History of the M.E. Church, Vol. IV - Media Sabda Org

He organized the Liberia Mission. He fell a martyr to the climate, but laid on that benighted
continent the foundations of the denomination, never, it may be hoped, to be shaken. About the same
time a delegation from the distant Flathead Indians of Oregon arrived in the states soliciting
missionaries. Their appeal was zealously urged through the Christian Advocate, and received an
enthusiastic response from the Church. Bangs, who had been a leading promoter of the African
Mission, now, in cooperation with Fisk, advocated this new claim with his utmost ability. Jason and
Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard, were dispatched as missionaries. An extraordinary scheme of labors
was adopted, involving great expense; but, writes Bangs, "the projection of this important mission
had a most happy effect upon the missionary cause generally. As the entire funds of the society up
to this time had not exceeded eighteen thousand dollars a year, and as this mission must necessarily
cost considerable, with a view to augment the pecuniary resources of the society a loud and urgent
call was made, through the columns of the 'Christian Advocate and Journal,' on the friends of
missions to 'come up to the help of the Lord' in this emergency."
As an evidence of the beneficial result of these movements, the amount of available funds more
than doubled in the year in which the Lees and Shepard departed to their field. The surges of
emigration have overwhelmed nearly all that grand ultramontane region; the aborigines are sinking
out of sight beneath them; but the Oregon Mission became the nucleus of the Christianity and
civilization of the new and important state which has since arisen on the North Pacific coast.
Meanwhile Fountain C. Pitts was sent on a mission of inquiry to South America. He visited Rio
Janeiro, Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, and other places, and the Methodist South American Mission
was founded the next year by Justin Spaulding. Thus had the Church borne at last its victorious
banner into the field of foreign missions. It was to be tried severely in these new contests, but to
march on through triumphs and defeats till it should take foremost rank among denominations
devoted to foreign evangelization.
The operations of the Missionary Society had now assumed such importance, and involved such
responsibility, as to justify, in the judgment of the General Conference, the appointment of a special
officer, or "Resident Corresponding Secretary," who could devote his whole attention to them. Of
course the mind of the Conference, as indeed of the general Church, turned spontaneously to Bangs
as the man for such an office, and he was elected by a large majority.
He entered with energy upon his new functions. The first year of his secretaryship was signalized
by the first recognition and announcement, by the Missionary Society, of one of the most remarkable
events in the history of modern missions, the beginning of the German Methodist Missions.
Professor Nast, a young German scholar of thorough but Rationalistic education, had been reclaimed
by Methodism to the faith of the Reformation. He labored for some time among his countrymen in
Cincinnati, and later on the Columbus District, comprising a circuit of three hundred miles, and
twenty-two appointments. Thus originated the most successful, if not the most important of
Methodist missions; and in the next Annual Report of the society the "German Mission," and the
name of "William Nast," its founder and missionary, were first declared to the general Church.
German Methodism rapidly extended through the nation, to Boston in the northeast, to New Orleans
in the southwest. German Methodist Churches, circuits, districts, were organized. "In the brief space
of fourteen years," says the historian of Methodist Missions, "the German Missions have extended