A History Of The West Indies (Volume 3); Containing The Natural, Civil, And Ecclesiastical History Of Each Island; With An Account Of The - neues Buch

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: rener to raise a corps of our own society, and to attend as chaplain to them. The Moravian brethren also raised a corps out of their people. We got upwards of one thousand men in both societies. They have also formed a corps of slaves in this island. But if the Lord be not our support, all will be in vain." In these and similar instances we perceive the blessed effects of that genuine faith in Christ, which our missionaries are so zealous in inculcating. They are rendered conspicuous on many occasions, but on none so much as when some trying emergency calls them into action. They shine in the promoting of domestic virtues in private families, in animating and encouraging the discharge of social duties, and in the establishment of genuine patriotism, whenever a fair occasion calls. Nothing but the power of divine grace could induce the negroes to offer themselves for the defence of a country in which they were held as slaves, and to protect their masters, many of whom, doubtless, had treated them with severity. And nothing but this persuasion could incline their masters to place in these a degree of confidence which they felt reluctant to repose in others. While these remained in a state of heathenism, the passions of sullen discontent at their situation, and a latent spirit of revenge, must of course have waited only for a favourable opportunity to operate. And such propensities attaching more or less to men in that condition, mvist invariably render them more hostile than indifferent, with respect to the fate of their masters, and of the country which they inhabit. But these pious negroes, with dispositions which a knowledge of. their situation through the merits of the blessed Jesus had converted into patience, resignation, and fortitude, were ready to stand forth to repel th...