Various

“ It is a relief to know that there are no broken promises, and no accumulation of debt, involved in my failure to remit. But for this, the distress would be intolerable; the trial greater than I could possibly bear. But when I bring up the case of some of our most faithful and successful workers, and realize the fact, which I know to be a fact, that they are dependent on the little salaries they are wont to receive from me for very subsistence, my forewarning passes out of remembrance, and the whole burden rolls down upon my heart. ”

“ The capitalists were well-nigh ruined and the slaves were set free.
On this same plain, growing out of the embers of that same conflict, another and almost as threatening a struggle is rising up before us. The white race in the South still largely controls capital, intelligence and power, and these forces are again used to hinder the impoverished laborer. The white man holds office, from which the black man is excluded, who is denied opportunities and privileges which crush his manhood. ”

“ One man who had not been in Sunday-school for four years made a humble confession, and pledged that he would go to work. He spoke of his early life with its Christian activities, and now when he has a family he has neglected to take them and go to the house of God. So many men are waiting for somebody to lead them to their duty—they see it and know it—but have not moral courage to go forward unless encouraged in some special way. ”

“ He and his aged wife, who is good as can be, like himself, toil for their living all the week, and walk six miles Sunday morning to church. Sometimes she fails, for she is not quite so strong as her husband, but he is seldom absent. One of his sons-in-law, who has himself a son in Talladega College, is the most prompt and regular attendant the church has, and he comes the same six miles. These are not only faithful in church attendance, but are also to be counted among the truest of upright, honest, pure, industrious people. ”

“ Indians like to have a good time all together, whether it is Fourth of July, or Christmas, or a prayer-meeting, or a feast. And we are very thankful that now they enjoy meeting in these ways, instead of having the old-time heathen dances. We are thankful that when we speak of Indians now, we do not mean a race of people who are only waiting for a chance to scalp us. They are our friends, as we are theirs. ”

“ He is a thoroughly educated young man, and speaks English readily. He was educated in his own school in Italy, and completed a course at Edinburgh University in Scotland. His work is proving most successful.
Such is the interesting and providential beginning of our work in conjunction with these Waldenses in this field. We have this new problem upon our hearts and treasury. Who can say that God has not led us into this work, and opened this opportunity for helpful and sympathetic co-operation with these earnest Christian people who have settled in our southern mountains? ”

“ This church at Valdese recognizes itself as in fellowship with our great Congregational body, and especially with the local churches of North Carolina.
This new and interesting field has opened more and more largely during the past year, as additional colonists have come to our shores. Despite the financial embarrassment of our treasury, we rejoice that we have been able to assist these brave and patriotic Christian people in establishing themselves in this mountain region of the South. We believe the opportunity of assistful co-operation with them is one that God has opened to us. ”

“ These levers were used to crush down the laborer into the severest form of slavery known among men. Labor was patient, but large sympathy was developed in the North in favor of the slave. This alone would not have brought on the war. Southern capitalists gloried in their power, and, accustomed to absolute domination over their slaves, assumed the same attitude of superiority over their fellow-citizens of the North. ”

“ It is everywhere, and if in our little corner we feel the first impulse to murmur, we hear, forthwith, from the great apostle: "There hath no trial taken you but such as is common to man." And yet the trial is none the less severe, the distress is none the less intense, because it is universal. ”

“ Memorial services were held on the 26th of August in the church where he had long and faithfully conducted the worship of his people. Addresses were made by those who had been intimately associated with him in his work, which testified to the earnestness and success of his ministry. The best proof of his work is to be seen in the intelligence and virtue of the community in which he labored.
Our field missionary in a recent visit speaks in this way: "It is very rare to find colored people under such discipline and so orderly and intelligent in meetings. ”

“ Either the oppressed laborer will rise in rebellion—and whatever may be the ultimate result the conflict will be dreadful—or, on the other hand, the laborer, denied education, a comfortable home and a chance to accumulate property, will sink into an utterly hopeless degradation, a curse to himself and to the whole South. ”

“ These earnest people who celebrate the Fourth of July, who read publicly our Declaration of Independence, who plant the stars and stripes on the top of their school building, are the kind of foreigners that we need, and they certainly merit our most cordial assistance in the beginning of their life in our land.
In church polity the Waldensean Church differs slightly from our Congregational sisterhood. The local church is independent in the direction of its affairs. They have a "Board of Evangelization" which has supervision of their churches. ”

“ Such boys get ahead. Some Indian boys are naturally very gentle in their manner, and although their clothing may be ragged and dirty, and the homes in which they live are not nearly so bright and attractive as perhaps your father's stable is, yet these boys appear as gentlemanly as if accustomed to the little courtesies of the parlor in civilized life. One verse in the Bible says: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he," and I think it is the gentle thoughts in the hearts of these Indian boys that make some of them so truly gentlemen, notwithstanding their surroundings and lack of training. ”

“ Then every Indian boy from the time he is a baby has his pony. One ten-year-old boy was telling me the other day what good care he tried to take of his pony, and I was very glad he thought about it, and knew that his "Charlie" ought to be well cared for. All the boys like to ride, but sometimes they forget that their ponies ought to be kindly treated, and to have proper food and rest. Indian boys have their favorite games, too, just as white boys do, only their games are different. One is throwing long, slender sticks, which they make in a certain way ”

“ The church has been revived, its membership increased to seventy-five, congregations large and growing, a nourishing Sunday-school and mission school, two preaching services on the Lord's day, and a vigorous Y.P.S.C.E.; a wide-awake mid-week service, a woman's missionary society, and a sewing-school for girls. The church edifice has been renovated at a cost of three hundred dollars, and a parsonage is being erected. For intelligence, Christian character and progressive work, this church is considered the best among colored people in the city. ”

“ The French Revolution was a struggle between capital and labor. The capitalists were the aristocracy, and they monopolized also intelligence and power. With these advantages they ground down labor till patience was changed to implacable rage, and the reaction brought forth the most serious and terrible massacres recorded in history.
Our great civil war of 1861-65 developed one aspect of the conflict between capital and labor. The slaveholders were the capitalists, and with them also were the intelligence and power. ”

“ The most active person in the new enterprise is a member of another denomination, but is in favor of a Congregational church, as it would most likely meet the wants of new-comers of different churches.
As regards the school matter, I understand that a friend proffers to give to any church or individual who will establish and maintain a college an excellent site of ten acres, on a prominence affording a beautiful view of the surrounding country; and it is further reported that he will give, in addition to the site, one thousand dollars. ”

“ Capital and labor are twin brothers, but they have been alienated almost from childhood, and the strife between them waxes warmer and warmer, and, like all other vexed questions, will never be settled till it is settled right. ”

“ I think they are more quiet in their playing than many white boys I have seen and heard. They are not all alike any more than white boys are. Some are naturally very bright and quick to think and to act, and others not as much so. Some of the boys and men are diligent and hard workers, while others are lazy. Some like to study, and others like better to play. A large new Government boarding-school has been lately built in our little village for the Dakota boys and girls. ”

“ Our white ladies could but express their admiration for the composure and quiet dignity with which this Indian woman, who could not speak or understand English, entertertained, from Saturday until Monday, about thirty-five white people and natives at her table, and in a house of one room. ”

“ Another said: "Whatever stops, the work must not stop; pay or no pay, I shall keep up the school." Gin Foo King wrote from San Bernardino, with a sort of lofty contempt of the unbelief that could stop work for lack of pay: "God will take care of us; why should we fear?" ”

“ The principal corporations are the Lawrence, Tremont and Suffolk, Merrimack, Boott, Massachusetts, Hamilton and Appleton, beside the Middlesex, where shawls are made, and the carpet mills, where the famous Lowell carpets are woven. While the city is a veritable beehive of industry, yet the people find time for recreation, and have wisely provided breathing places in different parts of the city, where they can recuperate mind and body. ”

“ The name is very dear to the children of the earlier heroes, who have established Valdese in this land, and so named some of their farms and homes Baziglia. The glimpse given us in the quotation above, of the life in this Waldensean colony, is an impressive picture and a most hopeful prophecy. These Waldenses can not prove "dangerous foreigners" who come to our shores with earnest Christian plans and purposes, and read the Declaration of Independence to their children on their first Fourth of July in America! ”

“ We also have three or four hospitals, an old ladies' home, and a home for young women and children. The police protection consists of a chief, his deputies, captains and sergeants, and about one hundred patrolmen. The fire system of the city is excelled by none in the country, and is well worthy a careful inspection.
Lowell is not favored with a great many pretentious edifices on her public streets, but the most prominent are the new City Hall, High School, Memorial Building, State Armory, St. Anne's Church and the Federal Building. ”

“ We trust that in the good providence of God, this mission will be made prosperous and be greatly enlarged, that its missionaries will be preserved in safety, that the natives will become more orderly, that the influence of the school and mission may bring to them peaceable fruits of civilization and Christianity. ”

“ Such facts as these abundantly prove that our Indian Christians are realizing the responsibility upon them to assist with their means in these great missionary movements. If all the churches in the land would give according to their ability as generously as did this Indian church on the prairie, not one of our benevolent societies would need suffer. ”

“ In your own way and time do for my son what seems best. I cannot do anything. I ask it all for Jesus' sake. Amen.' I repeated about the same prayer the following night, and then left it all with the Lord. In about two weeks I received a letter from my son stating that some one had put two hundred and fifty dollars in the bank at Nashville to his account to aid him through college. I considered it the direct answer to my prayer. This is the proudest day of my life to see my son John graduate from Fisk University. ”

“ Pastor Harris has some earnest workers in his church. Dr. Whedbee, the superintendent of the Sunday-school and the president of the Christian Endeavor, is a graduate from Howard University. He has an excellent practice, and is a devoted Christian worker.
I must close these notes with an example of church work that shows what can be done in our Southern field when pastors and people have a wise direction and a mind to work. I find the following record in the minutes of the Tennessee Association for 1893. "Nashville, Howard Chapel. The church is not prosperous. ”

“ And perhaps you think they are very strange people, quite unlike white people. In some ways they are. But if you could come out here to our little Indian village (Little Eagle Village it is called) , on the Standing Rock Reservation in Dakota, I think you would very soon be playing with the Indian boys just as merrily as you do now with your boy friends at home. Perhaps Ben Black Dog would show you some of the little gumbo images that he made when the mud was soft, and then it grew dry and hard, as the clay does that some of you use in school ”