THE writer of this volume and his excellent and
devoted partner have been borne down by an aval-
anche of deadly hate let loose on them by negro-
hating professors of Christianity in our Northern
States of America, and before being extricated from
peril, another has come thundering down upon them,
put in motion by men who make their gospel one
of rifles, like Garibaldi, and the Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher, contemplate with fiendish satisfaction the
horrible carnage and blood associated with the late
Federal war, and aspire to exalt and glorify with
the crown of martyrdom the late arch-rebel and
traitor Mr Gordon. Far down, therefore, aye, at the
bottom of the abyss of calamity, utterly helpless,
we lay in the midst of the wrecks of friendship
and property, and hopeless, save from the cheering
ray that comes over heaven's jasper walls, and
leaps into the deep chasm around us, reminding us
of our early motto, Nil desperandum, auspice Deo.
“ Hush, hush s” exclaim our enemies, who are not
only numerous but formidable—“Hush, hush! lest
we send down another avalanche to bury and ex-
tinguish you for ever.”
We are quite aware that in our position it is not
unusual to regard our confidence in God as a de-
lusion and presumption, and, therefore, should not
be surprised if some be so cowardly as to pray at
ws in their prayers, rather than to shew their
Christianity by praying for us.
This is a strange world, and there are times
when some Christian professors act more strangely
than men of the world, or we should not find
amongst our enemies those on whom we have been
wont to rely, or towards whom we have cherished
the highest veneration and esteem.
The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, in his “Sword and
Trowel” has let drop concerning us an ambiguous
expression in the shape of “wounded feelings,”
which does us great injustice, and whilst he speaks
of our “letters ” as “a bold and skilful analysis
of the whole case in America,” he draws an infer-
ence from them which demonstrates that the best
of men are but men at the best, and consequently
liable to err.
The editors of the British Quarterly have
recently avowed that “we have an hatred to
America and all Americans.” If this were the case,
we should not have put all our eggs in the
American basket, in the shape of property, or have
made such vigorous though ill-requited efforts to
lift Americans out of the deep rut of expediency