OPINIONS.
The American Missionary Association and those allied to it have been the chief agency at the South, so far as benevolent effort is concerned, in diffusing right notions of religion, and in carrying education to the darkened mind of the negro.—Hon. J. L. M. Curry.
Of all the questions which disturb the mental equanimity of the patriotic and thinking citizen of our Republic, none is looming in his horizon with a more lurid and portentous aspect than the black cloud of illiteracy which is rapidly spreading over the country, and especially resting upon the Southern States of the Union. Compared with it as an element of vital danger to the Republic, Mormonism, Communism and Socialism sink into obscurity. The only way out of the unfortunate dilemma or of ameliorating the condition in which the country is placed by the thrusting upon it of this mass of ignorance, is by education—an education both mental and moral.—George R. Stetson.
The real tests of Northern zeal and liberality, of Northern faith and patience in the work of educating the negro, are yet to come. At the first, Christian zeal was mightily stimulated by the patriotic fervors of a great war for the preservation of the Union. In most minds the course of events identified the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery. The tremendous moral and political forces that were at work during the war, and for many years after its close, all conspired to make such an appeal to the thought, sentiment and conscience of the church in the North as was perhaps never before made for any form of Christian philanthropy. Christian men and women were filled with pity for the poor negroes, and there was a movement of "men and money" for their education that was never before seen in this, or perhaps any other, country. The effort was stupendous, and the results are amazing.
But the conditions that obtained from 1865 to 1875 will obtain no more. The enthusiasms peculiar to that period pass away with the coming of a new generation. The work must go on now as the foreign missionary movement of Christendom goes on—by the force that is born of a fixed conviction and an unquestioning faith in God's purpose to save the world and in His plan of saving it.
It is saddening, it is not surprising, to know that some noble men and women teaching in negro schools in the South are discouraged. This is natural, but nevertheless perilous, as well as distressing. One teacher, long in the service, speaks thus: "Some are much discouraged; we have expected by this time to see results more permanent in the negro character; we thought it would be somewhat as we have seen it in our Western colleges after a few years."
Such a basis of comparison is very unjust to the negro and very hurtful to his teacher. We must not forget heredity; we must compare the negro as to education in schools in 1884 with 1864. The white man has behind him a thousand years of the influences that enter into our best education. Yet how much he has to learn! How much easier for white pupils to learn books than virtue—how much easier to acquire knowledge than wisdom! Let us have patience with each other. Let us also settle down to steady work, steady giving and constant praying. This is a work for the next hundred years—and more.—The Advance.
The feeling is too prevalent, even among Christians, that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." If parents would put into the hands of their children reports of our missionaries, so they could see what is being done for the Indians, instead of letting them get their opinions of the Indian race from newspaper articles and from books of Indian wars, in which the rifle and scalping knife were the only arguments used, much prejudice would be removed and the missions among Indians would be better sustained. Further, if parents themselves would take the above advice, it would be time and money well spent, as some grown-up children might learn as well.—Correspondent in St. Louis Evangelist.
Bishop H. M. Turner, of the M. E. Church South, is said to be the first colored man who has ever received the degrees of D. D. and LL. D. He educated himself at night among the cotton fields of South Carolina, and was the first colored chaplain in the United States Army.
It is said by the Journal of Education that the colored people of the country now edit over 100 newspapers, teach 18,000 public schools with 900,000 pupils, raise annually 150,000,000 bushels of cereals and 2,700,000,000 pounds of cotton.