nd down through the Black Belt declare with emphasis that
the quality of the preaching has greatly improved; that more books are
bought and read; that the churches are better organized; that the
conferences, associations and conventions of the ministers and
churches are immeasurably in advance of what they were even ten years
ago; that the subjects discussed in these gatherings are of a higher
order and more intelligently and spiritually handled, and that there
is a growing sense of responsibility and an earnest desire to meet it.
I have been in many of these gatherings, especially among our American
Missionary Association people, where the sermons and papers were
excellent.

Also, it should be noted as a hopeful sign that the preachers and many
of the pastors are greatly desirous of a more complete literary and
theological education. Those who seek such an education are numerous.
We sometimes have at Talladega applications from fifty such in a
single year. It is often pitiful to hear their appeals to be admitted
to school, when denial is forced upon them, since there is neither
room nor money. Still, there are many who secure books, seek help, and
blindly plod on.

Let no one suppose the work in the Black Belt or the State is
finished. It is only gloriously begun. The Black Belt is probably
better provided with schools, churches and ministers than any other
part of the State. The mining regions about Birmingham and in North
Alabama are more destitute and the condition of the people quite as
deplorable. There are hundreds of preachers and not a few ordained
ministers who cannot read or write, and many more who know very little
of God's Word. One such recently sought ordination, and when asked to
find the book of Jude, he replied, after a fruitless search, "That
book is torn out of my Bible and I can't find it." He was ordained
just the same. Our friends may be sure, however, that the leaven has
been cast into the meal, and in due time will leaven the mass. But,
oh, the darkness, the moral corruption, the sorrow and ruin that comes
from the long delay. Where we can put one good minister into the field
we need a score, and where one boy or girl is in school there should
be a dozen. May the dear Father open our eyes to see His work and to
know the joy of self-denying service for Him!

* * * * *

Obituary.

* * * * *

DEACON SAMUEL HOLMES.

The death of