The American Missionary | Page 3

country, which the Association could not so much as enter, is dotted with our schools, and with ten thousand other schools, and with churches, which stand for the truths which the Congregational churches of our land believe in and teach. Has anything more wonderful occurred in the wonderful fifty years, now gone by, than this change of conditions in the South, or any more demanding duty come to our churches than the work which has grown out of these changed conditions?
It belonged to no man fifty years ago to foresee the magnitude of our work in the South. Add to this that among twenty tribes of Indians, and our missions in the highlands of the South among the whites, and that which has been so greatly blessed of God on the Pacific Coast, and who could have foretold it all fifty years ago?
In all this we are not engaged in a merely philanthropic work; we are doing more than to educate people in industries, though we are doing this. We are building on a foundation which no other can lay than is laid, Jesus Christ. In the schoolroom, in the teachings of agriculture and mechanics, the various trades and industries, as well as in our churches, this is our foundation. We are bringing salvation to the peoples who need it, knowing well that salvation includes this life, as well as that which is to come. Our supreme thought is to hasten on the time when there shall be a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. This has been, and this is, our work. Now we need to meet our indebtedness. It is a distressing load to carry. We are seeking to pay our obligations this Jubilee Year. We have not pressed our grievous burden upon the churches as urgently as we would have done, because our sister societies, in like distress, were in the field with their special appeals. Our hearts are now gladdened by the gracious providences that have come to them. Now, will not the churches generally engage in a special effort to lift the burden of our debt and restore prosperity to this work, which the churches and our individual givers have been, and are, doing through this Association?
In view of these facts, we most earnestly urge as the call of this Jubilee Year:
First. That measures be taken in each church to make full and regular contributions to sustain our current work. It has been sadly reduced. During the last three years the receipts of the Association have been less than in the previous three years by about $93,000 a year, and but for our retrenchments this would have made a debt three times as great as it is now. If this reduction of receipts is to continue it will mean a ruinous increase of debt or an equally ruinous retrenchment of the work.
Second. So great is our sense of the need of sustaining our present work that if regular contributions are not adequate we urgently appeal that the effort be made to secure it by largely increased contributions or by a special collection.
Third. That our friends and all interested in this work now so imperiled will take shares in the Jubilee Fund of $100,000. This fund is divided into 2,000 shares of $50. We would have each of these fifty years in the Association's history stand for a special contribution of a dollar, the whole fifty years being signalized by a Jubilee subscription of $50 and the semi-centennial made memorial by raising the money for the Jubilee Fund.
Only six months are left of the present fiscal year. We come to all who believe in our work to help the Association and to help it now, so that we may at the great convocation at the Jubilee convention in Boston next October celebrate not only the heroic faith of the fathers, but the steadfast zeal and purpose of their children.

THE SOUTH.

Notes by the Way.
Secretary A.F. Beard.
In making my rounds among the schools of the Association and of the churches I find new experiences in old paths and new incidents by the way. Within the limitations of "an article" I cannot recall them, but I invite my readers to visit with me some of the places en route.
[[Illustration: FARM BUILDINGS, ENFIELD, N. C.]]
FARM BUILDINGS, ENFIELD, N. C.
It is not a long journey from New York to Enfield, N. C. We will not find a New England village there when we leave the Weldon and Wilmington Railway. It is quite another part of the world. A ride of four miles among plantations and cotton fields brings us to the latest-born school of the Association. Here are a thousand acres of arable land, which ought to be a fortune to its owner and has been in years gone by. Now, however,