Various

“ Is not this just the reason why our church work is so cold and lifeless? We are trying to do Christ's work in man's way and we can no more do it than the Indian we are told about, who tried to run the machine controlled by electricity in his own way rather than in the way the inventor intended it to be run. God has given us a plan for doing this work and saving souls, and we are trying man's way rather than God's way. What is man's way? It is to do church work, go to missionary societies, and give—when we have time and money. ”

“ The war and emancipation have written a new page on our national history. But emancipation only battered down the prison doors and sent forth the millions of ignorant, helpless and vicious people—a menace to the Republic and a reproach to the Church, if left in their degraded condition, but presenting a most hopeful field for humane and Christian effort. The facts made an appeal for immediate and effective work and the American Missionary Association sprang into the task. ”

“ A county official remarked that this examination law would probably "result in retiring nearly or quite all the colored teachers in a few years." Such a law "is a barbarous souvenir to make the country remember its bloody dealings with its black brother." "Though slavery is dead, its spirit yet lives; 'the serpent's head is crushed, but his tail still writhes, and sometimes it lashes out spitefully.'" We who are engaged in teaching in Orange Park are glad that the American Missionary Association is to test, and is already testing, the validity of this law. ”

“ I think you want to know all that I shall have time to tell you of our past year's work, our encouragements, our difficulties and successes.
There has been an increasing spirit of loving, gentle, helpfulness among our school girls, both in the home and school life. We have all gladly noticed that our boys have become more courteous and thoughtful. Many of them have learned for the first time, under their wise and consecrated matron, the value of strict adherence to God's great law of obedience in the forming of manly characters and in the making of happy homes. ”

“ Hundreds of refined and Christian women lent their aid and toiled in the uplifting of the needy, amid the scorn and hatred of the white people, while the churches and benevolent friends responded with the means. ”

“ Think of it—that these colored boys, girls and mountain youth, Indians and Chinese, to the number of thirteen thousand annually, are through this American Missionary Association brought under such Christian training that a large proportion go forth to use their talents, be they great or small, in the name of the Master. What better could we do for either of these races than to support liberally a work that, preparing the youth for the practical duties of life, sends them forth to exert their influence among their people for the love of Christ and In His Name. ”

“ Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing; and though I give my body to be burned, and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. ”

“ We found, among other things, that we needed to teach the women the most common and necessary habits of life, how to put the children to bed, how to feed and clothe them. Yet I would say that it is through the students of such schools as Fisk University that the Northern teachers whom you send to us can hope to reach the masses of our colored people. We get the life from our Northern teachers and then the great mass of the colored people look to us for it, for we can get into the home and into the life of the people as they cannot. ”

“ A school prayer meeting is held every Thursday afternoon in the school chapel. In this meeting the majority of the pupils take part, and much interest is shown. The Christian Endeavor, however, is the most enthusiastic meeting in which the students engage. It is held in the chapel of the church, and attended by both town people and the school. The colored students have shown themselves efficient committee workers and leaders. There have been several conversions in the society, and there is great reason to be encouraged. It is in this field that personal work is needed and is effective. ”

“ If everything was all smooth there would be no need of much work. I am only too glad to do something for the Master, though I know I am one that is fitted only to quietly fill in a little chink in the great work that is to be done. When I remember that we are not all given the same number of talents, I am somewhat encouraged to go on with the work, content to do little unnoticed acts in the name of the Master. ”

“ And we begin to feel the responsibility; we begin to realize how much the race depends upon the mother and the sister and the wife. We begin to realize that we as negro women must be especially alive to the quickening influence of all that is noble and grand and true. ”

“ It was a principle of the society that each girl who had been thus assisted should do all in her power to keep the home clean and neat, and our girls have greatly delighted us by the brave way in which they have kept this pledge.
This past year several of our older boys and girls have, without urging or even suggestion from the teachers, told us of their earnest desire to go out into the world and attend a higher school. ”

“ The funeral was held in the chapel on Sunday evening. A great company gathered, and I trust that impressions were received which will bear fruit in the coming years. It is our prayer that those who did not yield to her life and her teaching may bow before this mysterious Providence. While preparing for her life work, Miss Beyer had done considerable missionary labor, and a bright prospect was before her—shall I not rather say is before her. ”

“ Our church and women's missionary organization have cheerfully contributed from exceedingly scanty means to all the branches of our Congregational work. While our school on account of the reduced appropriations has been reduced to forty-two pupils, our further outstation among the Mandan people, which for two years has been closed, has this fall been reopened, and one of the lady missionaries is already living among them in her little log house. Shall I speak of the needs of our school boys and girls? ”

“ The buildings belonging to the institution are a church, in which both white and colored people worship together; the Girls' Hall, in which the girls, teachers and matron live; in the rear of this, connected by a passage way, is the dining-room and kitchen; next, to the west, is the school building, containing the chapel, study room and recitation rooms; yet farther to the west of this is the Boys' Hall, in which the principal and his wife live, in charge of the boys. Back of the two last mentioned buildings is the shop where the boys do the industrial work. ”

“ Through the circulation of the letters and printed leaflets you have had many glimpses of the schools, churches, prayer-meetings, Sunday-schools, Endeavor meetings and the homes of the people in the South, on the Indian reservations, the Pacific Coast and Alaska. We trust it has been a joy to you to make the work so much your very own by the share you have had in sustaining it and watching its development. ”

“ It is true that there are those whose resources are restricted by the present stagnation in business. This, however, gives the opportunity for Christian self-denial. The relief for imperiled Christian work will come if those who are prospered will give of their abundance, while those less favored will imitate the Macedonians of whom Paul speaks, whose "deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." Self-denial is not a lost virtue in the Church of Christ. ”

“ Poverty is a thing of comparison. We are all poor compared with our neighbor on the avenue, and we are all rich compared with our neighbor who lived on crusts of bread last week and knows not where her crusts are coming from this week. No, my friends, we can give when we are interested.
In this connection I have been thinking a little of a dear friend, who when asked if she could not increase her contribution to five dollars for the work this coming year, said: "Possibly I can another year, but this year I cannot, for I am going abroad and I have to economize." "Economy!" ”

“ It seems to me that the one thing we need is more consecrated women in our churches, women that have more love for their Master and for his cause, women that do not do this work from a sense of duty, but because they love their Lord and Saviour. ”

“ The mountain people of the South, unlettered, simple-hearted, credulous, are the prey of Mormon missionaries, who are working zealously for [Pg 13] converts, and, as one reports, with "good success." The antidote is Christian teachers and preachers, but here again is an average cost of $400. The Chinese field, besides the work for men in mission schools, presents an opportunity for women's work among twenty-five hundred Chinese women in San Francisco, who are accessible in their homes, and who respond gratefully to Christian sympathy and instruction. ”

“ But more have grown in spiritual strength and are manifesting the new spirit of godliness in their lives in many practical ways; in neater personal appearance, in better houses and cleaner homes, and in much more industrious attention to their farm work. The Christian women nearly all ride on the seat of their wagons beside their husbands and not squatted down behind in the old way which indicated their inferiority and degradation. ”

“ Can we look back over the last two years, those of us who have been affected by the hard times, and truthfully say that we did not begin at the giving end to economize? It seems to me that this is just where we all make our mistakes. ”

“ I did explain to them to be a Christian very much, but they not want to change. I wish I never got that letter. I do pray much for them. I pray for them every night."
Teachers in any of our missions who succeed in persuading their pupils to speak at the Endeavor meetings in English will all recognize in the above testimonies counterparts of such as they have often heard. I am not surprised to have one of them, who has recently entered into this service, write: "The longer I teach the better I like the work and realize the grand possibilities in it. ”

“ Several of these older girls, under the leadership of one of our ladies, organized themselves into a "Cleaning Club" at the close of school in July and have kept faithfully at work all through the vacation, each week meeting at a certain house and giving the poor little log home, with its mud-plugged walls and dirt floor a most vigorous and thorough "scrub." ”

“ Our hearts ache that such should have been the bitter experience of any the past year. But it is too true. With no means of their own and no friend to aid them, hundreds have been turned back to darkness when they wanted light ”

“ The opportunities of the year just closed we may not reclaim, but we are beginning a new year with its new opportunities. The colored people, eager for improvement, struggling with poverty, appeal for schools and churches, but it costs $400 for each teacher or minister. ”

“ It is not sufficient for us to stand with Thomas and say in rapt admiration, "My Lord and my God." Side by side with our black brother and with our white brother, with our yellow brother and with our red brother, we are to kneel and say, not "My Lord and my God," but "Our Father," and the spirit of common prayer to a common Father whom we have not seen will bind our hearts in closer brotherhood to those whom we have seen, and we will rise from our knees to carry out the principles of the Golden Rule.
[Pg 23]
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS MAINE. Woman's Aid to A. M. A. State Committee—Mrs. ”

“ You patient mothers know so well what are the needs of forty-two play-loving active children, who wrestle, play football, tag, jump rope and barbed wire fences; and the needs of Indian boys and girls are nearly identical with those of the same number of white children. ”

“ When you in trouble, your friend let you have money; when you get money you pay him back. So friends and teachers help us. Now they want us to give few words. They like to know how much I know Christ. Another thing: China never show us the way to Heaven. ”

“ Following the woman's meeting, a children's meeting was conducted, which held the close attention of the little ones for an hour with vivid descriptions of the children of Alaska and China, the Indian boys and girls, and of the mountain and negro children of the South. ”

“ She has gone in the prime of her young womanhood and in the midst of her usefulness. But she has left behind the example of a consecrated life which will endure.
Miss Sprague was born in Keene, Ohio, November 15, 1863. She was of New England ancestry. Her first experience in teaching was in a country school near her home, where she was very successful. She afterward went to college in Wooster, Ohio, but before she completed her course her father died and she was obliged to give up her studies and find some employment. ”