It is now seventy-seven years since the Liberian work was begun. It has been wisely directed, it has been nobly supported, it has been successful. Surely the ultimate aim in all such labor is to produce a self-supporting church in the mission field. The Liberian Church is already approaching the point of self-support. In his last report Bishop Ferguson says: “I believe the greatest joy of my life would be to be able to say to the Board of Missions, ‘The Church in Liberia will hereafter support itself. You need not appropriate any more funds towards its maintenance.’ That I am unable to do so as yet is not because of an indisposition on the part of the people to contribute to such a worthy object, but rather because of their poverty, through not having learnt to work profitably. It must be remembered that two-thirds of our communicants are native Africans who, as well as the majority of the class we call ‘Americo-Liberians’ making up the one-third, need to be trained in some remunerative industry. The fact is, that the financial burden of the Church in the district is resting on a comparatively small number. Taking this into consideration, the amount raised from time to time for the building, repairing, and improving of churches, and to meet other parochial expenses is rather creditable than otherwise. Besides expenses at home, they contribute annually toward missions in general in the shape of Lenten and Easter offerings and the missionary apportionment fund. Our quota of the last named has already been paid up for the present year. But as above shown, comparatively few deserve the credit. To make the work self-supporting, at least a majority of the members should be able to contribute to it.” Certainly, it is a basic error to abandon a work which has been conducted for seventy-seven years, when it approaches the point of self-support. A change subjecting the mission to a new administration, would mean setback and delay in gaining the end desired. The American Church is bound in a special way to Liberia; the original settlers in Liberia were American freed-men; they had been our slaves. As Americans we had been responsible for the dragging of thousands of helpless black people from their homes; we had held them for years in captivity. When finally we sent them back as freed-men to the shores of their native continent, our obligations by no means ceased.