eluging
Africa with liquor by Christian nations, and the continued curse of
the opium traffic which England inflicts upon China.

From the brief reports which have reached us, we judge this
Conference to have been a very able and enthusiastic one, and that
it will probably give a new impulse to Christian missions throughout
the world.

* * * * *

Secretary Beard represented the American Missionary Association in
the London Missionary Conference, agreeably to appointment by the
American Committee of the Conference. His paper was entitled,
"Christian Missions among the North American Indians." He also read
a paper which Secretary Strieby had prepared, by appointment of the
American Committee, on "The Freedmen of America as Factors in
African Evangelization." Dr. Beard attended the Conference on his
way to Europe to bring his family home. He is expected to return
about the first of September.

* * * * *

*GETTYSBURG, FRATERNITY, FREE BALLOT.*

The meeting of the Blue and the Gray on the field of Gettysburg at
the late anniversary celebration marks an era in national fraternity.
The orator of the day, George William Curtis, did a noble, perhaps we
might say courageous, deed in lifting the enthusiasm of the glad hour
above the remembrance of past heroism and present harmony to the
great duty of the nation--a free and fair ballot. A few lines culled
from the oration will give the thought.

"The suffrage is the mainspring, the heart of our common life.
If ignorance and semi-barbarous dominance be fatal to civilized
communities, no less so is constant and deliberate defiance of
law."

"No honest man can delude himself with the theory that this is a
local question. If there be a national question, which vitally
interests every American citizen from the Penobscot to the Rio
Grande, it is the question of a free legal ballot."

"Can we wrest from the angel of this hour any blessing so
priceless as the common resolution that we shall not have come to
this consecrated spot only to declare our joy and gratitude, nor
only to cherish proud and tender memories, but also to pledge
ourselves to union in its sublimest significance?"

To this we add: The brave deeds of the soldier at Gettysburg, and the
wise counsels of the orator, should be followed by the patient toil
of the teacher and the preacher. It is hard to