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NOTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.

I have swapped horses—­exchanged a Georgia mule for a New England thoroughbred—­and hereafter the “Notes in the Saddle” will be written from this dignified seat.  And what a change it is from the South to New England!

Take a map and look it over.  Put down in each State the illiteracy, and make the comparison.  In this good Commonwealth of Massachusetts only seven-tenths of one per cent. of the native born white population are illiterate, while in Georgia twenty-three per cent. of the native whites, and in North Carolina thirty-two per cent. of the native whites, are illiterate.

The South is pre-eminently the great missionary ground for our Congregational Churches; for Congregationalism means the school-house as truly as the church—­and here in New England there is most enthusiastic sympathy with, and support of, the American Missionary Association in its great work in that section of our country committed to its care by the churches.

They want the A.M.A. to take Congregationalism into the South, and whether it organize churches mostly of whites or mostly of blacks, New England demands that a Christian of any color be admitted into any church because he is a Christian.  The feeling is intense here and growing more so.

Congregationalism could have planted its churches all over the South before the war, but it would not strike hands with slavery; so, to-day the children of the Pilgrims demand that the A.M.A., in its growing work, shall stand true to the historic principles of the fathers, and not compromise Christian truth for any seeming temporary advantage.

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There is great interest in the work among the American Highlanders which the A.M.A. is pushing with such vigor.  I spoke in a church near Boston recently, and, after the service, a young man, his eyes bright, his face flushed, hurried down the aisle and exclaimed, “I am a Kentuckian!” I had been telling some plain and rather painful truths concerning the people of Kentucky—­the murders committed there; their lack of school privileges, etc.  I thought this friend might question some of my statements, but I was delighted when he said:  “I thank God that some one is ready to call attention to the terrible needs of my own State.  I can’t get people to believe me when I tell them of those needs.  I was brought up on the edge of the mountains and know them well, and I do not believe there is any spot on earth more needy than that region of my own State.”  He accentuated his words by a generous gift to the Mountain Work of our Association.

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A good friend of the A.M.A. in Gorham, Me., put into my hands the letter of Edward Payson, in which he accepted the call of the Second Parish Church of Portland, requesting that it be sold and the proceeds go to the A.M.A. work.  It is a most interesting historical document, of value to some one collecting historical literature.  It was a generous gift, for this kind woman valued it highly.