FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING of the American Missionary Association.

The Forty-first Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association convened in the Second Parish Church at Portland, Maine, on Tuesday, October 25th, at 3 o’clock P. M.

Owing to the recent death of its President, Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, of Massachusetts, the Association was called to order by one of the Vice-Presidents, Alexander McKenzie, D.D., of the same State, who, after the singing of “Coronation,” read the Scriptures—Mark vi, 30–56—and led in prayer.

Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts, was elected Secretary, and Rev. Edgar M. Cousins, of Maine, Assistant Secretary.

In the unavoidable absence of W. H. Fenn, D.D., Rev. Charles H. Daniels welcomed the Association in behalf of the churches and the city of Portland.

Response was made by Vice-President McKenzie.

The following committees were nominated and elected:

Committee on Nominations.—A. S. Walker, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Rufus K. Harlow, of Massachusetts; W. L. Gage, D.D., of Connecticut; Rev. Arthur Shirley, of Maine; Charles Peck, Esq., of Connecticut.

Committee of Arrangements.—Rev. Charles H. Daniels, Rev. Leavitt H. Hallock, Rev. Frank T. Bayley, William H. Fenn, D.D., Dea. E. F. Duren, all of Maine.

Business Committee.—Rev. Geo. M. Howe, of Maine; J. D. Kingsbury, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Geo. E. Hall, of New Hampshire; Rev. Geo. E. Street, of New Hampshire; Dr. Luther B. Morse, of Massachusetts; James G. Buttrick, Esq., of Massachusetts.

Secretary Beard read the portion of the Constitution relating to life membership and delegates, and the roll of the Association and Visitors was prepared, as follows;

ROLL.

State Associations.

James Bell, N.J.; Ruel P. Cowles, Ct.; Rev. T. M. Davies, Me.; Miss Anne E. Farrington, N.C.

Local Conferences.

Rev. G. W. Christie, Me.; Elnathan F. Duren, Me.; Rev. Wm. A. Houghton, Mass.; Rev. C. G. McCully, Me.; Rev. Wm. G. Mann, Me.; Charles Morse, Mass.; Rev. B. G. Northrup, Ct.; Miss L. L. Phelps, Me.; Rev. Lauriston Reynolds, Me.; E. N. Smith, Me.; Rev. N. J. Squires, Ct.; Edward A. Williams, Ct.; Rev. Alexander Wiswall, Me.

Delegates from the Churches.

Rev. Jonathan E. Adams, Me.; Rev. Myron W. Adams, N.H.; Mrs. Elizabeth B. Allen, Me.; Rev. T. M. Beadenkoff, Me.; Mary Q. Brown, Mass.; Susan M. Brown, Mass.; Mary S. Burge, N.H.; J. W. Burgess, Mass.; Mrs. Caroline A. S. Burgess, Mass.; G. W. Catlin, Ct.; S. H. Chandler, Me.; Rev. G. E. Chapin, Me.; Rev. C. D. Crane, Me.; Albert Currier, Mass.; Mrs. Minnie A. Dickinson, Mass.; E. W. Douglass, N.C.; Mrs. Ruth Eastman, Me.; Rev. F. F. Emerson, R.I.; Rev. John D. Emerson, Me.; Edward H. Emery, Me.; Franklin Fairbanks, Vt.; Miss M. B. Fairbanks, Me.; B. Freeman, Me.; Rev. W. L. Gage, Ct.; Rev. Joshua S. Gay, Mass.; A. Gaylord, N.Y.; C. W. Goodnow, Me.; Mrs. C. W. Goodnow, Me.; J. M. Gould, Me.; Jas. Graham, Me.; Abbie Greene, Me.; Mrs. S. J. Hall, Mass.; Wolcott Hamlin, Mass.; Horace F. Hanson, M.D., Me.; Rev. D. W. Hardy, Me.; Rev. Henry A. Hazen, Mass.; Minnie E. Holt, Me.; Alonzo H. Libby, Me.; Rev. H. S. Loring, Me.; Rev. D. D. Marsh, Mass.; Mrs. D. D. Marsh, Mass.; Mrs. Eliza W. Merrill, N.H.; Rev. W. A. Merrill, Me.; Mrs. Martha N. Merrill, Me.; Charles W. Morton, Me.; M. A. Perry, Mass.; Rev. J. S. Richards, Me.; Rev. C. F. Ropes, N.H.; Alice M. Russell, Me.; Rev. Charles L. Skinner, Me.; Rev. B. P. Snow, Me.; Joel Spaulding, Me.; Mrs. Caroline Spencer, Me.; John M. Stearns, N.Y.; Rev. Edward G. Stone, N.H.; Rev. P. B. Thayer, Me.; Rev. M. Van Horn, R.I.; Rev. Wm. G. Wade, Me.; Rev. Albert Watson, N.H.; Frank Wood, Mass.; Clinton A. Woodbury, Me.; Rev. D. E. Adams, Mass.; Rev. Joseph Anderson, Ct.; Rev. Samuel H. Barnum, N.H.; Rev. E. Bean, Me.; Mrs. Philo Bevin, Ct.; Rev. Samuel Bowker, Mass.; Mrs. A. H. Burbank, Me.; Rev. Wm. T. Briggs, Mass.; Rev. Geo. P. Byington, Vt.; Rev. Edward L. Chute, Mass.; J. H. Clark, Me.; Dea. M. Collister, Mass.; Lucius C. Curtis, Me.; Mrs. E. C. Drisko, Me.; Rev. Omar W. Folsom, Me.; Rev. H. A. Freeman, Me.; Rev. A. K. Gleason, Me.; Lydia L. Hawkes, Me.; Dea. J. E. Henry, Mass.; Sarah P. Hill, Me.; Rev. John W. Hird, Mass.; Mrs. N. H. Holbrook, Mass.; Mrs. L. M. Holt, Me.; Rev. G. M. Howe, Me.; Rev. Frank E. Jenkins, Ky.; Rev. R. W. Jenkins, Me.; Rev. E. S. Jordan, Me.; J. R. Libby, Me.; Jas. M. Linsley, Ct.; Dea. Geo. W. Littlefield, Me.; Rev. C. W. Longren, Me.; Rev. Henry S. Loring, Me.; Rev. George E. Lovejoy, Mass.; Chas. E. Miller, Me.; Dr. Luther B. Morse, Mass.; Dea. B. A. Nourse, Mass.; Rev. C. H. Oliphant, Mass.; Dea. H. W. Otis, Mass.; Rev. Henry J. Patrick, Mass.; Mrs. Sarah Payne, Me.; Dea. Charles Peck, Ct.; Rev. L. Phelps, Mass.; Dea. H. M. Plumer, N.H.; J. G. Proctor, N.H.; Mrs. Proctor, N.H.; Rev. A. H. Quint, Mass.; Rev. Cyrus Richardson, N.H.; H. H. Ricker, Me.; D. B. Robinson, Me.; Rev. Arthur Smith, Me.; Rev. H. A. Stevens, R.I.; Joseph Stover, Me.; Mrs. Joseph Stover, Me.; Rev. Geo. A. Tewkesbury, Mass.; Rev. A. H. Tyler, Me.; Rev. Jos. N. Walker, Vt.; Mrs. Eben Webster, Mass.; Gorham N. Weymouth, Mass.

Life Members.

Rev. A. F. Beard, N.Y.; James Bell, N.J.; Mrs. Matilda Burleigh, Me.; Timothy H. Chapman, Me.; E. L. Champlin, N.Y.; Rev. Samuel W. Clarke, Mass.; Rev. James W. Cooper, Ct.; Rev. C. H. Daniels, Me.; Rev. Oliver S. Dean, Mass.; Rev. G. S. Dickerman, Mass.; Rev. W. R. Eastman, Mass.; Miss D. E. Emerson, N.Y.; Mrs. Jacob Fullerton, Mass.; Rev. Geo. L. Gleason, Mass.; Mrs. Geo. L. Gleason, Mass.; D. C. Hawes, Me.; Samuel Harrison, Mass.; Esther P. Hayes, Me.; Rev. A. Hazen, Mass.; Alma J. Herbert, N.H.; Mrs. B. J. Holbrook, Mass.; H. W. Hubbard, N.Y.; Rev. Geo. Lewis, Me.; Mrs. K. B. Lewis, Me.; Rev. Nehemiah Lincoln, Me.; Charles L. Mead, N.Y.; Gyles Merrill, N.H.; Rev. C. P. Mills, Mass.; John W. Munger, Me.; Rev. C. L. Nichols, Me.; Mrs. Augusta F. Odlin, N.H.; Rev. James Powell, N.Y.; S. M. Rideout, Me.; Rev. J. E. Rankin, N.J.; Rev. Joseph E. Roy, Ill.; Mary Sawyer, Mass.; Rev. Charles W. Shelton, Ct.; Rev. Arthur Shirley, Me.; Rev. A. F. Skeele, Me.; Rev. W. F. Slocum, Md.; S. A. Spooner, Mass.; Rev. Calvin Terry, Mass.; Rev. E. P. Thwing, N.Y.; Rev. A. S. Walker, Mass.; Mrs. Mary E. Walker, Me.; Rev. I. P. Warren, Me.; Mrs. Juliet M. S. Warren, Me.; Mrs. C. L. Woodworth, Mass.; Rev. Henry C. Alford, Mass.; Rev. Edward E. Bacon, Me.; Rev. Smith Baker, Mass.; G. A. Bodge, Ct.; Charles E. Boothby, Me.; Clara R. Boynton, Mass.; Sadie H. Bragdon, Me.; Dea. T. H. Chapman, Me.; Joseph B. Drury, Mass.; Mrs. Joseph B. Drury, Mass.; Rev. John D. Emerson, Me.; Rev. L. H. Fellows, Ct.; Rev. Stacy Fowler, Mass.; Mrs. R. C. Gurney, Mass.; Rev. Henry L. Hammond, Ill.; Rev. Josiah T. Hawes, Me.; Rev. Rowland B. Howard, Mass.; Charles M. Lamson, Vt.; Rev. John H. McIlvaine, R.I.; T. A. McMaster, Mass.; Rev. Geo. N. Marden, Colo.; Barak Maxwell, Me.; Lucia G. Merrill, Mass.; Elisha Newcomb, Me.; Mrs. Annie F. Nichols, Me.; Robert L. Perkins, Mass.; Mrs. Maria S. Perry, Me.; Mrs. A. A. Phelps, Me.; Charles A. Richardson, Mass.; Miss C. M. Scales, Me.; Mrs. A. F. Skeele, Me.; Mary B. Spalding, Me.; Rev. Geo. F. Stanton, Mass.; Rev. Geo. E. Street, N.H.; Thomas H. L. Tallcott, Ct.; Mrs. M. E. Tenney, N.H.; Rev. L. J. Thomas, Me.; Eben Webster, Mass.

Visitors.

Rev. W. H. S. Aubrey, England; Geo. B. Barrows, Me.; Rev. E. Bean, Me.; Rev. John B. Carruthers, Me.; Rev. R. C. Drisko, Vt.; Rev. C. H. Gates, Me.; Rev. W. H. Haskell, Me.; Rev. H. C. McKnight, Me.; J. L. Perkins, Mass.; H. Porter Smith, Mass.; Rev. J. W. Strong, Minn.; Rev. T. J. Valentine, Mass.; George L. Bunster, N.H.; Rev. Edgar M. Cousins, Me.; Rev. John Dinsmore, Me.; Rev. Henry Farrar, N.H.; Rev. D. E. French, Me.; Oliver H. Hay, Kans.; Charles Heath, Mass.; R. N. Holman, Mass.; Rev. Charles G. Holyoke, Me.; Dea. A. Kingsbury, Ct.; Ira L. McClary, Vt.; A. R. Mitchell, Me.; A. T. Muzzy, Me.; Rev. E. S. Palmer, Me.; Rev. H. F. A. Patterson, Me.; Rev. Augustus Root, Mass.; A. H. Siegfried, N.J.; Dea. Richard Smith, Mass.; Rev. Prof. Richard C. Stanley, Me.; Rev. David D. Tappan, Mass.; Joseph Walker, Me.

The Treasurer, H. W. Hubbard, Esq., presented his annual report, which was accepted and referred to the Committee on Finance to be appointed.

The report of the Executive Committee was read by the Field Superintendent, Rev. Charles J. Ryder, and the various portions of the report relating to different departments of work were referred to the special committees to be appointed.

The Association, led by Secretary Strieby, united in a concert of prayer with workers in the field.

The programme prepared by the Committee of Arrangements was adopted as the programme of the meeting, unless otherwise directed.

Adjourned to 7.30 P. M.

TUESDAY EVENING.

The meeting was called to order at 7.30 P. M. The devotional services were conducted by Pres. James W. Strong, D.D., of Minnesota.

The annual sermon was preached by A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., of New York, from the third verse of Jude, according to the Revised Version.

The sermon was followed by the administration of the Lord’s Supper. The following named persons officiated at the service: Ministers—W. L. Gage, D.D., of Connecticut; Rev. George S. Dickerman, of Massachusetts. Deacons—E. F. Duren, R. H. Hinkley, S. W. Larrabee, Horatio Staples, John M. Gould, of Maine; Augustus Gaylord, H. W. Hubbard, of New York; Elbert B. Munroe, of Connecticut.

At the close of the communion, adjournment was taken to Wednesday at 9 o’clock A. M.

WEDNESDAY MORNING.

The prayer meeting from 8 to 9 o’clock was led by Joseph Anderson, D.D., of Connecticut.

At 9 o’clock the Association was called to order by the Vice-President presiding, who read the Scriptures. Prayer was offered by Rev. Henry S. Loring, of Maine.

The records of the previous day were read and approved.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following committees to act for the Association, and the report was adopted:

Committee on Educational Work: Rev. Wm. F. Slocum, Jr., Md.; Elbridge Mix, D.D., Mass.; Rev. Oliver S. Dean, Mass.; Rev. Forrest F. Emerson, R.I.; Rev. Omar W. Folsom, Me.; Rev. George H. Scott, Mass.; Charles Heath, Esq., Mass.; Mr. W. A. Crosthwait, Tenn.

On Mountain Work: Alonzo H. Quint, D.D., Mass.; Geo. W. Phillips, D.D., Vt.; Rev. Geo. W. Grover, N.H.; Rev. Charles C. McIntire, Vt.; Rev. Henry M. Grant, Mass.; Rev. Henry J. Patrick, Mass.; Rev. John A. MacColl, Vt.

On Indian Work: Frank Wood, Esq., Mass.; Elijah Horr, D.D., Mass.; Rev. George A. Tewksbury, Mass.; Rev. Frank A. Warfield, Mass.; Galen C. Moses, Esq., Me.; A. L. Williston, Esq., Mass.; Carlos Montezuma, Ill.

On Chinese Missions: Rev. S. Lewis B. Speare, Mass.; Rev. Henry L. Griffin, Me.; Rev. George S. Dickerman, Mass.; Rev. Charles H. Pope, Me.; Rev. Charles P. Mills, Mass.; Dea. Horace W. Otis, Mass.; Mr. Yan Phou Lee, Ct.

On Church Work: Rev. Cyrus Richardson, N.H.; Rev. Joseph F. Lovering, Mass.; Rev. Mahlon Van Horne, R.I.; Rev. George F. Stanton, Mass.; Rev. Arthur F. Skeele, Me.; Frederick E. Sturgis, D.D., Mass.

On Finance: Charles A. Hull, Esq., N.Y.; Rev. Smith Baker, Mass.; Edward S. Atwood, D.D., Mass.; J. Hall McIlvaine, D.D., R.I.; Col. Franklin Fairbanks, Vt.; Augustus Gaylord, Esq., N.Y.

A paper on “The Influence of a Life and the Life of an Influence,” was presented by Associate Corresponding Secretary Augustus F. Beard, D.D.

A paper on “The Brotherhood of Man; or, The Three Brothers who Settled America,” was read by Corresponding Secretary M. E. Strieby, D.D.

A paper on “Need of Intelligence in Giving,” was read by Associate Corresponding Secretary James Powell, D.D.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following special committees upon the papers read:

1. Upon Secretary Strieby’s paper: C. M. Lamson, D.D., Vt.; Rev. J. W. Hird, Mass.; E. L. Champlin, Esq., N.Y.

2. Upon Secretary Beard’s paper: Rev. W. A. McGinley, N.H.; Rev. T. E. Babb, Mass.; Joseph W. Burgess, Esq., Mass.

3. Upon Secretary Powell’s paper: Joseph Anderson, D.D., Ct.; Rev. W. R. Eastman, Mass.; Timothy H. Chapman, Esq., Me.

Rev. Dr. Behrends, of New York, spoke upon the subject of Missionary Literature as presented in Secretary Powell’s paper. Rev. G. S. Dickerman and Rev. O. S. Dean, both of Massachusetts, spoke upon the same paper.

The Association listened to addresses in memory of its late President, the Hon. William B. Washburn, of Massachusetts. These addresses were given by Rev. S. G. Buckingham, D.D., of Massachusetts, and Secretary Strieby, of the Association. The latter presented a minute which had been adopted by the Executive Committee at their first meeting after learning of the death of Governor Washburn, and which they recommended for adoption at this meeting, and to be forwarded to the family of the late President.

The minute, which follows, was unanimously adopted by a rising vote:

“We recognize the hand of God in the recent and sudden death of Hon. William B. Washburn, the President of this Association. We mourn the loss of one whose name and influence have been so helpful to it; whose many private virtues have endeared him to so wide a circle of friends; whose public services in the Church and State have been so honored and valued; and we tender to his family our profound sympathy in their irreparable bereavement.

“Yet we are grateful to our Heavenly Father that he called our brother to himself by so painless a death and while in the discharge of his duty as a member of the American Board. We rejoice that in him we can point to one whose loving heart made his home happy, whose integrity and honorable dealing were a noble example in business life, whose honors and offices in the service of the State were unsought and were discharged with fidelity and ability, and whose life and work in the church were an honor to his profession and to the cause of Christ.

“In the suddenness of his departure we are reminded that we, too, may be called in an hour that we think not, and yet that it is the privilege of the Christian to be always ready to die with the armor on and in the active service of the Captain of our Salvation.”

Adjourned.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

The Association was called to order at 2 o’clock. Rev. George E. Street, of New Hampshire, offered prayer.

The report of the Committee on Educational Work, with an address, was presented by Rev. Wm. F. Slocum, Jr., of Maryland. Further addresses were made by Rev. Forrest F. Emerson, of Rhode Island; Mr. W. A. Crosthwait, of Tennessee, and Rev. Mahlon Van Horne, of Rhode Island.

The report of the Committee on Mountain Work was presented by Rev. Henry J. Patrick, of Massachusetts. Addresses in connection with the report were given by A. H. Quint, D.D., of Massachusetts, chairman of the committee; Rev. Frank E. Jenkins, of Kentucky; G. W. Phillips, D.D., of Vermont, and Rev. A. A. Myers, General Missionary of the Association, of Tennessee.

J. E. Rankin, D.D., led in closing prayer.

Adjourned to 7.30 P. M.

WEDNESDAY EVENING.

The Association was called to order at 7.30. Devotional exercises were conducted by James W. Cooper, D.D., of Connecticut.

An address on “The Nerve of Missions” was delivered by Pres. Wm. De Witt Hyde, D.D., of Bowdoin College, Maine.

Hon. Nelson Dingley, of Maine, gave an address upon “Some of the changed conditions in this country that demand increased missionary effort.”

The Association then listened to an address upon “The conversion of the Chinese in this country,” by Mr. Yan Phou Lee, of Connecticut.

W. H. S. Aubrey, D.D., of England, addressed the meeting upon “Some Phases of American Civilization.”

A brief closing address was made by the Vice President presiding.

Closed with singing the doxology and with the benediction.

THURSDAY MORNING.

The prayer meeting from 8 to 9 o’clock was led by Rev. J. E. Adams, of Maine. The Association was called to order by Vice-President A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., of New York, and led in prayer by Rev. R. B. Howard, of Massachusetts.

The minutes of Wednesday were read and approved.

The report of the Committee on Indian Work was presented by Frank Wood, Esq., of Massachusetts, who also addressed the Association, and was followed by Rev. George A. Tewksbury, of Massachusetts, Carlos Montezuma, of Illinois, a representative of the Apache Indians of Arizona, and President Joseph Ward, D.D., of Dakota.

The report was accepted and the recommendation adopted that a committee be appointed to co-operate with the Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.

The report of the Committee on Chinese Missions was presented by Rev. S. Lewis B. Speare, of Massachusetts, who addressed the Association, and was followed by Rev. Charles P. Mills, of Massachusetts; Gen. Augustus Gaylord, of New York, and Mr. Yan Phou Lee, of Connecticut.

The report was accepted and adopted, together with the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Association, holding its annual meeting in the State of Maine, sends its greetings to Rev. W. C. Pond, a son of Maine, with sympathy in his labors and rejoicing in his success among the Chinamen on the Pacific coast.

The report of the Committee on Church Work was presented by Rev. Cyrus Richardson, of New Hampshire, who addressed the Association, and was followed by Rev. George F. Stanton, of Massachusetts, and Mr. W. A. Crosthwait, of Tennessee.

The report was accepted and adopted.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following persons as a committee to co-operate with the Financial Secretary on Indian Missions: Frank Wood, Esq., Massachusetts; Franklin Fairbanks, Esq., Vermont; Elbert B. Munroe, Esq., New York; Joseph Ward, D.D., Dakota; Rev. Charles B. Mills, Massachusetts. And they were appointed.

Adjourned to 2 P. M.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

The Association was called to order at 2 P. M. Prayer was offered by Rev. Edward Payson Thwing, M.D., of New York.

The report of the Committee on Finance was presented by Charles A. Hull, Esq., who also addressed the Association, and was followed by J. Hall McIlvaine, D.D., of Rhode Island; Smith Baker, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Charles W. Shelton, of the Association, and Rev. Oliver S. Dean, of Massachusetts. The report was accepted.

At this hour—3.30 o’clock—the Association adjourned to the First Baptist Church for a business session, leaving the Second Parish Church to a meeting of the Woman’s Bureau of the American Missionary Association.

The business meeting was called to order by Col. Franklin Fairbanks, of Vermont, who presided. Prayer was offered by Allen Hazen, D.D., of Massachusetts.

The Committee on Nominations reported as follows: First, as regards the office of President—No nomination had been made, but a recommendation that the matter be left in the hands of the Executive Committee, who have power to fill such a vacancy at any time. Second, as regards the remaining offices, the following nominations were made:

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., N.Y. F. A. Noble, D.D., Ill.

Alexander McKenzie, D.D., Mass. D. O. Mears, D.D., Mass.

Henry Hopkins, D.D., Mo.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES.

M. E. Strieby, D.D. James Powell, D.D.

A. F. Beard, D.D., all of New York.

TREASURER.

H. W. Hubbard, Esq., N.Y.

AUDITORS.

Peter McCartee, N.Y. Charles P. Pierce, N.Y.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

(For Three Years.)

Lyman Abbott, D.D., N.Y.; J. R. Danforth, D.D., Penn.; A. S. Barnes, Esq., N.Y.; Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, N.Y.; A. P. Foster, D.D., Mass.

(For One Year.)

James W. Cooper, D.D., Ct.

The report was accepted, and a ballot being taken, the persons named were elected.

The meeting listened to reports of the committees appointed upon the papers read on Wednesday by the Secretaries.

Rev. W. A. McGinley, of New Hampshire, presented the report upon Secretary Beard’s paper. The report was accepted.

C. M. Lamson, D.D., of Vermont, presented the report upon Secretary Strieby’s paper, which was accepted.

Joseph Anderson, D.D., of Connecticut, presented the report upon Secretary Powell’s paper, together with two resolutions. The report was accepted. The first resolution was adopted, as follows:

Resolved, That we submit to the Congregational churches, in local conferences assembled, for careful consideration, the question whether it is not desirable that such conferences establish special committees, whose duty it shall be to secure for this Association, along with the other benevolent societies of the denomination, a hearing from time to time in our churches, especially in those churches which are without pastors, and which for this, or other reasons, are liable to fail in their duty toward our great missionary and benevolent organizations.

And it was voted that the Secretaries print this resolution and send a copy to the clerk of each local conference, requesting him to bring it to the attention of the body.

After discussion, the second resolution relating to a Union Missionary Magazine was laid upon the table.

Adjourned to 7.30 P. M.

THURSDAY EVENING.

The meeting was called to order at 7.30 by Elbert B. Munroe, Esq., of New York. Rev. Frank A. Warfield, of Massachusetts, conducted devotional services.

The minutes of the day were read and approved, and the Secretaries were authorized to complete the minutes to the end of the meeting, and the Executive Committee to print at their discretion.

Secretary Powell, in behalf of Rev. Dr. McIlvaine, of Rhode Island, who had been called away, extended the invitation of the churches of Providence, R.I., that the annual meeting of this Association for 1888 be held in that city. The invitation was accepted.

The Association listened to an address by Hon. William P. Frye, of Maine.

Secretary Beard, of the Association, presented an address of thanks.

A response was made by W. H. Fenn, D.D.

Voted to adopt Dr. Beard’s statement as a minute, to go upon the records. The minute is as follows:

A year ago when the American Missionary Association was reaching out in its thought for a place where the churches and Christians who are interested in its work could assemble to hear its reports and to consider the great causes which have been committed to it, a most cordial invitation was received from the churches of Portland to accept their Christian hospitality.

Those of us who have had occasion to know how much solid heartiness and sincere good will is extended in the outstretched right hand of this people had no question as to the pleasure which would be experienced by those who should be recipients of it. We answered that it was in our hearts to come, and we have done our best all this year to bring to these churches cheerful faces and glad hearts.

We came grateful to God in that we could look the world in the face with our debts cancelled, owing no man anything but love; with no gloomy shadows over us, happy in the glorious experience of knowing that we possessed money enough in our treasury to carry on our work two whole days. We have met with the characteristic greeting of a people “given to hospitality.” We have come to a land of steady habits, and when some of you have taken us by the hand in the closeness of your grip we have sometimes been led to think that this is the greatest vice (vise) you have. And now, with our gratitude to God for His smiles in these beautiful clear days and bright skies, as if in harmony with the delightful Christian atmosphere of these meetings—symbolizing the spirit of our gatherings—it is not in accordance with a custom of form merely that we desire to express to these churches and pastors, and to all our kind friends here, our high appreciation of their service to this cause of missions, and to us so far as we represent this cause. You have given us strength and courage for our work another year.

It is not a small thing to arrange for a series of services like this. It means forethought and much care, many steps and much fatigue. It is not a small thing for people to open their homes freely to strangers and to so receive them that they are no more strangers.

Permit us then to thank the pastor, the officers and members of this church and society within whose walls we have studied and reviewed our work together. This is an ancient church, historic over the land. You have done no injustice to its history in your interest for the kingdom of God. Let us also thank the churches and pastors who have kindly shared in this abundant hospitality.

We should do that to which our hearts are foreign should we fail to remember those who have led us in Christian praise and those who in their labor of love have in many ways of service assisted the objects of this Missionary Association.

We recognize the courtesy of those railway and steamboat lines which have facilitated our travel here. Nor do we forget the enterprise of your public press and the kindness which has been extended to us in their full and accurate reports.

If any of you in this free-hearted welcome have entertained angels awares or unawares, we are glad of it. Most of us have left our particular angels at our homes. Some of us have not failed to discover that there are angels here in yours.

Therefore, brethren, in the name of our great Mission, of the schools and institutes which we have brought before you, of the churches which have prayed for us while we have been assembled, and in the name of the people to whom we are sent in Christ’s stead and in your stead, accept our sincere thanks.

As we take up our farewell to go, we can appreciate your hearty services not only, but also your ability to successfully conceal any gratification which you may have that these three long days are over.

Voted that after singing, and a benediction by Rev. Dr. Walker, of Connecticut, this meeting stands adjourned sine die.

Henry A. Hazen, Secretary.

Edgar M. Cousins, Assistant Secretary.

SUMMARY OF TREASURER’S REPORT.

RECEIPTS.

From Churches, Sabbath-schools, Missionary Societies and Individuals $189,483.39

From Estates and Legacies 52,266.73

From Income, Sundry Funds 10,561.07

From Tuition and Public Funds 28,964.81

From Rents 478.10

From United States Government, for Education of Indians 17,357.21

From Slater Fund, paid to Institutions 7,650.00

————— $306,761.31

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EXPENDITURES.

The South.

For Church and Educational Work, Land, Buildings, etc. $197,768.68

The Chinese.

For Superintendent, Teachers, Rent, etc. 7,564.95

The Indians.

For Church and Educational Work, Buildings, etc. 47,920.71

Foreign Missions.

For Superintendent, Missionaries, etc., for Mendi Mission, Income paid to the Society of the United Brethren in Christ 4,870.10

For Support of Aged Missionary, Jamaica, W.I. 250.00

Publications.

For “American Missionary,” (22,600 monthly, including cost of copies sent gratuitously to pastors, S. S. superintendents, life members, donors, etc.) Annual Reports, Clerk Hire, Postage, etc. 7,080.00

Agencies.

New York.—Associate Corresponding Secretary, Traveling Expenses, Circulars, etc. 4,159.93

New York.—Woman’s Bureau, Secretary, Traveling Expenses, Circulars, etc. 1,434.33

For Eastern District.—District Secretary, Clerk Hire, Traveling Expenses, Printing, Rent, Postage, Stationery, etc. 4,389.77

For Western District.—District Secretary, Clerk Hire, Traveling Expenses, etc. 4,603.67

Administration.

For Corresponding Secretary, Associate Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer and Clerk Hire 11,931.81

Miscellaneous.

For Rent, Care of Rooms, Furniture, Repairs, Fuel and Light, Books and Stationery, Rent of Safe Deposit Box, Clerk Hire, Postage, Traveling Expenses, Expressage, Telegrams, etc. 5,073.40

Annual Meeting 379.35

Wills and Estates 271.32

Annuity Account 899.77

Amounts refunded, sent to Treasurer by mistake 186.01

———— $298,783.80

Debt, September 30th, 1886 5,783.71

—————

$304,567.51

Balance on hand September 30th, 1887 2,193.80

—————

$306,761.31

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THEOLOGICAL ENDOWMENT FUND.

North Bloomfield, Ohio, “A Friend,” for Talladega College $709.25

ARTHINGTON MISSION FUND.

Hillsdale, Mich., Estate of Mrs. T. F. Douglass $100.00

The receipts of Berea College, Hampton N. and A. Institute, and Atlanta University, are added below, as presenting at one view the contributions for the general work in which the Association is engaged:

American Missionary Association General Fund $306,761.31

American Missionary Association Theolog’l Endowment Fund, Talladega College 709.25

American Missionary Association Arthington Fund 100.00

————— $307,570.56

Berea College, Donations 11,131.51

Berea College, for New Building 15,000.00

————— 26,131.51

Hampton N. and A. Institute 82,715.26

Atlanta University (add’l to A. M. A.) 10,171.69

—————

$426,589.02

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H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York.

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES.

REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL WORK, SOUTH.

BY REV. W. F. SLOCUM, CHAIRMAN.

Your committee, to which the report of the executive committee on educational work in the South was referred, would express at the outset their profound gratitude for the success that has followed the efforts that have been put forth in this large and important department of the work of the American Missionary Association.

While they deplore with all those who have the interests of this work at heart, the political attempts to limit the usefulness of the Association, that has grown out of unworthy partisan prejudices, yet they perceive with thankfulness that there is an element growing stronger every year at the South that appreciates the place, the importance and the value of these schools. Notably is this shown in Mississippi, where the State appropriation for the Tougaloo University was the only one not reduced. They would speak with appreciation of the Christian spirit that infuses all these schools, and the deeply religious character that is given to the work, and of the strong personal influences which are brought to bear upon the students.

Your committee feel that the time has come to push with greatest vigor a work that shall meet the demand for teachers in the public schools of the South, and to avail ourselves of the opportunity to reach the children and the homes of colored people through these; that every effort needs to be put forth to send out these teachers established in Christian ethics and feeling that the moralities of life are the basis of all true education.

Great pleasure is taken in the advance that is made each year in the matter of industrial and agricultural training; and every effort which tends to transform this people into an intelligent, upright Christian yeomanry, will be a profound blessing. Our constant aim should be to establish the true dignity of labor and the healthful desire to possess property and an intelligence that secures the best condition as property holders. Your committee are of the opinion that the opportunity for good through these schools was never larger than at present, and that the need of enlargement in many is imperative, and also that the time has come to push the work of special endowment for the larger institutions, that they may become independent of any financial pressure and may be put upon a permanent basis. And therefore of the three alternatives suggested by the claims of the work at present which they suggest in their report, can endorse one only, and do therefore most heartily recommend that instead of sacrificing the character of the work, instead of reducing the amount of work done, the Association shall have more money.

REPORT ON CHURCH WORK, SOUTH.

BY REV. CYRUS RICHARDSON, CHAIRMAN.

Your committee into whose hands has been placed the report of the church work in the South desire to state their impressions by calling attention to three or four important points.

First, to the marked increase in the membership of the Sunday-schools—an increase during the year of 2,000 pupils, or 15 per cent., bringing the present membership up to 15,109.

Comparing this with the entire enrollment in 1882, we find that during the five years there has been a growth of 100 per cent.

This is specially gratifying because it is understood that Sunday-schools or missions started at new stations look to the speedy establishment of churches at those stations; while well-organized schools in churches already established result in the careful study of God’s word, with a constant application of inspired doctrine to practical life, looking both to the permanence of the churches and the personal purity of their members.

Another important item noticed in the report appears in the statement touching the amount of money which these churches have given.

Beside the $16,000 contributed for their own religious work, $2,300 have been devoted to pure benevolence. If this should seem a small sum as a contribution of 127 churches, it must be remembered that it is the gift of poverty, and not of wealth. The free-will offerings of almost any one of these congregations, when compared with the contributions of not a few New England churches, suggest the words of the Master: “She hath cast in more than they all.”

Their spirit of sacrifice has often won for the colored people hearty commendation. To those of us who live amid multiplied temporal and spiritual privileges, and who easily lose sight of the goodly heritage for which we are to give an account, it is a spur, if not an inspiration, to read the story of the sacrifices which some of these brethren make in the giving of their scant substance for the more destitute members of the human family.

Their offerings for pure benevolence were above $600 more than the previous year, and are double what they were four years ago.

Your committee are glad to find that this feature of denominational work is strongly emphasized by the Executive Board, and that these churches, poor though they be, are taught that giving as well as receiving is a necessary factor in their growth, and that in true worship alms as well as prayers rise before God as a memorial.

Another noticeable item in the report is the building of meeting-houses. Indeed, the report characterizes the past year in its Southern work as one of “building activity.” Every church that is to become permanent must have its house dedicated to God. The sanctuary helps to hold the people together and attach them to forms of worship that demand a reverential attitude. Perhaps no people have greater need than our colored brethren of those religious forms and ceremonies which secure quiet and order in the public devotions of the assembled multitudes.

We therefore rejoice in every new meeting-house that this society helps the struggling churches of the South to build.

Another item in the report to which we call attention is the organization of seven new churches during the year, about the average number, if you take a series of a dozen or more years, but not the average if you take simply the last five years.

Since 1882 the average rate of increase has been eleven per year.

It would undoubtedly be a joy to us all if the rate of increase could be more rapid. We must not, however, forget that we are at work “among a people who have no congregational trend or training.” It is undoubtedly wise to proceed with care, planting churches at the right centres and only where they will give promise of permanence.

After all the caution that has been exercised it has been necessary recently to drop four or five from the list. The aim should be at stability and worth rather than numbers. A single church organized on the right basis, watched over with painstaking care, so that her members shall adorn the doctrines they profess, will do more for the prosperity of Congregationalism in this part of the country than would a score of churches hastily organized and unsuitably located. We think the officers of this society have been wise in their movements thus far; nearly all the churches organized having made a history that deserves the admiration of Christian people everywhere.

But when we think of the constantly increasing number of graduates from the Christian schools and colleges under the patronage of this society; and the greater familiarity of the Secretaries with the localities suited to become strategic points for Congregationalism in the South; and the marked success of those churches whose permanence is beyond question, are we not warranted in expressing the hope that in the near future we shall see a radical advance all along this important line of denominational work? We know that this is what our Secretaries long for as well as pray for, and what with our contributions cheerfully made, they will hope to accomplish.

They heartily agree with us in believing that the uplifting influences of schools and colleges would be readily dissipated or turned into channels for evil if they are not gathered up and multiplied in rightly constituted bodies which shall prove the germs around which the forces of the community shall organize for good. Working together, therefore, as contributors and directors, we may expect to be cheered from year to year with the rapid growth in the numbers of these organized Christian forces which have in themselves vitalizing and transforming power which works for righteousness both in character and conduct.

REPORT ON MOUNTAIN WORK.

BY REV. A. H. QUINT, D.D., CHAIRMAN.

The committee on so much of the Annual Report as relates to mountain work, particularly in Tennessee and Kentucky, respectfully reports as follows:

The few details given in the report are of such an interesting character as to suggest the earnest wish that far more extended accounts of facts and incidents had been spread before the Association.

Want of space in the narration of the vast work of this body was of course the constraining reason for brevity in the report. But the comprehensive statement which is made exhibits conclusively the opportunity for a new and peculiar work, namely, that of giving the Gospel, its character and its schools, to a class hitherto scarcely touched by beneficent Christian agencies.

This is a class of white population, a class which felt of course in some degree the blighting influence of slavery, which contaminated everything within the reach of its malaria; but this class, from its circumstances, was not a slave-holding class. It is a class of sturdy blood and mountain habits, and is capable of great development. Two considerations urge the necessity of covering this field.

One is, the ordinary obligation to preach the gospel to those who do not have the gospel.

The other is, the evident capacity of this peculiar people to become a power in the development of that section of our land.

While the field and the number of persons are both limited in comparison with the great work among the freedmen, their importance appeals to this Association with steadily increasing force.

The opportunity is at hand, and it is in a line which old friends of our regenerating work could scarcely have hoped for. Devout praise is due to Almighty God for this open door to a vast success.

It is worthy of notice in this respect how, in the history of this Association, God has steadily placed before it successive duties and successive privileges. From the first dawning of its Foreign and Home work, freed from complicity with the great sin of our country, new specialties have been added as fast as older ones were ripened into practical efficacy. This comparatively new work seems to be in a direct line of Divine development. Your Committee feels that the sanction of this Association should be emphatically given to the work of its administration in this department, a work in which no spirit of caste shall be in any way tolerated, and that the call for a large increase of laborers to be located at all suitable points, should be met as rapidly as possible.

The Committee has no doubt of the wisdom and judicious care which characterizes your Executive Committee, and believes that that committee needs only the hearty approval of this body to encourage it to go on in this direction.

REPORT ON INDIAN WORK.

BY MR. FRANK WOOD, CHAIRMAN.

The first great work of this Association was due to a crisis in the history of one oppressed race on this continent, who after more than one hundred years of slavery and oppression, had, in the providence of God, freedom and citizenship suddenly thrust upon them. Four millions of souls—a large majority poor, ignorant and degraded—to these came the A. M. A. as God’s own messenger to lead the way to education, usefulness and Christianity.

A similar emergency has now arisen in the history of another oppressed and wronged race for whom this Association has always done good work—the North American Indian.

Since the last annual meeting of this Association, the Dawes Bill, which has been called the emancipation proclamation of the Indian, has passed both houses of Congress, and is now the law of the land. Public attention, as never before, has been turned to the wrongs and the needs of the Indian. The new conditions have developed new necessities, new opportunities, and new dangers. Numerous societies, in thirty-two different States, have been organized to assist them. All this gives new importance to the work of the A. M. A. among the Indians. The summary for the year is encouraging. The conversions and additions to church membership tell a story of faithful, unselfish work for the Master, in one of the hardest possible fields of missionary labor, with little of the romance or pleasure of travel sometimes afforded by missions in foreign lands; among a people whom a Judge of the Supreme Court called “a despised and rejected class of persons;” handicapped and hindered in all their efforts by the suspicions and hatreds developed by centuries of injustice, robbery and cruelty from a Government that claimed to be civilized and Christian, and also by the Reservation System, which puts the missionary and the teacher under the absolute control of the Indian Agent, who may be a mere political tool and a man of no character, yet has despotic authority on the reservation, with power to expel or imprison the missionary, or break up his school or congregation. Yet in spite of all obstacles, through love of Him who was also “despised and rejected of men,” they remained faithful amid dangers and difficulties, till, through their labor and that of their companions and predecessors, there are now nearly 29,000 Indian church members.

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. Think of it—two hundred and forty-eight thousand Indians in the midst of a Christian land, and after the labor of 200 years only 29,000 professed Christians among them, and only 143 missionaries, of all denominations, to carry the gospel to this great multitude; and these few are hampered and hindered in their work by the intercourse laws, the opposition of agents and the orders of the Commissioner. When for the first time legislation, based on justice and humanity, is opening up vistas of usefulness and progress to the Indian; when the need of Christian teaching, guidance and care is greater than ever before, the Indian Bureau has issued orders that paralyzes missionary operations, by prohibiting the use of the vernacular in teaching English or the truths of the gospel. The Indians all know the vernacular. They have been carefully shut away from any other language by the Government restraints that surround all reservations, shutting out everything that would educate or civilize. The vernacular is used in the mission schools to teach English and the truths of the gospel to those who understand no other language. With this use we should submit to no interference. In a contest for religious liberty against the official tyranny that has for the last hundred years tried to usurp the place of Divine Providence to the Indian, we may be sure of the support of the freedom-loving American people. The intercourse laws should be repealed, so far as they relate to the operation of missionary societies. We should insist that all obstructions to the preaching of the gospel should be swept away. Then bring before all the churches the pressing and immediate needs of these neighbors who have fallen among thieves, who are pagans in a Christian land. While we are waiting they are passing into eternity. Shall we remain in selfish indifference till we are aroused by the dreadful sentence, “If thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thy hand.” This Association is only the servant of the churches. The means and the men must come from the churches. If the churches were awake to their duty in this matter, and realized their responsibility for the Christianizing of the Indian, they could send missionaries to every part of this field within a year. There are 348,000 Indians in the country, excluding Alaska. From this number we should deduct 65,000 in the five civilized tribes. This leaves 183,000. Of this number 28,600 are already church members. This leaves a population not greatly more than three times the size of this city of Portland. Would we dare to say to our Master that we cannot occupy this field?

There never has been a time so propitious as the present; there never has been a time when the wrongs and the needs of the Indian have received so much attention from the Christian, the legislator and the philanthropist.

Therefore your committee would recommend that a committee of five be chosen to co-operate with the Financial Secretary for Indian Missions in devising and carrying out measures to bring the needs and opportunities of the Indian field before the churches, other missionary societies doing Indian work, and the numerous Indian Aid societies now organized throughout the country.

This committee should make an effort to secure the co-operation of all Christians and friends of the Indian in a greatly enlarged, thorough, systematic mission work. They should also labor to create a public sentiment that should demand the repeal of the intercourse laws, so far as they hinder mission work; the order in relation to the use of the vernacular in the mission schools, and the removal of every other obstruction of the Indian Bureau to the civil and religious liberty of the missionary and teacher on the one hand, and the Indian on the other.

The gospel of Christ offers the only solution to the Indian problem. It must precede and prepare the way for civilization. Through it alone can we save the Indian, and atone for the century of dishonor in which our Government’s system of dealing with the red men has made them paupers and kept them barbarians and pagans. This is the work of the Christian church, and if we shrink from or avoid the duty of the hour, God will not hold us guiltless.

REPORT ON CHINESE WORK.

BY REV. S. L. B. SPEARE, CHAIRMAN.

Your committee note with special satisfaction the following indications of progress in the work of our Association for the Chinese. Willing subjects of missionary labor are more numerous and more accessible. Past years of foundation work, dealing with Asiatic inertia and colossal prejudice and just resentment under wrong, are bearing fruit unusual in amount and assured genuineness. Our faithful missionary superintendent on the Pacific coast does not abate his courage or enthusiasm. Faithful teachers and co-workers can be found. The Lord of the vineyard has set his seal of approbation by granting harvests which, in the light of difficulties in the field and their promise for the future, are truly great. That Foreign Missionary Society, spontaneously formed by Chinese converts, thoroughly equipped and liberally supported in proportion to their means, and which aims, finally, at nothing less than the conversion of China’s millions, should silence any and all cavil or uncertainty as to their motives in embracing Christianity. Japan, also, hears tidings of Christian sympathy as her wandering sons are met with helpful counsels and religious enlightenment on these far western shores—the land of their ideal civilization. We rejoice that those in charge of the field see their way clear for “tentative evangelistic work” and have entered upon it. This betokens firm conviction and resolute purpose that the field shall be taken for Christ. Difficulties and embarrassments only multiply their zeal and methods. Like the great missionary to the Gentiles, these heralds of the gospel look upon “many adversaries” and “an open door” as equivalents. The statistics of recent progress emphasize our golden opportunity to reach the “hermit natives” through their representatives within our borders.

Your committee note with profound regret the serious falling off in the money appropriations for their work. Native helpers, skilled and consecrated, are the chief preaching agency of all missionary fields, and of China preëminently. Ours is the opportunity to multiply such helpers. California is in the foreground to-day as never before, not excepting the old mining days. The church should occupy that field with a zeal and wisdom that shall emulate the enterprise of railroads and real estate projectors. The church must not contradict all her traditions and working principles when Christ’s poor come to her borders by the thousand and under conditions specially favorable to Christ-like approach. Her own life will be impoverished by so doing. The priest and Levite wronged and degraded their own souls by passing on the other side from the wounded sufferer, as much as the good Samaritan enriched his by pouring oil into his wounds and sheltering the victim of robbers.

Your committee hope that measures can be taken to bring the attention of our beloved churches to this their phenomenal opportunity and duty—to give the gospel at short range and nominal cost, to Asia’s millions and support that message with all possible sympathy and aid.

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.

BY MR. CHAS. A. HULL, CHAIRMAN.

In presenting their report upon the financial condition and management of the business of the American Missionary Association, your committee on Finance desire to commend the clear and thorough manner in which the accounts are kept, so that any needed information may be had regarding any one of the numerous items of investment or expense at the numerous places where the work of the Association is carried on. The schedule of the property owned by the Association shows it to be possessed of buildings and land for the carrying on of educational and church work, the aggregate cost of which stands at $576,540.15. In addition to this plant, the Endowment funds amount to $229,375.78 which are securely invested, and yield an annual income of about $10,000. The Association also holds conditional trust funds amounting to $69,726.95. The good judgment shown in the purchase of land, the erection of buildings, and the investment of the permanent funds speaks well for the thorough care of the officers and the Executive Committee.

The committee desire to congratulate you and the Congregational churches of our land upon the extinction of the debt which for several years has been a burden to the Association. The treasurer’s report shows a balance on hand of $2,193.80, after paying every liability of the Association up to October 1, 1887, including the debt of $5,783.71, which remained at the end of the previous year.

In order to accomplish this, however, it has been necessary to defer until the receipts should warrant it, much work which presses with importunity upon the Association in the various fields.

We find that the treasurer’s accounts are regularly and faithfully examined each month by the financial committee of your executive board; and at the end of the year by two auditors chosen by the Association who attach their certificate to the report, and who are thoroughly reliable business men. The accuracy and economy of the work are thus as fully secured as in any merely business establishment. The by-laws of the executive committee provide a system of checks upon the officers similar to those in use in great corporations; and while of old it was said that “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light,” we are glad to note that in the administration of the American Missionary Association so great a degree of worldly wisdom or common sense has been employed.

The duties of the treasurer are responsible, and have been performed with exactitude and fidelity. The receipts for current work of the year from all sources have been $306,761.31; and the expenditures therefor, $298,783.80.

These items of expenditure have been carefully examined in detail by your committee, and they report that in each department the most careful economy has been used, and no curtailment which would not materially cripple the effective force of the Association seems possible.

Your committee have taken some pains to compare the expenses of the Association with those of other missionary societies, and we find that it does not suffer in the comparison. The committee note with regret that the expenditures for work among the Indians and Chinese have been cut down materially as compared with the previous fiscal year; but we believe that the policy of the executive committee in refusing to incur liabilities which the Congregationalists of the country would not meet is the right one.

They must keep the Association so economically and so safely managed that no reproach may justly fall upon it; and the fact that they are able to come before you at this meeting, and to report the absolute extinction of the load of debt which has been upon them and you for several years, and have yet developed and prosecuted with vigor the grand labor for the oppressed, appeals in the strongest possible way to you for the most generous increase of the sums to be intrusted to their management in the year to come.

All departments need enlarging. The Southern work ought to have not less than $275,000; $15,000 is a small sum to spend upon the Chinese on our western coast, while $60,000 would hardly give the much needed development to the Indian Mission. Shall not the $350,000 thus plainly needed and earnestly recommended by the last National Council of Congregational churches be forthcoming? From us to whom much has been given, much will surely be required. If we cannot in person go with these Christian men and women who are devoting their lives to the direct work of this Association, into the cabin of the Negro, the abode of the mountaineer, the opium den of the Chinese, or the wigwam of the Indian, let us at least say to those who do,—“We will uphold your hands, we will abundantly support your work, we will, as far as we can, share your burdens and be your fellow laborers.”

DR. BUCKINGHAM’S MEMORIAL ADDRESS.

The recent and lamented death of Governor Washburn, the President of this Association, calls vividly to mind his worth and usefulness; and it will be of interest to you to know the estimation in which he was held, and the respect felt for his character and influence in our Connecticut valley. Like Governor Strong before him, he was one of the “River-gods,” influential and commanding in all that region, though ruling more by his personal character than by any official station.

He was born at Winchendon, Mass., in 1820, and had lived all his life either near, or in, Greenfield. His father died in his infancy, leaving him in straitened circumstances, but he managed to obtain a good preparatory education at Lawrence Academy, Groton, and was graduated at Yale College in 1844. He purposed to devote himself to the Christian ministry, but the death of an uncle leaving a large manufacturing business heavily embarrassed compelled him to take the management of it, which he did with such ability and success that he not only rescued the business from insolvency, but made it the basis of his own life-long prosperity and the source of his ample benevolence.

The same qualities which made him successful in business carried him into public life and secured him equal respect and influence there. His sound judgment, fidelity to duty, scrupulous integrity and Christian principle, made him sought after for public offices and corporate trusts, as few men are. He had been a member of the State Senate and of the House of Representatives, and when we were in the midst of the Civil War, and strong and reliable men were needed in Congress, he was sent to the House of Representatives without opposition, receiving, what was almost unprecedented in politics, the unanimous vote of his district. He was kept there for ten years by successive elections, where his ability and sterling integrity soon placed him upon the important Committee of Claims, and also of Revolutionary pensions, and where he remained until he was called home to become the Governor of the Commonwealth. This office he held until he was sent to the United States Senate, to succeed Senator Sumner, and here his well-known services in the House secured him at once an honorable position which was well maintained by his valuable services and noble character.

Indeed, the best tribute to his worth was, that when he retired from public life he had received, unsolicited, every public honor which it was in the power of his constituents to bestow.

The same was also true of his appointment to the management of so many business corporations, educational institutions, trust funds, missionary associations, benevolent and Christian societies. He was the President of the First National Bank of Greenfield, a director of the Connecticut River Railroad Company, one of the Corporation of Yale College, a trustee of the Mass. Agricultural College, of Smith College, of Mr. Moody’s School at Mt. Hermon, a corporate member of the American Board of Foreign Missions, President of this American Missionary Association, a pillar in the Second Congregational Church of Greenfield, and the first President and a vigorous supporter of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club. The wonder was, how he could take upon himself so many trusts, when, with his ideas of duty, they must each receive his careful attention and he must hold himself personally responsible for their best management.

Fidelity to his trusts was one of his most marked characteristics, and in this respect he possessed the spirit of his Lord, “who was faithful to Him that appointed him,” and as Moses was “faithful in all his house,” so our friend possessed this crowning virtue of a noble and useful life. * *

It is true that many have excelled him in particular abilities, especially in those that are most striking and brilliant, such as poetic sense and successful oratory, which are most frequently denominated genius. But these have often been combined with defects of judgment, or temper, or principle, so that their influence has been sadly marred or used for mischief. As in our civil war it was not every eloquent orator or able editor who was the best adviser or steadiest supporter of the policy that preserved the Union; but some of them would have let the nation be divided, or compromised the questions at issue, only to be reopened without hope of right settlement. But here was a man for all times and all places. In the halls of legislation, in the Governor’s chair, before a board of selectmen, arranging bounties for volunteers and for the support of their families, or among his own workmen, advising them as to what they might or might not properly do in such a crisis—he is the same wise counsellor and faithful helper everywhere, doing the work assigned to him as well as, if not better than, most poets or orators.

And when war was over, and such work no longer needed, when peace was to be restored and amicable relations cultivated between those who had been deadly foes; when business prosperity was to be brought about again and banks were to be well managed, and trust funds made secure, and the increasing wealth and enterprise of the country to be turned into benevolent and Christian channels, here he found his fields of delight, and his abilities and character shone out in new beauty and strength. Here was Governor Washburn’s real genius—the completeness and best use of all his abilities, combined with principles that directed them all to the noblest ends.

This seems to be the divine method of training men for their best work. They are placed in stations of responsibility, which they are not properly qualified to fill; but if they are conscientious and faithful, and especially where they put themselves under divine guidance and are controlled by religious motives—the most powerful of all—they become qualified for almost any station in life, and for the highest and most responsible duties.

It was in this way that our friend secured his best development. The great secret of it was his piety. He was taught of God. He was trained in the school of Christ. He was devoted to the Saviour’s cause. In his own estimation he was not his own, but belonged to Him who had redeemed him at such cost. All that he was, and all that he possessed and all that he was capable of becoming, were the Lord’s. His talents were his trust, to be improved for his Master, like his property. His intelligence, his sound judgment, his capacity for business, were cultivated for Christian use. When they brought him honor and position, he was not elated by them. Position was only another name for opportunity and influence, which brought with them increased responsibilities. Honors only sobered him and made him pray to God that he might prove worthy of them.

In the spirit also of his Master, who came to “seek and to save that which was lost,” he would bless and benefit all for whom Christ died. He was not only desirous of dealing justly with his fellow men, but he must do them good as he had opportunity, and to all men, Negroes, Indians, Chinese, as well as to his own countrymen. He sought to secure wise legislation for them, and a faithful administration of the Government. He would educate the ignorant, reform the vicious and remove the disabilities under which so many labor. He would improve their worldly condition and make his business profitable to those in his employ as well as to himself. But above all, he would bless men spiritually and eternally with the blessings which only the gospel of Christ can bestow. This was the secret of his interest in your work and in all kindred works, and in everything that could improve the character and condition of men. This is the reason that he devoted time and thought and assistance to so many Christian and philanthropic enterprises which are accomplishing these objects. This is why he gave to this Association so much of his attention and best counsel, his generous contributions and fervent prayers, and why he left such large bequests to this and kindred societies.

As an Association we owe too much to our late President and devoted friend not to make mention of his many and invaluable services, and always hold in loving and grateful remembrance the name of William Barrett Washburn. Few causes have such helpers, and not often are better men raised up for their time and work. We shall miss him in our deliberations, while we need more than ever, as our fields for Christian enterprise are enlarging, his sound judgment, untiring energy and steadfast Christian faith.

When such men as Governor Washburn, Alpheus Hardy and President Hopkins are taken from us, we can only pray that He who has the whole work in charge will inspire others with similar devotion and bestow upon us all more of his grace and blessing.

The circumstances of Governor Washburn’s death were peculiar and startling to those about him, though not wholly unexpected to his family. It was known to them that he had a serious affection of the heart, but they were encouraged to hope that by care, and the avoidance of all undue excitement and exertion, he might have comfortable health for some years. The morning meeting of the Board found him a little late from the cars, and climbing the stairs to the hall, he had scarcely seated himself upon the platform and spoken to his friends about him, when he fell forward unconscious into their arms; and though a physician was immediately at his side, and his wife soon there also, there was no return of consciousness, and almost as quickly as the scene can be described, he had left us, and his spirit had gone home to God. A sudden departure, and a startling one to those of us who were trying to detain him; but his Lord called him, and he must have said:

“I hear a voice ye cannot hear, That says I must not stay; I see a hand ye cannot see, That beckons me away.”

As we saw the light of life fade out from that benignant face, as when the glory of the day becomes the gloom of the night, we heard it coming down out of Heaven: “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Christ’s saints never perish. They only begin to live in the truest and highest sense when they seem to die; and with our Christian faith and immortal hopes, we love to think of him as having entered upon that higher life and commenced a nobler service. It was an unexpected summons, but we cannot think that he was ever unprepared for it. Like that Connecticut Puritan, who, when the “Dark Day” came and it was proposed that the Legislature should adjourn because the end of the world had come, replied that “this might be, but if it was, he chose to be found at his post, doing his duty.” “Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. And if He shall come in the second watch or in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants.”

THE MISSIONARY INFLUENCE OF A LIFE, AND THE LIFE OF A MISSIONARY INFLUENCE.

BY REV. A. F. BEARD, D.D.

In the missionary influence of a Life it is my purpose to trace the life of a missionary influence.

This special life is selected as a significant illustration of certain specific features and forms of the missionary work which we are called here to consider.

It was a remote and inconspicuous consecration to certain radical ideas of human brotherhood, and to new and not popular methods of saving people who are low down in life by variations from the then accepted ideas.

As a study of sympathy with people in low conditions, of faith in the possibilities of those who have been degraded, of the application of Christianity to the prejudices of caste, of fidelity in witnessing to profound convictions, of prophetic insight as to the trends of God’s providences, of heroic self-denials among the oppressed and ignorant, together with the continuity and cumulative power of these far-reaching influences, this may stand for a concrete exhibition of the kind of work which we here are trying to do, and possibly may bring some new hope and courage to ourselves and some fresh sympathy to our devoted Christian workers who, removed from the world’s observation and sometimes from due Christian appreciation, are consecrating their lives to the same uses.

In the time when George III was King of England and our great-grandfathers were opposing the Stamp Acts, there lived in a house which still stands in Strasbourg, in Alsatia, a wise father and a mother of remarkable endowments, who trained their son to habits of conscientious economy, self-reliance, to the sense of responsibility to God and to man, and of the obligations which possession has towards human necessities, and to habitual benevolence.

Led on through youth to aspire to a learned profession, at the age of fifteen years he signed his name, John Frederick Oberlin, as a student of the University of Strasbourg. Three years later he was a Bachelor of Arts, and five years later, a Doctor in Philosophy. Ordained as a minister of the Gospel in 1760, seven succeeding years were held sacred to the conviction that large usefulness means large preparedness; so that he was still in his study at the age of twenty-seven years, when a missionary who had been trying to save needy souls in the mountains of the Vosges, ministering to the spiritual necessities of a people passed by in the movements of a world’s life and remote from civilization, came into Oberlin’s room and urged him to take up this service.

He confessed his own lack of success, and that he had made no impression upon them. He told Oberlin of the people, descendants of the Huguenots, who had fled from fiery persecutions in France to this wild and sterile mountain country. As the years had gone on for more than seven generations of men, their teachers had died, their preachers had died, until they, exiled and outcast, had declined into heathenish ignorance. He had found as a distant memory of what once had been, a single school in a mountain hamlet. It was in a miserable hovel in one corner of which lay a helpless old man on a rude truckle-bed, surrounded by a crowd of ragged, noisy, wild-looking children. He asked: “Are you the schoolmaster?” “Yes.” “What do you teach the children?” “Nothing.” “You teach them nothing, how is that?” “Because I know nothing.” “Why then are you the schoolmaster?” “Well, sir, I was taking care of the Waldbach pigs, but the people thought me too old for that, and so I was appointed to take care of the children.”

The missionary did not conceal the facts of the case, that the people living in these remote and solitary places were not only frightfully ignorant, but were rebellious against improvement. The region had six months of winter, with bitter icy winds sweeping over the mountains. There was not a single practicable road in the entire district. Deep mud holes were before the cabin doors and the huts in which the people were sheltered. In the short summer season they gathered enough food to sustain an impoverished life through the winter, in which winter they often herded for warmth in the stables with their cattle. So far had they sunk into material and moral desolation.

To such a ministry was invited this young man of large ambitions and large reasons for them; to minister to this wretchedness, to go to a people who were without sense of their needs, without aspirations, without appreciation of the services to be done for them. One prepared for the Professor’s chair in the great University where it was pleasant to live, was invited to bury himself among those who would not give him even the reward of gratitude.

It was not a pleasant call. The words of it struck the young man’s heart like the blows of a hammer. But seven years before, he had written in his own hand his consecration to God, that with all sincerity of heart and in a fidelity which should not sleep he would walk in the ways of Christ as God should reveal them to him.

And now what had this ardent student, with splendid talents and high education, rich in special studies, who had in mind a great sphere of usefulness, to do with this call but to take it to Him to whom he had once for all consecrated himself, “with all sincerity of heart”? In that little room, Oberlin, on bended knee, lifted up his voice and prayed, “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,” and in agony he listened for the still, small voice. He could not wish to go, but he could not refuse to hear. And a great battle went on in his soul.

There have been many battles in Strasbourg. The Roman armies fought there; the Germans triumphed there; the tri-colors of France have waved in the glory of victory there, but never a greater conflict, perhaps, or a more glorious conquering, than this between faith and sight, the issues of which God and the centuries were awaiting—a great soul meeting the questions of this world and the questions of eternity. When he arose from his prayer, he said: “I will go.”

Conviction was action. Soon among them, his quick eye perceived that preaching to them in their condition would fall far short of their needs. He must save souls, but he must also save men and women. And here developed his missionary idea. It was not new, for Christ taught it and lived it, but it was new, for Christians had forgotten it. Christ was divinity in humanity, and the people must realize the divinity in the humanity. He must save their souls, but their souls are in their bodies. So he would not deal with them as if they were disembodied spirits, but seeing them in all their ignorance and material poverty, he would teach them how to meet their physical destitutions and their mental destitutions, and would go to them as persons who have a life in this world as well as in the world to come. Salvation for this people was not to rescue here and there merely a vacant mind, nor out of multitudes of shipwrecked souls to save here and there one from the wreck; but to him the Kingdom of God was like unto seed which a man put in his ground and which should grow—he knoweth not how—by all kinds of help, but which might call for long watching and long waiting.

Therefore he said, “Education is indispensable to the uplifting of such a people,” and schools were planted. Home life must be redeemed, and home industries were taught. They need the industrial arts; hence he began to instruct them in carpentry, in masonry, in smithing and in agriculture. He introduced the planting of trees; societies of agriculture; instituted arbor days; taught them how to drain their lands, how to irrigate them, how to enrich them, how to make roads, and how to construct bridges across their mountain streams.

There he went to stay, and among them built his own house and brought into it a like-minded, large-minded, cultivated, earnest-spirited wife, who with him taught the lessons of home life, its divinity, its sacredness and its glory.

Remember, this was more than a century ago, when the world had not the missionary thoughts of to-day. None, so far as I know, had as yet such a missionary idea enunciated and systematized.

While thus he was laying the foundations for the regeneration of a despised people, a still greater sacrifice presented itself. It was to leave this missionary work for another in one of the Southern colonies of far-off America, to live among a people more needy than these despised ones, and more despised; to live among those who by law were being robbed of the very rights of being, and for whose degradation the forces of law were now operating.

Accepting the mission, he was ready to depart, when suddenly the war for American Independence was declared, and his life was saved. He could not then have lived a year in the South possessing his ideas, much less to apply and expand them.

His path blocked by Providence, nothing remained but for him to develop those ideas where he was, and to lift his voice from those out-of-the-way hills against the sin of slavery. He would not use sugar in his coffee, “for,” said he, “every granule of it is tainted with the blood of the unhappy slave.” No article wrung out of involuntary servitude should come into his house. No product of slave labor would he touch. He was a prophet, for at this date people in New England had not ceased to buy and sell their fellow-creatures, and scores of years after this, ministers of the gospel in this country were diligently searching the Scriptures to discover and establish the divine foundations for human servitude.

Meanwhile the churches increase, the school-houses multiply, the industries prove their value, and the mountain people are led along, and led up from their abject poverty and misery to the experience of comfort and prosperity. Then he worked and waited for three-score years save one, and lived to see a rude and vulgar and despised people regenerated and transformed, saved from the dominion of vice to good morals and gentle manners, and many of them converted to a personal experience of the grace that is in Christ.

You may easily now examine the results of this life and service after the long years have tested them.

Should you go with me to his house you would cross the pont de la charité by the way of his well-constructed road. When Oberlin proposed to make this road, to blast the rocks along the mountain side, the people did not see how it would look as we now do. If he had suggested a step-ladder to the moon they would not have been more amazed. They applied to him all the deprecatory adjectives in their possession. It was impossible, and unreasonable, and visionary. Assuredly he had lost his mind. Much learning had made him mad. They positively refused to sustain him. He was altogether out of his sphere. This would have been a good time for him to have tendered his resignation, but the great soldier did not run away, because he was needed. They could not starve him out, for he knew how to starve.

But if the road were made it would be useless, they said, for “how could we get across the stream?” He replied: “We will take the rocks which we blast for the road and build a bridge.” This confirmed them that the pastor’s mind was clean gone forever. Such a departure from the old paths showed not only the danger of theological studies, but also a capacity for speculative views that would halt at nothing. Nevertheless, he led the way in this enterprise, and the people looked on amazed when they saw him picking and shoveling with his own hands. Then one came and followed him, and another came and followed him; then a score who soon were fifty, and next a hundred, until by the time they had reached the bridge they all believed in it and always had! The last man who was converted over to the majority undoubtedly went home and told his wife that the original idea of the improvement was his own; that he had it in mind long before Oberlin came, and he himself would have proposed it to their leader but for the conviction that ministers ought simply to preach the gospel and leave the labor question alone. Perhaps the trusting soul believed him.

As you enter the home where he was a father to this people who were as children to him and brethren to each other, you feel his protest against caste, and his teaching that if God is a universal father this destroys caste and makes brotherhood a reality. In his study in his own plain hand, you may find his missionary idea fully expanded, and from that study you will no longer look out upon the wilderness and the solitary place, because they have been made glad by him. You will find happy children in good schools and happy parents in good Christian homes.

Let me turn now from the influence of the life, to the life of the influence. It is not always easy to trace the pedigree of an idea or to track an influence. Sometimes we can in part, for they all have their parentage, and their evolution has been so direct that we can tell where and when they were born. Seven years after the sorrowing people had gathered about the missionary’s grave, two young men in this country—themselves having something of the prophetic instinct—in acquainting themselves with the work of this missionary prophet caught his spirit, and set themselves to incarnate his ideas and his methods, in consecrating themselves to the work of education in order to salvation. The influence which Oberlin never thought to send so far, had winged itself from his mountain tops across the wide sea to a little village in the new State of Ohio. Then these young men who found themselves in sympathy with his ideas of brotherhood, its obligations and its needs, with his feeling towards the slave and to all who might be uplifted, took upon themselves this moral and spiritual inheritance and began the foundations of a school which should bear the name of Oberlin and become the reproductive center of like ideas and influences. I do not say that there were no other influences, only that there was this one, dominant in spirit as well as in name. The young college took on this stamp, a missionary character, sympathy with people in low conditions, radical ideas of human brotherhood, profound convictions of duty towards the oppressed and ignorant. From the atmosphere of this influence, soon from the Professor’s chair in this College there came forth a strong man girded for a great sacrificial work.

A little Missionary Society, the embodiment of the idea which Oberlin three-score and ten years before had proclaimed upon the mountains, “No complicity with slavery,” consciously or unconsciously, having adopted the same faith and spirit, needed a leader. From the influences of Oberlin College came Rev. Dr. Whipple to sound the bugle blast which went echoing through the land: “We will not use the revenues of unrighteousness to do the work of righteousness.” Was it anything more than a coincidence or was it a providence, that with thirty years of singular sacrifice this strong man in obedience to his mind and heart was working out the same ideas which the great missionary prophet had so clearly held forth?

I am not now attempting to assert heredity of ideas, or to decide the precise degree of historic continuity that there may be in an influence. I have the easier task of following a distinct stream of influence, one among many which flow into the great river of life. With no purpose to measure it I see the providence. Another evolution from the same atmosphere of the same institution brings to the American Missionary Association kindred ideas, kindred faith and kindred spirit, in the second Corresponding Secretary, thus connecting the history, and expanding and deepening the influence.

Yesterday’s Annual Survey exhibited, as well as figures may, the work of the Society now after more than two-score years of history. It is interesting as a fact, independent of any weighing of influences, to note that in church work and in Sunday-school work, in educational instruction and industrial training, in teaching those who have not had the chances for life, how to think, how to work, how to aspire and how to rise, we find ourselves, as if working by a chart in the expansion of the missionary methods of this prophet who gave his life to rescuing the despised, teaching them how to live in the world that now is, while they are taught the lessons that shall fit them for the world to come. The education of the schools, the lessons in the establishment of good homes, the industries, the churches, are pressing on in the plain paths of providence until this day.

Already our eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord. Its aforetime degraded people are rapidly learning to work out the decrees of God in the blessings of a Christian civilization. Among the dark millions of the South, in the long passed-by cabins of impoverished and ignorant mountain people in the heart of our land, of our own race, among the long-wronged red men and the despised Mongolians, the evolution of this missionary idea, and the developments of this missionary influence are proving their reproductive and fruitful energy in the sacrificial lives of noble missionaries, men and women who are themselves often despised while they are ministering to the ignorant and to those who are lowly. They also are powers for other lives, while they are sustained by a like devotion to the things that are eternal. As from this unlikeliest mission, a hundred years ago the light of life shone out, the influence of fidelity to convictions coursing down the centuries, showing what enlightened consecration can achieve; so now those who are working together with God for the same divine ideas, though they may be hidden from the world’s praises, may be confident that God will not forget them, nor fail to speed their labors of love in the Lord.

As we gather here in the interests of a work so near to the heart of Christ, like Him we may safely appeal to the confirmations of history in the evolutions of providence for courage now, and confidence for the future. How often when our Lord was testifying to the reality and power of the kingdom of God on the earth, and the faith which souls might have and hold in working in it and in waiting for it, did He send the minds of people back to the days of the prophets and righteous men that they might see how the work goes on when the workers die, and how the influences of their lives continue and enlarge in other lives, so that assurance might take fresh courage to discover itself in the historic current of an unmistakable divine purpose and in the evolution of the decrees of grace. The constancy and compassion of God in the past are cheering us, in that we have only to hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast unto the end. We shall not fail, and we need not be discouraged.

Thus putting on strength, as we recall the care of God and power of His truth, may we not from this high place of Christian convocation send out our sympathies to those who have consecrated themselves to this same prophetic work of bringing in the cast-out, of raising up the cast-down, and of saving those who are out of the way. Much of their work is very kindred in form and feature to this work of Oberlin’s. It is remote, in conditions of rudeness, and in separation from kindred society. They are living the truth of human brotherhood. They are holding forth that which is not popular. They are standing with and for the despised.

They may remember that we bear them in our hearts and in our prayers; that they have the grateful recognition of the churches in their self-denials and heroisms. God has accounted them worthy to live lives that may well rebuke the selfishness and sinful ambitions of those who live for themselves and those who seek only high places. The greatness of Christian service is theirs. They can never know where their influences may go, nor how far. Nor until the roll-call of Eternity is made will it be revealed what great lives they have lived, and what Christian deeds have been wrought by these men and women, who from us have gone out and away from the world’s vision in self-abnegation, and often in the world’s scorn are like the prophet of the mountains, patiently laying deep and broad the foundations of a new earth wherein shall dwell righteousness.

And so long as our churches can produce this sacrificial spirit, the work cannot do other than move forward, and the will of God shall be done.

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN; OR, THE THREE BROTHERS WHO SETTLED AMERICA.

BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.

This country was settled by Three Brothers. The first that came was an Englishman, a Cavalier, who located himself at Jamestown; the second was also an Englishman, a Puritan, who landed on Plymouth Rock; the third was an African, and was consigned to the First Brother.

These families multiplied exceedingly and at length came to be numbered by millions. To them was committed a great duty—the founding of an empire, and the taking of three grand steps in the march of human progress, (1) the establishing of civil and religious liberty, (2) the securing of personal freedom for all and (3) the exemplifying of the Brotherhood of Man. The last step only remains to be taken.

The parts of this great duty were unfolded in the due order of development, and sprang naturally out of the heredity and environment of the Brothers. The men and their surroundings given, the results were inevitable. It seems singular that just these men should have been selected by Providence, especially the black man, but the result shows that they were wisely chosen. The black was in the end found to be an essential factor.

I. Let me sketch these Three Brothers.

1. The First, the Cavalier, had been, in the old country, loyal to king and church, a supporter of the House of Stuart and of Archbishop Land. He was a representative of the rural population of England, men who loved broad acres and field sports. In his home in the new world his great ambition was to own a large plantation and multiply the number of his slaves, and thus imitate the baronial life of the mother country. He cared nothing for popular education, and thanked God that there was neither a school-house nor a printing-press in his domain.

2. The Second Brother, the Puritan, had become more accustomed to city life, and was addicted to trade and commerce as well as to farming. His zeal as a reformer in church and State brought him into collision with the House of Stuart, and indeed he was an exile in his new home on account of his religious and political principles. He desired to have “a church without a bishop and a State without a king.” He was earnest in promoting education as well as religion, and his identifying mark everywhere was the meeting-house and the school-house.

3. The Third Brother, the African, was not voluntary in coming to his new home nor in the choice of his occupation. He was a slave. He was strong in body, amiable in disposition, but at length became the innocent cause of much ill blood between the other brothers.

II. The duties assigned to these men.

1. The founding of a great empire.

Never was there a more inviting opportunity—a continent almost unoccupied, coast lined by two great oceans, with climate varied and healthy, and with boundless resources in fertile lands, rivers, lakes and mines; and never was an opportunity better improved—in less than three hundred years the new empire has nearly double the population of the mother country.

2. The second duty was to lead in three great steps in human progress. (1), The first step was to secure and maintain civil and religious liberty. This step was inevitable for the two English brothers. They had planted colonies and organized States. They had secured charters guaranteeing the rights of Englishmen. They had thus a training in the arts of government and had learned to value the blessings of constitutional liberty. In an evil hour the British Government began to invade these chartered rights. The Two Brothers were aroused. The Puritan was by inheritance and principle a foe of arbitrary power. He, of course, was deeply stirred. The Cavalier had indeed been a friend of the Stuarts. He could see no objection to arbitrary power when it was practised by himself and his party on others, but he naturally and suddenly came to see it in an entirely different light when he and his party were the victims; and for once the two brothers were in accord.

A contest was imminent. The British Government could settle it peacefully, if righteously; if not, in blood. It would not restore chartered rights. Then came the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the new Republic, with the truest definition and guarantee of civil and religions liberty the world had ever seen. The first of the great steps in human progress, to which these men were called, was taken.

(2.) The second step—the securing of personal freedom for all—was plainly demanded by the taking of the first. The elements of the new contest were embodied in the Declaration of Independence on the one hand and Negro slavery on the other—a great principle and a great fact at war with the principle. The antagonism was seen from the outset. Expediency shut men’s eyes to it, but God and conscience opened them. How skillful for a time were the devices to escape the dilemma. It was said that the Declaration of Independence was only for white men; that it was a mere glittering generality; that the North had nothing to do with slavery, and finally that slavery was right, justified both by law and the Bible. But all in vain. God and conscience would not be silent.

Again a contest was imminent. The South could settle it peacefully, if righteously; if not, in blood. The South would not abolish slavery, and hence the Civil War and the overthrow of slavery. The second step was taken.

(3.) The third step is to exemplify the Brotherhood of Man. This in like manner is demanded by the results of the one preceding—by the two great and opposing facts: Emancipation, and the Negro as he is. On the one hand, every slave was emancipated; in the zeal of the hour he was made a citizen, enfranchised and guaranteed “the equal protection of law.” On the other hand, twenty years have shown that these guarantees are in form and not in fact.

In other respects, too, his condition is seen to be deplorable, full of discouragement to himself and of danger to the nation.

Let me point out some of the facts in regard to his condition:

(1.) He does not enjoy his guaranteed rights.

I wish to give due credit to the extent and to the localities in which he does enjoy these rights, but speaking broadly they are largely denied to him. He was deprived of the ballot at one time by violence, and is now by fraud; in all cases where his vote would be decisive in State or National politics, it is not counted—in other words, the race is practically disfranchised. In the courts he seldom finds a standing as a lawyer or a juror; in the chain-gang only does he enjoy a monopoly. In the church, the school, the shop, he does not, as a rule, have equal rights; he cannot join any church he pleases, cannot choose the school to which he will send his children, cannot enter the shop to learn a trade or to work as a journeyman. He cannot, everywhere, ride in the street car, on the railroad or steamboat with the white man, though he may buy the same first-class ticket; he cannot, in many places, attend the theatre, concert or lecture with the white man, nor with him eat a lunch at the restaurant, nor lodge in the hotel. He is confronted, hindered and insulted at every step he takes towards enjoyment or improvement—a flaming sword guards the avenues of knowledge, industry and virtue against him. His guarantees of equal rights are a mockery.