$€ /• h 5 
 
THE 
 
 True Plan of Home Missions. 
 
 A SEKMOX 
 
 IX BEIIALK'OK THE 
 
 ^mrvican Itomc Mlissionaii) ^ocictu. 
 
 PKEACUED IN THE 
 
 BROADM’AY TABEEXACLE CHURCH, NEW YORK, 
 
 May 4, 1873. 
 
 BY 
 
 THEODORE D. WOOLSEY, 
 
 LATELY PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE. 
 
 XEW YORK: 
 
 THE AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARA^ SOCIETY. 
 1873. 
 
‘1 
 
 Jl, 
 
 TOBITT * BUNCE, 
 Prtktmw and STBinon PltK'. 
 00 Fulton St., N. Y. 
 
SK KM ON. 
 
 Yea, woe is ento me. ik I pueach not the Gospei, ! — 1 Corinthians, 
 ix. 1(), last clause. 
 
 Yea, so have I stkived to pheach the gospel, not wheke Christ 
 
 WAS NAMED, lest I SHOIT.D Bl'ILD PPON ANOTHER M.Vn's FOUND-VTION. 
 
 Romans, xv. 20. 
 
 In the first of these verses tlie apostle says, that the 
 trust of preaching' the oiLspel liad heen jmt into his hauils, 
 so that a woe would rest ou him if he should prove faith- 
 less. Ill the other verse he tells us what rule he observed, 
 ill selectiiur the fields for his luissioiiarv work. His plan 
 was not to go to eities where others had alri'ady spread 
 the good news of God, and gathered eoiiverts togetluu' in 
 Christian eoiiiiiiuuitie.s, hut to itlaces whieh had lain out- 
 side of and beyond the gospel’s luareli. This rule he 
 speaks of iu the words “yea, so have I striven to preaeh,” 
 whieh iu a more exact sense denote that he eoiisidered it a 
 point of honor to preaeh not where Christ was aeknowd- 
 edged by men as their Savior, but Avhere, hitlierto, the 
 news of him had not reached. He did not want to inter- 
 fere in the labors of another, even though his apostolical 
 office might give him such authority ; his delicate percep- 
 tion of what Avas due towarils others made him shrink 
 from such iuirusiou ; ami his zeal spurred him on still 
 westward, so as to bring Christ near to new hearers in all 
 the lands of the vast Eonlan empire. 
 
 It seems to me that these verses contain subject of 
 thought proper for the managemeut of Christian missions 
 iu our country. Especially ought the churches reiiresented 
 in this Society to feel that a w oe will rest upon them, 
 if they abate at all in their purpose or zeal to send the 
 gospel to destitute places beyond their own borders. And 
 
4 
 
 iu doing' so, it becomes tbem and tl eir agents to iininire 
 where there is most destitution, — not to build on founda- 
 tions already laid down, but to build where Christ is not 
 yet known ; to follow the apostle alike iu his feeling of re- 
 sponsibility, and his honorable determination not to in- 
 trude in any Avay into a field already occupied by other 
 servants of Christ. 
 
 I. And, first, a woe will rest upon us as a community of 
 churches, if Ave preach not the gospel beyond our own 
 borders. • There are tAvo great fields into Avhich all the in- 
 dications of duty call us— the foreign and the home field. 
 
 1 do not intend to include the first iu Avhat I have to say 
 on the present occasion. Every consideration, Avhich can 
 be urged for preaching the gospel as a Avork of love to 
 mankind and of fidelity to Christ, points equally in both 
 directions. Our churches Avere the first on this side of the 
 Avater that aAvoke to the faith that the time was fully come 
 for the unchristianized Avorld to hear, and for us to send, 
 the gospel. The great Society Avhich Avas the offsi>ring of 
 that faith is uoav, after more than sixty years, successfully 
 doing its Avorhl-Avork and sIioavs no signs of decrepitude, 
 but many of vigorous manhood. There can be no jar or 
 jealousy betAveen the tAvo great organizations sustained by 
 our churches. Every ucav center of religious light planted 
 by the Home Missionary Society is to be a place of prayer 
 and a source of supply for the heathen. If Congregation- 
 alists lose their faith that Christianity is the destined re- 
 ligion of mankind, they must lose also their faith that the 
 new parts of this country can become parts of a strong 
 Christian commonAvealth. If Ave Avere to pour all our 
 money into one treasury and send it to the feeble churches 
 at home, letting the foreign missions Avither and die, such 
 a step Avould ere long crii)i)le the resources of the Home 
 Mi.ssionary Society itself. Whatever Ave .say, therefore, of 
 one part of this great subject Avill apply to the other. 
 
 Noav Avithin the held Avhich our oavu land offers, we are 
 called on as a community of churches to make the gospel 
 
known, and a woe will rest on us, as a denomination, if we 
 obey not the call. This will appear, first : if we consider 
 that such missions are necessary, and especially so in our 
 circumstances, /or the proper balance and un foldinp of relig- 
 ions character. 
 
 If Paul, when he had believed in ('hrist, had not been 
 exi>lieitly called by the Spirit to preach to the (lentiles, if 
 he had asked counsel only of the monitor within, with 
 no expn'ss directions of his Lord, his path of duty, as we 
 look on him, as a man and a convert, would seem to have 
 been perfectly plain. Supi)ose he had trie<l to live in soli- 
 tary contemplation for years, supporting’ his soul on the 
 delicious joys and elevating tlioughts of his new hope, 
 how long coidd such a kind of religious life have given 
 him satisfaction V Even if he could have avoided taking 
 the (piestion of duty into his mind, would not the instinct- 
 ive feelings of his nature have taught him that a man, 
 ushered as he was in a marvelous way into the knowledge 
 of the gospel, was not his own but Christ’s, and that this 
 change, if nothing else, qualified him, with his talents and 
 learning, to go to Jew and Gentile and tell them in whom 
 he believe<l and why he believed If he had chosen any 
 other course, it would have told upon his Christian life 
 through inetiiciency, through scei)tical doubts, through a 
 loss of personal comfort. So it is with every Christian. 
 If the active principles do not go along at ecpial pace with 
 the convictions of the soul, there will result a one-sided, 
 self-centered character, an incapacity to understand the 
 gospel in its compass and greatness, a stunted growth of 
 the highest Christian qualification, a proportionate want 
 of ])eace and joy. So it is also with a church and a bodg of 
 churches. It may be, indeed, that a country or an age is 
 not in a condition to undertake large works of good in re- 
 mote, untilled fields ; it may be that political forms cripi»Ie 
 the energies of a people, so that the man or the church 
 has no consciousness of strength equal to the needs of the 
 kingdom of Christ in the world ; although even then how 
 many works of mercy and i)urifving influence might be 
 
G 
 
 done ’wliicli Avonld prepare for more favorable times and 
 more (lifficiilt or distant labors! But our circumstances 
 are far different from all this. Unbounded liberty of move- 
 ment, ceaseless calls for help, a limitless spread of popula- 
 tion, resources in the old States ade(piate to vastly more 
 than lias been undertaken by any body of Christians, all 
 these and other loud voices at once summon us to a great, 
 earnest work of good, and tell us that there will be woe to 
 us if we preach not the gospel. It is said that weak 
 churches in the old States, churches growing weaker, be- 
 cause the strong and the young go off into newer homes, \ 
 
 demand our first care. So perhaps they do, and this is an 
 important part of the work of this Society and of its 
 Auxiliaries. If the burden of such churches is all our 
 shoulders can carry, well and good. But let us remember 
 that we in our individual churches must grow by the diffu- 
 sive power of our life and activity. The concentrated 
 power is not enough for ourseh es or for the world. We 
 may depend upon it that the Christian spirit was never 
 quenched by feeling the claims on us of those for whom 
 Christ died. We must not, indeed, let our spirit evaporate 
 in benevolent undertakings carried on by others, we 
 must not feel that if we give a tithe of all we have to re- 
 ligious movement, we are doing all we ought. That wovdd 
 be fatal. But on the other hand it would be fatal to our 
 growth as persons, and as churches, if we contented our- ^ 
 
 selves with going on the way to heaven ourselves in all 
 quiet, and putting forth no endeavors for that spread of 
 Christ’s kingdom Avhich is precious in his eyes. Keep up 
 the proi)ortion of the two sides of character and you in- 
 sure the steady, even growth in goodness of all churches 
 which partake in the movement. 
 
 But, (Kjain : the common interest of our churches in so 
 noble a work as that of the Home Missionary Society, is a 
 bond of fraiernily between them. 
 
 There is eminent need of such bonds among ('ongrega- 
 tionalists, because our essence consists in the in(lei)endenc e 
 of the local church. lUit indei)endence, with all its advan- 
 
ta<>'os, will be I'nll of evils, if some spiritual union do not 
 brill”’ together those whose rights keep them apart. If we 
 in all our ehiirches adhere to the rigid notion of indepeiid- 
 eney, we have a denomination of sejiarate atoms without 
 (loiiits of contact, isolated and devoid of mntnal symiiathy. 
 If the spirit of brotherhood moves among those atoms so 
 far that we seek and resiiect each other’s advice, that is 
 well, it is (diristian ; but how occasional, how exceptional, 
 such times of mntnal helpfulness are, I need not point out. 
 If we go yet further and set up Conferences of churches, 
 in which the lay element takes its aiiprojiriate [lart, that is 
 a step farther towards good, and it angnrs well for the 
 future that of late this truly religions and fraternal inter- 
 course is encouraged and has spread. We may go farther 
 still, and gather ministers and delegates in imposing trien- 
 nial Councils, bringing East ami West together, and show- 
 ing to the other bodies of Christians that we have some 
 instinct or tendency towards organization. lint what can 
 such bodies do? If they make creeds or canons, no one is 
 bound by them ; to obey them as coming from a church 
 authority, would be to renounce the principles of Congre- 
 gationalism ; to issue them under the sanction of the 
 opinions of the wisest men of the denomination, would be 
 to give advice on which religions newspapers and reviews 
 would sit in judgment, and by which no single church 
 would be bound. They might, in fact, can.se division of 
 feeling and judgment between tho.se who dread authority 
 and those who want more union. 
 
 But there is a more excellent bond between the 
 churches, which indeed requires a high state of religion 
 that its uniting power may have its perfect work, but 
 which, in all the changing conditions of practical religion, 
 cannot but be fraught with good. That bond and sense of 
 brotherhood arises, when the churches keep in view to- 
 gether one great province or department of the kingdom 
 of God ; when their hearts beat and their prayers arise 
 together for its success ; when their gifts flow together in 
 one common channel ; and reports from the sons whom 
 
8 
 
 they send forth come hack to gladden and encourage them 
 all ! — then it is tliat they are conscious that they are one 
 body. Such joint spiritual movement for a specific object 
 helps them to throw off their sense of isolation and to re- 
 cognize the community of churches so co-operating, as a 
 great fraternity who are bound by a common tie of hopes, 
 aim and efforts, all centering on one great work approved 
 by the common Savior. Xo single member of a commu- 
 nity of churches ever stood alone, trusting in the spirit 
 within, as sufficient for the complete unfolding of charac- 
 ter, without suffering loss. It became conceited, or one- 
 sided, or stagnant. But in such association, he who gives 
 receives back more. The intelligence, the feeling of 
 strength, the activity of benevolence, the discipline of 
 judgment, the sense of unity, are so many rewards, which 
 bear the fruit of religious i>rosperity for the future. That 
 body of Christians which in the pure spirit of the gospel 
 blesses them that are without is blessed within ; it loses 
 nothing, it gains everything. 
 
 I add here that, if the churches of our order should 
 grow cold in the work of Home Missions, or abridge their 
 efforts, their past history would rehulce them ; they would ah- 
 jure their old character. Ours is an honorable record, at 
 least if measured by the efforts and zeal of other branches 
 of the Christian body. I will not go back to the times 
 when the “apostle to the Indians,” only twenty-five years 
 after the first settlement of New England, showed the 
 Christian love of the eolonists at the era of their poverty 
 and their precarious existence, nor will I stop to speak of 
 other missio<is of an early day. For Western Home Mis- 
 sions, in their proper sense, there was no opi)ortunity until 
 the latter j)art of the last century. It is a thing to think 
 of with joy that, in 1774, the General Association of Con- 
 necticut took measures for sending missionaries “to the 
 back settlements in the wilderness to the north-westward,” 
 — I use their words which i)oint towards western Vermont 
 and i)art of northern New York. Then came the Revolu- 
 tionary war, with its burdens and its drains of men for the 
 
service, and its fears of liostile Indians ; bnt in 1788 the 
 subject was resinned; and in 17!)8 steps were taken to or- 
 pinize the Cfeneral Association into a missionary society, 
 whose objects were “to cliristianize the heathen in North 
 America, and to snpixnt and promote (dnis'ian knowled.u:e 
 in the United States.” For the Indians at the West little 
 was ilone, bnt the work amon»- the emigrants was i;reat 
 and timely. The ‘>ospel was preached to them at a time 
 when the e.xistenee of relij*io;i amon^i' their settlements 
 was at stake ; and the laborers sent ont into this vineyard 
 by the Connecticut Society “ were one of the leadinj*' in- 
 struments in the land for spreading; and secnrin»' the sway 
 of religion.” The mode of conducting' the missions was 
 singnlarl}' ])rimitive— if I may so say, apostolical, 'riierc 
 were two descriptions of missionaries — those who went 
 forth to make the new regions their homes, and settled 
 ministers of the State who gave themselves for four or six 
 months to this vocation, receiving at one time nine dollars 
 a week, of which four were jiaid to their siibstitnU^s in 
 their own jiarishes, and five were kept for themselves and 
 their horses, as they traveled through the wilderness. For 
 they were not stationary ; they spread the good news of 
 (iod from place to place ; they encouraged the Christian 
 people who had gone forth in their jioverty from the East- 
 ern homes ; they gave a word of warning to men in their 
 sins and passed on, that as many as possible might 
 be reached by their preachings. The resources for this 
 work were drawn from annual contributions made princi- 
 pally on the tirst Sunday of INIay, and from the [irotits of 
 the “Evangelical Magazine.” — sources which together 
 yielded in the end a fund of 844,000, which is still preserved 
 and aids in the support of eight or ten missionaries in the 
 Western States., 
 
 I rejoice to be able to add that there was no spirit of the 
 denomination in all this. The churches founded by these 
 early missions were left under the sway of Presbyterianism 
 by the “plan of union,” and thus, in the event, that pow- 
 erful body of Christians was spread, by the liberal unsec- 
 
10 
 
 tariaii feelings of Coiigregationalists, among descendants 
 of fNew Englanders and members of Congregational 
 churcbes. 
 
 At length this Society was organized, with Avider aims 
 and a larger constituency, uniting the two religious bodies 
 of AA'hich I have just spoken. It adopted as its Auxiliaries 
 the Home Missionary Societies in Ncav England, and the 
 union Avas long, peaceful and happy. It AAas honorable for 
 both denominations that they could Avork together Avith so 
 little jarring and jealousy ; that they could cast their 
 money into a common treasury, uncertain Avhether the \ 
 
 government by the single churches or the goverument by 
 sessions and presbyteries Avould be the result of the joint 
 action. At length a dark time came ; theological fears 
 and theological freedom could not act together ; the plan 
 of union Avas broken up ; the great denomination itself, 
 
 Avhicli had tAvo forms of thought Avithin its boundaries, suf- 
 fered a disruption. The result Avas to intensify the denom- 
 inational feeling ; jealousies arose betAveen the Congrega- 
 tionalists and the members of that Presbyterian body 
 Avhich still supported the American Home ^Missionary So- 
 ciety ; the latter preferred to carry on their Avork of 
 eA^angelization by ecclesiastical boards ; and thus this So- 
 ciety became a Cougregationalist organ, in regard to Avliich, 
 thenceforAvard, the question Avas not that of disbursing 
 contributions, in an ecpiitable division, among the mission- ^ 
 
 aries of tAvo constituencies, but that of doing the more 
 good, if i)ossible, by dividing the Avork. And so, if there 
 is anything of responsibility arising from the fact that 
 this Society is left to our Congregational churches, like a 
 Ijiece of i)roperty in the partition of an estate, it has be- 
 come exclusively their Society — it isiu an important sense 
 their inheritance. If there is anything. of stimulus iu 
 having a specific AVork, a field Avith definite boundarie.s, this 
 is their field. If there is anything in ancestral example to 
 aAvaken interest and to act on the sense of Chrisfian honor, 
 
 Ave have a charge and a trust put into our hands for the 
 beiu'fit of those same regions for Avhich our predecessors 
 
11 
 
 \vork(‘(l iuid pviiycd, \v1k*m tlu*y stMit tlii'ir sons to snbdue 
 the Idivst, blit would not lot tlioin go without tin* 'gosiiol. 
 
 And this loniiirk lends us tosaythiit a woe will rest on 
 tin* elmrehes represiMited in tliis Society, if they do not pro- 
 vide /or the scants of the emiyrnntH from their borders who 
 hare soiiyht new homes in the ITcs/. I do not ini“an that these 
 should be our only care, but that every consideration of 
 (’hristian wisdom and (’hristian feeling- ought to bring 
 these brethren aceording to thellesh before our minds, just 
 as the apostle Paul preached lirst to the dews in his jour- 
 neyings, and then to the (lentiles. To leave a ('hristian 
 home as many of these emigrants do ; to lose the social 
 orderly intluenees of a Christian parish ; to go where set- 
 tlements are made and townshii»s tilled up, not on any 
 principle of atlinity, but as it may happen ; to tind one’s 
 self in a place where there can be no church because there 
 are so many sects, and no harmony, because there is so 
 much self-will ; tube iilaced near broken-down Christian 
 l»rofessors who once held their own in a poor way where 
 religion was popular, and now under the shadow' of tempta- 
 tion have lost all [irinciple, perhaps all faith, and have 
 learned to neglect institutions, to make light of religion, 
 to desiiise their godly forefathers— such fearful risks follow 
 the adventurous children of the older States, as they go, 
 they know not whither or among whom. Young men as 
 they leave college life are often told that now, with almost 
 entire independence, they are going forth into untried 
 scenes, in which their principles will be proved and as- 
 sailed. But such new comers into society have for the 
 most part ]>rinciples of order ; they live under the eye of 
 a jiublic opiuion wdiich they fear nr from w'hich they hope; 
 they have a multitude of good influences around them. 
 And yet they often yield to evil and destroy their charac- 
 ters. How' much more are they put into a crucible and 
 tried as by tire, Avho Avith less experience and less security 
 in themseh’es against corruption, meet corruption in its 
 AAOrst forms Avith feAV or no helps against it. .Vnd Avhat 
 Avill the next generation do, the little ones, who remember 
 
12 
 
 no house of prayer, no i^ood lives of the old home, who are 
 trained* up in practical heathenism ? Such is a feebly 
 drawn picture of what often happens, of what would of 
 course happen, if the benevolent <jnidance of Christian 
 love took them not by the hand, and led them where they 
 would be safe, — or rather, went not before them, keeping" 
 dangers to the soul out of their way, and giving them a 
 kind reception at their journey’s end. Is it not obvious 
 then that the older parts of the land stand towards the 
 newer as parents towards children "? Will there not be a 
 woe on the churches represented here, if they resemble the 
 ostrich, “which leaveth her eggs in the earth,” “and for- 
 getteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild 
 beast may break them,” which “ is hardened against her 
 young ones as though they Avere not hers,” “because Cod 
 hath deprived her of wisdom ” "? 
 
 As long as emigration shall continue from the Eastern 
 Congregational churches, so long our held is marked out 
 for us, as by a guide-post set up by the divine hand. We 
 are guardians for our relatives and friends, until they are 
 rich enough, and have power of combination enongh, to 
 provide for their own spiritual wants. rerh;ii)s a time 
 may come Avhen what we call the West may have the 
 energy, the ability, the religious strength to ])reside over 
 and to give security for the laying of the foundations of 
 Christian life in the great regions yet to be peopled. 
 When that time shall come, onr j)art will be a secondary 
 one in this our work of evangelization, and we may turn 
 our benevolent thonght, our effort, our liberality, into 
 other channels. But as yet we have a i)rincipal part to 
 act. It would be as great a crime to stop the work of the 
 churches in thi < direction now, as it wonld have been to 
 neglect or decline it at first. The fichdity of the past 
 makes it easier and more hopeful now : the fidelity of the 
 present and of the near future will facilitate it still more. 
 At length those districts, into which the children of our 
 churches nave gone, will reach a full majority. l\Iay they 
 have more will, as they may have better opportunity, to 
 
extend the w.-rk tliuii their fathers had, or tlie Societies 
 liad, which tlieir fathers originated. 
 
 But still another important consideration shows that a 
 woe w ill rest on the churches represented here, if they are 
 slack and heartless in this tiehl of Home ^Missions. By so 
 doing- they icill fail to apply the great remedy to the existing 
 and impending evds of the country. Our i)olitieal evils are 
 to be mainly removed by leavening the land with the prin- 
 ciples of uprightness taught by the gospel. The relations 
 between the political morals of a country and its religious 
 welfare are very intimate, — far more so than (hey have 
 imagined who have been content to stand aloof from polit- 
 ical life and to save themselres by faith in Christ. There 
 is no possible separation between the great causes that 
 shape the character and determine the destiny of any 
 land ; and above all of a free country, w here political duty 
 knocks at every man’s door, and political immorality cor- 
 rupts every i>arty, yes, and every voter, unless he resists 
 its influence. For a free country is the soil where the 
 seeds of good and evil sow themselves most rapidly and 
 most widely. How religion must sutfer, when men vote 
 for bad men, and defend bad measures of their party, and 
 make compromises with evil, and are on terms of friend- 
 ship with the dishonorable and the time-serving, it is need- 
 less that I should show. Is it not evident that freedom 
 cannot take care of itself, and that, when corrupt, its ten- 
 dency is to corrupt religion and morals, to divorce religion 
 from morals, to give to the world examples of Christians 
 in high places that lose their honor and their truth. We 
 have a painful experience at present, — a more painful one 
 than has ever fallen to the lot of the United States, or of 
 the Colonies out of whicli the great Republic grew. We 
 thought, when the late war was over, that the path of peace 
 would be smooth and upright and upward. The war was 
 no plaything, handled with frivolity and sport, but prayers 
 earnest, continual, accompanied it on its course ; and en- 
 nobling self-sacritices were endured, and burdens were 
 borne, and every lofty sentiment was excited that lifts 
 
14 
 
 men out of their wonted dull vulg<ar life. All .shared the 
 emotion. Bad men felt that God Avas nigh. Good men 
 steeled their faith and their j)rincii)les in the heat of the 
 tribulation. Was it possible that there should not be an 
 era better than any before since Ave called ourseh’es one 
 people ? But only twice the years of the war haA^e elapsed 
 since its close, and AAdiere are wa noAv y Can aa'c tra\"el back 
 OA^er these years of peace, or take account of the present 
 condition of the land Avithout i)rofound shame V Perhaps 
 Ave may explain to ourselA’cs the causes of this degeneracy, 
 and perhaps not. But Avhatever they liaA'e been, is there 
 nothing sad in the apparent loss of the nobility of national 
 character AAdiich the AA'ar fostered ? Is there nothing dan- 
 gerous, nothing frightful, in the decay of the honor and 
 truth of ])ublic men, Avho luiA^e carried the banners of ])ar- 
 ties and told the peoi)le Avhat they ought to do ? Is there 
 nothing alarming in the general Avant of confidence in the 
 hiAA'-makers and judges and executive officers, nothing de- 
 moralizing in the indiscriminate charges against them, 
 Avhicli bring the bad and good doAvn to one IcA'cl, and make 
 the unreflecting think that all men have their price? And 
 what is to be the result of the cupidity, the impatience to 
 be rich, the speculations, the combinations of speculators, 
 the unrighteous influences on goA’ernments and legislators, 
 Avhich leak out all the Avhile, as if the vats of secret ini<piity 
 were full even to bursting. Men talk of (hingers from the 
 operative class, but there is no real permanent danger, 
 Avhen the class of employers and the class of educated 
 men have sound thoughts and ])rinciples of ui)rightness. 
 Social institutions cannot topple oA'cr, they cannot be uu- 
 dernnned, if there is moral health, energy, a fear of God, 
 in those Avho should be supports of order and righteous- 
 ness. If, indeed, those signs of eA'il Avhich grow out of an 
 ill-adjusted financial system stood alone, av(‘ might hope for 
 a cure from sonu* local and partial remedy ; but Avhen Ave 
 see the decay of character, the decay of family feeling and 
 of family purity going on at an c(pial pace ; when avc see 
 that crimes of violence and crimes of fraud keep company ; 
 
If) 
 
 when \v(> see (‘vidences of untlirift. (‘xhava^aiice, love of 
 show, ac(*mmilatin^>- from yt*ar to year ; w(* may well ask 
 what is to he the eiul of these things ? 
 
 “ Can such tilings be. 
 
 And overcome us, like a summer's cloud, 
 
 Without our special wonder.” 
 
 Hut it is ttsked what luis religion, wlait have missions 
 to do with all tliis i Why not keei> your own hearts pure 
 and yonr lives pure, and shine upon all this evil with tt .se- 
 rene healthy intluenet* ? Why not send yonr mi.ssionaries 
 to those that need tlunn, iiml let the evils of the htn.d work 
 ont their own cure ? The plain answer is that social cor- 
 ruptions act upon individuals, even upon individmil (’hris- 
 tiiins; tluit when the wei<>ht of exitmple ;ind power is on 
 the wronn' sidti, the hennmhinir iiiHiieiiee is felt in ev(>ry 
 lon-hons(‘, on every farm of a free country ; so that it is 
 harder to keep before the souls of ludievers a Christlik(^ 
 standard, and harder to make men believe that religion is 
 a reality, and harder to reclaim men from a covetous, 
 worldly life. If you could keep out examples of political 
 men bribing and receiving bribes, of men growing rich by 
 cheating their neighbors, of dislionest combinations to 
 plunder large cities, of adulteries, murders and divorce.s, — 
 if you could keep the knowledge of such things out from 
 ^he still valleys and lonely streams where villagers gather 
 to hear the preacher and sing hymns to C'hrist, well and 
 good ; religion might then go on its way making its con- 
 verts, building its churches, purifying and fortifying its 
 disciples, before the corruptions from afar and from the 
 high places could invade these abodes of peace. But evil 
 examples move in a free country with a free press and free 
 movement of travel, as fast as good ones, and there is no 
 exclusive ])roviuce of sobriety, good order and integrity. 
 The West then, in fact all the field where our work lies, 
 is ecpially open to evil with the ohler States. The new 
 State of Kansas certainly .shows that righteousness and 
 truth have not there the exclusive possession. 
 
J6 
 
 What we need then to do through our missions is not 
 simply to earry men through a process of conversion, and 
 set up Sunday schools and prayer meetings and temper- 
 ance societies ; — something more is wanted to correct evil 
 and to keep down evil. It is to raise the standard of a 
 Christian life, to imbue the people with the conviction 
 that a disciple of Christ must be a man who abhors evil, 
 who has not merely that side of Christ in his character 
 which turned with pity on the erring, but that side also 
 which turned with indignation on the Pharisees who were 
 covetous and false. Our missionaries ought, iu order to be 
 equal to the wants of the time, to have something of the 
 old Hebrew prophets in them. There must be more of 
 sternness in the character of our religion itself. We must 
 feel that he who loves God hates siu, and that the love and 
 the hatred are proportionate. There is much iu the charac- 
 ter and life of those who are reached by our missions, espec- 
 ially in the West, to encourage the hope that they may be- 
 come a principal support of truth and righteousness in the 
 country. They are placed in that condition iu which men 
 see that labor is the soiu’ce of all production ; they are 
 likely to have simple tastes ; they are independent and 
 manly. Our farmers in the West were saviors of the laud, 
 more than any other class, in the late war. If they can be 
 thoroughly christianized, with their courage, manliness 
 and honesty they may act an ecpially important part in pu- 
 rifying polities and social life, and then iu freeing the re- 
 ligious char.acter of the land from contamination. I 
 hope to hear loud voices from them, which will make men 
 of evil, East and West, quail : ‘ We abhor you, ye political 
 corruptionists, ye men of bribes, ye managers of parties, 
 who want to see knavery in high places of trust that you 
 may be respectable. We can stand changes of parly, but 
 we cannot stand falsehood and want of principle. Wo 
 must have good men for our leaders, or we will overturn 
 all existing parties, and consign you to your approi>riate 
 disgrace,” 
 
17 
 
 II. Bat we turn from these aspects of our subject, to 
 look for a mouient at the sin^'le point wliich remains. The 
 apostle strove to preach Christ where he was not known 
 he wished to build not on another's foundation, but to lay 
 his edilice ui)ou new ground. In so doing lie might leave 
 errors behind him. Jewish teachers, enlightened only in 
 part, might follow in his steps to si)oil what he had begnn 
 so well. It conld not be expected that his heathen con- 
 verts would all at once nnderstand what wa« the true 
 liberty or the true morality of the new religion. ]\Iight it 
 not be suid that a community thoroughly christianized, — 
 as for instance at Corinth and Ephesus, might do ten times 
 the good that conld be done by an unintelligent, nnre- 
 flecting, undisciplined body of disciples ? And was any 
 man in the world at that time more tit to do just this work 
 of edifying, of expanding an infant church into a manly, 
 noble, earnest body of believers, from which in a few years 
 plans for the salvation of the gentiles would shoot forth 
 on every side ? That Paul could have done good in this 
 way of remaining as the guardian and trainer of a church 
 in its minority, until it should reach perfect manhood, 
 we cannot doubt. That just this is the office and the 
 most worthy otlice of thousands of Christ’s ministers, is 
 equally unquestionable. How then shall we explain the 
 conduct of so wise a man ? ^Yas it not to be ascribed to 
 his contidence in the gospel itself, as a seminal principle 
 in a heart and in a place, — that the Spirit of life with his 
 charismata, and his sanctifying grace, was sure to attend 
 on the opening of the gospel to men Avho knew it not be- 
 fore? The gospel could grow up even among weeds in this 
 new soil ; it had a reforming and a transforming energy, 
 and so he could leave it — as a general may leave a cap 
 tured fortress with a feeble garrison in his rear, because 
 conquest, onward movement, is the true policy for the 
 time, rather than thorough subjugation. And as for the 
 man of strife who might teach his disciples to suspect him, 
 to question his doctrines, his noble heart could say, “ What 
 then? . . . everyway, . . . Christ is preached, and 1 theieiu 
 
is 
 
 do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” Those new teachers 
 agreed with him more than they differed from him ; Christ 
 was the common fonndation for both ; therefore, though 
 he mi-ht be disappointed and perhaps chagrined, as far as 
 he and his relations to his converts were concerned, still 
 he felt that these disciples, should they forger him, need 
 not forget Christ. And that alone was ini[)ortant. 
 
 Is not, now, this conduct of the aiiostle so far an ex- 
 ample to us as to guide our movements in regard to a 
 cnoice of a field for our missionary work ? It is of small 
 importance for the kingdom of God that a mission planted 
 by our care should fall into the hands of Presbyterians or 
 any other body of Protestant Christians, but it is of im- 
 mense importance that as fast as the stream of settle- 
 ments pours westward, so fast we should fill up a vacant 
 place, Avhere, but for such timely help, heathenism would 
 be sure to enter. If we could do nothing but act as pio- 
 neers, like our forefathers, at the beginning of the cen- 
 tury, we should then prepare the way for other bodies of 
 Christians to bring their mature vigor, and increased 
 means to the aid of the gospel. Congregationalists have 
 not been apt to build on other men’s foundations: their 
 praise has been to have begun the work of Evangelization, 
 of Home Missions and of Foreign Missions, in soil before 
 untouched and neglected. Perhaps it has been a fault of 
 the members of our churches that they have passed so 
 readily into other denominations ; but if it be a fault, it 
 is one leaning towards the side of virtue. It grows out 
 of the im.ependence of the individual, and out of that clear 
 comprehension of the gospel Avhich separates the accidents 
 from the essentials of Christianity. In this Avay they 
 have been leavening Christian bodies with intelligence, 
 freedom, energy ; and have shown that the old Puritan 
 principles, which led to a separation from the mother 
 church in England, can, in an altered state of things, lead 
 their descendants to unite with other churches, Avherever 
 the pure gospel is found. It is not fidelity, then, to the 
 genius of our denomination to try to get proselytes from 
 
19 
 
 abroad, but we sliow our true nature when we fraternize 
 with Christians wlio have already oeeupied the soil. So 
 otlier bodies of Christians should do also, in plaees where 
 our ehurehes are already planted ; but whether they do or 
 not, ought no more to intluenee our action than the apostle 
 Paul ought to have stopped and asked, whether those who 
 tried to supplant him would have been glad if he had come 
 to build on their foundations. 
 
 The proselyting spirit is ever an c<lious one, and it is 
 always dangerous to the interests of religion in those who 
 are moved by it, as well as in those who fall under their 
 influence. 1 know no more unlovely feature in modern 
 Christianity than, when a Christian' Society has sent its 
 ministers to a vacant fleld and churches are begiuniug to 
 prosper, for another sect to invade the field on the plea of 
 sui)erior right to lu-each and better church authority. 
 Witness that iuterlopiug, intrusive attempt in the Sand- 
 w'ich Islands, after the news of the conversion of a people 
 hatl gladdened the hearts of Christians through the world. 
 Was it not a shameful thing that there came thither a dig- 
 nitary of a foreign church, expressly to take advantage 
 of the self-denials of those who had proclaimed the word 
 there with weeping, to reap that he had not sown and 
 gather that he had not strawed. lie might indeed say 
 that the missionaries did not come from a church, but only 
 from a sectarian body. As between Catholics and Protest- 
 ants such a plea might avail, but in this case its only 
 strength lay in a bigotry which was more unjustiflable than 
 that which in Paul’s days required obedience to the Jewish 
 rites in order to salvation. 
 
 But still more inexcusable than this is that denomina- 
 tional spirit that finds a weak church planted in a western 
 village, and, because there is a handful of persons who 
 formerly were within its pale, plants another weaker 
 church by its side, to compete with it on the principles 
 of mercantile rivalry, and to be counted upon the registers 
 of the denomination as an addition to the effective force 
 of the kingdom of Christ. I absolve great Christian bod- 
 
20 
 
 ies from acr?)e blame in many of snch cases. The blame 
 is i^enerally dne to some a,4ent who is ont of notice. Bnt 
 let all Christian bodies who believe that Christ’s church is 
 not confined within their own narrow bounds, set up a 
 rule in such cases, that, where the gospel is preached, and 
 there is a stated ministry adequate for the present wants 
 of the place, they will pass that ]>lace by, rejoicing to be 
 able to go beyond it and spread the good news of God to 
 others more in need. Let Christians be told, when they 
 go as emigrants into tiiiuly settled towns — where probably 
 there will be persons educated in half a dozen Protestant 
 bodies — if there be a church there, to join it and strengthen 
 it all they can ; or if there be none, to unite in any feasi- 
 ble union of Christ’s followers. Who, on a desolate coast, 
 where shipwrecked voyagers were cast, would not accept of 
 some plan of government unlike that of his own choice, 
 to secure justice and protect social interests, until some- 
 thing more permanent could grow up ? On the same prin- 
 ciple, for the preservation of the spiritual life, ought all 
 to concur, with the largest charity, in the endeavor to 
 plant a church to which they will pledge their loyalty, at 
 least until the time when more than one strong church 
 would not be superfluous. 
 
 A desire, like the apostle Paul’s, to spread the gospel 
 in jdaces as yet unreached by it, meets a pressing want, as 
 all must admit, in this country. Nowhere since the apos- 
 tle’s daj^s did population diffuse itself so fast, and nowhere, 
 probably, since the beginning of the world did such a mix- 
 ture of races, religions, irreligious, appear, as is to be seen 
 in a vast number of the new settlements. The assimila- 
 tive power of our institutions, the enlightening influences 
 of our system of schools, the fact that ditfei’ences of na- 
 tionality and language, disappear in the second generation, 
 owing to the dispersion of foreigners , — these causes bring 
 all within the same town boundaries into a general uni- 
 formity of life and thinking on all subjects except religion. 
 On that alone men differ essentially, and it is an honor to 
 our nature that innocent prejudices partake of the impor- 
 
21 
 
 tance of this j^reatost ol hiiniaii interests. But in the case 
 of those foreign settlers, when they Iiave not been bent 
 si(lewaJ^s by irreli^^ions teaching at home, there is much to 
 hope. They are not hardenetl l>y long rejection of the 
 gospel ; they have often a certain confiding simplicity of 
 character ; old habits make them long for tlie outward forms, 
 at least, of the gosj)el. These destitute ones next to the 
 descendants of the I’ilgrims demand our care. Whether 
 our denomination with its thoughtfulness and precision of 
 dogmas, its want of forms, its inorganic nature, --whether 
 . this is to be the best instrument in God’s hands to bring 
 
 the emigrants of this description to Christ, may be 
 doubted. liut whatever Protestant body is best adapted 
 for this great work, may it kj\ow its calling, and fulfill it ; 
 may it liave success; may it have the strength which Avill 
 atcemi on doing such a work for God ! 
 
 I have full confidence that tliis Society, which now may 
 be called venerable, and has had for a long time approved 
 habits of action, will follow in substance the principles 
 and the rule of tlie apostle. That a spirit of sectarian 
 proselytism will invade it and the churches which support 
 it, I cannot believe. Its character, as a voluntary Society, 
 forbids that the ecclesiastical feeling — to which “ church 
 boards ” are exi>osed — should usurp the place of the Chris- 
 tian feeling. There may be evils in its exclusively volun- 
 tary character, and there are some who would mingle with 
 ^ this essential element a certain amount of denominational 
 
 control. But whatever shall be attempted in this direction 
 will be oidy to bring the Society into nearer relations to 
 the churches, to make them feel a nearer interest in it and 
 a larger responsibility for its prosperity. Hitherto it has 
 been blessed and a blessing. Its affairs have been con- 
 ducted wisely. Its general principle for helping those fee- 
 ble churches which help themselves, commends itself to 
 all and is justified by experience. Its missionaries, as a 
 body, are devout, self-denying, intelligent men, who ought 
 to be held in all honor. Its success up to this year may be 
 gathered from the following brief statement. 
 
22 
 
 The contributions in 47 years have been $0,547,150 ; the 
 churches organix“d, about 3,501) ; the stations occupied, 
 more than 0,500 ; the churches raised to self-support, 
 1,800; the number admitted, as communicants, into the 
 churches, 230,000, 
 
 The number of missionaries commissioned during the 
 present year is 950; of whom 312 have labored in New 
 England, 49 in the Middle, and 587 in the Western States. 
 The additions to the churches have been 5,725. More than 
 74,000 pupils have been taught in Sabbath schools, and 
 2,145 congregations have been supplied with the ministry 
 of the word. 
 
 Have we not reason to thank God for such a measure of 
 success, and to take courage 1 Ought we not to feel that so 
 much success pledges us for the future, and makes us the 
 more guilty if we do not fultill our trust ? We have under- 
 taken a work to be measurednot b \ years but by generations, 
 which has outlasted the lives of its earliest friends and its 
 older officers —one of whom, its wise and excellent senior 
 Secretary has been recently removed by death, — but which, 
 if our churches are loyal to their Divine Master, will be 
 imperishable itself ; or at least will not cease until, thi-ough 
 the whole held where our work lies churches of Christ, 
 strong and self-supporting, shall have no further need of 
 our assistance. 
 
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