be fairly begun among them. The work for this people, therefore, is not
transient, and the missionary society that has it in hand has before it
not only a great but long-continued task.

And for that great work the Association has had a manifest call and
preparation, and has gained an experience and an influence of peculiar
value in its further prosecution. The Association has wrought itself
into the schools and churches, into the industries of the colored
people, the improvement of their homes, the preparation of their sons
and daughters for home and business life, and for teachers and preachers
and physicians; it has wrought itself into their better aspirations for
both this world and that which is to come. It has won upon the
confidence and respect of the white people by its unselfish and
Christian work, its kind but firm adherence to principle, and by the
blessing it has conferred upon both races in aiding the South in the
only true solution of its great problem.

The Association has become anchored to this great work by the large
amount of invested funds intrusted to its care. It has received
thousands of dollars from the Freedmen's Bureau, from the Avery estate,
from the gifts of Mrs. Stone and others, and added to all these is the
large sum placed one year ago in its hands by the munificence of Mr.
Hand. These several sums aggregate more than two millions of dollars--an
amount of endowment, we believe, without a parallel among our
Congregational societies for the home field. While no inconsiderable
share of these funds is in plant, and therefore increases instead of
diminishes current expenses, yet the Association is the only legal
custodian of these funds. They constitute, therefore, a strong evidence
of the confidence of large donors in its usefulness and stability and in
the importance of its work, and at the same time they make a strong plea