The publications provided for a household do much to mould the
character of its inmates. If a right proportion of these are
religious and missionary, good results are sure to follow. As at
this season many determine what periodicals they will take for
the coming year, we beg leave to suggest the wisdom of families
subscribing for and perusing the American Missionary. By
this means foundations for right thinking and right doing will be
laid, and the way prepared for the exercise of Christian patriotism
and philanthropy, so needful in the present condition of our
country.
We have word from Hampton that the tide of negro students never
set in so promptly and strongly as since October 1st of this year.
For the second time in the history of the school, tents have been
erected on the campus and occupied by the colored boys.
Dr. Alexander, President of Straight University, is much encouraged
by the fact that white students are ready to avail themselves
of the advantages of the Law Department of the University. This
department is entirely self-sustaining, and conducted with rare
ability, one of the professors having served on the Supreme Bench
of the State. Of twenty-three students, nineteen are white.
The number of students in attendance at Fisk University for the
first two months of this year is much greater than that of any
previous year since Jubilee Hall was occupied. A communication
from Pres. Cravath, published elsewhere, states at length some of
the unusually hopeful aspects of the work, and indicates that the
University is entering upon a larger career of usefulness than it
has ever experienced.
[386]
The American Bible Society offers to its Life Members an annual
grant of one dollar’s worth of Bibles or Testaments; its benevolent
intention being to supply them with the means of distributing the
word of God among the needy. This perquisite is transferable at
the written request of the Life Members. A lady, once a teacher
in our schools at the South, and who has a great interest in the
welfare of the colored children, suggests that in this way the
pupils of our day and Sunday-schools may be supplied with the
sacred Scriptures. We cordially second the suggestion, and will
be glad to receive the written authorization of any of the Life
Members of the Bible Society for the use of their current gift for
the purpose above indicated. The officers of the Bible Society, as
we understand, acquiesce in this plan so far as it may seem wise to
the Life Members to co-operate with us.
The sermon preached at our Annual Meeting by Dr. McKenzie, related
to our duty to Africa, and was one of rare excellence and beauty.
It was printed in the Advance, Oct. 28th, and a limited number
can be supplied to persons sending us a postal requesting it, with
their address. The closing words of the sermon, which we append,
not only sound a note of cheer, but are fitted to awaken the hope
and courage of earnest Christian workers everywhere.
“The day of the Lord is coming. The light is on the hills and along
the coast of all the lands. The nations are coming to the King. The
continents and the islands begin to hear His voice. The tongues of
men shall be filled with praise. It is not long; a few days more
of work and prayer; a few more deeds of sacrifice and love; a few
more lives given; a few more men gilded with the towel and with the
basin in their hands; a few more repetitions of that strange and
sacred deed, Jesus washing the feet of Judas. Then the glory and
the rejoicing. A little while and the day shall dawn. We may see
the hastening light as we face the East,
“Where, faint and far,
Along the tingling desert of the sky,
Beyond the circle of the conscious hills,
Were laid in jasper-stone as clear as glass
The first foundations of that new, near Day
Which should be builded out of heaven to God.”
From the beginning this Association was wedded to right principles.
It recognized their latent power. It took it for granted that
right was expedient—that right would triumph. It did not ask if
right thinking and right doing was the way of the multitude, even
of the multitude of professing Christians. Its inquiry was simply
for the way of righteousness. That way it strove to tread. It was
called narrow—captious. Its leaders were sometimes stigmatized
as men of one idea—disturbers of the people—fanatics. They were
not time-servers, however. They had the martyr spirit and toiled
on, waiting for the morning; and the morning came. What was once
questioned if not ridiculed, is now accepted and honored.
The elements that entered into their early labors are needful
still. They had courage. They dared to do right in the face of
opposition. If mobbed and[387] mobbed again, the oppression only served
to fill the country with the fragrance of their good deeds. It was
but the torch that kindled the incense. They were never drawn from
a righteous purpose. God was present in the shadows, keeping watch
above his own. They had the spirit of sacrifice. They were ready to
go to the lost sheep—to the despised. They passed not by him who
fell among thieves. They achieved distinction by their readiness
to endure hardness—to submit to insult—to be counted among the
few—to toil with but little appreciation and for meagre rewards.
They also bore about with them a rich and beautiful charity, first
pure, then peaceable, full of mercy and good fruits. It was the
combination of these elements in active operation for a score of
years that served largely to revolutionize public sentiment, and
especially the sentiment in our churches, until the principles
of this Association are accepted and acceptable. The change
was wrought by the power of pure motives applied to aggressive
religious work in behalf of a needy and wronged people.
This change is sure to come in every quarter of our land, by
sufficient application of the power of right principles. Every
mission station of this Association is a centre from which a pure
light radiates. Every graduate from our schools is a torch-bearer
flaming this light over the land. It is a question of time—of a
score of years perhaps—and there will be no ostracism experienced
by our teachers South. If they can be sustained in the field,
toiling in righteousness; if their numbers can be multiplied
to meet the demand; if the churches will make it possible to
continue the work; the victory of right principles South will
be as certain and speedy as it was at the North, and much more
may be hoped for. North and South will clap their hands together
in hearty co-operation, shouting their choruses in one grand
anthem, and entering in company upon the enlarged work of carrying
right principles to the domain of final victory—the Freedmen’s
fatherland. To gird ourselves for that to-day is the duty which
calls the servants of the Master, East, West, North and South.
At no time has the call for enlargement been more urgent. It is
strikingly providential also. The political, moral and religious
atmosphere is charged with forces, prophetic of unparalleled
progress in our Southern work. Questions relative to the policy of
government are measurably settled for four years. We can lay our
plans with encouraging assurances. Sound and practical views on
all that pertains to permanent prosperity are dominant. It is not
likely they will be materially modified, save for the better. Our
statesmen and philanthropists are coming to prize more and more
those forces in man which are developed by a Christian education.
The want that is looming up before them, is good schools for
the masses in every section of the country. They voice this want
in their public utterances, and the sound thereof is echoing and
re-echoing over the land. It has in it the promise of expansion
and universal application. Its adoption and elaboration mean
increase of every laudable industry, the development of commerce,
art, science, literature, wealth, beauty, happiness. They mean the
leveling up of humanity heavenward. The tone and temper of our best
men was never more auspicious than now—never more favorable to the
work of this Association.
There never was so strong conviction in the South as now of the
wisdom of Christian education for the Freedmen. The worth of it
cannot be hidden. It is as evident as the sheen of an electric
light. There is a capacity in the heart of[388] man, by which he is
able to recognize it. He comes to do so gradually, inevitably, as
the flower unfolds from the bud, and as the fruit matures from the
blossom. Many of the best in the world started wrong, but turned
about and out-stripped their fellows in well doing. The South has
been wrong, but pour in sufficient light and it will turn about.
We have a right to hope and pray for such consummation. The aim
of our work is to hasten it. When the South turns, it will not be
by halves,—that is not her method. She is already rising for the
emergency. The signs of it are apparent. It is but a question of
time, and the time is at hand.
Legislatures have appropriated money for our work, and are doing
so heartily still. They act as statesmen, with a view to the
best interests of the State. In Texas, there is a tidal wave
setting strongly in favor of popular education, impelled by the
far-sightedness which discerns that the flow of emigration of the
best sort trends away from territory, however rich and inviting,
where free schools for all classes are not abundant. The value of
inaugurating school work through the agency of Christian teachers,
need not be argued. The call for these teachers is sure to be more
urgent than ever. Shall we provide for the immediate and coming
want? God seems to have said so. We have received $150,000 for
new buildings, in which to train teachers. New buildings mean
enlargement—enlargement means more missionaries, more prayer, more
money. Will not the friends of Christ heed this call prayerfully,
promptly, efficiently?
In December, 1869, the late Henry P. Haven, of New London, Ct.,
proposed to his Sunday-school that instead of receiving gifts they
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said: “It is more
blessed to give than to receive.”
The proposition met with favor, and a Christmas service of
worship with a Christmas offering to some deserving cause became
incorporated in the annual school plans. It occurs to us that such
holiday gifts by Sabbath-schools and households have the following
advantages:
One is, they afford the young people more real pleasure. The
happiness from rejoicing over the good of others is an exercise of
the purest affection and the finest feeling of the human heart. It
is akin to the blessedness and happiness of God himself. However
gratifying a gift may be to the receiver, nevertheless it puts him
to a disadvantage. The gift-taker becomes under obligation to the
gift-maker. The receiver’s joy in a gift terminates in himself. It
has a mixture of dependence and submission in it. But the giver is
placed under no obligation to the receiver. Moreover, he inevitably
ministers to his own well-being, though it may be unconsciously.
“Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.”
Another advantage is that there is more virtue in giving than in
receiving. The virtue of receiving consists in regard for one’s
self; the virtue of giving in a proper regard for others. There is
also more self-denial in giving than in receiving, and self-denial
is the essence of virtue. The receiver has no natural habit or
inclination to counteract, but the giver must overcome many
obstacles which require superior virtue. The more young people do
to develop the attribute of virtue, the more real pleasure they are
sure to experience.
And then again, God promises to reward the giver but not the
receiver. This is a great consideration, and may well be taken into
account by all teachers and parents. It is a good thing to make the
holidays memorable and happy by giving[389] tokens to young people, but
not so blessed as to bring them into an attitude where they will be
sure of Heavenly rewards. Of the few things which God has promised
to reward men for in this life, giving is one. “Blessed is he that
considereth the poor * * * he shall be blessed upon the earth.” “He
that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he,” and best of all, God
means to reward the liberal giver more fully at the resurrection of
the just.
By the favor of Providence we have ample opportunity to give to
humane and missionary enterprises.
At this season, when plans for celebrating the holidays are being
matured, would it not be wise for those having responsibility for
training the young, to embrace the time to teach them in their
abundance of gift-taking and gift-making to provide for themselves
“bags that wax not old, a treasure in the Heavens that faileth not.”
A Paper read at the National Council at St. Louis, Nov. 13th.
BY REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D.
I intend, without preface, to review the work of the American
Missionary Association for the last three years, and to give an
outlook on its future duties.
1. We have paid our great debt. This had clung to us for years,
like the shirt of Nessus, scorching while it clung. At the last
Council we were enabled to announce that we had rent away about one
third of the hateful garment, during the next two years we tore off
the remainder, and since then we have walked forth, financially,
“Clad in raiment pure and white,” as becometh saints who should
“Owe no man anything.” It may happen to us in the future that our
books will sometimes show a balance on the wrong side; but we
hope never again to be beguiled into putting on one of the large,
iron-clad garments we had so long and sadly worn.
2. We have received the munificent gift of $150,000 from Mrs.
Stone. Not long since, our elder and honored sister, the American
Board, had laid on her table a loaf so large that there was
danger that it might be like the “Cake of barley bread” which the
Midianite saw in his dream, that “tumbled into the host and came
unto a tent and smote it that it fell, and overturned it that the
tent lay along.” But with the whole church, we rejoice that the
loaf has been to the Board, by its great wisdom and God’s blessing,
not as the cake of the Midianite, but as his dream, an augury of
victory and enlargement! Our gift, great as it was, is only as one
of “the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table,” most gratefully
received and all needed at once, with no danger of surfeit. Our
children are not only hungry—they are crowded into close quarters,
and some of them have to be turned out of doors. At the Atlanta
University, with accommodations for only 40 girls, 62 are packed
in. At Tougaloo, barracks of slabs are erected, and outbuildings
and garrets are turned into dormitories, and still the pupils come,
so that the teachers inquire if they may put three in a bed and
twelve in one large room. Our reply is: “Take all that you can
accommodate consistently with good health and morals, and send
the rest away.” These are specimens, perhaps the most striking,
but from nearly every school comes the call for more room. Never
before have we had such overcrowding; never before have we been
obliged to turn away so many. Mrs. Stone’s great gift will meet
the want in five of our[390] larger institutions and no more; and that
only for shelter, while the increased number will make an enlarged
call for bread. Mrs. Stone provides the homes: who will furnish the
endowments for more teachers and the scholarships for more pupils?
3. We are just completing the Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas,
with its large and commodious building and beautiful campus of
eight acres, near the capitol—an outpost in that vast State of the
Southwest; thus extending our permanent institutions from Hampton
Roads, Va., to the banks of the Colorado, Texas, and supplying
eight of the largest Southern States with schools of higher grade,
each of which sends out annually its score or fifty well-trained
teachers.
4. It is a matter of much gratification to us that while we have
been paying our debt and extending our lines, we have been able to
maintain, and even to enlarge, the work already in hand among the
Freedmen. Three years ago our teaching force in the South numbered
150; now there are 200. Then our pupils were 5,404; now 8,052.
One illustration of the usefulness of these schools is seen in
the great army of scholars taught in them and by their pupils. We
believe, from a safe estimate, that half a million of names have
been enrolled, in the aggregate, in our schools and the schools
of our pupils, since this Council last met, and still the cry is
for more teachers. This roll-call of the school-room gives no idea
of the added work in the Sunday-school, the temperance cause, the
prayer meeting and in the homes of the people. As to the kind of
work done in our schools, and Theological departments, I point
to the modest and gentlemanly Second Assistant Moderator of this
National Council.
Our church work has grown slowly, but steadily and safely. Three
years ago our churches in the South numbered 59, now there are
73. When we began our labors among the Freedmen there was not one
Congregational church in the old South. The famous Central Church
in Charleston, S. C., was not really Congregational, and that in
Liberty Co., Ga., had become Presbyterian. It is said that the soil
in the South is not congenial to our churches. It must be admitted
that they will not flourish in the same soil with slavery, nor
where its roots still live; but as the introduction of clover kills
ill weeds, root and branch, and not only yields a good harvest in
mowing time, but also enriches the ground for all other crops, so
the planting of Congregational churches in the South will help to
destroy the roots of slavery, give a good crop for the Master, and
enrich the field for all other churches. We are confident that our
clover-sowing in the South is coming to be regarded by both whites
and blacks not as supplanting others, but enriching all.
5. The flow of Chinamen to the Pacific coast is not increasing,
but the work we are doing among those now there is as hopeful as
any we are attempting. Many are turning from idol worship and
giving evidence of genuine conversion. Such men as Jee Gam, so
intelligent, so modest, so pious, are proof that the work is not
superficial; and the eagerness of those converts as well as their
teachers to extend the effort to the Chinese in the mines, and even
to carry the Gospel to China, is proof of a missionary spirit as
well as of genuine piety.
6. The new movement for the education of Indian youth in schools at
the East, begun three years ago at Hampton by Capt. Pratt, deserves
encouragement, not as superseding the schools among the tribes,
but as helping them. The sending of these young people from their
homes has attracted the attention of the[391] Indians to the subject of
education more than any other thing that has taken place for years;
and the correspondence which has sprung up between the parents and
the children, as well as the return of the educated pupils, will
deepen the interest. We have aided some of the pupils at Hampton,
and we are disposed to consider the earnest wish of Capt. Pratt,
now in charge of the Government School for Indian youth at Carlisle
Barracks, that we extend the effort into several of our schools in
the South. Gen. Armstrong’s experience at Hampton shows that the
joint education of the Indian and Negro pupils is a success, that
they are helpful to each other.
With this rapid sketch of our work among the three neglected races
in America, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, I
pass to the next item in this review—where we follow the negro to
his home in the land of his fathers.
7. The Mendi Mission in Africa.
When the Council met in Detroit we had just sent out our first
company of Freedmen as missionaries to Africa. Three years is
not long enough to warrant absolute conclusions, yet such as we
have reached I give. 1. We are very hopeful as to the ability of
the colored American to endure the climate of Africa. 2. We are
a little disappointed as to his qualifications in ripeness of
judgment and maturity of character, for the duties of a missionary.
Perhaps we expected too much. The white missionary has behind him
the culture of seventeen centuries; the colored of seventeen years!
But of the fitness of the few now, and ultimately of many, we have
no doubt. We must select at first more carefully, and train the
rest more fully. Nor have we any question as to the call of God to
these Freedmen to carry the Gospel to Africa, and we “bate not a
jot of heart or hope” in our work of preparing and sending them.
The discouragements we share with all the noble societies that
have responded to the grand impulse inspired by the wonderful
discoveries of Livingstone, Stanley and others; nay, with all who
in every age have heard the Divine call for great enterprises in
behalf of religion and humanity. God begins his great movements by
preliminary trials and disappointments; in them only are heroes
and martyrs trained. Persecutions were essential to the success of
the primitive church. Bull Run saved the republic and overthrew
slavery; and our confidence in the Divine purposes for Africa are
all the stronger for the discipline at the outset. He means no
holiday parade, but thorough, apostolic sacrifice and success. And
lastly,
8. To pay that debt and to carry on our work, with its
enlargements, its endowments and buildings, we have, in these three
years, received into our treasury six hundred and twenty-seven
thousand dollars. If we add the sums received by our affiliated
schools ($283,132), the amount is nine hundred and ten thousand
dollars; and if we add to this the one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars received from Mrs. Stone, now rapidly to be expended,
the total will be one million and sixty thousand dollars! The
churches seem to have had confidence in us, and to have appreciated
our work. For this, through you, we wish to thank them, and to ask
continued confidence and the means to carry on the enlarged work
that opens before us.
When we turn from what we have done to what we have yet to do, we
are overawed at both its vastness and its pressing urgency.
1. Whatever other danger threatens this republic, or calls for
the labors of its Christian people, that arising from the three
colored races is, I do not say the greatest, but the most obvious.
The vast influx of European peoples does[392] indeed, awaken serious
apprehension, for they bring with them infidelity or Romanism; yet
thus far no overt peril has arisen from this source, for they have
so spread themselves among the masses that their influence has
gathered to no focal point. But the Indian has been an irritant
throughout the whole history of our occupancy of the land, and
in all parts of it. Blood has flowed freely in the track of our
wrongs against him, and will do so until we act like Christians
and he becomes one. The Chinamen on our Western coast are few,
and yet how their coming has shaken the nerves of the nation!
What other set of immigrants, so few in number, has excited so
much irritation—not on their part, but among ourselves about
them? But the great disturber—yet the utterly unintentional
disturber—of the peace of this nation, is the negro. For nearly
half a century the storm has raged around him, as around Elijah
in Horeb—the wind of tempestuous discussion in pulpit, press
and Congress; the earthquake, rending asunder trade-interests,
religious denominations, dividing even the nation itself into two
hostile sections; the lurid and awful fire of war, with its blood,
carnage and desolation. Last of all came “the still, small voice,”
and God was in it. But how little has it been heeded. The wind is
scarcely lulled; the earthquake is quiet but the dreadful chasms
remain; the fires are smouldering, but now and then a darting flame
of Ku Klux outrage or a Chisholm murder reveals the pent-up heat
below! Then as to the anointing! Elijah anointed the kings and
the prophet—giving thereby the grace to do the Divine behests,
whether of vengeance or mercy. We have enacted the Freedman into
a king where all are sovereigns, and a prophet where all the Lord’s
people are priests, but we have not given him the knowledge or the
spiritual grace that alone can anoint him as a king or priest.
The source of the special irritation in regard to these races is
not far to seek. If a man moves into your neighborhood who is of
your own race and color, though you may differ from him in theories
of trade, politics or religion, yet assimilation and esteem may
arise. But if he has a tawny skin, delights in the promiscuous use
of the tomahawk and scalping knife, and withal claims an ancient
title to the very land you occupy; or if he has a yellow face,
wears a cue, eats with chop-sticks and is willing to work fifty
per cent. cheaper than you can; or if he has a black face, with
the stigma of slavery and caste-prejudice upon him, then the case
is altered; assimilation and friendship are not so easy. But these
people are here and they must stay; they are so numerous that you
cannot ignore them; you must choose between leaving them as they
are, a perpetual source of annoyance and danger, or training them
to become useful citizens. Moreover, they are your neighbors,
fallen among thieves, which stripped them of their raiment and
wounded them, and you must choose between the part of the priest
and Levite or of the good Samaritan. The meanest of them all is
your brother, and you are your brother’s keeper.
But if you mean to act the part of a neighbor and a brother to
these great multitudes, you have no small job on hand—which brings
me to my next point.
2. The dangers and the duties of emancipation.
The nation that emancipates a large number of slaves assumes a
grave responsibility. This is increased if the emancipation is
immediate and the ex-slaves remain on the soil, and especially
if they differ widely in race from the master-class. All these
difficulties attach to our Act of Emancipation; but they are not
an argument against emancipation. The old abolitionists were
right—immediate emancipation was the nation’s duty. No preparation
could be made for the change[393] before it took place—slavery
must be supreme or nothing. The safety lies alone in the wise
after-treatment. Then or never, and soon if ever, must the
Freedman be prepared for his new position. We have striking
illustrations at hand. We begin with the nearest in point of time:
In 1861 Russia emancipated nearly fifty millions of serfs. This was
the result of a ground-swell of popular sentiment demanding some
break in the iron-clad despotism of an absolute monarchy. The next
year the empire completed a thousand years of national existence.
In the joyful enthusiasm over these two great events, there arose a
strong hope of the advent of constitutional liberty. The changes,
however, were few and utterly disappointing; and the issue of
emancipation scarcely less so, involving the ruin of most of the
landed aristocracy, and the ignorance, idleness and intemperance
of a large share of the serfs. And now, after twenty years of
unrelaxed despotism and the continued deterioration of the masses,
the educated people in Russia see no better remedy than Nihilism!
In 1834 Great Britain emancipated 800,000 slaves in the West
Indies, giving £20,000 as compensation to the masters, but making
almost no provision for the education and religious instruction of
the negroes. The hour of emancipation presented a touching scene
in many places. Slavery ended on the midnight that ushered in the
first of August, and the negro population, engaged in devotional
exercises till that hour, were then on their knees and awaiting
in silence the gift of the great boon of freedom coming from the
hand of God! That was the auspicious era for beginning the work
of elevating this inoffensive and willing people. But the golden
moment was lost, for with inadequate provision for schools and
churches, they gradually sunk in ignorance and superstition, back
almost to African fetishism. So hopeless was the field that this
Association withdrew its missionaries, and at length the British
Government, aroused to its mistake, and after the loss of one third
of a century of most precious time, established a thorough system
of common schools. The tide begins slowly to turn.
In remoter years God himself became the emancipator of about two
millions of slaves. Even He did not attempt the task of leaving
them on the soil to meet the scorn or the power of the masters.
But He showed His appreciation of their need of education and
religious training by halting almost immediately after setting out
on their long journey and opening a church-school on Mount Sinai.
That most wonderful of all schools was kept there for a whole
year—God himself the teacher. And when their journey was resumed,
He directed in the construction of a portable church-school edifice
in which instruction was continued till their journey’s end. God’s
appreciation of the need of homes for the ex-slaves is seen in the
fact that He had employed gangs,—not of men, but of nations—for
centuries in clearing the land, building houses, and planting
olive-yards and vine-yards for them.
This act of emancipation must be the model for Christian nations,
so far as the circumstances are the same. There must be no
preliminary apprenticeship, but immediate emancipation, followed
by prompt, thorough, and persistent training of the people in
knowledge, piety, and in acquiring homes.
I call attention lastly to
3. The results and outlook of our own emancipation. Let us consider
these, not as is usually done, from the standpoint either of the
politician of the North, or the planter of the South, but from that
of the negro himself.
With all its glory, emancipation has brought to the negro three
great disappointments.
[394]
(1.) Education was to him the talisman of the master’s power, and
above all, it was the key to open the long concealed treasures
of God’s word. He stretched forth his hand for it as if it were
Aladdin’s lamp, which by a few touches would reveal the hidden
riches. But there was no magic in the lamp; it showed him only a
long and difficult road, that by patient and persevering travel
would bring him to the coveted knowledge. Then, again, the common
school fund of the South gives him but few schools, and those are
open but for a short time, while his own necessities bend him
down to the struggle for existence, and allow him little means to
educate his children, or power to spare them from work in the field.
(2.) His next great disappointment was in the ballot. This, too, he
had seized with avidity as the symbol of sovereign power—the one
grand test of equality with the master. In two states he wielded it
in uncontrolled majority, but his use of it was so disgraceful to
himself and so ruinous to the state, that his friends were amazed
and his foes exasperated. He showed that he lacked the intelligence
to wield this great power, and the strength of character to resist
its temptations; and now the symbol is wrenched from his grasp and
he is once more helpless before superior knowledge.
(3.) His last disappointment was as to the ownership of land. What
visions floated before him of land that he could call his own and
of a home that he might adorn and use for himself and family. It is
wonderful to see how much he has done to realize this vision. But
this, too, in large measure eludes his grasp. If he rents he must
pay a rental almost equal to the value of the land; and if he buys,
he must take the united toil of himself and family to pay for it;
and hence his dilemma. If he buys his home, he cannot educate his
children; if he educates them, he cannot buy the home!
Do we wonder that with the crushing of these “great expectations,”
and with as little hope in most cases of seeing things better as
when he was a slave, he yields to despair, and rather than “bear
the ills he has he flies to others that he knows not of,” and that
Kansas becomes his refuge?
The Kansas refugees are not the most hopeless of the colored
people; they, at least, have the energy to flee. But there are
large numbers that are content to sink to the bottom and stay
there; they are the water in the hold that threatens to drag down
the ship. Yet, thank God, there is still another portion, not so
large, but more hopeful and enterprising than either, that get
homes and educate their children. These are the ones whose children
crowd our schools; they are the hope of the race; they have the
right ideal—that an education, of heart as well as head, is the
rod of God in the hand of man; that makes character, wields the
ballot, wins the home and works the land! This is the class to help
first, and this is the way to help—give them the good school and
the pure church.
The emergency was too great to brook delay. This Association did
not wait. It struck in at this point at the outset and has stuck to
it ever since. It is on the right track, as is now admitted on all
sides. Pres. Hayes utters the practical sentiment of the nation,
and he but echoes what Judge Tourgee, the author of “A Fool’s
Errand,” representing the radical opinions of the North, and Rev.
Dr. Ruffner, Supt. of Public Instruction of Virginia, representing
the conservative views of the South, had already uttered, that
there is no way of making the Freedmen safe members of society but
by educating them. To the colored people themselves nothing is
more inspiring and helpful than the kind of work achieved by the
American Missionary Association in your behalf. When these people
recall the little handful of their number that cowered under the
guns of Fort[395] Monroe for protection and the little school opened
there, and now see the large buildings at Hampton, the broad farm
and the busy workshops in which their children are trained; when
they remember the scowling looks of the masters in Atlanta when
Gen. Sherman had gone, and now see the Atlanta University, visited
by those old masters—and the best of them—who come away with
commendations so warm, that the state grants $8,000 a year to the
education of their children, when they think of the timid crowds
of their people in Nashville at the close of the war, and now see
Jubilee Hall, sung into existence by their children, who have
called forth the tribute of tears from crowned heads abroad as well
as people at home; when, in short, they see all over the South
such schools taught by teachers from the North, and behold their
children going forth year by year, by scores and hundreds to teach
and to preach, this is to them the manna that sustains them in
their wilderness journey. Will you help us to multiply that bread,
as Jesus did when He fed the multitudes, saying—“give ye them to
eat”? Multiply it not only for the thrifty and enterprising, but
multiply it for the discouraged ones now ready to flee to Kansas!
Yea, multiply it so abundantly that the most hopeless and degraded
may be fed by it and become strong; and then you will have helped
save the Freedmen and the nation, and will have helped win a
victory for caste-crushed people over all the world—a victory for
freedom, humanity and religion!
The Christian Recorder asks: “What is the lesson taught us by
the rapid growth of our sister colored churches, the Presbyterian
and Episcopal especially? That they are growing, and most rapidly,
too, he who runs may read. But what is the lesson it has for us
Methodists? Plainly that we shall put no more ignorant men and no
more trifling men into the ministry. To continue to do so is to
sound our death knell for the future. Ignorant men and trifling
men as religious teachers may satisfy the older generations of our
people, but the younger will insist upon one of two things—give us
an intelligent, dignified pulpit, or we will go where we can get
it. We are already losing too many of our children; nor will the
stampede ever stop, until our conferences stop opening the door to
every one who knocks.”
This is from the able and influential organ of the African M. E.
Church, published at Philadelphia. Not long since we transferred
to these columns, from the same paper, a similar article, in
which the editor used the high quality of the educational and
church work of the A. M. A. at the South in the same way, as a
spur to his people. We commend his wisdom in the case. Perhaps no
more effective stimulus could be applied. Surely this great and
growing denomination, with its own “Wilberforce University,” and
with access to all of our institutions for the training of its
ministers, cannot afford to put off “ignorant and trifling” pastors
upon the young America of its constituency. They must have “an
intelligent and a dignified pulpit” or these young folks will
stampede. That former article warned its hearers that the greatest
rival of the A. M. E. was the A. M. A. In the sense of provoking
to love and to good works we are willing to enter the lists. And
herein—the helping of the old-time colored churches of the South
to a public sentiment that demands more of purity and of education
in their ministry—we find much of our incentive and of our
mission. Their children come to our schools and soon learn to call
for more intellectual and moral cultivation in their preachers. Not
a few of their best pastors were trained in our institutions.
[396]
—A third telegraphic cable has been laid between Marseilles and
Algiers.
—Twelve International African exploring and scientific
associations have recently been constituted.
—Algeria exports $5,000,000 worth of wheat annually, of oxen and
sheep $3,000,000, wool $3,500,000, and grasses $2,000,000.
—It is estimated that more than three thousand slaves were brought
to Egypt during the months of last June and July.
—Dr. Zuchinetti has returned from a journey among the Makarakas,
the Niams-Niams, the Gouros-Gouros in Darfour, Kordofan and Nubia,
where he made a special study of the manner in which they collect
gold.
—Messrs. Cadenhead and Carter of the International Association
were recently killed near the Tanganyika during a fight between
two hostile tribes of the interior. The Sultan of Zanzibar has
sent troops under Lieut. Matthews, an English officer, temporarily
secured for the purpose, to quell the disturbance.
—A Sheik has recently transported over eight hundred slaves in a
single week from Suakim to Jedda. In order to evade the law the
negroes are given certificates of liberation when leaving the
African coast, but these are destroyed by their masters when they
arrive at Arabia, where they are sold. The question of appointing
consular agents at Khartoum and Siout for the purpose of breaking
up traffic in slaves, is agitated.
—There is an African chief named Matola, living in the Rovuma
valley, East Central Africa, who speaks six languages. Perhaps the
most remarkable thing about him is that he is a total abstainer. He
became such from principle and has for many years never touched the
native beer or any other intoxicating liquor. By his aid a church
has been built to which he summons his people every Sunday, acting
as interpreter when there is occasion.
—The negro Anderson, who has had great experience in travel and
adventure in Western Africa, is about to undertake the training of
elephants for service in Liberia. He has at his command elephant
hunters from the vicinity of the Congo, who will endeavor to
capture and bring to Monrovia as many of the animals as are wanted.
As domestic animals in Liberia are few in number and affected badly
by the climate, this new enterprise is looked upon with great favor.
—The French people have formed a gold mining company on the west
coast of Africa called: “The African Company of the Gold Coast.”
During the month of August, 1879, it was working actively upon a
large and important gold vein, with machinery sent from Europe.
The results obtained were kept secret, but it transpired on the
coast that they had been surprising. A second company was formed
December, 1879, by the English, called the “Effuenta Gold Mining
Company,” for the immediate exploration of the rich territory named
Effuenta. The gold fever actually animated the inhabitants of
Wassaw as much as it did formerly the emigrants to California.
—Secretary Schurz has pledged himself to send fifty Indian girls
to Hampton, provided they can be received and cared for. He is
ready to appropriate $150 a year for each.
[397]
—Indian youth not revengeful.—General Armstrong testifies that,
“in nearly two years’ experience, we have found no signs of the
revengeful nature ascribed to the Indian. ‘They are like other
people’ is a common remark among us, and is the sum of Indian
character.”
—A full-blooded Indian chief writes to his half-brother at Hampton
from Crow Creek: “I am going to write you a letter. I never forget
you. Try to learn all you can while you are down there. I wish I
were young so I could go down and learn too. I want you to learn
all you can and come back and teach your brothers. Try to learn and
talk English too. Don’t think about coming home all the time. If
you do you can’t learn much. I like to have you write a letter back
and tell me how you are.
Wizi—That’s I.”
—Rev. Mr. Denison of Hampton writes of the twelve captive
Indian warriors from Florida received by him into the church:
“We are not deceived into thinking that these Indians present a
highly civilized type of piety, but after careful observation,
we are forced to believe that, as regards the pith and marrow of
Christianity, they are our beloved brethren, for this one thing
they do if ever men did it, forgetting the things that are behind,
they press toward the mark. One point in theology they understand,
and only one. It is to walk the new road in the help of Jesus, and
they show their faith by their works. They are patient in study.
They are always found on the side of law and order. Digging in the
earth is not the chief joy of an Indian warrior, but Koba writes:
‘I pray every day and hoe onions.’”
—Bed-making by Indian youth.—Mr. James C. Robbins, a colored
graduate of Hampton who recently had oversight of Indian boys under
Gen. Armstrong, gives the following account: “When they first began
to make beds, the sheets were either tucked up under the pillow or
laid on the outside. One boy was found to have seven sheets, who
did not know the proper use for two. The janitor helped me carry a
bedstead into the sitting-room, the boys were called in and seated
in a semi-circle, and I began the process of bed-making, the boys
grunting and laughing as it proceeded. When the clothes were neatly
tucked in, and the pillow shaken and put into its place, I said,
‘Now boys, I will show you how to get into bed,’ which I did. Then,
through the interpreter, I asked who was willing to try it. He
hardly put the question when a boy who had objected to having his
hair cut when he first came, stepped forward. He began where I did,
and followed every movement, so closely had he observed. No sooner
did he finish than there was a stunning applause. He was then asked
to show us how to go to bed, and when his head touched the pillow
and he drew the clothing up over him, up went another shout.”
—Dr. Legge, the professor of Chinese at Oxford University, says,
“If the present rate of conversion of the Chinese to Christianity
continues, by the year 1913, there will be 26,000,000 of church
members, and 100,000,000 of professed Christians in the Chinese
Empire.”
—The Chinese government is removing the old restrictions which
withheld Chinese merchants from trading with other nations, and
is adopting a policy of encouragement to a wide-spread foreign
commerce. The Chinese Ambassador at Washington stated that a
steamer, commanded and manned by Chinese wholly, would soon appear
in San Francisco laden with the products of Chinese industry.
[398]
—The Chinamen, who walk over bridges built two thousand years
ago, who cultivated the cotton-plant centuries before this country
was heard of, and who fed silk-worms before King Solomon built his
throne, have fifty thousand square miles around Shanghai which they
call the Garden of China, and which has been tilled for countless
generations. It is all meadow land, and is raised but a few feet
above the rivers, lakes, and canals, and is a complete network of
water-communication. The land is under the highest cultivation,
and three crops a year are gathered from it. The population is so
dense that wherever you look you see men and women in blue clothing
in such numbers that you fancy some muster or fair is coming off,
and that the people are out for a holiday. Missionaries of several
societies are at work in this locality.
—A Christian Chinaman at Sacramento, in California, was present at
the annual festival of the Chinese school on June 4th. When asked
whether Christian influence really made the Chinaman better, he
replied:—
“Oh! yes, all much better men. Do not steal. Do not gamble. Do not
do any bad.”
“How about smoking?”
“Oh! no opium! Some not even smoke cigars. We can tell. All other
Chinamen watch Christian Chinamen. If they see him go wrong, tell
us. Then we tell him. Then he stop. If he did not stop, then he
must leave here.”
“But, suppose you don’t watch him. Will he be good without it?”
“Oh! yes, most times. When he is converted and believes truth, it
makes him good inside, he don’t want to go wrong any more.”
“How do you like it as far as you have gone?”
“Oh! me like very well. If all Chinamen be Christians, then no more
trouble about ‘must go’! All more happy and good to each other.”
This religious body held its autumn meeting with the Second
Congregational Church, Memphis, Tenn. Delegates representing the
Churches in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee, were present.
The following programme illustrates the orderly way and the
practical character of the brethren engaged in our church work
South:—“Annual Sermon,” Rev. Wm. H. Ash, Florence, Ala.; “Church
Extension,” Rev. Jos. E. Smith, Chattanooga; “Education,” Rev. G.
W. Moore, Nashville; “Missions,” Professor H. S. Bennett, Fisk
University; “How to Develop the Benevolence of the Churches,”
Professor A. K. Spence, Fisk University; “Absolute Necessity of
Education for the Colored People,” President Magoun, of Iowa
College.
In addition to the foregoing exercises, the Conference examined
and licensed for one year Mr. B. F. Foster, of Arkansas, a former
student of the Theological department of Fisk University. It also
renewed the licensure of Rev. W. H. Fuller, a student of the
Theological department of Talladega College. During the session
a council was organized for the examination of Mr. B. A. Imes,
a graduate of Oberlin College and Theological Seminary, with
reference to his ordination and installation as pastor of the
church in which the Conference was convened. Rev. Dr. Roy was
Moderator of the Council, and the examination was very thorough
and satisfactory. Dr. Magoun, whose daughter is the accomplished
teacher of music in the Le Moyne Institute, was present to preach
the ordination sermon, and Rev. G. Stanley Pope, of Tougaloo
University, to give the charge to[399] the pastor. This young
conference, which already numbers twelve churches, possesses the
elements of a steady and helpful growth, indicative of a better era
for pure religion at the South.
Wilmington, N. C.—Pressure for admission to the lower
classes still continues. The school is crowded and there already is
an overflow room. Others are knocking morning, noon and night for
admittance.
Macon, Ga.—School opens unusually full, but better than
that is the fact that we have a good school. I can truly say that I
feel we are doing well in every part of the work.
Marietta, Ga.—Our work here is decidedly encouraging. No
new members yet, but three or four candidates are waiting to be
admitted whenever we deem it proper to receive them. One of these
is a man who brings a nice family to our Congregation; he has six
very bright children, five of whom are old enough to attend our
Sunday-school. I have been laboring in a quiet way, spending much
of my time in visiting the people, and with better acquaintance
with them I hope to do good work here. Sunday-school is already
showing an increase. Our monthly and quarterly concerts are doing
much good. Our choir meetings are helpful; in connection with the
practice of songs for the Sabbath we teach vocal music, and allow
all who wish to attend; thus far the plan has worked well. Our
organ is our greatest present burden, but we hope to be able to pay
for it at the stipulated time.
Anniston, Ala.—Last Sabbath was our regular communion
day, and a very precious day it was to us. We were gathering up
the fragments of our protracted services. There were seventeen
conversions during the revival, and thirteen of the converts
united with us. The church has been quickened by the Spirit and
backsliders restored.
Talladega, Ala.—Our opening this fall was most favorable.
The first day saw Foster Hall nearly full, and Swayne Hall well
occupied. If the pupils continue to come, we shall soon be
compelled to ask what we shall do with them. Both pastors of the
colored churches here enter the normal department, and one the
theological.
Mobile, Ala.—I feel constrained, by the reports of the
coming applicants, to request an additional teacher. Yesterday
and to-day we have turned away thirty or more applicants, nearly
one half of whom wish to enter the B intermediate department, and
nearly one half are former pupils. Some went away crying because
there was no room for them.
Selma, Ala.—Our new missionary, supported by the ladies
of Maine, writes as follows: “Have been here one month, and am
prepared to say that I like the work and find ample opportunity for
doing good. I have already called upon every member of our church.
A good degree of interest is shown by the Sunday-school, also an
increased interest in the church is seen and felt by all. We are
hoping and praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and trust
that we are remembered by our Northern friends in this respect as
well as others. I am rejoiced that I am permitted to labor in this
cause; encouragements far out-weigh discouragements, and when the
people of the North fully realize the[400] amount of good accomplished
by the A. M. A. they will be more ready to sustain it than they
have yet been.”
Memphis, Tenn.—School opened most hopefully. We now
register over one hundred and forty pupils, and I have already
refused children for the primary and intermediate rooms. I expect
every seat will be taken in the normal room by the end of this
month. Our entire work has never before opened so hopefully as this
year.
Paris, Texas.—Rev. J. W. Roberts writes: Enclosed please
find $1, a collection which my Sunday-school sends for “Mendi
Mission.” I gave them a missionary talk yesterday on the work
the A. M. A. was carrying on in Africa, and urged them to aid
her in sending the Gospel to that land. The Sunday-school voted
unanimously to do it. Thus they send this as a beginning.
& 
R.
LAMB,
FURNISHERS