The American Missionary — Volume 41, No. 7, July, 1887Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 41, No. 7, July, 1887
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Our work is to preach the gospel and all that this implies. The
gospel of Jesus Christ reaches head, heart and hand. Anything
that is injurious to a human being, in any part of life, the
gospel condemns. Temperance is a gospel doctrine. It is one of
the great multitude of truths our missionaries proclaim. When in
this magazine we report progress in our work, we are reporting
progress in temperance, for that is a part of our work. If the word
“temperance” doesn’t always appear, it is simply for the same
reason that the words honesty, chastity and truth, are not always
appearing as words. They are always there in significance. It is
the work of the gospel to advance these virtues. We make a few
extracts showing the temperance interest as represented at some of
our mission stations:
* * * * *
Sunday was a busy day. Our Sunday-school Temperance Workers held
a meeting at a little Methodist Church, called Providence Chapel.
The church was filled, and we had a very good programme. Several
little girls spoke temperance pieces, and some of them spoke very
beautifully and made a deep impression. Music and short, stirring
addresses, and printed selections, filled up the time, and some new
names were obtained for the pledge. The hardest task, almost, is to
induce the older men to give up tobacco, but some of them came to
that decision in the meeting. Providence Chapel is surrounded by
saloons. The noble and energetic pastor spoke to the children of
the Sunday-school in such words as these, “If your mother tells you
to go and get a glass of beer, you tell her ‘No.’ If she whips you,
come and tell me. I want to know who she is. Be brave enough to
tell her ‘No.’” Such words would sound very strange in some places,
but here they are needed, for some of those very mothers are
members of that church, but they are getting aroused. That meeting
Sunday did a great deal for them. It also did our young people
good, by giving them an opportunity to do something and feel that
they were doing something. The meeting was carried on entirely by
the colored people, except that one of the teachers helped make out
the programme, another played the organ and another made a short
address.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account