desire can not be gratified, because it would unfit them for their
servile condition; therefore all teaching is rigidly denied them. The
treasures of knowledge are bolted and barred to their approach, and
they are kept in the utmost darkness and ignorance. Oh, to starve the
mind!--Is it not far worse than to starve the body?

There is yet another process of famishing to which the slaves are
subjected. They are not, as a general thing, taught by their masters
about God, the salvation of Jesus Christ or the way to heaven. The SOUL
is starved. To be sure, they pick up, here and there, a few crumbs of
religious truth, and make the most of their scanty supply. Many of them
truly love the Lord; and his unseen presence and joyful anticipations
of heaven make them submissive to their hardships, and cheerful and
faithful in their duties. But they can not thank their masters for what
religious light and knowledge they get.

And who are these that hold their fellow-creatures in such cruel
bondage, starving body, mind, and soul with such indifference and
inhumanity? We blush to tell you. Many of them are of the number of
those who profess to love the Lord their God with all the heart, and
their neighbor as themselves. Can it be possible that God's own children
can participate in such a wickedness; can buy and sell, beat and kill,
their fellow-creatures? Can those who have humbly repented of sin, and
by faith accepted of the salvation of Jesus Christ, turn from his holy
cross to abuse others who are redeemed by the same precious blood, and
are heirs to the same glorious immortality? CAN such be Christians?

And, children, you probably all understand that slavery is the sole
cause of the sad war which is now ravaging our beloved country; and
Christian people are praying, not only that the war may cease, but
that the sin which has caused it may cease also. We believe that God is
overruling all things to bring about this happy result, and before this
little story shall meet your eyes, there may be no more slaves within
our borders. Still we shall not have written it in vain, if it help
you to realize, more clearly than you have done, the sufferings and
degradation to which this unfortunate class have been subjected, and to
labor with zeal in the work which will then devolve upon us of educating
and elevating them.

My story is not one of UNUSUAL interest. Thousands and ten of thousands
equally affecting might be told, and many far m