far as in you lies, endeavour to secure for them, in every walk of
life, the ordinary privileges of American citizens. If they are
excluded from the omnibus and railroad-car in the place where
you reside, endeavour to persuade those who have the control of
these matters to pursue a more just and reasonable course.
Those Christians who are heads of mechanical establishments
can do much for the cause by receiving coloured apprentices.
Many masters excuse themselves for excluding the coloured
apprentice by saying that, if they receive him, all their other
hands will desert them. To this it is replied, that if they do
the thing in a Christian temper and for a Christian purpose,
the probability is that, if their hands desert at first, they will
return to them at last--all of them, at least, whom they would
care to retain.
A respectable dressmaker in one of our towns has, as a matter
of principle, taken coloured girls for apprentices; thus furnishing
them with a respectable means of livelihood. Christian me-
chanies, in all the walks of life, are earnestly requested to con-
"> sider this subject, and see if, by offering their hand to raise this
poor people to respectability, and knowledge, and competence,
they may not be performing a service which the Lord will
accept as done unto himself.
Another thing which is earnestly commended to Christians is
the raising and comforting of those poor Churches of coloured
people, who have been discouraged, dismembered, and dis-
heartened by the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law.
In the city of Boston is a Church which, even now, is
struggling with debt and embarrassment, caused by being obliged
to buy its own deacons, to shield them from the terrors of that
law.
Lastly, Christians at the North, we need not say, should
abstain from all trading in slaves, whether direct or indirect,
whether by partnership with Southern houses or by receiving
immortal beings as security for debt. It is not necessary to
expand this point. It speaks for itself.
By all these means the Christian Church at the North must
secure for itself purity from all complicity with the sin of slavery,
and from the unchristian customs and prejudices which have
resulted from it.
The second means to be used for the abolition of slavery is
“Knowledge.”
Every Christian ought thoroughly, carefully, and prayerfully
to examine this system of slavery. He should regard it as
one upon which he is bound to have right views and right
opinions, and to exert a right influence in forming and con-
centrating a powerful public sentiment, of all others the most
efficacious remedy. Many people are deterred from examining
the statistics on this subject, because they do not like the
men who have collected them. They say they do not like
abolitionists, and therefore they will not attend to those facts
and figures which they have accumulated. This, certainly, is
not wise or reasonable. In all other subjects which deeply
affect our interests, we think it best to take information where
we can get it, whether we like the persons who give it to us
or not.
Every Christian ought seriously to examine the extent to
which our national government is pledged and used for the sup-
port of slavery. He should thoroughly look into the statistics
of slavery in the District of Columbia, and, above all, into the
statistics of that awful system of legalisad piracy and oppression
by which hundreds and thousands are yearly porn froi hoie
and friands, and all that heart holds daar, and carried to be sold
like beasts in the markets of the South. The smoke from this
bottomless abyss of injustice puts out the light of our Sabbath
suns in the eyes of all nations. Its awful groans and wailings
drown the voice of our psalms and religious melodies. All
nations know these things of us, and shall we not know them of
ourselves? Shall we not have courage, shall we not have
patience, to investigate thoroughly our own bad case, and gain a
perfect knowledge of the length and breadth of the evil we seek
to remedy?
The third means for the abolition of slavery is by “Long-
suffering.”
Of this quality there has been some lack in the attempts that
have hitherto been made. The friends of the cause have not
had patience with each other, and have not been able to treat
each other's opinions with forbearance. There have been many
painful things in the past history of this subject; but is it not
time when all the friends of the slave should adopt the motto,
“forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth unto
those which are before?” Let not the believers of immediate
abolition call those who believe in gradual emancipation time-
servers and traitors; and let not the upholders of gradual
emancipation call the advocates of immediate abolition fanatics
and incendiaries. Surely some more brotherly way of convincing
good men can be found, than by standing afar off on some Ebal
and Gerizim, and cursing each other. The truth spoken in love
will always go further than the truth spoken in wrath; and, after
all, the great object is to persuade our Southern brethren to
admit the idea of any emancipation at all. When we have
succeeded in persuading them that anything is necessary to
be done, then will be the time for bringing up the question
whether the object shall be accomplished by an immediate or
a gradual process. Meanwhile, let our motto be, “Whereto
we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let
us mind the same things; and if any man be otherwise minded,
God shall reveal even this unto him.” “Let us receive even him
that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful disputations.” Let
us not reject the good there is in any, because of some remain-
ing defects.
We come now to the consideration of a power without which
all others must fail--“the Holy Ghost.”
The solemn creed of every Christian Church, whether Roman,
Greek. Episcopal, or Protestant, says, “I believe in the Holy
Ghost.” But how often do Christians, in all these denomina-
tions, live and act, and even conduct their religious affairs
as if they had “never so much as heard whether there be any
Holy Ghost.” If we trust to our own reasonings, our own
misguided passions, and our own blind self-will, to effect the
reform of abuses, we shall utterly fail. There is a power, silent,
convincing, irresistible, which moves over the dark and troubled
heart of man, as of old it moved over the dark and troubled
waters of Chaos, bringing light out of darkness, and order out
of confusion.
Is it not evident to everyone who takes enlarged views of
human society that a gentle but irresistible influence is pervading
the human race, prompting groanings, and longings, and dim
aspirations for some coming era of goo
d? Worldly men read
the signs of the times, and call this power the Spirit of the
Age--but should not the Church acknowledge it as the Spirit
of God?
Let it not be forgotten, however, that the gift of his most
powerful regenerating influence, at the opening of the Christian
dispensation, was conditioned on prayer. The mighty movement
that began on the day of Pentecost was preceded by united,
fervent, persevering prayer. A similar spirit of prayer must
precede the coming of the divine Spirit, to effect a revolution so
great as that at which we aim. The most powerful instrumen-
tality which God has delegated to man, and around which cluster
all his glorious promises, is prayer. All past prejudices and
animosities on this subject must be laid aside, and the whole
Church unite as one man in earnest, fervent prayer. Have we
forgotten the promise of the Holy Ghost? Have we forgotten
that He was to abide with us for ever? Have we forgotten that
it is He who is to convince the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment? O divine and Holy Comforter! thou
promise of the Father! thou only powerful to enlighten, con-
vince, and renew! return, we beseech thee, and visit this vine
and this vineyard of thy planting! With thee nothing is im-
possible; and what we, in our weakness, can scarcely conceive,
thou canst accomplish!
Another means for the abolition of slavery is “Love unfeigned.”
In all moral conflicts, that party who can preserve, through
every degree of opposition and persecution, a divine, unprovok-
able spirit of love, must finally conquer. Such are the immutable
laws of the moral world. Anger, wrath, selfishness, and jealousy
have all a certain degree of vitality. They often produce more
show, more noise, and temporary result than love. Still, all
these passions have in themselves the seeds of weakness. Love,
and love only, is immortal; and when all the grosser passions of
the soul have spent themselves by their own force, love looks
forth like the unchanging star, with a light that never dies.
In undertaking this work, we must love both the slaveholder
and the slave. We must never forget that both are our brethren.
We must expect to be misrepresented, to be slandered, and to
be hated. How can we attack so powerful an interest without
it? We must be satisfied simply with the pleasure of being
true friends, while we are treated as bitter enemies.
This holy controversy must be one of principle, and not of
sectional bitterness. We must not suffer it to degenerate, in our
hands, into a violent prejudice against the South; and, to this
end, we must keep continually before our minds the more amiable
features and attractive qualities of those with whose principles
we are obliged to conflict. If they say all manner of evil against
us, we must reflect that we expose them to great temptation to
do so when we assail institutions to which they are bound by a
thousand ties of interest and early association, and to whose evils
habit has made them in a great degree insensible. The apostle
gives us this direction in cases where we are called upon to deal
with offending brethren, “Consider thyself, lest thou also be
tempted.” We may apply this to our own case, and consider
that if we had been exposed to the temptations which surround
our friends at the South, and received the same education,
we might have felt, and thought, and acted as they do. But,
while we cherish all these considerations, we must also remem-
ber that it is no love to the South to countenance and defend
a pernicious system; a system which is as injurious to the
master as to the slave; a system which turns fruitful fields to
deserts; a system ruinous to education, to morals, and to religion
and social progress; a system of which many of the most intel-
ligent and valuable men at the South are weary, and from which
they desire to escape, and by emigration are yearly escaping.
Neither must we concede the rights of the slave; for he is also
our brother, and there is a reason why we should speak for him
which does not exist in the case of his master. He is poor, un-
educated, and ignorant, and cannot speak for himself. We must,
therefore, with greater jealousy, guard his rights. Whatever else
we compromise, we must not compromise the rights of the help-
less, nor the eternal principles of rectitude and morality.
We must never concede that it is an honourable thing to
deprive working-men of their wages, though, like many other
abuses, it is customary, reputable, and popular, and though ami-
able men, under the influence of old prejudices, still continue to
do it. Never, not even for a moment, should we admit the
thought that an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ may
lawfully be sold upon the auction-block, though it be a common
custom. We must repudiate, with determined severity, the
blasphemous doctrine of property in human beings.
Some have supposed it an absurd refinement to talk about
separating principles and persons, or to admit that he who
upholds a bad system can be a good man. All experience proves
the contrary. Systems most unjust and despotic have been
defended by men personally just and humane. It is a melan-
choly consideration, but no less true, that there is almost no
absurdity and no injustice that has not, at some period of the
in its support.
It is a part of our trial in this imperfect life--were evil
systems only supported by the evil, our moral discipline would
be much less severe than it is, and our course in attacking error
far plainer.
On the whole, we cannot but think that there was much Chris-
tian wisdom in the remark, which we have before quoted, of a
poor old slave-woman, whose whole life had been darkened by
this system, that we must “hate the sin, but love the sinner.”
The last means for the abolition of slavery is the armour of
righteousness on the right hand and on the left.
By this we mean an earnest application of all straightforward,
honourable, and just measures, for the removal of the system of
slavery. Every man, in his place, should remonstrate against it.
All its sophistical arguments should be answered, its biblical
defences unmasked, by correct reasoning and interpretation.
Every mother should teach the evil of it to her children. Every
clergyman should fully and continually warm his Church against
any complicity with such a sin. It is said that this would be
introducing politics into the pulpit. It is answered that, since
people will have to give an account of their political actions in
the day of judgment, it seems proper that the minister should
instruct them somewhat as to their political responsibilities. In
that day Christ will ask no man whether he was of this or that
party; but he certainly will ask him whether he gave his vote
&n
bsp; in the fear of God, and for the advancement of the kingdom of
righteousness.
It is often objected that slavery is a distant sin, with which
we have nothing to do. If any clergyman wishes to test this
fact, let him once plainly and faithfully preach upon it. He
will probably, then, find that the roots of the poison-tree have
run under the very hearthstone of New England families, and
that in his very congregation are those in complicity with this
sin.
It is no child's play to attack an institution which has ab-
sorbed into itself so much of the political power and wealth of
this nation; and they who try it will soon find that they wrestle
“not with flesh and blood.” No armour will do for this war-
fare but the “armour of righteousness.”
To our brethren in the South, God has pointed out a more
arduous conflict. The very heart shrinks to think what the
faithful Christian must endure who assails this institution on its
own ground; but it must be done. How was it at the North?
There was a universal effort to put down the discussion of it
here by mob law. Printing-presses were broken, houses torn
down, property destroyed. Brave men, however, stood firm;
martyr blood was shed for the right of free opinion in speech;
and so the right of discussion was established. Nobody tries
that sort of argument now--its day is past. In Kentucky, also,
they tried to stop the discussion by similar means. Mob vio-
lence destroyed a printing-press, and threatened the lives of indi-
viduals. But there were brave men there, who feared not violence
or threats of death; and emancipation is now open for discussion
in Kentucky. The fact is, the South must discuss the matter of
slavery. She cannot shut it out, unless she lays an embargo on
the literature of the whole civilised world. If it be, indeed,
divine and God-appointed, why does she so tremble to have it
touched? If it be of God, all the free inquiry in the world
cannot overthrow it. Discussion must and will come. It only
requires courageous men to lead the way.
Brethren in the South, there are many of you who are truly
convinced that slavery is a sin, a tremendous wrong; but if you
confess your sentiments, and endeavour to propagate your opi-
nions, you think that persecution, affliction, and even death
await you. How can we ask you, then, to come forward?