BY REV.  C.J.  RYDER, DISTRICT SECRETARY.

A trip to Ohio this month to attend the State Association and to indoctrinate the new District Secretary into the esoteric mysteries of the American Missionary Association was a delightful experience, and yet one does not get out of New England by going to Ohio.  The hills and valleys, and clear mountain brooks are left behind, but New England people are there as much as here.  And what grand opportunities there are in these interior States for growth in missionary enthusiasm and benevolence!  Congregationalism is taking Ohio.  I remember when a boy in the Buckeye State there were few churches of our order off the “Reserve,” or “New Connecticut,” as the northern counties were called.  “Congregationalism was not adapted to those conditions,” we learned in our unwritten, uncongregational catechism.  But since 1860 it has been discovered that Congregationalism is fitted for any conditions where Christians are seeking the advancement of our Lord’s kingdom, and there are souls outside of that kingdom.  So Congregationalism has grown in all sections of Ohio.

The beautiful city of Mt.  Vernon opened her homes and hearts in large and generous hospitality.  The American Missionary Association received an especially cordial welcome, because many remember the golden days when the senior Secretary of the Association was pastor of this Mt.  Vernon church.  It was he they wanted to present the work of the Association in his old pulpit, but a younger man went because he was younger.

The new District Secretary of the American Missionary Association, Rev. C.W.  Hiatt, was welcomed enthusiastically, and his record merits such a welcome.  The office of this district will be in Cleveland, Ohio, and its territory includes Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania and Western New York—­a large field for one laborer to till successfully!  Take this New England district:  there are eleven hundred and forty-five churches in it, and only one Secretary to reach them all!  Were it not that the pastors and many of the lay members were ready to give their cordial and hearty assistance, and for the occasional, earnest help of a missionary, it would be impossible even “to shuffle round in it.”  But there is this hearty assistance and it constantly increases in heartiness.

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Rev. B. Dodge of Pleasant Hill, Tenn., a faithful worker in that mountain region, has returned with a glad and thankful heart to his field of labor.  His appeal published in the February magazine, and his indefatigable personal labors with individuals, were crowned with success, and he rejoiced in sufficient receipts to warrant the erection of the “Girls’ Dormitory” for the mountain girls.  The help rendered was most generous and timely.  But this new building, as imperative as its need is, increases the annual expense of the work. Larger contributions are necessary in order to carry on this work in its larger quarters.  Prosperity involves expense.