| Calvary Church Sunday-school enrolled | 142 |
| Shiloh Sunday-school enrolled | 127 |
| New Prospect Sunday-school enrolled | 68 |
| Lick Creek Sunday-school enrolled | 78 |
making a grand total of 415 children and young people gathered into these Sunday-schools on the mountain, and only ten pupils of this whole enrollment had ever been in Sunday-School before!! Another school is soon to be formed in this neighborhood. This “Pine Mountain” field is about 20 × 60 miles, and the little church which the A.M.A. built during the past few months is the only framed “church house” in the whole region. Think of it, O Christian friends, you who hold the Lord’s money in trust, 1,200 square miles, with cabin homes scattered along every “cove” and fertile valley, left, to this year of our Lord 1888, with only one suitable place of worship!
In building this new church, the people themselves have strained every nerve and made large personal sacrifices. They have had the occasional services of the General Missionary of the A.M.A. for that locality, and I visited them once when Field Superintendent. They have also been assisted from the A.M.A. treasury, but they have labored in season and out of season themselves in order to establish this splendid work. The rapid development of the Sunday-schools is not the only feature of this work that merits our attention. One member of this church has distributed during the year 424 new Bibles and 145 second-hand Bibles. He has visited 500 families personally. He found that 60 per cent. of these people were without the Word of God in complete form. A few had mutilated copies of the Bible.
There are hundreds of fields in the Mountain Work of the A.M.A. just as needy and just as hopeful as Pine Mountain. All the facts indicate that God has now opened this field to us. An intelligent mountaineer said to me, some months ago: “Our great and only hope lies in the A.M.A. and the Congregational churches of the North.” Surely these churches will not disappoint this hope, nor refuse to heed the voice of God speaking to them in all the stirring events of this Mountain Work.
THE BUSY WORKERS.
The hive of the American Missionary Association in the South has no use for drones. The bees are at work summer and winter, and they improve not only the “shining hour,” but have to be busy in rainy days as well. One of our workers who has long been in the field, and who deserves to be kept there still longer, writes as follows in accepting re-appointment:
I most cheerfully accept the work for another year, and to show you that it means work for me I will just give you my programme for the past two weeks: A rough ride two weeks ago this P.M. to the top of the mountain, and then on foot down the mountain to Spring City, to take the night train for Lexington. Got into Lexington Wednesday morning in a rain. Looked at this and that piece of property during Wednesday and Thursday, it raining most of the time. Came back Friday to Helenwood. Made some calls on Saturday and preached at night. Preached at 11 A.M. next day, and walked eight miles to Robbins and preached at night. Got up at 3 o’clock and walked four miles to catch a train that would stop at Glen Mary. Reached Spring City for breakfast at 6:30. Came up home and answered what letters I needed to, and went back to Spring City to stay all night. Took train at six o’clock Tuesday morning for Sunbright. Rode out to Deer Lodge. Made four pastoral calls, walking four miles to do it, and was ready for an eight-mile ride in lumber wagon, Wednesday morning, in the rain to Mt. Vernon to deliver the oration of the day. Went back to Sunbright next morning and found your letters of the 3rd. Went to Emory Gap that evening. Walked out two miles in mud to see Bro. Clark. Came back to Sunbright Friday, so as to reach Deer Lodge for a church meeting that night. Made some calls Saturday morning, and then walked three miles to call on a Congregational family that ought to unite with our church here, and came back to preach at night. Taught a lesson in Sunday-school next morning, and preached. Walked to Sunbright, seven miles, and preached at night. Got up at 2 o’clock to walk seven miles to Glen Mary to take the early train to reach home and attend to correspondence so I can get off to Crossville to-morrow.
I do not always have it put on quite so thickly as this, but it is a pretty fair average.