rom the
mightiest naval and military power in history; but I believe that the
peril that we are menaced by in the presence of this black man arises
from his perils. There is a peril from the black man, but it is a peril
secondary to the peril _of_ the black man upon this soil. I do not
apprehend any uprising by Uncle Tom; but Uncle Tom is dead, and his son
is here and his friends of a younger generation. These men are being
gnarled and corrupted and imbruted, and are massing themselves, touching
elbows one with another; and under the influences of the age in which we
live are becoming a factor in our civilization which, unless we modify
and change it under our Christian teaching, will render our Southland
like that island on the north of the Caribbean Sea where to-day it is
said that the name of Toussaint l'Ouverture, the original defender and
liberator, is a hissing and a reproach.

It was a fine augury of the future when the work for the ex-slave began
at Fortress Monroe in the atmosphere of religion. Mary Peake, meeting
the advancing multitudes of refugees, gospel in heart and primer in
hand, as by divine suggestion, laid the pattern of all our succeeding
toil. Side by side of mutual helpfulness God has placed the alphabet and
decalogue, the teacher and the preacher, the school-house and the
church. "What therefore God hath joined together let not man put
asunder."

The largest, grandest word in the title of this organization is
"Missionary." When that word drops out its work will be done, for its
call will have ceased. Our ultimate end and present purpose is, and
always should be, simply this--to save. We cannot lift our fallen
brother without the leverage of the cross.

No field is wider, none more difficult, than that to which our eyes are
turned, embracing as it does four of the five families of mankind. They
huddle together in the lap of Christendom, but feel no warmth. They are
a demonstration of the fact that civilization never touches barbarism
without polluting it. The Indian, finding his highest ideal in the rude
and tipsy defender of our flag; the Chinaman, taking home more
heathenism than he brings; the Negro, bound tighter by the vices of the
whites than ever he was by their iron chains--these three, ignorant of
the Christ and grasping the satanic weaponry of our sinful land and age,
together form the most discouraging of mission fields. Our laborers are
faced by all the serious problems of the foreig