To-day we met to keep our Thanksgiving feast and to dedicate this building to the cause of Christian education. Oh, such gladness and thankfulness as filled our hearts, and was voiced by the choir in the opening anthem, “Praise the Lord!” After the opening exercises voluntary expressions of thanksgiving were called for. Mr. Hartsfield, our head carpenter, said he could not help comparing the present with twenty-five years ago, when he little dreamed of ever participating in such exercises as these, and said his heart was so full of thankfulness he could not express it. Others spoke of their gratitude for the blessings of the year and of this day. Mr. H. W. Hubbard, our genial Treasurer, who was with us, told the young people where the money to furnish them these advantages comes from.
An address was then delivered by Rev. B. A. Imes, of Memphis, which will be long remembered by us all, but especially by our students, to whom it has already proved a real inspiration. Dr. Roy followed in a wonderfully appropriate dedicatory prayer.
The day seemed all too short to express the joy and thanksgiving that filled our hearts. Truly He has brought “the blind by a way that they knew not.” We finished up the day with a lecture at night from Dr. Roy, who always has something good for us.
Our new building has, besides chapel and recitation rooms, family rooms now occupied by Prof. Hatch and wife, who have charge of the young men, and dormitories for sixty-eight young men.
And what will you say when I tell you that there are seventy-five here now, with a prospect for a much larger number after the holidays?
During my visit North last summer a friend asked: “Haven’t you had enough of life and work in the South? Aren’t you ready to come back and take hold of the Home Missionary work again?” The friend looked so incredulous at my expressions of satisfaction, and even of desire to get back into the work again as soon as the extreme heat was over, it occurs to me that a little glimpse of the past few days of life and labor in this especial corner of the great field might convince a good many that the work is not only very hopeful, but also exceedingly interesting. Previous to my restful vacation North, I had not been able to visit our people in their homes, but now, with renewed strength, I ventured a long, rough walk, leaning on my husband’s arm, to the home of one of our women, who was very sick. Down a steep, long hill, over deep ravines worn by swift-running brooks, with slender poles thrown over to serve for bridges, up the long hill beyond, and we had reached the little house where the sick one lay. We cheered her as best we could with sympathy and comforting words, spreading out the little delicacies we had brought to tempt her appetite, admired the new baby, and won the hearts of the other little people standing shyly back with the gingersnaps we had brought for their special comfort.