ugh with trembling.
But it is around the youth of the island that their brightest hopes and
anticipations cluster; from them they expect to gather their principal
sheaves for the great Lord of the harvest."
The _American Missionary_, a monthly paper, and organ of this
Association, for July, 1855, has the following quotation from the
letters of the missionaries, recently received. It is given, as
abolition testimony, in further confirmation of the moral condition of
the colored people of Jamaica:
"From the number of churches and chapels in the island, Jamaica ought
certainly to be called a Christian land. The people may be called a
church-going people. There are chapels and places of worship enough, at
least in this part of the island, to supply the people if every station
of our mission were given up. And there is no lack of ministers and
preachers. As far as I am acquainted, almost the entire adult population
profess to have a hope of eternal life, and I think the larger part are
connected with churches. In view of such facts some have been led to
say, 'The spiritual condition of the population is very satisfactory.'
But there is another class of facts that is perfectly astounding. With
all this array of the externals of religion, one broad, deep wave of
moral death rolls over the land. A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a
Sabbath-breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer, and such
like--and be known to be such--and go to chapel, and hold up his head
there, and feel no disgrace from these things, because they are so
common as to create a public sentiment in his favor. He may go to the
communion table, and cherish a hope of heaven, and not have his hope
disturbed. I might tell of persons guilty of some, if not all, these
things, ministering in holy things."
What motives can prompt the American Missionary Association to cast such
imputations upon the missions of the English and Scotch Churches, in
Jamaica, we leave to be determined by the parties interested. Few,
indeed, will believe that the English and Scotch Churches would, for a
moment, tolerate such a condition of things, in their mission stations,
as is here represented.
Next we turn to the Annual Report of the American and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society, 1853, which discourses thus, in its own language,
and in quotations which it indorses:[54]
"The friends of emancipation in the United States have been
disappointed in some respects at the results i
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