American Missionary | Page 5

to the same divine example, talk with black and with white, and
welcome them both to the same privileges in this kingdom--and even
some timid disciples marvel. But the principles of this divine kingdom
do not change; the Lord of that kingdom, who talked with the sinful,
weary, despised Samaritan woman, would, if here in bodily presence
now, talk with the sinful, weary, despised black woman, no matter how
much his worldly-wise disciples might marvel. His kingdom is built
upon this eternal truth of human brotherhood, and it will endure
because it is. Nothing short of this is of his kingdom, but will crumble
to dust.
The Congregationalist
Forty-Second Annual Report Of The Executive Committee,
FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1888.

General Survey.

The field of missions is the world which lieth in darkness. We have to
do with that part of it for which we are doubly responsible. It is in
darkness and it is our own.
We look upon our own land, with its States equal in extent and capacity
to foreign kingdoms. When we know that they hold the certainty of a
future influence of which their past power has been but a prophecy, our
fears press hard upon our hopes.
Nor are our work and our fears an intrusion. When the pestilence which
walks in darkness brings the destruction which wastes at noonday, it is
our call to feel deeply the distresses of those who are stricken. But
plagues consuming human lives are less grevious than those which
abide, and which, walking in the intellectual and moral darkness of a
people, waste the lives of men and the hopes of souls. This is our call.
Remember that it is our own country where, in twelve great States, like
empires, forty per cent. of the population cannot read, where, to-day,
three-fourths of the illiteracy of the whole nation exists; where the
darkness is increasing more rapidly than it is being lighted up; where
much which passes for religion even among those who preach it, is a
travesty upon Christianity, openly divorced from relationship with truth,
purity, integrity and intelligence.
Our survey takes in questions that are painful; disturbing questions that
are not in the North, nor in the West. They are difficult to meet. They
are near, and the troubles which the questions hold are near. They come
close to the heart of Christianity. They are close to the life of the
churches. They are close to the first principles of human rights. They
are questions that can have only one final solution, which may be so
remote that fearful dangers will culminate in terrible disasters before
the only remedy can do its work. There are now nearly eight millions of
a Negro population, from four millions twenty years ago. There are
more than two millions of mountain people in the South, one-half of
whom cannot read. These benighted people live where there has never
been a public-school system even for the more highly favored race, and
where this more highly favored race deliberately assigns those who are
not of its color to a permanent inferiority. The laws of caste are to be

inflexibly enforced against all people of color who would rise from
their low-down conditions. This is our Southern mission field, which
God has committed to us, according to our faith and opportunity.
Those of our own race in the South could not do this work, which is
upon our consciences and hearts, if they would. They do not see what
we see. They would not if they could. They do not feel what we feel.
We are sent, not as philanthropists who hear the cry of the poor and
needy, nor as patriots who realize the perils that overhang the State, but
as missionaries of Jesus Christ who believe that salvation takes in the
whole man, including philanthropy and statesmanship, and whatever
builds up man for time and for eternity.
We have, however, no other charter for our work than that of missions.
We have no other errand than that of the messengers of Christ. Only as
we go in his name and with his spirit do we ask the churches to listen
and hear with us, and with us to look and see.
OUR SCHOOLS.
Our missionary work has been largely in schools. It was God's
providence. But these were always missionary centres.
Their number at the present time is ninety-three; seventeen of these in
the Southern States are Normal Schools from which a large proportion
of the pupils go forth as teachers. It is computed that of the 15,000
Negro teachers in the South instructing 800,000 pupils, 13,500 became
teachers from missionary schools, and that a great army of more than
7,000 of these teachers received their education in the institutions of