Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Sandra
Bannatyne and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
The American Missionary.
November, 1889.
Volume XLIII. No. 11.
* * * * *
Contents
EDITORIAL.
Free Once More
The National Council
The Colored Delegates
The Mohonk Conference
Notes from New England
Death of Superintendent Hall and of Dr. Lane
GENERAL SURVEY.
The South
Educational Work
Church Work
Mountain Work
The Indians
The Chinese
Enlargements and Improvements
Woman's Work
Finances
Daniel Hand Fund
THE CHINESE.
Review Of The Year
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
Paragraphs
Woman's Work in North Carolina
Woman's State Organizations
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
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.
PRESIDENT, Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill.
Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass.
Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass.
Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H.W. HUBBARD. Esq., _56 Reade Street, N.Y._
_Auditors._
PETER McCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
_Executive Committee._
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_For Two Years._
LYMAN ABBOTT,
CHAS. A. HULL,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
ALBERT J. LYMAN.
_For One Year._
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE.
_District Secretaries_
Rev. C.J. RYDER, _21 Cong'l House, Boston._
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., _151 Washington Sheet, Chicago._
Rev. C.W. HIATT, _64 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_Field Superintendents._
Rev. FRANK E. JENKINS.
Prof. EDWARD S. HALL.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. EMERSON, _56 Reade St., N.Y._
* * * * *
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to
the Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances,
to the Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A
payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please
send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the
former address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.
FORM OF A BEQUEST
"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars,
in trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person
who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American
Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under
the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its
charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three
witnesses.
* * * * *
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
VOL. XLIII. NOVEMBER, 1889. NO. 11.
AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
* * * * *
FREE ONCE MORE.
At the close of our fiscal year in 1887, we were enabled to utter the
joyful word "Free," no _debt_ darkening our balance sheet. Last
year (1888) we were compelled to moderate our tone and say "Not quite
free," for a balance of $5,641.21 stood on the wrong side of our
ledger. But now, in the good providence of God, we can say "Free once
more."
Our receipts from all sources were $376,216.88; payments, including
debt of last year, $371,745.21, leaving a credit balance of $4,471.67.
For this good result we are in some measure indebted to legacies. But,
under all circumstances, we rejoice in the past and look forward with
hope to the future. The work we have in hand, with its grand results,
as will be seen in the "General Survey" published in this number of
the MISSIONARY, will encourage our friends, and the call there made
for growth and enlargement, will, we are sure, stimulate them to
increased contributions and more earnest prayer. The "Survey" will
also contain a statement of the income and expenditure of the Hand
Fund.
* * * * *
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL.
The gathering of this representative body of the Congregational
churches of this country was the largest ever held. It grappled more
fully than any of its predecessors had done with great questions
touching the missionary and benevolent societies in their relations
to the churches and to each other, and the consolidation of the
missionary magazines. The most exciting topic discussed was that of
the Georgia Congregational Churches, white and colored. The result
reached on this point was that the representatives of two District
Conferences were enrolled, and that the representative of the United
Congregational Conference of Georgia was given a seat as an honorary
member.
* * * * *
THE COLORED DELEGATES.
The Southern Associations were represented by six colored delegates
in the National Council. Their bearing and ability won the respect and
admiration of the whole Council. They were modest and manly in their
deportment, prudent in their counsels and very eloquent in their
speech. They showed themselves to be the peers of their white
brethren, and demonstrated beyond a question the capacity of the
colored man for the highest intellectual and moral training. They were
a credit to the American Missionary Association, whose pupils they
have been, and were a living and triumphant vindication of its work at
the South.
* * * * *
THE MOHONK CONFERENCE.
The seventh annual gathering of this Conference, Oct. 2-5, was the
largest ever assembled. Among those present for the first time were
Ex-President Hayes, Gen. O.O. Howard, Gen. John Eaton, Prof. Wayland
and Dr. Wayland. The newspaper press, religious and secular, was very
fully represented; Abbott, Buckley, Dunning, Gilbert, Ward and Wayland
are perhaps best known. The venerable Judge Strong well represented
the law, while the absence of Senator Dawes was sincerely regretted.
A marked feature of the Conference was the presence of Gen. Morgan,
Commissioner of Indian Affairs. For weeks prior to the meeting of the
Conference, rumors had gone abroad that he intended to abolish the
"contract schools"--that is, schools of the missionary societies which
the Government by a "contract" agrees to assist. Articles had appeared
in the newspapers remonstrating against this course, and it was
believed that this topic would be one of most practical interest in
the Conference. The Commissioner early in the meetings read a paper
outlining his plan for the establishment of Government schools for all
Indian children--the attendance to be compulsory. The omission of
all mention of the "contract schools" in this paper confirmed the
impression to which rumor had given currency. An animated discussion
followed the reading of his paper, in which the Commissioner freely
participated. It appeared that he had been misunderstood--at least
in so far as any immediate curtailment of the "contract schools" is
concerned, and he impressed the Conference warmly in his favor as a
Christian man with broad views, impartial and progressive. He will
meet, we feel sure, with the cordial support of all the societies
engaged in Indian educational work.
The final action of the Conference was embodied in a platform
substantially repeating the utterances of last year, urging national
education for all Indian children and approving the continuance of
"contract schools." Other planks of the platform related to lands in
severalty, to the legal rights of the Indians, etc.--all of which were
unanimously approved, and thus once more this remarkable Conference
followed its predecessors in free and frank debate, consummated by
entire harmony in the result.
The varied and unique scenery of Lake Mohonk was shown at its best by
three days of bright and bracing weather. The welcome of Mr. and Mrs.
Smiley to their increased number of guests, who taxed to the utmost
limits the accommodations of the large establishment, was as cordial
and genial as ever. The hearty and enthusiastic vote of thanks,
the only compensation permitted, was a far less reward than the
gratification of their own benevolent feelings in doing good; and that
gratification is probably to be enhanced by the calling together of
another Conference in the early summer in behalf of a still larger
class of our needy fellow-citizens than the Indians.
* * * * *
NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.
A good friend of the American Missionary Association in a New England
village recently greatly stirred up the interest of the people in
behalf of our work, through a missionary society which she organized
among the children. They had meetings for sewing, preparing articles
for a box, and then a fair, in which they sold other articles that
they had made, out of which they gathered a considerable sum of money.
The interest went far beyond the children. A gentleman, not a member
of the church, who had never been interested in missionary work, was
stirred up by the solicitation of the children, and gave both time
and money to their effort. He afterwards said to a good lady who
inaugurated the movement, "I am glad I have given to this cause; it
makes me feel good, and I want to keep right on giving." That is the
way it affects every one when the heart and pocket-book are open to
these missionary objects. It makes them feel good, and stirs up a
desire to continue the process.
* * * * *
The Christian Endeavor Societies of New England are assisting nobly in
the work of the American Missionary Association. One society pledges
itself to support a missionary in our field for a year. Another makes
one of its number a Life Member of our Association, contributing
thirty dollars. Still another brings in a handsome collection recently
taken, and still another devotes the prayer meeting evening to
thorough study upon the work that is being done through the A.M.A.,
in the needy and destitute portions of our country. One young man who
spoke at the last meeting spent a portion of his vacation in studying
up the work among the Highlanders of the South, and gave the results
of his study at their meeting. And why should not this active society
of earnest young people be interested in the great work that is
being accomplished among other young people, painfully in want of
the advantages which those here enjoy? A prayer meeting pledge of the
Y.P.S.C.E., printed in the Sioux language by Indian boys at a Santee
school, is a most interesting evidence that this society is not
confined in its usefulness to any locality or race. A vigorous Society
is one of the elements of work in this Indian school, and a most
useful element. In a letter written by an Indian boy is the following:
"We have a Christian Endeavor Society here. I joined that society not
very long ago, and we have nice meetings on Saturday night. It does
make me feel good in those meetings. There are about thirty members
now." And so these Societies of New England in their prayers for, and
contributions to, the work of the American Missionary Association,
are clasping hands with the same societies among the Negroes, Mountain
people and Indians.
The "King's Daughters" are also a useful agency in the field work
of our Association. A little Indian girl writes interestingly of the
"King's Daughters" of whom she is one.
* * * * *
DEATH OF SUPERINTENDENT HALL.
Just as we are going to press, (October 18th), we are startled by the
telegraphic announcement of the sudden death from typhoid fever of
Prof. Edward S. Hall, one of our Field Superintendents. Mr. Hall had
been one year in the service of the Association, and had already shown
himself to be a man of varied and remarkable capabilities--not only
skilled in the management of schools, but familiar in an unusual
degree with the practical work of building and repairing school and
church edifices. His services have been invaluable to the Association,
and it will be difficult to supply his place. As a man of noble
Christian character and consecration to the work entrusted to him, he
had won our highest esteem.
* * * * *
DEATH OF LARMON B. LANE, M.D.
Rev. Larmon B. Lane, M.D., died at his home in St. Charles, Ill.,
Sept. 15, 1889. He was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, June 21, 1821. He
studied medicine at Cleveland Medical College, and afterward attended
Oberlin College and Theological Seminary, graduating in 1848. The
following year he was sent by the American Missionary Association as
missionary physician to Siam, where he labored faithfully, ministering
to soul and body six years. In 1855 a severe hemorrhage compelled him
to give up the missionary work. After a short rest he began his work
of preaching the gospel. He had successful pastorates in Illinois
and Ohio; afterwards he practiced medicine in Geneva and St. Charles,
Ill., at which latter place he died. He was successful as a physician
and continued to the end a loyal servant of Christ, was deacon,
treasurer and Sunday-school Superintendent, besides being always ready
to do with his might what his hands found to do.
S.
* * * * *
FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE,
FOR THE YEAR ENDING SEPTEMBER 30TH, 1889.
* * * * *
GENERAL SURVEY.
The American Missionary Association finds its commission in the words
of the Master, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature."
It does not choose its fields of labor because the people in them are
black, or red, or yellow, or white; but because they are those
for whom Christ died and to whom he commanded the glad tidings of
salvation to be preached. In the fields to which it providentially has
been called, it seeks to bring the gospel to every human being who has
it not in its purity as an uplifting power.
In nineteen States and Territories we are laboring--six in the West
and thirteen in the South. In ninety-four schools and one hundred and
forty-two churches we have been directly teaching and preaching the
gospel during the past year. In them have 456 missionaries wrought
with holy purpose. 12,132 pupils have been taught in our schools; more
than seventeen thousand have received instruction in Bible truth in
our Sunday-schools; 782 conversions have been reported. $3,160.14 have
been reported as given in our mission churches for benevolence, and
$21,658.57 for their own expenses--again over last year of $660.03 in
benevolence and $2,322.62 in church expenses. Besides all this and all
that in various ways has failed to be reported to us, have been
the vacation work of our students, the large work of our previous
graduates, the indirect results of many kinds, and the unknown results
and influences of great power and far-reaching importance which have
gone forth from our institutions and missionaries whose only possible
record is in God's Book of Remembrance.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
In the South, we are directly reaching three classes--the colored
people, the mountain whites, and the new settlers from the North and
from the old countries. Indirectly we are reaching many more. The
schools we plant often incite others to plant schools; the houses of
worship we aid in erecting cause others to be erected. A single neat,
but inexpensive building for a country church of colored people has
been known to occasion the building or repairing of at least nine
church buildings of neighboring white people. The incontestably good
results of our work among the colored people are slowly but surely
undermining race prejudice. In spite of all the race trouble during
the past year and the increasingly bitter utterances of some papers
and some public speakers, during no other year in the history of our
country have so many manly words in favor of the Negro been printed in
Southern papers, and sounded from the pulpits and platforms of the
South. It was in a Southern University and before a Southern audience
that a Southern man, a Bishop of a Southern church which took the name
Southern when it declared for slavery, this year uttered these words:
"It is a travesty on religion, this disposition to canonize
missionaries who go to the Dark Continent, while we have
nothing but social ostracism for the white teacher who is
doing a work no less noble at home. The solution to the race
problem rests with the white people who live among the blacks,
and who are willing to become their teachers in a missionary
spirit."
Cruel and unreasoning is prejudice, but when the public platforms, and
especially the pulpits, begin to yield in their utterances to the sway
of logic and humanity, by and by public opinion will feel their force.
Our institutions and our missionaries have compelled the respect of
the Southern people. This year many expressions of it have been heard.
* * * * *
_EDUCATIONAL WORK._
CHARTERED INSTITUTIONS.
During the past year we have directly sustained five chartered
institutions in the South--Fisk University, Talladega College,
Tougaloo University, Straight University and Tillotson Institute.
Every year that passes emphasizes anew that these are most wisely
located, so that each is a center of far-reaching power, and
supplements the work of all the others.
Fisk University at Nashville, Tenn., with its 503 students, has had a
year of great prosperity, and solid, telling work. Its buildings have
been full, the quality of the work done has been excellent. A graduate
of Fisk recently took his diploma from an Eastern school of medicine,
with a rank two per cent. higher than any other man in his class.
Another graduate of Fisk is a missionary in Africa under the American
Board, and is not only declared by the Secretaries to be one of its
best missionaries, but has shown such business capacity that he has
been chosen treasurer of his mission. His wife, a worthy helpmeet,
is also a graduate of this institution. Fisk has high ideals--few
institutions in the South have higher ones, or come nearer reaching
them.
Talladega College, in Talladega, Ala., has had 427 students in all
departments. Its year's work has shown most satisfactory results.
Talladega is closely connected with the church work of the State. All
the pastors in the Congregational State Association but four are from
its theological department and several other States have found pastors
there. The last State Association, with its fine body of young men,
educated, dignified and earnest, was a most emphatic demonstration of
the good work done in this institution. The students of Talladega have
carried forward during the past year, under direction of a member
of the Faculty, a systematic mission work in the surrounding
neighborhoods, which has yielded large results, both in the good done
in the neighborhoods and in the training received by the workers for
future usefulness.
Tougaloo University has been filled to overflowing with 343 students,
and after the last inch of room had been filled, scores had to be
turned away. This school is situated almost in the center of the
State, and reaches a far larger region not limited by State lines.
It is near the border of the Yazoo country, which has begun to be so
wondrously developed, and is so rapidly filling with colored people.
The evangelization and enlightenment of this new Africa must largely
come through Tougaloo. Here must be trained preachers, teachers and
other leaders of character for this new region, as well as for the
older portions of the State. Good, solid work has been done here
all through the year, and preparation has been made for even better
results in the future.
Straight University, in New Orleans, La., is peculiarly situated for
an important and far-reaching work. It draws its students not only
from the States, but also from Mexico and the West Indies--484
last year. With the enlarged accommodations for the primary and
intermediate work which have been planned, this institution will be
better prepared to meet the demands of higher education.
Tillotson Institute, at Austin, Texas, the youngest of our chartered
institutions, has had a prosperous year with 230 students, in the
Primary, Intermediate, Grammar, Normal, College Preparatory and
College departments. Situated at the capital of the great empire of
Texas, it is destined to be an educational, religious and evangelistic
centre, a power for the building up of the kingdom of Christ. It
greatly needs enlarged accommodations. Where is the Lord's steward who
is ready to give it at once the imperatively needed Girls' Hall?
NORMAL AND GRADED SCHOOLS.
Next to our chartered institutions come our normal schools. These have
the same course of study up to the college department as the chartered
institutions have. These normal schools are eighteen in number, and
are situated at Lexington and Williamsburg, Ky.; Memphis, Jonesboro,
Grand View and Pleasant Hill, Tenn.; Wilmington and Beaufort, N.C.;
Charleston and Greenwood, S.C.; Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Thomasville
and McIntosh, Ga.; Athens, Mobile and Marion, Ala. Adding to these
the normal departments of our five chartered institutions, gives us
twenty-three normal schools in the South.
Besides these, we have in the South thirty-seven which we class as
common schools. Eight of these are graded, with two or three teachers
each. Nearly all are parochial schools. The teachers are in both the
day schools and the Sunday-schools, and are not only school teachers,
but church missionaries. They train the young of our congregations
for greater usefulness, encourage many of the most promising to go to
higher institutions, teach the parents better ideas of home life, and
lead all ages to a more intelligent and spiritual worship.
INDUSTRIAL WORK.
Nearly all our schools--chartered, normal and even common--give some
industrial training.
At Fisk, the young men are taught wood-working and printing; the young
women, nursing, cooking, dress-making and house-keeping.
At Talladega, the young men learn farming, carpentry, painting,
glazing, tinning, blacksmithing and printing; the young women,
cooking, house-keeping, plain sewing and other needle-work.
At Tougaloo, the young men learn farming, carpentry, blacksmithing,
wheelwrighting, painting, turning and tinning; the young women,
sewing, dressmaking, cooking and housekeeping.
At Straight, the young men receive instruction in printing,
carpentry, and floriculture; the young women, needlework, cooking and
housekeeping.
At Tillotson, carpentry is taught the young men; needlework, cooking
and housekeeping, the young women.
Our normal schools at Memphis, Tenn., Macon, Ga., and Williamsburg,
Ky., have carpentry, printing, and other industrial training for the
young men, and training in the various arts of home life for the young
women.
At Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, Macon, Thomasville, Athens, Ala.,
Marion, Mobile, Pleasant Hill, Sherwood, and other normal, graded and
common schools, the young women are trained in the things which they
will most need in making comfortable and pleasant homes. Indeed, we
make it our special care that the girls shall everywhere in our work
be taught these things, so essential to the uplifting of a people.
In many places where we have no schools, the pastor's wife, or our
special lady missionary, is doing this same kind of work.
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS.
At Fisk, Talladega, Tougaloo and Straight, there have been during
the year theological classes. The Theological Department of Howard
University, at Washington, has been supported by this Association.
Even in some of our normal schools Biblical instruction has been given
to some who are now preachers and some who intend to preach. But
the number trained has not been sufficient to supply our pastorless
churches. The need of a general theological seminary for our churches
in the South is becoming imperative. The extensive enlargement of
our church work, which ought to begin at once, can scarcely be made
successful without this. Who is the one to seize this opportunity
to establish an institution of untold possibilities in advancing the
Kingdom of Christ on earth--a place where ministers shall be prepared
for the work in the South and for foreign missions in Africa?
STATISTICS OF EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE SOUTH.
Total number of Schools 60
Total number of Instructors 260
Total number of Pupils 10,094
Theological Students 82
Law Students 10
College Students 51
College Preparatory Students 103
Normal Students 784
Grammar Grades 2,127
Intermediate Grades 3,181
Primary Grades 3,773
In two grades 17
_CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH._
Our church work has necessarily been of slow growth. Churches might
have been multiplied, had we thought it best to lower the standard
near the level of the old churches, and acknowledge wild ravings as
belonging in the worship of God. We have believed that our churches
should mean new ideas and intelligent worship. We have knowingly lent
our aid to nothing else.
These churches are gathered into Associations, and the fine bodies
of pastors and delegates which come together in these, present a most
emphatic testimony to the value of the work done in the past, and are
an earnest of what the future will show.
Revivals--some of them of great power--have been reported to us from
the Plymouth Church, Washington, D.C., Fisk University, Memphis,
Jonesboro, Sherwood, Glen Mary, Oakdale, Athens and Pine Mountain,
Tenn.; Montgomery and Florence, Ala.; Tougaloo and Jackson, Miss.;
Straight University, New Orleans, and Corpus Christi, Texas. Many
others of our churches have had a quiet work of grace, by which
additions have been made to them.
We report new churches at Glen Mary and Athens, Tenn.; Roseland, La;
Fort Payne and Alco, Ala. This makes the whole number of our churches
in the South 136.
Besides these churches, there are our churches among the Indians and
the work of gathering the Chinese into churches in California.
We are praying and laboring for the eternal salvation of millions, the
establishment through the grace of God, the atoning blood of Christ,
and the work of the Holy Spirit, of character which shall meet the
tests of the Judgment Day and the needs of eternal association with
purity. In aiming at this ultimate result, our missionaries are doing
a work of inestimable importance for the nation and the world. They
are successfully working upon some of the great problems of this
country, which armies and millions of money have failed, and of
necessity must fail, to solve. Nothing but the "glorious gospel of
the blessed God," taught from the pulpit and the teacher's desk, and
illustrated in the eloquent lives of consecrated missionaries, can
change the idol worshiper from heathen China, the wild-man of the
West, the half-heathen Negro so recently in the cruel degradation
of slavery, those of our own race in the bonds of ignorance and
immorality--so that they shall have and manifest an intelligent and
worthy manhood and womanhood. Nothing else can meet cruel prejudice,
which would forever deny full manhood or womanhood to those called to
it by God himself, and pour oil upon its angry waves until they shall
be still.
Our plan of work in the South is often misunderstood and often
misrepresented. It is not our plan to force the races together. It is
not our plan to agitate questions which arouse the prejudices of the
Southern people. We do not agitate. Quietly, steadily, patiently,
lovingly, our missionaries seek to lift up the degraded, enlighten
the ignorant, and bring them all to Christ, well knowing that bitter
prejudice cannot forever stand opposed to an enlightened, cultivated,
Christian people, whatever may be their color or their past condition.
We have nothing to do with the question of social equality in the
South any more than we have in the North. We are not even trying to
force the races together in the churches. We have no principles which
would prevent our aiding two churches in the same town--one with a
membership of white, the other of colored people. We have done it.
In our church work, we simply maintain that a Christian church should
stand ready to fellowship any one whom Christ fellowships, that it
should turn no one away because of his color, or because he, his
father or his mother was a slave. We maintain that there is
no Christian reason why there should be either State or local
organizations of churches which will not fellowship churches whose
memberships differ in race. We seek to establish churches and other
institutions which dare interpret Christianity as Christ taught
it, and which will not yield a Christian principle for enlarged
statistics. There are caste churches enough in the South. No more are
needed. If Congregationalism can go there true to its history, true to
its real convictions, true to that gospel which successfully faced
the bitter prejudices of Jew and Gentile with the broad invitation,
"Whosoever will, may come," then it goes to become a mighty power and
to win both a place for itself and other churches, in time, to accept
the same broad interpretation of Christianity.
This Association has faith in the power of the gospel, and, under
the reign of God, of the final triumph of the right. It is willing to
enter the doors now so wide open for missionary work, and to wait, if
need be, for that glory of the denomination, which is better than long
tables of statistics, the glory of adhering to the right.
The time has now come when our church work can be greatly enlarged.
Our schools have been doing their work, and scattering all through the
South those who have learned what pure religion and spiritual worship
mean, and they are ready and longing for something better than they
find within their reach. We can now push our work as fast as the
churches of the North will furnish the money. We most earnestly appeal
for the means to enable us to greatly develop, during the coming year,
this department of the work.
CHURCH WORK AMONG NEW SETTLERS IN THE SOUTH.
Wonderful and more wonderful tales are now reaching the world of the
unlimited resources of the South. They are a new discovery even to the
South itself. These stories of lumber and mineral wealth are turning
the tide thitherward. Towns and cities are beginning to spring up as
they have in the West, and both great need and rich opportunity call
for immediate missionary work. This new population is mostly, as yet,
from the North, though many from Wales, especially miners, and from
other countries of the old world are beginning to come in. In the
new towns they find no churches, in the old towns few whose ideas
and customs can satisfy their minds and hearts. Here is a great
opportunity. We can aid these people to establish churches which will
emphasize that interpretation of the Gospel which we believe to be
Christian.
In Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee we have already aided in
establishing such churches which have connected themselves--and gladly
so--with the regular State organizations of Congregational churches.
No direful results have followed. No fanaticism is in it. It is
simply doing the thing that is right and Christian. May such churches
continue to multiply in the "New South" and help to make it _new_
indeed.
STATISTICS OF CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH.
Number of Churches 136
Number of Missionaries 113
Number of Church Members 8,438
Added during the year 989
Added by profession of faith 734
Scholars in Sunday-school 14,735
_THE MOUNTAIN WORK._
Notwithstanding all the interest that has been manifested in our
mountain work, we feel sure that the churches do not realize the
magnitude of this field, the pressing needs of this people in the
heart of our country, the wonderful opportunities before us, and the
heart-stirring results already secured.
Large portions of seven States--three or four hundred counties--with a
population of between two and three millions, claim our attention and
call for our work. Here is a country of untold natural resources. Here
is a people of good blood. Men of power have come from among them,
and shown of what they are capable. Side by side with the Northern
soldiers these mountaineers fought for the Union, or suffered in
prisons rather than fight against it. Where our schools and churches
have been established, men and women of worth and ability have stepped
out and become strong helpers in building up new institutions. But
away from these institutions and out of touch with the life of the
towns, we find a class of people whose condition in itself is a
Macedonian cry. Their windowless, stoveless, comfortless log cabins;
their so-called schools, in which on the roughest benches conceivable,
and without a desk, a slate, or a blackboard, with a teacher with
unkempt hair, ragged and dirty clothes, possibly bare feet, who
perhaps can scarcely read, the children study at the top of their
voices--_blab_ schools they call them--have for their course of
study the spelling book alone, and are taught that a word is correctly
spelled when all the letters are named, no matter in what order; their
so-called churches, with perhaps a monthly meeting during the summer
months, without Sunday-school, prayer meeting, or any form of church
work, without morality as a requisite of church membership, with an
illiterate ministry--a large number of the ministers cannot read even,
and what is worse in many cases are drunken, impure, and in every
way immoral; their children so easily gathered into day-schools and
Sunday-schools, and so responsive to the work done for them--all these
things appeal to us with pathetic power. Perhaps no missionary work
ever showed greater results in so short a time than those obtained in
these mountains.
We have here in two States eleven schools and twenty-two churches.
Earnest calls have come to us to begin work in North Carolina and
Alabama. We feel sure that if the churches could hear these appeals
they would bid us respond. We have promised to begin work the coming
year in these States, and we must look to the churches to furnish us
the means. New lumbering and mining towns are springing up in this
mountain country, and immediate missionary work is their only hope.
A single one of these new towns, scarcely half-a-dozen years old, has
had already more than a hundred men shot in it, and this awful work
still goes on. This marvelously rich mineral region is sure to be
filled in the near future with these mining towns, and unless the
Christian work keeps pace with this kind of growth, this large
territory will become notorious for bloody scenes as no portion of our
land has ever been. Now is the time to preempt the country for Christ,
by planting at strategic points the church and the Christian school,
and through them to send forth to every part the pure, restraining and
elevating influences of the gospel. God's call to us to do this work
is loud and clear. Can we be faithful to Him and refuse to obey?
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
There are 260,000 Indians in this country. Compared with our great
fields in the South, this is small. But there is an emphasis on this
work which is not made by figures. Those who were native to this
land have been made foreigners. Those who were the first to receive
missionary work here, and who responded as readily as any heathen
people ever did, are still largely pagans. While one Christian has
been telling the Indians the story of the gospel, another calling
himself a Christian has been shooting them. They have not yet had a
full chance to learn what Christianity is. From place to place they
have been pushed so that they have not had time to build their altars
to the true God. We have wronged them and we owe them more than we
shall pay. We shall meet our obligations but in part, when we do all
we can to save them.
We have in bur Indian work eighteen schools and six churches, one new
church having been added this year. In these, 68 missionaries have
been doing noble service for the Indian and for the country. Shall
the Indian problem forever perplex and shame both the country and the
Church? Will not the churches enable us to send all the workers and do
all the work needed to be done, and thus hasten the day when it can be
joyfully proclaimed that the Indians are evangelized--no longer pagans
and foreigners, but our fellow Christians and our fellow citizens?
STATISTICS OF INDIAN WORK.
Churches 6
Church Members 401
Schools 18
Missionaries and Teachers 68
Theological Students 24
Normal Students 11
Grammar Grades 32
Intermediate Grades 120
Primary 495
Total Pupils 658
Sunday-school Scholars 1,332
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
At our Annual Meeting in 1887 we were urged to bring the attention of
the churches to this their phenomenal opportunity and duty, to give
the gospel at short range and nominal cost to Asia's millions, and to
support their hopeful and fruitful mission with all possible
sympathy and aid. Again, in 1888, the need of immediate and great
re-enforcement and enlargement was urged upon us.
Sixteen missions have been in operation during the year, and in them
thirty-five workers, ten of them Chinese, have been employed. 1,380
have been enrolled as pupils in our schools--249 more than last year.
40 have this year come out of heathenism into Christianity, and the
whole number who have confessed Christ in these missions and have
been received as true converts is above 750. This means much for the
Chinese in this country, and it means missionaries for China as well.
* * * * *
ENLARGEMENTS AND IMPROVEMENTS.
Extensive building and improvements have been called for this year.
At Lexington, Ky., the Chandler Normal School building is nearly
completed at a cost of $15,000--the gift of Mrs. Chandler. At
Williamsburg, Ky., thirteen acres of land have been secured for
the enlargement of our very successful school there and the large
industrial building moved upon it. $2,300 of the expense for this was
paid by our generous friend, Mr. Stephen Ballard, of Brooklyn,
N.Y. The increasing number of boarders at this institution has made
necessary a new and larger dining room and kitchen, which have been
built.
At Nashville, Tenn., a commodious two-story building of modern
architecture, with rooms for physical culture and industrial training,
has been erected.
At Memphis, Tenn., the Le Moyne school building, which in the winter
was partially destroyed by fire, has been restored by the insurance.
At Knoxville, Tenn., the old church building, which was unfit for
use, has been built over and a parsonage added, making a neat and
convenient place of worship, and a home for the minister.
At Jellico, Tenn., the building used for church and school purposes
has been considerably enlarged to meet the wants of a large
Sunday-school and congregation.
At Grand View, Tenn., a new building has been put up for school and
dormitory purposes.
At Pleasant Hill, Tenn., a large three-story Girls' Hall is in process
of construction to enable the mountain girls to take advantage of this
successful normal school.
At Pine Mountain, Tenn., the church building has been completed and
furnished for school as well as church purposes and a teachers' home
has been built.
At Beaufort, N.C., the large old school building known as Washburn
Seminary, has been placed in the hands of the Association and refitted
and a new normal school started in it. The church building, also, has
received many greatly needed repairs.
At Chapel Hill, N.C., a brick church building, formerly belonging to
the Southern Methodists, has been purchased for a school, and will be
used also for church services.
At Macon, Ga., the Ballard School building has been completed and
furnished at a cost of $14,000, and a Girls' Hall erected at a cost of
$7,500--two more generous gifts of Mr. Stephen Ballard, of Brooklyn.
At Savannah, Ga., extensive repairs have been made on the Beach
Institute building.
At Thomasville, Ga., the school facilities have been increased by
moving a school building in the town, to the Connecticut Industrial
School.
At McIntosh, Ga., land and buildings have been bought for the
enlargement of this historic, successful and intensely interesting
school.
At Woodville, Ga., the church and school building which had been
nearly wrecked, first by the Charleston earthquake and then by a
cyclone, has been made solid and comfortable.
At Byron, Ga., land has been bought and preparations have been made
for a church building.
At Fairbanks, Fla., a school building and lot worth $2,500 have been
given to us by Mrs. Merrill, of Bangor, Me., on condition that we
maintain a school there.
At Marion, Ala., we have refitted a large dwelling for a greatly
needed school building.
At New Decatur, Ala., a new church building is about completed.
At Tougaloo, Miss., the large Girls' Hall, owing to the peculiarities
of the soil--alluvium, 300 feet deep--unknown when it was built, had
been crushing its foundations into the ground until it was on the
point of falling. Our own missionary and student force lifted it up,
put under it new foundations and repaired it in every part. At a cost
of between $4,000 and $5,000, they saved a $15,000 building which
engineers and contractors pronounced a hopeless wreck.
At Jackson, Miss., our church has been nicely seated with new pews.
At Hammond, La., a new church building has been erected.
At Straight University, a new industrial building has been put up with
student labor, and a small greenhouse has been built. For a long
time the need of enlargement there has been felt, and a lot near the
present buildings has been bought, on which is to be a school house
for the primary and intermediate grades.
At the Fort Berthold Mission, North Dakota, a new church, school and
mission home building has been built and named the Moody Station,
after the giver of the money which built it; also a small church
building at Moody Station No. 2.
At Standing Rock a new school, church and mission building--called
after the donor, the Sankey Station--has been erected. At Fort Yates,
we report a new church building--the Darling Memorial.
These are the most important enlargements and improvements. Of course,
there are many other smaller ones throughout our large field.
* * * * *
WOMAN'S WORK.
Twenty-six Woman's State Organizations now co-operate with us in
our missionary work. Each year shows the increasing importance and
helpfulness of the Woman's Bureau. From it go counsel, help and
inspiration to the lady teachers in the field, and missionary news and
helpful suggestions to the ladies of the State Associations. Through
it pass the sympathy and the help of the earnest workers in the older
churches to the earnest workers in our mission churches and schools.
The people for whom we labor cannot be saved either for this world
or the next, unless the women who make the homes are lifted out of
coarseness and vice, and taught true womanhood and womanly duties
and arts. The Woman's Bureau is a most potent factor in the work of
bringing the Gospel to the rescue of womanhood in our mission fields.
FINANCES.
The current receipts have been $376,216.88.
The expenditures, including the payment of the debt
of last year of $5,641.21, have been $371,745.21.
-------------
Leaving a balance in hand September 30, 1889 $4,471.67.
It is with devout gratitude to God that we present these figures,
showing that we have been enabled during the past year to meet all
current expenditures, to liquidate the indebtedness of last year and
to show a balance of over four thousand dollars now in the treasury.
This result is not only gratifying in respect to the past, but it is
hopeful in respect to the future. We trust the constituents of the
Association, who are so deeply interested in the success of the work
entrusted to us, will see to it that the coming year shall terminate
as favorably as this.
DANIEL HAND FUND.
In addition to the above receipts, the Association has received from
Daniel Hand the munificent gift of one million eight hundred and
ninety-four dollars and twenty-five cents ($1,000,894.25) to be known
as the Daniel Hand Fund for The Education of Colored People. The
income only of this Fund is to be used. The amount received as income
from this Fund for the nine months to September 30, is $36,999.71.
This amount is not included in the current receipts stated above,
but is a Special Fund and has been appropriated under the terms and
conditions of the Trust. From this income we have not only aided
more than three hundred students who otherwise would not have had the
privilege of attending any school, but have also greatly enlarged
our school accommodations at Chapel Hill and Beaufort, N.C., Phoenix,
S.C., Thomasville and McIntosh, Ga., Selma, Ala., and New Orleans,
La. Another year will afford opportunities to a much greater number
of pupils, and will still further enlarge our school facilities in the
special lines of work contemplated by this gift. It was a noble gift
from a noble man and it will do a noble work.
The overwhelming majority of the Southern Negroes are still found
in the rural districts, where schools are few and far apart. It is
expected that the gift of Daniel Hand will take educational privileges
to thousands of these in the country and on the plantations, who but
for this must have lived as in the blackness of night.
* * * * *
It has been found that with the West ever growing, and Congregational
churches multiplying, the field of our Western District Secretary
was too large for him possibly to cover it all. Hence this immense
district has been divided, and another has been established with its
centre at Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. C.W. Hiatt, a graduate of Wheaton
College and Oberlin Seminary, has been placed in charge of this
district, and has already entered upon the work. We bespeak for him a
hearty welcome from the churches.
Prof. Edward S. Hall, a graduate of Amherst College and a teacher of
long and successful experience, has been chosen a Field Superintendent
for the Southern work, and entered upon his duties at the beginning of
our year.
We again make grateful acknowledgment of our indebtedness to
the American Bible Society for its grants of Bibles, and to the
Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society for its grants of
books and lesson helps, to our poorer churches and Sunday-schools.
* * * * *
This much we report. But how little can figures and words present the
needs of these great fields. How little idea can they convey of the
extent of the work done by our earnest, self-sacrificing, faithful and
able missionaries.
We turn from the past to the future. The work attempted and done is
great, the work unattempted and not done is far greater. Should every
church and individual in the land double last year's contribution this
year, we would be compelled still to leave greatly needed work undone.
In view of boundless opportunities, we can ask no less of the
churches than that which the recent National Council at Worcester
recommended--five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the work
of the coming year. Brethren, with more prayer, more consecration
and more self-denial let us take up together this vast work and these
difficult problems which God has set before us.
THE CHINESE.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR.
BY REV. WM. C. POND, D.D.