to the faith of the Christian church in the _redeemability_ of the
Indian. Lack of faith in this truth has been the cause of much
of the cruel indifference on the part of many good people—even
Christian people—to the wrongs that Indians have suffered, and
has occasioned lack of enthusiasm in the prosecution of Indian
missions. It has paralyzed endeavor, and prepared the way for the
indulgence of enmity. But notice this: No body of Christians have
ever put themselves on record as not believing in the Indian’s
redeemability. Stories of massacre and one-sided testimony, when
the Indian could not have a hearing, have led many Christians
by their opposition to Indian missions, unwittingly to array
themselves against the gospel. They did not think, in taking
up the cry, “There is no good Indian but a dead Indian,” “The
Indian cannot be civilized,” “The Indian should be exterminated,”
and other such falsehoods, that they were denying the Christian
faith and practically proclaiming that there was no salvation for
themselves nor for anyone else; yet that was precisely what they
were doing, for if the Indian cannot be redeemed, then no one can
be redeemed. If the gospel cannot save the lowest, then there is
no salvation for the highest. The Indian is a man, and Christ
tasted death for every man, and he is able to save to the uttermost
every man. That lowest savage, wretched and vile as he is, can be
redeemed, and in this redemption can be raised to highest manhood.
All culture and excellence of mind and heart are attainable to him
whose soul has felt the redeeming power of Christ’s salvation.
Why, then, after 300 years of the presence of Christianity on
this continent, have not the Indians been civilized? does any one
ask. Rather, when we think of the way that the Indians have been
treated, our surprise shall be that any of them have accepted
the gospel. And yet despite all of the difficulties, Dr. Jas. E.
Rhoades affirmed that there is no field of mission enterprise
which has yielded larger returns than that of our native tribes.
Indians have been reached by the gospel, and that, too, in a very
remarkable degree. The “five civilized tribes,” as they are called,
of the Indian Territory, are practically a Christian people; 81,621
Indians wear citizens’ dress wholly, and 59,695 wear citizens’
dress in part; 43,423 Indians labor in civilized pursuits, and of
this number 9,612 are farmers; 21,232 houses are occupied by 40,000
Indians as dwellings; and the significant thing about all this is
that this most promising state of things has chiefly come about
since the inauguration of the Government’s Peace Policy during the
Presidency of General Grant, when Christian missions and Christian
schools were multiplied, and the Government, in co-operation, made
an honest effort to keep faith with the Indian, and to give him,
at least, a show of justice. When the Indian was given the chance,
he was found ready to accept it. The facts are most encouraging.
Wonderful has been the progress the gospel has made among these
people during the last fifteen years. But the field is vast, and,
in comparison with the needs, only a beginning has been made. There
are 40,000 wild Indian children in the country. Of this number, all
told, there are but 12,000 gathered in the Government and mission
schools, leaving 28,000 children to whom no school opens its door,
and to whom no Christian missionary comes. There are at least sixty
whole tribes upon whose darkness no ray of gospel light has ever
fallen, as pagan and as savage as were their ancestors when the
first white man landed upon these shores!
You have given yourself to this work, my brother, at an auspicious
time—at a time luminously prophetic of grand results. God’s bell
strikes the hour. Providential lines converge. The machinations of
wicked men are growing less. Our government is shaping itself to do
right. Our legislators are becoming more humane in their attitude.
The voice of the people is rising louder and louder, and becoming
more united in its demand for justice. The Christian church is
awaking to a sense of its responsibility. The seed planted by
Elliot, and Mayhew, and Wheelock, is fruiting in the reviving
interest in Indian missions that to-day is seen spreading among
the churches. The Indian turns his face towards the sunlight. He
stretches out his hands for help. Confidingly he places his destiny
in our keeping. To help him into the light and the manhood of the
gospel is a work that an angel might covet. To that work you have
given yourself, to that work this Council has consecrated you,
and into that work we will all follow you with our God-speed and
benediction.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
EVANGELISTIC WORK.
All that I can report on this point is that we are feeling our
way towards something effective—praying continually, and watching
diligently for an answer to our prayer, that God will raise up some
Chinese believer and endue him with such power that he may not only
disciple those already gathered in our schools, but may make his
voice to be heard among the perishing _crowds_ that now refuse to
enter our opened doors, and love darkness rather than light.
For three months past we have had Loo Quong in the field—a faithful
and beloved missionary helper, previously serving in our Central
school in San Francisco. He spent one month in Oroville, one in
Marysville, and is about completing a third in Stockton. At each of
these points he was joyfully welcomed, and his abundant labors were
rewarded by some measure of success. But that for which we pray we
have not yet secured, though it waits for us, I am sure, in the
gracious purpose of our Lord.
In March, I visited these three missions, and the one in Sacramento
also, to which our brother will go as soon as his labors in
Stockton are closed. As usual, my observations both lifted me up
and cast me down. Most of what is discouraging might have been
averted if we had fit Chinese helpers in sufficient numbers, and
the means to sustain them. The American teachers at these points
are specially faithful, skillful and devoted, but nothing can
make up for the loss entailed by the absence of effective Chinese
helpers.
Oroville is a rendezvous for the Chinese scattered over a very
wide territory. Its resident Chinese population is also large;
not less than six hundred. Loo Quong had done a good work here,
and I found the school in better condition than ever before. It
was on a week-day evening that we gathered round the table of our
Lord. The room was well filled with Chinese, and we had several
Americans with us also. I think that more than twenty communed.
One was baptized and received to our little Chinese church. One
other would have been baptized—a brother very well reported of—but
he had been obliged to go away to his summer’s work, about eighty
miles distant. One brother walked about fifteen miles to be with
us at this service, and trudged back again early the next morning,
gladly sacrificing for it most of his night’s rest. Very generous
subscriptions (considering their deep poverty) were made in aid of
our work. Three on that evening expressed their new purpose to live
for Christ, by joining the Association of Christian Chinese—an act
which involves a confession of Christ quite as explicit as, among
us, attends reception to the church.
Lack of space forbids that I speak particularly of the other points
visited, except to say that we had in Stockton, after the school
session was ended—that is from 9 to 10:30 P. M.—a meeting with the
pupils at which the presence of the Spirit was manifest to us all,
and _seventeen_ rose to express their full purpose to leave all and
follow Christ.
I conclude with a single extract from a letter from Hong Sing, our
helper at Santa Cruz, in which he speaks of several attempts of his
heathen countrymen to catch him in his words. I ask our friends to
read it, remembering that Hong Sing is a house-servant, working in
the kitchen all day and teaching and preaching at night:
“I write a few words to tell you how we won the seven souls last
month. Since they found the way of light, and so they came with
us, with the same mind to worship the true God. Their cousins and
acquaintances are full of hatred, and try many ways to make fun of
them, to entice them to give up the worship of the Lord God. So was
fulfilled the word our Lord has said: ‘When men shall revile you
and speak evil of you for my sake.’ Sometimes one or two come to
argue with me after the school has closed, and pick out the hardest
questions to ask me—as this one: ‘Who made that God in Heaven? for
you said, only one God; where that one made from?’ I answer them:
‘Suppose you count anything, do not you say, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and so
on? Now, 1,000 come that way from 100; 100 come from 10, and 10
come up from 1; 1 is the beginning. If we add one more, that would
be two. If that _one_ God made from another God. So we go on—no
end; but we all worship that only _One_ that is at the beginning,
who made all things.’ Then their tongues silent.”
Was it not “given him what he should say?”
WM C. POND.
* * * * *
MISSIONS IN CHINA.
The Chinese Government has issued instructions to the local
Governors, in pursuance of which these officials have put forth
proclamations warning the people against the persecution of
missionaries and Christians.
“Know all men,” says the Governor of Che-Kiang, “that the sole
object of establishing chapels is to exhort men to do right; those
who embrace Christianity do not cease to be Chinese, and both sides
should therefore continue to live in peace, and not let mutual
jealousies be the cause of strife between them.”
Likewise Kung, the Governor of the province in which Shanghai is
situated, after explaining that, under the treaties, missionaries
have the right to hold land and houses, on lease, and to travel
about and preach, “their sole aim being the inculcation of the
practice of virtue, and having no design of interfering with the
business of the people,” goes on to say: “Such of the subjects
of China as wish to become converts may lawfully do so, and as
long as they abstain from evil doings there is no law prescribing
inquisition into, or prohibition of, their actions.” For the
destruction of chapels and houses, in disturbances increased “by
local vagabonds and bad characters,” summary vengeance will be
taken. “Bear in mind,” adds the Governor, “that when missionaries
live in the midst of your villages you and they are mutually in
the relationship of host and guest. Under ordinary circumstances
it is your foremost duty to act toward them with courtesy and
forbearance. Should any misunderstanding arise, let each submit
his side to the local authorities, and on no account give rein to
ill-considered resentment, and fall, owing to the impulse of a
moment, in the net of the law.”
When we think of the sentiments that even some Christians in this
country hold regarding the Chinese, and when we think of the
treatment the Chinese have received at the hands of our nation, the
reading of the above is enough to make our faces crimson with shame
not unmingled with indignation.
SELECTED.
* * * * *
BUREAU OF WOMAN’S WORK.
MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
Our work is to preach the gospel and all that this implies. The
gospel of Jesus Christ reaches head, heart and hand. Anything
that is injurious to a human being, in any part of life, the
gospel condemns. Temperance is a gospel doctrine. It is one of
the great multitude of truths our missionaries proclaim. When in
this magazine we report progress in our work, we are reporting
progress in temperance, for that is a part of our work. If the word
“temperance” doesn’t always appear, it is simply for the same
reason that the words honesty, chastity and truth, are not always
appearing as words. They are always there in significance. It is
the work of the gospel to advance these virtues. We make a few
extracts showing the temperance interest as represented at some of
our mission stations:
* * * * *
Sunday was a busy day. Our Sunday-school Temperance Workers held
a meeting at a little Methodist Church, called Providence Chapel.
The church was filled, and we had a very good programme. Several
little girls spoke temperance pieces, and some of them spoke very
beautifully and made a deep impression. Music and short, stirring
addresses, and printed selections, filled up the time, and some new
names were obtained for the pledge. The hardest task, almost, is to
induce the older men to give up tobacco, but some of them came to
that decision in the meeting. Providence Chapel is surrounded by
saloons. The noble and energetic pastor spoke to the children of
the Sunday-school in such words as these, “If your mother tells you
to go and get a glass of beer, you tell her ‘No.’ If she whips you,
come and tell me. I want to know who she is. Be brave enough to
tell her ‘No.’” Such words would sound very strange in some places,
but here they are needed, for some of those very mothers are
members of that church, but they are getting aroused. That meeting
Sunday did a great deal for them. It also did our young people
good, by giving them an opportunity to do something and feel that
they were doing something. The meeting was carried on entirely by
the colored people, except that one of the teachers helped make out
the programme, another played the organ and another made a short
address.
* * * * *
Temperance is, just now, a subject of great interest in this
State. The Legislature have just voted to submit the question of
Prohibition to the people next fall. What a grand thing it would
be if Tennessee could become a Prohibition State. Our little
Sunday-school Temperance Workers are doing well. Our last meeting
was held at a large colored Methodist Church. The house was nearly
full, and we had a very enthusiastic meeting. Many of the children
spoke recitations very beautifully. We had music, essays, and some
words of counsel from the ministers of the two churches. Every one
seemed to be very much interested. Mr. J. C. Johnson, a prominent
white philanthropist of this city, was there, and seemed very much
pleased. He said he wished we would go to some church every Sunday
and thought we would do a great deal of good. The white temperance
leaders feel the importance of securing the negro vote on their
side, and such questions as these, which divide the white vote,
will go a long way toward securing the political rights of the
black man.
* * * * *
One of our regular studies in school is “Alcohol and Hygiene,”
and our class have become very much interested in it. One of the
class said to me a few days since, “I just thought people didn’t
drink because they did not want to become drunkards. I didn’t know
there was so much harm in it, but I am convinced now.” I think
this expression is the sentiment of the class. One of its members
who could not sign the pledge four months ago, did so at our last
meeting. She was influenced to the step by learning of the evil
wrought by alcohol.
* * * * *
A Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed at Shelby, with
twelve members, and there will doubtless be four or five more
organized in other places, when the delegates can have proper
instructions, and in no better way can the influence of our
churches and work be felt, than in this direction. Nothing has
brought about such a desirable harmony as the temperance work in
churches of all denominations, and the mothers, wives and daughters
see more and more the necessity of uniting their influence against
intemperance.
* * * * *
ENGLISH AS SHE IS “NOT” TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS.
NOTES BY A MISSIONARY TEACHER.
“I would like to have you checktise him.”
“It is the most instructivest book I ever read.”
“May we walk circumspeckle!”
“She has come thousands of miles across the briny ocean to lift us
from our ignorancy and degradation.”
“I have outed [erased] my lesson from the blackboard.”
“I obedience my parents.”
“The avalanche [ambulance] has come.”
“She has come for her gosling.” [Gossamer].
“The preserved seats.”
“I don’t like a sit-up religion.” [In prayer].
“It was as neat a funeral as I ever went to.”
“Our much well-beloved classmate.”
“She is right smart better.”
“The sea air is very embracing.”
“Blessed are they that are prosecuted.”
“I have had to delay the correspondence on account of the
inclemency of my health.”
“Will you rest your hat?”
“I have the misery in my head.”
“I return you a board of thanks.”
“She is the mattress.” [Matron].
“I went to the exception.” [Reception].
“I don’t lean against [toward] the Episcopalians.”
“He had twenty compulsions.” [Convulsions].
“He is deceasted.”
FOR THE CHILDREN.
I am quite confident that some of our Northern little folks will
be glad to know how some of our little ones down here stand on the
temperance question. We commenced having Band of Hope meetings over
four years ago, but did not ask the children to sign the pledge for
many months, for these little ones don’t have temperance papas and
mammas to help them keep their pledges, so we did not wish them
to sign till they knew well what was expected of them. Over fifty
signed the first opportunity, and I came home with a very heavy
heart lest many signed because others did, and did not realize the
sacredness of their pledge. I felt especially worried about Johnny,
a little six-year-old, whose father kept a hotel and had many men
around him who drank. It wasn’t long before one of these men urged
Johnny to take a drink from his bottle. He took some in his mouth,
and then he thought of his pledge, and ran and spit it out; then
took some water and washed and washed his mouth.
Little bright-eyed Willie loved the taste of whisky, and his father
always gave him a sip of his drink. After he signed the pledge, he
so stoutly refused his father when he urged him to drink, that it
affected him so that he, too, has signed the pledge for one year.
Some little ones in another family, who had always had their
“toddies,” as they call it in this country, have been so true to
their pledges, refusing their grandfather, who urged them to drink
with him, that it has influenced their mother to think she can do
without whisky as a medicine, and to become an enthusiastic member
of our N. C. T. U. And so we see “a little child shall lead them.”
MRS. A. A. MYERS.
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR MAY. 1887.
MAINE, $380.20.
Bangor. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. $20.00
Bath. Winter St. Cong. Ch., 31.65; Central
Cong. Ch. and Soc., 30.00 61.65
Bridgton. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.40
Center Lebanon. “A Friend” 5.00
Cornish. Cong. Ch. 25.00
Danville Junction. Mrs. Lucy W. Cobb 0.50
Falmouth. First Cong. Ch. 15.00
Gorham. Sab. Sch., by Rev. S. H. Huntington,
for _Selma, Ala._ 10.00
Gorham. Miss E. B. Emery, _for Macon, Ga._ 5.00
Hallowell. Mrs. H. K. Baker 5.00
Harpswell. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.00
Monson. Rev. R. W. Emerson 10.00
New Gloucester. Cong. Ch. 74.00
North Bridgton. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch. _for
Wilmington, N.C._ 3.18
Portland. Fourth Cong. Ch. 2.00
Portland. Infant Class St. Lawrence St. Sab.
Sch., _for Wilmington, N.C._ 1.50
Rockland. Woman’s Home Miss’y Soc., _for
Woman’s Work_ 20.00
South Berwick. Miss Oaks’ S. S. Class, 2.57;
Mrs. Lewis’ S. S. Class, 2; Miss McLellan’s
S. S. Class, 75c., _for Wilmington, N.C._ 5.32
South Bridgton. Ladies’ M. Soc., by Mrs. Noah
Sawyer, Treas. 5.00
South Gardiner. Cong. Ch. 5.00
South Paris. Cong. Ch. 6.50
Union. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.00
Yarmouth. First Parish Ch. 56.00
York. Second Ch. and Soc. 5.15
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $584.60.
Acworth. Cong. Soc. 9.81
Derry. Nutfield Mission Circle, 50, _for
Sch’p._, 3.75, _for New Dining Hall, Santee
Indian M_. 53.75
East Derry. MRS. MARY G. PIGEON, to const.
herself L. M. 30.00
East Derry. Miss Goldsmith and School _for
Bird’s Nest Indian M_. 1.00
Gilsum. Cong. Ch. 9.63
Hampstead. Miss J. S. Eastman. 10.00
Hudson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.00
Keene. Second Cong. Ch. 15.40
Lebanon. C. M. Baxter, _for Woman’s Work_ 75.00
Littleton. First Cong. Ch. 10.33
Mount Vernon. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Nashua. Pilgrim Ch. 88.59
North Hampton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. to const.
JOHN LEAVITT L. M. 30.00
Northwood. Cong. Ch. 11.00
Pembroke. Sab. Sch. of Cong. Ch. 7.39
Pennacook. Rev. A. W. Fiske 5.00
Plaistow, N.H. and North Haverhill, Mass.
Cong. Ch. and Soc., 126.80, and Mrs. Gyles
Merrill, 50 176.80
Rindge. Cong. Ch. 14.24
West Lebanon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.66
VERMONT, $553.62.
Ascutneyville. Newton Gage and wife 10.00
Bradford. Mrs. C. D. Redington, _for McIntosh,
Ga._, by Mrs. Henry Fairbanks 5.00
Cambridge. Madison Safford 5.00
Charlotte. Ladies, by Mrs. Ellen D. Wild, _for
McIntosh, Ga._ 22.00
Chelsea. First Cong. Ch. 25.00
Coventry. Ladies of Cong. Ch., adl. 2.00
Dorset. Mrs. Wm. D. Marsh 5.00
Enosburg. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by Mrs.
Ellen D. Wild 6.30
Fairlee. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by Mrs.
Henry Fairbanks 5.00
Georgia. Cong. Ch. 18.17
Greensboro. Ladies, by Mrs. S. Knowlton, _for
McIntosh, Ga._ 13.11
Jericho. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.77
Jericho Center. Sab. Sch., for _McIntosh, Ga._ 3.50
Johnson. C. C. Stoddard 2.00
Middlebury. Ladies, by Mrs. Ellen D. Wild,
_for McIntosh, Ga._ 35.00
Milton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.58
Montpelier. Bethany Cong. Ch. and Soc. 50.00
New Haven. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by
Mrs. Henry Fairbanks 5.25
North Cambridge. John Kinsley, 8; Sevign
Kinsley 1 9.00
Northfield. Mrs. Mary D. Smith 4.50
Putney. Bbl. of C., and 2 _for McIntosh, Ga._ 2.00
Quechee. Cong. Ch. and Soc., bal. to const.
JOHN J. DEWEY L. M. 27.76
Saint Albans. First Cong. Ch., by Mrs. M. A.
Stranahan, _for McIntosh, Ga._ 20.00
Saint Johnsbury. Ladies, by Mrs. Henry
Fairbanks, _for McIntosh, Ga._ 165.50
Salisbury. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for McIntosh,
Ga._ 15.00
Waitsfield. Cong. Ch. 15.52
Waterbury. Cong. Ch. 8.66
Wells River. C. W. Eastman 5.00
Weston. Cong. Ch. 6.00
Weston. L. P. Bartlett, 2; Mrs. S. A. Sprague,
2; C. W. Sprague, 1, “In memory of J.
Bartlett” 5.00
West Woodstock. Rev. Wm. S. Lewis and Mrs. E.
W. Lewis, to const. H. T. FLETCHER L. M. 30.00
Woodstock. Ladies, _for McIntosh, Ga._, by
Mrs. Henry Fairbanks 6.00
Worcester. “Friends,” _for McIntosh, Ga._ 6.00
MASSACHUSETTS, $11,244.35.