Another good man has gone to his reward. Rev. Geo. J. Tillotson, who has perpetuated his name in the Tillotson Institute, Austin, Texas, died March 29th, at his home in Wethersfield, Conn. His useful life was spent in that State. He was born in Farmington, Feb. 5, 1805, was graduated at Yale in 1825, studied theology in the Yale Seminary one year and at Andover for two years, completing his theological studies in 1830. He had several long pastorates, which he filled with great fidelity and success. From 1876 he was not employed as a pastor, but devoted himself with great assiduity to various modes of promoting the Redeemer’s kingdom. He had practised economy and had the means to give, and this he did with a discriminating, and yet a liberal, hand. To the founding of the Tillotson Institute, he gave not only from his own resources, but devoted his time and energies to collecting funds from his friends. But his benefactions were not confined to one object; he had a broad sympathy for every good cause. He was a man of genial temperament, and closed his useful career after a short illness in the 84th year of his age.
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THE RADICAL FORCES OF CHRISTIANITY, AS EXHIBITED IN THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.
BY REV. J.W. COOPER, D.D.
The work of Christ is the work of Christianity. By the “radical forces of Christianity,” we mean the simple spirit of the Master, in its original and energetic operation. We are dealing with no abstractions, neither are we considering the operation of human agencies. What Christ was in his earthly ministry, that Christianity is, because of His living presence {157} in the church to-day. Wherever we discover the working of those principles which were exemplified in his life, there He is present in living power, the inspirer of the endeavor, and the strength of it. The claim that the work of the American Missionary Association makes upon our attention, may be presented in a variety of forms. Its work is commended to us, for example, because it is patriotic, that is, it makes its appeal to our self-interest. The instinct of self-preservation demands that we sustain it. Four and a half millions of Negroes in our Southern States are utterly illiterate. Half that number of Southern whites are in the same deplorable condition. These men are citizens. They hold the ballot. Our free institutions are not safe in such hands as these. Education is an absolute necessity. This wide-spreading and dense ignorance, among masses of free American people, must be speedily overcome. We do not wonder, therefore, that Andrew D. White in his scholarly address, “The Message of the 19th Century to the 20th,” puts the education of the South first among the many great and pressing problems that claim the attention of statesmen. It is a matter of self-interest and self-preservation.