Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 06, June, 1888», страница 2

"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth."

"God hath showed me that I should call no man common or unclean."

"Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him."

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ."

"Inasmuch as ye have not done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have not done it unto me."

Secretary Roy, in the Advance, controverts the statement of the Herald and Presbyter, that the Congregationalists have come to consent to separate ecclesiastical bodies on the ground of color. Dr. Roy supposes that this conclusion may have been jumped at because of the formation of a new Congregational Association in Georgia, which is an outcome from the Congregational Methodist churches there. The Interior, evidently with gladness, makes the same assertion. The Christian Union replies to this, saying, "We do not think this is true; but, if it is, so much the worse for the Congregationalists!" We may say with Dr. Roy, that nothing is more certain than that in the New Empire that is growing before our eyes, the Congregational churches of this century will not turn towards the dark ages, and will not put themselves to shame by refusing to fellowship with the disciples of Christ on the ground of caste. Such a proposition would have the scorn of our National Council.

The Christianity of our churches will not fall behind the humanity of Victor Hugo, who said, "I have had in my hand the gloved and white palm of the upper class and the heavy black hand of the lower class, and have recognized that both are the hands of man."

The Congregational churches may not be quoted as countenancing this great wickedness against God and man.

FROM ADDRESS OF REV. E.T. FLEMING OF GEORGIA, IN THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE OF NEW YORK

"I suppose it will be necessary to tell you that I am a Negro, that I was born a slave. We are struggling against difficulties. We meet with a great deal of opposition. A case comes to mind which shows something of this opposition. I went out into what we call the Bottom District. The church there was dirty. I went to work and got a sufficient amount of money to buy a barrel of lime. It took me a week to get enough money to buy a barrel of lime. Another brother and myself got the barrel of lime there on a wheel-barrow. We whitewashed the church inside and out, and finished the job about half-past eleven o'clock. It was too late to return to the city, and we agreed to sleep in the church. The next morning, I was surprised to hear a great noise on the outside, and opening the door, looked out and saw a lean, lank, white woman. She was calling to her daughter, "Louisa, Louisa, come here." Her daughter came to her mother and said, "My – –, they have painted the nigger church white. We must put a stop to that." They said we would have to move the church, on the ground that they were not going to stand anything of that kind. These are the things that meet us in opposition there. I was myself refused admittance to a Gospel Tent where a distinguished evangelist from the North was preaching."

A STRIKING STATEMENT

In one of the hotels in Columbia, South Carolina, among the collections of an excellent library, is a book which bears the seal of the State of South Carolina, giving much statistical information as to the geological character of the State, its agricultural resources, its mineral products and the peculiarities of its population. From its pages, the following extract is taken, which is reproduced here for its suggestiveness. It seems incredible, and yet the authority is wholly Southern and has the imprint of the State. It is as follows:

"No effort adequate to even an approximate determination statistically of the intermixture of the White and Negro races has as yet been undertaken. Mr. Patterson, quoted in an authoritative work upon 'The Resources and Population of South Carolina,' and published by the State Board of Agriculture in 1883, as one who has given much attention to the subject, says, even now there are no longer Negroes. One-third has a large infusion of white blood, another third has less, but still some, and of the other third it would be difficult to find an assured specimen of pure African blood. This, continues the report, is a startling statement; but in the absence of statistics, whoever puts it to the test among his Negro acquaintance will be surprised at the degree in which it conforms to the facts. If the lineage of those Negroes whose color and features seem most unmistakably to mark them as of purely African descent, be traced, indubitable evidence may often be obtained of white parentage more or less remote."

MISAPPLIED BENEFACTIONS

The judicious placing of benefaction is a large part of the good of it. Is it wisely located? Will it be permanent? Will it be reproductive? Will it be in the hands of persons suitably responsible for the administration of it? Will it be under a fitting supervision? The cause appeals to sympathy; does it also carry the mark of good judgment? For lack of this double endorsement, not a little of generous giving is thrown away. It is a fine piece of romance; does it proffer a sufficient security upon the proffered investment of the Lord's money?

A worthy Christian woman brings the scheme. It is laid upon the mountains of East Tennessee, thrust up into notoriety by the writing of Charles Egbert Craddock. A lady of faith and hope and energy, proposes to build up an industrial farm-school of high quality for the neglected girls of that mountain district. She has already been teaching a common-school among them. She comes up to a city of New England. She lays her plan before some of the noble women there. They take it up without further inquiry as to the feasibility of the undertaking. With their first contributions an old worn-out farm is bought in the lady's name, and in the cheap farm-house a small school is opened. The location is in an out-of-the-way neighborhood, three or four miles from the little, old, tumble-down county seat. Now a fine building is to be secured. The lady patrons raise their offerings up to six thousand dollars. Fine architectural plans are devised at the North. Meantime, speculators on the ground, who for a few cents an acre have bought up a great quantity of land adjoining and would be glad to sell it at a dollar an acre, have donated a hundred acres, more or less, to the school. On this tract the building is located and goes forward. The frame is put up and pretty much enclosed. For want of money the enterprise comes to a stand, and now for these four years the stranded structure has been taking damage from the storms.

The place has been visited repeatedly by the superintendents of the A.M.A., to find the state of the case and to see if anything could be done to utilize the partial plant. The pastor of the lady donors became interested to save the investment through the A.M.A., or to stop the pouring of more funds into the venture, but after all his correspondence and personal conference, he found that, if the whole property were to be offered to the Association, it could not afford to accept it and undertake to carry forward the school. It already has a prosperous academy in that county and another in an adjoining county, and these, wisely located in congenial communities, are all that is needed for those and for contiguous counties. There is no way to utilize it, Alas, "Wherefore this waste?"

An Orphanage for colored children is a tempting charity. The A.M.A early undertook such work. At Wilmington, N.C., and at Atlanta, Ga., it bought lands and erected ample buildings, but the experiment satisfied the authorities that the Association was not called to that department of work. The children's god-fathers and god-mothers, in devotion to their covenant, or grand-parents from personal interest, would soon be taking them out, and others having care of them would call them out as soon as, by some growth and training, the scholars were made profitable for work, and so those properties were sold and the avails put into the ordinary educational process. Then the conclusion was reached that this was the obligation of the local communities, and not of foreign charity. According to this idea, an Orphanage in a Southern city, undertaken not by the patronage or approval of the A.M.A., though made to appear so because the originator had been under its commission there as a missionary, has been transferred to a local board and to the support of the city and county. That is as it should be. Those local authorities ought to take care of their own orphans, and not appeal to the charity of the North to relieve them of their proper burdens of humanity.

Another so-called Orphanage at still another Southern city, started as an individual venture. It was allowed for a short time to have a conditional endorsement from the A.M.A., which was soon withdrawn and the enterprise disowned. This has swallowed up thousands of dollars of the money of benevolence, and yet it has all the time been a sham and a falsehood. There was nothing of it. When a lady newspaper correspondent called to visit the institution, ten or a dozen children from a neighboring private school were borrowed and paraded as orphans, when at the time there were only two little children in the concern, and they had grandparents living near and abundantly able to take care of them. "Wherefore this waste?"

In yet another Southern city, a couple of young ladies start a school. Having once been under commission of the A.M.A., in connection with its institutions, they appear to many to have its endorsement and they make appeal to its constituents. Money comes along for a work irresponsibly begun and without supervision. Only a year goes by before they appeal by their leaflet-paper for several thousand dollars to buy land and build a home and school property. Who but they shall hold and own the property? Whose shall it be when they marry or grow weary of the work and leave? What protection is there for such misplaced benefaction?

By no means would the Association seek to interfere with donations to individuals where the donors investigate for themselves and assume the responsibility, but it is not fair that we should be held as apparently responsible for movements that we disown, and it is not fair to our constituents that we should allow them to remain under the impression that in giving to irresponsible projects, they are favoring such as are endorsed by us.

Thirty-five years ago the Congregational Union was initiated in the Albany Convention on purpose to protect Eastern friends from the miscellaneous and irresponsible and persistent solicitation for individual church enterprise. It is the business of that Society to receive, inspect and decide upon all such applications. Take it away and the flood gates would be lifted again. No less in the cause of missionary education is such discretionary service needed.