“Resolved, That the American Social Science Association learns with pleasure of the work undertaken at Hampton, in Virginia, to spread among the people of Virginia, and of the South in general, a knowledge of Sanitary Science popularly set forth; and that from an examination of the three Sanitary Tracts of the proposed series, viz.: The Health Laws of Moses, The Duty of Teachers, and Preventable Diseases, the Executive Committee of this Association is persuaded that the important task, thus undertaken, will be well performed. We would, therefore, commend these Tracts to all readers, at the North as well as at the South, and would recommend their wide distribution in the way best suited to promote the circulation of them.”
Again, we desire to express our cordial commendation of the plan, and doubt not it will be carried out in all its details with wisdom and energy.
CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH.
That God holds the denomination which stands as the constituency of the American Missionary Association to a large measure of duty in this line, is evident from the fact that by His providence He had been preparing this instrumentality against the day of freedom, and that He has given it now so wide and effectual a door of entrance. At first it entered with physical relief; then with the very first school that was opened among the “contrabands”; then with its system of Normal schools and colleges and professional departments and church organizations. All this was the drift and drive of Providence. To have halted anywhere up to this point would have been to disobey marching orders. And now can anything but the spirit of desertion fail to hear the command ringing on: Go; go, preach; go, disciple the people; go, organize them into the life and fellowship of the churches of Christ? Having started them in the way of Christian education, shall we deny them that school of Christian nurture, the self-governing church? Having given them the elements of the Puritan system, shall we fail to give them its full fruitage? The founding of such churches is but the natural out-growth of this scheme for the elevation of the emancipated race. As in the Interior and in all the West, these ideas and institutions have been a leavening force, so will they be at the South, interpenetrating and uplifting. They will be an example, a stimulus. They will help other communions. Already, our institutions have put not a few educated preachers into the pulpits of the Methodist and Baptist colored churches; and we are glad thus to help in their work. “Expository preaching, with warm application,” says Col. Preston, “should be the preacher’s mode.” Our church members there are gaining the title of “Bible-Christians.” Let churches of such material have a chance.—Dr. Roy, in the Congregationalist.
SUNDRIES.
Iowa Lands, Louisiana Churches, Theological Books.
Of the 6,040 acres given to the American Missionary Association by the Rev. Charles Avery, 1,500 yet remain to be sold. Any person who would like to make a good investment in land, can do so by applying to Secretary Strieby at New York. I found that the railway company were pushing their track along from Algona to Shelby on the Sioux City & St. Paul Railroad. So the branch from Huntington on the same road has been built to Sioux Falls in Dakota.
Since the meeting of the Louisiana Conference in April, Rev. Daniel Clay, and his people at Terrebonne, have enjoyed a revival of religion which has added thirty-four to the membership. This sable brother has been the instrumentality in bringing several of the other pastors of that region into the ministry. Rev. W. S. Alexander, pastor of the Central Church in New Orleans, and President of the Straight University, somehow finds time once a year to visit these brethren and these churches which he broods, in the Louisiana Conference. He says they are Congregationalists, ex-animo. This Christian worker, who was turned back from his mission to the nominally Christian lands in South Europe, finds an admirable substitute in the extreme South of our country.