Chapter II: Part 2

—The Free Church of Scotland reports the transfer of Miss Waterston to the new field at Livingstonia. Miss W. has for seven years been the successful superintendent of the female seminary at Lovedale. She is fully qualified as a medical missionary, and carries the confidence and good wishes of all who know her. Says the _Monthly Record_: She means to go first to Lovedale, where she will halt for a short time in order to select coadjutors from among her former pupils. She hopes to induce some of them to accompany her to the sphere of her future labors, where they will be employed as teachers, and in other departments of the work. When Dr. Stewart first started for Lake Nyassa, so many of the Lovedale young men volunteered for service under their noble missionary’s banner, that he found it impossible to accept of half the number. From what we have heard of the young women, they are not likely to be behind in courage and zeal, nor is Miss Waterston likely to be disappointed in her hope of volunteers. Her aim will be now, as formerly, to blend Christian teaching with efforts to civilize and elevate, and, as opportunity offers, to gather the young into boarding and industrial schools. She will also help Dr. Laws in his dispensary and other medical work among the women.

The only other lady who has gone to Livingstonia is to be the wife of the well-known missionary, Dr. Laws, who so ably conducts the Free Church Mission there; and at Blantyre, the station of the Established Church of Scotland, there already resides the wife of one of the missionaries—Mrs. Duff McDonald.

—When the missionary steamer owned by the mission of the Free Church of Scotland was to be placed on Lake Nyassa, the leader of the expedition applied to the chief of the tribe for reliable help to carry the craft around the Murchison Cataracts. The chief responded by sending eight hundred women,—a compliment certainly to the trustworthiness of the sex. “Some of them came fifty miles, bringing their provisions with them. These women were intrusted with the whole, when if a single portion of the steamer had been lost, the whole scheme would have failed. They carried it in two hundred and fifty loads in five days, under a tropical sun, seventy-five miles, to an elevation of 1,800 feet, and not a nail or screw was lost. They ‘trusted the Englishman,’ asking no questions of wages, and receiving each six yards of calico; and for the sake of being liberal, each was given an extra yard.”—_Heathen Woman’s Friend_.

—The sudden death of Rev. Dr. Mullens, of peritonitis, at Aden, is announced. He has been for some years a Christian leader in Great Britain, and his opinions have had great weight with intelligent Christians throughout the world. He has been the chief Corresponding Secretary of the great London Missionary Society during about twenty years—a position of great responsibility and usefulness, and one of the most influential in the Church of Christ. Before he was called to this service he had been for many years a successful missionary in India. Two or three months ago, by his own request—if memory serves us faithfully—he was appointed by the Society to accompany a band of young missionaries to Zanzibar, and to go on, if necessary, if his judgment so decided, to Lake Tanganyika, in the heart of Southern Africa. It was expected that his strong sense and remarkable executive ability would see and organize some method to overcome the serious obstacles and difficulties which lie in the path of missions to Central Africa.

On arriving at Zanzibar, Dr. Mullens decided, in the exercise of the discretion given him by the Board, to proceed onward, in company with Messrs. Griffith and Southon, to Lake Tanganyika. The party left Zanzibar on the afternoon of Friday, June 13th, and having landed at Saadani, started for the interior. Letters dated Ndumi, June 16th, report that all the members of the expedition were in excellent health, and were well on their way westward.

News of his death on the 10th of July has brought sadness to many hearts outside of the circle who will most deeply miss his counsels and mourn his loss. He was not yet fifty-nine years of age, and was one of the foremost men of the present time in foreign missions, having been, perhaps, the most prominent leader in the Basle Missionary Conference held in October last.

—There is now an unbroken chain of communication by steam from England to the northern end of Lake Nyassa in Central Africa, excepting seventy miles of the Murchison Cataracts in the Shire River; and it is ascertained that Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika are but 130 miles apart, instead of 250.

—The London _Daily Telegraph_ says: Among many interesting particulars of discoveries brought from Africa by the gallant Portuguese explorer, Major Serpa Pinto, none is more absorbing than his story of the white people encountered between the rivers Cubango and Cuando. Serpa Pinto found in these districts a tribe absolutely European in tint, yet nowise of the Albino type, for the hair was black and woolly. He described them as uglier than the plainest negroes, and lower in civilization than any race met with, having receding foreheads, slanting eyes like the Chinese, prominent cheek-bones, and hanging lower lips. The appearance fails to do much credit to the white men whom they resemble. Who, then, and whence, are these people, so strangely recalling the tribe spoken of by Mr. Stanley between the equatorial lakes?

—Late news from Bishop Crowther’s mission, on the Niger River, Africa, states that one of the chiefs, Captain Hart, who had been most active at Bonny in the persecution of Christian converts, is dead. On his death-bed he commanded that all his idols be destroyed, warning his followers to have nothing more to do with idol worship. The next day after his death the heathen fell upon the collection of idols with a will. Archdeacon Crowther writes:

“Early this morning they began to destroy the jujus. The work of destruction is great. The poor gods and goddesses are having very hard times in late Captain Hart’s quarters now. They are handled in a most unceremonious and rough manner. Two canoe-loads, it is said, have found their resting-place in the deepest part of the river, and those that float and will not sink are broken into ever so many pieces. Floating wrecks of idols made and worshiped since the days of Captain Hart’s father are to be seen dotted all over the creek to the river in the shipping. Imprecations and abuses have taken the place of worship.”

Bishop Crowther reports that, after a long season at Bonny, in which, owing to persecution, there were no converts, eight persons have been baptized.

—Dr. John Kirk, the British Consul-General at Zanzibar, Africa, writes that Keith Johnson, the leader of the expedition to explore the head of Lake Nyassa, died of dysentery on the 27th of June, at Berobero, 130 miles inland from Dar-es-Salaam. The expedition will be continued by Mr. Thomson, the scientific assistant of Mr. Johnson.

—Mr. John S. Hartland reports his arrival at Bonny, and Mr. W. H. Bentley at Sierra Leone, on the West Coast of Africa. They are both on their way to the English Baptist Mission on the Congo or Livingstone River.

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The Indians.

The following paragraph from the _Independent_ so fully expresses our view of the matter of the Ponca Indians, that we both copy and endorse it:

The story which Secretary Schurz tells about the Ponca Indians, while it corrects some misapprehensions in regard to the case, nevertheless confesses that the Government has treated the Indians very unjustly. This the Secretary said in his first annual report. After securing to the Poncas 96,000 acres of land in South-eastern Dakota by the treaties of 1817, 1826 and 1858, the Government in 1868 granted this very land to the Sioux Indians, without any reference to the rights held therein by the Poncas, both by treaty and occupancy. The Sioux Indians were unfriendly to the Poncas, and the collision between these tribes made it necessary for the Government to seek the removal of the Poncas to the Indian Territory. All this was done before the present Administration came into power, and hence it has no responsibility for the wrong done. Secretary Schurz says that “no effort has been spared by the Executive branch of the Government to rectify all the wrongs that the Poncas have suffered, so far as these wrongs can be rectified.” He also says that “a bill for their relief, providing for payment for their lands in Dakota, and also providing for the payment for their new reservation, with an appropriation of $58,000 to reimburse them for their losses, has been sent to Congress by the Interior Department.” We are glad to learn from so good an authority that the Executive Department of the Government recognizes the wrong which has been done to these Indians, and shows a disposition to make an honorable _amende_ therefor. It is to be hoped that Congress will sustain and concur with its efforts.

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THE FREEDMEN.

REV. JOS. E. ROY, D.D.,

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

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NORTH AND SOUTH.

Some Things in Common.

In efforts to promote the spirit of Christian union, it is always advised that we look for the things that we hold in common—the things that make us Christians, rather than those which make us of this or that church party. In seeking to advance national good feeling, may we not wisely pursue something of the same course? If any persons can take up this line of talk without being accused of having been bulldozed by Southern blandishment, it may be those who were the early abolitionists, and especially those who endeavor to prove their faith by their works in going down among the lowly and despised ex-slaves to try to raise them up by the appliances of education and of the Gospel.

1. One such common possession is that of our English inheritance. We are, characteristically, of the Anglo-Saxon stock. We speak the English language from South to North. We have that glorious speech that swallows up and overmasters the Babel of tongues that fall upon our ears. We think that, led by our incomparable Webster and Worcester, we use our English with even more of correctness than does the mother country. We inherit the great principles of constitutional government, of trial by jury, habeas corpus, and of civil and religious liberty. We are joint heirs to the matchless English literature, and to a history that has made England the leading nation of Christendom.

2. We hold in common the glories of our Revolutionary period. We share in the joys of the birth of a new nation. We have the same traditions of patriotism. We are mutually proud of the memory of Washington and Jefferson and the Adamses, and of the other fathers of the Republic. Our National Centennial gave occasion for a revival of our national feeling. Masses of our brethren who had been estranged were glad of the opportunity thus afforded to share in the thrill inspired by the world’s recognition of our national greatness.

3. We share in the essentials of the Reformed Church life. The Pilgrims and the Puritans settled in New England. Much of the blood by which the Southern States were stocked was of the Reformed quality. In the celebration, at Chicago, of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Landing of the Pilgrims, Dr. Bacon said that the Presbyterians were Puritans. The South has had a large portion of this moral and theological leavening. The Scotch and the Scotch-Irish element in that region has been large and largely influential. Through them Puritan notions have been planted and propagated. The Huguenots, who were the contribution of France to the Reformation, have had a large representation in the South. Sixty years before the Pilgrims landed, they made, on the Carolina coast, two settlements, which were annihilated by the persecuting power of Rome that followed them to the wilderness continent. They tried again and made a lodgment where Charleston now stands, and to this day “The Huguenot Church” abides in its integrity of language and of character. From this same source that city has received a large infiltration of blood and of principle. Out in the State, and at other places in the South, the Huguenots have given names to towns and tone and caste to society. The South has had but a small portion of the foreign emigration, and so has felt less the influence of the Continental views as to the Sabbath. One of our professors, who has been many years in the South, says that the Holy Day is more strictly observed in that part of the country than at the North. The intellectual orthodoxy of the South is well known. It may be because of the lack of activity in theological discussion, but the fact is apparent to such a degree that a more ethical and practical preaching is what the Christian people are hungering for thereaway.

4. We have a common sympathy in Protestantism. The early Spanish and French occupation in Louisiana and in Baltimore has made those strong Catholic centres. But Romanism is not so generally a prevailing power in the South as in the North. The drift of foreign emigration has made this difference. Rome’s chance at the South is now not with immigrants, but with natives, Africo-Americans; and she is bound to make the most of it. But just here comes out our unity in Protestant views. Southern Christians are anxious lest the display and the mystery of the Roman system should captivate these simple children of nature. They are as solicitous as we that the same Providence which delivered our land from the early domination of Romish nationalities, may save it from coming under the supremacy of that spiritual despotism. When the Catholic bishop at Richmond opened his cathedral, Sunday nights, to a free service in behalf of the colored people, it made a tremendous stir among white as well as colored Protestants.

5. Have we not had a common responsibility for the existence of slavery? Striking in its upas roots at Jamestown, it was allowed to spread over all the colonies. Samuel Hopkins, thundering at the gates of the pens of the slave-trade in Newport, must yet reverberate among those empty dens still standing. In 1872 I saw in Connecticut an aged disciple who had once been a slave in that State. My childish ears tingled with my father’s stories of slave life as known to him in New Jersey. The system, by implication, was recognized in the Federal Constitution. The Government allowed it to sweep out over yet other empire areas at the South and West. We had Federal laws, resting upon Northern public sentiment, to protect the institution. We allowed our churches and our literary institutions and our benevolent societies to come under the common paralysis of conscience. Without any interest in slaves as personal property, we allowed our great commercial affairs to be brought under bondage to that system. Our measure of complicity in that national wrong was indicated in part by the awful retribution meted out in the sacrifice of half a million of precious lives and by the offering of billions of treasure. We have had occasion to join our brethren at the South and say, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.”

6. Have we not now a common obligation to make restitution to these new-made citizens? We are not only by legislation to recognize their rights of manhood and of citizenship, but to uphold them in the same. We are to secure them in the enjoyment of the blessing of our American educational system and of the best Christianizing processes. As we have endowed them with the sacred elements of citizenship, we must help them to the means of making them citizens worthy of the nation. This common duty was indicated by Hon. John Goode, of Virginia, when he said, in Congress, “Can the Government bestow civil and political rights upon these wards of the nation, and at the same time avoid the solemn obligation to provide for their mental and moral improvement?” That is the responsibility of citizens, North and South, as well as of the Government. And so let the people join hands, irrespective of sectional lines, in doing the just, the right thing by these native Americans, the providential significance of whose existence in our country is a problem calling for solution.

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REMINISCENCES.

“It’s the color that tells”—“Jes hear dem niggers read”—Candle
and half-bushel—“Age up country,” &c.—Sad words making
glad—“Frosty arms.”

After the full accounts you have been giving your readers of late of the Commencement Exercises, with their attendant essays and orations, brief reminiscences of a few years ago, when the Freedmen knew little of Greek and Latin, but were intent upon “blue-back” spellers and the easy parts of the Bible, may not come amiss.

It happened once that in a dimly-lighted school-house, about nine o’clock at night, filled with men and women of various hue, from white through brown to black, there was one class of nine young men spelling words of three syllables. They were very earnest, and in real old-fashioned way were going “up and down” in the class. At the head stood Joseph, very black; then three nearly as dark, followed by four light ones, with the very darkest of the whole class at the foot. All went well till the upper light one missed and the word passed down; Joseph, seeing it likely to pass from the light ones to the very dark face at the foot, in excitement and joy burst forth with, “Spell it, Dave, and cut up here; _it’s the color that tells_.” Dave spelt it, and the color did tell.

One man who made his appearance in night-school about the middle of the winter, I shall never forget. His entrance was quite overpowering—a big man, big cane, big hat, and a big shawl thrown over his shoulder, Arab style. I happened to be at leisure, so I went at once to ask him if he intended coming regularly to school. Saying that he did, my next question was, “What’s your name?” “I’m Lucy’s husband, over there.” As I didn’t know Lucy, I was not much the wiser, and had to repeat the question with the emphasis on the _your_. Wishing to classify him, I asked, “What book do you read in?” “The Bible mostly, ma’am.” “Can you read in the First Reader?” “Yes, first, second, third, fourth and all the other elementary books.” Thinking I might gain some information where to assign him, I looked at the books he had brought with him. There were four: a large family Bible; another book of some size, but very fine print, on “Presbyterian Ordination Refuted;” a “Child’s Scripture Question Book,” and a small geography.

But if the night-schools were amusing, the afternoon schools for the women were not less so. Old women and young women, many of them in fantastic attire, with hats, caps and dresses that would have been considered prizes by an antiquary; the dark faces peering from under the white or speckled turban; old women wiping their spectacles, vainly endeavoring to get “more light” on the subject, while picking away at the letters in some old Primer, as if they were to be transferred bodily to the head. Aunt Chloe Fisher must have been seventy-five or eighty years old, but still she was bright and original. She came into school one afternoon very anxious to learn to read “de way, de troof, and de life.” Seeing some women in another part of the room reading, she exclaimed, “Jes hear dem niggers read! If dis nig can’t read, too, won’t she fight ’em?” and then she vigorously applied her finger to the pages of the Gospel of John which she had with her, finding the words Lord and God, which were about all she knew. She believed in both faith and works, for she used to pray most earnestly that God would help her know the words, and then get up in the middle of the night and light a pine knot to see if she had a word right. Old Aunt Chloe was always happy. I never saw her otherwise but once, and then she was greatly troubled for fear she should lose her place in the grave-yard. One special place she had chosen, and young people were dying so fast she was afraid she should not die soon enough to lie there. She would get happy over her wash-tub or anywhere else, and her hands and her feet would keep time with some negro hymn in a most amusing manner.

One old Aunty was reading the fifth chapter of Matthew, when she came to a passage, which she read thus; “Neither—do—men—light—a—half-bushel—and—put—it—under—a—candle-stick.” On being stopped and told to look again, pointing with her finger all along the lines of the page, with a look of half despair she said, “Bress you, honey, I can’t find either candle or half-bushel now.” Those simple words were quite a sermon for me, and I’ve thought of them many a time since. Are not we, as Christians, in danger of losing our candles? Our good Aunty’s candle was soon found for her; but will ours, once lost, be as easily recovered?

In those days, even in the day-schools, there were many difficulties that could hardly be encountered now. I remember hearing one teacher say that it was almost impossible to get the ages of her scholars. They would say, “My age is up country;” or “Ole missis has my age in the Bible, and she’s gone away.” The trick of giving one name to one teacher and another to the next was practiced. On giving a second name once, one little fellow was brought up with, “Why, I thought your name was George Johnson?” “I done got tired of that name,” was his cool reply.

Perhaps the most interesting prayer-meeting that I ever attended among the Freedmen was in Alabama, where the Ku Klux outrages lasted so much longer than in other places, and where the missionaries looked to their guns and their rifles before retiring. I reached there just the evening of the weekly prayer-meeting at the school-house. ’Twas a stormy night, but with waterproofs and umbrellas we ventured. Wholly unused to bullets, I must confess there was a little trembling under one waterproof, as we wended our way along the little path through the woods, and across the one plank bridge over the Branch; but once within the building all fear vanished. The room was filled with the finest looking colored people I had ever seen. They had, many of them, been house servants in the best families in this aristocratic place. The pastor opened the meeting, and they carried it on with a liveliness that was truly refreshing. Two or three usually rose at once, with words right on their lips. This church had only been organized a little over a year, and then numbered about eighty. There had been much to dishearten all along. They had no church building, and had been striving hard to build; but no sooner would they begin to see little light through the clouds than the white people, fearing that the men with dark skins might acquire too great a hold on this world’s goods, would remove work from the most prosperous, and thus the clouds would gather again. Referring to this method of _keeping down_, one of the members once said, “No ’count niggers can rub along here well enough, but smart niggers had better look out for other quarters.” Even at that time the danger of their being obliged to disband from outside violence was hardly over, and as they told of their love for their church, one could hardly help thinking of the stories of the early Christians, when persecutions only increased their zeal. There was an undertone of sadness through the remarks of several, for they felt peculiarly uncertain as to what a day might bring forth. But one suddenly rose and changed the key. “I was sad,” he said, “when I first came in here, but your words of sadness have made me glad, for they have shown me how much we all love our church, and such love, with the love of God for us, which is even much greater, will carry us through fiery trials. I never felt as strong as I feel to-night. ’Tis true, I don’t know what may come upon us, but I do feel that the Lord will help us through.” Then he told what he hoped for the future, in such cheerful words, that as he sat down, they burst forth almost with one voice in a song of praise, and then one after another kneeled down, and in the most simple words of faith asked their Father to help His children in this their day of trouble, and I do not think there was one present who had the slightest doubt of His doing so.

Even before the Kansas fever, there were States in the North that were synonyms for all good things to the colored people. I remember a Thanksgiving Day, when a minister was addressing one of the schools, and telling the children what they had to be thankful for, that he burst forth with the question, “Is there any other country so blessed as this?” “Yes, sir,” said a little urchin before him. “Why, what one?” “Massachusetts,” was the reply.

I once heard a colored minister pray heartily for the teachers in this wise, “May God throw around this institution His _frosty_ arms, and bear the teachers from this to another vale of tears.”

The good old days have gone; the better ones, _perhaps_, have come.

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TENNESSEE.

A Remarkable Conversion and Triumphant Death.

MISS HENRIETTA MATSON, NASHVILLE.

How often have God’s dealings with His children seemed strange and sad, when those who were just ready to do valiant service for Him, here amid the need of a lost world, are called up higher—called to rest, rather than toil—to wear the crown, rather than longer bear the cross.

But God’s ways are not ours, and since we know that He ever cares for His own cause, we may believe that He calls the loved one to a higher usefulness. Such were some of the thoughts that came to our hearts when, on a beautiful June morning during the summer vacation, we read the words, “E. J. Park died yesterday afternoon,” followed by an account of the triumphant death of a student of Fisk University, who had gone to Texas to teach school.

Eugene Park came to Fisk University several years ago, a pleasant, careless boy, who had never bestowed a thought upon his eternal interests. For a long time he was but little moved; both the warnings and the entreaties of the Gospel seemed to fall unheeded upon his ear, and we often felt that he became only more careless and indifferent.

At last, however, the Spirit strove with him, and he began to ask, “What must I do to be saved?” though at first there was not in him that fixed purpose which would lead him to arise and go to his Father. And so he halted for months, wavering and undecided, until a mighty conviction seized him that he must find God, and that speedily. Sin, in all its enormity, was revealed to him, and he seemed indeed to realize that he was lost, unless the Saviour should interpose and deliver him.

He then gave himself entirely to seeking God. He could not study, and there were many long hours in which he could neither eat nor sleep, so powerfully was he wrought upon. One morning in Chapel, at devotional exercises, while in this intense state of mind, the reading of the Scriptures so affected him that he sobbed aloud. Hoping to calm him, and at the same time point him to Christ, the hymn was sung, “Oh, the blood, the precious blood!” but he was so overcome that his friends were obliged to take him away, and a few of us gathered and prayed with him. Still the light from the Sun of Righteousness did not break in; the precious blood was not applied to his soul until the next day, when Jesus Himself drew near, and the Lord of Glory revealed Himself as the One altogether lovely, and the Chief among ten thousand. His soul seemed in a rapture of joy for days. He came to the school with his Bible always in his hand, as though he could not be parted from it even for a moment.

Then followed years of ripening in the Christian life, with frequent seasons of such blessing that he could not speak of Christ without tears. He early gave himself to the ministry, feeling that to preach the everlasting Gospel would be his highest joy, and was pursuing his studies with this in view. He was not, however, without temptations to a worldly life, though we are assured that the dear Saviour kept His own, even unto the end. His death was a beautiful illustration of the triumph of the Gospel of Christ. Far from friends and home, yet he was not alone, for that Friend that sticketh closer than a brother was near.

He had been ill for several days, and one morning he told those about him that he should go home at three afternoon, and precisely at the hour named the summons came. He had sent messages to his mother and friends. “Tell them,” he said, “that Jesus is with me and saves me. Oh, how sweet it is to die in the arms of Jesus.” He then sung, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb,” “Safe in the arms of Jesus,” and “Sweeping through the gates to the new Jerusalem.”

And now we, in our sorrow, think of him as thus “safe.” We hoped he would labor long and successfully for the Master; but he has been called up higher, and is now, we believe, among the ransomed in the New Jerusalem, where he has learned the new song, even praise unto our God.

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GEORGIA.

First Impressions.

REV. P. W. YOUNG, BYRON

I feel the necessity of writing you this morning concerning my work, though my time is much occupied. I am happy to say that I found some very earnest members here, notwithstanding they were like sheep without a shepherd when I came. There is an opportunity for a great deal of Christian labor here, as in many other places.

I preach on the Sabbath at 11 o’clock and at 8 o’clock in the evening. We have a very good Temperance Society also. Its members manifest great interest in the cause. The people are beginning to see that intemperance, if continually practiced, will bring them to degradation. I delivered a lecture to the society last Sabbath in the afternoon, having about 250 persons present. I told them in the plainest words of the great harm that had been done by intemperance among the colored people. When I closed my remarks they said they wished I could speak an hour longer on the same subject, showing their hearty approval of what I had said.

The religious interest seems to be good generally. There are four converts to unite with the church.

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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 Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E. P. Baker, James M. Haven Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John Kimball, E. P. Sanford, Esq.

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

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THE BEGINNING OF HARVEST—ONG LUNE.

REV. WM. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

Our Lord has begun—sooner than we desired and very suddenly to us—to gather from our harvest field His wheat into His garner. The first-fruits went home on Sunday, Aug. 3d, at our Bethany church. I was in the act of baptizing and welcoming to Christian fellowship on earth _four_ of our more recently converted Chinese brethren, when our brother Ong Lune was welcomed to the fellowship above. He was a young man of 21 years, had been a Christian, as we hoped, for nearly three years, and a church member since December, 1877. His sickness was brief, and he was supposed to be recovering till about twenty-four hours before his death. He had greatly desired to become strong enough to be present at our August communion, but, instead, he ate bread in the kingdom of God.

Modest and unassuming, but intelligent, earnest and thoroughly consecrated to Christ, his absence from our mission work makes a void not easily filled. A great majority of American Christians might well have sat at the feet of this young Chinaman and learned how to be co-workers with the Saviour. Approaching his countrymen with a smile, seizing every opportunity to “speak a word in season,” he sought to bring them to our schools, and then to lead them to his Saviour. A house-servant, with little time that he could call his own, he will wear no starless crown. I know not how many times the question, “Who told you to come to school?” has been answered by the utterance of his name. The last service he was able to render was—in spite of pain and weariness from the disease which afterwards proved fatal—to act as my interpreter in the examination of three candidates for baptism, one of them, possibly, his own child in the Gospel.

His teacher—Miss Florence N. Wooley—quotes him as saying that what he wanted was “to bring more and more scholars, and watch them, and when they know about Jesus, must make them to be our brethren and try to keep them from temptation; and I wish to do the best I can, but am afraid of temptation myself.” She adds: “He succeeded in this; and the secret of his success, as told me by one of the scholars, was this: ‘He talked so nice to the boys, and never got cross nor angry; and so they all minded what he told them.’ He had entered into the spirit of the word, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in.’ As soon as he came into school he was wont to speak of some one who had promised him to come that night. If this promise was not fulfilled, he went after the person again and again and brought him in. He was getting on well in his studies, especially in his study of the Bible. The last verses he recited were Acts vii. 54, 55, now happily fulfilled in his own experience.”

THE STORY OF LEE FOUN, BY LEE HAIM.

[Lee Haim, one of our helpers, had given me this account, and I requested him to write it for the MISSIONARY. I give it as he wrote it, word for word, correcting only a few expressions to make the sense clear.—W. C. P.]

“I am going to tell you something of our Christian brethren when they go back to China. Last year one of our Christian Association went by the steamship with his own brother, and when they both reached their old home, his elder brother said to his wife: ‘Well, to-morrow I will go tell my mother that my younger brother, Lee Foun, believes in Jesus, and was a member of the American Association while he staid in California. He does not want to worship our gods which sit in the temple, nor worship our ancestors; neither to keep the traditions which our fathers have handed down from generation to generation. If I go and tell these things to my mother she will give him a good whipping.’

“So his elder brother agreed to tell his mother in the morning; and when the morning came he brought the whole affair before her. She was exceedingly grieved when she heard it, and she went and told some of her son’s uncles. Then Lee Foun’s uncles said to her: ‘Never mind that now; your son now come back is like a stranger; you need not to say any thing to him now; but wait for two days, until the first day of June is come; then you may call him up and offer some tea, and burn the incense in the morning, and see if he do it or not.’ This custom was known to Lee Foun, for our Chinese generally keep it twice each month—the first day of the month and the fifteenth. It is considered a very important custom, as much so as to serve their parents in their lifetime. It is like the Jews keeping the Passover every year, or as we keep the Supper of the Lord.

“So his mother said nothing to him till the first day of June; then she tried to wake him up to burn the incense and offer the tea to his great-grandfather; but Lee Foun did not get up as early that morning as usual; and when the time of offering tea and burning the incense had passed, then he got up. And when he met his mother she burst into tears. He asked her presently, ‘What is the matter, mother?’ and his mother gave no answer. Then he asked her the same thing. His mother said to him: ‘My son, you ought to have got up early this morning and offered some tea and burned the incense before your ancestor; but you got up so late, and did not do it, that makes me feel bad.’ Then Lee Foun said to his mother: ‘If we go and offer tea and burn the incense before these stones, wood, clay and paper, do you think they know it? I don’t believe that, for they, having eyes, cannot see; having ears, cannot hear; having noses, cannot smell; mouth, cannot speak; hands, cannot handle; feet they have, but cannot walk; and bodies have they, but cannot move. All these things are nothing but wood, stone, clay and paper. What good have they done for men? Moreover, those who serve images, or serve the dead instead of the living, sin against the living and true God; for every thing is made by His own hands. And He has commanded us not to worship images, neither to serve the dead; but only to worship the true and living God, and to honor father and mother while they are living. But those who take offerings of paper to be burned up, and represent money, are foolish, and deceive themselves; for the paper is nothing but paper, and cannot represent money.’ Then his mother laughed when she heard that, and Lee Foun’s brother was angry at him, because his mother was pleased with his younger brother, Lee Foun. He felt as Joseph’s brethren felt toward Joseph when they saw Jacob, their father, love him. Do you think they could injure Joseph, and that Lee Foun’s brother can injure Lee Foun? No. Why not? Because God is with them. As Paul said: ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ Oh, how glorious and powerful God is!

“After a while some of the Chinese missionaries heard that a certain Christian brother had come back, so they went and inquired for Lee Foun, and they entered into his village, to visit him; and when he saw the missionaries, then he wept, because of the persecution by his own brother, and because of the ignorance of his relatives about God. Lee Foun’s mother was glad to receive them, and invited them to come again to the feast of Lee Foun’s marriage. After this the marriage of Lee Foun was at hand; so the Chinese missionaries went to his village again to show him how the Christian ceremony should be performed. So Lee Foun did as Christians do. He did not bow his head before the idols, nor before his ancestors, and neither did he keep the traditions of men, but the commands of God.

“Not only he did so, but Chan Wen, Lee Sam, and also many of our brethren, act in accordance with Christianity when they go back to China. I believe you have no doubt of that; for if we are true Christians here in California, we will be true Christians in China and elsewhere. We will stand up for Jesus and suffer for Him, and take up His cross in public.

“Dear friends, we entreat that you will mention our names to the Lord when you pray, that we may have a faithful heart in our Lord Jesus; that we may be strong in Him; and ask Him to open the great door to us, that the nation of heathen Chinese soon may become a Christian nation, and they may understand the word of God and know Christ is the Creator and Saviour of the world, and all the creatures should be bowed down before Him.”

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CHILDREN’S PAGE.

* * * * *

COUNTRY SCHOOL-HOUSES.

TO THE CHILDREN:

I know you have heard much about the colored people, but did you ever hear about their country school-houses? Let me tell you of two in Alabama.

Sunday-schools as well as day-schools are held in these same buildings. One Sunday, a minister who was going twelve miles out into the country to visit one of these schools, invited me to go with him. After inquiring many times where the school was, and going half a mile out of our way, we at last spied, at the right of the road, some saddled mules hitched to trees. We thought that might be the place, and sure enough there, right in the woods, was a nice new school-house.

After fastening our horse to a sweet-gum tree, we entered the little unpainted building. The superintendent gave us seats at the head of the school—not armchairs, but simply a board two feet from the floor, answering for a bench. As soon as we were seated I began to look about me to see what kind of a place I was in, while the minister addressed the school. The house was built of pine logs, placed an inch apart, consequently there were great cracks on all sides of the room, which in summer must have been pleasant, as they let in air, but in winter, think how cold they would be. The house was full of old men, women and children, sitting on rude benches.

As I looked through the crack near me, I saw outside a row of men seated on a log, who left their places when they heard a stranger’s voice inside and crowded into the house. I saw them put their hats up on a beam over their heads. Those who couldn’t find room inside looked through the cracks. There was no window, only a square hole cut over the door to let in light. Seeing the many cracks in the roof, we asked, when we came out, if it never rained in upon them. “Not much,” was the answer. You see these people don’t mind a bit of a sprinkle now and then.

After the minister had finished telling them how he had been in the very same land where Jesus had lived, the school sung, “We’re going home to-morrow.” I wish you could have heard those children. They sang at the top of their voices, their white teeth showing more than ever in contrast with their black skin. After the superintendent gave out the papers which we had brought, the exercises closed, and I was glad to be relieved of the sixty pairs of eyes which had been upon me.

Another time I went with some teachers to a Mission Sunday-school. This was in a most lovely place, right in the thick woods, far away from any houses or sounds of any kind, except the songs of the birds. We found we were early that day, for neither the teacher nor scholars had come. We went inside the school-house and waited.

Perhaps you ask how we got in. That was an easy thing to do, for there was no locked door to keep us out, and no door of any kind, only an opening in one side of the house. This was an old building, built in the same way as the first one I visited. In some places the logs were a foot apart. Here the benches were made of round logs split in two, the flat part being the top, and in each end of the rounded part were two legs. And such queer looking seats as they were! Only one or two of them had backs. Before long the teacher and a few scholars came. The school was small that day, as there was a “big baptizing,” as they call it, not far away, which always attracts crowds of colored people.

After the scholars had left, and as we were preparing to go, a terrible thunder shower came up which detained us there. The rain came in, drip, drip, at every crack, till after a while there was only one dry corner in the house. The teacher told us that when showers came in school time, the scholars had to sit on their books to keep them dry. The shower continued for some time, and being very tired, after a sixteen-mile drive over new-cut roads through woods, we put on our water-proofs and lay down on the damp benches; but finding the drops were falling into our faces, we were obliged to put up umbrellas. This was resting under difficulties. There, in that open building, far away from any one, with the rain coming in and standing in pools on the floor, we fully realized what these poor country people have to go through to learn their A, B, C; and those who continue their schools in the winter must suffer greatly from the cold, as they only have a fire-place in one end of the room. One teacher told us that his fire-place was so poor, that in winter he built a fire out of doors, while the children gathered around it sitting on stumps and logs. There are not only these two schools I have spoken of, but many such scattered all over the Southern States.

Now, since I have been writing this, I have thought what a nice plan it would be for you boys and girls to save some of your pennies, and perhaps before long one of you would have enough to buy a small, plain black-board, and another enough to buy a box of crayons, or a pretty motto for one of these old bare school-rooms. If you couldn’t send the things, you could send the money for them; and how delighted any teacher would be with a few such comforts! What do you think of my plan?—L. P. H.

* * * * *

RECEIPTS

FOR AUGUST, 1879.

MAINE, $1,031.89.

Bangor. First Cong. Ch. $29.17
Bath. Eliza Bowker 2.00
Castine. ESTATE of Samuel Adams, by L. G.
Philbrook, Ex. 800.00
Cumberland Mills. Rev. E. S. Tead 18.00
Dennysville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Falmouth. First Cong. Ch. 15.00
Gorham. First Cong. Ch. and Soc., to const.
MISS E. B. EMERY, L. M. 27.72
Vassalborough. ESTATE of Mary B. Buxton, by
Samuel Titcomb, Ex. 100.00
West Bath. Isaiah Percy, $3; Buelah B. Percy $2 5.00
Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00

NEW HAMPSHIRE, $301.76.

Antrim. “A Friend.” _for Talladega C._ 5.00
Bath. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 7.70
Claremont. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 44.35
East Jaffrey. Eliza A. Parker 20.00
Goffstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 52.29
Haverhill. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.64
Henniker. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Lebanon. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 16.00
Manchester. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 51.33
Meriden. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.80
Merrimack. Merrimack Aux. Soc. 11.15
Milford. Peter and Cynthia S. Burns, _for
Athens, Ala._ 50.00
Short Falls. J. W. C. 0.50

VERMONT, $195.95.

Berlin. Cong. Sab. Sch. 3.56
Brownington. Cong. Sab. Sch. (of which $5 from
Dea. S.) 8.45
Chester. E. S. 1.00
Essex Centre. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.50
Essex Junction. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.75
Ferrisburg. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.85
Georgia. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 13.84
Greensborough. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.00
Highgate. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 2.07
Ludlow. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.34
North Craftsbury. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Pittsford. Mrs. E. H. Denison 5.00
Sheldon. Cong. Ch. 9.03
Springfield. Cong. Ch. 46.71
Swanton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 14.85
Townshend. Mrs. N. B. Batchelder 2.00
Wesminster. Rev. A. B. D. 1.00
Westminster West. Rev. A. Stevens, D. D., $10;
Cong. Sab. Sch., $10 20.00
Windham. “A Friend,” $7; Cong. Sab. Sch., $4 11.00
Windham. Cong. Ch., $9.10, ack. in Sept.
Number, should read, Cong. Sab. Sch.

MASSACHUSETTS, $2,168.10.

Amherst. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 8.00
Andover. G. W. W. Dove. $100; “J. B. C.,” $5,
_for Athens, Ala._;—Ladies of Free Ch., $70,
_for Student Aid, Talladega C._;—J. L. S.,
50c 175.50
Ashburnham. M. W. 1.00
Boston. Rev. B. Southworth 5.00
Boston. Highland Cong. Ch. and Soc. 27.60
Boxford. S. B. S., 30c.; Mrs. C., 50c. 0.80
Bradford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 28.70
Brookline. “M. and H. S. W.” 250.00
Buckland. —— by W. F. Root 2.12
Charlton. Clarissa W. Case 5.00
Chelsea. N. C. Tenny 5.00
Chicopee. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.25
Conway. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 9.50
Dana. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (of which $12.48 _for
Athens, Ala._) 13.50
Easthampton. ESTATE of Samuel Hurlbut, by Mrs.
Sarah E. Pettis, Ex. 200.00
Erving. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 4.15
Gardner. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 10.00
Grantville. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 11.07
Great Barrington. Mrs. L. M. Chapin 5.00
Greenfield. Ladies’ Miss. Soc., $20, _for
Student Aid, Atlanta U._;—Miss Janette
Thompson, $5 25.00
Hadley. Russell Cong. Ch. 2.00
Holliston. Mrs. W. R. T. 0.50
Hopkinton. Mrs. J. P. Claflin, $150; Cong. Ch.
and Soc., $51.36 201.36
Ipswich. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 1.00
Lawrence. Lawrence St. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 60.00
Long Meadow. Gents’ Benev. Ass’n. 27.75
Medway. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 94.55
Monson. Mrs. C. C. Chapin and Class, to const.
MRS. JOHN PACKARD, L. M. 30.00
Monterey. Cong. Ch. 10.00
Milton. Cong. Sab. Sch. 31.34
Natick. Mrs. S. E. Hammond 10.00
Newton Centre. Ladies of Mrs. Furber’s Bible
Class, $60. _for Student Aid, Atlanta
U._;—Cong. Ch. and Soc., $55.64; Deacon
Benj. Burt, $2 117.64
North Reading. Rev. F. H. Foster 3.36
Norton. Wheaton Sem., _for Student Aid,
Atlanta U._ 25.00
Orange. Mrs. E. W. M. 1.00
Palmer. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. 15.00
Petersham. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 5.37
Reading. Rev. W. H. Willcox, bbl. of C. and
books _for Talladega C._
Rehoboth. Cong. Ch. 14.00
Royalston. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. 110.34
Shelburne. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 47.83
Shirley Village. L. Holbrook 5.00
South Royalston. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 20.00
Springfield. North Ch., $40, _for Miller
Station, Ga._;—Memorial Ch., $18.40;—Ira
Merrill, $5, _for Athens, Ala._ 63.40
Sunderland. Cong. Sab. Sch. 34.33
Templeton. Trin. Sab. Sch. 26.31
Uxbridge. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc. 33.00
Webster. First Cong. Ch. 50.00
Westfield. Mrs. J. F. 1.00
West Hampton. Cong. Sab. Sch. 23.00
Wellesley. Missionary Soc. of Wellesley College 4.00
Westminster. ESTATE of Mrs. S. A. Damon, by H.
G. Whitney, Ex. 208.00
West Springfield. Mittineague Cong. Ch. 12.05
Winchendon. Atlanta Soc., _for Student Aid,
Atlanta U._ 40.00
Worcester. Union Ch. 37.73

RHODE ISLAND, $1,776.64.

Bristol. Mrs. M. De W. Rogers, $500; C. De
Wolf, $500 1000.00
East Providence. Cong. Ch. 14.00
Kingston. Cong. Ch. 28.77
Providence. Central Cong. Ch. 733.87

CONNECTICUT, $1,142.93.