His hopefulness concerning the children is an offset to the report of another young man teaching forty-five miles away, where the children in Sabbath School could not tell who betrayed Christ, or answer similarly easy questions. I think it is the same place where the minister told his people, in a vivid description of the Flood, that “the rain drops fell as large as a flour barrel.” Our student teachers have generally accomplished excellent work during vacation. Some of the least promising have shown capabilities which surprised us. We commence the year with hope as to the intellectual progress to be attained, and trembling over the spiritual condition of the school. Several of the active Christians, heretofore leaders, do not return to us. Their influence is missed. The new element is earnest and determined so far as lessons and deportment are concerned, but indifferent towards higher interests. Yet, even as I write, there is a gentle movement, as if the south wind were blowing upon the garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. * * * * * TENNESSEE STATE TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE. PROF. A. K. SPENCE, FISK UNIVERSITY. I think it may be a matter of interest to you and the readers of the MISSIONARY to know that, last winter, an organization was formed here called the State Teachers’ Institute. Its object is the promotion of education, and especially that of the colored people in Tennessee and adjoining territory. It embraces in its membership all those engaged in the work of colored education who may choose to join it. It unites all the forces so engaged in a general educational effort for lifting up the common schools, by improving those who teach them. It operates in accordance with the views of the State Superintendent of Education, by whom it is endorsed and to whom it reports. The plan was first proposed by this institution, and the Methodist and Baptist institutions located here heartily responded. It thus forms a bond of union and a way of co-operation long felt to be desirable on the part of schools of learning occupying the same ground. It also unites these with the public schools, and combines all educational forces in the work among the freedmen.