The American Missionary

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

For notice of Annual Meeting see last page of cover. An excellent opportunity for a healthful sea voyage.

END OF THE FISCAL YEAR.

With this month our fiscal year ends. At this writing we are very anxious about the outcome. As we noticed last month, July receipts this year fell off, as compared with last year, $17,000, and in August they fell off, as compared with last year, about $3,000. This puts a heavy strain upon September. When this magazine reaches our readers there will still be a few days in September left. They ought to be golden days for our treasury. The thought that, if every one will do his duty, it is possible for all deficit to be overcome and all debt to be wiped out, makes us urgent to make yet one more plea before our books are closed. The time for hand-to-hand action has come. Reader, can you not do something? Do you not know some individuals and churches that have given us nothing the past year? There are a great many of them in the country. Can you not, by a little personal effort, induce them to do something before September ends? A little effort all round, and God will bless it to our complete deliverance.

A friend of our work sends us word that in his judgment the Association should not only be speedily relieved of its debt, but that a good balance should always be in hand to meet emergencies. He therefore makes a proposition that he will be one of a hundred who shall give $1,000 each to secure this most desirable end. But where are the ninety and nine? We lay the suggestion before our readers. We believe that among the constituents of the A. M. A. there are a great many more than the required number possessing means in over-abundance to meet the call. We appeal to all such to take the suggestion under consideration and let us hear from them at their earliest convenience.

[280]

Our Indian boys are interested in the Association’s closing the year free from debt. A teacher in the Santee school writes: “Some of the young men who live in the Young Men’s Hall wish to help the Association pay its debt.” Here follow the names of eight young men who contribute $9.25 for this purpose. The teacher adds: “This is money that the boys have earned besides paying for their clothing and making other contributions.” Were the church members in the country to do proportionately as well as these Indian youth, there would not only be no debt threatening, but the new fields so urgently calling for cultivation would be entered and our work greatly enlarged.

The editor of the Missionary rejoices in having such a little friend as the writer of the following letter, and he greatly desires that her tribe may increase:

“Dear Friend—I learned from a friend, one of our late missionaries, that you was in debt, and as I am a little girl and interested in it, I will give one dime toward the debt.”

M. G.

The field is the world, and the work is one. Frequently we have occasion to realize this blessed truth. Two contributions just received bring it up with fresh emphasis. One is from a home missionary who sends us a generous contribution for our work, and the other is from a former foreign missionary, who in sending his gift from over the sea, accompanies it with these inspiring words: “Your grand work still broadens out on all sides. God give his people hearts to devise and execute liberal things. The light surely is increasing and hope grows stronger as your work rolls onward with its mighty power—the power with which alone the spirit of God can endue it—is enduing it.”

The questions with which we have to do are inseparably connected with the welfare of our beloved land. They strike deep at the roots of the life of the churches. They touch the mission work in which the churches are engaged all along the line. Both home and foreign missions will languish if they are prosecuted at the neglect of just the work which the American Missionary Association is doing. The heathen world is a common object for the prayer, thought, sacrifice and effort of the churches of Christendom. But the heathenism of the neglected classes of America must be reached by the churches of America. Over that heathenism we cannot spring; past that heathenism we must not go without giving faithful attention to it on the way.

[281]

THE GLENN BILL.

Has a Whole State Lost its Poise?—It would seem as if the white people of Georgia had done this in so far as they are represented by their Legislature in its action on the Glenn Bill. The sentiment of the civilized world is against them. Of this they might easily satisfy themselves; yet it is reported that Mr. Glenn, during one of his speeches in favor of his infamous chain-gang bill, cried out: “What do the people of Georgia care for the sentiment of the world?” There is evidence, however, Mr. Glenn to the contrary notwithstanding, that Georgia does care for the sentiment of the world. In the Senate the bill has been called to a halt, and several attempts have been made to modify it. Here is a bill that has been passed by the Assembly about as unanimously as was the Glenn Bill:

“Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring: That in future the Governor be directed not to draw his warrant for the annual appropriation of $8,000 to Atlanta University, under the act of March 3d, 1884, until such a plan of expenditure as will secure the exclusive use of the same for the education of the colored children, in accordance with the declared and settled policy of the State on the subject of the co-education of the races, has been submitted and approved by the Commission constituted in said act for the supervision of the expenditure of said appropriation.

“Resolved further: That said Commission be directed to see that said fund is faithfully applied according to said plan of expenditure, and in no other way.”

This bill is practically as wicked as the one for which it is offered as a substitute. As the New York Independent says, it “imposes a fine of $8,000 per year upon an institution for permitting the child of a teacher to recite to his own father.” Such legislation is a disgrace to the century. Private and missionary schools should have the fullest liberty in this Republic to teach whom they will. A missionary school opens its doors and says, in the language of the gospel whose teachings it is bound to follow, Whosoever will, may come. The Georgia Legislature sets itself up above the gospel, and says, Whosoever will, may not come. Shame upon the State that, while calling itself Christian, dares to legislate in violation of Christian principle. It will not, it cannot prosper, till it changes its course. What the final outcome will be we cannot yet say; but this is certain, the legislation will be against our principles and our work. In the meantime, it is pertinent for us to ask the churches if they intend to stand by us as we attempt to stand for the principles on which as an Association we rest—principles that we believe to be the very essence of the gospel? To close this year with a debt would certainly be a great discouragement in our work. Friends, bend to the rescue with a will.

[282]

THE INDIAN LANGUAGE IN MISSION WORK.

There has been severe and just criticism on the policy of the Indian Commissioner prohibiting the use of the vernacular in the schools among the Indians, not only in those sustained by the Government, but in those supported wholly by private contributions. We wish to give due credit to the Commissioner. He is honest in his purpose, and his general aim is good. He is right in wishing to make the Indian a civilized man, and not a civilized Indian. The Indian dross must be taken out and the manhood-gold polished. A man’s language is a part of himself, and the language of the Indian, while it is rich in metaphors relating to natural scenery, comparatively pure in reference to the social virtues, and exalted in its conception of the Great Spirit, yet, in many respects, it holds him to his old life, with its cruelties and superstitions. It is true that as the Roman and Greek languages, conveying originally only human and mythological ideas, came at length to be the vehicle for Christian meanings, so may the Indian’s vernacular. But the process is long and tedious, and the number of Indians who use it is so small and its vocabulary is so meagre, that the effort to make it a permanent vehicle for thought and speech is not worth making, especially as there is a language so much better just at hand. The only question relates to the mode of transition from the one to the other, and how far the Indian tongue can be made a means of more speedily and accurately teaching the English; or, rather, how far the Indian language can be used to help the Indian into a Christian civilization.

Here is the Commissioner’s great mistake. No square rule is wise. It depends on persons, locations and surroundings. For example:

1. The Indian pupil at Hampton or Carlisle is surrounded by English-speaking people, and he will learn English perforce, as an Englishman learns French in France, or German in Germany. Yet even here the process is slow. The Indian youth is so bashful that he makes reluctant use of his opportunities, so that it requires three or four years to acquire the English language at Hampton; and withal, an interpreter is an essential helper there.

2. The Indian boy at the Santee Normal School has only the teachers as his English-speaking associates; the rest are Dakotas. He must spend toilsome years in getting a little knowledge through a dense medium, when an occasional Dakota word would at once illuminate the meaning of the English. What the pupil wants is English ideas, rather than English words. Whatever will give this should be used.

3. But the greatest difficulty is in the schools at out-stations, which have a missionary aim. Here the idea is mainly the making of Christian character and life. The teacher is usually a native, a pupil from the Santee or Oahe schools. He has some knowledge of English, enough to enable[283] him to give more precise and better meaning to the Dakota, but not enough to enable him to teach or preach in it, and if he could his hearers would not understand him. He must use his native tongue mainly, or not work at all. The Missionary Societies would find their work ruinously crippled if these out-stations were cut off. They are the pioneers of missionary work.

4. Then, again, there is the mass of the adult Indians that can never learn a new language. They must hear the gospel in their native tongue, or never hear it. The President of the United States, Secretary Lamar and Commissioner Atkins have all committed themselves to the value—nay, the necessity—of religion as a lever for the elevation of the Indian. Do they mean now to forbid the Missionary Societies from training teachers and preachers for these people? This is an assumption of authority that befits Russia, and we are sure the people of these free United States will submit to no such Star-Chamber dictation.

MEMORIAL ON INDIAN EDUCATION.

ADOPTED BY THE CHICAGO MINISTERS’ MEETING.

To his Excellency the President of the United States:

The Congregational ministers of Chicago and vicinity, in their weekly session at the Grand Pacific, September 5th, to the number of thirty-five, desire to memorialize you in behalf of a modification of the recent orders of the Indian Department, whereby the use of the native language is interdicted in all Indian reservation schools, not only those that are under Government patronage, in whole or in part, but also those that are private or are under missionary societies.

From the first we have favored the policy proposed by missionaries among the Indians, now adopted by the Government, and heartily approved by yourself, of bringing these aborigines into American citizenship and of securing them land in severalty, with the surplus turned into a school fund.

Nor do we question the motives of the heads of the Indian Department. Indeed this is forefended by the fact, as semi-officially stated, that “the question of the effect of the policy of the office upon any missionary body has never been considered;” and this fact gives us the more assurance in soliciting you, that the missionary view may yet receive a due consideration.

We are clear, with the Indian officials, that in the effort to Americanize these natives, the English language must be introduced as fast as possible. But we would not do this to the total exclusion of the native tongues in the missionary and interior station schools, being confident that the final result will be more speedily secured by the use, in part, of the Indian language.

[284]

We are confident that the greatest civilizing power among any pagan people will be that which comes from the ideas and the influence of the Christian religion; and that these can be made most effective through the Bible of that religion in the native tongue. This has been the wisdom of missions in all times and countries, and none the less in those to the Indians of America. By this process alone have we secured the civilized “nations” we now have in the Indian Territory, in New York, in Wisconsin and in other parts of our country. So the missionaries to the Sioux gave them the Bible, the catechism, Pilgrim’s Progress, spelling-books and readers in their own dialect, and in this way gave them the really American ideas, as well as the religion of Christ. And what is the result? Two thousand of them gathered into the Christian church and twice that number civilized.

Of the people it is not possible that any but the children will be taught English, and of these, for a long time, only a small portion. For the adult people and even for the young, as for the process of helping them to heaven, “one hour of their vernacular is worth a cycle of any other tongue,” and this must be from the native’s Bible in hand. The new order will close eighteen schools and stations of our missionary body, and as many more under the care of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians. It will deprive seven or eight hundred children of the instruction they are fitted to receive, and will prevent access to about 6,000 who are near these schools, but not yet reached. Principal Belfield of our Chicago Manual Training School, after a recent visit to the Normal and Industrial Training School of the Santee Agency, under Rev. Alfred L. Riggs, reported in one of our dailies, in terms of the warmest admiration and commendation, of the comprehensive system of manual, industrial and moral training of that school, which he declared was working a wonderful transformation among the Indian youth of both sexes. And yet it is against this school in particular that the new orders are aimed. And this, not because the English language is not chiefly used there, but solely because the Dakota, in connection with the English, is used at school in reading the Bible and singing gospel hymns.

The station schools back in the interior of the Sioux Reservation, under native teachers only, having no connection with the Government, are also ordered closed. But these teachers have been trained at the Santee and Oahe schools, to which some of their pupils have been brought forward; and these again furnish the scholars who are secured for the institutions at the East where the English is exclusively used. This process shows the relation of the vernacular schools to those of the advanced English. It also shows how unfair it is to decide the whole case of teaching exclusive English by the selected specimens to be found at Hampton and Carlisle.

This plan keeps up a connection between the young and the old, between[285] the raw interior and the more civilized front. It agrees with the established policy for assimilating people of foreign tongues in our country—that of using both the vernacular and the English in their public worship. It would be a gross usurpation for our country to interdict such peoples from thus using their native language in parish schools for imparting their own religious views of truth and duty.

We feel sure that to insist that these new candidates for citizenship, in addition to all the other new things implied in this revolution of their old ways, shall be tied up in all their schools to a new language, will be a disheartenment that will defeat the desired result.

Our petition is, that you will secure such a modification of the recent orders as will allow, in private and mission schools, a discretionary use of the native along with the English language, and all this in order, as we think, to a more speedy extinction of the one, and the prevalence of the other, among all the Indian tribes.

And so we respectfully appeal.

(Signed) F. D. Rood, Sec.

OUR INDIAN WORK AT OAHE.

AN ILLUSTRATION OF WHAT THE U. S. GOVERNMENT proposes TO KILL.

It was my privilege to attend the closing exercises of our Indian school at Oahe, in Dakota, which is under the direction of Rev. T. L. Riggs. About forty children have been in school during the winter, and now in mid-summer they return to their homes to spend two months. Mr. Riggs has sent word to all the out-stations that the parents and relatives of the children were expected to come here for their children at that time. As school closed on Wednesday, those living at a distance of ninety miles started the Saturday previous. Many of them reached Oahe on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning we watched them coming in in their white covered wagons and on their ponies. Stopping near the river they pitched their tents, and thus had temporary homes. There were here then one hundred and fifty in number who came from all parts of the “Cheyenne River Agency Reservation,” and some from the “Spotted Tail Agency.” The mission house was open to all, and not a few came at once to pay their respects, staying only a few moments. The school exercises were intensely interesting. The delighted parents in their blankets and with feathers in their hair, looking uncouth enough to please the most fantastic taste, themselves satisfied beyond qualification, seated and standing, filled every available space when the exercises began. These were recitations and songs, etc., which made even the phlegmatic red people smile audibly.[286] One little fellow named Mark “spoke his piece” as follows:

The unity of the human race was confirmed in the way in which Mark picked at his trousers, and in the way in which he did not know what to do with his hands and his feet during his eloquent oration. The Indians laughed at his embarrassment “just like white folks.” The wives of the teachers and the Christian women from the out-stations had come to this great entertainment. They met at an Indian home (Spotted Bear’s) and decided to call a meeting, inviting Miss Collins to address them, as she had just returned to her old home and people after a long absence. About fifty women, of whom about thirty were Christians and twenty were in varied stages of darkness, made the congregation. Miss Collins opened the meeting with a hymn of rejoicing, which was sung with a will by all the people. Next she read the verses in Matt. 5.—“Ye are a city set on a hill. Do men light a candle,”—etc. “Let your light shine.” Speaking first to Christians who have been taught, she reminded them that the heathen were looking to them for help, and that if they did not honor God and the Church, then, instead of giving light to their people, they were making the darkness more dense—that even from the far-away districts they knew what the Indians at Oahe and up and down the Cheyenne River were doing—and if they followed Christ closely so would those beginning to see the light follow them. It was as if they were making a road across the trackless plains; if they kept on in a straight way, avoiding all the bad places, finding the good camping places by the way;—those who followed would be safe. Then she reported from her work at Grand River, trying to impress upon the women the necessity of working in their Missionary Society, to earn money to help give the gospel to the people. Luluwin Deprey, a half-breed woman who became a Christian and united with the church among the first converts, reported from their workers on the Cheyenne. She brought fancy articles made of buckskin trimmed in beads and porcupine quills, to be sold for the Missionary Society. In all, they will bring about ten dollars. She spoke in a quiet, modest way, saying that in making all these things they had asked no help whatever to buy material. They gave the material themselves, so that all that they brought was clear gain to the work. She urged the necessity of the church doing more, saying: “We have now but little money on hand and September is not far off, and we must work much. We have been ‘playing mission work’; now let us go to work and raise all the money we can, for if we are Christ’s we must not be idle or selfish. We must do all we can to help our heathen people, for many of our neighbors are in darkness. Many in this room are yet without the knowledge of God. We[287] must lift up the candle.” Elizabeth Winyan spoke eloquently of the work done in the white churches by the Christian women for those who were living and dying without the gospel. All people who are without the Bible are alike. None can live without the Bible without starving the soul. It is true we Dakota Christians are “a city set on a hill.” Bad actions are seen even farther than good ones. If you keep your house well, the others will learn from you. If you keep your children well, others learn from you. If you pray, so will others learn to pray. It is now time for the Dakotas to arise and with one action and one voice proclaim themselves children of Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave Himself for us. He was an only son, and you and I know how precious He was to His Father. We must now give ourselves and all that we have to this work as these women (the white women) have done. Our Indian Missionary Society has done but little, but now let us truly lift up our hands and lay hold of this work. We have learned the truth. We must learn to be the leaders and walk before these people so that we may lead them to Christ. Our missionary has brought tears in relating the sufferings of our people. Now let us see what we can do to bring the people into the light. Without the Bible our people will die. With the Bible we shall live and multiply and be a strong people. We are “only women,” but women can give the light to those in darkness, and the command to go into all the world, means for you to help; you, and you, and me;—every one. No one has a right to say: ‘Let others work; I will be good myself but cannot help.’ When we see these white missionaries who leave all and come to us, it is a shame if we who have been brought to Christ should hold back anything from Christ. We can do something whether we have money or not. We have our hands and eyes and brains. We can make something that will sell and get a little, and if only ten cents or five cents, the Lord will bless it and make it do something for His honor and glory. Let us be more diligent—pray more—and then shall our own strength be made greater and our own hearts more steadfast and our own lives more fruitful, and our light will shine so that the way shall no longer be dark but plain and clear to those coming after us. We cannot sit all the day idle if we are servants of God; we must bestir ourselves. Work for God and honor him and save our people, and in this way shall we strengthen our souls. Pray, depend upon God and do as He teaches, and though now you may not understand all He teaches, your mind will open and you will become wise.

“Ptanwin,” or Buffalo woman, the mother of Spotted Bear’s wife, and more than sixty years of age, then spoke. She came down here from Spotted Tail Agency a long time ago, and attended school all winter. She learned to sing many hymns and to read a little in the Bible. Becoming a Christian and uniting with the church, she remained here a year, and then said: “I must go back to my relatives, who are still in darkness,[288] and teach them.” She had held meetings in various places, sometimes going thirty miles to hold a prayer-meeting. All this time her son was asking for a missionary. This poor woman, lame, wholly blind in one eye, and aged, was thus passing the light along. Once in her sickness her daughter heard a sound coming from her room, and on going in she found her mother singing, “Jesus loves me; this I know,” in her own tongue. The daughter said, “Mother, what is the matter?” She replied, “The pain will not let me sleep, and when I pray and sing, it strengthens me and helps me to bear it.” In her address she said: “I found you had not collected much money, so I said: ‘I will help.’ I got a buckskin, tanned it, and brought it down. I give it to you to make little things out of, that the people will buy. When I started to come I expected to have a good time, and strengthen myself with your presence. Now I am here, God has given me even more than this—He has permitted me to see and take by the hand the one who brought me to Christ (Miss Collins), and my heart is full of joy.”

Her daughter, Spotted Bear’s wife, then made a few remarks in behalf of the sick. She said: “We have tried to help the sick, but we have but little money now, and so can do nothing. We want more money. I remember nothing influenced me in my early Christian experience so much as the way the missionaries cared for the sick. All of you know how the care of your body draws your heart toward the one who cares for you. Now, in many cases if we are good to the sick, we may win the souls to Christ. Then let us not be close or stingy. Let us help all we can. Christ came down from heaven. He gave his body to die on the cross, to be pierced and spit upon, and nailed to the cross. All this He did for us. What shall we do now for the people? We cannot die for them; it is not necessary. We cannot give our bodies for them; this is finished; but we can help them. We can give money; we can read the Bible and pray with them. Let us do something; we must be doing something, for these are our brothers, our sisters, our children and our parents who are living in darkness. We can help. We know the blessing of the gospel. We must give this blessing to our people. We must be faithful. Our American Missionary Association is not able to do all that the Indians need, and we must help. As surely as we pray and read the Bible and give to this work, just as surely will we ourselves develop into large and strong Christians. I will now ask your help for this work.”

A hat was passed, and ten dollars collected—ten dollars, lacking one cent.

Then Mrs. Riggs, Secretary of their Missionary Society, reported the amount on hand—twenty-two dollars—and told the women that “the work was far below what it ought to be; the people at the out-stations have done well, but we must continue to give—must do more, and if we will help ourselves, God will help us, and we shall save many.”

[289]

So closed this interesting missionary meeting among the red Dakota people. In the afternoon, after a lunch, the parents took their children home for the vacation, but there were no Saratoga trunks to pack or carry.

All of this, let it be remembered, was in the Dakota language—which is now forbidden—the only language which they can use, or in which the gospel can be made known to them.

A. F. BEARD

The following incident, taken from a letter received at this office from Miss Collins, is at least an intimation of how heartlessly cruel is the proposition to deny the Indians the use of their own language in their schools:

“One of our Santee school boys is dying. He is a true child of God. He wishes to see his relatives all saved, and O! the light in his face. It is grand as he reads in his own tongue to the old men and women and the young people the sweet words, ‘Let not your heart be troubled.’ He has plead with them to turn to Christ to be saved. He says: ‘I am not afraid to die.’”

CANADIAN INDIANS.

Rev. Silas Huntington, a missionary of the Montreal Methodist Conference, has been laboring along the line of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In his report recently made, Mr. Huntington gives an incident illustrative in a striking manner of the power of the gospel over the pagan heart. He says:

“The Hudson Bay Company has an important post established on the line of this road in connection with which I have found a band of Indians, numbering seventy-two souls, who were converted from paganism at Michipicoton over twenty years ago under the labors of the late Rev. Geo. McDougall. They claim to be Methodists, and through all these years, although separated from the body of their tribe, they have kept their faith and maintained their religious worship without the aid of a missionary.

“The testimony of Mr. Black, the Hudson Bay Company’s officer, on their behalf was given in the words: ‘These Indians are a godly people. I often attend their services, and find their prayers and addresses fervent and intelligent, and they have not been corrupted by the vices of the white men.’ Persistent efforts have been made by bigoted ecclesiastics to seduce them from their allegiance to Christ, but hitherto they have resisted all such overtures. I baptised five of their children and promised to do what I could to obtain a teacher for them.”

[290]

BREADTH OF THE A. M. A. WORK.

BY REV. NELSON MILLARD, D.D.

There are certain considerations which entitle this American Missionary Association to the peculiar esteem of our churches. There are in these churches not a few who cherish a paramount, not to say an exclusive, interest in foreign missions. On the other hand, there is another considerable number who cherish a like primary and preponderant concern for home missions. Many are ready to give largely to the work abroad, but little to the domestic field, and vice versa. I regard this drawing of a sharp line of distinction and division of interest between the two departments of missionary activity as unfortunate and illogical. Foreign and home missions are in their essential nature one. Our navy, when striking at an enemy in distant seas, is in essential spirit and aim at one with our army operating within our own borders. Nevertheless, the division of feeling, however illogical, exists, and what I desire to say is, that this American Missionary Association offers itself to the earnest interest of both parties, because it combines in itself the elements of both the foreign and the home work. In carrying the gospel to the Indians and the Chinese, it is taking it to pagans. So also, in carrying it to many of the Negroes and to the poor whites of the mountain regions of the South, it is taking it to those whose ideas of religion are far more pagan than Christian, and whose gross superstition causes them to need the pure gospel as much as if they lived in India or Japan. So that this Association may be rightly regarded as a foreign missionary agency. And yet, on the other hand, these various populations to which I have referred are dwelling within our own borders, are to a considerable extent a part of our body politic, and are being more and more incorporated into it; so that the work is also home missionary in its character. And we may cordially and confidently commend this Association to our churches, because it combines both grand forms of religious enterprise. To those most interested in carrying the Gospel to pagans, we can say, “We are doing that work,” and to those centering their regard upon the evangelization of our own land, we can say, “We are laboring toward that end also.”

But this Association commends itself to us, again, because it has borne, on account of those for whom it works, a vast amount of obloquy and scorn, but, in spite of it all, has persisted in exhibiting unflinchingly the innermost spirit of the Gospel—namely, that of self-sacrifice for the peculiarly needy, and identification of itself with the cause of the outcast and forlorn. Foreign missions have not had to bear any stigma of contumely or disgrace. Home missions have even felt the favoring breath of popularity. But this Association, in espousing the cause of what many regarded as pariah and outcast classes, had to bear from certain quarters unmeasured obloquy and contempt. But it bore them not only without[291] shrinking, but rejoicing that it was counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.

Its noble teachers and other workers, in many and constant exhibitions of splendid heroism and self sacrifice, gladly made the cause of the friendless and despised their own. They have rejoiced to illustrate that great principle of the Gospel, that we owe not simply those who have done something for us, but those for whom we can do something. And they have believed, and never failed to assert, that the most infernal of all arguments and the very spawn of hell, is that because a man is already under or inferior, therefore you may still further oppress and keep him down. That is just the reason for helping and lifting him up. All honor to a society that has had, and that has cordially accepted, the opportunity, not afforded to all benevolent enterprises, of illustrating the spirit of Christianity in the midst of obloquy and scorn.

And then, this Association commends itself to our hearty regard by the breadth and enlightenment of its views concerning the work it undertakes. It has intelligently grasped and acted upon the principle that the only effectual antidote for the gross superstition of the classes among which it labors is, in the full sense of the term, light—light educational, moral, religious. It has not believed, to its credit be it spoken, that even a little learning is a dangerous thing, but rather that it is better than none. It knows that though intelligence without faith may be perverted to evil, equally so may faith without intelligence. If the former can make an infidel, the latter can make a bigot. If the former may make an Ingersoll, the latter may make a Torquemada, between whom there is little to choose. By furnishing, as the antidote of superstition, at once secular, moral and religious light, this Association gives fundamental and radical treatment to the evil, and by the breadth and enlightenment of its views commends itself to our intelligent denomination.

Need I rehearse the grand motives which should incite us to sustain this noble society in its work? Are we patriots? Then let us take the darkened masses of our land for Protestantism, for if we do not they will be taken for Catholicism. I am not blind to the many elements of good in the Catholic church; but one fact stands out bold and prominent in her long history, viz.: that she is the foe of free institutions. To be such is the instinct of an irresponsible hierarchy. So long as the Negro was without the ballot, the Romish church paid little heed to him; but when she saw in his hand that white symbol of power, she went for him, for she takes the scent of power as quickly as the deerhound takes the tainted gale. Are we patriots? Then let us win the Freedmen to Protestantism and its liberty, if we would not have them won to the Papacy with its religious and political bondage.

Need I mention that love of man which is a higher motive even than love of country, that philanthropy which is a nobler incentive than patriotism?[292] Or need I mention that love and loyalty to Christ, which is a motive finer than love of country and loftier than love of man? Under the mighty and splendid impulsion of all these incentives, let us count it a privilege to give ourselves, with an ever fresh and ever constant enthusiasm, to the aid of this noble Association and its noble work.

A CENTENARIAN.

Mrs. Betsy Averill, of New Preston, Conn., last May celebrated her centennial birthday. She is still living. As the Constitution was not adopted until September, 1787, she is older by a few months than the Republic. She lives in the house in which Horace Bushnell was born. Dr. Tyler was her pastor. Dr. Lyman Beecher she knew well, and Dr. Jeremiah Day, President of Yale College, was her personal friend. For more than eighty years she has been a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. She has been conspicuously the friend of missions, and her zeal in this direction is greater now than ever. She has been a contributor to the American Missionary Association ever since its formation in 1846. The Negro, Chinese and Indian have had in her a true friend. An Indian girl whom she helped to educate sent her a picture and congratulations on her centennial anniversary. The Connecticut Indian Association passed special resolutions of kind appreciation, which were presented to her on the same occasion.

Fifty of her descendants and relatives sat down with her at the birthday dinner. This was her centennial message to the company: “I have lived a century. Long have I tested the love of God and the faith in Christ. I want to recommend to you all that loving Saviour who is my closest friend and my precious hope of glory.” She still retains to a remarkable degree health of body and vigor of mind. The editor of The Missionary “presented the cause” in New Preston, recently; he of course called upon this venerable “Mother in Israel.” To his great regret, she was not at home. She had gone off on a visit to a friend, some miles distant; but he brought away her photograph and a card on which she had, with slightly trembling hand, written her autograph.

Says her pastor, Rev. Frank S. Child: “There is a precious and inspiring lesson written upon the pages of such a rare, long life. May we learn the lesson and weave it into character.” And so say we. The American Missionary Association is proud of having had such a constituent since the beginning of its history, and The American Missionary of having such a subscriber and reader. God bless her.

Moral: If you want to have a happy old age, serve God; become a life member of the American Missionary Association, and a constant reader of The American Missionary. Try it.

[293]

THE SOUTH.

NOTES IN THE SADDLE.

BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.

I have no extended missionary trip to report this month, as the schools of the Association are closed, and the church work is somewhat quiet this season of the year.

A run into Ohio, to assist in the ordination of Rev. J. F. Cross, who goes as a missionary among the Sioux Indians, may, however, legitimately furnish a basis for “Notes in the Saddle.” A good New England friend recently asked, in all seriousness, if there really were a horse belonging to the A. M. A., or whether I hired one, from time to time, as the occasion demanded? What a wild Tam O’Shanter ride it would be from Washington to Texas in four or five days! But such a ride, taken once or twice a year, would only cover a small portion of the field of the Association. Here on the west is the work among the Indians, stretching from Santa Fé, New Mexico, away up to Dakota. The A. M. A. has schools and churches all along the line. This Council in Ohio gave its commission to a new harvester going out into this field.

Mr. Cross is a graduate of Adelbert College, Cleveland, and of Yale Theological Seminary. He has had somewhat peculiar preparation for the missionary work upon which he now enters, through experience gained in home missionary fields. He enters upon this new work with his eyes open, fully appreciating its hardships. He will be located at Park Street Station, among the Blanket Sioux. Three villages, containing some 8,000 Indians, will constitute his parish. His work will include school teaching and almost every form of religious service. His nearest missionary neighbor will be at Rosebud Agency, sixty-five miles away. In 1885 an old building was purchased from the natives, and in 1886 a new building was erected, the Park Street Church, Boston, contributing the funds. This building is not a modern parsonage, with hot and cold water, gas, furnace, and all the luxuries with which many churches delight to furnish their pastor’s home. This parsonage of the prairie is a log building, with shingle roof, containing two rooms; and yet it answers the purpose for which it was built well. A native missionary with Christian passion for his people, has gone into this field already. Brother Cross follows Jacob Good Dog, who was the Boniface in this pioneer missionary work. In a letter written by Francis Frazier, who is the son of Rev. Artemus Ehnamani, the Indian pastor, there is the following pleading petition for his people: “Thus God has blessed this people; and that God will give them understanding to go on to comprehend His laws, and that they may believe and have faith in Him, when you pray will you remember them?”[294] This tender and passionate appeal for the Indians gains additional emphasis by the going out of a new missionary to this field.

The churches and pastors of Ohio I found were greatly stirred up by the proposed outrages against our missionaries and teachers in Georgia. Cordial words were spoken on every side in endorsement of the A. M. A., and in condemnation of the un-Christian and un-American attempts to violate personal liberty and freedom of conscience under the flimsy pretense of legal right. A tremendous Republican uprising will follow this attempt on the part of Georgia to introduce again the policy of suppression and inhumanity that had its culmination, years ago, in the cruelties of the prison stockade of Andersonville. The thumb screw and rack and chain-gang as instruments for the suppression of freedom of opinion, are things of the past, and no feeble attempt to legalize them can be permanently successful in this land to-day.

Sad news just reaches us from Texas of the defeat of the prohibitory amendment to the State constitution. Ignorant Mexicans were brought over the border to vote for rum, and so overcame the honest vote of the Christian and moral people of the State. Jefferson Davis, after permitting a member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who was more enthusiastic than patriotic, to pin a silver badge of that society upon his coat in evidence of the esteem in which this prohibition society held him, wrote a letter to the people in Texas denouncing the prohibitory movement. Mr. Davis’ prohibition seems much like his patriotism, “conspicuous for its absence.”

CHARLESTON, S.C.

The past year has been a prosperous one for Plymouth church, notwithstanding the earthquake. The people are struggling manfully toward self-support, and will in the course of two or three years be able to relieve the Association of the greater part, if not the entire burden of the appropriation which is now granted to it.

The earthquake has proven of much benefit to Charleston in various ways—a real blessing in disguise. Many houses have been repaired which probably would have remained unimproved, and the city presents a more lively appearance than before the disturbance. Many persons were shaken into their senses from a spiritual standpoint, and the work of God’s servants has been greatly blessed. We have reaped a goodly harvest. During the past year and six months, 102 persons have united with the church, about 25 of whom were more or less impressed with the manifestation of God’s power in the earthquake. There are many careless, lethargic places which might be benefited by a similar experience. There has been more faithful preaching of the Gospel to sinners since than before. There is perhaps in the South, as well as in the North, too much of a tendency[295] toward speculative and æsthetic discourse, rather than direct and comprehensive exposition of God’s word. Wherever the cross of Christ is preached with earnestness, good results are sure to follow, as is plainly shown in the sequel of the Charleston earthquake.

We are working hard to raise funds for the erection of a parsonage for our church, which will cost about $1,800; we have raised already $400, and have the lot. The parsonage completed and paid for will enable the church to become in a large measure self-supporting. We shall lay the foundation as soon as half of the amount needed is raised. We hope to begin this work the coming fall.

America is a wonderful mission field, and we who are laboring in that field can appreciate the American Missionary Association and its work. Withdraw the influence of this work from the South, and it would prove a calamity more serious in its results than a dozen earthquakes. The needs of the work grow greater year by year, and we rejoice that the hearts of a generous Christian people are expanding and enlarging to meet the demand.

GEO. C. ROWE.

SHOTGUN IN LOUISIANA.

[The outrage referred to in the following letter was perpetrated only a few weeks ago. We suppress names and dates for obvious reasons. We know the writer and can vouch for the truth of the statement. We have in our possession additional and corroborative evidence.—Ed.]

“My very last days at school were saddened by a most distressing outrage in which the father and elder brother of one of my own good, manly, big boys, were shot down in unjust, merciless and indiscriminating slaughter; the other two grown-up sons obliged to flee; the mother, grandmother and two younger children left desolate but not unfriended, and the large, rich and heavy crop, which would have sufficed to send all the children to school next year, of necessity abandoned. That was the trouble: the white men around were jealous of his business methods, his prosperity and his determination to educate his children—said they were ‘getting too smart for niggers’—so, when an alleged crime by another colored man or boy furnished a pretext, they improved the opportunity for wholesale massacre—six or seven in all were killed, some of them resisting and killing two white men. I was amazed at the Christian meekness shown by my boy, the elder of the two who escaped, a large, strong young man. He spoke with gratitude of the two white men who tried to save his father, and he seemed disposed to leave the murderers entirely in the hands of the great Judge of all, saying, ‘If the Lord saw fit to punish them He could meet up with them any time.’

“I said, with a view to learning how this severe tribulation had affected his trust in Christ—for he is but a young disciple—‘some people, when[296] great trouble is permitted to come upon them, feel that the Lord has deserted them.’ He responded at once, ‘I don’t feel that way. I think the Lord must have been very near me when I was dodging through the young corn, neither high enough nor thick enough to hide me in the bright morning light, and they all shooting at me as if I had been a deer, or they would certainly have killed me.’

“In answer to some remarks of mine, he said: ‘You needn’t be afraid of my taking to any meanness on account of this. I never can find it in my heart to be mean to anybody. I feel too sorry for people.’ His only anxiety was to find work and make enough to get the rest of his people away from there.

“When I went into my school room after hearing of this heart-rending affair, a horror of great darkness came over me for an instant, and a sound was in my ears as of a knell; then the students’ plaintive song seemed to vibrate through the air—How long, Master, how long? These distressful experiences weigh heavily on the hearts and nerves of our missionaries, who are here so nearly all the year around and have such a care for everything that affects the school or its members.”

A Teacher.

DEATH OF REV. WILLIS POLK.

Died, at his home in Fayetteville, Ark., after a lingering illness, Rev. Willis Polk, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of that place. He came to Fayetteville in the fall of 1884, and took charge of the public school for the colored people; and up until the time he was disabled by sickness, he labored in the school-room during the week, and preached in the little church, which he had organized, on the Sabbath. His education and his gifts as a preacher were above the average of his race. He met death calmly and peacefully, and died in the blessed hope of a home in heaven. He was kindly nursed and provided for by the members of his little flock and others, during his long sickness, and his mortal remains were reverently laid in the tomb by the same kind hands. He leaves a wife and four small children to mourn his loss, and the little flock to which he ministered without a shepherd.

J. N.

THE INDIANS.

Away up in the northern part of the Territory of Dakota, on the bank of the Missouri, live the Mandan Indians. They are a small tribe, numbering not quite 400, are peaceably inclined, and are somewhat ambitious. They have a tradition that “they came from under the earth, where they lived near a subterranean lake. They ascended by means of a grape vine,[297] which a heavy woman broke, so that part of the tribe were left below.” They are lighter in color than many other tribes, and gray hair is often seen even among the young people. They live with the Arickarees and Gros Ventres, in a very friendly way, but are a distinct tribe by themselves, with their old chief at their head.

Little can be said in praise of their morals; they are far below the Sioux nation in this. Polygamy is very generally practiced, although the younger people are beginning to adopt the white man’s ways, and to give up this with others of their old customs.

They are doing quite well at agriculture, raising corn and wheat, and storing hay. The Government supplies all those who seem industrious with implements and machines for use in farming; and some of the men learn quickly their use and manipulation, so that the results of their labor would often do a white farmer credit. The great drawback to their success is their natural tendency to work awhile and then shirk awhile. They soon tire of steady employment, and form all kinds of excuses for absence. Like the Irish, they always have sick relatives who demand their attention at the most inopportune times. This is not more characteristic of the Mandans than of all Indians. The lack of discipline in their natures is a very great disadvantage, and is something that missionaries and agents have constantly to fight. Of course, for generations back the Indians have followed their own sweet wills, and have roamed the prairie and forest at pleasure, traveling when they wished to travel, and halting when they wished to halt, so that the idea of any necessity for steady toil day after day, is one that they grasp with difficulty. They must learn first that there is a to-morrow—a fact they have never realized. This accomplished, a long step ahead will be gained.

Little missionary work has been done among the Mandans in their own language, and few of them understanding other languages—even those of the Arickarees and Gros Ventres—it is little they can learn of the Christian’s God and religion. The fear of their own gods arouses them to sacrifice and worship, often of the most horrible kind, and even while they gaze with red, swollen eyes at the sun, in painful worship, there is a yearning in their hearts for better, higher things, and this it is that prompts their heathen prayers to all nature, through their ignorance of the one true source from which these better things can be.

While I have spoken of their ambitious attempts at agriculture as a tribe, there are still many among them who are idle. Young Indian men in the very prime of life, powerful, and abundantly able to labor with the strongest, spend their days sitting around the camp fires with the old men and the dogs, in among blackened kettles, and all the filthy paraphernalia of their lodges—sit, and smoke, and talk, and sleep. I asked, one day: “What are these people saying—what can they find to talk so much about?” “Oh,” said my Indian companion, “they talk of the old times—[298]of their wars and their dances!” Sad enough was the picture!

Among these Mandan people, whom he calls his children, lives an old man—a chief. He stands somewhat between the wild Indian and the civilized. With yearnings after the civilization of which he has heard and known, he is yet tied to the old ways through the want of a teacher and guide. He is intelligent, and anxious for a different state of affairs among his people. Two sons had he of great promise. The elder went out to war against some hostile Indians, and died. It was a great blow to his father, who had looked to his sons for the deliverance of his people. The younger son was sent to the Normal School at Santee, to become educated, and to learn of the white man’s ways. He is still there at school, and his old father waits at home patiently, while the years of preparation go on. He sends occasional messages of encouragement to his son, and is doing all in his power to prepare himself and people for the work ahead. In order that he may conform to the customs his son is adopting, he has even had his long hair shorn, a year before the boy’s return, that it may please him to see his father as white men are. Long hair is to the Indian very much what the cue is to the Chinaman—he is slow to part with it.

A short time ago Santee students were engaged in writing letters to Eastern friends, and the old chiefs son, among the rest, wrote of his home, his people and his plans. He was trying to tell what I have told—the condition of his tribe, the lack of missionary work among them, and their inability to understand the teachers of the other tribes. As he wrote of this, and of his plan to go back to them as a teacher, his head dropped forward on his desk and the tears rolled down his cheeks as he realized the awful want of a starving nation—a nation crying out for the Gospel of Christ. Yet this was an Indian boy—was once a wild Indian, a savage! Why will not Christian people believe that the Indian is a man—is a man with a soul! Why are we all so slow to understand that the Indian has a heart and a mind!

Surely God remembers the Mandans. God himself believes in the Indian.

MRS. C. W. SHELTON.

THE CHINESE.

FRUIT AT PETALUMA.

Our Petaluma mission has for several years been apparently barren. Its first years were by far its best ones. It would have been abandoned but for the faith and self-denying persistency of its excellent teacher, Mrs. M. H. Colby. Throwing off 50 per cent. of the meagre salary promised her when she entered upon the work; soliciting aid from friends in Petaluma; interesting, as far as possible, her pupils to contribute, she has[299] made her mission the least expensive of them all; and she has hoped against hope that the promise would sooner or later be fulfilled, and her labor be not in vain in the Lord. Others grew discouraged. Chinese helpers sent to work with her came back to urge that the work be suspended. The hearts were too hard. The families or clans represented in the Chinese population of Petaluma were too hostile one to another. There was too much gambling; there was too much opium. Even those who had attended the school for years, seemed no less averse to Christianity than those who had never entered the schoolroom door.

About three months ago the teacher was able to write me that she believed the ice was broken, and that three of her pupils were really asking after the true God and salvation. I had learned, however, by hard experience that the “heathen Chinee”—among other “tricks that are vain”—can play pious on occasions, and do it so well as to deceive the very elect. More than once have I been compelled, by the adverse reports of trustworthy Christian Chinese, to decline to baptise, or in any way to encourage in Christian profession, those whom American Sunday-school teachers had come to regard almost as model saints; and I feared that Mrs. Colby’s warm heart might have started hopes which a careful scrutiny would prove unfounded.

Accordingly I sent Jee Gam to visit these young men. He spent two Sabbaths with them. At another time Chin Kue, our faithful helper at Oakland, spent several days with them. The result of their inquiries brought joy to all our hearts. The new converts were found to be sincere, fervent, courageous and though sadly in need of instruction, yet earnestly desiring it. So they were organized into a branch of our Association of Christian Chinese, and were shown how to commence effective Christian work among their countrymen. Three weeks ago word came of another who seemed to be turning to Christ. His brethren were doubtful about him, but Mrs. Colby hoped quite strongly. This time Loo Quong, who has done so good service in an evangelistic way in our Northern missions, was asked to go and spend a Sabbath with them. His experience I give in something like his own idioms as he reported it to me. Speaking of this new convert he said: “Before I have chance to speak to him, the others told me that they had heard that he had been in the gambling places, but they were not sure about it. So my first question to him was this: ‘Do you wish to be a Christian?’ He said ‘Yes.’ ‘Have you been gambling before?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Don’t you know that gambling is wrong, and not fit for a Christian to do?’ ‘Yes, I found that out some time ago.’ So we went on, question and answer, till I found him truly sincere, and wanting to try to love the Saviour. So I made arrangements for him to be brought into the Association on Sunday evening. On Sunday morning five of us were going to the Congregational church. While we were passing through Chinatown some of our countrymen, about ten in number,[300] standing by the doors of the Chinese shops began to make fun of us, calling us ‘cabbages.’ This means, in Chinese, a very dirty word, and at the same time, it has a sound very near to the word Jesus in Chinese. After they had called us all by this name, they turned especially upon Wong Tim Ban (the young Christian) saying to him: ‘Come, have a smoke of opium before you go to church.’ ‘Come play cards with us once more.’ In all this he kept silent, and so did all of us. After church was dismissed we came back the same way, and they came out to meet us again. They called Wong Ban a very bad name. But he only smiled and returned them a very kind word, saying: ‘Yes, I am a Christian now, no matter what I had done before. I am going to be a better man and do not mind your laughing.’” So when evening came he was welcomed to the Association by the vote of all the members. And so we stand rebuked for unbelief; and the faithful teacher’s perseverance is rewarded; and we take courage to work on though hearts are hard and for the time the field seems like unbroken fallow ground.

Those who remember my article of two months ago on Imperium in imperio, will be interested to know that the young Chinese maiden spoken of has been adopted into an excellent Christian family and is now at home with them in an Eastern State. It would not be wise perhaps to make a more definite publication of her whereabouts.

WM. C. POND.

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

We call special attention to the fact that in connection with our Annual Meetings we always have a distinct presentation of our Woman’s Work by lady missionaries from the field. We take the liberty of suggesting that the various Ladies’ Missionary Societies that contribute to our work should make an effort to be represented at the approaching Annual Meeting in Portland. Conference collectors and church collectors for woman’s aid to the A. M. A. will find this meeting to be of special help in furnishing them with a wide and inspiring view of our great work. Let the ladies of Maine and the adjoining States have a large representation at the Portland meeting.

The following, from a colored woman, shows what can be accomplished by a single missionary; also the great need of faithful Christian workers. Speaking of one of our missionaries, this colored woman says: “Miss —— was with us last Sabbath. If we could have her here for a while we could soon build up a work, and some of these poor erring children who are being led astray by the world and the other churches,[301] which are no better than the world, would be reclaimed and put into the right way. I have been with her studying for six weeks, and have seen what a great work she is doing, and I long to have her saintly influence at this place. There are in this place about fifty or more young colored girls just coming to womanhood, and out of all you will not find three respectable ones. Drunkenness, gambling and licentiousness are so common that they are not looked upon as sin. The church and the world are hand in hand. The whites look on and smile. It is just as they wish it. They say the Negro cannot rise above these things; but I do know that this is false. I know that my people are as capable of leading pure and holy lives as the whites are, but we need pure-minded leaders—those who will put their whole heart and soul into the work, as this dear friend has done. The colored people have no truer friend than she.”

FROM A TEACHER.

Dear Friends: I would like to give you some facts which show the need of the continued work of the A. M. A.

Let us visit a school-house where a large congregation is gathered in and around the house. A dark man is preaching. Judging by the loudness of voice and furious gesticulations, and the groaning and fervent “Amens” of his hearers, he must be saying something very important. But hark! He declares that Jesus cursed. His text, as he read it and repeats it to prove his assertion, is: “I do curse to-day and to-morrow,” etc.—Luke xiii, 32.

Another time we find the same man giving the history of the ten commandments, saying that God gave Moses one set of commandments and Moses went down and read them to the people. They said they were too hard, so Moses broke the stones and went back and told the Lord that his commands were too hard, so God gave him some easier ones.

Again, this minister is proving that Jesus was baptized by “mersion.” He says that when Jesus came up out of the water, he ran so fast to the wilderness that no one could keep up with him, but they tracked him by the water that dripped from his clothes. They tracked him in this way forty days before they found him.

Some of the people near that school-house are anxious for better instruction, and have applied to the Association for a minister.

Another school-house, two miles from one of the A. M. A., has been used for meetings held by a regularly licensed minister who does not know a letter. Some of his members say “his sermons beat the ’postle Paul,” and if noise and violent gestures count, probably they are right.

There are many such preachers as those I have told you of, but where the true light is brought by the American Missionary Association and other missions, they are driven out, or are coming to the light to prepare for better work.

[302]

FOR THE CHILDREN.

Santee Agency, Neb., June, 1887.

To My Friends at the East:

I want to write you a letter. First I want to tell you about my home and my people, how they are, and their ways. I suppose you know their old way of living, but let me tell you a part of it again. The general way is to dance, and give away ponies, and worship stones. They have “visions of the deer,” and think themselves sacred. They have foolish “visions of the bear,” and think themselves sacred. They do not go to war now. But when they used to go to war, they first tied up parcels of tobacco and took them around to the houses of the men they trusted in, and, opening the door of the house, they led out the brave man. Then the women appeared glad, and would dance and shout. So they did; and right away they would go off to war, and kill men, and bring home their scalps, or else the hands of the slain, tied to their horses.

But now the people do much better. Now, since the Word of God has been preached among my people, they do better. And still there are many who do not know anything. I have grown up but recently, and yet I know something. I have been several years at Santee Normal Training School, and have learned some things. Though I cannot talk English much yet, I understand some, and I wish to keep on learning as long as I can. And whether I learn or do not learn, I am always going to try.

And my father and mother are now believers in God. They now have understanding and knowledge. So that they have now sent my sister to school, and very soon I shall get letters from her, and I shall be glad.

And for myself, I wish to live having faith in God, and to learn all I can here.

Now, my friends, I have told you all about how it is with me; so I will say no more.

A. W.

RECEIPTS FOR AUGUST, 1887.

Estey Organ

Its leading position is due to its TONE, the MATERIAL used in its construction, and the CARE given to every detail.

Illustrated Catalogue sent free.

Estey · Organ · Co.

Brattleboro · Vt.

LATEST, CHEAPEST AND BEST

160 Pages.

Strong Board Covers.

30 cents each, postpaid.

$25.00 per 100.

SEND TO

THE PHILLIPS PUBLISHING CO.,

Bible House, New York.

Reliable Carpenter Organs

Containing the Celebrated Carpenter Organ Action.

They are pure in tone, perfect in construction, in exact accord with the voice, and full of patented improvements. More than 50 different styles, ranging in price from $20 up. Warranted for 8 Years. Where we have no agent, Organs sold direct on easy payments. Buy no organ until you have seen our Catalogue. Free to any address.

E. P. Carpenter Co.,

(Est. 1850.) Brattleboro, Vt.

INDELIBLE

Mark your Clothing! Clear Record of half a Century.

“Most Reliable and Simplest for plain or decorative marking.” Use a common pen.

Sold by all Druggists, Stationers, News and Fancy Goods dealers.

PAYSON’S

Indelible Ink!

A. H. ANDREWS & CO.

MANUFACTURERS OF

School, Church, Chapel and Sunday-School Seating.

DOVETAILED SCHOOL-DESKS, GLOBES, MAPS, CHARTS, BLACK-BOARDS, &C.

CHURCH CHAIRS PEWS, PULPITS, COMMUNION TABLES, COLLECTION PLATES, &C., &C.

IMPROVED METHODS OF SEATING WITH SETTEES AND TAYLOR PATENT CHAIRS.

Catalogues free on application.

A. H. ANDREWS & CO.,

686 Broadway, New York City. 195 Wabash
Avenue, Chicago.

Hamilton Vocalion Organs

of 2 manuals and 2 sets of pedals, $750; equalling in beauty, variety and volume a pipe organ of 600 pipes by the best maker. Circulars, with testimonials of leading musicians and organists of the world.

“Without a doubt the Vocalion is at present the nearest approach to a pipe organ.”—Clarence Eddy, Organist First Presbyterian Church, Chicago.

“I have only words of praise in its favor.”—Henry Eyre Brown, Organist, Brooklyn Tabernacle.

“Especially valuable for Churches and Concert Rooms.”—A. H. Messiter, Organist, Trinity Ch., N.Y.

“A tone so rich and musical must be recognized as valuable for special and new orchestral effects.”—Henry Carter, Organist, N.Y.

“Your Vocalion has a magnificent future.”—Sir Arthur Sullivan.

“A rare combination of power and sweetness.”—Adelina Patti.

Catalogue sent free.

WAREROOMS, 28 EAST 23d ST., NEW YORK, N.Y.

Dr. WARNER’S Health Underwear,

MADE OF TWO QUALITIES,

Selected CAMEL’S HAIR and

Pure NATURAL WOOL.

Five Reasons for Wearing the Health Underwear.

1st. Camel’s Hair and Wool are twice as warm as the same weight of Cotton or Linen.

2d. They protect the body against excessive heat and against drafts and sudden changes of temperature.

3d. They are an important protection against colds, catarrh, consumption, neuralgia, rheumatism and malaria.

4th. They cannot crock, fade or poison the skin, as they are natural colors and contain no dyes.

5th. The Camel’s Hair is warranted to wash without shrinking.

Manufactured in all styles of Gentlemen’s, Ladies’ and Children’s Underwear and Night Shirts.

FOR SALE BY LEADING MERCHANTS.

Catalogue with Prices sent on application.

WARNER BROS., 359 Broadway, N.Y.

USE “Our constant aim is to make them the Finest in the World.”

THE NEW HYMN BOOK, by Rev. Drs. Hitchcock. Eddy and Mudge.

Rev. J. S. DICKSON, Pastor Woodland Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and a rare musician and singer, says: “I have just gone over the ‘Carmina Sanctorum,’ by Rev. Drs. Hitchcock, Eddy and Mudge, and find that it is by all odds the best hymnal I have ever seen.”

Rev. THOS. B. McLEOD, Clinton Avenue Church, Brooklyn. N.Y.—“It satisfies me beyond anything of the kind I have ever seen. Of course, the names of the editors warranted high reputation. But considering the progress made in the direction, and the number of fine Hymn Books recently published, I was not prepared to see a work so eclipsing as this.”

EDWARD H. MERRILL, Pres’t Ripon College.—“The ‘Carmina Sanctorum’ is a superb book in all ways. I advise Churches about to change books to examine this one.”

Rev. PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D.—“It is a model collection.”

Rev. P. T. FARWELL, Stockbridge, Mass.—“The book is a thorough delight.”

E. C. EVANS, St. Paul, Minn.—“It has already contributed not a little to the enriching of the devotional part of our services.”

CONGREGATIONALIST.—“One of the most practically serviceable hymnals which we have seen.”

Hymns and Songs for Social and Sabbath Worship. 75 cts.

“Hits the Golden Mean.”

FOR PRAYER & PRAISE MEETINGS.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES, Philadelphia.—“It is a book of great merit, as might be expected from the character and experience of its editors.”

INDEPENDENT, New York.—“Any congregation that likes to have its hymnal represent careful thought and full culture, would do well to examine this collection of Carmina Sanctorum.”

EVANGELIST, New York.—“The hymns are only the choicest, and they have been carefully edited by that accomplished authority in hymnody, Dr. Hitchcock. As the American Churches have grown in taste and capacity for musical expression in worship, this book seems to meet their wants completely, giving them plenty of tunes they can and will sing, and at the same time educating their taste and improving their public worship.”

PRICE LIST.—Carmina Sanctorum Hymns and Tunes, $1.20. Hymns and Tunes with Scripture Readings, $1.40. Hymns only (Pew Edition), 75c. Hymns only (Pocket Edition), 45c. Chapel Edition, 75c. Chapel Edition, with Scripture Readings, 90c, Scripture Readings (alone) 75c.

EDITIONS FOR EVERY WANT.

Returnable Examination copies sent to Pastors and Committees upon request.

A. S. BARNES & CO., Nos. 111 and 113 William Street, New York.