At the first some of our best friends thought that the Association was too slow in its church work; but all now, we think, agree that the wisdom of experience justifies the process which mainly through our schools grows its own timber, out of which to build its churches, taking the young people thus trained and the adults who are converted to the standard of Christian living and away from the superstitions and immoralities of the old time. At first view this would seem to be a tedious process. But it is surprising how soon the youth run up to maturity and to become the leaders of churches, the best of which have come on by this nurture. Then there are some adult people, noble natures, of a childlike spirit, who gain by absorption and take on the ideas of the younger folks. In this way, through these seventeen years since the war, our churches have come on from two or three to number 83, which is an average of five a year. Nor are these merely skeleton churches. Every one of these 83 has a pastor, except one whose minister died a short time ago. Of the 73 ministers who serve these 83 churches, 22 are from the North, and 51 are native preachers. Every one of these churches except seven has its own house of worship, or chapel, and there are only four of these that depend upon the college chapels for their places of religious assembly. Some of these are rude in structure; the most are plain but comely; four or five are of brick and of commanding appearance; all are blessed sanctuaries. Many friends, in going through the South, are pleasantly disappointed in finding these churches so well housed. Nor, for young churches, are these deficient in encouraging numbers. They have a total of 5,641 members, an average of 68, while the average membership of the Congregational churches west of the Mississippi River is only 45, and of all west of Pennsylvania, 63. The additions on profession were 709; the Sunday-school scholars numbered 1,835; the amount raised for church purposes $9,306, and the benevolent contributions reached $1,496.50.