But there is a bright lining around all this darkness. For one thing the eyes of the civilized world are turned toward Africa with increasing intensity. The rainbow fringe of missions around the coasts is still sustained by the gifts and prayers of Christians, and by the blessing of God. The multiplied efforts of the European States to colonize the dark continent are facts full of encouragement. The motive may be selfish; the method sometimes unwise and cruel, and the conflict of contending interests may be hindrances, but the results will be good. All these movements aim at commerce, and commerce can only flourish on the ruins of the slave-trade, and among peaceful tribes with growing industries, intelligence and civilization. The Congo Free State, with its railroad in construction, its steamboats on the rivers and its civilized settlements, is a bright omen of the future. Surely God's people should pray for Africa, moved by pity and by hope. Christians in America can do more than pray--they can help to answer their own prayers. They can raise up the sons and daughters of Africa, trained in our schools, to go forth as missionaries and colonists to the land of their fathers. The experiment has been tried with success. Missionaries of African descent can endure the climate better, and can more readily reach the people than those of the white race. There is a call in these facts for the means to give special instruction in Biblical truth to those who can thus be prepared for this great mission work. * * * * * CONVENTIONS OF COLORED PEOPLE. The proposed National Conventions of colored people to be held in Chicago and Washington are significant facts. They indicate that the colored people are suffering wrongs, and that they feel a call to seek redress. Their right to hold such conventions is unquestioned; the wisdom of holding them will be vindicated, we hope, by their just and reasonable utterances and plans. Intemperate language and rash and impracticable measures will not help, and we have so much confidence in the discretion of our colored friends that we believe none such will be said or proposed. Our colored brethren must not forget that much is being done for them and that they are doing much for themselves. It would be unwise to overlook this in any attempt to reach something less tangible. Their appeal to the justice of the Nation, to the Constitution and the laws can be made invincible, but it will be well to keep in touch with the sympathy of the North and with the conscience of the South, for in spite of all the wrongs inflicted on the colored people in the South, we believe there is a large and growing number of Southern people who look upon this whole question conscientiously, and although perplexed desire that the right shall be done. For the colored people themselves, while conventions are good, yet the accumulation of property, growth in intelligence, and character are better.