:b80

YALE UNF/ERSnY
tIBRARY

PLEA

EOR THE

AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

^ SERMON,

PREACHED tlN '"

ST. GEORGE'S OHUaOH, STEW-TOZIK,

ON SUNDAY, JUlfif 9, 1826.

BY THE REV. JAMES MILNOR, D.D.
HECTOR OF SAID CHURCH.

NEW-YORK :
JOHN P. HAVEN, 182 BROADWAY.
1826.

Sleight & Tucker, Printers, Jamaica.

TO THE

PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENTS, AND
BOARD OF MANAGERS,
OF THE
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR COLONIZING THE FREE
PEOPLE OF COLOUR OF THE UNITED STATES,
THIS HUMBLE EFFORT
TO PROMOTE
THE PATRIOTIC, BENEVOLENT, AND CHRISTIAN
ENTERPRIZE,
IN WHIOH THEY ABE ENGAGED,
IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY

PLEA

FOR TUB
/

tomtvicm Coiouijation Society

Psalm lxviii. 31 — last clause.
"ETHIOPIA SHALL SOON STRETCH OUT HER HANDS UNTO GOD."
This is one of those cheering promises, the
fulfilment of which is to usher in the latter day
glory of the church: when the bringing in of the
fulness of the Gentiles, and the conversion and
restoration of the Jews, will complete Messiah's
conquests ; and all the kingdoms of this world
will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
his Christ. Yes, Africa, poor, degraded, injured
Africa, is to have conveyed to her utmost borders
the knowledge of the true God, and of his bless
ed Word, and of the glorious Saviour it reveals,
and of the heavenly felicity that awaits those
who believe in Him. And this, like the other
gracious promises of Jehovah, is to be accom
plished by human instrumentalities, rendered

PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN

effectual by the grace of the Spirit, and the di
rection of providential events, to the production
of the designed result. The redemption of this
extensive region of our earth from the midnight
darkness of Paganism, and the illumination of
its untutored millions with the light of truth, are
already begun. We adore the goodness of that
God who has brought into activity so much of
Christian benevolence^ as we have already seen
exerted in the commencement and most encou
raging progress of this good work. The prac
ticability of its ultimate full achievement is
opened with undoubted clearness to the eye of
Christian faith. They who would have denied
even the declaration of God himself, that he has
made of one blood all the nations of the earth,
are compelled, by the developments of a few
years past, to acknowledge that Ethiopia's swar
thy sons are rational beings like themselves ;
awfully ingulphed, it is true, in ignorance and
sin, but endowed with intellects capable of re
ceiving, with interest and affection, God's mes
sage of mercy to our fallen world, and of appre
ciating and seeking the improvements of learn
ing and civilization. It was the success which
had followed the pious exertions of the friends
of Christ in Great Britain, more especially on
the western coast of Africa, that led the same

COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

class in our favoured country, to feel a wish to
participate in so laudable an enterprize. If a
consciousness of having shared in the atrocities
of an abominable traffic in human flesh, and of
Africa's claim to some remuneration for the
wrongs she had endured in the sufferings of her
children, stimulated an awakened British public
to measures of redress, it would have been
strange if the principles of their benign religion
had not roused Christians in America to similar
exertions. With no design to palliate the cruel
ties of slavery, or to admit the right of any hu
man being to hold his fellow-man in bondage, it
\ is honourable to our brethren in the South, on
whom the evil has been entailed, that among
'themselves should have originated the plan
which I have undertaken to recommend at this
¦ time to your patronage and support ; and, if mo
tives of self-interest have combined in its pro
secution, and daily bring to its furtherance the
aid of many whom more exalted considerations
would fail to influence, it is only a proof of the
variety of methods by which God, in his all-wise
providence, is pleased to accomplish his merciful
designs, and of the manner in which He can
bring into requisition, for this purpose, even the
frailties and infirmities of men. In the present
instance, indeed, what, at the first glance, might

PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN

appear to be a blameable principle of selfishness,
is almost divested of that character by the obvi
ous connection of African colonization with the
general advancement of human happiness, no
less than its tendency to remove, or lessen, ac
knowledged evils among ourselves; and espe
cially in those States where slavery unhappily
continues to exist. Although the Christian mind
dwells with delight on the best results of this
enterprize, in its ultimate diffusion, throughout
Africa, of the benefits of social improvement
and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and
is therefore animated with a holy zeal in its sup
port from its bearings' on the eternal destinies of
millions of his fellow-men, it is not deemed im
proper, even in this place, to advert to consi
derations which unavoidably mingle their influ
ence with this more elevated and sublime in
ducement. I propose, therefore, to state briefly
the plan of the American Colonization Society,
and then present to you the reasons why I believe
it to be deserving of the patronage of every
Patriot, Philanthropist, ' and Christian in our
country. This Institution was established at the city of
Washington, a few years since, with the declared
design of removing to the coast of Africa, with
their own consent, such people of colour within

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 9
the United States as were then free, and such
others, as the humanity of individuals and the
laws of the different States should thereafter
liberate. In its formation there were associ
ated many of the most distinguished citizens of
our country, and the measures pursued for the
effectuating of the Society's objects have been
marked by that wisdom and prudence, united
with earnestness and zeal, which might have
been expected from the character of its found
ers. Agents were sent to Africa to ascertain
how far it might be practicable to obtain by
purchase from the proprietors of the soil a
competent grant of land for the reception of a
Colony, to ascertain what region, most accessi
ble to the United States, best adapted to pur
poses of commerce and other objects of in
terest to the Colonists, and especially most
favourable to health, could be procured; and
the result of all the information collected by
these intelligent men was, that the facilities
were great, the difficulties comparatively few.
It would be tedious and out of place here to
narrate, in detail, the various circumstances of
discouragement and hope,- which marked the
earlier transactions of the Society in the trans
portation and settlement of the first objects of
its beneficence. 2

10 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
The calamities of sickness and of death
overtook many a benevolent agent of the Insti
tution, and not a few of the first Colonists fell
victims to a tropical and insalubrious climate.
Deceptions were practised to induce a prefer
ence for situations, which, on trial, were found
unsuitable ; and, as will ever occur in the be
ginning of attempts of this kind, very important
lessons were learnt at the expense of great
sacrifices, and of some very valuable lives. But
a location has been at length found, which has
fully answered every reasonable expectation.
The cession of a tract of country in a situation
peculiarly healthy has been obtained ; a consi
derable town built; numerous free descendants
of Africa, conveyed there by this Society, have
become its inhabitants ; a civil government has
been established ; order, tranquility, good mo
rals, and religion generally prevail ; and very
recent accounts from the presiding officer of
the settlement, give the most pleasing evidences
of the flourishing and happy state of the Ameri
can Colony of Liberia. In regard to the ques
tion of the salubrity of Africa to her American
descendants, it has been now satisfactorily de
termined by experiment.— They have as much
health, say the latest accounts, and as large a

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 11
share of animation as they* ever possessed in
America. The government and laws, too, are
well supported and executed ; agriculture and
the mechanic arts are industriously and success
fully pursued ; a valuable accession of territory
has been made during the past year ; the means
of subsistence are abundant ; the dwellings neat
and comfortable ; several churches have been
erected ; and the advantages of literary and
mental improvement are considerable and in
creasing. The religious character of the Colo
nists is sustained by a scrupulous observance
of the Sabbath, the maintenance of Sunday
Schools, and a general attendance upon public
worship ; and, with few exceptions, the state of
morals is such as might well compare with most
of the towns and cities of the civilized coun
tries of Europe or America. Now the simple
question for our consideration is, whether a So
ciety, which, in a very short time, has achieved
so much, should be supported in its efforts by
the countenance and contributions of the com
munity at large. From those who are indiffer
ent to the interests of that country in which
they are protected in the enjoyment of the im
portant blessings of civil and religious liberty,
from those who have no detestation of oppres
sion, no regard to human rights, no love to their

12 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
fellow men, and from those who are not alive to
the inconceivable blessings attending the diffu
sion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, perhaps the
Society, whose claims I advocate, have little to
expect ; but I repeat with confidence, that to the
understanding and the heart of the Patriot, the
Philanthropist, the Christian, they: appeal with
a force of persuasion that is irresistible. It is
to the view of each of these classes I would
present them on the present occasion, with a
most affectionate hope of a favourable im
pression in regard to the cause of Colonization,
and of a -present liberal contribution to the
funds of the benevolent Institution to whose
management it has been confided.
I. I say, then, To the PATRIOT, to the man
who loves his country, and is ready to give his
heart and hand to every effort calculated to ad
vance her prosperity, the Colonization of the
free people of colour , commends itself to your
approbation and support, because it will pro
mote the public good. We have among us an
immense population of the descendants of Af
rica. A part of them still endure the galling
chains of slavery. Under the influence of favour
ing circumstances, in some of the States their
fetters have been wholly, in others partially,
broken; and their subjects in some measure

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 13
restored to the enjoyment of the rights of free
men. A race of human beings is thus found
among . us, who, from their degraded origin,
their complexion* their inferior means of in*
struction, and, in some States, their entire want
of education, their exclusion in most from the
elective franchise, and from many of the more
elevated functions of ordinary life, constitute a
separate class, marked by many features of de
cided inferiority in public estimation, and, in
the common course of things, doomed perhaps
to occupy for ever this degraded place. *It need
not be asked in those States where slavery still
subsists, whether it be the course which policy
dictates to retain among them a class of persons
exasperated with a recollection of their own
wrongs, and the constant beholders of the toils
and sufferings of their enslaved, brethren ; for
it is believed they are ready to answer promptly
and unanimously in the negative. The most\
alarming interruptions of the public peace, con- !
sequences, at the very possibility of which hu
manity shudders, may follow the increase of
the free people of colour in the slave States.
But are those parts of our country where
slavery has happily been abolished, or but par
tially prevails, uninterested in measures which
may lessen the increase of such a population

14 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
among themselves?; Assuredly, if not vitally
so, they are greatly, interested in any plan,
which, in consonance with justice and humanity,
and no other should be advocated, will prevent
the accumulation of a people constantly fretting
under a sense of degradation for which there
seems no remedy, a denial of political rights to
which they have no prospect of arriving, an ex
clusion from associations to which they can
never look for an admittance ; and, in respect
to a large portion, addicted to habits of life
alike destructive of social order, and of public
and private virtue. Let the contemplation, for
example, rest upon the city in which we dwell.
Who does not perceive in the records of our
courts, and in his daily walks, abundant proofs
of the evils of an increased coloured popula
tion 1 Far be it from your speaker's intention to
suppose this class <naturally worse than others.
They are the heirs only of the common depra
vity of our nature. But the situations from
which they have emerged, the uninformed state
of their minds, early addiction to intemperance
and other vices, and the low station they un
avoidably occupy in the scale of society, expose
them more to the influence of temptation, and
make them easier victims of the grand enemy
of man. We rejoice to acknowledge many

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 15
honourable exceptions, chiefly under the in
fluence of sanctified impressions of religious
truth, which sometimes arise to relieve this
dark and dreary picture. We rejoice that
some, reared under the happy influence of the
Sunday Schools which you support, now rank
in our community among the friends of religion
and good morals; and that several have been
enabled, under the auspices of the Colonization
Society, to communicate the benefits conferred
by you, to their brethren on the coast of Africa.
But adverting to the free coloured people in a
mass, and contemplating the probable very rapid
increase of their number, it is hot necessary I
should further urge this argument. Does not
every friend to the order, and peace, and happi
ness of the community clearly see, that the
public good is intimately connected with any
plan, which, while it betters the condition of
this class of people, will avert from the other
classes in the community the evils which its in
crease cannot fail to ihduce ? But I should feel
myself unworthy of the place I fill, were I to re
commend any measure for that purpose, which
foreboded ill to that unhappy race, whose wrongs
have excited the liveliest sensibilities of my
heart from my days of childhood, and to whose
interests as much of my time and labour as

16 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
other indispensable duties would permit, were
for many years of my life assiduously and cheer
fully devoted. I commend, therefore, the cause
of African Colonization to the patronage
II. Of the PHILANTHROPIST, because it
is an undertaking of undoubted benevolence.
That it is calculated to promote the security,
and order, and happiness of the community, it
is hoped is already seen ; and that stamps upon it
the character of benevolence, if, in our anxie
ties for ourselves, we have not disregarded the
interests of others. That we have not done so,
I apprehend both the declared object of the So
ciety, and its public acts, fully prove. Is it pro
posed to visit upon the descendants of Africa
evils assimilated to those inflicted on their
abused ancestors I As the latter were torn by
force from the soil that gave them birth, is it con
templated, with like violence, to transport the
former back to the regions of barbarism I Has
any enemy of liberty been hardy enough to pro
pose a scheme by which the slave, to whom the
benevolence of the laws, or of his master, has
given at least partial freedom, should be thrown
friendless and deserted upon the shores of a
people, still disposed to trade in human blood,
and by whose hands he might be again made
the victim of a cruel oppressor 1 O no! It is

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 17
among their American brethren we would place
them, under the dominion of law, the influence
of religion, the power of good example, the
sympathies of charity, the protection of a stable
government. We would remove them from a
scene of mortifying comparison, raise them to
the proper dignity of their nature, invest them
with the full rights of freemen, supply them with
the means of being happy in this life, and pre
pare them to be for ever happy in that which is
to come. " To the lasting honour of the Ameri
can Colonization Society," says a recent most
interesting letter, from its excellent Agent in
Liberia, " it has founded a new empire on the
continent of Africa, of which the basis is Chrisr
tianity, inteUigence, and rational Uberty, has
conducted it happily through the perilous season
of its inception and early growth, and has seen
its members in the full possession of the means
of acquiring the comforts of life, and of sus
taining, against any anticipated oppression, the
stand to whjch it has advanced." I wish time
permitted my reading to you the whole of a let
ter so honourable to its esteemed author. Its
details would, I think, convince the most skepti
cal of the just grounds on which he concludes,
that " as far as the actual state and prospects of
the colonial establishment of Liberia can effect
8

18 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
the great interests for which the Society labours,
all the discouragements occasioned at the com
mencement by the afflictive dispensations of
Providence, are now reversed, and its language
authorises and inspires the liveliest sentiments of
gratitude and joy." Your preacher feels himself
warranted by the undoubted evidence of facts,
to say, that, whether the health of the colony
be considered, or its civil state, or the means it
affords of securing an adequate support, and
even acquiring property, or its progress in the
rearing of public and private buildings, or its
schools of instruction, or its capacity of defence,
or the religious and moral character of its inha
bitants, there can be little doubt that in reference
to the emigrants themselves it is a work of real
benevolence to promote, by every practicable
mean, the removal, with their own consent, of
our coloured population to the land of their fa
thers. *
In another view the objects of this Institution
are entitled to the patronage of the Philanthro
pist. They are intimately connected with, and
highly promotive of the cause of emancipation.
Thanks be to God, slavery in our happy country
has few direct advocates. Even in those States
where its evils seem to be most inveterately
rooted, it is spoken of as an irremoveable cala-

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 19
mity, rather than defended on the score of right.
No doubt some believe the possibility of its re
moval as among the dreams of enthusiasm. But
even in the slave States this natural prejudice is
giving way ; and no incident has ever occurred
to hasten its extinction so much as the formation
and successful progress of the Colonization
scheme. / Unveil to the view of many a pious or
humane slaveholder, whose ancestor has thrown
upon him an incumbrance which imbitters his
hours of reflection, and hinders his prayers,
the prospect of improving the condition of his
slave by his emancipation : take from his mind
the apprehension, that such an apparent benefit
is not likely to prove a real injury, by the poverty,
and vice, and misery to which his slave will be
consigned on becoming free : satisfy him that in
the gift of freedom he is not about to confer on
a human being, for whom he feels a deep solici
tude, a curse rather than a blessing : let him
know that an asylum is ready, where such ma
terials of happiness are provided as have been
described, and that the means of his removal
thither are at hand ; and you furnish most pow
erful inducements to him to loose the fetters of
his bondman, and to send him, perhaps with
something more than his blessing and his pray
ers, to the country of his ancestors. In other

20 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
insraa6es policy and self-security, in the absence
of jetter motives, will lead to a similar course;
and thus, in the only safe way, will be accom
plished the gradual abolition of slavery through
out our land. That mortifying stain on the fair
face of a republic boasting the freest civil insti
tutions in the world, will be washed away, and the
Philanthropist be enabled to point to one fa
voured country whose political escutcheon ex
hibits not a single blot.
There is still another point of light in which
the subject commends itself to the regards of the
philanthropic heart. I allude to the hindrances
which colonial establishments on the coast of
Africa will interpose to the prosecution of the
Slave-trade. Since the measures adopted by
several European governments, and by our own,
for the suppression of this infamous traffic, cu
pidity seems to have increased the ardour of its
pursuit by lawless individuals. " The extent
and atrocity of the slave-trade," says the last
annual report of the Colonization Society, " re
mains, it is believed, undiminished, and in more
than one instance during the past year has the
flag of our country been seen to wave over ves
sels employed, beytfnd doubt, in this traffic.
Numerous facts might be adduced in proof, that
American citizens still participate in the. crimes

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 21
and gains of this trade, which we can hardly
hope will be exterminated, until the whole Chris
tian world becomes so sensible of its iniquity, as
unanimously to denounce it as an intolerable
offence, to which no flag shall give protection."
Melancholy as is the fact here stated, and cor
rect as is the persuasion of the authors of the
report, of the indispensable necessity for a uni
ted and vigorous co-operation of all nations in
the suppression of this unnatural and cruel com
merce ; yet are we thankful that its operations
have already been impeded by the moral influ
ence ©xerted by the American Colonists on the
minds of the Natives, by the facilities which the
settlement of Monrovia affords to tlie armed ves
sels employed by government in the capture of
those engaged in this illicit trade, and by the
happy effects of that kind treatment and Uterary
and religious culture afforded by our colony to
the recaptured sons of Africa. How delightful
to the feeling bosom is this last suggestion !
What pleasing auguries fill the mind, when it is
not indulged as a matter of benevolent specula
tion, but as a known historical fact, that a part of
the sable population of Liberia is already com
posed of individuals rescued from the miseries
of the Middle Passage by the humane exertions
of our navy ; and that, instead of being con-

22 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
signed to the merciless oppression of tyrannical
masters in a foreign land, they now rejoice in
having been returned to their beloved homes,
laden with the fruits of that moral and religious
improvement, which the charity of our govern
ment, and of the friends of Colonization has
provided for them in the schools established
there for their instruction ! May not the most
important results flow from these measures, in
the civilization and improvement of Africa, and
in the implantation of better principles ih her
rulers than those which have made them the
guilty partakers with white men in the enormi
ties of the slave-trade 1 May we not hope for
an internal co-operation in its extermination,
which will complete the desired work more spee
dily than can ever be done by a mere external
array of arms 1 O, could the heart of the more
docile savage be taught those lessons of mercy,
which utterly fail in making the least impression
on the brutal trader in human flesh, who tempts
him by money remorselessly to sell his fellow-
man, the wretch would be driven to some other
means of gratifying his lust of gain. A legiti
mate commerce in the productions of the earth,
and of the mechanic arts, would supersede a
traffic disgraceful to our species, and one of the
many prolific sources of human misery be ba
nished from our world.

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 23
But I am aware, beloved brethren, that the
interest of my subject has detained me too long
upon considerations which may to some present
more of a secular aspect than is ordinarily suita
ble to this sacred place. It is not often I thus
intrude ; and I feel the less occasion for apology;
from the persuasion that discerning minds will
easily perceive almost every suggestion which I
have made to have an intimate connection with
the exalted duties of practical religion. The true
Christian is a lover of his country, and of man
kind. That he has sustained in all their lustre
the latter characters will not impair his title to
the former. That, in connection with the higher
obligations of religious duty, he has well per
formed the duty of a citizen, and been the bene
factor of his fellow-men, if the governing motives
of his conduct have been in accordance with the
Gospel of Christ, may enhance (they never can
diminish) the bright remunerations of eternity.
But still the most powerful argument in support
f of the plan of African Colonization is its favoura-
| ble bearings on the advancement of the interests
of Christianity.
After having thus urged the support of the
Colonization Society upon the Patriot, and the
Philanthropist, I feel no hesitation in commend
ing it, with equal'confidence,

24 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
HI. To the regards of the CHRISTIAN, be
cause, umder the divine blessing,, it will greatly
extend the kingdom of Christ. It has been
principally through the establishments of the
British Government in Africa, that some rays
of light have eheered the midnight gloom in
which that populous Quarter of the Globe has
been so long enveloped. The most important
scene of Missionary labour has been Sierra
Leone, and various towns emanating from that
colony on the Western Coast. Under the
auspices of the Church Missionary Society,
thousands of the sable inhabitants of Africa
have already embraced, and are now enjoyhaig
the comforts of our blessed religion. The
prophecy of our text is thus in part fulfilled ;
and it seems to be an honour reserved to our
beloved country to lead on the measures which
are to result in its complete accomplishment.
When the Christian is satisfied that the plan of
God contemplates, and his promises assure, the
ultimate universal prevalence of the religion of
Christ, can he feel uninterested in events tbat
seem likely to further that plan, or to direct the
eye of faith to the fulfilment of those promises 1
Now is not the mercy of God co-extensive with
the habitable globe? Is not his call to all the
ends of the earth to look unto Christ that thev

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 25
may be saved 1 Do not the promises of God
assure to his Son the heathen for his inherit
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his
possession 1 In reference to the region, to which
we have now the opportunity of carrying the
Saviour's name, is it not the promise of our
text, that, involved as all but a very small por
tion of her people are in the worship of false
deities, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her
hands unto God 1" And, O brethren, does she
^not present a spectacle of moral wretchedness
sufficient to animate us to step forth to her re
lief? Your intelligence would anticipate any
portraiture I could present of the darkness, and
ignorance, and debasement of her unconverted
tribes, contrasted with the characters of a few
of her more favoured inhabitants, to whom
" Christian beneficence has carried the inestima
ble treasures of revelation, and with them a mea
sure of the refinements of civilized life. The
description of the one would answer, in all its
hateful lineaments, to that given by the Apostle
of the Gentiles of the Heathen of his own
times ; the other to that of the same persons,
after being «' washed, and sanctified, and justi
fied in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the
Spirit of our God."

26 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
It would be vain to conceal the fact, that much
time may be required, and that great difficulties
will attend the efforts of Christians in the con
duct and completion of the great work of Af
rica's regeneration. But what great work was
ever unattended with difficulties 1 With the ex
traordinary endowments of the Holy Ghost,
with the gift of tongues, and with the power of
working miracles, did no impediments obstruct
the missionary labours of the Apostles and
other early heralds of the Cross 1 Read the ac
count St. Paul gives of his own personal trials
and discouragements; read the well authen
ticated narratives of the labourers who suc
ceeded him ; look into the Book of Martyrs,
and see the multitudes " who counted not then-
lives dear unto them," but were willing to lay
them down in testimony of the truth ; thus ma
king their blood the seed of the church of the
Redeemer, and adding to the number of their
converts by the Christian heroism of their
deaths. Look at the unpromising commence
ment of many of the religious enterprizes of
our own times. Who would have believed that
the little phalanx of the United Brethren would
have achieved so much for the cause of Christ
as their labours among the Heathen, in every
quarter of the globe, have effected'! What a

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 27

stable foundation for future missionary labour
has been laid by the numerous translations of
the Scriptures into the languages of the East,
which the unwearied application of Carey,
Marshman, and Ward have, within a few years,
with such an apparent paucity of means, and in
the face of countless impediments, produced 1
What was the British and Foreign Bible So
ciety, what was the Church Missionary Society
of England, twenty years ago 1 And what are
they now1? What was England itself some cen
turies since but a land of Pagans 1 And what
are her Christian people now doing, I might
rather ask, what are they not doing, for the
evangelizing of the world ? Our encouragement
is that Jesus, whose name this Society will be
the means of carrying into the wilds of Africa,
"must increase." The Gentile nations are
given to him by Covenant for a possession.
Whatever obstacles may obstruct the Divine
purpose of mercy to their deluded inhabitants,
" their riches must be brought to fill up, and
enhance the splendours of his reign, when, in
the plenitude of his authority, as King of Zion,
he shall inherit all nations." I invite you then,
Christian Brethren, to engage in this grand
concern, and become workers together with
God in bringing these your distant fellow-men

28 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
to the obedience of faith. The beginnings are
small ; the progress may be slow ; but the little
cloud shall be seen, if not rapidly, gradually
enlarging, until it burst on the deserts of Africa
in refreshing showers of mercy, and its barren
wildernesses bud and blossom as the rose. Our
hearts have exulted at the sight, in the Islands
of the Pacific, of nations born in a day. The
same wonder-working God, who has, by feeble
human instruments, caused the savages of those
regions indignantly to burn their wooden gods,
led them to abandon the bloody rites of a most
horrid superstition, and united princes and peo
ple in the worship' of the true God and of his
Son Jesus Christ, can as readily give effect to
the exertions of the Missionaries of the Cross,
who shall be sent to proclaim his message bn
the continent of Africa. But, though such suc
cess may not attend their efforts ; if in its
slower advances this attempt bear more of an
analogy to the other dispensations and works
of God ; if we are called to imitate the pa
tience of the husbandman, who waiteth for the
precious fruits of the earth, there is no reason
to despond in regard to the final issue. We
have enough in past events to admonish us not
to despise the day of small things. In refer
ence to this attempt of the feeling and humane

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 29
in our country, to make some retribution to in
jured Africa, by restoring to her her children,
and accompanying the return with the blessing
of civilization, and the light of God's truth, I
would adopt the sentiment of one of her en
lightened English advocates, and say : " If by
the labours of a generation but one book of
the inestimable volume that reveals a Saviour,
be transfused into the speech of nations that
know not God ; — if by the lives and labours,
and even deaths of those devoted men, who,
for his name's sake, go forth taking nothing of
the Gentiles, the sacred leaven be but intro
duced ; — if but one of a family and two of a
city, among the benighted regions of Africa,
be brought to kiss the Son and do him homage,
you will not only have to consider your expense
and your cares well repaid, but you may contem
plate, in these beginnings, the elements of a
future generation that shall rise to call him
blessed ; you will hail the bright approach of
that glorious day, when the fulness of the Gen
tiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be saved."
To conclude ; in regard to the plan and opera
tions of the Colonization Society, it is an omen
for good, that they have received the sanction
of several of the State Legislatures, of some

30 PLEA FOR THE AMERICAN
of the most respectable Ecclesiastical Judica
tories, and of other enlightened associations of
our country ; that they have commended them
selves to the regards, and, as far as circum
stances would allow, received the support of
the General Government, and that the friends
of Colonization have reason to hope, that,
when further proof of the practicability of this
benevolent effort shall have procured for it the
approval and support of a greater number of
the Patriots, Philanthropists, and Christians of
our land, the public authorities will afford such
efficient countenance, protection, and aid, as
will give facility to the labours of the Society,
and conduct them to the most glorious termina
tion. In the. mean time individual assistance
should not be withheld : private beneficence
should be enlarged and generous : and, then, I
am persuaded there will be no want of evidence
to convince the lover of his country that the
public good will be promoted, the friend of
mankind that the interests of humanity will be
subserved, and the disciple of Jesus that his
Master's cause will be advanced, by the Ameri
can Society for Colonizing the free people of
colour of the United States.
Brethren, let an Institution so noble in its

COLONIZATION SOCIETY. 31
purposes, so encouraged in its prospects, and
that will, under the smiles of Providence, be so
glorious in its results, receive the united sup
port of your contributions, your exertions, and
your prayers.