Chapter 2

One of the interesting sessions of the American Missionary Association at Detroit was the Woman's Meeting, which was held from two to four o'clock on Thursday afternoon before the same large audience that had already listened for two days to the varied accounts of work on the mission field.

The devotional exercises were led by Miss Mallory, a deaconess of the First Church. Six of the Women's State Organizations were reported, viz. Maine, by Mrs. Woodbury, president; Massachusetts and Rhode Island, by Miss Bridgman, treasurer; Ohio, by Mrs. Brown, treasurer; Illinois, by Mrs. Claflin, president; Minnesota, by Miss Brickett, delegate; Michigan, by Mrs. Davis, delegate. We were privileged in having with us other officers of some of these Unions, Michigan especially being represented by president, secretary and treasurer. All brought words of hope, and some of the crisp sentences from the lips of these devoted home workers for missions will not soon be forgotten by those who heard them.

Following the reports from State Unions, Mrs. Sydney Strong, of Cincinnati, president of the Ohio Union, gave a very interesting and helpful address on woman's work throughout the country. Then came the annual report of the Bureau of Women's Work, and missionary addresses from the field. The sweet Jubilee singing by the young women from Nashville, Tenn., added to the enjoyment of the occasion.

We regret that the limit of the magazine pages will not allow the addresses in full, but we hope to furnish some of them in pamphlet form. The paper by Miss Mitchell, of Blowing Rock, N. C., will be printed thus.

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Following the woman's meeting, a children's meeting was conducted, which held the close attention of the little ones for an hour with vivid descriptions of the children of Alaska and China, the Indian boys and girls, and of the mountain and negro children of the South.

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REPORT OF SECRETARY.

We come to this Annual Meeting with hearts full of gratitude to the many friends who have stood by this work in its emergency, and with praise to Him who daily beareth our burdens, and who we believe is unto us a God of deliverances. True, every passing month of the year just closed has sounded the ominous word "Debt," and the burdens consequent have been many and heavy; it has been hard to see the missionary work so repressed and cramped when opportunities for development offered on every side. But it has been glorious to watch its wonderful power and accomplishment even in its too restricted limitation. Surely a blessing followed the offerings of those who remembered this A. M. A. field with their gifts especially of "money consecrated to the Lord's work." Some, we have reason to believe, in giving "their slender mite for love of Him," gave much.

Thirty-one of the forty-two State Unions have made cash contributions to the Association's work during the year, but this does not represent in full the aid given. Four hundred and eighty-six barrels have been sent to the various fields, and while all have contained useful articles, some have been packed with valuable supplies of house linen for the boarding-halls and goods for the industrial classes.

The Secretary has presented the work frequently at missionary meetings, and series of meetings were planned for her and for missionaries from the field, in several of the States. In this the officers of the State organizations cooperated cordially, and were most helpful in arranging appointments among the auxiliaries. There is evident need of the work being made known by personal presentation. Missionary literature has been freely distributed, and letters from the field have been sent out in response to contributions wherever desired. The system of missionary letter-writing entails not a little of care and burden upon both missionaries and secretary, but it brings the missionaries and home workers into closer sympathy, and provides interesting information for missionary meetings. We acknowledge thankfully the consideration shown when letters have been unavoidably delayed, and the many expressions of appreciation of the missionary news.

Through the circulation of the letters and printed leaflets you have had many glimpses of the schools, churches, prayer-meetings, Sunday-schools, Endeavor meetings and the homes of the people in the South, on the Indian reservations, the Pacific Coast and Alaska. We trust it has been a joy to you to make the work so much your very own by the share you have had in sustaining it and watching its development.

There is a very precious part of this missionary work, however, that lies beyond the boundaries of our one hundred and seventeen schools. A hint of it may be seen in the following to her teacher from a former colored student, now the wife of a Congregational minister in the A. M. A. church service. It represents hundreds of cases equally gratifying of those who, through the beneficent work of the American Missionary Association, to-day fill positions of influence and usefulness in the various walks of life. The writer says: "The work here I enjoy very much, nevertheless there are many discouraging things in connection with it. But then I know we cannot always have smooth sailing. If everything was all smooth there would be no need of much work. I am only too glad to do something for the Master, though I know I am one that is fitted only to quietly fill in a little chink in the great work that is to be done. When I remember that we are not all given the same number of talents, I am somewhat encouraged to go on with the work, content to do little unnoticed acts in the name of the Master. I remember, too, that what I am, you are the one who was instrumental in making me. The Lord has a great reward for you for your patience and kind dealing with me."

"Little, unnoticed acts in the name of the Master." Think of it--that these colored boys, girls and mountain youth, Indians and Chinese, to the number of thirteen thousand annually, are through this American Missionary Association brought under such Christian training that a large proportion go forth to use their talents, be they great or small, in the name of the Master. What better could we do for either of these races than to support liberally a work that, preparing the youth for the practical duties of life, sends them forth to exert their influence among their people for the love of Christ and In His Name.

It has been a year of advance in contributions from the organizations of Woman's Work, and while this has been a welcome and valuable aid to the A. M. A. treasury, it is also a cheering indication of what these organizations may be able to do the next year and the next with increasing knowledge of the mission field, increasing interest and ability. The cash receipts, through the State organizations, have been $21,213.95, and directly from local societies and mission bands, $4,124.66, a total of $25,338.61. We give a tabulated statement from which it will be seen that nine of the State organizations now measure their dollars for the A. M. A. by the thousand, and some of those in the list immediately following we hope will soon join the thousand-dollar rank.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island $4,853.89 New York 2,530.06 Ohio 1,893.29 Maine 1,708.02 Connecticut 1,517.05 Iowa 1,231.54 Illinois 1,184.17 Vermont 1,134.00 Missouri 1,019.96 Minnesota 851.61 New Jersey 589.35 Michigan 528.28 New Hampshire 527.57 Wisconsin 466.63 Nebraska 274.39 Southern California 207.85 Kansas 199.32 California 102.10 South Dakota 85.92 Colorado 82.05 Louisiana 45.52 Pennsylvania 35.00 Alabama 30.00 North Carolina 29.90 Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky 20.25 Washington 20.00 Indiana 15.00 North Dakota 11.50 Black Hills, S. D. 6.28 Wyoming 5.75 New Mexico 1.60

In assigning these contributions to some definite portion of the work, as has been desired, the choice has naturally been the support of women as missionary teachers, forty-five having been thus assigned. The total number of missionaries in the A. M. A. churches and schools is six hundred and forty-nine. The churches number two hundred and twelve. The schools number one hundred and seventeen, and the five hundred and thirty teachers engaged in them, many of whom preach as well as teach, are indeed too few for the broad lines of instruction, the varied industrial training, the intellectual and spiritual, or, to use a favorite expression, the training of "head, hand and heart." But it is often noticeable how cheerfully these missionaries meet the increasing demands upon their strength, forgetful of self, in their intense desire for the good of their pupils, that, intelligent, industrious, virtuous, all may go out to their life-work, whatever and wherever it may be, in the name of the Master.

But what of those who are not gathered into these Christian schools? Longing, praying and pleading to enter, what if the doors are closed against them because they have no money, no influence, and in their time of need, no friends? Our hearts ache that such should have been the bitter experience of any the past year. But it is too true. With no means of their own and no friend to aid them, hundreds have been turned back to darkness when they wanted light; turned back because there was none to help.

The opportunities of the year just closed we may not reclaim, but we are beginning a new year with its new opportunities. The colored people, eager for improvement, struggling with poverty, appeal for schools and churches, but it costs $400 for each teacher or minister. The Indians want their children to come into the mission schools where they may learn "the Jesus way," but it costs $150 for each pupil. The mountain people of the South, unlettered, simple-hearted, credulous, are the prey of Mormon missionaries, who are working zealously for converts, and, as one reports, with "good success." The antidote is Christian teachers and preachers, but here again is an average cost of $400. The Chinese field, besides the work for men in mission schools, presents an opportunity for women's work among twenty-five hundred Chinese women in San Francisco, who are accessible in their homes, and who respond gratefully to Christian sympathy and instruction. Was there ever such gracious opportunity to the Christian church to gather into the fold the "other sheep" of the Great Shepherd? He has said, "them also I must bring." Would He bring them in through us? Let us arouse ourselves that we may not so lose these opportunities God has given to win this land for Christ. We have done something, but it is so far short of the need. Our offerings--have they been so much a part of ourselves, have they cost us so much that they have been _worthy_ tokens of love to our Lord?

The American Missionary Association has come to its fiftieth year of work and appeal for these to whom the gospel is to be preached, through church planting and Christian schools. It comes burdened with obligations for the work already done, and for that of the year just begun. Can we not, each one of us, _double our gifts_ to this work in this A. M. A. Jubilee year? This, with one true self-denial offering from every woman in the Congregational church, and friend of the work, and not only shall the Association come next year to its fiftieth anniversary with rejoicing, but hundreds of _new voices_ from the millions of people to whom we are sent, will join also in the song of Jubilee.

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ADDRESS OF MRS. SYDNEY STRONG.

A speaker at our Toledo meeting two years ago, when she had told of her life work in China, closed her remarks by saying: "American sisters, the women of China look to you for their examples of Christian womanhood. Do not disappoint them: for if you do, it will be the greatest blow foreign missions can have." During the past year, in our work in Ohio, when I have known so much of the needs over this broad land of ours, I have wondered continually what some of the Christian converts of China would think could they visit our shores and go into the mountains in our Southern land and see the women there, how perfectly ignorant they are, some of them not even knowing their alphabet, and, what is sadder still, not even knowing that they are hundreds of years behind the women living but a few miles from their mountain home. If these Chinese converts could go down from the mountains into the plains and see our negro sister there in her cabin home, and realize how she is oppressed and how so few there care for her soul; if they could go into the West and visit the Indians, and realize how America has treated the Indian, how she has given him land until she wanted it herself and then has taken it, and pushed him farther West until now she has him in a place where the land is so poor it is not likely she will ever want it; if they could go and see their Chinese sisters--their own flesh and blood--and realize that America had the opportunity right at her own door of teaching and raising up Christian Chinese women to go back and teach their own kindred the "old, old story," what do you suppose they would think of Christian America? My sisters, what do you think of it? Are these conditions due to lack of money? We can all give when we are interested. Poverty is a thing of comparison. We are all poor compared with our neighbor on the avenue, and we are all rich compared with our neighbor who lived on crusts of bread last week and knows not where her crusts are coming from this week. No, my friends, we can give when we are interested.

In this connection I have been thinking a little of a dear friend, who when asked if she could not increase her contribution to five dollars for the work this coming year, said: "Possibly I can another year, but this year I cannot, for I am going abroad and I have to economize." "Economy!" Is not that just the place it always begins? Can we look back over the last two years, those of us who have been affected by the hard times, and truthfully say that we did not begin at the giving end to economize? It seems to me that this is just where we all make our mistakes. Is not this just the reason why our church work is so cold and lifeless? We are trying to do Christ's work in man's way and we can no more do it than the Indian we are told about, who tried to run the machine controlled by electricity in his own way rather than in the way the inventor intended it to be run. God has given us a plan for doing this work and saving souls, and we are trying man's way rather than God's way. What is man's way? It is to do church work, go to missionary societies, and give--when we have time and money. What is God's way? "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith your God, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Have we done it? Have we brought the tithes all in?

We use much more wisdom in material things often than we do in spiritual things. Can we not learn a lesson from the farmer? What does God say to the farmer! "Sow, and ye shall also reap." But the farmer says, "I cannot; I haven't enough. If I had plenty I would sow, but I haven't. My family could not live as well as my neighbor; we could not set a good enough table; we might even have to go hungry." But the command comes again: "Sow, and ye shall also reap," and I venture to say that there is not a farmer in this country of ours but who would go hungry, yea, he and his children would go bare-footed, but he would take some portion of the grain that he had and throw it broadcast over his field, knowing that it would lie there and decay, but trusting in the Lord that it would come back to him after many days. Why cannot we use the same wisdom in spiritual matters?

But there is something that is of more value even than money. It seems to me that the one thing we need is more consecrated women in our churches, women that have more love for their Master and for his cause, women that do not do this work from a sense of duty, but because they love their Lord and Saviour. It seems to me we ought to put love in the same place where Christ put it, on the same pinnacle where Paul put it: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; and though I give my body to be burned, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing."

My dear friends, if we only had this love, this consecration, we would be interested in everything that interests our Master. And hearing of our sister in the mountains who knows nothing of him, we would hasten to go ourselves or make it easy for others to go and tell her of His love. And thinking of our colored sister in the South who is oppressed and down-trodden, if we loved Him we would hasten to go with joy and tell her of the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light. And remembering our Indian sister who is so in the dark and is so destitute of knowledge we would find a way to tell her of Him who is the light of the world. And knowing of our Chinese sister here on our shores, who looks forward to a heavenly home for her husband, though she has no such hope for herself, we would go and tell her--or see that some one else told her--of Him who said: "Whosoever cometh unto me shall have eternal life." Our work then would not be done from a sense of duty but as the expression of our love and joy, and all we would ask in return would be the words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

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ADDRESS BY MISS ANNETTE P. BRICKETT.

In the few minutes which are assigned me in which to bring before you the work of our Indian mission and boarding school at Fort Berthold, among the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres, there is no time for me to discuss the "Indian Problem," about which I am not at all wise, nor to talk of the Indian character, nor to defend it against the numberless unjust opinions and popular newspaper and magazine prejudice with which you are all so familiar.

I think you want to know all that I shall have time to tell you of our past year's work, our encouragements, our difficulties and successes.

There has been an increasing spirit of loving, gentle, helpfulness among our school girls, both in the home and school life. We have all gladly noticed that our boys have become more courteous and thoughtful. Many of them have learned for the first time, under their wise and consecrated matron, the value of strict adherence to God's great law of obedience in the forming of manly characters and in the making of happy homes.

Our older Ree girls came back to school this fall more neatly and cleanly clad than ever before. Some of them made tasteful calico dresses for themselves with which to return to us. Several of these older girls, under the leadership of one of our ladies, organized themselves into a "Cleaning Club" at the close of school in July and have kept faithfully at work all through the vacation, each week meeting at a certain house and giving the poor little log home, with its mud-plugged walls and dirt floor a most vigorous and thorough "scrub." After the beds had been made up cleanly with sheets and pillow cases, which were in each case the property of the school girl at whose house they met, and putting up cheap scrim curtains at the two little windows, then these students of scrubology, on a stove, shining with a perhaps unprecedented coat of blacking, prepared before their somewhat dazed parents a neat and wholesome meal of such simple material as they had, set it out on a white covered table just as nicely as they are taught to do at school, and invited their parents to eat with them. This improvement has not been merely spontaneous. It was a principle of the society that each girl who had been thus assisted should do all in her power to keep the home clean and neat, and our girls have greatly delighted us by the brave way in which they have kept this pledge.

This past year several of our older boys and girls have, without urging or even suggestion from the teachers, told us of their earnest desire to go out into the world and attend a higher school. They were quite prepared to enter the school at Santee and though reminded of the opposition they would undoubtedly encounter in getting permission from their ignorant and in some cases heathen parents, as well as that of the Government Agent, they have still been quite determined. "Maimie," one of the girls, first asked consent of her uncle and aunt with whom she has her home. They both refused, being unwilling to have her go so far away and also to lose the small help which the little money Maimie earned by doing extra work at school brought to them. Both the uncle and aunt are members of our church and our prayers that Christian principle might triumph in this case and make these two an example to the rest were answered, for soon "Hand" and his wife "Alice" cheerfully went to the Agent and told him of their previous unwillingness but also of their present decision that they were glad to have Maimie go away and learn more of God's ways so that she might better teach and lead her people.

John, one of the boys, has met with much bitter opposition from his people who are under the influence of the Catholic priest at the Agency. They have forced him into the Government school, which is of a grade entirely below his present attainments, and he is much discouraged, but we still trust that God's plan for our boys and girls, into whose souls he has put these aspirations, will be worked out in His own time and way.

Our church members who are as yet but "babes in Christ" have had numerous testings this year, which, while they have been times of severe trial to us as well as to them, have been but passing clouds, which have only for a time hid from them the "Guiding Hand," and which has made them all the more strong and distinct as members of Christ's body.

There have been disappointments in the past year; a few of those from whom we hoped much have become careless and indifferent. But more have grown in spiritual strength and are manifesting the new spirit of godliness in their lives in many practical ways; in neater personal appearance, in better houses and cleaner homes, and in much more industrious attention to their farm work. The Christian women nearly all ride on the seat of their wagons beside their husbands and not squatted down behind in the old way which indicated their inferiority and degradation.