THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

FEBRUARY 1879.

CONTENTS:

PRESIDENT.

Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

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

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, Boston.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, New York.
Rev. JAS. POWELL, Chicago.

EDGAR KETCHUM, Esq., Treasurer, N. Y.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, N. Y.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, Recording Secretary.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

COMMUNICATIONS

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

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to
either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington
Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his
order as Assistant Treasurer.

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

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

[33]

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

EDITORIAL

Paragraphs

We are happy to greet our elder sister, The Missionary Herald, or perhaps we
should name a more venerable relative yet, as in the seventy-fifth year of its age
it renews its youth. Always valuable, it promises in future to be more full of information
as to the work of the American Board, and more comprehensive in its view
of the missionary work at large, while it enlivens its pages with illustrations and
adds a bright department for the young folks. We welcome our brother Strong
to the editorial chair, and the Herald to its future, and we trust ever-increasing,
career of usefulness.

A new Sunday School Jubilee Concert Exercise, relating to the work of the
American Missionary Association, has been prepared by the Rev. G. D. Pike, upon
the basis of one arranged by Rev. A. E. Winship, of Massachusetts. This is brought
down to date as to its facts and figures, and will be accompanied by a brief for the
use of those who are to lead and to make addresses, giving facts in greater detail,
and incidents as material with which to make the meetings of deeper interest.
The paper includes Jubilee Songs and statements in regard to the work for the
meetings. Any Sabbath-school wishing a supply of this exercise will be furnished
gratuitously with the number required, by applying to Rev. G. D. Pike, at
the New York office, 56 Reade Street.

The Christian At Work concludes a long and appreciative notice of Dr.
Strieby’s recently published address upon the “Work of Half a Generation,” with
the following paragraph:

The impetus which has been given to educational efforts in the Southern
States owes its existence to the work of the American Missionary Association and
kindred societies. They scattered through the South an army of enthusiastic
practical educators, who, at all principal points, established schools. The work of
these societies is laying broad and deep the foundations for the real elevation of the
Freedmen. They lay them in the Christian character of their schools; in the higher
education they furnish, which the States do not give, and in the well-trained army
of teachers they prepare for the Freedmen, thus supplying one of the most urgent
wants recognized by both whites and blacks alike. If there were no other results[34]
from the labors of these societies, the teachers they have trained, and who are
now instructing more than two hundred thousand pupils, would fully vindicate
their claim to the confidence and gratitude of both the North and South.

OUR CONCERT OF PRAYER.

It has been our custom for many years to appoint a day and hour in which all
who are engaged in the work of the Association might unite in earnest prayer to
God for His blessing upon one another and upon the common interests. The notification
has been sent to all the workers in the various fields in the South. It
has been frequently the case that the time selected has been during the progress
of the annual meeting, so that the assembled friends of the Association have united
with the officers, missionaries and teachers in this “sweet hour of prayer.”

This year, however, our schools were so much delayed in their opening, and
our workers from returning to the South, by the yellow fever, that this concert of
prayer could not be held before the beginning of the new year. On Monday of
the week of prayer an hour was fixed at which the executive committee and officers
in New York, the teachers and pupils in the various schools, the pastors and the
people of their charge, might all assemble, each in the midst of their own responsibilities,
and pray for a blessing on the work begun and to be prosecuted through
the year. It was pleasant to feel that we were mingling the incense of our petition
and praise with the great cloud which was ascending from all parts of Protestant
Christendom during this week of prayer.

We came from this still hour, in the midst of the busy, bustling city, realizing
more than we are wont, that after all it is not the drive and tear of eager human
life on which we depend for success, but the loving heart of God, which moves
with unseen arm the doors of opportunity which swing on noiseless hinges at His
touch; that it is He alone who gives the wisdom to direct and the strength to
achieve; that He turns the hearts of men as the rivers of water are turned.

We have been accustomed to make our pleas for help to those whom we believed
the Lord’s heart had touched, that there might not fail us a supply of men
and means; and our requests have not been in vain, but have been answered
with generous liberality. But, brethren, when we have come to you to ask your
help, we have followed the example of the good governor of Jerusalem, and
have first prayed to the God of heaven; and when you have responded, we have
recognized, as he did, that you have “granted us according to the good hand of
our God upon us.” Perplexing questions come up from week to week for settlement
and wise decision. Thank God we may go to Him and plead His promise
to give us light on the way.

With all our need of men and means to carry on the work which the Lord has
entrusted to this agency, we recognize still more our constant need of that Divine
help which alone can never fail us. Dear fellow-workers in this special field, let
the spirit and the practice of this week of prayer go with us through the year.
Let those who manage, those who do the detail work, and those who furnish the
supplies, all pray for themselves, each other and the work. We shall work better
if we pray. We shall give more graciously as well as generously if we pray.
We shall pray such prayers as God most willingly will hear and answer, if we give
and work for the things for which we ask.

Our dependence for the year to come may well be expressed in the words of
the good man, to whom we have referred already, “The God of heaven He will
prosper us; therefore, we His servants will arise and build.”

[35]

THE MISSIONS IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

When Livingstone entered upon his life work in Africa, not quite forty years
ago, Kuruman was the farthest inland station; since then great things have
been done for Africa. Dividing that part of Africa which lies south of the equator
into three equal parts of twelve degrees each, we find that Kuruman falls within
the southernmost division, or South Africa. In the second division, or South-Central
Africa, lie Lake Ngami and most of Lake Nyassa, both of which were discovered
by Dr. Livingstone. In the third division, Central Africa, extending
from 9 degrees to 3 degrees south latitude, lies Lake Tanganyika, discovered by
Burton and Speke in 1858. To the north of Tanganyika are several lakes, the
largest of which is the Victoria Nyanza. The Victoria Nyanza was discovered by
Speke in 1858, and circumnavigated by Stanley in 1875. It lies between the 32d
and 35th parallels of longitude from Greenwich, and extends from 2½ degrees south
latitude to the north of the equator by the fraction of a degree. Its superficial
area is 21,500 square miles, being nearly as large as Lake Michigan, and 100 fathoms
will not measure its deepest waters. The lake is in a direct line about 520
miles from the east coast, and about 1,600 miles from the west coast. Ujiji, on the
eastern shore of Tanganyika, is 625 miles from the east coast, in a direct line.

These great lakes, Nyassa, Tanganyika and Nyanza, afford excellent facilities
for missionary operations. They make the torrid heat of the equatorial sun tolerable;
they cause rains which produce a luxuriant vegetation; and their broad, deep
waters enable the missionaries to travel swiftly from point to point by steamer,
bringing them within easy communication with various and distant tribes.

The first of these great inland missions was established by the Free Church
of Scotland. The discoveries of Livingstone had drawn the attention of the
Church to interior Africa as early as 1861, and some correspondence was had with
the great traveller, who recommended the shores of Lake Nyassa as affording an
excellent site for a new mission. It was not until 1875, however, when Livingstone’s
“Last Journals” had been published, and had created a great enthusiasm
for the redemption of Africa, that the Free Church definitely decided to undertake
the enterprise. The money asked for, $50,000, was soon raised. The pioneer
party left Scotland early in the Spring of 1875, and arrived at its destination
in the following October. The route was up the Zambesi River to the Murchison
Cataracts, the steamer and goods being carried around the cataracts by 800
porters, and launched again in the Shiré River, reaching the lake in two days
from the cataracts. The whole distance is about 400 miles. Later in the year the
second party, under Dr. Stewart, the head of the mission, started for the lake.
The site of the mission station, Livingstonia, was chosen on Cape Maclear, at the
southern end of the lake. Buildings were put up at once, and attempts made to
secure the friendship of the natives, few of whom manifested any hostility. Trips
were made to the northern and western shores of the lake, and no opposition was
encountered anywhere. The missionaries say no real obstacle to the success of the
mission presents itself. It has been found, however, that Livingstonia will have
to be abandoned. It has a good harbor, but the soil is poor and the land lies low,
and is too circumscribed to sustain a large population. Besides, the tsetse fly, that
destroyer of cattle, has appeared. A new site is to be chosen, and an expedition
is searching for one on the west coast, about 145 miles north of Livingstonia,
among a people of Zulu origin, called the Maviti. The Maviti inhabit a high
table land, and are quite numerous.

[36]

Of course, but little actual mission work has been performed thus far. The
mission has no permanent home, and time is required for preparation. Sunday
services have been held from the first, and a school with a fair attendance
is carried on. A great deal has been accomplished, however, in suppressing
the slave trade. Formerly thousands of slaves were sent across the lake from
Jumbe’s, who is a Mohammedan, but the Arab traders have now left the lake and
gone inland to carry on their nefarious business. Two members of the mission,
Dr. Laws and Capt. Elton, have died, and all have had the fever.

A short distance to the south of Livingstonia, and closely connected with it, is
Blantyre, the mission of the church of Scotland. It has a very favorable location
in the Shiré hills. It is high, cool, well wooded, a stream is near, it has
good soil, and an iron mine. Until last year the evangelistic work was performed
by a missionary from Livingstonia, but now an ordained missionary is in charge.
The gardeners have a large tract under cultivation, and Blantyre is evidently to
become the centre of a large population. The natives are gathering around it,
they are very friendly, and they are giving more attention to the cultivation of
the soil. The school has many promising scholars.

The second mission established in Central Africa was that of the Church Missionary
Society on the Victoria Nyanza. November 15, 1875, a London paper
printed a letter from Stanley calling for Christian missionaries to enter Mtesa’s
country, Uganda. Three days later the Church Missionary Society received a letter
from “An Unprofitable Servant,” offering $25,000 for such a mission. Shortly
afterward another anonymous contribution of the same amount was received, the
society having meanwhile decided to undertake the mission. The mission party
left the coast at Bagamoyo, in 1876, in four divisions: the first on July 14, the
second on July 29, the third on the last of August, and the fourth on September
14. After crossing the Wami River, the expedition took the route of Mr. Roger
Price, of the London Missionary Society, to Mpwapwa. From Mpwapwa the route
was west and north to Unyanyembe; thence north to Kagei, at the southern end
of the lake, the advance party reaching that point in January, 1877, the journey
of 800 miles being performed in about six months, without serious mishap. One
of the party, Dr. Smith, died on the way of fever. The provisions were stored
at Kagei, but Ukerewe Island, in the southern part of the lake, was made the
basis of operations.

Lieutenant Smith and the Rev. C. T. Wilson proceeded to the northern shore
of the lake, entering Rubaga, the capital of Mtesa’s kingdom Uganda, on June
30. They were received with great favor by Mtesa, who is the ruler of a powerful
people. Lieutenant Smith remained with Mr. Wilson a month, and then returned
to Ukerewe to assist Mr. O’Neill in preparing for removal. Mr. Wilson was well
provided for at first by Mtesa, and had a house near the palace, but the chiefs and
the Arabs used their influence against the missionary, and the supplies of food
grew smaller and less frequent, and at last Mr. Wilson was informed that he must
remove farther from the palace. He had, however, free access to the king and
held divine services every Sunday in the palace, the king himself often taking
part in them.

Several of the Uganda boys were gathered into a school, and were found to
be bright and quick to learn. Late in December, Mr. Wilson had news of a disaster
on the lake, and hastened south to find that Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O’Neill
had been murdered by Lukongeh’s people in a dispute raised by an Arab trader
about a dhow. Finding that the stores at Kagei were almost exhausted, Mr.[37]
Wilson went on to Unyanyembe, whence he returned to Uganda, arriving at Rubaga
March 26, 1878. The last letters received from him by way of the Nile
speak hopefully of the future. The caravan, with the bulk of the goods, has made
very slow progress. Porters by the thousand were required to convey them, and
porters in Africa are arrant villains. At the latest accounts the caravan was still
some distance from the lake. A reinforcement for Uganda was sent out at the beginning
of 1878, of three young students of the Church Missionary College, and a
medical missionary, by way of the Nile. The latest news from them stated that
they reached Berber in July. One of their number had been sun-struck and was
compelled to return. Thus far $65,000 has been received for the Nyanza mission;
also a large part of a fund of $50,000 asked for by the society last April for the
support of it.

The liberal donor who gave $25,000 for the Nyanza Mission offered the London
Missionary Society the same sum for a mission on Lake Tanganyika. March
15, 1876, the Society resolved to undertake the mission. The Rev. Roger Price,
who was commissioned to ascertain what was the best route to the interior, found
that by starting from Saadani, wagons could be used as far as Mpwapwa, and
that the costly and vexatious system of porterage could thus be avoided so far.
Four ordained missionaries, one scientific man, and one builder, left London in
March, 1877, as the first contingent of the expedition. At Saadani they divided,
four starting July 25, and the rest with the caravan in October. In March the
expedition reached Kirasa, forty-five miles east of Mpwapwa, where they left
the wagons and employed porters. They reached their destination August 23, having
been thirteen months on the journey from the coast, in consequence of unexpected
obstacles and vexatious delays. The letters announcing the arrival were
only forty-five days on the route to the coast, and only thirty-three thence to London.
A high and healthy camping place was chosen near Ujiji. The caravan has
not yet reached the lake.

The history of these missions is yet to be made. None of them can be said to
be fully established yet. Buildings are to be erected, languages are to be learned,
the country is to be explored, and the ways of the people are to be studied, before
much can be done in declaring the Gospel. The missions are well situated. The
country around them is thickly peopled, and great opportunities are opening to
them. Much good has already been done in checking the slave trade, in opening
lines of legitimate commercial traffic, and in inducing the natives to cultivate the
soil. Other missions will be established in due time. The English Baptists are
prospecting for a new mission up the Congo, and Lake Bangweolo, west of Lake
Nyassa, and south of Lake Tanganyika, called by Livingstone a paradise, will become
the centre of another great mission. Thus from the South, the East and the
West, Christian missions are approaching the heart of Africa. Before many years
we may hope to see a chain of stations across the continent, and another from
Lake Ngami to the equator. The tribes touch each other like drops of water, and
when one of them is moved by the Gospel, those which surround it will be agitated.
Thus will Christianity take possession of Africa.

HOW THE COLLEGE DIRECTS AND TRANSMUTES NATURAL FORCES.

Address at the Annual Meeting.

BY PRESIDENT EDWARD H. MERRILL, D.D., RIPON, WISCONSIN.

I wish simply to emphasize a single thought, viz., that these institutions of
higher learning have their chief use as being aids to direct force. When you
have mentioned what these higher institutions have done for individuals—when[38]
you have followed the individuals to their work in their various fields, you have
only begun to tell the story of their importance. If you go up into Wisconsin,
along the lower Fox river, you will see one of the finest water-powers in the world.
It is often called the Merrimac of the West. I don’t know how long that water-power
has been there unappropriated. It was there when the Mound builder was
there. God proffered it to him with all its resources, and asked him to improve it;
but failing to regard the heavenly admonition, he passed away, leaving but few
traces behind; only a few rude instruments and pieces of pottery. All other
marks of him are gone. After him came the Indian. He also has passed, to all
intents and purposes. Then came the Anglo-Saxon in blood and the Puritan in
civilization and culture, and applying his inventive ingenuity to the banks of this
river, he set the water-wheel, and the wheel has converted the power of the river
into product, and the product has turned into property, and the property into intelligence,
and the intelligence under this same productive ingenuity of the Puritan
has turned into morality, and that into religion. So we have this great native
force, directed to the account of the kingdom of God, transmuted into higher
forces for His glory.

Now, my friends, the higher institutions of learning in the midst of these great
original forces all about us in the new communities are that product of inventive
ingenuity which turns these forces to account, giving them direction and transmuting
them from the lower to the higher. The local church cannot do it. Individual
labor cannot do it. The institution of higher learning is the only thing
that can accomplish it. More than this, not only does this higher institution
planted in new fields turn to account the force which already existed, but it has
the power of enlarging this force and creating new forces, and after creating,
transmuting them and turning them to the account of the kingdom of God. The
institutions of this Association in the South not only create an enthusiasm
and desire for learning, but they are turning the money acquired and the material
prosperity attained by our colored brethren into those higher influences which
effect the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. That is what these colleges are for.

It is impossible now to amplify the thought, but I wish in connection with it to
name three particulars. And first, it is entirely possible for us, in heeding the
Scripture admonition to preach the gospel to every creature, to neglect those great
and overwhelming forces in new communities which are sweeping the youth away.
I read in a Providence paper last Saturday evening that there are no infidel books
published in the Welsh language. I know those Welsh people well. This statement
may be true; but meanwhile, forces outside of them which they cannot control
are threatening to sweep their youth away into the gulf of materialism and
atheism in the new communities. The children speak English, and are thus led
into the outside drift.

The second point is this: It is wise to put our directive force where the power
is. It is utterly impossible to build institutions in the State of Massachusetts or
in New England that will answer the purpose for the South. The children of
this world build their water-wheel where their water-power is. The children of
light sometimes build their water-wheel where the power is not, or where it
has already been appropriated. We must put healthy, strong institutions into the
South. They are worth even more than the local churches we are planting. They
stand in need of support. The local churches give them character.

Third, I think we have need of a larger Christian sagacity in the distribution
of funds for this purpose. In my appeals for educational work, no one has heard
me say I would have less money given for older institutions, I believe there can[39]
be a wiser distribution of money with reference to the kingdom of God. Any
one looking upon this field will tell you that one dollar put into an institution of
learning in the Southern field—conditions being as they are, these forces being yet
undirected—one dollar in one of these institutions will often accomplish more than
one hundred in an old one. I have told people frequently—and I believe those
who have studied this problem will assent to it—that one dollar for a Christian
college in the Western field, will accomplish more than ten put into some of the
older institutions. What I say then is, that if we wish to have a larger sagacity, if
we wish to give our money with wiser heed to results, we shall put more into
those institutions on the Southern field which are to determine what the South
shall be; we shall put more into those institutions in the great Mississippi valley
which are to determine what the Mississippi valley shall be, and which, two generations
hence, are to determine what this continent shall be. Let not less be given
to the old; but, my friends, the most economical giving is the money given to your
higher institutions in the South and in all our new communities.

PURITANISM AND THE DESPISED RACES.

Address at the Annual Meeting.

BY REV. C. M. SOUTHGATE, DEDHAM, MASS.

What I have to say will be upon this point: Why Puritanism is especially fitted
to elevate the despised races. I say Puritanism; I might say Congregationalism;
but that word sometimes means a polity, while this means something higher—clear
thinking, strong believing, pure living, solemn and earnest acting; that spiritual
life, in a word, which expresses itself in Congregationalism, not anything developed
by its machinery.

(1). It has peculiar power and fitness to elevate the despised races. First,
because we know so little of the capacity of either of these races. In the geographies
of twenty years ago the centre of Africa was marked “Unexplored
Region.” The race that dwells there is still unexplored. When we say Persia,
Greece, Rome, the word represents not only a people but an idea. Each of these
nations has flashed forth before the world and left its mark upon it. But of
Africa we have heard nothing; it has not displayed itself or impressed itself upon
the world outside. It has given nothing of civilization or religion. And so of
the Indians. Of their predecessors we learn much from the mounds they built;
of themselves we know little. We know more of the former from their graves,
than of the latter from their lives. The Chinese we have called our antipodes, in
spirit as well as locality, and let them go at that, with this meager record, that
grown men spend their lives in carving toys and find their pleasure in smoking
opium. To lift up these races we want that power which conquered the conquerors
of Rome, and put the destiny of the world into the hands of the Anglo-Saxon.
We want the power which shall convince them of manhood within and God above,
and bring them face to face with the Almighty.

(2). We want Puritanism brought to these despised races, because there is
in them such a tendency to degradation. This is seen abundantly in all of
them; let us speak of it especially among the Freedmen. The Association has
no feelings of mere romance in doing its work. Those who have been engaged
in it for years look with open eyes on depths of degradation which you at a distance
can hardly comprehend. In the cities, the colored people are influenced by
the civilization around them. In some cases they have made excellent progress by[40]
themselves, as in the old Dorchester settlement in Liberty County, Georgia. But
as a rule, when left alone, there is a terrible settling downwards. It is seen in
Louisiana on remote sugar plantations, where their cabins, if before the war like
cattle-pens, are now pest-houses; in Mississippi swamps, where their worship is
fetichism and their lives savagery. Slavery was a great leveler; it leveled many
down, but it also leveled many up in physical condition. I sat one memorable
week, day after day, in company with teachers who had spent eight or ten years
in hard work with these people. As they gave their accounts of those outside
their influence, it seemed like standing on a jutting crag at night, an inky sky
above, an inky sea below, and wave after wave rolling in, black, with scarce a
gleam of brightness. No ecclesiastical polity, no scenic shows, can do anything
for a people sinking like this. We need a faith which grasps with intense reality
the fact that sin leads to remediless destruction; that it needed the Son of God to
die for its victims, and believes the Son of God did die for them; and with these
convictions is not afraid of any darkness He bids it enlighten, or any devils He
bids it cast out.

(3). We want, again, the power of Puritanism for these despised races, because
it has done so much for them. We heard words of hearty praise this afternoon
telling of the success of the work. They told hardly enough. But these
efforts should be redoubled. We want more institutions like those at Atlanta,
New Orleans, Charleston, and the other large Southern cities, where high culture
and intelligence rule. The scholarship can be compared without fear with similar
grades at the North. I never heard in our boasted common schools such recitations
as I have heard from boys as black as the blackest. I know what Yale
and Harvard and Dartmouth can show; but in Greek and Latin those colored
students can rival their excellence. The culture in morals and manners is at
least not inferior, nor the religious instruction less fruitful. The report from the
churches shows as large and as healthy success as we can show here. The young
men and women in these institutions have an intense longing to be at work for
the Master. The desperate condition of their race rests upon them like a pall.
God is making them His prophets and speaking through them, and sending redemption.
It is Puritanism which has done this.

It seems to have been put upon us to prove what Christianity can do for these
races. Our fathers came to this land, breaking the winter’s silence with hymns of
lofty cheer. After them came the negro, with groanings inexpressible and clanking
of chains. Then the Chinaman, famine pressing him. Let us not forget that
it was the great famine in Ireland which drove one hundred and fifty thousand
emigrants to this country in a single year, almost as many as had gone out in a
decade before; now, ten million Chinese have died of starvation, and a few seek
this land that God gave to fugitives. These races, which have never done anything
for themselves, nor had anything good done for them, which have been the tool,
the victim, the plaything, the despair of civilization, are now brought face to face
with us—us, with our indisputable Anglo-Saxon conceit, which cannot bear
that others should differ from us, backed by Northern grit and Western energy,
stirred by a solemn conviction that we have a destiny to fulfil in this matter, inspired
by that command to preach Christ to dying men. Puritanism, as embodied
in this Congregational Missionary Association, proposes to have a hand in shaping
the fate of these races.

One of the earliest pictures in the annals of the world is that of an altar.
Around it stand three brothers; behind them the ark and the deluge; in their[41]
midst the sacrifice of gratitude and consecration; before them the bow of promise
on the face of the retreating storm. Ages pass on. The three brothers become
three races. One goes to the East and hides himself behind his wall. One goes
to the South and hides himself behind deserts and jungles. The third goes to
the West, and becomes the torch-bearer to flash the light of Christ’s glory over all
Europe. In forty centuries they girdle the earth and come together once more
upon its opposite side. Behind two of the brothers, little but the deluge. Behind
the third, the ark. In their midst the great sacrifice, the cross of Christ. And
before them—in the name of Puritanism, in the name of this Association, shall it
not be said—before them ALL, the bow of heavenly promise.

RE-DEDICATION OF THE BEACH INSTITUTE.

REV. J. E. ROY, D.D.

The rebuilding of the holy and beautiful house which was burned up with fire,
and its dedication, as now recalled by the current Sunday-school lessons, have
found a counterpart in the replacing and reconsecrating of this temple of learning
by the American Missionary Association for the ex-captives of this city. In
February last, under unexplained circumstances, it was burned. Rev. R. F. Markham,
the pastor, instead of going North for his needed recuperation, remained
through the heat of summer to play the part of Ezra in rebuilding. This was accomplished
so that the Institute was opened on time, October 1st. It is a comely
structure, 60 x 80, two stories high, adjoining the “Home” that was saved.

Prof. B. F. Koons, at the public service, reported that he had now four accomplished
lady assistants, Misses Twitchell, Daly, Markham and Ferris, and 290 pupils,
including those of the night school. He also stated that the object of the
teachers was to afford the advantages of higher education to those who desire to
go beyond the public school course; that it was their purpose not to influence the
pupils as to any change in their denominational relations; and that they were not
to seek any diversion in political matters. He would also say to their white brethren
that their sympathy and co-operation were earnestly invited in this work, as it
is purely a Christian and missionary enterprise. Mr. Markham offered the prayer of
dedication. Several colored ministers were present and participated. The Field
Superintendent made an address upon “The Bible religion a teaching religion
in the family, the church and the school.”

The singing was accompanied by a new nine-stop “American Organ,” presented
by Mr. S. D. Smith, president of that manufacturing company in Boston. I find in
the South many of these souvenirs of his practical interest in this work. He must
be a happy man if he knows anything of the amount of joy which his benevolence
brings to these lowly ones, who are yet so fond of music, and so gifted
in it, too.

In the evening, after a sermon, the Lord’s Supper was administered at the Congregational
Church. To-night there is to be the regular monthly meeting of the
colored Sunday-school workers of all denominations in the city. This is a very
useful and enthusiastic affair. To-morrow night we are to have a lecture upon
the growth of our country, to be illustrated by the big map of the same. While
I write, the colored militia, to the number of ten companies, in gay uniform, with
glorious music, are having their annual parade at the Park, their own Georgia artillery
firing the salute of thirty-eight guns. This afternoon, at three o’clock,
we are to join with the Executive Committee at New York, and all the A. M. A.[42]
workers in the annual concert of prayer for the blessing of God upon this scheme
of evangelism. The week of prayer is to be observed in the white churches by a
union service, held at night by rotation, in their several places of worship.

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Charleston, S. C.—The first convention of the Charleston Teachers’ Union
met at Avery Institute January 2d, 3d and 4th. Essays were read on the Art of
Teaching; the Culture of the Intellect; How to Teach; Incentives to Study; Our
Duty as Teachers; Our Common Schools; the Mind its own Educator; the Best
Methods of Discipline; Classification; Vacations; Mind and Matter; and the Drama
as a Means of Education. Many of these varied themes were treated by graduates
of Avery Institute. General discussions were also participated in on Prizes, Moral
Instruction in Schools, and “What’s the use of Schools?” It must have been a busy
and stimulating three days’ meeting.

Midway, Ga.—Arrangement has been made whereby Rev. Floyd Snelson has
resumed the pastoral charge of his old church at Midway. Rev. Joseph E.
Smith, who had served as pastor during the absence of Mr. Snelson in Africa, and
who by his cultured ministry had won the people greatly, has gracefully retired
from the pulpit, and will receive immediate appointment to another field.

Savannah, Ga.—Mr. Markham wrote some time ago: “There is progress
here, and I can see the result of our work in Savannah just as easily as you can
see the change made by a carpenter in planing a board. Though we have had
hard work, rough times, and many head winds, still there is progress. More
than five hundred children are gathered into the Sabbath Schools of our
churches in and around Savannah.”

Childersburg, Ala.—The church had a Christmas supper to help procure a
bell for the church. The pastor wants us to ask our friends to aid in the endeavor.

Shelby Iron Works, Ala.—A Bible Concert Exercise and “a magnificent
Christmas Tree” on Christmas day. Solid foundations for church work are
being laid. Three inquirers.

Nashville, Tenn.—Fisk University.—The last Annual Catalogue showed
a total attendance of 338. Of these, 25 were studying theology, 26 were in the
College, 54 in the College Preparatory, 11 in the Higher Normal, 153 in the
Normal Department, and 95 in the Model School. Notwithstanding the “hard
times,” this was the most successful year in the history of the University. Correspondence
was had with 108 teachers, who were then or had been formerly
students in the Institution, and it was found that they had taught during
1877 nine thousand three hundred and thirty-two pupils. Many of the teachers taught
in two separate districts during the year, as the public schools, in most places,
are continued only from three to five months. Total salary received $18,643.53.
Ninety-four of these teachers superintended or taught in Sunday-schools, and
reported a total attendance of 7,780. They also stated the number of conversions
in day and Sunday-schools at 371. These statistics represent but a part
of the actual teaching done by persons educated at Fisk University, for there
was no means of learning the address of many of the early students.

The Indians—Sisseton Agency.—The Manual Labor Boarding School has
56 scholars, more than can be comfortably accommodated. The scholars and parents[43]
show an unprecedented interest. During three months past not one child
has run away from the school. This has never happened before. Several Indians
have recently come into the office desiring to send their children to the Manual
Labor Boarding School, and we have been obliged to refuse them admittance.
The Good Will School is also crowded, 46 scholars—26 being regular boarders.
Mrs. Renville has 28 scholars in her day-school, as many as can be managed. These
three schools are now all full, and it is estimated that there are over 150 children of
school-going age on the reservation who have no opportunity to attend school.

Santa Barbara, Cal.—The Chinese Mission held its fourth annual meeting on
Sunday, December 15. The darkness of the evening did not prevent a large attendance.
The report of the Secretary showed good work done. Nearly sixty Chinese
have attended the school for a longer or a shorter period during the year.
The average attendance, however, has been a little less than twenty. The exercises
by the pupils, consisting of recitations of Scripture and the singing of
hymns in English and Chinese, were listened to with much interest. Addresses
were made by Rev. Dr. Hough and Rev. W. C. Pond. Judge Huse is the President,
and B. B. Williams, Esq., the Secretary, of this auxiliary for the ensuing
year.—Pacific, December 26.

GENERAL NOTES.

The Freedmen.

—The sum total of the money reported as sent for yellow fever relief to the
South is as follows:

The total value of contributions, including clothing and supplies, will aggregate
about $2,000,000.

—The Colored Man during the Yellow Fever.—It gives us genuine satisfaction
to be able to publish the following impartial testimony to the courage and
faithfulness of the colored people during the yellow fever. Says the Memphis
Avalanche: “Men worth hundreds of thousands of dollars have left their property
in charge of blacks, and never provided a dollar for their support. They
faithfully guarded the property of their employers. And yet if the Citizens’ Relief
Committee cut off the supplies from the servants of these rich men, what in God’s
name will they do?” The Nashville American, speaking of their conduct during
the prevalence of the yellow fever, remarks: “If the negro is found to be true and
reliable when he is entrusted with the grave responsibilities of citizenship, if he
discharges faithfully the duties devolved upon him, and shows, in such trying
times, that he may be entrusted with the preservation of order and the guarding
of homes from the criminal classes even of his own race, it will go far towards
giving new views on this subject.” Col. Keating, of the Memphis Appeal, indignantly
repels a charge by Dr. Ramsay, seriously damaging to the character of the
colored yellow fever nurses in Memphis, and warmly declares: “The statement is
a libel upon the negroes of Memphis, who have stood by us nobly as policemen
and soldiers.” Chief Athey has resolved to recommend that the colored citizens
be represented on the police force in proportion to population. Nor did they fail
to furnish their quota of physicians, among whom were two former students of[44]
the Central Tennessee College, of this city, Drs. Key and Bass, who were acknowledged
through the papers to have rendered efficient services, the former at
Mason, and the latter at Chattanooga, Tenn. Nor were there wanting among them,
ministers ready to lay down their lives, as the deaths of the following clergymen,
Mr. Madison, of New Orleans, Mr. Green, of Vicksburg, Mr. Ventris, of Tuscumbia,
Mr. Henderson, of Florence, and others, sufficiently testify.—Fisk Expositor.

—The negroes who were formerly slaves of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and
who still reside among those tribes, were emancipated by the United States, and
part of the common domain apportioned to them. The operation of the treaty
has, however, been evaded. These Freedmen are deprived of citizenship, the right
to hold office and to vote; nor have their children any privilege of education under
the school laws. It seems there is a ring of Indians as well as an Indian ring, and
that they will not consent to have the land divided and held in severalty. This
not only keeps the Freedman out of his rights, but prevents the common Indians
from coming to understand their own.

The Chinese.

—In the fifth article of the treaty of 1868 between the United States and China,
the two governments mutually recognize, affirm and guarantee “the inherent and
inalienable right of man to change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual
advantage of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects respectively
from the one country to the other, for purposes of curiosity, of trade,
or as permanent residents.” The sixth article of the same treaty says: “Citizens
of the United States visiting or residing in China shall enjoy the same privileges,
immunities or exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed
by citizens or subjects of the most favored nation; and, reciprocally, Chinese subjects
visiting or residing in the United States shall enjoy the same privileges,
immunities and exemptions in respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed
by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation.”

—Treaties of the United States are recognized as part of “the supreme law of
the land;” and in the early and famous case of Ware vs. Hylton, 3 Dall., 199, the
principle was laid down by the Supreme Court, which has ever since been followed,
that any exercise of State authority inconsistent with a treaty is thereby
rendered wholly void.

—Among the powers assigned to Congress, in the eighth section of the first
article of the National Constitution, is that “to establish an uniform rule of naturalization,”
and “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying
into execution this power.” This remits the whole subject as to aliens, and
their admission to citizenship, to Congress, with full authority.

—The Legislature of California, a few years ago, tried to solve the Chinese
problem by a law of exclusion; but, unfortunately for the effort, the Supreme
Court of the United States, in the case of Chy Lung vs. Freeman et al., 2 Otto,
275, declared the law to be unconstitutional. Mr. Justice Miller, in stating the
opinion of the Court, said: “The passage of laws which concern the admission,
of citizens and subjects of foreign nations to our shores belongs to Congress, and
not to the States. It has the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
The responsibility for the character of those regulations, and for the manner of
their execution, belongs solely to the National Government. If it be otherwise, a
single State can, at her pleasure, embroil us in disastrous quarrels with other nations.”
The Court, on this general ground, pronounced the law to be a nullity.

[45]

—The committee of the Constitutional Convention of California having in
charge the question relating to Chinese immigration have decided that it is impossible
to put into that constitution any provision that will forbid such immigration,
and not at the same time conflict with the Constitution of the United
States.

—The real difficulty lies in the relation of the Chinaman to the labor question.
But this is not generic to him. There are Norwegians and Swedes who will
save as much on as little as the Chinese. But we welcome them. We take in
thousands every year of the race which especially breeds all those foul fellows—hoodlums,
tramps and bummers. How can we consistently refuse to welcome
these others, who are patient, industrious and frugal? Shall we pass a new law
that shall compel our customs officials to catechise all new-comers as to the minimum
on which they can manage to subsist, and when their estimate falls below
Mr. Denis Kearney’s judgment of what is the proper sum for a laboring man, pack
them back again whence they came?—Congregationalist.

NEW APPOINTMENTS.

1878-1879.

The following list presents the names and post-office addresses of those who
are under appointment in the Churches, Institutions and Schools aided by the
American Missionary Association, among the Freedmen in the South, the Chinese
on the Pacific Coast, the Indians, and the Negroes in Western Africa. The Theological
Department of Howard University is supported jointly by the Presbytery
of Washington and the Am. Miss. Assoc. The Berea College and Hampton Institute
are under the care of their own Boards of Trustees; but being either founded
or fostered in the past by this Association, and representing the general work is
which it is engaged, their teachers are included in this list.

[50]

THE FREEDMEN.

NORTH CAROLINA.

A Working Church—Bible Christians.

MISS E. A. WARNER, WILMINGTON.

Last Sabbath we had an unusually interesting
communion season. Two young
men united with the church; one has
been a member of our day-school, both
of the Sunday-school. Our daily prayer
is, “Lord, bring our scholars into the
fold of Christ.” Our church is small,
but it is a working one, and its influence
is felt in the community.

A young Methodist minister attended
a course of lectures given by Mr. Dodge,
last winter, on the Christian Doctrines,
and he says, “Mr. Dodge taught me
more than I ever knew before. The
Bible seems a new book.”

It seems to me the people are beginning
to feel that the “Bible Christians”
are different from the mass of professing
ones around them. I called on a sick
young man; he asked me to come in and
read to him. I did so from time to
time until he recovered. The family
said, “We are ashamed to return your
calls, but we will come into meeting.”
And they were in last Sabbath evening.
I have been teaching a woman over
fifty years of age to read, this summer,
and now she reads quite intelligibly,
and says what little she can read opens
up a new world to her.

I was somewhat amused one day when
she came to the word “Hypocrite.” She
repeated, “Hypocrite, hypocrite; I must
remember that, for we have a plenty of
‘um around us.” She often comes to
our meetings, because she “can get such
a good understanding of the Bible.”

GEORGIA.

A New Conference Organized.

REV. S. E. LATHROP, MACON.

In Georgia, the “Empire State of the
South,” a Congregational Conference
now exists. It was formed at Macon,
Dec. 12. Part of the churches came
from the Central South Conference,
which formerly covered the States of Tennessee,
Mississippi, Alabama and Northern
Georgia. The others were members
of the now defunct Southeast Georgia
Conference. By uniting together in this
State organization, it is hoped that the
bond of fellowship and Christian work
may be strengthened. Twelve churches
were represented by pastor or delegate,
including the church at Orangeburg,
S. C. Three of these have white pastors
from the North; the others have efficient
colored ministers who have been trained
in the schools of the A. M. A.

Rev. Dr. Roy, of Atlanta, whom your
own great State has recently given to
the South for a Field Superintendent of
the work among the colored people,
preached a most effective opening sermon
from the text, “Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, to-day and forever.”
We thank the Illinois churches for their
gift, for Dr. Roy is evidently the right
man in the right place. He is cordially
and gladly welcomed, and will have a
great work to do in looking after the
present scattered flocks, and gathering
new churches. The Conference was well
officered by Rev. R. F. Markham, of Savannah,
as Moderator, and Rev. J. H. H.
Sengstacke, of Woodville, as Secretary;
Rev. S. E. Lathrop, the newly-arrived
pastor at Macon, was also chosen Statistical
Secretary and Treasurer, with authority
to publish the Minutes and other
documents. The Macon church is a
beautiful brick building, tastefully arranged,
upon a commanding site which
overlooks most of the city. The attendance
of Macon citizens was not so large
as it would have been but for a very exciting
municipal election which was going
on at the time, absorbing the enthusiasm
of most of the people. But the
Congregational church, with the “Lewis[51]
High School” in its basement, taught
by two experienced lady teachers from
New York, has gained the respect of the
whole community by the steadiness of
its members and the “sweet reasonableness”
of its doctrines as handed down
from past generations.

To those unaccustomed to deal with the
Freedmen, one very noticeable thing was
their intelligence, and especially their
knowledge of parliamentary law as applied
to deliberative bodies. They are
thoroughly posted in all the intricate
mazes of motions, amendments, substitutes
and privileged questions, and
everything must be done in a strictly
parliamentary way. This is, perhaps, a
characteristic of the whole Southern
people, white or black. They have also
a good knowledge of Congregational
usages, and seem to be much attached
to the ways of the Pilgrim Fathers.

One evening was devoted to a temperance
meeting (a subject, by the way,
which needs great attention in the
South), with several earnest and spirited
addresses by both white and colored
speakers. The vice of drunkenness is
very prevalent in this part of the country,
both in the churches and out of
them. The “fire-water” has its charms
for the red, white and black races alike.
Even among the colored preachers of
some denominations, drunkenness is by
no means uncommon.

Rev. Floyd Snelson, recently returned
from the Mendi Mission, Africa, gave a
very interesting sketch of the work
among that people. Several of the (colored)
churches of the city were supplied
on Sunday by members of the Conference.
There is little affiliation of the
white churches. Mr. John R. McLean,
a promising young man of pure negro
blood, was ordained by a council as a
closing exercise of the Conference—a
very impressive service. Sermon by Rev.
S. S. Ashley, of Atlanta; charge to the
candidate, Rev. R. F. Markham, of Savannah;
ordaining prayer, Rev. S. E.
Lathrop, of Macon; right hand of fellowship,
Rev. J. H. H. Sengstacke, of
Woodville.

Congregationalism in the South is not
a failure. The outlook is hopeful. The
tendencies of our polity to induce intelligence
and self-control are more and
more observed, and the better classes of
Southern people are coming out with
more strongly pronounced words of commendation.
Men and money, patience
and prayer, wisdom and work, will elevate
the black man to his proper place,
surely, though it may be slowly.—Advance.

“There is Life in the Old Land Yet.”

JOHN M^cINTOSH, JR., LIBERTY CO., GA.

I came to this place in October and
undertook the work necessary to a successful
beginning of my school duties.
Several county free schools were in session
on my arrival, and I deemed it wise
to visit them and urge the patronage of
my school, which I intended opening when
the free schools were closed. I visited
and witnessed the closing exercises of
these schools, and was pleased with the
progress made by some of them. The
great scarcity of proper books and other
school accommodations was quite manifest.
Some of these schools had scholars
sufficiently advanced for the Second
or Third Readers, but did not have the
means to purchase suitable books, and
so the teachers kept them reading in the
blue-back speller, and accomplished
something.

I succeeded in getting pupils to come
to my school from one to ten miles away.
I began teaching under the auspices of
the American Missionary Association immediately
at the close of the free schools,
and the number of pupils and the interest
in education increased rapidly. The number
enrolled has been large, and the
average attendance good. A most decided
improvement has been made in
punctuality and the general observance
of school regulations and requirements.[52]
Many have paid something toward the
education of their children, and quite a
number something toward procuring
proper books for their children.

The school is prospering, the people
are taking a proper view of things, and
the workers are encouraged. May our
sky continue bright.

Home Life Among the Negroes—An Incident.

MRS. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA.

The saddest reports of home life
among the negroes are gained from conversation
with our returned student
teachers. One of our girls, a born lady,
delicate and refined, who had always
lived comfortably in the city, went out
to teach for the first time this summer.
Her first boarding-place was a log house
of three rooms and twenty occupants.
Each room contained a separate family.
There were no windows or openings in the
logs except the chimney and door, and of
course the door must be shut at night to
keep out animals. The father and mother
have a bed; the children (boys and girls)
all nestle together on a quilt spread on
the floor, in the corner, sleeping in the
same filthy garments they have worn
through the day. Think of trying to
sleep as she had to during the intense
heat of last summer in a close room with
twelve persons. The first morning she
told the man of the house he must get a
saw and make a place for a window. He
protested; so did she; said she should sit
up all night and not shut her eyes to
sleep unless it was done; and it was
done. Need a missionary in Africa practice
more self-denial than this exceedingly
neat and delicate girl in Georgia? She
took a lamp with her which was a great
curiosity, as the children were not accustomed
even to a candle. At dusk the
door was filled with eager eyes waiting
to see her “make a fire in that queer
thing.” She is an unusually sweet singer.
It was remarkable how quickly her fine
voice was recognized and appreciated by
the musical intuitions of even that rude
people. They came long distances to beg
her “to sing one more time,” and often
remarked, “I’m shore the angels can’t
sing no better.”

ALABAMA.

Testimony as to Progress Already Made—The
Situation and Equipment.

REV. F. BASCOM, D.D., MONTGOMERY.

I am much interested in my work and
in my people. I see abundant proofs of
the beneficent agency of your society
here. Could its influence have been exerted
in like manner among all our colored
people of the South, the problem
so perplexing to politicians and philanthropists,
as to the future of this class
in our country, would have been already
solved. It seems to me that my neighbors
here who have been under the influence
of our school and church, for
these few years past, are as well prepared
for the duties and responsibilities
of freemen and citizens as are the ordinary
farmers and mechanics at the North.
I am most happily disappointed in the
intelligence of the men and the culture
of the women, and in the neatness and
comfort of their homes. But I see this
elevation of the race is accomplished by
the most laborious and exhausting efforts
of your employés.

Dr. Bascom also writes to a friend, as
appears in the Advance:

We greatly enjoy our situation and
work in this place. The weather is
charming. We should call it the perfection
of our early autumn weather,—just
cool enough for comfort with a nice
fire in the grate, but bright and balmy
through the day, making the shady side
of the street preferable at mid-day. The
frost has killed the elm and mulberry
leaves, but the magnolia, mock orange
and fig leaves are green as ever, and the
hawthorn hedges and roses make the
door-yards look almost like June. Their
geraniums they are protecting with temporary
board coverings, letting them remain
out all winter.

[53]

Our Mission Home is a large and
commodious mansion built by a slave-holder,
whose fortunes went down with
the lost cause, and it was purchased by
the American Missionary Association.
Our school, near by, has a building
which compares favorably with some of
the Chicago school-houses, two stories
and a good basement, the whole accommodating
from 300 to 400 pupils, with
three noble white teachers and three colored,
who have graduated from this
school. I have just visited the school,
and was greatly delighted. It is no disparagement
to your excellent schools to
say that, in point of order and apparent
earnestness and successful work on the
part of both teachers and pupils, these
dusky boys and girls would not suffer in
comparison.

Our church here is a neat, pleasant,
wooden building, and our congregation
appear fully to appreciate a preacher’s
best efforts. Their singing is, like ours,
led by a good organist. Their prayer
meetings are quiet and social, and very
enjoyable. Our Sunday-school is flourishing,
under a colored man for superintendent,
who is teaching in the country.
I enjoy my work, and hope to have
a profitable winter.

TENNESSEE.

Le Moyne Library—Sunday-school Work.

MISS LAURA A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS.

There has been some work and much
time spent upon the library in labeling
and cataloguing the two hundred and
thirty new volumes, and arranging the
whole five hundred in classes.

We have nineteen popular books of
science; twenty-five bright records of
travel; forty-seven good histories, essays,
stories, &c., of genuine worth. Many
of them are already in circulation. I
am confident this must gather to our
support the best elements in the colored
community.

Some of the public school-teachers
have spoken to Mr. Steele about reciting
to him at night. They say they wish to
review the lower branches. The arrangements
have not been perfected. And a
request has come that a class be formed
in theology, for the benefit of young men
who are obliged to work, but wish to fit
themselves for preaching.

Just at this time we are in a state of
chaos, waiting for the holiday merry-makings
to be over, that people may
settle down to plans for another year.
We hope for a good year in every sense
of the word. As I sit by my stove writing,
a substantial Baptist sister is warming
her feet on the hearth and making
arrangements with Miss Milton to hold a
neighborhood prayer-meeting at her
house Tuesday morning. I think the
missionary work is broadening. The
yellow fever fund you sent is helping to
break down barriers.

Generous Giving—Not Dying Out—Help
Wanted.

REV. TEMPLE CUTLER, CHATTANOOGA.

During my seven months’ absence
from home the church managed to take
care of itself with credit both to its zeal
and its ability. Three months of the time
it was ministered to by the Rev. G. W.
Moore, a young preacher pursuing his
studies at Fisk. Brother Moore gave
himself most heartily to the work
while here, and displayed qualities of
mind and heart that give promise of
great usefulness to his race. The church
raised for him by its own contributions
$50 per month, besides contributing
nearly $50 to aid yellow fever sufferers
in other cities in the early stage of
the epidemic. The total amount of
their contributions during my absence
was $211.42. I do not think many of our
Northern churches can show a better
record, considering their income. It
amounts to about $3.50 from each resident
member. The income of our
membership will not average $150 a
year. Let these figures be compared[54]
with those of some of our city churches,
and we will not blush. I sometimes get
a little tried with the people when I see
them waste their money on tobacco and
a thousand little extravagances; but
I immediately feel rebuked when I
compare their extravagance with that of
white people. If white people gave
according to their income as these poor
black people do, our debt would not
hang like a millstone around our neck,
and the Home Missionary Society would
not still groan over $30,000.

I have heard it stated that the colored
people are dying out. This is not the
case among our people. I have been
here two years and a half, and have not
been called to attend a funeral of any
member of our church. There have
been but three deaths in the families, and
two of them were yellow fever cases during
my absence. Some of our members
were sick, but none of them died. There
were many, many cases of yellow fever
among the colored people that were not
reported. They held, perhaps, a superstitious
notion—the doctors would say
so, at least—that if they went to the
hospital they would surely die; so they
doctored themselves with herbs, and so
far as I can learn not one so treated
died.

We are in the midst of the trying season
for these poor people. The cold
weather is coming on; but thanks to the
kind women of Yarmouth, Mass., and
Skowhegan, Me., we have a good stock of
garments for the most needy. Two barrels
have come and their contents been
distributed in part. The Lord bless the
generous hearts and fingers that filled
them.

I want to say to the friends of Tennie
that she is making a grand record in
school. I have another girl named Rosa
for whom I bespeak an interest. If any
Sunday-school or any body wants to take
her off my hands, I will find another to
take care of. Work done for these
girls is good work.

Freedom’s Day.

The Band of Hope in Chattanooga
observed the first day of January in celebrating
the anniversary of the proclamation
of Emancipation. The exercises
were held in one of our largest halls,
and were well attended. They consisted
of speaking and singing, and the
reading of the Proclamation. The principal
address was given by Rev. Mr.
Hurley, of the A. M. E. Church, and
contained some excellent thoughts upon
the situation of things in the South.
After a brief introduction, in which he
spoke of the propriety of the colored
people’s observing this day as the white
people had been accustomed to observe
the Fourth of July, as independence day,
he proceeded to name some of the benefits
that had come to the whole country,
white and black, North and South—for
we are one, and what really benefits one
section, benefits all—from the emancipation
of the slaves.

1. His first point related to the honor of
the American name. For almost a century
poets have sung and orators boasted of
the national honor. The declaration of
independence, “that all men are born
free and equal,” has been flaunted abroad
as the pennant of the nation, while millions
of our people were being born, living
and dying in the worst form of
slavery the world has ever known. In
all those long years the nation lived a
stupendous lie. Never was the declaration
of independence true until Abraham
Lincoln made it so the first day of
January, 1863. It is a great benefit to
the nation to be true to its professions;
to have this great blot wiped out.

2. By the emancipation of the slaves,
5,000,000 pairs of hands were added to
the wealth and defences of the nation—no
small gift. We read of a time when
a nation shall be born at once. It has
come. What if the ex-slave has had to
be nursed! All babes are nursed. Is not
the babe a blessing to the household?
Even its very helplessness is a blessing,[55]
educating the finest sensibilities of humanity.
If the babe born January 1st,
1863, is nurtured aright, God alone can
measure the benefits to the nation.

3. By the emancipation of the slave, a
system of education was introduced to
the South that insures a lasting blessing
upon the whole people. The intelligence
of a large portion of the white
population before the war was not above
that of the slave. If the slave had not
been made free, there is no reason to
suppose the condition of these poor
whites would have been changed. Now
a glance over the broad territory of these
States, where school-houses have sprung
up like magic, shows the immense advantage
that has come to white and
black alike; and with the increase of
intelligence will come increase of prosperity
and happiness to the whole nation.
With the emancipation of the
slave, the common-school system has
been forced upon the South, until now,
having tasted of its sweetness, we hope
it is never to be abolished.

4. Another benefit resulting from the
emancipation of the slave is the moral
elevation of the people. Ah! we know
too well the vices that sheltered themselves
under that most accursed of all
traffics. The slave was but a chattel; his
level was the ox; he was like any other
beast of burden, and his morals were not
above his position. Great complaint is
now made of the moral condition of the
colored man. But low as it may be, every
intelligent observer can perceive a vast
improvement over the condition before
the war. The wonder is that one virtuous,
or truthful, or honest person could
come out of 250 years of moral degradation
like that of American slavery. But
these dark days are gone. Now there
is incentive enough for us to rise. The
opportunity is before us to show to the
world that the vices of the past are due
to our education, and not to the inherent
nature of the black man. We have only
to recover a lost manhood. We want
faith in one another. We must believe
in the possibilities that are before us as
a people, and aid each other to reach
them, and God will give us the victory.

In closing, the speaker referred to
some mistakes the colored man has made.
One was too much confidence in the
white man. Confidence begets dependence.
Dependence is not good for those
who would rise in the world. We must
learn to trust God and our own exertions.
We have always been dependent,
and it is not strange that we have leaned
upon our friends in the early days of our
freedom; but now it is time for us to begin
to act and think for ourselves. There
is a destiny before us which we must
achieve. Let us arise and work. Another
mistake is the scheme of emigrating
to some other land. This is our home
as much as it is the white man’s. It is
our native land. The country and people
that have witnessed our degradation
should also witness our exaltation. After
years of servitude shall we turn our backs
upon glorious privileges that are now
within our reach? No, my friends, we
shall make a grand mistake if we follow
to any extent the wild scheme of defeated
politicians, projected in this African
exodus. Let us be content to wait until
we have redeemed ourselves from the
evils of 250 years of servitude by the improvement
of the advantages that God
has so graciously brought to our door,
before we venture into that dark continent
from which our fathers were torn, to
be ground under the iron heel of the
slave-master. Until then, Africa will be
no better for us, and we will be no better
for Africa. We must learn to respect ourselves
before we can command the respect
of others. May God hasten the
day when the colored man shall recognize
in his brother the character which
he would have all men recognize in himself.

I do not give this as a verbatim report,
but the thoughts as nearly as I can recall
them from a few notes taken at the[56]
time. Coming from a colored man, they
show the sentiment of the more intelligent
leaders among them. The address
fits so exactly into the line of our work
that I cannot refrain from giving this
brief report.

T. C.

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

LAME JOE.

MISS M. WATERBURY, POLO, ILL.

We were teaching a Freedman’s school
in Mississippi, and boarding with a
Northern family on a plantation, where a
few years before were four hundred slaves.
One Sabbath morning we were sitting
on the back piazza, sorting Sunday-school
papers for the school, which was
that day to begin, when Joe made his
appearance from the kitchen, coming
along by the porch with a limping,
shuffling gait; his only garments a shirt
much too large for him and minus one
sleeve, and a pair of pants hanging in
tatters, the cast-off rags of an older
brother. “Can you read, Joe?” said the
teacher, passing him a paper full of pictures.
“Not yit, ma’am; but brother Ben
can read right smart, and he’s gwine to
teach me a heap o’ larnin’, and I reckon
I’se goin’ to read dis yere some time
shore.” Joe took his first lesson in
learning by means of the word method,
and limped off spelling the word “so,”
and picking out all the so’s in his
paper.

In a few days we took occasion to interview
his mother and broach the subject
of his going to school; but we soon
found that the chances were against
him; for being the youngest of ten
children, there were so many to feed and
clothe, as his mother expressed it, she
“couldn’t get to him,” and he had to
tote wood and water for her, while she
cooked at the big house. After repeated
attempts to get Joe started in his
education, the Yankee school ma’am set
about clothing her protégé, but was
soon put to her wits’ end to find a pattern
for boys’ pants; and as tailoring
was not her forte, there were several obstacles
to be overcome. Happily, a plan
was hit upon, and Joe pulled off his dilapidated
pants and went to bed, while
his new clothes were cut by the use of
the old ones for a pattern, and very
soon the happiest boy of the Ethiopian
race was a daily attendant at the school.
A week or two of study passed, when
the gentleman who had provided Joe
with hat and book accosted him with,
“How do you get on, Joe?” “Mighty
well, Colonel; done got past the picture
o’ de ox; have shore done got past him!”

No pupil was more constant in attendance
than our protégé, and with rapid
strides he passed the boys of his
age, learning well whatever he was
permitted to study, and in four years
from the time he learned his first word
on the piazza, we left him doing examples
in higher mathematics, before a
large audience of parents and friends of
education, who were delighted at his
progress. Many of our pupils had come
to the Good Shepherd, and with delight
told of the joy in following their
newly-found Saviour; but Joe was so engrossed
with study, nothing seemed to
move him, and we left him, a little saddened
that he was, as he expressed it,
“yet in the outstanding army.”

This summer, while the yellow fever
was prevailing, there came a postal from
Joe, saying he had found Jesus, and
taken Him for the captain of his salvation;
and now he loved everybody,
and his teachers better than ever, and
amidst all the fears about the fever he
never was afraid; he was well, though
his father and mother were both sick;
but he didn’t have any fears for this
world or the next.

[57]

RECEIPTS

FOR DECEMBER, 1878.

H. W. HUBBARD, Asst. Treas.

[62]

The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

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

STATISTICS.

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

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

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

WANTS.

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

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

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

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

MAGAZINE.

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

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

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

“I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of ____ dollars in trust, to pay the same
in ____ days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer
of the ‘American Missionary Association’ of New York City, to be applied, under the
direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes.”

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

[63]

SABBATH READING.—Seeing that all Sunday
magazines and the greater part of religious weeklies
have much secular matter in them, especially advertisements,
I have thought that there was an obvious
want of a weekly paper composed of matter of a high
order of excellence and interest, and wholly suitable for
perusal on the Sabbath day. Such a paper is Sabbath
Reading. Every number contains a first-class sermon,
which may be read in meetings where there is no preaching
service, or at home by persons necessarily detained
from church; also much excellent selected matter, some
of which is specially adapted for children.

Sabbath Reading is a handsome small eight-page
paper, suitable in appearance for the parlor table, and
suitable for binding at the end of the year or half year.
It is sent post-paid to any address for 50 cents a year,
and stops when subscription expires. A club of five will
be supplied for a year for two dollars.

This paper, which makes a most acceptable tractate
for distribution in prisons, poor-houses, asylums, ships,
etc., or in visitation from house to house, is sent post-paid
to any part of the continent at the rate of a dollar
per 100 copies. Orders and remittances to be sent to the
undersigned.

JOHN DOUGALL,
Witness Office, No. 7 Frankfort St., New York.

The Model Magazine.—A combination of the
entertaining, the useful, and the beautiful, with fine art
Engravings and Oil Pictures in each number worth more
than its cost.

DEMOREST’S MONTHLY

Surpasses all former issues in brilliancy, variety, and
artistic excellence. It is the largest in form, the largest
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magazine desirable; comprising entertaining Literature,
Fine Illustrations, Music, Floriculture, Architecture,
Household Matters, Reliable Fashions, and Full-size Patterns,
with other rare and beautiful novelties calculated
to improve the taste, and make home attractive and
happy. Single copies, 25c; Yearly, $3; with choice from
splendid premiums.

More than extraordinary.—A choice of double
premiums for 1879. The beautiful and highly prized Oil
Pictures “The Lion’s Bride,” 15×21 in.; “Rock of Ages,”
15×21 in.; “Old Oaken Bucket,” 17×26 in.; “After the
Storm,” 16×26 in.; or, “Captive Child,” 17×26 in. A
selection of any two of these pictures to each subscriber at
$3; 50c. extra for transportation; or a selection from 20
other useful and valuable articles. Subscriptions can
commence with any month. Address,

W. JENNINGS DEMOREST, 17 East 14th St., N. Y.

UNFERMENTED WINE.

Pure Juice of the Grape; no Alcohol;
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T. H. JOHNSON, New Brunswick, N. J.
National Temperance Society, 58 Reade St., N. Y.;
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Boston and Philadelphia.

MAKE THE CHILDREN HAPPY!

A Scrap Book and 100 Elegant

SCRAP PICTURES

Of Birds, Flowers, Ferns, Animals, &c., sent by
mail, post-paid, on receipt of $1.00. The Pictures
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imported Pictures. Or, 50 Sample Scrap
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A Box of 24 Sheets of Ladies’ Note Paper
and 24 Envelopes mailed for 25 Cents, or
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GEO. E. PERINE, Picture Publisher & Stationer,

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SCROLL SAWS.

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Send 6 c. postage for large catalogue.

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Send 10 cents postage for large catalogue.

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Please state where you saw this advertisement.

A. S. BARNES & CO.

PUBLISH THE ONLY

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Gospel Temperance Hymnal.

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Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D.D. and Rev. E. S. LORENZ.

Endorsed by FRANCIS MURPHY, and
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This is the first practicable Collection of Hymns
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DON’T FAIL TO EXAMINE AT ONCE.

A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers,

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Immense stock. Good and cheap. Special attention
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ARRANGED FOR RESPONSIVE READING IN
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The current version is strictly followed, the only
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Special attention given to CHURCH BELLS
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[64]

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