hurches in the South, under no watch and care, would without doubt go
further and help the great work more to which the A.M.A. is consecrated,
if they should be sent through the channel which the churches have
ordained, and which has not only this justification for its existence
and work, but also the justification of long experience and success.

If the friends of the American Missionary Association, upon receiving
appeals from colored pastors or people in the South, or from independent
schools, would remember _that their own ordained agency_ can open and
supervise as many schools and churches as they will make possible with
their contributions, no doubt less money would be diverted and far
greater efficiency secured. Schools in the North without supervision or
superintendence, are usually inferior. Much more are these
irresponsible, unadvised and independent schools in the South.

* * * * *

SHALL CHRIST OR MOHAMMED WIN AFRICA?

Ultimately Christ will, as we know by the sure word of prophecy;
immediately, Mohammed gains most rapidly, as present facts seem to
indicate. The rapid strides of Mohammedanism in Africa have been noticed
by nearly all recent explorers and travelers, but the full statement of
the fact has been brought forth more vividly in a remarkable book
written by a remarkable man. The book is entitled, "_Christianity, Islam
and the Negro Race_." The author is Edward W. Blyden, LL.D., of whom it
is said by a competent witness--and our own personal acquaintance with
him confirms the testimony, so far as we are competent to judge--that he
is a great traveler and an accomplished linguist, equally familiar with
Hebrew and Arabic, with Greek and Latin, with five European and with
several African languages, and, had he been born a European, might fill
and adorn almost any public post. Dr. Blyden was born a full-blooded
Negro in the Danish Island of St. Thomas, emigrated in his seventeenth
year to Liberia, entered an American missionary school and rose to the
head of it, became in 1862 Professor in the College of Liberia, and, two
years later, Secretary of State in the African Republic. In 1877, he
represented Liberia at the Court of St. James, as Minister
Plenipotentiary, and has been abundantly decorated with honorary
degrees.

Dr. Blyden's opportunities for knowing the facts are unquestioned, and
his book presents in very striking array the advantages which in some
respects