Читать книгу The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 01, January, 1889 - Various - Страница 4

It is refreshing to find in this grasping, selfish and money-making world that there are wealthy men who amass fortunes and use them for noble purposes. It is said that growing wealth only tightens the grip on the money and hardens the heart against the calls of benevolence. But the examples are accumulating that give shining evidence that there are noble exceptions. Mr. Hand has added his name to the number. He knows the needs of the colored people, and he devotes a vast fortune to their benefit. But Mr. Hand has not exhausted the opportunities, even in the range of the work of this Association, for blessing needy races of men, or of aiding in the varied forms of effort for the colored people. The mountain regions of the South present an unique and promising field of effort. The inhabitants are a noble people, descendants of some of the best races that settled America. Their mountain isolation separated them from the people around them. The want of schools and churches left them ignorant, their thin mountain lands kept them poor; but they never held slaves and they were loyal to the Union in the war. Railroads now penetrate their mountains and valleys, and the hitherto unused wealth of mines and timber is brought to light. A new future opens out to these people, and the question is, "Shall that future be one of prosperity and piety, or one of intemperance and infidelity?" Some other man wise and wealthy can do for these people what Daniel Hand has done for the primary and industrial education of the Negroes. But this does not exhaust the opening for large investments in the work of the Association. The Indians are fewer in number than the blacks or whites of the South, and their future will sooner be determined by their being incorporated into the national life as citizens, yet that problem is not settled, and a large fund could be wisely used for their benefit. Then, too, our higher schools and colleges need endowment, and our church work should be indefinitely expanded.

If this review does not succeed in drawing large gifts for these several objects, it may at least serve to show that our wants are not all provided for, and that smaller contributors have still the duty and the privilege of aiding by gifts and prayer this good work of patriotism and Christianity.