ALABAMA.
Missionary needed.
REV. C. E. CURTIS, SELMA.
We are in the midst of a great union effort here that has been opening the eyes of all the churches to the great need of missionary work right at our doors. The whole city has been districted off and workers assigned from one of the different churches to each district. These are expected to visit every family, take down the name and residence of each person five years old and upward, with his religious condition and needs, present those who may not be in the habit of attending Sunday-school with a card of introduction to the superintendent of any school they may prefer, have religious conversation, Bible reading and prayer, wherever it can be done to advantage, and urge upon all, young and old, a regular attendance on Sunday-school and church services. Every week, we hold meetings to hear reports from the workers in the different localities, and these meetings are intensely interesting. It would rejoice your hearts, I know, to hear the uniform testimony of delight in the work from those who, in many cases, entered upon it with fear and trembling. At the same time, the amount of religious destitution, intemperance and superstition brought to light in this city of churches and schools (there are eight churches and four schools for the colored people here), is alarming. Out of twenty-one families, visited by one worker, only two had Bibles, all but two used tobacco, and the majority whiskey. Of twenty-two families visited by myself, only eight had any church members among them, and the great majority used both whiskey and tobacco. Very few attended Sunday-school. One hadn’t been inside of a church for five years but once, and then only to attend the funeral of a friend. One, who admitted that he habitually used both whiskey and tobacco, claimed to be a minister in good and regular standing among his brethren, and he is not the only such example in the city. Several of the workers, particularly a young student from the Baptist Theological School here, made stirring appeals to the churches that they more earnestly endeavor to bring in the poor and degraded, and make them feel at home in the house of God.
Last Sabbath a young man came to us to inquire, “What must I do to be saved?” On asking what he had been trying to do, we learned that he had endeavored to follow the plain, simple directions of the Bible at first, but so many of his friends had told him that he must stop reading his Bible and go to praying for visions and dreams, that he had become very much confused about the way. Many of them say plainly that they “don’t believe in Bible religion.” They believe firmly in personal revelations from God, and that these are superior to those in the Bible. There is more excuse for them than for others, when we consider that so few can read and judge for themselves, and that for generations the Bible has been, and still is, represented to them by so many to be the bulwark of slavery. But when I think what abundance of material there is among these millions in the South for religious fanaticism to feed upon, it is a wonder to me that they have, on the whole, wandered so little from the truth, that some imposture has not spread among them before this—as Mormonism did at the North and West—and swept thousands of them away. I fear it will be the case yet, if the churches are not more faithful in preaching and teaching the pure Gospel.
Now, to make the matter practical, what can we do about it? Surely, much more ought to be done here by educated Bible Christians; but our teachers are already nearly breaking down with overwork in their regular school duties, there being one less teacher than usual on the force this year; the missionary and industrial work they have been doing, and in which they feel such an interest, they will probably not be able to keep up another year, and Mrs. C. will be compelled to give up much that she has been doing. In short, I am more than ever convinced that we need a lady missionary here, to devote her whole time to personal work among the classes not now reached by our schools and churches, and to take charge of the industrial work among the women and girls. We have in mind just the one we need if her support can be assured. Our church will, I am sure, assume a share of the expense, though it will be impossible for them to do much more than they are doing. Now, who among the friends of the work in the North will help us in this matter, which seems so important?