A Revival.
REV. J. D. SMITH, SHELBY IRON WORKS.
During the first week in October we set apart Wednesday as a day of fasting and prayer. On the following Sabbath we commenced a series of meetings, which continued three weeks. Brother H. W. Conley stopped off here on his way from Marion back to Talladega, and preached and labored very faithfully with us several days. Brother J. W. Strong came down and labored with me, preaching the word almost every night for over a week. Brother Jones, of Childersburg, paid us a short visit, and Rev. F. J. Tyler, of this place, pastor of the Union Church (white), preached for us. Last of all came Rev. G. W. Andrews, who preached several times.
Every evening, one half-hour before services, a number of Christians would assemble in the inquiry-room and converse with those who came to inquire of the way of salvation. I must say that the inquiry meetings were the means of great and untold good, as much or more than the sermons, perhaps.
Well, the meetings closed with twenty-one conversions reported. Last Sunday fifteen came forward, entered into covenant with the church, and were baptized, on profession of their faith. All of the candidates for baptism preferred sprinkling—the first instance, to my knowledge, where we did not have to immerse some out of so many uniting at one time; and, more singular than all, a Baptist father and mother presented their infant boy for baptism. When reminded by some of the Baptist brethren that they had “broken the rules of the church,” they replied by saying that if they had five hundred children, they would have them baptized, because it was right in the sight of God. The work has a more hopeful outlook for future prosperity than ever before.
Some eight or ten are to unite by letter, the first opportunity, who did not get ready in time to join last Sunday. Our total membership will then stand about fifty.
TENNESSEE.
A Student Aided.
REV. E. M. CRAVATH, FISK UNIVERSITY.
Our readers will remember a plea for student aid made by President Cravath in the Missionary for October. Soon after its publication this description of the first young man thus aided came, but has been delayed by the special matter which has claimed our columns. There are many more such at all our institutions awaiting similar help.
The first answer came in the shape of a draft for fifty dollars from a good friend of Rochelle, Illinois. On the same day with this answer a young man from Abbeville, S. C., came to Fisk University for the first time, and as he was a good representative of the class of young people for whom our appeal was made in the October Missionary, we assigned him at once to this scholarship.
A brief sketch of his personal history may encourage some of the readers of the Missionary who are yet hesitating to give a favorable answer to our appeal. Mr. Richard J. Holloway was born in Abbeville, South Carolina, in 1857, and was a slave up to the close of the war. He brought to the University the following testimonial from his former master, dated Abbeville, S. C., Sept. 8, 1879;
“The bearer of this, Richard J. Holloway, is a young man who was born in my family. I have known him from his birth to the present time. He early exhibited a desire for knowledge, which he has pursued under great difficulties. Notwithstanding he has made considerable advance, his laudable desire seems to be unsatisfied, and he leaves this section of the country to avail himself of advantages offered elsewhere. So far as I know, his moral character is good. He is commended to the favorable regard of all to whom this may come.” The first year after the war, being a lad of nine years, Richard had the opportunity of attending a school in Abbeville for five or six months. After this he was under the necessity of working with his parents, but contrived to study by himself so that he made considerable progress. During the fall of 1875 he happened to see, upon the table of his minister, a circular which had been sent out from the school established by the Am. Miss. Assoc. at Greenwood, S. C., which was then, and is still, taught by that most faithful and zealous missionary laborer, Mr. Backenstose, of Geneva, N. Y. Noticing that the tuition was only fifty cents a month, there dawned upon him the possibility of realizing his long-cherished desire of securing a good education. Inspired by this thought he left home and hired out on a plantation to earn some money with which to go to Greenwood.
By working three months he earned money enough, so that by buying his food and doing his own cooking he was able to attend school about the same length of time. He then went to one of the upper counties of South Carolina and taught a private school for two months, after which he worked for two months in a cotton-gin near by, while remaining to collect the money for his teaching. Being compelled to use considerable of the money he had earned to help his parents, he again secured a public school for two months, at fifteen dollars a month, and boarded himself. He then went over into Georgia and taught a public school, for which he was fortunate enough to receive twenty-five dollars a month. He was then able to return to Greenwood, where he was again under the instruction of Mr. Backenstose for nearly three months. Under the advice of his teacher, he determined to get to Fisk University if possible and take a thorough course of study, but not succeeding in earning much money by his teaching during the spring and summer, he stopped for five months of last year at Biddle University at Charlotte, N. C. He then undertook teaching again, determined to earn what money he could during the spring and summer, and to get to Fisk University if possible at the opening of the next school year. He only succeeded, however, in getting a three months’ school in Georgia, for which he has only received payment in part. As soon as his school closed he started for Nashville and reached here on the 7th of October, just as the answer came from our friend in Illinois which told us what to do. Mr. Holloway is a member of the African Methodist church, and his desire evidently is to secure an education that he may use it in Christian work among his people.
We are confidently hoping that we shall receive similar answers enough to enable us to provide for at least a hundred such young men as this.