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Right in this connection it would be interesting to read the following letter.  A brief word of history, however, is necessary that it may be understood.  In 1878, a young man, a graduate of one of the leading New England colleges, enlisted in the great army of A.M.A. teachers.  He was a quiet, unassuming, Christian student.  The amazing ignorance of the Southern people, both white and black, awoke his pity; and his love, for his Saviour, and for his country, led him to give himself to this most needy field.  He was embarrassed and badgered by those who ought to have welcomed him, and helped him in his work.  This mean and unworthy opposition with which our A.M.A. teachers are so familiar, culminated in his case, in a series of letters in which his life was threatened.  It was just before the election of President Cleveland.  There was evidently, a well-matured plan to drive him out of the community, and to intimidate the Negroes so that they would not dare to vote.  The following was one of these letters:  {163}

“Mr ——­ deer Sir It is for your own good That I write This letter to you you are an advocate for Social Equality with the white and the Black race and the People are not going to Put up with any Such doings and I write you this letter to warn you of The danger and the great danger That you are in You must leve The country right away for The People have Pledged Them Seves to get you out of the contry or Kill you and That in a mity Short time Now as a frend I do beg you to give this matter your emmediate attention I am very truly your well wisher meaning Exactly wat I Say”

I saw all these letters, and received this one from the hand of this Christian hero.  He said to me:—­“I went to bed a good many nights thinking that quite possibly I should be dragged out of my bed, and beaten or hanged before morning.”  Notwithstanding this, he wrote on the outside of the envelope the following words, and passed them around among those whom he knew to be conspirators against him: 

“In answer to the enclosed, I will say to my ’Democratic and inquiring friends,’ that I expect to leave on or before Jan. 1st, 1940, and that though I hoped to vote for ’St. John and Prohibition,’ I have now decided to vote for ’Blaine and the Protection of all citizens in their political and civil rights.’”

When he gave me this letter, he took a promise that it should not be published until after his death.  He passed away in the triumph of his sweet, but heroic faith a few months ago.  He died where he had suffered and dared for Christ’s sake, in the midst of this ignorance and sin.

Such stories as his ought to be told.  It is cowardly timidity for those of us who know them, to keep them from the Christian public.  Heroes and heroines answer to the roll-call of A.M.A. workers.  I have met them and mingled with them, the past three years, and I know the sinew and fibre of their courageous faith.  You, who send them out, and who support them in the field, ought to know what they endure, and hear, now and then, an incident of their heroism.