American Missionary, Vol. XLII., June, 1888., No. 6 by Various
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Various >> American Missionary, Vol. XLII., June, 1888., No. 6
Thirty-five years ago the Congregational Union was initiated in the
Albany Convention on purpose to protect Eastern friends from the
miscellaneous and irresponsible and persistent solicitation for
individual church enterprise. It is the business of that Society to
receive, inspect and decide upon all such applications. Take it away
and the flood gates would be lifted again. No less in the cause of
missionary education is such discretionary service needed.
* * * * *
THE NEGRO QUESTION.
This is the title of a recent brochure by George W. Cable, published
by the American Missionary Association. With the most vigorous and
courageous devotion to the question that "is the gravest in American
affairs," Mr. Cable addresses himself to the problem and to the answer
that should be made to it. His apprehension of injustice is so keen
and true, {155} and his seriousness, in view of the weariness and
offence that the whole subject gives to a great majority of the
people, is so urgent, that the paper has been criticized as
pessimistic, and as an impatient cry against evils that are speedily
being rectified. We may say that the optimistic view of evils never
did much to correct them, and that those who are patient with wrongs
will never create a sentiment against them. To us, this seems the
voice of a prophet pleading for righteousness to man and righteousness
in the land.
* * * * *
OUR WHOLE COUNTRY.
Among the recent issues of the press, none has been more effective and
deservedly popular than the pamphlet entitled, "OUR COUNTRY," written
by our esteemed friend, Rev. Josiah Strong, D.D. It has aroused public
attention in a remarkable degree, and has opened the way for a career
of most promising usefulness to the author.
Our only regret in reading these stirring pages, has arisen from the
fact, that in its survey it leaves almost entirely out of account
nearly one third part of our country, namely, the South, a part, too,
that contains as many elements of future trouble to the nation, and
elements, too, that if properly dealt with, can minister as largely to
the nation's future prosperity, as any other portion. Our object in
penning this item is to suggest that some man of equal diligence in
collecting facts, and of equal skill in handling them, shall write a
book entitled, "Our _Whole_ Country," that shall omit no part of it.
* * * * *
A SAMPLE OF SOUTHERN CHURCH WORK.
The Rev. G.W. McClellan, a graduate of Fisk University and recently a
student at Hartford Theological Seminary, has formed a "_Boys'
Christian Association_" in connection with his church work in
Louisville. The boys meet on Friday evenings for literary exercises,
and the following are some of the questions debated this winter.
1. _Resolved_, That Washington was a greater general than Grant.
2. _Resolved_, That capital punishment ought to be abolished.
3. _Resolved_, That strikes are right and necessary.
4. _Resolved_, That boys, as a rule, after graduation from the High
School, should go to College.
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM EXAMINATION PAPERS.
Question. _What was the Dred Scott decision?_
Answer. "The Dred Scott decision declared that slave owners could
carry their slaves into any territory except their own."
{156}
Another Answer. "Dred Scott decision was, that protected tariff should
be kept out of the territories."
Question. _What are ocean currents?_
Answer. "The Ocean currant is a celebrated meal-storm on the coast of
Norway."
* * * * *
A STRAW.
A few days since, there was an examination of candidates for positions
as teachers in the New Orleans public schools. Four of our Straight
University girls presented themselves, three graduates and one an
undergraduate, and all passed the examination, receiving respectively
94, 93, 92 and 87 per cent., and three were at once given good
positions.
* * * * *
IN MEMORIAM.
Another good man has gone to his reward. Rev. Geo. J. Tillotson, who
has perpetuated his name in the Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas,
died March 29th, at his home in Wethersfield, Conn. His useful life
was spent in that State. He was born in Farmington, Feb. 5, 1805, was
graduated at Yale in 1825, studied theology in the Yale Seminary one
year and at Andover for two years, completing his theological studies
in 1830. He had several long pastorates, which he filled with great
fidelity and success. From 1876 he was not employed as a pastor, but
devoted himself with great assiduity to various modes of promoting the
Redeemer's kingdom. He had practised economy and had the means to
give, and this he did with a discriminating, and yet a liberal, hand.
To the founding of the Tillotson Institute, he gave not only from his
own resources, but devoted his time and energies to collecting funds
from his friends. But his benefactions were not confined to one
object; he had a broad sympathy for every good cause. He was a man of
genial temperament, and closed his useful career after a short illness
in the 84th year of his age.
* * * * *
THE RADICAL FORCES OF CHRISTIANITY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE WORK OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
BY REV. J.W. COOPER, D.D.
The work of Christ is the work of Christianity. By the "radical forces
of Christianity," we mean the simple spirit of the Master, in its
original and energetic operation. We are dealing with no abstractions,
neither are we considering the operation of human agencies. What
Christ was in his earthly ministry, that Christianity is, because of
His living presence {157} in the church to-day. Wherever we discover
the working of those principles which were exemplified in his life,
there He is present in living power, the inspirer of the endeavor, and
the strength of it. The claim that the work of the American Missionary
Association makes upon our attention, may be presented in a variety of
forms. Its work is commended to us, for example, because it is
patriotic, that is, it makes its appeal to our self-interest. The
instinct of self-preservation demands that we sustain it. Four and a
half millions of Negroes in our Southern States are utterly
illiterate. Half that number of Southern whites are in the same
deplorable condition. These men are citizens. They hold the ballot.
Our free institutions are not safe in such hands as these. Education
is an absolute necessity. This wide-spreading and dense ignorance,
among masses of free American people, must be speedily overcome. We do
not wonder, therefore, that Andrew D. White in his scholarly address,
"The Message of the 19th Century to the 20th," puts the education of
the South first among the many great and pressing problems that claim
the attention of statesmen. It is a matter of self-interest and
self-preservation.
This work commends itself, also, because of its justice. It appeals as
a duty, to every enlightened conscience. The ignorance of the Negro,
and the degradation of the Indian, are more our fault than theirs. We
owe it to them, as a matter of simple justice, that we now make
reparation, as best we can, for the wrong done to them in the past. If
we, as a nation, have helped push them down, we ought to help lift
them up. It is a burden which stern justice lays upon us.
But I turn from all such impressive arguments as these, to find
another and altogether different motive to this work, one which the
statesman may consider of little worth, the appeal of which mere
conscience may not feel, but, which to the Christian heart must ever
be more powerful and persuasive than all other motives that can be
named. This work commends itself to us, because it is a Christly work.
The spirit of the Master is in it. The radical forces of Christianity
are exemplified by it. This Society may stand forth before the world
to-day, and without any sacrifice of humility or reverence, opening
the book and finding the place where it is written, it may say, in
concert with the Master himself, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he
hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim deliverance to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord that He might be glorified."
And here is its strongest claim upon our sympathy and support.
That this representation is not an exaggerated one, and that the claim
is in no way over-stated, we shall see more clearly as the comparison
is followed out in detail. The work which this Association has in hand
will {158} bear the test of analysis. It is not only a Christian work,
it is a work which, from the beginning, has called into exercise the
fundamental principles of Christianity. It exemplifies Christianity in
its most original and essential features.
I.--A RADICAL FAITH.
As I look into this work, the first thing that impresses me is the
faith that inspired it. It was a most sublime undertaking. It began,
so far as relates to its present fields of labor, with the millions of
freedmen just emancipated from two and a half centuries of bondage.
What this bondage signified, this present generation will find it
difficult to realize. For years it had been a crime to teach them the
alphabet. They had been bought and sold like cattle. Their lives were
a daily school in sensual immorality, deceit and dishonesty. Every
manly aspiration, and womanly feeling, was smothered at its birth.
They had come from savagery to slavery, and in a day, without training
or preparation, they were set free. It is no wonder that they were
ignorant, indolent, degraded and despised. As one of their own number
says, "We came into bondage naked and destitute of worldly goods, we
went out of it penniless, homeless and almost characterless." Now it
was this mass of degraded humanity that this Association set itself to
elevate and Christianize, and it did it with a calm assurance and
serene hope which no obstacle has as yet been able to disturb. The
road has been a long and hard one, but it did not anticipate an easy
time or miraculous success. It has met with new and perhaps unexpected
difficulties. It may be that all the workers would say what the
President of Talladega writes in a recent letter, "The magnitude of
the obstacles are more and more real to me as I live and work." But
they still live and they still work, never doubting the final result.
If you want to find men who have undying faith in the future of the
black race, go to those who, in the spirit of their Master, are
toiling night and day, under the commission of this Society, for its
elevation.
In the same spirit, also, this Association has welcomed new labors and
entered into new fields. When Chinamen were to be Christianized,
immediately it had great faith for the Chinese. When the Indian
missions were laid upon it, then it saw wonderful possibilities in the
red man. And now, last of all, when some million or two of
long-forgotten and neglected "Mountain Whites" are brought to its
attention, it sees in these abjectly poor, dispirited and
superstitious people, only another opportunity for elevating humanity,
and proving the power of Christianity to restore the lost manhood of
every race.
These servants of God are not engaged in a forlorn hope. They have
faith. Wherever they work there they expect results, not only in the
saving of individual souls, but in regenerating whole races of men. A
Christian woman, missionary to the poor whites among the mountains of
East {159} Tennessee, under the inspiration of her great faith, writes
home to her friends, "We can almost hear the bells ring in unreared
steeples, and hear the songs from choirs that are as yet totally
oblivious to the spirit of melody, and enter into the heart-worship of
the prayer meetings that are to be when shall have been fulfilled the
prophecy, that 'to the people which sat in darkness and the shadow of
death, light is sprung up'." Such buoyant, hopeful faith as this, so
clear and beautiful in its confidence in the promises of God, is one
of the "radical forces" which command, while they inspire, this holy
work.
II.--A RADICAL LOVE.
But what may be called the special characteristic of this Society
among missionary organizations doing work in our own land, that which
establishes its special claim upon hearts of Christian people, is the
radical spirit of love there is in it. It exemplifies in a most
practical way, the brotherhood of man. It repudiates caste. It is
absolutely color-blind. It works for the despised. It helps those who
are themselves the most helpless. This is no newly-discovered fact. I
remember the first sermon I ever heard in behalf of this work, more
than twenty years ago; it was drawn from the Parable of the Good
Samaritan. The text was, "Who is my neighbor?" The address of the
honored late President of this Association at the close of the last
Annual Meeting which he attended, was in the trend of this very same
Scripture. "This organization," he said, "is the Good Samaritan,
loving to bestow its aid upon the poorest and most despised, the most
severely wounded races of our country." The sermon, a score of years
ago, told us that our neighbor was the Negro, just then made free. So
said President Washburn, "If you can point out to this organization
any race that needs its assistance, whether colored or white, there is
the legitimate field of this Association."
It would seem that a law so emphatically taught by Jesus Christ as the
common brotherhood of man, and so familiar to the world, would long
ago have been accepted and adopted in the practice of Christian
nations, especially by a Christian Republic within its own borders.
But, instead of that, it is the hardest of all laws for us to learn
and the most difficult of all to put in operation. Our policy toward
the general colored races in this land has been one of cold-hearted
and cruel selfishness. As ex-Senator Brace has said, speaking in
behalf of his own people, "From the red race was taken their lands,
from the yellow their labor, from the black their persons. The red
race was gradually driven toward a setting sun; the yellow race, the
rabble demanded to be driven from the country; the black man was a
slave in chains, with no rights which the Constitution recognized."
These unjust prejudices are by no means altogether a thing of the
past. They are not as violent as they once were, thanks to the
influence {160} of this Association, but they still exist. "Niggers,"
are still ordered out of Southern churches. Many a professed Christian
still wants his Indian "dead." This work has all along been compelled
to fight its way against suspicion, bigotry and hatred; it must do so
still, because it recognizes man as man, whether his skin be white or
black, red or yellow; and, in taking this radical ground, it is
interpreting to the world the benevolent spirit of the Saviour, and is
preparing the way for that universal reign of love on earth which He
came to establish. Such a work as this is the salvation of our
Christianity. Without it, one of the chief evidences for Christianity
would be taken away, and the spirit of it would die. Standing before a
congregation of white men, Negroes and Indians, with a Chinamen or two
to make the tale complete, President Mark Hopkins last May dedicated
the new chapel at Hampton to the worship of Almighty God. He voiced
the sentiment of this whole Association when he said, "Here will be
taught and promoted a Christianity as narrow in its creed as revealed
truth, and as broad in its love as humanity!" "A creed as narrow as
revealed truth." Yes! we want no inspirations from outside the sacred
book. "A love as broad as humanity." By all means, yes! for no smaller
measure will satisfy the demands of that book or fulfil the will of
the Master.
III.--A RADICAL CONSECRATION.
Another principle required in this work and exemplified by it, is a
thorough-going consecration. The men and women who have taken up this
work, have followed Christ in his self-abnegation. There is no worldly
honor in it. It is not an easy life. You know well enough how these
devoted missionaries have braved social ostracism, and shut themselves
in to their lowly ministry. With the Christly "sympathy of
identification," they have made themselves one with their despised
brethren, bearing their burdens, sharing their privations, stooping to
meet their needs. What almost infinite patience it has sometimes
required, what forbearance and charity, we cannot know, but they have
served willingly and cheerfully, and found the sacrifice to be a joy.
And there are many of them, in school and church and home, in our
Southern land and in the Western wilds, who are serving there in a
spirit of self-abnegation and patient sacrifice, and whom God will
honor. These faithful workers are not martyrs; but there is something
heroic in their lives. It is the heroism of those who lay upon
themselves the lowliest duties, and perform them in the spirit of the
loftiest devotion. The work that calls forth such consecration as
this, so disinterested and sincere, bears its own letter of
commendation. The spirit of Him, who "came to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many," is exemplified by it.
IV.--A RADICAL METHOD.
There is one thing more that I would mention. It is the radical {161}
method which this Association has adopted in doing its work. It has
never been satisfied with surface culture. It strikes down to the
roots of character. Not "quantity," but "quality," is manifestly its
motto. As an illustration of intelligent thoroughness in Christian
service, therefore, this Association commends itself to our regard.
A decided advance was marked in missionary work when the church came
to see that not only the conversion of the heathen, but their
establishment in Christian character, was a legitimate object of
missionary endeavor. Francis Xavier in ten years visited fifty
kingdoms and baptized a million converts, but the ten years' labor of
some of our modern missionaries, spent in laying solid foundations and
thoroughly training a few chosen men, may, after all, come to more in
its permanent results upon the world, than all that was done by Rome's
great apostle. Jesus gave the best part of his three years of public
ministry to the training of twelve men. He might have baptised a
million. He preferred to do thorough work with a few. This Association
has acted upon this principle. It has sought to develop manhood and
womanhood after the pattern and by the power that is in Jesus Christ.
It calls to its aid every possible force. It educates the mind, the
heart, the conscience, the hand. It uses the church, the school, the
workshop and the Christian home. Character-building is its vocation,
the foundation Jesus Christ, the superstructure such as should stand
the test of fire. These oppressed races need above all things else
leaders from among themselves. It has been the endeavor of this
Society to furnish them--men and women of such moral and mental
quality as shall be fitted for the responsible position. They have
been taught to think, to work and to live. Because labor is a moral
force in establishing character, industrial education is introduced.
Nothing is too great to be attempted, nothing too trivial to be
omitted, the object always being the substantial development of moral
and Christian character.
Such is this mission. It has gone forth in the spirit of Christ, with
faith and love and consecration, seeking to do an honest work with
thoroughness. God's blessing has been upon it. It has results to show
in the renovated and ennobled lives of thousands who have been the
subjects of its ministry; and its broader influence in the elevation
of the oppressed and despised races, begins even now to be clearly
apparent. It has been a faithful monitor to the churches which have
sustained it, an inspirer of their benevolence, an almoner of their
gifts, and an honor to their name. And beyond all this, standing for
those principles which are most essential and fundamental in
Christianity, it has glorified God by exhibiting to the world the
power of Christian faith and sacrifice. Those who have been bound of
Satan, lo, these many years, are loosed from their bonds and made free
in Christ. War has struck off the chains of human bondage. Love shall
now complete the emancipation.
* * * * *
{162}
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
"NOTES IN THE SADDLE."
BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.
The following, which was taken from the public records of a _white_
school in Tennessee, illustrates the intellectual condition of a
portion of the white citizens of that and the other Southern States.
It also shows what kind of men have charge of public instruction in
some districts throughout the South.
"TENN July --, 188-.
"Rulus for scoul No 4.
Teacher will not low the scoulars to scouful or clime or swhisparn
in time of Books; the Teacher can ad eney rulus to this he thinks
needud and eney Larg secular can not comer ounder rulus will have
to quit the scoul."
These "rulus," as the word is spelled, were signed by two members of
the School Board by whom they were written. How strange, that in
localities in which there is such frightful illiteracy the school
authorities should fail to welcome, with large-hearted cordiality,
teachers who come among them. The white people, as well as the
colored, need missionary schools, as the illiteracy among them is
appalling.
Think of it! Seven-tenths of one per cent. of the native white
population of Massachusetts are illiterate, while twenty-three per
cent. of the native white population of Georgia, and thirty-one per
cent. of the same population of North Carolina are illiterate!! Why
should not Georgia be proud of her educated (?) citizens, and do all
she dare to drive some of the best teachers there are in the State
outside her borders?
* * * * *
Right in this connection it would be interesting to read the following
letter. A brief word of history, however, is necessary that it may be
understood. In 1878, a young man, a graduate of one of the leading New
England colleges, enlisted in the great army of A.M.A. teachers. He
was a quiet, unassuming, Christian student. The amazing ignorance of
the Southern people, both white and black, awoke his pity; and his
love, for his Saviour, and for his country, led him to give himself to
this most needy field. He was embarrassed and badgered by those who
ought to have welcomed him, and helped him in his work. This mean and
unworthy opposition with which our A.M.A. teachers are so familiar,
culminated in his case, in a series of letters in which his _life_ was
threatened. It was just before the election of President Cleveland.
There was evidently, a well-matured plan to drive him out of the
community, and to intimidate the Negroes so that they would not dare
to vote. The following was one of these letters:
{163}
"Mr ---- deer Sir It is for your own good That I write This letter
to you you are an advocate for Social Equality with the white and
the Black race and the People are not going to Put up with any Such
doings and I write you this letter to warn you of The danger and
the great danger That you are in You must leve The country right
away for The People have Pledged Them Seves to get you out of the
contry or Kill you and That in a mity Short time Now as a frend I
do beg you to give this matter your emmediate attention I am very
truly your well wisher meaning Exactly wat I Say"
I saw all these letters, and received this one from the hand of this
Christian hero. He said to me:--"I went to bed a good many nights
thinking that quite possibly I should be dragged out of my bed, and
beaten or hanged before morning." Notwithstanding this, he wrote on
the outside of the envelope the following words, and passed them
around among those whom he knew to be conspirators against him:
"In answer to the enclosed, I will say to my 'Democratic and
inquiring friends,' that I expect to leave on or before Jan. 1st,
1940, and that though I hoped to vote for 'St. John and
Prohibition,' I have now decided to vote for 'Blaine and the
Protection of all citizens in their political and civil rights.'"
When he gave me this letter, he took a promise that it should not be
published until after his death. He passed away in the triumph of his
sweet, but heroic faith a few months ago. He died where he had
suffered and dared for Christ's sake, in the midst of this ignorance
and sin.
Such stories as his ought to be told. It is cowardly timidity for
those of us who know them, to keep them from the Christian public.
Heroes and heroines answer to the roll-call of A.M.A. workers. I have
met them and mingled with them, the past three years, and I know the
sinew and fibre of their courageous faith. You, who send them out, and
who support them in the field, ought to know what they endure, and
hear, now and then, an incident of their heroism.