Part 3

The reports from the churches were hopeful. There have been seasons of refreshing and ingathering, as at New Orleans and New Iberia. In all I think there was a desire and purpose manifest to bring the churches to a higher standing of intelligence and holy living.

There is something of the old conference element in our meetings which is healthful; to examine critically the ministers and their churches, and to have their “_characters passed_.” So men are here judged by actual results, and vital defects in administration are criticised with kindly severity, and impartially condemned.

The annual sermon was preached by Rev. Charles E. Smith, of Abberville. It was earnest, evangelical, and marked by a good deal of ability. Dr. Roy, who is always heartily welcomed, addressed the association with great acceptance. The “amen corner” made itself heard while he spoke. One good brother would occasionally break the silence by saying, “Look at him. He has a good hold now, sure.”

The session of Thursday morning was devoted to the subject of employing missionaries at large. A decision was reached at a subsequent session that a missionary committee be appointed, representing the northern, central, and southern portion of the association limits—New Orleans, Terrebonne and New Iberia—to exercise wise missionary over-sight over the parishes adjoining their own, to report opportunities of planting new churches, and to make temporary provision for them. Two new churches were received—St. Rock, in the town of Howma, and Little Zion, near Thibodauxville. These churches were regularly organized, with the assistance of Congregational councils.

To meet the growing demands of the field, and in answer to the urgent request of the churches, it was decided, after faithful examination regarding the character, doctrinal views and qualifications of the candidates, to license for the term of one year Mr. Squire Williams, of Thibodauxville, and Paul Martin, of New Iberia. In the case of Father Benjamin Fields, of Terrebonne, who has suffered for his faith in Christ and his fidelity to His service in the darkest days of bondage, the association, by a unanimous and cordial vote, granted him a license without limitation of time. The relation of his personal experience was very affecting. When he had spoken of the torture inflicted upon him by the lash, the paddle and the stocks, the Moderator asked him if while he suffered for his faith he prayed for his persecutors. He said: “I should not have been a Christian if I had not prayed for them.” One of the new churches received, the St. Rock Congregational church, earnestly requested that Mr. Humphrey Williams, one of their number, be set apart to the work of the ministry by the solemn rite of ordination, that he might serve them as pastor, and administer to them the sacraments of the church. The examination of Mr. Williams was approved, and his ordination secured in the evening. The Moderator preached the sermon and Dr. Roy gave a most excellent charge to the candidate. The ordaining prayer was offered by Rev. J. K. Jones, of Napoleonville, and the right hand of fellowship given by Rev. W. R. Polk, of New Iberia.

After the ordination service, Rev. Isaac H. Hall, of New Orleans, the delegate of the association to the National Council at St. Louis, made his report. His address was grand. As he described his visit to the Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association at Norwich and to the National Council, giving the salient features of each as they impressed his own mind, the audience were aroused to a high state of enthusiasm; smiles and tears were commingled; and one loud “Glory to God!” broke forth from hundreds of lips.

I must relate one incident in Mr. Hall’s address. Speaking of the election of a colored man as one of the vice-presidents of the National Council, he said: “Just think of it, dear brethren! There was Dr. Dexter on one side, and Dr. Sturtevant on the other, and a colored man in the middle, saying, ‘Are you ready for the question?’” You should have heard the hallelujah which greeted this announcement. There was a colored Baptist minister in the audience, with more enthusiasm than learning, who said: “Do you hear that? A white man on one side, and a white man on the other, and a nigger in the middle, saying, ‘Is you ready for de question?’ O Lord! is we riz so high?”

The association adjourned on Friday morning to meet in New Orleans, with Central Church, the first Wednesday in April, 1882. Dr. Alexander was appointed to represent the association at the autumn meeting of the Congregational Church in England. The religious interest awakened by our annual meeting deepened to the last, and at the urgent request of Brother Clay, several of the ministers remained after the adjournment. At the meeting on Saturday night, 35 were brought under conviction of sin, and asked for the prayers of the church. The good work still goes on.

The churches of the association need to be encouraged, instructed and helped. I see to-day, as I have seen every year that I have been in the State, opportunities of investing one hundred dollars in a piece of ground for a church site, or to make the last payment upon a chapel, or to save a discouraged frontier preacher, which would pay a fabulous revenue.

While our bankers and statesmen are devising means for funding the national debt, who in all this broad land, so rich in resources, will decide to fund something of his surplus revenue in the way I have indicated?

* * * * *

KANSAS.

The Condition of the Blacks at Topeka, Kan., and Savannah, Ga., Contrasted.

REV. R. F. MARKHAM.

I spent five years in Savannah, devoting my whole time to the colored people. Savannah claims 30,000 inhabitants, of whom about 15,000 are colored. Topeka has 16,000 inhabitants, 5,000 of whom are colored. Physical wants can be more easily supplied in Savannah than in Topeka. In nearly all of the South the bare necessities of life are more easily secured than at the North. The colored people of Topeka have equally good schools with the whites, where separate schools for them are established. The State Superintendent has ruled that any district which does not supply equal advantages for both white and colored can have no State appropriation. Savannah has tolerably good public schools for a little over one half of the colored children, but the poorest teachers are employed especially outside of the city. Everywhere through Kansas the blacks are as well supplied as the whites.

In Topeka a colored man can take jobs and superintend business when he is competent, and all are willing he should, but in Savannah I employed a very competent negro to superintend a job of mason work. I asked a white mason a few days afterward if it would do to put mortar on green lath. He replied, “I will not answer you. You have got a nigger to do your work.”

It is all right for colored men to do the work South, but they must have a white overseer. At the barber shops in Topeka they shave both white and colored, but let a colored man shave a black man in Savannah, and he will have no white customers. If a white man and a colored man walk the streets of Savannah together, the colored man must go behind, like a dog, not walk by the white man’s side. It was a long time before I learned why even my deacons would always walk behind me. That was their training. I said: “Walk by my side, you are my brother.” My daughter walked the streets of Savannah with a colored lady by her side. A white lady said to her, “You cannot be respected; you should have the colored girl walk behind you.”

In Topeka colored men and white walk side by side. Even the Governor of the State does not hesitate to walk this way with a colored man. I attended an election yesterday in Topeka. Politicians were anxious for colored votes. So they are in the South sometimes, but I observed the different way they have of treating a colored man in Topeka from the one they practice in Savannah. The politician says: “Mr. So-and-So,” but in Savannah it is, “Jim, Jack, boy, come, give me a vote.” I never heard a Southern white man “Mr.” a colored man. I wrote several articles for the _Savannah News_ and called the colored girls Misses, and applied Mr. to colored men. In every case they struck out Miss or Mr., as applied to colored persons. I was told by a prominent man in Savannah that any man who would sit at the table with a colored man ought to be driven out of the city. A colored man cannot sue a white man in Savannah and collect a debt; but in Kansas he is equal before the law. A negro entered the Presbyterian church in Savannah when Ralph Wells, of New York, was lecturing on Sabbath-schools, and was called upon to pray, at which the black sexton said to me, “The millennium must be here, a colored man prayed in the Presbyterian church! I never heard of such a thing before in my life.”

The Topeka Ministerial Association invites negro ministers to come in and join indiscriminately in its deliberations. In Topeka every white man encourages the colored man to save his money and get a home; in Savannah it is right the reverse. In Topeka a majority get homes; in Savannah but very few. In Topeka a majority of the whites encourage temperance, and, as the result, the colored vote goes nearly solid for temperance. In Savannah it is the reverse; nearly all drink. The moral instruction in Topeka is deficient, as the instruction is largely given by ignorant colored people, except the Sabbath-school sustained by the A. M. A. I believe it a great mistake of the A. M. A. not to put more laborers into the field in Kansas, where there are nearly 60,000 freed people. By no means neglect the South; all the work now being done is needed and twice as much more, but do not neglect this important field in Kansas, where all that pertains to true manhood can be far more rapidly developed than at the South.

* * * * *

THE INDIANS.

* * * * *

LETTER FROM JAMES MURIE.

Dear Friend:—A year ago, when I was at home, I stayed at the Agent’s office. I used to stay there and board at the school. I had a room and had nice things in there. One day a white man came to the office, wanted some children to go to Carlisle and Hampton schools. He said he wanted to take the Chief’s sons. In the evening I went to the school-house. A lady called me; she told me if I wanted to go to school. “Why, yes,” I said. The next morning I got two boys, and the Agent got two girls and a boy. We went to the commersary and got some clothes, and got ready for the next morning. We went to our homes the same day to see our friends. My father talked to me, but my mother and sisters cried. The next morning the wagon came up to the school. All the school-children came out, and the teachers; we bade them good-by. We start off for Arkansas city, which is about sixty-five miles from here. We had a box of grub to eat on the way. We went on; we stopped at place called “Poor Pawnee;” we had dinner there; the girls stopped crying then. Dinner was over, we watered the mules, hitched them up and went on. About five o’clock we got to Ponca Agency; we camped on a small creek; all the grub was gone; we had to buy some more. The man went to the Agent’s house to get some boys. They had a council with him; they let him take some boys. We stayed in the post-office all night; the next morning the boys were ready; there were five boys, two Nez Perces and three Poncas. They had to get another wagon for them. We went on. We got to Arkansas city about six o’clock. We camped on the western side of the city. We went to the town to buy some things which we had to eat that night. One white man came to the camp and told us that Capt. Pratt telegraphed to Winfield that we were to get to Wichita City before morning. We started off for Winfield. I had to drive, for the man had to walk to know which way we went. We got there in the night, and got to the depot house. We laid down for a little while, and the man told us that the train was ready. Before we got in the cars the Indian man who brought us talked to us. He wanted us to be good, and told us to remember what we were going away for. We got in the train, and got to Wichita before morning. We went to the hotel and found some other Indians there; we stayed there one day to rest. The next morning we took another train; we did not stop at any place till we got to St. Louis. I saw many white people there. We had supper there. I do not know what other places we stopped till to Harrisburg, Penn., and then went to Carlisle. I stayed there little while, and then I went to Hampton. I got here last October, which I entered in the lowest class. I think I improved my studies, and am now in another class. I will now try and tell you about my vacation this summer. School closed in June, Mr. J. C. Robinson, who had charge of us Indians, divided us into groups, some to go to Massachusetts, and some to change around. I mean there were three crowds; each crowd had to go to a farm called Shellbanks, to work out there a month. My crowd were the first to go out. We used to work on the farm, hoe corn, beets and cabbages, etc. I like to work on farm, though it was hot. Every evening we used to have prayer-meeting with Mr. Davis, who had charge of us out there. We had two Indian boys to cook for us. Every Sunday we used to go to the church, though it is about four miles where we stayed, and went to Sunday-school, too, and went back as soon as possible, so as to rest. Month was out, we went back to the school. On the way we met the other party of boys, to stay there a month like we did. When we got to the school they sent us right in the orchard, to help the men in gathering fruits. We got through, then Mr. Cocks took us on the farm to plant some potatoes. Then I went in one of the training shops to work. I worked in there till my time came on again. I went out there again, this time we worked on a bridge which the colored students were building to shorten the Normal School road. Some boys help load the carts, but I haul dirt with a wheelbarrow.

When I went back to the school I went in the same trade or shop. I went to learn the trade of printer that I might be able to start a trade out there. But, friend, don’t think that I did not do anything in the evenings of my vacation. Every Tuesdays and Fridays Rev. J. J. Gravatt and Rev. Mayor use to come over to the Indian Cottage, and there we would meet with them, read the bible and prayed with them, taught us about God, I learned many things from them. They are good friends toward the red men, for they want them to know something about God and have faith in him. They are doing this yet. I was glad when I saw some teachers here for I was ready to study. I know it is my duty to study and I always try and have good lessons. I work two days every week. There are more students in school this term than there were when I first come here. I hope I will learn all I can while here that I might be able to teach my own people. I am getting along well in this school, I like the colored students for they help us how to talk English. I am very glad that some white people thinks that Indians can learn, I know some thinks they can not learn, and thinks that it is no use for them to come to a good school like this; if the old Indians had been educated like the old white people, we would have been even in schools. The Government have just started schools for Indians. When these Indians at Hampton first came here, they did not know a word of English, they were dressed in Indians’ cloths; but now they have cloths like white people and they can read, cipher, and spell, and we are learning how to work just as well as studying books; we are getting along very nicely in our studys. Dear friends, I am glad that you are helping me in school though I am an Indian, which some people say that they can not learn anything. I have learned here that we can learn though we were not raised in talking the English language. I will now close, thanking you for what you have done for me.

Yours respectfully, JAS. R. MURIE, Young Eagle, Pawnee Indian.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

* * * * *

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D.D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L. Stone, D.D., Robert B. Forman, Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D.D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D.D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D.D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Howell, Rev. John Kimball, A. L. Van Blarcon, Esq., George Harris, Esq., and the Secretary ex officio.

SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.

* * * * *

JEE GAM ON THE MISSION IN CHINA.

[The sixth anniversary (eighth year) of our Chinese Schools takes place next Sabbath, April 24th. The following address has been prepared by Jee Gam to be delivered on that occasion. I forward it as a sort of first instalment in our plea for the commencement of a work greatly needed, and capable, if rightly carried on, of yielding most blessed results.—W. C. P.]

In China proper, exclusive of Chinese Tartary, Thibet, etc., there are eighteen provinces, among them Kwong Dioung, of which the well-known city of Canton is the capital. This province embraces 77 districts, and almost all of our Christian Chinese come from four of these districts, which lie in a cluster about eighty miles south-west of Canton, and 100 miles west of Hong Kong. To these districts our young men expect to return, and many of them already have returned. Their faith has often been tried, but they have stood firm, and have often come forth victorious, because the Lord Jehovah has been with them.

I wish I could tell you all about the trials and persecutions of these converts; but time will not permit, so I will briefly relate the story of the marriage ceremonies of Lee Fon and Quong Jo. These two brethren went home some three years ago. Not long after they had arrived the time for their marriages was undesignedly appointed on the same day. When they learned of this, and found that the day for their marriages could not be changed, they were very much grieved, for they did not wish the ceremony to be performed in a heathen manner. The principal rites of a Chinese wedding are the worshiping of ancestors, and of the household gods. The bride and bridegroom are married separately at their own homes. After the marriage of the bride, she is taken to the home of the bridegroom. Then both worship the ancestors together.

Within a distance of eighteen miles there were only two Christians—one of them a native preacher. The help of these men was very much needed. There being such a long distance between them, it would have been impossible for the native missionary and the convert to attend both ceremonies. So Quong Jo decided to stand alone, and oppose his brothers and relatives, who were urging him to worship the ancestors. He would not do this. They reviled him, and threatened to compel him. He still stood firm, for the Lord was with him even there, alone in that heathen village. Finally they left him to himself to worship whatever God he pleased. When the time came to place the offerings before the ancestral tablets, Quong Jo turned the opposite way, and prayed aloud to the true God whom he had learned to worship in America. He was closely watched by a crowd.

At the same time the marriage of Lee Fon was taking place in his own village, about ten miles from Quong Jo’s home. The native preacher and his convert were invited a few days previous, and arrived early in the morning of the day of the marriage. As soon as they entered the reception hall of the village, the cry on the streets was: “Two barbarians have come to the wedding.” Fifteen minutes afterwards the hall was filled. Among those present were teachers and professors who had come to argue with the so-called “barbarians.” For several hours the argument was kept up, but each of these followers of Confucius was, in turn, silenced. His brothers and relatives, who had been the chief persecutors, now said, “We will let you worship the foreign Jesus.” After this contest the missionary and the native convert returned with the bridegroom and his friends to his home, where the marriage ceremony was concluded by prayer and praises to God, instead of the worship of ancestors. Thus these two battles for the right were gained by four Christians.

From this, dear friends, you can see that a _native_ missionary who understands the customs and manners of the people, and is thoroughly acquainted with their language, is a very great help in two respects: 1st, in preaching the Gospel to the people; and, 2d, in helping and advising those who are already converted. We want more of such missionaries; and we want more missionary stations in these districts. Neither can be had, until we first establish a General Mission or Seminary in that country.

Hong Kong would be the most suitable and convenient city for the seat of such a mission. I will tell you why.

1st. The English language is used more in Hong Kong than in any other port in China, and the Chinese living there, or those visiting that place, could not be reached in a more efficient manner than by opening the same kind of free schools for them as you have opened for us here. They feel that they need to know the English language. Of course, there are public schools where both the English and Chinese languages are taught by the British government, but all have their sessions in the day-time; consequently, the children are the only ones benefited by these schools. There remains the laboring class unreached. If a free evening school is opened, I have no doubt that much good could be done among them.

2d. Hong Kong is a great highway to all foreign ports, especially San Francisco. Through Hong Kong nearly all the Chinese in the United States have come and will return. If a General Mission could be established at this port much co-operating work could be accomplished between our mission here and that at Hong Kong. Christian Chinese, returning home, would receive letters of introduction to the superintendent of the Hong Kong mission. This superintendent would have pastoral care over them, and be a very great help in time of persecution. Converts would be made firmer in faith, and more earnest in leading others to Christ. If this mission prosper, as we have not the least doubt it would, these converts could have preaching stations in these districts, and from these stations reach every village; but the work would be carried to a much wider extent by the aid of lady missionaries, who alone could reach the women.

Many of our number will go back there to study; for if they return they must be well versed in the Chinese Bible and in the classics of Confucius. They will meet much opposition from educated men. These will come and discuss with our brethren, and they should be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them.

In regard to the cost of this mission, what we propose would not be very expensive. There should be one missionary, a wise and earnest Christian, with good business capacity, and one _well-educated_ Chinese helper; and as the school grew and scholars were prepared to preach, the range of studies and the number of teachers could be increased.

All our Chinese Christian brethren expect to do all they can towards the establishment of such a mission, but we must have help from our American friends, especially the friends of the American Missionary Association.

* * * * *

WOMAN’S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.