Our church work has grown slowly, but steadily and safely. Three years ago our churches in the South numbered 59, now there are 73. When we began our labors among the Freedmen there was not one Congregational church in the old South. The famous Central Church in Charleston, S. C., was not really Congregational, and that in Liberty Co., Ga., had become Presbyterian. It is said that the soil in the South is not congenial to our churches. It must be admitted that they will not flourish in the same soil with slavery, nor where its roots still live; but as the introduction of clover kills ill weeds, root and branch, and not only yields a good harvest in mowing time, but also enriches the ground for all other crops, so the planting of Congregational churches in the South will help to destroy the roots of slavery, give a good crop for the Master, and enrich the field for all other churches. We are confident that our clover-sowing in the South is coming to be regarded by both whites and blacks not as supplanting others, but enriching all.
5. The flow of Chinamen to the Pacific coast is not increasing, but the work we are doing among those now there is as hopeful as any we are attempting. Many are turning from idol worship and giving evidence of genuine conversion. Such men as Jee Gam, so intelligent, so modest, so pious, are proof that the work is not superficial; and the eagerness of those converts as well as their teachers to extend the effort to the Chinese in the mines, and even to carry the Gospel to China, is proof of a missionary spirit as well as of genuine piety.
6. The new movement for the education of Indian youth in schools at the East, begun three years ago at Hampton by Capt. Pratt, deserves encouragement, not as superseding the schools among the tribes, but as helping them. The sending of these young people from their homes has attracted the attention of the Indians to the subject of education more than any other thing that has taken place for years; and the correspondence which has sprung up between the parents and the children, as well as the return of the educated pupils, will deepen the interest. We have aided some of the pupils at Hampton, and we are disposed to consider the earnest wish of Capt. Pratt, now in charge of the Government School for Indian youth at Carlisle Barracks, that we extend the effort into several of our schools in the South. Gen. Armstrong’s experience at Hampton shows that the joint education of the Indian and Negro pupils is a success, that they are helpful to each other.
With this rapid sketch of our work among the three neglected races in America, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, I pass to the next item in this review—where we follow the negro to his home in the land of his fathers.
7. The Mendi Mission in Africa.
When the Council met in Detroit we had just sent out our first company of Freedmen as missionaries to Africa. Three years is not long enough to warrant absolute conclusions, yet such as we have reached I give. 1. We are very hopeful as to the ability of the colored American to endure the climate of Africa. 2. We are a little disappointed as to his qualifications in ripeness of judgment and maturity of character, for the duties of a missionary. Perhaps we expected too much. The white missionary has behind him the culture of seventeen centuries; the colored of seventeen years! But of the fitness of the few now, and ultimately of many, we have no doubt. We must select at first more carefully, and train the rest more fully. Nor have we any question as to the call of God to these Freedmen to carry the Gospel to Africa, and we “bate not a jot of heart or hope” in our work of preparing and sending them.
The discouragements we share with all the noble societies that have responded to the grand impulse inspired by the wonderful discoveries of Livingstone, Stanley and others; nay, with all who in every age have heard the Divine call for great enterprises in behalf of religion and humanity. God begins his great movements by preliminary trials and disappointments; in them only are heroes and martyrs trained. Persecutions were essential to the success of the primitive church. Bull Run saved the republic and overthrew slavery; and our confidence in the Divine purposes for Africa are all the stronger for the discipline at the outset. He means no holiday parade, but thorough, apostolic sacrifice and success. And lastly,
8. To pay that debt and to carry on our work, with its enlargements, its endowments and buildings, we have, in these three years, received into our treasury six hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. If we add the sums received by our affiliated schools ($283,132), the amount is nine hundred and ten thousand dollars; and if we add to this the one hundred and fifty thousand dollars received from Mrs. Stone, now rapidly to be expended, the total will be one million and sixty thousand dollars! The churches seem to have had confidence in us, and to have appreciated our work. For this, through you, we wish to thank them, and to ask continued confidence and the means to carry on the enlarged work that opens before us.
II. The work before us.
When we turn from what we have done to what we have yet to do, we are overawed at both its vastness and its pressing urgency.