The American Missionary — Volume 50, No. 01, January, 1896 — John Shaqi
The American Missionary — Volume 50, No. 01, January, 1896Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 50, No. 01, January, 1896
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Now how changed! As to slavery, for example. The war and emancipation
have written a new page on our national history. But emancipation only
battered down the prison doors and sent forth the millions of
ignorant, helpless and vicious people--a menace to the Republic and a
reproach to the Church, if left in their degraded condition, but
presenting a most hopeful field for humane and Christian effort. The
facts made an appeal for immediate and effective work and the American
Missionary Association sprang into the task. Hundreds of refined and
Christian women lent their aid and toiled in the uplifting of the
needy, amid the scorn and hatred of the white people, while the
churches and benevolent friends responded with the means. The
Association has followed up this Christlike beginning by the planting
of permanent institutions--schools and churches--and the good effects
are becoming apparent in the multitude of industrious, prosperous and
educated colored people, the hopeful and helpful leaders of their
race. But their advancement only reveals the yet unreached masses
behind them as hopeful if promptly met, and as helpless if neglected,
as those that preceded them.
This good work is at its crowning point--to push forward is victory,
to halt is disaster. But the Association feels the pressure of the
hard times. It owes a debt of nearly $100,000, and needs four times
as much to sustain the work now in hand. Nevertheless, there is no
cause for discouragement in all this. There is vast wealth in the
nation, and a large share of it is in the hands of those who are more
or less directly connected with the Christian Church, and who are
liberal in their gifts when worthy objects are fairly brought to their
attention. It is true that there are those whose resources are
restricted by the present stagnation in business. This, however, gives
the opportunity for Christian self-denial. The relief for imperiled
Christian work will come if those who are prospered will give of their
abundance, while those less favored will imitate the Macedonians of
whom Paul speaks, whose "deep poverty abounded unto the riches of
their liberality." Self-denial is not a lost virtue in the Church of
Christ.
We make our appeal for relief during this Jubilee year. Already large
correspondence has been had with pastors of churches and others, and
the responses are very cheering, giving promise of most efficient
helpfulness. We hope, therefore, that our next Annual Meeting--our
fiftieth anniversary, to be held in Boston--will have the enthusiasm
of a Jubilee deliverance from the bondage of hampering limitations,
and give a new impulse to our labors for the emancipation of those
still in the bondage of ignorance and vice.
* * * * *
PAMPHLETS AND SPEECHES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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