Part 1

VOL. XXXV. NO. 9.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

* * * * *

“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”

* * * * *

SEPTEMBER, 1881.

_CONTENTS_:

EDITORIAL.

ANNUAL MEETING—FINANCIAL—OUR BROADSIDE 257 THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF MISSIONS 258 HEALING OF THE NATION’S WOUND 260 SUGGESTION WORTH PASSING ALONG 261 BENEFACTIONS—GENERAL NOTES 262

THE FREEDMEN.

OUR CHURCH WORK BROADSIDE. Washington, D.C.; Hampton, Va. 265 Wilmington, Beaufort, N.C.; Charleston, Orangeburg, S.C.; First Cong. Ch., Atlanta, Ga. 266 Cut First Cong. Ch., Atlanta, Ga. 267 Atlanta Univ., Savannah, Ga. 268 Woodville, Marietta, Cypress Slash, Ga. 269 Belmont and Louisville, Ga.; Talladega, Mobile, Marlon, Ala. 270 Montgomery, Selma, Ala. 271 Shelby Iron Works, Childersburg, Florence, Ala.; Tougaloo, Miss.; Cong. Churches of Louisiana 272 Nashville, Memphis, Tenn. 275 Chattanooga, Tenn.; Berea, Ky.; Little Rock, Ark. 276 Goliad, Paris, Flatonia, Texas 277 Corpus Christi, Texas 278

THE CHINESE.

JOTTINGS FROM THE FIELD 278

WOMAN’S HOME MISS. ASSOC’N.

MISS WILSON’S WORK IN KANSAS 280

CHILDREN’S PAGE.

PAULPHEMIA’S MA 282

RECEIPTS 284

CONSTITUTION 287

AIM, STATISTICS, WANTS, ETC. 288

* * * * *

NEW YORK: Published by the American Missionary Association, ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.

* * * * *

Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.

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

American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, N.Y.

* * * * *

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, 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. 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, _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, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER, S. B. HALLIDAY, A. J. HAMILTON, SAMUEL HOLMES, CHARLES A. HULL, 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. G. D. PIKE, D.D., 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. XXXV. SEPTEMBER, 1881. NO. 9.

* * * * *

_American Missionary Association._

* * * * *

The Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Worcester, Mass., commencing November 1st, at 3 P. M. For particulars see fourth page of cover.

* * * * *

FINANCIAL.

This month brings around the close of another fiscal year. Our balances will be struck on the 30th of September, and we are exceedingly anxious that all parties, either churches or individuals, who have intended to contribute to our work during the current year, should do so as early as possible. Our appeal is that you give to this cause liberally as the Lord may have prospered you. Our receipts for the nine months to June 30th were very encouraging, but the receipts for July, the first month of the last quarter, have not been as large as we had reason to hope. The increase over July of last year has been only fourteen per cent, instead of twenty-five per cent., the amount necessary to carry forward the additional work we have undertaken. But we trust that our friends will enable us to meet these appropriations without embarrassing our treasury. Every dollar received during the next thirty days will help us to meet our pressing demands, and possibly save us from closing the year with debt.

* * * * *

OUR BROADSIDE.

We give room in this number of the MISSIONARY to a broadside on Church work. Our object is to present to our patrons, at a view, an array of the large number of new churches we have established for the colored people. A majority of the pastors employed by us have been connected in some capacity with our Institutions, a goodly number of them having graduated from the theological classes at Talladega College, Fisk and Straight Universities.

It may be said, with grateful assurance and peculiar emphasis, that this Association _establishes_ its churches. It prepares a constituency by its day and Sabbath-schools, and from this educates a ministry. In this way it develops a demand for a pure church, and also the possibility of maintaining it when established.

It will be observed that nearly all the churches reported have been blessed during the year with additions to their numbers, and that many have made improvements upon their property. The Sabbath-schools have everywhere received due attention, and much of the progress in the different churches has been made possible by the earnest, prayerful and unremitting labors of our missionaries in this department of religious work. Missionary meetings and societies have been greatly encouraged and the cause of temperance widely promoted. Many of the young converts have found their way to institutions of learning, and many have engaged in teaching and missionary service.

When it is taken into account that these young churches are reformed churches, and that their church life is a new experience among the colored people, where they shine as lights in the world, it will be readily seen, we think, that this branch of our work augurs most hopefully a day of better things for the new South, and that the hearts and hands of these brethren, whose letters will be found elsewhere, should be strengthened, and their numbers largely increased.

* * * * *

THE PLACE OF THE CHURCH IN THE WORK OF MISSIONS.

In these days, when science is pushing her inquiries in every direction with reference to the discovery of new facts, in order that she may deduce therefrom the course of nature and the system of the universe, there is danger that we overlook the basis in man’s moral constitution on which, alone, knowledge can have the highest significance and value. The drift is seen not merely in the public schools, but in the college and the professional seminary, which, more and more, are reducing education to the acquisition of facts, or to a simple intellectual drill. The scientific method, so called, has no place for moral agents or moral causes, and so its account of the world is forever rendered on a physical rather than on a metaphysical basis. With such a tendency in education, this Association can have no sympathy. It is the friend of all good learning, and will do its utmost to advance education; but it does not believe that a man can be well or symmetrically educated until his moral faculties are disciplined in advance of, and equally _with_, his intellectual. For this reason it would put the church at the center and foundation of all its work. In this respect it would co-operate with God, accepting His own appointed agency for the moral instruction of mankind. The church, as the great moral teacher, bears the stamp of a divine origin and authority. Its function is to teach divine truth, and to put man into right moral relations to the deep order of the universe. Any system of education, then, which ignored the church, or even set her in the background, would fail in a well rounded development of all the mental powers. A partial substitute may be found in other professions and other institutions, but nothing can take the place of the church as the authoritative teacher of moral and spiritual truth.

It is well to remember, also, that that which best develops and educates the moral powers is the best possible discipline for the mind itself. No subjects require clearer perception, sharper analysis and more discriminating reason than moral subjects, and no men show keener minds than those who have been trained to reason on moral questions. Illustrations of this in ancient times are found in the Jewish patriarchs, and in modern times in the people of Scotland and of New England. And yet the common schools of these latter countries, until within fifty years, were of the rudest sort, and only taught the simplest elements of an English education. But their people, trained in the sanctuary, under a ministry which was able to reason of righteousness, temperance and a judgment to come, were as strong intellectually as they were tough and clear-minded morally.

Senator Hoar, in his recent oration before the law school of Yale College, asserted and proved that the best lawyers of the last generation were indebted to the strong pulpits of New England more than to anything else for their intellectual clearness, and for their judicial discrimination and force.

Let there be a strong pulpit in any community, and there will be strong men around it, mentally and morally, though the schools are of the simplest. On the other hand, if the pulpit be weak and the outcoming moral influences be feeble, though the schools be ever so well equipped and endowed, the people around will lack high purpose, and scholarship itself will be frivolous and effeminate, destitute of the rugged strength which comes to natures fed from the deep roots of moral earnestness and conviction.

It need hardly be said that the great need of the South, especially among the colored people, is a _strong_ church and a _pure_ church; for slavery damaged the colored man morally vastly more that it did intellectually. Indeed, his intellect was rather sharpened by the invention and craft on which it was constantly put, while the forces which strengthened the will and nourished a pure heart were the weakest possible; and yet nine persons out of ten suppose the damage was intellectual, and are greatly surprised when our teachers assure them that colored children are as bright, and learn as readily, as white children.

A moment’s reflection would satisfy any one that the weakness would be on the moral side, for the reason that the life of the slave was so ordered as to ignore all moral distinctions and to violate all moral obligations. Hence, the building up should be strongest on the moral side. No greater mistake could be made than to attempt to graft on to a low moral character a high degree of intellectual culture. Should we send forth a generation of students, with sharp wits and dull moral perceptions, we might contribute to the roll of more adroit villains, but we should add little to the list of good men.

The church, therefore, should be emphasized at all points and at all times. It should command for its preachers the best and the ablest men. Both races need this. Only this can destroy the conditions which made it possible that white blood should now be running in the veins of three-fourths of the colored people. The Southern pulpit has failed to sufficiently enforce either good morals or practical righteousness. For lack of this, slavery was possible, and dueling and violence covered the land with blood. The remedy for this is a new and right system of moral teaching. This, we repeat, is the peculiar function of the pulpit. That this may be made _possible_, churches pure and intelligent must be established all over the South. It should be done now, because we are laying the foundations and determining the character of the coming generations. If the first crop of leaders are morally weak, they will enfeeble their successors, and perhaps vitiate the seed and the crop for all time to come.

We need to put into the African blood the iron of the Puritan faith and purpose, so that they may do for the African continent what our fathers did for America. The first men sent to that dark land should hold the ideas and principles out of which may be evolved churches, schools, homes and Christian states, from the mouths of the Nile and the Congo clear down to the golden Cape. If we cannot inoculate the colored race with those moral sensibilities and forces which will render them charitable, humane and just, then we look to them in vain for help in the salvation of our own land, as well as in the founding of Christian institutions and Christian states for the continent of Africa.

* * * * *

HEALING OF THE NATION’S WOUND.

It was a gaping, festering sore that was left by the fratricidal war. A speedy healing was not to be expected. It took nearly a century for the mother country and America to get over their grievance. There is much of encouragement that this later feud will be more speedily composed. There have been some special influences at work. The occurrence of the Centennial tended to divert attention from the old trouble, to arouse the spirit of patriotism and to abate ill-will. The prevalence of an epidemic at the South for two seasons gave the North an opportunity to express moral and material sympathy, which did much to awaken reciprocal good-will on the part of the people of that section.

When President Garfield was shot, the people of the South rose up with as much indignation and sympathy as those of the North. It was a benediction for the Nation to be lifted by such a ground-swell of emotion, and that the impulse of Christian patriotism. We feel confident that President Garfield, restored to soundness, will by this dreadful dispensation be all the more disposed to temper his administration with fairness and righteousness, such as will carry on the process of healing in the body politic.

The Peabody fund and its judicious disbursement at the South is doing its work of palliating feeling. Miss Willard’s tour of temperance lecturing through the South was a hopeful revelation of harmonious sentiment. Dr. Mayo’s eminently successful educational visitation was in the same line.

Then it is also clearly manifest that the scheme of the North for aiding the South in the education of the colored people is coming to be recognized there-away as one of pure philanthropy and patriotism. The testimony of Dr. Haygood in his book, “Our Brother in Black,” to this effect, is but the expression of not a little of latent sentiment. He pronounces “immortal honor” upon these teachers. He says that without such service the South would be uninhabitable by this time. Our teachers and preachers, dwelling there from year to year, and returning North betimes, become interpreters of the mutual and improving good feeling. They command respect at the South, they retain affectionate regard at the North, and so become a bond of union between the two sections. More and more this process will go on with happiest results.

The National Cotton Exposition to be held this fall at Atlanta, upon a gigantic scale, will be another mighty loom for weaving the fabric of national good-will.

We be one people, with one English inheritance of language and history, of character and civilization, with a common possession of Revolutionary glory and of pride in our national development. We must let the dead bury their dead. We must push on in all proper ways to remove prejudice and to restore confidence. Service for our common country in the way of evangelization and of righteous civil administration, will be one of the most effective aids in healing the Nation’s wound.

* * * * *

A SUGGESTION WORTH PASSING ALONG.

After the presentation of the cause of the American Missionary Association recently to a church in Connecticut, the pastor made the following suggestion to his people:

“We have now had this great subject before us. We shall never, probably, see it more clearly. We shall never, probably, feel its importance more. What shall we do about it? I was going to announce a contribution for next Sabbath; but perhaps it will rain; perhaps you will not be here; perhaps you will forget. Besides, I notice that church plates do not hold a great deal. We make them a small business. We ought to do more for this cause. We want to do more. And so, if I can find two or three young ladies ready for the work, I will send them to your houses. Be ready! Look the matter all over, and do as good a thing as you can. After that, perhaps, we will pick up the stray bits when Sunday comes.”

It is pleasant to add that the pastor found canvassers without difficulty, and that about three times the amount usually given by plate collections was gathered.

Atlanta University undertakes the work of “head-making” so far as this means the development of a clear and sensible intellect, controlled by a good heart. It was, however, “_bread_-making,” and not “head-making,” which the types in our August number should have mentioned to the credit of the Atlanta girls, whose loaves, rolls and Yankee doughnuts so delighted the gentlemen of the examining committee at the recent anniversary. Plain cooking is a part of the regular instruction in Atlanta University.

* * * * *

BENEFACTIONS.

—Beloit College, Wis., has received $10,000 from Mrs. J. S. Herrick, to be applied for a new observatory.

—The bequest of Col. Wm. E. Putnam to Marietta College, Ohio, will probably amount to $35,000.

—Mr. Reuben J. Flick, a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkesbarre, has recently given $20,000 to Lincoln University.

—Mr. Geo. I. Seney has recently added $100,000 to his gift to Wesleyan University, the interest of which is to be given in prizes to students.

—Mr. A. L. Williston and wife have given $10,000 for a new observatory at Mt. Holyoke Seminary, in memory of their deceased son.

—The late Ebenezer Alden, M.D., of Randolph, left a legacy of $5,000 to Phillips Academy, Andover, for helping students, or paying for instruction, at the discretion of the tutors.

—A friend of Yale Divinity School has given $10,500 for a new library building, which is now being erected between Marquand Chapel and West Divinity Hall.

—Mr. Leander McCormick, of Chicago, has donated his splendid telescope, costing $50,000, to the University of Virginia, and offers to build the observatory to receive it.

—Mr. Wm. H. Vanderbilt, of New York, has given $25,000 to the University of Virginia, and Mr. Lewis Brooks, of Rochester, N.Y., has given a splendid museum, costing about $60,000, to the same institution.

—_Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., has Jubilee Hall completed and overflowing with students, and is now erecting Livingstone Missionary Hall, by the gift of Mrs. Stone; but endowments are the great necessity. Twenty-five thousand dollars will provide for a professorship, and there are seven such needing endowment._

* * * * *

GENERAL NOTES.

AFRICA.

—M. Matheis has been sent out by the French Government to explore the region extending from the bend of the Niger to Lake Tchad.

—The question of the establishment of a small railroad on the Decanville plan, between Ogooué and Alima, is being considered.

—M. J. Thomson left London the 6th of May to go to Zanzibar, from whence he will proceed to make the geological exploration of the Rovouma for the Sultan of Zanzibar.

—Messrs. Demietri and Michieli, agents of the Italian Society of Commerce in Africa, have set out from Khartoum for the Red Sea at the head of a caravan of 700 camels, laden with various kinds of merchandise.

—The Commercial Association of Lisbon has moved a patriotic subscription, the proceeds of which will be offered to the Government to co-operate with it in the foundation of civilizing stations in the Portuguese African colonies.

—An Italian party consisting of an officer and 14 men, while attempting to penetrate Abyssinia from Assab Bay, have been massacred in the interior. It is possible that the Italian Government may send a military expedition to demand redress.

—Until recently there has been no bank in the English colonies of Western Africa. Many of the merchants have been hindered from entering into negotiations with these colonies by the difficulty of obtaining reliable information relative to the state of commerce. But the Bank of West Africa has now been established, with a capital of 500,000 pounds sterling, having its centre at London, and stations at Sierra Leone, Lagos, and later at Cape Coast, at the Gambia, and wherever the exigencies of commerce render it necessary.