It is not seven days since, at New Haven, under the elms that shade Yale College, I saw light-bearers in martial array passing through the streets, and, when the band struck up the music that I heard once on the tented field at the South, my heart grew large. When I saw the marshaling of soldiers as in battle array, I thought of what I had seen at Cold Harbor, at Drury’s Bluff, at Richmond, and at Petersburg. They went on in the mimicry of war with mounted men, and my heart was full. But soon came a noble battalion of black men, side by side, step by step with their brethren, looking as grand as any of them, with their lighted torches going on towards the front. I saw there a parable. There is Alabama and the South, there is the Dark Continent with a sixth of the population of the globe, 186,000,000 waiting for the Gospel. Now, then, shall we fill those torches with oil and light them? We have men ready to be trained to go there, and, believe me, they will not only bless Africa, but do a large part in saving America. Do you remember, my friends, that the oldest monuments we have, the most ancient coins that come down to us, represent the negro kneeling before his captor, with his hands clasped in petition, yet wearing shackles, and there kneeling in prayer to an enemy? That is the old picture of Africa that has come down through the sun-burnt ages. How is it to-day? Thank God, in our country the scene has changed. The black man is not kneeling before his captor. He stands erect with us, and with us he stands close to the ballot box. Those shackles are broken—do I say broken? No, they were cut asunder by the red sword of war, but still they lie at his feet. Those hands are not clasped now, but open, and they are extended, not to his captor, but to his old-time friends and liberators, to Christian men and women of the North. He holds in one hand a spelling-book and a Bible, and he stretches it out to us and says, “Come and teach me.” Brethren, it is blessed to hear that call. It is blessed to have a share in that work. * * * * * REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CHURCH WORK. The Committee upon Church Work would emphasize the fact that the religious work among the Freedmen is essentially that of reformation. The churches of this Association are the Reformed Churches of the South. Incidentally, they are Congregational. The reason which called them into existence, and which justifies their separate organization, is the demand for a pure, intelligent, progressive Christianity. The Association steadily refuses to multiply churches, or to increase their membership, except as the true type of personal piety can be established and maintained. And, acting upon this principle, the growth of the church is made to depend upon the material which can be prepared for it; in other words, the church is essentially the product of the school. There only can the foundations be laid for an intelligent faith and a pure morality.