American Missionary, Volume 44, No. 6, June, 1890 by Various
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Various >> American Missionary, Volume 44, No. 6, June, 1890
The American Missionary
June, 1890.
VOL. XLIV. NO. 6.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
Removal
Dr. Storrs on the Negro Problem
Missionaries to Alaska
In a Nutshell
Higher Education of the Colored People
Spring Conferences
Mississippi Immigrants
Notes from New England
Music's Mission
Items
THE SOUTH.
Our School Work
Our Church Work
Revival at Wilmington, N.C.
Ballard School, Macon, Ga.
Dreary Picture of Place and People
Report from Mountain Schools
The King's Daughters Society
THE INDIANS.
Our S'kokomish Mission
THE CHINESE.
Jottings
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
Paragraphs--State Missionary Unions
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
Letter from a Teacher
Woman's State Organizations
RECEIPTS.
NEW YORK:
Published By The American Missionary Association
Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
American Missionary Association.
President, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D., N.Y.
_Vice-Presidents._
Rev. A.J.F. Behrends, D.D., N.Y.
Rev. Alex. McKenzie, D.D., Mass.
Rev. F.A. Noble, D.D., Ill.
Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D., Mass.
Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., Mo.
_Corresponding Secretaries._
Rev. M.E. Strieby, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
Rev. A.F. Beard, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
Rev. F.P. Woodbury, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Recording Secretary._
Rev. M.E. Strieby, D.D., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Treasurer._
H.W. Hubbard, Esq., _Bible House, N.Y._
_Auditors._
Peter McCartee.
Chas. P. Peirce.
_Executive Committee._
John H. Washburn, Chairman.
Addison P. Foster, Secretary.
_For Three Years._
S.B. Halliday,
Samuel Holmes,
Samuel S. Marples,
Charles L. Mead,
Elbert B. Monroe.
_For Two Years._
J.E. Rankin,
Wm. H. Ward,
J.W. Cooper,
John H. Washburn,
Edmund L. Champlin.
_For One Year._
Lyman Abbott,
Chas. A. Hull,
Clinton B. Fisk,
Addison P. Foster,
Albert J. Lyman.
_District Secretaries._
Rev. C.J. Ryder, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._
Rev. J.E. Roy, D.D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill._
Rev. C.W. Hiatt, _64 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio._
_Financial Secretary for Indian Missions._
Rev. Chas. W. Shelton.
_Secretary of Woman's Bureau._
Miss D.E. Emerson, _Bible House, N.Y._
COMMUNICATIONS
Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the
Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the
Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the
Treasurer.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent
to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York, or, when more
convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House,
Boston, Mass., 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., or 64 Euclid Ave.,
Cleveland, Ohio. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a
Life Member.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the
time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on
label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made
afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please send
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and the new address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers
may be correctly mailed.
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.
THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
Vol. XLIV.
June, 1890.
No. 6.
American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
REMOVAL.
The Rooms of the American Missionary Association are now in the Bible
House, New York City. Correspondents will please address us accordingly.
Visitors will find our Rooms on the sixth floor of the Bible House,
corner Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue; entrance by elevator on Ninth
Street.
* * * * *
DR. STORRS, ON THE NEGRO PROBLEM.
Not long since Rev. R.S. Storrs, D.D., preached a sermon in his own
pulpit, presenting the claims of the American Missionary Association for
the annual collection in its behalf from the Church of the Pilgrims,
Brooklyn, N.Y. This sermon appeared in print in one of the daily papers,
and attracted the attention of a benevolent gentleman deeply interested in
the Christian education of the colored people, who was so impressed with
the great value of the address, that he has furnished the Association with
the means to print a large edition for general circulation. This we have
done, and we presume that already, many of our readers have had the
opportunity of reading this eminently wise and timely utterance on one of
America's greatest problems. Should any one desire an extra copy, we will
gladly furnish it on application.
Although the discourse has had large circulation, we cannot resist the
temptation to extract a few of its forcible utterances on some very
important points.
Permanent popular liberties have their only sure foundation in
sound moral conditions practically universal. We must secure
these among those to whom we have given the ballot, and who are
to be henceforth citizens with ourselves. Otherwise, we are
building our splendid political house on the edges of the
pestilential swamp from which fatal miasmatic odors are rising
all the time. Yes, we are building our house on piles driven into
the thick ooze and mud of the pestilential swamp itself. We are
building our cities, which we think are so splendid, and which
are so in fact, as men built Herculaneum and Pompeii, on a shore
which ever and anon trembled with earthquake, over which was hung
the black flag of Vesuvius, and down upon which rolled, in time,
the lava floods that burned and buried them.
We have got to meet this immense problem, which is not far off,
but right at hand; which is not a problem of theory, or of
distant history, but of practice and fact; and which concerns
not the well-being alone, but the very life of the nation. Noble
men and women at the South are engaged in it already, with all
their hearts; and we must help, mightily! It would be the
craziest folly of the age for us to be indifferent to it.
Some men may say, perhaps, "But this is a work that cannot be
done. It is too radical and vast to be hopefully attempted."
Nonsense! There is no work for the kingdom of God and the glory
of His name, which cannot be done! With the Gospel in our hand,
we can do everything.
There has been a good beginning made already. This Society, to
which we are to contribute to-day, the American Missionary
Association, has four established colleges, three of which are
entirely supported by itself, have been founded by it and are
carried on by it; and the fourth very largely so. It has
multitudes of high schools, normal schools and primary schools.
First of all, we want men trained, and women too, in the
knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, and then to have them
teaching others. And that is precisely the line along which the
Society to which we are to contribute to-day, as we have done
gladly and largely heretofore, is carrying its incessant
operation.
Now I affirm absolutely that if ever there was a work of God on
earth, this is his work! If there was ever anything to which the
American Christian people are called, they are called to this. If
there was ever a great opportunity before the Christian church,
here it is.
Ah, my friends, don't say "It is too great a work." It is going
to be done! You and I may do or may not do our part in it. It is
going to be done!
* * * * *
MISSIONARIES TO ALASKA.
As announced in the last number of the MISSIONARY, we have appointed
two men as missionary teachers for the new station to be opened at
Point Prince of Wales, Alaska. The names of these brethren are H.R.
Thornton, of Hampden Sydney, Virginia, and W.T. Lopp, of Valley City,
Indiana. The credentials furnished by these young men are very
satisfactory, and they enter upon the field with the full realization
of its difficulties and even dangers, and yet, cheerfully trusting
themselves to the hand of God, are ready to go forward with undaunted
faith. We bespeak for them the prayers of God's people. It is expected
that they will leave home about the middle of May and sail from San
Francisco June 1st. Dr. Sheldon Jackson and Dr. Pond will aid them in
providing materials for the building and the necessary outfit. They
will, therefore, be well provided for, though long months must elapse
before they can again have communication with the civilized world.
* * * * *
IN A NUTSHELL.
_WHICH IS THE WISER WAY?_
There are some people who seem to see only the ignorance and vice of
the Negro, and the inveterate race-prejudice against him; or at least
they appear to be so occupied in dilating upon these hindrances that
they have no time to devote to their removal, and, so far as their
influence goes, they discourage others from doing anything.
On the other hand there are those who, while they see all these
difficulties, only find in them the strongest incentives to the most
earnest efforts to relieve the Negro from them. Which of these two
classes is the wiser?
Some persons propose as the solution of the race problem,
disfranchisement; and they point to the bad legislation of the blacks
in South Carolina and Louisiana a quarter of a century ago, when
scarcely any of them could read, and almost none owned property. On the
other hand, there are those that are industriously trying to educate
the blacks and inspiring them to the acquisition of property, and not
in vain. More than two millions of the blacks can now read, and more
than two hundred million dollars' worth of property is now owned by
them. They are thus being prepared to vote wisely.
Which of these two classes of persons is solving this problem to the
best purpose?
There are other persons, in Congress and out, urging the deportation of
the blacks to Africa, a thing impossible to be done, and, if possible,
it would be harmful to those that were sent, as well as useless to
benighted Africa. On the other hand, there are those who are training
the colored people of this country in education, industrial habits and
stable Christian character, thus preparing them as missionaries to
Africa.
Which of these two classes has the wiser theory?
* * * * *
HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE.
The eagerness of our colored population for education is strikingly
shown in the reports given on another page from our institutions in the
South--reports of over-crowded rooms, and students dismissed by scores,
and even hundreds, for want of accommodations.
We call special attention to the report from Fisk University, in
reference to the higher grades of education. It will be seen that, even
in that place, a relatively small number are in the higher classes, and
yet there is a sufficient number of these to indicate that some of the
pupils are seeking what is absolutely essential to the race, to wit,
that some should have the best education attainable.
While it is true of this race as of all others, that the masses can
receive only primary training in letters and in industry, there must be
some of their number who can be leaders in thought and influence. No
race can make progress without such leaders, who can command the line
of march. There must be the inspiration that comes from the success of
the leaders. Hooker's men did not ascend Lookout Mountain in a steady
line. There were some far ahead of others, cheering and encouraging
those following at greater or less distances, till at length the whole
array stood on the brow, and thus won their position.
The warfare is different, but human nature is the same. The Negroes are
no more of equal capacity than white men, and there is just the same
call for differences in their attainments in scholarship and in general
influence. And if those advanced in scholarship shall have Christian
character as well as education, it will render their leadership all the
more safe for their people and the nation.
* * * * *
SPRING CONFERENCES AND CHURCH WORK.
Five of our Conferences in the South have held their spring meetings.
The reports we have had from them indicate that they were of unusual
interest. Almost without exception they are pronounced to have been
the best ever held. The high character of the sermons, addresses and
discussions shows that these ministers are fit leaders of the people.
Their reports of the progress of the work among the churches is
encouraging. On another page of the MISSIONARY will be found some brief
sketches of revival scenes and of individual experience and effort.
This branch of the work of the Association deserves and will receive
increased attention and assistance.
* * * * *
MISSISSIPPI IMMIGRANTS.
We alluded in a recent number of the MISSIONARY to the attractive
advertisements of railroad and immigrant companies in the South, and we
expressed the fear that many colored people might find the change to be
disappointing. But the process goes on, and the rich bottom-lands in
the State of Mississippi are attracting many hundreds and thousands of
new settlers. Perhaps there is no better place to which they can go,
for there are no better lands in the South. The great point is whether
these people shall be herded together in rude homes, tilling the soil
without skill, and rearing their children in ignorance and vice. It is
the part of Christian wisdom and the duty of the Christian churches of
this land to see that the people in this densely-packed and fertile
region shall be promptly met with the means of Christian education. Our
school at Tougaloo should be enabled to meet in some degree the
opportunity it has to prepare and furnish preachers and teachers for
this growing population; and schools and churches should be multiplied
to meet the emergency.
* * * * *
NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.
BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.
Nothing stimulates to good deeds more effectively than good deeds
themselves. I copy the following notice, which was circulated on a
neatly printed sheet among the members of a certain church in Boston:
The "Felice" circle of "King's Daughters" will hold a sale for
the benefit of the Williamsburg Academy, established for the
education of the "Mountain Whites" in Kentucky, on Friday,
March 21, from 8 to 10 P.M., and on Saturday, March 22, from 3
to 10 P.M., at Miss Maxwell's, 37 Allen Street, Boston.
Admission 10 cents.
The enthusiastic leader of this circle of "King's Daughters" thought
that possibly she might raise $30 and so constitute one of their number
a Life Member of the American Missionary Association. Imagine our
surprise and delight when, as the result of this effort, $125 were
brought in, as their splendid offering to this work!
Take another fact of unusual interest in the religious life in New
England. Five leading pastors here in Boston chose a particular
Sabbath, upon which they would each preach upon the Negro Problem.
Several sermons were reported at length in our daily journals, and
aroused much interest and comment. One found its way down into the
South, and was commented upon by a Southern editor in true Southern
style. Hard words were used with the recklessness that characterizes
Southern editors, and often Northern as well. The funny thing about it
was, that two gentlemen of the same name, who are both ministers and
reside in Boston, were confused in this comment. The one, who had
recently been South, but who did not preach the sermon, was read a
severe lecture, because after partaking of the hospitality of the
Southern people, he had spoken in so severe terms of them. It was an
amusing blunder, but illustrates the fact that more and more even the
Southern editor is coming to feel the importance of Northern criticism.
It is a very hopeful sign. It is sometimes said that time will settle
these monstrous inequalities that prevail in the South, but time never
settles anything. Mischievous forces only increase in power, the longer
they are permitted to operate. There must be set in operation
beneficent forces, in order to make the element of time useful.
Agitation is needed, patriotic, prayerful agitation, and such united
effort as was made in these Boston pulpits, helps in this agitation.
The new book which comes from the pen of G.W. Cable, under the title
of "The Negro Question," puts old truth in a new dress, and renders it
more attractive and presentable. If any man has the right to write
upon this "Negro Question," it is Mr. Cable. If I had to prepare a
liturgy for the Congregational churches, I would put in it the
following petition: "From the superficial views and misleading
statements of tourists through the South, or those who reside in a
single locality, good Lord, deliver us!" Mr. Cable is not of either of
these classes. He speaks from an intimate acquaintance with, and a
long residence in, the South; better than this, he is familiar with
the whole territory, and not with a single locality simply. This
little book ought to be in the hands of every conscientious student of
this Southern problem. Take a single quotation:
"To be governed merely by instincts is pure savagery. All civilization
is the result of subordinating instinct to reason, and to the
necessities of peace, amity and righteousness. To surrender to
instinct, would destroy all civilization in three days. If, then, the
color-line is the result of natural instincts, the commonest daily
needs of the merest civilization require that we should ask ourselves,
is it better or worse to repress or cherish this instinct, and this
color-line?" There are forces at work, regenerative and ennobling, that
will lead the Southern white people to be ashamed of their attitude
toward the Negroes, and not the least of these are the life and works
of Mr. Cable.
A letter came into my hand, when I was in the South, which is not only
a commentary, but also throws a ray of sunlight where there is much
darkness. It was a letter from an old mistress to her former slave. He
is now a successful business man in Chattanooga. This earnest,
Christian woman, rising above her prejudices, wrote her former slave a
cordial invitation to visit her in her home. Her husband, his old
master, had died in the Confederate service. She had seen her servants
taken away from her through the success of the Union armies. Her
property had been depleted, and her fertile plantation overrun by the
loyal troops. It must have been with great sadness and a bitter heart,
that she looked out upon this ruin, wrought as she believed, throughout
the invading of the sacred soil of Virginia. But in these years that
have passed, this bitterness has largely gone, and this sweet,
Christian letter comes to her former slave. The ex-slave told me with
tears in his eyes that he paid her this visit, and that she welcomed
him, not to the Negro quarters, nor to the kitchen-chamber, but to her
best guest-chamber, and said: "I want you to feel that you are welcome
to the best hospitality of my home." "And she treated me almost as
tenderly as she would one of her own sons," said the colored man. And
so light is coming, little by little.
Dr. Haygood expresses a regret that the white women of the South are so
slow to appreciate the importance of the moral elevation of the
Negroes, and so slow to join hands with their Northern sisters in his
education. But such facts as this kind, Christian letter furnishes,
lead us to hope and to believe that better times are coming, and that
the Southern Christians, interested as they are in the Negro in Africa,
will, little by little, appreciate and minister more and more to the
terrible need of the Negro in South Carolina and Alabama.
* * * * *
MUSIC'S MISSION.
BY REV. E.N. ANDREWS, HARTFORD, WIS.
Suggested by the following words by Rev. B.A. Imes in the May
MISSIONARY:
"The Mozart Society at Fisk treated us to an excellent
rendering of Haydn's great oratorio, 'The Creation.' Many came
over from the city (Nashville),--whites from the "best
families," all crowding in, listening, wondering, enjoying!
How the music of those well-tuned instruments and voices
caught us up and carried us away! Color-line melted and faded
out. How we wished the politicians all might have been brought
under that magic spell of solos and choruses!"
O Music, with thy wand celestial, touch
The hearts of men, and by thy alchemy
Divine, resolve, remelt, aye, e'en recast
The thought and very being! Selfish man,
So filled with prejudice and hate hath need,
O heavenly messenger, of all thy aid.
And as thy votaries in anthems sing
With the immortal Haydn, and do praise
Creative Wisdom, Who, of one blood made
All Nations for to dwell on earth in love,
Then let celestial fires descend and burn
Complete, the offering of the lips, and purge
The dross of caste and hate from every soul!
This do, for Satan hath his spectrum set
Before the door of human hearts and cast
Upon the screen the separated lines
Of black and red and yellow--white forsooth,
While these should mingle in that glorious Sun
That shines alike on all, impartially.
Then come, O Music, re-resolve the lines,
These color-lines, and let the sun's pure ray
Beam forth in unobstructed light and love,
Transmuting, by his touch, these human hearts,
Till they shall mirror forth the Golden Rule.
* * * * *
ITEMS.
Everywhere the colored contestants in Civil Service examinations
succeed admirably in their work. In March just past, there was a
competitive examination held in the Custom House at Newark, N.J., for
clerkships. Out of forty-three contestants, Mr. J.N. Vandewall, a well
known young colored man, stood No. 1, 96 per cent. There was only one
other colored contestant, Mr. G.W. Harris. He stood fifth, with an
average of 86 per cent.
Mr. A.C. Garner, our colored representative in the Chicago Theological
Seminary, passed an excellent examination last week, and received
praise not only from his Professors but from his student friends as
well. Out of a class of forty, he was one of seven chosen by the
Professor of Elocution to represent the class in oratory at the closing
exercises held last week.
During the recent illness of one of our teachers in the South, the
pastor of the Church called every Sunday for volunteers as watchers
during the week. There was always a ready response from the church
members. The teacher relates that before leaving him in the morning,
these watchers would almost invariably kneel down by his bedside and
offer up earnest, fervent prayers for his recovery. He was impressed
with the simple faith and trust in God of these colored Christians,
their belief in prayer and the contrast between them and an equal
number of white brethren under the same circumstances.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
OUR SCHOOL WORK.
PROGRESS--OVER-CROWDING.
From Wilmington, N.C.--Instead of sixty pupils as a year or two ago,
we now have over ninety, and next year the number will be fully one
hundred or more, if we have room. The classes are very large.
From Grand View, Tenn.--The classes are full and the accommodations
inadequate. The school numbers one hundred and eleven. It is necessary
to crowd four boys into each room of the Boys' Hall. Four boys are
boarding themselves in a shackly log building at the foot of the hill.
Their grit is admirable.
From Tougaloo, Miss.--Both the dormitories are crowded. The Ladies'
Hall is supposed to accommodate seventy-five girls. One hundred and six
are crowded into it to-day. We have turned away nearly one hundred more
because we had not room for them. Every indication is that the crowd of
applicants will be greater next year than ever. Already applications
are coming in. The American Missionary Association has the lead in
Mississippi to-day.