Part 1

VOL. XXXV. NO. 2.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

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“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

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FEBRUARY, 1881.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

PARAGRAPHS 33 VALUE OF DR. TANNER’S EXPERIMENT 34 FREEMASONRY 35 NATIONAL EDUCATION--APPEAL OF THE EXODUS 36 NOVEMBER REPORT TO EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D. 37 GENERAL NOTES--Africa, Indians, Chinese 38 ITEMS FROM THE FIELD 41 NEW APPOINTMENTS 43

THE FREEDMEN.

GEORGIA, MARIETTA--Christmas Offering 48 GEORGIA, SAVANNAH--Beach Institute 48 ALABAMA--Missionary Work in Selma 49 LOUISIANA, NEW ORLEANS--Revival in Central Church: Rev. W. S. Alexander, D. D. 50 TENNESSEE--Methods of Revival Work in Fisk University: Prof. A. K. Spence 51 TENNESSEE, MEMPHIS--Sanitary Reform, Business, etc.: Prof. A. J. Steele 52

THE INDIANS.

LETTERS FROM INDIAN BOYS 53

THE CHINESE.

HOW SPEEDS THE WORK? Rev. W. C. Pond 54

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

BILL AND ANDY’S LARK 56

RECEIPTS 57

CONSTITUTION 63

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 64

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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. 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. Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H. Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., Ct. DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio. Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt. Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn. Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y. Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Washington Ter. Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill. EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H. 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, Mass. 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. Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass. Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa. 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. Rev. W. H. WILLCOX, D. D., Mass. Rev. G. B. WILLCOX, D. D., Ill. Rev. WM. M. TAYLOR, D. D., N. Y. Rev. GEO. M. BOYNTON, Mass. Rev. E. B. WEBB, D. D., Mass. Hon. C. I. WALKER, Mich. Rev. A. H. ROSS, Mich.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

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

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_. REV. G. D. PIKE, D. D., _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, C. T. CHRISTENSEN, H. L. CLAPP, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER, S. B. HALLIDAY, A. J. HAMILTON, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES A. HULL, EDGAR KETCHUM, CHAS. L. MEAD, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, WM. T. PRATT, J. A. SHOUDY, JOHN H. WASHBURN.

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. C. C. PAINTER, 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.

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VOL. XXXV. FEBRUARY, 1881. NO. 2.

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American Missionary Association.

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By the time this number of the MISSIONARY reaches our readers our Annual Report for 1880 will be through the press. We shall be happy to forward it to any of our friends who will send us their name and address, signifying their desire to have it.

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This number of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY contains a complete list of the names of the persons appointed for the current year to the different fields where this Association carries on its work at home and abroad. We commend the work and the workers to the great Lord of the harvest, and to all those who utter the prayer He has taught us to offer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth, as it is in heaven.”

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It is the belief of this Association that conversion is the proper door into the kingdom of science, as well as to the kingdom of Heaven. Our teachers and pastors, therefore, seek to bring those who come under their instruction to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, in order that they may be qualified to know aright and properly appropriate all knowledge. We are glad, therefore, to be able to refer our readers to letters from the field, in this number, as evidence that revival work is going on at different points throughout the South.

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Letters from our various stations at the South remind us, as we would remind our friends, that this winter is a hard one for the colored people, and that our missionaries really need more money and more clothing to distribute than in ordinary winters. We quote from one letter, which must serve for all: “As I write, the ground is covered with snow to the depth of about six inches, the first we have seen since 1876. By reason of the unprepared condition of the poor people here, living in open shanties and scantily supplied with clothing and food, this season of excessive cold is especially hard to endure.” Contributions of money and clothing to relieve this pressing and immediate want may be sent to the care of H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade street, New York City.

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We are glad to know that the Rev. A. D. Mayo, one of the editors of the _Journal of Education_, is making an extended tour of the South, and will hold Teachers’ Institutes and deliver courses of lectures in its chief educational centres. We shall await with great interest the report of what he sees and learns during his visit, and expect valuable suggestions from one who, to his wide experience as an educator shall add an accurate knowledge of the present condition of that part of the country.

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At the Annual Meeting in Norwich, the Committee on foreign work recommended that a superintendent of African missions be secured at once. The Executive Committee, after careful inquiry, made selection of Rev. H. M. Ladd, a much beloved pastor of Walton, N. Y., who has written:

“I hereby accept the position, praying the Great Head of the church for His blessing upon the arduous work undertaken in His name, looking for His help, without which we can do nothing, but with which we can do all things. I shall endeavor to enter upon the work of the Association on the 1st of February.”

We sympathize with his people in their great loss and congratulate them on the valuable gift they make to the cause of the Master.

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_The Southern Workman_, published at Hampton, Va., is, mechanically, a fair and most creditable specimen of the work done in the industrial department of the Hampton school; its editorial management proves that men good for something else are devoting their talents to negro education, while its columns show that intelligent minds giving promise of future usefulness are being trained in the school, and the paper, as a whole, gives an adequate idea of the work being done and yet to be done in such schools. Our friends who would at once have a very readable paper, keep informed on all phases of the Hampton work, and contribute something to support a most worthy enterprise, can do all this by sending to Gen. Armstrong the price of the _Southern Workman_.

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“An Old Friend,” of Sag Harbor, New York, sends $30 for a Christmas certificate of Life Membership for one of his friends, the twenty-sixth Life Member of this Association which he has made. He has earned the right to say: “Urge others to make their friends Life Members, and thus add to the friends of the Society, and increase the number of those who will take an interest in the good work.”

Another “Old Friend” who has celebrated his eighty-fifth Thanksgiving, sends $30 as a very suitable wedding present of a Life Membership to his son’s wife, having made all _his_ own children members.

These are happy suggestions for happy occasions.

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VALUE OF DR. TANNER’S EXPERIMENT.

This is not to be found in the fact that after all a man must eat or die; this we more than suspected before the Doctor’s experiment; neither has he settled how long a man may do without food; but he has shown conclusively that starvation, as a mode of living, is not economical, and that a life thus sustained is not worth anything. It cost a great deal to keep him alive, and the utmost he could do was to be driven out for a daily airing.

This lesson constitutes the sole value of his elaborate and painful experiment: A man who is to do anything must be properly nourished; plenty of good, wholesome food is cheaper than a diet of ice-water.

Good friends, we need not repeat the Doctor’s experiment to prove that the policy of starvation is a mistaken policy, and is every way expensive and hurtful. The question is not how long can a life be sustained at the point of starvation, which is also the point of utter worthlessness, but how much can a life properly nourished be made to accomplish?

Our parable needs no explanation. Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars is the least sum that should be named as at all adequate to the highest efficiency of our school and church work. We can _live_ on less, but by so much as we fall short of this by so much are we hampered and crippled.

The work we have to do is a work that must be done, and we, the churches of the country, have it to do. It becomes, of course, a question of wise economy in the expenditure of means. We point again to the lesson taught us and reiterate it: Starvation is not economy! The condition of greatest efficiency is that of abundant life blood; and for the work of the A. M. A. for 1881, this means at least three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

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FREEMASONRY.

In the MISSIONARY for October, 1880, an item appeared, copied mainly from an Atlanta paper, giving some statistics in regard to the colored people of that city. It named the amount of their taxable property, their industrial pursuits, and benevolent and charitable institutions--the Odd Fellows and Masonic lodges being mentioned among the number. Of all these institutions the article quoted said that they have encouraged the people “to form habits of sobriety and economy, and imbued them with feelings of charity and benevolence.”

It has been thought by some of our friends that quoting this remark was an endorsement by us of Masonry and Odd Fellowship. We wish explicitly to deny the correctness of such an inference. The executive officers of this Association have no sympathy with secret oath-bound Societies, and the MISSIONARY, on fitting occasions, has spoken plainly on the subject. Thus in 1873, the present Secretary of the Association wrote, and, with the hearty concurrence of his fellow-officers, published, in the August number of that year, the following article:

“Attention has been called anew to this subject, by the refusal of an ecclesiastical council at the West to ordain a young man to the ministry, for what was regarded as a too tenacious adhesion to the Lodge. Of the merits of that case we are not well enough informed to pronounce a judgment, but it is clear to us that the growth and power of Masonry is no light matter. The principle of secret organization is unsuitable to a Republican government, and contrary to the open spirit of Christianity. Among the colored people the prevalence of Masonry would be a great evil--involving a waste of time and an expenditure of money they are little able to bear, as well as exposing them to undue political influences, and diverting their attention from an intelligent and pure Christianity--their only hope. Our teachers and ministers at the South already see these effects beginning to appear, and deprecate them.”

Nothing has occurred since that time to modify, except to intensify, these convictions, and the attitude and influence of our schools and churches in the South have been wholly and decidedly opposed to these secret societies, as many facts, if necessary, would testify.

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NATIONAL EDUCATION--PREPARATION FOR IT.

In connection with the educational bill, which passed the Senate last week, a word concerning the American Missionary Association. Are we to have a national uprising of popular sentiment and legislative action with reference to the education of all peoples within our borders, but especially in the South? How signally, in the providence of God, did this Association forecast the need, and how wonderfully has it, these years past, been preparing the way. If it had done no more, it has proved to all the world, past all cavil, this--the cultivability of the negro, the practicability of education for the poor blacks and also for the “poor whites” of the South. Its Christian schools of all grades, planted here and there in all the States, have led the way and established beginnings of the utmost importance. These schools, by the sheer force of their own excellence, and results so signal as to arrest universal attention, have lived down the most desperate prejudices, and commanded the most emphatic testimonials from all classes and from those highest in authority. Never has a grand Christian enterprise shown itself more certain of good results; never did a benevolent undertaking more remarkably manifest its self-perpetuating, self-propagating force. It has given a new complexion to the entire “negro problem” in this country. It has successfully asserted the right of the lowliest of all citizens to share in the benefits and advantages of education. The Association, by the largeness of its plans, the boldness of its project, the manifestation on the spot of its work, by its public advocacy throughout the North, has served to press constantly upon the public attention the exact nature of the great emergency in the field of popular education. When were ever before the wisdom of a measureless benevolence and the audacity of a glorious faith more manifestly justified in their results?

But will not the new Congressional scheme for promoting popular education in the States of the South, render somewhat less urgent the work and the claim of the American Missionary Association? By no means! Just the reverse is true. Money alone will not educate anybody. If the first need be that of more money, at least the second necessity will be that of _suitable teachers_. Precisely here, to meet this necessity, is seen the almost prophetic, certainly the providential, anticipatory work of the Association, getting things ready for the great stroke of truly national statesmanship now proposed.

To say that the American Missionary Association _should_ have, at once, placed at its disposal five times its present resources to meet the new exigency, would be to make a statement altogether temperate, considerate and reasonable. The opportunity is one that is transcendently inviting.--_Rev. S. Gilbert in The Advance._

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THE APPEAL OF THE EXODUS.

We have kept a close watch upon this strange inter-State migration, the causes of which will make a blushing page in the history of our country. Its sad story should be a strong appeal to all who have a heart to feel for the wrongs and sufferings of the helpless.

After many urgent solicitations, and repeated investigations, we felt, despite all hindrances from lack of funds, that the time had fully come for action, when we were informed that the General Association of Kansas had appointed its Superintendent of Home Missions, the President of its College and others, a Committee, to confer with us in regard to this work.

The Corresponding Secretary and the Field Superintendent went up from the National Council to consult with this Committee and inaugurate such a movement as might seem best.

At Topeka, which has a large colored population, were found the General Committee of Relief, and a committee of Refugees, whose duty it is to take charge of arrivals, departures, etc., and watch the subsequent course of these people. It was decided to purchase lots in Tennessee Town, a suburb of this city, and erect a house at a cost of $1,000, under the superintendence of our old, tried worker, Rev. R. F. Markham, and we are glad to announce that, despite the cold weather, it is nearly ready for occupancy.

This is to be the home of our night school for adults under charge of Mr. and Mrs. White, of Oberlin. The pupils of this school are excluded from the public schools because of their age, and because they are necessarily occupied through the day. In it also will be sheltered the vigorous mission Sunday-school which Pastor Blakesley’s church has sustained, and which will be under charge of Mr. A. J. De Hart, a young colored man from Washburn College, recently ordained by a council at Cleveland, Ohio.

We have also located one of our Southern colored preachers--a young man--in the Second Congregational Church of Lawrence, where there is also a large colored population. Other points on this frontier of colored population will be kept in view.

Of the $2,500 which this work will cost for the year the citizens of Topeka have raised $700, and we have on hand a Kansas fund of $450. This leaves still $1,350 to be raised as a special sum, as this work is not provided for in the regular appropriations for the year.

The Executive Committee, urged as it has been, both by our friends and by the pressing need of this much abused and suffering people, has ventured on this expenditure, confident that it is a duty which must not be neglected, also that our friends will meet the exigency by sending in promptly the amount needed.

“These children of the dispersion,” peeled and torn, stretch out their hands to us again! Shall we not hear in their cry the pleadings of the Saviour for these, the weakest of his suffering children, and account this extra gift as but a small portion of the double recompense due them for their redoubled wrongs?

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NOVEMBER REPORT TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

REV. J. E. ROY, D. D.

On the day after the election, I left my home at Atlanta to attend in Memphis the Central South Conference and the Council for the installation of a pastor, Mr. B. A. Imes, of Oberlin Seminary. In the Conference I drew up the memorial which was presented to the National Council in behalf of a re-statement of our Creed and Catechism, urging the peculiar need of our Southern work, and preached on the Lord’s day, once in our Second church and once in the Second Presbyterian, lately that of Dr. Boggs. As moderator of the installing council, I led in the examination and delivered the charge to the people. Both bodies I reported daily in the _Memphis Appeal_; wrote them up in a “Pilgrim” letter to the _Congregationalist_, and gave their items to the _Advance_ and _Christian Union_.

As a delegate from Georgia in the National Council at St. Louis, your field superintendent nominated as assistant moderator Rev. J. D. Smith (colored), of Alabama, who was elected on the first ballot, and secured the appointment of Rev. Drs. Sturtevant and Goodell to offer fellowship to the Presbyterian General Assembly South, hoping for some incidental benefit to our work.

At Dr. Strieby’s request I went on with him to Kansas for the purpose of initiating our Refugee mission, for which a lot was bought and a house contracted for at Topeka.

Thence I went down to Paris, in Texas, to assist in the ordination of two of our Talladega men, J. W. Roberts as pastor in that city, and J. W. Strong to take the pastorate in Corpus Christi. Spending five days there, I preached for our church in Paris, also for the white Congregational church which I had organized six years ago, planned for a new church site and building, and visited and preached for our country church at Pattonville, twelve miles out, arranging for the supply of this and two other little churches by local preachers.

At Little Rock, Ark., I explored and found the fit material for a Congregational church to be organized as soon as we can have the money. In time we must have for Arkansas one of our first-class institutions at this beautiful capital, which has seven or eight thousand colored people, and which is the centre of a large population of Freedmen.

In three days, at Tougaloo, I inspected the Institution; counselled with the managers as to building schemes; lectured on “How to make money,--by labor, economy, education, investment;” and delivered a missionary address and a sermon, being permitted to rejoice that day with the teacher in the conversion of one of their most interesting young men.

The tour, which was one of 2,804 miles, occupied a month. The cost of travel was $88.15, unusually large, even for so long a trip, as I had to use the two great roads leading to Texas, which decline the usual ministerial courtesies. With five nights of riding, and only two of those in sleeping cars, with a steady push in travel and in work, it was a wearying tour. The postage of the month, $4.55, shows the amount of correspondence kept up along the way with the “field.”