The National Council has appointed Committees to take into consideration the consolidation of the missionary magazines and the re-adjustment of the work of the several Congregational missionary societies.  We are happy to furnish these committees with all the facts in our possession on these subjects, and this Association will, in accordance with its fundamental theory, cheerfully acquiesce in what shall be found to be the deliberate and ultimate decision of the churches.  In the meantime, it may not be out of place for us to say that missionary periodicals and missionary societies are growths and not manufactured articles, and that plans for modification should be very carefully considered.  We venture, therefore, to suggest that counsel be taken of the Town Clerk of Ephesus, “to do nothing rashly.”

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AFRICA.—­ITS SHADOW AND SUNSHINE.

The shadow is still broad and dense, well nigh covering the continent.  The heroic Stanley has found that shadow as dark as when he first traveled beneath it.  The malarial climate and the bitter hostility of the natives are there yet.  The accursed slave trade is as extensive as ever, embittering the lives of its victims, instigating wars among the tribes and obstructing agriculture, commerce and civilization.  The failures to suppress it are discouraging.  Sir Samuel Baker’s well-equipped military force, Col.  Gordon’s intrepid courage, and Emin Pacha’s brave endurance have all succumbed before it.  Its flow, pushed back for a time, now returns with its old-time flood.  Then, too, the Mahdi uprising, seemingly suppressed, still lives and is likely to hold the Soudan if not to harass Egypt.  When Emin Pacha, under the protection of the heroic Stanley, abandoned his little sovereignty, it was a farewell, humanly speaking, to a speedy establishment of missions in that territory.

But there is a bright lining around all this darkness.  For one thing the eyes of the civilized world are turned toward Africa with increasing intensity.  The rainbow fringe of missions around the coasts is still sustained by the gifts and prayers of Christians, and by the blessing of God.  The multiplied efforts of the European States to colonize the dark continent are facts full of encouragement.  The motive may be selfish; the method sometimes unwise and cruel, and the conflict of contending interests may be hindrances, but the results will be good.  All these movements aim at commerce, and commerce can only flourish on the ruins of the slave-trade, and among peaceful tribes with growing industries, intelligence and civilization.  The Congo Free State, with its railroad in construction, its steamboats on the rivers and its civilized settlements, is a bright omen of the future.