Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Karen Dalrymple, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) The American Missionary JANUARY, 1896 Vol. L No. 1 CONTENTS EDITORIAL. THE NEW YEAR, 1 PAMPHLETS AND SPEECHES, 2 JUBILEE BELL BANK, 3 MEETING WOMAN'S BUREAU--CLIPPINGS, 3 THE CHINESE. ENDEAVOR TESTIMONIES, 4 IN MEMORIAM. PROF. GEO. L. WHITE, 6 MISS ADA M. SPRAGUE, 7 MRS. N. D. MERRIMAN--MISS LILLIAN BEYER, 8 BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK. ANNUAL MEETING--REPORT OF SECRETARY, 9 ADDRESS OF MRS. SYDNEY STRONG, 13 ADDRESS OF MISS ANNETTE P. BRICKETT, 15 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS, MISS H. S. LOVELAND, 18 ADDRESS OF MRS. HARRIS, 20 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESS OF MRS. WOODBURY, 21 WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS 23 RECEIPTS, 25 NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION, Bible House, Ninth St. and Fourth Ave., New York. Price, 50 Cents a Year in advance. Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class mail matter. * * * * * American Missionary Association. PRESIDENT, MERRILL E. GATES, LL.D., MASS. _Vice-Presidents._ Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. Rev. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass. Rev. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo. Rev. HENRY A. STIMSON, D.D., N. Y. Rev. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, D.D., Ohio. _Honorary Secretary and Editor._ REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._ _Corresponding Secretaries._ Rev. A. F. BEARD, D.D., Rev. F. P. WOODBURY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._ Rev. C. J. RYDER, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._ _Recording Secretary._ Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, D.D., _Bible House, N. Y._ _Treasurer._ H. W. HUBBARD, Esq., _Bible House, N. Y._ _Auditors._ GEORGE S. HICKOK. JAMES H. OLIPHANT. _Executive Committee._ CHARLES L. MEAD, Chairman. CHARLES A. HULL, Secretary. _For Three Years._ SAMUEL HOLMES, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, WILLIAM H. STRONG, ELIJAH HORR. _For Two Years._ WILLIAM HAYES WARD, JAMES W. COOPER, LUCIEN C. WARNER, JOSEPH H. TWICHELL, CHARLES P. PEIRCE. _For One Year._ CHARLES A. HULL, ADDISON P. FOSTER, ALBERT J. LYMAN, NEHEMIAH BOYNTON, A. J. F. BEHRENDS. _District Secretaries._ Rev. GEO. H. GUTTERSON, _21 Cong'l House, Boston, Mass._ Rev. JOS. E. ROY, D.D., _153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill._ _Secretary of Woman's Bureau._ Miss D. E. EMERSON, _Bible House, N. Y._ COMMUNICATIONS Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the Treasurer; letters relating to woman's work, to the Secretary of the Woman's Bureau. DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, Bible House, New York; or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 153 La Salle Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars constitutes a Life Member. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label" indicates the time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made afterward the change on the label will appear a month later. Please send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers may be correctly mailed. FORM OF A BEQUEST. "I GIVE AND BEQUEATH the sum of ---- dollars to the 'American Missionary Association,' incorporated by act of the Legislature of the State of New York." The will should be attested by three witnesses. * * * * * THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY VOL. L. JANUARY, 1896. No. 1. * * * * * 1846. THE NEW YEAR. 1896. Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-six brings in the Jubilee Year of the American Missionary Association. What marked changes have taken place between 1846 and 1896, even in the range of events with which the Association is connected! Then the great gold discoveries in California had not been made; then little was done by the Church or the Government for the Indian; then the Southern mountaineers were hunting and fishing, innocent of schools and railroads; then slavery dominated the land, oppressing the slave and aiming to crush free thought and speech in the North. Now how changed! As to slavery, for example. The war and emancipation have written a new page on our national history. But emancipation only battered down the prison doors and sent forth the millions of ignorant, helpless and vicious people--a menace to the Republic and a reproach to the Church, if left in their degraded condition, but presenting a most hopeful field for humane and Christian effort. The facts made an appeal for immediate and effective work and the American Missionary Association sprang into the task. Hundreds of refined and Christian women lent their aid and toiled in the uplifting of the needy, amid the scorn and hatred of the white people, while the churches and benevolent friends responded with the means. The Association has followed up this Christlike beginning by the planting of permanent institutions--schools and churches--and the good effects are becoming apparent in the multitude of industrious, prosperous and educated colored people, the hopeful and helpful leaders of their race. But their advancement only reveals the yet unreached masses behind them as hopeful if promptly met, and as helpless if neglected, as those that preceded them. This good work is at its crowning point--to push forward is victory, to halt is disaster. But the Association feels the pressure of the hard times. It owes a debt of nearly $100,000, and needs four times as much to sustain the work now in hand. Nevertheless, there is no cause for discouragement in all this. There is vast wealth in the nation, and a large share of it is in the hands of those who are more or less directly connected with the Christian Church, and who are liberal in their gifts when worthy objects are fairly brought to their attention. It is true that there are those whose resources are restricted by the present stagnation in business. This, however, gives the opportunity for Christian self-denial. The relief for imperiled Christian work will come if those who are prospered will give of their abundance, while those less favored will imitate the Macedonians of whom Paul speaks, whose "deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Self-denial is not a lost virtue in the Church of Christ. We make our appeal for relief during this Jubilee year. Already large correspondence has been had with pastors of churches and others, and the responses are very cheering, giving promise of most efficient helpfulness. We hope, therefore, that our next Annual Meeting--our fiftieth anniversary, to be held in Boston--will have the enthusiasm of a Jubilee deliverance from the bondage of hampering limitations, and give a new impulse to our labors for the emancipation of those still in the bondage of ignorance and vice. * * * * * PAMPHLETS AND SPEECHES. Our recent annual meeting has furnished a large number of papers and addresses, covering, in a wide range, the various parts of the work of this Association. Some of these have already appeared in the December number of THE MISSIONARY, and a portion of them will be reprinted in pamphlet or leaflet form, especially those from the field workers or which relate directly to field operations. Besides these, some of the valuable addresses not thus printed will be issued in pamphlet form, and all of them are freely offered to our constituents on application! We give below a somewhat complete list of these documents with the name of the author and the title of the address: The Freedman Truly Free Only by Christian Education: Pres. MERRILL E. GATES. Ownership and Service: Secretary F. P. WOODBURY. The Indian Factor in the Indian Problem: Secretary C. J. RYDER. Last Decade of A. M. A. Work in the South: Dist. Secretary JOS. E. ROY. Christianization of the "Inferior Races:" President J. B. ANGELL. The Chinese in America an Element in Christianizing China: Rev. WILLARD SCOTT, D.D. Plea for Hope and Courage: Rev. W. E. C. WRIGHT, D.D. Educational Work in the South: President W. G. BALLANTINE. Mountain School Work: Prof. C. M. STEVENS. After Twenty-five years in Negro Education: Prof. A. K. SPENCE. The Financial Problem: Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D.D. Indian Work: Rev. G. W. REED. Story of a Young Indian: JONAS SPOTTED-BEAR. Reciprocal Interests and Responsibilities of the Indian and White Man: Rev. NEHEMIAH BOYNTON, D.D. Southern Church Missions: Rev. H. M. LADD, D.D. Progress and Needs of the Negro Race: Rev. GEORGE W. MOORE. New Mission Churches: Rev. GEORGE H. HAINES. Brothers and a Story: Rev. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D. A Plea for the Chinese Work of the A. M. A.: Rev. J. K. MCLEAN, D.D. * * * * * JUBILEE BELL BANK. The American Missionary Association has prepared a Bell Bank for the use of Sunday-schools, Christian Endeavor Societies, etc., which it is ready to distribute freely on application. * * * * * MEETING OF THE WOMAN'S BUREAU. As usual, the January number of the MISSIONARY is devoted to the addresses and papers delivered at the meeting of the Bureau of Woman's Work, at Detroit, Mich. We are sure our readers will be gratified with the reports which we give of these very telling papers and speeches. They set forth distinctly the work of this Bureau and the needs and prospects of the various peoples to whom its labors are devoted. The Bureau is commending itself more and more as a valuable assistant in reaching the hearts and moving the sympathies of the Christian women of our churches, thus securing enlarged contributions. * * * * * CLIPPINGS FROM FIELD CORRESPONDENCE. THE SOUTH. From Allen Normal School, Thomasville, Ga.: Every year of experience in the work strengthens my conviction of the uncounted value of the work done in the American Missionary Association schools in just the matter of fitting young men and women to go to these country places, to carry to the multitudes of their own race, whose lives are miserably darkened by ignorance and superstition, the light which they have received. From Lincoln School, Meridian, Miss.: God is giving us great encouragement. No year has yet brought us as great pleasure as this in seeing the fruits of our work. Eight of our last year's graduates entered Tougaloo and Fisk. Better than this--for we do not expect the greater part of our pupils will enter higher institutions--more than forty of our students are now teaching. Nearly every school in Kemper County is supplied with teachers from our school. Several of our young men are seriously considering the going as mission teachers into the darkest part of the great Black Belt. THE MOUNTAIN FIELD. From one of our mountain academies comes the following good message that will interest all the loyal Endeavorers throughout the land: "Last Sunday at our Young People's meeting a vigorous beginning was made to the organization of a Christian Endeavor Society. Young men active in religious meetings made the move and organized." The following lines are used in one of the Sunday-schools in Connecticut, which has recently given its birthday pennies to work among the mountain children in the South. Their contribution goes to help provide a building for the Christian instruction of a large number of Highland lads and lassies in Tennessee. We thoroughly appreciate gifts that come with the evident spirit of consecration that accompanies these birthday pennies: Jesus sat beside the treasury, Saw the pennies as they came, Knew the hands that love to bring them For the sake of His dear name. Jesus, bless the ones _we_ bring Thee, Give them something sweet to do; May they help someone to love Thee; Jesus, may we love Thee, too. * * * * * The Chinese. ENDEAVOR TESTIMONIES. BY REV. W. C. POND, D.D. It seems to me that nothing else should so much interest the friends of our Chinese Mission, as to get glimpses of the inner life, the Christian purposes, the ways of thinking which characterize those whom we report as giving evidence of conversion, and, perhaps, not otherwise can such glimpses be given than by jotting down some of the testimonies borne by them in their Y. P. S. C. E. meetings. I myself have heard very many such which I have wished I could reproduce in the hearing of those whose gifts sustain our work, but that I may not seem to have gleaned the remarkable ones from the whole field, I will take only those recently reported to me from our Los Angeles Mission by its faithful and efficient teacher, Mrs. Rice. It must be noted that these were all made under the embarrassments attendant upon speaking in English, to them a strange and but half-learned tongue. 1. "I enjoy C. E. very much. When you in trouble, your friend let you have money; when you get money you pay him back. So friends and teachers help us. Now they want us to give few words. They like to know how much I know Christ. Another thing: China never show us the way to Heaven. This country help us. God gave his only Son. We ought to thank Him and give him our words." 2. "If you in strange place and look for hotel, may-be get in bad one; some friend show you good one, be very thankful. Christ show way to Heaven. _We_ be very thankful." 3. "Ten days ago I read in paper--C. E. Society started in China. I felt very glad. When I visited China few years ago, did not know about it. I tell few friends words about great Creator of world. He made everything. He made good and evil. Some people ask me why God make evil. I tell him so people choose. I used to choose evil things, worship idols, and such things. Then I come Mission school, learn to sing; best of all, read Bible, and I read Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and I choose good. I am glad I know Jesus is the way." 4. An Exposition, Matt. 16:19. "I will give thee the keys," etc. "Don't lose your key. If you lose your key you can't get home. Not take care [_i. e._ carelessly] I lost my key for P. O. box. Had to ask for another. Have great trouble for lose your key, but if you do, ask your Father in heaven. He give you another." 5. "I will explain how to go to heaven. Remember how I found the way to cook. First I make some cake. I not know how much eggs and how much sugar. Sometimes good and sometimes bad. After while I ask friend all about make cake. He good cook. He tell me how much eggs, how much flour, and how long bake. Then I have no trouble. So ask Jesus how to go to heaven. He tell me and I have no trouble." 6. "We, brethren, go out all day, working hard. When it come night, we all come here to our home [_i. e._ the Mission House]. _It like fader and moder to us._" 7. One of our brethren was greatly moved one night over a letter just received from his father acknowledging the receipt of $20, which he had sent in accordance with his custom of remitting regularly toward the support of his parents. His father asked him to send more in order that he might "buy him a new son who would worship ancestors." He said: "I am his only child. My father rather I smoke opium, gamble and drink, only so I give up Jesus and serve ancestors. I am not that way. I never give up my religion so long as I live. I did explain to them to be a Christian very much, but they not want to change. I wish I never got that letter. I do pray much for them. I pray for them every night." Teachers in any of our missions who succeed in persuading their pupils to speak at the Endeavor meetings in English will all recognize in the above testimonies counterparts of such as they have often heard. I am not surprised to have one of them, who has recently entered into this service, write: "The longer I teach the better I like the work and realize the grand possibilities in it. Oh! if only I can bring my scholars to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ!" She is doing this, and so are all the others in our noble band. * * * * * In Memoriam. PROFESSOR GEORGE L. WHITE. Twenty-four years ago a choir of colored singers, young men and women, went forth from Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., and introduced a peculiar variety of songs and music, which they and their successors have carried with _éclat_ well-nigh round the world. They not only awoke the enthusiasm of vast audiences in the large cities of America and Europe, but they were invited to sing before the mightiest monarchs and the most distinguished people on the other side of the water. These singers were endowed richly with the sweet and mellow voices that nature has given to their race, but they had also a training under a most skillful and magnetic teacher, Professor George L. White. He not only had genius as a teacher of music, but a profound faith in God that prompted him to undertake a seemingly hopeless enterprise, without adequate means and with little encouragement from others. He was born in Cadiz, N. Y., in 1833, and was a member of the 73d Ohio regiment. He fought in the battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, and his life was always characterized by a spirit of loyal devotion to his country. At the close of the war he held office in the Freedmen's Bureau and was appointed to be the first treasurer of Fisk University. After training his singers, he started with them on their journey, stopping in Cincinnati and in Oberlin where they were welcomed by the first National Congregational Council; thence eastward, scarcely paying expenses, until they reached Brooklyn, where Henry Ward Beecher gave them an audience completely packing his great church, thus indorsing them for their future career. Their first trip through this country netted $20,000, and a second "campaign" in Great Britain and on the Continent was even more successful. As the result of all the efforts of the Jubilee Singers at home and abroad under different leaders, nearly $150,000 was realized, which was expended in grounds and buildings for Fisk University--an eloquent though silent monument to their remarkable undertaking. In 1881 Mr. White, while at Chautauqua with a band of singers, fell from a platform and suffered injuries from which he never wholly recovered. For several years he has been at Sage College, Ithaca, N. Y., where he has performed a work of great personal influence and endeared himself to all those with whom he came in contact. Mr. White died suddenly November 9, being stricken with paralysis. Services were held in the chapel of Sage College, and also at Fisk University, where some of the original band of singers rendered some of the old Jubilee hymns. He was buried at Fredonia, N. Y., and the interment service was held in the Presbyterian church. A useful career of a consecrated man has terminated amid the sorrows of many friends who yet do not mourn without hope. * * * * * MISS ADA M. SPRAGUE. Another of our faithful workers has finished her work and gone to her rest. On the 23d of November Miss Ada M. Sprague, assistant in the normal department of the Ballard School at Macon, Ga., breathed her last after a brief illness of two weeks. She leaves a widowed mother and twin sister. She has gone in the prime of her young womanhood and in the midst of her usefulness. But she has left behind the example of a consecrated life which will endure. Miss Sprague was born in Keene, Ohio, November 15, 1863. She was of New England ancestry. Her first experience in teaching was in a country school near her home, where she was very successful. She afterward went to college in Wooster, Ohio, but before she completed her course her father died and she was obliged to give up her studies and find some employment. For the following three or four years she worked in the Pension Office at Columbus, Ohio. Then, offering her services to the American Missionary Association, she was appointed to a position in Tillotson College at Austin, Texas, where she labored faithfully for four years. In October of this year she went to Macon, Ga., where she did her work thoroughly up to within two weeks of her death. She will be sadly missed by the mother, whose main dependence she was, and by the many friends she had made wherever she had lived and labored. * * * * * MRS. N. D. MERRIMAN. On the 1st of October, 1895, on the anniversary of her entering upon work as a teacher in Burrell School, at Selma, Ala., we buried Mrs. Narcissa Dorsey Merriman, wife of Professor James A. Merriman, of the class of '91, Talladega. Mrs. Merriman took the full college course at Fisk University, graduating in 1891. Professor Spence was for four years her instructor in Greek and leader of the Mozart Society, in which she was soprano soloist. He writes: "Let us thank God it was light with her at the evening of life." This was indeed true. A few hours before the end, when seemingly at the very brink, strength was given to sing in her remarkably clear, flute-like tones the verse, "God moves in a mysterious way." We sang this at her funeral; also by her request, "O mother, dear Jerusalem." These constituted a part of the memorial service at Fisk also. Miss Dorsey taught in '91-2 at Beaumont, Texas; '92-3-4 in Birmingham, Ala., and '94-5 in Burrell. In all these places she will long be remembered for her gift of song, scholarly attainment and genial bearing--a lovely woman. Besides a sorrowing husband she left a widowed mother, bereft of her only child, and a helpless infant three weeks old, thus seeming to lay down her work at the very dawn of great usefulness in home and society. * * * * * MISS LILLIAN BEYER. Miss Lillian Beyer, who taught in the Warner Institute at Knoxville, Tenn., last year, under this Association, died on November 29, and was laid to rest December 2. A week before her death she had every appearance of good health. She had secured a position as city missionary in the neighborhood in which she used to live in New York, and was expecting to begin her life work there on the very day on which she was buried. But a few days before she was attacked with a violent fit of coughing and grew rapidly worse, falling asleep two days later, on her twenty-fifth birthday. Her pastor writes: "The funeral was held in the chapel on Sunday evening. A great company gathered, and I trust that impressions were received which will bear fruit in the coming years. It is our prayer that those who did not yield to her life and her teaching may bow before this mysterious Providence. While preparing for her life work, Miss Beyer had done considerable missionary labor, and a bright prospect was before her--shall I not rather say _is_ before her." * * * * * Bureau of Woman's Work. MISS D. E. EMERSON, SECRETARY. ANNUAL MEETING. One of the interesting sessions of the American Missionary Association at Detroit was the Woman's Meeting, which was held from two to four o'clock on Thursday afternoon before the same large audience that had already listened for two days to the varied accounts of work on the mission field. The devotional exercises were led by Miss Mallory, a deaconess of the First Church. Six of the Women's State Organizations were reported, viz. Maine, by Mrs. Woodbury, president; Massachusetts and Rhode Island, by Miss Bridgman, treasurer; Ohio, by Mrs. Brown, treasurer; Illinois, by Mrs. Claflin, president; Minnesota, by Miss Brickett, delegate; Michigan, by Mrs. Davis, delegate. We were privileged in having with us other officers of some of these Unions, Michigan especially being represented by president, secretary and treasurer. All brought words of hope, and some of the crisp sentences from the lips of these devoted home workers for missions will not soon be forgotten by those who heard them. Following the reports from State Unions, Mrs. Sydney Strong, of Cincinnati, president of the Ohio Union, gave a very interesting and helpful address on woman's work throughout the country. Then came the annual report of the Bureau of Women's Work, and missionary addresses from the field. The sweet Jubilee singing by the young women from Nashville, Tenn., added to the enjoyment of the occasion. We regret that the limit of the magazine pages will not allow the addresses in full, but we hope to furnish some of them in pamphlet form. The paper by Miss Mitchell, of Blowing Rock, N. C., will be printed thus. * * * * * Following the woman's meeting, a children's meeting was conducted, which held the close attention of the little ones for an hour with vivid descriptions of the children of Alaska and China, the Indian boys and girls, and of the mountain and negro children of the South. * * * * * REPORT OF SECRETARY. We come to this Annual Meeting with hearts full of gratitude to the many friends who have stood by this work in its emergency, and with praise to Him who daily beareth our burdens, and who we believe is unto us a God of deliverances. True, every passing month of the year just closed has sounded the ominous word "Debt," and the burdens consequent have been many and heavy; it has been hard to see the missionary work so repressed and cramped when opportunities for development offered on every side. But it has been glorious to watch its wonderful power and accomplishment even in its too restricted limitation. Surely a blessing followed the offerings of those who remembered this A. M. A. field with their gifts especially of "money consecrated to the Lord's work." Some, we have reason to believe, in giving "their slender mite for love of Him," gave much. Thirty-one of the forty-two State Unions have made cash contributions to the Association's work during the year, but this does not represent in full the aid given. Four hundred and eighty-six barrels have been sent to the various fields, and while all have contained useful articles, some have been packed with valuable supplies of house linen for the boarding-halls and goods for the industrial classes. The Secretary has presented the work frequently at missionary meetings, and series of meetings were planned for her and for missionaries from the field, in several of the States. In this the officers of the State organizations cooperated cordially, and were most helpful in arranging appointments among the auxiliaries. There is evident need of the work being made known by personal presentation. Missionary literature has been freely distributed, and letters from the field have been sent out in response to contributions wherever desired. The system of missionary letter-writing entails not a little of care and burden upon both missionaries and secretary, but it brings the missionaries and home workers into closer sympathy, and provides interesting information for missionary meetings. We acknowledge thankfully the consideration shown when letters have been unavoidably delayed, and the many expressions of appreciation of the missionary news. Through the circulation of the letters and printed leaflets you have had many glimpses of the schools, churches, prayer-meetings, Sunday-schools, Endeavor meetings and the homes of the people in the South, on the Indian reservations, the Pacific Coast and Alaska. We trust it has been a joy to you to make the work so much your very own by the share you have had in sustaining it and watching its development. There is a very precious part of this missionary work, however, that lies beyond the boundaries of our one hundred and seventeen schools. A hint of it may be seen in the following to her teacher from a former colored student, now the wife of a Congregational minister in the A. M. A. church service. It represents hundreds of cases equally gratifying of those who, through the beneficent work of the American Missionary Association, to-day fill positions of influence and usefulness in the various walks of life. The writer says: "The work here I enjoy very much, nevertheless there are many discouraging things in connection with it. But then I know we cannot always have smooth sailing. If everything was all smooth there would be no need of much work. I am only too glad to do something for the Master, though I know I am one that is fitted only to quietly fill in a little chink in the great work that is to be done. When I remember that we are not all given the same number of talents, I am somewhat encouraged to go on with the work, content to do little unnoticed acts in the name of the Master. I remember, too, that what I am, you are the one who was instrumental in making me. The Lord has a great reward for you for your patience and kind dealing with me." "Little, unnoticed acts in the name of the Master." Think of it--that these colored boys, girls and mountain youth, Indians and Chinese, to the number of thirteen thousand annually, are through this American Missionary Association brought under such Christian training that a large proportion go forth to use their talents, be they great or small, in the name of the Master. What better could we do for either of these races than to support liberally a work that, preparing the youth for the practical duties of life, sends them forth to exert their influence among their people for the love of Christ and In His Name. It has been a year of advance in contributions from the organizations of Woman's Work, and while this has been a welcome and valuable aid to the A. M. A. treasury, it is also a cheering indication of what these organizations may be able to do the next year and the next with increasing knowledge of the mission field, increasing interest and ability. The cash receipts, through the State organizations, have been $21,213.95, and directly from local societies and mission bands, $4,124.66, a total of $25,338.61. We give a tabulated statement from which it will be seen that nine of the State organizations now measure their dollars for the A. M. A. by the thousand, and some of those in the list immediately following we hope will soon join the thousand-dollar rank. Massachusetts and Rhode Island $4,853.89 New York 2,530.06 Ohio 1,893.29 Maine 1,708.02 Connecticut 1,517.05 Iowa 1,231.54 Illinois 1,184.17 Vermont 1,134.00 Missouri 1,019.96 Minnesota 851.61 New Jersey 589.35 Michigan 528.28 New Hampshire 527.57 Wisconsin 466.63 Nebraska 274.39 Southern California 207.85 Kansas 199.32 California 102.10 South Dakota 85.92 Colorado 82.05 Louisiana 45.52 Pennsylvania 35.00 Alabama 30.00 North Carolina 29.90 Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky 20.25 Washington 20.00 Indiana 15.00 North Dakota 11.50 Black Hills, S. D. 6.28 Wyoming 5.75 New Mexico 1.60 In assigning these contributions to some definite portion of the work, as has been desired, the choice has naturally been the support of women as missionary teachers, forty-five having been thus assigned. The total number of missionaries in the A. M. A. churches and schools is six hundred and forty-nine. The churches number two hundred and twelve. The schools number one hundred and seventeen, and the five hundred and thirty teachers engaged in them, many of whom preach as well as teach, are indeed too few for the broad lines of instruction, the varied industrial training, the intellectual and spiritual, or, to use a favorite expression, the training of "head, hand and heart." But it is often noticeable how cheerfully these missionaries meet the increasing demands upon their strength, forgetful of self, in their intense desire for the good of their pupils, that, intelligent, industrious, virtuous, all may go out to their life-work, whatever and wherever it may be, in the name of the Master. But what of those who are not gathered into these Christian schools? Longing, praying and pleading to enter, what if the doors are closed against them because they have no money, no influence, and in their time of need, no friends? Our hearts ache that such should have been the bitter experience of any the past year. But it is too true. With no means of their own and no friend to aid them, hundreds have been turned back to darkness when they wanted light; turned back because there was none to help. The opportunities of the year just closed we may not reclaim, but we are beginning a new year with its new opportunities. The colored people, eager for improvement, struggling with poverty, appeal for schools and churches, but it costs $400 for each teacher or minister. The Indians want their children to come into the mission schools where they may learn "the Jesus way," but it costs $150 for each pupil. The mountain people of the South, unlettered, simple-hearted, credulous, are the prey of Mormon missionaries, who are working zealously for converts, and, as one reports, with "good success." The antidote is Christian teachers and preachers, but here again is an average cost of $400. The Chinese field, besides the work for men in mission schools, presents an opportunity for women's work among twenty-five hundred Chinese women in San Francisco, who are accessible in their homes, and who respond gratefully to Christian sympathy and instruction. Was there ever such gracious opportunity to the Christian church to gather into the fold the "other sheep" of the Great Shepherd? He has said, "them also I must bring." Would He bring them in through us? Let us arouse ourselves that we may not so lose these opportunities God has given to win this land for Christ. We have done something, but it is so far short of the need. Our offerings--have they been so much a part of ourselves, have they cost us so much that they have been _worthy_ tokens of love to our Lord? The American Missionary Association has come to its fiftieth year of work and appeal for these to whom the gospel is to be preached, through church planting and Christian schools. It comes burdened with obligations for the work already done, and for that of the year just begun. Can we not, each one of us, _double our gifts_ to this work in this A. M. A. Jubilee year? This, with one true self-denial offering from every woman in the Congregational church, and friend of the work, and not only shall the Association come next year to its fiftieth anniversary with rejoicing, but hundreds of _new voices_ from the millions of people to whom we are sent, will join also in the song of Jubilee. * * * * * ADDRESS OF MRS. SYDNEY STRONG. A speaker at our Toledo meeting two years ago, when she had told of her life work in China, closed her remarks by saying: "American sisters, the women of China look to you for their examples of Christian womanhood. Do not disappoint them: for if you do, it will be the greatest blow foreign missions can have." During the past year, in our work in Ohio, when I have known so much of the needs over this broad land of ours, I have wondered continually what some of the Christian converts of China would think could they visit our shores and go into the mountains in our Southern land and see the women there, how perfectly ignorant they are, some of them not even knowing their alphabet, and, what is sadder still, not even knowing that they are hundreds of years behind the women living but a few miles from their mountain home. If these Chinese converts could go down from the mountains into the plains and see our negro sister there in her cabin home, and realize how she is oppressed and how so few there care for her soul; if they could go into the West and visit the Indians, and realize how America has treated the Indian, how she has given him land until she wanted it herself and then has taken it, and pushed him farther West until now she has him in a place where the land is so poor it is not likely she will ever want it; if they could go and see their Chinese sisters--their own flesh and blood--and realize that America had the opportunity right at her own door of teaching and raising up Christian Chinese women to go back and teach their own kindred the "old, old story," what do you suppose they would think of Christian America? My sisters, what do you think of it? Are these conditions due to lack of money? We can all give when we are interested. Poverty is a thing of comparison. We are all poor compared with our neighbor on the avenue, and we are all rich compared with our neighbor who lived on crusts of bread last week and knows not where her crusts are coming from this week. No, my friends, we can give when we are interested. In this connection I have been thinking a little of a dear friend, who when asked if she could not increase her contribution to five dollars for the work this coming year, said: "Possibly I can another year, but this year I cannot, for I am going abroad and I have to economize." "Economy!" Is not that just the place it always begins? Can we look back over the last two years, those of us who have been affected by the hard times, and truthfully say that we did not begin at the giving end to economize? It seems to me that this is just where we all make our mistakes. Is not this just the reason why our church work is so cold and lifeless? We are trying to do Christ's work in man's way and we can no more do it than the Indian we are told about, who tried to run the machine controlled by electricity in his own way rather than in the way the inventor intended it to be run. God has given us a plan for doing this work and saving souls, and we are trying man's way rather than God's way. What is man's way? It is to do church work, go to missionary societies, and give--when we have time and money. What is God's way? "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, and prove me now herewith, saith your God, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing." Have we done it? Have we brought the tithes all in? We use much more wisdom in material things often than we do in spiritual things. Can we not learn a lesson from the farmer? What does God say to the farmer! "Sow, and ye shall also reap." But the farmer says, "I cannot; I haven't enough. If I had plenty I would sow, but I haven't. My family could not live as well as my neighbor; we could not set a good enough table; we might even have to go hungry." But the command comes again: "Sow, and ye shall also reap," and I venture to say that there is not a farmer in this country of ours but who would go hungry, yea, he and his children would go bare-footed, but he would take some portion of the grain that he had and throw it broadcast over his field, knowing that it would lie there and decay, but trusting in the Lord that it would come back to him after many days. Why cannot we use the same wisdom in spiritual matters? But there is something that is of more value even than money. It seems to me that the one thing we need is more consecrated women in our churches, women that have more love for their Master and for his cause, women that do not do this work from a sense of duty, but because they love their Lord and Saviour. It seems to me we ought to put love in the same place where Christ put it, on the same pinnacle where Paul put it: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; and though I give my body to be burned, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." My dear friends, if we only had this love, this consecration, we would be interested in everything that interests our Master. And hearing of our sister in the mountains who knows nothing of him, we would hasten to go ourselves or make it easy for others to go and tell her of His love. And thinking of our colored sister in the South who is oppressed and down-trodden, if we loved Him we would hasten to go with joy and tell her of the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light. And remembering our Indian sister who is so in the dark and is so destitute of knowledge we would find a way to tell her of Him who is the light of the world. And knowing of our Chinese sister here on our shores, who looks forward to a heavenly home for her husband, though she has no such hope for herself, we would go and tell her--or see that some one else told her--of Him who said: "Whosoever cometh unto me shall have eternal life." Our work then would not be done from a sense of duty but as the expression of our love and joy, and all we would ask in return would be the words: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." * * * * * ADDRESS BY MISS ANNETTE P. BRICKETT. In the few minutes which are assigned me in which to bring before you the work of our Indian mission and boarding school at Fort Berthold, among the Rees, Mandans and Gros Ventres, there is no time for me to discuss the "Indian Problem," about which I am not at all wise, nor to talk of the Indian character, nor to defend it against the numberless unjust opinions and popular newspaper and magazine prejudice with which you are all so familiar. I think you want to know all that I shall have time to tell you of our past year's work, our encouragements, our difficulties and successes. There has been an increasing spirit of loving, gentle, helpfulness among our school girls, both in the home and school life. We have all gladly noticed that our boys have become more courteous and thoughtful. Many of them have learned for the first time, under their wise and consecrated matron, the value of strict adherence to God's great law of obedience in the forming of manly characters and in the making of happy homes. Our older Ree girls came back to school this fall more neatly and cleanly clad than ever before. Some of them made tasteful calico dresses for themselves with which to return to us. Several of these older girls, under the leadership of one of our ladies, organized themselves into a "Cleaning Club" at the close of school in July and have kept faithfully at work all through the vacation, each week meeting at a certain house and giving the poor little log home, with its mud-plugged walls and dirt floor a most vigorous and thorough "scrub." After the beds had been made up cleanly with sheets and pillow cases, which were in each case the property of the school girl at whose house they met, and putting up cheap scrim curtains at the two little windows, then these students of scrubology, on a stove, shining with a perhaps unprecedented coat of blacking, prepared before their somewhat dazed parents a neat and wholesome meal of such simple material as they had, set it out on a white covered table just as nicely as they are taught to do at school, and invited their parents to eat with them. This improvement has not been merely spontaneous. It was a principle of the society that each girl who had been thus assisted should do all in her power to keep the home clean and neat, and our girls have greatly delighted us by the brave way in which they have kept this pledge. This past year several of our older boys and girls have, without urging or even suggestion from the teachers, told us of their earnest desire to go out into the world and attend a higher school. They were quite prepared to enter the school at Santee and though reminded of the opposition they would undoubtedly encounter in getting permission from their ignorant and in some cases heathen parents, as well as that of the Government Agent, they have still been quite determined. "Maimie," one of the girls, first asked consent of her uncle and aunt with whom she has her home. They both refused, being unwilling to have her go so far away and also to lose the small help which the little money Maimie earned by doing extra work at school brought to them. Both the uncle and aunt are members of our church and our prayers that Christian principle might triumph in this case and make these two an example to the rest were answered, for soon "Hand" and his wife "Alice" cheerfully went to the Agent and told him of their previous unwillingness but also of their present decision that they were glad to have Maimie go away and learn more of God's ways so that she might better teach and lead her people. John, one of the boys, has met with much bitter opposition from his people who are under the influence of the Catholic priest at the Agency. They have forced him into the Government school, which is of a grade entirely below his present attainments, and he is much discouraged, but we still trust that God's plan for our boys and girls, into whose souls he has put these aspirations, will be worked out in His own time and way. Our church members who are as yet but "babes in Christ" have had numerous testings this year, which, while they have been times of severe trial to us as well as to them, have been but passing clouds, which have only for a time hid from them the "Guiding Hand," and which has made them all the more strong and distinct as members of Christ's body. There have been disappointments in the past year; a few of those from whom we hoped much have become careless and indifferent. But more have grown in spiritual strength and are manifesting the new spirit of godliness in their lives in many practical ways; in neater personal appearance, in better houses and cleaner homes, and in much more industrious attention to their farm work. The Christian women nearly all ride on the seat of their wagons beside their husbands and not squatted down behind in the old way which indicated their inferiority and degradation. Our church and women's missionary organization have cheerfully contributed from exceedingly scanty means to all the branches of our Congregational work. While our school on account of the reduced appropriations has been reduced to forty-two pupils, our further outstation among the Mandan people, which for two years has been closed, has this fall been reopened, and one of the lady missionaries is already living among them in her little log house. Shall I speak of the needs of our school boys and girls? You patient mothers know so well what are the needs of forty-two play-loving active children, who wrestle, play football, tag, jump rope and barbed wire fences; and the needs of Indian boys and girls are nearly identical with those of the same number of white children. I think I have never yet heard an Indian Christian man or woman offer a prayer in which I have not heard this petition, "Oh Father in Heaven bless all the white people who love us and send us these teachers
{'title': 'The American Missionary — Volume 50, No. 01, January, 1896 by Various', 'source': 'Project Gutenberg', 'lang': 'en'}