—This Association does not found exclusively colored churches. They are only exclusive because they are not exclusive. They are open to all races, and hence but few white persons unite with them. But, while the work of the Association has been principally among the colored people in the South, as being at present most accessible, yet it has always favored the establishment of churches, mainly white, where the distribution of population calls for them, and which allow colored persons freely to unite with them. Thus, the early efforts of John G. Fee, its first missionary in the South, was in the formation of white churches in Kentucky. So, also, the counsel of its officers was sought and given in the organization of the Second (or white) Congregational Church in Chattanooga, Tenn. Its first minister was Rev. J. A. Thome, a life-long friend of the A. M. A., and at one time its agent in Great Britain. The Congregational Church in Jacksonville, Fla., was organized, and its house dedicated, under the auspices of Rev. C. L. Woodworth, its Boston Secretary, who spent a month in Jacksonville preaching and laboring for that purpose. Not long since, the Association appointed a missionary in Kentucky, who has surveyed the field in the vicinity of Berea College, and expects to organize five or six churches, to which he will preach in turn until each can sustain a minister. These will be mainly white churches, but open to colored people. In like manner, the Association has promised missionary aid to a church, of similar character, about to be organized in San Antonio, Texas.
—The educational institutions of the A. M. A. in the South are in order to its religious work in America and Africa. Its best and most promising churches are established near the schools and colleges, and receive intelligence and strength from them. These schools furnish hundreds of Christian teachers, who instruct thousands of pupils in day and Sunday-schools, and carry a salutary influence into the homes, churches and neighborhoods where they reside. The schools and theological departments also send out many ministers and missionaries, who carry the Gospel to their people in the South and in Africa.
—The work of the Association is a providential growth, each part having a relation to the whole, and its plans, while at present embracing mainly the “Despised Races,” as they have been called, are restricted in principle to no race or continent.
DEPARTURE OF THE “AZOR.”
The departure of the Azor with the first instalment of the African exodus, from Charleston, S. C., marks an epoch in the history of the colored race.
It may have been a question in some minds whether the freedman could be aroused by the missionary spirit. By some, even of the teachers in our schools, fears have been felt that, perhaps, the call for missionaries might come and the people not be ready to respond. The question is decided that, whenever this call shall be made, there will be no lack of men. We have more to fear now from unbridled enthusiasm than from want of zeal.
This African Exodus Association had its origin, undoubtedly, among disaffected politicians, but it soon became a sort of religious crusade. It gained but little progress among the people, until the idea was suggested that it be made a missionary enterprise. From the time the Azor sailed into the harbor until her departure, on the 21st of April, with her living freight for Liberia, the wharves and streets of the city were thronged with people of all sexes and ages, eager to view the African “Mayflower.” Hundreds, who had engaged their passages months before, were left behind, for want of room. How long this enthusiasm will continue, and what may be the success of this first company, of course are questions to be answered by and by. We dare not venture any prophecy, either good or evil. It is an experiment, some features of which are not in the line of our ideas; but if, in the providence of God, it shall prove to be to Africa what the Pilgrim enterprise has been to America, we shall rejoice. We should prefer to have a different class of emigrants undertake this work, and lay the foundation of African civilization upon a broader foundation. Our object is to raise up men of intelligence, and sound and broad religious principle, for this work, and we naturally look with some anxiety to the effect of turning loose in Africa the freedman, as we find him in the South at present. We hope for the best, however, and shall pray for the success of the movement, that God may overrule all our fears, and make it for good. This one question we are glad to have settled, as we think it is by this movement, that there is no lack of enthusiasm in the negro heart for his fatherland; and that, when the call shall come for more laborers in that field, we shall have this enthusiasm on our side.