Chapter II: Part 2

When Brother Floyd Snelson was first taken from us to go to Africa, we almost believed that we should have to strike camp in the wilderness. It gave us much pain to have him go, and the church did become very feeble at one time. Since Brother Jos. E. Smith took the place, we have had fresh courage, and have been going forward again. Yesterday was our Communion Sabbath. As usual, we had about 500 persons at the church. One young man was received to its membership. At the three communions since Brother Smith came, nine persons have joined the church. The people are coming up to their church duties with much zeal, and becoming more and more attached to their minister, and he is doing a good work among them. Our Sabbath-school, also, has been re-organized, and, with four teachers added, has an average of twenty-three or more scholars in each class. We have for the first time introduced the International Sunday-school Lessons, and all seem to be very much delighted with them.

We have a large church built by the A. M. A. that can seat five hundred persons comfortably, and it is pretty well filled every Sunday with people from all denominations, anxious to hear the true Gospel preached.

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Interest in Church and Sunday-School.

REV. JOSEPH E. SMITH.

As the weather grows warm, and the wet, muddy roads become dry, thus favoring travel, the people from all directions flock in great crowds to the house of God, eager to hear the “words of eternal life.” I preached to a crowded house on last Sabbath, and many wanted to know what they “must do to be saved.” God is with us. Every Sabbath brings new signs for encouragement. There are marked evidences of a growing interest on the part of the people to learn of God through His Word. Especially has this been true since the “International Lessons” were introduced in our Sabbath-school. It makes a peculiar impression upon one to see persons fifty, sixty, seventy, and sometimes eighty years of age, whom slavery has worn out, sitting in their Sunday-school classes, with white heads and bent over bodies, with their dim, sunken eyes fixed on the teachers, and sometimes lips and throat moving as if to swallow every word. None of them can read, and it is quite amusing at times to watch them trying to recall the kings of Judah in their order, telling who the good ones were, and naming some of the good things they did. The joy and satisfaction which one shares, in being an instrument in God’s hands for the revealing of His Word unto such babes, are inestimable.

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Needs of this Field.

REV. S. S. ASHLEY.

Not only is this field needy, but promising. A majority of the people, and those living about the old Midway Church, are nearly all colored. Many of the white landed proprietors are non-residents. Rice culture is the principal employment. The colored people are rapidly becoming land owners, and are remarkably successful in making their payments. Just now, their means are mostly consumed in this effort, consequently they can expend very little in improving their habitations; yet there is improvement in this respect. They are beginning to come out of the swamps and build by the roadside. As slaves, they were not allowed to dwell near the “big road”; therefore, the woods and the swamps seem to them more like home than the roadside. But without instruction they will not achieve much domestic improvement. In fact, they need instruction in every direction—in house-building, in road-making, in agriculture, in domestic economy, in the improvement of time, in business, as well as in schools and churches. A missionary to this people should be an Oberlin. An Oberlin’s work will pay richly. The whole field is accessible to missionary labor. Very many desire instruction. They listen eagerly to kind, plain, Christian advice, and will travel many miles for the privilege. Certainly these are the marks of a good missionary field.

But to energize this prosperity, the meeting-house should be put into comfortable condition. It is a large but unfinished structure. In damp and chilly weather, it is uncomfortable—so much so, that the pastor doubts about the propriety of holding, in the winter, meetings at night. The place of Divine worship should be, not only comfortable, but refining and elevating. The people who have good meeting-houses will have good dwelling-houses. The meeting-house should be a teacher of neatness, care, attention, thrift and reverence. Unless the house is attractive, attractive preaching is well-nigh impossible.

Again, the school-house should be removed to the road, beside the meeting-house, and enlarged. Its present situation is out of the way, and it is too small to accommodate the pupils.

These are my impressions concerning the A. M. A. work in Liberty County. Brother Smith is succeeding well, but he needs the improvements I have mentioned. I hope that you can aid in completing the meeting-house. If the building stands a year longer without attention, it will require repairs as well as finishing. A portable _saw-mill_ would be a grand civilizing and missionary agency.

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Ogeechee.

REV. JOHN K. MCLEAN.

Rejoice with me, for the Lord has answered our prayer for an old man, who has spent sixty-five years in the service of Satan, but is now rejoicing in the great grace and love of a forgiving Saviour. It is quite a change in the old man, to see him in Sunday-school and at preaching service, and to hear him using his tongue in telling how good God has been to him, instead of taking His name in vain, as he used to do. But while we rejoice with this one, there are others for whom we are praying, and for whom we ask an interest in your prayers, that they may be brought into the fold of Christ.

I hope to be able to help a few of the young people, but the way seems dark at present. One of our Northern friends, who is here in the work, said to me not long ago, “The people North know nothing of the real condition of the people here; it is so unlike anything there, that they cannot realize just how it is. Before I came here I had heard a great deal about the state of things, but had no thought of finding the people in the condition in which they are.” I know that what she said is true, and that many of our friends North, and in England, have but little idea of the real condition of our people.

I am sure that if the representations that Christ and His disciples gave of the Christian life be true, there must be a much greater and deeper work among the people here before the Spirit of God can make them His. I have thought and said often, and I say it yet, that the work of the A. M. A., or a work of the same kind, is the only thing that will save the people of the South. Nine out of every ten know but little or nothing of what it is to live an upright life, and, therefore, they have no real communion with God, such as all His true children do have.

If the people here could be made to see the wrong there is in rum, and to put it down, there would be some hope for them; but so long as rum takes their labor, their money, their brains, and their God from them, there is no hope for them, and but little chance of doing them good. This is saying a great deal, but the truth is light, and that is what we want. Fourteen persons have been received into the church since I came here, and more are expected to come in with us. I am sure the Lord is waiting to bless this place.

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THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE.

Papers, Reports, Sunday-School Convention, Theological Institute.

REV. CHARLES NOBLE, MONTGOMERY.

The Alabama Conference met Friday evening, March 29th, in the college chapel at Talladega; the exercises opening with the annual sermon, by Rev. Mr. Ash, of Mobile, and an address of welcome to the delegates, by Prof. Lord. Rev. Mr. Andrews read a paper of very great interest, on the “Mission of Congregationalism in the South.” He first dwelt upon the history of Congregationalism, especially in its freedom from complicity with slavery, its prominence in the anti-slavery movement, and its comparative freedom from the sect spirit, as peculiarly indicating its call to work among the freedmen. He then brought out the peculiar features of the polity, independence and fellowship, and showed how they tend (1) to develop and sustain republican institutions, and to fit the church member for his duties as a citizen; (2) to promote intelligence; (3) to sustain an unshackeled pulpit, and (4) to develop personal piety, including moral reform and revivals. This is a very bare abstract of an essay which aroused great interest, and tended to encourage and cheer on the workers very much. Other papers were read, on “How to Develop Benevolence in our Churches,” by Rev. Fletcher Clark, of Selma; on the “Relation of Talladega College to our Church Work,” by Prof. Lord; and on the “Mission of the Young Ministers in the South,” by Rev. P. J. McEntosh—himself one of those young colored men who have gone out from Mr. Andrew’s teaching to work among their own people.

The reports from the churches showed a very encouraging condition of things. One new church has been organized during the year, making a total of thirteen within the bounds of the State. All are, at present, supplied with ministers. Almost all reported additions on profession of faith, and evidence of the special presence of the Spirit. Though it has not been a year of remarkable revivals, it has been one of hopeful and vigorous growth. The feeling seemed general and strong, that these little churches have “come to stay” in Alabama, and have no idea of dying whatsoever. A great deal of missionary activity was reported. Talladega College sustains twenty-five Sabbath-schools; Montgomery and Selma, four each; and others are not behind, according to their means and opportunities. It is certainly a suggestive and encouraging fact that, in the very heart of Alabama, a body of men could come together so full of enthusiasm for Puritan ideas, and should, without exception, report that their hold upon the communities in which they labor is manifestly strengthening.

The Sunday-school Convention opened Monday night, with an address on “The Object of Sunday-school Effort, Winning Souls,” by Rev. George E. Hill, of Marion; followed by a lecture on the “Geography of the kingdom of Judah,” by Rev. G. W. Andrews. Tuesday, Mr. Clark, of Selma, gave a Bible Reading on Faith; Prof. Lord taught the lesson for the following Sunday; Mr. Hickok opened the question box, and gave a variety of helpful answers; and the delegates from the different Sunday-schools made their reports. These showed that the work of our churches rests on a good foundation, in numerous live, growing Sabbath-schools; and that, in trying to save as many as possible of the present generation, the men and women of the next thirty years are not being forgotten.

Tuesday night, the Theological Institute began with a very elaborate paper on the “Relation of Mental Philosophy to Theology,” by Rev. D. W. Hickok. Wednesday, we were treated with examinations in Smith’s O. T. History, and the Psalms, conducted by Prof. Andrews and Mr. Hickok, and a paper on “Future Punishment,” by Rev. Mr. Hill. Thursday, there were plans of sermons offered for criticism by Mr. Clark and Mr. Hickok; a paper on “Joseph Cook,” by Mr. Noble; and an examination on the “Patriarchal Period,” by Mr. Andrews; closing with a free conference of workers in the evening.

Even more interesting to many of us than the proceedings of Conference, was our observation of the work of Talladega College. The Conference met Prof. Lord, for formal consultation in regard to the College work by a committee; and that committee’s report will be published. We met the students and faculty constantly at table, and in the meetings; had a very pleasant picnic gathering in the woods of the College Farm, and listened to a very entertaining concert by the “Musical Union.” I cannot forbear expressing, what I feel sure was the _universal_ feeling, interest and admiration for the good work Prof. Lord and his co-laborers are doing. Many of us were specially interested in the “Industrial Department,” and wish the brethren of the College the greatest success in that effort to build up manly, womanly, _self-reliant_ characters in the pupils.

My visit at Talladega, and my intercourse with the workers there, have made me feel more deeply interested in the work than ever. I could not ask a happier lot than to be permitted to give my life to this field. It seems to me so _unmistakably_ the work of Christ.

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ALABAMA.

Science and Religion.

REV. G. W. ANDREWS, TALLADEGA.

The Theological Department of Talladega College has just been favored with a special course of lectures on the “Relation of Science to Religion,” by the Rev. D. L. Hickok, recently of Kingsville, Ohio. The lectures were full of instruction, and awakened a great deal of interest among our pupils. Mr. Hickok is an able thinker, and an inspiring and enthusiastic speaker.

Skepticism has little footing here, and will have still less now that we have such a flood of light thrown upon what was before mysterious, and supposed to be known only to the scientist. Let the scientist give us the “living” from the “not living” if he can, and let him bridge the frightful chasm between different species of the animal kingdom, before our faith in his new theories is much strengthened. We believe in Mr. Cook, and wish we could see him face to face to thank him a thousand times for his three published volumes. We hail with joy these lectures by Mr. Cook, and mean to do our part to reflect the light he is shedding, until it finds its way, as it is sure to do, into the hearts of the masses, to bless them with the “rest of faith.” His powerful arguments are taking strong hold of us all.

Rev. Mr. Hickok is an original thinker, and has done us a good service by his lectures. It is such men, of commanding influence and power, that we need in this work of peculiar difficulties among the freedmen. We wish other and similar institutions might be favored as we have been.

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LOUISIANA.

Part of a Day Among the Poor.

MISS JOSEPHINE PIERCE, NEW ORLEANS.

In the rear of St. Charles Avenue you may enter and see an old man. He says he has been converted since he was ninety years of age. The Psalms are all his delight. There has not been a chip of wood nor a grain of coal in his room all this winter. With the strength of a hundred years in his muscles, he grasps a crust of bread, and asks for more. His daughter replies: “Father, you should put your mind on the Lord, and then you wouldn’t be so hungry; people that pray all the time don’t have such an appetite.” As if this were not enough, in this same room, the worse than fatherless baby, Leopold, has come into New Orleans life, with that stain upon his birth, which all the waters in the ocean cannot wash away. For these four generations, from the great-grandfather to the babe of yesterday, only one woman’s frail hands to keep the wolf from the door, and hers held from going out to work, by the sickness that cannot spare her from home. With all Father H’s ever-flowing liberality, there have been weeks in succession, this winter, when there has not been twenty-five cents’ worth of corn-meal to give the old man; for if he had it, Aunt Deborah, who has seen General Washington many and many a time, would have to go without; and if she had it, blind Aunt Bagatelle would have to go without; and if she had it, blind Aunt Milly would have to go without.

Perhaps it will be easier to breathe in the next house. Over the way, as the mother’s hand is clasped in greeting: “You miss your boy?” “Yes, James is dead. He wanted white sugar in his tea, and I couldn’t get it for him. He wanted medicine, and I couldn’t get it for him. He was hungry-like. So it’s good the Father has taken him; I gave him the medicine your minister sent him. I put a spoonful of the medicine that didn’t need sweetening into the medicine that did need sweetening. It seemed to do him good.”

Let us go to the sunny side, three miles away. “God bless you, my child,” was all the mother’s gift to Baby Vasa. A foster-mother welcomed the orphan to her heart and her home. As she stands by the tub—“I have no bonnet,” she says; “but we have the baby. We used to have milk in the family, but since the baby came we haven’t stopped the cart. I don’t know how to make clothes for him, but I think I can learn.” God bless thee, Baby Vasa, for all the unselfish love thy little fingers work out in the daily life about thee! A can of milk for Baby Vasa brought a never-to-be-forgotten light into the foster-mother’s eyes.

Here is a house without a number. As you lift the wooden latch, you feel that some one is waiting for a coming step. “I was sick last night,” Aunt Jemima says. “I thought the angels would come for me; I sometimes think they will come very soon.” Her bed is under the rafters, just at the head of those narrow stairs. The room, without a door, is the only thoroughfare for another family. There is no sheet on the bed; cotton was given for it, but was saved for something else. She goes on: “People won’t come in one of these mornings, and say, ‘Aunt Jemima’s dead, and she’s very poor, and we’ll have to go right out and buy her some clothes,’ for I have a skirt and a white dress, and a pair of new stockings.” “But the stockings were given to you year before last—ar’n’t they worn out yet?” “Oh, no! you don’t think I would ever put them on. When the sun shines, I hang them on that pole to air them.” A piece of sugar-cane is in the ashes for fuel. The old limbs failed the last time they went out to Lake Pontchartrain for drift-wood. A satisfied smile lights up the whole face—the ear bends close to the lips, and they murmur: “I am rich; when the angels come for me, I have a pair of new stockings.”

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KENTUCKY.

Temperance and Evangelistic Work.

REV. JOHN G. FEE, BEREA.

For more than two months we have had weekly meetings on the subject of temperance, attended by large audiences, and securing more than a thousand names to the Murphy Pledge. The moral effect of the movement is strengthened by the fact that each pledge is made whilst invoking the assisting grace of God, and is accompanied by reading the Scriptures, and Christian song. Taking this one step in the right direction is a preparation for a complete surrender to Christ.

During a part of this time Brother Myers, from Hillsdale, Mich., has been here preaching at night. Our chapel is occupied during the day as a recitation room, and though the weather has been peculiarly unfavorable, yet a goodly number have been in attendance each night, with some nineteen or twenty conversions, and many other persons deeply impressed.

Each day brings to us fresh grounds of hope, and enlarged prospects for usefulness. At no other time since its organization has Berea College had so hopeful a prospect as now. Once or twice we have had as many pupils, but at no other time so many of high moral worth and social influence. Daily, the prejudice against a school of colored and white pupils is subsiding; and young men and young women of good habits and character are coming in, and such as appreciate an education, in connection with just and righteous sentiments. We feel that the demonstration here—that God leads and is over us for good—is important for society and our country. We have an abiding conviction that our heavenly Father approves, and that we may, in faith, ask for grace and means.

With the people around us, our association is free and pleasant. With many of the neighboring towns and congregations, exchange of laborers and speakers is frequent, and to mutual advantage. What we need is good men, discreet, self-sacrificing and earnest; and this land will be brought under the power of the Gospel, and of a Jesus who loves all impartially.

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THE AFRICAN MISSIONARIES.

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THE FREEDMEN’S MISSIONS AID SOCIETY.

A Public Meeting in Liverpool.

On the evening of March the 8th, a large congregation came together in the Great George street church (formerly Dr. Raffles), to welcome to Liverpool four colored missionaries, ex-slaves, from Fisk University, and also to bid them farewell on the eve of their departure; under the care of the American Missionary Association, for the Mendi Mission, on the west coast of Africa. The missionaries were very cordially greeted by many of the old, and also the new, friends of the African race.

William Crosfield, J. P., a life-long friend of the oppressed race, presided. After an appropriate hymn, prayer was offered by the Rev. Stanley Rogers. Then the chairman said: “It gives me great pleasure to preside at such a meeting of this society. These missionaries before you are the first-fruits from the Fisk University, which was established at Nashville, Tenn., for the education of those who were freed from slavery by the late Civil War in America. And now, here they are ready for work in that great mission field of Africa. It is a vast field. And it is to be hoped that the British people will do their part in the aid of this most important enterprise. Fisk University was introduced to the English people a few years ago by the Jubilee Singers, who have done wonders towards its support.” The chairman then turned and added: “We must not forget the wives of these young missionaries; we must give them a shake of the hand, as a token of our interest in them.”

The Rev. Dr. O. H. White (one of the secretaries of the Freedmen’s Aid Society), then gave an interesting statement of the origin of the American Missionary Association, of its plan and work for the African race, and of the formation of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as President, to be auxiliary to the Association in New York. And he stated that the united societies are now making a special effort to send missionaries from among the freedmen to that dark and long-plundered continent beyond the sea—Africans to teach and to save Africans!

The Rev. Andrew Jackson, one of the missionaries, then spoke, and gave a very interesting account of their call to the work, and of the great increase of the missionary spirit in Fisk University during the year, and of the great self-denial on the part of the colored parents and of pupils, that larger numbers may get an education, and so be prepared for a greater usefulness among their own benighted people.

The chairman then called on the Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, pastor for many years of the Myrtle street Baptist Church. He stated his great interest in the Jubilee Singers, and in the efforts making to send the Gospel to that long-neglected Africa, which is now so wonderfully opening up to trade and commerce, and especially to Christianity. He expressed his strong hope that these young missionaries would be brought safely to their field of labor, and that they might be greatly successful in their work, and that many more might follow their example, and go forth to that great African field.

Rev. Albert Miller (a true type of the African race), then addressed the meeting, with the warmth and glow peculiar to the sable children of the summer and more genial climes. He spoke of the depressed condition of his people in America, and of the need on that dark continent, to which he and his associates were now going, under the Divine lead. He expressed the desire of his heart that all Christians should pray and give for the evangelization of the benighted millions of Africa.

The Rev. Mr. Pearson, M. A., pastor of the church, next spoke, in the most cordial manner, of his great pleasure in welcoming these young missionaries and the freedmen’s cause to that ancient historic church. He commended the plan for sending educated Africans to that great work to be done in those vast fields, which have proved so fatal to Anglo-Saxon life. He said the British people had special reasons for taking part with the American people in this effort to redeem Africa from the darkness and doom of the past centuries. If the work so well begun was followed up, as it ought to be, the time was not distant when we should see a far better day for that dark continent with its millions of people.

In the absence of the Rev. Mr. Wech, M. A., who was expected to speak, his Elder, John Patterson, Esq., was called to fill the place. He spoke with the pith and pathos characteristic of those from the Emerald Isle. He recalled a little of the past history of Liverpool and contrasted it happily with the present state of things, when so many, from the different denominations of the city, could come together so harmoniously to greet the young missionaries from Fisk University, on their way to the west coast of Africa to teach the knowledge of the Gospel to the benighted of their race.

The Rev. Wardlaw Thompson, in a few words, cordially commended the Freedmen’s cause to the hearts and to the pecuniary support of the friends of Africa. He then led the congregation in an earnest prayer for the blessing of God upon the missionaries, in their voyage to their distant home, and upon their work for many years among their own people.

An appropriate hymn was then sung, and the services, which had been highly satisfactory, were closed with the Benediction.

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Wanted—Cloth, Bibles and School-books.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, SHERBRO ISLAND, W. AFRICA.

I must “strike while the iron is hot.”

There is very little of anything found here. Most of the children and parents go naked, with the exception of those who wear a handkerchief or country cloth. When you ask them to send their children to school, they show a willingness, but render, as excuse, that they have no clothes, and that they are unable to furnish them. Cloth here is very high, and in most cases their excuse is reasonable. If some person would be so kind as to send out a quantity of cheap cloth, to be made up for clothing, it will prove a blessing to many a suffering one.

The disadvantages and sufferings through which this people have to pass are indescribable. I have had many calls for Bibles, but regret to say I have been unable to honor any. We have a very flourishing Sabbath-school, and are in great need of Sabbath-school papers and tracts. The day-school is larger. Some of the scholars are unable to pursue their studies for want of books. We cannot keep the number together we now have, unless this evil is removed.

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THE INDIANS.

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S’KOKOMISH AGENCY, W. T.

Sunday-School Progress—An Indian Festival—Temperance and Order.

REV. MYRON EELLS.

Our Sabbath-school is accustomed to make a specialty of inducing the children to learn the lesson in the Bible, believing that the Bible is the best Sabbath instruction with which we can store their minds. Learning six verses places a child on the roll of honor, and reciting them perfectly gives him two credit marks. For four Sabbaths during the past year there was no Sabbath-school, hence the highest number which a child could receive was ninety-six. That number was received by one Indian girl, and it is the best that has ever been done in the school. Last year the highest number was eighty-six, and that was better than the year before. Ten others, out of about thirty who can read English, received over fifty credit marks.

In January and February, I was absent some three weeks at an Indian festival, ninety miles from here. They are wholly heathenish, but thus far it has been about as impossible to prevent them as it is to prevent a river running down stream; hence, the next best thing is to guide them. Drunkenness at such places is one of their worst dangers, and the principal Indians are beginning to realize it. About 550 Indians were present, seventy-five of whom went from this reservation. I have made the trip by canoe several times in the summer, and in the winter by steamer, but the prospect was not pleasant of traveling 180 miles in an open canoe; camping out when it might rain, snow or freeze all the time. But the chiefs there and here urged me to go, and assist in guarding against worthless white men and Indians. There was no one else to go, and it did seem that if they should get on a “big drunk,” and I should be asked why I did not go and try to prevent it, and should reply, because I was afraid it would be stormy, it would be a poor excuse. It was a hard place to attempt to elevate the Indians, though I held several services with them, but there was a prospect that I might prevent their falling as deep into the pit as they would otherwise. The result justified the work. One drunken Indian was arrested, one drunken white man and wife were sent home; and it was plain that, had I not been there, no one could have told where it would have ended. Out of the seventy-five who went with me, I do not know of more than half a dozen who have been drunk within four years, although nearly all drank more or less previous to the adoption of the present policy; and it is considerable to say that 550 Indians were together for a week, and that there was only one case of drunkenness, and only one of quarreling.

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GREEN BAY AGENCY.

Education Among the Menomonee Indians.

JOS. C. BRIDGMAN, KESHENA, WIS.

Education among the Menomonee Indians is making very perceptible headway. At the suggestion of Colonel E. C. Watkins, United States Indian Inspector, the three day-schools upon the reserve were merged into a boarding-school, in September, 1876. This has proved a success beyond our most hopeful expectations. No like school among white children, so far as my observation goes, shows more enthusiasm on the part of the scholars, more zeal on the part of the teachers, or better progress, when the obstacles to success are taken into consideration.

It is almost impossible to induce the children to talk English. Only when forced to do so, will they speak in other than their vernacular tongue. Naturally very timid, a proper and pleasant familiarity with them is a sure inroad to their confidence, and the knowledge of them thus gained convinces us that they are capable of comprehending and grasping ideas of knowledge. We have no difficulty in filling our limited accommodations; and, could they be increased sufficiently, we should expect an average attendance of one hundred children. This tribe very enthusiastically voted $6,000 of their own funds, to be expended in the erection of a school boarding-house; but the possibility of part of the tribe becoming citizens within a few years, leads the Indian Bureau to delay the building, so much needed and desired.

The Indian problem will never be satisfactorily solved until education and citizenship are brought to the foreground, and take the prominence they deserve.

This is strictly a government school. The two teachers are Protestants, the assistant matron a Catholic. When first established, the Romish priest attempted to break it up; but understanding the agent’s aim, that it should be free from sectarianism on the part of both teachers and matron, he has kindly and wisely withdrawn all opposition, and is in pleasant harmony with both agent and school.

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THE CHINESE.

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“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

DIRECTORS: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. W. E. Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P. Sanford, Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.

SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.

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A Rebuke and a Response.

The following communication is clipped from the San Francisco _Chronicle_. The club which expresses its mind after this sort, is a society of so-called (miscalled) “workingmen,” followers of Dennis Kearney. Bernal Heights is in the immediate vicinity of Bethany Church, of which Rev. W. C. Pond is the pastor. The production has marked peculiarities, not only in moral tone, but in grammar and rhetoric as well, and affords to our readers all the elements necessary for a correct and vivid picture of its authors:

“BERNAL HEIGHTS CLUB.

“The Bernal Heights Club met last evening, in Ewald’s Hall, J.
Clancey in the chair. The following resolution was read and
adopted:

“The Committee on Chinese, in the discharge of the duties
assigned them, do submit the following, with the recommendation
that the same may be communicated to the parties addressed,
either through the public press or by letter, as follows: To
the Rev. Pond, pastor of the Bethel[A] Congregational Church
Society, and members of the aforesaid society: We, the members
of the Bernal Heights Club, having been informed that you, and
the members of your society, are devoting your energies in the
endeavor to teach and instruct Chinese in the English or our
language, in order to Christianize them, and bring them up to
our standard in all their requirements (a futile undertaking),
knowing as we do that they consider their theory of spiritual
economy and their doctrines concerning the soul’s immortality,
and such things, far superior to our own, and they treat us and
all our endeavors to bring them over to the theory and belief
with absolute contempt, should convince us, without doubt, of the
fallacy, we take this method of expressing our disapprobation of
the course that you are pursuing, in encouraging Chinese in this
country. We do not object to your following the commands of our
Divine Master. Where He enjoins you to go out to all the world
and teach and preach, He did not command the whole world to come
to you. He said go out to the world and preach. Therefore, if you
must preach and teach Chinamen, go to China, and you will there
find an opportunity to unburden your full load of Christianity
for the heathen lepers. We tell you now, and we shall tell you
again, in all earnestness and candor, that we shall and will
handle this question without gloves, and that the Chinese must
go. Our organization is perfecting to attain that end, and the
beginning of the end is not yet. We tell you these facts in all
friendship. Do not think that we array ourselves as enemies, but
as friends of our race we will defend and protect you as far as
we can, consistently with our obligation; but we tell you you
must stop this Chinese business. If there is no other way to
perpetuate Christianity in this country but through the medium
of the Chinese, why, let Christianity slide; if you cannot get
a society of your own race and kind to support you, without the
help of Chinamen, quit the business you are at, and try something
else. Do not think we have signaled out your especial case.
Other similar Chinese Christian factories will receive their
full share of attention in due time in their own districts. To
expel the Chinese from our shores is a duty we owe to ourselves
and to posterity, and we will not relent one particle until that
end is attained; and, in our struggle to attain that end, we
have a right to expect the sympathy of all. We have a sufficient
guarantee to warrant us in asserting that every member of the
Workingmen’s Party of California will do his duty in this regard.”

Justice to San Francisco demands that we append to this deliverance of the club the following editorial response, which appeared the same week in the _Mission Mirror_, a paper published in the section of the city in which Bethany Church and Bernal Heights are located:

“MOBOCRACY.

“If that Bernal Heights Club don’t quit fooling with the bull,
the first thing they know, that animal will turn and gore them.
Their late pronunciamento against the Protestant Christian
churches generally, and Rev. W. C. Pond in particular, for
teaching the English language to the ignorant heathens in our
midst, stamps the majority of that club as a body of men who, in
point of civilization, stand away below the ignorant, helpless
pagans at whom they profess to strike. No one for a moment
believes them so reckless as to mob a Christian church. It is
only another one of those little bluff games, for which political
anti-Coolieites have become famous, and in which they propose to
frighten somebody into their way of thinking. We greatly mistake
the callibre of Mr. Pond if he is not more than a match for the
whole mob. We agree with the great body of intelligent people on
this coast that “the Chinese must go,” but the course proposed by
this club will only tend to prolong their stay in this country.
There is, at least, abundant opportunity yet for the fool-killer,
if not the hangman, to reap a rich harvest on Bernal Heights.”

FOOTNOTE:

[A] A mistake for _Bethany_.

* * * * *

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE.

* * * * *

ALBERT, THE SLAVE BOY.

MRS. A. K. SPENCE, NASHVILLE, TENN.

Twenty-three years ago, in one of the northern counties of Mississippi, there was born a little slave boy. No white blood coursed in his veins. No one cared for his birth save, perhaps, his weary slave mother. Some one called him Albert, and that was all, for slave children had only one name. No future opened before him, for slave children had no future, but service to a master. He grew up to a life of poverty and toil and neglect, and early learned what it was to be cold and hungry and sorrowful.

By and by began the fierce struggle between slavery and freedom. The slaves were sent from place to place, to prevent their escape to the Union army. Albert wandered about with them—to Tennessee, to Texas, to Georgia—till the close of the war found him back in Tennessee, and near the city of Nashville. Here he picked up his letters, and, at the age of fourteen, learned to read. In 1869, he went to a school taught by one of the first student teachers from Fisk University, who encouraged him to look to something higher than the spelling-book and reader.

In 1870 he entered that institution. Then began the long, hard struggle for an education. For two years he groomed horses and did housework. For two years more he took care of a drunken young man, the son of wealthy parents in Nashville; and often might Albert have been seen with his Greek or Latin book, far into the night, sitting in some saloon or grocery, waiting for the young man, whose aged mother had made him promise that he would never leave her son in a saloon at night. Poor, awkward, and dressed out of missionary barrels, often the recipient of student aid, sometimes well-nigh disheartened, but always pressing on; once bought off by Mr. Spence for the sum of ten dollars, when his father wanted him to work in the field, he toiled slowly on, step by step, winning honor and respect, and loved by his teachers as, perhaps, few students of Fisk University were ever loved.

Always good in scholarship, always among the first of his class, in nine years he passed from the alphabet to within three mouths of a college diploma.

He was converted in 1872, and at once gave himself to the ministry. In common with most students of Fisk University, he had thought, though not very definitely, of missionary work in Africa.

On the 1st day of February, there came a call for two men for the Mendi Mission. Albert had his plans. He hoped to graduate from college, a thing few colored youths have attained. He had two orphan brothers and a little sister, to whom he purposed to give an education and Christian training. Perhaps he had also his ambitions in the ministry, where educated colored men will soon rise so high; but he laid them all aside when God called, and with a fellow-student, whose soul was mightily stirred by that call, he said, “Here am I, Lord, send me.” He said, “How I should feel, to have God call, and I not be ready!”

His last request to the students of Fisk University was that they would make this its motto:

_“Her sons and her daughters are ever on the altar.”_

To-day Albert Miller is on the shores of Africa. The prayers, the tears, the affections of the institution, are with him. The prayers of the Christian heart of America will be with him, and his companions, in that distant land. Did not God, who chose Abraham and David, and Paul and Luther, choose him for such a time as this, and make all the years of his slavery—his privations, and his discipline—but the means to fit him for this great work of carrying the Gospel to Africa?

* * * * *

RECEIPTS

FOR MARCH, 1878.

* * * * *

MAINE, $146.95.

Andover. Mrs. E. P. 1.00
Bangor. First Parish Sab. Sch. 6.00
Bath. “Friend” $50; Mrs. J. C. 25c 50.25
Bethel. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Biddeford. J. N. A. 1.00
Bluehill. M. E. Johnson. 5.00
Brunswick. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Calais. First. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.55
Castine. Lucy S. Adams. 20.00
Kenduskeag. Rev. J. S. 1.00
Machias. Centre St. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.64
Newport. M. S. N. 1.00
Sweden. Cong. Soc. 7.00
West Bethel. Mrs. E. C. 0.51

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $967.54.

Amherst. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $51.53.—“Memorial
Union” $20; _for Wilmington, N. C._ 71.53
Bennington. Miss Emily Whittemore, _for a
Student, Atlanta U._ 75.00
Chester. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.75
Colebrook. J. A. H. 0.50
Concord. C. T. P. 0.50
Exeter. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc.
$72.11.—Ladies of Second Cong. Parish $3,
and bbl. of C. _for Wilmington, N. C._ 75.11
Fitzwilliam. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 30.50
Francestown. Young Men’s Christian Ass’n. 9.75
Haverhill. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 27.67
Keene. Ladies’ Benev. Soc. of 2d Ch., bbl. of
C. and $3 _for freight_.—Mrs. N. R. C. 50c 3.50
Lebanon. Mary L. Choate. 5.00
Lyme. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.94
Marlborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.37
New London. M. K. T. 0.25
Orford. Ladies, bbl. of C. and 60c, _for
freight_.—Miss A. E. 50c 1.10
Peterborough. Mrs. E. H. 1.00
Plymouth. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.94
Portsmouth. ESTATE of Dea. Joshua
Brooks, by Henry A. Yeaton, Ex. 500.00
Rindge. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 3.10
Troy. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.03
—— “A Friend” 100.00

VERMONT, $205.41.

Burlington. Third Cong. Ch. $32.02; Rev. D. G.
$1 33.02
Bridport. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.25
Cambridge. Dea. S. Montague 10.00
Fayetteville. Individuals, by Austin Birchard 2.00
Granby and North Victory. Cong. Ch. 2.00
Ludlow. Mrs. P. M. $1; N. M. P. $1.20 2.20
Marshfield. Lyman Clark 10.00
North Waterford. S. E. H. 1.00
St. Johnsbury. South Cong. Ch. and Soc.
$99.44; W. W. T. 50c 99.94
Strafford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Williamstown. Individuals, by R. D. Nichols 1.00
—— “Life Member” $9.50; Mrs. S. D. 50c 10.00

MASSACHUSETTS, $1,232.07.

Abington. Mr. Talbot 5.00
Amherst. Second Cong. Ch. $17.75; E. T. S. 50c 18.25
Ashfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.40
Athol Centre. Mrs. Emily Eaton 2.00
Belchertown. D. B. B. 0.50
Boston. Mrs. E. C. Ford $25; Mrs. E. C.
Parkhurst $20; L. F. H. 50c.; Smith Organ
Co., 1 Organ, val. $100 45.50
Brimfield. Benev. Soc. 41.00
Cambridgeport. Ladies’ Aux. of Pilgrim Ch.
$40, to const. MRS. R. V. RUGG, L.
M.; Mrs. I. J. 50c 40.50
Clinton. MRS. MARTHA C. GIBBS, to
const. herself L. M. 30.00
Coleraine. Miss E. McG. 1.00
Dana. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.00
East Douglass. Cong. Ch. M. C. Coll., to
const. MRS. MARY JANE WILLIS, L. M. 30.22
East Medway. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $13; H. D. 50c 13.50
East Woburn. Wm. Temple. 2.50
Fall River. M. E. 1.00
Fairhaven. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Foxborough. Mrs. W. P. P. 0.50
Fitchburgh. W. L. B. $1.—Rollstone Benev.
Soc. 1 box of Bedding, _for Atlanta U._ 1.00
Florence. Two S. S. Classes of Cong. Ch.,
“Little Pets” $2.74; “Pilgrims” $3.63 6.37
Granby. Cong. Ch. 27.17
Groveland. Mrs. M. A. R. 1.00
Hanover. Mrs. McLauthlin and Mrs. Allen,
bundle of C.
Haverhill. North Cong. S. S. $50; John B. Case
$5; Dea. J. Flanders $5 60.00
Holden. Bbl. of C., _for Wilmington, N. C._
Hopkinton. Ladies 1.50
Hyde Park. First Cong. Sab. Sch., _for Hampton
N. and A. Inst._ 70.00
Lancaster. Ladies of Trin. Cong. Ch., 1 bbl.
of C., _for Atlanta U._
Lee. Cong. Sab. Sch. 75.00
Malden. “A Friend” $3; Mrs. C. F. B. 50c 3.50
Mansfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 23.45
Matfield. Mrs. O. Grover 2.00
Melrose. Orthodox Cong. Ch. and Soc. $36.11;
E. N. Chapin $4.50 40.61
Monson. Miss E. A. W. 1.00
New Braintree. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 24.10
Newbury. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.74
Newburyport. P. H. Lunt 25.50
Newton Centre. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 19.28
Newtonville. Mrs. A. W. G. 0.50
Norton. Trin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 34.00
Northfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $15; “A Friend”
$10 25.00
Norwood. Mrs. W. B. 0.50
Pepperell. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Princeton. “Ladies” 14.00
Rehoboth. Cong. Ch. 25.00
Rochdale. Miss A. G. L. 0.50
Rockland. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 103.00
Sandwich. Mrs. J. French $5; Robert Tobey $5;
Silas Fish $3 13.00
Sharon. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $16.55; Dr. Bacon
$5.00 21.55
Somerville. Broadway Cong. Ch. and Soc. $13;
Prospect Hill Sab. Sch. $9 22.00
South Dartmouth. Mrs. M. P. S. 1.00
South Deerfield. Mrs. M. B. 0.50
South Framingham. G. M. Amsden 5.00
Tolland. Cong. Ch. $2.74; Rev. D. J. O. 50c 3.24
Wakefield. H. L. H. 1.00
Walpole. Orthodox Cong. Ch. and Soc. 12.00
Waverly. Cong. Ch. and Soc., _for Student,
Atlanta U._ 17.72
Westborough. E. J. G. 0.50
West Boxford. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.56
West Dennis. Mrs. S. S. C. 1.00
Westfield. Mrs. J. F. 1.00
West Hampton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 6.50
Weymouth. ESTATE of Abby C. Pratt, by
Henry Dyer, Ex. 193.56
Weymouth and Braintree. Union Ch. _for Marion,
Ala._ 45.35

RHODE ISLAND, $1.

Pawtucket. Mrs. G. W. K. and A. B. 1.00

CONNECTICUT, $3,075.99.

Bantam Falls. Miss C. B. 1.00
Brooklyn. D. C. R and S. H. T. 50c. ea. 1.00
Canton Centre. Mrs. S. B. H. 1.00
Chester. Cong. Ch. 39.00
Colchester. Mrs. H. T. Newton 5.00
Cornwall Hollow. K. W. S. 0.50
Derby. Cong. Ch. 25.00
East Berlin. M. W. W. 1.00
East Windsor Hill. Mrs. J. S. Clapp 3.00
East Windsor. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Ellington. ESTATE of Mrs. Mary Pease
Collins, by C. B. Pease, Ex. 566.82
Fair Haven. Second Cong. Ch., to const.
DEA. ALBERT ROWE, L. M. 49.27
Franklin. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 22.00
Glastonbury. Cong. Ch. 115.00
Goshen. Cong. Ch. 30.36
Greenwich. Second Cong. Ch. 61.88
Hartford. Member of Asylum Hill Cong. Ch. 10.00
Hebron. “A few lady friends,” by Mrs. Jasper
Porter, bbl. of Bedding and $2 _for
freight_, _for Tougaloo U._ 2.00
Huntington. Mrs. Sarah A. Nichols 2.00
Kensington. Cong. Ch. to const. SAMUEL
UPSON, L. M. 39.00
Meriden. Centre Cong. Ch. $38; C. H. Learned
$30, to const. MRS. ELIZA G.
LEARNED, L. M. 68.00
Middle Haddam. Second Cong. Ch. ($10 of which
from Dea. D. Dickenson) 30.00
Middletown. First Ch. 22.10
Morris L. J. W. 0.50
Naugatuck. Cong. Ch. 130.00
New Britain. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 150.16
New Preston Village. Cong. Ch. $29.50; Mrs. B.
A. 50c 30.00
Newtown. Miss E. Leavenworth 5.00
New Haven. First Cong. Ch. $200.63 (of which
$25 from Rev. Wm. Patton, D.D., _for Howard
U._)—“A Lady” $3; B. P. $1 204.63
New Haven. ESTATE of Elias T. Foote,
by Gardiner Morse, Ex., to const.
EMERSON L. FOOTE, ARTHUR H.
FOOTE, EMMET L. CROSBY,
SAMUEL F. CROSBY and AMELIA L.
FOOTE, L. M.’s 200.00
North Haven. Cong. Ch. 50.00
Norwich. Second Cong. Ch. 236.90
Plainfield. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 33.95
Plainville. “A Friend” 2.00
Plantsville. Cong. Ch. $203.57—Mrs. E. P.
Hotchkiss $5, _for Student Aid, Atlanta U._ 208.57
Plymouth. Cong. Ch. 12.00
Stanwich. Subscribers, by David Banks 3.00
Thompson. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 23.00
Warren. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 47.50
Waterbury. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. (in part) 596.37
Wapping. Mrs. H. S. 1.00
West Killingly. Miss M. W. 1.00
West Stafford. Cong. Ch. 6.48
Windsor Locks. Mrs. L. P. Dexter 6.00
Woodbury. Benj. Fabrique $20.—Mrs. C. P.
Churchill $3, _for Tougaloo U._ 23.00

NEW YORK, $568.58.

Albany. V. S. K. 1.00
Albion. Primary Dept. Presb. Ch. Sab. Sch.,
_for Student Aid, Fisk U._ 20.00
Batavia. Mrs. A. D. L. 1.00
Binghamton. “A Friend” $12.50.—G. S. N. 50c 13.00
Brooklyn. Miss E. Cutler 2.00
Buffalo. E. J. Buttolph 2.00
Camden. S. S. 1.00
Canoga. ESTATE of S. Chatham, by B.
M. Chatham and G. W. Bockoen, Ex.’s 241.40
Crown Point. Mrs. Loraine H. Page 25.00
Dryden. Mrs. L. C. Phillips 10.00
East Bloomfield. R. B. Goodwin 5.55
East Palmyra. Mrs. Laura E. Dada, _for
Tougaloo U._ 5.00
Fayetteville. O. D. B. 1.00
Flatbush, L. I. “A Friend” 5.00
Fulton. S. C. R. 1.00
Griffin’s Mills. Cong. Ch. 6.00
Hamilton. Cong. Ch. 5.88
Hobart. Mrs. N. C. Blish 5.00
Homer. “A Lady” 50.00
Holley. Mrs. Matilda Huff, $5; Miss Columbia
Harrison and Mrs. Laura Farwell $3 ea., _for
Berea C._ 11.00
Honeoye. Cong. Ch. $55, and Sab. Sch. $17 72.00
Jefferson. S. Ruliffson 4.00
Kiantone. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Lebanon Springs. B. S. 1.00
Le Roy. Mrs. S. Covert 5.00
McDonough. C. Sawtelle 1.50
Marcellus. H. B. 1.00
Mexico. A. W. 1.00
New Hamburgh. Miss S. H. S. 0.50
New York. L. B. B. $1.—Biglow and Main, 60
copies “Fountain of Song,” _for Atlanta U._ 1.00
North Rose. G. A. 1.00
Oneida. Stephen H. Goodwin $5; Edward Loomis $2 7.00
Pulaski. S. C. 1.00
Salem. B. C. 1.00
Schenectady. A. W. V. 0.25
Spencerport. “A Presbyterian” 10.50
Strykersville. Cong. Ch. $5; Dea. M. W. 50c 5.50
Troy. Mrs. E. C. S. 1.00
Union Valley. Dr. J. Angel 10.00
West Java. Cong. Ch. 9.00
Whitney’s Point. Presb. Ch. 8.50

NEW JERSEY, $186.64.

Newark. C. S. Haines 50.00
Orange Valley. Cong. Ch. 65.88
Paterson. Benj. Crane 20.00
Rahway. Mrs. B. T. 0.25
Salem. W. G. Tyler 20.00
Summit. “A Friend” 30.00
Westfield. Mrs. P. W. C. 0.51

PENNSYLVANIA, $45.25.

Candor. Miss I. C. 1.00
Mount Jackson. A. N. 1.00
North East. C. A. T. 1.00
Pittsburgh. Rev. A. C. McC. 1.00
Prentissvale. Rev. M. W. Strickland $20 and
Mrs. C. A. B. Lovejoy $10, to const.
MRS. NETTIE S. MORSE, L. M.; C. S.
A. 25c 30.25
Sharpsburgh. Joseph Turner ($5 of which _for
Indian M._) 10.00
West Elizabeth. J. W. 1.00

OHIO, $320.74.