In this view of the subject, I cannot but indulge in what some may call the flights of fancy, but what I fondly persuade myself is the reality of vision. O Africa, long oppressed and degraded Africa! Heaven has witnessed thy bitter sufferings, and the long black catalogue of thy wrongs is hid up in store against the day of retribution. But I see the Sun of righteousness arising upon thee, with healing in his wings. I see the shades of more than Egyptian darkness dispelled by his resplendent rays. I see thy wounds, which have been bleeding for ages, instantly staunched and healed. I see the ferocity of the tyger exchanged for the meekness of the lamb. I hear thy groves and plains resounding with the shouts of joy and gladness, and the still sweeter song of redeeming grace and love. I see “thy wildernesses and solitary places made glad, and thy desert rejoicing and blossoming as the rose. Thy parched ground has become a pool, and thy thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of dragons, where each lay, there is grass with reeds and rushes. And a high way is there, and a way that is called the Way of Holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it: but it shall be for thee; the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness; _and sorrow and sighing_ shall flee away.” Isaiah xxxv. 1-10. These blessed results I see effected by the instrumentality of America, the author of all thy wrongs. And though thy sweat and tears and blood have, for ages, been crying to heaven from the ground, for vengeance on her devoted head; yet now I hear thy voice, in the true spirit of gospel forgiveness, intreating pardon for thy guilty murderers. “O remember not against them their _former_ iniquities.” I see a tide of pious joy and gratitude, flowing from thy streaming eyes, sufficient, if aught but a Saviour’s blood were sufficient, to wash away their crimson stains. O happy, happy land, once wretched and forlorn! Thy mother’s children shall no longer be angry with thee, because thou art black, because the sun hath looked upon thee—they shall no longer make thee keeper of their vineyards, while thine own vineyard lies waste. Thy complexion is indeed black, but comely; and thy soul has been washed in the fountain of redeeming grace, as white and as pure as the redeemed of any other clime; and thou canst now chaunt as high a note of praise to the God of thy salvation; and though here thou hast been excluded from the rights of freemen, and the society of white men, yet in heaven thou shalt mingle, without discrimination, among the blood-bought throng, and there occupy as high a throne, and wear as bright a crown.