Page:Eleventh annual report of the Association for the Religious Instruction of the Negroes, in Liberty County, Georgia.djvu/22

18 in all labouring and mechanical classes, and that just in proportion to their ignorance and degradation. Take for example seamen, mechanics and day labourers, in shops and factories, especially in large towns and cities where they are congregated in sufficient numbers to form societies of their own: and what multitudes never darken the doors of a Church? The Sabbath is their day of rest, of recreation and enjoyment, and they are at home with their families, or abroad luxuriating in forbidden indulgences, and in freedom from occupation and care. It is a problem in benevolence not yet solved, how shall these masses ever be brought under the sound of the Gospel on the Sabbath day.

I am, however, far from believing that owners are free from blame. The evil may be remedied in part. They have both influence and authority. Christian owners should lay before their people the advantage and necessity of public worship, and express their earnest wish that they should attend, and see that no excuses on account of clothing or any other thing within their power to amend, should exist with them. I do not say use authority. Coercion would involve an immense amount of care and perplexity, would do no good and ultimately would have to be abandoned. Something must be left to the agency of those who have come to years. There is a limit to the responsibility of owners on this head. But with the children and youth, I say, use authority, as much so, as with the children and youth of your own family. And if you wish to accomplish much you must persevere in your efforts. A few wishes coldly expressed : a few attempts inefficiently made, may satisfy a poor, selfish, inactive conscience. We must go further and be not weary in our well doing, and give line upon line and precept upon precept. I may add that if Pastors would meet with the watchmen and members of the Church: and with the children and youth and give them some instruction and exhortation on this duty and keep it before them, the result would be salutary. I can but commend this subject to the prayerful consideration of conscientious Christians and labourers in this field. We cannot be too solicitous about it, for the faith of the negroes comes emphatically "by hearing:" and unless they are found in the House of God the prospect of their salvation is dark indeed ! Much as we may have done to bring our colored population under religious instruction, there remains much land to be possessed.