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and sister, each in a different direction, and far away likewise from the mother that bore them, and who loved them as she did her life. But this horrid separation was prevented on the eve of accomplishment, by the enemy's burning the vessel in which they were to be taken to the slave-market. He now resolved to do his utmost, and dare any danger for their rescue. Under the cover of night, and by the blessing of God, he was soon able to convey his whole family on board a British vessel lying not far off in the river. What a foretaste of heaven. must have been their ecstatic joy at such a deliverance-a fortune so different from the fate which shortly before seemed a very certainty.

They were all carried by their new friends to one of the West India Islands, where they staid a year. During this period one of the children was taken away, not to irretrievable bondage, but to the freedom of the heavenly kingdom. They then emigrated to Halifax in the British Provinces. Here his home was soon made lonely and his heart desolate by the decease of his wife. He had before led a life of good ordinary morality, but he had not experienced the regenerating power of religion, and he felt the need of consolations which this world had not to give. By the grace of God, under the preaching of a Baptist clergyman, he became a professed disciple of Jesus. His account of his conversion and of his subsequent life was full of touching pathos. "O!" said he, "the Lord called to me in a voice that went to the core of my heart,

and I obeyed him. He gave me the influences of his Spirit; then, O! how I loved my heavenly Father; I loved all my fellow men; I loved all the animals, the very creeping things, indeed every thing that God made, because he made them. I

was very ignorant, for I had never learned to read, and I was ready to receive instruction from any body; a little babe might have taught me, I felt so humble and I so wanted to learn."

He said that he now felt how very important it was that his children should be trained up aright. Their mother being dead, all the care came on him, and he felt that as a Christian father he had a great duty to perform. Although by going out at jobbing in the city he might make his labor much more profitable, yet, having learned at the South to cobble shoes, he resolved to pursue this business now, at home, so that he might always be there to take care of his children. He could not teach them

much, but he could keep them from some evil and do them some good. He had them kneel around him every night and morning while he prayed to their Father in heaven. At their humble meals, he made them cross their hands and bow their heads while he craved the Divine blessing on their food. Thus he continued in his bereavement, and trained up his six children till they were old enough to take care of themselves. Then he went out from home to work at much larger pay. He continued in Halifax till about a year previous to the time I met him, when he came to Boston, to visit a

daughter. O! thought I, would that the fathers, even the well-educated fathers of this favored city, were as faithful as you. I spoke of Sabbath privileges and of religious meetings generally. "O!" exclaimed he, "they are very precious to me. I could not do without them. Prayer is my meat, my drink, my very breath of life." What a beautiful climax — the earnest eloquence of a devout heart! He could not read a word, but on an old desk lay a Bible, to which I alluded, and he remarked that he should be very thankful if I would read a chapter. I therefore read the CIII. Psalm. When I had got through, and looked from the book to the man, I found him bending forward, his arms resting on his lap, his lips slightly parted, his dark eye distended, and all swimming and glistening with the moisture of emotion, and his face was alive, every particle of it, with expression. The beaming light of intense Christian faith, hope and love, irradiated his features; and that old, wrinkled, ebony countenance was absolutely beautiful; it was the beauty of holiness; like that of those who had passed within the veil. I felt that he was nearer to the mercy-seat than myself, and was of worthier utterance before the Hearer of prayer, and I requested him to pray. At once, as if the act was as familiar to him as converse with a friend, he knelt down and poured out one of the most heartexpressing and heart-stirring prayers I ever heard. His voice was not loud and boisterous as that of devotion sometimes is, with the ignorant enthusiast,

but was subdued to a soft, yet still most earnest tone, and flowed into my ear with a melody like notes from music-chords. They indeed flowed into my heart. I had not an idea originating with myself; his thoughts and feelings were individualized directly from him into me. That prayer, indeed, seemed to run directly through my soul-a sort of religious electricity, kindling and melting and fitting it to mingle with and be blessed by those holy influences from the heavenly Father, which were ready and waiting for union with the spirit of his child yet in the flesh.

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Such was my interview with the poor old AfriWhen I came away, it was with tardy steps and lingering looks behind. It seemed as if I had been at the gate of heaven, and had caught a last earthly glimpse of one about to pass through. Indeed, I saw him no more, for, on returning to the place a few days after, I found that he had gone to one of his children in another city.

Phrenologists say that the constitutional religious tendencies are stronger in the Negro than in any other race of men. I believe this aged saint's character to be an exponent of the religious capacity of his people. I believe in all sincerity that when the African South shall have freedom and the Bible, and a due Christian culture, the kingdom of heaven will come there with a power and a glory unsurpassed. Indeed, I have the faith that it will be the religious paradise of the land, and an example to the proud white world which it cannot despise, yea, of which it will almost stand in awe.

EMULATION,

AS A

MOTIVE TO STUDY.

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