HAGAN COUNC'L.
In Georgia, after the Eureka church movement was noised about, Mr. Fletcher received and now receives calls from every side, chiefly from the plantation people. At Piney Grove, a preaching station was begun in an old dwelling house, and a little church of twelve members is the result. At Shady Grove, ten miles away, a small church building is going up for the brotherhood there. The ground was given and the work of building is carried on by a respectable colored farmer of the neighborhood, who with many of his neighbors welcomes a church fellowship which stands for education and pure religion. At Alford, in the adjoining county, there is now a membership of thirty-two, for whose use a comfortable church building is furnished by the white people. This, with Nellwood as an out-station, will probably soon receive an excellent pastor, trained in our Congregational ways and principles. A beginning has been made at Portal, twelve miles beyond. In the next county westward, the church work began at Swainsboro with twenty-nine members, at Kemp with seventeen members, near Garfield with thirteen members, and at Pilgrim with twenty-three members.
Word comes to us that Mr. Fletcher, who is covering three counties in his work, has lost his faithful horse. This quite disables him from service. His fields lie at distances which make walking impossible, being from ten to fifty miles apart. The same day with this loss a member of the family, a young man, was brought home suffering from a broken leg. Are there not means which can reach us in the form of a special gift for the emergency of this faithful pioneer worker? Anything received beyond the immediate stress of need, will be placed to the support of his work.
The Hagan Council, called for the orderly recognition of these poor struggling pioneer churches, met in an old half-ruined school-house, as shown in the picture given herewith. It was a humble place, and they were humble bodies of poor people who thus asked recognition from the Congregational churches of the land. But it is not for us to despise the poor. Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom? That little group in front of that poor old school-house may become historic as the precursor of a great movement of blessing to millions among the poorest of the poor in our nation.
GRACIOUS REVIVAL IN SELMA, ALA.
BY REV. A. T. BURNELL.
You will be interested to hear of the gracious revival we have had the past three weeks under the lead of the English Evangelist, Rev. James Wharton. Over 400 have professed Christ, and of these 140 were enrolled in Burrell School. To the very end of the meetings, "mourners" came forward, once in the church as many as fifty; but this was exceeded in immediate results at two schools where as many as fifty accepted Christ, after the briefest address. Following the Oberlin plan, I offered prayer with each class one day; the next, I suspended my recitations for a continuous prayer-meeting, permitting pupils to elect this instead of a class or study-period (certain grades, certain hours). At another time, instead of chapel the grade-teachers retained the Christians while the rest were addressed in the chapel,—the majority falling to their knees for prayer to rise in peace. Of course we have had regular prayer-meetings, with volunteer room gatherings at noon and like groups in the yards at intermission. When, on account of the late meetings each night, it seemed best to close at noon, most of the school gathered for a meeting in the chapel; and, with several after meetings, large numbers spent that half-holiday in the building, praying for and laboring with classmates. A member of Grade Eleven, for whom special effort had been made, came out at this time.