in these statistics are the "handful of corn" in our
Southland, but as we contemplate them, we may use the old, old song
of the church and sing ourselves into an ecstasy: "There shall be an
handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit
thereof shall shake like the cedars on Lebanon; and they of the city
shall flourish like the grass of the earth. His name shall endure for
ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall
be blessed in him and all nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be
the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And
blessed be his glorious name forever; and let the whole earth be
filled with his glory. Amen and amen."

* * * * *

REPORT ON MOUNTAIN WORK.

BY REV. G.S. BURROUGHS, CHAIRMAN.

Your committee, to whom those portions of the General Survey relating
to the work of the Association among the mountain whites has been
referred, are strongly convinced that this work is one of great and
growing importance. We rejoice in the evidence that such is also the
conviction of the management of the Association.

The territory occupied by these mountain people, consisting of
between three and four hundred counties, covers an area twice the
size of New England. Its population is equal to that of New England,
excepting Massachusetts. Its resources, in mineral deposits and in
valuable timber, are varied and rich. It is being rapidly opened up
to trade, and thus indirectly to civilization. Its inhabitants are
ready to welcome outside influences, and they are in large degree
susceptible of those that are good. These facts, we believe, cannot
receive too careful attention.

We are deeply impressed with the great destitution of these people as
regards intellectual, moral and spiritual things. Poor in the extreme
as far as their physical wants are concerned, they are still poorer
in reference to the wants of their minds and souls. So great is their
poverty in these particulars, that, in large measure, they do not,
until approached in Christian kindness, realize it. They are without
education, and without true religion; without schools and without
churches. Practically, they do not know the Sabbath; they are in
utter want and ignorance of those ordinary means of grace which are
as familiar to us as the sunshine and the rain. The violence and
social confusion which are to be expected under these circumstances
are pre