On the lap of American civilization, and around the altars of this Christian land, have been born the moral elements of civil and Christian power, ordained by heaven for the redemption of Africa.  For the last 2,000 years, that wretched land of mystery and crime has been abandoned to the cupidity of most cruel barbarism, surpassing in degradation, guilt and woe, all other nations of the earth.  Pre-eminently high on the page of prophetic scripture is chronicled in most unequivocal language the name and future redemption of Africa.  For twelve centuries the problem “how shall Africa be redeemed?” has been unsolved, although earnestly sought for by the civil and religious powers of Europe; but in every instance it has been in vain, and the cloud of her wretchedness blackened on each failure.  Mysterious and inscrutable are the ways of Providence to accomplish her restoration, lift her from the jaws of death, bind her as a jewel to the throne of righteousness, and give her a place among the civilized nations of mankind.  God in his pity, wisdom and goodness, has opened the way for a part of her crushed children, predoomed by bloody superstitions to altars of death, to be delivered from immolation and find an asylum under a form of ameliorated service in the bosom of this country; and here their children have been born, elevated and blessed under redeeming auspices.  In the lapse of time, by the same benevolent providence, many of this people have become free, and to such the voice of heaven emphatically speaks, thundering forth in invigorating terms, “Arise and depart for this is not your rest.”

This makes us bold in saying that emigration is the only medium by which the long closed doors of that continent are to be opened; by her own children’s returning, bearing social and moral elements of civil and religious power, by which that continent is to be resuscitated, renovated and redeemed.

Thirty-one years ago the first emigrant ship that ever sailed eastward from these shores to Africa, conveying to that dark land a missionary family of some two hundred souls—­her own returning children, enriched with the more enduring treasures of the western world; there by them on the borders of that continent, overshadowed with the deepest gloom, were raised the first rude temples of civilization—­the first halls of enlightened legislation—­the first Christian altars to the worship of Almighty God that have ever proved successful, or of any permanent, practical utility.  Then and there arose the long promised light, the star of hope to the benighted millions of Africa.  Since that day the star has risen higher and higher, the light extended along the coast and reaching far back towards the mountains of the Moon, radiating, elevating and purifying; and to-day we behold a nation born on the western coast of Africa, respected, prosperous and happy.  Here then is practically and beautifully solved,