Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 12, December, 1889», страница 4

REPORT ON INDIAN WORK

BY REV. ADDISON F. FOSTER, D.D., CHAIRMAN

The committee on the work of the American Missionary Association among the Indians respectfully report that they gratefully recognize the good hand of God in the work already done.

Since the American Missionary Association took the work, the expenditures have increased from $11,000 to $52,000, the out-stations for direct evangelistic effort from seven to twenty-one, and the churches from two to six. This last year, the Association has established three new out-stations: the Moody station among the Mandans, fifty miles north of Fort Berthold; the Moody Station No. 2 among the Gros Ventres, twenty-five miles north of Fort Berthold; the Sankey Station among the Dakotas at Cherry Creek. It has just put up a mission house, with a room for church worship, at Rosebud Agency. It has organized anew church at Bazille Creek, some distance out from Santee; a branch church at Cherry Creek, on the Sioux Reservation, and is just forming a church at Standing Rock, for which a building is now completed.

This record is certainly gratifying and shows that the Association appreciates the emergency, and is striving to meet it, so far as the means put in its hands allow. But your committee feel also that never before was there so great an opportunity as now brought before the Christians of this land, and especially our own denomination, for work among the Indians.

The relations of the Government and of the churches in Indian work are now unusually harmonious and kindly. The present Administration is thoroughly in sympathy with missionary operations, and will do nothing to impair their efficiency. We believe it to be sincerely actuated by a desire to promote the best welfare of the Indians, and ready to co-operate with all good people in efforts in this direction. It aims to educate every Indian child. We desire to see this done, and believe that when the Government assumes, as it should, the primary education of all Indians of school age, we shall be called on to turn our efforts to a much larger work for direct evangelization.

Our opportunity is enlarging further by the breaking down of the old pagan prejudices of the Indians. The testimony of all the workers on the field is to this effect. The Indians are desirous of living as white men. They are rapidly losing their distinctive Indian ideas and are imbibing the notions of their white neighbors. This is seen in their burials, which now are not uniformly, as of old, on scaffolds, but are more and more interments. It is shown in their feeling and behavior when death comes into their households. They no longer fill their houses with hideous outcries, but instead seek the missionaries to inquire about the life in the other world.

A further opportunity is to be noted in the fact that the Dakota Indians have specially fallen into our care. Our chief missions are located among them, at Santee, Rosebud, Oahe, Standing Rock, and outlying stations. But the Dakota Indians number 40,000 in all, or about one-sixth of all the Indians in the country. We have mastered the Dakota language; and a Bible, hymn-book, dictionary and other books are printed in that tongue. We have, then, special ability to carry on mission work among them, and are bound to utilize it to the full. The time is ripe for immediate action. It must be taken without delay if taken at all. The opening up to white settlement of a large strip of land though the center of the great Sioux reservations is to bring the Indian into contact with the influence of white men as never before. It is impossible that that influence shall be altogether good. The contact of the Indian with the frontiersmen of our own people has resulted most deplorably in the past, and we cannot hope for much better results now. Rum and licentiousness are sure to work untold harm to the Indian unless they are met by the gospel. This opening up of Indian territory to white settlement lays, therefore, a most imperative and immediate obligation on Christian people to protect the Indian from ruin by giving them the gospel.

We are satisfied that nothing but the gospel will suffice. Education alone can not save, and may simply give new strength to evil habits and influences. It must be a Christian education; schools should be simply preliminary and altogether subsidiary to the most energetic and wise presentation of the gospel. The uniform policy of the American Missionary Association in all departments of its work has been in this direction, and we gladly recognize the fact that its Indian work has steadily progressed with the idea of evangelizing the Indian.

We know very well that the Association is laboring for 8,000,000 Negroes and for 2,000,000 Mountain White people and for 125,000 Chinese, as well as 262,000 Indians. We know that the proportion of the Indians is comparatively small. At the same time we urge that this disproportion is to a large degree counterbalanced by the special opportunities we have considered. The Indian problem is before us for immediate settlement. It admits of no delay. Care for these few Indians now, Christianize them now, as we may, and the Indian becomes as the white man, and our missionary efforts will then be released for other fields.

In this special emergency we feel strongly the necessity laid on the Association for an enlargement of its administrative force. Since the death of our lamented brother, Secretary Powell, the force at the New York office of the Association has been short-handed. We hope that the earnest efforts which are being made by the Executive Committee to find a suitable person to become another Secretary of the Association may be at once successful. An emergency is upon us, and we say this with the conviction that the demands of the Indian work are now so imperative as to require a large portion of the time and thought of such a Secretary. It is a necessity that such a Secretary should frequently visit the field and be in constant communication with the workers.

REPORT ON CHINESE WORK

BY REV. E.A. STIMSON, D.D., CHAIRMAN

This is the smallest and least conspicuous department of the work of the American Missionary Association, but the one that stands in the closest relation to ourselves, and the one also that can show the largest returns. The Chinese in America are few in number, but they are scattered everywhere, as if God intended in them to put the spirit of our churches to a crucial test, and, where that test is endured, to give to his servants a prompt reward and an unanswerable confirmation of his promises and of their faith.

These strange little men from "the land of Sinim," mysterious, silent, capable, incredibly industrious, money-making, with their pig-tails and their felt shoes, their "pidgin English" and their unintelligible "turkey tracks," their wooden countenance and their "bias eyes," their opium, and their "ways that are dark," who, in spite of restrictive laws and brutal personal treatment, are filtering in everywhere, until they may be seen crouched in the corner of any street car, and are a familiar object in the village street—why are they here? here just now and here so persistently? It is no mighty immigration of men, such as De Tocqueville liked to dwell upon. It is no conquering host, no familiar immigration. Whatever may once have been the attractive force of the California gold fields, washing soiled linen can hardly be regarded as satisfying a national instinct, or thumping through the long hours of the night upon an ironing table a soul-filling amusement. Much may be said of "the golden fleece," but these are no modern Argonauts. They are money-making as our friends the Jews, but no "high emprise" or "grand endeavor" fires their calm pulse, and much as has been written of the coolie system and the "Six Companies," nothing has been adduced which seems adequate to explain the movement.

The fact is, God is in it. He is crowding these heathen upon our churches in these missionary days of an opening world, first of all to prove our Christianity. Do we believe that all men are brothers? Do we believe that the Holy Ghost who renewed our hearts can renew these? Do we believe that the Lord who died for us, died for the world? Do we believe—not that the world—but that this particular heathen as he stands before us in his blue blouse, or sits at our side with his reading-book, is as dear to our heavenly Father as you and I are? Do we believe that we are to go to him with the gospel to find a way for the truth into his heart, to bear his burdens, to win him by love, and that without him we ourselves can not be made perfect? Do we believe, in short, that God has brought him here to our door that we might learn that if we have not a religion that will save, and will make us eager to have it save a Chinaman, we have not a religion that will save ourselves?

Seven hundred and fifty of these men already members of the churches connected with our mission on the Pacific Coast! and who will say how many more on the rolls of our churches from St. Louis to Boston! What are these Chinese converts, the fruitage of our Sunday-schools and prayer-meetings, our personal labor, but God's blessed seal set upon our Christian faith! Here is the evidence. Ours is the conquering faith of the world. It will save every man, for it has saved these men, no less than you and me.

But this is not all. China's day has come. We hear from beyond the sea of the new railway, the awful floods, the burning of the "Altar of Heaven," and the strange stirrings of the mind of that mighty people, the oldest, and judged by its persistent life, the strongest now on the globe. Merchants tell us of its limitless trade: diplomatists speak of its astuteness and of its new navy, second only to that of England; scholars wonder at a nation of heathen with whom learning determines rank, and where the "boss" and the fixer of elections are unknown. Missionaries write of the throngs that gather in strange cities to hear them preach, of the new gentleness and courtesy everywhere shown them, and of the increasing number of young people pressing into the mission schools.

In the midst of all this, when the Lord's voice is heard calling us to lift up our eyes and look on the fields now white for the harvest, comes word from our solitary watchman upon the watch-tower in Hong-Kong that when he returned to his post, as he did last year, perplexed and down-hearted, because not one Christian in all America heeded his call and went with him to his field, to his surprise and joy the Lord has been preparing his own servants in the person of Chinese emigrants coming home from America, bringing with them not money only and knowledge of the wide world, but the new-found faith; graduates of laundries, but also of our Sunday-schools, members of our churches, filled with an eager spirit to tell their parents, their brethren, their neighbors, of Jesus Christ. Ah, dear friends, God's ways are not as our ways. Let us not be slow to catch his thought and walk where he leads.

Here, then, is the call to us. Begin with the Chinaman at your door. Recognize that the Lord Jesus stands before you in him. You prove your own faith; you "do it unto" your Lord; you forward the plan of God when you take him by the hand and gently entreat him for Christ.

For the same reason you will give your money to support the work of this Association. No work has been more devoted, more upheld by prayer, more Christlike, or, we may add, more deservedly successful than that under the lead of our representative, Dr. Pond, on the Pacific Coast. He has already surrounded himself with a band of trained Christian converts, who would be a joy in any field, and who are making themselves felt for good far and wide. Their influence reaches to Chicago, St. Louis, and even Boston and New York. It is ours to see that the Christian city they find here is not less Christlike than that which met them when they landed on our shores, and that the hoodlum of our Eastern cities no more represents the spirit of our churches than does he of San Francisco and of Oakland. Let us be careful to show that our hand will be as promptly raised to protect the helpless Chinaman from insult on the street as it will be to lead his soul to Christ. Let us insist upon it, as Americans and as Christians, that no distinction of race or of color shall stand between any man and his rights, either in the State or in the Church. Then may we hope that all—white and black, Chinaman and American—will care less for rights and more for duties, and, in the joy of a true brotherhood, will labor together to bring in the day of the Lord. In any case, let us, with all our multiform machinery, our conventions, our societies, our churches, be not so busy "saving souls" that we have not care to save men and women.

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE

BY F.J. LAMB, ESQ., CHAIRMAN

Your committee beg leave to report that they have had under consideration the matters committed to them. They have been attended by your Treasurer, and they have examined his reports submitted, particularly the detailed statement of receipts and expenditures for the year closed; also statement of trust funds of the Association; also statement of resources and liabilities, and of the income of the Daniel Hand Educational Fund for the same period. These statements come to us duly vouched for by the standing committee of auditors elected by the Association. A summarized statement of receipts and expenditures has been printed and distributed at this meeting, which accords with the detailed report. Other reports show that the invested funds of the Association, aside from the Daniel Hand Fund, are $230,875.78, being $500 more than in the previous year. From the statement of resources and liabilities, we find that the various colleges, schools, stations, buildings, and property constituting what may be termed the plant of the Association, amount, at their estimated value, to $745,849. This is a large sum, but the investment yields no pecuniary return to the Association. It represents the fixed property with which the Association carries on its work, and the figures may serve in some measure to apprise us of the magnitude of the work being carried on by the Association.

The Daniel Hand Fund is a separate and distinct trust, and its income cannot be used for the general work of the Association, and may demand some further notice before this report is closed. The general condition of the fund is found on the printed abstract already mentioned.

We find the system of keeping the accounts clear, convenient, and well adapted to exhibit from month to month the exact pecuniary condition of the Association, and the restrictions upon drawing money from the treasury well calculated to insure safety in that respect, and we find the management of the Treasurer's accounts and office in all details satisfactory and deserving our commendation. Comparing the gifts and work of the Association for the last year just closed with the previous year, and the recommendations of the Finance Committee a year ago, we find that the year 1888 closed with a deficit of over $5,000, that the amount of receipts for that year had been $320,953.42; that the Finance Committee then recommended that the friends of the Association should raise for the year $375,000 for its current expenditures. It is a source of great gratification to find that this recommendation has been nobly met, and $376,216.88 have been received during the year just closed, an increase of over $55,000; that the deficit of the former year has been supplied, and that the Association commences the current year with a fund in the treasury of $4,471.67. This we deem substantial indorsement of the Association and its work, by the churches, Sunday-schools, missionary societies and its individual friends. This report might stop here with congratulations for the prosperous year just closed, but the duties so well done, and work so well performed, must simply furnish the Association a standing place and vantage ground for a greater work on its part, and grounds for greater sacrifices and gifts by its friends for the year to come.

The National Council, representing the Congregational churches of the whole nation, lately in session at Worcester, by a unanimous vote recommended that the churches and friends of the work of this Association raise for it for current expenditures for the year now commenced the sum of $500,000. Is this magnificent sum too much to ask for the year now auspiciously begun? Happily for your committee, we are saved the necessity of elaborate or studied examination of the needs of the work that has been done by the papers read and to be printed and addresses delivered from the platform during the meetings up to this time. You are thus informed more fully than we could hope to inform you what these needs are and their urgency. But we may say that of the 8,000,000 Negroes in the South it is estimated only 2,000,000 can read and write. Add to these the millions of poor whites in the mountains and the red men of the West and the Chinese in our land, and we are fully justified in asserting that the work of this Association equals in magnitude any work of the church, and involves issues of Christianity, and patriotism touched by no other work of our age. It is estimated by the officers of the Association that through its schools and colleges and the teachers furnished by them, who are instructing the children in the South more or less every year, perhaps 175,000 are being reached and instructed. Assuming that as many are reached by other missionary and benevolent societies, we see the tremendous need that can not be ignored. This burden is laid peculiarly and urgently on this society and its contributing friends. Can we meet this duty with less than $500,000 for the current year? Your committee say, No. Perhaps you will be ready to acquiesce. But let us see what this means. It means that every living donor who contributed last year must increase his contribution 50 per cent., or the number of donors must be largely increased. A large amount was received last year from estates and legacies, namely, $114,020.41. This resource is a variable quantity. The Association can not depend on any increase from this source. Its confidence must be in the living, who can give if they will.

Your Committee deem it proper to call more particular attention to the magnificent gift of Daniel Hand to the Association. It is quite likely that some may suppose, and some may have measured their gifts last year in the belief, that the income of this fund was applicable to pay current expenses of the Association. But this is not so. The Daniel Hand Fund is appropriated to special work, which, although connected generally with the work of the Association, is yet not a part of that ordinary work for which this fund we recommend to be raised is to be expended. Hence all friends of the Association must make and measure their gifts to it understanding that the sum we propose must be raised without any aid from the income from that million dollars constituting one of the grandest gifts of our time. Shall this $500,000 for the current work of the Association for 1889 be furnished to it? This is God's work. The churches here represented and the friends of the Association have the money. It can not be put to any nobler Christian use; the needs demand it, and we recommend that $500,000 be raised for the Association for its current work for the year now begun.

REPORT ON SECRETARY STRIEBY'S PAPER

BY REV. G.B. WILLCOX, D.D., CHAIRMAN

The paper by Dr. Strieby impresses your committee as an admirably comprehensive and discriminating statement of the policy and work of the Association. As to the reconstruction of our educational and missionary societies, to the suggestion of which much of the paper calls attention, and from which he dissents, we should do well to make haste slowly. Some time in the future it may become practicable. But we discover no finger of Providence pointing toward it at present.

If the thought were to reduce our societies to which these interests are intrusted to two, calling for but two annual collections where we now have three or four, it needs no prophet to foresee the effect of that on the amounts collected. If the suggestion is of the reconstruction, not of the societies, but only of the work—if it proposes that our educational and missionary enterprises be so divided that no one society shall to any extent conduct both—it has certainly an attractive look.

But is it more than a look? The educational institutions of several of our societies were born out of the inmost life of those organizations and lie on their bosom for nourishment to-day. To ask the American Board, for example, to turn over its colleges and schools to some other society, for that, of course, is involved in the plan suggested—would be like asking one of our Christian mothers to send her babe to the foundlings' home. Some of us are old enough to remember that the venerable and now sainted Dr. Anderson was at first vehemently opposed to the schools planted by the missionaries in India. It was confounding things that differ. The work of a missionary society was not to manage schools. The schools were discontinued. But the Board soon discovered that it was doing its work with but one hand. The schools came back and came to stay. Now we conservatives are rather jealous of our progressive brethren calling for a reconstruction of the American Board. We know not whereto this thing may grow.

If the colleges and schools of the American Missionary Association were secular, if they had no vital oneness of life with its churches, there might be room for the plan suggested. But they are as thoroughly Christian in their aim as the churches. The churches are as indispensably educational as the schools. As Dr. Strieby remarks, the teacher is often the pastor. The pastor finds a great part of his flock in the school. The teachers teach in his Sunday-school. The prayer-meeting depends on them for its success. The unseen shuttles of mutual sympathy, flying back and forth incessantly, are weaving the two together, and working out the one pattern of the Divine life in souls, that covers both. The plan proposed would, at least to the eye, disentangle all complications. It would lay out the work in the Year-Book with clean-cut precision. But vital things are not always improved by vivisection. It would doubtless simplify our apprehension of the organs of a man to lay the lungs on one side of the table, the heart on another, the liver on a third, and the brains on a fourth. But how far it would enhance the vitality and usefulness of the man is another question. There is an organism which is often, and without harm, in that fashion distributed. But it is a mannikin—not a man.

The one most formidable evil among our colored countrymen is their deplorable ignorance of the connection between religion and morality—or rather the fact that religion, on its outward side, is morality. The sable deacon who, when confronted with a list of his sins as dark as his countenance, replied triumphantly; "Well, bredren, I'se broke ebery commandment ob de ten—but bress de Lord, I'se nebber los' my 'ligion," was no monster of iniquity. He was only saturated and sodden with the delusion which submerges Pagan, Mohammedan, and Papist alike, and throws no little of its froth over Protestant, too often, that duties toward God and toward man are not blended, or even dove-tailed together. But they are weights in opposite scales. Be only devout in your penances or your hallelujahs, and your life among men is of little account. Now, that notion can not be corrected in such a people as that one with which we have to do in the South by an occasional Sunday sermon. In the day-school it must be reiterated morning, noon, and night in various applications, line upon line and precept upon precept. And so, on the other hand, teachers, as well as scholars, must be reminded by pastors, with a little Puritan iron in their blood, of their Christian, as well as educational obligations. One member of your committee who has had practical experience in the Southern work reports that some teachers, occasionally even now, need to be reminded of the Christian service that the Association, as well as the Master, expects from them. But divide these different functions, put the churches and Sunday-schools under other auspices, and, self-evidently, that temptation would be so much the worse. We must have groped out of the morning twilight toward the millennial day much further than we have before any such plan can be reduced to fact.

Dr. Strieby speaks in the paper of his clerical friend of twenty-five years ago, who thought the work of the Association would be transient. It reminds us of Mr. Seward's remark that three months would end the civil war. We are in for a long campaign. The sad fact is not to be blinked that, with the enormous increase of the colored population, the illiteracy among them is greater to-day than at the close of the rebellion. We have need to sing at times:

 
O, learn to scorn the praise of men:
O, learn to lose with God.
 

As Dr. Goodwin grandly told us yesterday, our work is under the Master's order. Success is no concern of ours. But success, because it is His concern, is sure. Every losing battle in His service turns in time to victory. We remember in Count Agenor de Gasparin's "Uprising of a Great People," how spell-bound, awe-struck, he appeared to be before that magnificent ground swell of the loyal nation, rolling on, as a traveling mountain range, to sweep the rebellion as drift-wood before it. The eight millions of the freedmen and their children are rising. If, for the present, there are refluent waves that sadden us it is God who brings in the tide. "And when I begin," saith the Lord, "I will also make an end."