* * * * * COMMUNICATIONS. * * * * * PROTECTION BY DEVELOPMENT. BY REV. C. H. RICHARDS. There are two methods of protection against dangers that threaten from without. One is the artificial method that builds up walls of defence on the outside. The other is the vital and Divine method that develops inward power enough to ensure safety. God braces the oak against the storms, not by outward props, but by growth of inward strength. He gives a man successful life, not by providing a nurse to carry and feed him half a century, but by teaching him the art of self-development, which makes him capable and masterly. In the great problem of Southern reconstruction, which is so slowly being solved, two parties feel themselves in danger. The colored man finds himself at an immense disadvantage amid the prejudices, the ambitions, the wider experience, the superior knowledge and skill of the whites. The old yoke is removed, but his new life is oppressed with a thousand petty exactions, which the strong are always able to make upon the weak. With the ballot thrust into his hands, he hardly knows how to use it wisely, and suspects that it may be snatched from him again. Now this outward guardianship of law and force has been needed; just as the transplanted flower needs special shelter and the upholding aid of the stick to which it is tied, _until_ its vital power can build it into independent strength. It is still necessary, to a certain degree, though God’s providence is fast showing us that law and force can do but a transient work for the race, and must soon be superseded by something better; and that something better is the development of the colored man himself into wisdom, and capability, and moral power. The only permanent safety for the blacks is in their intellectual and religious education. A weak race, helpless in its ignorance and corrupted by immorality, will always be kept down. The ambitious and intense desires of those who are wiser and stronger will take advantage of its weakness, and will crowd it to the wall. No legislation can prevent the working of this natural law in the struggle for prosperity. But a strong race, with vigorous, well-disciplined minds, balanced with virtue, will always hold its own in the world. Cobden used to say that he must see a Turkish ship, wholly built, equipt and manned by Turks, sailing from a Turkish port, and freighted with genuine products of Turkish manufactures; and then, and not till then, would he believe in Palmerston’s dream of Turkish regeneration. So when the colored man shows by his deeds that he is able to do all that a white man can do, he will hold his footing of equality secure. The race is to be tested by results.