summer Teachers' Institutes which are fostered by appropriations from the Peabody Fund. In one case a negro graduate has served for eleven years as a member of a city board of education by appointment of the mayor and aldermen in a large Southern city."

INFLUENCE OF THE THINKING NEGRO.

It is well known that, in the days of slavery, laws were enacted to prevent the education of the negro. It was not consistent with the institution that he should become a thinking machine. His thinking must be done for him by his master. This thinking was well done in many cases, and much happiness of its kind was the privilege of the unthinking, childlike, care-renouncing race. But circumstances have been utterly changed by the emancipation of the slave and the throwing upon him that personal responsibility to which he was long a stranger. He must now take his place on equal terms with others who have been taught to toil for their own and the world's advancement by the use of their wits. The intellect must be trained by the use of mental gymnastics, just as the muscles of the body must be trained after their fashion, and as skill must be developed in the craftsman. The curriculum of the college is not primarily for the cramming of the mind with information; but rather for the developing of mental power. Already the existence of the college for negroes has been the means of discovering the exceptional ones of the race who are prepared to profit by its advantages, and to go forth, after having enjoyed them, to be the means of salvation for their fellows. They will do much for them by their habit of life among them. In every community of negroes it ought to be possible for the common people, occasionally at least, to look into the face of a college-bred man or woman of their own race and catch something of inspiration from his high attainment.

RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE.

We have already alluded to the wide influence which the fully educated negro is destined to exert by gradually displacing the incompetent teachers at present to be found in many of the public schools. A condition even worse is waiting for a remedy in the churches. During the long years of slavery the religious privileges which the masters pro

vided for themselves were shared by the servants who labored for them; and thus they had the best which could be procured. A total change occurred after emancipation. The colored people were thrown upon their own resources, and put over them whomsoever they could find as their spiritual leaders. Unhappily these were to a very large extent ignorant men, unfit in almost every respect to fill the exalted posts of responsibility to which they were called: and some of them, alas, were actually immoral in character; blind leaders of the blind. This circumstance is largely accountable for the prevalence among the freedmen of a considerable degree of criminal disposition. Those who have a prejudice against the higher education of the negro have not sufficiently considered how inadequate, up to the present time, is the supply of trained men imperatively required to supplant the ignorant, incompetent, and, in some cases, immoral teachers and preachers who are now "group-leaders" among the negroes of the country. But it is not simply as teachers and preachers that the opportunity for extended influence is open before the educated men of the race. "In every considerable community the negro teachers, ministers, doctors, lawyers, editors, and others occupying prominent positions, have it in their power, by united action, to promote efforts for reform in such matters as temperance, purity, the improvement of home life, the training of children, the provision of wholesome amusements, the organizing of reading clubs, debating societies, and lecture courses, and in general so ministering to the higher life of the people as to help them to stem the tide of animalism and materialism that is ever threatening to sweep them away. And herein appears another very practical advantage of the higher education of the negro, in that it is helping him to do for himself that which many have supposed that only the white man could do for him."

BIDDLE UNIVERSITY.

Rev. Robert Laird Stewart, D.D. Rcv. Wm. H. Johnson, Ph.D.

Rev. George B. Carr, D.D.

Rev. George Johnson, A.B.

FACULTY OF LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.
Rev. David A. McWilliams, B.Sc.
Rev. William Deas Kerswill, D.D.
Walter L. Wright, Jr., A. M.
J. Craig Miller, M.D. Rev. Isaac N. Rendall, D.D. Rev. John B. Rendall, D.D.

Rev. John M. Galbreath, A.M.

students themselves. All of the students in the Preparatory Course are required to select some trade and report every day for work. One-fourth of the time in recitation hours is devoted to industrial training. When the student reaches the Collegiate Course the choosing of a trade becomes optional. In the printing-office the Afro-American Presbyterian and the Biddle University Record are printed.

The university has a commanding situation overlooking the important city of Charlotte, N. C. Under the fine old trees of the campus it enjoys a delightful academic seclusion, and yet it is near enough to the city for the convenience of professors and students. It is named in memory of the late Henry J. Biddle, whose widow was one of its most liberal supporters. The property consists of seventy acres, situated in the heart of a region densely peopled by negroes, and with railroads radiating in every direction. The region contains two synods which report three hundred and fifty-six colored churches and two hundred and twenty-one ministers. The university is under an able faculty composed entirely of colored men. The President, the Rev. D. J. Sanders, D.D., is a graduate of Western Theological Seminary. He has had the charge of the university for fifteen years, and has won the esteem and confidence of the community where his educational work has been carried on, and of the Church at large. There is a School of Theology, a School of Arts and Sciences, a Preparatory School, an Industrial School, and a Summer School.

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.

As early as 1849 the attention of Dr. John Miller Dickey was called to the need for a school in which the sons of Africa might be trained to go as missionaries to their own country. The thought came to his heart on the occasion of the ordination of James L. Mackey to be a missionary to the dark continent. as we have learned pathetically to call it. Three years later James R. Amos, hearing of Dr. Dickey's interest in the subject, began coming to him once a week, walking twenty-eight miles. for the purpose of being taught. In 1854 the Legislature of Pennsylvania granted a charter to Ashmun

Institute, named after Jehudi Ashmun, who has been called the savior and reorganizer of the Colony of Liberia. On the first of January, 1857, the formal work was inaugurated with four students in a three-story building. The period from 1857 to 1865, embracing the terrible struggle of the civil war and involving the emancipation of the slaves, saw the establishment by the Board of Foreign Missions of the first presbytery in Liberia with three missionaries from Ashmun Institute. "The best friend of this struggling cause during these early years (says Prof. J. B. Rendall, recently chosen to succeed his uncle in the presidency) was the Presbyterian Board of Education. But for the generous of this Board, humanly speaking, the cause must have fainted and fallen by the way. The Rev. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, the Secretary of the Board, was the changeless, tireless, generous, noble friend when friends were few and when they were precious. How he cheered the heart of Dr. John Miller Dickey and strengthened his hands is one of the treasured memories. And this Board has been the constant friend of this cause ever since-none more constant and steadfast." Dr. I. N. Rendall was made president in 1865. The faculty has increased from one to eleven professors and four instructors. More than 1500 have gone forth from the college, and more than 500 from the theological seminary. Twenty-three have gone out as foreign missionaries, and about one hundred and sixty are ministers on the roll of our Church to-day. There is a fine property near Oxford, Pa., the seat of the university, as it has been called since the war, embracing 140 acres, and the endowment is now at least half a million. A Special Announcement appeared recently of provision made for the establishment, at a convenient and appropriate place of a Preparatory School, by which it was believed that the standard of admission to the Freshman Class could be elevated. A Summer Bible Assembly was also planned upon a large and liberal scale for the spiritual, social. and literary improvement and enjoyment of all who may become patrons and guests of the Assembly.

As it will be several weeks before copies of the annual report will be distributed among the churches and then only in limited number, it is hoped that a synopsis of the work accomplished during the last year may prove of interest to those who have so liberally supported it.

The report opens with a reference to the death of two of its most highly esteemed members: Mr. Hezekiah King and the Rev. Dr. Robert F. Sample, the former of whom was with one exception the oldest in office of the members of the Board. Of Mr. King it is said:

"While deeply interested in all departments of the Board's work, its Manse and Loan Funds especially engaged his attention and he was largely instrumental in shaping the plans under which they are administered and in insuring their successful operation. Uniting great practical wisdom and an accurate knowledge of the Board's work with a deep sense of the importance of its sphere in our Church life, his counsel and his conclusions were valued in the highest degree by his colleagues, while his serene temper and his courteous bearing won and held their sincere affection."

To Dr. Sample is paid the following tribute:

"Dr. Sample became a member of the Board in 1887, soon after he assumed the pastorate of the West Twenty-third Street Presbyterian Church of New York. His previous long and influential pastorate of the Westminster Church of Minneapolis gave him an intimate acquaintance with the great Northwestern region now covered by the States of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and his counsel in the Board in reference to missionary aid was as valuable as his deep and abiding interest in the region where his young manhood had been spent was unfailing and pervasive.

"He was for many years Chairman of the

Committee upon Church Applications, and was peculiarly fitted for this position by his great sympathy with his brethren upon the mission field and his practical knowledge of the conditions confronting the young churches of the West."

Extracts from the report show the following results:

Applications

The applications received show a decided advance upon that of the previous year, especially those to the General Fund, which exceed in amount asked any previous year in the history of the Board.

In all departments the number of applications was 291, and the total amount of aid requested, either as grants or loans for church buildings or manses, was $272,694. Of the above applications 173, aggregating $135,584, were to the General Fund for church edifices, either for grants (155: $115,634), loans without interest (19: $15,050), or for such loans in addition to grants (5: $4,900); 30, aggregating $64,950, were for loans from the Loan Fund; 63, aggregating $32,160, were for loans from the Manse Fund; 21, aggregating $30,200, were for loans from the Raynolds Fund, and 4, aggregating $9,800, were for grants or loans from the Barber Fund. The total exceeds that of any previous year in the history of the Board, surpassing even the record year of 1904 by 6 in number and $25,259 in total amount. In fact the demand was beyond the resources of the Board, more especially in the matter of loans. Several of the applications to the General Fund were from churches which do not properly come within the sphere of grants. Eliminating these, the Board was finally able to respond to all demands for grants from our younger and weaker churches and to requests for loans in all cases where the need seemed urgent.

Appropriations

Appropriations in response to ordinary applications may be for church edifices either from the General Fund or the Loan Fund; for manses from the general Manse Fund, the Raynolds Fund or the Hoyt Fund. These funds are not restricted in their administration by territorial limits and are the main dependence of the Board in its general work.

The General Fund represents more particularly the original sphere of the Board's work, which was for a while exclusively the aiding feeble churches in the erection of inexpensive church edifices. To this fund go all the offerings, unless otherwise designated, of the churches, as also the interest from invested funds, the money received from the sale of abandoned church buildings, or returned by churches as they have grown stronger.

The Loan Fund represents trust funds. which through bequests and otherwise have been committed to the Board for investment that the annual proceeds may be added to the General Fund, from which appropriations are made for feeble churches. In response to an overture from one of the Synods in 1891, the Assembly gave the Board permission to invest this fund in loans to churches which were not proper recipients of aid by way of grants. Such loans have now been made for fourteen years, and have been of substantial advantage to churches by enabling them to spread the expense of building over several years. The result has proved the beneficial character of the scheme.

The Manse Fund, the Raynolds and the Hoyt are founded upon special bequests and are loaned either without interest or at a very low rate to aid in the building of homes for pastors.

Aside from these there are the following additional funds, endowed by special bequests to which are attached conditions, viz.: the Barber Fund, for colored men; the Buell Fund, to be used exclusively for feeble churches in the West; the Gilchrist Fund, the interest only available and for churches under the care of the Presbytery of Boston; the Van Meter Fund, for the benefit of churches under the care of the Presbytery of West Jersey.

Total No. churches aided. 262 Total Amt. $243,258.12

This summary of the work of the year, presenting results larger than those of any previous year in the history of the Board. afford a practical answer to any averment that the Church of Christ is halting in its progress in our land. The unusually large amount indicated as "special" results from the very liberal gifts for the important church at Havana, Cuba; $25,000 of which came from one interested Christian woman.

A third point to be noted is that the demand seems to ebb and flow in successive years, probably synchronizing with alternate years of greater or less prosperity.

The appropriations have reached thirtysix States and Territories, as also Porto Rico and Cuba, and have included 116 different Presbyteries. The largest number of appropriations in any one State has been allotted to North Dakota, viz. 18.

The Outlook

In regard to the probable needs of the coming year, the Board might well repeat what it said a year ago. Its expectation, expressed at that time, that there would be a marked advance in the growth of our Church and in the erection of houses of worship has been abundantly justified by the facts. As has been already said, the applications for grants have been more than ever before; and as our Western States are growing with undiminished rapidity, there is every reason to expect that this large demand upon the resources of the Board will continue unabated, if not increased. Porto