and
occasional papers may be correctly mailed.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

"I GIVE AND BEQUEATH the sum of ---- dollars to the 'American
Missionary Association,' incorporated by act of the Legislature of the
State of New York." The will should be attested by three witnesses.

* * * * *

THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY

VOL. L. JANUARY, 1896. No. 1.

* * * * *

1846. THE NEW YEAR. 1896.

Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-six brings in the Jubilee Year of the
American Missionary Association. What marked changes have taken place
between 1846 and 1896, even in the range of events with which the
Association is connected! Then the great gold discoveries in
California had not been made; then little was done by the Church or
the Government for the Indian; then the Southern mountaineers were
hunting and fishing, innocent of schools and railroads; then slavery
dominated the land, oppressing the slave and aiming to crush free
thought and speech in the North.

Now how changed! As to slavery, for example. The war and emancipation
have written a new page on our national history. But emancipation only
battered down the prison doors and sent forth the millions of
ignorant, helpless and vicious people--a menace to the Republic and a
reproach to the Church, if left in their degraded condition, but
presenting a most hopeful field for humane and Christian effort. The
facts made an appeal for immediate and effective work and the American
Missionary Association sprang into the task. Hundreds of refined and
Christian women lent their aid and toiled in the uplifting of the
needy, amid the scorn and hatred of the white people, while the
churches and benevolent friends responded with the means. The
Association has followed up this Christlike beginning by the planting
of permanent institutions--schools and churches--and the good effects
are becoming apparent in the multitude of industrious, prosperous and
educated colored people, the hopeful and helpful leaders of their
race. But their advancement only reveals the yet unreached masses
behind them as hopeful if promptly met, and as helpless if neglected,
as those that preceded them.

This good work is at its crowning point--to push forward is victory,
to halt is disaster. But the Association feels the pressure of the
hard times. It owes a debt of nearly $100,000, and needs four times
as much to sustain the work now