Even cannibalism, regarded as the lowest reach of degradation, is not only a natural consequence of fetishism, but is one of its logical forms. I doubt whether, among the Fang, it is ever practiced on the mere impulse of hunger. It is rather the last desperate resort of fear seeking fetish protection. The strongest protection against an enemy in war is to eat one of their number. After that the enemy can do no harm and need not be feared; unless (always this same dreadful qualification)—unless some traitor in one’s own town should break the spell even of this fetish by witchcraft. The African is further demoralized by his idea of man’s destiny. He believes in a future life. I never encountered a doubt on this subject. But his belief is not ennobling, nor a source of moral inspiration. Death is an unmitigated evil, and the dead are always wishing to be back in the flesh. The future does not hold rewards or punishments for the good or evil of the present life; nor has present goodness any future advantage. There, as here, to have a great many wives and plenty to eat are chief factors in happiness. They have big palavers there as well as here. Sometimes palavers left unfinished here are settled there. In some tribes (the Kru tribe, for instance) when smallpox or other scourge visits a town, and many people die about the same time, it is supposed that an unfinished palaver has been resumed in the other world and these persons were needed as witnesses. It will be perceived that beneath all this moral degradation of the African, beneath his cruelty and licentiousness, there lies a degrading conception of man’s nature. Man has no divine origin and no noble destiny; therefore he has no intrinsic value and human nature has no inherent worth. But to this seeming hopeless ruin of humanity Christ in His own person imparts a new conception, _first_, of the dignity of man’s nature; _second_, of the possibilities of his character; _third_, of the greatness of his destiny. In Jesus, God takes upon Himself this despised human nature, and reveals the divine character in a human life. That same life is at once a revelation of God and an example to men; and without incongruity Jesus could say, in words perhaps the sublimest ever uttered in the ears of men: “Be ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Man, therefore, even the most degraded and the slave, is akin to God and the object of His tender regard. The light of this revelation extinguishes all minor differences between men; a human soul is of more value than the whole world, and neither wealth nor power can add anything to a man’s worth. Much is added to this new conception of man when Jesus reveals in Himself the possibilities of human character. It was always a surprise to me to find how readily the African recognizes in Jesus the human ideal; how he accepts Him as the true moral standard, by which henceforth he judges himself and realizes what he is and what he ought to be.