GEORGIA.
A Revival—Call for a Lady Missionary.
REV. FLOYD SNELSON, M’INTOSH, LIBERTY CO.
We have had, and are still having, a precious work of grace. On Sunday, the 25th, our communion season, nearly a thousand people were present. The weather was very delightful, and everything else connected with the occasion. Sixteen persons, hopefully converted, united with the church. The church is much encouraged, and its future looks very hopeful. I am almost broken down in this long and hard pull, still I believe that with this interest around me I could go on five months longer.
In summing up the converts during this campaign we find twenty at Cypress Slash, 14 miles above in our new field, and thirty-five here, making fifty-five in all. Most of these are not only young in grace but young in years, being from eleven to twenty. Therefore, in order to make them successful and useful Christians, I deem it very necessary to give them uncommon care. A special meeting of a social and religious nature is held Friday evening of each week in my house for them, and each one is required to take a part and is made to feel at home.
A Literary Society is also held at the church on the second and fourth Wednesday evenings of each month. In the former meeting much is sometimes said to correct the errors of home life. The necessity of this arises from the secluded situation of their parents and themselves from the white people. They were not at all situated like those in the upper part of the State among the whites, whose ways they generally imitate, but were left to themselves, with no training except such as was given by overseers and drivers.
This important work is, therefore, left still undone. My wife did what she could in this line before we left for Africa, but since our return her health has been such that she has not been able to do anything. This work is of so much importance, and in such a promising field, that I now earnestly ask, Will not some one of our churches or Sunday-schools send us a lady missionary who can do it?
Actions and Reactions—Temperance and Religion.
WM. F. JACKSON, FORSYTHE.
Our school year closed May 30th, with encouraging results.
This was the first year of real systematic work in the Academy, the building having been finished too late to open at the beginning of last school year.
There is a growing interest in the work. Upon the close of the war, the schools established by the American Missionary Association were everywhere crowded with our people thirsting for knowledge: in the whole South the feeling for education ran high, so that the zeal of the Freedman for education became proverbial. But this proved to be not so much zeal as blind impulse. It is not so now. By a bitter experience, our people have been brought to see the errors of the past. Their present ideas respecting education plainly show this discovery. The people of our community feel that they and their children need it to make them useful. In our school were three women and two men of advanced age, who were diligent in studying, and compared favorably with younger pupils in their advancement, and who are now exerting their influence to bring in others, that a permanent class of aged persons may be formed. Again, many parents have sent children to school to me, evidently for no other purpose than to have them cared for; but now, some of these same parents express a different purpose, viz., to have them prepared for the duties of life. Then, too, there is a public spirit in favor of a better and higher education, manifested in the efforts now being made to establish here an African Methodist Episcopal College and a Methodist Episcopal High School.
Our pupils have been very regular in attendance compared with past years. There have been 113 students in school during the year, many of whom came from the adjoining counties, and will go out to take schools for the summer. There has been much earnest study done by these pupils, who seem determined to surmount the difficulties which present themselves. They have been encouraged to organize a Temperance society, which they manage themselves with credit. This organization is doing much in the school and community to encourage those who are striving to be temperate.
Amid all the flattering results of the year not much could be considered gained were it not for the great revival of religion among the pupils of our school. In April, very many became serious about their souls. They made earnest inquiries after the way of life. The Lord poured out his spirit in copious showers upon these precious souls, and nine were happily converted and added to the church. Thus we feel that God has richly blessed our labors, and that His approving smile rests upon us.