indications of progress in the work of our Association for the
Chinese. Willing subjects of missionary labor are more numerous
and more accessible. Past years of foundation work, dealing with
Asiatic inertia and colossal prejudice and just resentment under
wrong, are bearing fruit unusual in amount and assured genuineness.
Our faithful missionary superintendent on the Pacific coast
does not abate his courage or enthusiasm. Faithful teachers and
co-workers can be found. The Lord of the vineyard has set his
seal of approbation by granting harvests which, in the light of
difficulties in the field and their promise for the future, are
truly great. That Foreign Missionary Society, spontaneously formed
by Chinese converts, thoroughly equipped and liberally supported in
proportion to their means, and which aims, finally, at nothing less
than the conversion of China’s millions, should silence any and all
cavil or uncertainty as to their motives in embracing Christianity.
Japan, also, hears tidings of Christian sympathy as her wandering
sons are met with helpful counsels and religious enlightenment on
these far western shores—the land of their ideal civilization.
We rejoice that those in charge of the field see their way clear
for “tentative evangelistic work” and have entered upon it. This
betokens firm conviction and resolute purpose that the field shall
be taken for Christ. Difficulties and embarrassments only multiply
their zeal and methods. Like the great missionary to the Gentiles,
these heralds of the gospel look upon “many adversaries” and “an
open door” as equivalents. The statistics of recent progress
emphasize our golden opportunity to reach the “hermit natives”
through their representatives within our borders.
Your committee note with profound regret the serious falling off in
the money appropriations for their work. Native helpers, skilled
and consecrated, are the chief preaching agency of all missionary
fields, and of China preëminently. Ours is the opportunity to
multiply such helpers. California is in the foreground to-day as
never before, not excepting the old mining days. The church should
occupy that field with a zeal and wisdom that shall emulate the
enterprise of railroads and real estate projectors. The church
must not contradict all her traditions and working principles
when Christ’s poor come to her borders by the thousand and under
conditions specially favorable to Christ-like approach. Her own
life will be impoverished by so doing. The priest and Levite
wronged and degraded their own souls by passing on the other side
from the wounded sufferer, as much as the good Samaritan enriched
his by pouring oil into his wounds and sheltering the victim of
robbers.
Your committee hope that measures can be taken to bring the
attention of our beloved churches to this their phenomenal
opportunity and duty—to give the gospel at short range and nominal
cost, to Asia’s millions and support that message with all possible
sympathy and aid.
* * * * *
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.
BY MR. CHAS. A. HULL, CHAIRMAN.
In presenting their report upon the financial condition and
management of the business of the American Missionary Association,
your committee on Finance desire to commend the clear and thorough
manner in which the accounts are kept, so that any needed
information may be had regarding any one of the numerous items of
investment or expense at the numerous places where the work of the
Association is carried on. The schedule of the property owned by
the Association shows it to be possessed of buildings and land for
the carrying on of educational and church work, the aggregate cost
of which stands at $576,540.15. In addition to this plant, the
Endowment funds amount to $229,375.78 which are securely invested,
and yield an annual income of about $10,000. The Association also
holds conditional trust funds amounting to $69,726.95. The good
judgment shown in the purchase of land, the erection of buildings,
and the investment of the permanent funds speaks well for the
thorough care of the officers and the Executive Committee.
The committee desire to congratulate you and the Congregational
churches of our land upon the extinction of the debt which for
several years has been a burden to the Association. The treasurer’s
report shows a balance on hand of $2,193.80, after paying every
liability of the Association up to October 1, 1887, including the
debt of $5,783.71, which remained at the end of the previous year.
In order to accomplish this, however, it has been necessary to
defer until the receipts should warrant it, much work which presses
with importunity upon the Association in the various fields.
We find that the treasurer’s accounts are regularly and faithfully
examined each month by the financial committee of your executive
board; and at the end of the year by two auditors chosen by the
Association who attach their certificate to the report, and who
are thoroughly reliable business men. The accuracy and economy
of the work are thus as fully secured as in any merely business
establishment. The by-laws of the executive committee provide a
system of checks upon the officers similar to those in use in great
corporations; and while of old it was said that “the children of
this world are wiser in their generation than the children of
light,” we are glad to note that in the administration of the
American Missionary Association so great a degree of worldly wisdom
or common sense has been employed.
The duties of the treasurer are responsible, and have been
performed with exactitude and fidelity. The receipts for current
work of the year from all sources have been $306,761.31; and the
expenditures therefor, $298,783.80.
These items of expenditure have been carefully examined in detail
by your committee, and they report that in each department the most
careful economy has been used, and no curtailment which would not
materially cripple the effective force of the Association seems
possible.
Your committee have taken some pains to compare the expenses of
the Association with those of other missionary societies, and we
find that it does not suffer in the comparison. The committee note
with regret that the expenditures for work among the Indians
and Chinese have been cut down materially as compared with the
previous fiscal year; but we believe that the policy of the
executive committee in refusing to incur liabilities which the
Congregationalists of the country would not meet is the right one.
They must keep the Association so economically and so safely
managed that no reproach may justly fall upon it; and the fact that
they are able to come before you at this meeting, and to report the
absolute extinction of the load of debt which has been upon them
and you for several years, and have yet developed and prosecuted
with vigor the grand labor for the oppressed, appeals in the
strongest possible way to you for the most generous increase of the
sums to be intrusted to their management in the year to come.
All departments need enlarging. The Southern work ought to have
not less than $275,000; $15,000 is a small sum to spend upon the
Chinese on our western coast, while $60,000 would hardly give
the much needed development to the Indian Mission. Shall not the
$350,000 thus plainly needed and earnestly recommended by the last
National Council of Congregational churches be forthcoming? From
us to whom much has been given, much will surely be required. If
we cannot in person go with these Christian men and women who are
devoting their lives to the direct work of this Association, into
the cabin of the Negro, the abode of the mountaineer, the opium den
of the Chinese, or the wigwam of the Indian, let us at least say
to those who do,—“We will uphold your hands, we will abundantly
support your work, we will, as far as we can, share your burdens
and be your fellow laborers.”
* * * * *
DR. BUCKINGHAM’S MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
The recent and lamented death of Governor Washburn, the
President of this Association, calls vividly to mind his worth
and usefulness; and it will be of interest to you to know the
estimation in which he was held, and the respect felt for his
character and influence in our Connecticut valley. Like Governor
Strong before him, he was one of the “River-gods,” influential and
commanding in all that region, though ruling more by his personal
character than by any official station.
He was born at Winchendon, Mass., in 1820, and had lived all
his life either near, or in, Greenfield. His father died in his
infancy, leaving him in straitened circumstances, but he managed
to obtain a good preparatory education at Lawrence Academy,
Groton, and was graduated at Yale College in 1844. He purposed
to devote himself to the Christian ministry, but the death of an
uncle leaving a large manufacturing business heavily embarrassed
compelled him to take the management of it, which he did with such
ability and success that he not only rescued the business from
insolvency, but made it the basis of his own life-long prosperity
and the source of his ample benevolence.
The same qualities which made him successful in business carried
him into public life and secured him equal respect and influence
there. His sound judgment, fidelity to duty, scrupulous integrity
and Christian principle, made him sought after for public offices
and corporate trusts, as few men are. He had been a member of the
State Senate and of the House of Representatives, and when we were
in the midst of the Civil War, and strong and reliable men were
needed in Congress, he was sent to the House of Representatives
without opposition, receiving, what was almost unprecedented in
politics, the unanimous vote of his district. He was kept there for
ten years by successive elections, where his ability and sterling
integrity soon placed him upon the important Committee of Claims,
and also of Revolutionary pensions, and where he remained until he
was called home to become the Governor of the Commonwealth. This
office he held until he was sent to the United States Senate, to
succeed Senator Sumner, and here his well-known services in the
House secured him at once an honorable position which was well
maintained by his valuable services and noble character.
Indeed, the best tribute to his worth was, that when he retired
from public life he had received, unsolicited, every public honor
which it was in the power of his constituents to bestow.
The same was also true of his appointment to the management of so
many business corporations, educational institutions, trust funds,
missionary associations, benevolent and Christian societies. He was
the President of the First National Bank of Greenfield, a director
of the Connecticut River Railroad Company, one of the Corporation
of Yale College, a trustee of the Mass. Agricultural College, of
Smith College, of Mr. Moody’s School at Mt. Hermon, a corporate
member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, President of
this American Missionary Association, a pillar in the Second
Congregational Church of Greenfield, and the first President and a
vigorous supporter of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club.
The wonder was, how he could take upon himself so many trusts,
when, with his ideas of duty, they must each receive his careful
attention and he must hold himself personally responsible for their
best management.
Fidelity to his trusts was one of his most marked characteristics,
and in this respect he possessed the spirit of his Lord, “who was
faithful to Him that appointed him,” and as Moses was “faithful in
all his house,” so our friend possessed this crowning virtue of a
noble and useful life. * *
It is true that many have excelled him in particular abilities,
especially in those that are most striking and brilliant, such as
poetic sense and successful oratory, which are most frequently
denominated genius. But these have often been combined with defects
of judgment, or temper, or principle, so that their influence has
been sadly marred or used for mischief. As in our civil war it was
not every eloquent orator or able editor who was the best adviser
or steadiest supporter of the policy that preserved the Union; but
some of them would have let the nation be divided, or compromised
the questions at issue, only to be reopened without hope of right
settlement. But here was a man for all times and all places. In the
halls of legislation, in the Governor’s chair, before a board of
selectmen, arranging bounties for volunteers and for the support
of their families, or among his own workmen, advising them as to
what they might or might not properly do in such a crisis—he is
the same wise counsellor and faithful helper everywhere, doing the
work assigned to him as well as, if not better than, most poets or
orators.
And when war was over, and such work no longer needed, when peace
was to be restored and amicable relations cultivated between those
who had been deadly foes; when business prosperity was to be
brought about again and banks were to be well managed, and trust
funds made secure, and the increasing wealth and enterprise of the
country to be turned into benevolent and Christian channels, here
he found his fields of delight, and his abilities and character
shone out in new beauty and strength. Here was Governor Washburn’s
real genius—the completeness and best use of all his abilities,
combined with principles that directed them all to the noblest ends.
This seems to be the divine method of training men for their best
work. They are placed in stations of responsibility, which they are
not properly qualified to fill; but if they are conscientious and
faithful, and especially where they put themselves under divine
guidance and are controlled by religious motives—the most powerful
of all—they become qualified for almost any station in life, and
for the highest and most responsible duties.
It was in this way that our friend secured his best development.
The great secret of it was his piety. He was taught of God. He was
trained in the school of Christ. He was devoted to the Saviour’s
cause. In his own estimation he was not his own, but belonged to
Him who had redeemed him at such cost. All that he was, and all
that he possessed and all that he was capable of becoming, were the
Lord’s. His talents were his trust, to be improved for his Master,
like his property. His intelligence, his sound judgment, his
capacity for business, were cultivated for Christian use. When they
brought him honor and position, he was not elated by them. Position
was only another name for opportunity and influence, which brought
with them increased responsibilities. Honors only sobered him and
made him pray to God that he might prove worthy of them.
In the spirit also of his Master, who came to “seek and to save
that which was lost,” he would bless and benefit all for whom
Christ died. He was not only desirous of dealing justly with his
fellow men, but he must do them good as he had opportunity, and
to all men, Negroes, Indians, Chinese, as well as to his own
countrymen. He sought to secure wise legislation for them, and a
faithful administration of the Government. He would educate the
ignorant, reform the vicious and remove the disabilities under
which so many labor. He would improve their worldly condition
and make his business profitable to those in his employ as well
as to himself. But above all, he would bless men spiritually and
eternally with the blessings which only the gospel of Christ
can bestow. This was the secret of his interest in your work
and in all kindred works, and in everything that could improve
the character and condition of men. This is the reason that he
devoted time and thought and assistance to so many Christian and
philanthropic enterprises which are accomplishing these objects.
This is why he gave to this Association so much of his attention
and best counsel, his generous contributions and fervent prayers,
and why he left such large bequests to this and kindred societies.
As an Association we owe too much to our late President and devoted
friend not to make mention of his many and invaluable services, and
always hold in loving and grateful remembrance the name of William
Barrett Washburn. Few causes have such helpers, and not often are
better men raised up for their time and work. We shall miss him in
our deliberations, while we need more than ever, as our fields for
Christian enterprise are enlarging, his sound judgment, untiring
energy and steadfast Christian faith.
When such men as Governor Washburn, Alpheus Hardy and President
Hopkins are taken from us, we can only pray that He who has the
whole work in charge will inspire others with similar devotion and
bestow upon us all more of his grace and blessing.
The circumstances of Governor Washburn’s death were peculiar and
startling to those about him, though not wholly unexpected to
his family. It was known to them that he had a serious affection
of the heart, but they were encouraged to hope that by care, and
the avoidance of all undue excitement and exertion, he might
have comfortable health for some years. The morning meeting of
the Board found him a little late from the cars, and climbing
the stairs to the hall, he had scarcely seated himself upon the
platform and spoken to his friends about him, when he fell forward
unconscious into their arms; and though a physician was immediately
at his side, and his wife soon there also, there was no return of
consciousness, and almost as quickly as the scene can be described,
he had left us, and his spirit had gone home to God. A sudden
departure, and a startling one to those of us who were trying to
detain him; but his Lord called him, and he must have said:
“I hear a voice ye cannot hear,
That says I must not stay;
I see a hand ye cannot see,
That beckons me away.”
As we saw the light of life fade out from that benignant face, as
when the glory of the day becomes the gloom of the night, we heard
it coming down out of Heaven: “He that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in
me shall never die.” Christ’s saints never perish. They only begin
to live in the truest and highest sense when they seem to die; and
with our Christian faith and immortal hopes, we love to think of
him as having entered upon that higher life and commenced a nobler
service. It was an unexpected summons, but we cannot think that he
was ever unprepared for it. Like that Connecticut Puritan, who,
when the “Dark Day” came and it was proposed that the Legislature
should adjourn because the end of the world had come, replied that
“this might be, but if it was, he chose to be found at his post,
doing his duty.” “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he
cometh shall find so doing. And if He shall come in the second
watch or in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those
servants.”
* * * * *
THE MISSIONARY INFLUENCE OF A LIFE, AND THE LIFE OF A MISSIONARY
INFLUENCE.
BY REV. A. F. BEARD, D.D.
In the missionary influence of a Life it is my purpose to trace the
life of a missionary influence.
This special life is selected as a significant illustration of
certain specific features and forms of the missionary work which we
are called here to consider.
It was a remote and inconspicuous consecration to certain radical
ideas of human brotherhood, and to new and not popular methods of
saving people who are low down in life by variations from the then
accepted ideas.
As a study of sympathy with people in low conditions, of faith
in the possibilities of those who have been degraded, of the
application of Christianity to the prejudices of caste, of fidelity
in witnessing to profound convictions, of prophetic insight as
to the trends of God’s providences, of heroic self-denials among
the oppressed and ignorant, together with the continuity and
cumulative power of these far-reaching influences, this may stand
for a concrete exhibition of the kind of work which we here are
trying to do, and possibly may bring some new hope and courage to
ourselves and some fresh sympathy to our devoted Christian workers
who, removed from the world’s observation and sometimes from due
Christian appreciation, are consecrating their lives to the same
uses.
In the time when George III was King of England and our
great-grandfathers were opposing the Stamp Acts, there lived in
a house which still stands in Strasbourg, in Alsatia, a wise
father and a mother of remarkable endowments, who trained their
son to habits of conscientious economy, self-reliance, to the
sense of responsibility to God and to man, and of the obligations
which possession has towards human necessities, and to habitual
benevolence.
Led on through youth to aspire to a learned profession, at the age
of fifteen years he signed his name, John Frederick Oberlin, as a
student of the University of Strasbourg. Three years later he was
a Bachelor of Arts, and five years later, a Doctor in Philosophy.
Ordained as a minister of the Gospel in 1760, seven succeeding
years were held sacred to the conviction that large usefulness
means large preparedness; so that he was still in his study at the
age of twenty-seven years, when a missionary who had been trying to
save needy souls in the mountains of the Vosges, ministering to the
spiritual necessities of a people passed by in the movements of a
world’s life and remote from civilization, came into Oberlin’s room
and urged him to take up this service.
He confessed his own lack of success, and that he had made no
impression upon them. He told Oberlin of the people, descendants
of the Huguenots, who had fled from fiery persecutions in France
to this wild and sterile mountain country. As the years had gone
on for more than seven generations of men, their teachers had
died, their preachers had died, until they, exiled and outcast,
had declined into heathenish ignorance. He had found as a distant
memory of what once had been, a single school in a mountain hamlet.
It was in a miserable hovel in one corner of which lay a helpless
old man on a rude truckle-bed, surrounded by a crowd of ragged,
noisy, wild-looking children. He asked: “Are you the schoolmaster?”
“Yes.” “What do you teach the children?” “Nothing.” “You teach them
nothing, how is that?” “Because I know nothing.” “Why then are you
the schoolmaster?” “Well, sir, I was taking care of the Waldbach
pigs, but the people thought me too old for that, and so I was
appointed to take care of the children.”
The missionary did not conceal the facts of the case, that the
people living in these remote and solitary places were not only
frightfully ignorant, but were rebellious against improvement. The
region had six months of winter, with bitter icy winds sweeping
over the mountains. There was not a single practicable road in the
entire district. Deep mud holes were before the cabin doors and the
huts in which the people were sheltered. In the short summer season
they gathered enough food to sustain an impoverished life through
the winter, in which winter they often herded for warmth in the
stables with their cattle. So far had they sunk into material and
moral desolation.
To such a ministry was invited this young man of large ambitions
and large reasons for them; to minister to this wretchedness, to
go to a people who were without sense of their needs, without
aspirations, without appreciation of the services to be done
for them. One prepared for the Professor’s chair in the great
University where it was pleasant to live, was invited to bury
himself among those who would not give him even the reward of
gratitude.
It was not a pleasant call. The words of it struck the young man’s
heart like the blows of a hammer. But seven years before, he had
written in his own hand his consecration to God, that with all
sincerity of heart and in a fidelity which should not sleep he
would walk in the ways of Christ as God should reveal them to him.