pulpits, in schools and on farms and in trades, but also
in commercial life and in places of extended influence. We should like
to show our Samples in their Christian homes, homes which are not made
of brick and mortar and boards and shingles, but which are only
sheltered by these; homes where there is educated intelligence, where
there are books and thoughtful minds that can appreciate them; homes
where there is refinement, and where samples are examples of exalted
life which in itself stimulates and uplifts life all around--these are
centres of untold good. The light streams out from them day by day.
They are the leaven of a rising race. I go not anywhere in towns or in
rural places in any Southern state where I fail to find such samples
and examples which in their various ways are thus holding forth the
word of life and justifying the farsighted wisdom and benevolence
which planted the system of American Missionary schools upon "our
line" and which in sustaining them is building up the Kingdom of God
on the Master's line as it builds up thousands of men and women
towards the mind and heart of God.

[Illustration: COLLEGE GRADUATES. SAMPLES.]

[Illustration: SMALL SAMPLES, _En Route_ TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.]

The little people pictured above are "children's children." Parents
who came under our care thirty years ago, but one remove from all that
was wrapped up in hopeless slavery, can now give their children better
chances than they themselves could secure in the early days of
freedom. In our great system of schools one may look into thousands of
such earnest faces turned inquiringly toward the twentieth century.
What the coming days shall hold for them and through them for the
kingdom of Christ is in good part to be answered in positive Christian
schools, where character building is made the supreme foundation for
future homes and opportunities. These "children's children" began
their climbing on a higher round than did their parents, and there are
more of them to climb--

"More and more, more and more,
Still there's more to follow."

* * * * *

COMMENCEMENT AT STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, LA.

BY REV. G. W. HENDERSON, D.D.

Our school year, which closed May 25, has been crucial in many
respects. It has tested the attachment of the scholars to the school
on one hand, and their desire for an education and the willingness of
themselves and of their parents to make sacrifice