Various

“ The Book of God’s Providence is as much inspired as the Bible itself. And whoever studies the former as prayerfully as the latter, must labor hard to stifle the feeling that the clock of earth, instead of getting ready to stop, is being wound up to keep good time for a thousand years, as a prelude to that perfect righteousness which shall dwell forever on the new earth and beneath the new heavens. ”

“ And I opine that although happiness involves the pursuit of higher aims, it begins on the basis of labor. Labor is the essential element of American civilization. If I labor, then I have the right of choice to enter into whatever labor I please. No matter whether I am an adept or not, circumstances will give the verdict. With the right of choice of a man’s calling comes the right of competition. ”

“ As to the African, there are not a few Americans, even in this day, who think a righteous solution of the African question is to ship them all off to the dark continent. So far as the American Colonization Society keeps in view education and other Christian instrumentalities, I bid them God-speed; but if they desire to send the Negro out of the country, I say, No!—a thousand times, No! Let us solve the problem right here where God has placed them. ”

“ These, then, are the five great principles that underlie American civilization—principles that are being tested by these three races or nationalities. Our professions are large. Let us live up to them in these five great principles. It is Lord Bacon who says that “When hempe is spun, England is done”—meaning that when Henry, Elizabeth, Mary, Philip and Edward had passed away, England would be done. We may say that if these five principles—the right of asylum, the right of labor, of political freedom, of education, and free play to Protestant Christianity be done—America is done. ”

“ With our eye fixed steadily on our missionary work, enough who cannot attain to the Christian ministry will become teachers, and they, catching the spirit of the institution, will become missionary teachers. It is surprising to see how this spirit has taken possession of our pupils. There is scarcely one who goes into the country to teach who does not organize his Sabbath-school as promptly as his day-school, and pursue it with even more interest. ”

“ One comes from a meeting like that, through which glimpses are caught of opportunities for work, of openings by the Unseen Hand into spheres of service which stretch out into the future beyond the range of our human vision, with the overwhelming conviction that the Lord isn’t just at present to stop the wheels of this world. ”

“ We purpose, then, to press on with the school and the church. Intelligence and virtue are the Jachin and Boaz, the two great pillars of the porch of the Temple of American citizenship and liberty. While it rests on anything else, it is uncertain and unsafe.
Our lesser work at home among the Indians and Chinese will demand the same moderate but constant share of our attention as before. Our connection with the six Indian Agencies, through the Interior Department, is not a matter of expense, but mainly of time and care. ”

“ The colored population of the county largely exceeds the white, and the yearly ratio of increase is in excess of the white. A half generation has passed since the era of emancipation, and it is melancholy, indeed, to any Christian mind and heart, to contemplate how rapidly this portion of the population, in the very heart of one of the oldest States in the Union, is crowding the broad road to perdition; how, in the entire absence of all organized efforts for elemental education and proper religious instruction, they are relapsing into semi-heathenism. ”

“ Which picture do we choose, not as a matter of artistic preference, but as the practical model for patriotic work? The only safety is to extend that last picture till it shall cover the whole canvas and blot out the other two. In that way only can a life and death struggle between two irreconcilable forces be avoided. ”

“ Our work, obscure and remote as it may seem, is more fundamental and important than that of either Congresses or courts. For by whatever defences the Freedman may or may not be surrounded, the only safeguard of his rights must be in his fitness to exercise and his ability to maintain them. It is for us, through all the changes of the year, to keep steadily to our work. ”

“ So, too, our Protestant Christianity is under test. And here we are encountered at once by the fact that Christians still cultivate the caste spirit. If the Jew drew such a subtle line between himself and the Gentile, the white Christian draws a similar line between himself and the black Christian. ”

“ General Sheridan attributes our Indian wars to two classes of causes; the first being the constant encroachment upon the lands of the Indians, sacredly guaranteed to them by treaty, and the constant removal of the tribes to distant reservations, in which they are again troubled by the tide of immigration. He says no other nation in the world would have attempted the reduction of these wild tribes, and occupation of their country, with less than 60,000 or 70,000 men. ”

“ That prejudice, that caste spirit which Christians cultivate in the North to an extent that amounts to social ostracism, must be broken down, if we would maintain Protestant Christianity. Further, this question connects itself with the true missionary spirit. The best way to evangelize China is to evangelize the Chinese as they come to the Pacific Coast. The best way to evangelize Africa is to evangelize the African Negro of the South. Over against Protestant Christians in the South and the Chinese on the Pacific is that dark power which has involved the world in hopeless contentions. ”

“ What salvation is there for the Southern States unless universal education shall be carried into effect? As the right to enter into competition is inherent as much as the right of choice in labor, so we regard the right of choice of one’s religion. ”

“ So the Puritan, so the Huguenot, so the Dutchman, so the Lutheran—whatever a man’s religious training, America has given him hearty greeting. Even the atheist and the infidel have found a refuge under the folds of this flag. ”

“ A company of United States soldiers are keeping guard over a body of legislators, mostly black, who, with reckless rascality, are squandering the public funds, to the ruin of the State and the disgrace of the nation. ”

“ If every colored voter could be accompanied to the polls by a file of soldiers armed with muskets, his ballot would represent the musket and not the man. But if he becomes a property owner, with all the interest in the welfare of the community which property gives; if he is educated and can take an intelligent interest in the welfare of the community; and if he acquires a weight of character that challenges respect, he will need no soldiers to guard him to the polls, and his vote will represent the man and not the musket. ”

“ At the Great Day, when the Master shall surprise you, humble Christian, with a benediction for service rendered to His brethren among these despised ones, and you deprecatingly answer, when and where, His revealing response may be—when you reached them with your prayers and your substance through that Association which offered you its means of operation. ”

“ This has been easily attained in the States where the white majority is undoubted. In the few States where the blacks are in the majority, the white man is determined to rule, peaceably if he can, forcibly if he must. The Chisholm murder and the Hamburg massacre are but samples of the methods that will be resorted to if the effort is pushed persistently to restore the supremacy of the black man in politics. When we remember how that supremacy in those States was abused, how can we ask the restoration if the abuse must again follow? The problem is difficult. ”

“ If the Greek considered himself to be of such high intelligence that he classed all others as barbarians, Christians allow their prejudices to make the same broad distinctions between different classes of humanity, which it was the office of Jesus Christ—blessed be His name!—to obliterate and utterly extinguish. ”

“ Church, Boston; another is a Massachusetts man well known among “iron men” both in this country and abroad. The Superintendent is a noble Christian man from Illinois, and was a colonel in the recent war. Several of the local managers are from the North, some are from the South. Most of the workmen, white and colored, who stand all day side by side, are gathered from the surrounding region. Here the North and South meet and learn to know and love each other. The Iron Company is helping to solve the great national problem no less truly than missionary schools and churches. ”

“ Our African mission has passed through one year under its new organization, with apparent prosperity and success. We shall need to strengthen its forces before long. We shall want both the men and the means.
There is work enough in our outlook and encouragement to do it. We would remind our readers as well as ourselves, that the year which is most full of sacrifice and service for the Master, is most sure of all to be A Happy New Year. ”

“ As the Chinese children are not permitted to enter the San Francisco public schools, those who have embraced Christianity are taught in the Union Mission in the old Globe Hotel. The school has two sessions, one of which is conducted by an American lady, the other by Hung Mung Chung, who is a fine Chinese scholar and a man of much dignity and scholarly attainments, said to be a lineal descendant of Confucius. During the past year Hung Mung Chung was baptized and became a member of the Protestant Church for Chinese. ”

“ If there are fifty-two thousand clerks, I have a right to become the fifty-two thousand and first, and starve. Then, after the inherent right of labor follows the right to such property as I may accumulate. What I may produce, that is mine absolutely, and no man can touch it. ”

“ There will be no permanent advantage from a mere partisan triumph of the black man. If achieved, as matters now stand, bayonets will again be needed to sustain it, and will become once more a source of angry discussion at the North and of concentrated bitterness at the South. The experiment may again be necessary; but a far better thing should be speedily, steadily and efficiently pushed forward—the training of the colored voter for an intelligent and responsible manhood and citizenship. ”

“ The standard is not that we should serve the mass of these His brethren, but any one of them, according to the measure of our ability, even down to a single act done to one of them in the right spirit and as a revelation of a character in which we delight. Then the obligation runs up to as great a number as our opportunity and our ability may reach.
The intervention of organic efficiency greatly multiplies the duty and the privilege of the individual. The American Missionary Association, as has been potently said, is set for the care of the three despised races in our country. ”

“ A mere granting of civil and political rights by formal enactment is of small importance unless the rights themselves are honestly allowed and faithfully accepted. The adjustment of alleged wrongs we must leave to politicians if not to statesmen, and to courts of law if not of justice. ”

“ When the black man shall reach such a position he conquers caste-prejudice and wipes out the color-line in politics. Color is significant only as it represents condition. Change the condition and the color is of no consequence. With that change the white and black men at the South will divide on politics as white men do at the North, from differing views as to the best measures to promote public weal. ”

“ Our Heavenly Father has greatly prospered us, for which we return Him hearty thanks. We are grateful that He has put into our hearts a desire to have our parents and countrymen in China brought to a knowledge of the Christian religion. We are endeavoring to open a Chapel in Chuck Hum, China, and if we only had means, could open as many as we desire. Most all the letters that are sent to China members of the Association contain something about the Christian religion, and urging the people at home to discard idols and believe in the Saviour. ”

“ But there is another principle being tested, and that is the right of education. It is a settled point in the development of American civilization, that education is essential to the proper discipline of the citizen—some degree, at least, of elementary education. ”

“ East of the Appalachian is too good for you; we want it. Go West; go West. We will give no rest to the soles of your feet.” Do we want the Black Hills? Migrate! We will surround you with a cordon of soldiers and a cordon of Government agents, who will eat the life out of you. ”

“ The noble presence and the stirring words of the grand old man on the African day were a striking feature in the meetings of the Conference.”
Such gatherings must help on the cause of Christian comity in missions, as well as broaden the views of all who are engaged in working the field under their hands. It is well to look up sometimes from our own furrow, even if we have to stop ploughing for a little, that we may realize that the field is the world, and that the harvest belongs to one Master. ”

“ In France, the various tribes and races that, one after another, possessed that land, were woven together, in warp and woof, by fire and blood. In Germany, the Prussians have brought together that great mass of people as one, through bitter and tremendous wars, the echoes of which have scarce died away. ”