RELIGIOUS 
 
 p. H w 
 
 •» 
 
 x5o 
 
 INSTBUCTIGN 
 
 Of THE 
 
 
 
 NEGROES. 
 
 - 0 -. 
 
 An Address delivered before the General Assembly of 
 tbe Presbyterian Church, at Augusta, Ga., December 
 10,1801, 
 
 BY REV, a, C'JONER, D, D, 
 
 " ' 1 > i ' **/ — ^ -- 
 
 PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 EICHMOND: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 The meeting of the Assembly this evening on Domestic 
 Missions, beloved brethren, is but a continuation of the 
 meeting of last evening on foreign Missions. The work of 
 Domestic and Foreign Missions is one Work, namely': the 
 evangelization of the world by the Church, under the com¬ 
 mission of her Divine Head, « Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel unto ev«ry creature.’’’ For the sake of 
 distinction, and a wholesome distribution of labor,.all the 
 world lying within the boundaries of our Confederacy, ex¬ 
 cept the Indian Territory—which we have given to the for¬ 
 eign Held, and of which we shall make no mention at all in 
 our remarks—we denominate and cultivate as the domestic 
 field ; and all tbe world lying without, we denominate and 
 cultivate as the foreign field. 
 
 The domestic field is very extensive. The area of our 
 
Cl 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES'. 
 
 newly born and noblie Confederacy, embracing thirteen sot-* 
 erkign and independent States, covers 842,108 square miles, 
 and if we add the Indian Territory, 1,029,108 sqU’ar miles,, 
 (aspming pur, published tables to be correct,) and to which 
 we shall add, in the course of time, and that time not faf 
 distant, we trust, the gallant, but now betrayed and fetter¬ 
 ed State of Maryland. And our area will without doubt 
 be hereafter further enlarged by the coming in of some of 
 the Territories now upon onr binders. 
 
 The Confederacy lies happily between the extreme cold 1 
 of the North, and the extreme heat of the South, and en 
 joys generally as salubrious a climate as any breadth of 
 land of like size on the earth. It is rich in mb eral re¬ 
 sources, embraces every variety of soil, and produces the 
 substantial grams of wheat, rice, and Indnn corn, in suf¬ 
 ficient quantity not only for home consumption, but also 
 for export, together with the great staples of cotton, hemp, 
 tobacco, and s’’gar, which have become essential to the ex¬ 
 changes of traffic, and the commerce and comfort of the 
 vtorld. From the fruitful and generous bosom of these Con¬ 
 federate States the multitudes of the North and West of 
 the old United States have annually gathered, not their 
 gleanings, but their harvests of wealth. 
 
 We can only estimate the present population of the tlfi-r- 
 teen Confederate States, for the census of 1800 is sealed 
 from us, being locked up in Washington, and which we may 
 not learn, until the present unjust war waged against us by 
 the Federal States is at an end. But knowing that the past 
 ten years have been years of general health and prosperity 
 to our country, we may safely estimate, upon the rates of 
 increase of past decades, our present population at 8,000,000 
 whites, and 4,000,000 blacks, in round numbers, and a total 
 
ItEUlGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 3 
 
 population of 12,000,000. And yet such is the extent of 
 our country that we do not average more than from four¬ 
 teen to lifteen inhabitants to the square mile, and dan, con¬ 
 sequently, without the slightest inconvenience, accommo¬ 
 date a population of treble out* present number. These 
 present and coming millions of our people form our domes¬ 
 tic missionary field; and while the Gospel is preachedfrcm 
 one end of the land to the other, there are in various parts, 
 and upon our frontiers especially, great spiritual destitu¬ 
 tions, that require the united and vigorous eforts of all de¬ 
 nominations together to reach and to supply them. 
 
 One feature in the domestic field demands special con¬ 
 sideration, and prompt, and unremitting, and Universal at¬ 
 tention. Our social constitution as a nation is uncommon. 
 Over all our land, from the Chesapeake on the North to the 
 Rio .Grande on the South, and from the Atlantic ocean to 
 the Olfo and Missouri rivers, there is dispersed and settled 
 in intimate connection with the whites, the negroes of Africa; 
 the two varieties forming our population, in the proportion 
 of one negro to every three or four whites; arid the relation 
 between the two is t hat of master and slave. I omit any sep¬ 
 arate consideration of the free negro population, which 
 ranges at the present time between 100,000 and 170,000, 
 for, from their po-ition in society and association, they 
 necessarily fall in with bond-servants in their religious in¬ 
 struction. 
 
 Now that we arc happily separated from the frde States, 
 our great and increasing population of negroes, for special 
 reasons I shall not stay to mention, fads exclusively under 
 the care of the Churches of Christ in the Confederacy,and 
 under ours among the rest. Over two hundred years ago, 
 Africans were first landed on our shores j for you remember 
 
4 
 
 fcfctfGIOUS tNSTRbcflOk tiE fflF. ftEGRbfeS; 
 
 that as far back as 1501, Isabella of Spain, by grant, per¬ 
 mitted the introduction of negro slates into Hispaniola; 
 and from that time the traffic in them went increasingly on 
 in Europe till 1562~ , 3 ; when England, our mother country* 
 entered into it, just forty five years bemre the first perma¬ 
 nent settlement was made in her American colonies, which 
 was at Jamestown, Vas, in 1607 ; and thirteen years after, 
 in 1620, a Dutch man-of-war landed twenty negroes for sale 
 in the colony of Virginia, on James river, which determines 
 the epoch of their introduction into the colonies; after 
 which they were gradully introduced without exception 
 into all the thirteen colonies; but, for the most part, con¬ 
 trary to the wishes of the colonists; The traffic in slaves 
 being established, many colonists themselves engaged in it, 
 and none with more avidity, pertinacity, and profit than the 
 people in the Northern colonies. 
 
 The negroes were introduced for service, and have been 
 held to service ever since; and, although recognized and 
 protected ip law as persons, neither in the condition of 
 slaves nor of free negroes have they eVer been admitted to 
 the rights ahd privileges of citizenship. In the course of 
 one hundred and fifty-six years, from 1620 to 1776, the year 
 of the Declaration of Independence, by importation and by 
 natural increase, they had reached in numbers some five 
 hundred thousand, or about one-sixth of the white popula¬ 
 tion ; and that proportion between the two continued, tak¬ 
 ing the whole country together, until the immense influx 
 of foreigners of late years has thrown the proportion in fa¬ 
 vor of the whites several figures higher. You will remem¬ 
 ber also that the African slave trade was finally prohibited 
 and brought to a close by the old United States Govern¬ 
 ment in 1808, and, consequently, .our present negro popula- 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 5 
 
 tion is country-born, with only here and there an aged one, 
 in form and features, and in broken English, to testify the 
 common origin of all. Our own Confederate Congress with 
 wisdom and virtue passed an act prohibiting the slave trade, 
 which act is now incorporated into our Constitution: and 
 our negro population will to our great comfort, be country 
 born in all time to come. 
 
 The natural increase of the negroes under a genial cli- 
 mate and mild treatment, has kept pace with that of the 
 whites, but not exceeded it, and that increase will continue, 
 although for good reasons the white population will make 
 the disparity of numbers between the two classes greater 
 and greater at every census. 
 
 With few and insignificant exceptions, (nearly all of which 
 occurred in the early days of our colonies, and grew out of 
 peculiar circumstances,) no laboring class in any country 
 has remained throughout its existence more quiet, obedient, 
 and peacefully associated with their superiors than our ne¬ 
 gro population, which is an interesting feature in their his¬ 
 tory worthy of remembrance. 
 
 Whence came this people? Originally from the kraals and 
 jungles, the cities and villages of the torrid regions of Af¬ 
 rica, wonderfully adapted by constitution and complexion 
 to live and thrive in similar latitudes in all the world. 
 
 They are inkabiters of one common earth with us; they 
 are one of the varieties of our race.—a variety produced by 
 the power and in the inscrutable wisdom of God; but when, 
 and how, and where, lies back of all the traditions and re¬ 
 cords of men. These sons of Ham are black in the first 
 hieroglyphics; they are black in the first pages of history, 
 and continue to be black. They share our physical nature, 
 and are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; they share 
 
6* RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 our intellectual and spiritual nature; each body of them 
 covers an immortal soul, whom God our Father loves, for 
 whom Chii't our Saviour died, and unto whom everlasting 
 happiness or misery shall be meted in the final day. They 
 are not the cattle upon a thousand hills, nor the fowls upon 
 the mountains, brute beasts, goods and chatties to be taken 
 and worn out and destroyed in our use; but they are men, 
 created in the image of God, to be acknowledged and cared 
 for spiritually by us, as we acknowledge and care for the 
 other varieties of the race, our own Caucasian, or the In¬ 
 dian, or the Mongol. Shall we reach the Br-ad of Life 
 over their heads to far distant nations, and leave them to 
 die eternal deaths before our eyes? 
 
 What is their social connection with us? They are not 
 enemies but friends; they are not foreigners, but our near¬ 
 est neighbors; they are not hired servants, but servants be¬ 
 longing to us in law and gospel; born in our house, and 
 bought with our money ; not people whom we seldom see, 
 and whom we seldom hear, but people who are never out 
 of the light of our eyes nor the hearing of our ears. They 
 are our constant and inseparable associates ; whither we go, 
 they go; where we dwell, they dwell; w lie re we die and 
 are buried, there they die and are buried; and more than 
 all, our God is their God. What parts men mo»t closely 
 connected in this life from each other, that only can part 
 us from them; namely: crime, or debt, or death. Indeed, 
 they are with us from the cradle to the giavc. Maiiy of us 
 are nur.-ed at their generous breasts, and all carried in their 
 arms They help to make us walk, they help to make us 
 talk, they help to teach us to di>tingui>h the first things 
 we i'ee, and the first sounds we hear. They mingle in all 
 our infantile and boyish sports, they are in our chambers, 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OT THE NEGROES. .7 
 
 •and in our parlor*, and serve us at every call. We say to 
 this man go, and lie goeth; and to another come, and he 
 ©ometh; and t© another do this, and he doeth it; they are 
 with «s in the house and in the field.; they are with us 
 when we travel on the land and on the sea ; and when we 
 are ©ailed to face dangers, or pestilence, or war, still are 
 they with ns; they patiently nurse us and ours in long 
 alights and days of illness; our fortunes are their fortunes; 
 and out joys are their joys; and our sorrows are their sor¬ 
 rows ; and among the last forms that our failing eyes do 
 see, and among the last sounds our ears do hear, are their 
 •forms and their weepings, mingled with those of our dear¬ 
 est ones, as they bend over us in our last struggles, dying, 
 passing away into the valley of the shadow of death ! My 
 •brethren, are these people no* king to us? Have we i© 
 gratitude, no friendship, no kind feelings for all they have 
 •done for «s and for ours? Have we no heart to feel, no hand 
 
 m ' 
 
 to lielp, no smiles to give, no tears to shed on their .behalf, 
 no wish in your inmost soul that they ma 3 r know what you 
 price above all price, your previous Saviour, and go with 
 you to gluey, too ? 
 
 What is their value as an integral part of our population , 
 to ourselves, to our country, and to ’he world itself ? To out¬ 
 sells they are the source in large measure of our living, a id 
 •comprise our wealth, in Scripture our “ money.” Our boat¬ 
 men are they on the waters; our mechanics and artizans to 
 build our houses, to work in many trades ; our agricultural¬ 
 ists to subdue our forests, to sow, and cultivate, and reap 
 our land-; without whom no team is started, no plough is 
 run, no spade, n«*r hoe, nor axe is driven; they prepare our 
 food, and wait about out* tables and our persons, and keep 
 ike house, and wat.eh fur their master’s coming. They la- 
 
« 
 
 & KICM'GIQUS IKSTR UCTION OF - THIS NEGROES.. 
 
 bor for us in summer’s suns and m winter’s cold; to ths- 
 fruit o£ their labor we owe ©«r education, our fuod, and 
 clothing, and our dwellings, and a thousand comforts of life 
 that crowd our happy homesand through the fruit of their 
 labor we are enabled to support the Gospel,, and enjoy alt 
 the priceless means of grace.. Brethren, what could we do. 
 without this peopled how live, how support our families?. 
 And have thay no claims upon us? Are they nothing more 
 than creatures of profit and of pleasure ? Are the advan¬ 
 tages and blessings of that close connection between us in 
 the household to be all on one side?' Idas our Master in¬ 
 heaven so- ordained it?' I will reverse the question of the 
 apostle to the ©orinthians,. and put it into the mouth ofT 
 your servants, and make them ask it of you their masters.. 
 Hear them If we have sown unto y©u carnal things, is it a 
 a great thing if we shall reap your spiritual things V 1 And 
 you can answer that question to God and to your own con¬ 
 sciences., And what is their 'value to our country and to the 
 world ? They constitute the great bulk of our agricultural- 
 population, and the immense returns of our soil come from, 
 their patient labors; labors which furnished three-fourths- 
 of the exports of the old United States, and brought three- 
 fourths of the revenue into the national treasury.. They 
 were the mainspring, the mighty power that set and kept 
 in motion, year after year, the unexampled and ever increas¬ 
 ing wealth and prosperity of the whole country. The fruits, 
 of their labors sharpened the inventive facult ies of men to de¬ 
 vise machines and machinery to work them up, to build vil¬ 
 lages, towns, and even cities, to make room for their manu¬ 
 facture and sale, to project internal improvements, to hicili- 
 tate transportation, and give circulation to the great traffic 
 they called into, beings Trades and. manufactures of every 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES* 
 
 9 
 
 description swarmed in particular sections of the country, 
 giving support to hundreds of thousands of our ciiizens, to 
 supply the various wants of this people and their owners* 
 By the product of their labors they have not only, to an 
 immense extent, created the commerce of our own country, 
 but largely increased that of the world. The ocean wash¬ 
 ing our shores is kept hoary with the ploughing of vessels, 
 passing up and down; every sea is whitened with sails, and 
 the heavens over them darkened wLh the smoke of the 
 swift ships steering to the four corners of the earth. By 
 their labors they furnish the most valuable and imperisha¬ 
 ble staple for mercantile exchanges ever known in the an¬ 
 nals of commerce; and there are millions of the population 
 of foreign nations, men, women, and children, dependent 
 upon the supply ot this staple for their daily bread- For 
 every bale of cotton grown on our soil Great Biitain can 
 show one, and even more than one, of heF population de¬ 
 pendent upon that article for support. What a disaster in 
 the world of trade would the sudden stoppage of the labors 
 of this people produce? You cannot now subtract from 
 the business of the civilized world 4,000,000 of laboring 
 people from any part of its surface, whose loss would be so 
 severely felt as the 4,000,000 of negroes in these Confede¬ 
 rate States. No more useful class to the material interests 
 of mankind now lives on the earth. What a wonderful fact 
 in the providence of God, 
 
 Behold then the value of our laboring class. They form 
 no mean portion of our body politic. They play no mean 
 part in the affairs of our country and of the world. Is the 
 moral and religious condition of so important a people of 
 little consequence, when their value in all the relations and 
 labors of life is enhanced in proportion to the purity of 
 
10 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF TIIE NEGROES. 
 
 their morals and the fervency of their piety? Shall we not 
 justly and gratefully cause them to share in the blessings 
 of that Gospel wLich we make known to all ? Would it not 
 be a national sin, crying to God for judgment, if our churches 
 neglect them. 
 
 But, brethren, to bring our subject to a point. Why have 
 the negroes been sent 'into our country at all ? For wlmt pur¬ 
 pose ? To be our servants, our support and source of wealth 
 and comfort? to develop© th*‘ vast agricultural resources of 
 our land ? to stimulate the industry and enterprise, and add 
 to the support and comfort, and prosperity of the nation 
 and of the world ? No doubt He who sees the end from the 
 beginning included all these benevolent results in assigning 
 them their settlement here. But is this all. Who. my 
 brethren, caii assert, who can believe, that nothin? more is 
 to be seen in the Divine purposes? Does our Heavenly 
 Father ever torget the spiritual interests of men ? Beyond 
 these worldly purposes, there was the purpose (and we say 
 there was the purpose, for we see it fulfilled and fulfilling.) 
 of advancing the civilization and salvation of the negroes, 
 tLrough the Gospel of Ills Son. lie permitted, in Ilis in¬ 
 scrutable provu’en e, men, in their ii.satiuble avarice, at 
 immense sacrifices and sufferings, to collect and bring the 
 negroes from their native continent to ours, and overruled 
 it with all its ev Is for good, by precipitating a nation of itn- 
 bruted, enslaved, and wretched heathen into the very lap 
 of Christianity. In this strange work, the command to the 
 Church, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
 to every creature,” is stayed; nay, turned backward, and 
 the Lord has caused the heathen to come to us, and learn 
 our language, and manners and customs, and live with us, 
 that they might more easily, and speedily, and constantly 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 11 
 
 hear of the Saviour’s love, and believe and live 5 and it has 
 been overruled to this blessed end. Since their coming, 
 Ethiopia has stretched out her hands to God, yea, to the 
 Saviour on the cross, and thousands and tens of thousands 
 have been going lo! for these two hundred years, in com¬ 
 pany with their teachers and owners to people the celestial 
 city, the land of rest, which Jesus has purchased and pre¬ 
 pared for II is people. Praise God in the earth, and praise 
 Him in the heavens, for IIis wonderful works of mercy to 
 the children of men. 
 
 Has the Church from the beginning recognized this good 
 purpose of God , and fulfilled her duty to the negroes ? Par¬ 
 tially only. And this is evident from their moral and reli- 
 gious condition, and from the little, camparatively speaking, 
 that we are doing for them. And what is their moral and 
 religious condition? The negroes have been termed the 
 heathen of our land, but the universal absence among them 
 of all foims of idolatry, and the adoption of the Christian 
 religion as their religion, prove that they are not a Heathen 
 people. We should avoid extreme statements 011 this sub¬ 
 ject. While not heathen, they are in the mass a degraded 
 people in their morality; and this you know from your own 
 long and close observation of them in all the relations which 
 they bear to their owners, and to each other, and to the 
 Church of God, as well as I do; and they are also in the 
 mass an ignorant and weak people in their religion,and with 
 this fact also you are as well acquainted as I am. They are 
 almost totally an unlettered people, and without access to 
 the written Word of God, being dependent for whatever 
 knowledge they obtain, above the traditionary knowledge 
 cf life, upon intercourse with their superiors; and for reli¬ 
 gious knowledge, upon the oral instructions of some of the 
 
12 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 more favored of their own color, and upon the oral instruc¬ 
 tions of their owners and white pastors and missionaries, 
 which instruction falls far short of their necessities. And 
 yet it amazes one after all to know the extent to which the 
 knowledge of the way of salvation is diffused among them, 
 Multitudes are members of our different evangelical denom¬ 
 inations. All estimates of the actual number can be but 
 approximation; one estimate is from 250,000 to 300,000, 
 and allowing for spuribus conversions, there will bo a large 
 rem inder of hopefully converted me'. And one reason 
 why the knowledge of religion is so diffused among them, 
 and professors are found almost everywhere is, that they 
 preach the Gospel to each other —the poor preach the Gospel 
 to the poor; so that to your surprise, in visiting districts 
 supplied only at long intervals with preaching, you discover 
 here and there people who profess to believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, whose conversation is Christian, and whose 
 lives, according to the testimony of t heir neighbors, are Chris¬ 
 tian, and some of them remarkably so. Why is this ? No 
 man need wonder that knows the power of the love of 
 Christ in the heart of man, When you felt the power of 
 that love in your soul, and embraced Christ as the One al¬ 
 together lovely, did not your soul go out in longings that 
 your dear family, and friends, and neighbors, and in short 
 the whole world, might know the precious Saviour too?— 
 And did you not in your humble zeal try to recommend 
 Him to them ? and did j T ou not feel the love of souls in 
 your inmost heart? You have that law abiding in 3 -our 
 heart still. Religion is the same in the black man that ft 
 is in you. He has felt his sins as you have, he has seen the 
 Lord by faith as you have, he has rejoiced in hope of escape 
 from the wrath to come through Him as you have; and, 
 
fcfctiGIOtrS t&SffctJCTfttN OF THE HEGROES. 13 
 
 bred with love as you have been, he has gone forth into the 
 prayer-meeting, and into the family, ard into the highways 
 and hedges, aud tried to call sinners to repentance, and to 
 'compel them to come into the Gospel-feast, and this has 
 been the work of godly women as well as of godly men.—* 
 Nor have they neglected to instruct their own children by 
 times, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of 
 the Lord, and make their families Christian families; Ler-> 
 vent, active piety is confined to no nation nor condition of 
 men, and it is by Christians diffusing religion around them 
 in their several spheres of life, that the leaven leavens the 
 whole lump* 
 
 The negroes flow need as a class faith-ul, and continued 
 and universal religious instruction, and the grand practical 
 question is, how shall we as a Church communicate it to 
 them t 
 
 That instruction casts itself into two departments : first, 
 private and then public. Private instruction is that which is 
 communicated by owners. If you plead the patriarchal re¬ 
 lation, then should you discharge your duty as a patiiarch, 
 not only “commanding your children,’’ but your “ house¬ 
 hold also after you,” and they shall keep the way of the 
 Lord to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring 
 upon you that which He has promised to His faithful peo¬ 
 ple. You are responsible for both children and servants_ 
 
 Gather, therefore,your servants about your house to family 
 worship, night and morning; read the Scriptures; explain 
 them if you will; sing praises to God, and pour out your 
 prayers before Him. Your servants will receive instruc¬ 
 tion and blessing. “ But I cannot get them to attend ; at 
 least they attend very irregularly.” And pray whose fault 
 Is it'? If you are not able to govern your -servants, you 
 
14 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 ought, not to own them. Why do you not make them at-< 
 tend, as you do your children ? Lay it down as a rule, per¬ 
 manent and not to be violated, that when, as the head of 
 your family, 3 ’ou ring your bell for family Worship, innt e-*' 
 diately after slipper or tea, (the best time, for the children 
 and servants are all awake and at Land.) all wotk of every 
 kind throughout the house stops, and every one Comes into 
 prayers. And let the same rule obtain for morning wor¬ 
 ship, immediately before your breakfast is brought in. You 
 will enforce this just rule but a short time before no one in 
 your family will be conscious of its existence, and your ser¬ 
 vants, with the rest, will be rea-ly, and take their place?, 
 morning and evening, with quietness and regularity. What 
 a loose jointed and unchristian association is a family, whose 
 servants, at the hour of Worship, are scattered in and about 
 the house, attending to various duties, in a noisy manner 
 posting from room to room, slamming doors, or rattling 
 crockerj', or bringing in meals ! The regular at endanre of 
 your servants at famity worship is of more importance than 
 many imagine; it establishes the worship of God in the 
 family, and gives it precedence before a’l things else ; irm 
 presses the servants with reverence for God and for their 
 master; and a happy moral and religious influence flows 
 down through the entire household. 
 
 Next must follow plantation prayers and instruction. A 
 comfortable room or chapel should be provided and conse¬ 
 crated for the purpose, where your people may assemble 
 for worship two or three or more evenings in the week, as 
 they may arrange among themselves; and where you, as 
 head of your household, may meet them one or more even¬ 
 ings in the week for religious instruction, even if .you do 
 not cairy that instruction beyond reading the Scriptures, 
 
tlELIRIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGftOEiS. 15 
 
 ami ringing and praying with them ; only be you regular 
 and fervent in so doing. In this room or chapel marriages 
 may be solemnized, and funeral services performed. And 
 liere you may meet the church members from time to time 
 for special instruction, or prayer fora revival, and such per-' 
 sons as are under serious impressions and need your careful 
 instruction. And here also you may invite any kind, way¬ 
 faring minister to preach a sermon to your family and peo u 
 pie, when he tarries a night with you, and so enable him to 
 fulfill the ccmmand, “ As ye go, preach,” and to feel happy 
 that he has not been burdensome to you, “ for the workman 
 is worthy of his meat.” This is the true way to show hos-* 
 pitality to ministers. 
 
 Establish, m addition, that indispensable aid to plantar 
 lion instruction, the plantation Sunday-school for the child* 
 ren and youth, and for all adults who choose to connect 
 themselves with it. Assemble the school every Sabbath 
 afternoon or evening, and as frequently in the week as you 
 please to do soconduct it on the infant school plan, ques¬ 
 tioning and instructing all together from the Scriptures and 
 catechisms ; or avail yourself of the help of your good wife, 
 who will always second your efforts j perhaps she will pre¬ 
 fer to take the charge of the school, and relieve you alto- 1 - 
 gether; or you mtly put it under the care of your pious 
 daughter or son. Experience proves plantation Sabbath- 
 schools to be of great and lasting value, for they exert a 
 happy influence upon the active piety of the owner and of 
 his family; they civilize the children and youth, and they 
 christianize them, and save their souls. They have made 
 rough plantations to bud and blossom with the fruits of 
 righteousness. 
 
 To crown all your private instruction, exhibit a consistent 
 
16 fefttl&Itttft iNSTfetJCTlrtN OF fHfe ftfcGkfcES. 
 
 Christian example before your people, and govern and COtt* 
 duct all the operationsand affairs of your plantation on Chris¬ 
 tian principles 5 converse with them as occasion offers on the 
 momentous interests of their souls; secure the Sabbath to * 
 them as the day of sacred rest, given to them by the Lord; 
 protect them in person, in family, and in their interests-, 
 from the wicked and prodigate; be righteous and just in re¬ 
 wards and punishments ; correct them for sins against God 
 as well as against yourself, as you do your children, and save 
 their souls from destruction. Look well to their food and 
 raiment, and lodging, and to all their wants in sickness and 
 in health, from their youth even unto their old age; sym¬ 
 pathize in their joys and in their sorrow's; “ live and let 
 live” in the exaction of yoilr labors and duties; for if you 
 neglect, pinch, and grind, and drive, and be an extortioner 
 over them, until their very countenances, and dress, and 
 spirit show how badly you treat them, your prayers and in¬ 
 structions will do them no good, but rather prove you to be 
 much of a hypocrite, and add toyoiir greater condemnation. 
 On the contrary, demonstrate by good wrorks your faith and 
 charity, commending all to God^s grace and mercy, and you 
 will, though often discouraged, reap the good fruits of your 
 efforts. 
 
 For the ‘public religious instruction of the negroes, we rely 
 in the first place mainly, if not almost entirely, upon our 
 ■settled pastors and stated supplies. Upon them the great 
 burden of the wmrk now falls, and W*ill ever fall ; by them 
 the work must be done, or the spiritual wants of the ne¬ 
 groes remain unsupplied. It is impossible to perform the 
 work by missionaries, for missionaries cannot be supplied in 
 sufficient numbers, and were it possible to do so, where are 
 the funds to be obtained for their support 1 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES* 
 
 17 
 
 Let it be repeated again and again: The pastors, the pas¬ 
 tors are the laborers in this field. It cannot, it ought not 
 to be otherwise, from the very composition of our churches 
 and congregations. The} 7- are identical in composition with 
 those of the Old and New Testaments, embracing husbands 
 and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, and 
 be who accepts a pastoral charge, accepts whites and blacks 
 togeth'r. Husbands and masters call him, but cal! him for 
 their wives, their children and servants,as well as for them¬ 
 selves ; and the pastor who expends his labors among the 
 M'hites, to the entire or almost total neglect of the blacks, 
 is but half a pastor, and is laying up trouble and remorse 
 for the day when he gives accouut of the souls committed 
 to his care. Who would credit it without seeing it ? A 
 minister of the meek and lowly Jesus, whose characteristic 
 was that he “preached the Gospel to the poor,” settles 
 over a cosagreg&lion in town or country, having a® equal, if 
 not in some instances a® overwhelming majority of negroes 
 belonging to it, and preaches from year to year *o the 
 whites, and take3 no more notice cf the negroes (who from 
 habit or duty come to hear him) in his sermons, and adapts 
 them no more to their circumstances and capacity than if 
 no such beings were ever seen in the Lord’s house-—who 
 never troubles his head or heart about the poor, ignorant 
 creatures, who appoints no inquiry meeting for them, even 
 when the Spirit of God lias visited them, and they are in¬ 
 quiring the way of salvation, who knows not one colored 
 member of his church by name and person in ten; who 
 never has any service whatever expressly for their benefit; 
 who never baptizes a colored child; who never exerts him¬ 
 self to interest his officers and members in the instruction 
 
 <*f the negroes at home on the plantations, nor in establish- 
 
 B 
 
18 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 ing and continuing Sunday-scliools for them at the church 
 on the Sabbath day; in short, who has nothing more to do 
 with them than absolute necessity requires, namely, to at¬ 
 tend to their examination^ for admission, to admit them and 
 attend to their discipline, and reprimand or cast out the 
 poor offenders, and care for them no morel What is the 
 matter with such a minister? lias he no eyes to see, no 
 ears to hear, no mind to comprehend, no heart to feel 7— 
 Awful will be his meeting in the judgment day with this 
 portion of his charge. “Here are we, sir, look on us. We 
 know, if you do not know us prior servants, once and for 
 years under your pastoral charge.. But you never noticed 
 us, you never cared for our souls, you never made any ef¬ 
 forts to lead us to the Saviour, and here are we undone 
 through your unfaithfulness for all eternity.” And, alas l 
 the matter stops not heret what are we to think of the 
 white part off that minister’s charge, who permitted, and it 
 may be required him to act so ? who, in their selfishness 
 and deadness to duty, devoured the Bread of Life from 
 their servants all their days, and cast to them only now and 
 then the crumbs that fell from their tables l My brethren, 
 we ought never to take charge of any congregation in which 
 we would not have liberty of free and unlimited access to. 
 4be colored part of it, and of preaching and laboring for its 
 salvation to the full proportion, of time and effort justly due. 
 tnem. No affluence of salaiy, no comfort of parsonage, no 
 lofty towers ror buttressed walls, no Ci long-drawn aisles,” 
 nor “ fretted roofs,” no “ impressive grandeur,” nor elegance 
 of architecture in the sanctuary, no extent of intelligence, 
 nor elegance of refinemei t, nor abounding wealth among 
 the people, nor their friendship, nor their admiration, nor- 
 Ugh standing and position in the Church, should tempt ns. 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF TIIE NEGROES. 10 
 
 to neglect them. No, never!- What is.the chaff to tho 
 wheat ? 0, think of the coming of the Son of Man, before 
 
 whose face the heavens and the earth shall lice away, and 
 no place be found for them ! 0 think, ministers of God, we 
 
 watch for souls as they that must give account, imperisha¬ 
 ble souls, for whom the Lord of Glory died ! 
 
 Our pastors should use their best judgment, and distri¬ 
 bute their labors between the whites and blacks in just 
 proportion, preaching one part of the Sabbath to the whites 
 and the other part to the blacks, should they require so 
 much ol separate effort for t..eir instruction; and preach 
 on the plantations, in paying pastoral visits in country 
 charges. Give notice to the master on what evening you 
 will be with him, and that you will preach or lecture for 
 his family and household. Right gladly will he welcome 
 you: the family and plantation will be all ast.r, “ our min 
 ister is coming to preach for us this evening!” Tea isover^ 
 the time of meeting is at hand. The little children beg to 
 sit up to meeting, one servant takes the books and lights, 
 another the chairs, and another the stand—every thing is 
 mcely arranged, and you are directly in presence of bright 
 faces, and your psalm is sung with spirit and power, your 
 prayer and your sermon fall on many attentive ear=, and the 
 hearty thanks of your humble parishioners fill you with 
 gladness. At the close you will speak a few encouraging 
 words to the members of the church, and shake hands with 
 the aged, and perhaps step in to see some sick and afflicted 
 one. You will also inquire how well the children and you*h 
 attend the plantation Sunday-school, and if you do rot im¬ 
 part joy to that household, and go away a hsppVr Christian 
 and a more blest minister, we shall bid fere we.* J tc rears of 
 experience and ©> serration in this field of Cf great 
 
20 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 value are these plantation meetings; they carry religion 
 home to the people, and demonstrate your interest in them. 
 In their good efiects they are like a personal appeal; yon 
 preach in public to j r our congregation ; your hearers feel; 
 you bear many on your heart as you pray and preach, and 
 often from the pulpit direct a word to suit their case. The 
 next day you visit one in the retirement of his home, yru 
 take your seat by him, and putting your hand gently on his 
 knee, with tender interest you say to him, ‘My dear friend, 
 
 I feel much for your spiritual state, and I hope I have been 
 praying much for you; tell me how is it with your soul ? 
 your precious soul, for which the Saviour died ? Can I 
 help you ?” And so you continue to speak to him, and draw 
 out in confidence his feelings; he cannot resist. You kneel 
 down and pray with him, and when you retire he goes with 
 you to the door, and grasps your hand and says, “ My dear 
 sir, this is very kind, do not forget me, come and see me 
 again.” So with the servants on the plantation ; if you go 
 home that night, many will thank you, and beg you to 
 come again, and some will linger around your vehicle, or 
 hold jour stirrup and bless you as you move away, and the 
 next time you meet the master and the mistress, they will * 
 say to you, “ Do not let it be long before you come to see 
 us again, you do not know how much good your meeting 
 did to us and to our people, they have had a great deal to 
 say about it ever since.” 
 
 And, finally, the pastor should so preach the Word as' 
 not only to bring it within the comprehension of the ne¬ 
 groes, but also to add to their knowledge and keep them 
 improving therein. “But I cannot make them understand 
 me. I have no talent for this sort of labor.” If this sad 
 confession be true, then you are deficient in one of the es* 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 21 
 
 sential qualifications of a Scriptural bishop, “ aptness to 
 teach.” Did it never occur to you that the difficulty may¬ 
 be nearer } ? ourself than your weak-minded auditors? If a 
 man wishes to know how well he understands a subject, 1 t 
 him attempt to make it plain and simple. You may lack 
 a clear understanding of the history, the doctrine, or the 
 duty of the Word which you preach, and consequeitly fail 
 in enlightening the ignorant. How many sermons are la¬ 
 boriously prepared and written, and, after all, are listened 
 to but by a handful of men, the preacher shooting clear 
 over the heads of the bulk of the people. They come out 
 of the church in admirat ion : “ What a learned exposition l 
 what an able discourse ! what a great sermon!” And if 
 this comes to the ear of the preacher, he perhaps concludes 
 the judgment of the people to be correct, and that he is 
 preaching wonderfully well ! How are we instructed by the 
 apostle: “ Except ye utter by the tongue words to be easy 
 understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye 
 shall speak into the air! In the Church I had rather speak 
 five words with my understanding, so that 1 may be under¬ 
 stood, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand 
 words in an unknowu tongue,” in a language the people do 
 not comprehend. Much of our preaching does not reach 
 our congregations. How can any people be sanctified by 
 the Truth, unless } r ou put them in possession of the Truth? 
 Why bend the bow and put } T our arrow on the string if 
 you shoot above and beyond the mark ? Learn from the 
 great Teacher who came from God, for He is our example. 
 “The common people heard him gladly,” “a'l the people 
 were very attentive,” they hung upon Ilis lips “to hear 
 Him.” Look into His discourses, His parables, into His 
 expositions. You see the truth He would convey to the 
 
22 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 minds of Ilis hearers, as clearly as you can see any object 
 through a transparent atmosphere. The King’s arrows aro 
 sharp in the hearts of His enemies, and what is the result? 
 The people fall under Him. Be as learned and great and 
 able as you may, yet speak to the apprehension of the peo¬ 
 ple. Strike low upon the masses, and the arrows will tell, 
 and the people will believe and live. 
 
 We depend, in the second place, for the public instruc¬ 
 tion of the negioes upon missionaries. Their fields will lie 
 in districts populated thinly by whites, but thickly by ne¬ 
 groes; or in the cities, for the purpose of gathering the 
 negroes, bond and Iree, into congregations and cliurches; or 
 they will labor as assistants to ministers having a oharge of 
 whites and blacks so large as to require the services of two 
 ministers; and they will be emplo)edby the Assembly’s 
 Committee of Domestic Missions, or by Presbyteries, 
 or associations of planters, or by individual planters, or by 
 particular churches, as the case maybe; and their labors 
 will be more in quantity ; for they will have no other peo¬ 
 ple to minister unto, and the missionary will require no less 
 6 tudy, and variety, and pains-taking for the edification ard 
 improvement cf the blacks than will that pastor who min¬ 
 isters to the whites. lie may not use r. 11 his accomplish¬ 
 ments in the same form and to the same extent, yet he will 
 require them all. You need wise men, and nen of knowl¬ 
 edge, and men who continual!}’ grow in wisdom and knowl¬ 
 edge, to teach, and guide, and govern masses of ignorant 
 men and women and children, and for reasons so obvious 
 that I must be excused for not mentioning them. Let the 
 law of love reign in the heart of the missionary and gra¬ 
 cious words proceed from his lips, and, as under shepherd, 
 let him “ go about doing good,” in emulation of the great 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 23 
 
 and good Shepherd, and it. will not be long ere the sheep 
 will learn to know his voice, and they will follow him ; they 
 will follow him into the house of prayer upon the planta¬ 
 tion, into the liou'e of God upon the Sabbath day, into tho 
 Sunday school and prayer-meeting, and into the inquiry 
 meetings; they will follow his good example, and receive 
 the Word with all readiness of mind at his mouth; and 
 many will believe upon the Lord through his instrumen¬ 
 tality, and be his crown of rejoicing in that day. And as a 
 good shepherd he will follow them into the highways and 
 hedpes, into their own plantations, and into their own sick 
 chambers, and speak unto and pray with them. lie will 
 perform their marriage ceremonies, and attend their fune¬ 
 rals, and follow them to their graves, and go in and out be¬ 
 fore them, with the Bible in his hand, in the fear of the 
 Lord. He will become a star in the right hand of the Sa¬ 
 viour before them, and they will rejoice in his light, and 
 learn to sing his hymns and quote his precepts and author¬ 
 ity, and argue by his knowledge, and take him to be their 
 friend, and seek his instruction in their times of difficulty ? 
 and his comfort in their times of sorrow, and bring their 
 families to him for instruction and for his blessing; and 
 when they die, they will wish him to preach their funeral 
 sermon. He will he baf py with the people, and the people 
 will be happy with him; as much so as weak, sinful, and 
 partially sanctified ministers and people can be in this world 
 Whenever he meets them he speaks kind words, and re¬ 
 ceives kind words in return. He is not ashamed of them 5 
 and they are glad in him ; and when he rides along the 
 road, and they are at work in the field, he flings over the 
 fence among them a cheerful u good morning ; good morn¬ 
 ing to you all.” In a moment every eye is up, and they 
 
24 
 
 RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 catch liis voice and his person, and return his salutation with 
 a hearty good will, with rapid inquiries after his welfare, 
 and their loud and happy conversation dies on his ear as he 
 leaves them behind. 
 
 Yes, my brethren, there is a blessing in the work. How 
 often, returning home after preaching on the Sabbath-day, 
 through crowds of worshippers—sometimes singing as they 
 went down to their homes again ; or returning from plan¬ 
 tation meetings held in humble abodes, late in the star¬ 
 light night, or in the soft moonlight, silvering over the for 
 ests on the roadside, wet with the heavy dews, with scarce¬ 
 ly a sound to break the silence, alone but not lonely—how 
 often has there flowed up in the soul a deep, peaceful joy, 
 that God enabled me to preach the Gospel to the poor 1 — 
 And now that this earthly tabernacle trembles to its fall, 
 and these failing limbs can no more bear me about, nor this 
 tongue, as it was wont, preach the glad tidings of salvation, 
 I look back, and varied recollections crowd my mind and 
 my eyes grow dim with tears; I pray for gratitude for in¬ 
 numerable mercies past, for forgiveness for the chief of sin¬ 
 ners, and for the most unfaithful of ministries, for meek 
 submission for the present, and for an assured hope in a 
 precious Saviour for the future. Oh, my brethren, “ work 
 while the day lasts, for the night cometh in which no man 
 can work,” for the shadows of that night, even while the 
 day lasts, may fall upon you and stop you in your way, ere 
 its deep darkness shut around you in the cold grave, no 
 more to be removed, ti 1 the Son of Man shall come in flis 
 glory to the judgment of the great day. 
 
 The importance of the instruction of the negroes under 
 our present circumstances cannot be too highly estimated. 
 Is it too much to say that the stability and welfare of both 
 
RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE NEGROES. 
 
 25 
 
 Chnrcli and State depend largely upon it? My brethren, 
 the eyes of the civilized world are upon us. There are but 
 two other nations beside oui own that hold in their bosoms 
 the institution of slavery. Ponder that fact and the re¬ 
 sponsibilities involved in it'. None can come in from abroad 
 to relieve us. The negroes of the Confederate States are 
 thrown entirely upon the care of the churches of our Lord 
 within those States. The Christian wor d outside look to 
 us to do our duty, and, more than that, God our Saviour 
 looks to us to do our duty. You feel the weighty responsi¬ 
 bility ; you say by the help of God we must meet it, and 
 meet it in the very birthday of our existence as the Presby¬ 
 terian Church in the Confederate States of America. Then 
 let the Presbyterian Church in tl e Confederate States 
 awake and pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and put 
 on her strength ; ministers, elders and members, awake, 
 gird up your loins and quit yourselves like men. Our breth¬ 
 ren of other denominations v ill awake and act also; so that 
 we shall emulate each other’s zeal, and there shall be action 
 and re-action in all the Zion of God, and higher and higher* 
 shall rise our zeal in so good a cau*e, and greater and great¬ 
 er become our labors, until our whole population shall hW% 
 cvangebzed, and our whole land be filled with the glory'of' 
 the Lord. 
 
 C