o see fruits. Time will tell; it is already
telling. With boards devising, and schools, churches, and pastors
formulating, methods to bring about the solution of the problem, we
shall reap an abundant harvest. When it is known that the larger
portion of the colored race in the South is still living on the
plantations, practically untouched by the Christian influences of this
century, living without God and not touched by our mission work, it
accentuates the imperative duty of the churches and pastors of
churches to hasten the work of self-support. In concluding, I
emphasize the following points:

1. That the work of educating a race to manly independence requires
time as well as energy.

2. That it behooves all teachers of the race to do their utmost to rid
the minds of the people of those ideas of slavery which strike a blow
at their independence.

3. That the position taken by the American Missionary Association is
the true one in preparing the people for self-support, and thus toward
the self-support of our churches.

4. That while recognizing the difficulties in the way of self-help and
self-support, many, if not all, can be removed if all the churches put
their shoulders to the wheel, and both teach and practice this, and do
all they can for their own support, rather than seek to have
everything done for them.

* * * * *

BEACH INSTITUTE, SAVANNAH, GA.

MISS JULIA B. FORD.

After another all too swiftly fleeting school year, the commencement
season is ushered in by the very able baccalaureate sermon delivered
to a large and appreciative audience by the Rev. J. J. Durham, one of
the colored pastors of Savannah.

On Tuesday there are oral examinations in the classrooms. On
Wednesday, palms, magnolias, cape jasmine, and wild bamboo-vine have
lent their charm to render the chapel a fragrant abode of beauty. "Old
Glory" hangs here and there upon its walls. The large flag which each
morning through the year has received, after the singing of a
patriotic song, the salutations of the assembled students, has given
place for this occasion to the inspiring words of the Latin motto,
"_Ad astra per aspera_," which in bold relief gleam out from a
star-bespangled field of blue above the platform.

Through the dense crowd which overflows the chapel and throngs the
adjoining rooms, to the notes of a march on the piano, the Ninth Grade
enters and stands to receive the graduating class,