It is because I feel a portion of that love glowing in my heart towards
you, which is infused into every bosom by the cordial reception
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I am induced to address you as fellow
professors of his holy religion. To my dear native land, to the beloved
relatives who are still breathing her tainted air, to the ministers of
Christ, from some of whom I have received the emblems of a Saviour’s
love; my heart turns with feelings of intense solicitude, even with such
feelings, may I presume to say, as brought the gushing tears of compassion
from the Redeemer of the world, when he wept over the city
which he loved, when with ineffable pathos he exclaimed, “O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not.” Nay, these are the feelings which fill the hearts of Northern
Abolitionists towards Southern slave-holders. Yes, my brethren,
notwithstanding the bon fire at Charleston—the outrages at Nashville
on the person of Dresser—the banishment of Birney and Nelson
—the arrest and imprisonment of our colored citizens—we can
still weep over you with unfeigned tenderness and anxiety, and exclaim,
O that ye would even now listen to the christian remonstrances of
those who feel that the principle they advocate “is not a vain thing for
you, because it is your life.” For you the midnight tear is shed, for
you the daily and the nightly prayer ascends, that God in his unbounded
mercy may open your hearts to believe his awful denunciations against
those who “rob the poor because he is poor.” And will you still disregard
the supplications of those, who are lifting up their voices like the prophets
of the old, and reiterating the soul-touching enquiry, “Why will ye die,
O house of Israel?” Oh that I could clothe thy feelings in eloquence
that would be irresistible, in tones of melting tenderness that would
soften the hearts of all, who hold their fellow men in bondage.

2

A solemn sense of the duty which I owe as a Southerner to every
class of the community of which I was once a part, likewise impels me
to address you, especially, who are filling the important and responsible
station of ministers of Jehovah, expounders of the lively oracles of God.
It is because you sway the minds of a vast proportion of the Christian
community, who regard you as the channel through which divine knowledge
must flow. Nor does the fact that you are voluntarily invested
by the people with this high prerogative, lessen the fearful weight of responsibility
which attaches to you as a watchmen on the walls of Zion.
It adds rather a tenfold weight of guilt, because the very first duty
which devolves upon you is to teach them not to trust in man.—Oh my
brethren, is this duty faithfully performed? Is not the idea inculcated
that to you they must look for the right understanding of the sacred
volume, and has not your interpretation of the Word of God induced
thousands and tens of thousands to receive as truth, sanctioned by the
authority of Heaven, the oft repeated declaration that slaver, American
slavery, stamped as it is with all its infinity of horrors, bears upon
it the signet of that God whose name is Love?

Let us contemplate the magnificent scene of creation, when
God looked upon chaos and said, “Let there be light, and there was
light.” The dark abyss was instantaneously illuminated, and a
flood of splendor poured upon the face of the deep, and “God saw the
light that it was good.” Behold the work of creation carried on and
perfected—the azure sky and verdant grass, the trees, the beasts, the
fowls of the air, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea,
the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night, and
all the starry host of heaven, brought into existence by the simple command,
Let them be.

But was the man, the lord of this creation, thus ushered into being? No,
the Almighty, clothed as he is with all power in heaven and in earth,
paused when he had thus far completed his glorious work—“Omnipotence
retired, if I may so speak, and held a counsel when he was about
to place upon the earth the sceptered monarch of the universe.” He
did not say let man be, but “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth.” Here is written
in characters of fire continually blazing before the eyes of every man
who holds his fellow man in bondage—In the image of God created he
man. Here is marked a distinction which can never be effaced between
a man and a thing, and we are fighting against God’s unchangeable
decree by depriving this rational and immortal being of those inalienable
rights which have been conferred upon him. He was created
a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, and designed
to be God’s vicegerent upon earth—but slavery has wrested the
sceptre of dominion from his hand, slavery has seized with an iron grasp
this God-like being, and torn the crown form his head. Slavery has disrobed
him of royalty, put him on the collar and the chain, and trampled
the image of God into the dust.

3

This, my brethren, is slavery—this is what sublimates the atrocity of that
act, which virtually says, I will as far as I am able destroy the image of
God, blot him from creation as a man, and convert him into a thing—“a
chattel personal.” Can any crime, tremendous as is the history of human
wickedness, compare in turpitude with this?—No, the immutable
difference, the heaven-wide distinction which God has established between
that being, whom he has made a little lower than the angels, and
all the other works of this wonderful creation, cannot be annihilated
without incurring a weight of guilt beyond expression terrible.

And after God had destroyed the world by a flood because of the
wickedness of man, every imagination of whose heart was evil, and had
preserved Noah because he was righteous before him, He renewed man’s
delegated authority over the whole animate and inanimate creation, and
again delivered into his hand every beast of the earth and every fowl of
the air, and added to his former grant of power, “Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given
you all things.” Then, as if to impress indelibly upon the mind of man
the eternal distinction between his rational and immortal creatures and
the lower orders of beings, he guards the life of this most precious
jewel, with a decree which would have proved all-sufficient to protect
it, had not Satan infused into man his own reckless spirit.

Permission ample was given to shed the blood of all inferior creatures,
but of this being, bearing the impress of divinity, God said “‘And
surely your blood of your lives will I require, at the hand of every beast
will I require it, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man’s
brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood,
by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.’”
Let us pause and examine this passage.—Man may shed the blood of
the inferior animals, he may use them as mere means—he may convert
them into food to sustain existence—but if the top-stone of creation,
the image of God had his blood shed by a beast, that blood was required
even of this irrational brute: as if Deity had said, over my likeness
I will spread a panoply divine that all creation may instinctively
feel that he is precious to his Maker—so precious, that if his life be
taken by his fellow man—if man degrades himself to the level of a
beast by destroying his brother—“by man shall his blood be shed.”

This distinction between men and things is marked with equal care
and solemnity under the Jewish dispensation. “If a man steal an ox,
or a sheep, and kill it, or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox, and
four sheep for a sheep.” But “he that stealeth a man and selleth him 4
or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.” If this
law were carried into effect now, what must be the inevitable doom of
all those who now hold man as property? If Jehovah were to exact
the execution of this penalty upon the more enlightened and more spiritually
minded men who live under the Christian dispensation, would he
not instantly commission his most tremendous thunderbolts to strike from
existence those who are thus trampling upon his laws, thus defacing his
image?

I pass now to the eighth Psalm, which is a sublime anthem of praise
to our Almighty Father for his unbounded goodness to the children of
men. This Psalm alone affords irrefragable proof that God never gave
to man dominion over his own image, that he never commissioned the
Israelites to enslave their fellow man. This was

“Authority usurped from God not given– . . . . . . . Man over men He made not Lord, such title to himself Reserving, human left, from human free.”

This beautiful song of glory to God was composed three thousand
years after the creation, and David who says of himself, “The spirit
of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue,” gives us the
following exquisite description of the creation of man and of the power
with which he was intrusted. “Thou hast made him a little lower than
the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him
to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things
under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and all the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through
the paths of the sea.”

David was living under the dispensation to which slave-holders triumphantly
point as the charter of their right to hold men as property;
but he does not even intimate that any extension of prerogative had been
granted. He specifies precisely the same things which are specified at
the creation and after the flood. He had been eminently instrumental in
bringing into captivity the nations round about, but he does not so much
as hint that Jehovah had transferred the sceptre of dominion over his
immortal creatures to the hand of man. How could God create man
in his own image and then invest his fellow worms with power to blot
him from the world of spirits and place him on a level with the brutes
that perish!

The same Psalm is quoted by the Apostle Paul, as if our heavenly
Father designed to teach us through all the dispensations of his mercy
to a fallen world, that man was but a little lower than the angels, God’s
vicegerent upon earth over the inferior creatures. St. Paul quotes it
in connection with that stupendous event whereby we are saved from
eternal death. “But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor;
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Here 5
side by side the apostle places “God manifest in the flesh” and
his accredited representative man. He calls us to view the masterpiece
of God’s creation, and then the master—piece of his mercy—Christ
Jesus, wearing our form and dying for our sins, thus conferring everlasting
honor upon man by declaring “both he that sanctifieth and
they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren.” It is then, the Lord’s brethren whom
we have enslaved; the Lord’s brethren of whom we say “slaves
shall be deemed, taken, reputed, and adjudged, chattels personal in the
hands of their owners and possessors to all intents and purposes whatever.”
—Laws of South Carolina.

And here I cannot but advert to a most important distinction which
God has made between immortal beings and the beasts that perish.—No
one can doubt that by the fall of man the whole creation underwent a
change. The apostle says, “We know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together.” But it was for man alone that the
Lord Jesus “made himself of no reputation and took upon him the
form of a servant.” When he came before his incarnation to cheer his
servants with his blessed presence, when he visited Abraham and Manoah,
he took it upon himself a human form. Manoah’s wife says, “a
man of God came unto me.” And when he came and exhibited on
the theatre of our world, that miracle of grace “God in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself,” what form did he wear? “Verily,” says
the apostle, “he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on
him the seed of Abraham:” Oh, my brethren, he has stamped with
high and holy dignity the form we wear, he has forever exalted our nature
by condescending to assume it, and by investing man with the
high and holy privilege of being “the temple of the holy Ghost.” Where
then is our title deed for enslaving our equal brother?

Mr. Chandler of Norfolk, in a speech in the House of Delegates of
Virginia, on the subject of negro slavery in 18321832, speaking of our right
to hold our colored brethren in bondage, says:

“‘As a Virginian, I do not question the master’s title to his slave; but I put
it to that gentleman, as a man, as a moral man, as a Christian man, whether
he has not some doubts of his claim to his slaves, being as absolute and unqualified
as that to other property. Let us in the investigation of this title go back
to its origin—Whence came slaves into this country?—From Africa. Were
they free men there? At one time they were. How came they to be converted
into slaves?—By the stratagem of war and the strong arm of the conqueror;
they were vanquished in battle, sold by the victorious party to the slave trader;
who brought them to our shores, and disposed of them to the planters of Virginia..............The
truth is, our ancestors had no title to this property, and we
have acquired it only by legislative enactments.’”

But can “legislative enactments” annul the laws of Jehovah, or
sanctify the crimes of theft and oppression? “Wo unto them that decree
unrighteous decrees.....to take away the right from the
poor of my people.” Suppose the Saviour of the world were to 6
visit our guilty country and behold the Christianity of our slave holding
states, would not his language be, “Ye have heard that it hath been
said by them said by them of old time, enslave your fellow men, but I say unto you
‘Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you,’ and set your
captives free!”

The sentiment— “Man over man He made not lord—”
is the sentiment of human nature. It is written, by the Almighty, on
the soul, as a part of its very being. So that, urge on the work of death
as we may, in the mad attempt to convert a free agent into a machine, a
man into a thing, and nature will still cry out for freedom. Hear the
testimony of James McDowell, in the House of the Delegates, in Virginia
in 18321832.

“‘As to the idea that the slave in any considerable number of cases can be so
attached to his master and his servitude, as to be indifferent to freedom, it is
wholly unnatural, rejected by the conscious testimony of every man’s heart, and
the written testimony of the world’s experience................. You may place the
slave where you please, you may oppress him as you please, you may dry up to
the uttermost the fountain of his feelings, the springs of his thought, you may
close upon his mind every avenue of knowledge, and cloud it over with artificial
night, you may yoke him and under any process, which without destroying his value
as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being, and the idea that he
was born to be free will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immortality—
it is the ethereal part of his being, which oppression cannot reach; it is a torch
lit up in his soul by the hand of Deity, and never meant to be extinguished by
the hand of a man.’”

I need not enter into an elaborate proof that Jewish servitude, as permitted
by God, was as different from American slavery, as Christianity
is from heathenism. The limitation laws respecting strangers and servants,
entirely prohibited cruelty and oppression, whereas in our slave
states, “The master may, at his discretion, inflict any species of
punishment upon the person of his slave,”Open note q037-rota Sketch of the Laws relating to slavery, in the United States of America,
by George M. Stroud. and the law throws
her protecting ægis over the master, by refusing to receive under any
circumstances, the testimony of a colored man against a white, except
to subserve the interests of the owner.—“It is manifest,” says the author
(a Christian Minister) of “A calm enquiry into the countenance
afforded by the Scriptures to the system of the British Colonial Slavery”
“that the Hebrews had no word in their language equivalent to slave
in the West Indian use of that term. The word ‘עכר obed’, is applied
to both bond servants and hired, to kings and prophets, and even to the
Saviour of the world. It was a general designation for any person who
rendered service of any kind to God or man. But the term slave, in
the Colonial sense, could not be at all applied to a freeman.” The 7
same word in the “Septuagint” which is translated servant, is also translated
child, and as the Hebrew language is remarkable for its minute
shades of distinction in things, had there been, as is asserted, slaves in
Judea, there would undoubtedly have been some term to designate
such a condition. Our language recognizes the difference between a
slave and a servant, because those two classes actually exist in our
country. The Burmese language has no word to express “eternity”,
hence a missionary remarked that it was almost impossible to convey
to them any conception of it. So likewise among the ancient Greeks
and Romans there was no word equivalent to humility, because they
acknowledged no such virtue. The want of any term therefore in
the Hebrew, to mark the distinction between a slave in the proper
sense of the term and other servants, is proof presumptive to say the
least, that no such condition as that of slave was known among the
Jews of that day.

To assert that Abraham held slaves is a mere slander. The phrase,
translated “souls that they had gotten in Haran,” Gen. 12:5, has no
possible reference to slaves, and was never supposed to have any allusion
to slavery until the commencement of the slave trade in England,
in 15631563. From that time commentators endeavored to cast upon
Abraham the obloquy of holding his fellow creatures in bondage, in order
to excuse this nefarious traffic. The Targum of Onkelos thus
paraphrases this passage “souls gotten, i.e. those whom they had caused
to obey the law.” The Targum of Jonathan calls them “Proselytes.”
Jarchi, “Those whom they had brought under the wings of Shekinah.”
Menochius, “Those whom they converted from idolatry.” Luke
Franke, a Latin commentator, “Those whom they subjected to the law.”
Jerome calls them “Proselytes.” Here is a mass of evidence which
is incontrovertible. Abraham’s business as “the friend of God” was
to get souls as the seals of his ministry. Would he have been called
from a heathen land to be the father of the faithful in all generations,
that he might enslave the conver’s he made from idolatry? As soon
might we suspect our missionaries of riveting the chains of servitude on
souls that they may have gotten, as seals of their ministry, from among
those to whom they proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. Would
heathen then, any more than now, be attracted to a standard which bore
on it the inscription Slavery? No, my brethren; and if our down
trodden slaves did not distinguish between Christianity and the Christians
who hold them in bondage, they could never embrace a religion,
which is exhibited to them from the pulpit, in the prayer-meeting, and
at the domestic altar, embodies in the form of masters, utterly regardless
of the divine command, “Render unto your servants that which
is just.” From the confidence which Abraham reposed in his servants
we cannot avoid the interference that they clustered voluntarily
around him as the benefactor of their souls, the patriarch of that little
community which his ministry had gathered.

8

Again, it is often peremptorily asserted that “the Africans are a divinely
condemned and proscribed race.” If they are, has God constituted
the slave holders the ministers of his vengeance? This question
can only be answered in the negative, and until it can be otherwise answered,
it is vain to appeal to the curse on Canaan or to Hebrew servitude,
in support of American slavery. As well might the bloodstained
Emperor of France appeal to the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites,
and challenge the Almighty to reward him for the work of
death which he wrought on the fields of Marengo and Leipsic, because
God invested his peculiar people, with authority to destroy the nations
which had filled up the measure of iniquity. The express grant
to the Jews to reduce to subjection some of the Canaanitish nations and
to exterminate others, at once condemns American slavery, because
those who derive their sanction to hold their fellow men in bondage from
the Bible, admit that a specific grant was necessary to empower the Israelites
to make bond men of the heathen; and unless this permission
had been given, they would not have been justified in doing it. It is
therefore self-evident that as we have never been commanded to enslave
the Africans we can derive no sanction for our slave system from the
history of the Jews.

Another plea by which we endeavor to silence the voice of conscience
is “that the child is invariably born to the condition of the parent.”
Hence the law of South Carolina, says “All their (the slaves) issue
and offspring, born, or to be born, shall be, and they are hereby
declared to be, and remain forever hereafter absolute slaves,
and shall forever follow the condition of the mother.” To support
this assumption, recourse is had to the page of inspiration. Our
colored brethren are said to be the descendants of Ham who was
cursed with all his posterity, and their condition only in accordance with
the declaration of Jehovah, that he visits the iniquities of the fathers upon
the children.—I need only remark that Canaan not Ham, was the object
of Noah’s prophecy, and that is upon his descendants it has been amply
fulfilled.

But we appeal to prophecy in order to excuse or palliate the sin of
slavery, and we regard ourselves as guiltless because we are fulfilling the
designs of Omnipotence. Let us read our sentence in the word of
God: “And he said unto Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them, and
I will afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they
shall serve, I will judge.” That nation literally drank the blood of
the wrath of Almighty God. The whole land of Egypt was a house
of mourning, a scene of consternation and horror. What did it avail
the Egyptians that they had been the instruments permitted in the inscrutable
counsels of Jehovah to accomplish every iota of the prophecy
concerning the seed of Abraham?

Appeal to prophecy! As well might the Jews who by wicked hands
crucified the Messiah claim to themselves the sanction of prophecy. As 9
well might they shield themselves from the scathing lightning of the
Almighty under the plea that the tragedy they acted on Calvary’s
mount, had been foretold by the inspired penman a thousand years
before. Read in the 22d Psalm an exact description of the crucifixion
of Christ. Hear the words of the dying Redeemer from the lips
of the Psalmist: “My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?”
At the awful day when the dead, small and great, stand before God,
and the books are opened, and another book is opened, which is the
book of life, and the dead are judged out of those things which are
written in the book according to their works—think you, my brethren,
that the betrayer and the crucifiers of the Son of God will find
their names inscribed in the book of life “because they fulfilled prophecy
in killing the Prince of Peace? Think you that they will claim, or
receive on this ground, exemption from the torments of the damned?
Will it not add to their guilt and woe that “To Him bare all the prophets
witness,” and render more intense the anguish and horror with which
they will all upon “the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and
hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb?”

Contemplate the history of the Jews since the crucifixion of Christ!
Behold even in this world the awfully retributive justice which is so accurately
pourtrayed by the pen of Moses. “And the Lord shall scatter
thee among all people from the one end of the earth even unto the other,
and among those nations shalt thou find no ease.” And can we
believe that those nations who with satanic ingenuity have fulfilled to
a tittle these prophecies against this guilty people, will stand acquitted
at the bar of God for their own cruelty and injustice, in the matter?
Prophecy is a mirror on whose surface is inscribed in characters in light,
that sentence of deep, immitigable woe which the Almighty has pronounced
and executed on transgressors. Let me beseech you then, my
dear, though guilty brethren, to pause, and learn from the tremendour
past what must be the inevitable destiny of those who are adding yeayear
after year, to the amount of the crime which is treasuring up “wrath
against the day of wrath.” “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed
in the land! The prophets prophecy falsely, and the priests bear
rule by their means, and my people love to have it so, and what will ye
do in the end thereof?” “Thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning
the prophets, Behold I will feed them with wormwood, and make them
drink the water of gall.”

The present position of my country and of the church is one of
deep and solemn interest. The times of our ignorance on the subject
of slavery which God may have winked at, have passed away. We are no
longer standing unconsciously and carelessly on the brink of a burning
volcano. The strong arm of Almighty power has rolled back the
dense cloud which hung over the terrific crater, and has exposed it to
our view, and although no human eye can penetrate the abyss, yet
enough is seen to warn us of the consequences of trifling with Omnipotence.
Jehovah is calling to us as he did to Job out of the whirlwind, 2 10
and every blast bears on its wings the sound, Repent! Repent! God,
if I may so speak, is waiting to see whether we will hearken unto his
voice. He has sent out his light and his truth, and as regards us it
may perhaps be said—there is now silence in heaven. The commissioned
messengers of grace to this guilty nation are rapidly traversing
our country, through the medium of the Anti-Slavery Society, through
its agents and its presses, whilst the “ministering spirits” are marking
with breathless interest the influence produced by these means of knowledge
thus mercifully furnished to our land. Oh! if there be joy in
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, what hallelujahs of angelic
praise will arise, when the slave-holder and the defender of slavery
bow before the footstool of mercy, and with broken spirits and contrite
hearts surrender unto God that dominion over his immortal creatures
which he alone can rightly exercise.

What an appalling spectacle do we now present! With one hand
we clasp the cross of Christ, and with the other grasp the neck of the
down-trodden slave! With one eye we are gazing imploringly on the
bleeding sacrifice of Calvary, as if we expected redemption through the
blood which was shed there, and with the other we cast the glance of
indignation and contempt at the representative of Him who there made
his soul an offering for sin! My Christian brethren, if there is any
truth in the Bible, and in the God of the Bible, our hearts bear us witness
that he can no more acknowledge us as his disciples, if we wilfully
persist in this sin, than he did the Pharisees formerly, who were
strict and punctilious in the observance of the ceremonial law, and yet
devoured widows’ houses. We have added a deeper shade to their
guilt, we make widows by tearing from the victims of a cruel bondage,
the husbands of their bosoms, and then devour a widow herself by
robbing her of her freedom, and reducing her to the level of a brute.
I solemnly appeal to your own consciences. Does not the rebuke of
Christ to the Pharisees apply to some of those who are exercising the
office of Gospel ministers, “Wo unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye devour widow’s houses, and for a pretence make long
prayers, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

How long the space now granted for repentance may continue, is
among the secret things which belong unto God, and my soul ardently
desires that all those who are enlisted in the ranks of abolition may regard
every day as possibly the last, and may pray without ceasing to
God, to grant this nation repentance and forgiveness of the sin of slavery.
The time is precious, unspeakably precious, and every encouragement
is offered to us to supplicate the God of the master and of the
slave to make a “right way” “for us, and for our little ones,
and for all our substance.” Ezra says, “so we fasted and besought the
Lord, and he was entreated for us.” Look at the marvellous effects of
prayer when Peter was imprisoned. What did the church in that crisis?
She felt that her weapons were not carnal, but spiritual and “prayer
was made without ceasing.” These petitious offered in humble faith
were mighty through God to the emancipation of Peter. “Is the 11
Lord’s arm shortened that is cannot save, or his ear grown heavy that
it cannot hear?” If he condescended to work a miracle in answer to prayer
when one of his servants was imprisoned, will he not graciously hear our
supplications when two millions of his immortal creatures are in bondage?
We entreat the Christian ministry to co-operate with us to unite
in our petitions to Almighty God to deliver our land from blood
guiltiness; to enable us to see the abominations of American slavery
by the light of the gospel. “This is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil.” Then may we expect a glorious consummation
to our united labors of love. Then may the Lord Jesus
unto whom belongeth all power in heaven and in earth condescend to
answer our prayers, and by the softening influence of his holy spirit
induce our brethren and sisters of the South “to undo the heavy burdens,
to break every yoke and let the oppressed go free.”

My mind has been deeply impressed whilst reading the account of the
anniversaries held last spring in the city of New York, with the belief
that there is in America a degree of light, knowledge and intelligence
which leaves us without excuse before God for upholding the system of
slavery. Nay, we not only sustain this temple of Moloch; but with
impious lips consecrate it to the Most High God; and call upon Jehovah
himself to sanctify our sins by the presence of his Shekinah. Now
mark, the unholy combination that has been entered into between the
North and South to shut out the light on this all important subject.
I copy from a speech before the General Assembly’s Board of Education.
As an illustration of his position, Dr. Breckenridge referred
to the influence of the Education Board in the Southern States.
“Jealous as those States were, and not without reason, of all that came to
them in the shape of benevolent enterprise from the North, and ready
as they were to take fire in a moment at whatever threatened their own
peculiar institutions, the plans of this Board had conciliated their fullest
confidence: in proof of which they had placed nearly two hundred
of their sons under its care, that they might be trained and fitted to
preach to their own population.” The interference is unavoidable that
the “peculiar institution” spoken of is domestic slavery in all its
bearings and relations; and it is equally clear that the ministry educated
for the South are to be thoroughly imbued with the slave-holding spirit,
that they may be “fitted to preach to their own population,” not the
gospel of Jesus Christ, which proclaims liberty to the captive, but a
religion which grants to man the privilege of sinning with impunity,
and stamps with the signet of the King of heaven a system that embraces
every possible enormity. Surely if ye are ambassadors for Christ,
ye are bound to promulgate the whole counsel of God. But can ye
preach from the language of James, “Behold the hire of your laborers
which is of you kept back by fraud crieth, and the cries of them which
have reaped, are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” Multitudes
of other texts must be virtually expunged from the Bible of the
slave holding minister; every denunciation against oppression strikes 12
at the root of slavery. God is in a peculiar manner the God of the
poor and needy, the despised and the oppressed. “The Lord said
I have surely seen the affliction of my people, and have heard their
cry by reason of their task-masters, for I know their sorrows.” And
he knows the sorrows of the American slave, and he will come down
in mercy, or in judgment to deliver them.

In a speech before the American Seamen’s Friend Society, by
Rev. William S. Plumer of Virginia, it is said, “The resolution spoke
of weighty considerations, why we should care for seamen, and one of
these certainly was, because as a class, they had been long and criminally
neglected. Another weighty consideration was that seamen
were a suffering race.” ......... “And who was the cause of this? Was
it not the Church who withheld from these her suffering brethren, those
blessed truths of God, so well calculated to comfort those who suffer?”
Oh my brother! while drawing to the life a picture of a class of our
fellow beings, who have been “long and criminally neglected,” of “a
suffering race,” was there no cord of sympathy in thy heart to vibrate
to the groans of the slave? Did no seraph’s voice whisper in thine ear
“Remember them which are in bonds?” Did memory present no scenes
of cruelty and oppression? And did not conscience say, thou art one
who withholds from thy suffering colored brethren those blessed truths of
God so well calculated to comfort those who suffer? Can we believe that
the God of Christianity will bless people who are thus dispensing
their gifts to all, save those by whose unrequited toil, we and our ancestors
for generations past have subsisted?

Let us examine the testimony of Charles C. Jones, Professor in the
Theological Seminary, Columbia, S.C. relative to the condition of our
slaves, and then judge whether they have not at least as great a claim
as seamen to the sympathy and benevolent effort of Christian
Ministers. In a sermon preached before two associations of planters
in Georgia in 18311831, he says: “‘Generally speaking, they (the
slaves) appear to us to be without God and without hope in the world,
a nation of heathen in our very midst. We cannot cry out against
the Papists for withholding the scriptures from the common people, and
keeping them in ignorance of the way of life, for we withhold the Bible
from our servants, and keep them in ignorance of it, while we will not
use the means to have it read and explained to them. The cry
of our perishing servants comes up to us from their humble cottages when
they return at evening, to rest their weary limbs; it comes up to us
from the midst of their ignorance and superstition, and adultery and
lewdness. We have manifested no emotions of horror at abandoning
the souls of our servants to the adversary, the “roaring lion, that walketh
about, seeking whom he may devour.”’”

On the 1833-12-055th of December, 1833, a committee of the synod of South
Carolina and Georgia, to whom was referred the subject of the religious
instruction of the colored population, made a report in which this language
was used.

13

“Who would credit it that in these years of revival and benevolent effort, in
this Christian republic, there are over two millions of human beings in the
condition of heathen, and in some respects in a worse condition. From long
continued and close observation, we believe that their moral and religious condition
is such that they may be justly considered the heathen of this Christian
country, and will bear comparison with heathens in any country in the
world.The negroes are destitute of the gospel, and ever will be under the present
state of things.”

In a number of the Charleston Observer (in 18341834,) a correspondent
remarked: “Let us establish missionaries among our own negroes,
who, in view of religious knowledge, are as debasingly ignorant as any
one on the coast of Africa; for I hazard the assertion that throughout
the bounds of our Synod, there are at least one hundred thousand
slaves, speaking the same language as ourselves, who never heard of
the plan of salvation by a Redeemer.”

The Editor, Rev. Benjamin Gildersleeve, who has resided at least
ten years at the South, so far from contradicting this broad assertion, adds,
“We fully concur with what our correspondent has said, respecting the
benighted heathen among ourselves.”

As Southerners, can we deny these things? As Christians, can we
ask the blessing of the Redeemer of men on the system of American
slavery? Can we carry it to the footstool of a God whose “compassions
fail not,” and pray for holy help to rivet the chains of interminable
bondage on two millions of our fellow men, the accredited representatives
of Jesus Christ? If we cannot ask in faith that the blessing
of God may rest on this work of cruelty to the bodies, and destruction
of the souls of men, we may be assured that his controversy is against
it. Try it, my brethren, when you are kneeling around the family
altar with the wife of your bosom, with the children of your love,
when you are supplicating Him who hath made of one blood all nations,
to sanctify these precious souls and prepare them for an inheritance
with Jesus—then pray, if you can that God will grant you power
to degrade to the level of brutes your colored brethren. Try it,
when your little ones are twining their arms around your necks, and
lisping the first fond accents of affection in your ears; when the petition
arises from the fulness of a parent’s heart for a blessing on your
children. At such a moment, look in upon your slave. He too is a father,
and we know that he is susceptible of all the tender sensibilities of a father’s
love. He folds his cherished infant in his arms, he feels its lifepulse
throb against his own, and he rejoices that he is a parent; but
soon the withering thought rushes to his mind—I am a slave, and tomorrow
my master may tear my darling from my arms. Contemplate
this scene, while your cheeks are yet warm with the kisses of your children,
and then try if you can mingle with a parent’s prayer and a parent’s
blessing, the petition that God may enable you and your posterity
to perpetuate a system to which the slave denies—

“To live together, or together die. By felon hands at one relentless stroke See the fond links of feeling nature broke; The fibres twisting roused a parent’s heart, Torn from their grasp and bleeding as they part.” 14

A southern minister, Rev. Mr. Atkinson of Virginia, in a speech before
the Bible society last spring, says: “The facts which have been
told respecting the destitution of some portions of our country are but
samples of thousands more. Could we but feel what we owed to him
who gave the Bible, we would at the same time feel that we owed it
to a fallen and perishing world not merely to pass fine resolutions, or
listen to eloquent speeches, but to exhibit a life devoted to the conversion
of the world.”

Let us now turn to the heart-sickening picture of the “destitution”
of our slaves drawn by those who had the living original continually
before their eyes. I extract from the report of the Synod of South Carolina
and Georgia before referred to.

“We may now enquire if they (the slaves) enjoy the privileges of the gospel
in their own houses, and on our plantations? Again we return a negative answer
—They have no Bibles to read by their own fire-sides—they have no family
altars; and when in affliction, sickness, or death, they have no minister to
address to them the consolations of the gospel, nor to bury them with solemn
and appropriate services.”

This state of things, is the result of laws enacted in a free and enlightened
republic. In North Carolina, to teach a slave to read or write, or to
sell or give him any book, (the Bible not excepted) or pamphlet, is punished
with thirty–nine lashes, or imprisonment, if the offender be a free
negro, but if a white then with a fine of two hundred dollars. The
reason for this law assigned in the preamble is, that “teaching slaves to
read and write tends to excite dissatisfaction in their minds, and to produce
insurrection and rebellion.”

In Georgia, if a white teach a free negro, or slave, to read or write,
he is fined $500, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court. If the
offender be a colored man, bond or free, he is to be fined, or whipt at
the discretion of the court. By this barbarous law, which was enacted
in 18291829, a white man may be fined and prisoned for teaching his own
child if he happens to be colored, and if colored, whether bond or free,
he may be fined or whipped.

“‘We have,’” says Mr. Berry, in a speech in the House of Delegates of Virginia
in 18321832, “‘as far as possible closed every avenue by which light might enter
their (the slaves) minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the
light, our work would be completed; they would then be on a level with the
beasts of the field, and we should be safe. I am not certain that we would not
do it, if we could find out the necessary process, and that on the plea of necessity.’”

Oh, my brethren! when you are telling to an admiring audience that
through your instrumentality nearly two millions of Bibles and Testaments
have been disseminated throughout the world, does not the voice
of the slave vibrate on your ear, as it floats over the sultry plains of
the South, and utters forth his lamentation, “Hast thou but one blessing,
my father? bless me, even me also, O my father!” Does no wail of torment
interrupt the eloquent harrangue?—And from the bottomless pit 15
does no accusing voice arise to charge you with the perdition of those
souls from whom you wrested, as far as you were able, the power of
working out their own salvation?

Our country, I believe, has arrived at an awful crisis. God has in
infinite mercy raised up those who have moral courage and religion
enough to obey the divine command, “Cry aloud and spare not, lift up
thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions.”—
Our sins are set in order before us, and we are now hesitating whether
we shall choose the curse pronounced by Jehovah, “‘Cursed be he that
perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless and widow,’” or
the blessing recorded in the 41st Psl. “Blessed is the man that considereth
the poor (or the weak,) the Lord will deliver him in the time of
trouble.”

And there is no help? Shall we be dismayed because our mistaken
countrymen burned our messengers of Truth in Charleston, S.C.?
No, my brethren, I am not dismayed! I do not intend to stamp the anti-slavery
publications as inspiring writings, but the principles they promulgate
are the principles of the holy Scriptures, and I derive encouragement
from the recollection that Tindal suffered martyrdom for translating
and printing the New Testament–and that Tonstal, Archbishop
of London, purchased every copy which he could obtain, and had them
burnt by the common hangman. Now Great Britain is doing more
than any other people to scatter the Bible to every nation under heaven.
Shall we be alarmed as though some new thing had happened unto
us because our printing press has been destroyed at Cincinnati, Ohio?
The devoted Carey was compelled to place his establishment for the
translation of the sacred volume beyond the boundary line of the British
authorities. And now England would gladly have the Bible translated
into every tongue.

If then there be, as I humbly trust there are among my Christian
brethren some who like the prophet of old are ready to exclaim! “Wo
is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; for
mine eyes have seen the Kind, the Lord of Hosts”—If to some of you
Jehovah has unveiled the abominations of American Slavery, the guilt
of yourselves and of your brethren! Oh remember the prophet of Israel
and be encouraged. Your lips like his will be touched with a live
coal from off the altar. The Lord will be your light and your salvation:
He will go before you and the God of Israel will be your reward.

If ever there was a time when the Church of Christ was called upon
to make an aggressive movement on the kingdom of darkness, this is the
time. The subject of slavery is fairly before the American public.—
The consciences of the slave-holders at the South and of their coadjutors
at the North are aroused, notwithstanding all the opiates which are
so abundantly administered under the plea of necessity, and expediency,
and the duty of obedience to man, rather than God. In regard to
slavery, Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light, and under
the false pretence of consulting the good of the slaves, pleads for
retaining them in bondage, until they are prepared to enjoy the blessings 16
of liberty. Full well he knows that if he can but gain time, he gains
everything. When he stood beside Felix and saw that he trembled
before his fettered captive, as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
and judgment to come, he summoned to his aid this masterpiece
of satanic ingenuity, and whispered, say to this Apostle, “Go thy way
for this time, at a more convenient season, I will call for thee.” The
heart of Felix responded to this intimation, and his lips uttered the fatal
words—fatal, because, for aught that appears, they sealed his death
warrant for eternity. Let me appeal to every Christian minister,
who has known what it is to repent and forsake his sins: Have
you not all found that prospective repentance and future amendment are
destruction to the soul? The truth is, to postpone present duty, to get
ready for the discharge of the future, is just putting yourselves into the
hands of Satan to prepare you for the service of God. Just so, gradualism
puts the slave into the hands of his master, whose interest it is to
keep him enslaved, to prepare him for freedom, because that master
says at a convenient season I will liberate my captive. So says the adversary
of all good, serve me to-day and to-morrow thou mayest serve
God. Oh lay not this flattering unction to your souls, ye that are
teachers in Israel. God is not mocked, and ye may as well expect indulgence
in sin to purify the heart and prepare the soul for an inheritance
with the saints in light, as to suppose that slavery can fit men for
freedom. That which debases and brutalizes can never fit for freedom.
The chains of the slave must be sundered; he must be taught
that he is “heaven-born and destined to the skies again;” he must be
restored to his dignified station in the scale of creation, he must be
crowned again with the diadem of glory, again ranked amongst the
sons of God and invested with lordly prerogative over every living creature.
If you would aid in this mighty, this glorious achievement—
“Preach the word” of Immediate Emancipation. “Be instant
in season and out of season.” “If they persecute you in one
city, flee ye unto another,” that your sound may go out through all our
land; and you may not incur the awful charge,
“Ye knew your duty, but ye did it not.”

It is now twenty years since a beloved friend with whom I often
mingled my tears, related to me the following circumstance, when helpless
and hopeless we deplored the horrors of slavery, and I believe many
are now doing what we did then, weeping and praying and interceding,
“but secretly, for fear of the Jews.” On the plantation adjoining
her husband’s, there was a slave of pre-eminent piety. His master was
not a professor of religion, but the superior excellence of this disciple
of Christ was not unmarked by him, and I believe he was so sensible
of the good influence of his piety that he did not deprive him of the
few religious privileges within his reach. A planter was one day dining
with the owner of this slave, and in the course of conversation observed
that all profession of religion among slaves was mere hypocricy.
The other asserted a contrary opinion, adding, I have a slave who I believe 17
would rather die than deny his Saviour. This was ridiculed, and
the master urged to prove his assertion. He accordingly sent for this
man of God, and peremptorily ordered him to deny his belief in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The slave pleaded to be excused, constantly affirming
that he would rather die than deny the Redeemer, whose blood
was shed for him. His master, after vainly trying to induce obedience
by threats, had him severely whipped. The fortitude of the sufferer
was not to be shaken; he nobly rejected the offer of exemption from
further chastisement at the expense of destroying his soul, and this
blessed martyr died in consequence of this severe infliction. Oh, how
bright a gem will this victim of irresponsible power be, in that crown
which sparkles on the Redeemer’s brow; and that many such will
cluster there, I have not the shadow of a doubt. Open note a002-rota Since writing the above, I have received information that “the perpetrators of the foul deed
were in a state of inebriation,” and that this martyr was an aged slave. Drunkenness instead of
palliating crime aggravates it even according to human laws. But such are the men in whose
hands slavery often places absolute power.

Brethren, you are invested with immense power over those to whom
you minister in holy things—commensurate with your power is your responsibility,
and if you abuse, or neglect to use it aright, great will be your
condemnation. Mr. Moore, in a speech in the House of Delegates in
Virginia, in 18321832, says:

“It is utterly impossible to avoid the consideration of the subject of slavery.
As well might the Apostle have attempted to close his eyes against the light
which shone upon him from heaven, or to turn a deaf ear to the name which reached
him from on highlhigh as for us to try to stifle the spirit of enquiry which is abroad
in this land...... The Monstrous Consequences which arise from the existence of
slavery have been exposed to open day; the Dangers arising from it stare us in
the face, and it becomes us as men to meet and overcome them, rather than attempt
to escape by evading them. Slavery, as it exists among us, may be regarded
as the heaviest calamity which has ever befallen any portion of the human
race. (If we look back at the long course of time which has elapsed from the
creation to the present moment, we shall scarcely be able to point out a people
whose situation was not in many respects preferable to our own, and that of the
other states in which slavery exists. True, we shall see nations which have groaned
under the yoke of despotism for hundreds and thousands of years, but the individuals
composing those nations have enjoyed a degree of happiness, peace and
freedom from apprehension which the holders of slaves in this country can
never know.”)

The daughters of Virginia have borne their testimony to the evils of
slavery, and have pleaded for its extinction. Will this nation continue deaf
to the voices of reason, humanity, and religion? In the memorial of thethe
female citizens of Fluvanna Co., Va. to the General Assembly of that
Commonwealth in 18321832, they say:

“We cannot conceal from ourselves that an evil (slavery) is amongst us;
which threatens to outgrow the growth, and dim the brightness of our national
blessings. A shadow deepens over the land and casts its thickest gloom upon
the sacred shrine of domestic bliss, darkening over us as time advances.”

“We can only aid by ardent outpourings of the spirit of supplication at a
throne of grace..... We conjure you by the sacred charities of kindred, by the
solemn obligations of justice, by every consideration of domestic affection and 18
patriotic duty, to nerve every faculty of your minds to the investigation of this
important subject, and let not the united voices of your mothers, wives, daughters
and kindred have sounded in your ears in vain.”

We are cheered with the belief that many knees at the South
are bent in prayer for the success of the Abolitionists. We believe, and
we rejoice in the belief that the statement made by a Southern Minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the session of the New York
Annual Conference, in June of this year, is true: “Don’t give up Abolitionism
—don’t bow down to slavery. You have thousands at the
South who are secretly praying for you.”—In a subsequent conversation
with the same individual, he stated, “That the South is not that unit of
which the pro-slavery party boast”—there is a diversity of opinion among
them in reference to slavery, and the Reign of Terror alone suppresses
the free expression of sentiment. That there are thousands who believe
slaveholding to be sinful, who secretly wish the abolitionists sus­ cess, and believe God will bless their efforts. That the ministers of the
gospel and ecclesiastical bodies who indiscriminately denounce the abolitionists,
without doing any thing themselves to remove slavery, have
not the thanks of thousands at the South, but on the contrary are
viewed as taking sides with slaveholders, and recreant to the principles
of their own profession. Zion’s Watchman, 1836-11November, 1836.

The system of slavery is necessarily cruel. The lust of dominion
inevitably produces hardness of heart, because the state of mind which
craves unlimited power, such as slavery confers, involves a desire to
use that power, and although I know there are exceptions to the exercise
of barbarity on the bodies of slaves, I maintain that there can be no
exceptions to the exercise of the most soul-withering cruelty on the
minds of the enslaved. All around is the mighty ruin of intellect, the
appalling spectacle of the down-trodden image of God. What has caused
this mighty wreck? A voice deep as hell and loud as the thunders of
heaven replies, Slavery! Both worlds of spirits echo and re-echo, Slavery!
And yet American slavery is palliated, is defended by slaveholding
ministers at the South and their coadjutors at the North. Perhaps
all of you would shrink with horror from a proposal to revive the
Inquisition and give to Catholic superstition the power to enforce in this
country its wicked system of bigotry and despotism. But I believe if
all the horrors of the Inquisition and all the cruelty and oppression exercised
by the Church of Rome, could be fully and fairly brought to view
and compared with the details of slavery in the United States, the
abominations of Catholicism would not surpass those of slavery, while
the victims of the latter are ten fold more numerous.

But it is urged again and again, that slavery has been entailed upon us
by our ancestors. We speak of this with a degree of self-complacency,
which seems to intimate that we would not do the deeds of our fathers.
So to speak, argues an utter want of principle, as well as an utter ignorance
of duty, because as soon as we perceive the iniquity of that act by
which we inherit Property in Man, we should surrender to the rightful
owner, viz. the slave himself, a right which altogether legally vested in us,
by the “unrighteous decrees” of our country, is vested in the slave 19
himself by the laws of God. We talk as if the guilt of slavery from
its first introduction to the present time, rested on our progenitors, and
as if we were innocent because we had not imported slaves originally
from Africa. The prophet Ezekiel furnishes a clear and comprehensive
answer to this sophistry. “What mean ye, that ye use this proverb
saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth
are set on edge..... Behold all souls are mine, as the soul of the father,
so also the soul of the son is mine. The Soul that Sinneth it
shall die. If a man be just and doeth that which is lawful and right,
he shall surely live. If he beget a son that hath opprest the poor and
needy, he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him. Now, lo! if
he beget a son that seeth all his father’s sins which he hath done, and
doeth not such like, that hath not opprest any, neither hath spoiled by
violence; that hath taken off his hand from the poor, he shall not die
for the inquiry of his father. The Soul that sinneth it shall die.
The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father
bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall
be upon him—and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

Upon the present generation, rests, I believe, an accumulated weight
of guilt. They have the experience of more than two centuries to
profit by—they have witnessed the evils and the crimes of slavery, and
they know that sin and misery are its legitimate fruits. They behold
every where, inscribed upon the face of nature, the withering curse of
slavery, as if the land mourned over the iniquity and wretchedness of
its inhabitants. They contemplate in their domestic circles the living
examples of that description given by Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia,
of the influence of slavery, on the temper and morals of the
master, and they know that there is not one redeeming quality, in the
system of American slavery.

And now we have the most undeniable evidence of the safety of Immediate
Emancipation, in the British West Indies. Every official account
from these colonies, especially such as have rejected the apprenticeship
system, comes fraught with encouragement to this country to deliver the
poor and needy out of the hand of the oppressor.

To my brethren of the Methodist connection, with some of whom
I have taken sweet counsel, and whose influence is probably more extensive
than that of any other class of ministers at the South, it may
avail something to the cause of humanity, which I am pleading, to quote
the sentiments of John Wesley and Adam Clarke. Speaking of slavery
the former says, “The blood of thy brother crieth against thee from the
earth: oh, whatever it costs, put a stop to its cry before it is too late—
instantly, at any price, were it the half of thy goods, deliver thyself from
blood guiltiness. Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house and thy
lands, at present are stained with blood. Surely it is enough—accumulate
no more guilt, spill no more blood of the innocent. Whether thou
art a Christian or not, show thyself A Man.” Adam Clarke says, “In
heathen countries, slavery was in some sort excusable. Among Christians
it is an enormity and crime, for which perdition has scarcely an
adequate punishment.”

20

Yet this is the crime of which the Synod of Virginia, convened for
the purpose of deliberating on the state of the Church in November.
last, speaks thus: “The Synod solemnly affirm, that the General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church have no right to declare that relation
(viz. the relation between master and slave) sinful, which Christ
and his apostles teach to be consistent with the most unquestionable piety.
And that any act of the General Assembly which would impeach
the Christian character of any man because he is a slave holder, would
be a palpable violation of the just principles on which the union of our
Church was founded—as well as a daring usurpation of authority granted
by the Lord Jesus.”

And this is the sin which the Church is fostering in her bosom—
This is the leprosy over which she is casting the mantle of charity, to
hide, if possible, the “putrefying sores”—This is the monster around
which she is twining her maternal arms, and before which she is placing
her anointed shield inscribed “holiness to the Lord”—Oh, ye ministers
of Him who so loved the slave that he gave his precious blood
to redeem him from sin, can ye any longer with your eyes fixed upon
the Cross of Christ, plant your foot on his injured representative, and
sanction and sanctify this heart-breaking, this soul destroying system?

“Wo to those whose hire is with the price of blood Perverting, darkening, changing as they go The sacred truths of the Eternal God.”

Brethren, farewell! I have written under a solemn sense of my responsibility
to God for the truths I have uttered: I know that all who
nobly dare to speak the truth will come up to the help of the Lord,
and add testimony to testimony until time would fail to hear them. To
Him who has promised that “the expectation of the needy shall not
perish forever”—who “hath chosen the weak things of the world
confound the things that are mighty, and the foolish things of the world to
to confound the wise, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised, hath God chosen, yea and things which are not, to bring to
nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence,” I
commend this offering of Christian affection, humbly beseeching him so
to influence the ministers of his sanctuary, and the people committed to
their charge by his Holy Spirit, that from every Christian temple, may
arise the glorious anthem,

“Blow ye the trumpet blow, The gladly solemn sound! Let all the nations know, To earth’s remotest bound, The year of jubilee is come.”