The American Missionary. Volume 50, No. 09, September, 1896

Various

The American Missionary – Volume 50, No. 09, September, 1896

EDITORIAL

THE JUBILEE MEETING

The semi-centennial of the American Missionary Association will be celebrated in Boston, October 20-22, opening at three o'clock Tuesday afternoon. A great and inspiring convocation is anticipated. Speakers of national reputation have been secured. A large and interesting industrial exhibit will be opened. Representatives from our mission fields and a new band of Jubilee Singers will be heard throughout the meetings.

Directions as to membership and correspondence will be found on the last page of the cover. Fuller details as to the entertainment of delegates, reduced rates at hotels and in traveling fares, will be given in due time through the religious press.

UP TO DATE

For the first ten months of our current fiscal year our expenditures have been $53,000 less than for the corresponding ten months three years ago. They are $37,000 less than for the first ten months of the next year. They are $13,000 less than last year. These facts indicate the severity of our retrenchments.

We have most earnestly hoped for such a large increase of benefactions as would greatly reduce our debts. Up to this time our receipts are nearly $25,000 greater than at this date last year, but they are $11,000 less than at this time year before last. That year closed with a debt on its operations of $66,000, and last year with an additional debt of $30,000. Thus far this year we have not only saved ourselves from debt, but have gained $8,000 on the debts of the previous two years.

This is a favorable difference of $38,000 between our financial standing now and that at this date last year. This advance has been made possible only by the sympathetic and generous responses from many givers and churches which have cheered the presentation of our work. Very many others have promised future aid which will lift the burden. But, for the time being, we have had to maintain our standing chiefly by making continued reductions of expenditures. This has been a difficult and sorrowful task. In answer to numberless appeals in behalf of the ignorant and suffering, we have had to explain constantly that the refusals of the Association were due, not to lack of sympathy, but to lack of means. In general, the Association can administer only the means confided to its charge. Its historic and permanent policy has been against incurring a debt. Its careful and conservative forecast two years ago encountered, like all similar benevolent work in all the denominations, a sudden and serious reduction of receipts. The next year it provided a much diminished schedule of expenditures, but this was met with a further additional reduction of support.

Therefore, the task now set to the Association is to carry on only what work it can while recovering what has been already expended in these mission fields. We believe this recovery can be made. We are most grateful to the churches, mission societies, and individual givers who have so generously come to our help in this difficult and trying year. From the promising responses which reach us, we can but believe that very many more are planning for the relief of these missions in their distress. Just now public attention is concentrated on national issues of so perplexing and doubtful a character that every enterprise, whether of business or of benevolence, waits upon their settlement. We hope and pray that the coming months may lift the clouds and pour prosperity again throughout all these vast mission fields.

ONLY THIRTY DAYS MORE

At the time these lines reach the eyes of most of our readers, only thirty days will remain of the fiftieth year in the work of the American Missionary Association.

We look forward to these few days with anxious hope. Pastors, officers of churches and missionary societies, and individual givers have intimated to us that they will co-operate in making this fiftieth year a Year of Jubilee. Again and again our anxious inquiries have received the kind assurance that the year shall not close without the uplift of special help to the Association.

Many churches and many givers have fulfilled this purpose. If all had done as well, we should now be rejoicing over emancipation from all indebtedness.

We earnestly plead for personal contributions from individual givers. After all, it is upon the many individual gifts, however small each one may be, that the success of this work must now mainly depend.

We ask as earnestly that each church which has not hitherto contributed to the support of this mission work will do so now.

We respectfully request that the treasurers of churches and mission societies will now send us contributions already taken in behalf of the American Missionary Association, or balances remaining in their hands according to church plans, of proportionate contributions.

Shall not these thirty September days in the book of life record the special consecration in thousands of hearts of sacrificial service in gifts to God's poor?

JUBILEE SHARE FUND

It will be seen in the record of this month that the Jubilee Share Fund now aggregates pledges of over $14,000. This is a beginning, a good beginning, but a beginning only. We hope these coming September days which close our fiscal year will bring a vast increase of pledges to the Jubilee Share Fund. We know that numbers of our friends have been planning for it and looking forward to taking their part in this great and useful Christian service. "Now is the accepted time."

From Massachusetts—"Please find inclosed check for $50 for the Jubilee Year Fund, in memory of my dear father. His heart was ever with your good work to the very end of his life."

From a Tennessee A. M. A. Missionary—"Wife and I join the Jubilee contributors. Find $50 for one share. We wish we could multiply this by a hundred."

From Massachusetts—"Please find from two friends in Boston $50 each, which has been intrusted to my care for the share fund; and I gladly send it to help on the share fund."

From Connecticut—"It gives me pleasure to send you $2,000, as a donation from our church to the American Missionary Association. Also inclosed $785 as our annual contribution for the current expenses of the Association, not for the debt."

From Iowa—"Inclosed find $18, my donation to the work of the American Missionary Association. It is probably my last donation as my age (past fourscore) and poor health warn me my time is short in which to serve the Lord in this world."

From Connecticut—"I was not home last Sunday when the annual contribution for the American Missionary Association was taken up, and as I do not wish to miss having a little share in the good work of your society I will inclose my check for $10 for the work."

From New Jersey—"I am glad to be able to send the inclosed amount from the Presbyterian Sunday-school of this place. For several years we have been giving to the work of the American Missionary Association, and each year is an advance on the previous year in amount. May you all be abundantly blessed in your spiritual as well as your financial welfare."

From Massachusetts—"Inclosed find $5, which my sister before her death desired me to send to the cause she labored for so many years, and which was dear to her when her heavenly Father called her home."

From Ohio, inclosing $5—"It is a pleasure to be able to carry out the wish of my dear husband. Ever since the organization of the American Missionary Association we have been small contributors, though Baptists. God bless and support your work."

The South

A NEGRO UPON SELF-HELP AND SELF-SUPPORT

BY REV. ORISHATUKEH FADUMA, TROY, N. C

One reason why the question of self-help as it relates to the Negro is so difficult of solution, is his previous condition of slavery.

Slavery was first and last selfish. The training received by the Negro under forced labor had no ethical meaning. The Negro labored, but was not taught the dignity of labor; he did not find any dignity in it. If there was any, his masters would have labored as he did, but the Negro served as the cat's paws to get the nuts from the fire. The fire burnt him severely, but he had not the benefit of the nuts. Thus the moral and ethical benefit which he might have received from labor was lost. Let our moralists ponder over this. The Negro's masters did not believe in self-support during slavery; they were supported. Now that his freedom is secured, the Negro also would like to have and hold as the masters did.

The result of this forced selfish labor may be briefly summed up thus. The Negro by training and example became prejudiced against severe struggle and toil, physical or intellectual. He is now distrustful of attempts made to induce him to labor. He is willing to let somebody else do the work while he reaps the benefit, just as his masters did during slavery. Thus slavery became a foe to true Christian manliness, self-respect, and faith in one's self and others. It took 200 years to force these traits into the Negro's being. It was destructive of all that is uplifting to his soul. There is now a reaction going on. Unless the forces of the Christian schools and churches are applied with energy, the work of construction will not soon overcome that of 200 years of destruction.

Foremost in the education of the Negro along the line of self-support is the American Missionary Association. That the policy of the Association regarding self-help is not theoretical, but practical, may be seen in the statement of Rev. Dr. Beard concerning the work in the South, before the National Council for 1895. He says: "We are realizing also that the independent methods of Congregational polity develop self-help. These churches each year are bearing a larger part of their own support. When it is remembered that formerly their preachers were seldom paid anything, it can be understood that this new way of church life is full of meaning."

The Association states in emphatic and unequivocal language its belief, founded on long experience, in an indigenous ministry. As Dr. Beard says: "Our general policy has been to prepare the race to save the race. This is based upon the conviction that in the long run, and in the large view, the most effective way to lift up the masses is to do what we can to help the relatively few to climb into higher intellectual and moral power."

One means toward the solution of this problem of self-help is the industrial solution. Many overlook it because they think the Negro has already had much of it in his past history. But the Negro has never had the best of it. His industrial training before the war was immoral as well as unscientific. The industrial education of the Negro then was carried on without mental and moral culture; now the head, the hands, and the heart are the triplets which must control his development. Before the war he was simply a machine in industry; now he is to be trained as a living soul. Before the war he had some restraint through industrial work, but it was physical, not moral. The education which the coming twentieth century requires of the Negro through industry will be imperfect unless it shall be permeated with the best and purest of ideals. It is also a recognition of the fact that man is more than a physical creature; he is a combination of the physical and the spiritual. It must be two natures working in harmony with each other's development.

The modern industrialism is a combination of preaching and practice. It has in it a larger conception of God's Kingdom as seen in the world of matter. If it is not the highest conception, it is not the lowest, and should not be despised in the education of a race just emerging from ignorance. One has only to see the Negro in the plantations of the South, and observe his methods of work, to be convinced of the necessity of industrial training as a means toward self-help. Look throughout these farming districts and you will see houses fit for pigs to dwell in rather than men; you will eat food the mode of preparation of which is unworthy of a human being; you will see women in laundry work who have never seen a washing-machine all their life; and gradually the idea will flash into your mind that industrial training is needed.

The question may be asked, What is the American Missionary Association doing along these lines of self-help and independence? Much has been done, and is being done. The Association has not said much, but it is doing much. This is better than saying much and doing little. At the present time, when much is said about the industrial development of the South, there is danger of following the crowd whose ideals are not the highest. The popular cry is for a rejuvenated South, a South with prosperous mills and factories, and the Negro with it. The Association has wisely kept out of this, and yet has done more than any other organization toward the industrial independence of the people. It was the first to start industrial schools for the Negroes. Its first industrial school was founded at Talladega, Ala., in 1867, where it now works about 300 acres of land. Modern farming in its most important branches is taught here. In connection with the school are popular lectures, which are listened to, and scattered by the students throughout the country. White and black farmers are being improved by them. The instructor in farming, a graduate of the Amherst Agricultural College, is both scientific and practical. In the same school, at Talladega, young men and women are taught various other branches of industry.

Tougaloo Institution, in Mississippi, has a farm of 500 acres, which supplies cities in the Northwest with her produce. There are no less than fifty industrial schools under the American Missionary Association, not to mention independent schools, which are largely fostered by Congregational influence. The reflex influence of these industrial schools upon the whites is marvelous.

While we labor to plant seeds of true manhood in the hearts of the people, we recognize the fact that there must be a going-out and a taking-in. The involution of the race must precede its evolution. It therefore requires time to see fruits. Time will tell; it is already telling. With boards devising, and schools, churches, and pastors formulating, methods to bring about the solution of the problem, we shall reap an abundant harvest. When it is known that the larger portion of the colored race in the South is still living on the plantations, practically untouched by the Christian influences of this century, living without God and not touched by our mission work, it accentuates the imperative duty of the churches and pastors of churches to hasten the work of self-support. In concluding, I emphasize the following points:

1. That the work of educating a race to manly independence requires time as well as energy.

2. That it behooves all teachers of the race to do their utmost to rid the minds of the people of those ideas of slavery which strike a blow at their independence.

3. That the position taken by the American Missionary Association is the true one in preparing the people for self-support, and thus toward the self-support of our churches.

4. That while recognizing the difficulties in the way of self-help and self-support, many, if not all, can be removed if all the churches put their shoulders to the wheel, and both teach and practice this, and do all they can for their own support, rather than seek to have everything done for them.

BEACH INSTITUTE, SAVANNAH, GA

MISS JULIA B. FORD

After another all too swiftly fleeting school year, the commencement season is ushered in by the very able baccalaureate sermon delivered to a large and appreciative audience by the Rev. J. J. Durham, one of the colored pastors of Savannah.

On Tuesday there are oral examinations in the classrooms. On Wednesday, palms, magnolias, cape jasmine, and wild bamboo-vine have lent their charm to render the chapel a fragrant abode of beauty. "Old Glory" hangs here and there upon its walls. The large flag which each morning through the year has received, after the singing of a patriotic song, the salutations of the assembled students, has given place for this occasion to the inspiring words of the Latin motto, "Ad astra per aspera," which in bold relief gleam out from a star-bespangled field of blue above the platform.

Through the dense crowd which overflows the chapel and throngs the adjoining rooms, to the notes of a march on the piano, the Ninth Grade enters and stands to receive the graduating class, who file to their places on the platform. With what swelling of heart are they silently greeted, and how dear and noble a band do they seem to fond, self-sacrificing parents, and to the teachers who have labored to bring them to this the proudest day of their young lives. The class is one of the largest which the Beach has ever graduated—four youths and thirteen girls. The salutatory and essay, "What Can a Woman Do?" earnest, suggestive, and pleasingly delivered, was followed in due order by recitations, all rendered with spirit and grace, and winning enthusiastic applause. The declamation by one youth, of President Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, and the orations, by two others, on race questions, receive due meed of appreciation.

In the cantata, "The Ivy Queen," all the girl graduates take part, and the ivy crown is placed on the brow of the valedictorian, who is a keen-minded young girl of the pure Negro type. Her essay and valedictory, "Character-building," is a worthy production. It was an inspiring thing to look into the dark but perfectly radiant faces of her father and mother, when, after the exercises, they came, all too full for verbal expression, to grasp the hands of teachers.

After the class song is sung, diplomas bestowed, the in-coming senior class welcomed, and the announcement made as to the one whose rank in her studies entitles her to a free scholarship for the ensuing year, a brief but most excellent address is given by a young colored physician of Savannah, whose ability, culture, high moral worth, and nobly unselfish ambitions fit him to stand as a model to our students. The newly made alumni meet teachers and friends in the Teachers' Home for refreshments and a good, happy time generally; and in the midst of it all one of the workers of Beach is surprised by a token of appreciation in the form of a beautiful gift from the graduating class. Our orator of the day, after some consultation, proposes to the class of '96 the forming of an alumni association at the opening of the next year, and then soon all disperse and a successful school year is reckoned with the past.

BALLARD NORMAL SCHOOL, MACON, GA

BY MISS LINCOLNIA C. HAYNES

The Commencement Exercises of Ballard Normal School began with the Junior Exhibition. At the time appointed every seat was taken and there was scarcely standing room. The greatest interest was manifested by all present, and at the close of the evening, when anxious parents and interested friends crowded around with beaming faces to express their satisfaction and appreciation, each teacher felt amply rewarded for the arduous labor and effort put forth.

The "Jubilee Songs," and especially the "Jubilee Medley," attracted great attention. To hear "Steal Away," "Get on Board," "Swing Low," and all the other old-time songs, wound into one, and yet fitting into each other so perfectly and harmoniously, seemed almost a wonder.

The annual sermon was preached the following Sunday by Rev. J. R. McLean, pastor of the Congregational Church. In addressing the graduates he urged a practical use of the knowledge gained; he emphasized the fact that philanthropy is giving one's self, and he impressed upon them the necessity of co-operating with Christ in all things if success is desired in anything.

Wednesday was Visitors' Day at the school, and a larger number was out this year to witness the examinations and inspect work than for several previous years. Wednesday night the alumni held their regular meeting in the chapel.

Thursday, Commencement Day, dawned gloriously, and long before the time for the exercises to begin, people were wending their way toward the building in order to obtain a comfortable seat. There were three graduates, all girls, and they made a pretty sight as they marched slowly up the aisle and took their places upon the platform.

The Annual Address was delivered by Rev. S. A. Peeler, of the M. E. Church. He did not go back thirty years and tell the condition of the Negro at that time, and extol him for the rapid stride he has made, etc. He did not enumerate the things the Negro can do, but he simply and plainly stated, so that all who heard might clearly understand him, what the Negro, and every one else who desires success, must do.

BREWER NORMAL SCHOOL, GREENWOOD, S. C

BY PRINCIPAL J. M. ROBINSON

On the afternoon which witnessed the closing exercises of the Brewer Normal School, notwithstanding a promised storm, the chapel was well filled. The platform was tastefully decorated with flowers, ferns, and the national colors. We feel keenly the need of a large flag, and should some friend who sees this be moved to donate us one it would be very gratefully received.

The class of '96, composed of two young ladies and two young men, acquitted themselves well. The essay, "We Girls," by Miss Annie Laurie Fuller, was full of good thoughts, and pointed out very forcibly to the girls of the colored race their present advantages, and what as a result their responsibilities are.

Rev. H. H. Proctor, pastor of the First Congregational Church, of Atlanta, Ga., gave an able address on "Racial Contributions to American Civilization," which, while stating plain truths very plainly, gave no offense to the white friends present. For the first time in our knowledge of the school there were a number of white ladies in the audience, which we felt was quite a point gained. All expressed themselves as very much pleased with the address, the parts of the graduates, the music, and in fact with all the exercises.

Mr. Proctor's presence with us was an inspiration to all, both teachers and pupils. On the whole, the year was closed with hopefulness for the future and a greater desire to do work that should tell for the uplifting of the needy people with whom we are associated.

TALLADEGA COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

Talladega College, Ala., observed its twenty-ninth anniversary at the usual time.

The first public exercise was by the preparatory students who had completed the course which entitled them to enter upon the collegiate studies in the fall. Four young men received diplomas at this exhibition.

The display by the industrial departments was unusually interesting. The sewing-room had on hand plain and fancy needle-work, finished garments for both sexes, among which were children's clothes made over from those previously worn by adults. This latter feature will commend itself to many homes where the custom of "making over" old clothes is one of the necessities. Girls taught in the sewing-room are able to make a livelihood by taking orders for work in this line. There is also a nurse-training department which is not only patronized by pupils in the required course, but volunteer classes have been formed consisting of the older male students and of mothers living near the college. A hospital bed was exhibited, and also the various sorts of bandages required in special cases. The boys' mechanical department furnished a large display in carpentry—mostly of a technical character. Then there were geometric and scale drawing, building plans of a varied character, and other work. The farm was represented in an appropriate way. Convenient appliances for care of stock, for housing farm products, etc., were shown, and live stock of various sorts was there—some varieties of which are giving to the college a wide notoriety for their excellence.

Public examinations were held in studies of grammar and advanced grades. The class in trigonometry gave evidence of the practical character of its labors by exhibiting a plat of the college property—some 270 acres in all—drawn to a scale and neatly lettered.