Various

“ Almost alone among the benevolent institutions of that land in the days of the great struggle, they never for one moment yielded to the imperious dictates of an oligarchical monopoly, but gave expression to the idea which they inscribed upon their banner, that one of the chief purposes of their organization was to resist the tyranny of the autocracy which doomed the negro to perpetual servitude. No one could be enrolled among its members who was a slave-holder. They have the gratitude of the negro race. ”

“ Believe the way that most of our people believe.’ But Christ tell us, ‘He that loveth father or mother more than Me not worthy of Me.’ I cannot leave off the way of Christ for the way of darkness; but I can try to bring them to Jesus. I hope you all, brethren, who come to Christ, will help hold up the light of the Gospel to shine on them which are in the dark and bow down to idols, and that many of my countrymen shall go back to China to tell the glad news to thousands there who have never heard of Christ; and if we cannot reward you, God will reward you every one. ”

“ The most pressing work in our own country is here. As surely as in 1861 our national peril is largely in the South. Ignorance is dense; immorality is rampant: lawlessness is wide-spread, while intelligence, morality and obedience to law form the only basis for such a government as ours. To save our country, we must save the South; to save the South, we must save the Southerners, and there are no Southerners more hopeful and more deserving than the late slaves. ”

“ We beg them to read it, remembering that its statements are facts, and that the evils of which it speaks are among the better class of the colored women of the South, and hardly suggest the depths below, in which the mass are at home, and into which education and enlightenment only make the fall more fatal. May God’s spirit move the hearts of our Christian women to save their sisters. ”

“ If we have the white man’s contumely, we have the black man’s love. A more grateful and appreciative people than some of these, fresh from the prison-house of bondage but now rejoicing in a double freedom, I have never seen. ”

“ We have here more of field than we can occupy. On all sides comes up the Macedonian-African cry, “come over and help us.” I am often weary on Saturday and poorly enough prepared for Sunday, but am spared the anguish of not knowing where to go or what to do. Besides, there is so much of self-denial in the work that there are probably not a great many thinking that, if I should die or leave, there would be a vacancy, and if there should be a vacancy they would like to fill it. ”

“ No one can regret more than we do the prejudice which exists, in this country especially, against the colored man. And there is no doubt that, as Dr. Blyden observes, even among those who are not unmoved by the story of his wrongs, and who are earnestly engaged in philanthropic efforts for his uplifting, this personal prejudice and sense of superiority does exist. That it is not so to anything like the same degree in England and on the Continent, is suggestive in the light it casts upon the fact among us. ”

“ Tell the churches to pray for the freeman of the South. I do not say freedmen, because there are thousands here who were never slaves and are no better off. Ask the churches to help us to give them the only consolation they can at present have—a sure and intelligent hope of a better world than this on the other side—and not expect them, out of their deep poverty, to pay for their own schooling or preaching just yet. ”

“ We should take courage from the fact that the slave-trade, the worst foe to missionary labors in Africa, is feeling the effects of the earnest efforts of Great Britain for its overthrow. Sir Samuel Baker, and after him Col. Gordon, the stout old Covenanter—the Havelock of Africa—have crippled its power on the Upper Nile, while the labors of Sir Bartle Frere, and subsequently of Dr. Kirk at Zanzibar, have been equally effective along the coast, so that the Church Missionary Intelligencer feels authorized to say that “the slave-trade if not killed, is scotched.” ”

“ Slavery amongst the natives is another matter. The Wajiji are great slave-holders, slaves being as common as domestic servants at home; but no great numbers are owned by individuals as among the Arabs. A common present between chiefs is one or two slaves, and Mirambo sends small parties from time to time to buy both slaves and ivory. When the Portuguese and Arab slave-trades are crushed out, or nearly so, we shall see and more fully realize the extent of native slavery, or slave customs, which cover the continent through its length and breadth. ”

“ The more you thin out your woodland, the taller and stouter will be your timber. The only hope for this people is a scarcity of laborers. There are so many who must have work, or die, that every vacancy has a dozen ready applicants. ”

“ Some people in Ohio think the religion of the colored man in the South is a “pure and undefiled” religion. Some people here think there is no use in trying to give the colored man a pure system of religion. “They get together and shout and carry on, and that is all they are fitted for.” “Their religion is impure and defiled, and they cannot appreciate a pure religion.” So say the enemies of the colored race. Well, this is partly true; too true. The colored man has emotion, and his late masters were too often content with that “religion” in the slave. ”

“ The Congregational churches have undertaken a mighty work, and they must patiently stick to it for years yet. Much as can be seen of the results of the work here, more than half of it cannot be easily seen. Other churches have been enlightened and helped. Even those who try to keep out the light can’t prevent some of it getting through the chinks.
You will want to know about the work for the new school building. If we had had the least idea that we must work five months with less than one hundred dollars in money, we never would have undertaken the job. ”

“ One of our colored ministers, trained in an American Missionary Association school, in stating some incidents of his life to a friend, said that he was led, when about sixteen years old, to give up gambling and licentiousness, simply out of regard for his teacher, fearing that she would learn of his evil ways and despise him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Our plan and purpose desire to take part in both hemispheres of the whole rounded work—to save the African in America and in Africa alike.
DR. BLYDEN ON THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. The American Missionary Association, whose publications we have prefixed to this paper, in their work of lofty and noble purpose through the South are endeavoring to prepare the negro for higher spheres of labor than “cotton-fields, turpentine orchards, and rice-fields.” Every negro who is at all acquainted with matters in the United States must have the highest admiration for it. ”

“ So I went with him to the school. After the lessons were over, the Chinese helper explained the Bible and talk to us, telling us it was useless to serve idols; they cannot help us; they cannot take care of themselves. But we must come to God of heaven, who made all things, heaven and earth. We must ask Him to help us, and pray to Him to give us all things what we need. ”

“ Religion and education, the church and the school, must go along with the re-ordering of the State. So we find our work at the South in the line of a Divine pattern. The Bible gives us its ideal of dealing with freedmen by taking into its sacred canon the five books of Moses for the emancipated Israelites, the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, for the restored captives. ”

“ And then the Sunday-school lessons. I remember watching the young people during the closing exercises of Sunday-school the Sabbath before Christmas, and I saw that there was deep feeling, and felt sure that there were some who would not long resist the Spirit, and during the next three days there were nineteen conversions.
Three or four others have since then found Christ. There is also a marked Christian growth and a growing interest in the study of the Bible. Our hearts are greatly encouraged, and we go forward rejoicing that we are permitted to work for Christ. ”

“ One who knew him intimately at the Island writes: “He labored literally night and day most earnestly for the salvation of souls and the welfare of those who had been converted. Being a born educator, he has left his mark upon the generation that has grown up under his instruction. As a private Christian, he was most real and honest, and free from all guile, exemplifying in all his life, in the most striking manner, those beautiful words of Scripture ‘harmless’ and ‘blameless.’ His faith triumphed nobly in the end. ”

“ Certainly not altogether in the natural race-prejudice. That is a fact not to be denied. There is a prejudice which is universal between all people of distinct races of men. It is felt by the original inhabitants of Africa against the Caucasian, as Dr. B. shows, as well as by the white man in his own home against the black. But in this land, the prejudice is intensified by the position and the character of those who have made up the negro population. ”

“ Seldom is a pastor more fervently and affectionately prayed [80] for than are some of us here. And I suspect as the Lord judges souls—He seeth not as man seeth—we have our companionship chiefly with the foremost of this part of the Land. These and similar considerations have led me to think that this College stands somewhere on Mt. Pisgah. Certainly just now I would rather be here than in any other part of the Universe of God. Tell our friends at the North that we do not need their sympathy but we do need their help. With more of means we could greatly multiply our labors and their results. ”

“ But we have over a hundred thousand bricks, and a total expense of one hundred and fifty dollars. If the workers next summer can have the money, as we hope, they will not work to such disadvantage, for they will have boards on hand, and can kiln the bricks as they make them, and have tools. The building will be finished, but it takes more time than we at first thought. Such a school-house was not necessary fifteen years ago. Our neat church building, and the necessity for a substantial school building, are proofs of the great work done here by Miss Wells. ”

“ We know, for instance, that a great deal has been done during the last fifteen years by the Principal of Trinity School, and yet one can see that the work is by no means finished. Have not some people at the North been thinking that, after fifteen years of good work among the colored people of the South, the A.M.A. ought to be about leaving the field here for some other? Some here say to me, it will be a work of centuries to bring up this people; others, that the colored race never will be fit for anything but farm laborers ”