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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
SEPTEMBER, 1889.
VOL. XLIII. NO. 9.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
ANNUAL MEETING
THE TREASURY
AS TO "METHODS"
FIVE QUESTIONS
A MID-SUMMER LEAF OF THE A.M.A. CATECHISM
THE CARS, THE CHURCH, THE COURTS
THE WORK OF THE A.M.A. AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
ROME AND THE NEGRO
NOTES BY THE WAY, _Dist. Sec'y C.J. Ryder_
THE SOUTH.
HAND FUND
HOWARD UNIVERSITY
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE
EXTRACT
MISSIONARY VISITS
A CALL FROM AUNT MARY
THE INDIANS.
LETTER FROM OAHE SCHOOL
THE CHINESE.
EVANGELISTIC WORK AT PETALUMA
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
STATE ORGANIZATIONS
PARAGRAPHS
VISIT TO A MISSIONARY SUNDAY-SCHOOL
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
THE FRESH DRINK.
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN BOY.
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. 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._
_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._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For Two years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
CHAS. A. HULL,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER
ALBERT J. LYMAN.
_For One Year._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston._
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Sheet, Chicago._
Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_Field Superintendents._
Rev. FRANK E. JENKINS.
Prof. EDWARD S. HALL.
_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., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment
of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to 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. XLIII. SEPTEMBER, 1889. NO. 9.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
The next annual meeting of the American Missionary Association will be
held at Chicago, Ill., in the New England Church, commencing at three
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, October 29. Rev. R.R. Meredith, D.D., of
Brooklyn, N.Y., will preach the sermon. On the last page of the cover
will be found directions as to membership and other items of interest.
Fuller details regarding the reception of delegates and their
entertainment, together with rates at hotels, and railroad and steamboat
reductions, will be given in the religious press and in the next number
of the MISSIONARY.
A meeting of exceptional interest is expected, and we trust our friends
will be present in large force.
* * * * *
THE TREASURY.
It will encourage the contributors to the great work entrusted to us, to
know that the friends of the A.M.A. are enabling us to make a very
hopeful report up to this date.
If those who have not shared in the work of the Association as yet, this
year, will make a corresponding effort with those who have done so, we
shall have reason to hope that we can go to our Annual Meeting in
Chicago, owing no man anything but love and good will.
But those who have waited are many, and we are waiting and depending on
these. Those who have not taken their contributions have the power to
convert our hopes into realities.
We appeal, therefore, to the pastors whose collections for this fiscal
year have not been taken to take their collections and forward them to
our treasury before the close of September.
* * * * *
AS TO "METHODS".
We have been thinking that the methods of Christ were divine as well as
his truth, and that when the Christian world will use Christ's methods
in the propagation of truth there will be a great advance upon some
features of the present. Dr. Parkhurst has some very suggestive
sentences in this line of thought in a sermon on "The Regenerative Force
of the Gospel." His words are: "Christ never patches. The Gospel is not
here to mend people. Regeneration is not a scheme of moral tinkering and
ethical cobbling. In the Gospel, we move into a new world and under a
new scheme. The Gospel does not classify with other schemes of
amelioration."
This accords with our thought of the methods of Christ. The way to meet
that which is wrong, is to meet it as a wrong. We shall not do well to
ameliorate it. If we may not expect those who have been "raised" amid
prejudices and ignorance to be leaders for the absolute rectitude of
things, those who have not lived where this excuse is available should
be the leaders. If some do not lead, none will follow. Where principles
were at stake, Christ never gave way to prejudices. He never yielded to
that which was in itself wrong. If those to whom he ministered could not
come up to his standard, then he waited, but he never compromised. That
which is right should not yield to that which is wrong.
It may take a right hand. It may take an eye. But "If thy right hand
offend thee, cut it off," and "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it
out." He would not "cut it off" by amputating the finger and gradually
disjointing it up to the mark; and plucking out the offending eye is not
to bandage it so that it temporarily does not see the evil to which it
is attracted. No, the Gospel is not a system of repairs. It is not here
to temporize, but to make all things new, and it strikes at the heart of
evil and not at its surface.
It was not Christ's method to ignore an evil which confronted him. He
did not evade or get around issues. He met them. He answered them. He
was an "incarnate conscience" in the land. He knew what was in man. His
followers cannot fail when they walk closely with him in the path which
he has made plain.
* * * * *
FIVE QUESTIONS.
1.--If the Georgia Association had been without any colored members in
it, would the Georgia Conference ever have been formed?
2.--If the Georgia Association had been without any colored members,
would the Georgia Conference have declined to unite with it, on some one
of the terms submitted by the Georgia Association?
3.--If the Georgia Association had been without any colored members,
would this curious and ingenious scheme of "co-ordinate and equal
bodies," "to elect delegates" to visit each other now and then ever have
been concocted?
4.--Is it worth while to "darken counsel with words" as to methods, when
it is evident that the purpose is, not to form any union which would be
other than humiliating to a colored man, and contrary to the heretofore
held principles of the Congregational Churches?
5.--Why these arguments to show "how not to do it," when to do it would
be so simple and so evidently Christian?
_N.Y. Independent._
* * * * *
A MID-SUMMER LEAF OF THE A.M.A. CATECHISM.
Q. _When are Home Missions properly so called?_
A. When they are ordained to save the unevangelized people of the land
in which they dwell.
Q. _When are missions properly called Foreign Missions?_
A. When they are missions to foreigners in a foreign country.
Q. _Are missions among the Indians in this country, Foreign Missions?_
A. They are not, though the Indians have been treated as foreigners,
which has been the source of great wrongs and many sorrows.
Q. _Are missions to the Chinese in this country, Foreign Missions?_
A. They are not, though the Chinese are refused the privileges accorded
other foreigners. The missions of the A.M.A. on the Pacific Coast are
most fruitful and hopeful, and, since these foreigners return to China,
there is an interblending of Home and Foreign Missions here, that is
full of promise.
Q. _Are the missions of the A.M.A. in the South, Foreign Missions?_
A. They are not, though they have been successful in exciting interest
for Africa among the students of their schools. Some of these are now
foreign missionaries; others are preparing to go; but the missions of
the A.M.A. in the broadest sense are Home Missions, for they minister to
white and black as to citizens of a common country, who alike need the
Gospel. The A.M.A. is planting white churches (so called) every year,
and has added several this year, though none of them would refuse
membership to a man because he is black, and is planting colored
churches (so called), none of which should be excluded from State
Associations merely because of color.
Q. _Should the missions of the A.M.A. be called Foreign Missions because
its schools and churches cannot win the co-operation of the Christians
among whom they live?_
A. They did not at once win the co-operation of Christians among whom
they went, but confidence has been growing with the years until the
cases are exceptional where they do not have the co-operation of
enlightened and broad-minded Christians. In most cases, the schools and
churches of the A.M.A. have won both confidence and gratitude throughout
the South. Southern men are among the trustees of its institutions, and
everywhere its Field Superintendents and Secretaries are greeted with
cordiality. A prominent editor of a Southern political paper--white and
democratic--testifies this month: "_Yours is the most practical
missionary work ever undertaken by a Christian body, and should have the
hearty and unstinted support of all Christians._" The cases are few
where good will does not exist between its teachers and ministers and
the white people among whom they live.
Q. _Does not social ostracism show that the white teacher is engaged in
a Foreign Mission?_
A. Social ostracism is gradually giving way among the more intelligent
Christian people. Nothing, however, dies so hard as prejudice, and
nothing is so cruel; but missions do not cease to be Home Missions,
because they may be where there is sinful prejudice and dense ignorance.
Q. _What would be Foreign Missions in the South?_
A. Missions in the South which would treat an entire race as foreigners
and aliens because in God's wisdom he has seen fit to make them black,
would be foreign to the spirit of the Gospel: "For He is our peace who
hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. Through Him, we both have access by one Spirit unto the
Father. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the general household of God, and
built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building, fitly
framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." Missions in
the South which exclude pastors and delegates from Associations and
Conferences, would be foreign to the Gospel. Missions in the South
founded upon an aristocracy of skin, would be foreign to the spirit of
the Gospel. Missions which would preach against caste in India, and
perpetuate it in America, would be foreign to the methods of Christ, and
to Christian methods in foreign lands.
Q. _Does the A.M.A. believe in mixed churches of white and black
people?_
A. The A.M.A. does not regard it as at all probable that such churches
will exist to any great extent. Race tastes and race affiliations will
make for churches essentially white and essentially black. "But to close
the door on any Christian is in so far to make it an unchristian church.
To go into the South and establish white churches from which, whether by
a formal law or by an unwritten but self-forcing edict, men are excluded
because God made them black, is to deny one of the fundamental tenets of
Christ. There is no need to attempt to corral all men of all races in
one enclosure, but for any church, especially a church of the Puritans,
to enter upon a missionary work in the South and initiate it by refusing
to fellowship a black man because he is black, is to apostatize from the
faith in order to get a chance to preach the faith." The doors of every
Christian church ought to stand wide open to men of every race and
color, and in all representative bodies these churches should be one.
Q. _Is this the position of the Roman Catholic Church in its Southern
work?_
A. It is: The Roman Catholic Church would not for a moment recognize any
color-line in its assemblies or priesthood.
Q. _Does the A.M.A. believe in the social equality of the races?_
A. The A.M.A. has never seen any social equality anywhere, and believes
and teaches nothing about it. It believes in the Fatherhood of God and
the brotherhood of man.
Q. _Is the A.M.A. agitating the color-line question?_
A. It is not. It always has proclaimed its principles for the interests
of the oppressed, and always has championed the cause of God's poor,
pleading for the right because it is right.
Q. _Why is the A.M.A. in the South doing its work in schools and
churches among white and black?_
A. Because the Lord has said; "Behold, I have set before thee an open
door, and no man can shut it."
* * * * *
THE CARS, THE CHURCH, THE COURTS.
Our esteemed brother, Rev. G.C. Rowe, pastor of the Plymouth
Congregational Church, Charleston, S.C., and his associates, on their
return from the meeting of the Joint Committee on the union of the
Georgia Association and the Georgia Conference, were forcibly
transferred to an inferior car on the Georgia Railroad. They were not
driven from the train, they were allowed to ride, and the car in which
they rode was connected with the cars containing the white passengers.
They were simply separated from the others and that only because they
were colored persons.
The reception these honored ministers of Christ met in the Joint
Committee was very much of the same sort. The white brethren did not
deny them their place in the church--nay, the two bodies, white and
colored, were to be connected together, but these colored brethren were
to be kept separate and that only because they were colored persons.
An appeal will be made to the courts, but the interesting question is:
which will be first to recognize the equal manhood of the colored man--
the cars, the courts or the church? Would it not be a shame to the
church and a dishonor to the Christian name if the church should be the
last?
* * * * *
Speaking of the race problem, in his baccalaureate sermon at Vanderbilt
University, recently, Bishop Galloway, of Mississippi, of the Methodist
Church, South, startled his hearers by the following vigorous
declaration: "It is a travesty on religion, this disposition to canonize
missionaries who go to the dark continent, while we have nothing but
social ostracism for the white teacher who is doing a work no less noble
at home. The solution to the race problem rests with the white people
who live among the blacks, and who are willing to become their teachers
in a missionary spirit."
* * * * *
THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.
BY REV. FRANK B. JENKINS.
The American Missionary Association has done both home and foreign
missionary work. There is nothing in its constitution or traditions to
prevent its doing the same again.
Providence, however, seems to indicate clearly that its work at present
be within the United States. While in this sense it does home missionary
work, the peculiar conditions of the people among whom it mostly labors
require largely the methods of foreign missions. It must supply the
school, as well as the church; industrial training as well as that which
is intellectual and moral. It must create a native ministry and develop
native workers of all kinds. In fact, it would be hard to find on
foreign mission fields a single kind of activity which is not duplicated
in the fields of the American Missionary Association.
Home missions aid foreign missions by creating the conditions of more
income and more missionaries for foreign fields. The work of this
Association has done this already to some extent; without doubt it is to
do it to a far greater extent in the future.
In taking people from the ignorance and poverty of slavery and savagery,
it could not be expected to form them at once into large givers or
efficient workers for foreign fields; but who can say, after the marvels
of the past twenty-four years, what the future shall show, when the
coming millions shall arise and, out of gratitude for what they have
received, give of their increasing means and send forth their sons and
daughters to tell the glad story of freedom, truth and love.
It has been a favorite idea of many that the Negroes of America should
evangelize Africa. Perhaps some have been disappointed that so few of
them have gone to Africa as missionaries; but such, I am sure, have
failed fully to consider the facts. A people who had received only the
degrading tuition of slavery could not produce at once many who should
have the reliable qualities and the intellectual and moral training
needed for the responsible and, to a large extent, the unsuperintended
work of a foreign missionary. Then, every capable preacher, teacher and
leader has been needed in a hundred places at home. They could scarcely
be justified in leaving their own brothers and sisters in heathenism and
without the truth within their reach, to go to the heathen abroad.
Yet a few have gone forth and proved themselves capable, faithful and
successful. A former slave of Jefferson Davis is not only a successful
missionary in Africa, but has proved himself such a level-headed man
that he has been chosen treasurer of one of the missions of the American
Board. Such as he are an earnest of what shall be, when the colored
people shall be more fully evangelized and the appeal for Africa can be
made strong to their hearts and consciences. Then there will be such a
going forth as will astonish the Christian Church.
The bearing of the work for the one hundred thousand Chinese in this
country on foreign missions can be clearly seen. Christian work for them
is missionary work for China--it sends them back to become missionaries
to their native land. The fruitfulness of this work for foreign missions
has been fully demonstrated.
The possibilities of the influence of the evangelization of the Indians
on foreign missions is a topic which I do not remember having seen or
heard mentioned. Yet it seems to me worth thinking about.
Mexico has four million Indians; Central America, one million five
hundred thousand, and South America seven million. Here is a foreign
mission field of twelve and a half million souls. How can it be
otherwise than that, when once the Indians of our land shall come to
have and appreciate the blessings of a Christian civilization, their
hearts shall be stirred by the needs of their brethren according to the
flesh, and that they will go to them with the gospel story?
There remains one other field--the whites of the South and especially
the "Mountain Whites." As a class, they are poor, ignorant and needy in
every way--materially, intellectually, morally and spiritually, but
_they are not the "poor, white trash" of the South_. As good blood flows
in their veins as in the veins of the Northern people. A wrong start and
their surroundings have made them what they are. Give them schools and
pure and enlightened churches and they will awake into new life as fast
as any people ever did. They will show in years what missionary work can
usually show only in decades. In Williamsburg Academy, Ky., nearly every
boy in the higher classes is expecting to prepare for the ministry, and
that school is only a little over half a dozen years old and is the
first one opened in our mountain work.
Give these mountain boys and girls a chance, and the people who gave the
nation a Lincoln will give it ministers and missionaries, not only for
the seven mountain States, but also for other home mission fields and
for foreign lands.
If the Congregational churches will listen to the call of Christ and
appreciate the opportunity which he has placed before them, there may be
in these mountains, filled with their marvellous mineral wealth,
Congregational churches which shall be not only self-supporting, but
give generously for the advancement of Christ's kingdom throughout the
earth. The most generous giver I know, is a native of the mountains and
a member of one of our missionary churches.
* * * * *
ROME AND THE NEGRO.
One of our most interesting exchanges is an "_Illustrated Roman Catholic
Quarterly_ edited and published by the Fathers of St. Joseph's
Missionary Society of the Sacred Heart," its "Record of Missions among
the Colored People of the United States."
We need not say that we have no sympathy with Romanism and its errors,
nor with the "Missionary Society of the Sacred Heart," and its efforts
to plant Romanism among the colored people of the South.
We can, however, but admire the fidelity of the church to its doctrines,
and the Christian example it gives to all missionary societies in its
recognition of man as man. The quotations which we make from the Roman
Catholic Quarterly will account for the strong hold that Romanism is
beginning to secure upon the negro race.
The following, for example, is a Roman Catholic tribute to John Brown:
On the 2nd of December next, thirty years will have passed
since John Brown, in his sixtieth winter, ascended the scaffold
and gave his life for the colored race.
Connecticut gave the hero birth--from heroes; New York, in her
Adirondack recesses, developed in him that spirit of liberty
which Ohio had nurtured, and is forever honored by his grave;
while Virginia, "building better than she knew," bestowed the
martyr's crown. It was necessary that one man should die for the
people (John xviii, 14), and God arranged that he who is likewise
one of the great benefactors of the human race as well as of his
native land should crimson and beautify with his blood the soil
that gave a cradle and a tomb to the Father of his Country.
Grand indeed is the greatness of the rock-ribbed Adirondacks
where John Brown lived, prayed, thought out his great
life-thought, and made his first trials in the work of emancipation,
but grander is the stone there that marks the grave of him whose
mighty spirit is still "marching on;" for the greatness of that
soul invests the tomb with moral grandeur, and calls "all the
astonishing magnificence of unintelligent creation poor."
Fair indeed are the banks of the Shenandoah, and beautiful the
landscape on which the dying eyes of the hero rested, but more
lovely far the death of him and of his sons and comrades,--"even
in death they were not divided" (2nd Kings i, 19), because the
most beautiful thing in the world or out of it is love, and he
and they died of love for their brethren, God's children. It is
truly fitting, therefore, that they who were rescued by him from
bondage should love and honor his glorious name, and that we all
should chant the praises of the man who was the chosen instrument
of Providence in destroying out of our country the inhuman custom
of human slavery.
The _Southern Congregationalist_, published in Atlanta, does not have a
high opinion of such men as John Brown. We quote:
There are men who never are mistaken. If your opinion or plan, no
matter how well sustained, differs from theirs, they solemnly
greet you: "Our conscience is our monitor: we can make no
concessions of principle." The case is ended. You may as well
make your humble bow and pass on, leaving them in their lofty and
superior place. Such men are of little use in the world. They may
have a few satellites, but that is all. It is noticeable how
uniformly the conscience and principles of these men agree with
their prejudices, salaries and other interests, and with changed
circumstances how "concessions" distill from them gently as the
dew.
We quote again from the _St. Joseph's Advocate_, as to the color line:
Man was created in God's own image and likeness. This image and
likeness is, however, not a physical one, it is a spiritual or
soul likeness. The likeness and image of the operation of the
human soul--the mind--through the material, physical medium of
the brain, is not only similar, but substantially and formally
alike in every division of the human race. It thus follows that
fundamentally there is an identity of mental or soul activity and
action in all the human race. Neither color, nor form, nor
feature, nor clime, operates a change on the formal and
fundamental identity of human thought as evolved by the human
mind....
It follows that the negro race, thinking the same thoughts, have
the same apprehension of the perfect, good and true, and,
thinking in the same lines as the Caucassian race, must needs be
of the same order of creation, in the image and likeness of their
Maker, although physically different in color, yet in mind and
soul the same. This, too, removes the theory of the inferiority
of races, and relegates it to the lumber room of the mere
physicist or corporal anatomist, who, because he cannot find life
in death any more than thought, would deny life as he would deny
the soul, even as La Place would not admit a Creator--God--
because he could not see him at the end of his telescope....
Naturally working for and under white men, their industry,
versatility and submissiveness have made many people think they
were an inferior race. This cannot be. Give them a fair chance in
life's battle, train their minds, fill their immortal souls with
worthy conceptions of the truth as only presented by the Roman
Catholic Church, and you will make of the negro race a kind,
charitable, intelligent, worthy Christian people, as full of love
for the country of their former enslavement as the best patriot
descendant of the Revolutionary fathers. Tried in peace and in
war when they have received but half the training of the white
race, they have not been found wanting, but have proven
themselves worthy of offices of trust and honor in every sphere
of life and as good Christians as God has ever granted His divine
grace to. His promises are for all nations and for all times, and
necessarily for the negro as for the white man, all of whom in
their souls are created in His own image and likeness from the
beginning.
Apropos of Romanism among the colored people, Archbishop Janssens,
of New Orleans, writes:
Last year there were baptized 3,705 colored children and 297
colored adults, which I estimate forms a population of about
75,000 Catholics in this Diocese.
We have six convents of colored Sisters, of which four are
schools, one an asylum for 74 girls, and the other an asylum, for
21 old women. There are, besides, nine schools conducted by white
Sisters, and eleven schools conducted by lay teachers--in all,
twenty-four schools with 1,330 scholars. It is not bad.
At Emmetsburg, Maryland, the Roman Catholics report the following:
_The Sisters are putting up a large and fine edifice_ which will
be ready for business in September, and will accommodate all the
Catholic children, both white-colored and black-colored in the
town and vicinity. I am curious to know if this is the first
instance in which children of both the dominant races will be
educated under one roof.
Says the editor: "How quickly the color-line disappears in the Catholic
Church."
* * * * *
NOTES BY THE WAY.
BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.
Not long ago, I met a Frenchman in the halls of the Congregational
House, who was looking for Secretary Coit of the Massachusetts Home
Missionary Society. He evidently had a very limited knowledge of the
English language, for he accosted me as follows:--"You--eh, you
somewheres? Ah! I begs my pardon."
This amusing bungle of the French brother fairly represents my condition
during the past few weeks. I have not been altogether sure that I was
even "somewheres." Preaching one Sunday in Dover, N.H., the next in
Talladega, Ala., the next at Santee Agency, Neb., the next on the
Cheyenne River, Dak., then enjoying a communion season with Brother Hall
at Fort Berthold, and the next standing beside the pastor of a New
England Church at the same Lord's table.
The days between these Sabbaths were filled with pleasant duties, in
talking over the great work of our Association with the earnest and
devoted missionaries. But many things are impressed upon one's thought
by such a trip as this. We realize more than ever that the American
Missionary Association is a great National Society, limited neither
geographically nor by any race restrictions; actually gathering in its
schools and missions, Negroes, Whites and Indians, and Chinese and
Japanese, and Hondurans and Cubans, and who knows how many other needy
and destitute people! Another fact that must impress one, is the
thoroughness of the work done. The examinations were thorough and
exhaustive in the schools. This was true, not only in the lower grades,
but also in the advanced classes. Dr. Andrews conducted the examinations
in Church History, at Talladega, which would have done credit to any of
our Theological Seminaries. And Dr. DeForest's classes in Mental
Philosophy gave evidence of careful study and of assimilation of that
which they had studied. They had not only eaten, but had digested their
mental food. The same was true at Fisk. What a grand thing it would be,
if the good friends of the Association in New England, and elsewhere in
the North, to whom our work is only presented through an appeal for
funds, might visit some of these grand institutions in the South and
West, and see just what is being done for these neglected people! The
work cannot be appreciated in its vast importance and magnificent
results, except after such a personal inspection of the field.
These large institutions are the centers of still larger missionary work
outside. One professor in Talladega, a graduate of Harvard, has been
especially busy during the last year, developing the Sunday-school work
in the surrounding districts. The following are some of the results:--
eight Sunday-schools enrolling about five hundred scholars; thirty
teachers, all students in the College; two schools meet in buildings
belonging to the College, three in log churches, owned by other
denominations, not having Sunday-schools, two in log cabins. "In one
school, teachers and scholars have to huddle together under umbrellas,
if they have any, or go wet, if they haven't them, whenever it rains;
and it is a sight which makes one long for better accommodations, that
more efficient work may be done," writes this self-sacrificing professor
in a note just received. In one house, he found a family of white
children, all of them very ignorant, and, so far as he was able to
discover, there was not a single book of any kind in the cabin. He
invited the children to Sunday-school, where, like Robert Raikes, he
teaches reading and spelling as well as the Bible, but the mother
indignantly refused, saying that she "didn't let her children go to
school with Niggers!"
There are many evidences of heroic sacrifice on the part of the people
among whom we labor, that one runs across in such a trip as this. Here
is one: A small church in Alabama has recently voted to pay fifty
dollars per month of their pastor's salary, that they may become
self-supporting, and so let the funds which they have received go to
other more needy fields. There are seventy-five persons in this church
who might be termed paying members; of all these, the pastor informed
me, not more than fifteen receive over a dollar per day; sixty receive
less than this. They pay, on an average, ten dollars per month for rent;
there are twenty-six working-days to the month, and they often lose at
least five of these, on account of weather or lack of work, making an
income of only twenty-one dollars per month. Ten dollars going for rent,
leaves but eleven dollars for the support of the family. Pretty heroic
economy that!
The Annual Meeting of the Dakota Mission, the Convention of missionaries
who are at work in the Indian field under the direction of this
Association, gathered at Santee Agency, Nebraska, Saturday, June 15, and
was full of interest. Sessions were held for three days, and continued
late into the night. Thrilling incidents of exposure on the prairie
during winter, swimming swollen and chilly streams, breaking through the
ice when crossing, which, in one case, resulted in the drowning of a
team of horses, seemed to be every-day incidents in the life of these
heroic missionaries, who are carrying on this noble work among the
Indians. The two Riggs brothers, whose heredity as well as personal
consecration fit them for large usefulness in the Indian work, were
especially rich in experience and inspiring in conference. One thing,
especially, impressed me in this Indian work, and that was, the
difference in character between the average teacher employed by the
Government and those employed by this Association and other missionary
bodies. Many noble men and women are at work under the Government in
teaching the Indians, but the purpose of the Government-school at the
best is simply to make intelligent citizens. The purpose of the
mission-school is to develop character, to inculcate purity, to create
moral earnestness, in other words, not simply to citizenize, but to
Christianize. We need more mission schools among the Indians, for only
the mission idea can redeem a pagan people. I would like to speak of
Miss Collins's work, gradually bringing the village of Running Antelope
on the Grand River into the knowledge of Christ, and of the developing
work at Fort Yates, and of the work among the Mandans, Rees and Gros
Ventres, and of the motley and picturesque crowd that gathered for
communion in the little church at Fort Berthold; but the interesting
facts from these fields must be left for other notes.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH
* * * * *
The Daniel Hand Fund is doing a noble work this first year in the
education of many students who would otherwise not have been able to
attend school.
* * * * *
HOWARD UNIVERSITY, THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
The anniversary of this department opened the commencement week of the
Howard University at Washington, D.C., which extended from Friday, May
24th, to Wednesday, May 29th. A crowded audience was in attendance at
the Asbury colored church. The graduating class of four was
exceptionally small this year, having been less in number than usual on
entering three years ago, and having been particularly unfortunate in
deaths and removals. The preceding graduating class numbered twelve, and
the succeeding one will number thirteen. But the addresses delivered by
the young men were of excellent quality, eliciting high approval from
numerous intelligent judges who were present. One general from the army,
who listened with great interest, came up afterwards to express thanks
to one of the Professors for having invited him to attend the exercises.
* * * * *
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
Wednesday, June 5, witnessed the close of the eighth year in the history
of Tillotson Institute. The closing exercises began on Thursday, May 30,
with the annual written examinations which, on account of the very large
attendance of this year--greater than ever before--meant more work than
usual for the teachers. These examinations cover the work of the entire
year, and are looked forward to with much apprehension by the students.
For the past three years, the last Saturday afternoon before
commencement has been set apart as "Tillotson Day," and devoted to
exercises appropriate to such an occasion. This year, Rev. W.H. Shaw,
pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in this city, addressed the
students in the chapel. This was followed by a pic-nic on the school
grounds.
The last Sunday in the school is rather a sad day to most of the
teachers. There are many interests in these Sunday-schools which one
cannot bear the thought of leaving for four long months. We can only
hope that the good seed sown during the year has not fallen on stony
ground or by the wayside, and that it will survive the heat of the
summer.
Monday and Tuesday were devoted to oral examinations. These were held in
the chapel and were attended by an unusually large number of the parents
and friends of the students from the city and elsewhere. The classes
acquitted themselves very creditably; especially good, however, were the
examinations of the seventh grade in geometry and the fourth grade in
geography.
More attention has been given this year to industrial training than ever
before. In the recitation rooms, were specimens of the handiwork of the
students in the various industrial departments. A class of little girls
told of the various forms of needlework, which was something more than
theory with them, as their samples of work on exhibition testified.
There was not a useless article in the entire collection; they have been
taught how to make serviceable garments. Very neat specimens of darning
and mending were displayed, also.
The cooking classes exhibited samples of their skill. The disappearance
of all the handiwork of this class in the course of inspection witnessed
to its success. The classes in carpentry displayed specimens of their
skill. This is the first year that this industry has been taught here.
On Tuesday evening, occurred the annual musical and rhetorical
entertainment. A large audience is always expected on this occasion, but
this year it was larger than ever. Before eight o'clock, the chapel with
the adjoining halls and recitation rooms were filled, and
notwithstanding the efforts of the ushers to find room for every one,
about half the number were obliged to go away. One little boy who came
especially to see the dumbbell drill was found under the front steps,
after the close of the entertainment, fast asleep. He had taken refuge
there to await a chance to get a seat in the chapel later in the
evening.
On Wednesday morning, an audience of much more manageable magnitude than
that of the previous evening assembled at 10 o'clock, to listen to the
regular commencement exercises. These consisted of essays, orations,
recitations and declamations. Two young men, one of whom was graduated
last year from the elementary normal course, were graduated from the
higher normal course. The original productions presented this year were
said to have been unusually good. A visitor, in an address made after
the presentation of the diplomas, in speaking of the excellence of the
orations said of one of them, "It would be creditable on the platform of
any school in the United States."
The year just ended has been one of hard work and great prosperity. The
attendance has been not only larger than ever before, but constant, and
the result of such steady and persistent work is, as might be expected,
gratifying progress in all departments.
* * * * *
EXTRACT FROM A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.
An account of the closing exercises of Avery Institute in South
Carolina, was given in the MISSIONARY last month. A copy of the
valedictory address of one of the pupils has been sent to us, from which
we excerpt one or two passages to give the flavor of the occasion. We
think it would be creditable to any school of like grade in the country.
To-day we are to go forth. Is it strange that emotions deep and
solemn should pervade our hearts? Amid these emotions, gratitude
stands prominent--gratitude to the honored Association which has
placed within our reach these opportunities for the development
of intellect and of character that fit us to take our places in
life as intelligent men and women. In behalf of the class of '89
and of all our schoolmates, we return to THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
ASSOCIATION our heartfelt thanks, and invoke for it the richest
blessings of Him who maketh rich.... In bidding adieu to
school life, the thought which presses most forcibly is that we
are supposed now to be ready for our duties in life. Let us
rather remember that we have but caught a glimpse of the
knowledge which lies beyond and which beckons to us. May our
thirst for it be insatiable. Let us take care of each day and
each hour, and show to our Heavenly Father that we love his
precepts, and are seeking to live true and holy lives. Our places
here will soon be filled, but nothing will take away from our
hearts the memories of dear old _Avery_.
* * * * *
MISSIONARY VISITS.
BY MRS. A.W. CURTIS.
We were going out for a ride, a pleasure ride, a mission of mercy to the
sick and afflicted, to carry them spiritual and physical comforts.
We have no missionary horse and buggy, and it was not an elegant
equipage standing before our door. Our steed was a very lank, bony,
long-eared mule, and the vehicle a rather disreputable looking old
delivery wagon, kindly loaned to us by our grocer; but we were thankful
for anything that would take us safely. We soon came to a deep,
ugly-looking ravine, that must be crossed. I walked over the log that
spanned it, while Dominie "rattled his bones over the stones," down the
steep descent, and up the farther side in safety, thanks to the
sure-footed mule. Just beyond was a small rude cabin. The old chimney had
tumbled down, leaving nearly the whole of one side entirely open to the
weather. Inside, upon a bed that nearly filled the small room, lay a woman
who was paralyzed. A little child was her only attendant. Some kind
neighbor, however, had made her clean and comfortable for the day. The
poor woman could not move, but her dark eyes beamed with delight at the
sight of us, and the poor drawn face expressed the joy she could not
speak. We talked of the dear friend Jesus, whom she loved and trusted,
sang together a song of faith, and commended her to heaven's mercy and
kindness, in prayer.
On we went again, over the hills, the sun climbing higher and growing
hotter every moment. Then we turned off into some dim cool woods,
picking our way through rough ravines and blind tracks until we reached
another little cabin home. We had to bend low to enter the door of the
rough, rude house, yet the one low room, with loft above, sheltered a
family of nine persons.
Upon a bed, the dear old grandmother was dying, but the dark cabin
seemed illuminated by the shining face of the happy saint.
"You are almost home, Auntie?"
"Yes chile, almost home!"
"And you find Jesus dear and precious, now?"
"Yes! yes! dear and precious."
I held her cold, almost pulseless hands in mine, while her minister read
comforting words of hope from the blessed Word. Then we sang for her,
closing with--
"Oh come, angel bands, come and around me stand,
Oh bear me away on your snowy wings
To my eternal home."
Her dark face was fairly radiant. She lifted her hands toward heaven,
and though our eyes were holden that we could not see, we _felt_ that
the Lord and his angels were glorifying that humble abode, making it the
gateway of heaven. Holding fast to our hands as we knelt beside her bed,
she murmured responses to our prayers.
With uplifted hearts, we said our last good-bye, and went away rejoicing
in her triumph over the terrors of death and at the thought of the glory
that awaited her. As we passed out of sight, she entered within the
gates, with that radiant look upon her face; and the next day at sunset
we laid her away to rest.
From this "Beulah-land," we hastened on to visit a man who was in the
last stages of consumption. We had been for some time doing what we
could that he might be prepared for the great change that was drawing
near. In the low doorway, sat an old hag-like woman, who stared at us
with a look of rage, as we passed by her into the room where the sick
man was. Sultry as was the day, there was a hot blaze in the cavernous
fireplace. Over it hung an iron kettle, from which most sickening odors
emanated. The sick man was in a heavy stupor. We tried in vain to arouse
him, even for a moment. His wife looked unusually cheerful, as she
assured us that he "was a great deal better; that he did not cough at
all, and rested mighty easy."
We understood the situation at once. The poor woman was densely
ignorant, and believed her husband had been "conjured." The old hag in
the doorway was "a witch doctor," who had promised to cure him for ten
dollars! How the poor wife with her five little children to support
managed to raise it, God only knows; but she had done it, and was
pouring down that unconscious man's throat, hourly doses of a villainous
compound of most loathsome things, over which the old hag muttered her
incantations, and worked her Satanic spells. She watched us with her
evil eye as we looked pityingly upon the poor sufferer, and glared
menacingly when we told the poor wife that he was no better; that the
end was near.
That very night the death-like stupor was broken by agonies of torture
which racked the wasted frame for many hours. There was no respite for a
prayer, or for a thought of the eternity into which his poor soul was
hastening. The witch doctor fled in haste, unable to endure the sight of
the tortures she herself had invoked. It was an unutterable relief when
those shrieks of agony were hushed by the awful silence of death.
To us, there came an added burden of care as we realized how many of
this people are still in bondage to these heathenish customs and
superstitions. Nothing but the light of a pure gospel and the elevating
influences of education, will lift them out of their degradation. It
will take years of time, and patient labor, and will cost something; but
these souls are precious to God. They are "the heathen at our door."
There are _millions_ of them! They will soon be a mighty power for good
or evil in our nation. Which shall it be?
* * * * *
A CALL FROM AUNT MARY.
Aunt Mary is a member of one of our colored churches--a genuine daughter
of Africa--possessing characteristics belonging rather to the rougher
than the softer sex--a peddler by occupation; peddling cast-off clothing
(which she gets from white folks) among her colored sisters.
This business, together with her masculine performances and her
qualification in plantation melodies, makes her exceedingly popular with
the colored people of the town.
"Hello! Hello!" rang out from the highest key-note one morning just
after breakfast. Going to the door to see who it was, aunt Mary was
standing at the gate; she had come to make us a social and business
call.
"Dog bite?" she asked. "Yes," was the reply, "but he won't bite you,
open the gate." Aunt Mary opened it and entered the yard. "Mornin'"
(again at a high key). "Good morning, walk in." "I come roun ter see you
all dis mornin'; I dun know if I am 'ceptable." "Certainly, aunt Mary,
you are, walk in and take a seat by the fire."