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The semi-annual meeting of the Woman’s Home Missionary Association met in the Beneficent Congregational Church, or “Old Round Top,” as the street car conductor called it, Providence, April 3d.  The weather was extremely unfavorable, as New England weather has been lately, as a rule, but there was a good attendance and deep interest.  All the missionary societies of the Congregational churches which do work in America were represented.  The field work of the Woman’s Association has passed into the control of the national societies.  The future looks very bright for its increasing usefulness.

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And now Pleasant Hill, Tenn., rejoices in the sweet music of one of the Smith organs.  Mr. S.D.  Smith is making many schools happy and adding greatly to their efficiency by his generous gifts of organs.

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WHAT THE WORLD SAYS.

BLACK SAINTS AND WHITE.

Do colored folks retain their complexion when they go to heaven?  This is a question of some importance to the members of the Diocesan Convention of the Protestant Episcopal churches of Charleston, S.C.  Not long ago the Convention appointed a special committee to consider and report upon the subject of the admission of negro clergymen and laymen as members of that body.  Their action was taken with the view of bringing the Charleston churches, if possible, into harmony with the other Episcopal congregations of the State.  In 1887, the former had seceded in consequence of the adoption of a resolution which the Charleston brethren regarded as a virtual obliteration of the color-line.

Thursday, the report of the committee was made public.  It proposes a separate convocation for the colored churches under the ministration of the bishop, and consents to the admission to the Convention of colored clergymen who have been associated with the church for twelve months prior to May, 1889.  If the report is adopted, three negro ministers will sit as members, but no lay delegates will be eligible.  The committee were willing to forego their prejudice out of deference to the holy office.  They felt that the color of a clergyman’s skin, although it was no doubt a very serious ground of objection when it happened to be black, should not overcome the respect due to the sanctity of his official calling.  His cloth, so to speak, saved him, and what would have been denied to the man it was possible to concede to the priest.

Under these circumstances the gravity of the question, “Do colored folks retain their complexion when they go to heaven?” is obvious.  The concession which the committee of the Diocesan Convention make is but a re-affirmation of the Charleston brethren’s aversion to anything that smacks of an approach to association of the two races on terms of equality.  If there are colored saints in Paradise, it will be