ALABAMA WOMAN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
MISS M. K. LUNT.
The annual meeting of the Alabama Woman's Missionary Association was held in the prayer-room of the Congregational church in Montgomery, Monday, March 31. The devotional exercises were conducted by the President of the Association, Mrs. H. S. De Forest, who gave the opening address, welcoming the members of the local societies, now numbering seven.
The reports of the Secretaries and delegates showed an increase of interest, labor, and funds collected, as well as a constant growth in missionary intelligence.
Nearly all the societies have remembered the foreign work and the Indians, in addition to their own needs and people, and have shown a deep interest in the advancement of Christian education.
Mrs. Ragland, the wife of one of the Talladega theologians, read a paper upon Home Influence, the prominent points of which were filial obedience, the important place the wife, mother, and daughter fill in the home, and the importance of training the daughter in domestic duties.
Mrs. Ash, whose husband was an acceptable pastor in one of the A. M. A. churches, and who not long since was called home, read a paper, giving a comprehensive history of the work of the American Missionary Association in the South, relating incidents connected with the earlier teachings, and showing how the work had broadened, and brought into the ranks the colored people.
Mrs. Andrews, of Talladega, prepared a paper on the "Origin and History of Our Alabama Movement in Woman's Work," read by Miss Partridge, giving a full development of the organization and growth of the society during its seven years' existence, and showing how much greater results are accomplished by organized effort and unity of action, and advising that the relation of this society as an auxiliary to the W. H. M. A. of Boston be severed and become allied to the Woman's Bureau of New York, which has the Southern field under its special care; referring also to the interest, courtesy and sympathy which the Boston society had always shown toward the Alabama branch.
Mrs. O. F. Curtis, of Emerald Grove, Wis., was present, who has two sons in the South as missionaries and one on the foreign field—Rev. W. W. Curtis, of Japan—who addressed the meeting on the condition of the women and girls in that country; what is being done by the missionaries to lead them to Christ; also speaking of the hindrances to the Christian religion.
This interesting meeting could not fail to awaken a deeper interest in the hearts of all present, and we believe that no one left without feeling that she had gained a new impulse to renewed consecration and work for the Master.