de eo OD Ets As

“ The Association of Friends of Philadelphia for the Aid and
Elevation of the Freedmen,” in presenting the Seventh Annua
Report to the friends of the Freedmen, feel, that while they hav
pursued the even tenor of their way quietly, and it may be, wit
less publicity than formerly, and even with less manifestation
of interest among Friends generally, that the work is a
good one, and that the labor bestowed in its prosecution
during the past year has met with a corresponding reward.

What though discouragements may have arisen, do not
these pervade every position in life, and every undertaking
either for our own gratification, or for the well-being and benefit
of others? Though these may for a time depress, they should
never be allowed to prevent our persevering in the fulfilment o
every duty, but rather stimulate us to renewed exertion. We
are, however, gratified in the belief that as to the results that
have been realized in this especial field of labor, we have had no
cause for discouragement, and that the disinterested efforts of
the friends of the down-trodden have been especially blest ; being
comforted by the assurance that where these desirable results
have not been immediately apparent they will, “like bread cast
upon the waters, be found after many days.”

So much has been said with regard to the utility and neces,
sity of education, that we need not here r@iterate either these,
or the claims that the ignorant and poverty stricken have upon
their more fortunate fellow beings for assistance in the realiza-
tion of this inestimable boon.

Friends, as a people, have always professed to be the friends
of the oppressed and the down-trodden, whose poverty may have