II. That in obedience to the same New Testament doctrine, we shall require that all churches aided by us shall unite with neighboring churches of the same faith and order in Christian fellowship in the same conferences or associations, and in other usual means of fraternity and fellowship, making no distinctions on account of race or color. III. That this Association will not enter upon any new church work in any city or town where the American Home Missionary Society has already established a church work, without previous conference with the officers of its sister Society. Minutes similar in purport to the above have been passed by the Home Missionary Society. * * * * * BENEFACTIONS. Mr. William Backnell, of Philadelphia, has given $60,000 to the University of Lewisburg, Pa., for endowment purposes. Westminster College is to receive $2,000 from the estate of Miss Jane A. Thompson, of Missouri. The late Mr. Samuel Willets gave $100,000 to Swarthmore College, a Quaker institution, near Philadelphia. Dartmouth College is to receive $50,000 from the estate of the late George T. Wilson, of Providence, R.I. It is reported that Wm. H. Vanderbilt has recently given $100,000 to Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tenn. Mrs. Mary Young has given $500,000 to Fall River, Mass., for the establishment of a school of high rank. The gift is made in memory of an only son. Washburn College received a Christmas gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Emily G. Williston, of East Hampton, Mass., and a New Year’s offering of $1,000 from Hon. Wm. Hyde, of Ware, Mass. By the will of the late Wm. E. Dodge, of New York, the Syrian Protestant College is to receive $20,000; Lincoln University, $10,000; Howard University, Atlanta University and Hampton Institute, $5,000 each. Miss Baxter has given $50,000 to provide a laboratory for a college at Dundee, Scotland, which was founded by herself and her cousin, Dr. Baxter, some years ago, at an expense of $750,000. Mrs. Adeline Smith, of Oak Park, Ill., recently gave $11,000 for the founding of a Philander Smith chair in the University of Little Rock, Ark., to be a perpetual memorial of her husband, who died about a year ago. _Permanent endowments are needed in order that the institutions of the American Missionary Association may achieve that larger success which is rightly expected of them. Every consideration of the past, of the present and of the future, enforces the demand that these endowments should be provided at once._ * * * * * GENERAL NOTES. AFRICA. —The German Reichstag has voted an appropriation of one million marks to defray the expenses of an expedition now being fitted out for the exploration of Central Africa. —The Church Missionary Society have received tidings from their Uganda Mission at Mtesa’s capital that five young men have been baptized, the first fruits of the mission.