Rev. Wm. W. Patton, D.D., President. You will be glad to hear that there is much religious interest in our institution at the present time. It has been gradually coming on all the autumn, but was greatly aided by the week of prayer held by the Young Men’s Christian Association of the University in concert with other Associations. Some ten or twelve of the students think that they have begun the new life lately, and we look for further good results. This is highly encouraging, as showing that in addition to the educational advantages which gather around our location, spiritual blessings may also be received. We desire the prayers of all Christians that the work may be continued with power. Our theological students have been deeply interested in the meetings for prayer, and have rendered valuable aid. * * * * * VIRGINIA. A Destitute County. The following extract from a letter by an esteemed friend in a central county in Virginia is suggestive of the many dark places throughout the South yet unreached by the school or the church: The field in this county alone is an ample one. The colored population of the county largely exceeds the white, and the yearly ratio of increase is in excess of the white. A half generation has passed since the era of emancipation, and it is melancholy, indeed, to any Christian mind and heart, to contemplate how rapidly this portion of the population, in the very heart of one of the oldest States in the Union, is crowding the broad road to perdition; how, in the entire absence of all organized efforts for elemental education and proper religious instruction, they are relapsing into semi-heathenism. There is not to-day a single school of any kind or character for them within the limits of the county (which may be safely estimated to contain five thousand souls of all ages and sexes of the colored race), except the Sabbath-school which has been taught by the writer. * * * * * ALABAMA. New Church at Shelby Iron Works—Talladega a Missionary Centre. Rev. G. W. Andrews, Talladega. A Congregational church of twenty-one members was organized Oct. 10th, at Shelby Iron Works, Alabama. This is the fifteenth Congregational church planted by the A. M. A. in this State. Eight of them are in the vicinity of Talladega College, the most distant being forty miles away. They are the out-growth of the mission work carried on by the teachers and pupils of the college.