We have an immense advantage in this work, too, because we are not hampered by any connection with the old colored churches, and are not tempted to cater to their superstition and confusion in worship. The temptation to count members in the Annual Report, and to sweep whole congregations into the church, is very great; but, fortunately, it has not lain in our path. There were no Southern Congregational churches, and so there were no churches of our name for which we were held responsible. It was our work to prepare a pure and intelligent seed with which to plant the Southern field. We antagonized no other church; “the land was all before us where to choose.” The 5,300 laborers we have sent into the South during these seventeen years were for the negro race; and the 2,000 more we have raised up out of that race are for the instruction of their people. The foundations we have laid, therefore, have been broad, and just those needed to start the race upward. To those who are intent on merely propagating an _ism_, the results up to this time may seem small compared with the outlay of men and money; but to those who look deeper, the results cannot be counted in numbers of schools or churches; the churches founded represent but a part of the spiritual outcome. The old churches have been wonderfully quickened and elevated by the incoming of large numbers of youths brought to Christ under our teaching; these have carried back a more intelligent piety and a severer standard of morals. Such a result was to be expected, and, if the old churches are to be purified and saved, is not to be regretted. In estimating the good done, therefore, we must take into account not merely the new churches planted, but the old ones enlightened and cleansed. Our mission has been, and may be, largely to leaven the old, while we build up, over the South, the churches and schools to serve as lights and guides of the people into the new and nobler future. We oppose nothing that is good; we come with no Northern name to antagonize a Southern one; we come as a new spiritual force to help all true churches, and all good people, in working out the problem of the negro’s salvation. Our right to go, then, is the right to do good as we have opportunity; is to take advantage of most favoring circumstances for enlargement and usefulness. * * * * * GENERAL NOTES. The Freedmen.