American missionaries

“ And this is proving to be choice material to make our Lord’s world-conquerors out of. Men who have lifted up axes upon the thick trees, and have come into contact with affairs, have the hardy stuff needed in the work abroad.
So the American Missionary Association is the left wing of the Congregational corps that is seeking to subdue this realm to our King, the Christ. To this end was its former work at the West, where it had its seventy-nine home missionaries. To this end is its scheme for helping in the evangelizing of the Aborigines, who have made way for us to build up our nation. ”

“ If our colored missionaries show to the world that they can live in Africa and can manage the affairs of a mission as well as white men, then the demand for them by the missionary societies of this country will be large enough for all we can supply from America in many years. And the ministers here tell me that if my mission to the country should result in nothing else, it will more than pay for all the time, work and expense which I am giving to this effort. ”

“ I was both pained and irresistibly amused by an incident that occurred not two hundred miles from New York, when the horse was in the first stage of training, and stoutly resisted allowing its ear to be touched.
The missionary was announced to speak in the church on a given Sunday, when the annual collection would be taken up. A good member of the church—the pastor says a sincere Christian—was very much put out about it; had heard enough of these old missionaries, and was not going to hear any more; did not believe in foreign missions—we had heathen enough at home. ”

“ It could not truly be said, that any material change had taken place in the character and condition of the people at large, as a consequence of Protestant missions. But this at least was true, that the impression given by the Jesuits, that Protestants had no religion, no priesthood, and no churches, had been extensively removed. The missionaries unite in their testimony, that the circulation of the Scriptures is not alone sufficient to regenerate a people. ”

“ The attempts then made by British Christians had not been attended with so much success as to establish the practicability, or vindicate the wisdom of the missionary enterprise. For many years the work advanced but slowly. One denomination after another embarked in the undertaking; and now American missionaries are seen in almost every clime. Many languages have been acquired; many translations of the Bible have been made; the Gospel has been extensively preached; and churches have been established containing thousands of sincere, intelligent converts. ”

“ The eyes of English missionary societies are fixed upon the open door of Africa, and it seems probable that they will want to send out and support all the well-qualified colored missionaries we can furnish. But this cannot be done unless there is a greatly increased missionary spirit among the colored people themselves; and to cultivate this missionary spirit we need more churches. ”

“ There have been some very successful colored missionaries in Africa, whom the Christian world has known and honored, and the letters I have received joyfully refer to them, and mention others not yet widely known, but whose work attests their wisdom, piety and usefulness. Thus one Secretary refers to a missionary, born a slave in America and educated here, as "the most scholarly man in the whole mission." ”

“ When our Lord sent out his first missionaries, he sent them two by two. The real trial of the missionary is more mental than physical. He greatly needs companionship. Silence in the midst of the beating of heathen tom-toms becomes enervating and appalling; it may make a man insane. We are learning the value of team-work in missions. What one man alone could never accomplish, he can do with the help of others. The American Board in its mission at Madura, India, has acted upon this principle, and the result is seen in an aggregate of twenty-two thousand church-members. ”

“ Under able editorial supervision, aided by the steady contributions of our intelligent missionaries and teachers in all parts of the field, and with occasional communications from careful observers and thinkers elsewhere, the American Missionary furnishes a vivid and reliable picture of the work going forward among the Indians, the Chinamen on the Pacific Coast, and the Freedmen as citizens in the South and as missionaries in Africa. ”

“ Benevolent societies for meliorating the condition of our race in this and other lands are numerous and increasing, and they display all the characteristic energy and enterprise of the Americans. The American missionary is now seen bending his course to the ‘islands of the sea,’ that ‘they may rejoice in the salvation of God,’ and to the ‘utmost parts of the earth,’ that they too may know the way of life. The Bible society, having supplied so far as possible every family in this land with the word of life, is now sending it through the missionaries to the heathen world ”

“ But men of American sectarian preacher stamp never knew and never will know what a missionary spirit is. It is foreign to their habits as well as to their creed. When we hear of {358} American Protestant missionaries going forth with barely a change of clothes; when we learn that they abandon father, mother, family, house and home to preach the Gospel ”

“ In America the movement for world evangelization was greatly quickened and expanded by companies of students at Williams College and Andover Seminary. The purpose of these young men to carry the gospel abroad when North America was not represented by missionaries anywhere in the non-Christian world, was at the same time a mighty challenge to faith and a rebuke to the narrow vision of American Christianity one hundred years ago. Since that day practically all the conspicuous interdenominational missionary movements have begun their career in America. ”

“ In appeal.—This Association, constituted, as it is, the immediate agent of the churches, ought to be your watchman on the tower.
Every pastor is crowded with parish duties. Few intelligent laymen can give time enough to study thoroughly the whole field covered by the missions of the A.M.A. It is now an enormous field. Representatives of five distinct races, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Mountain Whites and Negroes wait for Christian instruction very largely upon the missionaries you are sending out. ”

“ We trust that in the good providence of God, this mission will be made prosperous and be greatly enlarged, that its missionaries will be preserved in safety, that the natives will become more orderly, that the influence of the school and mission may bring to them peaceable fruits of civilization and Christianity. ”

“ Even should the overcrowded ministry be of the same denomination, it works badly, but far worse if made up of rival sects. For a time at least, all must operate upon nearly the same persons. In the rural districts, the missionaries reside in the centres of population, and generally where two families can dwell together, and where each missionary can have a distinct field of labor. But even there it is deemed expedient for the churches to have native pastors; nor there alone. The aim is to have constellations of churches with native office-bearers, around every missionary station. ”

“ Our missionaries are, many of them, returning at this time of year for a brief rest at the North. They need it. They have earned it. It may seem wrong to tax these brave workers, but we venture to say that if they are invited to tell the public the story of their experience they will not refuse to do it ”

“ The evangelization of the foreigners in America must be effected by the direct missionary effort of the masses of American Christians. That is the foundation truth. The work cannot be delegated to Home Mission Boards or any other agencies, no matter how good and strong in their place. ”

“ Every man who has given liberally to support the Commission has become a missionary of patriotism; every woman who has cut and made the garments and rolled the bandages and knit the socks has become a missionary. And so the country has been full of missionaries, true-hearted and loyal, pleading, "Be patient, put up with inconveniences, suffer exactions, bear anything, rather than sacrifice the nationality our fathers bequeathed to us!" ”

“ Our evangelistic missionaries are busy about everything, from itinerant preaching to the establishment of banks and asylums. Can we afford it? What purpose is dominant, what aim really governs the policy of those who send out evangelistic missionaries? What decides the form of their work and the method by which they pursue it? It is hard to guess, it is hard to discover, it is hard to understand. ”

“ Through foreign missions we are sending the gospel to the ends of the earth. As a home mission God is sending the ends of the earth to our shores and very doors. The author is a Christian optimist who believes God has a unique mission for Christian America, and that it will ultimately be fulfilled. While the facts are in many ways appalling, the result of his study of the foreign peoples in our country has made him hopeful concerning their Americanization and evangelization, if only American Christians are awake and faithful to their duty. ”

“ Men and women who, on the arrival of the mission, sought the missionaries’ lives, are only anxious now to do what they can to assist them, even to the washing of their feet. How the change came about is simply by the use of the same means as those acted upon in many islands of the Pacific. The first missionaries landed not only to preach the Gospel of Divine love, but also to live it, and to show to the savage a more excellent way than theirs. ”

“ But no small degree of the prosperity of the mission must be attributed to the superior shrewdness and ability of the persons engaged in it—to their skilful adaptation of their precepts and modes of instruction to the people with whom they have to deal, and to their employment of the maxims of worldly policy in aid of their religious views. These qualities and rules of conduct have characterized the Catholic missionaries in all ages, in all parts of the world, and in their dealings with every variety of the human race ”

“ It is a profoundly serious and interesting subject for those responsible for its wise discussion, to account for the comparative lack of energy and success in modern missionary enterprises when set in contrast with those of the earlier Christian ages. Is it that the missionaries have lost their zeal, their fervor, their skill and power, in their work; or that what they offer, without much response of acceptance or gratitude from the subjects of their labor, is not the simple original boon of blessing once so triumphant in its peaceful conquests? ”