same table. You will be glad to hear that they are not insensible to the great things the gospel has done for them. I have often heard them expressing their thanks to the Great Spirit for sending them missionaries to tell them the words of eternal life, which have been the means of delivering them from a state of misery and degradation."

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The testimony of the Rev. William Ellis, Secretary of the London Missionary Society, is to the same effect. "True civilization and Christianity," he observes, are inseparable; the former has never been found but as a fruit of the latter." And he proceeds to show with much force and perspicuity, the inefficiency of a mere demi-civilization to penetrate to the root of human evil, and to lead to comfort and to Christianity.

In the report of the London Missionary Society for 1835, a comprehensive view is taken of the effects produced by its labors in the South Sea Islands, and which may serve as an illustration of the benign and salutary influences of Christian truth, when perseveringly pressed upon the acceptance of the most barbarous people. The report observes-"Forty years ago, when this society was formed, the islands of the South Seas had been discovered, explored, and abandoned, as presenting no objects worthy of further regard. Their inhabitants were sunk still lower in wretchedness by intercourse with foreigners, and left a prey to the merciless idolatry that was fast sweeping them from the face of the earth. To them the attention of our venerable fathers in this cause was first directed, and a mission was auspiciously commenced. Idolatry was subverted, infant murder and human sacrifices ceased, education was promoted, converts flocked around the missionaries, churches were gathered, missionary societies formed, and teachers sent forth. Now, the people, fast rising in the scale of nations, have, as fruits of the Divine blessing on missionary perseverance, a written language, a free press, a representative government, courts of justice, written laws, useful arts, and improved resources. Commercial enterprise is promoting industry and wealth, and a measure of domestic comfort, unknown to their ancestors, now pervades their dwellings. A nation has been born at once, and surrounding nations have been blessed through their mercy."

Testimonies of this kind might be multiplied to a great extent. The annals of missionary proceedings teem with information of the most conclusive cha racter, whilst the newly converted heathen themselves, ever ready to testify to the blessings they are thus brought to enjoy, are heard to exclaim, "But for our teachers, our grass on the hills, our fences and houses, would have been fire ashes long ago; and we should have been upon the mountains squeezing moss for a drop of water, eating raw roots, and smothering the cries of our children by filling their mouths with dirt, grass, or cloth." "We were all blind till the bird flew across the great expanse with the good seeds in its mouth, and planted them among

us.

We now gather the fruit, and have continual

harvest."

No less striking is the evidence of Andrew Stoffell, a converted Hottentot, before the Aborigines Committee. He is asked, "Have the character and condition of the Hottentots been improved since the missionaries came among them, and in what respects?" He replies, "The young people can now read and write, and we all wear clothes; many of us have learned trades, and we are altogether better men. We have plowing, wagon-makers, and shoemakers, and other tradesmen, amongst us. We can make all those things, except a watch and a coach. The missionaries have done much good, and they have tamed the Hottentots."

The testimony of Mr. Elisha Bates, who was a member of the Society of Friends, before the same Committee, furnishes the most convincing evidence of the efficacy of Christianity in promoting the improvement of the temporal condition of savage nations, even where other means had failed. He observes, speaking of the Indians of the United States, "Within the last few years we have had occasion to review the whole course of our proceedings, and we have come to the conclusion, from a deliberate view of the past, that we erred in the plan which was originally adopted, in making civilization the first object; for we cannot count on a single individual that we have brought to the full adoption of Christianity." Having been further asked, "Do your Society now regret that they did not begin with Christianity, in order to lead the way to other advantages; and if you had to recommence the same undertaking, would you now begin with Christianity ?" he emphatically replied, "Decidedly we should, from a full conviction that the attempt to civilize without Christianity has failed; and that the plan now adopted is to make Christian instruction the primary object."

From these facts, gathered from different sources, the inference does not appear by any means doubtful, that whatever methods may be attempted for ameliorating the condition of untutored man, THIS alone can penetrate to the root of the evil, can teach him to love and to befriend his neighbor, and cause him to act as a candidate for a higher and holier state of being.

The hope, therefore, of effecting Africa's civilization, and of inducing her tribes to relinquish the trade in man, is, without this assistance, utterly vain. This mighty lever, when properly applied, can alone overturn the iniquitous systems which prevail throughout that continent. Let missionaries and schoolmasters, the plow and the spade, go together, and agriculture will flourish; the avenues to legitimate commerce will be opened; confidence between man and man will be inspired; whilst civilization will advance as the natural effect, and Christianity operate as the proximate cause of this happy change.

If, indeed, it be true that such effects will follow in the train of religion, and that Christianity alone can effect such changes and produce such blessings, then must we pause before we take a single step without it. The cause of Africa involves interests far too great, and results far too stupendous to be trifled with. The destinies of unborn millions, as well as of the millions who now exist, are at stake in the project; and the question is one of life or of death, of comfort and happiness, or of unutterable misery.

I believe that Christianity will meet the necessities of the case, and will prove a specific remedy for the moral evils of Africa.

My next proposition consequently is, that it is our duty to apply this remedy if we can.

One part of our national debt to Africa has already been acknowledged by the emancipation of our colonial slaves. There remains yet, however, a larger debt uncancelled, that of restitution to Africa itself. We shall have much difficulty in ascertaining the amount of this obligation. Had we the means of discovering the total number of the sufferers whose miseries we have caused, or could we form the faintest idea of the nature and extent of the woes which are justly chargeable upon as a nation, the duty of making reparation to Africa would be obvious.

Next to the debt which we ourselves owe, I can form no conception of a stronger argument in favor of carrying thither civilization and Christianity, than the existence of the Slave Trade itself, as it is found at this day, attended, on the one hand, by desolation; on the other, by a blind and devouring superstition; and in all directions encircled by ferocity and carnage, by torture, by terror, by all the evils through which man can be afflicted; and this variety of woes ending in the annual sacrifice of 500,000 human beings.

I repeat, that a stronger proof we cannot have, that it is the duty of the people of this empire to take up the cause upon Christian grounds, as a measure of atonement for the injuries we have done to her, as the only means now within our power of making restitution to her still degraded population; and as the most successful implement for uprooting from its very foundations that gigantic and accursed tree, which for ages has nourished beneath its shadow lamentation, and mourning, and woe.

Let but the people of this Christian country take up this cause as a duty, nationally and religiously, and no