Our supreme purpose is "to give light and to save life," but we have never tried to save disembodied spirits. We have written Christianity large over and in all of our work in the school rooms, in the manual training shops, in the farm instruction, because we are sure there is no recuperative energy in the colored race, nor in any other, sufficient to save itself. There is nothing so practical to uplift men or races as Christianity. Said Archdeacon Tiffany the other day at Yale, "A prevailing idea is, to create an environment is to develop Christian life. Put people in the right places and they will be all right, a statement, however, which experience has denied from the Garden of Eden until now. Environment is a great factor but it does not furnish the life impulse. Recognize the help of environment but do not depend on it. How often environment does not make character but may retard it." Our work strikes its roots far deeper than in externals. Nevertheless, Christianity assumes intelligence and depends upon it. With Christian character and intelligence we hear the call for technical skill and provide for it in our industrial annexes side by side with our work in mental development. Hence you will find the Samples "in our line" as easily as a commercial traveler finds the stores which handle his goods.
Industrial Room, Orange Park, Fla. A Sample.
We have industrial samples also in educated farmers, architects, carpenters, masons, contractors, merchants and bankers, who in the industrial competitions of life are proving the mettle of their pasture in the fields where they were fed and trained. While we were teaching them first of all to be larger and better in mind, stronger in heart and will, teaching them to have a large and intelligent faith in God, and an honest following of Christ, we have taught them at the same time how to till the soil wisely, how to excel in the trades, how to keep their accounts accurately and how to have accounts to keep. We would like to have the great American Missionary Association constituency see these samples as we have seen them and do see them, not alone in pulpits, in schools and on farms and in trades, but also in commercial life and in places of extended influence. We should like to show our Samples in their Christian homes, homes which are not made of brick and mortar and boards and shingles, but which are only sheltered by these; homes where there is educated intelligence, where there are books and thoughtful minds that can appreciate them; homes where there is refinement, and where samples are examples of exalted life which in itself stimulates and uplifts life all aroundthese are centres of untold good. The light streams out from them day by day. They are the leaven of a rising race. I go not anywhere in towns or in rural places in any Southern state where I fail to find such samples and examples which in their various ways are thus holding forth the word of life and justifying the farsighted wisdom and benevolence which planted the system of American Missionary schools upon "our line" and which in sustaining them is building up the Kingdom of God on the Master's line as it builds up thousands of men and women towards the mind and heart of God.
College Graduates. Samples.
Small Samples, En Route to the Twentieth Century.
The little people pictured above are "children's children." Parents who came under our care thirty years ago, but one remove from all that was wrapped up in hopeless slavery, can now give their children better chances than they themselves could secure in the early days of freedom. In our great system of schools one may look into thousands of such earnest faces turned inquiringly toward the twentieth century. What the coming days shall hold for them and through them for the kingdom of Christ is in good part to be answered in positive Christian schools, where character building is made the supreme foundation for future homes and opportunities. These "children's children" began their climbing on a higher round than did their parents, and there are more of them to climb
"More and more, more and more,
Still there's more to follow."
COMMENCEMENT AT STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, LA
BY REV. G. W. HENDERSON, D.DOur school year, which closed May 25, has been crucial in many respects. It has tested the attachment of the scholars to the school on one hand, and their desire for an education and the willingness of themselves and of their parents to make sacrifices to this end on the other; for the fever and the rigid quarantine delayed the opening in the fall, paralyzed business, and made it difficult for parents and students to earn the means not only to meet school expenses, but even to obtain the ordinary comforts of life. But, notwithstanding these discouragements, our old scholars remained loyal and patiently awaited the opening, and the attendance has been goodthat in the higher grades coming up to the average figure. How much solicitude, earnest planning and brave self-sacrifice all this involved no one who has not lived in the midst of the people can realize; no one but the All-Knowing can understand.
The list of our various exercises is somewhat long, yet each represents some special department of our work, or is a manifestation of some special form of its manifold activities, and for this reason cannot fail to be of interest to our readers.
Junior Exhibition, May 4, was the first exercise on the program; two weeks later came the Recital by the Department of Instrumental Music. The Address, Sunday morning, May 22d, to the Christian Associations by Rev. J. M. Loring, D.D., of this city, and the Baccalaureate, Sunday night, by President Atwood, were both greatly enjoyed by the large audiences that came to hear.
A feature of growing power and usefulness is the Sumner and Alpha Literary Societies, whose anniversary is always an occasion of great interest. The able and eloquent address this year was given by Rev. L. H. Reynolds, D.D., the successful pastor of the leading African Methodist Church in this city. He made his auditors feel that, though their lot had many hardships, it also had many compensating advantages, and that to the educated and consecrated youth of the race the field for usefulness and distinction was large and inviting.
The Class Day Exercise, Monday night, came up in point of interest and attraction to the usual high standard. The Grammar Department had the right of way Tuesday 1 P. M. Certificates admitting them to the Normal and College Preparatory Departments were given to forty-two bright boys and girls. And truly, the boys in their neat fitting suits and the girls in their white gowns presented a beautiful sight. The history of their efforts to reach this landmark in their educational life is full of pathos and romance. Observe that girl sitting yonder on the right. Her happy face glows with the interest of the occasion; her dress is neat and cleanly. Yet that girl left the washroom or laundry when she came to school this morning, and will return to it when the school day closes. Back from the street and enclosed by larger buildings and shut out from the blessed sunlight and pure air is the house she calls her home. She is the oldest of five or six children. The hard worked mother, who seldom leaves the wash-tub except to retire to her weary couch, is only able to keep this girl in school by the most rigid economy and self-denial, and when she has finished her course, then by her help the others may have a chance.
This is one of many cases which the kind and faithful teacher has discovered among her scholars. The lesson of it is that the race which has such mothers, so patient, so self-sacrificing, is sure to rise, and is worth taking some stock in by the friends of Christian missions; nor need we be surprised to learn that out of a colored voting population of 120,000 in Louisiana, nearly 39,000 have acquired within thirty-five years the ability to read and write.