hour of commencing arrived, our large hall, (which was tastefully
decorated with wreaths and flags for the occasion,) was crowded to its
utmost capacity, so that we could hardly make our way to the rostrum.
By competent judges, the declamations were pronounced superior to any
heard on former occasions of a similar character, and not inferior to
many exercises presented in regular college commencements.
The school has been larger this year than ever before, and it has been
difficult for us to accommodate all who have applied for admission.
We have had much for which to be thankful during the past year
connected with this Institute; but let this be an inspiration leading
us to greater achievements during the year to come.
* * * * *
STORRS SCHOOL.
The Storrs School at Atlanta, Ga., closed one of its most successful
years, on the 23d of June, with an examination that gave great
satisfaction to Sec. Strieby, Prof. Chase and Supt. Roy, who were
present. A large number of the parents and patrons were present to
rejoice in that evident progress of their children. This school has had
for the year a total of 543 pupils; the largest number at any one time,
356, and an average of 333. The course of study is that of the Grammar
School.
It is recognized by the school authorities of Atlanta as a school of
the very first quality. Miss Amy Williams, who has been at the head
of the Storrs for more than a dozen years, and whose qualifications
as an instructor and a disciplinarian are truly admirable, has had
associated with her this year Misses Julia Goodwin, Amelia Ferris, M.
E. Stevenson, F. J. Norris, and Abbie Clark.
* * * * *
NORTH CAROLINA.
The Year’s Work at Woodbridge.
REV. WILLIAM H. ELLIS.
During the whole of last year, it seemed impossible to make any deep
religious impression on the community. Very few attended our services.
The children attended theirs and the grown people theirs, and it often
happened that we could not get enough together at either to make “a
meeting.”
During the summer, generous friends contributed a good supply of
clothing, which was bestowed only on temperate persons. This caused a
good deal of complaint and some ill-will; but we insisted that articles
contributed by industrious, temperate persons, many of whom were in
straitened circumstances, should not be given to the intemperate or
unworthy. I am glad to report that I found in all 160 persons, old
and young, whom I judged worthy. We succeeded in making temperance
respectable in clean clothes. Our Band of Hope had been organized five
years, but was not yet really a power. We now clothed our members,
overhauled our books, expelled the unworthy, elected new officers, and
went ahead.
For a few weeks, we spent all our time in trying those who had broken
their pledges. We also passed laws that members might be brought to
trial for anything dishonorable to the Band, and that all on trial must
stand on the platform during trial. So each Sabbath every member is
asked, “Have you broken your pledge, and do you know any one who has?”
They were shown the evil of having broken God’s holy law, the guilt and
danger of sin, their own personal responsibility to God and need of a
Saviour, the dying love of Christ, His willingness to forgive and power
to save, and they were especially encouraged to trust Him for strength
to overcome every sin. The fact that they were “sinners before the Lord
exceedingly” met them at every turn, but was enforced so lovingly that
a closer bond drew all together as one. No gloomy views of religion
were inculcated, but the Christian life was placed before them as
something to be longed for and striven after. They were often called
aside by themselves, perhaps for discipline, perhaps to be commended
for good behavior, and then personal faith in Christ was explained to
them, often with prayer. We saw the signs of a mighty work at hand
in their endeavors to leave off all sin, the evident desire to know
and do the right, and the almost breathless attention when religious
subjects were spoken of. Some meetings were held especially for those
who desired to become Christians.
Meanwhile, the Christian people were appealed to over and over again.
In fact, our main teaching this year has been “Bring forth fruits, meet
for repentance.” Sin has been rebuked, publicly and privately, the
Lord’s people have been urged to deeper consecration, and shown that if
they brought their little ones to the Lord in faith, He would receive
them.
On the first Sabbath in February we had our Sixth Temperance
Anniversary. The children fairly astonished everybody by their
enthusiasm and ability. The Band then made its reputation, and the
number has since been increased from 90 to 116, and we are glad to say,
most of the new members are grown people, who have joined under full
conviction of the usefulness of our Band, and of their own duty to it
and themselves.
The drill and excitement attendant upon the anniversary having passed
away, the minds of the scholars were free to think again. They could
not study or play, and some would be often in tears in school time. We
were careful not to encourage any sudden hopes which might prove false.
The work was evidently of the Spirit, who was sure to finish it. So we
allowed time in each case to settle the great question. Fourteen in all
believed during the week. Some were forbidden to pray at home. When
they came to school they might go out in the woods to pray, and not get
punished, so they went home too happy to care for whippings.
In time the work reached the grown people in the neighborhood, and
nightly meetings were held for weeks.
Our own people were quiet enough. We had a little confusion from other
churches represented, but nothing serious. The number, hopefully
converted on the first of March, was 31. Twelve have been added since,
and still there are seekers. I am glad to say that every one, so far as
I know, still holds out well.
As the people think that to omit washing feet at the communion would
endanger their title to heaven, we can form no church. The Band of Hope
is practically our church, with one thing in its favor—we have 100
more members than we could have in a church. Almost everybody around
belongs to it, except some of the old people, and they are coming. Our
members are bound by voluntary covenant. Christ is the corner-stone,
and obedience to Him the standard by which all are judged. We warn,
exhort, discipline and expel according to Bible rules, and draw
sanction from it for all proceedings. There are only seven unconverted
members, old enough to know themselves, and they are under conviction.
We lack only the name and ordinances of a church.
It is most pleasant to see the evident affection shown by the young
towards the teacher, and our theological student, Brother Scott, on
whom a large share of the work has fallen, and who, if he can be
assisted to an education, bids fair to be a power in the land. The
children come early and stay late; they crowd around us, and do all
they can to please us. They have the freedom of the house, but we never
miss even a button. Such a school full of honest, truthful, obedient
and affectionate children is rare anywhere. What shall be said of a set
of _very dark_ colored children, in a community where the ignorance is
simply appalling, and many of them go hungry?
* * * * *
ALABAMA.
REV. W. H. ASH, FLORENCE.
The work in Florence for the last two years has been comparatively a
new one. The exodus of the colony from here not only took from the town
some of the best citizens, but it robbed our church of its strength,
both in a temporal and spiritual sense, leaving behind the weakest
spiritually and the poorest financially. My first endeavor was to
impress upon the people in their discouraged condition, the necessity
of having faith in God.
Since that time the church has grown in religious life and character;
members have been added to it such, I hope, as shall be saved.
We have had a revival which served as a great quickening influence,
though there were not the number of conversions we had hoped for.
Within these two years, we have built a beautiful house of worship,
which helps greatly as an attraction to our service; as also does our
organ, sent by friends, being the only organ in the colored churches.
The Sunday-school has grown in interest and numbers, and has been able
to pay for its lesson papers this year. The school has been built up
almost entirely out of new material. My wife and self have taught a
day-school in connection with the church-work, which has given strength
to the church. Outside of the primary and intermediate classes, we have
a class in United States history, one in English composition, and one
in algebra. Up to this time forty-six scholars have been enrolled. Last
year we began with three scholars, closing with thirty-five. We have
had quite a number of applications for boarding scholars, but had no
accommodation for such, with the exception of one girl whom we felt
almost bound to take. Some of the others found places with difficulty,
because they wanted to go to the Congregational school (so-called,
while the public is called the Methodist school).
Strange to say, in this community the country people are more able to
sustain a “pay-school” than are those in town. But there is a reason
for it: wages are very low, and it really takes what is needed for
their absolute wants to pay dollar a month, particularly if a family
numbers six or seven, which is really the case in my parish. A woman’s
wages average from four to five dollars a month. I sigh, and wonder how
these poor people ever will rise.
The Christian people who give so liberally, and those who are intrusted
with the responsibility of this work, do not know the difficulties and
trying circumstances under which Congregationalism has grown, and is
growing, in some parts of the South. Past experience has taught that
tardiness in the appropriation of ample facilities for the work in some
fields has caused the loss of rich results. If those who have gone to
Kansas had seen the present condition of the church, I believe it would
have been a great check upon their going, although there were other
reasons which helped to drive them from the South aside from a lack of
proper facilities for the education of their children.
Since the dedication of the church, I have been anxious that our lot
should be inclosed, and on April 9th we gave an entertainment whose
results surpassed our most sanguine expectations, as we made $64 above
expenses.
We have put up a neat fence in front, well painted, which improves the
looks of the church, and have ordered lumber for the other sides of the
lot, and by next week the whole will be fenced.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L. Stone,
D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low,
Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D.,
Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P.
Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball, E.
P. Sanford, Esq.
SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond, TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.
* * * * *
MISSION WORK AMONG THE CHINESE MINERS.
REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.
Can it be done? That is the question. That it needs to be done, there
can be no question. There is scarcely a mining camp in the State but
has its Chinese quarter, and there are many small camps where the
entire population is Chinese, because Americans view the placers as
worked out. Close upon every advancing wave of Caucasian emigration,
these follow into Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and, just now, Arizona
especially. Thither all but two of those in Santa Barbara, of whom we
hoped that they were born of God, have gone, and one of the last two
writes me that he is soon going. On the other hand, two of our best
brethren in Oakland have just migrated to Montana; one of them, Lee
Haim, who was our excellent helper at Oroville till taken from our
work by a peremptory summons to return to China. This doom has been
commuted, but only upon his undertaking to remit amounts larger than he
could possibly save out of a helper’s salary. The other of the two is
Len Soon, a man of fine presence, good judgment, warm heart and earnest
Christian spirit, whose ever-ready volunteer aid made him a pillar in
our Oakland work.
These losses at the points already occupied, suggest one way in which
God, taking the matter into his own hands, is sending the Gospel to the
Chinese in the mines. They afford a partial solution of the problem
before us. A portion of our scattered seed is made to fall upon those
moral wildernesses. We follow these brethren with our prayers; and I
have ventured to pledge to them our practical co-operation if they
should settle in any place where a hopeful missionary work could be
begun.
But a hopeful work of this sort, anywhere in the mines, could scarcely
be conceived of but for faith. The difficulties are unique, and are
very great. Our Home Missionary Society finds no other service so
fraught with discouragements, as that in these regions. The toil
required is very hard, and the returns are very scanty. Some churches
have been thrifty, and one or two are thrifty still; but outside a less
number of points than you could count on the fingers of one hand, they
are either dead or perpetually dying; preserved from utter extinction
only by persistent pastoral service, sustained mainly by missionary
aid. But the difficulties encountered in such work among our own
people, will be greatly enhanced in labor among the Chinese. Miners are
always migratory, but the Chinese miners most of all; and migration
tends to barbarism, among the Chinese most of all. Miners depend upon
luck. There is no possibility of knowing what there is in a piece of
ground till you have worked it through, and gotten it out. A single
day may show your season’s work to be a success, or may doom it as a
failure, and what that day will disclose no sagacity will enable you
beforehand to determine. Such occupations nurse the gambling spirit,
favor spendthrift habits, and tend almost irresistibly to poverty.
And this is specially true of the Chinese. In certain seasons of the
year, miners are apt to be waiting and idle; in others, when the golden
harvest must be gathered, if at all, working to excess; and in either
case, the moral effect is evil, not less so with Chinese than others.
American miners, with a few noble exceptions, seem to know little about
the Christian Sabbath. It used to be, and in some parts of California
it still is, the day for cleaning-up, for coming to the central village
for trading, for gambling, for getting drunk; but even this distinction
in the more prominent mining districts is passing away, and the wheels
of labor roll remorselessly over the laborer’s best boon, the weekly
day of sacred rest. How much less can we hope for the help of Sabbaths
in reaching with the Gospel the Chinese?
And yet, there they are, by the hundreds and the thousands, precious
souls, bought with the blood of Jesus. Must we let them die, without a
single hand stretched out, a single voice uplifted for their rescue?
The mission at Oroville was our first attempt to deal with this problem
of work among the Chinese miners. It was begun, so far as downright and
determined effort was concerned, February 1st, and continued till June
1st. The school is closed during the hot months, but will be resumed, I
trust, about October 1st. In some respects it has fulfilled our hopes,
and abundantly repaid our somewhat large expenditures. Six Chinese are
reported as converted, but we did not reach many of the miners through
the school, as such. They would come to hear Lee Haim or Lem Chung
preach, thronging the little mission house sometimes, and listening to
the Gospel, as, indeed, news, good news possibly, with eyes fixed and
ears and even mouths wide open, to receive the words. But coming and
going, here to-day to trade at the temple for luck and at the stores
for “grub,” to-morrow gone we know not where, we could learn but little
of the work that good news wrought within their hearts.
It is evident, however, that if we are to reach our Chinese mining
population it must be mainly through evangelistic service—a mission
school at some central point, as a headquarters, and a well-trained
helper to go forth from it, preaching here and there on Sundays and
on week days, in the cabins or on the streets, wherever he can induce
his countrymen to lend him a listening ear. And in order to this, we
ought to be training helpers by the dozen where now we are training
one; not by sending them to Academies or opening for them a Theological
Seminary, but by putting them to work and letting them learn to preach
by preaching. This was Wesley’s method for those half heathen among
whom his victories were gained in England, and I am persuaded that it
is the beat method for these whole heathen for whom our struggle is
going on to-day. Do not educate the helpers up out of the range of easy
sympathy with those from whom they spring and among whom they go, but
let teaching and working, lesson and practice, go hand in hand. I am
eager to do more of this next year than we have ever done. I am greatly
encouraged respecting it, by the results vouchsafed to us already; but
how to do it aright, with the resources now at command, I do not, and
I fear, I cannot see, for the rules of arithmetic are against it, and
those rules are stubborn things. You cannot, in this case, reduce the
multiplicand (_i. e._ the helper’s salary, for it is at the lowest
point that justice will admit already), and you cannot increase the
multiplier (the number of helpers) without enlarging the product (_i.
e._ the expense to be met and the drafts to be made). What shall we do
about it?
* * * * *
RECEIPTS
FOR JUNE, 1880.
* * * * *
MAINE, $55.00.
Bethel. First Cong. Ch. $15.00
Dennysville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Foxcroft and Dover. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $10; Rev.
A. L., $1. 11.00
Hallowell. Mrs. Dummer 5.00
Minot. Mrs. B. Jones 1.00
Waterfowl. Central Cong. Sab. Sch. 3.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $205.82.
Boscawen. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.50
Bristol. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.43
Candia. Cong. Ch. 30.00
Colebrook. Cong. Sab. Sch. 12.58
Concord. H. A. D. 0.50
Canterbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Exter. “A Friend,” _for Chapel, Wilmington, N. C._ 5.00
Fisherville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.00
Gilsum. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 19.70
Hinsdale. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.22
Jaffrey. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.15
Keene. Mrs. E. C. W. 0.51
Littleton. Cong. Ch., $5.54; Ira Parker, $5; Mrs.
B. W. L., 50c 11.04
Meriden. Cong. Ch. and Soc., adl. to const. MRS.
SUSAN E. BURROWS, L. M. 13.19
Orford. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $23, and Sab. Sch., $10 33.00
Orfordville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Webster. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.00
Wentworth. “Friends,” Bbl. of Bedding and Books,
_for Macon, Ga._
VERMONT, $197.12.
Castleton. Cong. Ch. and Soc., (ad’l) 0.60
Dorset. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $18.58, and S. S.,
$11.42 30.00
East Hardwick. Cong. Soc. 18.41
Newbury. Judge P. W. Ladd 5.00
New Haven. Cong. Soc. 19.85
Pawlet. A. F. 1.00
Putney. Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Foster 4.00
Saint Albans. Cong. Ch. Sab. Sch., _for Student Aid,
Fisk U._ 54.00
Vergennes. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Wells River. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.08
West Randolph. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.68
Williston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.50
Wolcott. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $3,076.13.
Abington. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 39.46
Amesbury & Salisbury. U. E. Ch. and Soc. 12.50
Ashburnham. M. W. 1.00
Ashfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $45; Henry Taylor, $5 50.00
Ashland. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Student Aid
Talladega. C._ 25.00
Ayer. Mrs. C. A. Spaulding 30.00
Belcherton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 33.00
Billerica. R. K. Underhill 10.00
Bolton. “A Friend,” _for Student Aid, Atlanta U._ 15.00
Boston. Immanuel Cong. Sab. Sch. 15.26
Brockton. Mrs. Nathan and Barzilia Carey, $4, _for
Student Aid, Tougaloo U._;—Mrs. Lucy Sanford, $2,
_for Freight_;—C. M. B., 25c 6.25
Bridgewater. “Thank Offering” 10.00
Brookfield. “Aged Woman in Evan. Cong. Ch.” 25.00
Cambridgeport. Prospect St. S. S., $12.56; Pilgrim
Cong. Ch., $7.05 19.61
Chelsea. Cent. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $16.72;—Mrs. A.
D., $1, _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 17.72
Chicopee. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.65
Coleraine. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Conway. Cong. Soc. to const. HARRIS D. PEASE, L. M. 56.51
Danvers Centre. Sab. Sch. and “Friends,” _for
Student Aid, Talladega C._ 71.00
Dorchester. Second Parish Sab. Sch. 4.00
Douglas. A. M. Hill 25.00
Easthampton. ESTATE of Hiram J. Bly, by Mrs. Maria
L. Bly, Exec’x. 500.00
Easton. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.25
Fitchburg. Rollstone Ch. and Soc. 50.00
Framingham. “A Friend in Plymouth Church,” $20;
Mrs. Sally N. Brewer, $5 25.00
Foxborough. D. Carpenter 50.00
Grantville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.51
Greenfield. First Ch., $8.17 and S. S., $12 20.17
Haydenville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.79
Housatonic. Housatonic Cong. Ch. and Soc. 42.76
Hubbardston. “A Friend” 4.00
Ipswich. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.09
Lawrence. Lawrence St. Ch., Box of C., _for Macon,
Ga._ Longmeadow. Ladies Benev. Soc. 19.20
Lowell. Eliot Cong. Ch. and Soc. 46.04
Malden. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., $33.82; “A lover
of the cause,” $10; Miss Mary Kent, $3 46.82
Maynard. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 50.00
Millbury. M. D. Garfield 5.00
Monson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 31.50
Monterey. Cong. Ch. 16.12
New Bedford. Trinitarian Bible School Concert 17.06
Newbury. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.00
Newburyport. “Friend” Cask, and Bbl. of C., _for
Macon, Ga._
North Brookfield. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 50.00
North Abington. Ladies of Freedman’s Aid Soc., $5;
“A Friend,” $5, _for Nashville, Tenn._ 10.00
North Adams. Cong. Ch. 81.90
Northampton. Miss Elizabeth Jewett, to const. MISS
MARY A. JEWETT, L. M. 30.00
Northfield. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Norfolk. ESTATE of Lucy M. Clark by Elisha
Rockwood, Ex. 124.33
Norfolk. W. E. C. 0.50
Oakham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 60.75
Paxton.——, _for Freight_ 1.70
Royalston. Joseph Estabrook 10.00
Rowley. Cong. Ch., _for Student Aid, Talladega C._ 10.00
Sandwich. “M. N. C.,” _for Missionary Horse at
Macon, Ga._ 1.00
Salem. ESTATE of Mrs. Harriet E. Smith, by Chas.
H. Bates, Ex. 300.00
Salem. Tabernacle Ch. and Soc., $258.28; So. Cong.
Ch. and Soc., $56.20; Miss S. L. E., 60c 313.08
Shelburne. First Ch. 33.36
Somerville. Prospect Hill Ch. 5.01
South Abington. Bbl of C., and $2 _for Freight, for
Nashville, Tenn._ 2.00
South Deerfield. Mrs. M. C. Tilton. 2.00
South Hadley. Mt. Holyoke Sem. 16.00
South Hadley Falls. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 25.00
South Natick. John Eliot Ch., _for Student Aid,
Talladega C._ 7.00
Southville. Cong. Ch., _for Student Aid, Talladega
C._ 3.64
Springfield. “A Friend,” $200; Memorial Ch., $30.54;
Olivet Cong. Ch., $20.54; “E. M. P., South Ch.,”
$20 271.08
Sutton. Two Classes in Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Student
Aid, Atlanta U._ 9.00
Templeton. L. R. and E. C. D. Shattuck 5.00
Townsend. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Upton. “Friends,” Bbl. of C., _for Macon.
Ga._ Wakefield. Four Classes in Cong. Sab. Sch.,
_for Student Aid, Atlanta U._ 16.00
Waltham. Individuals _for A. M._ 3.00
Watertown. Mrs. N. W. D. 0.50
Wenham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.71
Westborough. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Student Aid,
Atlanta U._ 25.00
West Brookfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
West Cummington. B. B. 0.25
Westminster. F. Lombard 5.00
West Springfield. Park St. Ch. and Soc. 30.00
Weymouth and Braintree. Union Cong. Ch. 17.31
Wilbraham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.74
Winchendon. N. Cong. Ch. (ad’l) 10.00
Woburn. Mrs. Simon Holden, $5; H. Whitford, $5;
— Mrs. Dimmick, _$3 for Student Aid, Atlanta U._ 13.00
Worcester. Union Ch. 25.00
CONNECTICUT, $1,422.98.