Part 2

Thus there are various means to be used in the interest of missionary work. What is needed is the flavor of missions in the life of the churches, the vision of Christ’s kingdom kept continually before the imagination and faith of the people, the proportions of the local, not magnified into excessive size, but brought into true harmony with the greatness of our Redeemer’s work for the race. Not all people can be aroused into interest for missionary work by any methods; whatever the zeal of the pastor, some indifference will remain. But if he has the missionary spirit, he will not be contented with an occasional preaching. He will determine the tone of worship and the direction of all endeavors by his enlarged view of God’s plan for the redemption of men. New suggestions, allusions, illustrations and prayers will swell the current of sympathy for missions, and increase contributions under any method of giving.

But, at all events, if the pastor thinks it wise to preach on the subject, or introduce a Secretary when collections are to be taken, there is no reason why he may not pursue the same course when pledges of money are made only once a year.

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A FEW WORDS TO THE CHURCHES.

It is customary for our District Secretaries at this season to send to the churches letters and circulars containing statements of receipts and appeals for future co-operation. We give below extracts from circulars issued from our offices at Boston and Chicago, commending them as pertinent, timely, and fitted to provoke unto love and good works.

The following comes from Secretary Woodworth:

The battle for the Republic and her institutions will be fought _in the South_; and for the simple reason that the battle will be fought where the causes of the battle exist, and the principles which underlie our free institutions encounter most of opposition and danger.

And this battle for the foundations of the Republic, and for the administration of every public right and interest, is now upon us. The war itself involved no graver questions, and called for no higher style of patriotic sacrifice and zeal. Every appliance of Christian education and of moral power must be enlisted to uplift the people and unify the nation; and for this work the time favors. For four years, at least, we have an open course; the political signs are more auspicious; and we may hope to _push far ahead_ the forces of intellectual and moral regeneration.

The colored people are intensely loyal to the rule of majorities; they believe, heart and soul, in those who broke their chains; they accept their principles, and receive joyfully the lessons of their teachers and their preachers. With them we can build up free schools, Christian churches and homes, and plant and develop the seeds and forces which have their type and prophecy in Plymouth Rock. Now is our time.

Arm them with a true manhood; educate them into a true knowledge of their duties to God and to man, and they will bring peace and strength to our land, now threatened with storm and wreck, and prepare the way for the redemption of the Dark Continent itself.

Secretary Powell’s appeal concludes with special requests, inviting immediate attention. He says:

The Executive Committee ask for an increase of twenty-five per cent. this coming year to the contributions from churches and individuals.

1. If your Church has not yet made a contribution to the American Missionary Association during the year, will you please ask them to do so before the year ends?

2. When your Church reviews the benevolence of the past year, and plans for the next, will you please see to it that the A. M. A. is placed on the list of causes for which contributions are to be made, and that the time of year when the contribution is to be taken is chosen with a full view of the great importance of our work? The time of year selected often makes all the difference between a large and a small contribution.

3. At the monthly concert will you please plan so that the work of the A. M. A. will have a place in the prayer and thought of your people, and that some field or branch of our work shall be reported? The despised races of America, and those who, in great self-denial, privation, and sometimes opposition, labor for them, should not be forgotten when God’s people meet to pray for the conversion of the world.

4. Will pastors please arrange so that at some time during the year they will preach a sermon to their people on the work of the A. M. A.? The November number of THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY will be found rich in fact and suggestion for such a discourse. The theme will prove to be of great interest both to preacher and hearer.

5. Will you endeavor to enlarge the circle of the readers of our monthly magazine, THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY?

Specimen copies in any number will be sent you free if you so request. The Magazine gives reliable information respecting our work, and notices the current events that relate to the welfare and progress of the races for whom we labor. It will be found a helpful factor in the development of an intelligent, patriotic and tender piety to the membership of the churches.

May we not confidently look for the co-operation of every one into whose hand this appeal comes to make certain that the increase asked for by our Executive Committee shall be secured? Plan for it, pray for it, talk about it, interest others in it, and don’t forget to _give_ for it.

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DISCUSSION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

We rejoice in the continued agitation of the Indian problem. It is only under the shelter of popular indifference that wrong and revenge become the order of the day—with murders, wars and boundless expense. Under “the sunlight of publicity” the wrongs are detected and the remedies are projected and applied. Just now we are favored with three valuable papers on this subject. In the first place we have the report of the Committee of Indian Affairs, giving a very encouraging statement of the progress of the Indians in the arts of civilization. We have next the elaborate report of Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, in which, with a frankness as rare as it is commendable, he acknowledges the change of views and policy of the Administration in relation to Indian affairs. He then with great clearness outlines its present policy, and takes occasion to speak minutely of the case of the Poncas. The injustice done to them in their original removal from Dakota is admitted, but it is also clear to him that it “would be contrary, alike to their own interests and to those of the country at large, to remove them from their present homes. This conclusion is arrived at by reason of various considerations, such as the fact that their present condition in the Indian Territory is prosperous; that they do not themselves want to return North, and also because if they are removed back to Dakota, the other Northern Indians now in the Indian Territory would be made restless with a desire to follow their example. This would, in all probability, result in an extensive evacuation of the Indian Territory, and of that part of it which contains the lands coveted by the intruders, and which lands are held against them on the ground that they are reserved for Indian settlement. It is obvious,” says the Secretary, “that the evacuation by the Indians of the region held for Indian settlement, and defended on that very ground against intruders, would be apt greatly to encourage and stimulate the projects of invasion, which, although repeatedly repelled, are pursued by evil-disposed persons with persistent activity.” The last of these papers is the President’s message, in which he endorses and briefly recapitulates the views of the Secretary of the Interior in regard to the Indians. We clip from this a few paragraphs presenting the attitude of the Administration:

“It gives me great pleasure to say that our Indian affairs appear to be in a more hopeful condition now than ever before. The Indians have made gratifying progress in agriculture, herding and mechanical pursuits. The introduction of the freighting business among them has been remarkably fruitful of good results, in giving many of them congenial and remunerative employment, and in stimulating their ambition to earn their own support. Their honesty, fidelity and efficiency as carriers are highly praised. The organization of a police force of Indians has been equally successful in maintaining law and order upon the reservations, and in exercising a wholesome moral influence among the Indians themselves.

“Much care and attention has been devoted to the enlargement of educational facilities for the Indians. The means available for this important object have been very inadequate. A few additional boarding-schools at Indian agencies have been established, and the erection of buildings has been begun for several more, but an increase of the appropriations for this interesting undertaking is greatly needed to accommodate the large number of Indian children of school age. The number offered by their parents from all parts of the country for education in the Government schools is much larger than can be accommodated with the means at present available for that purpose. The number of Indian pupils at the Normal School at Hampton. Va., under the direction of General Armstrong, has been considerably increased, and their progress is highly encouraging. The Indian School established by the Interior Department in 1879, at Carlisle, Pa., under the direction of Captain Pratt, has been equally successful. It has now nearly 200 pupils of both sexes, representing a great variety of the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains. The pupils in both these institutions receive not only an elementary English education, but are also instructed in house-work, agriculture and useful mechanical pursuits.

“The interest shown by Indian parents, even among the so-called wild tribes, in the education of their children, is very gratifying, and gives promise that the results accomplished by the efforts now making will be of lasting benefit.

“I concur with the Secretary of the Interior in expressing the earnest hope that Congress will at this session take favorable action on the bill providing for the allotment of lands on the different reservations in severalty to the Indians, with patents conferring fee-simple title inalienable for a certain period, and the eventual disposition of the residue of the reservations, for general settlement, with the consent and for the benefit of the Indians, placing the latter under the equal protection of the laws of the country. This measure, together with a vigorous prosecution of our educational efforts, will work the most important and effective advance toward the solution of the Indian problem, in preparing for the gradual merging of our Indian population in the great body of American citizenship.”

We have never doubted the honest purpose of President Hayes’ Administration to deal justly and wisely with the Indian problem, and the plan it now proposes must meet the approbation of all good citizens. The great question still remains: How far will the Nation insist on the necessary legislation by Congress to carry out these plans? It is in this point of view that we hail with gratification the continued agitation of the subject, even if it should involve differences of opinion among the warmest friends of the Indians. And there are such differences. For example, it is said that the claim of great improvement among the Indians, as shown in their making demand for lands in severalty, and in their progress in agricultural industries, is mere rhetoric, for it has been repeated over and over again for years, in the reports of the Indian Department. “Fine words butter no parsnips” for the Indian, any more than for the white man. Give to the Indian his patents and secure to him his rights. The _doing of it_ is the thing demanded.

Then, too, Mr. Tibbles and Bright Eyes are still on the war path, with a following so earnest and respectable as to command attention. We do not pronounce on the justice of their claim, but we do welcome the agitation. The great thing to be dreaded is the relegation of the Indian question to indifference and neglect. It has many aspects, and its permanent and righteous settlement is the immediate and imperative duty of the nation.

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WOMAN’S WORK FOR WOMAN.

MISS MARY E. SAWYER.

A Paper read at the Women’s Meeting, held in connection with the Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association at Norwich, Ct.

Before every Southern teacher to whom comes the opportunity of presenting this cause, so dear to us, to the Christian women of the North, two pictures rise.

Looking upon the one, you would shrink back in dismay, wondering if it be not hopeless to try and illumine a darkness so gloomy, to raise a class so utterly buried in ignorance, superstition and sin. But, could we turn to you the other view, show the work done, acquaint you with the trials, the sacrifices, the glorious victories over fiery temptations, the patient continuance in well-doing in the face of obstacles almost insurmountable, then, indeed, you might be tempted to take the other extreme and feel that missionaries are hardly needed among a people whose Christian record shines brighter than our own. So, coming as pledged witnesses before you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, we shrink from the vastness of the undertaking, for while exactly fulfilling the last requirement and telling nothing but the truth, we keenly realize the many contradictions, and know that the whole truth cannot be told in a single hour—can never, indeed, be fully known till seen in the light of eternity.

We read of nations with no word for home. Come through the cabins of the South and you will find not the name but the reality wanting. You will not find there any incentive or help to personal modesty, any retirement or any sense of impropriety in the state of things. From these influences and homes many of our girls come to us with minds and characters such as might be expected from such surroundings. We sometimes speak of them as _children_, but the comparison is hardly just. Never do I realize more keenly their deprivations than after talking with Northern children—little children whose precocity, to one fresh from the South, seems almost alarming, suggestive of brain fevers and early death. From babyhood their wits have been quickened by contact with other and mature minds, their many questions wisely answered till they have _absorbed_ knowledge enough to be intelligent companions before their so-called education begins. But put them in the place of the colored children, remove all books, all papers, all pictures, let them have no knowledge of the outside world, let all their questions be addressed to people as ignorant as themselves, and you will find the youth of sixteen far behind the child of six.

To many of the girls, entering school is like entering a new world. They sit for the first time in their lives at a well ordered table, utterly at a loss as to the proper manner of conducting themselves. The refined manners of the older students bewilder them.

The door of a teacher’s room is suddenly and unceremoniously thrown open, and two or three girls march silently before her to the fire, and standing with vacant faces by its warmth, are perfectly unconscious of any impropriety in such a mode of entrance, or of the need of a single word of explanation. It is no uncommon thing for a girl to throw herself, fully dressed, on the outside of her freshly-made bed and there pass the night, having no conception of properly undressing and going to bed.

Our school work, then, includes much more than one would at first imagine. Each girl has some part in the household work, and must be taught the neatest, quickest and best method of doing it. This does not mean once showing, but careful, patient oversight for days and weeks. Her room, clean and tidy, when given her, must be kept in the same condition, and this necessitates very frequent and very thorough inspection, till she at length comprehends fully that a hasty use of the broom, leaving the sweepings under the bed or behind the door, a scrambling up of all loose articles into one pile on the closet floor, or a set of drawers with finger marks outside and a motley collection of clean and dirty clothing within, will not satisfy the requirement.

The same care is exercised over her person; clean, whole clothing, well-kept hair and thorough bathing transform her outwardly, while the loud, boisterous tones, the coarse expressions, the uncouth manners are toned and softened by constant care.

Sewing, in which they are woefully deficient, receives due attention, and girls whose hands can manage a plough or a cotton bag much more easily than they can hold a needle, become at the end of the course very nice seamstresses, whose work would rejoice the hearts of the advocates of hand sewing. In these classes, besides plain sewing of every description, the girls are taught patching and darning, and the cutting and putting together of garments, and in at least one of the colleges, each girl who graduates must leave behind a garment cut and made entirely by herself, as a specimen of her skill.

A few minutes daily are spent in giving the assembled school a brief summary of the important items of news in the great outside world, and more or less time is devoted to plain talks on practical matters, manners, morals and care of the health,—the last a subject, by the way, with which they seem wholly unacquainted, and which the girls especially need to become familiar with. Dress reform in two directions needs to be impressed upon them, as the uncouth garb of the girls from the woods, and the thin slippers, cheap finery, powder, paint and corsets laced to the last verge of human endurance donned by the city girls, bear testimony.

But this is not all. These girls are sent to us to be trained for Christ, and knowing the utter folly of attempting to build up a pure, noble womanhood on any other foundation than Christian principle, we try by all our system and watchfulness and oversight to establish them in this, earnestly praying the Master to send from on high that blessing without which all our labors will be nothing worth.

Have you never in some late Spring watched the brown leaf-buds, as day after day they seemed to remain unchanged, till you were tired of waiting for the fulfilment of their promise? And do you remember your joyful surprise when, leaving them thus at night you woke to find the whole tree aglow with the fresh, tiny bits of color from the bursting buds? So we feel often as we wake to realize that the rough, awkward girl who came to us has developed into the quiet, refined Christian woman, leaving us for her life work. Nor are we the only ones to see the transformation.

“I am looking to see what kind of a woman you are,” said a child to one of the Talladega students as she opened her log cabin school in the pine wood. “You look to me like a white lady.” The teacher’s face was of the most pronounced African type, and black as ebony, but her quiet dignity and refined manner excited the child’s wonder and elicited the unconscious compliment.

As teachers, these girls carry the missionary spirit with them, and feeling their responsibility, open Sunday-schools and engage in temperance work as surely as they begin their day schools. Into the cabins they carry, as far as may be, a regard for neatness, order, and those little adornments which make home what it is. Happy the young colored minister who wins one of them for his wife, thus establishing a home which shall supplement his sermons and act as leaven in the homes of his people. More than one graduate of the colored theological seminaries is gravely hampered in his usefulness by an ignorant, careless wife. As one frankly expressed the matter to a brother minister, “My wife is more trouble to me than all my work put together.” And in thus training our girls to be careful, efficient housewives, we know we may be moulding not them alone, nor their immediate households, but the whole community of women over whom, as ministers’ wives and the most thoroughly educated women, they will exert a powerful influence.

But we have deeply felt the need of more direct and personal influence over the women. The work of the school needs to be supplemented by that of the missionary: mother and daughter must work together for the best result. But the teacher had little time after the school duties were performed, and the lady missionaries so sorely longed for, were very few in number. Why not, then, work through our tried colored helpers? The description of the way this has been done in other States I leave to those whose experience is wider than my own. In Alabama, we have a “Woman’s Missionary Association,” holding annual meetings in connection with the State conference of churches, and having auxiliary societies in these several churches. The colored women who compose these societies have heartily and faithfully assumed the duties devolving upon them, and helping others have themselves been helped.

The work done is varied, no rigid plan being laid down. Sewing classes for the women and girls, prayer-meetings for the mothers, Bible-readings, visiting from house to house, bearing food and medicine for the sick, clothing for the destitute, and comfort and sympathy for all, health talks—than which nothing can be more needed,—literary societies to develop their untrained minds, foreign missionary meetings to broaden their sympathies; all these and other ways of working for the Lord are reported at their last meeting. In April, for the first time, this annual meeting was visited by several white Southern ladies. Our surprise at their coming was only equalled by their amazement at the revelations.

“You put our ladies to the blush,” said one. “You are far ahead of us in Christian work.”

“Only to think,” exclaimed another as she listened to the carefully prepared papers and systematic reports,—“Only to think that we have kept such women as these in slavery!”

There are bright, promising girls all over the South, who, to make just such women as these, need only your help. You cannot leave your home duties to go yourself to them, but you can provide the means by which they may be fitted to act as your substitutes among their people. “Ten times one is ten,” you know, and the girl to whom you lend a hand may win many more souls into the kingdom. They stand to-day on the border: your arm lifting, they will come into power and usefulness: your heart closed to them, they will sink back into the old life. There must be many in this room to-day who have aided this work by gifts dearer to them than their own lives. Does not the scene come back to you, when through blinding tears you looked for the last time on brother or husband or son, as for love of God and country the dear ones marched away to find a grave beneath the Southern skies? They rest from their labors. It remains for us, for their dear sake, to see that this work they so nobly begun shall be as honorably carried on.

Doubtless the Lord could perfect this work without our aid, but He has chosen to entrust it to our keeping. And with every instinct of humanity, every impulse of patriotism, every principle of Christianity urging us to the work, shall we not receive it as from our Saviour’s hand, holding fast that which we have, that no man take our crown?

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BENEFACTIONS.