“The influx of large numbers of people from foreign parts has always been regarded as dangerous to American institutions, civil and religious,” said the speaker at the annual meeting of the General Association in 1885. The meeting was held at Richmond's Second Baptist Church exactly to the day, 122 Novembers earlier than this year's meeting. The concern over immigration problems sounds as current as today's news.
Fred Anderson
Charles L. Cocke, the primary mover and shaker of Baptist work in the Roanoke Valley, was the speaker. He had caught the attention of the messengers when he said that an “influx of large numbers from foreign parts” — was regarded as dangerous by many natives. Now that he had their ears, he wanted their minds and their hearts.
Speaking on behalf of an expansion of the state missions, Cocke said: “These apprehensions have already been realized in [other] states and sections. And now Virginia has become the land of promise to much of this class of population.
“We invite them, we greet them, we welcome them to our soil, and they come and will continue to come. Let Virginia Baptists meet these people in the spirit of Christian love and brotherhood — let us meet them with the Bible, the source of light and life to the children of men, with the earnest, active colporteur [Bible distributor], with the faithful, intelligent and wise minister of the gospel, and train and mould them to our standards of civilization and revealed truth.
“Do this, and society will be safe, every material interest be promoted, and coming generations be impressed with a beautiful and powerful Christian civilization.”
VBHS
Charles Cocke
Cocke had seen multitudes of foreign laborers passing by Roanoke on their way to the coal mining country in the great Southwest. “New and strange peoples are gathering to make Virginia their permanent abode. Certainly, if we needed 50 [state] missionaries 10 years ago, we need now not less than 150. Facts and figures cry aloud for expansion — let us expand our work — in the name of the Lord let us give the gospel to every family that settles on Virginia soil.”
Recalling the noble vision of the founders of the General Association in 1823, Cocke urged his listeners: “Baptists of Virginia, sixty-one years ago you resolved to preach the gospel in every neighborhood of Virginia, whether men would hear or forbear. You have not yet made good the high resolve. Brethren, sisters, pastors, churches, to the front on State Missions!”
Cocke described the immigrants as “strange peoples” and indeed they were. They had strange names, strange languages, strange customs. But they did not have to remain strangers. They could be welcomed, respected and absorbed into the larger culture. They did not have to be feared.
In 1885 the General Association had 53 state missionaries working across the state. They were concentrated west of the Blue Ridge, in the Piedmont and Central Virginia and in the Tidewater. Many of these state missionaries, especially in the seaport cities and in the mining towns, began to relate to the spiritual needs of the immigrants.
In the 1880s, Virginia Baptists had an added resource in its Sunday School and Bible Board, headed by the indefatigable John Mason Pilcher. He had a small army of Bible distributors and Sunday school organizers. He sent his laborers to everyone regardless of race or national origin. He sent them to whites and blacks and to immigrants. One of his religious book distributors reported that the blacks in Rappahannock Association “buy a great many books.” The agent added: “I take the pains to visit them and their churches. They receive me politely and always ask me to preach for them. I receive contributions from them, and am nearly as successful in collecting from them as from the whites.”
Thomas Morris was sent to labor in the mining towns of Pocahontas, Bramwell and Simmon's Creek where many of the miners were foreigners. “I don't know where to go first,” he reported, “the harvest is so great. I sometimes wish I could be in half a dozen places at once.” Morris told about one foreigner who said, “Thank you for talking to me, no one ever did so before.”
Another Bible distributor, J.T. Morris, was working in Portsmouth. He told about going aboard a ship and distributing Bibles to the deck hands. “The boys had no money, not having been paid. They seemed anxious to get a Bible or Testament. I gladly furnished them.”
In 1902, Virginia's Sunday School and Bible Board sent Mollie Apperson to work in the rough and tumble coal-mining town of Pocahontas. She was called “a Bible woman.” She made friends with the native population as well as the large number of immigrants. In one year alone, she visited over 4,000 persons in the town, led over 100 meetings for children, and even led a religious service in the local jail. From her labors, at least six churches were planted at different locations.
A century and more ago, Virginia Baptists led in welcoming strangers. Now and again, they even discovered that they had “entertained angels unawares.”
Fred Anderson may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.