LADY MISSIONARY IN NEW ORLEANS.
We have appointed Miss A. D. Gerrish as lady missionary in New Orleans, and she entered upon her work there Oct. 1. She will devote her energies with special reference to aiding our work in Straight University and in Central Church, in accordance with the principles laid down in the foregoing article. There is much benevolent and Christian work to be done in that great city, and the A. M. A., unable, of course, to do it all, must make choice. For the Chinamen in America, we are doing our great work on the Pacific Coast, and those who float into Eastern and Southern cities seem to have been brought providentially to the doors of the large and wealthy local churches, whose duty and privilege it is to lead these strangers to the Saviour. As to the maintaining of orphanages, our experiment, thoroughly tried in the opening of our work in the South, when such asylums were more needed than now, proved to us that our broadest and best work for the colored people could not be done in them. We are persuaded that a given sum of money will do more for the effectual elevation of the colored people in connection with our regular work in church, school and home than in any other way. The lady missionary, aiding to make the home of the pupil and parishioner neat, intelligent and pure, will not only brighten that spot, but will render the school and the church more effectual.
Miss Gerrish is no stranger to our work. She has been eminently successful as missionary in Topeka, Kansas, where her remarkable musical gifts, her magnetic enthusiasm, and her earnest Christian character, have won all hearts within her influence. We bespeak for her a share in the sympathies and prayers of the faithful Christian women of the North and West, who toil for the elevation of women who are depressed by poverty and ignorance.
We publish in consecutive pages in this number of the Missionary the Constitution of the A. M. A. as it now stands, and the Proposed Constitution as it will be reported at our Annual Meeting for action. They will be convenient for reference and comparison.
That missionary campaign in Central and Western New York became a success. Meetings, of three sessions each, were held in eighteen places: Penn Yan, (Pa.), Norwich, Walton, Utica, Antwerp, Norwood, Sandy Creek, Oswego, Elmira, Ithaca, Canandaigua, Fairport, Lockport, Homer, Binghamtom, Schenectady, Poughkeepsie. Secretary C. C. Creegan, the manager, represented the work of the A. H. M. S. in all the country, as well as in his own State, using his huge map of the United States. His experience as former Superintendent of Colorado and adjacent mountain country, fits him well for this service, in which he is enthusiastic. Dr. L. H. Cobb, out of his ten years’ experience as Superintendent in Minnesota, and brief work in the New West as Missionary Secretary of the A. H. M. S., was able to say, we speak what we do know in pleading for the housing of the new churches on the frontier. He also makes a forceful appeal for helping them to parsonages as a piece of policy in the economy and efficiency of home mission work. Dr. H. C. Hayden, of the American Board, with singular felicity, earnestness and variation, poured out his soul in behalf of the outlying regions. He, too, had maps; they were of China, Japan and Africa, and right eloquent were they in their appeals to the head and heart through the eye. Dr. O. H. White, Secretary of the British Freedmen’s Aid Society, co-operative with the A. M. A., in behalf of Africa, for the first half of the tour represented our cause, portraying the interest of English Christians in this work, delineating from his ample study the country, the people, and the prospect of missions in Africa, and also reporting the condition and progress of our schools and churches in the South. For the last part of the course our Field Superintendent, as a “returned missionary” made report of his field, representing also our work among the Indians, the Chinese on the Pacific Coast, and the Mendi people in Africa. It was interesting to observe the harmony and inter-play of all the addresses, and so of the several causes. At each meeting there were representatives from neighboring churches, up to seven or eight in number, so that, in all, the words of the brethren were heard by messengers from one hundred churches, by one hundred of our own ministers, by thirty-five pastors in other denominations, and, through an estimate, by seven or eight thousand people. These, too, were representative people; they would report what they had heard; and when they told the non-attendants how much they had lost, this, too, would be a valuable testimony. Pastors not unfrequently announced a quickened interest, and promised to be yet more diligent in presenting these related interests of all the churches; they found that the calling in of these brethren was of the nature of using experts in behalf of the respective modes of Christian propagandism. The men of the corps were delighted with the heartiness of their reception everywhere, and came back with an increased love for the Lord’s dear people whom they had met and tried to serve. Doubtless good was done in sowing seed, which will appear in future fruitfulness in prayer and sympathy and contributions for these several causes, which are one. As the huntsman looks for his game after the fire, we shall be looking for the A. M. A. bagging out in that country, which one of our representatives says is the finest part of the United States.