The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888

by Various

ENDOWMENT FUNDS.

Estate of Rev. Benjamin Foltz, late of Rockford,
Ill., in part …$500.00
Howard Carter, of Baldwinsville, N.Y., for
Education of Students for the Ministry …500.00
————- 1,000.00

* * * * *

The receipts of Berea College, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and Atlanta University, are added below, as presenting at one view the contributions for the general work in which the Association is engaged:

American Missionary Association …$320,953.42
Endowment Funds …1,000.00
——————- $321,953.42
Berea College …13,908.30
Hampton N. and A. Institute …70,379.44
Atlanta University, (not acknowledged in
above account) …7,955.00
—————-
Grand Total, $414,196.16
===========

H.W. HUBBARD, Treasurer,
59 Reade Street, New York.

* * * * *

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.

* * * * *

REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL WORK.

BY REV. LEWELLYN PRATT, D.D., CHAIRMAN.

The report of the Educational Work of this Association shows steady advance, in spite of straitened means. New responsibilities have been assumed in consequence of gifts of school buildings, and of the appeals from the people themselves, taxing—beyond the receipts from the churches—the resources of the Association.

An important feature of the Educational Work is represented in the twenty Normal Schools, from which have gone out seven thousand young men and women now engaged in teaching at the South. It is probable that nearly half a million of scholars have been under their care. These, together with the Normal Departments in our chartered institutions, Talladega College, Atlanta University, Straight University, Tillotson Institute, Tougaloo University and Fisk University, (with Hampton Institute, Berea College and Howard University, formerly under the care of the Association) are doing a great work in training teachers, as well as leaders in industrial pursuits and in the professions of the law and the ministry.

In all these, the fact, now so generally received in mission work, is fully recognized, that the leaders and teachers of a people must be found among themselves. They have abundantly proved their eagerness for education, their capacity for scholarship and leadership, and their ability to meet the problems resting upon the future of their race and of the nation. This is true, also, of the schools among the Indians and the Chinese.

Still, the work done by the Society and by all other agencies—State and denominational—has not kept pace with the growth of population, and official statistics in some portions of the South show that the percentage of illiteracy is steadily increasing. In Louisiana, for instance, in the last eight years—i.e., from 1880 to 1888—the number of illiterate voters increased from 102,933 to 126,938, changing the relative percentage from 52.3 per cent. who could read and write, and 47.7 per cent. who could not read and write—in 1880—to 49.2 per cent. who can read and write and 50.8 per cent. who cannot read and write in 1888. During that period, of the new white voters a majority were illiterate (7.502 : 7.609); of the new negro voters ten out of eleven were illiterate (1.588 : 16.387). Facts such as these call for great enlargement in the direction of common school education, and the number of teachers; make imperative demands upon State Governments; and lead many to appeal to the National Government for relief. They certainly justify the efforts of this Association and necessitate a great increase of the yearly contributions from churches and individuals. Measures should be taken to supplant the notion that by moderate annual contributions to ordinary schools for a few years the great task can be accomplished of lifting up a race that had been held in bondage for centuries, that started in its career of freedom in absolute destitution and that pursues its course here under many disabilities; and preparing liberators, missionaries, guides and saviours for the Dark Continent.

At the same time, it is the belief of your committee that the pressing need of the hour is the fuller development of the leading institutions already established and larger equipment for the arduous work set before the American people in our Southern States. For this end, steps should be taken towards securing their permanent endowment. While in every way the general work of reaching the masses and saving them from their illiteracy is to be pressed, the time has come to place these leading schools upon a firmer foundation and to make them more conspicuous as centres. For this they need to be amply endowed and maintained with steadily advancing educational courses, suited to giving those who are to become the leaders of a great people a broad and comprehensive education, abreast with the best in the times in which they are to do their work.

It is time to take comprehensive views and to plan for years to come. Neither this generation nor the next is to see the end of the special work to be done to fit the freedmen successfully to meet the conditions of their freedom. It has required centuries to qualify the Anglo-Saxon people for freedom; and we must expect that generation after generation will pass, even with the benefits of our experiments, experience and methods, before this people, upon whom the duties of free men have been thrust, can successfully discharge them. There is call for great patience, for far-reaching plans, for large beneficence. This question of the training of these eight millions of people is one of the most difficult set before the American people, and is worthy of the best thought of statesmen, patriots, philanthropists and Christians.

For our encouragement is the ardor of the people themselves; their readiness to receive an education; their position in a republic now far advanced; the progress already made; the growing interest in the States where they are most numerous to provide for them the means of a common school education; the army of teachers already in the field.

Believing in a wise Providence over-ruling the present and the future, we regard the problems before us, though great, not insoluble to faithful, wise and patient Christian effort along the lines upon which this Association has wrought.

We commend the wisdom and the foresight of this Association in the planting of these institutions of learning in favorable positions, its judicious economy in their management and its great skill in steadily advancing their scope and capability with insufficient resources and equipment. Upon these foundations the work should be carried on, and large and permanent universities should be reared; and we commend these to the Christian people for increased annual gifts and larger permanent endowments that the great undertaking fail not.

* * * * *

REPORT ON CHURCH WORK.

BY REV. DAVID GREGG, D.D., CHAIRMAN.

The report of your Executive Committee on church work submitted for our review is very brief. There is a statement or two and a few figures. It puts things in the very best light, and uses figures in the most telling way. Its very brevity should act as a call to the churches for more means, and more men, and more prayer, and more enterprise. If the churches had done more there would have been more to tabulate.

The report reads: Four new churches organized; 972 added to Christian fellowship; 2 church edifices built; 1 church edifice enlarged; 2 parsonages built; a one-year-old church the centre of four Sunday-schools filled with scholars who never before attended religious instruction, and ten churches blessed with a revival of religion.

Four new churches organized! Only four? And yet the territory awaiting churches holds twelve States, and each State is an empire. Only four? And yet the darkest spot in the republic is crying for the light of the Gospel. Only four? And yet three-fourths of the illiteracy of the whole nation must be grappled with. Four new churches versus ten millions of immortal souls! What are these among so many? This is the question which the report of the American Missionary Association for 1888 sends through the length and breadth of American Congregationalism.

To keep us in cheer the Executive Committee puts these facts by the side of the four new churches:

First—"In each school" (and there are seventy-six schools) "we have an incipient church." This predicts a golden future. "Each school is a torch of Christ in a dark place." This means advancing illumination.

Second—There are one hundred and thirty-two old churches fully organized and completely vitalized. All of these are centred at strategic points.

Third—There is a living army of 8,452 adults, and of 17,114 children carrying the banner of the Lord. These give themselves, and give their substance, to the cause of Christ, and to the good of their fellowmen, in a way worthy of emulation.

Fourth—These churches and this army are under, and are led by pastors who are for the most part the children of this Association. This means thorough equipment, and discipline, and effectiveness, and aggressive work.

When we look at what has been done in the line of church work in our vast field, and compare it with our limited resources, we are satisfied and speak the praises of the noble men and women in the field and in the office. We have garnered fruit grandly proportionated to the planting. But when we look at the work which has been done and contrast it with what remains to be done, we are far from being satisfied. Instinctively we are impelled to repeat the call of the prophet in the hearing of the Church of Christ: "Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Proportioning the means used to the products reaped, we look forward with hope, expecting a future that shall correspond with the promises of God. The statistics in this department of the Association's labors may look like "Holy Trifles;" and comparatively they are "Holy Trifles;" but so is the "handful of corn" in the Messianic psalm, which depicts the future growth of Christendom. The things tabulated in these statistics are the "handful of corn" in our Southland, but as we contemplate them, we may use the old, old song of the church and sing ourselves into an ecstasy: "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like the cedars on Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth. His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him and all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen."

* * * * *

REPORT ON MOUNTAIN WORK.

BY REV. G.S. BURROUGHS, CHAIRMAN.

Your committee, to whom those portions of the General Survey relating to the work of the Association among the mountain whites has been referred, are strongly convinced that this work is one of great and growing importance. We rejoice in the evidence that such is also the conviction of the management of the Association.

The territory occupied by these mountain people, consisting of between three and four hundred counties, covers an area twice the size of New England. Its population is equal to that of New England, excepting Massachusetts. Its resources, in mineral deposits and in valuable timber, are varied and rich. It is being rapidly opened up to trade, and thus indirectly to civilization. Its inhabitants are ready to welcome outside influences, and they are in large degree susceptible of those that are good. These facts, we believe, cannot receive too careful attention.

We are deeply impressed with the great destitution of these people as regards intellectual, moral and spiritual things. Poor in the extreme as far as their physical wants are concerned, they are still poorer in reference to the wants of their minds and souls. So great is their poverty in these particulars, that, in large measure, they do not, until approached in Christian kindness, realize it. They are without education, and without true religion; without schools and without churches. Practically, they do not know the Sabbath; they are in utter want and ignorance of those ordinary means of grace which are as familiar to us as the sunshine and the rain. The violence and social confusion which are to be expected under these circumstances are prevalent.

Your committee rejoice that the day of small things, in our work in this field, is already becoming the day of larger things, with a wide outlook into a permanent and brighter future. In two normal schools, two academies, five common schools and twenty churches the few loaves and fishes seem to be at hand. "But what are they among so many?" We are grateful for the enlargement which the past year has disclosed, for the new church and school building, find the rapidly advancing dormitory and boarding hall at Pleasant Hill, Tenn., and for the slightly increased accommodations in the Grand View Normal Institute, but we see clearly that enlargement only necessitates greater enlargement. The meagreness of the supply renders the destitution more manifest. The little which has been done, and well done, only gives louder voice to the demand to do.

One of the most encouraging features of the work, and one which we believe should be particularly emphasized, is the possibility of its comparatively speedy self-support, if it be pushed forward rapidly. It is a work which must be done to-day, and it can be done because these people, even in their poverty, will do their part. This is abundantly shown, not only by their disposition regarding it, but also by their deeds in its behalf.

The influence of the work among the mountain whites upon the general Southern work of the Association should be carefully recognized. Here is a vantage point which can be carried, and which must be carried for the success of our great campaign in the South. To neglect this present duty is to be culpable regarding the future of the Association's activity. Problems of caste and questions bound up with them, can, at least in part, be settled in this field. Those needed concrete illustrations, which will tend most powerfully toward their general settlement, can here be furnished. We do not believe that the conquest of the West is of more importance to our Home Mission work than is the conquest of these Southern highlands to that of the A.M.A. It is our opinion, therefore, that there should be in this department steady and rapid advance, and that it should no longer be tided along.

We fear that the facts regarding the peculiar character of this mountain work are not sufficiently known, and that its bearing upon the general work of the Association is not adequately realized.

We feel that a special examination of this field may wisely be commended to those who would devise liberal things with a view to special gifts for institutions of learning. The church and the school, the missionary and the teacher must go together into this territory. Who will place a Christian college among the mountain whites?

We give thanks for the spared life of a trusty and consecrated worker in this field. With the earnest prayer for means to send and employ them, let there be joined the petition for many workers possessed of a like spirit of earnestness and fidelity.

* * * * *

REPORT ON INDIAN WORK.

BY S.B. CAPEN, ESQ., CHAIRMAN.

It is not the intention of your committee to spend more than a moment of the time allotted to it in speaking of the details of the work of this Association among the Indian tribes.

It is a pleasure to note in the Executive Committee's report that it is in the fullest sympathy with the increased and increasing interest in the solution of our Indian problem. It has more scholars under its care than ever before, and is steadily increasing its buildings and its facilities for doing its work. The four new stations provided for at the Northfield gathering call especially for our gratitude. But why enlarge upon these particulars?

The work of this Association has been spread before the Christian world in so many reports that all know of its great success. Its preachers and teachers, who have given their lives to this work with such courage and devotion, are also known, and it only needs to be said in a word, that the year that has closed and whose review is now being taken, has been one of great blessing and power. We approve of what it has done and we commend it for the future without reserve.

We would rather occupy our time, if we may, in looking at this whole Indian question, hoping that we may arouse a more universal interest, and cause, thereby, to flow into the treasury of this Society the funds which shall enable it to enlarge and broaden its work and hasten the complete Christianizing of our Indian tribes.

For let it be said while I have your freshest attention, that it is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not education or civilization, that is to solve this problem; and all I have to say is to lead up to this thought. Wherever modern civilization without religion has touched the barbarian it has been to curse him.

The blood of every American ought to tingle at the thought of the foul stain upon our national honor because of the treatment the Indian has received.

General Sherman has told us that we have made more than one thousand treaties with him, but the United States Government has never kept one of these treaties, if there was anything to be made by breaking it; and the Indian has never broken one, unless he has first had an excuse in some cruel wrong from the white man. No wonder that the Sioux have hesitated to sign their treaty. Do you not blush at one of the reasons for this hesitation? Because they doubt whether we can be trusted. This boasted American Republic is to them a nation of liars.

I am glad to speak for these men who have been, so cruelly wronged. Here before we had any rights, they have been steadily driven back before our civilization as it has advanced from the Atlantic and Pacific shores. While our ears have ever been open to the cry of distress the world over, the silent Indian moan has passed, too often unheeded. We have made him a prisoner upon the reservation, and when we have wanted his land we have taken it and put him on some we did not want just then. His appeal, when in suffering and distress, has been stifled by those who can make the most money out of him as he is; and if hungry and in desperation he leaves his reservation, we shoot him. We have put him in the control of an agent, whose authority is as absolute as the Czar's. We have kept from him the motive to be different and he has been literally a man without a country and without a hope. Multitudes of people say, "Oh, yes, the Indian has been wronged," but it makes very little impression upon them. It is much the same feeling that the worldly man has who acknowledges, in a general way, that he is a sinner, but it does not touch him sufficiently to lead him to act. Will you bear with me in giving some facts, with the hope that all may feel that this is not a merely sentimental, indefinite sort of a subject for philanthropists and "cranks," and a few women, but one in which each of us has some personal responsibility. He is your brother and mine, in need, and we owe him a duty. Some years ago Bishop Whipple went to Washington pleading in vain for the Indians in Minnesota. After some days' delay the Secretary of War said to a friend, "What does the Bishop want? If he comes to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity, tell him we all know it. Tell him also—and this is why I recall this fact, more true than when it was first spoken—tell him also that the United States never cures a wrong until the people demand it; and when the hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved." Then let us try to arouse the people to demand it.

And I beg you to notice, that the wrongs are not of the past, but of the present. Those who say otherwise have either not examined the facts or else they are deceived. While there has been much progress made since General Grant's administration, the machinery of our Indian affairs in its last analysis seems to be largely yet a scheme to plunder the Indian at every point. Its mechanism is so complicated that there are comparatively few who understand the wrong, and these seem almost powerless. While there are many men in the Government employ of the best intentions, there is always a "wicked partner" who contrives, somehow, to rob the Indian.

He is wronged: (1) In his person. Let me illustrate. Go with me to Nebraska. An Indian, upon one of our reservations, injured his knee slightly. There was a physician who was paid a good salary by the Government, but when asked to visit this man he refused to go. The poor sufferer grew worse and worse, till the limb became rotten and decayed: his cries could be heard far and near in the still air, yet the physician heeded not. A friend was asked to take a hatchet and chop off the limb. In agony he died, the physician never having once visited him. That was a brother of yours in America. A short time ago, in Southern California, lived an Indian in comfort, upon a lot of ten acres upon which he had paid taxes for years. The land about him was sold, but no mention was made of his lot, as his lawyers told him it was not necessary and the purchasers promised he should never be disturbed. Within a few months, however, a suit was brought for his ejectment, and in the midst of the rainy season, this old man of 80, his wife and another woman of nearly the same age, were put out of their home. They were thrust with great cruelty into a wagon, left by the roadside without shelter and without any food, except parched corn, for eight days. The wife died of pneumonia, and the old man is a homeless wanderer. Why this cruelty? Because there was a spring of water on his land which the white man wanted. This was in America.

2. In his property. Let me illustrate again. In North Dakota one of the tribes asked that they might have some barns. The request was granted: the lumber, valued at $3,000, was bought in Minneapolis, and the freight charges, which ought to be about $1,500, were $23,000. A little clerk in Washington that belongs to the "ring" "fixed it" in this way.

In the Indian Territory an Indian worked hard all summer, and in the fall carried his grain to market, delivered it to an elevator, and than the owner turned around and refused to pay him, and the poor man had to go home without one cent. It was the worst kind of robbery. If that man had been a German, or Swede, or a howling Anarchist of any nation under the heavens, we would have protected him, but an Indian has no rights in America.

A man who has been the private clerk of one of our highest Government officials was appointed an Indian Agent. The Indians on that reservation were having their lumber taken from them at a price much less than its value, and notwithstanding their protests, it went on, the Agent refusing to listen. They complained then at Washington, and the Government appointed one of the most corrupt of men as an inspector. When he visited the reservation he asked for the witnesses at once. They asked for a reasonable time to get them together. This was refused and they asked for two days, and when this was denied they asked for one. In their dilemma and haste they got one Indian near-by to testify. The Agent himself broke down this man's testimony, because he had been at fault two or three years before, in a way which did not affect, in the slightest degree, his statement now, and the inspector at once returned to Washington and decided against the Indians! It was a fraud and a farce.

3. In the helpless condition in which we have left him, he has a new wrong now, because when he votes he is of political importance. If you will read "Lend A Hand," you will find an illustration where the Indians in North Carolina had become citizens and had votes, and because those votes were cast against the powers that be, they were willing to go all lengths, even to closing the schools, in order to accomplish their purposes.

And this is to be more and more a vital question, as more and more they are becoming citizens. We talk about "dirty politics!" Is it not a proper name, when, in order to get votes, schools are to be closed and children left in ignorance?

4. There is no earnestness of purpose in a majority of the Government officials to protect him from wrong. To show exactly what I mean; recently, in Southern California a lot of land grabbers took from the Indians their land. When private individuals ascertained the facts, complaint was made and an order was issued for their removal. The time fixed was March 1st. On July 1st inquiry was made, and the agent said the order had been carried out. But individual examination showed the settlers to be there still, and five saloons open in defiance of law.

In a similar way recently, the representative of one of our philanthropic societies had arrested an agent who had committed a crime. It was so clear a case that he was found guilty at once. Let us hear this travesty of justice. The law required a fine and imprisonment both. The fine was placed by the Judge at twenty-five cents, which the Judge paid himself. The term of the imprisonment he made one day, and told the Sheriff to allow the jail, in this case, to be the agent's own comfortable home. Shall we be obliged to constitute Law and Order Leagues to see that the laws of the United States are executed?

This is the awful background as the starting point for this discussion. Some people question whether or not there is a personal devil. If any man would study the Indian question he would be convinced there was not one only, but a whole legion of them.

But, friends, so long as these are facts, there is an Indian question, and there is going to be one until these things are settled. There is nothing ever settled in this world till it is settled right. In the progress that has been made in opening up the possibility to the Indian, of civil rights, we may be inclined to relax our efforts in his behalf. The passage of the Dawes Land in Severalty Bill was, indeed, a great day for the Indian. It opens the door by which he can have a home on land of his own and become a citizen, with all the privileges thereof. Here, at last, is solid ground upon which he can stand. But we must not forget that that bill is but the commencement of what is needed. He is but a child with new rights truly, but in his ignorance he does not know what they are. He is surrounded by enemies as before. While he has the law and the courts, the nearest Judge may be one hundred to three hundred miles away. He must be brought more under the care of the judiciary.

The Indian Bureau, as at present constituted, cannot do for him what he needs. This is a part of the political machine, and its appointees are selected because they have done good service as ward politicians. It has been well said that such a Bureau is no more fitted to lead these people aright than Pharaoh was to lead the Israelites out of their house of bondage.

To show how even some good men fail to comprehend the situation is evidenced by the proposed "Morgan Bill," which in its practical working would give the Indian Agent—already a despot—even more power than before. By that bill he is made chief Judge, with two Indians as associate Judges; and the agent is given power to select the jurors when a jury is demanded. What a travesty of justice, to make the present agent a judge and give him power to select the jury. With such a bill the friend of the Indian may well say: Oh Lord, how long! We must demand that all Indians, whether on the reservations or not, shall be given full protection of righteous laws, and that the tyrannical methods of the past shall forever cease.

But, with the solid ground of the Dawes bill beneath, and the further protection of the judiciary certain to be given at no distant day, he needs, more than all else besides, the Christian school and the Christian church. He now has "Land." If we are earnest and persistent he will soon have "Law." But, most of all, does he need "Light," and that light which is from above. All the laws we may enact the next hundred years will not change the character of a single Indian. To a considerable extent he is a superstitious pagan still. He needs Jesus Christ. He needs to learn the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. As it is a part of the Indian man's religious belief that his god does not want him to work and he will be punished if he does, it is especially necessary to touch his religious nature first. When he accepts the Christian's God, then he will be ready to go to work for himself. The taking up of the hoe and the spade is his first confession of faith. What has already been accomplished through the new laws giving him his civil rights, puts an added responsibility upon the church. It is the Indian's last chance. Our further neglect is his certain death. Shall we leave him with his "Land and Law" without God? Do we realize that we have lived with these original owners of our soil for more than two and one-half centuries, and yet, today, there are sixty tribes who have no knowledge of Jesus the Christ? Shall we allow longer such a stain? I know well the pressure of various claims in religious work at home and abroad, but in the light of what has been said, is not the duty of Christianizing the Indians a debt of honor, a "preferred claim," which should take precedence over others? In this way only can we partially atone for our "century of dishonor."

The history of the past few months, and the famous order with regard to the use of the vernacular, ought to arouse the church to new efforts. The probable instigators of it are known to friends of the Indian, and it shows the necessity of increased activity on our part. The order was despotism itself, and would have done credit to a Russian Czar. It was a blow aimed at the Indian's highest religious interests, and the President of the United States, instead of explaining and translating it, should have recalled it as an act unworthy of Christian civilization in the nineteenth century. Everything is still done to hamper the Protestant missionary work. The A.M.A. has a theological school, and the Government allows (?) it to teach a theological class; but, when the students are chosen and ready to come, the Government agents prohibit their coming. We have a young man who has been waiting for a year for a permit from Washington. The same obstructive policy meets us when we try to get pupils under the Government school contracts. And even after we have obtained the order from the Government to procure the pupils from a given agency, the Government will, at the same time, instruct the Agent to let no pupils go till the Government schools are full. In this way the Christian Indian parent has taken from him the right to send his child where he desires, for the Government stops his rations and annuities if he refuses to send to the Government school. The vote recently passed at the General Association of Congregational Churches in South Dakota ought to be taken up and echoed through the land, protesting against the assumption, by the Administration, of the right to control our missionary operations, dictating what pupils may attend our schools, or what language may be used in them.

In conclusion, let us gird ourselves anew for the struggle that is before us, to fight the enemies of Protestant Christianity, entrenched as they are in our Government, the Indian ring, the cattle kings, the land grabbers and the thousands whose selfish interest it is to keep the Indian ignorant. This is no holiday affair; it means earnest, determined work. We must give the Indian the Gospel of the Son of God as his only safeguard for the life that now is as well as that which is to come. Civilization, education alone can never lift the Indian to his true position. You may take a rough block of marble and chisel it never so skillfully into some matchless human form, and it is marble still, cold and lifeless. Take the rude Indian and educate him, and he is still an Indian. He must be quickened by the breath of the Almighty before he will live. It is religion alone which can lead him to the truest manhood, which will quicken his slumbering intellectual faculties and prevent him from being an easy prey to the selfishness and sinfulness of men. Let us support this society in its grand work, by our money, our sympathy and our prayers. Let us join in the fight, and by-and-by we will share in the triumph. Dr. Strieby, you can remember just before this society was formed, that it was a disgrace to be an abolitionist. It is a glory now. The day is not far distant, yea, its light is already breaking in the western sky, when it will be considered equally glorious to have helped save our Indian brother, by leading him back again to God. And while we are doing it, and as a means to this end, we must try to get this Indian ring by the throat and strangle its life. It has lived long enough on the blood of the Indian; let it die, and we will never say "the Lord have mercy on its soul," for it has none. If you have never been interested in the matter before, begin to-day; if you have never helped before, help now. Get in somewhere, get in quick, get in all over; do not stand around the edges looking on and criticising others; be sure you get your pocket book open, and send the Treasurer of the Association double what you did last year; do something, do anything. We have been playing at missions long enough. With our great wealth it is a disgrace that this work was not completed long ago. With an aroused and awakened Church the whole problem will be solved, for there will be no more Indians, but only brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

Let us fear nothing, God is with us and we shall triumph.
"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."

* * * * *

REPORT ON CHINESE WORK.

BY REV. SIMEON GILBERT, D.D., CHAIRMAN.

1. Is it worth while to attempt Christian missions among the Chinese in our own country?

2. If so, of how much importance is it?

3. Who should do it?

4. If anything is to be done by us, how much should be done?

5. And is there any case of urgency about it?

To the first question we answer: Yes, verily! It is worth while. There is no form of Christian missions within the circuits of the earth more worthy of being done, and of being done with all possible alacrity and vigor, than this. The American Missionary Association is exactly the Society to do it. It is the glory of this Society to hasten to the rescue of the despised and the exceptional races and classes in our own land. It has already done grand things toward the evangelization of the Chinese among us. It has set an example, most conspicuous in the eyes of all the people, of definitely planning to make known to this peculiar people the Gospel of Redemption; a Gospel whose supreme peculiarity it is, that it is fitted to meet the inmost necessities of all men, of all men alike.

The success in winning the disciples of Confucius to the cross and the grace of Christ has been signal enough to show how completely practicable the undertaking is.

If it were not worth while to press our missionary effort among the Chinese right here in America, it would be absurd to talk of missionary effort among the Chinese in China. The importance of this work cannot be measured by its bulk. Nor is it to be estimated by any census of countable immediate results. It is a kind of work, which, according as it is done, or left undone; or as it is done with slack and nerveless hand or with vim and vigor, will test the very character of our churches; will touch the conscience and well-being of the nation; and will, without a doubt, have vital and decisive connection with the future of that most populous empire on the globe.

There is China, with its four hundred million souls, subject to a single sovereign—a heathen empire. Here is America, Christian America; the foremost republic among the nations, and soon to be the leading power among the Governments of the earth. It holds already the position of moral leadership in the far East. What shall be done with this leadership? Right here in our midst are some two hundred thousand representatives of that empire, every one of whom with hardly an exception hopes some time to return to his native Orient. What will the Christianity of America do for them?

There is an unmistakable providence of God in the presence, in the country, at such a time as this, of so many representatives of the great empire. Such providences are to be reverently heeded. They are as the banners of the Almighty, meant to lead forth His loyal people to the gracious conquest of the world. As for ourselves, what are we disposed to do about it?

This conquest of the world for Christ is not to be achieved by hap-hazard dashes. There is need of transcendent wisdom in the strategic methods of the campaign. We have not wisdom enough for this except as we have the wisdom to note which way the manifest hand of God is pointing for us. Then is the time for assurance, for obedience, and for enthusiasm in the fullest meaning of the term.

A few thousand Chinamen are here. The Chinese Empire is open to us—and more too! To doubt the practicability of the Christianization of the Chinese would be treason to the Gospel of Christ; would be blindness to the facts of Christian history, as well as to the foreshadowings of prophecy.

The success already in this department of the work of the American Missionary Association has been signal enough to amount to a demonstration. If suitably reinforced and pushed it might presently be made vastly greater than it has as yet been.

It is the glory of this Society to do precisely this kind of work. All its history and traditions, all the confidences and affection of the people in our churches toward it, favor the most resolute pushing forward of what has been undertaken.

The reactionary effect of this peculiar form of home-foreign mission work upon the Christian character and culture of our own people is of importance; of too much importance for it to be either safe or wise for us to neglect it. Suppose this work were to be neglected, this duty ignored, this clear providential summons slighted, what a mockery it would be of our professed zeal for foreign missions. The spectacle of what the Society is doing for the Chinese, especially of what it ought to have the power and the commission given it to do, is fitted to be peculiarly impressive, as an object lesson, to the nation. The radical character of a nation comes out in no other way so distinctively, as in the way it treats its weakest and most helpless subjects.

A grand part of the good done by the American Missionary Association has been in its influence, first on the conscience of the churches, and then, through this, on the moral sense and the moral sentiments of the nation itself. This has been the case as regards the nation's treatment of the emancipated negroes. It was this Society which, so promptly and gloriously, lifted up and bore aloft with something of a divine intrepidity, God's own banner of human rights and the divine sympathy. It is this Society which has done more than any other one agency, to revolutionize and harmonize the national sentiment as regards the rights of the Indian to civilization and to Christianization. If now the churches of our country will hasten to do their duty, as in sight of him who is Father of us all, towards our Chinese neighbors, it will not be long before the National Government will wake to its shame and wipe off the deep disgrace of its recent demagogy and international perfidy.

Moreover, a more complete mistake could not be made than to imagine that the Imperial Government of China is unobservant, whatever the seeming invincibility of its pride and exclusiveness. China is neither blind nor insensible. Japan has awakened; China is wakening. Its hour is at hand; the dust of ages is stirring. The Chinese wall is vanishing. The Supreme Government of the four hundred millions of the Empire is at length getting in touch with the other great and advancing Powers of the world. And the startling sublime fact of the new world sociability, if we will but see it, is giving tremendous urgency to every possible means of originating, multiplying, communicating, and sending on and around from nation to nation, the forces of the world-redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, therefore, are most earnestly agreed in the conviction that, not only is the noble work of missions among the Chinese in our country, now being done by this Society, of inestimable value, but that it ought by all means to be greatly and immediately enlarged and re-enforced.

That great missionary, St. Paul, once said—and he may have often said it—that he gloried in his own infirmities; adding that the power of Christ might rest on him. This is our glory—if we have any. Here is this American Missionary Association; and over against it, face to face, is China. What proportion is there between the two? How preposterous, one may say, the thought which we are trying to frame into actual purpose for the regeneration of this enormous part of the human family? Most true. And yet, along with Paul's thought, how infinitely inspiring this purpose should be. Just the thing for us to do is to "build better than we know." It is not our eye, but His, which sees the end from the beginning. And it is his providence—sometimes as a pillar of fire, sometimes as a pillar of cloud—which shows us the way. Then it is for us to follow close up.

When some fifteen years ago, that slender, forlorn-seeming Japanese lad landed in Boston, with the strange, vague, resistless, heaven-enkindled longing in his heart; what if there had been no kindly hand to grasp his own, no heart to discern and respond to his? How easily might young Neesima have been lost, and the fateful turn in the destiny of Japan at the moment of its supreme opportunity for regeneration been vastly, disastrously different! What Chinese Neesimas to-day God's eye may have under His gracious watch and merciful leading, we cannot know beforehand; but this is certain, that we know enough to know that we do well to walk softly all the day long as seeing things invisible, and that with these thousands of Chinese among us, walking so noiselessly, so observantly in and out beneath the very tree of life that grows beside the river of life clear as crystal, and which proceeds direct from the throne of the Lamb, there are doubtless God's hidden ones, whose lives, if we will do our part; shall yet be woven in as shining and mighty threads into the divine plan wider than any nation, larger than the world, sure and strong as the word of Him who, at the first, said, "Let there be light," and there was light.

* * * * *

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.

BY DR. L.C. WARNER, CHAIRMAN.

Your Committee have made a careful examination of the books and reports of the Treasurer, with special reference to the methods of keeping the various accounts, the security of the invested funds and the economy and prudence of the expenditures.

We find the system of bookkeeping as thorough and complete as that of any business concern. Each item of receipts or expense appears in its proper place, where it can be found without delay. The different departments of the work are classified and separated so that a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the work is always before the officers and Executive Committee. All payments are made by checks, and each check requires the signature of two officers of the Association; thus reducing to a minimum the chances of error or loss in the disbursement of the funds. At the end of each quarter the disbursements of the Association are carefully examined by the Auditors, two responsible business men, who go over and verify the accounts item by item. The Treasurer and other officers of the Association are to be especially commended for the thorough and business-like methods which prevail in the conduct of their business.

The invested funds of the Association amount to $230,375.78, yielding an income last year of $10,936.46. These funds are chiefly invested in mortgages in the city and State of New York and in Government bonds. In view of the forgeries of real estate mortgages recently discovered in New York City, the mortgages of the Association in New York and Brooklyn have, at the request of the attorney of the Association, been personally examined by a member of the Finance Committee and all found to be valid and correct. An examination of the schedule of securities held by the Association shows that there is not a single poor investment among them, or one on which the interest is in default.

Besides the invested funds the Association owns real estate in various Southern States and in the Northwest to the value of $600,274. This is the working plant of the Association. The buildings, apparatus and fixtures upon this property are protected by insurance.

The expenditures of the Association during the past year have been $328,788.43. This is an increase over the expenditure of last year. The Association commenced the year with a balance of $2,193.80; it closes the year with a debt of $5,641.20. It has therefore spent $7,835.01 in excess of its receipts. This debt is to be greatly regretted, for it should be the policy of the Association to plan its work in accordance with the funds at its disposal. They are obliged, however, to make their plans partly on faith, and it is not to be expected that their faith will always exactly measure the benevolence of the people.

The increase in expenditure has been entirely in the work done upon the field; the cost of agencies and administration being less this year than last. This increase has been mostly in the Southern field, and has been imperatively demanded by the natural growth of the work. Very little new work has been undertaken, four new schools only being added during the year; but the schools already organized have grown in size and therefore in expense. Eleven hundred and twenty more pupils are in attendance than one year ago, an increase of over 12 per cent. This has required the employment of twenty additional teachers.

Friends of the Association have added new buildings at some of the schools, and these new buildings, greatly needed and greatly increasing the effectiveness of the schools, also bring increased expense. The churches and schools of the Association are doing all they can for their own support. The spirit of self-help is constantly encouraged among them, but they are too poor to bear any considerable part of the expense.

The Association must therefore meet one of the three following alternatives: First, the growth of its work must cease, and the increasing number of pupils who apply to its schools year by year be denied admittance; or second, some of the schools which have been fostered by the Association for years must be abandoned, that funds may be left to strengthen and develop the remainder; or third, the churches and Christian givers of America must largely increase their gifts to this Association to meet its increasing wants.

The work of the Association for the coming year cannot be efficiently carried on without increased appropriations; $300,000 is the smallest amount which should be expended in the South, and a much larger amount could be wisely used. The mountain work among the poor whites is full of promise, and calls loudly for our aid, and the Association only waits for the necessary funds to greatly enlarge its efforts in this field. In addition to the Southern field, the Indian work requires at least $60,000, and the Chinese work $15,000. This makes the total amount needed by the Association next year $375,000. This we believe to be a moderate and conservative estimate.

This great work for the Negro, the Indian and the Chinese has been laid upon the American Missionary Association, and upon our denomination, as it has not been laid upon any other society or denomination in this country. It is our duty, yea, rather, our great opportunity. Shall we not then meet it as the stewards of God, whose servants and disciples we are?

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MEMORIAL SERVICE.

ADDRESSES IN EULOGY OF THE LATE DR. JAMES POWELL.

An interesting and impressive memorial service was that held in honor of the loved and venerated Secretary, Dr. James Powell. Tender, loving, graceful and eloquent eulogies upon his life and character were pronounced by Rev. Dr. Gilbert, Rev. Dr. Ide, Secretary Strieby and President Taylor, followed by an earnest prayer by Rev. Addison P. Foster, Roxbury, Mass.