CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.
4. Its Opportunities.
DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.
We have now reached the point where attention may be well directed to the opportunity of Congregationalism for enlargement, and so for greater usefulness in the Southern States, and especially among the blacks. If the claim that our faith and polity lie in the very letter as well as spirit of the New Testament be anything more than pretense, then it is nothing less than cowardice to consent that either should be limited by lines of latitude. The other denominations have spread over the country, and have aspired to a national name and influence; but Congregationalism, until within thirty years, had hardly set foot outside of New England. It had clung to the early home, and lingered among the graves of the fathers, while other churches were pressing across the continent. Late in the contest it joined the grand march of the churches Westward, and has shown what fine work she can do as an educator and civilizer. Now the door opens Southward, and she will be recreant to every call of duty, to every impulse of patriotism and religion, if she does not widen her borders and diffuse her influence in that direction. The opportunity is before her for enlargement to the full dimensions of our country, and she should be satisfied with nothing less. The church of the Pilgrims has a right to a national name——the South has a right to any good she may have to bestow.
It has been intimated, indeed, that other churches hold the field, and that ours has no right to intrude. If the churches on the ground had fairly done all the work——had enlightened the ignorant, had lifted the degraded——there would be some place for such a sentiment. It may seem a cheap and almost contemptible thing to enter the South through the negro cabins and offer the poorest of the poor our culture and our faith. But nothing is contemptible that bears the image of the Son of God or carries His sanction. We simply follow the spirit of His own command: “If they receive you not in one city, flee ye into another.” We have no disposition to discriminate against the whites, but when they discriminate against themselves we have no alternative but to turn to the blacks. And perhaps it is as well; for if the whites had opened their hearts and their homes to receive us, what would have become of the race that needs us most of all; that showed such hunger for knowledge and eagerness for teachers as perhaps was never before seen in the history of races? As it is now, we can lay foundations at the very bottom of Southern society. It is an opportunity to be useful to those who have made themselves useful to us.
They see in our teachers and missionaries the practical illustration of human brotherhood; and they find that just so far as the doctrines we teach prevail, they are recognized as men. They only need to know us fully, to turn to us by thousands.
We have an immense advantage in this work, too, because we are not hampered by any connection with the old colored churches, and are not tempted to cater to their superstition and confusion in worship. The temptation to count members in the Annual Report, and to sweep whole congregations into the church, is very great; but, fortunately, it has not lain in our path. There were no Southern Congregational churches, and so there were no churches of our name for which we were held responsible. It was our work to prepare a pure and intelligent seed with which to plant the Southern field. We antagonized no other church; “the land was all before us where to choose.” The 5,300 laborers we have sent into the South during these seventeen years were for the negro race; and the 2,000 more we have raised up out of that race are for the instruction of their people. The foundations we have laid, therefore, have been broad, and just those needed to start the race upward.
To those who are intent on merely propagating an ism, the results up to this time may seem small compared with the outlay of men and money; but to those who look deeper, the results cannot be counted in numbers of schools or churches; the churches founded represent but a part of the spiritual outcome. The old churches have been wonderfully quickened and elevated by the incoming of large numbers of youths brought to Christ under our teaching; these have carried back a more intelligent piety and a severer standard of morals. Such a result was to be expected, and, if the old churches are to be purified and saved, is not to be regretted. In estimating the good done, therefore, we must take into account not merely the new churches planted, but the old ones enlightened and cleansed. Our mission has been, and may be, largely to leaven the old, while we build up, over the South, the churches and schools to serve as lights and guides of the people into the new and nobler future. We oppose nothing that is good; we come with no Northern name to antagonize a Southern one; we come as a new spiritual force to help all true churches, and all good people, in working out the problem of the negro’s salvation. Our right to go, then, is the right to do good as we have opportunity; is to take advantage of most favoring circumstances for enlargement and usefulness.