Part 1

VOL. XXXIV. No. 3.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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MARCH, 1880.

_CONTENTS:_

EDITORIAL.

PARAGRAPHS 65 ZEAL FOR STUDY 66 TROPICAL AFRICA 67 THE NEGRO IN AMERICA AND AFRICA 69 DR. BLYDEN ON THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 70 REV. CHAS. B. VENNING—ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 71 AFRICAN NOTES 73

THE FREEDMEN.

AT TALLADEGA: REV. J. E. ROY, D. D. 74 NORTH CAROLINA—McLeansville School 75 SOUTH CAROLINA, CHARLESTON—Church and School Work —Cause of the Exodus 76 GEORGIA—Report of Board of Commissioners on Atlanta University 78 ALABAMA, TALLADEGA—Why he likes it: Rev. H. S. DeForrest 79 ALABAMA, ATHENS—Building Progress—Missionary Spirit 80 MISSISSIPPI, TOUGALOO—Student-Conversions—Crowded Rooms 81 TENNESSEE, MEMPHIS—School work and Week of Prayer 82 TEXAS—Two Hours’ Work by Student Canvasser 82

THE INDIANS.

AN INDIAN BOY’S LETTER 83

THE CHINESE.

ANNIVERSARY AT SACRAMENTO 85

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FOR THE MISSIONARIES 87

RECEIPTS 88

CONSTITUTION 93

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS 94

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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. ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y. 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. J. Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, 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, D. D., 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, D. D., 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. 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. 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. E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill. 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. Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill. Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo. J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill. E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill. C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct. Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D. D., Cal. Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D. D., Kansas.

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_.

H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

ALONZO S. BALL, A. S. BARNES, GEO. M. BOYNTON, WM. B. BROWN, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER, S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES A. HULL, EDGAR KETCHUM, CHAS. L. MEAD, WM. T. PRATT, J. A. SHOUDY, JOHN H. WASHBURN, G. B. WILLCOX.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the “American Missionary,” to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or when more 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.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

VOL. XXXIV. MARCH, 1880. No. 3.

American Missionary Association.

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We are glad to be able to announce the safe arrival of Prof. Chase at Sierra Leone, about the 8th of January, and hope before our next issue to receive valuable advices from him.

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We call attention to the Thirty-third Annual Report of the Association, recently published. In addition to the general survey which was read at the Annual Meeting at Chicago, and the minutes of that grand gathering, we have given, as usual, a detailed report of our work, and we suggest to pastors and others who may desire to inform themselves in regard to particular aspects of it, that if they will notice, they will find all this matter so classified in the Report that they can easily select just what they want. Thus, after the list of institutions and teachers, they may find the following headings: Delay in Opening Schools, Quality of the Work, Closing Exercises, Industrial Departments, Growing Favor, Buildings, Rented Property, Libraries, Student Aid, Religious Character of Schools, Colored Teachers, Theological Departments. The Church Work and other main departments are analyzed in the same way. We have done this, hoping to make the Report a helpful document and one easily used by the friends of the Association. Dr. Storrs’ sermon is also printed with it.

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Miss Parmelee’s paper, read before the Woman’s Meeting at the Anniversary in Chicago, excited so much interest at the time and since, and gave so vivid, so faithful and so sympathetic a view of the perils of the girls of the South, that we have, besides giving a portion of it in a former MISSIONARY, re-printed it in full, and have sent it largely to the Christian women of our churches. We beg them to read it, remembering that its statements are facts, and that the evils of which it speaks are among the better class of the colored women of the South, and hardly suggest the depths below, in which the mass are at home, and into which education and enlightenment only make the fall more fatal. May God’s spirit move the hearts of our Christian women to save their sisters.

One of our colored ministers, trained in an American Missionary Association school, in stating some incidents of his life to a friend, said that he was led, when about sixteen years old, to give up gambling and licentiousness, simply out of regard for his teacher, fearing that she would learn of his evil ways and despise him. That teacher little thought then, and has never learned even, of the blessed influence upon that young man, of her pure and consecrated life, which, through the providence of God, led to the transformation of a gambler and profligate, into an efficient and esteemed Christian minister, through whom she is now preaching to hundreds and even thousands.

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The Superintendent, scouring through Georgia, came across Rev. Mr. Thomas, a choice man, who has charge of two colored Presbyterian churches at Union Point and Woodstock, under commission of the Northern General Assembly, and who got all his schooling—three years—at our Lewis High School in Macon, Ga. So the fruit of our tree of knowledge, is falling over into other church lots, and we are glad of it. Such fruitage is a great encouragement to the teachers of our minor schools.

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_A Bible Example of Reconstruction._—It was after the return from Babylon. Civil and the moral reformation went hand in hand. The first Governor, Zerubabel, who was a grandson of a former king, had the high priest, Joshua, to lead in the worship, and the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, to preach and to teach. The next Governor, Ezra, instituted for the instruction of the people an extensive system of Bible-readings. “So they read in the Book, in the law of God, distinctly and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.”

The next Governor, Nehemiah, was a reformer. He put down the practices of taking heathen wives, of violating the Sabbath, and of exacting illegal interest. No improvement has as yet been made upon that style of civil reconstruction. Religion and education, the church and the school, must go along with the re-ordering of the State. So we find our work at the South in the line of a Divine pattern. The Bible gives us its ideal of dealing with freedmen by taking into its sacred canon the five books of Moses for the emancipated Israelites, the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, for the restored captives.

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ZEAL FOR STUDY.

A good deal has been said, from time to time, of the abatement among the colored people of that eagerness to learn, which marked the days immediately following their emancipation. Of course, much of it is true; many found by trial that it was not so easy or instantaneous a process to learn to read as they had supposed; the pressure of self-support drew away the attention of others from their aspirations after an education; unduly excited ambitions and crude hopes were seen to be unfounded, and in the disappointment many were discouraged. But all of it is not true. There are many instances yet of the early eagerness to learn among the young, and even among the old; we give an instance from a teacher’s letter: “One woman, 39 years old, lives in the country, and walks six miles to school, and six miles again after school to her home. Her seat has been vacant only on one or two of the rainiest days since the school opened, September 1st. At home, she has all her household affairs to look after, and finds time to study at night even then; and if, on account of helping her husband to pick cotton in the fall, she would go late to bed without ‘knowing her lesson,’ it ‘worried’ her so, she said, that she ‘could not get a wink of sleep,’and her husband would waken to find her up and studying. She is gaining slowly in rudimentary knowledge, and is very much pleased, or, as she would say, ‘proud’ of her success. Several such ones, eager to learn, I have under my care, and though they can learn but slowly, it is really better than that they should never know anything, though I think we would count it hardly worth while to take such pains so late in life; yet, better to get upon the first round of the ladder than not to rise at all.”

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TROPICAL AFRICA.

The Three Lake Missions.

Among the great movements of this stirring age, none are, perhaps, more far-reaching than those for the exploration and evangelization of Tropical Africa. The splendid achievements of Livingstone and Stanley crown and complete the efforts of their heroic predecessors. Africa’s three great central lakes and her two great rivers—the mysteries of the ages—are now explored and mapped.

The missionary efforts that have followed these discoveries reveal an enthusiasm, and a consecration of talent and life, worthy of the vast field thus opened. In the promptness of the response, the money and the lives devoted and the number of missions founded or projected, the last five years give a history that probably has no parallel in the records of Christian missions. The story of these adventures in discovery and evangelization has the fascination of romance, and is pathetic in the piety and the sufferings of both travellers and missionaries.

We select as illustrations the three Lake Missions of Tropical Africa.

1. The Victoria Nyanza Mission.

On the northern shores of this greatest of Africa’s central lakes is the dominion of King Mtesa—a name now familiar to the civilized world. He rules over two millions of people, has a navy of 300 war canoes and an army of 150,000 warriors. In 1875, Stanley reached his capital. The welcome was cordial, and for two months the traveller taught the King the principles of Christianity with such happy results that the Bible was studied, and in obedience to its teachings, an enemy and rebel, conquered in battle and doomed to death in accordance with African morals and invariable practice, was spared! Stanley appreciated the true value of the King’s “conversion,” and saw the need of having his own incipient teaching followed up by steady missionary labors. His appeal for such labors was written in Africa and appeared in a London paper Nov. 15, 1875. The prompt response should be noticed. Three days after it appeared, came an anonymous offer of $25,000 for the founding of the mission, and soon another equal sum was proffered. The venerable and efficient Church Missionary Society undertook the work. The consecrated money was soon followed by the consecrated men. In 1876, the company of missionaries landed at Zanzibar, and travelling the 800 miles of jungle in six months, and marking their first disaster in the death of one of their party, reached Mtesa’s capital. They were welcomed with enthusiasm, and when the name of Jesus was uttered, a salute was fired. The work was begun immediately, but soon the second great disaster came—two of the company, Lieutenant Smith and Mr. O’Neill, were murdered at no great distance from the capital. But instead of discouragement, these disasters called forth new enthusiasm. Three young men were promptly sent out by the Church Missionary Society. They took the Nile route, but a journey that should have taken three or four months was protracted to nine by the floating islands in the Upper Nile and the ignorance of the Arab captain. One of the missionaries received a sunstroke and was obliged to return. At length they reached Uganda and were joyfully received, but soon came the greatest calamity—a week after their arrival two French Jesuit priests came also, and succeeded in so disaffecting the mind of the King as to arrest the work, and lead to the withdrawment of most of the missionaries. The summary at the latest dates is: Sixteen missionaries in all have been sent, of whom six have died and three have returned sick. Of the seven still in Africa, four have been permitted to go on various duties and three remain at Uganda without the facilities either to carry on their work or to withdraw.

2. Tanganika Mission.

Ujiji, the location of the Tanganika Mission is endeared to the friends of Livingstone. Here he made his temporary home, and here, almost ready to die, he was discovered by Stanley, to be restored to vigor and to toil still longer for Africa, till at last he was found dead upon his knees. The plan for a mission here was formed by the London Missionary Society, scarcely less venerable than the Church Missionary Society.

Mr. Arthington of Leeds, Eng., one of the generous and prompt donors of $25,000 for the Nyassa Mission, gave a like sum for this. Four ordained missionaries, one scientific man and one builder, left London in March, 1877. Their journey from the coast of Africa was protracted over thirteen months in consequence of the many obstacles and vexatious delays. Added to these trials, death did its fearful work. Under these discouraging circumstances, Dr. Mullen, the intrepid and beloved Secretary of the Society, obtained the reluctant consent of the Directors to lead in person an additional force, and to hasten the progress of the supplies. But he had gone only 200 miles from the coast when death closed his useful career. No event in the last five years has cast such a gloom over mission circles in Great Britain as the sad fate of this noble man.

3. Nyassa Mission.

Again is the stimulus of Livingstone’s labors seen, and his name and memory honored in the founding of another mission: the Livingstonia on Lake Nyassa. It was a labor of love for the Free Church of Scotland, aided by sister communions to undertake this mission. In the Spring of 1875, the expedition started, having been furnished with all needed supplies, including a beautiful steel steamer and two boats for the use of the mission on the Lake. After a tedious journey up the Zambesi and Shiré and a toilsome land journey of 60 miles, around the Murchison Falls, the Lake was at length reached.

After a brief search, a site was selected that held out unusual hopes of coveted advantages—there were no mosquitos and a favoring lake breeze gave promise of health. But alas for the unforeseen and insignificant difficulties that sometimes defeat the greatest undertakings—the fatal tsetse fly compelled the choice of a new location. But we cannot give space for the subsequent details.

The disasters and deaths in these missions have had a depressing effect upon the hearts of Christians in Great Britain, and we fear that the discouragements will to some extent be felt in this country. But we must guard ourselves against hasty inferences and unwarranted fears. We should remember:—

1. That trials at the outset are often God’s means of arousing a deeper faith. The history of missions, modern and Apostolic, is full of examples. The Teloogoo Mission where such an unusual work of Divine grace has recently been experienced and the converts have been numbered by thousands, was for a long time the scene of unfruitful labors. Bishop Crowther’s Mission in West Africa, now so strong and growing, had an early experience of toils and persecutions. The Apostles themselves encountered imprisonments and death not only, but their labors were sometimes followed by defections, perversions of doctrine and scandals in life.

2. We should take courage from the fact that the slave-trade, the worst foe to missionary labors in Africa, is feeling the effects of the earnest efforts of Great Britain for its overthrow. Sir Samuel Baker, and after him Col. Gordon, the stout old Covenanter—the Havelock of Africa—have crippled its power on the Upper Nile, while the labors of Sir Bartle Frere, and subsequently of Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, have been equally effective along the coast, so that the Church Missionary Intelligencer feels authorized to say that “the slave-trade if not killed, is scotched.” The missions themselves, though hindered in many respects, have had a salutary influence in shaming and arresting this fiendish traffic.

3. Finally, the church of God must bear in mind that the Saviour’s last and great command, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel,” is accompanied by that all-comprehensive and all-sufficient promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” God will redeem the whole world, and in the Saviour’s heart and plan, Africa is not forgotten.

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THE NEGRO IN AMERICA AND AFRICA.

Dr. Edward W. Blyden, of Liberia, Africa, is the author of an interesting article in the _Methodist Quarterly Review_ for January, 1880, from which we gratefully reprint elsewhere his tribute to our work. Anything which comes from the pen of this distinguished gentleman—one of the most cultured men of the race whose cause he pleads—is well worth reading and consideration. With much that the Doctor says, we are in full and hearty agreement, but beg leave to make one or two suggestions, growing out of what seem to be at least not unwarranted deductions from his positions.

No one can regret more than we do the prejudice which exists, in this country especially, against the colored man. And there is no doubt that, as Dr. Blyden observes, even among those who are not unmoved by the story of his wrongs, and who are earnestly engaged in philanthropic efforts for his uplifting, this personal prejudice and sense of superiority does exist. That it is not so to anything like the same degree in England and on the Continent, is suggestive in the light it casts upon the fact among us. On what is the difference of feeling founded? Certainly not altogether in the natural race-prejudice. That is a fact not to be denied. There is a prejudice which is universal between all people of distinct races of men. It is felt by the original inhabitants of Africa against the Caucasian, as Dr. B. shows, as well as by the white man in his own home against the black. But in this land, the prejudice is intensified by the position and the character of those who have made up the negro population.

Dr. Blyden objects to our calling the Negro, Indian and Chinaman “the despised races.” He even dislikes to have Africa called “the Dark Continent.” Of course, our brother knows that the sympathies of this Association are, as they have always been, with these people of his land, and that our toils and labors have not been limited, nor of brief continuance, in their behalf. All this he most fully and kindly acknowledges in his article. It is hardly necessary for us to say, then, that we have used the term as describing what is, and as contrasted with what ought to be. It is true, rightly or wrongly, that they have been looked down upon and are still despised. And we have used the word as setting forth the fact, and as, therefore, the strongest plea to Christian sympathy and help; for we have been sure that where we could enlist these, the term would no longer have application. The good Samaritan did not despise the poor Jew who had fallen among thieves, as he held him up on the ass which bore him to the inn. He was too busy pitying and helping him. Perhaps this is enough to say. We have used the term “the Despised Races” not as an epithet, but as a plea.

A fair inference at least from the Doctor’s article is, that he sees no hope for his people on this continent, and that their only way to success is to emigrate to the land of their mothers, and to make its reclamation their ambition. But how does that affect our work and the present generation? The American Colonization Society, as seen by its last published report, sent out to Africa during the year 1878, one hundred and one colonists; during the same year the bark Azor transported two hundred and forty. It is but a spoonful dipped from this deep sea. It is but the smallest possible percentage even of the increase of the colored population of America. Meanwhile, what are we to do with the five millions who remain, and with their children and their children’s children? What we do for them we must do for them here.