He had been a colonel in the war. Since the coming of peace he had remained in the South, to engage in the process of the social and political reconstruction. He felt the desperateness of the case, and yet was hopeful. In our office, he was setting forth the Southern status, and arguing for patient endurance and vigorous endeavor when, in his military phrase, he broke forth: “It is only one shot in five hundred that hits.” Fire away, then, ye soldiers of the Cross! Some of the shots will hit.
It was the Christmas of the year 1865. It was in a Southern city. The preacher, though black, had the frosts of seventy winters on his head. His text was the parable of the vine and the branches. In the sermon of singular unction, he said: “My brethren, we has the advantage of the vine and the branches. They get the sap only in the spring and thro’ the season, but the Christian has the sap all the year ’round.”
Old Whitey.—Lewis Tappan had nothing too good to be used for the benefit of the colored people. While our new Field Superintendent was in the last six months of his course at the Union Theological Seminary, with aid from the American Home Missionary Society, he preached back of Brooklyn for a Presbyterian church of “Americans, falsely called Africans,” as Mr. Tappan was fond of styling that people. His own family carriage and horse he furnished the young preacher all that time for riding out and back. Storms and mud did not prevent the cheerful bringing out of the rig. In later years, upon meeting the preacher, he would always speak with pleasure of the service of Old Whitey. In those days, or even now, how few men would furnish their family turnout for such a purpose!
ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.
Hampton, Va.—The Trustees of the Normal Institute have decided to uniform the male students. A plain sack-coat, pantaloons and cap of bluish-gray cloth have been selected. The suit will cost about ten dollars.
—Seventy young men and twenty-two young women remain at Hampton Institute this summer—a larger number than in any previous year—finding employment on the school-farm, in the shops, knitting-room, laundry, and at housework. The young people are under watchful care and supervision; the family life of the school is kept up, and regular Bible-class instruction on Sundays.