SCHOOLS FOR THE COLORED PEOPLE.

The number of schools supported wholly or in part by the Society for the colored people is fifteen. Leland University, New Orleans, La., with an endowment of nearly $100,000, is no longer dependent on the Society, and so is not included in this number. A new school, in its incipiency, and maintained the past year by designated funds, has been in operation at Little Rock,

Ark.

has

The number of teachers for the year been 122. Of this number 57 were men and 65 women. In the list were 23 colored teachers.

draft upon the sympathies of those in charge. of these schools and compels some flexibility in the enforcement of regulations of this character.

Contributions from the colored people for special improvements and for the support of

teachers and for beneficiaries have been

made to some extent in Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas, and Ar

kansas. In some States numerous local or associational schools have been started, which so enlist the sympathies and claim the contributions of the people that little or nothing additional can be obtained for the schools of the Society. In time these local The enrollment of pupils for the schools may become feeders to our institubeen 2,807; 1,255 young men; 1,552 young tions if the latter can be properly equipped and sustained for the work of higher education.

women.

year has

The number under sixteen years of age was 533; of those preparing to preach, 307; of those preparing to teach, 967; of those desiring to go as missionaries to Africa, 35; of medical students, 38.

The amount paid for teachers' salaries has been $59,260.98. The various incidental expenses are about covered by receipts from tuition fees, room rent, etc.

Some of the schools report a much larger surplus than others; indeed, some report almost nothing. It is an erroneous notion that the Society should educate without any charge, and board students at bare cost, when many are able to pay the low tuition fee of one dollar per month, and also such a price for board that a surplus for ordinary and extraordinary expenses and repairs shall be met thereby without drafts upon Christian beneficence. In other words, the same principle should apply to these institutions as to churches, viz. they shall provide for their own support as far as possible, and receive from the Society as little as possible consistent with efficiency in their work.

Beneficiary aid in money has been bestowed only as funds have been designated for that purpose. In some cases tuition fees and room rent have been remitted. utter financial inability of some students anxious to get an education makes a heavy

The

In some States we have to encounter powerful competition from institutions of other denominations which have obtained State appropriations for their support. South Carolina appropriated $8,000 to an institution under Methodist auspices. Georgia appropriates $8,000 and Mississippi $3,000 to two schools under Congregational control. Some denominations have no hesitation in asking and laboring for such State appropriations, even alleging that their schools are undenominational in spite of facts to the contrary, and employing the argument as applicable to all as to one, that as the institutions are doing excellent educational work in and for the State they should receive its appropriations. The Society never has sought State aid. We believe that the principle is wrong and that the appropriations now made should be abolished.

SPIRITUAL RESULTS.

The spiritual results as shown in the conversions of pupils have been gratifying. At Wayland Seminary 16 conversions are reported; at Shaw University, 29; at Roger Williams University, 4; at the State University, Louisville, 7; at the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, 9; at Spelman Seminary, 70; at Benedict Institute, 2; at Selma University,

9; at Hartshorn College, 3; at Bishop Col- D., for many years pastor at Raleigh, N. C., lege, 3. and prominent in denominational affairs at the South. At Selma University Rev. E. M. Brawley, D.D., resigned in the fall of 1886, and Rev Chas. L. Purce, formerly a student at the Richmond Institute, was elected President. In the other schools work has gone on in this department substantially as last year.

The inculcation of religious truth by daily study of the word of God and the formation of Christian character are still prominent features in these institutions, which were born of the missionary spirit, which have been characterized by the missionary spirit, and whose fruits are seen not only in the conversion of impenitent students, but especially in the widespread interest among the students for the evangelization of Africa.

ENDOWMENT NECESSARY.

The conclusion of twenty-five years of the Home Mission Society's educational work for the colored people of the South ought to be signalized by a large increase to the endowment funds for the maintainance of these institutions. Not less than $100,000 additional should be thought of; $250,000— $10,000 for each of the twenty-five yearswould be far more worthy of the denomination, as well as a fitting expression of gratitude for the great blessings that have attended the work to the present hour. Indeed, an endowment of $1,000,000, at five per cent. interest, yielding an annual income of $50,000 would be inadequate; for presported, though the number of those desiring ently it will require $75,000, and by A. D.

THESE SCHOOLS THE HOPE OF AFRICA. The six colored missionaries who went to Africa about three years ago, and the five who went the past year, were from these schools of the Home Mission Society. Wayland Seminary reports 10 students who hope to go to Africa; Richmond Theological Seminary, 13; Hartshorn Memorial College, 2; Shaw University, 10; Benedict Institute, 4; Selma University, 1; Jackson College, 5; Bishop College, 8. In other institutions a lively interest in African Missions is re

to devote themselves to missionary service. there is not given.

The fact that about 40 of these students

hope to labor in Africa is a matter of special significance as showing what important bearings the maintenance of this branch of Home Mission work has upon the evangelization of

the "Dark Continent."

MINISTERIAL EDUCATION.

The education of young men for the ministry continues to hold a prominent place in these schools. While the number preparing themselves for this service is large, 307, it is by no means what it should be. Many are prevented from coming by reason of their extreme poverty.

The Richmond Theological Seminary is becoming known as a higher institution for this purpose, to which more and more students from other schools will come, as they come from academies and colleges to theological seminaries in the North. Shaw University has been strengthened in its faculty by the accession of Rev. T. E. Skinner, D.

1900 doubtless $100,000, to maintain these institutions.

When we consider that six American Baptist

Theological Seminaries for white students
have an endowment of over $2,000,000 and
that three Baptist Universities at the North
have over $2,500,000 endowment, saying
nothing of the value of grounds, buildings,
libraries, and equipment amounting to nearly
a $1,000,000 more, this call for at least
$250,000 toward the endowment of these
large and growing schools, and so for the
partial relief of the Society, cannot be re-
garded extravagant but rather a very modest .
appeal.

The only institutions with any endowment are Richmond Theological Seminary, $55,000; Shaw University, $66; Wayland Seminary, $39.50, something however being expected soon from the estate of Ex.-Governor Coburn; Roger Williams University, $1,295; Leland University, $95,000; Benedict Institute, $28,000, the interest of which is to be added to the principal until $50,000

is reached, hence for the present no relief auspices of "The Franklin Hospital Society." to the Society. Aside from Leland University, which is now self-supporting, there are at least ten established institutions with valuable properties which ought to have such an endowment as would place them beyond peril. Shaw University alone, with its

Society, on a part of our church lot in Salt Lake City, was destroyed by fire last winter. It was plainly the work of an incendiary. Mormonism has been guilty of darker deeds than this. A new and better building is to be erected the coming season, with funds obtained from insurance, and additional gifts. A school of a higher grade is desirable.

Large sums have been, and are being expended by other denominations for schools in Utah. It is not within the scope of the Society's Educational work to make any appropriations for such purposes, except as funds may be thus designated.

DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS IN THE WEST.

The feeling is prevalent in the West as in the East that each Christian denomination should have its own educational institutions. Some denominations within a few years have organized societies for the express purpose of fostering and wisely directing such enterprises. Thus, an educational plan for a vast region is possible, while concentration in any point is practicable, whenever occasion calls for it. Baptists have no such organization. There is no comprehensive plan. The establishment of schools is left solely to individual | action. Perhaps the owner of a town site offers land for a campus, and a few thousand dollars are pledged for buildings, when at

once it seems that "the indications of Providence" are that the school should be started. A high-sounding name is decided upon, trustees selected, resolutions passed by the association in which it is located, then by adjacent associations, and then-it becomes an institution which has "claims upon the denomination."

The first claim, of course, is strongly pressed upon that particular State or Territory in which perhaps there are not half-a-dozen selfsupporting churches. Without endowment and with small tuition fees, the school can be maintained only by contributions from churches most of which are feeble and largely dependent on the Society for the support of their pastors. The result is obvious. Again and again these educational enterprises have made such heavy drafts upon mission churches in the vicinity as to retard

their progress toward self-support. In other words, the Society becomes indirectly, to a certain extent, the financial helper of these institutions. Missionaries of the Society must be managers of these schools. Sometimes an agent is appointed whose urgent appeals secure collections which lessen the collections for missionary work in the State. And it is not uncommon that, after a few years of painful struggling, the institution ceases to be. Early death or lingering misery is the usual lot of institutions prematurely started where there is but a small and feeble constituency to nourish them. During the past two or three years the approbation of the Board has been invoked and given in behalf of some of these schools. Officers of the Society, at least semi-officially, have given much assistance in difficult matters connected therewith.

Is it rot time for the denomination to have a defined policy and better methods in matters of so much importance as the establishment of denominational schools in the West? Shall the Home Mission Society continue to be virtually the general educational society of American Baptists for our Western fields? Is there not need of an organization whose attention shall be given particularly to these affairs-an organization to advise what shall be done, when, where, and how it shall be done, and which shall render needful assistance in doing it? In the Society's mission fields there are not less than ten of these educational undertakings projected or in operation.

DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS LITERATURE.

The Society's missionaries report having sold and distributed 5,908 Bibles and Testaments, and 408,864 pages of tracts. This religious literature has been supplied principally by the American Baptist Publication Society. The American Tract Society has also made grants to a number of our missionaries.

In Mexico a large amount of religious literature has been distributed with the effect of awakening a spirit of inquiry among large numbers of the people. In New England, particularly among the French Catholics,