was born in Wales, December 25, 1842. At an early age he came to this country, and partly by his own exertions and partly by the help of friends whom he had won to himself by his genial nature and evident indications of future usefulness, he obtained an education, graduating from Dartmouth College in 1866, and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1869. He was installed as pastor of the church at Newburyport in November, 1869, his only pastorate, and remained there till February, 1873. His health being impaired by his incessant labors as pastor, he was persuaded by his friend, Rev. Mr. Pike, to aid in introducing the Jubilee Singers to the English public, with the further purpose of either remaining abroad to manage the affairs of the Singers in Great Britain, or of returning and temporarily taking Mr. Pike's place in Connecticut and New York, as District Secretary of the Association. The latter alternative was finally decided upon, and Mr. Powell assumed these duties in the latter part of the year 1873. A year afterwards, on the resignation of Rev. Dr. Patton from our Chicago office, Mr. Powell, who had shown remarkable gifts as a speaker, was at once selected as District Secretary of our Western department. Here he remained for nearly ten years, when some changes were required in our district offices and he was called to New York as Assistant Corresponding Secretary, and entrusted with the supervision of the entire collecting field. The work he had done so acceptably and efficiently at the West was followed by equally effective services in his wider field at the East. In the three years of the recent burden of debt upon the Association, the energies of Dr. Powell were called into full play, and when, at our last Annual Meeting, we rejoiced in deliverance from debt, it was felt that the gratifying result was due in a large measure to his eloquence by voice and pen. At that meeting Dr. Powell was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Association.

Bro. Powell was an orator born, not made. His eloquence was not of the Websterian sort, massive and logical, but rather of that magnetic kind which wins and sways an audience at will, sometimes to smiles and then to tears, but always with definite persuasion. He was a brilliant writer as well as speaker. His pen glowed with a special inspiration, and was prolific as well. The pages of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, the columns of the weekly religious press, the numerous circulars issued from this office and his abundant correspondence, all bear witness to this. He was a wise man in counsel. The impassioned and imaginative speaker is not usually characterized by a cautious judgment or administrative gifts; but we have found in this office that when grave questions arose for consideration, Dr. Powell was remarkably conservative and judicious. But the crowning glory of the man was his bright and genial nature, and his warm and devoted Christian character. It was this that won all hearts, that made him welcome on every platform and in every pulpit, that bound his friends to him in warmest attachment, that opened the doors of all homes to him and that leaves the memory of brightness behind him in the offices where he toiled and in his own dear home. His life went out not as the lightning's flash, that leaves the deeper darkness behind, nor as the setting sun, that has the night before and after, but his departure from life was only the entrance into eternal brightness, and leaves a radiance behind that will be a perpetual joy and consolation to his friends. He was born on Christmas day, and the festivities of another Christmas day were not wholly past when he died. His birth was a Christmas gift to earth, and, be it said with reverence, his death was a Christmas gift to Heaven, for through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sanctifying influence of the blessed spirit, we believe he was made meet to be presented to the Father, in whose hands we leave him.

A WORD TO OUR WORKERS

To lead a people long crushed by oppression away from the degradations of slavery into a true and intelligent freedom, to teach those who have no inheritance of steady purpose to rise into new habits of thought and feeling, and away from the heredity of superstitions which were unrelated with morality, into a faith which really purifies the heart and the life, is not the work of a year, nor of fifty years. It means patient continuance in well doing. It means consecration, responsibility and self-sacrifice on the part of those who take upon themselves and into themselves, the sins and the sorrows, and the struggles and failures of those who are to be saved.

Nothing but a consecration that becomes a passion of the soul in Christ's love and for Christ's sake, and an abiding faith in the triumph of his kingdom of love and righteousness, will explain the earnestness and labor of the devoted souls in our mission work, who are God's kings and priests ministering to the lowly, and crowding their days with service for those who have been the victims of the strong, and who, now weak and poor, are despised in their poverty and weakness.

All honor to those who are giving themselves to break down the injustices of a cruel and unchristian caste, all honor to the noble men and women who are working to rescue millions from the woeful inheritance of centuries, as well as to save them from the dominion of the sin which is common to man.

Others may honor Kings and Queens and Princes who have had their greatness thrust upon them, but we will stand with those who accentuate their reverence for lives consecrated to the good of humanity, who are afflicted with the sorrows of God's poor, and oppressed with their burdens, and whose prayers and songs are God save the people, Their lives may not be chronicled in the pages which tell of those who lived to make others serve them, but they are shining names upon God's Book of Life, and in the day of the coronation of the nobility which God sees and records, their names will stand out like radiant stars in the heavens. One of such was JAMES POWELL, whose life was a grand sacrifice of undeviating love for those whose necessities made him feel that he was debtor to them, until he gave them the price of his life which Christ had redeemed.

Subordinating himself to this consecration with incessant desire, he has left his example which may well be inspiration and strength to all who are working and praying for those who have been trodden under the feet of the strong, and he has left his influence for tens of thousands.

In the prophecy which foretold Christ, centuries before he came it was written, "He shall not fail, nor be discouraged." Fellow workers, it is not the consecration of a year, nor of a generation, that is to restore the millions for whom we work to the places where God would bring them. The pitiless centuries cannot be redeemed in one day. Doubtless the work may seem slow and the time may seem long, but every good deed counts, and no prayer is unheard. The good work is not in vain. The progress already made is wonderful. The workers who have consecrated themselves may die in their unfinished work, but God has pledged himself that the work shall go on. His promises and his providences will work together like cogs in a wheel. We shall not fail, and we need not be discouraged. Such lives as that of JAMES POWELL are not too common in human history, but they show us how the divine can endue the human with its own power, and how God can make souls great witnesses for God. Some tell us that the heroic ages have passed away, but they have not. No! They will last until the world shall be saved, for the inspirations which come from the spirit of God and from the cross of Christ will live in hearts which will burn to save those who need to be saved.

Since the death of Dr. Powell, we have received