When the action of the conference was presented to the church it was voted that the church accept the trust and that steps be taken immediately to repair and improve the church and parsonage and all other parts of the building, as far as practicable, so as to make the building more desirable as a place of worship and center of Christian work, and a home for the pastor’s family. A building committee was appointed and an appeal was made to the public and friends for funds for the immediate repair and improvement of the building. * * * * * “THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO PRAY.” One of the devoted workers of the A. M. A., telling in a simple yet thrilling way of his heroic work in the South, concludes his article (in THE AMERICAN MISSIONARY for March) with a request for the “prayers of those who pray.” What can he mean? Does he not, when struggling to put up a building in the wilderness, want money more than prayers, or at least as much? Would he not be glad of anyone’s sympathy and prayers? Very likely; but yet we see in his request an unconscious recognition of the fact that those who make a business of praying are the ones whose help is worth something; whose sympathy is palpably felt. Those who pray! Oh, what a blessed thing is habit, when rightly guided. How much pleasanter to make effort, to do work, in familiar channels. What added life does it give to our intercourse with the Father to realize that he is already acquainted with us, that he has heard us on similar subjects before, that he knows the general trend of our desires and longings already. When we go before a court of law with our suits we employ an experienced pleader to present our case, and rightly; his training, his _habit_, is the lubricating element; without it progress would be slow, difficult and tedious. In spiritual matters we cannot do our pleading by proxy; priests were abolished when Christ made himself accessible, through the Comforter, to every heart, and we must now act each for himself; therefore let us see to it that we do not make this part of life uninteresting, unfruitful and dreary from sheer stiffness, inexperience and unfamiliarity. James says (v. 16) “the supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.” A righteous man is one who is working in lines approved by God, and this necessarily implies that he is in communication with God; therefore the maker of this appeal is right in addressing himself to those who are used to praying; there is every probability that they will be “righteous men” and that their prayers will “avail much.” What sort of a phenomenon is a church member who is not in the habit of praying? Even though his subscription to the A. M. A. this year be a liberal one, what certainty is there about his action next year? One who prays for this worker in Tennessee, and gives him a dollar, or a dime, may be of more real help than a giver of ten dollars who does it merely as a duty, or to quiet