THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

ANNUAL MEETING.

The next Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Norwich, Ct., in the Broadway Church, commencing Tuesday, October 12, at 3 P. M.

Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., of New York City, will preach the Sermon. Other addresses and papers will be announced hereafter.

The time is fixed to meet the convenience of those who wish to attend our meeting as well as those of the American Board, the State Conference, and the National Council.

FINANCIAL NOTICE.

Only two months remain of our fiscal year. We regret to say that a debt of nearly $20,000 is impending. This arises from the encouragement which the prosperity of the country at the beginning of our fiscal year gave us to make some additional appropriations to meet the most urgent calls that pressed upon us from the field. A decline in that prosperity has been intensified by the drought in many parts of the country, and our receipts for our regular work have fallen off.

We give the notice thus early that pastors and churches who sympathize with us and in our work, and in our effort to avoid a debt, may take immediate steps to avert the danger. We are confident that if the collections of churches that are behind in their offerings, and those that are set down for August and September, are promptly and generously made, the deficiency will be covered; but, fearing this may not in all cases be done, we venture to ask individuals having our cause at heart to assure the certainty by additional contributions.

The pastors and officers of the churches can be our most efficient helpers by securing collections and making remittances promptly. We earnestly invoke the aid of our friends. A debt at the close of this year (September 30) will compel harmful retrenchment for the next. The field has never been more fruitful in good results. The command of the Master is, “Go forward.” We cannot go into the Red Sea of debt. Will our friends wield the rod of Moses and open the waters for us?

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PARAGRAPHS.

Mrs. Sarah Spees, who died at York, Nebraska, June 10th, was for many years one of our faithful workers among the Indians at Red Lake, Minn. Born in 1832, at Nelson, Ohio, she was converted at the age of fourteen years, and took at once strong and decided grounds for Christ. She was for a time a pupil of Mr. Sturgis, of Micronesia, who inspired her with missionary zeal. Soon after her marriage to the Rev. Francis Spees, she went with him to his missionary field among the Chippewas of Minnesota, bearing the severest privations. The journey required great fortitude. The Indians were in the rudest state of heathenism, and life itself was not secure. Amid scenes of danger and peril, she never shrank or wavered, or regretted that she had entered on so arduous a work. For three years, Mr. and Mrs. Spees labored among these people, and then left them for a quieter work at Tabor, Iowa. Ten years later, the way was opened for their return, and no sooner were they back among the red faces than a precious revival was enjoyed among the Government employees. In addition to her work as missionary, Mrs. Spees added the care of the Girl’s Boarding School. This was too great a tax upon her, and after a few years her strength gave out, and she was obliged to rest. For three years she waited by the river. Her pastor says that often, when visiting her in her feebleness, he found her wearied with the slow progress of the work of Christ on earth, and turning over in her mind how money could be raised for the spread of the Gospel. Her work well done, she has now entered upon the “rest that remaineth to the people of God.”

The Pastor of the Central Congregational Church of Brooklyn must take a great deal of solid satisfaction in the noble missionary work of its Sunday-school. Thoroughly imbued as he is with the mission spirit, he does not fail to impart something of it even to the lambs of his flock. This school is also blessed with one of the most earnest and successful Christian workers of the city as its superintendent, and, therefore, it is not surprising that, in addition to its own local missionary work, it supports, this year, four missionaries—one in the foreign field, and three among the Freedmen. We take great pleasure in referring to this school, whose example might be followed by many others with great benefit to the cause of missions, and, also, to the schools themselves.

If the person who sent us a card, post-marked “Hartford, Conn., June 24,” but without name or signature, will send us his name, we will gladly answer his inquiry.

A Burst of Patriotism.—On the Confederate Decoration Day, at Montgomery, Alabama, this year, the Memorial Address was delivered by Tennent Lomax, Esq., son of Gen. Lomax, who fell at the battle of Seven Pines, and whose monument, the principal one in the cemetery at the capital, received the special floral attentions of the day. We give an extract from the oration as printed in the local daily:

“Let us again to-day, standing upon this sacred spot, extend the hand of perfect reconciliation to our fellow citizens of the North, and ask them to clasp that hand in the true spirit of fraternal love, and to live with us as a band of brothers, united in one grand enterprise, the advancement of the honor, the interest, and the glory, of our common country; and to pray with us to almighty God to hasten [227] the advent of that day, for it must surely come, when the star-spangled banner, ‘with not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured,’ shall float, not over ‘a country dissevered, discordant, belligerent,’ but over a union of co-equal States, re-united and bound together by a golden chain of unbroken friendship.”

At the meeting of the North Carolina Conference at Dudley, in May, one of the delegates, Deacon Stevens, of Beaufort, as he was preparing his pipe, heard the little children of his host remarking to themselves about the poison of tobacco, and the bad practice of using it. His thought was started. He went out to get away by himself for a smoke. He observed that the people about him were not indulging in that habit. At the end of the three days’ meeting, he searched about the audience room to see if there were any of the defilements of tobacco. He found none. That church, (Rev. D. Peebles, pastor,) and its Band of Hope eschew tobacco as well as all intoxicating drinks. The deacon went home convinced, as he said, that it was a “dirty, ugly, mean habit.” He joined in starting a Band of Hope, and told his experience as above narrated. “A little child shall lead them.” The little ones did not address him, but he thought that they intended their remarks for his benefit.

Mr. Spurgeon finds caste even in England. He says: “I know several half-sovereign people who would not think of asking a half-a-crown to tea, and there is a very strong aversion on the part of the half-crowns to the three-penny pieces; and, perhaps, a stronger aversion still on the part of the three-pennies to anything coppery. I have heard of a Christian minister in this country now, who, I am told, is humble and useful and talented, but there is not a congregation that will have him for its minister. He was nearly starved to death a few years ago, and the great sin he has committed is that he married a black wife. Now, you would not like a minister’s black wife; you know you would not. Up comes the caste feeling directly. We condemn it in the Hindoo, and here it comes in this country. We like a negro if he has been a slave, and we raise money for him when we would not for a white man. Now, I do not think a black man is any better than a white man, and I do not think that because a man is green he is at all superior. I believe that we are all pretty nearly equal, and that God made of one blood all nations on the face of the earth. But we want to hear these stories about caste in India that we may be taught to avoid it here; and if it were not for these follies, vanities, and prides of human nature, carried out to extremity abroad, we might not so readily see them to be evils in what is thought to be a mild form at home”.

TWO CONVENTIONS.

During the sitting of the Virginia Republican Convention at Staunton, the members were as free from molestation as they would have been at Worcester, Mass., and the hotels were open for their entertainment, white and black alike. For three days, colored men took their meals in common with white men and women in the public dining-rooms of houses kept by life-long democrats. One day, at the principal hotel, a black man was seen dining with representatives of some of the oldest families of the State; other colored men sat at different tables around the room; while a large number of staunch democrats, men and women, [228] went on with their meals as if the scene was not an unusual one. Whether this is due to a change of sentiment, or to policy induced by fear of the re-adjusters, may be open to doubt, but the fact is significant. No less so is the fact that not a single colored man had a seat in the Convention at Cincinnati. If the unusual treatment of the negro voter in Virginia is due to a change of sentiment, this change is not so observably great in the Union at large. If due to fear, this fear is not so great in other States as in this where the colored line has been broken. This would seem to indicate that a solid front will be maintained longer on national than on State issues. We have discharged our duty in regard to these facts when we have simply stated them. Their cause and significance we leave to others; while we take the opportunity for saying, that not until the negro voter, by his intelligence and virtue, commands the respect of his fellow-citizens, can he be other than an object of contempt and abuse when weak, and of fear when strong; and a source of danger, whether weak or strong.

HARD CASES.

“The destruction of the poor is their poverty.” This is illustrated not alone in the history of families, but of missionary enterprises. Poverty, long continued and excessive, breeds a thousand evils more destructive and more difficult to overcome than poverty itself. The very features of a given case which constitute its strongest appeal for help, are the ones which render it almost impossible to afford relief, however much help is given. This, the experience of all philanthropists, is many times repeated in the history of our work, and the wisest discrimination is necessary to ensure that our efforts shall be made where the greatest good can be done; not necessarily where misery and ignorance utter their loudest wail.

One of our missionaries writes from a field where the people are living very near the line of absolute starvation. They are as ignorant as could be inferred by the most logical mind from their whole past history; they are as bigoted and superstitious as their training can legitimately make them; they are as much in need of what the missionary offers them as a people can be. If he partially educates the children, the Stygian darkness of their homes seems to blot out what they have learned; if he enrolls them in the temperance army, they lose step when they pass the boundary of childhood; if a hopeful revival comes to cheer his heart, causing him to forget his past toils and despair, the converts over whom he rejoiced are swallowed up by the old churches about him, which teach salvation through loud shouting or semi-occasional feet-washing; and his hopes would die, only that there are a few bright ones among the children who have twined themselves about his heart.

Amid the almost universal chorus of rejoicing from all parts of the field over abundant and cheering results, there comes, once in a while, a note like this from one who labors, not less abundantly or acceptably than others, but with more doubtful success.

From another field, the missionary tells of a revival commencing among his own people, which was the signal for desperate rival as well as revival efforts in the other colored churches, directed largely to the end of drawing away from him the results of his labors. He notes a fact which seems to him strange, but one which, we apprehend, is destined to repeat itself with great frequency as the work of education goes on. The colored people seemed less responsive to the efforts [229] which the church, unusually active, puts forth. As the negro becomes more intelligent, we hope and believe that he will prove less highly inflammable; and he should comfort himself with the assurance that the results of all genuine religious revivals belong to the Lord, and we will rejoice in it all, under whatever banner the new recruit marches. The bigotry of sectarianism, which is of ofttimes so trying, should be classed with other sins which the Gospel, rightly preached and broadly illustrated, will in time remove; and, if under educational influence, the negro kindles more slowly to religious zeal, he will doubtless burn more steadily, and in the end yield more light and heat.

TEACHER OR MISSIONARY, WHICH?

The Natal Mercury, South Africa, paints a dark picture of the Caffres, even of those who have professed Christianity. Many fathers, it says, still sell their daughters in marriage for cattle as in years past, and many practice polygamy, which still has a very strong hold upon those of whom better things ought to be expected.

This is, indeed, cause for deep regret, but ought not to be of great surprise. It may be true, that by one supreme exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the results of a whole life of debauchery can be corrected in a single moment; that impure imaginations and dominant appetites and perverted tastes may all be utterly eradicated, and the degraded slave of many years restored to the normal condition of an uncorrupted child. This may be, for men assert that it has been done; but, most assuredly, it is not so common as to be expected ordinarily.

The prodigal who has gone into a far country has a long journey to retrace, and he comes back with many swinish tastes and habits of thought which he masters, if at all, by most persistent, prayerful and painful efforts.

The grace of Christ comes in as most stimulating and efficient aid in these efforts; but it comes as aid to effect, and not in the form of accomplished result. What the exact, literal truth may be in the poet-prophet’s prediction, that “a nation shall be born in a day,” we do not know; what new forces may be called into play, or what added efficiency may be given to those now employed, when the kingdom advances with millennial power and celerity, we know not; but as yet, no labor-saving machinery is known to the Church militant. The Gospel has still to be carried by laborious, self-denying effort into the homes of the degraded, and it gains its victories, if surely yet slowly, over the vices and evils of man’s corrupted heart and life, and he comes to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus by a gradual growth.

The Sandwich Islands afford the striking illustration of the prophecy to which allusion has been made. But, in this case, the “day” covers more than half a century, and has not yet reached its meridian, and even there deplorable facts prove that the mass of the people might be “born again and again,” as the good colored preacher has it, with advantage. We are told that in the homes of the people are yet to be found many of the fruits of their long degradation—much impurity of life, little of the spiritual strength and elevation of character which the Gospel produces as its ripened fruit.

The question comes, and often with a pressure from our friends, as to the multiplication of missionaries, and, of course, because of our limited means, corresponding diminution of educational work. Our work is limited by the money put into our hands, and, therefore, we are compelled to choose between [230] them, when we cannot do both of two desirable things. It would be pleasant, and a source of great spiritual comfort and social advantage every way, if we could send an excellent Christian woman into every negro cabin of the South, who should bring her refined womanhood into loving and sympathetic contact with the ignorant and lonely aunties, who never see a cultured white woman socially. It were easily possible to organize an evangelistic movement which would set the religious nature of the negro ablaze, and gather the people by tens of thousands into the churches which could be erected with the money now employed to sustain our schools; but all this would leave the negro helpless, at the mercy of the bulldozer or debaucher, and still under the control of his licentious and dishonest habits.

The work must be more thorough, and, therefore, more tedious than this. The negro character needs to be created in germ, and then developed into a worthy manhood and womanhood by thorough Christian culture, and the best and only adequate missionaries are the Christian teachers in our schools.

Conversion, as the negro in his ignorance understands it, is not the most important or desirable thing to be accomplished. We must first secure an enlightenment of the understanding, a toning up of the moral constitution, which shall give value to conversion when it does occur. Conversion is but the beginning of a new life—a beginning which is utterly worthless except in connection with an adequate conception of what that life is, and unless that life follows. No one who at all comprehends the nature of the work to be done, will advocate other policy than the one we now pursue of “hastening slowly.” We must enlarge, equip and multiply our educational facilities through the South. When this has been done, the number of missionaries may be multiplied manifold with advantage; but to displace or weaken educational agencies for those that aim at conversion and spiritual comfort, would prove utterly disastrous.

WRONGS OF THE PONCAS.

The removal of the Poncas from their reservation, and the failure of Congress to pass the bill for their relief, illustrate the facility with which crimes, and blunders which have all the fateful results of crime, have been committed by us against the Indians; also, the criminal tardiness with which we correct such blunders.

The Government in 1868 made a new treaty with the Sioux, and settled them upon reservations in Dakota, which included 96,000 acres of land belonging to the Poncas, one of the most peaceable of all the Indian tribes, who had held and had been dwelling upon this land ever since they were known as a tribe—held it, too, as an absolute grant from the United States, under a guaranty of peaceable possession during good behavior. Without their knowledge or consent, as also without a shadow of complaint against them as a tribe, their reservation was set apart and given into possession of the Sioux. Failing to gain their consent to a removal, the Government forced them, without compensation, for their homes and fields, or other losses, to abandon their own and settle upon a reservation in the Indian Territory, where the climate was to them inhospitable. As a result of this, their numbers have been greatly diminished, they have become discouraged and disheartened, and are making no progress toward self-support. This alienation of their lands was an acknowledged blunder, due to ignorance of boundaries on the part of Congress; but their arbitrary and cruel ejectment from their homes, [231] without charge of crime, and in violation of most solemn pledges, is more than a blunder; it is an act of high-handed injustice and robbery.

The bill reported by Senator Dawes, of the Senate Select Committee, to investigate their removal, requires the Secretary of the Interior to return the Poncas without delay to their Dakota reservation, and provides that their title to the same shall be deemed valid, anything in the Sioux treaty to the contrary notwithstanding. It also requires the Secretary of the Interior to restore to the Poncas “use and enjoyment in the same condition, as nearly as may be, when left by them, all houses and other improvements and personal property belonging to the tribe when removed from Dakota, and for all the foregoing purposes provides an appropriation of $50,000.” The minority report proposed simply to compensate them for losses sustained by removal, but hints at no remedy for the wrongs they have suffered in this removal.

And now Congress has adjourned without action of any kind for their relief, and they are left to brood over their wrongs, and mature such plans of revenge as suggest themselves to savage minds.

The appointment of a commission to China to investigate, report upon, and adjust the difficulties growing out of Chinese immigration, suggests the propriety of a commission of like character, as regards its members, to take into consideration the agitating questions relating to the Indians. There is nothing which more nearly touches our honor, or more intimately affects our peace and prosperity, than does the condition of these people. We believe that a commission of statesmen would devise some solution of our difficulties, and suggest a remedy for the wrongs and injustice which have characterized our treatment of them, and thus bring to an end their wild and lawless mode of life.

THE NEGRO ON THE INDIAN.

The negro teacher of the Indian boys at Hampton pithily says some things which go right to the heart of his subject, and are well worth repeating and remembering. The following extracts are from Prof. Robbins’ Report to the Trustees of Hampton Institute. The much-abused negro, forgetful of his own wrongs, stands before the Anglo-American to plead for the Indian and urge a more excellent treatment of him. We commend the whole report to the thoughtful consideration of those who yet doubt the capacity of either the negro or Indian for Christian civilization:

“The Indian problem which the people of the United States have so long been trying to solve may be briefly stated thus: Shall we be able to teach the Indians to surrender their lands and their houses to us, when we want them, without fighting? It is a singular fact that the American people require more Christian charity from the Indians than they themselves are ready to give.”

“The question is not, can the Indian learn, but will he put his knowledge to practical use? The answer to this question depends upon the future policy of the Government. The white man, to put his knowledge to the most practical and profitable use, has a choice of location. He goes where his services are most demanded, and where he can get the best returns for his labor. Are these Indians to be bound to get their living on one reservation, or will they be left free to choose homes for themselves?”

“Unless education is made to mean more than brain culture, it may yet prove the curse of the Anglo-Saxon race. Thousands of young men and women who [232] leave our high schools, seminaries and colleges, all over the land, graduate a degree higher than their social surroundings. The majority of them return to their homes unprepared to put their philosophy and literature into every-day practical life. With them, life becomes one continued grind, and the long list of intelligent criminals is only a sad sequel of it. The education which will nerve and strengthen a man for his calling in life is the most practical, and is the most needed to-day.”

“The condition of the Indian is unlike that of any other people in the world at present. He is not only banished from the best contact with civilization, but he is hated, hunted, envied, and yearly the boundaries of his place of exile are growing smaller; his rights are conferred by a superior power, and are so limited that his gun is his only defence, for the awful judgment of the nation is always against him.”

“It should not be asked, how can we avoid war, but how can we introduce the arts of peace and throw the Indians on their own resources? Every man should be made to supply his own wants. The Indian question can only be solved by meeting and conquering its difficulties.”

“We want to make savages Christians in a day, and after a short trial we see that it cannot be done. Christianizing is not the work of a day or a year, or a spasmodic effort in any direction; it is a continued and constant effort.”

“The Indians should be allowed to assimilate with, and become a part of, our nation’s life. Are there always to be national prison pens for them; or will they some day enjoy those ‘certain inalienable rights’? It is wonderful how slow the Anglo-American has been to perceive that this Declaration refers to no particular race or color, but speaks of ‘all men.’”

“It takes a higher degree of civilization than all Anglo-Saxons possess, to give up an opinion to which one stands committed, even when he knows it is false. But it is grand to think that neither fears nor prejudice can be a final obstacle to the work. The greatest revolutions in popular opinion which the world has ever known have been the outgrowth of a few strong hearts that have believed in, and have achieved, success.”

“We can afford to wait; the American public cannot be educated in a day any more than the Indian. The people will be ready by and by to lay aside legends two hundred years old, and accept facts as they are. The ideal Indian is dead; the true Indian is living and progressing. It is time to concede that he is a man. Take from him what you will in the scale of civilization, but do not subtract his manhood; it is his by Divine right.”

“The answer to the Indian question must be broader than his reservation and broader than his territory; it must be as broad and as long as these United States; with all their rights and privileges.”

EADLE KEAHTAH TOH.

What this means we do not know, but lack of room alone prevents a reprint in these pages of the entire contents of the second number of this charming little paper, published at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., in the interest of the Indian Training School, and to some extent by the Indians, since we are told that a Pawnee boy set up about one-half of the type, and much of its contents was written by them. There is a letter from White Thunder to his son in Capt. Pratt’s school, in answer to some complaints he had made, telling him: “Your letter did not please me. I [233] am ashamed to hear from others in the school that you act bad, and do not try to learn. I send you there to be like a white man, and I want you to do what your teacher tells you. Remember the words I told you. I said if it takes five or ten years, if you do not learn anything you should not come back here.”

OUR PROGRESS.

Under “Our Progress,” the declaration is made that, so far, results show “that these boys and girls have come to a determination to throw aside the Indian’s mode of thought and feeling with the old dress and way of life. This seemed apparent in the beginning, but we feared that the older ones, at least, would soon grow weary of the restraint, which they must find very irksome. We have between sixty and seventy pupils over sixteen years of age. With few exceptions, these young men and women are helpers in discipline, as they are in all the manual labor necessary for their mutual comfort.

“Some time ago, one of the young men came to the girls’ quarters and asked to see his sister. The interview was in the presence of an interpreter, who reported that he gave the little girl a kind but very serious talk. He told her that he had noticed that she was noisy and idle, and that she laughed too loud on the playground. Said he, ‘We came here to learn. I do not know the white man’s way very much yet, but if I do wrong it is because I do not know what my teachers want me to do.’ Several instances of the same kind have occurred since, showing that these boys consider themselves the guardians of their sisters. These are Sioux boys just from their tribes. The interpreter tells us that among the Sioux, the boys and girls of the same family seldom or never speak to each other; this makes it the more remarkable. They are far from indifferent to each other’s comfort and happiness, however, as is invariably shown in time of sickness or any kind of trouble. The letters received by the children from their parents almost invariably counsel obedience to teachers and submission to all the regulations of the school.

“An intimate acquaintance with these children, and through them a better knowledge of their people at home, have increased our respect and deepened our sympathy for the Indians.

“We believe that the beginnings of a new life are stirring in many hearts. What outward developments this life may assume, time will show. The good seed is germinating. The air is full of promise. We can afford to wait.”

OUR GIRLS.

Again, how like “our girls” these promise to be under Christian culture:

“It is gratifying to watch the interest manifested by the little girls in the new arrivals. They are so anxious for them to be washed and dressed anew, and want to loan their own clothing until new can be made.

“Ruth, Grace and Rebecca seemed to feel themselves especially called upon to watch over and teach the ways of the family to the little Nez Perces girls, ‘strangers in a strange land’. They went with them to put them to bed, and then got up early in the morning, to show them how to dress themselves and put their room in order. For several days these little girls watched over them, even leading them by the hand to their meals, when the bell rang to call them together. They could not understand one word of each other’s language, but they chattered away like little birds; and yet six months ago, these same children were quite as wild and uncivilized as the little Nez Perces, Harriet and Sophia.”

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TSAIT-KOPETA.

Hear what Tsait-Kopeta has to say of his old life and new, showing that Indian nature, both old and new, is human nature:

“My life was pretty rough and sharp before I came this way, just like the waves of the ocean, unsteady and not sure. I always was stumbling, but again I would get up. I was a very smart servant for Satan. I was like an ox with his yoke on me; but I worked for him willingly, just same he was my father. But what kind of pay did he give me? Nothing, only shame and danger, and I think when I suffered he laughed at me. I hope now I am free from him, and I think he is sorry he lost me, but he can’t help; and now I have found the Great Master, the Rock of Ages; and I saw His words, and He says, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ And therefore I shall fall at His feet and worship Him, and have confessed Him before men, and want to serve Him only all life long.

“Now I can boast, Satan is my enemy. I return to him the shame he give me. He used tell me, ‘You do what you want in earthly life, nothing hurt you; you only got this life, by and by you die; so anything you want good or bad you do.’ Oh, poor Tsait-Kopeta, how Satan kept me down and tempted. I don’t want something to hurt or do bad and he ridicule me and lie. He said, ‘Ah, you coward! only women feel that way.’ Satan made me prisoner; but Christ was sorry for me and picked me out of his hand. He give me free, and told me go and no more sin. I think very strange, Capt. Pratt, why I not know more then, why I did not ask myself who make me and all the wonderful things. My life is very strange and different from my past life. Little good at that time; often I hungry, thirsty and cold, sorrowful, all the time I restless, and afraid of the enemies or trouble; but this part of the Indian life I like sure, riding and hunting.”

SUSETTE LA FLESCHE.

Susette La Flesche (Bright Eyes), in the following extract from a letter to a friend, illustrates what culture has done for an Indian girl, and discovers the fountains of yearning and of hope in the heart of her people:

“I am coming more and more to the conclusion that the surest and almost the only way of reaching the parent is through the children. Almost the only comforts they have in their lives consist in their children. For them they are willing to lay aside their arms and take up the plow and mower, all unused as they are to labor. For them they are willing to pass over injuries, lest the wrath of the Government be aroused and their children slain. For the sake of their children they are willing to break up their nationality, their tribal relations, and all that they hold dear, to become citizens. Said one man to me, ‘I wish I had had the advantages in my youth which you have. I could then have had a chance to become something other than I am, and could have helped my people. I am now helpless and ignorant; but I shall die content if my children after me live better than I have done.’”

INDIAN MOTHER-LOVE.

We are in danger of quoting the whole of this paper after all, but must give the following extract from a letter from the wife of one who was stationed at what is now Post Fort Sill. The incident occurred in 1869. We do not [235] envy him who can read this without shame, that during the 260 years of our contact with these people we have done so little to call forth their finer qualities, glimpses of which we catch in such a scene. We have done much to degrade and brutalize them; almost nothing to save them:

“One bright spring morning I had just dressed my fair girl-baby in her first short dress, then carefully placing her upon the bed, stood back, mother-like, to admire. The outer door of my room was wide open, and I saw approaching what seemed to me then the most miserable-looking squaw I had yet seen. On she came with the grace and tread of an elephant; and oh, how revolting she looked as she stood in the doorway! Her hair was cut short and hung over her forehead to her eyes. Her face, neck and breast were painted in narrow stripes of different colors. About her waist was fastened a short skirt made of a part of a buffalo robe. She saw my darling, and before I knew what she intended she had her in her arms. What did I do? Why, I sprang forward, saying, ‘You horrid, dirty thing,’ and took my baby into my own arms. The poor miserable woman looked at me in the most pitiful manner, and then gathering up the corner of her blanket, she held it in her arms as one would hold a sick infant, and at the same time with a mournful cry, she made a sign that her baby had died; and to show how great her grief had been, she held up her hand so that I could see she had cut off her little finger, which is one of the extreme mourning customs of the Kiowas, and she also pointed to the deep scars on her breast and arms. Tears ran down her cheeks, and my sympathies were so moved that almost unconsciously I placed my baby back in her arms. How carefully she handled her, and how tenderly she passed her hands over her plump limbs. After some minutes she handed her back to me, and with a grateful look and smile, giving me a hearty hand-shake, she departed. In a week she came again, and placed in my lap about a peck of ripe wild plums, which ripen there in the early spring. They had been freshly washed, and were brought to me in a piece of new pink calico. Again she held the baby, and this time with signs asked permission, and got it, to kiss our darling, for she was no longer disgusting to me. She left me as before, and in another week she came again, this time bringing two buffalo tongues. All she wanted in return was the pleasure of holding baby. This was her last visit. Where she came from or where she went, I never knew. She came and went alone.”

BLACK MISSIONARIES FOR AFRICA—THE BISHOP CROWTHER PLAN.

REV. G. D. PIKE, D.D.

If God “hath set bounds to the habitations” of the different races of men, or to any race, that fact should enter into our plan of missionary work. It is our duty to succeed. How to do it, is worthy of our greatest thought and most earnest prayer. When we take the road to success in God’s work, we find heavenly attendants all along the way, and abundant supplies of grace and every needful thing. Just now the great question before the Christian world is, “How to succeed with missionary work among the recently discovered Pagans in Equatorial Africa.” Attempts have been made on the borders of this country for hundreds of years, but no permanent success has been achieved inland. We have learned, however, two things. One is, that white men and mulattoes are, as a rule, incapable of preserving their health and lives in the climate of tropical Africa; and the other, that the genuine negro has a constitution entirely fitted for its vicissitudes. “Negroes for Negroland” must be emblazoned on the banner of the successful missionary army, as it goes forth to battle against sin through the Dark Continent.

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The history of every missionary endeavor of long continuance among the negroes in tropical Africa warrants this conclusion. But have negroes succeeded as missionaries? They have not had much opportunity for doing so, as but few missions have been committed to their care. Public sentiment has been against them. The theory of manning stations by black men is comparatively recent. Our great societies, however, are forced by the unfolding of providential events to weigh the evidence in favor of the theory. The only question left to be settled pertains to the negro’s aptitude and capacity. Can he achieve success in the domain of missions? We are fortunate in having an illustration which enables us to answer this question in the affirmative.

In 1821, an African lad was captured in a village about 100 miles from the Bight of Benin, and put on board a slave-ship, from which he was subsequently rescued by the English government and landed at Freetown. Here he was received into a mission school under the care of Mr. Weeks. In 1825, when 15 years of age, he was baptized, and sent to England to study. Soon after, a Bible-school for training native students to preach was established at Sierre Leone, and the young African, who had been named Samuel Crowther, was recalled and placed in this school, where he remained as student and teacher until 1841. At this time, Lord John Russell’s famous Niger Expedition selected Mr. Crowther as interpreter, and while exploring the territory on the west bank of the Niger, he became exceedingly interested in the people living in the villages of the country. When the purpose of that expedition was abandoned, Mr. Crowther gave himself to missionary work in the towns he had visited. To fit him more thoroughly for this, he was sent to England, where he remained till 1843. He then returned to his chosen field, reduced the language of the people to writing, and preached the Gospel to them in their native tongue. At one of his preaching stations, he discovered his mother, brother and two sisters, who had been held in slavery for many years, and procured their ransom. Among his first converts in the great town of Abeokuta, was his own mother. At this place, he commenced preaching in 1845. In 1861, there were reported to be 1,500 converts as the result of his labors. In 1864 he was consecrated “African Bishop of the Niger.” Since then he has proceeded with his great work with many additional facilities.

Some friends in England have secured for him a steamboat, valued at more than $22,000, by which he is able to visit his mission stations, now nine in number, located along the river, and superintend some 22 native preachers and helpers under his charge. At an early age he married Asano, a girl delivered from bondage at the same time with himself, and instructed in the same school. Several children were born to them, and some of these, at least, are very worthy and helpful to their father.

Here we have in a nut-shell an illustration of how the work may be done. Representatives of the inland tribes may be gathered into suitable schools, taught the things which pertain to the Christian faith, and practiced in the arts of teaching and preaching, under the supervision of wise and experienced missionaries, and then returned to their tribes to declare the good news of a salvation which, through the blessing of God, they have experienced. The illustration we have chosen would indicate that it were wise to establish the training-school in Africa itself; and the fate of scores of white missionaries and others of our race, who have perished on account of the climate of Africa, points to the wisdom of selecting black men as teachers in these training-schools, whenever suitable persons for the position can be found among the colored people.

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The venerable Dr. Moffat affirms that black missionaries for Africa is the “Divine plan.” Dr. Blyden tells us that the climate of Africa recognizes only pure negroes with favor. It conforms to no prejudices or customs of society in assigning mulattoes to the negro race. Unmixed black men alone are welcomed with long life and happiness.

God sets bounds to habitations, but the love of Christ in God is unbounded. The good tidings of great joy has no metes. The heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth are within the borders of the kingdom. The elect and precious are separated by no climate or partition walls. They shall come up from the North, South, East and West. We can only hope to succeed in doing our part towards hastening the consummation when we have fallen into line with the logic of events, and have accepted the new phases of work for the negro as they are providentially unfolded.

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Savannah, Ga.—The pastor of the church at this place writes: “The standard of piety among the colored people about us is so low that it is difficult to create a moral conscience in our own people, and this fact shows the great need there is for our churches.” There has been an unusual work of grace among his people, and the “meetings have been quiet and orderly, as with a New England congregation.” A number have been brought into the church whose experience has been most satisfactory; none of them have had dreams or visions, but all tell of simple faith in the Saviour, and express the purpose of a new life of intelligent obedience to Him. “We are beginning to rise above the superstitious notions which once prevailed.”

Atlanta, Ga.—June 20th, Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., preached the dedication sermon of the First Congregational Church. The dedicatory service had been delayed until all debt should be cleared off the house—a beautiful structure in brick, with slate roof and tower, having cost more than $5,000. This done, and a $300 Troy bell secured, all was ready. In the afternoon, a thanksgiving service was held, consisting of music, the responsive reading of appropriate Psalms, and addresses by the pastor, Pres. Ware, Prof. Francis, Supt. Roy, and Mayor Calhoun. The latter, referring to the early days of trial, said that he had always been glad that this people had friends, wherever they came from, who were willing and able to help them.

—Rev. T. E. Hillson, of New Orleans, has been located at Flatonia and Luling in Texas, to have charge of the two churches in those places, which are far out upon the “sunset” route to San Antonio. Miss M. E. Green is in charge of the school in Flatonia.

—Rev. Mr. Roberts, a recent graduate of the Talladega Theological Department, has been appointed to take the pastoral charge of the church at Paris, Texas. Mr. White, another student of Talladega, will probably take the school at Paris.

—Rev. L. C. Anderson, of Fisk, is teaching and preaching near Austin, Texas.

—Rev. B. A. Jones, a recent student in the Theological Department at Oberlin, will take the pastorate of our church at Memphis, Tenn., in September. Mr. Williams, whose health is not equal to the permanent charge, will continue as a supply until that time.

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—Rev. G. W. Moore, of the Fisk University, is supplying at Florence, Ala., for the vacation; while Rev. S. N. Brown, another student, supplies the Howard Chapel in Nashville.

—Rev. J. W. Strong, of Talladega, takes the place of Pastor O. W. Crawford at Mobile during the vacation.

—Mr. Geo. Clark, of the Divinity School in Howard University, is supplying Pastor Lathrop’s pulpit at Macon, Ga.

—Rev. J. W. McLean, of Ogeechee, is filling Rev. R. F. Markham’s place in Savannah, Ga., during vacation.

—Rev. H. W. Conley is supplying at Marion, Ala., during the absence of the pastor, Rev. Geo. E. Hill.

AFRICAN NOTES.

—Col. C. E. Gordon, who was for a time Governor-General of Soudan for the Khedive of Egypt, made strenuous and successful efforts to suppress the slave-trade in those parts of Equatorial Africa which came within its influence. He was forced, as our readers know, to resign his position, and in a pamphlet, published by the British Anti-Slavery Society, states that the Khedive has permitted the resuscitation of the slave-trade in Central Africa, and “every order he gave for the suppression of this abomination has been cancelled.” He thinks that a decided message from the French and English governments to the Egyptian ruler would have great effect, but that the slave-trade will never be put down voluntarily by the Khedive.

This slave-trade is one of those evils which time alone will not cure. Nothing but bringing all the influences of Christian missions and Christian governments to combine for its destruction, will overthrow it. We are glad that the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society continues its holy war against it.

—The Church of Scotland Mission at Blantyre, on the Shiré River, Africa, has opened another station. The new station is at Zomba, on the west side of the Shiré River. It is a very elevated and secure spot, where thieves could be barred out. The station is on the borders of Chemlumbe and Malemia, whose respective chiefs are hostile to each other. The design is to reach both tribes. The neighborhood is quite a populous one, and 4,000 people have asked the missionaries to become their protectors. The Arabs carry on their nefarious trade between Blantyre and Zomba, and frequently kidnap people from the latter place to fill out their gangs. Refugees are almost constantly coming in at Blantyre, but none are received at Zomba. A school has been opened at Zomba, and it has forty scholars. The people are very attentive to the preacher, and sit a long time unwearied.

—Encouraging news continues to come from Bishop Crowther’s mission on the Niger. The station at Bonny, which was founded fourteen years ago, and which for some years past has encountered opposition and severe persecution, now is become a bethel. Archdeacon Crowther says the voice of prayer is heard in nearly every house, night and morning. Several persons have been baptized and there are over 200 candidates for the sacrament.

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THE FREEDMEN.

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

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.

Baccalaureate—Commencement—Visit of the
State Board—Report of Local Paper.

On Sunday, June 20, the baccalaureate of Atlanta University was preached by Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D., of New York. His subject was the path of the just and the way of the wicked, the forming of character, good and bad.

The examinations lasted three days.

The Commencement exercises, June 24, came off the same hour with the nomination of Gen. Hancock. Orations were pronounced by six young men, and essays read by ten young women, all of whom showed a fine scholarship and a good degree of the art of elocution. The most gratifying feature in these productions was a zeal to help their people by precept and example in the way of economy, thrift, and moral reform. The degree of A. B. was conferred upon three young men, and that of B. S., with the certificate of graduation from the higher normal course, was given to twelve students, male and female. The music, which was of a high order, was by the students. One captivating piece was, “I am in a strange land.” The college address was delivered by Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D., and the diplomas presented by Rev. M. E. Strieby, D.D.

The State Board of Examiners, ten in number, came over, fresh from the inspection of the State University at Athens, and gave four days of faithful attendance upon the examinations and Commencement of this Institution. Their Report is to be made to the Governor and the Legislature, but it was understood that they were greatly delighted with the thoroughness of the scholarship evinced, and the general morale.

The Constitution, which reported each day, said: “The examinations were heard by many visitors who showed great interest in all the proceedings. The various questions were, as a rule, aptly answered, and each student gave evidence of the progress achieved in this excellent and yearly growing Institution. The familiarity with Greek which was shown by the class, which was called upon to construe and parse selections from Demosthenes, was quite astonishing. Everybody who has grappled with the Greek language knows how difficult it is to render the “Oration” properly. Special proficiency was shown in the several other branches upon which the students, both male and female, were subjected to rigid questioning. Our citizens are cordially invited to visit the Atlanta University, and see for themselves the great good which the management is doing for the colored people in our midst.”

TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

Commencement Exercises—Standard of Instruction—Literary Society—Needs.

REV. O. W. FAY, MONTGOMERY, ALA.

The friends and patrons of Talladega College have great occasion for encouragement and congratulation, in view of the present condition and future prospects of that Institution, as evinced by the examinations and exercises connected with its Tenth Annual Commencement.

Those exercises opened grandly on Sunday, June 6th, at 10.30 A. M., with a baccalaureate sermon by President De Forest from the text (1 Tim. i. 12), “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful putting me into [240] the ministry,” which was a clear and inspiring argument for entering upon the work of the Gospel ministry especially appropriate for the occasion, as it was addressed particularly to the class of eight young men who this year graduate from the Theological Department. At 4 o’clock P. M., a Union Prayer Meeting of the Sunday-school classes was held in the College Chapel, after which Prof. T. N. Chase, of Atlanta University, gave an intensely interesting detailed account of his recent experiences while visiting the Mendi Mission on the West Coast of Africa. The evening was given to the missionary sermon by the Rev. O. W. Fay, of Montgomery, on “The Divine Economy in the Gospel,” or the plan according to which God has been working, and is destined to work for the redemption of mankind. Text, Isa. xiii. 4: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.”

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday occurred the regular examinations which, for impartiality, thoroughness, and general familiarity with the subjects considered, reflected great credit upon both teachers and pupils. To one not familiar with the standard of instruction and scholarship in the colleges of the American Missionary Association, it might seem a little surprising to find examinations in moral science, geometry, history, pastoral theology, and all higher branches, conducted topically and well sustained; but, when it is known that Pres. De Forest and Profs. Andrews and Ellis, with their able corps of lady associates, represent Yale, Olivet, Oberlin and Mt. Holyoke, he is prepared to expect and find all that is standard and best, both in theory and practice, at Talladega. There was no evidence of special “cramming” on the part of the students, or of special favoritism on the part of the instructors. On the other hand, the evidence was abundant that all had been doing good work, thorough, honest and true. Ex-Gov. Parsons, one of Alabama’s most distinguished citizens and a trustee of the College, honored the examination of the graduating class with his presence, and expressed intense gratification with what he saw and heard. A few other white citizens of Talladega were present at the various exercises from time to time through the week. It is to be regretted, however, that so few were inclined, even by their presence, to show their appreciation of what the College is doing for their community and the State. While there was no great throng of colored people in attendance, there was a goodly number present throughout the week, who, by their remarkable appreciation of the exercises, showed that the occasion was to them “a feast of fat things.”

The public exhibition of the “Adelphic Literary Society,” on Monday evening, was an occasion of interest. The exercises consisted of declamations, original essays, and a discussion of the question, “Should capital punishment be inflicted for murder?” The essays were good, the declamations and the discussion were presented with spirit and a good show of ability, while the music was excellent, all showing careful preparation and a laudable ambition to excel.

On Tuesday evening, the Annual College Address was given by Rev. J. E. Roy, D.D., Field Agent of the A. M. A., on the “Incompleteness of individual talent.” In his own inimitable style, the doctor entertained his audience with happy illustrations, amusing anecdotes and solid thought, showing the mutual interdependence of society, and how God has really and practically given “to every man his work.” In the afternoon of Wednesday, came the prize-speaking. The contestants for prizes in declaiming and reading were eight young men and one young woman. Two prizes were contended for; the first was tuition at the [241] College for one year, and the second, tuition for half a year. A good deal of commendable ambition was aroused, and the contest was so sharp that the Committee found some difficulty in awarding the honors, which were finally conferred by giving the first prize to H. L. Bradford, of the Normal Department, and the second prize to Spencer Snell, of the Theological Department. Miss Dorcas White was also awarded a second prize for an essay on education. At 8 P. M., as a part of the programme for the week, was held the regular Wednesday evening prayer-meeting, led by the pastor, Prof. G. W. Andrews—full, fresh, spiritual and refreshing in its character. The subject of the hour was “Christian education.”

The graduating exercises of Thursday were, indeed, a fitting culmination of all that had preceded them. The orations of the eight young men who graduated were in happy accord with the expectations raised by their examinations the day before. They were all thoughtful and manly efforts, well conceived and well delivered. As an illustration of what can be done as well as of what is being done for the colored race, the proficiency and promise of these young men is highly encouraging. They all go forth with enthusiasm for their work. They all have fields for immediate labor. It is quite confidently hoped that at least one of this class will decide to go to the Mendi Mission on the “Dark Continent.” But when we look about us and see the almost innumerable fields already white for the harvest, the inquiry involuntarily comes. What are these few “among so many”?

In accordance with her new motto, Talladega College is doing a grand work “Pro Christo et Humanitate.” Her facilities and prospects were never good as at present. She was never so well deserving of support and patronage as now. Her location among the mountains of Alabama is delightful. The long blue ranges of mountains, as seen in the distance from the College campus, along with the bracing mountain air, strongly remind one of New England. The only institution of its grade for colored people in the State, its constituency is simply immense.

With a farm of nearly two hundred acres, her facilities are rare indeed for aiding young men to obtain an education, who are disposed to help themselves. She has an efficient corps of instructors, enthusiastic in their work. Particularly is she fortunate in her new President, under whose wise administration the College has assumed a new character and taken a new position in the State. No one could listen to the earnest yet tender and eloquent words of counsel addressed to the graduating class by Pres. De Forest on presenting the diplomas, without the feeling that he is just the large-hearted, scholarly. Christian gentleman who is needed in the place which he occupies.

But notwithstanding all this, Talladega has very pressing needs. Her accommodations for young men are altogether inadequate to the demand, and such as she has are of a very indifferent character. A donation of $15,000 from the Stone Estate, however, gives cheering prospects that during the coming year this sore need will be met.

But $10,000 more is needed just as much for furnishing the new dormitory, improving the College grounds, and making necessary repairs on “Swayne Hall,” which, though originally costing $30,000, and a very stately building, is literally going to ruin from lack of means to repair it.

These facts being known, may it not reasonably be hoped that in the near future, friends of humanity and of Christian education may be found, who will recognize this rare opportunity for investments, and come to the rescue of a worthy and suffering College? Who will be the first?

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BEREA COLLEGE.

Busy and Varied Scene—Range of Topics—Stirring
Addresses—Brotherhood—Pioneers.

BY SECRETARY STRIEBY.

The little village of Berea, Ky., presented a busy scene on the 16th day of June. Commencement day brought together a crowd that for numbers and variety is seldom collected on such an occasion. The gathering began early in the day. Fine buggies and carriages came filled with people, and with them were wheeled vehicles of almost every variety of construction and in almost every stage of decay. But the larger part of the crowd came on horseback in true Kentucky style, frequently two, and in some cases three persons riding on the same animal. The College campus comprises many acres, covered quite uniformly with a fine growth of large trees. On the day before, I had noticed little slats nailed on these trees, and their use was explained to-day by the horses hitched to them. There must have been 800 or 900 horses on the campus.

The audience numbered probably 1,800 or 2,000 persons of both sexes, both colors, and of every stage in social position. I judged that two-thirds were of the white race, representing the well-to-do classes as also the poorer farmers from the mountains. The dresses were not uniform in style, nor always after the most recent fashion plates. I noticed many old-fashioned sun-bonnets on the heads of the colored women. There was a full supply of babies in the audience, with the usual evidence of good lungs and voices—the essentials for future public speakers. I particularly noticed that the white babies carried off on this day the palm in this incipient oratory, yet I drew no inference as to the future. The assemblage gathered in the Tabernacle, a roughly built structure somewhat in the style of the tabernacles at Martha’s Vineyard and other watering places, though, of course, less expensive.

The public exercises of the forenoon were very creditable to the pupils as well as their teachers in the essays and speeches. The range of topics was wider than is usual in our institutions in the South, and with less reference to the peculiar position and struggles of the colored race. This was easily explained by the fact that about half the pupils are white. The afternoon was occupied with addresses by Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, Secretary Strieby, Pres. Fairchild, of Oberlin, and two colored ministers of the vicinity. The previous evening was taken up with a stirring address in the chapel by a Kentucky gentleman of prominent position, the son of a former slave-holder. It was in hearty sympathy with the work in Berea College, and concluded with some very timely and practical advice to the colored people, which they heartily applauded.

Berea College is doing, as may be seen, a peculiar work. No institution in the nation approaches it in uniting the two races in the same school. As a pioneer in the breaking down of caste prejudice, it has no rival; nor is this purchased by lowering the one race at the expense of the other, nor by any approach to the blending of the races in marriage. It is simply a quiet, unpretentious and practical working out of the brotherhood of man in educational and religious co-operation.

The pioneers and principal workers in founding and carrying forward this noble Christian enterprise were present—John G. Fee, J. A. R. Rogers, E. H. Fairchild, and others. It is seldom that men live to see with their own eyes so great a revolution as that which Berea witnessed in the contrast of this Commencement day with the dark days of persecution, banishment and danger. Tales were told me at quiet tea-tables, of times of trial and deliverance, that moved the heart over scenes that occurred not in old historic times, but on spots within eye-glance, and participated in by the narrators.

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Berea College is well equipped with buildings and a good corps of teachers. The Ladies’ Hall is modeled after, and about the size of, the similar building in Oberlin. Howard Hall gives excellent facilities as a boys’ dormitory. The new chapel is a model of neatness and convenience. Other and smaller buildings meet other wants, and while another edifice could be well used, yet Berea’s great need now is endowment; and to those who have the means, and are looking for a place to use it for the nation’s welfare and the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom, we can safely and unhesitatingly turn their attention to this worthy and growing institution.

TOUGALOO UNIVERSITY.

African Macedonia—Usefulness and Needs—Work of Grace—Waiting for Supplies.

REV. H. S. DE FOREST, TALLADEGA, ALA.

A run into Mississippi, and two days spent at Tougaloo, have given me a fresh sense of the importance of our work in its entirety, and a special interest in Tougaloo. This institution, in the centre of the great cotton State, where the black soil seems the natural home of the black man, has a field as large, as needy and as hopeful as can well be desired. From Marion, Ala., at the east, to far beyond the Mississippi on the west, north from New Orleans and south from Holly Springs, each about two hundred miles away, Tougaloo sits alone, and has undisputed possession of a great, a populous, and a waiting African Macedonia, crying out, “Come over and help us.” The University, with meagre equipments and limited accommodations, is trying to answer that cry. It is doing much, very much; but how little compared with what might be done and ought to be done!

Tougaloo is seven miles from Jackson, the State capital, on the railway from New Orleans northward, having a location of wonderful beauty, and advantages peculiar to itself. The farm of five hundred acres is now under good cultivation. The facilities for marketing produce are good, and under judicious management it is believed the work of students may do much towards paying their expenses. The mansion house, built with great taste and care by a planter who was never to occupy it, crowns a gentle slope; while in front is a native grove, or forest, of as weird-like and enchanting beauty as can well be found on this rounded earth. The oaks are of the giant order, almost colossal in their proportions, while from the great arms hang abundant tassels of Spanish moss. Here, on June 3d, under this witchery of shade, on improvised seats, the exercises of Commencement were held. Horses, mules, and vehicles of all kinds, at an early hour, were hitched under the trees. Visitors came by the tens and the scores; but finally, a special train put down its brakes at the station, and hundreds, with lunch baskets in hand, were swarming through the woods, and massing themselves near the platform. Seven young men, after the ordeal of a searching examination, if I may judge from the little I was in time to hear, pronounced their orations and received their diplomas. The addresses of the graduates were thoughtful, full of moral earnestness, well delivered and well received by the great audience, among whom were representatives of the clergy at Jackson, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent of Education. Several of these visitors added words of hearty and well-deserved commendation. The impress of the instructors was manifest throughout the exercises. This thought pervaded all the speeches: there is work to be done, and we wish to have a hand in it. Back of the stage, as the class motto, hung the old, but not outworn, “Labor omnia vincit.” The motto suggested the theme of the first speaker. The address in the afternoon was on “The field and the victories of work,” [244] and idleness had no mercy that day. Apparently, there is not much of it about the institution. Under the direction of the Principal, Rev. G. S. Pope, a man of long experience in this Southern field, singularly fitted for his post and well sustained by earnest co-laborers, both in-door and out-door industries have been greatly promoted. The farm and garden are beginning to show what good husbandry can do. Blooded cattle are taking the place of the native lean kine; improved groves are disclosing their richness; while the garden not only supplies the large family at the University, but is affording some surplus for others. Strawberries from nearly an acre of land have been picked this year, and largely sent to Chicago. This industry promises well, and will be increased in the future.

The needs of Tougaloo are as apparent as its present usefulness. Besides the mansion and the out-buildings, many of which are old, there is a chapel with a second story containing rooms for young men, and also a boarding hall, with dormitories for young women above. These three principal buildings are of wood, the mansion house occupying the centre. These accommodations are far too small. To meet a present necessity, a rough barrack has been put up, giving nine additional rooms. The attendance during the past year has been about two hundred, and nearly all have been boarders in the family. Increase the accommodations and the attendance might be doubled at once; but what would a school of four hundred be among the tens of thousands in this great State who are hungering for education? At mid-winter a work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.

It seems strange to us who are on the ground, glad to man these out-posts and give what we have of life and vigor to the work, that needed supplies are not forthcoming. Give us adequate appliances, and we can greatly multiply our usefulness. We wish to be re-inforced, not relieved. Our commissariat is insufficient. We are glad to give ourselves to this work, but we need supplies. And we cannot think that life is cheaper than lucre; that men at the rear can afford to neglect those who are allowed to go to the front; and if America has any front in this nineteenth century, it is still down South. We wish to advance all our lines, and are simply waiting for supplies.

BREWER NORMAL SCHOOL.

J. D. BACKENSTOSE, GREENWOOD, S. C.

The work of Brewer Normal Institute, for the past scholastic year, closed very successfully, and, as far as we know, to the satisfaction of all its patrons, on June 24th.

The two days’ examinations were unusually thorough and very satisfactory.

The Annual Address was delivered on the morning of the 24th, by Prof. J. Wofford White, of the Yorkville Academy at Yorkville, S. C., on “The benefits of an education.”

The address was worthy the man and the subject, and will doubtless be long remembered by the very large audience. On the rostrum beside the speaker were clergymen of three different denominations.

At 3 P. M. the audience again assembled, and was addressed by several of our former students, who have been engaged during the present year in teaching.

The annual exhibition took place in the evening, and long before the hour of commencing arrived, our large hall, (which was tastefully decorated with wreaths and flags for the occasion,) was crowded to its utmost capacity, so that [245] we could hardly make our way to the rostrum.

By competent judges, the declamations were pronounced superior to any heard on former occasions of a similar character, and not inferior to many exercises presented in regular college commencements.

The school has been larger this year than ever before, and it has been difficult for us to accommodate all who have applied for admission.

We have had much for which to be thankful during the past year connected with this Institute; but let this be an inspiration leading us to greater achievements during the year to come.

STORRS SCHOOL.

The Storrs School at Atlanta, Ga., closed one of its most successful years, on the 23d of June, with an examination that gave great satisfaction to Sec. Strieby, Prof. Chase and Supt. Roy, who were present. A large number of the parents and patrons were present to rejoice in that evident progress of their children. This school has had for the year a total of 543 pupils; the largest number at any one time, 356, and an average of 333. The course of study is that of the Grammar School.

It is recognized by the school authorities of Atlanta as a school of the very first quality. Miss Amy Williams, who has been at the head of the Storrs for more than a dozen years, and whose qualifications as an instructor and a disciplinarian are truly admirable, has had associated with her this year Misses Julia Goodwin, Amelia Ferris, M. E. Stevenson, F. J. Norris, and Abbie Clark.

NORTH CAROLINA.

The Year’s Work at Woodbridge.

REV. WILLIAM H. ELLIS.

During the whole of last year, it seemed impossible to make any deep religious impression on the community. Very few attended our services. The children attended theirs and the grown people theirs, and it often happened that we could not get enough together at either to make “a meeting.”

During the summer, generous friends contributed a good supply of clothing, which was bestowed only on temperate persons. This caused a good deal of complaint and some ill-will; but we insisted that articles contributed by industrious, temperate persons, many of whom were in straitened circumstances, should not be given to the intemperate or unworthy. I am glad to report that I found in all 160 persons, old and young, whom I judged worthy. We succeeded in making temperance respectable in clean clothes. Our Band of Hope had been organized five years, but was not yet really a power. We now clothed our members, overhauled our books, expelled the unworthy, elected new officers, and went ahead.

For a few weeks, we spent all our time in trying those who had broken their pledges. We also passed laws that members might be brought to trial for anything dishonorable to the Band, and that all on trial must stand on the platform during trial. So each Sabbath every member is asked, “Have you broken your pledge, and do you know any one who has?” They were shown the evil of having broken God’s holy law, the guilt and danger of sin, their own personal responsibility to God and need of a Saviour, the dying love of Christ, His willingness to forgive and power to save, and they were especially encouraged to trust Him for strength to overcome every sin. The fact that they were “sinners before the Lord exceedingly” met them at every turn, but was enforced so lovingly that a closer bond drew all together as one. No gloomy views of religion were inculcated, but the Christian life was placed before them as something to be longed for and striven after. They were often called [246] aside by themselves, perhaps for discipline, perhaps to be commended for good behavior, and then personal faith in Christ was explained to them, often with prayer. We saw the signs of a mighty work at hand in their endeavors to leave off all sin, the evident desire to know and do the right, and the almost breathless attention when religious subjects were spoken of. Some meetings were held especially for those who desired to become Christians.

Meanwhile, the Christian people were appealed to over and over again. In fact, our main teaching this year has been “Bring forth fruits, meet for repentance.” Sin has been rebuked, publicly and privately, the Lord’s people have been urged to deeper consecration, and shown that if they brought their little ones to the Lord in faith, He would receive them.

On the first Sabbath in February we had our Sixth Temperance Anniversary. The children fairly astonished everybody by their enthusiasm and ability. The Band then made its reputation, and the number has since been increased from 90 to 116, and we are glad to say, most of the new members are grown people, who have joined under full conviction of the usefulness of our Band, and of their own duty to it and themselves.

The drill and excitement attendant upon the anniversary having passed away, the minds of the scholars were free to think again. They could not study or play, and some would be often in tears in school time. We were careful not to encourage any sudden hopes which might prove false. The work was evidently of the Spirit, who was sure to finish it. So we allowed time in each case to settle the great question. Fourteen in all believed during the week. Some were forbidden to pray at home. When they came to school they might go out in the woods to pray, and not get punished, so they went home too happy to care for whippings.

In time the work reached the grown people in the neighborhood, and nightly meetings were held for weeks.

Our own people were quiet enough. We had a little confusion from other churches represented, but nothing serious. The number, hopefully converted on the first of March, was 31. Twelve have been added since, and still there are seekers. I am glad to say that every one, so far as I know, still holds out well.

As the people think that to omit washing feet at the communion would endanger their title to heaven, we can form no church. The Band of Hope is practically our church, with one thing in its favor—we have 100 more members than we could have in a church. Almost everybody around belongs to it, except some of the old people, and they are coming. Our members are bound by voluntary covenant. Christ is the corner-stone, and obedience to Him the standard by which all are judged. We warn, exhort, discipline and expel according to Bible rules, and draw sanction from it for all proceedings. There are only seven unconverted members, old enough to know themselves, and they are under conviction. We lack only the name and ordinances of a church.

It is most pleasant to see the evident affection shown by the young towards the teacher, and our theological student, Brother Scott, on whom a large share of the work has fallen, and who, if he can be assisted to an education, bids fair to be a power in the land. The children come early and stay late; they crowd around us, and do all they can to please us. They have the freedom of the house, but we never miss even a button. Such a school full of honest, truthful, obedient and affectionate children is rare anywhere. What shall be said of a set of very dark colored children, in a community where the ignorance is simply appalling, and many of them go hungry?

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ALABAMA.

REV. W. H. ASH, FLORENCE.

The work in Florence for the last two years has been comparatively a new one. The exodus of the colony from here not only took from the town some of the best citizens, but it robbed our church of its strength, both in a temporal and spiritual sense, leaving behind the weakest spiritually and the poorest financially. My first endeavor was to impress upon the people in their discouraged condition, the necessity of having faith in God.

Since that time the church has grown in religious life and character; members have been added to it such, I hope, as shall be saved.

We have had a revival which served as a great quickening influence, though there were not the number of conversions we had hoped for. Within these two years, we have built a beautiful house of worship, which helps greatly as an attraction to our service; as also does our organ, sent by friends, being the only organ in the colored churches.

The Sunday-school has grown in interest and numbers, and has been able to pay for its lesson papers this year. The school has been built up almost entirely out of new material. My wife and self have taught a day-school in connection with the church-work, which has given strength to the church. Outside of the primary and intermediate classes, we have a class in United States history, one in English composition, and one in algebra. Up to this time forty-six scholars have been enrolled. Last year we began with three scholars, closing with thirty-five. We have had quite a number of applications for boarding scholars, but had no accommodation for such, with the exception of one girl whom we felt almost bound to take. Some of the others found places with difficulty, because they wanted to go to the Congregational school (so-called, while the public is called the Methodist school).

Strange to say, in this community the country people are more able to sustain a “pay-school” than are those in town. But there is a reason for it: wages are very low, and it really takes what is needed for their absolute wants to pay dollar a month, particularly if a family numbers six or seven, which is really the case in my parish. A woman’s wages average from four to five dollars a month. I sigh, and wonder how these poor people ever will rise.

The Christian people who give so liberally, and those who are intrusted with the responsibility of this work, do not know the difficulties and trying circumstances under which Congregationalism has grown, and is growing, in some parts of the South. Past experience has taught that tardiness in the appropriation of ample facilities for the work in some fields has caused the loss of rich results. If those who have gone to Kansas had seen the present condition of the church, I believe it would have been a great check upon their going, although there were other reasons which helped to drive them from the South aside from a lack of proper facilities for the education of their children.

Since the dedication of the church, I have been anxious that our lot should be inclosed, and on April 9th we gave an entertainment whose results surpassed our most sanguine expectations, as we made $64 above expenses.

We have put up a neat fence in front, well painted, which improves the looks of the church, and have ordered lumber for the other sides of the lot, and by next week the whole will be fenced.

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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.

MISSION WORK AMONG THE CHINESE MINERS.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

Can it be done? That is the question. That it needs to be done, there can be no question. There is scarcely a mining camp in the State but has its Chinese quarter, and there are many small camps where the entire population is Chinese, because Americans view the placers as worked out. Close upon every advancing wave of Caucasian emigration, these follow into Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and, just now, Arizona especially. Thither all but two of those in Santa Barbara, of whom we hoped that they were born of God, have gone, and one of the last two writes me that he is soon going. On the other hand, two of our best brethren in Oakland have just migrated to Montana; one of them, Lee Haim, who was our excellent helper at Oroville till taken from our work by a peremptory summons to return to China. This doom has been commuted, but only upon his undertaking to remit amounts larger than he could possibly save out of a helper’s salary. The other of the two is Len Soon, a man of fine presence, good judgment, warm heart and earnest Christian spirit, whose ever-ready volunteer aid made him a pillar in our Oakland work.

These losses at the points already occupied, suggest one way in which God, taking the matter into his own hands, is sending the Gospel to the Chinese in the mines. They afford a partial solution of the problem before us. A portion of our scattered seed is made to fall upon those moral wildernesses. We follow these brethren with our prayers; and I have ventured to pledge to them our practical co-operation if they should settle in any place where a hopeful missionary work could be begun.

But a hopeful work of this sort, anywhere in the mines, could scarcely be conceived of but for faith. The difficulties are unique, and are very great. Our Home Missionary Society finds no other service so fraught with discouragements, as that in these regions. The toil required is very hard, and the returns are very scanty. Some churches have been thrifty, and one or two are thrifty still; but outside a less number of points than you could count on the fingers of one hand, they are either dead or perpetually dying; preserved from utter extinction only by persistent pastoral service, sustained mainly by missionary aid. But the difficulties encountered in such work among our own people, will be greatly enhanced in labor among the Chinese. Miners are always migratory, but the Chinese miners most of all; and migration tends to barbarism, among the Chinese most of all. Miners depend upon luck. There is no possibility of knowing what there is in a piece of ground till you have worked it through, and gotten it out. A single day may show your season’s work to be a success, or may doom it as a failure, and what that day will disclose no sagacity will enable you beforehand to [249] determine. Such occupations nurse the gambling spirit, favor spendthrift habits, and tend almost irresistibly to poverty. And this is specially true of the Chinese. In certain seasons of the year, miners are apt to be waiting and idle; in others, when the golden harvest must be gathered, if at all, working to excess; and in either case, the moral effect is evil, not less so with Chinese than others. American miners, with a few noble exceptions, seem to know little about the Christian Sabbath. It used to be, and in some parts of California it still is, the day for cleaning-up, for coming to the central village for trading, for gambling, for getting drunk; but even this distinction in the more prominent mining districts is passing away, and the wheels of labor roll remorselessly over the laborer’s best boon, the weekly day of sacred rest. How much less can we hope for the help of Sabbaths in reaching with the Gospel the Chinese?

And yet, there they are, by the hundreds and the thousands, precious souls, bought with the blood of Jesus. Must we let them die, without a single hand stretched out, a single voice uplifted for their rescue?

The mission at Oroville was our first attempt to deal with this problem of work among the Chinese miners. It was begun, so far as downright and determined effort was concerned, February 1st, and continued till June 1st. The school is closed during the hot months, but will be resumed, I trust, about October 1st. In some respects it has fulfilled our hopes, and abundantly repaid our somewhat large expenditures. Six Chinese are reported as converted, but we did not reach many of the miners through the school, as such. They would come to hear Lee Haim or Lem Chung preach, thronging the little mission house sometimes, and listening to the Gospel, as, indeed, news, good news possibly, with eyes fixed and ears and even mouths wide open, to receive the words. But coming and going, here to-day to trade at the temple for luck and at the stores for “grub,” to-morrow gone we know not where, we could learn but little of the work that good news wrought within their hearts.

It is evident, however, that if we are to reach our Chinese mining population it must be mainly through evangelistic service—a mission school at some central point, as a headquarters, and a well-trained helper to go forth from it, preaching here and there on Sundays and on week days, in the cabins or on the streets, wherever he can induce his countrymen to lend him a listening ear. And in order to this, we ought to be training helpers by the dozen where now we are training one; not by sending them to Academies or opening for them a Theological Seminary, but by putting them to work and letting them learn to preach by preaching. This was Wesley’s method for those half heathen among whom his victories were gained in England, and I am persuaded that it is the beat method for these whole heathen for whom our struggle is going on to-day. Do not educate the helpers up out of the range of easy sympathy with those from whom they spring and among whom they go, but let teaching and working, lesson and practice, go hand in hand. I am eager to do more of this next year than we have ever done. I am greatly encouraged respecting it, by the results vouchsafed to us already; but how to do it aright, with the resources now at command, I do not, and I fear, I cannot see, for the rules of arithmetic are against it, and those rules are stubborn things. You cannot, in this case, reduce the multiplicand (i. e. the helper’s salary, for it is at the lowest point that justice will admit already), and you cannot increase the multiplier (the number of helpers) without enlarging the product (i. e. the expense to be met and the drafts to be made). What shall we do about it?

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RECEIPTS

FOR JUNE, 1880.

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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 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 slave-holder, 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 to 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.

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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., 13; Ky., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 14; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 6. Africa, 2. Among the Indians, 1. Total 70.

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.; Savannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn., 12. Other Schools, 24. Total 44.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants.—Among the Freedmen, 253; among the Chinese, 21; among the Indians, 9; in Africa, 13. Total, 296. Students—In Theology, 86; Law, 28; in College Course, 63; in other studies, 7,030. Total, 7,207. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the growing work. 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:

New York.... H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street.
Boston.......... Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Room 21 Congregational House.
Chicago........ Rev. Jas. Powell, 112 West Washington Street.

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.