Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 05, May, 1888», страница 5

A PASTOR'S FIRST VIEW

A pastor who was educated at the North and who was graduated at the Hartford Theological Seminary, has for the first time made the acquaintance of his race in the South. He had never met his own people as a race until he entered into the service of the American Missionary Association. His impressions and testimony have, therefore, an additional interest.

In reference to the field: it is large and interesting, and requires more than ordinary attention, both to that part of it under cultivation and that which is not yet. I have arranged my visits in such a way as to make it practicable for me to do justice to both; visiting church members the last week in each month (except in case of sickness), and using the rest of the time (apart from other necessary duties) for visits outside.

I am thus brought into direct contact with our people and learn a great deal about their condition. In some places it does seem actually as if liberty and civilization are still mysteries to them.

When I was in the North and heard or read descriptions of the condition and mode of living of the colored people of the South, I often thought that those descriptions were very highly colored, but I am now perfectly cured of all my doubts. My visits furnish me with the most plausible attestation of the facts. Squalor, with its long train of attendants, may be commonly seen in every direction, and perhaps not confined to the lower-conditioned of our people either. The desecration of the Lord's day is actually frightful. It is very literally used as a "day of rest from labor." On every hand the people are seen resting—resting from labor in the houses, on the stoops and on the streets, instead of being in the house of God. In very many instances, however, we succeed in getting some of them to attend church, but the work is somewhat uphill. I trust that this abnormal condition to which slavery has reduced them will eventually succumb to the effective educational weapon that is being brought to bear upon them, that of the American Missionary Association especially, and may the time soon come for the South when the Holy Spirit working in and through the various missionary Boards, and also other agencies, shall spread righteousness and education and the true art of living, among these benighted people. I am praying, others are praying, and you, too, must help us to pray and to wait for the quickening influences and a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit.

TALLADEGA FRUIT

BY MISS E.B. EMERY.

The missions of the American Missionary Association at the South are like orange trees, perennial, evergreen, and continually bearing golden fruit, and of these there is none more abounding in vitality than Talladega. All the year round the foliage glistens, the blossoming sheds its fragrance, and every winter there is an ample harvest. Sometimes one from abroad comes in to shake the tree and gather the fruit, and sometimes not; but however that may be, the soil is previously and thoroughly prepared by these consecrated missionaries, the tree is watered and nourished and tended the year round, and the harvest expected, and it comes.

Are there no spiritual frosts to blight? They are impossible, if the spiritual atmosphere be kept clear, and the Holy Ghost be a daily and hourly companion and friend.

It is by no means unusual in Talladega for every unbelieving pupil in the boarding department to be converted. This year there were over forty hopeful conversions, and Rev. James Wharton, an English evangelist, by his earnest preaching was of very great assistance. It is noticeable that if any who have had little previous training are converted through the preaching of an evangelist, they are not likely to hold out well.

On the first Sunday in March, twenty-seven of the converts were received into the college church, with two from the Baptist Church. More will come later as the fruits of the revival, while a few will join other churches. Eighteen of the number were young men, and among them were the two sons of Pres. DeForest, one fourteen, the other nine, years of age.

Prof. G.W. Andrews, D.D., the pastor this year, conducted the services; there was no sermon proper and no time for any, but there was much of the beautiful music of these colored people; they sing out their fervid souls with their rich and powerful voices. Nearly all were baptized, and much more was made of the right hand of fellowship than is usual in any Northern church. And it is needful for these children, for they will call for constant help months and years to come. With few exceptions, they are not reared in Christian homes, are not educated from the cradle in the Christian faith. The services were both solemn and joyful, and very tender and touching.

Such an avowal is the most significant of all things, anytime, anywhere, but here we know that every life is to be one of toil and bitter struggle, a fight in which the odds are, to appearances, all against them; more than all, that this young man, that young woman, with the dusky face, the mellow voice and the eager spirit, now in covenant with us, is to be a missionary to the heathen, and of his own people. What may he not accomplish? What may she not do for Christ? And these heathen are in our own country; they are our own people. These young missionaries are very peculiarly ours, and it is through the Northern churches that they are trained for their work. Shall not then those churches adopt them in their hearts, carry them in their prayers, and let them suffer no lack in their preparation? Their work in the future for the Master's kingdom will depend very much upon us Christians of the North.

Talladega College is exceedingly prosperous. The day-school is very large; the Sunday-school packs the chapel, and the Sunday congregation is much too crowded for health or comfort in a room seating but two hundred and fifty. The college is working all the time, for a church, earning many small sums. The result, with some gifts, amounts to about $400. Where is the man or the woman to aid in this godly enterprise? to share in this work so essential and so abundantly fruitful?

THREE PICTURES FROM LE MOYNE SCHOOL, MEMPHIS, TENN

BY MISS ESTHER H. BARNES.

I would like to bring before you three pictures which I saw this week. The first is the interior of a single room. The tattered, soiled bed and the fireplace took up a large part of the room, and the rest was nearly filled with the confusion of odds and ends that make up the belongings of such a home. A feeble fire rested on the uneven bricks of the fireplace, and the chimney above was covered with newspapers in the last stages of dilapidation and dirt. There was no window, but a little sliding shutter, moved aside a few inches, admitted light enough to make the darkness visible as it fell on the smoke-stained boards, and the dusky faces of the inmates seated close to the fire on old chairs and boxes. A home more forlorn than this little pen, which, with a smaller back shed, is the only residence of at least five human beings, I can hardly conceive.

Now for a more cheering picture. It is a cozy sitting-room, papered with taste and furnished in harmony. Everything looks neat, from the snowy bed-spread to the pretty clock on the mantel, and the dainty bunch of pansies on the wall above. Open doors give glimpses of other rooms as well ordered as this, while intelligence and kindness beam in the dark faces of gentle mother and cheery bright-eyed daughters. When people ask us how we can bear to teach "niggers," they generally have in mind those tattered, lazy persons, who are most wont to show themselves on the street corners, and so make the deepest impression on the average white mind.

But look at my third picture, and you will see both how we can like our work, and what is one of the things that make a difference between the second home I have described and the first. The large school-room is filled. More than one hundred and twenty-five students are arranged in classes, most of whom are standing in their places ready to pass to recitation rooms. One of their number is at the piano. Another stands at the desk to give the word of command. Now he strikes the bell and the pupils in long file pass out, marching with their heads up. Not a teacher is in sight. Everything is orderly and is running of itself, as it does every day. This is nothing wonderful, of course, though I know some white schools which could not be trusted to this degree to the control of monitors. But it is only a sign of the influences that here lead to self-reliance and self-control. Every year a new set of uncouth and undeveloped young people come shambling in, looking around with bewildered eyes. But they soon begin to straighten up and fall into step. Their vague ideas get settled, and their minds, slow at first, wake up. In a few years they will be made over new, not perfect, but vastly improved. They will be out teaching, spreading light from scores of new centres, and sending new pupils to "Old Le Moyne."