The time has come for new vigor in the Indian service.  Gen. Morgan has been confirmed as Indian Commissioner, and his broad and well-matured plans are ready to be put into operation.  We hope that Congress will make the necessary appropriations, and that nothing will hinder the multiplication of Indian schools and the ingathering of pupils.  With the Sioux Indians, a great crisis has come.  Their reservation is severed, and a broad belt is opened in it for the incoming of the white man.  There will, of course, be the rush and confusion of new settlers, with the almost inevitable demoralization of the Indians.  But a still more serious and protracted evil will grow out of the conflict of the two races and the temptations to the Indians.  If ever the friends of the Sioux Indians needed to bestir themselves, it is just now.  The helping hand, the open school and the sanctifying Gospel, must forestall all bad influences.  So far as the work of the American Missionary Association is concerned, the opening of this reservation to white settlement will necessitate the removal of five or six of its out-stations, occasioning spiritual loss and additional money appropriations.

While we hail with satisfaction the inauguration of Gen. Morgan’s broad plans, we feel that there should not be the least relaxation on the part of the churches, in the “contract schools” and in the preaching of the gospel.  From John Eliot down, the gospel has been the great civilizing power among the Indians, and it will be a fatal mistake to withhold it.  If the new Government policy is successful, the gospel is its essential adjunct, and if there should be hindrances in carrying out that policy, the steady stream of gospel influences will be all the more necessary.

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EMIGRATION OF COLORED PEOPLE.

We have seen a large map of a Southern railroad, on one side of which were some highly-colored pictures.  The first showed the tumble-down cabin of a colored man, himself, wife and boy carrying from it their few belongings to the favored land of promise.  The next picture shows him and his family in the woods in his new location, getting ready to build his house.  The third picture represents a fine log house, with green fields well fenced, a mule and pigs and chickens in the yard; and the last picture presents a large frame house with a veranda, in which the colored man is seated in a large arm-chair, reading a magazine, and his wife sitting by his side in a rocking chair, while near at hand is the capacious barn, with mules grazing in the adjacent lot.

By the side of each picture is a running comment, supposed to be made by the colored man himself, describing his hard lot ’where he first lived, then telling of his purchase in the new land of promise, stating the price and the terms of purchase; then follows his happy rejoicing over his new location, and finally his triumphant joy in his wealth and fine mansion.