NORTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE.
This is the Benjamin of the Congregational Israel. Its first meeting was held one year ago at Raleigh. Its second occurred June 7th–9th at Dudley. The opening sermon was preached by Rev. Geo. S. Smith, a graduate of the Atlanta University, pastor at Raleigh, upon Paul’s determination to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. It was an able, stimulating, faithful discourse, urging that ministers in fidelity to this doctrine must not be afraid to preach against current sins. The morning prayer-meeting that followed, throbbed and warmed with the idea of Christ as a present, personal Saviour, and all the meetings had a spiritual glow.
Rev. D. D. Dodge was made Moderator, and Rev. D. Peebles, Scribe. The five churches had come to be six, the new one being at Hilltown, in the west part of the State, and having as pastor Rev. Islay Walden, a graduate of the New Brunswick Seminary, ordained by the Dutch Classis of that locality, who had been a slave in the region where now he is preaching the Gospel. A gracious revival, and a meeting-house under way, are the fruits of the first six months of the life of this church. These six churches and the five schools of the A. M. A. in the State, were all represented.
McLeansville was fixed upon as the place of the next meeting, where Bro. Connet has his church and high-school. The Conference was favored with the presence of Miss Farrington, lady missionary aided by the ladies of Maine, and located at Wilmington, and also with a visit from Misses Waugh and Barker, located at Newbern as missionaries of the Chicago Baptist Ladies’ Society. These ladies are doing a blessed work in the region round about. In April last, going together, they had traveled 300 miles, and had held 80 meetings.
Two colored young ladies of rare cultivation, one an Episcopalian from Philadelphia, the other a Presbyterian from Long Island, sent down by the Society of Friends to teach in this neighborhood, reported the happy working of their Bands of Hope, the idea of which they had taken from Mr. Peebles’ Band in Dudley.
Do the friends of the American Board and Home Missionary Society know that we down here are broadening their field for harvest? Some of these little churches reported contributions to aid the white people out West in supporting the Gospel and to send missionaries abroad. The one at Wilmington claimed itself to be the Banner Church of all the constituents of the American Board, having given more than any other, according to number and means, as judged by the report of Dr. Alden.
And so the good friend, “Howard,” who is about to help this church to a house of worship, will see that he is sowing seed in good ground.
Rev. H. E. Brown, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Dept. of the International Y. M. C. A., in his work at the South, has this season held six of his union Bible meetings at Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Dudley, Wilmington, and Savannah, three of which, as will be observed, were in this State. The series has been one of great interest and profit. There are three points of special notice. The first is the quickening of the spirit of Christian union among these people, whose sectarianism is quite intense. The second is the great honor which is put upon the word of God by the constant service of Bible readings, with the plans of the same multiplied for the people by his portable copyist. The third point in this work is, that revivals of genuine Bible religion are usually the result. This was true at the meeting at Raleigh, where there were about 300 conversions among the colored people. There is manifest an abiding increase of regard for the word of God. The quality of the converts is also hopeful. As another perceptible result, union meetings, led by an Evangelist, have since been held by the white Churches of that city, and there were about 200 hopeful conversions in these. We congratulate the Y. M. C. A. upon this successful inauguration of their work among the Freedmen. And we make grateful recognition of the influence of Maj. Joseph Hardie, of Selma, Ala., a member of the Y. M. C. A. Committee, in selecting and introducing Mr. Brown to this work in his own city.
I am happy to make mention also of the work of Rev. E. E. Rogers as an Evangelist in our Church at Macon, Ga. He has proven himself a judicious and successful laborer, wise, earnest and loving. Pastor Lathrop is very emphatic in commending him. Resulting from the stimulus of this meeting, special services were projected in all the other colored churches of the city. And as a matter of fact, revival meetings in the white churches followed. Mr. Rogers had also been a worker of the A. M. A. in former years. We hope that his services in the future may be secured in this line of special movement in our churches at the South. They have come to a degree of intelligence and of steadiness that will encourage such endeavor.