Part 4

“By being a member of the Association for three years, I have known what their difficulties are. I will tell you a little of it; perhaps it will illustrate to you some of their principal difficulties. As the rule of our Association requires that ‘any one who desires to become a member of this Association must forsake idolatry and all bad habits, and prove himself to be a follower of Christ,’ so, when he is a member, he must do accordingly; and when he does that, his friends and relations will turn their backs on him, and will have nothing to do with him. That makes it very unpleasant, and he feels the loss of their friendship very much; because it is a general thing among our people in this country that, when a Chinaman first comes here from China, he is a dependent on his friends and relatives, who provide him food and shelter, and then find him employment until he has earned some money; then he pays them back what seems to him right. He feels it is his duty to respect and follow their advice, because of their kindness to him when he was a stranger. So, when he becomes a Christian, he not only feels he has lost those friends, but, perhaps, sometimes gets a good whipping from his relatives also. That not only prevents some from becoming Christians, but four or five of our members have turned back under these circumstances.

“But we make it one of our principal duties to make each one feel that he has found some better friends in the Association than those he has lost by becoming a Christian. Not long ago a young man became a Christian, and his friends, not satisfied with abusing and jeering at him, wrote a false report to his parents in China, telling them that their son in California not only had forsaken his old religion and the worshipping of his ancestors, but also had cut off his long queue and dressed in foreigner’s clothes. When they received this news, they wept and made many inquiries, and worshipped all the gods they knew of, praying them to use their spiritual power to turn their son back to be a Chinaman again, so that, when they die, they will have some one to take care of their bones and feed their ghosts. When the young man heard of this, he wrote home to them, telling them it was true that he had become a Christian, but it was not true that he had cut his queue and wore the foreigner’s clothing, and said that he was a Chinaman still; he would honor them just the same, and perhaps more. And he has not heard from them speaking on this subject ever since. Now, friends, such things as I have said often occur, but most of our members are firm. When once they have become Christians, they will stick to it, though they have so many hardships to bear.

“They often encounter some hard questions about Christianity from their heathen friends, such questions as, ‘If Jesus was the Son of God and a good man, why did the people kill him on the cross? People would never kill a good man that way.’ ‘You say, being baptized with a little water pour on your head, and your sins are no more. I can take the water and pour on my head, or wash me all over fifty times a day!’ ‘You say God created heaven and earth and man, and has power over everything; why He lets the devil live and lead the people to go astray, and, when the people die, He will condemn their souls and send them to hell?’ etc., etc. If they cannot answer these questions, they will ask their teachers or search the Scriptures to see what answer they can get from them—not only that those questions may be answered but in hopes that their heathen friends may be led to become Christians, also.

“We feel we are weak and few in number, but we trust God, and lean on His strong arm, that He will carry us through. We know that He has been very good to us, and has given so many kind friends to help us along; and we hope, through His goodness, that all our people will soon know that Jesus is the only Saviour of the world.”

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AFRICA.

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THE MENDI MISSION.

The Church and the Sunday-School.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, GOOD HOPE STATION.

We had our First Communion yesterday. It was a great day in the church. All were in high spirits. We received one new convert, and others are seeking the way of life. We observed the Week of Prayer with the Church Mission Society, holding our meetings with each other alternately through the week, beginning with us to-night. We have a splendid Sabbath-school, and are doing all that we can to make it better.

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The Day-School—The Christmas Entertainment—Knives and Forks.

BENJAMIN JAMES, M. D.

We have about sixty or more scholars, and, I tell you, to instruct them in the way they teach schools in America is difficult; indeed, more so than you have any idea of. With every attempt you make to teach them in that way, you become more and more discouraged. Our Sabbath-school is too large for the number of teachers at present engaged, but we hope to remedy this soon. We gave them, Thursday night, a Christmas entertainment. Mrs. Snelson cooked the food, which was partly furnished by the members of the church, and the remainder by ourselves. I was appointed to decorate the chapel, and, I must say, to these people’s credit, that I never had so many hands under my control in my life; and, as evergreen after evergreen was placed in position, the laborers increased. We not only had fruits, but poultry, vegetables, cakes, pies, candies, raisins, and music. There were many strangers, such as the Commander of the Port (a white man, with more decorations of honor on his chest than in the ephod of a Jewish high-priest), the Collector of the Port (white), the Catechist of the Established Church (colored), seven merchants (two white and five colored), the Postmaster (colored), Custom House officers in abundance (all colored), military officials of all grades, from a captain to a corporal. The church people, boatmen, and servants, were all present. Several tables were set; but, I am sorry to say, that when the laborers’ (such as carpenters and field hands) time came to sit and to sup, the best had been consumed.

I sat opposite a boat’s crew, and they began to laugh; as they would use the knife, then the spoon (large), after that the fork, such laughing after the use of each of these pieces of cutlery I have never witnessed before. I began to inquire of the waiter, an interpreter, what they were so much amused at, and he informed me that they were laughing at their use of the knives, forks and spoons. The spoons did not hold enough, they said; the food rolled off the knife in their unsteady hands, and the fork was like putting water in a fish-net instead of a calabash. Every day since that, when they eat dinner, they laugh about those pieces of cutlery.

During Christmas-Day, services were had in the chapel; they were begun at 5 o’clock, and continued until daylight. At 10 o’clock, there was preaching to the prisoners through an interpreter. On Thursday, at the banquet, we had singing and addresses to the day and Sabbath-schools, for they both were invited. The girls were marched from the chapel two by two, as were also the boys. This was another new feature, and they were well pleased with it.

I have had an extensive medical practice here and at Avery, and have so much to do in this way, that I am compelled to ask you to give me written instructions whom to attend, and how to proceed.

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COMMUNICATIONS.

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EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE.

REV. J. E. RANKIN. D. D.

The following paragraphs are from the paper read by Dr. Rankin at the anniversary at Syracuse. It was intended that it should be printed with the proceedings, but, by accident, it was not left in the hands of the committee. We hope to publish it in full in a series of documents which we have in preparation.

After valuable historical statements, and a vivid picture of the needs, and of the progress already made, among other good things, the Doctor says:

The southern portions of this country cannot always remain blind to the truth that their _material prosperity_ depends upon the employment of _educated labor_. Sociologists claim that an educated laborer will produce twenty-five per cent. more than an uneducated one. If a colored man is worth $100 a year without an education, he is worth twenty-five per cent. more with one. The thrift of New England has been largely dependent upon the common-school houses there. Give a man education enough to transact ordinary business, to enable him to keep his accounts in writing, to improve his mind daily by reading, to understand the institutions of his country, to have an insight into the laws which shall govern him in relation to his neighbors and his God, to know his rights and his duties, and he is twenty-five per cent. better as a _producer_ than he was before. The necessity of keeping the colored man ignorant, of keeping out discussions relating to human rights, involved the other necessity of keeping a population unintelligent, unthinking and, so far forth, unproductive, as appeared in the very implements employed for tilling the soil.

The southern portions of this country cannot long remain oblivious of the fact that the _illiterate_ class are largely the _criminal_ class; that ignorance fosters crime. In New England only seven per cent. of the population—and these almost entirely of foreign birth—are illiterate. Eighty per cent. of all the crime committed, is by these illiterate persons. It really comes to this: “Which is the wisest outlay of public money—that put into schools and school-houses, or that put into almshouses and jails?”

It is not merely intelligence which prevents crime. It is the early formation of habits of industry. It is the pre-occupation of the mind, so that it does not become the devil’s workshop. And when one considers a late slave population, free but without the training which freedom especially requires, inheriting all the evil tendencies which slavery engenders; and then, on the other hand, a white population, largely dependent for support upon the labor of others, indolent from habit or from pride, and largely inheriting analogous tendencies—it is easy to see that here is a state of things especially favorable to crime.

I know that these are _material_ considerations, that they are upon a low plane of working, and very unlike those which actuated our New England fathers, with whom the school-house was collateral to the Church, and the spelling-book to the Bible. This of our fathers is the higher plane of effort occupied by the American Missionary Association. Political economists and statesmen can perceive the material bearings of this subject, and, little by little, as light spreads, the Southern States will be compelled for those reasons to see that their people have facilities for education, will comprehend the truth that school-houses and school-teachers add to the value of acres—as the President lately said at Nashville. Meanwhile, this Association, through its Normal Schools and Universities, is training up colored teachers and preachers to labor, as leaders, among their own people, as school systems shall be founded and maintained by law.

It is not enough that the different States of the South adopt a liberal system of public schools. Where, among colored people, shall suitable teachers be found? This race, like every other, must work out its own salvation. Favored ones must mount high, and reach down a helping hand to those below them. It cannot depend wholly upon white teachers. Oh, if there could rise up from among them gifted men and women, who were willing to devote themselves to _their own race_, to different classes of their own race, just for the sake of lifting them up from degradation! This is the aim of these institutions of the American Missionary Association—to train up the better, the choicer minds among colored youth, for the work of teaching and preaching; so that they may be eager to devote themselves to the mental and moral uplifting of their own race! If this “land that was desolate is yet to become like the garden of Eden”; if the thrift and industry of the more favored portions of this land are yet to be seen in all portions, I believe that no one agency will have been more instrumental in this, than the institutions of learning early established for the colored people!

At this time, the American Missionary Association limits its sphere to schools of the higher class. If it can train the _teachers_; if it can mould the minds and kindle the hearts of those who are soon to mould the minds and kindle the hearts of the thousands of colored children and youth, who are to be the colored men and women of the future, it could not have a higher mission; it could not do better, whether for the country or for the human race.

Brethren, this is no longer a _Southern_ question—a question which the South must be left to solve for themselves. We must help them, as involved in the destiny which they work out for us, as well as for themselves. For, if this millstone of ignorance be not taken from their necks, we go down with them into the depths of the sea!

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FROM A LIFE MEMBER.

I am glad you have returned to the old form of Magazine. Although a Life Member, and thus entitled to receive it without pay, yet I am glad to inclose fifty cents for it, and most earnestly hope each and every one who receives the Magazine will do the same promptly, and _thus increase the income of the A. M. A. twelve thousand and five hundred dollars_.

Yours sincerely, A LIFE MEMBER.

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(_From the N. Y. Herald._)

SLAVE AND FREE LABOR COTTON.

Twelve crops of cotton have been raised by free labor, and the comparison of the returns with an equal number of crops before the war shows some interesting results. The period of free labor may properly be divided into two portions—the first, including four years, during which the crops of 1865 to 1868, both inclusive, were made, and in which the labor system was greatly disorganized; the second, including eight years—1869 to 1877—when free labor was fairly well organized. If we divide the twelve crops preceding the war in the same manner, we shall get the following results:

FIRST PERIOD—FOUR YEARS.

_Bales._ Crops of 1849–’50 to 1852–’53, inclusive 10,729,874 Add consumption of the South, not then included in the commercial crop statement 500,810 ---------- Total (slave) 11,230,684 Crops of 1865–’66 to 1868–’69, inclusive (free) 9,246,793 ---------- Excess of slave crop over free 1,983,891

SECOND PERIOD—EIGHT YEARS.

Crops of 1869–’70 to 1876–’77, inclusive, being eight years of organized free labor 31,570,212 Crops of 1853–’54 to 1860–’61, inclusive, being eight years of slave labor immediately preceding the war 27,535,949 Add Southern consumption then excluded from commercial crop statement, but included since the war 1,261,892–28,797,841 ---------- Excess of free labor 2,772,371

In the last eight years free labor has, therefore, overtaken the palmiest days of slavery, and has produced two and three-quarter million bales more cotton. This crop is now more free from the encumbrance of debt than ever before, and with it has been raised a supply of food far greater than slavery ever compassed.

Without entering into minute statistics, it is safe to say that the money value of the thirty-one and a half million bales of cotton produced in the last eight years has been over two thousand million dollars in gold, and that over two-thirds of this value has been exported.

Texas, which seems to be the true land of the cotton farmer, has made the greatest relative progress, now producing double the crop of cotton that she made before the war. During the last cotton year, on less than half of one per cent. of her area, or on less than half an acre in a hundred, she produced a quantity of cotton equal to one-half the entire consumption of the United States.

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THE CHILDREN’S PAGE.

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(_From the Southern Sentinel, Talladega College._)

A YOUNG TEACHER’S STORY.

I fully realized last April, for the first time, that I had begun a missionary life, when I was helped into a covered wagon, where there was not room enough to sit up straight for the supplies. I had a dizzy headache before I had gone three miles; the smell of bacon, cheese, tobacco, and whiskey was enough to make _any one_ sick. I was wishing that the driver would take some of the things out of the wagon so I could sit more comfortably, when he stopped and took in four sacks of guano—my condition can be imagined better than described. I thought the Lord called some one else, and I had answered. When I got out, the man asked me which was the best—a proud walk or poor ride. I only thanked him for his kindness, and said nothing about which was best.

Some say, time flies; it seemed to me that time had lost its wings. At last the much-wished-for Tuesday appeared, beautiful and bright. Just as I sat down to breakfast, I heard some one ask if the school-mistress was in. As I had no appetite whatever, I excused myself from the table, and went to the door to see what was wanted. There were boys and girls of all sizes, with their buckets, books, and slates, all ready for school. We were soon on our way to the school-house; the walk was very pleasant through the piny woods. The school-house was in a very pretty place; a few steps from the door was a nice spring of water, and a large cave. We sang “What shall the harvest be,” then prayed. It was quite difficult to get their names. I asked one little girl her name; she said “Maggie.” I asked her “Maggie what;” she said “Maggie nothing.” There was one little girl in school that I thought never would get acquainted with me. I asked her one day why she didn’t study her lesson; she said she was wondering what kind of a woman I was. I asked her what kind of a woman did she think I was; she said I looked like a white woman to her. [_The writer is a dark person._] I told her she might lay aside her books for ten minutes and take a good look at me, so that she might be thoroughly convinced as to what kind of a woman I was. I then asked her what she thought; but she thought just the same. The weather was so warm, and the days so long, that the children could scarcely keep awake. I would let them go to the spring and bathe their faces, so they might keep awake longer.

In the evening, four or five little children came and offered to carry my books and bucket home, for the school-house had neither door nor window, hence it was not safe to leave them there. I gave each one something to carry, but they became quite troublesome. Lucy would say, Mary had carried them twice, and she only once; so I thought that it would be best to provide myself with a desk. This I did by moving a plank from the floor and putting them all under the house. That was no trouble whatever, for sometimes, while walking the floor, the next thing I would know I would be under it.

Whenever I went under, I expected to be snake-bitten before I could get out. One day, one of the scholars let her pencil fall through the crack of the floor, and asked me to let her get it. As I had cautioned them about looking for snakes before putting their hands under, I said nothing to her about it. Just as she reached down to get the pencil, she fell back and screamed. I had not the power to move for a few minutes, I was so sure she was snake-bitten.

I looked under the floor, and there was the _largest rattlesnake I ever saw_. We all got sticks and poles ready for a battle. I was captain, so you may be sure which side whipped. The snake appeared to be very angry; he made one strike, and I threw down my pole and ran, and told the children to kill it if they could,—but they all followed me. I was real glad whenever any of the children had to be kept in, for I did not like to stay in the room alone.

I walked two miles and a half every Sabbath, and sometimes through the rain. If it rained hard while we were there, we would have to get in one corner of the room to keep dry. We should be real earnest if we would accomplish much good. I did everything that was in my power, and felt that the Lord was with me and blessed my efforts.

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RECEIPTS

FOR JANUARY, 1878.

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MAINE, $692.38.

Bangor. Central Cong. Ch. $70; T. U. C. $1 71.00 Bath. Winter St. Ch. and Soc. 39.72 Brownsville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 18.41 Castine. Rev. Alfred E. Ives 2.00 Garland. Cong. Ch. 7.50 Machias. Centre St. Sab. Sch. $25; Ladies’ Prayer-Meeting $5.75, to const. MRS. WM. C. HOLWAY, L. M.; “A Friend” $3 33.75 Monson. R. W. Emerson 21.00 North Yarmouth. Samuel H. Sweetser, to const. MISS LUCRETIA H. SWEETSER, L. M. 30.00 Orono. “A Friend” 5.00 Otisfield. Mrs. Susan Lovell $5; S. M. $1 6.00 Oxford. Mary A. Ellis 2.00 Portland. BEQUEST of Mrs. Samuel Tyler, by Sarah A. Breslin 400.00 Portland. Edward Gould 12.00 Searsport. S. Thurston 10.00 Sheepscot Bridge. Amos Flye 20.00 South Freeport. Horatio Ilsley 2.00 Winthrop. I. N. M. 1.00 York. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $424.27.