e great training school, the Old
University of Cairo, is said to number at times as many as ten
thousand students of the Koran, a number which may well challenge a
comparison with the Protestant Theological Seminaries of Europe and
America, not only by their numbers, but by the astonishing success of
their pupils as missionaries. They run where we halt, they win where
we fail.

It is now in order to ask if the Freedmen of America can be fitted to
take a special part in the evangelization of Africa. There are strong
reasons for believing that they can be; they have race advantages
similar to the Mohammedans, and they can readily obtain the acquired
advantages of the white missionary. In the first place, they are
numerous--eight millions now, and increasing rapidly. In physical
proportions they are stalwart and vigorous, inured to toil and
capable of great exertion. Their mental powers are quick and
susceptible of wide culture. Their capacity to acquire learning, even
in the higher branches, has been abundantly proved in the schools
they have attended.

The religious characteristics of the race are very marked; faith,
hope and love are leading traits. They endured a bondage that would
have crushed other races; their faith and hope never deserted them.
Their bitter experience in those long and weary years drove them to
God as their only source of help, and the "Slave Songs," with the sad
history out of which they grew, are among the most pathetic
utterances of patience, trust and triumphant hope that human
literature presents. So it was during the war, which was long and
sometimes of doubtful result, but they never lost their faith in
their ultimate deliverance. The Jew in his journey from bondage to
Canaan, often became despondent and murmured; the Negro never did
either.

Hear the Jew:

"Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us to die in
the wilderness?"

"Let us make a Captain and let us return into Egypt."

Hear the Negro, in the Slave Songs:

"Way over in the Egypt land,
You shall gain the victory.
Way over in the Egypt land,
You shall gain the day.
_March on_, and you shall gain the victory,
_March on_, and you shall gain the day."

Such a people are surely destined to develop a rich and beautiful
Christian life. If they should be specially trained, and their warm
hearts inspired, for the work of missionaries to Africa, who can
doubt the success of their efforts