^f 
 
 ricA Qiven 
 
 ^ s 
 
 eTTnon 
 
 to Christ - 
 preach^J before 
 
 on 
 
 *Socie.ty , Oc^tober ZO, I S '3 0, 
 
Glass l^^Z . 
 Book _c^_-L 
 
 oo 
 
 ?/ ^ 
 
' ^ AFRICA 
 
 GIVEN TO CHRIST: 
 
 1133 
 
 im 
 
 PREACHED BEFORfe THE 
 
 VERMONT COLONIZATION SOCIETY, 
 
 MONTPELIER, OCT. 20, 1830. 
 
 BY REUBEN SMITH, 
 
 Pastor of the Calvinistic Congregational Cliurch, Burlington, Vt. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 
 
 BURLINGTON: 
 
 CTIAUNCEY GOOnRICH. 
 
 1830. 
 

 University Press. 
 
 C. aOODBICH, rRINTEB. 
 
SERMON 
 
 X 
 
 Psalm, LXVIII. 31. 
 Princes shall come out of Egypt ; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 
 
 Prophecy has been said to be either historical or discur- 
 sive. The first relates to predictions, which have a regular 
 historical connection, like those of Daniel and the author of 
 the Apocalypse — the other, is where the prophet does not 
 follow a chronological order, but breaks out in rhapsodies, as 
 the spirit of God upon him, or the kindred glories of his 
 theme more immediately suggest. 
 
 If this distinction be a just one, it is evident that the prophe- 
 cy chosen for our text, is of the latter description. TTie 
 Psalmist is expatiating in one of his most elevated strains, on 
 the character of Jehovah and his mighty works on the behalf 
 of Messiah's kingdom — and he throws himself out, to use the 
 expression of another, upon some of the most remarkable 
 glories of that kingdom in the last days. Far down the vista 
 of time, a captivating object rises upon his vision : the con- 
 necting links in the chain of events are of no consequence, 
 and time, space and circumstances are apparently forgotten, 
 while he exclaims — "Princes shall come out of Egypt: — Ethi- 
 opia shall soon stretch forth her hands unto God !" 
 
 Where then is that Ethiopia, the vision of which so capti- 
 vated the prophet .'' and what is the amount of the prediction 
 on its behalf, which is here contained .'' 
 
 That tract of country on the west of the Red Sea, to which 
 the name of Ethiopia, and more generally, of Abysinia, is 
 now given, cannot, we think, be the whole region intended 
 by the prediction. It seems of too little extent and import- 
 tance : and we are sure, moreover, that this name was given 
 to more than one country, according to the language of in- 
 spiration. 
 
For determining what country or people are intended by 
 the prediction of our text, therefore, I remark in the first 
 place, that the name of Ethiopian literally signifies burnt- 
 countenance, and was given by the Greeks to many people on 
 account of their sun-burnt complexion.* But no term of 
 similar import is found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and there 
 the people whom the Greek interpreters have called A't^ioitss — 
 Ethiops, are uniformly styled Cushites, or the children of 
 Cush.f We are to seek for the true origin of the Ethiopians 
 then, in Gush the son of Ham.;}: This race first settled be- 
 tween the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, in what the scriptures 
 call the land of Shinar. Here Nimrod founded the first em- 
 pire, and hence, went out Asher, also, who built Nineveh, 
 and finally gave name to Assyria. It is with reference to this 
 first location of the Cushites, or Ethiopians, probably, Moses 
 has told us, that one of the rivers of Paradise, "compassed all 
 the land of Ethiopia." 
 
 They next seem to have wandered farther southward and 
 to have settled that part of Arabia, which lies about the Per- 
 sian gulf: and hence this region was also called Ethiopia, as 
 when it is said of Moses in Midian that he married an Ethio- 
 pian woman. But in process of time — according to the tes- 
 tiiiiony of Josephus and Eusebius — they crossed the Red 
 Sea — and established themselves in that part of Africa — south 
 of Egypt and east of Lybia — which is now called Abysinia, 
 or Ethiopia proper. || Here they long vexed the more north- 
 ern Africans, and are supposed by many to have been those 
 Shepherd kings ^ who once dethroned the Egyptian monarchs.§ 
 Here the gospel found a portion of them in the fourth cen- 
 tury — and here a remnant of them are to be found — under a 
 very corrupt form of Christianity, at the present day. 
 
 But there is reason for pursuing the migration of the Ethi- 
 opians much farther than the bounds of Abysinia. The north- 
 
 * See Edinburgh Encyclopedia. Art. Mysbua. 
 
 tSue Griffin's Plea for Africa: from which several helps are acknowledged in the following^ 
 argument. 
 J See Genesis x. 6. II ^<"- Brown', Diet. Bib. Art. Cmh. 
 
 $ Sec Josephvis' Antiq. Jews, Lib. I. ch. vi. 
 
ern extremity of Africa was settled by other sons of Ham* — 
 but the great deserts of Lyhia and Sahara would for ages 
 prevent their further migration southward — and it remained 
 for the Ethiopians — still wandering and losing their tribes 
 in the vast and fertile regions of the south — finally to give 
 inhabitants to all the rest of Africa. It is certain, according- 
 ly, tiiat in process of time, the whole continent took the name 
 of Ethiopia. f 
 
 To this locality accordingly, agree various scriptural allu- 
 sions. Thus Isaiah exclaims — " Wo to the land, shadowing 
 with wings : which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia"^ — and 
 again, God says by the mouth of Zephaniah — " From beyond 
 the rivers of Ethiopia, my supplicants — even the daughter of 
 my dispersed, shall bring mine offering." || — If the Nile and 
 its branches are meant, by these rivers of Ethiopia — it set- 
 tles the location, to have been south or west of them, in rela- 
 tion to Judea. Again, the prophet's question — " can the 
 Ethiopian change his skin .'"'§ — clearly refers to a people co- 
 lored like the Africans — and finally our text has so coupled this 
 country and Egypt, together, as could not well have been in- 
 tended of any thing less than all Africa, when speaking of 
 Messiah's latter-day kingdom. " Princes shall come out of 
 Egypt : Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God." 
 We arrive at the conclusion, then, that, by the Ethiopia of our 
 text, is to be understood all the southern continent of Afri- 
 ca: the people, the interesting people, upon which the Holy 
 Ghost deigned to fix the attention of the entranced prophet — 
 in the midst of many other commanding objects — and to as- 
 sure him that they should be set as another star in Messiah's 
 crown in the latter-day — this people were Africans, the inju- 
 red Africans, for whose benefit we are attempting to excite 
 the attention of our fellow men this evening. 
 
 That we may do this the more successfully and give some- 
 thing like a due elevation to this commanding theme, we 
 proceed to urge several particular considerations. 
 
 * See Gen. x. 6, anrl V.\. 
 
 tSee Rees'' Encyc. Art. Etiiwpin. 
 
 i Isaiah xviii. 1. || Zcph. iii. 10. ^ Jer. iiii. 23. 
 
1. And the first is, the character of that country and peo- 
 ple for whom these attentions are sought. Little as is yet 
 known of it, we are perhaps warranted in saying, that there 
 is no country on earth, which more commends itself to the 
 attention of the philanthropist, than the continent of Africa. 
 It is a country of great extent — reaching not less than four 
 thousand miles into each point of the compass, and rich in the 
 capacity of almost every production of the globe. But al- 
 though thus vast and inviting, it is a continent of which little 
 has yet been intimately known by the civilized world — a 
 mere belt of surrounding light, comparing with the whole, 
 like the rind to the body of an orange. The remainder how- 
 ever, is not, like some of our western solitudes, "dark and 
 wasteful," but filled for the most part, by a dense and varied 
 population. Its inhabitants are variously estimated, at, from 
 150 to 200 millions — speaking, it is said, 200 different lan- 
 guages and dialects. These numerous nations are, with few 
 exceptions, either Idolators or Mussulmen. and greatly pre- 
 judiced, through the influence of the slave trade and other 
 causes, against all direct intercourse with the rest of man- 
 kind.* 
 
 Here, then, is an object for philanthropic enterprize, in 
 which the materials are all native, and afforded on the largest 
 scale : To improve the mental capacities of these many mill- 
 ions, and raise them to the condition of civilized and chris- 
 tian men — to mould their governments and direct their com- 
 merce — to redress, in this way, their wrongs, and remove their 
 prejudices — to open their intercourse with other nations, and 
 to introduce them to all the advantages and comforts of social 
 existence — to do all this, and for such a continent as Africa, 
 would indeed be worthy the ambition of a great and intelli- 
 gent nation like our own : an enterprize worthy of our am- 
 bition, friends and christian brethren, and one, which to labor 
 in is an elevating privilege, however remote our success. 
 
 And this is the proper place to say something of the Afri- 
 can capacity for these high improvements — and the rather, 
 on account of an objection to our enterprize, which has 
 
 * See Morse's Gazetteer, art. Africa— und the late reports from the Col 
 onv of Liberia. 
 
sometimes arisen from this quarter. By those, who are in- 
 terested, or cruel enough to desire perhaps, that it were so, 
 the intellectual capacity of the negro race, has long been 
 called in question, and his most degraded state has been ap- 
 pealed to, and his very bones subjected to measurement, to 
 establish the unfeeling assumption. A French writer speaks 
 of " the negroes as incapable of advancing a single step to- 
 wards civilization, and destined to remain 20,000 centuries 
 hence, what they have been 20,000 centuries already, the 
 disgrace and misfortune of the human race."* 
 
 To these weighty charges you will permit me to reply 
 therefore, and at some length. And the first suggestion is, 
 how little we really know of the true character of the Afri- 
 can. For how and in what circumstances have we seen him ? 
 We have seen him enslaved, broken-hearted, crushed ; — or, 
 at best, shut out from all aids and encouragement to mental 
 elevation — by the influence of slavery, and the inconquer- 
 able barrier of his relative situation. 
 
 To know the negro as he is, we must look at him as he 
 appears in the island of St. Domingo. There he will be seen 
 the self-conscious freeman, the enterprising merchant, or in- 
 dustrious planter — the able diplomatist and the accomplished 
 man of letters. Some who have made this comparison, 
 have told us of their astonishment, at the amount of diifer- 
 ence, it exhibited. They assure us that the distance is not 
 more manifest between the Parisian Frenchman and the voy- 
 ageur of the northern fur trade — than between the African 
 enslaved or among white men, and a freeman on a congenial 
 soil. 
 
 But we appeal further, to facts : and facts will show that 
 the negro mind has exhibited high attainments, and those of 
 almost every department. 
 
 Terrence, the accomplished writer of Latin comedy, was 
 an African slave, and so was Lockman, surnamed in Arabia 
 the wise, and whose opinions are referred to for authority by 
 Mahomet himself. In more modern times, we have equally 
 
 Barre St. Venant, af» quoted by Bishop Gregoire, p. 152. 
 
8 
 
 distinguished examples. Kisla Aga, chief of the black eu- 
 nuchs in the court of the Grand Seignor, is mentioned in 
 Turkish history, as " a man of great wisdom and profound 
 knowledge." Hige-mondo^ another African, was a distin- 
 guished painter ; Henry Diaz, a military commander of Bra- 
 zil — Francis Williams, teacher of mathematics in Jamaica — 
 Antony William Amo, who took the degree of Doctor in 
 Philosophy in the University of Wurtemberg, were of the 
 same race, and so were Dessalines and Louverture the con- 
 querors of St. Domingo, with Gustavus Vasa, the Christian 
 author, and our own Phillis Wheatley, whose poems have al- 
 ready passed several editions, both in Europe and the United 
 States.* 
 
 But the African's skull has been measured ! — and it has 
 been found narrow, and receding! — Well, let it be measured. 
 Phrenology is not yet sutficiently established as a science, to 
 be extensively relied on ; but it has its uses perhaps, and one 
 has been, as many think, to throw light on the origin of na- 
 tions. Dr. Madden has come to the conclusion, from the 
 measurement of a great number of heads, in the mummy pits 
 of upper Egypt, that the ancient inhabitants of that country 
 were Nubians :f of course so far as phrenology is concerned, 
 the Egyptians are very nearly allied to the present Ethiopi- 
 ans. How will our skeptical antiquarians relish this ? Sup- 
 pose it should appear in the end, that Thebes — the cradle of 
 science and the arts, — which gave them to Greece, and to 
 us — was originally peopled by a negro race ! 
 
 But let us confine ourselves to what is better known. We 
 have proved that, originally, the Africans were Cushites : — 
 that the Cushites of Mesopotamia were renowned in wisdom, 
 is the testimony of all history. Thence came Nimrod a mighty 
 one of the south : — thence came Asher, the founder of the As- 
 syrian Empire, and there arose, too, the Astronomers of Bab- 
 ylon, the first who studied the sublime science of the heavens. 
 This does not look like native incapacity in the Ethiopian 
 
 * The above list has been drawn principally from the Appendix to the " Pica for Africa," where 
 the original authorities may be seen. 
 
 tSee Madden's Travels, vol. ii. p. 61. 
 
race : these facts are not the index to a history of Baboons. 
 No; the African is a wan and a brother: long degraded, 
 abused and trodden down as he has been ; he is still a man, 
 a noble and immortal being, heaven-descended and aspiring 
 as ourselves. We do not know him : we abuse both him and 
 his Maker, if we rest in any other view. 
 
 If this be admitted then, if the African is a man, and im- 
 mortal, and is contemplated as such in the benevolent regards 
 of his Maker, it disposes of the objection to which we have 
 been attending. But this will still further appear from our 
 second general remark, to which I now invite you. 
 
 2. The renovation of the African race, in the latter days, 
 is a distinct subject of prophecy. This is not only implied 
 in the general representation "that all the earth shall be fill- 
 ed with the knowledge of the Lord," but it is more specifi- 
 cally taught in other passages, and particularly in those, which 
 relate to the glories of Messiah's kingdom. 
 
 Thus it was predicted of Solomon's glory in the 72d Psalm, 
 " the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." Sheba and 
 Seba were countries taking their names from the son and 
 grandson of Cush:* and these are to bring their glory into 
 Messiah's kingdom in the latter day. Solomon is universally 
 admitted to have been a type of the Messiah, and although 
 the Queen of the south commenced a literal fulfiling of this 
 prophecy in her visit to that monarch, it would be contrary 
 to the scope of the whole Psalm, to confine it to such an in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 Again it is said, in a passage already quoted, "from be- 
 yond the rivers of Ethiopia, my supplicants, the daughter of 
 my dispersed, shall bring my offering." This prediction is 
 supposed by Dr. Scott to refer directly to the Africans, and 
 by Poole, to the return of the Jews ; but even on the latter 
 supposition, it seems to secure our position, since the disper- 
 sed Jews could hardly be gathered and bring their offering 
 from this region, except in connection with the renovation of 
 other nations. But our text is still more explicit. Here 
 
10 
 
 Egypt and Ethiopia are represented as stretching out their 
 hands unto God. Stretching out the hands unto God, is 
 obviously a metaphor for expressing a religious, or ivorship- 
 ing people : and this is affirmed as pertaining to all Africa in 
 the latter day. 
 
 The Psalmist is looking to this. The prediction was not 
 accomplished by the introduction of Christianity into Abysin- 
 ia in the fourth century : no ! the prophet's eye is fixed on a 
 far more extensive prospect. Africa, the negro race, shall 
 yet stretch out their sable hands to God ! 
 
 And here is the place to consider another objection which 
 has often been urged on this subject. We have been told 
 that the Africans are under the curse of Ham — that their col- 
 or is an indication of this, and that to seek their renovation 
 is to attempt recovering them from a providential malediction. 
 It is not necessary to reply to the latter part of this assump- 
 tion. The varieties of human complexion are believed to be 
 principally owing to climate, and of the correctness of this 
 opinion, the Jews alone are a sufficient proof, who are known 
 to be of all colors, according to the country in which they 
 are found. But we deny the other assumption. The Ethi- 
 opian branch of Ham's family never came under the curse ; 
 it was confined to Canaan,* and was fulfiled when the de- 
 scendants of Shem, brought under and destroyed that devo- 
 ted race, in the time of Joshua. 
 
 But should it be admitted that this malediction had fallen 
 on other branches of the family, is it any where said that it 
 shall be unending 9 Are there no limits of time, beyond which 
 avarice and cruelty, under the hypocritical pretence of ful- 
 filing the purposes of providence, shall not continue to wreak 
 this judgment on a devoted race ? Our text answers this 
 question. Prophecy sees Africa redeemed : prophecy smites 
 off the chains from their weary wrists, and lifts them up in 
 praise and prayer to God. 
 
 3. Thirdly, our attention is strongly called to this people, 
 by the character of the times, in which we live. No one, 
 
 *See Gen. ix.25, 26. 
 
11 
 
 who seriously and intelligently studies passing events, can 
 fail to be convinced, we apprehend, that we are living at an 
 important era of the world's history. That era, in the opin- 
 ion of many, commenced a few years previous to the begin- 
 ning of the present century. Then — besides that mighty 
 revolution, which shook all Europe, and which, according to 
 some modern commentators on prophecy, slew the witnesses 
 and ended the 1260 years of Papal persecution — just then, 
 commenced that whole series of remarkable religious move- 
 ments, which has already effected, under Providence, to put 
 a new aspect on the face of christian society. The first of 
 all the English Missionary Societies, was organized in 1792, 
 the British and Foreign Bible society followed in '95 and 
 the Sabbath School System had been brought into operation 
 but a few years before. About the same time also, commen- 
 ced the remarkable series of modern out-pourings of the 
 Holy Spirit : — and now what have we already witnessed as 
 the results of these united movements ? 
 
 They have resulted in giving the means of education to 
 more than half a million of children, for whom no other ade- 
 quate aids to mental improvement existed : — they have trans- 
 lated the scriptures into more than fifty new languages and 
 dialects, and distributed them, freely as water, to almost 
 every nation under heaven : They have preached the ever- 
 lasting gospel tp many millions of men, living before, in ut- 
 ter ignorance of its existence, and they have gathered, 
 through grace,, we have no doubt, a glorious company of the 
 Redeemer's children, many of whom have already gone to 
 heaven. 
 
 Nor is this all, which has been remarkable in our times. 
 The Jews have been more cared for, within the last thirty 
 years, than during all the anterior period since their disper- 
 sion. Education and other means of knowledge have been 
 far more generally diffused, while science and mechanical 
 invention have been more assiduously applied to useful im- 
 provements, and have effected already an almost entire change 
 in the facilities of intercourse and commerce. 
 
12 
 
 Nor must we omit here a notice of those political changes 
 which have marked, and are still marking, the same period. 
 
 The principles of civil and religious liberty, though ob- 
 structed for a season by a mighty reaction in some parts of 
 Europe, have been extending themselves in secret, and the 
 convulsive struggles of Naples, and Spain and Piedmont, 
 have been but the natural breaking out of these suppressed 
 emotions. In France they have at length been successful, 
 and the world has been surprised with a Revolution, not 
 less distinguished by its moderation, than the reasonableness 
 of its principles, and the extent and propitiousness of its in- 
 fluence. 
 
 The Mahomedan power, in the mean time has experienced 
 an extensive diminution of its resources, and that in several 
 ways. The Sultan has been, for the first time, conquered and 
 humbled by the Russians : The province of Egypt has re- 
 volted under Ali Pacha : Greece, another dependency, has 
 obtained her independence — and now the conquest of Algiers 
 has broken the charm of Islamism, in another strong hold, and 
 opened all northern Africa to the influence of civilization. 
 
 I know not how these things may present themselves to 
 others; but to me, I confess, they appear immensely interest- 
 ing. I am no visionary observer of the signs of the times ; 
 but these events have come upon us in such a remarkable 
 and rapid succession : they have so seemed to correspond 
 with prophecy, and have in point of fact already wrought so 
 many favourable changes in the state of hum^i society, as to 
 justify the hope, at least, that the world is approaching its final 
 and most glorious state. We do emphatically ^ive in the last 
 daySj and this is another reason for calling our attention to the 
 destinies of the African race. They are given to Christ, as 
 you have heard ; and his latter-day glory cannot be full, until 
 their gathering is eff"ected. 
 
 And here let me remind you of another remarkable fact : 
 that precisely at the commencement of the era, which has been 
 mentioned^ began also, the first decided movements in Provi- 
 dence, towards the renovation of the Africans. The Revo- 
 
13 
 
 lution in St. Domingo coniinenced in 1791 — and the final es- 
 tablishment of the English Colony at Sierra Leone was ef- 
 fected in 1792. 
 
 It is remarkable, moreover, that within the same period, 
 the most unwearied exertions have been made, for the aboli- 
 tion of the slave trade, and that every civilized nation, except 
 two, have now agreed to consider it as unlawful. 
 
 Finally, it has been within the same period that the system 
 of Colonization for people of Color ^ has been devised ; and it 
 is in reference to this view, — the final renovation of Africa — 
 that this interesting movement, has, as appears to me, its 
 greatest importance. This Society was formed in the year 
 1816 at the city of Washington, and by some of the first of 
 our great and good men from every portion of the United 
 States. They purposed it primarily as a system of relief for 
 two millions of fellow men in our own country — a population 
 dangerous to ourselves and necessarily degraded here : but 
 their ultimate object was even greater than this, and they 
 extended their hopes to no less a consummation than the civ- 
 ilization and Christianity of a whole continent. 
 
 And thus far this noble enterprise has decidedly prospered. 
 Experiencing as yet no patronage but that of charity and vol- 
 untary association, it has effected the establishment of a colo- 
 ny of more than 1700 blacks on the western shore of Africa, 
 who have already attained to all the advantages of a free and 
 civilized community. 
 
 It would seem indeed that our general government must ul- 
 timately see the propriety of assuming this great enterprise ; 
 but while they hesitate to do this, it is a satisfaction to know, 
 that the Colonization Society is sustained and yearly advan- 
 cing in the confidence of the community. It has now its aux- 
 iliaries in nearly every state of the union, and it is with no 
 small satisfaction, we are enabled to remark, that our own 
 state was among the first to render this example. Yes; our 
 northern and disinterested Vermont, whose mountain airs the 
 breath of a slave never tainted, has been among the first to 
 
14 
 
 yield her patronage to the Colonization Society, and our sons 
 and brothers, educated in our own halls of science, have sac- 
 rificed their lives in the generous cause.* 
 
 The renovation of Africa is begun therefore, and begun in 
 connexion with a remarkable series of providential events. 
 And it is this view of its relations — I repeat it — that gives 
 principal importance to the Society, whose auxiliary I address 
 this evening. The Colony is favorably located on the western 
 coast of this continent : it already has the confidence, and 
 possesses the commerce of numerous tribes of the natives. 
 Christian settlements have for some years been established at 
 the southern extremity. The spirit of missions is again vis- 
 iting the east :f — recent conquests, as we have seen, have 
 opened the north, and thus surrounded with a belt of light, 
 it does seem rational to hope, that the dark and unknown in- 
 terior of this vast continent, is soon to be penetrated through 
 the influence of these establishments. 
 
 Here, then, we come to ask your favorable regards, this 
 evening, for a Society commending itself by so many, and 
 such interesting claims, as these. We ask it, you perceive 
 for no ordinary object, and at no ordinary era in the history of 
 the world. In aiding the Colonization Society, you are aiding 
 a people long among the most renowned in history ; a people 
 long forgotten and debased and trodden down, however ; 
 but a people destined, according to prophecy, to be raised 
 and blessed again, and whose renovation, itwould seem, is 
 already begun. 
 
 I ask my fellow mortals then, how much they are willing 
 to give to promote an enterprize like this .'' I ask the states- 
 man, who hates oppression, and rejoices in the extension of 
 civil and religious liberty, how much he is willing to give 
 towards rendering another nation free and independent? 
 I ask the man of letters, who exults in the increase of the 
 means of mental improvement, what he is willing to give, 
 
 * Ashman, Andrus, and HoUon. 
 
 f The English Missions, now established in Abysinia. 
 
15 
 
 that such as we enjoy, may be universally diffused ? — and 
 I ask, above all, the Christian — the Christian, who glories 
 in nothing so much as the honor of his Master — 1 ask what 
 he will give to add another gem — to set " the topaz of Ethio- 
 pia^'''' in the crown of the Redeemer ? 
 
 These motives perhaps would be sufficient — and yet, that 
 we may leave no appeal untried on such a subject as this, I 
 will ask you to look again and more directly at the object, 
 which is before you. The Holy Ghost did not refuse to look 
 down on the latter-day history of Africa, and why, Christian 
 friends, should we ? Yonder is a continent teeming with 
 uncounted millions of inhabitants, and now stretching out 
 its hands, for the first time, in prayer and praise to God. 
 Already its idols are abolished : already its laws and customs 
 are changed, and the energies of its children are turned to 
 more rational pursuits. The majestic Nile, and Congo, and 
 Niger, bear the rich burdens of commerce : their banks are 
 glittering with cities, or waving with the yellow harvests. On 
 the mountain-side the shepherd unfolds his flock : in the 
 meadow, the cheerful laborer plies his plough, or sings at night 
 in his love-blessed habitation. The temples of science and 
 religion rise : knowledge is diffused — the sabbaths of the 
 Lord are kept : peace, joy and gratitude, beam in every face, 
 and declare that the negro-race is blessed : The year or 
 Jubilee is come ! 
 
 The vision is before us, and it is sure. Yes ; it will come ; 
 but the consummation is not yet : and while it tarries, avarice 
 and cruelty are still pouring unmitigated woes upon this de- 
 voted race. 
 
 And now a change comes over me, and another and far dif- 
 ferent vision is seen. I behold a village trampled by contend- 
 ing foes, and wrapped in flames. The strife has closed, and 
 the dark jobbers, in human flesh, who- have been successful, 
 are dragging away their devoted victims to their doom. Look, 
 look on that manacled form, who now bleeds, and droops, and 
 shudders, amidst^these unimaginable woes. No wonder that 
 he droops and shudders : nor is it strange, if amidst the sick- 
 
enings of his soul for a doom like this, he seek the only re- 
 lief, which his wild faith suggests to him, in suicide and des- 
 pair. 
 
 " Alas he steals him from his loathsome shed, 
 
 " What time moist midnight blows its venom'd breath, 
 
 " And musing how he long has toii'd and bled — 
 
 " Drinks the dire balsam of consoling death. 
 
 " Haste, haste ye winds : on swifter pinions fly ; 
 " Ere from this world of misery he go — 
 " Tell liim his wrongs bedew a nation's eye: 
 " Tell liim Columbia blushes for his woe. 
 
 " Say, that in future, Negroes shall be blest : — 
 " Blessed even as men — and men's just rights enjoy ; 
 " Be neither sold, nor famish'd, nor oppress'd : — 
 " No stripes shall wither, and no griefs destroy. 
 
 " .Say that fair freedum bends her holy flight, 
 " To raise the oftspring, and to cheer the sire : — 
 " So shall he, wandering, prove, at last, deliglit, 
 " And in a throb of ecstasy expire." 
 
 Oh give, with this double vision before you, friends and 
 hearers ! Give as you would wish others to give, were yours 
 the fate of the Africans ! give thus, and no stinted recom- 
 pence will rejoice our labors this evening. — Amen ! 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Suggestion. — It appears from the late reports of the A. C Society, thai 
 about $20 is considered sufficient for transporting an emigrant from this 
 country to Liberia, Twenty dollars tveighed against a life of competency and 
 independence ! Will not some patriot — some friend to the negro race, be 
 induced to raise this sum for so great and truly benevolent an object ? 
 
 It is suggested also, that much good might result from reading and dis- 
 tributing the publications on this subject, to the free people of color 
 among ourselves. 
 
LEJa'12 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 012 026 164 2 
 
 m 
 
 " ■"'■ ■•■■3 
 
 M