Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 11, November, 1888»

American Missionary Association

President, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.

Vice-Presidents.

Rev. A.J.F. Behrends, D.D., N.Y.

Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D.D., Mass.

Rev. F.A. Noble, D.D., Ill.

Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D., Mass.

Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., Mo.

Corresponding Secretaries.

Rev. M.E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

Rev. A.F. Beard, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

Treasurer.

H.W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

Auditors.

Peter McCartee.

Chas. P. Peirce.

Executive Committee.

John H. Washburn, Chairman.

Addison P. Foster, Secretary.

For Three Years.

Lyman Abbott,

Charles A. Hull,

J.R. Danforth,

Clinton B. Fisk,

Addison P. Foster,

For Two Years.

S.B. Halliday,

Samuel Holmes,

Samuel S. Marples,

Charles L. Mead,

Elbert B. Monroe,

For One Year.

J.E. Rankin,

Wm. H. Ward,

J.W. Cooper,

John H. Washburn,

Edmund L. Champlin.

District Secretaries.

Rev. C.J. Ryder, 21 Cong'l House, Boston.

Rev. J.E. Roy, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago.

Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.

Rev. Chas. W. Shelton.

Secretary of Woman's Bureau.

Miss D.E. Emerson, 56 Reade St., N.Y.

COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

FORM OF A BEQUEST

"I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of – dollars, in trust, to pay the same in – days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

NOT QUITE FREE

In the November MISSIONARY of last year, the financial statement bore the simple and joyous heading "FREE." This year we are compelled to prefix two qualifying words. Our books closed September 30, with a balance of $5,641.21 on the wrong side. While we regret that there should be any debt, we rejoice that it is no larger.

The receipts applicable to current expenses fell off somewhat during the year, while the expenditures, owing to general growth and some special demands were greater than last year. The first of September, therefore, found us confronting an impending debt. The appeal which we felt constrained to make for September, and which was made under some special disadvantages as compared with last year, was met with so hearty a response in gifts and in expressions of interest in our work, as to move us to gratitude to God and thankfulness to our friends. A few of the donors gave $1,000 each, but the larger share of the responses contained remittances of less than $100. Many of the sums were quite small, and some of them indicated great self-sacrifice on the part of the donors. A few brief extracts, all that our limited space will allow, from a small portion of the letters received, will be found below.

We thank God and take courage. We believe that our friends who remembered us in the past will not forget us in the future, and that our wants in October, and in all the following months, will not be forgotten because they were so well remembered in September. One thousand dollars a day represents our needs for carrying on the work in its present development.

Encouraging Responses to our Appeal

"I would like to send you more, but I send you the last dollar I have ($71.00,) and must trust the Lord for means to support us until my next month's payment, and for means to go to the meeting of the A.B.C.F.M., in case I attend."

"Twenty-five cents of this money was from a woman 82 years old. She is almost helpless. The family in which she lives is very poor. She has not a penny that she calls her own. She said to me, 'Here is the widow's mite. I prayed that the Lord would send me something to give away. You please take it and send it where it will do the most good.' I send it to you trusting that with her prayers of faith, it may be useful."

The writer of a letter enclosing a donation of $10 adds in a postscript in regard to the donor: "Mrs. A– was born May 5th, 1787, and is an old contributor."

"I have expended all my appropriation for charitable purposes this present year, yet I can, perhaps, curtail in some directions and so remit to you $20 as a small tributary to swell the stream for meeting indebtedness. I hope your appeal will accomplish the results desired.

"Through abounding grace, my wife and I are once more permitted the joyful privilege of sending for the general work of the American Missionary Association, $100 enclosed herewith in draft to your order. (Their third contribution this year. Ed.) Say to the dear brethren in the work of the Master: 'Be of good courage, fear not, for I am with you'; His own words enduring forever."

"Enclosed, please find check for $100. I am always glad to be remembered on special appeals when they are necessary, even if I cannot help. I do not know that I enjoy anything more than what I am able to give to the A.M.A. I trust your appeal will find many generous responses."

"Your kind and thoughtful letter of the 13th, received. It affords me real pleasure to respond to your call for our Association. The good Lord has more or less blessed me with opportunity and ability to acquire money, and may He forbid that I should turn his blessings into curses by hoarding the gifts of his providence, when the cry of the poor and down-trodden is heard. I enclose my check for $100 for the cause."

"It is a small contribution, but it comes from a small church. Certainly it represents a genuine interest in the work of your society and is accompanied with prayers for its success."

An executor, in remitting a legacy of $500 says: "It is not due according to the terms of the will till next spring, but you may find it useful at this time to help out the year."

We have received from Oaks, North Carolina, towards the extinguishment of our debt, a contribution from forty-nine different persons, amounting to $5.66. This represents a degree of sacrifice, not surpassed, perhaps, by any who have contributed. Seventy cents of it were in cash; sixty-six cents were value in fodder; one dollar and thirty-four cents in potatoes and corn; one dollar and one cent in work.

The missionary who is ministering to these very poor people says: "If all who love the A.M.A. would do as well, according to their ability, your treasury would be filled."

THE MOHONK CONFERENCE

This Conference is unique in its character, and in the place where it is held. Lake Mohonk was born in a great earthquake that sunk it in its solid rocky bed, and piled up around it wonderful ranges of hills and vast splintered rocks. The splendid summer resort built on the margin of the Lake is the work of Mr. A.K. Smiley, a man of creative genius, and of kind manners and a warm heart. The house, or rather the range of houses, is picturesque, and the walks among the hills and down the rocky gorges, and the forty miles of excellent roads, give the widest scope for walking and driving.

The Conference is the invention of Mr. Smiley. To it, he invites annually a hundred or more guests, giving them the freedom of the house; and three days are spent in the discussion of Indian affairs, interspersed with afternoon drives amid the striking scenery. The invitation is extended to those who are supposed to be intelligently interested in the Indians; but within that limit there is the freest range—men and women of all political parties and of all religious denominations being included. The acts of the Conference, like the utterances of a Congregational Council, have only the authority of the reason that is in them; yet it is wonderful what an influence this peculiar body has had on public sentiment. Its utterances have been discussed and have had their weight in the pulpit, the press, in Congress and in the White House. The Indian and the Nation owe much to the Mohonk Conference.

The Sixth Annual Conference, which closed September 28th, sustained the interest of past years in the importance of the topics discussed, in the divergency of opinion at first, and in the complete harmony at the end. The points agreed upon in the platform were arranged under five heads. The first relates to the establishment of Courts of Justice in the Reservations and accessible to the Indians; the second to the important need of education, demanding that the Government shall undertake at once the entire task of providing primary and secular education for all Indian children; the third urges that this education shall be compulsory, under proper limitations; the fourth emphasizes the duty of the churches to furnish religious instruction to the Indians, and the immunity of their work from all governmental interference where sustained wholly by missionary funds; the fifth approves of the co-operation of the Government with the missionary societies in contract schools during the present transitional condition of the Indians. We append the last two items of the report.

4. In view of the great work which the Christian Churches have done in the past in inaugurating and maintaining schools among the Indians, and of the essential importance of religious as distinguished from secular education, for their civil, political and moral well-being, an element of education which, in the nature of the case, the National Government cannot afford, the churches should be allowed the largest liberty, not, indeed, to take away the responsibility from the Government in its legitimate sphere of educational work, but to supplement it to the fullest extent in their power, by such schools, whether primary, normal or theological, as are at the sole cost of the benevolent or missionary societies. And it is the deliberate judgment of this Conference that in the crisis of the Indian transitional movement the churches should arouse themselves to the magnitude and emergency of the duty thus laid upon them in the providence of God.

5. Nothing should be done to impair or weaken the agencies at present engaged in the work of Indian education. Every such agency should be encouraged and promoted, except as other and better agencies are provided for the work. In particular, owing to the anomalous condition of the Indians and the fact that the Government is administering trust funds that belong to them, what is known as the "contract system"—by which the nation aids by appropriations private and missionary societies in the work of Indian education—ought to be maintained by a continuance of such aid, until the Government is prepared, with adequate buildings and competent teachers, to assume the entire work of secular education. In no case should the Government establish schools to compete with private or church schools which are already doing a good work, so long as there are thousands of Indian children for whose education no provision is made.