Various

“ Notwithstanding the delay in getting the school started, one of the features of the year has been the steadiness in attendance, especially in the advanced classes. As the result of this regularity in attendance, the school work has gone on with rather unusual satisfaction. There has been little to interrupt the quiet spirit of study that has so much to do with the amount accomplished; a friendly spirit of rivalry between different classes and among members of the same class makes it from year to year more of a disgrace to fall below the standard of scholarship. ”

“ Their desire to push forward their mission work will only be increased by the rude log churches, benches that tip uneasily, shuttered holes in the walls, and dearth of Sunday-school papers, books and Bibles. The needs of their people are becoming more and more plain to them as they observe the methods and efforts used for themselves at this school, and the example set causes them to use some efforts for the benefit of others. They draw their pupils with them on their return here. The pestilence of last summer kept from us an overflow of students whom our next term will see filling our rooms. ”

“ If the enmity against them rises with its opportunity and crowds them to the wall, so much the more must they hear from us the voice of Christian kindliness, commending to them Him who was the friend of publicans and sinners. If they are to be driven back to their own land, we must be the more earnest to let them know——not by our words only, but by our deeds rather——that it is not Christianity but the lack of Christianity that has exiled them; and we must see to it that as many as possible go to be self-sustaining missionaries, telling the story of redeeming love. ”

“ Oh, how often will I enter in my journal, as I pass through many tribes, Drink is the curse of Africa! Useguha, Usagara, Ugogo, Unyamwezi, Usukuma, Ukerewe, and Uganda too——go where you will, you will find every week, and, when grain is plentiful, every night, every man, woman and child, even to sucking infant, reeling with the effects of alcohol. ”

“ We have now reached the point where attention may be well directed to the opportunity of Congregationalism for enlargement, and so for greater usefulness in the Southern States, and especially among the blacks. If the claim that our faith and polity lie in the very letter as well as spirit of the New Testament be anything more than pretense, then it is nothing less than cowardice to consent that either should be limited by lines of latitude. The other denominations have spread over the country, and have aspired to a national name and influence ”

“ It has seemed to me a very remarkable indication of God’s recognition of His promise, “Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands,” that the two great events of recent years——the abolition of American slavery, and the brilliant explorations and discoveries in Africa, which have become epochs in history——have occurred nearly simultaneously; and the higher education of the colored young men and women seems to have progressed in relative proportion to the further opening up of Africa, with its immense population, suffering, dying for the Word of Life. ”

“ I feel deeply the wrongs which have been perpetrated upon poor, suffering, abused, down-trodden, defenceless Africa. Her country has been the foraging field for the violent, the cruel and bloody-minded for centuries. ”

“ The hundreds of little businesses which, by the aid of the Chinese, yield men a small return, must be abandoned, for the higher wages will absorb the profits and the capital besides.
But, it may be said, white men have prospered elsewhere without the aid of the Chinese, why not in California? No doubt they can prosper here, but only as a new and lower level for American labor is found. Prices must fall, and the work must be steadier and harder than now it is apt to be. ”

“ Work and study are the order of every day. The brightest and most inspiring teaching the writer ever saw wakens the intellect to an eager activity; and work on farm and in shop for the boys, in kitchen and laundry and with the knitting machine for the girls, both teaches them how to labor, and enables them to pay a considerable part of the expenses of their living.
The examinations, except of the graduating class, were not written, but were oral, and on the plan of the daily recitations. ”

“ Besides, they pay a portion of my salary for teaching. I have charge of the colored school of this town. I commenced labor here in April, 1875. Since that time many have reformed and become stalwart Christian men and women. I claim only to have been an instrument in God’s hands to the salvation of souls.
Now to the dear friend who sends me the Witness. You may rest assured that your donation has not been as pearls cast before swine; it is as bread upon the waters, and if it doesn’t return to you in this life, it certainly will greet you in the far better land. ”

“ Without any thing that could be called revival interest, there has been a constant turning of the unconverted, and a quiet earnestness on the part of Christians, that leave us with the feeling that the Spirit of God has indeed been with us. Beginning with January, there have been several additions to the college church at every communion season, and fully as many have connected themselves with other churches.
As the closing exercises of a school must partake of the general character of the year, our commencement week was one of much interest. ”

“ In Western Africa the climate is still our great difficulty. It cripples our work by prostrating our men. The Gambia Mission has been almost entirely deprived of its Missionaries during the year from this cause, and the River Mission has been obliged to be suspended. The Committee would gladly diminish, if possible, these risks, and improve the chances of health, and attention is being given to this subject; but the need is being felt more and more keenly every year of adequate and well-furnished institutions, in which the African shall be trained to win Africa for Christ. ”

“ More than the ordinary interest attaches this year to the anniversary exercises of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School, just held. The experiment of negro education has been tried for the last 16 years, until it is no longer an unsolved problem, but one of which the once unknown quantities have come to have an ascertained value. But the question of the educability of the red man has been one not so conspicuously settled. What has been accomplished in that direction has been done so far away as not to have made much impression [Pg 202] on the American people. ”

“ All gifts are not combined in one man. Great inventions are the growth of years and the contributions of many minds. Theology is a growth developed through the centuries and by many intellects. It is still open to improvement. This diversity of talent provides for a division of labor. All occupations are mutually helpful, each being dependent on the other. Men and women have each their sphere, or rather hemisphere; the family is the unit of society. ”

“ The last two summers I have been abroad, and I have come back believing that there is no land which God has so smiled upon as this country. We have no need so great as of a stable government. I do not mean of force. ”

“ But nothing is contemptible that bears the image of the Son of God or carries His sanction. We simply follow the spirit of His own command: “If they receive you not in one city, flee ye into another.” ”

“ It has been intimated, indeed, that other churches hold the field, and that ours has no right to intrude. If the churches on the ground had fairly done all the work——had enlightened the ignorant, had lifted the degraded——there would be some place for such a sentiment. It may seem a cheap and almost contemptible thing to enter the South through the negro cabins and offer the poorest of the poor our culture and our faith. ”

“ No government can be stronger than the love of the people for it. You may put great iron bands upon it, but there will be a centrifugal power which will burst them. There must be centripetal force powerful enough to attract the people together in it. ”

“ We have no word to say in favor of intermarriage between whites and blacks in our country, but we desire to say an earnest word against the laws of Virginia in the South and of at least one State in the North, which makes a marriage between such parties a cause of imprisonment, but permits them to live together in illicit relations unpunished. The best restraint upon such miscegenation will be by punishing it when unlimited by law, and only allowing it when it does not violate the law of God. ”

“ It is safe to say that no visit has ever been made to our school that left in the hearts of teachers and students more hope and encouragement and thankfulness than that of the gentlemen who, after inspecting the work of the school for a few days in the Spring, gave, at the close of their visit, the intimation of the former gift. ”

“ The man who denies God’s word is just as much of an Atheist as the one who says there is no God. We find only a few who believe God’s word. They say the Bible does not teach us the way to come to Christ, but that He brings us to Himself through a dream interpreted by some old ignorant godfather or godmother. ”

“ In regard to the recent emigration they say in the same address: “The migration of the colored people now going on has assumed such proportions as to demand the calm and deliberate consideration of every thoughtful citizen of the country. It is the result of no idle curiosity or disposition to evade labor. It proceeds upon the assumption that there is a combination of well-planned and systematic purposes to still further abridge their rights and reduce them to a state of actual serfdom. If their labor is valuable it should be respected. ”

“ By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous. ”

“ I have faith in a free people among whom the leaven of Christ is at work——faith that no question can get settled among them till it is settled right, and that however selfishness and oppression may triumph for awhile, their “latter end shall be that they perish for ever.”
2. If, however, the laws enacted in virtue of these new provisions are made to work, there cannot but be a large exodus of the Chinese from California. They will be starved out. We have come to the proud distinction of having, as a State, introduced starvation into our organic law. Those who can go, must go ”

“ The negro is scarcely more essential to the industry of the South than the Chinaman is to that of California. Let this exodus be large and simultaneous, and the backbone of business here is broken. There will be harvests that cannot be reaped, because the Liverpool price of wheat will not pay the cost of harvesting. There will be mills and other manufacturing establishments idle, because the manufactured goods can be laid down here from New England or Old England cheaper than we can produce them. There will be mines deserted, unless white men are found to work at Chinamen’s wages ”

“ As the autumn advanced the school began to fill up, though some who came to us after Christmas from the lower part of Mississippi assured us they came “as soon as it was safe.” Naturally the decrease in attendance resulting from the epidemic, was mostly seen in the number of new students. Those who have fairly started in the work of getting an education cannot be detained except by absolute necessity; others, who were thinking for the first time of going away to school, were easily led to wait another year. ”

“ We do not graduate a class this summer, but shall give diplomas to a large and well prepared class next season. If we are denied the privilege——or deny ourselves——of graduating students, we find ample compensation in the excellent work and character of our young people. I wonder if Mr. Steele has told you of our five ministers scattered around in different classes——two Baptist, two Methodist, one Christian Adventist. Four of the five are settled over churches and are of excellent spirit, possessing fair ability. ”

“ Perhaps the cracked and leaning walls of our buildings will be severely tried, but all who wish to study will be welcomed with confidence on our part, that all needs will in time be met with a supply.
The young people enter on a busy life here, in many respects new to most of them. Their own hands do most of the farm and in-door work. We have a field of one hundred acres planted in corn ”

“ I am happy to know that the experiment is a success; and I assure you that so far as the means and power of my department go, nothing shall be left undone to strengthen and enlarge the experiment. The time has gone when the Indian can live on buffalo meat and give himself to the chase. The time has come when every man must work. All the information which comes to us tends to show that not only these but other tribes desire education, and that the attempt to give it to them is successful.
“The question is often asked, Will they not relapse into barbarism on returning among their own tribes? ”

“ Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves. ”

“ The signs of the times indicate that the Lord’s work is to be done upon a larger scale in the near future; the progress, made and making, in our schools, and the call for enlargement in our church work, will make increasing demands upon us, until the time shall come when they shall be more largely self-supporting than it is possible for them to be now. We have done much——we are doing more——we must expect to do a still greater work. ”