Chapter III: Conclusion

And now what is the significance of our present condition? We are out of debt. We have the promise of a far better equipment for our work in the way of buildings. The Mendi Mission is fairly manned, and, we trust, on the way to a new and wide usefulness. The Freedmen call for all the aid we can supply. All motives of love for self, for country and for God conspire to urge us to increase our efforts for their Christian education. Africa is stretching out its right hand now, as well as the left, which we have been trying so long to fill, and Christian England comes to help us answer the plea. It has been demonstrated at length that our Southern schools may help to solve the Indian as well as the Negro problem, and the Chinaman is yet at our western gate.

Is not the voice of God to us like that He spoke through Moses to those who had just escaped the taskmasters of Egypt?—“Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward.”

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.

The Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the financial statement of the Association for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1879, as presented by the Treasurer, beg leave to report that, in the discharge of the duty assigned to them, your committee have carefully examined the accounts of the Treasurer, including a detailed statement of receipts and disbursements, also a statement of endowments and a full list of all the property owned by the Association, the correctness of which have been fully certified to by the Board of Auditors appointed by the Executive Committee.

The total receipts of the Association for the year have been $215,431.17. The cost of collecting, including the salaries of the District Secretaries and all other expenses connected with their offices, has been 5-84/100 per cent. of the amount received. The cost of publication, including the distribution of 25,000 copies per month of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, has been 4-13/100 per cent., and the cost of administration 4-97/100 per cent.

Your committee are impressed with the care, fidelity and economy shown in all departments, and can suggest no way of reducing the percentage of expenses except by enlarged contributions. It costs just as much time and just as much paper to acknowledge the receipt of $50 as it does of $100. If the patrons of the Association will double their contributions they will lessen the percentage of expenses one-half.

After long years of struggle the Association is now out of debt and ready for an advance. The machinery is in order, and the motive power necessary to keep it in motion is the earnest prayers of God’s people and a liberal supply of the money which is so rapidly finding its way to our shores. In view of the grand work which has been done and the still greater work to be accomplished, your committee desire to urge upon the friends of the Association the necessity for a large increase of contributions the coming year, so that the missionaries and laborers in this good cause may “go forward.”

JAS. W. SCOVILLE,
SAMUEL HASTINGS,
GEO. BUSHNELL,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
W. G. HUBBARD,
JOSEPH H. TOWNE,
W. J. PHELPS.

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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EDUCATIONAL WORK.

Report of the Committee on Educational Work in the South.

After speaking of the importance, the providential and varying character of the work, the report concludes:

As now conducted, the agencies of the Association are directly concerned with all grades of instruction, embracing common day schools, boarding schools, normal schools, chartered colleges, theological and other professional schools; blending also with mental, moral and spiritual culture the teaching of industrial occupations, and a training in good manners and right behavior in all relations. It seems best that the work should continue to have this multifarious character, that it may mold the whole life of this race as it rises into free manhood and full citizenship, and bring a positive religious influence to qualify the whole movement. Nevertheless, it is to be desired and expected that, in the progress of events, the way will be open for systems of public instruction to be introduced and maintained at the South which will provide for the primary education of negroes as well as white men, and so in time relieve the Association of much of its elementary work. In this matter our wisdom is to fall in with the indications of Providence, with no special anxiety either to hasten or to hinder the steps of the movement, but to do our utmost to prepare the way for wise and right action when it comes.

As a missionary society we must for a long time give chief attention to the education of teachers and preachers for the colored people. That must be done at the South, for Christianity and civilization can never be regarded as fully established among a people till from among themselves, in their own home country, are drawn out trained teachers, leaders and ministers of religion. Our normal schools, colleges and theological seminaries must, therefore, absorb, in large measure, the vigorous efforts and resources of this Association, that the foundations of these institutions may be strengthened and their courses of instruction advanced and improved, and especially that aid maybe judiciously extended to the young men and women who come out of great poverty to seek the advantages of these institutions and to offer themselves for the service of Christ among their own people.

The report very fitly emphasizes this last-named need, and we do earnestly commend it to the consideration and timely beneficence of our churches.

The report shows unmistakable tokens of the Divine favor to this department of our work during the last year. Notwithstanding the pressure of hard times and the embarrassment of debt on our Association, the work has been steadily maintained, the number under instruction has been kept up, and in the normal schools largely increased; the standard of scholarship in the higher institutions has been advanced; strong testimonials of appreciation of the quality of the education given from Southern men of standing and influence, and from Northern visitors, have been multiplied; and above all, God, by the precious work of His Spirit on the souls of students in nearly every one of the institutions under charge of the Association, has owned this work, and taken it into full identification with the plan of His redeeming providence. For all this let our devout thanks be given to Him who permits us to co-operate in His good work of mercy for a lost world.

As we enter on a new year of this missionary labor, the signs are full of encouragement and hope. The Association is free from debt, with money in its treasury. A Christian lady has pledged a large benefaction for providing much needed material accommodations for this educational work; the rising sentiment of our nation is demanding new guarantees for the rights of the oppressed Freedmen; old obstacles to the work are giving way, and the return of financial prosperity gives promise of larger means at the disposal of our churches for the Master’s work. May we not hope, also, that a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost upon the churches, upon the executive officers of the Association, and upon the whole working force of missionaries, teachers and helpers on the field, may inspire all with a new spirit of holy consecration, and lead on this educational work in a movement, fresh and strong, towards the consummation which we seek and which the Lord designs? For this let us fervently pray.

A. L. CHAPIN,
G. B. WILLCOX,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
THOS. N. CHASE,
J. BRAND,
S. D. COCHRAN.

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CHURCH WORK.

Report of the Committee on Church Work in the South—Abbreviated.

The annual report of the condition and work of churches in the South under the care of this Association gives occasion for gratitude and encouragement; for, while the numbers in themselves seem not large, we are to remember that the work is comparatively a recent one. In 1864 there were but four churches under the fostering care of this body; in 1869, only twenty-three; while now they have grown to sixty-seven, with 4,600 members; 745 of these members were added to the churches during the past year, and 85 per cent. of the additions were on profession of faith.

It is much to have 6,219 pupils in Sunday-schools, being drilled in the first principles of Divine truth and into a better knowledge that religion must mean righteousness. And when we remember that the 7,207 scholars in the other schools are all under positive religious influence of the sort we are accustomed to, and the 150,000 pupils taught by teachers who have been trained in the schools of the American Missionary Association are indirectly receiving something of the same influence, we must feel that the religious work of this Association in the South is a large one.

A thoroughly good work has been done during the year in “edifying the churches,” building them up into a sturdier virtue, more rational views, and a more intelligent zeal. They are evidently growing in the features of a healthy church life. At several points there has been very encouraging progress in the matter of self-help, in building churches and supporting the ministry—a point of prime importance in the development of self-respect and manly ability. There has been an awakened interest and effort in the temperance reform, aiding to correct vices which have been the Freedmen’s besetting sins. There has been a marked improvement in the homes of the colored people, influenced by the personal visitation of devout and sympathetic women who have gone South for this very purpose. Following this hint, it is suggested by some that perhaps Christian colored women, trained in our institutions, of tried discretion and tact, maybe found fitted for a similar work among their own class, and may find a large usefulness opening to them as city missionaries. These churches, too, in the expression of fellowship at formal ordinations, and in the wide-awake meetings of their seven conferences, have done something to promote that spirit of co-operation which the colored man needs to learn.

But while we must give special care to the nurture and training of these infant churches, and while it were to the last degree unwise to rush into every opening and organize new churches indiscriminately at every point where it may easily be done, it is an important question whether the time has not arrived when we may wisely do more in this direction than hitherto. We have fortified our strategic points and entrenched ourselves in educational fortresses that form a cordon of arsenals all around the field, to supply material of war. Shall we not now deploy the troops to feel the way forward, and, pushing out from our base of supplies, begin to occupy the land?

A variety of reasons easily suggest themselves for giving greater prominence to this part of the work. The educational needs of the colored race seemed to demand it. With unquestionable wisdom this Association lays chief stress upon its educational work in the South; but it should not be forgotten that the Church is a leading factor in that work. The schools help the churches. Twenty or more of the churches are in more or less close connection with the colleges and schools of this society, and they are among the best and the most flourishing. The more the negro is educated the better he likes our style of religion, and the better he makes it work.

Moreover, the young ministers we are training need them as fields. And now that we are raising up a conscientious, godly and well-instructed class of pastors, where shall they find flocks unless this Association gathers them?

Again, Dr. Strieby’s admirable paper last year showed that wherever these churches exist, the thrift and material prosperity of the colored man is greatly increased. He gains in self-respect, economy, foresight, patience. He has a better home and more money, and is every way more of a man. Now thrift is a potent civilizer, and if we would help the negro in this respect we can do it largely through the churches.

It is to such churches, too, that we may look for recruits for that great missionary work in the dark continent which now begins to open before the Christian world with such magnificent opportunity. We look for new Livingstones among our colored brethren of the South, and there is a call for them. The eyes of English missionary societies are fixed upon the open door of Africa, and it seems probable that they will want to send out and support all the well-qualified colored missionaries we can furnish. But this cannot be done unless there is a greatly increased missionary spirit among the colored people themselves; and to cultivate this missionary spirit we need more churches.

Nor will it do to excuse ourselves from this work on the plea that there are other churches in the South to which the negro, by immemorial traditions and long association, is better accustomed, and still others which may be at first more attractive to him than ours. The question is not, what would the untutored negro prefer, but what will best secure his development and help him to a nobler life and character. The other method of argument would surrender him to the Roman Catholics at once.

As a matter of fact, the introduction of these churches of the pilgrim sort is found to have worked well in two directions. It improves our somewhat frigid method to be warmed up with the African ardor; and it improves the negro to be toned down and disciplined to self-control by our methods. A sound, healthy religious life has been developed in many of our churches in ten years, which could not have been developed in fifty years in those churches where the ebullient spirit of the negro is allowed to run to riotous excess unchecked.

It is a noteworthy fact also that our churches have had a large influence upon the other churches about them. They have been recognized as presenting a higher type of piety and character. Their quiet methods of worship have made the boisterous methods of their neighbors unfashionable. Their higher moral standards have been a tonic to the conscience in the others. They have set the negroes to clamoring for an educated ministry.

While, then, we would not multiply churches for the mere sake of multiplying them, we deem the time opportune for laying new stress upon this part of the work. We would increase our constituency in the South in Christian churches which shall share with us in the work of education and in home missionary endeavor, and in the newly-opening foreign field; and we would ever remember that to elevate the negro we must keep him in the glowing presence of the cross, red with the heart’s blood of Divine love, and of the crown, which may be his as well as his white brother’s, in that great kingdom where there is neither white nor black, but where “Christ is all and in all.”