Part 6

Better still, let us listen again for the serious tone of the Divine prayer in that upper room. “I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world. Holy Father, keep them!” While the shadow of to-morrow’s cross was already darkening his path, his thought was not for himself but for _them_. “These are in the world,” and to be in it, to work, to choose, to suffer in it—“in the world,” and so are tempted to use the world’s tactics, tempted to lose sight of their great commission and to become callous to the world’s needs—“in the world,” and so they have to settle momentous questions—“in the world,” having to meet its pains, its storms, its falsehood, its curse, its fascinations, and so, may lose sight of the claims of thy kingdom of love: Holy Father, keep them! _Keep them!_

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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FINANCE.

Your Committee on Finance beg leave to report that they have examined the Treasurer’s statements of receipts and expenditures and find them properly certified as correct by the auditors. Also the trial balance, and the list of trust funds, and the books of accounts are so certified.

The trust funds appear to be securely invested and wisely administered for the purposes for which they were created.

We find that the accounts of the Treasurer are carefully kept and that the control and disbursement of the current funds of the Association are conducted in a thoroughly systematic and business-like manner, with ample safeguards against error and loss.

Your Committee take pleasure in commending the wisdom, fidelity and economy of the officers and Executive Committee in the financial administration of the great trusts confided to their care.

It is gratifying to find that the expenditures of the Association have been so carefully guarded and distributed that for six consecutive years last past they have not exceeded the annual income. During this period a large indebtedness previously incurred has been wholly paid and no new indebtedness created in any department of its work.

The balance in the treasury is $789.83, after paying all bills due to September 30.

There is every reason to expect that this satisfactory condition of things will be continued through the generosity of the churches to this cause.

At the last annual meeting, your Committee on Finance recommended that the churches increase their contributions from $243,000 to $300,000 for the then current year; and the reports submitted at this meeting show that this was done within $3,000. This additional sum of $54,000 has been used partly in completing the college buildings at Talladega, Ala., and Strieby Hall, at Tougaloo, Miss. It has also greatly helped in the support of needy students, besides materially increasing the working force and general church and school efficiency.

It is worthy of remark that almost every dollar of this increased contribution has done effective work in the mission fields, since, while the receipts for the past two years have been more than $100,000 larger than in the two years next preceding them, the expense of raising and disbursing these funds and managing the affairs of the Association has increased less than $400 per annum, thus showing that the Association is fully equipped for a much larger work without additional cost for the machinery of administration. This fact constitutes a strong appeal to the benevolent who wish their gifts applied without waste or diminution to the good ends for which they are bestowed.

These more ample facilities for church and educational work bring with them larger demands for funds, so that simply to preserve its efficiency in fields already occupied the Association requires an annual increase in contributions. Besides, new demands are continually made for new foundations in different places.

From the reports and papers submitted at this meeting, we gather that $5,000 more than last year will be needed to increase the work among the Chinese in California; $20,000 more for the enlargement of the work among the Indians; $25,000 more for the support of schools and churches among the Freedmen, and $25,000 more towards the building of Smith College at Little Rock, Ark.

In view of all these facts and reasons, the urgency of which all friends of the Association will readily appreciate, your Committee recommend that at least $50,000 be added to the current income of the Association for general uses during the next fiscal year, and express the earnest hope that the further sum of $25,000 may be obtained for special purposes, making a grand total for 1882–3 of $375,000.

J. G. W. COWLES, _Chairman_.

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PETITION OF PRESIDENT E. A. WARE AND OTHERS.

REFERRED TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

We, the undersigned ministers and teachers, representing the work of the American Missionary Association, mainly in the State of Georgia, respectfully petition the annual meeting of the Association about to assemble at Cleveland, Ohio, that they appoint a committee of five, more or less, who shall report at the annual meeting in 1883 with reference to the policy that should govern the Association and its representatives in matters suggested by the following questions:

First. Is it the mission of the Association to work solely among the three despised races, so called, or through its work for these races to labor for the upbuilding of other people without distinction of race as rapidly as they can be brought within the sphere of its influence?

Second. Should it or should it not be the policy of the Association to establish separate churches or schools for different races?

Third. What should be the relations of comity between the Association and our other benevolent societies when undertaking to do missionary work of the same nature in the same field?

Fourth. What light, if any, is shed upon the foregoing questions by the history of the foundation and early work of the Association?

We would suggest that the committee be instructed to invite correspondence from the officers of the Association, from the officers of our other missionary societies, from all workers in the field, and from others interested, and that the report be published in the religious press at least two months before the annual meeting of 1883.

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EXCHANGE OF MISSIONS.

BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.

At the regular meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association, held Sept. 11, 1882, the following resolution was adopted:

_Resolved_, That a committee of three be appointed to invite a conference with the Am. Board respecting the advisability of transferring our African work to the Board, and assuming the work among the Indians now carried on by the Board.

In accordance with this vote a delegation from our Executive Committee, consisting of Drs. Ward and Roy, Mr. Mead and Secretary Strieby held an interview with the Prudential Committee of the American Board in Boston, Sept. 14, at which the proposed exchange was fully and fraternally considered. The Prudential Committee of the Board subsequently passed a resolution recommending to the Board the approval of the transfer, if all legal and other difficulties could be obviated. In response, the Board, at its late meeting in Portland, Oct. 3, passed the following resolution:

_Resolved_, That further arrangements for the Dakota Mission be referred to the Prudential Committee with power, but with the earnest recommendation that the whole mission be transferred to the care of the American Missionary Association, unless the practical difficulties shall prove to be insuperable.

On the 13th of October, a meeting was held in New York, of a special committee of the Prudential Committee of the Board, and of a special committee of the Ex. Com. of the A. M. A., in which the principles and methods, as well as the difficulties in the way of the transfer, were again considered.

The spirit of that meeting was not that of sharp bargaining in commercial values, but of an earnest desire on the part of Christian brethren, representing affiliated missionary societies to consummate an arrangement that would facilitate the upbuilding of the Redeemer’s Kingdom. Yet commercial values were canvassed. The Board has in its Indian missions, buildings for churches and schools, and other property, estimated at $36,000. The value of the properly of the A. M. A. at the Mendi Mission can be stated with less definiteness, but the buildings for churches, schools, and industrial work can hardly be worth as much as that of the Board in the Dakota Mission. But in addition to this property there is the fund from the estate of Rev. Charles Avery, for African missions. The points of difficulty suggested and discussed were: the legal authority of the Association to transfer this Avery fund; the continuance of the Mendi Mission by the Board; and its assumption of the Arthington Mission. On the first point—the transfer of the Avery fund—a legal opinion, very clear, and so far as could be judged, satisfactory, was obtained, of which the following is the decisive portion.

“Under the bequest thus given to the American Missionary Association, it cannot lawfully delegate to another the discretion which the testator has intrusted specifically to it. But it may delegate to others the execution of purposes which are approved by its discretion, and which are within the objects defined by the testator. It may employ the agency of its own officers and servants in the application of the income, or it may employ the agency of other organizations, as in its discretion may be most fit, useful and efficient in accomplishing the testator’s purposes.”

In regard to the second point, the Committee of the American Missionary Association expressed the wish that the Mendi Mission should be continued, while the representatives of the Board deemed it unadvisable, on account of the great enlargement of its African work recently entered upon; and on the third point, in like manner and for the same reasons, they thought the Board would be indisposed to assume the responsibilities of the Arthington Mission. No final settlement of these points was attempted, it being deemed necessary to wait until this annual meeting of the Association should, if it thought best, approve of the exchange of the missions, and, as the Board had done, remit to the Committee the authority to arrange details. With a view to securing such approval, I shall now proceed in behalf of the Executive Committee to give the reasons for the exchange of missions.

1. It is believed that the churches desire the exchange.

A living missionary society must have a vital connection with the churches. Thence mainly come its funds, and funds are as essential to it as to a bank or factory; yet if it get from them nothing but funds, it is no better than a bank or factory. It needs to be grounded in the confidence of the churches, and to be permeated in every branch and fibre by their piety and prayers. The wishes, therefore, of the churches as to methods as well as aims should be sought and heeded. Do the churches desire this change? That they do, I offer in evidence the effort made to that end in the National Council at New Haven. That effort was no sudden impulse originating in the mind of a single individual, and as suddenly laid aside by the Council. An elaborate report on the subject was presented and discussed at great length. It is true that the movement was not successful, yet it was full of significance, mainly from the character of those who pressed it. They were among the strongest and most influential men in the denomination. They were at the time outvoted, but their convictions were not changed, nor in so far as they were representative men is the weight of their testimony to be disregarded. Passing down to the present time, we come to the respectful resolution adopted by the Congregational Association of Ohio, asking for substantially this exchange. This resolution is not the work of foes, but of warmest friends, as our cordial invitation and reception here abundantly testify.

But the most convincing fact of all is the reception which has been given to the announcement of the proposed change. Almost unanimously comes to us the assurance that the exchange is heartily approved by the churches. I have said “almost” unanimously, for there have come to us, from a few old and tried friends, words of regret that we should abandon our work in Africa, so cherished in precious memories.

There may be more of sentiment than of sound judgment in this plea, but I beg the privilege of expressing my personal sympathy with the feelings of these old friends. When I think of the toils and sufferings of the workers in the Mendi Mission, of the buried dead there, and of the survivors now in this country, with shattered health, and when I think of the friends in this country and across the ocean who have sustained this mission by their prayers and offerings, I am frank to admit that it has cost me sleepless hours and a sore heart to yield my consent to part with it—unimportant as that consent may be. But in spite of all these sympathies and of old associations, the reasons for the exchange seem to me so conclusive as to leave no room for hesitation; and one of these strong reasons is the one I have just presented—the wishes of the churches.

2. The division will simplify the appeals in behalf of the two Boards.

It is a surprise that so many people know so little about Missionary and Benevolent Societies. This is sometimes simply amusing, as when at the recent meeting of the American Board in Portland, it is said that an agent of a railroad centering in Portland asked if the Am. Board was an “Odd Fellows’ Society”; and an intelligent looking man was overheard instructing his friend that they were “Freethinkers.” But the matter becomes serious when it results in the improper designation of bequests in wills and legacies. People that leave legacies to missionary societies are certainly interested in them, and might be supposed to know about them, but mistakes are constantly made that invalidate legacies and cause perplexity to heirs and loss to missionary treasuries. But it must be admitted that the present distribution of work and the appeals in its behalf foster the mistakes into which so many fall. Sec. Humphrey, for example, appears before a Western conference and in eloquent and earnest words presents the broad claim of the American Board, dwelling with emphasis on the remarkable openings in Africa, an almost newly discovered continent, and then calls for sympathy for the Indians now lifting up their hands to welcome the white man’s Bible instead of his whisky. Then follows Sec. Powell in his vigorous and breezy way, telling not only of the colored man in the South but of the wonderful land of his fathers, and follows this with a stirring appeal for the Indians! Is it not too much to expect of the average Christian that he should be able to separate these tangled branches and make each tree stand out before him in its own proper individuality?

But now, if the Am. Board, with its history of nearly three-quarters of a century and its noble work in all parts of the foreign field, is recognized as the sole agency of the Congregational churches for foreign missions; if the Am. Home Miss. Society, with its record of more than half a century, and with its field stretching from Maine to California, dotted all over with the monuments of its beneficial labors and filled with a vast and ever-expanding population, shall be the channel for distinctively home mission work; and if the American Missionary Association, with its peculiar and diversified educational and religious methods, shall be set apart to the work among the colored people of the South and among the whites as far and as fast as the vanishing of caste prejudice will permit, and also among the Indians and the Chinamen on the Pacific Slope, then will the distinction between the several societies be made clear, and Benevolence, which, like commercial capital, is cautious, will see before it open and distinct channels, through which it may pour its benefactions.

3. Providential indications point to the change. Missionary Societies, if vital and effective, are born of the Spirit, but developed in outer form and methods of work by providential events, and if their usefulness continues, they must not remain stagnant, but be obedient to the call of providential changes. The American Board once wisely embraced three denominations of Christians, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed. But the growth of those denominations and of the missionary zeal in them, made it clear that each would do more good if working separately, calling out the individual responsibility of the several denominations, and the result has abundantly verified the anticipation. So, too, has the Board modified its work. The changes in its Indian missions, once reaching far South and now confined to Dakota, may be cited as an illustration, not of the Board’s fickleness, but of its wisdom.

The A. M. A. has been guided to marked changes. Its original aim was to do mission work free from all possible complications with slavery. It did not, as I understand the matter, assume that all other Boards were in _favor_ of slavery, while it alone was opposed to it, but its founders felt that the time had come when their consciences could be no longer satisfied unless their missionary contributions and labors constituted an active and public protest against slavery. The breadth of this principle included all forms of missionary efforts, and hence the constitution of the Association provided for both home and foreign work, and in its greatest enlargement on this basis, it had about 110 home missionaries in the field, and its foreign missions extended to West Africa, Jamaica, the Sandwich Islands, Siam, the Copts in Egypt, the Indians in the United States, and the refugees in Canada. But the war changed the whole aspect of affairs for the Association. It set free the millions of slaves and gave the opportunity for reaching them directly with schools and the Gospel. The Association at once concentrated its efforts upon these people, having shortly before or soon after the war abandoned or transferred all its missions—home and foreign—except the Mendi, and this was retailed as cognate to its work among the Freedmen in this country. But now as we look back on the history of that mission, so useful up to the date when we surrendered our other foreign missions, and so comparatively unsuccessful since, we are constrained to ask if it, too, should not then have been relinquished.

Let me detail the facts: At the annual meeting in 1861, the Mendi Mission reported four stations, three outstations and seven preaching places; thirteen white missionaries on the ground, two who had just returned to America, and one under appointment—sixteen in all. Up to that date its schools and churches were prosperous, converts were added, a theological class was formed and one young man licensed to preach. And in addition to this more direct evangelical work, it has exerted a marked and happy influence in averting war among the natives, in checking the slave trade and in developing industry and commerce among the people. I find this testimony concerning a single station of the mission, that on the Boom River: “The whole trade of this river has been developed within the last ten years. It is now worth more than $40,000 a year. The coast, or slave trade to the North, has been stopped. Natives, in their own canoes, carry their produce to market, which only four years ago was bartered away for half its value. The credit for this change is due to the mission. The industry of the people has increased ten-fold through that influence.” The mission at that date was the most conspicuous work of the Association, and the account of it stands at the head of the Annual Report, and occupies seven pages. But at the close of the war, only four years later, this mission took its place at the close of the Report, occupied only a page and a half, and the sadly significant lines on that page and a half were: “The increased expense (owing to the very high rate of exchange) combined with the great demand for missionary labors among the freedmen and the absorption of young and middle-aged men in the armies of the country, has deprived the committee of the ability to reinforce the mission as it needs. For no inconsiderable portion of the year, Rev. Mr. Hinman and wife have been the only white missionaries at the mission.” For more than ten years the mission remained inadequately recruited. In 1876 we sent the loved and lamented Rev. E. P. Smith to explore the field with the view to enlargement, but, alas! he never returned to tell us the story, and his bones hallow the soil of West Africa. In 1877 we inaugurated the effort to supply the mission with the educated sons and daughters of the freedmen. From 1877 to 1881 we sent thither fourteen missionaries with five children—nineteen in all. To-day there is but one of these at the mission. Finally an effort was made to recruit the Mendi mission with well-trained colored men, but our efforts thus far have been unsuccessful. If twenty-one years ago we could have foreseen these results, could we have felt justified in going forward with the mission; and with the results now before us as history, can we hesitate to surrender it to another Board? Does not the Lord of missions seem to say to the Association: I have other work for you?

Before passing from this subject it should be stated that our experiment has been favorable as to the health of colored Americans in Africa. Of the nineteen colored missionaries sent thither since the year 1877, only three have died, one man and two women, and in none of these cases did death result directly from the effects of the climate. The retirement has in many cases been due to the ill-health of the wives. The result emphasizes the necessity of very close medical examination, especially of the women, and of maturity of judgment and character in the missionaries and of adequate preparation in study.

In 1879 Mr. Robert Arthington made to the Association the generous offer of $15,000, on condition that it would establish a mission within an area designated by him on the Upper Nile in tropical Africa. The Committee expressed gratitude to Mr. Arthington, yet feeling the responsibility of so great an undertaking, took suitable time for deliberation. Estimates were made as to the probable cost, and with all the light available, it was judged that $50,000 would equip and found the mission. The Committee then proposed to undertake the mission if our British friends would supplement Mr. Arthington’s gift with a like amount. By the efforts of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society this additional sum was secured, and in 1881 Rev. Mr. Ladd and Dr. Snow made a preliminary exploration, extending their trip 2,500 miles up the Nile, only to find, however, the rebellion of the fanatical Achmet in full career on the upper Nile, and barely escaping with their lives, descended the river to find the rebellion of Arabi Pasha just ready to break forth. The exploration was heroically and carefully made, and yet it showed clearly that nothing could then be done towards establishing the mission, nor can anything yet be attempted in the present disturbed condition of the Nile basin.