They are our eight millions of negroes, of whom probably not more than one-fourth may be said to have felt the corrective influence of the Gospel upon their lives. Perhaps only those who have come in contact with these people for the _sole purpose of helping_ them to manhood and womanhood, can comprehend the tremendous incubus of bad habits, stunted growth, blunted susceptibilities, with which they struggle. It is painful to note the limitations of those even who have had the best advantages. Yet they are ever reaching upward, and the struggle is bringing out noble qualities of character, showing the possibilities of the race. We have had a goodly recompense for Christian labor among them, and does not this increase our responsibility for the three-fourths that are yet to be helped to a good understanding of themselves and their duty toward man and God? And no one will question that in the development of the best _womanhood_ there rests the surest hope of the elevation of this wronged, and even now, greatly oppressed people. But our woman's work finds also its mission among the needy whites of the South. It seems almost incredible that there should be found, within thirty-six hours' ride of our Northern towns, so dotted with schools and churches and Christian homes, a section of our country where there have been in hiding, in the ravines and on the mountain sides, two or more millions of our American people, in gross ignorance and superstition. But such is the case, and as always, the women are the greatest sufferers. Doubtless the Negroes have the largest claim upon us, because of their past history, their present wrongs, and their great numbers, which have become so startling as to make it imperative that we yield no jot of advantage gained, but rather increase our efforts every year for their intellectual and moral improvement. Yet the work for the mountain whites is _just now_ especially urgent. A missionary of much experience expresses the view, that if we can bring the forces of Christian education to bear mightily upon these mountain people for the next ten years, they will themselves become a power as our allies in the great battles of the future against immorality and false doctrines. A few weeks since I met in North Carolina near the Great Smoky Mountains a mother and daughter, the latter about eighteen years old. A school for mountain girls had been opened there, and the daughter had attended the last year. On entering she could not read a word, but now was in the Fourth Reader, and studying arithmetic and geography. The rich, soft color that came to her cheeks, and the kindling light of her eyes, told of the brightness this school had brought into her life; this Christian school, for here too, she had learned the way of eternal life. Even the mother's eyes sparkled like stars as she looked with admiration upon her "learned" daughter.