COMMUNICATIONS
Address of Rev. John Day
To Southern Baptists and Southern Gentlemen generally
DAY’S HOPE, Monrovia Liberia,
Nov. 22, 1856
Highly Favored Sirs, — Fond as I am of retirement, and
little as I desire to present myself to public view, circumstances
seem to render it necessary that I present an appeal to you in behalf
of the Southern Baptist Liberia Mission. You are aware of the
establishment of this mission in 1847. The object was the
diffusion of Divine light over this dark land. Thousands of poor
heathen have heard the word of life. Many have embraced it as the
power of God to save - and many have been taught to read that
blessed word which maketh wise unto salvation. Of the Baptist
church in Liberia, it may be said, “a little one hath become a
thousand.”
This astonishing work has been done, it is true, by means to
human view, the most inadequate; — uneducated men. Still, this is
not the age of miracles, nor of extraordinary effusions of the Holy
Spirit. Nor should we expect extraordinary gifts, when ordinary
means will answer. We notice in the plan of God’s operations
means adapted to ends. When Israel is to be emancipated, and
become a free and happy nation; his leader and governor must
have many years of educational preparation. When Christianity is
to be propagated among the Jews, the ministers must have a three
years’ training, then wait for power from the Holy One. When the
blessed gospel was sent to the Gentiles, it was by the learned
disciple of Gamaliel. When ignorance and error wrapped the
church in shades of night, the studious Luther, and other blazing
intellectual lights, come forth to drive the darkness back. Such
men the Liberian Baptist mission needs. Whence shall they come?
From America? Thither have we looked for years gone by and
looked in vain! This the Lynx eyed Methodists did see, and an
edifice at $12,000 cost was reared, backed with means to educate
the men they needed. Presbyterians, and Episcopalians too, have
educational facilities, and are sending forth men, mighty and
strong to grapple with the powers of darkness.
