Missionary meeting

“ To an elder returning home from missionary labors the privilege of meeting with the assemblies of the Saints in their Sabbath day meetings is one that is very highly prized. We feel to rejoice in the privilege of returning to these peaceful valleys of the mountains, and of listening to the voice of the servants of God teaching the principles of the kingdom of God, and explaining the mind and will of our common Father and God in the heavens. ”

“ The work done is varied, no rigid plan being laid down. Sewing classes for the women and girls, prayer-meetings for the mothers, Bible-readings, visiting from house to house, bearing food and medicine for the sick, clothing for the destitute, and comfort and sympathy for all, health talks—than which nothing can be more needed,—literary societies to develop their untrained minds, foreign missionary meetings to broaden their sympathies; all these and other ways of working for the Lord are reported at their last meeting. ”

“ The most interesting feature of the meeting, however, will doubtless be the messages that come from the missionaries, a large number of whom will be present. These men and women are on the advanced line in this great movement for many races, including millions of peoples who especially need the influence and power of an intelligent Gospel. ”

“ Comparatively few are regularly in these mission enterprises. For those at home there is the quiet hour and prayer meetings, a gathering in the interests of purity or temperance--enough to employ the time to the early supper hour. After that comes the last public meeting of the day in the chapel, which for some time has been conducted by our Society of Christian Endeavor. The day is a full one, with large opportunities for personal growth and usefulness.
From a recent visit, I am able to write more fully of one of the meetings of the Young Men's Christian Association. ”

“ Besides you may meet [Pg 106] individuals who can give you much information.”
“We might do as you are going to do and write letters to the band at home,” said another.
“I know the band at home would like that very much, but you must remember that they must be letters suited to a missionary meeting.”
“We might join with others in holding meetings,” suggested Rosa Stevenson. “In the cottage where I was last summer there were four other girls and two boys who belonged to mission-bands, and we had a meeting every Sunday.”
“Good!” cried Miss Walsh. ”

“ Preaching, Sunday-school, church and neighborhood prayer meetings, with class of Bible readers, monthly concert, and meeting of the Woman’s Missionary Society, have been kept up in usual order and with a good degree of interest during the year. For three weeks, meetings were held each evening. Several, chiefly students boarding in the college family, found Christ, and the church was revived. ”

“ The plan of holding Platform Missionary Meetings was continued during this year, and largely increased the contributions of the people. While on my way in company with Brother Leihy, to attend such a meeting at Port Washington, I formed the acquaintance of Brother Jesse Hubbard and his good lady at Mequon, where we halted for dinner. For many years this residence was the home of Itinerant Preachers and the nucleus of Christian society in that region.
The dedication of the German Methodist Church at Sheboygan occurred in April of this year. ”

“ It has been our custom for many years to appoint a day and hour in which all who are engaged in the work of the Association might unite in earnest prayer to God for His blessing upon one another and upon the common interests. The notification has been sent to all the workers in the various fields in the South. It has been frequently the case that the time selected has been during the progress of the annual meeting, so that the assembled friends of the Association have united with the officers, missionaries and teachers in this "sweet hour of prayer." ”

“ Since the close of the protracted meeting, each Sabbath-school class has had its own weekly prayer meeting—a means of great good. Also a general young Christians' prayer meeting has been held weekly. In it effort has been made, not only to lead these new converts to take part in prayer and conference, but to instruct them upon some points too often neglected. Those who on this day united with the church could each, I think, give an intelligent statement of reasons why they should unite with the church ”

“ The Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association, held in Chicago last week, and of which a full account will be found elsewhere, brought out anew the directness and energy with which this society is bringing its aid to the solution of some of the most immediate and perplexing problems in this country. ”

“ Come to the opening meeting Tuesday, and attend all the sessions. The secretary of the Woman's Bureau will have a room at the church for a rallying point, where the ladies and missionaries can meet for mutual acquaintance and information. Notice of entertainment and railroad rates will be found on last page of cover.
A FEW WORDS TO BOYS.
The American Missionary Association needs the help of every boy. Send to the Bible House, New York, for leaflets that will tell what the American Missionary Association is, and what it is trying to do, especially for the Indians. ”

“ During the week there are school devotions in the morning and family devotions in the evening, and also one meeting for prayer. Upon all these attendance is required.
Many other meetings are held voluntarily by the students, conducted frequently by an instructor. There is a Christian Association of the young men and one of the young women, meeting once a week, or oftener. The Society for the Evangelization of Africa holds a meeting once a month, and every Sunday morning since the departure of our missionaries to Africa, a meeting has been held to pray for them and their cause. ”

“ Yet we had a glorious four days’ meeting, with preachings, conferences, a communion, a season of baptizing, and a class meeting, which, according to the custom of the church, precedes the communion as a preparation. People came six, nine, or twelve miles. The native pastor, Mr. Thompson, preached an able and moving sermon upon trust in God. The regular meeting will be at the same place in July. This Church has a dignified and efficient deaconess, who looks after the many little things in the parish, which a woman can do better than anybody else. ”

“ The most cheering of closing incidents was found in the prayer meeting. We have regretted the lack of a decided religious influence—it has been the one failure of the year. In the last meeting we were not left without evidence of the Spirit’s work. Two young men confessed their trust in Christ and determination to be his avowed followers. Another young man, whose voice has been silent for years, and who has seldom attended meetings either at school or church, asked prayers for himself in a manly way that spoke well for his expressed desire to resume his place in the ranks of Christian workers. ”

“ Your missionary has preached to the largest colored church in a revival meeting, and exchanged pulpits with the other leading pastor; but we cannot expect any special help from other churches in building up a new denomination in the midst of them. J. H. Roberts, now in the Senior Theological Class at Talladega, supplied the church very acceptably through the summer, and just before his departure witnessed the reception of four persons to fellowship. Since then the attendance has increased some. ”

“ We have a weekly Bible meeting held every Monday afternoon immediately after school, in the Principal’s room, conducted by Miss Douglass. The children are interested and the attendance is large. With the Bible in one hand and the text-book in the other, we hope grand results for the next generation of the colored race. Also we have a woman’s weekly prayer-meeting held at various houses. Would I could take my readers with me to these little gatherings of sincere, earnest women, praying for the salvation of their fellow-people ”

“ I see great reason for encouragement. We have 60 members on the ground whom I can find, and who seem to be quite as consistent as the average church members at the North. This, out of a list of 77, seems to me a pretty good showing. Half of the absentee list is accounted for by the former teachers who have not taken their letters, and students at Atlanta and Talladega. I have more reliable “prayer-meeting” members in proportion to our number than most pastors enjoy. “Pauses” in the prayer meeting have not yet been introduced. ”

“ The Congregations, on week days not less than on Sabbaths, filled the largest Public Halls and Churches in each locality; with frequent overflow Meetings at which I had to speak for fifteen minutes or so, and then leave them in the hands of others, whilst I drove or ran to the principal Meeting, now opened and awaiting my Address. ”

“ The Sabbath-schools have everywhere received due attention, and much of the progress in the different churches has been made possible by the earnest, prayerful and unremitting labors of our missionaries in this department of religious work. Missionary meetings and societies have been greatly encouraged and the cause of temperance widely promoted. Many of the young converts have found their way to institutions of learning, and many have engaged in teaching and missionary service. ”

“ They continued about three weeks, during which time thirty confessed Christ. Most of these, we believe, were hopefully converted. Three or four of those who sought Christ in the meetings have been brought out into the light of a dear Saviour since the meetings closed; thus making the number more than thirty. Seventeen united with us, and a few more will come in at the next communion. Some, of course, joined other churches with their parents or friends. We held a young convert’s meeting each week from the close of the protracted meeting to the last of September, when I left for school. ”

“ At these meetings, besides reading the Scriptures, prayer, and singing by the children, reports are given of the doings and results, and letters are read giving details of the good accomplished. Addresses, brief and to the point, are then made by the pastor, superintendent, or one of the teachers, or by some invited friend of the cause. These missionary meetings should always be attended, not only by the pastor, teachers, and scholars, but also by the parents and members of the church and congregation, and should be made very interesting. ”

“ At these prayer-meetings the girls and young ladies of the church are frequently put forward to lead, and thus are educated to Christian work. The older and younger ladies are also brought more nearly together, and made to realize more fully a common interest in the cause of Christ. An account of this meeting has been given in the Missionary, and, by this means, a very pleasant correspondence has grown up between the society here and one at Dedham, Mass. ”

“ The best meetings on earth, all meetings on earth, must have their end; and we are come to the last hour of the last great day of this American Missionary Association feast. We say our good-byes; we go hence, each to his church, his community, his home. We shall not all of us meet on earth again ”

“ The Commission under which a society like this does its work. The warrant for a missionary society, as for all missionary effort, is found in the words of our Saviour to his disciples, just before he went up on high: “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” ”

“ Therefore, in selecting missionaries, choose such as have sociability, who have friendship and not enmity towards men; and if you have not any such in your ward, train and qualify some young men for this work. Some men can never make good missionaries, and you should not select such. In the very first place, a missionary should have in himself the testimony of the Spirit of God—the witness of the Holy Ghost. ”

“ To such associations might be entrusted also mission Sunday-schools and distinct spheres of missionary effort. In a large congregation it is often desirable to organize committees for the care of the sick and the poor, and the visitation of strangers needing to be invited and welcomed to the congregation, and of erring and sinning ones needing to be won back to holiness and the church of God. ”

“ The money is already provided for, and the missionary will soon start on her mission of love. And now I learn that the young ladies connected with the Congregational church in Waukegan, this State, have organized a society for the same purpose, the aim being to work chiefly through the Sunday-school. Monthly meetings, called “mission parties,” are held. A profitable programme is prepared, consisting of an essay, information from some mission station, brief addresses and singing. ”

“ To combine strict faith and practice, according to the New Testament standard, with a proper respect for local customs and traditions, demands great wisdom in our missionaries, and makes their conferences very practical and very necessary. Certain it is that in our Baptist missions abroad greater care is exercised in receiving members than that to which we are accustomed in the homeland. The missionary cannot afford to have false disciples in the flock, if he knows it, for "one sinner destroyeth much good." ”