A PASTOR'S FIRST VIEW.
A pastor who was educated at the North and who was graduated at the Hartford Theological Seminary, has for the first time made the acquaintance of his race in the South. He had never met his own people as a race until he entered into the service of the American Missionary Association. His impressions and testimony have, therefore, an additional interest.
In reference to the field: it is large and interesting, and requires more than ordinary attention, both to that part of it under cultivation and that which is not yet. I have arranged my visits in such a way as to make it practicable for me to do justice to both; visiting church members the last week in each month (except in case of sickness), and using the rest of the time (apart from other necessary duties) for visits outside.
I am thus brought into direct contact with our people and learn a great deal about their condition. In some places it does seem actually as if liberty and civilization are still mysteries to them.
When I was in the North and heard or read descriptions of the condition and mode of living of the colored people of the South, I often thought that those descriptions were very highly colored, but I am now perfectly cured of all my doubts. My visits furnish me with the most plausible attestation of the facts. Squalor, with its long train of attendants, may be commonly seen in every direction, and perhaps not confined to the lower-conditioned of our people either. The desecration of the Lord's day is actually frightful. It is very literally used as a "day of rest from labor." On every hand the people are seen resting—resting from labor in the houses, on the stoops and on the streets, instead of being in the house of God. In very many instances, however, we succeed in getting some of them to attend church, but the work is somewhat uphill. I trust that this abnormal condition to which slavery has reduced them will eventually succumb to the effective educational weapon that is being brought to bear upon them, that of the American Missionary Association especially, and may the time soon come for the South when the Holy Spirit working in and through the various missionary Boards, and also other agencies, shall spread righteousness and education and the true art of living, among these benighted people. I am praying, others are praying, and you, too, must help us to pray and to wait for the quickening influences and a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit.