I wonder if the Bishop, coming upon an era of more than usual confusion, was not tempted into a judgment upon the basis of standards at home among a people with ten centuries and more of steadily increasing stability of government and social order? I wonder if he had not forgotten that, since Bishop Auer served only an invalided Episcopate of a few short months, the Mission had really been headless for a period of quite eight years—from 1869 to Bishop Penick’s arrival in 1877? What might not have happened in any Diocese in America, in far more favorable circumstances, had that Diocese been left without a head for such a period? And I am quite sure that something like this happened; for, two years later, the whole tone of the Bishop’s report clearly indicates it, as he thanks God for the healing of divisions resulting from lack of Episcopal oversight, and for the bringing of good out of the evils incidental to the years of war, throughout which the Church had saved many from starvation, slavery and death. “More scholars than the schools can take are coming from heathen tribes,” he wrote in substance, “and some are seeing the Christ and following Him.” In addition to other activities, Bishop Penick wisely introduced a department of farming, both for instruction and for profit; and the report in 1879 shows its steady advance under the direction of Mr. Christian Schmidt, a volunteer who came out with Bishop Penick from America and whose name suggests a well-trained German farmer. Out of this enterprise grew one or more agricultural schools, until eventually, into practically all the schools of the Mission, most helpful industrial features were introduced. Doubtless, all should have begun with industrial training, and the discipline of hand and eye should properly have led to the training of mind, and upward to that of soul. More properly all must go together, notably, with primitive folk, since each reacts upon the other.
In 1882 the Bishop’s health failed, and he was forced to return to America; and, the next year, finding his hope to return groundless, he tendered his resignation to the Board. Bishop Penick’s noteworthy contribution to the Church and people of Liberia consisted in the practical industries and the business system introduced just when these became possible of a fairly successful adoption. He was a spiritual power always, as preacher and pastor. The statistics, at the close of his Episcopate, are thus given: “Total average attendance in the churches, 1,063; number of communicants, 567; attendance at Day and Boarding Schools, 392; at Sunday Schools, 719. Total number of agents employed, including the Bishop, 8 presbyters, 5 deacons, and others engaged in the Mission staff, 57.”
So closes, for the time being, the succession of Bishops of an alien race in Liberia. Against this time, God had been preparing a great negro leader for His Church. After a trying vacancy of three years in the Liberian Episcopate, the Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson was elected, in 1884, and consecrated the following year.
Bishop Ferguson was the second Negro of our Episcopal Church to be consecrated as Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Holley of Haiti being the first. He was born in Charleston, S. C., on January 1st, 1842; and, while ill, was baptized by Bishop Gadsden at the request of his Roman Catholic mother. In 1848, the family moved to Liberia, where the father and two children soon fell victims to the tropical fever, leaving the mother and Samuel David to establish their home in the new land. Bishop Payne took charge of the boy, put him at school, and was as a father to him in his formative years and until he became, first a teacher, then a priest of the Church. While still a student, he was a Christian teacher to his less fortunate fellow students. From one post of responsibility to another his faithfulness and growth in grace and wisdom combined to call him. When Bishop Penick arrived, he quickly singled out Mr. Ferguson, in his business administration of the Mission, as a fit person to be the business agent of the Cape Palmas District. He was for many years the President of the Standing Committee. The fatality of the climate among the white missionaries, the growing emphasis put upon the aim of the Church to grow into a native national Church, the increasing growth in culture and in grace of the negro clergy, had all conspired to arouse in the Liberian Church the desire for a Bishop of their own race, and in the home Church the willingness to grant it. In the Rev. Samuel David Ferguson, as the trial proved, the man was found eminently fitted for the sacred office and the arduous tasks. After his consecration in Grace Church, New York, the Bishop visited the home of his childhood, Charleston, and other points in the South. His first service as Bishop was in Norfolk, Va., where he confirmed a class for the Rev. J. H. M. Pollard in the Church of the Holy Innocents—a day of days for the negro brethren of Norfolk and of America. Another such day was that on which he was received with glad, loving, enthusiastic welcome by his own people, the shepherd raised in his own fold—Liberia. All honor to the devoted white men who, in successive martyrdoms, gave their lives in devoted service to their black brethren; but is it either ungenerous or untrue to think, and to write the thought, that from earth and heaven must have come the glad acclaim to the black Bishop, blood of his people’s blood and bone of their bone! “Thrice welcome to our Bishop, thrice honor to God that His grace has been sufficient for us!”
Bishop Ferguson, while on the voyage to America for his consecration mapped out his plans for development. Among the enterprises projected were a theological school of high grade, a medical college for whose conduct native physicians had been preparing, and an industrial school completing the design of his predecessors. Upon his return to Liberia, as Bishop, he was met by immediate and significant evidence of his people’s gratitude for a Bishop of their own race. Before the year closed, the King of the Grebos presented himself to the Bishop for baptism; and later, the king’s wife, thus opening a wide door of future influence for the Church, though the habit of polygamy temporarily deterred many from surrender to the Faith which forbade it.
Most encouraging was the personal interest of the President and members of the Cabinet, and of the mayor of the capital city and most of the officials. E. J. Barclay, Secretary of State, was Superintendent of Trinity Sunday School, and others were active on the vestry or as worshippers.
In 1888, after another journey to the United States, the Bishop set about establishing a Manual Labor Farm, for the founding of which Mr. R. Fulton Cutting of New York, had given $5,000, with a view to the instruction of boys in industries, and to serve as a pattern for other similar institutions. One hundred acres were bought, and the site was renamed Cuttington in honor of the founder. Thus was the Bishop enabled to begin one of the great enterprises to which he had set his efforts in his initial plans for development. An interesting sidelight is thrown on the success of these enterprises by the Rev. Mr. Fair in describing his work at Bassa. The coffee crop here was nearly doubled in one year through the use of improved methods, and the whole crop was sold to Park and Tilford of New York—a testimony to the excellence of the sample. Later reports of our Mission farms, though perhaps not so favorable, fully justified their establishment.
Another stimulating evidence of the new life in the Mission, is contained in the report of the year 1889: “The native converts are becoming increasingly interested in the spread of the Gospel and evincing a desire for self help”—such is the message. Church after church set itself the task of raising as much as possible for the support of the rector and the meeting of its home charges, while some also included contributions for the general work outside their borders. This marks the beginning of a new day for the Liberian Church, when the vision of a mission to others is dawning.
In 1890, a high recognition of the negro leadership of the Church came in the election, by the authorities of the Republic, of the Rev. G. W. Gibson as President of the College of Liberia.
It is often stated that the Negro, left to himself, is liable to moral degeneration. It is interesting, therefore, to note the high standard of morals maintained in the Liberian Church under Bishop Ferguson as shown by the firm discipline with which, on the rare occasions when it proved necessary, he immediately eliminated from the roll of workers anyone who showed disregard of Christian standards of morals.