Part 3

A song, a song of joyous exultation, That where but late was darkness and despair, Harps upon the willows, hopeless lamentation, Sighing and moans, and foolish superstitions, The cringing fear and terror stricken wail, With all the miserable, the pitiful conditions Gross ignorance and bondage can entail,

There now is light that promises to brighten, There now is thankful prayer and notes of praise, There now is hope, sweet hope, to cheer and lighten, A race oppressed and wronged in many ways; There now are minds aspiring and expanding And daily demonstrating they are strong, To answer to Progression’s stern demanding And take a place among the cultured throng.

God-speed to those who lead this van of progress, Who work as pioneers in Wisdom’s fields; Proving to all the wondering, doubting people What grand results, fair mental culture yields. Still may they press undaunted onward, upward Greater achievements and successes win, While hopeful millions in their footsteps follow, And Heaven smiles approval most benign.

COLOR LINE IN FLORIDA.

BY REV. ALBERT P. MILLER.

While the “color-line” is being freely discussed in the leading Christian journals of the day, as to so-called “mixed churches,” the following incident may show to the Christian world the attitude taken by the African Methodist Episcopal Church—400,000 strong—with whose work I was very pleasantly connected last year. One of our preachers, a Rev. C. J. Croom, having charge of the Hamburg circuit in the East Florida Conference, was last year holding a series of revival meetings. The spirit waxed hot, and large numbers came rolling in from every quarter night after night. Conversions began to crown the efforts of the pastor, among the colored members of the congregation. As is very often the case several white friends were in attendance. One night after a soul-stirring sermon the preacher called on all who wanted to be prayed for to come and bow at the front seats. A great many came, and among these a white woman, who that night was deeply convicted. Her mother, brother and sister were terribly enraged, that she should be out so late at a “nigger meeting,” and came down on her very heavily. The next night, however, found her, more anxious than ever, at the “nigger revival.” The mother, who would not go herself, sent her son and daughter to bring their sister home. On arriving they became so much interested in what was going on that they decided to remain. They began to feel “funny.” Still they sat and looked on and saw their sister again press forward for prayer. They still felt “funny,” but couldn’t go. By and by the sister, who sat in the audience, went to get her anxious sister, and take her home. No sooner had she put her hands on her than she herself fell under conviction, and both that night were happily converted to God. Their brother at once became deeply concerned, and was soon rejoicing with his sisters and the Negroes in the “liberty wherewith Christ doth make his children free.”

“Big Sunday” came, day for communion and reception of members. Candidates received on profession were to be baptized, either by sprinkling or immersion. Our white brother and his two dear sisters having been received into full membership chose to go down under the water, which they did with several others, being baptized by Bro. Croom. Some of the white neighbors were a little offended at the conduct of both the colored preacher and his white brother and sisters in the Lord, and asked him to leave. But he told them frankly that he didn’t convert the candidates, and that if the same God who had changed their hearts, led them also to seek admission into his church, there was nothing, either in his Bible or his discipline, that would prohibit their becoming regular members of his church. Bro. Croom tells me that these three converts are among the most faithful of his members, and that he “would be glad to receive many more such members into the African Methodist Episcopal Church, for God is no respecter of persons,” and why should we be?

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WOMAN’S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

BY MISS M. K. LUNT, SELMA.

The Alabama Branch of the Woman’s Missionary Association held its annual meeting in the Normal room of Talladega College, March 27. The attendance was good, and the reports from the local societies very encouraging. The officers, with but two exceptions, were re-elected to serve for the coming year. After devotional exercises, Mrs. De Forest gave an address of welcome, in which she reminded us of the important work God had put in our hands to carry on, and that _our_ part is to be _doers_, leaving results to Him. The local societies have given considerable time to industrial work, disposing of clothing, quilts, and fancy articles, aggregating the sum of $175, disbursing for Foreign Missions and home interests $116.85, leaving a balance for further distribution. Mothers’ meetings, children’s meetings, and sewing classes have received their share of attention. At the public meeting in March, in Selma, Mrs. McDougal, correspondent of the New York _Weekly Witness_, was present, and all enjoyed her fresh, practical and inspiring words.

Several papers were listened to with interest, the first read by Miss Jillson, on “Our Duty to Foreign Missions and the means by which an interest may be Promoted.” Miss Plimpton and Mrs. A. W. Curtis followed in discussion on the subject. Mrs. Curtis spoke of the joy her husband’s mother felt in giving three sons to the missionary fields; how this love had been awakened in her children by reading to them from the _Missionary Herald_. Mrs. Andrews read letters of greeting from the President and Secretary of the Boston Association. Miss Chafin sent a paper, on “Do we owe a Tenth to the Lord?”

A poem was read by Miss Partridge, “So Much to do at Home.” In this an African Chief is begging for some Christian teachers to go with him to lead his people to the Saviour, but is denied because there is so much at home to be done. Mrs. Fay gave a talk on “How to organize Missionary Societies,” urging the members of those churches who have no such organization to form one at once.

Miss Mickle presented another paper on “Hath She Done what She Could?” Mrs. Steele of Chattanooga, Tenn., was present and offered the closing prayer. Singing was interspersed, and we felt that the hours had brought to us an encouragement and strength which will make us more hopeful for the future.

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NOTES FROM THE FIELD.

—A Welsh Cong. Church has been organized at Rock Creek, Tenn., with 22 members, by the Rev. Wm. H. Thomas.

—Rev. L. C. Joell, a recent graduate of the Theol. Dept. of Howard University, has been appointed for church work at Greenwood, S.C.

—More than two score souls are reported to have been converted at a series of meetings conducted by Revs. Imes and Fields at Memphis, Tenn.

—A revival is reported in connection with the labors of Rev. B. F. Foster at Fayetteville, Ark.

—Rev. Milus Harris, of Talladega, is conducting school and church services at Tecumseh, Ala., in the building erected by the Tecumseh Iron Co.

—A church of fourteen members has been recognized by Council at Jackson, Miss. The sermon was by Supt. Roy. Most of the members had been students at Tougaloo University.

—The Mississippi Association of Cong. Churches and ministers was organized at Tougaloo, Miss., March 31. Pres. Pope and Rev. C. L. Harris were elected as delegates to the National Council. A missionary committee was appointed to take charge of two missions already established.

—Supt. Roy has organized a church of ten members at Knoxville, Tenn., which was recognized by Council April 22. Rev. Simon Peter Smith, from Washington, has been assigned to this charge. A church edifice has been secured.

—The Central Church, New Orleans, under the ministration of Rev. Dr. Alexander, has received forty new members during the year. The church pays $50 a month towards the pastor’s salary.

—Miss Gerrish, who has been sustained by the ladies of Iowa, as missionary, in connection with the Central Church, New Orleans, has been greatly blessed in her work done in the mothers’ meeting and the sewing class. Twelve hundred calls were made by her during the first six months of her service.

—A church was organized at Fayetteville, Ark., with nine members, April 15. Supt. Roy and Rev. B. F. Foster, the pastor of the church, were in attendance. At the first communion season the church was made happy in the use of a new communion set and an outfit of chapel lamps from Rev. Geo. M. Boynton’s people, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

—The Spirit of God has been poured out upon both church and school at the Le Moyne Institute. In the normal department of the school there are but six or eight who do not profess Christ. Eighty per cent. of all the students are reported to be seeking to lead Christian lives. Over fifty souls have recently professed faith in Christ, about twenty of whom will soon be added to the church.

—Prof. Hitchcock, of Straight University, New Orleans, has interested parties on the ground to provide for orange and other fruit trees to be planted on the square in connection with the University buildings. He is anxious, however, to secure additional funds in order that the planting may be sufficient and immediate.

—A new church has been organized at Birmingham, Ala., under the guidance of Supt. Roy. Rev. Andrew J. Headen has been chosen pastor, and the work is now being carried on with good success.

—Rev. C. W. Francis, of Atlanta, reports the conversion of eighteen students in connection with the University. One is a member of the graduating class and another has been a Roman Catholic.

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THE CHINESE.

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THE NEW MISSION IN SOUTH CHINA.

BY REV. W. C. POND.

The memorable event of the month of February—so far as our work is concerned—is the inauguration of the mission of the American Board to Hong Kong, and through Hong Kong to those districts of South China from which most of our Chinese have come. Rev. C. R. Hager, a recent graduate of our Pacific Theological Seminary, and for more than a year past a very successful and greatly beloved pastor at Antioch, in this State, having offered himself to the Board as a Foreign Missionary, was at our own suggestion and request appointed to take charge of this new work, and was ordained as a Missionary at Bethany Church, on Friday, Feb. 16. One of the exercises at the ordination service was an address by Jee Gam, a portion of which, I trust, can be crowded into the space allotted in the MISSIONARY to our work. It will scarcely be necessary for me to add anything, unless it be to say that to my faith this work thus begun looms up in grand proportions, as fraught with most beneficent results. I am prepared in spirit patiently to wait—prepared, if such be God’s will, utterly to fail—but my faith feels so strong, my hopes are so high, so bright, so confident, that I seem to myself already to be entering on the harvest, and the joy of harvest fills my heart.

JEE GAM’S ADDRESS.

It was ten years ago when our Chinese brethren first felt the need of a mission in China at or near the districts from which most of our brethren came. They grew more and more anxious for this mission, when they heard of the aid and refuge given to the persecuted Christians by the other mission in Canton city.

The first three years we often expressed our great desire among ourselves for this mission, but never thought of telling our superintendent, Rev. W. C. Pond. Not a word was said to him until at our usual Wednesday afternoon Bible class, about seven years ago, when the subject of foreign missions was accidentally mentioned. We then told Rev. W. C. Pond what we so much desired. He at once approved of it. Hong Kong was chosen for the seat of this mission, and Mr. Pond requested that those who were able to write a letter should do so, explaining why this mission was so much needed. He accordingly forwarded these letters to the American Missionary Association. Though the Association sympathized with us in our want, yet how this mission could be established looked very doubtful. The matter was left to stand; but we remembered that James tells us to ask in faith, nothing wavering, and we knew that God was able to supply all our needs; so we kept on praying. In the first part of October, 1879, I was greatly surprised by the very generous invitation which the American Missionary Association tendered me to attend its annual meeting at Chicago. I started for the East, but thought nothing of this Hong Kong mission until at the annual meeting, when I felt moved by the Holy Spirit to make an earnest plea for it. I also spoke for it at all the meetings I attended while East.

On the evening of the 4th of August, 1882 (the same day the Chinese Restriction bill went into effect), the good news came through our superintendent that the American Board had consented to establish the Hong Kong Mission. Oh, how my heart, filled to overflowing, went out to God in thanksgiving and praise! Immediately we called the brethren to tell them the good news. Christ has told us to ask and we shall receive; yet, when this ten years’ prayer was answered, it seemed almost too much to believe, and we are here this evening to praise God once more for his love to us and our benighted countrymen in China. * * *

Having Hong Kong for headquarters, missionaries and teachers can be sent from there to preach and teach in the villages from which our young men come. Besides this, the English language is used more in Hong Kong than in any other part of 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 that you have opened for us here. 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 daytime: 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. Moreover, 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 missions 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 would be a very great help in time of persecution. Converts would be made firmer in faith, and more earnest in leading others to Christ.

The Congregational Association of Christian Chinese, at its last annual meeting, voted to give $500 toward the establishing of this Hong Kong mission, and do all in its power to help in the future. God be praised, for he has shown his wonderful love to China. He is to be praised for this beloved brother, who so kindly offers himself for the Master’s service. He is to be praised for the American Board which sends him. May the Lord raise up many more like workers, who shall devote their lives to China.

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Let me add that besides this gift of money, our mission sends with Mr. Hager one of our very best helpers, Lee Sam. We shall miss him greatly, but we have plead for this new work, expecting that it would draw upon us in that way largely. To raise up and train men for Gospel work among the millions beyond the sea, will now be one of the chief ends to be kept in view in our work in California. And because of this, we ask with an intensity of desire scarcely known to us before, a place in the prayers of God’s people throughout our whole land.

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CHILDREN’S PAGE.

THE COMING OF THE ORGAN.

BY MRS. WALTER E. C. WRIGHT, BEREA, KY.

“Pine Grove College,” as it is called in Jackson County, needed an organ; there was no doubt about that. But the likelihood of obtaining it seemed small. Away up there in the mountains of Kentucky, there were few who had ever seen an organ, and only the teacher knew how much it would help in the day school, the Sunday-school and the preaching services. So Miss Barton sang herself hoarse trying to teach the children to sing by rote, and on Sunday the minister had to line the hymns for want of books. (Your grandmamma can tell you what I mean by “_lining_ the hymn.”) In all the mountain churches, both colored and white, the people always sing in that way, and having no organ to keep them together, they come out at the end one behind the other, like the “rounds” you sing at school.

One day a teacher from Berea went up to visit the school, and when she saw the bright, eager faces of the children, and the effort the teacher was making to have them learn to sing, she said, “Why, how much you need an organ here. It would lift these children into a whole new world of ideas.” “Yes, I know it,” answered Miss Barton, “but where is it to come from?” Well, Miss D. went home and thought it over, and then wrote to Miss Barton that if the people there would raise thirty dollars, she would see that they had an organ. Miss Barton did not feel much encouraged, for the people in that region are not rich, and one dollar looks very large to them. However, she read Miss D.’s letter to them at Sabbath school, and explained what an advantage it would be to have the instrument to use. To her great surprise they pledged the amount at once, though many of them cannot afford sugar in their coffee, or butter on the corn bread, which, with bacon, is the staple of their living. I have not time to tell how Miss D. raised the rest of the money, how she found a dealer who had a very fine organ to sell at second hand, and who threw off fifteen dollars when he found for what she wanted it—nor how one friend in Tallmadge and another in Akron helped on, and at last the organ was ordered and sent. It was expected on a certain Saturday, and on Sunday morning you might have seen the people gathering in unusually large numbers. All who did not walk came on horseback. There a mother with her baby on her arm, and a little girl behind her on the family horse. Here the father, with a three-year-old boy behind him on the colt, and yonder three older children on another horse, all sitting with that easy security they express when they say “I was born on a horse,” and thinking no more about it than you do when you ride in a street car.

But when the people reached the school-house their faces fell as they came in one after another and saw there was no organ on the platform. The wagon had broken down bringing it over the almost impassable roads from the station twenty miles away, and at last Sunday-school was commenced with a feeling of disappointment in all hearts. Even brave Miss Barton felt a lump in her throat, for she had counted on it like the meeting of an old friend in a strange land. But just in the middle of the lesson the creaking of wheels was heard and some men came in with _something_ still encased in the box in which it was packed. No more lesson that day. Every boy and girl, colored and white, was as eager and curious as if this was a stray cage from some menagerie. Finally, with some little trouble, the packing-case was removed, and there was a plain, quiet little walnut thing, looking some like a small cupboard, and now the question arose on which side was it made to stand? The teacher, seeing the dilemma, suggested the proper base, on which it was firmly placed. Then a chair was brought, some books piled on it—and _then_ they found there was no key. But somebody produced a nail, the cover was lifted, and there was their organ smiling at them and showing every one of its pretty white teeth. And oh, when the wonderful thing began to sing, how pleased they were! The children forgot that they too could sing

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow,”

while listening to the beautiful, strange voice. Presently they gained courage and joined in the Gospel hymns (which the common people _do_ sing gladly), and sang, and sang, and sang, all through the time for Sabbath school and all through the time for preaching.

I think the angels hearing the sounds must have rejoiced that day with great hope for the souls that might be won to repentance through the Coming of the Organ.

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RECEIPTS FOR APRIL, 1883.

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MAINE, $215.13.

Bath. Central Ch. and Soc., 45; Winter St. Cong. Ch. and Soc., 35.15 $80.15 Bethel. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.24 Brewer. Cong. Ch. 9.50 Buxton. North Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.00 East Orrington. Cong. Sab. Sch. 2.04 East Otisfield. Mrs. Susan Lovell, 5; Mrs. Sarah P. Morton, 2; Rev. J Loring, 1.75; Mrs. A. Lovewell, 1; Mrs. M. H. Jennings, 25c 10.00 Gorham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.78 Gorham. Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Needmore Chapel, Talladega C._ 19.17 Newport. Mrs. M. S. Nickerson 0.50 South Paris. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.25 Norway. Mrs. M. K. Frost 0.50 Waldoborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00 Wells. Barak Maxwell 20.00 Winthrop. Cong. Ch. 17.00 York. “A Friend,” by Rev. D. B. Sewall 3.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $430.07.