  EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM PROF. CHASE.Jos. Smith preached this morning a good plain sermon upon “The Way of Life.” He had to speak through an interpreter, but got along nicely. The congregation was a strange one. Only two of the women had hats. Most of them wore turbans made of striped handkerchiefs, wound around in artistic styles. During the services a tithing-man passed around, a cane in hand, keeping the children in order, and waking up those inclined to drowsiness. Avery Station.—This is rather a pleasant spot. The river makes three bends here, and the mission house is so placed, that from the front veranda we get a view about half a mile up and down the stream, of water, rocks and green, the thick growth of trees, bushes and vines, most of the way coming down to the water’s edge, and at some points dipping into it. The yard is surrounded by a low well-kept hedge, sprinkled with little pink blossoms. In front are cocoa-nut trees, with their clumps of yellowish green nuts encircling the trunks about twenty feet from the ground; an orange tree, a cinnamon tree with its dark green fragrant leaves, and several pretty shrubs of various kinds. Beyond the hedge, on a point sloping toward the river, is the coffee “farm” (of three acres) covered with trees about four feet high, looking very much like pear trees. In the rear is a clump of banana trees with a few bunches of unripe fruit. In the distance is the mill, whose irregular roof of bamboo is looked down upon from the veranda. Nearer by is the chapel, an unpretentious yellow structure with a school-room in the basement. The house is one-story, raised several feet above the ground, having a wide veranda on three sides, and containing six comfortable rooms, besides kitchen, &c. Mr. Jackson is pastor of the church; Mr. Anthony, from Berea, has charge of the mill and farm; and Rev. Mr. Jowett, a native, educated at Sierra Leone, teaches the school, and acts as interpreter. In the family are ten little children who are just beginning to talk in English, and work about the house and grounds. The plateful or platefuls of rice the little things can put away is astonishing. The smallest one will eat as much as can be piled on a dining-plate. [Editorial Note.—A son of the Mr. Jowett, referred to in the above letter, has just landed in this country, on his way to Fisk University. Believing that he is to figure in the future history of missions in Africa, we give a brief sketch of him, and a glimpse at life in an African village, prepared by himself. This will be found in the juvenile department. Just here we wish to say that Albert Miller shows his appreciation of a liberal education and also his devotion to his divine Master, two things very hopeful in a missionary. He found this young man helpful as a Christian, and useful as an interpreter, and believing he would make a good missionary, he has sent him to his Alma Mater, and authorized the Association to pay his expenses out of his own small salary. When such a spirit of self-denial and thorough consecration characterizes the church, we shall have no trouble either in getting or maintaining teachers and missionaries. We wish also to say that this is a most hopeful movement; that of the emancipated Christian and cultured African, with a constitution which enables him to live there, going back with the blessings of the Gospel to his fatherland; and that |
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