There are no duties which we owe our slaves as “our money,” or as social beings, which do not derive additional weight and importance from the fact that they are religious beings, and that, as such, we owe them all these duties, and still higher and more solemn duties. “But I am not a Christian, and therefore am not concerned in the discussion of this topic.” But I am not aware that to omit to profess to be an honest man, or to neglect to strive to be an honest man, absolves one from the obligation to be honest: so neither will a failure to profess Christianity free any one from the duty of being a Christian. Both you and your slaves are religious beings; and if you are not a Christian, you ought to be, and God will hold you to account for all the duties of a Christian life, whether in this world you acknowledge the obligation or not. Your slaves are entitled to the rights which belong to religious beings in their circumstances; and it is your duty to treat them as such; nor is there a single master who will not be held to a strict account for the faithful performance of these duties to his slaves. The religious sentiment is strong in the African. Both his mind and his heart respond readily to the fear of God, the love of virtue, and the hope of heaven. But they are religious beings in a low state of civilization. Their intellects are usually dull. They are subject to wild, extravagant, and superstitious opinions, and consequently to strong and violent religious emotions. They do not, as some suppose, have stronger feelings naturally than others. They do not differ in this respect from barbarians of any other race of people; but they have a low grade of mental development. Their wills, therefore, are not supplied with those motives which would enable them to hold their attention to views of truth such as produce a more chastened, substantial, and elevated tone of Christian feeling. For the want of enlightened views, the religious sentiment displays itself in superstitious conceits, which usually lead to wild and sometimes frantic feelings. We need not dwell upon the evils of this state of things. They are too obvious, in their influence upon the blacks, and oftentimes through them upon the nursery of white children, to require discussion. That which demands attention is this: it is a duty which the master owes his slave to pursue that course in the government of his domestic empire which shall contribute to correct these evils, and to fit his slaves for their destiny in the spirit-world, where the distinction of master and slave will no longer exist. Aside, then, from other and less important objects in that Divine economy which introduced the African into this country, God has thereby committed to you these ignorant, these suffering poor. He requires you to care for their souls as well as their bodies. The latter of these duties you may fulfil for your own interests merely. But each one of them you