Part 1

VOL. XXXIII. No. 10.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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OCTOBER, 1879.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

THE ANNUAL MEETING—PARAGRAPHS 289 WORKER AT REST (MRS. PEEBLES)—DEATH OF FATHER JOCELYN 291 RANDOM SUGGESTIONS 293 A STRONG APPEAL 294 LANGUAGE OF EQUATORIAL AFRICA 296 STRANGE BUT TRUE STORY 297 ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 299 GENERAL NOTES 300

THE FREEDMEN.

NORTH AND SOUTH—SOME THINGS IN COMMON 304 REMINISCENCES—“IT’S THE COLOR THAT TELLS” 306 TENNESSEE, NASHVILLE—Remarkable Conversion and Triumphant Death 309 GEORGIA, BYRON—First Impressions 310

THE CHINESE.

THE BEGINNING OF HARVEST—ONG LUNE 310

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES 313

RECEIPTS 314

CONSTITUTION 317

WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS &C. 318

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NEW YORK.

Published by the American Missionary Association.

ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

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Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y. as second-class matter.

AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

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PRESIDENT.

HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio. Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis. Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass. Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me. Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct. WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass. Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I. Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I. Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C. Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La. HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich. Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H. Rev. EDWARD HAWES, Ct. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio. Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt. SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn. Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon. Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill. EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H. DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J. Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. GAGE, Ct. A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn. Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn. Rev. GEORGE THACHER, LL. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis. S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass. PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass. Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass. Rev. WM. PATTON, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa. Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct. Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct. Sir PETER COATS, Scotland. Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng. WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y. J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ct. DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct. A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass. Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y. FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt. JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_. REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_. EDGAR KETCHUM, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Assistant Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, EDWARD BEECHER, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER, E. A. GRAVES, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAM’L HOLMES, S. S. JOCELYN, ANDREW LESTER, CHAS. L. MEAD, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

should be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Ass’t Treasurer, No. 56 Reade Street, New York, or when mote convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.

A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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VOL. XXXIII. OCTOBER, 1879. No. 10.

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American Missionary Association.

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OUR ANNUAL MEETING.

The Thirty-third Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in the First Congregational Church (Rev. Dr. Goodwin’s), Chicago, Illinois, commencing October 28th, at 3 p. m. The Annual Sermon will be preached by Rev. R. S. Storrs, D. D., of Brooklyn, N. Y., service commencing at half-past seven in the evening. A paper on the Chinese question will be presented by Rev. J. H. Twichell, of Hartford, Connecticut; one on the Necessity of the Protection of Law for the Indians, by Gen. J. H. Leake, United States District Attorney, Chicago, Illinois. Other papers and addresses on timely and important subjects will be presented by able writers, the announcement of which will be given in the daily press at an early date.

Parties desiring entertainment during the meeting will write, by or before October 8th, to H. G. Billings, Esq., 242 South Water Street, Chicago.

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It will be seen that our communications from the Southern field are very limited this month. It is, of course, the time of vacation in all our Southern institutions, except a few of the public schools, to the support of which we are contributing, and from which we hear mainly through the larger schools of which their teachers are pupils or graduates. Soon the wheels will begin to revolve again, we trust, with greater effectiveness than ever before.

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A confidential word from the Editor to the members of the missionary and teaching force who occasionally write to the MISSIONARY.—Your communications are always read in the most kindly and interested spirit. Their contents are always noted, and if they contain any incident or item which even perhaps may be of general interest to our readers, we use it. Do not be too greatly disappointed or grieved at us if we do not always use them in the form in which they are sent. There are many things which must be weighed in the make-up of a magazine which no one but those who see it all can even know. The Editor’s basket is not a waste basket, even when it receives MSS., for they do not go into it unread, nor do we mean to let any wheat get lost among the chaff, although doubtless we occasionally do. Sometimes an article must be squeezed into an item or be squeezed out. Please keep writing, then, not for your local audience, but for all; or, if you please, as though it were meant for the Editor’s ear alone. Don’t be disappointed—much more, don’t be angry, if all you write does not get into print. And don’t promise anybody, that a certain thing you send will appear in the MISSIONARY; for, after all, the Editor who must decide is in the New York office.

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Prof. A. K. Spence and wife arrived in August by steamer “Bolivia,” from an absence of a year in their native Scotland. They have been for ten years connected with Fisk University, and have resumed their work in that institution. By their visit they have been greatly refreshed in health. They have been constantly engaged in private and public effort to interest their Scottish people yet more in our work as related to the Christianization of Africa. With their territorial and commercial interest in that dark continent, British Christians are all the more disposed to care for the religious welfare of the inhabitants of that country. The many friends at the West who have heard the familiar talks of Mrs. Spence, will be prepared to believe that her recital of the Freedman’s story to the sisters of her motherland was greatly acceptable.

Prof. Spence’s mother, who, at the age of eighty-five, recently contributed to the _Independent_ a poem on George McDonald, whom she had known from his childhood, sent on the fee for her article to the treasury of the A. M. A.

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_Revivals in Summer Time._—The people of the North, who are apt to be under the respite of vacation at this season of the year, and who are addicted to special efforts for the promotion of revivals in the Winter time, are sometimes surprised to hear of such movements at the South during the heat of Summer. At first it seems quite creditable to the piety of our colored brethren that they should warm up to such service in dog days. But the reason for selecting this season for such service is the same as that which at the North locates it in the Winter. That is the slack time of the year. The corn and the cotton have been laid by, and now there is leisure before the time comes for picking and harvesting. The Association of South-west Texas meets at the middle of July, and refuses to fix any other date for assembling, desiring to use that “set time” for some revival effort, and expecting to bless the entertaining church in that way. We are hearing that nearly all of our churches in the South have been making more or less of special effort.

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_The Southern Sentinel_, a monthly, published at Talladega College, under the new management of Prof. Geo. N. Ellis, editor, and P. P. Green (one of the students), publisher, is taking on more of freshness and of force. A department of agriculture has been added. This will be of great value. In this we see the hand of the farm superintendent, Mr. Atkinson, who went down from Olivet College to help on in this part of the Talladega movement.

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“_What is that to thee? Follow thou me._”—This response of the Master to Peter’s inquiry about the lot of John indicates the measure of consecration requisite on the part of those who are called to this missionary work among despised classes. It is an unquestioning, an unconditional obedience that is needed. One may say: “Others are staying at home and having easy times.” What is that to thee? “Down there we may be sneered at and treated like pariahs.” What is that to thee? “It was easy up North to have been an abolitionist, but to go and put yourself down by the side of and underneath the outcast ex-slave to try to raise him up, that is another thing.” What is _that_ to thee? Follow thou me. Follow my call; follow my example in caring for “these my brethren.” Sympathy with the Saviour in His love for souls, in His self-forgetfulness while winning lost men to His Gospel, is the first qualification for this Christly work. It was a rigid scrutiny that set aside the few men that were to gain the victory of the Lord at the hand of Gideon. A like carefulness of selection is necessary in this holy war. It would enlist only those who give themselves to its cause with such alacrity that they stop not for personal ease, but who lap their drink.

But the reward of those who thus follow the Divine Leader in this service is quick and ample. They are a happy set of folks. They love their work; they love their people; they have joy in their calling; in this they are like returned foreign missionaries.

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_A Worker at Rest._—Mrs. Anna M. (Day) Peebles departed this life at Dudley, N. C., on the 28th of August. Educated at Oberlin, she had been one of our teachers in the Washington School at Raleigh, N. C., serving also as teacher and leader of music. Something over a year ago she was married to Rev. David Peebles, of Dudley, N. C., where she took charge of the school, becoming greatly successful and beloved in the same. Excelling as a teacher, enthusiastic in the missionary aspect of her work, and winsome among her associates and pupils, her loss to our cause is greatly felt.

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DEATH OF FATHER JOCELYN.

Another Christian hero has laid aside his armor and received his crown. The Lord did not break the dies when He made the last of the ancient Martyrs or of the Puritan heroes. In great emergencies he reproduces them after their kind. The anti-slavery struggle needed them and they came forth, and among them there was no braver man than the gentle and amiable SIMEON S. JOCELYN. It is a mistake to suppose that the bold and determined men who take front rank in great moral conflicts are destitute of kindly impulses. Father Jocelyn was utterly uncompromising where duty called, yet I have seldom known a man of more tender sympathies, of quicker, almost womanly sensibility to sorrow or suffering. Nor are all such men, as is often imagined, so intent on pushing forward their great reforms as to overlook the rights of others. Father Jocelyn was most scrupulous in regard to the minutest claims of all men, even of his opponents. Nor are all such seemingly rash and headlong men lacking in caution. Father Jocelyn was the most cautious man I ever knew. Indeed this trait was, in some sense, a hindrance to his activity, for he instinctively saw the many adverse bearings and possible misconstructions to the course contemplated or to the document to be published. The marvel is that such a man could ever have become an abolitionist—that he could have risked reputation, property, and even life itself, in an enterprise so doubtful of success and beset with so many dangers to the peace of the church and the nation. The only explanation is in his clear perception, through all glosses, of the path of duty, and the overwhelming impulse of conscience to pursue it in spite of all dangers. Of such stuff are moral heroes made.

The piety of Father Jocelyn was sincere, deep and all-pervading. He was a man of prayer and of close communion with God, active in Christian labors in public and private, and of a beautiful simplicity and transparency of character—a saintly man. A Puritan by birth and conscientious conviction, his religious life was after the strictest model, yet his tender sympathies rendered him kind as well as faithful in counsel or warning, while his broad Christian charity made him liberal toward all who loved the Saviour.

Father Jocelyn was born in New Haven, Ct., in 1799, and was early converted to Christ. He began active life as an engraver, but relinquished a prosperous business to preach the Gospel to the poor, devoting his ministry to a feeble colored church in New Haven. The anti-slavery cause from the beginning had his warmest sympathies and most earnest co-operation. The American Missionary Association had no earlier or steadier friend. When the Amistad captives were landed in New London, and prompt and persevering efforts were made to re-enslave them, a committee of gentlemen was organized in New York to watch over their interests, and at the head of that committee stands the name of S. S. Jocelyn. Throughout the long struggle that secured their liberties and their return to their native land, accompanied by a missionary and teacher, Mr. Jocelyn was constant in his active exertions; and when at length that committee and other similar bodies were united in the formation of this Association, he was forward in founding, and constant thereafter in sustaining the new organization. He attended the meeting in Albany when the Association was formed. He was its Recording Secretary from 1846 to 1853, Corresponding Secretary with charge of the Home Department from 1853 to 1863, and from that time till his death was a member of the Executive Committee.

We extract from an article in the _Advance_, by Dr. Roy, the following account of the funeral:

“The funeral was held in the New England Church of Brooklyn, E. D., where he had his membership. In the large congregation there was a fine representation of colored people. The Executive Committee and other officers of the American Missionary Association were present. The pall-bearers were a squad of veterans of the old Liberty Guard. The pastor, Rev. Mr. Hibbard, presided. A few words of affectionate sympathy with the brothers and sisters who had been bereaved of their father, were spoken by Rev. J. E. Roy, whose father, also at the age of eighty, a few months before had been called away.

“Dr. Strieby spoke of the work of the departed in the American Missionary Association, and especially with eloquent words depicted the tremendous moral courage, the great cautiousness, the womanly tenderness, the transparent simplicity which were blended in his character. Strange that so sweet a man ever had the grit to take up the battle against slavery. Rev. Mr. Ray, a colored minister, who had known Mr. Jocelyn, and had been associated with him for forty years, gave fitness to the occasion by his words of gratitude, and by several telling reminiscences,—one of which was that, in 1839, Mr. Jocelyn came down from New Haven to take up the gauntlet of debate upon the colonization question with Mr. Robert Finley. The discussion was in a hall in Nassau Street, and Mr. Jocelyn’s main reliance was the word of God.

“Rev. Mr. Lockwood, a former pastor, bore loving testimony. Dr. Edward Beecher went back to an acquaintance of fifty years ago, when a student in Yale College, under concern of soul, he went to Mr. Jocelyn. He was such a spiritual, faithful Christian as a young man in passing that crisis would be apt to seek out. Dr. B. was associated with him in his Sabbath-school and church work among the colored people, and carried with him that same impulse when he went to Illinois College, and stood by Elijah P. Lovejoy until they shot him down. In closing, Dr. Beecher said that the words appropriate to the character of the departed were: ‘In simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world.’”

M. E. STRIEBY.

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RANDOM SUGGESTIONS.

Will the Exodus Affect the Work of the Association in the South?

I answer without hesitation, _it will not_. To the present time the exodus movement has been confined very largely to the disturbed parishes, or to certain exceptional cases where the conditions of labor have been oppressive. In New Orleans, while conventions and open-air meetings have been held, and the policy of emigration has been discussed, but few of the Freedmen have decided to leave the State and find a home in Kansas. There is a restless, dissatisfied feeling among the masses of the negroes, especially the poorer classes, induced by the glowing appeals made to them; but the exodus has not assumed, and I believe will not assume, large proportions. The masses will stay on Southern soil and abide in Southern homes. My opinion is based upon the supposition that their rights, social, educational and religious, and their rights also as laborers, will not be invaded or denied beyond what they are at present.

In New Orleans 45 per cent. of the population is colored, and in the State at large 55 per cent. I do not believe that this ratio will be materially changed by the exodus. And even if a few thousands of Freedmen left the South in search of warmer hospitality, an increased compensation for labor, and a more equitable recognition of their rights as citizens, it would not lessen the possibilities of good afforded to the Association. Should a half million go away, there would still be four and a half millions left to be instructed and helped in their race struggle for higher intelligence and a purer religious life. Press forward, then, the glorious work of education. Hasten the full equipment of the normal schools and colleges for the wider, grander work before them. Let new churches be planted, and the pure gospel of Christ be preached all over the beautiful and fruitful South, wherever the Freedman has his home. The work is not one of a generation, but of a century.

Student Aid.

To secure, at the earliest day, one of the chief objects of the Association—the thorough education of colored young men and women as teachers and ministers, who shall be competent to lead the masses of their race to a higher civilization—special aid must be given to those whose minds and hearts give promise of usefulness. A large number who propose to seek only an elementary education, or those who reside in the city where a school of high grade is located, do not require aid from abroad. The wise policy of the instructors in our institutions is to search for young men and women of promise, and encourage them to pursue a full course of study, and to watch over them till the benefits they receive are made a valued possession not only to themselves but to their race. What are the facts in the case? The best material is often remote from the college, and utterly lacking in pecuniary ability. Many of the brightest, the most intellectual of the children of the Freedmen, who are intensely anxious for an education, and have a praiseworthy ambition to be fitted for positions of responsibility and usefulness, are denied the privileges of the college by reason of extreme poverty. Many others are able to meet a part of the cost of an education, but without benevolent aid must stop short of a full course of study. I am just now in receipt of a letter from a worthy and talented young man near New Orleans. I quote a sentence to show its import: “I have the same mind to work in the cause of Christ and prepare to preach His word. I think I have been called to engage in this work and cannot be satisfied unless I do. Dear brother, I do now most solemnly appeal to you and the good brethren in the North to aid me to an education.”

This is one instance of hundreds which could be cited. Another fact deserves earnest consideration. We need to _conserve_ and utilize for the general good the partial education which the graduates of our colleges have secured. At the present time this is not done as it should be, and as it might be, if _special_ student aid were available. Many graduates go forth from the college who are lost to view. After so much patient labor has been bestowed upon them—and in some instances special pecuniary aid given—they should be encouraged in every way to devote themselves to the greatest good of their people. Take the last class in Straight University as an illustration. We graduated eight students, all bright, talented and promising, and, grandest of all, Christians. All are poor—some of them extremely poor. Their education has cost them a hard, patient struggle. They desire to become teachers of the highest rank. The young men are looking to the learned professions. In order to attain what they desire, and what we desire for them, they should take a post-graduate course. The young men, if God calls them to the work, should take a three years’ course of theological instruction.