FREEDMEN’S MISSIONS AID SOCIETY.
The annual meeting of our English Auxiliary took place at Union Chapel, Islington (Rev. Dr. Allon), June 6th. The Earl of Aberdeen presided. The Rev. Dr. O. H. White read the general report of work done in the United States and to be done in Africa. The Rev. J. Gwynne Jones presented the financial statement. The total receipts had been £5,270; £4,727 had been expended in direct mission work, and the balance in hand was £205. £3,000 had been promised by Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, towards the establishment of a mission in Central Africa. The American Missionary Association had fully considered the proposal and deemed it practicable, and they desired now to raise another £3,000 in this country, trusting that they would be able to command funds in America for carrying on the work, if its outfit should be substantially secured here.
Miss Jennie Jackson, of the Jubilee Singers, then sang one of their plaintive hymns, after which the presiding officer addressed the meeting, referring to his personal observation of the slave trade in Africa. The Rev. Dr. Moffat followed, saying that he had been the servant of Africa for sixty years. Since he went out as a missionary in 1816 he had been incessantly engaged in advancing the Redeemer’s kingdom in Africa. He had had many opportunities of witnessing what the Gospel could do in Africa, and he could testify that it was the salvation of every one that believed. Mr. J. B. Gough then spoke in his usual entertaining and forcible way.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. Allon, seconded by the Rev. Dr. F. Billing, the following resolution was adopted:
That this meeting desires to express the deep sense it entertains of the favoring providence of God in connection with the education of the emancipated slaves of America, for teachers and missionaries to their own race, and also in connection with the mission work accomplished by some of the society’s students (ex-slaves) on the West Coast of Africa. And this meeting would renewedly record its conviction that in the Christian education of the Freedmen we are working in the line of a special providential arrangement for a native agency for the evangelization of Africa.