vealed truth, who tells us of our destinies in an eternal
world to come. All truth of whatever kind has therefore its
creator in the will and essence of that great God who created
all things, moral and natural. Great and good men have long
upheld this grand conclusion. But, alas! such is too often
our bigotry, or ignorance, or selfishness, that we try to
divorce religious and moral from natural truth, as if they
were inconsistent and in positive antagonism one to the
other,--a true catholic spirit (oh that the word 'catholic'
had not been so horribly abused by the foul deeds of men!)
teaching us that all truths are linked together, and that all
art and science, and all material discoveries (each held in
its proper place and subordination), may be used to minister
to the diffusion of Christian truth among men, with all its
blessed fruits of peace and good-will. This is, I believe,
your faith, as I see it shining out in your deeds, and set
forth in the pages of your work on Southern Africa, which I
have studied through from beginning to end with sentiments of
reverence and honor for the past and good hopes for
the future.

"What a glorious prospect is before you! the commencement of
the civilization of Africa, the extension of our knowledge of
all the kingdoms of nature, the production of great material
benefits to the Old World, the gradual healing of that foul
and fetid ulcer, the slave-trade, the one grand disgrace and
weakness of Christendom, and that has defiled the hands of
all those who have had any dealings with it; and last, but
not least--nay, the greatest of all, and the true end of
all--the lifting up of the poor African from the earth, the
turning his face heavenward, and the glory of at length
(after all his sufferings and all our sins) calling him a
Christian brother. May our Lord and Saviour bless your
labors, and may his Holy Spirit be with you to the end of
your life upon this troubled world!

"I am an old man, and I shall (so far as I am permitted to
look at the future) never see your face again. If I live till
the 22d of March I shall have ended my 73d year, and not only
from what we all know from the ordinary course of nature, but
from what I myself know and feel from the experience of the
two past years,