among the Freedmen was in Alabama, where the Ku Klux outrages
lasted so much longer than in other places, and where the
missionaries looked to their guns and their rifles before retiring.
I reached there just the evening of the weekly prayer-meeting at
the school-house. ’Twas a stormy night, but with waterproofs and
umbrellas we ventured. Wholly unused to bullets, I must confess
there was a little trembling under one waterproof, as we wended
our way along the little path through the woods, and across the
one plank bridge over the Branch; but once within the building all
fear vanished. The room was filled with the finest looking colored
people I had ever seen. They had, many of them, been house servants
in the best families in this aristocratic place. The pastor opened
the meeting, and they carried it on with a liveliness that was
truly refreshing. Two or three usually rose at once, with words
right on their lips. This church had only been organized a little
over a year, and then numbered about eighty. There had been much
to dishearten all along. They had no church building, and had been
striving hard to build; but no sooner would they begin to see
little light through the clouds than the white people, fearing that
the men with dark skins might acquire too great a hold on this
world’s goods, would remove work from the most prosperous, and
thus the clouds would gather again. Referring to this method of
_keeping down_, one of the members once said, “No ’count niggers
can rub along here well enough, but smart niggers had better look
out for other quarters.” Even at that time the danger of their
being obliged to disband from outside violence was hardly over, and
as they told of their love for their church, one could hardly help
thinking of the stories of the early Christians, when persecutions
only increased their zeal. There was an undertone of sadness
through the remarks of several, for they felt peculiarly uncertain
as to what a day might bring forth. But one suddenly rose and
changed the key. “I was sad,” he said, “when I first came in here,
but your words of sadness have made me glad, for they have shown me
how much we all love our church, and such love, with the love of
God for us, which is even much greater, will carry us through fiery
trials. I never felt as strong as I feel to-night. ’Tis true, I
don’t know what may come upon us, but I do feel that the Lord will
help us through.” Then he told what he hoped for the future, in
such cheerful words, that as he sat down, they burst forth almost
with one voice in a song of praise, and then one after another
kneeled down, and in the most simple words of faith asked their
Father to help His children in this their day of trouble, and I do
not think there was one present who had the slightest doubt of His
doing so.
Even before the Kansas fever, there were States in the North that
were synonyms for all good things to the colored people. I remember
a Thanksgiving Day, when a minister was addressing one of the
schools, and telling the children what they had to be thankful
for, that he burst forth with the question, “Is there any other
country so blessed as this?” “Yes, sir,” said a little urchin
before him. “Why, what one?” “Massachusetts,” was the reply.
I once heard a colored minister pray heartily for the teachers in
this wise, “May God throw around this institution His _frosty_
arms, and bear the teachers from this to another vale of tears.”
The good old days have gone; the better ones, _perhaps_, have come.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE.
A Remarkable Conversion and Triumphant Death.
MISS HENRIETTA MATSON, NASHVILLE.
How often have God’s dealings with His children seemed strange and
sad, when those who were just ready to do valiant service for Him,
here amid the need of a lost world, are called up higher—called to
rest, rather than toil—to wear the crown, rather than longer bear
the cross.
But God’s ways are not ours, and since we know that He ever cares
for His own cause, we may believe that He calls the loved one to
a higher usefulness. Such were some of the thoughts that came to
our hearts when, on a beautiful June morning during the summer
vacation, we read the words, “E. J. Park died yesterday afternoon,”
followed by an account of the triumphant death of a student of Fisk
University, who had gone to Texas to teach school.
Eugene Park came to Fisk University several years ago, a pleasant,
careless boy, who had never bestowed a thought upon his eternal
interests. For a long time he was but little moved; both the
warnings and the entreaties of the Gospel seemed to fall unheeded
upon his ear, and we often felt that he became only more careless
and indifferent.
At last, however, the Spirit strove with him, and he began to
ask, “What must I do to be saved?” though at first there was not
in him that fixed purpose which would lead him to arise and go to
his Father. And so he halted for months, wavering and undecided,
until a mighty conviction seized him that he must find God, and
that speedily. Sin, in all its enormity, was revealed to him, and
he seemed indeed to realize that he was lost, unless the Saviour
should interpose and deliver him.
He then gave himself entirely to seeking God. He could not study,
and there were many long hours in which he could neither eat nor
sleep, so powerfully was he wrought upon. One morning in Chapel,
at devotional exercises, while in this intense state of mind, the
reading of the Scriptures so affected him that he sobbed aloud.
Hoping to calm him, and at the same time point him to Christ, the
hymn was sung, “Oh, the blood, the precious blood!” but he was so
overcome that his friends were obliged to take him away, and a few
of us gathered and prayed with him. Still the light from the Sun of
Righteousness did not break in; the precious blood was not applied
to his soul until the next day, when Jesus Himself drew near, and
the Lord of Glory revealed Himself as the One altogether lovely,
and the Chief among ten thousand. His soul seemed in a rapture of
joy for days. He came to the school with his Bible always in his
hand, as though he could not be parted from it even for a moment.
Then followed years of ripening in the Christian life, with
frequent seasons of such blessing that he could not speak of Christ
without tears. He early gave himself to the ministry, feeling that
to preach the everlasting Gospel would be his highest joy, and
was pursuing his studies with this in view. He was not, however,
without temptations to a worldly life, though we are assured that
the dear Saviour kept His own, even unto the end. His death was a
beautiful illustration of the triumph of the Gospel of Christ. Far
from friends and home, yet he was not alone, for that Friend that
sticketh closer than a brother was near.
He had been ill for several days, and one morning he told those
about him that he should go home at three afternoon, and precisely
at the hour named the summons came. He had sent messages to his
mother and friends. “Tell them,” he said, “that Jesus is with me
and saves me. Oh, how sweet it is to die in the arms of Jesus.” He
then sung, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb,” “Safe in the arms of
Jesus,” and “Sweeping through the gates to the new Jerusalem.”
And now we, in our sorrow, think of him as thus “safe.” We hoped he
would labor long and successfully for the Master; but he has been
called up higher, and is now, we believe, among the ransomed in the
New Jerusalem, where he has learned the new song, even praise unto
our God.
* * * * *
GEORGIA.
First Impressions.
REV. P. W. YOUNG, BYRON
I feel the necessity of writing you this morning concerning my
work, though my time is much occupied. I am happy to say that I
found some very earnest members here, notwithstanding they were
like sheep without a shepherd when I came. There is an opportunity
for a great deal of Christian labor here, as in many other places.
I preach on the Sabbath at 11 o’clock and at 8 o’clock in the
evening. We have a very good Temperance Society also. Its members
manifest great interest in the cause. The people are beginning to
see that intemperance, if continually practiced, will bring them to
degradation. I delivered a lecture to the society last Sabbath in
the afternoon, having about 250 persons present. I told them in the
plainest words of the great harm that had been done by intemperance
among the colored people. When I closed my remarks they said they
wished I could speak an hour longer on the same subject, showing
their hearty approval of what I had said.
The religious interest seems to be good generally. There are four
converts to unite with the church.
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
* * * * *
“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”
Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.
PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L.
Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon.
F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S.
H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D.,
Jacob S. Taber, Esq.
DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P.
Baker, James M. Haven Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball,
E. P. Sanford, Esq.
SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.
* * * * *
THE BEGINNING OF HARVEST—ONG LUNE.
REV. WM. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.
Our Lord has begun—sooner than we desired and very suddenly to
us—to gather from our harvest field His wheat into His garner. The
first-fruits went home on Sunday, Aug. 3d, at our Bethany church. I
was in the act of baptizing and welcoming to Christian fellowship
on earth _four_ of our more recently converted Chinese brethren,
when our brother Ong Lune was welcomed to the fellowship above. He
was a young man of 21 years, had been a Christian, as we hoped,
for nearly three years, and a church member since December, 1877.
His sickness was brief, and he was supposed to be recovering till
about twenty-four hours before his death. He had greatly desired
to become strong enough to be present at our August communion, but,
instead, he ate bread in the kingdom of God.
Modest and unassuming, but intelligent, earnest and thoroughly
consecrated to Christ, his absence from our mission work makes a
void not easily filled. A great majority of American Christians
might well have sat at the feet of this young Chinaman and learned
how to be co-workers with the Saviour. Approaching his countrymen
with a smile, seizing every opportunity to “speak a word in
season,” he sought to bring them to our schools, and then to lead
them to his Saviour. A house-servant, with little time that he
could call his own, he will wear no starless crown. I know not how
many times the question, “Who told you to come to school?” has been
answered by the utterance of his name. The last service he was able
to render was—in spite of pain and weariness from the disease which
afterwards proved fatal—to act as my interpreter in the examination
of three candidates for baptism, one of them, possibly, his own
child in the Gospel.
His teacher—Miss Florence N. Wooley—quotes him as saying that what
he wanted was “to bring more and more scholars, and watch them,
and when they know about Jesus, must make them to be our brethren
and try to keep them from temptation; and I wish to do the best I
can, but am afraid of temptation myself.” She adds: “He succeeded
in this; and the secret of his success, as told me by one of the
scholars, was this: ‘He talked so nice to the boys, and never got
cross nor angry; and so they all minded what he told them.’ He had
entered into the spirit of the word, ‘Go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in.’ As soon as he came into school
he was wont to speak of some one who had promised him to come that
night. If this promise was not fulfilled, he went after the person
again and again and brought him in. He was getting on well in his
studies, especially in his study of the Bible. The last verses he
recited were Acts vii. 54, 55, now happily fulfilled in his own
experience.”
THE STORY OF LEE FOUN, BY LEE HAIM.
[Lee Haim, one of our helpers, had given me this account, and I
requested him to write it for the MISSIONARY. I give it as he wrote
it, word for word, correcting only a few expressions to make the
sense clear.—W. C. P.]
“I am going to tell you something of our Christian brethren
when they go back to China. Last year one of our Christian
Association went by the steamship with his own brother, and when
they both reached their old home, his elder brother said to his
wife: ‘Well, to-morrow I will go tell my mother that my younger
brother, Lee Foun, believes in Jesus, and was a member of the
American Association while he staid in California. He does not
want to worship our gods which sit in the temple, nor worship our
ancestors; neither to keep the traditions which our fathers have
handed down from generation to generation. If I go and tell these
things to my mother she will give him a good whipping.’
“So his elder brother agreed to tell his mother in the morning;
and when the morning came he brought the whole affair before her.
She was exceedingly grieved when she heard it, and she went and
told some of her son’s uncles. Then Lee Foun’s uncles said to her:
‘Never mind that now; your son now come back is like a stranger;
you need not to say any thing to him now; but wait for two days,
until the first day of June is come; then you may call him up and
offer some tea, and burn the incense in the morning, and see if he
do it or not.’ This custom was known to Lee Foun, for our Chinese
generally keep it twice each month—the first day of the month and
the fifteenth. It is considered a very important custom, as much so
as to serve their parents in their lifetime. It is like the Jews
keeping the Passover every year, or as we keep the Supper of the
Lord.
“So his mother said nothing to him till the first day of June; then
she tried to wake him up to burn the incense and offer the tea to
his great-grandfather; but Lee Foun did not get up as early that
morning as usual; and when the time of offering tea and burning
the incense had passed, then he got up. And when he met his mother
she burst into tears. He asked her presently, ‘What is the matter,
mother?’ and his mother gave no answer. Then he asked her the same
thing. His mother said to him: ‘My son, you ought to have got up
early this morning and offered some tea and burned the incense
before your ancestor; but you got up so late, and did not do it,
that makes me feel bad.’ Then Lee Foun said to his mother: ‘If we
go and offer tea and burn the incense before these stones, wood,
clay and paper, do you think they know it? I don’t believe that,
for they, having eyes, cannot see; having ears, cannot hear; having
noses, cannot smell; mouth, cannot speak; hands, cannot handle;
feet they have, but cannot walk; and bodies have they, but cannot
move. All these things are nothing but wood, stone, clay and paper.
What good have they done for men? Moreover, those who serve images,
or serve the dead instead of the living, sin against the living
and true God; for every thing is made by His own hands. And He has
commanded us not to worship images, neither to serve the dead;
but only to worship the true and living God, and to honor father
and mother while they are living. But those who take offerings
of paper to be burned up, and represent money, are foolish, and
deceive themselves; for the paper is nothing but paper, and cannot
represent money.’ Then his mother laughed when she heard that, and
Lee Foun’s brother was angry at him, because his mother was pleased
with his younger brother, Lee Foun. He felt as Joseph’s brethren
felt toward Joseph when they saw Jacob, their father, love him. Do
you think they could injure Joseph, and that Lee Foun’s brother can
injure Lee Foun? No. Why not? Because God is with them. As Paul
said: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Oh, how glorious
and powerful God is!
“After a while some of the Chinese missionaries heard that a
certain Christian brother had come back, so they went and inquired
for Lee Foun, and they entered into his village, to visit him;
and when he saw the missionaries, then he wept, because of the
persecution by his own brother, and because of the ignorance of
his relatives about God. Lee Foun’s mother was glad to receive
them, and invited them to come again to the feast of Lee Foun’s
marriage. After this the marriage of Lee Foun was at hand; so the
Chinese missionaries went to his village again to show him how
the Christian ceremony should be performed. So Lee Foun did as
Christians do. He did not bow his head before the idols, nor before
his ancestors, and neither did he keep the traditions of men, but
the commands of God.
“Not only he did so, but Chan Wen, Lee Sam, and also many of our
brethren, act in accordance with Christianity when they go back
to China. I believe you have no doubt of that; for if we are true
Christians here in California, we will be true Christians in China
and elsewhere. We will stand up for Jesus and suffer for Him, and
take up His cross in public.
“Dear friends, we entreat that you will mention our names to the
Lord when you pray, that we may have a faithful heart in our Lord
Jesus; that we may be strong in Him; and ask Him to open the great
door to us, that the nation of heathen Chinese soon may become
a Christian nation, and they may understand the word of God and
know Christ is the Creator and Saviour of the world, and all the
creatures should be bowed down before Him.”
* * * * *
CHILDREN’S PAGE.
* * * * *
COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES.
TO THE CHILDREN:
I know you have heard much about the colored people, but did you
ever hear about their country school-houses? Let me tell you of two
in Alabama.
Sunday-schools as well as day-schools are held in these same
buildings. One Sunday, a minister who was going twelve miles out
into the country to visit one of these schools, invited me to go
with him. After inquiring many times where the school was, and
going half a mile out of our way, we at last spied, at the right
of the road, some saddled mules hitched to trees. We thought that
might be the place, and sure enough there, right in the woods, was
a nice new school-house.
After fastening our horse to a sweet-gum tree, we entered the
little unpainted building. The superintendent gave us seats at the
head of the school—not armchairs, but simply a board two feet from
the floor, answering for a bench. As soon as we were seated I began
to look about me to see what kind of a place I was in, while the
minister addressed the school. The house was built of pine logs,
placed an inch apart, consequently there were great cracks on all
sides of the room, which in summer must have been pleasant, as they
let in air, but in winter, think how cold they would be. The house
was full of old men, women and children, sitting on rude benches.
As I looked through the crack near me, I saw outside a row of men
seated on a log, who left their places when they heard a stranger’s
voice inside and crowded into the house. I saw them put their hats
up on a beam over their heads. Those who couldn’t find room inside
looked through the cracks. There was no window, only a square hole
cut over the door to let in light. Seeing the many cracks in the
roof, we asked, when we came out, if it never rained in upon them.
“Not much,” was the answer. You see these people don’t mind a bit
of a sprinkle now and then.
After the minister had finished telling them how he had been
in the very same land where Jesus had lived, the school sung,
“We’re going home to-morrow.” I wish you could have heard those
children. They sang at the top of their voices, their white teeth
showing more than ever in contrast with their black skin. After
the superintendent gave out the papers which we had brought, the
exercises closed, and I was glad to be relieved of the sixty pairs
of eyes which had been upon me.
Another time I went with some teachers to a Mission Sunday-school.
This was in a most lovely place, right in the thick woods, far away
from any houses or sounds of any kind, except the songs of the
birds. We found we were early that day, for neither the teacher nor
scholars had come. We went inside the school-house and waited.
Perhaps you ask how we got in. That was an easy thing to do, for
there was no locked door to keep us out, and no door of any kind,
only an opening in one side of the house. This was an old building,
built in the same way as the first one I visited. In some places
the logs were a foot apart. Here the benches were made of round
logs split in two, the flat part being the top, and in each end
of the rounded part were two legs. And such queer looking seats
as they were! Only one or two of them had backs. Before long the
teacher and a few scholars came. The school was small that day, as
there was a “big baptizing,” as they call it, not far away, which
always attracts crowds of colored people.
After the scholars had left, and as we were preparing to go, a
terrible thunder shower came up which detained us there. The rain
came in, drip, drip, at every crack, till after a while there was
only one dry corner in the house. The teacher told us that when
showers came in school time, the scholars had to sit on their books
to keep them dry. The shower continued for some time, and being
very tired, after a sixteen-mile drive over new-cut roads through
woods, we put on our water-proofs and lay down on the damp benches;
but finding the drops were falling into our faces, we were obliged
to put up umbrellas. This was resting under difficulties. There, in
that open building, far away from any one, with the rain coming in
and standing in pools on the floor, we fully realized what these
poor country people have to go through to learn their A, B, C; and
those who continue their schools in the winter must suffer greatly
from the cold, as they only have a fire-place in one end of the
room. One teacher told us that his fire-place was so poor, that in
winter he built a fire out of doors, while the children gathered
around it sitting on stumps and logs. There are not only these two
schools I have spoken of, but many such scattered all over the
Southern States.
Now, since I have been writing this, I have thought what a nice
plan it would be for you boys and girls to save some of your
pennies, and perhaps before long one of you would have enough to
buy a small, plain black-board, and another enough to buy a box of
crayons, or a pretty motto for one of these old bare school-rooms.
If you couldn’t send the things, you could send the money for them;
and how delighted any teacher would be with a few such comforts!
What do you think of my plan?—L. P. H.
* * * * *
RECEIPTS
FOR AUGUST, 1879.
MAINE, $1,031.89.
Bangor. First Cong. Ch. $29.17
Bath. Eliza Bowker 2.00
Castine. ESTATE of Samuel Adams, by L. G.
Philbrook, Ex. 800.00
Cumberland Mills. Rev. E. S. Tead 18.00
Dennysville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Falmouth. First Cong. Ch. 15.00
Gorham. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const.
MISS E. B. EMERY, L. M. 27.72
Vassalborough. ESTATE of Mary B. Buxton, by
Samuel Titcomb, Ex. 100.00
West Bath. Isaiah Percy, $3; Buelah B. Percy $2 5.00
Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
NEW HAMPSHIRE, $301.76.
Antrim. “A Friend.” _for Talladega C._ 5.00
Bath. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.70
Claremont. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 44.35
East Jaffrey. Eliza A. Parker 20.00
Goffstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 52.29
Haverhill. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.64
Henniker. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Lebanon. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.00
Manchester. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 51.33
Meriden. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.80
Merrimack. Merrimack Aux. Soc. 11.15
Milford. Peter and Cynthia S. Burns, _for
Athens, Ala._ 50.00
Short Falls. J. W. C. 0.50
VERMONT, $195.95.
Berlin. Cong. Sab. Sch. 3.56
Brownington. Cong. Sab. Sch. (of which $5 from
Dea. S.) 8.45
Chester. E. S. 1.00
Essex Centre. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.50
Essex Junction. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.75
Ferrisburg. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.85
Georgia. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.84
Greensborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Highgate. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.07
Ludlow. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.34
North Craftsbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Pittsford. Mrs. E. H. Denison 5.00
Sheldon. Cong. Ch. 9.03
Springfield. Cong. Ch. 46.71
Swanton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.85
Townshend. Mrs. N. B. Batchelder 2.00
Wesminster. Rev. A. B. D. 1.00
Westminster West. Rev. A. Stevens, D. D., $10;
Cong. Sab. Sch., $10 20.00
Windham. “A Friend,” $7; Cong. Sab. Sch., $4 11.00
Windham. Cong. Ch., $9.10, ack. in Sept.
Number, should read, Cong. Sab. Sch.
MASSACHUSETTS, $2,168.10.