During the last session of the Georgia Conference at Savannah, a debate took place on the subject of the church and school work as of necessity going together in this Southern field, which impressed me deeply. It was mainly carried on by the young colored brethren, both ministers and laymen, and in matter and manner showed that they knew whereof they spoke, and were deeply impressed with its importance. Any person who may have doubted the vital necessity of the school to the church work here, would surely have been convinced by the earnest arguments of these brethren, most of whom came to the church through the educational department of the mission work. Said one young preacher: “The school is the primary department of the church. It trains the children and youth to think, and hence to accept of a thoughtful religion like ours, instead of the mere shouting and emotional style to which the ignorant and untrained cling. The true religion is one which teaches us to love God and our neighbor supremely, and this can be done best by the intelligence which comes only through the school training.” Another said: “Our people never had any mental training, or any encouragement to think for themselves, and did not know how, until the A. M. A. schools awakened these powers. We, as a race, are not naturally a reasoning people. We are too much governed by impulse, by emotion, by instinct, by passions, and too easily offended, with little self-control. Slavery was a very poor mental discipline, and when freedom came, there were many extravagant ideas and ignorant impulses that led the people to extremes. The utter lack of public schools for our race made us at first prize most highly the advantages offered so generously by the A. M. A. Afterward, as the slumbering intelligence slowly awoke, we saw not only the intrinsic value of education, but we were more able to appreciate the kindness which suggested the sending of these faithful teachers and missionaries. Gratitude prompted us, in many cases, to break away from the old superstitious churches, and growing enlightenment helps us to see more clearly the superior advantages of an intelligent religion. The consecrated teachers of the Association have many of them done grand missionary work, although very few of them are open to the charge of sectarianism. Congregationalism, by its broad, liberal, unsectarian policy of churches and schools, has done a vast amount of good to all the other denominations. They are being leavened more and more by true intelligence, and the ancient foundations of ignorance and hierarchy are slowly giving way. Upon their ruins shall arise more beautiful temples to God, more enlightened worship, more worthy conceptions of daily life and religious duty.”