in all the work of higher education. Its sympathy, moral support and good offices of whatever kind, should be extended freely to the older and stronger institutions which bear the Presbyterian name. If money should remain after providing for the needs of that class of institutions indicated as having the first claim upon the Board, it may be freely given wherever it may promote higher Christian education, the twofold object of which is the developing of personal Christian character and the training of mind and heart for some form of Christian service.

This Board should be a kind of clearinghouse for accurate and reliable information with regard to Presbyterian colleges. It should so gain the confidence of the Church that men and women having much or little money to give will seek it as an adviser and be guided by its suggestions. It should, so far as is practicable, become a distributing agency or a custodian of trust funds for the benefit of colleges.

CHANGE OF OFFICERS.

We note with regret the retirement of Dr. E. C. Ray after a long, devoted and efficient service, both in Chicago and New York. His work through many dark and doubtful years was a labor of love, memories of which will long cheer and inspire those who followed him.

He is succeeded as office secretary by the Rev. George R. Brauer, who enters upon his work with the utmost earnestness and promise of large success. Many new and helpful features in the current report of the board attest his fitness for the position.

WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE?

A Christian college is one which develops Christian character and purpose in its students. While doing this it also gives the best training to the mind which its equipment and ideals permit. Christian character on the part of the student is not necessarily secured by charter stipulations, by synodical oversight or even by Bible study. The one essential thing, in accomplishing the purpose of the Christian college, is Christian character and influence on the part of its teachers. No other foundation than this can be laid for Christian education or for a Christian institution. To this end, great care should be taken in the selection of the trustees and president of a college. For if such president or trustees be not earnest

and loyal in their Christian belief there is little assurance that the faculties of the institutions will remain permanently Christian in their influence.

THE SECRETARY.

Dr. Mackenzie has been in office as secretary of the Board a little more than one year. During that year he has visited 46 out of the 64 institutions on the Presbyterian roll, traveling over 37,000 miles in so doing. He has made every college man his friend and aroused great hopes that the things dreamed of for our Presbyterian colleges may be accomplished with his help.

FINANCES.

In referring to the Board's finances, your Committee would first of all express its hearty approval of the clear and comprehensive statement of receipts and expenditures as such statement is presented in the Board's Report. Two or three things the committee desires to emphasize. First, the College Board, as has been already stated in this report, is the authorized representative of the Church in its interest in higher education. So far as is practicable, the specific results of the efforts of the Church in promoting this cause should be accounted for in the Board's Reports. The Committee therefore approves of the form of the financial statements adopted by the Board, which accounts not only for funds which pass through their hands, but also for other and much larger amounts sent directly to institutions but given because of the interest of the givers in the cause represented by the Board. The form of statement now adopted seems to analyze and distinguish, as fully as is practicable, the various kinds of funds reported. The Committee would emphasize, however, its view that the total of all such gifts, including both such amounts as are sent directly to the Board's office in New York and such other amounts as are sent directly to the colleges, be considered the total income to be accounted for by the Board.

The Committee wishes to explain one term used in the classification of receipts, for the benefit of many college men and others who do not appear to understand it. The term referred to is "Co-operation." Under this designation comparatively large amounts are accounted for. Included in this total are church offerings taken in synods within which Pres

byterian colleges are located. In order to secure local interest and so obtain larger gifts, such offerings, with the permission of the Board, are sent directly to the local college. Such offerings are, however, distinctly a portion of the Board's legitimate income. In the 1911 report the total of such offerings not passing through the hands of the board but sent directly to the colleges and reported by the colleges to the Board and so included in their total of receipts, is $103,976.23. This large item is as really a gift from the Board to the colleges as though it were sent to the Board's office and from there distributed to the colleges. It should be added to the total of $58,169.66 which was sent directly to the Board's treasury. The total of church offerings received by this Board should therefore be considered $162,145.89 instead of the smaller item already mentioned. It is cooperation on the part of the Board which secures to the colleges nearly two-thirds of the total amount collected by the churches for this cause.

The term cooperation also applies to the large item of $506,338.05, which includes gifts sent directly to the colleges by individual givers who give only because of their interest in the cause represented by the Board. Many of them stipulate that their gifts shall be considered as received from the Board. At other times the secretary of the Board may accompany the college president in his visit to a giver. He may make long journeys to talk with givers or to help adjust difficulties. There may be no immediate results and these activities of the Board's representative may not even be known to college presidents or trustees, but they constitute real cooperation with the colleges, and gifts traceable to these combined efforts of the colleges and the Board are classified under this head.

The Report states that the bequest received during the year from the estate of the late Mr. John Stewart Kennedy is kept intact, the income only to be used, at the discretion of the Board, in aiding colleges in cases where such use of this income will be a stimulus to other givers.

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SECURITY FOR GIFTS TO COLLEGES. Our attention has been called to the rule now in force requiring colleges to give to the Board a deed of gift or a cumulative mortgage for funds granted for aid on current expenses. It would seem to your Committee that when an institution has secured an endowment of not less than $100,000 it is sufficiently well established to secure by that fact the use of such funds permanently to the cause of higher education, and we would suggest that in the future, if it seems wise to the Board, no security be asked of such institutions for gifts granted to aid in current expenses.

PENSIONS.

The question of pensioning the aged or invalid teachers in Presbyterian colleges is urgently before the Church. Overtures have been sent up from several presbyteries and synods requesting action in this direction. We are informed that a movement has been inaugurated looking towards cooperation on the part of the various Reformed Presbyterian churches in accomplishing this object. We would suggest that the president and the secretary of the College Board be appointed to represent that Board and the Assembly in such negotiations as may be possible during the ensuing year, and that they bring a report upon this subject to the next Assembly.

THE LARGER WORK.

Your committee believes that the College Board may and should aspire to be the agency of the Church in securing for our colleges, of whatever kind, far larger gifts than have yet been secured. Its secretary and its associates should so win the confidence of the men and women of wealth, whether in the Church or out of it, as to lead ultimately to great gifts for this cause. Since much time and labor must necessarily be expended in this effort and the field to be covered is far larger than can be successfully covered by any one man. your committee would suggest to the College Board the advisability of securing, as soon as possible, one or more assistants who may work with Dr. Mackenzie in this effort for the enlargement of the work of the Board.

A

GOOD brother, who has recently taken up work under the watch and care of the Board of Missions for Freedmen, by way of introducing himself, in order that we might become better acquainted with him, sent us the sketch of his life with no thought that it would meet other eyes than those within the rooms of the Freedmen's Board. It may be taken as an illustration of worthy race ambition.

"At the age of seven I lost my mother, and spent the next six years with my grandmother, at the expiration of which time my father took to him his second wife. We then moved from the little village in which we lived into the country, and I spent the next six years on the farm close to the bosom of nature, imbibing her strength and learning her ways. During these years I spent one or two months out of each year in school, longing and praying for the time when I might be able to go longer. My father in the meantime assured me as often as the successive autumns came round, that the next one would see me off to school. And he really so intended, but something would turn up to prevent him each time. I remember the last year he promised me, I was hired out,' and he took my wages to enable him to make the crops, so that in the fall we might clear a sufficient amount to enable me to realize my long cherished dream.

But when the fall came all we made was taken to meet my father's obligations. hopes again were shattered.

My

My father, and I too, were so disappointed that he said to me, that although I was not of age I might have my freedom and go and work for myself.

This I gladly accepted, and went down town, for we had moved again back to the village, and again I hired myself out for eleven months, at seven dollars per month and board, and I worked out the entire time, and saved out of that year's work enough to spend six months of the next year 'off at school' in a neighboring town, fifteen miles

distant, hoping to go to college the following October.

Having, however, only the months from June to October in which to work, I had not enough means at the expiration of that time to make the entrance. So I had to tarry another twelve months working and economizing and praying to be able to enter at the next opening.

In October of the next year, which was the next opening, I arrived at the college town and matriculated and in due course of time finished the preparatory course, and in four years finished in the Collegiate Department with the A. B. Degree, and gained the valedictory, or first honor in a class of twentytwo members, and three years later I finished the Theological Course, having won the Hebrew prize.

During my entire stay at school I never missed the honor roll and was the recipient of the S. T. B. Degree in Theology.

My first work in the ministry was during the two summers, that of my Theological Course, during which time I had a mission under the auspices of a Presbyterian Church on Long Island. This Mission had been in existence some sixteen years prior to my going there, but had never been able to meet its own responsibilities or to support itself. Moreover, it had not kept a leader more than three months of the year. I stayed four months each summer. The first summer we raised enough money to bear all expenses, including the extra month, and I left then with something over $100 in the treasury.

The next summer they increased my salary ten dollars, making it sixty dollars per month. and we again raised enough money to meet all expenses, and I again left them with more than $75 in the treasury.

After finishing my theological course I took charge of a church that had been promising my predecessor $175 a year, and when I left there it had paid me $350 for the last year's work, and in order to secure another man at

once to come and carry on what had been so well begun they pledged themselves to pay him $400. They have reopened their school and are happy over their future prospects.

I carried on the school for six months without a penny from the board or from any other outside source.

I left my former work and entered upon

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my present field of labor for no personal considerations, but because I felt that I owed it to my Church, my race and my God to come here and if possible place this work upon a solid and enduring foundation.

Thanking you most heartily for all your assistance and your words of encouragement and assurance, I am, yours, etc."

I

N response to a letter addressed to us at Abbeville and also a card sent to us at Irmo, both from Rev. John M. Gaston, Associate Secretary of the Board of Missions for Freedmen, we met him and his party at Irmo, Tuesday morning, June 13, 1911, for the purpose of selecting a site for the prospective college building, the rebuilding of which has claimed our attention for so many months.

This party was the most important one that could have met that day on the large college farm comprising nearly 500 acres of land purchased by the Board several months ago. The party consisted of Rev. Mr. Gaston, representing the Board, who own and control the property, Mr. Wm. Albert Harbison, being not only a member of the family in whose honor the college is named, but representing at present the largest financial supporters of the college, and Mr. H. C. Van Ormer, contractor and builder who is under obligation to turn over to the board by the first of October of this year the beautiful $25,000 college building to take the place of Harbison Hall which was destroyed by fire, March 17, 1910.

It was our privilege to join this distinguished party which constituted the board's committee to begin the planting of a great Agricultural Institution for boys at Irmo, S. C., twelve miles from Columbia, the capital of the State, on the C. N. and L. R. R.

Several hours were spent in choosing between two very important available sites, in adjusting buildings relative to their fronting railroad, town, and the nearby highway, and in laying off lines as a guide for the builder. This part of the work was finished by 6.30 P. M., when the party, almost unconsciously, led

by Rev. Mr. Gaston to a certain stake on the line, halted a moment to perform what I conceive to be the most important work of the day; namely, the breaking of the ground for the erection of "The Harbison Agricultural College," for whose rebuilding so many people of the North and South have been so earnestly praying for the last 15 months.

The ceremony was simple. After the little company, five in number now, had "huddled" together and silence reigned, Rev. Mr. Gaston said, "Mr. Young, you offer a word of prayer." He then asked Mr. Harbison to take the mattock to do the first work of breaking the ground which he did. When he lifted the tool above his head and was opening the earth he said in audible tones, "I dedicate this ground to a school, I hope of great usefulness" Rev. Mr. Gaston was the next to follow, then the writer, then Mr. Van Ormer, the contractor, and the last to share the honor at this time of digging out the foundation was Mr. A. J. Hicks, the last teacher under the old régime-the property having been previously used for school purposes.

The party drove to Columbia that night after a very significant day's work. It was really a great day at Irmo. Both white and colored seemed to realize that a memorable deed was being performed.

Irmo is a splendid community for colored settlers. A block of land of 1,500 acres near the college property is owned entirely by colored people, and there are many negro land owners in the immediate community. Very truly yours,

Irmo, S. C.,

June 17, 1911.

C. M. YOUNG,

Ο

N Friday evening, May 19th, a most interesting Popular Meeting, on behalf of the Board of Relief, was held in the First Presbyterian Church in Atlantic City, during the sessions of the General Assembly at that place.

Four of the most prominent men in the Presbyterian Church made addresses: Rev. Dr. Little, the last Moderator of the Assembly; Rev. Dr. Minton, a former Moderator of the Assembly; Rev. Dr. Matthews, the pastor of the largest Presbyterian Church in the United States, and Ruling Elder Andrew Stevenson, the Silvery-tongued Orator of the City of Chicago.

In the next four numbers of THE ASSEMBLY HERALD we will give our readers the great privilege of reading the principal portions of these addresses.

Address of Rev. Dr. Charles Little. Ex-Moderator of the General Assembly. Shall I not say to the people who came here tonight that the minister, from the very character of his work, from the very character of his profession, is handicapped, so far as the accumulation of a fortune is concerned, so far as bringing to himself a large competency, and certainly so far as the preparation for the mature years of his life? And, because of that fact, it is eminently fitting that we as a church, and all churches who send forth ministers, recognizing the character of their profession and character of the work, should be very quick to take such liberal steps, and to do such large things as shall handsomely and lovingly provide for them in the evening of life when their own activity and their own strength have gone by?

Now there are some ministers who inherit a fortune, and there are some ministers who have a happy faculty, without going out from the active work of the ministry, of in some way accumulating to themselves, so that they can prepare for their latter years, and there are some ministers who have the happy faculty of marrying a rich wife, but, when we take to

ourselves the roll of our ministry, we are confronted with the fact that these are the exceptions.

The average salary for the man who wants books to read, and the occasional journey or vacation for the refreshment of his mind, is beggarly small, and when you add thereto the fact that his own children must be educated, and the fact that he must anticipate the coming of sickness and other heavy expenses, we are putting ourselves under mighty obligations, brethren, when we ask them to turn away from a calling wherein they may be interested among worldly callings and professions to enter the ministry, and we are laying upon ourselves a mighty obligation of caring for them.

It has occurred to me that I might say to you tonight that the entire Word of God, by its strong and mighty inference, is altogether committed to this great duty and this blessed privilege of caring for the old minister. I say the word lovingly, "Caring"-for in our love for the old minister or the aged servant of God, or the one whose years may not as yet be greatly multiplied and who has been laid aside because of sickness, the teachings of our Lord by the very strongest inference would insist that we should so care for them, and as we come to the Old Testament, we read from David, "I have been young, and now am old."

There is the argument from experience. "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread,” and among the number of his acquaintances were those aged Levites and priests of the Temple, or ministers of God, as they were then constituted; and we have a mighty argument by way of inference that even in that day there must have been the exercise of great care for those who, by reason of sickness, had been laid aside from the more active duties, and the more active duties of the priests and Levites were to care for the House of God; and, as you know, the