The American Missionary
March, 1888.
Vol. XLII.
No. 3
* * * * *
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
FINANCIAL--PARAGRAPHS
PARAGRAPHS--DEATH OF MR. WM. L. CLARK
PARAGRAPHS
SHALL CHRIST OR MOHAMMED WIN AFRICA?
THE VERNACULAR IN INDIAN SCHOOLS
THE SOUTH.
LEWIS NORMAL INSTITUTE--TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY
GATHERING OF NEGROES AT MACON
ENGLISH IN OUR SCHOOLS
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE A.M.A. By Rev. F.F. Emerson
TO THE MEMORY OF DR. POWELL
THE INDIANS.
LETTER FROM GRAND RIVER, DAK
THE CHINESE.
A CHINESE CHRISTIAN IN CHINA
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
HOW I BECAME A GOLDEN MISSIONARY
CHILDREN'S PAGE.
THE STORY OF THE BULLETS
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, ----
_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._
_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_
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A. . BARNES,
J.R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
_For Two Years_.
S. B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE,
_For One Year_.
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
_District Secretaries_.
Rev. C.J. RYDER. 21 _Cong'l House, Boston_.
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 _Washington Street, Chicago_.
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions_.
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.
_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; those relating to the collecting fields, to
the Corresponding Secretaries, or to the District Secretaries; letters
for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.
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,
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. XLII. MARCH, 1888. No. 3
* * * * *
American Missionary Association
* * * * *
We believe that if we do the work to which God has called us, he will
move the hearts of his children to provide the money. By as much as our
work is successful, it is expansive. They are following closely in the
steps of the Master who are teaching and ministering unto the needy and
the poor. We are confident that they can safely trust in his word, "Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you." If God sends our workers out he will send
supplies. There is no limit to the measure in which God can work on
Christian hearts, to move his children to give for those who have gone
forth to "seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness."
While God is abundantly blessing our work in our great and wide fields
among four races, we may safely ask our Christian friends to appeal to
him that we shall have not only the needful funds to carry on the work
without debt, but also enough to enable us to enter the doors which he
opens. We are needing _eight thousand dollars_ to keep our accounts
balanced, and we ask those, in whose names we stand, to pray that all
these things be added unto us. Has any pastor forgotten to take the
collection?
* * * * *
Rev. C.J. Ryder, recently assigned to the District Secretaryship of our
Eastern District, with rooms at Boston, will be found at the office in
the Congregational House, March 1st. He will be ready to respond to
invitations from the churches to present our cause, and can speak from a
large experience in our widely-extended and varied work. We commend Mr.
Ryder to the churches.
* * * * *
President Woodworth, of Tougaloo University, is in the North for a few
weeks, and will represent the growing and very hopeful interests of
Tougaloo, wherever he may be desired. Letters directed to our office in
New York will be forwarded to him.
Prof. Horace Bumstead, of Atlanta University, is now in the North to
present the needs of that institution, and we trust that he will have
large success. He will be happy to send the _Atlanta Bulletin_ to those
who may write for it, addressing him at 148 Tremont Street, Boston. In
the light of the large convention of Negroes lately held at Macon, Ga.,
the _Bulletin_ will be found exceedingly suggestive.
* * * * *
The Indian Presbytery of Dakota, composed of converted Sioux Indians,
during the last ecclesiastical year gave $571 more to Foreign Missions
than _any other presbytery in the synod_, and during the last synodical
year gave to the nine Boards of that church $234 more than any of the
white presbyteries of the synod.
* * * * *
Nannie Jones, a normal graduate at Fisk University, of the class of
1886, is to go, under the auspices of the American Board, to the
south-eastern part of Africa, about 600 miles from Natal. She is the
first single colored woman sent out by the American Board. She has been
adopted by the Ladies' Board of the Interior, whose head-quarters are at
Chicago.
* * * * *
We thank our friends anew for the many kind words of sympathy, in view
of our loss, and for their appreciative testimonies in memory of our
departed associate, Rev. Dr. Powell.
* * * * *
The hearty commendations of the "AMERICAN MISSIONARY," with enclosures
for renewed subscriptions, are also gratefully acknowledged.
* * * * *
The death of Mr. Wm. L. Clark, who passed away in November last, has
removed from the list of the early and efficient workers of the A.M.A.
in the South, one who deserved the warmest regards for his fidelity, his
excellent services and his self-sacrificing spirit. Mr. Clark began his
work for the Association in 1868, as a teacher, in Bainbridge, Ga., and
was subsequently at Thomasville and Atlanta. He was for a time
afterwards editor and publisher of a paper devoted to the interests of
the colored people and the South. His last years were spent in
Washington, D.C.
* * * * *
An intelligent negro, a graduate of one of our institutions, writes to
us these words: "The A.M.A. is doing more to quicken the hopes and
aspirations of the Southern Negro, and more toward arousing the Southern
white man to just ideas of education, and more toward bringing the two
races to an acknowledgment of each other's rights and duties, than all
other institutions or influences in the country."
When the war closed there were 4,000,000 slaves set free in this
country, absolutely poor, absolutely ignorant. The black race doubles
itself in twenty years; and it is supposed that there are now about
8,000,000 Negro people. Of these, 3,000,000 may have learned to read and
write; there must be 5,000,000 still in illiterate and superstitious
darkness. That they are still trying hard to learn, will be accentuated
by the perusal of a specimen of letters to us from locations less
favored than others:
"Sir Deare Bretterin I will Rite you A few lines to let you no our
condison, we has had greatiel sickness her for the last few month.
But we hant had no Deth in the time of it, and we wont to no
somthing A Bout our School her at ------ for ef we can geet the
teacher we can have a good School now, for the is good many pepel
wating on us, now. we wode Be hapa to her from you all and then we
Can tell the Pepel what to Penon, and ef you Plese Rite to us A
Bout the Deed that we sent to you for we hant never hern from it
yeat unly By Rev. ------ and i woude Be glad to her from you A Bout
it
so Rite soon yours truly in Crist"
* * * * *
The American Missionary Association, which is the authorized and
recognized servant of the Congregational Churches, reporting to them
from the fields to which it is sent in their name, not unfrequently
meets the fact that schools and churches in the South are appealing for
support to those who hold us responsible for mission work in the South.
Thus many in the North from time to time, are contributing to schools or
perhaps to churches there, under the impression that they are thus
taking the shortest path to the work which appeals to them.
There are many schools, of one kind and another, which have been started
at the South by private parties on a purely independent basis. Many of
these are carried on for a little time and then are permitted to die out
for one reason and another; and many of them are working not only with a
great lack of efficiency in comparison with the A.M.A. schools, but
without supervision and without scrutiny. Some are located where it has
pleased those who located them to reside, without much reference to
relative necessities; and some are located so unwisely that the
Association has been compelled to decline to take them, when through
fatigue or failure they have been given up. Some of them owe their
existence to the fact that certain workers were found to be not adapted
to the work, or were uncomfortable under supervision and
superintendence. Some of them are conducted by those who have signally
failed in our schools. Their projectors are often skillful in
letter-writing and in solicitation of funds for their specific
enterprises, which being purely personal, have no large and ultimate
achievement. Those who give cannot know whether the donations are most
wisely used, nor is there any satisfactory method by which contributions
can be traced.
The Association, with its Superintendent continually in the field,
reporting every fact to the Secretaries at the office, who in turn
report to the churches, is certainly much better prepared to direct the
gifts of the benevolent in ways that shall not be unwise or
irresponsible. As these circulars and letters of appeal are often
referred by those who receive them to the Secretaries, it is but their
duty to say that all funds diverted from our treasury to schools or
churches in the South, under no watch and care, would without doubt go
further and help the great work more to which the A.M.A. is consecrated,
if they should be sent through the channel which the churches have
ordained, and which has not only this justification for its existence
and work, but also the justification of long experience and success.
If the friends of the American Missionary Association, upon receiving
appeals from colored pastors or people in the South, or from independent
schools, would remember _that their own ordained agency_ can open and
supervise as many schools and churches as they will make possible with
their contributions, no doubt less money would be diverted and far
greater efficiency secured. Schools in the North without supervision or
superintendence, are usually inferior. Much more are these
irresponsible, unadvised and independent schools in the South.
* * * * *
SHALL CHRIST OR MOHAMMED WIN AFRICA?
Ultimately Christ will, as we know by the sure word of prophecy;
immediately, Mohammed gains most rapidly, as present facts seem to
indicate. The rapid strides of Mohammedanism in Africa have been noticed
by nearly all recent explorers and travelers, but the full statement of
the fact has been brought forth more vividly in a remarkable book
written by a remarkable man. The book is entitled, "_Christianity, Islam
and the Negro Race_." The author is Edward W. Blyden, LL.D., of whom it
is said by a competent witness--and our own personal acquaintance with
him confirms the testimony, so far as we are competent to judge--that he
is a great traveler and an accomplished linguist, equally familiar with
Hebrew and Arabic, with Greek and Latin, with five European and with
several African languages, and, had he been born a European, might fill
and adorn almost any public post. Dr. Blyden was born a full-blooded
Negro in the Danish Island of St. Thomas, emigrated in his seventeenth
year to Liberia, entered an American missionary school and rose to the
head of it, became in 1862 Professor in the College of Liberia, and, two
years later, Secretary of State in the African Republic. In 1877, he
represented Liberia at the Court of St. James, as Minister
Plenipotentiary, and has been abundantly decorated with honorary
degrees.
Dr. Blyden's opportunities for knowing the facts are unquestioned, and
his book presents in very striking array the advantages which in some
respects Islam enjoys over Christianity in the propagation of its faith
in Africa. The discussion has been continued by Canon Taylor of York,
England, and, more recently, in a very clear article in the _Nineteenth
Century_, by Dean R. Bosworth Smith. Our space does not permit us either
to summarize the facts as to this progress, nor can we present all the
reasons for it. But one of these reasons touches so nearly a point that
is of such vital interest to American Christians, that we feel called
upon to state it and emphasize it. We abridge the full statement thus:
Christianity has labored under the great disadvantage of coming to the
Negro in "a foreign garb." Its teachers came from a land that first
reached the Negro by capturing him as a slave; they came to him with the
conscious or unconscious air of superiority born of race-prejudice.
Christianity came to him as the creed, not of his friends, his
well-wishers, his kindred, but of his masters and oppressors. They
differed from him in education, in manners, in color, in civilization.
Mohammedanism, on the other hand, reached the Negro in his own country,
in the midst of his own surroundings. When it had acclimatized itself
and taken root in the soil of Africa, it was handed on to others, and
then no longer exclusively by Arab missionaries, but by men of the
Negro's own race, his own proclivities, his own color. The advantages of
this method of approach cannot be over-estimated. We care not to enter
at all into the question of the value of the two religions nor of the
good they may respectively do for poor Africa. We wish simply to deal
with the methods and means, and with the peoples who may best employ
them. We again summarize the language of Dean Smith: The very fact that
there are millions of Negroes in America and the West India Islands,
many of whom are men of cultivation and lead more or less Christian
lives, is proof positive that Christianity is welcomed by them. Is there
not room to hope that many of these men, returning to their own country,
may be able to present Christianity to their fellow-countrymen in a
shape in which it has never yet been presented,--in which it would be
very difficult for Europeans or Americans ever to succeed in presenting
it--to them, and may so develop a type of Christianity and civilization
combined which shall be neither American nor European, but African,
redolent alike of the people and of the soil?
This is a point which the American Missionary Association has frequently
urged, and which it had begun to exemplify by sending colored
missionaries to Western Africa. The experiment was in many respects
satisfactory, but we realized that a longer training and a more thorough
maturing of character were needed in those who had just emerged from the
darkness and limitations of slavery. But what greater hope can there be
for Africa than in the training of these millions, so apt in learning,
so earnestly religious, and so well qualified to meet as brothers and
friends their kindred in the Dark Continent! Here is a work for American
Christians, full of promise of a glorious harvest.
* * * * *
THE VERNACULAR IN INDIAN SCHOOLS.
After some considerable delay, Commissioner Atkins has issued revised
Regulations in regard to the teaching of Indian languages in schools.
That our readers may have them in distinct form we append them:
"1. No text books in the vernacular will be allowed in any school
where children are placed under contract, or where the Government
contributes, in any manner whatever, to the support of the school;
no oral instruction in the vernacular will be allowed at such
schools. The entire curriculum must be in the English language.
"2. The vernacular may be used in missionary schools only for oral
instruction in morals and religion, where it is deemed to be an
auxiliary to the English language in conveying such instruction.
"3. No person other than a native Indian teacher will be permitted
to teach in any Indian vernacular, and these native teachers will
only be allowed in schools not supported in whole or in part by the
Government, at remote points, where there are no Government or
contract schools where the English language is taught. These
schools under native teachers only, are allowed to teach in the
vernacular with a view of reaching those Indians who cannot have
the advantages of instruction in English, and they must give way to
the English-teaching schools as soon as they are established where
the Indians can have access to them."
In response to a special application for authority to instruct a class
of theological students in the vernacular, at the Santee School, the
Commissioner says:
"There is no objection to your educating a limited number of
Indians in the vernacular, as missionaries, in some separate
building, entirely apart from the Santee School. This instruction
in the vernacular must be conducted entirely separate from the
English course, and must not interfere with English studies or be
considered part of the ordinary course for any other pupils of the
school than the limited number agreed upon, not to exceed thirty,
and all instruction in the vernacular must be conducted at no
expense to the Government."
Since writing the above, we have received from Commissioner Atkins a
copy of rules designed to explain the orders quoted above. We are
constrained to say that these explanations will probably not remove the
objections that have been widely entertained against the rulings of the
Department. It must be admitted, however, that there are difficulties in
the way of formulating regulations that in their details shall meet the
views of all parties concerned. On the one hand, there is the aim of
Commissioner Atkins, in which we all coincide, to introduce the English
language among the Indians as speedily as possible. On the other hand,
there is the aim of the churches, in which we are glad to believe the
Commissioner coincides, to spread the gospel as rapidly as possible
among the Indians. The churches feel that it is a duty they owe to God
and to those Indians who cannot understand English to teach them in
the language in which they were born, and they believe, too, as the
result of long experience, that Christian schools in the vernacular are
among the most important means to that end, especially as pioneer
movements. American Christians believe, too, that they have the
right as American citizens to use their own methods--tested by
experience--without the interference of the Government; and we believe
they will feel constrained to protest in every legitimate and honorable
way against such interference. We hope that the Department of the
Interior will yet make the needful concessions.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
Rev. Dr. A.G. Haygood, the author of _Our Brother in Black_, and the
general administrator of the John F. Slater fund, was in Macon a few days
ago, visiting officially Lewis Normal Institute, which he pronounced an
admirable school. The doctor made a thorough inspection of the school,
and expressed himself as greatly pleased with its present management
under Mrs. L.A. Shaw. He remarked that the improvement within the
last two years is very noticeable in all departments, that the teaching is
very thoroughly done and the industrial training systematically and
efficiently carried on. Dr. Haygood preached, Sunday morning, at the
Congregational Church to the edification of all who heard him.
* * * * *
The governor of Mississippi in his recent message commends our Institution
at Tougaloo in the following generous terms:
"The information derived from the President and Board of Visitors of
_Tougaloo University_ is of the most satisfactory character. During the
year, additional school and industrial buildings have been erected, thus
making all the appointments of the Institution excellent and commodious.
The University is indebted to a generous-hearted gentleman of New York,
Stephen Ballard, Esq., for the funds necessary for these buildings. The
labor of erecting them was performed by the students under the direction
of the Superintendent of Industries, thus economizing cost of labor, and
at the same time demonstrating the valuable training of the students. The
timely and generous donation of Mr. Ballard serves to carry on under the
same roof, blacksmithing, wagon-making, painting, tinning and carpentry.
"This University not only endeavors to encourage and conduct intelligently
farm work of every description, but to teach and thoroughly instruct
the boys in the several industries mentioned, as well as in the use of the
steam-engine, saw, etc. The girls, in addition to the studies prescribed,
are taught practical household duties in all their details. During the year
Rev. G.S. Pope, who has been President of the University for a decade,
and who labored faithfully to advance its interests, was transferred to
another field of labor. His place is filled by Frank G. Woodworth, who
assumes the Presidency of the Institution and who will earnestly strive to
advance its interests and sustain its already excellent reputation. This
University, by its successful management, commends itself to your favorable
consideration."
* * * * *
The most important gathering of negroes that probably has ever
occurred, was in Macon, Ga., a few weeks since. Five hundred leading
Negro representatives convened to discuss and adopt "a thorough plan of
State organization." A permanent organization was effected and named
the "_United Brotherhood of Georgia_," the purpose of which is "to resist
oppression, wrong and injustice." We note the following resolutions,
which were passed by the convention:
_Resolved_, That we, in convention assembled, respectfully but
earnestly demand of the powers that be, that the Negro be given
what, and only what, he is entitled to.
_Resolved further_, That never, until we are in the fullest
enjoyment of our rights at the ballot-box, will we cease to agitate
and work for what justly belongs to us in the shape of suffrage.
_Further resolved_, That it shall be the policy of the colored race
to vote so as to bring the greatest division to the white voters of
this country, for in this we believe lies the boon of our desire.
The last resolution is not entirely plain to us, and we refrain from
comment upon it, but the convention itself, the fact of leadership
taking shape among the Negroes, and the forth-putting of their purposes,
are very significant.
When the Glenn Bill was born, and when the Georgia House of
Representatives stood sponsor for its baptism, we believed that the
enemy of righteousness had made a mistake, and that this particular
piece of artillery would kick. They who think to thwart the providences
of God usually help them forward. Christianity has had many a help from
its opposers.
Upon the incidental question of temperance, the sentiments of the
convention were voiced by one of the speakers in these words: "The best
thing for the Negro is industry, temperance, virtue, economy, union and
courage. Get land, get money, get education; be sober and be virtuous.
We have drunk enough whiskey since the war to build a railroad from
Atlanta to Savannah. The Negro race cannot be great except as
individuals rise towards greatness." They are rising. A little more
yeast, good friends.
* * * * *
The following illustrations of some features of our work are not sent
forth for the sake of a smile, but for the thought which will be under
the smile. The text of the thought, which may be expanded at pleasure,
will be found in an ordinance of the United States, dated 1787, viz.:
"Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and
the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be
forever encouraged."
ENGLISH AS SHE IS "NOT" TAUGHT IN OUR SCHOOLS.
CONTINUED FROM THE NOTE BOOK OF A MISSIONARY TEACHER.
Go to the great physicianer.
I use consecrated lye.
She is a crippler.
I seldomly hear that.
O Lord, give us good thinking facticals.
The meeting will be in the basin of the church.
O Lord, throw overboard all the load we'se totin, and the sins which
upset us.
Jog them in remembrance of their vows.
I want her to resist me with the ironing.
I want all you people to adhere to the bell.
There will be no respectable people in heaven. (God is no respecter of
persons.)
I was much disencouraged.
It was said at the startment of this meeting.
I take care of three head of children.
We have passed through many dark scenes and unseens.
May we have the eye of an eagle to see sin afar off and shun it.
I have made inquiration at several places.
A letter written jointly to represent the opinions of several persons,
thus expresses itself to us: "We are happy to write this letter to you in a
conglomerate manner."
* * * * *
THE EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE A.M.A.
BY REV. FORREST F. EMERSON.
The report of the Executive Committee on educational work in the South,
confirms the conviction which must have impressed itself on many minds,
that the Association is a divinely-appointed agency for carrying forward
a work delegated to us as a _nation_. God calls nations as he calls men,
and consecrates them to a special work. Rome had a call, and fulfilled
it, under the Divine Providence, and that call was to work out the idea,
and demonstrate the necessity, of government, and to cultivate in the
minds of men everywhere regard for the authority of law; Greece had her
mission, and it was to teach the value of individual culture, both
physical and intellectual; the people of Israel had their call to teach
the doctrine of God, of his moral government, and of the eternal nature
of moral law; and this Christian nation has its divine call, and that
call arises from the peculiar relation which it sustains to the other
races and nations of the earth.
For a long time it seemed as if this land was to be given exclusively to
the English race. The Dutch who settled here were assimilated and
absorbed; the Spaniards and Portuguese found a congenial clime in South
America; the French, by the progress of events, were prevented from
gaining a foothold in New England, and with the sale of so-called
"Louisiana"--an immense area extending from the Gulf to British
America,--France relinquished her last claim to ownership of any part of
our domain. The period of history, from the landing at Jamestown and
Plymouth to the war of 1812, and later, was the unfolding of events
which pointed to the supremacy of the English in North America. Our
religion was Protestant and English; our literature took root in English
forms of thought; our free institutions were the outcome of principles
which had been, and now are, influential in English politics; our common
law was English, our traditions of liberty were English, and that union
of liberty and law which makes us strong, we inherited from our English
fathers. So that in 1820, two hundred years after the arrival of the
Mayflower, we were essentially an English nation; old England broken
away from old forms and precedents, the natural expansion of England
under new forms of government and society.
Now it would have been pleasant, to human ways of thinking, if we could
have remained always thus homogeneous. But God had a work for us to do.
We were not left to sit down amidst the vast resources which the land
affords for material prosperity, and just watch and foster our own
growing and expanding life, but God gave us four problems to solve.
These four problems came to us from the four quarters of the globe, the
Indian of America on the North, the Chinaman of Asia on the West, the
descendant of Africa on the South, and the emigrant of Europe on the
East, who poured, in great masses, through our Eastern gates, the German
unbeliever, the Irish Catholic, the Mormon convert, and representatives
of every race of Europe.
The English race, which still represents the heart and brain of the
nation, confronts these four problems. The problem on the North and
South we brought on ourselves, as results on the one hand of our neglect
and injustice, and on the other of our cupidity and cruelty. The
troubles that come to us through our Eastern and Western ports, are
drawn to us by the attractive influence of our free institutions and our
material prosperity.
What are we to do with these alien elements? Do as Rome did. When Rome
heard of a hostile nation on her borders, she conquered it, attached it
to the Empire, and made it a new pillar of imperial power. So are we to
conquer every element of darkness and attach it to the kingdom of light,
making it an element of strength in our American civilization and our
American Christianity. The difference in the method is the difference
between paganism and Christianity, for while Rome conquered with a sword
of steel, we conquer with the sword of the Spirit. We conquer by giving
gifts unto men, the four gifts of law, land, letters and religion. We
have given law to the African and the European with citizenship and the
ballot; we have given land to the African and the European, and, thanks
to Christian statesmanship, we will soon give it to the Indian in
severalty; and to all will we give letters and religion.
It is the peculiar glory of this Association that it deals more directly
than any other agency with the gravest and most urgent of these
problems, the education of the colored race, so that while the
Government gives the Negro citizenship, and permits him to own land,
this society undertakes the work of fitting him for the ownership of
land and for the responsibility of citizenship. And it is doing this in
the genuine way, through the gospel of Christ, and education as the
handmaid and helper of the gospel--that helper without which
Christianity would be falsely conceived, and erroneously applied, and
without which a failure would result in the ethical training of the
colored race. The Association, by its educational work, is thus
fulfilling the divine purpose in the call made to us as a Christian
nation.
The report of the committee also suggests the heroic element in our
work. It brings to mind the obstacles and difficulties which we are
called upon to overcome. The illiteracy of the colored people is a fact
immense in extent and dark in its prophetic significance. Your hearts
were rejoiced, I know, by the statements of the changes going on in the
education of the colored children in several States through free
schools. The need of this movement will be appreciated when we remember
the figures which bring before us the present illiterate condition of
the people. I present the outline of a report made in January, 1885,
based on reports of Albion Tourgee, and on articles in the _North
American Review_. According to that report, seventy-three per cent. of
the colored population of the South cannot read and write. In the eight
Gulf and Atlantic States, seventy-eight per cent. are in the same
condition. Over two millions of colored people in these eight States
cannot read and write. But this is not all. We must take into account
the rapid increase of the negroes. In three States of the South they
already outnumber the whites. In eight States, they are about one-half
the population. In all the Southern States they increase faster than the
white population. From 1870 to 1880, in the eight States mentioned
above, they increased thirty-four per cent., the whites only
twenty-seven per cent. The immigration of foreign-born whites will not
change the proportionate difference of increase, as the foreign-born
white population has decreased 30,000 since the war, and the immigration
of northern-born whites amounts to only a fraction of one per cent.
According to the present rate of increase, the colored race in one
hundred years from now will have a population many millions in excess of
the whites, since, while it will take thirty-five years for the white
race to double its numbers, the blacks will do so every twenty years. In
less than twenty-five years from this date, the colored race in the
South will outnumber the whites in nearly all the States, and then the
world will witness a conflict of races, the aspiration of the negro
against the caste-prejudice of the white, the end and result of which no
man can foresee.
These facts all point to the greatness of the work undertaken by this
Association. Christian education is the only education for a race having
before it such a future. The illiteracy which we deplore must be
overcome, but something more than that; that change must be provided
for, when the Negro in large numbers will pass from the quiet and
peaceful pursuits of agriculture to be massed together in mine and
factory and the work of the mechanic arts, but something more than that;
intelligence for the burden of citizenship must be given, but something
more than that; incentives to the accumulation of property and the
building of homes for themselves and their families must be encouraged,
but something more than that must be done. If we were simply patriots,
we would educate these people; if we were only philanthropists, or wise
statesmen, or political economists, we would still feel bound to educate
them. But we are more than these, we are Christians, and so there is one
other thing we must do besides these I have mentioned, something which
includes all these and so is greater than they all--and that thing is to
make them Christian. Education is a part of the means to be used, and
not the total end and aim.
For what is education? Not the mere accumulation of knowledge, nor the
mere training of the powers of the mind, but the building of manhood.
You have tempered your Damascus blade, but who is going to hold it--the
patriot, or the rebel? You have your educated man with his printing
press, but what is he going to print--the Police Gazette or the Gospel
of St. John? You have built your college and found your young man, and
trained him up to the very highest point of mental excellence and power,
but what is he going to do with his mind? The mind is only an instrument
under the direction of the man. The great thing is the ethical man who
is going to use this mind. If there is any thing the American people
need to learn, it is that there is one thing greater than talent, and
that is character--the love and regard for righteousness.
It is here that this Association does its work in the genuine way,
regarding education as necessary for the colored race and for all races,
not as an end in itself, but as an instrument in the hands of a man
ethically and Christianly trained. The gospel must go with the school,
so that we may train not only the hand and the brain, but also the
conscience and the heart. When I think of the future of the Negro race
in America, of the possibilities of that race already being revealed, of
the immense political significance of its position to-day, of the
certain increase of its numbers, of the inevitable collision of races by
and by, unless there be a change in the spirit of the whites, I feel
that no education is to be trusted but Christian education, an education
based on the gospel of Christ.
And to what purpose can any of us, with better hope of success, devote
our time, our money, our labor? Let us have more money for this work. I
would say no word to depreciate foreign missions, but is not this after
all the work of foreign missions? How will you influence the future of
China, or of Japan, or of Africa, or of Europe, in more direct,
sympathetic, permanent ways, than by giving the gospel, and the
education that goes with the gospel, to those at our very doors from all
these lands, who shall carry back, and send back, to their own native
countries the same gospel they have learned in this?
* * * * *
TO THE MEMORY OF DR. POWELL.
BY A PASTOR IN THE SOUTH.
One night, entranced, I sat spell-bound,
And listened in my place,
And made a solemn vow to be
A hero for my race.
He plead as but a few can plead.
With eloquence and might,
He plead for a humanity,
The Freedmen and the right.
His soul and true nobility
Went out in every word,
And strongly moved for better things
Was everyone that heard.
Too soon has death made good his claim
On him who moved us so;
Too great and white the harvest yet,
To spare him here below.
O! "why this waste?"--forgive me, Lord,
I would not Judas be;
Yet who will plead as he has plead,
For Freedmen and for me?
Perhaps, ah, yes! I know he will--
This sleeping Prince of Thine,
In many a multitude be heard,
Yet plead for right and mine.
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
LETTER FROM GRAND RIVER, DAK.
_Dear Friends_:
I have never seen a worse day in the Territory than to-day. The snow
was about two feet deep and light. Last night the wind began to blow,
and to-day it is blowing a gale and the snow flies like powdered glass.
Neither man nor beast can endure it. I cannot see my stable, which is
within a stone's-throw of the house. I have wood and water enough in the
house to last two or three days; so I shall not suffer personally, and I
will spend the time of imprisonment in writing, if I can, between making
fires. The snow sifts through my door and window until I have a regular
snowbank all along the inside of the house. Though I am warm right by the
stove, yet I cannot get the room warm enough to melt the snow. Last
winter and this are the hardest I have ever seen in the Territory.
So dear Dr. Powell has gone home! No one should feel sorry for him.
How grand and glorious thus to be called home to God! I do not think
the work here will suffer because he has gone from our sight. He is only
promoted. God will no doubt let him work on in heaven; only gone from
the ills that the flesh is heir to. Dead? Oh no! he is not dead. He is
living evermore. May we all be as ready as was he for the final call!
On the same day that he died, we trust that there passed through the
gates with him one of our Indian boys, whose cause Dr. Powell had so
eloquently pleaded. Harry Little-Eagle died like a hero. No one ever
suffered more for four months than he, and not once did his faith fail. He
prayed and sang, and talked for Jesus as long as his strength held out.
The night before he died his voice returned, and he said: "God gave it back
to me and told me to talk to the people." He did. He said: "I am
going home, God will give me a greater work there to do. Do not cry.
You must keep a stout heart and give my message to all the people."
Then he prayed, "O Father, keep a big work for me. I have not lived
here long. I have only known thee a short time, and I have been a great
sufferer. I have done nothing for thee. Keep some work up there for
me. I want to help you." Then he said: "Tell Winona to be brave;
tell her to have a strong will; tell her to seek out the lost; some will
believe and be saved. Tell her to continue to work for the people." I
asked, "Are you afraid now, when you are so near the water?" "No," he
replied, "I am in a hurry to go home." To his father he said: "God will
send you a comforter. I will help prepare a home for you, and my mother
and sister and brother. I shall wait for you."
His father, Little-Eagle, seems inspired. New Year's Day he stood up
before some Teton Indians and said: "I am one of you. You all know me.
You all see me. You see the same body that has been on the war-path
with you many times; the same body that has been rigged out in paint
and feathers and rattlers, and has danced with you in the dance. The
body is the same, but that is all. The part of me that your eyes cannot
see is not the same. I am not the same. I think differently; I feel
differently; I plan differently. I like different things; I am a new man.
My heart is made clean in Christ. When I first tried to follow Christ, I
was satisfied. I tried to do right and I thought God would own me. When
my boy died he said: 'Tell the people that God has said, "Thou shalt
have no God but me. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou
shalt not commit adultery. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy."'
Then my heart was heavy. All day and night I sat mute. I said: 'I have
done all these things and my boy never did any of them. He will be
saved and I shall be lost.' I went to Winona and told her. She told me:
'My friend, if we never had sinned, Christ would not have died. Because
you sinned and broke God's laws, Christ died for you. His death makes
you his.' Then light came. Yes, I am a sinner, just like the rest of you.
We have all done the same things. Now I stand here acquitted. Come
to Christ. Come to God. You seek after food for the body; that is all
your thought. I sought God, and when I sowed my seed in the spring, I
prayed to God and attended to my soul, and God has taken care of my
body. I wished, and he made my field flourish when all yours dried up
in the sun. If you will seek God he will take care of your bodies. Trust
in the Lord. Put away heathen dances and plays. Be not like children;
be men and women and God will feed you."
These were his words. He spoke the truth, for he is the only Indian
who had an abundant crop.
Little Eagle cannot speak an English word. His son Harry who died
could read English a little. He learned at Santee. But his knowledge of
the Bible, and his Bible-reading to the people and his work for Christ, were
in his own tongue. It was the truth in his own tongue that saved Little
Eagle. _Shall we not, then, teach the children Christian truths in their
own language?_
* * * * *
THE CHINESE.
A CHINESE CHRISTIAN IN CHINA.
Chin Toy was a shoemaker until he accepted my invitation to become a
Missionary Helper. His education, in English and as a Christian, has
been wholly in our humble mission work. He is now engaged in
evangelistic service. Having recently returned from a visit to his
native land, I asked him to give me an account of his experience there.
I give it below to the readers of the _Missionary_. W.C. POND.
DEAR PASTOR:--You asked me kindly to give you my experience during
my visit in China. I stayed home about ten months. I had a very
hard time there at first, because I have no Christian friends who
live near enough to help me. The temptations around me very great.
My father and my uncle wanted me to help in their store: they had
sacrifice-paper and candles for the offering of idols for sale.
This hurted my feeling very much. I told them I was a Christian. I
could not help in that business, for I know it was against the law
of the true God. They laughed at me and said I was very foolish to
believe such a doctrine. I found it very difficult to enlighten
their minds.
Two weeks after I got home was a birthday of my grandfather, who
died many years ago. My father set some sacrifices on the parlor
table, before the ancestral tablet; he wanted me to bow down and
worship with him, but I refused. I told him while I honored my
grandfather a great deal, yet I could not worship him. The
Christians only worship the one true God. This made him very angry
at me, he so angry that he did not take his breakfast that
morning. From this time on, my father was cross to me very often,
he called me a man without conscience. I did not mind about that,
for I knew he loved me in his heart. He had not learned what
Christianity was. I tried to please him all I could. When he
scolded me I answered him softly. I prayed for him and for all my
relatives every day. I asked the Lord to send the Holy Spirit to
them, that they might prove what was good. Two or three months
afterward, I found my father and relatives changed a great deal.
They seemed to like Christianity more than they did.
Sometimes I showed them some things which they never saw before,
such as photograph album, Holy Bible, book of mission stories with
many pictures in it. I explained the pictures to them and they were
all pleased. I also told them that these good books were presented
by my kind teachers. I gave the names of these faithful workers of
the Lord and said they were the best friends of the Chinese, the
reason was that they love Jesus. I then went on and told them about
the true God, and his blessed Son Jesus, who love the whole world.
They all kept quiet and listen attentively. Besides these, I show
them my coal-oil stove, alarm clock, thermometer, etc. These things
greatly pleased them. I told them the wonderful arts, the
machineries, railways and the telegraphs. These news led them spoke
out in a loud voice, "The people in Christian land have more wisdom
than our Chinese." I said, "God gave this wisdom, our Chinese must
love the true God and forsake the idols, then God will send the
Holy Spirit to make us wise and happy, and love to do good. The
Bible says, Trust the Lord and do good." After this, I found
opportunity to preach the gospel every day. Though I could not make
them become Christians yet, I was glad they shew so much interest
in receiving the good seeds. Nearly every day, some people came in
our little store and asked me to tell them about this new doctrine.
During March, Rev. C.R. Hager paid us a visit. Our store was
crowded with people. They all came to see him. He preached to them.
Several of the students had a long talk with him.
On the day of my marriage, my father did not compel me to worship
the idols and ancestors. I felt very thankful for the Lord's help
in this matter. My mother used to believe in all kinds of
superstitions. If any one in the family was sick, she would go to a
sorcerer and ask for some charms to heal the sick one. I told her
that this kind of belief and doing were all wrong. I shew her how
to pray the true God, and taught her to say the Lord's prayer. One
day my sister was sick in bed, and my mother called me home to pray
for her. I asked my mother whether she had been to the sorcerer or
not. She said she had not. I then opened the Bible and read the
first eleven verses from the fourth chapter of Matthew. I knelt and
prayed, while my mother and all the rest of the family kept silent.
When I said the Lord's prayer at the close, I asked them to follow
me, but they were too bashful to comply. I am glad to say that my
sister's health was restored, and this greatly pleased my mother.