THE
AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association,

56 READE STREET, N. Y.

PRESIDENT.

Hon. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

Rev. M. E. STRIEBY, 56 Reade Street, N. Y.

DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

COMMUNICATIONS

relating to the business of the Association may be addressed to either of the Secretaries as above.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

may be sent to H. W. Hubbard, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the branch offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. Drafts or checks sent to Mr. Hubbard should be made payable to his order as Assistant Treasurer.

A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located.

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THE

AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

The thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Taunton, Mass., by invitation of the Congregational Churches of that city, commencing on Tuesday, October 29th, at three P. M.

The sermon will be preached by the Rev. S. E. Herrick, D. D., of Mt. Vernon Church, Boston. Other speakers and the order of exercises will be announced hereafter.

A cordial welcome will be given to delegates, and a full representation of the churches is earnestly desired.

On the 2d of July, Lord Polwarth gave a missionary conference in the grounds of Mertown House, on the Tweed, at which Dr. O. H. White, of America, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, made an address. He dwelt upon the explorations of Africa and the emancipation of the slaves in America, and on the relation of these two remarkable events to the evangelization of the 180,000,000 of ignorant and idolatrous inhabitants of the hitherto almost unknown continent. “The address was marked by intense earnestness and pathos, and was listened to with rapt attention.”

The monthly concert arranged for Rev. Mr. Winship’s Questions and the Jubilee Songs seems to be a great success. Almost daily orders are coming in for the Songs and Questions. Wherever they have been used they have given the highest satisfaction. We confidently commend them, therefore, to churches and Sabbath-schools that desire to spend a pleasant and profitable hour in considering the work and wants of the Association. We do not see how the same amount of information in regard to the Association could be so readily imparted in any other way.

Orders sent to Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Congregational House, Boston, or to any A. M. A. office, will be filled gratuitously.

The friends of Fisk University will be interested to hear of the safe return to this country of President Cravath. With him have also come the Jubilee Singers, who have been giving popular concerts during the last year in Holland, Germany and Switzerland, and have now disbanded.

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THE CLAIM OF SELF-INTEREST.

The claim of the three despised races in the United States is enforced by a motive of self-interest, by the relation of their leavening to the future prosperity and even perpetuity of our nation. Especially is this true of the freedmen, as large enough in their numbers to have weight, and endowed with privileges which make their numbers powerful for good or evil.

So large a mass, if it be corrupt, is also corrupting. Here are three lepers; I can but hint at their diseases. They are full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. You shrink and shudder at the picture. But, my brother, they are at your very door. What shall we do with them? This sickness is not unto death. Worse than that; it is perpetuated and transmissible; but it may be cured. The power of Christ, who touched the leper with His life-giving hand, is still with us. But we must go in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. We cannot bar the negro out; he has the right to sit in our midst, even among the senators of the land; and if he be still ignorant, and immoral, and superstitious, he will spread corruption around him. The only way to prevent him from contaminating us is to let virtue go forth from us to convert and cleanse him. And the question is, is there enough in us to do it? The very presence of vice and ignorance is contaminating; it conducts all evil influence and spreads it. The swamp malaria which fills the air, while it chokes the hovels of the poor, can by no means be kept out of the palaces of the rich. The foul odors of Hunter’s Point pay no respect to the brown-stone fronts of Murray Hill. If one member suffers, all the body is afflicted.

Do you say, “It is not our concern”? But it is every one’s concern. Is the ignorance and vice of your own town or city not your concern? You have to pay for it dearly. Your taxes for police, for courts and for prisons are only a small part of what it levies on you. It, too, pervades the air and mingles its deadly poison with it, and you breathe it in. You are proof against it; it only imperceptibly lessens the tone of your health and vigor. But your neighbor is not, and perhaps your son or daughter is not; and in the traps which line our streets your son or my son may stumble and fall; or behind the shaded windows where the snares are laid, your son or my son may go to ruin.

It is so in the nation. If the leaven be not more active and more potent than the mass, it will be itself unleavened and spoiled.

But there is a greater peril to us than the mere presence of ignorance and vice in its power. By the chances of war, and for the sake of its success, 1,000,000 slaves were made citizens. They were armed with the rifle and the ballot. With the rifle they turned the day of strife to the day of settlement; but with the ballot, if left slaves as to their intelligence and manliness, they may make of peace fatal disaster. Till they can exercise this solemn trust with wise discretion, and with conscientious fidelity, it is a perilous trust in their hands. One million more votes added to the vast number which are swayed by demagogues of either party, increase by a fearful percentage the dangers of the land.

In their Christian education is our only surety for the future. Education for their intelligence, and Christianity for their morals, and as a foundation on which both intelligence and virtue may rest secure.

The same danger would be swelled by the numbers of the Indians and the Chinese if they were citizens. As it is, the Indian can only become so by forswearing all the relations which are most sacred to him, and which mean to him family and religion. And the Chinaman, it has just been decided, cannot vote, at least in California, because he is neither white enough nor black enough.

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But it is the part of every wise man to see the danger, and to do what he can to avert it. The Federal Government cannot do what is needful. The States will not do it. Christian charity, with far-sighted wisdom and self-denying philanthropy, can alone be relied on for the work required—the training of these races. It is an illustration of the truth, that all self-interests are met, not by a narrowly planned seeking of them, but by that broader conformity to the great law of love which, loving God first, has love for each one in his place, and seeks the highest good of all. In that is wrapped up, concealed sometimes, but surely there, our own gain and good.

PLEASE PERUSE, AND PONDER.

Our friends will pardon us for reminding them that the fiscal year of the Association will close with the month of September. What is done to swell the receipts, either for diminution of debt or to meet current expenses, must be done quickly. Let no one imagine, however, that we are not duly grateful to God and to His people, for the gifts which have made possible the work on the field, and lightened so much the drag on our treasury. Still, we feel constrained to ask these givers for a larger giving, in order that we may free ourselves from an incumbrance which has sadly embarrassed us for years, and keep pace with the openings before us. Two things we ask:

1. The debt must be cleared away. Every interest of the Association demands it. Our friends demand it—do they not? Else, would they have reduced our indebtedness, within eighteen months, from over $90,000 to some $40,000 at this present writing? Why may we not believe that God has His reserves, both of men and of money, at hand, to wipe out the remaining balance against us? We wait to see who will step into the place of honor, and make some great sacrifice in this behalf. This debt was incurred to aid the poorest of the poor, as we thought, at the call of Christ himself. May not they expect His blessing who shall now come to the rescue? “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”

2. We need increased supplies to meet our constant outgo. Our friends have done well by us during this year—such a year, too, as it has been! But they must be faithful to the end of it to ensure us a good record on the 30th of September. They need not be afraid of overdoing it; for if, by any good fortune of ours and good-will of theirs, we should, after paying all our current claims, have a small balance, it will go at once to lessen this still burdensome debt.

Remember, too, that the work is ever increasing on our hands, save as we have to keep it down. Millions of these freedmen must in the next ten years, if ever, be brought under the influence of sound learning and true religion. This generation must not pass away till it be possible for every colored child to read the word of God. The Chinaman and the Indian, too, make claims upon us which their cruel treatment by our fellow-citizens only serves to emphasize. Africa, also, as a culmination of our work, is calling for new laborers of her own sons to come and bring back to those sitting in darkness the light which is the life of men. But, in order to this, our teachers and missionaries must be numbered by hundreds and thousands, where now they are numbered by scores and hundreds. This is the true economy and the true wisdom. If we are to realize our ideal, there must be a new interest kindled in the work, and a great advance in the gifts of God’s people. With the closing of the year, therefore, we invite the intelligent and liberal men of the land to consider once more the work of this Association, in its bearing upon this nation, and in its bearing upon the nations, to which these races belong. We do not see how we can vindicate ourselves as righteous men, as men[260] who fear God and love our neighbors, if we neglect this work brought to our doors and laid upon us by sanctions as solemn and pressing as were ever imposed on men. We do, then, in behalf of these races, and in the name of our risen Lord, ask the good and the wise, everywhere, to give us their sympathies, their prayers, and their money, in measure large enough to put these fields under ample culture for a better and brighter future.

THEN AND NOW.

REV. J. E. ROY, D. D., FIELD SUPERINTENDENT.

Then—in October, 1860—as the newly-appointed District Secretary for the A. M. A., I attended its fourteenth annual meeting, in pastor M. E. Strieby’s church at Syracuse. It was an occasion of congratulation that the receipts for that year had come up to $56,000—$5,000 more than for the preceding, and $2,000 more than for any previous year. There had been sixty missionary laborers in foreign lands, and 112 in our own country, the most of whom were in the West, and forty of them in Illinois. The churches aided numbered 140, to which had been added 989 members, of whom 659 came by profession of faith. Twenty-five revivals were reported. In the South, North Carolina had one missionary and Kentucky had four, all of whom were engaged in caring for little churches among the white people. In a year and a half the war came on, and our missionaries were driven out of the South. The American Home Missionary Society had cleared itself, the first of all the national societies, from complicity with slaveholding, and so the missionary churches of the A. M. A. at the North and the District Secretary were transferred to the old society.

Now—after sixteen and a half years—I find myself, by the clearest drift of Providence, back in the service of the Association. At its anniversary of 1859, in Chicago, there was a discussion as to what should come of the A. M. A. when all the societies and churches should have reached the anti-slavery standard. Some held that the Association was only a tug to help those noble crafts out to sea. President Blanchard said, “Yes, a tug; but when she has got them all over the bar we will change her into a frigate, to course up and down all the Southern waters.” Last fall, the Association came back to Syracuse to hold its thirtieth anniversary, and, sure enough, the tug had come in as a frigate, with report of engagements all over the South. And so it had been running for the last twelve years. The Treasurer’s report ran up to $264,709. Instead of the 112 white churches North, are shown 59 churches among the ex-slaves; also 7 chartered institutions, 14 high and normal schools, with 10,000 scholars, and with 100,000 pupils reached by their teachers. The Indian work abides; the Chinese has come on. The scheme for evangelizing Africa, by using the Christianized freedmen, is opening into proportions immensely beyond the conception of its early movers.

Then—its constituents were individuals, and churches of the more pronounced abolition sort. Now—since the National Council at Boston—the Association has been recognized as the agency of the Congregational churches for doing their work among “the three despised races.” The old adherents, developed into generous giving by the necessities of their enterprise, abide with the enthusiasm of veterans; while now the mass of our people acknowledge themselves under just as much obligation as they to use this organization in its peculiar sphere of Christianization at home and abroad. They find it by Providence marvelously developed and fitted to its work—tested, toughened and trusted. They hear it said from without, that our body of churches is doing more and better work among the freedmen than any other. They find that the[261] old anti-slavery education in our families had prepared a multitude of our cultured and consecrated young people to enter this work as soon as the way was open, even at a salary little above the nominal rate. And so they find this charge laid upon them and readily accept the obligation, grateful for the opportunity.

In coming back to this service, I feel that I am only shifting from the right to the left wing of the home missionary army. No man can go beyond me in appreciation of the sublime movement represented by the American Home Missionary Society. But in this other department I find that most of the same arguments are to be used. Do we call for the Christianizing of the people of our country? Here are millions of them at the South in need of that process. Do we plead for the saving of our country from the spiritual despotism of Rome? The Jesuits, using hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly, are scheming to Romanize the congenial material found in the ex-slaves. Do we appeal in behalf of the political interests of our country? Here are 1,000,000 black voters who cannot read. Then by their side, only lower down in the social scale, are 1,100,000 white voters who also cannot read the ballots they are to cast; and the conviction is now gaining ground that the most effectual, if not the only way, to lift up that class is to put under them the leverage of the educated negro. Do we use that grandest argument—the salvation of our country for the sake of the salvation of the world? Here in our own land is looming up the most potent agency for the evangelization of Africa. That despoiled continent may yet say to her despoilers, “Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.”

The A. H. M. S., true to its charter as a national institution, as soon as war had battered down the walls that were in its way, sought, with the Philip of its evangelism, to go towards the South. It explored the chief cities and centres of that region, and was entering devotedly upon that part of the field. It has kept pressing every hopeful opening. It will still be true to its national idea and do all it may be allowed to do there. None feel more keenly than do its chief officers the chagrin at the few opportunities afforded and the failure in so many of them. They have done only their duty in making the costly experiments. And now the apostolic spirit of our Congregational churches seems to say to the white people of the South, “Seeing ye count yourselves unworthy of these good things, lo, we turn to the freedmen.”

If, in some distant part of the globe, a people had just been discovered, numbering 5,000,000 souls, speaking our own language, hungering for our ideas, our civilization and our Christianity, it would thrill the Christian world to go in at once and possess that land for Christ. That thing we may do in our own country, under our own flag. And some of us who now, with our years, could not pass muster to go and cope with a foreign language, have yet not a few years left in which we may do an essentially foreign missionary work in our own language, in that tongue, which, more than any other spoken by man, is freighted with the associations and the spirit of the Gospel of the Crucified One.

ANNUAL REPORTS NEEDED.

Any of our friends who have the following back numbers of the Annual Report of the A. M. A. that they can spare, will confer a favor by sending them to our office as soon as convenient: Numbers 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 24. We do not ask our friends to break a set if they are anxious to keep it, but to send any extra numbers they may have. Without realizing it, we have exhausted our supply of these numbers, and now wish to make up a few extra sets to have bound for our own use. As years go by, we learn more and more the value to us of these old reports.[262]

A GOOD EXAMPLE.

Mrs. Sally Perry died in Boston, Mass., June 17th, aged ninety-one years. The slaves had a large place in her sympathies, when she could do little more than offer her prayers in their behalf. But when the war had set them free, and left her charity at liberty to enter on practical offices of good will, she eagerly embraced the opportunity, watching for openings. She read in the American Missionary, for 1866, a call for funds to establish orphan asylums for the thousands of homeless colored children in the South. She came to our office in Boston for information in regard to it. The result was a donation of $500, to found the Brewer Orphan Asylum in Wilmington, N. C., in memory of her deceased daughter. And, year by year, while the Asylum existed, she gave it the interest of $2,000, devised in her will for its benefit.

When the Asylum was no longer needed, the city of Wilmington undertaking to care for its poor, with the consent of Mrs. Perry, the funds which she had invested in it were transferred to the Brewer Normal School in Greenwood, S. C. This school so enlisted her thoughts and sympathies, that she determined to make over to it, two years before her death, the amount she had designed for it at her decease. Accordingly, she paid over to the Association, for the benefit of the school, two one-thousand-dollar U. S. Bonds, which realized $2,416.25. The writer remembers how her face shone after the act was done. Indeed, giving seemed to be, to her, a supreme luxury. The whole amount which she contributed to the Association, for its work of physical relief and Christian education, was not far from $4,000. And the school which she has left in her daughter’s name, the support of which is mainly from her bequest, will go on perpetuating her influence for the years and generations to come. Many, in the great day, will rise up and call her blessed. Are there not other dear saints of God, friends of the poor and the needy, who will imitate her spirit and her example?

THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES.

We attempt to give, though it is difficult, a condensation of the address made by President Buckham, of Burlington, Vt., at the Boston Anniversary of the A. M. A., May 29th, 1878. It has been published in full in the Congregationalist, and in pamphlet form already.

The negro, it must be confessed, has lost the place he once held as an attractive object of philanthropy. Invested with the legal rights of a man, and thus by necessity thrust forward into comparison and competition with other men, he not only exhibits his inferiority on a conspicuous stage, but manifests some traits which make him repulsive and odious. The negro cause has thus sunk from an impassioned crusade to a common-place charity.

The Negro Question.

And yet the Negro Question is still the great American Question. Perhaps it is with questions like this as with the movements of a battle; those at a distance see them more clearly than those in the thick of action. The intelligent Englishman or Frenchman will tell you in an instant that our great problem is the negro question—the political, as dependent on the social and moral condition of the freedmen.

With a population as large as that of the colonies at the Revolution, with the full privileges of American citizens theirs by constitutional right, they hold in their hands—the very hands but recently manacled in cruel and degrading bondage—the balance of political power in the nation. As parties are now divided, the supremacy of one or the other depends on the negro vote; and whether the negro vote shall be the vote of the negro, or merely the vote by the negro, will depend on the degree of manhood he reaches through his social and moral condition.

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The Southern Solution.

One party in the South, not including the best elements of Southern society, but for the present the dominant one, has already matured and avowed its solution of the problem. “The negro,” they say, “belongs to a race constitutionally and forever inferior—a race foreordained to serve in some capacity the superior white race. You have declared by law that he shall not be a chattel; we are determined that he shall not be more than a serf. Rule over us he shall not; rule with us he shall not; if he must vote, he shall vote as we bid him; by all the methods usually employed for that end wherever caste prevails, by compulsory ignorance, by superstition, by terrorism, by fraud, when necessary by force, he shall be compelled to stay in his place as a member of a subject, an abject race.”

There are others—and it must not be ignored that among them are some of the leaders of opinion at the South—whose language is less violent, and whose measures are less threatening, but whose end is substantially the same. They are willing, possibly I should say desirous, to better the condition of the negro, so far as to make him a better laborer, a more thrifty and useful factor in political economy, a more honest man and a more devout Christian, but with stringent limitations to his social and political ambition. They favor education, but an education so controlled by the superior race, and so differenced from the education given to the children of this race, that it shall beget no dangerous and revolutionary aspirations. These men favor religion for the blacks—but such a religion as shall keep them occupied with emotional fervors and boisterous bodily exercises, not such as shall encourage thoughtful study of truth in God’s word and works.

The Christian Solution.

Now, as the policy of the party unfriendly in a greater or less degree to the freedman, is based on the assumption of his inferiority, so the policy of his friends and benefactors—and he has friends at the South as well as at the North—must be based on the counter assertion of his manhood. It is not necessary—it is somewhat dogmatic, it is at least premature—to assert his equality in all respects with the white man. That is an ethnological question which it may take ages to settle, and when settled it will be mainly a matter of scientific interest. But that the negro is a man; that everything distinctively human belongs to him; that he is capable of improvement; that his intellectual faculties are expanded, and his moral nature is elevated by means of the same truths and the same influences which invigorate and enlarge and fructify the souls of other men, and that he is entitled to his full share, without stint or reserve, of all the knowledge and all the human agencies and the divine influences by which it is ordained that our common humanity shall reach its highest attainable perfection—this is the broad basis of principle on which the American Missionary Association, and all true missionary associations, found their policy in dealing with negroes, as with all other races of men whom God has made of one blood on all the face of the earth, and for whose common redemption and perfection Christ died, who is the Saviour of all men.

But in one sense the freedman is something more than a man; he is an American citizen; and he is more than an ordinary citizen; he is a voter. He has been entrusted by the nation with the highly important duty of giving expression to the municipal, the State, and the national will in legislative, judicial and executive acts. He is an integral part of the sovereignty of this nation. We may or may not think it a national mistake to have made him so important a functionary. But the negro is here. He is here either to corrupt our politics, to degrade our social life, to debase our religion, possibly to drag us into another civil war, if we continue or repeat in some other form our injustice and tyranny to him; or, he is here to perform some useful, perhaps some noble,[264] part in the work of developing a Christian civilization at home and extending it abroad through the earth, if we are faithful to the trust committed to us by Providence in him.

The Negro Intellectually.

The question of the negro’s intellectual capacity has almost become obsolete as a debatable question. Strange that it should ever have been seriously maintained, that a race which has produced its full share of the world’s great men all along through history, a race which has given to the world a Hannibal, an Augustine, a Toussaint, is a race lacking intellectual capacity. Strange it is, on the other hand, that a race, however gifted, should, though oppressed and stupefied by ages of bondage, so frequently throw off minds of a high order.

If it should be said that these are a few picked men, whose cases do not indicate the intellectual capacity of the race, I reply it is only a few picked men of any race who are capable of high intellectual attainments, and that, because the rarest of talents is that ambition for high attainments which will carry one through toils and sacrifices to the far-away prize. I know no better test of intellectual capacity than the ardent desire for knowledge, and that desire the freedmen have in a remarkable degree. When the freedman spelt out, by the light of his pine-torch, the words: “Thou God seest me,” and then jumped to his feet and exclaimed: “John Martin, you can read! John Martin, you are a man!” he uttered a truth which too few of the boasted superior race so well appreciate—that manhood comes from power to appropriate great ideas. There is no doubt that the returns for money invested in freedmen’s schools are large. No one can read the accounts sent to us by teachers in these schools, and doubt that. The soil is a virgin one, and yields great crops for a small outlay. Think what the Peabody Fund is doing for the whole South! Think how wide-reaching would be the effects of a few thousand dollars put into the colleges at Atlanta, Berea and Nashville, where it might be hoped that almost every single dollar would quicken some mind which else were benighted, but which, if enlightened, might carry light to hundreds of benighted minds.

The Negro’s Moral Capacity.

If the negro had come out of this long, cruel bondage without being terribly degraded morally; if, as some pretend, his moral nature had been under an elevating discipline, then had slavery not been “the sum of all villainies.” But there is no denying that the American negro bears the marks of his bondage, in his indolence, his untruthfulness, his dishonesty, his animalism. But these are all vices of the slaves, not of the men; of the condition, not of the race. The possibilities of the negro nature are to be estimated by its highest actual attainments in the most favored individuals. Two of the noblest races of history have come from an ancestry less promising than our Southern freedmen—the Israelites and our own ancestors.

He would be a daring prophet who, in face of these examples, and of the instances of moral greatness actually produced by this race, should assert that something noble in character, some unique type of spiritual excellence, some splendid order of manhood, may not yet emerge from this now degraded and unpromising race. What the nature, the moral capacity of the American negro is, future ages will determine; and if we believe that God made him and gave him his nature, with all its unrealized possibilities, it surely cannot be hard for us to believe that there is for him a glorious future of moral and spiritual character.

Our Hope in Schools and Churches.

To the schools and to the churches, then, of the South we look as the hope of this race. But there are schools, and schools; there are churches, and churches; and everything depends on the kinds of schools and churches they have.

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Depend upon it, unless we help the negroes to establish schools which will impart the kind of education which will give them intelligence and thrift, which will bring to them a consciousness of their resources and ambition to use them to the utmost, and thus raise themselves in the social and political scale, others will see to it that schools are established which, in response to their cry for knowledge, shall keep the word of promise to their ear, and break it to their hope; which shall give them the kind of education that occupies and amuses the mind without developing it, and that will leave them fit subjects for the ecclesiastical and political yoke which has even now been prepared for them. And, unless we plant churches among them, which shall aim to consecrate and employ in Christ’s service heart, soul, mind and strength—the whole man and all his capacities—others will see to it that churches are established which, appealing to his love of display and big responsiveness to sensational and dramatic demonstrations, shall keep him a child forever, submissive to his self-constituted masters at home and abroad.

ITEMS FROM CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS.

Wilmington, N. C.—“Applications for next school-term are coming in. The students don’t mean to be caught as they were last year. I had to refuse so many for want of room.”

Atlanta, Ga.—There are known to be more than 142 of the present pupils of Atlanta University engaged in teaching during their three months’ vacation. This short term is all the present school system of Georgia contemplates during the year. Although many are prepared every year to take up the work, the demand is constantly larger than the supply. A short time since, application was made at the institution for three teachers in one day, to take schools already organized in the country, and none could be found to go. One graduate of the school, who has taught a school of his own in the southern part of the State for two years past, has raised up the present teachers of nearly every school in two counties, and a large part of those in seven others.

Byron, Ga.—Four persons united with the church, July 7th. One infant was baptized. Many are inquiring the way of life. A woman’s prayer-meeting is held every week. The Sunday-school numbers fifty-two.

Woodville, Ga.—Pilgrim Church has started a mission at Five-mile Bend, which promises well. They have licensed a brother to preach there. Mr. Sengstacke preaches there once or twice a month. Since last March thirty-five persons have been added to the church.

Georgia.—The railroads diverging from Atlanta generously passed at reduced rates the students of Atlanta University, after Commencement, to their homes and schools in the country. This reduction on one line, and on one trip, resulted in a saving to the students of a hundred and thirty-two dollars, a sum sufficient to pay the board and tuition of a student in that institution one year and two months.

Athens, Ala.—At the July communion, six children were baptized in Trinity Congregational Church. Two cases of discipline have just been issued. Rev. Horace J. Taylor is pastor.

Nashville, Tenn.—Nathaniel Nurse, a student of Fisk University, has been appointed a city missionary.

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GENERAL NOTES.

—The Atlanta Republican says that, in proportion to their means, the colored people of that city are paying a much heavier tax than the whites, while their school facilities are far inferior. It also alleges that the hostility of the mayor to the colored school is evidenced by the removal of their best teachers, and especially of those who have gone thither from the North.

—Catlin says that the Indians preserve their health by keeping their mouths shut. Some pale-faces might preserve their spiritual health by observing the same rule.—Christian at Work.

—“It is a singular non sequitur to refer to the discovery of frauds made by the Interior Department, as proofs of its inefficiency and unsuitableness to conduct the service, when, in fact, they are proofs of exactly the opposite.”—Independent.

—The following resolutions, written by men who have worked in Oregon and Washington for thirty years, and who ought to know something about this question, were unanimously adopted by the Oregon Congregational Association:

“Resolved, That the Association affirm its faith in the redemption of the Indian from barbarism.

“Resolved, That we deplore the policy that tends to his extermination.

“Resolved, That the provisions of the Constitution, and the acts of Congress, and the pledges of treaties, furnish a strong motive for effort on the part of the friends of the Indian to secure him a homestead and citizenship as the best way to secure his rights in law, and promote his manhood and his welfare permanently, and

“Whereas, There is now a proposition in Congress to consolidate the various reservations in Oregon and Washington Territory, without regard to the previous labor and rights of the Indians, and without their consent, and

“Whereas, We believe such consolidation would be unjust to the Indians, dangerous to the surrounding settlers, and, in the end, of vast expense to the government, as well as a great hindrance to the civilization of the Indians physically, mentally and morally, therefore,

“Resolved, That before any consolidation takes place, we earnestly urge upon Congress the necessity of now, by positive act, granting to the Indians of industrious habits, on the reservations, homestead titles to their lands in severalty.

“Resolved, That the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, that boarding schools be established among Indians for the better training of their children, meets our convictions of what is needed.

“Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior.”

—General Crook is reported to have said, recently, to a newspaper man, “It is hard to be forced to kill the Indians when they are clearly in the right.”

—The question of Indian loyalty or revolt is generally decided by our treatment of them. If served by capable and faithful agents, supplied according to agreement, and protected from whiskey-dealing traders, they are peaceable and friendly. If defrauded of their rights, starved, and driven from place to place, they become “bad Indians,” and who wouldn’t? Witness the contrast between the Piutes and Shoshones, of Nevada, and the Bannocks.

—The Bannock war would seem to be nearly over. An official report announces that the Bannocks and Piutes have separated, and are fleeing, apparently towards their reservations or former haunts. Wheaton, and the boats on the Columbia, with Bernard and Forsythe pressing from other points, all under the direction of General Howard, who also operated separately with a small force of cavalry, prevented the intended crossing of the Columbia, and an escape into Washington Territory and the British Provinces. Settlers in the vicinity of Camas Prairie are now in terror from the returning Bannocks. Well they may be. The war began in connection with an attempt[267] of these Indians to go back from their Fort Hall reservation, when nearly starved, to dig the camas, a nutritious root, from which that region is named. The white inhabitants objected, as they wanted the roots for their hogs. A difficulty arose, a white man was killed, the military was called upon, and, though the tribe did not justify the killing, nor shield the murderer, yet proceeded to inflict punishment upon the whole tribe by taking their horses and guns—largely their dependence for subsistence.—Advance.

—The President is said to be making careful inquiries into the facts as to the immigration of Chinamen to our Pacific Coast, and to purpose a special message to the next Congress on the subject. He has been reported as favoring its limitation by modification of the Burlingame treaty.

—On the 19th of July, Judge Belden, of the District Court, rendered a decision important to the interests of Chinese labor on the Pacific Coast, declaring the exorbitant license tax on Chinese laundries, of twenty dollars a month, to be void, and payments made recoverable, on the ground that such charges were excessive, disproportionate, and derogatory to fundamental principles of just government.

—Twenty-five Chinese laborers sailed July 19th for Peru, to work on a sugar estate. They are guaranteed prompt payment of sixteen dollars a month, and good treatment. Others will probably follow them.

—Judge Choate, of the United States District Court, ruled, July 10th, that a Chinaman cannot be naturalized under the laws of the United States. The application was made by a Chinaman known as Charles Miller, who has lived in New York for twenty-eight years. Judge Choate was guided by the decision of Judge Sawyer, of California, in the Ah Yup case, when thirteen hundred Chinamen petitioned that schools might be provided for them, as for Indians and negroes, and showed that in San Francisco alone they were paying $42,000 in school taxes. Their request was not granted, although it merely asked the carrying out of a provision of the State Constitution which the honorable gentleman had sworn to obey.

—Colonel F. A. Bee, attorney for the Chinese six companies, declares, upon official records, that during the past two years, up to June 1, the emigration and death-rate of the Chinese have exceeded the immigration by about 500; and that the entire number of Chinese residents on the Pacific Coast, as shown on the registers of the six companies, does not exceed 65,000.

THE FREEDMEN.

SYSTEMATIC BENEFICENCE IN ATLANTA UNIVERSITY.

BY REV. HORACE BUMSTEAD.

During a portion of the past school-year a plan of systematic beneficence has been in operation among the scholars and teachers of Atlanta University. It was undertaken largely as an experiment, and with many misgivings as to the results. Its success has been so gratifying as to suggest the possibility that other schools and churches in this missionary field might like to introduce it, if made acquainted with its practical workings.

The Plan.—This is set forth in the following recommendations, drawn up by a committee of teachers and scholars, and adopted by a unanimous vote of the school:—

“1. That we recognize more fully the duty and privilege of systematic giving.

“2. That during the remainder of the school-year we make twenty-five weekly offerings of money at the Friday afternoon meeting, to aid in paying the debt of the A. M. A.

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“3. That all persons connected with the school be invited to hand in on slips of paper, to be provided, a statement of the amount which they will endeavor to give weekly.

“4. That all persons handing in these statements be provided with envelopes in which to deposit the weekly amount; and that envelopes be furnished also to any who may desire to give as they are able, without stating beforehand a definite amount.

“5. That any persons who prefer to devote their offerings to any other benevolent object than the one already suggested, be allowed to do so by giving timely notice of their desire.

“6. That arrangements be made for furnishing cents in exchange for larger coins, so that all may be enabled to give as small sums as they wish.

“7. That an account be kept with each holder of an envelope showing the amount given by each.

“8. That some person be appointed by the president to superintend the execution of this plan.”

Its Object.—We desired not so much to raise a large sum of money as to cultivate the habit of giving with thoughtfulness and regularity. The value of this habit we sought to impress upon our scholars in several prayer-meeting talks when the subject was under consideration. If each one gave only one cent a week, the habit of giving would be acquired, and this would be worth acquiring. We wished also to encourage the idea that benevolent giving is a fitting act of Divine worship. Our offerings were made at the weekly school prayer-meeting on Friday afternoon, and were always preceded by a short prayer of consecration from the president.

Its Freedom.—So far as possible the word “pledge” was avoided in presenting the matter to the school. Each person was asked to consider carefully how much he was able and willing to give. The handing in of a statement of his resolve to give so much per week was designed chiefly to secure a thoughtful decision on the part of each one. If any preferred not to do this they could still receive an envelope and give what they liked from week to week. The keeping of the record was not for the purpose of dunning delinquents; this was never done. Undoubtedly, however, the mere fact that the record was kept proved a stimulus to regularity in making the offerings, and made it possible to tell any donor at any time how much he had paid or had yet to pay. If any one desired to change the amount of his offering, or to discontinue it altogether, he was met with no remonstrance. While it was suggested that the offerings be devoted to the debt of the A. M. A., full opportunity was given to each one to contribute to any other object that he might select. The scholars were especially urged not to be ashamed to give a small sum if they could not give more. In a word, the whole management of the plan was designed to be helpful rather than dictatorial or inquisitive.

Its Details.—These may be skipped by those not specially interested. One thousand strong Manilla envelopes, of the size represented below, were bought for eighty-five cents, and five hundred of them were printed, with the dates of the twenty-five weekly offerings, at an expense of one dollar. A blank cash book, with stiff covers, was bought for twenty-five cents, and a conductor’s punch for a dollar and a quarter. Thus, the cost of the outfit was but $3.35, and we have the book and punch for indefinite use, and envelopes enough for another year or more.

There being no cents in general circulation in Atlanta, several dollars’ worth were procured from the Post Office. Every Friday morning, for half an hour before school, the “money-changer” sat at his table in one of the school halls and gave pennies in exchange for nickels and dimes. The sight of him, by the way, proved a very serviceable reminder to the scholars that the day of the offering had come.

Each person was provided with only one envelope, to be used over and over again. In case of loss a new one was cheerfully given. On the envelope, between the columns of printed dates, are written his name, the number of the name in the record book, and the[269] page where found, and a letter indicating the school-room or department to which he belongs. On the inside of the flap is written the number of cents he is to give weekly, or an interrogative mark if no definite sum has been stated. When the holder of the envelope receives it again, he finds a little hole punched opposite the date which his last payment has covered; this constitutes his receipt, and the unpunched dates show how many more offerings he has to make.

George Brown, for example, has made ten offerings, and has fifteen yet to make. His name is numbered “46” on page “8” of the record book, and he is to receive his envelope back in the Middle (“M”) school-room, where he studies.

The envelopes as they are emptied of their contents are separated into two piles, the first consisting of those which contain exactly the stipulated weekly offering, and the second of those which do not, as for example, when the donor wishes to make two or more offerings at once. Care is taken to mark on each envelope of the second pile, opposite the proper date, the amount which has been found in it. Each of these piles is now assorted, so as to bring together all the envelopes whose names occur on the same page of the record book, for convenience in entering the amounts. Much time is saved by having a second person read the name-numbers and amounts to the person who enters them, reading of course, the figures on the flaps of the first pile, and those opposite the given date on the second. The envelopes are then properly punched, and afterwards assorted according to the school-rooms, and given to the respective teachers to distribute to the scholars. To save loss, this distribution is deferred till the day before the offering.

The record book is long and narrow, so as to get as many names as possible on a page. The account of each donor requires but one line running across two opposite pages, which are ruled vertically for twenty-five entries. The amount given each week, even when more or less than the stipulated amount, is entered under the date of that week, thus bringing all the offerings of the same week in the same column.

The handling of the money is facilitated by using small cotton bags large enough to hold a hundred cents, or several dollars in nickels.

Its Results.—Envelopes were issued to two hundred and nine persons. Only ten of these preferred not to state how much they would give each week. Sixty-nine, or about[270] one-third, offered to give one cent a week; forty-three, or about one-fifth, offered two cents; fifty-one, or about one-quarter, five cents. Only fifteen out of the two hundred and nine offered more than five cents a week. Among the scholars, the amounts ranged from one to ten cents; among the teachers, from five cents to one dollar.

Out of the one hundred and ninety-nine who offered definite amounts, sixty-three paid exactly what they had stated at the outset; thirty-four (all scholars) paid more—in some cases double and over; while one hundred and two (of whom a good many had left school) paid less. Thus very nearly half paid in full or over. Many of the others were deficient only a few cents, and these, in many cases, unavoidably so. Little notes like this would sometimes come in with the offerings: “This is all that I can pay; I have done the best I could.” The record shows that many who fell behind for a time afterwards made up the deficiency.

The offerings of the ten scholars who did not state what they would pay weekly, averaged a little over one cent a week; of the remaining one hundred and eighty-five scholars, a little over two cents a week; of the fourteen teachers, a little over twenty-one cents a week.

The scholars paid in all $102.02; the teachers, $73.00; making in the aggregate, $175.02. This was a little more than eighty-seven and a half percent. of all that was offered at the start. Excluding the teachers, all of whom paid in full, the scholars redeemed eighty percent. of the amount they set out to pay; and this percentage would have been larger but for the scholars who left school before the close of the year.

Finally, the best result of all is, that we have learned something of the happiness of Christian giving, when practised thoughtfully, conscientiously and willingly.

CHARLESTON, S. C.

Avery Normal Institute.

[Extracts from the Charleston News and Courier, July 4th, 5th and 9th.]

The Graduation Exercises of this institution were held at the school building in Bull street, yesterday, commencing at nine o’clock in the morning.

The programme included singing by the school, and addresses and essays, which reflected great credit upon the several pupils who delivered them.

A large number of prizes, including several handsome books, were distributed to the successful pupils in the several classes, and diplomas were presented to the graduates.

Many features of the programme were excellently rendered, and it is, perhaps, fair to award the palm to the salutatory and essay by Julia D. Edwards, and to the discourse on “Class History” by Elizabeth R. Tucker. These compositions were well conceived and gracefully delivered. The singing, too, deserves special praise, and there was one contralto voice in particular very noticeable for its strength and clearness.

The institution, which is devoted to the education of the colored youth of this city, has turned out ninety-seven graduates since 1872, all of whom do honor to their instructors.

Reunion Exercises.

The series of exercises which were arranged for three days, closed most auspiciously, yesterday, with a reunion of the graduates. The programme comprised vocal and instrumental music, original essays, recitation, declamation, oration and closing address. The main hall, where the exercises were held, was thronged with an audience highly appreciative, as was continuously evinced.

The exercises were opened by a piano solo, a galop, which was admirably played by Martha C. Gadsden, of the graduates of ’73. After an address of welcome by Mrs.[271] M. S. Lowery, an oration on “True Greatness” was pronounced by John M. Morris, an alumnus of the institute.

It is but justice to make special mention of the essays: “Youth the Crisis of Character and Destiny,” by Merton B. Lawrence; “Avery Normal Institute our Home,” by Susan B. Artson; “Woman’s Position in Society,” by Susan A. Schmidt; “Necrology,” by Catharine A. Wallace; “What is Life Without an Aim,” by Ada C. Turner.

Avery can well afford to risk its reputation as an educational institution on such essays, all of which showed no ordinary degree of culture. The vocal gem of the exercises was the soprano solo, “Blooming Springtide,” rendered with rare sweetness and taste by Martha C. Gadsden.

Impressions made on a Visitor from a Neighboring State.

Although daily notices were made in the News and Courier of the closing exercises of Avery Institute, as they took place from day to day, the following account by a visitor from a neighboring State will not be without interest:

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GEORGIA.

Ogeechee—Changes for the Better—Saving Souls and Saving Money.

REV. JOHN R. MCLEAN, PASTOR.

We have a good Sunday-school. It is not so large as it might be; but the children, and all who attend, are getting thoughts of the Bible that they can get nowhere else around here. And it is making a great change with the old people, as well as with the children. The other schools hold the children by giving them cake and candy; I hold them by giving them Bible truth. I find that it has more power over them for good than all the cake and candy that can be given them. The children act better on the Sabbath than they did when I first came here. I can see a great change.

The church is doing, I think, quite well. It takes a steady, but slow, patient and faithful work, to lead a people out who are so far in the dark as these have been. I can see a manifest desire on the part of the members to do better than they have been doing, and even better than the members of other churches.

Last Sabbath was our Communion-day, and I never was in a more lovely meeting in my life. We had no one to join (for the first time, I think, since I have been here), though there were three or four who had been received some time before, but were not able to be out on that day so as to join. Some of the churches that only had preaching once in the month, have it now every Sabbath, since they see that we have it every Sabbath.

I know of no place in the South where the colored people get so much money for labor as they do here. But they don’t save any money at all; they get it, and it is gone, and they cannot see what they got for it. I am trying to induce our members to save their money, and buy for themselves homes; but it is hard to get them to do this, like almost everything else that is right and for their own good.

I know the Lord has blessed me greatly in my work, for which I am thankful. Pray for us at this place.

ALABAMA.

A Surprise Party—A Church well Organized—Burrell School.

MR. E. C. SILSBY, SELMA.

Brother Noble mentions a surprise party in Montgomery. I can refer to an occurrence somewhat similar here. Last fall, during the time that we were without a pastor, Brother Callen, of the church, filled the pulpit. His labors were faithfully performed, and our “Ladies’ Society” determined to give him a “pound donation party.” The “Teachers’ Home” was decided upon as the place, and the members of the church were quite eager to bestow upon him some slight testimonial, indicating their appreciation of his Christian character and faithfulness. It was a complete surprise to him, and the articles contributed were opportune, although “pounded” at him.

One of the most encouraging features of our church is the “Ladies’ Society,” which holds a prayer-meeting every Sabbath afternoon, and a sewing society every fortnight. 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 ladies at Dedham sent their greetings and sympathy, and encouraged and helped us with their prayers. It has been a blessing to both societies. Hearing of the efforts of our ladies to purchase matting for the aisles of our church, they generously rendered assistance, and the matting has been laid.

One interesting and instructive feature of our work is that of the Committee on Missionary Intelligence. This committee was organized during the pastorate of Brother Pope. Its work is to present at times reports of missions in this and other lands. On the occasion of this presentation[273] the attention is certain to be fixed, and the matter of the papers is discussed for sometime afterwards.

Four new members have been received on profession; two heads of families and two young people. One has been received by letter. One of those uniting on profession—a man—had long been the subject of prayer by a wife, mother, sister, son and other friends, but at last the stubborn heart has yielded, and he is free.

The “Ministerial Association,” formed last year, and consisting of the ministers from the various colored churches, has been holding its meetings this year. The association meets at the study or residence of each pastor, in turn. The time of the meeting is occupied in discussing doctrines, presenting plans of sermons, and deciding upon practical subjects to present to their various congregations.

The Sabbath-school still continues in interest, and is growing in strength. I well remember that, a few years ago, when the Northern teachers who were laboring in the Sabbath-school went home for their vacation, we with difficulty secured a few to take their places; but now, superintendent, organist and teachers could be secured from resident members of the school.

The church is now in charge of Brother A. J. Headen, a student from the Theological Department of Talladega College.

I will add that the interest in Burrell School is not diminishing. The school was never so far advanced in studies before, and for the coming year the prospect is good for having quite a number of advanced pupils. We seem to be keeping a hold upon our older pupils. I have a class of them in one study this summer. Some are becoming very proficient in vocal music, singing by note.

Anniversary of Trinity School—A Grateful People.

REV. HORACE J. TAYLOR, ATHENS.

The thirteenth anniversary of the commencement of Trinity School occurred on the 28th of last May. On the Sabbath previous the anniversary sermon was preached by the pastor. The scholars had prepared themselves for the exercises of Tuesday evening. At the appointed hour the church was full of a bright-faced throng of old and young. A class of little girls, dressed in white, stood on each side of the broad central aisle; and as Miss Wells (who begun the school May 28th, 1865) advanced, they spread flowers in her way. She was conducted to her seat, which was covered with flowers. The exercises consisted of speeches, compositions, and music. One old man—Uncle Dennis Collier—said he was very grateful to Miss Wells for what she had done for him. He was blind, and couldn’t learn to read, but his “wife was the grandmother of sixty-six children,” and he doubtless felt that he had through them received a full share of the benefits of the school. She had done him favors, he said, “and if you want to know what kind of favors, here’s one of ’em,” as he vigorously shook his coat. Then the offerings of flowers were brought forward, and it seemed as if Miss Wells would be buried in the mass of roses, lilies, magnolias, etc.

These anniversaries do the people good, and enable them to look back and compare their condition in May, 1865, with their present condition, and to learn more forcibly what it is that is lifting them up.

School closed on the 28th of June. The examinations were on the afternoons of the 25th, 26th, and 27th. The schoolrooms were crowded with people from the neighborhood; they were of every shade from black to white, but all “colored.” All the classes were examined, from the little “tots” to those in grammar, analysis, and algebra. The examinations showed patient drill on the part of the teachers, and generally work on that of the scholars.

Friday afternoon and evening—the 28th—occurred the exhibition. Compositions, declamations, orations and music instructed and amused the audience till well along to midnight. All were pleased and edified. The colored people remember that, before the war, they sometimes went to anniversaries and exhibitions of the white people, but now they can attend those of their own.

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A Gospel Ship.

REV. PETER. J. MCINTOSH, PASTOR, ANNISTON.

The church building stood unoccupied about one year after the students of Talladega Theological Class, under the direction of Rev. H. E. Brown, had ceased to work upon it. Mr. Albert Brown and J. R. McLean, students at Talladega, labored to organize a church here, but the denominational prejudice was so great that they both were compelled to give up in despair.

I came to this place in April, 1875. My first sermon was preached to a benevolent society, which assembled in the church building. The society numbered about 100 members. You can imagine how earnestly I plead with my heavenly Father that He might give me a place in the hearts of these people. I preached from 1 Cor. xiii, 13, dwelling largely upon charity, interpreted love. I see before me to-day those faces which were indexes to so many prejudiced minds, as they commenced to show approval of my discourse. At the close of the services, I asked the people if they would meet me here in this house and take part in carrying on a series of meetings, two weeks from that time. They said they would.

On my arrival at the church at the appointed time for the meetings to begin, I found the church crowded to its utmost capacity. We held meetings for one week, which resulted in the conversion of six persons, and the willingness of three others to join with me in the formation of a church. Rev. H. E. Brown came up from Talladega, and, on the 23rd of May, 1875, assisted by the Methodist minister of the white church of this place, organized the First Congregational Church of Anniston. With these nine members (all heads of families) I took charge of the church, being elected by them as pastoral supply. I preached here once in every two weeks, and pursued my studies at Talladega.

During my absence, Brother A. J. Logan took charge of the church services, and conducted them as faithfully as any one could have done under the same circumstances. (He was one of the converts). With these means, we set sail on the ocean of God’s eternal power. We drifted on until we reached October, 1875, at which time we took on board nine more passengers for glory. We again set sail with the eighteen passengers on board. By October, 1876, finding that we numbered forty-two, we deemed it expedient to stop over, and thank God for bringing us so far on our journey towards the heavenly Jerusalem.

It would have inspired every reader of this article to have heard the words of thanksgiving and rejoicing, and to have seen the sympathizing tears, as they stole silently down the cheeks of those who had previously opposed the work here on account of its name and obscure history to the colored people. Permit me to say just here that many of the aristocratic whites of our village took part in the above-stated exercises.

We anchored here for some time, making repairs and casting overboard all who were diseased with intemperance and other maladies, which are so common to those who are not willing to resist the devil.

We rejoiced that the great Physician of souls had so wonderfully preserved all of our number except six. One had taken the ship of time, and sailed into eternity on the 26th of November, 1876—“Peace be to his ashes”; three took leave for other churches; thus leaving us thirty-two passengers for the next tour.

After repairing all things needful, we set sail again, with a full supply of love, truth and mercy. We landed in the midst of a glorious revival, in September, 1877. Here we took on board nineteen passengers more, and one on the 7th day of July, 1878.

A few days ago the church committee took account of stock, and found that we have on board the gospel ship fifty-two soldiers of the Cross, varying in age from thirteen to sixty, all of whom are ready for the next tour, upon which we expect to start out on the second Sabbath in September, 1878.

We have in our community some of the finest colored people in the State of Alabama, most of whom are absolute strangers to Christ. We most humbly solicit a petition in the prayers of each one who reads this article.

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MISSISSIPPI.

Grenada.

[Extracts from, the Grenada Sentinel of June 29th.]

A representative of the Sentinel witnessed the closing exercises on Friday night, the 21st inst., of one of our colored schools, under the management of Miss Anna Harwood and Miss Carrie Segur, which was an exhibition most creditable to both teachers and pupils, receiving praises from all who attended. The audience was very large, among whom we noticed quite a number of prominent white citizens, both ladies and gentlemen. The call for order, accompanied with the request for good behavior, and that there should be no talking or stamping of feet, was, considering the immense throng which filled the church, well observed, and we doubt not that all went away pleased and highly gratified with the exhibition. The exercises were commenced with an opening chorus, entitled, “Hold the Fort,” which was followed with prayer, by Elder J. D. Williams. The declamations, dialogues, songs, etc., were all very fairly rendered, and, in several instances, worthy of special mention.

That the teachers deserve not only the congratulations of the patrons of the school, but the encouragement and kindest regards of every lover and promoter of education in our community, we think all who were present, at least, will agree. That the colored people are progressing, and that rapidly, too, in an educational point of view, is a fact beyond any doubt, we will venture to say, in the minds of those who have given the subject even a casual investigation. We are impressed with the idea that our people in general have not yet given to this system of free education that reflection to which it is so richly entitled. But we are also impressed with its growing favor, and the importance that will be attached to the institution at no distant day. It is not only our duty, but we should endeavor to make it our pleasure to encourage, improve and build up our free schools.

KENTUCKY.

Berea College Commencement.

In one respect, Commencement at Berea, Ky., is unlike all other colleges. It exhibits, in the centre of a Southern State, the complete solution of the vexed negro question. In the large tabernacle, on the 3d inst., was an audience of two thousand people, rich and poor, white and colored, ex-masters and ex-slaves, sitting where they could find seats, without distinction, and with the kindest feelings. On the large platform sat in the rear the more advanced students, about half white and half colored; in front of them a choir of twenty singers, selected, evidently, with no thought of complexion; at the right a brass band of various shades; in front of all a score of professional men, with their wives, among whom were several colored preachers; outside was a mixed crowd of five hundred or more.

To this crowd twenty orations and essays were delivered by sixteen young men and four young ladies, of whom fourteen were white and six colored; and the only manifest thought of color was seen in the fact that one side of the audience was of a darker shade than the other. There was not the least sign of disturbance, nor any indication of dissatisfaction with this order of things, though more than two thousand of the audience must have come from regions outside of Berea, which is a village of five hundred inhabitants. A prominent Southern lawyer remarked that he never witnessed so good order in so large a crowd.

This state of things has been brought about without constraint, in the most natural way imaginable. It was originally a white school, but thoroughly anti slavery. A few months after emancipation, a couple of colored youths were admitted. Half the white students left immediately. But the vacancy was soon filled with colored students; and eventually the white students returned, and the trouble was over. The whole question seems to turn on the learning of one simple lesson—that contiguity with a free man is no more disagreeable than contiguity with a slave. The colors are mixed in all Southern society. A little[276] change in the mixture has here occurred, and that is all.

The college campus, in which are all the college buildings except the Ladies’ Hall, consists of forty-five acres covered with native forest trees. Under the shade of these trees, during the intermission, two or three hundred groups spread and consumed their basket-dinners. And, in the more retired parts, a thousand horses were sheltered from the burning sun.

The afternoon exercises consisted of a rousing address by Prof. Dunn of Hillsdale College, Mich., on the conflicts of civilization, and a statement from President Fairchild to the effect that the annual number of students is about 275—males, 145; females, 128. Thirty-one are in the college department, and over a hundred are qualified to teach a common-school. Probably sixty or more will teach during the long summer vacation.

It has often been predicted that this school would either become all white or all colored; but there seems to be no such tendency. The idea of color seems almost to have passed away. Intellectual culture and moral worth determine each man’s position in society. It will be many years before this state of society becomes general; but cheering progress in this direction is very manifest, and not so tardy as many suppose.—Kentucky, in the Congregationalist.

Frankfort.

MISS MATTIE E. ANDERSON, TEACHER.

The public examination of this school occurred June 13th, and was one of great pleasure and interest. Each teacher conducted the examinations of her own classes. Parents and friends were highly gratified with the very flattering manner in which the young ladies acquitted themselves. During the year the building has been enlarged, and many improvements have been made. The new room was opened about the first of March.

The closing exercises took place at Major Hall, June 19th, and consisted of vocal and instrumental music, essays, declamations, tableaux, dialogues and concert exercises.

Upon the stage were seated Rev. Mr. Evans, pastor of the A. M. E. Church; Rev. Mr. Parris, of the Independent Baptist Church. Prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Evans. The children then sang “Away over Mountain,” after which Miss Virgin Gatewood came forward and read the Salutatory. The exercises were of more than usual interest, and held the audience spell-bound from eight P.M. until twelve M. The Valedictory was read by Miss Mittie Streets, after which “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by the children, during which they waved fifty flags in the most patriotic manner. Benediction was then said by Rev. Mr. Martin, pastor of the First Baptist Church. The hall was crowded with people, who seemed perfectly delighted with all they saw and heard. We have received numerous compliments from the citizens for giving such an interesting entertainment. Four of our pupils are now teaching in different localities.

AFRICA.

MENDI MISSION, GOOD HOPE STATION.

In Good Health and Good Heart.

REV. ALBERT P. MILLER

After arriving on the African shores, and reaching our destination (Good Hope), we soon decided to proceed at once to work. We had a little hesitation in so doing, because we knew that we had been instructed otherwise by the Executive Committee. Having been assigned to our different posts of duty, we have been pushing forward the work, with but little loss of time from sickness, ever since. Brother Jackson had an attack of fever, which scared him a little, but[277] he soon rallied, and is now again in the field, fighting valiantly. I was sick last week, but the trouble soon passed away, and I am now walking about, feeling as well as any African in this our fatherland. It may be of interest to you, and to our many friends in America, to know that our wives have enjoyed thus far an unusually good degree of health.

We know not what the future has in store for us; still do we feel thankful to that kind Providence which we have enjoyed since our departure from “dear old Fisk” and the American shores.

A great deal of the mist that gathered around our vision, in regard to Africa and her people, while preparing to leave America, and as the steamer bore us away and her land faded until lost in the distance, has since been removed.

The Americans have a very vague idea of the land of “Ham” and her dusky sons and daughters, who are now depending on the institutions in the South for the story of the Cross.

If Africa is to be evangelized, as I believe it will be, it must be done through the children of the summer and sunny clime, educated and Christianized in the South. You in America can’t see this as plainly as one who mingles with this people, and has all chances to investigate in regard to this matter. If I could speak to every institution in the South, I would ask each one of them to be true to God and this common cause of humanity, which I would to God would seize all Christendom, so that the many who have for ages sat in darkness, might be brought into the light.

The work here still moves on prosperously in both church and school. Ten or eleven were received at our last Communion into the church, among whom were some of our scholars. We hope to see these develop into strong Christian manhood and womanhood. We have a great many very promising boys and girls in our school here, who are able to read and speak English very well. In these is our hope for a missionary work in Africa, which may expand until the interior shall receive of its influence.

We have the material on which to work, and we ask our kind heavenly Father to help us to shape these young hearts for fields of usefulness, which they will have no difficulty in finding if influenced by right motives. They sing well. The old plantation songs are not without interest here in Africa; I have introduced them into my school.

May God help you in America in every effort put forth for the advancement of His kingdom.

May He provide for the wants of the eleemosynary institutions planted in the South for the good of that people and the millions of Africa.

May these institutions foster such young men and women as shall be willing to work for the Master anywhere He may want them. Pray for us!

THE CHINESE.

“CALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.”

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas O. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. K. Noble, Hon. F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S. H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D., Jacob S. Taber, Esq.

Directors: Rev. George Moor, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. W. E. Ijams, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, E. P. Sanford, Esq., H. W. Severance, Esq.

Secretary: Rev. W. C. Pond. Treasurer: E. Palache, Esq.

China for Christ.

REV. W. C. POND, SAN FRANCISCO.

A venerable Presbyterian minister of New York, to whom we are indebted for a generous gift to our mission, writes as follows:[278] “I firmly believe that God in his providence is sending the heathen to our doors, in order that they may carry back the blessed news of the gospel to their own land; and if we turn them selfishly away, He will surely require their blood at our hands.”

The truth thus expressed is a chief source of our enthusiasm in our Chinese mission work. “China for Christ” is our motto. I wish to lay before the readers of the Missionary some of the facts in view of which we believe that we do reach China, though we are working here 10,000 miles away.

There is nothing improbable in the idea. Indeed, it scarcely could be otherwise. Hardly a steamer sails for China that does not carry one or more of our pupils back to his native land. Most of these are heathen still; but they are heathen with their eyes at least half-opened. These, even, cannot be exactly what they were. But many of them are Christians, as we confidently hope. Will these go there to be silent? When neighbors and friends gather about them, to hear the accounts they have to give of things in the Sunrise Land, will they forget to tell of the Saviour they have found? I do not believe it would be possible. The message to which they have listened will be as a fire in their bones, and they will feel that they must bear it on. Letters, too, are passing back continually; and these are not empty of gospel. A missionary at Canton writes me that the mother of one of our brethren lives near his mission-house. “She enjoys the money he remits, but is not pleased with his urging her to be a Christian.” I hear incidentally that the parents of another of our brethren have been visiting all the shrines near them, and, with wailings and prayers, have placed their votive offerings where they thought they would do good, hoping that thus he would be won back from Christian heresy to their ancestral orthodoxy. What passes here in this regard is not unknown at the old Chinese homesteads; and what is known is felt.

But we ought not to be content with these spontaneous and sporadic operations. We do not rise to the height of our great opportunity while we leave this thing to work itself. It ought to be worked energetically, systematically. Never was battery better placed for storming a stronghold than we are here, for pouring shot, hot with the love of Christ, into that empire-fortress of selfishness and superstition across the sea; but we need heavier guns, more ammunition, and a truer aim.

About four years ago, Wong Min died at Canton. He was spoken of after his death as “the distinguished native pastor of the Baptist Church in Canton.” It was said that, in the absence of American missionaries, he had carried the pastoral care of three Baptist churches, and all were flourishing. Wong Min was converted at Sacramento, in this State. Returning to his native land, he began to tell in the streets and elsewhere the good news of redeeming love. His work attracted the attention of Baptist missionaries, and they took him into regular mission work. He had been at it more than twenty years when the Master called him higher. But he has left a son walking in his father’s steps—a preacher of great promise. Why have we not by this time sent back to China a hundred Wong Mins? It might have been done; it ought to have been done. How large the blessing if it had been done! We are verily guilty in this matter.

You will think me extravagant. “One hundred,” you say, “is a large number; it would be a large proportion of the whole number reported as converted in California from the beginning of missionary effort to the present time.” I know it; but I do not flinch. It could have been done, and the doing of it would have reacted on the work here, and helped us to larger harvesting.

1. I observe that our Christian Chinese have a strong desire to do this work. One of them once wrote me as follows:[279] “In China, those who live in the villages don’t know Jesus and never heard of Him. I am sorry I cannot go home. If I could fly I would go home immediately, and tell how good and how kind Jesus is. Then I think they would all learn to love Him also. I want all our people in China to be Christian, and our mothers and sisters and friends to get the key, so they will go to heaven when they die.” I shall never forget the joy that shone in the face of our Jee Gam when he told me, a few months since, that a mission had been established near his home. Soon after, I found him writing for other eyes than mine—“Oh, how glad I feel whenever I think of this mission-house in my own beloved district. How much I am indebted to the ever-living and merciful Father for sending these missionaries there!” In expressions like these, these brethren represent the almost universal feeling among our Chinese believers—not from San Francisco and Oakland alone, but from San Leandro, from Petaluma, from Santa Barbara, from Stockton. As conversions are reported, there comes again and again the suggestion that such or such a one wants to learn how to preach the Gospel in his native land.

2. They are doing this thing now. The missionary sent to Jee Gam’s district was converted in California. The story is full of interest, and I give it in Jee Gam’s own words. It illustrates well the truth I wish to state on more sides than one: “Six years ago, a Chinese fortune-teller, while in California, heard a Chinese missionary speaking to a crowd of his countrymen on the subject of superstition. His heart was deeply touched. Not long after he went home, and at once commenced to build a house for his family, without going to an appointer of days to ask him to select a lucky day to begin upon. And so his friends and relatives told him that he must have a day selected before he put a single man to work, or his house could never be built to stand, or somebody would be killed by evil spirits before the house was completed. He told his friends that he had done with that superstition, and that he would keep on building. Finding they could not persuade him, they left, saying they would have no more to do with him, for he had become a foreigner. Then he was not only despised by these friends, but by every one who lived in that village. They said the evil spirits would soon take his life, or some great trouble would surely visit his family. Finally, his house was completed. He moved in and lived in perfect safety. People then began to wonder why the evil spirits did not visit this house. Some said they were busy elsewhere; but others said they must have gone away, and, on their return, they would cause this home and this obstinate family to be desolated. So they waited, but in vain; for this man prospered, and in due time, in that very house, a son was born to him. When, now, the people saw the joy of this household, they said one to another, ‘He must have worshipped the foreign God, and so the spirits dare not touch him.’ He came back to California and went to fortune-telling again. This time he determined to learn more of Christ, and every opportunity he could find he attended the Chinese meeting, and searched for truth by reading the Bible. He was finally converted, gave up his profession, and was baptized by Rev. Mr. Loomis. He then went home the second time, and studied at Rev. Dr. Happer’s mission in Canton, where he was fitted to be a very able missionary, for he had a very good Chinese education before he became a Christian. When he got through his studies, he was sent to a large city, not far from his own home. There he labored successfully for about two years, and he had been the means of converting a number of his countrymen, among whom was one of his villagers, a professor of Confucius. He was on his way to a county examination; he visited the chapel where this missionary was preaching, not that he might learn about Jesus, but merely for curiosity. But the Lord’s design was otherwise. He sent him there to be converted by the Holy Spirit, and fitted for the great work which He intended to assign him.

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“After his conversion, this missionary and a delegate were sent to visit Chuck Hum, a city about six miles from my home. When they reached there, great was their surprise to learn that a man named Quan Lang, who lived close by, had been Christianized in Australia, and had been preaching there, in the open air, for the last three months. They searched and found him earnest in the faith, glad and anxious to join himself with these missionaries. They consulted together about opening a chapel there. Then they wrote Dr. Happer about it. He consented, and they began. But oh, what a hard time they met! Opposition came upon them from every side. Even the whole city firmly united against them. After violent persecution, the governor was consulted. He sent proclamations to the head man of the city and the judge of the district, commanding protection to his person and property. Then this missionary could have as many police officers to protect him as he pleased. They even became burdensome to him, and he had to dismiss them. When the chapel was dedicated, it was crowded to its utmost capacity.” This brings the story down to the present time. The work in that district, it will be perceived, was begun by an Australian convert, and is now carried on by one from California.

Two of our Oakland brethren, Joe Jet and Lee Sam, have recently returned to China, and intend to commence at once their studies at a mission-school, in order to preach the Gospel. One of our San Leandro brethren, Jee Wee, started for China last October, and has just returned. On the westward voyage he fell in with some missionary families and a Chinese evangelist. The result was that at once, on reaching Canton, he began evangelistic work, opening a room for the distribution of Bibles, and preaching. He encountered opposition and persecution at first, but, on application at headquarters, was protected in the same manner with those of whom Jee Gam writes above. The crowds that listened sometimes numbered 300 or 400. More than twenty were hopefully converted, his own father and mother being among them. Another Lee Sam, who returned to China about three years ago, and who, though a Christian, had not at the time he left us been baptized, in his first letter to his brethren here, told of the conversion of his brother, an educated man and a sort of college professor, to whom he had been speaking of the way of life.

We have lost sight of this Lee Sam, of Lui Chung, also, a most hopeful convert and Christian worker, whom I ought to have retained in California, and many others likewise. It is not strange that this should be. Indeed, it could not be otherwise. We, 10,000 miles distant, could not possibly follow them, save with our prayers. But they ought to be followed, and nurtured and edified. And not only that, but set at work, as light-givers and soul-savers, where-ever they go.

It is easy to see that a Chinese, returning to his native land from California, would be likely to have special advantages for doing missionary work. In the first place, by a process of natural selection, they are picked men. It is not the dullards or the drones that undertake to cross the Pacific, and make their way to fortune in a land so strange to them as this. And by the same process it is, again, among those who come, the picked men that enter our schools. The great mass do not care enough about learning to follow up each hard day’s work with two hours of evening study. Those that come do care, and care so much that they brave bitter reproaches in coming, from those whom they leave behind.

Then, besides the limited education which they are able to get in our schools, there is an unconscious education, which they must be, all the while, unconsciously receiving, as they breathe the air of a free and Christian land. Their views are broadened; the old crusted conservatism is broken; and they can speak out, with a force and an authority which, it seems to me, no Chinese who had never left his native district could possibly use.

Then, there cannot but be an interest gathering about them, as having been in “the land of the golden mountains.” They have the story of this to begin with where-ever they go; they gather a crowd by means of it; they gain attention; and the gospel of Christ will come in after it as[281] easily as if it belonged—as, indeed, it does—to the very theme.

Now, what have I to propose? It is this: We ought to have a mission at Hong Kong. It ought to be in close, vital relationship with our California Mission. It ought to be at Hong Kong, because there our steamers land their passengers, and from that point our brethren scatter. Most of them do not enter Canton at all. We ought to have, then, at least one American missionary—not necessarily a great man, but a man of earnest piety and business capacity, and sound common sense—a man who would give to his mission the atmosphere, which, I am sure, our brethren recognize in the mission here, of Christian kindliness and brotherly love—not that of a condescending benevolence, but that of a hearty Christian brotherhood.

He ought to meet every converted Chinese—at least, from our own mission (others, if they are willing)—and take him home to his mission-house; find out his destination, and arrange to keep track of him, and make use of him as an errand-bearer for Christ. And we, on our part, ought to be raising up and sending men who, educated either here or in China, may give themselves, under direction of this missionary, to district gospel work.

So far forth, I am confident. It is no new thought with me, and, in proposing it, I feel that I am walking on solid ground. I feel that I speak in God’s name when I say this ought, forthwith, to be done. Whether the proposed mission should be sustained by the A. M. A., or by the American Board; whether more than one efficient American missionary will ever be needed; what sort of mission work he should go about in Hong Kong itself—concerning these and other matters of detail, any suggestion I could make would be crude, and, likely enough, mistaken. But the proposal itself, as to its essentials, I stand in no doubt about, and I ask the prayers and co-operation of all who love Christ and souls, that it may be speedily fulfilled.

Let me add, as if by postscript, that a Chinese brother, Wun Ching Ki, a member of one of the London Missionary Society’s churches at Canton, who is in business at Hong Kong, has been doing something in the line above marked out; has kindly welcomed and aided our brethren on their arrival; has suggested that, in that English city of Hong Kong, mission work among the Chinese could be conducted most successfully, upon the very plan which we use here; and is very desirous himself to send native preachers into the neglected interior districts, asking whether our Chinese brethren here could not help him so to do. The emphatic testimony which these bear to his good judgment and general efficiency, as well as to his Christian character, makes both the work he has done, and the work he wants to do, confirm my confidence in the suggestion I have made.

THE CHILDREN’S PAGE.

We make the following extracts from letters of Mr. A. E. White, one of our missionaries to Africa, to his former teachers at Hampton Institute:

I have just returned from the Shangay Mission, where I have been for near two weeks (this mission is carried on by the United Brethren of Ohio.) The brother there sent for me to come and spend some time with him, and to give him some advice in regard to his work while I was there. This mission is on the mainland, and one can see more of the habits of the people than he can here. When their children have[282] gotten up to be two or three years old they send them to the bush, called the Purroo and Bundoo. The Purroo is the place where they send the boys, and the Bundoo where they send the girls. They keep them there for a good many years, and cut on their backs the shape of a hamper-basket, and teach them the use of the country medicines and the way of worshipping the heathen’s gods, and all the heathen’s habits. If a man wants to marry, he can go to the Bundoo Bush and pay eight pieces of cloth, of two yards each, and take any girl he wants. After these boys have spent all the time which the chief says they must spend in the bush, they come out and go to whatever trade they have learned. Some are doctors, others teachers, and some are farmers. The doctors go around with their medicine, and sell it at a very high price; and when they attend the sick they carry a board about one foot long and nine inches wide, with a bottle of ink and brush. On this board they write, and then wash the ink off and give it to the sick to drink. Then they have various things to sell to keep away sickness and to give good luck. These children are taught all kinds of vice, and they think it is right—such things as lying and stealing. They are very easy to teach, and they put a great deal of faith in the person who teaches them, and whatever they are taught they believe. So one can see that the hope of this country lies in the children. It is a hard thing to get a heathen to turn from his god; and I believe you can only do this by prayer. The missionaries who want to do anything must use the weapon of prayer. The chief of Shangay is an educated man; he spent eight years in the high school of England. When you find one of the heathen educated, he is ten times worse than an uneducated one. This man was taken up and sent to England and educated there. If he had been trained under some good missionary, he might have been of use to the country.

I have given the school to Mr. Miller, one of the new comers, and I have taken other work. We had an examination, and all the people seemed to be pleased. We had, also, pieces recited on the stage, and a dinner for the children and the friends of the school. The people said that they never saw anything of the kind in Africa before. I think now we have about 140 pupils that are coming. We don’t have that many any one day, but they are in attendance. I have some fine boys in school, and one whom I want to send to Hampton next fall, if I can find a place there for him, and some one to help me pay for his board. Please ask the General if he can have a place there? He is the boy who has been with me since I have been here, and I have taken him and want to do all I can to educate him.

Last Sunday was the happiest day I have seen for many. We had thirteen new members to unite with the church—twelve on profession; and one who once was a member, and was shut out when the church was closed, came back and united the second time. And of this number, six were members of my Bible-class—four were my best boys, as I call them, and two I own as the fruits of my own labor. The young man whom I have already written you about was one. He has been trying ever since his brother became a Christian on the ship, and at last has made up his mind to follow Christ. You can imagine how I felt to see all these—my boys—standing up acknowledging Christ to be their Saviour. There was another of my class to unite with us, but he was sick and could not. I hope he will be able by the next Communion-day.

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RECEIPTS

FOR JULY, 1878.

H. W. HUBBARD, Ass’t Treas.

The American Missionary Association.

AIM AND WORK.

To preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy with the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has devoted its main efforts to preparing the Freedmen for their duties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries in Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the caste-persecuted Chinese in America, and to co-operate with the Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the Indians. It has also a mission in Africa.

STATISTICS.

Churches: In the South—In Va., 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 11; Ky., 5; Tenn., 4; Ala., 12; La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas, 4. Africa, 1. Among the Indians, 2. Total, 62.

Institutions Founded, Fostered or Sustained in the South. Chartered: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega, Ala.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New Orleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8; Graded or Normal Schools: at Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.; Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.; 11; Other Schools, 7. Total, 26.

Teachers, Missionaries and Assistants—Among the Freedmen, 209; among the Chinese, 17; among the Indians, 16; in foreign lands, 10. Total, 252. Students—In Theology, 74; Law, 8; in College Course, 79; in other studies, 5,243. Total, 5,404. Scholars taught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 100,000. Indians under the care of the Association, 13,000.

WANTS.

1. A steady Increase of regular income to keep pace with the growing work in the South. This increase can only be reached by regular and larger contributions from the churches—the feeble as well as the strong.

2. Additional Buildings for our higher educational institutions, to accomodate the increasing numbers of students; Meeting Houses, for the new churches we are organizing; More Ministers, cultured and pious, for these churches.

3. Help for Young Men, to be educated as ministers here and missionaries to Africa—a pressing want.

Before sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A. office, as below.

MAGAZINE.

This Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the Missionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all clergymen who take up collections for the Association; to Superintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to Theological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and to every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber, and contributes in a year not less than five dollars.

Those who wish to remember the American Missionary Association in their last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the following

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,” 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 [in some States three are required—in other States only two], who should write against their names, their places of residence [if in cities, their street and number]. The following form of attestation will answer for every State in the Union: “Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament, in presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in his presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses.” In some States, it is required that the Will should be made at least two months before the death of the testator.

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