Various

“ In time we must have for Arkansas one of our first-class institutions at this beautiful capital, which has seven or eight thousand colored people, and which is the centre of a large population of Freedmen.
In three days, at Tougaloo, I inspected the Institution; counselled with the managers as to building schemes; lectured on “How to make money,—by labor, economy, education, investment;” and delivered a missionary address and a sermon, being permitted to rejoice that day with the teacher in the conversion of one of their most interesting young men. ”

“ Our idea is to have all the lectures, as far as possible, deal with practical matters, in some degree according with our regular industrial work. In the past four weeks we have been greatly blessed by the Spirit’s presence with us, over thirty of our pupils having found the “better way,” we trust. With the exception of one or two sitting-room meetings, we have only held a half-hour prayer meeting each day directly after school. Some of the conversions have come with wonderful power and presence of the Spirit, but all with quietness and assurance. ”

“ Memphis, Tenn.—The religious interest in the school has brought great blessing and refreshing. On Thursday and Friday ten students were led to give clear, whole-hearted testimony to an entire change of heart and life. The school is moved through and through. Scarcely a pupil of any age but is anxiously inquiring, as are many of their friends outside. Some wonderful scenes and experiences are given us and the entire work goes on most quietly, and, we trust, thoroughly. We pray for the whole school. ”

“ It is the belief of this Association that conversion is the proper door into the kingdom of science, as well as to the kingdom of Heaven. Our teachers and pastors, therefore, seek to bring those who come under their instruction to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, in order that they may be qualified to know aright and properly appropriate all knowledge. We are glad, therefore, to be able to refer our readers to letters from the field, in this number, as evidence that revival work is going on at different points throughout the South. ”

“ The Southern Workman, published at Hampton, Va., is, mechanically, a fair and most creditable specimen of the work done in the industrial department of the Hampton school; its editorial management proves that men good for something else are devoting their talents to negro education, while its columns show that intelligent minds giving promise of future usefulness are being trained in the school, and the paper, as a whole, gives an adequate idea of the work being done and yet to be done in such schools. ”

“ When convenient, as in most cases, I have read the Bible and tracts or papers to the women, also offering prayer with them; have established a weekly prayer-meeting for the women, some distance from the Home; also one weekly in my room, in which white and colored lead by turns. They are precious seasons to us all, and we feel that a blessing is for us. Several of our members, whose husbands are unconverted, meet in their homes to pray for their conversion. Friends frequently present requests for prayers. ”

“ The Association, by the largeness of its plans, the boldness of its project, the manifestation on the spot of its work, by its public advocacy throughout the North, has served to press constantly upon the public attention the exact nature of the great emergency in the field of popular education. ”

“ Among the colored people the prevalence of Masonry would be a great evil—involving a waste of time and an expenditure of money they are little able to bear, as well as exposing them to undue political influences, and diverting their attention from an intelligent and pure Christianity—their only hope. Our teachers and ministers at the South already see these effects beginning to appear, and deprecate them. ”

“ During the week there are school devotions in the morning and family devotions in the evening, and also one meeting for prayer. Upon all these attendance is required.
Many other meetings are held voluntarily by the students, conducted frequently by an instructor. There is a Christian Association of the young men and one of the young women, meeting once a week, or oftener. The Society for the Evangelization of Africa holds a meeting once a month, and every Sunday morning since the departure of our missionaries to Africa, a meeting has been held to pray for them and their cause. ”

“ In my department 70 boys and girls meet daily for secular and religious instruction. Several of these children live at a distance of from three to six miles, remaining without luncheon, perhaps after an indifferent breakfast, the entire session. Every day I see new proofs of appreciation in the parents and children: they are beginning to realize the strenuous efforts of missionary labor for their future prosperity and eternal salvation. ”

“ We have never sought to produce excitement, nor have we sought rudely to crush it out when it came spontaneously, but to quiet it off by indirect means, a thing always soon successful. Doubtless clearer views of truth are doing away with that frenzy of religious excitement which has so largely prevailed, unbalancing the reason and prostrating the body.
We find it necessary to follow a revival with oft-repeated instructions as to the doctrines and duties of Christianity. The young converts need much loving and wise watchcare. ”

“ Persons under too deep conviction to attend to aught else, have [52] been allowed and advised to wait upon God, and suitable persons have been permitted to wait with them. Occasionally scenes have transpired not to be forgotten nor to be described—the tears, the sighs, the groans, the bowed or prostrate form—and the after unspeakable joy! As time has gone on, whether for better or worse, the emotional has diminished. ”

“ We remember the way in which our wants have been met, in the use of the Jubilee Singers and by other means. The place whereon we stand is holy ground.
In “times of refreshing” the ordinary means of grace have been quickened into greater life, and other means have been used as the Spirit of God seemed to direct. The morning and evening devotions have at times been turned into revival meetings, and extra meetings for prayer and labor with inquirers have been instituted. In a few cases the work of the school has been suspended and the day given to religious meetings ”

“ 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; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous. ”

“ Bill and Andy’s parents silently wondered what had come over their boys, that all at once they grew so thoughtful and studious; but the boys knew what had come over them, and they also knew why it was that whenever they earned any money, a part was saved out from the rest for charitable purposes.
“Makes a feller feel quite like a man to help some one else along a little besides himself, doesn’t it Bill, old boy?” ”

“ We may well hope that when the native African is royally clad in long, flowing robes, made from American prints, on American sewing machines, that he will be ready to listen to the Gospel from the lips of him who represents these material blessings. ”

“ A man who is to do anything must be properly nourished; plenty of good, wholesome food is cheaper than a diet of ice-water.
Good friends, we need not repeat the Doctor’s experiment to prove that the policy of starvation is a mistaken policy, and is every way expensive and hurtful. The question is not how long can a life be sustained at the point of starvation, which is also the point of utter worthlessness, but how much can a life properly nourished be made to accomplish? ”

“ Atlanta, Ga.—It is refreshing to one’s soul to get into a live prayer-meeting like ours last night. One good brother said, “This thing what you call Christianity is no small thing. It starts small, but it grows and grows and grows till it reaches out of this world into the land we call Heaven.” Another faithful brother always prays much, and especially for our school, and in his remarks last evening gave as his opinion—“If ’twan’t for what’s ben done on this yere block this city would be ten times worser’n it is in ignorance ’n superstition. ”

“ I think I see a quickened and deepened consciousness of right as they read it in the light of His word, upon the part of professing Christians a painful and unyielding anxiety with those who have not submitted their hearts to God, and with many, a sincere longing to come into the fellowship of the Gospel. ”

“ We cannot do the work waiting to be done, we cannot answer the Master’s call with any less sum than that. Every cent of it can be used without extravagance. Indeed we can practice a more effective economy on an income of $10,000 per annum than on one of $7,600. A certain amount is necessary even to start. There are some heavy expenses from which [56] there is no escape however we may cut down the work, unless, indeed, we cut its life out altogether. ”

“ I don’t known any thing when I first came to school, because I never school at my own home. and I like going to school at Hampton better than my own home. [54] because I learn here more then my own home. And I like to work. if I learn how to work, when I go home. I think I must help some other Indians that dont know any thing about the white mans way or about Gods word, and I think that is best way to teach each other. ”

“ 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. ”

“ What more encouragement can we desire—looking into their eager faces all aglow, and seeing the quiet submission at the lack of even the necessary daily comforts that they may feed this great hungry desire for knowledge? ”

“ Never has a grand Christian enterprise shown itself more certain of good results; never did a benevolent undertaking more remarkably manifest its self-perpetuating, self-propagating force. It has given a new complexion to the entire “negro problem” in this country. It has successfully asserted the right of the lowliest of all citizens to share in the benefits and advantages of education. ”

“ These schools, by the sheer force of their own excellence, and results so signal as to arrest universal attention, have lived down the most desperate prejudices, and commanded the most emphatic testimonials from all classes and from those highest in authority. ”

“ Recently, at the Cheyenne Agency, Walter Matches, one of the Florida boys, was married to Emma, formerly a scholar at the boarding-school. The teachers of the school, where the wedding took place, prepared an entertainment to which all the Florida boys were invited, and the occasion is described as having been a very pleasant one. The newly married couple are to live at the school, where they are both employed, and we wish for them a life of great happiness to themselves and usefulness to their people. ”

“ Really, there is work enough for two or three more, whose whole attention can be given to it. I am happy to say that some of our colored sisters are able to give us considerable help in missionary work, and we feel confident that more aid from the younger ones may be expected. ”

“ It is astonishing to us teachers who come from the North, where the children are sent to school clad in rubber clothing in inclement weather, to see these boys and girls, so ill fitted to brave the rain and cold, prompt and punctual in their attendance at the daily sessions. ”

“ The church work is progressing under our minister. These people very quickly discover when the Gospel is preached in an able and sincere manner, and are attentive listeners, worshiping the Lord in a subdued and quiet way ”

“ And we are work every afternoon. so we like it very well. and school every morning. and we like it to learn a good way. We dont want be a bad man. because if we are bad God would not like that kind of man. so we want be a good. and we learn the white mans way now and we were past the Indians way about too years ago. and we take the new way. All the Indians boy and gurls very well. ”

“ School opened in October with a full attendance and every promise of a most successful year. Our rooms for industrial instruction are now finished and ready for use. The classes in needlework, etc., are organized, and in January a class or classes in cooking will receive regular instruction, with practice in the experimental kitchen.
Instruction will also be given to a class in the care of the sick. It is a fact that the great majority of our pupils must continue in very humble positions and circumstances; our aim must be to fit them to fill well the lots that must fall to them in life ”

“ I heard that them Indians at my home learn some thing now. they don’t try to learn befor I come here, and I am very glad that they try to learn some thing now. and I wish that the Indian boys and girls come here to school and learn some thing for their people. now our lesson in Arithmetic and reader. and English too. and I like to study them very much. and I been here two years. so I learn some thing now. but not much. and some of the Indian boys went over Mass last summer and went back here again last oct. and they told us that the white people are good. ”

“ We have a weekly Bible meeting held every Monday afternoon immediately after school, in the Principal’s room, conducted by Miss Douglass. The children are interested and the attendance is large. With the Bible in one hand and the text-book in the other, we hope grand results for the next generation of the colored race. Also we have a woman’s weekly prayer-meeting held at various houses. Would I could take my readers with me to these little gatherings of sincere, earnest women, praying for the salvation of their fellow-people ”

“ A warm heart is too strong for a wrong head under such circumstances. And so our anti-Chinese friends at Marysville gave us their presence at our Anniversary, curious to see what could be done, and before we were through bade us God-speed and helped us with a generous contribution. ”