THE

American Missionary.

American Missionary Association.

ANNUAL MEETING.

The next Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, commencing Tuesday, October 24, at 3 P.M. On Tuesday afternoon the annual report of the Executive Committee, including the Treasurer’s report, will be presented, and on Tuesday evening the annual sermon will be preached by Rev. C. L. Goodell, D.D., of St. Louis, Mo.

On Wednesday morning the report of the Committee on the Amendments to the Constitution will be presented. The succeeding sessions of Wednesday and Thursday will be occupied with papers and reports of committees, with addresses. On Wednesday and Thursday evenings, addresses will be given by Rev. A. J. F. Behrends, D.D., Rev. Atticus G. Haygood, D.D., and other distinguished speakers. The names of other speakers and further details will be published in the October Missionary and in the religious papers. The report of the Committee on the Revision of the Constitution will be found on the page following the receipts in this number of the Missionary .

FINANCIAL—CLOSING MONTH—PROSPECTS.

This month (September) closes the fiscal year of the American Missionary Association, and will decide whether it is to receive the $300,000 asked for at the annual meeting. The figures show that the receipts for the ten months, ending July 31, were $262,829.31; leaving a balance of $37,170.69 to be made up in August and September. The receipts from legacies in the ten months were $74,152.29, but for the remaining two months none of large amount are anticipated, and as August is usually unfavorable for collections, and as our receipts at the date of going to press (August 14) are small, we must depend ultimately upon the receipts of September to make up the sum needed.

We are anxious to secure the $300,000. It will not only cheer the [258] officers and the constituency of the Association, but the work absolutely demands that amount . The fear of debt alone deters us from making needed repairs, improvements and additions. The details would convince our friends that economy and efficiency would be promoted by the expenditures we have thus far withheld.

Permit us then to ask; (1) that treasurers of churches and executors of estates remit to us at their earliest convenience monies in their hands intended for us; (2) that pastors and church committees take up collections that are on the list for September, or that have been neglected during the year; and (3) that generous friends send us contributions to meet the emergency.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION.

The Committee appointed at the last annual meeting of this Association, to consider and report on Amendments to its Constitution, have held two meetings during the year, and have given very careful thought to the subject. Their report is given in the form of “The Proposed Constitution,” which will be found on another page. We ask for it the deliberate consideration of our constituency, in the hope that a unanimous decision on the subject may be reached at the next annual meeting. The Committee consists of the following persons: Col. Franklin Fairbanks, Pres. E. H. Merrill, Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, Rev. L. W. Bacon, D.D., Rev. L. T. Chamberlain, D.D., Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, Pres. E. H. Fairchild, Hon. C. I. Walker, S. R. Heywood, Esq., Rev. A. E. P. Perkins, D.D., Col. C. G. Hammond, Rev. A. H. Plumb, D.D., J. G. W. Cowles, Esq.

SCHOOL-WORK FOR THE INDIANS.

The regular correspondent of the Tribune , in reporting a conference with Mr. Teller, the Secretary of the Interior, upon his Indian policy, gives this question and answer:

“What is your view of Indian education, and of the Hampton and Carlisle schools in particular?”

“I recognize the usefulness of those schools, but I insist that they are entirely inadequate, as any number of them would be, to accomplish what is desired. The Hampton and Carlisle schools no more meet the exigency than Yale and Harvard supply education to the youth of the whole United States. There are 50,000 Indian children. We must furnish means for their education. Hampton and Carlisle will do for the training of teachers. But we must get the schools, which are to educate the masses of Indian children, out nearer to the tribes.”

This is our view, exactly. Use these and similar institutions at the South for training the young people brought to them from the Indian country to become teachers and mechanics. Then let them go back to their people and serve as teachers of the home schools and leaders in the mechanic arts.

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The reports from our schools have crowded our limited pages for the last two months, and have compelled us to leave over a number of articles which will be found in the pages of this number. Our readers will agree with us that these articles contained so much of spice that they have not become mouldy by the delay. We wish, however, to notify our teachers and missionaries that we desire as speedily as possible the renewed use of their pens. Nothing, however good, can be a substitute for their fresh views and facts.

CASTE ON THE CARS.

Our new-made fellow-citizens at the South are coming to such consciousness of their civil and political rights as leads them to demand the protection of law. The Cincinnati Southern Railway has recently paid a fine of $1,000 for putting a colored man who had a first-class ticket into a second-class car. The Atlanta & West Point Railroad, for a similar offence, has been compelled to pay a fine of $400. The Georgia Railroad, having been sued, thought it best not to stand a trial, and paid $700 to a colored young woman who was put off its train because she was in a first-class car with a first-class ticket. At Nashville two or three suits have been entered in the same line. Bishop Payne, as is well known, having been put off from a Florida road, is seeking legal redress. Bishop Cain, also of the African M. E. Church, having purchased a first-class ticket on the Sunset route, in Texas, was about to enter the car to which his ticket authorized him to go. Some white people who were also getting aboard said that they would not go if the black man should take a seat in that car. He then entered the parlor car, paying the extra dollar for his seat, and now has sued the company for $20,000.

It is a clear case that the law for common carriers requires the companies to allow passengers who have first-class tickets to ride in first-class cars. The 14th amendment declares that “no State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Justice Strong, of the Supreme Court, referring to this language in the recent case of Strander v. Virginia (10 Otto, 307), which related to the exclusion of colored men from juries, said: “What is this but declaring that the law in the State shall be the same for the black as for the white; that all persons, whether colored or white, shall stand equal before the laws of the States, and in regard to the colored race, for whose protection the amendment was primarily designed, that no discrimination shall be made against them by law because of their color.”

It is clear that the railway companies are doing better and better in this matter. Some allow colored passengers to go without hindrance where their first-class tickets would take them. Other railway officials have [260] instructed their train men that if colored people with first-class tickets make request to enter the first-class cars, they shall be allowed so to do, though the brakemen will keep them out as long as they can. Our colored friends must be patient while public sentiment is advancing and the law is coming to their help. Many colored people are as sensitive to the nicotine poison as any white ladies, and it is a cruelty, aside from the injustice, to thrust them into the smoking-car.

ADDRESS OF THE REV. GEO. M. BOYNTON

AT THE BOSTON ANNIVERSARY, MAY 31, 1882.

There are four ways in which a race in the enjoyment of power and prosperity may deal with a race which is under the burden of weakness and temporary debasement; God forbid that I should say with an inferior race; for it is not ours to measure gifts until the scale of opportunity shall have been equalized; God forbid that I should say with a despised race, though that too nearly represents the fact among large portions of people, even in our own land and day;—I say, in dealing with races which are for the present weaker and in inferior position to our own. I used to read, when I studied geography, that the inhabitants of the world could be classed under four heads: as barbarous, half-civilized, civilized and enlightened. And I think the four methods in which this race may be treated correspond somewhat with these four divisions of human progress.

The first and barbarous cry which meets a weaker race is, “ kill them ; put them out of existence.” The first impulse of savage men—the question is when the savagery is all expelled from human nature—is to put out of the way that which is offensive, that which is in your way, that which seems in any way to compete with your full satisfaction and enjoyment.

The next way of dealing with those of a weaker race is to use them , subordinate them to your own service, make bondsmen of them, let them be your hewers of wood and drawers of water, command their labor and their persons, control even their instruction and their religion, and make them absolutely yours.

The third way in which a superior race may deal with a weaker race is by the gentler, but perhaps no less harmful, process of letting them alone ,—withdraw from them, hands off! Shut them out, keep them away, make the barrier between yourself and them impassable.

There is one way more in which a race higher in circumstance and condition and endowment may treat those who for the time are weaker than they, and that is to lift them up to its own plane just so fast and just so far as God shall make it possible.

If we read in the Old Testament, as many are increasingly disposed to do, a progress of development which recognizes the training of mankind [261] from its lowest possible basis up to its highest possible attainment, we may find illustrations of these four methods of treatment in that record. The first conviction of their duty, and with Divine consent, toward the races which occupied Canaan, was to exterminate the people of the land. At a little later stage, when Joshua had entered the country, he made his league with the Gibeonites and the people of the central confederacy, by which they became his hewers of wood and drawers of water. As we read on still further in the story, we find the Jews shutting themselves out from all mankind, and shutting all men off from them, having no dealings even with the Samaritans. But, when the Lord Jesus Christ came, bringing the light of the gospel and the character of God and heavenly opportunities on to the soil of our earth, his last command is, “Share my gifts in every land with every creature,” and the last word he promises that some of us shall hear before we enter into the lasting joy of heaven, is, “Because ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Our country has illustrated all these methods of treatment of the weaker races. Its cry has been toward the Indian—its characteristic cry almost from the very first—“Kill him; there is no good Indian but a dead Indian;” and that sentiment, that barbarism, has not yet altogether been exterminated from the land. Our country has said of the great African race, “Enslave them; use them; subordinate them to our own uses; make them our hewers of wood and drawers of water, our chattels, our breeders of children; use them without conscience; subordinate them to our own supposed good.” And even now our land, this land of freedom, to which we all came strangers at some past time, has issued its edict through its highest courts that the Chinaman shall be shut out from all access to our civilization and our Christianity. Brethren, the glory and joy of this American Missionary Association is that its work has been from the beginning to reach out to those who were weakest, who were most in need, who were most neglected. Thank God that there is one place where the sentiment may be centred and emphasized that “God hath made of one blood all nations of men that dwell upon the face of the whole earth;” and though it may be true that for a time “He hath fixed the bounds of their habitation,” yet it is not so sure that these bounds were in his purpose fixed to outlast the breaking down of those barriers which the progress of Christian civilization surely brings.

And now, what is it that makes these races weaker, less prosperous, less independent than our own? It is the lack of education; it is the lack of developed intelligence, not of native ability. And what are the claims which ignorance may make upon intelligence? It may not claim [262] a right to power; it may not claim a share in property; it may not claim an equal social position with intelligence; but it may claim an opportunity to fit itself for all these things. Suppose a man had been born and had lived his life at the bottom of a pit; and he cries out, as you listen to him at the brink, “Give me a voice in the control of your affairs up there. I am in the United States as truly as you are, if I am at the bottom of this hole. I want to vote and have a voice in the affairs of the nation.” You may properly suggest to him that until he has seen the lay of the land he can hardly decide which way the roads had better run, that until he has lived in the upper air he can hardly know what institutions for the general control of society are best and wisest. He cries out to you again from the bottom of the pit, “Give me some money; I have had no chance to earn any down here. Throw down some greenbacks.” And you remind him that greenbacks as a circulating medium from one pocket to another are not a particularly profitable investment, and that if deposited in the clay bank, in which his hole is dug, they would yield him no great return. He says to you, “At any rate, throw down a broadcloth suit; I want to dress as well as you.” You intimate again that even goodly raiment would not add greatly to his comfort in his present state. But if that much-to-be-pitied man is wise, he will cry out for one thing only: “Reach me down a ladder, by which I may climb up to where you are.” If he is wise, the one thing he will ask of you is not a share in the control you have, not a share in the possessions you have acquired, not a share in the social position you may have attained, but it is an opportunity to fit himself for the acquirement and use of all these things. It is our business, brethren and friends, and it is the work of this Association, to reach that ladder down. If you will but let our brother get his hands upon the lowest round, he will come up and stand with us in God’s sunshine, as we have already seen him do. If we forbear, if we refuse, we are more guilty than the priest and the Pharisee who went by on the other side; we are as guilty as were Joseph’s brethren who lowered their brother into the pit and left him there and went their way.

We are not here to-day to plead rival claims and rival causes; but amid the whole circle of Christian graces and Christian charities, the last in all the world to leave unfilled is that which, when all the other miracles and glorious works of Christ had been catalogued, was added as the crowning gem of all—“The poor have the gospel preached unto them.” God help us ever to have sympathy with this grand work; and in this era which is coming, an era which will call for greater sacrifices and greater gifts than any that have gone before—for it must be an era of endowment for these institutions—let its claims be heard among all the rest in fair and true proportion.

MISPLACED BENEVOLENCE.

“The sympathies of Christian people are always deeply stirred when they come into personal contact with individuals who, in foreign lands, have come out of the superstitions and darkness in which they were reared and are seeking help for themselves or their people in this country. The touching stories that can be truthfully told of struggles in the past, and of difficulties under which they now labor, appeal strongly to all who hear them, and it is quite natural that gifts should be made in response to these pleas with little thought of certain nearly inevitable results which, were they aware of them, the donors would deeply deplore. The matter is a delicate one to treat. On the one hand, we would have earnest sympathy expressed for those who are seeking to elevate themselves and their people, whether educationally or religiously, and would have them wisely aided. It seems ungracious to do or say anything to check the outpouring of money in response to these appeals. But, on the other hand, when we see how, by reason of the reception given to these special appeals, the work of our missionaries is hindered, and their plans for the education and elevation of the people to whom they are sent are imperiled, we are constrained to utter again a word of caution.”

The above is quoted from a thoughtful article in the August number of the Missionary Herald . It presents in a very careful manner a warning that is at once delicate and needful. We find the same difficulties in our work at the South, and take this opportunity of adding our word of caution to our friends in regard to special appeals from that quarter. Money intended for our mission work in the South, or for student aid, can be more judiciously dispensed by us, knowing the whole field and its wants, than if sent by the donor directly in response to an appeal that may be overdrawn, or relatively less important than some others, and in some cases entirely unworthy of confidence. We have no reference in these words of caution to the professors and representatives of our Institutions, who visit the North duly accredited by us.

BENEFACTIONS.

Col. Alfred Shorter, of Rome, Ga., has left $45,000 to Shorter College, the income to be used in aiding students.

R. G. Peters, Esq., of Manistee, Mich., has given $6,000 toward the Professorship Fund of Chicago University.

Miss Louisa Howard, of Burlington, Vt., has given $5,000 to the University of Vermont, to establish five scholarships, to be known by her name.

John P. Howard, of Burlington, Vt., gives the Vermont University $25,000 for the Lafayette statue, $50,000 for rebuilding the main edifice, [264] making a total of $125,000, besides $150,000 given to other religious and benevolent institutions in the city.

Mr. Moses Hopkins lately gave $50,000, and $3,000 for repairs, to the Golden Gate Seminary, at Oakland, Cal., which is hereafter to be called Hopkins Academy.

The estate of Christopher R. Robert, of New York City, by a decision of the New York Court of Appeals, is now to pay $100,000 more to the endowment of Robert College at Constantinople.

Senator Jos. E. Brown, of Atlanta, Ga., has given the State University $50,000, to be used in aiding indigent worthy young men.

Paul Dulane, of Princeton, N.J., has given $2,000,000, to be used in building and endowing at New Orleans an institution for the education of white young men in languages, science, literature and art.

We learn that a man in the South has made provision in his will to leave $25,000 or $50,000 toward the endowment of one of our chartered institutions in that region. This is a grateful foretaste of what is yet to come, when the people of that land shall join with those of the North in supporting these schools of higher learning for the benefit of our newly-made fellow-citizens. It also makes to other high-minded and patriotic men at the South the suggestion—“Go thou and do likewise.”

GENERAL NOTES

AFRICA.

—Mr. Grattan Guinness honorable director of the Livingstone Congo Inland Mission, has published a grammar and dictionary in the language now spoken by the natives.

—The Bible in the Basuto language, has been issued by the British and Foreign Bible Society at a cost of $20,000. This is the ninth completed Bible in the native languages of Africa.

—Both roads from the coast to the level of the Upper Congo, that on the north side of the river and that on the south, are reported to be now open all the way. The vast basin of the Upper Congo, with its 900,000 square miles of territory and its 150,000,000 of idol worshippers may therefore be said to be overcome.

—Between the Zambesi River and Lake Bangueola a Missionary station is to be established by M. Ceillard, a French Missionary, and his wife, who have recently gone there for that purpose.

—Seven different nations are embraced by the Berlin Missionary Society in the area of their South African Work, which extends 1000 miles in length by 500 miles in width. They have forty-two stations within this boundary.

—Great Britain has twenty-three times as much trade with Africa as [265] the United States has, and France fifteen times as much. Great Britain’s commerce on the West Coast alone amounts to over twenty millions of dollars, and that of France to over fifteen millions.

—The C. M. S. has recently sent six men to the Nyanza Mission. They were accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Lane and Miss Havergal, who went out to be married to the Rev. A. D. Shaw. The same steamer took out a large party of missionaries for the London Missionary Society’s mission on Lake Tanganyika, and the two parties together formed a considerable majority of the passengers.

—News has been received from Zanzibar of the death of Rev. Charles Albert Janson, University College, Oxon, a member of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. Mr. Janson died near Lake Nyassa, making the nineteenth death among the members of this mission.

—The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have decided on equipping an expedition to Eastern Africa for the exploration of the snow-capped mountains, Kenia and Kilimanjaro, and the country between them and the eastern shores of the Victoria Nyanza. Mr. Joseph Thomson is to be the commander, and, according to present arrangements, he will leave England for Zanzibar to organize his party early in the ensuing year.

—The African Lakes Company, which was formed not so much with a view to financial profits as to co-operate with various missions in furnishing stores for them, is developing the legitimate trade of the country. The 2,000 miles of coast, river, and lake, which this company are endeavoring to keep open, reaches from Quillimane up the Kwakwa River to the Zambezi at Mazaro; from Mazaro up the Zambezi and the Shire to Katwnga, then on towards Blantyre and Matope on the southern shore of Lake Nyassa. Here the small steamer “Ilala” (which is to be purchased by the company) takes goods, etc., to the north-east of the lake, from which point Stevenson’s Road is to be constructed, and thus unite Lake Tanganyika to this extensive line of communication.

THE INDIANS.

—The U.S. Congress has set apart $5,220,674 for the ensuing year for the Indian Department. Of this amount nearly $500,000 is appropriated for the education of Indian children. Last year the only general appropriation was $85,000.

—The Pima Indians have undertaken the erection of a small chapel at Black Water Village. The head chief has cut his hair short, dresses in American clothes and regularly attends church.

—At the Carlisle Indian School, “well” was given one of the boys to incorporate in a sentence. This was the result: “Last week I sick, and he doctor catch well for me and some other boys, too.” Another was given “blind.” He wrote, “Blind means ‘not see’—yesterday I was blind my marbles.”

THE CHINESE.

—The Chinese of San Francisco contributed last year $44,142.53 for the support of the City and State governments.

—For several years past, members of the Central Presbyterian Church of Denver have given special attention to the Chinese of that city. They now have over 60 Chinamen in attendance at Sabbath-school, seven of whom have been baptized and received into the Church.

—A poor Chinaman became blind, and went into the hospital. While there he learned to read the Bible in the raised printing used for the blind. He said to the missionary, “God make me no see here” (pointing to his eyes); “but he make me see so muchee here” (placing his hand on his heart), “I welly glad.”

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Paris , Texas.—A church has recently been dedicated here. Dr. Reed preached the sermon, and all the white pastors took part in the services. The house could not begin to hold the people. $313 was subscribed towards paying the debt.

Cedar Cliff , N.C.—At this place Rev. A. Connet organized a Congregational church of a dozen members, using the Confession, Covenant and Constitution of Roy’s Manual, inserting a temperance clause. A white citizen gives half an acre of land for the church. A dozen white people attended service. Rev. J. N. Ray will become the pastor of the church.

Chattanooga , Tenn.—In the wake of a revival, which had already added forty or fifty persons to our church in this city, Mrs. Steele, the missionary, writes: “We are still wonderfully blessed. I have been in the Howard school some as a substitute for the principal, when he was sick. Pastor Smith thought in that way I was prosecuting my special work, as I was getting close to the children’s hearts. After teaching in one of the rooms for a week my scholars asked if we might not have a prayer meeting at the close of school on Friday afternoon. I said ‘Yes, if you will go over to our church,’ as that was the hour for our sociable. And so the crowd went over there, and twenty-three professed conversion. I never before witnessed such a sight.”

Memphis , Tenn.—“The little ones are quite enthusiastic over the temperance concerts, and of course are interesting their elders. We find the charts a great help. I have been using for supplementary reading the ‘Gospel Temperance Book,’ and have been surprised at the interest manifested. Yesterday I asked how many enjoyed it, and nearly every hand went up. One young man said: ‘A while ago I tried to talk with a young fellow about drinking, and couldn’t meet his arguments, but since we have taken up this book I have a great deal more to say.’”

Topeka , Kansas.—The relief work proves quite a tax on our time and strength. Six mornings out of the seven are devoted to the people for their instruction and improvement. Monday evening we hold prayer meeting; Tuesday evening is devoted to Bible study for the young people. A good number attend. Friday evening I have a class in singing. The Sabbath is a busy day for each of us. We have a full Sunday-school and need twice as much room, and Sabbath evening the Chapel is well filled. With not a few worthy exceptions the people are ignorant and wicked, but this does not discourage us. Already we can perceive a change for the better. In all our exercises the people are more orderly and attentive.

Washington , D.C.—“I have organized a Doing Good Society in the girl’s school, which is doing effective work and interesting all. We appoint a committee of two to visit the sick every week. I give them something to carry in food and clothing, playthings and picture-books, for the sick, and taking the Bible and song-book they read and sing, often gathering a whole family in to hear them. Each Saturday a report of their visits is read, and once a month the school brings pennies to buy food. My prayer meetings among the mothers and girls are often very full of tenderness. And yet, among this people it is so easy to have good prayer meetings that I don’t think as much of it as I used to at the North. More and more I feel the importance of teaching them that temperance, purity and a desire to do something for others is true religion.”

THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOSEPH E. ROY, D.D., Field Superintendent, Atlanta, Ga.

THE SOUTHWESTERN CONGREGATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

BY REV. W. S. ALEXANDER, D.D.

The time and place (June 1, New Orleans) proved propitious. They gave the ministers and delegates an opportunity, by anticipating the meeting, to be present at the anniversary exercises of the University. I think a fire has been kindled which will not be quenched when our brethren reach their homes, and we shall find, when the new school year opens, that new connecting lines have been established between Straight University and the interior towns.

The Association last met in this city, in the spring of 1877. In 1878 and 1879 we met in New Iberia, and in 1880 and 1881 in Terrebonne; so this is our sixth annual meeting without a break, and we are able to report not only continuity of life, but real progress. A little advance in the church work of this Association means more than a far greater advance in our older religious bodies. Here the fight has been, first upon the question, “Have we, as Congregationalists, a right to live in Lousiana?” The denominationalism among the colored people has been, and still is, intense. As the Baptist and Methodist Church once covered this entire Southern field, the Congregationalist is looked upon as a traitor to a holy cause, who has enlisted under a strange and piratical banner. “Who are you, anyhow?” [268] “Where do you come from?” “What strange faith have you picked up now?” are questions which salute our brethren constantly, and which are designed to cover them with confusion and discomfiture. But this battle has been bravely and patiently fought, and the right to exist “established.”

There were 31 pastors and delegates present. The reports from the various fields were cheering and hopeful. It has not been a harvest year, though some churches have been refreshed by the gracious visitation of the Holy Spirit, and all have, we hope, felt the quickening of a new life. A revival of wonderful preciousness and power was reported from Central Church, New Orleans, beginning with the “Week of Prayer,” and continuing five weeks, during which time nearly 100 souls were awakened.

Brother Clay’s church in Terrebonne has been blessed and strengthened. There have been many hindrances in the year. The floods have caused great suffering among the poor. Cabins have been washed away, crops destroyed, and the plans of labor disarranged. When the laboring class of the colored people suffer, the churches suffer in their resources.

Let me summarize the result of our annual meeting.

I. From the reports of the churches we find that there have been numerical losses, which, though seemingly serious, are really gains, so far as the purity and vigorous life of the Association is concerned. The Association has not yet laid down the pruning knife, and it may be that more dead branches will be clipped off in the year, without which the tree will be more beautiful and fruitful.

II. A higher stand was taken for an educated ministry. One of the brethren, on his own volition, presented a resolution to this effect: “That from this day we, as an Association, will neither license nor ordain any man to preach in our churches who is not fitted by education to perform all the sacred duties of his office.” The brethren in the discussion preceding the vote said that while there was formerly an excuse for an ignorant ministry, we now have our colleges and theological seminaries, and with a little self-denial, all who wish may fit themselves to guide intelligently the minds and hearts of the people.

III. The necessity was deeply felt and freely expressed, of taking a clearer and stronger denominational position, with all charity and fellowship for all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. We, as Congregationalists, should know the ground on which we stand, and be able to give a reason for the hope within us. It was voted that a Manual be prepared, answering more fully than any yet issued, the local needs of our Louisiana churches. This Manual will be prepared during the summer, and submitted in manuscript to the Association at its next meeting.

We were fortunate in having the presence and cordial aid of Rev. O. D. Crawford, of Mobile. He gave an address, Wednesday night, on the subject: “Why am I a Congregationalist?” It was scholarly, judicious and effective.

The Moderator, yielding to the kind and earnest desire of the brethren, occupied the evening session of Thursday in an account of his visit to Europe, with especial reference to the Jubilee Meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, held at Manchester in October last.

After prayer and song, and with deep gratitude to God for His blessing upon our annual meeting, the Association adjourned, to meet in New Iberia the first Wednesday in April, 1883.

I desire, in concluding this statement, to say that if our Northern friends wish to see a vigorous Congregational Association in Louisiana, the helping hand must be extended, with the “God bless you” from the lips. Weak points along the lines need to be strengthened, the faint and weary to be encouraged and the streams of benevolence to be directed into the barren wastes, where men of God have only their lives to offer.

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TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE AT MEMPHIS.

BY MISS ELLA A. HAMILTON.

I have thought that perhaps the readers of the Missionary would be interested to know something of the Institute held at LeMoyne for the colored teachers of Shelby and the adjoining counties. The Institute was continued for two weeks, beginning on the first Monday in June. Prof. Steele was appointed conductor by the State Superintendent. Teachers were present not only from western Tennessee, but also from Mississippi and Arkansas. On the first day our enrolment list reached eighty-nine, and increased during the succeeding days to one hundred and fifteen. Our daily session began at quarter before nine with short devotional exercises. These were followed by the recitations in the different branches. The lessons were given and studied by topics, and each teacher was provided with a blank book, in which he kept the topics for study and also any notes which he wished to remember. The Rev. Mr. Imes had charge of reading, Prof. Steele of arithmetic, grammar, penmanship and geology, while I took history and geography. A certain time each day was devoted to any matters of interest which we should wish to present. At this time several talks on school organization were given, an object lesson on coal was presented by Miss Lovell, principal of one of the public schools, the temperance charts showing the effects of alcohol upon the stomach were exhibited, and Miss Wadsworth, a worker under the W. C. T. U., addressed the teachers, answering many questions which they asked her. The teachers present were, without exception, earnest, enthusiastic and anxious to get good, that they might do good. One young man said to me at the close of the Institute: “This Institute has given me work to do for twelve months to come; it was just what I needed.” Many others told us of the good they had received during the Institute, and seemed to feel that they should do their work in their school-rooms better for the work they had done there. The county superintendent, who was with us for two days, told us that the colored teachers would average quite as high as the white teachers, who were then in attendance at a similar Institute at Bartlett, the county seat. This is about the first work of the kind that has ever been done in Tennessee, but if the results are as good as we have every reason to hope, we are sure it will not be the last.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTITUTE AT TOUGALOO.

BY MISS J. KELLOGG.

It was thought that the last Sabbath of the school year could not be better spent than by calling in the Sunday-school workers among the colored people and holding a Sunday-school institute.

Providence smiled upon the exercises with a most beautiful day, and at an early hour the chapel was filled with an attentive though miscellaneous throng, whose intelligent looks and interested, orderly demeanor were a surprise to some of the newest workers and evidence of progress to all.

The regular exercises of the Sunday-school were first attended to. The lesson, “Following Christ,” with its golden text, “Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me,” seemed to furnish a peculiarly appropriate theme for the last conference of the teachers with their classes, and called forth thoughts and experiences, exhortations and warnings, calculated to be helpful alike to the Christian of years, the score or more of young converts, and the few who, with all their calls and opportunities, still refuse the yoke of Christian service.

In closing the review the superintendent gave a blackboard exercise suggested by the verses, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” This formed an impressive introduction to the first subject brought [270] forward—the use of the Blackboard. Other topics presented were, Opening and closing exercises, Duties of the superintendent, Use and abuse of lesson helps, How to get the children in, Conversion and training of pupils, Individual responsibility.

Two of these topics were well presented by former graduates of this institution. The only topic which evoked general discussion was that of success in gathering the children in and winning them to continued attendance. Of the many who volunteered a statement of methods to this end, all spoke briefly, pointedly, correctly and sensibly, and the question-box when opened revealed nothing but practical, intelligent queries.

The Institute closed with the repetition by Miss Koons of one of our regular Sabbath-afternoon course of lectures, a lecture on Temperance, illustrated by Sewall’s charts. A quantity of temperance literature was distributed, to be carried away for circulation. May the blessing of God render it very influential!

GO HOME TO THY FRIENDS.

Four years ago a little ten-year-old native on the west coast of Africa had a hungering for “big America,” and a captain beguiled him, by false promises of educating him, to come aboard his ship. The poor waif seemed providentially cared for in Brooklyn and Connecticut, till an A. M. A. friend picked him up and sent him to Atlanta University. During the winter our little Philip has often spoken of his purpose to live for God. Last night, in his broken English, he told us of the impression made on him by the Sunday-school lesson of the day—the demoniac made happy and sent home to tell what great things the Lord had done for him. Said Philip: “It is God who put me here, where I have learned of Christ, and now you must pray for me that I may be a good Christian and grow strong and wise, for I must sometime go home to my friends in Africa and tell them how the Lord had compassion on me.” His artless words touched all hearts and turned our [271] prayer meeting into an impromptu missionary concert. One young man said: “Philip’s friends are our friends. Though there is much for us to do here our 250 years of trial in America may have been only a discipline to fit us for our greater work in Africa.”

THE WORK AT FLORENCE, ALA.

BY REV. W. H. ASH.

The closing year has been peculiarly blessed. We commenced with dark clouds over our work in the beginning of the year, but ere the work was well started they proved to contain blessings. The good which the Association, under God, has accomplished here for the poor, is only seen vividly as we compare the results of the present year with those of four years ago. Then we had no church edifice; begun a day-school with three scholars in an old shell of a building for a school-house; the Sabbath-school had about ten scholars. Now we number nearly forty. Since that time a beautiful chapel has been built and a snug parsonage, and we now have an enrolment of seventy scholars in the day-school.

Some of our pupils have passed a very satisfactory examination before the Board of Examiners, and received certificates to teach in the public schools this summer. Our work has grown this year more than ever in the favor and confidence of both white and black. I believe that the good effect of the closing exercises will make the school very large next fall. One pleasing fact in connection with the exercises was the young organist we presented to the public. Ours is the only colored church here that has an organ, and my wife is the only colored woman, so far as I know, in the county, who plays the organ. Now that she has taken one of the girls and taught her how to play, one of the colored churches has ordered an organita for its Sabbath-school.

Another fact of interest is that the county Superintendent of Education has consented to give to our school a portion of the public money, so that we may teach it as a public school.

The interest of the church and school has been very much increased by a fine bell, given by Mr. F. W. Carpenter, of the Central Church, Providence, R.I., also a beautiful communion service, presented by the ladies of the same church.

We have received a barrel from the ladies of the church at Yarmouth, Mass. Many of the pieces will go to assist a poor girl who intends entering Fisk University next fall.

We have received a box from Rev. C. L. Woodworth, which enabled us to help worthy ones in the Sabbath-school.

My wife has planted a flower garden in front of the parsonage. I have planted a vegetable garden, which has given me an opportunity for physical exercise. We have every variety of vegetables, and as fine as I ever saw anywhere. My white potatoes are particularly fine.

VISIT TO TOPEKA.

BY GEN. O. O. HOWARD.

On last Sabbath, at 3 P.M. , by the invitation of your missionary at Topeka, Rev. Mr. Markham, I visited the Tennessee Mission and participated in the exercises of the occasion. I found a large meeting room filled with young people, with a sprinkling of older heads.

I had seen some thirty girls, with perhaps half as many boys, over at the S. S. Convention Park. They had stood behind me on the platform Sunday morning and backed me up with their inimitable melodious songs of Zion. The large multitude of people—perhaps a thousand—were touched by their enthusiasm, where a little of art has not robbed nature of her best effects. So here again I find the same bright, happy faces and more of them.

Many of the regular school exercises were set aside for my address. They sang “Hold the Fort,” and others of Sankey’s collection, with spirit. The young lady who teaches them, Miss Gerrish, is remarkably faithful, full of tact and good sense. Your missionary himself interested me a good deal. I saw him first at the young men’s rooms at a [272] prayer meeting. He gave a little personal experience, showing how a child comes to the Master’s arms. Professor Stearns, of Washburn College, spoke highly of his disinterested work at the mission. He has worked great changes for good. The people, for the most part, own their houses and lots. Some houses are very neat. One soldier’s wife said: “Yes, this little stone house is mine. My husband is a common working man. Yes, we have paid for the house. It is little, but, you know, there is nothing like home, if ’tis only so small!” Her husband had been through the war near me. On Sunday, every child was well dressed, and generally the blacks had as good clothing as the whites. I urged these good people, who are struggling up into respectable ways of living and moderate prosperity, to stand up for the Lord, that He may bless them more and more.

WHAT THE STRAWBERRY-BED DID.

Rev. A. Connet, of McLeansville, N.C., tells the story. Last year we canned 12 gallons, and the people stared. This year we have canned 20 gallons, sold $11.39 worth and have had all we wanted to use for the last 35 days. A white neighbor whom we feasted in the patch, and whose children were also fed on berries, said, “You have astonished the natives.” Ours are the only cultivated strawberries in this neighborhood. Now for the fruit. 1st, a new industry. Example is contagious. A number, some white and some colored, have spoken to us for plants. 2nd, the strawberry-bed is helping to bridge the social chasm. Some of our white neighbor ladies called on us in strawberry time. 3d, the children have just come in with a basket of cherries and a lot of dewberries given them by the man whom we feasted in the patch.

THE INDIANS.

VARIETY IN MISSIONARY LIFE.

REV. M. EELLS, SKOKOMISH, W. T.

Our services on one Sabbath were a decided medley of persons and Babel of languages. The opening exercises were in English, after which was the sermon, delivered in English but translated into the Nisqually language, and a prayer was offered in the same manner. At the close of the service, two infants were baptized in English, when followed the Communion services in English. At this there were twelve white members of the Congregational church here, and one Indian; also two white members of the Protestant Methodist church, one Cumberland Presbyterian, and one other Congregationalist; there were also about seventy-five Indians as spectators. The Sabbath School was held soon after, seventy-five being present. First, there were four songs in the Chinook language, accompanied by the organ and violin; then three in English. The prayer was in Nisqually, and the lesson read in English, after which the lessons were recited. Three classes of Indian boys, two of Indian girls, and two of white children were instructed in English; one class of Indian children was talked to partly in English and partly in Chinook. There is one Bible class of Indian men who can understand English, a part of whom can read and a part cannot, and another of about forty Indians, whose teacher talks English, but an interpreter translates it into Nisqually, and then he does not reach some Indians of the Clallam tribe who are present. Next followed a meeting of the Temperance Society, as six persons wished to join—a white man who can write his name and five Indians who touch the pen while the Secretary makes the mark. Three of these are sworn in English and two in Chinook. The whole services are interspersed with singing in English and Chinook.

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INDIANS SPEAKING ACROSS A CHASM.

[274] On the trip to an Indian logging camp one evening, to hold a meeting, my companion and myself found the tide up so high that we had to “coon” the logs, as they were rolling in the water, in the dark, wade a part of the time, and improvise a lantern out of cedar sticks split up rather fine.

A Sabbath day’s work appears as follows: Began services with the Indians at Jamestown about ten o’clock, which continued until half-past twelve; then returned three-quarters of a mile to my boarding-place, went into the cupboard and took a very little lunch in my hands; walked four miles or more to Dunginess, where I preached to the whites at two o’clock, without even a chair or anything to sit down on; walked back two miles to the house of a friend, where I sang and played on the organ about all of the time, except while eating supper, until half-past six or seven, when I walked back to Jamestown and held services from eight to ten o’clock—thus walking thirteen miles, besides holding service over five hours, and singing an hour or two.

The variety of one trip of about two hundred miles is recorded thus: As to food, have done my own cooking, eaten dry crackers only for meals, been boarded several days for nothing and bought meals. As to sleeping, have stayed in as good a bed as could be given me, free of cost, and slept in my own blankets in an Indian canoe, because the houses of the whites were too far away and the “phleeze” were too thick in the Indian houses. They were bad enough in the canoe, but the Indians would not allow me to go further away for fear that the panthers would catch me. As to work, have preached, held prayer meetings, done pastoral work, helped clean up the streets of an Indian village, been carpenter and painter, dedicated a church, performing all the parts, been organist, studied science, acted as agent, taken hold of law, in a case where whiskey had been sold to an Indian, and in a will. As to traveling, have been carried ninety miles in a canoe by Indians, free, paid an Indian four dollars for carrying me twenty miles, was carried twenty miles on a steamer at half fare and twenty more on another for nothing; rode horseback, walked fifty miles, and “paddled my own canoe” for forty-five miles.

A note is made of some people very hungry for preaching. One lady just recovering from sickness was hardly able to walk three-quarters of a mile to church, and as they had no horse her husband took her on a wheelbarrow more than half the way. An old lady, seventy-six years of age, walked over three miles to church where the services were mainly for the Indians, then a mile further, where the preaching was for the whites, and then returned home.

INDIANS AT HAMPTON.

BY REV. H. B. FRISSELL.

Our communion on Sunday was very interesting. There were added to the church four colored students and three Indian boys. These three are representatives of three different tribes. One of them was an Apache. He came to us sixteen months ago with no knowledge of Christ, and none of God, with the exception of what he had gained from an old medicine man. He told me that God was like the wind that came in at one window and went out at the other. He has been very earnest in his study of the Bible and has come to my study night after night when he had had a hard day’s work and an evening study hour that he might read the Bible with me. Not long ago he told me he wished to pray in meeting and asked me if I would write out what he wanted to say. So I took my pen and after long pauses he told me what he wanted to say to God. I wrote it down just as he gave it to me. He has carried it away to learn so that he may take part in our weekly meeting in English. The other two boys have come to me twice before and asked to join the church but I have told them to wait. But now it seemed as though they could wait no longer and they were glad to profess their faith in Christ.

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THE CHINESE.

THE PENALTY OF PROSPERITY.

BY REV. W. C. POND.

Our schools were never before so prosperous as during the last six or eight months. Each successive budget of monthly reports showed a larger enrolment and a larger average attendance, in the aggregate, than had ever been secured before. Notwithstanding that we have closed our schools in Oroville during these hot months, and have given a month’s vacation to the Berkeley school, the reports for June call for their superlatives as cheeringly as did those of April or of May. The rolls for June showed the names of 908 Chinese pupils, and the average attendance was 437. During the ten months now past of the present fiscal year, no less than 2,152 Chinese have been enrolled as members of our schools, and thus, for longer or shorter periods, have been brought to hear something of the true God and the only Saviour. Many have been with us but a short time, but not one, I believe, has failed to get some new idea which, it would seem, must have set him to thinking, and thus may prove to be in him the seed of the everlasting life.

But what is the “ penalty ” of all this? and why should there be any penalty for it? The penalty is a depleted treasury, and the reason for this is the unavoidably increased expenditure. How many of our readers know what it is to have more than $1,600 coming due, and less than $600 at command? As many as have had this experience will understand the penalty I am just now called to suffer. I could not turn the dark souls away from what seemed to be for them the only possible path to light, and I could not bid them welcome without increasing our corps of laborers. I could not add new workers without adding some new bills. The increase of expense is not at all proportioned to the increase in work fulfilled, for while we have reached nearly 40 per cent. more Chinese than we did in any preceding year, the expense will be greater by only about 10 per cent. But I have been working all these years up to the utmost limit of our resources, and now, towards the close of this fiscal year—the annual appropriation from the parent society exhausted and the gifts of most of our regular contributors already used—it comes to pass that that 10 per cent. extra begins to be felt, and as the mission purse gets lighter your superintendent’s heart gets heavier with thoughts and plans and cares.

“Well, what are you going to do about it?” some of my readers are asking. I answer, first of all, I mean to pray. Nothing else ever availed in my experience to replenish a depleted treasury, like appealing to the Giver of all good. He knows the work; He gave the opportunity; He has, many times before this, verified His promise, and answered my prayer. I mean to trust Him; ask His counsel and His help, and so move on . While His pillar of cloud and of fire goes before us, we need never be dismayed. “Difficulties will be removed, in proportion as it is necessary that they should be removed.” But I do not mean to stop with prayer. That is Müller’s way, and, in his case, it succeeds. When he was consulted as to the failure of others who wrought on his plan, it is said that he replied: “They were not so called.” Every man according to his own calling. For myself, I read the promise thus: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find .” And so I feel called to follow up my asking with seeking, and to enter every door that my master causes to be opened to my knock. That is just what I am doing now, in writing this paragraph. It may not reach all our readers till after our fiscal year has closed; but the books can be kept open till October 1, and gifts sent to make up [276] what is now lacking, will be gratefully acknowledged, and most carefully used.

THE CENTRAL SCHOOL.

This is held at the Central Mission house, in this city—the headquarters of our whole work. The building is admirably located for our purposes, and though always felt to be too small for the most effective service, has nevertheless answered our purpose tolerably well. As long as the attendance on the school did not exceed 125, it was possible to move about easily in the school-room, and by careful attention to ventilation, to keep the atmosphere tolerably pure. But last month the average attendance was 185, and the largest attendance on any one evening was no less than 260! Of course even standing room was at a premium. To move about in such a mass; to attempt anything like classification; to give to each pupil his portion of instruction, taxed the energy, patience and skill of the teachers to the utmost. Jee Gam declares that if we had room enough and teachers enough, we could have 300 pupils in this school every evening.

One reason for this throng of pupils, (and I am glad to say that a like cause of prosperity exists in all our schools) is that we have now so excellent a corps of teachers and of Chinese helpers—so faithful, so devoted and enthusiastic—and, generally, so well fitted for the work. About this I trust there may be nothing temporary. Another fact,—which may not always operate so strongly as now—and which tends specially to fill up the Central school, is the great influx of Chinese now going on at this port. When the new law goes into operation, this will be checked, at least, for a time. Hastened, doubtless, by the passage of this law nearly 25,000 Chinese have come in at this port within less than six months,—a number equal to one-fourth of the entire Chinese population in the whole country at the beginning of this year. This multitude will rapidly scatter, moving wherever a demand for their labor attracts them, and then the pressure at this spot will be lessened, but the work will remain to be done; 25,000 more of these blood-bought souls, to be brought to a knowledge of their Redeemer; 25,000 more out of whom to gather messengers of salvation, heralds of the gospel of Christ’s dying love and living power to the myriads ready to perish in their native land.

I am sorry to say that my faith in the possibility of securing in any way a more commodious building for this school and for a head-quarters for our entire work, is not strong. Perhaps this is the reason why the oft-repeated petitions of our teachers for more room, remain without response. “According to your faith ” it is said, “be it unto you.” One lady at the East, self-prompted, or prompted of God, has added to many a previous kindness, a donation of $100, to be used for this enlargement when it shall become possible. One member of the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., who has visited our quarters, and seen something of the need, has hinted that the easiest way to get relief would be to ask for the necessary fund to buy or build. I ventured to infer that if this request should be made, his generous heart and ever-open hand would help the matter on. It would be much that thus we could save to our work $1,200 per annum now paid for rent. This sum would keep five teachers in the field for a full year. And then we should have a building suited to our needs, large enough and light enough, open enough to the pure air of heaven, to speak for itself a welcome and to bear in itself a blessing to these crowds of needy souls. Fifteen thousand dollars would secure this—a place where (if the predictions of our wisest helpers may be trusted) 300 young men , born in the depths of heathenism, could be brought every day of every week throughout each coming year, to sit at Jesus’ feet and hear his word. And a sum much less than that would put my faith concerning it at that mustard-seed point at which our Saviour assures us “nothing shall be impossible to you.”

YAKUT VILLAGERS.

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CHILDREN’S PAGE.

ONE BOY WHO GREW UP IN A COTTON PATCH.

BY MISS LAURA A. PARMELEE.

His name is Frank, his cotton patch is in Mississippi, near the Sunflower River, and he is teaching school in that neighborhood at this very time. Although he is quite grown, he is not so tall as his highest cotton stalk, and doesn’t look a bit as if he had a story. It is not an uncommon story, and might be true of a good many Williams, or Henrys, or Johns. That is why I am so particular to tell you his name and where he lives.

Most of his time was spent in the field, but he ate and slept in a rough log-cabin of one room. The chimney was built outside of the cabin, and was made of sticks and clay. The one window was a board shutter, swinging on leather hinges. Two beds, a table, a few dishes, two or three pots and kettles, three or four leather-bottomed chairs and a barrel of meal furnished the house.

Poor as the building was, a good mother’s love made it a dear home to her little children. Roses and honeysuckles bloomed around the door all summer, and in summer and winter the white sand was swept clean with brooms made of twigs tied together. Health and work gave appetites for the fried bacon and hoe-cake that furnished the daily meals. Baked sweet potatoes with pones and greens were sometimes added to their bill of fare.

There was no father to provide for the family, so the little ones must try the harder to care for themselves. When Frank was scarcely more than a baby, he followed his mother and sisters to the field and pulled trash; that is, pulled up old stalks and sticks for burning, to clear the fields ready for the plow, and, after the furrow was prepared, little fingers dropped the fuzzy gray seed into the soft earth.

By the time he was five years old, Frank had his own light hoe and “chopped cotton” almost all day. When the feeble plants had been cut up and the strong ones cleared of weeds, there was the corn to be hoed and the melon patch to be attended to. In August the fleecy white fibre had pushed itself out of the green bolls and the pickers must go to work. With a large bag tied around his neck and shoulders, Frank went up and down the cotton patch, his nimble fingers pulling the feathery cotton from its casings. Carefully as he gleaned each bush, no sooner had the field been once picked than other bolls unlocked their treasures, and again and again he must go over the same ground. Sometimes Christmas came before the crop was all gathered, and in January the fields must be cleared once more for plowing. Playtime never seemed to come to Sunflower River. To plow, pick cotton, roll logs and build rail fences—was that all of life? Frank wondered about it.

Two Sabbaths in the month the family went to the little brown meeting-house that nestled under the trees down by a spring of sweet water. No bell called the people, yet they came, on foot, on horseback, in wagons from miles around. Four or five hundred gathered in and around the church. Three or four preachers would occupy the rude pulpit, and often the services did not close until sunset. Some of the ministers could not read a word; some barely read the text and lined out the hymns. They said a great deal about

And as Frank thought of that wonderful scene and how

he longed to know more of His life and [279] sayings. Must he wait to learn of the Saviour’s words—wait until he should meet Him in heaven?

The questioning found a happy answer when he was about fourteen. A summer school was started in the neighborhood, and on rainy days and at odd times he learned the alphabet, to make figures, to form letters and to read. New thoughts came into his mind, new hopes, new plans. He heard of a large school up the river where Northern teachers taught eight months of the year.

One day the good mother was startled with the question, “May I go to school at Memphis?” She could only answer, “I am too poor to send you. I can give you nothing but my prayers.” But Frank believed those prayers were worth more than bales and bales of cotton, and with a few dollars in his pocket he started for the city. He was sure that “King Jesus” would have compassion upon him as He did upon that other young man who “was the only son of his mother and she was a widow.”

Reaching the strange city, he soon found a Christian gentleman who wished a boy to wait on the table. “Work for his board and go to school,” was the good news sent home. One year went by, two, three and four. Slow but faithful, he was going up in his classes, winning the respect of school-mates and teachers.

One October, as he re-entered school, he modestly told his teachers that he had taught during the summer. It was said so quietly that little heed was paid to it, until another young man came from the same town and announced that the unostentatious Frank had done a remarkable work in the way of Sabbath-school, temperance and day school. No one had thought him able to do anything of the kind.

And these long days, while you are swinging in hammocks and going to lakes and rivers in the search for cool air, our young friend is teaching a hundred dusky boys and girls each week day, and directing the Bible lessons of a much larger number on Sunday. He writes to ask for S. S. papers, for a temperance text book and for the prayers of his teacher.

Although he did grow up in a cotton patch, he is a useful man, and expects to one day see the King in his beauty, in the land that is very far off.

RECEIPTS FOR JULY, 1882.