T By the Reverend Samuel H. Bishop A Look Backward HE work of the Church for the Negroes in this country began in the personal care and training of slaves by their masters and particularly by their mistresses. In the old registry of Bruton Parish, Virginia, thirty-three consecutive pages are devoted entirely to the record of baptism of slaves or colored servants. This record extends from 1746 to 1797. During that period 1,122 Negroes were baptized. During the year 1750 the record of baptism of Negroes in Bruton Parish alone was larger by one than the total number of infant and adult baptisms of Negroes in the Diocese of Southern Virginia during the year 1903. In 1724 the Rev. William Beach reported to the Bishop of London that he had instructed and baptized (during fifteen years) 200 slaves, and that the owners of slaves are generally careful to bring them to baptism. In spite of all the faults of slavery during the existence of that system in the South there was carried on the most successful missionary activity ever known in the history of the Christian religion; and this activity was not merely incidental or without due thought and purpose. Bishop Meade, of Virginia, delegated some of his most talented clergymen, such as Castleman and Gibson, to instruct the Negroes and to preach care; fully prepared sermons to them; and Dr. Hanckel, one of the eminent clergymen of South Carolina, did the same work in that state. The results are evidenced in such statistics as those given for Bruton Parish and in statistics of parishes like St. Michael's and St. Philip's, Charleston, S. C. In St. Michael's record for the year 1818, there were registered 130 colored communicants to 350 white; and in St. Philip's, for the same year, 180 colored to 320 white communicants. In 1856 there were in the diocese 3,022 colored to 2,971 white communicants. The real fact is that notwithstanding the moral wrong of slavery, the Christian people of the South felt deeply their responsibility for the moral and religious training of the Negroes; and to some measure of fulfilment of that responsibility is due the fact that the Negroes acquired during that period so much of ethical character and of the spirit of Jesus Christ as to enable the best of them to become teachers of their teachers and all of them capable of the generous fidelity they manifested during the war. It was not infrequent in religious families of the South to find a white-haired, saintly old Negro ministering in the things of God to white and black alike. There is no way of ascertaining definitely what proportion of the Negroes in this land were baptized members of the Church at the beginning of the Civil War. In 1859 there were 468,000 members recorded of the various churches in the South. Probably not more than 50,000 were baptized members of our Church. There are now about 18,000 Negro communicants in the whole Church, ten independent parishes and about 200 chapels and missions. On the other hand, the Methodist and Baptist bodies alone have nearly 4,000,000 Negro members, and influence 80 per cent. of the total Negro population. Such statistics are not wholly reliable as to the inferences they suggest, but they do indicate among other things that a new sense of responsibility is necessary if our Church is to be of any real assistance to the Negro and to the Nation. From the time when the Rev. Absalom Jones, the first Negro ordained to the ministry of the Church in this country, began his work in Philadelphia in 1795, to the present time, much devoted and heroic work has been done. But the present conditions must be unsatisfactory to anyone who loves and believes in the Church and who realizes how critical is the need of the Negro people in this land, and how serious the Negro problem is likely to be unless the Christian forces in the country shall awaken to the fact that this problem, like all of our great social problems, requires not so much a solvent as a solver. That solver we believe to be Jesus Christ; and notwithstanding the smallness of our numbers we believe our Church has a peculiar work to do, a work which many of the best Negroes recognize as necessary, and which they desire to see her do. Among the reasons for this belief are, the national character of the Church, her organization, her ethical standards, her appeal to a normal sense of form, and her medial position among the Churches. What the Church Is Doing The Church is establishing Sunday and parish schools in places where they are most needed. A devoted priest in Savannah established the first kindergarten for Negro children in Georgia. Out of that a good parish school has grown, and more than 250 persons have been baptized and confirmed in nine years. The parish is selfsupporting and free of debt. Our parish schools, of which there are many doing work similar to that done in the Savannah school, have attracted the favorable and admiring attention of the officers of the Southern Education Board and of the Jeanes Fund. There are ten such schools in the Diocese of Southern Virginia, all in places where they are needed, not only because of the inspiration the Church can give, but because proper school facilities are not adequate. The same is true of the five schools in North Carolina and of the sixteen in South Carolina. Under the leadership of Bishop Guerry and Archdeacon Cornish a most valuable work is being done in South Carolina, in which white Church people are interesting themselves and to which they are giving earnest service. Mrs. Willet, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Morgan, once rector of St. Thomas's Church, New York, is doing a quiet but beautiful work at Brook Green; and the work which Miss Tucker carried on for thirty-five years at Plantersville is now being conducted by Miss Sparkmann. It was from Miss Tucker, under God, that the Rev. Samuel Grice got the inspiration which sent him out as a peculiarly successful worker for Christ and His people. Mr. Grice's church and school at Spartanburg, S. C., both of which were begun by the present Bishop of Mississippi, have steadily grown in importance and usefulness; and Mr. and Mrs. Grice evince that kind of practical Christianity which makes the Church of essential value to the black people. In addition to the church and day-school work they conduct a nightschool for boys who would otherwise be on the street. Money is greatly needed for a church building. Mr. Perry's work at Tarboro was described in THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS for August, 1906, and is one of the most interesting of our Church's activities. There are now eighty communicants, ninety-two pupils in the Sunday-school, and 179 in the parochial school. Mr. Perry's son, a graduate of St. Augustine's and of Yale, is principal of the Negro public school, and is also helping his father in night-school. He has refused other offers at better salary because he thinks his duty is there. This last summer he paid his own way to New York and took normal training at the Teachers' College, in order to introduce some industrial work into the public school and into the parochial school. But time and space forbid further specification. Enough has been written. to show the nature of the work the Church is trying to do all over the South and the possibilities that lie at our hand. The Church Is Using Godly and Practical Archdeacons No finer and more devoted missionaries are at work in any field than our Negro archdeacons. The work of Archdeacon Russell, of Southern Virginia, is not confined to St. Paul's School, but is equally valuable throughout the diocese. Archdeacon Delaney, of North Carolina, for many years vice-principal of St. Augustine's School, is preaching a gospel of pure religion and of self-respect and intelligent toil. If he finds the water bad where he is being entertained, on Monday morning he starts the family cleaning the well or digging a new one. If crops are poor, gardens waste, meat bought and not home-raised, tactful suggestions as to seed selecting, garden planting, chicken and pig raising are given. And the instances are multiplying of profit from his suggestions. Archdeacon Avant, of East Carolina, a real statesman as well as a devoted priest, is a practical trained nurse and a carpenter. More than one church building has been erected and more than one human life saved by his hand work and his loving skill. Archdeacon Bright, of Georgia (recently appointed), who did such yeoman service in Savannah, already alluded to, and Archdeacon Henderson, of Atlanta, are also both loving and wise. Next to the schools there is no force in the South of more possible social and religious efficiency than our archdeacons, and they are illustrating that possibility. Do the Negroes Want and Need the Church? There is room for only four answers, the first of which is a quotation from a letter of the Rev. J. S. Quarles, of Columbia, S. C. My "In reply to your letter, will say my work is very encouraging. Number of communicants 130, number of Sundayschool children 200, day-school children 336, number of unchurched black people in the community about 3,500. methods of reaching the people are many: First I try to teach them through the services. I feel that I am very successful by that method. Again, I reach them through the Sunday-school, and the day-school, mothers' meetings, young men's clubs, guilds and societies. Value of property is about $10,000. There is not an industrial school in Columbia. What we need here is to teach our people to work. I feel it a duty to teach them to help themselves, and when we get to the place that we cannot go, then call on the Church. Last summer I took the few faithful, and built the present St. Mary's, which cost us $6,000. My people have paid the most of the debt. I have already told them that they will have the whole debt to pay. Very few people have aided us in our great struggle, but the good Lord will fix it all right one day." The second answer is a little tale. A few years ago a boy graduated from St. Paul's, and went to a northern Virginia town to engage in business as a barber. He had been under Church influence at St. Paul's and in the town in which he went to live there was no church and a very needy Negro population. He saved his earnings, bought a lot and paid for it out of his own earnings; continued saving money; built a church almost entirely out of his own savings; conducted Sunday-school; gathered together a hundred pupils; started a day-school and, still out of his own pocket, hired a teacher. He has now a parochial school of 200 children besides the Sundayschool, and has only recently asked for help. This tale, though unique in the amount of self-sacrifice, has more than one analogy in spirit and in effort. The third answer is the fact that three ministers from other bodies have come into the Church with their congregations, and have served over two years without pay, though they have had offers of larger salaries if they would return to their former allegiance. This incident is illustrative of a devotion to the Church which is characteristic of a large number of our people. The fourth answer is that the Negro communicants of the Diocese of Georgia, numbering 696, contributed during the year 1908-1909 $3,829.91 for Church purposes; and the 799 parochial and industrial school students contributed for their own education $3,395.40, making a total contribution from the colored constituency of the Church in the Diocese of Georgia of $7,225.31. 1. First fruits of the visitation-baptism at halfway stage house 2. The bishop rambling through Rambler, over the continental divide 3. "A very pretty church at Cody" The Big Horn cañon, the site of one of the great irrigation projects Sundance church, boarded up for three years 4. 5. WALCOTT, WITH ELK MOUNTAIN TWENTY MILES DISTANT "To reach Walcott was quite a relief" T FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF WYOMING By the Right Reverend N. S. Thomas HIS is a great state. In area only seven are greater, in population only one is smaller. Statistically we have 97,914 square miles with a population in 1900 of 92,531-less than one person to a square mile. This proportion, however, is rapidly changing, but so great is our area that even a most rapid proportionate growth makes little appreciable difference in the configuration of the landscape as one swings along mile after mile with stops every two hours or so, though not a hamlet is neglected. To reach Walcott on the Union Pacific is quite a relief after the miles and miles of sage-brush and grease-wood. Since my arrival in Wyoming on June 29th, I have travelled by railroad 3,600 miles, and have but once crossed my track. Such is the perversity of our railroads that to go from Cheyenne to Cody I have had to pass through five states and travel 1,033 miles, or further than from New York to Chicago. By stage I have travelled 546 miles, which at five miles an hour-a good stage fortymile-a-day gait-means 107 hours spent in doing nothing but preach at the driver or wonder when the railroad would put him out of business. Sometimes for diversion, especially if one has a travelling companion, it is cheaper to hire a private conveyance than to pay the stage fare-and sometimes, notwithstanding excessive charges, it is cheaper to hire a conveyance than to pay railroad fare. I was forcibly reminded of it when commenting on the price of lumber. "This price is excessive, since this town is not off the railroad," said I. The reply was instantaneous: "But that is the reason." Only yesterday the ex-Governor told me he had packed his piano 250 miles in an open wagon. A sixty-mile lumber haul was nothing a few years ago and in many places is of little moment still. But I was speaking of human freighting. Dean Bode and I found ourselves |