same quantity and quality. They generally all eat together, the
older ones sitting upon the floor, while the younger and more
civilized eat from a table. Their dishes frequently correspond in
quantity and quality with their advancement in civilization.
In the work of the school the principal writes: "As far as possible I
intend to have the pupils 'know, and know that they know,' what they
have gone over. I find that many of them seem to appreciate this
careful and accurate knowledge. They may not make as good a showing
in a report, but the purpose of the school is to work for the
children and not for public recognition."
* * * * *
A TRIBUTE TO REV. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D.D.
SECRETARY C. C. CREEGAN.
I first became acquainted with Dr. Behrends when he was in Cleveland,
and had a profound respect for him as a man, as well as one of the
ablest preachers of our time. When I came to Brooklyn several years
ago I was led to unite with his church. I can therefore speak from a
personal knowledge of twenty-five years.
In the death of Dr. Behrends, who had served both as vice-president
and member of the Executive Committee of the American Missionary
Association, the Society, as well as the denomination of which he was
one of the most conspicuous members, has suffered a great loss.
Central Church, Brooklyn, where he ministered with distinguished
success for seventeen years and where he was beloved by all, will
feel the loss of this great and good man most keenly, but all the
churches of his home city, where his voice was often heard and where
his influence was so great, will mourn the departure of one of the
greatest preachers of this generation.
Born in Holland, in the home of an humble Lutheran preacher, he came
to this country with his parents when five years of age. While
teaching school in his seventeenth year, near Portsmouth, Ohio, he
was converted by the preaching of an obscure Methodist minister and
at once decided to fit himself for the work of the ministry. Largely
by his own efforts he worked his way through Dennison University,
Ohio, graduating in 1862 in a class of three, all of whom became
prominent clergymen. Three years later he completed his theological
studies at Rochester Theological Seminary at the head of his class
and was called at once to the pastorate of a large Baptist Church in
Yonkers, N. Y., where he remained eight years. He was then called to
the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio, where he won great
distinction as a platform orator.
It was during this pastorate, which lasted only three years, that Dr.
Behrends, after a great struggle, decided to resign from this strong
church, where he was very popular, and enter another denomination.
Six happy years were then spent in the Union Church of Providence,
where he was recognized as one of the foremost preachers in the State
and nation.
Dr. Behrends was a great scholar. It is the belief of those who knew
him well that he was able to fill any chair in any of our theological
seminaries. His services were in frequent demand for courses of
lectures in our leading colleges and seminaries, and at least two of
these courses have been put into book form.
While his services were often sought for on great occasions, such as
the annual meetings of the A. M. A. and A. B. C. F. M., and similar
gatherings, his best work was done in his own pulpit. His sermons
were always prepared with the greatest care, and, except on rare
occasions, were delivered without a note and with wonderful beauty of
diction and irresistible logic to the audiences of two thousand
cultured people who hung on his words every Sabbath and who regarded
him, not without good reason, "the greatest preacher in America."
The secret of the great success of Dr. Behrends as a preacher was not
to be found in his striking personality, nor in his musical voice,
nor his profound scholarship, but rather in his strong faith in the
Bible as the Word of God, as his only creed, and that Christ Jesus,
the divine Saviour, is to win the whole world to Himself. From this
belief he never wavered, and to him the preaching of the gospel to
men and seeing them come into the kingdom was the joy of his soul.
* * * * *
RICHARD SALTER STORRS.
CHARLES A. HULL, CHAIRMAN.
I shall not attempt to repeat what has been so fully said by the
religious and secular journals of the country in reference to the
life and work of this great and good man, but I desire to say a few
words in regard to his connection with the anti-slavery movement, and
his interest in the work of the American Missionary Association. He
was an original Abolitionist, and one of the most pronounced even in
the early years of the agitation in his opposition to the wickedness
of slavery, and in later years the cause of the elevation of the
freedman had no stronger nor better friend than he.
In an article written for the Fiftieth Anniversary Number of _The
Independent_, of which he was one of the original editors, speaking
of the conditions at the time _The Independent_ was founded, and the
attitude of some of the societies toward slavery, Dr. Storrs added:
"And repeated efforts to induce the American Board of Foreign
Missions to take decisive anti-slavery ground, while carrying on its
work among Cherokees and Choctaws and other slaveholding peoples,
wholly failed of success--out of which failure came, however, the
American Missionary Association, since so justly honored, and so
widely and nobly useful."
By spoken and by written word he contributed much to the cause of
Christian education in the South and among the so-called dependent
races.
About ten years ago he preached a special sermon upon "Our Nation's
Work for the Colored People," in which, speaking of the work of the
Association, he said: "Now I affirm absolutely that if there ever was
a work of God on earth, this is His work! If there was ever anything
to which the American Christian people were called, they are called
to this. If there was ever a great opportunity before the Christian
Church, here it is; not to reach those people merely for their own
immediate welfare; not to save our own national life merely; but to
Christianize that immense continent which lies opposite to us on the
map, which we have wronged so long with the slave-trade and with rum,
and to which now we can, if we will, send multitudes of messengers to
testify of the glory of the grace of God."
I wish in closing to say a few words of Dr. Storrs as a friend.
Through many years he was not only my pastor but the most honored and
beloved friend of my life. His sense of humor was keen, and his
playfulness of manner constituted not the least of his charms to
those who knew him intimately. He never seemed to take a narrow view
of any subject, but was always lenient to and tolerant of those whose
opinions differed from his own, and yet strong and vigorous in his
own convictions. His loss to those closely associated with him in
personal and Church relations is one which can never be filled. He
was extremely modest in his estimate of himself and his efforts, and
simple-minded to a wonderful degree for a man of such supreme power
and influence. He never shirked what appeared to him a duty, and one
of the pleasantest recollections of my life is of a journey made by
him, at considerable personal inconvenience, only about a year ago,
to visit a former parishioner who had not seen him for years, and who
in his old age and feebleness desired to talk with him. His visit
brought sunshine and mental and spiritual comfort, and will ever be
gratefully remembered by those to whom he ministered.
In grandeur of thought, in nobility of utterance, and in his
wonderful personality, he was unique, and his death has left in the
American pulpit a void which we cannot expect to see filled.
* * * * *
Obituary.
* * * * *
PROFESSOR A. K. SPENCE.
Rev. Adam K. Spence, for twenty-five years a professor in Fisk
University, died in Nashville, Tenn., April 24, 1900. He was born in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1831. His parents removed to this country
in his early childhood. He studied in Oberlin and Ann Arbor,
graduating at the last named institution, where he taught for a time
after graduation.
In 1870 he was appointed by the American Missionary Association as
the principal of the school which afterward became Fisk University.
Since then scores of young people have gone forth each year from this
institution bearing the signate of Christian culture, and their
widespread influence is telling upon the South. Prof. Spence laid the
foundations of the Greek department in this university.
His love for music and appreciation of its finest effects amounted
almost to a passion. He helped give the university a high standard of
music, which has rendered it unique in Southern schools. Especially
was he an advocate of jubilee music, and did much to gather these
songs of quaint power and value into the archives of the university.
His great interest was in the spiritual development of the students.
Many revivals, resulting in the conversion of large numbers, were
greatly promoted by his prayer and earnest efforts. Prof. Spence was
always present at the prayer meeting when it was possible for him to
attend, and his influence was profoundly felt.
At the funeral, when the people passed to take a last look at the
familiar face, old men and women who had known him as their friend
during all these years, students and little children gazed lovingly
upon him. A large body of students went directly from Jubilee Hall to
Mount Olivet, where his body was laid to rest.
H. M.
* * * * *
REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.
The death of Dr. Alexander removes one who, in other years, occupied
an important position in the mission service of this Association. Dr.
Alexander was president of Straight University during a difficult and
important period. He made his impression upon the institution,
developing the work internally both intensively and extensively. He
was an earnest student and encouraged scholarship among the students.
His large influence was felt among the churches of lower Louisiana.
He became something of a bishop in the Congregational work in that
state. His judgment was wise and wholesome and his counsel always
helpful. His name is held in esteem, almost in reverence, by many of
the colored people of that region even to this day.
Dr. Alexander was born in East Killingly, Conn., August 29, 1835. He
was a graduate of Yale College and Andover Theological Seminary. He
held important pastorates in Connecticut and Wisconsin prior to the
war. He served under the Christian Commission with the Army of the
Potomac. He went abroad in 1872 and took charge of twelve free
churches in Italy. Returning from that country, he accomplished
fruitful missionary service in the South. In 1886, he became pastor
of the North Avenue Congregational Church, in Cambridge, Mass., and
served in this capacity until 1890. Since retiring from active
pastoral duties he has ministered to churches in various cities, most
acceptably to the people and with fruitful results.
* * * * *
PORTO RICO NOTES.
CHARLES B. SCOTT, SANTURCE, PORTO RICO.
[Sidenote: Educational Notes.]
Of the 950,000 inhabitants of Porto Rico, only about 100,000 can read
or write; 85 per cent. of the adult population are illiterate. Of the
200,000 children from five to sixteen years of age, all the schools,
public and private, can accommodate about thirty thousand. The
average daily attendance in all the schools of the island during the
past year has been not more than twenty to twenty-five thousand.
The school population (five to sixteen years of age) of San Juan is
about 6,000. The total seating capacity of all schools in the
capital, public and private, is not more than fifteen hundred.
There have been during the past year in the public schools of San
Juan nine or ten American teachers; forty more American teachers are
scattered through the public schools of the island. About twenty are
gentlemen acting as supervisors of districts and superintendents of
city schools.
[Sidenote: Christian Schools.]
The American Missionary Association of the Congregational Churches
has had during the past school year seven American teachers in Porto
Rico, divided between Santurce, a suburb of San Juan, and Lares. The
Presbyterians have had four American missionary teachers at Mayaguez.
The Baptist Church has two American ladies devoting part of their
time to teaching. The Christian Church has a school at San Juan, with
three teachers from the states.
Porto Rico is divided for educational purposes into fifteen
districts, each with an American supervisor in charge of from thirty
to forty schools. These gentlemen must ride hundreds of miles,
largely on native ponies, over poor roads and poorer mountain trails,
inspecting the schools and helping, directing and often stirring up
the native teachers.
The schools of the American Missionary Association have enrolled over
three hundred children. At Lares the pupils have been very regular in
attendance. In Santurce the attendance has been somewhat irregular.
In both schools the subjects pursued in American schools in the first
five grades have been taken up, with much attention to English. The
fact that very few children knew any English, and that most of the
teachers knew very little Spanish, made the work trying and slow at
first. The children proved themselves about as bright as American
children, quick in their perceptions, with good memories, weak in
arithmetic, not good thinkers or reasoners.
Rarely do American teachers in the States receive so many little
tokens of esteem and appreciation. On the other hand, the pupils are
quick-tempered, with little power of self control; rather easily
offended, and lack in perseverance and stability. They have little
idea of attention and little power to study. They are anxious to come
to school, and will sacrifice much to get clothes and pay tuition. On
the other hand, they will often stay at home for trivial reasons,
having no idea of the need of regular attendance. They always come to
school well dressed and usually clean; they will not come barefooted,
ragged or dirty. The children of the poorer classes roam the streets,
before and after school, barefooted and ragged, saving their clothes
and shoes for school.
The Christian schools, such as those of the American Missionary
Association, do not exist merely to supplement the public schools.
From the conditions in Porto Rico the public schools must be entirely
and utterly non-religious. Not even religious songs or the Lord's
Prayer are allowed. Any teacher discovered teaching any phase of
religion forfeits his or her salary for that month.
[Sidenote: Bible Study.]
In the Christian schools, while the carefully-selected American
teachers insure good schools and good teaching of the ordinary
branches, there is a place for moral education, for simple religious
exercises and for Bible study.
[Sidenote: Rural Education.]
The great problem in Porto Rico will be rural education. Probably
800,000 of its 950,000 people live in the country or in hamlets. The
cities are already providing for teachers' training-schools. The
field of greatest usefulness for the A. M. A. lies in giving the
young men and women a fair education under Christian influences, and
sending them out into the country and village schools.
The people of Lares are deeply interested in the school and willing
to help the work; the location is as healthful as any in the island,
and Lares, as a great coffee center, promises to thrive and grow.
The education most needed in Porto Rico is practical, industrial
education. Santurce, near the capital, with a large, poor population
about the school, dependent on their daily work for their support,
furnishes an excellent location for an industrial school. The people
and children do not know how to do anything. The women are
"lavenderas," or washwomen, the children carry water, the men do odd
jobs, and all are poorly housed, poorly clothed, poorly fed. The
children need manual training, and gardening for the boys and sewing
and cooking for the girls. Next year it is proposed to start these
lines of work at Santurce. Head and hand and heart can be reached and
trained for a better and more useful Christian life.
* * * * *
LOSS OF SUPPLIES FOR ALASKA.
Our missionaries at Cape Prince of Wales, Mr. and Mrs. Lopp, sent us
in the spring their request for supplies of provisions and other
necessities for the coming year. This request was immediately
fulfilled by purchases in San Francisco, and the supplies were duly
sent out in the bark "Alaska."
We have received intelligence from Dr. Jackson, at Nome, that the
bark "Alaska" was driven ashore and wrecked in the surf on Wednesday,
June 6th. In this letter Dr. Jackson mentions that the wrecked ship
contained a cabinet organ for the Prince of Wales mission, which was
ruined, and that the ship also brought up a turkey from San Francisco
for Mr. Lopp's Thanksgiving dinner.
The next day Dr. Jackson wrote us a brief note, saying: "The bark
Alaska that went ashore on Wednesday went to pieces in the storm
yesterday, and the supplies for the station at Cape Prince of Wales
are a total loss, even to the Thanksgiving turkey, which was
drowned." He added that he hoped to meet Mr. Lopp sometime next week.
The destruction of these supplies renders it necessary to send others
at once. The faithful missionaries at this important station must not
suffer. The friends of our Alaska mission who have so generously
contributed to its support will not forget this additional financial
necessity coming in this strange and unexpected calamity.
* * * * *
Department of Christian Endeavor.
* * * * *
STATE AND CITY ORGANIZATION.
BY SECRETARY J. E. ROY.
The Association Building (Y. M. C. A.), in Chicago, furnishes offices
for several of the National Missionary Societies, among them the
American Missionary Association. In addition to these we have the
depository and reception-room of the United Society of Christian
Endeavor, which is also used as the headquarters of the Illinois and
Chicago Union. Here the state board holds its weekly session. Here is
kept the supply of Christian Endeavor literature for the varied needs
of the Christian Endeavor workers, helps for missionary and
temperance and good citizenship meetings, with an array of programs.
Among all Endeavorers, as among all missionary society workers, the
hunger for programs is great indeed. Blessed be the man or woman who
has the genius for preparing such stimulating outlines of study.
In this city there are two hundred and fifty Christian Endeavor
Societies. In fifteen societies in the South Division of the city the
sum of $791.28 has been given to missionary work since January 1st,
of which $588.43 went to foreign missions, $61.54 to home missions
and $141.40 to city missions.
[Illustration: HEADQUARTERS Y. P. S. C. E. UNION, CHICAGO, ILL.]
Nine societies of Evanston in the last year have given $688.55 to
missions--$255 to foreign, $59 to home and $374 to city missions. All
have given something to the famine sufferers in India. Some of the
societies visit hospitals and take flowers to the sick; one society
visits a crippled lady once a week and holds a little prayer-meeting
with her. The First Congregational Society has given $290 to the
Chicago Commons.
A member of one Chicago society, a business man who is a great
Christian Endeavor worker, has a library of over sixty volumes on
missionary subjects which he is loaning all the time. Our Pilgrim
Church has a society which publishes its own paper, _The Pilgrim's
Progress_, that serves all the purposes of the church in its several
departments.
[Sidenote: The Chicago Chinese Endeavor.]
The Chinese school in Dr. Goodwin's church, the First, has its
Christian Endeavor Society. It is conducted mainly by the Chinese in
their native language. They sing our gospel songs in Chinese and are
earnest in the study of the Bible, pursuing the customary order of
worship and of work. The school was started in 1884, with 32 pupils
and 20 teachers. The number soon came up to 80. Then, as other
schools were started, this number was diminished, but from the first
the work has been a success. In 1897, a Monday night school was
started and it is flourishing yet. As many as forty from this school
have publicly professed Christ. Four united with the church in the
last year. Four have been for several years in missionary work in
China, one of them, Chan Sui Chung, as assistant of Rev. Dr. C. R.
Hager, M.D., has charge of a chapel in the village of Hoi Yin, and
Dr. Hager reports him quite helpful in preparing native evangelists,
and says that God has greatly blessed his labors. Chan Sui Chung had
over fifty baptisms in his mission in 1899. They soon catch the
benevolent spirit of the Gospel. Last year the members of this school
gave $50 for mission work in California, $60 for aid in building a
house of worship near their families in China, and one of them, from
his own earnings, gave $500 for mission work in his own land.
Rev. J. A. Mack, who has been for many years secretary of the Chicago
Bible Society, and who is the volunteer superintendent of this
Sunday-school, is just now out in our _Times-Herald_ with an article
from which I get these statistics. He also says there are some 2,000
Chinese in this city and for them ten Chinese mission schools--the
number of pupils depending upon the number of Chicago Christians who
are ready to teach them.
[Sidenote: A Live Endeavor Church.]
[Illustration: SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, OAK PARK, ILL.]
It is the Second Congregational Church of Oak Park, Dr. Sydney
Strong, pastor. Its Christian Endeavor Society, besides paying $25 a
year for the support of a young lady student in Dakota, and a like
amount for a young girl student in a colored school at the South, has
subscribed and is now paying the sum of $500 toward the erection of
their magnificent meeting-house, which was dedicated only this last
spring. A class in the Sunday-school of that church also subscribed a
thousand dollars toward their church edifice and is paying it
promptly. The capacity of this building was tested during the
meetings of the General Association of Illinois, and it was found
capable of seating a thousand people in its auditorium, and of
feeding six hundred people at the first tables in its dining room on
occasion of the banquet given by the City Congregational Club to the
members of the General Association of the state. That club had made
the American Missionary Association its guest along with the General
Association, and so brought upon its platform as speakers, Secretary
C. J. Ryder, D.D., Mrs. I. V. Woodbury, of Boston, Field Missionary
Rev. G. W. Moore, and Rev. Mary C. Collins of the Dakota Mission. The
Jubilee Singers discoursed their delicious music through that
session, as also through those of the state body, and filled our city
and its surroundings with the sincerest praise of their spiritually
elevating service in song. The exploiting of the American Missionary
Association thus by the club was a spontaneous and immensely hearty
commendation of its mission and its work.
* * * * *
RECEIPTS FOR APRIL, 1900.
* * * * *
THE DANIEL HAND EDUCATIONAL FUND
For Colored People.
Income for April $1,350.00
Previously acknowledged 31,116.73
----------
$32,466.73
==========
NOTE.--Where no name follows that of the town, the contribution is
from the church and society of that place. Where a name follows, it
is that of the contributing church or individual. S. means
Sunday-school; C. means Church; C. E., the Young People's Society of
Christian Endeavor; S. A. means Student Aid.
CURRENT RECEIPTS.
MAINE, $780.22--of which from Estate, $500.00.