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Title: The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 10, October, 1885
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 10, October, 1885" ***
by Cornell University Digital Collections.)
The American Missionary,
OCTOBER, 1885.
VOL. XXXIX
No. 10.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
* * * * *
EDITORIAL PAGE.
THE FIGURES--FINANCIAL 269
ANNUAL MEETING 270
THE SILENT SOUTH 271
SALE OF BULLETS 272
THE NEW EDUCATION IN THE NEW SOUTH 273
PHILADELPHIA INSTITUTE 274
OBITUARY NOTICE OF PROF. W. L. GORDON 275
MISSIONARY STEAMER 276
ADDRESS BY DR. E. S. ATWOOD 277
EXTRACT FROM GEORGIA PAPER 283
THE SOUTH.
ONE OF THE DEACONS 284
JELLICO, TENN.--AMONG THE CHURCHES IN MAINE 286
THE REASON WHY 287
THE CHINESE.
HOW WE TRAIN THE CHINESE FOR PREACHING 288
CHINESE VIEW OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY 290
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
ILLINOIS WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION 291
CHILDREN'S PAGE.
SHOEBLACK JIM 292
RECEIPTS 292
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL. D., Mass.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.
Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D. D., Mass.
Rev. D. O. MEARS, D. D., Mass.
_Corresponding Secretary._
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
_Assistant Corresponding Secretary._
Rev. JAMES POWELL, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
_Treasurer._
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
_Auditors._
W. H. ROGERS,
PETER McCARTEE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A. S. BARNES,
J. R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
A. P. FOSTER.
_For Two Years._
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_For One Year._
J. E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J. L. WITHROW,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D. D., _21 Cong'l House, Boston_.
Rev. J. E. ROY, D. D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago_.
Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON, _Financial Secretary for Indian Missions_.
Rev. C. J. RYDER, _Field Superintendent_.
_Bureau of Woman's Work._
_Secretary_, Miss D. E. EMERSON, _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
* * * * *
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE A. M. A.
The Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held with the First Congregational Church, Madison, Wis.,
beginning Tuesday, Oct. 27, and closing Thursday evening, Oct. 29.
The sermon will be preached by the Rev. Reuen Thomas, Ph. D., of
Brookline, Mass., on Tuesday evening, at 7:30 o'clock, to be followed by
the Communion service. George W. Cable, Esq., of New Orleans, and Gen.
Joshua L. Chamberlain, of Maine, have promised to be present and address
the meeting.
The people of Madison will cordially welcome to their homes the
officers, members, delegates and friends of the Association who may
attend this meeting. Applications for hospitality should be sent to _F.
J. Lamb_, Esq., Madison, Wis., before Oct. 10. Applicants will receive
cards of introduction to families in which they will be entertained.
Persons who have notified the Committee of their intention to attend the
meeting, but who afterward decide not to attend, will please notify the
Committee at once of the change of purpose.
Negotiations are in progress to secure reduced railroad fare for those
attending the meeting, due notice of which will be given in the
religious papers.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
VOL. XXXIX. OCTOBER, 1885. NO. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
$365,000
NEEDED FOR THE CURRENT YEAR.
* * * * *
Your Committee are convinced, that not less than a THOUSAND DOLLARS a
day are imperatively demanded, to perfect the admirably organized, plans
of the Association, even for the present, to say nothing of the pressing
needs of the early future.--
[FINANCE COMMITTEE'S REPORT ADOPTED BY ANNUAL MEETING AT SALEM.]
* * * * *
THE FIGURES.
Donations. Legacies. Totals.
Oct. 1, 1884, to Aug. 31, 1885-$183,654.91 $37,651.83 $221,306.74
Oct. 1, 1883, to Aug. 31, 1884- 177,382.21 40,558.18 217,940.39
---------- ---------- -----------
Inc. $6,272.70 Dec.$2,906.35 Inc.$3,366.35
* * * * *
The published receipts in this MISSIONARY bring us to the end of August.
There was a slight gain as compared with last year, but not enough to
materially alter the threatening aspects of a heavy debt. With the
receipts of September our Treasurer will close his books for the year.
As we are obliged to have the matter for our magazine in the hands of
the printer before the middle of the month, we are not able at this
writing to forecast what the result of the rally to obviate a debt may
be. We remain firm in the conviction that our friends have the ability
to prevent the debt, and that if they are roused to a sense of the
necessity of its prevention, they will do it. We have endeavored to be
faithful in keeping them informed of our needs. Many of them have
responded with great liberality and some of them at great sacrifice. We
thank them with all our heart. We wish we could spare them the pain of
reading our continuous appeals, because we know it leads them to ask if
they ought not to do more. This they ought not to do, but the fact that
there are so many who have done nothing and so many who have done
little, who might do more, and that if we are compelled to have a debt,
and so to see our work suffer injury, it will be because of failure on
the part of those who ought to help us--it is this fact that urges us,
with a pressure we cannot resist, to keep on crying out for relief.
By the time this number of the MISSIONARY is in the hands of its
readers, there will still be left a few days of the month of September.
In those few days what is lacking can be supplied. Let next Sunday be a
red-letter day in the number of churches that wheel into line, and place
themselves upon record as having during the year made a contribution to
the American Missionary Association. We also request that church
treasurers and executors will promptly forward to our Treasurer, H. W.
Hubbard, Esq., such money as they may have on hand, and that individuals
who prefer to send their gifts directly to the treasury will remit at
their earliest convenience. If all will lend a hand, deliverance will
come. God grant that our faith may not be in vain!
* * * * *
It would be wildly unreasonable to expect that all who attend the
Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the American Board at Boston should also
come to the Thirty-ninth Anniversary of the American Missionary
Association at Madison. It is not unreasonable, however, for us to ask
that all will come who can. There are two weeks between the meetings. It
will cost in time and money, but the good to be reaped and wrought far
surpasses the cost. The Jubilee Anniversary of the dear old Mother of us
all cannot fail to be a meeting of great spiritual power. A spirit of
consecration will surely pervade it, and out of the consecration there
must be born an enthusiasm that will tell for all missionary work both
at home and abroad. Let the anniversary at Madison be an adjourned
meeting of the anniversary at Boston. Why not? They are both to be held
with a view to the same end--the Extension of Christ's Kingdom in the
World.
* * * * *
It is important that those who purpose being at Madison should be on
hand at the opening and remain to the close of all the sessions. An
annual meeting of a great missionary society is of significance and
value not only on account of the facts it brings out, but also on
account of the inspiration it awakens. You may learn the facts by
reading the reports, though even then you will not get them all, but you
cannot catch the inspiration. To reap the full benefit of a meeting you
must be in it and become a part of it. The mysterious power that God has
put into the voice and gesture of a speaker, and into the movement of
feeling that is present in an audience when, with one heart and mind, it
sits in contemplation of some great theme, cannot be reported. That
unreportable power is of priceless value in the strengthening and
development of Christian character. Go to the anniversary. Be there at
the beginning. Remain to the end. It will pay.
* * * * *
Racy and interesting, as well as strong and convincing, is the address
of Rev. Dr. E. S. Atwood, which we print elsewhere. Dr. Atwood, at our
request, represented the A. M. A. this year at the May Anniversaries in
Boston. The experiment of having the different causes presented on
Sunday in the churches, instead of during the week as heretofore, is the
explanation of the time and the occasion of this address. Those who
begin to read it will not be likely to stop until they have finished.
Its perusal will prove an excellent appetizer for the Madison meeting.
* * * * *
When George W. Cable's now famous article, "The Freedman's Case in
Equity," made its appearance in the _Century_ magazine, it proved to be
a veritable bomb-shell in the camp of the enemy. It exploded, and
immediately there went up a cry from the wounded both long and loud, and
far-extended as well, showing that the gun which threw it had been well
aimed, and that the shot was an effective one. The newspapers of the
South, with few exceptions, did not pretend to answer. They made feeble
attempts at ridicule. Mr. Cable's shot must have carried away the heads
of many of the editors, for they had surely lost them some way when they
assailed Mr. Cable so fiercely in utter disregard of what his article
really contained. If the editorials that appeared in the Southern
papers, big and little, in annihilation of Mr. Cable and his pestiferous
article could be gathered up and published, they would afford very
amusing reading.
There were, however, a few who took up "The Freedman's Case in Equity"
and set themselves to a serious and manly discussion of its positions.
Meantime, Mr. Cable has been, laughingly, no doubt, looking at "the
tempest in a teapot" which the small fry have created by their foamings
and chokings from passion, while he has also been respectfully listening
to those who have tried to meet him on the plane of fair discussion. He
has been biding his time, waiting for the fury to boil itself out and
for those who are really "foemen worthy of his steel" to speak their
minds. His time has come to be heard from again, and in the September
number of _The Century_, under the title, "The Silent South," he reviews
his reviewers in a manner most masterful, in a style most luminous and
in a spirit most kind, Christian and courteous.
We said at the time that his critics, while dealing vigorous blows, did
not have reach enough to find him. They were simply beating the air. A
perusal of "The Silent South" confirms what we said. There is actually
no need for Mr. Cable to re-argue a single point that he made in his
first paper. He is able to quote the words of his opponents in
vindication of every claim he made. He drives them back with their own
weapons. He has no occasion to defend. He is able to show at the very
start that his assailants, instead of touching him, had only gotten
themselves into trouble. To get themselves out is more than they are
likely to be able to do, for their own words and the facts are against
them.
With strange unanimity, these writers all cried out in respect to the
equities for which Mr. Cable had been pleading, "Neither race wants
them." Well, Mr. Cable retorts, where is the evidence? Bring on the
witnesses. There are two parties interested here. What right has one
party to affirm what the other party wants? Let the other party be heard
from. White men say in the press, _Neither_ race wants them, and the
very mail that brings Mr. Cable the printed statement of white men
brings him scores of letters from intelligent colored men, thanking him
over and over again for the words he had written and the stand he had
taken! The old habit of white men thinking for the slave, and planning
for the slave and speaking for the slave has not yet been broken off.
That was a civil right white men once had, but they should remember that
it is a right which has departed from them for ever. The freedman has
that right now to himself, and when white men say respecting "the
equities," "Neither race wants them," the colored man respectfully
answers back, "Gentlemen, we do our own thinking now; you are mistaken;
your old habits blind your eyes and warp your judgment; we deny that you
have any right to tell the world what we want and what we think. Mr.
Cable is right, you are wrong."
Was ever a position in controversy more triumphantly carried?
We have not space to copy this splendid article. We wish that all the
readers of the MISSIONARY might secure it. Our friends down South will
find, sooner or later, that truth and right are hard things to fight.
They had better give it up. This striking out and hitting nothing, only
to get a good, sound pummeling in return doesn't pay. It is a losing
business that were well abandoned.
* * * * *
Our readers who study the receipts of the A. M. A. as they appear every
month in the MISSIONARY, will notice this month a frequent item, "Sale
of Bullets." A good moral is pointed by what that phrase means.
Atlanta, Ga., was, during the war, a fortified city. Sherman's army in
its triumphant march to the sea occupied it. Some fighting was done in
and around the city. The leaden missiles sunk into the earth-works and
fell into the clayey soil, where they still remain in great numbers. Our
Storrs school at Atlanta needed a kindergarten attachment. We had no
money to appropriate for this worthy object, and so we said to the
missionaries, We cannot help you, but perhaps you can interest friends
to come to your relief. The plan of digging up these bullets and selling
them was hit upon. An appeal was quietly made, and as a result there
have been received $621.46. These bullets were once used by Uncle Sam's
soldiers to help save the country; resurrected from the earth, they have
been used a second time for the same purpose. When first used they
represented the gospel of force; as now used they represent the gospel
of love. Love will conquer, and in its conquest there will be neither
pain nor death. We congratulate our Atlanta workers in so successfully
turning these instruments of war into messengers of peace.
* * * * *
THE NEW EDUCATION IN THE NEW SOUTH.
Hon. A. D. Mayo, that sterling friend of education, has prepared a paper
with the above heading, embodying the results of his observations and
experiences during the past five years, as he has journeyed through
fifteen of the Southern States. He was most profoundly impressed with
the dense ignorance of the region. Of the four million white and two
million colored children and youth of school age, "not one-third can be
said to be in any effective school."
But he finds many things to encourage a hopeful outlook for the future.
The people of the South are roused to see that the children must be
educated. The native Southern stock of white people is good. The colored
people show by the advancement made that they "are in nowise a
discouraging material for the schoolmaster." Southern young women,
daughters of the best families, are becoming school teachers. He sees in
these facts omens of good.
But he feels that the problem is too great for the South to solve alone.
The North must help, and now more than ever is the time. He says:
I have no words to waste on any man or party holding off in
this emergency, on the pitiful plea that the Southern people
should be left to do this work alone. It was one thing for the
old States of the North to gradually develop their systems of
popular instruction, through a century in which they, with all
their imperfections, led the world in the general intelligence
of their people. It was a much easier problem for the new West,
out of munificent public endowments of land and a constant
stream of private beneficence from the East, with a flood of
the most vigorous young people setting in from the whole world,
to establish, in one generation, the splendid arrangements for
schooling the masses of which they are so justly proud. But,
surely, the man who demands of the Southern people, in their
present condition, the effort necessary to establish a good
country district school of six months in the year, with
suitable free elementary graded schools in the towns, and
normal instruction for teachers, in addition to the support of
the secondary, higher, professional and industrial education,
in a way to overcome the terrible illiteracy of the country in
a reasonable time, and aid in the development of intelligent
industry and the solution of the most embarrassing of race
problems, must either have a very inadequate notion of the work
to be done, or a desire to visit the offenses of the fathers on
the children.
He points out four ways in which the North can help: (1.) National aid
to elementary education. (2.) Generous donations like those of Peabody,
Slater and others. (3.) Encouragement by our best Northern educators,
and (4.) establishment of industrial schools. Speaking of donations in
money, he marks a very important condition to be observed. We wish to
give it special emphasis, because it touches a vital point and one that
the supporters of the A. M. A. need to bear in mind; it is this: "_It is
better to strengthen a good institution already on the ground than
experiment on new enterprises._ Especially should our benevolent
Northern people refuse to encourage the persistent effort of a large
portion of the Southern colored clergy and a corresponding class among
the white people to build up a church system of elementary schooling.
Already thousands of dollars are virtually thrown away in the South by
kindly people who give carelessly or yield to opportunity. Our
philanthropic people owe it to themselves and the country not only to
give, but to exercise the greatest discretion in their giving. An
endowment to any school that has really succeeded and can show the right
to exist, is always in order."
There are many peripatetic representatives, white and black, of schools
for colored people going round among our churches, pleading for money to
sustain enterprises that are simply personal ventures, and some of them
actual frauds. They tell a pitiful story. Individual gifts and church
contributions are given them, and when the time comes for the annual
contributions to sustain the long-planted and successfully-operating
schools of the A. M. A., either nothing or but little is given, on the
ground that a contribution has already been made to help a colored
school somewhere. This is a very serious matter. The money thus paid, in
the majority of instances, is worse than wasted, and legitimate and
well-attested work is made to suffer in consequence.
We regard this paper as a valuable contribution to the discussion of the
great question that now presses, and for many years to come will press,
the duty of the North to help the South, as the latter section of our
beloved country emerging from the war-shattered old tries to adjust
itself to the peace-unfolding new.
* * * * *
Away back in 1837, Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Friend, left a
bequest to establish a school for the purpose of "instructing the
descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various
branches of the mechanics, arts and trades, and in agriculture, in order
to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers." The
Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth was founded by that bequest,
and has been for years offering the advantages of "school learning." The
managers feel that the time has come when the full idea of the founder
should be carried out. An industrial department is to be added "for
teaching the boys the trades of carpenter, bricklayer, plumber, etc.,
giving instruction in the use of tools to those who are to become
teachers, and also giving instruction to the girls in useful
employments, including cooking, sewing and other household duties."
This is a step in the right direction, though the managers have been a
little slow in moving. It was frequently said that the old abolitionists
were ahead of their times. We have an evidence of it here. Forty-eight
years after the good man has passed away those in trust of his bequest
awake to the power of his ideas. Educators in other parts of the country
have already felt this necessity and tried to meet it. Industrial
education is now provided for in nearly all the important colored
schools of the South; and judging from the industrial exhibit of the
schools at the New Orleans Exposition, considerable progress has been
made. The friends of the colored people rejoice in the opening up of
every new channel through which the colored youth can have a better
chance to rise and get on in the world.
* * * * *
OBITUARY.
Prof. Wm. L. Gordon died August 28th at the residence of his
father-in-law, Rev. W. I. Hunt, of Columbus, Mich., at the age of
thirty-four years. Mr. Gordon became connected with the A. M. A., as
Principal of the Avery Institute at Charleston, S. C., in 1880, which
position he held until 1882, when he was transferred to Tillotson
Institute, Austin, Texas, to become its Principal and Treasurer, where
he remained until the time of his death. He became a Christian in his
boyhood, although he did not connect himself with any church until he
arrived at manhood. Rev. J. H. Parr, who was associated with Prof.
Gordon during the past year at Tillotson, sends us the following
estimate of Mr. Gordon's character: "To know him was to love him. No
sounder advice than his was ever offered to young Christians. No one
ever felt a deeper solicitude in behalf of the wayward and thoughtless.
We cannot adequately speak of the loss which the bereaved wife and
children sustain. We only venture to say that the school to which Mr.
Gordon gave the last and best years of his life has lost its wisest
counselor and truest friend. The American Missionary Association has
lost a most faithful worker, and those who knew him well have lost the
visible presence of one they loved, but they cherish a memory which
shall be fragrant and inspiring forever." His Christian faith never
wavered in all his sufferings. Only a few minutes before he died, he
said: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, for all His kindness and goodness to
me."
* * * * *
Another Missionary steamer has been set afloat. The London Missionary
Society, after anxious and weary waiting, announces that its iron
steamer the _Good News_ has been successfully launched on Lake
Tanganyika, in Central Africa. To make an iron steamer in England,
transport it in pieces across the ocean, have it carried, piece by
piece, on men's shoulders, through jungle and forest, into the very
heart of the Dark Continent, have it set up and launched upon the great
lake whose waters and shores and inhabitants the story of Stanley and
Livingstone has made of such thrilling interest to the Christian world,
is surely an achievement that challenges our admiration. An Herculean
task! But it has been done. In the name of Christ and in the interest of
His kingdom, it has been done!
The natives were greatly puzzled to know how the steamer was ever to be
gotten into the water, or how, if in the water, she could ever float.
Mr. Roxbury, the Society's engineer, who had the matter in charge, thus
describes their perplexity:
"As we came near to a finish with the hull of the boat, and began to
prepare for launching, this seemed a greater wonder to the natives than
the boat itself. They were all along very doubtful whether the boat
would float or not, when they had seen us day after day putting on so
many plates of iron, but these wonders seemed to disappear when the
question of how were we to get her put into the water arose. This they
seemed to think would be impossible; for, as they said, all the men in
the villages around here could not carry her to the water. I tried to
explain to them that we should be able to put her into the water with a
few men, as the boat would go in herself on the wood, or ways, we were
then very busy laying down. My saying this only increased their
amazement, and they laughed at me, and went away discussing the subject
among themselves in their own way. However, these doubts are now all
cleared up, and I do not think words could properly describe the
excitement there was for a time among them as they stood and saw the
_Good News_ glide beautifully down the ways 145 feet without a single
hitch, then run out into the river about 100 feet, when Mr. Swann, who
was on board standing by the anchor, let it drop, and this brought her
to a stand. For some time after this the noise of the excited natives
shouting and dancing, and the firing of guns, would baffle description,
and during the whole day they kept up singing and going through their
war-dances."
* * * * *
ADDRESS.
DELIVERED IN THE UNION AND MT. VERNON CHURCHES, BOSTON, IN BEHALF OF THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
BY REV. E. S. ATWOOD, D. D.
I am here, by official request, to make some statements in the interest
of the American Missionary Association, and under special injunction to
be as little tedious as possible. There are two difficulties in the way.
The modern Athenian, like his elder brother of Scriptural fame, delights
in nothing so much as "either to tell or to hear some new thing," and
this congregation is, or ought to be, already sufficiently familiar with
the work which solicits a hearing. It is not an obscure enterprise
thrust into the background by its unimportance, or hiding itself because
of some questioning as to whether it has a right to be, and neither is
it a project that has not yet passed the experimental stage, the
conclusion as to its worth or worthlessness to be reached further on. An
organization rooted in such prolific soil, and cultured with such
husbandry, and so full of vital sap, that in less than forty years its
growths branch so widely that millions refresh themselves in their
shade, whose vigor is so forth-putting that it has flowered into
colleges and universities and institutes whose names and fame are known
wherever English speech has gone; that organization has passed out of
and beyond the realm of criticism as to its value, and needs no runners
to advertise it to the people among whom it is planted. It would be an
insult to the Christian intelligence of this congregation to assume that
the work required commendation to them, and equally a vain thing to
attempt to tell the assembled Athenians any new thing about it.
There is another difficulty. Centuries ago, a wise man referring to the
conditions of his time, wrote: "Of making many books there is no end;
and much study is a weariness of the flesh." If he had lived long
enough, or late enough; certainly if he had lived in our day, he would
have changed or enlarged his epigram and made it read, "Of the
contriving of a multitude of philanthropic schemes there is no end; and
the constant solicitations in their interest is a weariness of the
flesh, and of the patience and purse as well." It is our lot to live in
the noonday and the tropic of professedly beneficent and charitable
enterprises. Many well-meaning men and women spend the larger part of
their time in voyages of exploration, hoping to discover some new
continent of want, needing settlement and cultivation. The Columbus of
philanthropy is not an exceptional or an obscure personage in modern
society. The consequence is, our offered opportunities are more than our
ability or our disposition to make use of them. Our accredited
benevolences are in growing excess of our benevolence. The further
consequence is, that intelligent Christian expenditure is forced to
adopt some principle of selection among enterprises that clamor for a
hearing and a helping. An open hand is not all that is needed; it would
be emptied before it had passed half round the circle of importunate
applicants. The vigor and amount of the demands made upon the Christian
Church necessitate a balancing and weighing of the comparative
importance of claims that are so persistently and so enthusiastically
pressed, with the acknowledgment and answer of those which are evidently
broad and just and the refusal of those which are petty and
professional. And the final consequence is, that any cause, however
good, is at a disadvantage, especially if it has outworn its novelty.
The temper of the age is not judicial, and in the hurry of our current
life it is easier to give or withhold the dollar than it is to stop and
consider whether the dollar ought to be given or withheld. So it comes
about that enterprises which ought to be their own sufficient
commendation and appeal, are forced to enter the lists with a host of
competitors, and compelled to spend time and strength which might be
better employed, in justifying their right to be and live.
It is not wholly a misfortune for me that you stand in little need of
information. If it were a thing essential, the limitations of the
occasion would require that it be given either in the form of incidents
or statistics, or both. There would be no poverty of material. Perhaps
no other of the Christian crusades of the century could furnish so many
occurrences which are a mixture of the tragic, the dramatic and the
pathetic. The condition of the people among whom the work has been done,
the methods of the work and the character of the workers have made the
history of the enterprise anything but a common-place story. A panoramic
view of it would show us the dingy hovels where men herded like beasts,
forms and depths of degradation that shame a Christian land, scenes of
outrage and terror, examples of wonderful courage and self-sacrifice,
and show us also sudden and almost incredible transformations, the swift
transition from mere animalism to manhood and womanhood; the rise among
the most unlikely surroundings of well-equipped industrial and
educational institutions; the kindled or quickened fever for knowledge
in a race that had hardly an ambition higher than physical or emotional
gratification, and the first swelling of a tide of regenerating
influences, at whose bright flood an untold and immeasurable mass of
want and woe and wickedness is to be buried forever out of sight. But
incidents, while significant, are not conclusive, for, obliged to omit
many, the advocate is likely to select for use those which have the most
flame and color and so give the impression of over-statement, and
prejudice the cause in whose interest he pleads. Of statistics also
there is no lack, statistics that set forth millions of souls crying for
light and knowledge, millions of dollars spent in their interest, and
other millions needing to be spent. But an array of figures makes little
impression upon anybody but professional accountants. Numerals are for
the most part bloodless and powerless to arouse emotion and carry
conviction, and the table of statistics that lumbers the page of the
Annual Report, to any but the accustomed eye, is like old chaos,
"without form and void, and darkness on the face of the deep," and so
while incidents and items and sum totals are at our disposal in
abundance, it is a matter of congratulation that we need to make only
scant use of them to-day.
It certainly is not a misfortune that this Association is forced to
measure itself with other benevolent enterprises in making its appeal
for sympathy and support. It can afford to do so, for it risks nothing
by the contrast. Without disparagement to any other form of Christian
endeavor, it is not exaggeration to say that considering the work
accomplished, or the largeness and importance of the work remaining to
be done, and which it proposes to do, this organization is easily peer
of the foremost. It is a Zion that will bear and courts inspection, not
only such as may be made by a leisurely "walk round about it," but exact
and minute scrutiny in which "judgment is laid to the line and
righteousness to the plummet." In some near future, when the history of
the continent for the last half of this century comes to be written, it
will be seen that the American Missionary Association was one of the
most influential factors in the solution of great national problems, in
removing sectional differences, in obliterating race distinctions, in
harmonizing conflicting policies, and, better and more marvelous than
all else, in building up out of African and Indian, and Mongolian and
Caucasian a kingdom of God in whose unity all diversities blend and all
separating lines are effaced, and righteousness is the sole and
sufficient foundation, and sanctified manhood and womanhood the walls of
strength and splendor.
Do you realize, good friends, the contrast between America at the date
of the founding of this society and the America of this year of grace?
The interval of time is short, but we have been making history at a
prodigious rate, a rate so rapid that in the rush of it the advance of
to-day dims the recollection of the position of yesterday. Forty years
ago this nominally free government was a tyranny. It posed before the
world in the white fleece of liberty, but the covering was too scant to
hide the ravening wolf underneath. The world held no such infernal riot
of iniquity as American slavery. High treason against God and man, it
bred unnumbered crimes. Generations were born in the darkness of
captivity, moaned and struggled awhile for light, and died. In its greed
for gain the nation coined the bodies and souls of men into money. Many
a millionaire built his mansion on outrage and wrong. The timbers of his
house were the bones of innocent victims. For every adorning some
brother man had groaned and smarted under the lash. And yet how few
dared or cared to protest against this hell upon earth. The Government
said, "Hands off!" The churches were afraid to meddle with the matter or
talked piously about "the patriarchal institution." Great publishing
societies emasculated the tracts which they issued for the purpose of
saving the souls of men, and tore out of them all reference to the
iniquity which was destroying both soul and body. Foremost organizations
that clamored for laborers and money to preach the glad tidings of
deliverance to the swarthy dwellers on the banks of the Ganges, could
not see as far as the banks of the Mississippi. Only one Christian
organization in the broad land--this Association, dared to say, Slavery
is an accursed thing. Riddance from it was only a dim hope, the remotest
of possibilities. And all that less than forty years ago. To-day no foot
of a slave presses the soil of the continent; to-day ancient
irresponsible ownership of the souls and bodies of men is a nightmare of
the past, and the haughtiness of unquestioned authority is changing to
conciliation and growing respect for human rights; to-day an emancipated
race has not only cast off the fetters from its limbs but is seeking and
finding the larger liberty of completed manhood and womanhood. Wonderful
and blessed change; you search history in vain to find its parallel.
In our review of these forty years it is natural that we should inquire
as to what forces have been efficient in producing such large results,
and quite as natural also that we should credit overweight to influences
that have been dramatic and measurable, and overlook or depreciate
subtler agencies that make little stir, and work below the surface. We
say in a large way, that civil war was the procuring cause of the change
that has been wrought, but as the war was not carried on for that
purpose, it is more exact to say that incidentally and unintentionally
it made the change possible. We assert more specifically that the
Emancipation Proclamation was the one supreme factor in inaugurating the
new order of things, and no smallest leaf should be plucked from the
wreath of honor which crowns the heroic Lincoln. The scratch of the
President's pen in that quiet room, writing the new and greater Magna
Charta, will be heard for ever. History, like a vast whispering gallery,
will reduplicate the sound and pass it on to the ages to come. It was
heard at once the breadth of the continent and across the sea. It outran
the tramp of armies, and distanced the roar of cannon. It went down
through the valleys of Virginia, through the pine barrens and rice
swamps of the Carolinas. It rang along the everglades of Florida; it
reached to the cane brakes and cotton fields of Louisiana; the
Alleghanies echoed it to the Sierras; the Father of Waters caught up the
sound, and rolled it like sweetest music to the Gulf, and in the
hearing of it, millions woke to freedom. And yet the calm judicial
estimate must take into account that the Proclamation was primarily, if
not solely, a war expedient, not righteousness for righteousness' sake;
and must take into account also that it effected nothing beyond a change
in legal relations, voiding of power certain State statutes that
legitimatized slavery. The mere shift of status under the law from
bondage to freedom, provided the opportunity, but it did not and could
not supply the force adequate to effect those industrial and
intellectual and moral transformations which are the most conspicuous
evidences of progress. The stalwart element which had been slowly
developed in public sentiment had far more efficiency than the official
edict, but the influence of public sentiment was atmospheric and vague,
rather than direct and intelligent.
A few years ago it would have been considered absurd; even to-day it may
seem to some an exaggeration to attribute a large part and the better
part of the changes which have been wrought, to the work of the American
Missionary Association; but as the historic judgment clears with time,
that fact is becoming more and more apparent. Long before the
President's Proclamation had been dreamed of as a possibility, while
statesmen and members of the Cabinet were busy with their fine jugglery
of explanation, endeavoring to persuade the rebellious South that in
fighting them they intended no harm to their favorite institution; while
army officers, with an eye single to their constitutional obligations,
were returning fugitive slaves to their masters in arms, while Northern
churches shivered if they heard the word emancipation spoken in their
pulpits--even then this Association was busy at Hampton with
missionaries and teachers among the hundreds gathered there, whom
General Butler had set free cutting the Gordian knot of difficulty with
a legal phrase, flinging over them the protection of the flag as
"contraband of war." It was a strange, exciting, pathetic scene, that at
Hampton; who that saw it will ever forget it? That sleepy village,
drowsing in the heat, in full sight of the picket lines of the Southern
army; the sunrise and the sunset announced by cannon answering cannon
from the opposing hosts. That dingy brick building, swarming in all its
rooms and stairways and window seats with a motley crowd of all ages and
both sexes, mostly in rags, holding in their hands tattered books of
various titles and dates, the very roadsides lined with children and
gray-haired men and women puzzling over the alphabet, some of them with
no better helps than bark or chips on which the letters were rudely
scrawled; the delicate cultured women from Northern homes moving about
from group to group, full of enthusiasm and ready with helpful
directions; the noisy shout of reciting voices every now and then
interrupted by the blast of the bugle, or the hoof beats of a troop of
cavalry sweeping past--that, and there was the primary school of the new
order, the experimental beginning, which since then has been manifolded
in every State once cursed with slavery, and to the benign influences of
those efforts is chiefly due the advance which has been made in
intelligence, and healthy ambition and domestic comfort, and religious
growth, and manhood and womanhood, among the servile and despised race
on this continent. The story of the hardships and self-sacrifice, and
heroism of this Society, is a story that can never be told. Later on,
similar enterprises and efforts were undertaken, but with all due credit
to their importance, they were all copied after "the pattern shown them
in the mount." In this world of short memories, we cannot too often
review the record which constitutes the claim of this Association to
signal affection and honor.
The fact of splendid accomplishment in the past is freely and generally
admitted, but within recent years the question has been frequently
raised whether the Association has not fulfilled its mission, and
whether the logic of events does not justify the cessation of its
special work? That is a fair question and has a right to an intelligent
and definite answer. It might be a sufficient reply to say that the
collateral work of the Society among the other alien races on the
continent is of sufficient importance to demand the continuance of the
organization and constitute a claim for generous support, but we may
leave that out of account and consider that line of effort in which it
is best known and with which it will always be specially identified in
the common thought, and narrow the inquiry down to the question whether
the condition and prospects of the Freedmen of the South are such that
the discontinuance of this work could be safely allowed or result in
anything but lamentable disaster.
And in answering that question emphatically in the negative, there is
not necessarily any imputation cast upon the honest intentions of the
white population of the South. But they labor under special
difficulties. Trained for generations to regard the African as a servile
and inferior race, it is not easy for them to rid themselves of the
traditions and beliefs of centuries. In the nature of things they cannot
all at once rise to the level of enthusiasm in the matter of the
education and elevation of their former serfs. With their old
conviction, not yet wholly changed, of the divine right of slavery,
every freedman in the streets represents so much property of which they
have been despoiled by governmental authority. Unfamiliar with the
adjustments of labor and capital in a free State, it is hard to suit
themselves to the new order of things. Even the better class in society
have a secret feeling that somehow they have been wronged, and that
better class is fringed with a large and lawless class who vent their
bitterness in outrage and violence, and so keep alive old animosities.
Under all the circumstances, simple justice on the part of the people of
the South means more than large generosity on the part of the people of
the North, and simple justice is far from being a universal thing. The
African must demonstrate his right to manhood and civil equality before
either will be allowed him, except under the compulsion of the law, and
allowance of that limited and enforced nature counts for but very
little. There never was a time when not righteousness alone, but the
prosperity of the nation as well, demanded more earnest, persistent,
well-considered endeavor for the instruction and uplifting and complete
regeneration of the millions of the African race on this continent.
But men say that is the business of the government. Government has
emancipated them and enfranchised them, and now it must do the rest.
Yes, if it could; but it is simply impossible. It is an utter
misconception of the functions of government which would lay that burden
on its shoulders. You cannot legislate righteousness. You cannot compel
morality and religion by reënacting the Ten Commandments and the Golden
Rule at each session of Congress. The Fourteenth Amendment fourteen
times amended and improved would secure nothing beyond the form of civil
liberty and equality. Where alien races occupy the same soil, even
justice and mutual consideration can only be established by working the
temper of justice and the spirit of consideration into the very fibre of
the popular feeling, and that is to be done, and it only _can_ be done
through the good offices of unselfish and impartial friends, by the
elevation of the lower race to the level of the higher, by the agency of
wise instruction and helpful sympathy and the culture of those moral and
spiritual capacities which, when in full flower in either African or
Caucasian, make a man confessedly a man, and the equal of any other of
any race or blood.
And no existing organization can do that work better, not to say as
well, as this Association. It has the advantage of acknowledged
position. It is widely and affectionately known among the people for
whom it labors. In the earlier days, when the wondering Negroes asked
who sent these teachers and preachers among them, they were answered,
"The Congregational churches;" but the lengthy adjective choked them,
and they invented a title of their own, and called them "God's people,"
which, if we only deserved it, I submit, would be a more pleasing
appellation even here in New England than our six-syllabled
denominational name, "God's people." It is a significant and suggestive
phrase. It voices the unquestioning faith and affection of the needy
race in those who have hitherto helped them, and while other agencies
can render efficient aid in completing the unfinished task, none so well
as "God's people" can carry on the good work unto perfection.
Neither are we to leave out of account the fact that this Association
has the advantage of experience. Its work at first was necessarily
tentative. It had no pioneers and no precedents to guide it. It was
compelled to originate methods and prove them by the test of time. It is
high testimony to the wisdom of the fathers that they made so few and
such slight mistakes. But slight and few as they were, they will not be
repeated. There is no occasion for further experiment. The work, and how
best to do it, are both things which are fully known. The management of
this Association understands the Southern question better than the
Administration at Washington. It would be a fool's policy in either
patriot or Christian to dismiss from service, or limit in efficiency by
shrinkage of funds or lessening of interest, an organization with such
an illustrious record, which has been so honored of God and man, and
which has such capacity for manifolding its successes and pushing on the
growth already reached to consummate blossom and needful and opulent
fruitage. No, no, brethren, the time has not yet come to remand the
Association to inaction, and neither has the time come for the American
church to omit one dollar of its givings, or one utterance of its
prayers, or one impulse of its enthusiasm for the right and complete and
final solution of the most immediate and pressing problem with which we
are set face to face.
In December, 1620, a little vessel entered Plymouth harbor, having on
board the devoted company of the Pilgrims. To human judgment she seemed
of small account, as she lay there, crusted with spray and weather
beaten with her wrestlings with the winter sea, and of hardly greater
account apparently was the handful of shivering men and women who landed
on the inhospitable shore. But the coming of the Pilgrim ship and the
Pilgrim company to a port for which they had not sailed was the
inauguration of a new era in government, ethics, social life and
religion, and whatever is best and purest in our nationality to-day,
traces its lineage back to that far past and seemingly insignificant
event, and our largest hope for the future depends for its realization
on the further and perfect development of the possibilities of which
that event was the seed and prophecy. In June, 1839, another vessel,
described in the journals of that day as "a long, low, black schooner,"
was seen lying off the coast of Connecticut. She proved to be the
"Amistad," a Spanish craft, having on board some forty slaves, who had
risen and overpowered their captors. Like her predecessor of Plymouth,
through the treachery of the management, she had been steered to a port
for which she was not bound. As the coming of the "Mayflower" opened one
era in the history of the continent, so the arrival of the "Friendship"
was the beginning of another. The Spanish Government claimed the slaves
as their property, and the American Government arraigned them for murder
on the high seas. Generous Christian men organized themselves into a
committee for the defense of these unfortunates. John Quincy Adams broke
the professional silence of more than thirty years, and volunteered to
plead for them before the Supreme Court of the United States. "Little
did I imagine," he said at the close of his masterly argument--"little
did I imagine that I should ever again be required to claim the right of
appearing in the capacity of an officer of this Court. Yet such has been
the dictate of my destiny, and I appear again to plead the cause of
justice, and now of liberty and life, in behalf of many of my
fellow-men, before that same Court which in a former age I had addressed
in support of rights of property. I stand again, I trust for the last
time, before the Court." It _was_ the last time, and the glorious ending
of an illustrious legal career, for the slaves were acquitted from all
charges against liberty or life. That committee was the germ of the
American Missionary Association, those slaves were the nucleus of the
great work of the society on African soil, the efforts of the committee
in their behalf were the beginnings of the always widening and ever
blessed work which the society has done and is doing in our land. The
"Mayflower" and the "Friendship"--they must always be equally historic
vessels. The coming of each was a prophecy and a promise. They each
reached a port for which neither was bound, and both were started on an
undreamed-of, limitless voyage. "Mayflower" and "Friendship"--let them
forever sail on abreast in our reverence and affection, the special and
yet affiliated work which each was commissioned of God to do,
acknowledged and accepted, and assiduously pressed, till the continent
is clean from wrong and all its inhabitants are true and just to each
other, and the imperial nation stands among the people of the earth in
the purple of unquestioned supremacy, while the splendor of the Divine
Favor covers it with glory and honor.
* * * * *
We clip from a colored religious paper, published in Georgia, the
following extract from one of its correspondents. The style of the
writer, and also his facts, are strong arguments for education at the
South. The schoolmaster is evidently abroad:
We are trying to come out of darkness down here by the little
at a time. In the great upheaval publicly, and religiously too,
some of our churches and people are suffering much in these
parts for the great need of consistent, Christ like living
preachers, and also teachers. Some or half of our churches are
warring about preachers, and yet we have so many that they are
really in one another's way. A licentee preacher and exhorter
preacher became enraged about setting some gate posts in Lee
County a few days ago; it ended in a fight in which the
licentee preacher had his under lip cut completely off for
life. I am sorry to say that generally you can find in our
community preacher against preacher and members against members
of the church. We have four churches here and no conversions
hardly at all in the four churches. Last year there were not a
dozen baptized out of the four, and yet some think they have as
good preaching as any community has. The trouble seems to be
this that new wine cannot be retained in old bottles any
longer.
The Mount Zion Church is trying to organize a preacher night
school with some success.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
The above sex has suffered much in our community in the last
three months and are not out of it yet, suffering at the
expense of ignorance and intemperance, saying nothing about the
kind of the men that one sees going heedlessly into the vortex.
We saw a horrible death of a drunkard a few days ago right at
our doors, leaving a smart young wife and six little children
to mourn and grope their lives through an unfriendly world.
Such we think ought to solemnly warn the people against living
the life of intemperance though it seems at times that some one
has not heeded at any manner of intemperance.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
ONE OF THE DEACONS.
BY MRS. JULIA E. NELSON.
"A short, heavy-set, black man," "A good carpenter," "A man who can turn
his hand to 'most anything," "None of your trifling fellows; somebody
you can depend on every time." Such are the descriptions given of Deacon
Jeremiah Edwards by the people among whom the chief part of his fifty
years have been passed.
"The pump is out of kilter." "So? Well, tell Jeremiah Edwards to come
and doctor it up."
"There's a leak in the roof, and the tinners can't seem to find it."
"I'll send Jerry 'round to attend to it."
"Can't find the key of my bureau drawer; reckon Bud or the baby has lost
it; drawer locked, and not a key can I find to fit in either of the
hardware stores. I never saw such a place." "Don't fret about it,
Carrie, I'll send Uncle Jerry up to file off one of these keys or make a
new one; and while he's here, have him repair the organ and mend the
picket-fence, and set the glass in the chamber window and the back
bedroom. Better let him take the umbrella to his shop and mend it, and
is there anything else? Oh! those shears and the butcher-knife you've
been complaining about so long; let him take them along and sharpen them
up." "Do you suppose, Harry, he could do anything with the
cooking-stove? There's something broken about it; I reckon it's broken,
but the cook says it's burnt out. Likely she broke it, though; niggers
are so careless and good-for-nothing." "Certainly, certainly. Jerry used
to work in an iron-foundry; he's a regular Tubal Cain. If he can't fix
anything that's made of iron or brass or wood, it can't _be_ fixed,
that's flat."
Now what would the residents of a town like Jonesboro, a town over one
hundred years old, and very small of its age--what _could_ they do in an
emergency if, instead of a missing key, there should be a missing Jerry?
The probabilities are that it will take something mightier than the
Western fever and more powerful than Colonization projects to carry
Jerry Edwards away from the snug little home that he has made for
himself, his good wife Patsey, and his little granddaughter. Many a
millionaire finds less satisfaction in his palatial mansion than the
proprietor of that little white cottage among the trees, as he gathers
fruit from his own well-kept orchard, vegetables from his prolific
garden, and corn from his own field. How much sweeter music is the
cackling of hens to one who has brought them up from downy chickenhood!
That and the robins' songs give more pleasure at the cottage than would
the notes of imprisoned canaries.
A horse that "knows more than some people," cows that show generous
keeping, and the "prettiest pigs you ever saw" are some of the adjuncts
of the Edwards establishment. A pig is not pretty? Own the pig--_own the
pig_ and watch him as he grows ripe for the pork barrel. Everybody's
pig, like everybody's baby, is prettier than anybody's.
"Let everybody go West that wants to," says Jerry Edwards, "and let them
that want to be Africans go to Africa. I'm an American, and I shall stay
right here the balance of my days. If I couldn't make a living here, I
should be striking out after work, but I don't need to go anywhere to
hunt work; work is hunting for _me all_ the time." And so it is.
Speaking in the Literary Society on the relative merits of trades and
the learned professions, he said, "Everybody ought to work with his
hands that can't work with his head. Now, some try to work with their
heads when they'd be doing a good deal better for themselves and
everybody else if they'd just go to work with their hands. Now, I
couldn't make a living by headwork if I wanted to. I don't know how it
would have been if I'd had a chance for an education when I was young. I
never went to school a day in my life except Sunday-school. What little
knowledge I have of reading and writing is just picked up. Because I've
got along without an education, I don't think everybody else ought to do
the same. I'd have got along better if I'd had more. I feel as if I am
crippled by the want of it, and am just crutching along. Young men, get
all the education you can, but at the same time remember that it's a
good thing to have a trade to fall back upon."
In the ante-bellum days, that compound of muscle and will and honesty
and skill now known as Deacon Edwards, used to bring home to his master
a twenty-dollar gold piece weekly, earned in the foundry where he was
hired out without being a party to the contract. His master had a large
family, and gave to each of his children a college education. If the
earnings of Jerry and his fellow-servants did not suffice to pay bills,
a boy or girl (and colored men and women were always boys and girls with
their masters) would be sold. The "boy" to whom he gave two trades,
although by no means rich, is in better circumstances than any of the
sons whose education was paid for by the sweat of dusky brows mingled
with countless tears and bitter heart-burnings.
That humorous philosopher, Josh Billings, says, "You never saw a
self-made man but what was mighty proud of his job." If any self-made
man has a right to be proud, it is he who, having been held as a
chattel, has compelled all who know him to admit that he possesses
honesty, good sense, moral courage and everything that goes to make up a
true man.
Four years ago Jerry Edwards was elected School Commissioner, and served
in that capacity for three years. He was the first and only colored man
who has ever filled that position in his district, and was elected by an
unusually large majority in a place where colored men are greatly in the
minority. But he has won victories greater than this--victories over
self in breaking the chains of appetite and long-established habit.
Eight years ago a temperance society was organized here. "Before that
time," says he, "I never heard, and it had never entered my head, that
there could be any harm in drinking so long as a man didn't get drunk."
He attended the meetings, listened attentively, but did not take the
pledge for a long time. At first he argued for the moderate use of
stimulants, the harmlessness of pure wine, etc., but yielded point by
point to repeated assaults in a war of friendly words.
He had a fine vineyard, made wine, drank it, sold it, and gave it to his
friends. There was no market for grapes--what should he do with his
vineyard? He feared he could not abstain wholly, and tried total
abstinence for several months before venturing to pledge himself to it
publicly, "Don't think," said he, during his voluntary probation, "that
I don't appreciate what you say, nor that I am not as good a friend to
you as anybody in the Temperance Society." We had had some persecutions.
"I'll be with you in six troubles," said he. "Ah! yes, Mr. Edwards,"
said I, "you will, and have been already: but in the seventh trouble,
the temperance trouble, there you leave me to fight the battle alone."
That was an unmerciful sword-thrust when he was having a harder battle
than I, his foes being within and mine without--his enemies being
appetite and love of gain, mine principally ignorance and prejudice. Not
long after this he joined the temperance society, and now sells or gives
away grapes instead of wine.
Over a year ago he resolved that he would no longer be a bond-slave to
that bewitching weed whose use civilized men learned from savages. For
more than forty years he had used tobacco, having begun at the early age
of seven years. A poor kind of candy to reward a good boy with,
certainly. It was no easy thing for the veteran smoker and chewer to bid
good-bye to pipe and quid, but for fourteen months he has successfully
resisted the temptation to defile himself with the unclean thing,
although he has craved it every day.
"I know there's differences in religion," said Haley, the trader. "Some
kinds is mis'rable. There's your meetin' pious; there's your singin'
roarin' pious; them ar ain't no account in black or white; but these
rayly is; and I've seen it in niggers as often as any: your rail softly
quiet, stiddy, honest pious that the hull world couldn't tempt 'em to do
nothing that they thinks is wrong." The "roarin' pious" never give up
the use of tobacco; it takes the "stiddy, honest pious" to do that. If
you are going to build a church and want solid deacon timber, take the
last sort.
* * * * *
JELLICO, TENN.
In this field the harvest is truly ripe. A few days since I was called
to the bedside of a young man who it was thought was dying or would soon
die. He said he was unsaved. I said to him, "Do you believe in Christ?"
"I do not know whether I do or not." "Well," I said, "you believe Jesus
died to save you?" "I don't know anything at all of him. I never read
the Bible a minute in my life. I never went to church in my life. Oh,
pray for me that my soul may not be lost." I sat down on the side of his
bed and told him of man's fall, of God's loving kindness, of our
redemption through Christ, and that whosoever believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life, and that whosoever will may come. He accepted the
truth, is happy and is recovering health, and will through God's grace
be an efficient worker in the vineyard.
E. H. BULLOCK.
* * * * *
AMONG THE CHURCHES OF MAINE.
I have just returned from a very pleasant campaign among the churches of
Maine, in the interest of the A. M. A. I visited and addressed meetings
in thirty-one different places. At Old Orchard, in connection with the
fourth annual meeting of the Young People's Society of Christian
Endeavor, I had the pleasure of meeting representatives from all parts
of New England and many of the Western States.
At New Gloucester I met one of our lady missionaries, Miss Mary Lunt,
whose labor of love at Selma, Ala., is the crown of rejoicing to the
Ladies' Missionary Society of Maine. At Gorham, the home of Governor
Robie, I spoke to two large audiences, the Governor and the editor of
one of the leading papers of Georgia being present.
During my stay at Augusta I called to pay my respects to the Hon. J. G.
Blaine. Mr. Blaine inquired after the welfare of the A. M. A., and
manifested deep interest in the education of the freedmen in the South.
After a pleasant interview he went to his desk and returned with his
check as a donation to our work.
Being in Lewiston during the memorial service of General Grant, I joined
the great assembly in paying grateful and heartfelt respect to the hero
of Appomattox. Senator Frye gave a stirring account of the great
commander's career and an able analysis of the General's character.
In all the places I visited I found the churches and pastors deeply
interested in our cause, and especially pleased to receive fresh news
from the field of the grand work of the A. M. A.
I wish to express my grateful appreciation to the churches, pastors and
friends of the Pine Tree State for their cordial welcome, kind
hospitality and generous response to our appeal in behalf of the
pressing needs of the A. M. A.
GEO. W. MOORE.
* * * * *
THE REASON WHY.
BY REV. GEO. C. ROWE.
In the December number of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY an article published
contained the following incident.
The First Louisiana Regiment of colored soldiers, recruited in New
Orleans, was about to take its departure for the front. The colonel, who
for some reason could not accompany his men, presented the regimental
flags to the color-sergeant. After a brief speech, full of patriotic
feeling, he concluded with these words: "Color-guard, protect, defend,
die for, but do not surrender these flags." The sergeant, upon receiving
them, made this simple but noble response: "Colonel, I will bring back
these colors to you in honor or report to God the reason why." And when,
a few days afterward, during an assault on Port Hudson, he fell
defending the flag and his dying blood crimsoned its folds, another took
his place and saved it from falling into the hands of the enemy. The
brave standard-bearer kept his word, and in failing to return the colors
to the hands that had committed them to his care, he "reported to God
the reason why."
It is the eve of battle;
The soldiers are in line;
The roll of drum and bugle's blast
Marshal that army fine.
The hour is fraught with mystery--
A hush pervades that throng,
And each one thinks of home and friends,
And says at heart, "How long?"
The colonel rides before his men,
His thoughtful brow is bare;
He calls the color-sergeant,
And tenders to his care
The nation's pride, the dear old flag--
The loved _red_, _white and blue_,
And says, with earnest tones and grave:
"I intrust _this_ now to you.
"Yes, color-bearer, take in charge
Your country's flag to-day,
And to the conflict bear it--
The thickest of the fray.
"Bear it with lofty courage,
And to it faithful be;
This flag has inspired thousands,
And led to victory.
"Take it and never leave it,
'Tis a solemn charge to thee;
Bring back to me this banner,
This ensign of the free!"
"Colonel," the color-sergeant said,
Holding the flag on high,
"I'll bring it back or else report
To _God_ the reason why!"
Away to the front he bears it.
Cheered on by comrades brave,
Anxious to liberate his race,
Bring freedom to the slave.
They charge upon Port Hudson,
Where, sheltered by a wall,
The foemen cut them down like grass.
They bravely charge--but fall.
Yes, on that field, where thousands
Unheeding the tumult lie,
He left the flag, reporting
To _God_ the reason why.
Another bears that flag along,
Holding it proud and high:
But the sergeant has reported
To _God_ the reason why.
Oh, Christian soldier, going forth
To battle for the Lord,
Be filled with manly courage,
And proudly hear God's word.
It is the standard of your King,
Who rules the earth and sky;
You must win, through it, the vict'ry
Or tell _Christ_ the reason why.
The war will soon be ended;
In the dust you soon will lie;
Go forth and conquer, or report
To _God_ the reason why.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
[Illustration: WORSHIPING THE ANCESTRAL TABLE.]
* * * * *
HOW WE TRAIN THE CHINESE FOR PREACHING.
BY MRS. C. W. SHELDON, TEACHER OF HELPERS.
The one aim and object of our schools is to show the way of life and
salvation; so we mix in Bible truth with all our teaching. In all our
school-rooms are charts, upon which are printed, in large type, selected
passages of Scripture. Some of these texts are read each evening by the
school in concert. The helper explains the meaning in Chinese and makes
a short practical application of the central truth. Our hymns are gospel
hymns, carefully selected, we have prayer both in English and Chinese,
and each session of school is closed by the whole school repeating in
concert the Lord's Prayer, first in English, then in Chinese. So the
work of a helper is largely the teaching of religious truth, and is of
great practical benefit in preparing him for preaching.
Besides this drill, we have a class especially for the helpers, a
teacher spending two hours a day, for five days in a week, with them.
They study reading, spelling--paying particular attention to the
meaning of the words--grammar, especially the construction of sentences;
with a little history and arithmetic, as there is time for them. But the
study of all studies is the Bible; a large part of the time each day is
spent in studying it, chapter by chapter and verse by verse, and the end
of all study, reading, spelling or whatever it may be, is to understand
the Bible, and to be able to explain it to others.
Their pastor, Mr. Pond, gives them one afternoon of each week, spending
two or three hours in exclusive Bible study. Two or three chapters are
assigned them for study the previous week, and these chapters are
carefully reviewed. They bring up anything that has perplexed them, any
truth that they do not quite understand, and he makes the meaning as
clear as possible. Each one is expected to bring in a sermon from a text
given him the previous week. This sermon he reads himself to his pastor,
who makes such remarks and suggestions as he thinks may be helpful. The
sermons are prepared in this way: The day teacher explains the meaning
of the text and the practical lessons it teaches, parallel passages are
read that will bring the meaning into clearer view, and it is talked
over, so that each one may have a definite idea of what is expected of
him. Those who have not had much practice in sermonizing first make a
rough copy in pencil, which is corrected by the teacher, after which it
is carefully written out with a pen.
We have among our helpers one whose sermons, in their clear insight into
the very heart and spirit of the Gospel, in their depth of thought, in
their originality of expression and their logical connection, would do
credit to a graduate of a theological seminary. Indeed, many a graduate
has written worse sermons. One of our class has a sparkling vivacity of
expression; his points are pointed, and his illustrations are frequently
apt and telling. One of our helpers some time since was highly educated
in Chinese. He had a great reverence for Confucius, having carefully
studied his writings, committing large portions of them to memory, as is
the custom among Chinese scholars. He once made this comparison between
Confucius and Jesus. He said: "They are like two bridges. They are both
noble structures. You admire the strength of the timbers and the way in
which they are framed together, forming the solid foundation and the
graceful arch rising above it. You walk on the bridge of Confucius; it
is all right till you come to the river of death; then you see the black
waters rolling before you--and there is no plank on which you may cross
to the shore beyond. Jesus Christ is a completed bridge, over which you
may safely pass to the Heavenly home, and to the mansion He has prepared
for your eternal habitation."
We do not attempt to teach them any abstruse system of theology; we
bring before their minds Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of
men. This text comes up more frequently than any other in their sermons:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life!"
We tell them of his pure sinless life; how He went about healing and
helping the bodies and the souls of men; how He willingly, gladly died
upon the cross that He might bring salvation near, and how He rose from
the dead in victory over death and hell; that He now lives in Heaven;
that He hears even our whispered prayers, and that He will give His
spirit to them whose hearts are open to receive it; that if we would be
His disciples we must have His spirit--we must be like Him.
The work is not our own; it is God's work; and we use not our own,
words, but God's words, relying upon the promise, "My word shall not
return to me void." We have faith to believe that China shall become a
Christian nation, whose God is the Lord, and that the Chinese trained
in our schools have an important work to do in bringing it to pass.
With this faith we work and pray, and we believe that God's blessing is
upon us. A Chinaman knows how to read the hearts of his countrymen as
one not of them cannot learn to do. If he has a clear knowledge of
Gospel truth, and is filled with the Spirit, he can go back to his
native land ready for immediate service. A foreigner must spend years in
learning a difficult language, and in studying the manners, customs and
hearts of a puzzling people. The native knows his people; a very great
advantage in his favor. Some of our number are now in China doing good
work for the Master. Each year more and more will return; we wish them
to be fully armed and equipped for effective service. The Gospel day has
already dawned upon portions of that dark land. May it grow brighter and
brighter till it reaches its full meridian, making every nook and corner
luminous, and sending warmth and glow into every home and heart in that
vast empire.
* * * * *
A CHINESE VIEW OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.
SIR: A paper was presented to me yesterday for inspection, and I found
it to be specially drawn up for subscription among my countrymen toward
the Pedestal Fund of the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty. Seeing that the
heading is an appeal to American citizens, to their love of country and
liberty, I feel that my countrymen and myself are honored in being thus
appealed to as citizens in the cause of liberty. But the word liberty
makes me think of the fact that this country is the land of liberty for
men of all nations except the Chinese. I consider it as an insult to us
Chinese to call on us to contribute toward building in this land a
pedestal for a statue of Liberty. That statue represents Liberty holding
a torch which lights the passage of those of all nations who come into
this country. But are the Chinese allowed to come? As for the Chinese
who are here, are they allowed to enjoy liberty as men of all other
nationalities enjoy it? Are they allowed to go about everywhere free
from the insults, abuse, assaults, wrongs and injuries from which men of
other nationalities are free?
If there be a Chinaman who came to this country when a lad, who has
passed through an American institution of learning of the highest grade,
who has so fallen in love with American manners and ideas that he
desires to make his home in this land, and who, seeing that his
countrymen demand one of their own number to be their legal adviser,
representative, advocate and protector, desires to study law, can he be
a lawyer? By the law of this nation, he, being a Chinaman, cannot become
a citizen, and consequently cannot be a lawyer.
And this statue of Liberty is a gift to a people from another people who
do not love or value liberty for the Chinese. Are not the Annamese and
Tonquinese Chinese, to whom liberty is as dear as to the French? What
right have the French to deprive them of their liberty?
Whether this statute against the Chinese or the statue to Liberty will
be the more lasting monument to tell future ages of the liberty and
greatness of this country, will be known only to future generations.
Liberty, we Chinese do love and adore thee; but let not those who deny
thee to us, make of thee a graven image and invite us to bow down to it.
NEW YORK SUN. SAUM SONG BO.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
* * * * *
MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
* * * * *
ILLINOIS WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
This society, organized at the last meeting of the General Association
at Rockford, is getting under way. Its President is Mrs. A. E. Arnold,
of Stillman Valley; its Secretary, Mrs. J. H. Dixon, of Chebanse; its
Treasurer, Mrs. E. F. Williams, 4,018 Drexel Boul., Chicago. Its
Executive Committee consists of one lady in each of the dozen district
associations. That committee has had a business meeting in Chicago. It
is providing for the organization of the ladies in all of the
associations of the State. Forty of these unions have been organized in
as many local churches. The object of the State Union is to aid the A.
H. M. S., the A. M. A. and N. W. E. C., A. C. U. and S. S. P. S. Such
unions as desire may also embrace the work of foreign missions. As the
State body absorbs the work of the former A. M. A. committee, it has
also assumed the support of the same special missionaries under the
American Missionary Association.
The President and the Secretary have just issued a small folio giving
the officers of the Union, the constitution of the State body, and a
proposed constitution of an auxiliary. The folio, besides a fresh letter
representing each of three of the home mission societies, presents a
stirring appeal to the more than 15,000 women in the Congregational
churches of Illinois. We quote that part which refers to our work,
giving our new associate a hearty welcome and a Godspeed in the blessed
work it has undertaken:
The Woman's Home Missionary Union includes not only home missions as
represented by the American Home Missionary Society and its Auxiliaries,
but all the other great societies which act as the almoners of the gifts
from our churches for missionary work in this country. It is eminently
appropriate that the work of the new society should include that of the
American Missionary Association.
In every Southern State, in the cabins of the freedmen, in the halls of
its institutions of learning, are to be found the A. M. A. teachers.
Ladies of culture and refinement go from high social circles in the
North to endure social ostracism in the South. During its twenty years
of existence more than three thousand women have been in this service.
Patiently they have toiled, never faltering when their homes and
school-houses were burned over their heads, and have endured with
Christian fortitude trials that might well have crushed their brave
hearts.
Our dark-faced sisters of the South to-day plead with us for love and
sympathy, and for the boon of education. Men, both white and black, look
upon them in precisely the same light as Turks and Hindoos regard the
women of the Orient. The curse of slavery is still upon them. Is it not
woman's work for woman to carry the Gospel of Christ to these despised
ones? Equally pressing in kind, if not in degree, is the work among the
Indians and Chinese, also carried on by the A. M. A. The work by women
for women is especially emphasized by its "Woman's Bureau," which is
giving efficient aid to the Society in "letting Christ shine among the
oppressed and degraded of the sons and daughters of men."
* * * * *
CHILDREN'S PAGE.
* * * * *
SHOEBLACK JIM.
In a small, crowded room in one of the rear tenement houses of our great
city, where the sun's rays were never known to shine, or the fresh air
allowed to penetrate, our little Jim lay dying.
Months before, I one morning saw him standing on a street corner, with
his shoe box strapped to his back, calling out in tremulous tones,
"Shine, sir?" But the hurrying business men paid little or no attention
to the pleading voice or frail form which was swayed to and fro by the
bitter, biting December wind. As I handed him a picture paper, I asked,
"Are you hungry, my boy?" I noticed the pale, pinched cheeks and the
large brown eyes fast filling with tears as he replied, "Yes, miss. I've
had nothing to eat since yesterday morning; but granny is worse than me;
fur she's had nothing but a cold tater since day 'fore yesterday."
"And who is granny?"
"She lives in the rear alley on Mott; me own mother died over on the
island, so granny says, and I guess I never had any father."
"Did you ever go to a Sunday-school or Band of Hope meeting?"
"Laws, no, miss! I've no time. I has to stan' around all day, and then
sometimes gits only a couple of shines. Them Italian fellers, with the
chairs, takes all the profit of us chaps. Granny says 'tis a hard
world."
I handed the child a dime, and told him to get a warm cup of coffee and
a roll; then got from him a promise to attend the Band of Hope meeting
that afternoon at four o'clock. I hardly expected to meet him again, but
was happily surprised to see him walk in,--shoe-box on his back,--while
we were singing,--"Fold me to thy bosom." I shall never forget the
expression that was on his face as he stood spell-bound in the middle of
the floor, and stared at me and the organ. I motioned him to a seat, and
he did not move till the music had ceased and the other children were
all seated.
My lesson that day was about the great Shepherd that goes out upon the
hills and mountains of sin and gathers in the little lambs that wander
away from the sheepfold. I did not know, that day, that the dear
Saviour's hand was already stretched out to receive this one little lamb
that had many times, young as he was, been found tipsy, and also smoking
cigarettes that he had stolen from somebody's street stand.
He was a regular attendant at Sunday-school and Band of Hope, and no one
joined more heartily in the singing than "Jim." One day, in our
children's prayer-meeting, he gave his heart to Jesus. No one could
doubt the conversion of that little heart when they looked into the
bright eyes and beaming face that continually shone with heavenly light.
One day a messenger came to me in haste and said, "Jim is dying. Hurry,
please, miss; he wants to see you agin afore he dies." I hurried; and as
I groped my way along the dark alley and up the rickety stairs, I caught
the sound of the sweet voice singing "Fold me, fold me, precious
Saviour." I entered quietly, so as not to disturb the singer, but his
bright eyes saw me, and he said, "Sing it with me once more, teacher."
We sang it through together, then he said, "The next time I sing will be
when Jesus folds me in His arms. I'll never forget the hymn, but will
remember it till you come up there too; then we'll sing it again."
The little lamp of life went out. The great Shepherd had called His
little lamb home. There was
"Another gem in the Saviour's crown,
Another soul in heaven."
--_A True Story by a New York Teacher, in S. S. Times._
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR AUGUST, 1885.
* * * * *
MAINE, $574.03.
Augusta. Hon. James G. Blaine $25.00
Bangor. First Cong. Soc. 16.54
Bangor. "Friends," _for Sch. Building, Oahe, Dak._ 15.00
Bethel. First Cong. Sab. Sch., 20; Second Cong. Ch.
and Soc., 17 37.00
Brewer. First Cong. Ch. 6.50
Brunswick. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 70.00
Bucksport. "Widow's Mite," _for Pleasant Hill, Tenn._ 1.00
Eastport. Central Cong. Sab. Sch. 5.00
Freeport. L. A. Warner 25.00
Gorham. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., 26.75; "Friends," 16 42.75
Gorham. Sale of Bullets, _for Jones Kindergarten,
Atlanta, Ga._ 1.00
Hallowell. South Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.00
Hampden. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Indian M._ 10.00
Hermon. F. B. Sab. Sch. 2.00
Minot. "A Friend" 1.00
Newcastle. Second Cong. Ch. 43.25
Norridgewock. Mrs. Caroline F Dole, Bbl. of Bedding,
etc., _for Talladega C._
North Bridgeton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.75
North Buxton. Union Ch. 3.00
North Yarmouth. Cong. Ch. 9.61
Patten. Mrs. Jerome Frye 1.00
Somesville. Cong. Ch. 4.45
Thomaston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Waterford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Yarmouth. "A Friend" 25.00
Ladies of Maine, _for Missionaries_, by Mrs. J. P.
Hubbard, Treas. W. A. to A. M. A. 178.18
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $389.81.
Alton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Amherst. "L. F. B." (20 of which _for Woman's Dept._) 61.00
Campton. Cong Ch. and Soc. 27.00
Chesterfield Factory. Cong. Sab. Sch. 3.75
Durham. Cong. Ch. 5.50
Gilsum. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.42
Goffstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 35.00
Hanover. "A Friend" 10.00
Hollis. "A Friend" 1.00
Keene. "A Thank offering" 50.00
New Ipswich. A. M. Townsend 2.00
Pembroke. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 40.00
Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.21
Wakefield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Alstead, Sale of Bullets, by H. A. Lovell,
5.75.--East Alstead, Sale of Bullets, by Miss
Chandler, 3.--Amherst, Miss Lucy Boylston, 10; Miss
L. G. Clark, 3; Mrs. R. Clark, 2 23.75
-------
$292.63
LEGACY.
Goffstown. Estate of Mary Manning, by Alfred Story, Ex. 97.18
-------
$389.81
VERMONT, $429.44.
Bennington. A. B. Valentine, 10; Mrs. J. B. Meacham,
2; "Friends," 3 15.00
Burlington. Union Meeting First and Third Cong. Chs.,
_for Indian M._ 85.54
Dummerston. Cong. Ch. 13.19
East Berkshire. Cong. Ch. 12.05
Middlebury. Cong. Ch., 63.71; M. A. Dickey, 50c., _for
Indian M._ 64.21
New Haven. "A Friend" 5.00
North Bennington. "A Friend" 1.00
North Danville. Cong. Sab. Sch. 11.00
North Thetford. "A Friend" 1.00
Saint Albans. E. P. Brainerd, _for Indian M._ 1.00
Saint Johnsbury. North Cong. Ch. 11.50
Saxton's River. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Underhill. Cong. Ch. 13.00
Waitsfield. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., _for Indian M., Fort
Berthold, Dak._ 12.00
Wallingford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 45.00
Westford. Cong. Ch. 4.00
Westminster West. "A Friend" 5.00
Woodstock. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by Mrs. Henry
Fairbanks 7.20
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Benson, Ezra Strong, 5; Sale of Bullets,
5--Enosburg, Mrs. Theron Baker, 10.--New Haven, Mrs.
Eliza Meacham, 50; Rev. C. H. Kent, deceased, 10;
Friends, 6; Sale of Bullets, 8.20.--Poultney, D. F.
Southworth, 5.--Rochester, Earl Osgood, Sale of
Bullets, 1.25.--Swanton, Sale of Bullets, by Mrs.
Squier, 3.30.--West Haven, "Friends," 10 113.75
----. W. G. Shaw 1.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $9,825.94.
Adams. Memorial Band, First Cong. Ch., bal. to
const. MRS. H. E. SMITH L. M., _for Share_ 20.00
Alford. J. Jay Dana 15.00
Andover. South Ch. and Soc. 100.00
Boston. "A Friend," 5; Mrs. E. P. Eayers, 5.--Roxbury
Highlands, "W.," 25 35.00
Bradford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 31.65
Braintree. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.55
Brockton. Mrs. Mary E. Perkins 5.00
Clinton. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 45.68
Dalton. O. B. Hayes 1.00
Easthampton. First Cong. Sab. Sch., 25; "Two Ladies,"
25; Ladies' Benev. Soc., 35, _for Student Aid, New
Orleans, La._ 85.00
Enfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 50.00
Everett. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.68
Falmouth. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 66.00
Framingham. Plymouth Ch. and Soc. 107.78
Granby. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. FRANCIS
A. FORWARD and CHARLES M. TAYLOR L. M's 75.00
Granville. Mr. and Mrs. C. Holcomb 10.00
Holland. Evan. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Holliston. "Bible Christians of District No. 4" 25.00
Hopkinton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 43.16
Ipswich. South Cong. Ch. 20.00
Lenox. Cong. Ch. 21.00
Lexington. Hancock Ch. and Soc. 15.20
Marlborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. FRED L.
CLAFLIN, FRANK O. BARNES and CHARLES D. MCKEAN
L. M's 95.00
Marshfield. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 108.98; Second
Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 5.14 114.12
Mattapoisett. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.50
Methuen. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 19.29
Middleton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.00
Newtonville. Central Ch. and Soc. 46.76
Norfolk. Levi Mann, _for Rosebud Indian M., Dak._ .30
North Amherst. "A Friend" 10.00
North Brookfield. Union Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Norton. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.10
Phillipston. D. and L. Mixter 2.00
Pittsfield. Mrs. H. M. Hurd, 3; "A Friend," 2 5.00
Randolph. Miss Abby W. Turner 20.00
Scotland. Edith Leonard, 5; Mrs. Jane N. Leonard, 3 8.00
South Egremont. Cong. Ch. 25.00
South Hadley Falls. Young People's Soc. of Cong. Ch.,
_for Indian M., Fort Berthold, Dak._ 10.00
Southville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 31.00
Springfield. "A Friend" 500.00
Stockbridge. Dea. O. R. Williams, 10; Geo. P. Bradley,
Set of Wall Maps, _for Talladega C._ 10.00
Stockbridge. "Friends," 7.60; Miss E. Greene and
Sister, 1 each 9.60
Upton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 54.19
Webster. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.45
West Boylston. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.50
West Medway. Second Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Share_ 21.52
Williamstown. First Cong. Ch. 17.03
Worcester. David Whitcomb, 500; Plymouth Cong. Ch. and
Soc., 130; "A Friend," 25; Miss Emma F. Marsh, 5 660.00
By Charles Marsh, Treas. Hampden Benev.
Assoc.--Blandford, 31.15.--Holyoke, First,
22.--Monson, 25.--Springfield, Ira Merrill,
3.--West Springfield, First. 20; Mitteneague,
31.85 133.00
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Amherst, Sale of Bullets, 2.--Auburndale,
C. C. Burr. 10--Cambridge, Mrs. Harrington,
5.--Westborough, Rev. and Mrs. J. D. Potter,
25--Worcester, "First Friend," 25 67.00
---------
$2,750.06
LEGACIES.
Belchertown. Estate of Dea. Jonas Warren, by Mrs.
Emily B. Warren, Execx. 500.00
Danvers. Estate of Rufus Putman, C. S. Nichols, Adm. 200.00
Easthampton. Estate of Mrs Emily G. Williston, by
M. F. Dickinson, Ex. 3,000.00
Sturbridge. Estate of Mrs. Mary W. Bullard, by
Henry Haynes, Ex. 200.00
Sunderland. Estate of P. N. Richards, by James B.
Prouty, Ex. 3,175.88
---------
$9,825.94
RHODE ISLAND, $20.00.
Little Compton. United Cong Ch. and Soc. 20.00
CONNECTICUT, $3,517.48.
Birmingham. Mrs. C. A. Sterling 5, _for Indian M._,
and 50c. _for Rosebud Indian M._ 5.50
Bolton. Cong. Ch. 8.00
Canton Centre. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Danielsonville. Westfield Cong. Ch., Mission Circle,
_for Share_ 20.00
East Avon. Cong. Ch. 22.00
East Canaan. Cong. Ch. 23.89
East Granby. Rev. D. A. Strong 7.00
Fairfield. Mrs. A. B. Nichols, _for Fort Berthold,
Dak._ 5.00
Glastonbury. Wm. S. Williams, 50; Geo. Williams, 10;
Frederick Welles, 10 70.00
Goshen. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 31.62
Greeneville. Cong. Ch. 16.10
Hadlyme. R. E. Hungerford, 100; Jos. W. Hungerford,
100; Cong. Ch., 4 204.00
Hampton. Mrs. Alfred Williams 5.00
Hartford. Park Ch. and Soc. 61.35
Kensington. Cong. Ch. 36.11
Lisbon. Cong. Ch. 3.00
Lyme. Grassy Hill, Cong. Ch. 13.50
Meridien. Centre Cong. Ch., 30; First Cong. Ch., 25 55.00
Middlebury. Cong. Ch. 15.72
Middlebury. Cong. Ch., _for Conn. Sch., Quitman, Ga._ 8.00
Milton. Cong. Ch. 5.07
Monroe. Cong. Ch. 11.75
New Canaan. John Erhardt 5.00
Norfolk. J. V. Cowles and family, 11, _for Student
Aid_; "A Friend," 5; "Cash," 5; Rev. J. W. Beach,
2, _for Talladega C._ 23.00
Norwich. Broadway Cong. Ch., _for Indian M._ 30.00
Plantsville. Dea. T. Higgins, _for New Dormitory,
Austin, Tex._ 100.00
Plantsville. H. D. Smith, _for Talladega, C._ 10.00
Portland. First Cong. Ch. 14.96
Prospect. B. B. Brown, 25; F. A. Sanford, 5, to const.
MRS. WM. H. PHIPPS L. M. 30.00
Salem. Cong. Ch. 7.00
Simsbury. First Ch. of Christ 38.67
Southport. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Rosebud Indian M.,
Dak._ 22.00
South Suffield. Cong. Ch. 10.91
Stonington. Cong. Ch. 53.75
Terryville. Cong. Ch. 164.00
Torringford. "A Friend" 1.00
Trumbull. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.00
Unionville. First Ch. of Christ 24.00
Washington. First Cong. Ch. 32.47
Washington. "A Friend" 5.00
Waterbury. By Mrs. G. C. Hill, _for Conn. Sch.,
Quitman, Ga._ 500.00
West Hartford. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Conn. Sch.,
Quitman, Ga._ 25.15
Westminster. Mrs. S. B. Carter, _for Conn. Sch.,
Quitman, Ga._ 5.00
West Winsted. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 235.19
Wethersfield. Cong. Ch. 70.82
Wolcott Cong. Ch. 7.95
---------
$2,067.48
LEGACIES.
Berlin. Estate of J. T. Hart, by James Woodruff
and E. T Hart, Exs. 1,000.00
Guilford. Estate of Mrs. Sarah P. McKeen, Anna E.
Griswold and Sarah M. Pierson, Execxs. 200.00
New London. "Trust Estate of Henry P. Haven" 250.00
---------
$3,517.48
NEW YORK, $1,653.42.
Albany. David A. Thompson 15.00
Binghamton. Mrs. C. Bean 5.00
Brooklyn. South Cong. Ch., 25; Rev. and Mrs. W.
Kincaid, 20 45.00
Candor. Cong. Ch. 15.00
Clifton Springs. "Friends." by Miss M. C. Collins,
_for School Building, Ft. Sully, Dak._ 73.00
Deansville. Cong. Ch. 14.07
Dryden. Mrs. M. L. Henry 1.00
Durham. "A Friend" 7.00
East Albany. Cong. Ch. 11.28
Eaton. Cong. Ch. 7.70
Eaton. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Rosebud Indian M., Dak._ 2.00
Floyd. Welsh Cong. Ch. 2.56
Flushing. James W. Treadwell 5.00
Freedom. A. Y. Freeman, _for Talladega C._ 10.00
Gainesville. Cong. Ch. 3.71
Granby Centre. J. C. Harrington 10.00
Lebanon Cong. Ch. 6.00
Martinsburg. Horatio Hough, 5; "A Friend," 1 6.00
New Berlin. "Friends," _for Talladega C._ 16.10
New York. "A Friend," 100; Mrs. Lucy Thurber, 5 105.00
Oneida. Edward Loomis 5.00
Penn Yan. Chas. C. Sheppard 100.00
Port Byron. Miss S. B. Osburn, _for Chinese M._ .50
Portland. John S. Coon 20.00
Poughkeepsie. Mrs. M. J. Myers 15.00
Sherburne. Mrs. J. and Miss Carrie Pratt, 20; Mrs.
H. De F. Fuller, 10; Miss Electa Rexford, 5; Mrs.
Dr. White, 5; Miss Fannie S. Benedict, 5; Miss
M. W., 50c., _for Talladega C._ 45.50
Sidney Plains. Cong. Ch. 6.00
Skaneateles. Oil Painting, from V. S. Bowditch,
Artist, Dr. D. R. Kenyon, Sherburne, N. Y., and
H. S. De Forest, South Edmeston, N. Y., _for
Talladega C._
Spencerport. Cong. Sab. Sch., 30, to const. A. J.
ARNOLD L. M.: Cong. Ch., 15; Miss Mary E. Dyer, 5 50.00
Windham. Cong. Ch. 10.00
By Mrs. L. H. Cobb, Treas. W. H. M. Union--Buffalo,
Cong. Ch., 5.--Homer, Aux. Ladies' Soc., 3.10 8.10
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Clifford, Sale of Bullets, by Mrs. Ball,
1.40.--Livonia Station, Sale of Bullets, by Miss
A. Williams, 1.50.--Syracuse, Mrs. M. C. Still,
20.--New York, G. P. Lowry, 10 32.90
-------
$653.42
LEGACY.
Fulton. Estate of Thomas W. Chesbro, by Mrs. H. G.
Hull, Execx. 1,000.00
---------
$1,653.42
NEW JERSEY, $60.00.
Irvington. Rev. A. Underwood, to const. MISS
MATE C. SMITH L. M. 50.00
Newfield. Rev. Charles Willey 10.00
PENNSYLVANIA, $119.42.
Kingston. Cong. Ch. 6.00
Myler. Mrs. Mary Bacon, Sale of Bullets, _for
Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta, Ga._ 2.85
Philadelphia. Charles Burnham 100.00
Scranton. Plymouth Cong. Ch. 10.57
OHIO, $851.95.
Adams' Mills. Mrs. M. A. Smith 10.00
Akron. W. H. M. S., by Mrs. Wm. Clayton, Treas.
O. W. H. M. W. 20.00
Bellevue. Cong. Ch. (25 of which from Dea. S. W.
Boise) 43.87
Brighton. Cong. Ch. 2.40
Brownhelm. O. H. Perry 10.00
Cincinnati. Vine St. Cong. Ch. and Sab. Sch. 123.82
Cleveland. Cong. Ch. 1.64
Fitchville. First Cong. Ch. 4.12
Geneva. A. A. .50
Greensburg. Mrs. H. B. Harrington 10.00
Huntsburg. Cong. Ch. 15.00
Huntsburg. Cong. Sab. Sch., 10; Quartus Phelps, 3;
Mrs. Rhoda Phelps, 1 14.00
Huntsburg. Miss Valeria Phelps, _for Indian M._ 1.00
Kent. Cong. Ch. 2.81
Kingsville. M. Whiting 115.00
Lodi. Cong. Ch., 6.80; Ladies' M. Soc. of Cong. Ch., 3 9.80
Medina. Cong. Ch. 61.23
Oberlin. First Cong. Ch. 64.26
Rockport. "A Friend" 4.50
Sandusky. First Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., 20, _for Share_;
Ladies' Benev. Soc. of First Cong. Ch., 12, _for
Share_ (in part) 32.00
Sandusky. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for Pleasant Hill,
Tenn._ 8.00
Saybrook. Sab. Sch. Mission Band, by Ruth W. Kelley 6.00
Sheffield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Twinsburg. Cong. Sab. Sch., to const. ELISHA C.
HERRICK L. M. 30.00
-------
$601.95
LEGACY.
Cleveland. Estate of Brewster Pelton, by John G.
Jennings, Ex. 250.00
-------
$851.95
INDIANA, $31.00.
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten,
Atlanta, Ga._; Elkhart, Sale of Bullets,
10.--Indianapolis, C. S. Warberton, 9.50.--"Rena's
Dishes," 50c.--Lima, Mrs. Phoebe Upson. 5.--Michigan
City, Sale of Bullets. 6 31.00
ILLINOIS, $489.27.
Abingdon. Cong. Ch. 4.71
Buda. Cong. Ch. 35.12
Bunker Hill. Cong. Ch. 23.15
Chebanse. Cong. Ch. 7.00
Chenoa. Cong. Ch. 4.68
Chicago. "A Friend," 5.; "A Friend," 1 6.00
Evanston. Cong. Ch. 27.87
Galesburg. "Sister," to const. HON. J. M. HOLYOKE L. M. 30.00
Geneseo. Young Ladies "Zenana" of First Cong. Ch.,
_for Share_ 20.00
Glencoe. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Fort Sully, Dak._ 21.90
Lawn Ridge. Cong. Ch., 23.78; "A Friend," 10 33.78
Peoria. "Hard Labor" 50.00
Sycamore. Cong. Ch. 70.26
Thomasboro'. "J." 7.00
Toulon. Cong. Ch. 35.00
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Chicago, Sale of Bullets and Pictures, 26.20;
Mrs. E. W. Blatchford, 25; "Friends at Millard Av.,"
5; "A Friend," 5; Miss Hattie A. Lindslay, 4; Miss
Foster's Kindergarten, 2.60.--El Paso, Sale of
Bullets, 3.--Joliet, Sale of Bullets, 5.--Rockford,
Sale of Pictures, 37 112.80
MICHIGAN, $348.01.
Ann Arbor. First Cong. Ch. 28.00
Detroit. "Friends," Second Cong. Ch. _for Talladega
C._ 5.60
Detroit. "A Friend," _for Pleasant Hill, Tenn._ 2.00
Edenville. Mrs. Swanton, _for Pleasant Hill, Tenn._ 2.00
Greenville. M. Rutan, _for Straight U._ 100.00
Kalamazoo. First Cong. Ch. 62.00
Kalamazoo. "Willing Workers," _for Share_ 20.00
Memphis. Col. by Mrs. W. P. Russell, _for Straight
U._ 2.75
Port Huron. First Cong. Ch. 36.00
Sand Lake. Rev. E. C. Herrington 5.00
Stanton. J. M. Weatherwax 5.00
Traverse City. First Cong. Ch., 26.16; H. B. Balch, 1 27.16
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Bridgman, Sale of Bullets, 1--Sandstone,
Sale of Bullets, and "Friends," 17.--Three Oaks,
"Friends," 34.50 52.50
WISCONSIN, $467.31.
Beloit. Rev. E. P. Wheeler, _for Jones Kindergarten,
Atlanta, Ga._ 2.00
Fond du Lac. Ladies of Cong. Ch. 10.00
Green Bay. First Presb. Ch. 50.76
Kenosha. First Cong. Ch., 17.50; John Lamb, 5 22.50
Kenosha. F. W. Lyman & Son, 15 pairs of Shoes, val.
22.50, _for Athens, Ala._
Lake Geneva. Mrs. Geo. Allen 5.00
Milwaukee. Grand Ave. Cong. Ch., 73.28; Grand Ave.
Cong. Sab. Sch., 7.27 80.55
Minasha. W. H. M. Soc., by Mrs. E. D. Smith, _for
Missionaries_ 75.25
Neenah. Gaius Ellis 1.00
Rio. Cong. Ch. 2.50
River Falls. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., _for Chinese M._ 20.00
Wauwatosa. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 80; Ladies of Cong.
Ch., 4 84.00
-------
$353.56
LEGACY.
Fort Howard. Estate of Rev. D. C. Curtiss, by
Edward C. Curtiss, Ex. 113.75
-------
$467.31
IOWA, $242.18.
Alden. Cong. Sab. Sch., $5; Mrs. E. Rogers, 2 7.00
Denmark. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Grinnell. Cong. Ch. 116.33
Iowa City. Cong. Sab. Sch. 4.36
Keokuk. Cong. Ch. and Sab. Sch. 23.25
Maquoketa. Cong. Ch. 6.14
Oakland. Mrs. Lyman Bush 10.00
Toledo. Mrs. E. N. Barker 5.00
Ladies of Iowa, by Ella E. Marsh, Treas.: _For Miss'y,
New Orleans, La._--Decorah, 25.--Humboldt, 2.--Storm
Lake, 5 32.00
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten, Atlanta,
Ga._--Eldora, Charles McKeen Duren, 16.--Glenwood,
"Buds of Promise," 12 28.00
MINNESOTA, $380.78.
Alexandria. Cong. Ch. 7.61
Fergus Falls. Cong Ch. 8.65
Hawley. Union Sab. Sch. 2.15
Litchfield. William E. Cathcart, 10; Mrs. J. E.
Cathcart, 50c.; "M. W.," 5 15.50
Little Falls. Cong. Ch. 2.67
Mankato. "R. R. M.," 5.; Belgrade Sab. Sch., 1.80 6.80
Mazeppa. Ladies Miss'y Soc., _for Wilmington, N. C._ 13.00
Minneapolis. Hon. E. S. Jones, _for Jones Kindergarten,
Atlanta, Ga._ 100.00
Northfield. Cong. Ch. 93.45
Ortonville. Cong. Ch., 7, and Sab. Sch., 5 12.00
Rochester. Cong. Ch. 19.08
Saint Cloud. First Cong. Ch. 6.55
By Mrs. J. N. Cross, Treas. Minnesota W. H. M. S.--Elk
River W. H. M. S., 5--Minneapolis W. H. M. S. of
Plym. Ch., _for Lady Missionaries_ and to const.
MRS. A. H. CARPENTER L. M., 51.20; Young Ladies'
M. S. of Plym. Ch., 9.38--St. Paul, W. H. M. Soc.
of Plym. Ch., 20--Zumbrota Sab. Sch., _for Miss'y,
Wilmington, N. C._, 7.74 93.32
KANSAS, $28.74.
Burlington. Cong. Ch. 3.50
Cawker City. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Great Bend. Cong. Ch. 4.00
Junction City. Cong. Ch. 2.00
Topeka. Tuition 9.24
NEBRASKA, $53.58.
Genoa. Cong. Ch. 1.40
Hastings. Cong. Ch. 25.50
Omaha. Saint Mary's Av. Cong. Ch. 20.00
Scribner. Cong. Ch. 3.15
Summit. Cong. Ch. 1.67
Ulysses. First Cong. Ch. 1.86
DAKOTA, $17.65.
Chamberlain. Cong. Ch., 5; Sab. Sch., 2.65 7.65
Le Beau. Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Cobb 10.00
CALIFORNIA, $35.00.
Oakland. Mrs. N. Gray, _for Hillsboro, N. C._ 25.00
Oakland. Rev. J. C. Holbrook, D. D. 10.00
TENNESSEE, $17.00.
Knoxville. Second Cong. Ch. 12.00
Nashville, Cong. Ch. 5.00
NORTH CAROLINA, $11.50.
Hillsborough. Cong. Sab. Sch. 1.50
Wilmington. Cong. Ch. 10.00
SOUTH CAROLINA, $15.00.
Charleston. Cong. Ch. 15.00
GEORGIA, $116.86.
Atlanta. Storrs Sch., Tuition 10.45
Atlanta. Woman's Miss'y Soc. of First Cong. Ch., _for
Fort Berthold, Dak._ 10.00
Woodville. Rev. J. H. H. Sengstacke .50
Macon. Cong. Ch. 12.00
Savannah. Cong. Ch. 30.00
By Rev. Evarts Kent, _for Jones Kindergarten_--Atlanta,
Miss Ella M. Moore, 25; Sale of Pictures, 15.25;
"Friends," 12.66.--Savannah, Sale of Bullets, 1 53.91
ALABAMA, $50.95.
Marion. Cong. Ch. 20.00
Montgomery, Cong. Ch. 15.00
Selma. First Cong. Ch. 15.95
ARKANSAS, $10.00.
Little Rock. Ladies' Miss'y Soc. of Cong. Ch.,
_for Indian M._ 10.00
MISSISSIPPI, $9.25.
Tougaloo. Rent 9.25
MISSOURI, $10.00.
Kidder. First Cong. Ch. 10.00
INCOMES, $320.00.
Avery Fund, _for Mendi M._ 190.00
Belden Scholarship Fund, _for Talladega C._ 30.00
C. F. Dike Fund, _for Straight U._ 50.00
General Endowment Fund 50.00
CANADA, $5.00.
Montreal. Charles Alexander 5.00
SCOTLAND, $43.65.
Perth. North United Presb. Ch., by D. Morton, £9 43.65
TURKEY, $10.00.
Van. Rev. Geo. C. Reynolds 10.00
----------
Total for August $20,154.22
Total from Oct. 1 to Aug. 31 $221,306.74
===========
FOR THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
Subscriptions for July and August $48.45
Previously acknowledged 1,161.23
---------
Total $1,209.68
=========
H. W. HUBBARD, Treasurer,
56 Reade St., N. Y.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The American Missionary — Volume 39, No. 10, October, 1885" ***
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