THEAMERICAN MISSIONARY.VOL. XXXIV.DECEMBER, 1880.No. 12.American Missionary Association.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 theAmerican 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.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.DR. McKENZIE’S SERMON.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 theAdvance, 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 glassThe first foundations of that new, near DayWhich should be builded out of heaven to God.”POWER OF RIGHT PRINCIPLES.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 andmobbed 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.THE CALL FOR ENLARGEMENT—SHALL IT BE HEEDED?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. Thewantthat 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 ofman, 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?HOLIDAY GIFTS.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 givingtokens 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.”REVIEW AND OUTLOOK.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.I. The Review.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 ourlarger 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, thathalf a millionof 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 theIndians 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 treasurysix hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. If we add the sums received by our affiliated schools ($283,132), the amount isnine hundred and ten thousand dollars; and if we add to this theone hundred and fifty thousand dollarsreceived from Mrs. Stone, now rapidly to be expended, the total will beone 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.II. The work 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 doesindeed, 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 theanointing! Elijah anointed the kings and the prophet—giving thereby the grace to do the Divine behests, whether of vengeance or mercy. We haveenactedthe 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 youareyour 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 changebefore it took place—slavery must be supreme or nothing. The safety lies alone in the wiseafter-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 to3. 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.(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 FortMonroe 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!WHAT OUR AFRICAN METHODIST FRIENDS THINK.The Christian Recorderasks: “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 folkswillstampede. 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.GENERAL NOTES.Africa.—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.The Indians.—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.—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.”The Chinese.—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.—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.”THE CENTRAL SOUTH CONGREGATIONAL CONFERENCE.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 tothe 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.ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.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 theamount 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.THE FREEDMEN.REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.GLEANINGS.L. A. P.Letters from student-teachers often furnish truer insight to the homes and sentiments of the people than can be learned in the higher schools. Ten miles from a leading city a young lady writes: “This is such a wicked place that out of ninety day scholars I can get only forty to come to Sabbath-school. I begin school at eight, and close at half-past five in the evening. Parents think the children are not learning anything unless they stay in school as long as the field hands work.”A young man, whose recitations in class are always excellent, says: “I have professed a hope in Christ, and joined the church. The letter you wrote me two or three years ago concerning religion was in my mind all the time before I professed hope. Please tell me where in the Bible I can find the place where a woman once cooked a Bible in a loaf of bread to keep it from being destroyed.”This question aptly illustrates the lack of general intelligence in the community. It is quite possible for young people to leave school with fair knowledge of the text-books, yet profoundly ignorant of everything else, unless access to libraries and thorough Bible training accompany the regular school work, and are made a part of it.Another young man reads books and papers, and induces his patrons to provide themselves with good reading matter. Under the same date as the foregoing letter, he writes: “I have an enrolment of 120 in day school. Sabbath-school numbers 143. I wish you could step into my school-room, and see how busy and earnest all seem to be. You cannot imagine how the colored people of this vicinity are grasping after education. I lectured to a large audience last Monday night. My subject was ‘Education in the South.’”Another student records his experience thus: “The school had no black-board, no writing desks—well, in fact, it was not provided with anything. I now have a black-board, 8 ft. by 4; also very good writing desks. The children were very much surprised at the black-board, as they had never seen one before.”GEORGIA.Extracts from the Report of the Board of Visitors to the Atlanta University.For three days we listened to examinations of the scholars conducted orallyby the teachers, and written examination work from the higher classes was laid before us. We were also present at the anniversary exercises of the Institution. It is with pleasure that we bear testimony in behalf of the accuracy and thoroughness manifested both by the teachers and scholars. We have never seen stronger proof of careful and successful teaching, and the discipline and government cannot be surpassed in any Institution.The scholars were neat in appearance, orderly in deportment, and serious in application. The teachers were remarkably proficient in their several departments, and the scholars seemed to be impressed with a deep-seated earnestness, calculated not only to advance the intellectual status of the colored race, but also to make of them better men and women.The practical sciences are not neglected. A visit to the culinary department showed us that the female students had been thoroughly taught the art of cooking good dinners, without which even the intellect would pine and languish. Calisthenics, also, constitute a part of the training.We found the buildings and grounds in the best of order, evidencing the same watchful eyes which overlooked the entire Institution.The school-rooms and furniture were entirely free from defacements of any kind, showing a marked difference in this respect between the Atlanta University and most other colleges.An interesting feature is the Library, composed of a collection of about five thousand volumes, selected wisely for the purpose of interesting as well as instructing the scholars. To the library there have been added during the past year, three hundred new books of recent publication.In connection with the library is a reading room, in which can be found the leading magazines and daily papers.The future of the University seems truly bright, and a better opportunity can never be given our colored citizens for a thorough education.We commend the entire corps of instructors, and must express the confidence which we feel in the capacity of the president, Mr. Ware, and in his fitness for the position which he occupies.In conclusion, we think it proper to dwell for a moment upon the fact that the Atlanta University, besides the influence which it wields directly upon its scholars, reaches, through the many who pass out from its walls as teachers, almost the entire colored population of our State. While the mental man is being developed, the moral man is carefully trained, and temperance and religion are important parts of the instruction given.From this College, Georgia is sending out missionaries for the amelioration of a large class of her citizens. Who can doubt the wisdom of continuing the appropriation?ALABAMA.Church, School, and Brick-making.MISS M. F. WELLS, ATHENS.I reached Athens on Saturday, Oct. 2d, found very little advance on the brick-yard, the kiln of 118,000 being completed but not burned, everybody discouraged, young people and children scattered to the cotton fields, trying to earn enough money to buy their winter shoes. Of course words of cheer and encouragement in view of thegreat work(for them the making of 200,000 brickisa great work, however small it may seem to those who do not know their poverty, and the great sacrifice this has cost them) already accomplished, made their heavy hearts lighter, and in the three weeks since Oct. 1st a great change has come over the aspect of things.Men and boys are in the woods cutting wood to burn the kiln made thisseason; women and girls are contributing their dimes, nickels, half dollars and dollars to raise a fund to haul the wood, and the prospect is that the brick will be burned before Christmas. But you will not wonder that down in my secret soul there is sometimes almost a moan. How long, O Lord, how long before the completion of the school-house?During the summer the church has kept up the public worship once a day; a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister (colored) has generally preached. When he was not well enough to preach a prayer meeting was held.The Sunday-school has been pretty well attended, and is now very enthusiastic. We are going over a short course of Bible History and Chronology, in addition to the regular lessons of the International course. We are to have an examination for promotions at Christmas and all are striving to complete the course. Our prayer meetings are increasing in interest and numbers, but we need a minister, indeed we must have one.Two delegates have been appointed by the church to attend the Conference at Memphis. It would be a pleasure to me, as one of the appointees, to represent the church at that meeting, but there seems no possibility of my going, as the school is filling up rapidly, and the wood-cutters have to be provided with dinner, and it requires eternal vigilance to look after all the interests in such a way as to keep the “ark a moverin.” I should have written sooner, but every day has brought some unexpected emergency—so mixing church and school and brick-making, that no line of thought or action was marked with sufficient distinctness to express itself on paper. But now, things are more settled, all the interests seem harmonized, and the chaos has given place to order. We are all happy and busy day and night, bright faces and glad, earnest spirits inspire hope in the teacher’s heart, and give vigor to every effort to move forward.MISSISSIPPI.Patient Work.REV G. S. POPE, TOUGALOO.Sometimes we hear of incidents in the lives of our students plainly showing that what we have said to them about hard, patient work hasn’t ended with talk.One of the graduating class last June spoke to us of “Labor.” A letter just received by one of the teachers tells how his school-house was so uncomfortable that he thought something must be done. He had a public entertainment to raise money to get lumber for ceiling. He did not realize enough and footed the bill himself. When the lumber arrived he asked the people to come together to do the work, but they did not respond and he ceiled the house himself.Four of our girls taught near each other, their schools over 40 miles from the railroad. One of them had taught before 14 months in the same neighborhood. The people failed to pay her. At one time she needed some money and persuaded a man who was owing her to kill a hog and let her have it. She put it in a sack and started on horseback to peddle it out. She has an invalid mother and one or two brothers and sisters nearly dependent upon her. She is anxious to educate herself, but the outlook is pretty dark.Two of them started together for their new field; went to B—— by railroad, paid a man $5 to take them 20 miles, reached town about dark and tried four places before finding any one who could keep them over night. The old woman who took them in was not able to give them anything to eat, but made a cup of coffee for each. One of them had a little lunch with her. They ate part of it and put the rest aside. The next morning one woman who had refused tokeep them over night called and invited them around to see her; they took dinner there and went back to the old woman’s house to stay over night again, as they could not find any one to take them further before the Sabbath. They were going to finish their lunch for supper, but the ants had finished it for them, so they had nothing more to eat until about noon, the next day. A man charged them $7 to take them 22 miles. The Lord sent them some lunch through the same woman who fed them the day before. One of them only obtained a two months’ school. She received $36, and had to spend $13 in traveling expenses and $12 for board. She thinks she will have hard work to get through the year on what remains.In one church there were three ministers and only one Testament. These girls induced them to buy several Bibles.They wrote for the fourth one to come. She went as far as B—— and had to wait two weeks for her trunk. She then went half-way to her school with the mail carrier and waited there another week before she could get any conveyance to her school. She taught two months, and after purchasing what clothing she absolutely needed, and settling board bills, only had about five dollars. She has just written me that she is picking cotton now, hoping to get a bale to sell, so she can return to school. We have enough such incidents to make a book.LOUISIANA.Indications of Good in School and Church—Revival Meetings.W. S. ALEXANDER, D. D., NEW ORLEANS.We watch with peculiar interest the indications of the first month of church and school work, in their relation to the general results of the year. The first month has passed, and we have abundant reason to take courage and press forward. Never did a year begin with fairer prospects of success. Never before, perhaps, have so many students reported on the opening day of the University.The completed roll of the Academic, Law, and Theological Departments would show nearly, if not quite 200 names. Many students are detained upon the plantations—new scholars are on the way, and we expect by the holidays to have all we can well provide for.STONE HALL.The new dormitory, which will bear the name of our generous benefactress, Mrs. Stone, of Malden, Mass., will soon be a reality. The plans and specifications have been completed, bids have been invited, and we shall soon hear the click of the mason’s trowel, and the welcome sound of the saw and hammer. If Prof. Chase, who will supervise the construction of the building, had any doubt of our joy at his coming, he has not the perception with which we credit him. Our most grateful thanks go out to Mrs. Stone for her large-hearted benevolence. The blessings of thousands of God’s poor people whom we are trying to serve will be part of her reward.THE LAW DEPARTMENTNumbers already 23 students, only four of whom are colored. This department is entirely self-sustaining, and a fee of $56 per year is exacted as compensation for the four able professors. It is a source of great regret to us that more colored young men, in whose interests the department was organized, do not avail themselves of its advantages. It is conducted with rare ability. One of the professors has been upon the Supreme Bench of this State.CENTRAL CHURCH.This church has paid all its expenses during the summer. The pulpit has been supplied by a young man of ability, Mr. Albert, formerly a student at Atlanta, and at present a member of our senior class. I found the church in agood spiritual state, the congregation somewhat scattered, but they soon rallied, and we have now fair and increasing audiences.The one desire and prayer of the church is to witness an earnest and extended revival, and I am grateful to be able to say that this hope seems about to be realized. Three years ago, Mr. James Wharton, of Barrow-in-Furness, England, visited this city to engage in evangelistic work, if Providence should open the way, among the colored people. He is a business man, but an earnest Christian, endowed with fine gifts as a persuasive speaker.He wrote to me in the summer asking if the way would be open for him to conduct revival services in Central Church if he should visit New Orleans in October. I lost no time in sending him a cordial invitation to come, and promised him our hearty co-operation. He has arrived in the city accompanied by Mr. Richard Irving, a man of kindred spirit, and next Sunday, Nov. 7th, they will begin a series of meetings which will be continued indefinitely, so long as souls can be gathered into the Kingdom. Printed notices of the meetings have been widely circulated, and earnest workers are canvassing, going from house to house, and entreating the people to come to this Gospel feast. Dear friends in the North, pray for us, and the success of this movement. As Bro. Wharton wrote me from England, “Pray mightily for us.” I pray God I may have glad tidings to send you soon. These dear brethren come at their own charges, and ask only the privilege of preaching afreeGospel to the needy and perishing.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
VOL. XXXIV.DECEMBER, 1880.No. 12.
VOL. XXXIV.
DECEMBER, 1880.
No. 12.
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 theAmerican 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.
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 theAdvance, 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 glassThe first foundations of that new, near DayWhich should be builded out of heaven to God.”
“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 glassThe first foundations of that new, near DayWhich 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 andmobbed 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. Thewantthat 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 ofman, 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 givingtokens 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 ourlarger 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, thathalf a millionof 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 theIndians 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 treasurysix hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. If we add the sums received by our affiliated schools ($283,132), the amount isnine hundred and ten thousand dollars; and if we add to this theone hundred and fifty thousand dollarsreceived from Mrs. Stone, now rapidly to be expended, the total will beone 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 doesindeed, 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 theanointing! Elijah anointed the kings and the prophet—giving thereby the grace to do the Divine behests, whether of vengeance or mercy. We haveenactedthe 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 youareyour 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 changebefore it took place—slavery must be supreme or nothing. The safety lies alone in the wiseafter-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.
(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 FortMonroe 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 Recorderasks: “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 folkswillstampede. 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.
—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.
—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.
—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 tothe 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 theamount 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.
REV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,
FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
L. A. P.
Letters from student-teachers often furnish truer insight to the homes and sentiments of the people than can be learned in the higher schools. Ten miles from a leading city a young lady writes: “This is such a wicked place that out of ninety day scholars I can get only forty to come to Sabbath-school. I begin school at eight, and close at half-past five in the evening. Parents think the children are not learning anything unless they stay in school as long as the field hands work.”
A young man, whose recitations in class are always excellent, says: “I have professed a hope in Christ, and joined the church. The letter you wrote me two or three years ago concerning religion was in my mind all the time before I professed hope. Please tell me where in the Bible I can find the place where a woman once cooked a Bible in a loaf of bread to keep it from being destroyed.”
This question aptly illustrates the lack of general intelligence in the community. It is quite possible for young people to leave school with fair knowledge of the text-books, yet profoundly ignorant of everything else, unless access to libraries and thorough Bible training accompany the regular school work, and are made a part of it.
Another young man reads books and papers, and induces his patrons to provide themselves with good reading matter. Under the same date as the foregoing letter, he writes: “I have an enrolment of 120 in day school. Sabbath-school numbers 143. I wish you could step into my school-room, and see how busy and earnest all seem to be. You cannot imagine how the colored people of this vicinity are grasping after education. I lectured to a large audience last Monday night. My subject was ‘Education in the South.’”
Another student records his experience thus: “The school had no black-board, no writing desks—well, in fact, it was not provided with anything. I now have a black-board, 8 ft. by 4; also very good writing desks. The children were very much surprised at the black-board, as they had never seen one before.”
Extracts from the Report of the Board of Visitors to the Atlanta University.
For three days we listened to examinations of the scholars conducted orallyby the teachers, and written examination work from the higher classes was laid before us. We were also present at the anniversary exercises of the Institution. It is with pleasure that we bear testimony in behalf of the accuracy and thoroughness manifested both by the teachers and scholars. We have never seen stronger proof of careful and successful teaching, and the discipline and government cannot be surpassed in any Institution.
The scholars were neat in appearance, orderly in deportment, and serious in application. The teachers were remarkably proficient in their several departments, and the scholars seemed to be impressed with a deep-seated earnestness, calculated not only to advance the intellectual status of the colored race, but also to make of them better men and women.
The practical sciences are not neglected. A visit to the culinary department showed us that the female students had been thoroughly taught the art of cooking good dinners, without which even the intellect would pine and languish. Calisthenics, also, constitute a part of the training.
We found the buildings and grounds in the best of order, evidencing the same watchful eyes which overlooked the entire Institution.
The school-rooms and furniture were entirely free from defacements of any kind, showing a marked difference in this respect between the Atlanta University and most other colleges.
An interesting feature is the Library, composed of a collection of about five thousand volumes, selected wisely for the purpose of interesting as well as instructing the scholars. To the library there have been added during the past year, three hundred new books of recent publication.
In connection with the library is a reading room, in which can be found the leading magazines and daily papers.
The future of the University seems truly bright, and a better opportunity can never be given our colored citizens for a thorough education.
We commend the entire corps of instructors, and must express the confidence which we feel in the capacity of the president, Mr. Ware, and in his fitness for the position which he occupies.
In conclusion, we think it proper to dwell for a moment upon the fact that the Atlanta University, besides the influence which it wields directly upon its scholars, reaches, through the many who pass out from its walls as teachers, almost the entire colored population of our State. While the mental man is being developed, the moral man is carefully trained, and temperance and religion are important parts of the instruction given.
From this College, Georgia is sending out missionaries for the amelioration of a large class of her citizens. Who can doubt the wisdom of continuing the appropriation?
Church, School, and Brick-making.
MISS M. F. WELLS, ATHENS.
I reached Athens on Saturday, Oct. 2d, found very little advance on the brick-yard, the kiln of 118,000 being completed but not burned, everybody discouraged, young people and children scattered to the cotton fields, trying to earn enough money to buy their winter shoes. Of course words of cheer and encouragement in view of thegreat work(for them the making of 200,000 brickisa great work, however small it may seem to those who do not know their poverty, and the great sacrifice this has cost them) already accomplished, made their heavy hearts lighter, and in the three weeks since Oct. 1st a great change has come over the aspect of things.
Men and boys are in the woods cutting wood to burn the kiln made thisseason; women and girls are contributing their dimes, nickels, half dollars and dollars to raise a fund to haul the wood, and the prospect is that the brick will be burned before Christmas. But you will not wonder that down in my secret soul there is sometimes almost a moan. How long, O Lord, how long before the completion of the school-house?
During the summer the church has kept up the public worship once a day; a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister (colored) has generally preached. When he was not well enough to preach a prayer meeting was held.
The Sunday-school has been pretty well attended, and is now very enthusiastic. We are going over a short course of Bible History and Chronology, in addition to the regular lessons of the International course. We are to have an examination for promotions at Christmas and all are striving to complete the course. Our prayer meetings are increasing in interest and numbers, but we need a minister, indeed we must have one.
Two delegates have been appointed by the church to attend the Conference at Memphis. It would be a pleasure to me, as one of the appointees, to represent the church at that meeting, but there seems no possibility of my going, as the school is filling up rapidly, and the wood-cutters have to be provided with dinner, and it requires eternal vigilance to look after all the interests in such a way as to keep the “ark a moverin.” I should have written sooner, but every day has brought some unexpected emergency—so mixing church and school and brick-making, that no line of thought or action was marked with sufficient distinctness to express itself on paper. But now, things are more settled, all the interests seem harmonized, and the chaos has given place to order. We are all happy and busy day and night, bright faces and glad, earnest spirits inspire hope in the teacher’s heart, and give vigor to every effort to move forward.
Patient Work.
REV G. S. POPE, TOUGALOO.
Sometimes we hear of incidents in the lives of our students plainly showing that what we have said to them about hard, patient work hasn’t ended with talk.
One of the graduating class last June spoke to us of “Labor.” A letter just received by one of the teachers tells how his school-house was so uncomfortable that he thought something must be done. He had a public entertainment to raise money to get lumber for ceiling. He did not realize enough and footed the bill himself. When the lumber arrived he asked the people to come together to do the work, but they did not respond and he ceiled the house himself.
Four of our girls taught near each other, their schools over 40 miles from the railroad. One of them had taught before 14 months in the same neighborhood. The people failed to pay her. At one time she needed some money and persuaded a man who was owing her to kill a hog and let her have it. She put it in a sack and started on horseback to peddle it out. She has an invalid mother and one or two brothers and sisters nearly dependent upon her. She is anxious to educate herself, but the outlook is pretty dark.
Two of them started together for their new field; went to B—— by railroad, paid a man $5 to take them 20 miles, reached town about dark and tried four places before finding any one who could keep them over night. The old woman who took them in was not able to give them anything to eat, but made a cup of coffee for each. One of them had a little lunch with her. They ate part of it and put the rest aside. The next morning one woman who had refused tokeep them over night called and invited them around to see her; they took dinner there and went back to the old woman’s house to stay over night again, as they could not find any one to take them further before the Sabbath. They were going to finish their lunch for supper, but the ants had finished it for them, so they had nothing more to eat until about noon, the next day. A man charged them $7 to take them 22 miles. The Lord sent them some lunch through the same woman who fed them the day before. One of them only obtained a two months’ school. She received $36, and had to spend $13 in traveling expenses and $12 for board. She thinks she will have hard work to get through the year on what remains.
In one church there were three ministers and only one Testament. These girls induced them to buy several Bibles.
They wrote for the fourth one to come. She went as far as B—— and had to wait two weeks for her trunk. She then went half-way to her school with the mail carrier and waited there another week before she could get any conveyance to her school. She taught two months, and after purchasing what clothing she absolutely needed, and settling board bills, only had about five dollars. She has just written me that she is picking cotton now, hoping to get a bale to sell, so she can return to school. We have enough such incidents to make a book.
Indications of Good in School and Church—Revival Meetings.
W. S. ALEXANDER, D. D., NEW ORLEANS.
We watch with peculiar interest the indications of the first month of church and school work, in their relation to the general results of the year. The first month has passed, and we have abundant reason to take courage and press forward. Never did a year begin with fairer prospects of success. Never before, perhaps, have so many students reported on the opening day of the University.
The completed roll of the Academic, Law, and Theological Departments would show nearly, if not quite 200 names. Many students are detained upon the plantations—new scholars are on the way, and we expect by the holidays to have all we can well provide for.
The new dormitory, which will bear the name of our generous benefactress, Mrs. Stone, of Malden, Mass., will soon be a reality. The plans and specifications have been completed, bids have been invited, and we shall soon hear the click of the mason’s trowel, and the welcome sound of the saw and hammer. If Prof. Chase, who will supervise the construction of the building, had any doubt of our joy at his coming, he has not the perception with which we credit him. Our most grateful thanks go out to Mrs. Stone for her large-hearted benevolence. The blessings of thousands of God’s poor people whom we are trying to serve will be part of her reward.
Numbers already 23 students, only four of whom are colored. This department is entirely self-sustaining, and a fee of $56 per year is exacted as compensation for the four able professors. It is a source of great regret to us that more colored young men, in whose interests the department was organized, do not avail themselves of its advantages. It is conducted with rare ability. One of the professors has been upon the Supreme Bench of this State.
This church has paid all its expenses during the summer. The pulpit has been supplied by a young man of ability, Mr. Albert, formerly a student at Atlanta, and at present a member of our senior class. I found the church in agood spiritual state, the congregation somewhat scattered, but they soon rallied, and we have now fair and increasing audiences.
The one desire and prayer of the church is to witness an earnest and extended revival, and I am grateful to be able to say that this hope seems about to be realized. Three years ago, Mr. James Wharton, of Barrow-in-Furness, England, visited this city to engage in evangelistic work, if Providence should open the way, among the colored people. He is a business man, but an earnest Christian, endowed with fine gifts as a persuasive speaker.
He wrote to me in the summer asking if the way would be open for him to conduct revival services in Central Church if he should visit New Orleans in October. I lost no time in sending him a cordial invitation to come, and promised him our hearty co-operation. He has arrived in the city accompanied by Mr. Richard Irving, a man of kindred spirit, and next Sunday, Nov. 7th, they will begin a series of meetings which will be continued indefinitely, so long as souls can be gathered into the Kingdom. Printed notices of the meetings have been widely circulated, and earnest workers are canvassing, going from house to house, and entreating the people to come to this Gospel feast. Dear friends in the North, pray for us, and the success of this movement. As Bro. Wharton wrote me from England, “Pray mightily for us.” I pray God I may have glad tidings to send you soon. These dear brethren come at their own charges, and ask only the privilege of preaching afreeGospel to the needy and perishing.