this Missionary Society, our
Christian Chinese contribute regularly each month, from twenty-five to
fifty cents. They aim to do quite a large work, which they hope that the
representatives of the Board will superintend, but the whole expense of
which they mean to bear."

* * * * *

The American Missionary Association has been greatly afflicted in the
death of Mrs. George A. Woodard, the wife of the Principal of Gregory
Institute, Wilmington, N.C. She was a most devoted missionary,
consecrating her earnestness and fidelity to the cause of Christ. She
will be sadly missed by the colored people of Wilmington, and by those
who are inmates of the Teachers' Home at Gregory Institute.

* * * * *

SYSTEMATIC SPENDING.

BY REV. C.J. RYDER.

The pastor of a Boston church recently handed to the District Secretary
of the A.M.A. $1, saying as he did so: "That one dollar is really more
than some hundreds of dollars. It is the gift of a poor woman in my
congregation who depends upon her own labor for support. She gives this
dollar to the A.M.A. from her hard economy." It may be that God's decimal
pointing is not the same as ours in many cases.

On a table of the same district office of the A.M.A., there stands a
little brown pasteboard box. In it are some tracts offered for sale. All
the proceeds from their sale go into the treasury of the Association.
These tracts were printed at the expense of a poor woman who has spent a
long and useful life in service for others. She comes into that office
now and again to see if her gift is increasing. She is not fashionably
dressed. No! She never drives to the Congregational House in a carriage.
I doubt if she often enjoys the luxury of a street-car ride, although she
is upward of seventy years of age; and yet she never comes through that
office door but she brings with her the bright glory of spiritual
sunshine, and the wealth of her Lord's own presence. She is pinching
herself in almost painful economy that she may have $100 to give to this
great mission work before she dies, and

"Her great Redeemer shall call her to inherit
The heaven of wealth long garnered up for her."

Now let us turn a moment to the other side of the A.M.A. work. I hold in
my hand a letter written upon this scrap of paper by a colored boy in the
South and sent to one of our missionaries who had come North:

"_Oct. 21._ My Dear Friend, Mr.