him as the creed, not of his friends, his well-wishers, his kindred, but of his masters and oppressors.  They differed from him in education, in manners, in color, in civilization.  Mohammedanism, on the other hand, reached the Negro in his own country, in the midst of his own surroundings.  When it had acclimatized itself and taken root in the soil of Africa, it was handed on to others, and then no longer exclusively by Arab missionaries, but by men of the Negro’s own race, his own proclivities, his own color.  The advantages of this method of approach cannot be over-estimated.  We care not to enter at all into the question of the value of the two religions nor of the good they may respectively do for poor Africa.  We wish simply to deal with the methods and means, and with the peoples who may best employ them.  We again summarize the language of Dean Smith:  The very fact that there are millions of Negroes in America and the West India Islands, many of whom are men of cultivation and lead more or less Christian lives, is proof positive that Christianity is welcomed by them.  Is there not room to hope that many of these men, returning to their own country, may be able to present Christianity to their fellow-countrymen in a shape in which it has never yet been presented,—­in which it would be very difficult for Europeans or Americans ever to succeed in presenting it—­to them, and may so develop a type of Christianity and civilization combined which shall be neither American nor European, but African, redolent alike of the people and of the soil?

This is a point which the American Missionary Association has frequently urged, and which it had begun to exemplify by sending colored missionaries to Western Africa.  The experiment was in many respects satisfactory, but we realized that a longer training and a more thorough maturing of character were needed in those who had just emerged from the darkness and limitations of slavery.  But what greater hope can there be for Africa than in the training of these millions, so apt in learning, so earnestly religious, and so well qualified to meet as brothers and friends their kindred in the Dark Continent!  Here is a work for American Christians, full of promise of a glorious harvest.

* * * * *

THE VERNACULAR IN INDIAN SCHOOLS.

After some considerable delay, Commissioner Atkins has issued revised Regulations in regard to the teaching of Indian languages in schools.  That our readers may have them in distinct form we append them: 

“1.  No text books in the vernacular will be allowed in any school where children are placed under contract, or where the Government contributes, in any manner whatever, to the support of the school; no oral instruction in the vernacular will be allowed at such schools.  The entire curriculum must be in the English language.

     “2.  The vernacular may be used in missionary schools only for oral
     instruction in morals and religion, where it is deemed to be an
     auxiliary to the English language in conveying such instruction.