FOOTNOTE:
[F] Deceased.
The South.
A BLESSED SEASON.
BY PROF. L. S. CLARK.
This has been a blessed season spiritually for Knox Institute, Athens, Ga. We observed the "week of prayer." We exerted ourselves in every way to lead our pupils to Christ. God heard our prayers and he is still hearing and blessing us. We have had many a hopeful conversion. About fifteen took a stand for Jesus on the last day of the "week of prayer;" two on the following Monday; thirty-nine asked for our prayers on the following Friday; seven more gave themselves to Jesus last Friday, and we expect that more will come forward, for the spirit of God is with us. The work moves on smoothly.
ORANGE PARK, FLA.—A WONDERFUL DAY—CONVERSIONS.
BY REV. ERNEST R. LATHAM.
Yesterday was a wonderful day for us. We observed the day of prayer for schools and colleges, devoting the whole time to religious services. In the forenoon I preached from Eccl. 12:1, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth," urging upon the students the importance of accepting Christ at the beginning of life. After the sermon we had a prayer and testimony meeting, in which a large number took part with great earnestness and deep feeling. At the close all but two of our boarding students rose either to indicate a desire to be given up more fully to Christ's service or to say that they wished to become Christians at once.
In the afternoon a meeting for the girls was held in the Girls' Hall, conducted by the lady teachers. The boys had two meetings in their own rooms. All these meetings were very helpful.
In the evening in the chapel I preached on the "Rich Young Ruler" and urged immediate decision and full surrender to Christ. The meeting for testimony following the sermon was one of the most remarkable I have ever attended. Several of our brightest students came out clearly for Christ and nearly every one of those who were not Christians spoke voluntarily of their desire to enter the new life. The meeting was very quiet, but many were weeping, and there seemed to be a deep sense of sin.
Every student above the eighth grade is now a Christian, I believe, with possibly one exception, and that one is a young man of fine promise, who said publicly last night that his supreme desire was to be a Christian, and that a great burden had been upon him, night and day, for many weeks. We think that his only difficulty is that he desires the experience he has seen in others and does not see that faith is the door by which he must enter that experience.
I know that you will rejoice with us in this great blessing.
SELF-SUPPORTING CHURCH.
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF ATLANTA, GA.
BY REV. H. H. PROCTOR.
The first Congregational Church of Atlanta was founded in 1867 by Rev. Frederick Ayer and wife, of Wisconsin, the former of whom has entered into his rest, but the latter is still living at a ripe old age in her native State. The church grew out of the Storrs School, the pioneer educational institution of Georgia for the colored race, and was a response to the conscious need of a more enlightened Christianity.
The chapel of the Storrs School was its first place of worship, but there was soon felt a need for a regular meeting house. By the aid of the American Missionary Association and of the C. C. B. S., a handsome and substantial structure was built at the corner of Courtland avenue and Houston street. The $2,000 contributed by the people for this building represented no little sacrifice. All of the work on the building was done by colored men, and the neat, slate-covered brick structure, most appropriate in architectural design, is an ornament to that elegant portion of the city in which it is prominently located. A well-appointed eight-room parsonage stands hard by the church, built by students of Atlanta University. The funds for the erection of the parsonage came in part from a benevolent Northern lady, but the greater part was contributed in pennies and nickels and dimes by the people themselves. The church building and parsonage are located in a community settled chiefly by white people. Once they made vigorous protest, but since they found it is not a "shouting" church, no complaint is heard. They often listen to the services from their verandas, and not a few worship with us from time to time, and express themselves highly pleased.
The church has been blessed in having such an excellent line of pastors from New England. The first was Rev. C. W. Francis, now a pastor in Connecticut. Then came Revs. E. E. Rogers, C. W. Southgate, S. S. Ashley, C. W. Hawley, Evarts Kent, and S. H. Robinson. All of these brethren are remembered for their sterling character and their faithful labors. The present pastor finds living monuments to the toil of every one of them. They have written their names individually on the hearts of the people.
This church has not had an easy road to travel. At first it was despised by the whites and misunderstood by the blacks—despised because of its doctrine of equality; misunderstood because of its newness in these parts. But it was not to be kept back by hatred on the one hand, nor by ignorance on the other. True and tried spirits rallied to its standard, and to-day, in a large measure, it has overcome these things. It bravely stood out for an enlightened Christianity, and its Sunday-school supplied workers for every other school in the city. It espoused the cause of temperance, and has been always an uncompromising foe to strong drink. It held up the standard of Christian citizenship and has stood for an upright Christian life and has been rigid yet loving in its discipline.
Its members make themselves felt in the practical occupations of the community. A sociological investigation reveals some interesting facts. They are engaged in about fifty different occupations; 85 are housewives, 85 are in the schools studying, 31 are household servants, 28 are teachers, 19 are porters, 9 are waiters, 4 are grocerymen, 5 are postmen, 7 are professional nurses, 4 are shoemakers, 2 are blacksmiths, 2 are politicians, 3 are seamstresses, 4 are washerwomen, 4 are postal clerks, 3 are Government clerks at Washington, 12 are tailors, 3 are janitors, 2 are draymen, 2 are carpenters, 3 are barbers, 3 are carriage drivers, 3 are carriagemakers, 2 are cotton samplers, 2 are professional cooks, while the following occupations are represented by one each: upholster, elevator conductor, stonemason, piano tuner, sleeping car porter, dairyman, dentist, bricklayer, restaurant proprietor, photographer, ice cream maker, insurance agent, coal dealer, baker, jewelry clerk, bridge builder, packer, hackman, editor and postmaster (of South Atlanta). May they not say, as Paul: "These hands ministered unto my necessities"?
This church has furnished not a few excellent men who are doing conspicuous service. Among these are Prof. R. R. Wright, president State College, Savannah, Ga.; Rev. J. E. Smith, pastor First Congregational Church, Chattanooga, Tenn.; Rev. George V. Clark, pastor Congregational Church, Charleston, S. C.; Rev. John W. Whittaker, pastor Central Congregational Church, New Orleans, La.; Mr. Butler R. Wilson, attorney at law, Boston, Mass.; Rev. E. J. Penny, chaplain Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala., and others.
The present pastor is the first of his race to be honored with the pastorate of this church. He is a product of the American Missionary Association, having received his college training at Fisk University. He began his labors here immediately upon the completion of his theological course at the Yale Divinity School, in 1894. With his coming the church entered upon a distinct era of its life. Not without some misgivings on the part of many, the church bravely launched out to assume self-support. For some time it had been without a regular pastor, and the flock was divided and scattered. After three years the membership has been doubled and the contributions trebled. Last year it contributed a share of the "Jubilee Fund" of the American Missionary Association. The church is now united and progressive. There is a growing Christian Endeavor Society, a Working Men's Club for financial aid, a Woman's Aid Society for general church work, a Young Men's League for increasing the attendance at the Sunday evening services (printed bulletins of the services being distributed weekly). The church issues the Parish Visitor, a monthly church paper which forms a bond of interest by unifying the various forces of the church.
The prayer meetings are well attended and the Sunday-school is thriving. New members are received at every communion. The week of prayer is followed by a large number of conversions. The membership now numbers 403, making this the largest Congregational Church in the South. Great stress is laid on the quality of the membership, but quantity is not despised, and within the next seven years it is the aspiration of the church to enroll a thousand members. With a continuance of the spirit of unity and work, why, under God, should not this end be realized? The possibilities of a thoroughly organized Congregational Church of a thousand members in a community like this are untold.
COLORED MINISTERS OF THE BLACK BELT OF ALABAMA—EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS.
BY REV. GEORGE W. ANDREWS, D.D.
The so-called Black Belt of Alabama is a wide tract of land extending across the central portion of the State, from east to west, embracing twenty counties, more or less. In general it is level, differing widely in this respect from the hilly and mountainous region lying directly north of it. It is the great cotton producing section of the State. The soil is either sandy or a black loam, and some of it is exceedingly fertile. Here you will find the canebrakes and cypress swamps, as well as the prairies and the vast fertile regions. Here also are cities and towns of importance, such as Montgomery, Selma, Marion, Greensboro, Demopolis, Tuskegee, Eufala and the like. In the rural sections of the belt are the vast plantations and imposing mansions of ante-bellum days. Here slavery was at its best and its worst.
This part of Alabama came to be called the Black Belt because into it were gathered so many people of African descent—about 400,000—to till the soil and harvest the crops. Some say the name originated from the character of the soil. At the present time the ratio of colored people to white people varies in the different counties from two to six of the former to one of the latter. Averaging the twenty counties, the ratio is about three colored to one white, while the ratio in the State, as a whole, is about one to one. It is thus seen that the Black Belt has an interest and a character of its own, and problems somewhat more pronounced than similar problems in other parts of the State. This was far more the case thirty or even twenty years ago than now. It is doubtful whether any other section of Alabama has made more rapid progress along intellectual and moral lines the past twenty-five years than the Black Belt. Here multiplied schools and colleges and missionary efforts have been doing their utmost, and great has been the result.
Just about twenty-seven years ago the writer came from New England into this Black Belt, curious to see and to hear. One Sabbath afternoon it was noised abroad that a famous colored preacher was to speak in one of the large town churches. His text was, "And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels." Rev. 12:7. A very difficult text. The sermon, however, was almost wholly about John the "revelator," and not on the text at all. The preacher began by informing his hearers that John was a very wonderful man, and the Romans wanted to kill him, so they put him into a kettle of oil and boiled him and boiled him, but could not kill him. Hence they determined to banish him to Patmos, so they put him on board a ship and sailed for three months over the great ocean, and then they got out the telescope and looked for three thousand miles further over the mighty waters, and there they saw the tip of a great mountain coming up out of the sea, and the great serpents were coiled around the top and were sliding down the sides into the waters, and there was not a cracker there for John. And so, with scarcely a grammatical sentence and with most unfitting words, he went on for an hour with a discourse full of wildness and weirdness, and full of untruth, while the people looked on with amazement at the wonderful knowledge and power of the man. Twenty or thirty years ago you might hear many similar sermons. But now, were you to go into the churches in the cities and larger towns of the Black Belt, you would find no place for the old-time preacher or the old-time sermon, but instead you would find in the pulpit a man of considerable education and refinement, preaching good gospel truth to an attentive audience.
Some of the causes and evidences of progress in the Black Belt, both of preachers and people, may well pass in review at this point.
In the first place, at the close of the war there were no schools for colored people; now you will find at least twelve hundred common schools for them in the Black Belt alone, besides a goodly number of select and higher schools of different denominations, while just up out of the Belt, in a most beautiful and healthful region, is Talladega College, well patronized by the people of the lower and less healthful parts of the State. These many schools could not fail to set in motion great changes affecting the homes, heads and hearts of the people. The ministers have powerfully felt their influence and in large numbers have been drawn into them or have been driven from the public leadership which they once had. The American Missionary Association schools and churches are at the foundation of all that has been accomplished. Others have patterned after these.
Again, previous to the time when the Christian missionary work began in the South, I cannot learn that there was more than one regularly ordained colored minister in the region under consideration, or that there were any regularly organized churches among them. At the present time there are at least sixteen hundred such churches in the twenty counties, and probably nearly as many ordained ministers—not to mention the five thousand licensed preachers, many of whom are hoping for ordination. These ministers and churches are working out a great problem. It is true that much of the work is of a low grade, but it is equally true that much of it is intelligent, earnest and effective. There are only a few college and theological graduates among them—perhaps not more than half a dozen. There are many more who have had normal and theological training, and a still larger number who have had a partial course of Bible study and who can manage a church fairly well. Of the more than six thousand ministers and preachers of the Black Belt, perhaps it would be a generous estimate to say that one hundred are in a measure educated. These are the leaders of the unschooled thousands counted among the preachers of the gospel.
Other evidences of progress in learning and piety are such as these: All over the State, as well as in the Black Belt, the churches are calling loudly for a more intelligent ministry. Not a few churches have been rent asunder by this issue, the more progressive part going out to organize a new church and secure a more acceptable minister. Scarcely an important church can be found where the subject of a competent ministry has not been agitated. There have also been erected within the past ten years a surprising number of new and greatly improved church edifices. Those whose "care of all the churches" has led them up and down through the Black Belt declare with emphasis that the quality of the preaching has greatly improved; that more books are bought and read; that the churches are better organized; that the conferences, associations and conventions of the ministers and churches are immeasurably in advance of what they were even ten years ago; that the subjects discussed in these gatherings are of a higher order and more intelligently and spiritually handled, and that there is a growing sense of responsibility and an earnest desire to meet it. I have been in many of these gatherings, especially among our American Missionary Association people, where the sermons and papers were excellent.
Also, it should be noted as a hopeful sign that the preachers and many of the pastors are greatly desirous of a more complete literary and theological education. Those who seek such an education are numerous. We sometimes have at Talladega applications from fifty such in a single year. It is often pitiful to hear their appeals to be admitted to school, when denial is forced upon them, since there is neither room nor money. Still, there are many who secure books, seek help, and blindly plod on.
Let no one suppose the work in the Black Belt or the State is finished. It is only gloriously begun. The Black Belt is probably better provided with schools, churches and ministers than any other part of the State. The mining regions about Birmingham and in North Alabama are more destitute and the condition of the people quite as deplorable. There are hundreds of preachers and not a few ordained ministers who cannot read or write, and many more who know very little of God's Word. One such recently sought ordination, and when asked to find the book of Jude, he replied, after a fruitless search, "That book is torn out of my Bible and I can't find it." He was ordained just the same. Our friends may be sure, however, that the leaven has been cast into the meal, and in due time will leaven the mass. But, oh, the darkness, the moral corruption, the sorrow and ruin that comes from the long delay. Where we can put one good minister into the field we need a score, and where one boy or girl is in school there should be a dozen. May the dear Father open our eyes to see His work and to know the joy of self-denying service for Him!