Read Ebook: The American Missionary — Volume 41 No. 12 December 1887 by Various

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EDITORIAL.

THIS NUMBER PORTLAND MEETING, 335 SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE "MISSIONARY," 336 PARAGRAPHS, 337 STUDENT AID, 338 MORE ABOUT THE JOHN BROWN SONG, 339 MISSISSIPPI CONVICT SYSTEM, 341

ANNUAL MEETING.

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK.

REPORT OF SECRETARY, 387

RECEIPTS, 390

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter.

American Missionary Association.

PETER MCCARTEE. CHAS. P. PEIRCE.

JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.

LYMAN ABBOTT, A. S. BARNES, J. R. DANFORTH, CLINTON B. FISK, A. P. FOSTER,

S. B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, ELBERT B. MONROE,

Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON.

Rev. C. J. RYDER.

COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; those relating to the collecting fields, to Rev. James Powell, D.D., or to the District Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

In drafts, checks, registered letters or post-office orders, may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

This is the Annual Meeting number of THE MISSIONARY. It is twice the usual size, and more than twice the usual value. Addresses omitted for lack of space will appear in subsequent numbers. Dr. Behrends's sermon will be printed in the Annual Report.

THE PORTLAND MEETING was one of the best in the history of the Association. The intellectual and spiritual power of all the sessions was marked and sustained throughout. The attendance was large. The churches provided right royally for those who attended. The ministers and those associated with them worked night and day. They anticipated every want. They made themselves the servants of all. We cannot thank them as we ought. We cannot reward them as they deserve. They have done the cause a noble service.

An enthusiastic, profitable, inspiring meeting was anticipated, and that expectation was more than fulfilled. There was no debt to mourn over, and no question of administration to dispute about. The one object in coming together was to get a bird's-eye view of the field, and to crystalize the aroused enthusiasm in the form of increased contributions, exertions and prayers for the society's work.

Never did the magnitude of its field and the complex character of its labors appear in such startling lines. Either one of the four principal departments of labor demands the money and the force which is distributed among all. But, in the providence of God, this society is called upon to prosecute this fourfold work. It cannot abandon a single field, and it must not be asked to. It can do in the next five years a work for Christianity and for Congregationalism in the South and West which will tell on the coming century. As Christians, and as Congregational Christians, we must see that it be not obliged to pinch its workers, and to turn away from promising openings in order to keep free from debt the coming year.

In two respects the deliberations are likely to issue in action which will affect the other societies as well. The strong sentiment in favor of a consolidation of the missionary publications will probably take form in some definite action ere long, and the frequent and prolonged laments over the scanty gifts of Christians for missionary operations indicate a determined effort on the part of pastors and leaders to induce a revival of giving.

The American Missionary Association has a united constituency at its back, and a boundless field before its face. In the solving of the problems which confront American Christianity, it is to have a glorious share.

A PASTOR writes us: "If pastors would take a little pains to have THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY sent to carefully selected persons in their communities, it would bring large returns, I am sure." This is a very important statement, if true. We believe it is true. What have pastors to say about it? They are most earnestly requested to express their opinions. The question is open.

This is the way the editor of a colored religious paper in the South puts it to the ministers:

"If the Lord called you to preach, he also calls you to subscribe for our paper, so that you may be cut and qualified to preach. It is just so, and you had better believe it. Send in your money."

And then he goes for delinquents after this fashion:

"How can you call yourself honest while you are indebted for your paper? The Lord will not hold you guiltless unless you pay what you owe. Pay up! Pay up!! Pay up!!!"

We hasten to add, we were not thinking of subscriptions for THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY when we made the above clippings.

The special attention of pastors is called to the resolution presented by the Committee on Secretary Powell's paper and adopted by the Annual Meeting. Will they please see to it that this resolution is brought to the notice of the local conferences with which they are connected. Nothing goes in this world unless there are earnest souls behind it pushing. If that resolution is translated into action by all the local conferences, it will bring thousands of dollars into our treasury.

The Georgia Legislature has adjourned and gone home. The Chain-Gang Bill of the House was too barbarous for the Senate to follow. The more refined, though not less cruel Bill of the Senate, the House would not accept. A Committee of Conference failed to find ground for common standing. Thus it was at the time of adjournment. Pending, however, these considerations, another Bill was passed which has taken from Atlanta University the State appropriation of ,000, and this is all the legislation enacted on the subject.

GOVERNOR GORDON, of Georgia, has been making political speeches in Ohio. Of course he had a good deal to say about the colored people, and as might be expected he told his Northern audiences that the charges about their being oppressed at the South were all false. In this opinion the colored people do not agree with the Governor. They assert the opposite with vehemence and persistence. The man who lays on the lash affirms that the strokes do not hurt. The poor victim cries out in pain; but we must not believe the victim. Oh, no! He is merely crying for political effect. Indeed, he is not being whipped at all. He only imagines it, or he has been worked up by Northern emissaries to make all this outcry about nothing! The testimony of the colored people is against the Governor. The Legislation of his own State, with its story of colored code laws, political disability laws, and Glenn Bills, is against him. The inexpressibly infamous Penitentiary system of his State, which, if the victims of its inhuman cruelties were white as they are colored people, would not be tolerated for a moment, is against him. Northern people read and think. Up this way, assertions do not stand against facts.

STUDENT AID.

To help a needy and worthy student is a delightful way of doing good. Men eminent for usefulness in all parts of the land acknowledge their indebtedness to aid given them when in want and discouraged. Without such aid they never would have gained the training which now is bearing blessed and abundant fruit. The experiences of the past are repeated in the South, and promising youths, weighted by the entailments of slavery, must have help or they will never reach their greatest possibilities and largest usefulness.

In this beneficence, however, there is need of abundant wisdom; for there is a risk, lest in helping, self-help may be repressed and thus harm be done rather than good. It is one thing to carry a child till he is grown and then lay down at the highway of life one large enough and old enough to be a man, but still a baby; and another, to so hold the hand in difficult places as to develop the ankle bones and finally send into the world a man who can not only stand alone, but also help others. The wolf's milk seems still necessary to make a Roman, but the modern Romulus does not cry for it. Indeed, he often cries when it is given him. There are risks in helping, just as surely as it is wrong not to help at all. Tramps are numerous where warm breakfasts are given to any who come to the door; and aid too easily or too abundantly obtained lessens self-reliance, makes muscle flabby, bone cartilage, and heart pusillanimous. Where, however, aid received is earned by work, when it is given so sparingly as to allow no surplus for jewelry, or for clothing other than the plainest, the results of its bestowal are good, and only good. Such giving is always to be encouraged.

But it should be remembered that a semi-tropical climate has its liabilities, and that where the north wind seldom cuts, men dread the storm and love to be coddled. "Excelsior" is oftenest found on banners planted amid snow and ice. Besides, slavery pricked the ham-strings of endeavor, and naturally the young among the freed people are not inclined to say, "I will either find a way or make one." Hence the need of tonics, and tonics are proverbially bitter. In general, it is better to give plain cloth to a girl and teach her to make her clothing, than to send her stitched and embroidered apparel; better to equip a workshop than to pay a student's board bill; better, for instance, to give a plough to our Talladega farm and put a boy at the handle, than to set before him cooked rations. It is a wiser benevolence to furnish industrial appliances, or to support a self-denying teacher, hardened in adversity and skilled to harden others, than to profusely aid the student whom only work and self-denial can make heroic. The petted are apt to be spoiled, and those helped the most are usually foremost in fault-finding.

H. S. DE FOREST.

MORE ABOUT THE JOHN BROWN SONG.

Old John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave, While weep the sons of bondage, whom he ventured all to save; But though he lost his life in struggling for the slave, His soul is marching on! O Glory! Hallelujah!

John Brown he was a hero, undaunted, true and brave, And Kansas knew his valor, where he fought, her rights to save, And now, though the grass grows green above his grave, His soul is marching on! O Glory! Hallelujah!

He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men, so few, And he frightened "Old Virginny," till she trembled through and through; They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew, But his soul is marching on! O Glory! Hallelujah!

John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see-- Christ who of the bondman shall the Liberator be; And soon throughout the sunny South the slaves shall all be free, For his soul is marching on! O Glory! Hallelujah!

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