The final action of the Conference was embodied in a platform substantially repeating the utterances of last year, urging national education for all Indian children and approving the continuance of “contract schools.” Other planks of the platform related to lands in severalty, to the legal rights of the Indians, etc.—all of which were unanimously approved, and thus once more this remarkable Conference followed its predecessors in free and frank debate, consummated by entire harmony in the result.
The varied and unique scenery of Lake Mohonk was shown at its best by three days of bright and bracing weather. The welcome of Mr. and Mrs. Smiley to their increased number of guests, who taxed to the utmost limits the accommodations of the large establishment, was as cordial and genial as ever. The hearty and enthusiastic vote of thanks, the only compensation permitted, was a far less reward than the gratification of their own benevolent feelings in doing good; and that gratification is probably to be enhanced by the calling together of another Conference in the early summer in behalf of a still larger class of our needy fellow-citizens than the Indians.
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NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.
A good friend of the American Missionary Association in a New England village recently greatly stirred up the interest of the people in behalf of our work, through a missionary society which she organized among the children. They had meetings for sewing, preparing articles for a box, and then a fair, in which they sold other articles that they had made, out of which they gathered a considerable sum of money. The interest went far beyond the children. A gentleman, not a member of the church, who had never been interested in missionary work, was stirred up by the solicitation of the children, and gave both time and money to their effort. He afterwards said to a good lady who inaugurated the movement, “I am glad I have given to this cause; it makes me feel good, and I want to keep right on giving.” That is the way it affects every one when the heart and pocket-book are open to these missionary objects. It makes them feel good, and stirs up a desire to continue the process.
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The Christian Endeavor Societies of New England are assisting nobly in the work of the American Missionary Association. One society pledges itself to support a missionary in our field for a year. Another makes one of its number a Life Member of our Association, contributing thirty dollars. Still another brings in a handsome collection recently taken, and still another devotes the prayer meeting evening to thorough study upon the work that is being done through the A.M.A., in the needy and destitute portions of our country. One young man who spoke at the last meeting spent a portion of his vacation in studying up the work among the Highlanders of the South, and