The missions in the WEST INDIES, in 1858, embraced a membership of 92,494, belonging to the several Missionary Associations, as follows: The missions in SOUTH AFRICA, in 1858, embraced a membership of 14,258, belonging to the several missionary societies operating in that field, as follows: § In addition to the missionary force here stated, there were 10 European or American assistants, and 154 native missionaries, and 672 native assistants. According to the Scotch Record, for 1861, these missions must have a less number of members now, than in 1850, before the Caffir war of 1851, '52, '53, as it places the number of scholars, for 1861, below that of Baird's Retrospect, for 1850, by 5,000. * Encyclopædia of Missions, 1858, page 775. Includes the churches not now aided by the Society. These are later statistics, from American Christian Record, 1860. cludes the Danish islands as well as the British. Encyclopædia of Missions, 1858, page 58. This in The mission of the London Missionary Society, in the AFRICAN ISLANDS, reports a membership of 1,170. The missions in WEST AFRICA include those of Sierra Leone and Liberia, and have a membership of 23,770.* In Canada, the mission of Rev. Mr. King, in 1859, had a membership of 70, and an attendance of 200 to 300. † We have no other statistics from Canada, as to the colored churches, but have seen a newspaper statement that the membership is about 300. The progress of African evangelization, then, among the free colored people outside of the United States, will stand as follows: Total converts in the Slave States of the United States........... 465,000 Difference in favor of missions in the United States...... 203,567 The result of this contrast must forever silence the advocates of the British theory that slavery presents an insuperable barrier to African evangelization. But these contrasts would be incomplete, were we to stop here. The Christian world feels encouraged to proceed with the missions in heathen countries. Look, then, at the following section, and see how their results compare with the results among our slaves. SECTION IX.-CONTRAST OF THE RESULTS OF ALL THE MISSIONARY FORCE EMPLOYED BY PROTESTANT CHRISTENDOM, WITH THE RESULTS OF THE MISSIONS IN THE SLAVE STATES OF THE UNITED STATES. This is one of the most interesting points in the whole of our contrasts. The Protestant missions, among heathen nations, are prosecuted by the Protestant Christian denominations throughout Europe and America. These missions have been extended to Asia, Africa, Pacific Islands, West Indies, and North American Scotch Record, 1861. † Address of Rev. Mr. King, in Glasgow, Scotland, December, 1859. Indians. NEWCOMB'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MISSIONS, for 1858, gives the whole number of converts, in all these missions, at 211,389; but more recent estimates make the number, at present, approximate 250,000. The converts in the slave States are 465,000, and exceed the whole of the converts throughout heathendom by 215,000! Thus, while the larger number of religious men, throughout Christendom, have been denouncing American slavery as incompatible with African evangelization; a handful of pious men, in the slave States, regardless of the reproaches cast upon them, have labored for the salvation of the slave, with a success nearly double that attending the efforts of all the other missionaries. throughout the heathen world. The Rev. Dr. Elliott, in his "Great Secession," on this point uses the following language; in speaking of the success of the missionaries of the Methodist Church South, among the slaves: "Their missionary labors among the slaves of the South have no parallel in the world at this day. While they are denounced without stint by Northern and some British abolitionists of the recent school, they are doing more good, practically and Scripturally, for the enlightenment, reformation, elevation, and future advantageous emancipation of the slaves, than all their censurers are." SECTION X.-CONTRAST OF THE SUCCESS OF THE SCOTTISH AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES, WITH THAT OF THE MISSIONARIES IN THE SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES. Another contrast, here, will be useful. From causes known only to God himself, many of the religious denominations, besides those noticed in Section VI. of this Chapter, have made no such rapid progress as might have been expected from the numbers, the learning, and the zeal of their ministry. The Scotch Presbyterian Churches were the first to engage, successfully, in the work of discarding all slaveholders from their communion.* They once had a stronghold in the slave States, but had to withdraw to the free States, on account of the rigidness of the rules they *See Chapter VII. It is true that the Methodists, at the North, attempted the same thing, at an earlier day, but soon gave it up. adopted against slaveholding, when they embarked in the antislavery crusade. We have not been able to obtain the early statistics of these denominations; but in 1829, the Associate Church had 10,141 members; the Associate Reformed Synod of the West, probably not so many; and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, then undivided, a much less number. The aggregate membership was about 25,000, certainly not more than that number. In the year following, the number of Africans in the Christian Church, in the United States, was about 140,000. It was under these circumstances, that the Scotch Presbyterian Churches began their anti-slavery excitement, in which it was contended that the Gospel could not prevail among the slave population, while they remained in bondage. The years 1860 and 1861 bring out results that should lead the clergymen of these denominations, who have heretofore taken such high anti-slavery ground, to pause and reflect on the results of their conduct. In 1859, the number of ministers was 525. Their labors have been devoted to the white population, in the free States. Beginning before the American Revolution, they have had a fair field of labor-not an obstacle existing except of their own creation. Here are the results of their labors on the one hand, and that of the missionaries among the colored people, in the slave States, on the other hand: United Presbyterian Church, 1861........ Reformed Presbyterian Church, (0. S.,) 1881....... MEMBERS. 58,781 8,000 10,000 Total membership in Scotch Presbyterian Churches, 76,781 465,000 Excess of colored members over Scotch Presbyterians... 388,219 On which side, now-Scotch Presbyterianism or slavery — do we find the Gospel most fatally hindered in its progress? On the side of the former, the converts have been raised, in thirty years, from about 25,000 to 76,700: on that of the latter, from 140,000 to 465,000! And, notwithstanding these results, the whole of these denom * Presbyterian Historical Almanac, 1861. inations are still pressing their old theories upon public attention, with as much zeal as though the Gospel had been utterly excluded from the slave States, and not a child of Africa had been brought to a knowledge of the Saviour! SECTION XI. - CONTRAST OF THE SUCCESS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESBYTERIANS, WITH THAT OF THE MISSIONARIES IN THE SOUTHERN SLAVE STATES. The preceding section presents very strange results, indeed, as compared with what the Northern actors in the abolition drama expected to accomplish. The General Assembly Presbyterian Church was also much agitated by the abolition movement. Those who troubled her held the prevailing abolition theory, that slavery and the Gospel are incompatible; and continued to press the question upon the attention of both General Assemblies, even up to 1861. In 1830, this Church was undivided, and had a membership of 173,329, as against 140,000 colored church members in the slave States. In 1859, when the Church was divided into two General Assemblies, the two bodies had a membership of 417,589, as against 453,000 colored members in the Churches in the slave States! But, in this membership of the General Assemblies there is included, as elsewhere stated, a colored membership of 18,000; leaving the white membership of these two bodies somewhat less than 400,000, while the whole colored church members in the South were, at that date, more than 450,000! CONCLUDING SECTION. THE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF THE CONVERTS IN THE MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN, CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE CONVERTED SLAVES IN THE UNITED STATES. In the earlier periods of African slavery in America, the utmost latitude of opinion was allowable, in speculating about the moral elevation of the slaves. But little was then known of the character of the negro race, and still less of the laws governing the progress of Christian missions among barbarous populations. The deep moral degradation of the African, throughout the world, was calculated to enlist the sympathies of Christian men. In project |