e various forces of the church.

The prayer meetings are well attended and the Sunday-school is
thriving. New members are received at every communion. The week of
prayer is followed by a large number of conversions. The membership
now numbers 403, making this the largest Congregational Church in the
South. Great stress is laid on the quality of the membership, but
quantity is not despised, and within the next seven years it is the
aspiration of the church to enroll a thousand members. With a
continuance of the spirit of unity and work, why, under God, should
not this end be realized? The possibilities of a thoroughly organized
Congregational Church of a thousand members in a community like this
are untold.

* * * * *

COLORED MINISTERS OF THE BLACK BELT OF ALABAMA--EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS.

BY REV. GEORGE W. ANDREWS, D.D.

The so-called Black Belt of Alabama is a wide tract of land extending
across the central portion of the State, from east to west, embracing
twenty counties, more or less. In general it is level, differing
widely in this respect from the hilly and mountainous region lying
directly north of it. It is the great cotton producing section of the
State. The soil is either sandy or a black loam, and some of it is
exceedingly fertile. Here you will find the canebrakes and cypress
swamps, as well as the prairies and the vast fertile regions. Here
also are cities and towns of importance, such as Montgomery, Selma,
Marion, Greensboro, Demopolis, Tuskegee, Eufala and the like. In the
rural sections of the belt are the vast plantations and imposing
mansions of ante-bellum days. Here slavery was at its best and its
worst.

This part of Alabama came to be called the Black Belt because into it
were gathered so many people of African descent--about 400,000--to
till the soil and harvest the crops. Some say the name originated
from the character of the soil. At the present time the ratio of
colored people to white people varies in the different counties from
two to six of the former to one of the latter. Averaging the twenty
counties, the ratio is about three colored to one white, while the
ratio in the State, as a whole, is about one to one. It is thus seen
that the Black Belt has an interest and a character of its own, and
problems somewhat more pronounced than similar problems in other parts
of the State. This was far more the case thirty or even twenty years
ago than now. It is dou