The Home Missionary.
NO CLASHING MUST BE ALLOWED.
EDITORIAL IN ADVANCE.
What the American Missionary Association has done, and is doing, is only the prophecy of what it is to do in the near future, if it is promptly sustained in its noble work. And while we are on this subject, we wish most emphatically to say:
There is not to be, there must not be, any clashing in the work between this society and the American Home Missionary Society.
The American Missionary Association was organized for a specific work, broadly and definitely understood to be for the uplifting of the colored races on this continent. To that work they are pledged, for that money is given to them, and they are very wisely administering the trust committed to their hands. To criticise that society because it does not organize what are known as white churches is the height of folly, and for it to attempt to force mixed churches on the South would be equally absurd. The American Home Missionary Society should not go down South with the idea of starting white churches. It should be allowed, and must be allowed, to go there and organize churches just as it does in Iowa, Dakota, Missouri and Kansas, saying nothing at all about the race question or in any way excluding colored people from its membership; giving them that freedom which is theirs, to come in, and the freedom also to stay out, and to have their own churches, and their own social circles, just as they please. Any one who undertakes to force such things out of their natural and proper course will only work confusion and loss.
NO TROUBLE NEED BE BORROWED.
EDITORIAL IN CONGREGATIONALIST
As for the matter of the entrance of the Home Missionary Society upon work in the South, that may be trusted to take care of itself. The two societies mutually have agreed upon a policy of comity and consultation. Unless there be a real and imperative demand for its services at the South, the Home Missionary Society probably will find all that it can do in its present field. If such a demand arise, the Society will do its best to meet it, not in rivalry of, but in co-operation with, the Missionary Association. There may be localities where the former can work in the same line to better advantage than the latter. Nobody need borrow trouble on their account, for both are pledged, and honestly, we are sure, to keep out of each other’s way when necessary, and together to erase “the color line” as fast as possible.