Best of all, we had good words from many not heard in the Convention, and, perhaps, unknown to fame. There was Judge Harman, of Oswego. How his clear eye took in the large possibilities of our work, and how his great heart went out toward us! As he warned us of the perils of a life without Jesus, and the depths of despair into which life’s trials could plunge a soul unsupported by the Everlasting Arms, his peaceful face and silvery hair assuring us he knew whereof he affirmed, some of us had rare glimpses into the blessed beyond. The words of Rev. A. P. Foster, Dr. Tully, and several that I was prevented from hearing, so lifted both teachers and pupils above the plane of plodding school life, that we almost trembled to look down. The fact that many such men, of kindred mind and heart, filled the silent pews of the Convention, seemed to me the secret of its power. We had heard as good papers from other platforms, but the sight of such a body, all delighting in the Master’s command, “Feed My lambs,” was enough to send us to our homes feeling, as one of our girls expressed it, “I know I shall be a better woman for having attended the Convention.”
In response to an invitation for the delegates to visit our school, Governor Colquitt, who presided, remarked to the Convention: “The University is a good place to visit, and is doing a good work”; and added that he had a servant who had attended our school some years, and the instruction received there had not pushed him above his position—he was the same humble, faithful boy about his work. Every summer he came to him for a recommendation to teach, which he cheerfully gave him, and the boy always returned in the fall the same good, modest young man.
Dr. McVicar also took a public occasion to express his appreciation of our work. After the close of his sermon, at the Central Presbyterian Church here, while recounting to the audience the many things of interest he had enjoyed in their city, he remarked that he had recently visited most of the universities of Europe, and added that nothing in Atlanta, or the great universities abroad, had interested him so heartily as their Atlanta University.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOUTH-WESTERN CONFERENCE.
REV. W. S. ALEXANDER.
New Iberia was the place selected for our Annual Meeting this year, April 3-5, and one more attractive, or more important to the general interests of our work, could not have been chosen. This church was organized in 1866, and has a membership of 117, of which thirty have been received on profession of faith the past year. The population of the city is about 3,000, of whom nearly, if not quite, fifty per cent. are colored.
The South-western Conference is composed of fourteen Congregational churches, of which twelve were represented at our Annual Meeting.
The reports from the churches showed very clearly that the past year had been one of marked activity and spiritual prosperity. Several churches, as the Central, in New Orleans, and St. Mark’s, in Terrebonne, have been blessed with revivals of great power. Other churches have been cutting off dead branches, and putting themselves in condition for better service. In tabulating the reports, I find that the present membership of the churches of our Conference is 806. There have been added on profession during the year (ending April 1st, 1878,) one hundred and thirteen, and four by letter. Forty-seven adults and eighty babies have been baptized.