The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 1, January, 1882Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 36, No. 1, January, 1882
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
To-day we met to keep our Thanksgiving feast and to dedicate this
building to the cause of Christian education. Oh, such gladness and
thankfulness as filled our hearts, and was voiced by the choir in
the opening anthem, “Praise the Lord!” After the opening exercises
voluntary expressions of thanksgiving were called for. Mr.
Hartsfield, our head carpenter, said he could not help comparing
the present with twenty-five years ago, when he little dreamed of
ever participating in such exercises as these, and said his heart
was so full of thankfulness he could not express it. Others spoke
of their gratitude for the blessings of the year and of this day.
Mr. H. W. Hubbard, our genial Treasurer, who was with us, told the
young people where the money to furnish them these advantages comes
from.
An address was then delivered by Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, which
will be long remembered by us all, but especially by our students,
to whom it has already proved a real inspiration. Dr. Roy followed
in a wonderfully appropriate dedicatory prayer.
The day seemed all too short to express the joy and thanksgiving
that filled our hearts. Truly He has brought “the blind by a way
that they knew not.” We finished up the day with a lecture at night
from Dr. Roy, who always has something good for us.
Our new building has, besides chapel and recitation rooms, family
rooms now occupied by Prof. Hatch and wife, who have charge of the
young men, and dormitories for sixty-eight young men.
And what will you say when I tell you that there are seventy-five
here now, with a prospect for a much larger number after the
holidays?
* * * * *
WORK IN THE SOUTH.
During my visit North last summer a friend asked: “Haven’t you had
enough of life and work in the South? Aren’t you ready to come
back and take hold of the Home Missionary work again?” The friend
looked so incredulous at my expressions of satisfaction, and even
of desire to get back into the work again as soon as the extreme
heat was over, it occurs to me that a little glimpse of the past
few days of life and labor in this especial corner of the great
field might convince a good many that the work is not only very
hopeful, but also exceedingly interesting. Previous to my restful
vacation North, I had not been able to visit our people in their
homes, but now, with renewed strength, I ventured a long, rough
walk, leaning on my husband’s arm, to the home of one of our women,
who was very sick. Down a steep, long hill, over deep ravines worn
by swift-running brooks, with slender poles thrown over to serve
for bridges, up the long hill beyond, and we had reached the little
house where the sick one lay. We cheered her as best we could with
sympathy and comforting words, spreading out the little delicacies
we had brought to tempt her appetite, admired the new baby, and won
the hearts of the other little people standing shyly back with the
gingersnaps we had brought for their special comfort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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