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. J.
Rev. Edward Beecher, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. Patton, D. D., D. C.
Hon. Seymour Straight, La.
Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., N. H.
Rev. Edward Hawes, D. D., Ct.
Douglas Putnam, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. Thaddeus Fairbanks, Vt.
Rev. M. M. G. Dana, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. Beecher, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. Howard, Washington Ter.
Rev. G. F. Magoun, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. Hammond, Ill.
Edward Spaulding, M. D., N. H.
Rev. Wm. M. Barbour, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. Gage, D. D., Ct.
A. S. Hatch, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. Fairchild, D. D., Ohio.
Rev. H. A. Stimson, Mass.
Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D., Oregon.
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Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. Chapin, D. D., Wis.
S. D. Smith, Esq., Mass.
Dea. John C. Whitin, Mass.
Hon. J. B. Grinnell, Iowa.
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.
E. A. Graves, Esq., N. J.
Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D., Ill.
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.
Rev. E. P. Goodwin, D. D., Ill.
Rev. C. L. Goodell, D. D, Mo.
J. W. Scoville, Esq., Ill.
E. W. Blatchford, Esq., Ill.
C. D. Talcott, Esq., Ct.
Rev. John K. McLean, D. D., Cal.
Rev. Richard Cordley, D. D., Kansas.
Rev. W. H. Willcox, D. D., Mass.
Rev. G. B. Willcox, D. D., Ill.
Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, Mass.
Rev. E. B. Webb, D. D., Mass.
Hon. C. I. Walker, Mich.
Rev. A. H. Ross, Mich.
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CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., 56 Reade Street, N. Y.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, Boston.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, D. D., New York.
Rev. JAS. POWELL, Chicago.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., Treasurer, N. Y.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, Recording Secretary.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Alonzo S. Ball,
A. S. Barnes,
C. T. Christensen,
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Clinton B. Fisk,
Addison P. Foster,
S. B. Halliday,
J. A. Hamilton,
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Samuel Holmes,
Charles A. Hull,
Chas. L. Mead,
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Samuel S. Marples,
Wm. T. Pratt,
J. A. Shoudy,
John H. Washburn.
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COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary;
those relating to the collecting fields to the District Secretaries; letters for the
Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. G. D. Pike, D. D.,
at the New York Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112
West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
Vol. XXXV.
OCTOBER, 1881.
No. 10.
American Missionary Association.
The Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association
will be held in Worcester, Mass., commencing November 1st, at 3 p. m.
For particulars see fourth page of cover and the religious press.
Our readers have already been informed of the death of Rev. K. M.
Kemp of the Mendi Mission, and it now becomes our painful duty to
chronicle the death of his beloved wife. The latest advices inform us that
their deaths were neither of them due wholly to the climate. Mrs. Kemp
was a brave, true woman, whose life and example will not soon be forgotten
in the field where so many had already learned to love her.
By the time this reaches our readers, Superintendent Ladd and Dr.
Snow will be well on their way toward the Arthington Mission. It is their
purpose to push directly for the region of the Sobat in the heart of Central
Africa, with the view of locating the new mission. It will give us pleasure
to keep the public informed of the movements of their expedition in this
interesting portion of Africa. Two missionaries are under appointment to
occupy this field at the call of the Superintendent.
We take pleasure in announcing the safe arrival of Rev. O. H. White,
D. D., from England. After a continuous service of over six years of earnest
labor in the mother country, he well deserves the rest which he now seeks.
As Secretary of “The Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society,” he has ably represented
this Association in its great work for the Negro, and has been
enabled, we trust, to insure the success of the Arthington Mission, by so far
interesting our British friends in this new and promising missionary enterprise,
as to call forth many generous contributions toward its support.
As this number of the Missionary will be in the hands of our readers a
few days before the close of our fiscal year, September 30th, we make this
reminder to the churches and friends who have not yet made their annual
offering to our treasury.
We wish to pay every obligation, and report the year closed without
debt. If the gifts we have reason to hope for are promptly forwarded, we
shall be able to do this.
One obstacle in the way of establishing missions in the interior of Africa
is illustrated by the difficulties experienced by the missionaries of the American
Board destined for Bihé. Messrs. Bagster, Sanders and Miller landed at
Benguela on the coast, 250 miles from Bihé, November 13, 1880; May 1st,
they had only reached Bailunda, 200 miles on their way, where they were still
encamped awaiting the arrival of supplies. Five months and seventeen days
had been exhausted by preparations and delays, and the end had not come
at last reports. Possibly, however, the knowledge gained meanwhile of the
peculiarities of the country and the language and habits of the people will
quite compensate for loss of time, and enable them to lay the foundations
for their future work far more wisely in consequence of the difficulties thus
experienced.
The Le Moyne Institute, Memphis, Tenn., has established an industrial
department for the purpose of teaching the girls the art of cookery. A
kitchen has been furnished with all needful appliances. Lectures are given
on housekeeping and household economy, which are followed by instruction
in various methods of cooking different foods. The girls all take turns in
doing the work, and in this way get the full advantage of the practice.
The following list of questions on which a class in cooking was examined
at the last anniversary, illustrates the scope of the work that is being done:
| 1. |
Name seven principal components of the human body. |
| 2. |
Name some of the principal foods used to supply these elements. |
| 3. |
At what time in the day is the most nutritious food required? |
| 4. |
What is the object in cooking food? |
| 5. |
Name three of the most healthful and economical modes of cooking meat. |
| 6. |
Why are fried meats not healthful? |
| 7. |
What should be remembered in boiling or roasting meat? |
| 8. |
Give general principles for making soup. |
| 9. |
What is essential in making good light bread? |
| 10. |
How may bread be made “light” without the use of yeast or soda? |
| 11. |
Give general principles for mixing cake. |
| 12. |
Give receipt for making gruel. |
| 13. |
How should potatoes be boiled? |
| 14. |
Give rule for washing dishes and putting the kitchen in order. |
The work among the refugees in Kansas by the different agencies has
been carried forward with energy and success. According to the best estimates
there are upwards of 50,000 colored people in that State, and the
number is steadily increasing. The reports from our missionaries are favorable,
and indicate that much is to be done and that the refugees are eager
for the needed assistance. The interest taken in behalf of the exodites by
the English people is worthy of the imitation of American philanthropists.
During the last few months, friends in Great Britain have sent to Mrs.
Comstock for the Freedmen’s Relief Association, $25,000 worth of supplies,
consisting of wearing apparel, household goods and kitchen utensils. There
has also been received from England during the last fifteen months $13,000 in
money, making a total amount of $80,000 for the treasury of the Relief
Association; two-thirds of this is said to have been given by the English
people. Our appeal, published some months since, for $2,500 to provide for
the work we have recently inaugurated in Kansas, has not yet met with
such response as we hoped to receive. When so much is being done by friends
abroad for this needy class of colored people, we believe the patrons of the
American Missionary Association would not have us do less for the Kansas
field than we have already undertaken. Will they not contribute so liberally
for this special object that we shall be able to do a great deal more?
We clip from the New York Tribune a paragraph relating to the work
of the American Missionary Association in the South. It comes from
the pen of a special correspondent, who, as the editorial in the Tribune
says, “has already written with great intelligence and fairness of the South
and the Southern people.”
SUCCESS OF COLORED TEACHERS.
“The educational work in the South of the American Missionary Association
is of the highest character, and deserves all possible recognition and
assistance. The leading Southern people everywhere speak of it gratefully
and enthusiastically. At the Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton,
Va., at Talladega College, in Alabama, Tougaloo University, Mississippi,
Tillotson Normal School, Austin, Texas, and in several other colleges and
normal schools which I have visited, though the money endowment of the
schools is scanty compared with the amounts which are needed,
the endowments in personal qualities and character, as represented by the
teachers, are of a remarkably high order. This is indispensable indeed, for
the peculiar nature of the work of educating the colored people of the South
requires the best teachers that can be obtained. In many of these institutions
the boys learn something of various trades or mechanical occupations,
and of farming; and the girls are taught sewing, cooking and the
care of a house. I have visited a great number of the negro common and
high schools, which are taught by graduates and students of the colleges
and normal schools which I have named, and I think it very wonderful that
so many of these negro teachers are successful. They generally have to
struggle against many disadvantages, but nearly all whom I have seen have
the confidence and respect of the leading white citizens where they are at
work. I have found a few fools among them, of course, but a great majority
appear to be sensible, earnest young men and women.”
PRESIDENT HENRY S. DE FOREST.
This issue of the Missionary contains a view of Stone Hall, built of
Alabama bricks at Talladega. Its completion, it is believed, marks an era
in the history of the College. With better equipments than ever before,
with a field as large as it can wish, the College, backed by the history of
half of one generation, looks forward with hope to the growing and unfolding
future. From what has been we may attempt to previse something
of what may be.
In 1867, only fourteen years ago, when the Freedmen’s Bureau was
acting as Interex between past bloodshed and coming chaos, the building
now known as Swayne Hall, with ample and beautiful grounds, was purchased,
and the future College begun with spelling book and Bible primer.
A few wise men of the East were there at its birth. They wore blue and
carried swords, though in the scabbard. But many black men, who had
been waiting through a long and starless night, thought they heard an
angel chorus and forthwith were praising God. A white male high
school building, reared by the unrequited labor of the slave, was bought
at a mortgage sale and opened for the Christian training of all, without
respect to color or sex. Men, black either in pigment or in figment, began
to come, and the reconstructed building gave shelter to school and church.
But a home was needed, and two years later, in 1869, Foster Hall was built,
affording rooms for the girls and teachers, and also table accommodations
for the entire family. From the beginning, Talladega has united the three
great forces in shaping character, namely, the school, the church and the
home. The foundations of the second building, Foster Hall, were laid
while the Ku Klux Klan was brandishing its weapons and grating its
teeth. The Nehemiahs of that time carried their weapons in one hand
and wielded the trowel with the other. But they built, and the God of
Heaven prospered them. From that time forward the quadrennial period
has been observed. The year following a Presidential election, Talladega
College has inaugurated some new thing. In 1873, Graves Hall with additional
land was secured for the theological department. In 1877, when
President Hayes was holding out the olive branch, we attempted more of
the peaceful pursuit of agriculture, and Winsted farm was bought. And
now in the beginning of President Garfield’s administration, the third
brick building is reared, and Stone Hall opens its door to eighty young
men.
Surely this is rapid progress. Not half of one generation has passed,
and the spelling book is supplemented by normal, college preparatory,
to some extent college, and theological studies. Some of those first primary
students are preachers now. The babes of those recent days have
become the leaders of their race. Figures are not juicy; but it is noteworthy
that one hundred and sixteen of our students were teaching during
the last summer vacation; that three hundred and eighteen who had pursued
something of Normal studies have gone thence as pedagogues; that of our
forty-two Theological students, fifteen are pastors of A. M. A. churches;
as many more are ministering in other fields, and the remainder are still
in training. Such facts are inspiriting and full of hope. These results,
let it be remembered, have been realized with meagre resources and poor
appliances. If now our means could be made more commensurate with our
necessities, if our resources could compare with our opportunities, what a
grand work of patriotism and Christianity might not the College attempt
and expect in the near future. As regards the higher branches of learning,
the College has an unrivaled place in a great State, half of whose population
is black. It has in Alabama more than 600,000 colored people from
whom to draw its students. It cares for muscle as well as mind, and for
heart most of all. It teaches industry and thrift and economy. It emphasizes
the fundamentals, and believes that the foundations of learning
should be laid before the superstructure is attempted. Still in its care for
the masses, it is seeking for wise leaders, and wishes to take certain elect
souls through as long and as thorough a course of study as the circumstances
will allow. It aims especially to furnish men well equipped for the
Gospel ministry, and thinks it has found a place for uplifting not only
America, but Africa, and that by laboring there among the foot-hills of our
own Blue Ridge, it may help beautify the Dark Continent with salvation.
As long as cotton grows on those black bottoms, or those hills yield their
treasures of iron and coal, so long will Talladega College be needed, and
so long it hopes to stay. It desires to grow with the generations and increase
with the ages. Already it feels its need of permanent investments,
and is asking for the beginning of an endowment. It calls for the personal
service of some, and asks for the gifts of others who cannot offer themselves.
In both cases it gives an opportunity for usefulness as large and
as lasting as can be desired.
Rev. A. D. Mayo, D. D., writes in The Christian Register of Talladega
College as follows:
“This year the institution numbers two hundred young men, women
and children, of whom eleven are in the theological, eleven in the preparatory
college, forty-eight in the normal, fifty-nine in the intermediate, and seventy-two
in the primary department. Rev. Henry S. De Forest is president,
and Rev. George W. Andrews pastor and instructor in theology. Three
men and six women teachers in addition make up the teaching force;
and an abler, more devoted, and more attractive people we have never met
in any seminary of learning in any part of the country. They are all white,
and represent every section of the Union and the Dominion of Canada.
Talladega may congratulate itself on its “negro college,” for probably no
institution in the State represents more thoroughly the best modern ideas
of education.”
BY PROF. G. N. MARDEN, COLORADO SPRINGS, COL.
Injustice seems never more flagrant than when committed by the prosperous
and powerful against the poor and weak. If the moral test of civilization,
as of society, is its care for its weakest members, we hardly dare to
measure our country by the history of its treatment of the Negro, the Indian
and the Chinaman.
The diagram above is designed to illustrate the numerical strength of the
white element of the United States, as compared with three other elements
of the population. The large bordered square (whose side is ten centimeters)
represents our country’s total population—a round fifty millions. The colored
population—not less than six and a half millions—is signified by the
square in the lower right hand corner. Close beside it is the little square
which stands for the size of the Indian—about three hundred thousand souls;
the shaded portion of the square means the wild Indians—about fifty thousand.
The dreaded Chinese element of our population can be seen by looking
for the minute square, which represents one hundred thousand.
This diagram, in enlarged form, can be effectively used in the Missionary
Concert. To a large square of stout paper, smaller squares of different colored
paper may be pinned. Correct proportions for paper or for blackboard
illustrations would be, following the order of the size of the population, 50,
18, 3.87 and 2.23 centimeters respectively; or, in inches, about 192/3, 71/10, 11/2
and 7/8. These figures denote the base lines of the respective squares.
How the powerful white man looms up and looms over the little group
of the three ill-treated races huddled in the corner!
The black block makes no insignificant figure, after all, and its rapid
growth suggests that to have, through neglect, a dense body of such dimensions
depressed by ignorance were a blunder matched only by the wickedness
of oppression. The size of the Indian and the Chinaman suggests
strongly the outrageous meanness of ill-using them; it makes more striking
the absurdity of a war policy against the red man, and of the demagogue’s
appeal to fear on account of the presence of the Chinaman.
What an opportunity, on our own shores, for strength to help weakness,
for knowledge to help ignorance, for wealth to help poverty, and so to fulfil
the law of a Christian civilization!
Surely it is high time for us to heed the weighty saying of John Milton:
“A nation ought to be but as one huge Christian personage, one mighty growth
or stature of an honest man, as big and compact in virtue as in body; for look,
what the ground and causes of single happiness to one man, the same we shall
find them to a whole state.”
REV. SAM’L SCOVILLE.
We think this whole matter of giving is put so high sometimes that it
gets clear out of sight of common people. We love now and then to put it
down upon the basis of common virtues and moralities and see how it looks.
Motives, springing from the highest spiritual insight and experience,
are good and always in order, but they are not essential to a fair judgment
nor to proper action in this matter. A man may have much less than
John’s spirituality or Paul’s experience to decide that there is a glaring
inconsistency in praying for the building up of God’s kingdom on the
earth, and then withholding the means necessary to that end; in praying
that the Gospel may fly to earth’s remotest bound, and then refusing to
contribute to the amount of a single wing feather to help its flight.
It does not take a great deal of spiritual insight to see that we cannot
serve God and mammon at the same time in our churches with advantage,
any more than we can in our own hearts, and that if the Judas of worldliness
carries the bag, there is going to be a betrayal of the Master some day.
The most common of common sense judgment is all that is needed for so
simple a conclusion.
And it is not necessarily any high revelation required, but only an
appreciation and approval of square dealing, to convince us that a church
must so raise its money, and to such amounts, that it will be able to do its
share towards carrying on the great work of evangelizing the world.
In these days of missionary spirit every church is to broaden out its
parish lines until they meet only at the antipodes. All the dark places of
the earth belong to us to do something for, to do what we can for, and we
are not to raise our money nor use it so that this part of the work is neglected.
To cheat the heathen out of his portion of the Gospel is an
immorality. To help carry the Gospel to the heathen in the uttermost
parts of the earth must be accepted by every church as a part of its moral
obligation. This may make it necessary to put less expense into church
choirs, into adornments and improvements—that the minister and the
sexton shall receive smaller salaries. So be it; let the whole field be looked
over, and let each receive the share adapted to him. This is good morals
in this matter.
—Hamilton College receives $5,000 from Lemuel Brooks, of Churchville,
N. Y.
—Henry Villiard has given to the Oregon State University $70,000 to
relieve its indebtedness.
—D. O. Mills has given to the University of California $75,000 to endow
a chair of intellectual and moral philosophy.
—William H. Vanderbilt proposes to add to his previous gifts one-half
or two-thirds enough to erect and equip suitable buildings for the Nashville
Female College.
—Mr. George B. Babcock, of Plainfield, N. J., has recently given $30,000
to Alfred University, and still later $10,000 to Wilson College at Wilson,
Wisconsin.
—The will of the widow of the late ex-President Millard Fillmore leaves
public bequests to the amount of $50,000, among which is one of $20,000 to
the University of Rochester.
—Matthew Vassar, following in the good work of his uncle, bequeathed
to the college which bears the family name the handsome sum of $130,000;
to the Vassar Brothers Home for Aged Men, $15,000; and to the Vassar
Brothers Hospital, $85,000. These contributions are to be largely increased
by some residuary legacies.
—The following table shows the increase of endowments of the New
England colleges during the past year: Harvard, $500,000; Yale, $250,000;
Amherst, $75,000; Tufts, $120,000; Smith, $43,000; Dartmouth,
$110,000; University of Vermont, $50,000; Wesleyan, $100,000; Colby,
$30,000; total, $1,278,000.
—Talladega College, Talladega, Ala., is erecting Stone Hall, by the gift
of Mrs. Stone—the fourth College building. Endowments now are the great
necessity. $25,000 will provide for a Professorship, and there are four such
needing endowment, one of these a Theological Professorship.
—Forty light-houses of great range have been established in the Red
Sea, to render navigation less dangerous during the night.
—Dr. Schweinfurth has returned to Suez after a month’s exploration in
the Island of Socotora, where he found a very abundant flora. The forests
constitute the principal riches of the isle.
—Following the massacre of the expedition Giulietti, two Italian vessels
have been sent to Assab, to be stationed there during the inquest that
the Egyptian Government has ordered, with a view of discovering the murderers
and punishing them. They will be supported by an English vessel.
—Dr. Southern, of the London Missionary Society, has been laboring for
more than a year at Urambo, the capital of the noted chief Mirambo. He
has been received with much cordiality, and is able to report results of his
work in terms which are suggestive of a bright future for that station.
—The Governor of the Gold Coast has placed, as a condition to the
conclusion of a treaty with the King of Achantis, the abolition of human
sacrifices in the states of the latter. The king having demanded that
a representative of the Governor should visit him, M. Maloney, the
Colonial Secretary, has accompanied Prince Buaki, who has returned to
Coomassie.
—The necessary materials for the construction of the railroad of the
Senegal have been transported over the upper river, the King of Foutah
guaranteeing the security of the passage. There is still some difficulty
with the King of Cayor on the subject of the passage of the road over his
territory, but they hope for a satisfactory solution.
—A business house in Hamburg has sent out an agent to attempt the
culture of coffee in the region of the Ogove. A clearing has been made
near Corisco bay, where several thousand coffee trees have been planted,
promising an abundant harvest this year. The American Presbyterians have
a mission some hundreds of miles up the Ogove river, and the project is on
foot to open a route this way to Stanley Pool on the Congo.
—The Universities Mission to Central Africa, which was first undertaken
in 1860 through the influence of Dr. Livingstone, and afterwards
suspended, has recently entered upon a very hopeful career. Bishop Steere
has now a well equipped staff of thirty-one European missionaries, of whom
seven are ladies. He already understands the language of the tribes
among whom he labors. The present work of the mission is threefold:
First, that on the island of Zanzibar, which is now of a comprehensive
character, including many agencies; secondly, the work at Magila and its
surroundings, some forty miles from Pangani, on the main land to the north
of Zanzibar; and thirdly, the missions on the main land to the south in the
Rovuma district.
—The Missionary Herald for August, the organ of the Baptist Missionary
Society of London, contains an admirable map of the Congo from its
mouth to Stanley Pool. This Society already has a mission at San
Salvador, south of the Congo, between one hundred and two hundred miles
from the coast. It recently sent two of its missionaries, Mr. H. E.
Crudgington and Mr. W. H. Bentley, on an exploring tour to Stanley Pool
for the purpose of fixing a site for a mission at the latter point. The report
of their exploration is given almost entire in the Herald, and constitutes
one of the most interesting and profitable narratives of perseverance and
heroism that has been given to the public in the annals of missions.
—The C. M. S. of London has established a new mission at Uyui, a
collection of villages under the control of a governor appointed by the
Sultan of Zanzibar. It is described as a very large town for Africa.
Mr. Copplestone, one of the early missionaries for Mtesa’s kingdom, took
up his abode at Uyui in 1879, and in June 1880 was joined by Mr. Litchfield,
who came south from Uganda for the benefit of his health. Mr. Copplestone,
who has learned the Unyamnezi language, has built a school-room
where he teaches the natives. He is assisted by one of the Frere Town
African Christians.
—The Baptist Home Missionary Society has established at Tahiequah,
Indian Territory, the “Indian University,” and at present conducts a
school in their mission buildings. The society is out with an appeal for
buildings and endowments.
—The Board of Publication of the Presbyterian Church supports a
Book, Tract and Sunday-school missionary in the Indian Territory. Meetings
are held, families visited, and a large amount of religious literature is
scattered broadcast. The work is reported to be quite encouraging.
—Mr. Townsend, Special Agent of the Indian Department, has organized
an Indian police force among the Pimas. His squad consists of fifteen
men under the command of Captain Maichu, a very competent and trustworthy
Indian. The primary object of the force is to maintain order in a
quiet way, and to educate the tribe in the principles and practices of
civilization.
—Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., to whom the country is so much indebted
for his admirable work on Alaska, is now on a visit to that
territory, superintending the building of two mission chapels, besides
attending to other duties. A recent gift of $1,000 from a lady in Zanesville,
Ohio, in aid of the one at Chileat, is mentioned as an important
factor in the movement.
—The chief official at the custom house near Bangkok, Siam, is a negro.
The position is a very responsible one, and was given to him on account of
his education, honesty and capacity. He is said to discharge his duties
with much efficiency and satisfaction to the government.
—Mr. S. A. Butler, a pure negro, at one time a protégé of Anson
Burlingame, is in charge of one of the most important departments of the
Chinese Steamship Company. He is a natural organizer, and when
employed by the company, systematized the business, brought order out of
chaos, introduced economy, enforced discipline, and rivaled the Europeans
in their steamship service. The result is that after two years’ work this
Chinese Steamship Company, instead of running at a loss, has earned over
$1,000,000 net profit.
—Some gentlemanly Chinese laborers in Chicago gave a banquet to
about two hundred of their American Christian friends, not long since, in
the rooms of the Young Men’s Christian Association. The sons of the
Flowery Kingdom were in full bloom, quiet, radiant and attentive. The
tables were beautifully adorned and sumptuously loaded. Speeches were
made by Rev. James Powell, Franklin Fisk and Ah Sing Get. The entertainment
was enlivened by the singing of a number of “Moody and Sankey”
songs, which lost nothing by the slight Chinese brogue with which they
were so earnestly rendered.
Woodbridge, N. C.—Rev. W. H. Ellis reports a very interesting and
precious revival among the children growing out of the Band of Hope
temperance work.
Beaufort, N. C.—One of the colored bishops testified to a brother that
the church at Beaufort, though small, was a power for good that could not
be estimated.
McIntosh, Liberty Co., Ga.—We feel especially thankful for the beautiful
organ presented to us by the Smith American Organ Company; also
for articles of clothing sent by the Ladies’ Benevolent Society, 2d Church,
Keene, N. H., and the ladies of Framingham, Mass., to distribute among
the needy ones around us. A blind father, who has a one-armed wife and
seven children to care for, is just leaving us with his quota.
Woodville, Ga.—Pilgrim church was crowded last night to witness the
reception of nine persons to the church. During the revival, still going on,
seven persons professed conversion, and two backsliders returned home.
Next Sunday night a thanksgiving service will be held and a collection will
be taken up to help rebuild three churches that were blown down by the
recent storm.
Savannah, Ga.—Special meetings were held in this church in the summer.
Rev. S. N. Brown, temporary supply, was aided by Rev. John
McLean, of Miller’s Station. More than a score of souls were hopefully
joined to Christ.
Helena, Texas.—Rev. M. Thompson, pastor, rejoices over a revival in
his church. Nearly every unconverted person in the community was
moved, and not a few to a final reconciliation.
Memphis, Tenn.—Pastor Imes had his people come in upon him by way
of a surprise party, August 30th, to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Many
useful presents, of no small value, were the tokens of love.
THE FREEDMEN. — KENTUCKY. — SOWING IN TEARS AND REAPING IN JOY—BEREA COLLEGE. — TENNESSEE. — ALABAMA. — GEORGIA. — TEXAS.
REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D. D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.
THE WORK AT BEREA.
Nestling in a charming “glade,”
overshadowed by the North-western
foot-hills of the mighty Appalachian
mountain world, is Berea College. It is
not exclusively a school for teachers,
but includes the entire organization of
popular education from an effective
primary school up to a solid university
class of twenty-five, with a normal
course for instruction in methods of
teaching. Its pupils are of both sexes
and colors, and another year may possibly
witness the white, negro and Indian
quietly at work in the same class-rooms,
with no rivalry except the honest pride
to excel in good scholarship and manly
or womanly character. But in this, for
the South, exceptional feature, there
comes in the most interesting peculiarity
of this most “peculiar institution.” With
a few exceptions from the North and the
blue-grass region of Kentucky, the
white students come from the great
mountain country that overlooks the
college campus. This region, in Kentucky,
includes a country as extensive
as the whole State of New Hampshire,
and not unlike it in shape. Here, in a
mountain world, divided into thirty
counties, out of hearing of the railroad
whistle, in many parts traversed only on
horseback, with no village containing
five thousand and very few one thousand
people, dwells a population of nearly
two hundred thousand, more thoroughly
isolated from the New America than the
settlers in Oregon or the latest hamlet
in Dakota. Living almost entirely from
the land, in the narrowest way, on
narrow means, with few tolerable
schools and a good deal of intolerable
preaching, with an almost total destitution
of books, newspapers and ordinary
means of cultivation, completely
shut off from social contact with the
ruling class of the State, this people is
peculiar in many ways.
Out from this interesting region come
the majority of the white students of
Berea. Few of them are able even to
meet the yearly sum of seventy-five dollars,
for which their education is given
them. Many of them, even the girls,
walk from their homes, and come in
with nothing but a stout suit of clothes,
a good head and a brave heart, paying
their way as they go by such work as
turns up, and the small wages of mountain
school-keeping in the long summer
vacations. They have no leisure to discuss
the vexed topic of co-education
that worries grave professors and doubting
students at Yale and Harvard; indeed,
the young fellow not unfrequently
brings in his sister, cousin and prospective
“annex” to sit down at the
same table of knowledge. He is more
anxious to lift his own end of a problem
than to quarrel with the colored boy who
is tugging at the other end. Indeed, at
Berea one seems to be in that ideal
university where an overpowering desire
for study lifts the entire body of students
above a whole class of questions
that even yet convulse politicians and
people, schoolmen and churches, South
and North. They live together; the
girls, of course, under careful supervision;
study, work, recite, play and worship
together; students and teachers, children
and grown men and women, in one
family. Probably no American school
of three hundred and seventy students
goes through the year with so little disturbance,
is so easily governed, or so
generally absorbed in the work in hand.
This year the faculty consists of thirteen
professors and teachers under President
E. H. Fairchild, and three hundred and
sixty-nine students, of whom nine are
in the college classical and twenty-five
in the literary course, forty-five in the
normal, and the remainder in the preparatory
department. The average age
is sixteen. Two hundred and forty-nine
are colored and one hundred and twenty
are white; two hundred and six males and
one hundred and sixty-three females.
The instruction is excellent, probably
equal in quality to any school in the
State; and the proficiency of the pupils
remarkable, considering their previous
estate. The primary school-room contains
twenty stout fellows ranging from
eighteen to twenty-five years of age;
but it is not uncommon for one of these
boys to go forth as a tolerable school-master
among the colored people after
two years’ hard work at Berea. Indeed,
if one were to look for signs of mental
power, he need not go outside the beautiful
campus of this school. We positively
never witnessed such progress
in learning as is the common talk among
these teachers. These stalwart young
men and resolute maidens from the
mountains buckle to their books with a
will that knows no discouragement.
They go back to their homes to become
the pride of their friends and the hope
of their neighborhood. Nearly every
student is a member of the church and
the temperance society, and the carrying
of arms is cause of expulsion. All
classes of the Southern people are good
listeners. We never addressed an audience
of three hundred people that put
us more decisively on our mettle than
the crowd of students and villagers that
did us the favor to crowd the chapel on
four unpleasant nights to listen to our
talks on education.
We do not propose to defend Berea
against any objector. A school with
such tough Kentucky roots as Fee,
Hanson, and their compeers; with a
history so romantic in its heroic past
and so startling in its recent growth;
with a foundation on three hundred
acres of “sacred soil,” two hundred
thousand dollars worth of excellent
buildings, in a situation unrivaled in
beauty; a faculty representing the best
culture and character of the North-west,
with the rising ability of the South;
and a population of five hundred
friendly people within sound of chapel
bells; can be trusted to plead its own
cause against all comers. It is already
commending itself to many of the best
people of Kentucky, receiving students
from families of highest respectability
in the neighborhood, and on commencement
days the great tabernacle is
crammed with three thousand people,
from the humblest to the highest in the
proud old State. Berea is a great
American fact, comprehensible only to
a man who has read, pondered and
inwardly digested the Sermon on the
Mount and its corollary, the Constitution
of the United States. If no similar
college should ever exist, this will live
in its own place in American history, a
splendid evidence of the power of a
consecrated education to bind together
all sorts and conditions of good women
and earnest men.—Dr. Mayo in Journal
of Education.
REV. J. A. R. ROGERS.
The rule is that a long time must
elapse between the sowing and the reaping.
Abraham’s patience in Canaan
for long years seemed destined to be
fruitless in those things which God had
promised him; not a foot of Canaan
did he own, and he was still childless;
his faith was tried to the uttermost, and
only by a great struggle was he kept
from despair. After centuries, that sowing
began to produce a harvest, not yet
but partially reaped. The recent addition
of $50,000 to the endowment of
Berea College calls to mind the long,
weary days of struggle and almost
despair in its early history. The apparent
success for a time, to be followed by
every sort of discouragement, was not
the least of the trials of those whose
labors were the occasion for Berea College.
Churches were formed, and many
seemed heartily in favor of the Gospel
of Christ, which commands and secures
love; and then persecutions would arise,
and such a perfect torrent of public
opinion against the “abolitionists,” that
large numbers would succumb to the
adverse influences, and the love of many
would wax cold. Again, such persecutions
would arise, that for a time only
women were regarded as safe in attending
the preaching services of Mr. Fee
and others. After the school was
started in 1858, which culminated in
Berea College, there were still those
great alternations of prosperity and apparent
defeat which are so hard to bear.
One term, large numbers of students
would come, including the children of
slaveholders, and the next, only those
would apply for admission who could
endure the reproach of being called
“nigger lovers.” Even after the war,
when two or three colored children
entered the primary department, there
was such a stampede from every department,
that the principal, in sorrow, said
to the few that timidly remained, “Will
ye also go away?”
Those years from ’55 to ’66 were years
of sowing in great sorrow. The missionaries
of the A. M. A. were very poor;
their salaries were $400 per year, and
some of that sum must be expended for
those still poorer. They lived in almost
constant terror of their lives. If for any
cause they were north of the Ohio River
for a few weeks, they breathed such a
free atmosphere that it seemed almost
like getting into Heaven. By many they
were regarded with suspicion and contempt.
The writer remembers what
cringing of the nerves he often had to
endure, in walking the streets of one of
the central towns of Kentucky. People
would stare at him as if he were a
hyena let loose. It is not easy to describe
what were the sorrows of those
years, the greatest of which was that so
many professed friends fell away in
time of danger, and that so many bearing
the name of Christ at those times
were ready to deny their faith.
But this sowing has in some respects
given way to reaping, even in the lifetime
of those who watered the ground
with their tears. Now at Berea is a
college in some respects unlike any
other in the land. Here, three hundred
in all, are seen white and colored students
in about equal numbers. Here is
a sort of Mecca for the colored people
of the State, and a door of hope for
many in the mountain region, who,
though white, have had but few religious
and educational privileges. Here
is a college ably manned, with the confidence
of the North, and growing in
the regard of the South, sending forth
its streams of blessing in every direction.
If the tears of sorrow were many, the
tears of joy and thanksgiving to God
have been much more abundant.
MISS ALICE E. CARTER, NASHVILLE.
Among the men of Tennessee, the
great and crying need seems to be the
very practical knowledge of some trade;
the range of their individual usefulness
is so often limited to gardening, grooming,
rock-beating and shoveling.
The talent for gardening is a dormant
one in winter; rock-beating cannot be
followed in the coldest weather, and it
is easy to see that the other ranks may
at times be filled to overflowing, and
those not fortunate enough to get in,
are out of employment.
What a noble enterprise for someone
to found an industrial school for colored
boys, which shall draw in the bright-eyed
ragged boys, now lounging on the
street corners or quarreling in the
alleys, learning nothing except evil,
daily!
To help a few such boys, though
temporarily, I hold in my room, one
evening in the week, a little reception.
Good stories, earnest conversation,
plenty of books and papers to look over
while here, are the means put forth to
help those who come. When they go
away they carry with them text-cards
and old numbers of St. Nicholas from
my very primitive “circulating library.”
My cottage Sunday-school is a very
interesting undertaking. Compassion
for the pitiful little street waifs, too
small to find their way to the remote
city Sunday-schools, led me to try to
make a bright spot in their day. It was
a simple thing to gain permission of a
woman, with four tiny girls, to hold
Sunday-school in her cottage, and the
simplest matter to fill the small room
with children. To walk through the
alley and say “Come” to any ragged,
deformed or dirty little child was all
that was necessary. How well our Lord
understood the willingness of the people
of the “highways and hedges!”
Each Sunday the little ones come with
ludicrously solemn faces and decorous
manners; and sitting on the beds, or a
board between two chairs, and on the
hearth before the fire-place, are as happy
as can be.
Not one can read; not one knew the
name of Jesus, except one boy whose
father’s oaths made him know it; yet
all know and love the story now. The
teaching is necessarily by dictation, and
my great wonder is that the little minds
remember so much.
Their singing they do with faces all
smiles, and when the moment comes for
distributing the text-cards and child
papers full of beautiful pictures, their
joy knows no bounds. These may be
loaves and fishes for which the children
come, and yet, like the multitude of
old, they perhaps carry away with them
something better.
MRS. M. V. CURTIS, SELMA.
Have I ever written for the Missionary?
Well, no; but then why not?
since I have something very particular
to say to my friends in the North; and
I have neither head nor hand for all the
letters I want to write; for there is the
concert for August 30, (proceeds to be
put into the winter’s supply of coal, this
being the month when prices are down);
and the “Harvest Home” (a literary
entertainment to be given by our
“Young People’s Guild” some time in
October), to be arranged for; also some
appropriate music to be prepared for the
evening when our two “political refugees”
are to lecture on Arkansas, where
they have been teaching and traveling
during the past two years.
Why won’t it be a stroke of policy to let
that press away off in New York do the
work for me, for manifolding letters is
not easy, and the inspiration is lost after
the first recital? I wonder if my correspondents
will not count this as an
individual letter and send me letters in
return.
How I do wish that you all could
have been of the number that gathered
in our pretty church a week ago Sabbath
night—our pretty church, with
its white walls, its wood-work of rich
yellow pine, exquisite with God’s own
graining, and the crimson carpet for
the two platforms, the walnut table,
vase and bracket, all the gift of the
ladies of the church.
The night was matchless, and at an
early hour a good audience had gathered
(A. M. A. pastors have not always
the encouragement of numbers). We
had reached out into the homes through
the Sunday-school children, and the result
showed the wisdom of our course.
After the opening exercises, Mr. C.
read to an attentive audience, Mr. De
Forest’s racy letter of his experiences in
the theatres of Tottori, Japan. A quartet
then besought us in song to “Tell
it out,” this story of Christ, to the heathen,
a sermon indeed in song. One of
our young teachers read of the two mice
the little Sunday-school scholar brought
as her two mites, for so she understood
it. Another gave a crumb for the boys,
found in the Missionary; and when a
sweet soprano and alto pled for Burmah,
and Burmah herself seemed to speak
in the plaintive strains, that were borne
to our ears through an open window,
the effect was impressive, and the surprise
and pleasure of the audience was
manifest. The “Little Zulu Band” sang
a sweet song of the needs of Zululand.
And now I have come to the crowning
exercise of the evening; for surely that
patient little group on the front seat,
conscious of a secret hidden behind the
white cards they wore, was not there
for nothing. They knew that the reason
they were bidden to wait till the
last was just because theirs was to be
the best of all, and so it proved.
Quietly they filed up the opposite
aisles, making a semicircle in the alcove
back of the pulpit (which, by the way,
had been removed). Above their heads,
on the white walls of the alcove, was
the reminder of our Conference, two
years ago, the motto, “Praise ye the
Lord.” Then those pretty evergreen
letters, that did duty at Burlington, Wis.,
were employed again to spell out the
sweet motto, “All for Jesus.” The
recitations, concert exercises, questions
and answers that followed, were well
given, and were a little sermon in themselves.
How we prayed that God would
bless them to each one present! But the
climax was reached when one of our
young men came forward, and taking
up a large globe that had been standing
upon the table, said: “To-night we will
unite and extend the motto to ‘All the
world for Jesus.’” His manner was dignified
and his words impressive, as he
went on to tell of the needs of the whole
world. Then came from each of the
eleven, in answer to his question, “From
what countries they should come who
before Jesus in white should stand?”
the names of country after country, the
wide world over.
Turning to the audience the speaker
told us not to say that time was too far
off, and surprised most of us by saying
that if each one now living, who had
taken “All for Jesus” for his life motto,
should bring one soul to Jesus each
year, the whole world would soon be
converted.
The same young girls who had sung
“Zulu Band,” came forward and sang
sweetly, “All for Jesus,” the others
joining in the chorus. The groups remained
in their places while the audience
arose and joined in the doxology,
and with reverent heads received the
benediction.
Our W. M. A. gathered for its second
“Missionary Tea Party” on Friday of
the same week. The reading of letters
from our absent sisters and from “The
Morning Star,” together with the singing
of missionary songs, occupied an
hour, and while we discussed our tea,
we chatted of what we could do for our
Selma boys at Tougaloo, and decided to
call our September meeting a “Missionary
Quilting,” and put on and off two
quilts. The ladies say it can be done.
Extract from a fraternal letter of Rev.
T. L. Day, in behalf of the National
Council to the General Conference of the
Congregational Methodists, in session
at Fredonia, Ga.:
“We feel that you agree with us when
we express the hope that the time will
come when there will be no distinction
of North and South, but when our whole
people will understand and trust and
love each other. Political parties pass
away and new ones take their places;
but, God helping us, the Congregational
method of church government shall
never pass away, but it shall be (as long
as grass grows and streamlets flow) a
firm bond of union and brotherly love
between us and you and all other Christians
who accept it in its purity. The
spirit of the Congregationalism we honor
laments both the bigotry of sect and
the bitterness of sectional politics. It
teaches us, both as citizens and Christians,
to love each other. In this spirit
of love some of the ablest and most devoted
ministers and educators of our
denomination have been giving their
best strength to our missionary institutions
of education in the South. This
work is supported by the self-sacrificing
contributions of our churches. They
believe (what your leading men have
told us) that the race for which they do
this missionary work must have a training
and education in morality and in
religious principle, or they will be the
greatest source of danger and evil to the
South. We know that these brethren
are striving to work wholly in the spirit
of Christ; and that every noble-minded
Southerner, if he could only see their
hearts and their devotion to the future
of your fair land, would wish them God-speed.
And if any of you, who are our
brethren in the faith, should ever come
to see good results from their efforts,
and should be moved to speak the word
of sympathy to those engaged in this
lonely and difficult work, it will surely
be reckoned to you by our Lord and
Master as the ‘cup of cold water,’ given
in the name of a disciple.”
DEATH OF S. B. WHITE.
REV. J. W. ROBERTS, PARIS.
Our faithful missionary, S. B. White,
died about three o’clock yesterday, of
congestive chills and fever.
He closed a very successful school
session here the first of July. He went
out north of Paris, on Red River, to
teach. The water and climate did not
agree with him. He made out to teach
one month and a few days by hard
struggle, and came up Friday before
last, looking like the very shadow of
death, conducted Sunday-school on Sunday,
and was here to preaching that
night. Two o’clock Sunday night he
started back to his school, notwithstanding
he was warned not to return. He
reached there through hard struggle, and
was there from Tuesday to Friday, trying
to get some conveyance to bring him
home. On Friday, August 19, he heard
of a wagon that was coming in, so he
walked two miles from the place where
he was boarding, to take passage, which
walk was too exhausting for his already
diseased frame. Thus he had to come
in a rough wagon in all of Friday’s
scorching sun, a distance of some
twenty-one or twenty-two miles, with
frequent fainting spells. He reached
here Friday afternoon at 6 o’clock,
where he had the best attention shown
him both by his friends and physician.
He was not confined to the bed until
Monday night.
He had not the least fear of dying.
He said: “Don’t fret for me; but I want
you all to meet me in Heaven. I am
going to that beautiful land of rest to
live with Jesus. ‘There is a fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s
veins,’” etc. He described the kind of
coffin he wished to be buried in. He was
the most faithful Christian I ever saw.
We have lost a noble Christian worker.
THE INDIANS. — WORK ON A SHORT TOUR.
REV. MYRON EELLS, SKOKOMISH, WASH. TER.
We have been made sad by the death
of one of our most prominent church
members, John F. Palmer. He was
at the time of his death working at a
saw-mill, when he was accidentally
knocked off from a platform, about
ten feet below.
He was the first Indian to join this
church. He lived, however, to see his
wife and her two sisters, whom he
brought up, members of the church;
the oldest one married, and her daughter
the first Indian child who received
the rite of infant baptism. He was far
ahead in many respects of any other of
the Indians, especially in regard to old
religious superstitions. While many of
the Indians seem willing to give up their
old ideas as a religion, they find it very
difficult to get rid of a superstitious
fear. He, however, seemed to have
overcome this entirely. This was
partly due to his early life. When he
was about ten years old he went to live
with a white family in this Territory.
He afterwards spent several years on
board a sailing vessel, and about twelve
years ago he came to this reservation,
where he served as interpreter ten
years. He understood the Twana,
Nisqually, Clallam, Russian and English
languages, and could read and
write the latter, though he never went
to school more than about three weeks.
Kind persons in the family in which he
lived and on the ship taught him, and
he had a library at the time of his death
worth fifty or sixty dollars, and took
several papers and magazines, both
eastern and western, and even wrote a
few articles for the papers.
“Jack at all trades and good at some,”
was the pleasant way in which Dr. Schaff
put it, when some of the students in the
Theological Seminary at Hartford had
done up some furniture for him to send
to New Haven. I have often been reminded
of this expression, and especially
during a short tour I lately made to
Dunginess. We missionaries have to be
the first part of the sentence, and we
console ourselves with the hope that the
latter part may sometimes be true.
When three miles from home, the first
duty was to stop and attend the funeral
of a white man who had recently died.
Forty-five miles on, the evening of the
next day until late at night was spent
in assisting one of the Government employees
in holding court over four Indians
who had been drunk; a fifth had
escaped to the British side, and was free
from the trial. This kind of business
occasionally comes in as an aid to the
agent. I seldom have anything to do
with it on the reservation, as the agent
can attend to it; but when among
Indians, off from the reservation, where
neither of us can be more than once in
six months or thereabouts, it sometimes
saves him much trouble and expense,
and seems to do as much good as a sermon.
It is of but little use to preach to
drunken Indians, and a little law sometimes
helps the Gospel. The agent reciprocates
by talking Gospel to them on
the Sabbath on his trips.
On reaching Dunginess the afternoon
was spent in introducing an Indian from
British Columbia, who had taken me
there in his canoe, to the Clallam Indians
and the school, and in comforting
two parents, Christian Indians, whose
youngest child lay at the point of death.
The next morning she died, and as no
minister had ever been among these
Indians at any previous funeral, they
needed some instruction; so it was my
duty to help dig the grave and make the
coffin, comfort them, and attend the
funeral in a snow-storm.
The Sabbath was spent in holding
two services with them, one mainly
a service of song; and as there was
a part of the day not occupied, at
the request of the whites near by, I gave
them a sermon. The next day I found
that “blue Monday” had to be adjourned.
Years ago the Indians purchased their
land, but owing to a mistake of the surveyor,
it was necessary that the deeds
should be made out again; so, in order
to get all the Indians together who were
needed, and the proper officer, I walked
fourteen miles and rode six in a canoe,
and then saw that nineteen deeds were
properly signed, which required sixty-two
signatures, besides the witnessing,
acknowledging and filing of them,
which required seventy-six names more.
The plat of their town, Jamestown,
was also filed and recorded, and all
after half-past three o’clock. When
this was done, I assisted the Indians to
get two marriage licenses, when we
went to the church, where I addressed
them on two different subjects, after
which the two weddings took place, and
by nine o’clock we were done. The monotony
of the next day was varied by a
visit to the school, helping the chief to
select a burying ground (for their dead
had been buried in various places), a
walk of ten miles, and a wedding of a
white couple, who had been very kind
to me in my work there, one of them
being a member of our church.
On my way home, while waiting for
the steamers to connect, I took a trip
of about fifty miles to help in regard to
the finishing of the Indian census of
last year for General Walker and Major
Powell, and then on my way home, by
the kindness of the captain of the
steamer, who waited half an hour for
me, I was able to catch and take to the
reservation the fifth Indian at Port
Gamble who had been drunk, and had
returned from the British side.
I have never had a vacation since I
have been here, almost seven years, unless
such things as these may be called
vacations. They are recreation, work,
and vacation, all at once.
While at Dunginess I learned one
thing which somewhat pleased me. A
few weeks before, a medicine man made
a feast on Sabbath evening, and invited
all the Indians to it. In connection
with it there was also a large amount
of their incantations. The feast was a
bait, and the Indians went, the members
of the church as well as the others
leaving the evening service for it. Mr.
Blakeslee, the school-teacher there, wrote
me, as he felt very sad about it. On
reaching the place, I found that on the
same Sabbath evening, before the feast
was over, those Christian Indians, feeling
that they were doing wrong, left the
place and went to one of their houses,
where they confessed their sin and held
a prayer meeting over it, and on the
following Thursday evening, at the general
prayer meeting, made a public
statement of it. We could ask for
nothing more, but could thank the
Holy Spirit for inclining them thus to
do, before any white person had spoken
to them on the subject.
THE CHINESE. — “CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.” — “STEADFAST, IMMOVABLE.” — EXCITEMENT IN SACRAMENTO. — FONG GET LOY IN CHINA.
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Robert B. Forman,
Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D.,
Jacob S. Taber.
Directors: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq.,
Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball, A. L. Van Blarcon, Esq., George Harris, Esq., and the Secretary
ex officio.
Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.
BY REV. WM. C. POND.
It was in the last week in July that
one of our Chinese brethren at Marysville,
a lad of only 13 years—Ng Gan
Don by name—called on one of his
cousins to inquire whether money which
he had deposited with this cousin to be
sent to his father in China, had yet gone
forward. The cousin declined to satisfy
him upon this point, but wished himself
to be satisfied upon another. So, taking
Gan Don with yet another cousin into
an inner apartment, they inquired into
his religious views and practices. They
had been specially commissioned, so
they said, by Gan Don’s mother, to see
to it that what he might hear and see
in the land of the Golden Mountains
should work no detriment to the religious
ideas she had instilled in his mind.
Gan Don acknowledged that he had exchanged
those views and practices for
some which he saw to be wiser and more
true; that he no longer worshipped
idols or ancestors, but that he believed
in Jesus and was going to worship Him.
They argued with him, but found him
more than a match for them on that
arena; and so, being two against one,
and that one but a boy, they were
easily emboldened to see what virtue
there might be in blows. The blows
fell fast and hard, and the poor lad’s
head on which they fell was suffering
sorely, but he maintained his integrity,
and told them that he would never worship
idols, even if they should undertake
to kill him. At length he was released,
and went, battered and bleeding, to
the mission house. Our brethren, thinking
that a little insight into Christian
laws might do these persecutors good,
entered a complaint against them, and
they were fined $30 each.
The Record-Union, of Sacramento,
tells the story under this heading:—“Chinatown
Preaching. Chinese Missionaries
Ku-Kluxed, but not Terrified.”
I wish you had space for the
entire article, but it would cover too
many pages. Suffice it to say, that in
connection with other Chinese Christians,
our helper, Lem Chung, maintains
a regular street-preaching service each
Sabbath afternoon, in the very heart of
the Sacramento Chinatown. Last Sabbath
(August 14), as he and his companions
approached the place, they
found themselves confronted by a large
white poster covered with Chinese characters.
White is the emblem of mourning
among the Chinese, and gave to the
poster much the same significance that
black, emblazoned with skull and crossbones,
would have done to the colored
voters of the South some years ago.
Many of the heathen Chinese had gathered
to watch the effect of this woful
paper on the advocates of the American
heresy; and mingled surprise and horror
seized them when Lem Chung proceeded
coolly to take it down from the
wall and read it aloud to them all. I
give you his translation of its contents;—“It
is claimed by the Christian
preachers that Christ is the Lord of
heaven and earth and the Creator. They
only preach to make money, and it is
useless to dispute with them; but something
must be said to inform the people
against this new false religion. It is
learned from Christianity that Jesus
was born only 1,881 years ago, which
proves that it is false that he made the
world; and telling a falsehood about
this, they cannot be believed about anything
else. Or, if Jesus was born before
the world was made, then there was no
world to hold Him when He was first
born, or for Him to be upon, and His
parents would have starved to death.
How is it that you fellows keep so happy
when you preach such news as this to
us? Notice is hereby given that such
of the Chinese people as have been converted
to Christianity must not follow
that way any more. Moreover, this religion
must not be preached any more
on the street, and if any shall do so
they shall be arrested by the Six Companies
and punished for preaching false
doctrines and deceiving the people.
They shall be given eighty lashes, and
then dragged to the grave-yard and buried
alive; their bones shall not be taken
back to China, but shall remain foreign
ghosts forever; and then they can believe
in Jesus all they are a mind to.
Whoever shall dare to take this white
notice down shall be the son of no
father.”
The effect of the placard was simply
to secure a larger audience and a closer
attention at the preaching service, to
demonstrate the futility of gods that
men could make and men destroy,
and to give our helper and his friends
the best possible opportunity to do two
things: 1st, to show that Confucius
urges all men to study and seek for the
truth wherever they can find it, and
those who propose to beat and kill and
doom men for doing this, are no followers
of that great master; and, 2d, to
illustrate the Christian spirit by inviting
those who had “put up the white poster
to come to the mission-house, where
they would be kindly treated,” and find
themselves in the midst of good friends.
Fong Get Loy was one of our earliest
converts, and though only a house servant,
has long been a pillar in our Sacramento
mission work. Somewhat
more than a year ago he returned to
China and spent several months. I
have been greatly interested in his account
of his experiences there, and at
my request he has written them out, as
follows, (the original in Chinese; the
translation by Lem Chung):
Dear Brother in Christ: According
to your request, I will at this time send
you account of my late visit in China;
and what I doing while there. When
I sailed from San Francisco, two
of our Sacramento mission boys
go with me on the ship. Every day
we prayed together and talk about
Jesus. We take thirty-three days sailing
to Hong Kong. Before we landed,
just as we casting anchor, we three
gathered to hold prayer meeting, that
God keep us from evil and temptation
in China, and help us to work for Him.
At the same time our heathen countrymen
sacrificed to the goddess of the sea.
I met our Christian brother, Fung Affoo,
in Hong Kong; stayed there one day
and two nights. Then I take Chinese
schooner, sail hundred fifty miles to my
own town, which took two days more
before I get home. One year before I
return to China I sent have house built.
When I arrived home, I found idols in
some of the rooms to worship: in the
kitchen, to the god who takes care the
cooking; at the front door, the one who
looks and guards the door to let no evil
spirits come in to trouble us; also, in
the parlor I found the one who watches
the whole house. I found blocks of
wood with names of ancestors, carefully
keep time of birth and death. All
these they expect me to worship on my
return. I told them: “My father dead—gone
away. If he bad man when he
live, God punish him now. He would
be shut up in prison; can he come?
They say ‘No.’ I say: ‘If my father
good man, he happy now; he in a good
place; he don’t want to come here, eat
anything.’ I tell them: ‘You put up
the god to take care the cooking; you
sit down, do nothing; by-and-by you
not have anything to cook. Somebody
else have no god in the kitchen; they
go to work; by and by they have something
to eat!’ I say: ‘You place the
idol by the front door; you leave the
door open, not watch; you think no
thief come? God made all things. He
is the one to worship. Idols cannot
help you.’ They say to me: ‘You no
worship idol, by and by you have no
house, no children, no money.’ I answer:
‘Other nations that not worship
idols have more money and better
houses than any we have in China. We
go work for them to get money. We
do not have to worship idols to get
money.’ I say: ‘Whomsoever worship
gods made by men’s hands, it is transgress
to God.’ They say: ‘How is this
our nation so great, so many wise men
all worshipping idols; are they all
transgress to Him? Is your experience
higher than they?’ I say to them: ‘The
idols and ancestors have no spirit nor
power to help them any.’ Once in a
while the people are crowded at my
door. They shouted and said: ‘Well,
if you dare to destroy your gods and
ancestors, and nothing happen to your
family, we will believe you.’ I then
took a chair, got up in the parlor, took
the goddess which my wife put there,
and most all the family help her. I
take a hatchet, chop it into pieces, and
boil the tea with it. Oh! what astonishment
to them! So they disperse.
After that, my wife and my son both
received the doctrine of the Bible, and
every morning and evening we all would
offer prayer, and at our meals asked
God’s blessing. My wife more faithful
than I. She willing to put away the
idols, and like to go from house to
house, when she have a chance, to tell
the people about Jesus. My son attends
school. All his school-mates laugh at
him, but still he pray to God that He
give him more faith, that he not care
about the laughing. At the school they
have a person’s name which they required
to worship, that he may help
them study and learn; but my son not
want to worship him, after he believe
in Jesus. He told them: ‘That’s nothing,
only a piece of paper.’ The teacher
compel him to do like the others. One
day a woman in my town came to me,
and asked me to pray for her son. He
gone away from her. He send no money
to support her. She said: ‘Pray for
me that he thinks what he doing now,
and may change his conduct, send
something to help me.’ I knelt down
with her, and pray God that He answer
our prayer and bless this woman. Not
many days after this God answered that
prayer, and sent the money, and, with
it, a new heart, for she believe, and
thank our Heavenly Father, and came
to be a Christian. Now a few others
with her and my family keep the holy
Sabbath, and have a meeting together.
Sometimes they go to the mission station
a few miles off, to hear the Gospel. Before,
when I went back to China [i.e., on
his former visit to his home], no Christian
or missionary at that part of the
province of Canton, but last year I find
several hundreds become Christians not
far from my home. Many times I go
to hear the missionary talk about Christ.
Oh, how I thank the Lord that He sent
the missionary over there to speak the
Gospel to them, and take away the darkness,
that they may, by and by, more
and more come into the sheep-fold and
glorify God! I stayed at home seven
months. Every day I work for Jesus
while I there. When the time come for
me to say good-by, and return to California,
I feel I like great deal better to
stay and work there for Christ. I promise
myself, as soon as I can gain
enough to live upon, I will return and
give my whole time to work for my
countrymen, and bring all I can to bow
down to the true God.”
When will the American Missionary
Association be ready to keep such men at
work in their native land, preaching Jesus?
GLEANINGS.
—A friend has anonymously contributed the entire cost of the new steel
boat required for the Baptist expedition on the African Lakes, and it is to
be named the Plymouth.
—A Virginia negro has recently taken out a patent for a fire escape,
which is composed of lattice work that can be shut up into very small space
or extended into a safe ladder, and can also be used as a pike to throw in
tottering walls.
—The following plan for the abolition of slavery in Egypt has been
approved by Col. Gordon, and will probably be adopted by the Khedive’s
Government:
1.—Registration of all existing slaves in the Mudiriehs of the Soudan,
and of Cairo (Lower Egypt), by the Governors.
2.—Registers to be kept in each Government office of the names of
slaves and their owners, with description of each.
3.—Every slave to be free if not registered after expiration of six months
(the period given for registration). All slaves born after signature of this
decree to be free.
4.—Register books to be closed forever after the expiration of six months.
5.—Owners of slaves thus registered to be bound to produce Government
certificates corresponding with the register books, when required to
do so by the Government of Egypt.
6.—The Governors of Egypt and of the Soudan to proclaim this throughout
the land.
7.—All purchases or sales of slaves from family to family are to be
endorsed on the registration papers and inscribed in the Government
books of registry.—Anti-Slavery Reporter.
—One of the most successful and trustworthy farmers in Georgia is a
negro named Harper, who has just paid $32,000 for 2,100 acres of land
lying on Broad River, in Oglethorpe County. He is reported to be one of
the best farmers in the country. He is economical; his family all work:
most of his money was made by renting land and growing cotton.
—Prof. Wm. S. Scarborough, formerly a pupil at Atlanta University, has
published a neat volume of 150 pages, entitled “First Lessons in Greek.”
The work was designed to be an imitation of Jones’ “First Lessons in
Latin,” and to give a clear and concise statement of the rudimentary forms
of the language, with copious notes and references to the grammars of
Goodwin and Hadley. Under Part II. Mr. Scarborough gives a few
selections taken from the Anabasis and Memorabilia of Xenophon. The
work is a good indication of what may be expected from the colored people
when they shall have had the advantages of a higher education.
—“Worship in Song,” edited by Jos. P. Holbrook, Mus. Doc., and
published by A. S. Barnes & Co., contains 450 pages, and is handsomely
bound and attractive. Those best acquainted with Dr. Holbrook recognize
his excellent judgment and taste, and the great attractiveness of his compositions.
The author and publishers invite a practical test of their book,
and it appears to quite meet the expectations of those who may adopt
it for public worship.
—Bishop Hurst, in the Quarterly Review, writes on this wise respecting
the work of the Methodist Episcopal and the Congregational churches at
the South:
The two churches which are pre-eminently American, which have
grown out of the ideas, convictions and the religious wants of the people
under the free institutions of this country, are the Methodist Episcopal and
the Congregational. They have laid foundations in the north and west
which will endure for all coming time, and both are now doing the same in
the South. If considered as antagonistic, which it is not, but rather co-operative,
the real rival of the Methodist Episcopal church in the South is the
Congregational, with its institutions of learning sustained by the American
Missionary Association. It moves upon those lines which will give it a
future, while other and older denominations are sleeping, apparently
unconscious of the mighty revolution that has taken place, and indifferent
to those principles which will inevitably impress themselves upon the
church of the next century. Intelligence and morality are everywhere seen
in that communion. That it is gaining a foot-hold in the South is obvious
to every observer—a fact for which we are thankful. It is not carrying New
England ideas into the cabins of the colored people, but it is doing better
by bringing them out of their cabins and squalor and ignorance into the
New England atmosphere and society created among themselves and for
their posterity. We do not entertain a doubt that this denomination will
become strong in the South, and we shall rejoice to see the time when it
will devote as much attention to the white people as it now does to the
colored. Southern ecclesiastical bourbonism is sadly, if not hopelessly,
fossilized, and it is very desirable that various churches unite in bringing
new spiritual life to the masses in the South, both white and colored.
—Some have made a considerable ado about “Yankee school-teachers”
in the negro schools in the South, and in some cases our heathen have acted
much as the heathen of Canterbury Green (Ct.) acted in 1831. Perhaps
some of them have not been altogether to our taste; perhaps some of them
have mixed in with the “three R’s” some things not to our edification. But
what else could be done? Would qualified Southern men and women have
taken these places when the Northern teachers came? Would they do it
now? Not generally, though some of the best would, as a very few of the
best have begun to do. Suppose these Northern teachers had not come—that
nobody had taught the negroes, set free and citizens! The South
would have been uninhabitable by this time. Some may resent this. Be it
so; they resent the truth.—From “Our Brother in Black” by Atticus G.
Haygood, D. D., Pres. of Emory College, Oxford, Ga.
