ANNIVERSARIES—THE WORK DURING APRIL AND MAY.
REV. W. C. POND.
My report of progress in our Mission covers two months and even more. It will be difficult to compress within my space all that I would like to say.
Our mission at Santa Cruz celebrated its second anniversary on Sunday evening, April 8. It was an occasion of great and encouraging interest. Instead of the fifteen or twenty Chinese present at the previous anniversary, we had at least fifty with us. Instead of an assembly of Americans occupying in respectable numbers the pews of the church, we had every inch of available standing-room occupied, and I am told, at least two hundred went away from the church door, unable to enter.
The fact that Chinese once settled in Santa Cruz, seem inclined to stay there, and that consequently the membership of the school has been less changeable than in some other places, gave us a better opportunity than is sometimes afforded to measure the progress during a year. The showing gave me great encouragement. There had been marked progress in the use of the English language and in the knowledge of the truth. Best of all, several who a year ago were heathen, now seem to be true followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. The contribution was the largest I ever received on any such occasion, except in our own Bethany Church. It amounted in cash and in pledges to over $100.
Our schools in San Francisco celebrated their eighth public anniversary on April 29. This, too, was an exceedingly interesting service, and our Bethany Church was filled. The point of special interest and encouragement about it was this: That while the exercises were in all respects equal to those of any previous year, we were not obliged to call in the aid of any of our helpers, except as they assisted in the service of song. The original address in English by Lung Chung was a frank, manly and effective statement of his own Christian life, with its faults and shortcomings, as well as its new, strange light and peace.
I lay before the readers of the Missionary the following paragraph, which I placed in the Pacific of May 9. I trust they will be interested in the statement of facts, and am not without hope that they will listen kindly to the appeal:
“The monthly reports for April show seventeen schools in active operation and thirty-nine teachers and helpers employed. The total number of pupils enrolled was 991; the average attendance, 415. The attendance in this city is temporarily diminished on account of the darkness of the streets; otherwise the enrollment would have exceeded 1,000, and the average attendance would have approached 500. Of those now in attendance on the schools 172 profess to have ceased from idolatry, and 116 are believed to be true Christians. Two hundred and thirty-one new names were enrolled, and the total number who have been connected with our schools during the last eight months is no less than 2,356. With the beginning of this month of May, another school is added to our list—the one in Alameda. It has been sustained for several years with a most Christ-like devotion by Mrs. E. L. Wilson. Unable to carry it on any longer alone, she appeals to our mission for aid, and though the operations already in hand task our resources to their utmost, we could not let so good a work as Mrs. Wilson had been doing die for the lack of a helping hand. It will be necessary to raise in addition to the appropriation made by the American Missionary Association, $5,500 to carry this work through to August 31, the close of the present fiscal year. The utmost care is taken to make each dollar do its best, but it is impossible to sustain so large a work on less than $1,000 per month. A careful review of the statistics given above will lead, I am sure, not to criticism of the amount, but rather to surprise that at so little cost so much has been accomplished. Of the $5,500 needed, I have on hand, or in sight, $3,000, and for the balance I make an earnest appeal to our churches, and to all friends of Christ and of humanity.”