The American Missionary Association has been greatly afflicted in the death of Mrs. George A. Woodard, the wife of the Principal of Gregory Institute, Wilmington, N.C. She was a most devoted missionary, consecrating her earnestness and fidelity to the cause of Christ. She will be sadly missed by the colored people of Wilmington, and by those who are inmates of the Teachers' Home at Gregory Institute. * * * * * SYSTEMATIC SPENDING. BY REV. C.J. RYDER. The pastor of a Boston church recently handed to the District Secretary of the A.M.A. $1, saying as he did so: "That one dollar is really more than some hundreds of dollars. It is the gift of a poor woman in my congregation who depends upon her own labor for support. She gives this dollar to the A.M.A. from her hard economy." It may be that God's decimal pointing is not the same as ours in many cases. On a table of the same district office of the A.M.A., there stands a little brown pasteboard box. In it are some tracts offered for sale. All the proceeds from their sale go into the treasury of the Association. These tracts were printed at the expense of a poor woman who has spent a long and useful life in service for others. She comes into that office now and again to see if her gift is increasing. She is not fashionably dressed. No! She never drives to the Congregational House in a carriage. I doubt if she often enjoys the luxury of a street-car ride, although she is upward of seventy years of age; and yet she never comes through that office door but she brings with her the bright glory of spiritual sunshine, and the wealth of her Lord's own presence. She is pinching herself in almost painful economy that she may have $100 to give to this great mission work before she dies, and "Her great Redeemer shall call her to inherit The heaven of wealth long garnered up for her." Now let us turn a moment to the other side of the A.M.A. work. I hold in my hand a letter written upon this scrap of paper by a colored boy in the South and sent to one of our missionaries who had come North: "_Oct. 21._ My Dear Friend, Mr. Brown--I wish you would if you please if you please send me three dollars and a half now if you please send it I want to buy a good little shot gun please send it." These facts present the double responsibility which the A.M.A. sustains to its constituency in this vast and complex missionary work. None of these facts are exceptional in character. The Association must so present its work to the churches as to "constrain" them to give; drag them by the chains of Christian duty to give; those who can of their abundance abundantly; those who must of their penury, with this tremendous self-sacrifice.