The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 4, April, 1881

Constitution of the American Missionary Association.

INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1848.

Art.I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”

Art.II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.

Art.III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting.

Art.IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September, October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the Executive Committee.

Art.V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.

Art.VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less than twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory, and the Treasurer ex-officio, members.

Art.VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.

The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.

Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting business.

Art.VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.

Art.IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

Art.X. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.

FOOTNOTE:

The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South—in Va. , 1; N. C. , 6; S. C. , 2; Ga. , 13; Ky. , 6; Tenn. , 4; Ala. , 14; La. , 17; Miss. , 4; Texas, 6. Africa, 2. Among the Indians, 1.Total 76.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.—Chartered: Hampton, Va. ; Berea, Ky. ; Talladega, Ala. ; Atlanta, Ga. ; Nashville, Tenn. ; Tougaloo, Miss. ; New Orleans, La. ; and Austin, Texas, 8. Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C. ; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C. ; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga. ; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala. ; Memphis, Tenn. , 12. Other Schools, 31.Total 51.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 284; among the Chinese, 22; among the Indians, 11; in Africa, 13. Total, 330. Students—In Theology, 102; Law, 23; in College Course, 75; in other studies, 7,852. Total, 8,052. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A.M.A.office, as below:

MAGAZINE.

This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.”

The will should be attested by three witnesses [in some States three are required—in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number].The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A.B.]as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A.B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.”In some States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.

THE CONGREGATIONALIST FOR 1881.

The publishers of The Congregationalist have never been better prepared to make an entertaining and instructive paper for the family than now. Our contributors embrace such names as

And many others who have attained a national reputation.

“HOW AND WHAT TO READ”

Is a topic on which we print several articles this year from Rev. Washington Gladden, and other well-known writers.

“WITHOUT A HOME”

Is the name of a story by Rev. E.P.Roe, running through the columns of The Congregationalist nine or ten months this season. More than 200,000 copies of Mr. Roe’s books have been sold, a fact which indicates the great demand there is for them.

Our Sabbath-school Department for 1881 is under the charge of the Rev. A.F.Schauffler, of New York, who is known as one of the most suggestive writers and thinkers on this subject in the country.

Our Children’s Department is sustained by such writers as Mr. C.C.Coffin, Ernest Ingersoll (on Natural History), W.J.Rolfe, Clara Erskine Clement, and others equally eminent, and it will be found entertaining and instructive to all, both to young and old.

A series of twelve articles or more, running through our columns this year, entitled

“GREAT SUBJECTS,”

And from the pens of some of the most eminent thinkers in the land, is destined to attract wide attention. Among the writers are Ex-President Woolsey, Gen. J.R.Hawley, Hon. Dorman B.Eaton, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott, Dr. Geo.M.Beard and Rev. Noah Porter, D.D.The large space of four columns a week, on an average, is devoted to our “Literary Department.”It is gotten up wholly in the interest of our readers, and we receive frequent testimonies to its value.

With seven persons on our regular editorial staff, including Rev. A.H.Clapp, D. D. , in New York, who, besides other matter, furnishes a letter every week, the reader will find The Congregationalist in all its departments fully abreast of the times. It touches subjects of current interest to the religious public every week, not only by its editorial articles, but by a great amount of paragraphs and short matter such as all are glad to read. We offer no premiums, but are now expending upon the columns of the paper itself what otherwise might be required for that purpose. The amount of money paid out sometimes in a single week to writers for The Congregationalist now exceeds the sum expended in this way for six months or a year a quarter of a century ago.

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THE THIRTY-FIFTH VOLUME

OF THE

American Missionary.

1881.

Shall we not have a largely increased Subscription List for 1881?

We regard the Missionary as the best means of communication with our friends, and to them the best source of information regarding our work.

A little effort on the part of our friends, when making their own remittances, to induce their neighbors to unite in forming Clubs, will easily double our list, and thus widen the influence of our Magazine, and aid in the enlargement of our work.

Under editorial supervision at this office, aided by the steady contributions of our intelligent missionaries and teachers in all parts of the field, and with occasional communications from careful observers and thinkers elsewhere, the American Missionary furnishes a vivid and reliable picture of the work going forward among the Indians, the Chinamen on the Pacific Coast, and the Freedmen as citizens in the South and as missionaries in Africa.

It will be the vehicle of important views on all matters affecting the races among which it labors, and will give a monthly summary of current events relating to their welfare and progress.

Patriots and Christians interested in the education and Christianizing of these despised races are asked to read it, and assist in its circulation.Begin with the January number and the new year.The price is only Fifty Cents per annum.

The Magazine will be sent gratuitously, if preferred, to the persons indicated on page 127.

Donations and subscriptions should be sent to

H.W.HUBBARD, Treasurer,

56 Reade Street, New York.

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Special attention is invited to the advertising department of the American MissionaryAmong its regular readers are thousands of Ministers of the Gospel, Presidents, Professors and Teachers in Colleges, Theological Seminaries and Schools; it is, therefore, a specially valuable medium for advertising Books, Periodicals, Newspapers, Maps, Charts, Institutions of Learning, Church Furniture, Bells, Household Goods, &c.

Advertisers are requested to note the moderate price charged for space in its columns, considering the extent and character of its circulation.

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