"The Work in Mississippi," The Christian Recorder, Jan. 16, 1869, p. 2
- Title
- "The Work in Mississippi," The Christian Recorder, Jan. 16, 1869, p. 2
- Date
- 01-16-1869
- Creator
-
Edmonia Highgate
- Description
- In this article in The Christian Recorder (the newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church), teacher Edmonia Highgate reports from Enterprise, Mississippi. She describes the opportunity and need for missionary work in that state, and reminds her readers that "the teachers in the North are the rear guard of the grand army of the Republic. Do not think that an abiding peace is conquered."
- Transcript
-
THE WORK IN MISSISSIPPI .
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MR. EDITOR: Perhaps in none of the Southern States is the missionary work more interesting in its character than in Mississippi . Northern benevolence through various legitimate channels is accomplishing untold good here. There is a pressing need of more laborers in this harvest sure field. Laborers, who are willing to endure exposure to cold, inclement weather, to sacrifice all the luxuries and most of the comforts of northern homes in order to patiently and faithfully lay the foundation of a majesty State by their daily and nightly teaching in miserable dilapidated open unwarned buildings. The hope of the South is in its youth. Therefore, our missionaries make special efforts for them, not neglecting; however, to suggest reforms to the middle-aged and to cheer the way to the tomb for the old, by pointing them to the sure consolations of religion. Were we allotted time and space to refer at length to persons and work here, we would fill your columns with labors of your distinguished predecessor, Rev. James, Lynch, Presiding Elder of the Jackson District in the M.E. connection. Should we attempt the most unvarnished statement of the hundreds of miles he travels a month; the sermons he preaches in that time; the immense amount of miscellaneous ecclesiastical work he performs; to say nothing of what he does in the State interest or his editorial duties, and his valuable, regular correspondence with several popular journals, your readers would deem us guilty of fabricating. He combines the rare qualifications of an infuser of zeal and righteous emulation with a genuine nobleness that makes him proud of the privilege of himself, frequently performing dangerous and difficult noble acts. He is the great L'Ouverture in the missionary and reconstruction work in this State.
Fully appreciating the many and often fatal dangers that surround his paths he dashes on with Gen. Sherman, like determination to the sea, which he will reach in a few years. He is emphatically the teachers' friend so also he claimed and most justly, by the most illiterate freedmen who even mutely appeals for his aid. Should any think we are tempted to dwell too long on Rev. James Lynch, let them remember it is impossible to fulfil the promise of the caption of this communication and do otherwise. We want all the encouragement, which each and every comfortably situated northern family can so easily give by a little self-sacrificing effort. Our Sabbath schools need Bibles, Sabbath school papers and the religious literature. We teachers need a fund from which to draw to supply the necessities of the infirm sufferers we meet in our daily visitations. We want material for industrial schools in order that we may teach the girls and women to become good seamstresses and at the same time do much to reach glaring social evils that exist unrebuked among them. Ours is a noble work transcending all sectarianism. It is most far-reaching in its scope and surprisingly thorough in its concentrative specialties. Aid us, then, as a high privilege. Remember that the teachers in the north are the rear guard of the grand army of the Republic. Do not think that an abiding peace is conquered. Take and see that your neighbors subscribe for "The Colored Citizen Monthly," the journal of the newly enfranchised in this State, published for one dollar a year, by Rev. James Lynch, at Jackson, Mississippi . E. GOODELLE HIGHGATE.
Enterprise, Miss. Dec. 13th, 1868.
Part of "The Work in Mississippi," The Christian Recorder, Jan. 16, 1869, p. 2