AFRICAN NOTES.
—Africa is the most profoundly interesting of missionary lands, because it is God’s greatest providential mystery. Great in antiquity, great in its ancient curse, great in its colossal wickedness, great in its hideous wrongs, great in its tremendous difficulties as a mission field, great in its costly missionary sacrifices, great in its future possibilities for Christ and the world. The eyes, the efforts, the progress of the Church of God, must ever be more and more directed to this grand Satansburg, as Dr. Schlier would call this great citadel of sin.—“Bible in all Lands.”
—Africa is the white man’s grave; to him the sentinel of death stands five miles out at sea; pass beyond that line and sleep on shore, and death is almost certain. “The story of all past mission work on that Dark Continent,” says Dr. Blyden, “is one of the saddest of our missionary stories, and three hundred years of European intercourse with West Africa has left the people worse than it found them.” With these facts before me, I do not hesitate to assert my honest conviction that Africa is to be redeemed by, and through the instrumentality of, her own sons. If we will now do our duty to bleeding Africa, and not debauch her people with intoxicants, then we, of the Anglo-Saxon race, may yet sit as a grand jury over that Continent, introducing all the arts of civilization, and all the pure influences of Christianity. I am encouraged in this belief from the fact that no tribe in the immediate rear of Liberia is considered perfect, unless it has a man who can speak English, and this may be the language of Africa in less time than many of us think.—Edward S. Morris.
ITEMS FROM THE FIELD.
McLeansville, N. C.—Bible temperance meetings at McLeansville, N. C., seem to tone up the sentiments of the people. One young man, who at considerable trouble and expense had procured a situation in a grocery store where whiskey is sold, has thrown up his position and gone to work on a farm, because he was convinced that the Bible condemned liquor-selling, and he could not ask God’s blessing upon his daily work.
Charleston, S. C.—Prof. S. D. Gaylord, principal of Avery Institute and licentiate of the Central Association of Iowa, was ordained in Plymouth Church, Charleston, S. C., by a Council convened on the 29th and 30th of May last. Several members of the Council preached in various churches of the city, which fact indicates a growing ministerial fellowship with our missionaries and pastors.
The Avery Institute for the year has numbered 476 pupils, with an average of 376—its most prosperous year.
The “renewal of the Church Covenant,” introduced and recommended by Pastor Cutler, is proving a great spiritual blessing to the church, and conduces to greater watchfulness on the part of the members.
Atlanta, Ga.—On the 28th of March, the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Atlanta proposed that the debt of that church should be paid off. $26, from two Sunday-schools in the North, were handed in by the pastor as a starter. The Professors of the University gave $30 more, and the people nobly came forward and have now paid off all the debt, making some $563 they have raised, aside from current expenses, since last October. They have since raised money, which, with special gifts for that purpose, has procured a fine 800 lbs. bell, which will greet our Secretary, when he reaches Atlanta on the 24th of June.
Marietta, Ga.—A gem of a church school-house, 24×40 feet, with a gallery, and furnished with wardrobes and Sherwood’s crown double desks, was dedicated at Marietta, Ga., on the 6th of June. The people raised $300 for it; two young men in Illinois gave $50, and the A. M. A. furnished the remainder, and owns the property.
C. P. Jordon, a graduate of Atlanta University, takes the school; and Rev. E. J. Penney, also a graduate of Atlanta University, and more recently of Andover Seminary, will have charge of the church-work. Our Field Superintendent preached the sermon. A promising enterprise, strongly manned.
Mobile, Ala.—The Daily News, in giving notice of the examinations at Emerson Institute, says: “Prof. Crawford deserves great credit for the successful manner in which he has conducted and built up this colored institution, which today has no superior in our State.” And Miss Stevenson, of that school, from whom we have had a pleasant call, speaks of a great change in the feelings of the citizens of that city toward the school, its work and teachers.
Florence, Ala.—The Florence Gazette says of the pastor of the Colored Congregational Church of that town: “Mr. Ash has gained the respect and goodwill of all classes in this community, and has accomplished a most praiseworthy educational and religious work among the people of his race.”
Chattanooga, Tenn.—During the absence of the Rev. Jos. E. Smith in Africa, a retired Presbyterian clergyman of Chattanooga, the Rev. T. H. McCallie, offered to preach for his church three Sabbaths for three months, and to extend the time if necessary. He took the greatest interest in the work, hunted up and looked after the members, and, either in person or by substitute, attended the Sabbath services and buried the dead, as if he were the pastor of the church. The Rev. J. W. Bachman, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of this city, also preached one Sabbath, and has expressed the deepest interest in the church, and invited the pastor to call on him.
Berea, Ky.—There were four accessions to the church at Berea on profession of faith on the first Sabbath of May.