es they are weak men. In one case eighteen men applied for
admission to an annual conference in a certain State and not one of them
was intellectually qualified to pursue the course of study prescribed for
the first year, and to the credit of the conference they were not
admitted. Certainly the Baptist brethren are not more blessed than their
Methodist friends. The smaller denominations are confronted with a similar
lack of men to pioneer the enterprises which are theirs to do. The
Master's words are as true to-day as ever they were: "The harvest is
great, but the laborers are few." The pastors of training and vision are
themselves alarmed; the best of the laity are overwhelmed with the
magnitude of their task when it is theirs to call a pastor. There was a
time when the most choice men of the race entered the ministry. No other
door was open, but to-day practically every door open to anybody else is
open to the man of ability of the Negro race. This of course depletes the
number from which the supply must come.

Even in the days of slavery the great leaders on the plantations were
generally preachers, and they were in many cases feared and respected by
both white and black. If this preacher chose to be, he was a dangerous man
to the institution of slavery and ofttimes was sold. On the other hand, he
was usually the source of great blessing to large communities, so much so
that there were instances where some such men were given their freedom and
commissioned to preach from plantation to plantation, not only to colored
people, but oftentimes to white people. The story of the lives of these
men reads like romance, and they were the men at the close of the Civil
War, who were ready to welcome the school and did their best to lead the
people into the ways of true progress. They had great power and
influence,--not always sufficient intelligence for their arduous tasks,
but they were giants in their day and deserve well-merited praise. To meet
the demands of these modern times other giants must be raised up, who can
hold the respect of the best trained portion of our people, and at the
same time may maintain the confidence of the most humble of every
community. We have some men like this. They stand like giant oaks in the
forest, towering above the shrubs and undergrowth about them. They are
lonely in their work. Here and there, about the great centers of
population, there may be groups of them, but eighty per cent of our peop