A mid-summer appeal for larger and extra contributions, in order to prevent a deficit, ought to be anticipated, and made impossible, by ample gifts now. The volume of offerings during the _first half of the year_, ought to be so large as to remove all anxiety concerning the state of the treasuries of these Societies when their accounts close. How pleasant, if, at the annual meetings, the friends could be surprised with reports of a surplus instead of deficits. Ought there not to be a stern purpose to pay as we go, and to pay with sufficient liberality to enable us to go with vigor and dispatch to the utmost bound of a rapidly increasing demand? May the plea of great interposition, great opportunity and great ability find fitting response.—_The Advance._ * * * * * CONGREGATIONALISM IN THE SOUTH. We reprint the following article from the _Christian Recorder_, the able organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. It is a significant endorsement of the church work done by the Association, and from those who are most profoundly concerned in the Christian elevation of the colored people of the land. We have not even omitted the sharp criticism of the approving words of those who gathered at Chicago to review our work, hoping that we may thus escape the charge of “Phariseeism” in accepting the commendations and congratulations of our brethren of the A. M. E. Church: “The thirty-third Annual Report of the American Missionary Association is before us. We wish that we could place the Report in the hands of every A. M. E. preacher in the land. Years ago we called attention to the fact that the A. M. A. was destined to become the strongest competitor the A. M. E. would find in the South. As we declared, it is even now seen. The twenty-three Congregational churches of 1869 have become sixty-seven in 1879. But it may be said, what is sixty-seven churches with a membership of 4,600, compared to our thousands? They would not be much, to be sure, were they of the same general material. But they are not. They are, as it were, a picked body. In a sense they may be said to occupy the same relation to our Church as the regular army sustains to the volunteer force of the country. And we all know what that means. A thousand regulars can do the work of ten thousand volunteers. Is it asked, How is this? The answer is at hand. Each Congregational church grew out of the school which the Congregational preacher in the person of a teacher taught. Knowing his material, and wielding it much as the potter wields the clay, he occupied for his church a position decidedly advantageous; and the result shows that he has not failed to profit by it.