AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. PAMPHLET ]S^o. 7. GOD'S DESIGNS FOR Al mOOGH THE NEGRO RACE. BY PRES. E. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., BEREA, KY. MISSIONS THE WORK OF I'HIS ERA. BY REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D. N£IV YORK: Published by the American Missionary Association, Office 56 Reade Street. 1882. American Missionary Association, 56 EEADE STEEET, NEW YOEE, P.MSIDEN'T, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, Mass. CORBESPONDING SECRETARY. Kev M. E. STRIEBT, D. D., 56 Beads Street, N. Y. TREASURER. H, W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reciie Street, N. Y. DISTRICT SECRETARIES. Key. C. L. WOODWORTH, Boston. Rev. G. D. PISE, D. D., Niw York. Rev. JAMES POWELL, Chicago. COMMUNICATIONS relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary ; those relating to the colleccln:^ flelds, to the District Secretaries ; letters for the Editor of the "Americin Missionary," to Rev. G. D. Pike, D. D., at the New York Office. DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Dist. Sec, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or Rev. James Powell, Dist. Sec, 113 West Washington Street, Chicaso, HI. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member. THE AMEKICAIV miSSIONARlT is published monthly, at 56 Reade Street. Terms, Fifty Cents per year, payable in advance. AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. PAMPHLET JSTo. 7. GOD'S DESIGNS FOR Al THROIH THE NE&RO RACE. AN ADr>RESS BY PRES. E. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D,, BEREA, KY. MISSIONS THE WOKK OF THIS ERA. BY REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D. NEW YORK: Published by the American Missionary Association, Office 56 Eead-e Street. 1882. Atkin & Prout, Pbtntees, 12 Barclay Street, New York. GOD'S DESIGNS FOR AND THROUGH THE NEGRO RACE. Paper read by President Fairchild, of Berea College, Kentucky, before the American Missionary Association, at its Annual Meeting, in Worcester, Mass., Nov. S, 1881. The plans and purposes of the infinite God are not all clear and patent to finite man. So far as He has revealed them we may comprehend. Yet oven our interpretations are often colored by our ideas, interests and prejudices, as is illustrated by the strangely contradictory explanations of the Apostle's -plea for his " son Onesimus." But when we venture beyond revelation, our speculations are likely to partake largely of the character of our peculiar views, desires, tastes, habits and prejudices. At the open- ing of our civil war, some saw that it would end in ninety days, in the annihilation of secession, leaving our institu- tions all intact. Others saw that it would not terminate till it had accomplislied God's design, to let His people go. Others still saw, as the outcome of the war, the patriarchal and Divine institution founded on a rock, to be let alone forever. li, in seeking to penetrate tlie designs of God as to the future of the negro, similar disagreements should arise, they may be accounted for on similar grounds. Our ideas, tastea, desires and prejudices are not yet entirely harmonious. One principle we may assume with entire safety. What- 4 god's designs fob and theough ever may have been the designs of men in any wicked scheme which Providence has overruled, " God meant it for good." And His future designs regarding the negro race are for good. What we may judge that good to be, and what the modes of its accomplishment, will depend greatly upon the eyes with which we see and the hearts with which we feel. If, before this paper closes, you hear some strange, absurd, extravagant things, you have my explanation before you. Some of the designs of Jehovah with respect to the negro have been made perfectly plain by the events of his- tory. Those who engaged in the African slave trade, and who at the adoption demanded its toleration for twenty years more, sought only gain and power. But God had other aims. Millions of the African race were here to learn and em- brace the Christian religion and the ideas and habits of civilized life. Through the instrumentality of this cruel barbarity, a larger number of the children of the dark con- tinent were to be converted to Christ, than through the efforts of missionaries from all Christian countries in any other heathen land in the same length of time. " They meant it not so, neither did their heart think so." But scattered through our Southern country were many true, humble, earnest Christian men and women, from whom thousands of the downtrodden learned the way to their only Comforter, and then repeated the story to their fel- low-sufferers. Now they are a Christian people with many superstitions, many errors, much immorality, much sense- less animal excitement, yet much attachment to their re- ligion, and much true, earnest piety ; and no people are improving more rapidly in intelligence, in virtue and in THE NEGKO RACE. 5 home improvements. No people are more attentive at church, and I know of no others who contribute so much for religious purposes in proportion to their means. They almost universally take collections every Simday, and often twice or three times a Sunday. There is no danger of their relapsing into heathenism, but much reason to hope for continued and rapid improvement, if we are faithful to the trust committed to us. Another manifest design of Jehovah, through the col- ored race, was the education of a great nation for grand purposes of good to the world. He guided a peculiar people, refugees from civil and ecclesiastical tyranny, to a new continent over the sea. He taught them to pro- claim to the world, " All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness." On this basis, with God's help, they established a freer and better government than had ever before existed on earth. This sublime declaration continued to be their glory and their pride on all Independence celebra- tions, but, in its practical application, was interpreted, "All men, except negroes, are created equal, but they have no rights which white men are bound to respect." Gradually, but so universally had this interpretation been accepted, that, fifty years ago, there was not a spot in America where even a prudent man could denounce American slavery with assurance of entire safety ; and, in hundreds of places, such a denunciation at; the sin deserved would have ended in death. In the very cradle of American liberty, the brave young man whom God inspired to print and preach in words of fire. Hits 3tern command, " break every yoke and let the oppressed 6 god's designs for and through go free," was dragged through the streets with a rope about his neck. In the very heart of Yankee Land, a brave young lady admitted to her popular young ladies' school a single colored girl. It destroyed her school and she adver- tised for " young ladies and little misses of color." A town-meeting denounced- the outrage and appealed to the Legislature for relief. A statute was enacted, which was received " with pealing bells and booming cannon." She was sent to jail, but soon released. Her children, excluded from the Congregational Church, were collected for wor- ship in their own house. They were interrupted by rotten eggs and other missiles, and her house was fired but not consumed. Finally, her windows were broken in at night as the family was retiring. This was too much ; children and teacher quailed before such treatment. Another town- meeting praised the Legislature and justified themselves. A theological seminary, on the dividing line between freedom and slavery, manned by three New England pro- fessors, and attended by a large number of students from all parts of the country, prohibited the discussion of slavery on the premises of the Institution. An eminently Christian college in the New Connecticut of Northern Ohio, adopted a similar prohibition. Christian synods, conferences, as- sociations, missionary and Bible societies saw, without protest, millions of human beings forbidden by law to learn to read. Political, religious and historical orators and writers gloried in our freedom, while one-tenth of our population had not one civil right, and were bought and sold and driven like beasts. If a minister in his pulpit prayed for the oppressed of our country, it was matter of comment, and often endangered his standing with his phurch, THE NEGRO EACE. 7 I am well aware that, to the young actors of this day, such statements seem incredible ; but I have not exagger- ated ; the worst has not been told. Only thirty years ago, under a law of Congress, every colored man in the North was liable to be claimed as a slave, arrested by any United States marshal, hurried before any commission, and by its decision alone, without jury and without counsel, unless one volunteered his aid, consigned to slavery without remedy. And this legislation the grand and noble orator, counsellor, Senator, the pride of Massachusetts, sustained " to the fullest extent, to the fullest extent." It was such a people, so bewildered, blinded, prejudiced, that God undertook to instruct in the "self-evident truths" of the first lines of the immortal declaration made by our fathers to the world. And his pupils were not altogether stupid and stolid. Our people were a Christian people. Powerful revivals of religion had spread all over the land. They were not all corrupt, selfish, hardened sinners. Many, very many, were true, earnest, warm-hearted, faith- ful followers of Him who was " anointed to preach deliver- ance to the captives — to set at liberty them that are bruised." Strangely, but really, they were in the dark on this subject. Those in bondage had no power to speak, those who held them had no wish, and those remote from the sin felt no obligation, realized no responsibility. They were asleep and needed to be awakened. A clear, positive, earnest voice was all that was necessary. Never, since the days of Elijah, were the people so stirred as was this nation by the burning words from the heart of that young man in the dingy upper room in Boston through the columns of the Liberator. The effort to stifle discussion in the Theo- logical Seminary was quenching fire with kerosene. The 8 GOU'S UJSSIGNS FOK AND THROUGH seminary, and the college which tried the same experiment, were almost consumed, and the flame spread throughout the United States. Forty theologues, as many collegians, and half a dozen professors, several prominent trustees, he- sides a host of friends, became life-long anti-slavery lec- turers. A small collegiate institute with two freshmen, in a dense forest, away from all thoroughfares, and almost unknown, furnished an asylum for the refugee students, and suddenly became the most famous college of the land. Its freshman class of two soon increased to twenty-five; another class came in advance of them ; a strong theologi- cal department was immediately organized, with the best and most successful evangelists in the country at its head. In every part of the land mouths were opened to plead for the dumb. The American Anti- slavery Society was organized ; State, county and town societies were formed throughout the North, and monthly concerts of prayer attended most of the town societies. Abolitionism spread like a prairie fire. There was no stopping it ; there was no escaping it. The hearts of millions were as ready for the truth as the forests of Michigan for the advancing flames. It was often wonder- ful "how great a matter a little fire kindled." A young lecturer, at the age of twenty-one, modestly introduced himself to a Presbyterian preacher of Northern Pennsyl- vania. "What!" said he, "are you that abolition mis- sionary that has been about the country making so much disturbance?" The youth replied, " I have been trying to lecture a little on the subject of slavery, but am not aware that I have made any disturbance. I fear I have not accomplished much in any way." " You have," said he, " made a great deal of disturbance, and I advise you THE NEGEO RACE. 9 to go back to Ohio, where you came from, and engage in some respectable business." The young man said, " I profess to be a Christian, am studying for the ministry and hope to be a missionary. If I am wrong I wish to know it. If you will convince mo of it I will return to Ohio immediately." But the preacher would not argue, would not appoint a lecture, and would not attend if one were appointed ; and would advise all others not to attend ; and would consider a man a great intruder who should attempt to lecture there. The young man retired almost disheartened. There was not an abolitionist in the town, and he asked the Lord wiiat to do next. An elder of this preacher's church, not an abolitionist, heard what treat- ment the young man had received, sought him out, in- vited him to his house, and appointed a lecture in the- school-house of which he was a director. After four lectures in different parts of the township an anti-slavery society was organized of one hundred and twenty-live members. Similar things occurred in all parts of the country. Never, in the history of the human race, wasvgo great a moral revolution accomplished by such feeble means in so short a time. Happy would it have been for the church and the country if this mighty change could have been effected with per- fect decorum and perfect peace. And so it would have been if all had seen the truth on its first presentation, and em- braced it as soon as it was seen. But a cancer cannot be removed without pain. Gangrened limbs must often be amputated, Poison must be expelled, though at the ex- pense of terrible wrenching, distress and prostration. The virus of slavery had penetrated the whole social system. From the croww of the bead to the sole of the foot were 10 god's designs fob and through wounds, bruises and putrefying sores." The great politi- cal parties, the national church organizations and benevo- lent societies, all manufacturing establishments and great business firms, thousands of scattered families, the great transportation companies, the oldest and most popular colleges, all great publishing houses, and hundreds of minor interests were affected by the agitation. Hot-headed abolitionists were impatient and fanatical; cool and digni- fied leaders of society were scandalized and disgusted; timid but conscientious people were alarmed; selfish, schem- ing, ambitious aspirants were enraged; worldly-minded, calculating business men complained; senseless negro- haters were crazy; and earnest Christians, who "remem- bered those in bonds as bound with them," were deeply agitated and could not let the troubled waters rest. Churches, presbyteries, associations, synods, conferences, assemblies were divided, often without reason, and to the great detriment of the cause of Christ. "Who were most to blame would be a fruitless inquiry now. This blessed Association, a product of that agitation, and the dear old American Board, and the Home Missionary Society, thank God, are one to-day, and all past bitterness is forgotten. So slow were the churches to " come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty " that the great and good Birney, and, after him, many more, declared that the American Church was the bulwark of American slavery. It is doubtless true that, if tae whole Church had turned its united powers against the Bastile of oppression, it would soon have crumbled before it ; as it is now true that, if the United voice of all the churches were raised against the use of intoxicating drinks, the G-oliath of our country's foes would fall. Yet it, was always manifest THE NEGKO KACE. 11 that the anti-slavery revohition, like all other moral re- forms, was a religious movement. The great leader in the struggle was the Captain of our salvation. Many, outside of the churches, following the impulses of their higher na- ture, Joined earnestly in the onward march, and did brave service for freedom. A few noisy infidels went through the country denouncing the Bible as a pro-slavery book and the churches as synagogues of Satan, and crying, " Come out of her, my people," and doubtless shook the faith of some ; but they had little more to do with the emancipation of the slaves than they now have with the education of the freedmen. Thirty years ago both the great political parties, in their strife for the Southern vote, engaged, the one to dis- countenance, and the other to suppress, the agitation of the subject of slavery. In less than ten years both these parties succumbed, and the party of freedom triumphed. The war that followed was a struggle between the physi- cal forces of barbarism and the moral forces of Christian- ity. The anti-slavery party had made no illegal aggres- sions upon slavery, and proposed none. If individuals had, " the law was open," It was the purpose of the party to restrict and cripple slavery by Constitutional, legal, peaceable means, and by no other. It was to oppose these moral, legal, peaceable measures that slavery resorted to war. This was the issue. There was no other. The doctrine of State Rights was no more a Southern than a Northern doctrine. The Fugitive Slave law, the creature of the South, was a greater stretch of the power of the General Government than it had ever exercised before. It trampled upon the common constitution, and deprived every State of its right to protect thj liberty of its citi- 12 god's designs foe and through zens. It was then that the Northern Slates demanded State Rights. Some States enacted laws, and many courts rendered decisions, in conflict with that inhuman statute. But when slavery was endangered, by no unconstitutional or illegal acts, the South, forsooth, believed in State Rights. There was never but one cause of discord be- tween the North and South, and that has passed away. A few relics of the old feud remain, but rapidly they are being buried out of sight. How far along are we now, in the great lesson God designed to teach us ? We have learned most thciroughly that there is no nation sufficiently powerful to hold in the bondage of slavery the weakest of all people, when God hears their groanings and comes down to deliver them. We have learned that slavery, such as we had in America, is a physical, intellectual, social and moral curse to any people. Some still stammer in the recitation of this part of the lesson, but few, if any, have the boldness to dispute it. We have learried that all people born under the laws of America are American citizens, and are entitled to equal protection and equal rights before the law. This we have learned in theory, not altogether in practice. Few white meq at the South would think it prudent to allow a colored man to gain a suit against a white man, Accord' ingly few colored men think it prudent to expose them= selves to such a controversy. We have learned that all citizens should share alike in the advantages of common school education. In all the States, except the two Southern which never seceded, and Jjenpe were never reconstr^oted, the white and colored THE NEGEO RACE. 13 share alike in the public school funds. In Kentucky the colored receive this year fifty cents a scholar, and the white one dollar and forty cents. The school age of the colored is from six to sixteen, of the white from six to twenty. These inequalities are destined soon to pass away. They ought never to have existed. We have learned that no people on earth are unable to take care of themselves. The colored people sixteen years ago were left without houses, lands or money; without edu- cation, books or teachers ; without business habits or expe- rience in providing ; in the midst of enemies, who felt that they had been robbed of their services and their persons, who fought against them in war, and would vote against them in peace ; who always said they could not take care of themselves, and wished to have their saying proved true. Still, they have not starved, they have not died, they have increased more rapidly than the white population, and they are as well cared for as the poor whites of the South, and their children are as well educated. I speak of what I have seen in Kentucky, and heard of other States. Slowly, but I think surely, we are learning that the best preparation for liberty was liberty, and for citizenship was citizenship with all its privileges and responsibilities. It seemed hasty and rash to make voters of those who so re- cently were slaves. Even the most radical abolitionists would have said " Give them time to learn to read and to study the duties of citizens a little." But necessity was laid upon us. To intrust the governments of the States to the former voters was to give the negroes back to slavery, and yield all that had been gained. To establish a military government over the rebel States eoujd have been but a temporary expedient, simply post- 14 god's designs fob and theough poning the difficulty a little; or, if continued long, would have become intolerable to the American mind, and would have removed the Union party from power. The salvation of the negroes and the Union depended on giving the elective franchise promptly to all. And no measure has been more thoroughly justified by its results. It lifted the negroes at once in their own estimation and that of the white people to a dignity and responsibility which brought them much nearer to a common level. It ended immediately all efforts by vagrant laws to fasten negroes to the plantations on which they were employed and make them virtually slaves again. It gave to the Southern States free school systems with equal advantages to all without distinction of race or color. And these systems have become so established, that it would be diffi- cult, if not impossible, to destroy them. It gave to the South far better State governments, how- ever complained of, than they ever had before, and far better than they would have had without the help of the negro, the " carpet-bagger " and the "scalawag." Fi'auds, no doubt, were committed, as they are in every govern- ment ; but complaints are often greatest where the show- ing is least. Taxes must have seemed onerous to the wealthy men who had never been accustomed to waste their money on the education of the negroes and the poor. It was a fearful innovation to tax the property of all for the education of all ; yet, no investment pays so well. If to this burden there had been added from those large es- tates built up by the unpaid toil of slaves, forty acres and a mule to every negro voter, it would have been but a step in the direction of justice to the freedmen, and a palpable mitigation of the greatest burden now resting on the THE NEGRO BACK. 15 South, as also on the kingdom of Great Britain, the " lay- ing of field to field, till there is no place." This is the greatest hindrance to progress in the South. The negroes must be owners of farms, and not renters or mere laborers, else they will never be desirable citizens. Plow this is to be accomplished is a difiicult problem ; not by force, let us hope. Thus far every step of the negro's progress towards equal rights has been by the force of the general govern- ment, in opposition to the resistance of their former mas- ters. And this resistance has often been fraudulent and violent and barbarous. Ko reasonable apology can be made for it. Yet it is not unaccountable. The Southern white people have been compelled to pass through an ordeal which has no parallel in history. Exhausted, im- poverished, subdued, humiliated, by a four years' war; robbed of their slaves, as they felt, to the amount of two and a half billions of dollars, and their social arrangements completely broken up; to see those chattels, the poorest and most ignorant of all people, in control of their legislatures, making their laws, voting their property away, swelling with a sense of their importance and lording it over their former lords, was more than unsanctified nature could endure with entire composure. Supplied with a vast army of brigands and vagabonds, thoroughly drilled in the control of negroes, it is hardly surprising that they were let loose, or rather became uncontrollable. On the whole, these mighty changes have been attended with less violence than was predicted, and have been accepted, in the main, with better grace than 1 anticipated. Let us hope that the time of force, on the One hand, and of violence and fraud on the . other, is about to terminate. ■ Let 16 god's designs von and through the changes in Southern sentiment and divis- ions now manifest in Georgia, Virginia and Mississippi, advance a little farther and the great troubles will be over. Much will remain to be accomplished, but social and moral influences must be relied upon hereafter. What has the lesson thus far learned done for us and the kingdom of God ? Twenty years ago every missionary we sent to the heathen went as a representative of a country one-tenth of whose inhabitants were chattels. The only religion of the country was Christianity, yet four millions of its in- habitants were denied the rights of human beings. Their families had no legal existence, schools they had none, the glad tidings they could not read. And there was no power in Christianity to purge the nation of such a stain ; but by the power and for the glory of God all this is changed. Now our missionaries can report that once ungodly men brought prisoners of war from Africa and sold them as slaves, and they multiplied to millions, but eventually Christianity set them free and gave them all the rights of citizens and opened free schools to all their children, and churches to all their people. Thus God is fitting this Nation above all others to preach the Gospel to every creature. But our lesson is not all learned. " All men are created equal" is not thoroughly committed, and neither the white nor the colored jaeople will be qualified to do the best work for the world until it is. An excellent brother, editor of an important religious paper, recently said to me. " I wish there was not a negro in the country." Said I, " We cannot afford to spare them till we have learned from them much more than we now know. Our Christianity will be very imperfect till we have learned how to treat negfoes," Said he, J h^ye jjot THE NKGEO RACE. 17 SO much faith in them as I used to have." You don't see enough of them," I replied. " I see a good many of them, meet them every day," said he. " But you learn nothing about them. You need to he well acquainted with them, watching the instruction of two or three hundred of them every day for nine months in the year, ten or twelve years in succession, if you want to gain faith in them." " I have no doubt," said he, " they will learn quite rapidly at first, repeating what they hear in a parrot-like way ; they are great imitators, like the monkey. But they have no capacity for higher mathematics, philosophy and logic. They have very little business capacity, no invention, no self-reliance. They must have overseers to accomplish anything. They are the lowest type of humanity, with receding foreheads and projecting jaws and lips, the feeblest reasoning powers and lowest moral ideas." " You have been reading Winchell's Pre-Adamites," said I. " Yes," said he, " I have, and I have got more knowledge of ethnology from that book than all others I ever read." " I have read it," said I, " very carefully ; and either he does not desire to tell the truth, or he knows very little about the negro. If he has blundered as egregiously about other races his ethnology is worthless." Our talk did not end here, but this is enough for my purpose. Many who think they know all about the negro have yet to learn that they know very little. Those who have met them and dealt with them only as servants are not qualified to judge of their capacity as free men and stu- dents. The idea that they were created and ordained of God for a race of servants and that they should be edu- cated to fit them for that sphere must be utterly eradi- cated from our minds before we can be qualified to oper- 18 yOD's DESIGNS FOB AND THROUGH ate in harmony with God's designs. I do not propose to discuss the question of the relative capacities of negroes and Anglo Saxons, though no man has had better oppor- tunities to form a judgment on the subject, but will state one fact. In the city of Louisville there are about forty colored schools, all instructed by colored teachers, but under the supervision of the city sviperintendent. This is his testimony in regard to them. They are graded like the white schools, pursue the same studies and go over the same ground every year; are ex- amined by the same committee with the same list of printed questions, in the absence of their teachers, and stand as high in their examinations as the white schools. He is not able to see that color has anything to do with ability to learn. Their teachers, for want of experience, are not quite equal to the white teachers, but they will be in time; and the principals, four colored men, are fully equal in all respects to the white principals. This is the testimony of a Kentuckian, not likely to be prejudiced in favor of the colored j^eople, given directly to me for publication. Similar testimony might be extended for another half-hour, but it is not necessary. We need simply to know that there is no such dissimilarity between white and colored that they need to be educated diiferently or separately. They need to be educated for precisely the same positions, professions, offices and responsibilities. No duties can devolve upon a white man which may not upon the negro. Scores of them, pei'haps hundreds, ai'e pastors of churches of a thousand to fifteen hundred members. Every colored school in Kentucky, so far as I know, has a colored teacher, and there are thousands of them in other States, They have physicians, lawyers, legislators, con- THE NEGEO RACE. 19 gressmen, and are to have many more. There is nothing that they so much need to-day as thousands of college and professional graduates, " endued with power from on high." The work of higher education cannot be too vigor- ously jsressed for generations to come. Providentially and wisely this Association is in this line of work; and there is no danger that it will be overdone. One thing more. We must learn to treat negroes as we do white j^eople. They must ride in the same cars, stop at the same hotels, sit at the same tables, attend the same schools and churches, meet in the same social circles, sing in the same choirs, and mingle as equals everywhere. This is not to be forced at all; we must gradually and naturally grow into it. To this wo are steadily but inevi- tably coming. This seems to many, I know, like flying into the face of nature. But to those who have witnessed these things in a school of nearly four hundred members, half white and half colored, for a dozen years, it does not seem so. All this may be witnessed in the centre of 'Ken- tucky, and three thousand peojole, two-thirds of them white, gather every year at the Commencements to wit- ness the wonderful work. All is voluntary, peaceful and orderly. - We are quite too apt to mistake prejudice for Nature. Is it Nature that teaches us to enjoy the manipulations of a colored barber while we could not endure to have a col- ored gentleman shaved in the same shop ? Does Nature fill our fashionable restaurants and hotels with colored cooks and waiters when a genteel, colored man or woman could not be tolerated forty feet away ? Does Nature teach us to take colored servants into the ladies' car and drive the most cultured colored ladies into the smoking 20 god's designs for and thro' the negbo race. car ? I know there are many arguments against the views I have expressed ; but I have seen them all pass away in the face of this : " As ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them." God's designs in this regard seem manifest by the progress of the last fifty years. The same rate of progress, for fifty years to come, will bi'ing to pass all that I have predicted. The South is changing even more rapidly than the North. Uncle Tom's Cabin is circulating freely, and is destined to have a run there some such as it once had here. There are human hearts there the. same as here. God has glorious things in store for that people. He will show there, as He has never yet shown, what His Gospel can do. The ruling and the servile races, so long antagonistic, will be molded into one harmo- nious people. And when God shall lead forth from that redeemed country a host of sable evangelists to their wait- ing fathei-land, sons and daughters of those who once traded in slaves and souls of men, will join them and aid them -in their mission of love. Great achievements are in store for this nation, both in Africa and China, when we shall have thoroughly learned that "all men are created equal." The phrase, "Despised races," must jjass away, and ^' peace on earth, good will to men" must reign in that day. MISSIONS THE WORK OF THIS ERA. By Rev. M. E. Strieby, D. D. If you ask, in what way Christianity is spreading itself abroad, the answer will be, by missions — missions of the par- ish church, missions in the city, missions in the country at home, missions abroad; this is the great work of the age. The discoveries in Africa are giving to the Christian world a special impulse in that direction. The American Board feels it; all American Christians feel it; British and European Christians feel it; it is a part of the work of the age to carry the Gospel to that long-neglected land. Now, then, what is the special responsibility resting upon America in this respect ? What are her qualifi- cations ? First of all, to go back to the Reformation period, what did that do for America ? ■ We are in the habit of boast- ing, and I think rightly, that the seed that was then threshed out has been winnowed, sifted, cleansed, reserved and planted in this our land. Whatever of good there was in that period has come to us as our inheritance, with a responsibility corresponding. And then, what came to us from the Puritan struggles of the seventeenth century ? Great Britain has received large benefits with some draw- backs, but, with us it sprung forth at a single stroke in our Constitution, securing our liberty — civil and religious. 22 MISSIONS THE WORK OF THIS ISEA.. without tlie superincumbent State Church or the aristo- cratic difficulties that England has ; we have a correspond- ing responsibility. And what about the revival efforts of the past one hundred years ? The great weight of even the Methodist revival inured to America's benefit, and all the rest of that long line of revivals was ours. Has God no corresponding work for American Christians to do? In this mission work, then, here we are with our vigor, our strength and our inheritance from all this past, and what is our responsibility and our duly ? In the first place, we can, as a nation, through Congress and the Executive, do something in the way of a protest against the African slave trade. That may seem a great ways off ; but the slave trade has been, and is to-day, the great hindrance to the civilization of that dark land. It is known that whatever attempt is made on the part of England or the Khedive of Egypt, or any other power, to extend rule and order in Africa, is crushed beneath that overmastering power. Whatever attempts have been made by missionaries and travelers to extend the work and the triumphs of the Cross, have been blocked by that same power, and will be until it is out of the way. ISTow, in saying that our government ought to do something in that respect, I am not traveling beyond the record. Our gov- .ernment did in past years have something to do with the attempt to suppress the slave trade, in common with other nations, and therefore this is asking no new thing. Such an effort has no sectarian aspect. Dr. John Hall and Kobert Ingersoll will unite in it. The whole force of opinion should be concentrated upon it. It is the agitation that is needed. The world must be made to ring with this iniquity before it will be put down ; just as slavery was MISSIONS THE WORK OV THIS EBA. 23 crushed by the voice of conscience ringing forth from the press, the platform and the pulpit. Then, again, we can show what the negro is. Prof. Winchell has said, and I think he voices the deep underly- ing prejudice of many people, that the negro is the lowest being that is a man ; and there is a feeling that, perhaps, after all our missionary effort, we can accomplish nothing with the negroes ; there is nothing in them out of which to make men or Christians. " Go to some other parts of the world," is the cry, " where you can lift up races that have something in them." Now mark this : Somehow or other, in the strange providence of God, there are in this country nearly seven millions of these people, taken from tropical Africa, where the lowest of them are supposed to be. When the diamonds were found in Africa, they might have been dug up by the bushel and carried away by the cartload, and no one would have been the wiser as to their value ; but when they were cut and polished, and their beauty and their hues shown, then the value of the African dia- mond fields was understood. Here we have these Black Diamonds given to us to polish, and I believe that no greater work can be done to give a stimulus to Christian missions for Africa than to show that here can be a peo- ple lifted up who are worth all our efforts to make them good citizens and Christians. We can make them noble men, and we can develop those traits of character which are of peculiar value to the world. I believe tliere will be a mellowness of tone, a richness of song, a warmth of elo- quence, and a depth of piety developed when these people are fairly cultured, that will astonish the world and show what is to be gained by Christianizing them. I may say, too, that this Association is an instrumentality that can 24 Missions thb woek of this era. well be trusted to enlarge greatly its work in that respect; and I do not know what better can be done than to give it the means for this great purpose. Then, lastly, we can prepare these people as missionaries for Africa. Lo ! these many hundred years Africa has lain sterile, waste and degraded. White missionaries have been sent there singly, in pairs and in companies, and they have died until the battle was sore against us. The reserve corps is probably here in America, put here by the great Captain of Salvation; and if we will train and prepare them, I believe there will be a new development of work for Africa such as the world has never seen, and it belongs to us and to you through the American Missionary Asso- ciation to do all we can to hasten forward the accom- plishing of America's duty for the redemption of Africa. BEREA COLLEGE, KY Berea College, over which the author of the article in this pam- phldt on "God's Designs for and Through the Negro Race" is Pres- ident, is the oldest institution founded by the American Missionary Association. It was established in 1858, by Rev. John G. Fee, a native of Kentucky and a son of a slaveholder, but himself an abolitionist, and Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, both missionaries of this Association. Mr. Fee was disowned and disinherited by his father, and often mobbed by his countrymen ; yet he established several anti- slavery churches, aud the school prospered amid much persecu- tion till after the raid of John Brown in Virginia, when ten families interested in building up the institution were expelled from the State by a committee of sixty-five armed men sent by a county convention. Immediately after the war the school was revived. In a few months four colored pupils were admitted, and the same day more than half the white students left. The vacancy was soon filled by colored students, and eventually the white students all, or nearly all, returned ; since which time the school has steadily increased in numbers and influence — about two-fifths of the stu- dents being white, and three-fifths colored. While this feature of impartial education is still looked upon with some distrust by the Southern people, the officers and teachers are personally judged to be moderate, safe and earnest men ; and are treated ■with social courtesy and kindness. From three to four thousand attend the yearly Commencement exercises. The school for 1880-81 numbers four hundred aud two. Over one hundred of these have passed the summer in teaching com- mon schools, thus stimulating in an economical and most efficient way educational influences in the most needy sections of the State. For the past few years the trustees of Berea College have pro- vided for its financial needs. The institution has now buildings valued at $80,000 and an endowment of $100,000. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. AIM AND WORK. To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as Missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Govern- ment in its humane and Christian policy toward the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa. STATISTICS. Churches.— 7m the South: In District of Columbia, 1; Virginia, 1; North Carolina, 6; South Carolina, 2; Georgia, 13; Kentucky, 7; Tennessee, 4; Ala- bama, 14; Kansas, 1; Arkansas, 1; Louisiana, 18; Mississippi, 4; Texas, 6; Africa, 3 ; among the Indians, 1. Total, 82. Institutions Founded. Fostered or Sustained in the South. — Chartered: Hampton, Va. ; Berea, Ky. ; Talladega, Ala. ; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville. Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss. ; New Orleans, La., and Austin, Tex.— 8. Graded or Normal Schools: Wilmington, N. C; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn. 11. Other Schools, 35. Total, 54. Teachers, Missionaries and Assist ANTS.—Among the Freedmen, 319; among the Chinese, 28; among the Indians, 9; in Africa, 33. Total, 369. Students.— In theology, 104; law, 20; in college course, 91 ; in other studies, 8,884. Total, 9,108. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000. MEMBERSHIP. A pa.yment of Thirtv Dollars at one time, or several payments to that amount within a year, will constitute a person a Life Member. (See Article HI. of Constitution.) LEGACIES. Important legacies have been lost to the Association by informality. Care should be taken to give the full name, " The American Missionary Associa.- TiON. " The following form of bequest may be used: I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of dollars, in trust, to pay the same in days after my decease, to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of The American Missionary Associa- tion, New York City, to be applied under the direction of the Executive Com- mittee of that Association to its charitable uses and purposes. The will should be attested by three witnesses (in some States three are required~in other States only two), who should write against their names their places of residence (if in cities, the street and number). The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: " Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said (A. B ), as his last Will and Testa- ment, in the presence of us, who, at the request of the said (A. B.) and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses." In some States it is required that charitable bequests should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.