MONROVIA
Letter from Rev. John Day
Who can read the following letter without a swelling heart? What earnest devotion to the work in which
he is engaged! And this is not a mere passing emotion. Thus has our brother been pleading for years for
the benighted millions of Africa. Sometimes exultant with hopes, sometimes oppressed by fears, as the
dense clouds gathered into Egyptian darkness, then again with tears of gratitude and strains of
thanksgiving and praise, but ever to us here, and we doubt not to Him who heareth prayer- “O, remember
and help these poor, ignorant, degraded Africans!” Will not God hear? Yea, has he not heard? And will
any Christian be deaf to the entreaty?
P.
Day’s Hope, Monrovia, December 6, ‘56
Rev. Jas. B. Taylor:
Very Dear Sir - There is no use in disguising my wish and intention as far as I can be
permitted to carry them out. I cannot feel as I wish, unless I have the poor natives around me. I
have the land, I am building houses, and want to take 15 or 20 native boys. I am having land
cleared off, and in the course of next year shall be ready to take them in. We have expended
much, and have seen but little good resulting. That is, we have witnessed but few conversions.
Hundreds have been taught to read the word of God. They have returned to the region of
darkness, it is true; but do they carry no light? They carry with them the Bible. Is it powerless?
Have I not seen men come, and sit with others and read as well, and perhaps, better, than when
they left? Who learned you to read? You, sir. Will not that Bible proclaim there is a God, a
Heaven, a hell? May not the work which we have done tell in years to come? My brethren here
are whispering round, “Day is getting up a separate interest; Day is about to establish another
church.” No, Day is a servant of the most high God, and wishes to show to poor heathen the
way of salvation. And I thank the Board for what they have done. But I shall not cease to cry
until this is a complete missionary establishment; with its native department, its common,
classical, and theological school departments. I have a personal private interest in it. How? My
soul is in it. My peace of mind, outweighing gold, is in it. Do stir up the people and let us have
an institution of which others will take the model. An institution both creditable and vastly
beneficial.
The Commission
March 1857
p. 275
