Part 4

There is great need of more help here. The day-school ought to have additional help. There is a necessity for a woman of cultivation. All mission work is like a child—it must grow or die. I hope the people at the North are not willing we shall die.

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ALABAMA.

Two Ordinations at Talladega—How Churches Begin and Grow.

REV. GEO. E. HILL, MARION.

I have just had the pleasure of attending two ordinations of colored men, the first of the kind I ever witnessed. These young men were recent graduates of Talladega College, and, having only last week attended the examinations in the Theological Department of this institution, in charge of Prof. Andrews, I was prepared for at least a respectable appearance on their part.

But the event exceeded expectation. In the first instance the examination of the candidate continued through two hours and was very searching and thorough, the council consisting in part of three college professors.

The young brother maintained his self-possession, and appeared almost as much at home in theology as if he had been a professor himself. Indeed, I may say of both these brethren, in all my remembrance of ordinations at the North, I have seldom seen a candidate for the sacred office appear better on the whole.

It is truly inspiring to behold the work which such a college as this is doing for the colored race, not only in providing good schools and teachers, but in raising up an intelligent ministry, and in planting the right kind of Christian churches.

Here, for example, at A., where we were the other day, there is the old established Episcopal Church, for white folks, and, perhaps, a colored church or two, where “faith” is more insisted on than “works.” A new order now comes in, which is at first looked upon with distrust as an innovation. A church is organized with eight or ten members. Preaching is statedly kept up by students from the college. The congregation steadily increases; and, in three years, partly through the exertions of the members, and partly by the kindly aid of the “Iron Company,” a neat little chapel is built, with a miniature parsonage alongside. A pastor is called, and an ordination takes place, conducted with as much solemnity and decorum as if it were in the suburbs of New York or Boston. The people outside look on. Strangers are attracted in. Distrust gives place to respect. The influence is contagious. Shiftlessness and immorality have been exchanged for industry and thrift. Society is reconstructed. “The tree is known by its fruits.”

May the good work go on, and such trees and such fruit be multiplied a thousand fold!

I was grieved to learn that, in the case of one of these young pastors, with a wife and child, all the pay he expects to receive is fifteen dollars a month from the A. M. A.

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Closing Days of Emerson Institute—Algebra—“Lower ’Strumties” and the Ledger.

MISS S. J. IRWIN, MOBILE.

The school at Mobile closed satisfactorily. Public examinations were held on the last two days. The interest manifested by the attendance of the people was highly gratifying, and as some of the examinations were beyond the understanding of the majority of the audience, it was noticeable that they should have remained during the day at the expense of their dinners, and a number of the working men at the expense of a day’s income, in order to show their appreciation of what was being done for their children.

There were examinations in all studies pursued during the year; and the commendable degree of faithfulness and zeal which has been the marked characteristic of the scholars, was evinced at the close.

The advanced grammar-class ended its lesson with the correction, on the black-board, of a letter by a colored candidate for office, recently published; the class gave rules for its criticisms and explanations.

An algebra-class was reported by a Southern lady of high intelligence, who had taught that branch for a number of years, as the best she ever heard, doing credit to any class or grade of scholars.

The exercises of the primary room, also, elicited much comment on the careful drill that had been bestowed in the endeavor to convey the spirit of study, and not alone the “letter” thereof, although the “Busy Bees” were not far in advance of that fundamental branch of education. They could readily grasp the _fact_, in the physiological lecture, of the different parts of the body, although their undeveloped articulation could only pronounce the arms and limbs as the “upper” and “lower ’strumties.”

A white gentleman of much educational experience, who has charge of an academy for young men, left his own duties to be present during the last day; and his final address to the pupils was pleasingly commendatory of their progress and attainments.

In his original and epigrammatic manner he told them to go ahead, and get beyond these lazy white boys, who liked to have so much done for them—for you can do it! He had tried to shame his boys before, by telling what the Emerson Institute scholars could do, and he surely could now. He concluded, urging them not to forget to bring, and the parents to send, the little tuition money which came due once in a while, and was so small a recompense for what they received.

A paper was read by two of the oldest scholars, entitled “Emerson Institute Ledger,” for which the subscription price was readily paid, which was announced to be “undivided attention, payable in advance.” Some members of the audience offered to pay for the paper if it could be regularly issued.

Addresses by ministers and others followed the examinations; the school sang “Gathering Home”; the circulars announcing the next year’s school-work were distributed; the hope was expressed of seeing the familiar faces again after these intervening months of vacation; the Lord’s Prayer chanted; the benediction; warm and tearful words of farewell between pupils and teachers, and the doors closed upon another year’s work.

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MISSISSIPPI.

The Year at Tougaloo University—Results and Reforms.

REV. G. STANLEY POPE, PRINCIPAL.

As we look back over the school-year, we have every reason to feel that it has been a successful year.

The health of the teachers has been good; their devotion to the work unsurpassed, and their success in the school-room everything that could be expected.

The general health of the school has kept up well. There were only two serious cases of sickness, and no deaths, for which we are very thankful to our protecting Father. None were even obliged to leave school on this account.

The attendance from abroad has been much larger than usual, and those attending have uniformly been anxious to remain during the whole session.

We graduated our first class this year, and there has been quite a class spirit developed, so that there is a strong desire on the part of the pupils to remain in school and graduate in the classes that they are now in.

The religious work has not been marked by as many conversions as we had hoped to see; but there has been great progress made in Christian activity in certain directions, especially in _Sunday-school Work_ and _Temperance Reform_.

The Sabbath before Commencement we spent in Sunday-school Convention. Steps were taken to organize a Sunday-school Union, which promises to greatly enlarge our usefulness to those in the surrounding country. No such work has ever before been undertaken.

In our temperance work we were opposed at the outset by the leading students. For some time it looked as though we were not going to bring them to the point of taking a stand, even after they were brought to see that the people were being ruined by strong drink. But the victory was most complete. Students who had to leave before the year closed, sent back for pledges. They were hard at work in the temperance reform. When school closed, every one who was going out to teach, and many others, took pledges, and went out enthusiastic to their new field of labor. This seems to us the peculiar feature of our work this year outside the school-room.

The work in the school-room has been marked by thoroughness. Gen. J. A. Smith, State Superintendent of Education, writes me: “Only having attended your exercises one day, I am hardly prepared to give anything more than impressions hastily formed. I will say, however, those were all favorable. The examinations of the classes, so far as I heard them, especially in mathematics, surpassed my expectations * * * Judging from the order and system exhibited, I was led to believe that the discipline of the institution was excellent.”

Nothing could more fitly have followed the instructions of the year than Rev. W. S. Alexander’s address, on Commencement Day, on “Natural and Acquired Right.” It was full of interest and wise application.

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LOUISIANA.

“Here am I; Send Me, Send Me.”

_One of many Applications._

_June 24, 1878._

PROF. A. K. SPENCE:

_Dear Sir_—I just received a catalogue from Fisk University, and I must frankly express myself as gratified at the noble work that is being accomplished by Fisk University.

I am anxious to attend the University so as to prepare myself as a missionary to Africa. I have a poor mother, and I am her only support, and I know not how I shall ever be able to make preparations.

Let me know the provisions made for those preparing to go on mission.

I have made quite an advancement in the English branches, but desire to pursue the High Normal course proscribed in your institute, and also the studies of the theological course.

I feel that I must go to Africa. “Here am I; send me, send me.”

See what can be done for me. I can bring certificates of my advancement made, and also of character. I shall patiently wait to hear from you, and trust you will not forget me.

Your brother in Christ, F. C. L.

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FROM NEW ORLEANS TO NEW YORK.

REV. W. S. ALEXANDER.

The Commencement season, marking the completion of a year’s work and the beginning of welcome and needed rest to the teachers in the South, is now well over, and those who have wrought so faithfully during the year, are enjoying the quiet of their Northern homes. While _en route_ to New York, it was my pleasure to visit several of our most prominent institutions, and I shall be glad to speak of what I saw. By way of preface, let me say of

STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY

that the school-year closed happily and successfully. The examinations, which are the best test of scholarship and progress, gave great satisfaction to our friends, and the teachers were glad and grateful to feel that the year’s work had been a good one. We graduated ten young men from the Law Department, of whom eight were white, showing the appreciation of the manner in which this department is conducted. It is entirely self-supporting, the professors accepting the fees of the students as their compensation. Next year we anticipate a class of twenty-five. We graduated three young ladies from the Academic Department. They were superior scholars, and will be successful teachers. At our annual exhibition, and at the Commencement exercises on a subsequent evening, an audience of 800 were in attendance, to show by their presence their deep interest in the prosperity of our beloved institution.

Leaving New Orleans on Tuesday evening, June 4th, we were met at Jackson, Miss., by Brother Pope, with whom we went to

TOUGALOO.

What a delightful location! my first thought was. It does not require a great degree of self-denial to spend the winter in such a retreat as this. The mission-house is situated in the centre of a plantation of five hundred acres, and the approach to it is through a superb grove or forest of oaks, festooned with Spanish moss. Coming from parched and dry New Orleans, where the sun smites so fiercely in midsummer, the country around Tougaloo seemed delightfully fresh and cool. I found teachers and pupils in the midst of their annual examinations. I was impressed with the faithfulness and thoroughness of the instruction given here. There was no “coaching” and no prompting, but every student was put to a fair test of scholarship and proficiency. The singing was an important and interesting feature of Commencement week. Tougaloo could send out its troop of Jubilee Singers, who would win general favor. Great credit is due to the teachers of vocal and instrumental music. The institution, already in such good condition, should have, at the earliest day, increased accommodations for boarding-scholars, enabling them to receive a larger number of mature pupils from all parts of Mississippi. From Tougaloo I went to

SELMA, ALA.,

for a day only. This is one of the prettiest towns in Alabama. The county has a dense negro population, so that the school must always have abundant patronage. It was pleasant to find here Mr. Silsby, whose father was an efficient worker in the same field many years. Mr. Burrell, who is still living, has the great satisfaction of knowing that his benevolent gift has been so fruitful of good results. I reached

TALLADEGA

in time for my appointment on Sunday. This was another surprise to me. Situated in the mountain region of Alabama, with a grand outlook on every side, with fresh breezes from the hills, and with valleys clothed with verdure, it certainly seemed as though a Divine hand guided in the choice of this favored site. The Baccalaureate sermon by the college pastor, Rev. Mr. Hickox, was able and timely. The examinations were full of interest, and brought out the real merit of the instruction and the zeal and diligence of the students. I was particularly pleased with the theological examination conducted by Rev. Mr. Andrews. It covered a wide range of study, and showed that the young men had been taught to think and reason for themselves. I noticed with great satisfaction, in the boarding department, the orderly and polite deportment of the seventy-five young men and women who gather three times a day in the same dining-hall. It was like a quiet Christian family. The training received here will be beyond value, and will reach many families in the State. Were a boarding department not necessary, it would be very desirable for the culture of manners and the direct influence on character of the association of the sexes.

MEMPHIS.

It was a long and wearisome journey to Tennessee. I was never sure of making a railroad connection, as we do on the grand trunk lines. Le Moyne Institute has an interesting history. Dr. Le Moyne, the noted Cremationist, was the generous benefactor of this institution. Without him, it would not now exist. I was too late for the examinations, but in time for the Commencement exercises. They were held in the pretty Congregational Church, and were highly creditable. I found here a company of live, enthusiastic teachers. The mission-house is a most home-like place, and it was not difficult for me, on inquiring of citizens, to ascertain that Le Moyne Institute is thoroughly prized in Memphis. With the same corps of teachers as now, they can hardly fail of success. Here, as in many other points in the South, dormitories are urgently needed. They cannot secure, without them, the best class of students, and the school will remain, at best, a High or Normal School, when it might be the College, in West Tennessee, for the colored people. If some man of Dr. Le Moyne’s generosity would put up a fine building for a dormitory, he would be planting seed-corn which would yield many harvests in the coming years. A fact which touches our hearts at every repetition of it, is that, years ago, during the yellow-fever epidemic, two of the teachers heroically remained at their posts and ministered to those smitten with the fever, and cheerfully paid the forfeit with their lives. Such men and women are made of “good stuff,” and the cause they represent has a right to popular sympathy and support.

With regard to our general work in the South, I was glad to notice everywhere quickened zeal, followed by greatly increased prosperity. I believe the good work among the freedmen was never so efficient as to-day, and never so richly deserved the hearty sympathy and generous benefactions of the good people of the North. As it is no time to sound a retreat when an army has gained its earliest victories, so it is no time, in the work of education and evangelization among the freedmen in the South, to repress zeal or to slacken effort, or to retrench where retrenchment would be fatal; but to push forward till the highest results are achieved.

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AFRICA.

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THE MENDI MISSION.

Converts Added to the Church—Death of Mrs. Dr. James.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, GOOD HOPE.

The church-work is progressing very well. At our last communion, the first Sabbath in May, eleven natives united with the church, all hopefully converted. It was a great day with us. One of the old sisters, who had been here from the beginning, cried out, “Thank God! I’ve never seen it so before,” with many other expressions of joy. This is the result of steady work. Others are seeking admission; but it was thought best that they should wait until another opportunity. One child was baptized. Pray that the Lord may bless us.

With painful regret I must inform you that Death has entered our ranks, and has taken away one of our missionaries—our sister, Mrs. James. I wrote you in my last that she and her little daughter were unwell. I learned by a letter May 20th from Dr. James (who is stationed at Avery), that his wife was seized with a convulsion on the morning of Sunday, the 19th, while engaged in her domestic business, was taken to her room, and that one convulsion succeeded another rapidly, and with such violence that she could not speak, until two o’clock in the night, when she died.

Brother Jackson is well again, and he and his wife have returned to Avery Station, to resume their work. All are now comparatively well, and the work is going on. We feel its importance more and more, and we are not discouraged by the fact that one has fallen, but will close up our ranks and march forward, hoping to be reinforced from time to time, until the victory is won.

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THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

DIRECTORS: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. W. E. Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P. Sanford, Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.

SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.

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Items and Incidents.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

STATISTICS.—Our schools have not yet recovered, so far as attendance is concerned, from the shock they received through the riots of last July. But they are gaining, and should no untoward event occur, I hope that before this summer is ended they will be as large as ever before—as large, that is, as we can possibly sustain without an increase of means. Ten schools are now in operation, and seventeen teachers are employed. The aggregate number of pupils enrolled May 31st was 467, and the average attendance was 242. This is a gain over months preceding, and June promises something better still. The total number of Chinese who had attended the schools, for a longer or shorter period, from September 1st (the commencement of our fiscal year) to May 31st, was 1,178. Seventy-eight of these pupils give evidence of conversion. The whole number whom we have reason to believe have been born of God, during the last five years of our work, cannot be much less than two hundred.

BAPTISMS.—Six of our pupils were baptized and received to Bethany Church, San Francisco, on Sunday, June 2d. This makes the Chinese membership of that church number forty-four. These brethren had studied diligently the Confession of Faith and the Covenant, which they were called publicly to accept, and had approved themselves well through their five to eight months of “probation” in our “Association of Christian Chinese.” I have no doubt that both the Confession and Covenant contained words which they could not define; but I have also no doubt that “for substance of doctrine,” they assented to the one and consented to the other intelligently, honestly and devoutly. I shall never forget the evening I spent with them, questioning them as to their views and purposes and experiences as Christians. Not one of them but had come out of more or less tribulation, into this decided and outspoken Christian life. Friends turn their backs upon them and load them with reproaches, but they seem to harbor no feeling of resentment—only longing to impart to their persecutors the same blessing they have found for themselves.

On the same day the first Chinese child of our church was baptized, under the “Christian name,” as her father phrased it, of Lily Lee. This father was one of the first group of Chinese converts whom it was my privilege to receive to the church. He returned to Canton about two years since, and sought out, at one of the missions, a Christian wife; and so, in his one room in California, he has now a Christian home. On the same day, also, Wah Yin was baptized and received to the Congregational Church in Petaluma—the first-fruits, so far as church membership is concerned, of our mission there. He is a very interesting Christian, and has endured hardness, as a good soldier. He has been not only reproached, but whipped, by his countrymen, for the name of Christ. But he says “it didn’t hurt much,” and we should never have known of the fact, but that one who took part in it boasted of it openly.

LU LUNE, for nearly a year a missionary helper, was offered by his uncle a position as Chinese foreman at the salmon fisheries near Collinsville. The work there knows no Sabbath, and the Chinese settlement abounds in gambling and opium dens and in petty idol shrines. The position was, in a worldly point of view, very desirable, but Lu Lune refused to go unless he could have his Sabbath, and could be permitted to be just such a Christian there as he would be at the mission-house itself. It is a token of Lu Lune’s own desirableness that his terms were accepted, and he is there, trying, as opportunity offers, to preach Christ, and letting the light of a Christian example shine all the while. I may add that this is the fourth among the Chinese members of our church who has been placed in a position of trust by persons who knew nothing and cared nothing about their Christian professions. It is a tribute paid to their trustworthiness.

LEE HAIM, recently appointed as a helper, has now been for two months in Sacramento. The increase in attendance and interest at the school speaks well for his zeal and aptitude. Under his influence, the Christian members of the school have rented a small building for a sort of Home, and he uses it as a chapel. I will quote a few words from his letter of June 6th, correcting his English a little, for, while he, like Wong Sam, excels most of his countrymen here in knowledge of Chinese, he is also like Wong Sam in his trouble with English idioms: