The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 7, July, 1880Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 34, No. 7, July, 1880
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
We have vast opportunities. Our schools are overflowing with the
best selected material we have ever had. The fields are white for the
harvest, much of which must rot ungathered, unless a large number
of laborers are sent into the field; and these are not wanting. The
day of romance in negro teaching is past, and there is nothing in it
that appeals to the mere sentimentalist. The day of danger is past,
and martyrs are not called for; but there is a demand for honest,
earnest Christian educators, who find ample field for all their best
gifts, and there is no difficulty in procuring these of the very
first order. There is, also, much intelligent appreciation of the
vital importance of this work, in its relations both to the life of
our nation and the kingdom of Christ. What is needed now, and most
pressingly, is a clear apprehension on the part of churches and
individuals of the relation which their _gifts_ bear to these civil
and spiritual results. It is largely a question of money given, or
money withheld. “Prayers are needed?” Certainly! Prayer, not to move
the Lord so that _He_ shall favor the work, and prosper the efforts
of those engaged in it, but prayer that shall shake selfish plans of
expenditure which are so large that nothing is left over for this
work; prayer that shall confirm, and give definite shape to vague
desires that the means shall be provided; prayer that selfishness may
not throttle benevolence. When _this_ prayer has become fervent and
effectual, the result will be _money_, which, we assert again, is our
present great need.
The Association was urged forward, by the zeal of the churches at
the last Annual Meeting, to enlarged plans for the year, requiring
enlarged gifts from the churches. This enlargement on our part has
been made; it is necessary that yours shall now correspond, or
disaster will follow.
Owing to the fact that our schools close in the month of June, and
our accounts with our workers must be settled, our need is specially
great at this time. The long spell of dry weather has affected our
collections in the country churches; and there is danger that we
shall suffer, as our benevolent societies do in the presidential
year, from absorption of public interest in political affairs; and so
we must urge again upon our friends the fact that our great and most
pressing need is “money.”
* * * * *
ARTHINGTON MISSION—THE OUTLOOK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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