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"COURTESY OF A HELPFUL EFFECT." The Continent of June 81 h has an editorial with the above eaption. Among other kind things, it says: "The Southern Assembly's determination to drop all controversy over past problems in comity and pursue only the formulation of clearer comity understandings for the future, is another aot of frank cordiality that may prove of even greater avail to the same, good effect. There is a much clearer path ahead for good fellowship between the two churehes today than was visible when the Assemblies met." While the Presbyterian of the South cor dially reciprocates these expressions of good will and the earnest desire for the discontinu ance of all controversy, it is hoped that our esteemed contemporary and all other ardent advocates of union will read the full report of the Ad Interim Committee on Comity to the General Assembly at Charleston, and not a mere fragment of it. This report was pre pared by a committee of able men who had had no previous connection ? with the cases at issue, and is characterized by its forbearance and restraint. The committee did not hold that there were no grounds for complaint on the part of the Southern Assembly. On the contrary, every cont?ntion of the Southern Church was shown to be fully justified, litit in view of past ex perience it seemed to the committer that there *.vas small ho no of securing a satisfactory set tlement and that further litigation was futile. If those responsible for these fractures of comity agreements can allow them to go un repaired, the Southern Church could do noth ing more about it. The report states only the facts and leaves the whole matter with those responsible. Contributed BEAUTIFUL FOR SITUATION. By Rev. Egbert W. Smith, D. D. In my last letter I spoke of my surprise at the remarkable beauty of the Luebo compound. Since then I have held conferences of a week each at Lusambo and Bibanga, and am just beginning the conference at Mutoto. I am again surprised to find that each of these three other stations claims to have the most beau tiful compound in the whole Mission and can prove it to any fair-minded visitor. The Mutoto compound is on the level sum mit of a great eminence 2,200 feet above sea level. Its houses are built around an oblong grassy campus which is dotted with stately palms and beautiful mango trees and shrub bery and intersected with well laid out walks. It commands on every side a fine view of the surrounding hills. As the mountains arc round about Jerusalem, so the great hills stand sentinel about Mutoto. The distinctive charm of the Lusambo com pound, which lies over 1,1100 feet above sea level on its own grassy eminence, aside from its splendid avenue of palms, is the beautiful Sankuru River that flows around its base, re fleeting in its broad bosom every changing aspect of sun and cloud and sky as well as the wide sweep of green hill and plain and forest that rises from its further shore. Ribanga Station is the Asheville of our Af rican Mission, lying 2;8()0 feet above sea level on the brow of an immense bluff, reached by a broad and gentle slope on one side but fall ing steeply away on the other, and command ing from the front veranda of every resi dence on the compound a vast panorama of lull and valley, plain and forest, extending outward to a distance of 35 miles through the full half circle of the horizon, the whole dressed in the most bewildering variety of greens from gloomy hlack to gayest gold, and punctuated at nearly a dozen often widely separated points hy silver stretches of the Lubilash River. Unless all precedents fail, the missionaries at Bulape, whose Station I am yet to visit, will he able to prove that theirs is without question the most beautiful Station of all. T want onr home people to know amid what charming natural surroundings our African missionaries live and work. It. is no mean item in life's total that one's lot should be cast not amid the sordid scenes that environ many a Mission compound in the cities of the Orient, hut in the midst of nature's loveliest and no blest aspects, where beauty and fragrance charm the senses, and every glance reveals green spaces and far horizons that calm and soothe and uplift. Hut many of our home folks think the Af riean missionary is kept so busy fighting mosqnitos and hunting a cool spot that he has 110 time to enjoy nature. There is some truth in this picture of the missionary in the Lower Congo where the altitude is not much above sea level, where the great trading firms and many misions are located, and whence emanate many popular misimpressions of Afr riea in general. lint our Mission is a thousand miles up river from the Lower Congo in a great upland hill country which in climate, and other char acteristics is quite different from the Lower Congo. Take the last month, for example. Of that period I have spent one week each at Bibanga and Mutoto and the other two weeks on the path travelling by foot, and hammock from Lusambo to Bibanga and from Bibanga to Mutoto. I was not once uncomfortably warm during the two weeks at the two Sta tions. Never have I been at places where a clean stiff collar lasted longer. The only time I suffered frem heat was on the path when trudging up hills at or near mid-day under the direct rays of the sun, the difference be tween one's feelings under the noon sun's di rect rays, and in the shade of a roof or even a tree, being almost unbelievably great. Dur ing the month I often wore a light overcoat in the early morning, two or three times wore it during the whole of some particularly cool, sunless day, and always slept under cover at night. In this whole period I do not recall that I have once seen, heard or felt a mos quito. My only entomological experiences were with a jigger, which Mr. MeKlroy skil fully extracted from my finger with a safety pin, and a driver ant who got under my lea ther legging and inspired a sudden agiiity that Ty Cobb would have envied. It is true that our missionaries, when going to and returning from their fields, pass through the Lower Congo, and are often delayed there for several weeks at a time. But I think it probable that owing to recent governmental road building our missionaries will soon .ind it quicker and easier to go and return by the southern route via Cape Town or the eastern route via the Suez Canal, thus avoiding the climatic dangers and discomforts of the Lower Congo. (Written at Mutoto April 1, 1922). A HEARTENING CONTRAST. By Rev. H. Tucker Graham, D. D., Florence, S. C. A glance backward over the years is an illu minating experience. Sometimes the facts re vealed cheer the heart and spur ns to larger endeavor as we realize that the Lord hath done great things for us} and through us, whereof we are glad. Or again the record may show that somewhere we have faltered in our efforts and fallen short of the goal. In the good providence of God, the past quarter of a century affords abundant cause for gratitude to the Great Head of the Church on the part of the Presbyterian Church, South. This period has been marked by a steady ad vance all along the line that is little short of a"ia/ing. Compare the reports submit trd to :he Chuiioite A^ser.blv (1.^97) witli ill m pre sented at Charleston in May: I. The number of churches has grown from 2,816 to 3,492 ? an increase of 676 or 24 per cent. II. The number of ministers from 1,271 to 2,056 ? an increase of 785, or 61 per cent. III. The number of members and ministers from 189,817 to 413,910 ? an increase of 224,093, or 118 per cent. IV. The Sunday School enrollment from 162, 897 to 398,850 ? an increase of 235,953, or 144 per cent. V. Amount contributed for all congregational purposes (except pastor's selary) from $579,603 to $3,608,210 ? an increase of $3,028,607, or 522 per cent. VI. Amount contributed for pastor's salary from $797,475 to $2,663,192 ? an increase of $1,865, 717, or 233 per cent. VII. Amount contributed for Benevolence from $455,782 to $5,472,323 ? an increase of $5,016, 541, or 1100 per cent. VIII. Amount contributed for all purposes from $1,832,860 to $11,743,725 ? an increase of $9,910, 865, or 540 per cent. IV. In 1897: The per capita gift for Foreign Missions was 77c. The per capita gift for all Benevolence was $2.40. The per capita gift for all purposes was $9.65. In 1922: The per capita gift for Foreign Missions was $3.09. The per capita gift for all Benevolence was " $13.28. The per capita gift for all purposes was $28.50. It is clear, therefore, that our Church has gone forward with rapid strides in every de partment of its work ? in its membership and ministry, in Sunday School gorvvth, and in its contributions. Strangely enough, the smallest financial increase above shown is the matter of pastoral support, though even here the ad vance is very marked. It would be highly in teresting to know just what is the average salary of our ministers, but nothing more than an estimate is possible in the time at my com mand. Apparently, the average salary among our pastors was not far from $730 in 1897, and was probably* around $1,500 during the year just ended. The General Assembly Minutes (1921), pacre 104, indicate that during twenty years of the period covered by the statistics of growtli above given (1901-1921): (a) The population of the United Stat.'* increased 40 per cent; (b) The combined growth of the Protectant Churches of the United States was 40 per cent : (e) Yet the growth of our own Church in 25 years was 118 per eent. Thus, during * somewhat loager period we have maintained a ratio of growth that is about two and one half times that of the combined average of the Protestant. Churches of America, and is also two and one-half times more rapid than the