The American Missionary. Volume 43, No. 11, November, 1889

At Marion, Ala., we have refitted a large dwelling for a greatly needed school building.

At New Decatur, Ala., a new church building is about completed.

At Tougaloo, Miss., the large Girls' Hall, owing to the peculiarities of the soil—alluvium, 300 feet deep—unknown when it was built, had been crushing its foundations into the ground until it was on the point of falling. Our own missionary and student force lifted it up, put under it new foundations and repaired it in every part. At a cost of between $4,000 and $5,000, they saved a $15,000 building which engineers and contractors pronounced a hopeless wreck.

At Jackson, Miss., our church has been nicely seated with new pews.

At Hammond, La., a new church building has been erected.

At Straight University, a new industrial building has been put up with student labor, and a small greenhouse has been built. For a long time the need of enlargement there has been felt, and a lot near the present buildings has been bought, on which is to be a school house for the primary and intermediate grades.

At the Fort Berthold Mission, North Dakota, a new church, school and mission home building has been built and named the Moody Station, after the giver of the money which built it; also a small church building at Moody Station No. 2.

At Standing Rock a new school, church and mission building—called after the donor, the Sankey Station—has been erected. At Fort Yates, we report a new church building—the Darling Memorial.

These are the most important enlargements and improvements. Of course, there are many other smaller ones throughout our large field.

WOMAN'S WORK

Twenty-six Woman's State Organizations now co-operate with us in our missionary work. Each year shows the increasing importance and helpfulness of the Woman's Bureau. From it go counsel, help and inspiration to the lady teachers in the field, and missionary news and helpful suggestions to the ladies of the State Associations. Through it pass the sympathy and the help of the earnest workers in the older churches to the earnest workers in our mission churches and schools. The people for whom we labor cannot be saved either for this world or the next, unless the women who make the homes are lifted out of coarseness and vice, and taught true womanhood and womanly duties and arts. The Woman's Bureau is a most potent factor in the work of bringing the Gospel to the rescue of womanhood in our mission fields.

FINANCES

It is with devout gratitude to God that we present these figures, showing that we have been enabled during the past year to meet all current expenditures, to liquidate the indebtedness of last year and to show a balance of over four thousand dollars now in the treasury. This result is not only gratifying in respect to the past, but it is hopeful in respect to the future. We trust the constituents of the Association, who are so deeply interested in the success of the work entrusted to us, will see to it that the coming year shall terminate as favorably as this.

DANIEL HAND FUND

In addition to the above receipts, the Association has received from Daniel Hand the munificent gift of one million eight hundred and ninety-four dollars and twenty-five cents ($1,000,894.25) to be known as the Daniel Hand Fund for The Education of Colored People. The income only of this Fund is to be used. The amount received as income from this Fund for the nine months to September 30, is $36,999.71. This amount is not included in the current receipts stated above, but is a Special Fund and has been appropriated under the terms and conditions of the Trust. From this income we have not only aided more than three hundred students who otherwise would not have had the privilege of attending any school, but have also greatly enlarged our school accommodations at Chapel Hill and Beaufort, N.C., Phoenix, S.C., Thomasville and McIntosh, Ga., Selma, Ala., and New Orleans, La. Another year will afford opportunities to a much greater number of pupils, and will still further enlarge our school facilities in the special lines of work contemplated by this gift. It was a noble gift from a noble man and it will do a noble work.

The overwhelming majority of the Southern Negroes are still found in the rural districts, where schools are few and far apart. It is expected that the gift of Daniel Hand will take educational privileges to thousands of these in the country and on the plantations, who but for this must have lived as in the blackness of night.

It has been found that with the West ever growing, and Congregational churches multiplying, the field of our Western District Secretary was too large for him possibly to cover it all. Hence this immense district has been divided, and another has been established with its centre at Cleveland, Ohio. Rev. C.W. Hiatt, a graduate of Wheaton College and Oberlin Seminary, has been placed in charge of this district, and has already entered upon the work. We bespeak for him a hearty welcome from the churches.

Prof. Edward S. Hall, a graduate of Amherst College and a teacher of long and successful experience, has been chosen a Field Superintendent for the Southern work, and entered upon his duties at the beginning of our year.

We again make grateful acknowledgment of our indebtedness to the American Bible Society for its grants of Bibles, and to the Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society for its grants of books and lesson helps, to our poorer churches and Sunday-schools.

This much we report. But how little can figures and words present the needs of these great fields. How little idea can they convey of the extent of the work done by our earnest, self-sacrificing, faithful and able missionaries.

We turn from the past to the future. The work attempted and done is great, the work unattempted and not done is far greater. Should every church and individual in the land double last year's contribution this year, we would be compelled still to leave greatly needed work undone. In view of boundless opportunities, we can ask no less of the churches than that which the recent National Council at Worcester recommended—five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the work of the coming year. Brethren, with more prayer, more consecration and more self-denial let us take up together this vast work and these difficult problems which God has set before us.

THE CHINESE

REVIEW OF THE YEAR

BY REV. WM. C. POND, D.D

Our fiscal year ended August 31st. To a stranger looking on as I close its accounts, there might be nothing visible but an array of figures "dry as dust." But if that on-looker could count the heart-beats, as I draw near to making up the balance, could watch the rising tide of feeling, could hear the out-burst of thanksgiving sounding through the chambers of the soul, and now and again breaking the silence of my study with the cry:—"What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits," he would realise that there was something in those figures not so very dry. All bills paid, and even a balance much larger than usual left to help out the too scant resources of the new year! I find myself saying again and again: "How can this be?" It looked so dark four months ago; it looks so bright to-day. God has answered prayer, has been true to his promise, has changed to blessing the stress that we were under by placing thus upon our work the seal of his own and his people's approbation.

Sixteen missions have been in operation during the year, all but three of them for the entire twelve months. Thirty-five workers have been employed, ten of whom have been Chinese brethren. The months of labor aggregate 354.

The total number who have been enrolled as pupils in our schools is 1,380. This is larger by 249 than the enrollment of the previous year, and by 336 than that of the year before. The average membership month by month was in the aggregate, 523; the average attendance, 319. These numbers are also in excess of the corresponding ones in several previous years. Among these members of our schools there are 211 that profess to have ceased from idolatry, and 150 who are believed to be true disciples of Christ. I cannot now state the exact number who have professed conversion during the year, but I believe it to be about forty. If so, the total number who have declared themselves to be Christians and have been accepted as such by our brethren, is more than 750.

The expenditures have been $11,019, of which more than 1,600 came from the Chinese themselves, while their offerings for mission work in China and expenses met in connection with Christian work in California would show a giving on their part of at least $2,500 during the year.

SOME OTHER TOKENS OF GOOD.—Our helper, Loo Quong, writes as follows from Los Angeles under date of Sept. 20th: "Now I have some good news to tell you this time. The first one is this, that five of our brethren will receive their baptism on Sunday in the First Congregational Church. I brought them all down to the church to be proved by the pastor and the deacons, and they all gave their good testimonies to the satisfaction of all. Dr. Hutchins [Rev. R.G. Hutchins, D.D., pastor] was so glad on hearing this good news again. There will now be eleven Chinese members among his white flock. He spoke very kind towards the Chinese and our school in their prayer-meeting, as he always did so in his preaching." Another item of good news is, that by an arrangement among the ladies of this church, a reduction in the teaching force which I have been compelled to make is to be made good by volunteer service, each lady giving one evening in each week. I earnestly hope that this good example may be followed in others of our churches.

At San Buenaventura the new mission house, finished several months ago, gives great satisfaction. It is not the property of the Mission, but has been built for it and is rented to us at cost. We can rely upon the use of it as long as the work continues in that place,—that is, if the building lasts so long. We were paying $12.00 per month for a low, ill-located and ill-built, untidy shanty, yet the best place that could be had. We now pay $8.00 per month for a neat, commodious building which furnishes not only an attractive school-room, but living rooms also, for which our brethren pay a small rent, and thus make for themselves something very like a Christian home. Four of these brethren were recently baptised and received to the Congregational Church.

No mention has yet been made in these columns of the new mission house in Oakland which we hold by the same tenure as that at San Buenaventura. It could not be better located, is a very neat structure, substantial also, and planned expressly for our work. It, too, is rented to us at cost. A hint of what goes on there, and of what goes out from there, aside from the labors of the school, may be found in these few sentences from a letter of Yong Jin: "One scholar promised to be Christian was two weeks (i.e. two weeks ago), and he will join our Association to-night. I hope his soul will be saved. I had preaching on the street last Sunday and before last Sunday. I shall go next Sunday too. I hope you pray for me and this school. May [may be] I can conquer the evil and bring more number to the school and to the Association. I believe God has a great power."

BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK

MISS D.E. EMERSON, SECRETARY

We are glad to see the State Organizations increasing. Now let every one become a working Union, bringing funds into the treasury of the American Missionary Association, toward meeting the imperative needs of its Woman's Work, and we shall rejoice indeed.

Our Industrial Teachers are heavily taxed just now in providing sewing material for classes. We need basted patchwork, and basted under garments for the sewing departments throughout the field, but especially for Anniston and Mobile, Alabama; Memphis and Jonesboro, Tennessee; Tougaloo, Mississippi; and Austin, Texas. One missionary writes, "I find my classes very large. In beginning I have about one hundred girls in sewing, about thirty in Household Economy and Cooking, and later I shall have a large class in Nursing. This work added to the care of the Mission Home will, I fear, be more than I can carry, unless I have help, and I do not see how I can let one bit of the work stop. I am sure there are plenty of good friends at the North who will gladly help when they know."

We have added a special industrial teacher to the force in Trinity School at Athens, Alabama. Miss Perkins writes: "I am charmed with the school and the inside of the building. I wish each day that our Northern friends could look in at Chapel. I think they would feel repaid in great measure by the goodly sight. I was glad to find a Christian Endeavor Society in the school, it seemed so like home."

WOMAN'S WORK IN NORTH CAROLINA

BY MISS A.E. FARRINGTON

On Thursday, Oct. 3d, a Woman's Missionary Union was organized for the Congregational churches of North Carolina. A year ago, at the meeting of the State Association in Wilmington, the subject was discussed, and a committee was appointed to confer with the ladies of the churches in regard to a local organization in each church. The plan met with favor, and on coming together this year it was found that nearly every church reported a missionary society in some form. All were therefore ready for the State Union, when the Association of Congregational Churches convened in the little country church at Oaks. As there was no chapel or church parlor to be placed at the disposal of the ladies, they withdrew to the grove, and there under the tall, symmetrical oaks by the veranda of the little mission home of Miss Douglass, the organization was effected with the aid of Miss Emerson, of New York, who was present.

The following evening a public meeting was held at which reports were heard from the local societies. The dark countenances were light with eager interest, as they listened to the account of the work done by the women. One told of a society, organized in February with two members who became President and Treasurer. The numbers soon increased to eight, all of them hard-working women, one of them the mother of twelve children for whom she found it difficult to provide, yet that society reported $10.61 as the result of their eight months' work.

Another reported a weekly Bible reading in connection with the Woman's Society, at which one who could read took the Bible while others gathered around, and "as they got to understand the Word" they spoke to one another of the work of the Lord in their own hearts.

Report was made of a contribution to the Indian work at Fort Berthold, also a quilt made by the little girls for a Christmas present to the Indian children.

One society, embracing both home and foreign work, cared for the sick and needy of its own church, and also sent contributions to Africa.

Knowing, as I do, the poverty of this people and the sacrifices they make, I could but feel that if in the North there should be as ready and proportionate a response, the treasury of the Lord would be overflowing.

WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS

CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

MAINE.

WOMAN'S AID TO A.M.A.

Chairman of Committee—Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.

VERMONT.