The Project Gutenberg EBook of The American Missionary -- Volume 33, No.
10, October, 1879, by Various

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Title: The American Missionary -- Volume 33, No. 10, October, 1879

Author: Various

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Language: English

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THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

PRESIDENT.

Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., 56 Reade Street, N. Y.

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade Street, New York, or when mote convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.

A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

[289]

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

OUR ANNUAL MEETING.

The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Goodwin’s), Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3 p. m. The Annual Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., service commencing at half-past seven in the evening. A paper on the Chinese question will be presented by Rev. J. H. Twichell, of Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity of the Protection of Law for the Indians, by Gen. J. H. Leake, United States District Attorney, Chicago, Illinois. Other papers and addresses on timely and important subjects will be presented by able writers, the announcement of which will be given in the daily press at an early date.

Parties desiring entertainment during the meeting will write, by or before October 8th, to H. G. Billings, Esq., 242 South Water Street, Chicago.

It will be seen that our communications from the Southern field are very limited this month. It is, of course, the time of vacation in all our Southern institutions, except a few of the public schools, to the support of which we are contributing, and from which we hear mainly through the larger schools of which their teachers are pupils or graduates. Soon the wheels will begin to revolve again, we trust, with greater effectiveness than ever before.

A confidential word from the Editor to the members of the missionary and teaching force who occasionally write to the Missionary.—Your communications are always read in the most kindly and interested spirit. Their contents are always noted, and if they contain any incident or item which even perhaps may be of general interest to our readers, we use it. Do not be too greatly disappointed or grieved at us if we do not always use them in the form in which they are sent. There are many things which must be weighed in the make-up of a magazine which no one but those who see it all can even know. The Editor’s basket is not a waste basket, even when it receives MSS., for they do not go into it unread, nor do we mean to let any wheat get lost among the chaff, although doubtless we occasionally do. Sometimes an article must be squeezed into an item or be squeezed[290] out. Please keep writing, then, not for your local audience, but for all; or, if you please, as though it were meant for the Editor’s ear alone. Don’t be disappointed—much more, don’t be angry, if all you write does not get into print. And don’t promise anybody, that a certain thing you send will appear in the Missionary; for, after all, the Editor who must decide is in the New York office.

Prof. A. K. Spence and wife arrived in August by steamer “Bolivia,” from an absence of a year in their native Scotland. They have been for ten years connected with Fisk University, and have resumed their work in that institution. By their visit they have been greatly refreshed in health. They have been constantly engaged in private and public effort to interest their Scottish people yet more in our work as related to the Christianization of Africa. With their territorial and commercial interest in that dark continent, British Christians are all the more disposed to care for the religious welfare of the inhabitants of that country. The many friends at the West who have heard the familiar talks of Mrs. Spence, will be prepared to believe that her recital of the Freedman’s story to the sisters of her motherland was greatly acceptable.

Prof. Spence’s mother, who, at the age of eighty-five, recently contributed to the Independent a poem on George McDonald, whom she had known from his childhood, sent on the fee for her article to the treasury of the A. M. A.

Revivals in Summer Time.—The people of the North, who are apt to be under the respite of vacation at this season of the year, and who are addicted to special efforts for the promotion of revivals in the Winter time, are sometimes surprised to hear of such movements at the South during the heat of Summer. At first it seems quite creditable to the piety of our colored brethren that they should warm up to such service in dog days. But the reason for selecting this season for such service is the same as that which at the North locates it in the Winter. That is the slack time of the year. The corn and the cotton have been laid by, and now there is leisure before the time comes for picking and harvesting. The Association of South-west Texas meets at the middle of July, and refuses to fix any other date for assembling, desiring to use that “set time” for some revival effort, and expecting to bless the entertaining church in that way. We are hearing that nearly all of our churches in the South have been making more or less of special effort.

The Southern Sentinel, a monthly, published at Talladega College, under the new management of Prof. Geo. N. Ellis, editor, and P. P. Green (one of the students), publisher, is taking on more of freshness and of force. A department of agriculture has been added. This will be of great value. In this we see the hand of the farm superintendent, Mr. Atkinson, who went down from Olivet College to help on in this part of the Talladega movement.

“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”—This response of the Master to Peter’s inquiry about the lot of John indicates the measure of consecration requisite on the part of those who are called to this missionary work among despised classes. It is an unquestioning, an unconditional obedience that is needed. One may say: “Others are staying at home and having easy times.” What is that to thee?[291] “Down there we may be sneered at and treated like pariahs.” What is that to thee? “It was easy up North to have been an abolitionist, but to go and put yourself down by the side of and underneath the outcast ex-slave to try to raise him up, that is another thing.” What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Follow my call; follow my example in caring for “these my brethren.” Sympathy with the Saviour in His love for souls, in His self-forgetfulness while winning lost men to His Gospel, is the first qualification for this Christly work. It was a rigid scrutiny that set aside the few men that were to gain the victory of the Lord at the hand of Gideon. A like carefulness of selection is necessary in this holy war. It would enlist only those who give themselves to its cause with such alacrity that they stop not for personal ease, but who lap their drink.

But the reward of those who thus follow the Divine Leader in this service is quick and ample. They are a happy set of folks. They love their work; they love their people; they have joy in their calling; in this they are like returned foreign missionaries.

A Worker at Rest.—Mrs. Anna M. (Day) Peebles departed this life at Dudley, N. C., on the 28th of August. Educated at Oberlin, she had been one of our teachers in the Washington School at Raleigh, N. C., serving also as teacher and leader of music. Something over a year ago she was married to Rev. David Peebles, of Dudley, N. C., where she took charge of the school, becoming greatly successful and beloved in the same. Excelling as a teacher, enthusiastic in the missionary aspect of her work, and winsome among her associates and pupils, her loss to our cause is greatly felt.

DEATH OF FATHER JOCELYN.

Another Christian hero has laid aside his armor and received his crown. The Lord did not break the dies when He made the last of the ancient Martyrs or of the Puritan heroes. In great emergencies he reproduces them after their kind. The anti-slavery struggle needed them and they came forth, and among them there was no braver man than the gentle and amiable Simeon S. Jocelyn. It is a mistake to suppose that the bold and determined men who take front rank in great moral conflicts are destitute of kindly impulses. Father Jocelyn was utterly uncompromising where duty called, yet I have seldom known a man of more tender sympathies, of quicker, almost womanly sensibility to sorrow or suffering. Nor are all such men, as is often imagined, so intent on pushing forward their great reforms as to overlook the rights of others. Father Jocelyn was most scrupulous in regard to the minutest claims of all men, even of his opponents. Nor are all such seemingly rash and headlong men lacking in caution. Father Jocelyn was the most cautious man I ever knew. Indeed this trait was, in some sense, a hindrance to his activity, for he instinctively saw the many adverse bearings and possible misconstructions to the course contemplated or to the document to be published. The marvel is that such a man could ever have become an abolitionist—that he could have risked reputation, property, and even life itself, in an enterprise so doubtful of success and beset with so many dangers to the peace of the church and the nation. The only explanation is in his clear perception, through all glosses, of the path of duty, and the overwhelming impulse of conscience to pursue it in spite of all dangers. Of such stuff are moral heroes made.

[292]

The piety of Father Jocelyn was sincere, deep and all-pervading. He was a man of prayer and of close communion with God, active in Christian labors in public and private, and of a beautiful simplicity and transparency of character—a saintly man. A Puritan by birth and conscientious conviction, his religious life was after the strictest model, yet his tender sympathies rendered him kind as well as faithful in counsel or warning, while his broad Christian charity made him liberal toward all who loved the Saviour.

Father Jocelyn was born in New Haven, Ct., in 1799, and was early converted to Christ. He began active life as an engraver, but relinquished a prosperous business to preach the Gospel to the poor, devoting his ministry to a feeble colored church in New Haven. The anti-slavery cause from the beginning had his warmest sympathies and most earnest co-operation. The American Missionary Association had no earlier or steadier friend. When the Amistad captives were landed in New London, and prompt and persevering efforts were made to re-enslave them, a committee of gentlemen was organized in New York to watch over their interests, and at the head of that committee stands the name of S. S. Jocelyn. Throughout the long struggle that secured their liberties and their return to their native land, accompanied by a missionary and teacher, Mr. Jocelyn was constant in his active exertions; and when at length that committee and other similar bodies were united in the formation of this Association, he was forward in founding, and constant thereafter in sustaining the new organization. He attended the meeting in Albany when the Association was formed. He was its Recording Secretary from 1846 to 1853, Corresponding Secretary with charge of the Home Department from 1853 to 1863, and from that time till his death was a member of the Executive Committee.

We extract from an article in the Advance, by Dr. Roy, the following account of the funeral:

“The funeral was held in the New England Church of Brooklyn, E. D., where he had his membership. In the large congregation there was a fine representation of colored people. The Executive Committee and other officers of the American Missionary Association were present. The pall-bearers were a squad of veterans of the old Liberty Guard. The pastor, Rev. Mr. Hibbard, presided. A few words of affectionate sympathy with the brothers and sisters who had been bereaved of their father, were spoken by Rev. J. E. Roy, whose father, also at the age of eighty, a few months before had been called away.

“Dr. Strieby spoke of the work of the departed in the American Missionary Association, and especially with eloquent words depicted the tremendous moral courage, the great cautiousness, the womanly tenderness, the transparent simplicity which were blended in his character. Strange that so sweet a man ever had the grit to take up the battle against slavery. Rev. Mr. Ray, a colored minister, who had known Mr. Jocelyn, and had been associated with him for forty years, gave fitness to the occasion by his words of gratitude, and by several telling reminiscences,—one of which was that, in 1839, Mr. Jocelyn came down from New Haven to take up the gauntlet of debate upon the colonization question with Mr. Robert Finley. The discussion was in a hall in Nassau Street, and Mr. Jocelyn’s main reliance was the word of God.

“Rev. Mr. Lockwood, a former pastor, bore loving testimony. Dr. Edward Beecher went back to an acquaintance of fifty years ago, when a student in Yale College, under concern of soul, he went to Mr. Jocelyn. He was such a spiritual, faithful Christian as a young man in passing that crisis would be apt to seek out.[293] Dr. B. was associated with him in his Sabbath-school and church work among the colored people, and carried with him that same impulse when he went to Illinois College, and stood by Elijah P. Lovejoy until they shot him down. In closing, Dr. Beecher said that the words appropriate to the character of the departed were: ‘In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.’”

M. E. Strieby.

RANDOM SUGGESTIONS.

Will the Exodus Affect the Work of the Association in the South?

I answer without hesitation, it will not. To the present time the exodus movement has been confined very largely to the disturbed parishes, or to certain exceptional cases where the conditions of labor have been oppressive. In New Orleans, while conventions and open-air meetings have been held, and the policy of emigration has been discussed, but few of the Freedmen have decided to leave the State and find a home in Kansas. There is a restless, dissatisfied feeling among the masses of the negroes, especially the poorer classes, induced by the glowing appeals made to them; but the exodus has not assumed, and I believe will not assume, large proportions. The masses will stay on Southern soil and abide in Southern homes. My opinion is based upon the supposition that their rights, social, educational and religious, and their rights also as laborers, will not be invaded or denied beyond what they are at present.

In New Orleans 45 per cent. of the population is colored, and in the State at large 55 per cent. I do not believe that this ratio will be materially changed by the exodus. And even if a few thousands of Freedmen left the South in search of warmer hospitality, an increased compensation for labor, and a more equitable recognition of their rights as citizens, it would not lessen the possibilities of good afforded to the Association. Should a half million go away, there would still be four and a half millions left to be instructed and helped in their race struggle for higher intelligence and a purer religious life. Press forward, then, the glorious work of education. Hasten the full equipment of the normal schools and colleges for the wider, grander work before them. Let new churches be planted, and the pure gospel of Christ be preached all over the beautiful and fruitful South, wherever the Freedman has his home. The work is not one of a generation, but of a century.

Student Aid.

To secure, at the earliest day, one of the chief objects of the Association—the thorough education of colored young men and women as teachers and ministers, who shall be competent to lead the masses of their race to a higher civilization—special aid must be given to those whose minds and hearts give promise of usefulness. A large number who propose to seek only an elementary education, or those who reside in the city where a school of high grade is located, do not require aid from abroad. The wise policy of the instructors in our institutions is to search for young men and women of promise, and encourage them to pursue a full course of study, and to watch over them till the benefits they receive are made a valued possession not only to themselves but to their race. What are the facts in the case? The best material is often remote from the college, and utterly lacking in pecuniary ability. Many of the brightest, the most intellectual of the children of the Freedmen, who are intensely anxious for an education, and have a praiseworthy ambition to be fitted for positions of responsibility and usefulness,[294] are denied the privileges of the college by reason of extreme poverty. Many others are able to meet a part of the cost of an education, but without benevolent aid must stop short of a full course of study. I am just now in receipt of a letter from a worthy and talented young man near New Orleans. I quote a sentence to show its import: “I have the same mind to work in the cause of Christ and prepare to preach His word. I think I have been called to engage in this work and cannot be satisfied unless I do. Dear brother, I do now most solemnly appeal to you and the good brethren in the North to aid me to an education.”

This is one instance of hundreds which could be cited. Another fact deserves earnest consideration. We need to conserve and utilize for the general good the partial education which the graduates of our colleges have secured. At the present time this is not done as it should be, and as it might be, if special student aid were available. Many graduates go forth from the college who are lost to view. After so much patient labor has been bestowed upon them—and in some instances special pecuniary aid given—they should be encouraged in every way to devote themselves to the greatest good of their people. Take the last class in Straight University as an illustration. We graduated eight students, all bright, talented and promising, and, grandest of all, Christians. All are poor—some of them extremely poor. Their education has cost them a hard, patient struggle. They desire to become teachers of the highest rank. The young men are looking to the learned professions. In order to attain what they desire, and what we desire for them, they should take a post-graduate course. The young men, if God calls them to the work, should take a three years’ course of theological instruction.

But left alone, without outside aid, they will be compelled to work for their daily bread, and for them their school days will have forever passed. Is it not worth while to say to these young men: “Come back to the University, and the Christian benevolence of the North will see you through one, two or three years more of study, and then we shall claim you for the college, for the church, and for the work of God. Henceforth you are not your own, but must go wherever God shall call you, and stand in the forefront of every great and good movement for the elevation of your race.”

To-day, if a worthy Christian young man or woman appeals to us, “Can you not aid me to keep on in my studies?” our answer is a sorrowful one, “There is no fund that can be appropriated to that purpose.” Will not good men think of this and make a grand possibility of good a fact gloriously realized?

W. S. Alexander.

A STRONG APPEAL.

We present below a forcible appeal for student aid. Such aid is essential, and the question of obtaining it in sufficient amount to meet the demand lies at the bottom of the whole possibility of educating the colored youth of the South. If scholarships and educational funds are important to the white students of the North, how much more to the colored students at the South, where employment is so poorly paid, and the money so hard to be collected when earned! This appeal is but a sample of the cry that comes from all our institutions—Atlanta, Talladega, Tougaloo, New Orleans, and the rest. An illustration may be seen in the foregoing article by Rev. W. S. Alexander, President of Straight University.

But we must warn our patrons not to divert their contributions from our ordinary work to this special object, for if this is done, we might as well furnish this student help directly from our treasury. Then where would be the money to sustain[295] the teachers?—and they must be sustained, or the schools closed. The only solution of the problem is for the friends of the Freedmen to enlarge their contributions to meet both wants. We most importunately urge our patrons not to starve the teacher in order to aid the scholar, but help both.

What Shall We Do?

Will a goodly number of the readers of the American Missionary tell us?

The case can be best set forth by giving a single illustration. On the Saturday evening preceding the Monday on which the new school year of Fisk University was to begin, a young man was brought to my room by one of our former students, who introduced him as being from Montgomery, Alabama. I found on inquiry, and from a letter which he brought from a prominent colored man of that city, that he had determined to get an education, and having but little money, had made up his mind to walk from Montgomery to Nashville, a distance of three hundred miles, with the hope of finding some way by which he might be admitted as a student in Fisk University. Fortunately, a prominent citizen of Montgomery was able to secure him a pass on the railroad, one hundred miles, to Birmingham, and a student of Fisk University who happened to meet him at Columbia, Tenn., used the little spare money he had in his pocket to help him on his way twenty miles toward Nashville.

What do the friends of education among the colored people of the South wish us to do with such cases? The University has no means of its own with which to help such young people, and this instance is but an illustration of very many similar cases which we are compelled to decide every year.

From the correspondence of teachers, and through the cases known personally by the comparatively few of our old students who have already returned from their summer’s work, we could number up to-day, which is only the fourth day after the opening of the school, at least forty instances of young men and young women of known character and ability who are eager and anxious to come to Fisk University to fit themselves for teaching and other Christian work among their people, who cannot come because they have not and cannot get sufficient money. The number will be doubled by the time this article reaches our friends through the American Missionary. In many cases they can pay from five to seven dollars of the twelve dollars a month required for their board and tuition. We find from actual experience that an average of fifty dollars will help at least one such struggling student to support for a year in Fisk University. The balance and the money necessary to purchase books they can generally provide for themselves. We ask the readers of the American Missionary what we shall do with these cases. Any one who will send us a thousand dollars will answer the question for at least twenty. Every fifty dollars will give the answer in the case of one. Our hearts ache when we are compelled to refuse, for the want of money, these eager applications. Every one who has an answer to give us can send it to H. W. Hubbard, Assistant Treasurer of the American Missionary Association at New York—and we know the answer will suffer no long delay in his hands—or to E. P. Gilbert, Assistant Treasurer of Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn. All students helped will in due time communicate by letter with those who thus befriend them.

Will not every individual or Sabbath-school that contributed last year to help aid students continue that help for the coming year, and give us the earliest possible information of such intention?

E. M. Cravath, Pres. Fisk University.

[296]

THE LANGUAGE OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA.

Great interest has been awakened in the geographical discoveries that have been made in Central Equatorial Africa during the last twenty-five years. This vast and newly-explored country is no doubt the choicest portion of the whole African continent. The inhabitants, with the exception of a few mixed tribes along its outer borders, all belong to one great family. A line starting from the Cameroon Mountains on the western coast, second degree north latitude, and drawn, with some slight variations, directly across the continent to the same degree of latitude on the east coast, divides the negro race into two distinct families, perhaps of nearly equal size. The one, occupying the country north of this line to the southern borders of the Great Desert, is known as the Nigritian stock, from the fact that they are to be found mainly in the valley of the Niger. The other, and the one to which our article mainly refers, is known as the Ethiopian or Nilotic family, from its supposed descent from the ancient Ethiopians, whose chief residence was the banks of the Nile.

One general language, with great divergence as to dialects, prevails over this whole region of country. There are not only verbal resemblances, but there is a peculiar grammatical structure, scarcely known to any other language, that pervades and characterizes all the dialects of this one great family. A very large number of words are common to the Mpongwe dialect on the west coast, and the Swahili on the east, as may be seen from a grammar of the Mpongwe, published by the missionaries at the Gaboon years ago. If the words used by three or four tribes along the coast of Southern Guinea could be fully collated, they would be found to contain not less, perhaps, than four-fifths of all the words used over the whole of this vast region.

But apart from these verbal resemblances, there are certain features of orthography that establish the relationship between these dialects quite as clearly. To mention no others, the use of m and n—as if they were preceded by a sort of half-vowel sound—before certain other consonants, at the beginning of words, is very peculiar. M is constantly used before b, p, t, and w, as in the words mbolo, mpolu, mtesa, and mwera. So n is constantly used before k, t, y, and gw, as in the words nkala, ntondo, nyassa, and ngwe. The combination of ny occurs in the names of most of the great lakes, as Nyassa, Nyanza, and Tanganyika. A still more striking feature of relationship between these dialects may be found in the combinations by which proper names are formed. The names of a large proportion of the tribes encountered by Stanley and Cameron on their journeys across the continent commence with the letter u, as Uganda, Unyoro, and Ujiji, &c. Now, by prefixing ma, and dropping the initial u, we have Maganda, a person or citizen of Uganda; Manyoro, a person or citizen of Unyoro. So by prefixing wa instead of ma, we get Waganda, they, or the people of Uganda. Now, in the Mpongwe dialect, ma is simply a contraction of oma, person, and wa or wao is the personal pronoun for they, showing how these proper names are formed. Again, many of the names of these tribes terminate in ana. Ana, in the Mpongwe dialect, is an abbreviation of awana, children or descendants. If the names of Bechuana and Wangana could be analyzed, they would be found to mean the children or descendants of Bechu or Wanga, this being the way of giving names to any particular family that separates itself from the parent stock.

But the peculiar character of this language is more remarkable than its wide diffusion. Taking the Mpongwe dialect as a specimen, we have no hesitation in saying that it will be difficult to find any language, ancient or modern, that is[297] more systematic or philosophical in its general arrangements, more marked in the classification of its different parts of speech or their relationship to each other, or in the extent of its inflections, especially those of the verb. The existence of such a language among an uncultivated people is simply a marvel. As many as three hundred oblique forms can be derived from the root of every regular Mpongwe verb, each one of which will have a clear and distinct shade of meaning of its own, and yet so regular and systematic in all its inflections, that a practiced philologist could, after a few hours’ study, trace up any of even its most remote forms to the original root. It is not intended to convey the idea that all these forms are habitually used, for that would indicate a much more extended vocabulary than could reasonably be expected among an uncultivated people. But there is no form of the verb, notwithstanding its extensive ramifications, that would not be distinctly understood by an audience, even if they had never heard it used before.

It will be seen, therefore, that the vocabulary may be expanded to an almost unlimited extent. It is not only expansible, but it has a wonderful capacity for conveying new ideas. The missionaries laboring among these people, after they had acquired a thorough knowledge of the structure of this wonderful language, were surprised to find with how much ease they could use it to convey religious ideas. In their native state the people had no knowledge of the Christian religion, and, of course, used no terms for saviour or salvation, for redeemer or redemption, etc. They had, however, the terms sunga, to save, and danduna, to redeem, or pay a ransom. Now, according to a well established law of grammar, ozunge is a saviour, and isungina is salvation; similarly from danduna comes olandune, the redeemer, and ilanduna, redemption:—so that they could at once get a tolerably correct idea of these terms, and there was no need (as there is in most unwritten languages) to call in the aid of foreign words. Without multiplying illustrations of a similar character, it will be seen that the language is not only flexible and expansive to a very remarkable degree, but is suitable beyond almost any other known language to convey religious instruction to the minds of the people. It has been preserved, no doubt, by a wise Providence for this very purpose.

The providence of God towards this great family, therefore, seems to be very marked and significant. They have been preserved for centuries in great numbers and vigorous manhood, notwithstanding their perpetual intestine strifes and the cruel desolations that have been occasioned by the slave trade, along both their eastern and western borders. They are in possession of a country that is not only healthful and productive, but whose navigable streams seem to have been traced out by the finger of Divine Providence for the twofold purpose of facilitating intercommunication among the people themselves, and of furthering the rapid diffusion of the Gospel wherever it has once gained a footing. Then their language, with all its wonderful characteristics, seems to have been kept by the Divine hand as an easy channel through which the light and blessings of the Gospel might, in God’s own good time, reach their dark and benighted minds.

J. Leighton Wilson, in The Catholic Presbyterian.

A STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY.

BY MRS. H. G. GUINESS.

A wealthy farmer who cultivated some thousands of acres, had, by his benevolence, endeared himself greatly to his large staff of laborers. He had occasion to leave the country in which his property was situated, for some years; but, before doing so, he gave his people clearly to understand that he wished the whole of the[298] cultivated land to be kept in hand, and all the unclaimed marsh lands to be enclosed and drained, and brought into cultivation—that even the hills were to be terraced, and the poor mountain pastures manured—so that no single corner of the estate should remain neglected and barren. Ample resources were left for the execution of these works, and there were sufficient hands to have accomplished the whole within the first few years of the proprietor’s absence.

He was detained in the country to which he had been called very many years. Those whom he left children were men and women when he came back, and so the number of his tenantry and laborers was vastly multiplied. Was the task he had given them to do accomplished? Alas! no. Bog and moor and mountain waste were only wilder and more desolate than ever. Fine rich virgin soil, by thousands of acres, was bearing only briars and thistles. Meadow after meadow was utterly barren for want of culture; nay, by far the larger part of the farm seemed never to have been visited by his servants.

Had they been idle? Some had, but large numbers had been industrious enough. They had expended a vast amount of labor, and skilled labor, too; but they had bestowed it all on the park immediately around the house. This had been cultivated to such a pitch of perfection that the workmen had scores of times quarreled with each other, because the operations of one interfered with his neighbor. And a vast amount of labor, too, had been lost in sowing the same patch—for instance, with corn fifty times over in one season, so that the seed never had time to germinate and grow and bear fruit; in caring for the forest trees as if they had been tender saplings; in manuring soils already too fat, and watering pastures already too wet. The farmer was positively astonished at the misplaced ingenuity with which labor and seed and manure, skill and time and strength, had been wasted for no result. The very same amount of toil and capital expended according to his directions, would have brought the whole demesne into culture, and yielded a noble revenue. But season after season had rolled away in sad succession, leaving those unbounded areas of various but all reclaimable soil, barren and useless; and, as to the park, it would have been far more productive and perfect had it been relieved of the extraordinary and unaccountable amount of energy expended on it.

Why did these laborers act so absurdly? Did they wish to labor in vain? On the contrary, they were forever craving for fruit, coveting good crops, longing for great results. Did they not wish to carry out the farmer’s views about his property? Well, they seemed to have that desire, for they were always reading the directions he wrote, and said continually to each other, “You know we have to bring the whole property into order;” but they did not do it. Some few tried, and ploughed up a little plot here and there, and sowed corn and other crops. Perhaps these failed, and so the rest got discouraged. Oh no! the yield was magnificent; far richer in proportion than they got themselves. They clearly perceived that, but yet they failed to follow a good example. Nay, when the labors of a few, in some distant valley, had resulted in a crop they were all unable to gather in by themselves, the others would not even go and help them to bring home the sheaves. They preferred watching for weeds among the roses in the overcrowded garden, and counting the blades of grass in the park and the leaves on the trees.

Then they were fools, surely, not wise men?—traitors, not true servants to their lord?

Oh! I can’t tell! You must ask him that. I only know that the Master said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” And eighteen hundred and seventy-seven years after they had not even mentioned that there was a Gospel to one-half of the world!—China’s Millions.

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ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Memphis, Tenn.—Thus far, during the epidemic of this year, none of the scholars of the Le Moyne Institute and none of the members of the Second Congregational Church (colored) have suffered.

Atlanta, Ga.—The Storrs School was opened on the first of September, with 250 scholars, under the continued principalship of Miss Amy Williams, who is assisted by Misses Abby Clark, Julia Goodwin, Amelia Ferris and F. J. Morris. Miss M. E. Stevenson has been transferred from the position of a teacher to that of lady missionary for the city, representing the ladies of the two churches of Oberlin.

Brunswick, Ga.—Mr. Morse writes: “My school has been free the entire year. We have averaged over ninety for the year of ten months. I think many have been made wiser and better. Some have connected themselves with the churches there. We are having a season of great Christian interest in the Congregational Church of this city, under Brother Clarke’s care. Two of our Sunday-school scholars, and now supernumerary teachers, have given their hearts to the Saviour. Our hope is the schools; take them away and I would not give anything for Congregationalism among the colored people. I had no idea of touching this matter when I began to write.”

Macon, Ga.—Rev. S. E. Lathrop, who has been at Atlanta for three months, running down to supply his church meantime, in a private letter, describes a day of work as follows:

“Brother Young wrote me from Byron to come down there and baptize some candidates for him. In the morning I went out from Macon (seventeen miles by rail), rode three miles from the church to the creek in a lumber wagon with fourteen other colored folks, getting caught in a shower on the way. Arrived at a grist-mill, in which I changed clothes (preparing for immersion), with the flour-dust half an inch deep everywhere. Waded into the creek and immersed four candidates, three men and one woman, all of whom behaved excellently well, without any shouting or gymnastics; the seal of sprinkling being set upon us by another sudden shower just as we came out of the water. Rode back to the church, preached, administered communion, received the four persons to membership, and baptized an infant. Had just time for a good dinner of ‘chicken fixins,’ and took the train back to Macon, arriving at six p. m. of a close, sultry day. Walked one and a half miles and back through the sweltering heat, to see a sick girl who wants to join our church. Got back just in time for evening service, and preached. Came back here yesterday, and have felt ‘bunged up’ ever since.”

No. 1 Miller’s Station, Ga.—“On the 27th of August, one of the members of this church died; or, perhaps, I should express it better if I said he fell asleep—for it seemed more like sleep than death. The brother had not been a member of the church for one year yet; but all who saw him before his death felt sure that he was a saved man. He was over 76 years of age, and was one of those who had left off drinking since I came here. He was so determined on leaving it off that he would not take the communion with us the last time he was present at our services. He said he was afraid it would lead him to rum drinking again. In his case was shown the power of the Gospel. He had lived in sin for 75 years; yet, by the grace of God, and the power of His word, he was set free from the power of Satan. During his short Christian life he was kept from the sin of strong drink, and when he died he went to live with Jesus. A few hours before[300] his death he said to me: ‘All I want now is to see my dear Jesus; I have given up all for His sake; do, blessed Jesus, come and take me when you are ready.’”

“The First Commencement on the Ogeechee” is the way in which Pastor McLean, of Ga., announces the closing exercises of his parish school. Never before had those rice swamps caught the echoes of the children’s eloquence. In the twenty-eight orations and two dialogues there was not a failure. And when the fathers and mothers had a chance to express their gratitude, it was a burst of “God bless you, brother.” Best of all, of the ninety-five who have been connected with the school during the year, twenty-five have become the disciples of the Great Master since the school was opened.

Talladega, Ala.—The Catalogue of the College for the last year reports 214 students in all the departments. This number includes the dozen theological students who have been under the training of Prof. G. W. Andrews. Their names are Andrew J. Headen, P. W. Young and W. S. Williams, who were graduated this year; and also these, who are to study one year more, though they have all been licensed, J. B. Grant, Byron Gunner, John W. Strong, John R. Sims, Yancy B. Sims, J. W. Roberts, H. W. Conley and Spencer Snell.

Lawsonville, Ala.—While the people of this place are engaged in building a church, they are enjoying a season of revival under their Talladega minister, Rev. J. W. Strong.

Mt. Spring, Ala.—Rev. Alfred Jones, of Childersburg, having preached a week at the out-station, Mt. Spring, was permitted to rejoice in the conversion of fourteen persons. A half dozen have also united with his church at home upon profession.

The Cove, Ala.—Rev. J. B. Grant has been assisted at this place by his fellow theologues, Y. B. Sim, T. T. Benson, J. R. Sims, and by Rev. P. J. McEntosh, in a series of meetings which have resulted in great good.

New Orleans, La.—Rev. D. L. Mitchel, who is in charge of the Presbyterian Book Depository in this city, is supplying the Central Church (Rev. W. S. Alexander’s) during the summer vacation. He writes thus under a recent date: “The congregation is quite regular in attendance, about seventy, and the attention is excellent. The prayer meetings are also well attended, and the spiritual condition steadily improving. I think this one of the most important fields in the South, and one of the most hopeful. May the blessing of our heavenly Father abide with your corps of Christian workers and give them abundant success in their self-denying labors.”

GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

—Of 142 cases of yellow fever reported at Memphis during the week, August 18th to 24th, 79 were of colored people—about one-half. About three-eighths of the total population are colored.

—Among the colored refugees in Kansas is an entire Baptist church of 300 persons led by the pastor and deacons. They were from Delta, La.

—Sojourner Truth, the famous colored woman, who is now 103 years old, is at Chicago, en route to Kansas, to make a study of the colored exodus.

—Governor St. John, of Kansas, believes that the colored exodus has only begun; that it is not unlikely that it will soon re-open, and reach to hundreds of thousands in its numbers.

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—The current catalogue of Howard University reports a total of 236 students for the year. Of these, 21 are in the Theological department, 64 in the Medical, 10 in the Law, 17 in the College, 16 in the Preparatory, and 87 in the Normal. This Association for the third year sustains one-half the expense of the Theological department. Rev. Dr. Craighead of this city, many years connected with The Evangelist, has been appointed to the chair of Theology, made vacant by the death of Prof. Lorenzo Westcott. Dr. Craighead has accepted, and is to enter upon duty this fall. The Law and Medical departments are under the instruction of resident lawyers and doctors in Washington. Rev. Wm. W. Patton, D.D., is President and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Natural Theology, and Evidences of Revealed Religion, also Instructor in Hebrew.

An appropriation of ten thousand dollars was made by the last Congress exclusively for the benefit of the College; not a dollar is to go to sustain the professional courses. It is fitting that the Government, which, through the Freedmen’s Bureau, did so much to found the institution, should help it along in its straits.

Prof. R. I. Greener, of the Law department, before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in session at Saratoga, joined issue with Frederick Douglass in the discussion of the exodus question. He is a man of platform popularity. It must have been a touching scene when Col. Thos. J. Kirkpatrick, of Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, in the meeting of the Howard Board of Trust, joined hands in mutual expression of regard—the ex-slaveholder and the ex-slave.

—The Marysville College in East Tennessee, founded before the war by the New School Presbyterians, now under the presidency of Rev. Peter Mason Bartlett, who has also a brother in one of the professorships, received some of the funds of the Freedmen’s Bureau, upon the condition that its doors should ever stand open to colored as well as white students. This provision has been carried out in spite of local prejudice, so that all along there have been a few students of the African race among its numbers. This institution is to be praised for fidelity to the bond. Some schools that received from the same fund, on the same conditions, have not stood to the contract.

—Aunt Kelly, now living at Troy, Missouri, at an advanced age, but “bred, born, and raised in ole Virginny,” told the writer, that, when a young woman, she sawed the lumber for the building of the State University. For that matter, the labor in building the mass of the literary institutions of the South was performed by the colored people. It is, then, only a piece of reciprocity that the several States of that region should now provide public schools for that class of their citizens. Old Virginia appropriates ten thousand dollars a year to the Hampton Institute; South Carolina aids the Claflin University (Methodist), and other States are doing a like generous thing.

Africa.

—Of the twenty-three new missionaries sent out by the Church Missionary Society during the last year, three were for West Africa and five for the Nyanza Mission. Of the eighteen new this year, two are for West Africa and two for the Nyanza Mission, to be stationed at Mpwapwa. Mr. Price is, for the present, the only ordained missionary at the station. Mr. Cole is to devote himself largely to the industrial interests of the Mission with a view to its self-support at as[302] early a day as may be found possible. Dr. Baxter and Mr. Last have already occupied the field for a year. In the instructions given them at a farewell meeting it was said: “Not only is it made more and more clear that Mpwapwa is in a sense the key to the Lake district, and likely to remain so for many years to come, and hence important with a view to the work carried on in the interior by other societies as well as the C. M. S., but there is also no doubt that from it, as a centre, missionary work may be carried on both among the natives inhabiting the Usagara Mountains and amid the manly and numerous race inhabiting the Ugogo country.”

—The same Society reports that its work in behalf of the freed slaves in East Africa is beginning to bear spiritual fruit. The improved condition of the settlement at Frere Town, materially and morally, has been reported from time to time; but the spiritual results hitherto have been comparatively small. Until lately no mention has been made of the gospel’s taking root among the poor liberated slaves rescued by Her Majesty’s cruisers, and handed over to the Mission in the Autumn of 1875, to the number of nearly 300, and perhaps another 100 in smaller detachments since. Mr. Streeter now reports the baptism of thirty-two of them on their own confession of faith, besides infants. The Rev. A. Menzies reached Frere Town June 1st.

—The Free Church of Scotland reports the transfer of Miss Waterston to the new field at Livingstonia. Miss W. has for seven years been the successful superintendent of the female seminary at Lovedale. She is fully qualified as a medical missionary, and carries the confidence and good wishes of all who know her. Says the Monthly Record: She means to go first to Lovedale, where she will halt for a short time in order to select coadjutors from among her former pupils. She hopes to induce some of them to accompany her to the sphere of her future labors, where they will be employed as teachers, and in other departments of the work. When Dr. Stewart first started for Lake Nyassa, so many of the Lovedale young men volunteered for service under their noble missionary’s banner, that he found it impossible to accept of half the number. From what we have heard of the young women, they are not likely to be behind in courage and zeal, nor is Miss Waterston likely to be disappointed in her hope of volunteers. Her aim will be now, as formerly, to blend Christian teaching with efforts to civilize and elevate, and, as opportunity offers, to gather the young into boarding and industrial schools. She will also help Dr. Laws in his dispensary and other medical work among the women.

The only other lady who has gone to Livingstonia is to be the wife of the well-known missionary, Dr. Laws, who so ably conducts the Free Church Mission there; and at Blantyre, the station of the Established Church of Scotland, there already resides the wife of one of the missionaries—Mrs. Duff McDonald.

—When the missionary steamer owned by the mission of the Free Church of Scotland was to be placed on Lake Nyassa, the leader of the expedition applied to the chief of the tribe for reliable help to carry the craft around the Murchison Cataracts. The chief responded by sending eight hundred women,—a compliment certainly to the trustworthiness of the sex. “Some of them came fifty miles, bringing their provisions with them. These women were intrusted with the whole, when if a single portion of the steamer had been lost, the whole scheme would have failed. They carried it in two hundred and fifty loads in five days, under a tropical sun, seventy-five miles, to an elevation of 1,800 feet, and not a nail or screw was lost. They ‘trusted the Englishman,’ asking no questions of wages, and receiving each six yards of calico; and for the sake of being liberal, each was given an extra yard.”—Heathen Woman’s Friend.

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—The sudden death of Rev. Dr. Mullens, of peritonitis, at Aden, is announced. He has been for some years a Christian leader in Great Britain, and his opinions have had great weight with intelligent Christians throughout the world. He has been the chief Corresponding Secretary of the great London Missionary Society during about twenty years—a position of great responsibility and usefulness, and one of the most influential in the Church of Christ. Before he was called to this service he had been for many years a successful missionary in India. Two or three months ago, by his own request—if memory serves us faithfully—he was appointed by the Society to accompany a band of young missionaries to Zanzibar, and to go on, if necessary, if his judgment so decided, to Lake Tanganyika, in the heart of Southern Africa. It was expected that his strong sense and remarkable executive ability would see and organize some method to overcome the serious obstacles and difficulties which lie in the path of missions to Central Africa.

On arriving at Zanzibar, Dr. Mullens decided, in the exercise of the discretion given him by the Board, to proceed onward, in company with Messrs. Griffith and Southon, to Lake Tanganyika. The party left Zanzibar on the afternoon of Friday, June 13th, and having landed at Saadani, started for the interior. Letters dated Ndumi, June 16th, report that all the members of the expedition were in excellent health, and were well on their way westward.

News of his death on the 10th of July has brought sadness to many hearts outside of the circle who will most deeply miss his counsels and mourn his loss. He was not yet fifty-nine years of age, and was one of the foremost men of the present time in foreign missions, having been, perhaps, the most prominent leader in the Basle Missionary Conference held in October last.

—There is now an unbroken chain of communication by steam from England to the northern end of Lake Nyassa in Central Africa, excepting seventy miles of the Murchison Cataracts in the Shire River; and it is ascertained that Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika are but 130 miles apart, instead of 250.

—The London Daily Telegraph says: Among many interesting particulars of discoveries brought from Africa by the gallant Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto, none is more absorbing than his story of the white people encountered between the rivers Cubango and Cuando. Serpa Pinto found in these districts a tribe absolutely European in tint, yet nowise of the Albino type, for the hair was black and woolly. He described them as uglier than the plainest negroes, and lower in civilization than any race met with, having receding foreheads, slanting eyes like the Chinese, prominent cheek-bones, and hanging lower lips. The appearance fails to do much credit to the white men whom they resemble. Who, then, and whence, are these people, so strangely recalling the tribe spoken of by Mr. Stanley between the equatorial lakes?

—Late news from Bishop Crowther’s mission, on the Niger River, Africa, states that one of the chiefs, Captain Hart, who had been most active at Bonny in the persecution of Christian converts, is dead. On his death-bed he commanded that all his idols be destroyed, warning his followers to have nothing more to do with idol worship. The next day after his death the heathen fell upon the collection of idols with a will. Archdeacon Crowther writes:

“Early this morning they began to destroy the jujus. The work of destruction is great. The poor gods and goddesses are having very hard times in late Captain Hart’s quarters now. They are handled in a most unceremonious and rough manner. Two canoe-loads, it is said, have found their resting-place in the deepest part of the river, and those that float and will not sink are broken into ever so[304] many pieces. Floating wrecks of idols made and worshiped since the days of Captain Hart’s father are to be seen dotted all over the creek to the river in the shipping. Imprecations and abuses have taken the place of worship.”

Bishop Crowther reports that, after a long season at Bonny, in which, owing to persecution, there were no converts, eight persons have been baptized.

—Dr. John Kirk, the British Consul-General at Zanzibar, Africa, writes that Keith Johnson, the leader of the expedition to explore the head of Lake Nyassa, died of dysentery on the 27th of June, at Berobero, 130 miles inland from Dar-es-Salaam. The expedition will be continued by Mr. Thomson, the scientific assistant of Mr. Johnson.

—Mr. John S. Hartland reports his arrival at Bonny, and Mr. W. H. Bentley at Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa. They are both on their way to the English Baptist Mission on the Congo or Livingstone River.

The Indians.

The following paragraph from the Independent so fully expresses our view of the matter of the Ponca Indians, that we both copy and endorse it:

The story which Secretary Schurz tells about the Ponca Indians, while it corrects some misapprehensions in regard to the case, nevertheless confesses that the Government has treated the Indians very unjustly. This the Secretary said in his first annual report. After securing to the Poncas 96,000 acres of land in South-eastern Dakota by the treaties of 1817, 1826 and 1858, the Government in 1868 granted this very land to the Sioux Indians, without any reference to the rights held therein by the Poncas, both by treaty and occupancy. The Sioux Indians were unfriendly to the Poncas, and the collision between these tribes made it necessary for the Government to seek the removal of the Poncas to the Indian Territory. All this was done before the present Administration came into power, and hence it has no responsibility for the wrong done. Secretary Schurz says that “no effort has been spared by the Executive branch of the Government to rectify all the wrongs that the Poncas have suffered, so far as these wrongs can be rectified.” He also says that “a bill for their relief, providing for payment for their lands in Dakota, and also providing for the payment for their new reservation, with an appropriation of $58,000 to reimburse them for their losses, has been sent to Congress by the Interior Department.” We are glad to learn from so good an authority that the Executive Department of the Government recognizes the wrong which has been done to these Indians, and shows a disposition to make an honorable amende therefor. It is to be hoped that Congress will sustain and concur with its efforts.

THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

NORTH AND SOUTH.

Some Things in Common.

In efforts to promote the spirit of Christian union, it is always advised that we look for the things that we hold in common—the things that make us Christians, rather than those which make us of this or that church party. In seeking to advance national good feeling, may we not wisely pursue something of the same course? If any persons can take up this line of talk without being[305] accused of having been bulldozed by Southern blandishment, it may be those who were the early abolitionists, and especially those who endeavor to prove their faith by their works in going down among the lowly and despised ex-slaves to try to raise them up by the appliances of education and of the Gospel.

1. One such common possession is that of our English inheritance. We are, characteristically, of the Anglo-Saxon stock. We speak the English language from South to North. We have that glorious speech that swallows up and overmasters the Babel of tongues that fall upon our ears. We think that, led by our incomparable Webster and Worcester, we use our English with even more of correctness than does the mother country. We inherit the great principles of constitutional government, of trial by jury, habeas corpus, and of civil and religious liberty. We are joint heirs to the matchless English literature, and to a history that has made England the leading nation of Christendom.

2. We hold in common the glories of our Revolutionary period. We share in the joys of the birth of a new nation. We have the same traditions of patriotism. We are mutually proud of the memory of Washington and Jefferson and the Adamses, and of the other fathers of the Republic. Our National Centennial gave occasion for a revival of our national feeling. Masses of our brethren who had been estranged were glad of the opportunity thus afforded to share in the thrill inspired by the world’s recognition of our national greatness.

3. We share in the essentials of the Reformed Church life. The Pilgrims and the Puritans settled in New England. Much of the blood by which the Southern States were stocked was of the Reformed quality. In the celebration, at Chicago, of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims, Dr. Bacon said that the Presbyterians were Puritans. The South has had a large portion of this moral and theological leavening. The Scotch and the Scotch-Irish element in that region has been large and largely influential. Through them Puritan notions have been planted and propagated. The Huguenots, who were the contribution of France to the Reformation, have had a large representation in the South. Sixty years before the Pilgrims landed, they made, on the Carolina coast, two settlements, which were annihilated by the persecuting power of Rome that followed them to the wilderness continent. They tried again and made a lodgment where Charleston now stands, and to this day “The Huguenot Church” abides in its integrity of language and of character. From this same source that city has received a large infiltration of blood and of principle. Out in the State, and at other places in the South, the Huguenots have given names to towns and tone and caste to society. The South has had but a small portion of the foreign emigration, and so has felt less the influence of the Continental views as to the Sabbath. One of our professors, who has been many years in the South, says that the Holy Day is more strictly observed in that part of the country than at the North. The intellectual orthodoxy of the South is well known. It may be because of the lack of activity in theological discussion, but the fact is apparent to such a degree that a more ethical and practical preaching is what the Christian people are hungering for thereaway.

4. We have a common sympathy in Protestantism. The early Spanish and French occupation in Louisiana and in Baltimore has made those strong Catholic centres. But Romanism is not so generally a prevailing power in the South as in the North. The drift of foreign emigration has made this difference. Rome’s chance at the South is now not with immigrants, but with natives,[306] Africo-Americans; and she is bound to make the most of it. But just here comes out our unity in Protestant views. Southern Christians are anxious lest the display and the mystery of the Roman system should captivate these simple children of nature. They are as solicitous as we that the same Providence which delivered our land from the early domination of Romish nationalities, may save it from coming under the supremacy of that spiritual despotism. When the Catholic bishop at Richmond opened his cathedral, Sunday nights, to a free service in behalf of the colored people, it made a tremendous stir among white as well as colored Protestants.

5. Have we not had a common responsibility for the existence of slavery? Striking in its upas roots at Jamestown, it was allowed to spread over all the colonies. Samuel Hopkins, thundering at the gates of the pens of the slave-trade in Newport, must yet reverberate among those empty dens still standing. In 1872 I saw in Connecticut an aged disciple who had once been a slave in that State. My childish ears tingled with my father’s stories of slave life as known to him in New Jersey. The system, by implication, was recognized in the Federal Constitution. The Government allowed it to sweep out over yet other empire areas at the South and West. We had Federal laws, resting upon Northern public sentiment, to protect the institution. We allowed our churches and our literary institutions and our benevolent societies to come under the common paralysis of conscience. Without any interest in slaves as personal property, we allowed our great commercial affairs to be brought under bondage to that system. Our measure of complicity in that national wrong was indicated in part by the awful retribution meted out in the sacrifice of half a million of precious lives and by the offering of billions of treasure. We have had occasion to join our brethren at the South and say, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.”

6. Have we not now a common obligation to make restitution to these new-made citizens? We are not only by legislation to recognize their rights of manhood and of citizenship, but to uphold them in the same. We are to secure them in the enjoyment of the blessing of our American educational system and of the best Christianizing processes. As we have endowed them with the sacred elements of citizenship, we must help them to the means of making them citizens worthy of the nation. This common duty was indicated by Hon. John Goode, of Virginia, when he said, in Congress, “Can the Government bestow civil and political rights upon these wards of the nation, and at the same time avoid the solemn obligation to provide for their mental and moral improvement?” That is the responsibility of citizens, North and South, as well as of the Government. And so let the people join hands, irrespective of sectional lines, in doing the just, the right thing by these native Americans, the providential significance of whose existence in our country is a problem calling for solution.

REMINISCENCES.

“It’s the color that tells”—“Jes hear dem niggers read”—Candle and half-bushel—“Age up country,” &c.—Sad words making glad—“Frosty arms.”

After the full accounts you have been giving your readers of late of the Commencement Exercises, with their attendant essays and orations, brief reminiscences of a few years ago, when the Freedmen knew little of Greek and Latin, but were intent upon “blue-back” spellers and the easy parts of the Bible, may not come amiss.

It happened once that in a dimly-lighted school-house, about nine o’clock at night, filled with men and women of various hue, from white through brown[307] to black, there was one class of nine young men spelling words of three syllables. They were very earnest, and in real old-fashioned way were going “up and down” in the class. At the head stood Joseph, very black; then three nearly as dark, followed by four light ones, with the very darkest of the whole class at the foot. All went well till the upper light one missed and the word passed down; Joseph, seeing it likely to pass from the light ones to the very dark face at the foot, in excitement and joy burst forth with, “Spell it, Dave, and cut up here; it’s the color that tells.” Dave spelt it, and the color did tell.

One man who made his appearance in night-school about the middle of the winter, I shall never forget. His entrance was quite overpowering—a big man, big cane, big hat, and a big shawl thrown over his shoulder, Arab style. I happened to be at leisure, so I went at once to ask him if he intended coming regularly to school. Saying that he did, my next question was, “What’s your name?” “I’m Lucy’s husband, over there.” As I didn’t know Lucy, I was not much the wiser, and had to repeat the question with the emphasis on the your. Wishing to classify him, I asked, “What book do you read in?” “The Bible mostly, ma’am.” “Can you read in the First Reader?” “Yes, first, second, third, fourth and all the other elementary books.” Thinking I might gain some information where to assign him, I looked at the books he had brought with him. There were four: a large family Bible; another book of some size, but very fine print, on “Presbyterian Ordination Refuted;” a “Child’s Scripture Question Book,” and a small geography.

But if the night-schools were amusing, the afternoon schools for the women were not less so. Old women and young women, many of them in fantastic attire, with hats, caps and dresses that would have been considered prizes by an antiquary; the dark faces peering from under the white or speckled turban; old women wiping their spectacles, vainly endeavoring to get “more light” on the subject, while picking away at the letters in some old Primer, as if they were to be transferred bodily to the head. Aunt Chloe Fisher must have been seventy-five or eighty years old, but still she was bright and original. She came into school one afternoon very anxious to learn to read “de way, de troof, and de life.” Seeing some women in another part of the room reading, she exclaimed, “Jes hear dem niggers read! If dis nig can’t read, too, won’t she fight ’em?” and then she vigorously applied her finger to the pages of the Gospel of John which she had with her, finding the words Lord and God, which were about all she knew. She believed in both faith and works, for she used to pray most earnestly that God would help her know the words, and then get up in the middle of the night and light a pine knot to see if she had a word right. Old Aunt Chloe was always happy. I never saw her otherwise but once, and then she was greatly troubled for fear she should lose her place in the grave-yard. One special place she had chosen, and young people were dying so fast she was afraid she should not die soon enough to lie there. She would get happy over her wash-tub or anywhere else, and her hands and her feet would keep time with some negro hymn in a most amusing manner.

One old Aunty was reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, when she came to a passage, which she read thus; “Neither—do—men—light—a—half-bushel—and—put—it—under—a—candle-stick.” On being stopped and told to look again, pointing with her finger all along the lines of the page, with a look of half despair she said, “Bress you, honey, I can’t find either candle or half-bushel now.” Those simple words were quite a sermon for me, and I’ve thought of them many a time since. Are not we,[308] as Christians, in danger of losing our candles? Our good Aunty’s candle was soon found for her; but will ours, once lost, be as easily recovered?

In those days, even in the day-schools, there were many difficulties that could hardly be encountered now. I remember hearing one teacher say that it was almost impossible to get the ages of her scholars. They would say, “My age is up country;” or “Ole missis has my age in the Bible, and she’s gone away.” The trick of giving one name to one teacher and another to the next was practiced. On giving a second name once, one little fellow was brought up with, “Why, I thought your name was George Johnson?” “I done got tired of that name,” was his cool reply.

Perhaps the most interesting prayer-meeting that I ever attended among the Freedmen was in Alabama, where the Ku Klux outrages lasted so much longer than in other places, and where the missionaries looked to their guns and their rifles before retiring. I reached there just the evening of the weekly prayer-meeting at the school-house. ’Twas a stormy night, but with waterproofs and umbrellas we ventured. Wholly unused to bullets, I must confess there was a little trembling under one waterproof, as we wended our way along the little path through the woods, and across the one plank bridge over the Branch; but once within the building all fear vanished. The room was filled with the finest looking colored people I had ever seen. They had, many of them, been house servants in the best families in this aristocratic place. The pastor opened the meeting, and they carried it on with a liveliness that was truly refreshing. Two or three usually rose at once, with words right on their lips. This church had only been organized a little over a year, and then numbered about eighty. There had been much to dishearten all along. They had no church building, and had been striving hard to build; but no sooner would they begin to see little light through the clouds than the white people, fearing that the men with dark skins might acquire too great a hold on this world’s goods, would remove work from the most prosperous, and thus the clouds would gather again. Referring to this method of keeping down, one of the members once said, “No ’count niggers can rub along here well enough, but smart niggers had better look out for other quarters.” Even at that time the danger of their being obliged to disband from outside violence was hardly over, and as they told of their love for their church, one could hardly help thinking of the stories of the early Christians, when persecutions only increased their zeal. There was an undertone of sadness through the remarks of several, for they felt peculiarly uncertain as to what a day might bring forth. But one suddenly rose and changed the key. “I was sad,” he said, “when I first came in here, but your words of sadness have made me glad, for they have shown me how much we all love our church, and such love, with the love of God for us, which is even much greater, will carry us through fiery trials. I never felt as strong as I feel to-night. ’Tis true, I don’t know what may come upon us, but I do feel that the Lord will help us through.” Then he told what he hoped for the future, in such cheerful words, that as he sat down, they burst forth almost with one voice in a song of praise, and then one after another kneeled down, and in the most simple words of faith asked their Father to help His children in this their day of trouble, and I do not think there was one present who had the slightest doubt of His doing so.

Even before the Kansas fever, there were States in the North that were synonyms for all good things to the colored people. I remember a Thanksgiving Day, when a minister was addressing one of the schools, and telling[309] the children what they had to be thankful for, that he burst forth with the question, “Is there any other country so blessed as this?” “Yes, sir,” said a little urchin before him. “Why, what one?” “Massachusetts,” was the reply.

I once heard a colored minister pray heartily for the teachers in this wise, “May God throw around this institution His frosty arms, and bear the teachers from this to another vale of tears.”

The good old days have gone; the better ones, perhaps, have come.

TENNESSEE.

A Remarkable Conversion and Triumphant Death.

MISS HENRIETTA MATSON, NASHVILLE.

How often have God’s dealings with His children seemed strange and sad, when those who were just ready to do valiant service for Him, here amid the need of a lost world, are called up higher—called to rest, rather than toil—to wear the crown, rather than longer bear the cross.

But God’s ways are not ours, and since we know that He ever cares for His own cause, we may believe that He calls the loved one to a higher usefulness. Such were some of the thoughts that came to our hearts when, on a beautiful June morning during the summer vacation, we read the words, “E. J. Park died yesterday afternoon,” followed by an account of the triumphant death of a student of Fisk University, who had gone to Texas to teach school.

Eugene Park came to Fisk University several years ago, a pleasant, careless boy, who had never bestowed a thought upon his eternal interests. For a long time he was but little moved; both the warnings and the entreaties of the Gospel seemed to fall unheeded upon his ear, and we often felt that he became only more careless and indifferent.

At last, however, the Spirit strove with him, and he began to ask, “What must I do to be saved?” though at first there was not in him that fixed purpose which would lead him to arise and go to his Father. And so he halted for months, wavering and undecided, until a mighty conviction seized him that he must find God, and that speedily. Sin, in all its enormity, was revealed to him, and he seemed indeed to realize that he was lost, unless the Saviour should interpose and deliver him.

He then gave himself entirely to seeking God. He could not study, and there were many long hours in which he could neither eat nor sleep, so powerfully was he wrought upon. One morning in Chapel, at devotional exercises, while in this intense state of mind, the reading of the Scriptures so affected him that he sobbed aloud. Hoping to calm him, and at the same time point him to Christ, the hymn was sung, “Oh, the blood, the precious blood!” but he was so overcome that his friends were obliged to take him away, and a few of us gathered and prayed with him. Still the light from the Sun of Righteousness did not break in; the precious blood was not applied to his soul until the next day, when Jesus Himself drew near, and the Lord of Glory revealed Himself as the One altogether lovely, and the Chief among ten thousand. His soul seemed in a rapture of joy for days. He came to the school with his Bible always in his hand, as though he could not be parted from it even for a moment.

Then followed years of ripening in the Christian life, with frequent seasons of such blessing that he could not speak of Christ without tears. He early gave himself to the ministry, feeling that to preach the everlasting Gospel would be his highest joy, and was pursuing his studies with this in view. He was not, however, without temptations to a worldly life, though we are assured that the dear Saviour kept His own, even unto the end. His death was a beautiful illustration of the triumph of the Gospel of Christ. Far from friends[310] and home, yet he was not alone, for that Friend that sticketh closer than a brother was near.

He had been ill for several days, and one morning he told those about him that he should go home at three afternoon, and precisely at the hour named the summons came. He had sent messages to his mother and friends. “Tell them,” he said, “that Jesus is with me and saves me. Oh, how sweet it is to die in the arms of Jesus.” He then sung, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb,” “Safe in the arms of Jesus,” and “Sweeping through the gates to the new Jerusalem.”

And now we, in our sorrow, think of him as thus “safe.” We hoped he would labor long and successfully for the Master; but he has been called up higher, and is now, we believe, among the ransomed in the New Jerusalem, where he has learned the new song, even praise unto our God.

GEORGIA.

First Impressions.

REV. P. W. YOUNG, BYRON

I feel the necessity of writing you this morning concerning my work, though my time is much occupied. I am happy to say that I found some very earnest members here, notwithstanding they were like sheep without a shepherd when I came. There is an opportunity for a great deal of Christian labor here, as in many other places.

I preach on the Sabbath at 11 o’clock and at 8 o’clock in the evening. We have a very good Temperance Society also. Its members manifest great interest in the cause. The people are beginning to see that intemperance, if continually practiced, will bring them to degradation. I delivered a lecture to the society last Sabbath in the afternoon, having about 250 persons present. I told them in the plainest words of the great harm that had been done by intemperance among the colored people. When I closed my remarks they said they wished I could speak an hour longer on the same subject, showing their hearty approval of what I had said.

The religious interest seems to be good generally. There are four converts to unite with the church.

THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. Vice-presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

Directors: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball, E. P. Sanford, Esq.

Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.

THE BEGINNING OF HARVEST—ONG LUNE.

REV. WM. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

Our Lord has begun—sooner than we desired and very suddenly to us—to gather from our harvest field His wheat into His garner. The first-fruits went home on Sunday, Aug. 3d, at our Bethany church. I was in the act of baptizing and welcoming to Christian fellowship on earth four of our more recently converted Chinese brethren, when our brother Ong Lune was welcomed to the fellowship above. He was a young man of 21 years, had been a Christian, as we hoped, for nearly three years, and a church member since December, 1877. His sickness was brief, and he was supposed to be recovering till about[311] twenty-four hours before his death. He had greatly desired to become strong enough to be present at our August communion, but, instead, he ate bread in the kingdom of God.

Modest and unassuming, but intelligent, earnest and thoroughly consecrated to Christ, his absence from our mission work makes a void not easily filled. A great majority of American Christians might well have sat at the feet of this young Chinaman and learned how to be co-workers with the Saviour. Approaching his countrymen with a smile, seizing every opportunity to “speak a word in season,” he sought to bring them to our schools, and then to lead them to his Saviour. A house-servant, with little time that he could call his own, he will wear no starless crown. I know not how many times the question, “Who told you to come to school?” has been answered by the utterance of his name. The last service he was able to render was—in spite of pain and weariness from the disease which afterwards proved fatal—to act as my interpreter in the examination of three candidates for baptism, one of them, possibly, his own child in the Gospel.

His teacher—Miss Florence N. Wooley—quotes him as saying that what he wanted was “to bring more and more scholars, and watch them, and when they know about Jesus, must make them to be our brethren and try to keep them from temptation; and I wish to do the best I can, but am afraid of temptation myself.” She adds: “He succeeded in this; and the secret of his success, as told me by one of the scholars, was this: ‘He talked so nice to the boys, and never got cross nor angry; and so they all minded what he told them.’ He had entered into the spirit of the word, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.’ As soon as he came into school he was wont to speak of some one who had promised him to come that night. If this promise was not fulfilled, he went after the person again and again and brought him in. He was getting on well in his studies, especially in his study of the Bible. The last verses he recited were Acts vii. 54, 55, now happily fulfilled in his own experience.”

THE STORY OF LEE FOUN, BY LEE HAIM.

[Lee Haim, one of our helpers, had given me this account, and I requested him to write it for the Missionary. I give it as he wrote it, word for word, correcting only a few expressions to make the sense clear.—W. C. P.]

“I am going to tell you something of our Christian brethren when they go back to China. Last year one of our Christian Association went by the steamship with his own brother, and when they both reached their old home, his elder brother said to his wife: ‘Well, to-morrow I will go tell my mother that my younger brother, Lee Foun, believes in Jesus, and was a member of the American Association while he staid in California. He does not want to worship our gods which sit in the temple, nor worship our ancestors; neither to keep the traditions which our fathers have handed down from generation to generation. If I go and tell these things to my mother she will give him a good whipping.’

“So his elder brother agreed to tell his mother in the morning; and when the morning came he brought the whole affair before her. She was exceedingly grieved when she heard it, and she went and told some of her son’s uncles. Then Lee Foun’s uncles said to her: ‘Never mind that now; your son now come back is like a stranger; you need not to say any thing to him now; but wait for two days, until the first day of June is come; then you may call him up and offer some tea, and burn the incense in the morning, and see if he do it or not.’ This custom was known to Lee Foun, for our Chinese generally keep it twice[312] each month—the first day of the month and the fifteenth. It is considered a very important custom, as much so as to serve their parents in their lifetime. It is like the Jews keeping the Passover every year, or as we keep the Supper of the Lord.

“So his mother said nothing to him till the first day of June; then she tried to wake him up to burn the incense and offer the tea to his great-grandfather; but Lee Foun did not get up as early that morning as usual; and when the time of offering tea and burning the incense had passed, then he got up. And when he met his mother she burst into tears. He asked her presently, ‘What is the matter, mother?’ and his mother gave no answer. Then he asked her the same thing. His mother said to him: ‘My son, you ought to have got up early this morning and offered some tea and burned the incense before your ancestor; but you got up so late, and did not do it, that makes me feel bad.’ Then Lee Foun said to his mother: ‘If we go and offer tea and burn the incense before these stones, wood, clay and paper, do you think they know it? I don’t believe that, for they, having eyes, cannot see; having ears, cannot hear; having noses, cannot smell; mouth, cannot speak; hands, cannot handle; feet they have, but cannot walk; and bodies have they, but cannot move. All these things are nothing but wood, stone, clay and paper. What good have they done for men? Moreover, those who serve images, or serve the dead instead of the living, sin against the living and true God; for every thing is made by His own hands. And He has commanded us not to worship images, neither to serve the dead; but only to worship the true and living God, and to honor father and mother while they are living. But those who take offerings of paper to be burned up, and represent money, are foolish, and deceive themselves; for the paper is nothing but paper, and cannot represent money.’ Then his mother laughed when she heard that, and Lee Foun’s brother was angry at him, because his mother was pleased with his younger brother, Lee Foun. He felt as Joseph’s brethren felt toward Joseph when they saw Jacob, their father, love him. Do you think they could injure Joseph, and that Lee Foun’s brother can injure Lee Foun? No. Why not? Because God is with them. As Paul said: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Oh, how glorious and powerful God is!

“After a while some of the Chinese missionaries heard that a certain Christian brother had come back, so they went and inquired for Lee Foun, and they entered into his village, to visit him; and when he saw the missionaries, then he wept, because of the persecution by his own brother, and because of the ignorance of his relatives about God. Lee Foun’s mother was glad to receive them, and invited them to come again to the feast of Lee Foun’s marriage. After this the marriage of Lee Foun was at hand; so the Chinese missionaries went to his village again to show him how the Christian ceremony should be performed. So Lee Foun did as Christians do. He did not bow his head before the idols, nor before his ancestors, and neither did he keep the traditions of men, but the commands of God.

“Not only he did so, but Chan Wen, Lee Sam, and also many of our brethren, act in accordance with Christianity when they go back to China. I believe you have no doubt of that; for if we are true Christians here in California, we will be true Christians in China and elsewhere. We will stand up for Jesus and suffer for Him, and take up His cross in public.

“Dear friends, we entreat that you will mention our names to the Lord when you pray, that we may have a faithful heart in our Lord Jesus; that we may be strong in Him; and ask Him to open the great door to us, that[313] the nation of heathen Chinese soon may become a Christian nation, and they may understand the word of God and know Christ is the Creator and Saviour of the world, and all the creatures should be bowed down before Him.”

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES.

To the Children:

I know you have heard much about the colored people, but did you ever hear about their country school-houses? Let me tell you of two in Alabama.

Sunday-schools as well as day-schools are held in these same buildings. One Sunday, a minister who was going twelve miles out into the country to visit one of these schools, invited me to go with him. After inquiring many times where the school was, and going half a mile out of our way, we at last spied, at the right of the road, some saddled mules hitched to trees. We thought that might be the place, and sure enough there, right in the woods, was a nice new school-house.

After fastening our horse to a sweet-gum tree, we entered the little unpainted building. The superintendent gave us seats at the head of the school—not armchairs, but simply a board two feet from the floor, answering for a bench. As soon as we were seated I began to look about me to see what kind of a place I was in, while the minister addressed the school. The house was built of pine logs, placed an inch apart, consequently there were great cracks on all sides of the room, which in summer must have been pleasant, as they let in air, but in winter, think how cold they would be. The house was full of old men, women and children, sitting on rude benches.

As I looked through the crack near me, I saw outside a row of men seated on a log, who left their places when they heard a stranger’s voice inside and crowded into the house. I saw them put their hats up on a beam over their heads. Those who couldn’t find room inside looked through the cracks. There was no window, only a square hole cut over the door to let in light. Seeing the many cracks in the roof, we asked, when we came out, if it never rained in upon them. “Not much,” was the answer. You see these people don’t mind a bit of a sprinkle now and then.

After the minister had finished telling them how he had been in the very same land where Jesus had lived, the school sung, “We’re going home to-morrow.” I wish you could have heard those children. They sang at the top of their voices, their white teeth showing more than ever in contrast with their black skin. After the superintendent gave out the papers which we had brought, the exercises closed, and I was glad to be relieved of the sixty pairs of eyes which had been upon me.

Another time I went with some teachers to a Mission Sunday-school. This was in a most lovely place, right in the thick woods, far away from any houses or sounds of any kind, except the songs of the birds. We found we were early that day, for neither the teacher nor scholars had come. We went inside the school-house and waited.

Perhaps you ask how we got in. That was an easy thing to do, for there was no locked door to keep us out, and no door of any kind, only an opening in one side of the house. This was an old building, built in the same way as the first one I visited. In some places the logs were a foot apart. Here the benches were made of round logs split in two, the flat part being the top, and in each end of the rounded part were two legs. And such queer looking seats as they were! Only one or two of them had[314] backs. Before long the teacher and a few scholars came. The school was small that day, as there was a “big baptizing,” as they call it, not far away, which always attracts crowds of colored people.

After the scholars had left, and as we were preparing to go, a terrible thunder shower came up which detained us there. The rain came in, drip, drip, at every crack, till after a while there was only one dry corner in the house. The teacher told us that when showers came in school time, the scholars had to sit on their books to keep them dry. The shower continued for some time, and being very tired, after a sixteen-mile drive over new-cut roads through woods, we put on our water-proofs and lay down on the damp benches; but finding the drops were falling into our faces, we were obliged to put up umbrellas. This was resting under difficulties. There, in that open building, far away from any one, with the rain coming in and standing in pools on the floor, we fully realized what these poor country people have to go through to learn their A, B, C; and those who continue their schools in the winter must suffer greatly from the cold, as they only have a fire-place in one end of the room. One teacher told us that his fire-place was so poor, that in winter he built a fire out of doors, while the children gathered around it sitting on stumps and logs. There are not only these two schools I have spoken of, but many such scattered all over the Southern States.

Now, since I have been writing this, I have thought what a nice plan it would be for you boys and girls to save some of your pennies, and perhaps before long one of you would have enough to buy a small, plain black-board, and another enough to buy a box of crayons, or a pretty motto for one of these old bare school-rooms. If you couldn’t send the things, you could send the money for them; and how delighted any teacher would be with a few such comforts! What do you think of my plan?—L. P. H.

RECEIPTS

FOR AUGUST, 1879.

H. W. HUBBARD, Asst. Treas.

Constitution of the American Missionary Association.

INCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.

Art. I. This Society shall be called “The American Missionary Association.”

Art. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct Christian missionary and educational operations, and to diffuse a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries which are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent fields of effort.

Art. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in the practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the funds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment of thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and others who have not professed their faith may be constituted life members without the privilege of voting.

Art. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of September, October or November, for the election of officers and the transaction of other business, at such time and place as shall be designated by the Executive Committee.

Art. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular officers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting, and of delegates from churches, local missionary societies, and other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one representative.

Art. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less than twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be advisory, and the Treasurer ex-officio, members.

Art. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting and disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining and dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and agents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the transaction of all such business as usually appertains to the executive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies; the Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the missionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision of the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually chosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or missionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.

The Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all vacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual meetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature for acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any is given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in the employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for disabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as are deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their discretion, special and general conventions of the friends of missions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit, and the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.

Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for transacting business.

Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.

Art. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing to the principles of this society, and wishing to appoint and sustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so through the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually agreed upon.

Art. X. No amendment shall be made in this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the meeting.

FOOTNOTE:

The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South—In Va., 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 12; Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 13; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 5. Africa, 1. Among the Indians, 1. Total 66.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South.—Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8. Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 11. Other Schools, 18. Total 37.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 231; among the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 17; in Africa, 14. Total, 279. Students—In Theology, 88; Law, 17; in College Course, 106; in other studies, 7,018. Total, 7,229. Scholars, taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 100,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work in the South. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accommodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses, for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office, as below:

MAGAZINE.

This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following

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 [in some States three are required—in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some States it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.

[319]

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNS.

OLD STYLE.

NEW STYLE.

PLANS

AND

SPECIFICATIONS,

WITH

Full Detail Drawings

FOR

CHURCHES,

SCHOOLS and

DWELLINGS.

Suburban Dwellings a Specialty.

Reference: Rev. Dr. Strieby, 56 Reade Street, N. Y.

B. J. SCHWEITZER,

Architect and Designer,

76 John Street, New York.

PRINTING PRESS for 75 cents. With ink roller. 90 cents. Both by mail $1.60. A complete Printing Office viz., press, roller, font of type, type tray, ink, leads, furniture, gold bronze, and 50 cards. $2.25. All by mail for $3.25. Sample package of 40 varieties of cards, 10 cents. Specimen Book of type, &c., 10 cents. Young America Press Co., 35 Murray Street. New York.

UTILITY ADJUSTABLE TABLE,

Can be made any height and be folded up. For Cutting, Resting, Study, Invalids, Children, etc. Send stamp for book of prices.

GEO. F. SARGENT,

Proprietor and Manufacturer,

816 Broadway, New York.

GET THE BEST.

---

The “OXFORD”

TEACHERS’ BIBLES

IN SEVEN DIFFERENT SIZES,

At prices to suit everybody.

Apply to your Bookseller for Lists, or write to

THOS. NELSON & SONS,

42 Bleecker Street, New York.

Meneely & Kimberly,

BELL FOUNDERS, TROY, N. Y.

Manufacture a superior quality of BELLS.

Special attention given to CHURCH BELLS.

Catalogues sent free to parties needing bells.

Mason & Hamlin Cabinet Organs.

Demonstrated best by HIGHEST HONORS AT ALL WORLD’S EXPOSITIONS FOR TWELVE YEARS; viz: at Paris, 1867; Vienna, 1873; Santiago, 1875; Philadelphia, 1870; Two Highest Medals at Paris 1878; and Grand Swedish Gold Medal, 1878. Only American Organs ever awarded highest honors at any. Sold for cash or installments. Illustrated Catalogues with new styles and prices, free. MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN CO., BOSTON, NEW YORK, or CHICAGO.

“IMPORTANT TO CLERGYMEN.”

Prince’s Improved Fountain Pen.

As now improved, saves one-third the time.

“If I were bereft of it, I should feel myself bereft of my right hand.”—Rev. Lyman Abbott, Ed. Ch. Union.

Can be sent by mail in a registered letter. Send for circulars. Manufactured by

JOHN S. PURDY,

212 Broadway, Cor. Fulton St., New York.

CRAMPTON’S

PURE OLD

PALM SOAP.

For the Laundry,

The Kitchen,

And for General Household Purposes.

MANUFACTURED BY

CRAMPTON BROTHERS,

Cor. Monroe & Jefferson Sts., N. Y.

Send for Circular and Price List.

FOR HAND AND MACHINE.

IT IS STRONG, EVEN, AND ELASTIC; REGULAR IN QUALITY,

UNIFORM IN COLOR, AND THE LENGTHS

ARE GUARANTEED.

Full assortments constantly on hand and for sale by the Sole Agents,

WM. HENRY SMITH & CO.,

P. O. Box 502.

82 & 84 Worth Street, NEW YORK.

Every Man His Own Printer.

Excelsior $3 Printing Press.

Prints cards, labels, envelopes, &c.; larger sizes for larger work. For business or pleasure, young or old. Catalogue of Presses, Type, Cards, &c., sent for two stamps.

KELSEY & CO., M’frs, Meriden, Conn.

SAVE MONEY

BY ORDERING

Fashionable Custom

CLOTHING

FROM

NEW YORK.

---

ELEGANT SUITS,

TO ORDER,

$18, $20 and $25.

---

DRESS SUITS,

$20 to $35.

---

TROUSERS,

$5 to $8.

---

SENT FREE.

Samples of Cloths and Suitings, and Fashion Plates, with full directions for ordering Gents’ Clothing and Furnishing Goods, by mail, with fit and satisfaction guaranteed. Send for samples and give trial order to

FREEMAN & WOODRUFF,

Fashionable Clothiers,

176 BROADWAY, NEW YORK

(Formerly of 241 Broadway.)

DAVID H. GILDERSLEEVE, Printer, 101 Chambers Street, New York.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors and omissions corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation has been retained, as there are several authors.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The American Missionary -- Volume 33,
No. 10, October, 1879, by Various

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