Various

“ At any rate, He abides to-day in souls that are very dark, that are very little sanctified—saints that by no means answer to the ideal saintliness—He abides in them; and while with patient love we bear with them, and while we hope on and work on, though faith feels like fainting and hope seems long deferred, we are assured that we are serving Him. ”

“ We are confirmed in the wisdom of the union of the school-work and the church-work in our evangelizing process. The school prepares the way for the church. It brings along the young and hopeful material for the church membership. The church garners up such fruit. It reacts upon the school and the community by its educating and elevating influence. In our ideal, both unite in the one purpose of saving and edifying the souls of men. We desire to express our sincere gratefulness in view of the devoted and self-denying labor of the teachers in the schools associated with our churches. ”

“ This is the period of the year when our work has least of what is outward and visible to stir enthusiasm. The weather is often stormy. The nights are often very dark. At some of the factories, work having broken across the boundary line which fading daylight fixed, holds on under gas-light till it is too late for our pupils to get to school. At any rate, many of them drop off; the average declines, and our hearts droop a little. It would be so much easier to work, if we could all the time be expanding, increasing, harvesting. ”

“ Then, often, the pupils seem specially dull, and this one or that one in whom we have become deeply interested, and whom we supposed to have become somewhat enlightened, discloses a depth of darkness which we do not like to fathom, and shows that he has understood far less than we supposed. Among those whom we believe to be true followers of Christ, there crop out littlenesses of envy or jealousy or ill-humor, that perhaps would call down on them swift condemnation, did not all this remind us so much of what has stained our own Christian life. ”

“ They had been attending our school and had learned in a measure to trust us. They said they knew it was a long way to go and a long time to stay, and it would be hard; but they were prepared to carry out their resolution to learn to be white men. Soon thirteen youth, nine boys and four girls, were secured, all from our school; it took the nucleus of our school; but we knew that this movement would create a new interest in education and bring us new scholars, as well as do more than we could for the old ones who should go away, so we gave them up willingly. ”

“ Then it is equally a duty for all such to fulfil the conditions by which they may be able to pray aright. It is a duty to know about the progress of the Redeemer’s cause. If He bids us say, “Thy kingdom come,” He will not be content with us if we sit with closed eyes, indifferent to the signs of its coming. But how many Christian people take pains to keep themselves informed of the affairs of the nations of the earth, their wars, their acts, their commerce, and skip the paragraphs which tell of the contests and conquests of Christ’s kingdom! ”

“ The church service and the Sabbath-school are the two bright spots in the lives of the prisoners. From twenty to [51] twenty-eight teachers, of both sexes and colors, Northern and Southern, engage in the work. Three hundred pupils, prisoners, attend with remarkable regularity, as the attendance is optional. The influence of the religious work is to inspire the prisoners with hope, and with a purpose to retrieve whatever they have lost by their folly and crime in the past. Scores of them go out and live useful and honorable lives. ”

“ And yet just such experiences of difficulty and discouragement belong to Christian work everywhere. If they do not form a necessary part of the discipline and training of the church, they certainly are unavoidable in the healing of sin-poisoned souls—in the education, the leading out of men from darkness into light. ”

“ In my school I have dull and bright, lazy and industrious children, as you have in all other schools, but taking them altogether, they study as well and learn as quickly as any set of pupils I have ever seen. ”

“ One church, the Pilgrim, at Woodville, has a large and influential Band of Hope. All preach temperance and require its practice among their members. We are deeply convinced that the habit of intemperance is the devil’s best grip upon the poor and lowly people among whom we have our lot and our work, and that total abstinence is the only consistent rule for Christians. ”

“ Another woman, who has a good home, said, “We are so glad to have you back, so we can have our prayer meetings again; for we like those quiet meetings, without any fuss; and we like a leader in whom we have confidence, to instruct us.”
One of the pupils in our school urged me to start a Sunday-school in the Methodist church, of which she is a member. I went three or four times, accompanied by one of our teachers. The colored pastor gave us a hearty welcome; said he was proud that we had come to help, and that he was no respecter of persons. The number increased each week. ”

“ Albert Bushnell says that half the Presbyterian churches in the United States give nothing to the cause of foreign missions, and that many who do not give do not pray. We should be willing to go further than that and say [35] that none who do not give can pray effectually. They may repeat prayers possibly in public for missions, because that is the proper thing to do, but such are but “vain repetitions” against which we are warned.
We all agree that missions need the prayers of Christians; that such prayer is the duty of all who bear the name of Christ. ”

“ Already we have received the written indorsement of seventy-six of the leading citizens of Austin, saying, “We believe that such a school is very much needed, and that the enterprise will be hailed by very many of our best citizens as of great importance to the welfare of the State.” Texas has a territory larger than France, and constitutes no mean part of “the whole world” where we are commanded to go and teach. Will our friends aid us to go up at once and possess the land?
WHO SHALL CIVILIZE AFRICA? ”

“ In spite of the change of agents four times in less than four years, and in spite of all endeavors to break down Christian influences here, these Indians have steadily progressed. They are cultivating more land and doing it more thoroughly, showing more interest in schools, and a stronger desire to adopt civilized habits, one young man going so far as to come to me with the request, “Father, they say you are skilful; can you not make my shoes squeak for me? They don’t squeak like white people’s shoes.” ”

“ In the nation’s war, men and women thought of it, read of it, were eager to know the latest tidings, because their sons and their wealth had been given to the cause which they believed was God’s, and their prayers were daily following as they traced the progress of the day.
No one will give generously or sufficiently when he has not taken pains to know. You cannot get up much enthusiasm over a mere list of stations or catalogue of workers. ”

“ If the heart of Africa is ever reached by civilizing influences, Colonel Long thinks the work must be done by intelligent colored people from the United States. They, if anybody, could keep communications open, introduce trade, and gradually train the natives in habits of systematic industry. Last spring, when public attention was attracted to the exodus of negroes from the Southern States, Colonel Long wrote a letter to the King of Belgium, who is President of the principal European society for exploring and civilizing Africa. ”

“ The Chinese population of the town at one time out-numbered that of all other nationalities. Our school, at its outset, is very small, the attendance being only seven, but we trust it is the thin edge of a wedge which we may yet drive home with good effect. A helper will be set at work there, temporarily at least, after the holidays, by whom not only may the school be enlarged, but the Gospel be preached in the streets, and the war for Christ be carried into the very Africa of Oroville Chinatown. ”

“ We have never kept any record of the teaching and Sunday-school work done by our pupils, but, within a few days, I have gratified my curiosity by taking notes from the lips of a few student-teachers. Here they are.
Sixteen of our young people have during the summer taught one thousand and thirty-five (1,035) day pupils, and very nearly as many S. S. scholars. This does not include the teachers now at work, some of whom return to us next week, or in early spring. Probably this is only a fifth of the record, counting all former pupils. ”

“ I was assigned to a place where there was no school-house or church. The people had their meeting under an arbor. I worked with the patrons of the place until they built me a school-house. Since that they have erected a church at the expense of $350. It is 35 by 45 feet. We are holding protracted meetings. Three persons have been received in full connection, and many more are hovering around the altar. Our Sunday-school is prospering. Many are coming in. The old folks are more interested in this great work than the young. We are hammering down upon them. My school numbers thirty-nine scholars. ”

“ Our work in the Sunday-school is also very encouraging; not that the scholars are uniting with the church—for nearly [49] all the older ones are members of churches now—but they are learning from the word of God those truths which are calculated to prepare them for useful lives in the earth and eternal happiness in the world to come. ”

“ 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. ”

“ May those who give be as much blessed as those who receive, and we will strive to do all in our power to answer their prayers. “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” ”

“ This policy, if adopted and supported by Congress, and carried out with wisdom and firmness, will in my opinion gradually bring about a solution of the Indian problem, without injustice to the Indians, and also without obstructing the development of the country. It will raise them to a level of civilization at least equal to that of the civilized tribes in the Indian Territory, and probably to a higher one, considering the stimulus of individual ownership in land. ”

“ Some of the teachers had better accommodations. One young man had an excellent building in a community of thriving farmers. He has taught there for five seasons. Just now he is getting up a club for the New York Tribune and reports ten subscribers.
Another young man, a member of the senior class, could scarcely leave his people. A powerful revival in connection with the school had brought many aged people as well as children to confess Christ, and the converts were loth to part with their teacher and friend. ”

“ Money is needed to give new enterprises substantial encouragement in their difficult “beginnings”—to tide the pastors past the starvation point—to give them “foothold” till strength comes to them in the natural growth of a good enterprise. ”

“ Most of the colored schools have colored teachers, and very few of them are either morally or intellectually qualified for the position. For example, the man who taught the school nearest to this place last winter used to bring his bottle with him to school. A woman of bad character and only rudimentary education has the same school this winter ”

“ In view of the capability of the children to learn, there can scarcely be reason to doubt that the deplorable mental condition of the adult Freedmen is due to that institution which has been such a curse both to the slave and his owner. ”

“ Surely the children of light are beginning to do business upon something of the grand scale on which the children of this world project their schemes. It was stated at that meeting that during the year, under Pastor Heidt, the Trinity Church had received two hundred members, half of them upon confession of faith, and had paid off a debt of twenty thousand dollars. It seems that the M. E. General Conference, South, has abolished the feature of a six months’ probation. Only those are received who give evidence of conversion. The form in receiving a member that night was quite Congregational. ”

“ We are comforted by the educated young men who are coming forward to minister in our churches. Besides those who have been raised up in the “Beach” to minister to the churches that cluster about it, we are happy in the coming of four graduates of the Theological department of Talladega College in Alabama, three of whom are this week receiving ordination at the hands of our own church councils, and the other is the moderator of one of these Convocations. ”

“ 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 ”