advantage in the relative place which a sovereign God has assigned them in the scale of intelligence, by holding that relation to the end of time.  Of course it would cease to be a curse; it would become one of those subordinate parts in the great orchestral music of life which subdue and soften it for the highest effect.  If any one gets angry at such an idea, I leave him to his folly; for he is angry without a cause at me, who have, in this idea, expressed no wish that it may be true; and he is angry that his Maker should do a thing which contradicts his pet notions about “freedom.”  But the singular fact of slavery in this land, continued and defended under all political changes, and now having the prospect of being more firmly established than ever by means of our great national commotion on this subject, is enough to make a serious mind reflect whether it be wholly the work of Satan, or whether the providence of God be not concerned in this great and difficult problem.

It is certainly remarkable that religion, which once gained such a footing in Africa, so soon and entirely died out there, but that the Africans, transported to our land, are of all races the most susceptible to religious influences.  If we should visit a foreign missionary field, and learn that the mission had been blessed to the extent which has characterized the labors of Christians at the South for their slaves, of whom, according to the “Educational Journal,” Forsyth, Ga., there are now four hundred and sixty-five thousand connected with the churches of all denominations, we should regard it as the chief of all the works of God in connection with modern missions.  It is this providential and Christian view of slavery which quiets my mind.  Now, suppose that, contemplating a foreign missionary field where such results should be found, one should object:  “But there are evils there; people do not all treat their dependants as they ought; hardships, cruelties, and some barbarisms remain;”—­we should not, I apprehend, proceed to scuttle such a ship to drown the vermin.  But I can see that Satan must be in great wrath to find himself spoiled of so many subjects.  One stronger than he has brought here hundreds of thousands, who, in Africa, would have perished forever, but who are now civilized and Christianized.  Satan would be glad, I think, to see American slavery come to an end.  We have no right to go and steal people in order to convert them; the salvation of these slaves will not, in one iota, extenuate the guilt and punishment of those who were engaged in the slave-trade.  But “the wrath of men shall praise Thee.”  In the writings of anti-slavery men I do not remember to have met with cordial acknowledgments of what religion has done for the slaves at the South.  They coldly admit the fact, but often they speak disparagingly of the negro’s religion, which is full as good as that of converts in our foreign missionary fields, as good, judging from some things in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, as that of some converts to whom he wrote.  Our Northern anti-slavery people cannot bear to have anything good discovered or praised in connection with slavery.