ed themselves to the spiritual level
pictured to ourselves in our conception of angels who have been given
the Divine charge concerning mankind. Religion for Negroes, indeed!
White priests, forsooth! This sort of arrogance might, possibly, avail
in quarters where the person and pretensions of Mr. Froude could be
impressive and influential--but here, in the momentous concern of man
with Him who "is no respecter of persons," his interference, mentally
disposed as he tells us he is with reference to such a matter, is
nothing less than profane intrusion.

[227] We will conclude by stating in a few words our notion of the only
agency by which, not Blacks alone, but every race of mankind, might be
uplifted to the moral level which the thousands of examples, of which
we have glanced at but a few, prove so indubitably the capacity of man
to attain--each to a degree limited by the scope of his individual
powers. The priesthood whereof the world stands in such dire need is
not at all the confederacy of augurs which Mr. Froude, perhaps in
recollection of his former profession, so glibly suggests, with an
esoteric creed of their own, "crystallized into shape" for profession
before the public. The day of priestcraft being now numbered with the
things that were, the exploitation of those outside of the sacerdotal
circle is no longer possible. Therefore the religion of mere talk,
however metaphysical and profound; the religion of scenic display,
except such display be symbolic of living and active verities, has lost
whatever of efficacy it may once have possessed, through the very
spirit and tendency of To-day. The reason why those few whom we have
mentioned, and the thousands who cannot possibly be recalled, have, as
[228] typical Christians, impressed themselves on the moral sense and
sympathy of the ages, is simply that they lived the faith which they
professed. Whatever words they may have employed to express their
serious thoughts were never otherwise than, incidentally, a spoken
fragment of their own interior biography. In fine, success must
infallibly attend this special priesthood (whether episcopally
"ordained" or not) of all races, all colours, all tongues whatsoever,
since their lives reflect their teachings and their teachings reflect
their lives. Then, truly, they, "the righteous, shall inherit the
earth," leading mankind along the highest and noblest paths of temporal
existence. Then, of course, the obeah, the cann