The American Missionary

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields, to the Corresponding Secretaries, or to the District Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.

In drafts, checks, registered letters or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member,

"I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of ——— dollars, in trust, to pay the same in ——— days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

We believe that if we do the work to which God has called us, he will move the hearts of his children to provide the money. By as much as our work is successful, it is expansive. They are following closely in the steps of the Master who are teaching and ministering unto the needy and the poor. We are confident that they can safely trust in his word, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." If God sends our workers out he will send supplies. There is no limit to the measure in which God can work on Christian hearts, to move his children to give for those who have gone forth to "seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness."

While God is abundantly blessing our work in our great and wide fields among four races, we may safely ask our Christian friends to appeal to him that we shall have not only the needful funds to carry on the work without debt, but also enough to enable us to enter the doors which he opens. We are needing eight thousand dollars to keep our accounts balanced, and we ask those, in whose names we stand, to pray that all these things be added unto us. Has any pastor forgotten to take the collection?

Rev. C.J. Ryder, recently assigned to the District Secretaryship of our Eastern District, with rooms at Boston, will be found at the office in the Congregational House, March 1st. He will be ready to respond to invitations from the churches to present our cause, and can speak from a large experience in our widely-extended and varied work. We commend Mr. Ryder to the churches.

President Woodworth, of Tougaloo University, is in the North for a few weeks, and will represent the growing and very hopeful interests of Tougaloo, wherever he may be desired. Letters directed to our office in New York will be forwarded to him.

Prof. Horace Bumstead, of Atlanta University, is now in the North to present the needs of that institution, and we trust that he will have large success. He will be happy to send the Atlanta Bulletin to those who may write for it, addressing him at 148 Tremont Street, Boston. In the light of the large convention of Negroes lately held at Macon, Ga., the Bulletin will be found exceedingly suggestive.

The Indian Presbytery of Dakota, composed of converted Sioux Indians, during the last ecclesiastical year gave $571 more to Foreign Missions than any other presbytery in the synod, and during the last synodical year gave to the nine Boards of that church $234 more than any of the white presbyteries of the synod.

Nannie Jones, a normal graduate at Fisk University, of the class of 1886, is to go, under the auspices of the American Board, to the south-eastern part of Africa, about 600 miles from Natal. She is the first single colored woman sent out by the American Board. She has been adopted by the Ladies' Board of the Interior, whose head-quarters are at Chicago.

We thank our friends anew for the many kind words of sympathy, in view of our loss, and for their appreciative testimonies in memory of our departed associate, Rev. Dr. Powell.

The hearty commendations of the "AMERICAN MISSIONARY," with enclosures for renewed subscriptions, are also gratefully acknowledged.

The death of Mr. Wm. L. Clark, who passed away in November last, has removed from the list of the early and efficient workers of the A.M.A. in the South, one who deserved the warmest regards for his fidelity, his excellent services and his self-sacrificing spirit. Mr. Clark began his work for the Association in 1868, as a teacher, in Bainbridge, Ga., and was subsequently at Thomasville and Atlanta. He was for a time afterwards editor and publisher of a paper devoted to the interests of the colored people and the South. His last years were spent in Washington, D.C.

An intelligent negro, a graduate of one of our institutions, writes to us these words: "The A.M.A. is doing more to quicken the hopes and aspirations of the Southern Negro, and more toward arousing the Southern white man to just ideas of education, and more toward bringing the two races to an acknowledgment of each other's rights and duties, than all other institutions or influences in the country."

When the war closed there were 4,000,000 slaves set free in this country, absolutely poor, absolutely ignorant. The black race doubles itself in twenty years; and it is supposed that there are now about 8,000,000 Negro people. Of these, 3,000,000 may have learned to read and write; there must be 5,000,000 still in illiterate and superstitious darkness. That they are still trying hard to learn, will be accentuated by the perusal of a specimen of letters to us from locations less favored than others:

The American Missionary Association, which is the authorized and recognized servant of the Congregational Churches, reporting to them from the fields to which it is sent in their name, not unfrequently meets the fact that schools and churches in the South are appealing for support to those who hold us responsible for mission work in the South. Thus many in the North from time to time, are contributing to schools or perhaps to churches there, under the impression that they are thus taking the shortest path to the work which appeals to them.

There are many schools, of one kind and another, which have been started at the South by private parties on a purely independent basis. Many of these are carried on for a little time and then are permitted to die out for one reason and another; and many of them are working not only with a great lack of efficiency in comparison with the A.M.A. schools, but without supervision and without scrutiny. Some are located where it has pleased those who located them to reside, without much reference to relative necessities; and some are located so unwisely that the Association has been compelled to decline to take them, when through fatigue or failure they have been given up. Some of them owe their existence to the fact that certain workers were found to be not adapted to the work, or were uncomfortable under supervision and superintendence. Some of them are conducted by those who have signally failed in our schools. Their projectors are often skillful in letter-writing and in solicitation of funds for their specific enterprises, which being purely personal, have no large and ultimate achievement. Those who give cannot know [pg 60] whether the donations are most wisely used, nor is there any satisfactory method by which contributions can be traced.

The Association, with its Superintendent continually in the field, reporting every fact to the Secretaries at the office, who in turn report to the churches, is certainly much better prepared to direct the gifts of the benevolent in ways that shall not be unwise or irresponsible. As these circulars and letters of appeal are often referred by those who receive them to the Secretaries, it is but their duty to say that all funds diverted from our treasury to schools or churches in the South, under no watch and care, would without doubt go further and help the great work more to which the A.M.A. is consecrated, if they should be sent through the channel which the churches have ordained, and which has not only this justification for its existence and work, but also the justification of long experience and success.

If the friends of the American Missionary Association, upon receiving appeals from colored pastors or people in the South, or from independent schools, would remember that their own ordained agency can open and supervise as many schools and churches as they will make possible with their contributions, no doubt less money would be diverted and far greater efficiency secured. Schools in the North without supervision or superintendence, are usually inferior. Much more are these irresponsible, unadvised and independent schools in the South.

Ultimately Christ will, as we know by the sure word of prophecy; immediately, Mohammed gains most rapidly, as present facts seem to indicate. The rapid strides of Mohammedanism in Africa have been noticed by nearly all recent explorers and travelers, but the full statement of the fact has been brought forth more vividly in a remarkable book written by a remarkable man. The book is entitled, "Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race." The author is Edward W. Blyden, LL.D., of whom it is said by a competent witness—and our own personal acquaintance with him confirms the testimony, so far as we are competent to judge—that he is a great traveler and an accomplished linguist, equally familiar with Hebrew and Arabic, with Greek and Latin, with five European and with several African languages, and, had he been born a European, might fill and adorn almost any public post. Dr. Blyden was born a full-blooded Negro in the Danish Island of St. Thomas, emigrated in his seventeenth year to Liberia, entered an American missionary school and rose to the head of it, became in 1862 Professor in the College of Liberia, and, two years later, Secretary of State in the African Republic. In 1877, he represented Liberia at the Court of St. James, as Minister Plenipotentiary, and has been abundantly decorated with honorary degrees.

Dr. Blyden's opportunities for knowing the facts are unquestioned, and his book presents in very striking array the advantages which in some respects Islam enjoys over Christianity in the propagation of its faith in Africa. The discussion has been continued by Canon Taylor of York, England, and, more recently, in a very clear article in the Nineteenth Century, by Dean R. Bosworth Smith. Our space does not permit us either to summarize the facts as to this progress, nor can we present all the reasons for it. But one of these reasons touches so nearly a point that is of such vital interest to American Christians, that we feel called upon to state it and emphasize it. We abridge the full statement thus: Christianity has labored under the great disadvantage of coming to the Negro in "a foreign garb." Its teachers came from a land that first reached the Negro by capturing him as a slave; they came to him with the conscious or unconscious air of superiority born of race-prejudice. Christianity came to him as the creed, not of his friends, his well-wishers, his kindred, but of his masters and oppressors. They differed from him in education, in manners, in color, in civilization. Mohammedanism, on the other hand, reached the Negro in his own country, in the midst of his own surroundings. When it had acclimatized itself and taken root in the soil of Africa, it was handed on to others, and then no longer exclusively by Arab missionaries, but by men of the Negro's own race, his own proclivities, his own color. The advantages of this method of approach cannot be over-estimated. We care not to enter at all into the question of the value of the two religions nor of the good they may respectively do for poor Africa. We wish simply to deal with the methods and means, and with the peoples who may best employ them. We again summarize the language of Dean Smith: The very fact that there are millions of Negroes in America and the West India Islands, many of whom are men of cultivation and lead more or less Christian lives, is proof positive that Christianity is welcomed by them. Is there not room to hope that many of these men, returning to their own country, may be able to present Christianity to their fellow-countrymen in a shape in which it has never yet been presented,—in which it would be very difficult for Europeans or Americans ever to succeed in presenting it—to them, and may so develop a type of Christianity and civilization combined which shall be neither American nor European, but African, redolent alike of the people and of the soil?

This is a point which the American Missionary Association has frequently urged, and which it had begun to exemplify by sending colored missionaries to Western Africa. The experiment was in many respects satisfactory, but we realized that a longer training and a more thorough maturing of character were needed in those who had just emerged from the darkness and limitations of slavery. But what greater hope can there be for Africa than in the training of these millions, so apt in learning, so [pg 62] earnestly religious, and so well qualified to meet as brothers and friends their kindred in the Dark Continent! Here is a work for American Christians, full of promise of a glorious harvest.

After some considerable delay, Commissioner Atkins has issued revised Regulations in regard to the teaching of Indian languages in schools. That our readers may have them in distinct form we append them:

In response to a special application for authority to instruct a class of theological students in the vernacular, at the Santee School, the Commissioner says:

Since writing the above, we have received from Commissioner Atkins a copy of rules designed to explain the orders quoted above. We are constrained to say that these explanations will probably not remove the objections that have been widely entertained against the rulings of the Department. It must be admitted, however, that there are difficulties in the way of formulating regulations that in their details shall meet the views of all parties concerned. On the one hand, there is the aim of Commissioner Atkins, in which we all coincide, to introduce the English language among the Indians as speedily as possible. On the other hand, there is the aim of the churches, in which we are glad to believe the Commissioner coincides, to spread the gospel as rapidly as possible among the Indians. The churches feel that it is a duty they owe to God and to those Indians who [pg 63] cannot understand English to teach them in the language in which they were born, and they believe, too, as the result of long experience, that Christian schools in the vernacular are among the most important means to that end, especially as pioneer movements. American Christians believe, too, that they have the right as American citizens to use their own methods—tested by experience—without the interference of the Government; and we believe they will feel constrained to protest in every legitimate and honorable way against such interference. We hope that the Department of the Interior will yet make the needful concessions.

Rev. Dr. A.G. Haygood, the author of Our Brother in Black, and the general administrator of the John F. Slater fund, was in Macon a few days ago, visiting officially Lewis Normal Institute, which he pronounced an admirable school. The doctor made a thorough inspection of the school, and expressed himself as greatly pleased with its present management under Mrs. L.A. Shaw. He remarked that the improvement within the last two years is very noticeable in all departments, that the teaching is very thoroughly done and the industrial training systematically and efficiently carried on. Dr. Haygood preached, Sunday morning, at the Congregational Church to the edification of all who heard him.

The governor of Mississippi in his recent message commends our Institution at Tougaloo in the following generous terms:

The most important gathering of negroes that probably has ever occurred, was in Macon, Ga., a few weeks since. Five hundred leading Negro representatives convened to discuss and adopt "a thorough plan of State organization." A permanent organization was effected and named the "United Brotherhood of Georgia," the purpose of which is "to resist oppression, wrong and injustice." We note the following resolutions, which were passed by the convention:

The last resolution is not entirely plain to us, and we refrain from comment upon it, but the convention itself, the fact of leadership taking shape among the Negroes, and the forth-putting of their purposes, are very significant.

When the Glenn Bill was born, and when the Georgia House of Representatives stood sponsor for its baptism, we believed that the enemy of righteousness had made a mistake, and that this particular piece of artillery would kick. They who think to thwart the providences of God usually help them forward. Christianity has had many a help from its opposers.

Upon the incidental question of temperance, the sentiments of the convention were voiced by one of the speakers in these words: "The best thing for the Negro is industry, temperance, virtue, economy, union and courage. Get land, get money, get education; be sober and be virtuous. We have drunk enough whiskey since the war to build a railroad from Atlanta to Savannah. The Negro race cannot be great except as individuals rise towards greatness." They are rising. A little more yeast, good friends.

The following illustrations of some features of our work are not sent forth for the sake of a smile, but for the thought which will be under the smile. The text of the thought, which may be expanded at pleasure, will [pg 65] be found in an ordinance of the United States, dated 1787, viz.: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged."

Go to the great physicianer.

I use consecrated lye.

She is a crippler.

I seldomly hear that.

O Lord, give us good thinking facticals.

The meeting will be in the basin of the church.

O Lord, throw overboard all the load we'se totin, and the sins which upset us.

Jog them in remembrance of their vows.

I want her to resist me with the ironing.

I want all you people to adhere to the bell.

There will be no respectable people in heaven. (God is no respecter of persons.)

I was much disencouraged.

It was said at the startment of this meeting.

I take care of three head of children.

We have passed through many dark scenes and unseens.

May we have the eye of an eagle to see sin afar off and shun it.

I have made inquiration at several places.

A letter written jointly to represent the opinions of several persons, thus expresses itself to us: "We are happy to write this letter to you in a conglomerate manner."

BY REV. FORREST F. EMERSON.

The report of the Executive Committee on educational work in the South, confirms the conviction which must have impressed itself on many minds, that the Association is a divinely-appointed agency for carrying forward a work delegated to us as a nation. God calls nations as he calls men, and consecrates them to a special work. Rome had a call, and fulfilled it, under the Divine Providence, and that call was to work out the idea, and demonstrate the necessity, of government, and to cultivate in the minds of men everywhere regard for the authority of law; Greece had her mission, and it was to teach the value of individual culture, both physical and intellectual; the people of Israel had their call to teach the doctrine of God, of his moral government, and of the eternal nature of moral law; [pg 66] and this Christian nation has its divine call, and that call arises from the peculiar relation which it sustains to the other races and nations of the earth.

For a long time it seemed as if this land was to be given exclusively to the English race. The Dutch who settled here were assimilated and absorbed; the Spaniards and Portuguese found a congenial clime in South America; the French, by the progress of events, were prevented from gaining a foothold in New England, and with the sale of so-called "Louisiana"—an immense area extending from the Gulf to British America,—France relinquished her last claim to ownership of any part of our domain. The period of history, from the landing at Jamestown and Plymouth to the war of 1812, and later, was the unfolding of events which pointed to the supremacy of the English in North America. Our religion was Protestant and English; our literature took root in English forms of thought; our free institutions were the outcome of principles which had been, and now are, influential in English politics; our common law was English, our traditions of liberty were English, and that union of liberty and law which makes us strong, we inherited from our English fathers. So that in 1820, two hundred years after the arrival of the Mayflower, we were essentially an English nation; old England broken away from old forms and precedents, the natural expansion of England under new forms of government and society.

Now it would have been pleasant, to human ways of thinking, if we could have remained always thus homogeneous. But God had a work for us to do. We were not left to sit down amidst the vast resources which the land affords for material prosperity, and just watch and foster our own growing and expanding life, but God gave us four problems to solve. These four problems came to us from the four quarters of the globe, the Indian of America on the North, the Chinaman of Asia on the West, the descendant of Africa on the South, and the emigrant of Europe on the East, who poured, in great masses, through our Eastern gates, the German unbeliever, the Irish Catholic, the Mormon convert, and representatives of every race of Europe.

The English race, which still represents the heart and brain of the nation, confronts these four problems. The problem on the North and South we brought on ourselves, as results on the one hand of our neglect and injustice, and on the other of our cupidity and cruelty. The troubles that come to us through our Eastern and Western ports, are drawn to us by the attractive influence of our free institutions and our material prosperity.

What are we to do with these alien elements? Do as Rome did. When Rome heard of a hostile nation on her borders, she conquered it, attached it to the Empire, and made it a new pillar of imperial power. So are we to conquer every element of darkness and attach it to the kingdom of light, making it an element of strength in our American civilization and [pg 67] our American Christianity. The difference in the method is the difference between paganism and Christianity, for while Rome conquered with a sword of steel, we conquer with the sword of the Spirit. We conquer by giving gifts unto men, the four gifts of law, land, letters and religion. We have given law to the African and the European with citizenship and the ballot; we have given land to the African and the European, and, thanks to Christian statesmanship, we will soon give it to the Indian in severalty; and to all will we give letters and religion.

It is the peculiar glory of this Association that it deals more directly than any other agency with the gravest and most urgent of these problems, the education of the colored race, so that while the Government gives the Negro citizenship, and permits him to own land, this society undertakes the work of fitting him for the ownership of land and for the responsibility of citizenship. And it is doing this in the genuine way, through the gospel of Christ, and education as the handmaid and helper of the gospel—that helper without which Christianity would be falsely conceived, and erroneously applied, and without which a failure would result in the ethical training of the colored race. The Association, by its educational work, is thus fulfilling the divine purpose in the call made to us as a Christian nation.

The report of the committee also suggests the heroic element in our work. It brings to mind the obstacles and difficulties which we are called upon to overcome. The illiteracy of the colored people is a fact immense in extent and dark in its prophetic significance. Your hearts were rejoiced, I know, by the statements of the changes going on in the education of the colored children in several States through free schools. The need of this movement will be appreciated when we remember the figures which bring before us the present illiterate condition of the people. I present the outline of a report made in January, 1885, based on reports of Albion Tourgee, and on articles in the North American Review. According to that report, seventy-three per cent. of the colored population of the South cannot read and write. In the eight Gulf and Atlantic States, seventy-eight per cent. are in the same condition. Over two millions of colored people in these eight States cannot read and write. But this is not all. We must take into account the rapid increase of the negroes. In three States of the South they already outnumber the whites. In eight States, they are about one-half the population. In all the Southern States they increase faster than the white population. From 1870 to 1880, in the eight States mentioned above, they increased thirty-four per cent., the whites only twenty-seven per cent. The immigration of foreign-born whites will not change the proportionate difference of increase, as the foreign-born white population has decreased 30,000 since the war, and the immigration of northern-born whites amounts to only a fraction of one per cent. According to the present [pg 68] rate of increase, the colored race in one hundred years from now will have a population many millions in excess of the whites, since, while it will take thirty-five years for the white race to double its numbers, the blacks will do so every twenty years. In less than twenty-five years from this date, the colored race in the South will outnumber the whites in nearly all the States, and then the world will witness a conflict of races, the aspiration of the negro against the caste-prejudice of the white, the end and result of which no man can foresee.

These facts all point to the greatness of the work undertaken by this Association. Christian education is the only education for a race having before it such a future. The illiteracy which we deplore must be overcome, but something more than that; that change must be provided for, when the Negro in large numbers will pass from the quiet and peaceful pursuits of agriculture to be massed together in mine and factory and the work of the mechanic arts, but something more than that; intelligence for the burden of citizenship must be given, but something more than that; incentives to the accumulation of property and the building of homes for themselves and their families must be encouraged, but something more than that must be done. If we were simply patriots, we would educate these people; if we were only philanthropists, or wise statesmen, or political economists, we would still feel bound to educate them. But we are more than these, we are Christians, and so there is one other thing we must do besides these I have mentioned, something which includes all these and so is greater than they all—and that thing is to make them Christian. Education is a part of the means to be used, and not the total end and aim.

For what is education? Not the mere accumulation of knowledge, nor the mere training of the powers of the mind, but the building of manhood. You have tempered your Damascus blade, but who is going to hold it—the patriot, or the rebel? You have your educated man with his printing press, but what is he going to print—the Police Gazette or the Gospel of St. John? You have built your college and found your young man, and trained him up to the very highest point of mental excellence and power, but what is he going to do with his mind? The mind is only an instrument under the direction of the man. The great thing is the ethical man who is going to use this mind. If there is any thing the American people need to learn, it is that there is one thing greater than talent, and that is character—the love and regard for righteousness.

It is here that this Association does its work in the genuine way, regarding education as necessary for the colored race and for all races, not as an end in itself, but as an instrument in the hands of a man ethically and Christianly trained. The gospel must go with the school, so that we may train not only the hand and the brain, but also the conscience and the heart. When I think of the future of the Negro race in America, of the possibilities of that race already being revealed, of the immense political [pg 69] significance of its position to-day, of the certain increase of its numbers, of the inevitable collision of races by and by, unless there be a change in the spirit of the whites, I feel that no education is to be trusted but Christian education, an education based on the gospel of Christ.

And to what purpose can any of us, with better hope of success, devote our time, our money, our labor? Let us have more money for this work. I would say no word to depreciate foreign missions, but is not this after all the work of foreign missions? How will you influence the future of China, or of Japan, or of Africa, or of Europe, in more direct, sympathetic, permanent ways, than by giving the gospel, and the education that goes with the gospel, to those at our very doors from all these lands, who shall carry back, and send back, to their own native countries the same gospel they have learned in this?

BY A PASTOR IN THE SOUTH.

Dear Friends:

I have never seen a worse day in the Territory than to-day. The snow was about two feet deep and light. Last night the wind began to blow, and to-day it is blowing a gale and the snow flies like powdered glass. Neither man nor beast can endure it. I cannot see my stable, which is within a stone's-throw of the house. I have wood and water enough in the house to last two or three days; so I shall not suffer personally, and I will spend the time of imprisonment in writing, if I can, between making fires. The snow sifts through my door and window until I have a regular snowbank all along the inside of the house. Though I am warm right by the [pg 70] stove, yet I cannot get the room warm enough to melt the snow. Last winter and this are the hardest I have ever seen in the Territory.

So dear Dr. Powell has gone home! No one should feel sorry for him. How grand and glorious thus to be called home to God! I do not think the work here will suffer because he has gone from our sight. He is only promoted. God will no doubt let him work on in heaven; only gone from the ills that the flesh is heir to. Dead? Oh no! he is not dead. He is living evermore. May we all be as ready as was he for the final call!

On the same day that he died, we trust that there passed through the gates with him one of our Indian boys, whose cause Dr. Powell had so eloquently pleaded. Harry Little-Eagle died like a hero. No one ever suffered more for four months than he, and not once did his faith fail. He prayed and sang, and talked for Jesus as long as his strength held out. The night before he died his voice returned, and he said: "God gave it back to me and told me to talk to the people." He did. He said: "I am going home, God will give me a greater work there to do. Do not cry. You must keep a stout heart and give my message to all the people." Then he prayed, "O Father, keep a big work for me. I have not lived here long. I have only known thee a short time, and I have been a great sufferer. I have done nothing for thee. Keep some work up there for me. I want to help you." Then he said: "Tell Winona to be brave; tell her to have a strong will; tell her to seek out the lost; some will believe and be saved. Tell her to continue to work for the people." I asked, "Are you afraid now, when you are so near the water?" "No," he replied, "I am in a hurry to go home." To his father he said: "God will send you a comforter. I will help prepare a home for you, and my mother and sister and brother. I shall wait for you."

His father, Little-Eagle, seems inspired. New Year's Day he stood up before some Teton Indians and said: "I am one of you. You all know me. You all see me. You see the same body that has been on the war-path with you many times; the same body that has been rigged out in paint and feathers and rattlers, and has danced with you in the dance. The body is the same, but that is all. The part of me that your eyes cannot see is not the same. I am not the same. I think differently; I feel differently; I plan differently. I like different things; I am a new man. My heart is made clean in Christ. When I first tried to follow Christ, I was satisfied. I tried to do right and I thought God would own me. When my boy died he said: 'Tell the people that God has said, "Thou shalt have no God but me. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy."' Then my heart was heavy. All day and night I sat mute. I said: 'I have done all these things and my boy never did any of them. He will be saved and I shall be lost.' I went to Winona and told her. She told me: 'My friend, if we never had sinned, Christ would not have died. Because [pg 71] you sinned and broke God's laws, Christ died for you. His death makes you his.' Then light came. Yes, I am a sinner, just like the rest of you. We have all done the same things. Now I stand here acquitted. Come to Christ. Come to God. You seek after food for the body; that is all your thought. I sought God, and when I sowed my seed in the spring, I prayed to God and attended to my soul, and God has taken care of my body. I wished, and he made my field flourish when all yours dried up in the sun. If you will seek God he will take care of your bodies. Trust in the Lord. Put away heathen dances and plays. Be not like children; be men and women and God will feed you."

These were his words. He spoke the truth, for he is the only Indian who had an abundant crop.

Little Eagle cannot speak an English word. His son Harry who died could read English a little. He learned at Santee. But his knowledge of the Bible, and his Bible-reading to the people and his work for Christ, were in his own tongue. It was the truth in his own tongue that saved Little Eagle. Shall we not, then, teach the children Christian truths in their own language?

Chin Toy was a shoemaker until he accepted my invitation to become a Missionary Helper. His education, in English and as a Christian, has been wholly in our humble mission work. He is now engaged in evangelistic service. Having recently returned from a visit to his native land, I asked him to give me an account of his experience there. I give it below to the readers of the Missionary. W.C. POND.

DEAR PASTOR:—You asked me kindly to give you my experience during my visit in China. I stayed home about ten months. I had a very hard time there at first, because I have no Christian friends who live near enough to help me. The temptations around me very great. My father and my uncle wanted me to help in their store: they had sacrifice-paper and candles for the offering of idols for sale. This hurted my feeling very much. I told them I was a Christian. I could not help in that business, for I know it was against the law of the true God. They laughed at me and said I was very foolish to believe such a doctrine. I found it very difficult to enlighten their minds.

Two weeks after I got home was a birthday of my grandfather, who died many years ago. My father set some sacrifices on the parlor table, before the ancestral tablet; he wanted me to bow down and worship with him, but I refused. I told him while I honored my grandfather a great deal, yet I could not worship him. The Christians only worship the one true God. This made him very angry at me, he so angry that he did not [pg 72] take his breakfast that morning. From this time on, my father was cross to me very often, he called me a man without conscience. I did not mind about that, for I knew he loved me in his heart. He had not learned what Christianity was. I tried to please him all I could. When he scolded me I answered him softly. I prayed for him and for all my relatives every day. I asked the Lord to send the Holy Spirit to them, that they might prove what was good. Two or three months afterward, I found my father and relatives changed a great deal. They seemed to like Christianity more than they did.

Sometimes I showed them some things which they never saw before, such as photograph album, Holy Bible, book of mission stories with many pictures in it. I explained the pictures to them and they were all pleased. I also told them that these good books were presented by my kind teachers. I gave the names of these faithful workers of the Lord and said they were the best friends of the Chinese, the reason was that they love Jesus. I then went on and told them about the true God, and his blessed Son Jesus, who love the whole world. They all kept quiet and listen attentively. Besides these, I show them my coal-oil stove, alarm clock, thermometer, etc. These things greatly pleased them. I told them the wonderful arts, the machineries, railways and the telegraphs. These news led them spoke out in a loud voice, "The people in Christian land have more wisdom than our Chinese." I said, "God gave this wisdom, our Chinese must love the true God and forsake the idols, then God will send the Holy Spirit to make us wise and happy, and love to do good. The Bible says, Trust the Lord and do good." After this, I found opportunity to preach the gospel every day. Though I could not make them become Christians yet, I was glad they shew so much interest in receiving the good seeds. Nearly every day, some people came in our little store and asked me to tell them about this new doctrine. During March, Rev. C.R. Hager paid us a visit. Our store was crowded with people. They all came to see him. He preached to them. Several of the students had a long talk with him.

On the day of my marriage, my father did not compel me to worship the idols and ancestors. I felt very thankful for the Lord's help in this matter. My mother used to believe in all kinds of superstitions. If any one in the family was sick, she would go to a sorcerer and ask for some charms to heal the sick one. I told her that this kind of belief and doing were all wrong. I shew her how to pray the true God, and taught her to say the Lord's prayer. One day my sister was sick in bed, and my mother called me home to pray for her. I asked my mother whether she had been to the sorcerer or not. She said she had not. I then opened the Bible and read the first eleven verses from the fourth chapter of Matthew. I knelt and prayed, while my mother and all the rest of the family kept silent. When I said the Lord's prayer at the close, I asked them to follow [pg 73] me, but they were too bashful to comply. I am glad to say that my sister's health was restored, and this greatly pleased my mother.

During the month of March, the Chinese worship their ancestors at their respective graves. This kind of worship has two meanings, one is to repair and decorate the graves, the other, to worship with sacrifice, consisting of already cooked chicken and pork, and paper which represents money and clothing. My father and relatives, of course, follow the same custom. I accompanied them to the graves, but I only helped them in repairing the graves. Some of these relatives were school teachers. They spoke scornfully at me for not worshiping. They said, "You cannot show honor to your ancestors without kneeling before them." I then said to them, "Can you tell me the origin of sacrifice? Who established it, and for what purpose?" This seemed to strike them like lightning, for they all stood and had nothing to say. I then said, let me give you the origin. I told them that after God created heaven and earth and all things, he finally made a man and a woman, and placed them in Eden, the paradise, and how they sinned against God's command by eating the forbidden fruit. This brought death into the world. They were driven out of Paradise and had to work hard for a livelihood, but God was so merciful that he promised that the seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent; that is, he would provide a Saviour, by which death could be conquered. God told them that when they sinned again, they must offer sacrifice and confess their sins, then God would forgive them. From that time on, the people offer sacrifice. This sacrifice is a type of Jesus, who gave his life and died on the cross for all who are willing to believe in him. So Jesus paid it all, and after his crucifixion there is no more offering required. That is the reason why the Christians do not offer sacrifice, and why I do not worship in this manner. For no one deserves our worship but God alone. I only honor the ancestors with my heart. I love them just as much as you do yourselves.

When they heard this explanation, they were greatly surprised. Then they spoke among themselves by saying, "His doctrine is good; this is all news to us; our Confucius books never tell us about the origin of sacrifice." This seemed to break down their pride a great deal, and after this they shew great willingness to listen to the Word of Life. Oh! how I long to have them learn of Jesus and become His followers. I not only pray for them, but every one in our village. May the Lord bless the seed sown in their hearts. Moreover, may He enlighten every soul in China. Yours in Christ, CHIN TOY.

We are in need of clothing to be sent to our mission stations in the South. Second-hand clothing will be of use if it is yet durable. All such helps should be sent to our office in New York, 56 Reade St., and we will forward promptly where most needed.

MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY.

ME.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VT.—Woman's Aid to A.M.A., Chairman of Committee, Mrs. Henry Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury, Vt.

CONN.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford, Conn.

N.Y.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.C. Creegan, Syracuse, N.Y.

OHIO.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin, Ohio.

ILL.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago, I11.

MICH.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Mary B. Warren, Lansing, Mich.

WIS.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. C. Matter, Brodhead, Wis.

MINN.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. H.L. Chase, 2,750 Second Ave., South, Minneapolis, Minn.

IOWA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. Ella B. Marsh, Grinnell, Iowa.

KANSAS.—Woman's Home Miss. Society, Secretary, Mrs. Addison Blanchard, Topeka, Kan.

SOUTH DAKOTA.—Woman's Home Miss. Union, Secretary, Mrs. W.H. Thrall, Amour, Dak.

Not many weeks since, the Congregational Sunday-school of Ithaca, N.Y., sent us forty-five dollars towards the education of an Indian girl at Santee Agency, saying "we expect to make it seventy dollars." The story "How I Became A Golden Missionary," tells how they did it. It is a clear case of evolution. If any of our young people do not know what evolution is, they can learn how to start one by reading

My birthplace was in a very Superior region, as for millions of years I had dwelt near Lake Superior. My superior quality almost defied the arts of man. I first became conscious of existence when being liberated from my copper prison. I was, as I heard men say, ninety per cent. pure copper. Up to this time I had never been disturbed, but now sounded sharply the click of the hammer upon the cold chisel that rudely separated me from all that had been most closely associated with me. I heard men say that I was to be made over; and I was transported far away to a place where I was exposed to fierce fires, and without suffering I was made to assume a liquid form. I was then poured into a mold from which I came out, verily, a new creature. I was very bright and beautiful, shining and glowing, as if still retaining in myself the fires that had transformed me. I now discovered that I had a new name, for they called me "One Cent," and gave me this motto, "In God we trust."

I heard it said that I was a tool to assist in civilization, and I soon found myself aiding men in commercial transactions. I had manifold experiences and, like most useful people, found that while age increased my usefulness it subdued my glitter. At last, after many, many years, I fell into the hands of a Sabbath-school Superintendent with a missionary spirit, and by him was distributed with many of my companions to the children of his Sabbath-school, with the injunction to multiply. I fell [pg 75] into the hands of a boy who undertook to help me in a business way which should tend to my rapid increase. At the end of a fixed period I and my companions were to be returned to the Superintendent with our respective gains; and then, after relating our experiences, we were to be sent forth as missionaries to the Indians. Before this, my aims had been simply to aid in commerce, with no definite plan before me, and like all who have no fixed purpose, I drifted here and there and took no special interest in the world. But now I was to become a missionary; I was not only to aid in civilization but in advancing Christianity.

My new aim in life made me anxious concerning the boy who was to be my helper. I took the deepest interest in all his plans in regard to me and listened attentively when he bargained with his father for a fourth of a cent's worth of yarn and the use of a needle with which to darn his father's socks. I thought that a boy of sixteen who was willing to increase me by undertaking to darn his father's stockings, deserved all the aid that I could give him. I looked on with interest and admiration, while he, with earnest toil, completed his task. When the task was ended, I found myself increased from one to three cents. This small beginning was in reality the most important of all our transactions and demonstrated that we could work harmoniously together.

While he went to the St. Lawrence for his vacation, he did not give me a vacation nor wrap me in a napkin, but left me where I grew to four cents. Then we invested my whole increase in hickory nuts, which transaction increased me to fifteen cents. I here discovered that I had not only multiplied but had become of a more precious metal. I was now silver. We now invested in peanuts and hickory nuts and I was increased from fifteen to thirty cents. The community in which we lived manifested such a fondness for peanuts that we again invested and I found myself increased to seventy-five cents.

Coming in contact with one who mourned over sleepless nights, we undertook to add to her comfort by making a hop pillow. Having invested in materials, and the boy making the pillow himself upon the machine, we realized an increase of twenty-five cents. Now to my great surprise and still greater delight, I found that I had again been transformed into a more precious metal. I was now gold. As I could attain no higher degree in precious metals, it was decreed that in this form I should go forth on my career as a missionary.

Good-bye to you, Lottie, and Rose, and Marion, and John, and Carl, and Waldo. Our association has been very pleasant together, and I hope that in taking leave of you I am not to pass altogether from your knowledge. I should desire that this history of my growth and increase may accompany me, that in time to come I may be able to report to you of the good that through me you have been able to accomplish. Once more good-bye.

YOUR HAPPY MISSIONARY GOLD DOLLAR.

Among some unpublished papers of the late Rev. Dr. Pike, we find the following story, which we know will be of interest to our readers, both from the sketch itself and the association with its author:

A few years after Gen. Hooker fought his famous battle of the clouds, I visited Lookout Mountain, and, while searching for some memento on the battle-field, picked up a slightly bruised rifle bullet. This to me was a real prize. It was not too large, it would keep.

A slight illness, aggravated by the fatigue of the day, induced me to accept the urgent request of a former acquaintance to spend the night with him upon the mountain. During the evening, I chanced to show him the bullet, saying I thought myself quite fortunate in finding it.

"Oh," said he, "that's nothing. A colored woman after the battle gathered and sold so many that she was able to purchase a cow with the money, and now that cow supports her family."

I left Chattanooga the nest morning, and thought no more of the incident for a dozen years. A short time since, however, I was spending the night in a small village in one of the mountain towns of Tennessee. At nightfall, looking out from my hotel, I observed a company of colored people ambling along towards a low wooden meeting-house, and time hanging heavily on my hands, I decided to join the dusky worshipers. I slipped in, therefore, when the meeting was a little under way, and allowed myself to be ushered up to the front seat, directly under the eye of an intelligent looking young man who proved to be the preacher for the occasion. After a few opening services, which embraced the usual variety in ordinary churches, the minister took for his text the passage, "Ask, and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you."

"Now," said he, when he had gotten on well with his introduction, "you must not believe you will surely receive precisely the thing you ask for in just the way you might like it. Let me give you an illustration from my personal experience. When a little boy, I lived with my mother on the southern slope of Lookout Mountain, and remember well the day that Gen. Hooker fought his great battle up there and how he and his soldiers marched bravely away. For a long time the children and the grown people searched the battle-fields over, day after day, hoping to find things of value. My mother made it her business to hunt for bullets, and at length the number she gathered herself and took from us boys was so great that she was able to purchase a cow with the money they brought.

"A benevolent gentleman living in New York at this time soon after secured the Government buildings on the top of the mountain that had [pg 77] been used for the sick soldiers, and fitted them up nicely for Northern teachers, who opened a boarding-school for white students. I took milk to the institution from our cow, every morning, and how I wished that I might gain admittance to the school and procure an education! One day I heard the scholars reciting in concert, 'Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you.' It came over me most powerfully and I repeated it again and again. I said it to my mother, and inquired of her what it meant, and why it impressed me so, and who it was that said it.

"She replied, 'I dunno. I reckon I'se heard dem words afore. 'Pears like dey was spoke by the bressed Lord.'

"The more I thought of it, the more undecided I was what I could do, or what my mother could do for me, I knew, however, that the Lord could do everything.

"Well, the nest time I met the good-natured teacher who managed the school, I made bold to ask him to allow me to tell him all about it, and this was his reply. 'Our Lord made that promise long before the discovery of America and the establishment of the peculiar institutions of this country. If he had lived at this day, I reckon,' he continued with a look of drollery, 'he would have said "Ask and ye shall receive—if you aint a nigger." I can't take you into my school because you are black, but I'll send you down to the American Missionary school at Chattanooga. You can ask and receive there whether you are black or white.'

"So, shortly after he told my experience to the teacher in the town, who arranged that my mother should take me and the cow to a little farm just out of the city, giving me an opportunity to attend his school regularly until I was fitted to enter an institution of a higher grade. I then went away and pursued a course of study for six years, teaching during the summer and receiving aid from my mother, who kept the cow all the while for her own support and my assistance. I asked, I received, but not just in the way I hoped."

When he had finished speaking, I took him heartily by the hand, told him of my early visit to the mountain and the bullet still in my possession. I talked with him about his teachers, his struggles for self-help, his aim to work for the progress of the church and his consecration to the duties of the Christian ministry. I conversed with him in reference to others of his acquaintance and believe that his experience serves to illustrate the ingenuity of the colored people in seeking their own advancement.

H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 55 Reade St., N. Y.

JAMES McCREERY & CO.

Announce for the opening days in March the initial display of importations of Dress Goods for the Spring and Summer Season. The styles to be shown are a marked departure from former seasons, and include the widest range of superior plain materials, in new shades, and the approved parti-colored fabrics, "Arrowette Cloths," "Ombre Stripes," and "ALMA BEIGE," with hem-stitched borders. A select assortment of wool Henrietta Robes with silk-rope braiding.

Orders by mail receive prompt and careful attention.

JAMES McCREERY & CO., BROADWAY and ELEVENTH ST., NEW YORK.

The best MIXED PAINTS manufactured. Guaranteed to give perfect satisfaction if properly applied. They are heavy bodied, and for work that does not require an extra heavy coat, they can be thinned (with our Old Fashioned Kettle-boiled Linseed Oil) and still cover better than most of the mixed paints sold in the market, many of which have so little stock in them that they will not give a good solid coat.

Some manufacturers of mixed paints direct NOT to rub out the paint, but to FLOW it on; the reason being that if such stuff were rubbed out there would be but little left to cover, would be transparent. Our Cottage Colors have great strength or body, and, like any good paint, should be worked out well under the brush. The covering property of this paint is so excellent as to allow this to be done.

Put up for shipment as follows: In 3-gal. and 5-gal. bailed buckets, also barrels; in cans of 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1-gal. and 2-gal. each.

Sample Cards of Colors, Testimonials and prices sent on application to

Chicago White Lead & Oil Co., Cor. Green & Fulton Streets, CHICAGO, ILL.

6%, 7%.

with a PAID-UP CAPITAL of $600,000, SURPLUS $75,000, offers First Mortgage Loans drawing SEVEN per cent., both Principal and Interest FULLY GUARANTEED. Also 6 per cent. ten year Debenture Bonds, secured by 105 per cent of First Mortgage Loans held in trust by the MERCANTILE TRUST COMPANY, New York. 5 per cent. certificates of deposit for periods under one year.

7 2/3 % CAN BE REALIZED BY CHANGING 4 Per Ct. Government Bonds into 6 Per Cent. Debentures.

Write for full Information and reference to the Company at

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. A.L. ORMSBY, Vice-President and Gen. Manager

The musical NEW YEAR is here, and we greet it with the "sound of Cornet" (or any other musical instrument, for all of which Oliver Ditson & Co. provide the very best Instruction Books).

With the New Year, many new pupils will commence to learn the Piano; to them and their teachers we commend

RICHARDSON'S NEW METHOD FOR THE PIANOFORTE,

a peerless book, which has held the lead for many years, and, unaffected by the appearance of other undoubtedly excellent instructors, still sells like a new book. Price, $3.

CHILDREN'S DIADEM [30 cts., $2 per doz.] is filled with happy and beautiful SUNDAY SCHOOL SONGS, and is one of the best of its class. The newest book.

UNITED VOICES [50 cts., $4.80 per doz.] furnishes abundance of the best SCHOOL SONGS for a whole year. The newest book.

Books that sell everywhere and all the time:

College Songs 50 cts., War Songs 50cts., Jubilee and Plantation Songs 30 cts., Minstreal Songs, new and old $2, Good Old Songs we used to Sing $1.

KINKEL'S COPY BOOK [75 cts.] with the Elements and Exercises to be written, is a useful book for teachers and scholars.

Any Book Mailed for the Retail Price.

Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston.

C.H. DITSON & Co., 867 Broadway, New York.