social and political characteristics. Slavery had no use for a
self-respectful, laboring white man. The badge of manual labor was
a badge of servile degradation. Of two brothers one would chance
to get a little start, own a few slaves and all society would spur
him onward. The other, less fortunate at the start, would slip
away to some mountain hamlet and lead an uneventful, unambitious
life and bring up a large family in utter ignorance. He plodded on
his way, working only as necessity compelled him, instinctively
hating slavery, slave-owners and slaves. Thus slavery rejected not
simply this broken mountainous country, but the large class of
whites which inhabited this region. If the North cares to dignify
physical labor in the South, if it feels the need of a class that
has a natural love for free, republican institutions, if it cares
to have the common-school system take rooting in the soil, if
it desires a class of whites that shall be the wise, consistent
friends of the colored people, perhaps it may find that this large
body of whites rejected by slavery will prove the effective agency
under the divine planning for this purpose. The stone which the
builders rejected may become the head of the corner.
But one or two railroads cross this section. There are few towns
of any importance, and a man who should own $10,000 worth of
property would be the great man for twenty miles around. They are
an agricultural people, each family living on its own little farm
of 50 to 100 acres, the homestead often having been handed down
through two or three generations. The houses range from the painted
and unpainted frame house of four to six rooms to the very common
little log hut of one to two rooms where you will find huddled
together at night a father and mother, and children of every age,
and you yourself if you happen to be their guest. The most that is
needed for family wants, from corn and bacon to tobacco, is raised
by themselves. Often such a family will not see $50 in cash the
year round. Even the old hand looms find a friendly shelter in
those Rip Van Winkle hollows. A man who moved from these regions
to Berea, that he might give his seven children an education, wore
upon his back his carefully preserved wedding suit, the wool for
which he himself had cut from the backs of his father’s sheep, and
which his mother, after spinning, and weaving, and dyeing with
butternut bark, had cut and made for him. A little shovel plough,
a hand-made hoe, and an unkempt mule with a straw collar make up
the agricultural outfit. The schoolhouse is a log hut sometimes
without doors and windows, or even a floor. For religious services,
dependence is placed upon the chance visits of an exhorter who
sometimes cannot read, and is even proud of getting his inspiration
at first hand. There is a section of Eastern Kentucky, 200 miles
one way by 100 the other, that has not a settled minister of any
denomination. Some hesitate about extending the work of this
Association beyond the blacks, but they need have little scruple
here, for this section of the map of our country is black through
illiteracy. More than half of the adult white population native
born, of the same stock and lineage that furnished from the more
favored sections the Clays and Breckenridges, that gave to this
country Abraham Lincoln—more than half of this white population
cannot read or write. Thus, not on the farther side of broad
oceans, or even the distant borders of our land, but right at hand
in the very heart of the best settled and most cultured part of our
country lies this territory, vast in extent, utterly neglected by
all uplifting agencies in the past, peculiarly susceptible to the
awakening influences of the changed social conditions at the South,
where there is an ignorance so dense that when we remember that
they are our brothers and sisters, not by Christian ties simply
but by direct blood and lineage, we must hang our heads in shame.
Surely if the Church at the North is sighing for new worlds to
conquer, what more claim can there possibly be upon its attention
and benevolence?
It is a matter of congratulation that this work can be entered upon
by this Association at once and with vigor, without embarrassment
or exciting in any quarter criticism or suspicion. It is idle for
us to suppose that the social growth of generations enforced by
ignorance, savage heredity and marked physical characteristics,
has wasted away in less than a score of years. More vital than
any political problem or the growth of any special church polity
is the question whether the time can ever come in this country
when the negro in debating his chances and opportunities in life
shall not be made to feel that his color is a drawback to him.
In working out the solution of this problem this Association has
borne a part that is fast challenging the respect of the South
and the admiration of the North. This is a vantage ground that it
is hazardous to yield. The work of this Association is understood
everywhere to mean that nothing less than the utter demolishment
of every barrier in the upward progress of the negro race will
satisfy it. If, therefore, the churches lay upon it this further
work, we feel sure that not only by heritage will it prove true
to these fundamental principles, but that the workers at present
in the South will exercise an Argus-eyed vigilance that nowhere
shall there be a shadow of a suspicion that the spirit of caste has
influenced its action. Without rashness on one hand or neglecting
its opportunities on the other, the churches at the North can
thus safely gratify their present earnest and commendable, though
somewhat tardy, desire to benefit the needy whites of the South by
asking this Association to turn its attention specially to these
mountain whites.
The friends of this Association should also remember that the man
whose name as a missionary has been the longest on your roll, the
Rev. John G. Fee, was born at the base of these Kentucky hills.
You should remember, too, that the men who made an anti-slavery
church and school in a slavery State years before the war were
these mountain whites. This Association nursed its firstborn on
these mountain slopes. As patriots, some of whose sons sleep on
that Southern soil, you should remember that this whole section
was loyal in the battle for a united country unstained by slavery.
West Virginia parted from the parent State under this patriotic
impulse. Some mountain counties in Kentucky sent more men into the
Union army than they had liable to military duty. Surely gratitude
for such help in that struggle is not so dead at the North that it
will not say to this Association: “If you have the opportunity by
churches and schools to repay in part the debt we owe, we will see
that you have the money and the men.”
* * * * *
REPORT ON CHURCH WORK.
Your Committee finds in the report of the Executive Committee for
the past year, proof of healthy and steady growth in the work of
planting churches. The report records the organization of six new
churches, viz., McLeansville, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Birmingham,
Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Fayetteville, Ark.; and Belle Place, La.,
and one new State Association of six churches in Miss.; making the
whole number of churches eighty-nine, and of State Associations
eight. The additions to these churches during the past year have
been six hundred and sixty-seven; the number of scholars gathered
in the church and Mission Sunday-schools has been nine thousand
four hundred and four; the contributions for church work $12,027.21
and for benevolent purposes $1,049.35.
We are glad to find it to be the distinct aim of the Society to
press its work of evangelization to its consummation in Christian
churches, and that while its educational and industrial work must
from the nature of the case be general in its character, the
obligation is recognized to gather up the result, so far and as
fast as opportunity affords, in a more specific and permanent form.
An intelligent Christianity, such as is fostered in the academies,
seminaries and colleges maintained by the Society, demands a
church-polity that gives scope to the developed manhood and retains
it in a process of growth. Our work would be but half done did
we leave those brought under its influence to fall back into old
methods and be lost in the mass of ignorance and superstition.
The Association was debarred from this distinctive work at first,
but when soon after the war, others, who had contributed to the
funds of this Society, seeing the magnitude of the undertaking,
wisely began efforts of their own, the Association was left to
the support of the Congregational churches, it directed its labors
to this end. This distinctive church-planting work began in 1867.
In that year the Society organized three churches. The statistics
of its growth in this direction are summarized thus: In 1867 there
were three churches; in 1870 there were twenty-three; in 1875,
fifty-six; in 1880, seventy-three; in 1883, eighty-nine. The
membership now numbers five thousand nine hundred and seventy-four,
an average of sixty-seven to each church. Every church but two has
a pastor, and eighty of the eighty-nine have their own houses of
worship. These churches give promise of permanency. They have not
sprung from a division or denominational spirit, and are not the
representations of restlessness or the mere desire to try some new
thing. Their roots are laid deep in the Christian education of the
schools, and their organization expresses the need of the growing
intelligence of those who compose them. Churches made of such
material, formed upon the New Testament plan, have thus far been
stable; those first formed are among the strongest.
Nor are these churches isolated and independent. They have
recognized the principle of the fellowship of the churches and have
grouped themselves into eight State Conferences, thus giving to
our polity an example and an acknowledged position in that great
section of our land. It is gratifying to find from the reports that
the methods of this church-government are readily apprehended by
the members of these churches, and that in the order and discipline
of the individual churches and in the management of their councils
and conferences, they are showing capacity for self-control.
This body of churches, so well organized and underlaid by Christian
schools, presents a record of sixteen years’ effort that does no
discredit to the Congregational name.
While anxious for a more rapid growth in the future, and wishing
to extend the good influences which we believe will be felt by the
establishment of such churches, we would commend the wisdom and
prudence that have seized upon strong centers and have avoided the
hasty multiplication of churches for the sake of members. While
urging for the future the utmost watchfulness for opportunity and
the pushing of this branch of the work of the Association, we
express the hope that what is done be well done, that no discredit
may come to the cause of Christ, as represented by the churches of
our polity. It is not number but might that tells in the formation
processes of a people. A single church of genuine substance,
rightly constituted and ordered and working outward, is a germ
around which a whole community will take form. More than numbers,
the inherent vitality of this molds and fashions after the ideas
and principles with which it is charged. It has vitalizing and
organic power in it, and kindling the intelligence and awakening
the responsibility of its own members, it leads and sways the
people around it. It may work dimly for a time amid the surrounding
chaos, but presently as the social fabric thus woven is brought to
light, the figure appears and it commends itself as a true church
of Christ.
But the work so well begun ought soon to be greatly enlarged.
The rapid growth of the colored population gives emphasis to
this—a growth that so far outstrips the means of education and
spiritual improvement as to leave a constantly increasing number
of illiterate voters and of degraded people. The benevolent
societies of the North, of every name and order, ought to multiply
their efforts for training the needed teachers—the business and
professional men, the mechanics and the educated and consecrated
ministers. Meantime, as the higher education of some advances,
there will be more and more demand for churches of our order. We
say this not from denominational feeling. We hold no invasive
attitude. We stir no controversy. We aim not at division, but
believing that the apostolic method of gathering churches is the
true one, that in its fluent and free adaptation, its simplicity
of form and order, in its investing Christ as the immediate Head
of each local church, in its putting the individual members upon
responsibility, and thus setting them to the study of God’s Word
for authority and the dependence upon the Divine Spirit for
guidance—that in this free and fraternal way of ordering the
churches there is a molding power for good beyond others, and
remembering its working and product elsewhere, we desire such fruit
of it all abroad.
That Providence which always surpasses our thought in preparing
its agencies has given us for this work this Association with
its schools and machinery, its knowledge of the needs of the
section where its greatest efforts have been put forth. Started
with no expectation of founding churches, it yet has nothing in
its constitution limiting it to one kind of effort nor to any one
class or race. Its schools are open to all. Its churches are simply
Christian churches. It goes to teach and preach and to elevate the
masses. That is what is needed—no distinction of caste or class,
and in the organization of churches the recognition of a regenerate
membership on the principle that mankind are of one blood and on
the fellowship of all Christians.
While practically its work has been mainly among the freedmen,
and while it may continue for some time to find itself limited to
them, theoretically its work is for all, and it should hold fast to
that principle. It should never form some churches for black men
and other churches for white men; but always Christian churches
for Christian men and women. We should deprecate any line drawn
in the Christian church based on difference in wealth, in social
position, in education, in color, in sex, in previous condition.
The only line to be drawn there is between those who give good
evidence of renewed hearts and those who do not. We recognize this
as the principle governing this Association, and therefore commend
it as the adequate agency for the evangelizing work of our churches
in the South. May it be abundantly sustained by the prayers and
sympathies and means of our churches at the North, and may it soon
find an open door through the ignorance and the prejudice by which
it is surrounded and be free to work among all classes at the South.
And looking at the work already commenced among the freedmen, what
a goodly field is opened before us! What a beneficent influence we
can exert, not only on the seven millions in our own land, who are
part of our body politic, but upon a whole race counted by its many
millions in different parts of the world! What stores of prophetic
power are lodged in every true church we establish! We have but the
merest hint and initial sign in the little bands now gathered of
the possibilities lying before us!
We commend this work to the churches at the North, and plead that
these older churches cherish a lively and effective interest in
all this outgrowth of themselves. There is danger that there may
be abatement of interest in this direction, and that the fostering
hand and special sympathy these weak churches, now that they are
churches, need in their struggles, be withheld. That distinctive
feature of Congregationalism which marks it off from sheer
independency needs to be emphasized. There are claims of community
in faith and order that should be gladly owned, and perfect
understanding and interchange should be cherished between all parts
of this fellowship of saints, mutual confidence and the gracious
tenderness of a love deeper than any kinship of race should cement
us in one.
By our liberal things we shall stand. We have sent men and women
and means with large generosity, that inquired not whether
they served our own denomination or another, if only Christ’s
cause be promoted. The work already done is a fair movement to
self-forgetful charity. We should now make our beneficence more
and more the channel of grace and fellowship to brethren whom we
have made brethren. If we do indeed hold this church polity on such
terms of intelligence as to make it fit to hold it at all, if it be
no fault of the awakened ones at the South that they hold it, then
what has been so good and fruitful here we should make strong and
fruitful there. And if this Association has come in its legitimate
growth to the establishment of self-governed churches, accept them
as our own. Our seal is on them from the first. The time is ripe
for larger advance, and for more confidence in our own work.
It is with gratitude we acknowledge the liberal plan with which
this Association is now supplementing its evangelizing and teaching
work with the timely and necessary work of church erection. It is
part of the same work. Nearly fourscore neat and serviceable church
edifices have already arisen under its auspices. No better work
and none looking more to permanent results has been done. Many a
missionary and pastor has found his work at once enlarged and all
his means of good multiplied, when the house of God has been given
him by its aid. And every such edifice stands forth as an eloquent
witness of your loving care for the people of the South, and serves
as a bond of union between the distant parts of our land.
The same divine ordinance that opened this field to us, prescribes
our work in it. Now that our mission reveals itself, shall we
not accept it thankfully, impress ourselves purposely on this
vast field, and let the poor of all classes feel the strength of
Christian community and fellowship—for we are one?
LEWELLYN PRATT,
Chairman.
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF REV. T. P. PRUDDEN.
Assuming that the church work of the Association was not for
sectarian propagandism, but for saving men from sin and its
consequences, he proceeded:
Is it not evident, first of all, that the Church of Christ is
_the_ great and divinely ordained instrument for establishing the
Kingdom of God? Schools are undoubtedly instruments. But their
place is to supplement, not supplant, the Church. In that long line
of Christian work which, beginning at Jerusalem, has well-nigh
encircled the world, has not the Church of Christ been the chief
machinery through which the good seed of the Gospel has been sown
and the crop harvested, through which Christ’s servants have done
his work, through which a goodly influence has been exerted,
and through which Christian institutions have been founded and
preserved? We are seeking the civilization of a down-trodden race,
but what force was ever such a civilizer as the Christian Church?
Church work is necessary if we are to retain and conserve the
results of school work. Let secular education train a man, and he
becomes more polished and better equipped for life and work. He
has greater power, but it may be a power for sin and selfishness,
as truly as for God and righteousness. Let Christian education
work upon him as it does in the schools of this Association, he
is still more polished, he has a spiritual life. Not when in
school, but when the school is left, is the Church most necessary.
The influence of the college cannot be about a man in his home,
the influence of the Church can. The help of a teacher is
transient, the help of a pastor and the associations of a church
are permanent. To expect these to retain the best fruits of that
Christian education which this Association is so widely diffusing,
unless churches take up, and carry on what the schools have begun,
is to expect more of the colored race, with its inheritance of
degradation, and slavery and little training, than we expect of the
white race with its inheritance of Christianity and freedom, and
abundant training.
Closely allied to this is the need of church work to withstand
the evils that are incident to awakened thought and increased
knowledge. The air is laden with a sentiment of irreligion.
Educating a freedman is breaking up the hard sod of ignorance
in which such seeds of evil fall without taking root, providing
instead a soil that is very receptive.
As our educational work is, and must be, destructive of the
religion of the old slave days, it becomes more emphatically our
duty to provide a positive and intelligent religion to take the
place of that which we destroy. Not to do so is to bring a possible
curse along with our good. Moreover, churches must furnish zealous
men and woman, whom education may prepare to do the Lord’s work. It
is not enough to rely upon the possibility of conversion while the
students are in college. The Church has an earlier and a broader
opportunity. It forms the homes and the influences that form the
children. A vast proportion of the pastors and missionaries of
the North have gone to college as Christians, instead of becoming
Christians when there. They have come from Christian homes. They
were sent by Christian parents whose love for God and man was
planted and trained in Christ’s Church.
And, brethren, need I remind you that we are sowing for a slowly
maturing harvest.
The special work for the colored race to do in this country and in
Africa is appalling, by reason of its vastness. And when we ask how
it shall be done, I affirm that the churches of Christ in the South
are to be great instruments. Successful foreign missions require
vigorous home missions. Do you smile at the idea of these feeble
churches ever furnishing financial support? One of them is reported
this year as giving $90 to this Association, $70 to the American
Board, $77 to home missions, while it spent $687 for itself.
The time of defense and apology for church work is passed. It is no
longer an experiment. The night of doubt and preparation has gone.
The morning of small things when, waiting for more abundant light,
we moved with commendable slowness, has opened and glided on into
the broad full day. Now we can do what we never could before.
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FINANCE.
Your Committee on Finance beg leave to report that they have
carefully examined the books of account and the various annual
statements of the Treasurer, and that as statements of the business
done by the Association they find them all in the most satisfactory
condition. The books are kept by a simple but comprehensive system
of double entry, by which a double-system of checks against error
is provided, and individual and representative accounts are
each kept in proper form. The annual statements of receipts and
expenditures, of investments, of permanent funds and of real estate
held by the Association are all properly certified to as correct by
the Auditors. The committee commend the financial administration of
the Association for its economy and faithfulness.
The permanent funds held in trust by the Association, the income
of which is used according to the direction of the donors, amounts
to $203,863.60. These funds are invested mostly in U.S. government
bonds and in first mortgages on productive real estate, which are
an ample security for the amounts which they represent. The entire
safety of these investments speaks well for the financial officers
of the Association, and the wisely conservative regulations of the
by-laws of the Executive Committee regarding investments warrants
the fullest confidence in the continued security of funds committed
to their care.
The permanent investment of the Association in lands and buildings
for church and educational purposes in the South, of which it holds
undisputed titles in its own name, is inventoried at $483,370.
Berea College, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and
Fisk and Atlanta Universities hold their own property by their
own boards of trustees. The estimated present value of all these
properties amounts to at least one million of dollars.
Here are a million dollars worth of tools and machinery, all in
good running order, exactly adapted to the business in hand and
located at the best possible points for doing it. Does not this
fact appeal mightily to the churches to see to it that this great
investment which they have made be used to the best possible
advantage? He would be a poor business man, who would invest a
million of dollars in a “plant” and then scrimp his business for
lack of current funds. That would be a poor business, which with
that amount of money well invested for its purposes could not
secure the working capital necessary to use it to its full capacity.