_The Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association at its last Annual Meeting appealed for $500,000 for the endowment of its chartered institutions at the South. The anniversaries of the different colleges of the land are calling the attention of the benevolent public to their growth and wants. We especially urge the claims of the colored people South to a full share of the gifts made for endowment purposes._ * * * * * SELECTIONS. A RICH MAN’S BENEFACTIONS. In these days of numerous contested wills it is something of a novelty to see a rich man forestall the lawyers by making his bequests before his death. George I. Seney is one of this class. His large gifts have been entirely unsolicited; they have been made simply because he himself thought that they ought to be made. These bequests make in the aggregate $1,485,000, not bestowed through sentiment or caprice, but in accordance with the trained judgment of a shrewd, far-sighted business man. When asked why he made these various bequests during his life, he answered: “First of all, because I feel that I am a trustee, responsible for the right use of the money given me. With the experience that I have, I believe that I am the person best qualified to carry out the provisions and duties of that trusteeship. What certainty have I that these provisions and duties would ever be duly carried out after my death? Absolutely none. Whereas now, by making these gifts in my lifetime, I am sure that the precise object I desire is accomplished in just the way I want. And then, too, I am more and more convinced of the truth of the words: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ The great danger of increasing riches is that it fosters a disposition to hoard money only for the sake of hoarding it. Slightly to alter a common word, it becomes _money_-mania with them; they gloat over their millions, just because they are millions and not because of the happiness producible from them. Now I maintain that such a spirit is unworthy not only of a true Christian but of a true man, and I have determined never to let it appear in my character.”--_New York Tribune._ GIVING IS GETTING. One of the plain paradoxes in the realm of mind, matter, nature and grace, is that true gain comes only through loss; that hoarding is impoverishing; that there is no way of keeping one’s hold on a desired good, like parting with it; that acquisition is a result of expenditure; that dividing is multiplying; that scattering is increasing; that spending is saving; that giving is getting. Bodily strength comes from its expenditure, not from its hoarding. Every wise use of a muscle adds to the power of that muscle.