ope in the world, a NATION OF
HEATHEN in our very midst. We cannot cry out against the
Papists for withholding the Scriptures from the common
people, and keeping them in ignorance of the way of life, for
we WITHHOLD the Bible from our servants, and keep them in
ignorance of it, while we will not use the means to have it
read and explained to them. The cry of our perishing servants
comes up to us from the sultry plains as they bend at their
toil; it comes up from their humble cottages when they return
at evening to rest their weary limbs; it comes up to us from
the midst of their ignorance, and superstition, and adultery,
and lewdness. We have manifested no emotions of horror at
abandoning the souls of our servants to the adversary, the
roaring lion that walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

Again: what said the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia, in a report
on the state of the colored population, in respect of religious
instruction?

"Who would credit it, that in these years of revivals and
benevolent effort, in this Christian Republic, there are over
TWO MILLIONS of human beings in the condition of HEATHEN, and
in some respects in a worse condition. From long continued
and close observation, we believe that their moral and
religious condition is such, that they may justly be
considered the HEATHEN of this Christian country, and will
bear comparison with heathen in any country of the world. The
negroes are destitute of the gospel, and EVER WILL BE UNDER
THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS. In the vast field extending from
an entire State beyond the Potomac, to the Sabine River, and
from the Atlantic to the Ohio, there are to the best of our
knowledge, not TWELVE men exclusively devoted to the
religious instruction of the negroes. In the present state of
feeling in the South, a ministry of their own color could
neither be obtained NOR TOLERATED."

Again: what says a writer in a recent number of the Charleston, South
Carolina, Observer?

"Let us establish missionaries among our negroes, who, in
view of religious knowledge, are as debasingly ignorant as
any one on the coast of Africa; for I hazard the assertion,
that throughout the bounds of our Synod, there are at least
one hundred thousand slaves, speaking the same language as
ourselves, who never HEARD of the plan of salvatio