Chapter 3

OROVILLE, MARYSVILLE, PETALUMA.

BY REV. W.C. POND, D.D.

Early on Monday morning, June 17th, I left home for a visit to our missions at Oroville and Marysville. I reached Oroville at about 7:30 P.M. As soon as possible I was at the Mission House, where warmest greetings from teacher and pupils awaited me. The lessons of the evening received our first attention, for it is a principle with us that each scholar shall have the English lesson promised him, whoever may be present and whatever else we may desire to do. This is the demand of good faith, and not less of good policy. It is the English lesson that holds them where the gospel can reach them, so that this we must never forego.

When all this was accomplished, those who could read with comparative ease were gathered about a table for a sort of Bible reading, which I proposed to give them, in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. This was the manner of it: One of them read the first verse, being helped over the hard words, then I explained it in as simple English as I could command; then the reader translated both it and my explanation into Chinese, each other pupil keeping watch to see whether what was said expressed the ideas which he had received from me. At this time, we were much aided by the co-operation of Yong Jin, our missionary helper, whose translations I could depend upon quite confidently, but I often give these readings without such help, feeling quite sure that if six or eight have received the _same_ idea, they have received the one I meant to give. When we had finished the first verse, a second pupil read the second verse with the same method, and so on. Some felt unequal to the task of translating, but most were willing to try, and most who tried succeeded strangely well. I had intended to follow this with a few words of exhortation, but just as we read the last verse, Yong Ack arrived. This is a brother who was converted about a year ago. His daily work is that of a cook in a way-side inn, about six (some said eight) miles from Oroville. He has been accustomed to walk this distance, over a rough and dusty road, to attend, not often the school, but the religious services of our mission. He can seldom reach the Mission House before nine, but the meetings begin when he arrives and continue till he is ready to start away. As this brother was to be baptized on the following evening, the Bible reading was suspended with a promise from me that I would speak from these words the next evening, and we all addressed ourselves to a study of the Confession and Covenant of our little Chinese Church at Oroville. It was taken up clause by clause, read in English, explained, translated into Chinese, and still further explained, till Yong Ack in particular, and in a general way all the rest of them, professed to understand and believe it all. When this was finished, we were well on towards 11 P.M., and we closed the meeting with song and prayer.

The day following was variously occupied, but in the evening we were all at the Mission House again. The lessons were given, and then the table was spread for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. Then came the preaching, with Yong Jin interpreting, sentence by sentence. The topic--the Shepherd seeking his lost sheep, followed by the story of the prodigal son. One could not have asked a more attentive audience. The presence and work of the Spirit were unmistakable. At length, a little after nine, Yong Ack appeared. He had been over that road three times that day, and expected, before morning to go over it again. But he confessed no weariness either by word or by manner. He was bright, wakeful, joyous. He confessed Christ, was baptized, and was welcomed with gladness to the church, after which we gathered round the table of the Lord.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in and about Marysville. Both Oroville and Marysville are "hard fields." In both of them good work has been done in days past, but the fruits from the seed sown have been widely scattered, so that in each place but few Christians remain. Our Chinese Church in Marysville, some years ago was reported--truthfully, I am sure--as in proportion to its numbers and its means, the Banner Church of the country for its contribution to Foreign Missions. But now only one member, a deacon, resides in the place. He is a cook at one of the hotels, and is unable to leave his work till about 8:30 P.M., but he "holds the fort" sturdily, bravely. He is an athletic man, full of energy and courage, with, doubtless, some of the defects which usually attend these qualities, but honest, earnest, consistent, determined.

The first evening was a reproduction of that at Oroville, there being also one believer to be baptized. On the second evening, in view of the Lord's Supper and the baptism, our good deacon, as soon as his work was done, was "all abroad" in Chinatown. Squad after squad he brought, and seeing them seated, went out after more. When about 9:15 P.M., I commenced my discourse, the room was packed. Oh, what joy it was, what inspiration, to look into those eyes fixed closely upon me, and tell them of the love of God in Christ! Yong Jin's quick, animated interpretations of my sentences were not interruptions, but seemed to urge me on. I am sure that the Spirit spoke through me to some hearts, and that I shall see the fruits of that seed-sowing in the better world. After the most careful and repeated statements as to what a partaking of the bread and wine would mean, and as to the guilt of those who should partake _without_ meaning what they did, a goodly number, eight or nine, I think, who had never before consented to be recognized as Christians, did thus profess that they received Christ as Saviour and Lord. They did it in the sight and in the midst of others who did not do it--did it with a painstaking and an apparent determination which encourages my hope that they will hold fast and be led on to clearer light and the full day.

Reaching home on Friday noon, I started for Petaluma on Saturday morning. That evening was spent partly at the Mission House preaching the word, and partly at the church preparing our pupils for the parts they were to take in the anniversary exercises on the following evening. Our brothers, Jee Gam and Lem Chung, were with me. I see that I have already exhausted my space and venture only to add, that this anniversary service was one of deep interest. The Congregational Church at which it was held was crowded, auditors standing in the doors. All the exercises by the pupils were well rendered. The address by Jee Gam and the songs by Lem Chung seemed to win all hearts. The report of the year's work at the school was more cheering than any we have been able to make for years; the collection amounted to about sixty-five dollars, and last and best of all, the gospel work done by our Chinese brethren at the Mission House was the means of leading at least two, heretofore undecided, to take their stand clearly and decisively as followers of Christ.

In a later letter, Dr. Pond adds:

It seems that _three_ instead of _two_, as I have it in my article, were led to confess Christ at Petaluma last Sunday. One other was almost persuaded, but said he must first send home to China the bones of his father. (Matt. 8:21). Jee Gam explained to him that he could do that as a _Christian_, without _worshiping_ his father. But he could not be persuaded. He is a very bright and promising young man, and I hope and pray that this wrong decision may not cost him his salvation.

Jee Gam and Lum Chung were so wrought upon by what they saw and by what God wrought by them at Petaluma, that they came back fired with a desire to do something like it at our Central Mission House. This is what I have long wished for, but could never seem to inspire the brethren with courage to undertake. On Tuesday evening the first of a series of meetings was held there. The room was crowded. Some scoffed, some tried to seem indifferent, but _all heard_ the word, and one took a stand for Christ. The brethren take hold well, each one contriving to make himself the center of a group of heathen, so as to go right to work in the after-meeting. Pray for them.

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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.[2]

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.

FLA.--Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Nathan Barrows, Winter Park, Fla.

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, 724 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.B. Dawes, Redfield; Treasurer, Mrs. S.E. Fifield, Lake Preston.

[Footnote 2: 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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Ladies upon whom the duty devolves to plan and lead missionary meetings, will welcome the suggestions in the following paper by Mrs. Regal, Secretary of the Woman's Home Missionary Union of Ohio, which paper was read at the recent Annual Meeting of the Officers of Woman's State Organizations.

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THE LOCAL SOCIETY--ITS MEMBERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT.

BY MRS. FLORA K. REGAL, OBERLIN, OHIO.

The local society will always have its active and its passive membership. How to increase the latter from without, and how to transfer recruits from the passive to the active list, are problems that have taxed the ingenuity of not a few and have not infrequently been abandoned as insoluble. It has so long been said, "This missionary work always has to be carried on by a few," that the expression has come to have something of the force of axiomatic truth which, of course, no one dares assail. And so the missionary society lives on, decade after decade, with less than a quarter of the women of the church on its list, and of that quarter not more than one-fourth active members. How to change these conditions, is the problem which confronts us.

I.--It has not always been clear who should be included in the membership, but with the broad scope given to our Home Missionary Unions, its auxiliaries should include:

_First._--Every woman who thinks that if she were living on some lonely frontier and had for years heard no sermon, no public prayer, no songs of praise, had no communion service, no Christian fellowship, she would welcome the home missionary and all the sweet influences of the Gospel.

_Second._--Every woman who thinks we owe it to the Freedwoman to put into her life and home something of the sweetness and purity of our own; to the Indian woman a sympathetic effort for her uplifting, in atonement for a "Century of Dishonor."

_Third._--Every woman who thinks that if she, or her sister or daughter, were heroic enough to share the labors and sacrifices of a home missionary, she ought to have some better place to live in than an old grocery, a room over a saloon or the basement of a church.

_Fourth._--Every woman who thinks that if she were an inmate of a Mormon home she might not have grace to welcome the companionship of the second, third or tenth woman who might be sealed by celestial marriage to her husband.

_Fifth._--Every woman who thinks there are worthy young men trying to prepare themselves for ministerial or missionary work whose struggle with poverty ought to be relieved.

_Sixth._--Every woman who would welcome for her own children, if she were living in some Godless community, the Sunday-school missionary and the books, papers, lesson helps, prayers and Christian songs which make the Sunday-school a place of blessed influences.

If there be in any Christian church a woman who will respond to none of these calls for service to the extent of a moderate annual membership fee, say twenty-five cents, she has missed the true import of the Gospel and has never entered into its most blessed privileges. Let us assume that there is no such, but that rightly approached, every woman worthy a place in the church will be willing to enroll herself into at least the passive membership of the local society.

II.--The management of this new membership, presumably uninformed, indifferent, possibly prejudiced, will require familiar acquaintance with our six benevolences, sympathy with them all, much practical wisdom, good courage, and the spirit of I Corinthians, 13th chapter.

The _President_ must do more than preside at the meetings. She must plan every detail; must know beforehand what hymns, what Scripture lesson, who shall lead in singing and in prayer, what reports, what letters, what original papers, what selections, what business. Everything must be carefully planned and written down, yet there must be withal a certain amount of elasticity of management, so that the timid question may be answered, the objection removed, the enthusiasm expressed. The President will welcome strangers and greet the diffident and neglected. She will not be _surprised_ at seeing anybody at the meeting. It was reasonably to be expected.

The _Secretary_ will do more than keep the minutes of the meetings. She will not forget the proper public announcement of the meetings and will add special invitations to such as may not feel themselves included in the general. She will send for such printed helps as are needed for use. She will fill out distinctly and promptly such blanks as are needed for Conference, State or other Reports, and her quarterly and annual reports will be helpful from their information and their inspiration.

The _Treasurer_ will do more than passively receive what is brought to her hands. She will see that no one is overlooked when a canvass is made for any object; that pledges are redeemed; that the way is made easy for the poor to give without embarrassment and the rich without ostentation. She will see that all moneys are forwarded as designated and that _they go through the State Treasury_.

But the highest qualification any local officer can possess, is the ability to transfer members from the passive to the active list. Some practical hints toward this result maybe gathered from the following suggestions:

Aim at unity of effect for each meeting. Make some one of the six benevolences the subject, and center everything--Scripture, hymn, prayer, letter, paper, leaflet, about the single topic. Suppose it be "Missions on our Western frontier." Ask some lady to prepare a fifteen minutes' paper. Give out in addition six back numbers of the _Home Missionary_ to as many ladies, asking each to select a paragraph or short article bearing directly on the subject and which she thinks will, or ought to, interest the meeting. Let several of these ladies be chosen from the passive list--the diffident or even the indifferent. In making their selections, they will perhaps have made their first acquaintance with missionary magazines and will have learned something about the heroism of our home missionaries. Moreover, they will have participated in the exercises. This, repeated with variations, will give them courage to speak, and intelligent thoughts to express. _They are on the way to active participation._ Crown the exercises with a collection. The leader must know how to kindle enthusiasm and put it to the tangible proof.

The subject for the next meeting may be some branch of the work of the American Missionary Association, as "Indian Missions in Dakota." Assign to some one a paper, an historical sketch. She will need books from the missionary library. "Ten years among the Dakotas," and "Mary and I; or, Life among the Sioux," (to which she would never think of going for help unless informed that the Dakotas and Sioux are one.) She may also send to Miss Emerson for further helps. Then, in addition, give out back numbers of the _American Missionary_ to two or three passive ladies, asking them to make short selections concerning Indian missions--or let one read Prof. G.F. Wright's leaflet--"Indian Missions as seen upon the ground"--and another some missionary's letter. Call out expressions of interest in the work--proofs of its success--etc., and ask if we ought not to do something for its support. Give to everyone present a small envelope with the request that it be brought to the next meeting with a free will offering for Indian missions.

The next meeting may be devoted to "Christian work among the Mormons," using the "New West Reports," "The Gleaner," newspaper extracts, missionary letters and, if possible, have the experience of some one who has visited the schools and the homes of sin-cursed Utah. Having awakened deep interest, the proposition to procure a lecture or a musical entertainment and devote the proceeds to the New West Commission will probably find favor and be carried on to success.

For the next meeting, choose another object, as "Parsonage Building." Distribute copies of the _Church Building Quarterly_ and again the indispensable back numbers of _The Home Missionary_, and have extracts read which show the discomfort, and even distress, which come to the family of the home missionary. Propose aid in the form of a birthday offering, in which every member brings in an envelope as many cents as she is years old. The result may be surprising.

For other objects other plans, but in every case the way should be prepared for _intelligent giving_.

It has sometimes resulted favorably to secure, at the beginning of the year, pledges for some definite, well understood object, as a teacher's or missionary's salary, or a share in one, which should apparently but not really exhaust the resources of the society, and have the payments made as early in the year as practicable. Then pursue intelligent study of the other fields until the time is ripe for proposing generous aid to the one which appeals most strongly to the combined judgment and sympathy. And so on through the year, in which time the six benevolences can all be reached. This somewhat irregular method of procedure has perhaps no better defence than that it has been known to produce good results. A society the intelligence and consecration of whose members could be relied upon would doubtless find the plan of monthly pledges, to be divided according to some accepted schedule, much easier. No special labor would have to be expended to make the need apparent, or to awaken sympathy for the object, or to choose the best means of attaining it. Gifts would be systematic and uniform throughout the year and could be counted upon.

The machinery, well oiled at the start, would run smoothly and quietly, and woman's work would not be made unpleasantly prominent. But it seems doubtful whether as many gifts would flow into the treasury and whether the gifts would be accompanied by as much interest, sympathy and prayer.

The hints concerning management thus far presuppose a Home Missionary Society organized on the modern basis of a programme of devotional exercises and various mission studies, and do not apply to those cases in which such exercises have been engrafted upon a sewing society with a long line of Dorcases as Presidents, and antecedents too respectable to be ruthlessly set aside. How shall a sewing society be so modified as to best subserve the present home missionary needs? Do not create friction by attempting a sudden and complete revolution. Propose that the brief devotional exercises with which such gatherings sometimes close be placed a little earlier than usual, that there may be time for some interesting missionary letter or some inspiring leaflet, or other selection, or better still, an original paper on some live topic. When about the usual season for beginning the missionary box arrives, prepare a symposium on the subject of boxes. Select and distribute brief paragraphs from the magazines concerning missionary debts, from missionary letters concerning unpaid salaries, and lead gradually up to the question whether if we were missionaries we would rather receive a box or a check for an unpaid salary. Which would best enable a minister to look his creditors, who are also his parishioners, in the face--the new pulpit suit or cash to pay off accumulated bills? In trying to decide between box and salary, the society may decide for _both_, and a point is gained. When box preparations begin, assign them a proper place in the meeting. Do not permit papers and addresses to be sandwiched between rolling quilt frames and turning down refractory hems, or punctuated by requests or signals for scissors, thread, and bits of gingham; and do not spoil garments by working with divided attention. Give each its hour or its day. Best of all, when a box is in preparation, sew early, late, and often, till it is despatched. Then resume the studies, being especially careful to have their first resumption provided with an attractive programme. In all cases when studies have been grafted upon sewing, _encourage the graft_. It ought to yield better fruit than the original stock.

It should be the constant aim of those in charge of local societies to inspire in the membership intelligent interest in the six branches of our work--to cultivate a spirit of liberality toward them all--to create in every member a desire to aid them all. Only with such an aim can the local society achieve its highest usefulness.

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RECEIPTS FOR JUNE, 1889.

MAINE, $123.20.

Augusta. Joel Spalding, to const. MISS NETTIE R. SPALDING L.M. $30.00

Bangor. Central Ch. Sewing Circle, _for Freight to Pleasant Hill, Tenn._ 1.53

Bethel. Sab. Sch. of Second Cong. Ch. 5.00

Castine. "Rainbow Band," _for Tougaloo U._ 5.80