The American Missionary. Volume 44, No. 03, March, 1890

Christian Experience In Humble Life

The reports from our field work are not all made up of statistics. They sometimes touch the essence of genuine Christian experience and tell us how life is lived and death is met among the lowly. The little sketches given below are of this sort.

"We are grateful for the memories of some who were with us last year, thirsting for knowledge, whom we are permitted to think of now as before the throne of God, drinking from the 'living fountains of water.' One was Oliver, a man in the middle age of life, a bricklayer by trade, and a lay-preacher in the Baptist church. A part of two years he had been in school. His progress was slow, and he could read but indifferently in the Third Reader. His parting words to us at the close of last year were, 'I shall be at the starting of the school next year, and I will stay till I go through the course.' His death, after an illness of two days, was the first item of news carried to us from here after we had reached our Northern homes. We shall not soon forget how in the warm summer days, at the noon recess, he was wont to sit in the shade of the house with his open Bible in his hand. Often we would overhear him, with painstaking repetition, studying a psalm of David, or some passage from the 'Sermon on the Mount.' I heard him in the pulpit once when he preached a warning discourse, his theme that of John the Baptist, 'Repent, and be baptized!' He was not a 'shouter' or a 'ranter,' but spoke and acted in a quiet, manly way. His sincerity was such that he thoroughly won our respect, and we revere his memory.

"The next to go hence was little Isaiah, or Iser, as the children called him. He began school last year, and was so quick and bright that he was always first in his class. He never forgot anything that he was once told. Bible stories were his especial delight. Often he would beg to be allowed to have a Bible in his hands that he might read it for himself. He often asked to be permitted to read the last chapter of Revelation. One of the pictures on an old chart represented a lamb with feet bound lying on the ground, beside the altar of the temple, Jesus standing near with upraised hand, talking to the people. How radiant was little Iser's black face as he would tell the story in his own words, ending thus: 'He told them they need not kill the lambs any more, for He was come to die for the sins of the people.'

"His grandmother sits alone in her lowly cabin. She had hoped for a prop and stay in her advancing years. The little boy was always active, kind and helpful. Her tears fall as she speaks of her loss, yet with an upward glance she says: 'He's gone to a better worl'. There's nary night, nor sin, nor sickness. Pie use to read to me all about it, an' I'se gwine to see him fo' long, an' my three children thet's thar! Bress the Lawd!'"

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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.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. A.B. Swift, 167 King St., Burlington.

Secretary—Mrs. E.C. Osgood, 14 First Ave., Montpelier.

Treasurer—Mrs. Wm. P. Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury.

MASSACHUSETTS AND RHODE ISLAND.

[1 - For the purpose of exact Information, we note that while the W.H.M.A. appears in this list as a State body for Mass. and R.I., it has certain auxiliaries elsewhere.]WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

President—Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, Cambridge, Mass.

Secretary—Miss Nathalie Lord, 32 Congregational House, Boston.

Treasurer—Miss Ella A. Leland, 32 Congregational House, Boston.

CONNECTICUT.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. Francis B. Cooley, Hartford.

Secretary—Mrs. S.M. Hotchkiss, 171 Capitol Ave., Hartford.

Treasurer—Mrs. W.W. Jacobs, 19 Spring St., Hartford.

NEW YORK.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. Wm. Kincaid, 483 Greene Ave., Brooklyn.

Secretary—Mrs. Wm. Spalding, 6 Salmon Block, Syracuse.

Treasurer—Mrs. L.H. Cobb, 59 Bible House, New York City.

OHIO.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. J.G.W. Cowles, 417 Sibley St., Cleveland.

Secretary—Mrs. Flora K. Regal, Oberlin.

Treasurer—Mrs. F.L. Fairchild, Box 932, Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

INDIANA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. C.B. Safford, Elkhart.

Secretary—Mrs. W.E. Mossman, Fort Wayne.

Treasurer—Mrs. C. Evans, Indianapolis.

ILLINOIS.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. B.F. Leavitt, 409 Orchard St., Chicago.

Secretary—Mrs. C.H. Taintor, 151 Washington St., Chicago.

Treasurer—Mrs. C.E. Maltby, Champaign.

IOWA.

WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.

President—Mrs. T.O. Douglass, Grinnell.

Secretary—Miss Ella E. Marsh, Box 232, Grinnell.