There may be more of sentiment than of sound judgment in this plea, but I beg the privilege of expressing my personal sympathy with the feelings of these old friends. When I think of the toils and sufferings of the workers in the Mendi Mission, of the buried dead there, and of the survivors now in this country, with shattered health, and when I think of the friends in this country and across the ocean who have sustained this mission by their prayers and offerings, I am frank to admit that it has cost me sleepless hours and a sore heart to yield my consent to part with it—unimportant as that consent may be. But in spite of all these sympathies and of old associations, the reasons for the exchange seem to me so conclusive as to leave no room for hesitation; and one of these strong reasons is the one I have just presented—the wishes of the churches. 2. The division will simplify the appeals in behalf of the two Boards. It is a surprise that so many people know so little about Missionary and Benevolent Societies. This is sometimes simply amusing, as when at the recent meeting of the American Board in Portland, it is said that an agent of a railroad centering in Portland asked if the Am. Board was an “Odd Fellows’ Society”; and an intelligent looking man was overheard instructing his friend that they were “Freethinkers.” But the matter becomes serious when it results in the improper designation of bequests in wills and legacies. People that leave legacies to missionary societies are certainly interested in them, and might be supposed to know about them, but mistakes are constantly made that invalidate legacies and cause perplexity to heirs and loss to missionary treasuries. But it must be admitted that the present distribution of work and the appeals in its behalf foster the mistakes into which so many fall. Sec. Humphrey, for example, appears before a Western conference and in eloquent and earnest words presents the broad claim of the American Board, dwelling with emphasis on the remarkable openings in Africa, an almost newly discovered continent, and then calls for sympathy for the Indians now lifting up their hands to welcome the white man’s Bible instead of his whisky. Then follows Sec. Powell in his vigorous and breezy way, telling not only of the colored man in the South but of the wonderful land of his fathers, and follows this with a stirring appeal for the Indians! Is it not too much to expect of the average Christian that he should be able to separate these tangled branches and make each tree stand out before him in its own proper individuality?