Your committee into whose hands has been placed the report of the church work in the South desire to state their impressions by calling attention to three or four important points.
First, to the marked increase in the membership of the Sunday-schools—an increase during the year of 2,000 pupils, or 15 per cent., bringing the present membership up to 15,109.
Comparing this with the entire enrollment in 1882, we find that during the five years there has been a growth of 100 per cent.
This is specially gratifying because it is understood that Sunday-schools or missions started at new stations look to the speedy establishment of churches at those stations; while well-organized schools in churches already established result in the careful study of God’s word, with a constant application of inspired doctrine to practical life, looking both to the permanence of the churches and the personal purity of their members.
Another important item noticed in the report appears in the statement touching the amount of money which these churches have given.
Beside the $16,000 contributed for their own religious work, $2,300 have been devoted to pure benevolence. If this should seem a small sum as a contribution of 127 churches, it must be remembered that it is the gift of poverty, and not of wealth. The free-will offerings of almost any one of these congregations, when compared with the contributions of not a few New England churches, suggest the words of the Master: “She hath cast in more than they all.”
Their spirit of sacrifice has often won for the colored people hearty commendation. To those of us who live amid multiplied temporal and spiritual privileges, and who easily lose sight of the goodly heritage for which we are to give an account, it is a spur, if not an inspiration, to read the story of the sacrifices which some of these brethren make in the giving of their scant substance for the more destitute members of the human family.
Their offerings for pure benevolence were above $600 more than the previous year, and are double what they were four years ago.
Your committee are glad to find that this feature of denominational work is strongly emphasized by the Executive Board, and that these churches, poor though they be, are taught that giving as well as receiving is a necessary factor in their growth, and that in true worship alms as well as prayers rise before God as a memorial.
Another noticeable item in the report is the building of meeting-houses. Indeed, the report characterizes the past year in its Southern work as one of “building activity.” Every church that is to become permanent must have its house dedicated to God. The sanctuary helps to hold the people together and attach them to forms of worship that demand a reverential attitude. Perhaps no people have greater need than our colored brethren of those religious forms and ceremonies which secure quiet and order in the public devotions of the assembled multitudes.