Book: American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 4, April, 1889
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Various >> American Missionary, Volume 43, No. 4, April, 1889
A colored minister, after reading his text on Sunday, said, "I shall put
the greatest distress of my remarks on the latter clause of the verse."
Another minister said, "At one of my stations there were men who called
themselves conjurers. One of these with his followers went to church to
challenge me. He asked me if I could cast out devils. I told him I
could, and as _he_ was the only man in the house who had a devil, if he
would come up to the stand, I would cast the devil out of him. The
conjurer abused me terribly, became so excited I started down towards
him, and dared him to meet me, and he turned from me and ran out of the
house, so you see if I could not cast the devil out of him, I cast both
him and the devil out of the house."
At another place, he said, the people became very much stirred up
concerning the temperance cause, so much so that many closed their
bar-rooms and took their Jimmy Johns and poured the contents out on the
ground. Said he, "the liquor said _good, good, good_, as it ran out of
the Jimmy Johns, and the people shouted for joy."
* * * * *
A DOCTRINAL SERMON.
By the kindness of a Baptist missionary, we are furnished with the
following doctrinal sermon:
_Text._--"Ye are the salt of the earth."
Scene in a Baptist church. Nineteen candidates awaiting immersion.
My text am, "Ye are de salt of de yarth."
You all knows what salt am good for--it is good to sweeten things--good
to season things--good to keep things from spilin'. We all likes salt in
our victuals, some people likes lots of salt and dey has it too; some
likes jes a little, and dey gets it too, but when you eats a whole lot
of salt, you gits mighty thirsty, and you wants _water_, tea nor coffee
won't satisfy you neither. You cries _water_, and you cries till you
gits plenty of it. Bredren--de text says, "Ye am de salt of de yarth."
What does it mean? Christians am like salt--we'se put here to keep this
old yarth from spilin'--to sweeten and to season it. Some Christians
have a heap more salt about 'em then others, and when dey is full of de
salt of God's grace, their soul cries--_water_--_water_--and a few drops
on der head won't satisfy 'em neither. You must take 'em down to de
river and put 'em in. And that's what we'se goin' to do--come chillen.
* * * * *
BOOK NOTICES.
_Report of the Centenary Conference of Protestant Missions, London,
1888._ By REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, F.S.S., Revell, Bible House, New York.
These two neat and well-printed volumes give a full sketch of the
proceedings of one of the most remarkable Missionary Conferences ever
held in the world. The addresses, papers and discussions emanated not
from theorists, but from men actually engaged in the management of the
great missionary organizations of Christendom, or who were actively
employed as missionaries in foreign fields. In addition to these, there
are papers and addresses by honored pastors on both sides of the
Atlantic, by travelers, and by students of the progress of the church in
modern times. The possessor of these volumes will have a treasury of
missionary literature of inestimable value.
_The Path to Wealth._ By A BLACKSMITH, B.F. Johnson & Co., Richmond, Va.
This is a unique book. It purports to give the addresses of a practical
blacksmith, some of them delivered in his shop to a few neighbors, but
the audience becoming larger, the rest were given in an adjacent church
building. To most persons, the title affords a slight clue to the drift
of the book, which is to show the duty and the benefits of giving the
tithe of a man's income to the Lord. The author's bottom thought is
based on this statement in the preface: "God pledges himself for the
success of that individual who renders obedience to the divine
money-claim." In other words, the path to wealth is the path of
benevolence. The obligation to give the tithe is earnestly enforced by
the ordinary Scripture quotations, and by arguments drawn from other
sources. Whatever the reader may think of the theory of the book, he
will find in it a good deal of valuable and practical truth.
_Yale Lectures on the Sunday-school._ By H. CLAY TRUMBULL. Philadelphia:
John D. Wattles.
This book contains Dr. Trumbull's addresses before the Yale Divinity
School in the course of the Lyman Beecher Lectures for 1888. They were
not only heard with interest, but the Faculty of Yale College expressed
their thanks to the author, and their wishes that the discourses might
soon be given to the public. Such an author in such a presence and with
such a theme, may well be supposed to have presented whatever is
interesting and valuable on a subject of such vast importance to
Christian families and the Christian church. We commend the book most
cordially.
_Cooking and Sewing Songs and Recitations for Industrial and Mission
Schools._ Edited by MRS. J.R. ROMER. J.W. Schermerhorn & Co., New York.
Of a very different style and size from the book above noticed is this
little neatly-printed pamphlet with flexible covers, occupying sixty-six
pages, of songs, to be used by pupils in connection with their
industrial labors. They are vivacious, pithy, adapted to the purpose in
hand, and doubtless would cheer and brighten many an hour that might
otherwise pass in the humdrum of an unrelieved toil, and at the same
time impress upon the memory and heart a good deal of salutary truth.
_The Songs of Praise_ with tunes. Published by A.S. Barnes & Co., New
York and Chicago.
Contains 500 choice Hymns with music well adapted to meet the
requirements of social worship. Such churches as do not desire a larger
collection will find this an excellent book of social song.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH.
* * * * *
DEDICATION OF BALLARD BUILDING, MACON, GA.
MRS. LIVA A. SHAW.
The dedication of Ballard Building took place Thursday, February 14th.
The services were attended by a large number of the patrons and friends
of the school, among the latter some of the leading white citizens of
Macon. After the opening exercises, short addresses were made by Prof.
Zettler, Superintendent of Bibb Co. schools, Dr. Greene, a leading
colored physician, and the following city pastors; Dr. Warren, First
Baptist; Dr. Jennings, First Presbyterian, and Mr. Miller, Washington
Avenue Presbyterian, (Colored). These were followed by Corresponding
Secretary Dr. Beard, of New York.
The music was appropriate and beautiful, and made a deep impression upon
some of our white friends, who were both pleased and surprised. Prof.
Zettler gave expression to his interest in all educational matters in
this county, and renewed his assurances of good will and gratitude if he
can do even a little to help on a good cause.
Dr. Warren said that he had known this school and church through all its
past history, having been present at the dedication of the old church
twenty years ago. He has watched the growth, and considered the
character of the influence here exerted, and so far as he can judge, it
has been, and is, elevating. He spoke of the value of a practical
education, and he said he could trust these Yankees with their skill and
energy to make the training they are giving in this school eminently
practical. He expressed gratitude for the privilege he has had of
knowing and loving a number of teachers and pastors engaged in labor
here, and he invoked the divine blessing upon all these consecrated
women who have left their homes and friends to do this work among the
poor and needy.
Dr. Jennings spoke to the young people of the need of a high aim and
firm purpose in accomplishing any important work in life. His words were
full of inspiration to the young men and women who heard him. He stood
upon the broad platform of Christian brotherhood, and while he
congratulated the American Missionary Association upon the grand work
being done, he especially congratulated the citizens of Macon, all of
whom are reaping the benefits of this work.
Dr. Greene's message was one of counsel and instruction for his own
people. He dwelt upon the generosity of the donor of this beautiful
building with its furnishings, the improved facilities afforded for
teaching, and the great need of a higher appreciation of the benefits
thus brought within the reach of a larger number than ever before. He
deprecated the common attempt to solve the Negro problem by stirring up
discontent among the people, and making them dissatisfied with present
conditions, unless a remedy is recommended and placed within their
reach. He looked upon every Christian school in the South, every man or
woman who walks uprightly and deals honestly, as helping to the only
true solution of the Negro problem. He rejoiced in the raising of the
standard of fitness to teach, on the part of the County Superintendent.
His words had the ring of successful, manly effort in them, and
commanded the respectful attention of all his hearers.
After returning thanks to Mr. Ballard for his noble gift, which brought
the assembly together, to Messrs. Pettit and DeHaven for the fidelity
with which they have wrought, to Prof. Zettler for his counsel, and to
the Christian friends who have helped and encouraged the work by their
sympathy, Dr. Beard gave an address full of information, concerning the
work of the American Missionary Association, its aims, encouragements,
and results. He emphasized the importance of making a right use of
blessings, and spoke of the danger that attends all effort to help
others, that it may become a hindrance instead of a help, according to
the way in which it is received. He left a well-defined impression that
it is the aim of the organization which he represents so to supplement
the efforts of those who are trying to help themselves, that true
independent manhood and womanhood shall be developed. He then introduced
the subject of a change of name for Lewis Normal Institute. He stated
that it was with the hearty concurrence of Gen. Lewis that he now
announced that this school should be henceforth known as BALLARD NORMAL
SCHOOL.
When Dr. Beard closed, Mr. Furcron, President of the Macon Sunday School
Union, (Colored,) rose and made a motion in behalf of the colored people
of Macon, that a rising vote of thanks be tendered to Mr. Ballard for
this beautiful building and its convenient and tasteful furnishings. Dr.
Warren made a special request that the franchise be extended so as to
include the white friends present, that all might vote. It was responded
to by the whole assembly's rising. After the benediction, the various
rooms were visited and admired. The beauty and convenience of the rooms,
the fine pictures on the walls, the beautiful desks and chairs for the
teachers, the elegant Steinway piano, the bell, and the handsome stoves,
were all noted and heartily commended.
The day passed off pleasantly with but one regret, viz; that Mr. Ballard
was not with us to share in our joy and to let us all see his happiness
in doing good to others.
* * * * *
TEN YEARS AT THE FRONT.
BY REV. STANLEY B. LATHROP.
The month of November, 1888, completed the cycle of ten years of my
active service in the work of the American Missionary Association. They
have been years of intense interest and great enjoyment. Ten years of
study, four in the army, and eight years of pastoral labor in Wisconsin
preceded; but of all these marked periods, none have been more truly
enjoyable and fruitful than these last ten years of preaching the gospel
to the poor. It has been my good fortune to visit at various times most
of the prominent points in the work of the Association in the South,
both in the colored and in the mountain white departments.
And so, from this decennial standpoint of experience and observation, I
want to put on record a few thoughts which have been simmering in my
mind.
1.--The vast importance and far-reaching influence of the work that has
been done. From all these schools and churches, scattered through this
Southland, there have come forth, year by year, hundreds of young
colored men and women, whose minds have been disciplined and characters
deeply impressed for a good life. Thousands have gone out to teach and
labor among their own people, with hearts aflame with true missionary
zeal. They have labored among innumerable trials and discouragements, in
leaky, rickety log-cabins, without desks, without blackboards, maps,
charts, or other educational necessities. They have been eager and
zealous workers for Sunday-schools, for temperance and righteous living,
even when oftentimes opposed by the old-time preachers and
church-officers of their own race, and sometimes opposed by the whites.
So the leaven has spread far and wide. A great work has been accomplished
by these schools and churches. These ten years have seen a most decided
uplifting of character and power among the colored race. They are
steadily acquiring property, building homes and improving their
surroundings. There are now over eighty newspapers published by colored
men in the former slave States of the South. Some of these are very
creditable specimens in typography and in ability, and they have great
and increasing influence. The great majority of these editors and
teachers have been educated in the A.M.A. schools. There are also
several colored lawyers, dentists and physicians, who have almost
without exception been educated in our schools. The direct results in
our Congregational church work are not as plainly apparent, because most
of the students when coming under our influence are already connected
with other churches, or else their parents are, which amounts almost to
the same thing. So the Baptists and Methodists have reaped rich harvests
through the training of their sons and daughters in our schools. But
these same denominations have been through this means greatly uplifted
and purified, so that great good has come to all these strong and
numerous churches, besides the steady growth of Congregationalism as
well. Rev. Dr. Curry, one of the leaders of Southern thought, said in a
recent address before the Georgia Legislature, "The Congregationalists
have done more than all other denominations for the education of the
Negro--they have done grandly, patriotically." To my eyes, which have
been wide open during these ten years, there are most marked and
gratifying signs of progress apparent in every way. Far and near the
leaven has spread, the older denominations are improving, the principles
of industrial and Christian education are accomplishing untold good.
2.--There is also manifest in these ten years a marked improvement in
the feeling between the races. When a man has lived for ten years in the
South, he will begin to see how deeply rooted and immovably imbedded in
the Southern mind is the sentiment of inborn contempt for the Negro.
This was greatly intensified and brought to the surface by the passions
and prejudices of the war, with the volcanic upheavals and chaotic
events of the "carpet-bag period" which followed. Considering all these
things, there has been in my opinion a remarkable loosening of the grasp
of prejudice, a gradual melting of the caste principle, especially in
the minds of the better class among the whites. I say this deliberately,
with personal knowledge of the agitation of the infamous "Glenn Bill" in
Georgia, and notwithstanding the prejudice in Alabama which broke up the
colored normal school formerly existing in Marion, and afterward
successfully opposed its re-establishment in Montgomery, or rather
refused the previous State aid. Having been for many years on the Board
of Trustees of Atlanta University, and being personally acquainted with
a number of the members of the Georgia Legislature, yet I am prepared to
state this astonishing paradox--that even the legislators who voted for
the Glenn Bill have a much higher regard for the colored race and for
the A.M.A. schools than they formerly had. I cannot take time to explain
this singular phenomenon, but it is true. One of the prominent members
of the Georgia Legislature said to me on the streets of Macon, when he
heard the news of President Ware's sudden death at Atlanta University:
"Mr. Ware was a hero of the nineteenth century, and deserves a monument
to his memory from the State of Georgia." So, notwithstanding Col. Glenn
and his followers, the same Legislature of Georgia has recently added
two million dollars to the school fund of the State. The efforts of such
brave and fearless leaders as Rev. Dr. Haygood, Rev. Dr. Curry, Hon.
Walter B. Hill and others have not been in vain, and the good results of
the A.M.A. work have commanded respect and even wonder from its
bitterest opponents, whose number and zeal decreases. Wisdom and
discretion in future will rapidly increase its friends.
3.--I could say much more concerning the colored work, in which (at
Macon, Georgia) I spent eight and a half of the happiest years of my
life. That branch of work needs to be sustained and extended for years
to come. Having now been for eighteen months in the mountain white
department of work, and having visited nearly all its most important
posts, I am prepared to say that this, also, is a most needy part of the
great missionary work which this Society has undertaken. Here are nearly
two millions of people, scattered here and there over this great
Cumberland Plateau, who because of their inaccessibility, their poverty
and indifference, have been largely passed by until recently. The great
tides of missionary effort have swirled and risen to the east, the south
and the west, but have reached only a little way up into the caves and
valleys of this great island plateau, which towers a thousand feet above
the surrounding country. The inevitable effects of isolation, of
intermarriage, of stagnation and neglect in mental and spiritual
matters, has brought about a condition of things which calls for the aid
and sympathy of all good Samaritans. They have not suffered in the same
way as the colored race, from the former oppression and contagious vices
of a superior race; but left alone in their mountain fastnesses, left
behind in the march of human progress, they have been a nation of
Robinson Crusoes, deteriorating and retrograding from the inevitable
nature of mankind when left to itself. Having no momentum from outside,
feeling nothing of the swing and swell of progress, hearing little and
knowing little of the outer world, they need now our help to uplift and
enthuse and save them. Schools, churches, industrial instruction, mental
and spiritual training, help for the poor and the ignorant and the
degraded is sorely needed. This is comparatively a new field of work,
and is still largely unexplored and obscure. There is much to be done,
and it should be done now. The results of a very few years of work are
encouraging. Pray, friends, pray! Give, friends, give! Help, friends,
help!
* * * * *
PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.
PROF. H.H. WRIGHT.
I call your attention to the fact that the Board of Education of the
city of Nashville have extended the course of study in the public
schools for the colored population, so that there is in existence now a
fully-fledged High School for the colored youth, having precisely the
same course of study as that of the white youth; and the members of the
school are subjected to the same written and oral tests as those of the
white school. So far as I know, this is the first instance of the kind
in the South. Most boards _graduate_ the colored children from the
eighth, or at most, the ninth year of school.
The colored High School of Nashville had public exercises in the Grand
Opera House in June, when a class of seven graduated. The Superintendent
of Public Schools, the Board of Education, and prominent citizens, white
and colored, occupied the platform and gave their approval of the
innovation by their presence.
The first class of the white High School was graduated twenty-eight
years ago and numbered seven. This class of colored graduates also
numbered seven.
A member of that first white class is now the President of the Board of
Education, and presented the diplomas to the members of this colored
class. Altogether, the occasion was auspicious for better things in the
public school system in Tennessee.
* * * * *
THOMASVILLE, GA.
One incident that has brightened our year is the arrival of a pretty
school organ, the generous gift of Mr. S.D. Smith, President of the
Smith Organ and Piano Company, Boston, Mass. It chanced that at the same
time, Mr. Hall, our Superintendent, came to visit us, and one morning
early we found him at work with his own hands removing it from its box.
On its being taken into the school-room where all the pupils were
assembled for the morning exercises, Mr. Hall in a felicitous manner
presented it to the school in Mr. Smith's name, taking from the children
in return a hearty "Thank you" for the donor, and a promise to make use
of the organ "in the cause of temperance and for the Lord Jesus Christ."
Then the first notes pealed forth from the sweet-toned organ, notes of
praise, accompanying the children's voices in the Gloria Patri. Then
holy hymns and temperance songs filled the air with melody.
The jubilee ended with grand old "America," and as we came to the
closing lines, how truly our hearts echoed the prayer:
"Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by thy might,
Great God, our King."
* * * * *
THE INDIANS.
* * * * *
VISIT TO PARK STREET CHURCH STATION.
BY MRS. T.L. RIGGS.
For a long time I have wished to see something of the people and of the
work at White River. The station there, Park Street Church Station,
so-called because the church of that name in Boston contributed the money
for its establishment, was almost the only one under Mr. Riggs's care
that I had not visited. Although the supervision of it, and of the whole
Rosebud Agency field, has recently been assumed by Mr. Cross, Mr. Riggs
continues to confer with him in regard to the management of it, and for
this purpose made a journey thither a few weeks ago. A happy combination
of circumstances at home made it possible for me to accompany him.
After three days of travel in pony-cart, we came in sight of the White
River, and before descending into the valley and crossing the river
caught a glimpse of the station building and the villages on the hills
near it. Climbing the hill at the rear of the station, we drove into the
yard, completely surprising Mr. Cross, who, nevertheless gave us a most
hearty welcome.
As soon as the news of our arrival had spread, we began to have
visitors, but, knowing that I should not see many of the people,
especially the older women, unless I went to their homes, I arranged
with Mr. Cross to take me to the different villages. We spent two days
in going about.
I should think there are between forty and fifty houses in the three
villages near there. In each of two houses, we found _three wives_ and
ten children, and the others were well populated. All were in ignorance,
and filth, and degradation, pitiable to see. Some babies nearly a year
old had never been thoroughly washed since their birth. Some of the
older people had never been to the school-house. A few rather pride
themselves upon keeping aloof from the native teacher and the various
exercises he conducts. We were pleasantly received at all the places.
Some of the people had heard of "The Sacred Herald's" wife, though they
had never seen me.
Wishing to have all the women come to the school-house, that I might see
more of them and have them meet Virginia De Coteau, the teacher's wife,
we invited them to a feast. This is something the Dakotas are very fond
of, though usually it is connected with some of their dances or other
heathen customs. Some of the old women wished to know if I was going to
_preach_ to them, evidently wanting to fight shy of anything of this
sort, but I told them no, it was to be a real feast, not a prayer
meeting.
Mr. Cross entered heartily into the preparations for the festivity. We
made about five gallons of coffee and the same quantity of stew,
consisting of meat, onions, turnips, beans, rice and crackers, with the
gravy well thickened--a very savory mess it was, too. We had crackers to
pass around. Not a very elaborate _menu_, but one which appealed
strongly to the Dakota taste.
By noon the women began to gather, and soon the school-room was well
filled, a good many sitting on the floor. There were about fifty
present, not counting little babies. There were only two painted faces,
though in our visiting there was scarcely a house in which there were
not two or more of the women painted; the most of them had washed their
faces and put on clean dresses.