Letter from Rev. John Day
Monrovia, Liberia, May 8th, 1858
Rev. James B. Taylor:
Very Dear Sir — I am just from Millsburg, where I
preached to the disconsolate little Baptist church of that place. I
had the church to stop in, and had an interview with them. I have
agreed to allow Mr. Burk S50, in addition to his present allowance,
to attend to Mr. White’s two churches. That will be added to his
present amount of drafts. I hope it will be understood and
approved. Mr. Burk is destined for much usefulness in this place.
What he says may be relied on. He was long in my family as a
student, and I wish I could say of many as I can of him, that 1
regard him an honest and good man.
In reference to sending things by the steamers, I will
merely say, they call here for freight and letters, and 1 will, with
pleasure, attend to anything in which the interior mission is
interested. Freight by the steamers is high.
I had a very interesting conversation with Bishop Payne
today. He stopped in Bassa, and to my grief he told me that my
moving from there had much broken that mission. In going
through the country he found a native reading the Bible, who told
him he learned of me. He was so well pleased with what he saw,
that he will establish a mission there. I told him I was discouraged;
that if I could not send men into the interior, I despaired of doing
much for the natives.
I have wished very much to see the Board before I die, that
I might suggest many thing [sic] which might be of service to
them. I am, however, as poor a talker as I am a writer. I have been
many years a member of our Legislative Council, and never made
a speech worth hearing. Three times I have resigned a Judgeship,
preferring to serve my God alone, because I can preach and can
talk to purpose on no other subject. I might go to America, meet
the Board, and talk fifteen minutes, and that very poorly, unless the
subject produced an excitement, then I might talk an hour.
The Commission
July 1858
