But whatever you may say in regard to this matter, I am sure that I shall carry you with me in this conviction, that in the South, in our labor among the blacks, our institutions must be of this character and can be of no other. We must have institutions that shall furnish Christian homes. Those who come to our institutions, come from places where they have no such Christian training as have most of those who are in public schools in this more favored portion of the land; and those in the South, if they are to have a Christian training at all, must have it in schools that are under the management of Christian men, in chartered and endowed institutions, cared for by Christian boards of trustees. It is this Association that is doing precisely this kind of work; and this Association and others like it will, I firmly believe, be called on by God for years to come to labor with the same devotedness as they have in the past for the salvation of the land. My friends, our land is in danger. I am profoundly moved with an anxiety for a land which should be dearer to us than life. It has seemed to me, as I have looked over this broad extent of country, that there were flames of fraud and violence springing up here and there, that were working disaster to our republic, and that would in time—if we may judge by the history of other republics that have been similarly controlled by evil influences, as France in the last century and Spain in this, and Greece and Rome in the centuries gone by—bring this our beloved land to wreck and ruin. And yet we have a God above, and He has given us methods of fighting the flames. This summer the woods of New Jersey were all ablaze, and the farmers went out into the forests to fight the fire that they might save their homes and their property from desolation; and the method they pursued was this: to build against those fires a back fire that should rage more furiously and destroy the other flame as it advanced. It is your business and mine to “Take up the torch of truth And wave it wide,” to take up this blessed Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and carry it all through the South, and touch points here and there until at length we have the fires blazing all over the land, and ignorance is dispersed in the light of the Gospel. Already, in almost every Southern State, these fires are lighted and the work goes gloriously on. Let us not lose heart, but thank God that He has given us the privilege of joining in this grand work. * * * * * A SAMPLE STATE. PRES. H. S. DE FOREST, TALLADEGA, ALA.