istry, who can go forth to teach and
preach to their people the simple facts of the Gospel, bringing the
power of Christ to bear on their daily moral life.

Two special ways in which the Church is influencing the negro race I
take pleasure in mentioning. Arch-deacon Russell is holding every summer
on his school grounds at Lawrenceville a "Farmers' Conference." The
negroes come from all over the county and spend the day together, asking
and answering publicly questions about their progress or their failure,
their customs, good or bad, praising or criticising one another, and
listening to selected speakers, urging them on to the best lines of
development for their race. I attended this conference last summer; and
I was much impressed and greatly encouraged for the true progress of the
negro. Another far different kind of influence is going out from the
Church in Arkansas. Bishop Brown and his Council have made an entire
separation between the whites and blacks in his diocese. He has
appointed a negro arch-deacon for the negro race, and has given him
large power and wide discretion. Arch-deacon McGuire is appealing to the
negroes both within and without the Church, attending all large negro
gatherings, speaking to them about the Church, her customs and claims.
He is getting a large and sympathetic hearing; and he and Bishop Brown
have great hope of rapid progress for this negro branch of the Church in
Arkansas.

Now, my friends, while the work is slowly going forward, as I have
shown, while the average per cent. of growth among the negroes is nearly
that of the progress among the whites; yet conditions are not
satisfactory. While we can excuse ourselves, if we will, by pointing to
the changed conditions after the war; by telling of the days of
re-construction, which did more to separate and to make antagonistic the
two races than many wars; by speaking of the high moral standard, which
we demand and which the negroes in the mass will not accept; by
deprecating the use of our beautiful liturgy which they cannot
understand; yet we ought to have done, we ought to be doing far more
with the negroes than we have done or are doing. We are barely touching
the edge of the negro people; just think of it: one in one thousand,
while we have among the whites one in about 121 of the population. In
Virginia, where there is one in 50 of the white population who are
members of the Episcopal Church, there is only one in 381 of the
negroe