to be equally
a unit as to the importance of making it a missionary school, and of
keeping it in closest union with the church. The conviction seemed to
prevail that to separate the one from the other would, in the highest
degree, be unfortunate. It was evident, furthermore, that the work of
the Association has only just begun, that no backward step can be taken,
and that the churches ought to give larger sums for the support of the
Association year by year. It deserves, and will reward, their confidence
and generosity.

* * * * *

FROM THE CHRISTIAN UNION.

The Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association, held in
Chicago last week, and of which a full account will be found elsewhere,
brought out anew the directness and energy with which this society is
bringing its aid to the solution of some of the most immediate and
perplexing problems in this country. The Negro, the Indian and the
Chinese are the especial objects of its care, and it has rendered
immense service to these races in this country, not only by its direct
answer to the appeal for help which comes, consciously or unconsciously,
from all of them, but by its educational influence upon the country at
large. The importance of the race question in the South cannot be
overstated, and it is a question the very gravity of which makes all
partisanship on either side the gravest offense against the welfare of
the country. The American Missionary Association, planting itself
resolutely on the principle of equal justice to all races on our
continent, and holding firmly to the method of Christian education,
holds distinct leadership in the only direction which can bring
permanent peace and safety. There is no missionary work in the world so
urgent and so important as that among the Negroes of the South. It is
not often that the work of a great Association is so plainly marked,
commends itself so thoroughly to the support of the country, and
converges so directly upon those things which are most urgent in their
demand upon the best thought of the best citizens, as the work of the
American Missionary Association.

* * * * *

FROM THE INDEPENDENT.

The meeting of the American Missionary Association in Chicago had no
debated question to excite difference. All agree that the meeting was
one of the most earnest and effective in the history of the Association.
Beginning with the opening sermon of