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whose progenitors, though contemporary with the 
founders of true religion, and originally uniting with 
them in its sacred observances, have not, in their 
descendants, shared the benefits of its influence; but, 
having simply received the knowledge of one God, 
and adopted the seal of the covenant after the example 
of the “ Father of the Faithful,” were from thenceforth 
cut off from all further intercourse with his collateral 
descendants, and consigned to the gloomy regions of 
heathen superstition. On them the glorious revela¬ 
tion under the Mosaic, and still more glorious under 
the Christian dispensation, have never shed their 
light. To them did not “ pertain the adoption, and 
the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the 
law, and the service of God, and the promisesnor 
have they been partakers of the blessings of that 
Gospel, which is “ the power of God unto salvation.” 
The thunders of Sinai have never awed their minds 
into obedience; nor has the persuasive voice of the 
Redeemer of mankind ever melted their hearts with 
divine love; yet, in the midst of an accumulating 
mass of error and superstition, we find them adhering, 
with inflexible constancy, to the grand principle on 
which all true religion is founded—the acknowledg¬ 
ment of one God, to the exclusion of idols: their 
moral state calls aloud for the sympathy of the Chris¬ 
tian world ; and we trust no exertions will be spared, 
to convey to them the knowledge of that religion, 
which alone can dispel their errors, regulate their con¬ 
duct, and reform their hearts. 
