Subsequently, on the same day, I had conversation with a young man, whom I had that afternoon seen sitting down at the Lord's Table in the Baptist Church. He told me that there were in New Orleans two Baptist Churches of coloured people, presided over by faithful and devoted pastors of their own colour. "And does your pastor," I inquired, "recognise them, and have fellowship with them?" "Oh! yes, he has often preached to them. He feels very anxious, I can assure you, for the conversion of the slaves." "And do those coloured preachers ever occupy your pulpit?" "Oh, dear me, no!" with evident alarm. "Why not? You say they are good men, and sound in doctrine." "Oh! they would not be tolerated. Besides, they are accustomed to speak in broken English, and in very familiar language; otherwise the slaves could not understand them. The slaves, you know, cannot read, and are not allowed to learn." This he said in a tone of voice which indicated an entire acquiescence in that state of things, as if he thought the arrangement perfectly right. But what iniquity! To come between the Word of God and his rational creature! To interpose between the light of Heaven and the soul of man! To withhold the lamp of life from one-sixth of the entire population! Of all the damning features of American slavery, this is the most damning! "I suppose," continued I, "if any of the black people come to your churches, they have to sit by themselves?" _Young Man._--"Of course: I have never seen it otherwise." _Myself._--"And I have never before seen it so. With us, in British Guiana, blacks and whites mingle together indiscriminately in the worship of our common Father." _Young Man._ (with amazement).--"There must be a a great change here before it comes to that. It must appear very strange." _Myself._--"Very much like heaven where they shall come together from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, &c. Why, we have black deacons, who, at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, carry the bread and wine, and give them even to white people." _Young Man._ (with more astonishment than ever, and in a tone of offended dignity).--"I don't think I could stand that--I don't! A great change must take place in my feelings before I could. I don't like to mingle Ham and Japhet together for my part--I don't!" _Myself._--"Why, they were mingled together in the ark." _Young Man._--"Yes; but old Noah quarrelled with Ham soon after he came out, and cursed him." _Myself._--"Granted; but you and your pastor profess to be anxious for the slaves' conversion to God, and thereby to roll away the curse." Here the dialogue ended.