ng of those principles which were exemplified in his life,
there He is present in living power, the inspirer of the endeavor, and
the strength of it. The claim that the work of the American Missionary
Association makes upon our attention, may be presented in a variety of
forms. Its work is commended to us, for example, because it is
patriotic, that is, it makes its appeal to our self-interest. The
instinct of self-preservation demands that we sustain it. Four and a
half millions of Negroes in our Southern States are utterly
illiterate. Half that number of Southern whites are in the same
deplorable condition. These men are citizens. They hold the ballot.
Our free institutions are not safe in such hands as these. Education
is an absolute necessity. This wide-spreading and dense ignorance,
among masses of free American people, must be speedily overcome. We do
not wonder, therefore, that Andrew D. White in his scholarly address,
"The Message of the 19th Century to the 20th," puts the education of
the South first among the many great and pressing problems that claim
the attention of statesmen. It is a matter of self-interest and
self-preservation.

This work commends itself, also, because of its justice. It appeals as
a duty, to every enlightened conscience. The ignorance of the Negro,
and the degradation of the Indian, are more our fault than theirs. We
owe it to them, as a matter of simple justice, that we now make
reparation, as best we can, for the wrong done to them in the past. If
we, as a nation, have helped push them down, we ought to help lift
them up. It is a burden which stern justice lays upon us.

But I turn from all such impressive arguments as these, to find
another and altogether different motive to this work, one which the
statesman may consider of little worth, the appeal of which mere
conscience may not feel, but, which to the Christian heart must ever
be more powerful and persuasive than all other motives that can be
named. This work commends itself to us, because it is a Christly work.
The spirit of the Master is in it. The radical forces of Christianity
are exemplified by it. This Society may stand forth before the world
to-day, and without any sacrifice of humility or reverence, opening
the book and finding the place where it is written, it may say, in
concert with the Master himself, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he
hath sent me