Book: The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 9, September, 1889
V >>
Various >> The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 9, September, 1889
The _Southern Congregationalist_, published in Atlanta, does not have a
high opinion of such men as John Brown. We quote:
There are men who never are mistaken. If your opinion or plan, no
matter how well sustained, differs from theirs, they solemnly
greet you: "Our conscience is our monitor: we can make no
concessions of principle." The case is ended. You may as well
make your humble bow and pass on, leaving them in their lofty and
superior place. Such men are of little use in the world. They may
have a few satellites, but that is all. It is noticeable how
uniformly the conscience and principles of these men agree with
their prejudices, salaries and other interests, and with changed
circumstances how "concessions" distill from them gently as the
dew.
We quote again from the _St. Joseph's Advocate_, as to the color line:
Man was created in God's own image and likeness. This image and
likeness is, however, not a physical one, it is a spiritual or
soul likeness. The likeness and image of the operation of the
human soul--the mind--through the material, physical medium of
the brain, is not only similar, but substantially and formally
alike in every division of the human race. It thus follows that
fundamentally there is an identity of mental or soul activity and
action in all the human race. Neither color, nor form, nor
feature, nor clime, operates a change on the formal and
fundamental identity of human thought as evolved by the human
mind....
It follows that the negro race, thinking the same thoughts, have
the same apprehension of the perfect, good and true, and,
thinking in the same lines as the Caucassian race, must needs be
of the same order of creation, in the image and likeness of their
Maker, although physically different in color, yet in mind and
soul the same. This, too, removes the theory of the inferiority
of races, and relegates it to the lumber room of the mere
physicist or corporal anatomist, who, because he cannot find life
in death any more than thought, would deny life as he would deny
the soul, even as La Place would not admit a Creator--God--
because he could not see him at the end of his telescope....
Naturally working for and under white men, their industry,
versatility and submissiveness have made many people think they
were an inferior race. This cannot be. Give them a fair chance in
life's battle, train their minds, fill their immortal souls with
worthy conceptions of the truth as only presented by the Roman
Catholic Church, and you will make of the negro race a kind,
charitable, intelligent, worthy Christian people, as full of love
for the country of their former enslavement as the best patriot
descendant of the Revolutionary fathers. Tried in peace and in
war when they have received but half the training of the white
race, they have not been found wanting, but have proven
themselves worthy of offices of trust and honor in every sphere
of life and as good Christians as God has ever granted His divine
grace to. His promises are for all nations and for all times, and
necessarily for the negro as for the white man, all of whom in
their souls are created in His own image and likeness from the
beginning.
Apropos of Romanism among the colored people, Archbishop Janssens,
of New Orleans, writes:
Last year there were baptized 3,705 colored children and 297
colored adults, which I estimate forms a population of about
75,000 Catholics in this Diocese.
We have six convents of colored Sisters, of which four are
schools, one an asylum for 74 girls, and the other an asylum, for
21 old women. There are, besides, nine schools conducted by white
Sisters, and eleven schools conducted by lay teachers--in all,
twenty-four schools with 1,330 scholars. It is not bad.
At Emmetsburg, Maryland, the Roman Catholics report the following:
_The Sisters are putting up a large and fine edifice_ which will
be ready for business in September, and will accommodate all the
Catholic children, both white-colored and black-colored in the
town and vicinity. I am curious to know if this is the first
instance in which children of both the dominant races will be
educated under one roof.
Says the editor: "How quickly the color-line disappears in the Catholic
Church."
* * * * *
NOTES BY THE WAY.
BY DISTRICT SECRETARY C.J. RYDER.
Not long ago, I met a Frenchman in the halls of the Congregational
House, who was looking for Secretary Coit of the Massachusetts Home
Missionary Society. He evidently had a very limited knowledge of the
English language, for he accosted me as follows:--"You--eh, you
somewheres? Ah! I begs my pardon."
This amusing bungle of the French brother fairly represents my condition
during the past few weeks. I have not been altogether sure that I was
even "somewheres." Preaching one Sunday in Dover, N.H., the next in
Talladega, Ala., the next at Santee Agency, Neb., the next on the
Cheyenne River, Dak., then enjoying a communion season with Brother Hall
at Fort Berthold, and the next standing beside the pastor of a New
England Church at the same Lord's table.
The days between these Sabbaths were filled with pleasant duties, in
talking over the great work of our Association with the earnest and
devoted missionaries. But many things are impressed upon one's thought
by such a trip as this. We realize more than ever that the American
Missionary Association is a great National Society, limited neither
geographically nor by any race restrictions; actually gathering in its
schools and missions, Negroes, Whites and Indians, and Chinese and
Japanese, and Hondurans and Cubans, and who knows how many other needy
and destitute people! Another fact that must impress one, is the
thoroughness of the work done. The examinations were thorough and
exhaustive in the schools. This was true, not only in the lower grades,
but also in the advanced classes. Dr. Andrews conducted the examinations
in Church History, at Talladega, which would have done credit to any of
our Theological Seminaries. And Dr. DeForest's classes in Mental
Philosophy gave evidence of careful study and of assimilation of that
which they had studied. They had not only eaten, but had digested their
mental food. The same was true at Fisk. What a grand thing it would be,
if the good friends of the Association in New England, and elsewhere in
the North, to whom our work is only presented through an appeal for
funds, might visit some of these grand institutions in the South and
West, and see just what is being done for these neglected people! The
work cannot be appreciated in its vast importance and magnificent
results, except after such a personal inspection of the field.
These large institutions are the centers of still larger missionary work
outside. One professor in Talladega, a graduate of Harvard, has been
especially busy during the last year, developing the Sunday-school work
in the surrounding districts. The following are some of the results:--
eight Sunday-schools enrolling about five hundred scholars; thirty
teachers, all students in the College; two schools meet in buildings
belonging to the College, three in log churches, owned by other
denominations, not having Sunday-schools, two in log cabins. "In one
school, teachers and scholars have to huddle together under umbrellas,
if they have any, or go wet, if they haven't them, whenever it rains;
and it is a sight which makes one long for better accommodations, that
more efficient work may be done," writes this self-sacrificing professor
in a note just received. In one house, he found a family of white
children, all of them very ignorant, and, so far as he was able to
discover, there was not a single book of any kind in the cabin. He
invited the children to Sunday-school, where, like Robert Raikes, he
teaches reading and spelling as well as the Bible, but the mother
indignantly refused, saying that she "didn't let her children go to
school with Niggers!"
There are many evidences of heroic sacrifice on the part of the people
among whom we labor, that one runs across in such a trip as this. Here
is one: A small church in Alabama has recently voted to pay fifty
dollars per month of their pastor's salary, that they may become
self-supporting, and so let the funds which they have received go to
other more needy fields. There are seventy-five persons in this church
who might be termed paying members; of all these, the pastor informed
me, not more than fifteen receive over a dollar per day; sixty receive
less than this. They pay, on an average, ten dollars per month for rent;
there are twenty-six working-days to the month, and they often lose at
least five of these, on account of weather or lack of work, making an
income of only twenty-one dollars per month. Ten dollars going for rent,
leaves but eleven dollars for the support of the family. Pretty heroic
economy that!
The Annual Meeting of the Dakota Mission, the Convention of missionaries
who are at work in the Indian field under the direction of this
Association, gathered at Santee Agency, Nebraska, Saturday, June 15, and
was full of interest. Sessions were held for three days, and continued
late into the night. Thrilling incidents of exposure on the prairie
during winter, swimming swollen and chilly streams, breaking through the
ice when crossing, which, in one case, resulted in the drowning of a
team of horses, seemed to be every-day incidents in the life of these
heroic missionaries, who are carrying on this noble work among the
Indians. The two Riggs brothers, whose heredity as well as personal
consecration fit them for large usefulness in the Indian work, were
especially rich in experience and inspiring in conference. One thing,
especially, impressed me in this Indian work, and that was, the
difference in character between the average teacher employed by the
Government and those employed by this Association and other missionary
bodies. Many noble men and women are at work under the Government in
teaching the Indians, but the purpose of the Government-school at the
best is simply to make intelligent citizens. The purpose of the
mission-school is to develop character, to inculcate purity, to create
moral earnestness, in other words, not simply to citizenize, but to
Christianize. We need more mission schools among the Indians, for only
the mission idea can redeem a pagan people. I would like to speak of
Miss Collins's work, gradually bringing the village of Running Antelope
on the Grand River into the knowledge of Christ, and of the developing
work at Fort Yates, and of the work among the Mandans, Rees and Gros
Ventres, and of the motley and picturesque crowd that gathered for
communion in the little church at Fort Berthold; but the interesting
facts from these fields must be left for other notes.
* * * * *
THE SOUTH
* * * * *
The Daniel Hand Fund is doing a noble work this first year in the
education of many students who would otherwise not have been able to
attend school.
* * * * *
HOWARD UNIVERSITY, THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
The anniversary of this department opened the commencement week of the
Howard University at Washington, D.C., which extended from Friday, May
24th, to Wednesday, May 29th. A crowded audience was in attendance at
the Asbury colored church. The graduating class of four was
exceptionally small this year, having been less in number than usual on
entering three years ago, and having been particularly unfortunate in
deaths and removals. The preceding graduating class numbered twelve, and
the succeeding one will number thirteen. But the addresses delivered by
the young men were of excellent quality, eliciting high approval from
numerous intelligent judges who were present. One general from the army,
who listened with great interest, came up afterwards to express thanks
to one of the Professors for having invited him to attend the exercises.
* * * * *
TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
Wednesday, June 5, witnessed the close of the eighth year in the history
of Tillotson Institute. The closing exercises began on Thursday, May 30,
with the annual written examinations which, on account of the very large
attendance of this year--greater than ever before--meant more work than
usual for the teachers. These examinations cover the work of the entire
year, and are looked forward to with much apprehension by the students.
For the past three years, the last Saturday afternoon before
commencement has been set apart as "Tillotson Day," and devoted to
exercises appropriate to such an occasion. This year, Rev. W.H. Shaw,
pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in this city, addressed the
students in the chapel. This was followed by a pic-nic on the school
grounds.
The last Sunday in the school is rather a sad day to most of the
teachers. There are many interests in these Sunday-schools which one
cannot bear the thought of leaving for four long months. We can only
hope that the good seed sown during the year has not fallen on stony
ground or by the wayside, and that it will survive the heat of the
summer.
Monday and Tuesday were devoted to oral examinations. These were held in
the chapel and were attended by an unusually large number of the parents
and friends of the students from the city and elsewhere. The classes
acquitted themselves very creditably; especially good, however, were the
examinations of the seventh grade in geometry and the fourth grade in
geography.
More attention has been given this year to industrial training than ever
before. In the recitation rooms, were specimens of the handiwork of the
students in the various industrial departments. A class of little girls
told of the various forms of needlework, which was something more than
theory with them, as their samples of work on exhibition testified.
There was not a useless article in the entire collection; they have been
taught how to make serviceable garments. Very neat specimens of darning
and mending were displayed, also.
The cooking classes exhibited samples of their skill. The disappearance
of all the handiwork of this class in the course of inspection witnessed
to its success. The classes in carpentry displayed specimens of their
skill. This is the first year that this industry has been taught here.
On Tuesday evening, occurred the annual musical and rhetorical
entertainment. A large audience is always expected on this occasion, but
this year it was larger than ever. Before eight o'clock, the chapel with
the adjoining halls and recitation rooms were filled, and
notwithstanding the efforts of the ushers to find room for every one,
about half the number were obliged to go away. One little boy who came
especially to see the dumbbell drill was found under the front steps,
after the close of the entertainment, fast asleep. He had taken refuge
there to await a chance to get a seat in the chapel later in the
evening.
On Wednesday morning, an audience of much more manageable magnitude than
that of the previous evening assembled at 10 o'clock, to listen to the
regular commencement exercises. These consisted of essays, orations,
recitations and declamations. Two young men, one of whom was graduated
last year from the elementary normal course, were graduated from the
higher normal course. The original productions presented this year were
said to have been unusually good. A visitor, in an address made after
the presentation of the diplomas, in speaking of the excellence of the
orations said of one of them, "It would be creditable on the platform of
any school in the United States."
The year just ended has been one of hard work and great prosperity. The
attendance has been not only larger than ever before, but constant, and
the result of such steady and persistent work is, as might be expected,
gratifying progress in all departments.
* * * * *
EXTRACT FROM A VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.
An account of the closing exercises of Avery Institute in South
Carolina, was given in the MISSIONARY last month. A copy of the
valedictory address of one of the pupils has been sent to us, from which
we excerpt one or two passages to give the flavor of the occasion. We
think it would be creditable to any school of like grade in the country.
To-day we are to go forth. Is it strange that emotions deep and
solemn should pervade our hearts? Amid these emotions, gratitude
stands prominent--gratitude to the honored Association which has
placed within our reach these opportunities for the development
of intellect and of character that fit us to take our places in
life as intelligent men and women. In behalf of the class of '89
and of all our schoolmates, we return to THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY
ASSOCIATION our heartfelt thanks, and invoke for it the richest
blessings of Him who maketh rich.... In bidding adieu to
school life, the thought which presses most forcibly is that we
are supposed now to be ready for our duties in life. Let us
rather remember that we have but caught a glimpse of the
knowledge which lies beyond and which beckons to us. May our
thirst for it be insatiable. Let us take care of each day and
each hour, and show to our Heavenly Father that we love his
precepts, and are seeking to live true and holy lives. Our places
here will soon be filled, but nothing will take away from our
hearts the memories of dear old _Avery_.
* * * * *
MISSIONARY VISITS.
BY MRS. A.W. CURTIS.
We were going out for a ride, a pleasure ride, a mission of mercy to the
sick and afflicted, to carry them spiritual and physical comforts.
We have no missionary horse and buggy, and it was not an elegant
equipage standing before our door. Our steed was a very lank, bony,
long-eared mule, and the vehicle a rather disreputable looking old
delivery wagon, kindly loaned to us by our grocer; but we were thankful
for anything that would take us safely. We soon came to a deep,
ugly-looking ravine, that must be crossed. I walked over the log that
spanned it, while Dominie "rattled his bones over the stones," down the
steep descent, and up the farther side in safety, thanks to the
sure-footed mule. Just beyond was a small rude cabin. The old chimney had
tumbled down, leaving nearly the whole of one side entirely open to the
weather. Inside, upon a bed that nearly filled the small room, lay a woman
who was paralyzed. A little child was her only attendant. Some kind
neighbor, however, had made her clean and comfortable for the day. The
poor woman could not move, but her dark eyes beamed with delight at the
sight of us, and the poor drawn face expressed the joy she could not
speak. We talked of the dear friend Jesus, whom she loved and trusted,
sang together a song of faith, and commended her to heaven's mercy and
kindness, in prayer.
On we went again, over the hills, the sun climbing higher and growing
hotter every moment. Then we turned off into some dim cool woods,
picking our way through rough ravines and blind tracks until we reached
another little cabin home. We had to bend low to enter the door of the
rough, rude house, yet the one low room, with loft above, sheltered a
family of nine persons.
Upon a bed, the dear old grandmother was dying, but the dark cabin
seemed illuminated by the shining face of the happy saint.
"You are almost home, Auntie?"
"Yes chile, almost home!"
"And you find Jesus dear and precious, now?"
"Yes! yes! dear and precious."
I held her cold, almost pulseless hands in mine, while her minister read
comforting words of hope from the blessed Word. Then we sang for her,
closing with--
"Oh come, angel bands, come and around me stand,
Oh bear me away on your snowy wings
To my eternal home."
Her dark face was fairly radiant. She lifted her hands toward heaven,
and though our eyes were holden that we could not see, we _felt_ that
the Lord and his angels were glorifying that humble abode, making it the
gateway of heaven. Holding fast to our hands as we knelt beside her bed,
she murmured responses to our prayers.
With uplifted hearts, we said our last good-bye, and went away rejoicing
in her triumph over the terrors of death and at the thought of the glory
that awaited her. As we passed out of sight, she entered within the
gates, with that radiant look upon her face; and the next day at sunset
we laid her away to rest.
From this "Beulah-land," we hastened on to visit a man who was in the
last stages of consumption. We had been for some time doing what we
could that he might be prepared for the great change that was drawing
near. In the low doorway, sat an old hag-like woman, who stared at us
with a look of rage, as we passed by her into the room where the sick
man was. Sultry as was the day, there was a hot blaze in the cavernous
fireplace. Over it hung an iron kettle, from which most sickening odors
emanated. The sick man was in a heavy stupor. We tried in vain to arouse
him, even for a moment. His wife looked unusually cheerful, as she
assured us that he "was a great deal better; that he did not cough at
all, and rested mighty easy."
We understood the situation at once. The poor woman was densely
ignorant, and believed her husband had been "conjured." The old hag in
the doorway was "a witch doctor," who had promised to cure him for ten
dollars! How the poor wife with her five little children to support
managed to raise it, God only knows; but she had done it, and was
pouring down that unconscious man's throat, hourly doses of a villainous
compound of most loathsome things, over which the old hag muttered her
incantations, and worked her Satanic spells. She watched us with her
evil eye as we looked pityingly upon the poor sufferer, and glared
menacingly when we told the poor wife that he was no better; that the
end was near.
That very night the death-like stupor was broken by agonies of torture
which racked the wasted frame for many hours. There was no respite for a
prayer, or for a thought of the eternity into which his poor soul was
hastening. The witch doctor fled in haste, unable to endure the sight of
the tortures she herself had invoked. It was an unutterable relief when
those shrieks of agony were hushed by the awful silence of death.
To us, there came an added burden of care as we realized how many of
this people are still in bondage to these heathenish customs and
superstitions. Nothing but the light of a pure gospel and the elevating
influences of education, will lift them out of their degradation. It
will take years of time, and patient labor, and will cost something; but
these souls are precious to God. They are "the heathen at our door."
There are _millions_ of them! They will soon be a mighty power for good
or evil in our nation. Which shall it be?
* * * * *
A CALL FROM AUNT MARY.
Aunt Mary is a member of one of our colored churches--a genuine daughter
of Africa--possessing characteristics belonging rather to the rougher
than the softer sex--a peddler by occupation; peddling cast-off clothing
(which she gets from white folks) among her colored sisters.
This business, together with her masculine performances and her
qualification in plantation melodies, makes her exceedingly popular with
the colored people of the town.
"Hello! Hello!" rang out from the highest key-note one morning just
after breakfast. Going to the door to see who it was, aunt Mary was
standing at the gate; she had come to make us a social and business
call.
"Dog bite?" she asked. "Yes," was the reply, "but he won't bite you,
open the gate." Aunt Mary opened it and entered the yard. "Mornin'"
(again at a high key). "Good morning, walk in." "I come roun ter see you
all dis mornin'; I dun know if I am 'ceptable." "Certainly, aunt Mary,
you are, walk in and take a seat by the fire."
Aunt Mary walked in, took a seat before the fire, placed her bag and an
old hat-box on the floor by her side and for a moment looked around the
room, noticing everything. Then she took up the poker, commenced poking
the fire, as if she wanted more heat to enable her to explain the chief
object of her visit. The heat is now up to the degree required, the
poker is laid aside, the old hat-box is in her lap, and aunt Mary is
ready to talk business. Opening the box, she said to Mrs. R., "Sister, I
have something har I want ter show you; dun know if you want ter see
it." "What is it?" Mrs. R. enquired. Here she pulled out a second-hand
bonnet trimmed in high colors. "A lady," she said, "give me dis last
night to sell. I aint show it to no body yet; she say to take it to some
of de preachers' wives be case it's too stylish for these yer common
niggers." The hat was examined and returned with, "I don't think I need
a hat just now, aunt Mary."