A WEEK’S WORK BY LADY MISSIONARIES.
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SELMA, ALA.
By Miss Mary K. Lunt.
Sunday, Jan. 14.—A bright, crisp morning, and as we prepare for Sunday-school, we think that many of the little ones will be necessarily detained from their accustomed places, or at least, be obliged to see their cards with unclipped figures upon them. But no, one hundred and nineteen are present, a good average, and but few are tardy, notwithstanding that many have walked a long distance, and perhaps without having taken breakfast. At 9:30 A.M. the opening exercises commence—singing, prayer, chanting the Lord’s Prayer, and responsive reading—after which the weekly offerings are collected in envelopes, and the amount subsequently reported, also the number of pupils present, reported by the Secretary. The contributions are appropriated as follows: First Sunday of the month, for needy Sunday-schools; second and third, our own needs; fourth, our church; fifth, foreign missions. Several schools have been aided by this method, and the pupils bring their papers carefully folded, to be sent to other Sunday-schools. Collections last year amounted to $50, revealing the fact that scarcity of nickels does not keep them from helping others less favored. After the re-assembling of the classes, two of which, the infants, the girls named “Buds of Promise,” the boys, “Little Soldiers,” are taught in the rooms below, the main school comprising eight classes and one Bible class; their attention is directed to illustrations and lesson topics on the board by the superintendent, supplemented by remarks on the lesson from the pastor. Some of our teachers and pupils have read original papers on the subject of the lesson for the morning, this being an incentive to a more thorough study of the lesson. At 11 A.M. we are seated for the morning service, and after the usual opening exercises and responsive reading we listen to an earnest discourse, founded on the closing passages of that wonderful Sermon on the Mount, contrasting the builders, showing the foolishness of building religious characters on false pretenses, and the importance of building on the solid rock Christ Jesus.
At 3 P.M. is the children’s meeting known as the “Look Up Legion,” but called by some the “Look Up ’ligion,” composed of members of our own and other Sunday-schools of the city, ages ranging from two and a half to twelve years. Their regular and prompt attendance attests their interest and zeal. One of the members of the choir assists in leading the singing, which is a prominent feature of the hour. Our principal readings and talks are taken from the book, “Talks to Boys and Girls about Jesus.” Always when available we give them a short juvenile temperance story, and distribute books and papers when we have them. Our motto is “Lend a Helping Hand,” and the aim to teach to become children of the Great King, to help others to become such by inducing them to come to Sunday-school and to these meetings, where they can hear about Jesus. One little girl said to us to-day, “I am glad you have these meetings, for I get tired reading, and mamma won’t let me play.” One of the larger boys is anxious to know if we are to continue them during the year. At 7 P.M., with a good and attentive congregation, we listen to one of a series of illustrated sermons, which has been our privilege since Christmas, an earnest and solemn appeal to the unconverted from the passage in Rev. vi., 13-17, plainly proving that the fear and confusion of those who cried “Fall on us and hide us,” resulted from the sinner’s own carelessness and indifference, and it is hoped that the truth found lodgment in the hearts of the hearers, and will bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Our day closes full, and if in after years we see the young filling honorably responsible positions, we shall not regret that we were “sent.”
MISSIONARY WORK, SAVANNAH, GA.
By Miss Jane S. Hardy.
Monday, Jan, 15.—Early dawn found me wide awake, and planning the work of the day. Soon the accustomed “ding dong” caused a general stir in the Home, and the second call brought us all into the dining-room, where we soon satisfied our bodily wants, and on bended knee sought “supplies of grace” for our spiritual needs. Soon another bell announced the approach of school-time, and nearly two hundred pupils gathered, as was their wont, in the chapel of Beach Institute. There God’s blessing was again invoked, both in song and prayer, a few words of counsel were given by the Superintendent, and the scholars were dismissed to their respective school-rooms.