Page:The religious instruction of the colored population.djvu/19

 to none of the jealousies and suspicions which would attach to a stranger. At his first entering upon the ministry his mind was deeply impressed with the importance of this subject; and, when he found no open door, he turned his eyes to the desliiuiii and degraded of another land. At the end of twelve years God has brought him hack to the scenes of his youth; his bowels still yearn for the slave, and ihe door which he once lamented was closed, and prayed to have opened, is now marvellously wide and effectual. The Providence of God seems to shut him up to enter and work. Your Committee are persuaded, from the view which they have been aide to take of the facts, that Brother Adger, who is reported still to have some lingering doubts on the subject, ought to abandon the missionary field in which he has been hitherto employed, for the equally wine and important field which is now white for the harvest. The position of things in the East is such as not to require absolutely his presence. The mission is comparatively strong, and the Churches which have been planted seem to be permanent nurseries of the Gospel. The door, moreover, is open to the world—from any part of Europe or America the servants of God may go and labor there; but here we are restricted in our choice of men to a limited region, and a region in which the supply is small: and your Committee feel that Presbytery will not be justified in sparing a man to do what others can do as well when he might be commissioned to do wnat is not likely to be undertaken without him. We cannot but think that the disease which was God's immediate agent in bringing our brother back to us, is to be regarded as an index of God's will, that he should now labor where his earliest impulses prompted him to put in his sickle. Should Brother Adger be induced to enter upon this field, your Committee are clear that he should endeavor to collect a separate congregation of the blacks; but, they are not prepared to recommend any plan, in reference to the organization of a Church and the administration of discipline Three schemes are conceivable, though all do not seem to be equally compatible with our distinctive principles as Presbyterians. One is to place the Church entirely under the jurisdiction of Brother Adger, as an Evangelist, until it should have attained sufficient maturity to elect its own officers and discharge the functions of a particular Church of Christ. From the state of society among us, it would probably require a length of time to reach the maturity supposed: and your Committee cannot see but that it is perfectly consistent with our principles that an Evangelist should sustain to an infant and feeble Missionary Church the relations, and discharge the duties, of a parochial Presbytery. He would be at liberty to consult discreet and judicious men, but the responsibility of all measures of Government and discipline must fall finally upon himself. Another plan is to appoint a session consisting of white elders, who should have the oversight of this flock; but, then, the difficulty occurs—Who is to choose these Elders? According to our system, every Church has a right to elect its own officers; and these colored Presbyterians, if organized into a separate Church, could not constitutionally be deprived of this right. A third plan might be to regard it as a branch of some existing Church, and to have all its discipline administered by the session of that Church. This and the first proposed seem to be the only schemes fully compatible with our circumstances in the Southern Stales. In conclusion, your Committee would recommend to Presbytery the adoption of the following resolutions: I. That the Presbytery heartily approve of the efforts which the Rev. J.B. Adger, of Charleston, proposes to make for the purpose of imparting