The Project Gutenberg eBook, The American Missionary, Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888, by Various This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The American Missionary, Volume 42, No. 12, December, 1888 Author: Various Release Date: December 20, 2004 [eBook #14383] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY, VOLUME 42, NO. 12, DECEMBER, 1888*** E-text prepared by Joshua Hutchinson, Donald Perry, John Hagerson, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from scans generously provided by Cornell University THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY DECEMBER, 1888 VOL. XLII. NO. 12 CONTENTS EDITORIAL THE ANNUAL MEETING THE DANIEL HAND EDUCATIONAL FUND FOR COLORED PEOPLE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GIFT SKETCH OF MR. HAND'S LIFE THE DEED OF TRUST SUGGESTIONS PILGRIM'S LETTERS PARAGRAPHS ANNUAL MEETING. PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING SUMMARY OF TREASURER'S REPORT REPORTS OF COMMITTEES MEMORIAL SERVICE THE AMERICAN FREEDMEN AS FACTORS IN AFRICAN EVANGELIZATION, BY SECRETARY STRIEBY THE HOPEFULNESS OF INDIAN MISSIONS AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY. BY SECRETARY BEARD BUREAU OF WOMAN'S WORK. REPORT OF SECRETARY RECEIPTS. * * * * * NEW YORK: Published by the American Missionary Association. Rooms, 56 Reade Street. * * * * * Price, 50 Cents a Year, in Advance. Entered at the Post Office at New York, N.Y., as second-class matter. * * * * * American Missionary Association. * * * * * PRESIDENT, REV. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.Y. Vice-Presidents. Rev. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y. Rev. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. Rev. ALEX. McKENZIE, D.D., Mass. Rev. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass. REV. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., MO. Corresponding Secretaries. Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Rev. A.F. BEARD, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Recording Secretary. REV. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D. Treasurer. H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Auditors. PETER McCARTEE. CHAS. P. PEIRCE. Executive Committee. JOHN H. WASHBURN, Chairman. ADDISON P. FOSTER, Secretary. For Three Years. J.E. RANKIN, WM. H. WARD, J.W. COOPER, JOHN H. WASHBURN, EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN. For Two Years. LYMAN ABBOTT, CHARLES A. HULL, J.R. DANFORTH, CLINTON B. FISK, ADDISON P. FOSTER. For One Year. S.B. HALLIDAY, SAMUEL HOLMES, SAMUEL S. MARPLES, CHARLES L. MEAD, ELBERT B. MONROE. District Secretaries. Rev. C.J. RYDER, 21 Cong'l House, Boston. Rev. J.E. ROY, D.D., 151 Washington Street, Chicago. Financial Secretary for Indian Missions. Rev. CHAS. W. SHELTON. Secretary of Woman's Bureau. Miss D.E. EMERSON, 56 Reade St., N.Y. * * * * * COMMUNICATIONS Relating to the work of the Association may be addressed to the Corresponding Secretaries; letters for "THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY," to the Editor, at the New York Office. DONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS In drafts, checks, registered letters, or post-office orders, may be sent to H.W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New York, or, when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices, 21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass, or 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time constitutes a Life Member. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.--The date on the "address label," indicates the time to which the subscription is paid. Changes are made in date on label to the 10th of each month. If payment of subscription be made afterward, the change on the label will appear a month later. Please send early notice of change in post-office address, giving the former address and the new address, in order that our periodicals and occasional papers may be correctly mailed. FORM OF A BEQUEST "I BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of ---- dollars, in trust, to pay the same in ---- days after my decease to the person who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of the 'American Missionary Association,' of New York City, to be applied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Association, to its charitable uses and purposes." The Will should be attested by three witnesses. * * * * * THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY. * * * * * VOL. XLII. DECEMBER, 1888. No. 12. * * * * * American Missionary Association. * * * * * OUR ANNUAL MEETING. The Annual Meeting at Providence, R.I., will long be remembered in the annals of this Association. Its general characteristics were earnestness and enthusiasm. The interest did not flag from the beginning to the end. We were glad to welcome our newly-elected President, Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., who, by his dignity and facility as a presiding officer, as well as by his able addresses, added largely to the interest of the meeting. The sermon of Dr. Little was an uplift at the outset; the Memorial Service for Dr. Powell was a loving tribute to his memory; the papers read were of a high order, and dealt in a practical way with living themes bearing on the work of the Association; the reports on the several departments of that work were discriminating, and showed a mastery of the subjects reviewed; and the addresses of Drs. Mears, Behrends and Taylor, on the last evening were, by their fervor, their broad range of thought and spiritual power, a fitting close for the whole series of meetings. But the marked and peculiar feature of the occasion was the announcement of the munificent gift of Mr. Daniel Hand, of more than a million of dollars, to aid the Association in its efforts for the colored people of the South. This event, so inspiring in its immediate effect, and so far-reaching and permanent in its beneficial results, deserves full and special mention. * * * * * THE DANIEL HAND EDUCATIONAL FUND FOR COLORED PEOPLE. The gift of more than a million of dollars by Mr. Hand for the education of the colored people of the South, was a noble deed--alike patriotic, philanthropic and Christian. The gift was wisely made. It was after mature deliberation; it was during his lifetime, and thus avoids the possibility of future litigation; it is bestowed upon a race with whose wants Mr. Hand had become thoroughly familiar; it was given to a Society that from the first, amid obloquy and danger, has been true to the colored man; and it is made a permanent fund, the income only to be used, thus securing its perpetual usefulness. The conditions of the grant are simple, easily applicable, practical and not liable to render the fund inoperative by any change of circumstances. It aims simply to give to the colored people a training that will fit them for every day life, or to become teachers of their race. Hence it will be confined to primary, industrial and normal education. We have no doubt that Mr. Hand values the missionary future of the African in his native land; that he realizes the importance of his religious training in this country, and that he appreciates the need of the higher education of a portion of the race; but his gift, large as it is, cannot cover everything, and he has, therefore, wisely chosen the definite sphere in which his money shall accomplish its work. Opportunity is thus given others equally liberal to provide for other parts of the great work to be done for the negro race. Mr. Hand may not live long enough to see for many years the practical working of his far-reaching gift, but generation after generation of the Negroes of the South will rise up to call him blessed. * * * * * THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GIFT. [Abridged from the _Providence Journal_.] The Address of Secretary Strieby. It is my privilege, and I esteem it a great honor, to be called upon to announce one of the most surprising and gratifying facts, financially considered at least, that has ever occurred in the history of this Association. The American Missionary Association has this week received the largest gift ever made in this country by a living donor to a benevolent society. Daniel Hand, an aged resident of Guilford, Conn., formerly a merchant in the South, has given to the Association $1,000,894.25, in interest-bearing securities, to be held in trust and known as "THE DANIEL HAND EDUCATIONAL FUND FOR COLORED PEOPLE," the income only to be used for the education of colored people in the Southern States. Mr. Hand, having made his money in the South, and having seen the ignorance and consequent disadvantages of the colored people there, felt that he could not use it better than in providing for their education, and has chosen to entrust to the American Missionary Association, whose work is so largely devoted to the elevation of that people, the care of this magnificent gift, and the disbursement of its income in accordance with the provisions of the trust. * * * * * This announcement was received with great enthusiasm, which was prolonged for several minutes, and the most intense excitement prevailed. An address was then given by John H. Washburn, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee, after which Rev. Dr. Mears made an address, which was followed by the singing of the Doxology with great fervor and emphasis. * * * * * Remarks by Mr. John H. Washburn. Mr. President.--The last few years have been remarkable in gifts and legacies. Some have endowed colleges and universities; some, as in this case, have been for the benefit of a peculiar race, but no one in his own lifetime has ever selected a benevolent association as beneficiary, and endowed it with such a munificent gift as Daniel Hand has bestowed upon the American Missionary Association. He was, it seems to me, wise in choosing this course. Others have seen fit to put their funds in the hands of trustees organized and incorporated to hold the trust. He might have done that, but what would have been the gain over the present plan? Those trustees must have availed themselves, as the trustees of the Peabody Fund and the trustees of the Slater Fund are compelled to do, of existing organizations for knowing the needs of the people; where and how the money can be used to the best advantage. Mr. Hand availed himself of an organization ready to his hand, one whose agents are better qualified to judge of the needs of the people, the plans to be pursued, the work to be done, than any other organization in this country. Now the first thought of the executive officers and committee in receiving this magnificent gift is gratitude to God, who put it into the heart of this man to entrust to us such great means of usefulness for the people for which we labor. But there is a second thought; is this gift to be a blessing to us or a curse? That depends upon our constituents, the men and women personally, and on the churches, not on the officers of the Association. How do you, the individual givers to this Association, regard this gift? Every special gift to such organizations as this, whether it be for special endowment or to establish special schools, implies more money, an increase of contribution. Gifts for new buildings, gifts for establishing new plant are apt to be an embarrassment unless the individuals will respond with increased donations. Now this fund which is given us, while the terms are liberal, is limited in its scope,--it is strictly for the education of the colored youth in the Southern States of America. Not one dollar of this can be used for general work, not one dollar for the Indian, or for our Mountain Work; strictly limited in its use, we need in consequence even more money than before. We are endowed with this great gift, but we may not be able to use it efficiently if there is a lack of supplementary contributions, and for that reason we make a new and strong appeal for them. You pay your money where you have your interest. That man who, in building a mission church in a rough, uncouth neighborhood, called on the hoodlums in the vicinity to make a contribution of a brick apiece for the new church, was a wise man. Every bootblack, every newsboy, every garbage gatherer in it who put a brick in that church had an interest in it. It was "Our Church," and at once the interest of the neighborhood was secured for this mission church, as it could have been done in no other way. So we ask you to withhold not your bricks; with the bricks will come the interest, the heart, the prayers. Remarks by Dr. Mears. Rev. Dr. Mears, who occupied the chair temporarily, followed the address of Mr. Washburn, voicing the gratitude of the Association. He spoke of the feelings almost of depression after the great wants of the work had been so evident from the various reports and addresses of the meeting. The words of reply to the prophet in the famine stricken city of Samaria had been often repeated as to the possibility of relief for those despised; "Behold if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be?" This munificent gift of a million dollars seems like a gift dropped from the pierced hand into the lap of this Association. It seems a seal of the divine favor upon this organization, whose sole care is for those races that are poor and despised. The speaker referred to the suggestion of Mr. Washburn, that the gift must be either a blessing or a curse. It would be a curse if the benefactions of the churches should be withheld because of Mr. Hand's munificence. The divineness of the gift, however, precluded such a fear. There is too much consecration in the hearts of God's children to keep back a single offering for those for whom Christ died. The great promise of the Master will prove itself true; "To him that hath shall be given." Turning to the members of the Executive Committee, the suggestion was made that the manner in which they should guard this great gift would be a potent factor in urging greater gifts from the churches. In such hands was left the burden of showing that only a blessing and not a curse was possible. Be true to your great trust. His closing words were in recognition of the blessings sure to rest upon the venerable giver whose last days have been so near heaven as to catch the beams of holy light. * * * * * SKETCH OF MR. HAND'S LIFE. Daniel Hand was born in Madison, Conn., July 16, 1801, and was therefore in the eighty-eighth year of his age when he made his gift for the education of the colored people at the South. His ancestors have resided in that town for several generations and were always landholders, industrious, quiet and respectable. To this ancestry Mr. Hand is probably indebted under God for his physical vigor, long life, strength of character and success in business. He was the fourth son of seven, and was on the farm under his father's direction until he was sixteen years of age, when he was put in charge of his second brother, Augustus F. Hand, who was then a merchant at Augusta, Ga., and whom he succeeded in business. In 1854 Mr. Hand went to New York in connection with his Southern business, and remained there in that capacity until the beginning of the war in 1861. He resided in some portion of the Southern Confederacy during the entire war, and was never treated with violence in any way, and no Confederate officer ever offered him indignity or even an unkind word. Mr. G.W. Williams, a native Georgian, was, at about the age of sixteen, employed by Mr. Hand as a clerk in Augusta, and in a few years was taken in as partner. Mr. Williams suggested a branch of the business in Charleston, and conducted it successfully. When the war came on Mr. Hand's capital was largely employed in the Charleston business, which Mr. Williams as a Southern man continued, having the use of Mr. Hand's capital, which the Confederate Government vainly endeavored to confiscate by legal proceedings against Mr. Hand, as a Northern man of pronounced anti-slavery sentiments. After the war Mr. Hand came North and left it to his old partner, Mr. Williams, to adjust the business and make up the accounts, allowing him almost unlimited time for so doing. When this was accomplished, Mr. Williams came North and paid over to Mr. Hand his portion of the long-invested capital and its accumulations, as an honest and honorable merchant and trusted partner should do. Many years ago Mr. Hand was bereaved of wife and children, and he has since remained unmarried. This fact, together with his benevolent impulses, led him to form plans to use his property for the benefit of mankind. He thought at first of devoting a part of it to some Northern colleges, but his attention being turned to the needed and successful work done among the colored people of the South, his purpose was soon formed to aid them. He said he knew them, and the disadvantages arising out of their ignorance, their inability to keep accounts, to secure their rights in making settlements, and consequently the hindrances they encountered in their industries and in the acquisition of lands and homes. As it was known that he had money and benevolent intentions in regard to the use of it, many methods were suggested to him for that purpose. Some of these he investigated with care, but he never saw occasion to change the purpose which he formed more than ten years ago, to make the colored people his beneficiaries through the American Missionary Association, which he found was doing so large and successful a work among the very people whom he wished to benefit, and in methods in accordance with his own views. More than ten years ago he had incorporated in his will a legacy of $100,000 for the Association. It was suggested to him at that time that he should become his own executor, but he felt that his securities were safe and productive, and at last it became a cherished purpose with him to make the gift a million of dollars as soon as he could do so with due regard to other objects he had in view. The consummation of this great purpose was finally closed by the transfer (October 22nd) of the securities to the Association by the Hon. Luzon B. Morris, who has been throughout his trusted and honored legal and financial adviser. This gift enrolls Mr. Hand among the honored names of wealthy men who have devoted their fortunes, not to mere display or personal gratification, but to elevate and bless the ignorant and needy. Mr. Hand is a man of tall, commanding presence, and still at the age of eighty-seven writes with a firm and bold hand, and expresses himself in brief and vigorous language. * * * * * THE DEED OF TRUST. The purposes and conditions of this great trust are as follows: "The said Daniel Hand, desiring to establish a permanent fund, the income of which shall be used for the purpose of educating needy and indigent colored people of African descent, residing, or who may hereafter reside in the recent slave States of the United States of America, sometimes called the Southern States; meaning those States wherein slavery was recognized by law in the year A.D. 1861, and in consideration of the promises and undertakings of the said American Missionary Association, hereinafter set forth, does hereby give, transfer and deliver unto the said American Missionary Association the following bonds and property in trust, viz.: (Here follows a list of the property transferred, amounting at par value to $1,000,894.25. The market value is more than that sum.) Said bonds and property to be received and held by said American Missionary Association, _upon trust_, and for the following purposes, viz.: To safely manage the said trust fund, to change investments whenever said Association may deem it necessary or advisable to reinvest the principal of said trust fund in such securities, property and investments as said Association may deem best, and to use the _income thereof only_ for the education of colored people of African descent residing in the recent slave States of the United States of America hereinbefore specified. "Such income to be applied for the education of such colored people as are needy and indigent and such as by their health, strength and vigor of body and mind give indications of efficiency and usefulness in after life. "Said American Missionary Association and the proper officers thereof, shall have the right, while acting in good faith, to select from time to time such persons from the above described class as are to receive aid from the income of said trust fund, hereby confiding to said Association the selection of such persons as it shall deem most worthy and deserving of such aid, but I would limit the sum of $100 as the largest sum to be expended for any person in any one year from this fund. I impose no restrictions upon said Association as to the manner in which they shall use such income for the education of such colored people, whether by establishing schools for that purpose, and maintaining the same, or by furnishing individual aid; trusting to said Association and the officers thereof the use of such means in the execution of said trust as in their judgment will be most for the advantage of that class of people. "Said trust fund shall be set apart and at all times known as the 'Daniel Hand Educational Fund for Colored People.' And the said Association shall keep separate accounts of the investment of this fund, and of the income derived therefrom, and of the use to which such income is applied, and shall publish monthly statements of the receipts from said fund, specifying its source, object and intention." * * * * * SUGGESTIONS. Something to Remember. Our first thought is for the pastors and churches to whom these words may come. It is this: Remember that the American Missionary Association has not a million of dollars to expend in its work. It has the yearly income of this great gift as a Trust Fund to be used, not for the work which our churches have taken on, but to do a specific work which would not otherwise be undertaken. The American Missionary Association will carry out the wishes of this large giver in their trust, and the Hand Fund will not be used to supplement the other work committed to the Association. Do not say then, that we have a million and need nothing. Our execution of a trust to do additional work to the extent of $50,000 a year or more, in no way changes our dependence upon the constituency of the A.M.A. We have no balance whatever at the bank to supplement any lack from the churches. The Hand Fund stands out distinctly committed to its appropriate work. This it will do. It will, however, make the work to which we are already committed more imperative. We do not believe that the churches will in any degree defeat the purposes of Mr. Hand by devoting less than before to their own work, but that they will rather encourage larger gifts than ever, by an emulation of a like spirit, to be used for the redemption of a race. This is not a Trust Fund to relieve the churches. It is to make their work greater and more effective. The reports of the several committees at Providence all called for an enlargement of our work. It was recommended that $375,000 be raised and used in the fiscal year 1888-1889. This means something more than $30,000 a month. The receipts for October were $16,416.07, being but a little more than half of that which is needed. Our dependence must be where it has been; first of all upon God, and then upon those who are his stewards. We do not believe that God's stewards will be willing to use this signal illustration of fidelity to stewardship as a reason why they should do less rather than more in their working together with him. The American Missionary Association begins its year with a debt of $5,000 and needs $30,000 a month to carry on its regular work. Large Gifts no Substitute for Small Ones. A Pope of Rome in the midst of his great wealth once said, "I cannot say as Peter did: 'Silver and gold have I none!'" To which the reply was made: "Neither can you say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.'" Peter and the Pope are types of two conditions of the church of Christ. When it is dependent on Christ, it can bless the bodies and souls of men; when it relies on its wealth, it can do neither. A missionary society that should be so thoroughly endowed as to feel itself to be independent of God and man for funds would soon be thoroughly dead. Its power is in proportion to the faith it uplifts to God, and to the constant sense of dependence with which it rests down upon the sympathy and support of the churches. It can never flourish except as it is refreshed by the little rills of benevolence that flow from praying Christians; that treasury is poor, indeed, that does not receive the widow's two mites. The American Missionary Association can come with blessings to the neglected races of our land only as it lays hold with one hand upon the arm of the Lord and with the other grasps the hands of the pastors and members of the churches--as it enables them to feel that it is their society doing God's work for them. But does not the magnificent gift of Mr. Hand lift the Association above such dependence on the churches? Is it not at least so well provided for that the churches need not be so regular and liberal in their contributions? We answer emphatically that if this should be the result of that gift, we should esteem it no blessing; and in this we are sure Mr. Hand himself would unite with us. We are told that he was accustomed to read the "Receipts" acknowledged in the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, and was greatly delighted that so many small donations were reported. He said that one thing that confirmed him in the choice of the Association as the almoner of his bounty was the hold it seemed to have upon the mass of intelligent and praying members of the New England churches, No! the gift of Mr. Hand, generous and large as it is, provides for only a part of our great work. It does not touch the Church, Mountain, Indian, Chinese or Higher Educational Departments. It is wisely appropriated; it goes directly and practically to a point where help is much needed. But it is limited to that and does not cover even all of that. Let the churches do neither themselves, the Association nor Mr. Hand the great wrong of withholding because he gives; rather let them take this gift as God and the generous donor meant it to be--a help in lifting the heavy load, to be responded to by heartier co-operation and larger contributions. A Helping Hand Extended to the South. How strange are the links that sometimes bind events together, and how obvious are often the compensations that Providence renders to faithful work. In 1846 a society was formed in the North distinguished mainly by its sympathy for the slave. But slavery then ruled the North as well as the South, and this society was made to feel the rod of its power. Some of its founders learned that rewards had been offered for their abduction; others suffered from the violence of mobs; and its missionaries in the South were imprisoned or banished. When the slaves were freed, the society went swiftly and energetically to their help, and has sent to them thousands of consecrated teachers and has spent millions of money for their relief. Its work is now so manifestly beneficial that it is welcomed by both the blacks and the whites in the South. At the date of the founding of this society, a Northern man in the prime of life was carrying on a prosperous mercantile business in a Southern city. He had already been in that city nearly thirty years and was honored and trusted. When the war came his property was jeopardized, but was afterwards returned to him in full. And now comes the Providential compensation. That wealth earned in the South, lost and then restored, is given back to the South to educate and assist the emancipated slaves. The giver, now in the 88th year of his age, finds it the joy and crown of his life to be thus not only a benefactor to the poor blacks, but to furnish a marked illustration of the fraternal feeling which the North cherishes towards the South. And may we not add that Providence in guiding this noble man to select this once persecuted society as the almoner of his bounty, is giving it a token of the Divine approbation for its faithfulness to the oppressed slave. A Message to the Colored People. It is due to Mr. Hand to say that he is much more interested in the good that shall be done to the colored people by his gift, than he is in any public notices of himself. His letters to us discourage such notices, but he writes most warmly urging us to press upon the colored people the all-controlling thought, that they must be the chief and most efficient agents in the great work of their own advancement in industry, temperance and civilization; that they should not become office seekers, and should abandon at once and forever, the expectation of aid for them as colored people, and that above all, that which is most vital to them for this world and the next, is love to God and man, and that the Bible is the best source of light and the foundation of their surest hopes. These are wise counsels and we shall endeavor to press them upon all, and especially upon those whom we shall aid out of this fund. We believe that Mr. Hand would deplore it as the greatest calamity that could befall his gift, if it should in any way pauperize the colored people or take from them their sense of the need--the essential need of self-reliance and self-help--if it should tempt them to an idle life, to seeking after office or to become beggars for help from Government or from any other source. This gift, in the intention of the donor, and in that of the Association that is to administer it, is that it may be a stimulus and encouragement to personal energy and enterprise. * * * * * PILGRIM'S LETTERS. Bits of History. Rev. Joseph E. Roy, D.D., author of the neatly printed volume bearing this title, is a man of quick and accurate observation. In the days when "Missionary Campaigns" were in vogue, and the representatives of the several Congregational Societies held missionary meetings from town to town, Dr. Roy, in an hour or two after our arrival at a place, would contrive to pick up so many facts about the history of the town, its distinguished men of the past, its ancient church edifices, etc., etc., as to surprise and perhaps enlighten the pastor and some of the people, as he skillfully introduced these facts into the opening of his address. Dr. Roy had an equal facility in writing down his observations in graphic and vigorous English. What some other men would labor in penning with frequent hesitation and erasures, he would dash off _currente calamo_. It has fallen to the lot of Dr. Roy to have had another advantage. He has been a pastor for several years, and subsequently a Secretary alternately of the A.M.A. and the A.H.M.S. for nearly thirty years. His duties have called him into all parts of the United States, and especially into the West and South. In all his journeys he has jotted down his rapid and yet careful observations, and the Letters of Pilgrim in the _Congregationalist_, the _Independent_ and the _Advance_, have become as familiar as household words in the pastor's study, and the homes of Congregationalists throughout the land. The thoughtful care and deft fingers of Pilgrim's wife have clipped out these letters and pasted them into suitable blank books until they became almost a library. The topics covered by these letters are as varied as the place in which they were written. They begin as far back as 1857, and describe events in the Border war of Kansas, the great Rebellion, the steps of Reconstruction as well as the more peaceful but no less interesting proceedings of National Councils, great Missionary Anniversaries and the quiet, yet lifelike scenes gathered from pastors' lives, and the homes of the people settling in the far West, or of the negroes in their new life as Freedmen. This volume contains the gems gathered out of this great casket. The reader must not expect to find in it consecutive history or full details on every topic, but he will be surprised, we think, at finding so much and such accurate information on so many interesting items in regard to the events that have transpired in the Nation, and especially in the Congregational Churches, during the last thirty years. It is, as the second title indicates, bits of history. Dr. Roy was very much beloved in the South, by preachers, teachers, and the people. No Superintendent or other worker of the A.M.A., from the North, ever had so many negro children named for him. Indeed we are told that one family were so ardent in their attachment that they had their boy christened with the names and titles in full--_Reverend Joseph E. Roy, D.D._ By the generous gifts of a few gentlemen who appreciate Dr. Roy's life-long work we are enabled to send 100 copies of the volume to some of these friends, who would greatly value the book, but are not able to pay for it. * * * * * The executive committee of the American Missionary Association has unanimously appointed Prof. Edward S. Hall a Field Superintendent, to examine and report upon the work of our schools and churches in our Southern field. Prof. Hall is a graduate of Amherst College, has had several years' experience as a principal of High Schools, and of late years has been a successful Superintendent of Schools in one of the cities of Connecticut. He brings to this work a large and immediate acquaintance with educational methods, and a personal practical experience. We commend him to our missionary workers in the field as a Christian brother, prepared in sympathy and in experience to assist them in the various phases of their work. * * * * * We have received 350 copies of a volume, very neatly printed and bound, entitled, "The 'Come' and 'Go' Family Text Book, containing 'Come' and 'Go' Texts for every day in the year." And accompanying the generous gift is this note: "A friend of the colored race takes pleasure in furnishing these books for the workers and advanced pupils in the schools under the care of the American Missionary Association." We thank the donor in behalf of those who will gladly welcome and diligently use the gift. * * * * * Back numbers of the "American Missionary."--During the last ten years we have had frequent applications from public libraries and from colleges for back numbers of our Magazine to make up complete sets. Our supply has been exhausted and we have been obliged to decline. An appeal now comes from the Professor of Church History in Oberlin Theological Seminary, in these words: "As the Association is closely connected with the history of Oberlin, I wish to put my classes in American Church History on the history of the Association." The Oberlin library contains nothing complete till 1880. Can any of our subscribers supply the want to a college so long and so closely identified with the early struggles of the Association? If so, please address Prof. F.H. Foster, Oberlin, Ohio. * * * * * FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. * * * * * The Forty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association convened in the Union Congregational Church, Providence, R.I., on Tuesday, October 23d, 1888, at 3 P.M. In the absence of the President, the Association was called to order by the Senior Secretary, who invited E.B. Monroe, Esq., of New York, to take the chair until the arrival of the President, Rev. William M. Taylor, D.D., of New York. Rev. M. McG. Dana, D.D., of Massachusetts, read the Scriptures and led in prayers. Rev. Henry A. Hazen, of Massachusetts, was elected Secretary and Rev. James H. Ross, of Massachusetts, Assistant Secretary. Secretary Beard read the portion of the Constitution relating to life membership and delegates, and the roll of the Association and Visitors was prepared, as follows: ROLL. State Associations. Rev. C.B. Curtis, Ala.; Rev. Horace C. Hovey, Conn.; Rev. B.A. Imes, Tenn.; Rev. S.M. Newman, D.C. Local Conferences. Rev. A.K. Gleason, Mass.; William P. Hubbard, Me.; Rev. D.E. Jones, Conn.; Rev. H.G. Marshall, Conn.; Rev. B.G. Northrop, Conn.; Miss L.L. Phelps, Me.; Rev. M.C. Stebbins, Vt.; Rev. Lewis Williams, N.Y.; Mrs. Lewis Williams, N.Y. Delegates from the Churches. Rev. F.D. Austin, N.H.; Dea. Edward Autz, R.I.; Horatio Bailey, Mass.; Rev. John Barstow, Mass.; Edward D. Beach, Conn.; Rev. Wm. H. Beard, Conn.; Dea. George T. Beach, Conn.; Rev. Quincy Blakely, N.H.; N.C. Boutelle, Mass.; Mrs. Juliet H. Brand, O.; Rev. H.S. Brown, Conn.; Rev. Wm. T. Briggs, Mass.; M.A.H. Brigham, R.I.; Rev. F.L. Bristol, Mass.; Frank E. Bundy, Mass.; Mrs. J.I.W. Burgess, Mass.; Rev. Wolcott Calkins, Mass.; A.A. Carr, Mass.; Mrs. Robert Chapman, Conn.; Mrs. Mary W. Claflin, Ill.; Rev. and Mrs. S.W. Clarke, Mass.; Rev. Bernard Copping, Mass.; Leyrand S. Carpenter, Conn.; Rev. Zenas Crowell, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Joshua W. Davis, Mass.; Dea. Levi S. Deming, Conn.; Rev. John W. Dodge, Mass.; Rev. R.C. Drisko, Vt.; Rev. and Mrs. A.J. Dyer, Mass.; Rev. Edward O. Dyer, Mass.; Rev. John Elderkin, Conn.; Miss Mary E.P. Elderkin, Conn.; Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Eldredge, Mass.; Rev. F.F. Emerson, R.I.; Rev. Thomas A. Emerson, Conn.; Rev. F.L. Ferguson, Conn.; Rev. R.H. Gidman, Conn.; Mrs. N.M. Goodale, Mass.; Mrs. L.M. Gurney, Mass.; Arthur H. Hale, N.H.; Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Hall, Conn.; Mrs. S.I. Hall, Mass.; Rev. Henry E. Hart, Conn.; Rev. J.P. Harvey, Mass.; Rev. Wm. H. Haskell, Me.; Rev. and Mrs. R.W. Haskins, Mass.; Rev. Henry A. Hazen, Mass.; Miss Helen E. Haynes, Mass.; C.F. Haywood, Mass.; Rev. James L. Hill, Mass.; Dea. Farrington Holbrook, Mass.; Silas R. Holmes, Conn.; Rev. and Mrs. Palmer S. Hulbert, Mass.; Joseph W. Hungerford, Conn.; Charles Jewett, Tenn.; Miss Mary K. Keith, Mass.; L.B. Kendall, R.I.; Rev. G.N. Killogg, Conn.; Rev. H.L. Kelsey, Conn.; Rev. George S. Kemp, Mass.; James O. Kendall, Mass.; Dea. A. Kingsbury, Conn.; Edmund F. Leland, Mass.; Rev. J.R. McLean, Texas; Russel Manchester, R.I.; Dea. George T. Meech, Conn.; Rev. and Mrs. George A. Miller, Conn.; L.A. Morgan, Conn.; James A. Morse, N.H.; Rev. Chas. S. Murkland, N.H.; Dea. and Mrs. B.A. Nourse, Mass.; Rev. Bernard Paine, Conn.; Mrs. C.M. Palmer, Mass.; Rev. C.W. Park, Conn.; Rev. H.J. Patrick, Mass.;. Mrs. Abner C. Paul, Mass.; Dea. Charles Peck, Conn.; Mrs. Kathleen M. Phipps, Mass.; Rev. Charles M. Pierce, Mass.; George W. Pike, Conn.; Herbert W. Pillsbury, Mass.; Rev. E.S. Potter, Mass.; Samuel Prentice and wife, Conn.; Rev. and Mrs. A.J. Quick, Conn.; Rev. George W. Reynolds, Me.; George E. Richards, Mass.; Elisha F. Richardson, Mass.; Rev. C.B Riggs, Tenn.; Mrs. George H. Rugg, Mass.; Rev. Moses T. Runnels, N.H.; Lawson A. Seagrave, Mass.; Rev. John Scott, Conn.; J.H. Shedd, Mass.; George W. Shelton, Conn.; Rev. Thomas Simms, Conn.; Dea. P. Skinner, Jr., R.I.; Rev. J.D. Smiley, R.I.; Miss Augusta Smith, Mass.; Arthur M. Stone, Mass.; Rev. Chas. B. Strong, Conn.; Rev. George W. Stearns, Mass.; Alexander Storer, Mass.; J.W. Stickney, Mass.; Mrs. E.M. Strong, Conn.; Mrs. Wm. H. Swett, Mass.; Caleb T. Symmes, Mass.; Rev. Wm. M. Thayer, Mass.; Miss M. Estelle Vance, Mass.; Rev. M. Van Horne, R.I.; Rev. R.W. Wallace, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Walter, Conn.; Dea. Francis J. Ward, Mass.; Mrs. Francis J. Ward, Mass.; Dr. Lucien C. Warner, N. Y.; Rev. James Wells, Mass.; Rev. C.A. White, Mass.; Rev. John E. Wildey, R.I.; Rev. Preston B. Wing, Mass.; Chas. P. Wood, Mass.; Dea. Franklin Wood, N.Y.; Mr. and Mrs. Clinton A. Woodbury, Me.; Rev. W. Woodbury, Mass.; Rev. J.J. Woolley, R.I.; Rev. Wm. H. Woodwell, Mass. Life Members. H.N. Ackerman, Mass.; Rev. F.H. Adams, R.I.; Rev. W.S. Alexander, Mass.; J.H. Bailey, Conn.; Rev. F.W. Baldwin, Mass.; Rev. John W. Ballantine, Mass.; Rev. Luther H. Barber, Conn.; Dea. H.W. Barrows, Mass.; A.C. Barstow, R.I.; Miss Mattie R. Barstow, Conn.; Rev. A.F. Beard, KY.; Rev. Edwin S. Beard, Conn.; Mrs. E.H. Beckwith, N.J.; Miss L. Beckwith, Conn.; David Birge, Conn.; Rev. J.T. Blades, Mass.; George Booth, R.I.; Rev. James Brand, O.; Chas. N. Brown, N.Y.; Mrs. Chas. N. Brown, N.Y.; Dea. T.F. Buckingham, Conn.; Mrs. Delia E. Bucklin, Mass.; Mr. J.I.W. Burgess, Mass.; Miss Anna M. Cahill, Tenn.; Dea. Samuel B., Capen, Mass.; Rev. DeWitt S. Clark, Mass.; Walter C. Clark, Conn.; John H. Cleveland, Conn.; Rev. J.W. Cooper, Conn.; Robert Cushman, R.I.; Rev. M.M.G. Dana, Mass.; George P. Davis, Mass.; Rev. and Mrs. E. Dawes, Mass.; Rev. P.B. Davis, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Day, Mass.; Rev. Oliver S. Dean, Mass.; Rev. Morton Dexter, Mass.; Rev. Samuel W. Dike, Mass.; John B. Doolittle, Neb.; Charles Duncan, Mass.; Rev. W.R. Eastman, Mass.; Miss D.E. Emerson, N.Y.; Rev. John L. Ewell, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Fairbanks, Vt.; Rev. S.H. Fellows, Conn.; Rev. L.Z. Ferris, R.I.; Milton M. Fisher, Mass.; Miss M.M. Fitch, Mass.; Rev. Edward T. Fleming, Ga.; Rev. Addison P. Foster, Mass.; Mrs. Jacob Fullarton, Mass.; Mrs. E.A.H. Grosvenor, Mass.; Rev. Alexander Hall, Conn.; Mrs. Mortimer Hall, Mass.; Rev. George E. Hall, N.H.; Rev. C.H. Hamlin, Mass.; Samuel R. Heywood, Mass.; Miss Lucy J. Harrison, Conn.; Rev. W.D. Hart, R.I.; Rev. Allen Hazen, Mass.; Miss Alma J. Herbert, N.H.; Rev. John W. Hird, Mass.; Elisha Holbrook, Mass.; Mrs. Farrington Holbrook, Mass.; Dea. Henry T. Holt, N.Y.; Rev. Rowland B. Howard, Mass.; H.W. Hubbard, N.Y.; Rev. and Mrs. W.T. Hutchins, Conn.; Rev. A.H. Johnson, Mass.; Rev. H.E. Johnson, R.I.; Mrs. Loring Johnson, Mass.; Rev. Samuel Johnson, N.Y,; Rev. R.R. Kendall, Mass.; Rev. Arthur Little, Ill.; Rev. G.E. Lovejoy, Mass.; Rev. J.H. Lyon, R.I.; Rev. P.W. Lyman, Mass.; Rev. A.P. Marion, Mass.; Roland Mather, Conn.; Chas. L. Mead, N.Y.; Rev. D.O. Mears, Mass.; Rev. and Mrs. C.E. Milliken, N.H.; Rev. Eldridge Mix, Mass.; Elbert B. Monroe, Conn.; Rev. George W. Moore, D.C.; Mrs. Woodbridge Odlin, Mass.; Rev. Henry A. Osgood, Mass.; Rev. Wm. S. Palmer, Conn.; Rev. Leonard S. Parker, Mass.; Mrs. H.P. Parsons, Conn.; Rev. Charles H. Peck, Conn.; Rev. A.B. Peffers, Mass.; George F. Platt, Conn.; Mrs. Willard Pettee, Mass.; Rev. and Mrs. S.W. Powell, Mass.; Dea. Augustus Pratt, Mass.; Rev. Lewellyn Pratt, Conn.; Samuel A. Pratt, Mass.; Rev. George H. Reed, Mass.; Rev. A.M. Rice, Mass.; Mrs. E.B. Rice, Mass.; A.H. Richardson, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. C.A. Richardson, Mass.; Rev. N. Richardson, R.I.; Mrs. M.E. Richardson, Mass.; Rev. James Richmond, Mass.; Mrs. R.B. Risk, Mass.; Rev. Edward P. Root, Conn.; Rev. Jos. E. Roy, Ill.; Dea. E.A. Russell, Conn.; Rev. C.J. Ryder, Mass.; Rev. G.S.F. Savage, Ill.; Rev. George H. Scott, Mass.; Rev. Charles W. Shelton, Conn.; F.C. Sherman, Conn.; Rev. J.E. Smith, Tenn.; L.B. Smith, R.I.; Rev. C.M. Southgate, Mass.; Rev. Wayland Spaulding, N.Y.; Albert Spooner, Mass.; S.A. Spooner, Mass.; Miss Mary N. Shaw, Mass.; Mrs. A.S. Steele, Tenn.; Rev. Geo. E. Street, N.H.; Rev. M.E. Strieby, N.Y.; Rev. J.M. Sturtevant, O.; Rev. and Mrs. R.M. Taft, Mass.; Dea. and Mrs. Edwin Talcott, Conn.; E.O. Taylor, Mass.; Rev. Geo. A. Tewksbury, Mass.; J.C. Thorn, R.I.; Rev. L. Thompson, Mass.; Rev. John R. Thurston, Mass.; Rev. John E. Tuttle, Mass.; Dea. Peter E. Vose, Me.: Mrs. Caroline L. Ward, Mass.; Rev. William Hayes Ward, N.J.; Mrs. L.C. Warner, N.Y.; John H. Washburn, N.Y.; John Watrous, Conn.; Rev. Albert Watson, N.H.; Mrs. Elizabeth H. Watson, R.I.; Dea. Eben Webster, Mass.; Mrs. L.A. Weld, Conn.; Rev. Isaac C. White, Mass.; Dea. Jonas White, Mass.; Edward A. Williams, Conn.; Mrs. Mary H. Williams, Mass.; Miss S. Maria Williams, Conn.; S.H. Williams, Mass.; Rev. Clarence H. Wilson, N.Y.; Mark H. Wood, R.I.; Dea. Frank Wood, R.I.; George M. Woodward, Mass.; Mrs. George M. Woodward, Mass.; Rev. Henry D. Woodworth, Mass.; Rev. Walter E.C. Wright, Ky. Visitors. H.T. Aborn, Mass.; Rev. E.W. Allen, Mass.; John G. Allen, Mass.; Miss Mary E. Averill, Conn.; Miss Maria Bachellor, Mass.; Miss C.A.K. Bancroft, Mass.; Miss A.B. Barrows, Conn.; Miss S.F. Batchelder, N.H.; Mrs. Abby S. Bates, R.I.; John R. Beecroft, N.Y.; Rev. Howard Billman, Conn.; Mrs. G.N. Bird, Mass.; Miss Clara B. Blackinton, Mass.; Rev. Charles H. Bliss, Ill.; Mrs. H. P. Bliss, R.I.; Miss Rebecca Bliss, R.I.; Mrs. George Booth, R.I.; E.P. Borden, Mass.; Mrs. S.C. Bourne, Mass.; Mrs. E.P. Boynton, Mass.; A.G. Brewer, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Wm. P. Buffum, R.I.; Miss R. Bullard, Mass.; Mrs. Charles F. Burgess, Conn.; Mrs. E.H. Cady, Conn.; Miss Mary J. Capron, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. E.W. Cain, Mass.; Rev. J.H. Childs, Mass.; Miss Mary C. Collins, Dak.; Mrs. A.B. Cook, R.I.; Miss Katie A. Craig, Mass.; Rev. A.W. Curtis, Ala.; William L. Curtis, O.; Miss Anne Cushman, Mass.; Mrs. P.B. Davis, Mass.; Mrs. O.L. Dean, Mass.; T.R. Dennison, Mass.; Edward W. Doolittle, Neb.; Mrs. Charles Duncan, Mass.; Joseph R. Dunham, R.I.; Miss Anna M. Dyer, Mass.; Miss S.S. Evans, Ala.; Mrs. Addison P. Foster, Mass.; Mrs. A. Fearing, Mass.; Mrs. L.L. Ferris, R.I.; Rev. J.L. Fowle, Mass.; Miss Emma R. Freeman, R.I.; P.H. Gardner, R.I.; Miss Mary A. George, N.H.; Rev. Simeon Gilbert, Ill.; Joshua H. Given, Pa.; Miss Charlotte L. Gleason, Mass.; Mrs. J.R. Goodale, R.I.; Mrs. C.L. Greene, Mass.; Rev. David Gregg, Mass.; Mrs. M.F. Hardy, Mass.; Rev. Elijah Harmon, Mass.; Dea. G.E. Herrick and wife, Mass.; Mrs. S.R. Heywood, Mass.; George Wm. Hill, R.I.; Rev. H.R. Hoisington, Conn.; Dea. E. Francis Holt, Mass.; Mrs. Henry T. Holt, N.Y.; Mrs. George M. Howe, Me.; Miss B.A. Howe, Mass.; Mrs. W.P. Hubbard, Me.; Miss. A. Hunt, Mass.; Rev. Henry S. Huntington, Me.; Mrs. H.M. Hurd, Mass.; O.M. Hyde, Conn.; Rev. Frank E. Jenkins, N.Y.; Loring Johnson, Mass.; Mrs. Samuel Johnson, N.Y.; Mrs. Charlotte Johnson, Mass.; Miss Olive M. Johnson, Mass.; Miss Hannah N. Johnson, Mass.; Mrs. D.E. Jones, Conn.; Mrs. Mary A. Jones, Mass.; Mrs. George S. Kemp, Mass.; Mrs. Jane Kerr, Mass.; Rev. Evarts Kent, Ga.; Mrs. A.E. Kingman, Minn.; Mrs. A. Kingsbury, Conn.; Chas. H. Leonard, M.D., R.I.; Rev. Edwin Leonard, Conn.; Mr. and Mrs. Jas. M. Linsley, Conn.; E.C. Marsh, Maas.; Mr. and Mrs. C.H. May, Mass.; Mrs. C.M. Merriam, Mass.; William Merrill, Mass.; Miss Anna Metcalf, Mass.; Mrs. Ella S. Moore, D.C.; Miss E. Morrison, Mass.; Mrs. P.H. Nichols, Mass.; Rev. and Mrs. A.F. Newton, Mass.; Mrs. Henry B. Noyes, Conn.; Mrs. C.P. Paige, Mass.; Miss Sarah M. Paine, R.I.; Mrs. C.M. Palmer, Mass.; Mrs. S.E. Parker, Mass.; Rev. R.M. Peacock, Mass.; Mrs. Charles H. Peck, Conn.; Miss C.E. Perkins, Mass.; Rev. George A. Perkins, Mass.; Miss Elizabeth B. Pierce, Mass.; Miss E. Plimpton, Ga.; Miss M. Ella Porter, Conn.; Mrs. Daniel Potter, Mass.; Harriett R. Pratt, Mass.; Mrs. Samuel A. Pratt, Mass.; Mrs. Maria B. Prescott, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Rice, Conn.; Mrs. Robert Richmond, Mass.; Rev. Augustine Root, Mass.; I.H. Rowland, Conn.; Mrs. M.M. Russegue, Mass.; Mrs. S.H. Ryder, Mass.; Mr. and Mrs. H.W. Sadd, Conn.; Mrs. F.A. Sadd, Conn.; Mrs. G.S.F. Savage, Ill.; Mrs. C.W. Shelton, Conn.; O.L. Slader, R.I.; Henry D. Smith, Conn.; Rev. Stephen Smith, Mass.; Eliza Smith, Mass.; Albert K. Smiley, N.Y.; Miss M.W. Staples, Mass.; Miss Angelina Stebbins, Mass.; Mrs. E.P. Stetson, Mass.; Rev. Edward G. Stone, N.H.; H.A. Street, Conn.; Mr. and Mrs. William Swift, Conn.; Rev. C. Terry, Mass.; Rev. G.H. Tilton, Mass.; Miss C.E. Warren, Mass.; Tyler Waters, Mass.; Mrs. Eben Webster, Mass.; D.W. Whittlesey, Conn.; Mrs. C.R. Wilcox, R.I.; Mrs. Randale, Mass.; Mrs. Winslow, Mass.; Miss C.L. Wood, Mass.; Charles P. Wood, Mass.; Rev. F.G. Woodworth, Miss. The Nominating Committee was appointed as follows: Rev. James G. Vose, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. S.L. Blake, D.D., of Connecticut; Hon. Franklin Fairbanks, of Vermont; Rev. Henry J. Patrick, of Massachusetts; C.L. Mead, Esq., of New York. The Treasurer, H.W. Hubbard, Esq., presented his annual report, with schedules and the certificates of the auditors, which was accepted and referred to the Committee on Finance. Rev. James G. Vose, D.D., of Providence, made an address of welcome, which was responded to by the President. The Survey of the Field by the Executive Committee was read by Secretary A.F. Beard, D.D., and was accepted, and the parts were referred to the special committees to be appointed. The Association, led by Secretary Strieby, united in a concert of prayer with workers in the field. The Nominating Committee reported the following committees, which were appointed: Committee on Business.--Rev. M. McG. Dana, D.D., of Massachusetts; E.B. Monroe, Esq., of Connecticut; Rev. F.F. Emerson, D.D., of Rhode Island; Rev. P.B. Davis, of Massachusetts; Rev. John Barstow, of Massachusetts. Committee on Finance.--A.L. Williston, Esq., of Massachusetts; L.C. Warner, M.D., of New York; Roland Mather, Esq., of Connecticut; S.S. Marples, Esq., of New York; F.W. Carpenter, Esq., of Rhode Island. Committee of Arrangements.--Rev. J.H. McIlvaine, D.D., of Rhode Island; G.E. Luther, Esq., of Rhode Island; John McAuslan, Esq., of Rhode Island; J. G. Parkhurst, Esq., of Rhode Island; Asa Lyman, Esq., of Rhode Island; Z. Williams, Esq., of Rhode Island. Benediction by the President. TUESDAY EVENING. The meeting was called to order at 7,30 P.M. It was voted that the programme as printed be adopted. The devotional exercises were conducted by Rev. James L. Hill, of Massachusetts. The annual sermon was preached by Rev. Arthur Little, D.D., of Illinois; from Isaiah vi: 1-8. The sermon was followed by the administration of the Lord's Supper. The following named persons officiated at the service; Ministers:--Rev. Robert W. Wallace, of Massachusetts, and Rev. George F.S. Savage, D.D., of Illinois; Deacons:--McAuslan, Pabodie, Olney, Spicer, Barrows and Fuller of Rhode Island, Hubbard of Maine, and Fairbanks of Vermont. At the close of the Communion, adjournment was taken to Wednesday at 9 A.M. WEDNESDAY MORNING. The prayer-meeting from 8 to 9 o'clock, was led by Rev. Rowland B. Howard, of Massachusetts. At 9 o'clock the Association was called to order by the President, who conducted the devotional exercises. The records of the previous day were read and approved, A paper, on "American Freedmen and African Evangelization," was read by Secretary M.E. Strieby, D.D. A paper, on "The Hopefulness of Indian Missions as Seen in the Light of History," was read by Secretary A.F. Beard, D.D. Voted that the papers read by the Secretaries be referred to the appropriate committees. The Nominating Committee reported the following special committees who were appointed: Committee on the Chinese.--Rev. S. Gilbert, D.D., of Illinois; Rev. M.M.G. Dana. D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. Geo. A. Tewksbury, of Massachusetts; Rev. F.L. Ferguson, of Connecticut; Rev. R.W. Wallace, of Massachusetts. Committee on the Indians.--S.B. Capen, Esq., of Massachusetts; Rev. A.P. Foster, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. John L. Ewell, of Massachusetts, Rev. John E. Tuttle, of Massachusetts. Committee on Educational Work.--Rev. Llewellyn Pratt, D.D., of Connecticut; Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant, D.D., of Ohio; Rev. George E. Hall, of New Hampshire; H.D. Smith, Esq., of Connecticut; Stephen Ballard, Esq., of New York. A Memorial Service for Rev. James Powell, D.D., late Secretary of the Association, was held. Addresses were made by Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D.D., of Illinois, Rev. Geo. H. Ide, D.D., of Wisconsin; Secretary M.E. Strieby, D.D., and President Wm. M. Taylor, D.D. Rev. A.P. Foster, D.D., of Massachusetts, led in prayer. The report of the Committee on Chinese Work, Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D.D., Chairman, was presented, and an address was delivered by Rev. M. McG. Dana, D.D., of Massachusetts. An address on "The relations of the A.M.A. to Young People," was delivered by Rev. J.L. Hill, of Massachusetts. Recess was taken to 2 P.M. WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. The Association was called to order at 2 P.M. by the President. Rev. P.W. Lyman, of Massachusetts, offered prayer. A Paper on "Systematic Spending," was read by District Secretary C.J. Ryder. A report and address on the Indian Work, were made by S.B. Capen, Esq., of Massachusetts. Addresses were also made by Rev. A.P. Foster, D.D., of Massachusetts, and by Rev. C.W. Shelton, Financial Secretary for Indian Missions. The Nominating Committee nominated the following special committees, who were appointed: Committee on Mountain Work.--Rev. G.S. Burroughs, D.D., of Massachusetts; Rev. C.B. Riggs, of Tennessee; J.R. Gilmore, Esq., of Connecticut; Rev. Morton Dexter, of Massachusetts; Chas. Coffin, Esq., of Massachusetts. Committee on Church Work.--Rev. David Gregg, D.D., of Massachusetts, Rev, Stephen M. Newman, D.D., of the District of Columbia; Rev. Wm. Hayes Ward, D.D., of New Jersey; Frank Wood, Esq., of Massachusetts; R.L. Day, Esq., of Ohio. The Committee on Educational Work reported, and addresses were delivered in connection with the report, by the Chairman, Rev. Llewellyn Pratt, D.D., of Connecticut, and by Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant, D.D., of Ohio. An address on "The Church and the Color Line," was delivered by Rev. James Brand, D.D., of Ohio. Benediction by the President, and recess taken to 7:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY EVENING. The Association was called to order by the President, and Rev. George A. Tewksbury, D.D., of Massachusetts, offered prayer. An address was delivered by Mr. Joshua Given, an Indian theological student, giving the story of his own life; by Rev. Joseph E. Smith, of Tennessee, on "The Evils of Caste to the Colored Race"; by Rev. B.A. Imes, of Tennessee, on "The Evils of Secret Societies to the Colored Race"; by Rev, J.R. McLean of Texas, on "The Evils of Intemperance to the Colored Race." Adjourned to Thursday morning, at 9 o'clock. THURSDAY MORNING. The Prayer Meeting from 8 to 9 o'clock was led by Rev. James L. Fowle, Missionary of the American Board. The Association was called to order at 9 o'clock, and led in prayer by Rev. Wm. H. Ward, D.D., of New Jersey. The Rev. J.H. Ross, Assistant Recording Secretary, being called away, Rev. Frank E. Jenkins was appointed. The minutes of Wednesday were read and approved. A paper on "Our Indebtedness to the Negro During the War," was read by District Secretary J.E. Roy, D.D., of Chicago. Rev. George S. Burroughs, D.D., of Massachusetts, presented the report of the Committee on Mountain Work, following it with an address; Rev. C.B. Riggs of Tennessee, and James R. Gilmore of Connecticut, also addressed the Association on the same subject. Committees were appointed--on Secretary Strieby's paper, Wolcott Calkins, D.D., and Rev. O.S. Dean, of Massachusetts, and Hon. A.C. Barstow of Rhode Island; and on Secretary Beard's paper, Rev. Morton Dexter, Frank Wood, Esq., and Rev. John E. Tuttle, all of Massachusetts. Rev. Arthur Little, D.D., of Illinois, invited the Association to hold its next Annual Meeting with the New England Church in Chicago. The invitation was accepted by the President in behalf of the Executive Committee. The report of the Committee on Church Work, and an address, were made by Rev. David Gregg, D.D., of Massachusetts. Rev. Wm. Hayne Leavell, of Mississippi, made an address on "The Present Necessities of the Negro." Recess was taken until 2 P.M. THURSDAY AFTERNOON. The Association was called to order by Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D., a Vice-president, and prayer was offered by Rev. P.B. Davis, of Massachusetts. L.C. Warner, M.D., of New York, presented the report of the Finance Committee. Secretary Strieby then made the announcement of the gift to the Association of the largest donation ever made to a benevolent society by a living donor, $1,000,894.25, from Mr. Daniel Hand, of Guilford, Ct. Further statements were made by John H. Washburn, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee; and by Rev. D.O. Mears, D.D. The doxology was sung, and the following resolution was offered by Samuel Holmes, Esq., Chairman of the Finance Committee, and was adopted by a rising vote. _Resolved._--That we recognize the goodness of Almighty God in putting it into the heart of Mr. Daniel Hand to make the munificent gift of more than one million dollars for the education of the colored youth of the South, to be expended under the direction of the American Missionary Association. We rejoice in the flood of beneficent influence which will flow through all the years from this noble source. We gratefully accept the trust put upon us, promising to use it as a stimulus for increased activity on the part of the Christian Church, and we offer our prayer to the Divine Father, that he may abundantly bless the remaining years of our honored friend with the grace of His Spirit and the joy that follows the accomplishment of the desires of a heart burdened with the love of our suffering and ignorant fellow men. Prayer was offered by Rev. Thomas A. Emerson, of Clinton, Conn. The Association then adjourned to the chapel. The Nominating Committee reported the following list of officers for the ensuing year, and they were unanimously elected. President, REV. WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D., LL.D., N.Y. Vice-Presidents: REV. A.J.F. BEHRENDS, D.D., N.Y. REV. ALEX. MCKENZIE, D.D., Mass. REV. F.A. NOBLE, D.D., Ill. REV. D.O. MEARS, D.D., Mass. REV. HENRY HOPKINS, D.D., Mo. Corresponding Secretaries. REV. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. REV. A.F. BEARD, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Recording Secretary: Rev. M.E. STRIEBY, D.D., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Treasurer: H.W. HUBBARD, Esq., 56 Reade Street, N.Y. Auditors: PETER McCARTEE, CHAS. P. PEIRECE. Executive Committee. For Three Years. J.E. RANKIN, J.W. COOPER, EDMUND L. CHAMPLIN, WM. H. WARD, JOHN H. WASHBURN, For Two Years.--CHARLES A. HULL. The report of the Committee on Secretary Strieby's paper was presented by Rev. W. Calkins, D.D., of Massachusetts, and adopted. The report of the Committee on Secretary Beard's paper was presented by Rev. Morton Dexter, of Massachusetts, and adopted. Recess was then taken to 7.30 P.M. THURSDAY EVENING. The Association was called to order at 7:30 P.M., and prayer was offered by Rev. Thomas Laurie, D.D., of Providence. The minutes for the day were read and approved, and the Secretary was authorized to complete them at the close of this service and to publish them under the direction of the Executive Committee. Rev. David O. Mears, D.D., of Massachusetts, addressed the Association, and was followed by Rev. A.J.F. Behrends, D.D., of New York, and the closing address was made by the President. The following vote of thanks was unanimously passed after appropriate remarks by District Secretary C.J. Ryder. We approach the conclusion of this Annual Convention of the American Missionary Association with grateful hearts for all the way by which God has led it from the day when it crossed the brook with its staff of testimony to this time of extended influence and usefulness, with humble rejoicing both in the intellectual and spiritual fellowship of this meeting, and also with a special sense of responsibility under the burden of obligation which God has placed upon us by this unprecedented enlargement of our stewardship. We wish to express our devout thanksgiving for the grace of hospitality which has been bestowed in such abounding measure upon the churches of Christ and the good people of this city of Providence, with whose name in its divine significance we are to associate this peculiarly impressive anniversary. We recall the delightful welcome which greeted us at the opening of these services, only to be impressed with the assurance that this Union Congregational Society and the other churches of the city were not at all forgetful to "entertain strangers." Their love indeed, made us at once to feel at home in their households, and in the midst of their delightful families. _Resolved_, That to the local committees, especially the indefatigable Secretary, to the pastors of all the churches, to the choir and leaders of the services of song in the house of the Lord, to the local and metropolitan press for its generous reporting of these meetings to the large congregation outside by its multiform and winged processes, and to the lines of transportation which have made us the recipients of their courtesy, we express our great indebtedness with sincere thanks. And so, in behalf of the members, officers and missionaries and friends of this great Association, we say once more: We thank you for your generous entertainment and crave for you the recompense for such ministering in the name of our Divine Master. Rev. J.H. McIlvaine, D.D., of Providence, pastor of the church, responded. The Doxology was then sung, and, after the benediction by the President, the Association adjourned. HENRY A. HAZEN, Secretary. FRANK E. JENKINS, Ass't Secretary. * * * * * SUMMARY OF TREASURER'S REPORT. EXPENDITURES. THE SOUTH. For Church and Educational Work, Land, Buildings, etc. ...$226,345.95 THE CHINESE. For Superintendent, Teachers, Rent, etc. ...8,920.90 THE INDIANS. For Church and Educational Work, Buildings, etc. ...48,967.08 FOREIGN MISSIONS. For Superintendent, Missionaries, etc., for Mendi Mission, income paid to the Society of the United Brethren in Christ ...4,746.68 For Support of Aged Missionary, Jamaica, W.I. ...250.00 PUBLICATIONS For American Missionary, (23,400 monthly), Annual Reports, Clerk Hire, Postage, etc. ...6,511.21 AGENCIES NEW YORK.--Corresponding Secretary, Traveling Expenses, Circulars, etc. ...2,543.93 NEW YORK.--Woman's Bureau, Secretary, Traveling Expenses, Circulars, etc. ...1,350.75 FOR EASTERN DISTRICT.--District Secretary, Clerk Hire, Traveling Expenses, Printing, Rent, Postage, Stationery, etc. ...4,845.68 FOR WESTERN DISTRICT.--District Secretary, Agent, Clerk Hire, Traveling Expenses, etc. ...5,999.02 ADMINISTRATION. For Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer and Clerk Hire ...11,720.00 MISCELLANEOUS. For Rent, Care of Rooms, Furniture, Repairs, Fuel and Light, Books and Stationery, Rent of Safe Deposit Box, Clerk Hire, Postage, Traveling Expenses, Expressage, Telegrams, etc. ...4,985.84 Annual Meeting ...770.28 Wills and Estates ...171.82 Annuity Account ...630.94 Amounts refunded, sent to Treasurer by mistake ...28.35 ----------- $328,788.43 =========== RECEIPTS. Balance on hand September 30, 1887 2,193.80 From Churches, Sabbath Schools, Missionary Societies and Individuals ...$202,266.76 Estates and Legacies ...47,636.20 Income, Sundry Funds ...10,936.46 Tuition and Public Funds ...33,180.86 Rents ...496.40 United States Government for Subsistence for Indians ...18,186.74 Slater Fund ...8,300.00 ----------- $320,953.42 ----------- 323,147.22 Debt Balance September 30, 1888 5,641.21 ----------- 328,788.43 =========== ENDOWMENT FUNDS. Estate of Rev. Benjamin Foltz, late of Rockford, Ill., in part ...$500.00 Howard Carter, of Baldwinsville, N.Y., for Education of Students for the Ministry ...500.00 --------- 1,000.00 * * * * * The receipts of Berea College, Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and Atlanta University, are added below, as presenting at one view the contributions for the general work in which the Association is engaged: American Missionary Association ...$320,953.42 Endowment Funds ...1,000.00 ------------- $321,953.42 Berea College ...13,908.30 Hampton N. and A. Institute ...70,379.44 Atlanta University, (not acknowledged in above account) ...7,955.00 ----------- Grand Total, $414,196.16 =========== H.W. HUBBARD, Treasurer, 59 Reade Street, New York. * * * * * REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. * * * * * REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL WORK. BY REV. LEWELLYN PRATT, D.D., CHAIRMAN. The report of the Educational Work of this Association shows steady advance, in spite of straitened means. New responsibilities have been assumed in consequence of gifts of school buildings, and of the appeals from the people themselves, taxing--beyond the receipts from the churches--the resources of the Association. An important feature of the Educational Work is represented in the twenty Normal Schools, from which have gone out seven thousand young men and women now engaged in teaching at the South. It is probable that nearly half a million of scholars have been under their care. These, together with the Normal Departments in our chartered institutions, Talladega College, Atlanta University, Straight University, Tillotson Institute, Tougaloo University and Fisk University, (with Hampton Institute, Berea College and Howard University, formerly under the care of the Association) are doing a great work in training teachers, as well as leaders in industrial pursuits and in the professions of the law and the ministry. In all these, the fact, now so generally received in mission work, is fully recognized, that the leaders and teachers of a people must be found among themselves. They have abundantly proved their eagerness for education, their capacity for scholarship and leadership, and their ability to meet the problems resting upon the future of their race and of the nation. This is true, also, of the schools among the Indians and the Chinese. Still, the work done by the Society and by all other agencies--State and denominational--has not kept pace with the growth of population, and official statistics in some portions of the South show that the percentage of illiteracy is steadily increasing. In Louisiana, for instance, in the last eight years--_i.e._, from 1880 to 1888--the number of illiterate voters increased from 102,933 to 126,938, changing the relative percentage from 52.3 per cent. who could read and write, and 47.7 per cent. who could not read and write--in 1880--to 49.2 per cent. who can read and write and 50.8 per cent. who cannot read and write in 1888. During that period, of the new white voters a majority were illiterate (7.502 : 7.609); of the new negro voters ten out of eleven were illiterate (1.588 : 16.387). Facts such as these call for great enlargement in the direction of common school education, and the number of teachers; make imperative demands upon State Governments; and lead many to appeal to the National Government for relief. They certainly justify the efforts of this Association and necessitate a great increase of the yearly contributions from churches and individuals. Measures should be taken to supplant the notion that by moderate annual contributions to ordinary schools for a few years the great task can be accomplished of lifting up a race that had been held in bondage for centuries, that started in its career of freedom in absolute destitution and that pursues its course here under many disabilities; and preparing liberators, missionaries, guides and saviours for the Dark Continent. At the same time, it is the belief of your committee that the pressing need of the hour is the fuller development of the leading institutions already established and larger equipment for the arduous work set before the American people in our Southern States. For this end, steps should be taken towards securing their permanent endowment. While in every way the general work of reaching the masses and saving them from their illiteracy is to be pressed, the time has come to place these leading schools upon a firmer foundation and to make them more conspicuous as centres. For this they need to be amply endowed and maintained with steadily advancing educational courses, suited to giving those who are to become the leaders of a great people a broad and comprehensive education, abreast with the best in the times in which they are to do their work. It is time to take comprehensive views and to plan for years to come. Neither this generation nor the next is to see the end of the special work to be done to fit the freedmen successfully to meet the conditions of their freedom. It has required centuries to qualify the Anglo-Saxon people for freedom; and we must expect that generation after generation will pass, even with the benefits of our experiments, experience and methods, before this people, upon whom the duties of free men have been thrust, can successfully discharge them. There is call for great patience, for far-reaching plans, for large beneficence. This question of the training of these eight millions of people is one of the most difficult set before the American people, and is worthy of the best thought of statesmen, patriots, philanthropists and Christians. For our encouragement is the ardor of the people themselves; their readiness to receive an education; their position in a republic now far advanced; the progress already made; the growing interest in the States where they are most numerous to provide for them the means of a common school education; the army of teachers already in the field. Believing in a wise Providence over-ruling the present and the future, we regard the problems before us, though great, not insoluble to faithful, wise and patient Christian effort along the lines upon which this Association has wrought. We commend the wisdom and the foresight of this Association in the planting of these institutions of learning in favorable positions, its judicious economy in their management and its great skill in steadily advancing their scope and capability with insufficient resources and equipment. Upon these foundations the work should be carried on, and large and permanent universities should be reared; and we commend these to the Christian people for increased annual gifts and larger permanent endowments that the great undertaking fail not. * * * * * REPORT ON CHURCH WORK. BY REV. DAVID GREGG, D.D., CHAIRMAN. The report of your Executive Committee on church work submitted for our review is very brief. There is a statement or two and a few figures. It puts things in the very best light, and uses figures in the most telling way. Its very brevity should act as a call to the churches for more means, and more men, and more prayer, and more enterprise. If the churches had done more there would have been more to tabulate. The report reads: Four new churches organized; 972 added to Christian fellowship; 2 church edifices built; 1 church edifice enlarged; 2 parsonages built; a one-year-old church the centre of four Sunday-schools filled with scholars who never before attended religious instruction, and ten churches blessed with a revival of religion. Four new churches organized! Only four? And yet the territory awaiting churches holds twelve States, and each State is an empire. Only four? And yet the darkest spot in the republic is crying for the light of the Gospel. Only four? And yet three-fourths of the illiteracy of the whole nation must be grappled with. Four new churches versus ten millions of immortal souls! What are these among so many? This is the question which the report of the American Missionary Association for 1888 sends through the length and breadth of American Congregationalism. To keep us in cheer the Executive Committee puts these facts by the side of the four new churches: First--"In each school" (and there are seventy-six schools) "we have an incipient church." This predicts a golden future. "Each school is a torch of Christ in a dark place." This means advancing illumination. Second--There are one hundred and thirty-two old churches fully organized and completely vitalized. All of these are centred at strategic points. Third--There is a living army of 8,452 adults, and of 17,114 children carrying the banner of the Lord. These give themselves, and give their substance, to the cause of Christ, and to the good of their fellowmen, in a way worthy of emulation. Fourth--These churches and this army are under, and are led by pastors who are for the most part the children of this Association. This means thorough equipment, and discipline, and effectiveness, and aggressive work. When we look at what has been done in the line of church work in our vast field, and compare it with our limited resources, we are satisfied and speak the praises of the noble men and women in the field and in the office. We have garnered fruit grandly proportionated to the planting. But when we look at the work which has been done and contrast it with what remains to be done, we are far from being satisfied. Instinctively we are impelled to repeat the call of the prophet in the hearing of the Church of Christ: "Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Proportioning the means used to the products reaped, we look forward with hope, expecting a future that shall correspond with the promises of God. The statistics in this department of the Association's labors may look like "Holy Trifles;" and comparatively they are "Holy Trifles;" but so is the "handful of corn" in the Messianic psalm, which depicts the future growth of Christendom. The things tabulated in these statistics are the "handful of corn" in our Southland, but as we contemplate them, we may use the old, old song of the church and sing ourselves into an ecstasy: "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like the cedars on Lebanon; and they of the city shall flourish like the grass of the earth. His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him and all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen." * * * * * REPORT ON MOUNTAIN WORK. BY REV. G.S. BURROUGHS, CHAIRMAN. Your committee, to whom those portions of the General Survey relating to the work of the Association among the mountain whites has been referred, are strongly convinced that this work is one of great and growing importance. We rejoice in the evidence that such is also the conviction of the management of the Association. The territory occupied by these mountain people, consisting of between three and four hundred counties, covers an area twice the size of New England. Its population is equal to that of New England, excepting Massachusetts. Its resources, in mineral deposits and in valuable timber, are varied and rich. It is being rapidly opened up to trade, and thus indirectly to civilization. Its inhabitants are ready to welcome outside influences, and they are in large degree susceptible of those that are good. These facts, we believe, cannot receive too careful attention. We are deeply impressed with the great destitution of these people as regards intellectual, moral and spiritual things. Poor in the extreme as far as their physical wants are concerned, they are still poorer in reference to the wants of their minds and souls. So great is their poverty in these particulars, that, in large measure, they do not, until approached in Christian kindness, realize it. They are without education, and without true religion; without schools and without churches. Practically, they do not know the Sabbath; they are in utter want and ignorance of those ordinary means of grace which are as familiar to us as the sunshine and the rain. The violence and social confusion which are to be expected under these circumstances are prevalent. Your committee rejoice that the day of small things, in our work in this field, is already becoming the day of larger things, with a wide outlook into a permanent and brighter future. In two normal schools, two academies, five common schools and twenty churches the few loaves and fishes seem to be at hand. "But what are they among so many?" We are grateful for the enlargement which the past year has disclosed, for the new church and school building, find the rapidly advancing dormitory and boarding hall at Pleasant Hill, Tenn., and for the slightly increased accommodations in the Grand View Normal Institute, but we see clearly that enlargement only necessitates greater enlargement. The meagreness of the supply renders the destitution more manifest. The little which has been done, and well done, only gives louder voice to the demand _to do_. One of the most encouraging features of the work, and one which we believe should be particularly emphasized, is the possibility of its comparatively speedy self-support, if it be pushed forward rapidly. It is a work which must be done to-day, and it can be done because these people, even in their poverty, will do their part. This is abundantly shown, not only by their disposition regarding it, but also by their deeds in its behalf. The influence of the work among the mountain whites upon the general Southern work of the Association should be carefully recognized. Here is a vantage point which can be carried, and which must be carried for the success of our great campaign in the South. To neglect this present duty is to be culpable regarding the future of the Association's activity. Problems of caste and questions bound up with them, can, at least in part, be settled in this field. Those needed concrete illustrations, which will tend most powerfully toward their general settlement, can here be furnished. We do not believe that the conquest of the West is of more importance to our Home Mission work than is the conquest of these Southern highlands to that of the A.M.A. It is our opinion, therefore, that there should be in this department steady and rapid advance, and that it should no longer be tided along. We fear that the facts regarding the peculiar character of this mountain work are not sufficiently known, and that its bearing upon the general work of the Association is not adequately realized. We feel that a special examination of this field may wisely be commended to those who would devise liberal things with a view to special gifts for institutions of learning. The church and the school, the missionary and the teacher must go together into this territory. Who will place a Christian college among the mountain whites? We give thanks for the spared life of a trusty and consecrated worker in this field. With the earnest prayer for means to send and employ them, let there be joined the petition for many workers possessed of a like spirit of earnestness and fidelity. * * * * * REPORT ON INDIAN WORK. BY S.B. CAPEN, ESQ., CHAIRMAN. It is not the intention of your committee to spend more than a moment of the time allotted to it in speaking of the details of the work of this Association among the Indian tribes. It is a pleasure to note in the Executive Committee's report that it is in the fullest sympathy with the increased and increasing interest in the solution of our Indian problem. It has more scholars under its care than ever before, and is steadily increasing its buildings and its facilities for doing its work. The four new stations provided for at the Northfield gathering call especially for our gratitude. But why enlarge upon these particulars? The work of this Association has been spread before the Christian world in so many reports that all know of its great success. Its preachers and teachers, who have given their lives to this work with such courage and devotion, are also known, and it only needs to be said in a word, that the year that has closed and whose review is now being taken, has been one of great blessing and power. We approve of what it has done and we commend it for the future without reserve. We would rather occupy our time, if we may, in looking at this whole Indian question, hoping that we may arouse a more universal interest, and cause, thereby, to flow into the treasury of this Society the funds which shall enable it to enlarge and broaden its work and hasten the complete Christianizing of our Indian tribes. For let it be said while I have your freshest attention, that it is the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not education or civilization, that is to solve this problem; and all I have to say is to lead up to this thought. Wherever modern civilization without religion has touched the barbarian it has been to curse him. The blood of every American ought to tingle at the thought of the foul stain upon our national honor because of the treatment the Indian has received. General Sherman has told us that we have made more than one thousand treaties with him, but the United States Government has never kept one of these treaties, if there was anything to be made by breaking it; and the Indian has never broken one, unless he has first had an excuse in some cruel wrong from the white man. No wonder that the Sioux have hesitated to sign their treaty. Do you not blush at one of the reasons for this hesitation? Because they doubt whether we can be trusted. This boasted American Republic is to them a nation of liars. I am glad to speak for these men who have been, so cruelly wronged. Here before we had any rights, they have been steadily driven back before our civilization as it has advanced from the Atlantic and Pacific shores. While our ears have ever been open to the cry of distress the world over, the silent Indian moan has passed, too often unheeded. We have made him a prisoner upon the reservation, and when we have wanted his land we have taken it and put him on some we did not want just then. His appeal, when in suffering and distress, has been stifled by those who can make the most money out of him as he is; and if hungry and in desperation he leaves his reservation, we shoot him. We have put him in the control of an agent, whose authority is as absolute as the Czar's. We have kept from him the motive to be different and he has been literally a man without a country and without a hope. Multitudes of people say, "Oh, yes, the Indian has been wronged," but it makes very little impression upon them. It is much the same feeling that the worldly man has who acknowledges, in a general way, that he is a sinner, but it does not touch him sufficiently to lead him to act. Will you bear with me in giving some facts, with the hope that all may feel that this is not a merely sentimental, indefinite sort of a subject for philanthropists and "cranks," and a few women, but one in which each of us has some personal responsibility. He is your brother and mine, in need, and we owe him a duty. Some years ago Bishop Whipple went to Washington pleading in vain for the Indians in Minnesota. After some days' delay the Secretary of War said to a friend, "What does the Bishop want? If he comes to tell us that our Indian system is a sink of iniquity, tell him we all know it. Tell him also--and this is why I recall this fact, more true than when it was first spoken--tell him also that the United States never cures a wrong until the people demand it; and when the hearts of the people are reached the Indian will be saved." Then let us try to arouse the people to demand it. And I beg you to notice, that the wrongs are not of the past, but of the present. Those who say otherwise have either not examined the facts or else they are deceived. While there has been much progress made since General Grant's administration, the machinery of our Indian affairs in its last analysis seems to be largely yet a scheme to plunder the Indian at every point. Its mechanism is so complicated that there are comparatively few who understand the wrong, and these seem almost powerless. While there are many men in the Government employ of the best intentions, there is always a "wicked partner" who contrives, somehow, to rob the Indian. He is wronged: (1) In his person. Let me illustrate. Go with me to Nebraska. An Indian, upon one of our reservations, injured his knee slightly. There was a physician who was paid a good salary by the Government, but when asked to visit this man he refused to go. The poor sufferer grew worse and worse, till the limb became rotten and decayed: his cries could be heard far and near in the still air, yet the physician heeded not. A friend was asked to take a hatchet and chop off the limb. In agony he died, the physician never having once visited him. That was a brother of yours in America. A short time ago, in Southern California, lived an Indian in comfort, upon a lot of ten acres upon which he had paid taxes for years. The land about him was sold, but no mention was made of his lot, as his lawyers told him it was not necessary and the purchasers promised he should never be disturbed. Within a few months, however, a suit was brought for his ejectment, and in the midst of the rainy season, this old man of 80, his wife and another woman of nearly the same age, were put out of their home. They were thrust with great cruelty into a wagon, left by the roadside without shelter and without any food, except parched corn, for eight days. The wife died of pneumonia, and the old man is a homeless wanderer. Why this cruelty? Because there was a spring of water on his land which the white man wanted. This was in America. 2. In his property. Let me illustrate again. In North Dakota one of the tribes asked that they might have some barns. The request was granted: the lumber, valued at $3,000, was bought in Minneapolis, and the freight charges, which ought to be about $1,500, were $23,000. A little clerk in Washington that belongs to the "ring" "fixed it" in this way. In the Indian Territory an Indian worked hard all summer, and in the fall carried his grain to market, delivered it to an elevator, and than the owner turned around and refused to pay him, and the poor man had to go home without one cent. It was the worst kind of robbery. If that man had been a German, or Swede, or a howling Anarchist of any nation under the heavens, we would have protected him, but an Indian has no rights in America. A man who has been the private clerk of one of our highest Government officials was appointed an Indian Agent. The Indians on that reservation were having their lumber taken from them at a price much less than its value, and notwithstanding their protests, it went on, the Agent refusing to listen. They complained then at Washington, and the Government appointed one of the most corrupt of men as an inspector. When he visited the reservation he asked for the witnesses at once. They asked for a reasonable time to get them together. This was refused and they asked for two days, and when this was denied they asked for one. In their dilemma and haste they got one Indian near-by to testify. The Agent himself broke down this man's testimony, because he had been at fault two or three years before, in a way which did not affect, in the slightest degree, his statement now, and the inspector at once returned to Washington and decided against the Indians! It was a fraud and a farce. 3. In the helpless condition in which we have left him, he has a new wrong now, because when he votes he is of political importance. If you will read "Lend A Hand," you will find an illustration where the Indians in North Carolina had become citizens and had votes, and because those votes were cast against the powers that be, they were willing to go all lengths, even to closing the schools, in order to accomplish their purposes. And this is to be more and more a vital question, as more and more they are becoming citizens. We talk about "dirty politics!" Is it not a proper name, when, in order to get votes, schools are to be closed and children left in ignorance? 4. There is no earnestness of purpose in a majority of the Government officials to protect him from wrong. To show exactly what I mean; recently, in Southern California a lot of land grabbers took from the Indians their land. When private individuals ascertained the facts, complaint was made and an order was issued for their removal. The time fixed was March 1st. On July 1st inquiry was made, and the agent said the order had been carried out. But individual examination showed the settlers to be there still, and five saloons open in defiance of law. In a similar way recently, the representative of one of our philanthropic societies had arrested an agent who had committed a crime. It was so clear a case that he was found guilty at once. Let us hear this travesty of justice. The law required a fine and imprisonment both. The fine was placed by the Judge at twenty-five cents, which the Judge paid himself. The term of the imprisonment he made one day, and told the Sheriff to allow the jail, in this case, to be the agent's own comfortable home. Shall we be obliged to constitute Law and Order Leagues to see that the laws of the United States are executed? This is the awful background as the starting point for this discussion. Some people question whether or not there is a personal devil. If any man would study the Indian question he would be convinced there was not one only, but a whole legion of them. But, friends, so long as these are facts, there is an Indian question, and there is going to be one until these things are settled. There is nothing ever settled in this world till it is settled right. In the progress that has been made in opening up the possibility to the Indian, of civil rights, we may be inclined to relax our efforts in his behalf. The passage of the Dawes Land in Severalty Bill was, indeed, a great day for the Indian. It opens the door by which he can have a home on land of his own and become a citizen, with all the privileges thereof. Here, at last, is solid ground upon which he can stand. But we must not forget that that bill is but the commencement of what is needed. He is but a child with new rights truly, but in his ignorance he does not know what they are. He is surrounded by enemies as before. While he has the law and the courts, the nearest Judge may be one hundred to three hundred miles away. He must be brought more under the care of the judiciary. The Indian Bureau, as at present constituted, cannot do for him what he needs. This is a part of the political machine, and its appointees are selected because they have done good service as ward politicians. It has been well said that such a Bureau is no more fitted to lead these people aright than Pharaoh was to lead the Israelites out of their house of bondage. To show how even some good men fail to comprehend the situation is evidenced by the proposed "Morgan Bill," which in its practical working would give the Indian Agent--already a despot--even more power than before. By that bill he is made chief Judge, with two Indians as associate Judges; and the agent is given power to select the jurors when a jury is demanded. What a travesty of justice, to make the present agent a judge and give him power to select the jury. With such a bill the friend of the Indian may well say: Oh Lord, how long! We must demand that all Indians, whether on the reservations or not, shall be given full protection of righteous laws, and that the tyrannical methods of the past shall forever cease. But, with the solid ground of the Dawes bill beneath, and the further protection of the judiciary certain to be given at no distant day, he needs, more than all else besides, the Christian school and the Christian church. He now has "Land." If we are earnest and persistent he will soon have "Law." But, most of all, does he need "Light," and that light which is from above. All the laws we may enact the next hundred years will not change the character of a single Indian. To a considerable extent he is a superstitious pagan still. He needs Jesus Christ. He needs to learn the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. As it is a part of the Indian man's religious belief that his god does not want him to work and he will be punished if he does, it is especially necessary to touch his religious nature first. When he accepts the Christian's God, then he will be ready to go to work for himself. The taking up of the hoe and the spade is his first confession of faith. What has already been accomplished through the new laws giving him his civil rights, puts an added responsibility upon the church. It is the Indian's last chance. Our further neglect is his certain death. Shall we leave him with his "Land and Law" without God? Do we realize that we have lived with these original owners of our soil for more than two and one-half centuries, and yet, today, there are sixty tribes who have no knowledge of Jesus the Christ? Shall we allow longer such a stain? I know well the pressure of various claims in religious work at home and abroad, but in the light of what has been said, is not the duty of Christianizing the Indians a debt of honor, a "preferred claim," which should take precedence over others? In this way only can we partially atone for our "century of dishonor." The history of the past few months, and the famous order with regard to the use of the vernacular, ought to arouse the church to new efforts. The probable instigators of it are known to friends of the Indian, and it shows the necessity of increased activity on our part. The order was despotism itself, and would have done credit to a Russian Czar. It was a blow aimed at the Indian's highest religious interests, and the President of the United States, instead of explaining and translating it, should have recalled it as an act unworthy of Christian civilization in the nineteenth century. Everything is still done to hamper the Protestant missionary work. The A.M.A. has a theological school, and the Government allows (?) it to teach a theological class; but, when the students are chosen and ready to come, the Government agents prohibit their coming. We have a young man who has been waiting for a year for a permit from Washington. The same obstructive policy meets us when we try to get pupils under the Government school contracts. And even after we have obtained the order from the Government to procure the pupils from a given agency, the Government will, at the same time, instruct the Agent to let no pupils go till the Government schools are full. In this way the Christian Indian parent has taken from him the right to send his child where he desires, for the Government stops his rations and annuities if he refuses to send to the Government school. The vote recently passed at the General Association of Congregational Churches in South Dakota ought to be taken up and echoed through the land, protesting against the assumption, by the Administration, of the right to control our missionary operations, dictating what pupils may attend our schools, or what language may be used in them. In conclusion, let us gird ourselves anew for the struggle that is before us, to fight the enemies of Protestant Christianity, entrenched as they are in our Government, the Indian ring, the cattle kings, the land grabbers and the thousands whose selfish interest it is to keep the Indian ignorant. This is no holiday affair; it means earnest, determined work. We must give the Indian the Gospel of the Son of God as his only safeguard for the life that now is as well as that which is to come. Civilization, education alone can never lift the Indian to his true position. You may take a rough block of marble and chisel it never so skillfully into some matchless human form, and it is marble still, cold and lifeless. Take the rude Indian and educate him, and he is still an Indian. He must be quickened by the breath of the Almighty before he will live. It is religion alone which can lead him to the truest manhood, which will quicken his slumbering intellectual faculties and prevent him from being an easy prey to the selfishness and sinfulness of men. Let us support this society in its grand work, by our money, our sympathy and our prayers. Let us join in the fight, and by-and-by we will share in the triumph. Dr. Strieby, you can remember just before this society was formed, that it was a disgrace to be an abolitionist. It is a glory now. The day is not far distant, yea, its light is already breaking in the western sky, when it will be considered equally glorious to have helped save our Indian brother, by leading him back again to God. And while we are doing it, and as a means to this end, we must try to get this Indian ring by the throat and strangle its life. It has lived long enough on the blood of the Indian; let it die, and we will never say "the Lord have mercy on its soul," for it has none. If you have never been interested in the matter before, begin to-day; if you have never helped before, help now. Get in somewhere, get in quick, get in all over; do not stand around the edges looking on and criticising others; be sure you get your pocket book open, and send the Treasurer of the Association double what you did last year; do something, do anything. We have been playing at missions long enough. With our great wealth it is a disgrace that this work was not completed long ago. With an aroused and awakened Church the whole problem will be solved, for there will be no more Indians, but only brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Let us fear nothing, God is with us and we shall triumph. "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne, Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own." * * * * * REPORT ON CHINESE WORK. BY REV. SIMEON GILBERT, D.D., CHAIRMAN. 1. Is it worth while to attempt Christian missions among the Chinese in our own country? 2. If so, of how much importance is it? 3. Who should do it? 4. If anything is to be done by us, how much should be done? 5. And is there any case of urgency about it? To the first question we answer: Yes, verily! It is worth while. There is no form of Christian missions within the circuits of the earth more worthy of being done, and of being done with all possible alacrity and vigor, than this. The American Missionary Association is exactly the Society to do it. It is the glory of this Society to hasten to the rescue of the despised and the exceptional races and classes in our own land. It has already done grand things toward the evangelization of the Chinese among us. It has set an example, most conspicuous in the eyes of all the people, of definitely planning to make known to this peculiar people the Gospel of Redemption; a Gospel whose supreme peculiarity it is, that it is fitted to meet the inmost necessities of all men, of all men alike. The success in winning the disciples of Confucius to the cross and the grace of Christ has been signal enough to show how completely practicable the undertaking is. If it were not worth while to press our missionary effort among the Chinese right here in America, it would be absurd to talk of missionary effort among the Chinese in China. The importance of this work cannot be measured by its bulk. Nor is it to be estimated by any census of countable immediate results. It is a kind of work, which, according as it is done, or left undone; or as it is done with slack and nerveless hand or with vim and vigor, will test the very character of our churches; will touch the conscience and well-being of the nation; and will, without a doubt, have vital and decisive connection with the future of that most populous empire on the globe. There is China, with its four hundred million souls, subject to a single sovereign--a heathen empire. Here is America, Christian America; the foremost republic among the nations, and soon to be the leading power among the Governments of the earth. It holds already the position of moral leadership in the far East. What shall be done with this leadership? Right here in our midst are some two hundred thousand representatives of that empire, every one of whom with hardly an exception hopes some time to return to his native Orient. What will the Christianity of America do for them? There is an unmistakable providence of God in the presence, in the country, at such a time as this, of so many representatives of the great empire. Such providences are to be reverently heeded. They are as the banners of the Almighty, meant to lead forth His loyal people to the gracious conquest of the world. As for ourselves, what are we disposed to do about it? This conquest of the world for Christ is not to be achieved by hap-hazard dashes. There is need of transcendent wisdom in the strategic methods of the campaign. We have not wisdom enough for this except as we have the wisdom to note which way the manifest hand of God is pointing for us. Then is the time for assurance, for obedience, and for enthusiasm in the fullest meaning of the term. A few thousand Chinamen are here. The Chinese Empire is open to us--and more too! To doubt the practicability of the Christianization of the Chinese would be treason to the Gospel of Christ; would be blindness to the facts of Christian history, as well as to the foreshadowings of prophecy. The success already in this department of the work of the American Missionary Association has been signal enough to amount to a demonstration. If suitably reinforced and pushed it might presently be made vastly greater than it has as yet been. It is the glory of this Society to do precisely this kind of work. All its history and traditions, all the confidences and affection of the people in our churches toward it, favor the most resolute pushing forward of what has been undertaken. The reactionary effect of this peculiar form of home-foreign mission work upon the Christian character and culture of our own people is of importance; of too much importance for it to be either safe or wise for us to neglect it. Suppose this work were to be neglected, this duty ignored, this clear providential summons slighted, what a mockery it would be of our professed zeal for foreign missions. The spectacle of what the Society is doing for the Chinese, especially of what it ought to have the power and the commission given it to do, is fitted to be peculiarly impressive, as an object lesson, to the nation. The radical character of a nation comes out in no other way so distinctively, as in the way it treats its weakest and most helpless subjects. A grand part of the good done by the American Missionary Association has been in its influence, first on the conscience of the churches, and then, through this, on the moral sense and the moral sentiments of the nation itself. This has been the case as regards the nation's treatment of the emancipated negroes. It was this Society which, so promptly and gloriously, lifted up and bore aloft with something of a divine intrepidity, God's own banner of human rights and the divine sympathy. It is this Society which has done more than any other one agency, to revolutionize and harmonize the national sentiment as regards the rights of the Indian to civilization and to Christianization. If now the churches of our country will hasten to do their duty, as in sight of him who is Father of us all, towards our Chinese neighbors, it will not be long before the National Government will wake to its shame and wipe off the deep disgrace of its recent demagogy and international perfidy. Moreover, a more complete mistake could not be made than to imagine that the Imperial Government of China is unobservant, whatever the seeming invincibility of its pride and exclusiveness. China is neither blind nor insensible. Japan has awakened; China is wakening. Its hour is at hand; the dust of ages is stirring. The Chinese wall is vanishing. The Supreme Government of the four hundred millions of the Empire is at length getting in touch with the other great and advancing Powers of the world. And the startling sublime fact of the new _world sociability_, if we will but see it, is giving tremendous urgency to every possible means of originating, multiplying, communicating, and sending on and around from nation to nation, the forces of the world-redeeming Gospel of Jesus Christ. We, therefore, are most earnestly agreed in the conviction that, not only is the noble work of missions among the Chinese in our country, now being done by this Society, of inestimable value, but that it ought by all means to be greatly and immediately enlarged and re-enforced. That great missionary, St. Paul, once said--and he may have often said it--that he gloried in his own infirmities; adding that the power of Christ might rest on him. This is our glory--if we have any. Here is this American Missionary Association; and over against it, face to face, is China. What proportion is there between the two? How preposterous, one may say, the thought which we are trying to frame into actual purpose for the regeneration of this enormous part of the human family? Most true. And yet, along with Paul's thought, how infinitely inspiring this purpose should be. Just the thing for us to do is to "build better than we know." It is not our eye, but His, which sees the end from the beginning. And it is his providence--sometimes as a pillar of fire, sometimes as a pillar of cloud--which shows us the way. Then it is for us to follow close up. When some fifteen years ago, that slender, forlorn-seeming Japanese lad landed in Boston, with the strange, vague, resistless, heaven-enkindled longing in his heart; what if there had been no kindly hand to grasp his own, no heart to discern and respond to his? How easily might young Neesima have been lost, and the fateful turn in the destiny of Japan at the moment of its supreme opportunity for regeneration been vastly, disastrously different! What Chinese Neesimas to-day God's eye may have under His gracious watch and merciful leading, we cannot know beforehand; but this is certain, that we know enough to know that we do well to walk softly all the day long as seeing things invisible, and that with these thousands of Chinese among us, walking so noiselessly, so observantly in and out beneath the very tree of life that grows beside the river of life clear as crystal, and which proceeds direct from the throne of the Lamb, there are doubtless God's hidden ones, whose lives, if we will do our part; shall yet be woven in as shining and mighty threads into the divine plan wider than any nation, larger than the world, sure and strong as the word of Him who, at the first, said, "Let there be light," and there was light. * * * * * REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE. BY DR. L.C. WARNER, CHAIRMAN. Your Committee have made a careful examination of the books and reports of the Treasurer, with special reference to the methods of keeping the various accounts, the security of the invested funds and the economy and prudence of the expenditures. We find the system of bookkeeping as thorough and complete as that of any business concern. Each item of receipts or expense appears in its proper place, where it can be found without delay. The different departments of the work are classified and separated so that a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the work is always before the officers and Executive Committee. All payments are made by checks, and each check requires the signature of two officers of the Association; thus reducing to a minimum the chances of error or loss in the disbursement of the funds. At the end of each quarter the disbursements of the Association are carefully examined by the Auditors, two responsible business men, who go over and verify the accounts item by item. The Treasurer and other officers of the Association are to be especially commended for the thorough and business-like methods which prevail in the conduct of their business. The invested funds of the Association amount to $230,375.78, yielding an income last year of $10,936.46. These funds are chiefly invested in mortgages in the city and State of New York and in Government bonds. In view of the forgeries of real estate mortgages recently discovered in New York City, the mortgages of the Association in New York and Brooklyn have, at the request of the attorney of the Association, been personally examined by a member of the Finance Committee and all found to be valid and correct. An examination of the schedule of securities held by the Association shows that there is not a single poor investment among them, or one on which the interest is in default. Besides the invested funds the Association owns real estate in various Southern States and in the Northwest to the value of $600,274. This is the working plant of the Association. The buildings, apparatus and fixtures upon this property are protected by insurance. The expenditures of the Association during the past year have been $328,788.43. This is an increase over the expenditure of last year. The Association commenced the year with a balance of $2,193.80; it closes the year with a debt of $5,641.20. It has therefore spent $7,835.01 in excess of its receipts. This debt is to be greatly regretted, for it should be the policy of the Association to plan its work in accordance with the funds at its disposal. They are obliged, however, to make their plans partly on faith, and it is not to be expected that their faith will always exactly measure the benevolence of the people. The increase in expenditure has been entirely in the work done upon the field; the cost of agencies and administration being less this year than last. This increase has been mostly in the Southern field, and has been imperatively demanded by the natural growth of the work. Very little new work has been undertaken, four new schools only being added during the year; but the schools already organized have grown in size and therefore in expense. Eleven hundred and twenty more pupils are in attendance than one year ago, an increase of over 12 per cent. This has required the employment of twenty additional teachers. Friends of the Association have added new buildings at some of the schools, and these new buildings, greatly needed and greatly increasing the effectiveness of the schools, also bring increased expense. The churches and schools of the Association are doing all they can for their own support. The spirit of self-help is constantly encouraged among them, but they are too poor to bear any considerable part of the expense. The Association must therefore meet one of the three following alternatives: First, the growth of its work must cease, and the increasing number of pupils who apply to its schools year by year be denied admittance; or second, some of the schools which have been fostered by the Association for years must be abandoned, that funds may be left to strengthen and develop the remainder; or third, the churches and Christian givers of America must largely increase their gifts to this Association to meet its increasing wants. The work of the Association for the coming year cannot be efficiently carried on without increased appropriations; $300,000 is the smallest amount which should be expended in the South, and a much larger amount could be wisely used. The mountain work among the poor whites is full of promise, and calls loudly for our aid, and the Association only waits for the necessary funds to greatly enlarge its efforts in this field. In addition to the Southern field, the Indian work requires at least $60,000, and the Chinese work $15,000. This makes the total amount needed by the Association next year $375,000. This we believe to be a moderate and conservative estimate. This great work for the Negro, the Indian and the Chinese has been laid upon the American Missionary Association, and upon our denomination, as it has not been laid upon any other society or denomination in this country. It is our duty, yea, rather, our great opportunity. Shall we not then meet it as the stewards of God, whose servants and disciples we are? * * * * * MEMORIAL SERVICE. ADDRESSES IN EULOGY OF THE LATE DR. JAMES POWELL. An interesting and impressive memorial service was that held in honor of the loved and venerated Secretary, Dr. James Powell. Tender, loving, graceful and eloquent eulogies upon his life and character were pronounced by Rev. Dr. Gilbert, Rev. Dr. Ide, Secretary Strieby and President Taylor, followed by an earnest prayer by Rev. Addison P. Foster, Roxbury, Mass. EULOGY BY REV. DR. GILBERT. It would be impossible for the officers and friends of this Society to convene on this occasion and not feel profoundly the absence of one whose presence for so many years has done so much to fill these occasions with the spirit of welcome, of lofty animation, joyance, cheer and renewed courage. Last Christmas the "sweet chariot" of God "swung low," and our brother Powell was suddenly taken up from these great services here to other and larger tasks and joys in the heavens. A life so radiant and beneficent on earth, what must it be now that it has been translated, and transfigured into the celestial? Among the richest inheritances of any people is that of the living names and ever living influence of its noblest men and women. Even though they have joined "the choir invisible," they still remain, a possession and a power for all time. For there are no influences more real, if any that are stronger, than the silent-working influence of personal ideas; and whoever it is that helps to ennoble our ideal conceptions of character, and to make these clearer and more vivid, does us a vital service for which we may fitly be thankful, both to God and to them. This American Missionary Association is already rich in its "inheritance in the saints." It is no exaggeration to say, although it is very much to say, that James Powell had come to be the most peculiarly and widely beloved man in our denomination. That this was so was not owing to any one quality, but must have been due to a singularly happy combination and balance of qualities. Every one thought of him as a man having a genius for popular eloquence. But he had also as truly unique gifts and graces for personal friendship. Without a particle of cant, he possessed profound religious faith and devotion. He walked with God and had no gifts which were not consciously devoted to his service. At the same time he was intensely human. He never affected to be ethereal. He was a son of man, a child of nature. And he touched life at many points. His sympathy was immensely more than mere pity. He was instinctively, as well as religiously generous. Open hearted, open minded, genuine to the core, quick, sensitive, responsive, impulsive, enthusiastic; whatever he did, he did with a will and noble zest. Happy in a certain "divine sense of victory and success," he also delighted keenly in the successes of others; and there was that about him which made every one wish him to succeed, expect him to succeed, and apt to tell him so when he had done well. And yet he was, to a singular degree, free from any promptings of personal vanity. He had pride but was not proud; least of all was he conceited. He never did poorly; he almost always did brilliantly; there was not an indolent fibre in his being. He did well because he exerted himself to do his best. He was happy in the power God gave him, and accepted joyously the opportunities which others eagerly offered him for doing the things that were in line with the main purpose of his life. He had an exquisitely sure and alert sense of honor. He could not do a mean thing. He won friends, and never lost any; because all felt that he was not only so genuine and unselfish, so bright and full of happy humor, so deep and exuberant in affection, but that he was so perfectly to be trusted. No one knew better his own rights, or was less wanting in any courage that might be needed to maintain them. He was capable of high degrees of indignation, and his life work, championing the rights of wronged and depressed classes and races, furnished him with but too many occasions for holy anger. His soul often burned with intensest indignation. When one night the people in Quitman, Georgia, burned over their heads the seminary for colored girls, or when the Georgia Legislature was enacting the infamy of the Glenn Bill, his heart was hot as any Babylonian furnace, aflame with indignation, as though touched with the divine wrath, the anger of love. And yet not for a moment could one detect in him any spark of bitterness or malice. But chilled now is that heart of flame; stilled now are the mighty pulsations of that better than chivalric spirit, which up and down the land, all over the East and the West, during those fourteen years, did so much to _educate the churches_, and to remind the country of the "kindness and love of God our Saviour, which hath appeared toward man," and which ought with all possible celerity to be manifested by men, by men of all races and of all classes, toward one another, and to promote which this American Missionary Association finds supremely its reason to be. The Society has had, has, and will have, other men in its service of splendid personal characteristics and having peculiar fitness for the signally providential parts assigned them in this great work, which ought to fire the heart of every Christian in the land. One we have, thank God, still among us, equally loved and revered, who has long stood at the front in this mighty and benignant enterprise--may the day be slow in coming when his great heart shall be missed from these yearly councils! And still we may be sure that the resources neither of our humanity nor of the grace of God are in any danger of being exhausted. James Powell's Welsh blood was in his favor. His American boyhood and training helped fit him for what was to come. That whispered word of a Christian lady to a young man whose conversion, in turn, led to the conversion of young Powell, proved to be a word of destiny. And his experience abroad with the Jubilee Singers, in whose tones was voiced the pathos of three silent centuries, had, also, not a little to do in fitting him for the work God had in store for him. It is, therefore, easy to see how fortunate this society was in having such a man for its personal representative; and, how fortunate the churches also were in having the most characteristic spirit and motive and aim of the cause he stood for so fittingly impersonated. That fond mother of the famous English missionary who is reported to have said, that "as for her son, the race of God could find but little to do in him," did not speak for James Powell. God had given him splendid gifts to begin with, but it was the grace of God in him that first saved him from making shipwreck of those gifts, and then taught him how to use them so exhaustively in his service. This Society represents above all things an educational enterprise. It has many schools, chartered and unchartered, throughout the South and West. We can never admire too much this far-reaching educational undertaking. But, the Society is itself, in certain most fundamental respects, the very "head-master" in the school of the churches, in the school of the nation. And how beautifully, how superbly, how effectively did this brother of ours shine and burn among the churches of our land, as one commissioned of heaven to help teach us the reality of meaning there is in this word of our Lord, how he said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." His memory we shall all, and always, affectionately cherish. For the service which he rendered to the cause which we also love, we will be devoutly thankful. If we have gotten any good from the life which he lived before us, we can show it by the growing warmth and completeness of our own enlistment in the same cause. Cries Mrs. Browning at Cowper's grave: O Poets, from a maniac's tongue was poured the deathless singing; O Christians, at your cross of hope a hopeless hand was clinging; O men, this man in brotherhood your weary paths beguiling Groaned inly while he taught you peace and died while ye were smiling. But not in _that_ way was Powell the teacher of hope and of peace and of joy to us. He showed the way of the cross and all the morning light of hope, because he himself had found it! And how lustrous and mighty and winning did his own way of life serve to make all this way appear to be. O face, all radiant with light of love; O eyes, so laughing in their tenderness. So quick to read the language of distress; O lips, so touched with flame as from above-- We have seen that sweet vision, and all the way before us shall be the clearer, and we the stronger, because of it. And the sweet memory of our brother shall remain to us. Like some clear large star, which pilgrims, At their back leave, and see not always; Yet wheresoever they list, may turn, And with its glories gild their faces still! For himself, he has ascended to the mountains of myrrh and the hill of frankincense, and has seen the day break and the shadows flee away. But, brothers, let us cherish no such idle notion as though James Powell had now forgotten, or has ceased to be interested in the Chinaman, the Indian and the Negro, in America. EULOGY BY REV. DR. IDE. If there is any special fitness in inviting me to speak on this occasion, it lies in the fact that Dr. Powell was an intimate friend of mine. Outside of the circle of my own home, there was no one with whom I ever held such close and familiar relationship as with him. Our acquaintance began in the early days of college life, when our nation was in the throes of a civil war. We were not members of the same class, but were brought together quite frequently through the literary society to which we both belonged. During this period our relations were simply cordial. Unconsciously the advice of that witty old divine, Thomas Fuller, was being followed: "Let friendship creep gently to a height; if it rush to it, it may soon run itself out of breath." Dr. Powell graduated from Dartmouth College in the class of 1866, while my graduation took place the previous year, in the class of 1865. My first year out of college was spent in teaching in my native town. When the decision was reached of entering the Theological Seminary, it was mutually agreed that we should go to Andover and room together. From that time on our intimacy grew apace. We passed three years together as chums; but that relation did not cease when we separated and each went his own way to the field of labor where the Lord had appointed. The last letter that I received from him, (and I have been informed that it was the last letter that he ever wrote, which reached me only the day before the despatch that apprised me of his death), began in that same old familiar fashion, "My dear Chum." I have thus made reference to matters somewhat personal, that the standpoint from which I speak may be more clearly understood. I have "summered and wintered him;" I have been permitted to know him within and without; I have been with him in season and out of season; I have studied with him; I have prayed with him; I have loved him as a brother. It is more in accord with the promptings of my heart to speak a few words suggested by intimacy and long acquaintance with Dr. Powell. Many learned to respect and honor him through the abundance of his labors in the broad field to which God in his providence called him for service. But there is another side to that life, private, personal, even more attractive and richly suggestive to those who knew him best and were permitted to enjoy his friendship. Our brother did not possess the conventional qualities which sometimes are associated with the "cloth." He was without that endless gravity which could almost fittingly grace a pedestal. That pious deacon who had not "snickered" for above forty years, would have found his moral sensitiveness somewhat disturbed by the free, untrammelled way in which he spoke and acted. There was no monotony in his make-up. He was natural--natural as devoid of all cant and affected airs. When you met him, you had not come upon some person trumped for the occasion; it was Powell, the very man you wanted to see. He could not be anything but himself. Genuineness and unaffected simplicity were revealed in him, as in few others. He could be as serious as a country judge; but he was serious because the matter was in him, and it was the hour for seriousness. He could be as playful as a child, but it was because the play was in him and it was time for play. When our brother was pastor of the North Church, in Newburyport, it was our custom to meet every Monday morning in Boston. On one occasion, a brother-in-law of mine, a boy in his teens, accompanied me to Boston, where we were to meet Mr. Powell. We soon found ourselves tramping about the city on errands. Mr. Powell was effervescing with fun. At such seasons, and they were very frequent, he took great pleasure in making me the victim of his frolicsomeness. On this occasion, I found that Mr. Powell had enlisted the boy in the scheme of hiding away from me every chance they could get. Passing through a crowd, I would look around and discover that they had absconded