Part 1

Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, KarenD, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Cornell University Digital Collections.)

The American Missionary,

OCTOBER, 1885.

VOL. XXXIX

No. 10.

* * * * *

CONTENTS

* * * * *

EDITORIAL PAGE.

THE FIGURES--FINANCIAL 269 ANNUAL MEETING 270 THE SILENT SOUTH 271 SALE OF BULLETS 272 THE NEW EDUCATION IN THE NEW SOUTH 273 PHILADELPHIA INSTITUTE 274 OBITUARY NOTICE OF PROF. W. L. GORDON 275 MISSIONARY STEAMER 276 ADDRESS BY DR. E. S. ATWOOD 277 EXTRACT FROM GEORGIA PAPER 283

THE SOUTH.

ONE OF THE DEACONS 284 JELLICO, TENN.--AMONG THE CHURCHES IN MAINE 286 THE REASON WHY 287

THE CHINESE.

HOW WE TRAIN THE CHINESE FOR PREACHING 288 CHINESE VIEW OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY 290

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

ILLINOIS WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION 291

CHILDREN'S PAGE.

SHOEBLACK JIM 292

RECEIPTS 292

* * * * *

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

* * * * *

Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

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

* * * * *

American Missionary Association.

* * * * *

PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL. D., Mass.

_Vice-Presidents._

Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo. Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill. Rev. A. J. F. BEHRENDS, D. D., N. Y. Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D. D., Mass. Rev. D. O. MEARS, D. D., Mass.

_Corresponding Secretary._

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

_Assistant Corresponding Secretary._

Rev. JAMES POWELL, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

_Treasurer._

H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

_Auditors._

W. H. ROGERS, PETER McCARTEE.

_Executive Committee._

JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.

_For Three Years._

LYMAN ABBOTT, A. S. BARNES, J. R. DANFORTH, CLINTON B. FISK, A. P. FOSTER.

_For Two Years._

S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, ELBERT B. MONROE.

_For One Year._

J. E. RANKIN, WM. H. WARD, J. L. WITHROW, JOHN H. WASHBURN, EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.

_District Secretaries._

Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, D. D., _21 Cong'l House, Boston_. Rev. J. E. ROY, D. D., _151 Washington Street, Chicago_. Rev. CHARLES W. SHELTON, _Financial Secretary for Indian Missions_. Rev. C. J. RYDER, _Field Superintendent_.

_Bureau of Woman's Work._

_Secretary_, Miss D. E. EMERSON, _56 Reade Street, N. Y._

* * * * *

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE A. M. A.

The Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held with the First Congregational Church, Madison, Wis., beginning Tuesday, Oct. 27, and closing Thursday evening, Oct. 29.

The sermon will be preached by the Rev. Reuen Thomas, Ph. D., of Brookline, Mass., on Tuesday evening, at 7:30 o'clock, to be followed by the Communion service. George W. Cable, Esq., of New Orleans, and Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain, of Maine, have promised to be present and address the meeting.

The people of Madison will cordially welcome to their homes the officers, members, delegates and friends of the Association who may attend this meeting. Applications for hospitality should be sent to _F. J. Lamb_, Esq., Madison, Wis., before Oct. 10. Applicants will receive cards of introduction to families in which they will be entertained. Persons who have notified the Committee of their intention to attend the meeting, but who afterward decide not to attend, will please notify the Committee at once of the change of purpose.

Negotiations are in progress to secure reduced railroad fare for those attending the meeting, due notice of which will be given in the religious papers.

* * * * *

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

VOL. XXXIX. OCTOBER, 1885. NO. 10.

* * * * *

American Missionary Association.

* * * * *

$365,000

NEEDED FOR THE CURRENT YEAR.

* * * * *

Your Committee are convinced, that not less than a THOUSAND DOLLARS a day are imperatively demanded, to perfect the admirably organized, plans of the Association, even for the present, to say nothing of the pressing needs of the early future.--

[FINANCE COMMITTEE'S REPORT ADOPTED BY ANNUAL MEETING AT SALEM.]

* * * * *

THE FIGURES.

Donations. Legacies. Totals.

Oct. 1, 1884, to Aug. 31, 1885-$183,654.91 $37,651.83 $221,306.74 Oct. 1, 1883, to Aug. 31, 1884- 177,382.21 40,558.18 217,940.39 ---------- ---------- ----------- Inc. $6,272.70 Dec.$2,906.35 Inc.$3,366.35

* * * * *

The published receipts in this MISSIONARY bring us to the end of August. There was a slight gain as compared with last year, but not enough to materially alter the threatening aspects of a heavy debt. With the receipts of September our Treasurer will close his books for the year. As we are obliged to have the matter for our magazine in the hands of the printer before the middle of the month, we are not able at this writing to forecast what the result of the rally to obviate a debt may be. We remain firm in the conviction that our friends have the ability to prevent the debt, and that if they are roused to a sense of the necessity of its prevention, they will do it. We have endeavored to be faithful in keeping them informed of our needs. Many of them have responded with great liberality and some of them at great sacrifice. We thank them with all our heart. We wish we could spare them the pain of reading our continuous appeals, because we know it leads them to ask if they ought not to do more. This they ought not to do, but the fact that there are so many who have done nothing and so many who have done little, who might do more, and that if we are compelled to have a debt, and so to see our work suffer injury, it will be because of failure on the part of those who ought to help us--it is this fact that urges us, with a pressure we cannot resist, to keep on crying out for relief.

By the time this number of the MISSIONARY is in the hands of its readers, there will still be left a few days of the month of September. In those few days what is lacking can be supplied. Let next Sunday be a red-letter day in the number of churches that wheel into line, and place themselves upon record as having during the year made a contribution to the American Missionary Association. We also request that church treasurers and executors will promptly forward to our Treasurer, H. W. Hubbard, Esq., such money as they may have on hand, and that individuals who prefer to send their gifts directly to the treasury will remit at their earliest convenience. If all will lend a hand, deliverance will come. God grant that our faith may not be in vain!

* * * * *

It would be wildly unreasonable to expect that all who attend the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of the American Board at Boston should also come to the Thirty-ninth Anniversary of the American Missionary Association at Madison. It is not unreasonable, however, for us to ask that all will come who can. There are two weeks between the meetings. It will cost in time and money, but the good to be reaped and wrought far surpasses the cost. The Jubilee Anniversary of the dear old Mother of us all cannot fail to be a meeting of great spiritual power. A spirit of consecration will surely pervade it, and out of the consecration there must be born an enthusiasm that will tell for all missionary work both at home and abroad. Let the anniversary at Madison be an adjourned meeting of the anniversary at Boston. Why not? They are both to be held with a view to the same end--the Extension of Christ's Kingdom in the World.

* * * * *

It is important that those who purpose being at Madison should be on hand at the opening and remain to the close of all the sessions. An annual meeting of a great missionary society is of significance and value not only on account of the facts it brings out, but also on account of the inspiration it awakens. You may learn the facts by reading the reports, though even then you will not get them all, but you cannot catch the inspiration. To reap the full benefit of a meeting you must be in it and become a part of it. The mysterious power that God has put into the voice and gesture of a speaker, and into the movement of feeling that is present in an audience when, with one heart and mind, it sits in contemplation of some great theme, cannot be reported. That unreportable power is of priceless value in the strengthening and development of Christian character. Go to the anniversary. Be there at the beginning. Remain to the end. It will pay.

* * * * *

Racy and interesting, as well as strong and convincing, is the address of Rev. Dr. E. S. Atwood, which we print elsewhere. Dr. Atwood, at our request, represented the A. M. A. this year at the May Anniversaries in Boston. The experiment of having the different causes presented on Sunday in the churches, instead of during the week as heretofore, is the explanation of the time and the occasion of this address. Those who begin to read it will not be likely to stop until they have finished. Its perusal will prove an excellent appetizer for the Madison meeting.

* * * * *

When George W. Cable's now famous article, "The Freedman's Case in Equity," made its appearance in the _Century_ magazine, it proved to be a veritable bomb-shell in the camp of the enemy. It exploded, and immediately there went up a cry from the wounded both long and loud, and far-extended as well, showing that the gun which threw it had been well aimed, and that the shot was an effective one. The newspapers of the South, with few exceptions, did not pretend to answer. They made feeble attempts at ridicule. Mr. Cable's shot must have carried away the heads of many of the editors, for they had surely lost them some way when they assailed Mr. Cable so fiercely in utter disregard of what his article really contained. If the editorials that appeared in the Southern papers, big and little, in annihilation of Mr. Cable and his pestiferous article could be gathered up and published, they would afford very amusing reading.

There were, however, a few who took up "The Freedman's Case in Equity" and set themselves to a serious and manly discussion of its positions. Meantime, Mr. Cable has been, laughingly, no doubt, looking at "the tempest in a teapot" which the small fry have created by their foamings and chokings from passion, while he has also been respectfully listening to those who have tried to meet him on the plane of fair discussion. He has been biding his time, waiting for the fury to boil itself out and for those who are really "foemen worthy of his steel" to speak their minds. His time has come to be heard from again, and in the September number of _The Century_, under the title, "The Silent South," he reviews his reviewers in a manner most masterful, in a style most luminous and in a spirit most kind, Christian and courteous.

We said at the time that his critics, while dealing vigorous blows, did not have reach enough to find him. They were simply beating the air. A perusal of "The Silent South" confirms what we said. There is actually no need for Mr. Cable to re-argue a single point that he made in his first paper. He is able to quote the words of his opponents in vindication of every claim he made. He drives them back with their own weapons. He has no occasion to defend. He is able to show at the very start that his assailants, instead of touching him, had only gotten themselves into trouble. To get themselves out is more than they are likely to be able to do, for their own words and the facts are against them.

With strange unanimity, these writers all cried out in respect to the equities for which Mr. Cable had been pleading, "Neither race wants them." Well, Mr. Cable retorts, where is the evidence? Bring on the witnesses. There are two parties interested here. What right has one party to affirm what the other party wants? Let the other party be heard from. White men say in the press, _Neither_ race wants them, and the very mail that brings Mr. Cable the printed statement of white men brings him scores of letters from intelligent colored men, thanking him over and over again for the words he had written and the stand he had taken! The old habit of white men thinking for the slave, and planning for the slave and speaking for the slave has not yet been broken off. That was a civil right white men once had, but they should remember that it is a right which has departed from them for ever. The freedman has that right now to himself, and when white men say respecting "the equities," "Neither race wants them," the colored man respectfully answers back, "Gentlemen, we do our own thinking now; you are mistaken; your old habits blind your eyes and warp your judgment; we deny that you have any right to tell the world what we want and what we think. Mr. Cable is right, you are wrong."

Was ever a position in controversy more triumphantly carried?

We have not space to copy this splendid article. We wish that all the readers of the MISSIONARY might secure it. Our friends down South will find, sooner or later, that truth and right are hard things to fight. They had better give it up. This striking out and hitting nothing, only to get a good, sound pummeling in return doesn't pay. It is a losing business that were well abandoned.

* * * * *

Our readers who study the receipts of the A. M. A. as they appear every month in the MISSIONARY, will notice this month a frequent item, "Sale of Bullets." A good moral is pointed by what that phrase means. Atlanta, Ga., was, during the war, a fortified city. Sherman's army in its triumphant march to the sea occupied it. Some fighting was done in and around the city. The leaden missiles sunk into the earth-works and fell into the clayey soil, where they still remain in great numbers. Our Storrs school at Atlanta needed a kindergarten attachment. We had no money to appropriate for this worthy object, and so we said to the missionaries, We cannot help you, but perhaps you can interest friends to come to your relief. The plan of digging up these bullets and selling them was hit upon. An appeal was quietly made, and as a result there have been received $621.46. These bullets were once used by Uncle Sam's soldiers to help save the country; resurrected from the earth, they have been used a second time for the same purpose. When first used they represented the gospel of force; as now used they represent the gospel of love. Love will conquer, and in its conquest there will be neither pain nor death. We congratulate our Atlanta workers in so successfully turning these instruments of war into messengers of peace.

* * * * *

THE NEW EDUCATION IN THE NEW SOUTH.

Hon. A. D. Mayo, that sterling friend of education, has prepared a paper with the above heading, embodying the results of his observations and experiences during the past five years, as he has journeyed through fifteen of the Southern States. He was most profoundly impressed with the dense ignorance of the region. Of the four million white and two million colored children and youth of school age, "not one-third can be said to be in any effective school."

But he finds many things to encourage a hopeful outlook for the future. The people of the South are roused to see that the children must be educated. The native Southern stock of white people is good. The colored people show by the advancement made that they "are in nowise a discouraging material for the schoolmaster." Southern young women, daughters of the best families, are becoming school teachers. He sees in these facts omens of good.

But he feels that the problem is too great for the South to solve alone. The North must help, and now more than ever is the time. He says:

I have no words to waste on any man or party holding off in this emergency, on the pitiful plea that the Southern people should be left to do this work alone. It was one thing for the old States of the North to gradually develop their systems of popular instruction, through a century in which they, with all their imperfections, led the world in the general intelligence of their people. It was a much easier problem for the new West, out of munificent public endowments of land and a constant stream of private beneficence from the East, with a flood of the most vigorous young people setting in from the whole world, to establish, in one generation, the splendid arrangements for schooling the masses of which they are so justly proud. But, surely, the man who demands of the Southern people, in their present condition, the effort necessary to establish a good country district school of six months in the year, with suitable free elementary graded schools in the towns, and normal instruction for teachers, in addition to the support of the secondary, higher, professional and industrial education, in a way to overcome the terrible illiteracy of the country in a reasonable time, and aid in the development of intelligent industry and the solution of the most embarrassing of race problems, must either have a very inadequate notion of the work to be done, or a desire to visit the offenses of the fathers on the children.

He points out four ways in which the North can help: (1.) National aid to elementary education. (2.) Generous donations like those of Peabody, Slater and others. (3.) Encouragement by our best Northern educators, and (4.) establishment of industrial schools. Speaking of donations in money, he marks a very important condition to be observed. We wish to give it special emphasis, because it touches a vital point and one that the supporters of the A. M. A. need to bear in mind; it is this: "_It is better to strengthen a good institution already on the ground than experiment on new enterprises._ Especially should our benevolent Northern people refuse to encourage the persistent effort of a large portion of the Southern colored clergy and a corresponding class among the white people to build up a church system of elementary schooling. Already thousands of dollars are virtually thrown away in the South by kindly people who give carelessly or yield to opportunity. Our philanthropic people owe it to themselves and the country not only to give, but to exercise the greatest discretion in their giving. An endowment to any school that has really succeeded and can show the right to exist, is always in order."

There are many peripatetic representatives, white and black, of schools for colored people going round among our churches, pleading for money to sustain enterprises that are simply personal ventures, and some of them actual frauds. They tell a pitiful story. Individual gifts and church contributions are given them, and when the time comes for the annual contributions to sustain the long-planted and successfully-operating schools of the A. M. A., either nothing or but little is given, on the ground that a contribution has already been made to help a colored school somewhere. This is a very serious matter. The money thus paid, in the majority of instances, is worse than wasted, and legitimate and well-attested work is made to suffer in consequence.

We regard this paper as a valuable contribution to the discussion of the great question that now presses, and for many years to come will press, the duty of the North to help the South, as the latter section of our beloved country emerging from the war-shattered old tries to adjust itself to the peace-unfolding new.

* * * * *

Away back in 1837, Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Friend, left a bequest to establish a school for the purpose of "instructing the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanics, arts and trades, and in agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to act as teachers." The Philadelphia Institute for Colored Youth was founded by that bequest, and has been for years offering the advantages of "school learning." The managers feel that the time has come when the full idea of the founder should be carried out. An industrial department is to be added "for teaching the boys the trades of carpenter, bricklayer, plumber, etc., giving instruction in the use of tools to those who are to become teachers, and also giving instruction to the girls in useful employments, including cooking, sewing and other household duties."

This is a step in the right direction, though the managers have been a little slow in moving. It was frequently said that the old abolitionists were ahead of their times. We have an evidence of it here. Forty-eight years after the good man has passed away those in trust of his bequest awake to the power of his ideas. Educators in other parts of the country have already felt this necessity and tried to meet it. Industrial education is now provided for in nearly all the important colored schools of the South; and judging from the industrial exhibit of the schools at the New Orleans Exposition, considerable progress has been made. The friends of the colored people rejoice in the opening up of every new channel through which the colored youth can have a better chance to rise and get on in the world.

* * * * *

OBITUARY.