past, must continue to stand together in the minds and labors of the
people that there may be no exaltation of education at the expense of
religion. In the dark days of slavery, it was faith in God that
sustained the Negro, that inspired his songs, and that made him strong
to endure and patient to wait. And it was by the power of God that he
was at last set free. Never did the colored man need that faith in God,
and in an overruling and guiding Providence, more than now, when the
goal of liberty and equality is so nearly attained, and yet strangely
delayed. Nobly do the leaders of the race realize that faith, and seek
to lead their brethren into it.

It belongs to this Association, by all the agencies at its command, to
teach this people to be patient and to wait upon the Lord, to endure
hardship, to leave vengeance with the Lord, and, accepting the
responsibilities of liberty and citizenship, to gird themselves to meet
them in the spirit and in the strength of a grand Christian manhood.
This the history of this people warrants us in expecting from them. To
this manhood, struggle and work we welcome them, and in it we pledge
them our Christian support.

Let this be the temper of those who hold the balance of power between
the races in the South, and in no long time the slumbering conscience of
the Southern white will respond. The noble utterances of the
Southerners, who already demand that the Golden Rule shall be applied to
the race problem, prove that it is already waking to life and power. It
will be felt then that it cannot be safe to sin against God, to despise
even the least of his children; that it must be safe to follow in the
way where he leads, to do his bidding, and to give equal rights to all,
and to treat all men as brethren. And thus the missionary view
prevailing, and the missionary solution accepted, the perils and