I remember the story of a brother in the African Methodist church, who, whenever the contribution box was passed, was accustomed to shut his eyes and throw his head back and join in with all his zeal and all his lungs in singing the song which was usually sung on that occasion, “Fly abroad, thou mighty Gospel.” This went on for several contributions, and then the deacon who passed the box thought he detected an error in all that praising and singing, and so he punched the brother quite pointedly with the box and said, “Just you give something to make it fly!” If we merely have the inspiration of this hour and it does not culminate in enlarged gifts for the work, if there is not a vast enlargement of the work upon the hands of this Association, this meeting will have been a failure. It is to redeem it from that failure that this report and these calls are now made. You remember how it was when the war closed—you remember what an inspiration swept over the land, and what enthusiasm there was at the very mention of the freed slave. You remember how many associations and philanthropic societies, and even the Government itself, were enlisted in the work, and how their appeals thrilled the multitudes. The picture held before us then was that of a slave, from whose cramped limbs the broken manacles were falling. We were enthusiastic then. But to-day the same picture of the freed and suffering slave, and the same appeals, though with all the worth they had in them then, are to us only the embellishments of rhetoric. They have lost their force, and I am surprised at this when I look upon the vastness of the work; for, with all these years of our labor, the work has outgrown and overmatched our efforts, and the demands upon us to-day are greater than at the first. Every appeal made to justice then is as strong to-day; every appeal made to philanthropy then is of equal force to-day; every appeal to our enthusiasm then has in it just as much of power, even if it is not felt, to-day. * * * * * VOTE OF THANKS.