And just there is the problem that confronts us, South and North together. What shall be done in this dire extremity? I remember years ago hearing of a fire in Charleston in which that beautiful spire of St. Michael's took fire and some one had to be found to go up beyond the reach of the hose to put out the flame kindling and flickering there. No one was found until a Negro stepped forth and climbed that tower, taking his life in his hands, and put out that flame. And when he came down again, one man said, "Name your reward," and he replied, "Let me but be counted a man." And that we have got to do, or God will shake down our civilization and our Nation as he shook down that spire of St. Michael's in the earthquake three years ago. It is certain to come unless we follow the line of God's appointing that this must be a free Nation, absolutely free, free everywhere. As yet, emancipation is but an outward and formal thing. What we wait for now, is the emancipation of a true and an elevated will in the South, and Christian citizenship. Into that, this Association pours its strength, its money, and its life. It took half a million lives to emancipate the slaves outwardly, and it may yet take hundreds and thousands of lives--our lives--our children's lives--poured in upon this problem, that so we may lift the Negro to that point where he feels himself, and where we feel him to be, a man--taught to labor, protected in the enjoyment of the fruits of his labor, without which the strongest arm grows palsied, trained in a strong, self-reliant Christian manhood, holding the reins firmly on the neck of all passion--a man. And that we will do; and the very greatness of the problem, I believe, is our redemption. It was the greatness of the crisis that thrilled the Nation's heart when the war burst upon us. It is the very greatness of our present problem that calls in trumpet tones to men and women and children all over the land; "Come and help solve this problem for Christ."