Page:Eleventh annual report of the Association for the Religious Instruction of the Negroes, in Liberty County, Georgia.djvu/7



year has rolled over us. The great drought which has rested upon the earth, has been but an emblem of the spiritual drought which has rested upon our Zion. Yet the mercies of God, abounding beyond our expectations, and immeasurably beyond our deserts, demand of us gratitude and repentance, and resolutions of greater fidelity and devotion in time to come.

The Rev. Josiah S. Law has continued to labour half his time among the Negroes, and the following is his report which he has furnished for the use of the Association. "Agreeably to the arrangement made by you in the beginning of the year 1845, I have performed Missionary labour at North Newport and Hutchison for half my time during the Winter and Spring months, and for two-thirds during the Summer and two of the Fall months. Though I have been enabled to give one-third more labour for six months to the people, yet I cannot say that I have seen any change for the better, from the year previous. As then, so now, are we without the converting influences of the Holy Spirit. There have been but twelve inquirers under my instruction at North Newport during the year, and all these, with the exception of two, were inquirers of the last year. At Hutchison, I have had no inquirers. In view of the great want of success in preaching to the people, as it respects the conversion of souls, I have been constrained to ask again and again, what is the cause? I have never had larger, and on many occasions, more attentive congregations at the stations. I have some Sabbaths, gone home rejoicing in the conviction, that the good work of the Lord was about to commence among them, but at the very next