Various

“ In spiritual matters we cannot do our pleading by proxy; priests were abolished when Christ made himself accessible, through the Comforter, to every heart, and we must now act each for himself; therefore let us see to it that we do not make this part of life uninteresting, unfruitful and dreary from sheer stiffness, inexperience and unfamiliarity. ”

“ The frequent occurrence of incidents like this fill all our hearts with deep awe and invest every act and word with a tender solemnity. We feel the majestic presence in our midst of One seeking and saving that which was lost. ”

“ Only three of my thirty-three Sunday-school boys are not Christians. Sometimes the responsibility almost overpowers me. They have so little help at home, but find so much to hinder and discourage. One bright, smart boy of fifteen has within a few months come into my class, and has accepted Jesus as his Saviour. For nine years he has been smoking, following the example of his father and older brother. Since his conversion he feels he cannot follow this habit, and he is making brave efforts to overcome it. Young as he is, the habit has a very strong hold upon him, and he finds it hard work. ”

“ Does he not, when struggling to put up a building in the wilderness, want money more than prayers, or at least as much? Would he not be glad of anyone’s sympathy and prayers? Very likely; but yet we see in his request an unconscious recognition of the fact that those who make a business of praying are the ones whose help is worth something; whose sympathy is palpably felt. ”

“ Pray for us, brethren, that the will of God may be fully wrought among us, and these youths, so eager for that education which is so necessary for the future well-being of the South, be enriched above all other getting with “the gift of eternal life.” ”

“ If one loves us we need not worry about his material gifts to us. If a child of God prays for us he has a real interest in us and will try to give us money (if we are in need of it) ; and the exertions of such are multiplied a hundredfold by God’s arithmetic. “Those who pray” find that God doesn’t require them to assume the attitude of [134] Abraham, “Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once.” If the loving children of God were permitted to only send up one brief prayer and then have to step back, their interest might die out. ”

“ If his mother had aimed to teach him a lesson through his account-book, she had not failed.
He got up at last and stood before the glass.
“Now, my young man,” said he, shaking his head very threateningly at the boyish face he saw there, “you know very well that a quarter for peanuts [151] doesn’t look any larger to you than a pin’s head, and that a quarter for giving looks as big as a cart-wheel—but that’s got to stop, sir! This book isn’t going to hold any more accounts of dollars for trash and cents for Sunday-school.”—The Christian Giver. ”

“ Let us all pray for the faithful ones who carry our burdens by going into the wilderness to do God’s work in our stead, who relieve us of a portion of our duty by doing more than theirs, and our material aid will certainly be larger and of more value than it could possibly otherwise be. ”

“ FOR THE CHILDREN. DOLLARS FOR SELF, AND CENTS FOR CHRIST.
“Yes, I always give for missions and everything else,” said Phil. “I give something every Sunday; don’t you?”
“Why, no; I give five or ten cents when I think I can spare it, when I have a good deal of money and don’t want it for anything,” said Tom.
“I give whatever papa or mamma gives me for it,” said James. “Sometimes it’s more, and sometimes it’s less.”
“Oh, I always give my own money!” said Phil. “I don’t think it’s any giving at all unless you do that.” ”

“ The Society includes all grades of students, but more especially are they from the advanced classes, as the very difficult music which they render requires all the mental power of which they are capable. Prof. Spence is the soul and life of the Society, and gives himself to it with an energy and enthusiasm that is an inspiration to all the members. ”

“ Our mission stations are all manned. Churches and schools, with all their multitudinous outshoots of work, are taxing the energies, abilities and devotion of our workers. Never in the history of this Association was the work more manifestly blessed of God, or more imperative in its calls for vigorous prosecution. Our schools are crowded. Multitudes of students are turned away because there is no room to receive them. ”

“ Time is something much needed in the Indian’s re-adjustment of himself to the new conditions of life. If he can only be encouraged now to exert himself to establish a separate home and open a farm; if he can be guided so as to avoid serious mistakes, he will come out the better for the delay. ”

“ At one place a considerable colony has settled under the leadership of a former student of Fisk University. He is, of course, a Congregationalist, and desires the best educational advantages for this new and growing colony. [138] What could not be accomplished here during the next few years if only the treasury warranted the outlay? At Greenville, in the heart of this fertile valley, a small Congregational Church, planted and nurtured by the A. M. A., is holding up the standard of intelligent preaching and decent forms of public worship. ”

“ What added life does it give to our intercourse with the Father to realize that he is already acquainted with us, that he has heard us on similar subjects before, that he knows the general trend of our desires and longings already. ”

“ We will only add, that some of the provisions of the Sioux bill can indirectly and after some delay be carried out under the General Allotment Act.
The failure of the Mission Indian bill is a source of unrelieved regret and indignation. These Indians, whose sad story is told so pathetically in Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona,” are still left unprotected, and their [132] lands are still exposed to the incursions of unscrupulous white men. It is to be hoped that the nation will demand of the next Congress that justice shall be done to these Indians. ”

“ There is not sufficient inducement offered to the young men to become ministers; the claims of the ministry are not presented with sufficient stress; the churches are so few and so small that the prospect is very discouraging; if a young man offers himself for the ministry, he must go North to study theology, where he is in danger of being educated out of sympathy with his people. The Southern schools have no well-equipped seminaries in which young men may be educated. ”

“ God equalizes things in a strange way. Now, these very people who occupied these lands and tilled them for others are acclimated and can live here and gather the enormous wealth of this wonderful valley. ”

“ NEW YORK AND CHICAGO,
The List.—The New National Series of School and College Text Books comprises nearly 400 different volumes.
The Aim.—Practical utility and the best results.
When you want a spade you buy a spade, not a parlor ornament with ivory handle and Damascus steel. Experience tells you that for utility the best is the cheapest! So in the selection of school books, the best books are made to be used. They are the outcome of faithful work of practical teachers in the school-room. ”

“ A few leading citizens, both white and colored, were invited, and the Faculty and teachers of the University were also present. The night was warm and pleasant, and students appointed for the purpose met our distinguished guests at the street car, a quarter of a mile distant, escorting them up through the unlighted street.
The Hall, however, was brilliantly lighted, and when the concert began was well filled, still others coming in later in the evening.
The Mozart Society, consisting of fifty members, with piano, organ, violins, flute and cornet, occupied the raised platform in front. ”

“ Now, if such men were planted all over the Sioux country in charge of small colonies of farming Indians, properly backed up by Government, the progress of this people would be rapid. As it is, the colony from Rosebud Agency at Swift Bear’s have to choose between the barren lands near the Agency, or spend half their time traveling back and forth over the one hundred and forty miles to their farms located in the best land of the whole reserve. There is no encouragement in that for an Indian to choose land that will bring him a living when Government rations cease. ”

“ As for the spiritual results among these young men, it is even more difficult than in ordinary evangelistic effort to speak definitely and positively. Yet no one, it seems to me, can look into the many eager and open countenances to be seen every evening in those mission rooms, without the conviction that somehow the good seed is growing in those hearts. ”

“ In my own class of young men, ten have found the Saviour and eight of them are to unite with our Church next Sunday. I think there are forty who are proposing a public uniting with us at that time. It is a time of great anxiety for us. The young feet will wander if not guided by earnest Christian admonitions. ”

“ The Spirit is revealing His presence in all grades of the University, and boarders and day pupils are witnessing to His saving power. The work is very quiet, deep and wonderful. There are over forty-five who give evidence of having been “born from above.”
The following incident illustrates the peculiar graciousness of the work as it was modestly related by one of the teachers last evening in Faculty meeting: “Yesterday noon, as my scholars were passing out of the room, a boy stepped out of the line and stood waiting to speak with me. ”

“ Suicide Postponed.—There is an old story with such a good moral that we recall it to the minds of our readers. A man of large wealth, living in Paris, became so tired of a monotonous life that he determined to commit suicide. ”

“ There has been a quiet, intense determination on the part of pupils to master the subjects in hand, that has greatly encouraged their teachers. Many pupils have expressed a praiseworthy dissatisfaction with their work and a longing to do it better, and have seemed glad to devote recreation and holiday hours to gain a better mastery of difficult subjects. ”

“ A large number of pupils have been turned away for the want of accommodations.
The Industrial department of Le Moyne Institute is receiving constant additions. A printing outfit has recently been procured, and the students [137] are busy over “fonts” and “pi,” though no printer’s devil has as yet appeared. The scholars have done some good job work already and are thus turning their industrial training into immediate practical benefit. The other departments of the Institute are keeping step with its industrial development. ”

“ When we go before a court of law with our suits we employ an experienced pleader to present our case, and rightly; his training, his habit, is the lubricating element; without it progress would be slow, difficult and tedious. ”

“ Accompanying this zeal for the acquisition of knowledge there has been, from the week of prayer, a deep and growing tenderness on the subject of religion.
While there have been no special revival services, the regular weekly religious meetings of the University, both voluntary and those in the regular order, have been attended and sustained with the most earnest enthusiasm and by about the same numbers.
Some four weeks ago a request was made after the Sunday evening preaching service, that those who had lately become Christians would remain. ”

“ It will necessitate earnest work on the part of our friends; but with such an important field urgently calling for the enlargement of missionary work, with so many evidences of the Divine approval resting upon it, and with so much ability in the possession of our friends, may we not hope that the churches will lay hold of the problem and solve it at once? ”

“ I am naturally high-spirited, and, although in my 83d year, do not feel more meek and quiet than in my early years. It cannot be that the blessed God whose ‘mercy endureth forever’ can look with favor upon our nation. ”

“ A righteous man is one who is working in lines approved by God, and this necessarily implies that he is in communication with God; therefore the maker of this appeal is right in addressing himself to those who are used to praying ”

“ Such instances are constantly occurring. The only way the young people on these mountains who live remote from school can be educated is to hire rooms and board themselves.” There is a plea in these words for the erection of dormitories to accommodate needy and worthy students. Such dormitories would not cost much, perhaps not over $500 each. But the current funds must be used for our current work. Gladly would we tell our missionary to put up a few dormitories and let these pleading ones be cared for. ”

“ FISK UNIVERSITY.
The time has come in the religious history of the year in Fisk University when an account of the work done may be given. I have no doubt that it will interest and encourage the friends of the Association.
During the week of prayer for the Y. M. C. A. among colleges, the young men of the institution who belong to the Y. M. C. A. of Fisk held meetings and did good work among the young men who do not profess to be Christians. ”

“ It is recognized as one of the most beneficial institutions in the city by the citizens of all shades of political opinion.
The Congregational Church stands immediately opposite the Institute, and students are especially welcomed into its services and membership. If New England Pilgrimism of early days is reproduced anywhere it certainly is in the work of the A. M. A. The Church and the School are the joint and inseparable agencies for the building of character. ”