Vol. XXXII.
No. 7.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
“To the Poor the Gospel is Preached.”
JULY, 1878.
CONTENTS:
| EDITORIAL. | |
| Paragraphs | [193] |
| Permanent, Interest-Bearing Investments.—The Claim of Need | [195] |
| “These Stupid Blacks.”—An Aged Minister’s Enthusiasm | [197] |
| Three Extracts | [198] |
| Obituary.—Items from Churches and Schools | [200] |
| Chinese Items.—General Notes | [201] |
| THE FREEDMEN. | |
| Commencement at Hampton Institute | [203] |
| Fisk University Commencement | [205] |
| Kentucky: Then and Now | [206] |
| Georgia: Religious Life in Atlanta University.—A Photograph with Lights and Shades | [207] |
| Alabama: Dedication of Emerson Institute.—TheChurch and the Literary Club.—Montgomery—SwayneSchool—A Year’sWork—Closing Exercises.—A SurpriseParty in a Southern Church—AnotherFemale Missionary Needed.—A BlessedWork | [210] |
| THE CHINESE. | |
| Jee Gam’s Letter | [215] |
| THE CHILDREN’S PAGE | [216] |
| RECEIPTS | [218] |
| CONSTITUTION | [221] |
| WORK, STATISTICS, WANTS, &c. | [222] |
NEW YORK:
Published by the American Missionary Association,
Rooms, 56 Reade Street.
Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.
A. Anderson, Printer, 23 to 27 Vandewater St.
American Missionary Association,
56 READE STREET, N.Y.
PRESIDENT.
Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.
VICE PRESIDENTS.
| Hon. F. D. Parish, Ohio. Rev. Jonathan Blanchard, Ill. Hon. E. D. Holton, Wis. Hon. William Claflin, Mass. Rev. Stephen Thurston, D. D., Me. Rev. Samuel Harris, D. D., Ct. Rev. Silas McKeen, D. D., Vt. Wm. C. Chapin, Esq., R. I. Rev. W. T. Eustis, Mass. Hon. A. C. Barstow, R. I. Rev. Thatcher Thayer, D. D., R. I. Rev. Ray Palmer, D. D., N. Y. Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, D. D., Ill. Rev. W. W. Patton, D. D., D. C. Hon. Seymour Straight, La. Rev. D. M. Graham, D. D., Mich. Horace Hallock, Esq., Mich. Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., N. H. Rev. Edward Hawes, Ct. Douglas Putnam, Esq., Ohio. Hon. Thaddeus Fairbanks, Vt. Samuel D. Porter, Esq., N. Y. Rev. M. M. G. Dana, D. D., Ct. Rev. H. W. Beecher, N. Y. Gen. O. O. Howard, Oregon. Rev. Edward L. Clark, N. Y. | Rev. G. F. Magoun, D. D., Iowa. Col. C. G. Hammond, Ill. Edward Spaulding, M. D., N. H. David Ripley, Esq., N. J. Rev. Wm. M. Barbour, D. D., Ct. Rev. W. L. Gage, Ct. A. S. Hatch, Esq., N. Y. Rev. J. H. Fairchild, D. D., Ohio. Rev. H. A. Stimson, Minn. Rev. J. W. Strong, D. D., Minn. Rev. George Thacher, LL. D., Iowa. Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., California. Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D., Oregon. Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., D. C. Rev. A. L. Chapin, D. D., Wis. S. D. Smith, Esq., Mass. Rev. H. M. Parsons, N. Y. Peter Smith, Esq., Mass. Dea. John Whiting, Mass. Rev. Wm. Patton, D. D., Ct. Hon. J. B. Grinnell, Iowa. Rev. Wm. T. Carr, Ct. Rev. Horace Winslow, Ct. Sir Peter Coats, Scotland. Rev. Henry Allon, D. D., London, Eng. Wm. E. Whiting, Esq., N. Y. |
| J. M. Pinkerton, Esq., Mass. | |
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, 56 Reade Street, N. Y.
DISTRICT SECRETARIES.
Rev. C. L. WOODWORTH, Boston.
Rev. G. D. PIKE, New York.
Rev. JAS. POWELL, Chicago, Ill.
EDGAR KETCHUM, Esq., Treasurer, N. Y.
H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., Assistant Treasurer, N. Y.
Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, Recording Secretary.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
|
Alonzo S. Ball, A. S. Barnes, Edward Beecher, Geo. M. Boynton, Wm. B. Brown, |
Clinton B. Fisk, A. P. Foster, Augustus E. Graves, S. B. Halliday, Sam’l Holmes, |
S. S. Jocelyn, Andrew Lester, Chas. L. Mead, John H. Washburn, G. B. Willcox. |
COMMUNICATIONS
relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above.
DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as Assistant Treasurer.
A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.
Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.
THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.
Vol. XXXII.
JULY, 1878.
No. 7.
American Missionary Association.
We are happy to state that the “New Cartridges” are in frequent demand, and from sources which insure their best and most judicious use. By the way, that name, which was used quite casually, appears to have clung to them, so that they are called for under that title more than as the Pamphlets. One brother writes: “I am the only one in our religious society that fires the American Missionary gun at the mission meetings, and I want cartridges to suit.” Another says: “I will fire them at my people in the course of a month or two, and you shall have the game.” And a third: “I hope they will kick enough to have you feel the effect.” We refer any who may not understand these allusions to the list of new Pamphlets on the last page of the cover. We send them free to all who will use them and let us “have the game.”
The question is frequently asked, especially at our Boston office, “What is the price of the Questions and Songs prepared for Sunday-school concerts?” We answer: They are furnished gratuitously, and gladly, to any pastor or superintendent who will use them as designed. Only send in your requests for them for this purpose, and you shall receive them free. The interest and the gifts which they incite pay us a hundred fold.
At the Boston Anniversary, held May 23d, addresses were made by Rev. George R. Merrill, of Biddeford, Maine, and by President Buckham, of the University of Vermont. The remarks of the latter appear in full in the Congregationalist.
The season of the year has come again, when the schools are closing, and teachers returning North for the summer. The year’s work being ended, the laborers must be paid. Just at this time the receipts grow less, and the income is not so well adapted as at other times to the unusual outgo. If the churches which have taken their collections recently will forward them promptly, and if those who are purposing to send us money soon will send it a few days sooner, we may be saved considerable embarrassment. We do not want to have a single teacher’s or preacher’s claim unpaid the day it becomes due and is presented.
We have referred recently more than once to special wants among our Southern institutions, especially at Tougaloo and Talladega. Both of these, and Straight University as well, are in pressing need of new dormitories, to accommodate the students from abroad, who come to them for instruction unless deterred by the well-known want of room. Several thousands of dollars have been pledged for the Tillotson Normal School in Texas, an eligible site for which has been already secured; and it is important that this stock should grow speedily to be a fruit-bearing tree. These special needs must be kept in mind, and if there should be, during the summer months, some special pleas for help in meeting them, we trust the friends of the freedmen will be ready to respond, if not waiting impatient to be asked. Some of these college presidents and professors will be in the North before very long, and may think it worth while to tell the things they know and the things they have not got, which are often harder to bear than the things they have. The pleasantest way of all would be for their friends to lay by in store something for them, that there be no gatherings when they come.
Special exigencies during the past year demanded of us that we should have a special agent in the field. It was necessary that the burned buildings at Macon, Mobile, New Orleans and Savannah should be replaced as speedily as it could be wisely and intelligently done. It was not merely to rebuild, but to build better, both as to location and adaptation for the work, with a constant view to economy and the limits of insurance money. The Executive Committee persuaded Prof. T. N. Chase to leave his chair, at Atlanta University, temporarily, and undertake the general supervision of the educational work, and, especially, the oversight of these important measures for replacing, improving and enlarging the school buildings. We have now gratefully to record the achievement of this latter work, in great part, and its forwardness so far as it is not yet fully done. Three of the locations have been changed, involving the sale and purchase of lands. Plans have been made, altered, adapted, in all cases, we believe, to the excellent accommodation of the schools and churches, and to the entire satisfaction of the teachers and missionary pastors.
As Prof. Chase returns to his chosen and preferred work at Atlanta, we desire to express our appreciation of the great value of his services in this special work. Nor has his usefulness been limited to the supervision of buildings alone. He has always had more interest in the schools themselves than in their mere habitations; and his suggestions in regard to them have been valuable and practical, while in many other ways he has rendered important service to the executive officers of the Association. The wider acquaintance which he has made during his journeyings and sojournings with the work at large, will, we doubt not, increase his usefulness to the institution with which he has been so long and honorably connected.
It may be remembered that we said, at the beginning of the year, that we should be glad to make the enlargement of the Southern church work the characteristic work of 1878. We have not done very much as yet in this direction, though the subject has constantly and increasingly received attention and earnest thought. And yet it is a matter which, for practical results, must be considered in detail, rather than at large; in the concrete, rather than in the abstract; and in the field, rather than in the office. This consideration, in part, as well as the frequent need of speedy communication with the various departments of our Southern work, have led us to be on the lookout for a man peculiarly qualified for the position of Field-Superintendent of the Southern work. Providentially, in the changes going on in the Home Missionary Society, the Rev. J. E. Roy, D. D., of Chicago, was at liberty to consider the claims of this position, which was tendered to him. And we are glad to announce, as the weekly press has already done, that Dr. Roy has accepted the position, and will enter speedily upon its duties, making his home at Atlanta, Ga., during the larger part of the year.
It must not be expected by our friends that there will follow this new appointment a rapid and spasmodic enlargement of the Church work, or that the first few months will add largely to the small list of Congregational churches in the South. The Doctor is too wise and experienced a field-marshal to design or desire any such sudden and apparent gain. Nor shall we estimate his efficiency by any such shallow measure. But we can assure the friends of the A. M. A. that the whole subject will receive a consideration careful, patient, and detailed, the results of which will appear in a policy which, we trust, may be consistent and approved. For fifteen years we have been laying foundations with care, in the education of the freedmen and their preparation for citizenship in the State. We believe that this same education is fitting them for a church in which all are most fully citizens. But, after these years of toil, efficient, as we think, and full of promise, we wish to build on these foundations—not wood, hay, stubble, transient and perishable things, deservedly short-lived and weak;—but the gold, the silver, and the precious stones of Christian character and Christian churches, which shall be able to stand all the tests of time and of temptation.