LETTER FROM REV. J. H. PARR, AUSTIN, TEXAS.
Marked revivals have been in progress in all the colored churches of the city. With all the noise and superstition, we cannot doubt that there are not a few genuine conversions. And yet, while our students attend these meetings only to a limited extent, the influence upon them tends to interfere with our religious work.
Last week it was my privilege to attend the meeting of the North Texas Association, held at Cleburne. Tillotson church, on application, was cordially admitted to membership. The same cordiality and courtesy were extended to Brother McLean, late of Talladega College, who applied for membership in his own behalf. Rev. J. W. Roberts, representing the colored church of Dallas, was also present. The dignified, scholarly bearing of both these brethren won for them golden opinions from all who listened to their reports and remarks. Not a few of those who were present at the various sessions were Southerners, but apparently none the less interested on that account. It was my fortune to be entertained by an ex-slaveholder, who served in the Confederate army through the war, but who nevertheless is a warm friend of the Congregational church in his town, and contributes to its support.
The moderator and scribe of the association, seated side by side through the meetings, presented a striking contrast. The first was a business man, born in New England, quick, keen, decisive and energetic, an officer in the Union army through the war, since that time engaged in business in Texas, now the possessor of a large fortune, and thoroughly identified with, and enthusiastic concerning, the material and spiritual interests of his adopted State.
The second was the pastor of the leading Congregational Church of the State, born in the South, educated for the law, a soldier in the Confederate army, for a time almost a wreck morally and physically, but now, by the grace of God, "clothed and in his right mind," dignified, magnetic, an earnest, reverent student of the Bible, an able preacher and a beloved pastor.
Thus, with representatives of the North and the South, the East and the West, the white race and the black, America, Sweden and Ireland, we had at least one marked feature of the Pentecost. But aside from that, the manifest presence of the Spirit, and the consequent harmony and good-fellowship, rendered our meeting in a still more important degree like that season which was the beginning of such a wonderful regeneration in the history of the world. It may be accepted, I doubt not, as one of the signs of the regeneration that is going on in the South, which is less wonderful only in the fact of being local rather than world-wide.