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FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY
OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

GENERAL OFFICERS.
President  BISHOP D.W. CLARK, D.D.
Treasurer  REV. ADAM POE, D.D.
Corresponding Secretary  REV. J.M. WALDEN, D.D.
Field Superintendent  REV. R.S. RUST, D.D.

OFFICE--Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati, Ohio.

To the Ministers of the Methodist Episcopal Church:

DEAR BRETHREN,--The following paper suggests such facts in regard to the Freedmen's Aid Society and its work, as you may desire in presenting this new cause to your congregations, in pursuance with the action of your Annual Conferences. You are earnestly requested to take up the collection early in the Conference year, before the close of June, if practicable. Please forward the money to REV. DR. POE, Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati, O., or to REV. DR. CARLTON, Methodist Book Concern, New York. 

IN the providence of God the South has been thrown open to the Church by the recent war, and, beyond all question, it is the most inviting field of the day for missionary and kindred beneficent labors. The Methodist Episcopal Church promptly entering this open door, now has missionaries and Churches in every Southern State, and has included the entire South in Annual Conferences. In no other part of her borders is God crowning the labors of her ministry with more abundant success.
 
The liberation of the colored race from bondage, the peculiarities of their past and present condition, the gladness with which they receive the Gospel, and their eagerness for the essential means of improvement, render them the most hopeful and interesting class to be reached by the agencies of a Christian civilization. While in many places our loyal Methodist preachers have been cordially received by the whites, they have 
every-where been heartily welcomed and gladly heard by the Freedmen. 

The uniform testimony of these missionaries is, that day schools in their charges would greatly increase their usefulness. This arises from the earnest desire of the Freedmen to have the means of education--a desire found every-where, and cherished alike by the old and the young--one of the most remarkable facts attending their emancipation and an evidence that God is preparing them by his Spirit for the freedom to which he has led them by his providence. Hence, the school has become a more essential and powerful auxiliary to the Church in missionary movements among them, than it ever was before among any people.

These facts gave rise to the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church to co-operate with the Missionary and Church Extension Societies in their Southern work, by promoting education. Approved by the Annual Conferences and commended by the Board of Bishops,