A Story of One Short Life, 1783 to 1818 Part 2

The American society soon received aid within its own boundaries, which was a far better beginning than to be dependent upon outside resources. Mrs. Mary Norris, the wife of one of the founders of Andover Seminary, bequeathed thirty thousand dollars to the Board.

G.o.d's Spirit generally revived the churches, opening the eyes and hearts of His people, their purses as well, though not many of the latter were well filled in those days.

G.o.d only has a full record of the anxious courage and faith which was exercised by the supporters, managers, and appointees of the Board during those first struggling years. Under the care of this board Mills and his friends placed themselves, and by it most of them were sent out in the year 1812.

CHAPTER VI.

AN APOSTOLIC JOURNEY IN THE UNITED STATES.

From the first throb of his Christian life, the heart of Mills beat like a soldier's. He called out the recruits, captained the forces, and died in service--a hero! In his student days he had a compelling influence upon his cla.s.smates, and even then showed signs of generalship in his faculty of organizing. The establishment of the Foreign Mission School was largely consequent upon his suggestions; in the formation of the American Board he was one of the foremost personal instruments.

Studies finished, his heart firm in his lofty purpose, highborn schemes began their struggling claim for his attention. The world with all its lands stretching their help-beckoning fingers, was persuading him. Over the home land, his and ours, he turned his penetrating glance. He saw occasion for vast concern, and here was his first response. To go first, opening the way for others through the tangled wilderness, was his design, his master-plot. That "divine ferment" at Williams College worked the good of home, as well as of foreign, missions.

Having chosen a companion-spy, the Rev. John Schermerhorn, soon after his graduation in 1812, he went to view a goodly land, which he desired to have the people of G.o.d go up and possess. This tour was undertaken under the patronage of the Connecticut and Ma.s.sachusetts Home Missionary Societies. Heretofore these societies had prayed and wept over young missionaries sent to the uncivilized wilds of Western New York! The plan of Mills and Schermerhorn was to travel through the wide territory lying between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, to learn the moral condition of the inhabitants, and scatter what good they might.

The map of this region, as published in Morse's school atlas of 1823, is curiously different from the maps of the present day. The state and territorial lines have been altered, those green, pink, and yellow blanks have become densely freckled and wrinkled, by the dots of cities and towns, and by the complicated tracery of railroads.

These travelers did not telegraph their intended arrival, nor sleep and dine their way to their journey's end, on the "Flyer," and then rest in some palatial hotel at last. Each mounted his horse, taking with them by way of baggage all that was necessary for the trip,--tent, provisions, clothing and Bibles. They plodded through miry swamps, they climbed up and down almost perpendicular ledges, and cut their way through canebrakes with a hatchet. When they had creeks to cross they swam their horses. At night they camped, often in the rain and sometimes without food. More than once they were serenaded by Indian war-whoops and the howling wolves. Stopping at town or settlement they were made cordially at home in hut and cabin.

In some places they perceived bright prospects, the germs of future cities, and were often urgently besought to stay and preach the gospel permanently.

They found everywhere the Sabbath profaned, only a few good people in any one place, and Bibles rare possessions. In some places the people were longing for the Gospel. In all the leading towns they formed Bible societies, and everywhere preached and distributed Bibles, which were gladly received.

From Nashville they went down the c.u.mberland and Mississippi with General Jackson and fifteen hundred volunteers. In New Orleans they gained the consent of Bishop DeBury to distribute the Scriptures in French to the French Romanists, who made up three-fourths of the population of the state. They found no Protestant church in the city.

They here organized a Bible society, and remained several weeks to preach and to hold prayer-meetings.

CHAPTER VII.

MILLS' SECOND TOUR.

In the year 1814 Mr. Mills having obtained the a.s.sistance of some of the eastern Bible societies, and having chosen as companion the Rev.

Daniel Smith, started on another tour through the South and West.

They went laden with Bibles and the prayers of Christian friends.

They went through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.

In all these states they found the people "exceedingly dest.i.tute of religious privileges," and a "lamentable want of Bibles and missionaries." They found "American families who never saw a Bible, or heard of Jesus Christ." There was only one minister to ten thousand people if equally placed; but there were districts containing from twenty to fifty thousand "without a preacher." These men were light-bringers to this "valley of the shadow of death," as Mills called it. They found English soldiers, French Romanists, colored slaves, our own dear countrymen, greedy for the bread of life.

They traveled more than six thousand miles; they pa.s.sed through a variety of climates; they endured "perils in the city, perils of the wilderness, perils on the rivers and on the sea," that they might cast that bread upon the waters which you and I are finding after many days.

Mills arrived for the second time in New Orleans, soon after the celebrated battle of January 8, 1815, and cheered many hearts by his coming. He visited the soldiers in prison, the sick and wounded in the hospitals; kneeling on the bare floor where they lay, he prayed and talked with them, sang for them, and gave them Bibles; he preached in camp. The Philadelphia society had given him a quant.i.ty of French Bibles. The people were clamorous for them. They thronged the distributor's door, and remained even after the notice had been given that no more could be had until the following day. They came sometimes from great distances. In one week a thousand copies were given away. In one instance a Romish priest a.s.sisted in this work.

The bishop acknowledged the deplorable state of the people, and preferred their having the Protestant version to none at all.

When these adventurers in Christ's kingdom visited St. Louis, they found it a place of two thousand inhabitants,--"a tumble-down French village,--built mainly of wooden slabs and poles set vertically, and well daubed with mortar mixed with straw, though there were many log houses." In a school-room they delivered the first Presbyterian or Congregational sermons ever preached on the west side of the Mississippi. They were gratefully received, and had crowded audiences. The people would gladly have supported either one could he have stayed.

But the immediate duty of these explorers for souls was to return to the churches which had sent them out, to report what they had discovered, and to beg that men be sent to these waste places which were waiting to be made to blossom. All New England was roused to effort by their appeal, and the next year ten or twelve men responded to the summons.

In 1848 the word "gold" was whispered in California and heard all over the world. The gold-hunters pressed forward from every corner of the earth. It was not thought a hard thing to turn one's back on home, friends and country, for the sake of gold, though that glittering promise was, to most of those who searched, like the bag at the end of the rainbow, and all the riches of this world "make themselves wings." "The promises of G.o.d are sure," and the riches which He bestows are everlasting; and yet to the call, gold and glory, young men answer by the thousand, while to the cry, Christ and a crown, they respond by the dozen! "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY--THE UNITED FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

During these two missionary journeys the heart of our apostle was swelling with the woes of the sin-bound, and his brain contriving for their release. Upon his return he settled in New York state, and spent two busy years in working out his purposes. While waiting for their maturity he was most of the time in the large cities, particularly New York. Here he spent what might have been leisure, in visiting the poor in the neglected districts. He also wrote many letters; and in the churches, and everywhere, and upon everybody, urged attention to the world's great needs, and their great duties.

As the result of this planning, waiting and working, he was permitted to see formed the American Bible Society, and the United Foreign Missionary Society. On the subject of city evangelization, he advanced ideas which we at this striving time might well study.

The entire dest.i.tution of religious privileges which Mills had witnessed in the West and South, and the great desire of the people for the word of G.o.d, with their inability to supply themselves, made him eager for the formation of a National Bible Society, which should be large enough and strong enough to supply such great want. He had some hope of having the matter brought out at the general a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian church; but it was thought best to have it come about through the existing Bible societies, rather than have it bear the features of any denomination.

The matter was kept constantly before influential people by this indefatigable man, and at last on the 8th of May, 1816, delegates from the different Bible societies of the United States convened in New York city, and resolved unanimously "to establish, without delay, a General Bible Inst.i.tution, for the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment." Before closing their sessions a const.i.tution was adopted, managers elected, and an address issued to the people of the United States, informing them of the project, and inviting their sympathy and cooperation in this benevolent scheme.

This was a great day to Mills, and those who saw him, sitting apart, watching with intense eagerness the deliberations of the convention, long remembered his delighted face. But how must the resources and usefulness of this society have exceeded even his fond hopes!

As its first depository, it shared the office room of its agent. From time to time it was forced to move to larger quarters, until the year 1853, when it located permanently, in its well-known building, The Bible House, on Astor Place, New York city. This edifice is of brick, six stories high, and occupies a solid block. In its first year, the society received $37,779, and issued 6,410 volumes; in its seventieth year (1886) its receipts were $523,910, and it issued 1,437,440 volumes. In the Bible House, the working force--manufacturing and executive--numbers about 250. The auxiliaries which directly and indirectly center in this society, number about 7,000.

From this great tree and its many branches, the leaves have been sent for the healing of nations. There are now but few countries where there are any impediments to the free circulation of the Scriptures.

In our own land the society has afforded relief to its feeble auxiliaries, has supplied dest.i.tute Sabbath-schools, has endeavored to place the Bible in the common schools, to distribute it among soldiers and seamen, to furnish hotels, steamboats, railroads, and humane and criminal inst.i.tutions. By it, the Bible has been circulated among immigrants, the dest.i.tute poor, the freedmen, the Chinese, and (in the Douay version) among Romanists. At four different periods the society has made exploration among the states and territories, to search and supply the dest.i.tute. Proportionately the number of families without the word of G.o.d is much smaller now than when the society was organized, notwithstanding the enormous growths in population.

The society has attempted to send the Bible to all the inhabitants of the earth, accessible to its agents. It has established depots in almost every place where the American churches have missions. It circulates the Scriptures in more than eighty different languages and dialects. In 1856, in compliance with a special request, and by means of a special gift, the Society's Imperial Quarto English Bible, bound with extraordinary care, enclosed in a rosewood case, and accompanied by a courteous letter, was sent to each of the reigning monarchs and other chief magistrates of the world.

Before the art of printing, the Bible was the most expensive book in the world. So late as the American Revolution, in its cheapest edition a volume could not be purchased for less than two dollars.

This society now furnishes a copy of the entire book for twenty-five cents. It has made the Bible the cheapest book in the world.

Mills, anxious to see every wheel set in motion for the advancement of Christ's kingdom, was restless because of the inaction of the Presbyterian church in the cause of Foreign Missions; again by his personal influence upon prominent men, another plan was matured. A committee was appointed by the General a.s.sembly to confer with committees from the Dutch and Scotch churches, and a new society was formed, called the United Foreign Missionary Society. After a few years of efficient service this society was merged with the American Board, yielding to it its name and affairs.

While so busy with these schemes just referred to, Mr. Mills was collecting all possible information in regard to South America. He desired to have the way opened for a mission in that country, and was willing to go himself to make the needed investigations. But it was seven years later when the American Board sent the first men to that field.

In spite of these great enterprises, which must have been so absorbing of time and energy, this busy man found opportunity and strength to search out the squalid back streets of New York, and to go from house to house of its wretched inhabitants, giving sympathy, speaking words of Christian love and instruction, and where they would receive them leaving the word of G.o.d and good books.

CHAPTER IX.

THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY--MILLS, AS ITS AGENT, VISITS AFRICA.

Abraham Lincoln, when a young man, made a journey into the South. Of all the impressions which those new scenes made upon him, the one deepest and strongest was that of slavery. It filled him with loathing, but kindled a zeal which never slumbered, until it cost his priceless life.

It was such a spark which became a fire in the breast of Mills. What he saw and what he heard, during those southern tours, made him a willing martyr for the sake of Africa's sons and daughters. Their degradation made him ready to endure all things if only he could pierce the black cloud overshading them. His first effort resulted in a school, called the African School, for training young colored men to teach and preach to their own race. He then lent essential aid in the formation of the American Colonization Society.

This society was composed of n.o.ble-minded men whose pitying attention was fastened upon the bondage, afflictions and heathenism of their black brothers, in this so called free land.