of that day accomplished God's purpose, and passed the progress over into the hands of the white race, as it suited his divine will. The question may also be asked: Why did it please God for the descendants of Ham to suffer such an abject slavery for so small offence as that of which Ham was guilty? We answer that it has pleased God to visit the iniquities of the parents upon the children and future generations in more instances than one.

The filial disrespect of Ham was a violation of an express command of God, as much so as the first transgression. "Honor thy father and thy mother" was the command violated in Ham's case. Besides being a violation, it carried with it a moral wrong of no small consequence. But if it be said that God knew Ham was going to do this, (for he created him with all the characteristics of the negro, from his birth, thus fitting him and his posterity for the slavery of future ages by his very formation in every particular); we reply that the same may be said of Adam's transgression, for the Bible tells us that Christ was as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world; and as the only reason he had to be crucified being that of redeeming the world from the curse which Adam

brought upon them by his transgression, the foreknowledge of God is shown in this case as much as in Ham's; due preparation was made in each case. The truth is plain that both Adam and Ham were "able to stand yet free to fall;" and the all wise God knew the results from the first and provided that the curse in each case should fill its place as a curse, and yet by his mysterious will turn out a blessing in the end. Adam was created a little lower than angels in his spiritual relations, but in his natural state he was not above the savage, as we have previously shown, not even knowing how to clothe himself. By the banishment from Eden came the blessings of Christianity with all its attendant civilization; and at last the redeemed will become a little higher than the angels, for the angels shall minister unto them. Thus we see that God knew how to convert his curse into a great blessing.

Likewise in Ham's case the curse of slavery has been a blessing to the world in developing its great resources; and thus advancing its civilization; this reaction upon the negro race reflects the blessing back upon them at last. But we reserve this for future chapters.

CHAPTER X.

Moral depravity of the negro race-Sodomy and idolatry of the Canaanites-Other deeds of wickedness-Bible evidence of these crimes-Jezebel a negress queen of prostitutesOther prostitutions-Sodomy in Africa-Gustatory depravity-Shinga-A she devil-Cannabalism-Human sacrifices-Superstition and idolatry in Africa-The fetishDevil worship-The slave trader.

In order to trace the history of the negro race we must begin with a moral darkness, such as the world has never known in any other race; a darkness of character at once shocking and disgusting. Were it not our purpose to develop the whole truth, we would certainly pass over this part of the history of the race. Even at best we must omit certain statements of actual truth, too shocking for the reading public, and only hint at other deeds and customs too disgusting to admit of plain, unrestrained statements. For the rest we beg at the outset that the reader will be charitable in his criticism, remembering that historians have

handed these facts to us for truth's sake, and even the Bible makes its statements in unequivocal terms.

Let us then to the work. Beginning in old Canaan with the descendants of Ham by his youngest son, we have the Sodomites, from the very vileness of whom has originated a word whose meaning signifies the most disgusting practice of which the human race has ever been guilty; viz., sodomy. Every reader of the Scripture is familiar with the behavior of the Sodomites, but it will be well to reread the 19th chapter of Genesis, where it is related that two young men stayed over night with Lot, and an attempt of violence upon the persons of these strangers was made, even though they were male beings, and though Lot offered his virgin daughters in their stead, they were refused for the sake of practicing upon their own sex, so perverted were their passions. The reader must remember the meaning of the word "know" where it states that they the Sodomites-demanded these young men that they might "know" them. This instance is only one of thousands of this people who were so wicked that ten righteous persons could not be found in the entire city to save it from destruction; an account of which is beautifully told by Josiah Priest as follows:"Then began the work of wrath as if the lightnings

from the four winds of heaven kept holiday, and yet were obedient to the beck of an awful hand, which far up in the gloomy concave was seen in flaming red, pointing them to their courses. Then fell a tempest of fire, mingled with burning brimstone, from the Lord, out of Heaven, destroying, not only the great vale of Sodom, but five cities with hamlets and villages innumerable. So violent and fierce was the fire, that it devoured the very ground in all that region, as it was composed much of a bituminous strata to a great depth, in which the Jordan flowed and formed the Dead Sea."

Thus for a disgusting sinfulness of these negro Canaanites God swept them from the earth by tens of thousands. Not only were they guilty of an idolatry equally shameless, having gods so carved and so painted as to represent the basest passions and desires. Nor did their passions stop with human beings even of their own sex, but descended to the beasts of all kinds, called in the book of Jude the "going after strange flesh."

As evidence that such things were committed by the negroes of old Canaan, see Leviticus XVIII. and XX. It will be rememberd that Moses was giving the