Various

“ Around three great fundamental ideas the work of Tougaloo, with its nearly 400 students and 23 instructors, with its theological, college preparatory, normal, agricultural, industrial, musical, and nurse training departments, its religious work, is grouped and carried on with notable success. These are the development of the family and home, leadership, and pure religious life. Who will endow a chair? Who will endow the University, and perpetuate one's influence in a most fruitful way? Successful as Tougaloo has been, its largest, widest work is yet to come. ”

“ In the very heart of the black belt of Mississippi, it is sending out its light among thousands who are in darkness. It would quite repay one who would study the problem of saving these children of the rural districts of the black belt to go far out of his way to visit Tougaloo. He should take time for it, to ride over its broad acres of cultivated land, its cotton fields, its fields of sugar cane and corn, its hay fields, all under the care of those who are being educated. They should see its shops for iron working, for wood working, and its varied other industries. ”

“ Every quarter the treasurer will gather the different sums and send to the American Missionary Association treasury. The twelfth day of February each year will be a rallying day, when we trust much more [134] will be realized. It is hoped by those who have this plan in hand, and we are all working in unison here in it, to extend it throughout all of our schools and churches in the South, that the present debt of the American Missionary Association may be brought close to their hearts, and kept there, as the proposition is that this association shall continue until the debt is lifted. ”

“ Surely liberal offerings must follow sober thought and earnest prayer for the redemption of those whom God seems to have given into our special charge here in our own country. Our Lord Himself said, "Ye have done it unto Me." What if it does cost self-denial? Shall we not plan more liberally for Christ than for self? ”

“ May the angelic song of the Nativity of "peace on earth and good will toward men" so abound that the curtains that separate men will be raised and its refrain of "peace and good will" extend to our common humanity, that we may all be bound together and united to Christ. ”

“ The normal work is of chief importance, for the future of the race lies largely with the trained teachers of the common schools. Those who have gone from Tougaloo have won golden opinions from both races and do a work which in its scope and missionary character multiplies greatly the influence of the supporters of the school. Strieby has, by crowding, dormitory room for seventy to eighty boys. A separate building for normal work is greatly needed, one having a library, reading room, recitation room, museums and laboratories. ”

“ I hear you have been talking some bad talk with other boys." I said, "What is it, marm?" "You said that you were going to be free some day. Now let me tell you, if you do not stop talking such talk you will be hung and nobody can possibly save you. Let me tell you, you were ordained from the foundation of the world to be a slave; that is your destiny."' He continued, 'Although I never employed any of those boys as clerks, yet from that white boy, who reported my conversation, I have bought thousands of dollars' worth of goods since. I began by selling cakes on the railway cars. ”

“ Would that the eyes of these brethren, and our own, too, were opened to the perception of the Christ that is already here, in the persons of those needing to be helped and educated and elevated, and that their ears could hear His words, "Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these his brethren ye do it unto Christ." That is the Christian philosophy of giving, and if a man does not feel the force of these considerations, I should be disposed to say he has not yet begun to be a Christian. ”

“ Underneath all the work of the school is the dominating thought of the development of Christian character. The preaching, the Sabbath school, with its class prayer meetings directed by the Sabbath school teachers, the religious societies, the Covenant for Christian service, the personal influence of teachers and older pupils, all tend in that direction [132] with most blessed results. Upon the surrounding region growing influence is exerted through the four Sabbath schools from two to four miles away, in which teachers and students from the University assist. ”

“ And so, brethren, the Lord Jesus isn't able, according to his plans for this world, to come personally yet among us, but He has sent these colored people, Chinese, Indians and heathen, to make appeal in His behalf to us, and who among us will set a chair for Him? There are many friends with whom I hardly agree who are very anxiously waiting for the appearance of the personal Christ among us, and they are wondering what they shall do to welcome Him. ”

“ While these figures are somewhat encouraging, yet the size of the debt is ominous. The winter months, usually most fruitful in collections, have passed away, and the time for the annual appropriations is near at hand. Unless the debt can be greatly reduced, the cutting down of the appropriations for the next year must be disastrous to this great work. We do not lose our trust in God, nor our hope that the friends of these ignorant and yet struggling people will not suffer the work to be seriously hindered. ”

“ Great efforts are made from time to time to induce immigrants to settle in the South, and high hopes have been built on such endeavors. But immigrants continue to go to the North and West, and do not go South. This is not because the South is not rich in minerals, in a productive soil and a beautiful climate. Why is it? Capital in the hands of the whites in the South continues to crush labor in the person of the black man under the heel of prejudice. Perhaps the laborer from Europe may dread the same thing. ”

“ When men know the grace of Christ they will never feel that they have given Him enough. Until they know it they will never give Him anything. They may contribute to keep up appearances so as to be like other people or to gain a reputation, but they will never give to Him until they know His grace. Before men give to Christ they must receive from Him, and when they have received Christ Himself into their hearts they will be impelled to give, impelled not compelled ”

“ It is heart cheering that the Women's Unions have planned for thought, prayer and special offerings on Friday, April 12, or Easter Sunday, the 14th, the day which, in the words of the resolution adopted by the State organizations at their annual meeting, "commemorates Christ's gift of Himself to the world." ”

“ The goods a Chinaman has to sell are likely to be those that in hard times we dispense with. If wages are to be reduced, the reduction begins with the Chinaman. It is no great sin in the view of many to steer clear of paying a Chinaman. If anybody is to be dismissed from service when economy begins it is the Chinaman. We cannot but think that under the circumstances the financial showing at this point is highly creditable.
Bureau of Woman's Work. WOMAN'S MISSIONARY UNIONS. THANK-OFFERING DAY, APRIL 12. ”

“ Douglass has awakened a sense of profound sympathy never before expressed toward a person identified with the negro race, and seldom toward one of the white race. We are not surprised at the manifestations of profound respect and sorrow of the colored people, and we rejoice, too, that the white race has shown almost equal regard for his memory, by their attendance when he lay in state in Washington, and when his body was interred in Rochester. ”

“ Sometimes the human, the frail, we may almost say the devilish crops out in a way to put hope and courage to a test that is terribly severe, but never anything to compare with that which Paul had to confront in those at Corinth, whom he nevertheless denominates "the sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints." ”

“ Sometimes in commercial circles a man will assign [142] a debt that is owing to him to someone else out of friendship that he may take it when he has collected and use it for himself. Much in the same way, I think, the Lord Jesus has assigned a large portion of the debt which we owe to Him to those who are around us, to the unconverted at our doors, to these races among whom we labor. ”

“ The organization of Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor among the young people in the mountains is being carried on very successfully by the missionaries and superintendents of the American Missionary Association in that region. ”

“ It is pitiful to see the children come so regularly four or five miles to school, their feet protruding from their broken shoes, bringing their baskets of tuition in the way of chickens, eggs, etc., to pay their school bills. ”

“ Not always are efficiency and economy found pulling equally in the same harness.
A little incident in Tougaloo interested me. A discussion of the topic, "How can we improve our homes," called from one student these words: "I find the negro lacks race pride. He despises his own makeup. Who of you ever heard any negro say that he thought the general characteristics of his race were as becoming as those of other races? Nor are they. The Anglo-Saxon is proud of his race characteristics. The Indian is, also, but the negro despises himself and would be anything else than what God has made him. ”

“ These churches of Southern Louisiana are in the black belt of the State on plantations and in towns adjacent to the large sugar plantations. Many of the planters have become bankrupt by the changed conditions of giving up the sugar bounty, while the poor colored laborers have been the greatest sufferers. ”

“ The outcome of this work and of the girls' industries, teachers of which are supported by the Slater Fund, which has done, and is doing, so grand a work, has been most satisfactory and encouraging in the skill manifested, the increased earning capacity imparted, the greater ability to gain and maintain homes, and the development of character. ”

“ Mention should also be made of the "Tougaloo University Addition to Tougaloo." One hundred and twenty acres of land have been divided into five-acre house lots, which are being sold at $100 each to former students and those who wish to educate children at the University. In a few years it is expected that a fine community will be there. ”

“ But somehow or other the boom loses its fervor and the bright hopes are delayed. Yet the South has vast resources, though they can only be developed gradually, and as capital shall become assured that the labor problem in the South is satisfactorily adjusted. ”