IN WESTERN AFRICA. 
129 
is worth from one to ten dollars, while the same 
amount of labor there is worth from one to two 
dimes? The reason of this difierence is found in 
the fact that we have the Bible, and they have it 
not. The Bible fosters invention, enterprise, and 
refinement wherever it goes; and wealth follows 
in its train. 
# 
In a very important sense the Bible has made 
our turnpikes, canals, and railroads, as well as the 
cars and boats and wagons used upon them. It 
has made our good houses, steam-mills, factories, 
ships, our trades, professions, and books. Tt has 
made our telegraph lines, by which we converse 
with each other thousands of miles apart. But 
these are the less important blessings it confers 
upon us. Our feeble powers are inadequate to 
enumerate the spiritual benefits it lavishes upon 
us. Take from us the Bible, and with it 
must go the holy Sabbath, the preaching of the 
sanctuary, the institutions of the church, the 
liberties, social, civil, and religious, which we en- 
• joy, and our hope of heaven. 
And what would be the result were we deprived 
of all its restraints from vice and inducements to 
virtue ? Why, idolatry would regain its lost as- 
cendency, superstition would stalk forth in our 
midst, and barbarity in its most cruel forms — such 
as burning persons for witchcraft, and sacrificing 
