It is not to be supposed for a moment that such consolidation is contemplated in order that the churches may escape the large responsibility now resting upon them; and if economy and efficiency are the only objects sought, we fear the result would be disappointing.  Such an arrangement would not save in the number of workers in the field, and surely it is not wise business management to leave great interests inadequately supervised.  Even if the consolidated society were divided into separate departments or bureaux, the supervision could not be less, if efficient, while the combination would be likely to lead to complications, and would weaken, in the several departments, the sense of individual responsibility and take away the impulse of historic life and achievement.

More work well managed and vigorously pushed seems to me to be the only plan that will satisfy the Christian conscience or meet the approval of the Master.

3.  The work of the Association extends to all races of men.  This claim is sanctioned by the fraternal agreement existing between it and the American Home Missionary Society, by its own history, and by the needs of the field.  The agreement with the sister society says explicitly that the Association is “to pursue its educational and church work in the South among both races.”  The history of the Association shows that at the beginning the populations reached by it in America were all white except the Indians and a few colored refugees in Canada.

Its home missions at the North and West were among white people:  and so were they even in the South before the war.  John G. Fee and his heroic associates in Kentucky, and Daniel Worth and others in North Carolina, founded churches and schools only among the whites.  Berea College was for whites only, at the outset.  It was not till the era of emancipation with its overwhelming flood of freedmen that the Association turned its direct and almost exclusive attention to them.  It heard the voice of God in the tramp of these millions marching out of bondage into freedom, and in that voice it heard the call to itself, providentially prepared for the new era.  It answered the call, without, however, abandoning its mission to preach the gospel to the whites also; and now, with its schools and churches well established throughout the South, with an open door to the whites, and especially to those in the mountain regions, it hears the voice of God calling it thither.  The ready adaptation of its methods to these people, and the success of its efforts among them, attest the validity of its call and the wisdom of its response.