Various

“ Almost the only comforts they have in their lives consist in their children. For them they are willing to lay aside their arms and take up the plow and mower, all unused as they are to labor. For them they are willing to pass over injuries, lest the wrath of the Government be aroused and their children slain. For the sake of their children they are willing to break up their nationality, their tribal relations, and all that they hold dear, to become citizens. ”

“ Now, I do not think a black man is any better than a white man, and I do not think that because a man is green he is at all superior. I believe that we are all pretty nearly equal, and that God made of one blood all nations on the face of the earth. ”

“ We commend the whole report to the thoughtful consideration of those who yet doubt the capacity of either the negro or Indian for Christian civilization:
“The Indian problem which the people of the United States have so long been trying to solve may be briefly stated thus: Shall we be able to teach the Indians to surrender their lands and their houses to us, when we want them, without fighting? It is a singular fact that the American people require more Christian charity from the Indians than they themselves are ready to give.” ”

“ The Pastor of the Central Congregational Church of Brooklyn must take a great deal of solid satisfaction in the noble missionary work of its Sunday-school. Thoroughly imbued as he is with the mission spirit, he does not fail to impart something of it even to the lambs of his flock. This school is also blessed with one of the most earnest and successful Christian workers of the city as its superintendent, and, therefore, it is not surprising that, in addition to its own local missionary work, it supports, this year, four missionaries—one in the foreign field, and three among the Freedmen. ”

“ Let us again to-day, standing upon this sacred spot, extend the hand of perfect reconciliation to our fellow citizens of the North, and ask them to clasp that hand in the true spirit of fraternal love, and to live with us as a band of brothers, united in one grand enterprise, the advancement of the honor, the interest, and the glory, of our common country ”

“ One of our missionaries writes from a field where the people are living very near the line of absolute starvation. They are as ignorant as could be inferred by the most logical mind from their whole past history; they are as bigoted and superstitious as their training can legitimately make them; they are as much in need of what the missionary offers them as a people can be. ”

“ Her location among the mountains of Alabama is delightful. The long blue ranges of mountains, as seen in the distance from the College campus, along with the bracing mountain air, strongly remind one of New England. The only institution of its grade for colored people in the State, its constituency is simply immense.
With a farm of nearly two hundred acres, her facilities are rare indeed for aiding young men to obtain an education, who are disposed to help themselves. She has an efficient corps of instructors, enthusiastic in their work. ”

“ I have heard of a Christian minister in this country now, who, I am told, is humble and useful and talented, but there is not a congregation that will have him for its minister. He was nearly starved to death a few years ago, and the great sin he has committed is that he married a black wife. Now, you would not like a minister’s black wife; you know you would not. Up comes the caste feeling directly. We condemn it in the Hindoo, and here it comes in this country. We like a negro if he has been a slave, and we raise money for him when we would not for a white man. ”

“ The grace of Christ comes in as most stimulating and efficient aid in these efforts; but it comes as aid to effect, and not in the form of accomplished result. What the exact, literal truth may be in the poet-prophet’s prediction, that “a nation shall be born in a day,” we do not know; what new forces may be called into play, or what added efficiency may be given to those now employed, when the kingdom advances with millennial power and celerity, we know not; but as yet, no labor-saving machinery is known to the Church militant. ”

“ It may be true, that by one supreme exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the results of a whole life of debauchery can be corrected in a single moment; that impure imaginations and dominant appetites and perverted tastes may all be utterly eradicated, and the degraded slave of many years restored to the normal condition of an uncorrupted child. ”

“ The addresses of the graduates were thoughtful, full of moral earnestness, well delivered and well received by the great audience, among whom were representatives of the clergy at Jackson, the Board of Trustees, and the Superintendent of Education. Several of these visitors added words of hearty and well-deserved commendation. The impress of the instructors was manifest throughout the exercises. This thought pervaded all the speeches: there is work to be done, and we wish to have a hand in it. Back of the stage, as the class motto, hung the old, but not outworn, “Labor omnia vincit.” ”

“ The graduating exercises of Thursday were, indeed, a fitting culmination of all that had preceded them. The orations of the eight young men who graduated were in happy accord with the expectations raised by their examinations the day before. They were all thoughtful and manly efforts, well conceived and well delivered. As an illustration of what can be done as well as of what is being done for the colored race, the proficiency and promise of these young men is highly encouraging. They all go forth with enthusiasm for their work. They all have fields for immediate labor. ”

“ Some churches have been thrifty, and one or two are thrifty still; but outside a less number of points than you could count on the fingers of one hand, they are either dead or perpetually dying; preserved from utter extinction only by persistent pastoral service, sustained mainly by missionary aid. But the difficulties encountered in such work among our own people, will be greatly enhanced in labor among the Chinese. Miners are always migratory, but the Chinese miners most of all; and migration tends to barbarism, among the Chinese most of all. Miners depend upon luck. ”

“ The history of every missionary endeavor of long continuance among the negroes in tropical Africa warrants this conclusion. But have negroes succeeded as missionaries? They have not had much opportunity for doing so, as but few missions have been committed to their care. Public sentiment has been against them. The theory of manning stations by black men is comparatively recent. Our great societies, however, are forced by the unfolding of providential events to weigh the evidence in favor of the theory. The only question left to be settled pertains to the negro’s aptitude and capacity. ”

“ The letters received by the children from their parents almost invariably counsel obedience to teachers and submission to all the regulations of the school.
“An intimate acquaintance with these children, and through them a better knowledge of their people at home, have increased our respect and deepened our sympathy for the Indians.
“We believe that the beginnings of a new life are stirring in many hearts. What outward developments this life may assume, time will show. The good seed is germinating. The air is full of promise. We can afford to wait.” ”

“ At mid-winter a work of grace pervaded the school, and not far from thirty, it was thought, of these pupils became Christ’s disciples, and they go forth with new purposes. The influences for good from Tougaloo are not easily computed; its grand possibilities reach out towards the infinite.
It seems strange to us who are on the ground, glad to man these out-posts and give what we have of life and vigor to the work, that needed supplies are not forthcoming. Give us adequate appliances, and we can greatly multiply our usefulness. We wish to be re-inforced, not relieved. ”

“ The answer to this question depends upon the future policy of the Government. The white man, to put his knowledge to the most practical and profitable use, has a choice of location. He goes where his services are most demanded, and where he can get the best returns for his labor. Are these Indians to be bound to get their living on one reservation, or will they be left free to choose homes for themselves?”
“Unless education is made to mean more than brain culture, it may yet prove the curse of the Anglo-Saxon race. ”

“ Moffat affirms that black missionaries for Africa is the “Divine plan.” Dr. Blyden tells us that the climate of Africa recognizes only pure negroes with favor. It conforms to no prejudices or customs of society in assigning mulattoes to the negro race. Unmixed black men alone are welcomed with long life and happiness.
God sets bounds to habitations, but the love of Christ in God is unbounded. The good tidings of great joy has no metes. The heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth are within the borders of the kingdom. The elect and precious are separated by no climate or partition walls. ”

“ Strange to say, in this community the country people are more able to sustain a “pay-school” than are those in town. But there is a reason for it: wages are very low, and it really takes what is needed for their absolute wants to pay dollar a month, particularly if a family numbers six or seven, which is really the case in my parish. A woman’s wages average from four to five dollars a month. I sigh, and wonder how these poor people ever will rise. ”

“ It would be pleasant, and a source of great spiritual comfort and social advantage every way, if we could send an excellent Christian woman into every negro cabin of the South, who should bring her refined womanhood into loving and sympathetic contact with the ignorant and lonely aunties, who never see a cultured white woman socially. It were easily possible to organize an evangelistic movement which would set the religious nature of the negro ablaze, and gather the people by tens of thousands into the churches which could be erected with the money now employed to sustain our schools ”

“ The mansion house, built with great taste and care by a planter who was never to occupy it, crowns a gentle slope; while in front is a native grove, or forest, of as weird-like and enchanting beauty as can well be found on this rounded earth. ”

“ Representatives of the inland tribes may be gathered into suitable schools, taught the things which pertain to the Christian faith, and practiced in the arts of teaching and preaching, under the supervision of wise and experienced missionaries, and then returned to their tribes to declare the good news of a salvation which, through the blessing of God, they have experienced. The illustration we have chosen would indicate that it were wise to establish the training-school in Africa itself ”

“ This slave-trade is one of those evils which time alone will not cure. Nothing but bringing all the influences of Christian missions and Christian governments to combine for its destruction, will overthrow it. We are glad that the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society continues its holy war against it.
—The Church of Scotland Mission at Blantyre, on the Shiré River, Africa, has opened another station. The new station is at Zomba, on the west side of the Shiré River. It is a very elevated and secure spot, where thieves could be barred out. ”

“ The greatest revolutions in popular opinion which the world has ever known have been the outgrowth of a few strong hearts that have believed in, and have achieved, success.”
“We can afford to wait; the American public cannot be educated in a day any more than the Indian. ”

“ Conversion is but the beginning of a new life—a beginning which is utterly worthless except in connection with an adequate conception of what that life is, and unless that life follows. No one who at all comprehends the nature of the work to be done, will advocate other policy than the one we now pursue of “hastening slowly.” ”

“ The negro character needs to be created in germ, and then developed into a worthy manhood and womanhood by thorough Christian culture, and the best and only adequate missionaries are the Christian teachers in our schools.
Conversion, as the negro in his ignorance understands it, is not the most important or desirable thing to be accomplished. We must first secure an enlightenment of the understanding, a toning up of the moral constitution, which shall give value to conversion when it does occur. ”