These are royal words, and we believe that our teachers and
missionaries engaged in this most glorious work of saving needy souls
will take with them this spirit, and be blessed in the communication
of their blessing to others.

* * * * *

IMMIGRANTS AND NEGROES.

The Immigrant question challenges attention. Shall immigrants be
welcomed, restricted or prohibited? In the early days of the Republic,
when the revolutionary war had welded the people together and our
boundless territory begged for occupancy, we welcomed the oppressed of
all nations. Later, the welcome has been responded to by such a
rushing, heterogeneous and even dangerous mass that we are compelled
to pause. Restriction is talked of, but the line of discrimination is
hard to be fixed. No committee at Castle Garden can detect anarchists,
criminals, or even the poor, if that line should be chosen.
Prohibition--exclusion is talked of--nay, is enacted stringently
against the Chinese. If need be, it may extend to all. So there is a
way of averting this evil.

But the Negro question cannot be put away. The Negroes are here. They
outnumber the immigrants that have come to our shores in the last
thirty years, and have a foothold upon the soil as valid as the Aryan
race, whether we consider the date of their coming or the labor they
have put upon the land.

There is a strange disposition to shrink from the Negro question. Some
avoid it by flippantly denying the danger; others turn from it because