Title: The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 05, May, 1879
Author: Various
Release date: January 15, 2017 [eBook #53966]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by KarenD, Joshua Hutchinson and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by Cornell University Digital Collections)
Vol. XXXIII.
No. 5.
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
MAY, 1879.
EDITORIAL. | |
Paragraphs | 129 |
The Land—Its Wealth and Its Want | 130 |
War or Missions | 132 |
The Negro Hegira | 133 |
Woman’s Work for Woman—Congregationalism in the South | 135 |
Items from the Field | 137 |
General Notes | 138 |
THE FREEDMEN. | |
Tour Into the Southwest: Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D. | 140 |
Georgia, Atlanta—Lady Missionary Needed | 143 |
Alabama, Montgomery—Tenantry, Promising Field, &c.: Rev. F. Bascom, D. D. | 143 |
Alabama, Mobile—Emerson Institute: Rev. D. L. Hickok | 145 |
Alabama, Marion—Revival of Education; Rev. Geo. E. Hill | 146 |
Louisiana—Straight University: Prof. J. K. Cole | 147 |
Texas—Corpus Christi—Revival | 148 |
Tennessee—Yellow Fever Fund | 149 |
AFRICA. | |
Native Preachers—Advance Called, &c. | 150 |
THE CHINESE. | |
Some Points on the Chinese Question:Rev. W. C. Pond | 151 |
RECEIPTS | 153 |
Constitution | 157 |
Work, Statistics, Wants &c. | 158 |
NEW YORK.
Published by the American Missionary Association,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
PRESIDENT.
Hon. E. S. Tobey, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. Parish, Ohio. Hon. E. D. Holton, Wis. Hon. William Claflin, Mass. Rev. Stephen Thurston, D. D., Me. Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., Ct. Wm. C. Chapin, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. Eustis, D. D., Mass. Hon. A. C. Barstow, R. I. Rev. Thatcher Thayer, D. D., R. I. Rev. Ray Palmer, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D., Ill. Hon. W. W. Patton, D. D., D. C. Hon. Seymour Straight, La. Horace Hallock, Esq., Mich. Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., N. H. Rev. Edward Hawes, Ct. Douglas Putnam, Esq., Ohio. Hon. Thaddeus Fairbanks, Vt. Samuel D. Porter, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. Dana, D. D., Minn. Rev. H. W. Beecher, N. Y. Gen. O. O. Howard, Oregon. Rev. G. F. Magoun, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. Hammond, Ill. Edward Spaulding, M. D., N. H. David Ripley, Esq., N. J. Rev. Wm. M. Barbour, D. D., Ct. |
Rev. W. L. Gage, Ct. A. S. Hatch, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. Fairchild, D. D., Ohio Rev. H. A. Stimson, Minn. Rev. J. W. Strong D. D., Minn. Rev. George Thacher, Ll. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. Chapin, D. D., Wis. S. D. Smith, Esq., Mass. Peter Smith, Esq., Mass. Dea. John C. Whitin, Mass. Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. Grinnell, Iowa. Rev. Wm. T. Carr, Ct. Rev. Horace Winslow, Ct. Sir Peter Coats, Scotland. Rev. Henry Allon, D. D., London, Eng. Wm. E. Whiting, Esq., N. Y. J. M. Pinkerton, Esq., Mass. Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Ct. Daniel Hand, Esq., Ct. A. L. Williston, Esq., Mass. Rev. A. F. Beard, D. D., N. Y. Frederick Billings, Esq., Vt. Joseph Carpenter, Esq., R. I. |
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. Strieby, D. D., 56 Reade Street, N. Y.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Alonzo S. Ball, A. S. Barnes, Edward Beecher, Geo. M. Boynton, Wm. B. Brown, |
Clinton B. Fisk, Addison P. Foster, E. A. Graves, S. B. Halliday, Sam’l Holmes, |
S. S. Jocelyn, Andrew Luster, Chas. L. Mead, John H. Washburn, G. B. Willcox. |
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries above; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 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.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
American Missionary Association.
We wish to remind our readers that the offer of Mr. Arthington, as it has come under our consideration by the report of the Foreign Committee, and as it has been put before them by its publication in the Missionary for April, is still commended to their consideration, and open to acceptance or declinature, as they may decide. We are well aware that such great things are not to be lightly or suddenly decided. It is a subject which demands careful weighing, and all the light which may be gained from earthly as well as from heavenly sources. The first offer was not made suddenly or unadvisedly. Dr. O. H. White, of the Freedmen’s Aid Society of England, writes us that he conversed with Mr. Arthington about it more than a year ago, who said then, “I will think of it, and you pray earnestly that Robert Arthington may be led to a right decision.” We can say nothing better now. Do you, friends, think about it, and we will pray earnestly that you may be led to a right decision.
We have just received from the estate of the late Charles Avery, of Pittsburgh, Pa., $12,000 as an endowment, the interest to be used in the work of African evangelization. As the money has just come to hand as we are going to press, there has been no opportunity for action on the part of the Executive Committee as to its specific appropriation. It may be deemed advisable to use it in furtherance of the mission proposed to us by Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, England.
In behalf of Africa and her descendants on two continents, we cannot forbear another tribute to the memory of Mr. Avery, and to his executors who have so faithfully carried out his benevolent wishes.
Rev. W. H. Willcox, of Reading, Mass., and his brother, Rev. G. B. Willcox, D.D., of Stamford, Conn., have returned from a tour among our institutions of the South, in which they have been accompanied by District Secretary Pike. It is with no small degree of pleasure that we record their great satisfaction in what they saw and their hearty approval of the work, and the proof they have given of their sincerity in it. It is well known that Mr. Willcox has been acting in behalf of Mrs. Daniel P. Stone, of Malden, Mass., in the distribution of a large fund among the educational institutions of our land. As a result of his observation of the work done at Atlanta and Fisk Universities, he has appropriated one hundred[130] thousand dollars to be divided equally between these two institutions. This affords aid, which is greatly needed, for the enlargement of the work at these most important places. It will go into buildings and other permanent equipment. We devoutly wish that men and women who have money to give would go and do likewise,—visit our institutions for the education of the Freedmen, see the work which is being done, and the work which needs to be done, and then act in the light they have gained from actual observation.
Rev. B. C. Church, of Goliad, Texas, who has been long and faithfully occupied in our service, needs a buggy, not for pleasure-driving, we assure our readers, but that he may be able to visit not only his immediate field, but the new station at Flatonia, as often as may be needed for the supervision of that new and promising work. He says “the running part will do, and a second-hand one at that.” Surely that is a modest request. Is there not some one of our readers who has such a vehicle to spare for the Lord’s work, top and all?
Two months ago, among our Items from the Field was a plea, condensed into less than two lines, for an organ for the church at Orangeburg, S. C. A few days after, Mr. S. T. Gordon generously offered to give us the needed instrument, and it is now helping “the service of song in the house of the Lord” in that place. The pastor writes: “We have received that invaluable gift, the cabinet organ donated by Mr. S. T. Gordon in aid of the day and Sunday-school and church work in this field. For this goodness the children, the congregation and ourselves unite in sending Mr. Gordon and the A. M. A. ten thousand grateful thanks. And we beseech the Lord to abundantly reward this labor of love. It will afford us very great aid indeed.” It is encouraging to receive such prompt responses to wants thus simply made known. We are emboldened to call attention to a similar petition for an organ, in the letter from Corpus Christi, Texas. What other generous and prompt friend will be moved to answer, “Here it is?”
Among the explorers of the eastern part of Equatorial Africa no other has given us so full descriptions of the land, its wants and woes, and its brilliant possibilities, as Sir Samuel Baker. And he, too, in his “Ismailia,” traverses largely the territory suggested for our occupation by Mr. Arthington. The following paragraphs are from his description of the natural scenery, and of the beauty and fertility of the land on the east side of the Nile above and below Fatiko. Is this not a pleasing picture of a portion of our proposed field?
“I reveled in this lovely country. The fine park-like trees were clumped in dark-green masses here and there. The tall dolape-palms (Borassus Ethiopicus) were scattered about the plain, sometimes singly, at others growing in considerable numbers. High and bold rocks, near and distant mountains, the richest plain imaginable in the foreground, with the clear Un-y-Amé flowing now in a shallow stream between its lofty banks, and the grand old Nile upon our right, all combined to form a landscape that produced a paradise. The air was delightful. There was an elasticity of spirit, the result of a pure atmosphere, that made one feel happy in spite of many anxieties. My legs felt like steel as we strode along before the horses, with rifle on shoulder, into the magnificent valley, in which the mountains we had descended seemed to have taken root. The country was full of game. Antelopes in great numbers, and in some variety, started from their repose in this beautiful wilderness, and having for a few moments regarded the strange sights of horses, and soldiers in scarlet uniform, they first trotted and then cantered far away. The graceful leucotis stood in herds upon the river’s bank, and was the last to retreat. * * * * * Magnificent trees (acacias), whose thick, dark foliage drooped near the ground, were grouped in clumps, springing from the crevices between huge blocks of granite. Brooks of the purest water rippled over the time-worn channels, cut through granite plateaux, and as we halted to drink at the tempting stream, the water tasted as cold as though from a European spring. The entire country on our left was a succession of the most beautiful rocky undulations and deep, verdant glades, at the bottom of which flowed perennial streams. The banks of these rivulets were richly clothed with ornamental timber, the rich foliage contrasting strongly with the dark gray blocks of granite, resembling the ruins of ancient towers.”
But this land, so rich and beautiful, is all going to waste. Its game and cattle are doomed to as swift destruction as the countless herds of buffalo and antelope which only fifteen years ago thronged the prairies of Dakota. We copy from the same source this picture of the waste which is the sure precursor of want.
“By the Nile traders’ arrangements the companies of Abou Saood receive as their perquisite one-third of all the cattle that may be stolen in successful razzias. The consumption of cattle by these brigands is enormous. All flour is purchased in exchange for flesh, while flesh is also necessary for food: thus the cow is being eaten at both ends. The frightful drain upon the country may be imagined by the following calculation, which is certainly below the truth:
“If 1,000 loads of ivory must be carried to Ismailia,
2,000 | cows are required as payment of carriers; | ||||||||||
1,000 | belong to the brigands as their perquisite; | ||||||||||
300 | are necessary to feed the native carriers and soldiers during the journey; | ||||||||||
————— | |||||||||||
3,300 | cows are required to deliver 1,000 loads of ivory a distance of 165 miles from Fatiko to Ismailia (Gondokoro). | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
2,255 | beasts are thus required annually. | ||||||||||
————— | |||||||||||
5,555 | oxen are necessary to feed and pay for the transport from a station only 350 strong, according to the customs of White Nile brigandage. |
“It must be remembered that at least a thousand, and sometimes double that number of slaves, are prisoners in each station. All these must be fed. The same principle is adopted in the exchange of flesh for flour; thus the expenditure of cattle is frightful. Not only oxen, but all the breeding cows and young calves are killed without the slightest reflection. No country can support such wilful waste; thus, after many years of ravage, this beautiful country has become almost barren of cattle. The central districts, occupied by the slave-traders, having been denuded of cattle, it has become necessary to make journeys to distant countries.”
But this is not the worst aspect of affairs. For by how much a man is better than a beast, by so much his life is more sacred, and to be guarded with more jealous[132] care. Read this story of a slave raid, its treachery, its brutality, its capture not only of slaves, but its slaughter of many times the number led away to sale. But this is not all; for in the pages of “Ismailia” follows the record of a dreadful retribution in which the whole 103 of Abou Saood’s men are put to death and 150 of their allies. This is but one of many like scenes which have helped to make the slave regions of Africa as degraded as they are found to-day.
“A man named Ali Hussein was a well known employé of Abou Saood. This ruffian was an Arab. He was a tall, wiry fellow, with a determined but brutal cast of countenance, who was celebrated as a scoundrel among scoundrels. Even his fellows dreaded his brutality. There was no crime that he had not committed, and as his only virtue was extreme daring, his reputation was terrible among the native population. He had arranged to make a descent upon the Umiro tribe, about six days’ march to the southeast. He accordingly sent natives as spies with specious messages to the Umiro, announcing his intention of visiting them to purchase ivory. With a party increased by volunteers from other stations to a force of about 300 men, he arrived at Umiro. The simple natives received him gladly and showed extreme hospitality. The country was thickly populated and abounded with vast herds of the finest cattle. After a week’s sojourn among the Umiro, during which he had received large presents of elephants’ tusks and seventy head of oxen from the confiding natives, the treacherous ruffian gave an order to his brigands at sunset. They were to be under arms an hour before daybreak on the following morning, to set fire to the adjacent villages of their generous hosts and to capture their large herds of cattle, together with their women and children.
“At the time appointed, while every Umiro slept, unconscious of approaching danger, several villages were surrounded, and volleys of musketry were poured upon the sleeping inmates. The straw huts were ignited, and the flames rapidly spread, while a massacre commenced similar to the butcheries to which the slave-hunters were so well accustomed. The Umiro, thus taken by surprise, and appalled by so dastardly a treachery, were easily defeated. Their children and wives were captured, together with large herds of cattle, which are celebrated for their size. All these were driven in triumph to Fatiko.”
We only ask, in conclusion, is not this a field for Christian men to occupy—this fair land, with such means of supporting life, and with horrors like these enacted year by year, against which the presence of even a few white Christian men would be a most effectual check?
Christian England is at war with the Zulus, not altogether successfully, we fear not altogether justly. It seems to be about the same question which is at issue perpetually between the United States Government and the Indians—a disputed strip of territory lying between Transvaal and Zululand is, by arbitration mutually agreed upon, decided to belong of right to the Zulus. But the Dutch Boers who had settled therein decline to give up their claims. The English Government, to whom that territory had been transferred, defend them in maintaining their resistance to what had been declared to be the rightful owner, and because King Cetywayo is a small sovereign, the Queen on whose dominions the sun never sets proposes to compel him. This is about the story as it comes to us. So Christian England and America—not the Christianity in England and America—treat their poor neighbors.
Now, in the prosecution of this Zulu war thousands of men are sent out to do[133] battle—generals, captains, common soldiers. Money is freely spent, millions of dollars, to keep a rude race from acknowledged rights. Blood is spilt and lives are sacrificed, not by the one or two, but by the hundred. But there is another battle to be fought in Africa, in the interests of the Christianity that is in England and America; a battle against superstition, and all the ignorance and violence included in it, against the slave trade and its demoralizing influences. It, too, will cost men and money. In its accomplishment, lives will be laid down. Already in the new fields opening, one and another have fallen, until six, perhaps, have thus far given up their lives in this cause. The advance guard, the scouts, have not all escaped the perils of such service. It costs money, too; but it will not cost half as much to convert a savage African as it will to kill him. Missions are cheap compared with war.
And then, look at the end of it all. Money and blood to extend territory, to defend a flag! Where is the treasury, and where the lives ready to be laid down that the banner of the Prince of Peace may be set up in Equatorial Africa, and its inhabitants be made subjects of Him whose dominion hath no end?
Read these emphatic words of David Livingstone, so well illustrated by his own quietly heroic life:
“We talk of ‘sacrifices’ until we fear the word is nauseous to God. We have no English female missionary biography worth reading, because it is all polluted by the black man’s idea of sacrifice. It ought not so to be. Jesus became a missionary and gave His life for us. Hundreds of young men annually leave our shores as cadets. When any dangerous expedition is planned by Government, more volunteers apply than are necessary to man it. On the proposal to send a band of brave men in search of Sir John Franklin, a full complement for the ships could have been procured of officers alone, without any common sailors. And what thousands rushed to California from different parts of America on the discovery of gold! How many husbands left their wives and families! How many Christian men tore themselves away from all home endearments to suffer and toil and perish by cold and starvation on the overland route! How many sank from fever and exhaustion on the banks of the Sacramento! Yet no word of sacrifices there! Our talk of sacrifices is ungenerous and heathenish.”
It is not many months since we had to record the Liberian exodus fever. The movement which excited so great hopes among the deluded blacks has passed out of sight, and the holders of ten-dollar shares in the barque Azor are no nearer the tropical shores of Africa than they were a year ago. From those who went out in so ill-advised a manner, for a long time almost nothing came back to us but their wail of suffering as they reached their journey’s end.
And now another impulse has seized upon thousands apparently of the negro population of Mississippi and Louisiana, to leave the places where they were born and reared and seek new homes. As early as the middle of March probably fifteen hundred had found their way to St. Louis under the impression, it is said, that they would be supported in that city and provided with free transportation to Kansas, where, on arrival, they would receive from the Government, lands, mules, money and agricultural implements. A small proportion of them appeared to be in comfortable circumstances, and proceeded by steamer or rail to Kansas City or Topeka. Others were entirely destitute and dependent from the first on charitable[134] aid. Thousands more were reported as only deterred from coming by lack of means to pay their way up the river. The mayor and citizens of St. Louis were in quite a panic over their visitors. What should they do with them, or how keep them away? But the feeling of kinship led the colored people of the city to give them such welcome as they might. The basements of three colored churches were opened to them, and food and shelter were generously given by their brethren according to the flesh, and they were helped toward their destination as far as might be.
Thus another is added to the many strange, sad stories in the history of this dark-skinned race. This sudden impulse moving upon this great mass of men and women may not have been reasonable, and yet it must have had a reason. Kansas seems to be to them a magical name, synonymous with freedom, friends and happiness, in their crude thought. It was sought to turn some of them to Iowa, where work and pay were offered; but no, Kansas was the goal from which they could not be turned away. There seems to be no possible interpretation of this so general migration, other than that they have given up in despair the thought of peace or prosperity in their old homes. For of all the inhabitants of our soil they are the least migratory in their nature; they cling to the old State and the old homestead on which they were reared. But repeated wrongs have worked at last on their slow minds the conviction that better things can only be in store for them far away. Not political deprivations, for they seem easily to have given up that contest, and they “don’t vote much;” but the wrongs of a hard tenantry system, by which they have been compelled to rent land at $10 an acre for the year—land worth not much more than that at sale—with various other extortionate charges by the way, bringing the laborer out at the year’s end no better, but rather the worse off for all his toil, and with no liberty even of complaint; these are the things which have at length wrought out their natural and inevitable result.
The consequences of this movement, if it be suffered to go on—and who can stop it?—are manifold and of most serious import. The planters are already alarmed at the lack of laborers for the year which is just opening upon them. A desertion of “hands” is a most dire calamity in an agricultural community. Political changes may follow those of population, and if this hegira goes on, the proportion of representation may be seriously changed between Louisiana and Kansas.
There can be no question but that the negro can, if he be well treated, do better in the Gulf States than in the cold climate of Kansas—at raising cotton and the sugar-cane than wheat and stock. Is there no serious warning in this movement to the people of those States?—a lesson not political so much as industrial; an intimation that fair treatment even of the lowest, poorest and most ignorant classes, especially if they are held by no artificial bond like ownership, is essential to a rendering of the service for which they were valued once as slaves, and for which they are no less indispensable as freemen. There is policy as well as right in justice, and the law of gravitation is as real and as irresistible in masses of men as in the realm of material things. The South needs the negro quite as much as the negro needs the South; and unless its leaders of thought and action help its people to recognize their mutual dependence, and teach them to conciliate and not to abuse the arm that is ready to sow and gather their crops, they will have to do without it. The present hegira is but a hint of what may be. Is it not a hint, also, as to how so great a loss may be avoided? For, after all, dislike the truth who may, the negro is[135] “a man and a brother.”
Every once in a while a feeling prevalent in the churches gets voice in the question: “Cannot women find some recognized method of doing more for the elevation of the freed women of the South than they are doing now?” There has been an unwillingness on the part of many to agitate this question lest there might be in it a seeming antagonism to the work of the Woman’s Board; a work that in origin and development is so clearly providential. Still the want has been keenly felt. Some attention has been given it, and in a few instances the thought has developed into action.
Nearly two years ago Mrs. Zachary Eddy, of Detroit, interested a number of ladies in Eastern Michigan in the matter, and the result was that these ladies became responsible for the support of a lady missionary, to be appointed by the American Missionary Association, to work exclusively among the freed women; and the work then begun has been steadily sustained ever since by Miss Hattie Milton, at Memphis, Tenn. It is no longer an experiment, it is now a success. Miss Milton, in a letter, not long since, says: “This has been the happiest year of my life; for this work has its own reward, both to the missionary and those who send her, which is more valuable than silver or gold. I sometimes think the angels might almost envy us in this work.”
Within a few months the ladies connected with the First and Second Churches of Oberlin have united to support a lady missionary among the freed women. The money is already provided for, and the missionary will soon start on her mission of love. And now I learn that the young ladies connected with the Congregational church in Waukegan, this State, have organized a society for the same purpose, the aim being to work chiefly through the Sunday-school. Monthly meetings, called “mission parties,” are held. A profitable programme is prepared, consisting of an essay, information from some mission station, brief addresses and singing. To these meetings invitations are issued by card, with the understanding that everybody invited will come. Thus far two meetings have been held, and they give promise of great popularity.
May there not be in the organization of this young ladies’ society, designing to work through the Sunday-school, a suggestion that the ladies might take up everywhere? Why not, after first defining the word young to have reference to feeling rather than years, organize young ladies’ missionary societies in all our churches, to work through the Sunday-schools for the support of lady missionaries among the freed women?—Scrooby, in The Congregationalist.
DIST. SEC. C. L. WOODWORTH, BOSTON.
The denomination which took possession of this country in the name of Christ, which brought in the cabin of the Mayflower the model of a democratic state, as well as of a democratic church, was, practically, ruled out of the South for two hundred and fifty years. Only since 1865 has it been possible for her to enter the South in all the largeness of her freedom and of her faith. If it now be asked, What has she to show for these thirteen years of opportunity among the poorest of the poor, we answer, “Something of which she need not be ashamed.”
Within five months from the time when the first gun of the rebellion sent its shot at the heart of the Union, Congregationalism, through the American Missionary[136] Association, was at Fortress Monroe with bread and clothing, with books and Bibles, with teachers and preachers. Nor was this the only channel of its charity to the needy. It maintained a vast work of physical relief during and after the war, through the New England and National Freedmen’s Aid Societies, and through agencies of more private bounty. And not alone in the way of physical relief, but a large number of teachers were sent out by these same agencies, and kept in the field for years and years. They have passed away, indeed, but the amount expended by them was very large, how large we will not try to estimate even approximately.
The Society first in the field alone remains to do the work for the Congregational churches. No sooner had General Butler established himself at Fortress Monroe than the Association pushed in its workers among the unhoused, half-clothed, half-starved thousands of contrabands that had flocked inside his lines. From that beginning, in 1861, the work has spread into every Southern State, and though its income and its working force are scarcely half what they were in 1870, yet it is among the great societies which our churches cherish and love. It has just completed seventeen full years of labor on the Southern field, and the number of laborers sent out year by year are tabulated below:
Teachers | |
1862 | 15 |
1863 | 83 |
1864 | 250 |
1865 | 300 |
1866 | 353 |
1867 | 528 |
1868 | 532 |
1869 | 532 |
1870 | 533 |
1871 | 321 |
1872 | 346 |
1873 | 323 |
1874 | 273 |
1875 | 260 |
1876 | 206 |
1877 | 203 |
1878 | 209 |
————— | |
Total No. of Teachers | 5,267 |
The tangible results of this work, as they appear in permanent Christian institutions, and their natural outcome in the South, will be seen in the statement below:
Chartered Institutions, 8.—Hampton N. and A. Institute, Hampton, Va.: Number of pupils, 332; boarding accommodations for 180. Berea College, Berea, Ky.: Number of pupils, 273; boarding accommodations for 180. Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.: Number of pupils, 338; boarding accommodations for 150. Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.: Number of pupils, 244; boarding accommodations for 150. Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.: Number of pupils, 272; boarding accommodations for 100. Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss.: Number of pupils, 193; boarding accommodations for 90. Straight University, New Orleans, La.: Number of pupils, 287; no boarding accommodations. Normal Institute, Austin, Texas: Number of pupils, 146.
Other Institutions, 11.—Normal School, Wilmington, N. C.: Number of pupils, 126; Washington School, Raleigh, N. C., 435; Avery Institute, Charleston, S. C., 294; Brewer Normal School, Greenwood, S. C., 58; Storrs’ School, Atlanta, Ga., 701; Lewis High School, Macon, Ga., 93; Trinity School, Athens, Ala., 158; Emerson Institute, Mobile, Ala., 117; Swayne School, Montgomery, Ala., 436; Burrell School, Selma, Ala., 421; Le Moyne School, Memphis, Tenn., 184; Common Schools, 18;—total, 37.
Whole number of pupils, 7,229. Scholars in the South, taught by our former pupils, estimated at 100,000.
Whole number of churches in the South, 64.—Virginia, 1; North Carolina, 5; South Carolina, 2; Georgia, 12; Kentucky, 7; Tennessee, 4; Alabama, 13; Louisiana, 12; Mississippi, 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 5.
Whole number of church members, 4,189.
From this exhibit it will be seen that eight of the schools are chartered, and contain nearly two thousand students. Four of them are of college grade, and are doing regular college work. The other schools are of Normal grade, and designed to bring forward, as rapidly as possible, the teachers for the untaught millions. They are all children of the Association, and in them are gathered up the fruits of Congregational liberality and labor in behalf of the colored race. These schools are an enduring investment for this work, and hold property in buildings, lands, apparatus and endowments, to the value, probably, of eight hundred thousand dollars. It should be said, however, that many of the buildings were put up by aid from the Freedmen’s Bureau; but this aid was set apart as the proportion of the public moneys which should appropriately flow through Congregational channels. The churches established in the South are a result of the same effort. Their chapels and houses of worship represent a money value of fifty thousand dollars more. What Congregationalism has to show is in these permanent institutions for the mental and moral training of the colored people. It is not all that is needed, but it is an investment of inestimable value, and one which will compare favorably with the work of any other denomination, for thorough educational and religious work among the enfranchised race.
Dudley, N. C.—“We have quite a class of teachers in the school, and I have spent a part of each day with them. I induced one of the young men I found in Woodbridge to come here for the present. He has had but little schooling, but is far ahead of all the young people here and has taught several terms. He is now commencing Latin and Algebra. He desires to fully fit himself for work among his people, and his present idea is to devote himself to teaching. He has a splendid voice and has never had any drill. One great object in bringing him here was to train his voice and give him instrumental lessons, and he is doing finely. Another was to secure him, if possible, to us, and find a chance for him in one of the A. M. A. Colleges. Is there any way of getting help for such a young man?”
McIntosh, Liberty Co., Ga.—“Nineteen persons united with the church last Sunday on confession of faith.”
Woodville, Ga.—The annual examination of the school was held March 28th. From 400 to 500 persons were present. One conversion from the Sunday-school during the month.
The St. Philip’s Society, Sengstacke’s Band of Hope, and Sons and Daughters of Jerusalem, celebrated emancipation, Jan. 1st, in the Congregational church. Rev. Mr. Markham, of Savannah, addressed them on the results of freedom and the work of the A. M. A. A thank-offering was sent in the form of a contribution to the Association.
Talladega, Ala.—Nine young men, students at Talladega, after examination, were approved to preach by the Alabama Conference.
Montgomery, Ala.—A deep religious interest has been manifested during the last month. Some of our pupils are trusting in a newly-found Saviour. A Sabbath afternoon Bible-reading at the school-house has been blessed.
Marion, Ala.—There are thirty subscribers to the New York Witness among the colored people in this place—a fact which speaks well for their general intelligence.
Mobile, Ala.—“God is pouring out His Spirit on our school. Several have expressed a hope in Christ and many more are inquiring. The interest is among the older scholars. We have a daily fifteen-minute prayer-meeting just before school, and a half-hour prayer-meeting after school on Friday. Pray for us.”
Anniston, Ala.—Sabbath-school very interesting, especially to the older people. One conversion.
Corpus Christi, Texas.—The church has been revived. Six members thus far have been received on profession.
Flatonia, Fayette Co., Texas.—This young church has twenty-five members, and several are waiting an opportunity to unite. It is negotiating for a church building.
Chattanooga, Tenn.—“The Sabbath-school is well attended. We had a concert last Sabbath evening; the house was crowded and the exercises went off quite well, after which a collection for the A. M. A. was taken.”
Indian Agency, Keshena, Wis.—From the report of the school at the Green Bay Agency we extract the following: “Our school closed on the 20th, and we are happy to report that this has been the most favorable term since the opening of the boarding-school. We have had very little sickness and very few changes, nearly all who came at the beginning of the term remaining till its close. In this respect, of steady, persevering work, we notice great improvement. It is so contrary to the habits of the Indian that we note it with pleasure. The progress, too, in studies is very satisfactory.”
—In commenting on the Windom Emigration Scheme, the Atlanta Constitution says: “In Georgia the colored people are doing as well as could be expected. If they are to remain citizens they ought to be educated, and they ought to have constantly before them the example of the whites. They are beginning to appreciate the responsibilities of citizenship; they are thrifty enough to accumulate property, and they are anxious to take advantage of the educational opportunities afforded them.” The colored man is valuable to the South. The white people know it. The above is important testimony to his worth and increasing usefulness.
—The Bainbridge Democrat gives, unwittingly, testimony to the industry and thrift of the colored laborer:[139] “The ambition of every negro man is to have a home of his own; and it is no mean ambition; yet, if something is not done, this generation will live to see the day when this class of labor cannot be obtained at any price; and if we cannot supply it with labor just as good, there will be no other alternative for the white man but to ‘go.’ People have no use for lands when there is nobody to cultivate them; and as the colored people set up in their little cabins upon their poor and sickly lands, just in proportion will our finest and best acres depreciate in value. This is a question big with interest to our people, beside which others sink into nothingness.” Application: The colored laborer is becoming a settled, independent property holder, and his own master. When he can work, buy and sell for himself, and own his cabin, he is emancipated from domineering dictation. Whoever owns his own labor must control the market.
—After all, there is an inclination to block this aspiration of the colored man. The Atlanta Constitution holds that it is an open question whether this effort should be encouraged. It holds that there are two solutions of the labor problem which is now vexing the farmers. Either the negro must be made comfortable as a tenant, or he must be encouraged to provide himself a home. Either something like the English tenant system must be adopted or the system of small farms will prevail. There is something peculiarly attractive in this English system. Whether it could be made to fit the peculiar needs of the present and the contingencies of the future, is a question that the editor is not just now prepared to discuss.
—The colored man being an American citizen, it is improbable that the English tenant system can be made to fit his case. The rights of citizenship will secure to him the rights of labor. The homestead delivers him from serfdom, and secures to him the independent ballot.
—Many influential colored men are advocating colonization as a remedy for the evils that afflict their race. One says, “We cannot get equal rights in the South before the law. A white man will pay ten dollars for the same offence that a negro will go to that second death, the chain-gang, for.” He also says, “There are some counties in Georgia, and in every one of the Southern states, where a white man will whip a negro just the same as formerly.” Again, a certain lawyer defending a white man the other day, at Jefferson, in Georgia, said, “God made the negro inferior, and the white man was justified in killing the negro for insulting him.” The jury acquitted the white man (Atlanta Rep., March 1). The darkness still lingers.
—The Marietta Journal, Cobb County, Ga., reports that a young colored man, now a school-teacher, but who has been studying law for the last three years, will soon apply for admission to the bar, and says that he is so thoroughly prepared that his application cannot be denied.
—A National Emigration Aid Society has been organized at Washington, with Senator Windom at its head, its object being to assist and regulate emigration from the South to the West. Rev. Dr. J. E. Rankin is one of its Executive Committee, as are also Senator Hamlin, Representative Garfield and other leading men.
—At the recent anniversary of the City Bible Society in Atlanta, Ga., it was reported that the colporteur, who had just commenced the canvass of the community, had found that of the first one hundred and fifty-eight white families visited in the first ward, twenty-six were destitute of the Word of God; and that of the first one hundred and seventy-two colored families visited in the same ward, forty-eight of them have no Bibles. Rev. Dr. Haygood, who stated the fact, said that it had surprised and gratified him to find that so large a proportion of the colored families had supplied themselves with the Scriptures. It gave him great encouragement for the welfare of the country. Of one hundred and seventy-two colored families, one hundred and twenty-four had the Bible. This people hunger for the Word. Here is a wide field for the American Bible Society.
—The Church Missionary Society has ordained missionaries at nine stations on the River Niger, under the charge of the native Bishop Crowther. At some of these stations the idols have already been given up. At others there has been long and severe persecution, which, however, appears to have largely broken down. On the whole, these missions have been a great success.
—The “Cardiff Livingstone Mission” (Welsh) was originated about three years ago, and has two stations on the Congo River.
—Dr. Laws and Mr. Stewart, of the Scottish Missionary Society on Lake Nyassa, are examining the country on the west coast of the Lake to find a permanent location better adapted to the wants of the mission than Livingstonia. They have visited several of the tribes, being received with some suspicion, and finding it hard to make it understood that they are neither there to fight nor to trade. At last advices (Oct. 30th) they were still investigating.
—Gordon Pacha, Governor-General of Southern Egypt, reports that the capture of all the slave depots is considered certain. The Egyptians, he says, killed ten chiefs and 2,000 men while following up a victory they had gained over the slave-traders.
—The steamer Kangaroo, with part of the cable to be laid between Natal and Aden, last month left the Thames for Natal via the Suez Canal. The Natal and Zanzibar section will be open for business in July. This will place South Africa within a week’s communication of London. The remainder of the line will be completed before the end of the present year.
—Mr. Henry M. Stanley is reported to be now on his way to Zanzibar with a commission from the King of the Belgians to re-organize the hitherto unsuccessful Belgian expedition.
—The Khedive has dismissed his English and French Ministers, and appointed a Cabinet composed exclusively of his own subjects. He has also prepared a financial scheme on his own account, and set aside that of the English financier. This revolutionary conduct will re-awaken anxiety in both England and France, for the future of Egypt and for the safety of European capital invested in that country.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
Through Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.
It took seven weeks. It started off with a week in the revival meeting at Talladega College, where some score and a half of souls were hopefully led to Christ.
I tarried for a day at Montgomery to contract for the repairing and re-painting of the Swayne School building, and for the re-renting of the same. Erected by the Freedmen’s Bureau, it had been put into the hands of a local Board of Trust, and by that Board it had been leased for ten years to the American Missionary Association, which, after running it for several years, sub-rented it to the City Board of Education—the A. M. A. giving[141] the rent, keeping the house in repair and appointing the teachers, the city paying the salaries. This arrangement was renewed for another five years by the appropriate legal papers. The teachers and the pastor’s family—that of Rev. Dr. Flavel Bascom, for the winter—are domiciled in the “Home.” A quiet, persuasive spiritual work was at that time manifest in the school. The pastor was found to be happy in his work, and to have made many friends in the city, being a regular member of the weekly ministers’ meeting.
On the tour a week was given to New Orleans for the inspection of the church and educational work in that vicinity, and for attendance upon the first meeting of the Sunday-school Association of Louisiana. This cause got a grand send-off. The Northern helpers were greatly useful. The Freedmen’s interest was well represented in the Association, as reported last month. The Straight University, with its edifice rebuilt upon a much better location, was found in a healthy working condition, with 200 pupils in the academic department; twenty-five in the law department, one-half of them white; and ten in the theological. The Central Church—Pres. Alexander, pastor—had been having a revival that had brought in a score of members. The three or four other churches were found in a hopeful condition under their native pastors. Great was the satisfaction in preaching for some of these congregations. Straight is now in great need of dormitory buildings for boarding students.
A couple of days was given to Terrebonne parish in preaching for Rev. Daniel Clay, and in visiting the other pastors and churches under his fatherly eye. Mr. Clay, a son of the great “Commoner,” is doing much in bringing the Gospel among the common people of his race.
The tour led us by another cluster of Louisiana churches, the one centering at New Iberia, on the Bayou Teche, in the region of the ancient settlement of “Evangeline’s” story. Two parish seats and three settlements belong to this cluster. All but one have plain houses of worship. All are under colored preachers. At New Iberia, besides fair public schools for the Freedmen, there is a fine select school in Grant Hall, built by the colored people. Three sermons sought to confirm these churches in the Gospel way.
Thence across the Gulf to Texas. The Barnes Institute, at Galveston, built by the Bureau, and run for a time by the American Missionary Association, is now used for a Freedmen’s public school, with four teachers and over three hundred scholars. At Houston the “Gregory Institute” duplicates the history of “The Barnes,” and is doing remarkably well. Such is also the story of the Institute at Waco. The American Missionary Association may count in with its best work the founding of these Institutes, which being well set up have flowed into the public school system. The impetus given and the standard put up yet abide in large measure.
The tour finds its western limit at San Antonio, that ancient seat of Spanish Romanism, with its antique mission fortifications yet standing in their frowning strength. That early pre-emption secures two-thirds of the present population, 21,000, to the Romanists, who have three massive stone cathedrals—one for the Spanish, one for the German and one for the English speaking people, and who have their extensive Nunnery and Jesuit College, which are patronized not a little by American families. This city is the metropolis for Southwestern Texas, which is as large as the whole of New England. It has also an immense wholesale trade with cities in Mexico. San Antonio becomes also a strategic point for Protestantism. The M. E. Church North is just now establishing itself here at large expense. The colored[142] people are well supplied with churches and schools. The second best Protestant church edifice is that of the African M. E. Church, just completed, at a cost of $8,000, and nearly all paid for. Superintendent West was there the same Sabbath, reconnoitering. He was urged by the M. E. South people to remain and hold a protracted meeting; but a campaign just at hand in Massachusetts prevented. Western Texas was suffering dreadfully from an eight months’ drought. The plain of San Antonio was an exception, being irrigated by the waters of the mighty springs just above the city, which, forming the San Antonio River, furnish the hydrant supply for that great population, and send babbling streams through all the streets and over all the surrounding gardens and farms. So may that sainted city be a fountain of moral refreshing in all that region!
The Tillotson Normal Institute of Texas, under the excellent Mrs. Garland, has already sent out twenty teachers. Its beautiful site, overlooking the city, is this summer to be crowned with its comely edifice, which, beyond the outer shell, is to await the incoming of funds for its completion. This trip has resulted with me in a profound impression as to the need of this institution and as to the grand sweep of its future usefulness. Nothing better can be done for the Freedmen of Texas. This empire, stretching a thousand miles on the Rio Grande and eight hundred miles eastward to the Sabine, calls mightily for such an institute to train those who shall be the teachers of her sable children. These immense areas of cheap, rich, southern lands, that were never cursed by the filth of slavery, are calling in the Freedmen to take to themselves homes and farms and the respectability that comes from ownership of the soil. Such people, most of all, hunger for good schools. Texas is liberal toward her colored school children. To furnish them teachers, skilled in the art and trained so that they shall exert a wholesome social and spiritual influence, is the great desideratum.
The cluster of churches made up of Corpus Christi, Goliad, Helena, Schulenburg and Flatonia, are organized into the Congregational Association of Southwestern Texas. The only two without houses of worship are now moving to purchase “church houses.” Rev. B. C. Church is a very patriarch among them. Rev. S. M. Coles, pastor and teacher at “Corpus,” is a colored graduate of Yale. Brothers Thompson and Turner, native pastors, are sound, pure and able men. It was a treat to minister the Word to each of these hungering congregations.
At Flatonia, when the local authorities went back upon their promise of the public school-room for a service which had been advertised in the town newspaper, because the white citizens would not allow that place to be used by “niggers,” we resorted to the platform of the R. R. Station, in the center of the village, and had a rousing open-air meeting that attracted many of the white citizens, who were cordially welcomed to our place of worship, for our God is no respecter of persons. At Corpus Christi a two days’ meeting followed upon some special interest, under the preaching of Mr. Thompson, which had greatly confirmed the church, and had added a half dozen to the company of the believers.
One day by the mail-schooner from “Corpus” to Indianola, another day by steamer to Galveston, and a third day by Morgan’s line, carried the tour back to New Orleans. A day there for supplementary reconnoissance, a Sabbath with the thriving church of Rev. D. L. Hickok, and the Emerson Institute at Mobile, and then a long run up to Atlanta finished this tour of many hundred miles among our schools and churches of the Southwest.
A Lady Missionary Needed.
REV. S. S. ASHLEY, ATLANTA, GA.
I desire to call your attention to the need of a missionary for this city. This has been a pressing necessity in all the past of the work here, but at present is more urgent than ever. This city is rapidly increasing in population. The increase of the colored population keeps pace with the white in numbers, and far outstrips the white in ignorance and poverty. The number of vagabond black children here would astonish you. On the Sabbath, the vacant lots and outskirts of the city are thronged with them. They are without parental restraint, and never attend meeting or Sabbath-school. They are ripening in vice and crime. There is a chain-gang in the city, composed, as I learn, of boys ranging from ten to fifteen years of age. There are many children among the county convicts. Thus they are drifting to the penitentiary and to ruin. Once in the penitentiary, they are lost, for the convict prison system of this State is bad.
This city is full of devil-traps. These strangers who are moving in will largely become victims. Now, we should have some agency by which as many as possible of these families can be reached. Their domestic condition is deplorable. In fact, this may be said of the colored families generally of the South. They need influences and instruction that can best, and, as I believe, only be carried to them by a woman missionary. The women, the mothers, the homemakers of this people, must be instructed and led to better things in their homes. They must be seen in their houses. With such homes as are common among them, it is well nigh impossible for them to be Christians. Large families living in one room—you know how it is—comfort, cleanliness, modesty and religious devotion are almost impossible. Illiterate, the Bible must be read to them; ignorant of their moral duties as parents, they must be taught. Strangers to domestic comforts and necessities, they must be made acquainted with them. Superstitious and fanatical, they must be introduced to places and modes of a scriptural, instructive and reasonable worship—a thousand matters of great importance must be brought to their attention and kept before their minds, until the proper impression is produced. This can only be done by a missionary moving about among them at their homes. This person should be a woman, because women are principally to be reached. Now, can you not commission Miss Stevenson for this work? In connection with her school, she now does a great deal in this direction, but not a tithe of what needs to be done. She is thoroughly acquainted with all these people, has had ten years’ experience among them, and is admirably adapted to the work. She has a heart for it. Please consider this.
Another matter: The young men connected with this church and congregation have organized a Library Association. A Library has been started—number of volumes at present very small. I have thought that perhaps you had in or about your office some spare books that you could send to us. We want to build up a Parish Library. I should like, especially, some works on Africa.
Tenantry—A Promising Field—Politics.
REV. FLAVEL BASCOM, D.D., MONTGOMERY.
I gave you some first impressions on entering the service of the A. M. A. last autumn, and you now ask for my impressions after three months’ experience and observation.
So brief a residence in a single Southern city does not qualify one to speak with authority on the various questions pertaining to your work among the Freedmen; but it does enable him to test your[144] methods and to examine the results achieved. He can thus judge of the adaptation of means employed to the ends desired, and can forecast the future with more confidence.
There are some things of which I am fully persuaded, by my short residence at the South; one of these is, that the colored people in this country are not dying out. I occasionally hear it said that they are. Possibly the wish is father to the thought. But they are not only here to stay, but they are here to multiply and increase as did the Jews in Egypt; and they are already so large a factor in our population that their character and condition are to affect the character and welfare of our country far more than is generally realized.
I have been happily disappointed in witnessing the industry and thrift of the Freedmen as mechanics and common laborers; the colored men seem to do very nearly all the work which is done, and with the aid of the women, who are equally industrious, they secure an honest and, what is to them, a comfortable living.
The most dependent and least progressive class of the Freedmen are those who work the plantations on shares. The planter dictates his own terms to the tenant—furnishes him team and tools at his own price—sells him provisions on credit at rates far above the cash market price, and then charges interest, fixing the per cent. to suit himself. When the crop is gathered, if the renter does not find himself in debt to his landlord, he is more fortunate than many. He rarely finds himself richer for his summer’s work. The simple rules of arithmetic, thoroughly understood by the tenant, will remedy all this; and when I hear the colored children at school reciting the multiplication table so enthusiastically, I am sure it is a prophecy of a “good time coming” to them.
My observation convinces me that the colored people are very desirous for the education of their children, and that their children acquire learning with as much facility as any other class. Let all the colored children and youth of the Southern States have access to schools conducted by competent teachers, and in a very few years they will solve the political and social problems that are just now so embarrassing. They will not only take care of themselves, but they will be very valuable auxiliaries in taking care of the nation.
I find in the colored churches of different denominations specimens of very estimable Christian character. I find, also, just those infirmities which I should expect if God made the Caucasian and the African of the same blood.
I have found the colored congregations very decorous and eagerly attentive to the preaching of the Gospel. I find them quite accessible for religious conversation, and apparently thankful for the interest manifested in their behalf. They furnish, therefore, a field for Christian effort that is full of promise. If there is another missionary field more inviting, or promising richer harvests to faithful culture, I know not where it is found.
I am profoundly impressed with the importance of the schools, and especially of the higher institutions established by the American Missionary Association, and by the Mission Boards of other Christian denominations. These institutions must train multitudes of competent teachers, who will educate the masses. In these institutions must also be educated a native ministry to meet the wants of their people at home, and to carry the Gospel to the dark continent from which their fathers came. It is difficult to conceive of a work more important, or promising more beneficent results, than that which is being done by the higher educational institutions for the Freedmen. The importance of enlarging their capacity for receiving pupils, and enabling them to aid indigent pupils in defraying the expenses of their education, cannot be over-estimated.
The relation of the Freedmen to politics raises questions that are very perplexing and threatening. The Southern States have, for the present, virtually disfranchised the colored men; and they seem united and firm in the purpose to exclude them from all influence in politics, unless they will vote for the party that so recently sought to perpetuate their bondage by a dissolution of the Union. What, then, should the colored men do, and what should their friends do for them? Many of them are intelligent and patriotic, and worthy to have a share in the government of the State and the nation. But many of them are as utterly unfit, at present, for such responsibility as are the most ignorant classes in our Northern cities; but they are improving. Every year adds to their intelligence, and if the helping hand of Christian philanthropy is not withheld, they will, by education, by temperance, by morality and more intelligent piety, by industry and the accumulation of property, win for themselves a position of respectability. They will not then need soldiers to protect them at the polls. They will take care of themselves. Their ballots will be received and counted. Not only so, among the whites there will be two parties, as of old, that will vie with each other in soliciting the colored vote, by out-bidding each other in the promise of favors in return. Is it not wisdom, then, for the colored man patiently to bide his time, meanwhile striving more earnestly for the qualifications than for the rights of a voter? And is it not wiser for the friends of the Freedmen to furnish him every facility for acquiring the qualifications of a voter, than to wrangle forever about his rights?
Emerson Institute—Early Discouragements, Later Encouragements.
REV. D. L. HICKOK, MOBILE.
For various reasons, among them the sickness of yellow fever, our work here commenced under very unfavorable circumstances. Our school opened the 20th of November, almost two months after the regular time, with only 17 scholars the first week, and with but little prospect of any considerable increase. The teachers were all new except Miss Stephenson, and hence they did not know what to expect, and therefore not enough about the work to be discouraged. Ignorance, sometimes at least, is bliss. If it did not give us faith, it saved us from being faithless. There are some things that are food in a negative way by preventing the usual waste in the system. Knowledge is power. Ignorance is somewhere along there when it saves us from the need of power. We accepted what we found as being all that we had any right in our simplicity to expect, and carefully hid it as leaven in the meal. The leaven, however, seemed wonderfully “little,” and the meal a great deal more than three measures; but God has blessed our work beyond our expectation and faith. The measure, “according to our faith,” was pressed down and running over. Our numbers rapidly increased so that by Christmas we had about 75 scholars, and after the holidays our numbers came up to more than 150. We still have accessions every week, and the prospect is that before the close of the year we shall have more scholars than we have room for. Already the primary room is filled beyond its seating capacity.
The school has at present four departments: the primary, which numbers about 60; the intermediate, which numbers between 40 and 50; the normal, which numbers about the same, and the higher normal, which at present is only a small class studying Latin, geometry and natural philosophy. The “A” class of the normal, which is quite large, will soon be in this department.
We feel that we are having the confidence and co-operation of the colored people. The last few weeks has encouraged us very much. We recently had a literary, musical and social entertainment[146] for the pupils and patrons of the school. It was held in the normal room of our building, which we also use as an assembly room, where we provided extra seats somewhat beyond rather than according to our faith; but not only was every seat filled, many went away because they could not even find standing room. At the close of the literary exercises the pupils brought forward their parents and friends and introduced them to the teachers, when sociability and “the shaking of the hands” became the order for the remainder of the evening.
The history of our school work for the past few months is repeated in our Sabbath-school and church work. We began with scarcely more than five loaves and two fishes. At the first religious meeting which I attended there were just seven present—five colored and two white people. What were they among so many? But God has graciously given us the increase here also. Our Sabbath-school now numbers 60, with 10 teachers, and is increasing every Sabbath. It is yet a small school, indeed, but it is in good working order. The machinery is complete in all its parts. Its lack is inward rather than outward. It needs only the animating power of the Holy Spirit to make it a living body. We have got the dust together and have formed it, and we are praying that God would breathe into its nostrils that it may become a living soul. To this end the teachers have just resolved to hold a half-hour prayer-meeting at the close of the school each Sabbath.
Our church is quite small. Congregationalism makes but little show in this typical Southern city. It will be a good many years before we have New England on the Gulf; yet I believe the leaven is here that is to leaven the lump. Our church contains a few earnest, faithful workers. There are those who have watched with Christ in the dark hour. Their days of vigilance will soon be over, when they may sleep in Jesus and take their rest. May God bless them!
A Revival of Education—A Useful Church.
REV. GEORGE E. HILL, MARION.
I cannot say that we are enjoying a revival of religion, but we are in the midst of a revival of education, which is here at the South, emphatically, the handmaid of the Gospel. The Lincoln Normal Institute, for colored pupils of both sexes, was founded in 1869 by the A. M. A. Six years ago it passed into the hands of the State, which makes an annual appropriation of $4,000 for the teachers’ salaries.
This year the school has taken a fresh start, having enrolled 217 pupils, and a new building is about to be erected for their accommodation. In the Normal Department for the training of teachers, there are classes in Latin, Greek and French, as well as the higher English branches. The order and discipline are equal to the average of our high schools at the North. Its pupils sustain a literary society, for weekly essays and discussions, and also publish a monthly paper. One young man walks ten miles every day to attend the school.
The influence of such an institution is felt in the very atmosphere. The fever for learning is contagious. Men who work hard all day in the field or at their trade are so eager for knowledge that, to meet the demand, classes have just been organized for a night school.
Meanwhile our little church is keeping on the even tenor of its way. There have been several hopeful conversions, and four are about to unite by profession. No falling off in attendance on Sabbath or evening meetings. Four of our young people are this year at Talladega College, and two promising young men have the ministry in view. Nineteen were present at our teachers’ meeting last week.
At the “Home” we have three meetings Sunday evenings: one for women, one for boys, and a girls’ class prayer meeting, with a kindergarten for the little ones during the week.
One of the pleasant incidents in our winter’s work has been the distribution of five barrels of clothing from kind friends at the North. The people are poor, but not penurious. A girls’ sewing class has sent $21, the avails of their handiwork, for the Mendi Mission, and the church appropriates the “weekly offering” once a month towards the pastor’s salary.
It is truly delightful to see the readiness of this people for religious instruction, and to witness the fruits of our labor in their marked elevation. They are quick, industrious, pleasing, and unobtrusive in their manners, with a decided distaste for “loudness” of every sort; showing, too, as much decorum at church, and as proper a regard for the Sabbath, as I have ever seen in any community.
From all which, it may be inferred that here, at least, the uplifting process has already passed the stage of incipiency.
Concert—Last Year’s Graduates—Gifts Acknowledged.
PROF. J. K. COLE, STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY.
We have reached another mile-stone in our school work. Many of our older pupils, especially the senior class, would have been glad to keep in harness, but circumstances were favorable for a two days’ break in school routine, and we have it.
Last evening the singing class, under the direction of Prof. McPherron, gave a concert at Central Church. The house was filled with as fine an audience as could be gathered in any city. There was a generous sprinkling of “white folks,” including several of the local board of trustees and other appreciative friends. The proceeds will help some of our needy students to books; while a greater and more lasting good will result from the influence of the music sung—not upon those only who took part in the singing, but upon the large audience who listened so attentively, and who were cheered and encouraged by what the young people of their race are doing.
New scholars come in almost every week, and though some drop out our number is kept well up to 200.
We hear interesting and encouraging reports from our last year’s graduates, who are all teaching. Dr. J. E. Roy has lately seen two of them, and reports that they are doing well. One has an evening school for the parents and older ones, and both are doing good work in Sabbath-school.
In a letter just received from one of them she says that she has to humor the parents in their whims, or they keep their children out of school. She writes: “Before school began my ability to teach was doubted by a father. He wanted to get a book for his son, who had never been to school; he intended to buy a Webster’s speller. I told him what book he needed, but he would not get it until many of the patrons of the school reasoned him into it. I have a Sabbath-school, which is almost beyond my ability to teach. I am superintendent, treasurer, secretary, and everything. I find it difficult to interest the children. Last Sabbath there was an attendance of twenty-seven.” Of her day-school she writes: “It is very difficult to make the children think that they do not know everything. Many of them have been studying books that they cannot even read understandingly. I am trying to govern by kindness as much as possible, and punish only when I see that I cannot possibly help it. I think the children are progressing as rapidly as they could anywhere under like circumstances.”
Thus the influence of our school and[148] our teaching is extended, and in this way are the masses to be reached. Christian people of the North, let the means be liberally provided to educate these teachers who are to carry light and knowledge to their people.
Our work is not all overspread with cloudless skies. We are under many disadvantages, and experience some sore disappointments. Not all whom we look upon with great hopes and earnest desires that their future may be marked by Christian usefulness, meet our expectations. We find careless and idle and heedless pupils; some, though they are very eager to learn, and work hard, make very slow progress; but, to the credit of this people be it said, a stubborn or wilfully disobedient pupil is rare. On the whole, the encouraging cases are largely in the majority, and the opposite kind lead us to exercise more care, perseverance, patience and prayerfulness.
Our thanks are due to the ladies of the Congregational Church at Colchester, Conn., and to the ladies of the Free Church, Andover, Mass., for a barrel of bedding each, for the Mission Home. The contents were especially acceptable at the time received, for the Sunny South had on, just then, a decidedly winterish aspect, with the mercury at 18 degrees. Now we are in the midst of spring, with a profusion of orange blossoms, roses and green leaves.
Revival—Ministerial Carpentry—Organ and Papers Needed.
REV. S. M. COLES, CORPUS CHRISTI.
“Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not.” I have been led to feel the force of these words with somewhat of the surprise of their author, within the last two or three weeks. My work among this people has been, I confess, a little discouraging; but now the Lord has smiled upon us, aye, He has showered upon us blessings from heaven. Brother Thompson, from Helena, has been with us the last four weeks. We have worked together, and God has crowned our feeble efforts with success. In our conference we decided to hold a series of religious meetings, intending thereby to stir up, if possible, the members of the church to greater activity. These meetings were commenced, and, as they continued, the interest deepened, both Christians and sinners being impressed. Many rose and asked the church to pray for them. To our great surprise and joy, sinners have come flocking home, backsliders have been reclaimed, the church has been made alive, and many out of Christ are inquiring. The manifest result of our season of revival thus far is, that six have been added to the church. Four young ladies, all under twenty-three years of age, joined by the profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. One who had backslidden came and acknowledged her sins, professing her belief that God had forgiven the same, asked pardon of the church, and was received back again into the fold. Another came, by letter, from the Baptist church. He was formerly a member of this church, and, as he said, he “only came back again.” And let me say, that these meetings were not characterized by excitement; not the least “shouting” was manifest during their continuance, but there was a deep seriousness shown upon each countenance. The colored people here are so wild and physical in their religious meetings, while our church is so quiet, that they speak skeptically about our Christianity. An A. M. E. minister asked one of our young converts to-day, when she was converted. They are still looking through Elijah’s wind, earthquake and fire for the appearance of God, and but few wish to receive Him through the “still small voice.”
Our financial condition is not what we could wish, but in the circumstances I do not think it could be much better. The members failed this year to meet their pledges; they are fifty dollars[149] short. But this was caused by having to meet unforeseen expenses. We enclosed our church lot just before Christmas. I advised them to do this, as the edifice was so much exposed. The carpenter’s work I did myself, and charged them nothing for it. My Sabbath-school is quite prosperous, but it is not so large now as it has been. Children need something to draw their attention. I find that they are wonderfully attracted by music. We need an organ; but we are too poor to buy one. Will some kind friend send us an organ for our Sabbath-school? I am sure that great good could be done with an organ in attracting the attention of children and drawing them in from the streets. There are numbers of children strolling around on the Sabbath. Children here are allowed to go where they wish. If they want to come to my school, they come; if not, they stay away; and parents have but little influence over them in this respect. I would like to capture such, and I think I should be able to do this with music and papers.
Cannot some of the friends of the missionary cause send us their old Sabbath-school papers when they are done with them, remembering that God will bless their beneficence?
Material and Spiritual Value of the Yellow Fever Fund.
MISS HATTIE A. MILTON.
Various sums were sent to our treasury for the relief of the yellow fever sufferers. This little fund has been distributed in New Orleans, Memphis and Mobile. The accompanying letter from Miss Milton shows the manner of its distribution in Memphis:
“Most of those whom I found worthy of relief were people who were suffering from the effects of the fever, and could only make money enough to pay the rent. To such, a few barrels of coal or some provision and shoes gave a start, so that they could get on very well alone. We have had an unusually cold winter, and people have consequently needed more fuel, the sickly ones often having to remain in bed to keep warm. A pastor of one of the colored churches has been a great help in this work, by reporting needy cases in his part of the city. One poor woman, whom he reported, when visited, said, ‘Sure the Lord must have sent you, for I have tried ever since I had the fever to get help, but being blind could not succeed.’ She was furnished with fuel and provision. She then said, ‘You see how good the Lord is to me because I trust Him.’
“Another man had always done very well until he had the fever, from which he partially recovered, but had a relapse which laid him on his bed for months. His wife also was sick, and the family were in great distress when I visited them, and sent relief, which so encouraged them that the man was soon able to be at work again, and is doing well now. I had never gained access to this neighborhood before, but by relieving this family I gained the confidence of the people, and they invited me to hold a weekly prayer-meeting there, which is well attended. Several families which have been relieved now send their children to our Sunday-school. Although several thousand dollars were sent here to relieve yellow fever sufferers, many of the colored people received but little, some nothing. It is very sad to hear of those who were so feeble that they could not stand in the ranks to await their turn at the relief office, but sat on the ground till night came, and then receiving no attention, went home to die! One man, who had always been a good provider, sent his family to the country during the fever, but fell a victim to it himself, and died, leaving his wife a nice house and lot, but with several debts unpaid, and not a dollar for her support. Within a week after his death a beautiful baby opened its wondering eyes for the first time in this world of trouble. The poor heart-broken mother, instead of welcoming[150] the tiny, helpless creature, only looked at it with tearful eyes and an aching heart, as she had nothing for it, most of their clothing being burned when her husband died, to prevent the spread of the disease. When I found her, the baby was three months’ old, and had never had but two garments, and the mother could not leave the three little ones, all under four years of age, to get work. She was relieved, and now the cold is nearly over, and as she has rented her house and taken small rooms herself, she saves a little money, which, with the work she can get, will, she hopes, keep the wolf from the door, and she is very thankful for the relief that came just when she most needed it.
“I will only add that this relief fund has at least doubled my field of work, besides doing much to call the attention of the people to our school. May God’s blessing rest on those interested in this good work.”
REV. A. E. JACKSON, AVERY STATION.
We are all enjoying a moderate degree of health, which, of course, is quite encouraging to one laboring in this country, and helps him to enter upon the year’s work with renewed vigor. Finding that I was unable to reach a very great number of country men who live too far from my station to attend services, I have in such localities established preaching stations conducted by the hands employed in the Mission. They meet me each Saturday afternoon, so that I may explain to them the passages of Scripture that they are to use on Sunday at their respective stations. Great good is thus being accomplished. One station, in a very beautiful little town of about twelve hundred inhabitants, is conducted by my interpreter. The meetings are full of interest, and doubtless great good will be accomplished by its thus being established. The chief himself is learning to take a very great interest in the meetings, and, of course, if he expresses an interest in the meetings, the subjects will always attend very largely. I hope to see the chief converted before a very great while. Another station is maintained in a smaller village, where I trust to see greater interest soon manifested.
Avery is the most interior station held by the American Missionary Association in Africa. This one step has been taken, and a sufficient time has elapsed since to teach us that it is all important to push our work farther into the country. There lies on either side of us a vast territory, densely populated by an anxious and thirsty people who are dying for want of the truths of the Gospel.
In regard to the work at Avery, the new year has opened up quite favorably to us in all our departments. The church I am glad to say, is progressing far beyond all expectation. Sunday, Feb. 9, was our communion day, and it did seem as if the presence of the Lord was with each one in spirit and in power. There were added to the church ten souls, who were that day with us permitted to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Another feature connected with the church work is full of interest, and that is the prayer meetings. They are, as a general thing, largely attended by the country men, and great interest is manifested among them. We hope that many will be brought to the Lord during this year; but this will depend very greatly upon earnest prayer on the part of the Christians at home.
One thing is discouraging, and that[151] is the condition of the Sabbath-school. We have no papers, no Bibles, and scarcely any singing-books, with which to carry it on. All who know anything of Sunday-school work are perfectly aware that much depends upon the interest that one is enabled to keep up among the children and adults by such means; it is so with you in civilized countries, much more so in a heathen country, where one is required to teach them everything. Now I am sure that some Sunday-school or some lover of the Christian cause will respond to this, my most humble appeal in the name of Christ, and send such books, papers, etc., to Avery Station as he can afford.
The agricultural department is progressing nicely. Our coffee farm is in a flourishing condition. Many of the trees are in bloom, and some have on them many berries of coffee. I think by another year a greater part of the trees will be bearing well. Our mill is now undergoing repair, and we hope to have it in perfect running order by April 1st.
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
Directors: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball, E. P. Sanford, Esq.
Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.
Rev. WM. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.
1. There are two sides to the question. Many Christians, both laymen and ministers, are earnestly opposed to Chinese immigration, for reasons which seem to them ample and even imperative. As against such reasons, vituperation and contempt fall powerless. But it should be observed that these reasons do not—with, at most, two exceptions—apply to Chinese immigration alone. The Irish laborer underbid the native American, and crowded him out of the field. In some cases great suffering temporarily ensued. But the American at length found other and better fields to which, indeed, the Irishman’s toil prepared his way. It would be so again. The Irish, French and German immigrants have brought with them principles and practices sadly at variance with those which gave us free institutions, our Christian Sabbaths, and our happy homes; and thoughtful Christians viewed this influx of an alien element with great alarm for many years. For the same reasons, and some others, they cannot but view with anxiety an influx from the heathen nations over our Western sea. But what did we do about it in the former case? Did we lock the door? Did we attempt to dyke back the incoming tide? No; but we said, We will meet these people with the Gospel; we will bring their children into our public schools; we will make the very air they breathe redolent with the principles of a genuine Christian liberty, and thus we will make them no longer Irish, or French, or Germans, but, in the second generation, if not the first, Americans all. And this process is saving the nation’s life. Why not try it again with the new immigration from the old Orient?
2. But there are two special reasons for opposing this Chinese immigration; one is, that it consists of unmarried men, homeless and vagrant, and our country needs homes; the other is, that[152] they are exceptionally clannish, refuse to associate and assimilate with us, and remain, after thirty years, as much an alien race as when they first arrived. I feel the force of these facts, but is there not a cause? They are, it is true, a very conservative race; slow to change, and ardently attached to their native land; but if it were otherwise, I submit whether the courtesies they have received are of the sort which would specially incline them to fall in love with our country or ourselves. The Chinese can be Americanized; and in response to treatment such as European immigrants receive, would long ago have begun to make homes and to identify themselves with us. And, by the grace of God and the power of the Gospel, they might have been, and may yet be, educated into intelligent, patriotic and useful citizens. He who doubts this ought no longer to profess and call himself a Christian.
3. There is no occasion to be frightened lest we be overwhelmed by a rush of Chinese immigrants. The lapse of thirty years finds about 100,000 in the United States, and to-day they are going faster than they come; going, not because they are frightened, but for the very sensible reason that they can do better elsewhere. The supply has exceeded the demand. The wealthier Chinese find their impoverished countrymen thrown upon their charities, and they use every influence they can bring to bear to restrain others from coming. What if there are 400,000,000 of them just across the sea; they may as well stay there and starve, as to come 10,000 miles and do the same. If the recent bill had become a law, and had been executed, no others in all the land would have profited by it so much as the Chinese in California.
4. The anti-Chinese mania seems to neutralize, even in otherwise honorable men, all scruple about ascertaining the truth of statements before they make them, or even about repeating statements proven to be false. I brand it as a falsehood that the Chinese in this country are in any sense coolies. They are freemen. If they have borrowed money to come here, it has not been of the Six Companies; nor are the terms on which such loans are made in any wise different from those on which a New Englander might borrow in order to “go west.” I brand it as a falsehood that there is among them any imperium in imperio, defying our laws, and meting out to its victims punishment even unto death. The Six Companies are voluntary societies for mutual aid. Sometimes, instead of going to law, our Chinese agree to refer matters in dispute to the presidents of these companies as a board of arbitrators; but such arbitration is in principle and practice exactly that which American business men often resort to; exactly that which between Christians ought to be always a sufficient substitute for suits at law. Some years ago Chinese merchants were able to arrange with the steamship companies to sell no tickets to Chinamen unless they could show what has been incorrectly called a permit from one or the other of these companies. The object was to prevent men from leaving with their debts unpaid. In order to obtain one of these passes, a man must announce at the office of the company to which he belongs his intention of returning to China, and thus give his creditors, if he have any, an opportunity to protest. The result is, I suppose, that the glorious Anglo-Saxon liberty of running away from unpaid bills is, for them, somewhat curtailed. But our Congregational Association of Christian Chinese has the same authority to issue passes that the Six Companies have, and its passes are equally respected. And for years no Christian Chinaman has recognized any obligation to either of these companies in any way. I go into detail on this point, because much has been[153] made of it, as an out-cropping of that imperium in imperio of which so much has been said. It goes the length that I have stated, and no further.
Finally, I brand as falsehoods the representations constantly made as to the success of missionary labor among the Chinese here. I am sure that Mr. Blaine would not wilfully belittle such a work. He is a follower of Christ, and a friend to his fellow-men, but he has listened to those who were neither of these, or he would never have said that “not one in a thousand have even nominally professed a change from heathenism, and of this small number nearly one-half had been taught in missionary schools in China.” The known and counted results are more than five times as large as the “missionary,” (?) whom he quotes, represents, and of them, I venture to say, that not one in a hundred ever entered the door of a mission-school in China; while their conversion has not been merely nominal and negative, “from heathenism,” but real and positive, to a faithful, prayerful, earnest Christian life. Meanwhile, there are grand results that cannot be measured, but which will tell mightily on the future, in the starting of thought, the loosening of the bonds of superstition, the preparation of the way of the Lord.
FOR MARCH, 1879.
MAINE, $38.80. | |
Andover. S. W. Pearson, for Student Aid | $5.00 |
Lyman. Cong. Soc. | 7.05 |
Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch. | 26.75 |
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $397.51. | |
Bennington. Miss Emily Whittemore, for Student Aid, Atlanta U. | 75.00 |
Concord. C. T. P. | 0.50 |
Exeter. “A Friend,” $10; Second Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., class of boys, $2.82, for Chapel, Wilmington, N. C. | 12.82 |
Farmington. First Cong. Ch. | 14.92 |
Fisherville. J. C. Martin | 10.00 |
Francestown. R. G. Cochran | 2.00 |
Hanover. Dartmouth College Ch. $70 (of which $50 for the debt. See debt receipts) | 20.00 |
Hollis. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 14.75 |
Lyme. Cong. Ch. and Soc. to const. Amos Bailey L. M. | 35.00 |
Lyndeborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 6.38 |
Manchester. Jasper P. George | 5.00 |
Marlborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (of which $5 for a pupil Taladega C.) | 25.10 |
Nashua. Olive St. Ch. and Soc., $20.78; Miss H. M. Swallow, $10 | 30.78 |
New Ipswich. G. W. T. $1; A. N. T., $1—Ladies, 75c for Freight; Miss A. W., 50c | 3.25 |
North Hampton. E. Gove | 10.00 |
Northwood Centre. J. M. M. | 1.00 |
Piermont. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $6.51; Mrs. Marden, $3.50 | 10.01 |
Portsmouth. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., Infant Class of Mrs. E. P. Kimball, for Chapel, Wilmington, N. C. | 7.50 |
Troy. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 5.00 |
West Concord. Cong. Ch. | 8.50 |
—— “A Friend in N. B.” | 100.00 |
VERMONT, $240.92. | |
Bradford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 35.71 |
Burlington. (Winooski) Cong. Ch. | 68.50 |
Burlington. Third Cong. Ch. $13.47; N. S. H., $1 | 14.47 |
Corinth. Cong. Ch. | 7.63 |
Dummerston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 6.38 |
East Berkshire. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 6.75 |
Newbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 35.00 |
North Craftsbury. Ladies’ Miss. Soc., bbl. of Bedding and $3, for Atlanta, Ga.;—Mrs. M. C. P., $1; Others, $1 | 5.00 |
Randolph Centre. First Cong. Ch. | 7.00 |
South Londonderry. Mrs. Betsey Gibson | 10.00 |
Stafford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 15.00 |
West Brattleborough. Cong. Ch. | 11.14 |
West Randolph. M. A. and S. E. Albin, $6; S. I. W., $1 | 7.00 |
West Rutland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 11.34 |
MASSACHUSETTS, $1,970.60. | |
Amherst. Second Cong. Ch. $9.25; Mass. Ag. Col. “College Christian Union,” $3.25 | 12.50 |
Andover. Free Ch. (of which $100 from Francis H. Johnson) $184.58; South Cong. Ch. and Soc. $41.31; Calvin, E. Goodale, $25 | 250.89 |
Arlington. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 12.50 |
Athol. Cong. Ch. and Soc. to const. Rev. Henry A. Blake L. M. | 51.80 |
Blandford. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
Boston Highlands. Immanuel Cong. Ch. and Soc., $100; H. W. T., 50c. | 100.50 |
Brocton. I. P. | 0.50 |
Brookline. S. A., E. H. C. | 10.00 |
Byfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 5.38 |
Cambridgeport. Cash, $10; G. B. C., 50c | 10.50 |
Charlton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $10; Cong. Sab. Sch. $5.69 | 15.69 |
Chelsea. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., $66.96;—Mrs. R. G. P., $1, for the aid of Pupils, Talladega, Ala. | 67.96 |
Chestertown. S. C. A. | 0.50 |
Clinton. First Evan. Ch. and Soc. $75.23;—Ladies’ Missionary Soc., bbl. of C., for Fisk U. and City Mission Work, and $3 for Freight | 78.23 |
Enfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $50; Ira D. Haskell, $5 | 55.00 |
Fair Haven. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 20.00 |
Foxborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 52.00 |
Framingham. “A Friend,” $30, to const. Miss Mary Billings L. M.;—Ladies of Plymouth Ch. for Freight, $2 | 32.00 |
Gardner. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 10.00 |
Grantville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 75.94 |
Great Barrington. L. M. Chapin | 5.00 |
Groton. Union Orthodox Ch. | 20.82 |
Groveland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 6.00 |
Haverhill. Joseph Flanders | 5.00 |
Holbrook. Sarah J. Holbrook, for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 25.00 |
Holden. “Holden Benev. Soc.,” by J. Calvin, for Aid of Pupils, Atlanta U. | 10.00[Pg 154] |
Holliston. Coll. No. 4 Sat. Evening Prayer Meeting, by John Batchelder | 25.00 |
Littleton. Ladies’ Mission Circle | 10.00 |
Lowell. Ladies’ Benev. Soc. of First Cong. Ch. bbl. of C., for Wilmington, N. C. | |
Lynn. Central Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 14.50 |
Manchester. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 26.25 |
Mansfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 12.00 |
Melrose. Orthodox Cong. Ch. and Soc. (in part) | 42.05 |
Millbury. M. D. Garfield | 5.00 |
Newbury. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 15.65 |
North Abington. Freedmen’s Aid Soc., bbl. of C. for Fisk U. and City Mission Work, “M. A.,” $2 for Freight | 2.00 |
Northampton. Sab. Sch. of First Parish | 46.00 |
Northborough. Mrs. A. E. D. F. | 1.00 |
Northfield. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 20.62 |
North Hadley. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 2.45 |
Norton. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 38.45 |
Norton. Wheaton Sem., for Aid of Pupils, Atlanta U. | 17.00 |
Peabody. So. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 18.39 |
Peru. G. Wells | 1.51 |
Phillipston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 8.17 |
Plainfield. Mr. and Mrs. Albert Dyer | 10.00 |
Quincy. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 27.00 |
Rockland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 123.82 |
Rockport. “A Friend.” | 5.00 |
Sandwich. Mrs. E. W. Wells, $5; Mrs. Robert Tobey, $5 | 10.00 |
Shelburne. Ladies of Cong. Ch. $2 and bbl. of C. for Montgomery, Ala. | 2.00 |
Somerville. Broadway Cong. Ch. | 14.50 |
South Amherst. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 10.00 |
South Byfield. Mrs. E. H. Evans | 2.00 |
South Framingham. G. M. Amsden | 5.00 |
South Royalston. Individuals, by Rev. C. L. Tomblen | 1.00 |
South Weymouth. Union Cong. Ch. $60, to const. Mrs. Hannah C. Cushing and Mrs. Geo. W. Conant L. M.’s; Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. $41, to const. Mrs. Almatia Heald L. M. | 101.00 |
Springfield. First Ch., $57.25; Hope Ch., $15.14; Mrs. Ira Merrill, $2 | 74.90 |
Taunton. Ladies’ Sewing Circle of Winslow Ch., $25 for a Student, Talladega C.; also, box of C. for Talladega, and $2 for Freight | 27.00 |
Topsfield. Ladies’ Benev. Soc. box of C., for Wilmington, N. C. | |
Waverly. Cong. Ch. and Soc. for a Student, Atlanta U. | 30.00 |
Wellesley. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $5; L. B. H., 50c | 5.50 |
Westborough. Cong. Sab. Sch., $48.84; Evan. Cong. Ch. M. C. Coll., $14.84 | 63.68 |
West Brookfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 20.00 |
West Stockbridge Village. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 12.94 |
Wilmington. Mrs. E. M. G. Noyes, for aid of Pupils, Talladega, Ala. | 30.00 |
Woburn. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 150.00 |
Worcester. T. W. T. | 0.51 |
RHODE ISLAND, $30. | |
Oak Lawn. Rev. Marcus Ames | 10.00 |
Providence. Mrs. Lucius Lyon, $10, for Student Aid, Fisk U.; E. Weston, $5 | 15.00 |
Tiverton Four Corners. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
CONNECTICUT, $1,199.82. | |
Bridgeport. First Cong. Ch. | 83.96 |
Brookfield. “A Friend” | 5.00 |
Canton Centre. Mrs. S. B. H. | 1.02 |
Chester. Cong. Ch. | 36.80 |
Collinsville. Mrs. Chidsey, for Girl’s Ind. Sch., Talladega, Ala. | 5.00 |
Danbury. E. B. | 1.00 |
Danielsonville. J. D. Bigelow | 4.00 |
East Hampton. Talladega Soc. for Aid of Pupils, Talladega, Ala. | 22.00 |
East Hartford. First Cong. Ch. | 20.00 |
East Windsor Hill. Bbl. of C. for City Mission Work, and $1 for Freight; Mrs. C., $5 | 6.00 |
Fairfield. First Cong. Ch. | 57.09 |
Fair Haven. Second Cong. Ch. to const. Horace H. Strong L. M. | 40.00 |
Franklin. Cong. Ch. | 11.00 |
Greenwich. Second Cong. Ch., $60; E. M., 50c. | 60.50 |
Guilford. Ladies of Third Cong. Ch. bbl. of C., val. $25, and $5 for Freight | 5.00 |
Hanover. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 24.87 |
Hartford. Windsor Av. Cong. Ch. $25.01; Collected by Mrs. G. W. Root, $11.00 | 36.01 |
Lakeville. Mrs. M. H. W. | 1.00 |
Ledyard. Cong. Ch. | 14.38 |
Lyme. J. A. R. | 0.50 |
Mansfield Centre. First Cong. Ch. | 6.00 |
New Britain. Mrs. N. H. | 0.50 |
New Hartford. Bible Class, by Rev. F. H. Adams, for Theo. Student, Fisk U. | 8.00 |
New Haven. Ch. of the Redeemer, $130; Amos Townsend, $35; East Cong. Ch., $12; | 177.00 |
New London. First Cong. Ch. $38.23; “A Thank Offering,” $3 | 41.23 |
New Preston. Rev. H. Upson | 5.00 |
Old Lyme. Cong. Ch. | 14.10 |
Plantsville. Individuals, by Rev. L. F. Berry | 10.00 |
Plymouth. Cong. Ch. | 16.00 |
Ridgefield. First Cong. Ch. | 16.11 |
Simsbury. First Cong. Ch. | 19.00 |
South Britain. “A Friend” | 1.00 |
Tolland. Cong. Ch. | 4.54 |
Waterbury. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 423.81 |
Woodbury. Benj. Fabrique | 20.00 |
West Meriden. Mrs. M. P. B. | 1.00 |
Wethersfield. Mrs. Mary D. McLean, box of Books and $1.40, for Talladega, Ala. | 1.40 |
NEW YORK, $740.00. | |
Batavia. “A. V. S. F.” | 20.00 |
Brooklyn. Central Cong. Sab. Sch., E. R. Kennedy, Supt., $100, for a Teacher;—Miss M. E. S., 50c.; Mrs. G. H., 50c. | 101.00 |
Chenango Forks. Cong. Ch. | 1.00 |
Churchville. Union Cong. Sab. Sch., for Aid of Pupils, Atlanta U. | 25.00 |
Cincinnatus. “Cincinnatus” | 10.00 |
Copenhagen. E. G. | 0.50 |
Crown Point. First Cong. Ch., Mrs. Triphena Walker | 2.00 |
Dryden. Mrs. L. M. K. | 1.00 |
Floyd. Welsh Cong. Ch. | 4.00 |
Flushing. First Cong. Ch. | 13.00 |
Fredonia. Presb. Sab. Sch., $15; “McK.,” $15, to const. Christine Gilbert L. M. | 30.00 |
Gilbertsville. Rev. A. Wood | 15.00 |
Honeoye. Cong. Ch., $33, and Sab. Sch., $17 | 50.00 |
Kiantone. Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 12.25 |
Livonia. G. W. Jackman, $10; M. A. Jackman, $5; Mrs. Wm. Calvert ($5 of which for Chinese M. in Cal.) $10 | 25.00 |
Lockport. Cong. Sab. Sch., to const. Mrs. J. E. Merritt L. M. | 30.00 |
Malone. Mrs. H. R. Wilson | 5.00 |
Martinsburgh. Horatio Hough, $5; Mrs. Almira Arthur, $3 | 8.00 |
Middlesex. Mr. and Mrs. Lester Adams | 10.00 |
Millville. Cong. Ch. | 10.34 |
Morrisville. Cong. Ch. | 27.61 |
New Hamburgh. S. H. S. | 0.50 |
Newark Valley. Legacy of a deceased Sister, by Mrs. A. B. Smith | 34.00 |
New York. “X. Y. Z.,” for Hampton Inst., $100;—Mrs. James Stokes, $10, for Ch. Work, Ogeechee, Ga.;—S. T. Richards, $6; Mrs. Elizabeth Merritt, $5, Mrs. L. B. B., 50c.; S. T. G., 50c.; American Tract Soc., Grant of S. S. Papers, val. $30 | 122.00 |
Oneida. S. H. Goodwin, $10; Edward Loomis, $2 | 12.00 |
Oneonta. L. J. S. | 0.50 |
Orient. H. M. W. | 1.00 |
Parma. Mrs. Harriet Clark | 5.00 |
Peon Yan. F. O. Hamlin | 20.00 |
Poughkeepsie. Mrs. M. J. M. | 1.00 |
Pulaski. S. C. | 1.00 |
Seneca Falls. “A Friend” | 50.00 |
Sherburne. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch. | 55.45[Pg 155] |
Spencerport. S. V. and M. D., $1 each, for Freight; Mary Dyer, $5, for Student Aid, Tougaloo U. | 7.00 |
Spencertown. Rev. H. P. Bake | 5.00 |
Taberg. Aaron Stedman, $2; Dewey Hopkins, $2; A. W., $1 | 5.00 |
Turin. Mrs. Martha Woodworth | 2.00 |
Troy. Mrs. E. C. S. | 1.00 |
Union Valley. Dr. J. Angel | 10.00 |
Volney. First Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch. | 6.94 |
NEW JERSEY, $230.56. | |
Morristown. Mrs. Ella M. Graves, for Aid of Pupils, Atlanta U. | 100.00 |
Newark. C. S. Haines | 40.00 |
Orange Valley. Cong. Ch. | 64.01 |
Stanley. Hillside Missionary Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., for a Lady Missionary | 25.00 |
Vineland. Cong. Ch. of the Pilgrims | 1.55 |
PENNSYLVANIA, $14. | |
East Springfield. Mrs. C. J. Cowles | 2.00 |
Farmer’s Valley. Mrs. E. C. O. | 1.00 |
Hermitage. W. F. Stewart, $4; E. P., $1 | 5.00 |
Jeanesville. Welsh Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
North East. C. A. T. | 1.00 |
OHIO, $463.68. | |
Chatham Centre. Cong. Ch. | 28.00 |
Cincinnati. Vine St. Cong. Ch. $41.65; Rev. B. P. Aydelott, D.D., $10 | 51.65 |
Claridon. Cong. Sab. Sch., for Atlanta, Ga. | 7.00 |
Clarksfield. Rev. J. M. and Mrs. H. B. Fraser | 10.00 |
Fostoria. C. M. | 0.50 |
Granville. Thomas D. Williams | 5.00 |
Harmar. Cong. Ch. | 35.32 |
Hartford. A. N., $1; J. M. J., $1; Miss H. J., $1; S. C. B.,$1; Others, $1 | 5.00 |
Huntington. Edward West | 25.00 |
Kingsville. J. L. Gage | 10.00 |
Lyme. Cong. Ch. | 22.58 |
Mechanicsburgh. Mrs. M. K. H. | 1.00 |
New Richland. Elizabeth Johnston | 2.00 |
Oberlin. First Cong. Sab. Sch., $50, for Ag’l Dept., Talladega, Ala.;—First Cong. Ch. $38.74; Second Cong. Ch., $10.39 | 99.13 |
Ravenna. Ira B. Cutts | 5.00 |
Richfield. Mrs. Uri Oviatt, $5; Mrs. Sylvester Townsend, $2.50 | 7.50 |
Steubenville. Cong. Sab. Sch., for Improvements, Tougaloo U. | 24.00 |
Strongsville. Free Cong. Ch., $6, for Tougaloo U.;—“A Friend,” $3, for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 9.00 |
Wakeman. Franklin Hale | 100.00 |
Wellington. C. F. | 1.00 |
Willoughby. Miss Mary P. Hastings, $10; Florence A. Page, $5 | 15.00 |
INDIANA, $5.50. | |
Sparta. J. H. | 0.50 |
Winchester. Mrs. John Commons | 5.00 |
ILLINOIS, $748. | |
Avon. Mrs. Celinda Woods | 5.00 |
Chesterfield. Cong. Ch. | 4.00 |
Chicago. Woman’s Miss. Soc. of Lincoln Park Ch., for Lady Missionary, Memphis, Tenn. | 17.00 |
Dundee. Cong. Ch., $8; Mrs. Wm. D., $1 | 9.00 |
Galesburg. Estate of Warren C. Willard, by Prof. T. R. Willard | 21.00 |
Galesburg. Mrs. E. T. Parker, to const. Dea. Geo. T. Holyoke L. M. | 30.00 |
Griggsville. Cong. Ch. | 37.16 |
Lyonsville. Ladies of Cong. Ch., box of household goods, for Montgomery, Ala. | |
Naperville. A. A. Smith | 5.00 |
Odell. Mrs. H. E. Dana | 10.00 |
Peoria. Chas. Fisher, for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 12.00 |
Plymouth. N. F. Burton | 5.00 |
Port Byron. A. F. Hollister | 5.00 |
Princeton. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., $14.50, for Student Aid, Fisk U.;—Mrs. P. B. Corse, $10 | 24.50 |
Rockford. Ladies of Cong. Ch., for aid of Pupils, Talladega, Ala. | 15.00 |
Sycamore. A. S. | 1.00 |
Tonica. “V. G. S.,” $5; F. A. Wood, $2.50; “A Friend,” $2.50 | 10.00 |
Tolona. Mrs. L. Haskell | 7.00 |
Waukegan. Young Ladies’ Missionary Soc., $15; Cong. Ch., $6.34 | 21.34 |
Waukegan. “Friends,”, for Freight | 1.00 |
Wheaton. First Cong. Ch. | 8.00 |
——. “A Friend,” | 500.00 |
WISCONSIN, $127.96. | |
Arena. Cong. Ch. | 5.00 |
Centre. Cong. Ch. | 2.53 |
Elk Grove. Cong. Ch. | 8.00 |
Milwaukee. Plymouth Ch. | 36.70 |
Oshkosh. Cong. Ch., $54.73; H. S. M., 50c. | 55.23 |
Shopiere. Cong. Ch. | 15.00 |
Shullsburg. Cong. Ch. | 3.50 |
Whitewater. Ladies of Cong. Ch., bbl. of C., and house furnishing goods, val. $50 Mrs. Coburn, $2, for Montgomery, Ala. | 2.00 |
IOWA, $1,175.15. | |
Ashland. Ladies’ Miss. Soc., for Tougaloo U. | 2.00 |
Big Rock. Cong. Ch. | 20.00 |
Burlington. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch., for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 25.00 |
Des Moines. Woman’s Miss. Soc. of Plymouth Cong. Ch., for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 20.00 |
Grinnell. Estate of Charles F. Dike, by Mrs. C. F. Dike, Executrix, | 1,000.00 |
Grinnell. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch. and Friends, $50, for Student Aid, Fisk U.;—Cong. Ch., $27.25 | 77.25 |
Keokuk. Will Collier. Smith Hamill, and M. Messer, $5 ea.; X. X. C., 50c., for Tougaloo U. | 15.50 |
Nevinville. Cong. Ch. | 2.40 |
Traer. Mrs. C. H. Bissel, for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 5.00 |
Waterloo. Rev. M. K. Cross | 8.00 |
KANSAS, $16.50. | |
Bavaria. A. M. | 0.50 |
Brookville. Rev. S. G. Wright | 15.00 |
Eudora. Mrs. L. R. | 1.00 |
MINNESOTA, $53.89. | |
Clear Water. Cong. Ch. | 3.01 |
Minneapolis. Plymouth Ch. | 9.68 |
Plainview. Woman’s Cent. Soc. | 7.10 |
Saint Paul. Plymouth Ch. | 20.30 |
Zumbrota. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. | 13.80[Pg 156] |
NEBRASKA, $6.50. | |
Hastings. Mrs. N. C. B. | 1.00 |
Fontanelle. “A Friend,” | 5.50 |
MISSOURI, 50c. | |
Saint Louis. C. M. J. | 0.50 |
CALIFORNIA, $299.65. | |
Los Angeles. Francis Wilson | 15.00 |
San Francisco. Receipts of the California Chinese Mission | 284.65 |
OREGON, $1.55. | |
Astoria. First Cong. Ch. | 1.55 |
KENTUCKY, $5.05. | |
Berea. Cong. Ch. | 4.55 |
Germantown. H. N. | 0.50 |
TENNESSEE, $153.15. | |
Memphis. Le Moyne Sch. | 153.15 |
NORTH CAROLINA, $133.24. | |
Raleigh. Washington Sch. | 35.80 |
Wilmington. Normal Sch., $93.70; First Cong. Ch., $3.74 | 97.44 |
SOUTH CAROLINA, $271.75 | |
Charleston. Avery Inst. | 271.75 |
GEORGIA, $581.71. | |
Atlanta. Storrs Sch., $259.30; Atlanta University, $87 | 346.30 |
Macon. Lewis High Sch. | 50.90 |
Savannah. Beach Inst. | 184.51 |
ALABAMA, $921.81. | |
Athens. Pub. Sch. Fund, $270; Trinity Sch., $49.40 | 319.40 |
Blount Springs. J. Q. A. E. | 0.50 |
Marion. Cong. Ch. | 29.48 |
Mobile. Emerson Inst. | 204.50 |
Montgomery. Swayne Sch. | 175.00 |
Selma. Cong. Ch. | 5.10 |
Talladega. Talladega College $174.28;—Governor Parsons, for Aid of Pupils, Talladega, Ala., $13.55 | 187.33 |
LOUISIANA, $138.75. | |
New Orleans. Straight University | 138.75 |
MISSISSIPPI, $35.55. | |
Tougaloo. Tougaloo University | 35.55 |
TEXAS, $3. | |
Brenham. Individuals, by Mrs. I. Howells, $2; D. C., $1 | 3.00 |
NOVA SCOTIA, $10. | |
Yarmouth. Yarmouth Tabernacle Missionary Asso., for Student Aid, Fisk U. | 10.00 |
SANDWICH ISLANDS, $1,000. | |
“A Friend” | 1.000.00 |
TURKEY, $10. | |
Van. Dr. G. C. Reynolds and Wife | 10.00 |
INCOME FUND, $311.74. | |
General Fund | 311.74 |
——— | |
Total | 11,904.68 |
Total from Oct. 1st to March 31st | $77,638.09 |
H. W. HUBBARD,
Ass’t Treas.
RECEIVED FOR DEBT. | |
Hanover, N. H. Dartmouth College Ch. | $50.00 |
Cromwell, Ct. M. G. Savage | 13.00 |
New Haven, Ct. Centre Ch. | 25.00 |
West Hartford, Ct. Charles Boswell | 250.00 |
Crown Point, N. Y. Mrs. George Page | 25.00 |
Madison, Ohio. Mrs. J. G. Fraser | 3.00 |
Northville, Mich. D. Pomeroy | 5.00 |
Saint Louis, Mo. Miss C. M. Janes | 5.00 |
Woodville, Ga. St. Phillip’s Soc., $2; Band of Hope, $2.25 | 4.25 |
Tougaloo, Miss. Tougaloo University | 50.00 |
——— | |
Total | 430.25 |
Previously acknowledged in Feb. receipts | 24,488.97 |
——— | |
Total | $24,919.22 |
RECEIPTS OF THE CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION. | |
E. PALACHE, Treasurer. | |
From Dec. 20th, 1878, to March 20th, 1879. | |
1. From auxiliaries: | |
Petaluma Chinese Mission—(for room) | $65.00 |
Sacramento Chinese Mission—(12 Annual Memberships) | 24.00 |
Santa Barbara Chinese Mission—(4 Annual Memberships: Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., $2; N. W. Winton, $2; Mrs. C. E. Huse, $2; Wong Ah Yon, $2) | 8.00 |
—— | 2.00 |
Collection Annual Meeting | 2.50 |
Chinese Pupils | 18.00 |
Stockton Chinese Mission—Mrs. M. C. Brown | 4.00 |
Brown | 4.00 |
Chinese Pupils | 2.50 |
——— | |
Total | 126.00 |
2. From churches: | |
Oakland—First Cong. Ch. | 36.15 |
Sacramento—First Cong. Ch. | 7.00 |
San Francisco—First Cong. Ch. | 49.50 |
San Francisco—Bethany Ch., I. C. H. | 2.00 |
——— | |
Total | 94.65 |
3. From individuals: | |
Pescadero—Rev. W. C. Merritt | 2.00 |
San Francisco—Rev. J. Rowell | 20.00 |
Sonoma—“A Thank Offering” | 10.00 |
——— | |
Total | 32.00 |
4. From Eastern Friends: | |
Bangor, Me.—Unknown, by Rev. G. W. Field, D. D., for Barnes’ Mission House | 12.00 |
Auburn, Mass.—Cong. Sab. Sch., by Horace Hobbs, for Barnes’ Mission House | 20.00 |
——— | |
Total | 32.00 |
——— | |
Grand Total | $284.65 |
FOR TILLOTSON COLLEGIATE AND NORMAL INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS. | |
Cambridge, Vt. Madison Safford | $25.00 |
Groton, Mass. Mrs. Elizabeth Farnsworth | 20.00 |
Haverhill, Mass. Gyles Merrill and Wife | 50.00 |
Westfield, Mass. Miss E. B. Dickinson | 100.00 |
Hartford, Conn. D. H. Wells, to const. himself L. M. | 50.00 |
Oriskany Falls, N. Y. Joseph C. Griggs | 24.00 |
Union Springs, N. Y. Mrs. Mary H. Thomas | 10.00 |
West Farms, N. Y. Daniel Mapes | 100.00 |
Painesville, Ohio. Mrs. Reuben Hitchcock | 100.00 |
——— | |
Total | 479.00 |
Previously acknowledged in Feb. receipts | 1,627.17 |
——— | |
Total | $2,106.17[Pg 157] |
INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.
Art. I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”
Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and to diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.
Art. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may by constituted life members without the privilege of voting.
Art. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September, October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the Executive Committee.
Art. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.
Art. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less than twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory, and the Treasurer ex-officio, members.
Art. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.
The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.
Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting business.
Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.
Art. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.
Art. X. No amendment shall be made in this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting: nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous.
To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America, and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.
Churches: In the South—In Va. 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 12; Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 13; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 5. Africa, 1. Among the Indians, 1. Total 66.
Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.—Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8. Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 11. Other Schools, 18. Total 37.
Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 231; among the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 17; in Africa, 14. Total, 279. Students—In Theology, 88; Law, 17; in College Course, 106; in other studies, 7,018. Total, 7,229. Scholars, taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 100,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.
1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work in the South. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the strong.
2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses, for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.
3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.
Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office, as below.
New York | H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street. |
Boston | Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Room 21, Congregational House. |
Chicago | Rev. Jas. Powell, 112 West Washington Street. |
This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.
Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following
“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars in trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.”
The Will should be attested by three witnesses [in some States three are required—in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.
73,620 MORE
Singer Sewing Machines Sold in 1878
Than in any previous year.
In | 1870 | we | sold | 127,833 | Sewing | Machines, |
“ | 1878 | “ | “ | 356,432 | “ | “ |
Our sales have increased enormously every year through the whole period of “hard times.”
We now Sell Three-quarters of all the Sewing Machines sold in the World.
For the accommodation of the Public we have 1,500 subordinate offices in the United States and Canada, and 3,000 offices in the Old World and South America.
PRICES GREATLY REDUCED.
Waste no money on “cheap” counterfeits. Send for our handsomely Illustrated Price List.
THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
Principal Office, 34 Union Square, New York.
Established A. D. 1850.
THE
MANHATTAN
Life Insurance Co.,
156 Broadway, New York,
HAS PAID
$7,400,000
DEATH
CLAIMS.
HAS PAID
$4,900,000
Returned Premiums to
Policy-Holders.
HAS A SURPLUS OF
$1,700,000
OVER
LIABILITIES
EXAMINE THE PLANS AND RATES OF THIS COMPANY.
HENRY STOKES, President. |
C. Y. WEMPLE, |
Vice-President. |
J. L. HALSEY, |
Secretary. |
S. N. STEBBINS, |
Actuary. |
H. Y. WEMPLE, |
H. B. STOKES, |
Assistant Secretaries. |
Brown Bros. & Co.
BANKERS,
59 & 61 Wall Street, New York,
211 Chestnut St., Philadelphia,
66 State Street, Boston.
Issue Commercial Credits, make Cable transfers of Money between this Country and England, and buy and sell Bills of exchange on Great Britain and Ireland.
They also issue, against cash deposited, or satisfactory guarantee of repayment,
Circular Credits for Travellers,
In DOLLARS for use in the United States and adjacent countries, and in POUNDS STERLING, for use in any part of the world.[Pg 160]
A. S. BARNES & CO.
PUBLISH THE ONLY
SONGS FOR THE SANCTUARY.
THE HYMN AND TUNE BOOK which stands the test. Revised and enlarged. Prices greatly reduced. Editions for every want. For Samples (loaned without charge) and Terms address the Publishers.
LYMAN ABBOTT’S
Commentary on the New Testament
Illustrated and Popular, giving the latest views of the best Biblical Scholars on all disputed points.
A concise, strong and faithful Exposition in (8) eight volumes, octavo.
AGENTS WANTED IN EVERY LOCALITY.
Gospel Temperance Hymnal.
EDITED BY
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D.D. and Rev E. S. LORENZ.
Endorsed by FRANCIS MURPHY, and used exclusively in his meetings.
This is the first practicable Collection of Hymns and Tunes abounding in vigorous Pieces adapted to the Gospel Temperance Movement. It is also the best Book for Church Prayer Meetings.
Price 35 cts. post-paid. Special Rates by the quantity.
DON’T FAIL TO EXAMINE AT ONCE.
A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers,
New York and Chicago.
N. TIBBALS & SONS,
37 Park Row, New York.
30 YEARS IN THE BOOK BUSINESS.
We endeavor to get every valuable work in every department of Biblical and Theological Literature. For example: We have 400 different works on Bible Evidences, from Augustine down; 100 on Bible Interpretation; 150 on Homiletics; 200 on Lectures to the Young and Lectures to Children; also on Prayers, Baptism, Prophecy, Church History, etc., etc.
Sunday-School Libraries a Specialty.
Send for particulars.
UNFERMENTED WINE.
Pure Juice of the Grape; no Alcohol; tested for years; received International Medal. T. H. JOHNSON, New Brunswick, N. J. National Temperance Society, 58 Reade St., N.Y.; Congregational and Baptist Publication Societies, Boston and Philadelphia.
“IMPORTANT TO CLERGYMEN.”
Prince’s Improved Fountain Pen.
As now improved, saves one third the time.
“If I were bereft of it, I should feel myself bereft of my right hand.”—Rev. Lyman Abbott, Ed. Ch. Union.
Can be sent by mail in a registered letter. Send for circulars. Manufactured by
JOHN S. PURDY,
212 Broadway, Cor. Fulton St., New York.
DUDLEY’S PATENT
DIAGONAL
ROAD SCRAPER
IS THE BEST.
Weighs but 50 lbs., has Steel Cutter Plate, can be worked square or at any desired angle, and is rapidly superseding all others where it is known.
A Few of Many Testimonials of its Value:
“Works in rough or smooth ground. No one who has used it will be without it.”—M. Bartholomew & Sons, Goshen, Ct.
“Select-men of the Town of Litchfield, Ct., say: It is the best Scraper ever invented, and cheerfully recommend it to all interested in Roads, as calculated materially to lessen the expense of making and repairing the same.”
“Is twice as good as you represent it. With same labor will do two or three times as much as any scraper I ever saw. Answers our fullest expectations.”—H. Tucker, of Rockville.
“Leaves a road in better shape, and is easier for man and team than any scraper I ever saw.”—J. S. Kinney, Washington. Send for circular,
S. H. DUDLEY,
Bantam Falls, Litchfield County, Ct.
The Book of Psalms.
ARRANGED FOR RESPONSIVE READING IN SABBATH SCHOOLS, CHURCHES OR FAMILY WORSHIP.
The current version is strictly followed, the only peculiarity being the arrangement according to the Original Parallelisms, for convenience in responsive reading. Two sizes. Prices: 32mo, Limp Cloth, 30 cts. per copy, $25 per 100; 16mo, Cloth, 70 cts. per copy, $56 per 100. Sent post-paid on receipt of price.
TAINTOR BROTHERS, MERRILL & CO., Publishers,
758 Broadway, New York.
Meneely & Kimberly,
BELL FOUNDERS, TROY, N. Y.
Manufacture a superior quality of BELLS.
Special attention given to
CHURCH BELLS.
Catalogues sent free to parties needing bells.
BUY THE BEST GOODS
BOGLE & LYLES,
Nos. 87 & 89 Park Place ... NEW YORK,
Dealers in
CHOICE CANNED FRUITS
VEGETABLES, POTTED MEATS, ETC.,
Sole Agents for
RICHARDSON & ROBBINS’
Extra Yellow Peaches.
CRAMPTON’S
PURE OLD
PALM SOAP.
For the Laundry,
The Kitchen,
AND FOR
General Household Purposes.
MANUFACTURED BY
CRAMPTON BROTHERS,
Cor. Monroe & Jefferson Sts., N. Y.
Send for Circular and Price List.
MANUFACTURERS OF
Table Cutlery
Of every Description, with
Rosewood, Ebony, Bone, Rubber, Ivory, Celluloid, Pearl and Silver-plated Handles.
The Celluloid Handle,
(of which we are the exclusive makers), is the equal of Ivory in beauty, when new, and surpasses it in durability and appearance in use.
POCKET CUTLERY & PLATED FORKS & SPOONS.
All goods bearing our NAME are fully guaranteed.
MERIDEN CUTLERY CO.,
49 Chambers St., New York.
Mason & Hamlin Cabinet Organs.
Demonstrated best by HIGHEST HONORS AT ALL WORLD’S EXPOSITIONS FOR TWELVE YEARS; viz: at Paris, 1867; Vienna, 1873; Santiago, 1875; Philadelphia, 1876; Two Highest Medals at Paris 1878 and Grand Swedish Gold Medal, 1878. Only American Organs ever awarded highest honors at any. Sold for cash or installments. Illustrated Catalogues with new styles and prices, free. MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN CO., BOSTON, NEW YORK, or CHICAGO.
9000 SUNDAY-SCHOOL MUSIC BOOKS AT LESS THAN COST Owing to Removal and Discontinuing Publishing, we will sell our entire stock of Sunday-School Music Books at the following prices:—SONGS OF GRACE AND GLORY, Boards, $15 per 100. ECHOES FROM ZION, Boards, $10. SABBATH-SCHOOL BELL, DIADEM, HEAVENLY ECHOES, CHRISTIAN MELODIST, and CHORAL HARP, Paper, $4, Boards $6. REVIVAL HYMN AND TUNE BOOK, Paper, $2, Boards. $4. DAY SCHOOL BELL, Paper, $6, Boards. $10. Postage—Paper, 2c., Boards, 4c. Sheet Music at 1c. per page. ORGANS for SUNDAY-SCHOOLS, $35 and $40, 5 Stops. $45, 7 do $50, 9 do $55 & $60, 11 do $65, 12 do $70, 13 do $80, Cash. Not used a year, as good as new. PIANOS at prices equally low. Warranted 6 years. Send for CATALOGUES. HORACE WATERS & SONS, 40 East 14th St., N. Y.
THE FAMOUS
VIENNA COFFEE POT.
From the Vienna and Philadelphia Exhibitions. Imported only by
E. D. BASSFORD,
Housefurnishing, Hardware, China, Class, Cutlery
AND SILVERWARE STORES,
Nos. 1 to 17 COOPER INSTITUTE, New York.
HOW TO OBTAIN THE MISSIONARY.
Enclose Fifty Cents for your subscription (or One Dollar for two years, or for yourself and some friend), to H. W. Hubbard, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York.
If a Life Member or Pastor or S. S. Superintendent of a contributing church, or an annual contributor of $5 or more to the A. M. A., order it sent to you on that ground.
Keep us informed of your changes of address, etc.
HOW TO READ THE MISSIONARY.
In these busy days few people read anything all through; but you can do better than to open at random, read a page and lay aside. 1. Read the Editorial paragraphs for the latest aspects of our work. 2. Read the titles of longer Editorials and Contributions to see if they contain anything you want. 3. Read through at least the one which attracts you most. 4. The General Notes furnish a summary of facts, opinions, legislation, discussion, and progress concerning the three races of our care, such as you will not find elsewhere. 5. Glance over headings of Letters from the Field, and you will be sure to find something you will want to know more about.
HOW TO CIRCULATE THE MISSIONARY.
Mark something which interests you in it, and lend it to your neighbor.
Read or refer to a fact gleaned from it in your Prayer Meeting or Monthly Concert.
Secure subscriptions for it in your church or community. We will send you a list of present subscribers in your town to work from, if you request it.
HOW TO PRESERVE THE MISSIONARY.
It is often useful for reference. The December number contains minutes of the Annual Meeting. The February number has our list of workers. Friends from contributing Churches come to the office for information, which, nine times out of ten, is pointed out to them in a recent Missionary.
To preserve and bind them, punch two holes near the back and three inches from top and bottom, through which put a string and tie behind; open and add as the monthly numbers come to you. This makes a simple, cheap, flexible and effective binding, and is not patented.
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT.
We invite special attention to this department, of which our low rates and large circulation make its pages specially valuable. Our readers are among the best in the country, having an established character for integrity and thrift that constitutes them valued customers in all departments of business.
To Advertisers using display type and cuts, who are accustomed to the “RULES” of the best Newspapers, requiring “DOUBLE RATES” for these “LUXURIES,” our wide pages, fine paper, and superior printing, with no extra charge for cuts, are advantages readily appreciated, and which add greatly to the appearance and effect of business announcements.
Gratified with the substantial success of this department, we solicit orders from all who have unexceptionable wares to advertise.
Advertisements must be received by the TENTH of the month, in order to secure insertion in the following number. All communications in relation to advertising should be addressed to
J. H. DENISON, Adv’g Agent,
56 Reade Street, New York.
Our friends who are interested in the Advertising Department
of the “American Missionary” can aid us in this respect by
mentioning, when ordering goods, that they saw them advertised in
our Magazine.
DAVID H. GILDERSLEEVE, Printer, 101 Chambers Street, New York.
Obvious punctuation errors corrected. Repeated text implied by spacing or ditto marks in tables have been replaced by the text they represent, to ensure clarity regardless of the screen shape on which the ebook is read.
“tilth” corrected to “filth” on page 142. (the filth of slavery)
Replaced missing “U” on page 155. (Unadilla under Michigan)