Bishop Cheshire's work among the Negroes of his Diocese received recognition from the national church when, in 1911, he was elected chairman of the Advisory Council of the American Church Institute for Negroes. The Institute had been organized in 1906 for the purpose of aiding the larger Episcopal schools for Negroes, such as St. Augustine's, the Bishop Payne Divinity School, and others. From this time forward he received a number of invitations to speak in the dioceses of the North on various phases of the church's work among the Negroes of the South. One of his most interesting addresses on this subject was made before the Woman's Auxiliary of the Diocese of Long Island at its annual meeting in 1915. In this address the Bishop declared that the fact the Negro was increasing in population meant to him that "God is not done with him. He has something for him to do." The Negro had not only survived his contact with a higher civilization, but had made in it a place for himself. "Protected and trained by his two and a half centuries of American slavery, the greatest blessing which up to this time he has ever known," the Negro had lived through emancipation and the "incalculable injustice of his premature enfranchisement." He was turning from false political and social aspirations and attempting to lay sound foundations for his moral and material development. Referring to the religion of the Negro, Bishop Cheshire observed that he found it very little different from that of the white man. He spoke of the Negro's gift of religious emotion, which might be dangerous, "yet it is a gift; and it is needed to give power and life to faith." The Bishop declared that the church set up a standard for the Negro to live by, it acknowledged him as a brother, and it gave him a definite place in its organization. In answer to the question of what the Woman's Auxiliary could do for the Negro, Bishop Cheshire replied it should try to teach the colored churches to support themselves and to be willing and able to aid others. As for a particular work the organization could undertake, he emphasized the importance of hospital care. This was a vital need and one which the Negro by himself could not supply.[52] The address was well received, although a few of the ideas contained in it were doubtless a little disturbing to some of the listeners. The Bishop was fearless in expressing his convictions, and was ever ready to defend them when necessary.