inated chosen few, is, nevertheless,
beyond the present ken and comprehension and spiritual compass of most
mortals, and may be called the Religion of the Future. The fatal defect
of all these theories is that they serve no purpose of utility.
Considered as creations of ideal beauty, they may charm the fancy and
quicken the imagination, and even exalt the mental habitudes, of a few
devotees. Or, allowing that they are a sort of morning twilight vision,
they _may_, we cannot dogmatically deny, hereafter develop into a
splendid fulness, in the perfect day. All this may be. But they do not
meet the practical needs of our working life, the wants of weary men and
weary women.

So, what we want for the negro is not a metaphysical theory of his
perfect equality with the white man. Nor, on the other hand, are we at
liberty to say that he is, by virtue of any physical conformation and
structure, something inferior to the white man. Neither of these
positions can be sustained. The one plainly contradicts our observation
and experience; the other needs the proof of science that inferiority is
determined by physical structure. We must face the fact of the negro's
present degraded condition; and we must accept the equal fact of his
being a man, with a soul as precious, in the sight of God, as the soul
of his white brother. For the day when the sublime exordium of the
Declaration of Independence could be stigmatized as a 'glittering
generality,' is gone by. The basis of our American system of government,
it is no longer doubted, is the equality of all men before the law, as
the basis of our Christian faith is the equality of all men before God.
Accepting, then, the two undeniable facts above named, the question is,
What shall we do now with the negro?

II. THE NEGRO SLAVE AS A SOLDIER.

Without attempting to discuss this interesting question in all its
various aspects, we may briefly advert to some of the problems in the
discussion which would seem to be fairly solved in the employment of the
negro as a United States soldier.

Thus much is certainly true of the American negro, and herein he is
doubtless superior to the white man; namely, that he is docile, patient,
buoyant of spirit, full of affection, and endowed with a marvellous
apprehension of things spiritual. His _patience_ is shown by his long
bondage, borne without serious murmuring; awaiting the day of
deliverance, confident that the year of jubilee was to come. This p