with all that surround us,
questioning for a moment whether the experiment will prove an
expensive luxury or wholesome and digestible food. Economy of time,
economy of means, economy of action, must be our constant watchwords.
The Negro woman, being the most potent factor in the intellectual
development of the race, must be aroused to a consideration of the
fact that to improve the intellect and neglect the moral and physical
growth of our youth will be to impose upon society dangerous citizens.

THE MOURNING PREACHER.

BY J. C. M'ADAMS, SHELBYVILLE, TENN.

Why do our educated ministers "mourn" when preaching? There are
honorable exceptions, but the rule is as stated. We have heard
ministers whose educational qualifications were all that could be
desired, whose exegeses were faultless, who in their perorations would
depart from all standards. They exhume the dead, they picture the
beatific splendors of the New Jerusalem, they paint the horrors of
hell, they describe deathbed scenes, etc. They do this whether or not
it has any connection with the subject in hand. Then it is that the
"spirit" comes. I do not think that I have overdrawn. I have heard
some of our best ministers, and the general statement is true. Our
educated ministers are making a serious mistake. This pulpit mannerism
is a relic of the days of slavery, and the minister who indulges in it
is simply perpetuating a barbarism and is retarding the religious
progress of the race. It is true, perhaps, that in most of our
congregations large numbers of people love to hear the "tone," but
when and how are the people ever to become acquainted with higher
religious ideas? How can a minister elevate his congregation when he
persistently clings to the practices of thirty years ago?

These ministers seem not to know that nine-tenths of the young,
educated, and progressive classes are disgusted with them. This
explains the lethargy manifested by the above-minded classes toward
the Church. The Church, like all other institutions, must be
progressive. The fact that these men are keeping the Church back in
the dingy past puts them out of sympathy with it. I recently heard a
well-known minister, after howling and ranting and mourning to his
heart's content, speak of himself as the "wild presiding elder." He
certainly made that impression on several of his audience.

[Illustration: REV. J. M. CONNER, LITTLE ROCK, ARK.]

One of the great mistakes of our religi