To those who will help in extending the circulation of The American Missionary, we will, on order, send sample copies. The subscription price is 50 cents. Send orders to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade street, New York city.
We do not desire to have the money that rightfully belongs to other missionary boards find its way into our treasury; yet we do rejoice that there are many noble men and women in the different denominations who were among the constituents of the Association in its early days, and who have remained its constituents down to the present time. One of them attended our last annual meeting, and enclosing $30 to make a Life Membership, which makes the thirty-first Life Member that he has constituted, writes in regard to that meeting as follows:
“The meeting at New Haven was the best I ever attended; everything moved so easily, and there seemed to be such a good spirit. But of all the papers read, there was none that interested me so much as Rev. Dr. Strieby’s, from the fact that it carried me back to those dark days when I, as an Abolitionist and a Presbyterian, united with the Society. He brought all the historical facts of those days out so clearly that I had to say amen, and amen, and thank God that I had lived to see the great change in our beloved America. I have never left a stone unturned for the A. M. A., for I have always found it true to humanity and working for the interest of the Master. Therefore I have stood by it, and at the same time never have forsaken the Board of my own church. I am sure that meeting brought me a little nearer to Heaven, and I rejoice that I was spared to enjoy its blessings. Push on until all men of all nations of the world are brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in our blessed Jesus.”
When we offer the prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” it is simply a petition that the kingdom of heaven become the kingdom of earth. The kingdom of heaven, in so far as it is in the earth, is in the hearts of men. When it shall be in the hearts of all men and call forth their loyal service, the prayer will be answered. As Christians we are bound not only to pray but to help answer our prayers. Into what a field for self-culture membership in Christ’s church introduces the believer! Large thoughts tend to make large souls. It is not merely the local church or community in which one happens to be, for whose interests he prays and plans and works; it is the kingdom of God in the earth. The local church may be small and limited in the opportunities that it offers for soul-growth, but the kingdom of God has no limit. In its reach it is wide as humanity. “Christ sees in every man, even in the poorest and most miserable, a human being whose privilege it is to become a member of the kingdom of God.” The vision of the disciple should be like that of the Master. High and low, rich and poor, ignorant and learned, are words that mark degrees and conditions in human society, but in the Divine sight all are low and poor and ignorant and lost who have not by the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost, through faith in Jesus Christ, been born into the kingdom of God. The Gospel is to be preached to every creature. If we cannot go in person we can in purse and prayer. Representatively we can preach in the ends of the earth, heal the sick, feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Obligations to the particular home field that the individual church to which we belong cultivates, absolve us not from the obligations we owe to the world-field into which the kingdom of God is coming by the extension of the church universal. This large view of our personal relation to Christ’s kingdom as a whole, this faith that sees in every man a brother for whom Christ died, compel us to an interest in missions. The triumphs of the gospel in the South and at the West and in foreign lands, will be just as precious to us as the triumphs of the gospel in our own community. We shall desire to have a part in winning them, for wherever the scenes are laid the triumphs are Christ’s, and therefore ours.
President Cleveland not only believes that the Indian can be civilized, but that it is the duty of the Government to help. He says the Indians “are a portion of our people, are under the authority of our Government, and have a peculiar claim upon, and are entitled to, the fostering care and protection of the Nation. The Government cannot relieve itself of this responsibility until they are so far trained and civilized as to be able wholly to manage and care for themselves. The paths in which they should walk must be clearly marked out for them, and they must be led or guided until they are familiar with the way, and competent to assume the duties and responsibilities of our citizenship.”
Let Congress make these sentiments the basis of Indian legislation, and let all the servants of the Government who have to do with the Indians work with these truths in view, and in a very few years the wisdom and economy of the policy will appear in such a light that all will be compelled to approve it. And yet all this will fail unless the Gospel be brought to the Indians at the same time. The particular value of this Government movement in behalf of the Indian is, that it will not only prepare the way for the coming of the Gospel, but will also protect the effects of the Gospel from the evil influences of wicked men. Had the hindrances which have shut out Christianity from the Indians been removed, as they could and ought to have been by the Government, the Gospel long ago would have solved the Indian problem, and the Gospel must solve it now.