Various

“ The declaration of independence, "that all men are born free and equal," has been flaunted abroad as the pennant of the nation, while millions of our people were being born, living and dying in the worst form of slavery the world has ever known. ”

“ Let us be content to wait until we have redeemed ourselves from the evils of 250 years of servitude by the improvement of the advantages that God has so graciously brought to our door, before we venture into that dark continent from which our fathers were torn, to be ground under the iron heel of the slave-master. Until then, Africa will be no better for us, and we will be no better for Africa. We must learn to respect ourselves before we can command the respect of others. ”

“ By the emancipation of the slave, a system of education was introduced to the South that insures a lasting blessing upon the whole people. The intelligence of a large portion of the white population before the war was not above that of the slave. If the slave had not been made free, there is no reason to suppose the condition of these poor whites would have been changed. Now a glance over the broad territory of these States, where school-houses have sprung up like magic, shows the immense advantage that has come to white and black alike ”

“ It is no disparagement to your excellent schools to say that, in point of order and apparent earnestness and successful work on the part of both teachers and pupils, these dusky boys and girls would not suffer in comparison.
Our church here is a neat, pleasant, wooden building, and our congregation appear fully to appreciate a preacher's best efforts. Their singing is, like ours, led by a good organist. Their prayer meetings are quiet and social, and very enjoyable. Our Sunday-school is flourishing, under a colored man for superintendent, who is teaching in the country. ”

“ Then came the Anglo-Saxon in blood and the Puritan in civilization and culture, and applying his inventive ingenuity to the banks of this river, he set the water-wheel, and the wheel has converted the power of the river into product, and the product has turned into property, and the property into intelligence, and the intelligence under this same productive ingenuity of the Puritan has turned into morality, and that into religion. So we have this great native force, directed to the account of the kingdom of God, transmuted into higher forces for His glory. ”

“ Now, my friends, the higher institutions of learning in the midst of these great original forces all about us in the new communities are that product of inventive ingenuity which turns these forces to account, giving them direction and transmuting them from the lower to the higher. The local church cannot do it. Individual labor cannot do it. The institution of higher learning is the only thing that can accomplish it. ”

“ But of Africa we have heard nothing; it has not displayed itself or impressed itself upon the world outside. It has given nothing of civilization or religion. And so of the Indians. Of their predecessors we learn much from the mounds they built; of themselves we know little. We know more of the former from their graves, than of the latter from their lives. The Chinese we have called our antipodes, in spirit as well as locality, and let them go at that, with this meager record, that grown men spend their lives in carving toys and find their pleasure in smoking opium. ”

“ There is a destiny before us which we must achieve. Let us arise and work. Another mistake is the scheme of emigrating to some other land. This is our home as much as it is the white man's. It is our native land. The country and people that have witnessed our degradation should also witness our exaltation. ”

“ The English Baptists are prospecting for a new mission up the Congo, and Lake Bangweolo, west of Lake Nyassa, and south of Lake Tanganyika, called by Livingstone a paradise, will become the centre of another great mission. Thus from the South, the East and the West, Christian missions are approaching the heart of Africa. Before many years we may hope to see a chain of stations across the continent, and another from Lake Ngami to the equator. The tribes touch each other like drops of water, and when one of them is moved by the Gospel, those which surround it will be agitated. ”

“ To lift up these races we want that power which conquered the conquerors of Rome, and put the destiny of the world into the hands of the Anglo-Saxon. We want the power which shall convince them of manhood within and God above, and bring them face to face with the Almighty. ”

“ We want Puritanism brought to these despised races, because there is in them such a tendency to degradation. This is seen abundantly in all of them; let us speak of it especially among the Freedmen. The Association has no feelings of mere romance in doing its work. Those who have been engaged in it for years look with open eyes on depths of degradation which you at a distance can hardly comprehend. In the cities, the colored people are influenced by the civilization around them. ”

“ It seems to me that my neighbors here who have been under the influence of our school and church, for these few years past, are as well prepared for the duties and responsibilities of freemen and citizens as are the ordinary farmers and mechanics at the North. I am most happily disappointed in the intelligence of the men and the culture of the women, and in the neatness and comfort of their homes. ”

“ Congregationalism in the South is not a failure. The outlook is hopeful. The tendencies of our polity to induce intelligence and self-control are more and more observed, and the better classes of Southern people are coming out with more strongly pronounced words of commendation. Men and money, patience and prayer, wisdom and work, will elevate the black man to his proper place, surely, though it may be slowly.—Advance. ”

“ Two young men united with the church; one has been a member of our day-school, both of the Sunday-school. Our daily prayer is, "Lord, bring our scholars into the fold of Christ." Our church is small, but it is a working one, and its influence is felt in the community. ”

“ It is wise to put our directive force where the power is. It is utterly impossible to build institutions in the State of Massachusetts or in New England that will answer the purpose for the South. The children of this world build their water-wheel where their water-power is. The children of light sometimes build their water-wheel where the power is not, or where it has already been appropriated. ”

“ Puritanism, as embodied in this Congregational Missionary Association, proposes to have a hand in shaping the fate of these races.
One of the earliest pictures in the annals of the world is that of an altar. Around it stand three brothers; behind them the ark and the deluge; in their [41] midst the sacrifice of gratitude and consecration; before them the bow of promise on the face of the retreating storm. Ages pass on. The three brothers become three races. One goes to the East and hides himself behind his wall. One goes to the South and hides himself behind deserts and jungles. ”

“ The Nashville American, speaking of their conduct during the prevalence of the yellow fever, remarks: "If the negro is found to be true and reliable when he is entrusted with the grave responsibilities of citizenship, if he discharges faithfully the duties devolved upon him, and shows, in such trying times, that he may be entrusted with the preservation of order and the guarding of homes from the criminal classes even of his own race, it will go far towards giving new views on this subject." ”

“ In the fifth article of the treaty of 1868 between the United States and China, the two governments mutually recognize, affirm and guarantee "the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively from the one country to the other, for purposes of curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents." ”

“ These races, which have never done anything for themselves, nor had anything good done for them, which have been the tool, the victim, the plaything, the despair of civilization, are now brought face to face with us—us, with our indisputable Anglo-Saxon conceit, which cannot bear that others should differ from us, backed by Northern grit and Western energy, stirred by a solemn conviction that we have a destiny to fulfil in this matter, inspired by that command to preach Christ to dying men. ”

“ Our Mission Home is a large and commodious mansion built by a slave-holder, whose fortunes went down with the lost cause, and it was purchased by the American Missionary Association. Our school, near by, has a building which compares favorably with some of the Chicago school-houses, two stories and a good basement, the whole accommodating from 300 to 400 pupils, with three noble white teachers and three colored, who have graduated from this school. ”

“ We want more institutions like those at Atlanta, New Orleans, Charleston, and the other large Southern cities, where high culture and intelligence rule. The scholarship can be compared without fear with similar grades at the North. I never heard in our boasted common schools such recitations as I have heard from boys as black as the blackest. I know what Yale and Harvard and Dartmouth can show; but in Greek and Latin those colored students can rival their excellence. The culture in morals and manners is at least not inferior, nor the religious instruction less fruitful. ”

“ With all our need of men and means to carry on the work which the Lord has entrusted to this agency, we recognize still more our constant need of that Divine help which alone can never fail us. Dear fellow-workers in this special field, let the spirit and the practice of this week of prayer go with us through the year. Let those who manage, those who do the detail work, and those who furnish the supplies, all pray for themselves, each other and the work. We shall work better if we pray. ”

“ Buildings are to be erected, languages are to be learned, the country is to be explored, and the ways of the people are to be studied, before much can be done in declaring the Gospel. The missions are well situated. The country around them is thickly peopled, and great opportunities are opening to them. Much good has already been done in checking the slave trade, in opening lines of legitimate commercial traffic, and in inducing the natives to cultivate the soil. ”

“ They lay them in the Christian character of their schools; in the higher education they furnish, which the States do not give, and in the well-trained army of teachers they prepare for the Freedmen, thus supplying one of the most urgent wants recognized by both whites and blacks alike. If there were no other results [34] from the labors of these societies, the teachers they have trained, and who are now instructing more than two hundred thousand pupils, would fully vindicate their claim to the confidence and gratitude of both the North and South. ”

“ We must put healthy, strong institutions into the South. They are worth even more than the local churches we are planting. They stand in need of support. The local churches give them character.
Third, I think we have need of a larger Christian sagacity in the distribution of funds for this purpose. In my appeals for educational work, no one has heard me say I would have less money given for older institutions, I believe there can [39] be a wiser distribution of money with reference to the kingdom of God. ”

“ It has peculiar power and fitness to elevate the despised races. First, because we know so little of the capacity of either of these races. In the geographies of twenty years ago the centre of Africa was marked "Unexplored Region." The race that dwells there is still unexplored. When we say Persia, Greece, Rome, the word represents not only a people but an idea. Each of these nations has flashed forth before the world and left its mark upon it. ”

“ And first, it is entirely possible for us, in heeding the Scripture admonition to preach the gospel to every creature, to neglect those great and overwhelming forces in new communities which are sweeping the youth away. I read in a Providence paper last Saturday evening that there are no infidel books published in the Welsh language. I know those Welsh people well. This statement may be true; but meanwhile, forces outside of them which they cannot control are threatening to sweep their youth away into the gulf of materialism and atheism in the new communities. ”

“ Our dependence for the year to come may well be expressed in the words of the good man, to whom we have referred already, "The God of heaven He will prosper us; therefore, we His servants will arise and build." ”

“ Citizens of the United States visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities or exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by citizens or subjects of the most favored nation; and, reciprocally, Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. ”

“ Let not less be given to the old; but, my friends, the most economical giving is the money given to your higher institutions in the South and in all our new communities.
PURITANISM AND THE DESPISED RACES. Address at the Annual Meeting.
BY REV. C. M. SOUTHGATE, DEDHAM, MASS.
What I have to say will be upon this point: Why Puritanism is especially fitted to elevate the despised races. I say Puritanism; I might say Congregationalism; but that word sometimes means a polity, while this means something higher—clear thinking, strong believing, pure living, solemn and earnest acting ”

“ I sometimes get a little tried with the people when I see them waste their money on tobacco and a thousand little extravagances; but I immediately feel rebuked when I compare their extravagance with that of white people. ”

“ Let us not forget that it was the great famine in Ireland which drove one hundred and fifty thousand emigrants to this country in a single year, almost as many as had gone out in a decade before; now, ten million Chinese have died of starvation, and a few seek this land that God gave to fugitives. ”