THE FREEDMEN.

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

FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.

GEORGIA.

CONFERENCE REVIEW.

This review of the state of religion in the Congregational churches of South Carolina and of Georgia, during this first year of their General Conference, shows abundant occasion of gratitude for general prosperity and spiritual blessing.

The fact that all of our fourteen churches except one, have been represented in this Conference by their ministers and delegates, reveals an interest in its meetings, and in the doctrine of the fellowship of the churches, that is truly delightful. In this connection we cannot refrain from noting the grace of God conferred upon the churches in their custom of providing the necessary traveling expenses of their delegates. We hope that such messengers of the churches will reciprocate this consideration, and magnify their office, by making a full report of this and all such convocations to their respective assemblies for worship.

We gratefully recognize the increase of our total membership by 354, making the present number 949. One new church has been organized, that of Cypress Slash, which reports to us a membership of 54; a temporary cabin, built as a place for church and school, with the purpose soon to erect a more comely and permanent sanctuary; and also a new young minister who, with his wife, is already reaping missionary fruit.

We note with gratification that every one of our churches is supplied with the ministry of the word, except that at Marietta, whose pastor, Rev. S. P. Smith, has been transferred to Washington City for the purpose of building up the 2d Congregational Church at the capital. So, with the same exception, every one of our churches has its own house of worship. Some of these are commodious and tasteful; others are very plain; but all are places of sanctuary comfort, and the worshippers are striving each year to increase their comeliness and convenience. During the year, three of these congregations have added to their meeting-houses the attraction of the church-going bell. Among a people, few of whom have clocks or watches, the church bell is their time-keeper, and the promoter of that promptness which adds a charm to the services of public worship.

The doctrine of church discipline as a means of grace has been illustrated by a heroic use of the pruning knife upon these vines, that they may bring forth more fruit. The seeking of a clean membership is essential to the healthfulness and well-being of the churches.

The cause of temperance has been kept near the heart of our members. One church, the Pilgrim, at Woodville, has a large and influential Band of Hope. All preach temperance and require its practice among their members. We are deeply convinced that the habit of intemperance is the devil’s best grip upon the poor and lowly people among whom we have our lot and our work, and that total abstinence is the only consistent rule for Christians. In a community where pastors and officers and members of Protestant churches indulge in the practice of drinking liquors, we feel called upon to bear an unremitting and uncompromising testimony against this violation of the spirit and the precept of the Gospel.

We are confirmed in the wisdom of the union of the school-work and the church-work in our evangelizing process. The school prepares the way for the church. It brings along the young and hopeful material for the church membership. The church garners up such fruit. It reacts upon the school and the community by its educating and elevating influence. In our ideal, both unite in the one purpose of saving and edifying the souls of men. We desire to express our sincere gratefulness in view of the devoted and self-denying labor of the teachers in the schools associated with our churches.

The higher schools and colleges within our bounds have gone along upon the plane of their former success. The Avery Institute, at Charleston, has passed through a change of administration without any diminution of its members or lowering of its high grade of scholarship. The Normal School at Greenwood, S. C., has held on in its beneficent way, enjoying the fine building and campus of an old time Baptist College. The Beach Institute in this city, with its cultivated and consecrated corps of seven teachers, with its fine body of pupils, with its thorough discipline and its decided moral and religious tone, is a power for good in this community and in this part of the State. The Dorchester Academy at Midway, the Lewis High School at Macon, and the Storrs School at Atlanta, have kept steadily upon the line of their extensive and beneficent influence. The Atlanta University maintains its high position as to classical and normal scholarship, and as to moral and religious tone, approved by the authorities of the Commonwealth and also by the favor of Heaven, in the enrolling during the year of a couple of score of its students among the disciples of the Great Master. Its independent Union Church, with 67 members, although not belonging to our body, is to us a sister in Christ, for whom our prayers and sympathies shall ever abound. Its Faculty consists of three graduates of Yale and one each of Harvard, Dartmouth and Amherst Colleges, and of half a dozen cultivated ladies. To these it has just added Prof. A. W. Farnham, who is introducing the most approved normal methods, not only for the benefit of the normal scholars but of all in the University. More than a dozen of its graduates are now teaching high schools in leading cities of the State of Georgia, and so starting from these centres, radiating influences that shall bless many more communities. We give thanks to God for the bequest of $50,000, by which the University will now be able to add still more to its spacious accommodations.

We greatly rejoice in the new feature of the work within our limits, that of lady missionaries. We have four of them. One of these has been located at Charleston, one at Miller’s Station, one at Macon, and one in Atlanta. Woman’s work for women and children in these communities, we consider a Christly service of the utmost value. Woman can enter the homes as the pastor cannot; and yet she will make work for him in following up her discoveries. Her ready sympathy and happy tact will help her in stimulating to greater domestic comfort, and will aid her in doing good through many ways that are peculiarly her own.

We are comforted by the educated young men who are coming forward to minister in our churches. Besides those who have been raised up in the “Beach” to minister to the churches that cluster about it, we are happy in the coming of four graduates of the Theological department of Talladega College in Alabama, three of whom are this week receiving ordination at the hands of our own church councils, and the other is the moderator of one of these Convocations. We are happy to express grateful obligation to that Christian institution in another State for this gift of her cultured sons, who are to us also a part of the ascension gift of our blessed Lord.

We are devoutly grateful to God for the spiritual refreshings that have been enjoyed this year in our churches and schools. Some have had special seasons of revival. Others have had the dew in the fleece. Many souls have been brought into fellowship with Christ, and Christians have, we trust, been advanced somewhat in the process of purification.

We cannot conclude this annual narrative without recording our gratitude to the American Missionary Association, which, under God, has been the occasion within a short period of all this school and church development as now represented by the Conference of Georgia. We remind ourselves, also, that this is only one of seven of these Conferences which have been the outgrowth of the same general Christianizing process at the South. We magnify the grace of God bestowed upon the churches and friends who have furnished that Association with the funds, the prayers and the sympathies, that were essential to this great work. “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

J. E. Roy.

John McIntosh.

P. W. Young.

EDUCATIONAL REPORT.

At the Georgia Conference the Committee on Education make the following report:

That “Education is the handmaid of Religion” has become an accepted maxim. To be remembered everywhere, it is of especial importance in this field. Religion has here been corrupted by ignorance, and has often degenerated into superstition. A devout and imaginative spirit has been betrayed into serious errors and gross excesses in the name of truth and godliness. More knowledge, more culture of mind, is necessary in many cases to prepare the way for the perception of the truth. The one great object of the Church of Christ in its labor among men is to save the souls of men by holding forth the word of Life; but to attain this, the Church must help to teach them what that word is, and how to read and study it for themselves. The Gospel seeks to prepare men, not only for the next life, but for this life also. It is fitted to bless the whole man, physical and mental, as well as spiritual. Education and Gospel piety must go together. The Committee would, therefore, recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That this Conference desires to emphasize the fact that the past year’s experience gives new occasion for gratitude that from the beginning of the American Missionary Association’s work in this field, the school and the church have been closely united.

2. Resolved, That it is the deliberate judgment of this Conference that this field still requires the enlargement and vigorous prosecution of the school work, as a necessary aid to the upbuilding of our churches.

3. Resolved, That the churches must not cease to pray fervently for those who are teaching in our elementary and higher schools, and for their pupils, that the instruction given and the mental culture gained may bear the stamp of Christian consecration.

4. Resolved, That we desire to express our warm sympathy with our young people, who, in the face of many obstacles, are bravely pressing forward in their studies, to fit themselves for teachers or preachers, and would urge them to get as thorough and complete an education as possible.

Respectfully submitted,

C. W. Hawley,

T. T. Benson,

Wilson Callen,

Committee.

ATLANTA MISCELLANIES.

BY A RESIDENT.

—A Christmas concert was observed by the Sunday-school of the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, Georgia. It followed Dr. Vincent’s programme, which, with variations, was rendered with great success. The singing was excellent. The recitations and the responsive readings of Scripture were impressive. The recitations on the platform, of prose or poetry, a score or more, did not have a failure or a prompting. Every piece during the whole evening was about Christmas. The good reading and elocution were apparent as the result of the good training in the Storrs School, whose teachers are also instructors in the Sunday-school. Pastor C. W. Hawley seemed in his element as the leader of this service. Sup’t Roy made a talk at the close. The school numbers two hundred and twenty-five. It would greatly gladden the hearts of the friends of our work if they could only look in upon this and the many other such schools in the South.

Atlanta has a monthly Sunday-school Teachers’ Institute. Pastor Hawley attends it. Atlanta’s County, Fulton, has also a Sunday-school Association, which convenes in the city quarterly. At the last meeting, as interest was warming up in favor of taking some more practical measures toward helping the colored Sunday-schools, it was found that the constitution limited the membership to such schools as were “all white.” Whereupon a resolution of interest and of encouragement was adopted. At the last meeting of the State S. S. Association, held in Macon, a colored school in Savannah applied for membership. The matter was quieted for the time, but it is said that it will come up again. Upon the recommendation of Gov. Colquitt it is proposed to adopt the Brooklyn idea of a Children’s Day once a year; this not only for the City but for the State. In Atlanta there are fourteen colored Sunday-schools.

—At an entertainment at the Atlanta University, during the holidays, the Field Superintendent gave one of his addresses upon the map of the United States.

—At the watch-night service in the Trinity M. E. South Church, of Atlanta, one of the speakers, Rev. Dr. Potter, a Presiding Elder, dwelling upon the openings of benevolence during the last year, expatiated at length upon the million of dollars given by one estate to the American Board. Surely the children of light are beginning to do business upon something of the grand scale on which the children of this world project their schemes. It was stated at that meeting that during the year, under Pastor Heidt, the Trinity Church had received two hundred members, half of them upon confession of faith, and had paid off a debt of twenty thousand dollars. It seems that the M. E. General Conference, South, has abolished the feature of a six months’ probation. Only those are received who give evidence of conversion. The form in receiving a member that night was quite Congregational. This church has also advanced upon the policy of its sister at the North, in allowing a four years’ pastorate, instead of three.

FLORIDA.

Letter from Rev. Geo. Henry.

Dear Sir: I opened last Monday a day-school in addition to our Sunday-school. The necessity of this step will be apparent when I tell you that there are fifty children in this place who wish to attend school, but have been unable heretofore to do so, as the distance to the nearest colored school is from four to seven miles from their homes. Only a few of the larger ones have been able to attend.

In my school I have dull and bright, lazy and industrious children, as you have in all other schools, but taking them altogether, they study as well and learn as quickly as any set of pupils I have ever seen. I have one little girl who did not know the alphabet last Monday, but by the end of the week was able to read little stories from a Reader rapidly and accurately. I have never anywhere seen such progress made by a young child.

In view of the capability of the children to learn, there can scarcely be reason to doubt that the deplorable mental condition of the adult Freedmen is due to that institution which has been such a curse both to the slave and his owner. The public schools are open from three to four months each year; but so far they have been of very little use to the colored children, as they have been, as a rule, taught by incompetent persons. Most of the colored schools have colored teachers, and very few of them are either morally or intellectually qualified for the position. For example, the man who taught the school nearest to this place last winter used to bring his bottle with him to school. A woman of bad character and only rudimentary education has the same school this winter; yet this is one of the largest schools in the county. In a conversation which I had with Judge B——, a member of the Board of Public Instruction, he said that “the school money which had been spent for colored schools had been thrown away, for the children had not learned anything.” This is very nearly a correct statement of the case, for a bright child ten years of age would learn more in two months than boys 19 or 20 years old know who have attended these schools for years. Understand me, I think this is the fault of the teachers and not of the pupils.

I believe that in my week-day school I shall be able to do as much for the improvement of the condition of the Freedmen as in any other way, and I am sure if you were here to look over the field you would agree with me.

Our work in the Sunday-school is also very encouraging; not that the scholars are uniting with the church—for nearly all the older ones are members of churches now—but they are learning from the word of God those truths which are calculated to prepare them for useful lives in the earth and eternal happiness in the world to come.

LOUISIANA.

The Schools and the Churches.

BY REV. W. S. ALEXANDER.

The work of education and evangelization among the Freedmen in this State was never more hopeful. By the provisions of the new constitution which was adopted at the recent election, the rate of taxation has been greatly reduced, and as a direct consequence, the appropriation for school purposes will be correspondingly cut down. The free colored schools will be the first to be struck by this wave of retrenchment. Many schools, especially in the country parishes, will be closed, or, at the best, be maintained for a very brief period in the year. New Orleans will feel this matter as keenly as the country, for the amount of taxation is strictly regulated by the new constitution. Only special gifts can possibly keep the schools up to the present standard. One of the most prominent educators in the city said to me, “I would not raise unnecessarily the cry of alarm, but a crisis is surely near at hand with our public schools.” The colored Normal School will certainly be discontinued. The Peabody fund will probably not be available for Louisiana another year. All these events, so unpropitious to the free school system of Louisiana, and so deeply to be deplored, render our work all the more necessary, and our prospect of enlarged usefulness the brighter.

When we see the grand opportunity opening before our beloved University—an opportunity which has not the remotest resemblance to the fictitious and dreamy—we try to forget the plaintive words, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” and rally our courage by the more inspiring prophecy, “The morning light is breaking.”

When the glorious work of enlargement begins, will it not be in order to start at the Gulf of Mexico and gradually work up? We rather approve of that plan and are quite ready for it.

CHURCH WORK IN LOUISIANA.

“We hold our own, and something more,” is the word that comes up from the churches of our Association. Our annual meeting will be held at Terrebonne, the first Wednesday in April, and the brethren are eagerly anticipating it. Congregationalism is a plant of slow growth among the colored people, not from want of adaptation, but from lack of money to push it into fields now unoccupied or uncultivated. Money is needed to give new enterprises substantial encouragement in their difficult “beginnings”—to tide the pastors past the starvation point—to give them “foothold” till strength comes to them in the natural growth of a good enterprise.

The church at New Iberia, which welcomed our last annual conference, and which is memorable as the scene of a most precious revival, and suffered seriously in the loss, by a furious wind storm in September, of their tasteful and commodious chapel, is rallying grandly from the shock. By liberal subscriptions, by mortgaging their property, and by personal labor, they have put up and covered the frame of a larger building, and have stopped before finishing, simply because they could do no more. Two hundred dollars will put the new chapel in order for dedication. Shall they appeal in vain? We cannot afford to lose or to cripple this church. It has been a bright light on the prairie, and though the tempest levelled the building, it cannot—it must not—extinguish the light.

Our own, the Central Church, sends greeting to all kind, sympathizing and praying friends in the North. All summer long, the members of the church have prayed in public and in private for a gracious out-pouring of the Divine Spirit. I found the church in an earnest, praying state. A greater degree of unity and cordial Christian fellowship prevails than I have ever before seen. To-morrow (Sunday, Jan. 4,) begins the “Week of Prayer.” If, in its results, it shall fulfil the longings and faith of this people, then will it indeed be the “Week of Weeks” to us in Central Church. Last night, at our preparatory service, seventy-five were present; five new members were received, of whom three came on profession of faith. It was a meeting of peculiar tenderness and spiritual power. After a brief lecture by the pastor, forty-two Christians spoke tender, earnest words of love to God, and devotion to His service. God grant I may have good tidings to send you in my next letter.

TENNESSEE.

Labor Among Convicts.

PROF. H. S. BENNETT, NASHVILLE.

I have been superintendent of the Sunday-school in the Penitentiary of Tennessee, located at Nashville, for nine years, and several of the teachers of Fisk University have done so much in connection with that school that the work done there becomes a part of the influence of Fisk University. Hence, a brief description of a powerful work of grace, which has been in progress during the past three months, will appropriately find place in the columns of the Missionary.

During my connection with the prison school, several seasons of refreshing have been witnessed, and hundreds of the prisoners have expressed a hope in Christ.

On returning from the North and resuming my duties as superintendent in the prison, in September, I noticed an unusual interest in the study of the Bible lesson. The remarks which were made at the close of the lesson were listened to with breathless interest. The interest was so marked that it was determined to give an opportunity to those who might desire to present themselves for prayers. This was done, and upwards of one hundred prisoners presented themselves. After a brief prayer-meeting, the prisoners were dismissed. On the next Sabbath, five or six made a profession of their faith in Christ, having been converted through the week. The work thus begun went on for two months, only one meeting for inquiry being held each week, and that at the close of the Sabbath-school. Another meeting was held on Sabbath morning, at which regular services were conducted by the chaplain. Each Sabbath, from three to six reported that they had found the Saviour. A deep religious interest pervaded the entire prison. Wherever little groups of prisoners were to be found, their conversation was upon the subject of religion. All the teachers felt that the Lord was present in power. At the end of two months thirty-five had found the Saviour, and ten or twelve backsliders had been reclaimed.

On the last Sabbath of November an unusual scene was witnessed within the prison walls. Thirty-four prisoners were received into the prison church. As the long row of prisoners, arrayed in the stripes of the criminal, stood up to take upon them the covenant vows of the church, it was perceived that the work had been very great.

Of the candidates, eight or ten were baptized by sprinkling, the rest by immersion. Ten or twelve remain to be taken into the church.

The influence of the work among the prisoners is seen to be very salutary. The church service and the Sabbath-school are the two bright spots in the lives of the prisoners. From twenty to twenty-eight teachers, of both sexes and colors, Northern and Southern, engage in the work. Three hundred pupils, prisoners, attend with remarkable regularity, as the attendance is optional. The influence of the religious work is to inspire the prisoners with hope, and with a purpose to retrieve whatever they have lost by their folly and crime in the past. Scores of them go out and live useful and honorable lives. Of this we have abundant proof.

WOMAN’S WORK AMONG WOMEN.

Answers to Prayer—“Scrubbing up with the Bible.”

MISS HATTIE A. MILTON, MEMPHIS, TENN.

My heart is overflowing with thanks-giving, not so much for the great results that I have already seen—for the greatest results in this work are discerned only by the eye of faith—but that I am permitted to be the instrument, even in a humble way, of answering your prayers, and not only yours, but those of the poor suffering people here. So many times when administering to their wants, not only when giving them loaves and fishes, but when pointing them to a higher spiritual and moral life, they have remarked, “Miss, I know the Lord sent you in answer to prayer.”

Sometimes I hesitate about going to places, and think I will do some other duty that day; but when the thought comes to me that it may be an opportunity to answer somebody’s prayer, I feel that I must go. Again, many times have my friends in the North answered my prayers. I will mention one instance which struck me as being remarkable. A very poor woman came to me asking for clothing for the little helpless children of her dying sister. I had just given out the last garment; but while talking with her I put up a prayer that something would come soon, and told her that I thought I should have something for her in a few days. Just then the door-bell rang, and I went to the door and found there a box, which I opened at once, and in it beheld the answer to my prayer! It was full of very nice and mostly new clothing for children. It was a literal fulfilment of the promise, “and it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear.” And it is a comforting thought, that wherever God places us, He gives us the opportunity to answer other people’s prayers.

The interest in this work is constantly increasing as we know more about it. The outlook for the year on which we have already entered is very encouraging. A few days since, while visiting a very hard neighborhood, one mother who is a church member said, “You must come around often; we knew ye first, and ye ought to visit us most; we needs ye too. I allers lays close down to what ye say, like the knife to the grindstone, ‘cause I wants ye to sharpen me, so I will get to living better. I’s mighty keerless, tho’ sometimes I does try in a stamerin’ manner to talk to my trifling neighbors. Now do come around often and scrub us up with the Bible.” Another woman, who has a good home, said, “We are so glad to have you back, so we can have our prayer meetings again; for we like those quiet meetings, without any fuss; and we like a leader in whom we have confidence, to instruct us.”

One of the pupils in our school urged me to start a Sunday-school in the Methodist church, of which she is a member. I went three or four times, accompanied by one of our teachers. The colored pastor gave us a hearty welcome; said he was proud that we had come to help, and that he was no respecter of persons. The number increased each week. Last Sunday it was very unpleasant. The tenacity of the red Memphis mud was marvelous; but when I arrived, a little late, at the church, having been detained to attend the burial of a baby, I found a goodly number, and the pastor was reviewing the last week’s lesson. We immediately proceeded with the lesson for the day, after which I told them I thought we had better organize a Sunday-school, as I only wished to be a teacher, and would rather some of their own number would be the officers. To this they gladly assented, and we organized. We have three classes. I furnish them with Sunday-school papers, as they have never had any. Twice, as the hour for service approached, the minister has given up preaching, saying they learned much more studying the Bible. As we were leaving the church a brother said, “I believe you is going to be jest the building up of this church.” Another said, “That is the kind of folks we colored ones needs; some one who is always at the post of duty, and is not afeard of mud and rain.”

We have substantial evidence that our Northern friends have not forgotten the suffering ones here, in the shape of two barrels of very useful clothing, from Whitewater, Wis., and I have word that boxes from three other places are on the road. May those who give be as much blessed as those who receive, and we will strive to do all in our power to answer their prayers. “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”

STUDENT TEACHERS FROM LE MOYNE.

MISS L. A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS.

We have never kept any record of the teaching and Sunday-school work done by our pupils, but, within a few days, I have gratified my curiosity by taking notes from the lips of a few student-teachers. Here they are.

Sixteen of our young people have during the summer taught one thousand and thirty-five (1,035) day pupils, and very nearly as many S. S. scholars. This does not include the teachers now at work, some of whom return to us next week, or in early spring. Probably this is only a fifth of the record, counting all former pupils.

Some of the experiences are very droll, as of the young woman who saw new phases of life in Arkansas: “Would you believe it, that the white people didn’t know as much as I do?” White and black always called her “the white lady,” and urged her return next season.

Another young woman was assistant in a school of 80 children. The log school-house had no windows except board shutters; the seats were boards fastened upon blocks of wood; the blackboard was of her own manufacture. The building was so small that in pleasant weather she heard her recitations in a bush-arbor built against the side of the house.

Some of the teachers had better accommodations. One young man had an excellent building in a community of thriving farmers. He has taught there for five seasons. Just now he is getting up a club for the New York Tribune and reports ten subscribers.

Another young man, a member of the senior class, could scarcely leave his people. A powerful revival in connection with the school had brought many aged people as well as children to confess Christ, and the converts were loth to part with their teacher and friend. The person who went after him does not weary of telling about the tears shed and pathetic expressions of regret.

After two years of constant teaching, another writes, “There are so many things in life I can’t manage, I want to go to school again.” The most cheering sign of the year is this growing desire for more thorough preparation for the work of life.