e both ministers and
reside in Boston, were confused in this comment. The one, who had
recently been South, but who did not preach the sermon, was read a
severe lecture, because after partaking of the hospitality of the
Southern people, he had spoken in so severe terms of them. It was an
amusing blunder, but illustrates the fact that more and more even the
Southern editor is coming to feel the importance of Northern criticism.
It is a very hopeful sign. It is sometimes said that time will settle
these monstrous inequalities that prevail in the South, but time never
settles anything. Mischievous forces only increase in power, the longer
they are permitted to operate. There must be set in operation
beneficent forces, in order to make the element of time useful.
Agitation is needed, patriotic, prayerful agitation, and such united
effort as was made in these Boston pulpits, helps in this agitation.

The new book which comes from the pen of G.W. Cable, under the title
of "The Negro Question," puts old truth in a new dress, and renders it
more attractive and presentable. If any man has the right to write
upon this "Negro Question," it is Mr. Cable. If I had to prepare a
liturgy for the Congregational churches, I would put in it the
following petition: "From the superficial views and misleading
statements of tourists through the South, or those who reside in a
single locality, good Lord, deliver us!" Mr. Cable is not of either of
these classes. He speaks from an intimate acquaintance with, and a
long residence in, the South; better than this, he is familiar with
the whole territory, and not with a single locality simply. This
little book ought to be in the hands of every conscientious student of
this Southern problem. Take a single quotation:

"To be governed merely by instincts is pure savagery. All civilization
is the result of subordinating instinct to reason, and to the
necessities of peace, amity and righteousness. To surrender to
instinct, would destroy all civilization in three days. If, then, the
color-line is the result of natural instincts, the commonest daily
needs of the merest civilization require that we should ask ourselves,
is it better or worse to repress or cherish this instinct, and this
color-line?" There are forces at work, regenerative and ennobling, that
will lead the Southern white people to be ashamed of their attitude
toward the Negroes, and not the least of these are the life and works
of Mr. Cable