increasing interest on the subject among the coloured people of our country, and an increasing disposition to emigrate. Indications of this are seen in every part of the land, north, south, east, and west. Neighbourhoods here and there are holding conventions, and sending delegations to Liberia, to report on the state of things there—and such delegations, I believe, have always reported favourably
But to recur, in conclusion, to the practical view of the subject. Not only is money needed for transferring the emigrants from America to Africa, and for sustaining educational and missionary efforts in and about the republic of Liberia, but the most immediate and vigorous efforts are needed to prepare the population here for the destiny that awaits them. Let not the work of emigration proceed faster than the work of home preparation, which is necessary to make emigration a blessing to Africa. Look around us and behold the sad and neglected condition of the mass of our coloured population. How can we expect or desire such people to be the teachers of Africa, to be the representatives of American republicanism and American Christianity. In many individual cases, may you find among us coloured men of intelligence and high moral character, but it is not so with the masses of them, and the reason is, that they have been a despised and shamefully neglected people.
Brethren, a thousand weighty motives call upon us to turn our kindly attention upon the African race. Let us not be guided by a fanatical zeal, but by a
