CHARLESTON, S.C.
The past year has been a prosperous one for Plymouth church, notwithstanding the earthquake. The people are struggling manfully toward self-support, and will in the course of two or three years be able to relieve the Association of the greater part, if not the entire burden of the appropriation which is now granted to it.
The earthquake has proven of much benefit to Charleston in various ways—a real blessing in disguise. Many houses have been repaired which probably would have remained unimproved, and the city presents a more lively appearance than before the disturbance. Many persons were shaken into their senses from a spiritual standpoint, and the work of God’s servants has been greatly blessed. We have reaped a goodly harvest. During the past year and six months, 102 persons have united with the church, about 25 of whom were more or less impressed with the manifestation of God’s power in the earthquake. There are many careless, lethargic places which might be benefited by a similar experience. There has been more faithful preaching of the Gospel to sinners since than before. There is perhaps in the South, as well as in the North, too much of a tendency toward speculative and æsthetic discourse, rather than direct and comprehensive exposition of God’s word. Wherever the cross of Christ is preached with earnestness, good results are sure to follow, as is plainly shown in the sequel of the Charleston earthquake.
We are working hard to raise funds for the erection of a parsonage for our church, which will cost about $1,800; we have raised already $400, and have the lot. The parsonage completed and paid for will enable the church to become in a large measure self-supporting. We shall lay the foundation as soon as half of the amount needed is raised. We hope to begin this work the coming fall.
America is a wonderful mission field, and we who are laboring in that field can appreciate the American Missionary Association and its work. Withdraw the influence of this work from the South, and it would prove a calamity more serious in its results than a dozen earthquakes. The needs of the work grow greater year by year, and we rejoice that the hearts of a generous Christian people are expanding and enlarging to meet the demand.
GEO. C. ROWE.
SHOTGUN IN LOUISIANA.
[The outrage referred to in the following letter was perpetrated only a few weeks ago. We suppress names and dates for obvious reasons. We know the writer and can vouch for the truth of the statement. We have in our possession additional and corroborative evidence.—Ed.]
“My very last days at school were saddened by a most distressing outrage in which the father and elder brother of one of my own good, manly, big boys, were shot down in unjust, merciless and indiscriminating slaughter; the other two grown-up sons obliged to flee; the mother, grandmother and two younger children left desolate but not unfriended, and the large, rich and heavy crop, which would have sufficed to send all the children to school next year, of necessity abandoned. That was the trouble: the white men around were jealous of his business methods, his prosperity and his determination to educate his children—said they were ‘getting too smart for niggers’—so, when an alleged crime by another colored man or boy furnished a pretext, they improved the opportunity for wholesale massacre—six or seven in all were killed, some of them resisting and killing two white men. I was amazed at the Christian meekness shown by my boy, the elder of the two who escaped, a large, strong young man. He spoke with gratitude of the two white men who tried to save his father, and he seemed disposed to leave the murderers entirely in the hands of the great Judge of all, saying, ‘If the Lord saw fit to punish them He could meet up with them any time.’