people. People testify that one of the greatest obstacles in the way
of this educational question is to be found in the pastors themselves
of those churches. As a class, they do not want their flocks to
know more than they do. This is one of the greatest difficulties to
be contended with. We must have churches outside of the old ones.
Does not the grace of God abound in them? Yes, I believe there are
multitudes who have it. But when that question is asked, I am always
reminded of that familiar anecdote of the old clergyman who had a fair
daughter who was noted for her violent temper. A young man became
enamored of her, and asked for her hand. The old man was not willing
to palm off damaged goods. He said, “It is not wise to take her.”
“Why not?” said the young man; “isn’t she a Christian; isn’t she
converted?” “Yes,” said the old man, “but you must remember that the
grace of God can live where you and I can’t.” So the grace of God can
bring forth influences to serve Him down there, but these churches
stand as an obstacle. It is absolutely necessary to form new churches,
that we be not burdened by the old effete organizations. I believe in
Congregationalism. It may be very well for those of a different polity
to talk of the God of the hills and the valleys and the dry places and
streams; but our God is the King of the whole earth. It may be well
for those of a different polity to quote their different authorities,
but the only authority we recognize is the authority of Him whose
dominion stretches from sea to sea and from pole to pole. Such is
Congregationalism. It is adapted to every human being God has made. It
may indeed take on different forms. You have pure, limpid water. Pour
it into different vessels, but it will be the same limpid water still.
So, take Congregationalism in the tropics or wherever you please, and
it will be Congregationalism still.
Brother Pike would not pardon me if I did not allude to Africa. The
ways of God are mysterious. We must walk by faith, and not by sight.
We hear His voice saying, “This is the way; walk ye in it.” In this
darkness we see His hand. The providence of God towards this nation,
for generations, was exceedingly mysterious. But during the last forty
years it has been becoming exceedingly clear. In the raising of this
Society and the doing away with slavery, we can see almost visibly the
hand of God displayed upon the midnight sky, pointing to that dark
continent, saying we should send these freemen forth as apostles of
light, to purify and make glad their ancestral homes. And I believe
the providence of God is leading us to still greater achievements.
This Association, born amid the throes of slavery, is almost the
only organization that stands for that principle which underlies the
oneness of humanity. It seems to have been raised up that through
it the churches might bring their influence to bear upon the vital
issue of the hour. What is it? The same as it has been from the
beginning of this nation--the same as in India--caste is the barrier
everywhere. The battle rages to-day from Maine to California between
classes of men. It is for this Association to stand up and contend
against the foes that arise against whatever is good and right. If
this Association ever hesitates thus to stand, whether it be in South
Carolina, Massachusetts, or the Black Hills, then will its prestige be
lost. But, thank God, there is no such fate for this Society. When the
wolves of Communism are barking about our doors; when the shrieks of
degrading socialism come up into our ears, it is no time to hesitate.
It is time to resist their filth and set up the banner of that pure
Gospel, under whose folds can be no bondman--neither Chinaman nor
black--but where all shall enjoy the equality of the sons of God. We
can almost see the hand of God visibly pouring into this nation from
all sides as into the extended hopper of a mighty mill, that here they
may be amalgamated. Here He brought the red man of the forest; then
the Anglo-Saxon race; then He reached out to Africa and plucked
up the black diamond; then He sent the phlegmatic Teutons and the
Scandinavians; and even now He is opening old Cathay and pouring upon
us swarms of Asiatics. “He hath made of one blood all nations of men
that dwell upon the face of the whole earth.” There is no proposition
which so awakens the fiendish hate of mankind as this. States and
nations are rising up in indignation against this purpose of God. It
belongs to Christian people to stand up and denounce God’s curse on
whoever shall deny His will. Accursed be he who dares to keep out
any nation or tribe under the heavens! Accursed any political party
that goes through the country trying to raise a quarrel between men!
Yea, accursed will be the nation itself that dares to make enactments
to separate or make distinctions between races of men! It belongs
to Christian people to stand up, and, in the teeth of antagonism,
in defiance of States, governments, legislatures, and Protestant
Congresses in the United States--to declare, “What God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder.”
There are many insects from which we shrink with loathing. But here
comes the naturalist who takes his lens and pours in upon the insect
the solar ray, and we stand back in amazement at the beauty and
perfection of the work of God. It is the duty of us all to act the
part of the naturalist towards these despised races--these degraded
classes. Let us put them under the lens of that wonderful utterance:
“Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these ye did it unto
me.” Pour into that lens the light of the last day, and we shall see
them endued with the majesty of the Most High God.
I believe this the pressing duty of the hour. If we shall take counsel
of our fears--if we are afraid to let Christianity grapple with
infidel Romanism, even with heathenism, God will remand us back to
forty years in the wilderness, but will bring in our children to drive
out these Anakim of our faithless terror.
* * * * *
ADDRESS ON CHINESE MISSIONS IN AMERICA.
REV. E. S. ATWOOD.
I am requested to add to the written report a few words, which will
be unreasonably brief, in view of the importance of the subject.
I count it a great misfortune that we should have been obliged to
postpone to the last, weary, unenthusiastic hours of our meeting, the
consideration of a subject which is one of the great problems this
Association is set to solve. It would have been well for us if we had
been allowed time to open the information that is accessible to us on
this subject. There are many who think the Chinese question a very
small affair. We get but faint rumors of it on these Eastern shores.
Yet that little cloud on the Western horizon, not larger than a man’s
hand to-day, is destined to cover the whole land, and will either
be found to be filled with tempests or refreshing rain, according
as the people meet the exigencies of the hour. The Chinese question
will by-and-by, I believe, assume a proportion quite equal to that of
the negro question. There is this peculiarity about it--almost every
other department of work in this Association is amply provided for.
The question of the evangelization of the Indian is comparatively a
temporary question; for not many generations will pass before only
a scattered remnant of Indian tribes will be left in this land.
The welfare and lifting up of the black race is continually under
consideration. But who cares for the Chinese? The discussion in regard
to them is limited and local. And yet their presence on this continent
is a matter of national interest. It starts grave problems, that have
somehow to be studied and solved.
There are three classes in the land to-day who are studying this
question, and are giving us their conclusions upon it. First of all,
we have the Communists, east and west, who are trying to grapple with
the question, and settle it. We have one Dennis Kearney going up and
down the land, and men say he is a loud-mouthed demagogue, whose
utterances have no weight of public opinion behind them. Not at all,
Mr. President. Dennis Kearney is a representative man--a John the
Baptist, crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Devil, and make his paths
straight.” Communism, as a whole, proposes to deal with the Chinese,
by driving them out from the land. If you doubt that assertion, look
at the facts. Documentary statements in regard to the matter, compiled
by B. S. Brooks, an eminent counsellor on the Pacific Coast, have been
presented to a Joint Commission of both Houses of Congress. I wish they
could be put into the hands of every Christian man. Unfortunately, the
books that give any real information on these statistics are somehow
not easily accessible. This setting forth of facts in the documents
of Mr. Brooks, shows incontrovertibly that Communism in California is
murderous in its intent towards the Chinese.
It has put its intention into acts. It has outraged unoffending men,
and struck them down relentlessly in the public street. Violence
of that sort is comparatively safe. The testimony of the Chinaman
cannot be taken in opposition to the white man. The only chance a
Chinaman, who is about to be murdered, has to obtain justice, is to
secure a white witness to see it done. The rougher element on the
Western coast is bound to annihilate the Chinaman. And all for no
good reason. They are not numerous. There are only 100,000 Chinamen
scattered up and down the coast. They foment no disturbances. There
are only two offenses charged against them--grave offenses--and these
are, that they live economically, and don’t get drunk; and so are able
to work for lower wages than the masses of the Irish and native-born
population.
There is another power trying to solve this problem, and that is the
politicians. They are no more successful than the Communists. They
have secured the enactment of certain statutes, but those statutes are
often iniquitous. The Legislature of California has enacted what seems
to me the most infamous laws that ever disgraced any statute-book. The
Fugitive Slave Law was a Golden Rule in comparison. Let us see. It is
well known that the Chinamen are laundry men. They do their work in
their shops, and carry it out themselves. Forthwith, the Legislature
of San Francisco enacts that every laundryman who carries his work
out with a horse shall pay a dollar a month; but every laundryman who
carries it out by hand shall pay FIFTEEN dollars a month.
The Chinese are gregarious. They crowd together in tenement-houses,
from which people of other nationalities are excluded. By Section
Second of an Act approved April 3, 1876, by the Legislature of
California, it is provided that “Any person or persons found sleeping
or lodging, or who hires or uses for the purpose of sleeping, any room
or apartment which contains less than 500 cubic feet of space in the
clear, for each person so occupying such room or apartment, shall be
deemed guilty of misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be punished
by a fine of not less than ten, or more than fifty dollars, or by both
such fine and imprisonment.” That is, says Mr. Brooks, as a penalty
for lodging in rooms containing less than 500 cubic feet of space,
they are to be thrust into prison cells of less than one-fifth the
dimension. Certainly
“For ways that are dark, and tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is [NOT] peculiar.”
Mr. Luttrell moved in Congress that the steamboat bills be so amended
as to forbid the employment of a Chinaman in any capacity whatsoever.
Congressman Shelley, of Alabama, introduced a bill providing that all
Chinamen coming to the United States, except officially, be taxed $250
per capita, or serve five years in the penitentiary. The Chinese in
California are made to pay more than $42,000 school taxes annually,
while their children are not admitted to the public schools, neither
are there other schools provided for them. Thirteen hundred Chinamen
asked the California Legislature for school privileges for 3,000 of
their children, seeking only such as are provided for those of African
and Indian descent. Their petition was immediately laid on the table,
and stigmatized as dangerous. This is only a specimen of this class
legislation on the Pacific Coast. They are very ingenious there. Just
as fast as one law is decided unconstitutional, they have another.
Communism crushes the Chinese. The politician says, “They sha’n’t
come here if we can prevent it by oppressive legislation.” As a
protest against the unreasonableness of this course of procedure, the
testimony of Postmaster-General Key is of special value. In a recent
conversation, he gave the following as the result of his observations
during his visit to the Pacific Coast: “The politicians,” said Mr. Key,
“are almost to a man against the Chinese, and antagonize them bitterly.
The merchants, the manufacturers, the farmers, and nearly the entire
employing class, are very fond of the Chinese, and prefer them to any
other laborers. They speak in the highest terms of the Chinese; they
say that they are docile, obedient, obliging, punctual, hardworking,
and faithful; they are exceedingly thrifty and economical; they are
temperate in their habits, do not drink liquor of any kind, eat very
little meat, and live almost entirely on rice. It is wonderful to see
how little a Chinaman can live on. Their economy struck me as something
marvellous. Large numbers of them sleep in a single ill-ventilated
room; they constantly violate the fundamental laws of health, yet they
are seemingly very healthy. I was astonished to learn they had no
hospital. I was shown through the Chinese Quarter of San Francisco by
the Mayor, and saw everything in that locality; but there are a number
of places here in Washington fully as bad, if not worse, than anything
I saw in Chinatown. I also observed that the railroad companies
employed a large number of Chinamen, and found them excellent workmen.”
Evidently, the politicians are not competent to the settlement of the
Chinese question.
The American Missionary Association takes hold of the matter in the
right way. It says: Let the Chinese come and be treated as men.
Let them have the gospel preached to them, and be lifted into a
civilization that is level with your own. Communism has not succeeded,
so far. The politician has not succeeded. The American Missionary
Association has shown itself able to grapple with the question. They
have got hold of the right end of the rope. If they are encouraged by
the churches of America, they will solve this problem.
There appeared in the _Congregationalist_, some weeks ago, an
editorial of great merit, in which this radical mistake was made: it
was a sort of apology for the Chinese, because they were so few in
numbers. It said they were decreasing instead of increasing. Why, Mr.
Chairman, look across the ocean and see that great nation, covering
one-tenth of the globe, and holding one-third its population. So
crowded is it that millions (even more than our entire population)
who never have a home upon land, are born, live and die floating
upon rivers and canals. A more industrious race is not; neither can
agriculture, which still ranks far above any other employment, be
found anywhere else carried to such perfection of thoroughness. There
is no idleness among these millions. The monstrous human ant-heap is
astir. They are also an educated people, nimble in figures, as well
as in all kinds of labor. There is but one written language for all
the population, which has been transmitted, with even no dialectic
changes, for at least 2,500 years. It is a nation industrious and
frugal. We talk about the heathen Chinese, but we had better talk
about the heathen Anglo-Saxon. What useful art is practised to-day
that China has not had for centuries? What we count the great
discoveries of modern science, may turn out not to be so modern
after all. I saw a statement made within ten days, that it has been
discovered that Edison’s phonograph was known in China two hundred
years before Edison was born. China has a history--a record which
cannot be ignored.
We do vastly ill when we talk about the “heathen Chinee.” Their
religion is something against which we set our faces; but their
character is worth commendation. I was talking, the other day, with
a gentleman who had passed the greater part of his life in China. He
said there was not an element in the Japanese character that was not
in the Chinese, and of the two, he considers the Chinese the more
hopeful. In dealing with the Chinese, we are not dealing with refuse
material. China is a great nation. It has its place among the foremost
of the earth. It is a sad thing for this great nation of ours, if it
cannot endure the little leaven on the Pacific Coast. Do you suppose
it will affect the great mass of Christianity unfavorably?
Over 300 of the Chinese have already been received as members of
the Protestant Churches in California, and 700 are under Christian
instruction, studying the doctrines of our faith, while 1,000 attend
Sunday-school, and two young men are preparing for the Christian
ministry. Even those who do not come under the influence of such
instruction can scarcely be said to be the worst people in the land.
In 1875, of the 7,643 arrests for drunkenness, not one was a Chinaman;
of the 3,263 paupers admitted to the alms-house, only six were
Chinamen; of 83 murderers hanged during the last year in the United
States, not one was a Chinaman.
If any other race, born or naturalized, on this continent, can show a
similarly good record, let them step to the front and declare it.
The truth is, Mr. President, we are only standing on the threshold
of this great question. I believe if you and I live to come to these
meetings ten years hence, less will be said about the blacks and more
about the Chinese. We need to understand this great work now opening
before us. We ought to remove one source of prejudice against the
Chinese. Men say the Chinese must go, because their coming reduces
their wages. I happen to have a statement of wages in California
for the past year, clipped only a few months since from a San
Francisco paper: Carpenters, from $3 to $3.50; bricklayers, $4 to $5;
painters, $3; plasterers, $3.50; hod-carriers, $3; stone-cutters, $4;
machinists, $3 to $4; common laborers, $2; house work in families,
per week, $6 to $7. Can we make a show equally in favor of the wages
of the workingmen on this sun-rise side of the continent, where the
Chinese are insignificant as a competing power? The truth is, all
this cry about their taking the bread out of our children’s mouths is
simply nonsense.
But it is said there is another difficulty. The Irishman comes to this
country, and is assimilated. The German, also, and is assimilated.
The Chinaman comes, and he alone is not assimilated. Why not? First
of all there is no provision for his naturalization, if he desires
it. The sixth article of the Burlingame Treaty provides that “Chinese
subjects visiting or residing in the United States, shall enjoy the
same privileges, immunities and exemptions in respect to travel or
residence as may be enjoyed by the citizen-subjects of the most
favored nation; but nothing herein contained shall be held to confer
naturalization upon the citizens of the United States in China, nor
upon subjects of China in the United States.” More than this, there
is a certain stress of public opinion, which is weightier than treaty
provisions. The head of the Chinese Embassy in this country was
confronted with this question; “Why is it that your countrymen come
here alone, without any families?” He replied: “It is about as much
as a Chinaman can do to keep his head on his shoulders alone, without
bringing his family.” There is nothing in the nature of things to
prevent the absorption of the Mongolian into American citizenship. It
seems to be the peculiar office of this nation to assimilate every
element. It makes no difference what our estimate of a man is; if he
is a man he can, by the power of the gospel, be brought into oneness
with us. Walk up and down the pavement of the mosque of St. Sophia,
and here and there you brush with your steps bits of gilded and
colored glass that, rude in shape and void of beauty, seem only fit to
be swept into a corner; but lift your eyes to the seraphim that blaze
in flaming mosaics on the ceiling, and you see how the artist’s skill
has wrought just such rough fragments into forms of grandeur that awe
the soul. Our American Christianity gathers the best and the worst of
the race forces of the world, and is able, by God’s good help, out of
them to compact a nationality with which to face the world.
“The Chinese must go,” Mr. Kearney says. Yes, we accept that motto,
but we put our own meaning to it. We say, “the Chinese must go” and
come, whenever and wherever they please. This Association is called of
God, I believe, to stand up and assert that, as it has opportunity, no
effort shall be spared to give them place among the sanctified of the
land.
* * * * *
ADDRESS UPON THE AFRICAN MISSION.
REV. G. D. PIKE.
MR. PRESIDENT:--In seconding the report respecting the Mendi Mission,
I beg leave to say, that there are four points of interest we ought to
consider.
1. One is the Providential call of this Association to Tropical
Africa. At the beginning of its existence, as Abraham heard the voice
of the Lord, saying, “Get thee out of thy country, into a land I will
shew thee,” so the fathers of this Association heard the call of God
and entered the Dark Continent, anticipatory of those great events
about to transpire. In 1842, when the Mendi Mission was established by
the return of the Amistad captives, who had been freed from slavery in
America, the most important parts of Central Africa were either left
blank on our maps, or filled up with great deserts, mountains of the
moon, and figures of lions and dragons. It was known, however, that
the Mendi country was a great slave preserve, from which ten thousand
black people were sent annually into bondage. The Amistad Committee
at once pre-ëmpted a portion of that great and wonderful missionary
field, which is now so signally attracting the attention of the
civilized world.
2. A second point of interest pertains to the land that has been shown
us.
By turning to your maps, you will discover that the back lot of the
Mendi Mission extends eastwards 4,200 miles, on the parallel of about
seven degrees north latitude, over a fertile zone of tropical country.
Mr. Stanley tells us the object of his journey was, “To flash a torch
of light across the western half” of this zone. Other explorers
have contributed their light. Lieutenant Burton, in ’57, carried
his torch as far as the Tanganyika. Captain Speke announced to the
world about the same time that he had discovered a mighty inland sea,
surrounded on every side by the “richest and pleasantest garden in
the world;” and the Victoria Nyanza Lake, with Mtesa’s kingdom, were
added to our knowledge and wealth--alluring alike to the statesman,
merchant and missionary. Meanwhile David Livingstone moved up from
the southeast, illumining the whole regions of the Zambezi River--the
Nyassa, Bangweolo and Tanganyika Lakes--proceeding as far as Nyangwe
on the unknown Lualaba--scattering through all his reports those
seed thoughts respecting Christian missions, that have developed
into desires to carry the light of life to the “real heathen” in
those latitudes. Then, Sir Samuel Baker called the attention of the
world afresh to ancient Ethiopia, with one hundred and forty millions
of acres of the richest land in the world; covered with millions
of people, herds of cattle, and a varied and luxurious vegetation.
Discovering also the Albert Nyanza Lake, embosomed amidst mountain
ranges--the abodes of frost and snow--and hardy, warlike tribes. Dr.
Schweinfurth also penetrated far into the back lot of our mission;
flashing his chemical and botanical light, revealing most beautiful
flora--every variety of fauna and fish--to say nothing of pigmies and
giants. Neither has Commander Cameron contributed the least by his
journey across the Continent from East to West. The light given us by
these seven explorers is woven into a rainbow of promise, which spans
those unknown slave preserves of former generations--beautiful as
“Canaan’s fair and happy land” to the Father of the faithful.
If you start from our Mendi Mission and proceed a few hundred miles
southeast, you enter the West African gold fields in Ashantee land,
where the native rulers are covered with golden ornaments, carrying
gold-hilted swords, and attended by hundreds of followers, wearing
gold plates upon their breasts, with royal cooks serving their
masters with golden spoons. If you journey still farther, to one
degree of North latitude on the Livingstone, you reach a country
where they build their temples of ivory, and construct their boats
with accommodations for eighty oarsmen, and fight their battles with
vast armies. If you keep straight on, you reach Munza’s kingdom,
“enriched by such beauties as might be worthy of Paradise.” Still
further, you see the arena of the missionary labors of Rev. Chas. New;
where high mountains rise one above another until they are lost in
clouds--mountains with beautiful slopes, covered with patches of
cultivated land, and irrigated by brooks, streams and torrents, which
tumble and splash on all sides. Meanwhile, you would have journeyed
over countries six thousand feet above the level of the sea with an
equable climate, and other favorable conditions, such as led Captain
Speke to prophecy that in course of time “one of the greatest nations
on earth” would be built up in the heart of Africa.