Various

“ Two-thirds of our school were present to-day. I realize as never before the effort these children are making for themselves. Oh! I remember how freely money was given and the young men from our homes that freedom might be obtained for this people; then the women must wait and pray at home, but now the way is open for women to teach the young of this vast race that the future may not disclose a nation within a nation, hostile to the good and true of a Christian people. Shall there not be volunteers among our New England girls, who shall say: "Here am I. Send me" to the work? ”

“ Missionary information when properly brought forward will make a meeting that for interest cannot be surpassed. It is one of the strangest things in the world that so many people have gotten the impression that a missionary meeting must be dull, and that a missionary discourse must be uninteresting. It is an impression that ought not to exist. ”

“ And when the Church has had that possession of the Spirit, has it not been especially her inspiration to cry out with the Gospel message? The great figure in this Association work in the past has been the teacher. We have had a gifted line of men and women in this work, and to them all honor be given. It would be impossible for us to give them the honor which is their due; but in the future the great figure is to be the missionary preacher, the man who can reach masses of men with the Gospel message. We are lifting this race, and what has been true in the past will be true in the future. ”

“ Our land and our buildings have come from other sources. But our outfit of school requisites has been for the most part overlooked. Some fine instruments have been presented to us, much more costly than we would have selected for ourselves; but their value would be increased many fold by accessory and supplementary apparatus. Are there not those who can, by special gifts, make up this lack also? Must we, of all other teachers of science, be left to make bricks without straw? What answer should be made to those who depreciate the negro's mental capacity? ”

“ Perhaps I can not better exhibit this subject in the little space allowed me than in noticing some of the traits which should characterize the missionary preacher, and while the truth is general and applicable to all parties, I trust that we may be under the direction of the Spirit and take to heart these great traits we shall be looking for in the preacher of the future in the South.
The missionary preacher is a man who, to be effective, should be a man of spiritual morality, a man of irreproachable character. ”

“ The American Missionary Association could make good use, say, of a "One Hundred Thousand Dollar Fund" for the scientific departments of its mission schools. It may be that some one whom God has blessed with riches is waiting for just such an opportunity as this particular branch of our great field opens. Special funds for a designated institution, to be used for the promotion of Christian science, as outlined by Prof. Chase, are earnestly solicited:
Are there not some friends of the work among the Freedmen who can appreciate the need of a teacher for a complete scientific outfit? ”

“ What does the Scripture say in that psalm? "There is nothing hid from the light?" No; "There is nothing hid from the heat thereof." We want a Gospel preacher among those people who has a Gospel heat from which nothing can be hid. How many things we can say of this fuel! We have spoken of the Word of God. The Word of God is the light, and it is the fuel for a fire. Our blessed Saviour when He was on the way to Emmaus with the Disciples enkindled their hearts, not by his personal presence ”

“ The race has been kept during slavery from all knowledge of science. Their trades and occupations being of the roughest, and having ignorant parentage, nothing has been learned from the business of life, nor in answer to the questioning of childhood and youth. There is no race now admitted to the privileges of liberal education so barren of scientific ideas and so lacking in scientific spirit. ”

“ In the day of judgment will the whites lead and the blacks follow? Will there be galleries with hard seats in Heaven for negroes and ground floors easy of access with soft seats for Caucasians? Will the great chorus of Heaven be divided into two parts, a white division and a black division? ”

“ I think I wrote you about a similar meeting one year ago; this is the third one that I have held, and the meetings have gained in interest. In that settlement, before they commence planting, the people have a fast day; they neither eat, wash their faces nor perform any ordinary duties from one sunset to the next. They pray in their homes and unitedly for God's blessing upon the labor of their hands. It reminds me of the way fast days used to be kept in the early history of New England. I am inclined to think they caught the idea from the people who came from New England here. ”

“ The voice lies between the book and the life, and the life is the great publication of the message, and unless we have a voice of a man who is spiritually qualified by a holy life, we have not a competent Gospel preacher. In speaking of this matter of morality, we should have something more in view than natural morals—there is a spiritual morality. We want the higher. A man who has in himself the Spirit of God, produces this type of morality. ”

“ Nothing in these days can be accomplished without organization. What is everybody's business is nobody's business, and causes whose support is left to those who merely [Pg 87] happen to have an interest in them are very likely to be neglected. We wish that in every State of the Union, ladies' domestic missionary societies might be organized. The great work which our Association is called upon to perform among women needs to be specially brought to the attention of the Christian ladies in our churches. ”

“ I came to California in 1876, and lived in the city of San Francisco. In the day-time I worked in a family, but in the evenings I attended the Mission school. In 1877, I became a poor Christian among our countrymen here. The schools were cared for by all the good Christian friends that are in this free country, and even by some from England and other nations. They were looked after by Rev. W. C. Pond, pastor of Bethany Church—the same church that all our Chinese brethren go to, to take the Lord's Supper, once in two months. ”

“ Last Sabbath another couple entered upon the "matrimonial sea," this time young people. The gorgeous attire of the wedding party can be better imagined than described. We see few tokens of love and affection among this people. In the Sunday-school lesson of last Sabbath the questions and remarks of our pupils led us to think that it was almost a missing link in their lives; it seemed impossible for them to understand why the people should fall on Paul's neck and kiss him; it is a rare sight to see a kiss exchanged among them. ”

“ Now, how do you like that?" Then she said, without delay, "I will not like such a man. I rather take a man that is called a Christian, and have him do good, than to have him serve ancestors and gods and do bad things." ”

“ The second essential in the missionary preacher, if he is to be successful, is a mind which is spiritually illuminated, a man who is intelligent in the truth. I presume the great characteristic of the old-time preacher in the South is his ignorance, and if we should select one point at which a change needs to take place, it is at this point of instruction. He needs to be intelligent. ”

“ All honor to the slave-holders who [Pg 75] furnished the means of the gospel to the slaves. All honor to the men and women who pointed the sin-burdened negroes to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We have no doubt but that as Dr. Edwards says, "Multiplied thousands upon thousands of the sons of Ham will rise up in judgment to bless the faithful men of the South for their long-continued labors in teaching the benighted negro the way of life." We have no doubt of it; but in the resurrection will the whites put in an appearance first and the blacks second? ”

“ God's Word the instrument, and the temperature that of the heavens. But we must be of the temperature of that Bible and that heavens! Oh, for the heat of the Gospel to be in the minister of Christ wherever he stands, and then there will be nothing hid from its searching power.
I think this subject is often presented in a way to confuse it. We speak of heat in a way not to comprehend precisely what we want; and let me touch upon the point which shows what I mean. When the Saviour was at the well with the [Pg 79] woman, it was the love in His heart from which she could not be hid. ”

“ Watching the progress of our school from day to day the upward tendency seems slow, but looking back a year a marked improvement can be seen. While they learn readily they remember well, and the homes of those who come in contact with our church and school are different. Last Saturday was the coldest day of the winter, but Miss Robertson and I, according to a previous appointment went to the Dunwoody settlement to hold a woman's meeting. ”

“ Three-fourths of our graduates follow teaching as a profession, and are more or less teachers of science. They should not only learn that which apparatus alone can teach, but also how to use it themselves. Should a master workman be expected to teach the theory and practice of a trade through the use of pictures of tools and machines? ”

“ Those who know this people solely from their fine literary and oratorical abilities have no conception of their great deficiency in science. It does not need to be said that, until this is remedied, they cannot be expected to hold their own in a scientific age, and in competition with a scientific race. ”

“ The time of confession and consecration lasted the whole week, and proofs of genuineness are not wanting. Said one: "The new year shall not be so dull as the old one." Another: "The new year I give all to my Master, Jesus." And kindred promises were frequent and fervent.
Results of week of prayer: Church much encouraged and quickened, new consecration to work, one convert, a number of interested souls, but chiefly the quickened desire for growth of individuals in all that makes Christian character ”

“ Yes, the slave-holders did a great deal for the religious training and the spiritual welfare of the slaves, and in consequence of what they did, with God's blessing, the colored people of our country are almost immeasurably lifted above their benighted heathen brethren in Africa. ”

“ Is there any lover of science and friend of the freedmen who can understand our condition and give us ten thousand dollars for an outfit, and if possible an additional sum as an endowment for annual expenses? ”

“ It takes two crosses to save the world—the cross of Christ and the cross of the believer. A ministerial brother said, in speaking of certain ones, that they had undergone a deplorable religious transformation, that at one time they held the Gospel of regeneration, but they had come to love the Gospel of recreation. ”

“ Though our course of study is brought down to the very minimum of college [Pg 76] work, and the instruction is of a most elementary character, still there are eight sciences to be taught. But this teaching, to be successful, requires the use of illustrative material. With the general introduction of illustrations in our modern schools began the rapid progress in science that distinguishes our age. All true teachers of science affirm with one voice that this aid is indispensable even with the most favored races. ”

“ We invite correspondence with missionary societies, promising to give careful attention to any inquiries they may make. With gratitude do we record the fact that the interest in the woman's department of the American Missionary Association's work is steadily enlarging. ”

“ They preached a lovely sermon on the high privilege and duty of comforting others. We may be poor, and very humble may be our station in life; but if we try, we may make life brighter and sweeter to someone. What a glad surprise it will be to Vic when the Saviour honors her many kind acts by the words—"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." ”

“ Those members of church who, unhindered by other things, come to meeting in stormy weather are more clear in their testimony that it pays, in direct returns of spiritual strength and joy in the fellowship of Christ. ”

“ I presume the colored man has been maligned in the South, as his character has so often been brought out among us. One of our enthusiastic teachers was asked, "How many Uncle Toms do you find in the South?" And she replied, "About as many as there are in the North." A truth was there that we ourselves may very well take.
There are three ways in which the Gospel is published. One is in the book, one is by the voice, and the third by the life. ”

“ It has come this year, and those young men went out preachers of righteousness, clothed with power to reach the masses of men, and they have drawn in hundreds, and there is hope of the thousands, and that is what we want in this work, men who can go to those Southern fields, to those five millions of whom we have heard, and cast the great seine net of the Gospel ”

“ This Association has a glorious opportunity. There is no cause that comes to us that touches our inspiration and consecration like this society, and the opportunity is such as, in my judgment, the Christian Church never had. ”

“ We turn under a live oak, take out and feed the jaded horses, and eat our snack, and commit ourselves to the Heavenly Father, and at 11 o'clock turn in for the night, Brother Thompson on the ground, under the hack, and Brother Eding and I in the hack, doubled like a couple of jackknives into our four feet square of space, being all of a color. By our side the ponies through the night crunch their corn; and, by turn, we jump up to drive off the cows from stealing their hay. ”

“ It is a matter of great satisfaction that our schools in the South are doing such efficient work in this direction, as reports indicate, and as private information shows. I quite lately had information from General Armstrong touching this point of high morality that is developed in the school. The young men and young women, he said, compare well with the young men and young women in our Northern schools. This is a matter of great satisfaction, because the preacher of the future is to come out of these schools. ”

“ We have not neglected our opportunities in respect to making collections of specimens about us, and constructing cheap forms of apparatus. We have learned new trades and toiled early and late and often through whole vacations. ”