Читать книгу The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888 - Various - Страница 10

Something to Remember.

Our first thought is for the pastors and churches to whom these words may come. It is this: Remember that the American Missionary Association has not a million of dollars to expend in its work.

It has the yearly income of this great gift as a Trust Fund to be used, not for the work which our churches have taken on, but to do a specific work which would not otherwise be undertaken. The American Missionary Association will carry out the wishes of this large giver in their trust, and the Hand Fund will not be used to supplement the other work committed to the Association.

Do not say then, that we have a million and need nothing. Our execution of a trust to do additional work to the extent of $50,000 a year or more, in no way changes our dependence upon the constituency of the A.M.A. We have no balance whatever at the bank to supplement any lack from the churches. The Hand Fund stands out distinctly committed to its appropriate work. This it will do.

It will, however, make the work to which we are already committed more imperative. We do not believe that the churches will in any degree defeat the purposes of Mr. Hand by devoting less than before to their own work, but that they will rather encourage larger gifts than ever, by an emulation of a like spirit, to be used for the redemption of a race. This is not a Trust Fund to relieve the churches. It is to make their work greater and more effective.

The reports of the several committees at Providence all called for an enlargement of our work. It was recommended that $375,000 be raised and used in the fiscal year 1888-1889. This means something more than $30,000 a month. The receipts for October were $16,416.07, being but a little more than half of that which is needed. Our dependence must be where it has been; first of all upon God, and then upon those who are his stewards. We do not believe that God's stewards will be willing to use this signal illustration of fidelity to stewardship as a reason why they should do less rather than more in their working together with him. The American Missionary Association begins its year with a debt of $5,000 and needs $30,000 a month to carry on its regular work.

Large Gifts no Substitute for Small Ones.

A Pope of Rome in the midst of his great wealth once said, "I cannot say as Peter did: 'Silver and gold have I none!'" To which the reply was made: "Neither can you say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.'" Peter and the Pope are types of two conditions of the church of Christ. When it is dependent on Christ, it can bless the bodies and souls of men; when it relies on its wealth, it can do neither. A missionary society that should be so thoroughly endowed as to feel itself to be independent of God and man for funds would soon be thoroughly dead. Its power is in proportion to the faith it uplifts to God, and to the constant sense of dependence with which it rests down upon the sympathy and support of the churches. It can never flourish except as it is refreshed by the little rills of benevolence that flow from praying Christians; that treasury is poor, indeed, that does not receive the widow's two mites. The American Missionary Association can come with blessings to the neglected races of our land only as it lays hold with one hand upon the arm of the Lord and with the other grasps the hands of the pastors and members of the churches—as it enables them to feel that it is their society doing God's work for them.

But does not the magnificent gift of Mr. Hand lift the Association above such dependence on the churches? Is it not at least so well provided for that the churches need not be so regular and liberal in their contributions? We answer emphatically that if this should be the result of that gift, we should esteem it no blessing; and in this we are sure Mr. Hand himself would unite with us. We are told that he was accustomed to read the "Receipts" acknowledged in the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, and was greatly delighted that so many small donations were reported. He said that one thing that confirmed him in the choice of the Association as the almoner of his bounty was the hold it seemed to have upon the mass of intelligent and praying members of the New England churches, No! the gift of Mr. Hand, generous and large as it is, provides for only a part of our great work. It does not touch the Church, Mountain, Indian, Chinese or Higher Educational Departments. It is wisely appropriated; it goes directly and practically to a point where help is much needed. But it is limited to that and does not cover even all of that. Let the churches do neither themselves, the Association nor Mr. Hand the great wrong of withholding because he gives; rather let them take this gift as God and the generous donor meant it to be—a help in lifting the heavy load, to be responded to by heartier co-operation and larger contributions.

A Helping Hand Extended to the South.

How strange are the links that sometimes bind events together, and how obvious are often the compensations that Providence renders to faithful work.

In 1846 a society was formed in the North distinguished mainly by its sympathy for the slave. But slavery then ruled the North as well as the South, and this society was made to feel the rod of its power. Some of its founders learned that rewards had been offered for their abduction; others suffered from the violence of mobs; and its missionaries in the South were imprisoned or banished. When the slaves were freed, the society went swiftly and energetically to their help, and has sent to them thousands of consecrated teachers and has spent millions of money for their relief. Its work is now so manifestly beneficial that it is welcomed by both the blacks and the whites in the South.

At the date of the founding of this society, a Northern man in the prime of life was carrying on a prosperous mercantile business in a Southern city. He had already been in that city nearly thirty years and was honored and trusted. When the war came his property was jeopardized, but was afterwards returned to him in full. And now comes the Providential compensation. That wealth earned in the South, lost and then restored, is given back to the South to educate and assist the emancipated slaves. The giver, now in the 88th year of his age, finds it the joy and crown of his life to be thus not only a benefactor to the poor blacks, but to furnish a marked illustration of the fraternal feeling which the North cherishes towards the South. And may we not add that Providence in guiding this noble man to select this once persecuted society as the almoner of his bounty, is giving it a token of the Divine approbation for its faithfulness to the oppressed slave.

A Message to the Colored People.

It is due to Mr. Hand to say that he is much more interested in the good that shall be done to the colored people by his gift, than he is in any public notices of himself. His letters to us discourage such notices, but he writes most warmly urging us to press upon the colored people the all-controlling thought, that they must be the chief and most efficient agents in the great work of their own advancement in industry, temperance and civilization; that they should not become office seekers, and should abandon at once and forever, the expectation of aid for them as colored people, and that above all, that which is most vital to them for this world and the next, is love to God and man, and that the Bible is the best source of light and the foundation of their surest hopes.

These are wise counsels and we shall endeavor to press them upon all, and especially upon those whom we shall aid out of this fund. We believe that Mr. Hand would deplore it as the greatest calamity that could befall his gift, if it should in any way pauperize the colored people or take from them their sense of the need—the essential need of self-reliance and self-help—if it should tempt them to an idle life, to seeking after office or to become beggars for help from Government or from any other source. This gift, in the intention of the donor, and in that of the Association that is to administer it, is that it may be a stimulus and encouragement to personal energy and enterprise.

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