{85}
The American Missionary
* * * * *
Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
FINANCIAL--PARAGRAPH
MOUNTAIN WORK--ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
INDIAN ORDER--FROM GEO. W. CABLE
DEATH OF HON. A.S. BARNES
PARAGRAPHS
SPECIMENS OF SCHOOL ENDEAVOR
A SERIOUS ALARM IN GEORGIA
EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE SOUTH
THE SOUTH.
LETTER FROM AN EVANGELIST
THE CHINESE.
RESULTS THAT ELUDE THE STATISTICIAN
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
THE BLACK WOMAN OF THE SOUTH
YOUNG FOLKS.
WHAT SUSIE FOUND AT TOUGALOO
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN PUPIL
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance. Published by the American
Missionary Association.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
* * * * *
{86}
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT,
------ ------
Vice-Presidents.
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. NOBLE, 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.
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.
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A.S. BARNES,[1]
J.R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
For Two Years.
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE,
For One Year.
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
District Secretaries.
Rev. C.J. RYDER, 21 Cong'l House, Boston.
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago.
Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON,
Bureau of Woman's Work.
Secretary, Miss D.E. EMERSON, 56 Reade Street, 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.
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., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A
payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
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.
* * * * *
{87}
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
We acknowledge with gratitude to God and to his people the fact that
our receipts during the month of February are such as greatly to
encourage us.
We are cheered, not only by the benevolences which are reporting
themselves from the churches, but also by the kind words of sympathy
and helpfulness which show us anew that this great and exigent work
upon us was never nearer than now to the hearts of our pastors and
churches.
We may add that the month just past and those immediately before us
are those upon which we must largely depend for our fiscal year. We
are coming to the summer season, when contributions are less likely to
be taken. We trust that those who believe that God has called the
American Missionary Association to this immense work in the name of
Christ, will not cease to pray that the hearts of men may be moved to
heed the appeals of those who, through us, ask for the very bread of
life, and who will not have it unless we carry it to them.
We are now compelled to deny more appeals for help which ought to be
heard than we are granting. Several schools which were begun by
private enterprise with good intent, are now asking us to take them
from their hands upon our own, where they can be perpetuated and
saved. We would like to save these schools to the needy people whose
hope is in them, and to protect the churches from indiscriminate
appeals for works which they have not authorized, and which we could
do with greater economy and better care; but for this we need a
generous increase of gifts. Our faith was in Him who said, "Knock, and
it shall be opened unto you," and the doors were opened. God withdrew
the bolts of hindrance and said, "Beloved, I have set before you an
open door." Our faith is in Him who also said "Ask, and ye shall
receive."
* * * * *
A friend has just sent us eighteen subscriptions to the _American
Missionary_. This might be repeated easily by a thousand friends. There
is {88} scarcely a self-sustaining church in the United States where
it could not be done by one who would try to do it as an act of
missionary love. Some who read this, perhaps, will try and will
succeed.
* * * * *
The name of Rev. Frank Cross, who was appointed to the charge of the
Rosebud Indian Mission, was by mistake not printed in the roll of
workers. He is there, however, and his work has gone on bravely and
hopefully.
* * * * *
We wish that the extent, and necessity, and hopefulness of our
mountain work, were more fully understood by our readers. Now is our
opportunity and the accepted time to answer the most urgent appeals
from this neglected region in the heart of our country. Our
Congregational churches are just what are needed to uplift these
people. One of our earnest missionaries writes us:--
"The A.M.A. has done a work here to be profoundly grateful for as a
beginning, but thus far it is only playing around the edge of its
mountain work. This mountain region is of great extent. Sober
calculation from facts already gleaned, makes a thousand
Congregational churches in these mountains the possibility of the
future, if only the strategic points can now be occupied. One
church and one school to a county, should be our immediate aim;
then we can throw upon these the work of developing native teachers
and preachers for the rest. There are forty counties waiting for
us, and all our mountain work so far is in three or four. I see
this place where I am, changing like magic under the influence of
school and church, but the necessity for our going forward
oppresses me. I am ready for any additional labor, and will carry
any burden my strength will permit, if only the American Missionary
Association will take for its motto, 'One church and one school in
every mountain county, as fast as they can be established.' I feel,
when I see the need, as if I could plead the money right out of the
most self-indulgent members of our favored churches at home. It
would not be expensive as compared with other missionary work.
Cannot some way be devised for making a large advance on the
present movement?"
* * * * *
Those who thought to cripple Atlanta University because it could not
yield its principles for the sake of a State appropriation of $8,000
made a mistake. They have helped that which they meant to hinder. The
university will get the money. Joseph's brethren took counsel together
and said, "We will see what will become of his dream," and they
thought they had a sure thing when they put him in a pit, but they
discovered {89} some years after that this was but a way-station on
the direct road to the Viceroyship of Egypt, and they saw what became
of his dream.
When Napoleon the First wished to hinder the Huguenot Church, he gave
it a small stipend in order to retain hold of it. He appropriated just
enough to keep it a cripple. When the State of Georgia thought the
education of the Negro was becoming too marked, it reversed the policy
of the far-seeing Bonaparte and took its hands off. We have never
thought that Napoleon was a truly good man, but we do believe that he
had a larger idea of the philosophy of control than the author of the
Glenn Bill. If the State had held on, it might have hindered, but it
has lost its hold.
* * * * *
Would it not sound well to the American people to have it said that in
the United States of America, in the year 1888, our missionaries were
imprisoned for reading the Bible to a heathen tribe of Indians who
lived remote from civilization, the crime of it being that it was read
in the only language which they could understand?
Yet "the orders are," writes a missionary, "that we shall hold only
two services on a Sunday and two during the week, and that we shall
cease to read the Bible in the Indian homes." This is the Government
authority of the great and free United States, but is there any
authority greater than God?
* * * * *
In an eloquent address at the Old South Church in Boston, on Sunday,
March 4th, George W. Cable accentuated in strong words the work in
which we are engaged. "Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most
fruitful, the most abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that
was ever opened to any Christian people."
We quote from his address:
The benevolence of Northern men and women, yea, and even of
Northern children, helped to establish in the South these
missionary colleges, these educational missions, wherein not the
black man alone, not the black woman alone, but every one who was
qualified with orderly behavior and a rational intellect might
come, and get, not only an education, but a Christian education,
and not only a Christian education, but a Christian American
education. These institutions, standing out in the darkness when
nothing else stood by them, when the land was racked and torn and
bled afresh under the agonies of reconstruction, these institutions
began and carried on the blessed work of raising up leaders,
intellectual leaders, among the black people, for the guidance and
stimulation of the colored race toward the aspirations of American
citizenship and Christian intelligence.
These institutions, these missionary colleges in the South, have
carried the torch of liberty, these have upheld it, these have
taught American citizenship, these have given to the Southern
States 16,000 colored teachers, when nobody else would teach the
poor black boy--nay, or the poor white boy either. Seven millions
of people concerned in the matter, and the National Bureau of
Public Education reporting year after year that {90} the reason why
there are 600,000 colored youth out of the public schools, is not
because they don't want to go, but because there are not
school-houses and school teachers.
Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most fruitful, the most
abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that was ever opened
to any Christian people. It is right here at your doors. It is not
across the Pacific Ocean and it is not down yonder around the Cape
of Good Hope. Right here at our doors is the greediest people for
education and the gospel there is on the face of this earth, not
counted among our white race. I suppose that ninety-nine
one-hundredths of those who generously give to this cause believe
to-day that it is being given to in generous proportion. Ah! you
never figured on it. Why, if you knew the national value of this
work, to say nothing of its gospel value, you would quadruplicate
it before the year is out. You would not submit to it for a moment,
as citizens, not merely as members of Christ's Church.
* * * * *
The American Missionary Association is called again to mourn the
decease of one of its officers. Hon. Alfred S. Barnes, a member of its
Executive Committee, after an illness extending over five months, at
his residence in Brooklyn, finished his earthly life on Friday,
February 17th, at the age of seventy-one years. Mr. Barnes was elected
on the Executive Board of the A.M.A. nineteen years ago, and had
served in that capacity continuously up to the day of his death. He
was a wise counsellor, large-minded in his views and honorable in his
spirit, known throughout the land as one of the foremost publishers in
the country, largely interested in educational work, and yet he found
time for an earnest devotion to various enterprises in the Christian
church. His fidelity and helpfulness in the service of the A.M.A. are
fully known only to those who were associated with him. Many
organizations of missionary and Christian work will miss his presence
and the help of his generous stewardship, but none will feel his
departure more truly than the American Missionary Association, which
has lost its President, one of its Secretaries, and this long-honored
member of its Executive Board within the last half-year. The greatness
of his work in our service will be remembered and cherished.
* * * * *
We acknowledge among our exchanges, the _Fisk Herald_, published at
Nashville; the _Atlanta Bulletin_; the _Olio_, of Straight University; the
_Tougaloo Quarterly_; the _Head and Hand_, of Le Moyne Normal Institute at
Memphis; the _Helping Hand_, of Sherwood, Tenn.; _Our Work_, of Talladega
College; the _Howard University Reporter_, of Washington; the _Word
Carrier_, of Santee Agency, and _Iapi Oahe_, of Santee Agency; also the
_Christian Aid_, published by our church in Dallas; the _Beach Record_,
(occasional) by our school in Savannah.
Several of these papers are models of their kind, publishing original
articles written by the students and professors, and printed by the
students with superior typographical skill. As indicators of progress,
they are full {91} of interest, apart from the items of local school
and church intelligence with which they are freighted.
* * * * *
We commend to our readers, "The Missionary Review of the World,"
edited jointly by Rev. J.M. Sherwood, D.D., of New York, and Rev. A.T.
Pierson, D.D., of Philadelphia.
One rises from its pages as if he had been breathing Christian ozone.
The editorials are upon living topics and issues, and are vigorously
presented. The "Review" sweeps its vision over the entire world and it
not only sees, but knows how to tell what it sees. If the high
standard of literary excellence so far sustained can be continuously
held, we shall have a magazine of missions which will be the peer of
our best literary monthlies in quality and interest.
* * * * *
We congratulate the Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing
Society on the acceptance of its appointment of Rev. Geo. M. Boynton
as its Secretary. We have known him as a member of the Executive
Committee of the American Missionary Association, as editor of THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY, as a pastor, as a secretary of Associations and
Conferences, as a wise counsellor and genial brother. We regard him as
eminently fitted for the place to which he has been called. To Brother
Boynton we extend most cordially a welcome to the honorable, the
fraternity of the Secretaries.
* * * * *
The fifth annual report of the Executive Committee of the Indian
Rights Association, written by Mr. James B. Harrison, is a strong and
valuable contribution to the literature of Indian rights and wrongs,
which should be considered by every friend of the Red Man. Respecting
the orders of the Indian office at Washington which abridge the
liberty of religious teaching, this report characterizes them as
"unintelligent, arbitrary, despotic and unstatesmanlike, merely a blow
at missionary work. There is no reason to suppose that a single Indian
anywhere will ever learn ten words more of English by reason of these
orders. There is, indeed, no provision made by the Government for any
increase of facilities in the study of English. The damage to the
missionary work produced by these orders is their sole result. The
orders should be distinctly and wholly revoked and withdrawn. It is
not necessary that the missionaries and churches should submit. If
they will publish the facts fully these orders will be revoked. The
facts must come to light. Then the people of the country will have
something to say."
The above quotation will give our readers the flavor of the pages.
"Plain words are best," and it is time that the country should have
them. {92} No one can read the statements in this able Report without
having his heart stirred with honest indignation at the condition of
Indian affairs, through the unfortunate unfitness of the Government
Bureau.
* * * * *
SPECIMENS OF SCHOOL ENDEAVOR.
THREE COMPOSITIONS.
LETHER.
Lether is mad from the hide of animals. They first kill the animal
then the hide is sent to a tan yard and there it is tan are made
lether from, then to a shoemaker's shop where it is made into boots
shoes saddles. The finest of gloves is the kid skin glove, that is all
I will say about kid skin gloves. Most of the bad boots and shoes we
have is horse lether or mule lether, that is all I will say about mule
lether and horse lether. All the good boots and shoes we have is young
calf lether, that is all I will say about young calf lether.
All the boots shoes and every thing else we have made of lether is
second thing because some poor animal was rob-ed of his coat that we
might have boots and many other things.
----, aged 16.
NETELY.
Netely are clean always and handsome to everybody. It are good in the
cite of God and man for it are a good thing to be netely always for it
make a man look netely. If we all are netely it are a good thing to be
clean for it are a good thing in the time of life so to be. Netely is
deserving of everybody and grate with all mankind. It are a good thing
to be netely for it is beautiful and pretty. It are correct always and
never rong to nobody an it make a man feel better when he are netely
an a nice looking person when he are netely are clean before every
body.
----, aged 25.
DRIVE WAGGON.
That the kind of work I likes to do. When I drive waggon I rides a
plenty. Riding are a good thing because when folks is sick it are good
for the helt. I likes to drive it because I have been loadin it. This
summer I hall fody. When I would load the barn yard wagon full of fody
it would be high from the groun, that is nice but sometimes it would
turn over, that would be truble. Truble are a bad thing.
----, aged 17.
* * * * *
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS AT AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS IN GEORGIA.
_What is writing?_
"Writing is the Representation of the human voice on the 11th part of
a noun."
{93}
_How long since writing was invented?_
"From the creation of the world, or from the birth of Christ."
_What are the chief products of the State of Georgia?_
"The chief products are Agriculture, Turpentine, rail-roads, lumber
and grate deel of merchandice bussyness."
* * * * *
A SERIOUS ALARM IN GEORGIA.
The American Missionary is not published for the entertainment of its
readers. It has a more serious purpose. It speaks for races who have
suffered grievous wrongs, and for peoples whose condition is
exceedingly sad. It has to do with tragic facts, and much of what it
has to say must excite compassion, and must appeal both to the
consciences of our readers and to their sense of duty. To call upon
those whom God has blessed, to insert themselves into the woes and
spiritual wants of others who need their help, is grave and serious.
This is one feature. There are others. The joy of the work and the joy
of the worker, which we are called to record, are a relief to the
stories of necessity, and are like beautiful pictures painted upon the
dark background. When "Our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
the Lord," we can for the time forget the darkness upon which the
light shines, and sing our hallelujahs. If it is saddening to tell of
the night, it is cheering to mark the fact that the providences of God
are working out his promises, and are surely bringing in God's day.
Over and above the evils to which we must call earnest heed, the
dangers which are not far away, and the exigencies of the cause of
Christ, we are sure that no one can read the MISSIONARY without being
cheered and quickened in gratitude to God for what he is graciously
doing for his needy ones through his people.
* * * * *
With the serious duty on the part of those who are working together
with God for the salvation of men, there drift along in the current of
his providences certain incidents that are exceedingly droll.
As we have seen some very ludicrous manifestations of character and
conduct in the terrible struggles of a battlefield, and have brushed
aside our tears at times for an irrepressible _bon mot_ in a hospital,
so in the weighty and solemn considerations which continually appeal
to us, and while we are anxiously asking how we can make the most
bricks for the Lord's building with the least straw, incidents arise
which not only throw light upon our serious work, but which are
irresistibly amusing.
* * * * *
We think we should share with our readers a recent one which, when
{94} we read it in the detail, impossible to be repeated here, made us
smile. Every time we re-perused it we thought it, as _Alice in
Wonderland_ said, "curiouser and curiouser."
Our readers are not strangers to the name and fame of the leading
editor of the chief paper in Georgia. They have heard of him as an
eloquent orator with a brilliant imagination which saw a New South in
almost millennial array, and told of it with an enthusiasm so
contagious that to the sons of the Pilgrims after the fulness of a
great dinner it seemed that the "Promised day of Israel" had at last
arrived. It is true that when this dinner had been thoroughly
digested, certain ones, removed from the afflatus of the occasion
began to ask, "Are these things so?" And when the Glenn Bill sought
the endorsement of public opinion, and substantially received it with
no word of reprobation from the eloquent orator and editor, some
recalled the speech of Sheridan in reply to Mr. Dundas, "The right
honorable gentleman is indebted to his imagination for his facts."
* * * * *
In all this time no one suspected the _Atlanta Constitution_ of
possessing the humorous character which it has lately revealed. In
late issues of February it has, in the garb of gravity, about two
columns that are ridiculously funny.
It appears that Prof. Sumner Salter, a graduate of Amherst College, a
son of an honored pastor of Iowa, a musical director of exceptional
gifts and a teacher of eminent ability, was solicited by parties in
Atlanta to take his residence there in the interest of the musical
cultivation of such as could secure his services. He soon attracted
the patronage of society, and all went smoothly until the tempter
came. Alas, there was a serpent in Eden, so there was a skeleton in
the closet of the _Atlanta Constitution_. It was a dreadful skeleton.
The _Constitution_ seriously publishes the fact that "it was whispered
about for some time," until patience ceased to be a virtue, when it
sent a guardian of public safety in the form of a reporter to
investigate. "Was it really true that a white man who was giving music
lessons to white people was also teaching a colored class at another
time and place? If so, what about the New South? The black man had no
business to be black, but he _was_ all the same, and being so what right
had Prof. Salter to teach _colored_ people to sing? Let the matter be
thoroughly searched out. The reporter departed on his mission, with a
countenance more in sorrow than in anger, and returned _vice versa_.
"'Tis true, 'tis pity,
And pity 'tis 'tis true."
The professor was actually doing this very absurd thing. He had taken
charge of a colored class in the church of which Rev. Evarts Kent is
minister and was teaching them how rightly to use the talents with
which God had so richly endowed them.
{95}
Accordingly, in the year of grace 1888, the _Atlanta Constitution_
publishes the astounding fact, and calls the world to heed it, in
conspicuous head lines:--
"WHITE OR BLACK--A PROMINENT MUSICIAN WHO TEACHES BOTH COLORS--HIS
BUSINESS SAID TO BE INJURED."
Then followed the whole sad story. The musician had been interviewed
and investigated. He did not deny the serious charge to this
superintendent of public proprieties. With a heart as hard as old
Pharaoh's he proposed to go on and do more likewise. In short, the
representative of the _Constitution_ could do nothing with this
intractable professor. Hence "he did not stand upon the order of his
going, but went at once," and reported that "_according to Mr. Suiter's
own statement, he is teaching a colored class_, and he has lost a white
pupil, which shows that his course is hurting his business." "Diligent
inquiry has failed to bring to light any proof that he has notified
his _white_ pupils that he is teaching _colored_ people."
Leaving out the meanness of this, has anyone read anything published
lately more ridiculous? It is not necessary to quote the professor's
public reply. It simply claimed the right of manhood and common sense,
and doubtless left the _Constitution_ wondering how a man capable of
making it appear so foolish could yet descend to such depths of
ignominy as to teach people whose ancestors came from Africa, the
unpardonable sin of singing praises to the Author of their being. To
what deeps some will descend! Why should colored people add to the
criminality of being born black, the fearful temptation of pay in
advance to one who could teach them while he had pupils who had the
merit of having been born white?
This was really transpiring in the city of Atlanta several days in the
month of February in the year 1888, and was in successive issues of
the _Constitution_, which shows among other things that there is
latitude, if not longitude, at a Brooklyn New England dinner.
Meanwhile we think we hear Uncle Rastus quoting the prophecy, "The
morning cometh and also the night," but he can't help laughing because
it is "awful funny."
* * * * *
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE SOUTH.
BY REV. W.F. SLOCUM.
We may remember at the outset that in this matter of the education of
the Negro we are treating a question which must be considered, to a
certain extent, ethnically. We are dealing with a people with race
peculiarities: but it seems to me that it is very useless to ask
whether we are training an inferior stock. There was a time when the
Anglo-Saxon stock was far inferior {96} to its present condition. We
ourselves are not enough removed from heathenism and barbarism to
become very pharisaical.
Here is a race with its idiosyncrasies, and its peculiar latent
possibilities, which we cannot know until Christian education has
unfolded them through many years. We ought not to wonder that in many
respects this people is yet in its moral and intellectual infancy; but
who dares say that it has not a future before it, with its statesmen,
its poets, its painters, its men of letters; that it is not to have
its own peculiar literature, its art, and even its own characteristic
religious expression, just as marked and important as those produced
by any other race? Certainly we have as much reason for believing it
as that the Teutonic race of the second century should produce its
Goethe and its Schiller, its Kant and its Hegel, its Luther and its
Melanchthon; or that the Frank of the fifth century should develop its
Victor Hugo, its Lamartine, its Madam de Stael; or that out of the
barbarism, the cannibalism, the paganism of Norseman, Briton and
Saxon, there should come Shakespeare, Spencer, Macaulay, Browning and
Gladstone. And we may not have to wait as long; for in spite of
slavery's binding chain thrice drawn round his soul, the American
Negro has been absorbing during the past from a civilization which has
been fitting him somewhat for the large Christian movement of the
present. We are working for a people which in all probability will
form at least one-eighth of our whole population; and we have the
problem of lifting them as a race up into Christian enlightenment. The
dark skin is growing darker. There will be less and less of
intermixture of blood between the two races. Hence all study of this
educational question must have in view the large moral and
intellectual enterprise of dealing with a race as a race. I believe
that there is nothing in all history to compare with this opportunity
which has come to our very doors. Here is a nation in our land and
with it every perplexity, every difficulty, every embarrassment, and
also every encouragement, every hope, and every inspiration for work,
that can appeal to any foreign missionary. Here is this God-given task
laid at our very thresholds and with all the sentiments of patriotism
and Christian devotion urging us to our large privilege.
What the race needs now is right leadership, and for many years to
come we are to equip men and women religiously and intellectually,
who, in home, in church, in social and business life, will be moral
and social leaders. And by this power of leadership I mean something
far other than those foolish conceits which have taken possession of a
few who have touched only the surface of the new life that is coming
to this people.
I have rather in mind leaders who shall have that moral and
intellectual fitness which produces reverence, earnestness and
humility, leaders who can draw their people away from their
foolishness, weakness and self-consciousness into the larger life that
is possible for them. Without a {97} doubt, what is needed is true
leaders, and I wish to show where these leaders are now demanded.
Before the war, the South knew nothing of the benefits of public
schools, and the private school was in harmony with its social and
political conceptions; but of late, and especially during the last
decade, a remarkable change has taken place which is doing as much to
affect the whole Southern problem as anything that has occurred there
during half a century. It is a movement in the South, which, however
imperfectly it has been developed as yet, has come to remain, and will
ultimately affect every institution, social, political and religious,
in our section of the country.
_It is now being recognized in every Southern State that free
government is based upon a public common-school system_. It has taken
two decades to incorporate this public school policy upon Southern
institutions, but it has now the evidence of permanency and it is
offering to Christian philanthropy an unparalleled opportunity, such
as God seldom gives to any people, and one which should rally the
churches as never before in support of the great enterprises of the
American Missionary Association.
There has been forced upon the New South the conclusion that the best
way to increase its wealth is to increase the number of educated,
intelligent producers, and with this conclusion it realizes that it
cannot afford to let two million colored children grow up in hopeless
illiteracy. It perceives that its very institutions will be imperiled
by such a condition. I have through personal interviews with leading
educators in a recent trip through the South, by correspondence and by
a careful examination of documents and reports from nearly all the
Southern States, undertaken to find just what is being done at the
present time in the public colored schools of the South.
The significance of this public school movement will be understood
when it is remembered that the acceptance of the idea that the
constitution of a free State rests on universal education, marks a
great change in theory; that this has come against the opinions of the
old Bourbon party, which never forgets, and, it is to be feared, never
learns; whose political economy is represented by the expression,
"keep the negro down"; which regards his enfranchisment as a political
outrage and his education as a mistake and a failure; that it has
risen in the face of the poverty of the South and in the midst of its
most intense prejudices. For when the new educational movement began,
the property and a large part of the intelligence belonged to the
opponents of the new educational policy, but now, in the words of a
prominent Southern gentleman: "The conviction has become very deep
that in the altered condition of our people the only hope left us is
to do all that can be done towards elevating the masses irrespective
of race." This certainly represents a tremendous transformation.
Without stopping to trace the causes that produced it, or even the
large place the American Missionary Association work has in it, let me
simply quote from {98} a Southern Christian man, whose sympathies are
full of prejudice against the North, but who has wakened with the
awakening of the New South.
Writing of the educational movement, in a recent book, he says: "Not a
few of the best men and women of the North have come to teach in these
institutions for colored youth: their motives and their work have not
always been understood, but the Great Day will make manifest how they
have been constrained by the love of Christ, to spend years in work
which has had many discouragements." ('The New South' by J.C.C.
Newton.) A few statistics may give some general idea of the extent of
this movement.
The State of Alabama has 104,150 colored pupils enrolled in the public
schools. It pays an average of $25.97 per month to nearly 2,000
colored teachers, and expends altogether $198,221 upon these colored
schools. Georgia has 49 per cent. of its negro school population
enrolled; that is, 119,248. In 1871, this State had 6,664 only in all
public and private colored schools. Its teachers of this race now
number 2,272. 40,909 colored children are enrolled in Louisiana, with
672 negro teachers, who receive an average of $23.73 per month.
Mississippi had last year 154,430 colored scholars. It employed 3,124
colored teachers who receive an average of $28.73 per month. North
Carolina enrolled, in 1886, 117,562 colored pupils, employed 2,016
teachers of the same race, paying them about the same as its white
teachers, $23.38 per month. The colored school population of Tennessee
numbers 158,450, of whom 84,624 are enrolled in her 1,563 common
schools, which are taught by 1,621 teachers of the same nationality. A
county superintendent voluntarily adds: "I should do our colored
teachers an injustice not to speak of them. Most of them are earnest,
zealous workers, doing all in their power for their race."
Turning now to Texas we find that this State has nearly doubled its
enrollment of colored pupils in three years, which now number 62,040,
with 1,696 licensed colored teachers who receive on an average, $41.73
per month. Virginia has 111,114 out of a school population of 265,249
with 1,734 colored teachers who receive $28.65 per month.
That is, in eight representative States there are eight hundred
thousand colored pupils who are now being trained by over fifteen
thousand teachers of the same race. Now the simple but grave question
that every Christian patriot ought to ask himself is, "What kind of
teachers are these, and where are they to come from in the future?" I
asked that question of a gentleman who of all others ought to be able
to answer it correctly and he replied, "Nine-tenths of these teachers
come from the missionary schools, and of these nine-tenths, more than
one-half come from the institutions of the American Missionary
Association." Now we can understand the truthfulness of the testimony
of the Rev. J.L.M. Curry, D.D., the distinguished agent of the Peabody
Fund, who says: "The most that {99} has been done at the South for the
education of the negroes has been done by the Congregationalists. The
American Missionary Association and those allied to it have been the
chief agency, so far as benevolent effort is concerned, in diffusing
right notions of religion, and in carrying education to the darkened
mind of the negro."
Here is the large door that God has opened for us, and through which
we are reaching this people, and in a still larger degree may carry
the truths of the Kingdom of God to them. What they need most of all
is light. Give them that and the question of rights will take care of
itself. When I was in New Orleans last May, President Hitchcock, of
Straight University, pointed out to me in his office a pile of
letters, which, he said, were applications for teachers for these
public schools, and those which he showed me represented the number of
applications which he was not able to fill. And yet he is compelled
every term to turn away scores of young men and young women seeking to
fit themselves for just this work, because there is not room for them
and because there are not funds to care for them.
As to this new movement in the South, I do not conclude that more than
the first step has been taken, exceedingly important as that step is.
Many of the schools as yet are in a wretched condition. The buildings
in the rural districts are small and rudely built, and many of them
are positively unfit to be used as school houses. There are neither
maps, nor charts or other appliances for the teacher's use in his
work, and in fact everything about these school houses is of the most
primitive type. The school year often does not exceed four months, and
many of these teachers are altogether unfit for their tasks.
Are we to think the time has come to withhold our support and our
prayers from this great work? Was there ever such an opportunity
offered to any land as this which is presented to the Christian
philanthropy of our own?
I might tell of the needs of the cabin home life as I have seen them
in these States, how the scholars from Christian schools are the
leaven that is slowly transforming this, the greatest of all human
institutions; how while from one-quarter to one-half of the colored
population is progressing, gaining in education, property and
character, there is another large part of the race that is either
stationary or sinking into more miserable conditions. Are we seeking
for paganism to battle with? Here it is in our own proud land. Do we
want the opportunity of Christianizing a nation? Here it is; and with
possibilities just as marked as those of any people that ever ascended
the scale of intelligence and Christian morality.
The problem of the New South is not merely one of successful
railroads, of busy factories or of paying plantations, but much more
is it one of upright, wise, Christian manhood and womanhood. This is
the work to which we are most truly called of the Eternal Father.
{100}
Nobly has the American Missionary Association entered into these
labors; but believe me, there is a larger work before it than it has
yet accomplished.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
LETTER FROM AN EVANGELIST.
After my return from England for another winter's service in Gospel
work among the people of the South, I began at
WASHINGTON, D.C.
I had promised Rev. G.W. Moore last winter, before sailing for my home
in England, to assist him in special religious effort. From the very
commencement of the meetings a good spirit was manifest, which
deepened day by day until forty or more persons professed faith in
Christ, young and old being reached by the power of the gospel. One
man sixty-one years of age surrendered to the overtures of God's love
and received Christ as his Saviour. Another of seventy-five years was
pointed out to me as a hardened sinner. When approached he was full of
self and reason, "I don't believe in mourner's benches and such like;
do you think my going there will make me a Christian or do me any
good?" "No, but it will show the people you are intending to make a
start for Heaven, and it will enlist their sympathy and prayers," I
replied.
Finally he knelt with me in the aisle with his head bowed on the end
of the seat while I prayed. Soon the big tears were dropping from his
eyes and he went home that night under conviction. The following night
he returned. He was again prayed for, but went away undecided. The
next night as soon as inquirers were given an opportunity to present
themselves for prayers he was the first to respond, and the sinful man
of seventy-five years had yielded his heart to Christ, and could sing
from his heart "Happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away." His wife,
who was present, rushed forward, and tears of joy ran down their
cheeks. Scarcely a dry eye was to be seen, while above all there was
joy in Heaven over another sinner saved. Deacon R. came to me
afterwards and said, "Why, did you ever see what a change in the man
in three days, and at last how he 'caved in.'"
Ten persons made profession of their faith, in January. Two of these
were teachers in the public schools. There were four conversions in
one family. Since these meetings, many extra services have been held,
with fruitful results. There are family altars where none before
existed. The work in Washington under Mr. Moore is very hopeful. My
next point was
SELMA, ALA.
which I entered full of hopes as to successful meetings, and was not
disappointed. {101} During my stay there, lasting three weeks, sixty
professed to be converted. Most of these, through the efforts of Rev.
C.B. Curtis and his wife, were formed into a "Children's Band," while
others joined the churches. This is a most important feature in
pastoral work, where the majority of the converts are children. They
need to have something that will help them in their spiritual and new
life and which may be instrumental in preserving them from
temptations, snares and pitfalls, laid to entrap them by the enemy of
their souls.
I never before realized how easily people are led away by false
teachers, nor saw so manifestly brought out the fulfillment of the
Scriptures, [2 Pet. ii, 1] "But there were false prophets among the
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought
them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall
follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall
be evil spoken of."
A man calling himself a "prophet" and a "faith doctor" had been for
some time experimenting upon people, both white and black, and
professed to cure them of all their ailments. He had been holding
meetings in a cottage weekly, and had gathered many followers, who
were, alas, for the most part professing Christians. He announced that
on the following Sunday he would hold the passover feast, burn the
Bible, and, in plain words, would do wonders, the like of which had
not been heard of for years. Accordingly, on Sunday morning, with a
few of his followers, he came to the house of a Negro, and during the
ceremony commanded a white woman to place her head on the table and
offer herself as a sacrifice. She refused, upon which a Negro woman
laid her head upon the table. He immediately raised an old cavalry
sword and, with one blow, nearly severed her head from her body, and
then commanded that they should "drag her out at once and put her with
her feet towards the East and she will rise after three days."
Soon there was a cry of murder raised; the false prophet was arrested
after a struggle, and he, with a number of his followers, was safely
lodged in the penitentiary, where it is to be hoped he will at least
be kept from cutting off any more women's heads. Oh, how great the
need of faithful men to lift up their voices like a trumpet, and spare
them not, and show to these needy people, so religiously inclined, the
way of truth!
TALLADEGA COLLEGE
was the next place visited. Beginning the New Year, which is usually
the "week of prayer," for two weeks the "old, old story" was told on
every night among the resident students and scholars. At other times,
services would be held in the Cassidy school in the morning, or in the
afternoon, as school duties would permit. The Theological class, as
well as the teachers and faculty, interested themselves greatly in
seeking to win the unsaved to Jesus. Following out the teaching of the
New Testament, the students {102} went out two and two in the
surrounding neighborhood, calling at the homes of the people,
conversing and praying in the family. They often returned with great
joy to tell of the success and kindness they had met wherever they
went. I am thankful to our blessed Lord to be able to report that not
only forty or more of the young people were converted but also that
professing Christians were strengthened in faith, all promising to do
what God had required of them and to go to their respective homes,
some of them hundreds of miles away, to make known a Saviour's love
and to carry light as far as possible in the surrounding darkness.
While here the Macedonian cry was heard from
JENIFER.
I went there for a brief service. The first night the church was full,
although the weather was stormy. The spirit of God brooded over the
meeting and five came forward for prayer. The next night still was
unpleasant, yet some of the congregation came several miles, and at
the close eleven inquirers asked for prayers. A brother in the
congregation rose, and, in pleading terms, his voice faltering,
begged, "Oh, brodder, please do stop wid us; see de mourners; see de
work de Lord is doing; please you brodder don't go away and leab us."
After such heartfelt words I could but stay all the week, when sixteen
professed to have accepted Christ, or, as they put it, to have "found
religion."
Miss Smith, at her home for motherless girls, is doing a noble work
here. Rev. J.B. Grant is highly respected by all in the village and
has a good name, which is worth more than great riches.
IRONATON
was the next place visited. It was exceedingly muddy and dark, yet the
people came out well. At the close of the first meeting the
congregation arose _en masse_ and asked that I would remain a day
longer, which I did.
MARION, ALA.
I went to Marion with some doubts upon my mind as to the results. The
first evening after my arrival I was very sick and threatened with a
severe attack of chills and fever, but I was helped to strength enough
to preach with difficulty. Twenty-five inquirers asked for prayers.
Some that night became "new creatures in Christ Jesus," and every
night as the meetings progressed the interest deepened and spread,
until other churches were reached by the influence and their services
given up that their members might come to our church and share in the
work and blessing. Every night large numbers of seekers came to
Christ. On one night twelve expressed their faith in a new life. Among
the many inquirers was one who for twelve years had been an anxiety to
her friends on account of her state of mind, and her conversion caused
great joy in the church.
Short morning meetings were held in the various schools in the town,
and in a town-school seventeen seekers found the Lord Jesus precious
to {103} their souls. Up to this time, during two weeks, more than one
hundred profess to have been converted.
I am happy to report that now, with the exception of two or three of
the students, all in the new A.M.A. school have been reached by the
gospel and are rejoicing that God's love has been shed abroad in their
hearts. This blessing can be traced in a great measure to the faithful
Scriptural teaching which Rev. A.W. Curtis and his devoted wife had
been giving previous to my coming among them, prayer meetings having
been held in the church for some time beforehand, and women's meetings
at the pastor's home, led by Mrs. Curtis, thus preparing the way for
the nightly preaching of the gospel. I go next to Mobile.
JAMES WHARTON, Evangelist.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
RESULTS THAT ELUDE THE STATISTICIAN.
BY REV. C.T. WEITZEL.
There are some effects which cannot be put into statistics. A boy's
progress in a study is but imperfectly declared by the monthly report
or the examination "stand." Much of the work accomplished in a Chinese
mission school, is impossible to tabulate. Like the marvelous
clearness of the atmosphere in Santa Barbara on a bright morning after
a night of rain, it quite eludes the statistician.