has risen through the
positions of teacher, deacon, priest and rector, until he was
consecrated the Bishop of Cape Palmas in 1885, and has worthily
filled all these positions. The Church Missionary Society of London
refers to the remarkable career of Bishop Crowther, who was born in
Africa, put on board a slave ship, rescued, and landed at Freetown,
educated in Sierra Leone and in England, and at length entered his
chosen field on the Niger, reduced the language of the people to
writing, and preached the gospel to them in their native tongue. In
1861, there were reported to be 1,500 converts as the result of his
labors. He received the degree of D.D., from Oxford, England, and was
consecrated in 1864 African Bishop of the Niger. This society also
mentions others, one as possessing "special educational and
linguistic powers;" another as a "pastor and evangelist with
remarkable power and spiritual influence;" another as "a practical
organizer and administrator;" another as "very successful in
educational work," and it adds: "Many others have also shown
considerable power as educationists, pastors and evangelists."

From all these facts, the inferences are plain:

1. That Negroes have succeeded in this work, and that those in
America can be prepared for it. They can endure the climate, find
ready access to the hearts of the people, and be eminently successful
in preaching the Gospel. They should have the best training for the
purpose, and great care should be exercised in selecting and sending
forth only those of good education, mature character, sound judgment
and unquestioned piety.

2. America owes it as a debt to them and to Africa that they be
furnished with the means for this training. The guilt of man-stealing
and of slavery can have no better atonement than by sending back to
Africa the sons of those stolen from those benighted shores, who
shall bring with them the light and blessing of civilization and
Christianity. England, too, having had a share in introducing slavery
into America, should take its share in making this atonement.

3. The colored people of America should be aroused to this
providential call to this high mission in behalf of their fatherland.
We do not question nor minify their great duty and destiny in
America. Their warm affections, their easily kindled zeal, their gift
of song and eloquence, will yet add an enriching pathos to our piety,
and a wider range to our patriotism. But this call t