OUR ANNUAL MEETING.
The Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Plymouth Church (Rev. G. W. Phillips’), Worcester, Mass., commencing November 1st, at 3 P.M., at which time the report of the Executive Committee will be read. The Annual Sermon will be preached Tuesday evening by Rev. C. D. Hartranft, D.D. Wednesday and Thursday will be occupied by reading of papers, reports, discussions, business, etc. The following persons with others have promised to be present and participate in the exercises: Presidents Fairchild, Ware, Hamlin, Chamberlain, Buckham; Gen’ls O. O. Howard, S. C. Armstrong; Col. H. G. Prout, late of the Khedive’s staff, Egypt; Capt. R. H. Pratt, of Carlisle, Pa.; U.S. Senator G. F. Hoar, Prof. Cyrus Northrop, Hon. J. J. H. Gregory, John B. Gough, and Rev. Drs. Herrick, Duryea and Mayo.
The following railroads have agreed to furnish free return tickets to persons attending the meeting: New York and New England; Worcester and Nashua to Portland, Me.; Boston, Barre and Gardner and Cheshire; Providence and Worcester to Whitin’s and stations south. The N.Y., N.H. and H. R. R. offers tickets to Worcester and return at the following rates: from New York $5.60, Stamford $4.70, South Norwalk $4.45, Bridgeport $4, New Haven $3.50, Meriden $2.75, Middletown $2.75, Hartford $2.
The receipts of the Association for the month of Sept. were $30,417.94. For the financial year, which closed with that month, the receipts were, with balance, $244,578.96. One year ago the Association asked for an advance of 25 per cent., and its friends have made it 30 per cent. The year has been closed without any debt upon the treasury, and with a balance in hand of $518.85. In addition to this, the Association has used during the year $77,131.97 of the Stone Fund toward the erection of the buildings for which it was given. This makes a grand total for the year of $321,710.93. This enlargement of the capital by the addition of the Stone buildings will require a corresponding increase of funds to carry on the business. The advance of the past year is an occasion for profound gratitude, and inspires hope for the needed increase of the coming year.
We are happy to furnish our readers in this number with a few reports of the successful openings of our schools South. We give also a few brief accounts of summer revivals. Such times of refreshing are quite as frequent among the colored people in summer as in winter.
Rev. Hamilton W. Pierson, D.D., formerly missionary of this Association at Andersonville, Ga., has written a very readable book on the old time social, political and religious life in the South-west. In it he has garnered up many valuable remembrances of the condition of both whites and blacks before the war, special reference being made to their religious experiences, which he had the privilege of observing during many years of service as agent of the American Bible Society. He calls his book “In the Brush.” It is published by D. Appleton & Company, New York.