BREADTH OF THE A. M. A. WORK.
BY REV. NELSON MILLARD, D.D.
There are certain considerations which entitle this American Missionary Association to the peculiar esteem of our churches. There are in these churches not a few who cherish a paramount, not to say an exclusive, interest in foreign missions. On the other hand, there is another considerable number who cherish a like primary and preponderant concern for home missions. Many are ready to give largely to the work abroad, but little to the domestic field, and vice versa. I regard this drawing of a sharp line of distinction and division of interest between the two departments of missionary activity as unfortunate and illogical. Foreign and home missions are in their essential nature one. Our navy, when striking at an enemy in distant seas, is in essential spirit and aim at one with our army operating within our own borders. Nevertheless, the division of feeling, however illogical, exists, and what I desire to say is, that this American Missionary Association offers itself to the earnest interest of both parties, because it combines in itself the elements of both the foreign and the home work. In carrying the gospel to the Indians and the Chinese, it is taking it to pagans. So also, in carrying it to many of the Negroes and to the poor whites of the mountain regions of the South, it is taking it to those whose ideas of religion are far more pagan than Christian, and whose gross superstition causes them to need the pure gospel as much as if they lived in India or Japan. So that this Association may be rightly regarded as a foreign missionary agency. And yet, on the other hand, these various populations to which I have referred are dwelling within our own borders, are to a considerable extent a part of our body politic, and are being more and more incorporated into it; so that the work is also home missionary in its character. And we may cordially and confidently commend this Association to our churches, because it combines both grand forms of religious enterprise. To those most interested in carrying the Gospel to pagans, we can say, “We are doing that work,” and to those centering their regard upon the evangelization of our own land, we can say, “We are laboring toward that end also.”
But this Association commends itself to us, again, because it has borne, on account of those for whom it works, a vast amount of obloquy and scorn, but, in spite of it all, has persisted in exhibiting unflinchingly the innermost spirit of the Gospel—namely, that of self-sacrifice for the peculiarly needy, and identification of itself with the cause of the outcast and forlorn. Foreign missions have not had to bear any stigma of contumely or disgrace. Home missions have even felt the favoring breath of popularity. But this Association, in espousing the cause of what many regarded as pariah and outcast classes, had to bear from certain quarters unmeasured obloquy and contempt. But it bore them not only without shrinking, but rejoicing that it was counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.
Its noble teachers and other workers, in many and constant exhibitions of splendid heroism and self sacrifice, gladly made the cause of the friendless and despised their own. They have rejoiced to illustrate that great principle of the Gospel, that we owe not simply those who have done something for us, but those for whom we can do something. And they have believed, and never failed to assert, that the most infernal of all arguments and the very spawn of hell, is that because a man is already under or inferior, therefore you may still further oppress and keep him down. That is just the reason for helping and lifting him up. All honor to a society that has had, and that has cordially accepted, the opportunity, not afforded to all benevolent enterprises, of illustrating the spirit of Christianity in the midst of obloquy and scorn.
And then, this Association commends itself to our hearty regard by the breadth and enlightenment of its views concerning the work it undertakes. It has intelligently grasped and acted upon the principle that the only effectual antidote for the gross superstition of the classes among which it labors is, in the full sense of the term, light—light educational, moral, religious. It has not believed, to its credit be it spoken, that even a little learning is a dangerous thing, but rather that it is better than none. It knows that though intelligence without faith may be perverted to evil, equally so may faith without intelligence. If the former can make an infidel, the latter can make a bigot. If the former may make an Ingersoll, the latter may make a Torquemada, between whom there is little to choose. By furnishing, as the antidote of superstition, at once secular, moral and religious light, this Association gives fundamental and radical treatment to the evil, and by the breadth and enlightenment of its views commends itself to our intelligent denomination.
Need I rehearse the grand motives which should incite us to sustain this noble society in its work? Are we patriots? Then let us take the darkened masses of our land for Protestantism, for if we do not they will be taken for Catholicism. I am not blind to the many elements of good in the Catholic church; but one fact stands out bold and prominent in her long history, viz.: that she is the foe of free institutions. To be such is the instinct of an irresponsible hierarchy. So long as the Negro was without the ballot, the Romish church paid little heed to him; but when she saw in his hand that white symbol of power, she went for him, for she takes the scent of power as quickly as the deerhound takes the tainted gale. Are we patriots? Then let us win the Freedmen to Protestantism and its liberty, if we would not have them won to the Papacy with its religious and political bondage.
Need I mention that love of man which is a higher motive even than love of country, that philanthropy which is a nobler incentive than patriotism? Or need I mention that love and loyalty to Christ, which is a motive finer than love of country and loftier than love of man? Under the mighty and splendid impulsion of all these incentives, let us count it a privilege to give ourselves, with an ever fresh and ever constant enthusiasm, to the aid of this noble Association and its noble work.