Various

“ Our Chinese brethren clung to each other and to their own mission work. They rented quarters neither spacious nor comfortable, but cheap, and contrived, with the aid of one true-hearted Christian woman, to keep up their school, maintain their Association, add four members to it as converts to the Christian life, and present seven of their number to the First Congregational Church for baptism. We felt that a mission with such "grit and grace" deserved to live. Long may it live! ”

“ Such a school as that in Andersonville, Ga., is the initiative of a church mission. School education is of little advantage unless it is linked with moral training; and there is no moral training comparable with that of a pure and true Christian church. Our mission school teachers call for and need the re-enforcement of gospel preaching on the Lord's day, and the faithful work of a pastor during the week. A great deal of hard work in the school would be frittered away and lost without the distinctive church work which must supplement, and confirm it. ”

“ We shall look for permanent results, and work to that end with hope; yet this people are so emotional and so stolid! so ready to move along a certain line in a body, but indifferent to duty when it leads along an uninteresting path of individual effort. Indeed, the home life of many is unfavorable to genuine Christianity; some being persecuted, even, because they have not seen a vision, till they are made to believe they "have got nothing." ”

“ In very many parts of the plantation South, the very idea of a church free from outside control and allied to education and morality, is utterly unknown. Neither education nor morality form any constituent element of the common church life. ”

“ You very much interest our people. May God reward it to you! Before I went to the mission school I never thought to be a Christian; now I did do it. I am very thankful God has direct me out from the superstition to find pathway about the truth, God and Heavenly Father. ”

“ A number of devoted teachers supplement each other's work. A unique Congregational church has been formed, its pastor being the principal of the school, who adds this work to all his other services. The influence of the constant religious work done in this church-school and school-church is felt a hundred miles around. Young men [Pg 154] and young women go out with higher ideals, and they awaken a demand in their home neighborhoods for both religion and education of a higher character. ”

“ The richest blessing of the year has begun to fall upon us, the presence of the Holy Spirit leading souls to Christ. During this month five have felt that God had forgiven their sins. Is not that enough to compensate us for anything we may give up to engage in the work? ”

“ Still another boy writes: "It is not much I can do for myself, for I have not been able to find anything to do to get any money, although I have tried hard. But a friend has just given me a chance to assist him in his school for a couple of months. I don't know how much he will pay me, but you shall have every cent I do get. I do want to come into school, I need the education so much; I want to make a true man."
The Indians.
There has been an interesting revival at Ponca Church, Nebraska, under the direction of Rev. James Garvie, our Indian pastor. ”

“ Our school this year is larger than ever, and our students, I think, would compare well with those of more favored schools in cities. The present enrollment is nearly two hundred, and when the weather is good, and all are in, we find the work rather heavy, as there are only three teachers, and we all believe in thorough work.
We have a large and interesting Sunday School to which the parents as well as the children come; also a Christian Endeavor Society, and a Circle of King's Daughters. ”

“ The ground was given and the work of building is carried on by a respectable colored farmer of the neighborhood, who with many of his neighbors welcomes a church fellowship which stands for education and pure religion. At Alford, in the adjoining county, there is now a membership of thirty-two, for whose use a comfortable church building is furnished by the white people. This, with Nellwood as an out-station, will probably soon receive an excellent pastor, trained in our Congregational ways and principles. A beginning has been made at Portal, twelve miles beyond. ”

“ Having a desire to do something for Christ and humanity, I began the study of theology and other studies at Straight, that I might be thoroughly equipped, 'a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.' I was compelled to give up for two years, and it seemed to me that there was no use of my trying further, when just then through the dark cloud the sun shone again, and I hope now, if life lasts, to keep on till I finish the course. All that I am, or ever expect to be, is due to Straight University. ”

“ The latest contribution of our Los Angeles Mission to our general work is Jue See, who has come to take Yip Bow's place (Yip Bow also having come from the same mission) as helper in Oakland and at the West School in this city, while Yip Bow goes to Sacramento. I am greatly pleased with him. He will, when trained for the work (and we train for work mainly by working) , make one of the best of our Chinese helpers. ”

“ Sometimes a small lean-to is built at the side or end, for use as kitchen. The chimney, erected on the outside, is often constructed of clay bound with sticks. It starts in a broad fireplace of stone, which warms the whole building. Some of these cabins have small glass windows; others of them have only openings for windows, with wooden shutters. In such dwellings there reside vast numbers of the plantation preachers, and some of our own mission preachers, at the early stages of mission work in the back country. ”

“ SCHOOL IN ANDERSONVILLE, GA
.
Nothing more contributes to the introduction of better [Pg 153] forms of church life than do those mission schools which awaken the desire for something better in religion than the senseless and corrupt "old-time" ways. ”

“ It was about two months only when I heard of six or eight conversions in the Presbyterian Chinese mission of Los Angeles, but they were the very ones of whom our teacher had spoken hopefully to me on my visit to the city.
An interval of several years occurred. The great boom came, and Los Angeles sprang to the front among the inland cities of the State and boasted that before long San Francisco would be one of its suburbs. The Chinese population increased to about 6,000. Among these were many of our own brethren and several who were members of my own church. ”

“ To send the pupils back into the Egyptian darkness of most plantation and country churches is, for vast numbers, to throw away all that has been done for them. That they feel this is shown by the frequent and earnest appeals which come from them to have virtuous and educated ministers sent for the starting of better churches among their homes. ”

“ Their faith has not been put to shame. Two of our Chinese helpers still lack something, and two other creditors will probably have to make large donations in order to square their accounts, but I know that one of them will not complain, and the other will be doing only what she promised, and while I fear it may be a hardship, it is no greater hardship than almost every landlord or landlady, in these days of pressure, has been forced to undergo. ”

“ The Eureka Church-Arbor, shown below, sheltered the opening service of the new plantation missions in Southern Georgia. The people came under the shadows of the piney woods from every quarter. The first mission church was organized under this rude booth. There the meetings continued until the cold and rainy months of winter. Now, by the help of a grant from the Church Building Society, a small church building will speedily become the home of a beneficent church and school work. ”

“ First, it is situated in a dense black belt, where the people are anxious to improve, and are appreciative of all that is done for them. Next, Cotton Valley is quiet and retired, being forty miles from Montgomery, nine from Union Springs, and thirteen from Tuskegee; so that, while we are enabled to teach without interruptions that break into school life in cities, we are yet not so far removed as to be incommoded when business necessitates our going to a city. ”

“ Are there not means which can reach us in the form of a special gift for the emergency of this faithful pioneer worker? Anything received beyond the immediate stress of need, will be placed to the support of his work. ”

“ The determination to lift the debt of the American Missionary Association, and to make it possible to continue at least its depleted work, is universal. Special collections, regular contributions, and hundreds of individuals taking the fifty-dollar shares in the Jubilee fund, will accomplish this most desirable result. ”

“ With multiform duties already upon the hands of each one in the administration of the mission field, and almost constant Sunday service among the contributing churches, it seemed almost impossible to take up this new burden of work, which in some societies involves the constant labor of a large number of secretaries. ”

“ When, on account of the late meetings each night, it seemed best to close at noon, most of the school gathered for a meeting in the chapel; and, with several after meetings, large numbers spent that half-holiday in the building, praying for and laboring with classmates. A member of [Pg 156] Grade Eleven, for whom special effort had been made, came out at this time.
Some of the converts have made detailed confession of sins (stealing, e.g.) ; some who have been neglectful of school privileges have returned to get the religious impetus ”

“ We solicit especial attention to the closing paragraph of the sentence quoted above, asking that these special gifts shall not lessen the regular contributions, upon which the Association must depend to sustain the current work.
We send forth this appeal under a deep sense of responsibility. We know that business is still depressed and that many of the friends to whom we make this plea have responded generously to the calls of sister missionary societies. ”

“ His discovery was substantially the Congregational system. He called his first church "Eureka." It now has nine other churches associated in the same work. A mission preacher, a devoted man residing near, a man who [Pg 151] is highly respected by all the people, has immediate charge of the Eureka work and holds the Sunday-school and other services.
A PASTOR'S HOME.
The abodes of many of the plantation preachers are as simple and humble as those of their people. We give an illustration of one of these homes. Usually there is a division into two or perhaps three rooms. ”

“ They would meet bitter enemies among the Americans, but not to mind them but go right forward. Then he announced that if by February 5 we would have thirty regular pupils, he would make the school 'a handsome present.' I wish some of the other opponents of our work could in like manner be compelled to see our schools. Seeing would be believing, would it not? ”

“ The claims of the catalogue are fully sustained in every particular. We have been familiar with work in all these grades in the schools of several Northern States; but we have never seen more thorough work, never a school on the whole more satisfactory in deportment and scholarship. ”

“ FROM GRADUATES OF STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, NEW ORLEANS.
I.
"I am principal of the public schools of Vicksburg, Miss. I have been teaching fourteen years, having had charge of my present work nine years. I have under my present charge eight hundred pupils, all the school can accommodate. Several hundred have been turned away."
II.
"Am editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, and practicing physician and minister. ”

“ In the four months ending with August 31, 1888, 133 pupils were enrolled, and the average membership month by month was 69. Street-preaching, hand-to-hand evangelistic work, and the skillful, faithful labor of our teacher, Mrs. Sheldon, and our enthusiastic helper, Loo Quong, were used of God for the conversion of many souls. ”