Finally, an educated ministry is needed. Pres. Gillman says: “There is no greater curse to a community than an ignorant ministry.” Dr. Haygood, in “Our Brother in Black,” says: “The hope of their race in this country is largely in its pulpit. How urgent the need, how sacred the duty, of preparing those whom God has called to preach to this people!” The few ministers who have received partial training, and others who are making heroic efforts at self-culture that they may aid their people, are worthy of all praise; but their number is pitifully small, serving by their light to make the surrounding darkness visible and to show the need of the best training. This is needed to remove the mass of crude notions and superstitions that almost hide the truth. It is often harder to bring a benighted Christian than a heathen to the light. It is needed to remove the bitter sectarianism which usurps the place of the Gospel. This feeding upon ignorance can only be removed by those whose minds and hearts, broadened by generous culture, hold the great common truths of Christianity superior to the petty differences of sects. It is needed to ward off skepticism, which is to be feared from two sources: the memory of the injuries of centuries, and the continued experience of many evils, even at the hands of professed Christians; and, second, the revelation, as they grow in knowledge, of the emptiness of what is preached as religion and the ignorance and ofttimes wickedness of their ministers leading them to loss of respect, to ridicule and to unbelief. There is abundant testimony to the growth of these evils. What machinery is needed? In the towns, the three months’ free school should be so supplemented as to continue nine months. In the larger towns and cities there should be high and preparatory schools, with normal classes. At convenient points should be boarding schools, with preparatory, normal and industrial instruction. Then, supported and fed by, and inspiring all below, should be the college, the school of higher education. Justice to a race long oppressed, obligation to meet more than half way those states that make generous appropriations to this end, and safety to the nation, demand that these should be liberally furnished with such buildings and grounds as health and comfort require, with libraries and apparatus equal to the best, and an efficient corps of teachers, so paid that their best energies may be given to instruction. * * * * * REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CHURCH WORK.