We have at once an interesting fact and practical suggestions in the action of the Ladies’ Missionary Society of Elgin, Ill. This society is a branch of the Woman’s Board for the Interior, and is equipped with two treasurers—one to receive contributions for the foreign, and the other for home work.
At the meeting referred to, papers were read on the work at Hampton, on the work at Fisk, and on the school and church work of the A. M. A., which gave great interest to the meeting, and awakened enthusiasm for this branch of home mission work.
W. E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, Cook County, Ill., has published a general directory of missionary societies of this and other lands, which will be a great convenience to those who wish to communicate with such, and a source of valuable information to those who would get a comprehensive view of the work the church of Christ is doing for the evangelization of the world. This pamphlet is neatly and compactly gotten up, and is well worth the 25 cents asked for it.
One who is spending his first year at the South writes as follows: “When I listen in the prayer-meetings to remarks and prayers, especially the latter, I cannot help wishing that the churches of the North could be present to be ‘edified,’ for they surely would be. I know those who have given largely to the A. M. A., both as men count largeness and as the Lord counts it (and His way is not always man’s way), and they would have more than felt satisfied with their investment just to have been present for one hour in some of the meetings at which it has been my privilege to be in the last two months. I am satisfied that we are building wiser than we know when we are seeking to introduce a ‘colored element’ into the Congregationalism of the Republic; but how much wiser, I do not profess to be able to measure even in imagination.”
The tone of Southern sentiment is changing toward the negro, in all parts of the South. In his recent message, Gov. Jarvis, of North Carolina, took occasion to speak in warm terms of the pleasant relations existing between the races, and adds: “I am glad to say negroes are becoming more industrious and thrifty.”
He refers, with satisfaction, to their industrial fairs held at Raleigh, and to the encouragement shown them by the whites, and urges it as an imperative duty that full and equal justice shall be done the blacks, and that they shall not be left to work out their destiny unaided. He favors greater provision for public schools, and recommends that the school tax shall be 2.5 mills on the dollar.