They are _innocent_ men. By no hideous crime against humanity have they forfeited their place in the brotherhood. For no violation of law have they been consigned to bondage. Against them, rather, has all law been violated, and every dictate of humanity outraged. Guilty only of a colored skin, and of inevitable ignorance, they have been doomed to abject servitude. From birth they have been made property. In their infancy they knew no mother, but merely a nurse; in their childhood they had no home; in their maturity they have no companions, and no children, but merely offspring, like the brutes. Yet, they are innocent men. Sinners indeed they are before a holy God, as are all mankind; but they are innocent of _crime_. They are oppressed without cause. What should hinder the prayers of the righteous in their behalf? Many of them are _the children of God_, by regeneration. These are our brethren in the Lord, one with us in Christian bonds, “fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” They cry day and night unto God, and their cry enters into his ear. Our blessed Saviour would have us pray for and sympathize with these his little ones, as we love him. He is very pitiful towards them, and very jealous toward those who slight them. Realize that they are their Lord’s, that they are not their own, that they can not be the property of their owners, that they are bought with a price. Regard the enslaved saints as the Lord’s freemen; that their Master hath need of them; that they are forbidden to call any man master, on earth, for one is their Master, even Christ. _Can_ it be the will of Jesus that his own redeemed saints should be held and treated as beasts? Will he not be grieved if his followers who are free, pray not for the freedom of these their brethren in bonds? When Peter was put in prison in Jerusalem, “prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him,” and it wrought his deliverance. Let prayer be now made without ceasing by the church, for the liberation of all enslaved saints, and enlargement shall surely come. The living God waits to be importuned by the church for its own members. He waits to hear the cry of distress from Zion, suffering with her suffering children. The unconverted slaves are hopeful subjects of renewing grace compared with the same number of any class of men. No persons on earth are more susceptible to gospel influences than the negroes. What the missionary has labored almost in vain to effect among the Indians, among the Jews, among the Catholic immigrants in this country, would, we are confident, be done with large success among the slaves of the South, if they were emancipated. Strike off the shackles, and this Ethiopia would stretch forth her hands unto God.