The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888. Various
gift enrolls Mr. Hand among the honored names of wealthy men who have devoted their fortunes, not to mere display or personal gratification, but to elevate and bless the ignorant and needy.
Mr. Hand is a man of tall, commanding presence, and still at the age of eighty-seven writes with a firm and bold hand, and expresses himself in brief and vigorous language.
THE DEED OF TRUST
The purposes and conditions of this great trust are as follows:
"The said Daniel Hand, desiring to establish a permanent fund, the income of which shall be used for the purpose of educating needy and indigent colored people of African descent, residing, or who may hereafter reside in the recent slave States of the United States of America, sometimes called the Southern States; meaning those States wherein slavery was recognized by law in the year A.D. 1861, and in consideration of the promises and undertakings of the said American Missionary Association, hereinafter set forth, does hereby give, transfer and deliver unto the said American Missionary Association the following bonds and property in trust, viz.: (Here follows a list of the property transferred, amounting at par value to $1,000,894.25. The market value is more than that sum.) Said bonds and property to be received and held by said American Missionary Association, upon trust, and for the following purposes, viz.: To safely manage the said trust fund, to change investments whenever said Association may deem it necessary or advisable to reinvest the principal of said trust fund in such securities, property and investments as said Association may deem best, and to use the income thereof only for the education of colored people of African descent residing in the recent slave States of the United States of America hereinbefore specified.
"Such income to be applied for the education of such colored people as are needy and indigent and such as by their health, strength and vigor of body and mind give indications of efficiency and usefulness in after life.
"Said American Missionary Association and the proper officers thereof, shall have the right, while acting in good faith, to select from time to time such persons from the above described class as are to receive aid from the income of said trust fund, hereby confiding to said Association the selection of such persons as it shall deem most worthy and deserving of such aid, but I would limit the sum of $100 as the largest sum to be expended for any person in any one year from this fund. I impose no restrictions upon said Association as to the manner in which they shall use such income for the education of such colored people, whether by establishing schools for that purpose, and maintaining the same, or by furnishing individual aid; trusting to said Association and the officers thereof the use of such means in the execution of said trust as in their judgment will be most for the advantage of that class of people.
"Said trust fund shall be set apart and at all times known as the 'Daniel Hand Educational Fund for Colored People.' And the said Association shall keep separate accounts of the investment of this fund, and of the income derived therefrom, and of the use to which such income is applied, and shall publish monthly statements of the receipts from said fund, specifying its source, object and intention."
SUGGESTIONS
Something to Remember.
Our first thought is for the pastors and churches to whom these words may come. It is this: Remember that the American Missionary Association has not a million of dollars to expend in its work.
It has the yearly income of this great gift as a Trust Fund to be used, not for the work which our churches have taken on, but to do a specific work which would not otherwise be undertaken. The American Missionary Association will carry out the wishes of this large giver in their trust, and the Hand Fund will not be used to supplement the other work committed to the Association.
Do not say then, that we have a million and need nothing. Our execution of a trust to do additional work to the extent of $50,000 a year or more, in no way changes our dependence upon the constituency of the A.M.A. We have no balance whatever at the bank to supplement any lack from the churches. The Hand Fund stands out distinctly committed to its appropriate work. This it will do.
It will, however, make the work to which we are already committed more imperative. We do not believe that the churches will in any degree defeat the purposes of Mr. Hand by devoting less than before to their own work, but that they will rather encourage larger gifts than ever, by an emulation of a like spirit, to be used for the redemption of a race. This is not a Trust Fund to relieve the churches. It is to make their work greater and more effective.
The reports of the several committees at Providence all called for an enlargement of our work. It was recommended that $375,000 be raised and used in the fiscal year 1888-1889. This means something more than $30,000 a month. The receipts for October were $16,416.07, being but a little more than half of that which is needed. Our dependence must be where it has been; first of all upon God, and then upon those who are his stewards. We do not believe that God's stewards will be willing to use this signal illustration of fidelity to stewardship as a reason why they should do less rather than more in their working together with him. The American Missionary Association begins its year with a debt of $5,000 and needs $30,000 a month to carry on its regular work.
Large Gifts no Substitute for Small Ones.
A Pope of Rome in the midst of his great wealth once said, "I cannot say as Peter did: 'Silver and gold have I none!'" To which the reply was made: "Neither can you say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.'" Peter and the Pope are types of two conditions of the church of Christ. When it is dependent on Christ, it can bless the bodies and souls of men; when it relies on its wealth, it can do neither. A missionary society that should be so thoroughly endowed as to feel itself to be independent of God and man for funds would soon be thoroughly dead. Its power is in proportion to the faith it uplifts to God, and to the constant sense of dependence with which it rests down upon the sympathy and support of the churches. It can never flourish except as it is refreshed by the little rills of benevolence that flow from praying Christians; that treasury is poor, indeed, that does not receive the widow's two mites. The American Missionary Association can come with blessings to the neglected races of our land only as it lays hold with one hand upon the arm of the Lord and with the other grasps the hands of the pastors and members of the churches—as it enables them to feel that it is their society doing God's work for them.
But does not the magnificent gift of Mr. Hand lift the Association above such dependence on the churches? Is it not at least so well provided for that the churches need not be so regular and liberal in their contributions? We answer emphatically that if this should be the result of that gift, we should esteem it no blessing; and in this we are sure Mr. Hand himself would unite with us. We are told that he was accustomed to read the "Receipts" acknowledged in the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, and was greatly delighted that so many small donations were reported. He said that one thing that confirmed him in the choice of the Association as the almoner of his bounty was the hold it seemed to have upon the mass of intelligent and praying members of the New England churches, No! the gift of Mr. Hand, generous and large as it is, provides for only a part of our great work. It does not touch the Church, Mountain, Indian, Chinese or Higher Educational Departments. It is wisely appropriated; it goes directly and practically to a point where help is much needed. But it is limited to that and does not cover even all of that. Let the churches do neither themselves, the Association nor Mr. Hand the great wrong of withholding because he gives; rather let them take this gift as God and the generous donor meant it to be—a help in lifting the heavy load, to be responded to by heartier co-operation and larger contributions.
A Helping Hand Extended to the South.
How strange are the links that sometimes bind events together, and how obvious are often the compensations that Providence renders to faithful work.
In 1846 a society was formed in the North distinguished mainly by its sympathy for the slave. But slavery then ruled the North as well as the South, and this society was made to feel the rod of its power. Some of its founders learned that rewards had been offered for their abduction; others suffered from the violence of mobs; and its missionaries in the South were imprisoned or banished. When the slaves were freed, the society went swiftly and energetically to their help, and has sent to them thousands of consecrated teachers and has spent millions