CONTENTS.
| EDITORIAL. | |
| Salutation, 1882 | [1] |
| Paragraphs—A Good Way to Do It | [2] |
| John Brown Memorial Steamer (with cut) | [3] |
| Benefactions | [4] |
| Items from the Field | [5] |
| Indian Girls at Hampton (with cuts) | [ 6] |
| General Notes —Indians, Africa, Chinese | [7] |
| Training Girls for Home Life: By Miss M. L. Sawyer | [10] |
| Relation of the Family to the Nation’s Welfare: by Miss E. B. Emery | [12] |
| FREEDMEN. | |
| Tennessee— Interesting Exercises in Fisk University, Nashville | [14] |
| Georgia— Storrs School, Atlanta | [15] |
| Mississippi— Dedication of Strieby Hall, Tougaloo | [15] |
| Work in the South | [16] |
| AFRICA. | |
| Extracts from Journal of Rev. H. M. Ladd | [18] |
| Cut of Cairo | [19] |
| THE CHINESE. | |
| California and China: By Rev. W. C. Pond | [21] |
| CHILDREN’S PAGE. | |
| How a Strain of Music Called a Wanderer Home | [23] |
| Missionary Vegetables | [24] |
| Receipts | [25] |
| Constitution | [29] |
| Aim, Statistics, Wants, Etc. | [30] |
THE
American Missionary.
Vol. XXXVI.
JANUARY, 1882.
No. 1.
1882.
We welcome the advent of the new year with praise and thanksgiving. The toils and burdens of 1881 are past. The husbandman has garnered his sheaves. The sower has cast in his seed, and awaits the spring time. We greet our friends with hope and gladness. The prosperity of the past is significant. We have a fuller experience, enlarged facilities for work, and a place in the confidence and esteem of the church and the nation that brings with it not only cheer and courage but an added weight of responsibility.
We are, doubtless, on the eve of great events in the world of missions. He who has taught all Christendom of every sect and every age to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” has never decreed such immense strides in the material world as our eyes have seen, without a purpose to overmatch them all by spiritual achievements.
The current of events does not tarry; it rushes on more mightily than ever. We may pray expectantly. We may accustom ourselves to meditate upon vast plans for enlarged work in fields already occupied, and for new and fruitful enterprises in regions beyond. Such gifts from the living as have been bestowed by Mrs. Stone and Mr. Seney, such legacies for missions as were left by Mr. Otis, reveal to us what floods may come when all things are ready, while such revival waves as have swept over Madagascar and the Telagoo people in India are earnests of the power of the Holy Spirit to subdue speedily islands and continents to Himself.
Girt with the promises, and armed with all prayer and faith, we shall go forth to conquer. The day is dawning, the morning star is piercing the twilight, and dark night will shortly be rolled away. Over the continents, over the islands, over the seas, victory is watching and waiting to come; but tarry it will, tarry it must, till we, or such as we ought to be, win the battle in God’s appointed way.
Heaven grant that the day of its coming be hastened gloriously, as never before, by the efforts and events of 1882.
Our Annual Report for 1881 will soon be off the press and ready for distribution. We shall be happy to forward it to any of our friends who will send us their name and address, signifying their wish to have it.
We are happy to give our readers in this number of the Missionary copious extracts from the Journal of Superintendent Ladd, who, at last reports, was at Cairo, Egypt, in company with Dr. Snow, awaiting passage to Souakim, on the Red Sea. The reception they received in Egypt was very encouraging.
The Gospel in All Lands is to be published as a weekly, commencing with January, 1882. It will contain one-third of its present number of pages, but will undergo no other change. The appearance of an illustrated missionary weekly, relying upon its subscription list for support, will mark a new and cheering departure in the missionary literature of the times. We bid the enterprise Godspeed.
Our annual meeting discouraged, for the present at least, a movement for the establishment of a mission in China, under the auspices of this Association, and in this it accorded with the recommendations of the Executive Committee. But something may ultimately be done in this direction, and that our friends may know more at length the facts in the case we publish in this Missionary, Brother Pond’s earnest plea in its behalf.
A GOOD WAY TO DO IT.
A few months since, the cause of this Association was presented to a church in Central New York, after which the minister in charge addressed the congregation substantially as follows: “Every family belonging to this church must wish to give, according to its ability, to the cause which has been so clearly and ably presented. In order that this may be brought about, I have placed a slip of paper in each pew, and desire that each family present subscribe the amount it will give, and state when the money will be ready. At the close of the service I will gather the slips, and compare them with the church-roll. If any families have not responded, I will take a carriage, if need be, and, before the close of the week, call on those whose names have not been handed in, so no one shall fail to have an opportunity for assisting in the great work of advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom.” The result was a cheerful and liberal donation, made up probably from all the families in the church. The clergyman who adopted this thorough and self-denying plan was a pastor from Nebraska, on an exchange for a few months with an Eastern brother. It fell out that he had trained his Western church in the method described above, until all its members cheerfully rejoiced in it, and put it into practice on all occasions when money was to be raised for either home or foreign objects. So that, although his church numbered but eighty-five, its contributions to benevolent objects exceeded those of any other Congregational church in the State. Moreover, this was not brought about by neglect of things needful at home. A new organ was purchased at a cost of $1,000, the money being raised by the same method. The blessing of Heaven was not withheld; seasons of revival strengthened the church, and its membership at present is over a hundred. The perseverance and fidelity of the pastor were not overlooked. Where every one was schooled to give, it was an easy matter to gather what was wanted to purchase a beautiful gold watch as a Christmas present for the minister. The appreciation of pastor and people was mutual—so much so that the church was able to retain its minister, though he was repeatedly called to other places, where a larger salary was offered.
We commend the example of this clergyman and his people to the large number of devoted pastors who are always prayerfully seeking for—“A good way to do it.”