Various

“ We do not claim that they have taken on them the nature of angels. We only claim that they are men, and that our Divine Master made no mistake in giving His Gospel to enlighten them, His blood to redeem them, or His command to us to publish that Gospel to them. If Eliot and Brainard and Edwards found encouragement for Christian efforts in their behalf, why may not the Christians of this generation labor for them with hope? Are we wiser or better than they? Or are the Indians worse and their condition more hopeless, than in the days of our fathers? ”

“ The same as it has been from the beginning of this nation—the same as in India—caste is the barrier everywhere. The battle rages to-day from Maine to California between classes of men. It is for this Association to stand up and contend against the foes that arise against whatever is good and right. If this Association ever hesitates thus to stand, whether it be in South Carolina, Massachusetts, or the Black Hills, then will its prestige be lost. ”

“ In the raising of this Society and the doing away with slavery, we can see almost visibly the hand of God displayed upon the midnight sky, pointing to that dark continent, saying we should send these freemen forth as apostles of light, to purify and make glad their ancestral homes. And I believe the providence of God is leading us to still greater achievements.
This Association, born amid the throes of slavery, is almost the only organization that stands for that principle which underlies the oneness of humanity. ”

“ It is cheering to learn that some of the best of the pastors of these sixty-five churches have been raised not only from bondage, but from all the degradation of slavery—boys picked up in the street, and polished like diamonds, for the Master’s use.
We have certainly made a beginning in the matter of church extension, as in that of education. Not the least gratifying feature is seen in the character, the growing influence, and reputation, even among the whites, which these churches enjoy, though some of them are numerically small. ”

“ The morals of the people are fearful. They don’t expect teachers to teach morality. Every example set before our people is one that has been contaminated by slavery. If I see any one making for this place I feel something will be done for him. Every Atlanta student I see, I feel, ‘There goes one that will liberate our people from the monster, Immorality.’ Asked the barkeeper if he sold much to ministers and church members. ”

“ Let it give no heed to the unreasoning taunts and empty rage of Communism, but push its work; secure in the fact that back of its efforts is the intelligent Christian public sentiment of the land; and still more encouraged by the greater fact, that the God who has made of one blood all nations, and provided one Gospel for all men, is saying with an emphasis that cannot be mistaken, “Go forward!” ”

“ The eagerness of the colored people to obtain at least a rudimentary education has ever been a most encouraging sign. The young man who last year walked fifty miles with his trunk upon his back that he might enter school, recalls the zeal of the late Dr. Goodell, of Constantinople, who, in his youth, also walked sixty miles, with a trunk strapped upon his back, that he might enter the Phillips Academy at Andover. The demand for teachers from the Normal schools—quite beyond the ability to supply them—is one of the surest indications that the schools are meeting an urgent need. ”

“ The monstrous human ant-heap is astir. They are also an educated people, nimble in figures, as well as in all kinds of labor. There is but one written language for all the population, which has been transmitted, with even no dialectic changes, for at least 2,500 years. It is a nation industrious and frugal. We talk about the heathen Chinese, but we had better talk about the heathen Anglo-Saxon. What useful art is practised to-day that China has not had for centuries? What we count the great discoveries of modern science, may turn out not to be so modern after all. ”

“ In the providence of God, the American Missionary Association is on that ground. It is the one missionary society of our denomination that sustains missions there. We believe we have an inheritance in that country, and a great destiny in connection with its redemption. We have been true to the negro from the beginning, seeking to do right in his behalf, without fear or favor. I think it is not too much to assert that heaven believes in this Association; that God created it, and will use it for great things in Africa. Good men have believed in it. ”

“ Then, again, the colored people look upon this Association as a tried friend, and trust it. Is not this an advantage? And, further, has not Providence opened the South to our polity, as well as piety, in a marked manner? The work already accomplished has shown the tree to be good, and given it favor widely, even among the old masters. Hence the aid given to our institutions by several of the States. Hence the high hope of many whites, that our work will do much to tone up the blacks in all that belongs to good citizenship, good morality, and proper church discipline. ”

“ In any other view of the matter the religion of the Gospel is spiritual class legislation. It is suited to the needs of the few and not the many. The Cross loses its power under the shadow of the Great Wall; and men scorn, as well they may, such a deduction as that; they are shut up to the only other possible conclusion, that the school, the mission work, the unfolded Word, will effect [Pg 368] in the Pacific Coast, and among the Chinese immigrants, just what it effects here and among us. And, therefore, we say to the Association that its high mission in this hour is to push its work. ”

“ By the effect of slavery, and its accompanying influences, acting through many generations, a blight amounting, in some directions, well-nigh to extinguishment, has fallen upon his moral sense. His education, under the old system, did not develop this faculty, for it was only the hard education of rough contact with life and with men, which, indeed, sharpened his intellect sometimes, but buried conscience yet deeper under the weight of false teaching and falser custom. ”

“ Just after emancipation my master said: “Ambrose, I want you to let Nannie stay with her mistress; she can’t do without her.” I said: “Master, I always thought that if ever I was free I would educate my children; if ’twas not for that, sir, I would accommodate you.” “Ambrose,” said he, “I hardly thought you would deny me.” I said: “I can’t do any better, sir.” With this we separated, and now all my children are good scholars; one is a minister; one has charge of an academy; I have a good house of seven rooms, and eleven acres of land about it, besides a farm of 320 acres in the country. ”

“ We hail as a good omen, and as an indication of Providence as to the course to be taken, the fact that already, through the influence of one Christian lady of the Northwest, a lady missionary, specially instructed to labor among the homes of the Freedmen, by personal contact, for the moral and religious education of the colored woman, is now actually at work. ”

“ In 1842, when the Mendi Mission was established by the return of the Amistad captives, who had been freed from slavery in America, the most important parts of Central Africa were either left blank on our maps, or filled up with great deserts, mountains of the moon, and figures of lions and dragons. It was known, however, that the Mendi country was a great slave preserve, from which ten thousand black people were sent annually into bondage. ”

“ I have spent ten years as a teacher among the whites, and two among the blacks; and I must say that I accomplished more in those two years than in the ten—more in the way of giving instruction. I say it is too late to raise that question at all. It is already demonstrated. Let them be educated with broad culture. Let them have the training that will put them in possession of practical skill, such as shall win success. Let them have their own lawyers, well trained in legal lore, so that they shall be able—in that natural eloquence in which they excel—to carry conviction to dignified courts. ”

“ Could they, would they resist the appeal of this sister of theirs, upon whom iron despotism has set its mark of deep degradation, through no fault of hers, and who now lifts up appealing eyes, pleading to be restored to the sisterhood of the pure and the holy, to whom manhood owes all that is noblest and highest in its proudest development? We know them better than to imagine any such refusal. ”

“ I was talking, the other day, with a gentleman who had passed the greater part of his life in China. He said there was not an element in the Japanese character that was not in the Chinese, and of the two, he considers the Chinese the more hopeful. In dealing with the Chinese, we are not dealing with refuse material. China is a great nation. It has its place among the foremost of the earth. It is a sad thing for this great nation of ours, if it cannot endure the little leaven on the Pacific Coast. ”

“ It is safe to affirm, in spite of all the obstacles in their path, that, under the efforts put forth in their behalf, many of the Indian tribes are making commendable progress in civilization, and large numbers of them are bringing forth in their lives the peaceable fruits of righteousness.
We, therefore, recommend not only that the Association continue its work for the evangelization of the Indians, but that it enlarge and extend it, as fast as God in His providence may open the way. ”

“ May we not, the children of the Pilgrims, have faith enough in God and in these men to give them the church polity of these founders?
We are encouraged to recommend the planting of Congregational churches among the blacks, because we have great advantages in so doing. The eager aspiration of the blacks to be men, will help. Congregationalism has a clean record South. Has any other of our leading denominations? There is no prejudice to be overcome by it, as a polity. In the competitions of the denominations on the ground, will not there be an advantage for us? ”

“ The chief worth of the work done lies in the fact that, in the doing of it, the Association has been loyal to its old and fixed theory, that a man is a man everywhere and always, with a soul to be saved, and a Saviour sufficient for its needs. Questions of nationality are irrelevant. The simple fact of humanity is all that needs to be known in order to institute a legitimate claim for the giving of the Gospel, by those who have it in trust. In this department of work, loyalty has not been an easy matter. ”

“ It needs to be distinctly emphasized, also, that the permanent establishment of educational institutions of a high order is the great work of this Association among the colored men, and the foundation for all uplifting work beside. The continuous training of our schools—intellectual, industrial, social and moral training, all in one—is needed for the development of higher ideals and nobler types of character, and, we are happy to add, has already resulted in such development in not a few of the pupils. ”

“ The devotion of a portion of the time of pupils to manual labor is to be commended on grounds of economy, of industrial training, of the best and most diversified moral culture.
We very earnestly commend to the friends of the Association the appeal of its officers for permanent endowments of the higher institutions. The elevation of the colored race must be in large measure the work of colored men and women. But they must first be trained for their work in institutions established among them. Without endowment there is no assurance of permanence in the institutions we have already given them ”

“ There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent the absorption of the Mongolian into American citizenship. It seems to be the peculiar office of this nation to assimilate every element. It makes no difference what our estimate of a man is; if he is a man he can, by the power of the gospel, be brought into oneness with us. ”

“ In order that church membership may be helpful rather than harmful to righteousness, and that church life among the Africans may be genuinely Christian, there is urgent need of a worthier Christian education of the African ministry. It is peculiarly our work to give that education. The general education provided for through our Normal schools is indispensable, that the colored people may deserve and command the respect of their white fellow-citizens at the South; that they may clearly understand their rights as citizens ”

“ The end of Christian work is to spread the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. This needs human activities, directed with strategic wisdom and sanctified energy. Each nation has its peculiar work: England to send forth Christian and civilizing agencies through her widely scattered colonies; America to Christianize the peoples from other lands who come to her shores; and to send back, through them, the Gospel of Christian civilization to their benighted countrymen. ”

“ First, is there absolute necessity of a higher education for the Freedmen in the United States? I do not say of a common-school education, for all admit the necessity of that. But I apprehend that there are many people who doubt the policy of founding universities at the South. I have a suspicion that thousands of dollars have been withheld from this Association for that very reason. ”