Various

“ To say nothing of legislative attempts by the Government, thousands of missionaries, at an expense of millions of dollars, during the past fifteen years, have, with great self-denial and laborious effort, attempted the task, and the reports are abundant and uniform that these efforts are beginning to have their effect. Old prejudices are yielding; new industries and new institutions, the outcome of new ideas, are springing up; society is changing, and the country is beginning to put on a new aspect. ”

“ The settlers of New England showed their uncommon common sense by the early establishment of Harvard and Yale—the nursing mothers of the common school system which has made these States what they are. These colleges are not the ripened fruit of the common schools, but the creators of them. ”

“ It gives us hope that we shall see not only God, but all who have had this faith and are now in heaven. It gives us patience, peace, hope, comfort, joy and anxiety of heart to do God’s will, and to lead people to Christ. Without faith we cannot please God, nor can we go to him in prayer. It is the foundation of Christian life. ”

“ It is wise, as it is also incumbent upon us, to supply the educational influences which shall change the whole aspect of Southern society, but foolish to undertake to cast it in the exact form of that which we are proud to call New England. ”

“ Wherever we have been able to send competent colored teachers, the whites are in favor of sustaining the common school system; and it may with modesty be said, that the A.M.A., perhaps more than any other agency, has won for it a place in the future of these States, ten of which, according to the latest reports, appropriate $49,829 for normal instruction in colored schools, a large share of which goes to institutions established by Northern charity, to carry on a work the value of which had been fully proven by these schools before these States contributed a dollar for such a purpose. ”

“ The deep-seated prejudice of the Southern white against the fact of negro education, his bitter unwillingness to see the experiment tried, coupled with his scornful incredulity that anything worth the effort could be accomplished, made it certain that those most deeply concerned, because of the new relation these people sustained to them, in the elevation, through schools, of the negro, would originate no efforts to this end. ”

“ Already the shipment of strawberries to the Chicago market is proving a rich remuneration to student labor. Our clover field is a wonder to the students and neighboring planters, and our fine blooded cattle not much less of a surprise. These industries are opening up new avenues of livelihood as well as usefulness to our students. Many of our young women have been but field hands, so that the work about the house and in the sewing room is a new kind of labor to them.
We have been able to do nothing, comparatively, in the church work. ”

“ Athens, Ala.—The Trinity School at this place is going forward with its new building. Last summer the colored people by volunteer labor made and burned a kiln of 120,000 bricks, and have made another this summer. If time is money, it takes a great deal of it to do a work for which there is no money, but under the inspiration of Miss M. F. Wells, who for a dozen years has been principal of the school, and is the good angel of this enterprise, the people are slowly but steadily moving forward to its accomplishment. ”

“ The present prospect of a bountiful harvest has greatly inspired our people to labor and to appreciate honest toil, and to remember that the great mass of the Freedmen will make better plowmen than Presidents, and better sowers than Senators. The pinching poverty which drove a few idle and ignorant Freedmen to Indiana, Kansas and Africa, has taught those who had the good sense to stay at home, that God will not bless idleness and ignorance among any people. Most of the Freedmen have decided to buy land and labor on it ”

“ No churches have been organized as the outgrowth of our school. There are communities ripe for such work if we only had the means to carry it on. There are points along the lines of railroad that could be supplied by students if we only had a theological class to put to work in organizing and carrying on church work. We have not neglected the Sunday-school work because we have not been able to do all that we have wanted, but have visited schools and held some conventions. The influence of these conventions is being felt in the surrounding country. ”

“ It may be well at this point to ask, toward what ideal we are working, and fairly to consider the forces that are co-operating with, or working against, us in this effort. The most potent factor in the creation of a new South must be, of course, the South itself, as of necessity she will be chiefly the architect of her own fortunes, good or bad. ”

“ A young man, a Baptist minister, who was obliged to leave school a few weeks before the close of the term, walked sixty miles in order to be examined with his class at the close of the term.
Could ever a people be more anxious to obtain an education than these are now? Twenty-three of those who have lived and struggled in this way to obtain an education are now engaged in teaching, and have under their care over thirteen hundred pupils. ”

“ For these colleges, we are indebted to a class of men among the Pilgrim Fathers, educated in the universities of the old world, a class not to be found among the colored people of the South, and because of which alone, if for no other reason, their condition differs immensely from that of the Freedmen, who have no ability to create the instruments by which they can be lifted up from the degraded condition in which slavery left them. ”

“ Among the recent commencement exercises of the University was a thorough examination in this admirable text-book concerning alcohol. A New England correspondent, who was present and listened to the examination, was much gratified with it. In thus leading the way in giving to its students thorough scientific instruction concerning alcohol, the Atlanta University merits the warmest commendation from all friends of temperance. It furnishes a most valuable precedent which we hope may ere long be followed by all our colleges and universities, as well as academies and public schools. ”

“ Enough furniture was sent from an abandoned school in Augusta to make the teachers’ rooms comfortable. In the students’ rooms, a barrel with a board on it did the double duty of washstand and table. In the summer of 1870, a new building for young men was well on its way. It was our first summer in Atlanta. Some one suggested that it would be pleasant to have individual friends, Sunday-schools and churches furnish the dormitories, and keep with us a memento of their generosity by placing the donor’s name over each door. ”

“ Fifty years ago, I believe, there was not a single Protestant Chinese Christian in that vast empire; but just see how many there are now—over thirteen thousand, besides the many thousands who have been Christianized abroad. And by faith I venture to say right here that, China will, before long, become a Christian country, and rank high when compared with all her sister nations.
3d. Can every man have this faith, be he white, black, red or yellow? Yes. The beggar can have it as well as the king. The poor can have it as well as the rich; and the negro, the Indian and the Chinaman. ”

“ It is true that a great many of our members occupy the two extremes in life, and are very old or very young, and consequently bring no pecuniary strength to the church. Still there is a benefit derived from both which is of infinitely greater value than mere money, though we poor mortals are in many instances unable to see it. Especially is this the case when our eyes are both bent on self. However, the young will certainly prove, in due time, a help to the church also in the way of material support. ”

“ It secured and means to retain it by becoming the medium of the best thought and the voice of the best conscience of the time, by keeping abreast of the highest progress, favoring the freest discussion, hearing all sides, appealing always to the best intelligence and the purest morality, and refusing to cater to the tastes of the vile or the prejudices of the ignorant. ”

“ A few scholars read in turn five pages from a manual of etiquette, and then a conversation is held on the topic by teacher and pupils. We do not see why good manners are not as essential as good grammar.
So says the Congregationalist, and so says the American Missionary. In several of our Institutions at the South, a small text-book on good manners is used with accompanying oral lessons. Colored pupils take well to such instruction.
Chicago is the freest city in this country. There is no discrimination except in brains and money. Every place is open to the colored man. ”

“ So then we are called just, not by works, but by faith. Nevertheless, faith can never be without works; faith is the companion of works; they can never be parted. For instance, Luther, although he exalted faith, yet acted it right out with works. ”

“ New England has emptied itself, probably more than once, into the West; she has sent her sons and daughters out into the great prairies with the school-house and the church, and they have built them homes hallowed and made beautiful by these influences, but they have not reproduced Yankee New England, and they never can.
In the new South, the ugly mud-daubed log huts will give place to neat cottages; the school-houses will be multiplied until all her children shall possess facilities for acquiring education; churches, supplied with an educated ministry, will be accessible to all inhabitants ”

“ Mohammedanism, whatever its affinity for Africa as it has been, and its baleful power because of this, has no outlook for the future of that sad, but soon to be made glad, continent. The Foreign Missionary well says: “If we consider only the physical condition of success, it must be allowed that Islam has an immense advantage in its central position and its vicinage to the field to be won. ”

“ Seven miles further is Elkwa, with about seventy Indians. It has been the home of one of the most influential bands in years past, but owing to the fact that there have been but few white settlers from whom the Indians could obtain work, they have hitherto done very little about cultivating the soil for themselves; and as they could easily go across the straits to Victoria in British Columbia, where there is but little restraint in regard to their procuring whisky, because they are American Indians, they have been steadily losing in influence and numbers. ”

“ I have had the pleasure of carrying the word of life to the aged, infirm, and sick who cannot attend church often. I receive more comfort, I think, than I give. It did do my heart good to see a dear old aged and infirm lady rejoice and weep that she had the word brought to her. ”

“ Besides pastoral work, I hold a service every Sabbath morning in Indian. Once a month, in the absence of the pastor, one of the lay members of the church takes his place. This congregation averages seventy. In the afternoon, the Agent and employees carry on the Sabbath-school with an average attendance of fifty-eight. Twice a month I preach in the evening in English to a congregation of employees and scholars, which averages about thirty-five. On Thursday evening the regular church prayer meeting is held, at which the male members take their turns in leading. ”

“ Twenty miles further on is Port Gamble, a large milling town, which has a minister of its own, but near it are about a hundred Indians who belong to our Agency, most of whom are Catholics, but who receive me cordially when I go there, two or three times a year.
5th. Forty miles still further is Dunginess, a flourishing Indian colony, named Jamestown, which is the centre of an Indian population of about one hundred and forty. I generally visit them twice a year. Six of our church members live here; they have a small church built by themselves, a day school, and I also preach to them sometimes. ”

“ We have a beautiful school building well furnished with everything but a cabinet organ, and we believe that God will put it in the heart of some good friend to send us that.
A lively interest is constantly and in various ways manifested by the people, and everything gives promise of abundant fruit in the future. If our highest hopes have not already been realized, we thank God for the progress made. ”

“ Four families of them have “homesteaded” land, however, and others, moved by their example and success, are taking the preparatory steps to secure homes; but being scattered, and most of them back from the water, as it is now impossible to homestead good land on the beach, they will lose the benefits of school and church in a great measure; but still the old way of herding together will be broken up, and they will obtain more of their living from civilized pursuits. ”

“ I heard yesterday and last night the songs of those who were lately redeemed from slavery, and I felt that there, too, was one of the great triumphs of the republic. I believe in the efficiency of forces that come down from the ages behind us ”