[Illustration: A SOUTH CAROLINA CHURCH.] In very many parts of the plantation South, the very idea of a church free from outside control and allied to education and morality, is utterly unknown. Neither education nor morality form any constituent element of the common church life. Their introduction is looked upon with suspicion by the masses, and is met by hostility in every possible form of persecution by many of the old-time preachers and their personal adherents. [Illustration: SCHOOL IN ANDERSONVILLE, GA]. Nothing more contributes to the introduction of better forms of church life than do those mission schools which awaken the desire for something better in religion than the senseless and corrupt "old-time" ways. Such a school as that in Andersonville, Ga., is the initiative of a church mission. School education is of little advantage unless it is linked with moral training; and there is no moral training comparable with that of a pure and true Christian church. Our mission school teachers call for and need the re-enforcement of gospel preaching on the Lord's day, and the faithful work of a pastor during the week. A great deal of hard work in the school would be frittered away and lost without the distinctive church work which must supplement, and confirm it. To send the pupils back into the Egyptian darkness of most plantation and country churches is, for vast numbers, to throw away all that has been done for them. That they feel this is shown by the frequent and earnest appeals which come from them to have virtuous and educated ministers sent for the starting of better churches among their homes. [Illustration: SCHOOL AT KING'S MOUNTAIN] While this is the narrow and local influence of our smaller schools, it is also the broader and deeper influence of our larger schools, like that at All Healing, N. C. (King's Mountain P. O.) Here the religious life is intensified. A number of devoted teachers supplement each other's work. A unique Congregational church has been formed, its pastor being the principal of the school, who adds this work to all his other services. The influence of the constant religious work done in this church-school and school-church is felt a hundred miles around. Young men and young women go out with higher ideals, and they awaken a demand in their home neighborhoods for both religion and education of a higher character. It is not too much to say that such work as that of Miss Cathcart and her fellow teachers at King's Mountain tends toward a general advance of the communities from which her pupils come. [Illustration: HAGAN COUNC'L.]