Various

“ We go down a steep and sharp curve, on the edge of high banks, and then through a covered bridge across the rushing stream, which is seen between the foot planks, and we are thankful to get across without any backing on our horse's part. The woods are very lovely just now, very few wild flowers, but such a variety of foliage, and we notice a beautiful flowering shrub, called "ivory "; it is a mass of delicate pink or white blossoms. ”

“ The preacher is a young man, who would gain much (as would his hearers) by attending school a few years. This is one of the heart-sores in the work here—the great ignorance of many of the preachers. Some of them will tell you, they have had "no education," and, indeed, it is all too plain, from their curious expressions and mis-applied long words; but worst of all is their ignorance of the Bible. But how can they do better till they have been taught? There is a crying need of educated pastors in these country places. The young men tell us, they "do not find religion interesting;" ”

“ But will not a goodly company of wealthy men supplement what the churches are doing in their collections, by large gifts for this special, most needy, most fruitful, and we declare most neglected mission work of the nation? ”

“ It is not the problem I presented to you two years ago; it has changed in the two years, and, thank God, it will change in two years more, if we do the work we ought to. Do we realize that our Indians are getting beyond the wild life? Forty thousand Indian people have come out of the tepee life into little homes that these Indian men have built for themselves, taking their people forward toward Christ. We talk of the Indian in his paint and blanket, forgetting that he is coming forth into life. His game is gone, his wild roving life is gone, his reservation is going. ”

“ But if the movement "means business," and is to be pushed to its legitimate result, then two things must be done: the Negro must be qualified to vote and to be voted for; to elect officers and to hold office. If the mass of illiterate and impoverished Negroes are to be represented in State Legislatures and in Congress by persons as ignorant and poor as they are themselves, these representatives will, of course, if in the majority, be liable to rule and ruin; if in a large minority, they will hold a balance of power that may easily be controlled by demagogues. ”

“ All along the road for nearly forty miles people stopped me and I them to talk about the love of God for man and the gift of his dear son as their Saviour and Redeemer. My heart burns with a desire to do them good and I am so happy in helping them see the truth as it is revealed in the Bible. There are hundreds of colored people in that county who have no proper religious instruction. ”

“ Churches with such doors as those in their walls need not be expected to vegetate, nor to die.
I like to visit the smaller churches as opportunity is given. Their zeal for the causes of humanity is often very intense and intelligent. Sometimes, too, their contributions are a surprise. I know a little country church in Ohio that one day raised forty-six dollars when only forty-five persons were present. It was ten miles by stage from the railroad. Now another gratifying surprise: out of that little flock several people are planning to go to the Northampton meeting. ”

“ I mean, so many from each church meeting face to face and forming each other's acquaintance.
It is our wish and prayer to do well the work that is committed to our hands. We are not afraid of hard work, we want time and means to do all that we see is needed, and there is so much to be done. I feel like going, going all the time with the message of God's love to dying men. The opportunities are constantly increasing for usefulness.
Promising Opening In Georgia.
I came to the place where the people wanted a Sunday-school. ”

“ SAVANNAH, GA.—Some years ago our flock was the smallest, now we have the largest Sunday-school and congregation. The history of this church is wonderful. God has been merciful towards it. Some who were our strongest enemies years ago are now our best workers. I have a plan for next winter, to open a night school and draw the young people from sin and Satan to our blessed Lord. ”

“ When you think that your five stations have gathered in two or three hundred scholars and of the possibility for each, can you tell what will be the result of this work? There are thirty thousand poor Indians in Dakota alone, lifting up their cry to the Christian church for light and hope. ”

“ A Student's Fund of $3,000 is to be raised in $50 shares, upon which we will draw to bring the young people of the mountains into these schools, and to help them over hard places according to their need. Pupils will be encouraged to help themselves all they can, and no pledges will be made to any until they have reached the limit of their own resources, and no specified amount will be assigned to any one pupil. Each will be helped according to his condition. A boy may be able to reach the school and work part of his board and need only a small sum to cover the expense of the full year. ”

“ Mayo, of the need of missionary work for this class of the Southern whites, calls for an emphasis even stronger than we could put on any political conclusion. We pass this patriotic appeal along to those who have the wealth that is seeking a worthy object on which to expend itself. ”

“ Christian Endeavor For The Boys And Girls Of The Southern Mountains A New Need.
A large number of the mountain people are so poor that they cannot pay even the bare cost of living for their girls and boys in order that they may have the privilege of attending school. Rarely can a family send more than one child to school, and in every case where one can go a boy is selected. ”

“ All denominations participate and the field of the world is brought vividly before the mind by the laborers from here and there.
An interesting testimony by a missionary from Singapore was to the effect that many of the most cultured and generous people he had ever met were Chinese. By the aid of influential Mongolians—though they were heathen—he was once enabled to start a school which grew rapidly till hundreds were enrolled and a permanent religious center of great importance was established. ”

“ The Sunday-school at Greenlake church, Pekin, is held at 9 A. M. Our object this morning is to meet the children and teachers, before they disperse, and organize a Mission Band. The little church, or rather schoolhouse, is situated on a hill, and there is a fine view of the rolling country; only this morning one longs for a little shade. One of our former scholars (now working in the turpentine) comes out and takes our horse.
The school is just over, and we hear there is to be preaching at 11; it is now 10:15, so we ask the pupils to stay. ”

“ It is hardly to be wondered at, that they are not interested, when the thunder is all that is shown them. They are told they ought "to quake and tremble," and if they do not, they "show by their actions that they mean to go to hell." ”

“ The temperance reform has made a clean sweep of the whole village, and in union with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union at the station is fast pushing the saloons to the wall. The most striking feature of the case is that they have learned how to work in the absence of their leader. ”

“ It is a need of young people and we turn to young people to meet it, believing that our Christian Endeavor Societies and other Young People's Societies will not lose this special opportunity for missionary work. ”

“ They have Christian Endeavor societies there, and all kinds of Christian work. I saw one morning delegates from the Christian Endeavor Society going out to teach a white Sunday-school nine miles off in one direction, and another similar school four and one-half miles off in another.
"It is said that the young people will go back to the blanket. In ten years we have had only one case of that in our Santee school, and that was the case of a young girl who had only been in the school six months; 95 per cent. of all that come to the schools go back consecrated young men and women. ”

“ For the Congregationalista, the American Missionary Association will for a very moderate amount establish a church and an academy in any one of a hundred counties inhabited by these people, and what a man with a million dollars to expend could do we hardly dare to say. ”

“ But this implies higher education to a good many colored people. It will not do for them to have a few men educated as professional politicians. May Heaven save them from the day when they will encourage the growth of such a class of men. ”

“ They will need to have a large number of educated men in the various walks of life, from whom suitable candidates may be selected, just as white men have. But if they are to have such a class of men, adequate measures must be taken for their higher education, and those friends of the Negro who desire and help to educate him only in primary studies, while they are doing a great and essential work, are not doing all that is needed. ”

“ The brothers must wait until perhaps too late, and the sisters must remain at home in ignorance. Thus it is found that the advantages of Christian schools, brought so near to the mountain boys and girls by the American Missionary Association, are not yet sufficiently within their reach, and this gives rise to a new need in connection with our work in the South. ”

“ To educate this mass up to the point of intelligence and the acquisition of property is America's great duty and the guaranty of her safety.
There is one thing more about it. We have said that if the Negro is to have the free exercise of the ballot, he will insist on being voted for as well as voting. If the Negroes have power to elect, they will wish to elect some of their own number. They will not, and certainly they ought not to vote for a man simply because he is black. They should vote for the best qualified man whether he is black or white. ”

“ Here is an urgent need outside our usual lines of expense, for which we seek new and additional help—not the diversion of regular annual contributions. We break the fund into shares of $50 that many may have part in it. Early response either in cash, or pledges to be cashed by July, 1891, will result in giving many of these young people the advantages of Christian education during the present school year. ”

“ They were ready for it, with a rude building erected by the people themselves, and waiting for me to begin work, and I have promised to organize a Sunday-school on the second Sunday of next month. A young married woman, the wife of a well-to-do farmer, and a former student in the Ballard School, has promised to superintend it. She expects at least fifty scholars, many of them her day pupils. I have given her singing books and shall send to Boston for Sunday-school supplies. There is reason to believe that we can some day organize a church in that place. ”

“ The skill to wield tools, acquired in our shop, helped many a one to build a "flat" in which family, stock and furniture could be floated to dry land. Many had to work night and day up to the waist, sometimes to the neck, in water to save what might be. ”

“ They listen intently and with great eagerness. They are hungry for preaching and feel it a great hardship that they can only have it occasionally. Their faces were a study. There was hardly a weak one among them and many bore the impress of great strength. ”

“ Then we hear the Chinese mission—talk with Jesus Christ, do nothing to our idols and very different from us, for we were with evil companions and do many things in gambling, lottery tickets, opium. Dr. Pond open Congregational mission school about 1887 in Los Angeles, very near our house. Then we was been to school about every evening. Mrs. Sheldon and you teach very kind to us, and you explain the gospel of Jesus. So we know the only true God, leave evil companions, join our Association and sixth month join Dr. Hutchins' church. ”

“ It is a photograph of our Oroville Mission House, pupils, teachers, etc. The taller of the two white men in light clothing is the young pastor of our church at Oroville, who is a real helper; the other is myself. The two white ladies are Miss Deuel, former teacher, on the right, and Miss Keifer, the present teacher, sitting next to me. The little American boy is her nephew, greatly interested in the school. The little Chinese boy is a child whom the brethren have partially and after a sort adopted, and who is very bright and promising and means to be a Christian. ”

“ If they have the power they will certainly elect some of their own number. But this means, if it means anything good, that there shall be those of their own number who are qualified to hold office and to hold it honorably to themselves and usefully to their constituents and the country. ”

“ For that, men should read, think, pray and work.
The Federal Election Bill And The Mississippi Convention.
The ultimate aim of the Federal Election Bill in Congress, and of the Constitutional Convention in Mississippi, point in diametrically opposite directions. They cannot be harmonized, and there is no middle way between them. The Election Bill contemplates a "free ballot and fair count" for every voter, including the Negro. The Mississippi Convention aims to restrict Negro suffrage. ”

“ Mr Moody is nothing if not practical, and when he undertakes a thing he is apt to push it through. We give below another pleasant illustration of this. Our readers will remember that Rev. C.W. Shelton two years ago made an address at the great Missionary Meeting at Northfield, Mass., which touched the sympathies of the audience and moved Mr. Moody at once to "do something about it." Under his inspiration three thousand five hundred dollars were raised to establish several new Indian mission stations in Dakota. ”

“ If slavery could not kill us, liberty won't." Liberty ought to do more than save them alive. It ought to educate, elevate and Christianize them.
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The Independent quotes from Dr. Mayo's address before the American Social Science Association on "The Third Estate," in which the Doctor, refers to the strange population of the great Southern mountain world—nearly two millions at present—as a body of people that sends forth a louder cry for the missionary of modern civilization than any other portion of the Republic, and adds ”

“ Grand and good as these are, the first and all-important thing in that problem is the gospel of Christ. It must do it, it can do it, it is doing it, it will do it. The Women's Missionary Societies of fifteen Indian churches gave $200 more for home missionary work outside themselves than the Women's Missionary Societies in one hundred and forty churches of white people in the same time. ”