Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Ralph
Janke and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
The American Missionary
JANUARY, 1890.
VOL. XLIV. NO. 1.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS
"NOW, CONCERNING THE COLLECTION"--THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
AFRICA--ITS SHADOW AND SUNSHINE
CONVENTIONS OF COLORED PEOPLE--SCHOOL ECHOES
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT EATON
THE SOUTH.
FIELD NOTES, BY REV. F.E. JENKINS
REVIVAL AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
A GLAD THANKSGIVING
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE
THE INDIANS.
MISSIONARY LIFE AMONG THE DAKOTA INDIANS
NEW CHURCH AT FORT YATES, DAKOTA
THE CHINESE.
CHINA FOR CHRIST
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
MASS MEETING OF THE WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNIONS
WORDS FROM OUR ANNUAL MEETING
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT, Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. NOLLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Auditors._
PETER McCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_For Two Years._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For One Year._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
CHAS. A. HULL,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
ALBERT J. LYMAN.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston._
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago._
Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions. Field Superintendent._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
Rev. FRANK E. JENKINS.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, _56 Reade St., N.Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., or 64 Euclid
Ave., Cleveland, Ohio. A payment of thirty dollars at one time
constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time in which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former
address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in
trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person who,
when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
VOL. XLIV. JANUARY, 1890. NO. 1.
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS.
The New Year opens upon this Association auspiciously. The setting sun
of our old year went down in a bright sky. Revivals of religion and an
increased membership was the joyful record of our churches; by the
generous aid of the Daniel Hand Fund, our schools showed a greatly
enlarged attendance, and the faithful work of the teachers brought forth
most satisfactory results; the threatened debt that darkened several
months of the year was happily averted by good showing on the right side
of the ledger.
It is from this bright setting sun of the last year that we turn with
faith and hope to the opening of the new year. We believe, the work is
the Lord's and that he will provide. But our faith alone will not save
us. It is our duty to inform and arouse our constituents as to the needs
and urgency of our work. We will specify in a few particulars:
1. As to funds. Our last year's favorable showing was due in large part
to legacies. These are variable, and we must rely on the gifts of
_living donors_. Unless, therefore, the churches and individuals make
larger contributions than last year, we have no assurance of an escape
from debt, even if the work be maintained merely as at present. We wish
most earnestly to press this fact upon the friends of the Association.
2. But this is not all. Growth is imperative. The people at the North
are alarmed by the disturbed condition of the South, and are awakening
afresh, as they were at the close of the war, to a sense of
responsibility to the colored people. The aroused feeling at that time
took a practical turn, and money, men and women were sent without stint
to enlighten and elevate. Shall it be so now, or will mere sympathy or
useless regret suffice? No! Something, the _right thing_, can be done.
Fair-minded men, both North and South, realize that all schemes
involving fraud, violence, disfranchisement or deportation, are
impracticable, but all are agreed as to the value of Christian
enlightenment, enabling the Negro to earn property and to become an
intelligent and virtuous citizen. This is the line on which the
Association has perseveringly toiled since it opened its first school at
Fortress Monroe in 1861, and it is not too much to say that nothing more
effective has been done in all these years. Can anything of a better
sort be done in the future? Amid all the jarring discords at the South,
the people there, both white and black, welcome the efforts of the
Association. They feel that we are not disturbers, that we have a single
honest aim, and are working at the only true solution of the great
problem. We ask the people of the North, therefore, to come to the
rescue once more by practical, self-denying liberality.
3. But this is not all. A work so vital to the interests of the nation
and of the cause of Christ needs to be uplifted by the prayers of God's
people. Deliverance cannot come from political parties, governmental
authority or theories of industrial reform. The power of God must be in
it. We therefore respectfully but earnestly ask our brethren in the
ministry to remember this work in their prayers in the great
congregation, and we ask our fellow Christians to remember it in the
prayer-meeting, at the family altar and in the closet.
* * * * *
"Now, concerning the collection." These are not the words of a begging
agent, but of Paul the Apostle, and they come from his pen just after he
had closed that wonderful fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians on the
glorious resurrection and the victory over death and the grave. These
words are fit, therefore, in any assembly and at the close of any
discourse however exalted. Brethren remember the "collection."
* * * * *
The Corinthian church seems, like some churches in recent times, to have
been remiss in sending on the "collections," and hence we find Paul, a
year later, to be "After Money Again." He writes so nobly, so kindly,
that we are tempted to quote a few sentences:
"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
rich. And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you who
have begun before not only to do but also to be forward a year ago. Now
therefore perform the doing of it. As it is written, He that had
gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no
lack."
* * * * *
The National Council has appointed Committees to take into consideration
the consolidation of the missionary magazines and the re-adjustment of
the work of the several Congregational missionary societies. We are
happy to furnish these committees with all the facts in our possession
on these subjects, and this Association will, in accordance with its
fundamental theory, cheerfully acquiesce in what shall be found to be
the deliberate and ultimate decision of the churches. In the meantime,
it may not be out of place for us to say that missionary periodicals and
missionary societies are growths and not manufactured articles, and that
plans for modification should be very carefully considered. We venture,
therefore, to suggest that counsel be taken of the Town Clerk of
Ephesus, "to do nothing rashly."
* * * * *
AFRICA.--ITS SHADOW AND SUNSHINE.
The shadow is still broad and dense, well nigh covering the continent.
The heroic Stanley has found that shadow as dark as when he first
traveled beneath it. The malarial climate and the bitter hostility of
the natives are there yet. The accursed slave trade is as extensive as
ever, embittering the lives of its victims, instigating wars among the
tribes and obstructing agriculture, commerce and civilization. The
failures to suppress it are discouraging. Sir Samuel Baker's
well-equipped military force, Col. Gordon's intrepid courage, and Emin
Pacha's brave endurance have all succumbed before it. Its flow, pushed
back for a time, now returns with its old-time flood. Then, too, the
Mahdi uprising, seemingly suppressed, still lives and is likely to hold
the Soudan if not to harass Egypt. When Emin Pacha, under the protection
of the heroic Stanley, abandoned his little sovereignty, it was a
farewell, humanly speaking, to a speedy establishment of missions in
that territory.
But there is a bright lining around all this darkness. For one thing the
eyes of the civilized world are turned toward Africa with increasing
intensity. The rainbow fringe of missions around the coasts is still
sustained by the gifts and prayers of Christians, and by the blessing of
God. The multiplied efforts of the European States to colonize the dark
continent are facts full of encouragement. The motive may be selfish;
the method sometimes unwise and cruel, and the conflict of contending
interests may be hindrances, but the results will be good. All these
movements aim at commerce, and commerce can only flourish on the ruins
of the slave-trade, and among peaceful tribes with growing industries,
intelligence and civilization. The Congo Free State, with its railroad
in construction, its steamboats on the rivers and its civilized
settlements, is a bright omen of the future.
Surely God's people should pray for Africa, moved by pity and by hope.
Christians in America can do more than pray--they can help to answer
their own prayers. They can raise up the sons and daughters of Africa,
trained in our schools, to go forth as missionaries and colonists to the
land of their fathers. The experiment has been tried with success.
Missionaries of African descent can endure the climate better, and can
more readily reach the people than those of the white race. There is a
call in these facts for the means to give special instruction in
Biblical truth to those who can thus be prepared for this great mission
work.
* * * * *
CONVENTIONS OF COLORED PEOPLE.
The proposed National Conventions of colored people to be held in
Chicago and Washington are significant facts. They indicate that the
colored people are suffering wrongs, and that they feel a call to seek
redress. Their right to hold such conventions is unquestioned; the
wisdom of holding them will be vindicated, we hope, by their just and
reasonable utterances and plans. Intemperate language and rash and
impracticable measures will not help, and we have so much confidence in
the discretion of our colored friends that we believe none such will be
said or proposed.
Our colored brethren must not forget that much is being done for them
and that they are doing much for themselves. It would be unwise to
overlook this in any attempt to reach something less tangible.
Their appeal to the justice of the Nation, to the Constitution and the
laws can be made invincible, but it will be well to keep in touch with
the sympathy of the North and with the conscience of the South, for in
spite of all the wrongs inflicted on the colored people in the South, we
believe there is a large and growing number of Southern people who look
upon this whole question conscientiously, and although perplexed desire
that the right shall be done.
For the colored people themselves, while conventions are good, yet the
accumulation of property, growth in intelligence, and character are
better.
* * * * *
SCHOOL ECHOES.
A boy in one of the arithmetic classes was given an example which began
with the statement, that a man deposited a certain sum of money in a
bank. He was asked if he knew what a bank was. He replied; "Yes, it is a
place where you dig coal."
"What is the shape of the earth?"
"The earth is square. Pap says so, and he says the Book says so too. He
says if there warn't four corners, how could the four angels stand on
'em."
"I hear you'uns have taken your children out of school. What did you do
that for?"
"I'll tell ye. I yaint goin' to send my child to any such fool-teacher
as that ar. Why, he tole 'em that the world was roun', an' any fool
knows better."
A Methodist minister in North Carolina, preaching from the passage about
standing at the corners of the streets to pray, told his people that if
they wanted to see a "first class hypocrite," see anybody who would
stand up to pray. The _standing up_ was what he thought Jesus reproved.
A man in the South writes to us as follows, making an unusual inquiry:
"I write you this to ask you do you take married ladies in your school,
and if so I want to send my wife at once. Please send me the terms of
the school and what she will need. My wife wants an education and my
desire is to give it to her. You will greatly oblige me to answer this
on return mail."
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT EATON,
AT THE ANNUAL MEETING IN CHICAGO.
God, who writes his thoughts in the development of a nation, not less
than in the grouping of constellations or in the drama of the physical
world, has spoken in the birth and history of our land with startling
distinctness. In every people we may see an ideal of God embodied,
however imperfectly realized by human achievement. Happy is that people
who can see God's ideal for them, and those statesmen who have it in
their hearts to lead the people along the line of God's thought. To get
at something of God's thought for us, we must go back even into those
dark Teutonic forests into which the Roman world peered with so much
fear and awe, and out of which came those freemen who knew how to leap
upon that Roman world in its pride and its weakness and re-assert human
liberty.
Those old ancestors of ours knew what freedom was; but as they came
against that Roman world, they themselves were in part conquered by it,
and they lost something of that freedom. But God set apart one corner of
the European world for them, and called over the English Channel in the
fifth century those forefathers of ours, there to watch for a century
and a half that tremendous conflict in which the very plow-share of the
Teutons went through the roots of the Roman life in Britain and left
nothing but Teutonic fields remaining. And then God brought into this
Britain, thus set apart, the gospel of Christ, and our forefathers
became Christians--not Christians such as there were in other parts of
Europe, but having that free and independent Christian life that shone
forth in men like Wyckliffe, denying the power of the keys to Rome
except where Rome spoke with Christ's voice, and in men like Latimer,
before whom the proud Henry trembled.
All over England were sown these seeds of a free Christian faith; so
that when Luther came, it was in England as in our country when the
forest fires have ceased, and suddenly there spring up from the sod a
new forest because the seeds lie in the prairie from age to age. So in
our English soil there were those seeds of Christian freedom that sprung
forth and gave us a free and Protestant England. And then, in the
reaction, when Mary was on the throne, and the fire at Smithfield was
kindled, the Christian men of England went to Geneva and there met John
Calvin, whose system of Christian thought set the soul of man forth, in
his awful agony of sin, and in God's redemption for him--set him forth
independent of kings and rulers, and in whose sight a king was but God's
vassal. When Englishmen had to come in contact with John Calvin, the
iron of his free spirit became steel, and then Puritanism was born, and
at that time God raised the curtain that hung over a whole hemisphere,
and gave that hemisphere to these free Teutonic English people. We know
how they conquered the country for this free spirit, and how the
Revolutionary War came on, and Samuel Adams, awakening to the sound of
those cannon at Concord on that spring morning, said, in spite of all
the forebodings of a long and deadly struggle, "How glorious is this
morning," because he foresaw what God could work here in a free
Christian land. And so on that following Fourth of July those men
assembled in Philadelphia and put forth the Declaration of Independence.
There is no better commentary on it than Lincoln's words when he said,
in those dark days just before the war: "In their enlightened view
nothing stamped with the divine image and likeness was sent into the
world to be trodden on or degraded or imbruted by its fellows."
They set up a beacon for their children and their children's children.
Wise statesmen as they were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to
breed tyrants, and so they established these great self-evident truths,
that when at some remote time some man, or faction, or interest should
arise, and say that none but rich men, or none but white men, or none
but Anglo-Saxon white men were entitled to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, their children's children should look back to the
Declaration of Independence, and should take heart to begin again the
battles their forefathers fought, that thus truth and liberty and
righteousness and justice and all the Christian virtues might not be
lost in the land; and none might dare limit and circumscribe the
principles on which the temple of liberty was being built. Thus, by
these centuries of growth and life God said to our people, "I have given
you this key to your history, the union of liberty and an enlightened
faith--faith and freedom. Be true to these. This do and thou shalt
live." It seems plain enough. And yet, in this garden of liberty there
were sown tares. In the bosom of this free land the deadly foe of
freedom, slavery, was here. In slavery was the evident and necessary foe
of all that God had foreplanned for our Nation, because slavery denies
the rights of men. Men tried to deal with this problem; they tried to
circumscribe it; they said it was a local question, and Webster stood in
the Senate and boasted that he had never spoken of slavery on that
floor. How the way of liberty was choked, how the tree of liberty
withered! And then God spoke in the earthquake, and the fire, the war
came on, and the slave was set free; and it seemed as if again we had
come into sight of God's plan for the race, that liberty and Christian
faith should be the watchword of our national life.
Now again, at last, it seems as if that which we are accomplishing and
that which God has spoken in all these ages is again jeopardized, and as
if this human right shall be denied in the South. Men doubt whether
there is in the Negro more than the capacity of a subordinate race, and
say that to educate him is to lift him out of his sphere. Brethren and
friends, there is manhood in the Negro race. There was humanity in those
slaves who toiled their way over mountains and through swamps before the
war, with their eyes focussed upon the North star of freedom. And there
was humanity in those mothers who clasped their babes to their breast
and fled before the bloodhounds that they might escape the enslavers of
men. There was manhood in those one hundred and seventy-eight thousand
Negro soldiers who seized their muskets and went to the front and fought
for us, and with us, in those dark days of 1864, when the draft was
failing and when volunteering had failed, that there might be soldiers
to stand in the front and to dig in the trenches, and of whom eighty
thousand gave their lives for us. There was manhood in those cabins in
which all over the South, our fleeing soldiers, escaping from prison,
never failed to find support, help, and guidance. Oh! how disastrous a
business it is that that manhood, which all those years of slavery could
not extinguish, should now be extinguished by the priests of a proud,
arrogant, and selfish aristocracy.
But, my friends, as we felt in those days, and feel to-night, there is
still no help for us but in the Christian solution of this problem and
in the Christian destiny God has given to us. Liberty and faith, the two
elements, must be conjoined. For us to deny the rights of the Negro now
is to say that God did not make man in his image. It is to say that
liberty is not a sacred right, but a selfish acquisition; that
government does not exist to establish rights, but to protect
privileges, and that mankind are not brothers, but foes. It is to turn
the shadow upon the dial of human progress backward toward the ages of
oppression and chaos.
And just there is the problem that confronts us, South and North
together. What shall be done in this dire extremity? I remember years
ago hearing of a fire in Charleston in which that beautiful spire of St.
Michael's took fire and some one had to be found to go up beyond the
reach of the hose to put out the flame kindling and flickering there. No
one was found until a Negro stepped forth and climbed that tower, taking
his life in his hands, and put out that flame. And when he came down
again, one man said, "Name your reward," and he replied, "Let me but be
counted a man." And that we have got to do, or God will shake down our
civilization and our Nation as he shook down that spire of St. Michael's
in the earthquake three years ago. It is certain to come unless we
follow the line of God's appointing that this must be a free Nation,
absolutely free, free everywhere. As yet, emancipation is but an outward
and formal thing. What we wait for now, is the emancipation of a true
and an elevated will in the South, and Christian citizenship. Into that,
this Association pours its strength, its money, and its life. It took
half a million lives to emancipate the slaves outwardly, and it may yet
take hundreds and thousands of lives--our lives--our children's
lives--poured in upon this problem, that so we may lift the Negro to
that point where he feels himself, and where we feel him to be, a
man--taught to labor, protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his
labor, without which the strongest arm grows palsied, trained in a
strong, self-reliant Christian manhood, holding the reins firmly on the
neck of all passion--a man. And that we will do; and the very greatness
of the problem, I believe, is our redemption. It was the greatness of
the crisis that thrilled the Nation's heart when the war burst upon us.
It is the very greatness of our present problem that calls in trumpet
tones to men and women and children all over the land; "Come and help
solve this problem for Christ."
A few weeks ago, in one of the beautiful towns of Northern Illinois, a
young man, the only son of his father and mother, hearing at Sabbath
evening the alarm of fire, sprung forth and took his place upon the
burning building and there did the work of a fireman. In the attempt to
put out the fire he was hurled headlong and in one moment his life had
gone hence. A few weeks afterward, as a friend was talking with his
mother about it, she said, "Our son was always so swift to heed any call
of need or duty, it seems to me as if he heard suddenly some call from
God from some farther clime and sprung forth and was gone from our
sight." Blessed, heroic faith! But, brethren and friends, fathers and
mothers, we need that same faith for our living sons and living
daughters, to send them forth into this work of God. When the Christ
child was on the back of the giant Christophorus crossing the stream,
how heavy he grew as the giant plunged his way through the waters. God
weighs heavily upon this Nation this greatest of all national problems,
what to do with these despised ones. But bear the burden we must, and
bear it through we must to the farther shore of a Christian solution, or
we and it will go down the flood together. There is no help for us
except in this solution which makes brothers of these men.
I see a possible issue in this large Christian faith of our land; and I
see the time coming when the black and the white shall dwell together in
a mutual helpfulness, with a more complete national feeling, a deeper
dependence upon him from whom alone comes strength, less display of
material resources, but more faith in God. That time must come. And then
I see the army enlisting for the conquest of that dark continent of
Africa, shrouded in gloom, so long robbed of her children, but now at
last finding that, like Joseph, they were taken from her that they might
come back to save life. So our Nation shall be not a mirage awakening
the hopes and aspirations of mankind but to mock them, and leaving the
sands of human experience still more arid and barren; but it shall be a
mountain of God, its base resting on the eternal foundations of law and
liberty; its summit drawing down from the willing heavens the streams of
prosperity which shall enrich all the lands of the earth.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH
FIELD NOTES.
BY REV. FRANK E. JENKINS.
I reached Little Rock, Arkansas, late one Saturday night and on Sunday
morning found my way to our church service. Arriving a few minutes late,
I found the service already begun. It was a fine looking audience and as
quiet and orderly as any New England congregation. The service was well
arranged and conducted in a very happy manner. The sermon was
thoughtful, earnest and inspiring. The pastor, Rev. Yancy B. Sims, is a
graduate of Talladega College and an honor to his Alma Mater. On Monday
I visited, with the pastor, several of the homes of the people. What a
contrast between these refined homes and the hut of the slave quarters
of twenty-five years ago! The ladies of this church had just finished a
silk block for a quilt which a home mission church in Washington
Territory is making from blocks made in each State in the Union, with
the hope of selling it to increase its fund for building a house of
worship. It was a beautiful block of rich material and the most delicate
workmanship. The faces of these ladies showed great delight in the
thought that they were helping others who needed help.
"Do the colored people vote here without opposition?" I asked of an
intelligent colored man. "Oh, yes!" he replied. "And are the votes
always counted?" "Yes, _except in a pinch!_" was the answer. This is
much better than in most places which I am called upon to visit.
From Little Rock I went to Paris, Texas. This growing city has a
population of about twelve thousand, five thousand of whom are colored.
Our pastor here is a graduate of Fisk University, as also is his wife.
The need of our church work in this city and in the State is two-fold,
direct and indirect. Our Congregational churches are quite as useful for
toning up other churches and their ministry as in the direct work done
by them.
Dodds, Roxton and Dallas in Northern Texas were next visited, and in
each a small church is established and doing a good work.
At Austin, I found our Tillotson Institute rapidly filling with
students--bright and earnest. A girls' hall is greatly needed here at
once. This institution with its unlimited opportunities in the great
State of Texas ought not to be cramped in any way, but to be given
every facility. Who will give it at once what it so urgently needs? I
found several intelligent people here greatly desiring a Congregational
church in the city--the school-church being too far away to reach the
mass of the people. Said an educated colored man to me: "Our most
intelligent people cannot endure the ignorant worship of these old
churches much longer. We want Congregationalism, but if we can't have
that, we must look elsewhere. We must have something to hold our
educated young people from falling into infidelity." And so they must,
for that is a coming danger.
At Helena, I found a most interesting state of things. Our church is in
a country place called "The Colony." The church and the colony began
their existence together, and a more prosperous community of colored
people it would be hard to find. They own several thousand acres of
land, and are in every way ahead of their white neighbors. The school
house of the latter was a poor tumble-down affair and the children were
untidy, while the school house of the former was a neat, painted and
well-kept building, crowded in school hours with bright, enthusiastic
children--clean and polite. The teacher was from Talladega College and
has taught here for five years. His school is pronounced the best in the
region for white or colored. The pastor of this church has charge also
of the Congregational Church at Goliad.
Corpus Christi is a curious town on the Gulf of Mexico. It has about
6,000 people--Americans, Mexicans, Negroes, Italians, Greeks and
Chinese. The Negroes here hold an unusual position, being regarded as in
every way superior to the Mexicans and Italians. Our pastor here is
popular with all classes and has been chosen an alderman of the city,
and is treated with as much consideration as any other of the City
Council.
Our church is one of the oldest Congregational churches in the South,
and has had a very interesting history. With the exception of the Roman
Catholic church it has the best house of worship in the city. On Sunday
afternoon, Rev. Mr. Strong, the Congregational pastor, and myself
attended service at the Roman Catholic church. We went into the body of
the church and took a first class seat, and the fact that one was
colored did not even draw attention to us. It was taken as a matter of
course. The colored people of Texas are taxed for $20,000,000 of
property. In the cities they make up about one-third of the population.
An enlargement of our church work in this State is greatly needed.
Straight University in New Orleans, La., is an inspiring place. I found
the buildings packed full--seats full, chairs in the aisles, in the
corners and on the teachers' platforms--all full. About one hundred and
fifty applicants had already been sent away for want of room, and they
were still coming, as many as ten often being refused in a single day.
They were here not only from the States, but also from Mexico, the West
Indies and Central America. I saw here some remarkable work in moulding
done by a student in the fifth grade, who had never been trained, but
who seems to be impelled by real genius. Straight University has a
unique position and opportunity. Its influence is now great; it is
destined to be boundless.
From the Chicago meeting I made this trip. The meeting was inspiring,
but what I saw in the field, of character-building and the uplifting and
refining of a race, was more than inspiring--it was thrilling.
At Dodds and Roxton a few hymn books are needed. A dozen or two Gospel
Hymns or other singing books for each church would do great good. Papers
for the children are also needed. They should be sent to Rev. Mark
Carlisle, Dodds, Texas.
Papers for the children could be well used at Paris, Texas, Rev. J.D.
Pettigrew; Dallas, Texas, Rev. Mr. Holloway; Helena and Goliad, Texas,
Rev. M. Thompson; Corpus Christi, Texas, Rev. J.W. Strong.
* * * * *
REVIVAL AT WASHINGTON, D.C.
BY REV. GEO. W. MOORE.
There have been over forty conversions reported and thirty have been
added to our church on profession of faith. There is a revival now in
progress at the Freedmen's Hospital as a direct outgrowth of our
meetings. Several of the young people of our church, including some of
the converts, were instrumental in leading a number to the Saviour. I am
planning to assist them in dealing with inquirers there, to-night. There
have been revival services in three other churches. The meetings held in
our place were indeed a season of refreshing from the presence of the
Lord.
Our chapel was crowded on Thanksgiving morning; the sermon was preached
by Rev. Dr. Grimke, pastor of the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church,
followed by an address by myself. The pastors of the Berean Baptist
Church, Methodist Church and the Lutheran Mission were on the platform,
the Plymouth Church holding a service of their own. In the evening we
held a Thanksgiving praise service, in which about one hundred persons,
including thirty-five of the converts, gave short thanksgiving
testimonies.
Last Sabbath I baptized fourteen by immersion and received twenty-seven
into the church on profession of faith, and three since, making a total
of thirty. Rev. Eugene May of Osage, Iowa, one of the delegates I met at
the World's Sunday-school Convention this summer in London, gave us a
powerful sermon on the characters of "Dives and Lazarus Contrasted." In
the evening I preached a sermon to the church on "The Christian Armor"
and we had the Lord's Supper. Last night, after addressing the young
Christians on "The Way to God," as illustrated by the worthies of
Hebrews eleventh, we had them testify on how they came to Christ, the
one thing they did and what they got. The answers were all intelligent
and to the point. _Decision_ was what they did, and _Christ_ was what
they got, were the answers put in various forms. At the close of the
meeting I asked a gentleman, a member of another church, the Berean
Baptist, who always attends our special services, to say a few words. He
testified to the help and inspiration he had received from the meetings;
that he had never listened to clearer testimonies of conversion than
those given by the converts, and that they were doubly blessed in having
"_our pastor_," "yes," he said, "I will say our pastor, for he is pastor
to this whole community and city, lead you to Christ, and train you for
service." His remarks were warm and sympathetic, but too personal for me
to report more than the above, which is but the key-note of the kindly
feeling that many of the best Christian people of other churches have
toward us, as they have seen our little church come up from almost
nothing to its present position of service in this community. It has
been the Lord's doings and it is wondrous in our eyes. We have already
begun the work of training these young disciples for service, while we
have our nets still spread to catch sinners for Christ. Our motto for
the year is: To win souls for Christ and to train them for His service.
* * * * *
A GLAD THANKSGIVING.
BY MISS MARY A. BYE, WILLIAMSBURG, KY.
If any one had been the least bit homesick or unhappy from any cause on
Thanksgiving day, it would have done him good to spend the day at
Williamsburg Academy. Our boys and girls were so happy all the day that
no one could feel tired or sad. After breakfast the boys thought it
hardly fair for them to have all the holiday while the girls had to
work, so they borrowed aprons and helped the girls. Dishwashing,
sweeping and all the various branches of housework were done in a very
short time, and everybody was as merry as could be. The boys declared
that they were glad to have learned something which they did not know
before, about the work the girls had to do. Our very tallest boy, over
six feet in height, was instructed in the mysteries of scouring knives.
He said he had no idea how knives were cleaned, and thought his
Thanksgiving lesson worth learning.
After the housework was done the boys gathered a great quantity of
holly, and our pretty new dining-room was profusely decorated. All the
family then attended the Thanksgiving services in the Christian Church;
that is all except the "Mother," who must needs watch the dinner in
process of preparation. We had a real Thanksgiving feast, in all except
that our turkey was fried chicken.
Mr. Tupper contributed oranges, which were quite a treat. One of the
girls came to mother very much excited, eyes wide open and hands up,
exclaiming "O, Mrs. Bye, what are them big yeller things in the dining
room?" When told that they were oranges, she said, "Law! I never seed
none before." There were others who had never tasted them, and they
watched closely to see how the teachers managed them, before they
ventured to eat theirs. Two of the teachers had written Thanksgiving
verses on cards tied with ribbon, and placed at each plate. After dinner
we moved our chairs back and read our verses, after which we sang
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow," and I think it is rarely sung
more heartily. Then again the boys donned the aprons and cleared the
tables and washed the dishes, while the teachers watched the fun and
laughed until we were tired. While the molasses was boiling, the
scholars played games in the sitting-rooms. Then came the "candy-pull,"
and very _sweetly_ closed the day's festivities.
I am sure we went to prayer meeting in the evening with very thankful
hearts. Some of the scholars said it was the happiest day they had ever
known.
It is a constant wonder to me to see the improvement in our girls, and
their interest in their work. They are so eager to learn to do things
well that I cannot think of my work as one of sacrifice, as some work
may be, for the joy of it overcomes all such thought.
* * * * *
STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS.
REV. C.H. CRAWFORD.
Much interest is manifest in our meetings for prayer, a number of
students having expressed a desire to become Christians. I have
organized a class for the instruction of Christian workers. It is
composed of both teachers and students, and numbers about twenty-five.
A young man came to my study to be shown how to become a Christian.
After instructing him and showing him the promises, there still seemed
to be something in the way. Questioning him, I found that he was
expecting some wonderful experience. He had specially in mind the
remarkable conversion of a certain young man of his acquaintance. He was
hoping for the same. I said to him, "Now you want to know that you are a
Christian. Which would you rather have for evidence, an experience such
as that young man had, or God's word for it?" After waiting a moment to
take in my meaning he replied, "God's word." "Do you believe on Jesus
Christ?" "Yes." "Well, here you have God's word, John, 3:36, 'He that
believeth on the Son hath eternal life.' Will you take God's word?"
After a moment's deliberation came the answer, "Yes, I will." Then we
knelt down and prayed. This, I trust, was a soul born into the kingdom.
One of our theological students reports the following admonition from an
ignorant preacher much older than himself: "You go to school and get
education. In five or ten years the people will not listen to such
preachers as I am."
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
Our school is opening very auspiciously. Never before have so large a
number been here at the beginning of the term. And the requests for the
privilege of coming are numerous, so that if all come who are asking to
do so, we shall be over-full. We are greatly pleased with the spirit
with which the new year's work is taken up. There are more each year who
come prepared to enter the higher grades, which shows that the common
schools of Texas are improving.
The Christian Endeavor Societies, of both the young men and the young
women, have elected their officers and are ready to begin work again,
and the Temperance Society will do the same, this week.
One of the students who has been with us from the beginning of our
school, has left us this year and gone to Oberlin, where he has entered
the Sophomore class. We miss him much, but bid him "God Speed," for the
need of workers is great, and we are hoping much from him in the way of
work among his own people.
R.M.K.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
MISSIONARY LIFE AMONG THE DAKOTA INDIANS.
BY MRS. J.F. CROSS.
It is hard to get the most interesting experiences of a missionary's
life, because they belong to the daily routine and so are often
unmentioned. But here is a description of life and travel among the
Indians, by the wife of a missionary just going to the Dakotas:
The land of the Dakotas--what a distance! How long the miles seemed from
my home! How frightful the land seemed to me, from the tales of
blizzards and cyclones! How strange to go to live among the Sioux
Indians, known to me principally for the Minnesota, Fort Fetterman and
Custer massacres; to be a friend to Sitting Bull, Brave Bull, Gall,
Grass, Swift Bear, Red Cloud and many others with names no less
picturesque! With such impressions I left my home to accompany my
husband to his home and work at Rosebud Agency, South Dakota.
I was soon relieved of the idea of the distance, for only a few hours
took us across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota to the
border of Dakota. Here we left the railroad to attend the general
conference of the Dakota Mission at Flandreau. How quickly all the
impressions of years can be changed, when the impressions are wrong and
we see the true state of affairs. In this case, seeing hundreds of
bronzed faces, lighted up with joy, as they sung "I hear Thy welcome
voice" in their own tongue, there was enough to change all my former
opinions of Indians in general and of the Dakota Indians in particular.
It was like coming into a new world. That is, it was finding those whom
I thought belonged to another, lower, baser life, living the same life
with myself; rejoicing in that which is my greatest joy--childhood with
God the Father. And after meeting Ehnamani, Grey Cloud, John Wakeman,
Spotted Bear, and many others; after hearing them discuss living
topics--living topics to them because they belong to the change from
heathen to Christian life; after hearing them pray--though I could not
understand a word, yet from their earnestness I could understand the
spirit of their prayer; after all this, I could scarcely believe that
these men had ever been Indians in paint, feathers, dances and on the
war path. Thus I spent my first four days among Indians. And even if
preaching, prayers, discussions were in an unknown tongue, I perhaps,
understood as much as I would at many a Presbytery or Conference
meeting. And I got as much good from the Dakota sermon as I have from
many an English sermon.
Not the least pleasing of my new impressions were those made by the
missionaries present. Rev. John P. Williamson, of Yankton Agency; Rev.
A.L. Riggs, D.D., of Santee Mission and Normal School; Rev. T.L. Riggs
of Oahe, or rather the apostle to the Tetons, were the life of the
meetings whether in English or Dakota. They came from and returned to
the work to which their lives are given. I did not meet these men with
the greetings of a certain minister there, who asked, "How many years
have you been in the Indian work." "About twenty," was the reply. Then
the minister said: "Well, you have been in the work so long that you
would not be much good anywhere else." My impression was that such men
would be now, as they always have been, successful in any field of
labor. But I must leave Flandreau with its citizen Indians, ready to
vote for prohibition in the Constitution of South Dakota, for this is
not our field of labor.
The next scene is one which I shall long remember--our reception at a
mission home. Other homes may be happy and other people may welcome me
to their homes; but few--none that I have met--can welcome one so
cordially as Mrs. Riggs welcomed us to her home at Oahe. This is a
long-to-be-remembered experience. And after spending a week at Oahe,
meeting the teachers and pupils of the school, and the citizen Indians
there we started for our own home and work, Park Street Church Station.
This place has been the home of my husband for a year.
Crossing the Missouri is one of the first of our experiences. The team
and wagon are loaded on the boat, the men row a few rods, then the boat
stops. "Bar," remarks Mr. Cross, "got to tow;" when, horrors! "Is this a
missionary I see?" Mr. Cross is in the water, sometimes to his knees,
sometimes to his waist. Thus they tow the boat a half mile. From the way
they hold their breath the water must be cold. Well, it is October 10,
in blizzard-swept Dakota. But after two hours of work we are safely
landed on the west side of the river and soon we are toiling slowly out
of the _breaks_ of the river. After a ride of a few hours we come to a
creek with no water but plenty of wood. Here dinner is announced. This
is camping in earnest. This is not play. Camping in the East is
generally within sound of the cackle of the hen and the low of the cow.
But here you must live off of the land or out of your mess-chest. We
combine the two. Many hotels and families could learn a good lesson from
an experienced traveler and camper. In less than thirty minutes from the
time we stop, horses are unharnessed, fire built, prairie chicken
dressed and cooked, coffee made, table spread, blessing asked and we
busy with the tender and juicy chicken. This is the same order at each
meal.
At night we sleep on the earth and under the sky, with but little
between us and either sky or earth. This is a new and somewhat larger
bedroom than I have been used to. But with no house within twenty miles
we are unmolested. What a place! I listen. "All the air a solemn
stillness holds." I look. "So lonesome it is that God himself scarce
seems to be there." But the clear air and quiet night soon lull me into
unbroken slumber. Thus we travel until we reach Park St. Church Station,
where we find our comfortable log house of one room ready to receive us.
Though we reach the house at eleven o'clock at night, a full half dozen
come to greet us, saying, "Catka, winyau waste luha, lila caute ma
waste." "Left Hand, (Mr. Cross) you have a good woman, so I am happy."
Sunday comes; at eleven o'clock we go to the neat little room, chapel
and schoolroom. Here fifty men and women with children of all ages,
listen with eagerness and attention to Mr. Cross as he tells them of the
wise men who came to seek Jesus. Some of the faces are dirty, and so is
much of the clothing. But all listen as if they perhaps might see this
same Jesus. This is Dakota, our field, our people to save.
* * * * *
NEW CHURCH AT FORT YATES, NORTH DAKOTA.
REV. T.L. RIGGS.
On Sunday, the 8th, we took steps here in the organization of a new
church. By invitation, two of our Oahe Church, Solomon Bear Ear and
David Lee, were present from the Cheyenne River Agency, and it was
judged wise to organize. The Apostles' Creed and a short Covenant were
offered as Articles of Faith and the pledge. The nine members of our
Oahe church whose homes are at Grand River and Fort Yates will become
members here on dismission at Oahe, and the native workers and other
missionaries will also transfer their connection, so that if all do so,
the new church will have a membership of eighteen or twenty.
In connection with these services the new chapel was dedicated to the
Master's service by public expression; it has already been so
consecrated. I doubt not, in the heart of the giver of the funds, as
well as by the prayers of all who have been interested in it. Is is a
bright, pleasant room within, and has a snug appearance from without. I
think Mr. Reed has made a very creditable success in this his first
building.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
CHINA FOR CHRIST.
BY REV. WM. C. POND, D.D.