ntre, Mass.), and therefore
there was much interest taken in our graduation. We were ordained on
the following evening at Watertown, Mass.; and the original poem
written for the occasion by our pastor, the Rev. Granville S. Abbott,
D.D., contained the following significant verses:--

"Ethiopia's hands long stretching,
Mightily have plead with God;
Plead not vainly: time is fetching
Answers, as her faith's reward.
God is faithful,
Yea, and Amen is his word.

Countless prayers, so long ascending,
Have their answer here and now;
Threads of purpose, wisely meeting
In an ordination vow.
Afric brother,
To thy mission humbly bow."

The only, and we trust sufficient, apology we have to offer to the
reader for mentioning matters personal to the author is, that we are
deeply touched in reading the oration, after many years, in the
original manuscript, preserved by accident. It is fitting that it
should be produced here as bearing upon the subject in hand.

EARLY CHRISTIANITY IN AFRICA.

ORATION BY GEORGE W. WILLIAMS,

ON THE OCCASION OF HIS GRADUATION FROM NEWTON THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY, NEWTON CENTRE, MASS., JUNE 10, 1874.

Africa was one of the first countries to receive
Christianity. Simon, a Cyrenian, from Africa, bore the cross
of Jesus for him to Calvary. There was more in that
singular incident than we are apt to recognize, for the time
soon came when Africa did indeed take up the Saviour's
cross.

The African, in his gushing love, welcomed the new religion
to his country and to his heart. He was willing to share its
persecutions, and endure shame for the cross of Christ.

Africa became the arena in which theological gladiators met
in dubious strife. It was the scene of some of the severest
doctrinal controversies of the early Church. Here men and
women, devoted to an idea, stood immovable, indomitable as
the pyramids, against the severest persecution. Her sons
swelled the noble army of martyrs and confessors. The
eloquence of their shed blood has been heard through the
centuries, and pleads the cause of the benighted to-day.

It was Africa that gave the Christian Church Athanasius and
Origen, Cyprian, Tertullian, and Augustine, her greatest
writers and teachers. Athanasius, the missionary of
monachism to the We