churches generously support this painfully urgent work. But when
school-houses shall stand in all their fertile coves and church bells
shall call to intelligent Christian worship on all those mountain sides,
and the people shall be lifted up into spiritual citizenship, it will
simply be the victory under God of the systematic planning and execution
possible only when funds are disbursed on the sound principles of this
Association.

III. This systematic spending of benevolent funds also secures
permanency. How few deaths there are in the family of A.M.A. schools and
churches! Why? Because these missions are born through wisdom and sound
judgment. These schools and churches are not only permanent but they will
also perpetuate the great fundamental principles of the churches whose
prayers and money have gone into their establishment.

These missions cannot become Roman Catholic or infidel. They cannot drift
away from the safe moorings of evangelical truth, unless the churches to
which they are tied up give way. The churches control these missions
forever. Local management in this work often means mismanagement, on
account of the peculiar surroundings in which these schools are placed.
They differ radically from schools and colleges planted among the new
settlers in the West. Here in the South there is no considerable
intelligent Christian constituency to direct their work, manage their
affairs and keep them in close connection with Congregational conferences
and councils.

IV. Lastly. By means of this systematic spending you keep step with the
grand onward movement of God's providence in the marvelous openings of
this great missionary field. How wonderfully this work develops! The
primary schools of the early period have grown into normal and