BY REV. NELSON MILLARD, D.D. There are certain considerations which entitle this American Missionary Association to the peculiar esteem of our churches. There are in these churches not a few who cherish a paramount, not to say an exclusive, interest in _foreign_ missions. On the other hand, there is another considerable number who cherish a like primary and preponderant concern for _home_ missions. Many are ready to give largely to the work abroad, but little to the domestic field, and _vice versa_. I regard this drawing of a sharp line of distinction and division of interest between the two departments of missionary activity as unfortunate and illogical. Foreign and home missions are in their essential nature one. Our navy, when striking at an enemy in distant seas, is in essential spirit and aim at one with our army operating within our own borders. Nevertheless, the division of feeling, however illogical, exists, and what I desire to say is, that this American Missionary Association offers itself to the earnest interest of _both_ parties, because it combines in itself the elements of both the foreign and the home work. In carrying the gospel to the Indians and the Chinese, it is taking it to _pagans_. So also, in carrying it to many of the Negroes and to the poor whites of the mountain regions of the South, it is taking it to those whose ideas of religion are far more pagan than Christian, and whose gross superstition causes them to need the pure gospel as much as if they lived in India or Japan. So that this Association may be rightly regarded as a foreign missionary agency. And yet, on the other hand, these various populations to which I have referred are dwelling within our own borders, are to a considerable extent a part of our body politic, and are being more and more incorporated into it; so that the work is also home missionary in its character. And we may cordially and confidently commend this Association to our churches, because it combines both grand forms of religious enterprise. To those most interested in carrying the Gospel to pagans, we can say, “We are doing that work,” and to those centering their regard upon the evangelization of our own land, we can say, “We are laboring toward that end also.”