We are happy to greet our elder sister, The Missionary Herald, or perhaps we should name a more venerable relative yet, as in the seventy-fifth year of its age it renews its youth. Always valuable, it promises in future to be more full of information as to the work of the American Board, and more comprehensive in its view of the missionary work at large, while it enlivens its pages with illustrations and adds a bright department for the young folks. We welcome our brother Strong to the editorial chair, and the Herald to its future, and we trust ever-increasing, career of usefulness.
A new Sunday School Jubilee Concert Exercise, relating to the work of the American Missionary Association, has been prepared by the Rev. G. D. Pike, upon the basis of one arranged by Rev. A. E. Winship, of Massachusetts. This is brought down to date as to its facts and figures, and will be accompanied by a brief for the use of those who are to lead and to make addresses, giving facts in greater detail, and incidents as material with which to make the meetings of deeper interest. The paper includes Jubilee Songs and statements in regard to the work for the meetings. Any Sabbath-school wishing a supply of this exercise will be furnished gratuitously with the number required, by applying to Rev. G. D. Pike, at the New York office, 56 Reade Street.
The Christian At Work concludes a long and appreciative notice of Dr. Strieby's recently published address upon the "Work of Half a Generation," with the following paragraph:
The impetus which has been given to educational efforts in the Southern States owes its existence to the work of the American Missionary Association and kindred societies. They scattered through the South an army of enthusiastic practical educators, who, at all principal points, established schools. The work of these societies is laying broad and deep the foundations for the real elevation of the Freedmen. They lay them in the Christian character of their schools; in the higher education they furnish, which the States do not give, and in the well-trained army of teachers they prepare for the Freedmen, thus supplying one of the most urgent wants recognized by both whites and blacks alike. If there were no other results from the labors of these societies, the teachers they have trained, and who are now instructing more than two hundred thousand pupils, would fully vindicate their claim to the confidence and gratitude of both the North and South.
OUR CONCERT OF PRAYER.
It has been our custom for many years to appoint a day and hour in which all who are engaged in the work of the Association might unite in earnest prayer to God for His blessing upon one another and upon the common interests. The notification has been sent to all the workers in the various fields in the South. It has been frequently the case that the time selected has been during the progress of the annual meeting, so that the assembled friends of the Association have united with the officers, missionaries and teachers in this "sweet hour of prayer."
This year, however, our schools were so much delayed in their opening, and our workers from returning to the South, by the yellow fever, that this concert of prayer could not be held before the beginning of the new year. On Monday of the week of prayer an hour was fixed at which the executive committee and officers in New York, the teachers and pupils in the various schools, the pastors and the people of their charge, might all assemble, each in the midst of their own responsibilities, and pray for a blessing on the work begun and to be prosecuted through the year. It was pleasant to feel that we were mingling the incense of our petition and praise with the great cloud which was ascending from all parts of Protestant Christendom during this week of prayer.