A WORD TO OUR WORKERS
To lead a people long crushed by oppression away from the degradations of slavery into a true and intelligent freedom, to teach those who have no inheritance of steady purpose to rise into new habits of thought and feeling, and away from the heredity of superstitions which were unrelated with morality, into a faith which really purifies the heart and the life, is not the work of a year, nor of fifty years. It means patient continuance in well doing. It means consecration, responsibility and self-sacrifice on the part of those who take upon themselves and into themselves, the sins and the sorrows, and the struggles and failures of those who are to be saved.
Nothing but a consecration that becomes a passion of the soul in Christ's love and for Christ's sake, and an abiding faith in the triumph of his kingdom of love and righteousness, will explain the earnestness and labor of the devoted souls in our mission work, who are God's kings and priests ministering to the lowly, and crowding their days with service for those who have been the victims of the strong, and who, now weak and poor, are despised in their poverty and weakness.
All honor to those who are giving themselves to break down the injustices of a cruel and unchristian caste, all honor to the noble men and women who are working to rescue millions from the woeful inheritance of centuries, as well as to save them from the dominion of the sin which is common to man.
Others may honor Kings and Queens and Princes who have had their greatness thrust upon them, but we will stand with those who accentuate their reverence for lives consecrated to the good of humanity, who are afflicted with the sorrows of God's poor, and oppressed with their burdens, and whose prayers and songs are God save the people, Their lives may not be chronicled in the pages which tell of those who lived to make others serve them, but they are shining names upon God's Book of Life, and in the day of the coronation of the nobility which God sees and records, their names will stand out like radiant stars in the heavens. One of such was JAMES POWELL, whose life was a grand sacrifice of undeviating love for those whose necessities made him feel that he was debtor to them, until he gave them the price of his life which Christ had redeemed.
Subordinating himself to this consecration with incessant desire, he has left his example which may well be inspiration and strength to all who are working and praying for those who have been trodden under the feet of the strong, and he has left his influence for tens of thousands.
In the prophecy which foretold Christ, centuries before he came it was written, "He shall not fail, nor be discouraged." Fellow workers, it is not the consecration of a year, nor of a generation, that is to restore the millions for whom we work to the places where God would bring them. The pitiless centuries cannot be redeemed in one day. Doubtless the work may seem slow and the time may seem long, but every good deed counts, and no prayer is unheard. The good work is not in vain. The progress already made is wonderful. The workers who have consecrated themselves may die in their unfinished work, but God has pledged himself that the work shall go on. His promises and his providences will work together like cogs in a wheel. We shall not fail, and we need not be discouraged. Such lives as that of JAMES POWELL are not too common in human history, but they show us how the divine can endue the human with its own power, and how God can make souls great witnesses for God. Some tell us that the heroic ages have passed away, but they have not. No! They will last until the world shall be saved, for the inspirations which come from the spirit of God and from the cross of Christ will live in hearts which will burn to save those who need to be saved.
Since the death of Dr. Powell, we have received numerous letters from all parts of the country expressing sympathy in our great bereavement, which the writers shared profoundly with us. The admiration and love entertained by the writers, and uttered in these letters, toward our beloved brother, is gratifying to us, as it is also to his family. In the pressure of duties consequent upon his death and burial, we have not found time to reply to these letters, and take this occasion to acknowledge their receipt and to express our heartfelt thankfulness to the writers.
We shall not be able to make the stirring appeals to provide for the exigent demands of our great work which our readers have been wont to recognize as coming from the heart of Dr. Powell, who had the oversight and burden of the collecting fields.
Never was our work more critical, never more urgent and never more hopeful.
The winter months, on which we must chiefly rely, are here, and are fast moving into the past. The work has been laid upon us and it would seem faithless to our sacred trust to sacrifice any part of it. But we must not take on a debt. We can only be saved from putting the knife to our work or of trying to do what we cannot pay for, if the faithful pastors of the churches will give their very present help. If the pastors who believe in the work, which includes the education and salvation of the needy among four races, will give their churches and Christian stewards a good chance to know how great the cause is and what its honest appeals are, we are confident that the Lord will deliver us from impending trouble.
We will gladly furnish every pastor, and others who will send to us for them, such facts and figures as may be helpful in representing the work. Surely we can depend upon those who love God and their country for thoughtful remembrance and ready response.
The Rev. C.J. Ryder who has been assigned to the District Secretaryship of the Eastern district for the collecting field in New England, will, upon his return from a supervisory tour in the extreme South, succeed our friend, Dr. Woodworth, in the Boston office.
It is well known to our readers that Superintendent Ryder, two and a half years ago, was induced to assume the laborious work then demitted by Rev. Dr. Roy upon a similar transfer of Dr. Roy from the Field Superintendency to the District Secretaryship of the West, with his office in Chicago. To those who have read the "Notes in the Saddle" from the South, in our magazine, written by Supt. Ryder, we need add no word of introduction. Nor need we say that he will carry into his new department of our common work the same energy, zeal and interest which has characterized the past. With his presentations of the work, and with his personal knowledge and experience of the field, and of every part of it, we anticipate for the new District Secretary a hearty welcome and co-operation on the part of our pastors and churches. The work in the South will be temporarily supervised, and arrangements have been made for this by the New York office.
In retiring from his long-time trust, the Rev. Dr. Woodworth bears with him the thanks of multitudes of God's poor in the South, and the high regard of all who have been associated in co-operative work with him. It is not impossible that he may yet see his way to add to his record of many years, still further service in another department of this varied work.