THE FREEDMEN’S MISSIONS AID SOCIETY.
A Public Meeting in Liverpool.
On the evening of March the 8th, a large congregation came together in the Great George street church (formerly Dr. Raffles), to welcome to Liverpool four colored missionaries, ex-slaves, from Fisk University, and also to bid them farewell on the eve of their departure; under the care of the American Missionary Association, for the Mendi Mission, on the west coast of Africa. The missionaries were very cordially greeted by many of the old, and also the new, friends of the African race.
William Crosfield, J. P., a life-long friend of the oppressed race, presided. After an appropriate hymn, prayer was offered by the Rev. Stanley Rogers. Then the chairman said: “It gives me great pleasure to preside at such a meeting of this society. These missionaries before you are the first-fruits from the Fisk University, which was established at Nashville, Tenn., for the education of those who were freed from slavery by the late Civil War in America. And now, here they are ready for work in that great mission field of Africa. It is a vast field. And it is to be hoped that the British people will do their part in the aid of this most important enterprise. Fisk University was introduced to the English people a few years ago by the Jubilee Singers, who have done wonders towards its support.” The chairman then turned and added: “We must not forget the wives of these young missionaries; we must give them a shake of the hand, as a token of our interest in them.”
The Rev. Dr. O. H. White (one of the secretaries of the Freedmen’s Aid Society), then gave an interesting statement of the origin of the American Missionary Association, of its plan and work for the African race, and of the formation of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as President, to be auxiliary to the Association in New York. And he stated that the united societies are now making a special effort to send missionaries from among the freedmen to that dark and long-plundered continent beyond the sea—Africans to teach and to save Africans!
The Rev. Andrew Jackson, one of the missionaries, then spoke, and gave a very interesting account of their call to the work, and of the great increase of the missionary spirit in Fisk University during the year, and of the great self-denial on the part of the colored parents and of pupils, that larger numbers may get an education, and so be prepared for a greater usefulness among their own benighted people.
The chairman then called on the Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, pastor for many years of the Myrtle street Baptist Church. He stated his great interest in the Jubilee Singers, and in the efforts making to send the Gospel to that long-neglected Africa, which is now so wonderfully opening up to trade and commerce, and especially to Christianity. He expressed his strong hope that these young missionaries would be brought safely to their field of labor, and that they might be greatly successful in their work, and that many more might follow their example, and go forth to that great African field.
Rev. Albert Miller (a true type of the African race), then addressed the meeting, with the warmth and glow peculiar to the sable children of the summer and more genial climes. He spoke of the depressed condition of his people in America, and of the need on that dark continent, to which he and his associates were now going, under the Divine lead. He expressed the desire of his heart that all Christians should pray and give for the evangelization of the benighted millions of Africa.
The Rev. Mr. Pearson, M. A., pastor of the church, next spoke, in the most cordial manner, of his great pleasure in welcoming these young missionaries and the freedmen’s cause to that ancient historic church. He commended the plan for sending educated Africans to that great work to be done in those vast fields, which have proved so fatal to Anglo-Saxon life. He said the British people had special reasons for taking part with the American people in this effort to redeem Africa from the darkness and doom of the past centuries. If the work so well begun was followed up, as it ought to be, the time was not distant when we should see a far better day for that dark continent with its millions of people.
In the absence of the Rev. Mr. Wech, M. A., who was expected to speak, his Elder, John Patterson, Esq., was called to fill the place. He spoke with the pith and pathos characteristic of those from the Emerald Isle. He recalled a little of the past history of Liverpool and contrasted it happily with the present state of things, when so many, from the different denominations of the city, could come together so harmoniously to greet the young missionaries from Fisk University, on their way to the west coast of Africa to teach the knowledge of the Gospel to the benighted of their race.