Correspondents are specially requested to place at the head of each letter the name of their Post Office, and the County and State in which it is located. * * * * * THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY. * * * * * VOL. XXXII. SEPTEMBER, 1878. No. 9. * * * * * _American Missionary Association._ * * * * * The thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Missionary Association will be held in Taunton, Mass., by invitation of the Congregational Churches of that city, commencing on Tuesday, October 29th, at three P. M. The sermon will be preached by the Rev. S. E. Herrick, D. D., of Mt. Vernon Church, Boston. Other speakers and the order of exercises will be announced hereafter. A cordial welcome will be given to delegates, and a full representation of the churches is earnestly desired. * * * * * On the 2d of July, Lord Polwarth gave a missionary conference in the grounds of Mertown House, on the Tweed, at which Dr. O. H. White, of America, Secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid Society, made an address. He dwelt upon the explorations of Africa and the emancipation of the slaves in America, and on the relation of these two remarkable events to the evangelization of the 180,000,000 of ignorant and idolatrous inhabitants of the hitherto almost unknown continent. “The address was marked by intense earnestness and pathos, and was listened to with rapt attention.” * * * * * The monthly concert arranged for Rev. Mr. Winship’s Questions and the Jubilee Songs seems to be a great success. Almost daily orders are coming in for the Songs and Questions. Wherever they have been used they have given the highest satisfaction. We confidently commend them, therefore, to churches and Sabbath-schools that desire to spend a pleasant and profitable hour in considering the work and wants of the Association. We do not see how the same amount of information in regard to the Association could be so readily imparted in any other way. Orders sent to Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Congregational House, Boston, or to any A. M. A. office, will be filled gratuitously. * * * * * The friends of Fisk University will be interested to hear of the safe return to this country of President Cravath. With him have also come the Jubilee Singers, who have been giving popular concerts during the last year in Holland, Germany and Switzerland, and have now disbanded. * * * * * THE CLAIM OF SELF-INTEREST.