Part 2

In the Saviour’s great “Inasmuch” there is the power of personality. “I was an hungered; I was thirsty; I was naked; I was a stranger; I was sick; I was in prison.” It was Christ in the person of these suffering and lowly ones; and service done to them was done to Him. He might well have stopped there. But the marvel of His personal identification with them is in the relationship which He claims between Himself and them—“_these my brethren_.” Oh, the touching condescension to name them by this title! What we do for these humble and desolate ones we are not only doing for our Lord, but for the brethren of our Lord. He takes it as a special favor to Himself. And this service is graduated to the lowest capacity—it is service done to only _one_ of the _least_ of these. The standard is not that we should serve the mass of these His brethren, but any one of them, according to the measure of our ability, even down to a single act done to one of them in the right spirit and as a revelation of a character in which we delight. Then the obligation runs up to as great a number as our opportunity and our ability may reach.

The intervention of organic efficiency greatly multiplies the duty and the privilege of the individual. The American Missionary Association, as has been potently said, is set for the care of the three despised races in our country. Though the Indian and the Negro and the Chinaman are the objects of prejudice and violence and injustice and hatred on the part of our people, nevertheless Christ speaks of them as among “these my brethren;” and the prayers and the sympathy, and the service and the giving of substance in their behalf He counts as rendered to Him. This organization cannot discharge any one’s personal duty, but its instrumentality is offered to all who would use it in the discharge of individual obligation to Christ and to His brethren. Its opportunities belong to all who would use them, and by these a single Christian may reach not only “unto one of the least of these,” but unto many.

At the Great Day, when the Master shall surprise you, humble Christian, with a benediction for service rendered to His brethren among these despised ones, and you deprecatingly answer, _when_ and _where_, His revealing response may be—_when_ you reached them with your prayers and your substance through that Association which offered you its means of operation. And surely all its workers among these outcast peoples, in the ostracism and opposition and hatred which confront them, may even in this life have their abundant recompense in this, that they are serving those whom the Master owns as “these my brethren.”

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FIVE TESTS OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.

Notes of an Address at the Annual Meeting.

BY PROF. C. D. HARTRANFT, D. D. HARTFORD, CONN.

(1.) The Indians, the Negroes and the Chinese I regard as the divinely appointed agents by which the principles that underlie American civilization are to be finally tested. Every utterance on the Fourth of July, from the Declaration of Independence till this hour, has made the _right of asylum_ a pre-eminent feature of American civilization. So whenever a man has been impelled by the dictates of his conscience to leave his native land and seek a foreign shore, that he might not be compelled to live in false alliance with the Church and worship God in a way he did not elect; whenever a man, full of noble impulses, has felt the hopelessness of his life, so far as any ambitious scheme was concerned; or the education of his children—a man feeling the tyranny of continuous labor, without the possibility of accumulation—this man has ever been gladly welcomed to America. So the Puritan, so the Huguenot, so the Dutchman, so the Lutheran—whatever a man’s religious training, America has given him hearty greeting. Even the atheist and the infidel have found a refuge under the folds of this flag. America has welcomed them to the shadow of her pines and palmettoes and to her golden Pacific. But what a niggardly right of asylum does she give to the poor Negro, as he is emancipated from his bonds; and to the wretched Indian, whom she shuts up in Western territories; and, most of all, to the poor Chinaman, as he comes from his joss-house, with the instincts of a higher civilization impelling him from the stagnation of centuries to the shores of the Pacific!

It behooves us to inquire whether this precious right of asylum is to be denied to the weaker races; whether we are going to lose this peculiar feature of our nation, that throws its broad land open to the world. Is it not true now, as in the past, that this is a vast sanctuary, and that if a man lays hold of the horns of its altar, there shall be nothing to drag him from his possession of freedom? He stands on holy ground. In the British islands, the races that have appeared in its history have been amalgamated—welded by the mace and the battle-axe. In France, the various tribes and races that, one after another, possessed that land, were woven together, in warp and woof, by fire and blood. In Germany, the Prussians have brought together that great mass of people as one, through bitter and tremendous wars, the echoes of which have scarce died away. America proposes a far different solution. She recognizes the nobility of the characteristics developed by the various races. She wants the African, the Chinaman, the Teuton—all races—to labor side by side; to develop not only her wealth and prosperity, but, most of all, the typical American humanity.

American civilization can better endure the savagery of the Indian, the ignorance and brutality of the Negro, and the semi-civilization of the Chinese, than it can afford to fraternize with a civilization that is impregnated with a spirit of ecclesiasticism, or endure the philosophies of St. Louis or the Internationals. Rather is it for us to overcome these forces that are the outcroppings of centuries of Roman development, as well as those of Indian or Chinese or Negro semi-civilization.

This right of asylum involves another thing—the right of a man to say, “I will leave this land and go to another”—_the right to migrate_ if he does not find things subservient to him. We once hailed the Irishman to come and build our railroads. We welcome the German now, as he comes and terraces our mountains and teaches us how to garden. We welcome the Frenchman—we welcome all. But we say, “Lo! poor Indian, go West. East of the Appalachian is too good for you; we want it. Go West; go West. We will give no rest to the soles of your feet.” Do we want the Black Hills? Migrate! We will surround you with a cordon of soldiers and a cordon of Government agents, who will eat the life out of you. Keep on, poor ignorant, keep on!

As to the African, there are not a few Americans, even in this day, who think a righteous solution of the African question is to ship them all off to the dark continent. So far as the American Colonization Society keeps in view education and other Christian instrumentalities, I bid them God-speed; but if they desire to send the Negro out of the country, I say, No!—a thousand times, No! Let us solve the problem right here where God has placed them.

And we say to the Chinese, as he comes upon his ship, “Turn your prow back towards the Flowery Kingdom; don’t touch our golden West.” Is that the spirit that welcomes the Irishman, the German, the Italian, the Frenchman? Why not give as broad an opening to the Chinaman as to the Irishman?

(2.) In the next place, God is testing that principle which is set forth in the preamble of our Constitution—_the right of a man to pursue happiness in such a way as he may elect_, provided he does no wrong to his neighbor. And I opine that although happiness involves the pursuit of higher aims, it begins on the basis of labor. Labor is the essential element of American civilization. If I labor, then I have the right of choice to enter into whatever labor I please. No matter whether I am an adept or not, circumstances will give the verdict. With the right of choice of a man’s calling comes the right of competition. Carry it to its extreme, if you please. If there are fifty-two thousand clerks, I have a right to become the fifty-two thousand and first, and starve. Then, after the inherent right of labor follows the right to such property as I may accumulate. What I may produce, that is mine absolutely, and no man can touch it. Here we are brought face to face with this tremendous question between Irish and German labor, and the low-priced labor of either the Negro or the Chinaman. But, American citizens and Christians, if we respect the right of a man to exercise such functions as God has given him in such way as his conscience may dictate, and to choose his own occupation, shall we not defend this right of labor, and the right to pursue happiness as each may elect, and in the face of Communism, defend the right of the Chinese to enter the market and compete with all labor of whatever nationality?

(3.) There is a _third right_ or principle put to the test—_that every man is equal before the law_. Whether he be Jew or Gentile, Irishman or German, Negro or Chinaman, he is the equal of all men before God. But what justice can a Chinaman get out of a Hoodlum court? What justice has the Negro got out of a Southern court? To the establishment of that justice we must bend our energies, for it is vital to our institutions that a man before the law is equal with his neighbor. If you have broken the shackles of the Negro, break those of the Indian. If he outrages the law, try him by process of the law and make him amenable, but deal with him as a citizen. I opine that we shall arrive at this, sooner or later. Of course this includes with it the privilege of every one to enter public life, provided he proves his capacity.

(4.) But there is another principle being tested, and that is _the right of education_. It is a settled point in the development of American civilization, that education is essential to the proper discipline of the citizen—some degree, at least, of elementary education. Now when, according to the census of 1870, in the States of Mississippi and Texas, 96 per cent. of the colored people were thoroughly ignorant; and when in another State, 95 per cent. were completely ignorant; in another, 93 per cent.; in two others, 91 per cent.; and in a last one, 90 per cent.; 88 per cent. of the entire colored people of the South being in perfect ignorance;—does it not behoove us to have a law for compulsory education if we hope to have true culture and citizenship? Was our late President far from right when he brought forward this idea? What salvation is there for the Southern States unless universal education shall be carried into effect? As the right to enter into competition is inherent as much as the right of choice in labor, so we regard the right of choice of one’s religion. The whole way should be made open for the highest acquisition of intellectual and moral knowledge.

(5.) So, too, our Protestant Christianity is under test. And here we are encountered at once by the fact that Christians still cultivate the caste spirit. If the Jew drew such a subtle line between himself and the Gentile, the white Christian draws a similar line between himself and the black Christian. If the Greek considered himself to be of such high intelligence that he classed all others as barbarians, Christians allow their prejudices to make the same broad distinctions between different classes of humanity, which it was the office of Jesus Christ—blessed be His name!—to obliterate and utterly extinguish. That prejudice, that caste spirit which Christians cultivate in the North to an extent that amounts to social ostracism, must be broken down, if we would maintain Protestant Christianity. Further, this question connects itself with the true _missionary spirit_. The best way to evangelize China is to evangelize the Chinese as they come to the Pacific Coast. The best way to evangelize Africa is to evangelize the African Negro of the South. Over against Protestant Christians in the South and the Chinese on the Pacific is that dark power which has involved the world in hopeless contentions. There stands the Jesuit with his deep, treacherous features, his characterless casuistry, and his sacrifice of all things else to glorify the Church of Rome, no matter what may be the result on his country. That subtle power which permeates our political institutions with such great magnitude and force, stands face to face with Protestantism in the South—with the Negro question, the Chinese question, and the Indian question. If we are to serve Protestant Christianity, we must free ourselves of caste, and learn to love the African and the Chinaman at our doors. It is easy to speak well of the Chinaman away off in China—to have an overflow of sympathy for the poor African away in the dark continent; but it is a very different thing to have sympathy for them in this country. The spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must actuate us and lead us to this.

These, then, are _the five great principles_ that underlie American civilization—principles that are being tested by these three races or nationalities. Our professions are large. Let us live up to them in these five great principles. It is Lord Bacon who says that “When hempe is spun, England is done”—meaning that when Henry, Elizabeth, Mary, Philip and Edward had passed away, England would be done. We may say that _if these five principles_—the right of asylum, the right of labor, of political freedom, of education, and free play to Protestant Christianity be done—America is done. God save the State!

And what is the agency—or one agency—by which that may be accomplished? The American Missionary Association, because it gives us Christian education. Because it brings together the college, the church and the home. And will not your devotion to a pure Christianity, free from the spirit of caste, and filled with the spirit of genuine love, manifest itself by your support of such an Association? May we not gauge your feelings in regard to these five principles by the support you give to such a society? May we not implore you that as you value the rights of property and free government you array yourself solidly against Communism and its ally—Romanism; because these are craftily working together.

Would you behold free Protestant Christianity established in this country? Then give your support to this Association, that these three races may prove us to be a people who love liberty in its deepest significance as liberty in Christ.

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RETURN OF REV. FLOYD SNELSON.

Just after the annual meeting we learned that the health of Mrs. Snelson was in such condition as to make her speedy return from the Mendi Mission, West Africa, a probable necessity. Her husband has arrived with herself, their children, and those of Dr. James, whose wife had died abroad. The change of climate and of occupation has already proved of great benefit to her. It is a great disappointment to us all to lose so soon the earnest and discreet service of the head of our Mendi Mission. Whether he will be able to return or not is still an unsettled question. But these experiences are teaching us some valuable lessons. First of them is this,—that we must send no men or women to the West Coast of Africa without submitting them to a severe physical examination, such as is required for enlistment into the army or as a prerequisite to a life insurance policy. For we find that upon those who went from this country in thoroughly sound health, with no weakness from previous disease or tendency to special complaints, the climate has had little or no bad effect; but where there was any such predisposition or impairment of physical vigor, the malarial heats of the West coast have hastened its rapid development. We send no more recruits, then, without medical attestation to their soundness of body, in addition to the testimony we have heretofore required as to their intellectual and spiritual health.

Mr. Snelson brings much valuable information from the field, which we hope to lay before our readers at an early day.

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NEWS AND ITEMS FROM THE CHURCHES.

MACON, GA.—Rev. Stanley E. Lathrop, who was graduated eight years ago from the Chicago Theological Seminary, commenced pastoral work at Macon, December 1st. He writes: “I am quite agreeably surprised with everything thus far. I shall do the best I can for this people, with God’s help.”

MARIETTA, GA.—The school prospers, and, with two other schools, is exerting a marked influence on the people. The Sunday-school and literary society are both doing good work.

MARION, ALA.—Rev. Geo. E. Hill writes: “Our church has received from the Sunday-school at Weymouth, Mass., Colton’s large missionary map, and I have had the pleasure of introducing my people to a view of the world—the field of missions. They propose to contribute monthly to the cause. Our Sunday-school is filling up.”

MONTGOMERY, ALA.—Rev. Flavel Bascom, D.D., who commenced work for the winter December 1st, writes: “My first impressions are very favorable. My heart is drawn out toward the people, and I expect to enjoy my work for them very much.”

SELMA, ALA.—Rev. C. B. Curtis has gone from Burlington, Wis., to the charge of the church here.

SHELBY, ALA.—A Congregational church was organized October 10th, by Rev. G. W. Andrews, of the Theological Department of Talladega College, consisting of twenty-one members (twelve men and nine women). Rev. J. D. Smith, a graduate of Talladega Theological Department, is pastor.

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GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

—Over 3,000 people attended the Agricultural Fair for colored people held at Talladega, Ala., in November, under the auspices of the college. Stock, farm products, cookery, needle and fancy work, flowers and pictures, were brought in for exhibition. Contests were held in athletic sports, and in spelling, declaiming, etc., between students of the different schools. Several hundred white people attended, and showed their interest by acting as judges on the committees with the colored people. The fair was kept entirely free from all the objectionable features which so often mar our State fairs, and indeed was opened with prayer, and, after the addresses and award of premiums, closed with the Doxology.

—Dr. Rust, the Corresponding Secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid Society of the M. E. Church, reports that its work during this year “has never been exceeded in any year of its history. It has erected more school edifices, more commodious and commanding; educated more teachers, prepared more ministers, led more souls to Christ, and set in operation more streams of elevating influence, done more and better work for Christ and humanity, than in any like period before.” The financial statement for the year ending July 1, 1878, gives its total receipts for the year as $63,403, and its expenditures, mainly for salaries and board of teachers and educational expenses, including $3,000 paid on its debt, at the same. The society has aided in the establishment of five chartered institutions having full collegiate powers, three theological and two medical schools, also chartered, and ten other educational institutions.

—Dr. Ruffner, Superintendent of Public Instruction in Virginia, claims that $850,000 was collected from the people and set apart by law for the support of the common schools, and charges that this, with the interest, has been diverted from its proper use and applied to the ordinary expenses of the State Government.

—A national colored Baptist educational convention was held last summer at Nashville, Tenn. In an address published by them they offer heartfelt thanks to Northern Baptists, who alone have helped them to what educational facilities they have enjoyed. To the Southern white Baptists they are grateful for the “good resolutions” they have passed in favor of the black man. They urge the colored Baptists to support their own publishing house, newspaper, and the educational enterprises of the American Baptist Home Mission Society.

—Public sentiment has almost effaced the color line in Virginia; given political freedom and safety in North Carolina; and created a powerful party of “Independents” in Georgia; and it will bring South Carolina to her senses in time. Moral forces require more time and patience than physical force.—_Christian Union_.

—Two colored students of Mr. Spurgeon’s Pastor’s College, Rev. Messrs. Richardson and Johnson, with their wives, have left England as missionaries to Central Africa. They were all freed slaves from this country.

—The Rev. Alfred Saher, English Baptist Missionary at the Cameroons, West Africa, has translated the Bible into the language of the people, and now reports upwards of 2,000 converts.

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The Indians.

—Mr. Wheeler writes from Keshena Agency, Wisconsin, of the second successful Agricultural Fair among the Menomonees. About 200 entries of corn and potatoes were made, with other vegetables, grains and grasses in abundance. The displays of woman’s work and of live stock were very fine. A ploughing match was held. About $200 was expended in premiums, voted from the tribal funds for that purpose. Advantage was taken of the opportunity for giving instruction in the arts of agriculture, and for exhorting them to keep their children faithfully in the schools. Such gatherings both prove and promote progress.

—Brig. Gen. Pope reports that the late outbreak of the Cheyennes was caused by starvation. He says of the Indians in general: “If they are left with the means to go to war, as is the custom, we simply sleep on a volcano. Unless, therefore, ample, and above all, regular supplies of food can be guaranteed to the Indians, I am compelled, in justice to the Government and the frontier settlers, to ask that more troops be sent to the agencies in the Indian Territory, and that at least two of the posts in Western Kansas be largely reinforced by cavalry. I have also to ask that any Indians sent from the North into this department be disarmed and dismounted before being sent here, so that they can be placed in the same condition as the Indians with whom they are to live.”

—Major Mizener reports more in detail:—The causes which led to the leaving of the Northern Cheyennes may be summed up as follows: They were disappointed in the country. Their rations were poor and entirely insufficient. They were home-sick, despondent and disappointed, and were anxious to get back to a country better known to them, and where game was to be had, while here they did not have enough to eat.

—General Sheridan attributes our Indian wars to two classes of causes; the first being the constant encroachment upon the lands of the Indians, sacredly guaranteed to them by treaty, and the constant removal of the tribes to distant reservations, in which they are again troubled by the tide of immigration. He says no other nation in the world would have attempted the reduction of these wild tribes, and occupation of their country, with less than 60,000 or 70,000 men.

—Secretary Schurz affirms that the real cause of Indian wars has been the breaking of treaties. He recites an exhaustive history of Indian wars to show that this has been the case, and that very few of the wars have arisen from the maladministration of agents.