In the evening of that same day I had an opportunity for comparisons and contrasts. I went over to one of the old colored churches which stands diagonally across an open square or common. The scene was that of one billowy sea of emotion and excitement, of hallooing and amen-ing. Now, I said to myself, here is this pure church established in this community as a standing testimony against that sort of thing. I said, as I sat beneath the spell of emotions which found vent in tears, here in this Congregational church and on this ground are both prophecy and fulfillment. The Congregational church stands not more than six rods from where my tent was at one time pitched when I was a soldier; where the shells from Lookout mountain used to drop in the days of Thomas and Hood. Here, I said, in this scarred ground, is a prophecy which was uttered eighteen years ago, in the thunder of artillery and the clash of battle. It was a prophecy of liberty; and this church for colored people, for _free_ colored people, our brothers and sisters, is the fulfillment of that prophecy. It was my privilege, only a few days later, to be present in the Storrs Congregational church of Atlanta. And it was a pleasure to be permitted to speak to those people. I saw there the same evidence of Christian order and propriety; everything which bore testimony to a high type of Christian life. I attended two of its prayer meetings. There was the calm, subdued temper which bore witness to the suppression of the animal nature and the development of the spiritual. And I want to say here, brethren, that if God in his providence should send me to Atlanta, I should cast in my lot with the Storrs Congregational church. I wish to second what was said by Doctor Little with regard to the enlargement of our church work in the South. We feel that the time has come for broadening the boundaries of this distinctively religious work. Our churches are, and are to be, the conservators of the other work done in our educational institutions. None of our young people should be allowed, for want of a church home of our own polity, to escape from holy and pure influences. Nor should they be allowed to expend in other directions power and influence acquired in our schools which might be conserved in our churches. Let us not make the mistake south of the Ohio River which, thirty or forty years ago, was made west of the Hudson; but let us rather from this annual meeting look to the enlargement of this blessed part of our work, concerning which such glad harbingers are before us in the general survey presented by the Secretary. * * * * * AFRICA. * * * * * REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. The Committee to whom was referred the general report on Africa would submit the following: