VOL. XVII.

This is a Supplemental Mexico Number, containing a great deal of valuable matter gathered by the Field Secretary during his last trip, with interesting and recent additions from various sources.

The Field Secretary is at present giving special attention to the inauguration of the new plan of co-operation in Mission work among the Negroes in the South. Thus far the plan has received the hearty approval of

the White as well as the Colored Conventions in several Southern States, and will, undoubtedly, produce a unity of action. which, it is believed, will secure larger and more beneficent results than have ever before been obtained in our Southern work.

The Corresponding Secretary is absent on an extensive tour in the West, extending to Southern California. He has visited Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Northern and Southern California, speaking at State Conventions, Associations, and various public meetings; has met and counseled with the Boards and Officers of several Conventions, and everywhere has been enthusiastically received, and has awakened fresh zeal in the great work of the Home Mission Society by his broad and skillful presentation of the magnificent service it has rendered to the Baptist Cause throughout the West. He expects to return to the Rooms about the end of the month, and will be ready to give personal attention to all correspondence directed to the Rooms.

*

No. 12

Many of our schools report a larger attendance and greater enthusiasm in the opening of their work this year than ever before. This is a most hopeful feature, and we hope that not only will there be greater zeal in the prosecution of the studies of the curriculum, but also an earnest seeking after a deepening of the spiritual life and an increase of the spiritual power of the schools. It is a source of great satisfaction when the scholars are manifestly making rapid progress in intellectual attainments, but it is an additional cause for profound thanksgiving when these same pupils are increasing in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which one has well called "the best of the sciences." We. express the earnest hope that this may prove true in a large proportion, if not in all of our schools during the present year.

The contemplation of the religious condition of the neighboring Republic of Mexico, made manifest in the articles of this Number, should awaken a feeling of profound gratitude that America escaped in her earlier history the paralyzing thraldom of Rome, and should arouse a determination that she shall never lay even so much as a finger upon the sacred ark of American liberty. Moreover, it should enkindle a Christly desire to see our fellow-beings and neighbors delivered from their dark and degraded condition through a fuller and more widespread proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than they have ever yet received. There is room in Mexico for a

great army of laborers; but, alas! while fields are white and laborers may be had, the means necessary to equip them for this work are lacking.

"Shall we whose souls are lighted

With wisdom from on high,
Shall we, to men benighted,
The lamp of Life deny?

Miss Harriette M. Buss, one of our most devoted and efficient teachers at Shaw University, died at Raleigh, N. C., on October 10th, after a long illness. We tender to the bereaved family and relatives. our heartfelt sympathy in the great loss they have experienced.

We would again remind the churches and women's societies of the fact that a considerable number of applications for missionary boxes remain on hand. We hope to sen all of them out before the close of the year, so that our worthy missionaries may be provided against the hardships of the winter by the kind ministration of the friends of the Society. We would, at the same time, express our deep gratitude for the general response made thus far from the churches, and feel assured that those who have engaged in this work have found it a blessed ministry, and one that has brought great pleasure to themselves, while it has brought great joy to the recipients.

In the Christmas season that is approaching let us remember that nothing will please the Lord more than that we should imitate His own blessed example, in giving ourselves and our means to His service. While we make our offerings to our loved ones, let us remember the infinite claims of Christ's love and grace upon us, and that we can best express our gratitude by ministering to those in whose behalf He came, and for whom He gave Himself at last upon the bitter cross.

"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

A NEW CAMPAIGN.

At the meeting of the Board, in November, a large number of missionary laborers were appointed, and of these a good many take up work under the Home Mission Society for the first time. It is a matter of no small significance that between two and three hundred men and women, who ought to be leaders in Christian service all over this broad land, have thus been commissioned by the Society to do the Lord's work. Very much depends upon the spirit in which they go forth, and may we not express the hope that it shall be true of every one of them that with renewed consecration and with full purpose of heart they will give themselves to this service. If the Spirit of the Master, who Himself was moved with compassion as He looked upon men, shall dwell in them, then, wherever they go, and whensoever they have opportunity, they will not cease to teach and preach Jesus Christ. The true missionary spirit will not suffer them to sit down with a small handful of church members, or in some small community, merely to fill up the time with. a round of duty, but will lead them to go out in every direction to seek and to save the lost; to bid men everywhere to repent and turn to the Lord. A missionary, or missionary teacher, whose service is simply perfunctory, is a contradiction in terms; and we hope that the coming year will witness an advance all along the line in both the spirit and achievements of our missionary force; and that the results of the year, when summed up, will be made glorious by a deeper spirit of consecration in all our churches and schools, a greater growth in spiritual power, and a richer harvest of precious souls gathered to the glory of the Christ who died to redeem them.

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ve should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."