“As to passing by the degraded, ignorant and uncivilized races, in order to reach those who are in some degree intelligent, polite and civilized—well, we do not so understand the example of the first Christians. The Apostle Peter might have made a splendid argument for the Hebrews as the main people to be first evangelized, pointing to their wonderful history, their unrivaled geographical position, their intellectual force, their widely-spread settlements in other countries; so the Apostle Paul might have spent a part of his unequaled eloquence in a plea for the Greeks as the people of culture, and of the Romans as full of energy. But how little do we find in the first missionary records of ethnographic, political, commercial, conventional ideas as motives for evangelizing labor. We ought to understand, moreover, the lesson of our own Anglo-Saxon history; where were men and women to be found who were less attractive than the early inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland? The same Gospel that brought them to their present standing can change the people of Africa and make them intelligent, cultured, devoted Christians.” * * * * * A BLIND SAMSON. * * * * * FROM ADDRESS OF REV. A. J. BIDDLE, AT WARSAW, N.Y. * * * * * Years ago, when the negro was a bondman, Longfellow thus spoke of him: “There is a poor blind Samson in the land, Shorn of his strength and bound in bands of steel, Who may in some grim revel raise his hand And shake the pillars of the common weal. Till the vast temples of our liberties A shapeless mass of muck and rubbish lies.” Well he is blind enough yet, poor enough, a Samson, too, and what is more, he is no longer bound. His locks are beginning to grow, and he is beginning to place his brawny hand upon the pillars of our common weal; not angrily, but ignorantly. We placed them there hoping that he would prove a support, and he will if we watch and direct him. But thus far he has been a menace to our liberties; not from malice, but because he is what he is. We have not dealt with him wisely; but from the fatal day over two hundred years ago, when that thrifty Dutchman landed the first negro on the hanks of the James River to this, we have blundered. Our treatment of him has been a mixture of stupidity and wickedness. We never should have brought him here, but we did.