Gen. Armstrong's First Lecture.

General Armstrong, of the Hampton Institute, lectured on the education of the Negro before a large audience in Sever 11 last night. His second lecture, on Thursday evening, will be on the education of the Indian.

The lecturer said that the most immediate missionary work demanded of the American people is the education of the Negro and Indian. This education must be accomplished along race lines, for the Negro must be made to assert himself before he can take the initial step in civilization. Race prejudice has been fruitful of much good. In that it has aroused the Negro to the necessity of self-assertion; and also because it has aroused the North to the work of education. Its effect is seen in the forty millions of dollars contributed by the North for this purpose since the war. The urgent and compelling circumstances which grow out of race prejudice have been a developing force in the Negro and have made his future a possibility. When we freed the slave we assumed the responsibility of making him an enlightened citizen. This is the work which the Hampton Institute is doing. But there are other influences which have been busy working the same great evolution. The struggle which the Negro has had to gain the franchise has had great educational influence upon him, and has developed him politically and socially. Human nature has asserted itself and the black vote is slowly dividing; out of these political distinctions, social ones are growing. Then, too, the contact of the Negro with the white races has furnished reconstructive forces which have done much in developing the Negro character. An important influence of the education of the Negro is found in the spur which it has applied to the white people of the South. He is susceptible of as much education, development and improvement as the white, and the educated Negro is pushing the white race and slowly abolishing the race line. The Negro has always gone forward, even in the time of his bondage. The race has the instinct of thrift, and oppression only strengthened and developed that instinct. His character needs forming more than reforming. He has never fallen, because he has never had anywhere to fall from. The experience of the Negro in America has been a preparation for the redemption of his own race in Africa, and it is our work to complete that preparation. The training must be ethical. He learns rapidly and easily, but seldom lives highly. He must be trained in manhood, and herein is the field for missionary work.