The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 06, June, 1889

Secretary Of Woman's Bureau.

Miss D.E. Emerson, 56 Reade St. N.Y.

COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office; letters relating to the finances, to the Treasurer.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—The date on the "address label," indicates the time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers may be correctly mailed.

FORM OF A BEQUEST

"I bequeath to my executor (or executors) the sum of – dollars, in trust, to pay the same in – days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three witnesses.

EDITORIAL

FINANCIAL OUTLOOK

The Figures

Our receipts for seven months to April 30th are, from donations, $118,051.25, estates, $20,308.09, incomes, $4,829.21, tuition, etc., $22,719.89, United States Government for Indians, $9,540.87; total, $175,449.31. Our payments to April 30th are $203,777.45. Debt balance, $28,328.14.

The Meaning of the Figures

These figures mean a debt—growing at the rate of $4,000 a month. In passing "through the dark valley and shadow of"—debt, we walk with a goodly company. It is said that nearly every missionary society in Christendom reports a deficit this year. A common cause must underlie so broad a fact, and no one society deserves special censure.

How we get into Debt

A missionary society cannot make its expenditures as a man provides for his family—from day to day—but must lay out its plans for the year. The missionaries, the teachers, the matrons and all employés must be engaged for that length of time. The appropriation must be made on the general expectation of receipts, with some allowance for added growth. Every prosperous business firm plans for enlargement. Shall the Lord's business only lack enterprise and growth? Must it move on a dead level, or on a declining grade? The churches would not long endure that, and the word of the Lord is: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward."

How our Debts are to be Paid

This cannot be done near the close of the year by dismissing the ministers and shutting up the schools. These self-sacrificing workers are dependent on their salaries, and the teachers, some of whom out of their small pittance are helping to sustain an invalid mother or sister, and in not a few cases are aiding needy students, and should not be deprived of their wages. Repudiation of such debts is not the relief for a missionary society.

The only way, therefore, that we can see is, to throw ourselves upon the benevolence of the churches, whose agents we are in doing their work, and ask them to come to the rescue by increased donations. A little from each will make it easy for all.

VOICES FROM THE FIELD

We wish our friends to see as we see and hear as we hear from the field, as to the need of enlargement and the difficulty of closing schools prematurely, and hence we present some condensed facts as specimens.

McINTOSH, GA.—One hundred and nineteen in a single room and with only one teacher. No boarding department and scores must be turned away.

FLORENCE, ALA.—In a rapidly growing city, school held in our church building. Large numbers turned away for lack of room.

JONESBORO, TENN.—No boarding place for either boys or girls. Boys live in rough rooms in a barn, six in a small room. No more can possibly be accommodated.

GRAND VIEW, TENN.—Buildings crowded full; no place for any more, yet pupils are trying to crowd in.

PINE MOUNTAIN, TENN.—Situated in a region nearly a hundred miles long, without a single school except the almost worthless district schools for two or three months.

WILLIAMSBURG, KY.—Crowded full of students; more than sixty in one room large enough for only thirty.

JELLICO, TENN.—Our church and school building will not hold either our Sunday-school or those who attend the preaching services. Must be enlarged or no growth can follow.

ATHENS, TENN.—Growing town; nearly a thousand Northern people with no church suited to their needs. Some Congregationalists need aid in starting a church.

FORT BERTHOLD, DAKOTA.—Rev. C.L. Hall writes: "We have not at Fort Berthold the necessary buildings for our work. Our girls are in an old Government building out of repair, and a little cottage 16x22, and our boys and industrial teacher are crowded into the missionary's house, and a little one-story annex 14x22. There is no room for a guest to stay over night."

CHINESE IN CALIFORNIA.—Dr. Pond, the Superintendent of our Chinese Missions, makes a dollar go as far as any man in our service. He is one of the most careful men in making ends meet. But he has been caught in the cyclone and writes thus about the premature closing of the schools:

"Nothing seemed left for me to do but to notify the teachers that I could pay all bills for May, but could promise nothing more. When I had resolved to do this, the workers passed before me, one by one: most of our teachers are dependent on this slender stipend for their daily bread—teachers that had been in our service for many years, never measuring their service by their pay, but working in season and out of season, and most of the time rendering help not bargained for fully equal to that which I could have required. The helpers also passed before me. Jee Gam with his wife and five children; our brave, unselfish Low Quong; our faithful, almost saintly Chin Toy, our earnest and eloquent Yong Jin—all of whom have sacrificed their pecuniary interests for service in the mission, and all of whom, if their income from missionary work ceases, will be compelled at once to seek an income elsewhere because of those dependent upon them. Then the schools passed before me—closed and silent, most of them, the scholars scattered and the momentum from many years of earnest, unremitting effort gradually dying away."

The Daniel Hand Fund

It may be asked, Why not meet such pressing claims out of this Fund? We answer, That Fund is doing its noble work in its chosen field, among the colored people in the South, but cannot do all even in that; and it will be observed that most of these calls come from the other portions of our field, the mountains of the South, the Indians of the West, and the Chinese on the Pacific coast. Our main dependence must ever be on the churches.

THE DIVIDING LINE BETWEEN THE TWO CENTURIES

The first century of the American Constitution has passed, and has been grandly celebrated. We now stand on the dividing line, and enter upon the Second Century with its unknown trials and triumphs. What these may be, we may judge, perhaps, in part, if we turn to those of the past. Among the many and serious objections made against the Constitution at the outset, demanding protracted discussions, Compromises and Amendments, none were graver or more far-reaching in their consequences than those respecting State Rights and the recognition of Negro slavery. The bottom difficulty in these was probably that of slavery, for, if it had not introduced such radically different industries in the two sections of the country, with their different interests, and habits of thought and life, the question of State Rights might have slumbered in quietude. But when slavery had to be defended, State Rights was the bastion behind which the defence sheltered itself. Whether the Compromise with slavery at the outset were the wise thing or not, it is not worth while now to consider. We do not know what the consequences would have been if the Compromise had not been made. We all know now, only too sadly, the dreadful price that was at last paid for the Compromise.

But the war killed slavery and buried it beyond resurrection. Logically, it also killed the State Rights doctrine. But we fear it "still lives" in the heart of Jefferson Davis, and in the hearts of the many millions who still revere him as the leader of the "lost cause." Its avowal is still heard from Southern lips and in the Southern press. Will there be any occasion for its revival into active life? We fear there will be. Slavery has left behind it a ghost which no more than that of Banquo will "down." Race prejudice is as unyielding in the Southern heart to-day as was the purpose once to maintain slavery. Should that prejudice persist in its inexorable demands, another contest may arise, in which the enfranchised millions may be goaded to take part, and the North, as in the case of slavery, may be involved in the dreadful struggle. At what time in the coming hundred years of the Constitution this new struggle may come, no one can predict. The crisis will not be averted by merely deprecating it, and we know of no Compromise that can reach it. The only possible relief that we can see is by educating the Negro, till he shall rise to a position that will challenge the respect of his fellow-citizens and secure to him his equal rights under the glorious Constitution of the United States of America.

REV. C.W. HIATT

The American Missionary Association has divided its Western Collecting Field. The boundary separating the two parts is the western line of Indiana. Dr. Roy, who has made so honorable record in the past, will retain the western portion with his office still in Chicago. The eastern portion will have its headquarters in Cleveland. Rev. C.W. Hiatt has been invited to take this District Secretaryship, and we have now the pleasure of announcing his acceptance. Mr. Hiatt is not unknown in his district, having made his mark in his pastorate in Columbus, Ohio. We ask the churches to give him a cordial welcome for his own sake as well as that of the Association.

PARAGRAPHS

The letter of Dr. Pond in this number was written in response to a request from a Northern lady for hints in regard to the methods of teaching the Chinese. Many besides this lady will find profit in reading it. The article on "Church Building in a Day" cannot fail to interest. We only wish we could add that church services were held in the building on the following day, but of this we are ignorant. If any of our readers are desirous of knowing what expedients our missionaries among the Indians have to resort to in administering the communion at their out-stations, let them read "One Day's Missionary Work," by Rev. T.L. Riggs. We give our readers also a problem in the letter from Miss Collins at Fort Yates, "What shall we do about it?"

We have learned of the death of Mrs. Villa (Crumb) Borden at her home in Norwich, N.Y. During her three years' service in the work of this Association at Athens, Ala., she was untiring in efforts for the improvement of her pupils. By her genial spirit, unselfish life and faithful labor in school, church, Sunday-School and the community, she greatly endeared herself to the people as well as to pupils and fellow teachers, who sincerely mourn her departure.

A friend who reads the magazine and studies it minutely, sends us a postal containing these encouraging words:

"A stimulating fact appeared in the MISSIONARY for April just received. The summary of receipts October 1st, to February 28th, shows nearly $14,000 received for tuition in that time—more than one-sixth of the donations."

Our friends who are denying themselves, oftentimes, to aid in sustaining our work, will be cheered to know that the funds they contribute are not thrown into a slough and lost, but are touching mind and heart and industry, and thus stimulating the people whom we benefit to help themselves.

In making up the catalogue of Fisk University for this year, the following facts are culled out:

Total number of students, 505, which is a gain of thirty over last year, and last year the attendance was the largest the University had ever had. Number of students in the Department of Music, 110; a gain of twenty over last year. Special students in Theology, 9; a gain of six over the previous year. There has been a gain of eight in the College Department, two in the Normal, and four in the College Preparatory.

Mr. Coffin graduated from Fisk University in 1885, and has held important positions as a teacher ever since graduating. He has also bought about $250 worth of books on one of the special courses of study established by the Illinois Wesleyan University, and so successfully complied with the requirements of the course that the result mentioned in the letter below has been reached.

    ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, Bloomington, Ill.