The American Missionary

NEW YORK.

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

PRESIDENT.

Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, LL.D., Mass.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

TREASURER.

H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.

AUDITORS.

M. F. Reading.Wm. A. Nash.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

John H. Washburn, Chairman; A. P. Foster, Secretary; Lyman Abbott, Alonzo S. Ball, A. S. Barnes, C. T. Christensen, Franklin Fairbanks, Clinton B. Fisk, S. B. Halliday, Samuel Holmes, Charles A. Hull, Samuel S. Marples, Charles L. Mead, Wm. H. Ward, A. L. Williston.

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Boston. Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., New York.

Rev. James Powell, Chicago.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields, to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D.D., at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

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.

WANTED

$375,000,

Efficiently to prosecute the work in hand.

CO-OPERATION

Of every Congregational minister, and of every office bearer in our Congregational churches to secure (a) an annual presentation of the work, and claims of the A. M. A. in every Congregational church; and (b) an annual contribution from every Congregational church in the country for this great work.

HELP

Of every Congregational Sunday-school superintendent to secure from his school a contribution to our “Student Aid Fund.”

AID

Of every Ladies’ Missionary Society to sustain our work among the colored women and girls.

ENDOWMENTS

For Professorships and Scholarships in our schools. The time has come when in our larger institutions the chairs of instruction should be endowed, that the Association may be left to enlarge its missionary work in other directions.

GIFTS

For the improvement of schools and churches already built, and the erection of additional buildings, imperatively needed.

A SUBSCRIBER

In every family for our monthly magazine,

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

Subscription Price, 50c. per annum.

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

We are encouraged by the request for the renewal of the American Missionary for 1883, and by the subscriptions already received. The price is 50 cents. We aim to secure subscriptions sufficient to meet the cost of the magazine, and this is a reminder to such of our readers as desire to assist us in this object. We do what we can to make it worth the price asked. Nearly all the articles it contains are written expressly for the Missionary, and pains is taken to give variety and freshness to each number.

Upon annual application, the following persons are entitled to receive the American Missionary free: life members, ministers whose churches take an annual collection for the Association, Superintendents of Sabbath Schools, and donors who contribute in a year not less than five dollars.

We wish to congratulate the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church on her growing helpfulness to the colored people. A recent and most timely gift in this direction was that of Dr. Haygood, as the agent for the disbursing of the John F. Slater Fund. His broad liberality, his intimate knowledge of the Southern field, and his honest impartiality make him just the man for that place. We anticipate a most effective administration of the Slater Fund under his care. Another event in the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church South was the inauguration, in May last, at the General Conference, of a plan for founding a school of high grade for the training of teachers and preachers among the colored people. A new and crowning impulse to this was given at the recent meeting of the North Georgia Conference, in the appointment of Dr. Morgan Galloway as the President of the new institution, which is to be located in Augusta, Ga., and named “Paine College.” All honor to our Southern Methodist friends for these movements in so important a matter, and all success to them in these and every other like endeavor, which their hearts may prompt them to plan and their hands to execute.

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Revivals How and When, is the title of a very timely and useful volume by Rev. Wm. W. Newell, D.D. The following subjects with others are discussed: Why use the word revival, Evangelistic meetings, Household revivals, Bible class and Sabbath-school revivals, Revival preaching, Fixed laws for the promotion of revivals, Temperance revivals, When should we have revivals. Dr. Newell speaks from a rich experience of many years and enforces his views with copious incidents and pertinent quotations from the words of eminent men. The whole subject is discussed in a clear, comprehensive and interesting manner. The book was prepared to help ministers and laymen, and contains an abundance of suggestive and available information. There is no work more dear to this Association than revival work, and no volume has recently come to our knowledge apparently more fitted to promote it.

WOMAN’S OPPORTUNITY THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE AGE.

There is nothing like it in any land—the opportunity of the Christian women of America to labor for the uplift of womanhood the world over. The call, however, for woman’s work in America during the past twenty years seems to us to have been peculiarly urgent, and yet we think the majority of the noble Christian women in our churches have, up to this time, seen only dimly the demands upon them in this regard. How loving, pitying woman, whose labors and sacrifices are so abounding in behalf of women, should have seen with so little responsive interest the necessities for work among the colored women of this land, is among the marvels of Christian ethics.

If women, anywhere, are under obligation to help women, it seems to us the women in our churches are indebted, beyond words to tell, to the negro women in the South. Their condition is what we have made it, and remains what we will it.

But let us not convey the impression that Christian women have been wholly indifferent to the wants of their colored sisters. On the other hand, we affirm that there is not a brighter page in modern missions, than that which records the labors and sacrifices of Northern women for the lowly dwellers in the cabins of the South. We only speak, comparatively, of the great body, who need to be stirred and mastered, as have been the few who have hurried with the medicine of light and love to relieve the stricken and the despairing. These have sacrificed youth and beauty, and the hope of family love and joy, in the attempt to serve a race. With a calm and reverent step they have gone into the darkest homes of poverty and suffering to clothe the naked, to minister to the sick, to comfort the dying, and to save the perishing.

Twenty-one years ago, when this Association called for teachers and[35] missionaries to submit to reproach, and obloquy, and ostracism for the sake of these needy ones, these rare women, in numbers beyond our ability to send, answered the call. And during all the years they have stood at our doors, as they stand to-day, saying “Send me.”

The work they have done in school building, in church building, in home building and in character building, cannot be matched in the history of this generation, certainly, and probably not in the history of the world.

When it is remembered, that in 1863 the slaves in the South did not own an acre of ground and had not a cent of taxable property—that they had no right to know a letter of the alphabet, and that there was not a legal marriage among them: but that in 1880 they were taxed for a hundred millions of dollars—that some 800,000 of them had learned to read, and that purer churches were teaching purer and better morals, one can but exclaim, “What hath God wrought!”

This is, largely, due to the Christian teachers and missionaries of the American Missionary Association. No society has sent so many of them to the field, or has so signally demonstrated the quality and the value of their work. If the history of many of the most promising and useful of our graduates could be written up the story would read like romance.

The draught upon mind, and heart, and body has been heavy and exhausting. Not a few have left the service broken in health for life, and others have paid the penalty of overwork in early graves. All this they have not complained of; but their keenest anguish has come from lack of that fullness and warmness of sympathy which they had a right to expect from the whole Christian sisterhood of the North. They ask for it now, and we ask for it in their name!

Will not our Christian women re-examine this question of their duty with reference to the elevation of the colored race, and especially of the women of that race? There can be no sure and lasting elevation of that people without refined and intelligent homes; and there can be no such homes without pure and intelligent colored women to build them. Such women can be brought forward, only as they have pure models to imitate, and refined teachers to instruct and guide them.

Fortunately, Northern homes are full of such models and of such teachers; and they only need the supporting word and hand of their sisters to go forth in larger numbers, and to lay, more broadly and grandly, the foundations of a regenerated South. They know that the colored woman can be elevated by the gospel of Christ, they know that she can take on culture like a garment, and be made a power in redeeming her race.

May we not, then, once more call the attention of Christian women to this work, so peculiarly theirs, and laid upon them by so many providential tokens?

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It will be of interest to a large circle of friends on both sides of the water to learn of the marriage at Prof. Geo. L. White’s residence, Fredonia, N.Y., of Miss Ella Sheppard, pianist of the original Jubilee Singer Company, to Rev. Geo. W. Moore, of Oberlin. Mr. Moore is a graduate of Fisk University and acted as pastor of the Howard Chapel at Nashville for some time, where his labors were much appreciated. He has recently been connected with the theological department of Oberlin College and has preached with acceptance to churches in Ohio.

A FALLING OFF OF 17 PER CENT. IN DONATIONS FROM THE LIVING.

The receipts from living donors for the first three months of our fiscal year amounted to $39,528.77, against $48,174.97 for the corresponding months of the previous year, showing a falling off of more than 17 per cent. The receipts from legacies, however, amounted to $15,486.65, against $7,029.65 of the year before. The total receipts for the three months ending Dec. 31st amounted to $55,015.42, against $55,204.62 for the previous year.

The Committee on Finance at Cleveland estimated that for this year $375,000 would be wanted, against $300,000 for the year then closed, an increase of 25 per cent. If this gain had been realized, we should have received for the first quarter $93,750 instead of $55,015.42, a difference of $38,734.58. The friends of this Association will see from these figures that if the plans suggested at our Annual Meeting are carried out, not only must the smaller sources of contributions be augmented, but the churches having the means to give must contribute more largely. With this in view we take the liberty of making the following suggestions:

1. That in localities where money is raised by solicitation from a few old friends who have already taken a deep interest in the Negroes, efforts for collecting funds be made immediately.

2. In parishes where the benevolent organizations connected with the church give no assistance to the Freedmen, we suggest that special efforts be made in Sabbath-schools, the monthly concert and at the annual collection, so that the amount raised for this Association may be in due proportion to that given to the other missionary societies supported by the Congregational churches.

3. In churches that do not follow a fixed system as to time for taking collections, we suggest that the claims of our work be explained and urged at least once a year, and that contributions be forwarded to us at the earliest date possible.

We commend these suggestions to that thoughtful and prayerful consideration which we believe is justified and demanded by the necessities of the great work in which we are engaged.

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THE NATIONAL LEGISLATURE AND NATIONAL ILLITERACY.

BY PROF. C. C. PAINTER.

Broad questions of Statesmen receive tardy attention from the average legislator because they receive but little from his constituents, while such matters as the imposition or removal of a tax upon cigars is to him of pressing interest, because it concerns the “boys” who run the caucases. This is perhaps well, as questions of policy are tentatively settled and affect only passing and limited interests; issues that are fundamental and vital, which are to be settled for all time, come to a full recognition slowly.

Statutes are enacted as average intellects may decide, or the balance of selfishness allow, but laws are not made, but discovered as God has enacted, and related them to permanent interests. The making or unmaking of the one is the facile work of charlatans when by some mysterious providence they find their way into our legislative halls; the discovery of the other is work for seers and statesmen which once done is done forever.

The Revised Statutes of this Congress make obsolete those of the last, not necessarily because superior wisdom has devised better, which must prove a permanent gain; but when a law of human society has been recognized and so enunciated that it becomes a regulating force, civilization has taken a forward step. The race is not simply less disturbed and more comfortable because temporary adjustments have been made of conflicting interests, but it is richer and stronger because of an enduring possession, and we can afford to labor and wait for such.

Each new application of an old principle calls for a fresh statement of the principle. That man’s personal rights are modified by the fact of his social relations, is a truth old as the beginning of civilized life, but that he may not suffer his children to grow up in ignorance, is a proposition startling to many, and practically asserted by but few of our State governments, though it is well-known that our government itself as well as all our social interests are put in jeopardy by the ignorant citizen who becomes a voter.

That the constitutional duty of the President to execute the laws, and of Congress to provide for the safety of the Republic involved the right to levy war against states, to blockade their harbors, to emancipate their slaves, to dictate the Constitutions under which they could resume their autonomy as States in the union, this was recognized only in face of fearful dangers and admitted only when established on many bloody fields of a desolating war, but is now so familiar, so axiomatic that no one doubts the nation’s right to defend its own life by all means which do not of themselves subvert that life.

That the safety of the Republic requires a general diffusion of intelligence[38] no sane man will deny, and yet some assert that it will subvert the fundamental principles of this government if it practically secured this prime condition of its own life—that it must delegate to other hands the control of conditions and facts vital to its life, with no power or right to enforce attention to them. The right and capacity of self-government are found only in the virtue and intelligence of the people. If this be so, the obligation of a free government to enforce the education of its citizens is involved in its right to live.

This obligation is recognized, or should be, in the constitutional guarantee of a Republican form of government to each State, for the guarantee of such a form of government carries with it the conditions essential to it, one of which, and a prime one, is the intelligence of the citizen. This cannot be secured by the military arm of the nation, but by the school-master alone, who thus becomes a constitutional officer of the republic. The proposition that a republican form of government may be maintained by force over a people too ignorant to maintain it for themselves is too absurd for serious debate.

The right of the national government to interfere in case a State neglects the education of its children, seems clear on the ground of self-protection. The duty to aid the States struggling to accomplish this work, but unable to do it, because of its vastness, and of its own poverty, seems also clear, and has now become urgent in view of the appalling facts revealed in the last census.

Our national Congress is constrained to hear the cry that is coming up from all parts of the country calling attention to this duty. Let not those who feel an interest in this, relax effort or lose heart. It is not a measure to be adopted in a moment. It means much; it involves much. It will bring with it new and seemingly revolutionary conceptions of the functions of the government when it reaches out its strong arms to defend its life, not in the sad work of shooting down ignorant and brutalized parricides, but in the better work of helping to qualify for their children, who are to be charged with duties, the gravest which fall to men, and for positions the highest to which ambition can impel them—the duties and position of a citizen of this free republic.

Arrangements have been made by the Missionary Society of Connecticut to hold thirty conventions in the State, at which the following benevolent societies supported by the Congregationalists will be represented; American Board, American Congregational Union, American Home Missionary Society, American Missionary Association, American College and Education Society, New West Education Commission, Congregational Publishing Society. The meetings for the first month will be held as follows: Tuesday, Feb. 6, Stamford, morning and afternoon; Wed. the[39] 7th, Danbury, 1st Church, morning and afternoon; Thursday the 8th, Hartford, Park Church, afternoon and evening; Tuesday the 13th, Bridgeport, 1st Church, morning and afternoon; Wednesday the 14th, New Milford, morning and afternoon; Thursday, the 15th, Bridgeport, Park st. Church, morning and afternoon; Tuesday the 20th, New Haven, 1st Church, afternoon and evening; Wednesday the 21st, Ansonia, morning and afternoon; Thursday the 22d, Hartford, South Church, afternoon and evening; Tuesday the 27th, Middletown, 1st Church, morning and afternoon; Wednesday the 28th, New Haven, College st. Church, morning and afternoon.

BENEFACTIONS.

Liberty E. Holden has given $150,000 to Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.

Mr. John I. Blair has given $15,000 to Iowa College for building purposes.

Atlanta University and Berea College have received $5,000 each for endowment purposes from Mr. Tuthill King, of Chicago.

The University of Pennsylvania has received $20,000 towards the endowment of a veterinary school in connection with the University.

John R. Buchtel has sold $200,000 worth of stock in the Buckeye Works to Lewis Miller and his three sons, in order to make an additional gift of $100,000 to Buchtel College.

James McLaren, a brother of Professor McLaren, of Toronto, Canada, has subscribed $50,000 to endow a chair of Systematic Theology in Knox College, Toronto.

Mrs. L. A. Messenger has given $25,000 in addition to her previous large gifts to Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio.

Williams College is to receive $50,000 from the estate of J. B. Jermain, as a memorial to his son, Barclay Jermain.

The gift of $10,000 from the late Tracy R. Edson, which his trustees are now ready to pay, to the General Theological Seminary for “The Tracy R. Edson Foundation,” makes over $160,000 received by the Seminary in the last three years. The interest of Mr. Edson’s gift is to be used in instructing students in the church service.

The number of persons over ten years of age among the colored people who could not write, in the sixteen old slave states, according to the census report of November, 1882, was upwards of three millions; the number of native-born whites who were equally illiterate was upwards of one and a half millions. We believe there is no more imperative necessity than endowments for educational institutions sustained for the purpose of ridding the country of this illiteracy.

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Paris, Texas.—Rev. Byron Gunner is about to make his paper “The Informer” a weekly.

Florence, Ala.—Rev. S. G. Norcross, of North Conway, N.H., desiring to spend five months in the South, is to take the place of the lamented pastor, Rev. W. H. Ash, and Mrs. Norcross will have charge of the school.

New Orleans, La.—In the Central Church, (Dr. Alexander’s) a series of meetings held by the pastor, has resulted in some thirty hopeful conversions. A friend from the North, who fell in upon them, reports a quiet and deeply impressive service.

Helena, Texas.—Pastor Mitchell Thompson rejoices with his people in a revival of unusual seriousness and spirituality. Eight or ten persons were joined to the company of believers. That the people should attend through freezing weather was a thing almost unknown before. They commonly hold such meetings in midsummer. The church has been painted, the pastor doing the work.

Soddy, Tenn.—At the recent meeting of the Central South Conference at Florence, Rev. W. H. Thomas and his Welsh Church at Soddy were received, upon application, into the fellowship of the body. Rev. Robert D. Thomas, of the Welsh Church at Knoxville, has been a member for some time. He is now retiring from his charge and a pastor will be sought who can preach in English a part of the time.

Atlanta, Ga.—Miss Ella W. Moore, a teacher in the Atlanta University, has, by the special aid of friends, been able to employ a teacher in a private school opened under her auspices. In addition to the receipts in money, she has recently received (for which she makes grateful acknowledgment) from Mrs. John B. Gough, Worcester, Mass., patchwork, pictures, cards, tracts, etc.; from Mrs. J. B. Shaw, Paxton, Ill., and Miss Amy Blatchford, Chicago, valuable Sabbath-school papers and periodicals.

Meridian, Miss.—By a council on the 15th of Dec., Mr. J. L. Grice, a graduate of the college and theological department in Howard University, a member of Dr. J. E. Rankin’s church, was ordained as pastor after a most satisfactory examination. Sermon and right-hand of fellowship, by Superintendent Roy; charge to the candidate, by Rev. E. C. Stickel; address to the church, by Rev. C. B. Curtis; and prayer of ordination, by Bishop Turner of the African M. E. Church, the members of the council joining him in laying on of hands. As the Bishop was holding a Conference in the city, he attended both the afternoon and evening services of the Council, after the members of that body had waited upon the Conference in the morning. The Bishop stated that in attending a great many examinations, he had never come upon a better one.

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Owing to the space occupied by the list of our appointments for the year we have been obliged to omit the publication of General Notes and to hold over other matters of interest.

NEW APPOINTMENTS.

1882-1883.

The following list presents the names and post-office addresses of those who are under appointment in the Churches, Institutions and Schools aided by the American Missionary Association, among the Freedmen in the South, and the Chinese on the Pacific Coast. The Berea College and Hampton Institute are under the care of their own Boards of Trustees, but being either founded or fostered in the past by this Association, and representing the general work in which it is engaged their teachers are included in this list.

THE SOUTHERN FIELD.

Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D., Field Superintendent.

Prof. Albert Salisbury, Supt. of Education.

AMONG THE CHINESE.

FOOTNOTE:

RESUMÉ OF EDUCATIONAL WORK BY BENEVOLENT ORGANIZATIONS FOR FREEDMEN.

EXTRACT FROM AN ARTICLE OF SECRETARY STRIEBY IN THE FORTHCOMING VOLUME OF THE SCHAFF-HERZOG ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

WORK OF A. M. A.

The first school for the Freedmen was established by the American Missionary Association. On the 17th of September, 1861, only five months after the beginning of the war, that school was opened at Hampton, Va., where many fugitive slaves had congregated under the protection of the guns of Fortress Monroe. The spot overlooked the waters on which the first slave ship entered the American Continent. The Association steadily extended its work, until it had founded chartered institutions in every large Southern State;—Berea College, Berea, Ky.; Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va.; Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.; Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.; Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.; Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss.; Straight University, New Orleans, La.; Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute, Austin, Texas. Land has also been purchased for the Edward Smith College, in Little Rock, Arkansas. It has 49 other schools of different grades. Connected with some of its chartered institutions are Theological, Law and Industrial Departments. Those at Hampton, Talladega and Tougaloo, have large farms. Chartered Institutions, 8; Normal and High Schools, 11; Common Schools, 38; Total, 57; Teachers, 241; Students, 9,608. Howard University, Washington, D.C., established by the Freedmen’s Bureau, in 1882 had 29 teachers and 349 students. The theological department is sustained mainly by the A. M. A.

FREEDMEN’S AID SOCIETIES.

The “Freedmen’s Aid Societies” were early organized. The first was formed in Boston, Feb. 7th, a second in New York, Feb. 23d, 1863. Others followed rapidly—in Cincinnati, Chicago, Cleveland, and elsewhere throughout the North, and in 1865 the teachers employed by all the societies numbered 634. With a view to economy and efficiency they were consolidated in 1866, in the “American Freedmen’s Union Commission.” These societies devoted themselves in large part at first to physical relief and the organization of labor. But ere long, the education of the Freedmen became their chief endeavor and they accomplished much good in the line of secular education. But the several branches were at length abandoned or became absorbed in the societies of the religious organizations. The Commission itself closed in 1869.

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THE BAPTISTS.

The Baptists, who conduct their work, both educational and church, among the Freedmen, through their Home Missionary Society, entered early into the establishment of schools; beginning in the Spring of 1862 with schools at St. Helena and Beaufort, S.C., and afterwards adding others at Fortress Monroe, Washington, Knoxville and New Orleans. Missionaries were appointed to preach, and to teach day-schools, and assistants, both male and female, were sent out; from 3,000 to 5,000 pupils were taught yearly, until about 1872, when the secular or day-school system was given up, and efforts concentrated on permanent or higher institutions, some of which had been planted in 1865. In 1882, the Society has under its care 12 schools as follows: Wayland Seminary, Washington, D.C.; Richmond Institute, Richmond, Va.; Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C.; Benedict Institute, Columbia, S.C.; Atlanta Seminary, Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville Institute, Nashville, Tenn.; Leland University, New Orleans, La.; Natchez Seminary, Natchez, Miss.; Alabama Normal and Theological School at Selma, Ala.; Florida Institute, Live Oak, Fla.; Bishop College, Marshall, Tex.; Louisville Normal and Theological School, Louisville, Kentucky. Normal instruction is given in most of the schools; industrial education in several; and Biblical instruction in all. In four institutions a collegiate course is pursued. Five are chartered institutions. In 1882, Schools, 12; Teachers, 79; Pupils, 2,397. The Free Will Baptists have an excellent institution, Storer College, at Harper’s Ferry, W. Va., with 5 Teachers and 245 Students.

THE FRIENDS.

The Friends, true to the principles of the founder of their denomination, George Fox, entered at once the opened door for relieving the physical necessities of the Freedmen, and at length established schools among them; but when the public schools furnished the education, they gradually withdrew. They now maintain Southland College, Helena, Ark., with 277 Pupils, a school in Maryville, Tenn., with 13 Instructors and 211 Pupils, and one in Philadelphia with 291 Pupils, with the supervision of 22 other schools in the South sustained for several months in the year. The Friends (Hicksite), entered the work in 1862, furnishing supplies at first, afterwards sustaining schools numbering at one time 25. They now have one school with 150 scholars.

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

The Methodist Episcopal Church had from the first co-operated with the undenominational Aid Societies in the care of the Freedmen, in relieving physical suffering and in giving instruction in primary education. But it concentrated its efforts by the organization, in Cincinnati, Aug. 6, 1866, of “The Freedmen’s Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.” This Society now reports six chartered institutions, viz.: Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn.; Clark University, Atlanta, Ga.; Claflin University, Orangeburg, S.C.; New Orleans University, New Orleans, La.; Rust University, Holly Springs, Miss.; Wiley University, Marshall, Texas. Four theological schools, viz.: Centenary Biblical Institute, Baltimore, Md.; Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga.; Baker Institute, Orangeburg, S.C., and Thomson Biblical Institute, New Orleans, La. One medical college, viz., Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.; and 14 institutions not chartered. Total number of institutions, 35; teachers, 95; pupils, 3,506. It gives special attention to Biblical instruction, and at Clark University a Department of Industry is established. The African Methodist Episcopal Church founded and sustained Wilberforce University at Xenia, Ohio, with 13 teachers and 170 students.

THE PRESBYTERIANS.

The “Presbyterian Committee of Missions for Freedmen,” was organized by the General Assembly in 1865 and began its work at once, by sending preachers and[49] teachers to the South. Its efforts thus far are confined to the two Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee, with a few missions and schools in Georgia, Kentucky and Florida. It has under its care three chartered institutions: Biddle University, Charlotte, N.C. (with a Theological Department), Wallingford Academy, Charleston, S.C., and Scotia Seminary, Concord, N.C.; 2 normal schools; 3 graded schools, and 50 parochial schools. Total number of schools, 58; teachers, 108; scholars, 6,088. Lincoln University (Lincoln University P. O.), Oxford, Pa., has an able corps of 13 professors and 200 students—18 theological, 100 collegiate, 82 preparatory. The United Presbyterians have two schools, one in Abbyville, Va., with 4 teachers and 245 students, the other in Chase City, Va., with 3 teachers and 251 students.

THE EPISCOPALIANS.

The “Protestant Episcopal Freedmen’s Commission” was organized October, 1865, and in a few months it opened schools in Petersburg, Va., Wilmington and Raleigh, N.C. The first year the teachers numbered 23, and the scholars, day and night, 1,600. The Committee for Domestic Missions (under whose care this work now is), reported in 1882, 2 normal schools with 8 teachers each, and 11 schools with one teacher each. The normal schools are at Raleigh, N.C., and at Petersburg, Va.

THE ROMAN CATHOLICS.

The Catholic Directory for 1882 reports for the Archdiocese of Baltimore 1 academy for colored girls, with 60 pupils, and 4 other schools with 693 pupils; total, 753; Archdiocese of New Orleans, 7 schools, 330 pupils; Archdiocese of St. Louis, 1 school, 120 pupils; Diocese of Louisville, 6 schools, 332 pupils; Diocese of Natchez, 3 schools, 80 pupils; Diocese of Natchitoches, 2 schools, 40 pupils; Diocese of Savannah, 2 schools, 75 pupils; Diocese of St. Augustine, 6 schools, number of pupils not given. Total schools, 30; pupils reported, 1,730.

THE SOUTH.

Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D.D., Field Superintendent.

Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education.

THE HEMENWAY FARM.

BY GEN. S. C. ARMSTRONG.

In 1878, when the 150 acres of arable land of the Hampton Institute could offer no more farm work to the increasing number of negro and Indian students, a generous lady, of Boston, Mass., gave, principally for the benefit of the Indians, the sum of nine thousand dollars, to purchase a fine grass and grain farm of 350 acres, five miles from the school, to which was added, by purchase, 250 acres more, and to it has been given the name “Hemenway Farm,” as a memorial to the husband of the giver.

It was placed in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. H. Vanison, both graduates of Hampton, but has been under the general control of Mr. Albert Howe, formerly of Dorchester, Mass., manager of the Normal School farm.

During the three and a half summer (vacation) months, the sixty Indian boys, excepting about one-third who go to Berkshire Co., Mass., to work with the farmers, spend by turns, in squads of twelve or fifteen, two weeks at a time at this farm, taking part in the stock and farming operations, which are carried on on a[50] larger and simpler scale than at the school. They thus get a wholesome change from life in the workshops, besides useful, practical knowledge. A general knowledge of agriculture and stock is important for those who are learning trades.

The steady working force of the farm is composed of from eight to ten colored boys, who begin October 1st each year, working till the next October, ten hours a day, studying every night from seven till nine o’clock, under the direction of Mrs. Vanison. They receive, besides their board, from $8 to $10 a month, which, excepting $3 a month for clothing, they are expected to save to pay future school expenses. They are an ignorant, destitute class, but, as a rule, are most willing, earnest and deserving students. After working all day, they study harder at night than any others in the school. Ten hours of handling lumber at the saw-mill, or steady work on the farm, or in the machine shop, is no trifling duty, but they are eager for their night lessons.

The ten at the Hemenway Farm are a part of 130 “work students,” thirty of them girls, employed in the various industrial departments, constituting about one-third of the colored pupils at Hampton. They devote a preliminary year to day labor and night study, to fit themselves to enter the junior class of this year’s course, and to accumulate a small fund, averaging $75 for the year, to help meet cost of board, ten dollars a month, besides clothing and books. This is done in part by working two days each week of the regular course. With strict economy and working all vacations, they maintain themselves through the entire course graduating without receiving a dollar in charity, some, however, need help the last year and none are more worthy of it.

The effect on their characters is excellent. Good as it is, that they shall earn and learn in this way, it is even better for the habits, ideas and manliness it promotes. The entire class is mature, averaging 19 years of age. Mr. Vanison is as excellent a manager as we care to have; his wife keeps house, sees to the boys’ meals, rooms and washing, and teaches them nights, besides raising some 500 chickens, at which she has a wonderful “knack.”

The farm was cultivated last year as follows; 75 acres in wheat, 80 acres in oats, 112 in corn, 35 in clover and orchard grass, the rest in pasture, a few acres being devoted to vegetables and an orchard. Much was done in clearing old ditch banks. The stock consists of 50 hogs and pigs, 110 sheep and lambs, 6 colts, and from 10 to 20 beef cattle, which are bought in the neighborhood, fattened on the pasture and killed at the school, two or three a week being required there.

The Hemenway farm, of 600 acres, some 60 acres of it marshy, is situated in Elizabeth City County, on Bach River, which is an estuary half a mile in width. The house is a famous, but plain, old Southern mansion, in which Gen. Washington once dined. Until 1878 it had been for many generations in the hands of an old aristocratic family, whom the war impoverished, and their place was sold for debt. The location is a beautiful one; the region is quite Englishlike in appearance, with its rich, level fields and its hedge-rows. In summer, delicious breezes blow up the river from Chesapeake Bay, four miles distant.

Oysters and fish abound in its water front; a handsome lawn and fine old trees surround the house, all of which are a delight to the boys, especially to the Indians, who have long summer mornings.

The past season a plain but pretty cottage was added to the old house, which was too small, containing a dining-room, kitchen, laundry, and bedrooms for the boys upstairs. This leaves rooms, as was intended by the giver, for tired teachers to come and rest for a night from the cares and din of the institute, to whom the quiet and beauty of “Shellbanks,” its former name, is a great comfort. I must not forget to mention the ample barn, stable, cow-shed, tool-house, corn-crib, extensive stacks of straw, and wind-mill for pumping water for the stock.

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HEMENWAY FARM.

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This is entirely a negro affair; no white person lives on the place. Its Christian character and influence are earnest and emphatic. Nothing in the Hampton system is more satisfactory than this farm. I hope others like it will be provided for other institutions, but to fit up an old Southern farm after buying it, costs about as much as the land costs.

An unexpected advantage of the farm is its being an excellent place for a badly-behaved Indian boy, when only one is sent there. He is punished by being separated from his old friends, but the ten colored fellows carry him along in their daily routine of work and study; he has no one to “cut up” with; he improves in spite of himself; the plan has never failed to work well; he finally likes it and returns changed for the better.

REVIVAL IN CENTRAL CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS.

W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.

It has been our custom in previous years to begin our special religious meetings the first of January in connection with the “Week of Prayer.” But this year the Church seemed in readiness at an earlier date, and we felt that we were obeying the call of the Lord to “go forward” when we began our special effort to reach the impenitent, on the night of December 1st. The Friday preceding had been observed as a day of fasting and prayer. For many days the spirit of prayer and consecration had been evidently deepening upon the part of the great majority of the Lord’s people. People who, for some trivial reason, had been alienated, came together in the spirit of forgiveness. A great desire was expressed, and I have no doubt felt, to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. Our lady missionary with unsurpassed devotion, visited all the families of the congregation, making in the short space of ten weeks some 600 visits. The effort was made to reach every one who sustained even a nominal relation to our church, as a member or casual attendant, and invite him to our revival services.

The result was all and more than we anticipated. The church was thronged every night. The very first night several presented themselves for prayer. The number of inquirers increased till we counted more than fifty. One by one, with a quietness and depth of feeling that impressed every heart, these earnest inquirers came into the light, and were made to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” The two manly and dearly beloved sons of the Dean of our Faculty, were among the first to share in the blessings of the revival. God only knows our joy when they came forward with the rest, and bowed before God as suppliants for His mercy and forgiveness. Never did the words of Holy Writ, which have fallen from the lips of so many believers, sound sweeter than when one of these young men recited as his verse at the breakfast table, the morning after his conversion, “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

A pleasant and somewhat unusual feature of this revival has been its influence upon the men. On more than one occasion we counted twelve men on the “Mourners’ seats.” Thirty-four professed conversion. We hope and believe they have been “born again.” A class of 35 are waiting in joyful anticipation of taking the vows of God upon them in the Church, and of receiving their “first communion.”

I should do injustice to my own feelings did I not speak of the earnest sympathy and hearty co-operation of all the teachers in the University in this religious movement. We moved in this matter as a united body, with but one object in view: the glory of God, and the upbuilding of the Kingdom of His Son.

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ADDITIONAL REPORT OF THE REVIVAL.

PROF. R. C. HITCHCOCK.

The revival which has been in progress for several weeks at Central Church has been to me a constant wonder. Even in sedate old Connecticut a revival season is usually a scene of much emotional excitement, and it is often impossible to tell how much is sincere and permanent; but this revival has been all through marked by a quiet, deep and reverential character. It was my first opportunity for observation of such meetings among the colored people. I had heard and read a great deal of the tumultuous excitement on such occasions, and each night I looked to see, when they should be fairly “warmed up,” such scenes as I had had pictured. What I actually did see was this. Each night the pastor preached a short, practical gospel sermon, packed full with reasons why religion should be chosen and chosen now, to an earnest, attentive audience. Then he stepped down in front, and in kind but strong words invited all who felt the truth of what had been said and wished to become Christians, to come forward for conversation and the prayers of the church. Most of those who accepted the invitation were men of middle age and young men; a few were young ladies.

Night after night this went on; while the pastor and others were talking with those who came forward, the audience engaged in singing. No general invitation was given to speak or pray, a few only being called on each night to take part. Each night some souls found peace and joy. It was my good fortune to talk with nearly every one of the converts, and I found all, so far as I could judge, thoroughly in earnest; no one scared or urged into confessions, but each, as the new hope was born in his soul, rising, generally with streaming eyes, to tell what God had done for him and ask for fellowship and prayerful help.

SCHOOL AND CHURCH WORK AT FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.

BY REV. B. F. FOSTER.

We began work here on the 5th of September, and opened school under very favorable auspices. We have had 92 pupils enrolled. Our school is the only one for colored children within a radius of 65 miles. We are giving some attention to church work, and are using our school-house as a place of worship. We have service every Sabbath morning at eleven o’clock—the audiences are large. We are gratified to say that the influence of the teachers takes fast hold upon both parent and pupil. We have Sunday-school every afternoon at three o’clock, and these services are largely attended. Thanksgiving day was appropriately commemorated. A sermon was preached in the morning by the missionary pastor. All who were present seemed deeply impressed with the word. The chapel was beautifully and tastefully festooned with autumn leaves and berries, and the walls were embellished with appropriate mottoes of the sacred Scriptures. At seven o’clock in the evening a very large number of patrons and friends of the school gathered, and partook of a repast prepared as a thanksgiving token for them by the teachers and pupils. Toasts were responded to by the several pastors of the town and teachers. I said we had service in our chapel at 11 A.M. every Sunday. We could induce as many to come in the evening if we had lamps to light up our chapel. Equally as good results would come from a weekly prayer-meeting, if we had sufficient lights. We heartily accept this opportunity of asking the friends of some of our Northern churches to give us of their old ones—chandelier lamps. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated the first time, since beginning our work here, last Sunday. Truly, the[54] Lord was with his people on that solemn occasion. At this service the missionary pastor’s first and only little daughter was baptized, which increased the interest of the meeting. To carry this blessed Supper to Christ’s brethren and sisters, Mrs. Foster’s pie-pans were used for the emblems of his body, and two borrowed mugs for the emblem of his blood. From this the friends of God’s poor will see we would thank them very much to assist us in getting a communion set. The people among whom we are working are very poor. Few of them have homes.

THE CHINESE.

Rev. W. C. Pond, Superintendent.

MISSION WORK—GOOD RESULTS.

Sacramento Mission.—Mrs. Rilla Carrington, who for the last three years has most faithfully and successfully conducted the Sacramento Mission, is required by the state of her health to take a vacation. It will be only a vacation, and I hope and expect that two or three months of recuperation will bring her back fresh and strong, and good for another three years of steady and faithful service. During her absence, her sister will take her place, and will fill it well. In communicating her desire for this respite, she indulges in some reminiscences which, I am sure, will interest our readers. “During the past three years and a quarter, more than 450 have, for a longer or shorter period, been members of our Sacramento school. I would that all who come with us in the school could remain until they are converted and ready to work for the salvation of their people. We know of the good service of many who have gone out from us to visit their homes. For instance, Fong Get Roy, who wrote you something of his work while in China: he has not ceased to labor for Christ since his return; Fong Gee, whose father, now dead, was a heathen priest, was always zealous while here with us; sometimes speaking to his country-men for an hour or more at a time, showing them, in the most ridiculous light, the folly of idol and ancestral worship, and holding up Christ as the only hope of salvation. His health gave out, and he was compelled to return to China—being helped by the brethren of San Francisco and Sacramento to do so. There he is working at his trade for a mere pittance, and giving what time he can for the conversion of his country-men. Wong Loung visited his home a year ago, and was married, in accordance with Chinese customs, to one to whom he had been betrothed in childhood by his parents. Because he had renounced the religion of his fathers, he suffered much indignity from members of his family—the persecutions becoming so great he was obliged to leave home. But the result was that he returned to America more determined than ever to hold fast to Christ. Louis Sing, too, was under great pressure while in China to take part in worship with his relations, but could not, he said, because he knew the uselessness of such worship. We hear of Gwan Lee, our organist, as standing firm amidst the powers of darkness—holding fast to the living faith. He is one of those whom the present law prohibits from returning to this country. We all feel as though we could not give him up, and that some way must be found by which he may come back.

“We are not only made glad by work done far away, but workers are here with us—true hearts that love to do something for Jesus every day. Several have joined the Association this year; among them, Fong Bow, who is one of the class for whom I requested your prayers several months ago. He seemed to have much to hold him back; outside influence made it hard for him to decide. He has been [55]a member of the school so long that we feel more than usually happy in his coming. May we not hope and still pray, in faith, for the other members of the class? This mission work is ever a source of comfort and pleasure to me, and I know I cannot remain away from it if blessed with health.”

LOU QUONG, ON HEATHEN PRAYERS AND REAL PRAYER.

Each Wednesday afternoon I meet the Chinese helpers in the schools of this city for a drill in Bible study, and to receive and remark upon the sketches of sermons, which they have prepared during the week. Here is one which Lou Quong brought in yesterday. James 5:16.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

My subject is all on prayer to-day, and it is very needful to all Christians, especially to those who really mean to be the followers of the Lord Jesus, and to be workers in the Master’s field. I will mention a few things of the heathen prayers, which were occasionally offered to the heathen gods in China as well as in this city. So far as I can judge there is no true prayer which was ever offered to their gods, and I, having been born in a heathen nation, therefore know them well. Each certain prayer belongs to a certain god. You cannot take one god’s prayer to pray to others; if you do, you will get no blessing, because you got the wrong prayer, their prayers not having to come from the heart, but being learned only from the history of a certain god, so they mostly repeat the words as near as they can remember. There is not a single prayer that really comes from the heart. They come only from the lips; and besides this, when they pray, they do not, like our Christian people, pray for bad and good, and even for our enemies, and for all nations; their prayers are only for a certain thing, a certain matter, for riches, for honors, and for glory, and to have more sons born than girls; for their father and mother, brothers and sisters, that they might have a long life. If they have any one which they do not like, they would pray their God to destroy his whole family. By this we know that such a prayer our true God will not hear, but rather punish them. I have a great deal more to say about the heathen prayer, but I have no time for it just now. So I must go on to the true prayer, which our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to say. Yet even such a true and short prayer as that, which we have repeated every evening in our schools, many of us would forget before we go to bed at night. This won’t do, my Christian brethren. We must give all our hearts to God before we shut our eyes. We cannot pray to God for a certain thing that must be done while our hearts are on something else, or are doubting whether God could hear us or not. Suppose to-morrow you intend to go out and look for a place, so you would pray to God to help you and to give you one, and you believe he will do it, and then when to-morrow comes you would lie in bed until afternoon. Then you got up, thinking that was too late, and would not go. This, indeed, would make you think that God did not hear your prayer last night. This is the whole trouble that sometimes God don’t answer our prayer; but I am very sure that God has heard all my prayers and has answered all which are for good. When we have a certain matter that we cannot manage at all, and when we would bring it to God, we must first make our hearts ready to pray and then without doubting draw out the true thoughts of our hearts and feel that God is above us and Jesus is on one side. Then comes the Holy Spirit into our hearts to teach us how to pray. After we got up from prayer I am sure we can feel that we were heard, and if we are not answered on a certain hour we must wait and pray without ceasing until it comes, for God not, like man, would fail you sometime. This is the kind of prayer that God does hear. So James says, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much;” that is, God does always hear and answer the true prayer.

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CHILDREN’S PAGE.

MISSIONARY MUSIC.

—Selected.

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RECEIPTS FOR DECEMBER, 1882.

H. W. Hubbard, Treas.,

56 Reade St., N.Y.

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious printer’s punctuation errors and omissions silently corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation retained due to the multiplicity of authors. Arithmetic errors in the receipts have been retained as printed.

Ditto marks replaced with the text they represent to facilitate eBook alignment.

Images have been moved outside of paragraphs, resulting in page numbers that are slightly off.

Corrected “neigborhood” to “neighborhood” on page 50. (bought in the neighborhood)

“Tilotson” changed to “Tillotson” in the Guilford entry on page 59.