asked that question of a gentleman who of all others ought to be able
to answer it correctly and he replied, "Nine-tenths of these teachers
come from the missionary schools, and of these nine-tenths, more than
one-half come from the institutions of the American Missionary
Association." Now we can understand the truthfulness of the testimony
of the Rev. J.L.M. Curry, D.D., the distinguished agent of the Peabody
Fund, who says: "The most that {99} has been done at the South for the
education of the negroes has been done by the Congregationalists. The
American Missionary Association and those allied to it have been the
chief agency, so far as benevolent effort is concerned, in diffusing
right notions of religion, and in carrying education to the darkened
mind of the negro."

Here is the large door that God has opened for us, and through which
we are reaching this people, and in a still larger degree may carry
the truths of the Kingdom of God to them. What they need most of all
is light. Give them that and the question of rights will take care of
itself. When I was in New Orleans last May, President Hitchcock, of
Straight University, pointed out to me in his office a pile of
letters, which, he said, were applications for teachers for these
public schools, and those which he showed me represented the number of
applications which he was not able to fill. And yet he is compelled
every term to turn away scores of young men and young women seeking to
fit themselves for just this work, because there is not room for them
and because there are not funds to care for them.

As to this new movement in the South, I do not conclude that more than
the first step has been taken, exceedingly important as that step is.
Many of the schools as yet are in a wretched condition. The buildings
in the rural districts are small and rudely built, and many of them
are positively unfit to be used as school houses. There are neither
maps, nor charts or other appliances for the teacher's use in his
work, and in fact everything about these school houses is of the most
primitive type. The school year often does not exceed four months, and
many of these teachers are altogether unfit for their tasks.

Are we to think the time has come to withhold our support and our
prayers from this great work? Was there ever such an opportunity
offered to any land as this which is presented to the Christian
philanthropy of our own?

I might tell of the needs of the