We are not concerned to explain the presence of any race in our land, nor can we parley over the motives which brought them to it. Enough for us to see that these Sauls of Tarsus come into the “straight” way before they _leave_ Damascus; and that when their eyes have been opened, and our forgiving Saviour has accepted them, we call them “brethren,” and kindly protect them from enemies. Enough for us to train them in all Christian truth and service, until they and we together get an adequate notion of the part they are fitted to take in their nation’s conversion. Then, unless our sister society, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, shall take them into the far-off field for that grand work, we must formally equip and send them; for the Holy Ghost has said, “Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them.” * * * * * REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON FINANCE. Your Committee on Finance beg leave to report that they have examined the accounts and have found them duly audited. Attached to the auditor’s report there is a statement that all the funds which represent permanent property of the Society have also been examined, and everything is found in order. There is a balance in the treasury, Sept. 30th, 1881, of $518.80. The management asked last year for an increase of 25 per cent. in the contributions; the churches gave them an increase of 30 per cent. During the year there have been large improvements made, and some enlargements of the different educational institutions, so that they are now able to accommodate a much greater number of students than before; and if that opportunity is to be embraced, and these students who are clamoring for an education are to be instructed, it will require a larger outlay of money than that of the preceding year. On the basis of the heartiness with which the churches complied with the request of last year, your Committee recommend that the management ask of the churches this year a little more still; and that, as against the $246,000 last year, the endeavor shall be made to raise $300,000 the present year. The Committee desire reference to be made to some departments of the work where the need is special, notably the Chinese work, where there is ample room for a hundred-fold more of service. The Indian work also claims a special contribution, and the work among the Africans is always enlarging more and more. I am requested to call attention also, in this informal way, to two provisions of the by-laws, that you may understand how financially secure this Society is, and how well-nigh impossible it is that there should, in any event, be any loss of its funds, or that they should be diverted from the use to which they are devoted. On the sixth page of the report, concerning the Committee on Finance, it says: