary Work.”
A resolution of thanks offered by Secretary Woodworth was adopted,
and Dr. Behrends responded for the Brooklyn people in fitting
terms, and the meeting was dissolved.
All the sessions were characterized by a hopeful spirit and by deep
spirituality which found frequent expression in the voice of prayer.
* * * * *
SUMMARY OF THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE AMERICAN
MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPT. 30th, 1883.
* * * * *
_RECEIPTS._
From Churches, Sabbath Schools, Missionary
Societies and Individuals $148,389.08
From Estates and Legacies 126,366.73
From Incomes, Sundry Funds 8,512.57
From Tuition and Public Funds 25,191.06
From Rents, Southern Property 848.85
From U.S. Government for Education of Indians 750.00
From Sale of Property 2,500.00
———————————$313,567.29
Balance on hand Sept. 30, 1882 789.83
———————————
$313,357.12
===========
_EXPENDITURES._
_The South._
For Church and Educational Work, Lands,
Buildings, etc. $230,022.15
_The Chinese._
For Superintendent, Teachers, Rent, etc. 11,021.90
_The Indians._
For Church and Educational Work 18,955.44
_Foreign Missions._
For Superintendent, Missionaries, etc., for
Mendi Mission 6,227.43
For John Brown Steamer 3,714.81
For Supplemental Arthington Fund 5,837.40
For Support Aged Missionary in Jamaica 332.50
_Publications._
For American Missionary (22,000 Monthly),
Annual Reports, Clerk Hire, Postage, etc. 6,795.95
_Agencies._
For EASTERN DISTRICT.—District Secretary,
Agent, Clerk Hire, Traveling Expenses,
Printing, Postage, Rent, etc. 5,693.10
For MIDDLE DISTRICT.—District Secretary,
Traveling Expenses, Printing, etc. 3,031.59
For WESTERN DISTRICT.—District Secretary,
Clerk Hire, Special Grant and Traveling
Expenses, etc.
4,074.53
_Administration._
For Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer,
Secretary of Women’s Bureau and Clerk Hire 8,866.50
_Miscellaneous._
For Rent, Care of Rooms, Furniture, Repairs,
Traveling Expenses, Books, Stationery,
Postage, Expressage, Telegrams, etc. 3,572.10
For Wills and Estates 1,987.96
For Annual Meeting 1,334.75
For Annuity Account, balance 986.55
For Expenses of Committee on Constitutional
Amendments 248.75
Amounts refunded, sent to the Treasurer by
mistake 105.39
—————————$312,808.80
Balance on hand Sept. 30, 1883 548.32
———————————
$313,357.12
===========
_Endowment Funds Received_, 1882-1883.
Tuthill King Fund, for Atlanta University $5,000.00
Tuthill King Fund, for Berea College 5,000.00
Theological Department, Howard University 1,100.00
N. M. and A. Stone Theological Scholarship,
for Talladega College 1,000.00
————————— $12,100.00
_Arthington Mission._
Received from Oct. 1, 1882, to Sept. 30, 1883 1,417.53
_Stone Building Fund._
Balance for Atlanta University, Stone Hall, paid 10,918.70
_RECAPITULATION._
Current Fund $312,567.29
Endowment Fund 12,100.00
Arthington Fund 1,417.53
Stone Fund, balance 10,918.70
———————————
$337,003.52
===========
The receipts of Berea College, Hampton N. and A. Institute,
and State appropriation of Georgia to Atlanta University,
are added below, as presenting at one view the contributions
of the same constituency for the general work in which the
Association is engaged:
American Missionary Association $337,003.52
Berea College 11,351.47
Hampton N. and A. Institute (beside amount
through A. M. A.) 118,054.15
Atlanta University 8,000.00
———————————
$474,409.14
===========
H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer,
56 Reade Street, New York.
* * * * *
ABSTRACT OF THE GENERAL SURVEY.
WORK IN AFRICA.
Mendi Mission. The income of the Avery Fund and the “John Brown”
steamer have been transferred for five years to the United
Brethren, who have a mission—Shengay—adjoining Mendi.
The Arthington mission and fund have been offered to the United
Presbyterians, who have a successful mission in Egypt.
INDIAN WORK.
Dakota missions transferred from the American Board to the A. M. A.,
except the six churches of Sisseton Agency, which had been
transferred to the Home Mission Board of Pres. Gen. Assembly.
Leaving out those, we have now, including the mission in Washington
Territory, 5 stations, 9 schools, 5 churches, 12 missionaries, 25
teachers, 1 native pastor, 12 native teachers, 271 church members,
356 pupils, 584 Sunday-school scholars.
WORK AMONG THE CHINESE.
At our recommendation the American Board has opened a mission at
Hong Kong, China, a rally-centre for converted Chinamen returning
to their native land.
In California the last year—Rev. W. C. Pond, Superintendent—19
schools; 2,823 scholars; 40 teachers, of whom 14 are Chinese; 175
have ceased from idolatry; 121 give evidence of conversion; 400
during history of mission have turned to Christ.
WORK AMONG NEGROES.
Work in twelve States of the South, and in Kansas and District of
Columbia; 8 chartered institutions; 12 high and normal schools; 42
common schools; 279 teachers; and 9,640 students. The Theological
Department of Howard University has 34 students; Talladega, 14;
Fisk, 9; and Straight, 13, with 20 students in law.
_New Buildings_: “Whitin Hall,” at New Orleans; “Cassedy Hall,”
at Talladega; Stone Hall at Atlanta finished; Library Building at
Macon, Ga.; schoolhouse at Hillsboro, N.C.; at Memphis, Le Moyne
Institute enlarged.
_Industrial Work_: Farms at Talladega and Tougaloo and Atlanta;
shops at Memphis, Tougaloo, Macon, Charleston; cooking, nursing,
sewing, taught at Atlanta, Fisk, Tougaloo; house-work in all the
eight boarding schools.
_Church Work_: Six new churches—At McLean’s, N.C.; Knoxville,
Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Fayetteville, Ark.; Belle
Place, La.
The six new churches of last year are all doing well. Total number
churches, 89; members, 5,974, an average of 67; additions, 667; on
profession, 528; Sunday-school scholars, 9,406; raised for church
purposes, $12,027.21; benevolent contributions, $1,049.35.
Six new church edifices built at Pekin, Oaks and McLean’s, in N.C.;
at Knoxville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Mobile, Ala. and Belle Place,
La.; Brick Church at Lawrence, Kan., rebuilt.
MOUNTAIN WHITE WORK.
Besides original churches and schools in Kentucky, a new church and
academy at Williamsburg, Ky. Other missions coming on around this
place. The academy has had 108 scholars, who have paid as tuition
$303—not one failing to pay. Work encouraging. Color question
tested and carried in accordance with the principles of A. M. A.
WOMAN’S BUREAU.
From September, 1861, on to the present time women have been
prominent workers. By 1864, 169 women workers; in 1865, 261; in
1866, 264; in 1870, 450; in 1869, 2,000 different ladies had
served; and to date not less than 3,000, an army of Gospelers!
Among Indians, 17 lady missionaries. Among Chinese in California,
24 lady missionary teachers.
Miss D. E. Emerson has been appointed as secretary. She is
experienced on the field, and acquainted with the details of office
work, as clerk for the southern field.
* * * * *
WANTS.
1. For current work, $1,000 for every day of the year.
2. Endowments in the several institutions.
3. A Boys’ Hall at Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas.
4. $10,000 to add to Edward Smith’s $10,000 to build the first
hall, at Little Rock, of Edward Smith’s College, for whose campus
(14 acres) he paid $5,500, already greatly enhanced in price. New
hall to be named for second donor.
* * * * *
SAYINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.
—Prof. Albert Salisbury: I do not approve the factory idea of
industrial instruction.
—Dr. Withrow: Selfishness is as sure to destroy what it seeks to
save as a cancer is to kill.
Never in this world was a monument made to memorialize a mere
money-getter.
—Dr. Behrends: The color-line is only a section, and a very small
section at that, of the race-line.
It is not in India alone that the existence of caste constitutes
one of the most serious obstacles to the progress of the Gospel.
—Dr. Rankin: For Southern educational work this Society has put in
millions by the side of the United States Government’s millions.
The Government has given $5,000,000, this Society has given
$5,000,000.
Westminster Abbey opened of its own accord to take the dust of
David Livingstone. Why? Because he stretched himself on Africa, as
the prophet stretched himself on the dead body of the widow’s son.
—Rev. A. H. Bradford: Florence Nightingale robbed war of half its
terrors.
These Women’s Boards of Missions do more than all other means
combined to keep alive the missionary spirit.
The women of our day have reversed the Apostolic injunction and
are reading it, “Help those men.” We need to restore the original
reading, “Help those women.”
—Rev. Isaac Hall: Speaking of the colored people’s futile efforts
to solve the race problem, he said: First we thought we would go
to Africa, but we couldn’t get ships enough: then we thought we
would go to Kansas, but we couldn’t get cars enough; then, since we
couldn’t get away, we decided we would stay; and now what are you
going to do about it?
—Dr. Wm. Alvin Bartlett stigmatized the California law which
forbade a Chinaman to live in an apartment with less than 500 cubic
feet of air, and punished him with imprisonment in a cell with less
than 200 feet of air.
The Chinese are not illiterate, but it is objected that they are
too numerous. Why, there are hardly Chinamen enough in our country
to be schoolmasters of our countrymen who cannot read and write.
But the Chinese worship their ancestors. Well, I would rather
revere my ancestors than leave my children such pernicious doctrine
as the anti-Chinese people teach. It is better to worship your
ancestors than to damn your posterity.
—Ju Sing recognized the fact that all Americans are not hostile
to Chinamen. “We know that there are some God’s people, and some
devil’s people.”
—Nine young Chinamen, residents of Brooklyn and members of the
Central Sunday-School, sang Gospel Hymns. They also sang “Pass me
not, O Gentle Saviour,” done into Chinese, Jim Sing taking the
solo.
—Secretary Powell: Now that slavery has gone, there must go with it
blind-eyed prejudice and anti-Christian caste.
—Rev. J. C. Price, North Carolina: At the close of the war Canaan
was not entered, as a recent decision of the Supreme Court tells
us, but the Red Sea was crossed. Has the Negro grown? Then his
chief object was to be in Gen. Sherman’s army; if not in it in the
wake of it. Now he is looking about for property and education.
The colored people of Georgia alone have acquired a property of
$6,000,000. In North Carolina from twelve to fifteen newspapers are
edited, owned and controlled by colored people.
If God has made the Negro a man, he requires of him all the work of
a man. Then let Christian people do all they can to qualify him for
that work. He quotes the words of the Secretary: “The true solution
of the Negro problem is not to change his color or his place of
residence, but to change his character.”
—Sec. Strieby: This Society is not handicapped for this work except
by its firm and well-known attitude against caste, and any other
Society equally faithful on that subject would soon be equally
handicapped.
—Pres. Bartlett claimed to represent an institution that from
the very first has rejected the color line; a century ago it was
educating the Indians, a half a century the Negro shared its
privileges. Speaking of the Negro’s unquestioned piety he said: “He
sees hell impending, heaven before him and the chariot swings low.”
—Dr. Gladden: No man has a right to engage in the work of governing
who does not know what just government is. I protest against that
kind of government.
From 1870 to 1880 the colored voters at the South increased 30 per
cent.; their illiteracy increased only 20 per cent. The whites
at the South are gaining in intelligence but little, the blacks
splendidly. Most of the gain South is due to the education of the
Negro.
How do you account for this gain? Did you ever hear of Fisk and
Berea and Atlanta? The census tables have heard of them if you have
not.
Any society that is as really and thoroughly Christian as this one
will meet the same objection as this one.
—Dr. Taylor: “Bring an offering and come unto my courts.” In
Scotland, where I was brought up, the first act of worship was to
lay a piece of money on the table.
Sometimes a man assigns a debt so that what is due him is paid to
another. So the Lord Jesus has assigned the debt, and we are to pay
a large part of what we owe to him to the poor and needy; to the
benighted and degraded; to the Indian, the Negro and the heathen
that need the light.
—Dr. Dennen: Speaking of denominational antipathies, he was
reminded of the brass oxen under the brazen laver standing with
their rumps toward each other and their eyes directed away to their
own selfish interests.
* * * * *
THE CROSS OF CHRIST THE ONLY SOLVENT FOR RACE DIFFICULTIES.
Rev. J. E. Rankin, D.D., who presided happily at our annual
meeting, read an interesting opening address, from which we give
the following extracts:
The Cross of Christ proves man’s universal brotherhood. If He is
our brother-man, we are His brother-men.
When last night we took that bread and drank that wine, what did
we do? We symbolized Christ’s human brotherhood. This He did for
humanity’s sake. What taint of Judaism had He? What recognition
did He ever make that He belonged to any single nationality, to
any single tribe, to any single class? Is He brother-man to the
Jew only, because he was born of a Jewish mother? Is He any less
brother-man to the Gentile? When we ate that bread, we ate that
which sets forth, what? God manifest in the flesh. God manifest in
the flesh of humanity. Not because we are Anglo-Saxon, and have
the Anglo-Saxon Bible, the Anglo-Saxon literature, the Anglo-Saxon
civilization, the Anglo-Saxon freedom and manhood, of which we
are so proud, have you and I a claim to this Brother-man? It is
because we are on the same human level with the other races, from
which we so much differ, and above which God has given us such an
exaltation. For such were we. It is because we are brother-men to
Frederick Douglas, and Sitting Bull, and the last Chinaman who has
been smuggled from the Celestial kingdom, because the continent
is too narrow for him and us. It is because we are so low and not
because we are so high, that we had a right to sit there; to eat
that bread, and drink that cup. That broken bread is the emblem,
not of Anglo-Saxon humanity, but of lost, degraded, fallen humanity.
The Cross of Christ interprets man’s universal brotherhood. It
needs to be interpreted. It is the last thing man learns here;
that in Christ Jesus the humblest man is his equal. Ask almost
any man if he wants the elevation of his brother-man; if he wants
his brother-man in India, in China, in Japan, in the South, or on
the Pacific Coast, made his equal, and given a chance to outstrip
him, in the struggle for betterment? And he will usually answer,
“Why yes, of course. Do I not pray for it and contribute for it?”
But, will you sacrifice your prejudices for his sake? He needs
different religious influences, different educational influences,
different social influences, he needs to feel that he is no
longer ostracised, and that he may aspire for himself and his
children, just as you may. Will you adopt him into your religious,
educational, social circles? But, you reply: “That is a society
question.” It is a society question. And you belong to the Kingdom
of God; to the unseen society, which, by the power of His Cross,
this God-Man, who took the form of a servant, is gathering out
of the nations; you have fellowship with Him, in His humiliation
for humanity’s sake. And yet, you propose to decide this question
according to the laws and usages of a society to which you do
not belong, out of which God has called you, and against whose
inhumanity to man, against whose worldly pride the Cross is a
standard lifted up by God himself. You are under the most sacred
of bonds to record your testimony as belonging to quite another
society.
In what sense, after all, are we brothers? Can society answer this
question? Can anything but the Cross of Christ? The Saviour gives
us a picture of what it is to be a true neighbor in the parable
of the Good Samaritan. “Who,” asks He, “was neighbor to him that
fell among thieves?” He that thought it was a society question, a
question of caste; he who came and looked on him, and passed by on
the other side? He that put money into the contribution box for
him, or sent some one else to help him to the hospital? No; only
the man that set him upon his own beast, carried him to an inn, and
took care of him. A man cannot live a neighbor to man if he is not
living a neighbor to God, as he is in Christ Jesus.
Before the war, there was organized a benevolent society, whose
anniversary occurs the present week—a society to preach the Gospel
among the heathen. Its founders said, “We cannot take money that
has been coined from slave labor. It is the price of innocent
blood. It cries up to God for vengeance.”
What is the history of that society? Why, the smoke of our civil
contest had hardly cleared away before it began to build up the
waste places of the South, heaping coals of fire upon the people
there. Under its auspices, the choicest daughters of New England
(as though they had been angels of God) went down there, with the
spelling-book and the Bible; took their share of the ostracism
meted out to the recent bondmen, for Jesus’ sake; many of them
laid down their lives there. There has scarcely been a foreign
missionary field in the world which has had more perils, which
has demanded greater sacrifices, which has developed spirits more
heroic, more Christ-like. The same spirit which led our brave boys
in blue to die to make men free, led their sisters to die to make
them holy. And what do you see to-day? This society has done more
to stay the tide of illiteracy, to lay the foundations of permanent
civil and religious prosperity than all the other agencies put
together. God’s secret is with them that fear Him. The men who, for
Christ’s sake, said, “We cannot set apart to God that which has
come from unpaid human labor; we cannot thus have fellowship with
the works of darkness;” these men God has put into the fore-front
of the great battle with ignorance and degradation—the great battle
in which the South begins to ask the Nation which cannot protect
the black man to come to her assistance, crying out, like Caesar
to Cassius, “Help, Cassius, or we sink!” They got their baptism
at the foot of the Cross. Look at the queenly institutions which
they have planted. Look at the thousands of the sons and daughters
of Ethiopia, whom they have developed into the mental, moral and
spiritual stature of true manhood; whom they have polished after
the similitude of a palace, fitted for professions, for business,
for home life. Look at the churches they have planted. This is
their conception of the brotherhood of man, as they have been
taught it at the Cross, as the Cross has interpreted it to them.
I know no difference of race,
Of African and Saxon;
Of tawny skin, of rose-cheeked face,
Of hair of crisp and flaxen.
The soul within, that is the man,
There is God’s image hidden:
And there He looks, each guest to scan,
The bidden and unbidden.
One God in love broods over all!
One pray’r to Him is taught us;
One name for mercy, when we call;
One ransom, Christ has brought us.
One heart of meekness, lowly mind,
Life’s counter currents breasting;
One Father’s House, we hope to find,
Within God’s bosom resting.
* * * * *
THE PLACE OF MISSIONARY LITERATURE IN THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.
REV. GEO. M. BOYNTON.
The literature of missions has a threefold function in its
relation to the conversion of the world: to inform, to quicken
and to direct. It would be hard to over-estimate the importance
of the history and record of missionary efforts and successes in
their relation to the intelligence of the Christian people of
our land and our day. If we are exhorted to _add to our faith_,
virtue (manly and holy enterprise) _and to virtue, knowledge_, the
exhortation must apply (next to the knowledge of God and of His
word) to the knowledge of the history and progress of His kingdom
in the world.
We do not call him even a fairly intelligent citizen of the United
States who does not know something of the history of his own
country—who does not know the general order of its great questions
and great conflicts. What shall we say of one who claims to have
his citizenship in heaven and yet is willingly ignorant of the
great battle-grounds of Christ’s kingdom of even the near past, and
so knows nothing of the questions which agitate the present day or
the forces of the foes now in the field?
It is no small thing to follow the current history of the world,
as it has been brought so near to us in our day, and yet with what
eagerness the morning paper is looked for in every home of even
ordinary intelligence; and after the half-hour’s search, how often
to the question, “What is there of interest to-day?” the answer
comes, “Oh, nothing.” The journals are full of manufactured news;
political squabbles; stories of scandal and of crime; with now and
then some event which marks a step in the world’s progress of more
than ordinary consequence. It is often said that our missionary
periodicals are not of thrilling interest, but I am willing to
leave it to the testimony of any candid man whether they do not
at least fairly approximate the secular press in interest and
ability, only that men are more eager to know what is going on in
the kingdoms of this world than in the kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. It is the _appetite_ which largely gives its
savor to the food. _When our hearts are all aglow_ with love to the
Master of us all, and we want to know, above all things, that he is
being satisfied with the travail of his soul, _we do not count the
tidings of the advancement of his kingdom dull_. If his interests
are ours, we shall watch them.
One of the great requisites to giving or praying is that men should
know to what their alms are directed and for what their prayers go
up to God. Let the missionary press, then, give us information, and
give it freely. The men and the women who read want to have, not
the impressions of other people reproduced, but the details which
made those impressions. They want the facts, set forth with vivid
exactness, with life-like coloring. It is only now and then one of
our missionaries at the front who seems to comprehend that he must
make us see what he sees, and must remember that his reflections
upon the things that have become familiar to him will not make
us familiar with the facts. If he can stir our imaginations and
make us his attendants during his day’s work, we shall be led to
sympathy and support.
When the Church Missionary Society of London was making its
exploration into Africa the long pages of journal written on the
spot from day to day were the most thrilling pages of current
history that were being written; and many of you have not forgotten
the diary of our own Dr. Ladd of his journey up the Nile. Nothing
should be spared to open the eyes of the givers and the prayers
to what you may call instantaneous views of the workers at their
work. Give us the facts in the best possible shape if you want our
sympathy, our prayers, our money. Until you have done that, you
cannot, if you would, call down on us the condemnation spoken to
him that “_seeth_ his brother have need” and does not help him.
But Christian character needs _inspiration_ as well as information.
It needs not only to know, but to feel; not only to have its eyes
made clear to see, but its heart stimulated to a worthy enthusiasm.
We do not get our _inspiration_ so much from great events as from
great men. Souls are quickened by quickening souls. The contagion
of enthusiasm spreads from life to life. That in the literature of
missions, which will especially kindle missionary enthusiasm is to
be found in the veins of the noble lives of the men and women who
have counted their lives not worth the keeping, for their love for
Christ and for the Kingdom of whom this world was not worthy, and
who, in the world, were least of all men of it.
What other fuel can you find to build a fire of grand enthusiasm
for the Master like the one you have in the biography of missions?
Nowhere away from the sacred record can you find nobler events
of Christian living and devotion. Nowhere are there grander
illustrations of the spirit of Christian heroism. Nowhere more
stirring suggestions of the possible attainments of Christian grace.
Nor do I recall a missionary biography which is morbid and so
misleading—which sets up an introspective and dyspeptic type of
piety as a model and standard. The missionary has no time to be
morbid. He has made a consecration of all his energies to his
Master. His life is led actually and daily by the high purpose
which he has set before him. His biography is not a picture of
still life. He cannot stop to take becoming attitudes, even before
his own eyes. He has no time to write a journal of his supposed
spiritual states. If you take his photograph you must take him in
motion, as nowadays they take a horse upon the race-track, and you
get him with every muscle set and every nerve charged with life.
I know no better books for men or boys, for matrons or maidens,
than such books as these, in which you have such lives embalmed.
Where can you find a manlier life than that of John Coleridge
Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia, his diocese the island of the sea,
inhabited by blacks. The story of his patience and his pluck and
cheerful confidence is enough to dispel the worst type of malarial
saintship—shaky and intermittent. To see him with his senior bishop
approaching a new island, rowing in his small boat as near as was
safe to the breakers, and then the two pioneers of the Gospel
taking a header through the waves and swimming to the land to tell
the Gospel of great joy to the dusky and unclad islanders! There’s
tonic in the very reading. He could be a bishop without robes or
titles. God had sent him to be an overseer of lone regions and lost
souls. Or what could be more tragic than the final scene of his
death by the treacherous arrows of the natives, and the ghastly
tableau of the still young hero of God floating out in the boat
alone toward his waiting friends.
There is a biography yet unwritten of one connected with the work
of this Association which, if it could be spread upon the record,
would equal this in the sincerity of his devotion, in purity of
his motive, in his bearing patiently when nearly all men spoke ill
of him, for Christ’s sake and the Gospel’s, and even friends for a
time began to doubt him, in his readiness to take up the hardest
thing there was to do until the end. You will know of whom I speak
when I tell you that he was equally the friend of the Indian and of
the negro; that he became the target of all the shafts of malice
when he sought to protect the poor Indian from his worse than
savage foes within the capital of the nation and on the western
reservation; that he became the victim of the deadly malaria of the
African coast, where he had gone to reorganize and direct the work
of this Association in the Mendi Mission. I speak of one whom we
all delight to honor and call reverend—the Reverend Edward P. Smith.
And there are others still upon the field, whose names may or may
not be known to any wide fame with men, and women, too, who have
hazarded their lives for the privilege of preaching and of teaching
in the name of Christ. We cannot afford to lose the records of such
positive and aggressive Christianity for their stimulus to the
Christian character of those at home and those whose characters are
forming yet.
Dr. Goodell names as one of the ten ways by which the world is to
be saved, that we keep the home and Sunday-school libraries full
of that most interesting and profitable of all our literature
for the young, the books written by Christ’s soldiers upon the
field of battle. I would emphasize even more than that—the books
written about these heroes of the faith and their lives of earnest
and joyful sacrifice. Who will not acknowledge that we need the
inspiration in our day?
If the Christian world needs for its own sake the information
and the inspiration which can only come from the literature of
missions, the missionary work itself needs equally this means to
make its opportunities known to the Christian world.
That is only in part, if at all, a Christian church which is not a
missionary church as well. The salt which has lost its savor is no
longer salt. It will save deception if you take off the label. It
is “good for nothing,” and is to be cast into the street only to
get rid of it, and not because it is good for a road.
The true Church of Christ is concerned about the progress of his
kingdom, is in earnest sympathy with those who are at the front,
is eager in its outlook for new opportunities of service. To
such a waiting ear—and, brethren, it is waiting—come through the
missionary press the tidings of opportunity, the sound of doors,
long closed, creaking on their hinges as they fling open for the
feet of the delaying messengers of grace. This is the telephone
which summons to instant response. It sounds in the counting-rooms
of our men of business, and invites them to new investments in
behalf of those for whom God goes security, for “he that giveth
to the poor lendeth to the Lord.” It rings its summons in our
Theological Seminaries and among our younger brethren in the
ministry, and calls them to occupy until He comes. It goes into the
offices of the organizations through which the churches reach the
needy east and west, north and south, and says not pull down your
barns, but build greater ones; for, as are the broad farms of the
West to the old New England homesteads, so are the harvests to be
reaped to those which have been already gathered in. It mixes in
our homes, and calls on our sons and daughters to the waiting work.
And neither we at home, nor those in the broad field, can afford to
be left unnoticed or uncalled. They need it that souls may be born
into the kingdom; we need it that we may by pure toil and sacrifice
grow unto the stature and the likeness of our risen Lord.
The Church of Christ will not know more of the advancement of His
kingdom or of its hindrances than it is told. God will not save us
the trouble of the inquiry or the report. The Church of Christ will
have no more enthusiasm in the work than it gets by entering into
sympathy with those who do it, and with Him who died that it might
go on.
And yet, in the light of all this already trite and quite
self-evident truth, you hear it said, even by those who are
concerned in the progress of the work, “What are we going to
do with this increasing mass of missionary literature? We are
quite flooded with it, and especially with these periodicals,
these Missionary Heralds, and Home Missionaries and American
Missionaries. Can’t we make it less? Can’t we combine them and
double the thing up? It bothers us.” Ah, brethren, the wonder is
that we do not cry for more and better. The wonder is not that so
many take the missionary magazines, but so few, and that so few of
those who take them read them.
Brethren, the time will come—if the time comes when men seek first
His kingdom and His righteousness, not last—that Christian men and
women will not want to wait a month to glance over the few pages of
a missionary magazine; but will want to know the latest news of the
advancement of Christ’s Kingdom in the morning before they look to
see the stock-list or the scandal-list of the day before. When the
question of the morning will be what new progress, what new delays,
what new need for the advancing hosts of Christian warriors; and
at night the thought will be, the sun has gone to shine on other
fields and other laborers, and while we sleep this work goes on.
And in those days it shall go on with speed and sureness.
Let our missionary literature then be not lessened in quantity
or deteriorated in quality. Let not our agents think the time is
lost in which they stop to tell us of the work. The growth of
Christ’s people at home is as important as the conquests of His
grace abroad, indeed, the last will be largely proportioned to the
first. Let ingenuity and enterprise be put into these channels of
communication. Let the facts be fresh and full—more fresh and full
than ever. Let them be clothed in choice and skillful diction.
Let us leave the arts which the satanic or the merely mundane
press monopolize to their uses. Let us not grudge the cost. It is
not cost of administration at all. It is not cost of collection,
though it helps that department greatly. It is more than all the
missionary work of each society for the constituency that supports
it. Our churches and our Christians here at home need it for their
own vitalizing and the direction of their awakened energies. If
our fires be not kept up at home the warmth will not be diffused.
These are days of organization. It used to be that if a man had
lost his way in these then dark country roads some one must go out
alone with his hand-lantern to guide him to safe shelter. Now your
streets are full of lamps, and your illuminated signs band them at
every corner. You may take all the care that is possible of the
lamps and burners; it will do no good if you neglect to keep the
fires up where the illuminating gas is made. If the fires go out
there the lights go out in every street and home. Do not let us ask
these organizations to lessen their efforts to inform, to quicken
and to guide our missionary zeal at home, as though it were not an
important part of their legitimate work.
* * * * *
REPORT ON CHINESE WORK.