In the providence of God, a number of our brethren have been permitted to return to their homes, and have reorganized the Dardanelle Association. The annual meetings of this body were suspended from 1862 till 1866. And every one of the brethren who formerly composed it was driven from his home during the bloody ordeal which a portion of us survived. Thank God, a remnant has been spared to worship him again under our own "vine and fig tree," and as yet there is "none to make us afraid."At the session just held a committee of one from all the churches represented, was appointed to report on the state of the churches, which should be spread upon our minutes and sent to our brethren in other States, in the form of an appeal for help. Also a resolution was adopted, requesting all Baptist papers to place the report before their readers. As we have not been able to get our minutes printed yet, I send you the report in manuscript.
An Appeal. To the Board of Domestic Mission, Southern Baptist Convention, and to all Baptist Organizations and ministers who may sympathize with us:
Dear brethren, we have been requested by our association to lay before you something of the mournful destitution that exists, and of the importance of the field that we represent, and to pray you, in the name of Christ, to send or come over and help us.
Our association embraces the territory from Fort Smith, down the Arkansas river, on both sides, to Salla Rock, a distance of 100 miles, and we represent the counties of Sebastian. Scott, Franklin, Johnson, Pope, Yell, and parts of others. In our bounds are the towns Fort Smith., Van Buren, Ozark, Clarksville, Dover, Russellville, Dardanelle, Danville, Waldron, Greenwood, and others. Some of these are among the most important points in the State, and in the entire West. If we had the brethren to occupy these towns, we have reasons to hope that churches might soon be built in all of them. But alas! there is no church of much strength in any of them, nor is there a vestige of a church in more than four of them.
Besides, in 1862 there were more than twenty little churches in our bounds that have no preaching now, and have not had a single sermon in nearly or quite four long and sad years. Seventeen of these are on the south side of the river. Our preachers have done all they could, labored hard, worn themselves down, and been successful in their work. But it is impossible for them to cultivate this vast field. And brethren, we are too poor to employ domestic missionaries to ride in our bounds. During the war we were between two fires, till we were nearly all driven from our homes, and our country almost entirely depopulated. We find it very hard to raise the funds to print this appeal. Many of our brethren are unable to pay their taxes, and very few can furnish their families with meat. Thus we have been impoverished by the war; yet the people seem anxious to hear the gospel, and where we have been able to hold meetings God has blessed us unusually.
In the name of the prostrate cause of our dear Redeemer, dear brethren of the Board at Marion, send us all the help you can. Or can not some churches, associations, or other organizations send us one, two, or three missionaries? Or, are there not some preachers full of the Holy Spirit who will emigrate among us and help us to cultivate the field? Come brethren, to the rescue and to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Correspondence may be addressed to the chairman of this committee, at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
E. L. Compere,
Chairman Cor.========= [From The Baptist, Memphis, February 1, 1867, p. 5. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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