"PREACHERS FOR THE SLAVES.--We think the instruction of the blacks in the South should be committed wholly to white men; and they should be Southern men, in whom the masters have confidence. If the preacher is himself a slaveholder, as are Mr. Jones and Mr. Law, they will command the greater confidence, and have access to the larger number of plantations." "The field of labor among the negroes in the South," says Mr. Jones ("Religious Instruction," p. 196), "is one, in many respects, of no ordinary difficulty; and it is the dictate as well of benevolence as of prudence to inquire into the character and qualifications of those who enter it. _They should be Southern men_; men entitled to that appellation; either those who have been born and reared in the South, or those who have identified themselves with the South, and are familiarly acquainted with the structure of society; _in a word, men having their interests in the South_. Such men would possess the _confidence of the community_; for they would not act, in their official connection with the negroes, in such a manner as to breed disturbances, which would inevitably jeopard their own lives, and tend to the utter prostration of their families and interests." Ib. p. 235: "The missionaries should be _Southern men_, or men ... _identified in views, feelings, and interests with the South, and who possess the confidence of society_." We should (ib. p. 197) "know _who_ their teachers are, and _what_ and _when_ and _where_ they are taught." The object of these laws and precautions evidently is wholly to exclude, as religious teachers of the slaves, all persons except slaveholders, or those who are fully identified with or subject to them. Only slaveholders and their tools _can_ be "God's messengers" to the souls of the slaves! The moral and religious teaching of the slaves is _exclusively_ vested in that class of men whose _interest_ it is to _uphold_ and _strengthen_ slavery! A slaveholder _must_ have the strongest inducement to make his teaching of such a quality as directly to increase the market value of his hearers; and yet the slaves are receiving from the hallowed lips of their owners the gospel of love and human brotherhood in greater purity and power than ever before! CHAPTER V. DIRECT RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF SLAVES. "Hath _He_ not brought you out of a land of darkness and ignorance, where your forefathers knew nothing of him, to a country where you may come to the knowledge of the only true God, and learn a sure way to heaven?"--_Right Rev. Bishop Meade's Instruction to Slaves._ "The religious instruction of your people will promote your own _interests_ for time and eternity."--_Rev. C. C. Jones's Teaching to Slaveholders_ ("_Rel. Inst._" p. 275).