Various

“ God bless every man and woman on either side the sea who shall join hands and put together their resources to carry the light of the gospel of love and liberty into the thick darkness of Eastern Equatorial Africa! ”

“ Mullens and four others connected with the effort of the London Missionary Society to reach Central Africa, has turned the thought of this people to our plans and work for Africa as never before. They begin to believe that, as Dr. Moffat said, “Africans must go to teach and save Africans; it is the Divine plan.” And the more I speak upon this idea, and the more I see of the people, the more I am persuaded that this view will prevail in the future, and we shall have all we can do to furnish the colored missionaries for all the missionary societies of Europe working in Africa. ”

“ If the colored people are the “wards of the nation,” in what way can the nation so well perform the duties of its trust as by qualifying them for citizenship?
Of the two grand objects of this fund, the first, the promotion of common school education, has been thoroughly established, and the chief attention should be henceforth given to the second, the professional training of teachers. In some of the States that stand most in need of efficient normal schools, it would be impossible to provide at once the requisite funds for their establishment. ”

“ The next President of these States will be elected to his high position by sheer force of ignorance—ignorance manipulated and controlled by men whose hearts are as black with treason to-day as they were in ’61. No thoughtful man can look upon these facts and not tremble for the safety of his country.
So, also, is the ignorant and unchristianized Chinaman making himself felt in our politics. He casts no ballot, he holds no office. He does not come to the polls to drink and smoke and sell himself to the highest bidder on election day ”

“ It may be that we, the children of the Pilgrims, may yet find ourselves driven from our Eastern homes and the institutions which the century has helped us to build, while the red hand of Nihilism holds sway over the graves of our fathers, and crowds us, as we are to-day crowding the Indian, into the track of the setting sun.
But whatever may be the result of our treatment of the Indian, there can be no doubt what will be the effect if the Negro and the Chinaman are left uneducated and unchristianized. Already do we feel the hand of the black man in our politics ”

“ Teach her that she has a soul to be saved or one to be lost to all eternity. Strike her with the hammer of conviction. Shoot her with the arrow of love. Bless families and families’ connections. Give us more grace, more faith, more love. ”

“ Make us humble. Teach us to pray, and teach us to love it, too. Be our guide and leader and protector. Bless the sinners who are standing with one foot upon the grave and one upon the land of the living. ”

“ At the present moment a majority of the voters in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina are without the ability either to read or write. In either of these States, or in all of them, any election can be carried by sheer weight of ignorance. Seventeen hundred thousand men, according to a statistical report which has been put into my hands, at the last national election cast the ballot which they could neither read nor write. ”

“ If our colored missionaries show to the world that they can live in Africa and can manage the affairs of a mission as well as white men, then the demand for them by the missionary societies of this country will be large enough for all we can supply from America in many years. And the ministers here tell me that if my mission to the country should result in nothing else, it will more than pay for all the time, work and expense which I am giving to this effort. ”

“ A more suicidal blow has seldom been aimed at the heart of this Republic. We have given, almost indiscriminately, the right of suffrage to these Southern States, and yet in sixteen of them seventy-five out of every hundred of the population, according to the census of 1870, are growing up entirely without school advantages. ”

“ Father! when Gabriel shall stand with one foot in the sea and one upon the land to blow his horn, and he shall say, ‘How loud must I sound?’ and Thou say, ‘Sound calm and easy so as not to disturb My children,’ then shall we link and lock our eagle wings to march upward to the golden gate. ”

“ Almost a dozen years ago, I found myself one of two teachers in a night school varying from forty to sixty pupils. The roughly-ceiled room was long, low and dimly lighted. The scholars were hard-working men and women who walked one, two, three or four miles, after the day’s labor, for the sake of acquiring a bit of book learning. At ten o’clock lessons closed with a Bible reading, singing and prayer. ”

“ While they remain an ignorant class they will be a dangerous class. To be shot and intimidated may not be, after all, their worst political fate; to be corrupted with bribery would be equally bad. The electioneering purse, in the hand of the Northern office-seeker, might prove as potent in robbing them of their rights as the pistol which Southern chivalry may point at their devoted heads. ”

“ But, after all, friends, it may be there is a God in Heaven who will remember and avenge the red man’s wrong. “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” is not alone to be found in Scripture. It is written in our constitutions; it is a fundamental law of our being; and history bears abundant testimony that it is no dead letter. We ought to remember this law as we press the Indian from his God-given right. ”

“ In Atlanta much has been done during the past ten years in a quiet way, by the business manager, matrons and preceptress, toward giving practical instruction in a variety of home industries, making specially prominent the importance of good work. Every student, during the entire course, works an hour a day, generally with careful supervision. While visiting the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, recently, I learned that less time for manual labor was required of its students. ”

“ The young people, in their plays, imitate the ‘shouting’ to perfection. It is fine sport to them to see the church members perform. They laugh at the claim of Divine help to do what they can so easily do without that help. The young men, on this account, are increasingly more difficult to reach with the Gospel. Education, property and [Pg 331] morality are cast aside as of little worth; stealing and shooting among themselves are not uncommon. Only a pure Gospel can save these young men from dissipation and crime ”

“ In Tennessee, never since the first year of the present school system has so much money been raised for its support; never has the school tax been paid more cheerfully. Speaking of the use made of Mr. Peabody’s gift, the Superintendent says: “The encouragement given by the wise disposition of this fund has always proved an invaluable accessory in the arduous work of organizing and sustaining the cause of popular education in this State and in the South.” ”

“ The forces that are needed now are those that lie in the hand of the Christian church. We must permeate this festering mass with the leaven of Christ, and we must do it speedily. The evil is growing. Politicians are beginning to treat it, and therefore it is rapidly growing worse. It cannot be cured by legislative enactment. ”

“ We hope to see not far in the future a first-class school at this place. We have material in abundance upon which to work. Time, patience and labor will bring success.”
The school at Avery has not made such progress as was hoped for during the year. On the first of January its numbers were decreased by the taking away of most of the larger boys to cut the crops for their parents. The irregularity of attendance is a great obstacle in the way of our success. Some attend for one day, and may not be seen again for a month. Those who have attended regularly have made progress. ”

“ Sears, the general agent. He said that the work had made satisfactory progress during the past year. The difficulties arising from the poverty of the South, he continued, are now increased by the pressure of the State debts. The necessity of aid from the Federal Government is now greater than ever before. The evils that are certain to grow out of popular ignorance, if the public schools are suffered to languish, or if they reach only a part of the population, will not be limited to the States where they first appear, but will cast their blight over the whole country. ”

“ The church was so crowded that many were compelled to stand outside. It was a high day in Israel. Many hearts were gladdened.
Most of those we received were young people. Some of them teachers of our Sabbath-school, and nearly all of them at some time had been under the influence of some good Northern lady teacher. Perhaps those teachers were disheartened and feared that their good [Pg 339] seed had fallen upon stony ground, but in this they were deceived. We are too anxious often to see results. God’s logic extends through years, but His conclusions are nevertheless sure and true. ”

“ The people have made great sacrifices to build their house of worship. I don’t believe that the same number of members in any church North could have done better with all the discouraging circumstances. They have struggled hard to help themselves, giving when really they needed it at home.
We shall need a bell and pews, also a communion service, and money to buy paint for the finishing of the inside and out. Who wants to help those who help themselves? ”

“ One house only shows any sign that for the poor there is anything beautiful; but that, like a grand sermon, stands amid this misery and sin, from ground to roof a mass of flowers. I could not help thinking what a joy they must be to the ministering angels, as they pass through this place of suffering and sin. ”

“ As a slave, the negro served well his oppressors. As a soldier, he served well the cause of freedom and his country. The tyrant’s chain of oppression, which held five millions in bondage, has been broken, and to-day the grand duty as well as privilege of carrying light and life to his benighted brethren in his fatherland lies before him and calls him onward. It remains yet for him to prove himself a man in this important relation that he holds to his fellow-countrymen and to the world. ”

“ Atlanta, Ga.—The Fall term of the University opened October 1st. The first week gives promise of a very full school. There are already thirty girl boarders, and the indications are that their Hall will be as badly crowded as last year. The reports of the Summer work of the students, in all parts of the State, are very cheering. There is an increasing desire for education. The white people are taking a deeper and more kindly interest in the education of the colored children and in the University. ”

“ The Congregational church of this city has been blessed with a visible outpouring of God’s Spirit. Many of our old members have been quickened in their religious feelings and have reconsecrated themselves to their Lord and Saviour. ”

“ Friends of the A. M. A. institutions have been specially anxious that their students should learn trades and home industries while at school, fearing that they would have little opportunity to learn them except from their Northern instructors, and thinking that they could be acquired from them outside of school hours without much thought, time or trouble.
On the other hand, some have felt that our immediate, pressing need was young colored men and women with minds developed by long and thorough training in the text-books used in our schools and colleges. ”

“ In regard to scholarships he says: “The agent of the Peabody Fund has placed at my disposal ten fifty-dollar scholarships in the Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va. A visit to the Institute and observation of the manner in which it is conducted convince me that it is doing exactly what it professes to do.” He adds: “There are dangers before us which it will require the highest patriotism and the wisest statesmanship to avoid. Nearly 57 per cent. of the voting population of the State are unable to read the ballots which they cast.” ”

“ Then he gave a lecture on physiology, and asked why such an organism as a human body, which no man could make, should be sold for a rag of cloth which any man could make in a day. The result was not only the rejection of the Arabs’ demand, but a decree forbidding any person in Uganda to sell a slave on pain of death! By another decree Mtesa has forbidden all Sunday labor, and the question of the evils of polygamy has been seriously discussed by him and the chiefs. ”