Missionary Ridge

“ A ride over the prairie is an excellent appetizer, and missionaries so exiled most of the time from all but a few of their own race, find these occasional meetings most pleasant, but having a long ride still before us, and a river to ford before dark, we were soon again on our way. About sundown we came in sight of the memorial church. It is situated on a little hill, and facing the Cheyenne River, and a lovely, picturesque valley, rendered more attractive just now by the numerous Indian tents scattered singly or in groups over the grass near the river. ”

“ The few feeble churches that then existed are scarcely recognized now in the larger work that has grown up independently of them and miles away. Indeed, in entering this region in 1882 we were only putting the plow into the field, which had been already turned by pioneer laborers of the American Missionary Association. Before the war a brave man had pushed his way back into these mountain fastnesses in Christ’s name. He went under commission from this Association. He opened a school; his work was successful. Into his school he put a library for the use of his pupils. ”

“ But the fairest blossom on that Alpine height is a Christian church. Lal Tiba itself belongs to the Presbyterian mission, and adjoining it is the house of the missionaries. On the ridge is a mission church, built chiefly by the indefatigable efforts of Mr. Woodside. It is a modest, yet tasteful building, standing on a point of rock, which is in full view of the Snowy Range, and overlooks the whole mountain landscape. ”

“ The Mississaquas of Rice Lake, consisting of 317 souls, and the Mohawks of Bay of Quinti, and the Rice Lake have recently been converted to Christianity by the Methodist society, who have introduced missionaries among the Indians here, and in every part of Upper Canada, where they have been able to obtain a footing. These missionaries come chiefly from the United States, and belong to the “Canada Conference Missionary Society,” auxiliary to the “Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the State of New York,” from which they receive a small salary, seldom exceeding £40 a year. ”

“ Ten or eleven days after these boys decamped, we were preparing to start on an expedition up Lake Superior to Batcheewauning; our four sailor boys were ready, dressed in their new blue serge suits and straw hats from England, The Missionary was well loaded with camp-kettles, tent, and provisions. We got as far as the Sault, when the wind, which had been favourable, suddenly veered round and blew a heavy gale in our faces, accompanied by thunder and heavy rain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Again, this systematic method of disbursing funds secures a methodical arrangement of field work. Take the mountain field as an illustration of this. This field has been divided into two general districts; one having for its base the L.N.R.R., the other lying along the Cincinnati Southern Railroad. Each department has its general missionary, who goes back and forth in his district to lay out new work, and to superintend the old. The missionaries, pastors and teachers are all busy in their own places. ”

“ Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most fruitful, the most abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that was ever opened to any Christian people. It is right here at your doors. It is not across the Pacific Ocean and it is not down yonder around the Cape of Good Hope. Right here at our doors is the greediest people for education and the gospel there is on the face of this earth, not counted among our white race. ”

“ The most affecting reminders of wasted effort which remain on the old Mission-grounds are the two or three apple-trees which escaped the general destruction, and the scarlet poppies which are scattered broadcast through the creek-bottom near the houses. Sadly significant it is that the flower whose evanescent bloom is the symbol of unenduring joys, should be the only tangible witness left of the womanly tastes and labors of the devoted Missionary who gave her life a sacrifice to ungrateful Indian savagery. ”

“ When will men learn that in the affairs of the savages the benevolence of civilization curdles into a curse, and missionary efforts are like a burst peat-bog sowing its black mud over the land!
While the missionaries were building, ploughing, and harvesting, teaching, preaching, and enduring, and becoming somewhat incorporated with the French settlers, a new element, and one in some respects less tractable, introduced itself in an unexpected manner. It was the party of Hall J. Kelley and Ewing Young, which arrived in the Willamette Valley late in October 1834. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Towards the end of the last century, when the Christian Churches awoke to their responsibilities for making known the glad tidings of salvation to their heathen fellow-creatures—societies were formed to send missionaries to various parts of the world. A band of twenty-nine missionaries, some of them unhappily untried, were sent out by the London Missionary Society in 1796, to the Pacific islands. They made slow progress, but at length, in 1815, idolatry was overthrown at Tahiti, and the gospel firmly established in that island. ”

“ Snow were going to explore the Upper Nile with reference to locating the Arthington Mission if the project should prove feasible. Mr. St. John was to be the business manager and to have charge of the John Brown steamer which was to be built. Mr. Hall, from the theological department of the Howard University, was to take charge of the Good Hope Station. He readily got hold of the work and proved himself an acceptable and successful missionary. He has the church, and a native teacher has the school under his supervision. ”

“ The need of the continuance of the work was never greater and the results of the service of our workers were never better. To retrench further at this time would not only cripple the work among the needy peoples of our field, but shut the door of opportunity in many places, and injure the people in their efforts to rise, and discourage our self-sacrificing missionaries. The people are grateful for these schools and churches and need more of them. We appeal to our Northern friends to come to the rescue of the American Missionary Association at this time. ”

“ These words were ascending from the lips of a number of dark skinned girls assembled round a fair haired English lady in a building thickly thatched with the leaves of the sugar cane, beneath the shade of a grove of tall cocoanut trees, in one of the many far off beautiful islands of the wide Pacific. The building, erected by the natives after their own fashion, was the school-house of a missionary station lately established by Mr Liddiard, and the lady was his devoted wife. ”

“ Usually single women workers were sent to one station, and a man (or men, if there were that many) to another. Missionary travel, except for going to a summer resort, was usually confined to [Pg 59] one's own district, and missionaries working outside that district met very infrequently. ”

“ Georgia.—Of the thirty-seven graduates from Atlanta University, thirty are teachers, two are pastors, one is a missionary in Africa, one a theological student at Andover. Only three are not teaching or preaching—two who are wives and one who has died.
Alabama.—The Trinity Church, Athens, Rev. Horace J. Taylor, pastor, received one on profession at the May communion. This church has a flourishing missionary society, which contributed in February $16 for the support of colored missionaries in Africa. ”

“ Four of the missionaries disembarked—a bishop and his wife, and one other couple, who were located at a mission station a short distance from this port.
Three hundred whites live in this treacherous place and 30 per cent. die each year. The permanent missionary and his wife had both been fever victims, and if they fail soon to get out of the Inhambane district they will never come out alive. The husband is a powerfully built man, and his wife's skin as fair as a lily. She would be called pretty. They both had a good education, and both were hard workers. ”

“ It is a matter of interest that the proposed mission is among the real heathen. Moslem Africa extends across the continent to about 9 deg. north latitude. (See Reade’s “African Sketch Book,” Vol. I., page 312.) Below that belt of country there are no obstacles in the way of religious efforts among the natives, except [99] those common to all missions among an unclad and tropical people. Sir Bartle Frere, as quoted by Secretary Hutchinson of the Church Missionary Society, says that the “missionary, by the negro, free or slave, is everywhere regarded as a friend. ”

“ Although there are many who regard the missionaries as doing valuable secular service in accustoming the native population in remote districts to the sight of European faces, and in prompting inquiry as to the source of their evenly balanced and steady lives, constituting them thus as pioneers of trade, it is undoubted that the great majority of foreign residents are openly sceptical as to the fertility of the missionary field. ”

“ Out into the sunshine of a perfect day the riders went, and the group around the plat [15] form stood silently and watched until they were a speck in the distance blurring with the sunny plain and occasional ash and cottonwood trees.
"I seen the missionary go by early this mornin'," speculated the station agent meditatively, deliberately, as though he only had a right to break the silence. "I wonder whar he could 'a' bin goin'. He passed on t'other side the track er I'd 'a' ast 'im. He 'peared in a turrible hurry. Anybody sick over towards the canyon way?" ”

“ This feeling is all the stronger when a young man, instead of going boldly to the real heathen, settles down in a comfortable house and garden prepared by those into whose labors he has entered. A remedy for this evil might be found in appropriating the houses and gardens raised by the missionaries' hands to their own families. It is ridiculous to call such places as Kuruman, for instance, "Missionary Society's property". ”

“ The missionary, wherever he goes from his station, is sure to get a large, patient, inquiring auditory, whether in a hut, or in a rude heathen temple, or in the temporary Christian Church, or beneath the shade of the palm, upon the passing highway. Sometimes the chief of a tribe refuses an escort through to a neighboring town, lest the missionary should stay with the other people and not come back and proclaim the good news to him and his people. ”

“ Can't we try something right now?" said the missionary, looking first at his wife and then at Margaret and Gardley. "This man is a new-comer since I went away, but I'm mighty sure he is the right kind, and I'm glad to welcome him—or perhaps I would better ask if he will welcome me?" And with his rare smile the missionary put out his hand to Gardley, who took it with an eager grasp. The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, as rare men, rarely met, sometimes do even on a sinful earth; and after that clasp and that look they turned away, brothers for life. ”

“ The Livingstone Mission has, since the 1st of January, 1886, been transferred to the American Baptist Missionary Union. The best understanding exists between the two societies on the field; there is room for all the energy and force that each can bring. Although on the line of transport we are compelled to keep near to each other, on the great upper river we must keep far distant, if we would wisely and thoroughly occupy this vast field. ”

“ We are busily at work in this mountain country, and as we think of wider possibilities for the mountain boys, you cannot imagine our gratitude in view of our hopes that a new industrial department will be opened. It has been the subject of many a prayer in the closet and in teachers' meetings, and we feel that all that is needed will be supplied according to His riches who gave himself for us. He has heard our united petitions for a pastor to gather the straying flock and relieve our overworked missionaries. ”

“ None have done better or more faithful work than the missionaries of the A. M. A. None are doing better work than Mr. Riggs and his associates. Yet, when compared with the extent of the field and the number and spiritual needs of those not yet reached by the influences of the gospel, and the opportunities and perils incident to their new and changing conditions of life, how very small is the work that the Christian Church is doing in this great field. ”