Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1851-03-13

or arousing from those Of STEPPED inertia, the
Danes. the Saxons and the Franks and more
recently the Spaniards, and even our own puri
tan ancestors in their first settlement Of Amer
lea, have all been permitted TO do their part in
tracing the history of this earth with lines of
blood. And if we turn from the contemplation
Of the past to survey Of some of the darker re-
suits to be fonnd in the present condition of
mankind, we may be as little satisfied On the
American continent, from the shores of Hud-
sons bay and Davis straits to the straits of Ma
gellan, the fading shadows of unmolested tribes
of men are receding and dying before the face
of an invading and antagonist race. Driven from
their fishing waters, their hunting grounds, and
their corn fields, or subjected to the most op-
pressive servitddes, these Indian nations have
within about 200 years nearly perished with
out faint hope Of their redemption from utter
destruction, and our sympathies are deeply
moved by conviction of their cruel but inev-
liable destiny. Again, if we extend our glance
to the north in the new world, or the east in the
old, the bristling of British bayonets, for good
or for evil, meets us at every turn and turn
ing in still another direction, and our eyes rest
upon dark clouds which have long been settling
upon the shores and obscuring the horizon of
this western continent; and these clouds, so
ominous, prove to be but the accumulating
masses of human beings who have been torn
from their native Africa, and now, with their
descendants, to say nothing of The millions that
have persisted, amount to some five or six mil
lions of human beings wearing the chains of
slavery; and all this apparently unmitigated
evil has taken place under the permission of an
ever watchful and perfectly wise, powerful and
good Providence.
There is perhaps no portion of human histo-
ry, in surveying which, if the mind be confined
TO the consideration Of temporal, local and per-
sonal grievances, which presents us with so
dark and mysterious an aspect as does the COM
paratively brief period possessed by us Of the
history of Western Africa,-a period simply
embracing its discovery by christian nations
and the intercourse which has been by them
kept up with its people.
Dark indeed would this and many other pa
ges of human history appear to US, if not per-
mitted TO extend our view beyond the present
and the external aspect of events. 1t is happy
for US, however, that these events NAV be con-
templated from t,co rery different points Of riao
under two kinds of light so opposite in theil
nature that one well deserves to be termed
darkness instead Of light, being generated BY the
acknowled gment only of human prudence, sa-
gacity and foresight-mere self derived intelli-
geDce; while the other is that superior or true
light, which is generated in the mind by an ac-
acknowledgement of the Divine Providence OF
the Lord who seeth the end from the beginning
and all whose purposes, have eternal ends.
This acknowledgment, when deep and sin
cere, endows the subject of it with some degree
of the prescience peculiar 10 Him who be-
gets it, by which he can discern between the
works Of God and those of man, and, amidst all
the turmoil and misery produced by the diabol-
ical passions of the latter, obtain glimpses of
the good purposes of Him whose paternal care
extendeth over all.
From such point of view, the darkness
fades away, and the Christian philanthropist
discovers every where cheering indications of
onward tendencies from worse to better, and in
it all, the hand of him who maketh the wrath
of man to praise him. Such an one, while he
carefully avoids the countenance Of known evil
within the sphere of his appropriate action, is
as scrupulously cautious Of transcending the
bounds of that sphere for the purpose Of enfor-
cling his personal views upon others, and of al
lowing mere natural sympathy to assume the
government of his conduct. He sees that, in
the regeneration of an individual 50 also in that
of tribes and nations of men, certain degree
of freedom Of action is essentially requisite.
He can also see that from every war, as from
every fire that is permitted for a time to spread
devastation, humanity is ultimately gainer,-
that if the piratical incursions Of the Danes and
the Saxons could have been resisted by the alb
original Britains, that mighty concentration Of
moral power which for centuries has been send
ing forth its civilizing influence to all parts Of
the globe from the British Isles, might never
have existed, and the British and Foreign Bible
Society with its numerous coadjutors and kin
dred institutions remained unknown to the
world.
| And if we turn to Africa and contemplate
the wrongs she has suffered at the hand of man
wrongs which have baffled all the power and
sagacity which has hitherto been exerted for
their suppression, confirming TO US the impor-
tant truth, that the only effectual way to over
come evil is, by the influence Of good; the
light of his position, carrying his view beyond
the tragic scenes being enacted on the surface
to contemplation of the ends of Divine Provi-
dence, he at once sees that, if at any time he
could have welded an arm of adequate power
10 stop the mighty current Of human life which
has flowed from Africa to America, in exc
cutting purpose so congenial 10 limited human
benevolonce, he might have defeated the more
wise and benevolent designs of Providence
If such power had been possessed by him he
might have rescued millions of human beings
from watery grave or wearing the chains of
slavery in foreign land; but in 50 doing,
would he not have turned that current of life
back to the Pagan darkness of Africa and to
the butcheries of Canibalism! And not only
that, but they and their descendants, would