The American Missionary, Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4. by Various
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Various >> The American Missionary, Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4.
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The American Missionary
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Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4.
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CONTENTS
EDITORIAL.
FINANCIAL--PARAGRAPH
MOUNTAIN WORK--ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
INDIAN ORDER--FROM GEO. W. CABLE
DEATH OF HON. A.S. BARNES
PARAGRAPHS
SPECIMENS OF SCHOOL ENDEAVOR
A SERIOUS ALARM IN GEORGIA
EDUCATIONAL WORK IN THE SOUTH
THE SOUTH.
LETTER FROM AN EVANGELIST
THE CHINESE.
RESULTS THAT ELUDE THE STATISTICIAN
BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.
THE BLACK WOMAN OF THE SOUTH
YOUNG FOLKS.
WHAT SUSIE FOUND AT TOUGALOO
LETTER FROM AN INDIAN PUPIL
RECEIPTS
* * * * *
New York.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance. Published by the American
Missionary Association.
Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
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American Missionary Association.
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PRESIDENT,
------ ------
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., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Treasurer.
H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y.
Auditors.
PETER MCCARTEE.
CHAS. P. PEIRCE.
Executive Committee.
JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman.
ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary.
For Three Years.
LYMAN ABBOTT,
A.S. BARNES,[1]
J.R. DANFORTH,
CLINTON B. FISK,
ADDISON P. FOSTER,
For Two Years.
S.B. HALLIDAY,
SAMUEL HOLMES,
SAMUEL S. MARPLES,
CHARLES L. MEAD,
ELBERT B. MONROE,
For One Year.
J.E. RANKIN,
WM. H. WARD,
J.W. COOPER,
JOHN H. WASHBURN,
EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.
District Secretaries.
Rev. C.J. RYDER, 21 Cong'l House, Boston.
Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago.
Financial Secretary for Indian Missions.
Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON,
Bureau of Woman's Work.
Secretary, Miss D.E. EMERSON, 56 Reade Street, 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.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post office orders, may be
sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when
more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational
House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A
payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
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.
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THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
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Vol. XLII. April, 1888. No. 4.
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American Missionary Association.
* * * * *
We acknowledge with gratitude to God and to his people the fact that
our receipts during the month of February are such as greatly to
encourage us.
We are cheered, not only by the benevolences which are reporting
themselves from the churches, but also by the kind words of sympathy
and helpfulness which show us anew that this great and exigent work
upon us was never nearer than now to the hearts of our pastors and
churches.
We may add that the month just past and those immediately before us
are those upon which we must largely depend for our fiscal year. We
are coming to the summer season, when contributions are less likely to
be taken. We trust that those who believe that God has called the
American Missionary Association to this immense work in the name of
Christ, will not cease to pray that the hearts of men may be moved to
heed the appeals of those who, through us, ask for the very bread of
life, and who will not have it unless we carry it to them.
We are now compelled to deny more appeals for help which ought to be
heard than we are granting. Several schools which were begun by
private enterprise with good intent, are now asking us to take them
from their hands upon our own, where they can be perpetuated and
saved. We would like to save these schools to the needy people whose
hope is in them, and to protect the churches from indiscriminate
appeals for works which they have not authorized, and which we could
do with greater economy and better care; but for this we need a
generous increase of gifts. Our faith was in Him who said, "Knock, and
it shall be opened unto you," and the doors were opened. God withdrew
the bolts of hindrance and said, "Beloved, I have set before you an
open door." Our faith is in Him who also said "Ask, and ye shall
receive."
* * * * *
A friend has just sent us eighteen subscriptions to the _American
Missionary_. This might be repeated easily by a thousand friends. There
is {88} scarcely a self-sustaining church in the United States where
it could not be done by one who would try to do it as an act of
missionary love. Some who read this, perhaps, will try and will
succeed.
* * * * *
The name of Rev. Frank Cross, who was appointed to the charge of the
Rosebud Indian Mission, was by mistake not printed in the roll of
workers. He is there, however, and his work has gone on bravely and
hopefully.
* * * * *
We wish that the extent, and necessity, and hopefulness of our
mountain work, were more fully understood by our readers. Now is our
opportunity and the accepted time to answer the most urgent appeals
from this neglected region in the heart of our country. Our
Congregational churches are just what are needed to uplift these
people. One of our earnest missionaries writes us:--
"The A.M.A. has done a work here to be profoundly grateful for as a
beginning, but thus far it is only playing around the edge of its
mountain work. This mountain region is of great extent. Sober
calculation from facts already gleaned, makes a thousand
Congregational churches in these mountains the possibility of the
future, if only the strategic points can now be occupied. One
church and one school to a county, should be our immediate aim;
then we can throw upon these the work of developing native teachers
and preachers for the rest. There are forty counties waiting for
us, and all our mountain work so far is in three or four. I see
this place where I am, changing like magic under the influence of
school and church, but the necessity for our going forward
oppresses me. I am ready for any additional labor, and will carry
any burden my strength will permit, if only the American Missionary
Association will take for its motto, 'One church and one school in
every mountain county, as fast as they can be established.' I feel,
when I see the need, as if I could plead the money right out of the
most self-indulgent members of our favored churches at home. It
would not be expensive as compared with other missionary work.
Cannot some way be devised for making a large advance on the
present movement?"
* * * * *
Those who thought to cripple Atlanta University because it could not
yield its principles for the sake of a State appropriation of $8,000
made a mistake. They have helped that which they meant to hinder. The
university will get the money. Joseph's brethren took counsel together
and said, "We will see what will become of his dream," and they
thought they had a sure thing when they put him in a pit, but they
discovered {89} some years after that this was but a way-station on
the direct road to the Viceroyship of Egypt, and they saw what became
of his dream.
When Napoleon the First wished to hinder the Huguenot Church, he gave
it a small stipend in order to retain hold of it. He appropriated just
enough to keep it a cripple. When the State of Georgia thought the
education of the Negro was becoming too marked, it reversed the policy
of the far-seeing Bonaparte and took its hands off. We have never
thought that Napoleon was a truly good man, but we do believe that he
had a larger idea of the philosophy of control than the author of the
Glenn Bill. If the State had held on, it might have hindered, but it
has lost its hold.
* * * * *
Would it not sound well to the American people to have it said that in
the United States of America, in the year 1888, our missionaries were
imprisoned for reading the Bible to a heathen tribe of Indians who
lived remote from civilization, the crime of it being that it was read
in the only language which they could understand?
Yet "the orders are," writes a missionary, "that we shall hold only
two services on a Sunday and two during the week, and that we shall
cease to read the Bible in the Indian homes." This is the Government
authority of the great and free United States, but is there any
authority greater than God?
* * * * *
In an eloquent address at the Old South Church in Boston, on Sunday,
March 4th, George W. Cable accentuated in strong words the work in
which we are engaged. "Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most
fruitful, the most abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that
was ever opened to any Christian people."
We quote from his address:
The benevolence of Northern men and women, yea, and even of
Northern children, helped to establish in the South these
missionary colleges, these educational missions, wherein not the
black man alone, not the black woman alone, but every one who was
qualified with orderly behavior and a rational intellect might
come, and get, not only an education, but a Christian education,
and not only a Christian education, but a Christian American
education. These institutions, standing out in the darkness when
nothing else stood by them, when the land was racked and torn and
bled afresh under the agonies of reconstruction, these institutions
began and carried on the blessed work of raising up leaders,
intellectual leaders, among the black people, for the guidance and
stimulation of the colored race toward the aspirations of American
citizenship and Christian intelligence.
These institutions, these missionary colleges in the South, have
carried the torch of liberty, these have upheld it, these have
taught American citizenship, these have given to the Southern
States 16,000 colored teachers, when nobody else would teach the
poor black boy--nay, or the poor white boy either. Seven millions
of people concerned in the matter, and the National Bureau of
Public Education reporting year after year that {90} the reason why
there are 600,000 colored youth out of the public schools, is not
because they don't want to go, but because there are not
school-houses and school teachers.
Here is the mightiest, the widest, the most fruitful, the most
abundant, the most prolific, missionary field that was ever opened
to any Christian people. It is right here at your doors. It is not
across the Pacific Ocean and it is not down yonder around the Cape
of Good Hope. Right here at our doors is the greediest people for
education and the gospel there is on the face of this earth, not
counted among our white race. I suppose that ninety-nine
one-hundredths of those who generously give to this cause believe
to-day that it is being given to in generous proportion. Ah! you
never figured on it. Why, if you knew the national value of this
work, to say nothing of its gospel value, you would quadruplicate
it before the year is out. You would not submit to it for a moment,
as citizens, not merely as members of Christ's Church.
* * * * *
The American Missionary Association is called again to mourn the
decease of one of its officers. Hon. Alfred S. Barnes, a member of its
Executive Committee, after an illness extending over five months, at
his residence in Brooklyn, finished his earthly life on Friday,
February 17th, at the age of seventy-one years. Mr. Barnes was elected
on the Executive Board of the A.M.A. nineteen years ago, and had
served in that capacity continuously up to the day of his death. He
was a wise counsellor, large-minded in his views and honorable in his
spirit, known throughout the land as one of the foremost publishers in
the country, largely interested in educational work, and yet he found
time for an earnest devotion to various enterprises in the Christian
church. His fidelity and helpfulness in the service of the A.M.A. are
fully known only to those who were associated with him. Many
organizations of missionary and Christian work will miss his presence
and the help of his generous stewardship, but none will feel his
departure more truly than the American Missionary Association, which
has lost its President, one of its Secretaries, and this long-honored
member of its Executive Board within the last half-year. The greatness
of his work in our service will be remembered and cherished.
* * * * *
We acknowledge among our exchanges, the _Fisk Herald_, published at
Nashville; the _Atlanta Bulletin_; the _Olio_, of Straight University; the
_Tougaloo Quarterly_; the _Head and Hand_, of Le Moyne Normal Institute at
Memphis; the _Helping Hand_, of Sherwood, Tenn.; _Our Work_, of Talladega
College; the _Howard University Reporter_, of Washington; the _Word
Carrier_, of Santee Agency, and _Iapi Oahe_, of Santee Agency; also the
_Christian Aid_, published by our church in Dallas; the _Beach Record_,
(occasional) by our school in Savannah.
Several of these papers are models of their kind, publishing original
articles written by the students and professors, and printed by the
students with superior typographical skill. As indicators of progress,
they are full {91} of interest, apart from the items of local school
and church intelligence with which they are freighted.
* * * * *
We commend to our readers, "The Missionary Review of the World,"
edited jointly by Rev. J.M. Sherwood, D.D., of New York, and Rev. A.T.
Pierson, D.D., of Philadelphia.
One rises from its pages as if he had been breathing Christian ozone.
The editorials are upon living topics and issues, and are vigorously
presented. The "Review" sweeps its vision over the entire world and it
not only sees, but knows how to tell what it sees. If the high
standard of literary excellence so far sustained can be continuously
held, we shall have a magazine of missions which will be the peer of
our best literary monthlies in quality and interest.
* * * * *
We congratulate the Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing
Society on the acceptance of its appointment of Rev. Geo. M. Boynton
as its Secretary. We have known him as a member of the Executive
Committee of the American Missionary Association, as editor of THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY, as a pastor, as a secretary of Associations and
Conferences, as a wise counsellor and genial brother. We regard him as
eminently fitted for the place to which he has been called. To Brother
Boynton we extend most cordially a welcome to the honorable, the
fraternity of the Secretaries.
* * * * *
The fifth annual report of the Executive Committee of the Indian
Rights Association, written by Mr. James B. Harrison, is a strong and
valuable contribution to the literature of Indian rights and wrongs,
which should be considered by every friend of the Red Man. Respecting
the orders of the Indian office at Washington which abridge the
liberty of religious teaching, this report characterizes them as
"unintelligent, arbitrary, despotic and unstatesmanlike, merely a blow
at missionary work. There is no reason to suppose that a single Indian
anywhere will ever learn ten words more of English by reason of these
orders. There is, indeed, no provision made by the Government for any
increase of facilities in the study of English. The damage to the
missionary work produced by these orders is their sole result. The
orders should be distinctly and wholly revoked and withdrawn. It is
not necessary that the missionaries and churches should submit. If
they will publish the facts fully these orders will be revoked. The
facts must come to light. Then the people of the country will have
something to say."
The above quotation will give our readers the flavor of the pages.
"Plain words are best," and it is time that the country should have
them. {92} No one can read the statements in this able Report without
having his heart stirred with honest indignation at the condition of
Indian affairs, through the unfortunate unfitness of the Government
Bureau.
* * * * *
SPECIMENS OF SCHOOL ENDEAVOR.
THREE COMPOSITIONS.
LETHER.
Lether is mad from the hide of animals. They first kill the animal
then the hide is sent to a tan yard and there it is tan are made
lether from, then to a shoemaker's shop where it is made into boots
shoes saddles. The finest of gloves is the kid skin glove, that is all
I will say about kid skin gloves. Most of the bad boots and shoes we
have is horse lether or mule lether, that is all I will say about mule
lether and horse lether. All the good boots and shoes we have is young
calf lether, that is all I will say about young calf lether.
All the boots shoes and every thing else we have made of lether is
second thing because some poor animal was rob-ed of his coat that we
might have boots and many other things.
----, aged 16.
NETELY.
Netely are clean always and handsome to everybody. It are good in the
cite of God and man for it are a good thing to be netely always for it
make a man look netely. If we all are netely it are a good thing to be
clean for it are a good thing in the time of life so to be. Netely is
deserving of everybody and grate with all mankind. It are a good thing
to be netely for it is beautiful and pretty. It are correct always and
never rong to nobody an it make a man feel better when he are netely
an a nice looking person when he are netely are clean before every
body.
----, aged 25.
DRIVE WAGGON.
That the kind of work I likes to do. When I drive waggon I rides a
plenty. Riding are a good thing because when folks is sick it are good
for the helt. I likes to drive it because I have been loadin it. This
summer I hall fody. When I would load the barn yard wagon full of fody
it would be high from the groun, that is nice but sometimes it would
turn over, that would be truble. Truble are a bad thing.
----, aged 17.
* * * * *
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS AT AN EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS IN GEORGIA.
_What is writing?_
"Writing is the Representation of the human voice on the 11th part of
a noun."
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_How long since writing was invented?_
"From the creation of the world, or from the birth of Christ."
_What are the chief products of the State of Georgia?_
"The chief products are Agriculture, Turpentine, rail-roads, lumber
and grate deel of merchandice bussyness."
* * * * *
A SERIOUS ALARM IN GEORGIA.
The American Missionary is not published for the entertainment of its
readers. It has a more serious purpose. It speaks for races who have
suffered grievous wrongs, and for peoples whose condition is
exceedingly sad. It has to do with tragic facts, and much of what it
has to say must excite compassion, and must appeal both to the
consciences of our readers and to their sense of duty. To call upon
those whom God has blessed, to insert themselves into the woes and
spiritual wants of others who need their help, is grave and serious.
This is one feature. There are others. The joy of the work and the joy
of the worker, which we are called to record, are a relief to the
stories of necessity, and are like beautiful pictures painted upon the
dark background. When "Our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of
the Lord," we can for the time forget the darkness upon which the
light shines, and sing our hallelujahs. If it is saddening to tell of
the night, it is cheering to mark the fact that the providences of God
are working out his promises, and are surely bringing in God's day.
Over and above the evils to which we must call earnest heed, the
dangers which are not far away, and the exigencies of the cause of
Christ, we are sure that no one can read the MISSIONARY without being
cheered and quickened in gratitude to God for what he is graciously
doing for his needy ones through his people.
* * * * *
With the serious duty on the part of those who are working together
with God for the salvation of men, there drift along in the current of
his providences certain incidents that are exceedingly droll.
As we have seen some very ludicrous manifestations of character and
conduct in the terrible struggles of a battlefield, and have brushed
aside our tears at times for an irrepressible _bon mot_ in a hospital,
so in the weighty and solemn considerations which continually appeal
to us, and while we are anxiously asking how we can make the most
bricks for the Lord's building with the least straw, incidents arise
which not only throw light upon our serious work, but which are
irresistibly amusing.
* * * * *
We think we should share with our readers a recent one which, when
{94} we read it in the detail, impossible to be repeated here, made us
smile. Every time we re-perused it we thought it, as _Alice in
Wonderland_ said, "curiouser and curiouser."
Our readers are not strangers to the name and fame of the leading
editor of the chief paper in Georgia. They have heard of him as an
eloquent orator with a brilliant imagination which saw a New South in
almost millennial array, and told of it with an enthusiasm so
contagious that to the sons of the Pilgrims after the fulness of a
great dinner it seemed that the "Promised day of Israel" had at last
arrived. It is true that when this dinner had been thoroughly
digested, certain ones, removed from the afflatus of the occasion
began to ask, "Are these things so?" And when the Glenn Bill sought
the endorsement of public opinion, and substantially received it with
no word of reprobation from the eloquent orator and editor, some
recalled the speech of Sheridan in reply to Mr. Dundas, "The right
honorable gentleman is indebted to his imagination for his facts."
* * * * *
In all this time no one suspected the _Atlanta Constitution_ of
possessing the humorous character which it has lately revealed. In
late issues of February it has, in the garb of gravity, about two
columns that are ridiculously funny.
It appears that Prof. Sumner Salter, a graduate of Amherst College, a
son of an honored pastor of Iowa, a musical director of exceptional
gifts and a teacher of eminent ability, was solicited by parties in
Atlanta to take his residence there in the interest of the musical
cultivation of such as could secure his services. He soon attracted
the patronage of society, and all went smoothly until the tempter
came. Alas, there was a serpent in Eden, so there was a skeleton in
the closet of the _Atlanta Constitution_. It was a dreadful skeleton.
The _Constitution_ seriously publishes the fact that "it was whispered
about for some time," until patience ceased to be a virtue, when it
sent a guardian of public safety in the form of a reporter to
investigate. "Was it really true that a white man who was giving music
lessons to white people was also teaching a colored class at another
time and place? If so, what about the New South? The black man had no
business to be black, but he _was_ all the same, and being so what right
had Prof. Salter to teach _colored_ people to sing? Let the matter be
thoroughly searched out. The reporter departed on his mission, with a
countenance more in sorrow than in anger, and returned _vice versa_.
"'Tis true, 'tis pity,
And pity 'tis 'tis true."
The professor was actually doing this very absurd thing. He had taken
charge of a colored class in the church of which Rev. Evarts Kent is
minister and was teaching them how rightly to use the talents with
which God had so richly endowed them.
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Accordingly, in the year of grace 1888, the _Atlanta Constitution_
publishes the astounding fact, and calls the world to heed it, in
conspicuous head lines:--
"WHITE OR BLACK--A PROMINENT MUSICIAN WHO TEACHES BOTH COLORS--HIS
BUSINESS SAID TO BE INJURED."
Then followed the whole sad story. The musician had been interviewed
and investigated. He did not deny the serious charge to this
superintendent of public proprieties. With a heart as hard as old
Pharaoh's he proposed to go on and do more likewise. In short, the
representative of the _Constitution_ could do nothing with this
intractable professor. Hence "he did not stand upon the order of his
going, but went at once," and reported that "_according to Mr. Suiter's
own statement, he is teaching a colored class_, and he has lost a white
pupil, which shows that his course is hurting his business." "Diligent
inquiry has failed to bring to light any proof that he has notified
his _white_ pupils that he is teaching _colored_ people."