that their race will be guided
wisely and safely through this great crisis, and that if a war of races
is to be avoided, these educated colored men will be a grand factor in
averting it.

_Fourth Fact._ It is conceded by all right-thinking people, that the
education of the colored race is the only true solution of the Southern
problem. This has been declared in Presidential messages, in the
utterances of such candid men as Dr. Curry, Dr. Haygood and Colonel
Keating, by writers in all the Northern religious papers, and is, we
believe, the accepted and settled opinion of Christian people at the
North. Everybody admits, also, that there is a crisis coming, and that
what is done for Negro education must be done quickly. The North has a
duty in this matter, and admits it. Our constituents have a special duty
in the case, and they feel it. They have done nobly in the past, and
have assumed great responsibilities which cannot now be neglected or
deferred. But here is the strangest of all the facts in this series:
With the urgency before them, _our constituents do not make a
corresponding increase in their donations_.

We feel impelled to urge this upon the attention of pastors, churches
and individuals. Brethren and friends, do not delay as in the case of
slavery, till the conflict comes! Do not expect that everybody else is
doing what is needed. The responsibility is personal and pressing, and
each individual and church can meet it only by making larger gifts--not
from an impulse, but from a deliberate purpose formed under a sense of
obligation to the Negro, the Nation and to Christ.

* * * * *

REV. W.W. PATTON, D.D., LL.D.

The sudden and unexpected death of Dr. Patton takes away a man who has
made a shining mark in the various relations of pastor, secretary,
editor and president of a university. All these responsible positions he
has filled with great fidelity and success. It becomes us to speak
especially of his relations to this Association, which have been
intimate and special. He was one of the few men present at the formation
of the American Missionary Association in Albany in 1846, encountering
the obloquy and ostracism which was then attached to those who favored
the new movement. In 1868 he became the Western Corresponding Secretary
of the Association in Chicago, and held this position for about two
years. In 1877 he accepted the Presidency of Howard University in
Washington,