Read Ebook: The American Missionary — Volume 39 No. 11 November 1885 by Various

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EDITORIAL.

PAGE.

THE FIGURES--FINANCIAL 297 WHAT OUR FRIENDS THINK AND SAY 298 DEATH OF PRESIDENT WARE 300 IYAKAPTAPI 301 INDIANS IN THE DAKOTA ASSOCIATION 303

THIRTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

GENERAL SURVEY--CHURCH WORK SOUTH 304 EDUCATIONAL WORK SOUTH 306 INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 309 MOUNTAIN WORK 310 WORK AMONG THE INDIANS 311 WORK AMONG THE CHINESE 313 THE WOMAN'S BUREAU--FINANCES 315 CONCLUSION 316

RECEIPTS 317

NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

Rooms, 56 Reade Street.

Price 50 Cents a Year, in Advance.

Entered at the Post-Office at New York. N. Y., as second-class matter.

AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

PRESIDENT, Hon. WM. B. WASHBURN, LL. D., Mass.

W. H. ROGERS, PETER McCARTEE.

JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. A. P. FOSTER, Secretary.

LYMAN ABBOTT. A. S. BARNES. J. R. DANFORTH. CLINTON B. FISK. A. P. FOSTER.

S. B. HALLIDAY. SAMUEL HOLMES. SAMUEL S. MARPLES. CHARLES L. MEAD. ELBERT B. MONROE.

J. E. RANKIN. WM. H. WARD. J. L. WITHROW. JOHN H. WASHBURN. EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN.

COMMUNICATIONS

Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting fields, to Rev. James Powell, D. D., or to the District Secretaries: letters for the "AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office.

DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

May be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY.

American Missionary Association.

5,000

NEEDED FOR THE CURRENT YEAR.

Your Committee are convinced that not less than a THOUSAND DOLLARS a day are imperatively demanded to perfect the admirably organized plans of the Association, even for the present, to say nothing of the pressing needs of the early future--

THE FIGURES.

Donations. Legacies.

The figures given above mark the close of our fiscal year. While they show a gratifying increase of receipts from living donors over those of the preceding year, the falling off in legacies has been so heavy that our books balance on the wrong side, and we are obliged to report a debt of ,451.87, which, with the debt of the preceding year, makes a total indebtedness of ,237.73.

For an analysis of the figures, we refer our readers to the report of the Executive Committee on the finances of the year, published in another part of this number. It was a grand rally our friends made to save us. We fear that some of them sacrificed more than they ought in contributing so generously as they did. We pray that God may abundantly reward them. We thank them, one and all, with a heartiness greater than we can express. We would not sit in judgment upon the churches and professed friends who have contributed nothing to our treasury during the year. We know that some of them were not financially able. But we cannot believe that this was true of a majority of them.

The Congregational Year Book of 1885 reports 4,092 Congregational churches in the United States. We received during the year contributions from 1,677. What can be done to bring the non-contributing churches into line is a question we beg the pastors of contributing churches and the friends of the Association to help us answer. The pastors and members of these non-contributing churches as a general thing do not read our magazine. They are ignorant of our needs, and we do not know how to reach them so as to wake them up. Had we an army of agents to visit and talk to them, we might move them to take our work upon their thought and sympathy. Our appeals by circular, by newspaper, resolutions of State conferences and of the National Council, all fail to move them. They still continue not to hear and not to do. There is only one way that we can think of by which they can be reached, and that is for the local conferences to take the matter in hand, and select a committee of "a persistent ONE," who by letter, and, if need be, by personal visitation, will bring the delinquents up to meet the obligations of fellowship and denominational honor.

WHAT OUR FRIENDS THINK AND SAY.

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS RECEIVED BY THE TREASURER DURING THE PAST FEW WEEKS.

"If any part of the country is to be put first, the South should be, and helped most. Hence the inclosed, half of it from myself and the other half from the Congregational church here. Your work and that of your compeers is above criticism. All there is of you is put in with a skill and completeness which are not surpassed; and your plans are as large as the field and as complete as its needs. No one could get more out of the money or put it where it would do more good. You and yours are as unmingled beneficence as rum shops are unmitigated maleficence. Were it in my power, I would build a new school-house in the South every year. My heart never thinks of you and your work without blessing you in it; and I have written the above as a sort of relief."

"At our meeting last evening, I read your appeal and took up a collection of , which I send you. It is a little Home Missionary church of only 10 members, but they are good ones, and in earnest. Hope all other churches will do as well and your society be saved from debt."

"I feel myself, like Paul, a debtor to all men, especially the classes you represent. Accept, then, my single mite, in the spirit in which I desire to send it, and may the Lord free you from the threatening debt by leading your constituency to feel their indebtedness to these classes and to Himself."

"I inclose , and wish I might increase it a hundred-fold. I had already given all that I intended, but could not resist the urgent appeal for the needy."

"The notices of your financial need came and touched a responsive chord in my heart. A week ago I gave a preparatory notice that a collection would be taken yesterday in your behalf. The people responded quite liberally. Inclosed find draft for the amount. You have my earnest prayer for the success of your effort to raise what you lack. May God bless you in your work and labor of love."

"I had thought I had done all I could afford in these times, but coincident with your appeal came the inclosed, for which I had another place; but here, take it. The Lord will provide."

"In response to your society's importunity, I inclose . I took the collection up after a sermon I preached on Foreign Missions. We surprised our people by the amount, as we don't usually get by a collection one dollar. I hope you will realize soon that there is no debt."

DEATH OF PRESIDENT WARE.

Edmund A. Ware was born in North Wrentham, now Norfolk, Mass., Dec. 22, 1837, and died suddenly of heart disease in Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 25, 1885. He passed the early years of his life under conditions which made him acquainted with hardships, and fitted him to have warm sympathy for those who struggled against obstacles and trials.

He was graduated from Yale College in 1863. During his college course his attention was often turned to the field for Christian work, then being opened in the South by the steady advance of our armies, and his sympathies were strongly enlisted for a race just coming out of the prison house of bondage, and he was ambitious to have a part in laying the foundations of a new and better society in the regions desolated by war.

He was appointed an officer of the Freedman's Bureau in 1867, with charge of the schools opened under its auspices in the State of Georgia, which position he held for three years, until the closing of that branch of the work of the government.

His great work, however, was in connection with Atlanta University, an institution for higher education, whose foundation he was active in securing, and over whose interests he presided until the day of his death. He labored for its welfare and that of the people in whose interests it was established with rare devotion, and rejoiced in its steady growth and prosperity with special personal gratification.

Owing to some peculiar circumstances the institution early secured the favorable attention of the State authorities, and an annual appropriation from the State treasury. In the endeavors to secure and confirm this grant he was conspicuously and honorably active, and during the many years of its continuance his relations to the officers of the State with whom he has thus been brought into contact have been exceptionally pleasant, and in some cases cordial.

During the last year of his life he took great interest in the successful opening of an industrial department in the institution, and for the last few weeks his great anxiety had been to secure the furnishing of a large new building whose erection he had personally overlooked. He had returned to Atlanta in advance of his family to make preparations for the school year soon to open, had completed most of his plans, and seemed in unusual good health and spirits. Soon after dinner on Friday, Sept. 25, feeling dizzy while in his own house, where he was alone, he sought the open air and walked toward the house of Professor Bumstead, but becoming alarmed by increasing faintness he made loud calls, which were promptly responded to by Mr. and Mrs. Bumstead; but in spite of all remedies and efforts he speedily passed away to enter upon his well-earned rest and his glorious reward. The crushing effects of this sudden blow upon his household, upon his associates and the people who loved and revered him, cannot be described. At his funeral services all classes of the community were largely represented, and sympathy for the bereaved was profound. The grief of former pupils was touching, and was like that of children bereft of a father.

So passed away in the maturity of his powers and the midst of his usefulness, one of the earliest and most efficient of that great company who have toiled since the war in this broad and needy field. His departure seems like a translation; being taken suddenly without the pains and anxieties of wasting sickness, in the full tide of his greatest success, before any impairment of vigor or any calamity had overtaken the work he loved so well. He was a man of great power over other men, especially over young people, who were caught up by his enthusiasm, and borne along sometimes to the attainment of surprising results. He was well fitted to be a leader in the sphere he chose for himself, and made his mark upon his generation, and had a large and honorable share in securing the results already achieved, which are to bless the State and nation with increasing power.

A good man has fallen, and a great gap is made in the ranks of laborers at the front; but the Lord who loves his own cause better than we do will see that it suffers no loss. As the Lord has taken care that his servant rests from his labors, it is ours to see that they follow Him.

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