VOL. XXXIII. No. 10.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
* * * * *
OCTOBER, 1879.
_CONTENTS_:
EDITORIAL.
THE ANNUAL MEETING—PARAGRAPHS 289
WORKER AT REST (MRS. PEEBLES)—DEATH OF FATHER JOCELYN 291
RANDOM SUGGESTIONS 293
A STRONG APPEAL 294
LANGUAGE OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA 296
STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY 297
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 299
GENERAL NOTES 300
THE FREEDMEN.
NORTH AND SOUTH—SOME THINGS IN COMMON 304
REMINISCENCES—“IT’S THE COLOR THAT TELLS” 306
TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE—Remarkable Conversion and
Triumphant Death 309
GEORGIA, BYRON—First Impressions 310
THE CHINESE.
THE BEGINNING OF HARVEST—ONG LUNE 310
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES 313
RECEIPTS 314
CONSTITUTION 317
WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS &C. 318
* * * * *
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,
56 READE STREET, N. Y.
* * * * *
PRESIDENT.
HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.
Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.
Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.
Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.
Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.
Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.
WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.
Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.
Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.
Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.
Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y.
Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.
Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.
Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.
HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.
Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.
Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct.
DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.
Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.
SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.
Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.
Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.
Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.
Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.
EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.
DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.
Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.
Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct.
A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.
Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio
Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.
Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.
Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa.
Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.
Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.
Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.
Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.
S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.
PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.
Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.
Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct.
Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.
Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.
Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.
Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.
Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.
WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.
J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ct.
DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.
A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.
Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.
FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.
JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.
REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.
REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.
EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._
H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._
REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
ALONZO S. BALL,
A. S. BARNES,
EDWARD BEECHER,
GEO. M. BOYNTON,
WM. B. BROWN,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
E. A. GRAVES,
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAM’L HOLMES,
S. S. JOCELYN,
ANDREW LESTER,
CHAS. L. MEAD,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
G. B. WILLCOX.
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to
either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the
“American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York
Office.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade
Street, New York, or when mote convenient, to either of the Branch
Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West
Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each
letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in
which it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
* * * * *
VOL. XXXIII. OCTOBER, 1879. No. 10.
* * * * *
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
OUR ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary
Association will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev.
Dr. Goodwin’s), Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3
p. m. The Annual Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.
D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., service commencing at half-past seven in
the evening. A paper on the Chinese question will be presented by
Rev. J. H. Twichell, of Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity
of the Protection of Law for the Indians, by Gen. J. H. Leake,
United States District Attorney, Chicago, Illinois. Other papers
and addresses on timely and important subjects will be presented by
able writers, the announcement of which will be given in the daily
press at an early date.
Parties desiring entertainment during the meeting will write, by
or before October 8th, to H. G. Billings, Esq., 242 South Water
Street, Chicago.
* * * * *
It will be seen that our communications from the Southern field are
very limited this month. It is, of course, the time of vacation in
all our Southern institutions, except a few of the public schools,
to the support of which we are contributing, and from which we
hear mainly through the larger schools of which their teachers are
pupils or graduates. Soon the wheels will begin to revolve again,
we trust, with greater effectiveness than ever before.
* * * * *
A confidential word from the Editor to the members of the
missionary and teaching force who occasionally write to the
MISSIONARY.—Your communications are always read in the most kindly
and interested spirit. Their contents are always noted, and if
they contain any incident or item which even perhaps may be of
general interest to our readers, we use it. Do not be too greatly
disappointed or grieved at us if we do not always use them in the
form in which they are sent. There are many things which must
be weighed in the make-up of a magazine which no one but those
who see it all can even know. The Editor’s basket is not a waste
basket, even when it receives MSS., for they do not go into it
unread, nor do we mean to let any wheat get lost among the chaff,
although doubtless we occasionally do. Sometimes an article must
be squeezed into an item or be squeezed out. Please keep writing,
then, not for your local audience, but for all; or, if you please,
as though it were meant for the Editor’s ear alone. Don’t be
disappointed—much more, don’t be angry, if all you write does not
get into print. And don’t promise anybody, that a certain thing you
send will appear in the MISSIONARY; for, after all, the Editor who
must decide is in the New York office.
* * * * *
Prof. A. K. Spence and wife arrived in August by steamer “Bolivia,”
from an absence of a year in their native Scotland. They have been
for ten years connected with Fisk University, and have resumed
their work in that institution. By their visit they have been
greatly refreshed in health. They have been constantly engaged in
private and public effort to interest their Scottish people yet
more in our work as related to the Christianization of Africa.
With their territorial and commercial interest in that dark
continent, British Christians are all the more disposed to care
for the religious welfare of the inhabitants of that country.
The many friends at the West who have heard the familiar talks
of Mrs. Spence, will be prepared to believe that her recital of
the Freedman’s story to the sisters of her motherland was greatly
acceptable.
Prof. Spence’s mother, who, at the age of eighty-five, recently
contributed to the _Independent_ a poem on George McDonald, whom
she had known from his childhood, sent on the fee for her article
to the treasury of the A. M. A.
* * * * *
_Revivals in Summer Time._—The people of the North, who are apt
to be under the respite of vacation at this season of the year,
and who are addicted to special efforts for the promotion of
revivals in the Winter time, are sometimes surprised to hear of
such movements at the South during the heat of Summer. At first it
seems quite creditable to the piety of our colored brethren that
they should warm up to such service in dog days. But the reason for
selecting this season for such service is the same as that which
at the North locates it in the Winter. That is the slack time of
the year. The corn and the cotton have been laid by, and now there
is leisure before the time comes for picking and harvesting. The
Association of South-west Texas meets at the middle of July, and
refuses to fix any other date for assembling, desiring to use that
“set time” for some revival effort, and expecting to bless the
entertaining church in that way. We are hearing that nearly all of
our churches in the South have been making more or less of special
effort.
* * * * *
_The Southern Sentinel_, a monthly, published at Talladega College,
under the new management of Prof. Geo. N. Ellis, editor, and P.
P. Green (one of the students), publisher, is taking on more of
freshness and of force. A department of agriculture has been added.
This will be of great value. In this we see the hand of the farm
superintendent, Mr. Atkinson, who went down from Olivet College to
help on in this part of the Talladega movement.
* * * * *
“_What is that to thee? Follow thou me._”—This response of the
Master to Peter’s inquiry about the lot of John indicates the
measure of consecration requisite on the part of those who are
called to this missionary work among despised classes. It is an
unquestioning, an unconditional obedience that is needed. One may
say: “Others are staying at home and having easy times.” What is
that to thee? “Down there we may be sneered at and treated like
pariahs.” What is that to thee? “It was easy up North to have been
an abolitionist, but to go and put yourself down by the side of and
underneath the outcast ex-slave to try to raise him up, that is
another thing.” What is _that_ to thee? Follow thou me. Follow my
call; follow my example in caring for “these my brethren.” Sympathy
with the Saviour in His love for souls, in His self-forgetfulness
while winning lost men to His Gospel, is the first qualification
for this Christly work. It was a rigid scrutiny that set aside the
few men that were to gain the victory of the Lord at the hand of
Gideon. A like carefulness of selection is necessary in this holy
war. It would enlist only those who give themselves to its cause
with such alacrity that they stop not for personal ease, but who
lap their drink.
But the reward of those who thus follow the Divine Leader in this
service is quick and ample. They are a happy set of folks. They
love their work; they love their people; they have joy in their
calling; in this they are like returned foreign missionaries.
* * * * *
_A Worker at Rest._—Mrs. Anna M. (Day) Peebles departed this life
at Dudley, N. C., on the 28th of August. Educated at Oberlin, she
had been one of our teachers in the Washington School at Raleigh,
N. C., serving also as teacher and leader of music. Something over
a year ago she was married to Rev. David Peebles, of Dudley, N. C.,
where she took charge of the school, becoming greatly successful
and beloved in the same. Excelling as a teacher, enthusiastic in
the missionary aspect of her work, and winsome among her associates
and pupils, her loss to our cause is greatly felt.
* * * * *
DEATH OF FATHER JOCELYN.
Another Christian hero has laid aside his armor and received his
crown. The Lord did not break the dies when He made the last of the
ancient Martyrs or of the Puritan heroes. In great emergencies he
reproduces them after their kind. The anti-slavery struggle needed
them and they came forth, and among them there was no braver man
than the gentle and amiable SIMEON S. JOCELYN. It is a mistake to
suppose that the bold and determined men who take front rank in
great moral conflicts are destitute of kindly impulses. Father
Jocelyn was utterly uncompromising where duty called, yet I have
seldom known a man of more tender sympathies, of quicker, almost
womanly sensibility to sorrow or suffering. Nor are all such men,
as is often imagined, so intent on pushing forward their great
reforms as to overlook the rights of others. Father Jocelyn was
most scrupulous in regard to the minutest claims of all men, even
of his opponents. Nor are all such seemingly rash and headlong
men lacking in caution. Father Jocelyn was the most cautious man
I ever knew. Indeed this trait was, in some sense, a hindrance to
his activity, for he instinctively saw the many adverse bearings
and possible misconstructions to the course contemplated or to the
document to be published. The marvel is that such a man could ever
have become an abolitionist—that he could have risked reputation,
property, and even life itself, in an enterprise so doubtful of
success and beset with so many dangers to the peace of the church
and the nation. The only explanation is in his clear perception,
through all glosses, of the path of duty, and the overwhelming
impulse of conscience to pursue it in spite of all dangers. Of such
stuff are moral heroes made.
The piety of Father Jocelyn was sincere, deep and all-pervading.
He was a man of prayer and of close communion with God, active
in Christian labors in public and private, and of a beautiful
simplicity and transparency of character—a saintly man. A Puritan
by birth and conscientious conviction, his religious life was after
the strictest model, yet his tender sympathies rendered him kind as
well as faithful in counsel or warning, while his broad Christian
charity made him liberal toward all who loved the Saviour.
Father Jocelyn was born in New Haven, Ct., in 1799, and was early
converted to Christ. He began active life as an engraver, but
relinquished a prosperous business to preach the Gospel to the
poor, devoting his ministry to a feeble colored church in New
Haven. The anti-slavery cause from the beginning had his warmest
sympathies and most earnest co-operation. The American Missionary
Association had no earlier or steadier friend. When the Amistad
captives were landed in New London, and prompt and persevering
efforts were made to re-enslave them, a committee of gentlemen was
organized in New York to watch over their interests, and at the
head of that committee stands the name of S. S. Jocelyn. Throughout
the long struggle that secured their liberties and their return
to their native land, accompanied by a missionary and teacher,
Mr. Jocelyn was constant in his active exertions; and when at
length that committee and other similar bodies were united in the
formation of this Association, he was forward in founding, and
constant thereafter in sustaining the new organization. He attended
the meeting in Albany when the Association was formed. He was its
Recording Secretary from 1846 to 1853, Corresponding Secretary with
charge of the Home Department from 1853 to 1863, and from that time
till his death was a member of the Executive Committee.
We extract from an article in the _Advance_, by Dr. Roy, the
following account of the funeral:
“The funeral was held in the New England Church of Brooklyn, E. D.,
where he had his membership. In the large congregation there was a
fine representation of colored people. The Executive Committee and
other officers of the American Missionary Association were present.
The pall-bearers were a squad of veterans of the old Liberty Guard.
The pastor, Rev. Mr. Hibbard, presided. A few words of affectionate
sympathy with the brothers and sisters who had been bereaved of
their father, were spoken by Rev. J. E. Roy, whose father, also at
the age of eighty, a few months before had been called away.
“Dr. Strieby spoke of the work of the departed in the American
Missionary Association, and especially with eloquent words depicted
the tremendous moral courage, the great cautiousness, the womanly
tenderness, the transparent simplicity which were blended in his
character. Strange that so sweet a man ever had the grit to take up
the battle against slavery. Rev. Mr. Ray, a colored minister, who
had known Mr. Jocelyn, and had been associated with him for forty
years, gave fitness to the occasion by his words of gratitude, and
by several telling reminiscences,—one of which was that, in 1839,
Mr. Jocelyn came down from New Haven to take up the gauntlet of
debate upon the colonization question with Mr. Robert Finley. The
discussion was in a hall in Nassau Street, and Mr. Jocelyn’s main
reliance was the word of God.
“Rev. Mr. Lockwood, a former pastor, bore loving testimony. Dr.
Edward Beecher went back to an acquaintance of fifty years ago,
when a student in Yale College, under concern of soul, he went to
Mr. Jocelyn. He was such a spiritual, faithful Christian as a young
man in passing that crisis would be apt to seek out. Dr. B. was
associated with him in his Sabbath-school and church work among the
colored people, and carried with him that same impulse when he went
to Illinois College, and stood by Elijah P. Lovejoy until they shot
him down. In closing, Dr. Beecher said that the words appropriate
to the character of the departed were: ‘In simplicity and godly
sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we
have had our conversation in the world.’”
M. E. STRIEBY.
* * * * *
RANDOM SUGGESTIONS.
Will the Exodus Affect the Work of the Association in the South?
I answer without hesitation, _it will not_. To the present time the
exodus movement has been confined very largely to the disturbed
parishes, or to certain exceptional cases where the conditions of
labor have been oppressive. In New Orleans, while conventions and
open-air meetings have been held, and the policy of emigration has
been discussed, but few of the Freedmen have decided to leave the
State and find a home in Kansas. There is a restless, dissatisfied
feeling among the masses of the negroes, especially the poorer
classes, induced by the glowing appeals made to them; but the
exodus has not assumed, and I believe will not assume, large
proportions. The masses will stay on Southern soil and abide in
Southern homes. My opinion is based upon the supposition that their
rights, social, educational and religious, and their rights also
as laborers, will not be invaded or denied beyond what they are at
present.
In New Orleans 45 per cent. of the population is colored, and
in the State at large 55 per cent. I do not believe that this
ratio will be materially changed by the exodus. And even if a
few thousands of Freedmen left the South in search of warmer
hospitality, an increased compensation for labor, and a more
equitable recognition of their rights as citizens, it would not
lessen the possibilities of good afforded to the Association.
Should a half million go away, there would still be four and a half
millions left to be instructed and helped in their race struggle
for higher intelligence and a purer religious life. Press forward,
then, the glorious work of education. Hasten the full equipment of
the normal schools and colleges for the wider, grander work before
them. Let new churches be planted, and the pure gospel of Christ be
preached all over the beautiful and fruitful South, wherever the
Freedman has his home. The work is not one of a generation, but of
a century.
Student Aid.
To secure, at the earliest day, one of the chief objects of the
Association—the thorough education of colored young men and women
as teachers and ministers, who shall be competent to lead the
masses of their race to a higher civilization—special aid must be
given to those whose minds and hearts give promise of usefulness.
A large number who propose to seek only an elementary education,
or those who reside in the city where a school of high grade is
located, do not require aid from abroad. The wise policy of the
instructors in our institutions is to search for young men and
women of promise, and encourage them to pursue a full course of
study, and to watch over them till the benefits they receive are
made a valued possession not only to themselves but to their race.
What are the facts in the case? The best material is often remote
from the college, and utterly lacking in pecuniary ability. Many
of the brightest, the most intellectual of the children of the
Freedmen, who are intensely anxious for an education, and have a
praiseworthy ambition to be fitted for positions of responsibility
and usefulness, are denied the privileges of the college by reason
of extreme poverty. Many others are able to meet a part of the cost
of an education, but without benevolent aid must stop short of a
full course of study. I am just now in receipt of a letter from a
worthy and talented young man near New Orleans. I quote a sentence
to show its import: “I have the same mind to work in the cause of
Christ and prepare to preach His word. I think I have been called
to engage in this work and cannot be satisfied unless I do. Dear
brother, I do now most solemnly appeal to you and the good brethren
in the North to aid me to an education.”
This is one instance of hundreds which could be cited. Another fact
deserves earnest consideration. We need to _conserve_ and utilize
for the general good the partial education which the graduates of
our colleges have secured. At the present time this is not done
as it should be, and as it might be, if _special_ student aid
were available. Many graduates go forth from the college who are
lost to view. After so much patient labor has been bestowed upon
them—and in some instances special pecuniary aid given—they should
be encouraged in every way to devote themselves to the greatest
good of their people. Take the last class in Straight University as
an illustration. We graduated eight students, all bright, talented
and promising, and, grandest of all, Christians. All are poor—some
of them extremely poor. Their education has cost them a hard,
patient struggle. They desire to become teachers of the highest
rank. The young men are looking to the learned professions. In
order to attain what they desire, and what we desire for them, they
should take a post-graduate course. The young men, if God calls
them to the work, should take a three years’ course of theological
instruction.
But left alone, without outside aid, they will be compelled to work
for their daily bread, and for them their school days will have
forever passed. Is it not worth while to say to these young men:
“Come back to the University, and the Christian benevolence of the
North will see you through one, two or three years more of study,
and then we shall claim you for the college, for the church, and
for the work of God. Henceforth you are not your own, but must go
wherever God shall call you, and stand in the forefront of every
great and good movement for the elevation of your race.”
To-day, if a worthy Christian young man or woman appeals to us,
“Can you not aid me to keep on in my studies?” our answer is a
sorrowful one, “There is no fund that can be appropriated to
that purpose.” Will not good men think of this and make a grand
possibility of good a fact gloriously realized?
W. S. ALEXANDER.
* * * * *
A STRONG APPEAL.
We present below a forcible appeal for student aid. Such aid is
essential, and the question of obtaining it in sufficient amount
to meet the demand lies at the bottom of the whole possibility
of educating the colored youth of the South. If scholarships and
educational funds are important to the white students of the
North, how much more to the colored students at the South, where
employment is so poorly paid, and the money so hard to be collected
when earned! This appeal is but a sample of the cry that comes from
all our institutions—Atlanta, Talladega, Tougaloo, New Orleans, and
the rest. An illustration may be seen in the foregoing article by
Rev. W. S. Alexander, President of Straight University.
But we must warn our patrons not to divert their contributions from
our ordinary work to this special object, for if this is done, we
might as well furnish this student help directly from our treasury.
Then where would be the money to sustain the teachers?—and _they
must be sustained_, or the schools closed. The only solution of
the problem is for the friends of the Freedmen to enlarge their
contributions to meet both wants. We most importunately urge our
patrons not to starve the teacher in order to aid the scholar, but
help both.
What Shall We Do?
Will a goodly number of the readers of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY tell
us?
The case can be best set forth by giving a single illustration. On
the Saturday evening preceding the Monday on which the new school
year of Fisk University was to begin, a young man was brought
to my room by one of our former students, who introduced him as
being from Montgomery, Alabama. I found on inquiry, and from a
letter which he brought from a prominent colored man of that city,
that he had determined to get an education, and having but little
money, had made up his mind to walk from Montgomery to Nashville,
a distance of three hundred miles, with the hope of finding some
way by which he might be admitted as a student in Fisk University.
Fortunately, a prominent citizen of Montgomery was able to secure
him a pass on the railroad, one hundred miles, to Birmingham, and
a student of Fisk University who happened to meet him at Columbia,
Tenn., used the little spare money he had in his pocket to help him
on his way twenty miles toward Nashville.
What do the friends of education among the colored people of the
South wish us to do with such cases? The University has no means
of its own with which to help such young people, and this instance
is but an illustration of very many similar cases which we are
compelled to decide every year.
From the correspondence of teachers, and through the cases known
personally by the comparatively few of our old students who have
already returned from their summer’s work, we could number up
to-day, which is only the fourth day after the opening of the
school, at least forty instances of young men and young women of
known character and ability who are eager and anxious to come to
Fisk University to fit themselves for teaching and other Christian
work among their people, who cannot come because they have not and
cannot get sufficient money. The number will be doubled by the time
this article reaches our friends through the AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
In many cases they can pay from five to seven dollars of the twelve
dollars a month required for their board and tuition. We find from
actual experience that an average of fifty dollars will help at
least one such struggling student to support for a year in Fisk
University. The balance and the money necessary to purchase books
they can generally provide for themselves. We ask the readers of
the AMERICAN MISSIONARY what we shall do with these cases. Any one
who will send us a thousand dollars will answer the question for
at least twenty. Every fifty dollars will give the answer in the
case of one. Our hearts ache when we are compelled to refuse, for
the want of money, these eager applications. Every one who has an
answer to give us can send it to H. W. Hubbard, Assistant Treasurer
of the American Missionary Association at New York—and we know the
answer will suffer no long delay in his hands—or to E. P. Gilbert,
Assistant Treasurer of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. All
students helped will in due time communicate by letter with those
who thus befriend them.
Will not every individual or Sabbath-school that contributed last
year to help aid students continue that help for the coming year,
and give us the earliest possible information of such intention?
E. M. CRAVATH, _Pres. Fisk University_.
THE LANGUAGE OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA.
Great interest has been awakened in the geographical discoveries
that have been made in Central Equatorial Africa during the last
twenty-five years. This vast and newly-explored country is no
doubt the choicest portion of the whole African continent. The
inhabitants, with the exception of a few mixed tribes along its
outer borders, all belong to one great family. A line starting
from the Cameroon Mountains on the western coast, second degree
north latitude, and drawn, with some slight variations, directly
across the continent to the same degree of latitude on the east
coast, divides the negro race into two distinct families, perhaps
of nearly equal size. The one, occupying the country north of this
line to the southern borders of the Great Desert, is known as the
Nigritian stock, from the fact that they are to be found mainly
in the valley of the Niger. The other, and the one to which our
article mainly refers, is known as the Ethiopian or Nilotic family,
from its supposed descent from the ancient Ethiopians, whose chief
residence was the banks of the Nile.
One general language, with great divergence as to dialects,
prevails over this whole region of country. There are not
only verbal resemblances, but there is a peculiar grammatical
structure, scarcely known to any other language, that pervades and
characterizes all the dialects of this one great family. A very
large number of words are common to the Mpongwe dialect on the west
coast, and the Swahili on the east, as may be seen from a grammar
of the Mpongwe, published by the missionaries at the Gaboon years
ago. If the words used by three or four tribes along the coast of
Southern Guinea could be fully collated, they would be found to
contain not less, perhaps, than four-fifths of all the words used
over the whole of this vast region.
But apart from these verbal resemblances, there are certain
features of orthography that establish the relationship between
these dialects quite as clearly. To mention no others, the use
of _m_ and _n_—as if they were preceded by a sort of half-vowel
sound—before certain other consonants, at the beginning of words,
is very peculiar. _M_ is constantly used before b, p, t, and w,
as in the words _mbolo_, _mpolu_, _mtesa_, and _mwera_. So _n_ is
constantly used before k, t, y, and gw, as in the words _nkala_,
_ntondo_, _nyassa_, and _ngwe_. The combination of _ny_ occurs in
the names of most of the great lakes, as _Nyassa_, _Nyanza_, and
_Tanganyika_. A still more striking feature of relationship between
these dialects may be found in the combinations by which proper
names are formed. The names of a large proportion of the tribes
encountered by Stanley and Cameron on their journeys across the
continent commence with the letter _u_, as _Uganda_, _Unyoro_, and
_Ujiji_, &c. Now, by prefixing _ma_, and dropping the initial _u_,
we have _Maganda_, a person or citizen of _Uganda_; _Manyoro_, a
person or citizen of _Unyoro_. So by prefixing _wa_ instead of
_ma_, we get _Waganda_, they, or the people of _Uganda_. Now, in
the Mpongwe dialect, _ma_ is simply a contraction of _oma_, person,
and _wa_ or _wao_ is the personal pronoun for _they_, showing how
these proper names are formed. Again, many of the names of these
tribes terminate in _ana_. _Ana_, in the Mpongwe dialect, is an
abbreviation of _awana_, children or descendants. If the names of
Bechuana and Wangana could be analyzed, they would be found to mean
the children or descendants of _Bechu_ or _Wanga_, this being the
way of giving names to any particular family that separates itself
from the parent stock.
But the peculiar character of this language is more remarkable
than its wide diffusion. Taking the Mpongwe dialect as a specimen,
we have no hesitation in saying that it will be difficult to
find any language, ancient or modern, that is more systematic
or philosophical in its general arrangements, more marked in
the classification of its different parts of speech or their
relationship to each other, or in the extent of its inflections,
especially those of the verb. The existence of such a language
among an uncultivated people is simply a marvel. As many as three
hundred oblique forms can be derived from the root of every regular
Mpongwe verb, each one of which will have a clear and distinct
shade of meaning of its own, and yet so regular and systematic in
all its inflections, that a practiced philologist could, after
a few hours’ study, trace up any of even its most remote forms
to the original root. It is not intended to convey the idea that
all these forms are habitually used, for that would indicate a
much more extended vocabulary than could reasonably be expected
among an uncultivated people. But there is no form of the verb,
notwithstanding its extensive ramifications, that would not be
distinctly understood by an audience, even if they had never heard
it used before.
It will be seen, therefore, that the vocabulary may be expanded
to an almost unlimited extent. It is not only expansible, but it
has a wonderful capacity for conveying new ideas. The missionaries
laboring among these people, after they had acquired a thorough
knowledge of the structure of this wonderful language, were
surprised to find with how much ease they could use it to convey
religious ideas. In their native state the people had no knowledge
of the Christian religion, and, of course, used no terms for
saviour or salvation, for redeemer or redemption, etc. They had,
however, the terms _sunga_, to save, and _danduna_, to redeem, or
pay a ransom. Now, according to a well established law of grammar,
_ozunge_ is a saviour, and _isungina_ is salvation; similarly
from _danduna_ comes _olandune_, the redeemer, and _ilanduna_,
redemption:—so that they could at once get a tolerably correct
idea of these terms, and there was no need (as there is in most
unwritten languages) to call in the aid of foreign words. Without
multiplying illustrations of a similar character, it will be seen
that the language is not only flexible and expansive to a very
remarkable degree, but is suitable beyond almost any other known
language to convey religious instruction to the minds of the
people. It has been preserved, no doubt, by a wise Providence for
this very purpose.
The providence of God towards this great family, therefore, seems
to be very marked and significant. They have been preserved for
centuries in great numbers and vigorous manhood, notwithstanding
their perpetual intestine strifes and the cruel desolations that
have been occasioned by the slave trade, along both their eastern
and western borders. They are in possession of a country that is
not only healthful and productive, but whose navigable streams seem
to have been traced out by the finger of Divine Providence for
the twofold purpose of facilitating intercommunication among the
people themselves, and of furthering the rapid diffusion of the
Gospel wherever it has once gained a footing. Then their language,
with all its wonderful characteristics, seems to have been kept
by the Divine hand as an easy channel through which the light and
blessings of the Gospel might, in God’s own good time, reach their
dark and benighted minds.
J. LEIGHTON WILSON, in _The Catholic Presbyterian_.
* * * * *
A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY.
BY MRS. H. G. GUINESS.
A wealthy farmer who cultivated some thousands of acres, had,
by his benevolence, endeared himself greatly to his large staff
of laborers. He had occasion to leave the country in which his
property was situated, for some years; but, before doing so,
he gave his people clearly to understand that he wished the
whole of the cultivated land to be kept in hand, and all the
unclaimed marsh lands to be enclosed and drained, and brought into
cultivation—that even the hills were to be terraced, and the poor
mountain pastures manured—so that no single corner of the estate
should remain neglected and barren. Ample resources were left for
the execution of these works, and there were sufficient hands to
have accomplished the whole within the first few years of the
proprietor’s absence.
He was detained in the country to which he had been called very
many years. Those whom he left children were men and women when
he came back, and so the number of his tenantry and laborers
was vastly multiplied. Was the task he had given them to do
accomplished? Alas! no. Bog and moor and mountain waste were only
wilder and more desolate than ever. Fine rich virgin soil, by
thousands of acres, was bearing only briars and thistles. Meadow
after meadow was utterly barren for want of culture; nay, by far
the larger part of the farm seemed never to have been visited by
his servants.
Had they been idle? Some had, but large numbers had been
industrious enough. They had expended a vast amount of labor,
and skilled labor, too; but they had bestowed it all on the park
immediately around the house. This had been cultivated to such a
pitch of perfection that the workmen had scores of times quarreled
with each other, because the operations of one interfered with
his neighbor. And a vast amount of labor, too, had been lost in
sowing the same patch—for instance, with corn fifty times over in
one season, so that the seed never had time to germinate and grow
and bear fruit; in caring for the forest trees as if they had been
tender saplings; in manuring soils already too fat, and watering
pastures already too wet. The farmer was positively astonished
at the misplaced ingenuity with which labor and seed and manure,
skill and time and strength, had been wasted for no result. The
very same amount of toil and capital expended according to his
directions, would have brought the whole demesne into culture, and
yielded a noble revenue. But season after season had rolled away in
sad succession, leaving those unbounded areas of various but all
reclaimable soil, barren and useless; and, as to the park, it would
have been far more productive and perfect had it been relieved of
the extraordinary and unaccountable amount of energy expended on it.
Why did these laborers act so absurdly? Did they wish to labor
in vain? On the contrary, they were forever craving for fruit,
coveting good crops, longing for great results. Did they not wish
to carry out the farmer’s views about his property? Well, they
seemed to have that desire, for they were always reading the
directions he wrote, and said continually to each other, “You know
we have to bring the whole property into order;” but they did not
do it. Some few tried, and ploughed up a little plot here and
there, and sowed corn and other crops. Perhaps these failed, and
so the rest got discouraged. Oh no! the yield was magnificent;
far richer in proportion than they got themselves. They clearly
perceived that, but yet they failed to follow a good example. Nay,
when the labors of a few, in some distant valley, had resulted in
a crop they were all unable to gather in by themselves, the others
would not even go and help them to bring home the sheaves. They
preferred watching for weeds among the roses in the overcrowded
garden, and counting the blades of grass in the park and the leaves
on the trees.
Then they were fools, surely, not wise men?—traitors, not true
servants to their lord?
Oh! I can’t tell! You must ask him that. I only know that the
Master said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to
every creature.” And eighteen hundred and seventy-seven years after
they had not even mentioned that there was a Gospel to one-half of
the world!—_China’s Millions_.
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
MEMPHIS, TENN.—Thus far, during the epidemic of this year, none of
the scholars of the Le Moyne Institute and none of the members of
the Second Congregational Church (colored) have suffered.
ATLANTA, GA.—The Storrs School was opened on the first of
September, with 250 scholars, under the continued principalship
of Miss Amy Williams, who is assisted by Misses Abby Clark, Julia
Goodwin, Amelia Ferris and F. J. Morris. Miss M. E. Stevenson
has been transferred from the position of a teacher to that of
lady missionary for the city, representing the ladies of the two
churches of Oberlin.
BRUNSWICK, GA.—Mr. Morse writes: “My school has been free the
entire year. We have averaged over ninety for the year of ten
months. I think many have been made wiser and better. Some have
connected themselves with the churches there. We are having a
season of great Christian interest in the Congregational Church of
this city, under Brother Clarke’s care. Two of our Sunday-school
scholars, and now supernumerary teachers, have given their hearts
to the Saviour. Our hope is the schools; take them away and I would
not give anything for Congregationalism among the colored people. I
had no idea of touching this matter when I began to write.”
MACON, GA.—Rev. S. E. Lathrop, who has been at Atlanta for three
months, running down to supply his church meantime, in a private
letter, describes a day of work as follows:
“Brother Young wrote me from Byron to come down there and baptize
some candidates for him. In the morning I went out from Macon
(seventeen miles by rail), rode three miles from the church to
the creek in a lumber wagon with fourteen _other_ colored folks,
getting caught in a shower on the way. Arrived at a grist-mill,
in which I changed clothes (preparing for immersion), with the
flour-dust half an inch deep everywhere. Waded into the creek and
immersed four candidates, three men and one woman, all of whom
behaved excellently well, without any shouting or gymnastics;
the seal of _sprinkling_ being set upon us by another sudden
shower just as we came out of the water. Rode back to the church,
preached, administered communion, received the four persons to
membership, and baptized an infant. Had just time for a good dinner
of ‘chicken fixins,’ and took the train back to Macon, arriving at
six p. m. of a close, sultry day. Walked one and a half miles and
back through the sweltering heat, to see a sick girl who wants to
join our church. Got back just in time for evening service, and
preached. Came back here yesterday, and have felt ‘bunged up’ ever
since.”
NO. 1 MILLER’S STATION, GA.—“On the 27th of August, one of the
members of this church died; or, perhaps, I should express it
better if I said he fell asleep—for it seemed more like sleep than
death. The brother had not been a member of the church for one year
yet; but all who saw him before his death felt sure that he was a
saved man. He was over 76 years of age, and was one of those who
had left off drinking since I came here. He was so determined on
leaving it off that he would not take the communion with us the
last time he was present at our services. He said he was afraid it
would lead him to rum drinking again. In his case was shown the
power of the Gospel. He had lived in sin for 75 years; yet, by the
grace of God, and the power of His word, he was set free from the
power of Satan. During his short Christian life he was kept from
the sin of strong drink, and when he died he went to live with
Jesus. A few hours before his death he said to me: ‘All I want now
is to see my dear Jesus; I have given up all for His sake; do,
blessed Jesus, come and take me when you are ready.’”
“THE FIRST COMMENCEMENT ON THE OGEECHEE” is the way in which Pastor
McLean, of Ga., announces the closing exercises of his parish
school. Never before had those rice swamps caught the echoes of
the children’s eloquence. In the twenty-eight orations and two
dialogues there was not a failure. And when the fathers and mothers
had a chance to express their gratitude, it was a burst of “God
bless you, brother.” Best of all, of the ninety-five who have been
connected with the school during the year, twenty-five have become
the disciples of the Great Master since the school was opened.
TALLADEGA, ALA.—The Catalogue of the College for the last year
reports 214 students in all the departments. This number includes
the dozen theological students who have been under the training of
Prof. G. W. Andrews. Their names are Andrew J. Headen, P. W. Young
and W. S. Williams, who were graduated this year; and also these,
who are to study one year more, though they have all been licensed,
J. B. Grant, Byron Gunner, John W. Strong, John R. Sims, Yancy B.
Sims, J. W. Roberts, H. W. Conley and Spencer Snell.
LAWSONVILLE, ALA.—While the people of this place are engaged in
building a church, they are enjoying a season of revival under
their Talladega minister, Rev. J. W. Strong.
MT. SPRING, ALA.—Rev. Alfred Jones, of Childersburg, having
preached a week at the out-station, Mt. Spring, was permitted to
rejoice in the conversion of fourteen persons. A half dozen have
also united with his church at home upon profession.
THE COVE, ALA.—Rev. J. B. Grant has been assisted at this place by
his fellow theologues, Y. B. Sim, T. T. Benson, J. R. Sims, and by
Rev. P. J. McEntosh, in a series of meetings which have resulted in
great good.
NEW ORLEANS, LA.—Rev. D. L. Mitchel, who is in charge of the
Presbyterian Book Depository in this city, is supplying the Central
Church (Rev. W. S. Alexander’s) during the summer vacation. He
writes thus under a recent date: “The congregation is quite regular
in attendance, about seventy, and the attention is excellent. The
prayer meetings are also well attended, and the spiritual condition
steadily improving. I think this one of the most important fields
in the South, and one of the most hopeful. May the blessing of our
heavenly Father abide with your corps of Christian workers and give
them abundant success in their self-denying labors.”
* * * * *
GENERAL NOTES.
The Freedmen.
—Of 142 cases of yellow fever reported at Memphis during the week,
August 18th to 24th, 79 were of colored people—about one-half.
About three-eighths of the total population are colored.
—Among the colored refugees in Kansas is an entire Baptist church
of 300 persons led by the pastor and deacons. They were from Delta,
La.
—Sojourner Truth, the famous colored woman, who is now 103 years
old, is at Chicago, en route to Kansas, to make a study of the
colored exodus.
—Governor St. John, of Kansas, believes that the colored exodus has
only begun; that it is not unlikely that it will soon re-open, and
reach to hundreds of thousands in its numbers.
—The current catalogue of Howard University reports a total of
236 students for the year. Of these, 21 are in the Theological
department, 64 in the Medical, 10 in the Law, 17 in the College,
16 in the Preparatory, and 87 in the Normal. This Association for
the third year sustains one-half the expense of the Theological
department. Rev. Dr. Craighead of this city, many years connected
with _The Evangelist_, has been appointed to the chair of Theology,
made vacant by the death of Prof. Lorenzo Westcott. Dr. Craighead
has accepted, and is to enter upon duty this fall. The Law and
Medical departments are under the instruction of resident lawyers
and doctors in Washington. Rev. Wm. W. Patton, D.D., is President
and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Natural
Theology, and Evidences of Revealed Religion, also Instructor in
Hebrew.
An appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made by the last
Congress exclusively for the benefit of the College; not a dollar
is to go to sustain the professional courses. It is fitting that
the Government, which, through the Freedmen’s Bureau, did so much
to found the institution, should help it along in its straits.
Prof. R. I. Greener, of the Law department, before the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, in session at Saratoga,
joined issue with Frederick Douglass in the discussion of the
exodus question. He is a man of platform popularity. It must
have been a touching scene when Col. Thos. J. Kirkpatrick, of
Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, in the meeting of the Howard
Board of Trust, joined hands in mutual expression of regard—the
ex-slaveholder and the ex-slave.
—The Marysville College in East Tennessee, founded before the
war by the New School Presbyterians, now under the presidency
of Rev. Peter Mason Bartlett, who has also a brother in one of
the professorships, received some of the funds of the Freedmen’s
Bureau, upon the condition that its doors should ever stand open to
colored as well as white students. This provision has been carried
out in spite of local prejudice, so that all along there have
been a few students of the African race among its numbers. This
institution is to be praised for fidelity to the bond. Some schools
that received from the same fund, on the same conditions, have not
stood to the contract.