The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-09-09
An Appeal for Home Missions.
MRS. RYDKR's WORK AMONG THE PRRKD-
MEN IN NEW ORLEANS.

Our readers and citizens have known
something of this lady's missionary
labors, and believing that hers is most
worthy cause, and that what is given
her and her assistants will be used pru-
IDENTIFY, without any part of it being
merry, rs Is too often the case with our
bencfactions, we do not hesitate to COM
mend her and the cause she represents
to all who have n share in this duty of
elevating and educating the heather
thrown upon our care by the events of
the war. Mrs. Ryder, already widow,
lost her only son In the army, and after
that, burying an only daughter, a
weaker woman, or one less Christian
like, might have given herself up to idle
and. useless repining. She has done bet
ter than that-devoted herself to the
friendlcss and uncared for, and so in
tercsted herself in helping others as to
| feel that she can scarcely lay the work
down when she has worn herself out in
it, unless she can inspire enough others
with her enthusiasm to feel that what
she has begun will be carried on, and In
the Lords good time completed. She
has spent nearly four years In and about
New Orleans, visiting over 1900 fami-
lies, mostly among the colored people,
organizing and teaching Cay schools,
Sunday Schools, sewing societies, giving
relief tothe needy and sick, instructing
in the principles of morality, reading
and explaining Bible truths, and teach
ing the mothers and daughters how to
make the most of their slender means In
rendering their homes and families COM
Portable. She has found the colored
people so responsive and cordial, so
eager to learn and ready to improve, so
grateful, and the work in every way so
| encouraging, that it Is not strange she
and the good women who are o-wOrkers
with her are anxious for means to put
, the sickle into more places In this ripen
, ing harvest. India, to-day, is not darker
in its heathenism than that portion of
our boasted Christian America. .- 81.
Regarding it from a selfish point OF
view, we cannot afford to allow this
gangI eneous excressence of ignorance
vice and superstition to eat into and in.
feet more extensively our body polite
The immortality, the helpless ignorance
the poverty-;he everything that is !,
. hindrance to every kind Of healthy
growth is there hundredfold more ap-
!, parent and appalling than anything W.
: ever sec in our Northern cities. Th'
d accursed institution of slavery, with al
!. its bitter aud pitiable complications, has
affec ted every class of society. Almos
every one there, even If better taught
+ is restrained from doing right by SOM
motive of fself-iuterestor policy, and tn
last state of the poor freedman Is almos
It as bad, In some respects even worse
than the first. The women who ar
> willing to peril health and life in gOin;
= there, who are fitted by nature or edu
l. cation, who have either the gifts o
# grace necessary to be useful there, o
. who are free to 60 if they had all othe
. requirements, are so few, that surel
a those who will should not lack tn
e means.
"a The boxes and barrels of old clothin
sent to our missionaries are bestowed,
garment perhaps in a place, where theI
Is extreme need-often upon sick, mfr
and aged slaves. There are no asylum
or public charities provided for thes'
and no public free schools now for th
freedmen. The colleges and so-calle
universities established by religious d,
nominations for the education OF colore
4 teacneTs put primary scuoiais Ihto l1aIi
X classes, without habits of study or vel
little previous mental discipline. The
UT women are doing what the commit
schools in the North do-the elemental
work of education. Those colored chi
dren, and the poor whites as well, nc'
er to know reading, writing and arithm
tic instead of science and the dead lam
uagcs. What our Government is t
weak or too Indifferent to do Christia
people must do, or they cannot no
themselves guiltless.
Mrs. Ryder and her assistants ha'
~ often been i'm strait for supplies to I
lieye some special-case of destitute
= among the families of their pupils, or
ng their visiting districts, and have had
be ask for and invariably have been che.
fully helped by the missionaries of t
Baptist and Congregational denomin
,es tions, with whom they labor in the Z
most harmony, helping each other, a
he mutually dependent for companionshi
council and sympathy.
q Money or clothing contributed
-. this work, and left at this office, will
'o' through the Ladies' Aid Society of
Methodist Episcopal Church, of W.
,o, lington, sent directly, properly ,
counted for, and wisely used.