Amid the success, joy and hopefulness of the year’s work, came the affliction of the shooting of Prof.  George Lawrence, while about his duties in our school in Jellico, Tenn.  It was the work of a miserable creature whose brain was fired with whiskey, and who was urged on by the saloon element as a retaliation for earnest temperance work.  After long and anxious weeks of intense suffering, a brave fight against death proved successful, and we now hope that our missionary’s life is spared for many years of usefulness.  Nearly a hundred men have been shot already in this one place, and the place itself is not more than six years old.  Is it strange that these mountain people who have a glimpse of better things, are appealing to us every week of the year to plant institutions among them?  Is it not the voice of Christ clearly commanding us to possess and subdue this land, and to transform it into a part of his peaceful and beneficent Kingdom, which shall join hands with us to pass on the torch of Christ to others yet in darkness?

 THE INDIANS.

The people of America are determined to press the Indian problem to a speedy solution.  Provision has been made for giving lands in severalty, and the next great movement should be to induce the Government to provide secular education, and the churches to furnish religious instruction to all the Indians.  The American Missionary Association, during the year, has responded to this new impulse by enlarging its work—­in the opening of new stations, in the erection of new buildings, and in the appointment of more missionaries and teachers.

At the Santee Agency, Nebraska, our oldest mission station and school has had marked prosperity in its normal, theological and industrial departments, and, better than all, in a deep and wide-spread religious interest that has pervaded the school and the church.  The new building, named Whitney Hall—­from its giver—­has been erected, affording accommodations for twenty-two of the larger and more advanced pupils, and furnishing rooms for the treasurer’s family.  A liberal gift from Mrs. Henry Perkins, of Hartford, Conn., provides, for the present at least, for the running expenses of the Boys’ Hall, and, in appreciation of the gift, and of the interest in the school which the gift implies, the building will hereafter be called Perkins Hall.

At Oahe, Dakota, on the beautiful Peoria Bottom, both the school and church have prospered.  The school is crowded to its utmost capacity and a greater number of pupils has been granted in the contract with the Government.  A new building is urgently called for.  The closing exercises of the school were attended by a picturesque group of three or four hundred Indians, who were encamped around the station.  Some of these came a hundred and twenty-five miles to attend the exercises.

One marked feature in the enlargement of the work has been the opening of two more Central Stations:  one at Rosebud Agency, the other located at Fort Yates, near the junction of the Grand River with the Missouri.  The new mission house has been built, and by the aid of special gifts from benevolent friends at the East, a commodious building has been erected for a hospital.