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Title: The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 11, November, 1879
Author: Various
Language: English
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VOL. XXXIII. No. 11.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
NOVEMBER, 1879.
_CONTENTS:_
EDITORIAL.
OUR ANNUAL MEETING 321
DEATH OF REV. WM. PATTON, D. D. 321
PARAGRAPHS 322
NO DEBT—NO DEFICIT 323
MISSIONARY MASS CONVENTIONS—OUR NEW
MEN 324
THE MENDI MISSION 325
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION 326
SELF-PROTECTION: Extract from address of
REV. ALBERT H. HEATH 326
SUNDAY-SCHOOL LETTERS 329
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 329
GENERAL NOTES 331
THE FREEDMEN.
PART OF A TOUR THROUGH THE CAROLINAS 334
CONTRASTS 335
GEORGIA, ATLANTA: Economical Industrial
Department 337
GEORGIA, SAVANNAH: Revival—Work and Results 338
ALABAMA, FLORENCE: New Church Building 339
ALABAMA, TALLADEGA: Protracted Meetings 339
AFRICA.
MENDI MISSION—Annual Meeting of the Missionaries 339
THE INDIANS.
A TOUR AMONG THE CLALLAM INDIANS 342
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
CABIN PRAYER-MEETINGS—Which was the
Hero? 344
RECEIPTS 346
CONSTITUTION 349
WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. 350
* * * * *
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_,
56 READE STREET. N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ct.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD. ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
EDWARD BEECHER,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
E. A. GRAVES,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAM’L HOLMES,
S. S. JOCELYN,
ANDREW LESTER,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either
of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American
Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade Street,
New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices,
21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street,
Chicago, Ill.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each
letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which
it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXIII. NOVEMBER, 1879. No. 11.
* * * * *
_American Missionary Association._
* * * * *
OUR ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Goodwin’s),
Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3 p. m. The Annual
Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, N.
Y., service commencing at half-past seven in the evening. A paper on
the Chinese question will be presented by Rev. J. H. Twichell, of
Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity of the Protection of Law
for the Indians, by Gen. J. B. Leake, United States District Attorney,
Chicago, Illinois; one on the Providential Significance of the Negro in
America, by Pres. E. H. Merrell, of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Addresses may be expected from Rev. Drs. Goodell, Roy, Corwin, Dana,
Ellsworth and other able speakers on timely and important topics. For
reductions in Railroad fares and other important items, see fourth page
of cover.
* * * * *
We are called to record the death of another venerable friend of the
Association, Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D., who died suddenly at his home in
New Haven, only a few days after his return from a trip to Europe, on
Saturday, the 6th of September. He had been a Vice-President of the
Association for fifteen years, and always a warm and generous friend
of the colored people. He was the father of President Patton of Howard
University.
Educated at Middlebury College and at Princeton Seminary, he was the
first pastor of the Broome Street, now the Madison Square Presbyterian
Church, in New York. Since 1862 he has resided in New Haven, Conn. He
has labored much and written much, and died at the good old age of 81,
beloved and honored. He remembered the Association in his will with a
bequest of $500.
* * * * *
In our issue of last month, the article “North and South” stated
that we have a common interest in the glory of our Revolution. This
assertion finds confirmation in the fact that a Southern _Centennial_
is now under process of arrangement. It is to occur on the 7th of
October, 1880, at King’s Mountain, North Carolina, to commemorate
the battle that was fought at that place Oct. 7, 1780. In July a
meeting was held at that same mountain to make preparation. The States
of Georgia and of North and South Carolina were represented. Three
thousand people were present. Patriotic speeches were made. In these,
and in the several resolutions adopted, as reported in the _Atlanta
Constitution_, not one word was used in reflection upon the American
Union. All the other States were invited to participate. Besides the
States represented, those of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and
Tennessee were to be memorialized, through their Legislatures, to make
such appropriations as would be necessary to the proper consummation
of the celebration. The ladies of those several States were invited to
co-operate. The committee of arrangements were to secure a collection
of the historic relics of the battle ground and to apply for troops to
illustrate the plan of the battle.
* * * * *
Secretary Powell has recently made an earnest plea in the _Advance_
for printing-presses, greatly needed at Fisk, Straight and Tougaloo
Universities. He says: “About $1,000 are needed for each press, with
its accompaniments of type, rules and leads. But there is a firm in
this city that for presses going into this work will discount fifty per
cent. Only five hundred dollars, therefore, are needed for each press
and accompaniments. And in what direction could five hundred dollars be
better used for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom and the safety of
the land?”
* * * * *
Incidental testimony from pure sources of high authority to the
value of a work is often more gratifying to those engaged in it than
purposed compliments. A recognition of its value before an outside
audience is also of special importance. We are glad, therefore, to
call attention to the fact that Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, in his
recent political address at Worcester, referring to the interest of the
Northern people in everything that would promote the true interests of
the South, speaks of Captain Eads’ jetties, “making one long harbor of
the Southern Mississippi,” as a great boon to its material prosperity,
and points to “the magnificent work of the American Missionary
Association” as in a higher sphere a source of sincere rejoicing to all
good men of the North.
We notice, also, in the report of the Peabody Educational Fund, the
following reference to our work: “Much good has been accomplished
for the colored schools by the universities and other endowed
institutions with normal departments maintained by different Christian
denominations. One association has already sent out from its numerous
institutions 5,267 teachers, by whom about 100,000 pupils have
been instructed. A large proportion of the graduates of all these
institutions become teachers.”
The following tribute to the Hampton Normal Institute is also paid
by the Superintendent of Public Schools in South Carolina: “The
agent of the Peabody Fund has placed at my disposal ten fifty-dollar
scholarships in the Normal and Agricultural Institute, at Hampton, Va.
A visit to the Institute, and observation of the manner in which it is
conducted, convince me that it is doing exactly what it professes to
do.”
Whether our work needs testimonials to its value or not, we are always
glad to find such as these, which were not intended either for the ears
of our teachers or officers, or even constituency. If we needed to be
assured at all, such witnesses would give us deeper confidence than
ever in its real need and real efficiency.
* * * * *
Dr. O. H. White, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society,
writes from London:
The recent death of Dr. Mullens and four others connected with the
effort of the London Missionary Society to reach Central Africa, has
turned the thought of this people to our plans and work for Africa as
never before. They begin to believe that, as Dr. Moffat said, “Africans
must go to teach and save Africans; it is the Divine plan.” And the
more I speak upon this idea, and the more I see of the people, the more
I am persuaded that this view will prevail in the future, and we shall
have all we can do to furnish the colored missionaries for all the
missionary societies of Europe working in Africa.
If our colored missionaries show to the world that they can live in
Africa and can manage the affairs of a mission as well as white men,
then the demand for them by the missionary societies of this country
will be large enough for all we can supply from America in many years.
And the ministers here tell me that if my mission to the country should
result in nothing else, it will more than pay for all the time, work
and expense which I am giving to this effort.
Were it not for the earnest commendation of many of the most prominent
ministers and laymen in England and Scotland of my sermons and
addresses on the subject of the evangelization of Africa by the
Freedmen, I should give up at once in these hard times of dreadful
depression in business; but the Lord has evidently given me the ear and
the heart of the people with reference to the future redemption of that
vast continent of Africa by the emancipated slaves.
* * * * *
NO DEBT—NO DEFICIT.
From time to time during the year our readers have been told the
condition of our treasury. Occasionally it has been only a place to put
money in, a great vacuity. It has been with us a year of anxiety and
frequent change, of falling and of rising tides. And now we have just
closed the books which contain the record of another financial period.
And by the arrival of the date which this number of the MISSIONARY
bears, and which we have to anticipate for printing and mailing to our
remotest subscribers, we shall have made its full statement to the
annual meeting.
It is with profound gratitude to Almighty God, and with renewed
confidence in Him and in His people, that we write its record.
_First._ We have fully met all the expenses of the year from the year’s
income. We have kept in active operation all our institutions and
churches. No one has been suspended or stopped for lack of funds. We do
not by any means intend to say that all have been fully equipped and
carried on to the best advantage, for we have not dared by any means
to do with them all that could have been done. They have all been run
in the most economical manner consistent with the accomplishment of
their main intent. The salaries have been small, the services have been
great, the self-denials have been many, of our pastors and teachers;
still, in the year, which only at its close has begun to show signs of
returning commercial prosperity, we are glad to record an undiminished
work all paid for.
_Secondly._ We have fully paid the debt. The $37,389.79 of indebtedness
reported at the last annual meeting has absolutely disappeared. Every
cent of it has been paid, to the last of the seventy-nine. The great
work undertaken three years ago is finished, and we are free. We have
been for a long time like Lot’s wife, looking back and fearing lest
perchance the past might overwhelm us; but God has only rained down
riches out of Heaven and buried our burden beneath His gracious gifts;
and we are free now to look and to press forward.
But such a statement brings a weight of grave responsibility. We say
of the treasury of the Association gladly and gratefully, No debt—no
deficit. But we must remember, in all humility, we do ever owe the debt
to love our fellow-men and show it by our works of Christian charity,
and our deficit is what we have been lacking in filling up the full
measure of our opportunity for serving Christ in the person of His poor.
* * * * *
MISSIONARY MASS CONVENTIONS.
At the late State Conference of Ohio, a Committee on Missions was
appointed, of which Prof. Judson Smith, D. D., is chairman, and Rev.
C. C. Creegan, of Wakeman, secretary. It is proposed to hold a series
of mass conventions, at central points, and every member of every
Congregational church in the State will be invited to attend at least
one of these meetings. Rev. James Powell will represent the A. M. A.
The following schedule has been prepared:
Marietta, Oct. 31st,
Cincinnati, Nov. 4th,
Mansfield, Nov. 5th,
Toledo, Nov. 6th,
Wauseon, Nov. 7th,
Sandusky, Nov. 8th,
Norwalk, Nov. 10th,
Wakeman, Nov. 11th,
Elyria, Nov. 12th,
Wellington, Nov. 13th,
Medina, Nov. 14th,
Cleveland, Nov. 15th,
Burton, Nov. 18th,
Painesville, Nov. 19th,
Ashtabula, Nov. 20th,
Jefferson, Nov. 21st,
N. Bloomfield, Nov. 22d,
Youngstown (Welsh Conference), Nov. 23d,
Windham, Nov. 24th,
Ravenna, Nov. 25th,
Mt. Vernon, Nov. 28th,
Newark (Welsh Conference), Nov. 29th,
Columbus, Nov. 30th.
* * * * *
OUR NEW MEN.
We are delighted with our new men. Scarcely ever in the history of the
Association have we had so large a number of recruits for important
places in our service, of such proved quality, and more and more we
find ourselves able to retain the services of our best men, who have
served the cause of education and religion with us in years past. It is
to us a gratifying indication of the growing sense among our Christian
ministers and teachers of the importance and dignity of the work, and
of their appreciation of it, as founded and established beyond all
question, and for all time (as we measure things), that such men are
willing to commit themselves to it, and to remain in it year after year.
We accept the congratulations of _The Congregationalist_ as expressed
in the following paragraph:
The Association is to be congratulated upon new accessories to its
working force. Rev. Henry S. DeForest of Iowa has accepted the
Presidency of Talladega College, and is already upon the ground. Rev.
S. D. Gaylord, a highly commended schoolman of the West, has taken the
principalship of the Avery Institute at Charleston, S. C. The late
principal, Prof. A. W. Farnham, is proposed as an occupant of a chair
in one of the colleges of the A. M. A.; Rev. C. W. Hawley, pastor of
the Second Church at Amherst, Mass., is to enter upon the pastorate of
the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, which was resigned by Rev.
S. S. Ashley, that he might take a season of respite after his fourteen
years of invaluable Southern service. Rev. O. W. Fay accepts the call
to the pastoral charge in Montgomery, Ala.; Rev. O. D. Crawford of
West Bloomfield, N. Y., goes down to serve as pastor of the church
and superintendent of the Emerson Institute at Mobile; Prof. J. K.
Cole is transferred from New Orleans to the principalship of the Beach
Institute at Savannah, Ga.; while Prof. McPherron is promoted to be
Principal of the Normal Department of Straight University.
* * * * *
THE MENDI MISSION.
We call attention to the summary on another page of the Second Annual
Meeting of our Missionaries on the West Coast of Africa. There seems to
have been in it a careful review of the work of the year and a study of
the means at hand for carrying it in the future, and a reasonable view
of its needs and possibilities.
It will be seen that the report of church and evangelizing work
indicates not only earnest effort but substantial results. The
missionaries are planning—and the plan has resulted from their own
experience and observation—a more free use of native helpers as it
shall become possible. All Missions have come or are coming to this. It
needs but a simple knowledge of the love of God and the redemption of
the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, to fit a man to go home and tell
his neighbors the good news which has come to him. That is the work
of evangelization. And if these native Christians, carrying to their
own people only that portion of the Gospel which they have known and
certified by their experience, can come into frequent contact with the
missionaries educated and established in the faith, they will be kept
from wandering off into error, and grow in grace and knowledge by using
the grace and knowledge they have already received and acquired.
The missionaries have, to some extent, upon the basis of the year’s
experience, re-arranged themselves so that they think (and we agree
with them) that they can work to better advantage than the past year.
One of the schools, that at Good Hope, seems to have been very
successful and to have reached a large number of native children. The
other, at Avery, has been more confined to the training of children,
who are taken into the home to be under continuous influence, in the
hope that by industrial and religious, as well as mental training, they
may in time be fitted to be important helpers in the work.
Mr. Anthony, who joined the Mission in March last, to take especial
charge of the mill and other industrial work at Avery, has already
proved to be a valuable addition to the band. And the Committee have
just commissioned and sent out another recruit to strengthen the hands,
we trust, of those already in the field. His name is Nathaniel Nurse.
He was born in the island of Barbadoes, West Indies; immigrated to
Liberia, Africa, where he spent five years; came to the United States;
spent nearly two years in the cities of New York and Boston; was
converted to Christ in the latter city nine years ago. He returned to
Barbadoes, visiting also various other West Indian islands. In 1875 he
went to England, visiting Liverpool, and spending a year in London.
While in the latter city he was engaged in missionary work.
He was sent, about two years ago, by the Freedmen’s Missions Aid
Society, of London, assisted by Belmont Church, Aberdeen, Scotland,
and several individual Christians, to Fisk University, Nashville,
Tenn., where he has been studying with a view to devoting himself to
missionary work in Africa.
These young men are in a very trying position, and need the prayers of
all good people that they may have wisdom and grace and patience from
the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.
* * * * *
THE ARTHINGTON MISSION.
Let it not be thought by any of the friends of the Association, because
we have not had more to say in the MISSIONARY, that we have given up
the hope of yet being able to accept the noble offer of Mr. Robert
Arthington, and of establishing and sustaining the Mission proposed by
him. We have already fully and formally recognized the importance of
the work, the accessibility of the field and its peculiar claims upon
our body. Equatorial Africa is our sphere. It is in that that we have
labored for over thirty years, and to that that we desire to confine
ourselves. This Eastern Mission will be a proper balance and complement
to the Mendi Mission on the Western coast. But we have tried to make
haste slowly.
The condition precedent made by Mr. Arthington, that the debt of the
Association should be extinguished, is now fully and fairly met. That
is an obstacle out of the way. The only other condition is one on our
part of prudent anticipation. It will take a large amount—though it
has been more often over than underestimated—to provide the men and
the outfit and to put them on the ground. It will require at least an
amount annually equal to that we are expending on the Western Mission
to sustain this in the East. And the Executive Committee have thought
it wise to assure themselves of $50,000, which they would have in hand
to devote to this work as it might be required, before they should take
the first step towards beginning it.
There are several things within our horizon to-day which conspire to
give us hope of a speedy realization of this plan. Mr. Arthington’s
offer still holds good. There is $15,000 for the work to begin with.
Dr. O. H. White, the indefatigable Secretary of the Freedmen’s Missions
Aid Society in Great Britain, is enthusiastic on the subject of this
Mission, and reports to us that the interest of the English and Scotch
people in it is deep and deepening. Already he has secured considerable
sums to be devoted to this work. Recently he has written us asking for
a definite agreement on the part of the Association as to what it will
do in the way of providing from this country a portion of the fund
deemed necessary to the inception of the Mission, if he shall raise
from the mother country a second $15,000. The Committee has answered
him that they will agree to provide the $20,000 to make the needed
$50,000 for the start, and will then, “with the blessing of God and
the assistance of the friends of the African race in Great Britain and
America, perpetually maintain the Mission.”
The Committee felt free to make this pledge, in the present financial
condition of the Association, and especially as final receipts
from the Avery estate have recently come to hand, amounting to a
considerable part of this sum, and which are devoted by the donor to
the evangelization of the African race in Africa.
It is a great step for us to take; but we have felt that it would be
a great mistake, a great failure in duty, for us not to take it. God
bless Robert Arthington, of Leeds! God bless Dr. White in his efforts
to raise this second fund! God bless every man and woman on either side
the sea who shall join hands and put together their resources to carry
the light of the gospel of love and liberty into the thick darkness of
Eastern Equatorial Africa! Who will help us on this side the water?
* * * * *
SELF-PROTECTION.
[We extract from the valuable address given at the Boston
anniversary, by the Rev. Albert H. Heath, of New Bedford, Mass.,
his second division (all we can find room for), in which he
treats forcibly of one most important aspect of our home work.
In other portions of the address he spoke at length of our
special obligations to these people and of the work in the light
of a genuine Christian philanthropy. We commend these strong
words to careful reading and thought.]
Self-protection is to be taken into consideration in this work. What
effect, we may well inquire, is it going to have upon the beloved
institutions of our land if these races are not Christianly educated?
It is possible that many will feel that the Indian, whatever our
treatment of him, can never offer any serious menace to our civil life;
we may safely let him go, as his fathers have gone before him, marching
before our fixed bayonets toward the setting sun. And if this military
policy is to prevail, we shall all be glad when he has made his last
trail across the plain and echoed his last shrill war-whoop amid the
mountains’ fastnesses. But, after all, friends, it may be there is a
God in Heaven who will remember and avenge the red man’s wrong. “They
that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” is not alone to
be found in Scripture. It is written in our constitutions; it is a
fundamental law of our being; and history bears abundant testimony that
it is no dead letter. We ought to remember this law as we press the
Indian from his God-given right. It may be that we, the children of the
Pilgrims, may yet find ourselves driven from our Eastern homes and the
institutions which the century has helped us to build, while the red
hand of Nihilism holds sway over the graves of our fathers, and crowds
us, as we are to-day crowding the Indian, into the track of the setting
sun.
But whatever may be the result of our treatment of the Indian, there
can be no doubt what will be the effect if the Negro and the Chinaman
are left uneducated and unchristianized. Already do we feel the hand
of the black man in our politics; our ears have distinctly heard the
low rumbling, and we have felt the shudder beneath our feet which
betokens an eruption. Before we know it Vesuvius may be belching forth
its fiery flood, darkening the sky and spreading far and wide its river
of death. Nor will the exodus greatly change the matter. The demagogue
and the office-seeker are a genus that thrives in all climes. They
may be more poisonous at the South, as most reptiles are that breed
under a tropical sun; but the frosts of the North do not kill them any
more than they kill the larvæ of the insects which every April sun
hatches into life. It only needs the warmth of an election to quicken
them and bring them in buzzing swarms around your ears. There will be
corrupt politicians in Kansas who will rob them of their political
rights as readily as those in the South. It matters little where they
dwell; even in New York or Boston they would find themselves still
in the reign of demoniacal possession. While they remain an ignorant
class they will be a dangerous class. To be shot and intimidated may
not be, after all, their worst political fate; to be corrupted with
bribery would be equally bad. The electioneering purse, in the hand of
the Northern office-seeker, might prove as potent in robbing them of
their rights as the pistol which Southern chivalry may point at their
devoted heads. Let us not, therefore, cheer ourselves, nor encourage
these, our colored friends, that there is any holy land in these United
States to which they may go in solemn exodus and be safe. Wherever they
may be, ignorance is their greatest curse; nothing but education and
Christianization will dispel this shadow that is darkening their lives,
and lift this yoke of bondage that is now galling their necks, and in
no other way can they be converted into useful citizens. They are an
element of danger to the Republic, until, like our Northern children,
they grow up under the shadow of the school-house. It is possible that
all are not aware how great is the weight of this ignorance, which is
like loose ballast in the ship of State, ready at any sudden lurch to
change sides and carry us to the bottom. We and our legislators have
been most thoughtless in our treatment of this question. In a single
day, by legislative enactment, we put the ballot into the hand of a
million men, not one of whom knew a letter of the alphabet. A more
suicidal blow has seldom been aimed at the heart of this Republic. We
have given, almost indiscriminately, the right of suffrage to these
Southern States, and yet in sixteen of them seventy-five out of every
hundred of the population, according to the census of 1870, are growing
up entirely without school advantages. At the present moment a majority
of the voters in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South
Carolina are without the ability either to read or write. In either
of these States, or in all of them, any election can be carried by
sheer weight of ignorance. Seventeen hundred thousand men, according
to a statistical report which has been put into my hands, at the last
national election cast the ballot which they could neither read nor
write. No wonder we were plunged into confusion. Had not a kindly
Providence been on our side we should have been plunged into anarchy.
And this scene waits to repeat itself in 1880. The next President of
these States will be elected to his high position by sheer force of
ignorance—ignorance manipulated and controlled by men whose hearts are
as black with treason to-day as they were in ’61. No thoughtful man can
look upon these facts and not tremble for the safety of his country.
So, also, is the ignorant and unchristianized Chinaman making himself
felt in our politics. He casts no ballot, he holds no office. He
does not come to the polls to drink and smoke and sell himself to
the highest bidder on election day; and yet his political influence
already is as wide as the continent; his unwelcome ghost stalks through
the halls of Congress, and broods over every political or religious
convention that is holden between the two oceans. Already have we
seen one sovereign State changing the terms of its constitution and
revolutionizing its laws out of pure regard for the Chinaman. And,
still more significant, we have seen our great National Congress
voting to change the very genius of the Government, and to shut the
doors that have for a hundred years stood open, and which we mean
shall not be closed for a hundred years to come; and we will write
over these open doors in letters of fire, so that the most distant
islands of the sea may read: “This is the world’s asylum, free to the
oppressed of all nations.” Now, I doubt not there are evils connected
with the coming of the heathen Chinaman. There is oppression and
sorrow brought home to many hearts. I feel that there must be more
or less of pollution in his touch. I pity the State into which this
old world sewerage empties itself. But the remedy is not in building
walls, though they be heaven-high, on our Chinaward side. This evil
can be handled and neutralized only by the Christian virtue that is in
us. Can we convert this heathen material—permeate it with Christian
thought? Can we assimilate it and weave it into the civil fabric we are
making? If so, it will do us no harm; otherwise it will rankle like
poison in our blood, and possibly work our destruction in the end. This
question should not be settled in the political arena. It is a moral, a
religious question. The forces that are needed now are those that lie
in the hand of the Christian church. We must permeate this festering
mass with the leaven of Christ, and we must do it speedily. The evil
is growing. Politicians are beginning to treat it, and therefore it is
rapidly growing worse. It cannot be cured by legislative enactment.
Legislation knows of no instrumentality, save that the civil statute
ultimately seeks support in the bayonet. Before we know it, this
question may be baptized in blood. Those western shores are far away.
The Rocky Mountain wall lifts up a tremendous barrier to separate us
and make us twain; only one little thread of iron binds us together
and makes us one. Let us not wait until the whole Pacific slope
bristles with rebellion as the South did in ’61; but let us pour the
strains of our Christian influence over the mountains. If we can
Christianize this heathen mass, then the trouble is over, the danger
passed. Self-protection, then, affords a most powerful motive in the
prosecution of this work.
ALBERT H. HEATH.
* * * * *
SUNDAY-SCHOOL LETTERS.
The interest of the Sunday-schools in our Southern work has been
increasing during the past year. The concert exercise has taken well,
and many schools have sent us their first contributions.
How many of the schools connected with our churches understand clearly
our offer in regard to correspondence from the field, we do not know.
It is this: any Sunday-school which contributes ten dollars or more
annually to the work of the A. M. A., if they request it, is entitled
to a quarterly letter from one of our missionaries.
The “Children’s Page” of this number of the MISSIONARY contains such a
letter. It is bright and interesting to both teachers and scholars. The
following letter from a superintendent tells of the interest excited by
such letters in his school.
Besides the good done by the money given, is it not well worth while to
train up our children to give, and to educate them in the missionary
spirit? This letter is in response to a Sunday-school letter from Miss
Barr:
MISS L. E. B.
DEAR SISTER IN CHRIST: Your kind letter of the 11th inst. came to
hand by due course of mail, and your very valuable epistle to our
Sabbath-school, of the 2d, came last Saturday. Accept my sincere thanks
for the same, in behalf of the Sunday-school and myself. I think if
you could have seen the eager faces and deep interest manifested by
all while I read it to the school last Sabbath, you would be satisfied
that at least one missionary of the A. M. A. would be mentioned by our
praying ones in their petitions at the Throne of Grace for some time,
and that all of us have so much of a missionary spirit kindled in our
hearts, and so much interest awakened in you personally, that your next
letter will be looked for so eagerly that it will seem a good while to
wait. I think you must have a very earnest-working church in Atlanta,
and that the Master will bless them and you is my prayer. I have no
doubt but “Aunt Lucy” will have many prayers offered for a blessing
upon her.
I am glad to know that your present field of labor in the vineyard is
so pleasant; and that the Master will give you health and strength to
labor for Him in it, and that you may be the means in His hands of
gathering in many precious sheaves from it to the heavenly garners, is
the sincere prayer of
Your humble fellow-servant,
R. H.,
_Superintendent Congregational Sabbath-school_.
* * * * *
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
ANNISTON, ALA.—Rev. P. J. McEntosh writes: “My field is increasing
in interest greatly. I have just closed a series of meetings in our
church. The Lord hath once more visited this part of His vineyard.
There have been twenty-two conversions in our meetings. Seventeen of
these have cast their lot among us—seven strong, settled men, four
settled wives, six promising young ladies. Others are still asking
what they must do to be saved, and if I can induce them to take Jesus
at His word and believe on Him, they too shall be saved. Pray for us,
that I may lead them on in the paths of peace, and that they may learn
from experience that ‘The path of the just is as a shining light, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’”
TALLADEGA, ALA.—Our first word from the new President of the College,
Rev. H. S. DeForest: I came sound and dusty this p. m., having seen
many things of interest to me at Hampton and Atlanta. The first look
here more than meets my expectations. The buildings, grounds and
scenery are very pleasant, and the possibilities certainly are grand.
ATLANTA, GA.—The Fall term of the University opened October 1st. The
first week gives promise of a very full school. There are already
thirty girl boarders, and the indications are that their Hall will be
as badly crowded as last year. The reports of the Summer work of the
students, in all parts of the State, are very cheering. There is an
increasing desire for education. The white people are taking a deeper
and more kindly interest in the education of the colored children and
in the University.
Dr. Orr, State School Commissioner of Georgia, has, with the approval
of Dr. Sears, established fourteen Peabody scholarships, each paying
$72, in the Normal department of Atlanta University. The award is to be
determined by competitive examinations.
The Storrs School is running over full.
CYPRESS SLASH, GA.—Brother Snelson writes: Last Sunday, 14th, I spent
with Brother Headen at Cypress Slash. Gave the communion there, and
received three new members. They have made a pretty good pole-house,
about 28×20 feet, in which they hold school and meeting.
FLATONIA, TEXAS.—We are holding a protracted meeting, and last Sunday
was our communion. There seems to be more interest in the church, and
the prospect is fair for doing good. Last night seventeen persons rose
for prayer. Brother Church has been here since last Thursday, and will
remain a few days longer.
AUSTIN, TEXAS.—Mr. A. J. Turner writes: I was in Austin last week and
visited Mrs. Garland’s school. She had just returned from the North and
started her school. She has a full Sabbath-school. I visited with her
the site of the new building, the walls of which are rising. It will be
a beautiful place. I rejoice that Northern people are doing so much for
our people.
GOLIAD, TEXAS.—“There is an increasing desire among our people to carry
the Gospel beyond the bounds of our churches, and so far as it has
been done, our polity and purity have attracted favorable attention.
There is a growing dissatisfaction with the worship and moralities of
the older churches on the part of some of their members and others who
would join but for these. The young people, in their plays, imitate the
‘shouting’ to perfection. It is fine sport to them to see the church
members perform. They laugh at the claim of Divine help to do what they
can so easily do without that help. The young men, on this account,
are increasingly more difficult to reach with the Gospel. Education,
property and morality are cast aside as of little worth; stealing and
shooting among themselves are not uncommon. Only a pure Gospel can save
these young men from dissipation and crime; yet they see the grossest
immoralities in church members, and the wildest fanaticism in their
modes of worship. A wide door is open here for Christian workers, and
as promising as any other to those of great patience and self-denial.”
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—THE PEABODY EDUCATIONAL FUND—REPORTS OF THE GENERAL AGENT AND
THE TREASURER.—The annual meeting of the trustees of the Peabody
Educational Fund was held October 1st, at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
The chairman addressed the meeting, and in the course of his remarks
mentioned with regret the shrinkage in the income from the investments,
and expressed the hope that from other sources the funds would be
rendered adequate to the work laid out.
The thirteenth annual report was presented by Dr. Sears, the general
agent. He said that the work had made satisfactory progress during the
past year. The difficulties arising from the poverty of the South, he
continued, are now increased by the pressure of the State debts. The
necessity of aid from the Federal Government is now greater than ever
before. The evils that are certain to grow out of popular ignorance,
if the public schools are suffered to languish, or if they reach only
a part of the population, will not be limited to the States where they
first appear, but will cast their blight over the whole country.
It might be thought best to limit the assistance to the colored
population, if any should be granted. By an act of the General
Government the right of suffrage has been extended to them. A large
proportion of them are confessedly unqualified for a judicious exercise
of this power. If the colored people are the “wards of the nation,” in
what way can the nation so well perform the duties of its trust as by
qualifying them for citizenship?
Of the two grand objects of this fund, the first, the promotion of
common school education, has been thoroughly established, and the chief
attention should be henceforth given to the second, the professional
training of teachers. In some of the States that stand most in need of
efficient normal schools, it would be impossible to provide at once the
requisite funds for their establishment.
Though there are very few normal schools of a high character besides
our own in the States with which we are concerned, there are several
of different grades of excellence, either maintained or aided by
public authority. Some of the former, and all of the latter, are for
colored teachers. Much good has been accomplished for the colored
schools by the universities and other endowed institutions with normal
departments, maintained by different Christian denominations. One
association has already sent out from its numerous institutions 5,267
teachers, by whom about 100,000 pupils have been instructed. A large
proportion of the graduates of all these institutions become teachers.
The report by States shows the following facts: In Virginia less than
half the children of the State attended the public schools last year.
In the colored schools there was a loss of 3,271, compared with the
year before. Over $250,000 of the school money has been diverted to
other purposes; but in the future three-fourths of the appropriation
are secure.
In North Carolina the attendance is less than one-half. Difficulty has
been found in this State to induce young men of character and talent to
prepare for the business of teaching, as the pay is uncertain and but
little more than the wages of a common laborer.
The school attendance in South Carolina has increased 13,843 during
the year. For several years the system of public instruction was in
a disordered condition; but, during the last year, a better state of
things has been manifest. But the want of normal schools and of more
funds is painfully felt. Such, at least, are the views of the State
Superintendent. In regard to scholarships he says: “The agent of the
Peabody Fund has placed at my disposal ten fifty-dollar scholarships
in the Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va. A visit to
the Institute and observation of the manner in which it is conducted
convince me that it is doing exactly what it professes to do.” He
adds: “There are dangers before us which it will require the highest
patriotism and the wisest statesmanship to avoid. Nearly 57 per cent.
of the voting population of the State are unable to read the ballots
which they cast.”
In Georgia, notwithstanding the increase of nearly 40,000 in the school
population, the number of the illiterate is diminished 20,614. Great
encouragement is felt regarding the educational prospects in the State.
In Florida education is advancing rapidly. Two-fifths of the children
attend school, and there are applicants promised for all the Normal
College scholarships that can be allowed to that State.
Opposition to the public free school system is disappearing in
Mississippi, and a healthy condition is reported. A normal institute
has been established. One-third of the school population attend
in Louisiana. In the Colored Normal School we have had twenty
scholarships of $50 each. This arrangement is the result of an extended
correspondence with the State Superintendent.
In Tennessee, never since the first year of the present school system
has so much money been raised for its support; never has the school tax
been paid more cheerfully. Speaking of the use made of Mr. Peabody’s
gift, the Superintendent says: “The encouragement given by the wise
disposition of this fund has always proved an invaluable accessory in
the arduous work of organizing and sustaining the cause of popular
education in this State and in the South.”
The State Superintendent of West Virginia says of the aid received from
the Peabody Fund for the Normal Institutes: “It is of the highest value
to the cause of education, and contributes more, perhaps, in general
advantage than an equal expenditure in any other direction could do.”
The appropriations from the fund for the last year were: Virginia,
$9,850; North Carolina, $6,700; South Carolina, $4,250; Georgia,
$6,500; Florida, $3,000; Alabama, $3,600; Mississippi, $4,000;
Louisiana, $7,650; Texas, $7,700; Arkansas, $5,600; Tennessee, $12,000;
West Virginia, $4,000; total, $74,850.
The Treasurer’s report showed a balance of about $83,000 available
for expenditure during the coming year. In former years the income
has amounted at times to as much as $110,000, but there has been some
shrinkage since the 6 per cent. bonds, in which much of the fund was
invested, have been called in, the new investments being in 4 per cent.
bonds.
The officers of the Board, who have been continued from year to year,
are Robert Winthrop, Chairman; G. Peabody Russell, Secretary; Samuel
Wetmore, Treasurer; the Rev. Barnas Sears, General Agent.
* * * * *
The Indians.
—In the coming fall, twenty more girls will be added to the number
of Indian students at Hampton. Their due proportion is regarded as
essential to the success and value of the effort. When the Indian
prisoners from St. Augustine returned to the Territory, and their wives
and families turned out to welcome them home with rejoicing, the long
dreamed of meeting proved such a shock to the reconstructed braves that
some of them broke from the company and ran away to the woods, refusing
to have anything more to do with their affectionate but very dirty
squaws. The situation was humorous but tragic, and withal very natural.
How could they walk “the white man’s road” in such companionship? And
how could they walk it alone? The co-education of the Indian boys
and girls, with its lessons of mutual respect and helpfulness in
the class-rooms and work-rooms, is the hope, and the only hope, of
permanent Indian civilization.
—The Secretary of War has turned over to the Department of the Interior
the U. S. Army barracks at Carlisle, Penn., to be used for the purpose
of Indian education, under charge of Capt. R. H. Pratt, who has been
sent West to collect 100 Indian youths for his school, as well as
the girls for Hampton. Captain Pratt’s wise, Christian philanthropy
toward the Indian prisoners at St. Augustine was the origin of the
present movement for Indian education, and has demonstrated his eminent
qualifications for the work.
* * * * *
Africa.
—Mr. Mackay gives most interesting accounts of his intercourse with
Mtesa and his chiefs. Every Sunday, after Wilson left, he conducted
service at the palace for the king and chiefs, speaking in Suahili
without an interpreter, and Mtesa interpreting into the Uganda language
for the benefit of those who did not understand Suahili. On Christmas
day a special service was held, all the chiefs being in “extra dress,”
when Mackay explained the great event of the day. He regards Mtesa as
most intelligent, and quite inclined to listen to the word of God.
Gratifying instances are mentioned of the influence already exerted
upon him. Some Arab traders arrived to buy slaves, offering cloth in
exchange, and saying they had come from the Sultan of Zanzibar. Mackay
vigorously opposed them, informed the king of the Sultan’s decrees
against the slave traffic, and of the cruelties perpetrated upon its
victims. Then he gave a lecture on physiology, and asked why such an
organism as a human body, which no man could make, should be sold for a
rag of cloth which any man could make in a day. The result was not only
the rejection of the Arabs’ demand, but a decree forbidding any person
in Uganda to sell a slave on pain of death! By another decree Mtesa has
forbidden all Sunday labor, and the question of the evils of polygamy
has been seriously discussed by him and the chiefs. He was on capital
terms with the chiefs, and was teaching numbers of people to read,
having made large alphabet sheets for the purpose. He describes the
Arab traders as most bitter against the Mission. They are distilling
ardent spirits from the plantain, and drunkenness is spreading in
consequence.
* * * * *
THE FREEDMEN.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
* * * * *
PART OF A TOUR THROUGH THE CAROLINAS.
A new administration was to be inaugurated in the Avery Institute. The
way was found open, and the new Principal, Rev. S. D. Gaylord, one of
the foremost educational managers of the interior, was greeted on the
first day, the 29th of September, with an attendance of 258, which
was an advance of 40 or 50 upon former opening days. The prospect was
for a continued accession through the month. The _News and Courier_
gave a handsome notice. I found that the Avery was an occasion of city
pride, not only on the part of colored but of white citizens. The
authorities of Claflin University, at Orangeburg, S. C., have visited
and complimented the institute, seeking to pattern after some of the
methods. Prof. A. W. Farnham, who has been at the head of the Avery for
four years, bringing it up to its high standard, will do a like work on
a more general scale in the Normal department of Atlanta University.
The Plymouth church, during the Summer, under the care of the pastor’s
assistant, Rev. Mr. Birney, a former fellow-servant with the members,
had been prospering. Under the lead of Rev. Temple Cutler, the church
will enter upon a career of enlargement. The new principal and the
Field Superintendent preached in the Centennial M. E. and the Zion
Southern Presbyterian churches, the largest for the colored people of
the city, as well as in the Plymouth. These three churches form the
bulk of the constituency of the Avery.
At Orangeburg a repeated visit and a preaching service prepared the
way for the coming of the new pastor, Rev. T. T. Benson, a graduate of
the Talladega theological department. A pleasant church and a rallying
people were ready to greet him.
On the way I stopped off at Chester, S. C., to visit my seminary
classmate, Rev. Samuel Loomis, who, in ten and a half years, has gotten
under way his “Brainerd Institute,” and has helped to plant nine
Presbyterian churches within that county. Blessed is the man who is
permitted to lay foundations in that way. At Charlotte, N. C., I ran
out to visit the Biddle University, which is the principal collegiate
and theological institution of our Northern Presbyterian brethren in
the South. Rev. D. S. Mattoon, the president, is supported by Rev.
Messrs. R. M. Hall and S. J. Beatty. Rev. Thomas Lawrence, of Penn., is
to take the place of Rev. Dr. John H. Shedd, who has returned to his
mission work among the Nestorians. The current catalogue shows eight
students in theology, twenty-one in the college classes, and a total
of 155. This institution is for males alone. Its mate, for females, is
Scotia Seminary, at Concord. The glory of the Biddle is, that in these
ten years it has planted a whole Presbytery of thirty churches in the
region round about, besides raising up teachers and preachers for the
regions beyond.
In the back country of Randolph County, N. C., twenty-five miles away
from the railroad, I looked up Rev. Islay Walden, a former slave in
that region, a recent graduate of New Brunswick Seminary, N. J.,
who had been ordained by the classis of New Brunswick. The A. M. A.
had sent him down to make a field in his native State. The Field
Superintendent assisted him in organizing a Congregational Church of
thirty members. The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper were
administered. This is in the neighborhood of one of the churches of our
antebellum missionary, Rev. Daniel Worth, whom all our colored friends
and some of the whites remembered affectionately. His church, a former
Wesleyan, has been taken up by the M. E. Church, so that they are well
cared for.
We were waited upon by two committees, one from Hill Town, seven miles
away, and one from Troy, the county seat of Montgomery, thirty miles
off. The former had one man to offer three acres of land and timber
in the tree for all the lumber needed for a church school-house, and
that man was an ex-slave. The latter committee consisted of three men,
who were the trustees of the “Peabody Academy,” whose erection they
had secured at Troy. They wanted a teacher and a preacher. Living
twelve or eighteen miles away from Troy, they intended to send in their
children and have them cared for in a boarding club by an “Aunty.” In
token of their good faith, all of them interesting men, they united
with our new church, intending to transfer their membership to their
own localities when we get ready to organize there. Who could forbid
that their requests should be granted? So we organized a circuit for
Brother Walden, one Sabbath at Troy, and the other at Salem Church and
Hill Town, with one sermon at each place. The Quakers promise a school
at Salem. A public school will serve Hill Town for the present, and a
competent teacher must be secured for the Academy. It was a delight to
witness the pride of the people in their educated _fellow-servant_.
Even the old master gloated over the diploma of his “boy.”
Running into McLeansville early this Monday morning, thinking to make
it a minister’s rest-day, with only this article and other letters and
a sermon for the night on hand, I found the church at the opening of a
protracted meeting with the visiting preacher announced for forenoon,
afternoon and evening; house crowded all day, with two hundred people
in it by count; all remaining with lunch in hand, between the first and
second services, and many holding over between the second and third.
And this is the habit of the people at such a time. All unnecessary
work is put aside and the entire time given up to religious service.
This habit they take from that of the white churches, with the
exception that the colored people have added the third service. Pastor
Connet had held a similar meeting in another part of his field this
fall, and yesterday, as a result of it, twelve members were added to
this church. One of those converts, an old man, testified, bearing
himself with the air of a conqueror: “I have fought the devil, and I’ve
got the victory. Jesus helped me. I have fought the devil, and I’ve got
the victory.” The meetings are orderly and solemn—congregational, only
warmed up by the African glow. The membership now numbers one hundred
and fifty-six. Pastor Connet is also superintendent of the school,
which is doing a good work in raising up teachers.
* * * * *
CONTRASTS.
The Past and the Present.
L. A. P.
“Reminiscences” in the October MISSIONARY have recalled a host
of buried memories concerning the days of pioneer work, with its
swiftly-changing experiences of humor and pathos.
I might draw a picture of the good man who often asked the Lord to
“bless these teachers that have left their homes in foreign lands and
come a far distance to destruct us;” of the old aunties who came to
inquire about friends and old masters in Virginia and the Carolinas,
thinking we must know the history of each family, because “didn’t you
come right by there on your way down from the North?” of the romances
and tragedies connected with the hundreds of letters we wrote inquiring
for lost friends, sold away in the days of slavery; but one picture is
more vivid than others, and as the days of quaint prayers are rapidly
passing, I am tempted to commit it to print.
Almost a dozen years ago, I found myself one of two teachers in a night
school varying from forty to sixty pupils. The roughly-ceiled room
was long, low and dimly lighted. The scholars were hard-working men
and women who walked one, two, three or four miles, after the day’s
labor, for the sake of acquiring a bit of book learning. At ten o’clock
lessons closed with a Bible reading, singing and prayer.
One evening, after books and slates had been laid aside, my attention
was attracted by a voice, liquid and rollicking, as it carolled a
popular “spiritual.” In the gray room—for the light wood fire was
nearly out, and the two lamps in the rear gave little brightness—it was
some time before I distinguished the singer.
He was a jaunty little man, very black, very lithe and very much
dressed up. A blue round-a-bout coat was trimmed with two rows of
yellow braid; a crimson dress braid made his neck-tie, the long ends of
which floated over the shoulders. His hands were folded over a stout
walking-stick; his head nodding and feet patting time to the music.
My thoughts instantly went back to childish days, to a certain tree
where a golden oriole’s nest used to swing, to a field of red-winged,
chattering bobolinks, not one of which ever seemed so deliciously happy
in his song as my dusky scholar. I liked to look at him. It put me into
communion with friends and influences hundreds of miles beyond the piny
woods.
He often spoke and prayed in the regular prayer-meetings. We soon
learned the words of his petition, for it was always in the same form,
reverently intoned with an indescribable, inimitable cadence:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hollowed be thy name; thy kingdom
come, thy will be done on earth as is in heaven. Father, Father—this
evening—of all grace, look down upon us and hear us and bless us. O
Saviour, come riding around this evening upon the milk-white horse and
wake up sinners. Touch and tender about every heart. Teach ’em that
they have a soul to be saved or to be lost to all eternity. Bless my
old mother. Teach her that she has a soul to be saved or one to be lost
to all eternity. Strike her with the hammer of conviction. Shoot her
with the arrow of love. Bless families and families’ connections. Give
us more grace, more faith, more love. Make us humble. Teach us to pray,
and teach us to love it, too. Be our guide and leader and protector.
Bless the sinners who are standing with one foot upon the grave and one
upon the land of the living.
“Father! Father! when Gabriel shall stand with one foot in the sea and
one upon the land to blow his horn, and he shall say, ‘How loud must
I sound?’ and Thou say, ‘Sound calm and easy so as not to disturb My
children,’ then shall we link and lock our eagle wings to march upward
to the golden gate.
“And when You see us fail below, help us to say, ‘Here, Lord, I give
myself away, ’tis all that I can do. Welcome dis solisted band and bear
my soul away.’ And when You have done suiting and serving Thyself of us
here, hand us to our graves in peace, where we shall praise the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit in a world that never ends, is _my_ prayer for
Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
At that time this man was one of the more intelligent of his people.
In contrast, let me introduce a younger man of the same size and
color, also endowed with unusual gift of song. Neatly dressed, quietly
mannered, he seems no kin to the earlier types of his race.
From under the very shadow of Yazoo he writes these lines: “I have
subscribed for the _New York Tribune_. My school numbers 112 pupils,
with a daily attendance of 85 or 90. I have Cutter’s Physiology, from
which I give oral lessons daily. I will state the studies of my most
advanced pupils: Robinson’s Practical Arithmetic, Harvey’s Grammar,
Swinton’s Geography and Educational Readers. School closes next Friday
with a concert. I do wish you could be with us Thursday and Friday to
attend the examinations.”
Lest any one may infer from the above that “the schoolmaster is abroad”
in the land, let me quote one sentence of a prayer uttered a few months
ago by the pastor of a large church in a leading Southern city: “O
Lord, bless us individually and _respectfully_.”
* * * * *
GEORGIA.
An Economical Industrial Department.
MRS. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.
The demand for industrial departments connected with our schools of
learning has developed so rapidly of late, that it appears like one of
the fever heats of our American civilization that may soon subside.
Friends of the A. M. A. institutions have been specially anxious that
their students should learn trades and home industries while at school,
fearing that they would have little opportunity to learn them except
from their Northern instructors, and thinking that they could be
acquired from them outside of school hours without much thought, time
or trouble.
On the other hand, some have felt that our immediate, pressing need was
young colored men and women with minds developed by long and thorough
training in the text-books used in our schools and colleges. They are
not ignorant of the students’ deficiencies in practical knowledge, but
feel that close and continued application of the mind to books is the
best and surest way to acquire all knowledge. They believe that if the
brain power of a child is developed, the hoe, the cook-stove and the
sewing-machine will be well managed when occasion requires.
Again, these students are to be the teachers of their race in the
South. These friends believe that nothing will so quickly convince
the intelligent men of the South that the negro has power which they
are bound to respect, as to see him well versed, not only in the
sciences he teaches, but his mind broadened by a familiarity with
subjects beyond. To secure this training, through an ordinary course
suitable for an average teacher even in Northern schools, with supposed
superior material, has generally been found to require all the time and
strength of pupils under 18 years of age. Principals of the different
schools, however, differ much both in theory and practice, in regard to
combining manual with literary work.
In Atlanta much has been done during the past ten years in a quiet
way, by the business manager, matrons and preceptress, toward giving
practical instruction in a variety of home industries, making specially
prominent the importance of _good_ work. Every student, during the
entire course, works an hour a day, generally with careful supervision.
While visiting the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst,
recently, I learned that less time for manual labor was required of its
students.
During the past year, however, at Atlanta, it was thought best to give
more time and thought especially to sewing, cooking and care of the
sick. How to secure a practical knowledge of these without much expense
of material or instruction, and without taking much of the student’s
time from literary pursuits, was the problem. The sewing was arranged
in this way: Sometime before graduation the girls are required to
make, under the eye of the preceptress, a small garment of calico
or other inexpensive material. This garment is to contain all the
varieties of plain sewing, machine-stitching, hand-hemming, ruffling,
etc. More than this, it must have the bugbears of all beginners in
sewing—a buttonhole, a patch and a darn. Each girl writes her name in
indelible ink on the garment, and it is kept in the institution as a
record of her standing in sewing.
In a catalogue I received lately from the hands of the matron of the
Mt. Holyoke Seminary are these words: “It is not part of the design
of this seminary to teach young ladies domestic work. This branch of
education is exceedingly important, but a literary institution is
not the place to gain it. Home is the proper place for the daughters
of our country to be taught on this subject, and the mother the
appropriate teacher.” I think I remember reading the same words from a
catalogue twenty years ago, and presume they were first penned by the
immortal Mary Lyon. So we hoped the emulation created by the prospect
of leaving a beautiful specimen of needle-work upon graduation would
inspire our girls to faithful painstaking in sewing at their homes
even before entering school. The matron has the graduating class
spend their required hour of work in learning to make good bread
and to do other plain cooking. When any student is ill, opportunity
is given for practical instruction from the preceptress in nursing
the sick. In addition to this, the time of one recitation was taken
during a part of the year for giving instruction in household science.
A teacher prepared talks upon general rules for good housekeeping,
general principles of good cooking, care of the sick, care of children,
economy, etc. The class took notes, and were examined from their notes
before the visiting board at the close of the school. We hoped thus to
convince them that we were not educating our girls above the homeliest
duties of the household, as some of them had accused us of doing.
I have given these details to show how much may be done in this
direction without any additional expense.
* * * * *
Revival—Work and Results.
S. B. MORSE, SAVANNAH
The Congregational church of this city has been blessed with a visible
outpouring of God’s Spirit. Many of our old members have been quickened
in their religious feelings and have reconsecrated themselves to their
Lord and Saviour. Many who have been lingering and shivering on the
brink of doubt, and many, too, who were waiting a plainer manifestation
of their acceptance with God by “dreams and travels,” suddenly, as the
truth struck them, yielded their ways to _His_ ways, and are now, we
trust, walking in accordance not with their own, but with God’s plans.
We had an extra series of meetings for over two weeks, which were well
attended by Christians of all denominations. These meetings closed last
week. On Sunday morning, September 7th, one was baptized by immersion,
and at night five others were by sprinkling. Still another was received
who was a fallen member of some other church. Five children were at the
same time baptized, after which all those who loved the Lord Jesus, and
who wished, met around His sacramental board and feasted with Him. The
church was so crowded that many were compelled to stand outside. It was
a high day in Israel. Many hearts were gladdened.
Most of those we received were young people. Some of them teachers
of our Sabbath-school, and nearly all of them at some time had been
under the influence of some good Northern lady teacher. Perhaps those
teachers were disheartened and feared that their good seed had fallen
upon stony ground, but in this they were deceived. We are too anxious
often to see results. God’s logic extends through years, but His
conclusions are nevertheless sure and true.
Rev. Floyd Snelson officiated at the sacraments of baptism and the
eucharist. Bro. Clarke was directly instrumental in bringing about this
revival.
* * * * *
ALABAMA.
Our New Church Building.
REV. WM. H. ASH, FLORENCE
Our new church is getting on nicely. The outside is nearly finished,
with the exception of the belfry, which I hope will be done this week.
The work has been carried on strictly with reference to economy as
well as to the finish, and yet it is so well done that it is simply
beautiful. Almost everybody has something to say about the church.
One says, “You are going to have a nice church, and your church
will be well attended when it is done.” Another says, “This is the
greatest thing the colored people ever accomplished in Florence.” I am
constantly greeted by my white fellow-citizens with, “You are going to
have the only modern church in town;” and they visit the scene of the
building to watch the progress of the work and speak friendly of it. A
gentleman who lives in Fryar’s Point, Miss., and belongs to one of the
first families here, has just asked me to let him look at the plan. He
said, “This is going to be a credit to the town.” I have put on a large
portion of the first coat of paint myself.
The people have made great sacrifices to build their house of worship.
I don’t believe that the same number of members in any church North
could have done better with all the discouraging circumstances. They
have struggled hard to help themselves, giving when really they needed
it at home.
We shall need a bell and pews, also a communion service, and money to
buy paint for the finishing of the inside and out. Who wants to help
those who help themselves?
* * * * *
Letter from a Student—Vacation Supply at Mobile.
J. W. ROBERTS, TALLADEGA.
Our protracted meetings lasted during three weeks. The Holy Ghost has
given us five souls for our hire; besides He has warmed up our hearts
with His sacred love as a church. I am thankful to Him that my health
is kept all right.
Since and during our revival our audiences have been steadily
increasing both at afternoon and evening services. There is also an
unusual interest in our Thursday praise meetings. In short, the “fold”
is in a good condition if the shepherd will come soon.
* * * * *
AFRICA.
* * * * *
THE MENDI MISSION.
Annual Meeting of the Missionaries—The Board of Counsel and Advice.
The annual meeting of the Board of Counsel and Advice of the Mendi
Mission was held in the Good Hope Chapel, at Sherbro Island, July 14,
1879. Rev. A. P. Miller presided, and Dr. Benjamin James was elected
Secretary.
The Moderator made the following introductory remarks:
Before we proceed to our business, you will please indulge me with
a few preliminary remarks, inasmuch as we are about to enter upon
that part of our missionary work which will tell most plainly to
the civilized world as to the wisdom and good judgment of colored
missionaries in devising plans for the furtherance of a work of so
great importance, sacredly intrusted to our care.
In the performance of our several duties in the second annual meeting
of our Board, let us not forget that body of devoted men of the A.
M. A., by whose unwearied zeal and toil means are procured for the
furtherance and extension of this well-begun work.
Let us not forget the thousands of Christian men and women who give of
their means for the support of Missions, especially in Africa.
Let us not forget the five millions of our own race in the South, from
whom the shackles of slavery have been torn asunder, to whom Africa is
now looking for the light of the Gospel and a Christian civilization,
of whom we are the advance guards.
Let us not forget that the problem of Africa’s future is now under
solution and that we are the solvers. Our failure to arrive at a
conclusion in her favor, as Freedmen, would bring everlasting disgrace
upon us as a race, while on the other hand we should most shamefully
wrong unenlightened manhood, whose blood would be required at our hands.
As a slave, the negro served well his oppressors. As a soldier, he
served well the cause of freedom and his country. The tyrant’s chain
of oppression, which held five millions in bondage, has been broken,
and to-day the grand duty as well as privilege of carrying light and
life to his benighted brethren in his fatherland lies before him and
calls him onward. It remains yet for him to prove himself a man in this
important relation that he holds to his fellow-countrymen and to the
world.
In view of these great responsibilities incumbent upon us in this
Council assembled, in the discussion and decision of matters of
importance, may God, in mercy, so guide each one that he shall be
unprejudiced and deeply sincere, as well as conscientious, throughout
all these deliberations, with due regard to their bearing upon the
interest of the benighted whom we come to serve and enlighten. In view
of all these things, may each one give the weight of his influence to
the furtherance of our work, exercising patience and charity one toward
the other.
Committees were appointed on the various interests of the Mission,
while the subject of the extension of the work was referred to a
committee of the whole.
The _Committee on Church Work_ reported forty-four members in the
church at Good Hope Station, one having died during the year; seven
infants baptized; attendance on services good, and showing earnest
desire to hear the Word; advance in the Christian life of converts;
prayer-meetings valuable. Some persons, under watch and care, will be
received to membership as soon as legally united in matrimony.
At Avery there are forty-one members; under watch and care, three
adults; eleven children baptized. Increasing willingness on the part
of the people to attend church, and growing interest in the cause of
Christ give encouragement.
At Debia, Mr. Goodman conducts religious services on the Lord’s day. A
chapel is hoped for here, books at Good Hope, and repairs of building
at Avery.
Our Sunday-school is in a flourishing condition, being well attended,
most of the scholars attending church services. Bradford friends in
England sent our Sunday-school a nice present in the shape of copies of
the Gospels, pamphlets, papers, etc., which we used as prizes for good
attendance, to encourage the little ones. We need singing books for
this work.
The _Committee on School Work_ reported that at Good Hope the school
has made rapid progress. During the year 245 children have been
enrolled. These are both from the Sierra Leone and from the native
element. They learn English rapidly. “We have teachers,” says the
report, “who are quite awake to their duty. Children are accessible in
Sherbro, and are brought into day and Sunday schools in large numbers.
Through the kindness of friends of the poor little Africans, shirts
have been put on their backs and books into their hands, for which
they seem to be grateful. Of course these wear out, and others must be
procured in some way or other in their stead, or these little ones in
many cases will leave off attending school. They must be constantly
looked after. We hope to see not far in the future a first-class school
at this place. We have material in abundance upon which to work. Time,
patience and labor will bring success.”
The school at Avery has not made such progress as was hoped for during
the year. On the first of January its numbers were decreased by the
taking away of most of the larger boys to cut the crops for their
parents. The irregularity of attendance is a great obstacle in the way
of our success. Some attend for one day, and may not be seen again
for a month. Those who have attended regularly have made progress.
The prospect for the future is better. There are some children now in
the Mission whose attendance may be depended on. Most of the children
living in the village around the Mission have been taken to the farms
to drive birds, so that the number on the roll at present is only
twenty, ten of whom come from the Mission house. There have been 56 on
the roll during the year.
The school work at Debia is encouraging, Mr. Goodman and family being
settled there. We base our hopes largely on the little ones who are
being trained in our Mission schools.
The _Committee on Agriculture_ reported that the cassida planted at
Good Hope does not thrive, owing to the impoverished condition of the
soil. At Avery the coffee plantation is in a comparatively thriving
condition, and some of the trees bearing well. The need of more
laborers and implements is urged, and it is recommended “that more of
the ground be put under cultivation as a measure tending to supply the
wants of the growing Mission, and that the children of the Mission be
employed two hours each day upon the farms, under the supervision of
a competent and skillful person.” It is further recommended “that the
science of horticulture be introduced at each station, and that the
choicest flora of native and foreign production capable of being grown
on the premises be obtained, so far as practicable, for this purpose.”
The _Committee on Industrial Work_ reported that the saw mill needs
repairs of floor and roof, that one saw is in good running order.
There are sixteen hands employed at the mill, and two more are needed.
It is deemed desirable that some of the Mission children should be
“instructed into the workings of mechanics so far as we have the means
for instruction.”
Committees on _Repairs and Sanitary Condition_ of the Mission, made
careful examination, and reported their advice in these regards.
DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONARIES.
Some changes were made in the location of the members of the Mission.
The force is now divided as follows: At Good Hope: Rev. A. P. Miller
and wife, Pastor and Superintendent of the Mission; Dr. Benjamin James,
Physician and Teacher; and Mr. A. E. White, Principal of School. At
Avery: Rev. A. E. Jackson, Pastor; Mr. E. L. Anthony, Industrial
Department, and Mr. George N. Jewett, Teacher.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
A TOUR AMONG THE CLALLAM INDIANS.
REV. MYRON EELLS, S’KOKOMISH, W. T.
The last month has been spent in a tour among the Clallam Indians.
Wishing to go further, and be absent from home longer than has been
usual on such trips, my family, who had not been six miles away from
home for more than two years, concluded to accompany me. Although
steamers run the whole route of our travel, yet as they stop at but few
of the places where the Indians live, and on the main part of the route
go only once a week, it was impracticable for us to travel in that way,
so we took a canoe from the Reservation with an Indian man and his
wife, looked out for our own food, carried house and bed, stowed in the
three babies, and away we went.
Our first call on Indians was at _Port Gamble_, fifty miles from home.
Here are about one hundred, and they asked me to talk on temperance.
During the last year and a half they have reformed in this respect.
After pointing them to Christ as the source of their help, they had
their talk. They said that one thing now troubles them. They live
across Port Gamble Bay, an eighth of a mile from the saw-mill and town,
in a village by themselves, on land owned by the mill company. They can
manage the Indians as well as could be expected, but there is near them
a white man with a black heart, who with his Indian wife often gets
drunk, sometimes remaining so for a week at a time. They also tempt
the weaker Indians; and now how to get rid of him is the question. As
both he and they live on land belonging to the company, the only way
I saw was for them to petition the superintendent to remove him. So
after nine o’clock at night I wrote out a petition, which the chiefs
and policemen and others signed, stating all the facts, and asking for
this man’s removal. I was obliged to leave early the next morning,
and so left them to present it. I have known of whites petitioning to
have worthless Indians removed, but have never before known Indians
to petition to have a white man removed because he was so low that
they did not wish to have him near them. Two years ago they would not
have done this, as many of them were glad to have an opportunity so
convenient where they could obtain the liquid poison.
My next congregation was at _Port Discovery_, thirty-five miles farther
on, and very much the same routine was observed at a number of places.
My business with them was to preach; theirs with me was to talk about
how and where to procure land in the best way. This was true at Port
Angelos, Elkwa, and two settlements at Clallam Bay. For several years
they have been urged to procure land so that they could feel warranted
in erecting good houses, and thus leave the old ones, full of grease,
dirt and smoke; but with the exception of those at Dunginess, very few
have done so; now they begin to realize the benefits of it and have
“land on the brain.” But they move cautiously, for it is easy for them
to be deceived, and it is talk, talk, talk as to what is best. Two
parties traveled to the Reservation about the time I was beginning my
journey—a trip of two or three hundred miles—to consult about land.
At _Dunginess_ a troublesome case begins. Four Indians, living fifty
miles farther on, had been here three or four weeks previously, anxious
to obtain the land on which their houses stood. They had been sent
to the clerk of the Probate Court, who knew nothing about it, but
told them it was Government land, and offered to get it for them for
the usual fees, nineteen dollars each. They paid him the seventy-six
dollars, and he promised to send it to the land office at Olympia, and
have their papers for them in two weeks. They waited the two weeks,
but received no returns. In the meantime others told them that the man
could lawfully do the business, but he was not to be trusted, for the
land had been owned by private individuals for fifteen years. He, too,
by the time I met him, had written to the land office and found the
same to be true. My business is, if possible, to get the money back. It
is useless to sue him, as he has no property which the law can touch.
One of the four Indians returned with me to get his money, but was
satisfied that it was useless for him to go farther, so he went home.
He had already spent three weeks, and the three others two weeks each
in trying to recover it. Yet this same man is Postmaster, Clerk of the
Probate Court, U. S. Commissioner, Deputy Sheriff, and lately offered
fifty dollars to the County Treasurer to be appointed his deputy. I was
not disappointed at the result, but handed the business over to the
agent to settle in Court.
Let us contrast the action of the Indians with this. I felt very sorry
for them. For four years we have been advising them to obtain land,
and now they were swindled in their first attempt. Fearful lest they
should become discouraged, I offered them ten dollars to divide amongst
them, saying, “If you never get your money I will lose this with you,
but if you do you can then repay it.” One-tenth of my income has long
been given to the Lord, and I felt that it would do as much good there
as anywhere. When I first mentioned this they refused, saying that they
did not wish me to lose my money, if they did theirs, but two weeks
afterwards, when I left the last one he took it; yet shortly afterwards
I found that he would not spend any of it, although he wanted some
articles very much, saying that it was not their money after all.
This lower part of the Sound is very like the ocean, with nothing to
break the winds, so I procured for that part of the journey a very
large canoe, thirty-six feet long, two and a half deep and six wide.
The children can play in it, and at night we anchored it out in some
good harbor like a small schooner.
Hospitality was very generous. I thought that there were too many of us
to go into anybody’s house; but at Dunginess, where we remained two or
three days in connection with each of two Sabbaths, a woman said, in
the absence of her husband, “You must all come in. If you pitch your
tent I will set fire to it and burn it down.” We submitted. The agent
at Neah Bay was just as hospitable, notwithstanding that his house
already seemed to be full, and also the superintendent of the mill at
Seabeck.
The weather was generally pleasant, but sometimes it rained hard. No
one caught cold, however, on account of it. Camping on the sand is not
so pleasant. Fresh water is so scarce as only to be used for drinking.
We boil our potatoes in salt water, but get it near shore, and forget
to let it settle. The potatoes crack, and the sand is all through them.
Then baby crawls along and tips the rice over into the sand, and we all
tramp the sand on to the beds, and into them, until our better half
wishes herself at home, as it blows into the food-box and clothes-boxes
and everywhere.
A WEDDING.
An Indian, who had been married Indian fashion for several years,
but who had homesteaded a farm, thought it best to be married in a
civilized way. He had never seen such a performance, so I explained
all to him beforehand. But when I was going through the ceremony and
had just said, “You promise to take this woman to be your wife,” he
interrupted me, saying, “Yes, of course I do. You do not suppose I am
going to put away my wife now, after I have lived with her so long?
See, here are my children, the oldest fifteen years old. It would be
foolish for us now to separate.” I told him, “All right,” kept very
sober, laughed in my sleeve, made a note of it, and proceeded to say,
“You promise to love and honor her,” etc.
Twenty religious services were held during the journey, including one
communion service, and one very pleasant prayer-meeting preparatory to
it. Thus we spent the month of August, enjoyed it, and have enjoyed
home all the more since reaching it.
* * * * *
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
* * * * *
CABIN PRAYER-MEETINGS—WHICH WAS THE HERO?
LILLIE E. BARR, ATLANTA, GA.
DEAR TEACHERS AND CHILDREN:
I wish I had space, so I could tell you all of the beautiful,
interesting and helpful things that happen day by day in my work;
but as I have not, I must content myself with giving you one or two
incidents. First, let me tell you about an impromptu prayer-meeting
held in one of the many cabins which dot the hills all over. A few
nights ago I went to see a sweet old Christian, who for three years has
not known an hour’s rest from pain, and yet is as merry as a cricket,
receiving the little offerings of food and shelter which her poor
neighbors bring her with cheerful gratitude as from her God. One day
I asked her how she could be so patient and so gay. “Why, chile, it’s
all on de journey, an’ I don’t know no reason why the way should be
made easier fur me than it was fur the Master,” she answered. While I
was trying to make her more comfortable, several women came in, _none
of whom could read_, and after we had talked a little while about our
sweet Lord Jesus, one said: “Please read the chapter where Jesus says:
‘I pray not for these alone, but for all of them who shall believe on
me through their word.’” A little tin lamp was brought, and as I opened
my Bible I glanced at the living picture before me. The lamp threw its
feeble light over the patient sufferer, and lit up the dusky faces of
the women bending eagerly forward as I read those blessed words. No
sooner had I finished the chapter than one began that beautiful slave
song, “Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus.” Instantly it was
caught up. Our hearts had touched the heart of Christ in this grand
prayer chapter. As soon as it was ended, another chapter was asked
for, and then another, and another, intermingled with prayer and song.
It was just such a prayer-meeting, I imagine, as the one held by the
disciples when, being gathered together, Jesus stood in their midst and
said, “_Peace be with you._” I knew, I felt that I had been with Jesus.
With the light and grace of this prayer-meeting still about us, we
came down an alley and into a court known as Campbell’s Block. It is a
square, built round with cabins of one or two rooms _without windows_.
A large wash-shed and well occupy the centre of the court. Look now
into the rooms; everywhere dirt and filth, crying children, quarreling
children, women smoking, women dipping snuff, women idling, women
washing, women fretted with care until they are prematurely old,
and not _one_ woman in the block able to read, and so gain strength
from the blessed word of God. And this block is one out of four in
our field. One house only shows any sign that for the poor there is
anything beautiful; but that, like a grand sermon, stands amid this
misery and sin, from ground to roof a mass of flowers. I could not
help thinking what a joy they must be to the ministering angels, as
they pass through this place of suffering and sin. To me they were the
promise of redemption for the block. Like a pure thought in a sinful
heart we found old Mr. and Mrs. Pleasant in one of the rooms. He is
blind and helpless with paralysis, consequently the providing of rent,
food and clothes devolves upon his aged wife. After reading them the
two last chapters in Revelation, the old man cried out: “It’s worth
while being blind to know the first thing I shall see will be the New
Jerusalem.” “Yes indeed, George, now we must work harder than ever to
win home,” answered his wife, as she brushed the tears away. We have
begun a prayer-meeting in this block, and I ask your prayers for its
success. To these cases I might add ever so many more; but if I give
you big folks any more room, I shall crowd my story to the children
out, and that wouldn’t be one bit fair—would it, little ones?
I shall introduce my story by asking the boys to pay particular
attention, as I want them to decide whether Jesse Dobbs or Jim
Prescott—the two boys whom this story is about—is the true hero.
“Who minds de cold? Come on, Jesse; de boys is going to make up a
company and have heaps of fun down by Big Bethel.” I must explain that
Big Bethel is the name of a church.
Jesse glanced out at the sunshine and called, “Mammie, mayent I go with
Jo down to Big Bethel?”
As the answer was yes, the two bounded away and soon joined several
boys, the leader of whom, from his coarse, bloated face to his heavily
booted feet, was the very picture of a young ruffian. As Jesse and Jo
came up he was saying, “Dare aint a fatter roost to pick den old Judge
Gibbs’ in de world; ’sides dat, you ken git 15 cents a piece fur every
chick’n. Den you brings de money to me, and I gibs you so much out of
it. ’Stand what I say?”
“Yar, yar,” came from the other boys.
“’Sides dat, dares heaps of fun clearing off a chick’n roost, and I,
fur one, aint feared to go into nobody’s yard. Now is you gwine to be
ready to-night to follow your captain? I’s your captain.”
“Captain of what?” asked Jesse.
“Captain of the roost-clearing brigade; dat’s what. Is you going to
jine us, Dobbs? If you aint I’ll most kill you fur coming here to spy
into our plans.”
Jesse paused an instant, then he said, “No.”
“Why not, I’d jist like fur to know?” demanded Jim, angrily.
“Because I aint going to jine no thieving company.”
The words were hardly spoken before Jim lifted his foot and kicked him
in the side. Kick followed kick in such rapid succession, that Jesse
was almost senseless before Jim could be pulled off; and when I formed
his acquaintance he had been in bed nine months, a large tumor having
formed in the side where he had been kicked. When I asked him about
lying so long in bed, he answered:
“At first the time was awful long, but by-and-by I began to take notice
how mother worried when I ’plained of de pain and de tiredness, so I
took to trying not to ’plain _fore_ her, and that kinder drawed off my
’tention from de pain.”
For nine months he had been trying to help his mother by being patient.
Three weeks ago he died from the effects of that cruel kick—died
forgiving all who had injured him, and bearing his cross of suffering
like a noble little Christian to the end.
Which was the hero—Jim, who boasted he wasn’t afraid to steal from any
man, or Jesse, who wasn’t afraid to say _no_, although forewarned that
he would be almost killed if he said it?
I say Jesse was.
What do you all say?
From this story I hope you will all try to be more gentle and loving,
for we never know what months of pain and suffering, not only to
others, but also to ourselves, one rude action may cause.
* * * * *
RECEIPTS
FOR SEPTEMBER, 1879.
* * * * *
MAINE, $215.61.
Bangor. Hammond Street Ch., $100; West Bangor
Chapel, $6 $106.00
Bluehill. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Brewer. First Cong. Ch., $4.95, and Sab. Sch.,
$2.60; J. Holyoke, $5 12.55
Brunswick. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00
Castine. Rev. A. E. Ives 3.00
Litchfield Corners. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Machias. Centre St. Cong. Ch. 7.56
Minot Centre. Mrs. B. J. 1.00
Northport. “A Friend” 0.50
Orland. “A Friend” 5.00
Orono. F. A. M. 1.00
Portland. State St. Cong. Ch. 50.00
Woolwich. Mrs. Jotham P. Trott 2.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $639.43.
Acworth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.55
Bristol. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.85
Campton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.00
Candia. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.90
Concord. Miss Alma J. Herbert, $3; S. S., $1;
Others, $2 6.00
Dover. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 82.29
Franklin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 30.00
Francestown. Mrs. A. H. Kingsbury 3.00
Fitzwilliam. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $8.75; Mrs. L.
Hill, $5 13.75
Hampstead. Ann M. Howard 5.00
Hanover. Dartmouth Religious Soc. 50.00
Mount Vernon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.04
Northwood. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (ad’l) 1.00
Orfordville. “A Friend” 1.00
Pelham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 46.40
Pembroke. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.88
Pittsfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.75
Raymond. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.00
Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.11
Swanzey. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Temple. Cong. Sab. Sch. 20.91
Thornton’s Ferry. Individuals, by Mrs. H. N. Eaton 2.00
Troy. ESTATE of Dea. Abel Baker, by A. W. Baker
and J. S. Parmenter, Ex’s. 150.00
Walpole. F. Kilburn, $50; W. G. Barnett, $5 55.00
Wilton. Second Cong. Ch. 25.00
VERMONT, $480.21.
Alburgh. Ladies’ Miss. Soc., by Mrs. E. M. Hicks,
Sec. and Treas. 1.00
Brattleborough. Cong. Ch. 28.82
Burlington. “A Friend” 5.00
East Arlington. Rev. Chas. Redfield 5.00
Greensborough. Rev. Moses Patten and Wife 15.00
Granby and Victory. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.30
Jamaica. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.61
Putney. Mr. and Mrs. Foster 5.00
Saint Johnsbury. North Cong. Ch. and Soc. 143.00
Wardsborough, North. Union Col. 4.00
Wardsborough, South. Ch. and Soc. 3.48
Wells River. ESTATE of Mrs. Chloe Brock, by F.
Deming, Ex. 250.00
West Brattleborough. Cong. Sab. Sch. 7.00
Westminster West. “A Friend” 5.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $3,401.94.
Ayer. Mrs. C. A. Spaulding 50.00
Boston. G. F. Kendall, $5; Dea. G. P., $1 6.00
Boston. Dorchester Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 926.44
Boston. Highland Cong. Ch. (ad’l) 50.00
Boxborough. Mrs. J. Stone 10.00
Buckland. “A Friend,” $4; Dea. S. Trowbridge, $2 6.00
Cambridge. Geo. H. Fogg, to const. MRS. GEO. H.
FOGG, L. M. 30.00
Clinton. First Evan. Ch. and Soc. 75.00
Coleraine. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Danvers. Maple St. Ch. and Soc. to const. HENRY
RIPLEY, MRS. LYDIA T. KIMBALL and MISS HATTIE
ELIOT, L. M’s 110.00
Deerfield. N. H. 0.51
East Hampton. First Cong. Sab. Sch. 25.00
Enfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 67.00
Falmouth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (ad’l) 8.00
Foxborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 28.19
Framingham. George Nourse 5.00
Gardner. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Georgetown. “A Friend,” $5; “A Friend,” bbl. of C. 5.00
Great Barrington. A. C. T., $1; L. M. P., $1 2.00
Greenfield. Second Cong. Ch. 3.00
Hanover. ESTATE of Isaac M. Wilder, by Chas. B.
Fox and Jedediah Dwelley, Ex. 500.00
Holbrook. Mrs. C. S. Holbrook 100.00
Housatonic. Housatonic Cong. Sab. Sch. 25.00
Lakeville Precinct. Cong. Sab. Sch. 20.00
Lancaster. Evan. Cong. Ch. 35.14
Lenox. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Malden. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 33.23
Mansfield. Orth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.03
Medway. “A Friend” 1.00
Nantasket. M. H. Scott, _for Student Aid, Tougaloo
U._ 26.16
Newton Highlands. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 48.04
Norfolk. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.22
Norton. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.25
Northampton. ESTATE of J. P. Williston, by A. F.
Williston, Ex. 394.24
Northampton. “A Friend” 200.00
Northbridge Centre. Helen S. Winter 2.00
North Brookfield. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 50.00
Northfield. Trin. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
North Leominster. Church of Christ 19.00
Orange. Central Ch. 4.10
Plainfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $11.69; Samuel
Loud, $10 21.69
Randolph. Miss Abbie W. Turner 10.00
Shelburne. Cong. Church 24.94
Sherborn. Mrs. Aaron Greenwood 3.00
Somerville. Franklin St. Ch. and Soc. 75.00
South Amherst. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
South Attleborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.00
Southbridge. Evan. Free Ch. and Soc., to const.
REV. GEO. H. WILSON, L. M. 40.00
Southfield. Ladies, 2 bbls. of C., _for
Woodbridge, N. C._
South Sudbury. Ladies’ Miss. Soc., $2 and bbl. of
C. 2.00
Springfield. “E. M. P. South Ch.” 15.00
Taunton. Winslow Ch. and Soc. 34.00
Walpole. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Warwick. Cong. Sab. Sch. 6.00
Watertown. Phillips Cong. Ch. 46.50
Webster. Cong. Sab. Sch. 13.81
Westborough. Freedman’s Mission Ass’n, bbl. of C.
West Brookfield. Cong Ch. and Soc. 45.00
Westford. Union Cong. Ch. and Soc. 35.00
West Newton. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 44.34
Weymouth. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.11
RHODE ISLAND, $90.37.
Bristol. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 37.18
Little Compton. United Cong. Ch. 38.00
Westerly. Pawcatuck Cong. Ch. 15.19
CONNECTICUT, $2,194.26.
Branford. H. G. Harrison 5.00
Chaplin. Cong. Ch. 10.50
Chester. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 32.25
Cheshire. Cong. Ch. 17.34
Coventry. B. T. Preston 5.00
Durham. ESTATE of I. Parmelee, by W. W. Fowler,
Ex. 100.00
East Hampton. Cong. Ch., to const. MRS. WILBUR F.
STARR and MRS. HERMAN E. RICH, L. M.’s 77.75
Greenwich. R. B. CARPENTER, to const. himself L.
M. 30.00
Griswold. Cong. Ch. 50.00
Hadlyme. Cong. Sab. Sch. 12.72
Hanover. Hanover Ch. and Soc. 25.00
Hartford. Thomas H. Smith, $100, _for Theo. Dep’t
Howard U._;—John R. Lee, M. D., $50;—C. C.
Lyman, $20, _for Fisk U._;—“I. W.” $5 175.00
Harwinton. Cong. Ch. 41.00
Higganum. Cong. Soc. 12.00
Mansfield. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.48
Manchester. Second Cong. Ch. 19.31
New Britain. ESTATE of Rev. Charles Nichols, by
John B. Smith, Ex. 1000.00
New Haven. “A Mere Crumb,” $10; Erwin Shelley, $5 15.00
New London. First Ch. 66.80
Norwich Town. “G. M.,” for _Memphis, Tenn._ 5.00
North Woodstock. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 30.33
Old Saybrook. Cong. Ch. 13.03
Putnam. Mary T. Howe, $10;—Mary A. Keith, $5,
_for Athens, Ala._ 15.00
Rocky Hill. Mission Circle, “Fragment Gatherers,”
by Miss Sarah D. Baldwin 20.00
Stafford. Mrs. Thomas H. Thresher 5.00
Terryville. Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const. HOMER
W. GRISWOLD, CHAS. PURRINGTON and MRS. MARY
SMITH, L. M’s 144.83
Thomaston. Cong. Ch. 28.25
Unionville. First Cong. Ch., _for Talladega C._ 41.46
Warehouse Point. Roxana K. Porter 5.00
Washington. Mrs. Rebecca Hine, $30, to const.
EDWARD ROBERT POND, L. M.; S. J. Nettleton, $5 35.00
Washington. LEGACY of Miss Julia Canfield, by
Chas. L. Hickox, Treas. Cong. Ch. 20.00
Watertown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 32.54
West Brook. Cong. Ch., to const. MISS E. E. LAY,
L. M. 35.90
Wethersfield. Horace Savage 2.00
West Winsted. —— 10.00
Woodstock. ESTATE of Geo. A. Paine 51.77
NEW YORK, $626.24.
Amsterdam. Chandler Bartlett 10.00
Berryville. S. W. 1.00
Bergen. Mrs. F. D. Kingman 5.00
Brooklyn. Central Cong. Sab. Sch., $25, by Geo.
H. Shirley, _for Rev. Geo. Henry_;—Sab. Sch. of
Church of the Mediator, $20 45.00
Brooklyn, E. D. J. W. S. 1.00
Camden. “A Friend” 2.00
Carthage. Mrs. Agnes Vrooman 5.00
Crown Point. Mrs. L. J. Murdock 5.00
Deansville. Mrs. P. M. Barton 40.00
Gerry. Mrs. M. A. Sears 128.36
Gouverneur. Mrs. E. M. 1.00
Harpersfield. Cong. Ch. 7.00
Jamestown. —— 5.00
McDonough. Miss C. Sawtelle 2.00
Medina. ESTATE of Allen Bacon, by A. E. Bennett,
Ex. 51.48
Nelson. J. L. Bishop 7.00
Newark Valley. LEGACY of a deceased sister (in
part), by Mrs. A. B. Smith 7.45
Newark Valley. Cong. Ch. 28.00
New York City. S. T. Gordon 100.00
Norwich. Miss M. H. Northup (Smyrna, N. Y.), and
Mrs. R. A. Barber 10.00
Oneonta. Mrs. H. Slade, $1.50; Mrs. W. McC., 50c. 2.00
Oswego. Cong. Ch. 2.08
Poughkeepsie. First Cong. Ch. 12.50
Sacket’s Harbor. Mrs. Anar H. Barnes 30.00
Sherburne. Cong. Ch., $90.37;—C. H. Fuller, $10,
_for Athens, Ala._ 100.37
Sinclearville. Earl C. Preston 2.00
Syracuse. Rev. J. C. Holbrook 10.00
Walton. First Cong. Ch. (ad’l) 5.00
West Milton. I. K. 1.00
NEW JERSEY, $20.92.
Chester. Cong. Ch., $17.66, and Sab. Sch. $1.26 18.92
Paterson. Mrs. W. F. 1.00
Rahway. Mrs. B. T. 1.00
PENNSYLVANIA, $12.
Washington. H. H. Templeton 5.00
West Alexander. —— 5.00
Worth. John Burgess 2.00
OHIO, $523.95.
Andover. O. B. Case 10.00
Ashtabula. First Cong. Ch. 20.00
Bellevue. First Cong. Ch. 13.00
Clark’s Corners. Mrs. Urania Haviland 2.00
Cleveland. Rev. H. C. Hayden 15.00
Elyria. J. M. H. 0.50
Galion. Mrs. E. C. Linsley 5.00
Lindenville. Mr. and Mrs. L. Bearss 10.00
Oberlin. Second Cong. Ch. 21.55
Olive Green. Mrs. A. C. Brown, $3; Mrs. M. Callum,
$2 5.00
Medina. First Cong. Ch., $58.08; Albert Bates, $5 63.08
Moore’s Saltworks. Robert George 2.00
North Eaton. M. Oakes 2.00
North Kingsville. E. J. Comings 10.00
Norwalk. Thomas Hagaman, $10; First Cong. Ch.,
$7.22 17.22
Pittsfield. Cong. Ch. 16.00
Savannah. J. H. Patterson 5.00
Springfield. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.60
Wadsworth. George Lyman 300.00
—— —— 1.00
INDIANA, $10.
Dunreith. David Maxwell and Mrs. Lydia Maxwell 5.00
Winchester. Mrs. C. R. Commons 5.00
ILLINOIS, $4,171.31.
Amboy. Cong. Ch. 23.00
Belvidere. ESTATE of Olney Nichols, by H. W.
Pier, Ex. 3,823.48
Chicago. Leavitt St. Ch., $37.84; Union Parker,
$10; Stephen Thurston, $5 52.84
Geneseo. Woman’s Miss. Soc., by Mrs. A. H.
Manington, Treas. 46.84
Gridley. Cong. Ch. 4.40
Hutsonville. C. V. Newton 2.00
Jericho Centre. Julia Graves 5.00
La Prairie Centre. “A Friend” 10.00
Lee Centre. Cong. Sab. Sch. 8.00
Lisbon. Cong. Ch. 12.74
Metamora. A. C. Rouse, $5; Mr. and Mrs. Ranney,
$2; A. H. K., $1; Christian Union, $6.50 14.50
Millburn. Cong. Ch. 15.00
Millington. Mrs. D. W. J. and Mrs. C. J. O. V.,
$1 ea. 2.00
Morrison. Cong. Ch. 15.50
Payson. Cong. Ch. ($25 of which from Miss P. A.
Prince) 26.79
Princeville. Wm. C. Stevens 11.00
Providence. Cong. Ch. 18.00
Ravenswood. Cong. Ch. 12.58
Rockford. Miss Mary C. Waterbury, $30, to const.
REV. J. G. JONES, L. M., and $10 _for Memphis
Tenn._;—“The Rockford Lamplighters,” $11.50 51.50
Wyanet. Cong. Ch. 16.14
MICHIGAN, $400.30.
Adrian. Stephen Allen 10.00
Almo. Julius Hackley 10.00
Chelsea. Cong. Ch. 29.26
Clio. S. C. R. 1.00
Comstock. “A Friend of the Freedmen” 100.00
Detroit. First Cong. Ch. 179.04
Dexter. Mrs. E. L. Farrar 10.00
East Riverton. Mrs. Josephine Barnes 5.00
Flint. Cong. Ch. 14.53
Milford. Wm. A. Arms, to const. CLARA WELLS ARMS,
L. M. 30.00
Pontiac. Cong. Ch. Mon. Con. $2.36, and Sab. Sch.
$1.51 3.87
Wacousta. Cong. Ch. 7.60
IOWA, $198.22.
Atlantic. Cong. Sab. Sch. 9.56
Belle Plaine. J. P. Henry, $5; Freddie and Josie
Henry, $1 6.00
Chester Centre. Cong. Ch. 23.63
Clinton. Cong. Ch. 50.00
Dubuque. Mrs. S. N. M. 1.00
Green Mountain. First Cong. Ch. 22.70
Grinnell. Cong. Ch. 46.50
Marion. Adaliza Daniels 5.00
Newton. Cong. Ch. and Sab. Sch. 10.58
Red Oak. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Reinbeck. Cong. Ch. ($3 of which _for Lady
Missionary, New Orleans_) 7.25
Stacyville. Woman’s Missionary Soc., _for Lady
Missionary, New Orleans_ 3.00
Wayne. Cong. Sab. Sch. 3.00
WISCONSIN, $120.95.
De Pere. Cong. Ch. 38.00
Fort Howard. Cong. Ch. 25.00
Geneva Lake. Presb. Ch. 21.95
Janesville. J. W. 1.00
Shopiere. J. H. Cooper 5.00
Sparta. Bryce Crawford, $5; J. H., R. H., J. H.
G. and R. H. W., $1 each; J. and S. H. A., $1 10.00
Racine. First Presb. Ch. 20.00
MINNESOTA, $35.97.
Afton. Cong. Ch., M. C. Coll. 3.00
Hastings. D. B. Truax 5.00
Minneapolis. Plymouth Ch. 22.97
Saint Peter. Mrs. Jane A. Treadwell 5.00
KANSAS, $20.
Lawrence. Second Cong. Ch. 4.00
Lawrence. Rev. A. M. Richardson 2.00
Leavenworth. Mrs. Thomas Cutts 5.00
Osawatomie. Cong. Ch. 9.00
NEBRASKA, $2.
Strahmburg. Pilgrim Ch. 2.00
OREGON, $6.20.
The Dalles. First Cong. Ch. 6.20
MARYLAND, $100.
Baltimore. “A Friend” 100.00
WEST VIRGINIA, $3.
Elm Grove. Mrs. B. D. Atkinson 3.00
TENNESSEE, $766.60.
Chattanooga. Rent 100.00
Nashville. Fisk University 666.60
GEORGIA, $99.10.
Atlanta. Rent 99.10
ALABAMA, $10.75.
Selma. Cong. Ch. 10.75
TEXAS, $148.
Corpus Christi. Cong. Ch. 148.00
CANADA, $10.
Toronto. Mrs. J. Thom 10.00
SOUTH INDIA, $15.
Madura Mission. Rev. T. S. Burnell 15.00
INCOME FUND, $5,722.29.
—— —— Avery Fund 3,885.64
—— —— Le Moyne Fund 1,090.82
—— —— Hammond Fund 545.83
—— —— General Fund 50.00
—— —— Graves Library Fund 150.00
————————
Total 20,044.62
Total from Oct. 1st to Sept. 30th $183,437.98
H. W. HUBBARD, _Asst. Treas._
* * * * *
RECEIVED FOR DEBT.
Manchester, N. H. Rev. C. W. Wallace ($50 of
which from Hanover St. Cong. Ch.) 70.00
North Raynham, Mass. E. B. Towne 25.00
South Sudbury, Mass. Rev. G. A. Oviatt 25.00
West Medford, Mass. Rev. C. B. Smith 50.00
Hartford, Conn. John R. Lee, M. D. 25.00
Stanwich, Conn. William Brush 200.00
New York, N. Y. A. S. Barnes 850.00
New York, N. Y. “H. W. H.” 50.00
Newark, N. J. Rev. M. E. Strieby 100.00
Jersey City, N. J. “A Friend” 50.00
Chicago, Ill. Rev. James Powell 100.00
Ripon, Wis. Pres. E. H. Merrill 25.00
Washington Heights, Ill. ESTATE of Rev. L. Foster
(sale of land) 344.95
—————————
Total 1,914.95
Previously acknowledged in July receipts 26,893.72
—————————
Total $28,808.67
* * * * *
FOR TILLOTSON COLLEGIATE AND NORMAL INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
North Hampton, N. H. Ladies of Cong. Ch. 26.35
Hopkinton, Mass. Mrs. J. C. Claflin 50.00
Mendon, Ill. Mrs. J. Fowler 125.00
Onarga, Ill. Mrs. C. L. Foster 10.00
Rockford, Ill. L. S. Swezey 21.00
Greenville, Mich. M. Rutan 400.00
Oakville, Cal. A. A. Bancroft 50.00
—————————
Total 682.35
Previously acknowledged in Aug. receipts 2,502.17
—————————
Total $3,184.52
* * * * *
FOR ARTHINGTON MISSION.
Green Mountain, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Stuart 10.00
Previously acknowledged in June receipts 35.00
—————————
Total $45.00
* * * * *
FOR NEGRO REFUGEES.
Deer Isle, Me. “A Friend” 5.00
Northville, Mich. D. Pomeroy 1.00
—————————
Total 6.00
Previously acknowledged in Aug. receipts 349.24
—————————
Total $355.24
* * * * *
Constitution of the American Missionary Association.
INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.
* * * * *
ART. I. This Society shall be called “THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
ASSOCIATION.”
ART. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian
missionary and educational operations, and to diffuse a knowledge of
the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute
of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.
ART. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice
of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a
member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life
member; provided that children and others who have not professed their
faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting.
ART. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September,
October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction
of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the
Executive Committee.
ART. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular
officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and
of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other
co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.
ART. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President,
Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries,
Treasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less than
twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory, and
the Treasurer ex-officio, members.
ART. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and
disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and
dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents;
the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of
all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of
missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no
ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to
be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall,
by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any
aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall
be final.
The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies
occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings;
to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of
incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all
officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the
Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and
for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in
all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general
conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of
the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the
missionary work.
Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting
business.
ART. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers,
agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and
conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to
discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of
unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their
fellow-beings as slaves.
ART. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to
the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and sustain
missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the
agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.
ART. X. No amendment shall be made in this Constitution without the
concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual
meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to
a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be
published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in
the regular official notifications of the meeting.
FOOTNOTE:
[A] By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief
in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the
Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the
only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy
Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the
immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the
eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous.
* * * * *
_The American Missionary Association._
* * * * *
AIM AND WORK.
To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the
almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main
efforts to preparing the FREEDMEN for their duties as citizens and
Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related
to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted CHINESE in America,
and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian
policy towards the INDIANS. It has also a mission in AFRICA.
STATISTICS.
CHURCHES: _In the South_—In Va., 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 12;
Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 13; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 5.
_Africa_, 1. _Among the Indians_, 1. Total 66.
INSTITUTIONS FOUNDED, FOSTERED OR SUSTAINED IN THE SOUTH.—_Chartered_:
Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville,
Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss., New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8.
_Graded or Normal Schools_: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston,
Greenwood, S. C.; Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens,
Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 11. _Other Schools_, 18. Total 37.
TEACHERS, MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANTS.—Among the Freedmen, 231; among
the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 17; in Africa, 14. Total, 279.
STUDENTS—In Theology, 88; Law, 17; in College Course, 106; in other
studies, 7,018. Total, 7,229. Scholars, taught by former pupils of
our schools, estimated at 100,000. INDIANS under the care of the
Association. 13,000.
WANTS.
1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing
work in the South. This increase can only be reached by _regular_ and
_larger_ contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the
strong.
2. ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS for our higher educational institutions, to
accommodate the increasing numbers of students; MEETING HOUSES, for the
new churches we are organizing; MORE MINISTERS, cultured and pious, for
these churches.
3. HELP FOR YOUNG MEN, to be educated as ministers here and
missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.
Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A.
office, as below:
NEW YORK H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street.
BOSTON Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Room 21 Congregational House.
CHICAGO Rev. Jas. Powell, 112 West Washington Street.
MAGAZINE.
This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the
Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who
take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath
Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies
of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to
take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five
dollars.
Those who wish to remember the AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION in their
last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following
FORM OF A BEQUEST.
“I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of —— dollars in
trust, to pay the same in —— days after my decease to the person who,
when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the ‘American
Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes.”
The will should be attested by three witnesses [in some States three
are required—in other States only two], who should write against their
names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and
number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State
in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A.
B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the
request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of
each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some
States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months
before the death of the testator.
* * * * *
JOHN H. HORSFALL.
_FURNITURE_
AND
Upholstery Warerooms,
Nos. 6 & 7 EAST 23D STREET,
MADISON SQUARE.
Offers a fine selection of goods at very reasonable
prices.
DESIGNS AND ESTIMATES FURNISHED ON APPLICATION.
* * * * *
The World’s Model Magazine!
Demorest’s Monthly
The Largest in Form, the Largest in Circulation,
And the best in everything that makes a magazine desirable, with the
most costly and valuable prize ever offered to subscribers. Demorest’s
Monthly Magazine presents a grand combination of the entertaining, the
useful and beautiful, with stories, essays, poems, fashions, family
matters, art critiques, lovely oil pictures, steel engravings and other
art features. Single copies, 25c., post free; yearly $3.00. With a copy
of
Reinhart’s Great Picture “Consolation,”
Size 20×30,
Given to each subscriber; when mounted and sent free of transportation,
50 cents extra; or a selection from twenty other valuable premiums.
“Consolation” is truly a beautiful and artistic picture, representing
a prostrate mother, her grief consoled by a group of angels, one of
whom bears her child in its arms. The picture is full of sentiment and
the copies have all the beauty, excellence and charm of the original,
both in color and treatment, so that artists cannot distinguish them
apart, and combines one of the most interesting, artistic and valuable
pictures ever published (sold at the art stores for $10.00). Splendid
inducements for Agents. Send for specimen copy or postal card for
particulars. Address
W. JENNINGS DEMOREST,
_No. 17 E. 14th Street, N. Y._
* * * * *
New Singing Book for the Million!
CORONATION SONGS
_For Praise and Prayer Meetings_,
HOME AND SOCIAL SINGING. BY
Rev. Dr. CHARLES F. DEEMS
AND
THEODORE E. PERKINS.
Containing 151 Hymns with Tunes, which include more of the STANDARD
material that the world will not suffer to die, and more NEW material
that deserves trial, than any other book extant.
Postpaid, 30 cents. $25 per hundred.
* * * * *
LYMAN ABBOTT’S
Commentary on the New Testament
Illustrated and Popular, giving the latest views of the best Biblical
Scholars on all disputed points.
A concise, strong and faithful Exposition in (=8=) =eight volumes=,
octavo.
AGENTS WANTED IN EVERY LOCALITY.
A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers,
New York and Chicago.
* * * * *
GET THE BEST.
THE “OXFORD”
[Illustration: Bible]
TEACHERS’ BIBLES
IN SEVEN DIFFERENT SIZES,
At prices to suit everybody.
Apply to your Bookseller for Lists, or write to
THOS. NELSON & SONS,
42 Bleecker Street, New York.
* * * * *
Meneely & Kimberly,
BELL FOUNDERS, TROY, N. Y.
Manufacture a superior quality of BELLS.
Special attention given to =CHURCH BELLS=.
☞ Catalogues sent free to parties needing bells.
* * * * *
Brown Bros. & Co.
BANKERS,
59 & 61 Wall Street, New York,
211 Chestnut St., Philadelphia,
66 State Street, Boston.
Issue Commercial Credits, make Cable transfers of Money between this
Country and England, and buy and sell Bills of Exchange on Great Britain
and Ireland.
They also issue, against cash deposited, or satisfactory guarantee of
repayment,
Circular Credits for Travellers,
In DOLLARS for use in the United States and adjacent countries, and in
POUNDS STERLING, for use in any part of the world.
* * * * *
73,620 MORE
Singer Sewing Machines Sold in ’78
THAN IN ANY PREVIOUS YEAR.
In =1870= we sold =127,833= Sewing Machines.
” =1878= ” =356,432= ” ”
Our sales have increased enormously every year through the whole
period of “hard times.”
We now Sell Three-Quarters of all the Sewing
Machines sold in the World.
For the accommodation of the Public we have 1,500 subordinate offices
in the United States and Canada, and 3,000 offices in the Old World and
South America.
PRICES GREATLY REDUCED.
Waste no money on “cheap” counterfeits. Send
for our handsomely Illustrated Price List.
THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY,
Principal Office, 34 Union Square, New York.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Hands]
CRAMPTON’S
PURE OLD
PALM SOAP,
FOR
The Laundry, the Kitchen, and
For General Household Purposes,
MANUFACTURED BY
CRAMPTON BROTHERS,
_Cor. Monroe & Jefferson Sts., N. Y._
Send for Circular and Price List.
Crampton’s old Palm Soap for the Laundry, the Kitchen, and for
general Household purposes. The price of the “Palm Soap” is $3.90
per box of 100 three-quarter pound bars—75 pounds in box. To any one
who will send us an order for 10 boxes with cash, $39, we will send
one box extra free as a premium. Or the orders may be sent to us for
one or more boxes at a time, with remittance, and when we have thus
received orders for ten boxes we will send the eleventh box free as
proposed above. If you do not wish to send the money in advance, you
may deposit it with any banker or merchant in good credit in your
town, with the understanding that he is to remit to us on receipt of
the soap, which is to be shipped to his care. Address,
CRAMPTON BROTHERS,
Cor. Monroe and Jefferson Sts., New York.
FOR SALE
BY ALL
MERCHANTS.
[Illustration: Hands]
* * * * *
Abraham Bogardus.
[Illustration: Camera and child]
ART PHOTOGRAPHER
872 BROADWAY,
COR. 18TH STREET.
NEW YORK.
* * * * *
UTILITY ADJUSTABLE TABLE.
[Illustration: Lady seated at table]
Can be made =any height= and be =folded up=. For Cutting, Basting,
Study, Invalids, Children, etc. Send stamp for book of prices.
GEO. F. SARGENT,
Proprietor and Manufacturer,
816 Broadway, New York.
* * * * *
Every Man His Own Printer.
Excelsior =$3= Printing Press.
[Illustration: Printing press]
Prints cards, labels, envelopes, &c.; larger sizes for larger work.
For business or pleasure, young or old. Catalogue of Presses, Type,
Cards, &c., sent for two stamps.
KELSEY & CO., M’frs, Meriden, Conn.
* * * * *
CHURCH CUSHIONS
MADE OF THE
PATENT ELASTIC FELT.
For particulars, address H. D. OSTERMOOR,
P. O. Box 4004. 36 Broadway, New York.
* * * * *
MARVIN’S
FIRE & BURGLAR
SAFES
COUNTER PLATFORM WAGON & TRACK
SCALES
_MARVIN SAFE & SCALE CO.
265 BROADWAY. N. Y.
627 CHESTNUT ST., PHILA._
* * * * *
W. & B. DOUGLAS,
Middletown, Conn.,
MANUFACTURERS OF
PUMPS,
HYDRAULIC RAMS, GARDEN ENGINES, PUMP CHAIN AND FIXTURES, IRON CURBS,
YARD HYDRANTS, STREET WASHERS, ETC.
[Illustration: Pump]
Highest Medal awarded them by the Universal Exposition at Paris,
France, in 1867; Vienna, Austria, in 1873; and Philadelphia, 1876.
Founded in 1832.
Branch Warehouses:
85 & 87 John St.
NEW YORK,
AND
197 Lake Street,
CHICAGO.
_For Sale by all Regular Dealers._
* * * * *
ST. GERMAIN
THE _ORIGINAL_ STUDENT LAMP.
Every Lamp has C. A. KLEEMANN and my
name on Chimney-Holder. Buy no other.
[Illustration: Lamp]
The Best made Lamp.
” ” Shade.
” ” Chimnies.
” ” Wicks.
ALL PATENTED.
This lamp is absolutely safe against explosion.
The light is brilliant and very steady.
No odor. No smoke.
All the latest improvements.
Easy to manage. Simple in construction.
C. F. A. HINRICHS, New York.
Toys for Fairs. Send for Price List.
* * * * *
=A PRINTING PRESS= for =75= cents. With ink roller, =90= cents. Both
by mail =$1.60=. A complete Printing Office, viz., press, roller, font
of type, type tray, ink, leads, furniture, gold bronze, and 50 cards,
=$2.25=. All by mail for =$3.25=. Sample package of =40= varieties
of cards, =10= cents. Specimen Book of type, &c., =10= cents. YOUNG
AMERICA PRESS CO., =35= Murray Street, New York.
* * * * *
The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Goodwin’s),
Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3 p. m. The Annual
Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, N.
Y., service commencing at half-past seven in the evening. A paper on
the Chinese question will be presented by Rev. J. H. Twichell, of
Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity of the Protection of Law
for the Indians, by Gen. J. B. Leake, United States District Attorney,
Chicago, Illinois; one on the Providential Significance of the Negro in
America, by Pres. E. H. Merrell, of Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Addresses may be expected from Rev. Drs. Goodell, Roy, Corwin, Dana,
Ellsworth, and other able speakers on timely and important topics.
Parties desiring entertainment during the meeting, who have not already
applied, will please write at once to H. G. Billings, Esq., 242 South
Water Street, Chicago.
* * * * *
_Railroad Reductions._—The following railroads will make special rates
to those attending the meeting. Mich. Cent. R. R., Excursion Tickets,
2cts. per mile; Ill. Cent. R. R. Excursion Tickets, 1⅕ fare; L. S. &
M. S. R. R., Excursion Tickets, 1⅕ fare; C. B. & Q. R. R., full fare
in, ⅕ fare out; C. & A. R. R., do.; C. & E. I. R. R., do.; C. & N. W.
R. R., do.; C. & Pacific, do.; C., R. I. & P. R. R., do.; P., C. & St.
Louis, Excursion Tickets, reduced rates; C. & Paducah, from Streator
and Pontiac, fare and ⅕; Wis. Cent. R. R., full fare in, ⅕ out; Bur.,
C. Rap. & North., do. in, ⅓ out; St. L. & S. W., full fare in, ⅕ out;
C., M. & St. Paul R. R., do.; P., Ft. W. & C. R. R., do.
* * * * *
TO ADVERTISERS.
Special attention is invited to the advertising department of the
American Missionary. Among its regular readers are thousands of
Ministers of the Gospel, Presidents, Professors and Teachers in
Colleges, Theological Seminaries and Schools; it is, therefore,
a specially valuable medium for advertising Books, Periodicals,
Newspapers, Maps, Charts, Institutions of Learning, Church Furniture,
Bells, Household Goods, &c.
Advertisers are requested to note the moderate price charged for space
in its columns, considering the extent and character of its circulation.
Advertisements must be received by the TENTH of the month, in order
to secure insertion in the following number. All communications in
relation to advertising should be addressed to
J. H. DENISON, Adv’g Agent,
56 Reade Street, New York.
* * * * *
☞ Our friends who are interested in the Advertising Department of the
“American Missionary” can aid us in this respect by mentioning, when
ordering goods, that they saw them advertised in our Magazine.
* * * * *
DAVID H. GILDERSLEEVE, Printer, 101 Chambers Street, New York.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
Spelling and puntuation were changed only where the error appears
to be a printing error. Capitalization and punctuation in the
Receipts section is inconsistent, and was retained as printed.
The remaining corrected punctuation changes are too numerous to
list; the others are as follows:
For consistency, “Jessie” changed to “Jesse” on page 345 (As Jesse and
Jo came up) and page 346 (or Jesse, who wasn't afraid).
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The American Missionary — Volume 33, No. 11, November, 1879" ***
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