It should not be forgotten either, that in Paul’s masterly discussion of the doctrine of sin,—­the fall of man,—­he always refers to Adam as the “one man” by whom sin came into the world.[9] His Epistle to the Romans abounds in passages which prove very plainly the unity of mankind.  The Acts of the Apostles, as well as the Gospels, prove the unity we seek to establish.

But there are a few who would admit the unity of mankind, and still insist that the Negro does not belong to the human family.  It is so preposterous, that one has a keen sense of humiliation in the assured consciousness that he goes rather low to meet the enemies of God’s poor; but it can certainly do no harm to meet them with the everlasting truth.

In the Gospel of Luke we read this remarkable historical statement:  “And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus."[10] By referring to the map, the reader will observe that Cyrene is in Libya, on the north coast of Africa.  All the commentators we have been able to consult, on the passage quoted below, agree that this man Simon was a Negro,—­a black man.  John Melville produced a very remarkable sermon from this passage.[11] And many of the most celebrated pictures of “The Crucifixion,” in Europe, represent this Cyrenian as black, and give him a very prominent place in the most tragic scene ever witnessed on this earth.  In the Acts of the Apostles we have a very full and interesting account of the conversion and immersion of the Ethiopian eunuch, “a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship."[12] Here, again, we find that all the commentators agree as to the nationality of the eunuch:  he was a Negro; and, by implication, the passage quoted leads us to the belief that the Ethiopians were a numerous and wealthy people.  Candace was the queen that made war against Augustus Caesar twenty years before Christ, and, though not victorious, secured an honorable peace.[13] She reigned in Upper Egypt,—­up the Nile,—­and lived at Meroe, that ancient city, the very cradle of Egyptian civilization.[14]

“In the time of our Saviour (and indeed from that time forward), by Ethiopia was meant, in a general sense, the countries south of Egypt, then but imperfectly known; of one of which that Candace was queen whose eunuch was baptized by Philip.  Mr. Bruce, on his return from Abyssinia, found in latitude 16 deg. 38’ a place called Chendi, where the reigning sovereign was then a queen; and where a tradition existed that a woman, by name Hendaque (which comes as near as possible to the Greek name [Greek:  Chandake]), once governed all that country.  Near this place are extensive ruins, consisting of broken pedestals and obelisks, which Bruce conjectures to be those of Meroe, the capital of the African Ethiopia,