disaster to each; nay, it would put away from the only society that can effectively, and we believe effectually, meet this problem, the chief factor in the solution of the impending and serious question.  Education alone is not equal to this question, and those who have won the ear and the sympathy of those who need to come under the power of the gospel, who have been their friends and teachers, who have their confidence and trust, are the ones to take this gospel to them and show them how to take it to others.  The schools reach parents, the schools reach pastors, the schools reach the people, the schools are intertwined with all the church life that has any hope in it.  This is the missionary view.  When this people in the wilderness cried out in their distresses, “Who will speak for us?” the Association spoke for them.  When they needed sympathy, sympathy it gave.  When they needed instruction, it went to them in the name of Christ.  In his name it stood for the Negro.  In his name it stood by the Negro.  In his name it stood with him.  It stands there to-day.  It is his friend and counselor.  When the Negro is cast down, the churches will hear one voice and they will wish their own society to be found faithful in this.

With this charter as a missionary society for schools and churches, we present to the Negro race continually the personal hope of souls not only, but the hope of the race.  When they think that the progress is slow we tell them that Christianity is sure.  When they tell us that they can not wait, but must organize and retaliate, we tell them to wait upon God.  “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.”  We ask them to remember that a quarter of a century, or a century, is a short time in the history of a people.  We point to a million—­a round million—­of Negro children in the schools to-day.  We are teaching them to be men.  We are saving them to be Christians.  We teach them not to remain down and not to be put down.  Being men, they are to stand like men, but like Christian men, to conquer prejudices by worthiness, to meet race hatred with only a stronger purpose to command respect, not to render evil for evil, but contrariwise, blessing; not blow for blow, but to go on upbuilding themselves, deserving their rights, and remembering that a great element in the solution of this problem must be an intelligent faith in God.  With this missionary view we stand firm.  We have learned that the Southerners of our own race, even when they hold their prejudices against our principles, respect those who stand in a Christian way for their principles; and that these principles will never be accepted in the South by our holding them loosely, or in suspense, or in any sort of abeyance.  They respect us when we teach our people that they have all the rights of manhood and womanhood; that they are to respect themselves and to be worthy of self-respect; that they are not to consent in their own minds to any assertion of superiority based upon the tint of the skin, and that they are never to feel guilty for being black.  We are teaching the colored people to hold honor with themselves.