The American Missionary — Volume 44, No. 03, March, 1890Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 44, No. 03, March, 1890
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
"We are grateful for the memories of some who were with us last year,
thirsting for knowledge, whom we are permitted to think of now as before
the throne of God, drinking from the 'living fountains of water.' One
was Oliver, a man in the middle age of life, a bricklayer by trade, and
a lay-preacher in the Baptist church. A part of two years he had been in
school. His progress was slow, and he could read but indifferently in
the Third Reader. His parting words to us at the close of last year
were, 'I shall be at the starting of the school next year, and I will
stay till I go through the course.' His death, after an illness of two
days, was the first item of news carried to us from here after we had
reached our Northern homes. We shall not soon forget how in the warm
summer days, at the noon recess, he was wont to sit in the shade of the
house with his open Bible in his hand. Often we would overhear him, with
painstaking repetition, studying a psalm of David, or some passage from
the 'Sermon on the Mount.' I heard him in the pulpit once when he
preached a warning discourse, his theme that of John the Baptist,
'Repent, and be baptized!' He was not a 'shouter' or a 'ranter,' but
spoke and acted in a quiet, manly way. His sincerity was such that he
thoroughly won our respect, and we revere his memory.
"The next to go hence was little Isaiah, or Iser, as the children called
him. He began school last year, and was so quick and bright that he was
always first in his class. He never forgot anything that he was once
told. Bible stories were his especial delight. Often he would beg to be
allowed to have a Bible in his hands that he might read it for himself.
He often asked to be permitted to read the last chapter of Revelation.
One of the pictures on an old chart represented a lamb with feet bound
lying on the ground, beside the altar of the temple, Jesus standing near
with upraised hand, talking to the people. How radiant was little Iser's
black face as he would tell the story in his own words, ending thus: 'He
told them they need not kill the lambs any more, for He was come to die
for the sins of the people.'
"His grandmother sits alone in her lowly cabin. She had hoped for a prop
and stay in her advancing years. The little boy was always active, kind
and helpful. Her tears fall as she speaks of her loss, yet with an
upward glance she says: 'He's gone to a better worl'. There's nary
night, nor sin, nor sickness. Pie use to read to me all about it, an'
I'se gwine to see him fo' long, an' my three children thet's thar! Bress
the Lawd!'"
* * * * *
WOMAN'S STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
CO-OPERATING WITH THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
MAINE.
WOMAN'S AID TO A.M.A.
Chairman of Committee--Mrs. C.A. Woodbury, Woodfords, Me.
VERMONT.
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY UNION.
President--Mrs. A.B. Swift, 167 King St., Burlington.
Secretary--Mrs. E.C. Osgood, 14 First Ave., Montpelier.
Treasurer--Mrs. Wm. P. Fairbanks, St. Johnsbury.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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