Various

“ The hero of a hundred battles leads the ignorant negro to the polls, deluded by lies and false promises, displaces one-armed Confederates who had fought under him, to make room for a low grade of negro politicians, trails the honor of a once proud old commonwealth in the dust, and dissipates forever the fond delusion of a solid white South. ”

“ Oakland is more to San Francisco, than Brooklyn is to New York. The ocean breezes are so tempered in crossing San Francisco Bay, that a very perceptible change of climate takes place, and Oakland is able to boast of a genial air and a clear sky on many days in summer, when San Francisco is shrouded in fog or swept by heavy, dust-laden winds. ”

“ There is no room in the South for our church system if its work be simply to transfer the people in bulk from other communions, with all their prevalent views and practices. Our brethren of the Baptist and Methodist churches are to be congratulated upon their large membership, and so upon their opportunity for doing good. They have the responsibility of purifying from within. Many are struggling nobly, as exhorted by the Christian Recorder, “to thin out the ministry of the church until there shall not be found an ignorant man, nor a bad man in the ranks. Thin out the church itself. ”

“ This Sunday-school and the one at Kaw Mendi are the only ones in the Mendi country proper, where there are about 2,000,000 people. There are Sunday-schools on the Sherbro Island, but the people there belong mostly to the Sherbro tribe.
Our Sunday-schools constitute one of the means by which our young African friends acquire the simple truths taught by our blessed Saviour. I do not know how it is, if I am in the wrong, pardon me, but I do believe it is much more difficult to teach in Africa than in America, because we have no books in the Mendi language and the children know but little English. ”

“ The Southern negroes have probably as much comfort about them as most of our early forefathers, as good houses, as good furniture, as many cattle: but they have not the intelligent educated upper class, which founded our great colleges and which molded our whole population. This influence they must get from abroad. They need it, and they appreciate and want it; and no more needed and fruitful work can be done by our benevolent people than to provide the Southern negroes with Christian education. ”

“ The experiment, in one single locality, of swallowing down the old-time churches, proved a failure, and taught us a lesson. The only gain has been by the slow process of enlightenment and of assimilation, mainly by the Christian-school process. A high official in the M. E. Church said of us: “You can afford to wait for the youth; we cannot.” He was right. That great Church, which is doing so grand a work for the Freedmen, had already on its hands hundreds of thousands of adult members, who must be cared for at once. ”

“ If we may judge from a hasty inspection of classes, from the scope and skillful expression of thought in the graduating exercises, and from the testimony of teachers, a thorough and sufficiently extended education in all mental departments is given. Best of all, as the crown no less than the beginning of wisdom, the students, entering the school without special religious impressions, seldom leave it without becoming devoted Christians. ”

“ Our schools have proved that of the ignorant slave a wise and useful citizen can be made. The path of safety has been clearly pointed out; now let the means for achieving this safety be supplied. We believe the nation ought to do it. We know the patriot and Christian must do it, or this third will prove to be the final stage in this experiment, not only of equal negro citizenship in a free Republic, but of Republican government itself. ”

“ The red and the black races do harmonize most happily at Hampton, and cultivate together the graces of character. They are a mutual help to each other, especially the Negro, as farther advanced in civilization, to the Indian. Their dispositions supplement each other. The Negro is enthusiastic, demonstrative and dependent, the Indian reserved, bashful and self-contained. Each finds in the other, qualities that he needs and that attract him. ”

“ The spacious and beautiful edifice of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church was freely offered for the purpose, and was filled with a large audience of white and colored people. Such an event could not have taken place at any former time, and it marks the rapid and healthful progress of public opinion. Six of the graduating class made addresses, which were a credit to themselves and to their race, and elicited the commendation of many intelligent gentlemen and ladies who heard them. Sixteen students were sent forth to preach, all of whom go to the South, to the Freedmen. ”

“ The heart and conscience have not been touched. The older people will come out of a religious meeting and steal a hog for their supper. A white man said to me, ‘When these darkies are going to have a camp-meeting barbecue, I am pretty sure to lose two or three heads of cattle from my herd.’ One very pious brother, engaged in prayer at a camp-meeting, heard some one in the crowd say, ‘Here comes a United States marshal,’ when the brother rose from his knees, leaving his petition unfinished, and ran with all speed for the brush. ”

“ Nay, better than this, we can say that in many cases those whose praise we repeat, are no longer strangers. In place of some of the usual reports written by our teachers, or friends who have gone down to look into our work, having the greatest sympathy with it, we gather up what is said by the native whites of the South, many of whom have been most interested attendants upon all the anniversary exercises of the schools contiguous to them. We find no fuller or more sympathetic or enthusiastic reports in the Southern papers of the schools for whites than of ours for the colored people. ”

“ The Memphis Avalanche says that a most interesting and entertaining feature of the evening exercises, connected with the close of the Le Moyne School, was the address to the graduating class by Judge J. O. Pierce, which was scholarly, thoughtful and eloquent. And it adds of the school that “it is an honor to the educational institutions of Memphis. It has done much to forward the cause of education among the colored population, and the good results of its labors are apparent in every direction. Institutions of this class cannot be too much encouraged.” ”

“ We apprehend that in some schools for the education of colored people, the treatment of the pupil is special because of his color. He is made to feel that he is a special case, whatever the advantage or disadvantage of the fact, its honor or dishonor. He is a negro, and not simply a human being. ”

“ On the first Sabbath in April, we had the privilege of receiving three more into our church, all on profession of faith, two of them Indians from the school, and the other a young lady who has been assistant-matron in the boarding department. The Twanas and Clallams were formerly at war with each other, and even now there is not always the best of feeling between the two tribes: a like unpleasant feeling has often been shown between the whites and Indians: yet, on that Sabbath, representatives of the three classes received baptism, there being one Twana, one Clallam, and one white person. ”

“ The Normal Class, which received certificates on Monday night, have paid daily visits to her school to witness the drill which she gives her juveniles in the mysteries of reading, spelling, and rudimentary mathematics. Details of students from the Normal School have been made daily, who instructed the Model School pupils, under the critical eye of Miss Gilbert. When it is remembered that Fisk University contributes one hundred and fifty teachers to the schools of the South, it will be seen that the drill thus received is especially valuable to those who receive it. ”

“ A good deal of time is spent in singing, as the children readily learn the words and music of the Gospel songs, even though they do not understand the meaning of the English words. They are very fond of singing indeed, and the missionaries listen to their songs with much delight, and give them a great deal of credit for them. As some of the children never attend day-school, the alphabet is taught in the Sunday-school.
We have a portion of the Bible, and a few hymns, translated into the Mendi, and hope some time to have books in the language, so that greater progress can be made. ”

“ Moffat, father-in-law of Livingstone, says: “More has been learned regarding Africa since the Proclamation of President Lincoln, declaring the slaves of the United States free, than in all the past.” Who can be so blind that he does not see the relation of these two facts?
Today, eight European governments have from one to three exploring parties penetrating that vast continent for various purposes. The negro slave of America has become a free man, has the ballot in his hand, and the nation is under bonds to fit him for citizenship. ”

“ AIM AND WORK. To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa. ”

“ This language may seem extravagant, but, if any one is inclined to regard it so, let him visit the school next May, and he will appreciate the self-restraint of one who says no more than what has just been said.
The Hampton Institute has settled two or three questions very satisfactorily.
From the experience of this Institution, it is plain that it is quite possible to combine industrial with intellectual and religious education without injury to any one of these branches of knowledge. Nothing is more prominent to a superficial observation than the industrial side of Hampton. ”

“ The day of romance in negro teaching is past, and there is nothing in it that appeals to the mere sentimentalist. The day of danger is past, and martyrs are not called for; but there is a demand for honest, earnest Christian educators, who find ample field for all their best gifts, and there is no difficulty in procuring these of the very first order. ”

“ The Senior Class passed creditable examinations in Natural History, Science of Government, The Theory and Practice of Teaching, and Natural Philosophy. There followed on Wednesday evening the exhibition of the Primary and Intermediate Departments, combined with that of the strong Temperance Society—an organization extending through the whole school, and representing a work of great importance yet to be done in this State, where nearly all people are in the habit of drinking, and that to excess. ”

“ Were a white student guilty of such a crime and blunder, it would be simply ridiculous to say that the necessary result was injurious to “his people,” meaning the white race. There are reported cases of self-inflicted injuries of this kind. Who believes for a moment that, because a wife mutilates herself, as in a case reported, she has brought discredit upon all our wives? ”

“ The courage and faith of God’s people may be sustained for a time by displays of enterprise, daring, and readiness to give one’s life for a good cause. Indeed, such exhibitions are essential; but a time comes when nothing will satisfy but solid success. Our earnest prayer from the beginning has been, that we might be led to enter upon work in the Nile Basin, if at all, in a manner that would give promise of great and permanent usefulness. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As fruits of this labor, we have 17 who are members of the First Congregational Church in Oakland, nearly as many more in other churches, and a goodly number who have professed Christ in the Association, but have not yet been baptized.
In San Francisco there are 4 schools; Central, Barnes, Bethany, and West. The Central school is taught in our Central Mission house, the headquarters of our work for the whole State. This is, I regret to say, a rented building, the cost of which absorbs more than a sixth of the utmost amount we can hope to command for our whole work. ”

“ Prayer, not to move the Lord so that He shall favor the work, and prosper the efforts of those engaged in it, but prayer that shall shake selfish plans of expenditure which are so large that nothing is left over for this work; prayer that shall confirm, and give definite shape to vague desires that the means shall be provided; prayer that selfishness may not throttle benevolence. When this prayer has become fervent and effectual, the result will be money, which, we assert again, is our present great need. ”

“ One young man, who at considerable trouble and expense had procured a situation in a grocery store where whiskey is sold, has thrown up his position and gone to work on a farm, because he was convinced that the Bible condemned liquor-selling, and he could not ask God’s blessing upon his daily work.
Charleston, S. C.—Prof. S. D. Gaylord, principal of Avery Institute and licentiate of the Central Association of Iowa, was ordained in Plymouth Church, Charleston, S. C., by a Council convened on the 29th and 30th of May last. ”