ALABAMA CONFERENCE.
BY PRES. H. S. DE FOREST, D.D.
The Cong. S. S. Association held its fourth, and the State Conference its eighth, annual meeting in the chapel at Talladega from the 23d to the 28th of March. This body, hereafter to be known as the Congregational Association of Alabama, numbers thirteen Churches, two in the northern part of the State being associated with the Central South Conference of Tennessee. Seven of these fifteen Alabama churches have grown out of Talladega College. Naturally the desire to see the mother church was strong, and more than eighty delegates and guests were in attendance. From beyond the State, we had Supt. Roy, Rev. A. E. Dunning of Boston and Mrs. A. S. Steele of Chattanooga, to each of whom the Conference is indebted for efficient help. Sec. Dunning, the first of all our society secretaries to visit the body, preached a sermon before the Sunday-school Association good enough and fervid enough to direct much of the thought of the four days that followed. His theme was “The Holy Ghost the Source of Power,” and while much in these meetings was delightful, nothing gave such hallowed experiences or left such tender memories as the manifest presence of God. Some thought they were breathing a revival atmosphere, and one, it is hoped, who took that occasion to visit a daughter in college, will regard Talladega as the Damascus gate. Other sermons were by Rev. R. C. Bedford of Montgomery, by Rev. O. D. Crawford of Mobile, before the sacrament, and by Dr. Roy at the ordination of Rev. J. R. Sims of Shelby Iron Works, one of the sons of this theological department and Church. These sermons were spoken and not read. The aim of the preachers was evidently to do good on the spot and at that time. There was little talk about the new light, but a profound conviction that in these dark places there is need of the light of the Gospel. The programme had been prepared with a practical intent. Different phases of the Sunday-school work took the strength of the first day. One evening was given to the Sunday-school and Publishing Society and the American Missionary Association, when the speakers were Sec. Dunning and Dr. Roy. Another evening was devoted to missions, home and foreign. The addresses were by Rev. A. W. Curtis and Rev. C. B. Curtis, who have a brother in the foreign field, and one of whom was a home missionary before coming South.
Such themes as Giving and Worship, Through what Societies—not less than seven it was claimed, Is our Worship too Formal and Unimpassioned, Temperance Economy and Industrial Education, were well presented and discussed. Prof. Ellis read a very suggestive paper on the Reciprocal Relation of the College to the Churches of Alabama. The recommendations of this paper were indorsed by special resolutions, and it is evident that Talladega College, first and foremost among the schools open to Freedmen in Alabama, was never more strongly intrenched in the love of the brethren than now. Two hundred and ninety pupils have been in attendance during the last year, and new buildings and appliances are called for. Many and tender references were made to Prof. Andrews, temporarily absent from ill-health, and he was a dull observer who could attend these meetings, look upon these ministers, delegates, students and graduates of the College, hear their words and drink their spirit, and not feel that work in these reconstructing States is as heroic, as hopeful, as imperative as any done in the great vineyard of the Lord.