from the inevitable nature of mankind when left to itself.  Having no momentum from outside, feeling nothing of the swing and swell of progress, hearing little and knowing little of the outer world, they need now our help to uplift and enthuse and save them.  Schools, churches, industrial instruction, mental and spiritual training, help for the poor and the ignorant and the degraded is sorely needed.  This is comparatively a new field of work, and is still largely unexplored and obscure.  There is much to be done, and it should be done now.  The results of a very few years of work are encouraging.  Pray, friends, pray!  Give, friends, give!  Help, friends, help!

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PROGRESS OF EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.

PROF.  H.H.  WRIGHT.

I call your attention to the fact that the Board of Education of the city of Nashville have extended the course of study in the public schools for the colored population, so that there is in existence now a fully-fledged High School for the colored youth, having precisely the same course of study as that of the white youth; and the members of the school are subjected to the same written and oral tests as those of the white school.  So far as I know, this is the first instance of the kind in the South.  Most boards graduate the colored children from the eighth, or at most, the ninth year of school.

The colored High School of Nashville had public exercises in the Grand Opera House in June, when a class of seven graduated.  The Superintendent of Public Schools, the Board of Education, and prominent citizens, white and colored, occupied the platform and gave their approval of the innovation by their presence.

The first class of the white High School was graduated twenty-eight years ago and numbered seven.  This class of colored graduates also numbered seven.

A member of that first white class is now the President of the Board of Education, and presented the diplomas to the members of this colored class.  Altogether, the occasion was auspicious for better things in the public school system in Tennessee.

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THOMASVILLE, GA.

One incident that has brightened our year is the arrival of a pretty school organ, the generous gift of Mr. S.D.  Smith, President of the Smith Organ and Piano Company, Boston, Mass.  It chanced that at the same time, Mr. Hall, our Superintendent, came to visit us, and one morning early we found him at work with his own hands removing it from its box.  On its being taken into the school-room where all the pupils were assembled for the morning exercises, Mr. Hall in a felicitous manner presented it to the school in Mr. Smith’s name, taking from the children in return a hearty “Thank you” for the donor, and a promise to make use of the organ “in the cause of temperance and for the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Then the first notes pealed forth from the sweet-toned organ, notes of praise, accompanying the children’s voices in the Gloria Patri.  Then holy hymns and temperance songs filled the air with melody.