another, a personal acquaintance, lias recently commenced his ministry in one of the West India Islands.
In the United States of America, although wicked laws and a bad public sentiment have seriously retarded the spiritual progress of the African race, yet in the slave States a greater attention is now paid to this duty than ever before; and in the Xorth a class of free black men has arisen, who, as ministers and teachers, in their own persons vindicate their race, and at the same time elevate and bless it.
And now, when we turn to Africa, how great the change! How wonderful and pleasing the contrast! "Previous to the year 1832, there was not a mission anywhere between Sierra Leone and the Cape of Good Hope." Now, "during the last fifteen or sixteen years"—I use the words of another[1]—"there have been established as many as twelve independent missions, at the distance of 100 or 200 miles from each other, embracing three times that number of outstations along the coast, and a still greater number of outstations interiorward." To hundreds of thousands of the nations, on the coast and in the interior, the Gospel of glad tidings is regularly preached. Its life-giving power is manifested in the marked revolution which is going on in their tastes and habits, and in the change of their customs. Chri-tian communities are being gathered together; civilized and Christian institutions are formed, and are extending themselves. Christianity has made itself felt in the family, in the domestic relations of life, in trade, in law in the
- ↑ The "British Squadron on the Coast of Africa": by the Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, an American Missionary, p. 21.
