The missionary work of the Southern Baptist convention

Front matter

r

Book .Wl

Copyright IM^.

Preface

It has been a matter of surprise to the author of this volume that a complete history of the missionary operations of the Southern Baptist Convention has never been placed at the service of those interested in missions. Realizing the advantages accruing from the use of information accessible only to the few, it became her great desire to put these advantages within reach of the many. Especially did such a book seem desirable for the Baptist women of the South who, realizing that missionary information is essential to missionary inspiration, have made such earnest efforts for its dissemination. While the personal element adds greatly to the interest of a book of this character it has been impossible in so small a compass to do more than mention many consecrated missionaries. In some instances, however, the life of the missionary and the history of the mission are indivisible, and in some the evidences of the Divine direction in the call and leading forth of a devoted man or woman has been too suggestive to be ignored. Even the names of many faithful home missionaries are lost to history, but the re-

vii

Vlll PREFACE

suits of their self-denying labors are their lasting

memorial, and their names, with those of many

whom they have led into the kingdom, are written

in the Lamb's book of life.

The inspiration of this book was a sainted

grandmother, who stirred a childish fancy with

stories of Carey and Marshman, of Rice and

Judson, and awakened an interest which has grown

with increasing years. With the hope that it may

impart information, deepen interest, and quicken

enthusiasm, and the prayer that it may prove a

blessing to the reader as it has to the author, this

volume is offered to the kindly attention of the

Baptists of the South.

M. E. W.

Augusta, Ga., April i, 1902.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction xiii

I. The Convention Organized i

Introduction

Over so extended a country as that which is comprised within the scope of the United States of America, it is not strange that there should be found diverse types of character. Many influences combine to create differences so marked as to practically describe separate peoples. This is equally true of the largest European empires, where climate and tradition exercise potent influence in the development of peoples, subject to the same throne and bearing the same national name. Such impulse was not without power even in the early history of our own land. Its constituents, although speaking the English tongue, were not homogeneous. There were many points in common upon which national life was crystallized, such as the struggle for independence, but upon less important matters there were strong views which were colored by environment or tradition, or inherited customs dating back to the period of the first settlements, and these found utterance in the debates of the Constitutional Convention. Even the swarming of internal migrations, in the developing of the country, was largely actuated

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Xll INTRODUCTION

by varying motive, so that the traditions of the Western Reserve, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Texan annexation, of the El Dorado of the Pacific, have become entirely variant in their character from each other while homogeneous in themselves.

Although united under a common name, and rejoicing in the boast of a common history, which has so highly illumined the annals of the race, a great divergence in character and methods of living has always existed between the Northern and Southern States of the Union, The unhappy internecine strife was not the occasion of this divergence, but an outgrowth of it. The rigorous climate of New England had been developing a type entirely different from that which was produced by the more genial and languorous climate of the South, among peoples that had sprung from different stocks of the same great race. The leaders of influence were affected by varying circumstances. The population of one division was more compact than the other. Questions of political economy were colored by the necessities of a comparatively crowded community on the one hand and of sparse or isolated communities on the other. The taste of one section was commercial or mechanical, of the other it was mainly pastoral. Commercialism tended toward unity and the obliterating of the imaginary lines of the political geographies. The

INTRODUCTION XIU

agricultural life tended toward independence, the fancied security of isolation, and the undue emphasizing of State lines. New England, especially, became so homogeneous that one great city stood as its center of commerce and influence, quite irrespective of State hegemony. The crossing of a State line in the South found changed conditions and traditions, and marked variety in the manner of thought and action. As the State lines grew fainter in the North and West, they became stronger in the South. It was the result of opposing conditions. To the descendant of the Puritan and of the Cavalier life projected itself in the spirit of the fathers. The questions which culminated in the terrible conflict of the Civil War had been growing in intensity from the initial settlement of the country.

The Southern country was at a great disadvantage because of its individualism and self-imposed isolation. It devoted itself to one great, general employment, while the other section became identified in multiform industries. The activities involved in the prosecution of these varied employments were more conducive to independent thinking than the more indulgent life of the plantations. Thinkers and scholars, indeed, were produced, and they were men of unblemished life and marked genius, but they were apt to be mere doctrinaires and their writings partake more

XIV INTRODUCTION

of dreamy theorizing, natural to their surroundings ; on the other hand, the writings of the other section were influenced more by their practical and mechanical environment. There were exceptions which only serve to make more prominent the variation , as for example, the Concord philosophers, who made little impression upon their age.

Toward the middle of the nineteenth century men had grown to regard the great questions which were agitating them from opposing viewpoints. No indictment against their sincerity can now be made to stand. There was almost on every theme a Northern and a Southern view, the conclusions being honestly arrived at from the point of view which was taken. The questions were not alone political, they affected social and religious thought. Even the ideal of domestic living was variant, the dignity of labor being involved and the supremacy of material prosperity or its subordination to higher purposes. The trend of theological thought was also different, swaying from mysterious metaphysical abstractions upon the one hand, to close and even ritualistic literalism of interpretatation on the other. There was a similar bent in political thought, developing into liberalism on one side and strict construction of the letter of the Constitution on the other, — one view seeking to keep national life abreast of the speedy development of the country, and the other

INTRODUCTION XV

keeping jealous watch over suspected encroachments upon the Hberties of the people. The communal interests of the industrial North began to clash with those of the agricultural South ; principles which conserved the prosperity of one worked to the disadvantage of the other. Shop against farm underlies the great tariff problems, and Judah and Ephraim, for reasons of self-preservation, must needs vex one another.

When slavery, that source of national trouble, was eliminated, the original conditions which had prevailed were not obliterated. The union of States was preserved and cemented indissolubly for all time. But the traditions of two centuries, the heredity of peoples derived from different stocks, and the manners and customs ingrained, were not removed. In addition, the sorrows and bitterness, the violent wrench upon the labor system, with the consequent dissipation of material wealth, and the suspicion, whether groundless or no, of a relegation to a subordinate position unworthy of confidence in the affairs of national life, could not be ignored. These were factors which were real, and which time alone could soften and much more entirely remove.

No intelligent or high-spirited people can be marshaled by leaders not in sympathetic touch with their traditions or habits of thought. Successful leadership requires the confidence of those

XVI INTRODUCTION

who are led, and this confidence is born out of sense of fellowship and comity of interest. It is not a question of what ought to be in the ideal kingdom of heaven ; it is a question of prevailing conditions in the struggles to attain the ideal. Eminent Christian leaders are to be found in all countries, but it is a fact that pious influences emanating from Furnival Street, in London, cannot hope to develop Christian efficiency in evangelical work in America, even in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, or the islands of Australasia. Nor can Canadian brethren, with an unblemished record of faithful administration, affect in any wise their fellow-Christians across the imaginary line which separates their Dominion from this Union. For better development the activities of each people are confined within lines that circumscribe not so much their geographical habitation as their unity of thought and comity of interest.

This was the principle which led to the organization of the Southern Baptist Convention. The clash of political sentiment simply crystallized a movement that was impossible to be avoided. The vast distances from the base of operations was one great obstacle at the beginning of effective missionary work in America. As the country grew, these distances increased. The mighty influences growing out of the gatherings of the people were entirely wanting in the South, and

INTRODUCTION XVU

these gatherings occurred but once in three years and never penetrated the agricultural South. The limited opportunities for travel prevented the acquaintance of the people with the men who administered denominational affairs. In the earliest report of the Foreign Mission Board of the Convention may be found this complaint :

Nor has the influence of the Foreign Missionary Board at Boston been sufficiently strong to train our churches to systematic liberality. Its pulsations have been but feebly felt at the South, while near the center of action an influence has continually gone forth, creating and fostering the spirit of missions. Its publications, its agents, its returned missionaries, and other appliances, have been brought to bear with increasing power upon the North for the last thirty years, but owing to the vast extent of our territory these means have been but occasionally or imperfectly employed throughout the whole Southern country.

There could be no help for this condition of things under the prevailing methods. The Southern Baptists were so situated in their pastoral pursuits that towns were rare and small and villages but mere hamlets far apart, while places of worship were at secluded points and utilized but twelve times in each year. So the methods which proved successful at the North could promise little or nothing at the South. The new men and the new methods were imperatively demanded by the situation.

XVlll INTRODUCTION

If it be urged that one question seemed uppermost in the counsels of the gathering at Augusta which created a new denominational force, it must be admitted that this is true. It was natural that those men should have reflected more than was meet upon only one phase of the argument which led to separation. They knew not what they were building, as is true of the origins of many enterprises appointed by the Divine Wisdom for the furtherance of the kingdom. The after-years have proven that these men were wiser than they thought, for they set in motion the only influences powerful enough to develop the thousands of humble churches about them into the present strong forces for the glory of the Redeemer. Without that combination of effort it is fair to say that the Baptists of the South would have shriveled into an ineffective self-concentration. Thrown upon their own resources, led by men out of their own ranks who were inspired by the traditions of a common heritage and winning confidence by their intimate association with the churches, sending forth missionaries from their native mountains and fields. Southern Baptists have arisen to a power of efficiency and unity which can but increase through the present century. And this development of labor promises to contribute to the development of world-wide interest in the work of a common brotherhood. For as a Christian is

INTRODUCTION XIX

trained to usefulness and learns to read the commission as an individual obligation upon himself, his sympathies warm toward all of like common faith who are striving to bring in the kingdom of our Christ. Indeed, " the unity of the Spirit," much more to be esteemed than a mere external uniformity of activity, is more sure of accomplishment by the ** diversities of operations."

Lansing Burrows.

Nashville, Tenn.

THE MISSIONARY WORK

OF THE

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION

THE year 1845 ^^^^ memorable in the history of the Southern Baptists. At that time was formed the Southern Baptist Convention and then began those missionary operations which have ever since been their glory and joy. Prior to 1845 the Baptists of the South co-operated with the Baptists of the North in supporting the Triennial Convention, formed in Philadelphia, May 18, 1 8 14. Southern men had been prominent in its councils, and harmony in the prosecution of mission work prevailed until the agitation of the question of African slavery. For many years the question had been warmly discussed in Baptist circles, but it was not until 1840 that the differences between North and South became markedly evident. Even then the counsels of the more prudent and conservative prevailed, and everything calculated to mar the general harmony was excluded from the deliberations of the Triennial Convention.

Some conservative leaders were determined to avert impending trouble, believing it possible ; to others it was clear that dissolution was unavoidable. Dr. Richard Fuller, who believed that disruption could be averted, offered in the Triennial Convention of 1844 the following:

Whereas, Some misapprehension exists in certain parts of the country as to the design or character of this Convention, and it is most desirable that such misapprehension should be removed ; therefore,

Resolved, That this Convention is a corporation with limited powers for a specific purpose defined in its constitution ; and therefore, that its members are delegated to meet solely for the transaction of business prescribed by the said constitution ; and that co-operation in this body does not involve nor imply any concert or sympathy as to any matters foreign from the object designated as aforesaid.

This resolution received a prompt second from Spencer H. Cone, of New York, and was sustained by William Hague, of Massachusetts, and J. B. Jeter, of Virginia, Its most determined opponent was Nathaniel Colver, of Massachusetts, " who expressed the desire that he be not handicapped respecting any matter that might come for consideration before the body."

The resolution was withdrawn and the following was offered and adopted :

Whereas, There exists in various sections of our country an impression that our present organization involves the fellowship of the institution of domestic slavery or of certain associations which are designed to oppose this institution ;

Resolved, That in co-operating together as members of this Convention in the work of foreign missions we disclaim all sanction, either expressed or implied, whether of slavery or of anti-slavery ; but as individuals we are perfectly free both to express and to promote our own views on these subjects in a Christian manner and spirit.

This was the last meeting of the Triennial Convention at which the whole country was represented. Events immediately following this meeting led to the speedy rupture of harmonious relations. The pro-slavery advocates among Southern Baptists claimed that just subsequent to the Convention of 1844 the Board of Foreign Missions procured the retirement of Rev. John Bushyhead, a highly respected Indian Baptist preacher, because he was an owner of slaves. The impression was thus created that slaveholders would not henceforth be admitted to appointment under the Board. The calm and courteous discussion of the institution of slavery in a newspaper controversy between those two leaders of thought North and South, Francis Wayland and Richard Fuller, served for a brief season to allay bitterness of feeling. Utterances attributed to Dr. R. E. Patterson, the Home Secretary of the Boston Board, fanned the smouldering fires of popular excitement into a flame. These utterances intimated that the acting Board of the Triennial Convention would no longer tolerate slavery, and called forth the following query from the Tuscaloosa Church to the Alabama State Convention : " Is it proper for us at the South to send any more money to our brethren at the North for missionary and other benevolent purposes before the subject of slavery be rightly understood by both parties ? " The authorship of the query was attributed to Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., and, together with a communication to the Alabama Baptist Convention from the Georgia Baptist Convention, was referred to a committee of which he was chairman. The committee framed the following resolutions, known as the Alabama resolutions :

Whereas, The holding of property in African Negro slaves has for some years excited discussion as a question of morals between different portions of the Baptist denomination united in benevolent enterprise, and by a large portion of our brethren is now imputed to the slaveholders in these Southern and Southwestern States as a sin at once grievous, palpable, and disqualifying,

(i) Resolved, That when one party to a voluntary compact among Christian brethren is not willing to acknowledge the entire social equality with the other as to all the privileges and benefits of the union, nor even to refrain from impeachment and annoyance, united efforts between such parties, even in the sacred cause of Christian benevolence, cease to be agreeable, useful, or proper.

(2) Resolved, That our duty at this crisis requires us to demand from the proper authorities in all those bodies to whose funds we have contributed or with whom we have in any way been connected, the distinct, explicit avowal that slaveholders are eligible, and entitled equally with nonslaveholders to all the privileges and immunities of their several unions, and especially to receive any agency, mission, or other appointment which may run within the scope of their operations or duties.

After some correspondence between the Alabama State Convention and the Acting Board of the Triennial Convention the whole matter was referred to a committee. This committee submitted the following report, which was adopted at the annual meeting of the Board of Managers, held in Providence, R. I., April 30, 1845 :

The committee have attended to the duty confided to them, and ask leave to present the following statements as embracing substantially their views on the subject to which the correspondence refers. They are happy also to add, that in these views the members of the acting Board present in general coincide.

1. The spirit of the constitution of the General Convention, as well as the history of its proceedings from the beginning, renders it apparent that all the members of the Baptist denomination in good standing, whether at the North or the South, are constitutionally eligible to all appointments emanating either from the Convention or the Board.

2. While this is the case, it is possible that contingencies may arise in which the carrying out of this principle might create the necessity of making appointments by which the brethren of the North would, either in fact or in the opinion of the Christian community, become responsible for institutions which they could not, with a good conscience, sanction.

3. Were such a case to occur, we could not desire our brethren to violate their convictions of duty by making such appointments, but should consider it incumbent upon them to refer the case to the Convention for its decision.

All of which is respectfully submitted, in behalf of the committee.

F. Wayland, Chairman.

The Baptists of the South were not satisfied with this report, and the committee of the Alabama Convention addressed a direct inquiry to the Acting Board in Boston asking if a slaveholder would be appointed as a missionary. The reply was that '* in accordance with the conscientious convictions of the members of the Board they could not appoint any person as a missionary who was the owner of slaves."

Meanwhile the American Baptist Home Mission Society had declared a separation from Southern churches expedient and had taken measures to effect it. The society refused to appoint James E. Reeves, a missionary within the Tallapoosa Association, of Georgia, for the reason that he was a slaveholder. This refusal was made directly to the Executive Committee of the Georgia Baptist Convention. Thus practical demonstration was given of the position taken by the Home Mission Society. The committee appointed to consider the subject of an amicable dissolution of the society presented the following report when the national anniversaries met in Providence, R. L, in 1845 :

Whereas, The American Baptist Home Mission Society is composed of contributors residing in slaveholding States ; and,

Whereas, The constitution recognizes no distinction among the members of the Society as to the eligibility of all the offices and appointments in the gift both of the society and the Board ; and,

Whereas, It has been found that the basis on which the Society was organized is one upon which all the members and friends of the Society are not now willing to act ; therefore,

Resolved, That it is expedient that the members now forming the Society should hereafter act in separate organizations at the South and at the North in promoting the objects which were originally contemplated by the Society.

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to report a plan by which the object contemplated in the preceding resolution may be acccomplished in the best way and at the earliest period of time consistently with the preservation of the constitutional rights of all the members and with the least possible interruption of the missionary work of the Society.

This report gave rise to prolonged discussion. Doctor Wayland endeavored to stay the tide setting toward separation, but even his influence and eloquence failed and the report was adopted.

The withdrawal of Southern Baptists from co-operation with their Northern brethren was now inevitable. One by one the Conventions of the Southern States severed their connection with the Triennial Convention. In response to a suggestion from the Foreign Mission Society of Virginia, three hundred and twenty-eight men from the States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Kentucky, and the District of Columbia, gathered in the meeting-house of the First Baptist Church, in Augusta, Ga., May 8, 1845. ^^ the midst of great enthusiasm the body proceeded to organization, and the following resolution was unanimously adopted :

That for peace and harmony, and in order to accomplish the greatest amount of good and for the maintenance of those scriptural principles on which the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist denomination of the United States was originally formed, it is proper that this Convention at once proceed to organize for the propagation of the gospel.

The constitution adopted was essentially the same as that under which Baptists North and South had worked together for thirty-four years. It still remains practically the same, only such changes having been made as the growth of the work and altered conditions demanded. An address 'was prepared, '* setting forth the reasons which led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention and giving an exposition of its principles and objects." This address was directed " to the brethren in the United States, to the congregations connected with the respective churches, and to all candid men." It sounded no uncertain note, and stands as a lasting memorial to the candor and strength of conviction of the men who framed it. This has been so often published that we give here no more than its expressed purpose. This was declared to be :

The extension of the Messiah's kingdom and the glory of our God. Not disunion with any of his people, not the upholding of any form of human pohcy or civil rights, but God' s glory and Messiah' s increasing reign, in the promotion of which we find no necessity for relinquishing any of our civil rights.

Though friction was unavoidable in a disunion involving such grave issues, public negotiations were conducted with a courtesy and forbearance in accord with the elevated Christian character of the contending parties. The separation has not proved the disaster that its most earnest opponents feared ; rather has it been in many respects of signal advantage. One change from the original methods of the Triennial Convention was dictated by experience. Instead of establishing a single Board having charge of several departments of denominational effort, it was deemed expedient to establish two co-ordinate Boards, each dependent upon the body which had constituted it. Accordingly, a Board to have charge of all foreign mission interests was appointed and located in Richmond, Va., and one to promote home missions was appointed and located in Marion, Ala. The Foreign Mission Board has numbered among its presidents some of the most illustrious names in Baptist history, names that are household words in Southern Baptist homes. They are J. B. Jeter, R. B. C. Howell, J. L. Burrows, J. L. M. Curry, H. H. Harris, and C. H. Winston, the present incumbent. The Board has been favored in the retention of its secretaries through a long term of years. Of Rev. James B. Taylor, who served the Board for twenty-five years, it was said : " His life was missions and his death the missionary's crown." H. A. Tupper, d. d., succeeded Doctor Taylor in 1 87 1, and served the Board with untiring zeal until 1893, when he tendered his resignation and was succeeded by R. J. Willingham, d. d., who still holds the office.

The Home Mission Board, or the Domestic Mission Board, as it was then called, encountered many vicissitudes in securing permanent officers, and was thus greatly hampered in organizing and conducting its work. The Convention of 1855 received a proposition from the Indian Mission Association of Louisville, Ky., whose work was

THE CONVENTION ORGANIZED I I

supported mainly by Southern Baptists, to unite with the Southern Baptist Convention and transfer its mission work to the Home Mission Board. This arrangement was effected and the Board was known as the Domestic and Indian Mission Board until 1874. After years of enfeebled existence the Home Mission Board shared in the impetus of 1879. It was removed from Marion, Ala., to Atlanta, Ga., in 1882, and in the reconstruction an effort was made to popularize the Board by the selection of members from points other than Atlanta. By the adoption of this policy it was thought that the Board might be divested of traditional conditions which hampered its progress and its prosperity thus be promoted. The services of I. T. Tichenor, d. d., were secured as corresponding secretary, and under his judicious management the Board entered upon a career of unprecedented prosperity. After seventeen years of service Doctor Tichenor was made secretary emeritus and F. H, Kerfoot, d. d., of Louisville, Ky., was elected corresponding secretary. Doctor Kerfoot brought to the office the strength of well-developed powers and the force of a commanding personality. Less than two years were permitted him in which to inaugurate plans for the enlargement of the work of the Board. June 22, 1 90 1, the Master called him unto himself. F. C. McConnell, d. d., of Lynchburg, Va., was elected to succeed Doctor Kerfoot, and entered upon his duties in the autumn of 1901.

Other Boards were constituted as the years passed. In 185 1 a Bible Board was established at Nashville, Tenn. Several organizations were already in the field, and the Board was never able to obtain the sympathy and aid it merited. It was abolished by the Convention of 1863, ^^^ ^ Sunday-school Board was appointed and located in Greenville, S. C. This Board coming into existence during the Civil War, was a valuable agency in furnishing literature at a time when there was no possibility of obtaining it from other sources. It had never a very vigorous life, and was incorporated with the Home Board in 1873. The present Sunday-school Board, located at Nashville, Tenn., was organized in 1891. The year 1888 witnessed the organization of the Woman's Missionary Union, auxiliary to the Convention. The Union has proved a faithful and untiring handmaiden to the Convention. Thus the way was opened and those forces set in motion which have enabled the Southern Baptist Convention to inaugurate and carry forward a great and increasing work.

II THE woman's missionary UNION

THE Woman's Missionary Union closed in 1901 the thirteenth year of its history, a history that is also a prophecy of yet greater beneficence and far-reaching influence. Its organization was the result of a desire on the part of earnest workers to systematize, for mutual help and increased influence, the work already being done in a number of States.

The movement toward missionary organizations of women was started in Brooklyn in i860, and, after a number of years, found its way to Baltimore, Md. There it awakened the interest of Mrs. Graves, mother of our veteran missionary in China, Rev. R. H. Graves, and through her personal influence it took root and spread in several places in the South. South Carolina and Alabama first felt the impulse, Virginia and Georgia quickly followed, and other States were not far behind in the organization of local societies. The corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, Dr. H. A. Tupper, foreseeing the work which this movement was destined to accomplish, lent it from the first his unfailing sympathy and support. So early as 1874 the Foreign Mission Board recommended the formation of women's central committees in each State. The interest manifested by the Foreign Mission Board naturally drew the societies into closer sympathy with that Board, and hence for some years the efforts of the women were almost exclusively devoted to foreign missions.