Part 3

Seriously, then, we welcome the idea. We hereby open and inaugurate “Our Query Column,” for all our friends and co-workers. Let the questions be “practical,” germain to our distinctive work. Let them be the real questions on which you desire light for yourselves, and from some source we will try to secure you answers which shall be “concise, clear, and to the point.” Of course, we (for the editorial, like the kingly, “we” is a cover for much irresponsible authority) shall answer, or cause to be answered, only such queries as, in our judgment, will be helpful to the work we have in hand. Who asks first?

THE PRESS.

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UNCLE REMUS’ REVIVAL HYMN.

O, whar’ shall we go when de great day comes, Wid de blowin’ ob de trumpets an’ de bangin’ ob de drums? How many po’ sinners ’ll be cotched out late, An’ fin’ no latch ter de golden gate? No use fer ter wait twel ter morrer, De sun musn’t set on yo’ sorrer; Sin’s ez sharp ez a bamboo brier— O Lord, fetch de mo’ners up higher!

When de nations ob de earth are standin’ all aroun’ Who’s a gwine ter be chosen fer ter war de glory crown? Who’s a gwine fer ter stan’, stiff-kneed an’ bol’, An’ answer ter deir name at de callin’ ob de roll? You’d better come now ef you’s comin’, Ole Satan’s a loose an’ a bummin’, De wheels ob destruction is a hummin’— O, come along, sinner, ef you’s commin’.

De song ob salvation is a mighty sweet song, An’ de Paradise wind blow fur an’ blow strong, An’ Aberham’s buzzum is safe an’ its wide, An’ dat’s de place whar de sinners orter hide. No use ter be stoppin’ an’ a lookin’, Ef yo’ fool wid Satan you’ll get took in; You’ll hang on de edge an’ get shook in, Ef yo’ keep on a stoppin’ an’ a lookin’.

Jes now is de time, an’ dis yer is de place, Let de salvation sun shine squar’ in yo’ face; Fight de battles ob de Lord, fight soon an’ fight late, An’ you’ll always fin’ a latch ter de golden gate. No use fer ter wait twel ter morrer, De sun musn’t set on yo’ sorrer; Sin’s ez sharp ez a bamboo brier— Ax de Lord fer ter fetch yo’ up higher.—_Exchange._

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A BIT OF HISTORY.

There is nothing new under the sun—not even a Home Missionary Society for Illinois. The American Missionary Association had three auxiliaries—the Penobscot, in Maine; the Western Home and Foreign, at Cincinnati; and the North-western, at Chicago. In 1854, the North-western was modified to become the Illinois Home Missionary Association. As such it was operated for five or six years, when it was given up, and the whole work was transferred to the A. M. A., with a District Secretary to have supervision of the missionary churches and to push the collections. When that District Secretary and the missionary churches, in 1861, were transferred to the A. H. M. S., he retained in possession the record books of those two auxiliaries. But these, together with other precious journals, were consumed by the great fire, so that it will be difficult to reproduce that chapter in our State home evangelism. Rev. Epaphras Goodman was the Corresponding Secretary. Rev. S. G. Wright and Dr. Flavel Bascom both served as agents. Rev. A. L. Rankin, now of California, was a general missionary along the southern portion of the Illinois Central Railroad. Coming to one place in Egypt, and inquiring for the religious element there, he got this as an answer: “Religious element? You are the first man we have had making that inquiry. We thought you were looking for land.”

We find by the Annual Report of the A. M. A. for 1855 that, of its 104 missionaries in the home department, forty of them were under the Illinois Society. Among these were Revs. W. W. Blanchard, Nelson Cook, George Bent, William Beardsley, S. Dilley, George Gemmell, J. T. Marsh, M. N. Miles, Alfred Morse, W. A. Nichols, L. Parker, George Schlosser, David Todd, E. E. Wells and David Wirt. Among the fifty-four churches aided were the South, the Edwards, and the Welsh, of Chicago; and those of Amboy, Henry, Providence, Udina, Plymouth, of Ottawa; DeKalb, Lawn Ridge, Metamora, Roscoe, Sterling, Bloomington, Byron, Kankakee, Newark, Milburn, Albany, Urbana (now Champaign), Huntley, Victoria, Shirland, Dundee and Sandwich.

The State Society investigated the necessities of the field, and endorsed applications for aid, but did not make appropriations to the churches. This was done by the A. M. A. in New York, which issued the commissions. After a while the executive committee—Deacons Carpenter and Johnston, and Pastors Patton and Roy—finding that they were simply an additional committee for endorsing applications, and not having the responsibility and the stimulus of administration, made request to have the whole work resumed by the A. M. A., and the State Society voted to discontinue its operations. Herein is a confirmation of the wisdom of the new Society in making itself independent and auxiliary, and not simply co-operative. This piece of history, containing the argument of experience, was not brought out in the late series of discussions.

That there was no alienation of feeling attending this separate operation in home missions as a testimony against slavery, is evident from the fact that the churches and the missionary pastors of the A. M. A. were so readily turned over to the A. H. M. S., and by it so cheerfully received. That National Home Missionary Society had all along borne more or less of testimony against slave-holding; but when, in 1857, it passed a rule by which all of its fifty-five Southern Presbyterian missionaries were dropped from its list, then no one could question the soundness of its position. So, again, the readiness with which testifying churches returned to regular contributions in behalf of the American Board, as well as of this Society, revealed an abiding love for these very organizations with which for a time they had not walked in fellowship. The First and the Plymouth Churches of Chicago, which, from their organization, had taken each its two annual collections for the A. M. A., one for the home and one for the foreign department, fell in with the old Society and Board as naturally and heartily as though they had always been among the more conservative churches. On the other hand, the chief officers and supporters of the old organizations were glad that the organic testimony thus borne, along with other influences, had been able to tone up public sentiment so that the satisfactory action could be taken by them.

And now everybody sees that, out of that testifying process, God was bringing on another organization to be ready against the day when He should open to it the special field of the South and of Africa.

—_Rev. Dr. Roy, in the Advance._

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THE FREEDMEN.

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GEORGIA.

Brunswick—Risley School Exhibition.

AS SEEN BY A SOUTHERNER.

This school is taught by S. B. Morse, a graduate of Atlanta University. The following account is from a local newspaper.

MR. EDITOR: It has ever been a source of unfeigned pleasure to me to observe any efforts tending to the elevation and refinement of humanity. Hence, it was no less a pleasure than surprise last evening when I found so marvelously successful an effort in that direction, as evinced in the concert and exhibition—the closing exercises of the Risley School. Mr. Morse (a graduate of the University of Atlanta) may justly congratulate himself upon the proficiency attained by his pupils, considering the great difficulties and discouragements under which he has necessarily had to labor.

The colored people are born natural musicians; but the time, harmony and smooth rendering of the “part-songs” last night gave indubitable evidence of thorough culture and faithful practice. The declamation by the young scholars displayed good powers of memory and hard study. Their enunciation was distinct and perfect. The selections were excellent. With the single exception of an interruption by a few disagreeable, unmannerly boys, who evidently had as little respect for themselves as for propriety, the affair went off without a break. Quite a number of white persons were present. Just before closing the exercises, Mr. Morse made a short and pertinent address, stating the numerous difficulties under which he had labored, but offering “the fruits of his labors” as the test of his fidelity and capacity for filling the position he proudly claimed, of “teacher.” The Honorable President of the Board of Education and Mr. Kenrick, the county-school commissioner, were called upon for speeches, and expressed their hearty gratification at the degree of proficiency and the evidence of faithful study on the part of the school, and their satisfaction at the marked improvement in order, manner, and the advance in education, as clearly shown by their present exhibition.

We have to congratulate ourselves upon possessing a most quiet, respectable and law-abiding colored element. Their comfortable homes, with well-stocked gardens; their numerous churches, some quite pretentious in architecture, and, above all, their large and substantial free school, give proof that there is no question of their enjoyment of all “the rights, titles and emoluments” of a “free and independent citizen” in Brunswick.

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ALABAMA.

Wanted—a Barn.

REV. E. P. LORD, TALLADEGA COLLEGE.

Meeting a lady recently who has long been interested in our work, she remarked: “Talladega does not seem to have so many wants as most new institutions—at least, we do not hear so much of them.” Imagine my surprise, when I had feared that the Association and all of our friends were wearied by our continual importunities.

What a list we have of not merely wants, but actual and pressing necessities, for which some of us pray as continually and earnestly as for daily bread. A dormitory, for the physical and moral good of the young men, now crowded six and more in a room, in a building intended and much needed for other purposes; a library, as necessary in a college as steam in a factory; money, without which none of the means of elevating a race or individuals can be made effective.

But I want now especially to urge one vital necessity, even to the continuance of one of our most important means of helping this people. Last year good friends in the North gave us $3,566.52, and some of the instructors advanced $2,000. With this amount property valued now at about $5,000 has been purchased, and an Industrial Department, including farming, carpentering, printing, and house-work of all kinds, has been carried on one year. By this outlay sixty scholars have earned a large sum in payment of their school expenses. They have also learned to do these various kinds of work in a systematic and intelligent manner. But in the growth of character the good has been greatest. The young people have acquired earnestness, self-dependence and enterprise. During the vacation they are disseminating this practical knowledge and their spirit through the whole State. The Southern Educational Society, composed of some of the foremost educators of the South, recently pronounced “industrial education the hope of the South.” It is certainly more necessary and more promising among the colored people than among the whites. Already we can see the benefits of the department in the improving material condition of the people in the country about, in better and larger crops, cultivated more skilfully with better implements, etc.

The Agricultural Department is one of the most useful, and it is, also, one of the most remunerative parts of our work. At present we are obliged to go three-fourths of a mile by the road to reach the farm; $1,000 would buy a piece of land connecting the farm directly with the college buildings. This would save annually a large percentage of the cost in time required to reach the farm, to say nothing of the use of the land. Who will make this very essential addition to “Winsted Farm”?

The most profitable part of the farm-work is the dairy, and raising beef for the College boarding department. We shall keep fifty or sixty cattle continually, but we have now no barn. The working stock, the implements and the feed must have a shelter. We have nothing but sheds made of old lumber, which we fear the autumn storms will destroy, with much property within. Besides, if the farm is to be, as it should be, a model to the colored people, we must not leave everything out in the rain and cold, as is universally the case in the South. There is to be held, in connection with the department, this fall, the first Industrial Fair ever held by the colored people. We expect it to be a means of education to 5,000 people. The barn should be ready for their inspection and information. Fifteen hundred dollars will give the farm the barn it needs, and furnish work to a number of young men, by which they will learn the use of tools, under our very skilful carpenter, and be able to pay their expenses in school. If friends could appreciate how necessary these things are, we certainly should have them at once.

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TEXAS.

The Southwest Texas Congregational Association.

REV. B. C. CHURCH, GOLIAD.

The General Association of Congregational Churches, of Texas, at its seventh annual session, doffed its name, and hereafter will be known as the Southwest Texas Congregational Association.

Three churches were represented by their delegates and pastors. Rev. Geo. Whitefort, of Red River Association, and agent of the American Tract Society, added to the interest of the meeting, and found himself more interested than in any other association.

The Rev. A. J. Turner, member of West Texas General Conference, and pastor of the Congregational Church of Schulenburg, requested, with his church, to be received into the Association. The church, consisting of fifteen members, with Sabbath school of ninety-eight scholars, had been gathered by him since last January. They left former associations to find a church home of purity and morality, and a more simple and Scriptural government. After examination, conducted mostly by Rev. S. M. Coles, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, he and the church were received.

At our morning and night sessions of each day we had preaching and other devotional services. Sabbath morning, Rev. Messrs. Coles and Whitefort spoke most earnest and profitable words to parents and children. This was followed by a love-feast, in which we had forty-five talks, which, with singing, occupied about an hour and a half. If several rose at a time, each waited for his turn. When the people have been educated to speak of Christ and the joy of faith, rather than of themselves, and “these low grounds of sorrows” coming from their emotional nature, it is not strange that you see smiles and tears, or that sinners’ hearts get into their throats. When the opportunity was given, seventeen rose, saying, “Pray for us.” After the Association adjourned, religious meetings continued for a week, as a result of which, seven persons united with the church.

The Helena Church was organized four years ago with three members. Now there are fifty-four members, twenty-three of whom united within the last twelve months. During the same time they have raised seven hundred dollars, with which they have built a house and furnished it. The other churches have had but little growth in membership, but in Bible study and intelligent worship there has been commendable improvement.

A Christian Church, worshipping God according to Bible rules, is a light of untold worth in any country. This feature of our work is encouraging. Even those who hate and persecute us gradually adopt our views and modes of worship.

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KENTUCKY.

A Vacant Church—The Seed Wafted—The National Problem.

REV. JOHN G. FEE, CABIN CREEK, LEWIS CO.

I am here, in the field of my early ministry, on my regular quarterly visit. Twenty-four years since, I left this for my present home in Berea, Ky.

Most of those who, as parents, heard me with trembling twenty-five years ago have passed away, and those who were then boys and girls are now fathers and mothers. These, by time, thought and observation, have had their early impressions ripened into convictions. The sympathies and convictions of these are for loyalty to the union, liberty to man, and a gospel of impartial love. They take no stock in the issues of mere denominationalism. They assent readily to the proposition that manifested faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as a personal Saviour from _sin_, is the faith of the gospel. On this faith the church was organized in 1847, as it then separated from all slave-holding bodies. Some of the members are still there. They have been without a regular pastor ever since the year 1860. They still keep up a Sabbath-school, and part of the time a prayer-meeting.

What they now need is a regular pastor—one who can visit the families, and preach at least once in two weeks. I hope such an one may be speedily found. This, together with the congregation in Bracken County, would make a most interesting and promising field. The effort to plant churches here thirty years ago was not in any sense a failure. And the second temple can be made much more glorious than the first.

Emigrations from these fields have been useful also. Five families went more than a hundred miles into the interior to help build up Berea; eleven others, young men and young women, have gone out there as students in the college. Other families have gone to other States to exert there an influence for liberty, justice, and a gospel of impartial love. Many of these were “mere children,” and, having had their birth in times of trial, they were not mutes in the fields where, in the providence of God, they were cast.

In view of the debasing effect of slavery in the South, and the communistic element in the North, I am often asked, “What is to be the result of this effort to establish republican institutions on this continent?” I answer, there is no hope but in sanctifying the hearts of the people by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This will direct aright the intellect, the wealth and the activities of the nation, make the people a law unto themselves, and for good. Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into His harvest.

A Teacher’s Vacation Correspondence.

When tired teachers flee for rest to their own homes, they do not wholly escape from school duties or cares. Letters pursue them with unmerciful rapidity. From a pile of fresh ones, let us cull a few samples of requests that demand sympathy and aid.

“My school is to have an exhibition in a few weeks. Can you not send me some interesting declamations and fresh music?” A favor easily granted.

“The Sabbath-school has appointed me king of its celebration. Please send me a nice piece suitable to speak, and a few dialogues appropriate for the little folks.” An hour’s search through old files of the _National Teacher_ provides material exactly suited for this occasion.

“There is to be a Sunday-school Convention at ——, the 24th of this month, and I am expected to speak. I never attended such a meeting. Please write me a nice speech, telling who introduced Sunday-schools, and how much good they have done.” A modest request! But, if there is really to be a Sunday-school Convention in the heart of Southern Georgia, and this shy boy is to help make it successful, ’tis worth while to look over Sunday magazines for facts which the speaker can arrange and use.

“I wish I could go to school the whole of this year. My wages for teaching public school three months will not carry me through. Could you help me in any way?”

A determined worker, who holds Sunday-schools on door-steps when no better place offers, seeks encouragement and papers. Here is part of his story: “I have some hard trials, and ups and downs, but I trusts in God, and tries to fight my way through. I have got no learning of account, but to the best of my knowledge I means to teach. God said where there is little known there is little required.” Perhaps the angels could tell us that poor Jacob’s crown will far outshine that of many a richly-endowed soul.

A “sweet-girl graduate,” folding away bouquets and compliments with her pretty muslin, wishes to know how she can make her school-room attractive. Speaking of future plans, she pens these words: “I mean to work for the Master to the best of my ability. I think a life not consecrated to God is _no life_.”

If sometimes burdensome, such letters do greatly add to the sweetness of vacation rest. They give assurance that the seed sown in weariness is yielding harvest, which, with the affection breathed from every page, inspires to future faithfulness and zeal.

L. A. P.

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AFRICA.

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THE MENDI MISSION.

Eight Added to the Church—A Refreshing Sunday.

Rev. Floyd Snelson writes:

Last Saturday was our day for preparatory meeting, the following Sabbath being the day of Communion. Ten persons presented themselves as candidates for membership. All were examined carefully, in open meeting; eight were received, as we believed from their evidence that they were hopefully converted, and two rejected on the ground that they were not married according to law (this is one of the greatest evils that exist here, both among the white and colored, there being no law to compel them to marry). Sunday was, indeed, a day of great refreshing, there being before us eight adults to be welcomed into the Church of Christ, and seven children, in the arms of parents and god-parents, to be consecrated to Him. And what increased the joy was, that the whole week had been a rainy one up to late on Saturday, when the good Master stopped the rain, and removed the clouds gradually, and let the light of the sun beam upon us. I would say more upon this precious subject, but the time for closing the mail has arrived, and I am compelled to stop. Pray for us.

Mr. E. White writes:

The thing I want to ask you about now is this—if you will help me to take care of a few boys? When I was here the first of the year, the people came almost daily to get me to take their children and keep them in the mission, but I told them that I was not allowed to do so; if I were, I would do it gladly. Their reason was that, if they sent their children to the mission-school, they would only be in the school a small portion of the day, and at home most of the day and all night, and, therefore, the evil influence which they would have over them in that time would overbalance what the teacher would teach them in the short time he would have them in the day; and they wanted their children to “Sabby-book,” and if they did, they must be taken away from them. They say that they don’t think their children can become like the white man while they are with them; the “pickin’” must be taken from the old people; and I agree with them on this point. The vices which the old people practice, the children will surely follow, if allowed to be where they are. There are no children in this station, and we said in our meeting that we would not take in any till we heard from you; but, as I am a single man, you might not think of my taking any mission children. Therefore, I write to ask you if you will allow me to take some of the boys offered me. Some of the people have promised to bring rice (which is the most they eat) for the children, if I would only take them.