Читать книгу: «The American Missionary. Volume 42, No. 07, July, 1888», страница 3
THE SOUTH
NOTES IN THE SADDLE
BY REV. C.J. RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY
I promised, in my February "Notes in the Saddle," to give a brief account of the mountain campaign which had then just closed. It was full of most interesting experiences. We began the series of meetings in the Congregational Church, Jellico, Tenn. The Association was represented by one of its Corresponding Secretaries, a District Secretary, and the writer. Beside these brethren from abroad, the local force of A.M.A. workers was large, and several neighboring churches of our Congregational faith sent their pastors.
At Jellico, the A.M.A. has planted both a church and a school, and built a meeting house. The interesting series of meetings, which began at Jellico, was for the purpose of dedicating the neat Congregational churches recently built by the Association along this line of railroad. Preaching services were held every afternoon and evening, the company of ministers taking turns, as they pushed on from one church to another. These churches are at Jellico, Pleasant View, South Williamsburg, Williamsburg, Woodbine, Rockhold and Corbin. Congregationalism, through the A.M.A., has taken possession of this whole region in the name of Christ. We can easily hold it in the interests of broad and evangelical Christianity, if our older Congregational churches in the East and North arouse themselves to meet the pressing exigencies, and realize the splendid possibilities that lie before them in this field to-day, but which will be denied them in the near future.
One very interesting feature of these meetings was the dedication of a chapel which has been recently added to the Williamsburg church, and which is used for the infant class of the Sunday-school. This class had outgrown all the accommodations of the church, in connection with the other departments of the Sunday-school. It had become a Sunday-school of itself. This chapel was, therefore, built and publicly set aside for the service of these little folks.
During these meetings, our honored Corresponding Secretary and District Secretary pushed through the storms and forded mountain streams together with the other brethren, that they might keep the appointments which had been made for them. Dr. Roy's stereopticon views, which have interested and instructed so many audiences in the North, he used with great profit during this mountain campaign.
Two men called upon Brother Myers, our general missionary in this mountain region, and requested that he and the writer visit the field, some fourteen miles away, from which they had come that morning. They told a thrillingly interesting story of how God's Spirit had entered their hearts, and stirred them up to desire better things for their children and their community than they had enjoyed. One of them was a son of a French Catholic mother, and had early adopted her faith. His life had been wild and reckless, until he found the Saviour in a meeting led by an A.M.A. missionary. He was an intelligent man of some education. He found others ready to join him in a movement for the elevation of the people. They established a church and organized a Sunday-school. We pushed over the mountain on horseback, after the other visiting brethren had left the mountain region, to inspect personally this field. We found it even as the men had represented it to be. A little church had been organized and Sunday-school gathered. I could learn of no other Sunday-school in that region. I heard afterwards, that one of the old-time preachers warned the people against the Sunday-school, saying, "It war a heap worse than a dancing place." This same preacher had a vision, and gave an account of it to his people. "Two devils," he said, "had been in that country getting up some sort of an institution that they called a church." He warned his people against them.
The two men who visited us at Jellico, together with others who had joined with them in this effort to Christianize and educate this community, we found busy on a hillside, laying the foundations of the new "church house." They were enthusiastic in this new movement, which promised so much to their community. They had drawn up a confession of faith and covenant, which were evangelical and Congregational. They reported three thousand people living in the coves and valleys radiating from the point upon which they had planted their "church house," absolutely without intelligent Christian instruction of any kind. There were hundreds of square miles without a church building of any denomination. This little company had been stirred up by God's Spirit, and were almost starving for spiritual food. There was a pathos even in their peculiar mountain vernacular, as one of them said to me, "I don't understand scarcely a word you uns say. I'm too old to larn now. I'se done left. But I does want my chilluns to know somethin'. I tell you, I'd sell my old farm down in the cove so's to help my chilluns to know somethin'." What a tremendous appeal this is from the very heart of our country! All they asked was one hundred dollars, to help them build this Congregational "church house" by the side of Hickory Creek.
While writing these "Notes," there comes flashing over the wires, the news of this horrible crime committed upon the person of Prof. G.W. Lawrence, at Jellico. I remember a conversation I had with Mr. Lawrence during this campaign of which I have been writing. He had just been offered an important and lucrative position as teacher in the North. He was a young man of only limited means, and felt almost that he must go. I told him we could not offer him financial inducements to remain, but it seemed to me that the Lord had called him to that work, and I did not know where we could find a man to fill his place. "Very well," he replied, "I will remain." The Christian hero that he was, he went patiently forward in this self-sacrificing labor. Now, he has fallen by the hand of a brutal assassin! This awful crime emphasizes the importance of this work, and calls aloud to us to send more Christian missionaries into this field, until Christian light shall displace the darkness of semi-barbarism.
Turning a moment from the field in which our missions are planted, to that from which they are supported, I give three interesting incidents. In a New England church two young girls came forward after hearing the story of the A.M.A. work in the dark places of our country, and pledged fourteen dollars, which they had themselves gathered by the sale of articles which they had made. A good example.
Another little girl, not ten years old, had one dollar which she had been saving for sometime. It was her total bank credit. When she heard of our pressing needs, she slipped her dollar into my hand, asking that it be spent for the poor children in our field.
A woman, for years an A.M.A. teacher, but now a bed-ridden invalid, pledges $100 to the work of the Association. What can we not do when there is so much of Christian self-sacrifice in both departments of our field?
ANNIVERSARY EXERCISES AT GREGORY INSTITUTE
WILMINGTON, N.C
Our anniversary really began May 18, for on the evening of that date were held the public exercises of the "Gregory Band of Hope." There are at least 160 members of this Band and they hold fortnightly meetings.
One of the principal lessons which has to be impressed upon these children, is the sacredness of the pledge. We feel sure that much has been gained in this direction the past year. There were those who would come forward and manfully confess when they had violated any condition of the pledge. But the good done to the children is not the only benefit. Through these children, the parents become interested in temperance. One little boy said, "Since I joined the Band of Hope I got my papa and mamma to join the pledge too." Many families were represented by either father or mother, and in many cases by both. This topic is destined very soon to be of paramount importance in the training of the colored people.
The week beginning May 21 was given up to examinations. The pupils have in the main done well. Many of them in advancement and aptness will compare well with white children. By reason of a re-arrangement in the course of study, there was no graduating class this year. However, on the evening of May 25, we had an exhibition given by the scholars. The stage at the back was prettily draped with the national colors, and flowers were scattered in profusion everywhere. At the appointed hour the room was filled with the parents of the pupils and other friends of the schools. The programme was a miscellaneous one, made up of tableaux, songs, dialogues and recitations. Some of these reflected great credit upon the pupils and their teachers. I say some of them, because some parts were rendered so excellently as to astonish one who did not expect anything very good from negro scholars. One beautiful scene was, "Winding the May Pole," by twelve little girls dressed in white. Another striking piece was, "What Alcohol has done for the Nations." Different persons in appropriate costume represented the various nations of Europe and one represented Africa, each in a short speech stating what havoc alcohol had made. One young lad caused a good deal of merriment in declaiming "Theology at the Quarters," in which he drew a picture of the candidate for heaven being subjected to a close examination before he could be admitted through the "Alaplaster gate." "The questions," said the declaimer, "you must answer mighty straight. And de watermillion question gwine to cause a heap o' trouble." When one of these colored people declaims in the Negro dialect, it is a treat. There is nothing artificial about it.
The year has been a prosperous one. The school-rooms have been crowded to their utmost capacity. 312 different pupils have attended during some part of the year, and average daily attendance has been 230. Excellent progress has been made. Another teacher is needed. More and more are the colored people awakening to their real need—deliverance from the bonds of ignorance. You older people in the North gave your sons to free the slave from human task-masters. We who have arisen since the war look upon that as the noblest sacrifice which the history of our country presents. But there still remains the great problem of freeing the black man from the slavery of ignorance, superstition and sin. The work increases upon our hands. The South is struggling to rise. It has this problem of illiteracy to settle. We who have grown since the war could not carry a musket in '62, but we are willing to carry the Speller and the Bible now, and we do not consider this work one whit less honorable or necessary than the art of war. Do you?
Wilmington is a city with a population of 25,000. It is estimated that 14,000 of this is colored. Business is increasing fast and population is gaining proportionately. How what is the import of all this? Large numbers of colored people will be attracted here. It will be an objective point for educational work among them. If we already have 300 pupils, the opportunity will then be enlarged many fold. But even now we need more help. Cannot the friends at home enter upon a course of self-denial to extend us a little aid?
G.S.R.
