American Missionary Association.

Among the list of our workers in the February number, two names were in some unaccountable way omitted. We hasten to supply them here—Mrs. H. B. Northrop is our missionary at New Orleans, La., and Rev. P. W. Young the pastor of our church at Byron, Ga.

Our lady teachers are also missionaries. The lady missionaries sent out by the Woman’s Boards often find their first and most effective means of access to the people in the schools they start for girls. Our one hundred and fifteen lady teachers are doing the work of Christian training along with that of school teaching, and are missionaries nearly as much as the seven ladies who devote themselves exclusively to direct mission work. They have a right to consider themselves as missionaries.

We notice in the list of officers of the First State Sunday-school Convention of Louisiana, the name of Rev. W. S. Alexander, President of Straight University and pastor of the Central Congregational Church of New Orleans, as one of the Vice-Presidents and also of the Executive Committee. He was chairman of the Committees of Credentials and on the Constitution. Dr. Roy was also present. Certainly there is no cause for a complaint of lack of recognition of those engaged in our work in the midst of such examples as these.

The question how to interest the Sunday-schools in missionary work has met with a new answer in the cordial reception and use of our Jubilee Concert Exercise. Five large editions have been exhausted, and now a second Exercise has been prepared (No. 2), in which a number of questions are to be answered by as many persons as there are letters in the alphabet, covering the main facts of our various work. Five Jubilee Songs are inserted to be sung by a choir, and place is left for short addresses. We commend it to our friends, who will receive as many copies as they need for use, gratuitously, by applying to Dist. Sec. Pike.

It is with profound sadness that we record the death of two of our most esteemed co-laborers in the administration of missionary work. The Rev. Charles P. Bush, D. D., for many years associated with all our churches, especially in the Middle States, as the District Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M., has not only enjoyed the confidence, but won the love, of pastors and people on every hand. We shall miss him greatly. The Rev. Robert L. Dashiell, D. D., the Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, has been a tower of strength not only to the broad missionary enterprises of that denomination, but, by his genial sympathy and wise counsels, has added to the efficiency and courage of his brethren in the work outside of his own organization.

We much regret to learn of the death of Miss Dell Safford, formerly a teacher under this Association. For six years, she labored faithfully and conscientiously among the Freedmen in Talladega and Selma, Ala. She was patient and untiring in her efforts for the real good of those under her instruction, and her interest in them did not flag even after she left the field, but showed itself especially in the care she exercised over one of her pupils, whom she had brought with her that he might receive the benefits of a Northern education. After leaving the service of this Society, she removed to Wisconsin. But a cold taken in the spring, when she was already overworked and worn, could not be controlled, and consumption followed. She died at the last very suddenly of hemorrhage.

One of the most hopeful signs of the times in the missionary field is seen in the increasing demand and the corresponding supply of missionary intelligence. The Missionary Herald has enlarged its space between the borders, and fills it with valuable matter. Its strong point is, as it has been, its full and valuable letters from the front. The Foreign Missionary of the Presbyterian Board has been of late renewing its youth, and coming up, until it has become the most suggestive and vivacious of all the periodicals of the kind which meet our eyes. But nowadays, when intelligent people read the doings of all the world every morning at their breakfast tables, and are no longer satisfied with the village or the county news, they must have something which shall give them broader views of the great field of missions, which is the world, than they can obtain from the organs of special societies.

To meet this want, the societies themselves are increasingly informing their constituency that there is other work being done than that they do themselves. “The work of other societies” is becoming a familiar heading. Even this, however, does not answer the full demands—and that the day has come for missionary periodicals, which are edited and circulated upon the same basis as those which deal with scientific or material progress, shows that the broader interests of the coming kingdom are taking more fully their appropriate place in the hearts and minds of Christian men and women. The Missionary Review, which has been published for more than two years from Princeton, New Jersey, and which as an unsparing critic of existing missionary societies, is adapted to promote great circumspection in those who administer them, is re-enforced in this general field by The Gospel in all Lands, edited by Rev. Albert B. Simpson, and published by Randolph, which will give itself to the broader aspects and principles of missionary work, and to a compilation of fresh intelligence from all quarters. We rejoice in all such methods for the diffusion of knowledge, and the stimulation of interest, in carrying out “the great commission.”

“Through the Light Continent” is a comely octavo in elegant type, from the London press, giving the observations of William Saunders on a tour taken through our country in 1877–8. In a chapter upon “Education in Atlanta,” after speaking of the Public Schools, he says: “One of the most interesting institutions of Atlanta is the University for the education of colored persons, under the superintendence of Professor Ware. The Atlanta University has 175 students (the last catalogue made them 244), half of whom pay the fees and cost of board. Many young negroes have worked, and saved up $200 or $300 in order to come to the University. It will thus be seen that the energy which the negroes are manifesting to obtain education is not confined to the ordinary work of the Board of Schools, but extends to the higher branches of learning. About 75 of the students are girls, and their progress is regarded as universally satisfactory.

Professor and Mrs. Ware, who have devoted their lives to this work with true missionary zeal, are now much cheered to find their labors recognized and encouraged in quarters from which persistent opposition was formerly experienced. When they came to Atlanta, any manifestation of regard for the blacks was looked upon as an act of hostility to the whites; but a great change has taken place in public opinion, and it is now generally felt that national advancement requires the elevation of the negro race, and those who undertake their education are no longer regarded with disfavor.

There are many societies in the Northern States for promoting numerous enterprises amongst the negroes. Before reaching Atlanta, I noticed a large crowd of negroes at one of the wayside stations, and found the occasion to be the leaving of a missionary, who had been working amongst them for two or three years, and was then changing his station. The respect and regard paid to him and to his wife were pleasant to see; the missionary was a most intelligent travelling companion, evidently devoted to his work in the genuine spirit of Christianity.”

TWENTY PER CENT.

The enthusiasm evinced at the last Annual Meeting, our freedom from the long-borne burden of our debt, the general interest which seemed to be renewed in the welfare of the Freedmen, and the commencing and anticipated prosperity in the financial world, all conspired to encourage us to plan and prepare for an enlarged work and more abundant results. In carrying out these purposes, the Executive Committee have appropriated about twenty per cent. more than in the previous year to the Southern field.

The total receipts thus far have been very gratifying,—and yet, when we come to analyze them, we find that they are, in a larger measure than formerly, sent to us to be appropriated to special departments of the work, or more often to special work not included in our estimates. This is both gratifying and embarrassing: gratifying, because it indicates an increasing familiarity with the details of our work, and special sympathy with this or that portion of the whole; but embarrassing, because it cannot fail to be a diversion of funds which have been anticipated by us to meet the appropriations already made to new fields, and often to create, instead of covering, expense.

We recognize these needs, of student aid, of woman’s work, and of special endowment, and we would not have these particular demands neglected. It is only that if all the money were to be thus specifically applied by the donors, there would be none left for the main work, on which the ability to carry on all the specialties depends. Don’t starve the body in order to enlarge the hand or the foot. The best growth of all is that which comes from the food, which enters by the mouth into the stomach, and, vitalized, is carried through the whole system. If you appropriate all the fuel on the steamer to the donkey engines, what will you do with the great machinery whose work it is to revolve the main propeller? If in your city water-works, you enlarge the side supply pipes and leave the old mains, you get not more, but less, water into the houses.

What do we ask, then?—1. That your special appropriations be special gifts, additions to, and not diversions of, the moneys you are wont to give to the general work of the Association. 2. That you do not fail in your church, or from your private purse, to give us something this year. 3. That as you have encouraged us to lay out a larger work, you send us for general uses at least twenty per cent. more than you did last year.

THE NEW PLEA.

Henceforth the basis of our appeal to the churches ought to be gratitude, not necessity; thankfulness, not the cry of sharp distress; the impulse kindled at the sight of opening fields, widening opportunities, intelligent appreciation of service done and rewarding results.

The large additions to the churches in the foreign field, their increasing spirit of benevolence, the awakening interest in the cause of education, the world-wide readiness and call for helpers, the cheering indications of an abundant harvest of souls, soon to be gathered, the overwhelming demand in our own land for immediate work upon the frontier and at the South, among the depressed races and the incoming population, the return of prosperous times, and the ever-pressing command of Christ, are considerations so potent, so eloquent in their united plea, that the first thought of him who listens is, “How can any Christian heart resist the new plea!” What can hinder a most liberal investment in causes that promise such rich returns?

Instead of exhausting all the strength of the crew at the pumps in a desperate endeavor to save the ship from sinking, has the time not come, when, with canvas all spread, and the ship sea-worthy, rightly headed and well under way, the main question shall be, how to touch every harbor, explore every river, sail every inland sea, and leave the precious freighting of the Gospel at every port around the globe? Is it quite creditable to our piety, our devotion, our loyalty to Christ, that we can resist appeals based upon love, goodness, merciful interposition, glorious enlargement, and wait until we are crowded to a reluctant response by the plea of dire necessity, overshadowing peril?

There are most cheering indications that the new plea is becoming effectual. We are informed of a number of instances in which churches have lately nearly or quite doubled their contributions to the American Board, and that, too, apparently with great heartiness and joy. Gifts, also, from some private and unexpected sources have been a cheering indication of the advance movement. The same indications are, to a certain extent, true of the other Societies.

A mid-summer appeal for larger and extra contributions, in order to prevent a deficit, ought to be anticipated, and made impossible, by ample gifts now. The volume of offerings during the first half of the year, ought to be so large as to remove all anxiety concerning the state of the treasuries of these Societies when their accounts close. How pleasant, if, at the annual meetings, the friends could be surprised with reports of a surplus instead of deficits.

Ought there not to be a stern purpose to pay as we go, and to pay with sufficient liberality to enable us to go with vigor and dispatch to the utmost bound of a rapidly increasing demand? May the plea of great interposition, great opportunity and great ability find fitting response.—The Advance.

CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.

We reprint the following article from the Christian Recorder, the able organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a significant endorsement of the church work done by the Association, and from those who are most profoundly concerned in the Christian elevation of the colored people of the land. We have not even omitted the sharp criticism of the approving words of those who gathered at Chicago to review our work, hoping that we may thus escape the charge of “Phariseeism” in accepting the commendations and congratulations of our brethren of the A. M. E. Church:

“The thirty-third Annual Report of the American Missionary Association is before us. We wish that we could place the Report in the hands of every A. M. E. preacher in the land. Years ago we called attention to the fact that the A. M. A. was destined to become the strongest competitor the A. M. E. would find in the South. As we declared, it is even now seen. The twenty-three Congregational churches of 1869 have become sixty-seven in 1879. But it may be said, what is sixty-seven churches with a membership of 4,600, compared to our thousands? They would not be much, to be sure, were they of the same general material. But they are not. They are, as it were, a picked body. In a sense they may be said to occupy the same relation to our Church as the regular army sustains to the volunteer force of the country. And we all know what that means. A thousand regulars can do the work of ten thousand volunteers. Is it asked, How is this? The answer is at hand. Each Congregational church grew out of the school which the Congregational preacher in the person of a teacher taught. Knowing his material, and wielding it much as the potter wields the clay, he occupied for his church a position decidedly advantageous; and the result shows that he has not failed to profit by it.

“In nothing that we have said is it to be supposed that we are in wrath at their manifest success. Of course, we have no patience with the spirit of Phariseeism breathed forth in the report of the Committee on Church Work in the South. Nothing that the typical Pharisee of the New Testament said excels it; but for the work itself of these, our companions in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, we entertain the highest possible respect; begging, however, the privilege of suggesting that next year’s report be not so strenuously self-complacent.

“And now we repeat what we have so often said to our brother ministers, especially of the South, where they are brought in contact with this energetic body of men: Know, once for all, that the Church possessed of the best cultured heads and the best cultured hearts, is to win. That we are infinitely stronger in numbers to-day than are the Congregationalists, argues nothing for the future. It is with churches as with everything else, the fittest survives. If African Methodism prove to be that fittest, it will survive. If not, it must inevitably pass away, and only be remembered as a thing of the past. To be the fittest, it is required that she banish all ignorance, all immorality and superstition from her midst. This must be done, let the cost be what it may. Thin out the ministry of the church until there shall not be found an ignorant man nor a bad man in the ranks. Thin out the church itself. Expel the vicious. Drive out the notoriously bad. Have a clean church. Let such steps as these be taken, and African Methodism will have a future that will be to the glory of God and the best interests of mankind. But if she draw back, let her remember that God can take no pleasure in her.”

IGNORANCE OF THE NEGRO QUESTION.

From a paper read by W. N. Armstrong, Esq., before the Yale Alumni Association of New York in January, as printed in The Present Century:

There is an astounding ignorance in the North regarding the conditions and relations of the blacks and whites of the South. The North in full control of the National Government for many years, has had before it a vast and complicated problem in statesmanship. Instead of working at it intelligently, it has lost itself in a fog of political prejudice, and is not ready at this late day to take an honest look into the matter.

For the last fifteen years what have we known of the South, especially of the blacks? What steps have we taken to ascertain the actual truth regarding four millions of negroes whom we suddenly railroaded into our political system? When the General Government wished to obtain facts concerning the geological, botanical and mineral character of the Western territory, it sent out experts skilled in examining, testing, classifying and surveying. These men were kept in the field for years, and their reports fill a score of volumes, and now we know something about the plains and the mountains. For the intricate social questions of the South, that vast tract of unknown land, that section of the Dark Continent in America, we have neither expert or surveyor, or intelligent process of examination, though the demands for accuracy in social science are as imperative as in physical. Visiting statesmen have been there. But was a visiting statesman ever known to report a fact which hurt his party?

Northern men who are in the South for the purpose of getting office will not tell the truth, because it may bear against them. Southern men, as a rule, do not report the real facts, because they are prejudiced. Northern men who have become prosperous in business at the South, long since discovered that silence was golden, and their lips are sealed to the public. The testimony of the blacks is the most unreliable of all for reasons which will be given hereafter. The poor Northern men who have failed to make a fortune in the South have a grievance, and cannot be trusted. It is upon the newspaper correspondent that the North has relied mainly for information. But he is always under limitations. One of them (whom you all know by reputation) said to me—“We correspondents are not sent here to find out the actual truth, but to support the theories of the papers which send us. It won’t do for me to say in my letters that the nigger is to blame, when the editorial columns of my paper say the white men are in the wrong.” The newspaper makes its theory first, or it inherits a theory, and then sends out for facts to fit it. Does not every one know beforehand how every daily paper in this city will treat any given political event? The best sources of information regarding the blacks are his educators. These men, all of them from the North, know something about the negro. Though little enough as yet, Congress has never asked these teachers to tell what they know about him. Facts regarding the lives or the motives of men are not obvious. The newspaper correspondent cannot reach them in an hour, or even in a year. I have been personally familiar with a number of events in the South. I have never known one of these to be correctly reported. Has any lawyer of this city ever known one of his cases to be reported accurately in the daily press? Truth seems to be in a deep well everywhere. The Herald says Edison’s light is a great success. The Nation is doubtful about it. An electrician of rare skill tells me it is a humbug. If we cannot get at the truth about matters near at home, what shall be expected regarding matters in a distant section of the country?

The Republican believes what his newspaper tells him about the South, and the Democrat does not believe it. They never unite for investigation. The historian will say hereafter that the real outrage was in our criminal neglect to ascertain the truth. It is easy to see that it is supremely difficult to get at the facts about two races jostling together, like huge vessels thumping and pounding against each other in a rolling sea.

Last year the negro paper in Charleston, South Carolina, advocated the election of a Democratic mayor. The Republican papers had no use for that fact. It did not indicate the existence of outrages. It was rather in the line of what Tyndall calls the tragedy of science—a beautiful theory killed by an incontrovertible fact. For two years the Democratic party of Georgia has been so broken up that as many as six or seven independent Democratic tickets in local issues have been in the field in many counties, and the white candidate, who has captured a negro vote, sees to it with rifle and revolver that no other white opponent interferes with that black vote.

Facts like these occur by the hundred in Southern politics, but the Republican press ignore them. The Northern men who are educating the negro regard Captain Thompson, superintendent of public schools in South Carolina, as one of the most efficient men of the South in extending negro education; but the Tribune calls him a bloody-shirt orator. The negro teacher is at present his best friend, and his evidence about the whites should be credible if not conclusive.

AN ILLUSTRATED PRESS.

We have received two communications lately in regard to the importance of the Press in the education of the colored people—one from an esteemed friend in the West, urging that other institutions should follow the example of Hampton and Talladega in publishing papers. We are not sure that this is altogether desirable. There must be many favoring conditions to make it a success; otherwise there is a certainty of pecuniary loss and wasted effort. The other letter is from an English missionary in the West Indies, who thus states the case as to the value of periodical literature to supplement the influences of the church and the school:

“There remains, as a means of elevating and advancing the colored people, the Press. The periodical Press has been of untold service in promoting the civilization of the English and American white laborers. It has come into their homes, arousing them, week by week, with fresh power and stimulus. It has filled their homes with pictures of beauty, which delighted themselves and their children, and taught them, indirectly, (and therefore most effectually,) lessons of thrift, neatness and refinement. Every picture of a clean, neatly-dressed child, of a well-kept home, of a happy fireside group, etc., etc., carried its lesson and left its impress, suggesting imitation, and stimulating efforts for improvement.

“Now, what periodicals are there in the whole wide world that will thus encourage, stimulate and arouse the colored people? Not one. I have not met with any English or American publication at all suited to their needs. It is a common remark of the people here, when asked to adopt some reform: ‘That will do for white people; but it is not for we.’ And if the British Workman, or any similar paper, is placed in their hands, it but intensifies this feeling. The contrast between themselves and white people is constantly before them. Week after week they will see pictures of pleasant homes and scenes in home life, and in every case these are connected with the home of the white man. If, by chance, some colored face is shown, it is as a curiosity, like a Modoc Indian, a Chinaman or a Zulu.

“What is urgently needed is something that will meet the needs of colored laborers, in periodical literature, as the needs of the white laboring classes are now met. I think that there should without delay be established in America some new periodical—or some periodical now established should be so modified in the manner of conducting it—that, pursuing the broad lines of humanity, would secure two things:

“1.—In the illustrations, the manhood of the colored man would receive recognition, and his home, his children, incidents of his life, would appear from time to time, in such way as to convey to all colored people a feeling of emulation, a hope and inspiration, stimulating them to achieve better things for themselves.

“2.—In the letter-press, care would be taken to avoid those figures of speech which carry with them an implied degradation of the colored people. To illustrate, what is ‘foul’ would not be made synonymous with what is ‘black.’”

There is certainly sound reason in the above suggestions, and it would seem that good results might follow the proposed plan. Just how it is to be done is the question. The paying constituency of such a paper would probably be too small to make it a matter of mere business enterprise. Perhaps to some one the good to be accomplished may seem large enough and direct enough to warrant the needed outlay of thought, time and capital.

ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.

Raleigh, N. C.—Great religious interest is reported throughout the city. Our little church is sharing in the great blessing—church members are being revived and others are inquiring the way of life.

Woodbridge, N. C.—During the last two weeks we have had a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit. On two afternoons we have had to suspend the school exercises on account of those weeping over their sins. Some little ones will not leave the house till they feel forgiven. Almost all are from the Band of Hope. The older ones look on in surprise at such a work among the children. Some have tried to stop their children from praying, but they could come to school and pray, or go out in the woods till they were converted, and then they couldn’t help it. We have a daily prayer-meeting in the school-house, in which all take part. Sometimes we have open meetings for the children. We have nightly revival meetings, in which the children are taking hold as far as it seems advisable.

Later.—One Saturday, four came to tell us of sins forgiven. Since then, for three weeks, almost every day has brought one or more, till about thirty have believed, and several others are anxious. Most of these are children; a few are pretty small. To-day some of them have been praying, all their spare time, that they may be able to hold out to the end.

It is a time of struggle here. People are so poor as to hardly have enough to eat of the poorest fare, and clothing is pretty scarce. No capital in the place. They spin and weave their own garments, even to the thread.

Macon, Ga.—Bro. B. arrived on the 23d of February, and we began our special meetings the next night. We had several extra prayer meetings the previous week, when much earnest prayer was offered for God’s blessing to come upon us. All things seemed to be in readiness, the brethren of the church are already quickened, and the meetings have been very encouraging from the start. The members have taken hold with commendable zeal, and seem to be thoroughly united. The meeting last night (March 3d) was almost a Pentecostal season. There are fifteen or twenty inquirers, of the most hopeful class of young men and women, and some intelligent middle-aged men. The work is quiet and deep, without noise or nonsense, and seems to be spreading every day.

Selma, Ala.—When I last wrote, I think we were anticipating the week of prayer with hope of some awakening. We observed the days with very good attendance and very good results in quickening members, still the expected ingathering of souls has not been realized. Otherwise we think the church is in quite a flourishing condition. Since the week of prayer, we have sustained three or four cottage meetings every week, with good results, and with the Literary Society, sociables, ladies’ weekly and monthly meetings, and regular prayer meetings and teachers’ meetings, we have managed to keep quite busy.

GENERAL NOTES.

The Indians.

—The House Committee on Indian Affairs has agreed to a bill which proposes to place all that part of the Indian Territory not set apart to, and occupied by, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole Indians, under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, held at Fort Scott, in respect to the crimes of murder, manslaughter, arson, rape, burglary and robbery. The exemptions, above stated, are placed by the bill under United States District Court for Arkansas. The bill further extends the provisions of the laws of the respective States wherein are located Indian reservations to the reservations themselves.

—A bill is now pending before the Indian Committee of the House, upon which Governor Pound, a member of the committee and an enthusiastic student of the Indian question, has made a favorable report, providing for a number of Indian schools similar to that at Carlisle; and it was in this connection that a visit of inspection was recently made by Secretary Schurz, several members of the House Committee on Indian Affairs, and two members of the Board of Indian Commissioners. Besides the general advantages to result directly from education of Indian youths, it is represented in support of the measure that the presence of a number of children from each tribe at schools in the East will be a most efficient guarantee of good behavior on the part of the tribes.

It would seem, judging from the meagre opportunities for inspection offered by a single visit to Carlisle, that the movement promises to be an effectual aid, if not ultimately one of the chief instruments, in settling the vexed Indian problem. If, however, only a part of that which is expected is actually realized, still it will have been a very profitable venture, both for the Indians and for the Government.—N. Y. Tribune.

Africa.

Extract from a letter received by the London Missionary Society:

—“Food continues cheap and plentiful; the market is a great blessing—it fluctuates frequently, but the cause can generally be seen; a recent rise in prices was caused by the sudden arrival of several caravans of ivory from Manyuema. We are doing a little better with the garden just now. One of our new men formerly worked in an Arab’s garden, and under his advice and care we have onions now coming up, and some of the seeds from Cape Colony are showing signs of life. We have a good plot of sweet potatoes. The vegetable called nyumbo—mentioned by Livingstone as being very wholesome—is now procurable in the market; we find them very good and much like potatoes; in shape and size they are like good-sized long radishes with blunt tails; in colour and texture like English potatoes, but stringy outside. Good beef is not procurable. Fish, fowls, and goat’s flesh are plentiful; also eggs and butter.

“Having a good supply of sugar we have tried preserving, and succeeded very well with lemon marmalade and jam of bananas and guavas. Mr. Hutley has acquired the art of bread-making, and we occasionally have an excellent loaf. We both find the maize meal wholesome; it is capable of being made into a variety of puddings. If I were asked of what I am in want in the shape of food, I would say, first, cabbages; second, rhubarb: and lo, only to-day, Mr. Hutley tells me that some Savoy cabbage seeds are showing signs of life! So we may yet, with care, obtain several of the English vegetables, which beat anything in this country, with all its luxuriance.

“Wheat planting begins in a few days, at which we shall also have a try. I think it probable we shall be able to procure ‘whole-wheat meal’ from Unyanyembe in the season at a reasonable price. Men who know the roads in the forest go to Unyanyembe in eight days; this seems to us very near.”