align="left">          Total

$144,189.13 OUR PAYMENTS for the past six months are      $171,237.64 OUR DEFICIT is 27,048.51

The churches can easily take this out of the way if they will. We believe that they will.

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CENTENNIAL.

These pages will come before our readers amid the enthusiastic rejoicings of a great nation celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of its Constitution—a Constitution that has been tried and found worthy.

The greatest strain to which this great charter has been subjected in the past hundred years has been occasioned by slavery. The crisis cost untold blood and treasure. The great strain of the next hundred years will be what slavery has left behind it—a vast and growing black population, and an imbittered race prejudice.

There is but one way to meet this strain of the coming century, and that is by the education of the blacks. The task is great, but if the American people will awake to its urgency and put forth the needed effort, the crisis may be averted. We call upon all Christian people, and upon all patriots, to begin this new century with the purpose to increase their contributions for this great object. We ask them to begin at once and to continue steadily—in church contributions, in personal gifts, and, not to forget the object in the making of wills.

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CONGREGATIONALISM IN GEORGIA.

Our readers are aware that there are two Congregational Organizations in the State of Georgia. The Georgia Congregational Association was organized in 1878, and is composed of about a dozen colored churches, some of their pastors being white and some colored. The United Congregational Conference of Georgia was formed a little more than a year ago, is a much larger body, and is composed of white pastors and churches. With a view to a possible union of these two organizations, committees have been appointed by each, and, in another column, we lay before our readers the propositions to that end, made by the Committee of the Georgia Association. We cannot withhold our expression of satisfaction with the Christian spirit exhibited in this document, and the readiness to accept any possible alternative to secure the union. The Congregational Churches of the country will feel an interest in marking the progress of these negotiations, and will hail with delight a consummation that will relieve the denomination from the embarrassment of sanctioning two organizations in the same State that seem to be separated only by the color-line.

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NOTES FROM THE SOUTH.

BY SECRETARY A.F. BEARD.

Once more in Nashville. There is no question in my mind but that Nashville is the educational leader in the South. It is a city of hills which are crowned with institutions for white and black. These are the beginnings of greater and better days for this part of "our country." My duties have taken me to Fisk University. It is a college which has justly won very high praise. Jubilee and Livingstone Halls are significant names. One speaks of an historic event, and the other of an historic person, but the work that goes on in both these large buildings does no dishonor to one name or the other.

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When Congressman Kelley, of Pennsylvania, was in Nashville, he visited Fisk University. He afterwards told me that he could not conceal his surprise at what he saw and heard and only with difficulty his emotion when he arose to address the students.

I have now visited Fisk several times. I am each time more impressed with the fidelity and quality of the work on the part of the students, and the patient enthusiasm of the professors and of the teachers. If there were to be no other or greater results than those of the past and the present, all that has been done for Fisk University would be justified.

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From Nashville to Sparta, Tenn., and then a rough, tough ride up the mountain side, "rattling the bones over the stones" until at length we have climbed the Cumberland Plateau. We arrive at no-where in particular, which is named Pleasant Hill. Here are a neat church, which is both church and school, and a sightly building of two stories with a third under the mansard roof, which will accommodate forty boys. A few houses are visible from the top of this building, but no one could guess where forty mountain boys and as many girls might be living. Nevertheless they have been discovered, and it was none too soon. Missionary Dodge did not locate in Pleasant Hill before the time. He realized this. He looked about him and looked up and down. He saw things which were invisible. He saw castles in the air. It must be confessed that the office at Reade Street, fearing lest it might "trust the churches" too much, had not the faith which could take hold of these castles in the air and anchor them to the soil of Pleasant Hill; but Brother Dodge got his grapples out and pulled down a church building from the heavens. Well done; now surely he should rest from his labors and give himself and us time to breathe. No; a visible church only stimulated his faith, it did not satisfy it. This church was a place in which he could read the eleventh chapter of Hebrews every Sunday. The result was the "Hall" for young men and for the teachers. Now we are in it and are glad. The Massachusetts Principal gave us welcome, the Oberlin Vice-Principal endorsed it, while the Matron materialized the spirit of welcome in a way calculated to excite gratitude, from the fact that missionaries cannot live absolutely on faith.

Next the young men were introduced. One of them was seized with undisguised curiosity to behold a minister whose theological system some institution had found it necessary to doctor. It is, perhaps, the first instance on record in modern times where these semi-lunar fardels have been looked upon with respect and curiosity. When "Brother Dodge" came, congratulations were in order over his Church, his School and his Hall, but he would have none of it. He was seeing another building floating in the clouds, and could only talk of the invisible. It will, however, soon be among things visible, for the missionary has his grapples out. It is to be a Boarding Hall and Industrial Home for girls who will come into it and learn to live and to be. "But, Pleasant Hill is not a town, it is not a village, it is only by courtesy a hamlet. Where are your pupils?" "The woods are full of them and they will come from near and from far," replies their young missionary of more than three score and ten years. On Sunday, the church was filled; on Monday, the school was full; and our heart was full of thanksgiving that God had come to these mountain people, that hope would enter their lives and their cabins, and that these boys and girls would now step up in Christian manhood and womanhood.

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One of the impressive thoughts which a visit to an institution like Fisk University is sure to excite, is the relation of all this work to the future. Apropos of this, the Rev. J.O.A. Clark, D.D., LL.D., of Macon, Ga., has just written a little tract of fifty pages on "The Future of the Races." He does not vote in New England, nor is he a Yankee; but he is a good and true witness. He says, that the Races are running races along the paths of knowledge and up the hills of science. These are his words (pages 19 and 20): "Have they" [the colored people] "availed themselves of the educational facilities? Have they profited by them? We answer that they have been