He has accepted the pastorate of the Congregational Church of New Decatur, Ala., with which we are in co-operation.  Our consent to this change would have been the more reluctant but for the fact that we are in heartiest sympathy with the missionary purposes contemplated in this exchange of service.

We congratulate the New Decatur church upon its entrance into its tasteful edifice—­recently dedicated,—­with a pastor whom we relinquish from the relationships of Field Superintendent only upon his own repeated convictions of duty, and in view of his preference for this particular work.

SOUTHERN NOTES.

BY SECRETARY A.F.  BEARD.

The “sleeper” had been transformed into a parlor car, which was used that day chiefly by the colored porter and myself.  The “paper-boy” came through and offered me a New York Illustrated Weekly, adorned on the first page with the portrait of Jefferson Davis, for whom the South was then mourning with great abundance of white and black cotton cloth.

After I had declined with thanks to invest in this picture, I turned to the colored porter who was travelling in the white man’s car in apparent “social equality” and casually remarked, “Your people should feel very grateful to Jefferson Davis for what he did for you.  You ought to have that picture.”  With a surprise that he could not conceal, he intimated that he did not understand me.  He “didn’t care for it,” and “didn’t know what Jeff Davis had done for his people.”

Time being at some discount, I undertook to tell him that “Jefferson Davis did more than any other person to take the South out of the Union.  He was chief among the secessionists.  Then, as President, he made so many mistakes, he did more than any other man to prevent the success of the Confederacy.  He did more to bring about the freedom of the slave than any other man.  Since the emancipation of your race came on as a consequence of secession, why should you not be grateful to Jefferson Davis and cherish his memory?”

The black man by this time had gathered himself up for his reply to my Q.E.D.  Not knowing what my sympathies might be, he replied in a slow and careful way, “Well, sir, I can’t see it as you do.  The way it looks to me is this, you know.  In these days there are a good many people who don’t believe in God—­not much—­but I reckon it was God who set my people free.  You see, he didn’t want that condition of things any longer.  It was God who did it, sir, that’s what I think, and I don’t believe it was Jeff Davis.  That’s my view.”

I did not argue the question further.  When one gets down solid upon the decrees, then I stop.  But as the car rolled along with the speed usual on Southern railways, I pondered the text, “The wrath of man shall praise Him, and the remainder thereof shall he restrain.”

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