The American Missionary, October, 1890, Vol. XLIV., No. 10 by Various
V >>
Various >> The American Missionary, October, 1890, Vol. XLIV., No. 10
The American Missionary
=======================
October, 1890.
Vol. XLIV.
No. 10.
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 Poet Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
Contents
========
Contents
Editorial
ANNUAL MEETING.
The Federal Election Bill And The Mississippi Convention.
Notes From The West.
The South
Out To Rockhold, Ky.
Church Work.
Straight University.
Better Class Of Students.
Temperance In Tennessee.
Items.
The Indians.
Mr. Shelton At Northfield Again.
The Widow's Mite.
The Chinese
The Pictures
Lights And Shadows
Bureau Of Woman'S Work.
Christian Endeavor For The Boys And Girls Of The Southern Mountains
Woman's Work In North Carolina
Woman's State Organizations.
Receipts For August, 1890.
Notes
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. F. A. Noble, D.D., Ill.
Rev. Henry Hopkins, D.D., Mo.
Rev. Alex. Mckenzie, D.D., Mass.
Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D., Mass.
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,(1)
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 early
notice of change in post-office address, giving the former address 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.
October, 1890.
No. 10.
American Missionary Association.
Editorial
=========
ANNUAL MEETING.
---------------
The next annual meeting of the American Missionary Association will be
held in Northampton, Mass., in the Edwards Church, commencing at three
o'clock Tuesday afternoon, October 21st. Rev. Frank W. Gunsaulus, D.D., of
Chicago, Ill., will preach the sermon. On the last page of the cover will
be found directions as to membership and other items of interest. Fuller
details regarding the reception of delegates and their entertainment,
together with rates at hotels and railroad reductions, will be given in
the religious press. A meeting of unusual interest is expected, and we
hope our friends will be present in full attendance.
For notice of Woman's Meeting, see page 318.
* * * * *
The holding of our Annual Meeting in Northampton will call up some very
remarkable associations. Northampton was the home of Jonathan Edwards,
who was not only the eloquent preacher and profound theologian, but the
missionary to the neighboring Stockbridge Indians. It was also the home
of his son-in-law, David Brainerd, who was the typical self-denying
martyr-missionary to the Indians in New Jersey. It was the home of the
Tappan family, two of whose sons, Arthur and Lewis, were among the early
founders and most valued friends of this Association. In June, 1848, the
Tappan family held a joyous family reunion in Northampton, continuing
for a week.
* * * * *
Frederick Douglass is hopeful. In a recent address he says: "A great
change has taken place among the colored race--vast and wonderful has it
been. It seems as if we had realized the vision of St. John when he saw a
new heaven and a new earth. But the change has come at last. The time has
come when we can look our fellow-citizens in the face and share in the
glory of the country."
No man has a better right to say this than he, for his life has touched
the degraded condition of the slave and the exalted position of an
Embassador of this great Republic. He adds: "Some talk of exterminating
our race, and others say we will soon die out, but I tell you both are
impossible. If slavery could not kill us, liberty won't." Liberty ought
to do more than save them alive. It ought to educate, elevate and
Christianize them.
* * * * *
The _Independent_ quotes from Dr. Mayo's address before the American
Social Science Association on "The Third Estate," in which the Doctor,
refers to the strange population of the great Southern mountain
world--nearly two millions at present--as a body of people that sends
forth a louder cry for the missionary of modern civilization than any
other portion of the Republic, and adds:
"What is also said by the Unitarian, Dr. Mayo, of the need of
missionary work for this class of the Southern whites, calls
for an emphasis even stronger than we could put on any
political conclusion. We pass this patriotic appeal along to
those who have the wealth that is seeking a worthy object on
which to expend itself. There are missionary societies whose
business it is to do this. For the Congregationalista, the
American Missionary Association will for a very moderate
amount establish a church and an academy in any one of a
hundred counties inhabited by these people, and what a man
with a million dollars to expend could do we hardly dare to
say. For the Presbyterians, the Board of Home Missions will do
the same; for the Methodists, their Missionary Society; for
the Episcopalians, their board of Domestic Missions; for the
Baptists, their Home Mission Society; and so on for all the
religious bodies. But will not a goodly company of wealthy men
supplement what the churches are doing in their collections,
by large gifts for this special, most needy, most fruitful,
and we declare most neglected mission work of the nation?"
* * * * *
Agitations on the surface are significant mainly as they are connected
with the larger movements of the deeper waters beneath. The re-election of
Speaker Reed to Congress, and the contest for the re-election of Mr.
Breckinridge in Arkansas; the Federal Election Bill, which proposes to
secure a free ballot for all men irrespective of color, and the Convention
in Mississippi, which aimed avowedly to curtail the voting of the colored
people--all these derive their importance from their relation to the
gravest problem of American statesmanship. That problem will not be
settled by the results of either of these current questions. For at the
bottom the real question is: Shall knowledge and character and property
become the possession of the colored race, and they thus be prepared for
their place in American politics, industry and prosperity, or will they be
allowed for the lack of these things to be crushed back into a condition
of semi-slavery or be goaded to resistance or discouraged in poverty,
pauperism and degradation? That is a fundamental question. For that, men
should read, think, pray and work.
The Federal Election Bill And The Mississippi Convention.
---------------------------------------------------------
The ultimate aim of the Federal Election Bill in Congress, and of the
Constitutional Convention in Mississippi, point in diametrically opposite
directions. They cannot be harmonized, and there is no middle way between
them. The Election Bill contemplates a "free ballot and fair count" for
every voter, including the Negro. The Mississippi Convention aims to
restrict Negro suffrage. In an address delivered by the President of the
Convention, September 11th, he is reported to have said that: "He did not
propose to mince matters and hide behind a subterfuge, but if asked by
anybody if it was the purpose of the Convention to restrict Negro
suffrage, he would frankly say, 'Yes; that is what we are here for.'" This
Convention proposes to secure its object not by the force and fraud of
earlier days, but by constitutional and legal methods--or at least by what
has constitutional and legal _forms_. All this, however, is another
attempt to achieve the impracticable. As the Negro grows in intelligence
and numbers, he will claim his right to vote.
On the other hand, the Congressional Election Bill or any other
legislation intended to secure the privilege of voting to the Negro, if
made practical, means a good deal. If it is intended only to pass laws
that shall be merely "glittering generalities" to vindicate the historic
record of the Republican party, or to sanction its Platform and the
Inaugural of the President--that is easily done and will, of course,
amount to nothing--except as a political manoeuvre. But if the movement
"means business," and is to be pushed to its legitimate result, then two
things must be done: the Negro must be qualified to vote and to be voted
for; to elect officers and to hold office. If the mass of illiterate and
impoverished Negroes are to be represented in State Legislatures and in
Congress by persons as ignorant and poor as they are themselves, these
representatives will, of course, if in the majority, be liable to rule and
ruin; if in a large minority, they will hold a balance of power that may
easily be controlled by demagogues. To educate this mass up to the point
of intelligence and the acquisition of property is America's great duty
and the guaranty of her safety.
There is one thing more about it. We have said that if the Negro is to
have the free exercise of the ballot, he will insist on being voted for as
well as voting. If the Negroes have power to elect, they will wish to
elect some of their own number. They will not, and certainly they ought
not to vote for a man simply because he is black. They should vote for the
best qualified man whether he is black or white. If they have the power
they will certainly elect some of their own number. But this means, if it
means anything good, that there shall be those of their own number who are
qualified to hold office and to hold it honorably to themselves and
usefully to their constituents and the country. But this implies higher
education to a good many colored people. It will not do for them to have a
few men educated as professional politicians. May Heaven save them from
the day when they will encourage the growth of such a class of men. They
will need to have a large number of educated men in the various walks of
life, from whom suitable candidates may be selected, just as white men
have. But if they are to have such a class of men, adequate measures must
be taken for their higher education, and those friends of the Negro who
desire and help to educate him only in primary studies, while they are
doing a great and essential work, are not doing all that is needed. It may
be all well enough to say to the Negro, "Work hard and keep out of
politics." But if he is allowed to enter into politics freely, he will do
it just as other men do. There is enough human nature in him to secure
that. And any view of this matter that accepts the theory of a free ballot
to the Negro, will be short-sighted, if it does not aim at the education
of the mass of the Negroes as the mass of the white people are educated,
and at the higher education of a proportionally large number of the
Negroes. If Congress and Mississippi Conventions should turn their
attention in this direction, their work would be more significant than the
efforts they are now making.
Notes From The West.
--------------------
By District-Secretary C.W. Hiatt.
Sylvan, terraced, lacustrine; cottages by the score, gay in color, unique
of design; people everywhere, chatty, erudite, artistic, processional;
"round tables," "leagues," "societies" and "circles;" lectures, sermons,
concerts and conferences--a school, a church, a university--all this, and
throughout it all a steady pulse of religious heart and heartiness--such
is the Chautauquan Assembly of Bay View, Michigan. One of the important
features of this assembly is its annual missionary conference. All
denominations participate and the field of the world is brought vividly
before the mind by the laborers from here and there.
An interesting testimony by a missionary from Singapore was to the effect
that many of the most cultured and generous people he had ever met were
Chinese. By the aid of influential Mongolians--though they were
heathen--he was once enabled to start a school which grew rapidly till
hundreds were enrolled and a permanent religious center of great
importance was established. The whole account was thrilling.
Specially kind was the hearing given the representative of the American
Missionary Association work, and the eager quest for literature which
followed showed that all words had not been lost. Denominational lines
were not conspicuous. The black cat of statistics scampered across the
rostrum only once or twice. A fitting rebuke to this audacious creature
was couched in the story told by a missionary of a visit he had received
from another worker on the field, and their mutually forgetting to inquire
into each other's church connections, so great was their interest in the
tasks in hand. Afterwards, the Methodist brother learned that he had
entertained a Baptist unawares--Selah.
An interesting disclosure was recently made, when the organ of Vine St.
Congregational Church in Cincinnati was removed from the rear to the front
of the auditorium. Midway between ceiling and floor, on either side of the
recess, were two doors in the wall. These could only be reached by
ladders. What were they for? Ah, they have a history. They open into rooms
which, in ante-bellum days, were used as stations of the "underground
railway." Here fugitives from across the Ohio were secreted until they
could be spirited on, by night, towards the waters of Erie. These doors on
the wall speak volumes for the history of the church. I wonder not that
even now, though in the very commercial center of the city, far from the
residence portion, this church is in full career of evangelistic life.
Churches with such doors as those in their walls need not be expected to
vegetate, nor to die.
I like to visit the smaller churches as opportunity is given. Their zeal
for the causes of humanity is often very intense and intelligent.
Sometimes, too, their contributions are a surprise. I know a little
country church in Ohio that one day raised forty-six dollars when only
forty-five persons were present. It was ten miles by stage from the
railroad. Now another gratifying surprise: out of that little flock
several people are planning to go to the Northampton meeting.
I also know a church of foreigners, ninety-seven in membership, that
raised forty-seven dollars and fifty cents for our work in an evening
collection, or about fifty cents _per capita_. Awhile ago these foreigners
were a part of our _City_ problem. By the grace of God, they are now out
of the equation, and themselves, in turn, become helpers in solving that
other more extensive problem, of the races in the South. Such things as
these encourage us.
* * * * *
The Chicago Theological Seminary is desirous of completing its files of
the AMERICAN MISSIONARY for binding. The numbers missing are: February,
1887, October and November, 1871, January, 1862, November, 1861, the first
six months of 1858, and all the numbers for 1857. If any one has any of
these magazines that he would like to give to the Seminary, he will confer
a favor by sending them direct to L.A. Allesbrooke, 45 Warren Ave.,
Chicago, Ill.
The South
=========
Out To Rockhold, Ky.
--------------------
Prof. R.C. Hitchcock
I wanted to see the people and especially the church and Sunday-school at
this outpost. Now one can go out there by rail, but that is prosaic. It is
not apostolic; those apostles tied on their sandals, girt up their
garments and walked. But I found I couldn't do that way, for there was the
big Cumberland to cross and several creeks, not to speak of "runs,"
"branches" and mud-holes. The circuit riders? Yes, they went on horseback;
that must be my way, so I consulted Brother Tupper and he borrowed Mr.
Perkins's horse, noted as being an easy-going roadster. Easy? Well, I do
suppose the horse was all right, but I must indulge in one groan. It was a
long time since I had been on horseback. I wanted to go to the stable to
get on, but the young man insisted on bringing the steed down to the hotel
as soon as he had his feed, and in due time he came, a tall fellow, and I
doubted my ability to get my foot up to that stirrup, and somewhat whether
I could boost myself over into the saddle if I did; so I quietly and
gently coaxed him up to the piazza and actually succeeded the first time
trying. How many of the gentlemen, sitting in their Sunday best on the
piazza, smiled, I do not know--I didn't dare to look. I know I sat up ever
so stiff and tried to look just as if I had been a circuit rider for forty
years or so.
I must cross the river to begin with. Now they hadn't given me any whip
and I didn't dare ask the owner of the horse--"Colt, gone four"--he said,
for a whip or even a switch, but I wondered what I would do if the animal
should take it into his head to turn around or do something awkward right
in the middle of the river. I didn't want to get off, for I must get on
again. As good luck would have it there was a kind-eyed man sitting on a
stone by the riverside, and I asked him to get me a stick. He gave me one
he had in his hand and I felt better.
"Does the ford go right straight across?" I asked. "No, you must make a
curve up towards the dam or you will get into deep water, and there are
boulders too, you must avoid, or your horse may fall down."
A curve! Now a straight line, two points being given, can be defined. And
if I could steer for some given point on the opposite bank, I could hit it
if the current did not take me down stream; but a curve is awfully
uncertain, and my mind was in a state of perturbation. However, I got
across with nothing worse than a good spattering.
I wish I could paint the pictures constantly opening on the view as I rode
along. Forest clad mountains rose on every side with huge cliffs peering
grimly out. Sometimes these cliffs overhung the road and occasionally a
great slab of slate projected sufficiently to furnish shelter for a
family. In one place a farmer had taken advantage of this and made his
stable under a rock. A great slab of shaly slate projected so that he had
a roof some fifty feet long and ten or fifteen wide. My mind went back
eighteen hundred years and more to another stable in a rock and the
wonderful scene enacted there. It was not easy to believe that the little
cabins, looking like miniature houses which might be built by boys for
play, were actually homes, occupied by families, father, mother and eight
or ten children; but such is the case.
Seven miles of constantly changing pictures, but all beautiful, brought me
to Rockhold, a name I had supposed derived from its physical
characteristics, but which I was informed was given in respect to a family
formerly the most important in the vicinity but now quite gone. I made my
way to the little church. In front was a huge wagon and in a little grove
at the back several horses tied. I had been informed that I might safely
address any man I found prominent, as "Elliott," and as I entered I so
accosted an elderly man whom I found in charge of a large class of young
men. About fifty were present, Mr. Elliott being the only male teacher,
three young ladies, two of whom I learned had been educated at Berea,
having charge of classes. After the lesson I addressed the people. The
characteristic that impresses me more than any other is their solemn
seriousness. They listen intently and with great eagerness. They are
hungry for preaching and feel it a great hardship that they can only have
it occasionally. Their faces were a study. There was hardly a weak one
among them and many bore the impress of great strength. But I would as
soon have told a story or joked at a funeral as under their serious eyes.
The meeting over, several invited me to "go by" and take dinner, and I
accepted the first offer, which was made by a nice looking young lady in
mourning, who urged her claim by saying: "All the preachers go to our
house and father will be so disappointed if he don't see you; he couldn't
come to-day."
This country has not yet got to the point of thinking bridges necessary
and roads are not for those who sit on springs and cushions. I never
wished so much for a "Kodak" that I might carry away a picture which I
shall always have in memory. To the long wagon, which had a high rack all
around it, were yoked a pair of milk-white oxen, round and handsome. In
front was seated Mrs. Elliott, holding her youngest child. At her side a
boy, perhaps twelve, who guided the team by a line attached to a horn.
Seated on chairs were nine young ladies and girls, nearly all in pretty
white dresses.
Two miles of beautiful scenery and we reach the farm house, a commodious
and substantial rural home, of John Elliott, who gave me a cordial welcome
and soon the long table in the kitchen was spread with such a meal as I
had not enjoyed in many a day. The menu did not record many French dishes,
but everything was good, abundant and wholesome.
After dinner, Mr. Elliott told me a story worth recording. It was that of
the heroic Mr. Richardson, who before the war was a teacher in that
district--a Northern man--and, in the excited state of feeling in the
South, was suspected of being an abolitionist. He and his wife were driven
from their home and work, but protected from personal violence by the
prompt and energetic efforts of the Elliotts. But as both Dr. Roy and Mr.
Ryder have given the details to the public, I will not repeat them here. I
will only add that of the fifty persons who had signed the paper pledging
themselves to "_remove_" Richardson, it would be difficult to find one now
in Whittley County. They are scattered or dead. But in the little church
at Rockhold, the name of Richardson is a sacred one, and the stranger
always hears the story.
I took leave of this interesting family with great regret. As I sat in the
little grove in front of the house, with its carpet of myrtle, and looked
off over the peaceful valley, I wished I might remain there and rest.
That horse had it pretty much his own way on the return seven miles, and
when I thought nobody was looking I must confess to finding it a very
pleasant thing to get both legs on the same side of the saddle. But I am
glad I went to Rockhold. I would not lose the pictures I got there for a
small sum and I hope and pray that the time may soon come when in some way
a regular preacher may be provided for the people.