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[Illustration: JANUARY, 1887.
VOL. XLI.
NO. 1.
The American Missionary]
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[Illustration: CONTENTS]
EDITORIAL.
PAGE
HAPPY NEW YEAR, 1
PARAGRAPHS, 2
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, 3
WHAT SOME WOMEN ARE DOING. Rev. A. H. Bradford, D.D., 4
THE INDIAN PROBLEM. Pres. J. H. Seelye, D.D., 7
ADDRESS OF REV. Dr. C. I. SMITH, 10
WELL SAID. REV. A. G. Haygood, D.D., 11
THE SOUTH.
NOTES IN THE SADDLE. Supt. C. J. Ryder, 12
A CONTRAST, 14
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, 16
WORK AMONG THE FREEDMEN. Miss Bertha Robertson, 19
WORK AMONG THE INDIANS. Miss H. B. Ilsley, 23
RECEIPTS, 27
* * * * *
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, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL.D., Mass.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. D. O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, Mo.
_Corresponding Secretary._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Associate Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. JAMES POWELL, 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.
A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
S. B. HALLIDAY.
SAMUEL HOLMES.
SAMUEL S. MARPLES.
CHARLES L. MEAD.
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_For Two Years._
J. E. RANKIN.
WM. H. WARD.
J. L. WITHROW.
JOHN H. WASHBURN.
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For One Year._
LYMAN ABBOTT.
A. S. BARNES.
J. R. DANFORTH.
CLINTON B. FISK.
A. P. FOSTER.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D.D., _21 Cong’l House, Boston_.
Rev. J. E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago_.
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON.
_Field Superintendent._
Rev. C. J. RYDER, _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_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; those relating to the collecting fields,
to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District 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.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XLI. JANUARY, 1887. NO. 1.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
1887.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY wishes all its readers and
friends a “Happy New Year.” The memory of the old year makes this
salutation a hearty one. God has blessed our work in a signal
manner both at the North and at the South. Our appeals have been
heard and have met with generous responses. The religious press
has rendered us most valuable aid. Friends have interested friends
in our behalf. The debt has been almost wiped out. The year of
1886 stands conspicuous in its attestation of the favor God has
given the Association in the eyes of the churches. Our greeting,
therefore, is not merely formal. We have occasion to be grateful.
Will our friends then please be assured of our gratitude, as
entering upon the work of 1887 we wish for them, one and all, a
“Happy New Year.”
This is the time to make resolutions. Good resolutions now formed
and faithfully carried out will be certain to make the new year
a happy one. We would suggest that the resolutions passed at the
National Council at Chicago and adopted as its own by our annual
meeting at New Haven, asking for $350,000 from the churches
this year for our work, be approved by every reader of THE
MISSIONARY, with this one added, “_Resolved_, that I will do
my part as an individual to make these resolutions effectual.”
If this resolution is heartily adopted and lived up to, then
certain results will follow: (1) The sixty per cent. increase
upon the contributions of last year, that the amount called for
necessitates, will be secured. (2) A larger number of churches will
be found among those contributing to the A. M. A. than has ever yet
been recorded. (3) Special appeals will not be heard. (4) Demanded
enlargement of work at a number of points will be made, and new
fields entered. (5) Our missionaries will be made happy in the
knowledge that their work is to be sustained.
We feel that we can ask God’s blessing upon all who thus resolve
with an assurance of faith that the blessing will be bestowed where
the resolution is kept.
One of the crying evils of the times is the severe tax put upon the
eyes by reading small print. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY has
been an offender in this respect, but it has seen the error of its
ways and promises to try to do better. It has selected the first
month of the new year in which to inaugurate the reform. Small
print has been banished from its pages of reading matter. We trust
that this effort of The Missionary to make its pages more readable
will be responded to by a great increase in the number of its
readers. The annual subscription is only fifty cents.
* * * * *
NOTES IN THE SADDLE, by Field-Superintendent Ryder, is
a heading under which will be found, on another page, some good
reading. We hope to continue these _notes_ during the year. We
caution our readers against falling into the phonetic craze when
they read this announcement. We are not responsible for the way in
which our Superintendent spells his name, but we presume he follows
the analogy of “ancient t_y_me.” At any rate, he who in the saddle,
with reins over the neck and speed unchecked, can make notes, must
be an expert _rider_, no matter how we spell or pronounce his name.
* * * * *
We ask the special attention of our lady readers to the present
number of _The Missionary_. They will find Miss Emerson’s report
and the papers presented by Miss Robertson and Miss Ilsley at the
New Haven meeting, which we print elsewhere, to be most interesting
reading. We are very sorry that space does not permit us to also
print the most excellent address of Mrs. St. Clair. Any lady
who has the January Missionary in her possession and allows the
next Woman’s Missionary Meeting to be a dull one, ought to be
disciplined for not living up to her privileges. Just read this
number through and see if you don’t think so too.
* * * * *
Immediately following the annual meeting, under the charge of
Secretary Shelton, Rev. A. L. Riggs, with Pastor Ehnamani and the
Santee School Indian students, started through New England upon a
speaking and singing campaign in behalf of our Indian Missions. At
the same time, Secretary Roy, accompanied by Rev. Geo. V. Clark, of
Athens, Ga., an ex-slave and a child of the A. M. A., started in
upon a similar campaign through Ohio. For six weeks, meetings were
held almost every night in the week, with occasional meetings in
the afternoon. On Sundays three meetings were usually held. Large
audiences, sometimes crowded, even on week nights, have greeted and
with interest listened to them. At Cleveland both forces joined,
devoting a Sabbath to the Congregational churches in that city.
The Monday evening following, a final meeting of the Ohio campaign
was held in Oberlin, where the magnificent audience and spirit
of the meeting were a worthy close to the series and in perfect
keeping with the historic record of Oberlin on the subject of
missions. Here the bands separated to meet at the end of one week
in Oak Park, where Secretary Roy with his family resides, and where
Secretary Shelton formerly resided. The Congregational church of
Oak Park was crowded to its utmost capacity with those who came to
attend the final meetings of the two campaigns and to listen to the
singing and the speaking of both forces. A beautiful incident in
this meeting was the solo singing of a slave song by Mr. Clark, the
chorus to which was taken up by the Indian students; and another
incident in the same direction was the rendering of a slave song,
in the chorus to which both the audience and the students responded.
* * * * *
To repair the damage done our mission home and school buildings
by the earthquake at Charleston a careful estimate calls for not
less than $2,500. One of our teachers, Mr. E. A. Lawrence, has
been meeting the emergency by holding school in a barn. The time
has come when the necessary repairs must be made, both upon the
home and school. Hundreds of scholars are waiting and parents are
begging that Avery Institute be again opened. In response to our
former appeals for Charleston some special donations have been
received, but they are entirely inadequate to meet the emergency.
We beg leave to remind our friends that the money needed to make
these repairs must be furnished either by special contributions
or else taken out of money already appropriated to other work. We
trust they will not leave us to be compelled to do the latter. It
may also be added that to delay these repairs much longer will
result in the ruin of the buildings.
* * * * *
REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
The Second Annual Report of Commissioner Atkins is a candid and
comprehensive document, dealing briefly but frankly with the
several problems growing out of the relations of the Government to
the Indians. We have not space for a review of the Report, but we
wish to call special attention to the facts which it incidentally
presents as to the neglect of Congress, and especially of the
House of Representatives, to act upon a number of important
bills touching Indian affairs. No less than eight such bills are
mentioned—six of them passed the Senate, but failed to receive
final action in the House—and some of these are by far the most
essential to the welfare of the Indians. Three of these bills we
wish particularly to name: The Dawes’ Bill for the Allotment of
Lands in Severalty; the Sioux Bill for the Division of the great
Sioux Reservation into six reservations; and the Bill for the
Relief of the Mission Indians in California. The first of these is
fundamental to the settlement of the Indians in separate homes,
and consequently to their becoming American citizens; the second
has the same end in view; and the third is a simple act of justice,
long and shamefully deferred, to the suffering and deserving
Indians, whose sad case has been so pathetically depicted by Mrs.
Helen Hunt Jackson in her touching story of Romona.
We ask attention to these bills for a practical purpose. Congress
should be urged to act upon them at once. The present session is
the short one, ending March 4th. If this session closes without
passing these bills, the whole subject will be deferred almost
indefinitely. The next Congress will be a new one; the Members to
some extent will be new; the committees maybe wholly so, and they
may need years of petitioning, educating and inspiring to move them
to proper action on these essential topics. No time can be lost.
No influence is so great upon the average Congressman as letters
directly from his constituents. We therefore urge every reader of
these pages to write at once to the Member of Congress from his
district, or to others whom he may know, asking for prompt and
energetic efforts for the passage of these bills.
On another page of THE MISSIONARY will be found the
admirable address of President Seelye, presenting the paramount
importance of religious effort on the part of the churches in
behalf of the Indians. We are in full accord with this view. But
the Government has also its responsibilities, and all that it does
in the lines we have suggested will only facilitate the work of
preparing the Indians for what we wish them all ultimately to be,
intelligent, self-supporting Christian citizens.
* * * * *
WHAT SOME WOMEN ARE DOING.
REV. A. H. BRADFORD, D.D.
This is woman’s era. Her influence and presence are in all spheres.
Within a quarter of a century there were few in stores, and none in
public offices. To-day they are clerks, operators in the factories,
teachers in schools; they are in telegraph, and telephone, and
post-offices; they are artists and traders; a few are captains
of steamboats; a few are lawyers; now and then one ventures to
preach; and even the mysteries of Wall Street are not terrifying to
them, for they have commenced competition with the brokers. Women
have already won recognition in the practice of medicine, and are
among the most successful practitioners in all great cities. They
are among the most popular lecturers. At least one of the most
successful publishing houses in New York is owned and managed by
a woman. In business and on the platform she has ceased to be a
curiosity.
The power of woman in politics is not appreciated, but it is one
of the most vital forces of this century. No Anarchist in Paris
could influence the Faubourgs quicker than Louise Michel. In
the history of Nihilism in Russia no names have been regarded
with more devotion by those struggling for wider liberty, and
none more dreaded by the existing order, than Sophie Perovskaia,
Jessy Helfman and Vera Zassulic. Charles Dickens never exhibited
a truer insight into human nature than when he made a woman the
impersonation of remorseless vengeance.
But notwithstanding all that women are doing in trades, industries,
politics, it still remains that in works of reform, charity and
missions, she is especially distinguishing herself.
Two of the largest and most efficient charitable institutions
in the world, viz: “The Deaconesses’ Institution of Rhenish
Westphalia, at Kaiserwent,” and “The Mildmay Conference Hall and
Deaconesses’ Home, in London,” are almost exclusively in the hands
of women. The influence of these two noble charities reaches around
the world, not only in works of beneficence, but also in active
evangelistic ministry.
The first person to call attention to the horrible condition
of English prisons was Elizabeth Fry. The horrors of war were
immeasurably mitigated by Florence Nightingale. She gave an impetus
to the work of training nurses, which has grown into enthusiasm in
all civilized lands. Agnes Jones changed the work-house hospitals
of Great Britain, from places of torture into places of blessing.
Sister Dora glorified the “Black Country” by her heroism and
self-sacrifice. The first person to make practical a good plan for
improved tenement houses was Octavia Hill. Her efforts reach the
people which such houses as those built by the Peabody estate only
displace.
In this country the most conspicuous effort to improve the
low-class of tenement houses has also been made by a woman. The
success Miss Collins has won in Gotham Court is one of the most
noticeable in the history of such efforts. The Bureau of Charities
in New York is very largely managed by Mrs. Lowell and her devoted
co-workers. The President of the American Branch of the Red Cross
Society, that non-sectarian, but most Christian Association, which
extends its arms of blessing wherever human suffering is found, is
that American Florence Nightingale, whose heroism and sacrifice on
Southern battle-fields can never be too highly appreciated—Clara
Barton. And these are only hints, here and there, of woman’s work
in charity.
If now we turn to her service in Reform we are met, at once, by
the fact that not even the fiery eloquence of Phillips, nor the
unconquerable agitations of Garrison did so much to hasten the
abolition of slavery as the persuasion and persuasive eloquence of
Mrs. Stowe, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. People were beguiled into reading
that, who would not have listened to a word from the equally
sincere, but more rampant agitators.
After the abolition of slavery there remained that other relic
of barbarism, entrenched in a far more impregnable position, the
rum-power. Intemperance has had to meet many who have attacked it
in past days, but never yet an organization so tireless in effort,
so fertile in expedients, and so exhaustless in resources as the
Women’s Christian Temperance Union. That association has made many
mistakes, and is in danger of making many more, but one of the
elements of its power is its willingness to learn. If it cannot
fight with one weapon it adopts another. The brewers and distillers
have millions of money at their command, but millions of money are
not so formidable as millions of motherly hearts.
If now we turn to that other evil, more subtly and surely ruinous
even than intemperance, impurity and the social evil, we find a new
organization rising with great promise of power, viz.: The White
Cross Society. The aim of that Association is to promote purity. It
reaches out its hands to young men and women alike, and that work,
in its organized form, owes its existence to the fertile brain
and motherly heart of Josephine Butler, the wife of a canon of an
English cathedral.
If woman works for the salvation of the physical life of her
brothers and sisters, of course she must be equally anxious for
the salvation of their souls. Woman has an instinct for religion.
Living a life of greater seclusion than man, her heart in the
silence, like a flower in the darkness, has grown toward the light.
And this spiritual faculty has found the natural field for its
operations in missionary work. The first American missionary martyr
was Harriet Newell. Grand as was the life, and courageous as was
the heart of Adoniram Judson, in all that called for heroism and
consecration he was surpassed by his first wife, the beautiful, the
almost preternaturally heroic Ann Hasseltine.
Women preponderate in all the departments of missionary activity.
They are in distant lands as teachers, Bible-readers, nurses,
physicians, missionaries’ wives. They go enthusiastically to homes
in dug-out houses, and teach school and rear and train children,
and keep the house, and do the drudgery, and then go to heaven,
without complaining of earthly obscurity. They are among the
Indians on their reservations, and in the Chinese quarters of the
Pacific cities. But it has sometimes seemed to me that the most
difficult and unattractive work for Christ that woman has ever
undertaken, has been among the millions of blacks in the South. The
work itself in many instances, if not all, has been disagreeable,
if not repulsive. It has been at home, and has not inspired the
enthusiastic admiration which has been given to those who have been
in the foreign field. It has been attended with misconception,
social ostracism, and sometimes with personal danger not found in
any other branch of missionary service. But in all parts of the
South are women at work with no motive but the love of Christ and
humanity, winning souls by their Christ-like examples, and refining
the uncultivated and vicious by the sweetness and purity of their
unconsciously beautiful lives.
Woman’s work for woman among the blacks of the United States is
the most important of all work for that people. Pure women have
lessons to teach their own sex who have been degraded by a century
of bondage, or who are the inheritors of the legacies of slavery,
that none others can teach, and which must be well learned before
there can be much progress in the moral amelioration of the race.
Her enthusiasm, her swift hostility to the more degrading sins,
her sympathy which bears all the sorrows of those around her, her
intuition of the Divine Fatherhood, and her patience, qualify woman
for kinds of work which most men can never do so well. But there
is one thing that men can do—they can remember the Apostle’s
injunction, “Help those women.”
* * * * *
THE INDIAN PROBLEM.
ADDRESS OF PRES. JULIUS H. SEELYE, D.D., AT NEW HAVEN.
The whole number of Indians in the United States, including Alaska,
probably is not far from 300,000, of whom about one-half now wear
citizen’s dress, and about one-fourth speak the English language
sufficiently to be understood. Some of these people are citizens,
and some are wards of the nation. They differ from each other as
they differ from us, in their languages and thoughts and ways. They
represent nearly every grade of civilized and savage life. Their
original rights to a large portion of our national domain we have
recognized by purchase and by treaties, which have plighted the
faith of the nation for their protection and support. We certainly
desire to live in peace with them, but with many of them we are in
constant danger of war. What shall we do with them and for them?
How shall we wisely maintain our rights respecting them, and at the
same time righteously fulfill our obligations? How shall the Indian
cease to disturb us, and become a blessing to the nation?
There is really but one solution to the Indian problem, though many
have been prominently attempted. We have tried to force the Indian.
We have fought him. We have shut him in upon reservations. We have
made a pretence of feeding and clothing him. We have tried our hand
at civilization, have built school-houses, provided teachers, and
gathered Indian children together, and taught them the rudiments
of learning. We have furnished them with implements and helps to
agriculture, and some of the mechanic arts. But the results, it
must be admitted, are not re-assuring. When we fight Indians,
they fight too, and their fighting is apt to be, in proportion to
their numbers, much more successful than ours. In the Report of
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1868, there is an estimate
of the expenditure of some late Indian wars, from which we learn
that it has cost the United States Government on an average one
million of dollars, and the lives of twenty-five white men to kill
an Indian. “There is no good Indian but a dead Indian,” said Gen.
Sheridan, Lieutenant-general of our army, but the process of making
the Indians good in this way is at least a costly one, and the
prospect of success can hardly be considered hopeful.
It may be doubted whether any Governmental efforts yet made to
subdue or civilize these people have essentially improved either
the Indians themselves or their relations to us. Indian wars have
not made the Indians peaceable; Indian schools have not civilized
them; Indian rations and reservations have not satisfied the
requirements of even their bodily comfort and sustenance; and
the proposal now made and loudly advocated, of breaking up all
their tribal privileges and allotting the property of the tribe
to the members of the tribe in severalty, while encompassed by
grave difficulties from the ignorance of the Indian and his need
of guardianship, would endanger that sense of common rights and
privileges, that communal relationship, on which not only the very
existence of human society depends, but in which is the germ of
whatever is distinctively human. We are not educated up to our
individual rights in spite of our communal relations, but because
of these.
I am not speaking here of what Governmental efforts should have
been, or should now be, but I speak of the actual facts of the past
and the present, and I say that the Governmental procedure thus
far, instead of solving the Indian problem, has only increased
prodigiously the difficulty of its solution. Incidents illustrative
of this might be cited by the hour, but would be impertinent in an
audience as intelligent as that here assembled.
And yet the solution of the Indian problem is not a matter of
theory or of speculation, but is an accomplished fact. It has
been wrought out before our eyes. Wild, savage Indian tribes, as
fierce, as lawless, as intractable as any now existing, have been
tamed, have been taught the arts and ways of peace, have subjected
themselves to law, and are now living in orderly, peaceable,
industrious communities. The Cherokees, and the Delawares and
Shawnees now united with them, the Choctaws, the Chickasaws, the
Creeks, and the Seminoles—who are known as the five civilized
tribes—now have their constitutions and laws, their supreme court
and their district courts, their well-arranged public school
system, and “indeed every provision of law and organization
requisite in a State founded on the consent of the governed,
controlled by officers chosen by the people, and suited to an
advancing civilization,” (U.S. Senate Rep., I.: XVII.). Pauperism
among them is unknown, and, by the best reports, crime is less
frequent in proportion to numbers than among the adjoining whites.
The Report of the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
made to the Senate July 4, 1886, says of the Cherokee nation, that
“it is difficult, after a searching criticism, to point out any
serious defects in their constitution or statutes. In some respects
several of our State constitutions could be amended with advantage
by adopting some of the provisions of the Cherokee constitution.
Their situation, and that of each of the five tribes, was full of
difficulties, but they have met them skillfully.” (I.: XVII.)
“Fifty years ago,” in the language of this same report, “these five
nations—now blessed with a Christian civilization, in which many
thousands are active and intelligent workers, while the common
sentiment of the whole people reverently supports their efforts,
and approves their influence—were pagans.”
Fifty years ago the Sioux, now gathered at Santee and Sissiton,
in Christian communities and homes and schools, with churches
enrolled on the same records as those of New York and Philadelphia,
in connection with Presbytery and Synod and General Assembly,
were savage hordes, roaming through the Northwest as wild as the
wildest. These savages have been changed. The facts are before our
eyes. How was the transformation wrought? The answer is clear. No
one can, no one does, mistake it. The United States Senate Report,
from which I have quoted, acknowledges these to be the results
of Christian missions. Where the Government has totally failed,
the voluntary efforts of the churches have been crowned with this
success. The preaching of the Gospel has done this work, and it
alone. This ought not to surprise us. It will not surprise any
historical student. The same agency by which our ancestors have
gained their law and liberty and civilization—who a few centuries
ago were savages and cannibals, offering human sacrifices, hanging
the skulls of their slain enemies in their houses and using them
as drinking-cups in their feasts—the same agency by which in
our time the cannibals of the Fijis, and the cruel tribes of
Madagascar, have found themselves possessed of a peaceable and
progressive civilization, has broken the darkness and rolled away
the shadows from these Indian tribes, as quietly, as peacefully and
as gloriously as the coming of the sun has brought in the morning.
Only the changes which in our ancestors required centuries for
their accomplishment, have been wrought among these Indians in as
many decades.
Here is the solution of the Indian problem—the only solution—and
here is the work to which we are to gird ourselves afresh. Our
first great work, the work which holds in itself all other agencies
for Indian civilization, as the oak is held in the acorn, is the
preaching of the Gospel to these people, the patient, earnest,
loving presentation to them of the glad tidings that “God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Instruction in letters, instruction even in virtue is idle without
this, and with this all other instruction follows as flowers open
at the sunshine. The great trouble with us, brethren, is we are too
unbelieving in the efficacy of the Gospel. We seek to supplement
it; we think it needs other things; we forget that the Gospel is,
and that it alone is, the power of God unto salvation, and we
forget, too, what a broad term salvation is, that it covers the
godliness which hath the promise of the life that now is, as well
as of that which is to come. The Gospel of Christ is the power of
God unto the salvation of the body, the salvation of the intellect,
the salvation of manners and customs, the salvation of society, and
it is this power to every one that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek. What wonders it has wrought! What wonders
it is working now! How would every difficulty in our social state,
our vice and crime and poverty, our selfishness and sensuality and
woe, all disappear if the Gospel only dwelt among us, a living
principle in every heart! We need no other evidence of its divine
all-sufficiency than the adaptation it has already shown to every
human need, and we need no other motive to its proclamation than
the privilege of being co-worker with Him, “Who shall deliver the
needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
He shall spare the poor and the needy, and shall save the soul of
the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence, and
precious shall their blood be in his sight.”
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF REV. DR. C. I. SMITH
AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.
[The National Council at Concord decided to send fraternal
delegates to the African M. E. Zion General Conference, and the
African M. E. General Conference; and so Dr. Wm. H. Ward and Rev.
Joseph E. Smith, of Chattanooga, were appointed to visit the
former, and Revs. J. E. Roy and Wm. A. Sinclair, of Nashville, the
latter. The first pair of delegates presented the salutations of
the Congregational churches to the Zion Conference meeting in this
city in May, 1884; and the second pair did their duty in the other
Conference, which met the same month in Baltimore. Whereupon the
last-named body appointed Rev. Dr. C. I. Smith, Secretary of its
Sunday-school work, to respond at the Chicago National Council.
He appeared, and the following is the substance of his eloquent
address:]
We are all proud of the work which your Church, through the
American Missionary Association, is doing in the South. It is
impossible to measure the good results growing out of the efforts
of the A. M. A. for the Christian education of colored youth.
Through its instrumentalities, thousands of our youth have been
measurably prepared for the successful discharge of the substantial
and higher duties of life, and it must be gratifying to you to
learn that most of those are doing life’s work well. The leading
philanthropists of the South regard the colored youth now being
educated in your institutions in that section as destined to exert
a powerful influence for the conservation of healthy social and
moral forces.
Many of the graduates of your Southern institutions are the
recognized leaders in their respective communities for the advocacy
and advancement of every question of social and moral reform. Their
fidelity to the principles of temperance is remarkable. In the
memorable contest at Atlanta, Ga., none did more valiant work for
prohibition than the students of your institution in that city.
They are exerting an influence upon the thought and conscience of
the South that must eventually show itself in favor of maintaining
the better life among all classes. I might say that you do not know
the amount of good you are doing in the South; for, if you did, I
verily believe that you would try to do more.
We do not look upon the Congregational Church in the South as an
unfriendly rival, but as a stalwart ally in emphasizing the great
principle of the brotherhood of man. Thus far you have refused
to compromise with the spirit of evil by establishing churches
and schools on the basis of what is known as the “color-line.”
In this refusal you have answered to the highest needs of the
hour. Unfortunately this cannot be said of all the Christian
societies that are at work in the South. Color-line churches and
schools, under the patronage of Christian organizations, have been
established among us. This we greatly deplore, especially when
such proceedings are begun and carried on by Northern societies.
Christian churches and schools, like the gates of heaven, should be
open to all, and we bitterly regret that anything further should
be done to outrage the enlightened Christian conscience that this
century has developed. It is mere mockery to cut off the branches
from a tree of evil and leave its roots and trunk untouched. Lay
the axe to the root of the tree, and the work of reformation,
though necessarily slow, will prove substantial and enduring.
Berea College, in Kentucky, has successfully demonstrated that the
co-education of the two races is both possible and practicable, and
what it has done all other institutions of learning in the South
can and should do.
In Nashville, Tenn., we have two great institutions of learning,
Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities; each gazing upon the other, yet
widely differing as to their influence and aim, and the age which
they represent. Vanderbilt represents the age that was and is; Fisk
the age that is to be—the age when every worthy man shall be to
every worthy fellowman a brother. Fisk University is your child,
and one of which you can justly be proud, and may you fully nourish
and protect it. It is a great light in a dark land—an oasis of
living thought in a vast desert of parched and stupid ideas. May
its light never diminish nor its fountains cease to flow.
Through the work of the A. M. A. you have firmly imbedded
yourselves in the deepest affections and highest gratitude of the
colored people of the South. No words can express our gratitude for
the firm stand which you have taken in favor of the New Testament
idea of human equality. You have made for yourselves a glorious
name, and your work will endure so long as the thought of God sways
the minds of men.
* * * * *
WELL SAID.
FROM ADDRESS OF REV. A. G. HAYGOOD, D.D.
But back of the courts there must be educational work. There must
be among the people a better sense of essential righteousness.
There must be a justice that will not and cannot sentence a poor
wretch, who steals a coat or a piece of bacon for a longer term
than the rich man who breaks a bank and robs a thousand people;
that will not and cannot send a poor man without friends or money
to prison for a longer term than a rich man with both money and
friends who has committed the same offense; that will not and
cannot send a Negro or a Chinaman to prison for a longer term than
it will send a white man for the same offense. Among the people
there needs to be developed a better conscience as to the sanctity
of an oath, and the sacred majesty and divine authority of law that
knows no conditions of society and no distinctions of race. With
such a conscience paramount, even among the leaders of opinion,
prison reform will be easy.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
NOTES IN THE SADDLE.
BY FIELD-SUPERINTENDENT C. J. RYDER.
There is no department of work in the great field which is being
developed by the A. M. A. more thrillingly interesting than that
of the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. A recent trip, one of
several already made through that region, has greatly increased
my appreciation of this work, and confidence in the grand success
which is even now opening before us. I have just been over the
ground covered by our missionary work and have been impressed with
the vast opportunities, as well as the imperative needs which exist
on every hand in this mountain region. Let us go over that field
together. New and strange phases of life meet us at every turn.
We enter the mountain regions of Kentucky in which the A. M. A. has
schools and churches, a few miles north of Knoxville. Indeed the
first station of the Kentucky missions is in Tennessee. This part
of the work is under the direction of Rev. A. A. Myers. This region
has only recently been opened to the outside world. Coal fields
are abundant, and timber of the very best kinds still stands in
vast forests on the hillsides and along the streams. These trees
shoulder against each other like an army of giants marshalled
to defend the wild freedom of their mountain home against the
impertinent intrusion of the “humans,” as the mountaineers call
men. These brave defenders, however, are fast falling beneath the
axe of the lumberman. In the yard of a single mill, seven million
five hundred thousand feet of walnut timber was piled ready for
the market. This same mill cuts on an average ten million feet of
lumber, of all kinds, in a week.
A rough, but interesting mountaineer, who sat near me in the
freight caboose, in which I rode from Knoxville northward into the
mountain region, told me that he kept eight yoke of cattle at work
all the time in bringing lumber from the “benches” on the sides of
the mountains to the “slides.” These benches are small plains, or
miniature plateaus upon which the larger forests grow, as the soil
is deeper and richer, being formed from the wash of the mountains
above. They draw the logs to the edges of these benches and let
them over the slides, down which they dart, as the arrow flies from
the string of a bow. It is in this country, so rich in mineral and
timbered wealth, that a large part of the mountain work of the A.
M. A. lies.
The vast army of men crowding into this region to gather its
wonderful wealth, makes still more imperative the necessity for
Christian work here immediately. A new railroad is pushing its way
from Corbin through Barboursville, and pointing toward Cumberland
Gap, through which it will probably pass out into Virginia. The
whistle of the locomotive is the reveille awakening other thousands
to the possibilities of this region, and bringing them together
here. You see, therefore, that this field claims our attention
and our help, just as every new region of the West does, as it is
rapidly filling up through emigration from other parts of our own
country and from other lands. There are also the communities of
mountaineers, for whom these churches and schools were planted, who
have a claim upon us. Within a few years, hundreds of coal mines
will pour out their black streams along the railroads, many of
which are as yet unbuilt. Furnace fires will light up the darkness
of the night along the hillsides. These small towns will be great
centers of commercial and industrial importance.
Such is the country, and such are the circumstances, surrounding
the work here. “What has actually been done?” you ask, and it
is a very natural question. Nine churches have been organized,
and are doing faithful work for the Master in this region. Four
schools have been wholly or partially supported by the A. M. A.
for some time, and their influence is felt far and wide. In the
Williamsburgh Academy, between one and two hundred bright, earnest
young people gathered in the chapel for the opening exercises
of the school. These scholars range in their studies from first
primary to higher normal. Many teachers from other schools come
here to complete their otherwise imperfect preparation for their
work. The work of the academy is not that of intellectual training,
with a little religion tacked on to make it palatable with
Christian people; it is Christian training which the pupils receive
here.
I rode with Brother Myers forty-four miles on horseback, much of
the way through a driving rain-storm, to visit some stations which
we could not conveniently reach by rail. At Corbin, which is to be
the junction of the new railroad with the present railroad, we have
a beautiful site for a church building—some lumber already on the
ground—and we ought to push the building to completion at once.
People came out from their cabins along the roadside as we rode
past, and eagerly asked: “When are you coming to take up a meeting
with us again?” Children especially crowded around our horses when
we stopped, to inquire about the Sunday-school, to get a pleasant
word from Bro. Myers, which he never failed to give, and to receive
some little paper, or brightly colored card with a Scripture gem
upon it. His pockets seemed to be always full of these children’s
traps.
There are four church buildings ready to be dedicated, and two
pastors, native mountaineers, one a graduate of Berea College,
awaiting ordination. And so the work moves on in a wonderful way,
for it is God’s way.
This is only one part of the work which the A. M. A. is pressing
forward in these mountain regions. I had hoped to have space to
speak of the work in Scott and Morgan and Cumberland Counties,
Tenn., but cannot now. The large academy building at Mount
Pleasant, Tenn., of which our readers of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
have heard an occasional word, is already completed, and will
be ready for dedication in a few weeks. It is a grand building,
a cause of wonderment to the simple mountain people, who ride
for tens of miles to see it. I shall speak of it more at length
hereafter. This school and church work is like the rising of the
sun of a brighter and better day over this Cumberland plateau.
* * * * *
A CONTRAST.
BY A TEACHER.
It was twelve o’clock of a hot May day in the noisy Southern city.
Out upon the scorching sidewalk it seemed almost impossible to
escape the remorseless heat of the sun, and so I turned gladly
down the narrow alleyway and climbed the rickety stairs of an old
building at its end. In a little low room at the top, through whose
small windows very few breezes could find their way, were the old
man and woman for whom I was seeking. The room itself was so gloomy
that I tried to forget both heat and weariness, and put all of
cheerfulness possible into my voice as I bade them “good morning”
and inquired after their health. It seemed a relief to the poor old
woman to tell me of her own pain and her husband’s failing mind,
and so I let her talk on, suggesting occasionally little things
which might make them more comfortable, and promising aid where
that was best. Gradually we came to talk of other things, and then
I spoke of God and asked her if they loved him. She shook her head
sadly and answered, “No, we are two poor old sinners together,”
while the old man, hearing that name which to so many brings joy
and peace, muttered over and over, “No hope, no hope; I’ve sinned
away my day of grace.”
For a moment my heart failed me, but, after a quick prayer for
help, I tried to tell them the “old, old story” so simply that the
truth could reach their darkened minds. Over and over I repeated
Christ’s own words, “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise
cast out,” and then we knelt and asked the dear Father who loves
all to help them. Saying “good bye” to them and promising soon to
come again, I descended the stair and knocked at the door of the
son’s room, which stood wide open. I was invited into the not very
tidy room by a pretty-looking woman with her head tightly bandaged
with a handkerchief. On inquiring her trouble she told me she was
suffering from nervous headache, and, as I know something of that,
I was able to suggest remedies which she said were effective.
On the bed in the corner, stretched out at full length, lay her
husband. The faithful wife said he was sick, but to me he looked
lazy. We talked together of many things, and I found that neither
this husband or wife were Christians, though she seemed very
anxious to know the way. I read to them from that blessed word, the
word of which God Himself said, “It shall not return unto me void,
but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent,” and with a little
word of prayer left them, glad in my faith in God’s transforming
power.
It was two o’clock when I reached home, and I had only time for a
lunch and a short resting spell before starting to make another
call, which proved to be full of pleasantness and encouragement.
My friend and I were piloted on this trip by a dark-eyed, but
fair-skinned girl, who was a pupil of our school. We rode as far
as the street car would carry us, and then walked through country
paths and fields until we reached her home. It was a luxury to rest
in the easy rocking-chair in the pleasant little parlor, while
fresh country breezes rustled the simple white curtains at the
windows. And when, in addition to the pleasant words of greeting,
clear water was brought us from the well, and large, sweet berries
from the garden, we felt that our welcome was complete. After
visiting for a little time, we were asked by the children if we
didn’t want to see the farm, and following them out found that the
farm, though not large, was carefully cultivated, and that the
peas, beans, potatoes, cabbages and other vegetables which grew
there, found a ready market in the great city. I have heard and
seen much of the thriftlessness of the South, but here at least was
thrift and prosperity. Coming back to the house we were introduced
to the father, a dark-browed but fine-looking man, who by honest
toil is trying to support his family, and give to his children the
opportunities which shall make of them good men and women. These
children are sent to the Sunday-school and day-school regularly.
Can we doubt that from these they shall gain that which shall make
them a blessing to their race and to the world?
Against the dark background of thriftlessness and ignorance and
poverty which we find among the colored people, such homes as
these stand out in bright relief, and they should be a source of
encouragement to all who are trying to do God’s work in the world.
And so, dear friends, I have told you of these homes, that seeing
the difference and what may be accomplished in all these homes by
Christian education, you may not grow weary, but may look forward
to that harvest-time when the seed which your prayers and gifts
have sown shall spring up and bear fruit even an hundredfold.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
* * * * *
ANNUAL REPORT.
BY MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
It is apparent to any who study the character of the field of the
American Missionary Association, that not only is there ample
opportunity for women to work, but that it becomes a necessity to
the successful accomplishment of the good designed. As well might
we say to the impoverished, “Be ye warmed and filled,” giving none
of those things needful to the body, as to provide churches and
schools for the degraded and destitute, without supplying those
influences which will permeate and mould the homes, in the arousing
and uplifting of the women from their condition of ignorance and
indifference. Yet to secure this, we do not need a distinct and
separate class of missionaries. The work is combined, and so it is
that the schools of the American Missionary Association include
other lines of instruction than those usually involved—instruction
pertaining to home life, given to the youth in the school-room and
to the parents in the cabins; and the teachers become missionaries.
Selecting these according to the need of the field, it results that
a large number of those employed are women—236 having been engaged
in this missionary service during the past year.
What part has the Bureau of Woman’s Work had in this? Just so large
a part and so helpful as the Christian women of the North have
permitted; and we rejoice to record an advance both in interest
and in contributions. In addition to the donations by women to the
general work of the Association, twenty-six of these missionary
teachers have been sustained by funds raised in Ladies’ and
Children’s Missionary Societies of our Congregational churches,
or by special collection. In every instance the contributors have
been put into correspondence with their missionary representative
through the system of monthly letters direct from the field, and
thus a better knowledge of the work has been obtained.