Vol. XXXII.
MARCH, 1878.
No. 3.
American Missionary Association.
By the brief extracts, given on another page, from recent letters of our African missionaries, it appears that they were at last accounts in good health and heart, and hard at work re-organizing the church and schools, repairing buildings, and laying foundations for future work. The death of Rev. Barnabas Root had left the mission without a minister, so that its higher work had been greatly interrupted. To keep the numbers good, and the working force equal to the necessities of the case, it has seemed both to those recently sent out, and to the Executive Committee, that there should be a speedy addition to the Missionary band. It has been the experience of other organizations as well as our own, that missionary work suffers by nothing more than by having too few workers in a place. We hope, therefore, before this number of our Magazine reaches its readers, that two more good men, with their wives, will be on their way to join the Mendi Mission. Albert Miller and Andrew Jackson have offered themselves, in response to a general call read at the Fisk University by Prof. Spence. The former is a preacher who has nearly completed the collegiate course, the latter a teacher just finishing the normal course, and each will be accompanied by a good wife, able to sing and teach: (one of them was formerly with the Jubilee Singers.)
Thus strengthened by the addition of these four “fellow-helpers in the gospel,” we look for good tidings from month to month from Africa, and have less fear that the force already on the field will over-work themselves in that warm and trying climate.
General Charles H. Howard, of the Advance, owing to a recent attack of pneumonia, will, under the advice of his physician, spend the remainder of the winter, and the spring months, at the South. It was natural for General Howard, from his former connection with the American Missionary Association as its Western Secretary, to take a special interest in its work at the South. He has planned, with our hearty cooperation, to visit a number of the institutions and churches under our charge, and to inform himself and the readers of the Advance as to the condition and progress of our work among the freedmen. The Association heartily welcomes all such friendly observation and criticism. General Howard is now at Savannah, Ga., and, after a trip to Florida, will return to visit our institutions farther West in the spring. He will publish letters on the condition of Southern society, and the colored population especially, with whose uplifting he feels the warmest sympathy.