REV. CHARLES NOBLE, MONTGOMERY.

REV. G. W. ANDREWS, TALLADEGA.

The Theological Department of Talladega College has just been favored with a special course of lectures on the “Relation of Science to Religion,” by the Rev. D. L. Hickok, recently of Kingsville, Ohio. The lectures were full of instruction, and awakened a great deal of interest among our pupils. Mr. Hickok is an able thinker, and an inspiring and enthusiastic speaker.

Skepticism has little footing here, and will have still less now that we have such a flood of light thrown upon what was before mysterious, and supposed to be known only to the scientist. Let the scientist give us the “living” from the “not living” if he can, and let him bridge the frightful chasm between different species of the animal kingdom, before our faith in his new theories is much strengthened. We believe in Mr. Cook, and wish we could see him face to face to thank him a thousand times for his three published volumes. We hail with joy these lectures by Mr. Cook, and mean to do our part to reflect the light he is shedding, until it finds its way, as it is sure to do, into the hearts of the masses, to bless them with the “rest of faith.” His powerful arguments are taking strong hold of us all.

Rev. Mr. Hickok is an original thinker, and has done us a good service by his lectures. It is such men, of commanding influence and power, that we need in this work of peculiar difficulties among the freedmen. We wish other and similar institutions might be favored as we have been.

MISS JOSEPHINE PIERCE, NEW ORLEANS.

In the rear of St. Charles Avenue you may enter and see an old man. He says he has been converted since he was ninety years of age. The Psalms are all his delight. There has not been a chip of wood nor a grain of coal in his room all this winter. With the strength of a hundred years in his muscles, he grasps a crust of bread, and asks for more. His daughter replies: “Father, you should put your mind on the Lord, and then you wouldn’t be so hungry; people that pray all the time don’t have such an appetite.” As if this were not enough, in this same room, the worse than fatherless baby, Leopold, has come into New Orleans life, with that stain upon his birth, which all the waters in the ocean cannot wash away. For these four generations, from the great-grandfather to the babe of yesterday, only one woman’s frail hands to keep the wolf from the door, and hers held from going out to work, by the sickness that cannot spare her from home. With all Father H’s ever-flowing liberality, there have been weeks in succession, this winter, when there has not been twenty-five cents’ worth of corn-meal to give the old man; for if he had it, Aunt Deborah, who has seen General Washington many and many a time, would have to go without; and if she had it, blind Aunt Bagatelle would have to go without; and if she had it, blind Aunt Milly would have to go without.

REV. JOHN G. FEE, BEREA.

For more than two months we have had weekly meetings on the subject of temperance, attended by large audiences, and securing more than a thousand names to the Murphy Pledge. The moral effect of the movement is strengthened by the fact that each pledge is made whilst invoking the assisting grace of God, and is accompanied by reading the Scriptures, and Christian song. Taking this one step in the right direction is a preparation for a complete surrender to Christ.

During a part of this time Brother Myers, from Hillsdale, Mich., has been here preaching at night. Our chapel is occupied during the day as a recitation room, and though the weather has been peculiarly unfavorable, yet a goodly number have been in attendance each night, with some nineteen or twenty conversions, and many other persons deeply impressed.

Each day brings to us fresh grounds of hope, and enlarged prospects for usefulness. At no other time since its organization has Berea College had so hopeful a prospect as now. Once or twice we have had as many pupils, but at no other time so many of high moral worth and social influence. Daily, the prejudice against a school of colored and white pupils is subsiding; and young men and young women of good habits and character are coming in, and such as appreciate an education, in connection with just and righteous sentiments. We feel that the demonstration here—that God leads and is over us for good—is important for society and our country. We have an abiding conviction that our heavenly Father approves, and that we may, in faith, ask for grace and means.

With the people around us, our association is free and pleasant. With many of the neighboring towns and congregations, exchange of laborers and speakers is frequent, and to mutual advantage. What we need is good men, discreet, self-sacrificing and earnest; and this land will be brought under the power of the Gospel, and of a Jesus who loves all impartially.

On the evening of March the 8th, a large congregation came together in the Great George street church (formerly Dr. Raffles), to welcome to Liverpool four colored missionaries, ex-slaves, from Fisk University, and also to bid them farewell on the eve of their departure; under the care of the American Missionary Association, for the Mendi Mission, on the west coast of Africa. The missionaries were very cordially greeted by many of the old, and also the new, friends of the African race.

William Crosfield, J. P., a life-long friend of the oppressed race, presided. After an appropriate hymn, prayer was offered by the Rev. Stanley Rogers. Then the chairman said: “It gives me great pleasure to preside at such a meeting of this society. These missionaries before you are the first-fruits from the Fisk University, which was established at Nashville, Tenn., for the education of those who were freed from slavery by the late Civil War in America. And now, here they are ready for work in that great mission field of Africa. It is a vast field. And it is to be hoped that the British people will do their part in the aid of this most important enterprise. Fisk University was introduced to the English people a few years ago by the Jubilee Singers, who have done wonders towards its support.” The chairman then turned and added: “We must not forget the wives of these young missionaries; we must give them a shake of the hand, as a token of our interest in them.”

The Rev. Dr. O. H. White (one of the secretaries of the Freedmen’s Aid Society), then gave an interesting statement of the origin of the American Missionary Association, of its plan and work for the African race, and of the formation of the Freedmen’s Missions Aid Society, with the Earl of Shaftesbury as President, to be auxiliary to the Association in New York. And he stated that the united societies are now making a special effort to send missionaries from among the freedmen to that dark and long-plundered continent beyond the sea—Africans to teach and to save Africans!

The Rev. Andrew Jackson, one of the missionaries, then spoke, and gave a very interesting account of their call to the work, and of the great increase of the missionary spirit in Fisk University during the year, and of the great self-denial on the part of the colored parents and of pupils, that larger numbers may get an education, and so be prepared for a greater usefulness among their own benighted people.

The chairman then called on the Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, pastor for many years of the Myrtle street Baptist Church. He stated his great interest in the Jubilee Singers, and in the efforts making to send the Gospel to that long-neglected Africa, which is now so wonderfully opening up to trade and commerce, and especially to Christianity. He expressed his strong hope that these young missionaries would be brought safely to their field of labor, and that they might be greatly successful in their work, and that many more might follow their example, and go forth to that great African field.

Rev. Albert Miller (a true type of the African race), then addressed the meeting, with the warmth and glow peculiar to the sable children of the summer and more genial climes. He spoke of the depressed condition of his people in America, and of the need on that dark continent, to which he and his associates were now going, under the Divine lead. He expressed the desire of his heart that all Christians should pray and give for the evangelization of the benighted millions of Africa.

In the absence of the Rev. Mr. Wech, M. A., who was expected to speak, his Elder, John Patterson, Esq., was called to fill the place. He spoke with the pith and pathos characteristic of those from the Emerald Isle. He recalled a little of the past history of Liverpool and contrasted it happily with the present state of things, when so many, from the different denominations of the city, could come together so harmoniously to greet the young missionaries from Fisk University, on their way to the west coast of Africa to teach the knowledge of the Gospel to the benighted of their race.

The Rev. Wardlaw Thompson, in a few words, cordially commended the Freedmen’s cause to the hearts and to the pecuniary support of the friends of Africa. He then led the congregation in an earnest prayer for the blessing of God upon the missionaries, in their voyage to their distant home, and upon their work for many years among their own people.

An appropriate hymn was then sung, and the services, which had been highly satisfactory, were closed with the Benediction.

REV. FLOYD SNELSON, SHERBRO ISLAND, W. AFRICA.

I must “strike while the iron is hot.”

There is very little of anything found here. Most of the children and parents go naked, with the exception of those who wear a handkerchief or country cloth. When you ask them to send their children to school, they show a willingness, but render, as excuse, that they have no clothes, and that they are unable to furnish them. Cloth here is very high, and in most cases their excuse is reasonable. If some person would be so kind as to send out a quantity of cheap cloth, to be made up for clothing, it will prove a blessing to many a suffering one.

The disadvantages and sufferings through which this people have to pass are indescribable. I have had many calls for Bibles, but regret to say I have been unable to honor any. We have a very flourishing Sabbath-school, and are in great need of Sabbath-school papers and tracts. The day-school is larger. Some of the scholars are unable to pursue their studies for want of books. We cannot keep the number together we now have, unless this evil is removed.

Sunday-School Progress—An Indian Festival—Temperance and Order.

REV. MYRON EELLS.

Education Among the Menomonee Indians.

JOS. C. BRIDGMAN, KESHENA, WIS.

Education among the Menomonee Indians is making very perceptible headway. At the suggestion of Colonel E. C. Watkins, United States Indian Inspector, the three day-schools upon the reserve were merged into a boarding-school, in September, 1876. This has proved a success beyond our most hopeful expectations. No like school among white children, so far as my observation goes, shows more enthusiasm on the part of the scholars, more zeal on the part of the teachers, or better progress, when the obstacles to success are taken into consideration.

It is almost impossible to induce the children to talk English. Only when forced to do so, will they speak in other than their vernacular tongue. Naturally very timid, a proper and pleasant familiarity with them is a sure inroad to their confidence, and the knowledge of them thus gained convinces us that they are capable of comprehending and grasping ideas of knowledge. We have no difficulty in filling our limited accommodations; and, could they be increased sufficiently, we should expect an average attendance of one hundred children. This tribe very enthusiastically voted $6,000 of their own funds, to be expended in the erection of a school boarding-house; but the possibility of part of the tribe becoming citizens within a few years, leads the Indian Bureau to delay the building, so much needed and desired.

The Indian problem will never be satisfactorily solved until education and citizenship are brought to the foreground, and take the prominence they deserve.

This is strictly a government school. The two teachers are Protestants, the assistant matron a Catholic. When first established, the Romish priest attempted to break it up; but understanding the agent’s aim, that it should be free from sectarianism on the part of both teachers and matron, he has kindly and wisely withdrawn all opposition, and is in pleasant harmony with both agent and school.

Auxiliary to the American Missionary Association.

President: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. Vice-Presidents: Rev. A. L. Stone, D. D., Thomas C. 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.

The following communication is clipped from the San Francisco Chronicle. The club which expresses its mind after this sort, is a society of so-called (miscalled) “workingmen,” followers of Dennis Kearney. Bernal Heights is in the immediate vicinity of Bethany Church, of which Rev. W. C. Pond is the pastor. The production has marked peculiarities, not only in moral tone, but in grammar and rhetoric as well, and affords to our readers all the elements necessary for a correct and vivid picture of its authors:

FOOTNOTE:

MRS. A. K. SPENCE, NASHVILLE, TENN.

Twenty-three years ago, in one of the northern counties of Mississippi, there was born a little slave boy. No white blood coursed in his veins. No one cared for his birth save, perhaps, his weary slave mother. Some one called him Albert, and that was all, for slave children had only one name. No future opened before him, for slave children had no future, but service to a master. He grew up to a life of poverty and toil and neglect, and early learned what it was to be cold and hungry and sorrowful.

By and by began the fierce struggle between slavery and freedom. The slaves were sent from place to place, to prevent their escape to the Union army. Albert wandered about with them—to Tennessee, to Texas, to Georgia—till the close of the war found him back in Tennessee, and near the city of Nashville. Here he picked up his letters, and, at the age of fourteen, learned to read. In 1869, he went to a school taught by one of the first student teachers from Fisk University, who encouraged him to look to something higher than the spelling-book and reader.

In 1870 he entered that institution. Then began the long, hard struggle for an education. For two years he groomed horses and did housework. For two years more he took care of a drunken young man, the son of wealthy parents in Nashville; and often might Albert have been seen with his Greek or Latin book, far into the night, sitting in some saloon or grocery, waiting for the young man, whose aged mother had made him promise that he would never leave her son in a saloon at night. Poor, awkward, and dressed out of missionary barrels, often the recipient of student aid, sometimes well-nigh disheartened, but always pressing on; once bought off by Mr. Spence for the sum of ten dollars, when his father wanted him to work in the field, he toiled slowly on, step by step, winning honor and respect, and loved by his teachers as, perhaps, few students of Fisk University were ever loved.

Always good in scholarship, always among the first of his class, in nine years he passed from the alphabet to within three mouths of a college diploma.

He was converted in 1872, and at once gave himself to the ministry. In common with most students of Fisk University, he had thought, though not very definitely, of missionary work in Africa.

FOR MARCH, 1878.