A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It is an inspiring delight to hear and speak the greeting. It is a phrase that comes down to us from the ages. All the more gladly do we repeat it on that account. There are some things, thank God, even in this world, that never grow old. The greetings of Christmas and New Year are among them. This is because they are connected with Christ and his kingdom. True happiness for mankind first came into this world when Christ was born. In proportion as he is received into human life, happiness is experienced. Therefore, in wishing for our readers a happy New Year, we are wishing for them more of Christ in their thought and life.
But Christ never comes into a life to be held there in confinement. He seeks our life that it may become a channel through which he may flow to bless and make happy other lives. He is not only our peace—he is our righteousness as well. How miserable we would be in our sins and shortcomings were this not so! But all the more on that account will we desire to do what we can to make up for our deficiencies. Loving him, we shall want to do his will. He wills that all shall hear of the salvation his gospel brings. We can proclaim the message. He wills that all shall see the power of his gospel in the benevolent fruits of his followers' lives. We can exhibit that power. Where we cannot go to tell the story and exhibit the power in person, we can send. Therefore, in wishing for our readers a happy New Year, we are wishing for them a righteousness that will manifest Christ actually saving the world in what they say and do. Happiness through service and sacrifice—this is the happiness THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY wishes for all its readers, because it is the only happiness worth having.
While January is the first month of the calendar year, it happens to be the fourth month of the A.M.A.'s fiscal year. It is a good time for our friends to make new resolutions in reference to what they will do in support of our work the coming year. We closed last year out of debt. It was a cause for joy and thanksgiving. The Portland meeting felt and expressed it. Letters of congratulation came to us from all parts of the country. But there is something about prosperity that almost inevitably fosters decline. A woe seems to be attached to institutions as well as individuals of which all men speak well. We need $25,000 a month to pay necessary bills. We ought to have $30,000 a month to properly prosecute the work at this moment on hand. Our total receipts at the end of the first two months of the new fiscal year were $33,336. The lowest figure, in order to enable us to meet our bills for the two months, is $50,000. The result is, we are again obliged to report payments in excess of receipts. We do it unwillingly. We want very much to be delivered from the necessity of making special appeals along toward the end of the year. This necessity can be avoided only through our friends' securing increased receipts to our treasury the early part of the year. Now is the time to resolve that it shall be done. Let every church vote to give us a contribution. Let every individual friend resolve that he will, if possible, increase his contribution over that of last year, and that in any event he will by personal effort enlarge the circle of our supporters by inducing some friend or friends to take an interest in our work.
Memorial services in honor of our late President, Hon. Wm. B. Washburn, were held at Greenfield, Mass., Gov. Washburn's home, November 29th, under the auspices of the Connecticut Valley Congregational Club. Addresses were made by U.S. Senator Hoar, Rev. Dr. Buckingham, and President Seelye.
Thirty dollars constitute a Life Membership. Some of our friends utilize their contributions in this way. One of these writes us: "This is my thirty-first Life Member which it is my good fortune to make to your society." A good example to follow.
Lord Shaftsbury once said: "I think it would be of the greatest value if the reports of the various Religious and Charitable Societies were at once, by Act of Parliament, elevated into the dignity of Blue Books. If every Member of Parliament, under the most severe penalty—and more particularly the ministers of the day—were compelled to study them accurately, and then undergo a competitive examination, I am satisfied that great good would accrue to themselves and benefit to their country; their enlarged notions, and probably improved hearts, would be felt in the legislation of the country."
A pertinent illustration of the force of this statement is the speech of Senator Frye, made at the Portland meeting. The Senator confessed that he had not been familiar with the history of the American Missionary Association, that he had been reading its Annual Reports, and making himself acquainted with its work. Thereupon, out of what he had learned, he constructed a speech that was, in every way, worthy of the Statesman that he is. We shall be much mistaken if Senator Frye does not find occasion to use the knowledge obtained in the study of our Association's history in some of his speeches or debates in the U.S. Senate.
The citizens of Macon, Ga., gave Jefferson Davis a rousing reception on the occasion of his recent visit to that city. As a souvenir of his welcome, they presented him with 126 bottles of wine, thirty-three bottles of whiskey, fourteen bottles of brandy, and eleven boxes of cigars. If these gifts suggest anything in regard to the habits of Jefferson Davis, we can readily see that he was not a fit candidate for having the ladies put upon his lapel a blue ribbon. No wonder he rushed into print to assure the public that he was not in favor of total abstinence. A campaign in behalf of prohibition would have a hard time in the region of Macon.
Evan P. Howell and Henry W. Grady are among the owners of the Atlanta Constitution. During the recent campaign on the liquor question in Atlanta these gentlemen were on opposite sides, so that the papers reported that while Mr. Grady was making a speech in behalf of prohibition in one part of the town, Capt. Howell was making a speech against it in another place. Two of Mr. Grady's speeches have been published in pamphlet form, and they are worthy of that gentleman's reputation as an orator. THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY is glad to find Mr. Grady on the right side of this question, and regrets that prohibition failed to carry the day in the election.
The colored people held the balance of power. We praised them last year when, using that balance, they carried the city for temperance. We regret that this year they have used it against temperance. There is no use of concealing the fact. Ignorant people cannot be depended upon to take the right side of any question. It will be a mere happening if they do. The election in Atlanta gives additional emphasis to the necessity of our work in the South.
White ladies so far overcame their caste prejudices as to join their colored sisters in the campaign for prohibition. Together they prayed and worked. Many of the white people were disgusted at this exhibition of social equality. These white ladies have taken a step in the right direction, and, when all their white sisters join them, reform will be well advanced. May the day be hastened!
The rum advocates resorted to all manner of devices to influence the colored people. They had a circular printed with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. The picture represented him standing, with a slave in chains kneeling before him. Under the picture, in quotation marks, were the words, as if spoken by Mr. Lincoln: "Prohibition is slavery; I will cut the manacles from your hands." This was a mean trick. To put such lying words into the mouth of a man whose name the colored people revere next to that of the Saviour, is a piece of wickedness that only rum-sellers could be guilty of. It accomplished their vile purpose, however, in leading a great many colored people to vote against prohibition.
A colored preacher who made anti-prohibition speeches, referring to a statement that their meetings were not opened with prayer, said that he would make as good a prayer as anybody. Thereupon he slowly prayed: "Oh! Lord, I pray thee to help Atlanta in her extremity. Oh, do lift her up and restore her to the proud place she once occupied before these prohibition fanatics got her by the throat. Oh, Lord Jesus, do thou make these deluded preachers see the error of their ways. Do help the sweet inhabitants of this city. [Cries of 'Amen!'] Do restore to them pure liquor, and not compel them to drink the vile stuff sold as 'nerve tonic,' 'rice beer' and 'bitters.' [Applause and laughter.] Give us power to win the fight. [Cries of 'Amen.'] Put to rout the miserable hypocrites who parade as thy servants under the guise of Prohibitionists. Oh, do save us and let us win this fight, for Jesus' sake, amen. [Cheers, and cries of 'Amen.']" What can be expected of a church with such a man for its pastor, and what can be expected of a people if left to such leadership?
Rev. Geo. C. Rowe, of Charleston, S.C., in company with brethren Snelson, Maxwell, Jordan and Herron, going to attend the Association at Macon, Ga., by reason of a delayed train were in danger of missing connection at Jessup, a junction. The authorities telegraphed for the train to wait. When the little party reached Jessup, they found the train in waiting, and boarding it entered a first-class coach. We let Mr. Bowe tell the rest of the story:
"A burly white train-hand came in, and said, in a threatening way: 'The forward car is your car.' We gave him no answer, but kept our seats. The conductor came through and looked at us, but said nothing. At the door he asked, roughly, of a colored train hand, 'Why did you let those men go into that car?' They hardly knew how to act, as we were the only passengers who came on the S.F. & W. train, and they had been ordered to wait for passengers on that train; so, doubtless considering discretion the better part of valor, they left us severely alone, and we rode from Savannah to Macon, an eight-hour journey in Georgia, first class, without molestation. Of course, the white people who entered at various stations stared at us, but we were good at that and returned the compliment. First class, indeed! Men with turpentine clothes, or rags, on; women chewing snuff, etc., etc. If I looked, acted and talked like some of the people that I saw on that train, I should certainly feel myself an appropriate subject for an ox-cart in the backwoods, rather than for a first class coach on a railroad; yet these are the people who object to respectable, well-dressed, intelligent and Christian men and women riding in a decent coach, on account of their color."