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The American Missionary
JANUARY, 1896
Vol. L
No. 1
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
THE NEW YEAR, 1
PAMPHLETS AND SPEECHES, 2
JUBILEE BELL BANK, 3
MEETING WOMAN'S BUREAU--CLIPPINGS, 3
THE CHINESE.
ENDEAVOR TESTIMONIES, 4
IN MEMORIAM.
PROF. GEO. L. WHITE, 6
MISS ADA M. SPRAGUE, 7
MRS. N. D. MERRIMAN--MISS LILLIAN BEYER, 8
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
ANNUAL MEETING--REPORT OF SECRETARY, 9
ADDRESS OF MRS. SYDNEY STRONG, 13
ADDRESS OF MISS ANNETTE P. BRICKETT, 15
EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS, MISS H. S. LOVELAND, 18
ADDRESS OF MRS. HARRIS, 20
EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS OF MRS. WOODBURY, 21
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS 23
RECEIPTS, 25
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class mail
matter.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT, MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., MASS.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
Rev. HENRY A. STIMSON, D.D., N. Y.
Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., Ohio.
_Honorary Secretary and Editor._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., Rev. F. P. WOODBURY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
Rev. C. J. RYDER, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Treasurer._
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N. Y._
_Auditors._
GEORGE S. HICKOK.
JAMES H. OLIPHANT.
_Executive Committee._
CHARLES L. MEAD, Chairman.
CHARLES A. HULL, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
WILLIAM H. STRONG,
ELIJAH HORR.
_For Two Years._
WILLIAM HAYES WARD,
JAMES W. COOPER,
LUCIEN C. WARNER,
JOSEPH H. TWICHELL,
CHARLES P. PEIRCE.
_For One Year._
CHARLES A. HULL,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
ALBERT J. LYMAN,
NEHEMIAH BOYNTON,
A. J. F. BEHRENDS.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. GEO. H. GUTTERSON, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._
Rev. JOS. E. ROY, D.D., _153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill._
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D. E. EMERSON, _Bible House, 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; letters relating to woman's work, to the Secretary
of the Woman's Bureau.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York; or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., or 153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of
thirty dollars 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 GIVE AND BEQUEATH the sum of ---- dollars to the 'American
Missionary Association,' incorporated by act of the Legislature of the
State of New York." The will should be attested by three witnesses.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
VOL. L. JANUARY, 1896. No. 1.
* * * * *
1846. THE NEW YEAR. 1896.
Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-six brings in the Jubilee Year of the
American Missionary Association. What marked changes have taken place
between 1846 and 1896, even in the range of events with which the
Association is connected! Then the great gold discoveries in
California had not been made; then little was done by the Church or
the Government for the Indian; then the Southern mountaineers were
hunting and fishing, innocent of schools and railroads; then slavery
dominated the land, oppressing the slave and aiming to crush free
thought and speech in the North.
Now how changed! As to slavery, for example. The war and emancipation
have written a new page on our national history. But emancipation only
battered down the prison doors and sent forth the millions of
ignorant, helpless and vicious people--a menace to the Republic and a
reproach to the Church, if left in their degraded condition, but
presenting a most hopeful field for humane and Christian effort. The
facts made an appeal for immediate and effective work and the American
Missionary Association sprang into the task. Hundreds of refined and
Christian women lent their aid and toiled in the uplifting of the
needy, amid the scorn and hatred of the white people, while the
churches and benevolent friends responded with the means. The
Association has followed up this Christlike beginning by the planting
of permanent institutions--schools and churches--and the good effects
are becoming apparent in the multitude of industrious, prosperous and
educated colored people, the hopeful and helpful leaders of their
race. But their advancement only reveals the yet unreached masses
behind them as hopeful if promptly met, and as helpless if neglected,
as those that preceded them.
This good work is at its crowning point--to push forward is victory,
to halt is disaster. But the Association feels the pressure of the
hard times. It owes a debt of nearly $100,000, and needs four times
as much to sustain the work now in hand. Nevertheless, there is no
cause for discouragement in all this. There is vast wealth in the
nation, and a large share of it is in the hands of those who are more
or less directly connected with the Christian Church, and who are
liberal in their gifts when worthy objects are fairly brought to their
attention. It is true that there are those whose resources are
restricted by the present stagnation in business. This, however, gives
the opportunity for Christian self-denial. The relief for imperiled
Christian work will come if those who are prospered will give of their
abundance, while those less favored will imitate the Macedonians of
whom Paul speaks, whose "deep poverty abounded unto the riches of
their liberality." Self-denial is not a lost virtue in the Church of
Christ.
We make our appeal for relief during this Jubilee year. Already large
correspondence has been had with pastors of churches and others, and
the responses are very cheering, giving promise of most efficient
helpfulness. We hope, therefore, that our next Annual Meeting--our
fiftieth anniversary, to be held in Boston--will have the enthusiasm
of a Jubilee deliverance from the bondage of hampering limitations,
and give a new impulse to our labors for the emancipation of those
still in the bondage of ignorance and vice.
* * * * *
PAMPHLETS AND SPEECHES.
Our recent annual meeting has furnished a large number of papers and
addresses, covering, in a wide range, the various parts of the work of
this Association. Some of these have already appeared in the December
number of THE MISSIONARY, and a portion of them will be reprinted in
pamphlet or leaflet form, especially those from the field workers or
which relate directly to field operations. Besides these, some of the
valuable addresses not thus printed will be issued in pamphlet form,
and all of them are freely offered to our constituents on application!
We give below a somewhat complete list of these documents with the
name of the author and the title of the address:
The Freedman Truly Free Only by Christian Education: Pres. MERRILL E.
GATES.
Ownership and Service: Secretary F. P. WOODBURY.
The Indian Factor in the Indian Problem: Secretary C. J. RYDER.
Last Decade of A. M. A. Work in the South: Dist. Secretary JOS. E.
ROY.
Christianization of the "Inferior Races:" President J. B. ANGELL.
The Chinese in America an Element in Christianizing China: Rev.
WILLARD SCOTT, D.D.
Plea for Hope and Courage: Rev. W. E. C. WRIGHT, D.D.
Educational Work in the South: President W. G. BALLANTINE.
Mountain School Work: Prof. C. M. STEVENS.
After Twenty-five years in Negro Education: Prof. A. K. SPENCE.
The Financial Problem: Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D.D.
Indian Work: Rev. G. W. REED.
Story of a Young Indian: JONAS SPOTTED-BEAR.
Reciprocal Interests and Responsibilities of the Indian and White
Man: Rev. NEHEMIAH BOYNTON, D.D.
Southern Church Missions: Rev. H. M. LADD, D.D.
Progress and Needs of the Negro Race: Rev. GEORGE W. MOORE.
New Mission Churches: Rev. GEORGE H. HAINES.
Brothers and a Story: Rev. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D.
A Plea for the Chinese Work of the A. M. A.: Rev. J. K. MCLEAN, D.D.
* * * * *
JUBILEE BELL BANK.
The American Missionary Association has prepared a Bell Bank for the
use of Sunday-schools, Christian Endeavor Societies, etc., which it is
ready to distribute freely on application.
* * * * *
MEETING OF THE WOMAN'S BUREAU.
As usual, the January number of the MISSIONARY is devoted to the
addresses and papers delivered at the meeting of the Bureau of Woman's
Work, at Detroit, Mich. We are sure our readers will be gratified with
the reports which we give of these very telling papers and speeches.
They set forth distinctly the work of this Bureau and the needs and
prospects of the various peoples to whom its labors are devoted. The
Bureau is commending itself more and more as a valuable assistant in
reaching the hearts and moving the sympathies of the Christian women
of our churches, thus securing enlarged contributions.
* * * * *
CLIPPINGS FROM FIELD CORRESPONDENCE.
THE SOUTH.
From Allen Normal School, Thomasville, Ga.:
Every year of experience in the work strengthens my conviction of the
uncounted value of the work done in the American Missionary
Association schools in just the matter of fitting young men and women
to go to these country places, to carry to the multitudes of their own
race, whose lives are miserably darkened by ignorance and
superstition, the light which they have received.
From Lincoln School, Meridian, Miss.:
God is giving us great encouragement. No year has yet brought us as
great pleasure as this in seeing the fruits of our work. Eight of our
last year's graduates entered Tougaloo and Fisk. Better than this--for
we do not expect the greater part of our pupils will enter higher
institutions--more than forty of our students are now teaching. Nearly
every school in Kemper County is supplied with teachers from our
school. Several of our young men are seriously considering the going
as mission teachers into the darkest part of the great Black Belt.
THE MOUNTAIN FIELD.
From one of our mountain academies comes the following good message
that will interest all the loyal Endeavorers throughout the land:
"Last Sunday at our Young People's meeting a vigorous beginning was
made to the organization of a Christian Endeavor Society. Young men
active in religious meetings made the move and organized."
The following lines are used in one of the Sunday-schools in
Connecticut, which has recently given its birthday pennies to work
among the mountain children in the South. Their contribution goes to
help provide a building for the Christian instruction of a large
number of Highland lads and lassies in Tennessee. We thoroughly
appreciate gifts that come with the evident spirit of consecration
that accompanies these birthday pennies:
Jesus sat beside the treasury,
Saw the pennies as they came,
Knew the hands that love to bring them
For the sake of His dear name.
Jesus, bless the ones _we_ bring Thee,
Give them something sweet to do;
May they help someone to love Thee;
Jesus, may we love Thee, too.
* * * * *
The Chinese.
ENDEAVOR TESTIMONIES.
BY REV. W. C. POND, D.D.
It seems to me that nothing else should so much interest the friends
of our Chinese Mission, as to get glimpses of the inner life, the
Christian purposes, the ways of thinking which characterize those whom
we report as giving evidence of conversion, and, perhaps, not
otherwise can such glimpses be given than by jotting down some of the
testimonies borne by them in their Y. P. S. C. E. meetings.
I myself have heard very many such which I have wished I could
reproduce in the hearing of those whose gifts sustain our work, but
that I may not seem to have gleaned the remarkable ones from the
whole field, I will take only those recently reported to me from our
Los Angeles Mission by its faithful and efficient teacher, Mrs. Rice.
It must be noted that these were all made under the embarrassments
attendant upon speaking in English, to them a strange and but
half-learned tongue.
1. "I enjoy C. E. very much. When you in trouble, your friend let you
have money; when you get money you pay him back. So friends and
teachers help us. Now they want us to give few words. They like to
know how much I know Christ. Another thing: China never show us the
way to Heaven. This country help us. God gave his only Son. We ought
to thank Him and give him our words."
2. "If you in strange place and look for hotel, may-be get in bad one;
some friend show you good one, be very thankful. Christ show way to
Heaven. _We_ be very thankful."
3. "Ten days ago I read in paper--C. E. Society started in China. I
felt very glad. When I visited China few years ago, did not know about
it. I tell few friends words about great Creator of world. He made
everything. He made good and evil. Some people ask me why God make
evil. I tell him so people choose. I used to choose evil things,
worship idols, and such things. Then I come Mission school, learn to
sing; best of all, read Bible, and I read Jesus is the way, the truth
and the life, and I choose good. I am glad I know Jesus is the way."
4. An Exposition, Matt. 16:19. "I will give thee the keys," etc.
"Don't lose your key. If you lose your key you can't get home. Not
take care [_i. e._ carelessly] I lost my key for P. O. box. Had to ask
for another. Have great trouble for lose your key, but if you do, ask
your Father in heaven. He give you another."
5. "I will explain how to go to heaven. Remember how I found the way
to cook. First I make some cake. I not know how much eggs and how much
sugar. Sometimes good and sometimes bad. After while I ask friend all
about make cake. He good cook. He tell me how much eggs, how much
flour, and how long bake. Then I have no trouble. So ask Jesus how to
go to heaven. He tell me and I have no trouble."
6. "We, brethren, go out all day, working hard. When it come night, we
all come here to our home [_i. e._ the Mission House]. _It like fader
and moder to us._"
7. One of our brethren was greatly moved one night over a letter just
received from his father acknowledging the receipt of $20, which he
had sent in accordance with his custom of remitting regularly toward
the support of his parents. His father asked him to send more in
order that he might "buy him a new son who would worship ancestors."
He said: "I am his only child. My father rather I smoke opium, gamble
and drink, only so I give up Jesus and serve ancestors. I am not that
way. I never give up my religion so long as I live. I did explain to
them to be a Christian very much, but they not want to change. I wish
I never got that letter. I do pray much for them. I pray for them
every night."
Teachers in any of our missions who succeed in persuading their pupils
to speak at the Endeavor meetings in English will all recognize in the
above testimonies counterparts of such as they have often heard. I am
not surprised to have one of them, who has recently entered into this
service, write: "The longer I teach the better I like the work and
realize the grand possibilities in it. Oh! if only I can bring my
scholars to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!" She is doing this,
and so are all the others in our noble band.
* * * * *
In Memoriam.
PROFESSOR GEORGE L. WHITE.
Twenty-four years ago a choir of colored singers, young men and women,
went forth from Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., and introduced a
peculiar variety of songs and music, which they and their successors
have carried with _eclat_ well-nigh round the world. They not only
awoke the enthusiasm of vast audiences in the large cities of America
and Europe, but they were invited to sing before the mightiest
monarchs and the most distinguished people on the other side of the
water. These singers were endowed richly with the sweet and mellow
voices that nature has given to their race, but they had also a
training under a most skillful and magnetic teacher, Professor George
L. White. He not only had genius as a teacher of music, but a profound
faith in God that prompted him to undertake a seemingly hopeless
enterprise, without adequate means and with little encouragement from
others.
He was born in Cadiz, N. Y., in 1833, and was a member of the 73d Ohio
regiment. He fought in the battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville,
and his life was always characterized by a spirit of loyal devotion to
his country. At the close of the war he held office in the Freedmen's
Bureau and was appointed to be the first treasurer of Fisk University.
After training his singers, he started with them on their journey,
stopping in Cincinnati and in Oberlin where they were welcomed by the
first National Congregational Council; thence eastward, scarcely
paying expenses, until they reached Brooklyn, where Henry Ward Beecher
gave them an audience completely packing his great church, thus
indorsing them for their future career. Their first trip through this
country netted $20,000, and a second "campaign" in Great Britain and
on the Continent was even more successful. As the result of all the
efforts of the Jubilee Singers at home and abroad under different
leaders, nearly $150,000 was realized, which was expended in grounds
and buildings for Fisk University--an eloquent though silent monument
to their remarkable undertaking. In 1881 Mr. White, while at
Chautauqua with a band of singers, fell from a platform and suffered
injuries from which he never wholly recovered. For several years he
has been at Sage College, Ithaca, N. Y., where he has performed a work
of great personal influence and endeared himself to all those with
whom he came in contact. Mr. White died suddenly November 9, being
stricken with paralysis. Services were held in the chapel of Sage
College, and also at Fisk University, where some of the original band
of singers rendered some of the old Jubilee hymns. He was buried at
Fredonia, N. Y., and the interment service was held in the
Presbyterian church. A useful career of a consecrated man has
terminated amid the sorrows of many friends who yet do not mourn
without hope.
* * * * *
MISS ADA M. SPRAGUE.
Another of our faithful workers has finished her work and gone to her
rest. On the 23d of November Miss Ada M. Sprague, assistant in the
normal department of the Ballard School at Macon, Ga., breathed her
last after a brief illness of two weeks. She leaves a widowed mother
and twin sister. She has gone in the prime of her young womanhood and
in the midst of her usefulness. But she has left behind the example of
a consecrated life which will endure.
Miss Sprague was born in Keene, Ohio, November 15, 1863. She was of
New England ancestry. Her first experience in teaching was in a
country school near her home, where she was very successful. She
afterward went to college in Wooster, Ohio, but before she completed
her course her father died and she was obliged to give up her studies
and find some employment. For the following three or four years she
worked in the Pension Office at Columbus, Ohio. Then, offering her
services to the American Missionary Association, she was appointed to
a position in Tillotson College at Austin, Texas, where she labored
faithfully for four years. In October of this year she went to Macon,
Ga., where she did her work thoroughly up to within two weeks of her
death. She will be sadly missed by the mother, whose main dependence
she was, and by the many friends she had made wherever she had lived
and labored.
* * * * *
MRS. N. D. MERRIMAN.
On the 1st of October, 1895, on the anniversary of her entering upon
work as a teacher in Burrell School, at Selma, Ala., we buried Mrs.
Narcissa Dorsey Merriman, wife of Professor James A. Merriman, of the
class of '91, Talladega. Mrs. Merriman took the full college course at
Fisk University, graduating in 1891. Professor Spence was for four
years her instructor in Greek and leader of the Mozart Society, in
which she was soprano soloist. He writes: "Let us thank God it was
light with her at the evening of life." This was indeed true. A few
hours before the end, when seemingly at the very brink, strength was
given to sing in her remarkably clear, flute-like tones the verse,
"God moves in a mysterious way." We sang this at her funeral; also by
her request, "O mother, dear Jerusalem." These constituted a part of
the memorial service at Fisk also.
Miss Dorsey taught in '91-2 at Beaumont, Texas; '92-3-4 in Birmingham,
Ala., and '94-5 in Burrell. In all these places she will long be
remembered for her gift of song, scholarly attainment and genial
bearing--a lovely woman. Besides a sorrowing husband she left a
widowed mother, bereft of her only child, and a helpless infant three
weeks old, thus seeming to lay down her work at the very dawn of great
usefulness in home and society.
* * * * *
MISS LILLIAN BEYER.
Miss Lillian Beyer, who taught in the Warner Institute at Knoxville,
Tenn., last year, under this Association, died on November 29, and was
laid to rest December 2. A week before her death she had every
appearance of good health. She had secured a position as city
missionary in the neighborhood in which she used to live in New York,
and was expecting to begin her life work there on the very day on
which she was buried. But a few days before she was attacked with a
violent fit of coughing and grew rapidly worse, falling asleep two
days later, on her twenty-fifth birthday.
Her pastor writes: "The funeral was held in the chapel on Sunday
evening. A great company gathered, and I trust that impressions were
received which will bear fruit in the coming years. It is our prayer
that those who did not yield to her life and her teaching may bow
before this mysterious Providence. While preparing for her life work,
Miss Beyer had done considerable missionary labor, and a bright
prospect was before her--shall I not rather say _is_ before her."
* * * * *
Bureau of Woman's Work.
MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.
ANNUAL MEETING.
One of the interesting sessions of the American Missionary Association
at Detroit was the Woman's Meeting, which was held from two to four
o'clock on Thursday afternoon before the same large audience that had
already listened for two days to the varied accounts of work on the
mission field.
The devotional exercises were led by Miss Mallory, a deaconess of the
First Church. Six of the Women's State Organizations were reported,
viz. Maine, by Mrs. Woodbury, president; Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, by Miss Bridgman, treasurer; Ohio, by Mrs. Brown, treasurer;
Illinois, by Mrs. Claflin, president; Minnesota, by Miss Brickett,
delegate; Michigan, by Mrs. Davis, delegate. We were privileged in
having with us other officers of some of these Unions, Michigan
especially being represented by president, secretary and treasurer.
All brought words of hope, and some of the crisp sentences from the
lips of these devoted home workers for missions will not soon be
forgotten by those who heard them.
Following the reports from State Unions, Mrs. Sydney Strong, of
Cincinnati, president of the Ohio Union, gave a very interesting and
helpful address on woman's work throughout the country. Then came the
annual report of the Bureau of Women's Work, and missionary addresses
from the field. The sweet Jubilee singing by the young women from
Nashville, Tenn., added to the enjoyment of the occasion.
We regret that the limit of the magazine pages will not allow the
addresses in full, but we hope to furnish some of them in pamphlet
form. The paper by Miss Mitchell, of Blowing Rock, N. C., will be
printed thus.
* * * * *
Following the woman's meeting, a children's meeting was conducted,
which held the close attention of the little ones for an hour with
vivid descriptions of the children of Alaska and China, the Indian
boys and girls, and of the mountain and negro children of the South.
* * * * *
REPORT OF SECRETARY.
We come to this Annual Meeting with hearts full of gratitude to the
many friends who have stood by this work in its emergency, and with
praise to Him who daily beareth our burdens, and who we believe is
unto us a God of deliverances. True, every passing month of the year
just closed has sounded the ominous word "Debt," and the burdens
consequent have been many and heavy; it has been hard to see the
missionary work so repressed and cramped when opportunities for
development offered on every side. But it has been glorious to watch
its wonderful power and accomplishment even in its too restricted
limitation. Surely a blessing followed the offerings of those who
remembered this A. M. A. field with their gifts especially of "money
consecrated to the Lord's work." Some, we have reason to believe, in
giving "their slender mite for love of Him," gave much.
Thirty-one of the forty-two State Unions have made cash contributions
to the Association's work during the year, but this does not represent
in full the aid given. Four hundred and eighty-six barrels have been
sent to the various fields, and while all have contained useful
articles, some have been packed with valuable supplies of house linen
for the boarding-halls and goods for the industrial classes.
The Secretary has presented the work frequently at missionary
meetings, and series of meetings were planned for her and for
missionaries from the field, in several of the States. In this the
officers of the State organizations cooperated cordially, and were
most helpful in arranging appointments among the auxiliaries. There is
evident need of the work being made known by personal presentation.
Missionary literature has been freely distributed, and letters from
the field have been sent out in response to contributions wherever
desired. The system of missionary letter-writing entails not a little
of care and burden upon both missionaries and secretary, but it brings
the missionaries and home workers into closer sympathy, and provides
interesting information for missionary meetings. We acknowledge
thankfully the consideration shown when letters have been unavoidably
delayed, and the many expressions of appreciation of the missionary
news.
Through the circulation of the letters and printed leaflets you have
had many glimpses of the schools, churches, prayer-meetings,
Sunday-schools, Endeavor meetings and the homes of the people in the
South, on the Indian reservations, the Pacific Coast and Alaska. We
trust it has been a joy to you to make the work so much your very own
by the share you have had in sustaining it and watching its
development.
There is a very precious part of this missionary work, however, that
lies beyond the boundaries of our one hundred and seventeen schools. A
hint of it may be seen in the following to her teacher from a former
colored student, now the wife of a Congregational minister in the A.
M. A. church service. It represents hundreds of cases equally
gratifying of those who, through the beneficent work of the American
Missionary Association, to-day fill positions of influence and
usefulness in the various walks of life. The writer says: "The work
here I enjoy very much, nevertheless there are many discouraging
things in connection with it. But then I know we cannot always have
smooth sailing. If everything was all smooth there would be no need
of much work. I am only too glad to do something for the Master,
though I know I am one that is fitted only to quietly fill in a little
chink in the great work that is to be done. When I remember that we
are not all given the same number of talents, I am somewhat encouraged
to go on with the work, content to do little unnoticed acts in the
name of the Master. I remember, too, that what I am, you are the one
who was instrumental in making me. The Lord has a great reward for you
for your patience and kind dealing with me."
"Little, unnoticed acts in the name of the Master." Think of it--that
these colored boys, girls and mountain youth, Indians and Chinese, to
the number of thirteen thousand annually, are through this American
Missionary Association brought under such Christian training that a
large proportion go forth to use their talents, be they great or
small, in the name of the Master. What better could we do for either
of these races than to support liberally a work that, preparing the
youth for the practical duties of life, sends them forth to exert
their influence among their people for the love of Christ and In His
Name.
It has been a year of advance in contributions from the organizations
of Woman's Work, and while this has been a welcome and valuable aid to
the A. M. A. treasury, it is also a cheering indication of what these
organizations may be able to do the next year and the next with
increasing knowledge of the mission field, increasing interest and
ability. The cash receipts, through the State organizations, have been
$21,213.95, and directly from local societies and mission bands,
$4,124.66, a total of $25,338.61. We give a tabulated statement from
which it will be seen that nine of the State organizations now measure
their dollars for the A. M. A. by the thousand, and some of those in
the list immediately following we hope will soon join the
thousand-dollar rank.
Massachusetts and Rhode Island $4,853.89
New York 2,530.06
Ohio 1,893.29
Maine 1,708.02
Connecticut 1,517.05
Iowa 1,231.54
Illinois 1,184.17
Vermont 1,134.00
Missouri 1,019.96
Minnesota 851.61
New Jersey 589.35
Michigan 528.28
New Hampshire 527.57
Wisconsin 466.63
Nebraska 274.39
Southern California 207.85
Kansas 199.32
California 102.10
South Dakota 85.92
Colorado 82.05
Louisiana 45.52
Pennsylvania 35.00
Alabama 30.00
North Carolina 29.90
Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky 20.25
Washington 20.00
Indiana 15.00
North Dakota 11.50
Black Hills, S. D. 6.28
Wyoming 5.75
New Mexico 1.60
In assigning these contributions to some definite portion of the work,
as has been desired, the choice has naturally been the support of
women as missionary teachers, forty-five having been thus assigned.
The total number of missionaries in the A. M. A. churches and schools
is six hundred and forty-nine. The churches number two hundred and
twelve. The schools number one hundred and seventeen, and the five
hundred and thirty teachers engaged in them, many of whom preach as
well as teach, are indeed too few for the broad lines of instruction,
the varied industrial training, the intellectual and spiritual, or, to
use a favorite expression, the training of "head, hand and heart." But
it is often noticeable how cheerfully these missionaries meet the
increasing demands upon their strength, forgetful of self, in their
intense desire for the good of their pupils, that, intelligent,
industrious, virtuous, all may go out to their life-work, whatever and
wherever it may be, in the name of the Master.
But what of those who are not gathered into these Christian schools?
Longing, praying and pleading to enter, what if the doors are closed
against them because they have no money, no influence, and in their
time of need, no friends? Our hearts ache that such should have been
the bitter experience of any the past year. But it is too true. With
no means of their own and no friend to aid them, hundreds have been
turned back to darkness when they wanted light; turned back because
there was none to help.
The opportunities of the year just closed we may not reclaim, but we
are beginning a new year with its new opportunities. The colored
people, eager for improvement, struggling with poverty, appeal for
schools and churches, but it costs $400 for each teacher or minister.
The Indians want their children to come into the mission schools where
they may learn "the Jesus way," but it costs $150 for each pupil. The
mountain people of the South, unlettered, simple-hearted, credulous,
are the prey of Mormon missionaries, who are working zealously for
converts, and, as one reports, with "good success." The antidote is
Christian teachers and preachers, but here again is an average cost of
$400. The Chinese field, besides the work for men in mission schools,
presents an opportunity for women's work among twenty-five hundred
Chinese women in San Francisco, who are accessible in their homes, and
who respond gratefully to Christian sympathy and instruction. Was
there ever such gracious opportunity to the Christian church to gather
into the fold the "other sheep" of the Great Shepherd? He has said,
"them also I must bring." Would He bring them in through us? Let us
arouse ourselves that we may not so lose these opportunities God has
given to win this land for Christ. We have done something, but it is
so far short of the need. Our offerings--have they been so much a part
of ourselves, have they cost us so much that they have been _worthy_
tokens of love to our Lord?
The American Missionary Association has come to its fiftieth year of
work and appeal for these to whom the gospel is to be preached,
through church planting and Christian schools. It comes burdened with
obligations for the work already done, and for that of the year just
begun. Can we not, each one of us, _double our gifts_ to this work in
this A. M. A. Jubilee year? This, with one true self-denial offering
from every woman in the Congregational church, and friend of the work,
and not only shall the Association come next year to its fiftieth
anniversary with rejoicing, but hundreds of _new voices_ from the
millions of people to whom we are sent, will join also in the song of
Jubilee.
* * * * *
ADDRESS OF MRS. SYDNEY STRONG.
A speaker at our Toledo meeting two years ago, when she had told of
her life work in China, closed her remarks by saying: "American
sisters, the women of China look to you for their examples of
Christian womanhood. Do not disappoint them: for if you do, it will be
the greatest blow foreign missions can have." During the past year, in
our work in Ohio, when I have known so much of the needs over this
broad land of ours, I have wondered continually what some of the
Christian converts of China would think could they visit our shores
and go into the mountains in our Southern land and see the women
there, how perfectly ignorant they are, some of them not even knowing
their alphabet, and, what is sadder still, not even knowing that they
are hundreds of years behind the women living but a few miles from
their mountain home. If these Chinese converts could go down from the
mountains into the plains and see our negro sister there in her cabin
home, and realize how she is oppressed and how so few there care for
her soul; if they could go into the West and visit the Indians, and
realize how America has treated the Indian, how she has given him land
until she wanted it herself and then has taken it, and pushed him
farther West until now she has him in a place where the land is so
poor it is not likely she will ever want it; if they could go and see
their Chinese sisters--their own flesh and blood--and realize that
America had the opportunity right at her own door of teaching and
raising up Christian Chinese women to go back and teach their own
kindred the "old, old story," what do you suppose they would think of
Christian America? My sisters, what do you think of it? Are these
conditions due to lack of money? We can all give when we are
interested. Poverty is a thing of comparison. We are all poor compared
with our neighbor on the avenue, and we are all rich compared with our
neighbor who lived on crusts of bread last week and knows not where
her crusts are coming from this week. No, my friends, we can give when
we are interested.
In this connection I have been thinking a little of a dear friend, who
when asked if she could not increase her contribution to five dollars
for the work this coming year, said: "Possibly I can another year, but
this year I cannot, for I am going abroad and I have to economize."
"Economy!" Is not that just the place it always begins? Can we look
back over the last two years, those of us who have been affected by
the hard times, and truthfully say that we did not begin at the giving
end to economize? It seems to me that this is just where we all make
our mistakes. Is not this just the reason why our church work is so
cold and lifeless? We are trying to do Christ's work in man's way and
we can no more do it than the Indian we are told about, who tried to
run the machine controlled by electricity in his own way rather than
in the way the inventor intended it to be run. God has given us a plan
for doing this work and saving souls, and we are trying man's way
rather than God's way. What is man's way? It is to do church work, go
to missionary societies, and give--when we have time and money. What
is God's way? "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove
me now herewith, saith your God, and see if I will not open the
windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Have we done it? Have
we brought the tithes all in?
We use much more wisdom in material things often than we do in
spiritual things. Can we not learn a lesson from the farmer? What does
God say to the farmer! "Sow, and ye shall also reap." But the farmer
says, "I cannot; I haven't enough. If I had plenty I would sow, but I
haven't. My family could not live as well as my neighbor; we could not
set a good enough table; we might even have to go hungry." But the
command comes again: "Sow, and ye shall also reap," and I venture to
say that there is not a farmer in this country of ours but who would
go hungry, yea, he and his children would go bare-footed, but he would
take some portion of the grain that he had and throw it broadcast over
his field, knowing that it would lie there and decay, but trusting in
the Lord that it would come back to him after many days. Why cannot we
use the same wisdom in spiritual matters?
But there is something that is of more value even than money. It seems
to me that the one thing we need is more consecrated women in our
churches, women that have more love for their Master and for his
cause, women that do not do this work from a sense of duty, but
because they love their Lord and Saviour. It seems to me we ought to
put love in the same place where Christ put it, on the same pinnacle
where Paul put it: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
angels and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; though I understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I
could remove mountains, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing;
and though I give my body to be burned, and though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."
My dear friends, if we only had this love, this consecration, we would
be interested in everything that interests our Master. And hearing of
our sister in the mountains who knows nothing of him, we would hasten
to go ourselves or make it easy for others to go and tell her of His
love. And thinking of our colored sister in the South who is oppressed
and down-trodden, if we loved Him we would hasten to go with joy and
tell her of the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light. And
remembering our Indian sister who is so in the dark and is so
destitute of knowledge we would find a way to tell her of Him who is
the light of the world. And knowing of our Chinese sister here on our
shores, who looks forward to a heavenly home for her husband, though
she has no such hope for herself, we would go and tell her--or see
that some one else told her--of Him who said: "Whosoever cometh unto
me shall have eternal life." Our work then would not be done from a
sense of duty but as the expression of our love and joy, and all we
would ask in return would be the words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it
unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."
* * * * *
ADDRESS BY MISS ANNETTE P. BRICKETT.
In the few minutes which are assigned me in which to bring before you
the work of our Indian mission and boarding school at Fort Berthold,
among the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres, there is no time for me to
discuss the "Indian Problem," about which I am not at all wise, nor to
talk of the Indian character, nor to defend it against the numberless
unjust opinions and popular newspaper and magazine prejudice with
which you are all so familiar.
I think you want to know all that I shall have time to tell you of our
past year's work, our encouragements, our difficulties and successes.
There has been an increasing spirit of loving, gentle, helpfulness
among our school girls, both in the home and school life. We have all
gladly noticed that our boys have become more courteous and
thoughtful. Many of them have learned for the first time, under their
wise and consecrated matron, the value of strict adherence to God's
great law of obedience in the forming of manly characters and in the
making of happy homes.
Our older Ree girls came back to school this fall more neatly and
cleanly clad than ever before. Some of them made tasteful calico
dresses for themselves with which to return to us. Several of these
older girls, under the leadership of one of our ladies, organized
themselves into a "Cleaning Club" at the close of school in July and
have kept faithfully at work all through the vacation, each week
meeting at a certain house and giving the poor little log home, with
its mud-plugged walls and dirt floor a most vigorous and thorough
"scrub." After the beds had been made up cleanly with sheets and
pillow cases, which were in each case the property of the school girl
at whose house they met, and putting up cheap scrim curtains at the
two little windows, then these students of scrubology, on a stove,
shining with a perhaps unprecedented coat of blacking, prepared before
their somewhat dazed parents a neat and wholesome meal of such simple
material as they had, set it out on a white covered table just as
nicely as they are taught to do at school, and invited their parents
to eat with them. This improvement has not been merely spontaneous. It
was a principle of the society that each girl who had been thus
assisted should do all in her power to keep the home clean and neat,
and our girls have greatly delighted us by the brave way in which they
have kept this pledge.
This past year several of our older boys and girls have, without
urging or even suggestion from the teachers, told us of their earnest
desire to go out into the world and attend a higher school. They were
quite prepared to enter the school at Santee and though reminded of
the opposition they would undoubtedly encounter in getting permission
from their ignorant and in some cases heathen parents, as well as that
of the Government Agent, they have still been quite determined.
"Maimie," one of the girls, first asked consent of her uncle and aunt
with whom she has her home. They both refused, being unwilling to have
her go so far away and also to lose the small help which the little
money Maimie earned by doing extra work at school brought to them.
Both the uncle and aunt are members of our church and our prayers that
Christian principle might triumph in this case and make these two an
example to the rest were answered, for soon "Hand" and his wife
"Alice" cheerfully went to the Agent and told him of their previous
unwillingness but also of their present decision that they were glad
to have Maimie go away and learn more of God's ways so that she might
better teach and lead her people.
John, one of the boys, has met with much bitter opposition from his
people who are under the influence of the Catholic priest at the
Agency. They have forced him into the Government school, which is of a
grade entirely below his present attainments, and he is much
discouraged, but we still trust that God's plan for our boys and
girls, into whose souls he has put these aspirations, will be worked
out in His own time and way.
Our church members who are as yet but "babes in Christ" have had
numerous testings this year, which, while they have been times of
severe trial to us as well as to them, have been but passing clouds,
which have only for a time hid from them the "Guiding Hand," and which
has made them all the more strong and distinct as members of Christ's
body.
There have been disappointments in the past year; a few of those from
whom we hoped much have become careless and indifferent. But more have
grown in spiritual strength and are manifesting the new spirit of
godliness in their lives in many practical ways; in neater personal
appearance, in better houses and cleaner homes, and in much more
industrious attention to their farm work. The Christian women nearly
all ride on the seat of their wagons beside their husbands and not
squatted down behind in the old way which indicated their inferiority
and degradation.
Our church and women's missionary organization have cheerfully
contributed from exceedingly scanty means to all the branches of our
Congregational work. While our school on account of the reduced
appropriations has been reduced to forty-two pupils, our further
outstation among the Mandan people, which for two years has been
closed, has this fall been reopened, and one of the lady missionaries
is already living among them in her little log house. Shall I speak of
the needs of our school boys and girls? You patient mothers know so
well what are the needs of forty-two play-loving active children, who
wrestle, play football, tag, jump rope and barbed wire fences; and the
needs of Indian boys and girls are nearly identical with those of the
same number of white children.
I think I have never yet heard an Indian Christian man or woman offer
a prayer in which I have not heard this petition, "Oh Father in
Heaven bless all the white people who love us and send us these
teachers to tell us of God's ways." Shall we not return their grateful
thought, by loving prayers, generous and sympathetic interest and
every practical aid?
* * * * *
EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS BY MISS HELEN S. LOVELAND.
I have come to tell you something of Orange Park, the town, the school
established there, and the trouble connected with it. The village is
situated on the west bank of the St. John's River, which at that point
is a beautiful expanse of water three miles wide. Nature has been very
prodigal in that section. The trees and plants are of a luxurious
growth. Flowers are numerous. Every kind of fruit is plentiful.
Because of these natural advantages, general climate and apparent
fitness for orange growing, a Northern settlement was made. The people
were from various Northern States. The principal industry was orange
growing.
Five years ago when the Association was looking for a favorable place
in Florida in which to locate a school, attention was drawn to this
town. The place was selected because of its healthful situation and
beautiful surroundings. The people in the town were anxious such a
school should be established. To secure this the town voted the
Association a considerable tract of land on which to build, and in
addition a large wooded park. This was done with the understanding
that all children in the town should be allowed to attend school.
The buildings belonging to the institution are a church, in which both
white and colored people worship together; the Girls' Hall, in which
the girls, teachers and matron live; in the rear of this, connected by
a passage way, is the dining-room and kitchen; next, to the west, is
the school building, containing the chapel, study room and recitation
rooms; yet farther to the west of this is the Boys' Hall, in which the
principal and his wife live, in charge of the boys. Back of the two
last mentioned buildings is the shop where the boys do the industrial
work.