It was a happy thought of Prof. Henry Cowles, after he had completed his set of sixteen volumes of Commentaries on the Bible, that he would assign the property of the stereotype plates, the copyrights, and the contract with the publishers, D. Appleton & Co., to the American Board, the Home Missionary Society and this Association. His generous devising took in also the missionaries themselves, and provides that the fifteen per cent. of royalty on all books sold shall be applied, at the discretion of the Secretaries of the several societies, in supplying with the commentaries such of them as may not be well able to buy them. When our Executive Committee, in September, passed its vote of thanks for this testimony of love, they did not know that a few days before, this John-like disciple had been called up to lean upon the bosom of his Master, who had already given him a better “well-done.” These notes, giving the latest results of Biblical scholarship, without the tedious processes of the same and applying a sanctified common sense in interpreting the Divine Word, will stand for a long time as a fountain of instruction and of comfort to Bible students. The question is often asked, What one set of commentaries on the whole Bible can be recommended to people who do not wish to go into the extended works of Biblical exegesis? We do not know of any better one to name than this. * * * * * PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND THE NEGRO. The mind of President Garfield was too broad and generous, his nature too honest and sincere, for him not to take at once and forever the part of the wronged, however humble, as against the wrong-doer, however powerful. He knew too well the value of education to one who was compelled to struggle up from the depths of poverty for place and power not to emphasize the duty of putting the opportunity and facilities for education within reach of all the ignorant. He first knew of the _Congressional Record_ when he saw it in the hands of an opponent in a discussion of the slavery question. He began his political life in the days when the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Dred Scott decision, had asserted that slavery was the genius of our Constitution, and liberty the child only of local and state regulations. With clearest vision he saw when the war began that the real issue was the death or the supremacy of slavery, and threw his whole soul into that conflict. He was selected by the constituents of Giddings, as the one most worthy to succeed that veteran opponent of slavery in Congress.