It is here that this Association does its work in the genuine way, regarding education as necessary for the colored race and for all races, not as an end in itself, but as an instrument in the hands of a man ethically and Christianly trained. The gospel must go with the school, so that we may train not only the hand and the brain, but also the conscience and the heart. When I think of the future of the Negro race in America, of the possibilities of that race already being revealed, of the immense political significance of its position to-day, of the certain increase of its numbers, of the inevitable collision of races by and by, unless there be a change in the spirit of the whites, I feel that no education is to be trusted but Christian education, an education based on the gospel of Christ.
And to what purpose can any of us, with better hope of success, devote our time, our money, our labor? Let us have more money for this work. I would say no word to depreciate foreign missions, but is not this after all the work of foreign missions? How will you influence the future of China, or of Japan, or of Africa, or of Europe, in more direct, sympathetic, permanent ways, than by giving the gospel, and the education that goes with the gospel, to those at our very doors from all these lands, who shall carry back, and send back, to their own native countries the same gospel they have learned in this?
TO THE MEMORY OF DR. POWELL.
BY A PASTOR IN THE SOUTH.
One night, entranced, I sat spell-bound,
And listened in my place,
And made a solemn vow to be
A hero for my race.