m this stewardship, that it was difficult for those who were
intrusted with it to enter into his spiritual kingdom; that these had no
right to conceal their talent in a napkin, but that they were bound to
dispense a portion of it to the relief of their fellow-creatures; and
that, in proportion to the magnitude of it, they were accountable for
the extensiveness of its use. He was the first who pronounced the
misapplication of it to be a crime, and to be a crime of no ordinary
dimensions. He was the first who broke down the boundary between Jew and
Gentile, and, therefore, the first who pointed out to men the
inhabitants of other countries, for the exercise of their philanthropy
and love. Hence a distinction is to be made both in the principle and
practice of charity, as existing in ancient or in modern times. Though
the old philosophers, historians, and poets, frequently inculcated
benevolence, we have no reason to conclude from any facts they have left
us, that persons in their days did anything more than occasionally
relieve an unfortunate object, who might present himself before them, or
that, however they might deplore the existence of public evils among
them, they joined in associations for their suppression, or that they
carried their charity, as bodies of men, into other kingdoms. To
Christianity alone we are indebted for the new and sublime spectacle, of
seeing men going beyond the bounds of individual usefulness to each
other; of seeing them associate for the extirpation of private and
public misery; and of seeing them carry their charity, as a united
brotherhood, into distant lands. And in this wider field of benevolence
it would be unjust not to confess, that no country has shone with more
true lustre than our own, there being scarcely any case of acknowledged
affliction, for which some of her Christian children have not united in
an attempt to provide relief.

Among the evils corrected or subdued, either by the general influence of
Christianity on the minds of men, or by particular associations of
Christians, the African[A]. Slave Trade appears to me to have occupied
the foremost place. The abolition of it, therefore, of which it has
devolved upon me to write the history, should be accounted as one of the
greatest blessings, and as such should be one of the most copious
sources of our joy: indeed, I know of no evil, the removal of which
should excite in us a higher degree of pleasure. For, in considerations
o