Chapter 2

The present membership of the church is 219. Many of them are poor students who have to be helped through school. The resident members have but very little money. With one or two exceptions they receive small pay for what they do. Those who have trades find but little here to do and have to go away to get employment. Among the male members of the church are farmers, mechanics, etc., and among the females those who do laundry work, sewing, etc. Several of these women take the washing of families home and work very hard for a very little money with which to subsist their families, buy books, and pay tuition for their children in Talladega College.

There are about thirty-five members of the church who own their homes, and about eleven who rent the places where they live. Several of the homes owned by the members of the church are fairly comfortable for Southern homes, having from two to seven rooms. None of them are costly. I do not suppose that one of them cost $1,000. Neither is the furniture in them costly. Scarcely any of them have carpets on their floors. They look upon carpets as a luxury which they cannot afford. Plaster on the walls is almost as rare as carpets on the floors. In some cases there is not a rocking-chair in the house. The furniture they have is of a very ordinary kind.

The people have but very little money and are obliged to struggle long and hard to get a little place to call home, in many cases buying the lumber and hiring the carpenter on credit. This being the case, it takes them years and years to pay for the little homes. The homes vary from the fairly comfortable to the wretched. It is noticeable that those who have had the advantages of an education have better homes than those who have no education.

There comes to mind as I write one very miserable home in which both the parents are ignorant. There are three rooms to the house not nearly so comfortable as the places where Northern farmers keep their horses and cattle. There is neither stove nor grate in the house, but simply some rocks on each side of the open fireplace on which they lay the green wood, by which they sit and shiver while the cold winds blow through the cracks in the floor and sides of the house. There are six children and only two excuses for beds. One of these has on it a tick, the other has a pile of dirty rags. There is not a whole table or chair in the house.

And yet, these people, like many others just as poor as they, are trying to educate their children. They believe that in Christian education lies the only redemption from this condition for them and their race, through their children, who are enjoying privileges that were denied to them.

There are not more than a dozen individuals in the church who are earning a comfortable living. More than that number did so when times were better, but now there is not much for them to do except conduct very poor farms, on which they cannot earn enough to make themselves comfortable.

There have been very few years in the history of the church when it did not have a revival of religion. Of late it has been the custom to have two series of special services each year--one during the winter, while the school is in session, and another during the summer vacation. Effort is made each year to have all the students converted. Of all the young people who have graduated here only two have left without being professing Christians.

The growth of the church has not been rapid, but steady. During the days of slavery the colored people were members of the churches to which their masters belonged. None of them belonged to Congregational churches, and so, when Congregationalism came to the South after the war, it was entirely new to the former slaves and to those who had been their masters.

The masses of the children and the young people still cling to the churches which their parents were taught to love. It will, therefore, be some time before Congregationalism will grow rapidly in the South. The church has no building of its own, and no parsonage, but worships in the chapel of Talladega College. The building in which the chapel is located was erected by the white Baptists of the Coosa Valley Association before the war as a college for their sons. Some of the old slaves who helped to put up the building lived to see freedom, to see the building come into the hands of the American Missionary Association, and to see their own children study and graduate in it.

MEETINGS AMONG THE HILLS AND AT A CONVICT CAMP.

BY REV. H. E. PARTRIDGE.

Perhaps nowhere is a religious meeting made more of than in the hill country of the South. There are reasons _and_ reasons for the fact. Take a real, genuine Methodist or Baptist matron, or brother, of fifty, and they love Christ and His cause, and do not fail to associate their love for Him and the work with the gathering in His name. If it be possible, they will be in attendance when "the parson" comes round. The girls love to go; some because they, too, are learning to love the service of the Master, some because they have no other so good opportunity to see and be seen, and others because everybody else goes. Where the girls and young ladies are sure to be, there the boys and young men are apt to be; and so it comes that when the meeting, especially the "big meeting," is to be held, the people throng. And if you want to see a genuine democracy, untainted by any kind of aristocracy, you could not find it better illustrated than among the hills, at meeting time, in some log "church-house." No Sir Wonderful to claim best pew, no usher to give you the place _he_ chooses. You come with your wife and, following the custom, she goes to the left, you to the right. I will not describe the service. The singing varies from a wonderful chorus of praise that lacks nothing in volume in one neighborhood, to the nasal-twanged hymn which some incompetent leader sings almost alone in some other community. The old songs predominate, but any brisk moving song of work of praise or progress easily becomes a favorite, when once it has been sung long enough so that the words and movement are mastered by a few.

You will not be long in any big meeting or revival service before you will hear:

"Mother has a home, sweet home, Mother has a home, sweet home, Mother has a home, sweet home. Lord, I want to join the angels; beautiful home."

This is varied. Now it is Brother, Father, Preacher, or Sister who has a home.

You may not know the tune or words, but it will not be long before you are singing with the rest, if you are a participator or worshiper, and not that horrid and heartless thing, a critical looker-on.

You know of the hand-shaking? If a sinner seeks to enter the Christian life, he comes, on invitation of the minister, to shake hands at the close of, or during, the service. And often service closes with an all-round-hand-shake. There is a song started, like "Say, Brother, will you meet me?" or some simple devotional hymn, and all rise and shake hands all around, singing or praying, or speaking gently one to another.

Ah! many a feud has sunk forever, many an unpleasantness has been forgotten, many a half-ripe quarrel has been strangled, and many a friendship has been strengthened and ripened in these services of emotion and love, those hand-shakings of the Mountaineers. The blessings of the peacemakers should be his who first introduced the service.

Among other invitation hymns I have heard, I remember vividly:

"Sinner, you are welcome, Yes, Yes, welcome To the dying lamb."

This, too, is varied. "Seeker," "Brother," "Sister," and "Everybody’s welcome" being sung.

I could tell of parts I do not like, of excitements the reverse of helpful to my devotional feelings, and of loudness mistaken for piety or zeal, but so could others criticise the services at Dr. Cuyler’s or Dr. Storrs’s church. I prefer to speak of the really good.

May I tell you of a unique service? It was at the Convict Camp, near Baker’s X Roads, in Cumberland County, Tenn.

No need to ring the bell--the congregation are assembled, and armed guards are standing by lest someone should escape. Still a bell was tapped. Silence at once.

"Boys," I said, "when I was here before you kindly asked me to come and speak to you again. I am here. Before I speak I want to have you sing. Will you sing?" A moment’s pause, and in the rich tones which the colored people so often have, there rang out from scores of throats, one of those weird songs of the race. It was of chariots and heaven, of songs and praises, and of Jesus the King. I cannot reproduce or describe it. I prayed for a blessing on our service, and several responded with apparently as fervent "Amen" as ever came from Camp Meeting or Altar service. Then I read passages, closing with a part of Romans 6: from the twenty-third verse. I spoke briefly of "The wages of sin, and of the gift of God." I almost fear I was harsh. Poor fellows--they were criminals, but who is not guilty, before God, of violations of Divine law?

As I pleaded for the starting of a better life, as I spoke of their families, as I said "Some of you will be through with prison life soon," as I talked of honesty, sobriety, and purity, there were moist eyes. I asked for an expression at the close. All who will accept Jesus Christ, and from this very hour live for Him, and with the strength he gives try to forget the grievances you have thought to revenge; try to love and serve one another here, in Christ’s name, and others when released; strive to do your work faithfully; in short, try to do what you think Christ would want you to do--first, give me your hand, and then kneel with me in prayer. Through the chinks and crevices of the stockade a score of men thrust their hands, eager to respond to the invitation, and many knelt in prayer.

How much was make-believe? How much was genuine? The Searcher of hearts alone knows. Sowing by all waters, I am willing to leave results with God.

Another song, and then "Good-bye, boss!" "Good-bye, Captain!" "Come again, preacher!"

The days were weeks, and then! Criminal carelessness, perhaps. A premature explosion of dynamite and powder combined on the railroad, and six of these men had been discharged. Dead! A rough grave beside the track, God knows the rest. They were convicts, they were blacks, but they were my brothers and yours, children of one Father.

I was tired that Sunday, but I am glad God let me go and give them another invitation to the Christ-life. Perhaps in some other time and place I shall talk over that service among the boys in black at Convict Camp, with a soul in white over there. Who knows?

A BRIGHT AND CANDID VIEW OF OUR MOUNTAIN WORK.

The following letter comes from a member of the "Andover Band," three of whom entered the work among the American Highlanders last year. It is the first band of theological students organized in any of our seminaries for work in the field of the American Missionary Association. It was a very interesting movement and worthy the seminary that has sent out bands into other parts of the country which have accomplished great results.

The testimony is set forth by Prof. John C. Campbell, a cultured young man, who looks on this interesting work with a fresh vision and gives opinions well balanced respecting this field and others.

It should be said that the letter was not written for publication.

The year has been trying and wearing, but I take great satisfaction in knowing that much has been accomplished. We have established ourselves in the hearts of the people, I believe, and have the respect and co-operative interest of the best men in this and adjoining counties, so I hope for great things in the future if our friends in the North will only help us.

Suspicion has given way to confidence, and I may even fire broadsides at the tobacco habit now, even if it hits home. They are a trying, promising, and loveable people. I admire those of my classmates who have heard the voice of God (not the prompting of inclination) calling them to remain in dear old hair-splitting New England; but, while I admire their bravery, I am sorry for them, for it must seem as if they were striking in the air. Here we see the enemy, and can strike directly at him, and one has some satisfaction in getting weary and sick at heart in fighting at great odds against a visible power instead of the more subtle powers "of the air." But I digress! It is such a temptation to let myself out when communicating with one who understands this discouraging, fascinating, and encouraging work. This year’s work has given me experience, as well as gray hair, and even if my labors in the South should terminate this year, I should feel that I had gained a great deal. I wish that all Northerners could come to know the best element of the South, and show their magnanimity as victors by helping the American Missionary Association do the work which alone will make a new South. To me the South presents a touching but heroic picture as she struggles nobly, but somewhat uncertainly, toward the light, still the victim of her cavalier training, still held back by the poor black and the poor white, the products of her accursed institution. Now that is all abolished, she needs help from the North. I doubt if we in the North would be any better had we been placed in the same environment, and our superiority may be due as much to soil, climate, and the consequent unprofitableness of slave labor, as to our Puritan ancestry.

The tide of immigration is beginning to turn toward this State from Georgia, and many coming from the Dakotas. The mass of ignorance is appalling. I realize in part, I think, the difficulty of getting the needs of the whites before a sympathizing audience. When it comes to a white man’s needs and his condition, too many church members and others substitute the scientific theory of the survival of the fittest for Christ’s law of love. They forget too, I fear, that many of these people in the mountains are victims of slavery as innocent as the Negro; and they do not see that their indifference is letting them lie in the hard bed which circumstances, largely beyond their control, have made for them. If they will only give us money, "greenbacks," if need be, and enable us to get the young out of bed on their intellectual and spiritual feet, I shall be satisfied. And if our Congressmen and politicians would bury the "Bloody Shirt," and stop throwing stones over Mason and Dixon’s fence, and out of their personal means give, what is too often given uselessly, to the Association and other similar Boards, the questions which spring from sectional prejudice would soon be solved. I do believe that what the American Missionary Association stands for is the panacea for all political and social ills.

REVIVALS.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

BY REV. GEO. H HAINES.

We are in the midst of a glorious revival. Rev. James Wharton was with us six days. What wonderful help he has been to our work during his stay with us. We had eleven hopeful conversions. We continued our meetings after he left us, and our total number of conversions is twenty. Among the persons who have left the ways of sin and turned into the way of life are two very remarkable cases. A woman of about fifty years of age, a drunkard and one of the most profane women in our city, asked the people of God to pray for her. It seemed hard for her to understand the simple plan of salvation, and that the Lord Jesus would save her if she would believe. The evening after Mr. Wharton left she received the evidence of her conversion. I can never tell how the news of this woman’s conversion spread over the city. It created as much excitement as the news of the man who was found by our Saviour among the tombs. Crowds came to our services to see if the news was true, and when they heard the testimony for Christ they rejoiced with us.

The other is a man of about the same age, who has been a great disbeliever in the word of God, though his wife was a member of our church. He was a very strong man in all the societies in the city. He has been led out of darkness into light. The people say: "God bless Mr. Wharton." Our Sunday-school has grown wonderfully in the last month. Indeed, every department of our church work is looking up.

BEAUFORT, N.C.

BY REV. J.P. SIMS.

Evangelist Wharton’s visit did us a great deal of good. Not only have souls been converted, but the church has been edified. In the revival there were six hopeful conversions, and four joined our church, among them a very promising young man.

Our people are becoming more and more willing to divide their little mite with the church. They make a special effort once a month to help raise the pastor’s salary by giving what they call a "surprise party," bringing packages of flour, sugar, coffee, meal, rice, fish, etc., for which I give them credit. Sometimes the unconverted are with them. They come in singing, fill the table, then a prayer, and return at once, singing as they go. By this process we are able to send in a better report than we have been doing.

CENTRAL CHURCH, NEW ORLEANS, LA.

BY REV. JOHN W. WHITTAKER.

We have just passed through a precious season of revival. We began a series of meetings during the week of prayer. God’s presence and blessing were manifestly with us, so we were constrained to continue them another week, holding meetings every night. Fifteen were turned to God. Nine of them have united with our church and have begun service for the Master. The meetings were well attended, and our whole church was stirred up to more faithful work for God and humanity. Our church is steadily increasing in strength. Almost every Sabbath some one is taken into membership. We have on our books nearly two hundred and fifty people who have pledged themselves to give weekly on an average ten cents or more toward the support of the church. We love the American Missionary Association, and appreciate all that it is doing for us. We need its aid just now. We cannot get on without it. But we do not mean to make what you do for us an excuse for doing less for ourselves.

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

DENOMINATIONAL FRATERNITY.--From High Point, N. C., we have the following:

One of the great hindrances to the evangelization of the colored people in the South is the constant flaunting of denominational banners by ignorant and unprincipled preachers. But I am happy to say, that at our special services on Lincoln Memorial Day, this spirit of evil was buried in High Point, at least for one day. It was pleasant to see Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists working harmoniously together to make the occasion successful. One brother and wife gave us 45 cents, and the pastor of the Baptist Church, after speaking a word in behalf of the American Missionary Association came forward and deposited a quarter on the table, at the same time urging his members to give liberally to help it overcome its great burden of debt. I am pleased also to note the self-denial of two faithful members, a mother and daughter of our own church, who out of their poverty gave 50 cents each. Both of these good women are out in service, and although their earnings are very small, they never give less than 25 cents each whenever special efforts are made to raise money for the support of the work.

GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCES OF THE PAST.--Rev. James Brown, of Anniston, Ala., recalls some memories of the past:

When we met as a church on October 22, to pray for the success of the American Missionary Association, it was touching to hear the testimony of people from thirty-five to fifty years of age as to the self-sacrificing spirit of the missionaries of the American Missionary Association, as they came from Talladega to this section more than twenty-five years ago. Some told how the missionaries had to hide from place to place to keep out of the reach of the Ku Klux, the speakers being almost eye-witnesses to the murder of Mr. Luke, a few miles from this place. If some of our Northern friends could have heard the words of gratitude for the work of the American Missionary Association, and seen the tears of joy over what has been accomplished, they would know that their labors and gifts had not been in vain.

LIBERAL GIVING FROM A SMALL INCOME.--Rev. A. L. DeMond, of Lowell, N. C., writes:

The people have had a heavy burden upon them during the hard times of these winter months when there is so little for them to do in the way of earning money. Of their little means they give freely and gladly. Many of them are paid for their work in provisions at the stores so that they do not receive much money. One poor woman said to me: "I can always give a little something because I get _forty cents every week_ for my washing." She lives in a little log cabin, through the sides of which the wind often whistles, but every Sunday she gives something for the church of Christ.

A POOR WOMAN’S FINE FEELING.--One day last year our laundress sent her oldest boy, a lad fourteen years of age, on an errand. He was gone an hour or more longer than she expected him to be. Upon his return she asked him what he had been doing all that time. He told her that an expressman had been run away with, and had been quite badly hurt. He had helped get the man into a store, had gone for a doctor, and had done all that he could for him. When he left him the man told him to go to his office the next day and he would give him something. The boy’s mother at once said that he mustn’t think of taking anything for what he had done for the man when he was in trouble.

Who can say that the colored people are incapable of fine feeling? This poor woman was certainly not so well provided with this world’s goods that she had no use for money. On the contrary, she was a widow, with a family of five children that she had kept together and had sent to school at the cost of much sacrifice and years of hard work at the washtub.

THE INDIANS.

REVIVAL--LIBERAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

MISS M. C. COLLINS, FORT YATES, N. DAK.

I am sure you will be glad to hear of the great, may I say "revival," which seems to be upon us. On March 1 at our regular communion we received into the church fifteen adults, and there were eight marriages and nine children baptized. Six of these people came from Flying-By region (Miss Lord’s people). She is rejoicing. One, Swift Cloud, and his wife, are a middle-aged couple, who lived here when I first came to this village. They are a good addition to our force. Then Two-Runs and his wife are two good people, Miss Lord’s near neighbors, and will be a great help to her. The others uniting came from my village, and we now have only two men and their wives in this village who are not in the church. Bird-Dog, another of Miss Lord’s people, and his wife and sister have given me their names as candidates for membership at the next communion. The Y. M. C. A. down there are hauling logs to build a place to meet in. The little cabin we put up is already too small.

Our contributions for Native Missionary work, from October 1 to March 1, all told, on Standing Rock Agency, are $206.47.

Women’s Missionary $107.20 Societies have given Y. M. C. A. 57.99 Grand River Church 21.78 Standing Rock Church 19.50 Elkhorn (on Grand River), 45.65 the Women’s Society Y. M. C. A. 26.39