Part 3 (1/2)

”We arrived in Cincinnati on the 18th. After our arrival I informed a Friend that the subject of visiting families had rested with great weight upon my mind; which he communicated to some of the select members, and it resulted in an opportunity with all of them. I opened the subject before them, and a sweet cementing season of divine approval was graciously afforded. They fully and feelingly united with us and encouraged us to proceed therein.”

They visited nearly all the families in that region, and felt encouraged in the labor. She writes:

”I believe it is the design of the Head of the Church to pour out a rich blessing on this part of His inheritance; indeed, He seems turning His hand upon the little ones, and will, I believe, raise up valiants among the youth, who will publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all His wondrous works.”

Having done much work in Ohio and Indiana, they came over the Alleghany Mountains, and revisited Baltimore, forming many pleasant acquaintances with the Friends in that city, and holding meeting for public wors.h.i.+p, as well as visiting the families for more quiet work.

They next turned toward the South, and reached North Carolina in time for the yearly meeting. There was much feeling here in regard to the separation, and an epistle from the Separatists was rejected at this yearly meeting.

In regard to the slaves, she writes:

”Vital religion is very low. Truth has fallen in the streets, and Equity cannot enter in some places. Here is a suffering seed in many portions of this land of slavery. Friends have borne in meekness a n.o.ble testimony against its iniquity, and, though they often feel disheartened at the shadowy prospect, I believe their upright example has had, and will still have, salutary influence. The Lord has inclined His gracious ear to the multiplied cries of the oppressed, and those who suffer for them as being bound with them, and will hasten the blessed day when Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand unto G.o.d and the oppressor shall no more oppress.

”There are so many rents and divisions throughout Christendom that many are crying, Who shall show us any good? I earnestly desire that these overturnings and siftings may tend to draw the people to the living eternal Substance, to build on the ancient Foundation of all the holy prophets and apostles. There is great need of more dedication and a stirring up to greater diligence in this land.”

The work and service in Carolina were carried on in great bodily weakness, and often Sybil Jones was compelled to remain at home while Eli Jones and the Friends with them attended the meetings. At the beginning of the new year they returned to their Maine home to pa.s.s a few quiet years before undertaking a still more extensive journey.

CHAPTER VI.

_VOYAGE TO LIBERIA._

”Be sure they sleep not whom G.o.d needs, nor fear Their holding light his charge, when every hour That finds that charge delayed is a new death,

So intimate a tie connects me with our G.o.d.”

BROWNING.

There is wonderful harmony in G.o.d's work in the different kingdoms and sub-kingdoms of His domain. When His method of working is resisted, there is always harsh conflicting, and finally He removes the obstacle; but wherever we look, so long as there is a submission to His plan, there is never a jar, never a halt on the road to the great end which He has in view, be it in the growth of a tree, in the motion of a world through s.p.a.ce, in the maturity of animal or human life, or in the development of spiritual being. But the first rule that must be fulfilled before He can rightly use any of His intelligent creations is that they fully submit themselves to Him to be trained and used.

Just as the brook yields strict obedience to the gentle impulse which moves it from its source on through its winding channel to its home in the great ocean of waters, so all who are to be the servants of the Most High must be _willing_ to become the instruments through which He works, and must let Him flow through unhindered. Those whom He will use He prepares just as much, and in a higher sense, as He makes the lily grow--not by any toiling and spinning on its part, but by putting a life within it which animates and builds up the whole structure; and as the lily adorns the spot in which He puts it, so His workmen should beautify the vineyard where He sets them.

It is a very marked fact in the lives of the two of whom I am writing that they not only gave themselves up to be prepared by Him who was to use them, but they also waited until He showed them where they should work. There is work everywhere which is waiting to be done, nor does any one do well who idly sits still until he is told just where to begin, but G.o.d has His chosen workmen fitted on purpose for a special place, as much as an earthly master-builder, and the time comes to every one when it is imperative for him to hear the order which he is to execute. The Lord spake unto Moses often, and He who made known His ways then has power to tell His will to whom he wishes now, and the proper messenger does not embark before the message comes.

I find in the earlier life of Eli and Sybil Jones that their great, absorbing wish was that they might be in full harmony with Him whom they served. They looked up to be taught, and He gave just the right service to enlarge and strengthen their powers, so that they might be prepared for the more difficult undertaking which now presented itself. No one who reads the journal which follows will think they went to Liberia prompted by their own feelings, but the service was evidently _laid upon them_.

To understand properly the struggle through which Sybil Jones pa.s.sed before leaving her home, it will be necessary to picture to ourselves the circ.u.mstances surrounding her nearly half a century ago. She had grown to womanhood in a little town in Maine, having exceedingly limited opportunities for obtaining a knowledge of the world and the ways of men and women; she was now the mother of five children, who needed their parents' care; she had just undergone the sorrow of seeing many dear to her pa.s.s from earth, while still others of her family were already on deathbeds: and now she was to go from all that earth held dearest to her, perhaps never to see even her own country again. To-day to travel is the ordinary course; fifty years ago it was a rare and momentous event for one to go far from home. It would seem most hazardous to a frail woman to go from Maine to Baltimore, there to embark, not in a steamer with modern conveniences, but in a sailing-packet with rough pa.s.sengers and still rougher crew, for the west coast of Africa. Let us not wonder as we read her account that she waited long and counselled earnestly with her own heart, for if she should go self-sent only perils insurmountable would be before her, but on G.o.d's errands, sent by His command, she knew of nothing to fear.

The _Friends' Review_ for 6th mo. 28, 1851, has the following paragraph: ”In the meeting of ministers and elders of New England Yearly Meeting on Seventh day, 14th, our dedicated friend Sybil Jones opened a prospect of an extensive religious visit to Great Britain, Ireland, some parts of the continent of Europe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and some islands on the west coast of Africa and in the West Indies; and her husband, Eli Jones, informed the meeting that he believed it his duty to bear her company in this extensive and arduous engagement.

The subject obtained the weighty and feeling consideration of the meeting, and, though Friends were fully sensible to the magnitude and importance of the undertaking and of the apparently inadequate state of her health, such a current of unity with the prospect was experienced that all doubt of its propriety was taken away; and they were accordingly liberated for the service. The sympathy and prayers of their friends will unquestionably follow them.”

As the most of the following year's work was in Liberia, it may be well to speak briefly of the position and condition of that country.

Liberia is a negro republic on the west coast of Africa. Its length along the coast is about three hundred and eighty miles, and its entire area about twenty-four thousand square miles. Sierra Leone, the country to the north of Liberia, was colonized by colored men from Great Britain, a.s.sisted by such men as Grenville Sharp, Wilberforce, and Clarkson, the first settlement being made in 1787, and composed partly of negroes who had served in the British army during our Revolutionary War. This and successive colonies were terribly weakened by the death-stroke of the African fever, but they were finally successful; and American philanthropists, who were eager to help an unfortunate race, founded here in 1822 a colony of freedmen who might enjoy the political and social privileges denied to them in the United States. The town of Monrovia was founded and named after James Monroe, then President. They landed in the midst of heathendom, and the first years were years of struggle; but these colored men showed that they could govern themselves. They drew up a const.i.tution much like the American, the first article of which read, ”All men are born equally free and independent, and among their natural inherent and inalienable rights are the rights of enjoying and defending life and LIBERTY;” and the fourth section, ”There shall be no slavery within this republic.”

The republic has a President, Senate, House of Representatives, and a judicial department, so that good laws are pa.s.sed, explained, and enforced. In 1847 the republic declared its independence, and was finally in 1861 recognized by the United States as a sovereign state.

The Methodist Church established a mission here in 1833; the Presbyterian Church followed this example, and sent J. B. Penny into the field the same year. The American Episcopal Church was at work in the republic as early as 1836, while the Baptists turned their attention there in 1845, so that it was in fact a ”missionary republic.” The present population of the republic comprises about 18,000 civilized negroes, chiefly of American origin, and 1,050,000 half-wild natives, who are gradually adopting a settled life and conforming to the habits of their civilized countrymen. Professor David Christy said in a lecture in 1855: ”If a colony of colored men, beginning with less than a hundred, and gradually increasing to nine thousand, has in thirty years established an independent republic amidst a savage people, destroyed the slave-trade on six hundred miles of the African coast, put down the heathen temples in one of its largest districts, afforded security to all the missions within its limits, and now casts its s.h.i.+eld over three hundred thousand native inhabitants, what may not be done in the next thirty years by colonization and missions combined were sufficient means supplied to call forth all their energies?”

It was during this visit to Liberia that Eli Jones first felt his heart fill with zeal for missionary work. One day, going to pay a visit to President Roberts, he found a large band of fierce natives a.s.sembled in the President's room to have him arbitrate their quarrel.

The dispute being settled peacefully, the President introduced Eli Jones, asking a n.o.ble-looking chief if he would like to have this man go with them to talk about G.o.d to their tribe. The prompt and earnest answer was, ”Yes, and we will build him a house if he will come and stay.” At once he saw in mind the needs of these and the thousands of other human beings waiting for some one to bring to them the fuller teaching of the way to a higher Christian civilization, and from that date he was more than ever desirous to be an instrument of help.