Book: American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 1, January, 1889
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Various >> American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 1, January, 1889
"Her great Redeemer shall call her to inherit
The heaven of wealth long garnered up for her."
Now let us turn a moment to the other side of the A.M.A. work. I hold in
my hand a letter written upon this scrap of paper by a colored boy in the
South and sent to one of our missionaries who had come North:
"_Oct. 21._ My Dear Friend, Mr. Brown--I wish you would if you please if
you please send me three dollars and a half now if you please send it I
want to buy a good little shot gun please send it."
These facts present the double responsibility which the A.M.A. sustains
to its constituency in this vast and complex missionary work. None of
these facts are exceptional in character. The Association must so present
its work to the churches as to "constrain" them to give; drag them by the
chains of Christian duty to give; those who can of their abundance
abundantly; those who must of their penury, with this tremendous
self-sacrifice.
An old colored preacher in Georgia, in my hearing, preached on
"Pasteboard Christians." He said: "Brethren, did you neber see a
pasteboard box? It's mighty nice; maybe all covered with gilt paper;
looks right stiff and stout, but you just set it out in the rain and see
it when it goes 'pooh,' and am all omnatiously busted. It am jest so with
some Christians. They comes to meetin' with good clothes on; they looks
drefful fine! But you just pass the contribution box 'round, da goes
'pooh!' and dar ain't nothin' left of 'em." It has not been my experience
that there are many pasteboard Christians in the district of New England.
Systematic giving, giving constantly, giving because the safety of our
country requires it, and the kingdom of Christ demands it; this is the
sort of giving which I have found to be the rule.
But there must be systematic spending as truly as systematic giving. The
gifts of the churches must be husbanded, and the churches must be warned
from time to time against wasteful and unwise efforts, by which others
are seeking to do the work, which is being done systematically through
your agent, the American Missionary Association.
My personal experience as Field Superintendent, has pressed upon me the
imperative importance of this side of the responsibility which this
Association holds to the churches. One must pass back and forth often,
and become personally familiar with this great field, before he can
understand the importance of the systematic spending of this Association.
Wrecks of schools and churches are not few in the Southland. Godly men
and women and godless adventurers have experimented in many places. Money
has been and is being wasted, that might be used to great and permanent
advantage if contributed through the A.M.A. and disbursed according to
the principles which long experience has proved to be sound.
It is the purpose of this paper to emphasize some of the facts concerning
this great missionary field, and to point out the advantages of
systematic spending, which you secure when you commit your funds to this
society rather than to the hap-hazard efforts which you have no power to
supervise and no control over.
An organized society controlled and directed by those who contribute is
the surest possible way of securing this systematic spending. This method
has both negative and positive advantages:
I. It prevents waste.
(a.) Waste in administration of funds. Its accounts are open to and
audited by those whose money is being spent. Reports of the financial
standing, receipts and expenditures to the half-penny are presented every
year. Look them over and note how minutely your accounts are kept.
Officers and missionaries are held by you to strictest responsibility.
This is sound business sense applied to missionary work. But one
naturally asks why, when such absolute safeguards are thrown around the
administration of the funds committed to the A.M.A., some of those who
established those safeguards give a considerable portion of their money
to individuals over whose expenditure they have absolutely no control,
and where funds may be, and often are, wasted? And in this way the
percentage of the cost of administering the funds committed to the A.M.A.
is also increased. This can scarcely be called sound business wisdom.
(b.) Waste in field work. It requires wide experience and knowledge of
the whole field in order to adjust and direct, without waste of laborers,
the force of missionaries. Those who know only one locality cannot do
this. It is often remarked that each missionary thinks his particular
field the most important, and the one especially needing help and
enlargement. This is a grand tribute to their faithfulness and Christian
enthusiasm. But the systematic investigation of the whole field,
constantly and patiently carried on as it is by the A.M.A., determines
with larger wisdom whether work should be strengthened and developed in
Tennessee, or Georgia, or Texas. Gen. Grant was familiar with the whole
field, and placed his men according to the varying exigencies of the
campaign. Just so the systematic methods of this Association place these
noble missionaries where there will be least waste of labor.
But there are also positive advantages secured by the systematic methods
of the A.M.A. in expending the money committed to its treasury.
II. It secures proportion in different parts of the work.
(a.) In appeal.--This Association, constituted, as it is, the immediate
agent of the churches, ought to be your watchman on the tower.
Every pastor is crowded with parish duties. Few intelligent laymen can
give time enough to study thoroughly the whole field covered by the
missions of the A.M.A. It is now an enormous field. Representatives of
five distinct races, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Mountain Whites and
Negroes wait for Christian instruction very largely upon the missionaries
you are sending out.
Now, no one who is not compelled by official duties to do it can find
time, nor has he the information at hand, to investigate thoroughly each
department of this missionary work. The A.M.A. is your agent to discover,
through careful and patient investigation, the exact facts, and so to
direct its appeals to the churches that the department of work which is
especially pressing may be given due prominence. Systematic spending
involves this.
(b.) Greatest care is required and exercised in planting new work. Let us
in fancy plant a new school in the South, as the Association does it.
Exhaustive correspondence is of course, the first step. Then the Field
Superintendent visits the field. He gathers every possible fact bearing
upon the question: The population; schools, if any; the opinions of white
and colored citizens; the religious complexion of the community, etc.,
etc., etc. Now this Field Superintendent has studied maps and statistics
and school reports, and been back and forth until the whole field is in
his mind, not simply this one locality. These facts _in extenso_ are
reported to the officers in New York. Conferences many and patient are
held over them until finally it is settled that this place rather than
some other shall be selected for the new school. Now such care as this
would be impossible except as the A.M.A., through its officers and
teachers, knew the whole field. By independent or individual effort this
could not be done. It is not the absolute, but the comparative need and
hopefulness that determine the wisdom of fixing upon a certain place for
a school or church. This comparative need can only be known by an
organized society which has frequent and abundant communication with the
whole field, and has officers whose business it is to know that field.
The experiments being tried in different places have already been made by
the A.M.A., and proved to be either absolutely failures or relatively an
uneconomic use of funds.
The saving to you who furnish the money is very great by this method of
systematic spending. Let me illustrate by a single example which occurred
only a few months ago. Two towns, only a few miles apart, were clamoring
for help in school work. We opened a school tentatively in one of these
places, as we had one missionary there already, and I visited the other
place. This is what I found: A teacher independent of any society, and
consequently knowing only a small part of the South, had opened a school.
She had labored very faithfully, but very unwisely, putting money and
years of hard work into a field which, from its very conditions, could
not be largely successful. She had a poor building for teachers' home, a
rough school-house with no desks, a narrow strip of land, and an
enrollment of about eighty pupils. She was anxious to have the A.M.A.
take the work. She informed me that in order to secure it, it would be
necessary to pay out from $2,500 to $3,000 in paying debts and putting
the buildings in shape for advantageous use. This was the case then: A
fairly good house, a rough school-house, a bit of land, and a school of
less than one hundred pupils, costing at least $2,500. At the other point
under discussion, there were five acres of land, five buildings, an
enrollment of about 250 pupils, and the whole property could be secured
for $600! $2,500 vs. $600.
These are not very exceptional cases. It is only fair to the generous
constituency of this Association to know that their funds are being thus
guarded, and that those who give through independent agencies may have
their funds squandered because they cannot hold those doing this
independent work to strict account as they do the Association, nor can
these independent missionaries know the whole field as the A.M.A. knows
it. Here are nearly 500 missionaries in constant correspondence with this
office, besides the field officers appointed especially to gather
information.
(c.) Again, this systematic method of disbursing funds secures a
methodical arrangement of field work. Take the mountain field as an
illustration of this. This field has been divided into two general
districts; one having for its base the L.N.R.R., the other lying along
the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Each department has its general
missionary, who goes back and forth in his district to lay out new work,
and to superintend the old. The missionaries, pastors and teachers are
all busy in their own places. Here then is systematic development of
this whole work. These noble missionaries in this way form a
well-organized army, and are not guerrillas fighting behind trees and
stones, and scattered hap-hazard over the mountains. We shall hold these
lines of railroad in the name of the Lord. Churches and missions and
Sunday-schools will supplant the saloons and gambling hells if you as
churches generously support this painfully urgent work. But when
school-houses shall stand in all their fertile coves and church bells
shall call to intelligent Christian worship on all those mountain sides,
and the people shall be lifted up into spiritual citizenship, it will
simply be the victory under God of the systematic planning and execution
possible only when funds are disbursed on the sound principles of this
Association.
III. This systematic spending of benevolent funds also secures
permanency. How few deaths there are in the family of A.M.A. schools and
churches! Why? Because these missions are born through wisdom and sound
judgment. These schools and churches are not only permanent but they will
also perpetuate the great fundamental principles of the churches whose
prayers and money have gone into their establishment.
These missions cannot become Roman Catholic or infidel. They cannot drift
away from the safe moorings of evangelical truth, unless the churches to
which they are tied up give way. The churches control these missions
forever. Local management in this work often means mismanagement, on
account of the peculiar surroundings in which these schools are placed.
They differ radically from schools and colleges planted among the new
settlers in the West. Here in the South there is no considerable
intelligent Christian constituency to direct their work, manage their
affairs and keep them in close connection with Congregational conferences
and councils.
IV. Lastly. By means of this systematic spending you keep step with the
grand onward movement of God's providence in the marvelous openings of
this great missionary field. How wonderfully this work develops! The
primary schools of the early period have grown into normal and
preparatory institutes and colleges and theological seminaries, although
the primary work is still being done and well done! New schools are being
planted. "Enter the mountains with your mission host," came the command,
and it was done. Industrial training became necessary to the best
furnishing of these young people for their life-work and their largest
intellectual development, and now thorough training in these departments
is furnished by the schools of the American Missionary Association. The
grand work has kept step with the developing needs.
I asked one of the most experienced teachers and missionaries in the
South what feature of the A.M.A. especially impressed him. He replied at
once, "The wonderful and consummate statesmanship displayed in its
management. The wisdom manifested in planting schools and churches, and
in keeping pace with the new and constantly changing conditions of this
great and perplexing field, absolutely astounds me." This is no tribute
to those of us who have recently entered this service.
To sum up this argument, then: By the systematic method of spending
through the A.M.A., you avoid--
I. Waste, (1.) In administration. (2.) In field work.
II. You secure the wisest apportionment of the work, (1.) Appeals are
systematic. (2.) The work is developed proportionately. (3.) And each
department is systematically conducted.
III. You can secure permanency in the work, (b.) And perpetuate the
principles you believe to be of fundamental importance in uplifting these
races.
IV. You keep step with God's providence in the development of these
fields.
It is told us that during the days that immediately preceded the capture
of Richmond, Sheridan was in hot pursuit of Lee's retreating troops. He
telegraphed to Grant, "I think if the thing is pushed Lee will surrender."
There came flashing back this laconic message from that silent soldier,
"Push things." They were pushed, and within a few weeks Lee's army was
annihilated, and the sword of the haughty rebel was in the hands of the
loyal Grant. The Union army had pushed through the broken fortifications
around Richmond and planted the grand old stars and stripes,
battle-stained and bullet-torn, above the dome of the rebel capitol,
never, never, never to be pulled down again by disloyal hands.
My brethren, there comes flashing to us to-day from this army of
Christ-like men and women away out yonder in front of us, from out the
heat of battle against ignorance, and prejudice, and misery, and sin,
these stirring words: "We can take these lowlands and mountains and
prairies and ocean coasts for our Lord, and for his Christ, now if the
thing be pushed."
What message shall we send back to them, O people of God?
Shall it not be this? "We pledge you our prayers, our sympathy, our best
sons and daughters and five hundred thousand dollars in consecrated money
this year; and in the great name of the Lord our God let the thing be
pushed."
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
SCRAPS FROM MY CORRESPONDENCE.
BY REV. W.C. POND.
Our limited space forbids the publication of extended correspondence; and
yet, often, in the familiar and unstudied letters which I receive from
our workers, there are paragraphs or sentences which I greatly desire
that our Eastern friends and helpers might share with me. The following
are a few of these.
Mrs. Carrington, our very faithful and efficient teacher at Sacramento,
writes as follows: "Our school seems in better condition than for many
months. Chin Toy [missionary helper] is true and watchful. Two joined the
church at the last communion, one has given his name to join the
Association, and others seem almost ready."
Our school at Oroville has been for a year past in the hands of two quite
young, but true hearted and enthusiastic teachers, from one of whom I
hear in this way: "We have had a very good school this month. The
attendance has been very good; the scholars seem to feel better, and I
think the teachers do too. We had quite a re-union one evening last
month. There was one brother who had just returned from China, and
another from away out in the country. The former had not been here for
years, nor the latter for more than twelve months. It would have done any
one good to see how glad they were to meet each other. I never saw so
much hand-shaking, and talking, and laughing. Both these are good
scholars and will help us much. We have the Bible lessons twice a week,
and they are very interesting to us both. We have nearly finished the
Gospel of Mark, and it gets more interesting towards the last."
Other extracts shall be from letters of our Chinese brethren. Here is one
who has evidently gotten over into an American way of thinking. He is so
much in earnest that his English is badly wrenched in the effort to
convey his views, but I give his words very nearly as he wrote them.
"What I think and what often I observed is that the Chinese very meanness
and sordidness, just exactly what were the Jews. Scatter all round the
world, and still they feel very proud of their country, despise the
foreigners, close all their sea-ports, would not allow the poor celestial
to go out or have civilized men to enter the happy country. On account of
their ignorance of Christ, unhappy, miserable, wretched. Some of them
think good deal of their improvement, national, naval, but if the
Government will not adopt the Christianity and put behind their ancestor
and evil ways and the wicked custom, they will not be very flourishing
what they look for." For himself he says, "I hope I will have a good
opportunity while I am working for the Lord and looking for some souls to
bring to the Lord, as His will be done."
Another writes: "I speak in Chinatown yesterday. Then we had very good
singers of American Christian young men (they were five) and Chinese
brethren (they were eight.). All go on to sing with me. Then I have a
good chance. I pray God to help and hope our countrymen immediately come
to repent and follow Christ and worship Him." And again, "I thank God for
His blessing. This school now is increasing. Last evening we had
twenty-three scholars. Six new ones came in this month. I like stay here
two or three months more and talk this gospel of Christ."
Another translated for me a letter just received from his father-in-law
in China--a letter which gives him great joy. "Dear Son-in-law:--Your
letter was reached me some ten days ago, and glad to read it and that you
are all right in California, _doing Jesus work_. But there was a fellow
named ---- ---- who had come back from San Francisco last year. This
fellow came to me with some news to tell me, so he said. So I asked him
to sit down and gave him a cup of tea. Then he commenced his false story
about you _being poisoned by the Jesus doctors_, and that your heart had
been poisoned so that you don't want to come back any more. After the
length of his false talks, I commenced to ask him questions which he
cannot answer. I told him that I had known my son-in-law too much about
his faith in Jesus. People with the same report came to me from time to
time, before you [i.e., the son-in-law addressed in the letter,--W.C.P.]
came back the last time. At first I have faith in their talks, but since
you came home, I have found you all right. Now a mission is near my
house, and I have time to talk and to read the Jesus books, and have
found that Jesus is like our Confucius, and I believed Jesus words all
right and so my son-in-law all-right too. Thus I have told the dog,
[i.e., the tale-bearer] to get off from my door and not call on me
again."
I hope there may yet be space for this extract from a letter from Jee
Gam, who took a vacation of two weeks, spending it not far from a Chinese
fishing village near Monterey. "Sunday morning, accompanied by about ten
American friends, I went to Chinatown to hold a preaching service. After
singing several times and offering prayer, I took the stand and preached
to a large crowd of my countrymen, of both sexes and all ages, drawn by
our loud invitation and our songs. Before I began my sermon I told them
what we had been singing about, also what we prayed for, and to whom we
prayed, and asked them to see the difference between these Christian
Americans who sang and prayed for us, and those who would crowd us out
Then I preached on Gal. 6:7, for nearly an hour, and all listened
attentively. Not one of the hearers said anything against us. I was told
that two years ago a Chinaman had tried to preach there, but the people
drowned his voice by beating their tin cans, and drove him off with
various missiles. When I heard this I said, 'I am not afraid, God will go
with us; with his help I will preach Christ to them.' And he did help,
and oh, may he bless the seed sown! On Sunday evening one of the Chinese
came out decided as a Christian, and one other seemed almost persuaded."
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
* * * * *
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
ME--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee,
Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.
VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee,
Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
VT.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. Ellen Osgood, Montpelier, Vt.
CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.
N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. William Spalding, Salmon Block, Syracuse, N.Y.
ALA.--Woman's Missionary Association, Secretary,
Mrs. G.W. Andrews, Talladega, Ala.
OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.
IND.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. W.E. Mossman, Fort Wayne, Ind.
ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs.
C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.
MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary,
Miss Katharine Plant, 2651 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn.
IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.
KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary,
Mrs. G.L. Epps, Topeka, Kan.
MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.
WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.
NEB.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. L.F. Berry, 724 N Broad St., Fremont, Neb.
COLORADO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary,
Mrs. S.M. Packard, Pueblo, Colo.
DAKOTA,--Woman's Home Miss. Union, President,
Mrs. T.M. Hills, Sioux Falls; Secretary,
Mrs. W.R. Dawes, Redfield; Treasurer,
Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.
We would suggest to all ladies connected with the auxiliaries of State
Missionary Unions, that funds for the American Missionary Association be
sent to us through the treasurers of the Union. Care, however, should be
taken to designate the money as for the American Missionary Association,
since _undesignated funds will not reach us_.
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING.
The public meeting of the Woman's Bureau was held Thursday afternoon,
simultaneously with the business meeting of the A.M.A. in Providence, and
was conducted by Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, of Portland, Me. The report of the
Secretary, Miss D.E. Emerson, of New York, was presented, and then
missionary addresses were delivered by Mrs. A.A. Myers on "Mountain
Work;" by Mrs. Geo. W. Moore on the "Colored People;" and by Miss Collins
on "Indians," all of which were listened to with deep interest.
Mrs. Woodbury, on taking the chair, said:
The object of this meeting is well understood. It is to decide what the
women of the Congregational Churches shall do in connection with woman's
work--that part of the Association's work which is designed to be among
women. It is woman's work among women. It is designed at this time to
hear from those fields in which the speakers are especially interested.
We shall hear from the Mountain Work, from the Negroes in the South, and
from the work among the Indians in the West. Like a very close man who,
to the surprise of those who approached him, gave money enough to
purchase a town clock, who explained by saying he liked to hear his money
tick, so it is meant here this afternoon that the women shall hear the
tick of their work from all these fields to which I have referred, and
may the sound of it reverberate all down through the ages.
* * * * *