that this, the religious solicitude, is the master principle of that people. Turn to Africa, and there we see almost fulfilled the prediction of the Prophet—"The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."[1] I doubt much whether, if ever, the history of missions has discovered such a wide-spread and earnest seeking for Christian knowledge, as is seen among the Pagan tribes on that suffering coast. A missionary on his way down the coast, lands at a certain spot. The news of a God-man, as they term him, having come, flies like lightning through the neighborhood. Three kings visit him; several chiefs bring him their sons, and desire him to take them under his care for instruction; numbers of the people assemble, all expressing their sorrow that he will not abide with them, and teach them. When Mr. Freeman went some two hundred miles in the interior to visit the king of Ashantee, the whole kingdom was thrown into excitement. "Never since the world began," said the king, "has there been an English missionary in Ashantee before." Thousands of troops attended him on his approach to the sable monarch; and in the midst of the grossest superstition and most cruel rites, the ambassador of Christ was received with the most marked respect; and full permission was given him to establish Christian institutions in the capital of the kingdom.[2] All along the coast where missions are established, kings and princes and great men are bringing their children
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