REPORT OF SECRETARY.
A look backward over the twelve months since our last annual gathering reveals much of interest and encouragement, that should fill our hearts with gratitude that our woman's work has had such an influence in bringing light and gladness to thousands of women and children, whose lives have been cast in the dark portions of our Christian land. So large an element of Woman's Work enters into the plan upon which the field of the American Missionary Association is operated, and it is so interwoven with the entire structure of its missions, that any report of it as separate and distinct can be only partial. And yet with the more systematic organization of woman's work in the raising of funds, we have been able to assign special woman's work on mission ground, with most satisfactory results, for to have a particular school or missionary has stimulated the givers, and has brought courage and comfort to the missionaries who have been thus sustained.
Our Woman's Work. What is it? Whom is it for? Who should do it?
What is it? It is to take to heathen mothers and sisters here in our own country the glorious news of salvation for them; to bring the light and truth of the Gospel to those who are groping in the fog of superstition and a wrong conception of Bible truth; to plant the Christian school; to establish the Christian home as an object lesson; to show mothers how to train their children to honor and obedience, to mingle with the needy and helpless, and by sympathy and tact secure such changes in the homes as will lead to their permanent improvement; in a word, to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, by living and teaching the blessings of intelligence and godliness among those in our home-land for whose improvement and well-being we are peculiarly responsible. The American Missionary Association has ninety-four schools, and in most of these more women than men are engaged. It is the duty of the missionary teacher to avail herself of every opportunity which her relation with her scholars affords, either in day or boarding school, to inculcate Christian truth, to warn against the evils which she finds common among the people, to teach by example and precept the living Word, as manifested in the life of Christ. The wonderful change wrought in those who are brought under the influence of such consecrated missionaries, testifies to the value of woman's work in missions.
But who are these for whom we are peculiarly responsible, and why is there so especial need of woman's work?
They are our eight millions of negroes, of whom probably not more than one-fourth may be said to have felt the corrective influence of the Gospel upon their lives. Perhaps only those who have come in contact with these people for the sole purpose of helping them to manhood and womanhood, can comprehend the tremendous incubus of bad habits, stunted growth, blunted susceptibilities, with which they struggle. It is painful to note the limitations of those even who have had the best advantages. Yet they are ever reaching upward, and the struggle is bringing out noble qualities of character, showing the possibilities of the race. We have had a goodly recompense for Christian labor among them, and does not this increase our responsibility for the three-fourths that are yet to be helped to a good understanding of themselves and their duty toward man and God? And no one will question that in the development of the best womanhood there rests the surest hope of the elevation of this wronged, and even now, greatly oppressed people.
But our woman's work finds also its mission among the needy whites of the South. It seems almost incredible that there should be found, within thirty-six hours' ride of our Northern towns, so dotted with schools and churches and Christian homes, a section of our country where there have been in hiding, in the ravines and on the mountain sides, two or more millions of our American people, in gross ignorance and superstition. But such is the case, and as always, the women are the greatest sufferers. Doubtless the Negroes have the largest claim upon us, because of their past history, their present wrongs, and their great numbers, which have become so startling as to make it imperative that we yield no jot of advantage gained, but rather increase our efforts every year for their intellectual and moral improvement. Yet the work for the mountain whites is just now especially urgent. A missionary of much experience expresses the view, that if we can bring the forces of Christian education to bear mightily upon these mountain people for the next ten years, they will themselves become a power as our allies in the great battles of the future against immorality and false doctrines. A few weeks since I met in North Carolina near the Great Smoky Mountains a mother and daughter, the latter about eighteen years old. A school for mountain girls had been opened there, and the daughter had attended the last year. On entering she could not read a word, but now was in the Fourth Reader, and studying arithmetic and geography. The rich, soft color that came to her cheeks, and the kindling light of her eyes, told of the brightness this school had brought into her life; this Christian school, for here too, she had learned the way of eternal life. Even the mother's eyes sparkled like stars as she looked with admiration upon her "learned" daughter.
But our door stands wide open also towards the Indians and Chinese, and all the arguments that appeal to us so strongly for the disenthrallment of women in heathen lands, appeal with equal, yea greater force for the heathen in our own land, whom the Gospel only can make free.
Such is our great and urgent call for work for woman in the field of the American Missionary Association. Who should do it, and how? Who but the Christian women of our churches, either directly or by substitutes? Some can go, of those who have prepared themselves for the highest and best quality of Christian service. They should be thoroughly trained and disciplined teachers, but not this alone. Every teacher should be a careful and intelligent Bible student, able to instruct from the word of God, practical and earnest, self-sacrificing and co-operative, ready to do what seems most necessary, even though it should not call into action her finest mental qualities. Let those who cannot go, send a substitute, but let none fail to seize the opportunity for a part in this blessed work, for the salvation of our country, and its protection as a Christian land.