o Africa, while
not interfering with duty here, will broaden their vision and deepen
their piety. There will be a grand uplift to them in grasping and
endeavoring to realize this great work. It will raise them above
petty ambitions, it will give a practical turn to their religious
enthusiasm, and bring them into closer sympathy with Jesus Christ.
They have been in fellowship with Him in suffering, they may now be
co-workers with Him in redemption.

But Africa, so degraded! Why should her sons go back to her? The Scot
loves the hills and the glens whence his family came; the German
never forgets the Fatherland; but what is there to awaken the love of
the Negro for Africa? Gen. Garfield was born in a humble home, and
went thence as a canal driver, but when he became President of the
United States he did not despise that humble home, nor the mother
that bore him, lowly as both were, but at his inauguration he had his
mother placed in an honored seat on the platform, and his first act
after taking the oath of office was to step over, before that vast
assembly, and kiss that mother.

American descendant of Africa! The home of your fathers is humble and
degraded, and you are elevated and refined. Show that you are really
great and Christlike by giving the redeeming kiss to Africa!

* * * * *

THE HOPEFULNESS OF INDIAN MISSIONS, AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY.

BY REV. A.F. BEARD, D.D.

The contemplation of the past sometimes weakens the energies for
action in the present. But when the present is a consequence of the
past, we can scarcely do our work rightly if we neglect the lessons
of experience.

The history of missions among our Indian tribes has lessons in it
which may be wisely heeded.

When the first settlers of this country left their ships, which had
been freighted with the destinies of a continent, and faced the
perils of a wilderness, they met at the outset a strange people. No
one knew who they were, nor how many; they themselves did not know.
They had no history. They had become vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Ignorant as to the past, their
theory of the future was vague and shadowy. Their spirits would exist
after death. The heroic and brave and worthy would go to the happy
hunting-grounds, where would be pleasant climate and fair weather,
and where abundance would be exhaustless and satisfactions complete.
The unworthy would wander with