for those who are teaching in our elementary and higher schools,
and for their pupils, that the instruction given and the mental
culture gained may bear the stamp of Christian consecration.
4. _Resolved_, That we desire to express our _warm sympathy with
our young people_, who, in the face of many obstacles, are bravely
pressing forward in their studies, to fit themselves for teachers
or preachers, and would urge them to get as thorough and complete
an education as possible.
Respectfully submitted,
C. W. HAWLEY,
T. T. BENSON,
WILSON CALLEN,
_Committee_.
* * * * *
ATLANTA MISCELLANIES.
BY A RESIDENT.
—A Christmas concert was observed by the Sunday-school of the
First Congregational Church of Atlanta, Georgia. It followed Dr.
Vincent’s programme, which, with variations, was rendered with
great success. The singing was excellent. The recitations and the
responsive readings of Scripture were impressive. The recitations
on the platform, of prose or poetry, a score or more, did not have
a failure or a prompting. Every piece during the whole evening
was about Christmas. The good reading and elocution were apparent
as the result of the good training in the Storrs School, whose
teachers are also instructors in the Sunday-school. Pastor C. W.
Hawley seemed in his element as the leader of this service. Sup’t
Roy made a talk at the close. The school numbers two hundred and
twenty-five. It would greatly gladden the hearts of the friends of
our work if they could only look in upon this and the many other
such schools in the South.
Atlanta has a monthly Sunday-school Teachers’ Institute.
Pastor Hawley attends it. Atlanta’s County, Fulton, has also a
Sunday-school Association, which convenes in the city quarterly.
At the last meeting, as interest was warming up in favor of
taking some more practical measures toward helping the colored
Sunday-schools, it was found that the constitution limited the
membership to such schools as were “all white.” Whereupon a
_resolution_ of interest and of encouragement was adopted. At the
last meeting of the State S. S. Association, held in Macon, a
colored school in Savannah applied for membership. The matter was
quieted for the time, but it is said that it will come up again.
Upon the recommendation of Gov. Colquitt it is proposed to adopt
the Brooklyn idea of a Children’s Day once a year; this not only
for the City but for the State. In Atlanta there are fourteen
colored Sunday-schools.
—At an entertainment at the Atlanta University, during the
holidays, the Field Superintendent gave one of his addresses upon
the map of the United States.
—At the watch-night service in the Trinity M. E. South Church, of
Atlanta, one of the speakers, Rev. Dr. Potter, a Presiding Elder,
dwelling upon the openings of benevolence during the last year,
expatiated at length upon the million of dollars given by one
estate to the American Board. Surely the children of light are
beginning to do business upon something of the grand scale on which
the children of this world project their schemes. It was stated
at that meeting that during the year, under Pastor Heidt, the
Trinity Church had received two hundred members, half of them upon
confession of faith, and had paid off a debt of twenty thousand
dollars. It seems that the M. E. General Conference, South, has
abolished the feature of a six months’ probation. Only those are
received who give evidence of conversion. The form in receiving a
member that night was quite Congregational. This church has also
advanced upon the policy of its sister at the North, in allowing a
_four_ years’ pastorate, instead of _three_.
* * * * *
FLORIDA.
Letter from Rev. Geo. Henry.
DEAR SIR: I opened last Monday a day-school in addition to our
Sunday-school. The necessity of this step will be apparent when I
tell you that there are fifty children in this place who wish to
attend school, but have been unable heretofore to do so, as the
distance to the nearest colored school is from four to seven miles
from their homes. Only a few of the larger ones have been able to
attend.
In my school I have dull and bright, lazy and industrious children,
as you have in all other schools, but taking them altogether, they
study as well and learn as quickly as any set of pupils I have ever
seen. I have one little girl who did not know the alphabet last
Monday, but by the end of the week was able to read little stories
from a Reader rapidly and accurately. I have never anywhere seen
such progress made by a young child.
In view of the capability of the children to learn, there can
scarcely be reason to doubt that the deplorable mental condition of
the adult Freedmen is due to that institution which has been such a
curse both to the slave and his owner. The public schools are open
from three to four months each year; but so far they have been of
very little use to the colored children, as they have been, as a
rule, taught by incompetent persons. Most of the colored schools
have colored teachers, and very few of them are either morally or
intellectually qualified for the position. For example, the man who
taught the school nearest to this place last winter used to bring
his bottle with him to school. A woman of bad character and only
rudimentary education has the same school this winter; yet this is
one of the largest schools in the county. In a conversation which
I had with Judge B——, a member of the Board of Public Instruction,
he said that “the school money which had been spent for colored
schools had been thrown away, for the children had not learned
anything.” This is very nearly a correct statement of the case, for
a bright child ten years of age would learn more in two months than
boys 19 or 20 years old know who have attended these schools for
years. Understand me, I think this is the fault of the teachers and
not of the pupils.
I believe that in my week-day school I shall be able to do as much
for the improvement of the condition of the Freedmen as in any
other way, and I am sure if you were here to look over the field
you would agree with me.
Our work in the Sunday-school is also very encouraging; not that
the scholars are uniting with the church—for nearly all the older
ones are members of churches now—but they are learning from the
word of God those truths which are calculated to prepare them for
useful lives in the earth and eternal happiness in the world to
come.
* * * * *
LOUISIANA.
The Schools and the Churches.
BY REV. W. S. ALEXANDER.
The work of education and evangelization among the Freedmen in
this State was never more hopeful. By the provisions of the new
constitution which was adopted at the recent election, the rate of
taxation has been greatly reduced, and as a direct consequence,
the appropriation for school purposes will be correspondingly cut
down. The free colored schools will be the first to be struck by
this wave of retrenchment. Many schools, especially in the country
parishes, will be closed, or, at the best, be maintained for a
very brief period in the year. New Orleans will feel this matter
as keenly as the country, for the amount of taxation is strictly
regulated by the new constitution. Only special gifts can possibly
keep the schools up to the present standard. One of the most
prominent educators in the city said to me, “I would not raise
unnecessarily the cry of alarm, but a crisis is surely near at hand
with our public schools.” The colored Normal School will certainly
be discontinued. The Peabody fund will probably not be available
for Louisiana another year. All these events, so unpropitious to
the free school system of Louisiana, and so deeply to be deplored,
render our work all the more necessary, and our prospect of
enlarged usefulness the brighter.
When we see the grand opportunity opening before our beloved
University—an opportunity which has not the remotest resemblance
to the fictitious and dreamy—we try to forget the plaintive words,
“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” and rally our courage by the
more inspiring prophecy, “The morning light is breaking.”
When the glorious work of enlargement begins, will it not be in
order to start at the Gulf of Mexico and gradually work up? We
rather approve of that plan and are quite ready for it.
CHURCH WORK IN LOUISIANA.
“We hold our own, and something more,” is the word that comes up
from the churches of our Association. Our annual meeting will
be held at _Terrebonne_, the first Wednesday in April, and the
brethren are eagerly anticipating it. Congregationalism is a
plant of slow growth among the colored people, not from want of
adaptation, but from lack of money to push it into fields now
unoccupied or uncultivated. Money is needed to give new enterprises
substantial encouragement in their difficult “beginnings”—to tide
the pastors past the _starvation_ point—to give them “foothold”
till strength comes to them in the natural growth of a good
enterprise.
The church at New Iberia, which welcomed our last annual
conference, and which is memorable as the scene of a most precious
revival, and suffered seriously in the loss, by a furious wind
storm in September, of their tasteful and commodious chapel, is
rallying grandly from the shock. By liberal subscriptions, by
mortgaging their property, and by personal labor, they have put
up and covered the frame of a larger building, and have stopped
before finishing, simply because they could do no more. Two hundred
dollars will put the new chapel in order for dedication. Shall they
appeal in vain? We cannot afford to lose or to cripple this church.
It has been a bright light on the prairie, and though the tempest
levelled the building, it cannot—it must not—extinguish the light.
Our own, the Central Church, sends greeting to all kind,
sympathizing and praying friends in the North. All summer long,
the members of the church have prayed in public and in private for
a gracious out-pouring of the Divine Spirit. I found the church in
an earnest, praying state. A greater degree of unity and cordial
Christian fellowship prevails than I have ever before seen.
To-morrow (Sunday, Jan. 4,) begins the “Week of Prayer.” If, in its
results, it shall fulfil the longings and faith of this people,
then will it indeed be the “Week of Weeks” to us in Central Church.
Last night, at our preparatory service, seventy-five were present;
five new members were received, of whom three came on profession of
faith. It was a meeting of peculiar tenderness and spiritual power.
After a brief lecture by the pastor, forty-two Christians spoke
tender, earnest words of love to God, and devotion to His service.
God grant I may have good tidings to send you in my next letter.
* * * * *
TENNESSEE.
Labor Among Convicts.
PROF. H. S. BENNETT, NASHVILLE.
I have been superintendent of the Sunday-school in the Penitentiary
of Tennessee, located at Nashville, for nine years, and several of
the teachers of Fisk University have done so much in connection
with that school that the work done there becomes a part of the
influence of Fisk University. Hence, a brief description of a
powerful work of grace, which has been in progress during the past
three months, will appropriately find place in the columns of the
MISSIONARY.
During my connection with the prison school, several seasons of
refreshing have been witnessed, and hundreds of the prisoners have
expressed a hope in Christ.
On returning from the North and resuming my duties as
superintendent in the prison, in September, I noticed an unusual
interest in the study of the Bible lesson. The remarks which were
made at the close of the lesson were listened to with breathless
interest. The interest was so marked that it was determined
to give an opportunity to those who might desire to present
themselves for prayers. This was done, and upwards of one hundred
prisoners presented themselves. After a brief prayer-meeting,
the prisoners were dismissed. On the next Sabbath, five or six
made a profession of their faith in Christ, having been converted
through the week. The work thus begun went on for two months,
only one meeting for inquiry being held each week, and that at
the close of the Sabbath-school. Another meeting was held on
Sabbath morning, at which regular services were conducted by the
chaplain. Each Sabbath, from three to six reported that they had
found the Saviour. A deep religious interest pervaded the entire
prison. Wherever little groups of prisoners were to be found, their
conversation was upon the subject of religion. All the teachers
felt that the Lord was present in power. At the end of two months
thirty-five had found the Saviour, and ten or twelve backsliders
had been reclaimed.
On the last Sabbath of November an unusual scene was witnessed
within the prison walls. Thirty-four prisoners were received into
the prison church. As the long row of prisoners, arrayed in the
stripes of the criminal, stood up to take upon them the covenant
vows of the church, it was perceived that the work had been very
great.
Of the candidates, eight or ten were baptized by sprinkling, the
rest by immersion. Ten or twelve remain to be taken into the church.
The influence of the work among the prisoners is seen to be very
salutary. The church service and the Sabbath-school are the two
bright spots in the lives of the prisoners. From twenty to
twenty-eight teachers, of both sexes and colors, Northern and
Southern, engage in the work. Three hundred pupils, prisoners,
attend with remarkable regularity, as the attendance is optional.
The influence of the religious work is to inspire the prisoners
with hope, and with a purpose to retrieve whatever they have lost
by their folly and crime in the past. Scores of them go out and
live useful and honorable lives. Of this we have abundant proof.
* * * * *
WOMAN’S WORK AMONG WOMEN.
Answers to Prayer—“Scrubbing up with the Bible.”
MISS HATTIE A. MILTON, MEMPHIS, TENN.
My heart is overflowing with thanks-giving, not so much for the
great results that I have already seen—for the greatest results
in this work are discerned only by the eye of faith—but that I am
permitted to be the instrument, even in a humble way, of answering
your prayers, and not only yours, but those of the poor suffering
people here. So many times when administering to their wants, not
only when giving them loaves and fishes, but when pointing them to
a higher spiritual and moral life, they have remarked, “Miss, I
know the Lord sent you in answer to prayer.”
Sometimes I hesitate about going to places, and think I will do
some other duty that day; but when the thought comes to me that it
may be an opportunity to answer somebody’s prayer, I feel that I
must go. Again, many times have my friends in the North answered
my prayers. I will mention one instance which struck me as being
remarkable. A very poor woman came to me asking for clothing for
the little helpless children of her dying sister. I had just
given out the last garment; but while talking with her I put up a
prayer that something would come soon, and told her that I thought
I should have something for her in a few days. Just then the
door-bell rang, and I went to the door and found there a box, which
I opened at once, and in it beheld the answer to my prayer! It was
full of very nice and mostly new clothing for children. It was a
literal fulfilment of the promise, “and it shall come to pass, that
before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking
I will hear.” And it is a comforting thought, that wherever God
places us, He gives us the opportunity to answer other people’s
prayers.
The interest in this work is constantly increasing as we know more
about it. The outlook for the year on which we have already entered
is very encouraging. A few days since, while visiting a very hard
neighborhood, one mother who is a church member said, “You must
come around often; we knew ye first, and ye ought to visit us most;
we needs ye too. I allers lays close down to what ye say, like the
knife to the grindstone, ‘cause I wants ye to sharpen me, so I will
get to living better. I’s mighty keerless, tho’ sometimes I does
try in a stamerin’ manner to talk to my trifling neighbors. Now
do come around often and _scrub us up with the Bible_.” Another
woman, who has a good home, said, “We are so glad to have you back,
so we can have our prayer meetings again; for we like those quiet
meetings, without any fuss; and we like a leader in whom we have
confidence, to instruct us.”
One of the pupils in our school urged me to start a Sunday-school
in the Methodist church, of which she is a member. I went three or
four times, accompanied by one of our teachers. The colored pastor
gave us a hearty welcome; said he was proud that we had come to
help, and that he was no respecter of persons. The number increased
each week. Last Sunday it was very unpleasant. The tenacity of the
red Memphis mud was marvelous; but when I arrived, a little late,
at the church, having been detained to attend the burial of a
baby, I found a goodly number, and the pastor was reviewing the
last week’s lesson. We immediately proceeded with the lesson for
the day, after which I told them I thought we had better organize a
Sunday-school, as I only wished to be a teacher, and would rather
some of their own number would be the officers. To this they gladly
assented, and we organized. We have three classes. I furnish them
with Sunday-school papers, as they have never had any. Twice,
as the hour for service approached, the minister has given up
preaching, saying they learned much more studying the Bible. As we
were leaving the church a brother said, “I believe you is going to
be jest the building up of this church.” Another said, “That is the
kind of folks we colored ones needs; some one who is always at the
post of duty, and is not afeard of mud and rain.”
We have substantial evidence that our Northern friends have not
forgotten the suffering ones here, in the shape of two barrels of
very useful clothing, from Whitewater, Wis., and I have word that
boxes from three other places are on the road. May those who give
be as much blessed as those who receive, and we will strive to do
all in our power to answer their prayers. “So we, being many, are
one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”
* * * * *
STUDENT TEACHERS FROM LE MOYNE.
MISS L. A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS.
We have never kept any record of the teaching and Sunday-school
work done by our pupils, but, within a few days, I have
gratified my curiosity by taking notes from the lips of a few
student-teachers. Here they are.
Sixteen of our young people have during the summer taught one
thousand and thirty-five (1,035) day pupils, and very nearly as
many S. S. scholars. This does not include the teachers now at
work, some of whom return to us next week, or in early spring.
Probably this is only a fifth of the record, counting all former
pupils.
Some of the experiences are very droll, as of the young woman who
saw new phases of life in Arkansas: “Would you believe it, that the
_white_ people didn’t know as much as I do?” White and black always
called her “the white lady,” and urged her return next season.
Another young woman was assistant in a school of 80 children. The
log school-house had no windows except board shutters; the seats
were boards fastened upon blocks of wood; the blackboard was of her
own manufacture. The building was so small that in pleasant weather
she heard her recitations in a bush-arbor built against the side of
the house.
Some of the teachers had better accommodations. One young man had
an excellent building in a community of thriving farmers. He has
taught there for five seasons. Just now he is getting up a club for
the _New York Tribune_ and reports ten subscribers.
Another young man, a member of the senior class, could scarcely
leave his people. A powerful revival in connection with the school
had brought many aged people as well as children to confess Christ,
and the converts were loth to part with their teacher and friend.
The person who went after him does not weary of telling about the
tears shed and pathetic expressions of regret.
After two years of constant teaching, another writes, “There are so
many things in life I can’t manage, I want to go to school again.”
The most cheering sign of the year is this growing desire for more
thorough preparation for the work of life.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
BOYS FOR HAMPTON FROM FORT BERTHOLD.
Rev. C. L. Hall, Fort Berthold, D. T.
In the temporary vacancy of this Indian Agency, we gratefully
acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. Hall, who is in the service of the
A. B. C. F. M., in writing us the interesting letter which we print
herewith:
I have had my privilege and my duty to co-operate with your society
as represented by Hampton Institute, Virginia, and with the U. S.
Government, in inducing a number of Indian youth to go East for
education.
We thank God that the Government, among other good movements it has
undertaken, has taken this “new departure” in the matter of Indian
education. The A. B. C. F. M. has for many years been educating
Indians with success, and the present civilized condition of the
Cherokees, Choctaws, and many of the Sioux, Nez Perces and other
tribes, is owing to their efforts, and for some years past the
A. M. A. has also undertaken like work with like success. Indian
education is no new departure with us; but on the part of the
Government it is, and it has given us great pleasure to help on the
plans of the Secretary of the Interior and of Commissioner Hayt in
this matter.
The beginning of their “experiment” was here at Berthold. Captain
Pratt, who was detailed by the Government to get fifty Indians
from the mission, came to start his company at this agency, and I
shall always feel that it was an honor to have been able to help
him get a start. We did not know how the people would feel about
sending their children to a distant and unknown country. They were
superstitious about school and church influences. Would they trust
the white man? Would they be sufficiently influenced by the desire
for an education.
Well, Captain Pratt had both experience and faith; he told us
of his talks and prayer meetings with the prisoners in Florida,
and of their desire for education, and of the willingness of
Eastern Christian friends to help them; then we knelt down in
the sitting-room of our mission home, that Sabbath evening, and
committed our way unto the Lord. All was in doubt; some had refused
to go; the chiefs would not send their children; but soon three
youth (boys of eighteen or twenty years of age) came of their own
accord and offered themselves. They had been attending our school
and had learned in a measure to trust us. They said they knew it
was a long way to go and a long time to stay, and it would be hard;
but they were prepared to carry out their resolution to learn to
be white men. Soon thirteen youth, nine boys and four girls, were
secured, all from our school; it took the nucleus of our school;
but we knew that this movement would create a new interest in
education and bring us new scholars, as well as do more than we
could for the old ones who should go away, so we gave them up
willingly.
With this beginning, Captain Pratt started down the river in a
flat-bottom stern-wheel mission steamboat, one cold October day,
collecting more from the river agencies as he went along till
forty-nine were secured. The youth looked very sober as they
started off; there were some very touching partings with friends,
one of whom said, “I may not see a hair of him again;” and at the
last look at them we saw blankets and coats waving in lieu of
handkerchiefs on the upper deck of the boat. My heart was in my
mouth as I thought of the boys and their Indian relatives, and of
the better days in store for Indians, of which Uncle Sam was giving
us a foretaste. All this was a year ago; to-day a hundred more from
Dakota are on their way to Hampton and to Carlisle, and provision
is being made for others in the West near their own homes. It is a
beginning of better days, and I rejoice that our two Congregational
societies can find occasion to co-operate with each other and the
Government in behalf of the Indian.