ols, make more progress in
civilizing the natives, suppress more wars, unite in amity more hostile
tribes, and convert more souls to Christ, in ten years, than a colony of
twenty-thousand ignorant, uncultivated, selfish emigrants in a century.
Such a mission would be consonant with reason and common sense; nor
could it fail to receive the approbation of God. How simple was the
command of our blessed Saviour to his disciples!--'Go ye forth into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.' Not--'Send out from
among yourselves those whom you despise or against whom you cherish a
strong antipathy; those who need to be instructed and converted
themselves; those who are the dregs of society, made vicious and
helpless by oppression and public opinion; those who are beyond the
reach of the gospel in a Christian land; those whose complexions are not
precisely like yours, or who have any personal blemishes whatever that
excite your dislike;--send out _all_ these to evangelize the nations
which sit in darkness and in the regions of the shadow of death!'

Denham, Clapperton, and Lander, travellers in Africa, represent the
natives in a light most favorable for the introduction of christianity;
as eager to learn and become a civilized and great people like the
Europeans. Excepting the followers of Mohammed, they are not tenacious
of their forms of religious worship; and a considerable portion of them
are totally indifferent to devotional exercises. It seems apparent, that
the fruits of a mission in Africa would be thrice as numerous as those
of one in India, because the obstacles to be surmounted are far less
formidable.

But--says the objector--the climate of Africa is fatal to white men.

So is the climate of India. But our missionaries have not counted their
lives dear unto themselves; and, as fast as one is cut down, another
stands ready to supply his place.

I do not believe that the Creator has immoveably fixed the habitations
of any people within a boundary narrower than the circumference of the
globe. I believe that rapid transitions from intensity of heat and cold,
and cold and heat, are destructive to animal life; but I also believe
that the human body is easily acclimated, in any region of the world. I
believe the time is swiftly approaching when empires and continents
shall as freely commingle their population as do states and
neighborhoods. To limit or obstruct this intercourse, is to impoverish
and circu