EXCHANGE OF MISSIONS.
BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.
At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, held Sept. 11, 1882, the following resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to invite a conference with the Am. Board respecting the advisability of transferring our African work to the Board, and assuming the work among the Indians now carried on by the Board.
In accordance with this vote a delegation from our Executive Committee, consisting of Drs. Ward and Roy, Mr. Mead and Secretary Strieby held an interview with the Prudential Committee of the American Board in Boston, Sept. 14, at which the proposed exchange was fully and fraternally considered. The Prudential Committee of the Board subsequently passed a resolution recommending to the Board the approval of the transfer, if all legal and other difficulties could be obviated. In response, the Board, at its late meeting in Portland, Oct. 3, passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That further arrangements for the Dakota Mission be referred to the Prudential Committee with power, but with the earnest recommendation that the whole mission be transferred to the care of the American Missionary Association, unless the practical difficulties shall prove to be insuperable.
On the 13th of October, a meeting was held in New York, of a special committee of the Prudential Committee of the Board, and of a special committee of the Ex. Com. of the A. M. A., in which the principles and methods, as well as the difficulties in the way of the transfer, were again considered.
The spirit of that meeting was not that of sharp bargaining in commercial values, but of an earnest desire on the part of Christian brethren, representing affiliated missionary societies to consummate an arrangement that would facilitate the upbuilding of the Redeemer’s Kingdom. Yet commercial values were canvassed. The Board has in its Indian missions, buildings for churches and schools, and other property, estimated at $36,000. The value of the properly of the A. M. A. at the Mendi Mission can be stated with less definiteness, but the buildings for churches, schools, and industrial work can hardly be worth as much as that of the Board in the Dakota Mission. But in addition to this property there is the fund from the estate of Rev. Charles Avery, for African missions. The points of difficulty suggested and discussed were: the legal authority of the Association to transfer this Avery fund; the continuance of the Mendi Mission by the Board; and its assumption of the Arthington Mission. On the first point—the transfer of the Avery fund—a legal opinion, very clear, and so far as could be judged, satisfactory, was obtained, of which the following is the decisive portion.
“Under the bequest thus given to the American Missionary Association, it cannot lawfully delegate to another the discretion which the testator has intrusted specifically to it. But it may delegate to others the execution of purposes which are approved by its discretion, and which are within the objects defined by the testator. It may employ the agency of its own officers and servants in the application of the income, or it may employ the agency of other organizations, as in its discretion may be most fit, useful and efficient in accomplishing the testator’s purposes.”
In regard to the second point, the Committee of the American Missionary Association expressed the wish that the Mendi Mission should be continued, while the representatives of the Board deemed it unadvisable, on account of the great enlargement of its African work recently entered upon; and on the third point, in like manner and for the same reasons, they thought the Board would be indisposed to assume the responsibilities of the Arthington Mission. No final settlement of these points was attempted, it being deemed necessary to wait until this annual meeting of the Association should, if it thought best, approve of the exchange of the missions, and, as the Board had done, remit to the Committee the authority to arrange details. With a view to securing such approval, I shall now proceed in behalf of the Executive Committee to give the reasons for the exchange of missions.
1. It is believed that the churches desire the exchange.
A living missionary society must have a vital connection with the churches. Thence mainly come its funds, and funds are as essential to it as to a bank or factory; yet if it get from them nothing but funds, it is no better than a bank or factory. It needs to be grounded in the confidence of the churches, and to be permeated in every branch and fibre by their piety and prayers. The wishes, therefore, of the churches as to methods as well as aims should be sought and heeded. Do the churches desire this change? That they do, I offer in evidence the effort made to that end in the National Council at New Haven. That effort was no sudden impulse originating in the mind of a single individual, and as suddenly laid aside by the Council. An elaborate report on the subject was presented and discussed at great length. It is true that the movement was not successful, yet it was full of significance, mainly from the character of those who pressed it. They were among the strongest and most influential men in the denomination. They were at the time outvoted, but their convictions were not changed, nor in so far as they were representative men is the weight of their testimony to be disregarded. Passing down to the present time, we come to the respectful resolution adopted by the Congregational Association of Ohio, asking for substantially this exchange. This resolution is not the work of foes, but of warmest friends, as our cordial invitation and reception here abundantly testify.
But the most convincing fact of all is the reception which has been given to the announcement of the proposed change. Almost unanimously comes to us the assurance that the exchange is heartily approved by the churches. I have said “almost” unanimously, for there have come to us, from a few old and tried friends, words of regret that we should abandon our work in Africa, so cherished in precious memories.
There may be more of sentiment than of sound judgment in this plea, but I beg the privilege of expressing my personal sympathy with the feelings of these old friends. When I think of the toils and sufferings of the workers in the Mendi Mission, of the buried dead there, and of the survivors now in this country, with shattered health, and when I think of the friends in this country and across the ocean who have sustained this mission by their prayers and offerings, I am frank to admit that it has cost me sleepless hours and a sore heart to yield my consent to part with it—unimportant as that consent may be. But in spite of all these sympathies and of old associations, the reasons for the exchange seem to me so conclusive as to leave no room for hesitation; and one of these strong reasons is the one I have just presented—the wishes of the churches.
2. The division will simplify the appeals in behalf of the two Boards.
It is a surprise that so many people know so little about Missionary and Benevolent Societies. This is sometimes simply amusing, as when at the recent meeting of the American Board in Portland, it is said that an agent of a railroad centering in Portland asked if the Am. Board was an “Odd Fellows’ Society”; and an intelligent looking man was overheard instructing his friend that they were “Freethinkers.” But the matter becomes serious when it results in the improper designation of bequests in wills and legacies. People that leave legacies to missionary societies are certainly interested in them, and might be supposed to know about them, but mistakes are constantly made that invalidate legacies and cause perplexity to heirs and loss to missionary treasuries. But it must be admitted that the present distribution of work and the appeals in its behalf foster the mistakes into which so many fall. Sec. Humphrey, for example, appears before a Western conference and in eloquent and earnest words presents the broad claim of the American Board, dwelling with emphasis on the remarkable openings in Africa, an almost newly discovered continent, and then calls for sympathy for the Indians now lifting up their hands to welcome the white man’s Bible instead of his whisky. Then follows Sec. Powell in his vigorous and breezy way, telling not only of the colored man in the South but of the wonderful land of his fathers, and follows this with a stirring appeal for the Indians! Is it not too much to expect of the average Christian that he should be able to separate these tangled branches and make each tree stand out before him in its own proper individuality?
But now, if the Am. Board, with its history of nearly three-quarters of a century and its noble work in all parts of the foreign field, is recognized as the sole agency of the Congregational churches for foreign missions; if the Am. Home Miss. Society, with its record of more than half a century, and with its field stretching from Maine to California, dotted all over with the monuments of its beneficial labors and filled with a vast and ever-expanding population, shall be the channel for distinctively home mission work; and if the American Missionary Association, with its peculiar and diversified educational and religious methods, shall be set apart to the work among the colored people of the South and among the whites as far and as fast as the vanishing of caste prejudice will permit, and also among the Indians and the Chinamen on the Pacific Slope, then will the distinction between the several societies be made clear, and Benevolence, which, like commercial capital, is cautious, will see before it open and distinct channels, through which it may pour its benefactions.
3. Providential indications point to the change. Missionary Societies, if vital and effective, are born of the Spirit, but developed in outer form and methods of work by providential events, and if their usefulness continues, they must not remain stagnant, but be obedient to the call of providential changes. The American Board once wisely embraced three denominations of Christians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed. But the growth of those denominations and of the missionary zeal in them, made it clear that each would do more good if working separately, calling out the individual responsibility of the several denominations, and the result has abundantly verified the anticipation. So, too, has the Board modified its work. The changes in its Indian missions, once reaching far South and now confined to Dakota, may be cited as an illustration, not of the Board’s fickleness, but of its wisdom.
The A. M. A. has been guided to marked changes. Its original aim was to do mission work free from all possible complications with slavery. It did not, as I understand the matter, assume that all other Boards were in favor of slavery, while it alone was opposed to it, but its founders felt that the time had come when their consciences could be no longer satisfied unless their missionary contributions and labors constituted an active and public protest against slavery. The breadth of this principle included all forms of missionary efforts, and hence the constitution of the Association provided for both home and foreign work, and in its greatest enlargement on this basis, it had about 110 home missionaries in the field, and its foreign missions extended to West Africa, Jamaica, the Sandwich Islands, Siam, the Copts in Egypt, the Indians in the United States, and the refugees in Canada. But the war changed the whole aspect of affairs for the Association. It set free the millions of slaves and gave the opportunity for reaching them directly with schools and the Gospel. The Association at once concentrated its efforts upon these people, having shortly before or soon after the war abandoned or transferred all its missions—home and foreign—except the Mendi, and this was retailed as cognate to its work among the Freedmen in this country. But now as we look back on the history of that mission, so useful up to the date when we surrendered our other foreign missions, and so comparatively unsuccessful since, we are constrained to ask if it, too, should not then have been relinquished.
Let me detail the facts: At the annual meeting in 1861, the Mendi Mission reported four stations, three outstations and seven preaching places; thirteen white missionaries on the ground, two who had just returned to America, and one under appointment—sixteen in all. Up to that date its schools and churches were prosperous, converts were added, a theological class was formed and one young man licensed to preach. And in addition to this more direct evangelical work, it has exerted a marked and happy influence in averting war among the natives, in checking the slave trade and in developing industry and commerce among the people. I find this testimony concerning a single station of the mission, that on the Boom River: “The whole trade of this river has been developed within the last ten years. It is now worth more than $40,000 a year. The coast, or slave trade to the North, has been stopped. Natives, in their own canoes, carry their produce to market, which only four years ago was bartered away for half its value. The credit for this change is due to the mission. The industry of the people has increased ten-fold through that influence.” The mission at that date was the most conspicuous work of the Association, and the account of it stands at the head of the Annual Report, and occupies seven pages. But at the close of the war, only four years later, this mission took its place at the close of the Report, occupied only a page and a half, and the sadly significant lines on that page and a half were: “The increased expense (owing to the very high rate of exchange) combined with the great demand for missionary labors among the freedmen and the absorption of young and middle-aged men in the armies of the country, has deprived the committee of the ability to reinforce the mission as it needs. For no inconsiderable portion of the year, Rev. Mr. Hinman and wife have been the only white missionaries at the mission.” For more than ten years the mission remained inadequately recruited. In 1876 we sent the loved and lamented Rev. E. P. Smith to explore the field with the view to enlargement, but, alas! he never returned to tell us the story, and his bones hallow the soil of West Africa. In 1877 we inaugurated the effort to supply the mission with the educated sons and daughters of the freedmen. From 1877 to 1881 we sent thither fourteen missionaries with five children—nineteen in all. To-day there is but one of these at the mission. Finally an effort was made to recruit the Mendi mission with well-trained colored men, but our efforts thus far have been unsuccessful. If twenty-one years ago we could have foreseen these results, could we have felt justified in going forward with the mission; and with the results now before us as history, can we hesitate to surrender it to another Board? Does not the Lord of missions seem to say to the Association: I have other work for you?
Before passing from this subject it should be stated that our experiment has been favorable as to the health of colored Americans in Africa. Of the nineteen colored missionaries sent thither since the year 1877, only three have died, one man and two women, and in none of these cases did death result directly from the effects of the climate. The retirement has in many cases been due to the ill-health of the wives. The result emphasizes the necessity of very close medical examination, especially of the women, and of maturity of judgment and character in the missionaries and of adequate preparation in study.
In 1879 Mr. Robert Arthington made to the Association the generous offer of $15,000, on condition that it would establish a mission within an area designated by him on the Upper Nile in tropical Africa. The Committee expressed gratitude to Mr. Arthington, yet feeling the responsibility of so great an undertaking, took suitable time for deliberation. Estimates were made as to the probable cost, and with all the light available, it was judged that $50,000 would equip and found the mission. The Committee then proposed to undertake the mission if our British friends would supplement Mr. Arthington’s gift with a like amount. By the efforts of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society this additional sum was secured, and in 1881 Rev. Mr. Ladd and Dr. Snow made a preliminary exploration, extending their trip 2,500 miles up the Nile, only to find, however, the rebellion of the fanatical Achmet in full career on the upper Nile, and barely escaping with their lives, descended the river to find the rebellion of Arabi Pasha just ready to break forth. The exploration was heroically and carefully made, and yet it showed clearly that nothing could then be done towards establishing the mission, nor can anything yet be attempted in the present disturbed condition of the Nile basin.
In the meantime the experience of the British missions, lately established in tropical Africa, shows us that a much larger sum than $50,000 would probably be needed to plant the mission; and, moreover, it has become more clear that the sud—a collection of soil and weeds—so impedes the navigation of the Nile above the mouth of the Sobat as to render access to the site specially designated for the Arthington Mission extremely difficult, uncertain, and, at times, impossible.
Under all circumstances it has become manifest that the farther prosecution of the effort to plant the Arthington Mission will involve the expenditure of greater sums of money, and the encountering of much more formidable difficulties than we had anticipated at the outset—and raises the question as to the wisdom of transferring the fund, with the possibilities of the mission, to another Board with larger resources and more experience, or of returning the money to the generous donors.
Turning now from this foreign work which the Committee are disposed to transfer, let me invite attention to the work which will be left to us, and which, in consequence of the exchange, if made, we can enlarge and prosecute with more vigor.
I begin with the work among the Freedmen. That work has been remarkably, continuously and increasingly successful. It has gone beyond the stage of experiment. It is planted firmly on lands and in permanent buildings, and still more firmly in the confidence of the colored people and in the respect of the white citizens. It has been among the most important levers for the elevation of the colored people, one of the strong influences in the settlement of our national problem, and a most effective instrument in the spread of the pure Gospel in the South. It has reached a point where it ought to be greatly enlarged. If Congress shall pass the bill appropriating ten millions of dollars annually among the States on the basis of illiteracy, it will give such a stimulus to common-school education in the South as to make a demand for teachers by the thousand where we and all other agencies supply only hundreds; it will do the preliminary work in the education of a population that will call for a much larger number of educated ministers; and it will give an uplift to the masses that will render leaders in business and professional life a necessity to their further progress and security. The munificent gift of a million of dollars by Mr. Slater will impart a grand impulse to the education of the colored people. It will doubtless render important help to many societies; it will come far short of meeting the full wants of any; and it would be a sad mistake, deprecated by no one more than Mr. Slater himself, if this great gift should weaken the sense of responsibility in others. Its greatest ultimate value will probably be in awakening other generous hearts to the fact that the work needs millions as well as hundreds and thousands. This people are generations behind the Anglo-Saxons in preparation for the duties of life, and they and their children need not only as great, but for the time being greater facilities to enable them to catch up in the race and then to march forward at even pace in the responsibilities and privileges of citizens and Christians. The time has come to push this great undertaking. The nation is aroused to it, and the American Missionary Association, so well prepared for it, needs only to be stripped of outer and foreign garments, and to enter with disencumbered hands and redoubled energy and means into the great work to which it has been so plainly called.
Nor by this concentration will the Association lose sight of Africa. It believes as much as ever that God means that the Freedmen have not only a great duty and destiny here, but that they have also a special call and fitness to bear the Gospel to the land of their fathers. In its schools and churches it will direct their attention to this field, and endeavor to inspire them with the missionary spirit. The only change will be in the hands that shall lead them to Africa and guide and cheer them on in the work there. The Association and the Board will work harmoniously and more efficiently to this great end, the one on this continent, the other on that.
The A. M. A. is prepared to do an enlarged work among the Indians. Popular consent in the churches supporting the Association has assigned to it especially the care of the colored races in America. There is a fitness in putting these together; they are alike alien to European blood: they are alike the victims of caste prejudice, and they alike need schools as well as churches. The Association has been the strenuous opponent of race oppression and caste prejudice, and has devoted itself to the varied modes of industrial, educational and church work needed by these races. They should no longer be regarded as the subject of foreign mission efforts. The Indians, for example, are the original inhabitants of the land, and the strenuous efforts of those most interested in their welfare are to induce the government to make no treaties with them as foreigners, but to bring them as rapidly as possible into the ranks of citizens, sharing the protection of law and holding lands in severalty. It is a hindrance to this desirable consummation if the Indians are treated ecclesiastically and religiously as foreigners. If the State makes them citizens the church ought certainly to regard them as “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens.” On the other hand, no home mission board with its simple plan for aiding in the formation of churches and the support of ministers can adequately meet their wants. They need the school and the industrial training as well as the church, and these the A. M. A. is prepared to furnish and to carry forward under the light of its ample experience in the South.
The Association is no stranger to the Indian work. At one time it had twenty-one missionaries among them. It is true that its missions were abandoned in large measure and the efforts of the Association concentrated upon the South. But precious fruits are yet gathered from that neglected planting. The Association gave its hearty co-operation to the peace policy of Gen. Grant, rendering useful service to the Government and the Indians by the appointment of some good agents, a few of whom, notwithstanding all detractions and temptations, are alive and remain unto this present. It has aided in the education of Indian youth at Hampton, and the Committee had voted for the current year a much larger appropriation for Indian work. If the Board shall transfer to it the Dakota Mission, the responsibility and the call for funds may be larger than was anticipated, but if it be the call of Providence there will be no shrinking from duty.
Caste-prejudice is the curse of most of the nations yet unconverted to Christ, and a great hindrance to the Gospel. In this country it is the bitterest force left by Slavery—bitter in him who cherishes it, and in him who suffers from it. Christianity must conquer it as it did slavery—for the world. It can do this; its love can subdue the pride of the Caucasian, and its light and power uplift the negro, the Chinaman and the Indian. To the practical preaching of this love and light must the American Missionary Association devote its concentrated efforts, till all the people of this land shall come into the fellowship of the Gospel and into the glorious liberty of the children of God.