APPENDIX.

Address of the President of the Convention.*

The President, on taking the chair, thus addressed the Convention:

Brethren of the Convention,

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My thanks are due to Almighty God, and they are hereby expressed to Him, for the favor which He has given me in your eyes, as the consequence of which, I am elevated by your suffrages, to the Presidency of this Body. A sense of deep responsibility fills my spirit, in approaching a chair which was first adorned by the sainted Furinan of my own State, and successively occupied by the estimable Semple of Virginia, and the honored Cone of New York, who has just withdrawn, in accordance with his own will, from the able administration of its duties.

"The chair of this body, whilst it imposes responsibility, confers honor upon its occupant-an honor inferior only to that which God puts upon the evangelist and the pastor, or rather bishop, of a church.

"The president of this body is not called to preside over the legislature of a nation, or the destinies of an earthly kingdom. The affairs of such bodies relate to time. The deliberations of this body relate to eternity. The members of this body, redeemed from sin and hell, are associated together for the purpose of disseminating the blessings of eternal life to the perishing millions of the heathen world. In such an assembly there is no place for strife or vain glory. The fear of God, a singleness of eye to his honor, a regard for the spiritual and eternal welfare of man must predominate and guide the counsels, and form the decisions of its members.

"That its deliberations may be conducted decently and in order,' the Convention places itself representatively in the President. The members, therefore, in sustaining him in the discharge of his duties, preserve their own dignity. I, therefore, confidently look to you, beloved brethren, under God, for an obedience to your own rules, and assure you, that whatever ability I possess, shall be cheerfully exerted in aid of your efforts for the accomplishment of our weighty concerns. May the God of grace add his blessing to our labors."

A.

Address of the Board, adopted Nov. 2, 1840.

The Board of Managers of the Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions have observed, with painful interest, indications of a tendency on the part of some of their beloved brethren and coadjutors, to withdraw from the missionary connection in which they have been happily associated for many years. And they are constrained by their sense of duty to the interests entrusted to their care, by their love to the Redeemer and the souls for whom he died, and by their affectionate regard toward all who at any time have extended their aid to the Foreign Missionary cause, to remind their brethren of the design of their association and the principles on which it was formed and has been conducted.

The primary and exclusive object of the founders of the General Convention, as expressed in the preamble to the constitution, was to send the glad tidings of salvation to the heathen, and to nations destitute of pure gospel light." For the prosecution of this one object the Board of Managers was created, and empowered to act on their behalf; and to this alone (with the exception of a temporary, authorized, divergence to Home Missions and Education,) have the operations of the Board down to the present

* Received too late for insertion in the Minutes.

moment been restricted. So deeply indeed have the Board been impressed with the vastness and importance of this object, and with their responsibility for its faithful prosecution, that they have strenuously withstood every influence that threatened to turn them aside from it, and have even refrained from what would have been deemed by some a justifiable expression of their sentiments on controverted subjects, lest an unfavorable reaction should result therefrom upon the interests of this endeared and sacred

cause.

Corresponding with the oneness of the object for which the Convention was organized, is the simplicity of the terms on which co-operation for its accomplishment may be proffered and received. Our venerated fathers who constituted the original Convention, contemplating in the new organization the prosecution of the Foreign Missionary enterprize alone, and justly appreciating the vast extent of the work and the demands which it would make upon the sympathies and resources of all benevolent hearts within the bounds of the community whom the Convention was designed to represent, were careful to lay no obstruction in the way of any individual who might be disposed to communicate to its funds, nor any restriction on the liberty of counsel or direction in its concerns, further than was judged indispensable to their efficient and safe administration. Their purpose, distinctly avowed in the preamble already alluded to, was the "eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort." And it was with evident reference to this proposed universality of interest and effort that they assumed the comprehensive designation, "The General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States," etc. In accordance with this design of securing the widest possible co-operation, the provisions for the admission of members into the Convention were made exceedingly simple and few. By the constitution as it now stands, and has always stood, the right to a seat or representation in the Convention is based only on two conditions: 1st. That the religious body or the individual be of the Baptist denomination; and 2d. That the same shall have contributed to the treasury of the Convention a specified annual sum. For appointment to the Board, the individual, being a member of one of the religious bodies represented in the Convention, must also "be a member of some Baptist church." Beyond these specifications it was deemed inexpedient to go.

Such being the design of the organization of the Convention, and such the principles on which co-operation may be tendered and accepted, the Board are unable to discover any sufficient reason for the withdrawal of support on the part of any of their contributors, in view of facts or considerations wholly extrinsic and irrelevant. That the influences which at the present time are apparently set toward this result, are wholly irrelevant and should be steadfastly withstood, is evident not only in view of the object and principles of the Convention above stated, but from a just consideration of the relations and responsibilities of the Board. These relations and responsibilities have to some extent been misapprehended by brethren near and remote, and the consequence of the misapprehension has been to hold the Board accountable for things done and not done, in relation to all of which alike the Board has done nothing, because it had nothing to do. With respect to such things the Board has, so to speak, neither a name nor existence. Its vitality and power are wholly derived, and can by its present constitution act only to one end. As to all other intents and purposes, the Board can have power and will, only when first it shall have been endued with them by the Convention, from whom it emanates. The Board is the executive of the Convention: the Convention alone is legislative. It is the province of the Board simply to carry into effect the will of the Convention.

These principles, the principles on which the Convention and the Board are constituted, and according to which only they can rightfully in their separate capacities act, are clearly defined in the constitution and laws which the Convention has framed. And by provision of the same constitution, they can be modified or repealed by the will of the Convention only, duly expressed. The Board has, for instance, no discretionary or dispensing power as to the receipt of contributions. Their duty is distinctly prescribed, and it simply is to receive all moneys contributed for Foreign Missions to their funds, from whatever source they come, and to disburse them with all fidelity for the ends to which they are designated by the contributors. The same general remarks are in point as it respects the qualifications for membership either in the Convention or the Board. What the qualifications are, as defined by the constitution, we have stated. The Board cannot change them; nor can it set them at nought. It has, in truth, no capacity to act in regard to them, further than to supply its own vacancies. It has no power of excision. The Convention appoints its own Board, triennially, in view of the qualifications which itself prescribes; and appoints whom it pleases.

There is still another subject to which the attention of the Board has been called by some of their respected contributors-lying yet more widely aside from the sphere of their appropriate operations; and if in alluding to it they break the silence of their neutrality, it is only that by defining their position" they may relieve the embarrassing uncertainty of brethren, northern and southern, and secure to themselves, through the divine blessing, their wonted freedom from extraneous anxieties in the furtherance of their own peculiar work. We refer to the continuance of Christian fellowship between northern and southern churches.

The view entertained by the Board as to the relevancy of this subject to the work of Foreign Missions, has already been indicated. It does not come under their cognizance in any form; nor, they may be permitted to add, within the scope of the General Convention, with its present constitution. There is, in fact, no body, ecclesiastical or civil, empowered to act in this particular on behalf of the churches interested. The churches are independent communities; they can exercise no authority over one another; they have delegated no power to individuals or associations, within the knowledge of the Board, to act for them. The members of the Board are also members of many different churches. In their respective churches they act, or may act, and as individuals also, -in reference to this and other matters pertaining to church relations; but as a Board of the Convention for Foreign Missions, they can say and do nothing. Such is the position assigned to them in their appointment to the Board; as such they acceded to it; and from it they have never, in any form, nor in any degree, swerved. They have desired and have sought to keep distinct, things that are disconnected; and, as men faithful to themselves, and as a Board faithful to their constituents, neither to use their official influence to give weight and currency to their private opinions, nor, on the other hand, through the unseasonable and unseemly obtrusion of personal feelings do treachery to the sacred interests committed in good faith to their charge.

In conclusion, the Board affectionately and earnestly entreat their brethren and fellowhelpers to remember, that the enterprize in which we are engaged, for the dissemination of the Gospel in foreign lands, asserts a claim on the sympathies, and prayers, and benefactions of us all, which cannot with safety, nor consistently with our avowed faith and confessed obligations, be set aside. A light has been put into our hands, not to be extinguished nor hid, but through our instrumentality to enlighten the nations that are in darkness. Alas! that, after the lapse of so many years, during which a whole generation of the heathen have gone down to the grave and onward to the judgment of God, our utmost united efforts, with all our array of means and the favoring smiles of heaven, have barely availed to kindle up here and there a solitary taper amidst the surrounding gloom. Burmah is not yet evangelized. The Karens are but in part converted to God. Siam, and Arracan, and the millions of China—the tidings of salvation have scarcely reached their ears. Among every people and in every region where we have essayed to plant the standard of the Cross, our missionary brethren have been able to effect but little more than to secure their positions. They are too few to go up and possess the land. Their numbers are thinned by disease and death. They call upon the churches who sent them forth, for reinforcement and succor. Shall they call in vain ?

The Board look forward to the approaching anniversary of the Convention with mingled solicitude and hope ;—with hope, for we shall greet on that high day of our solemnities endeared brethren and friends, from the north, from the south, and from the west, with whom we have often taken sweet counsel, and of whose affections and confidence, we trust, no disastrous influences shall have despoiled us, as none will have estranged them from ours;—with solicitude, lest by the unseasonable diversion of our thoughts to irrelevant subjects, the unity of the design of our confederation be infringed, and the harmony of our counsels disturbed. We devoutly commend the occasion and all that may pertain to it, to the disposal of Him who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working ;" and we entreat our brethren of every place and name, contributors to our funds and fellow-helpers in Christ, "to strive together with us in their prayers to God," that He may shed down upon all who shall be convened as their representatives on that eventful day the "spirit of love and of a sound mind."

B.

Regulations subscribed by Missionaries.

1. No missionary receiving pecuniary support from the Board, shall engage in any secular business for the purpose of personal emolument; and not at all, unless in the opinion of the Board the great object of the mission can be best promoted thereby.

2. No such missionary shall appropriate to himself the avails of his labor, or the compensation he may receive for service of any kind; but all avails of labor, and all presents or payments made in consideration of services perforined, shall be placed to the credit of the Board; provided, that nothing in this article shall be construed to affect private property, inheritances, or personal favors not made in compensation of services.

3. All missionaries supported by the Board, shall, with their wives and children, be considered as having claims on the mission fund, for equal support in similar circumstances, the rate of allowance being fixed by the Board; and widows of missionaries, while they continue such, and orphans until the age of sixteen, shall receive the usual allowance.

4. In regard to missionaries who support themselves from the income of their estates, or in any way not inconsistent with their missionary profession, they shall be considered members of the mission equally with those who receive pecuniary support, and therefore equally subject to the instructions and general regulations of the Board.

5. Every missionary, however supported, shall transmit to the Board, in a journal or series of letters, a regular account of the manner in which he spends his time, and performs the duties of his profession.

6. Missionaries who reside within a convenient distance, shall hold stated and occasional meetings, for solemn consultation and prayer in reference to the object of their pursuit; and no missionary shall attempt any thing new or important, involving expense, or otherwise affecting the interests of the mission, but with the advice and consent of a majority of the brethren, as well as in conformity with the regulations of the Board.

7. If any missionary persist in violating any of the above regulations, it shall be the indispensable duty of his associates in the mission to give full information to the Board.

C.

Relations of the Board to their Missionaries.

[The views entertained by the Board, of the relations existing between them and their missionaries, are presented more at length in the following extracts from instructions given to Messrs. Constantine and Fielding, on the eve of their departure to West Africa, July 28, 1840.]

The simple statement of the relations subsisting between you and the Board of the General Convention, is, that you are sent by them to a foreign land to aid in communicating the gospel of Christ to such as have not received it. After years of patient and careful inquiry, you are satisfied that it is your duty, and with the conviction of duty it has become your choice, to go in person to disseminate the gospel in heathen lands. To fulfil this service the more expeditiously and effectively, you have sought the countenance and co-operation of Christian brethren. You have made known your convictions of duty and your desire to act conformably to them, to the Board, and have requested their sanction, direction and support. The Board, acting on behalf of the General Convention and of the community whom the Convention represents, and approving your views in respect to your personal duty and the general principles affecting its proper fulfilment, have, in accordance with your expressed wishes, appointed you to the service; and thus, we have mutually incurred and imposed responsibilities which it will be alike our happiness and our sacred duty faithfully to discharge.

It will be your part, on reaching your field of labor, agreeably to your present expectation and purpose, to give yourselves wholly to the work for which you are sent.

As it regards the heathen for whose salvation you go forth, you will endeavor to gain early access to their understandings and hearts, acquiring their language, so as to write and speak it with correctness and fluency, securing their confidence, ascertaining the readiest modes of influencing their feelings and conduct, and employing assiduously every right means in your power to impart to them the knowledge and fear of the Lord. You

will preach the gospel to them,-to individuals, and to assemblies, in the house and by the way, in city and in forest. You will translate the Holy Scriptures into their native language, reducing the language, if need be, to a written form; you will establish schools, to teach them the elements of useful science, and especially how to read and understand the scriptures; you will, if blessed in your labors, constitute churches, and raise up native assistants and preachers of the word; you will, in short, lay the foundations of an intelligent, moral and Christian community, who shall embody within themselves the means and the materials of their mental and spiritual edification, and by the grace of God be eventually built up a spiritual house, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner

stone.

As it respects the Board, under whose sanction and direction you go forth, you will frequently and fully disclose to them your missionary operations, and the results, and, as far as practicable, the circumstances affecting the same; and will freely confer with them in regard to all important measures and the grounds on which they are proposed, especially such as concern the particular sphere of your service or the pecuniary liabilities of the Board; carefully conforming your decisions to their instructions from time to time received.

On the other hand, it will be the part of the Board to convey you, by the earliest approved opportunity, to your place of destination, and promote your favorable reception among the people; to provide for your suitable support, so that your life and health may be prolonged, and your attention be given exclusively to your appropriate work; to furnish, as far as practicable, all desirable means and facilities for the accomplishment of the ends in view, and to impart such counsel and direction as your circumstance sand their best judgment shall suggest. It will also be their duty, and the duty of the churches for whom they act, to keep themselves as fully acquainted as may be, with all your missionary concerns, to remember and care for you in their affections and prayers, to sympathize in all your perplexities and sorrows, to intercede for your early and large success, and to see, so far as their instrumentality may avail, that others be raised up to enter into your labors, so that what you shall have sown and watered with many prayers and tears, may be gathered in.

The field of labor allotted to you is the one of your choice, and in designating you to it the Board have evinced the disposition which they uniformly cherish, to consult in this respect the predilections of their missionaries. And the designation is made in the hope that you will be permitted by a gracious Providence to enter there, and labor assiduously and successfully to the close of your lives. But if it be ascertained at any point that the way is not prepared before you, or that having reached the place of your proposed residence, you cannot prosecute your work to advantage, or that, for any sufficient cause, you would do well to retire to another station, the Board will hold themselves free to change your location in accordance with their clear convictions of duty. They would not feel at liberty to act capriciously or hastily, or, in ordinary cases, without free consultation with the missionaries; but in view of considerations of great moment, such as, we doubt not, would make the decisions of the Board as satisfactory to your minds as to their own.

In regard to your mode and means of operation, wherever you labor, the Board will consider themselves bound to keep constantly in mind the object of their organization and of your appointment-the communication of the gospel to the heathen-and the course best fitted to promote this object they will feel constrained steadily to pursue. On one hand, they will not be empowered to assign to you any service incompatible with the judicious prosecution of the work to which you are sent; on the other, when you shall have presented all the facts and considerations bearing on a case, which are deemed important, you will esteem it a relief, we doubt not, to transfer to the Board, in all practicable cases, the responsibility of its decision, while their central relation to all the missions and their prolonged experience may be supposed to be eminently favorable to a safe and salutary result.

In consulting for the enlargement of your mission, both as to the number of its members and their effective means, the Board will highly appreciate whatever information you may communicate, but will necessarily graduate the manner and amount of their appropriations by the extent of the resources committed to their hands.

The subject of your personal expenditures is one of peculiar delicacy, but among brethren, having a common aim and confiding in each others integrity and considerate kindness, will occasion no serious difficulty. The Board have appropriated to your personal support an annual sum graduated according to the experience of the missionaries now resident in Africa, and supposed to be ample. If, however, your location should be ultimately fixed, as is contemplated, at a remote and interior station, the appropriation