The American Missionary

NEW YORK.

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

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

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

PRESIDENT.

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

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

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

TREASURER.

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

AUDITORS.

M. F. Reading. Wm. A. Nash.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

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

DISTRICT SECRETARIES

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

Rev. James Powell, Chicago.

COMMUNICATIONS

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

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

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

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

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

THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

We place before our readers in this issue of our magazine a considerable number of communications on the subject of temperance. We believe, our missionaries are in the best possible position to reach not only the children but adults, and to train them in habits of virtue and sobriety. We have from the first put great stress on the importance of abstinence from the use of alcoholic drinks and tobacco, and the encouraging reports given herewith indicate the success we have achieved. We publish also a concert exercise relating chiefly to temperance work in the missions of the A. M. A. It is our purpose to issue this in an eight-page circular which will contain the recitations in full, and the words and music of the Jubilee song known as Rise and Shine. The circular will be illustrated with cuts. Further particulars are given in connection with the concert exercise on another page.

BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.

It has become an axiom in missionary work that no race can be lifted out of ignorance and degradation except as its women are elevated. One of the marked features of this age in mission work is the clearness with which this is seen and the enthusiastic and successful efforts put forth by the noble women of the churches in this behalf. It is not merely the money which these efforts bring to the missionary societies, but the zeal for the conversion of the world infused by them into the church and the home. The Christian mother catches the enthusiasm, and the children feel its inspiration. Missionary education becomes the life-work in the family.

The American Missionary Association has from the outset realized the indispensable need of the elevation of woman in its work in the South, among the Indians, and, as far as possible, among the Chinese at the West.[130] Its workers, largely women, have been specially adapted to it. The lady teachers have reached not merely the girls in their schools, but the mothers in their homes. The lady missionaries have labored for the purification of the home through direct visits, in mothers’ meetings, in industrial work taught to the girls, in the Sunday-school, and in temperance work. We have become so impressed with the importance and success of this part of our work that we are constrained to give it a broader basis and a more thorough organization. Our aim is not only to do more work for woman, but to give the Christian ladies of the North and West more full information as to the way in which they can co-operate with us. We wish to show that not only in varied ways, but with small sums of money they can reach the women for whom we labor.

To attain these results the Executive Committee of the A. M. A. has organized a Bureau of Woman’s Work. The object is:

1. To give information to the ladies in the churches of the variety of work now sustained by the Association, and to assist in devising plans of help.

2. To promote correspondence with churches, Sabbath-schools, missionary societies, or individuals, who will undertake work of a special character, such as the support of missionaries, aiding of students, supplying clothing, furnishing goods, and meeting other wants on mission ground.

3. To send to the Churches, Conferences or Associations desiring it some of our experienced and intelligent lady missionaries, who can address them giving fuller details of our methods.

We believe that such a Bureau will meet a felt want and be welcomed by the earnest Christian women of the country. The selection of the head of the Bureau will be made and announced soon, and in the meantime inquiries can be addressed to Bureau of Woman’s Work, American Missionary Association, 56 Reade street, New York.

The Mozart Society of Fisk University tendered a complimentary concert to the members of the Tennessee Legislature. The invitation was accepted; and on the evening of March 15, the members with their ladies, and other friends to the number of three or four hundred, filled the University chapel. The concert was excellent, and the guests were deeply impressed. Complimentary speeches were made at the close by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate; and both houses afterwards passed a resolution of thanks. One member sought an introduction to President Cravath after the concert, saying, “This evening marks an era in my life. You have converted me on the negro question.” Much credit is due to the Mozart Society and to Prof. Spence for the manner in which the whole entertainment was rendered.

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At our last annual meeting, held in Cleveland, a committee was appointed to report amendments to the Constitution of this Association. The Committee consisted of Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, Rev. G. M. Boynton, A. L. Williston, Esq., Rev. W. T. Eustis, D.D., Rev. A. H. Plumb, D.D., of Mass., Austin Abbott, Esq., John H. Washburn, Esq., of New York, Jacob L. Halsey, of New Jersey, Rev. L. W. Bacon, D.D., Rev. L. T. Chamberlain, D.D., of Conn., Rev. C. T. Collins, of Ohio, Rev. A. H. Ross, of Mich., Rev. F. A. Noble, D.D., of Illinois. Feb. 21, the above Committee met at the rooms of this Association, all the members being present except Drs. Noble and Chamberlain, who were detained by sickness in their households.

After protracted discussion and the earnest advocacy of various views, the Committee unanimously agreed to report a draft of a Constitution, which we give elsewhere in this number of the Missionary. The Committee will submit the Proposed Constitution to the different State Conferences and Associations for action in accordance with the instructions given at the annual meeting.

GENERAL NOTES.

AFRICA.

—There is thought of founding at Natal an industrial and agricultural school for the natives.

—Efforts are being made for the erection of a machine for the manufacture of fire-water at Bailunda, West Central Africa. Christians! which shall the poor negro have first, strong drink or the gospel?

—The missionaries of the Livingstone Inland Mission have multiplied their stations along the lower Congo. Invited by several chiefs along the left bank of the river, they have founded one at Kimorie, another upon the same river and on the other side of the Loukoungou.

—Mr. C. Gregory has started to explore the regions east of Abyssinia. From Khartoum he went up upon the Abyssinian plateau, from whence he descended toward the territory inhabited by the Afars and traversed by the Gualima and the Melli rivers, flowing from the Haowasch.

—A society has been established at London under the title of the Congo and Central African Company, with a capital of 250,000 livres sterling, to traffic along the western side of Africa, especially upon the Congo, using the road constructed by Stanley.

—A letter from Cairo announces that Mr. Wissmann had arrived in that city the first of January. Between the lake Moucambe and Nyangoué, he passed through the territory of a tribe of dwarf negroes. From lake Tanganyika to Zanzibar, his journey was made without great difficulty, owing to the aid given by Mirambo.

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THE CHINESE.

—The Methodist Episcopal Church has founded a university at Japan, through the liberality of Rev. Mr. Goucher, of Baltimore. The Theological Seminary has been removed from Yokohama to Tokio, and incorporated with it.

—The Presbyterian Board is about to open a new mission in China, in the province of Shautung. It will be located at Wei Hein, a city midway between Tsinan and Tungchon. There will be three laborers. There are now forty missionaries of all denominations in the province, among a population of 30,000,000.

—An Anti-Opium Prayer Union has been formed in Great Britain, of which the members residing in different parts covenant to pray at least once a week, on Thursdays, for the overthrow of the appalling and accursed opium trade in China and elsewhere.

—Of the Chinese students at Yale ordered home two years ago, Mum Yew Chung, who was coxswain of the crew of 1881, is in the office of the United States Consul-General at Shanghai; Wong is in partnership with Spencer Laisim, of the class of 1879, they having opened a translating agency; Chang, of the class of ’83, is at leisure, and desirous of returning to America; and Low, of the class of ’84, is married to a daughter of a merchant prince, and is likely to attain official honors. Tsoy Sin Kee is also married.

THE INDIANS.

—The rightful residents of the Indian Territory have forwarded to Washington a list of 2,400 names of intruders.

—Martin B. Lewis, a missionary of the Sunday-School Union, writes that on a recent Sunday at the Sisseton Reservation, half of the children at the Sunday-school came without shoes, their feet being sewed up in cloth; yet they were happy. A woman walked four and a half miles when the mercury was ten degrees below zero to make arrangements about organizing a school at her house. She had been five years in a family of eight without hearing a sermon or a prayer, and asserted that she could no longer live as a heathen.

BENEFACTIONS.

The will of Mr. Peter Ballentine contains a bequest of $5,000 to Rutgers College.

Alida V. R. Constable bequeathed $4,000 to Union Theological Seminary, New York.

Miss Mary Blake, of Kingston, N.H., has made a bequest of $10,000 to Tufts College.

Mr. A. E. Kent, of San Francisco, a member of the class of ’53, has given $60,000 to Yale College.

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Mr. Henry Winkley has added $10,000 to his previous gifts to Andover Theological Seminary, making $60,000 in all.

Hon. Frederick Billings, of Woodstock, Vt., has given $75,000 to Vermont University for a library building.

The late S. L. Crocker, of Taunton, Mass., bequeathed $5,000 to Brown University to endow a scholarship to be called “Caroline Crocker.”

By the will of the late Henry Seybert, the University of Pennsylvania is to receive $120,000 for the endowment of a chair of mental and moral philosophy and the endowment of a ward in the wing for chronic diseases.

The Committee on Education and Labor made a unanimous report last winter to Congress that the people of the Southern States are absolutely unable to provide the means necessary for sustaining sufficient public schools without assistance. The A. M. A. has long recognized this fact. Endowments for its schools and others similar to them, whose object is to raise up Christian teachers, would assure assistance of the most helpful and enduring character.

ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENTS.

Berea College, Berea, Ky.—Baccalaureate Sermon, June 17; examination and anniversary exercises, June 14 to 20; Commencement, June 20.

Hampton N. and A. Institute. Hampton, Va.—Examinations will be conducted May 21, 22, 23; Trustees’ Meeting, Wednesday, the 23d, and Anniversary, Thursday, the 24th.

Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.—The annual examinations will be conducted by the State Board of Examiners, June 11, 12, 13; Commencement, June 14.

Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.—Baccalaureate Sermon, May 20; examinations, May 21, 22, 23; Commencement exercises, May 24.

Tougaloo University, Tougaloo, Miss.—Baccalaureate Sermon, May 27; examinations and Commencement exercises through the week.

Straight University, New Orleans, La.—Baccalaureate Sermon, Sunday, May 27; Anniversary of Alumni, May 28; Commencement exercises, May 29.

Talladega College, Talladega, Ala.—Baccalaureate Sermon by President H. S. DeForest, D.D., Sunday morning, May 27; missionary sermon, Sunday evening; examinations, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; address by Rev. C. L. Woodworth, of Boston, Wednesday afternoon; closing exercises, Thursday.

Howard University, Washington, D.C.—The Theological Department will hold its Anniversary in the Fourth Presbyterian church on Ninth street, on Friday evening, May 4, when seven young men will graduate and make addresses, and will be addressed by Rev. William A. Bartlett, D.D.

Le Moyne School, Memphis, Tenn.—Sermon, Sunday, May 20; Anniversary exercises, May 22, 23 and 24.

Avery Institute, Charleston, S.C.—Sermon, Sunday, June 24, by Rev. A. G. Townsend, class of ’72; Monday, June 25, Children’s Day; Wednesday, June 27, Address by Rev. C. C. Scott, class of ’72; Friday, June 29, Graduating exercises.

Beach Institute, Savannah, Ga.—Sermon, Sunday, May 27; Anniversary exercises from May 23 to May 30.

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Storrs School, Atlanta, Ga.—Examinations, June 12 and 13; Exhibition, Friday night, June 15.

Wilmington, N.C.—Examinations, May 24, 25 and 28; closing exercises, Tuesday evening, May 29.

Brewer Normal School, Greenwood, S.C.—Examinations, June 25, 26 and 27; closing exercises, Thursday, June 28.

Emerson Institute, Mobile, Ala.—Examinations, May 8, 9, 10, 11; public oral examinations, May 23, 24, 25; closing exhibition, Friday evening, May 25.

Lewis High School, Macon, Ga.—Annual Address to the students by Rev. J. W. Burke, of Macon, Tuesday evening, May 29; closing exhibition, Thursday afternoon, May 31; closing concert, Thursday evening, May 31.

ALABAMA CONFERENCE.

BY PRES. H. S. DE FOREST, D.D.

The Cong. S. S. Association held its fourth, and the State Conference its eighth, annual meeting in the chapel at Talladega from the 23d to the 28th of March. This body, hereafter to be known as the Congregational Association of Alabama, numbers thirteen Churches, two in the northern part of the State being associated with the Central South Conference of Tennessee. Seven of these fifteen Alabama churches have grown out of Talladega College. Naturally the desire to see the mother church was strong, and more than eighty delegates and guests were in attendance. From beyond the State, we had Supt. Roy, Rev. A. E. Dunning of Boston and Mrs. A. S. Steele of Chattanooga, to each of whom the Conference is indebted for efficient help. Sec. Dunning, the first of all our society secretaries to visit the body, preached a sermon before the Sunday-school Association good enough and fervid enough to direct much of the thought of the four days that followed. His theme was “The Holy Ghost the Source of Power,” and while much in these meetings was delightful, nothing gave such hallowed experiences or left such tender memories as the manifest presence of God. Some thought they were breathing a revival atmosphere, and one, it is hoped, who took that occasion to visit a daughter in college, will regard Talladega as the Damascus gate. Other sermons were by Rev. R. C. Bedford of Montgomery, by Rev. O. D. Crawford of Mobile, before the sacrament, and by Dr. Roy at the ordination of Rev. J. R. Sims of Shelby Iron Works, one of the sons of this theological department and Church. These sermons were spoken and not read. The aim of the preachers was evidently to do good on the spot and at that time. There was little talk about the new light, but a profound conviction that in these dark places there is need of the light of the Gospel. The programme had been prepared with a practical intent. Different phases of the Sunday-school work took the strength of the first day. One evening was given to the Sunday-school and Publishing Society and the American Missionary Association, when the speakers were Sec. Dunning and Dr. Roy. Another evening was devoted to missions, home and foreign. The addresses were by Rev. A. W. Curtis and Rev. C. B. Curtis, who have a brother in the foreign field, and one of whom was a home missionary before coming South.

Such themes as Giving and Worship, Through what Societies—not less than seven it was claimed, Is our Worship too Formal and Unimpassioned, Temperance Economy and Industrial Education, were well presented and discussed. Prof. Ellis read a very suggestive paper on the Reciprocal Relation of the College to the Churches of Alabama. The recommendations of this paper were indorsed by special resolutions, and it is evident that Talladega College, first and foremost[135] among the schools open to Freedmen in Alabama, was never more strongly intrenched in the love of the brethren than now. Two hundred and ninety pupils have been in attendance during the last year, and new buildings and appliances are called for. Many and tender references were made to Prof. Andrews, temporarily absent from ill-health, and he was a dull observer who could attend these meetings, look upon these ministers, delegates, students and graduates of the College, hear their words and drink their spirit, and not feel that work in these reconstructing States is as heroic, as hopeful, as imperative as any done in the great vineyard of the Lord.

LOUISIANA ASSOCIATION.

Annual Meeting at New Iberia, La.

BY REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.

This is the seventh annual meeting of this association I have attended, and I am glad to be able to say that for sustained interest, for vigorous thought expressed in the discussions, and for wise planning for the future, the meeting of this year outranks the previous ones. This is as it should be. It shows a degree of study and fidelity on the part of the ministers which promises well for the churches.

We are always glad to come to this beautiful Teche country. These broad prairies are fertile as a garden. The soil is so easy of cultivation, and yields such abundant harvests, and its market value is so low, that it is within the power of every industrious man to be a “proprietor of the soil,” and to own his homestead. That is what the colored people are doing in this garden district of the State, and it tells upon the character of the people and the respect which they claim from the community.

It has been a year of quiet growth in most of the churches. Central Church of New Orleans reports the largest accession, 46, of whom 40 came on profession of faith—the ingathering of the revival of last winter. Some of the churches have been repaired and beautified; debts have been paid off, or greatly reduced; disturbing elements have been eliminated, and the way opened for a larger and more healthful growth in the coming year.

One new church has been organized at Belle Place, near New Iberia, and by the timely help of the A. M. A. will soon put up a tasteful chapel, and will become, we hope, the center of religious influence for a large colored population. Mr. Samson, the white planter, encourages the enterprise by kind words and generous donations.

There are other open doors which we should enter at once. We can hear the word of command: “Go up and possess the land.” How much good a little financial aid would do just now in the beginning of church enterprises, which, by God’s help, would grow into important centers of good for the race.

I believe so thoroughly in the comity of churches, that where the field is already occupied by other churches, and vigorously cultivated by them, and the religious needs of the people are met, I would not favor the establishment of another church, though its creed and polity were more to our inclination. But the field is so broad, and the destitution so great, that there is room for the expenditure of the largest sympathy and the most vigorous effort toward church enlargement. This missionary spirit was felt by the Association, and the session of most tender interest was the last, when the broad subject of missions was presented by eight speakers selected by the business committee. The meeting had a glow to it that was refreshing. Every one seemed to catch the inspiration and to respond heartily to it.

Our field agent, Dr. Roy, always welcome, and always charged with just the[136] message which these churches and brethren need, brought to us again this year, vigorous words, wise counsels, and the kindest, most sympathetic spirit. Our association would hardly seem complete without him.

Thus another year of effort, of struggle and of self-denial for Christ, has left its record upon the churches, and has, we trust, made a record in heaven, which we shall be willing to meet.

CONCERT EXERCISE.

[This Concert Exercise will be enlarged and published in separate form, and supplied gratuitously to any who may wish it for concert purposes, on application to Rev. G. D. Pike, 56 Reade street, New York.]

TEMPERANCE WORK IN MISSIONS OF A. M. A.

Singing. “Dare to do right. Dare to be true.”

Responsive Readings.

Leader. “Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.” Lev. 10:9.

Girls. And the angel of the Lord said to the mother of Sampson: “Thou shalt bear a son. Beware and drink not wine nor strong drink; for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God to the day of his death.” Judges 13:3, 4, 7.

Boys. “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab, the son of Rachab, our father, commanded us, saying, ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons forever.” Jer. 35:6.

Leader. “It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink.” Prov. 31:4.

Girls. “Lest they drink and forget law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.” Prov. 31:5.

Boys. “Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness.” Eccl. 10:17.

Leader. “They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.” Isa. 24:9.

Girls. “For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.” Prov. 23:21.

Boys. “Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” I Cor. 6:10.

Leader. “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babblings? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?” Prov. 23:29.

Girls. “They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” Prov. 23:30.

Boys. “At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” Prov. 23:32.

Leader. “But now I have written unto you, not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard; with such a one, no, not to eat.” I Cor. 5:11.

Girls. “Restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Gal. 6:1.

Boys. “Young men likewise, exhort to be sober minded.” Titus 2:6.

Leader. “And every man that striveth for the mastery, is temperate in all things.” I Cor. 9:25.

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Girls. “Therefore let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” I Thes. 5:6.

Boys. “For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night.” I Thes. 5:7.

Leader. “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31.

Prayer.

Singing.

POSITION SUSTAINED BY A. M. A.

Leader. What has been the attitude of the American Missionary Association since its organization in 1846 on the temperance question?

Girls. It has always taken a decided stand against the use and the sale of intoxicating drink.

Boys. Its missionaries have been instructed to advocate the cause of temperance, and to organize societies to promote total abstinence from the use of alcoholic drink.

Leader. Does the Association assist missionaries, or students, who refuse to abstain from the use of ardent spirits?

Girls. It is the rule of the Society in its work among the Indians, the Chinese in America, and the Negroes at the South, to employ only those who have good habits and settled convictions on all moral subjects, including that of temperance.

Boys. In its collegiate and normal schools, where there are large numbers of boarding students, all are required to observe habits of total abstinence.

TEMPERANCE WORK AMONG INDIANS.

Leader. Have the Indians been subject to peculiar temptations to intemperance?

Girls. Yes. On many of the reservations, our agents complain that whiskey is a great curse. At the Leech Lake Agency, six Indians were killed in drunken quarrels among themselves in six months.

Boys. Rev. Myron Eells, of Washington Territory, says he convicted quite a number of persons for selling liquor to the Indians, which aroused the fierce opposition of the whiskey ring, which had done its utmost to prevent his success.

Leader. What has resulted from efforts for their reformation?

Girls. So much was accomplished by Rev. Mr. Spees and his wife at Red Lake, that not a drunken Indian had been seen for many weeks.

Boys. At the Skokomish Agency, about 130 Indians took the temperance pledge. Since then those who came under the influence of the missionary abandoned the use of strong drink. The opposition, however, by the liquor sellers was such that they burned seven Indian houses by way of retaliation.

Leader. Do Indian youth readily accept temperance principles when brought into the training schools of the Association?

Girls. They do. Those brought to Hampton by Capt. Pratt gave up their tobacco and whiskey during the first year, held prayer meetings together, and pursued the industrial occupations required by the school without serious objection.

Boys. At the Green Bay Agency, within a few years, a great work has been done in the way of temperance reform, so that Mr. Wheeler, the missionary on the ground, says that a more temperate community of its size cannot probably be found in the State of Wisconsin.

Singing.

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Address on the Work of the Association among Indians.

[See April American Missionary for 1883.]

TEMPERANCE WORK AMONG THE CHINESE.

Leader. Are the Chinese on the Pacific Coast exposed to temptations to intemperance?

Girls. Gen. C. H. Howard, writing from Sacramento, says: At their groceries, liquors are always to be found. The older persons have a prevalent habit of constantly smoking opium when in from their work.

Boys. The increase of traffic in opium in the United States has been very great during the past twenty years, which is no doubt partly accounted for from the presence of the Chinese.

Leader. Do Christian influences make the Chinamen better?

Girls. At an annual festival in Sacramento, a converted Chinaman said of the converts among his countrymen: “Oh yes, all much better men, do not steal, do not gamble, do not do any bad, no opium, some not even smoke cigars. We can tell, all other Chinamen watch Christian Chinamen. When he is converted and believes truth, it makes him good inside. He don’t want to go wrong anymore. If all Chinamen be Christians then no more trouble about ‘must go.’”

Boys. Among the 2,567 Chinese students in the schools of the American Missionary Association last year, religious work was very encouraging. About one in ten of those who came under the influence of the society are converted. These abandon their evil habits as readily as converts among other races.

Recitation. By a little girl. “Washee Washee.”

[See January Missionary, 1883.]

TEMPERANCE WORK AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH.

Leader. Are temptations to intemperance common among the colored people?

Girls. Yes. More so now, than in the days of slavery. When slaves, it was not for the interest of their masters to furnish them strong drink as a beverage, and the Negroes had but little opportunity or money to purchase it for themselves.

Boys. They now have the privilege of working for wages, and most of the grocery stores as well as the saloons keep liquor, and are glad to get the Negro’s money for it.

Leader. Are there not laws in the different Southern States, prohibiting the sale of intoxicating drinks to minors and to drunken persons?

Girls. There are in quite a number of those States, but these laws are not often enforced.

Boys. In some States they have local option laws in which the counties can vote prohibition, and when temperance measures are carried it is largely the result of Negro votes.

Leader. Has the American Missionary Association found an open door for temperance work in its missions South?

Girls. It has. Some years the pupils in attendance have numbered 40,000, among whom were persons of all ages.

Boys. Not unfrequently the enthusiasm for establishing temperance societies has been very great. Middle-aged and gray-haired men and women have eagerly sought to enter the Bands of Hope established by the children, and when admitted have been lifted up from their vices and advanced in sobriety and usefulness.

Leader. Can you give some statements relating to the work in particular missions?

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Girls. At Talladega, Ala., they have a Union Temperance Society, which holds monthly meetings full of interest. All the Sunday-school and all the College students are members. They keep the work lively among all their mission schools.

Boys. At Marion, Ala., there is a regular temperance catechising in the day-school against rum and tobacco, also in three mission Sunday-schools. For several weeks before Christmas, mass meetings are held in different churches, at which addresses are made on the subject.

Leader. Are the churches of the Association committed to the cause of temperance?

Girls. They are. Many of the churches have distinctive rules, requiring abstinence from the use as a beverage of intoxicating drinks, and forbidding the selling of such.

Boys. The churches and conferences of the Association are practically temperance societies. They hold temperance as an article of their faith and undertake to exercise discipline on that principle.

Leader. Are they peculiar in their treatment of the subject of temperance?

Girls. They differ from many churches South in this particular. A pastor in Savannah writes: “No one can tell the importance of these Congregational organizations here except those on the ground. Our church has taken an open bold stand against liquor drinking and liquor traffic. Our little temperance society has become a power in the city and surrounding country. It has provoked others to good works. Two other societies have been organized in the city and one at Belmont.”

Boys. At Childersburg, Ala., Rev. A. Jones had his church burned after giving a temperance lecture, but instead of surrendering, his people have rallied and they are building better than before.

Leader. What has been the success of the work for temperance in the Sunday-schools of the Association?

Girls. Among the 7,000 scholars in the Sunday-schools, a very encouraging work has been carried on year by year. Bands of Hope have been organized and temperance gatherings held and pledges signed by a very large number of children.

Boys. Mr. Curtis writes from Alabama as follows: “Temperance at Anniston booming. The whole country thoroughly aroused. Temperance taught in the Sunday-school. Band of Hope meetings, temperance prayer-meetings and mass meetings with lectures and discussions.”

Leader. Do those who go forth from the schools of the Association to teach and preach promote the cause of temperance?

Girls. They do. Over 150 who were converted to the cause of temperance while at Tougaloo, Miss., signed the pledge and did temperance work in connection with the teaching in the common schools, and in various other ways.

Boys. During a single year the total number of signers to the pledge obtained by the students connected with one of the institutions of the Association was 1,300. The teachers sent forth from the normal classes exert great influence, not only in the schools where they give instruction, but also among their friends and neighbors in the localities where they carry on their work.

Singing.

Recitation by a little girl. “Question of Color.”

[See American Missionary for October, 1882.]

Address on Temperance Work of the A. M. A.

[See American Missionary, May, 1883.]

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THINGS NEEDFUL.

Leader. What is needful in order that the American Missionary Association may succeed in its great work among the Indians, Chinese and Negroes?

Girls. Above all things it is desirable that those in its schools should give their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that they may have a great teacher and helper to guide and assist them in all their efforts for the practice of Christian virtues.

Boys. They need also a larger number of well educated missionaries to go among them to instruct and encourage them in all that pertains to right living.

Leader. What two things can all those who have taken a part in this Concert Exercise do to assist the American Missionary Association?

Girls. Every one can pray that the Lord will send forth laborers and pour out his Holy Spirit upon the schools and churches established for the Indians, Chinese and Negroes in America.

Boys. Each one can contribute money for the support of missionaries and to help those who are studying to become teachers and ministers among three great races represented in the work of the Association.

Recitation by boy. “Missionary Music.”

[See American Missionary, Feb., 1883.]

Singing. Jubilee Song, “Rise and Shine.”

Collection.

Prayer.

Benediction.

TEMPERANCE WORK IN CHURCHES.

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

Our Churches, Conferences and Associations are practically temperance societies. Many of the churches have distinctive rules requiring abstinence from the use as a beverage, and from the selling, of intoxicating drinks. As new churches are organized they are more and more inclined to start with a special, stringent rule. Other churches interpret, as requiring the same, the common law of their covenant, by which the members “promise to walk with the disciples in love, and denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” All hold temperance as an article of their faith, expect to have it faithfully preached in their pulpits, and undertake to exercise discipline on that principle.

In connection with many of our churches, Bands of Hope were early organized; and these have done great good in bringing up the rising generation in the way of sobriety. Some of these have shown great effectiveness and great tenacity of existence. Some have gained property and have become permanent fountains of blessing.

In the old times the master’s will was a prohibitory law to his slaves. When that law was repealed, to many liberty seemed to imply freedom to drink as much whiskey as they pleased. Experience has been teaching them better. The means used for their moral elevation have taken effect upon the prevalence of this habit. But still liquor drinking is the devil’s best hold upon this people. And so perpetual vigilance is required to meet these satanic wiles, even within the precincts of the church. But our pastors have been faithful, and the churches have been ready to respond to right principle in the execution of discipline. In a rice-swamp region, where the whiskey shops seem to be the regular attendants of the old-time churches, standing hard by the same and finding the Sabbaths their best[142] days of business, our church there has no such an annex, for it furnishes no such patronage.

In North Carolina, during the great canvass for prohibition in that State, one of our pastors was surprised to find laxity in principle and practice among his members on this subject. He took hold of the matter vigorously. Church meetings were held. Discussion ran high until stringent rules were enacted and the members brought into line to vote for the prohibitory law. When that election came off and the mass of the colored people shamefully joined with the enemy and voted against the constitutional inhibition, our pastors and churches were firm and solid on the right side—our pastor at the Capital being on the State Executive Committee along with the first citizens of the State and doing valiant service at home and afield for the reform.

Our Conferences and Associations, at their annual meetings, have temperance almost as a standing subject for discussions and for public meetings. An evening is often spent in ten-minute addresses. In these the laymen prove very effective speakers. These bodies are diligent in urging upon the churches fidelity as to the preaching, practice and discipline upon the subject of temperance.

HINDRANCES.

BY REV. DANA SHERRILL, SAVANNAH, GA.

The hindrance occasioned by intemperance in connection with our work, in church and school, differs only in intensity from similar evil found elsewhere. The social and spiritual atmosphere is depressing to our work, because of drinking habits. Total abstainers number less than ten per cent. of our population, all colors. A well-informed colored man assures me that not one in a hundred among men between 18 and 45 years of age are, in his judgment, total abstainers. Of arrests by our city police during the year 1882, 1,460 were for offenses usually arising more or less directly from drink, against 538 for all other crimes and 536 for drunkenness only. Drinking on our field is not yet driven to the dramshops, but is common in homes. A father is known to drink every day in the presence of his children. His name is Legion. The shops are closed in many country places hereaway where there is little total abstinence. The demijohn is all-present. The way-trains out of our city are whiskey trains. Of fourteen men in a car with your missionary recently, twelve drank spirits from one to four times in an hour.

At present the great majority of influential people are not only not total abstainers, but by example and often by precept teach our colored people, who naturally pattern after the ruling class, that drinking is the correct thing. This is a sample hindrance. A promising convert was found to be giving intoxicating drink to wife and children. When remonstrance was made he asked: “How can it be wrong when my employer, a good church member, makes me pass it to his guests every day?” It is needless to say that he is still outside the church.

Here the general church opinion does not demand total abstinence; in fact, rebels against such a doctrine. Until very recently the ministers of our colored churches in no case known to me would be able to enforce anything like total abstinence however earnestly they might desire so to do. This, then, is the atmosphere in which your agents and a very small but earnest band of fellow-helpers are attempting to build churches and schools demanding total abstinence. An ignorant, but careful mother, said only a few days since: “I don’t know but I must leave my church and come over to you, there is no other temperance church here.” This[143] after one of our usual monthly total abstinence meetings, and she added as reason, “I never knew drunkards could not go to heaven before.” Standing, then, as our church has, as the only religious society refusing continued membership to drinking men and women, and that in the presence of the spirit and customs named, it is not strange that we have been opposed by the uninstructed as interfering with their liberties, and righteous over much. One at least of our small churches finds the “social unions” and similar societies, which are very numerous, almost breaking up their Sabbath service once each month. The charm in these society meetings is the wine provided.

THE TEMPERANCE OUTLOOK AT MEMPHIS.

BY PROF. A. J. STEELE.

“It was in evidence to-day that Marianna’s place was going full blast all day Sunday last, and that it was crowded with men and boys, some of them not more than twelve years old, shooting dice and playing cards. The specific charges against him were keeping house open, selling liquor on that day, and allowing minors to gamble.”

The above item, taken from a late daily paper of this city, may serve to introduce my observations in the matter of temperance—or rather of intemperance—for the ten years of my life at Memphis. The place above referred to is prominently located, rather to one side of the business portion of the city, and almost literally within the very shadows of two of the largest colored churches of the city. If there exists now in Memphis any distinctively temperance organization other than the W. C. T. U. and the Band of Hope of Le Moyne Institute, I can find nothing of it. If the churches speak with other than very uncertain tones on the subject, when they speak at all, I am not aware of it. I know of but one church, the Second Congregational, that makes abstinence a condition of membership. I know of many whose members may and do drink steadily, sometimes to drunkenness, unmolested. If there is any practical or emphatic or systematic teaching in Sunday-schools in general on the subject, I have not known of it. Strangely enough, our strongest, most effective temperance sentiment and teaching comes through the courts, and through business men and interests, where in the majority of cases no moral responsibility or solicitude is felt or expressed in the matter in question.

The legal argument and phase of the subject is the one that most readily finds a hearing and a following here; this was recently shown by the marked interest manifested in several able addresses given on the subject by Mrs. Foster, the lawyer-temperance advocate of Iowa. In the South, at all events, there is no doubt as to the right or power of legislative bodies and courts to deal with the matter. By a curious mistake some years since the General Assembly of Tennessee passed a law known as the “Four Mile Law,” which prohibits the sale of liquor within four miles of any chartered institution of learning. It was supposed that the law would be of only local force, but it so happened that the State Constitution declared that any general act of the Legislature must be of general application throughout the State. Hence in time we came to realize that we had a very effective prohibitory law, or what amounted to that. To the everlasting honor of our courts it must be said that this and such other temperance legislation as we have is fearlessly enforced and under very severe penalties in such cases as are presented for trial.

This is, to say the least, a very anomalous condition of affairs. I account for it in two ways, chiefly from the fact that in general the liquor interests of the South[144] are poorly organized and consolidated for any purposes of opposition or defense; and secondly, in communities where the formative process is largely going on—(and be assured the new South will not be the old)—especially in all questions of public import, the heroic is oftener resorted to than is just common or fashionable in a more settled state of society. There is less allowing of quibbles and more coming straight to the end in view. So stringently have the courts applied these laws that there are several counties in East Tennessee where no liquor is now sold.

In this county many country liquor stores have been run out, a fine of $150 being not unusual for a first offense in violation of law; this was the fine inflicted in the instance at the head of this letter. In general the newspapers cast their influence on the right side; usually edited by men of position and at least of local importance, their influence is not small. In Memphis the W. C. T. U. is the strong moral force for temperance work and influence. Concerning our own work, Colman’s Temperance text book, is regularly used and taught in the school, and almost invariably our students go out earnest believers in, and workers for, temperance, accomplishing no small amount of good among their people, who almost universally suppose liquor necessary to laborers and indispensable to free men, and therefore drink as much of it as can be obtained.

TEMPERANCE IN TEXAS.

BY PRES. WM. E. BROOKS, TILLOTSON INSTITUTE.

It may be said with truth, I think, that the strongest temperance element in the State of Texas to-day is among the colored people. I am informed that where they are in the majority, and they have an opportunity to express themselves, they vote for prohibition. There are exceptions. They are very apt to be North or South. If we can believe Milton, there was one in heaven once. The excepting member, however, found it to his advantage to leave, if I remember correctly. They say he came to earth. We must not wonder, therefore, if he has some slight following among the colored people on the whiskey question; but if they had the say, they would largely be for prohibition.

Take it here at Tillotson, we have a large and flourishing society, the members of which are pledged to total abstinence from the use of intoxicating drinks, and of tobacco. This pledge was adopted more than a year ago, after a prolonged discussion, but nearly all the students are now enthusiastic members of the society. The meetings are held on the third Sabbath evening of each month. They are full of interest and well attended. But this, like all good things, is the result of effort. A committee, appointed for this purpose, has at each meeting a well-filled programme. The more advanced students have essays upon some phase of the temperance work; others read articles bearing on the special subject before the meeting. Thus, at one time, the object is to make manifest the ill effect of rum and tobacco upon the human system; at another the cost; the whole interspersed with appropriate music, reading the Scripture and prayer. In this way there is variety, increase of light, and the building up of a strong, because intelligent, opposition to intemperance. And all this is under the direction of the students. Of course the faculty is present, to do or say any thing that may be helpful, but the real work is done by the students, and these meetings are not only full of interest but reflect great credit on those that have them in charge.

We are thus training up a noble band of young men and women, whose influence is sure to be felt far and wide, and to become a great and, I trust, controlling power in Texas, especially among the colored people. This is our aim, and that our hope shall be realized, we are confident, since God is in the work.

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Thus it can be seen that the great rising tide of temperance, which is sweeping over the North and Northwest, is making itself felt here. Not strongly yet, but there is an underswell, a movement among the more thoughtful, a shrinking back from the wasting, impoverishing curse of strong drink, and from the filth and fume of tobacco, which indicates, more clearly than words can, that the day is close at hand, when the question of temperance, even of prohibition, will become a living, and (may we not hope?) a life-saving and a life-imparting issue here in this great, grand, empire State.

TOUGALOO AND TEMPERANCE.

BY REV. A. HATCH, TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.

Within the last four or five years, the temperance question has in one form or another been brought before the people of Mississippi with some prominence. The revised code is emphatic in the following points: the sale of vinous or spirituous liquor is forbidden except under a license, at least two hundred dollars; the sale to minors is strictly prohibited under severe penalties; the sale of liquor on Sunday is made unlawful, as also is the keeping open on that day of the bar or place where liquors are sold. Two years ago a State temperance convention was called at Jackson. This was an intelligent body of men representing nearly every county in the state. It adjourned without accomplishing a great deal, but the animus of the body was strongly in favor of a constitutional prohibitory amendment. Being an initiative movement, however, on the ground of expediency the final action was conservative.

As everywhere, the liquor men are active and shrewd, gaining over to their side many an ignorant and unwary voter. Their strong point of influence with the colored people is connected with the attachment of the latter to the free public school system. No institution is more fondly cherished by any class of people in our land than the free school system of the South by the negro race. The State constitution provides that “all moneys received for licenses granted for the sale of intoxicating liquor” shall be applied toward a common school fund. The schools, indeed, are in large part supported by this means. Liquor men accordingly put the case thus: Prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquor in this State and you cut off the support of the common schools.

In one county in the State the sale of intoxicating drinks is entirely prohibited by the local authorities, and there is at least one town outside of that county under a like restraint. At the present time there is very little doing for the cause throughout the State. It does not as yet enter into the sphere of politics, unless prospectively in slight degree. Nothing is seen in the leading papers relative to the subject as a matter of State interest. Occasionally we hear of a lecturer speaking for the cause, or rarely of some local movement in the way of organized effort.

The foregoing is believed to be a fair representation of the public mind and movement in relation to the subject. In general the colored people are easily influenced in favor of temperance. They are ready for the work as grain for the harvest.

There is need of the most earnest work. Of the 876 convicts in the State penitentiary, according to the last official report, 782 are colored persons, and it is estimated that four-fifths of these committed their crimes under the influence of liquor. This fact in the criminal list is a sure index of what is generally prevalent. Intemperance is alarmingly widespread among the colored people in Mississippi. The habit, too, is fixed within the churches of this people to a shocking extent. Church membership is no sort of guarantee that an individual is not habitually intemperate, even to the degree of drunkenness. When we consider all this and[146] the terrible, degrading influence resting over the children and youth, the need of specifically temperance work seems almost equal to that of Christian education.

What has been done in this direction by Tougaloo University through its teachers, we take great pride and satisfaction in looking over and summing up. During the past five years this institution has been represented in temperance work in the State by no less than 150 different individuals converted to the cause while here, and becoming themselves signers of the pledge to total abstinence. These have done their temperance work in connection with the teaching of children in the common schools, and many of them in various fields. The little army has thus been able to reach a very great number of children and parents and homes. Their work was very direct. They taught the principles of temperance, and had their total abstinence pledge for young and old to sign. Nor was this all. All of these workers felt the necessity of exercising from year to year as they returned to their old places, or as circumstances made it possible, a watchful care over those induced to sign. One year the total number of signers obtained by our students was not less than 1,300. But this does not include the whole of the work done. Many of our students not as yet teachers have been energetic in their efforts to bring the subject to the attention of friends and neighbors where they have lived and to win these over to the cause, often gaining a greater influence and success than many who worked as teachers.

NEGRO CABINS.

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“HIGHER LAW” AND INDIVIDUAL RIGHT ON OUR SIDE.

BY REV. E. T. HOOKER, CHARLESTON.

South Carolina has the license system, with the local option attachment. One-third of the voters in any municipality may require the question of prohibition to be submitted to the people, and a majority prohibits. But the legislature last winter went further than this, and in a truly paternal manner “exempted” certain towns from the necessity of a majority for prohibition, and gave it to a large but defeated minority. As the State power is now in the hands of the white Democrats, it may be inferred from this action what their temperance sentiments are, in those towns and in the Legislature. It was a jewel of consistency also in those who now “make no bones” of confessing, that a minority “had to” take the government from the (colored) majority a few years ago. It was the summum jus made legal in spite of republican principles—and was opposed on that ground by some—which is perhaps symptomatic of certain peculiarities of the South Carolina people, that have not always pleased the rest of the country so well. But we will not quarrel with them this time.

Also the tendency is to make licenses high and higher. They cost $225 in Charleston, and it has been proposed to raise the figure thirty per cent.

A daily reader of the News and Courier is almost constantly seeing instances, noticed with approval, of the success of the local option law, with such headings as “Greenville doesn’t want any in her’s.” “Sumter will go dry.” And to-day’s paper, March 21, states that “the W. C. T. U. has induced several of the teachers in Spartanburg, [where are the school board? We are a free country down here, after all.] to introduce text books on temperance. The cause is having a boom in S.

Mrs. L. Chapin, of Charleston, is President of the Union; and not long ago they held a busy and thronged session of days, in the hall of our aristocratic military company in this city. The delegates from abroad were not wined, but dined and fêted, shown the harbor and the forts by our city worthies, all with great cordiality and éclat. More recently still, Hibernian Hall has been twice filled, as seldom for any political cause, once to hear Miss F. E. Willard, and, since her visit, Mrs. Foster. Messrs. Stearns and Mead are coming next week from a busy campaign south and west of us, to hold two meetings in two of the largest colored churches, and will have big crowds.

Nearly every grocery in Charleston is also a liquor store; but few keep bars; and the saloons proper are not numerous. This shows that most of the drinking is in a domestic and quiet way, and not on an empty stomach, standing up. Beer is not sold in such large proportion as in Northern cities, but distilled or fermented liquors, and beer carts are not absent. There is yet a “smart chance” of illicit distilling in the up-country, and of unlicensed selling in the backwoods.

On public days not much intoxication is visible. Christmas, also observed with heathen fire crackers, is the day of greatest indulgence in firewater, especially among the blacks. But it is said that the colored men very seldom become drunkards. Their drinking is occasional rather than habitual, and when intoxicated they are not combative, but weak and nerveless, or garrulous; while the up-country man (white), when in liquor, with or without his pistol, is bellicose in the extreme.

An incident is in place here, which may be called the last spark of light in the morally dark closing hours of the late House of Representatives at Washington. It relates to both the colored race here and the temperance interest.

Sam Lee, a colored man, of good character it may be inferred, partly from the[148] fact that the News and Courier has not loaded him with obloquy, true or false, had been for two years contesting the seat occupied by one Richardson, who, it was voted in the last hours of that dubious session, was not the choice of his district, but Lee was. The long-pending whiskey bill, virtually giving millions from the United States Treasury to the lobby, who had pushed it through the Senate, was the next thing on the calendar. A formality remained to be accomplished giving Lee actual possession of his seat and pay. Over this the Democrats were filibustering, when the whiskey lobby offered Lee $15,000 to withdraw his claim and permit their bill to come on, which they had reason to expect would pass. But, no! He would stand for his right and the right, and thus did more good for the temperance cause in his few moments of legal, but unpaid, membership of the House, than possibly he might have done in a long session, for that or any other cause. The fact is worth preserving, to the praise of a mighty Providence, that used that Sabbath morning to defeat one grand move of Satan, and by means of a colored man from South Carolina, sticking to a right which he would not exchange for whiskey money.

NOTES AT THE ALABAMA STATE SUNDAY-SCHOOL CONVENTION, MARCH 23.

BY REV. A. W. CURTIS, MARION.

At Alabama Furnace, there is much interest on temperance in the Sunday-School, and frequent talks on the subject in church.

Mobile. Temperance organization growing, also the sentiment against the use of tobacco.

Shelby Iron Works. Temperance society doing well. Whiskey has been driven out of the beat for nearly a year.

The Cove. There is a temperance society of 46 members. The children have turned their backs on strong drink, tobacco and snuff.

King’s Chapel has a temperance society of 34 members, and is struggling against whiskey, but so many love it that the fight goes hard.

Childersburg. Rev. A. Jones had his church burned after giving a temperance lecture, but instead of surrendering, his people have rallied and they are building better than before.

At Lawson, the pastor has preached against liquor drinking, but can do very little to stay the tide. There is a vast deal of drunkenness. Men will buy whiskey first, meat and bread afterwards if there is money enough for both.

At Marion, there is a regular temperance catechising in the day-school against rum and tobacco, also in the three mission Sunday-schools, frequent preaching on the subject, and mass meetings alternating at the different churches for free discussion for some weeks before Christmas.

Montgomery. Doing thorough work in temperance, especially in the Sunday-school, using the Careful Builders and other literature of Dr. Cook’s temperance library. The same is true of Selma where they are also putting in strong licks for temperance in the Burrell day-school. Here, too, temperance concerts and recitations are frequent.

Talladega. Their Union Temperance Society holds monthly meetings full of interest. All of the Sunday-school and all the college students are members, many of the students going out into the neighboring beats to lecture. They keep the work lively among all their mission schools. Next August comes the test vote for prohibition.

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TEMPERANCE AMONG OUR CHINESE.

REV. W. C. POND.

The Chinese have never patronized to any appreciable extent the saloons of California. It is shrewdly suspected that this is the very front of their offending. If the money these laborers earned went into the tills of our liquor dealers, the conventions these liquor dealers so largely control would look at the laborers themselves with different eyes. But a Chinaman asked to drink replies (so the story goes): “Me no drinkee whiskee. Make one Chinaman allee same Melican, No. 1 fool.”

HOODLUMS AT STREET CORNER, SAN FRANCISCO

I think, however, that American civilization is at last making itself felt among our Chinese, for I believe that I have passed, in this city, one small saloon where a Chinaman stood behind the bar, and some of his countrymen in front of it. I never saw a Chinaman drunk, though I have heard that the sight might be seen. But this, too, is recent, and my impression of the aversion to intoxicating drinks, as a national characteristic, was, till lately, so strong, that for many years I had nothing to say to our Christian Chinese on the subject, except as it came up incidentally[150] in the course of Bible study. It is within a year that it came to my knowledge that a stimulating and slightly intoxicating drink, which they call in English, wine, is made from rice, and used among them more or less at banquets, though not, I think, at ordinary meals. The discovery of this fact, and that even our most advanced and reliable Christians were not total abstainers, has led us to preach among them this gospel also. It has been readily accepted. The duty, under our circumstances, of total abstinence seems to be understood, and duty understood becomes, I believe, with these brethren, unquestioned law.

Respecting opium, the voice of the mission has from the first been clear, positive and unmistakable. I cannot claim that we have reached many who had become addicted to this vice; indeed, I cannot now recall one among those whom I have baptized who had used the drug enough to make it hard to do without it. Generally I have been told that they have never used it at all. It ought perhaps to be a shame to us that we have not reached and rescued slaves to this vice. Certainly, if any door should open by which an effectual work of this sort could be set forward, it ought to be entered upon with intensest zeal. But the most that we have seen it possible to do thus far has been to pledge all who come into our Congregational Association of Christian Chinese, not to gamble and not to use opium. These are the items of external conduct upon which special emphasis is laid. A brother overtaken in either of these faults would be dealt with at once in a discipline, the chief danger of which would be that it might be too prompt and too severe: a zeal to make the protest of the brotherhood against the sin decisive and unmistakable preventing due patience and long suffering in the effort to “restore” and “gain” the erring one.

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

SEQUEL TO TED’S TEMPERANCE SOCIETY.

BY MRS. THOS. N. CHASE.

Now, children, I shouldn’t a bit wonder if some of you remember a story about Ted’s Temperance Society written for the Children’s Page a year ago. If you have the Missionary for June, 1882, just read it again, then you will enjoy this story better. Ted, you remember, was a real live Atlanta boy, ten years old, who got his school-mates to come to his home to sign a pledge. Ted’s mother often helped him in making the children who came fully understand what a solemn thing they were doing. She read the pledge very slowly to each. Then she had them sign their names on a little card, and some other child must put down another name underneath as a witness. This was all there was to the Society, so simple and easy that any child could do it, no bands, badges, banners or prizes, yet they were so interested that they came in scores to enroll their names, and the best of all was, that many who signed seemed to catch Ted’s missionary zeal, and became centres of little circles which they drew into Ted’s home, to help swell the noble army marching against the cruel old despots, tobacco and whiskey.

One little fellow, who had brought many before, came one day with an overgrown girl of fifteen, and finding several new boys in the house ready to take the pledge, he felt the dignity of the situation and tried to help Ted’s mother in her little sermon by shouting: “Now, boys, this is a good thing if you only mean to keep it, but it don’t do to put your name down here for a form or a fashion.”

I recently met dashing little Susie Hall. I knew her as one of the head centres of those temperance circles. How her black eyes danced as she told me of her[151] contempt for mince-pies, egg-nog, etc. Few Southern cooks know how to make mince-pies without brandy. I asked Susie who gave her the egg-nog she told me of refusing so bravely. “Oh, ma cooks for white folks and we lives in the yard, and on Christmas the white lady called me to scrape out the bowl, but I couldn’t touch it.”

I have just come in from a visit to the Gate City Grammar School, an eight room city school for colored children, all the teachers being former students of Atlanta University. I noticed upon the wall of each room, as soon as I entered a sheet of fools-cap with names written upon it. For a border it had the beautiful rainbow pasting which the children in the Storrs Kindergarten make. As the brilliant setting of those names caught my eye, I supposed it was some roll of honor, and so it was, but it seemed to me an enrollment of honor far greater than that given for perfection in scholarship or school deportment. This is the heading. “We, the undersigned, do promise not to drink, or ask others to drink, any wine, cider, whiskey, beer, egg-nog, or anything that can intoxicate, from this day, Dec. 18, 1882, to Feb. 1, 1883.” From Dec. 18, to Feb. 1, is only six weeks to be sure, so this is only a bridge-pledge to bridge over that awful chasm which yawns and buries so many during those fearful days of the old and new year when we honor the birthday of the Christ-child, and which ought to be the purest of all the year. If the children get safely through these feasting days of egg-nog, brandy-peaches, and syllabubs, they are pretty safe the rest of the year.

Ted’s Society has a growing mission. I take courage as I think of Hale’s beautiful story, “Ten Times One is Ten,” and see how easily these children can carry on a grand temperance work, and

RECEIPTS FOR MARCH, 1883.

H. W. HUBBARD, Treas.,

56 Reade St., N.Y.

PROPOSED CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

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 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. Members may be constituted for life by the payment of thirty dollars into the treasury of the Association, with the written declaration at the time or times of payment that the sum is to be applied to constitute a designated person a life member; and such membership shall begin sixty days after the payment shall have been completed.

Every church which has within a year contributed to the funds of the Association and every State Conference or Association of such churches may appoint two delegates to the Annual Meeting of the Association; such delegates, duly attested by credentials, shall be members of the Association for the year for which they were thus appointed.

Art. IV. The Annual Meeting of the Association shall be held in the month of October or November, at such time and place as may be designated by the Executive Committee, by notice printed in the official publication of the Association for the preceding month.

Art. V. The officers of the Association shall be a President, five Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding Secretary or Secretaries, a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, Auditors, and an Executive Committee of fifteen members, all of whom shall be elected by ballot.

At the first Annual Meeting after the adoption of this Constitution, five members of the Executive Committee shall be elected for the term of one year, five for two years and five for three years, and at each subsequent Annual Meeting, five members shall be elected for the full term of three years, and such others as shall be required to fill vacancies.

Art. VI. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds, the appointing, counseling, sustaining and dismissing of missionaries and agents, and the selection of missionary fields. They shall have authority to fill all vacancies in office occurring between the Annual Meetings; to apply to any Legislature for acts of incorporation, or conferring corporate power; to make provision when necessary for disabled missionaries and for the widows and children of deceased missionaries, and in general to transact all such business as usually appertains to the Executive Committees of missionary and other benevolent societies. The acts of the Committee shall be subject to the revision of the Annual Meeting.

Five members of the Committee constitute a quorum for transacting business.

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Art. VII. No person shall be made an officer of this Association who is not a member of some evangelical church.

Art. VIII. Missionary bodies and churches or individuals may appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

Art. IX. No amendment shall be made to this Constitution except by the vote of two-thirds of the members present at an Annual Meeting, the amendment having been approved by the vote of a majority at the previous Annual Meeting.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious printer’s punctuation errors and omissions silently corrected. Period spellings and author’s grammar have been retained. Inconsistent hyphenation retained due to the multiplicity of authors. The following printer’s errors were corrected.

Changed “intoxcating” to “intoxicating” on page 142 (was found to be giving intoxicating drink).

An unclosed quote on page 147 is left unclosed, as it is uncertain where the close quote should be (“the W. C. T. U. has induced).

Changed “discusssion” to “discussion” on page 148 (for free discussion).

Changed “Fragance” to “Fragrance” on page 157 (Beauty and Fragrance).