Page:Africa's redemption.djvu/47

however, consists in more than the mere carrying away, the enslavement, and the rendition; it is destined to be carried out in the greatness of the work achieved by both alike in the world's progress. You at first may be incredulous, and so would an Egyptian have been incredulous, had one pointed to the degraded people they owned, and said that they were the most important people on earth. Imagine yourselves standing by an Egyptian brick-yard, seventeen hundred years before Christ, and looking upon the despised and oppressed Hebrews working in the mortar-beds, gathering straw, cutting and drying brick, with cruel task-masters standing over them, and ordering them hither and thither in the most supercilious tones. It would be hard for you to believe that that race were destined to return and possess the rich lands of their fathers, to build splendid cities, to have powerful armies, to have enlightened kings and prophets of God, and at last to give to the world a Saviour. But all this and far more came to pass. We do not expect another Messiah. But we have every reason to believe that the Africans will have their Moses and their Joshua, their David and their Isaiah, who, if not inspired, will yet be their God-sent teachers and deliverers. And there is scarcely a people living who promise to play so interesting and important a part in the world for the next century or two as these negroes, free and enslaved, whom we have in our country If they are to return to their land and to regenerate their race, with what a profound interest should we