conversion.

For the refutation of such monstrous doctrines it may be urged that,
according to Scripture, savage as well as cultured peoples have a
consciousness of guilt towards the Divine Judge. The object of the
Gospel is to end the history of the culprit as such and to place him
upon a new standing--"the wind bloweth as it listeth": a new birth
operated by the acceptance of the Gospel proclamation addressed to every
creature, black as well as white. Growth and moral amendment properly
"follow" that spiritual birth; neither is conceivable before, except
purely human education, which is incapable of effecting a change, and in
fact tends only to fortify the natural man in his implacable hostility
against the newly implanted element, each lusting against the other.[12]

History records how the Spanish and other early explorers operated with
the aborigines in the regions discovered by them. The territories with
their inhabitants were declared possessions accruing to their respective
sovereigns, whose main policy was the exploitation of all the wealth
possible. The aborigines were dispossessed, treated as conquered
peoples, and forced to do the exploiting labour. No other results could
follow than the gradual diminution and final exhaustion of all the
wealth and the partial, if not total, extinction of the aboriginal
races.

What retribution overtook those nations is also on record. Those
enslaved peoples were forced to accept the religion of their conquerors.
Can true converts be made to order by constraint, motives of
self-interest, or by baptizing them _en bloc_? What else but deepest
aversion and mistrust could a religion inspire which is professed and
taught by a people who practise spoliation, murder, and other
descriptions of wickedness abhorrent even to a savage mind? The
aborigines would daily behold their own land and possessions enjoyed by
usurpers and "would be teachers," who subjected them besides to slavery
and abject misery. Could the religion of such teachers ever find favour
with their victims? How could doctrines of righteousness and love be
understood when so glaringly violated by their preceptors?

It presents a sad paradox to see that the Boers, who are in many
respects consistently religious and even exemplary, could uphold
principles which place coloured people out of caste, not only in regard
to political rights but also as to the common religious standing before
the Creator. It would be unjus