The bulletin of Atlanta University, 1904 no. 142

              For statement of the work of Atlanta University see last page. The preliminary program of the next annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association has been issued. It will be held in this city February 23-25. The complete program will be issued about February 1, and can be obtained from E. P. Burns, Atlanta, or Irwin Shepard, General Secretary of the N. E. A., Winona, Minn. The Southern Educational Association held its fourteenth annual session in Atlanta, Dec. 80 and 31, and Jan. 1. The attendance was fairly good, and there were many interesting papers and addresses. Such subjects were discussed as Rural Libraries, Manual Training, Public Aid to Education, High Schools, College Requirements in English, Child Study, Summer Schools, Scientific and Textile Education. No especial place was assigned on the program to the question of Negro Education. It seemed to the writer of this notice, as far as he was able to hear the discussions, that what was said was well said, and that it was applicable equally to the needs of the white and colored population of the South. The general excellence of the meetings augured well for the future of the Southern Educational Association. Southern Education for Dec. 21 is devoted especially to the education of the Negro, and is an excellent number. Opinions and statistics are gathered from a wide and representative range of sources on several important questions. For instance, the question of what kind of education the Negro needs is presented by such men as Dr. Lyman Abbott of the Outlook, Pres. Alderman of Tulane University, Principal Booker T. Washington, Prof. Bassett of Trinity College, Chancellor Hill of the University of Georgia, Mr. W. B. Poe, a North Carolina farmer, and by extracts from our own Bulletin. The division of school funds between the races in the ratio of their direct taxes is strongly condemned. Full statistics are given comparing the illiteracy of the white and colored population in the eleven Southern States. Special attention is called to work done by the Tuskegee Institute for the industrial and social betterment of the colored people living near that institution. Statistics concerning the Negro common school, and conclusions reached by our Prof. Du-Bois based upon these statistics, are quoted from the report of the Sixth Atlanta Conference, The Negro Common School. Taking all in all, it is a notable and an extremely interesting number. THE WEEK OP PRAYER The first week of January, 1904, will long be remembered with gratitude by the students and teachers of Atlanta University. Rev. Frederick Lynch, Pastor of the Congregational Church of Lenox, Mass., has been with us. He has how gone, but we shall not forget him. The earnestness and enthusiasm of the man, the virility and freshness of his thought, the breadth of his message and its helpfulness in application to the deep needs in life—these things will abide with us all. New light has been shed for us upon the teachings of Jesus and upon the meaning of Christianity for life. The services were held in Ware Memorial Chapel. Mr. Lynch first preached Sunday morning on the theme, The Open Door. "Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." He spoke at two services every day until Thursday night when he left for Lenox. The morning addresses were based upon a carefully prepared outline of The Teachings of Jesus; the themes upon which he spoke at the evening services were as follows: Life's Real Satisfactions; Inviting the Best Things ; The Aspiring Heart; Our Partnership with God; and, The Crown of Life. All the scholars—day students as well as boarders—were present at the morning services ; at the evening services the school family and any others who chose to come were welcome. The large attendance at the evening services and the eagerness with which the words of the speaker were devoured on all occasions gave evidence of his power. He made no appeal to the emotions except such appeal as truth itself always makes to the emotions when earnestly presented. He appealed rather to the whole man, the highest and best that was in us as children of the Heavenly Father, and made us feel that devotion to the cause of Christ and one's fellow men was a reasonable service. In all he said there was an assurance of the final victory of the aspiring and faithful heart, a ring of Christian optimism which gave us just the encouragement which we need. The good God and Father of us all is hovering over us ready and longing to give His children whatever help and strength they need. It has been said that the history of the world is the biography of its great men ; is it not rather the biography of those who have the aspiring and faithful heart, however little they may be known to the world? For it is through such of his children that God accomplishes His great purposes in the world. "We are laborers together with God." At the close of the last service Thursday evening, the students through a committee of their Y. M. C. A. presented resolutions to be read, expressing their appreciation and thanks to Mr. Lynch for his sacrifice in coming South at this busy season and for the great good he had done them. Later at a teachers' reception in North Hall in Mr. Lynch's honor several members of the faculty expressed the sentiments of sincere gratitude which we all felt and wished Mr. Lynch God-speed on his journey North and an abundant entrance into the new field of Christian service upon which he is so soon to enter as pastor of the Pilgrim Church in New York City. We feel impelled to congratulate the people of Pilgrim Church in the man they have chosen under God to be their Christian pastor. Frederick  Lynch  has  been  with  us and he has gone back to Lenox, but we shall   not   soon forget   him.    He  has quickened within us the sense of things which are eternal.    The man has gone, but the spirit of the man remains with us, for is it not the Spirit of God that is in man?   And it is this  which he has quickened within  us by  his too short stay among us. Edward T. Ware. NUMBER  142                                     ATLANTA, GEORGIA                                 JANUARY,   1904