Wonderful. Thank you. Father, we thank you that you are a fountain of blessing to us,
your people, that you have given us this wonderful promise of the Spirit who bubbles up as streams
of living water within us, making existence life itself in knowing you. Thank you too,
Lord, that your Holy Spirit has manifested himself in the wonderful and beautiful lives of so many of
your people. And we are going to consider one this morning together. So continue to work that good
work of your recreation in our lives, that they may be adorned increasingly with the fruits of
your Spirit, that they might resemble your Son, Father, in whom is your delight, that we might
have lives that are deeply glorifying to you and wonderfully fulfilling to us. We ask it in Jesus'
name. Amen. All right. If you could hand these in when you're done, we'll use them again in the future.
Well, we're continuing our series on women you should know, but just might possibly not,
ones that are a little bit less known. And we are considering this morning Betsy Stockton,
we might say indentured servant who sat with queens. Indentured servant who sat with queens.
There she is. Betsy Stockton never knew the exact details of her birth.
Wherever her year of birth appears in any of the literature or records, there's always a question
mark after it. The identity of her father is unknown, as is her mother. She is listed in a census that we
have of a mulatto. So most likely, judging from the common experience, her mother was an enslaved woman
woman and her father, her mother's owner. One wonders if her mother, her birth mother, was ever given
the joy of naming her daughter. As Betsy, her name, B-E-T-S-E-Y, distinctively, as Betsy, was a favorite name
among the white woman of the Stockton clan, in whose Princeton home, baby Betsy saw the light of day
and her birth mother's face.
While just a little girl, mother and daughter were separated. And Betsy was placed in the Philadelphia
home of Robert Stockton's daughter, Elizabeth. There is Elizabeth. Elizabeth and her husband,
Ashbell Green. Ashbell Green, here is Elizabeth's husband, Ashbell Green was pastor of the Second
Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. And one might have thought this a relatively hopeful situation
for Betsy. Indeed, later, Betsy would refer to the Ashbell Greens as a, quote, affectionate,
indulgent household, even being spoiled. And describe her wards as, quote, reform-minded people
who supported the abolition of slavery. And it was true that Ashbell Green was for abolition,
indeed played a leading role in drafting the church's position on slavery for the Presbyterian
General Assembly that met in 1818, which stated forthrightly, and this would have been in Ashbell
Green's prose, okay, we consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another
as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature, as utterly inconsistent
with the law of God, which requires us to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is manifestly the duty
of all Christians to correct the errors of former times, former times, and as speedily as possible
to efface this blot on our holy religion and to obtain the complete abolition of slavery
throughout Christendom, and if possible, throughout the entire world. Sounds wonderful in principle.
And although Green wrote that Betsy Stockton, quote, was never intended to be held as a slave,
that was indeed her status, even if her condition held affectionate features.
Betsy writes of her master providing an education through tutoring and the use of his enormous private library.
So she did have many wonderful, wonderful opportunities. Thus, if this is a warm glow,
surely it is still a dark landscape.
Sadly, we have, in several intervals of Betsy's life, very little to go on.
We can construct an external biography as to the outward shape, but her interior life is often hidden from us
by the absence of written remains, as is so typical of many indentured servants.
Telling her story is, as one has put it, often feels like trying to read a book with pages torn out.
Just get frustrated at what's missing.
Or maybe singing, it's like singing a hymn when you forget some of the words, as I often do and increasingly these days.
But, for all the gaps, we're going to go ahead and try, because despite all these tantalizing gaps,
it really is a wonderful story and well worth telling.
When, in 1812, Ashbell Green, again, he had been president of the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia,
in 1812, Ashbell Green was summoned from his Philadelphia pastorate to assume the presidency of Princeton College.
There it is.
Isn't that a mighty handsome college there?
Not much has changed since.
It's still equally bucolic, but that's an aside.
I'm getting hisses.
I'm no.
And, indeed, the town of Princeton then and the college became the setting for the next season of Betsy's life,
and significantly in several ways.
The new president's arrival came at a time of crisis.
I knew before I left my pastoral charge that the college was in a most deplorable state, he writes.
I went with a resolution to reform it, or fall under the attempt.
And by reform, he meant reshape the college into what its pious founders intended it to be, as he writes.
Well, that would prove a challenging ambition for the degeneracy of the times, would prove tenacious.
To give a sense of the depths of the nadir to which the college had fallen from its founding hopes of being a nursery of piety,
let me give a few incidents from the beleaguered president's diaries that he records here in his memoirs.
In one act of notable, flagitious impiety, I love that term.
What a great term.
Flagitious impiety.
Mind-boggling against an instinct for what is appropriate.
Flagitious.
We are told of one student who, under cover of darkness, forced his way through a window in the college prayer hall,
and then cut through the leaves of the college Bible to form a cavity in which he inserted a pack of playing cards.
That when they opened the Bible to read scripture, a pack of playing cards fell out.
Then there was the big cracker incident.
The big cracker consisted of a hollow log with two pounds of gunpowder confined in the cavity.
This infernal machine, as the president called it, this infernal machine, was set off at the entrance of Nassau Hall.
This was the, that's that very lovely building right there.
On the Sabbath, which betrayed religion as the true target of this explosion.
Well, the discharge cracked walls and broke windows throughout the whole building,
hurling a fragment of the log through the door of the, the, the prayer, prayer hall.
So, even the president himself came under assault by a liquor animated student rowdy,
who aimed a blow at his head with an and iron.
Well, such was the bleak and lawless backdrop of a spiritual awakening,
which would stir, stir the Princeton campus.
Of the 105 students in the college at the time,
a mere 12 even professed any religion at all.
But the small cohort of disciples, along with the president,
had been praying daily for a descent of God's quickening spirit.
And when Ashbell Green had come into office,
he had instituted, as part of the college curriculum,
and thus required of all students, a weekly Bible recitation.
That is, every student had to read, reflect upon,
and present a synopsis of the content,
systematically through every book of the Bible.
And it seems that many a student,
though they treated it merely as,
this discipline is merely an academic exercise,
they began in doing so to experience,
as they read the Bible,
you can read in some of their journals,
that the Bible began to read them.
And the Holy Spirit, the great matchmaker,
was wedding their hearts to the Savior.
In this manner, writes the president,
the divine influence seemed to descend like a silent dew from heaven.
I mean, this is one of these really interesting things
when you study revivals in this period.
Some of them come through the remarkable and dramatic use of means,
preaching, revival preaching,
but some of them seem to be all out of connection with many means,
or certainly not dramatic means that we would often associate with it.
Just the simple, basic exercise of some of the simple disciplines of reading the Bible.
And great spiritual things happen.
Well, Betsy too, Betsy Stockton,
in her campus home,
the campus home of the president,
she lived in the president, Ashbell Green's home,
had been also engaged in this discipline.
She picked up the same discipline of reading her Bible systematically.
And she heard each day in their family altar,
because the servants would have,
she was always a part of the family altar with his children.
The fervent prayers of the president himself,
and indeed for her soul,
and the souls of his children.
And she too,
by the same spirit,
had in the joyful words of Green,
quote,
met with a saving change of heart,
in that very same awakening.
The minutes of Princeton's first Presbyterian church record that on September 20th,
quote,
Betsy Stockton,
a colored woman living in the family of Reverend Dr. Green,
applied for admission to the Lord's table.
Well,
the elders were satisfied as to the evidence of her experimental acquaintance with religion.
You remember from last time we explained that experimental,
we would say experiential.
This was deeply,
a deep reality in her experience.
They called it experimental in those days.
So upon,
there,
in the judgment of charity,
a credible evidence of experimental religion,
she was then baptized,
baptized,
and received into full communion.
Well,
right at this time,
the Greens freed Betsy from any obligation to remain in their household.
So as an indentured servant,
basically,
you were required to stay as a servant in a household for an express amount of time,
and then you would be released or given your freedom.
And,
and this they did.
I should say,
this would have been well in advance of the practice at the time in New Jersey.
So this was incredibly progressive,
even for ministers of the gospel in that day,
to just,
to,
to release her.
So she's released,
and needs no longer remain in their household as a servant.
But,
she actually requested,
and was given permission to stay on as a paid domestic helper.
That way,
she was able to continue to have access to what was surely one of the most ample and edifying libraries in the entire country in that day.
And in that library,
she continued to be tutored by the president himself,
and especially by his son,
James,
who took a diligent and affectionate interest in Betsy's education.
Uh,
Betsy was very keen to learn,
and also attended,
uh,
a local Sabbath school.
Uh,
and again,
remember,
Sabbath school is a school that,
that isn't simply devoted to religious instruction.
It's devoted to reading,
writing,
arithmetic,
pretty much all instruction,
but just meets on a Sabbath day,
which would be the only day available for people that,
that,
that work,
children that would work to be able to attend.
It's called Sabbath school.
And Osborne,
uh,
a Princeton seminary student who taught,
uh,
the Sabbath school classes was greatly impressed by Betsy's scholarship.
And when she surprisingly asked him for an academic reference,
uh,
he happily obliged,
writing,
quote,
she has a larger acquaintance with sacred history and the Mosaic institution than almost any ordinary person,
old or young I have ever known.
Later,
he specified what he meant by ordinary person is anyone who is not a minister of the gospel or on a present ordination track.
That's,
that's a remarkable comment,
commendation there.
More,
more knowledge of the Bible and the Mosaic institutions than anyone he knew.
Um,
Osborne went on,
I recollect a multitude of instances where for my own information,
I have questioned her about some fact in biblical history or some minute point of Jewish antiquities and have immediately received a correct answer.
Obviously showing the effects of Ashbell Green's ample library in which she spent much time.
Um,
um,
neither was Betsy keeping all this education to herself for she started her own class in town to instruct,
instruct black children in the community.
Now,
perhaps you are wondering for what purpose was Betsy seeking academic recommendations?
What's going on here?
Well,
it seems that in her newfound faith and newly acquired freedom,
she was eager to exercise both in no ordinary way.
It seems there was blossoming in her heart,
a desire to go to Africa as a missionary to carry the saving message of Christ to those who would never hear it at all,
unless someone would be willing to bring it to them.
Now,
overseas missions was just in its first infancy in America.
The first to leave for foreign shores were two couples who sailed from Boston to Burma in 1812,
uh,
among whom,
well,
Adam Ironman and Judson were one,
the subject of an earlier lecture that,
that we've given here.
Uh,
they sailed to Burma in 1812,
uh,
and there were as yet no opportunities to go to Africa with the nascent American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Okay.
Uh,
uh,
but there was one in the making to go to the remote sandwich islands.
The sandwich islands is what we now call Hawaii.
Uh,
Captain Cook actually named it the sandwich islands after the Earl of Sandwich,
uh,
after whom the sandwich was named,
uh,
because he was such an inveterate gambler that he never even wanted a break in his gambling,
uh,
to eat meals.
So his servants would bring him a little slice of beef between two slices of bread.
So,
uh,
that is the,
uh,
but,
but that's extra.
That is not part of the notes.
Um,
uh,
back to Hawaii.
Okay.
Uh,
why Hawaii?
Uh,
you may wonder why Hawaii?
Well,
that's a story that is quite extraordinary.
And one that takes us back here to New Haven and Yale.
Uh,
it turns out,
uh,
it turns out that a Hawaiian boy named Obukaya,
there he is,
uh,
Obukaya,
who had lost his parents in the internecine tribal wars back in the Hawaiian islands,
and,
and fleeing that violence,
had seen a ship passing by,
swam out,
and,
and stowed away in this passing ship,
and eventually shows up at a port,
New Haven,
and he,
and,
uh,
there,
there he shows up,
Obukaya,
in an ill-fitting sailor suit,
found himself wandering on the Yale campus,
and was taken in by students,
who,
thinking him a curiosity,
brought him to Yale president Timothy Dwight,
uh,
who received him in his,
oh,
did I forget Timothy Dwight?
He's,
he's,
he's somewhere.
You see him all around,
I mean,
I'm,
I'm sure you all have pictures of him in your home,
uh,
but,
uh,
there,
uh,
there,
President Dwight,
with President Dwight,
Obukaya,
learned to read and write English,
along with a daily dose of gospel.
Uh,
I heard of God as often as I lived with this family,
uh,
writes Obukaya.
Well,
before long,
he had put his trust in Christ,
and burned with a desire to return to his island people,
to bring them the good news of Jesus.
And it was Obukaya's Yale students,
uh,
companions,
who conceived of a vision of starting a foreign mission school to equip Obukaya,
Obukaya him,
and some others like him.
There were a couple of other,
um,
uh,
Hawaiian boys,
uh,
to carry the gospel back to their people.
Uh,
so this,
found this,
these are some of the names,
and then they have their Hawaiian names,
and you,
you,
you'll see their names.
This is from the original little entry book at,
uh,
at the,
the college that was founded,
the foreign mission school.
And Yale senior Edwin Dwight,
a relative of President Dwight,
uh,
who would,
he was the student that first found Obukaya wandering on the campus quad.
He became the first principal of this new mission school established in Cornwall,
Connecticut,
uh,
in 1817.
Uh,
here's the,
there's the,
uh,
there,
there was,
uh,
it's burned down,
so we can't see it anymore.
Alas,
uh,
sadly,
oh,
it's so heart-wrenching.
Obukaya gets through his training and is about to go,
but he never made it back to his people with the gospel,
for he died of typhus,
uh,
just,
uh,
just about a year later.
Uh,
but,
the torch that he had hoped to carry that had slipped from his dying hand was taken up by the Yale students who held him so dearly,
held him so dear.
Uh,
so,
um,
there we go.
Um,
uh,
the,
uh,
the,
uh,
first installment of two missionary couples set sail for Obukaya's island home on October 23rd,
1819.
So there's Hiram Bingham,
who,
again,
pretty famous name at Yale,
you know,
the Binghams,
um,
and,
uh,
yeah,
and there's Sybil.
This is,
that's a good one.
Uh,
that's actually painted by Morse,
is in Morse College,
who was also a really,
a really good artist.
Um,
so,
uh,
love that frill.
But here's another picture of them that I really like.
Isn't that,
it's a sweet picture.
There they are on the field.
Um,
the old,
uh,
daguerra,
uh,
thing there.
So,
uh,
yeah,
so,
so they were the,
they were the first,
uh,
Hiram and Sybil Bingham.
Uh,
and then the other couple that went with them,
um,
uh,
Yalies,
uh,
also,
um,
that's,
uh,
Lucy and,
um,
and,
uh,
Thurston.
Uh,
well,
no,
Thurston's their last name.
It's,
uh,
Asa.
Yeah.
Asa and Lucy Thurston.
So,
uh,
there they go.
Look at those wonderful gloves there.
Pretty,
pretty neat.
As we'll see in a moment,
those clothes that they left for didn't end up matching the climate.
Very well where they were going to show up,
but we'll get to that in a moment.
Uh,
so there they go.
That's the first installment to the sandwich islands and God blessed their endeavors opening doors.
So many doors,
in fact,
that they called for reinforcements.
We need more missionaries to come.
And it was this opportunity to bring the gospel to foreign lands that had prompted Betsy,
who heard about this,
to suddenly seek out references from her teachers.
Uh,
and,
uh,
so we've mentioned Osborne's reference.
You heard a little bit of that.
Her Sabbath school teachers glowing reference.
Well,
her other reference came from Ashbell Green.
I mean,
no shabby reference that the president of Princeton college,
uh,
and his commendation was without reserve.
Quote,
few of her age and sex have read more books on religion than she.
And he,
he,
he's the president of a universe of a college,
you know,
so he's around college students.
Um,
neither can they give a better account of them.
So she had,
she had,
she had assimilated this stuff.
Wonderful.
Uh,
well,
as it turned out,
uh,
there was another,
uh,
there he is.
there was,
uh,
another missionary candidate from Princeton,
uh,
Charles Stewart.
So there's Charles Stewart.
And,
uh,
he had also been awakened in that same awakening where,
uh,
Betsy,
uh,
had been revived,
uh,
or had closed with Christ.
And,
uh,
with his new bride,
he also hoped to answer the call to the Hawaiian missions.
Uh,
there he is again with his bride,
uh,
Harriet was her name.
That's Harriet.
So Charles and Harriet Stewart.
Um,
both the Stewart's and Betsy,
uh,
would have to pay a substantial share of their own expenses to get to the mission field.
And one might've thought this a daunting obstacle from,
uh,
only recently freed indentured servant.
Uh,
but she had been saving up her wages paid to her in the president's household.
And president green supplied all the shortfall to get her to the field.
Uh,
Betsy was to be specially attached to the Stewart family.
Now expecting,
uh,
she would be ideal help with the baby,
but,
but president green insisted that she was quote,
well qualified for higher employment in a mission than domestic drudgery.
Uh,
not that some domestic drudgery would not be the lot of all missionaries that show up on the field,
but green was keen that Betsy's role not be restricted to such.
The contract,
uh,
signed with the board of foreign missions indicates Betsy's work as quote,
the great enterprise of endeavoring to ameliorate the condition of the heathen generally,
and especially to bring them to a saving knowledge of the truth that as it is in Jesus.
Then there's a strange clause appearing in the contract that Betsy quote,
is to be regarded and treated neither as an equal,
nor as a servant,
but as an humble Christian friend.
What did this mean?
Did Betsy wonder or have anxiety as to how this would play out among her missionary colleagues?
Not as an equal,
but not as a servant?
Well,
she would soon have the opportunity to discover what relations would be like.
As November 19th,
1822,
Betsy Stockton boarded the whaling ship,
Thames,
docked in New Haven Harbor.
She would be the very first American single female missionary to land on foreign shores.
Isn't that extraordinary?
The very first single American missionary to land on foreign shores.
I'm very careful with that language.
Technically,
not the first to leave for foreign shores,
but to land on foreign shores.
As it turned out,
there was a widow,
Mrs. Charlotte White,
who just a couple of years earlier,
had headed out to Burma with the Baptists as a widow,
but she ran into another missionary single man on the boat.
And they,
yeah,
they were,
by the time they arrived,
they were married.
So,
so Betsy Stockton is the first single female woman missionary from America to arrive on foreign
shores as a missionary.
So,
just to be precise there in case you hear something different.
I'm not confused.
So,
yeah.
Well,
as the long voyage to the South Seas commenced,
so did Betsy's journal.
It's wonderful.
She has a journal for this time.
And it commences with this sentence.
Here begins the history of things known only to those who have bid the American shores a long adieu.
So,
here,
there,
there are a bunch of missionaries parting and leaving from New Haven,
New Haven Harbor.
So,
well,
yes,
things that begin known only to those who leave for foreign shores.
One thing that quickly began and known only to those who leave American shores upon the open seas is stomach distress.
For the next entry,
the very first day on board reads in her diary,
the weather became stormy and the seasickness commenced.
Only to be followed the next day with this entry.
It blew very hard in the day and in the night increased to a gale.
sea sickness increased with it.
I myself very sick.
When the first first Sabbath on board rolled around,
all the missionaries were far too sick to hold service.
And I can't help but wonder if Betsy's entry,
my soul longed for the courts of the Lord,
didn't in part reflect a longing for terra firma.
Apparently,
the weather,
they were on a whaling ship.
It's a period whaling ship,
not the Thames,
but one very much like it.
And apparently,
the weather,
the weather really pitched and swayed,
making meal,
taking meals on board,
a remarkable feat.
Our table,
she writes,
our table makes a curious appearance.
It is spread over with frames.
Every plate,
dish,
and cup sets in a frame and is so fastened.
And even thus,
we cannot get a meal without holding on with one hand,
I guess to the table,
so you can stay in your chair,
holding on with one hand and attempting to eat with the other.
So it must have been pretty remarkable.
There was another observation Betsy made while at table,
perhaps attentive to how the phrase from her contract,
treated neither as an equal nor as a servant,
would play out.
They ate at two tables.
She writes,
there are 11 persons at each table.
At the first,
the captain and one of the mates,
with nine of the missionaries.
At the second,
two mates,
three of the missionaries,
and four Hawaiian natives,
and myself.
The provisions of both tables are alike.
In the division of the missionary stores,
I always have my share,
so that I have indeed a double portion of the good things of this life.
For Mr.
and Mrs.
Stewart give me always a share of theirs.
The last apple and orange were cut in three pieces and divided between us.
This observation and experience turns out to have been very meaningful to Betsy,
who notes,
this impression of dividing the last orange and apple,
this impression that such little things make on my mind will never be erased.
Well, by the end of the voyage,
Betsy would refer to the stewards as my best friends.
Good for them.
Not only was there a united front with food for the missionaries,
but also when it came to gospelizing the unsaved sailors who surrounded them
by praying and preaching for their conversion.
We all retire for 15 minutes every evening,
directly after public prayers,
to pray for them.
Again, all of these are from Betsy's journal here.
I say retire.
That is, we go to different parts of the ship.
Some of us into the riggings,
some out into the boats,
and others on the spars.
The spirit of the Lord has, I trust,
been striving with some of the sailors.
Though many are yet, I fear, in the gall of bitterness.
Some, however, are rejoicing in the Lord.
How would your heart rejoice with us?
Could you see these hardy sons of the ocean,
who would scorn to complain of any earthly hardships,
bowing with the spirit of children at the cross of Christ?
Much of her diary, it seems,
is actually addressed to Ashbell Green,
almost like a personal letter.
And he would later,
he would be the one that would later collect this
and print it in the little missionary journal
that the Presbyterians would send out.
Well, much of the Sabbath preaching on board
was aimed at reclaiming these hardy sons of the ocean.
From such texts as Genesis 19, 17,
escape for your lives.
Well, there was certainly no escaping from the sermons,
confined on boat as they were.
Five-month voyage, too.
Not a few, it seems, were, in fact, reclaimed.
And many others were, at least, if not reclaimed,
at least reformed.
As Betsy notes later in the voyage,
when the boats were launched in pursuit of a whale.
So remember, the missionaries are on a whaling ship.
It's not as if you could just,
they have all these, like, passenger ships
that are, like, going to the Sandwich Islands.
You just take whatever ship was going there,
and it was probably going to be a whaling ship.
So they go after whales, too.
Pretty dangerous, pretty dangerous to do.
So, Betsy writes,
four months ago, these boats,
as they're lowering the little ships
to go after the whales,
four months ago, these boats would not have been lowered
without having our ears assailed with oaths.
Swearing, in other words.
Yet, not a profane word is now heard.
Remarkable reformation.
Then she writes, I imagine, with a smile,
clearly, Satan is very much out of humor.
With the progress that the spirit is making with the sailors.
Well, if Satan was out of humor,
Betsy was not.
Sometimes the sun was so hot overhead,
she thought herself hallucinating.
The weather is so warm, she writes,
that the tar is dripping from the rigging
and the water from my face.
The ship almost in a calm,
and we under a vertical sun.
They're right at the equator, too.
I am ready to think that I have seen something new under the sun,
if nobody else has.
Hallucinating.
But this fiery globe would work more than heat stroke for Betsy.
She writes of witnessing, quote,
one of the most sublime scenes that ever the eyes of mortals beheld.
No language could paint it.
It was the setting of the sun.
The scene kept changing from beautiful to more beautiful,
and yet more beautiful still,
until I could think of nothing but the bright worlds above
to which the saints are hastening.
As soon as it was over and the sun had disappeared,
we were assembled on the quarter deck for prayers.
Here my soul found free access to the throne of grace
and rose with delight in the contemplation of that God
who is the author of all our joys and of all our good.
Moving from nature to the spiritual realities that they suggest
is a common feature of Betsy's journals
and very typical of the spirituality of this period.
Once their vessel was in a complete calm,
but unknown to Betsy,
was being insensibly drawn by a current
toward a craggy rock
upon which assuredly they would have met a watery end.
Witless of the danger,
she felt no distress at all.
But it was a false ease,
she realized subsequently.
This she saw as emblematic.
She writes in her diary,
Can there be anything more like a sleeping Christian
or an unawakened sinner as this?
In some of Betsy's words,
we find a window upon her younger days
in the green household,
which we had lacked
and which seems hearteningly
to witness a real friendship
and fond remembrances of home,
she calls it.
To Green,
as she writes,
of being a little homesick.
Oh, thought I,
if I could but spend one Sabbath evening
in your study,
how my heart would rejoice.
Yet she draws back
from indulging in such thoughts.
But I must not look forward
to that Sabbath
which will never end,
there to see face to face
what we now see dimly through a glass,
and to meet you with my other friends
whom I have left behind.
But her fond memories
and affectionate ties
keep surfacing.
Tis true,
the endearments of home
cannot be forgotten.
My mind often returns
to your family altar.
There,
I have often left my burden,
and I cannot forget
that consecrated spot.
Two things
put wind in her sails
amid such doldrums,
emotional doldrums,
praying friends at home
and present friends on board.
It is a source of consolation to me,
she writes,
to be able to think
that you with many others
in my native land
pray for me.
Were it not for that,
I should almost despair.
Good reminder for us
to pray for our missionaries.
And later,
she writes to Ashbell Green,
when you think of me
as a stranger
in a strange land,
think of me still
as one who has
kind friends.
The sustaining bond
of friendship
were especially felt
toward the stewards
for whom Betsy
was part of the family.
The ties were only deepened
with the birth
at sea
of their son,
his name memorializing
the circumstance
of his birth.
Little Charles Seaforth
was his name,
who Betsy considered
my charge.
The little fellow
beguiled many
of my lonely hours.
The first moment
I saw this little innocent,
I felt emotions
I was unacquainted
with before.
This, no doubt,
arose from my deep
attachments
to his parents.
Betsy and Stuart's lives
would be affectionately
entwined,
not only on the mission field,
in which they were
about to arrive,
but for their entire lives.
Their final arrival
on that field,
there they are,
you can see that boat,
you can't quite see it,
but there's the American flag
that's on that ship.
Their final arrival
upon that field,
five months,
after five months
on the open ocean,
has some typical marks
of cross-cultural encounter.
It seems
the Hawaiian greeting party
were more scantily clad
than the newcomers.
And this sorely tested
their missionary mettle.
As Betsy describes,
two or three canoes
loaded with natives
came to the ship.
Their appearance
was that of
half man,
half beast.
naked,
except a narrow strip
of tapa
round their loins.
Apparently,
the shock
was just too great.
If you're wondering
what a tapa is,
apparently,
yes.
It's that little,
little tiny,
little strip
there,
but nothing,
nothing at all else.
So,
as Betsy continues,
when they first
came on board,
the sight
chilled our very hearts.
The ladies
immediately retired
to the cabin
and there burst
into uncontrollable tears.
And some of the gentlemen
turned pale.
My own soul
sickened within me
and every nerve
trembled.
Are these,
thought I,
the beings
with whom I must spend
the remainder
of my life?
But she rallied
and shifted
her focus
from thongs
to theology.
They are men
and have souls
was the reply
my conscience made
prompted by the spirit.
So,
good.
Gifts
were exchanged
and perhaps
it was no coincidence
that upon receiving
coconuts
and fish
from the locals,
the missionaries
gave them
pants
and shirts
in return.
Divergent
amounts
of apparel
was not
the only
cross-cultural
incident,
as Betsy tells.
I brought
my little boy
on deck
who was
two weeks old.
Some of them,
the native,
the Hawaiians,
the locals,
some of them
took him
in their arms
and in ecstasy
exclaimed,
Araha
Miatai,
forgive me
for those of you
who speak
Hawaiian,
I don't know
how to pronounce it.
It means
very great love
to you,
very great love
to you
and kissed him
the baby,
a little seaworth.
She continues,
that last
expression
of affection,
Betsy primly
inserts,
we could have
dispensed with
very well
but
we have
to become
all things
to all men
that we might
gain some.
What a great
application
of that
mighty
Pauline principle.
For the sake
of the gospel,
we will let them
kiss our babies.
Flexible missionaries
indeed.
Betsy's time
in Hawaii
would prove
quite short
but no time
was wasted.
She
announced
to the locals
that she
would start
a school.
They in turn
requested
enthusiastically
that instruction
begin the very
next day
and it did.
She was ready
to go.
By all
accounts,
she was
a very
skilled,
that's not
Betsy,
I'll explain
this in a moment.
By all
accounts,
she was
a skilled
and well
loved teacher.
she was
also
well loved
by the
king of
Hawaii's
favorite
queen.
There she
is
with a
servant
there.
He had
four
queens,
four wives
but his
favorite queen,
she,
who of
all the
foreign
guests,
the missionaries
that were
there,
would invariably
select Betsy
to sit
with her
on the
royal sofa
in state
functions.
It's
wonderful.
They had
a real
connection.
And when
the king's
son,
there he
is,
and when
the king's
son's
education
was considered,
it was
Betsy
who was
selected
to provide
the
responsibility.
So it
would seem
a one-time
indentured
servant
had become
the companion
to queens
and the
tutor
to heirs
of parent.
Isn't that
wonderful?
It would
appear the
fulfillment of
the proverb,
do you see
one skillful
in their
work?
They
shall
stand
before
royalty.
Proverbs
22,
29.
But
these
gifts
were not
exhausted
on royalty.
She was
keen to
establish,
very keen
to establish
a school
also for
the
commoners
and did
so.
As she
wrote to
Ashbell
Green,
I have
now a
fine
school
for the
lower
class
of
people,
the
first,
I believe,
that has
ever been
established.
She's
certainly
right about
that.
The school
started with
30 and
grew,
meeting every
afternoon with
Betsy instructing
in the native
tongue in which
she had managed
by then to
become quite
proficient.
She certainly
was busy with
all of her
teaching,
alongside the
much care that
she provided
for Harriet
Stewart,
who seemed
to constantly
struggle with
her health.
perhaps it
was the
press of
duties that
caused
Betsy to
abandon her
journal,
which sadly
ends at
this time.
Her final
entry records
how she was
longing for
some letter
from home,
and hopeful
as one
ship was
expected from
Boston and
another from
New York.
So her
last entry
of her
diary,
I often
visited the
beach to
watch for
sails.
Then poignantly
notes,
the vessel
arrived at
last,
but brought
me no
letters.
perhaps there
is encouragement
here for
our communication
with our
missionaries
abroad,
for like
cold water
to a thirsty
soul,
so is good
news from a
far country,
it says in
Proverbs.
Betsy's
sojourn upon
her Hawaiian
mission field
would prove
short,
lasting only
two and a
half years,
for Harriet
Stewart had
become so
ill they
feared she
would be
lost if
they did
not return.
And Betsy,
so much a
part of the
family,
would not
leave Harriet's
side,
nor the
now two
young children
who knew
her as
their second
mother.
It would
take the
Stewart's
and Betsy
gruelingly
nearly a
year to
sail back
to America.
Harriet,
it seems,
would never
fully recover
her broken
health and
die just
four years
after their
return.
during this
time with
Father
Charles,
often away
for long
stretches as
Navy
chaplain,
couldn't
hold down
the missionary
so he
became a
Navy
chaplain.
Odd job
to pick up
when your
wife is
very ill,
but he
was away
a lot.
But Betsy
would for
seasons drop
her new
venture in
Philadelphia
to come
and take
care of
the children
in upstate
New York.
Now three
children and
waning
Harriet.
Well, that
new venture
of Betsy's
was an
extraordinary
one and
surely no
less challenging.
A prominent
Philadelphia
printer,
publisher,
and philanthropist
Matthew
Carey
trembled for
the future
of his
city.
There he
is.
Go
through our
streets,
lanes,
and alleys,
and view
the appearance
and manners
of children,
dirty,
ragged,
quarreling,
often cursing
and swearing,
and sowing
the seeds
of vice
and crimes
which are
likely to
consign them
when the
fruits of
that education
have arrived
at maturity
to houses
of refuge,
penitentiaries,
and jails.
Well, to
counter this
grim specter,
a colored
infant school
was to be
established for
children two
to five years
old.
But who
could plausibly
captain such
a vessel?
But Carey
thought he
had his man,
and she
was a woman.
Fame as a
missionary
educator marked
out Betsy as
the ideal to
direct such
an outreach.
And her
services were
sought with
a salary of
$200 per
year.
I think that
was reasonably
high in my
translations.
$200 a year.
Betsy accepted
the challenge.
On the first
day of May,
1828,
46 little
urchins were
present.
But by the
end of the
month,
another 29,
that makes
75,
were added.
And it
kept growing
at reports
of Betsy's
surprising
success.
Oh,
here's a,
this is not
Betsy's infant
school,
but this is a
period infant
school.
No surprise
that success
was surprising.
I mean,
what hopes
could a
teacher have
with 115
infants in
the classroom?
115 between
ages 2 and
5.
I mean,
I keep
trying to
picture the
classroom.
Am I
missing
something?
Or could
Betsy Stockton
have been one
of the most
talented teachers
ever?
Ever?
I mean,
this seems
extraordinary
to me.
I do
children's
church,
and I
love it,
but there
are not
115 there
between 2
and 5.
That would
be very
challenging.
Well,
okay,
I guess
she did
have,
she did
have one
classroom
assistant.
Okay,
so maybe
that's it.
Maybe that's
it.
No,
gee,
no.
An
oversight
committee
visited
and wrote
up a
report.
It was
not to
be expected
that in
the short
space of
one month,
any material
change could
be affected
in the
manners and
habits of
the children,
ignorant and
uneducated.
But they
found the
infants,
quote,
more cleanly
in their
persons,
more regular
in their
attendance,
and more
attentive to
the exercises.
And they
found their
teacher,
quote,
active,
energetic,
and
intelligent.
Reflecting
upon,
quote,
her capability
and the
trying nature
of her
duties,
the committee
recommended
an immediate
raise in
her salary
by 25%
to $250
a year.
Indeed,
indeed,
I say.
Betsy's
reputation
as a
teacher grew
during her
tenure at
the Gatskill
Street Infant
School,
beyond the
bounds of
Philadelphia.
And in
April 1829,
it seemed
she was
headhunted.
A Methodist
missionary,
William Case,
there he
is,
sought to
establish
similar infant
schools among
the Native
Americans in
the wilds of
Canada,
and sought
Betsy's
expertise in
this venture.
mother.
Once again,
we wish we
had more
access to
her mind
in this
matter.
Was it
the missionary
motive that
allured her?
She leaves
us no
record at
all of
her thoughts,
but in
any case,
she quitted
the classroom
in Philadelphia,
perhaps a
leave of
absence,
and headed
to the
shores of
Grape
Island on
the Canadian
side of
Lake Ontario.
I mean,
this is
the wilds
with Native
American boys,
and establishes
an infant
school among
the natives.
And it
seems to
have gone
really,
really well.
But then,
equally unknown
is why she
returned.
For within
six months,
she was back
at the
Gaskell School
carrying on
where she
left off.
Maybe it was
just a leave
of absence
that they
gave her.
We don't
know.
The school
and its
infant students
continued to
flourish back
in Philadelphia
when she
was back,
and one
might easily
have imagined
Betsy making
it the
site of
her continued
labors.
It was an
extraordinary
impact.
But,
as had been
the case
in the
Hawaii
mission,
her adopted
kin and
the fate
of Harriet
intervened.
Harriet
finally and
sadly slipped
away September
6th,
1830,
leaving three
children
motherless.
Well,
not entirely,
for within
the month,
Betsy resigned
her post at
Gaskell to
take her
adopted children
under wing.
Children across
Philadelphia wept
at the loss,
but the
Stewart children
wept for joy
at the comforting
sight of
Aunt B,
as they called
her,
arriving,
Aunt Betsy.
Betsy gathered
the children
and bundled
them off to
Princeton.
And this is
right at the
same year,
that's a print
taken at the
very same year
that she
returned there.
So,
and why not?
Is that not a
lovely,
excuse me,
okay?
My wife is
kicking me under
the table.
Okay.
She returned
to her original
home.
Ashbell Green
was no longer
there,
but his son
James,
who had been
her tutor
in youth,
you recall,
was.
And their
fast friendship
added special
sweetness to
that season
of life
for Betsy.
The Stewart
children would
remain in her
care five years
until Charles,
their father,
remarried and
came down to
collect them and
move them back
up to New
York.
And then,
for the first
time in her
life,
Betsy lived
alone.
A sorrowful
episode stains
this period.
Her home
church,
the First
Presbyterian,
remember the
one in which
she had been
baptized and
become a
member,
First Presbyterian
of Princeton,
sadly became
the painful
site of a
deep failure
of Christian
love.
Their
there it
is.
While the
church
accepted
black
members,
and you
remember
Betsy
Stockton
was one
of them,
coloreds,
as they
call them,
were relegated
to a
segregated
seating up
in the
balcony.
They all
had to
sit alone
apart from
the whites.
Then in
1835,
the church
burned down.
during the
reconstruction,
the whites
and the
blacks found
temporary
refuge in
different
buildings.
So the
whites went
to the
chapel at
the seminary
there,
Princeton
Seminary,
and there
blacks were
not allowed.
So the
blacks just
had another
little spot
that the
coloreds would.
But then
once the
new
construction
of their
church
was
complete,
the white
members
declared the
new
sanctuary
a whites
only,
denying their
black sisters
and brothers
in Christ
access to
their
church.
Here was
their
interim
pastor,
and he
writes,
this is
James W.
James Waddle
Alexander of
Princeton Seminary
fame,
great theologian
and pastor.
He writes,
I think
blacks are
very unwise
in insisting
on such
a privilege
now.
Well,
denied that
privilege
of being
in their
own
church,
of
returning
to their
church
home.
A majority
of the
black
members
formed
their
own
congregation,
which in
1840
became the
first Presbyterian
church of
color of
Princeton,
later called
the Witherspoon
Street Church.
There it
is,
or was.
It's still
there today,
it doesn't
look like
that anymore.
Betsy's
name topped
the list
of founding
members of
the Witherspoon
Street Church,
and she
quickly brought
her vision
and gifts
to bear,
making the
new church
a haven
in Princeton
for religious
and general
instruction.
In fact,
Reverend
Professor
Alexander,
who had
made that
comment that
best stay
separate,
who himself
had helped
to thrust
the black
members out,
paid them
a visit,
and lamented,
quote,
yesterday,
I examined
Betsy Stockton's
school.
I wish I
knew of a
white school
where religion
was so
faithfully
inculcated.
he wished,
I guess he
was blind
to the
simple
and scriptural
solution,
stop the
racial separation,
and together
enjoy the
diversity of
gifts and
their blessing.
Father,
forgive us
our trespasses.
Betsy also
exercised her
teaching gifts
outside the
church,
establishing in
1837,
the sole
public,
or what
they called
common school
for black
children,
and pouring
into it
the energies
of nearly
30 years
that would
remain to
her.
There is
the black
school.
It was hard
to get that
picture.
Either that
or the
extraordinary
circumstance
of actually
it being
photographed
while it
was being
struck
by lightning.
One of
the two.
I don't
know.
But
with
enrollments
often as
high as
70 students,
Betsy
provided the
benefit of
an education
to generations
of black
families at
Princeton.
Here is a
period colored
school,
not Betsy's,
but the
same period.
From the
same period,
that's the
one picture
that I
could find.
Additionally,
she persuaded
a student
at Princeton
Seminary,
Louis Mudge,
to open a
night school
for young
black men
and women
who were
employed
during the
day and
so unable
to attend
common
school.
There are
stories of
Betsy and
Mudge
staying late
and enthusiastically
reading Caesar's
Gallic Wars
to each
other in
Latin.
Betsy was
really a good
Latinist,
as are some
in this room,
I see.
By this
time,
she was
known by
nearly all
in town
as Aunt
Betsy and
came to be
admired as
one of
Princeton's
most beloved
figures.
Unassuming,
gentle in
spirit,
yet
indomitable,
she exercised
a steady,
salty influence,
particularly
among the
young.
It would
seem the
missionary
impulse never
left her.
There was a
plan in the
making for
her to
actually accompany
a missionary
couple to
the island
of Carisco,
that's just
off the
west coast
of Africa,
right around
Equatorial
Guinea or
so.
Perhaps one
could imagine
in fulfillment
of her
earliest
missionary
dream to
get to
Africa as
a missionary.
But it
did not
finally
materialize.
Although,
one of her
first women
teachers of
her Sabbath
school,
Cecilia Van
Tine,
did end up
going to
Rio de Janeiro
as a
missionary in
1848,
and it's
not hard to
trace Betsy's
influence upon
her.
But for
Betsy,
Princeton would
remain the
place of her
final labors,
and in so
doing,
she became
so greatly
loved that
when she
came to
die,
October 24,
1865,
she was
much missed
and much
mourned.
The president
of Princeton,
John McClain,
and the senior
professor of
theology at the
seminary,
Charles Hodge,
he would have
been considered
to be the
greatest American
theologian of
his day,
and wrote
the textbook
for all
theological
seminaries,
his three
volume
systematic
theology.
Charles Hodge
himself,
those two,
John McClain,
president of the
university,
and Charles
Hodge,
the chief
theologian at
the seminary,
they conducted
her funeral,
Betsy Stockton.
Some 30
years after
her death,
Charles
Seaforth
Stewart,
there he
is,
remember,
he was the
baby born
on board
ship,
that missionary
voyage,
and whom
she had
cared for
as a
second mother,
he proposed
that a
plaque be
placed in
Hawaii at
the site of
her missionary
work.
The proposal
was turned
down on
grounds that,
quote,
though she
did loyal
service,
she was but
one of many
at the
time.
Well,
no doubt
this was
true.
No doubt
there are
many who
do loyal
service,
and they
have no
memorial here
below.
Perhaps,
as with
Betsy Stockton,
much,
even all of
their story,
is unknown.
Well,
if in
Betsy's
case,
such
quiet,
loyal
service is
not judged
worthy of
a plaque,
never
mind,
I have
no doubt
that she
received a
better
commendation
on high
than a
plaque in
Hawaii.
Here is
a,
can't quite
see that,
but it
says,
presented
by the
scholars of
Elizabeth
Stockton.
all of
her black
students over
the years
paid to
have that
put in
in the
Witherspoon
street church.
Yeah.
Well,
perhaps a few
concluding
reflections are
in order.
We all have
losses in
this fallen
world.
Perhaps for
some of us,
they are
profound.
no doubt
many of
them are
known only
to us
and to
God.
It seems
Betsy had
many losses.
Think of
being separated
from her
birth parent
just as a
small girl,
not being
able to
turn to
her own
church,
no doubt
many of
which we
will never
know as
there remains
very little
of her
expression,
her interior
life.
But what
we do know
is that she
seems to
not have
dwelt upon
her losses,
but rather
took up the
blessings that
God had given
her in her
life and
built on
those.
And she
built very
diligently.
She seems
to have been
a really good
steward
of what
God had
given her
and used
those blessings,
developing them
that she
might be a
blessing to
others.
And this,
for me,
is much of
what glows
in her
life.
She didn't
become bitter
or despondent,
but rather
gave where she
had received
and did so
bravely and
with a
remarkable
spirit of
adventure and
sacrifice.
We have
stated that
if the
affection and
care Betsy
knew cast
a warm glow
upon her
indentured
servitude,
surely it is
still a dark
landscape.
Slaves among
Christians?
neither can
we but be
horror-stricken
and heart-sick
at the thought
of a
white's
only sign
hanging on
a church
door.
That such
is utterly
incompatible
with the
gospel of
Christ
was somehow
not seen
by the
most
theologically
educated
people
in the
country.
I'm
struck
by the
need
for all
of us
to pray
as David
did.
Cleanse me
from my
hidden faults.
We all
have blind
spots,
grievous
failures
in loving
God and
neighbor,
brother and
sister.
far from
exposing
them,
our
Christian
culture
often
obscures
these
sins
from our
sight.
We need
the spirit
to expose
them with
that instrument
sharper than
any two-edged
sword,
able to
divide between
the bone
and marrow,
the soul
and spirit.
We must
all ask
individually
and collectively
as to how
that holy
agent and
instrument
is performing
its sacred
searching work
within
and among
us.
There is
no other
way
to be
in the
world
and yet
not of
it.
Thank you.
I think we
have a couple
minutes perhaps
for questions
or comments.
questions.
Yeah.
Thank you for
the wonderful
story.
I was
wondering,
did it
surprise you
that a
teacher of
such academic
caliber would
spend so much
time on
toddlers and
children as
compared to
university
students?
Was it a
personal choice
or were
there
limitations
based on
race and
sex?
Yeah,
well,
in many
ways,
her teaching
career
spanned
the whole
spectrum.
So she
seemed eager
to put
herself in
where an
opportunity
opened up
and where
there was
a gap,
she would
try to
fill that
gap.
So,
yes,
she did
work with
infants in
the infant
school from
ages two
to five.
She did
that up
in Canada
also.
But she
also started
common
schools for
all age
groups and
Sabbath
schools and
the very
elderly were
able to
come to
her schools
too.
So it
wasn't as
if she
confined her
teaching
activities to
just one
particular
segment.
royalty
too.
She had
remarkable
adaptability.
Yeah.
I'm
struck by
the fact
that I've
never heard
of her
faithful
Christian
moments.
And it's
reminded
of the
first
where God
used to
be
changed
strongly.
How many
faithful
Christians
were out
there?
We'll never
hear about
the middle
of the day
until the
day comes
where Christ
will give
us our
combination.
So it's
just an
example of
God, you
know,
making people
for himself
that we'll
learn about
until the day
comes.
Yeah.
Isn't that
wonderful?
I know of
so many
missionary
stories where
that's
something that
they often
struggle with.
One time
there was a
missionary that
was coming
back.
I can't get
into the
whole story,
but it
turns out
that he
was on
the same
boat after
a whole
life long
time on
the mission
field.
He was
on the
same boat
that Teddy
Roosevelt was
coming back
on after
his little
hunting spree
in Africa.
And everybody
bands and
everything is
there to
meet him
and cheer
and all.
And the
missionary just
had a moment
standing on
the dock
with nobody
to meet
him coming
back.
Had a
moment of
self-pity.
You know,
gosh, I'm
coming home.
There's nobody
here that
sees at
all.
And he
said, the
Holy Spirit
told me so
distinctly, I
heard his
voice, oh,
you're not
home yet.
So yes, there
will be that
day when we
will have that
combination and
it will certainly
be worth
everything.
And I love
that bit that
says, you
know, do not
say, oh,
Jacob or
Israel, your
way is hidden
from the
Lord.
that's a
great comfort
for so many
reasons.
For so many
reasons.
Yes.
And so
many, you'll
see if you
go, a lot
of missionaries
I can think
of.
So one that
went to
Burma, his
record is on
high.
His record is
on, her
record is on
high.
That's all
they have.
We don't
know.
We don't
know.
That's right.
Yeah.
We should
stop.
Oh, sorry.
Thank you,
team.
Next week,
you have the
joy.
I am doing
a wedding.
We're out
of town.
But Tom
Schmidt will
be looking at
women from
the early
church.
So it
should be
exciting.
Yeah.
And we'll
reconvene after
that.
Thank you.