Book: The American Missionary Volume 50, No. 6, June 1896
V >>
Various >> The American Missionary Volume 50, No. 6, June 1896
The people have but very little money and are obliged to struggle long and
hard to get a little place to call home, in many cases buying the lumber
and hiring the carpenter on credit. This being the case, it takes them
years and years to pay for the little homes. The homes vary from the
fairly comfortable to the wretched. It is noticeable that those who have
had the advantages of an education have better homes than those who have
no education.
There comes to mind as I write one very miserable home in which both the
parents are ignorant. There are three rooms to the house not nearly so
comfortable as the places where Northern farmers keep their horses and
cattle. There is neither stove nor grate in the house, but simply some
rocks on each side of the open fireplace on which they lay the green wood,
by which they sit and shiver while the cold winds blow through the cracks
in the floor and sides of the house. There are six children and only two
excuses for beds. One of these has on it a tick, the other has a pile of
dirty rags. There is not a whole table or chair in the house.
And yet, these people, like many others just as poor as they, are trying
to educate their children. They believe that in Christian education lies
the only redemption from this condition for them and their race, through
their children, who are enjoying privileges that were denied to them.
There are not more than a dozen individuals in the church who are earning
a comfortable living. More than that number did so when times were better,
but now there is not much for them to do except conduct very poor farms,
on which they cannot earn enough to make themselves comfortable.
There have been very few years in the history of the church when it did
not have a revival of religion. Of late it has been the custom to have two
series of special services each year--one during the winter, while the
school is in session, and another during the summer vacation. Effort is
made each year to have all the students converted. Of all the young people
who have graduated here only two have left without being professing
Christians.
The growth of the church has not been rapid, but steady. During the days
of slavery the colored people were members of the churches to which their
masters belonged. None of them belonged to Congregational churches, and
so, when Congregationalism came to the South after the war, it was
entirely new to the former slaves and to those who had been their masters.
The masses of the children and the young people still cling to the
churches which their parents were taught to love. It will, therefore, be
some time before Congregationalism will grow rapidly in the South. The
church has no building of its own, and no parsonage, but worships in the
chapel of Talladega College. The building in which the chapel is located
was erected by the white Baptists of the Coosa Valley Association before
the war as a college for their sons. Some of the old slaves who helped to
put up the building lived to see freedom, to see the building come into
the hands of the American Missionary Association, and to see their own
children study and graduate in it.
MEETINGS AMONG THE HILLS AND AT A CONVICT CAMP.
BY REV. H. E. PARTRIDGE.
Perhaps nowhere is a religious meeting made more of than in the hill
country of the South. There are reasons _and_ reasons for the fact. Take a
real, genuine Methodist or Baptist matron, or brother, of fifty, and they
love Christ and His cause, and do not fail to associate their love for Him
and the work with the gathering in His name. If it be possible, they will
be in attendance when "the parson" comes round. The girls love to go; some
because they, too, are learning to love the service of the Master, some
because they have no other so good opportunity to see and be seen, and
others because everybody else goes. Where the girls and young ladies are
sure to be, there the boys and young men are apt to be; and so it comes
that when the meeting, especially the "big meeting," is to be held, the
people throng. And if you want to see a genuine democracy, untainted by
any kind of aristocracy, you could not find it better illustrated than
among the hills, at meeting time, in some log "church-house." No Sir
Wonderful to claim best pew, no usher to give you the place _he_ chooses.
You come with your wife and, following the custom, she goes to the left,
you to the right. I will not describe the service. The singing varies from
a wonderful chorus of praise that lacks nothing in volume in one
neighborhood, to the nasal-twanged hymn which some incompetent leader
sings almost alone in some other community. The old songs predominate, but
any brisk moving song of work of praise or progress easily becomes a
favorite, when once it has been sung long enough so that the words and
movement are mastered by a few.
You will not be long in any big meeting or revival service before you will
hear:
"Mother has a home, sweet home,
Mother has a home, sweet home,
Mother has a home, sweet home.
Lord, I want to join the angels; beautiful home."
This is varied. Now it is Brother, Father, Preacher, or Sister who has a
home.
You may not know the tune or words, but it will not be long before you are
singing with the rest, if you are a participator or worshiper, and not
that horrid and heartless thing, a critical looker-on.
You know of the hand-shaking? If a sinner seeks to enter the Christian
life, he comes, on invitation of the minister, to shake hands at the close
of, or during, the service. And often service closes with an
all-round-hand-shake. There is a song started, like "Say, Brother, will
you meet me?" or some simple devotional hymn, and all rise and shake hands
all around, singing or praying, or speaking gently one to another.
Ah! many a feud has sunk forever, many an unpleasantness has been
forgotten, many a half-ripe quarrel has been strangled, and many a
friendship has been strengthened and ripened in these services of emotion
and love, those hand-shakings of the Mountaineers. The blessings of the
peacemakers should be his who first introduced the service.
Among other invitation hymns I have heard, I remember vividly:
"Sinner, you are welcome, Yes, Yes, welcome
To the dying lamb."
This, too, is varied. "Seeker," "Brother," "Sister," and "Everybody's
welcome" being sung.
I could tell of parts I do not like, of excitements the reverse of helpful
to my devotional feelings, and of loudness mistaken for piety or zeal, but
so could others criticise the services at Dr. Cuyler's or Dr. Storrs's
church. I prefer to speak of the really good.
May I tell you of a unique service? It was at the Convict Camp, near
Baker's X Roads, in Cumberland County, Tenn.
No need to ring the bell--the congregation are assembled, and armed guards
are standing by lest someone should escape. Still a bell was tapped.
Silence at once.
"Boys," I said, "when I was here before you kindly asked me to come and
speak to you again. I am here. Before I speak I want to have you sing.
Will you sing?" A moment's pause, and in the rich tones which the colored
people so often have, there rang out from scores of throats, one of those
weird songs of the race. It was of chariots and heaven, of songs and
praises, and of Jesus the King. I cannot reproduce or describe it. I
prayed for a blessing on our service, and several responded with
apparently as fervent "Amen" as ever came from Camp Meeting or Altar
service. Then I read passages, closing with a part of Romans 6: from the
twenty-third verse. I spoke briefly of "The wages of sin, and of the gift
of God." I almost fear I was harsh. Poor fellows--they were criminals, but
who is not guilty, before God, of violations of Divine law?
As I pleaded for the starting of a better life, as I spoke of their
families, as I said "Some of you will be through with prison life soon,"
as I talked of honesty, sobriety, and purity, there were moist eyes. I
asked for an expression at the close. All who will accept Jesus Christ,
and from this very hour live for Him, and with the strength he gives try
to forget the grievances you have thought to revenge; try to love and
serve one another here, in Christ's name, and others when released; strive
to do your work faithfully; in short, try to do what you think Christ
would want you to do--first, give me your hand, and then kneel with me in
prayer. Through the chinks and crevices of the stockade a score of men
thrust their hands, eager to respond to the invitation, and many knelt in
prayer.
How much was make-believe? How much was genuine? The Searcher of hearts
alone knows. Sowing by all waters, I am willing to leave results with God.
Another song, and then "Good-bye, boss!" "Good-bye, Captain!" "Come again,
preacher!"
The days were weeks, and then! Criminal carelessness, perhaps. A premature
explosion of dynamite and powder combined on the railroad, and six of
these men had been discharged. Dead! A rough grave beside the track, God
knows the rest. They were convicts, they were blacks, but they were my
brothers and yours, children of one Father.
I was tired that Sunday, but I am glad God let me go and give them another
invitation to the Christ-life. Perhaps in some other time and place I
shall talk over that service among the boys in black at Convict Camp, with
a soul in white over there. Who knows?
A BRIGHT AND CANDID VIEW OF OUR MOUNTAIN WORK.
The following letter comes from a member of the "Andover Band," three of
whom entered the work among the American Highlanders last year. It is the
first band of theological students organized in any of our seminaries for
work in the field of the American Missionary Association. It was a very
interesting movement and worthy the seminary that has sent out bands into
other parts of the country which have accomplished great results.
The testimony is set forth by Prof. John C. Campbell, a cultured young
man, who looks on this interesting work with a fresh vision and gives
opinions well balanced respecting this field and others.
It should be said that the letter was not written for publication.
The year has been trying and wearing, but I take great satisfaction in
knowing that much has been accomplished. We have established ourselves in
the hearts of the people, I believe, and have the respect and co-operative
interest of the best men in this and adjoining counties, so I hope for
great things in the future if our friends in the North will only help us.
Suspicion has given way to confidence, and I may even fire broadsides at
the tobacco habit now, even if it hits home. They are a trying, promising,
and loveable people. I admire those of my classmates who have heard the
voice of God (not the prompting of inclination) calling them to remain in
dear old hair-splitting New England; but, while I admire their bravery, I
am sorry for them, for it must seem as if they were striking in the air.
Here we see the enemy, and can strike directly at him, and one has some
satisfaction in getting weary and sick at heart in fighting at great odds
against a visible power instead of the more subtle powers "of the air."
But I digress! It is such a temptation to let myself out when
communicating with one who understands this discouraging, fascinating, and
encouraging work. This year's work has given me experience, as well as
gray hair, and even if my labors in the South should terminate this year,
I should feel that I had gained a great deal. I wish that all Northerners
could come to know the best element of the South, and show their
magnanimity as victors by helping the American Missionary Association do
the work which alone will make a new South. To me the South presents a
touching but heroic picture as she struggles nobly, but somewhat
uncertainly, toward the light, still the victim of her cavalier training,
still held back by the poor black and the poor white, the products of her
accursed institution. Now that is all abolished, she needs help from the
North. I doubt if we in the North would be any better had we been placed
in the same environment, and our superiority may be due as much to soil,
climate, and the consequent unprofitableness of slave labor, as to our
Puritan ancestry.
The tide of immigration is beginning to turn toward this State from
Georgia, and many coming from the Dakotas. The mass of ignorance is
appalling. I realize in part, I think, the difficulty of getting the needs
of the whites before a sympathizing audience. When it comes to a white
man's needs and his condition, too many church members and others
substitute the scientific theory of the survival of the fittest for
Christ's law of love. They forget too, I fear, that many of these people
in the mountains are victims of slavery as innocent as the Negro; and they
do not see that their indifference is letting them lie in the hard bed
which circumstances, largely beyond their control, have made for them. If
they will only give us money, "greenbacks," if need be, and enable us to
get the young out of bed on their intellectual and spiritual feet, I shall
be satisfied. And if our Congressmen and politicians would bury the
"Bloody Shirt," and stop throwing stones over Mason and Dixon's fence, and
out of their personal means give, what is too often given uselessly, to
the Association and other similar Boards, the questions which spring from
sectional prejudice would soon be solved. I do believe that what the
American Missionary Association stands for is the panacea for all
political and social ills.
REVIVALS.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
BY REV. GEO. H HAINES.
We are in the midst of a glorious revival. Rev. James Wharton was with us
six days. What wonderful help he has been to our work during his stay with
us. We had eleven hopeful conversions. We continued our meetings after he
left us, and our total number of conversions is twenty. Among the persons
who have left the ways of sin and turned into the way of life are two very
remarkable cases. A woman of about fifty years of age, a drunkard and one
of the most profane women in our city, asked the people of God to pray for
her. It seemed hard for her to understand the simple plan of salvation,
and that the Lord Jesus would save her if she would believe. The evening
after Mr. Wharton left she received the evidence of her conversion. I can
never tell how the news of this woman's conversion spread over the city.
It created as much excitement as the news of the man who was found by our
Saviour among the tombs. Crowds came to our services to see if the news
was true, and when they heard the testimony for Christ they rejoiced with
us.
The other is a man of about the same age, who has been a great disbeliever
in the word of God, though his wife was a member of our church. He was a
very strong man in all the societies in the city. He has been led out of
darkness into light. The people say: "God bless Mr. Wharton." Our
Sunday-school has grown wonderfully in the last month. Indeed, every
department of our church work is looking up.
BEAUFORT, N.C.
BY REV. J.P. SIMS.
Evangelist Wharton's visit did us a great deal of good. Not only have
souls been converted, but the church has been edified. In the revival
there were six hopeful conversions, and four joined our church, among them
a very promising young man.
Our people are becoming more and more willing to divide their little mite
with the church. They make a special effort once a month to help raise the
pastor's salary by giving what they call a "surprise party," bringing
packages of flour, sugar, coffee, meal, rice, fish, etc., for which I give
them credit. Sometimes the unconverted are with them. They come in
singing, fill the table, then a prayer, and return at once, singing as
they go. By this process we are able to send in a better report than we
have been doing.
CENTRAL CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS, LA.
BY REV. JOHN W. WHITTAKER.
We have just passed through a precious season of revival. We began a
series of meetings during the week of prayer. God's presence and blessing
were manifestly with us, so we were constrained to continue them another
week, holding meetings every night. Fifteen were turned to God. Nine of
them have united with our church and have begun service for the Master.
The meetings were well attended, and our whole church was stirred up to
more faithful work for God and humanity. Our church is steadily increasing
in strength. Almost every Sabbath some one is taken into membership. We
have on our books nearly two hundred and fifty people who have pledged
themselves to give weekly on an average ten cents or more toward the
support of the church. We love the American Missionary Association, and
appreciate all that it is doing for us. We need its aid just now. We
cannot get on without it. But we do not mean to make what you do for us an
excuse for doing less for ourselves.
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
DENOMINATIONAL FRATERNITY.--From High Point, N. C., we have the following:
One of the great hindrances to the evangelization of the colored
people in the South is the constant flaunting of denominational
banners by ignorant and unprincipled preachers. But I am happy to
say, that at our special services on Lincoln Memorial Day, this
spirit of evil was buried in High Point, at least for one day. It
was pleasant to see Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists
working harmoniously together to make the occasion successful. One
brother and wife gave us 45 cents, and the pastor of the Baptist
Church, after speaking a word in behalf of the American Missionary
Association came forward and deposited a quarter on the table, at
the same time urging his members to give liberally to help it
overcome its great burden of debt. I am pleased also to note the
self-denial of two faithful members, a mother and daughter of our
own church, who out of their poverty gave 50 cents each. Both of
these good women are out in service, and although their earnings
are very small, they never give less than 25 cents each whenever
special efforts are made to raise money for the support of the
work.
GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCES OF THE PAST.--Rev. James Brown, of Anniston, Ala.,
recalls some memories of the past:
When we met as a church on October 22, to pray for the success of
the American Missionary Association, it was touching to hear the
testimony of people from thirty-five to fifty years of age as to
the self-sacrificing spirit of the missionaries of the American
Missionary Association, as they came from Talladega to this
section more than twenty-five years ago. Some told how the
missionaries had to hide from place to place to keep out of the
reach of the Ku Klux, the speakers being almost eye-witnesses to
the murder of Mr. Luke, a few miles from this place. If some of
our Northern friends could have heard the words of gratitude for
the work of the American Missionary Association, and seen the
tears of joy over what has been accomplished, they would know that
their labors and gifts had not been in vain.
LIBERAL GIVING FROM A SMALL INCOME.--Rev. A. L. DeMond, of Lowell, N. C.,
writes:
The people have had a heavy burden upon them during the hard times
of these winter months when there is so little for them to do in
the way of earning money. Of their little means they give freely
and gladly. Many of them are paid for their work in provisions at
the stores so that they do not receive much money. One poor woman
said to me: "I can always give a little something because I get
_forty cents every week_ for my washing." She lives in a little
log cabin, through the sides of which the wind often whistles, but
every Sunday she gives something for the church of Christ.
A POOR WOMAN'S FINE FEELING.--One day last year our laundress sent her
oldest boy, a lad fourteen years of age, on an errand. He was gone an hour
or more longer than she expected him to be. Upon his return she asked him
what he had been doing all that time. He told her that an expressman had
been run away with, and had been quite badly hurt. He had helped get the
man into a store, had gone for a doctor, and had done all that he could
for him. When he left him the man told him to go to his office the next
day and he would give him something. The boy's mother at once said that he
mustn't think of taking anything for what he had done for the man when he
was in trouble.
Who can say that the colored people are incapable of fine feeling? This
poor woman was certainly not so well provided with this world's goods that
she had no use for money. On the contrary, she was a widow, with a family
of five children that she had kept together and had sent to school at the
cost of much sacrifice and years of hard work at the washtub.
THE INDIANS.
REVIVAL--LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
MISS M. C. COLLINS, FORT YATES, N. DAK.
I am sure you will be glad to hear of the great, may I say "revival,"
which seems to be upon us. On March 1 at our regular communion we received
into the church fifteen adults, and there were eight marriages and nine
children baptized. Six of these people came from Flying-By region (Miss
Lord's people). She is rejoicing. One, Swift Cloud, and his wife, are a
middle-aged couple, who lived here when I first came to this village. They
are a good addition to our force. Then Two-Runs and his wife are two good
people, Miss Lord's near neighbors, and will be a great help to her. The
others uniting came from my village, and we now have only two men and
their wives in this village who are not in the church. Bird-Dog, another
of Miss Lord's people, and his wife and sister have given me their names
as candidates for membership at the next communion. The Y. M. C. A. down
there are hauling logs to build a place to meet in. The little cabin we
put up is already too small.
Our contributions for Native Missionary work, from October 1 to March 1,
all told, on Standing Rock Agency, are $206.47.
Women's Missionary $107.20
Societies have given
Y. M. C. A. 57.99
Grand River Church 21.78
Standing Rock Church 19.50
Elkhorn (on Grand River), 45.65
the Women's Society
Y. M. C. A. 26.39
Beside this our church here has given about $15 to the Lincoln Memorial
Fund for the Association and $10 to buy table and chairs for the pulpit.
Our Christians are going from house to house to pray with the sick, and
many of these people are being brought to Christ through this means. On
communion Sunday we opened the folding doors and yet the church was so
full that three of us sat down on the little platform behind the pulpit.
I forgot to tell you that aside from this $206 we raised $200 to build a
chapel at One Bull's, where Elias was. The house is too little.
We are not "lazy, good-for-nothing Indians, fit only for the soldiers'
target." We are men and women struggling against clannishness and
superstition--against evil without and within--reaching up to you who know
the blessedness of the Light of the Gospel, asking you to reach down, down
into our dark lives and lift us up. Let us get a glimpse on this side of
the beauties of Heaven.
We need your help, and bye and bye we will join your forces and help you
to gather with God's fold other tribes and nations who know not God. Do
not cut us down this spring. It will break our hearts with discouragement.
God help people to hear our prayer. We shake hands with God's people in
the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
P.S.--Three of the people outside the church in this village have given me
their names as candidates for church membership at the May communion.
CROW AGENCY, MONTANA.--The growth of the missionary work among the Indians
at the Crow Agency, Montana, is very encouraging. Recent reports from this
field bring information of large gatherings in the religious services, and
in the church services and Sunday-school. Our missionary, Rev. J. G.
Burgess, is planning to spend several weeks this summer among the camps on
the prairies to which the Indians withdraw during the warmer months. A
chapel is very much needed at this mission in order to afford a place for
religious gatherings and such instruction as the missionary and his wife
are able to give these Indians. This mission of the American Missionary
Association is the only Protestant mission among the entire Crow tribe.
THE CHINESE.
THE OROVILLE MISSION.
BY REV. W.C. POND, D.D.
[Illustration: New Years Cake.]
New Years Cake.
The cake of which we give a picture is more than a monument to the
artistic cookery of which some of our brethren there are capable. It was
made in a sort of Christian competition with the rude and senseless
operations by which their idol-worshiping countrymen observed their great
annual festival. And on Salvation Army principles, though not after their
methods, it called the attention of multitudes both of Chinese and
Americans to the Mission House and the Mission work and the Saviour for
whom our brethren were eager to bear witness. They did not confine their
attention to cake-making nor express their loyalty to Christ in that way
alone, but made up a very respectable sum, which, as "New Year's Gifts to
Jesus," they placed in our treasury.