Chapter 3

My first lessons from books I received in night school. At this time I was employed as dining-room servant by a family in Mobile. I did my work during the day, taking a little time here and there for study as best I could, and went to school at night. I was first employed at $3.50 per month. Fifty cents of this I took each month to pay tuition. The tuition in this school was one dollar per month, but I was receiving such small wages that a woman who was employed in the same yard, and who went to the same school, persuaded the teacher to let me go for fifty cents. I remained with this family about four years, and went to night school much of the time. I suppose they considered my services more and more valuable as I became more enlightened, for, during the four years, my wages were increased from $3.50 to $10 per month. As my wages increased, I had more tuition to pay also, for during my study in the night school I had several teachers and paid some of them as much as two dollars per month, and so anxious was I to acquire an education that I would have paid five dollars had it been required, even at a time when it would have taken all my wages to do so. While I was a student in one of these night schools, I chanced one day to see a newspaper which a colored man who knew me had thrown into the yard for me. In this paper I read an article telling about Emerson Institute, a school of the American Missionary Association, and the commencement exercises soon to occur there. The school had been in Mobile for several years, but I had heard nothing of it till now. As soon as I read of these exercises, I determined to see them, for I had never heard of such exercises before. When the time came, I went one night, accompanied by a few of my fellow night-school students. We were well pleased with what we saw, and I said to them that I meant to enter that school when it opened the next fall, and that I meant to be an educated man if I could. I soon began to carry out my purpose, for in a few weeks I left my employment in that family and went back into the country, from whence I had gone to Mobile, and took the examination and began teaching public school. By this means, I earned money enough to go back to Mobile and become a pupil of Emerson Institute, not in the fall of 1873, as I had hoped to do, but in the spring of 1874. I shall ever feel grateful to the man who threw over the fence for me the article from which I learned about that good school, for I am sure I am quite a different man to-day from what I would have been but for reading that article. Precious to me is the memory of those days during which I took tuition in the night-school, where the key was put into my hand and the door of knowledge was opened to me.

Next to God I am grateful to the American Missionary Association for having received training in a Christian school, where I was led to Christ and felt called to the Christian ministry. When I lived on the plantation, before I went to Mobile and received instruction in the Christian school, I had heard the uneducated colored ministers preach and they had endeavored to lead me to Christ, but I could not accept Christ in the way they had presented Him to me. I remember well how they told us that in order to find Christ we must fast and pray for a number of days. I remember, too, the unsuccessful attempt which I made to give myself to Jesus in this way. I was a farm boy and was plowing hard every day, and it was hard work for a boy of my age to follow the mule all day in the tough grass, and I always felt like eating when meal time came, but still I tried to become a Christian by doing as the minister said I must, and so for a few days I ate no breakfast, no dinner, and no supper, though I worked on. They told us, also, that we must not go to bed at night, for if we did the wicked one would make us sleep all night and we would fail to pray through the night, and they said we must pray all night. For several nights I did not go to bed at all, but would lie down upon the doorstep that I might get up often through the night and go down the hill to pray, for we were instructed to "go down in the valley." Of course after a few days I became tired, sleepy and discouraged, and gave up. I did not make another attempt till I became a student in Emerson Institute. One of the lady teachers in that school became interested in my soul's salvation. She read the Bible to me, talked to me, and prayed for me, and made the way of life and salvation seem so plain and simple that it was not long before I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Saviour.

My heart overflows with gratitude to that Christian lady whenever I think of my conversion. There is no favor which one person can do for another so great as that of leading him to Christ.

Soon after I was converted I felt inclined to enter the ministry, and was advised to go to Talladega College and there take a theological course. I wanted to go but did not see any way to get there, to say nothing of how I was to stay there, but a lady from the North had been visiting one of our lady teachers at Mobile, and heard me deliver an oration in a prize contest. She said she liked it, and after she went back home she sent me $25 to help me in my education. I had been praying that a way might open for me to go to Talladega, and I felt that the $25 came in answer to prayer. I used up the money in getting ready and in going to Talladega. I wrote Dr. G.W. Andrews, who has for a number of years been instructor in theology there, that I was anxious to go and enter his department, but I had no money, and he wrote me, if I had money enough to get there, to come on. Thank God that I went, and that a way was provided for me to stay there and finish the course of study; and now I am out in the ministry and trying to do something for Him who has so wonderfully led me and blessed me.

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THE INDIANS.

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PERILS OF MISSIONARY LIFE.

Rev. T.L. Riggs, our missionary at Oahe, Dakota, thus describes the loss of a team and the peril of his fellow missionary, Rev. J.F. Cross:

"I wished to cross my team on the ice to the west side of the Missouri and keep it there for use during the breaking up of the river. Being very busy with some writing, I asked Mr. Cross to take my team over when he started to return to the White River, sending a man with him. Mr. Cross's team went over safely, but mine, which Mr. Cross himself was driving, broke through and were drowned, in spite of every effort of the two men. Mr. Cross had a narrow escape. He managed to save the wagon, but the horses went down with harness on as they were driven. Mr. Cross took the loss so to heart, that together with the strain and agony of the moment, it quite prostrated him. He started for White River in a day or two after, though I felt that he was hardly fit to go."

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FIRST FRUITS.

REV. C.L. HALL, FORT BERTHOLD, DAK.

In the fall of 1879, a young Gros-Ventre Indian named _Dahpitsishesh_, "The Bear's Tooth," began to attend the day school at Fort Berthold, and although he was over twenty years old and not very quick to learn, he surpassed the younger pupils by his industry. He attended the day school, in the day time or in the evening, quite regularly during the winter, and became a help to the missionary in translating parts of Scripture into the Gros-Ventre language.

He wore his long hair braided behind, and banged and plastered with clay in front so that it stood upright, and he dressed in blanket, breech clout, leggings and moccasins, and the lower joints of several of his fingers were cut off in accordance with the Indian custom of mutilating themselves at the burial of a friend. His first appearance to a new teacher who came the following spring caused her no little trepidation, but she soon learned to prize him as her best pupil, and the next year the influence of God's word upon him was seen by his saying, after recounting some of his Gros-Ventre religious fables, in which his belief had been shaken; "I have been coming to school now more than a year. Since reading these books about God and angels I cannot sleep at night, but have had dreams. I think some harm will come to me. I am poor and cannot help myself, but I pray God to keep me from harm, and I want to trust him."

From that time on, we hoped he would take a decided stand for Christ. As yet, none among his people had been converted. A few passages of the Bible and a few words of song had been given to the Gros-Ventres in their own tongue, and every Sabbath there were attentive Indian listeners, but would there ever be a Gros-Ventre convert? "The Bear's Tooth" continued to come to us, and learned to understand quite fully the requirements of our faith. He became a trusted helper in charge of the mission cattle and the milking, working regularly as few Indians would do at Berthold, and he soon had stock of his own in which he took great pleasure. He read the Bible on Sabbath afternoons with one who was soon called to her reward; it was almost her last prayer that he might be saved. He came in spite of dissuasions, jeers, and even persecutions from his people, and yet he took no stand for Christ. Three years after, there were Indian inquirers, and he helped to explain to them the demands of Christ, but they all felt that "the way was too hard for them" and "went away sorrowful."

Some of the young people who had been taken away to school and removed from the opposition of their people had confessed Christ, but there were none to face it here and say that they loved him. "The Bear's Tooth" took a wife in the Indian way, unwilling to marry, and removed, as it seemed, away from our influence, to a claim forty miles up the river from our mission station.

But God dealt with him and afflicted him in the loss of his babes, and of his stock, so that he said, "It seems as though I could acquire nothing. Explain it to me; the Indians say it is because I follow your teaching." I taught him from the book of Job, and the words of Christ. His soul was hungry, and when he came once in two weeks for his government rations, he sought the bread of life at the mission. Finally, after nearly eight years, one summer day he came and sat on a bench in the shade of the house in a little flower garden, and after we had talked awhile, he said to the missionary: "Good Voice, now I can; I will be faithful to my own wife, I will keep Sunday, I will pray and avoid the dances and other heathen customs; when you think best I will come down and be received into the church." That was a glad moment. To clasp the hand of the first Gros-Ventre brother in Christ, won through a strange tongue and from a people who had sat in darkness for eighteen hundred years since the great light shone in Galilee!

I said, "Bring your wife and friends with you to Christ." He went home but soon returned, saying sorrowfully: "My wife and my friends are none of them willing. If I join I think it must be alone." "Well," I said, "let it be so," and it was. His clothes were second-hand and old, and he had no natural attractiveness of appearance; but in a simple, manly, determined way, he made his confession and was baptized before an audience of Indians in the little mission chapel, (July, 1887), a poor Indian, but another Daniel standing alone.

Then, as the man of Gergesa, he went home to tell his neighbors what God had done for him. He had a Bible in Dakota, of which language he understood something, and a few Gros-Ventre translations in writing, and some attempts at hymns, and some pictures. With these he preached, in neighbors' houses, and then he would report to me of his reception, and ask me questions about the Christian life. A veritable man "Friday" had come to me; I was no longer alone. Then why did his health fail, and he forty miles away where I could not see him? But so God willed. Soon they brought me the word: Your friend has gone. I gathered up his last words, questioning his wife and lame old father. He wanted to see _his friend_ and tell him some things. He thought he did see him come in and then go out before he could speak. He said, "I thought it was difficult, but I joined with those who pray, and I find now it is only a _short_ way. I am going above." With his last breath and his Bible open, he asked to be shown the way, that he might go in it.

The influence of a genuine life is strongest at home, and so it comes that the wife is seeking to follow her husband. There are other converts with us now, but we shall never forget this first Gros-Ventre "friend," (madakina); and although the story of his life is not a peculiar one to white men, nay for that very reason, we are glad to write this record of a once lowly, but now glorified, believer.

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THE CHINESE.

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LOS ANGELES CONGREGATIONAL CHINESE MISSION.

BY REV. ROBERT G. HUTCHINS.

Our First Church has recently enjoyed two peculiarly impressive occasions; one the anniversary on the 17th of last month, of the Chinese school, established by Dr. Pond; the other the reception, on the 3d instant, of six Chinese brethren to church membership. To appreciate the significance of these scenes, one must remember how contemptuous is the prejudice which prevails on this coast against these inoffensive strangers.

Nine or ten young Chinamen delivered addresses at the anniversary. They spoke with remarkable simplicity, perspicuity and accuracy of English pronunciation. In view of their perfect self-possession and propriety of manner in the presence of the crowded congregation, one could scarcely realize that nearly all of them were utterly inexperienced in public speaking. The success of these humble representatives gave a hint of the possibilities of a Christianized China. One of the speakers gave an account of the conversion, sickness, death and Christian burial of a member of the school, a youth of eighteen. The heathen relatives and friends had attributed the illness to the boy's desertion of the religion of his fathers, and had begged him to allow the burning of idolatrous incense. But he had calmly resisted their appeals, and, in an alien land, far from his father and mother, had pillowed his dying head on the breast of the Saviour of mankind.

Low Quong, who superintends the mission, and who is true-hearted, prudent and influential with his countrymen, showed with clearness, the relation between the conversion of the Chinese in California and the evangelization of China. It was news to many of his hearers that the Christian Chinese of America are supporting native missionaries of their own in China.

The recitation by the school in concert of some of the sweetest and most familiar of the Psalms and Scriptural promises, melted the hearts of the hearers into sympathy. The old truths borrowed a new tenderness and emphasis from these voices accustomed to recite heathen prayers. The pupils sang in solo, in duet and in chorus. When "Over the Ocean Wave" was rendered, some of us queried in our minds on which side of the ocean wave God thinks the poor heathen live--the side from which these gentle friends have come, or the side where their countrymen receive such unchristian welcome?

Nothing could more effectually knock in the head mean prejudice than the grateful words and kind spirit which characterized this anniversary. Whatever may be the prospect of the Chinese over-running us, they certainly _had_ us that Sunday evening. Mrs. Sheldon, who has had large experience in the work, and Miss Watson, are devoting themselves to the mission with a beautiful fidelity and consecration.

Dr. Pond, who conducted the anniversary service, closed with an address only too brief, but most felicitous and convincing. To the opponents of Chinese immigration he is accustomed to reply: "Can there be any better way of keeping the Chinese at home than to have it known among the fathers in China that their sons, if they come to this country, are likely to be Christianized?"

Nothing could be sweeter or more cordial than the spirit of welcome with which the six Chinese brethren were received into covenant. Not an officer or member breathed an objection to their reception. Had there been in any heart any lurking Phariseeism concerning them, it would have been rebuked, if not exorcised, by hearing them sing with us at the Lord's table, in broken accents, "Rock of Ages," by observing their devout bearing and by witnessing the affecting baptismal scene. These brethren came to the church approved by Dr. Pond, by the Chinese missionary, Low Quong, and by the vote of the Christian Association, and after an examination by the pastor.

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BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

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WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.

CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

ME.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.--Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

VT.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Ellen Osgood, Montpelier, Vt.

CONN.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

MASS. and R.I.--Woman's Home Miss. Association, Secretary, Miss Natalie Lord, Boston, Mass.[1]

N.Y.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. William Spalding, Salmon Block, Syracuse, N.Y.

ALA.--Woman's Missionary Union, Secretary, Miss. S.S. Evans, Birmingham, Ala.

MISS.--Woman's Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Sarah J. Humphrey. Tougaloo, Miss.

TENN. and ARK.--Woman's Missionary Union of Central South Conference, Secretary, Miss Anna M. Cahill, Nashville, Tenn.

LA.--Woman's Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Jennie Fyfe, 490 Canal St., New Orleans. La.

OHIO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

IND.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. W.E. Mossman, Fort Wayne, Ind.

ILL.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, Ill.

MINN.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Miss Katharine Plant, 2651 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis, Minn.

IOWA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Miss Ella E. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.--Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. G.L. Epps. Topeka, Kan.

MICH.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

NEB.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. L.F. Berry, 734 N Broad St., Fremont, Neb.

COLORADO.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Packard, Pueblo, Colo.

DAKOTA--Woman's Home Miss. Union, President, Mrs. T.M. Hills, Sioux Falls; Secretary, Mrs. W.R. Dawes, Redfield; Treasurer, Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.

[Footnote 1: For the purpose of exact information, we note that while the W.H.M.A. appears in this list as a State body for Mass, and R.I., it has certain auxiliaries elsewhere.]

We would suggest to all ladies connected with the auxiliaries of State Missionary Unions, that funds for the American Missionary Association be sent to us through the treasurers of the Union. Care, however, should be taken to designate the money as for the American Missionary Association, since _undesignated funds will not reach us_.

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The Woman's Home Missionary Association, which has its office in the Congregational House in Boston, held its semi-annual meeting in Providence, April 3d, the first since it has come into co-operation with the American Missionary Association in its administration and with the other national benevolent societies. Rev. G.A. Hood represented the Congregational Union, Rev. Joshua Coit, the American Home Missionary Society, Rev. J.A. Hamilton, D.D., the College and Education Society, Rev. C.J. Ryder, the American Missionary Association, and the Rev. G.M. Boynton, D.D., the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society. These all expressed their sympathy with the closer alliance of the Woman's Association with the national societies through which they have elected to work, and to which they have committed the administration of their benevolence in their respective fields. We cordially welcome the Woman's Home Missionary Association as the representative of the States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the sisterhood of co-operative societies.

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At the meeting of the Woman's Missionary Association of Alabama, held in connection with the Congregational Conference at Mobile, April 1st, the Constitution was amended, enlarging the sphere of work to cover both home and foreign missions, and thus we have the "Woman's Missionary Union of the State of Alabama." The actual working of this woman's organization had already been varied. It was most interesting at their meeting to hear the reports of the auxiliaries. All reported aid to their respective churches and relief to the destitute in their parishes, and then their contributions took other directions--to the American Missionary Association for its Indian work; to the American Board for a girl in Smyrna; for a Hindoo girl; for work in South Africa; to the Home Missionary Society for work in the West. Thus these churches in the South are being trained to a world-wide interest in missions.

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THREE NEW ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SOUTH.

A Woman's Missionary Union for the State of Louisiana was organized in connection with the Congregational Association of the State. The meeting of ladies was well attended, and the interest was manifested in their hearty response in favor of joining the sisterhood of State Unions. The officers of the Union were selected from both the white and colored churches, the church at Hammond being thus represented.

At the annual meeting of the General Association of Congregational churches of Mississippi, which met at Tougaloo, March 28th, a Woman's Missionary Union was organized. Mrs. A.V. Whiting was chosen President, Miss Julia Sauntry, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Miss S.J. Humphrey, Secretary. Although it is but a small beginning, we hope the day is not far distant when Mississippi will take her place with other States in missionary work.

The Woman's Missionary Union of the Central South Conference was organized April 13th, at Knoxville, Tenn.; Secretary, Miss Anna M. Cahill, of Nashville.

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OUR YOUNG FOLKS.

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HOW THE PENNIES GREW.

Not the pennies that lay hidden away in the bank, nor the pennies that were spent for candy. O no; but the honest, hard-working pennies that had a work to do and the heart to do it.

These work-a-day pennies fell into the hands of a mission band called "Willing Workers." It was in the summer-time when they began to stir about and see what they could do for missions, and when winter came along there was a pleasant little festival, and the pennies came together, and brought just as many with them as they possibly could.

For these were "talent" pennies, and they had been invested for the Lord. One of the very pleasant features of the festival was the reading of little papers, telling how the pennies grew. And we are going to let the children see some of these very papers. For all this is exactly true, and took place in a pleasant village in the State of New York.

About ten dollars grew out of a little more than twenty pennies. We have not room to publish all the little papers, telling how the pennies grew into dollars, though all are of great interest. In some cases the original penny was invested, and then turned over and over. This is an instance: