THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

SALUTATION.

We know of no Society that has more occasion for expressing cheerful congratulations than the American Missionary Association; and we wish its patrons and workers a thankful and prosperous Happy New Year.

By the merciful blessing of God and the prayerful liberality of His people, we have been sustained in our work. The number of our pupils has multiplied. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon our churches. A great improvement in public sentiment South has been witnessed. Questions relating to the policy of the government have been settled. We have escaped the bondage of debt, and, better still, have received a munificent gift for additional school facilities, and, like the prophet of Israel, are ready to exclaim, “The God of Heaven, He will prosper us, therefore we, His servants, will arise and build.”

Our missionaries and teachers at home and abroad have been spared and blessed abundantly. Let us rejoice, but not stop in our work. Our best joys spring forth from busiest toil. The work before us is great—greater than ever.

We are called most encouragingly to stand on our Western shores, and in the name of Christ to welcome the Chinaman. We bear good tidings amidst ice and snow in the Northland to the American Indian. Kansas utters a voice for her Freedmen refugees; while the sunny South, we believe, has almost passed its winter of discontent. Seed time, with more favoring skies, is right upon us; and Africa—land of shadows, land of trouble and wrong—from her vast domains is stretching out her hand for our Freedmen to come over and help. There is no quarter of the globe where the principles we advocate are not wanted. The millennial year rushes on to our view. It is a question of prayer—a question of sacrifice and thanksgiving—a question of the patience of hope and the labor of love.

God grant us all a preparation for the hour and all its possibilities.

FINANCIAL.

The receipts in our treasury for the two months of the present fiscal year (Oct. and Nov.) are $29,258.57, as against $26,577.05 for the corresponding months of[2] last year, showing an increase of $2,681.52, and are gratifying as a response to our appeal for enlargement, made at our annual meeting at Norwich. Never before was such an appeal of ours met in a more business-like way than at that meeting. There was no hasty vote calling for large sums of money the coming year, but a discriminating examination, and a strong setting forth in reports and addresses of the great need of enlargement. We have since ventured to suggest twenty-five per cent. of an advance over last year. This is indeed inadequate to the pressing and increasing claims made upon us by the wants of the field, but it will be a great relief. The advance as shown in these two months is but nine per cent. We are persuaded that a thoughtful purpose on the part of pastors, churches and individual friends will easily secure the larger percentage.

RETIRING FROM BUSINESS.

It is a debated question whether a man should retire from business when he has accumulated a competency. On the one hand, tired nature pleads for rest, and on the other it is claimed that the retired man is not only useless, but unhappy. A gentleman gave us the other day what seems to be the true solution—and the charm of his plan is that he is carrying it out in his own case. It is that the wealthy man while still active, should retire from his secular business and give himself to efficient service in mission and charitable organizations, and in Christian work for the poor, and the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. There is wide room for such workers. We venture to say that among those most efficient on mission, college and charitable boards in this country are such men, and there is need of many more. A still larger share of the reliable members of such boards are men yet in active life, whose business will not permit them to devote the time needed to the most efficient service in charitable work. The man who has accumulated his fortune, or at least his competence, has also accumulated an amount of experience and practical knowledge that would be of immense value in Christian work. Is it not, then, wise to retire from work, and yet work? The change would be rest and usefulness.

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

We have received many cheering words since our Annual Meeting at Norwich, through the press and by letters from the long-tried friends of this Association.

The following, from our honored Vice President, Col. G. C. Hammond, is a good illustration of the appreciative and hopeful tone exhibited by the many of those who give bountifully and prayerfully for our work.

“Dear Brother: I was anxious to be at your anniversary at Norwich, and disappointed that my health prevented. You may well suppose with what relish I have devoured the last ‘Missionary.’ I feel constrained to write you a word of congratulation, not intended to tax your valuable time for a reply, but to assure you that, so far as I can judge, the papers presented to you at that time, and now printed, by far exceed any heretofore presented within my recollection. The obstacles that lie in your path, the encouragement to work, and the plans and principles which govern the Association in their labors, are laid down so plainly, and so commend themselves to the appreciation of Christians, that it would seem that means must flow into the treasury in no stinted measure. But, alas, how true it is that the love of money shuts out even from Christian souls the just appreciation of the Saviour’s claims. My prayer is that God will, by His spirit, make His children appreciate the great joy of giving. How much they would gain by liberal giving!”

ARTHINGTON MISSION—A SIGNIFICANT ANSWER TO PRAYER.

It will be remembered by our readers that a little more than a year since, the Executive Committee of this Association voted that on receipt of £3,000 from Mr. Arthington and a like amount from the British public, raised through the efforts of Dr. O. H. White, it would undertake the establishment of a new mission in Eastern Africa. Dr. White has been laboring patiently with fair success, and from present indications we judge he will be able to secure the balance needful during the coming season.

[4]

The following extract from a recent letter from him is very significant. “A gentleman in London, who heard me preach six months ago in Scotland, came to our office and said, ‘I will give £100 to your Arthington Mission on condition that some other person will give another £100.’ So I went in to find the person. After seeing some, and writing to others, I found a man who also heard me in Edinburgh, and he gave the £100. I then saw the first man and told him I had the money, and he said, ‘I will not give in the money just now, but I will pledge another £100 on the same condition.’ But I had called on so many in the past year, that really I did not know which way to turn. So I laid the case before God, and had in that connection the most direct answer ever given to me.

“The very next day a lady came to the office and said, ‘I felt all the afternoon yesterday that I ought to go to London and give you £100 for the proposed new mission, and here it is.’ It was a £100 bank-note. I asked her name, that I might write a receipt. She said ‘No.’ I said ‘Give me your initials.’ She said ‘No, put it down to “a friend,” and you may see me again.’ So when the London gentleman pays in his £200 we shall have £400.”

MORE MISSIONARIES—THE GOSPEL WAY.

There never before was a time when the openings for missionary endeavors were so abundant. Barriers which formerly opposed, have been broken down almost everywhere. In many places there is some condition of things that invites the Gospel directly or indirectly.

This is notable on the Pacific coast, where the Chinese are so eager to learn English that they are more than ready to use the Bible as a textbook. Nor are the Chinese peculiar in this. Knowledge of the English language is equal to a competency in other lands, and the Bible can be freely used in teaching it.

Commerce has also removed many barriers; and what is of equal importance, it has necessitated the building of ships, the construction of railroads, the laying out of highways in the desert, and a telegraph for every quarter of the globe. The press has done its share of work as well. Through it, intelligence has penetrated almost to the remotest bounds of heathendom. All these things have made way for more missionaries. To this it must be added that the increase of missionary organizations and the natural development of their operations, all multiply the demand for more men to run to and fro throughout the world, heralding the tidings of joy unto all people.

Still another barrier has been virtually removed. Once money was lacking, but now the church of Christ has the means needful to send forth all the men that the new condition of things demands. Not that the wealth is yet consecrated, but it is in possession, and by the simplest gift of grace from the Lord of the harvest, it will be forthcoming when required. The men have also been raised up. They have not enlisted, but they have been trained. The records of our colleges show now, and have shown, an increased number of students as the years go by. New colleges have been springing up over the country, until the list can be reckoned by scores and hundreds. From these classic halls armies of men march forth, brave, sacrificing, full of life and hope, fitted for missionary endeavors, and able—God helping them—to capture the world for Christ.

There is neither lack of opportunity, money or men for the domain of missions. The trouble is that the men and the means have not as yet been transferred. There is some one thing lacking which no human power can supply.

[5]

It is a question of disposition on the part of those who hold the wealth, and of the men fitted for the service. God only is able to deal with this question of disposition successfully. He can do it, and we can help.

This brings us directly to our part in the work. How we are to do it is no mystery. Our Saviour has pointed to us the way—“Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” Our call is a call to prayer. That is the one thing lacking. Not that no prayers are offered, but that, as yet, the prayers of God’s people for this object are not sufficiently abundant. The church has not qualified itself to pray as it ought, by right living. More Godly sincerity, more humility, more faith, more charity, are needful to elevate the tone of piety in the Church, until its prayers shall lay hold on the promises, with a power that God himself has already rendered irresistible. Then He will send forth the laborers into His harvest. Then the money and the men for the grandest and most complete missionary enterprises will be lifted from their moorings amidst worldliness, and transported, freely, graciously, from sea to sea, and up the rivers to the ends of the earth. In these days, when we are especially reminded of the advent of Him who came to bring good tidings of great joy for all people; when we solemnly and joyfully set apart a week for prayer; in these days when the great heart-beatings of those who manage our missionary organizations find vent only in unceasing calls for more missionaries, it is a great relief—indeed, a rest and assurance—to follow right on in the Gospel way.

Already the day has dawned, and as we pray, joining with the angels and the heavenly host, deep calling unto deep, over against the prayer we are taught to utter will follow the certain interrogation from the Captain of our salvation, which answers itself, lovingly, royally and sufficiently: “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

WEEKLY OFFERINGS—AN OBJECTION CONSIDERED.

REV. GEO. HARRIS, PROVIDENCE. R. I.

It is objected to the system of weekly offerings, that it practically does away with the presentation from the pulpit of the claims of our missionary societies. The objection is not a serious one, and serves only to show that the real difficulty lies further back than the method of giving. It proceeds on the assumption that in churches where occasional collections are taken, sermons are preached annually by the pastor or by the secretaries on the claims of all the principal societies. This is not true. There are very few churches, with whatever methods of giving, where sermons are frequently heard on missionary subjects. The objection assumes that under the system of weekly offerings sermons are not and cannot profitably be preached on the claims of our missionary societies. This, also, is not true. In these churches such sermons are sometimes preached, and may be very effective, taking the years together.

The objection assumes that people are to be interested in missions chiefly by listening to frequent discourses on the subject, while the truth is, that preaching is only one method among others. The real difficulty, I have said, lies further back than the particular method of giving which may be used by a church. The difficult thing is to produce an intelligent and sustained interest in Christian work beyond local limits. This difficulty has been felt for years and cannot be met by simply making public appeals from time to time. There are various methods which may be employed with some success under any system of giving, but[6] which will leave much to be done anywhere. It should be well understood, first of all, that it is the duty, not of secretaries, but of pastors, to keep the people alive to the progress of Christ’s kingdom in the world. The first condition is, that pastors be well informed about missionary enterprises and deeply in sympathy with them. If it were certain that the pastors know the progress and plans of missions, and that they are really solicitous to remove the ignorance and apathy of the people, the battle would be more than half won. Now, when the pastor has an intelligent interest in missions at home and abroad, the following suggestions may be useful:

A sermon devoted to this subject may be preached occasionally, and the preacher may enrich sermons on other subjects by illustrations from the multiform conditions and incidents of missionary work, and thus accomplish two objects at the same time. But the second service, which should be devoted to instruction rather than persuasion, may frequently become a missionary meeting.

The prayers of the pastor may be made more effective for missions than his sermons. If he makes mention in his prayers of the servants of Christ who are toiling among the heathen, or the Freedmen, or the Western settlers, and prays, not with a tedious enumeration, but with fervor and definiteness, he will put missions on the hearts of the people. What has a place frequently in our prayers has a place in our sympathies. Yet how often the petitions of public worship are confined to the boundaries of the parish.

Something may be done by increasing the circulation of missionary magazines. Let the annual contribution make as many life members as possible, to whom these publications will be sent.

Thus there are various means to be used in the interest of missionary work. What is needed is the flavor of missions in the life of the churches, the vision of Christ’s kingdom kept continually before the imagination and faith of the people, the proportions of the local, not magnified into excessive size, but brought into true harmony with the greatness of our Redeemer’s work for the race. Not all people can be aroused into interest for missionary work by any methods; whatever the zeal of the pastor, some indifference will remain. But if he has the missionary spirit, he will not be contented with an occasional preaching. He will determine the tone of worship and the direction of all endeavors by his enlarged view of God’s plan for the redemption of men. New suggestions, allusions, illustrations and prayers will swell the current of sympathy for missions, and increase contributions under any method of giving.

But, at all events, if the pastor thinks it wise to preach on the subject, or introduce a Secretary when collections are to be taken, there is no reason why he may not pursue the same course when pledges of money are made only once a year.

A FEW WORDS TO THE CHURCHES.

It is customary for our District Secretaries at this season to send to the churches letters and circulars containing statements of receipts and appeals for future co-operation. We give below extracts from circulars issued from our offices at Boston and Chicago, commending them as pertinent, timely, and fitted to provoke unto love and good works.

The following comes from Secretary Woodworth:

[7]

Secretary Powell’s appeal concludes with special requests, inviting immediate attention. He says:

DISCUSSION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

We rejoice in the continued agitation of the Indian problem. It is only under the shelter of popular indifference that wrong and revenge become the order of the day—with murders, wars and boundless expense. Under “the sunlight of publicity” the wrongs are detected and the remedies are projected and applied.[8] Just now we are favored with three valuable papers on this subject. In the first place we have the report of the Committee of Indian Affairs, giving a very encouraging statement of the progress of the Indians in the arts of civilization. We have next the elaborate report of Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, in which, with a frankness as rare as it is commendable, he acknowledges the change of views and policy of the Administration in relation to Indian affairs. He then with great clearness outlines its present policy, and takes occasion to speak minutely of the case of the Poncas. The injustice done to them in their original removal from Dakota is admitted, but it is also clear to him that it “would be contrary, alike to their own interests and to those of the country at large, to remove them from their present homes. This conclusion is arrived at by reason of various considerations, such as the fact that their present condition in the Indian Territory is prosperous; that they do not themselves want to return North, and also because if they are removed back to Dakota, the other Northern Indians now in the Indian Territory would be made restless with a desire to follow their example. This would, in all probability, result in an extensive evacuation of the Indian Territory, and of that part of it which contains the lands coveted by the intruders, and which lands are held against them on the ground that they are reserved for Indian settlement. It is obvious,” says the Secretary, “that the evacuation by the Indians of the region held for Indian settlement, and defended on that very ground against intruders, would be apt greatly to encourage and stimulate the projects of invasion, which, although repeatedly repelled, are pursued by evil-disposed persons with persistent activity.” The last of these papers is the President’s message, in which he endorses and briefly recapitulates the views of the Secretary of the Interior in regard to the Indians. We clip from this a few paragraphs presenting the attitude of the Administration:

“It gives me great pleasure to say that our Indian affairs appear to be in a more hopeful condition now than ever before. The Indians have made gratifying progress in agriculture, herding and mechanical pursuits. The introduction of the freighting business among them has been remarkably fruitful of good results, in giving many of them congenial and remunerative employment, and in stimulating their ambition to earn their own support. Their honesty, fidelity and efficiency as carriers are highly praised. The organization of a police force of Indians has been equally successful in maintaining law and order upon the reservations, and in exercising a wholesome moral influence among the Indians themselves.

“Much care and attention has been devoted to the enlargement of educational facilities for the Indians. The means available for this important object have been very inadequate. A few additional boarding-schools at Indian agencies have been established, and the erection of buildings has been begun for several more, but an increase of the appropriations for this interesting undertaking is greatly needed to accommodate the large number of Indian children of school age. The number offered by their parents from all parts of the country for education in the Government schools is much larger than can be accommodated with the means at present available for that purpose. The number of Indian pupils at the Normal School at Hampton. Va., under the direction of General Armstrong, has been considerably increased, and their progress is highly encouraging. The Indian School established by the Interior Department in 1879, at Carlisle, Pa., under the direction of Captain Pratt, has been equally successful. It has now nearly 200 pupils of both sexes, representing a great variety of the tribes east of the Rocky[9] Mountains. The pupils in both these institutions receive not only an elementary English education, but are also instructed in house-work, agriculture and useful mechanical pursuits.

“The interest shown by Indian parents, even among the so-called wild tribes, in the education of their children, is very gratifying, and gives promise that the results accomplished by the efforts now making will be of lasting benefit.

“I concur with the Secretary of the Interior in expressing the earnest hope that Congress will at this session take favorable action on the bill providing for the allotment of lands on the different reservations in severalty to the Indians, with patents conferring fee-simple title inalienable for a certain period, and the eventual disposition of the residue of the reservations, for general settlement, with the consent and for the benefit of the Indians, placing the latter under the equal protection of the laws of the country. This measure, together with a vigorous prosecution of our educational efforts, will work the most important and effective advance toward the solution of the Indian problem, in preparing for the gradual merging of our Indian population in the great body of American citizenship.”

We have never doubted the honest purpose of President Hayes’ Administration to deal justly and wisely with the Indian problem, and the plan it now proposes must meet the approbation of all good citizens. The great question still remains: How far will the Nation insist on the necessary legislation by Congress to carry out these plans? It is in this point of view that we hail with gratification the continued agitation of the subject, even if it should involve differences of opinion among the warmest friends of the Indians. And there are such differences. For example, it is said that the claim of great improvement among the Indians, as shown in their making demand for lands in severalty, and in their progress in agricultural industries, is mere rhetoric, for it has been repeated over and over again for years, in the reports of the Indian Department. “Fine words butter no parsnips” for the Indian, any more than for the white man. Give to the Indian his patents and secure to him his rights. The doing of it is the thing demanded.

Then, too, Mr. Tibbles and Bright Eyes are still on the war path, with a following so earnest and respectable as to command attention. We do not pronounce on the justice of their claim, but we do welcome the agitation. The great thing to be dreaded is the relegation of the Indian question to indifference and neglect. It has many aspects, and its permanent and righteous settlement is the immediate and imperative duty of the nation.

WOMAN’S WORK FOR WOMAN.

MISS MARY E. SAWYER.

A Paper read at the Women’s Meeting, held in connection with the Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association at Norwich, Ct.

Before every Southern teacher to whom comes the opportunity of presenting this cause, so dear to us, to the Christian women of the North, two pictures rise.

Looking upon the one, you would shrink back in dismay, wondering if it be not hopeless to try and illumine a darkness so gloomy, to raise a class so utterly buried in ignorance, superstition and sin. But, could we turn to you the other view, show the work done, acquaint you with the trials, the sacrifices, the glorious victories over fiery temptations, the patient continuance in well-doing in the face of obstacles almost insurmountable, then, indeed, you might be tempted to[10] take the other extreme and feel that missionaries are hardly needed among a people whose Christian record shines brighter than our own. So, coming as pledged witnesses before you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we shrink from the vastness of the undertaking, for while exactly fulfilling the last requirement and telling nothing but the truth, we keenly realize the many contradictions, and know that the whole truth cannot be told in a single hour—can never, indeed, be fully known till seen in the light of eternity.

We read of nations with no word for home. Come through the cabins of the South and you will find not the name but the reality wanting. You will not find there any incentive or help to personal modesty, any retirement or any sense of impropriety in the state of things. From these influences and homes many of our girls come to us with minds and characters such as might be expected from such surroundings. We sometimes speak of them as children, but the comparison is hardly just. Never do I realize more keenly their deprivations than after talking with Northern children—little children whose precocity, to one fresh from the South, seems almost alarming, suggestive of brain fevers and early death. From babyhood their wits have been quickened by contact with other and mature minds, their many questions wisely answered till they have absorbed knowledge enough to be intelligent companions before their so-called education begins. But put them in the place of the colored children, remove all books, all papers, all pictures, let them have no knowledge of the outside world, let all their questions be addressed to people as ignorant as themselves, and you will find the youth of sixteen far behind the child of six.

To many of the girls, entering school is like entering a new world. They sit for the first time in their lives at a well ordered table, utterly at a loss as to the proper manner of conducting themselves. The refined manners of the older students bewilder them.

The door of a teacher’s room is suddenly and unceremoniously thrown open, and two or three girls march silently before her to the fire, and standing with vacant faces by its warmth, are perfectly unconscious of any impropriety in such a mode of entrance, or of the need of a single word of explanation. It is no uncommon thing for a girl to throw herself, fully dressed, on the outside of her freshly-made bed and there pass the night, having no conception of properly undressing and going to bed.

Our school work, then, includes much more than one would at first imagine. Each girl has some part in the household work, and must be taught the neatest, quickest and best method of doing it. This does not mean once showing, but careful, patient oversight for days and weeks. Her room, clean and tidy, when given her, must be kept in the same condition, and this necessitates very frequent and very thorough inspection, till she at length comprehends fully that a hasty use of the broom, leaving the sweepings under the bed or behind the door, a scrambling up of all loose articles into one pile on the closet floor, or a set of drawers with finger marks outside and a motley collection of clean and dirty clothing within, will not satisfy the requirement.

The same care is exercised over her person; clean, whole clothing, well-kept hair and thorough bathing transform her outwardly, while the loud, boisterous tones, the coarse expressions, the uncouth manners are toned and softened by constant care.

Sewing, in which they are woefully deficient, receives due attention, and girls whose hands can manage a plough or a cotton bag much more easily than they can[11] hold a needle, become at the end of the course very nice seamstresses, whose work would rejoice the hearts of the advocates of hand sewing. In these classes, besides plain sewing of every description, the girls are taught patching and darning, and the cutting and putting together of garments, and in at least one of the colleges, each girl who graduates must leave behind a garment cut and made entirely by herself, as a specimen of her skill.

A few minutes daily are spent in giving the assembled school a brief summary of the important items of news in the great outside world, and more or less time is devoted to plain talks on practical matters, manners, morals and care of the health,—the last a subject, by the way, with which they seem wholly unacquainted, and which the girls especially need to become familiar with. Dress reform in two directions needs to be impressed upon them, as the uncouth garb of the girls from the woods, and the thin slippers, cheap finery, powder, paint and corsets laced to the last verge of human endurance donned by the city girls, bear testimony.

But this is not all. These girls are sent to us to be trained for Christ, and knowing the utter folly of attempting to build up a pure, noble womanhood on any other foundation than Christian principle, we try by all our system and watchfulness and oversight to establish them in this, earnestly praying the Master to send from on high that blessing without which all our labors will be nothing worth.

Have you never in some late Spring watched the brown leaf-buds, as day after day they seemed to remain unchanged, till you were tired of waiting for the fulfilment of their promise? And do you remember your joyful surprise when, leaving them thus at night you woke to find the whole tree aglow with the fresh, tiny bits of color from the bursting buds? So we feel often as we wake to realize that the rough, awkward girl who came to us has developed into the quiet, refined Christian woman, leaving us for her life work. Nor are we the only ones to see the transformation.

“I am looking to see what kind of a woman you are,” said a child to one of the Talladega students as she opened her log cabin school in the pine wood. “You look to me like a white lady.” The teacher’s face was of the most pronounced African type, and black as ebony, but her quiet dignity and refined manner excited the child’s wonder and elicited the unconscious compliment.

As teachers, these girls carry the missionary spirit with them, and feeling their responsibility, open Sunday-schools and engage in temperance work as surely as they begin their day schools. Into the cabins they carry, as far as may be, a regard for neatness, order, and those little adornments which make home what it is. Happy the young colored minister who wins one of them for his wife, thus establishing a home which shall supplement his sermons and act as leaven in the homes of his people. More than one graduate of the colored theological seminaries is gravely hampered in his usefulness by an ignorant, careless wife. As one frankly expressed the matter to a brother minister, “My wife is more trouble to me than all my work put together.” And in thus training our girls to be careful, efficient housewives, we know we may be moulding not them alone, nor their immediate households, but the whole community of women over whom, as ministers’ wives and the most thoroughly educated women, they will exert a powerful influence.

But we have deeply felt the need of more direct and personal influence over the women. The work of the school needs to be supplemented by that of the missionary: mother and daughter must work together for the best result. But[12] the teacher had little time after the school duties were performed, and the lady missionaries so sorely longed for, were very few in number. Why not, then, work through our tried colored helpers? The description of the way this has been done in other States I leave to those whose experience is wider than my own. In Alabama, we have a “Woman’s Missionary Association,” holding annual meetings in connection with the State conference of churches, and having auxiliary societies in these several churches. The colored women who compose these societies have heartily and faithfully assumed the duties devolving upon them, and helping others have themselves been helped.

The work done is varied, no rigid plan being laid down. Sewing classes for the women and girls, prayer-meetings for the mothers, Bible-readings, visiting from house to house, bearing food and medicine for the sick, clothing for the destitute, and comfort and sympathy for all, health talks—than which nothing can be more needed,—literary societies to develop their untrained minds, foreign missionary meetings to broaden their sympathies; all these and other ways of working for the Lord are reported at their last meeting. In April, for the first time, this annual meeting was visited by several white Southern ladies. Our surprise at their coming was only equalled by their amazement at the revelations.

“You put our ladies to the blush,” said one. “You are far ahead of us in Christian work.”

“Only to think,” exclaimed another as she listened to the carefully prepared papers and systematic reports,—“Only to think that we have kept such women as these in slavery!”

There are bright, promising girls all over the South, who, to make just such women as these, need only your help. You cannot leave your home duties to go yourself to them, but you can provide the means by which they may be fitted to act as your substitutes among their people. “Ten times one is ten,” you know, and the girl to whom you lend a hand may win many more souls into the kingdom. They stand to-day on the border: your arm lifting, they will come into power and usefulness: your heart closed to them, they will sink back into the old life. There must be many in this room to-day who have aided this work by gifts dearer to them than their own lives. Does not the scene come back to you, when through blinding tears you looked for the last time on brother or husband or son, as for love of God and country the dear ones marched away to find a grave beneath the Southern skies? They rest from their labors. It remains for us, for their dear sake, to see that this work they so nobly begun shall be as honorably carried on.

Doubtless the Lord could perfect this work without our aid, but He has chosen to entrust it to our keeping. And with every instinct of humanity, every impulse of patriotism, every principle of Christianity urging us to the work, shall we not receive it as from our Saviour’s hand, holding fast that which we have, that no man take our crown?

BENEFACTIONS.

Mr. Cyrus H. McCormick has given $100,000 to the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of Chicago, to place it entirely out of debt.

The late David N. Lord, of New York City, left by will $100,000 for foreign missions, and $50,000 to the American Bible Society. He also bequeathed $62,500 to local objects of charity.

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Mr. R. L. Stewart, of New York City, has given $200,000 to be divided equally between Princeton College and Princeton Theological Seminary, to be applied for the endowment of Professorships.

By the will of Mrs. Altana Wescott, of Jersey City, nearly $100,000 is given to institutions connected with the Episcopal Church.

The widow of the Cologne banker, Von Oppenheim, has given $150,000 for a hospital for poor children of all denominations, in memory of her late husband.

Mr. Wm. B. Spooner, of Boston, left by will $3,000, the income of which is to be expended for the education of the colored people at the South. He also made liberal provision for the State Total Abstinence Society and the National Temperance Society of New York, besides other bequests to worthy objects.

Mr. John T. Crawford, of Cincinnati, has left an estate valued from $30,000 to $100,000, to be applied for a home for aged colored men. His directions were that the institution be built on College Hill. There seems to be some doubt about the ability of the executors to carry out the conditions of the bequest.

The American Presbyterian Board of Missions has received from the estate of the late Mrs. Lapsley, of New Albany, Ind., the sum of $215,000, with the prospect of receiving $60,000 or $70,000 more from the same source.

GENERAL NOTES.

Africa.

—Sir Garnet Wolseley has given to the Berlin Missionary Society a large tract of land in South Africa to be used for a Mission Station.

—The mission at Frere Town, East Central Africa, has proved an inviting rendezvous for run-away slaves. The missionaries have no power to keep them, but have opportunity to expostulate with their owners for any cruelties they may inflict upon them. The practical result is that the masters become intimidated and angry, and would make an end of the missionaries if they had the power. The settlement has already been threatened with destruction. It is hoped, however, that the impending calamity may be over-ruled, to the overthrow of slavery on the coast.

—The Victoria Nyanza Mission of the C. M. S., despite every difficulty and disappointment, still exists. Letters from Uganda bring intelligence down to Aug. 14. It appears that Mtesa had engaged Mr. Pierson to build him a boat, and that Mr. Litchfield, in company with Mr. Mackay, had made a journey to Uyui, arriving at that point June 5. As the locality proved favorable to Mr. Litchfield’s health he intended to remain there with Mr. Copplestone, while Mr. Mackay had gone back to Uganda. These brethren are cheered by the belief that the hearts and minds of many of the heathen with whom they have labored have been prepared for the Gospel.

Mr. Litchfield writes: “I have invariably found the poor people ready and eager to listen to the story of the cross. Numbers of instances rise up before me as I write, where the hearers have testified their astonishment and joy at the love of Jesus in dying for them. Do not give away an inch,” he says, “if the place is proposed to be given up. On Dec. 23 we had that crushing vote to reject Christianity and stop our teaching. Now things are changing and public opinion is coming round in our favor. The hand is on the plow and we must not look back.”

—The Jesuits have purchased a large tract of ground near Alexandria, Egypt, and purpose to build a convent for the reception of the members of their order who have been expelled from European countries.

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—A short time since, the Khedive of Egypt commissioned Col. Sala to take charge of an expedition for the capture and liberation of slaves who are brought down the Nile from the Soudan into Egypt. The expedition crossed the Nile at Assouan and searched several localities where slaves were illegally retained. After much difficulty and many fruitless endeavors, Col. Sala succeeded in surprising a village during the night time, and capturing and liberating twenty-one negroes. This endeavor set on foot by the young Khedive indicates a more hopeful condition of affairs relating to the East African slave trade than any other event of recent occurrence.

—News from Mr. Stanley.—A letter from Mr. Carrie, superintendent of the Mission at Loango, gives interesting details gathered from Mr. Protche, a French naturalist, concerning Mr. Stanley and his operations. Mr. Protche visited him for the purpose of connecting himself with the expedition, but failed in his object.

He reports that Mr. Stanley was living at Vivi, in a village which he had built with lumber from Europe. The houses were said to be quite comfortable. Mr. Stanley had already constructed a road extending three leagues east of his village, and was performing a large amount of work in a way that must be quite assuring to those who are responsible for his expeditions.

The Indians.

—The number of Indian youth learning trades in work-shops at the agencies under the care of the United States Government has increased from one hundred and eighty-five last autumn to three hundred and fifty-eight this year. Brick-making has been begun, and houses for the Indians are now almost exclusively built by the Indians themselves. The aptitude shown by the Indians for mechanical work, has, in many cases, been surprising.

—Nearly two thousand freight wagons have been in use by the Indians this year, with the result of saving considerable money to the government compared with the amounts formerly paid for the same transportation (of supplies, &c., to the agencies), besides furnishing a civilizing and welcome employment to a large number of otherwise restless Indians.

The Chinese.

—Two Chinamen were baptized and received into the Church at Stockton, Cal., Nov. 7. They were the first of that nation to join any church in that city.

—Restriction of Chinese Immigration.—A treaty has been made by the United States with the Chinese Government which practically leaves the subject of regulating Chinese immigration to the authorities at Washington. Owing to the fact that the Chinese Government has never been anxious to have its citizens emigrate to any country, little difficulty was found in negotiating the treaty.

—The Christian Advocate has a very interesting report of the sermons preached by the native pastors at the Methodist Conference at Foochow, China, in October last. We select one. Rev. Sia Sek Ong preached from the single word “Go:” “Leave father, mother, friends, fields; preachers go thus; world-men don’t like to go in that fashion. Where must we go? To the sea, for the fish. They are not on the surface; they are in the depths. We may find shrimps in shallow water, but we must go to the deep water for the large fish. Go to the mountains to seek the lost sheep. There are lions and tigers and snakes in the mountains; but we must go, not to find sport, but to find the sheep. Go to the vineyard, to work, to watch, to plant, to water. Go to the field to sow seed. Study the soil, and sow[15] accordingly. Field-work is not play. Go to the market-place, and bid guests to the Master’s feast. Go into the army, to fight, to wrestle with the devil, to put forth your strength, and to come home singing songs of victory.

“Ask the Master for Peter’s hook to bring up the right fish; for David’s crook to guide the sheep aright; for Gideon’s torch to light up the dark places; for Gospel seed, without any tares in it; for Moses’ guiding rod; for the brazen serpent, to cure the bites of the world’s snakes; for David’s sling to prostrate your giant foe; for the armor inventoried by Paul in the last chapter of Ephesians; but above all, for the wonderful Holy Spirit, to help at all times. If we have all these, it is no matter where we go. We will come with rejoicing to conference next year, with songs and shouts of victory.”

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Nashville, Tenn.—During the latter part of November a precious work of grace was going on in Fisk University, more than fifteen of the students having decided to come over upon the Lord’s side.

Chattanooga, Tenn.—As a result of some special meetings held by pastor Jos. E. Smith, assisted by Rev. E. J. Penney, of Marietta, Ga., the Church was greatly confirmed and six or seven were added to the company of the disciples.

Tougaloo, Miss.—In the University Chapel, on the last Sabbath of November, Superintendent Roy preached a sermon, and delivered a missionary address before the young people, who were about to organize a Society of Inquiry in addition to their mission school association, and was permitted to rejoice on that day with the teachers over the conversion of a young man, who had been the occasion of a great deal of solicitude to them. Half a dozen others have been coming along this fall in a quiet way; whereas, one year ago, the Spirit appeared almost as a rushing, mighty wind, leaving nineteen students to the Saviour within twenty-four hours, all of whom are still holding on their way beautifully. There are now 107 boarding students, while not a few have been turned away for lack of room. The new house for the home of the President is nearly completed. A third story is to be put upon the Ladies’ Hall, and other enlargements are sufferingly needed. The industrial department is in vigorous condition.

Paris, Texas.—On the 23d of Nov., an Ecclesiastical Council, at this place, after an eminently satisfactory examination, ordained two young men, graduates of the theological department of Talladega College, licentiates of Alabama Conference,—Mr. J. W. Roberts as pastor of the “African Congregational Church” of Paris, and Mr. J. W. Strong to go to Corpus Christi, to take the church work, while Rev. S. M. Coles, who has been doing double service there, will retain the charge of the school. Rev. W. C. McCune, of Dallas, preached the sermon, Rev. R. H. Read of the other Congregational Church, of Paris, delivered the charge. Rev. Albert Gray, who has had charge of the Church for several years, having been an old-time African preacher, extended the right hand of fellowship, and Supt. Roy, the moderator, offered the prayer of ordination, having spent five days in confirming and preaching for the cluster of churches in the country about, that have branched off from this one. These are Pattonville, New Hope, Paradise and Shiloh. The mother church, which, in 1868, paid $112 in gold for an acre and a half lot in the suburbs, has now bought a more central lot and will work toward a new “church house.”

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

THE “CENTRAL SOUTH.”

PRES. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D.

My Dear Dr. Warren:—Across the street from where I write is a Freedmen’s church, of modest pretensions, in which the Central South Conference of churches (Congregational) is sitting. It comprises the churches and pastors of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. Just within the door a low pillar in the centre supports an “offertory,” to use an English, but hardly an American word, with the legend “Help us.” It is from great poverty and hardships, as well as great wrong, that this scion of ecclesiastical New England has grown, and the people are still needy. Behind the pulpit is the motto, “Take my yoke upon you;” they have accepted that of Christ as they have rejected that of man. Very happily, the earnest and intelligent young pastor elect, in welcoming the members of this Conference this morning, reminded them that they come to a Memphis unlike that of antiquity, from which the task-master has forever passed away.

This is a genuine Congregational body save in hue—one cannot long say just that, for we are to have many of the same hue. Its modes, motions, votes, reports, papers on appointed subjects, discussions, care to recognize the precedence of churches over mere officers of churches, and its devotional spirit, are like those of Maine Conferences. But in the half a hundred brethren and sisters who are present forenoon and afternoon, white faces are to be seen only here and there; those who possess them are admitted, so far as I can see, to an entire equality with others! The moderator is a white professor of languages in Fisk University; the scribe a colored pastor at Nashville. The preacher last evening was a colored minister from Alabama; a white minister from Iowa assisted him, whose daughter, teacher of music in the Normal Institute for Freedmen here, led the choir. In one corner sits Rev. Dr. J. E. Roy, the A. M. A. Field Superintendent in the South. The (white) chairman of the business committee is at the head of a church and one institution supported by the Association in Mississippi. Fervent and spiritual, yet orderly as a Northern prayer-meeting, were the devotional exercises of the first hour this morning.

Narratives from the churches coming first in the proceedings, indicated the practical working character of the Conference. One of them was the story of a church holding on its way without a pastor, growing in steady Christian work in its prayer meetings and in its Sabbath attendance, and fostering an institution of learning the while. Another was a written apology from the pastor for absence, because of conversions and a promising work of grace. Another was a thrilling narrative of a brotherhood whose main body, thirty strong, went two years ago to Kansas, and its Sabbath-school has twice since been swept away; yet it has come up from six to forty-five in numbers, built a pleasant house of worship, and made Christian education victorious over the deadly opposition of secular public education. I learned of another, not represented to-day, whose real acting pastor is a lady teacher, nineteen years at her solitary post. The dashing heroism of anti-rebellion days has been succeeded by the quiet, persistent heroism that is often the greater of the two; and the self-sacrifice of many of both races for the cause of Christ is wonderful.

There is hopefulness among these[17] brethren and sisters as to the reviving of God’s work in the special direction of practical righteousness. With all the immense moral evils of a Federal election, they feel that conscience has been stirred, and profound gratitude to God for the result has been awakened among the Freedmen. Thought and energy, it seems to them, are more likely to turn in the direction of religion now than in any other great common channel, and they have courage and cheer for coming work. No salvation movement among them can overpass their need.

I add, at a later date, that an afternoon given to church extension and the spread of education was of the deepest interest. Between the two papers, or addresses, was another on more generous giving by the churches, entirely in keeping. How vast a work in both church and school is laid upon them, one needs to be among them, and to see and hear them, in order to realize. How the treasury of the A. M. A. could fill to repletion if all who support it could have an inside view. In conversations at Andover on two different occasions, Prof. Park uttered the strongest and most anxious impressions respecting our national future and the condition of the South. I am sure that he and all deep-sighted and far-sighted men would find them intensified on actual examination of the facts. The task before us is vast, and, but for divine help, overwhelming and impracticable. Nothing in church order and work can save these people but the freest and most intelligent system; nothing in education but practical training for the duties and competitions with a more favored race, guided and inspired by thorough Christian principle.

Another afternoon was given to an ecclesiastical council, called by the 2d Congregational church of Memphis, to advise as to the ordination of a pastor. The examination of the young man who had been preaching to them for some months was a thoroughly delightful one, specially full and rich in the recital of Christian experience. The young brother is a light colored man, a native of Pennsylvania, of an earnest, intense nature, studious, modest, instructive as a preacher, and edifying to a group of Northern white teachers in Le Moyne Institute, and bore himself as to clearness and soundness of doctrine, in a manner so admirable, that many candidates for the ministry from the more favored race might well look up to him. Very tender and sweet was his testimony to parental faithfulness, and the divine blessing upon it in the Presbyterian church in which he was brought up, and to the providential leading that guided him into the ministry “for the sake of the work in the South.” The Conference, at an earlier session, licensed two other young brethren, whose work in gathering churches and schools is sorely needed in the communities they represent. One of these preached before it.

Twice this week I have given before Freedmen’s institutions lectures prepared for Northern college audiences. One’s respect for these institutions and for their students could only be raised by the intelligent attention given. The city press—Democratic—has made courteous and even generous notice of the religious proceedings of the week. Dr. Roy and myself were promptly invited to occupy Presbyterian pulpits in the city, and were most kindly and respectfully received. We were assured that we should be heard with pleasure again, and that the Gospel which we preached was that which they received, knowing “no North, no South.” On Sabbath evening the place of worship of the 2d Congregational Church—the first is of white people—was crowded with attentive hearers of both races while the ordination exercises were held. The young pastor had been chosen by the Conference delegate to the National Council at St. Louis, and the people, at the close[18] of the ordination, raised a sum of money to defray his expenses. I have never seen more genuine and grateful joy among a Christian flock at the gift of a pastor and teacher than these people showed as they crowded up to take his hand after he had pronounced the benediction. They are ordinarily more social and demonstrative at all religious gatherings than white Christians.

Some views of their future, and of the great and grave problems involved in their elevation by a free Christianity and by Christian education, were deeply impressed upon me during my week among them, to which I may give utterance hereafter.—Christian Mirror.

SOUTH CAROLINA.

Tannerism in Church Work—Charm of Old Songs—Temperance Revival.

REV. TEMPLE CUTLER.

Two years ago Plymouth church, Charleston, was in the hands of a man whom it believed to be a good man, and in the enthusiasm of the moment it undertook to support him without aid from the Association. They ran the church nine months, and then were glad to get back under the sheltering wings of their cherishing mother. They did not return a moment too soon. Life was at a very low ebb, and the church required very tender nursing to bring it up. The most I can say of it now is, that it is convalescing. The pulse is regular, the digestion normal, the eye is brighter and more hopeful, there is a degree of buoyancy in the step, the skin is more healthy, and if there shall be no relapse, we may confidently hope for full recovery. But I would not advise a repetition of such experiments. It isn’t a good plan to try how near we can bring ourselves to the gate of death and then get back. Tannerism isn’t good for church work.

The greatest burden of the church now, is a debt of $1,200 which it owes to the A. M. A. We would like to pay this off, and no doubt the money would be of great use in some other department of our great work, but the people are very poor. They are willing to do what they can, but we find it hard to pay the interest on the mortgage. If any of the readers of the Missionary desire to help a worthy cause, let them send their donation to Dr. Strieby, to be set to the credit of Plymouth church in Charleston.

We have been revising our list of membership. In the spring we had a solemn renewal of fellowship, and from that renewal we made up our list. In doing this we were obliged to drop from our record twenty-five names. We number now, present and absent, 180; but, I am sorry to say, some of them who are in the city, and who solemnly covenanted to walk in the fellowship with the church, still absent themselves from all our services. Still they regard themselves as exemplary Christians, and resent the imputation that they are not living consistent lives. It is here, as everywhere, a few faithful ones are the bone and sinew of the church.

I wish I could take you into one of our prayer meetings, such a one as we sometimes have, for they are not all of the same degree of spiritual fervor, but one of our good meetings is exceedingly enjoyable. The songs are so weird and the prayers are so fervent and frequent, and their attitude so devout—well, perhaps your fastidious taste would be shocked, but somehow I am drawn a little nearer Heaven here than anywhere else. I can’t help saying “Amen” down in my heart. And when they sing my body sways with theirs, just as the sailor rolls his gait with the motion of the deck. We sing a good many of the old time tunes, and some that have not yet been translated into written song. Our people sing their good old household hymns to these tunes. They have a happy faculty of adapting the words to the music, no matter what the metre[19] may be. For instance, the tune in the Jubilee Songs, “I will die in the field,” is made to fit the hymn, “When I can read my title clear.”

Sometimes the hymn is divided up, and the chorus sandwiched in between the lines most ingeniously. But, however incongruous it may be to the rules of music, it has a peculiar charm.

The church was well supplied during the vacation by Rev. David Peebles, of Dudley, N. C. Bro. Peebles kept them together and strengthened their hands. His ministry was most acceptable to the people. If nothing happens to us we have every reason to expect the church now to grow. We need the baptism of the Spirit. We are looking forward to a meeting, soon to be held in the city, under the direction of Rev. H. E. Brown, who has been laboring in the interest of the colored people in the South with great success. The Minister’s Union has taken hold of the matter, and stands ready to give him a hearty co-operation. Bro. Brown’s method introduces Bible Readings in public, and from house to house. This is what we need, and what the people want. We hope for a large blessing to follow.

There is a large territory spiritually to be occupied in Charleston. We have a population of 50,000, a large part of whom are colored. In this county there are 71,000 colored people and only 30,000 white. There are 604,000 colored people in the State, and 391,000 white. The colored vote is 40,000 in majority. There is great wickedness among these colored people. They copy and improve upon the vices of the whites, in addition to their natural depravity. Gambling, profanity, drunkenness, licentiousness and Sabbath-breaking abound. Some of these vices have been born of freedom, others have been increased by it. Drunkenness was rare among the blacks in slavery. Gambling was comparatively unknown. Now both of these vices prevail to an alarming extent. Outside the city limits on Sunday groups of men and boys are to be seen everywhere, throwing dice or engaged in some other form of gambling. An effort is on foot to reach these outlying masses and bring them under the influence of the Gospel. I know of but one missionary who gives her time to the work of visiting the thirty thousand colored people of this city. We could use advantageously a dozen.

Oh, how much there is to be done, and how few to do it; and how weak all our instrumentalities in the face of these obstacles! May God help us! Oh, that the churches at the North could see what a field is open to them here in the South! If we could have at least one more missionary here in Charleston we would be glad, and the money it would cost would be well expended.

The white people are waking up to more effort in missionary work. They have commenced in the temperance reform, and already a petition with 5,000 names attached has been presented to the Mayor and Council, asking that no more licenses be granted for the sale of intoxicating drinks. It is a beginning. A noble Christian woman, Mrs. Chapin, has been the prime mover of this endeavor. We hope its influence will not be lost if the petition is rejected. May God give us other and stronger petitions until the authorities see that Christian people mean business.

GEORGIA.

Atlanta University.

REV. C. W. FRANCIS.

Several facts of interest are connected with the opening of the school year at Atlanta University.

1st. We are in possession of several valuable improvements, which give increased facilities long greatly needed. These are in consequence of recent gifts, the first fruits of which a conjunction of favorable circumstances made thus[20] early available. They consist of an addition to the building for girls, nearly doubling its capacity for lodgers; to the dining room, furnishing nearly forty more seats; to one school room, furnishing desks for sixty pupils, and two convenient recitation rooms. And these are all in full demand, and the inquiry presses, “What shall we do next when the January rush comes on?”

2d. A largely increased attendance, especially of girls, 79 being now present as boarders, and these new pupils come largely from remote regions, some traveling more than 300 miles to reach school. This increase is the result of no special appeals or inducements—indeed, until much more extensive preparations were made it would not be safe to invite a larger attendance—but grows chiefly out of the interest awakened by old pupils in their own community, and in the schools taught by them during the summer vacation.

3d. A very satisfactory report of vacation work by nearly all of the more than 150 who engaged in it.

(a.) Every pupil who was competent and desired a situation in the public schools, obtained one, and many were taken who had made but little progress in studies, and after all were gone, more than a score of applications were made for teachers to be sent from here, which could not be met from any source, and the schools were disbanded.

(b.) No obstacles were met by any pupil caused by any of the white citizens of the state, but on the contrary, much assistance and support was cheerfully given, and that too, in many remote and rude regions.

(c.) Temperance work had especial prominence and effectiveness. All were provided with a good supply of suitable temperance reading, which they distributed in connection with schools taught by them both on Sabbath and week days. This work was followed up by family visits and lectures and personal work, so that in some counties the vote was carried for prohibition under the local option law.

Georgia Conference.

The Conference of this State held its annual meeting in Atlanta, at the First Church—Rev. C. W. Hawley’s—from the 2d to the 5th inst., Rev. Jos. E. Smith Moderator, and Rev. S. E. Lathrop and Prof. S. B. Morse, Secretaries. Rev. J. R. McLean preached the opening sermon, upon the encouragement to run the Christian race from the example of Christ. It was a refreshing and edifying discourse, too much in earnest for an introduction, but made three points and stuck to them and stopped at the end. The preacher is a graduate of Talladega.

As a good example for other Conferences, one evening was given to addresses in behalf of the several Congregational Societies, with alternation of color as to the speakers, but not as to the speeches. Supt. Roy reported the anniversary of the A. M. A. and the St. Louis triennial, and gave an address upon the independence of our churches as related to their fellowship. Rev. P. Snelson and Prof. C. W. Francis led off on “Church Discipline,” President Ware opened on “The School and the Church,” showing their natural relation as evangelizers. A half day was given to a visit at the Atlanta University, and one evening to a sociable. Two “church houses” have been built during the year at Marietta and Cypress Slash. The Conference missed Rev. R. F. Markham’s stirring way, but rejoiced in the coming in his place at Savannah of Rev. B. D. Conkling, whose transition from the moderatorship of the fortieth annual meeting of the Wisconsin Convention to a place in this humble body did not appal him. His sermon at the University was greatly appreciated. His combination of pulpit and business talent will find full scope in this work. The Atlanta Constitution gave a report of the Conference each day.

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On Monday the members of the Conference, called by letters missive, repaired to Marietta, twenty-one miles out, to sit in Council for the installation of Mr. E. J. Penney, a graduate of the Atlanta University and of Andover Seminary. The young pastor is taking hold of his work grandly. Let it be observed that the Congregational Churches of the South are seeking after the old paths. This is the third installation of a colored pastor within a month. The others were Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, and Rev. J. W. Roberts, of Paris, Texas.

ALABAMA.

A Visit to Marion.

REV. G. W. ANDREWS, TALLADEGA.

Marion was reached Saturday night, a grand old town of three thousand inhabitants, and an educational centre for the State. As the hacks were full, a colored brother, an old friend, and deacon in our church at this place, took my bag, and I hastened along the sidewalk a mile or more to what was once the “Teachers’ Home,” but now the parsonage, a house to which I was introduced ten years ago when I left my Connecticut pastorate for a winter in the Sunny South. I cannot tell you how I felt, passing along the streets, as I recalled the experiences of ten years ago. I shuddered as I neared the house where my friend, now of Chattanooga, came near losing his life in the small hours of the night by the hands of masked and armed men. The rush, the rope, the tree, the cries for help, the final deliverance, and much more, were very vivid and real to my awakened mind. I thought, also, of those eight consecutive nights when none of our family lay down to rest as usual; of the armed guard of twenty brave men in and about the house all those nights; of the warning letters received, the threats made, the Henry rifles in our chairs when we bowed around our family altar; of the preaching with hands in my pocket on my revolver; of the fear and trembling that seized us when special danger threatened; of our isolation from all except the poor we had come to bless by our labors. I thought, too, of the school-house, the three hundred eager learners, the little church of a dozen members, the precious meetings, the great outpouring of the Spirit, the hundreds of conversions, the “never to be forgotten” prayers and songs—in all the most precious revival of my life. As a drowning man recalls the events of a whole life in a moment, so in an incredibly brief space of time passed before me those early experiences of missionary life in this strange land, impossible for me now to relate. All is changed now. To-day the missionary is welcomed by many Christian people in Marion. The dreadful past is fading from our minds in the love and friendship of the present.

Sabbath morning I looked out upon the many cottages and cabin homes in the woods and fields all about, while near by I saw the church edifice with its graceful and airy bell-tower in which hangs a choice bell from the foundry of Veasy & White, of East Hampton, Connecticut, and the gift of the people there. The house will seat three or four hundred, is well proportioned, nicely painted and frescoed,—the most handsome and best kept church edifice of the colored people in the State.

I wish it were possible for me to give some suitable account of the Sabbath greetings and services. A few touches only, and your imagination must supply the rest. The bell called us to the house of God at 9 a.m. You first meet the men and women who joined the church ten years ago, and are now pillars in it and in the Sabbath-school. And such a welcome!—such hand-shaking, such glad hearts! You very soon know Paul’s warmth towards his beloved Church of Philippi, his first love in Europe, as this was my first love in Alabama. It was nearly five hours before[22] these morning greetings, the Sabbath-school, the preaching and then more hand-shaking, were ended, and the people willing to go to their homes. The promise, “He shall bring all things to your remembrance,” seemed that day fulfilled. Precious memories of the wonderful work of grace that drew so many of them into the fold were present to all with power. “Our hearts burned within us” as we talked of these things there, and “by the way.” The night service, the Monday calls, the informal social gathering, the eager questions, the manifest Spirit’s presence, the next day’s farewells—all made a deep impression on us, and led us to feel anew that this missionary work is God’s work, for it was that work that inspired our hearts and was our theme from first to last.

This church has already put five young men into the Christian ministry, and is in morals, intelligence and management a pattern worthy to be copied.

Since my arrival home the one question that presses heaviest on my heart is, how can we provide for the boys and girls of Marion and other places visited that want to come to the college to school? In Childersburgh, Shelby Iron Works, Calera, Selma and Marion, places along the line of my journey, I found many smart boys and girls anxious to become educated men and women. In one place I found twenty-five eager to come, not one of whom could pay more than a small part of necessary school expenses. Low wages, poor crops, the cotton worm and inherited poverty keep them where they are, and so far as I can see they must live and die there in their poverty and hopelessness, unless those whom God has more highly favored are moved to help them. Our college expenses are so low that seventy dollars will keep one pupil in school one year, and sometimes, on account of labor done or aid from home, a much smaller amount will suffice. We need more than one thousand dollars to be used in this way this year, above the amounts already pledged. Christian education transforms these boys and girls. I wish you could see the eight young men that were graduated last June from the Theological Department of the college, and hear them preach the word to their people; you could but say, “Verily, this is God’s way and I must chime in with it.” Several young men are just now entering the Theological Department who are every way worthy, but wholly dependent for means to prosecute their studies to the end.

TENNESSEE.

Revival at Memphis.

PROF. A. J. STEELE.

I know you will rejoice with us at the outpouring of the Spirit which just now is so manifest.

Our evening prayer-meetings, held for the past week each day immediately after school, are being greatly blessed. One of the students, a young man, professed Christ three days ago; the earnestness since then has deepened. The meetings of yesterday and the day before were especially blessed, and this morning two promising girls of the school rose directly after devotions, and before the entire school, gave most earnest and clear testimony to Christ as their Saviour. In this afternoon’s meeting, to which nearly the entire school remained, two smaller girls and two prominent young men professed, with rejoicing. The entire school seems moved, many are seeking most earnestly, and this evening, at seven o’clock, we have a special meeting in the sitting-room at the Home.

We are all rejoicing, as we doubt not angels are, over the repentance and return of those estranged from God. Will you not give thanks with us and pray for a continuation of the presence of the Spirit with us in our work!

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THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION,”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D.D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D.D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D.D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

Directors: Rev. George Mooar, D.D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James. M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball.

Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.

LETTERS FROM PUPILS.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

I often receive letters from pupils in our schools, and still more frequently read letters addressed to their teachers, which I have wished I could show to the Christian friends who are enabling us to carry on our work.

It is encouraging to see how much of saving truth they have contrived to learn, and still more to feel all through the throbbings of a Christian heart. The English is often in a sad tangle, but the effort to get hold of idioms so utterly opposite to their own sometimes gives an appetizing quaintness to their utterances such as freshens even oldest truth.

I venture to fill our columns for this month with a few extracts, realizing the fact that our interest in them may be wholly due to our personal interest in the writers, and that I incur the risk of their falling quite flat on the ears of others.

Here is one from Gin Sing, a member of the Presbyterian Church in Santa Barbara, now in Mexico: “Dear Sir, Mr. Pond: How are your health now? I hope you alway strong and able to do things. I have leave off [left] the city of Santa Barbara last Jan. 21st, but we living in Sonora of Mexico the county, at place of San Felix Mine. * * * I like to stay Santa Barbara very much, and so I have a chance to go church every Sunday; and this country none have church, and not very good country, but only mine was good, and country was dry the all time, and hot, too, and cold—sometimes was cold as can be. Oh, Dear Sir, I hear from Ah Foy [a Chinese brother, member of the Congregational Church] sometime ago. Tell me about Lee Wing Tie [a Baptist brother from San Francisco] been to Santa Barbara; done many good things for mission boys before he left; but Mission boys like him very much indeed, and very happy that time, and large school, too. Now Miss Clarke write me very few boys come. I am sorry. Sorry as can be. * * * Be prayerful, patient and pleasant, and never lose faith that the love and help of God, the Father, are with us in every hour. May God bless you always.”

And here is one recently received from Ny To Ging, a Stockton brother: “Mr. Pond: Dear Friend * * * Since I left you so long time, I never written to you any. Alway do I remember your kindness. I hope God will bless you and give you much strength to do his work. We are all sinners, and have wandered from God like lost sheep that have gone astray from the fold, but God is ready to forgive and take us back again in order to save us; so that we ought immediately to repent and become the disciples of Christ and be always prepared to do the will of Jesus. The Bible is the word of God. Holy men wrote it as the Holy Spirit taught them. The truths of the Bible never change. Every word is true, and God’s truth shall last forever. * * * I write to let you know and two Chinese [are to be] baptized in Stockton Church[24] Congregational the next Sunday. I do not know how to write a letter well, but I make the attempt to write a little, hoping you will overlook all mistakes.” [In some portions of the above I think that as to the English our brother must have had the aid of his teacher’s corrections but the thoughts, I am sure, are his own.—W. C. P.]

This is from Jou Mow Lam, recently baptized in Bethany Church, addressed to his teacher in Stockton: “My dear teacher, Mrs. L. Langdon, I write few words to you. I think you good take care your scholar. I leave you long time. I do pray to God, hope you very well. I was very sorry, can get no work, know you help me. Pray to God to change my new heart [change my heart: make it new] no make me darkness. Soon I have baptized [shall be baptized]. I have read also in the gospels about Jesus; he rose from the grave on the third day after he was crucified, and went to heaven. I wish to be a Christian that I may go to heaven. I do not cease to pray for the pardon of my sin, and a new heart. I cannot tell you how I long to meet you my dear Christian friend.” This one is from Ny King, a beloved brother in Bethany Church, addressed to teachers who had recently removed from San Francisco to Stockton. It was written just as he was about to sail for China: “I sorry I can not write all I want, but I will try to write a few words to you. You are kind and patient to teach our Chinese, and I am very sorry you have to go to Stockton and leave us. Still we are glad, for you shall have a good chance to do much good for our Christian Chinese up there. I hope you remember me while you pray, that I may go home to China, to hold up the light of Christ, and tell the kindness of your Christian people to my own countrymen which they might receive it. One day, one of my heathen friends call up to me in a store: ‘Ny King,’ said he, ‘are you go home next steamer? I will tell you something, that you might not forget it. Now you say you are a Christian, but in about a month more, you will say you are something thing else,’ for he thought the Christian only good for here, and never can be in China. If the power of man, it might be so, but God who is the highest [is] Almighty. Now I must close my letter. I have no time to write any more. Good bye.”

Many other letters lie before me, each with its own point of interest, but I shall trespass on another’s space if I indulge in any more extracts. I will venture, however, to give without connection, the following sketch of a sermon from Wong Ack, a helper recently introduced into service, and from whom our readers have not heard before.

The text is Matt. ii., 28: “Come unto me all ye that labor,” etc.

1. The world is now already led by Satan, that who follows him, it is heavy labor he has to bear: and every grief in his heart that never feels any comfort, so that Jesus has shown His kind heart, and sound His merciful voice that whosoever will leave the devil and come to Him, they will receive His rest.

2. Jesus now on this world is like to what?—Like a gong which is sounding on the place while the thieves surround the people at night, and might wake them up, so they know the mischief was near, and try to escape out of the murderers’ hands, and hope they might save their life.

3. Our friends, this mischief nobody is able to deliver you from, but only Jesus who is our Saviour: He will preserve us, if we trust in Him. Oh! how sorry for them now which are asleep! Their hearts were full of dreams, and their eyes were closed up by Satan’s plans. Wake up, our friends, wake up! Come, come to Jesus as possible as you can [as quickly as you possibly can]. He is ready, waiting for us. * * *

4. That labor which I had spoken of[25] is in this world. But you ought to know beforehand that labor which [is in] the world to come. Now turn to Luke, xiv chapter and 24th verse: that will tell you how that is. Therefore Jesus said, “Come unto me.” What you think of this voice? * * * Now, our friends, should we all come to Him? Should we rather love to go to heaven, than go to hell? Yes, we must all come to Him, and turn our hearts toward the way of heaven, and hope our Lord Jesus Christ lead us in to His glory forever and ever.

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

A CHRISTMAS GIFT LIKE BELL BENNET’S.

MRS. T. N. CHASE.

“Annie, will you please come in a minute?” called Mrs. Duncan to a merry maiden tripping home from school. Annie Bennet looked up, nodded, and turned toward Mrs. Duncan’s mansion. As soon as her feet touched the grand stone steps, she felt changed into a dignified young lady, as quickly as ever Cinderella turned into a fairy. And as handsome Will, just in from the same school, opened for her the massive doors, some fresh roses jumped into Annie’s cheeks and some fresh sparkles into her dancing eyes. As soon as the three were seated in the cosey bay-window, Mrs. Duncan said, “Annie, you know, with my lame foot, I cannot go to see your mother, so I called you in to tell you my Christmas plan for our little May. You know how the child loves your little sister Bell. Well, last night while the little darling was saying her prayers, she added, ‘Please, Lord, tell Santa Claus to bring a Christmas gift to Bell just like the one he brings to me.’ Now we had planned getting her a tiny diamond ring, it would be so lovely on her dainty little hand, and I thought if your mother knew of May’s sweet little prayer, she’d like to strengthen the child’s faith by getting one for Bell like it.” Annie thought it was a beautiful idea and hastened home to tell her mother.

As soon as Mrs. Bennet heard Annie’s story, a greater pain came into her heart than had been there for many a day; for they had lately received a fortune from a rich uncle, and she felt that her motives for simplicity and economy would not be understood. Her greatest anxiety, however, was for her children. How she had prayed that the love of this money might not be to them “the root of all evil,” and “pierce them through with many sorrows.” She well knew how her precious Annie would now be petted by the gay and fashionable, and here had come her first great trial in this irresistible message from charming Mrs. Duncan. Annie understood her mother’s hesitation and said, “Mamma, wouldn’t it be a pity to have little May think her prayer was not heard?”

“My child, May did not pray for a diamond ring, but for a gift like Bell’s. Perhaps if you tell Mrs. Duncan I cannot conscientiously grant her request she will get a simple gift like one we get for Bell.”

“Oh, mamma, I never could tell Mrs. Duncan that. Don’t you think the habit of economy, that of necessity you have practiced all these years, may be mistaken for conscience?”

“The habit doubtless makes it easier for me to obey conscience, but I cannot think I am mistaking one for the other,” replied Mrs. Bennet.

“But, ma, do you think it proper for us to live as simply now as we did when[26] papa had a salary of only $2,000 a year?”

“Annie, dear, have we not been able to dress respectably, has not our table always had well-prepared, wholesome and appetizing food, has not our little cottage contained all that was absolutely necessary for real home comfort?”

“Yes, ma, we have a sweet home: you know I love it. I was not complaining of the past, but why did God give us this fortune if He did not wish us to enjoy luxuries now as well as comforts?”

“I think He did, Annie. I’m sure we can all now enjoy the luxury of doing good as we never have before. Then just think what a luxury it will be not to weary ourselves with making over worn garments. We can now give them to the needy and help still others by hiring them to make our new clothing,—not that we may be idle, but that we may have ‘a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathize.’ We can have dear grandpa and grandma with us all the time. We will have several cosey bed-rooms added to our cottage, and shall not feel too poor to invite our less favored cousins and many dear friends to spend long vacations with us.”

“But, ma, we might do all this and still appear poor, while if we had a grand home like Mrs. Duncan, and exquisite curtains, and a fine carriage, and Bell had her diamond ring, and we all wore expensive and stylish clothing, everybody would know papa was rich.”

“Yes, Annie, and what good would it do people to know papa was rich?”

“Well, I cannot think of any good it would do them.”

“What good would it do us, darling, to have people know it?”

“Oh ma, it would be so pleasant to have every one polite to us, and treat us beautifully as they do rich people.”

“Do not all who know us treat us well, Annie?”

“Oh yes, ma, very well; but you know even strangers admire those who dress, dine, and drive as only the rich can.”

“Now think, Annie, what this consideration of strangers costs. Friends envy us, the poor hate us, the irreligious question our sincerity, our own hearts are made vain, if not proud, millions are spent in useless luxuries that might bless the poor, and—well Annie, this is enough for once, isn’t it? When you have been in the city did you ever notice boys slowly pacing the streets and often ringing a bell, who were all covered over with an advertisement of some sale or show?”

“Yes, mamma.”

“Well, I often see young ladies on the street who always remind me of these advertising boys, as their dress makes them a walking advertisement of their father’s wealth. One Sunday night, after attending service in a very wealthy church, I dreamed that all the ladies wore pocket-books on their heads instead of bonnets. Some were too full to be closed, and small coin often dropped out. Others were tightly clasped and ornamented with all manner of precious stones. A few were thin and worn, but all were labelled with the exact amount of contents. And when one lady walked in with $2,000,000 blazing in diamond figures on her pocket-book how all the congregation bowed down.”

“Oh mamma, what a funny dream!”

“Now Annie, if Christian women would all feel that they were Christian stewards of their Lord’s money, and could see what foolish vanity it is to wish the world to know of their wealth, then we should all have some comparatively definite standard of a Christian style of living. But as long as Christian women have no guide but the varying length of a husband’s purse, we shall have no standard, no conscience in the matter, and the world will continue to jeer and the poor to suffer.”

Annie’s dread lest Will Duncan and his mother should think them old-fashioned[27] or Puritanical, or possibly avaricious, was a sore temptation to her, and once more she plead—“But ma, would it not be right to call this ring a thank-offering for the great dowry we have received?”

“My dear Annie, I cannot see how a gift that would simply be a badge of our wealth, and tend to flatter the vanity of our innocent little Bell, would be a suitable thank-offering to the Lord. I believe in thank-offerings, however, and have written my dear old friend Mrs. W——, who is engaged in missionary work South, you remember, inquiring how I can best help her. Perhaps when her reply comes you will feel differently.”

Poor Annie avoided passing Mrs. Duncan’s home for two days, dreading to speak of her mother’s decision. The second day the expected letter came from Georgia. It told of a delicate little colored girl—a graduate of the Higher Normal Department of an A. M. A. School. This girl’s father had run away $150 in debt, and the home that sheltered the little family was to be sold at sheriff’s sale to pay the debt. This girl found a man who would pay it and wait for her to pay him in small sums as she earned it by teaching. As soon as this was paid she begged her sister to go to the school from which she graduated. The sister thought she was too old to begin to go to school again, and could not be persuaded till at last she was told—“Now Sis, kind friends at the North have helped me get my education and I am going to send some poor girl to that same school, and if you don’t go, some one else will be glad of my help.” So now she is paying nine dollars a month for that sister’s board and tuition, and buys her books and clothes, better ones, too, than she wore herself. A letter was also enclosed from this girl to her old teacher, begging for help to build a school house where she is now teaching. So besides educating her sister she is trying to build a school house. But I have the letter and will let the girl tell her own story:

When Annie got home from school she read both letters with great interest, but said, “Ma, don’t you suppose such letters are sometimes gotten up for effect?” “Perhaps they are, but I am sure this one was not, for you know I wrote asking for some case of pressing need, and the girl’s letter never could have been written for my eyes, as it is dated some weeks ago.”

“But, ma, I have seen some missionaries who are so long-faced and sanctimonious that some way I can’t enjoy their reports.”

[28]

“I am glad you hate cant, Annie. So do I, but if you should see this friend of mine who wrote that letter, you’d feel very sure there was none of it about her. She is one of the merriest, sunniest, most genial ladies I ever knew. And I never knew a person hate shams or pretense of any kind more thoroughly than she. How I wish you had been home when she was here two years ago; but you must take the letter to Mrs. Duncan, for she is a dear friend of hers too.”

“Is she, ma? I’m so glad.”

Annie stopped next morning at Mrs. Duncan’s and left the letter with the servant at the door, saying she’d call for it on her way home. When she called in the afternoon, Mrs. Duncan told her how delighted she’d been to hear from her old school friend, and that she must certainly help that brave little colored girl build her school house. Annie then ventured timidly to say her ma felt she ought to do that instead of buying so expensive a gift for Bell.

“Now, Annie, that is just like your sweet mother,” said Mrs. Duncan. “I wish I was half as good. I did hope, though, little May’s prayer might be answered.”

“Ma says it might be if you could get a simple gift like the one we get Bell,” shyly suggests Annie.

“Sure enough,” exclaimed Mrs. Duncan; “how stupid I was not to think of that. I’ll do it, and then I’ll have twice much to give the little Georgia missionary.”

So the two mothers purchased for the children inexpensive gifts, and sent to the Georgia colored girl a generous donation for her chosen work.

RECEIPTS

FOR NOVEMBER, 1880.

E. PALACHE, Treasurer C. C. M.

H. W. HUBBARD, Treas.

56 Reade St., N. Y.

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The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South—in Va., 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 13; Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 14; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 6. Africa, 2. Among the Indians, 1. Total 70.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.—Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8. Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 12. Other Schools, 24. Total 44.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 253; among the Chinese, 21; among the Indians, 9; in Africa, 13. Total, 296. Students—In Theology, 86; Law, 28; in College Course, 63; in other studies, 7,030. Total, 7,207. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office, as below:

MAGAZINE.

This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.”

The will should be attested by three witnesses [in some States three are required—in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.