OTES FROM NEW ENGLAND.

I have swapped horses--exchanged a Georgia mule for a New England
thoroughbred--and hereafter the "Notes in the Saddle" will be written
from this dignified seat. And what a change it is from the South to New
England!

Take a map and look it over. Put down in each State the illiteracy, and
make the comparison. In this good Commonwealth of Massachusetts only
seven-tenths of one per cent. of the native born white population are
illiterate, while in Georgia twenty-three per cent. of the native
whites, and in North Carolina thirty-two per cent. of the native whites,
are illiterate.

The South is pre-eminently the great missionary ground for our
Congregational Churches; for Congregationalism means the school-house as
truly as the church--and here in New England there is most enthusiastic
sympathy with, and support of, the American Missionary Association in
its great work in that section of our country committed to its care by
the churches.

They want the A.M.A. to take Congregationalism into the South, and
whether it organize churches mostly of whites or mostly of blacks, New
England demands that a Christian of any color be admitted into any
church because he is a Christian. The feeling is intense here and
growing more so.

Congregationalism could have planted its churches all over the South
before the war, but it would not strike hands with slavery; so, to-day
the children of the Pilgrims demand that the A.M.A., in its growing
work, shall stand true to the historic principles of the fathers, and
not compromise Christian truth for any seeming temporary advantage.

* * * * *

There is great interest in the work among the American Highlanders which
the A.M.A. is pushing with such vigor. I spoke in a church near Boston
recently, and, after the service, a young man, his eyes bright, his face
flushed, hurried down the aisle and exclaimed, "I am a Kentuckian!" I
had been telling some plain and rather painful truths concerning the
people of Kentucky--the murders committed there; their lack of school
privileges, etc. I thought this friend might question some of my
statements, but I was delighted when he said: "I thank God that some one
is ready to call attention to the terrible needs of my own State. I
can't get people to believe me when I tell them of those needs. I was
brought up on the edge of the mountains and know them well, and I do not
believe there is any spot on