On the basis of our receipts last year, we should have received by the end of March $167,852, and on the basis of our appeal, $175,000. It will be seen, therefore, that in the prosecution of the work we have not exceeded the appeal of this year, nor even the scale of last year. Here, then, presses our problem. Summer is not a good time for collections. The necessity for special appeals, such as we have been obliged to make during the past few years towards the end of our fiscal year, has been as irksome and disagreeable to us as it has been to our friends. It is on this account we now raise the question: Cannot an effort be made during the next two months to so increase the contributions to the A. M. A. that the summer will find us delivered from possible embarrassment? It will necessitate earnest work on the part of our friends; but with such an important field urgently calling for the enlargement of missionary work, with so many evidences of the Divine approval resting upon it, and with so much ability in the possession of our friends, may we not hope that the churches will lay hold of the problem and solve it at once? * * * * * SUICIDE POSTPONED.—There is an old story with such a good moral that we recall it to the minds of our readers. A man of large wealth, living in Paris, became so tired of a monotonous life that he determined to commit suicide. On his way to the spot decided upon, it occurred to him that he might as well give away the money that he had with him, which was quite a large amount. He found so much pleasure in bestowing this upon the poor people whom he met, that he concluded to postpone the suicide until he had had time to enjoy some more of the same beneficence. It is needless to add that, instead of disgracing himself by suicide, he became a public benefactor. SELECTED. * * * * * RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION.—“I have just been reading my AMERICAN MISSIONARY for April. I am terribly stirred up by it—am under a dreadful temptation to _covet_ money that does not belong to me. I am poor and I have to pay for my board and my room, and cannot get without stealing the wealth that is so foolishly spent by others. “The treatment of the Chinese, too, is an _abomination_. I am naturally high-spirited, and, although in my 83d year, do not feel more meek and quiet than in my early years. It cannot be that the blessed God whose ‘mercy endureth forever’ can look with favor upon our nation. Alas! alas! what can be done?” SUBSCRIBER. * * * * *