5. Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless; for their Redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. Prov. xxii, 10.

6. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? Prov. xxiv, 11.

5. He shall plead their cause. The slavery system now has many excuses and apologies made for it; but there is not one among them all, but which any Christian would be ashamed to make at the judgment of the great day. But when God pleads the cause of the oppressed, who will answer him then?

6. We knew it not. And how many thousands say thus at the present day, in reference to the slaves of this land who are drawn unto death, "We are not enslavers,-we know not what the condition of the slave is-we don't live at the south-what have we to do with the subject ?" Answer,

1. If we do not know what the moral and political condition of nearly three million of slaves is, in this land, we are in fault, because, we may know, and we ought to know; nor indeed, will God consider it a sufficient excuse for the neglect of our duty when we say, we knew it not.

2. If we are not enslavers ourselves, we are partakers of the sins of those who are slaveholders, unless we set our faces against it, and use our utmost Christian-like endeavors to deliver the enslaved.

3. Our not living at the South, or indeed in America, is not a sufficient reason why we should do nothing to deliver those that are ready to be slain in this country. We do not live in Africa, and shall we do nothing to Christianize and civilize that country on this account? Though, by the way, it is acknowledged, that before we can do anything consis

7. The righteous considereth the cause of the poor; but the wicked regarded not to know it. Prov. xxix, 7.

8. Open thy mouth for the dumb, in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. Prov. xxxi, 8.

9. So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and, behold, the

tently, as a Christian people, for that nation, we should liberate her children whom we now keep in chains, and give them the Bible, and all the other blessings which Christianity is designed to confer upon the world.

7. Regardeth not to know it. How truly characteristic this is of many, very many, Christian ministers and rulers in this nation, with regard to the wrongs of the poor slaves! They would be glad not to know them; they feel so much reluctance against saying or doing anything upon the subject. And who would not like to be ignorant upon this subject, if his ignorance would annihilate slavery from the nation and from the world?

8. Open thy mouth for the dumb. The slaves of this land are dumb, in a most affecting sense, inasmuch as they never have been, and are not now, permitted to speak for themselves; and how can any Christian, or Christian minister, neglect the duty which God here enjoins upon him in relation to these human beings! And this, too, when he knows that they are made and kept poor and needy by the bondage which they are violently compelled to endure!

9. I considered all the oppressions. The Hebrew ashakim, here rendered oppressions, signifies all those kinds of injustice or injury which one can suffer in his person, property, or character. To withhold from a man his personal liberty, to compel him to labor without giving him any just equivalent for his labors, is to injure him in his person, property, and character; this is robbery or oppression in its very worst forms.

On the side of their oppressors there was power. The enslavers of this land have law, and prejudice, and riches

tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter. Eccl. iv, 1.

on their side; these are indeed powerful. But all these together, cannot withstand the arm of omnipotence, when God shall arise to plead the cause of the oppressed.

And is it not true, that the slaves have no comforter? Who is permitted to pour into their desponding hearts the consolations of hope, or the balm of God's promises? Let the following extract from the laws of Louisiana say who:

"If any person in Louisiana from the box, bench, stage, pulpit, or any other place, or in conversation, shall make use of any language, signs, or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among free colored people, or insubordination among the slaves, (such as may give them a hope in the promise of God that they shall be free,) such persons shall be punished with imprisonment from three to twenty-one years, or with DEATH, at the discretion of the court."

And this is but a transcript of similar laws which are in force in nearly all of the slave States. Twenty-one years' imprisonment, or death upon the gallows, for speaking one word, or happening to make some kind of a gesture which may be interpreted as having a tendency to cause certain acts!!! Was the like ever heard of before in the annals of the whole world!!

66

And yet, as often as we quote the word of God, or attempt to say anything against these most cruel and wicked of all laws that were ever passed by any government since the world began, we must be asked, in scorn, Why do you not go into those States where slavery exists, and labor for its overthrow?" And those persons who so tauntingly make this inquiry, are "opposed to slavery," they tell us! Very well, and if they are opposed to it, pray, why do they not go into the slave States, and tell the people that they are opposed to slavery, and not tarry here, at the north, and oppose all that others are striving to do for the removal of this great and growing evil? If they are, indeed, willing imprisoned for twenty-one years, or to be hung

to be

10. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they. Eccl. v, 8.

11. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart. Eccl. vii, 7.

like a pirate upon the gallows or gibbet, for speaking a word or making a sign merely, let them go to the South, and proclaim their opposition to "slavery in the abstract," in the ears of those who enforce the laws above noticed; then we will believe them.

10. Higher than the highest. We cannot be reminded too often of this solemn truth :-God is infinitely acquainted with everything that in any way concerns the oppressor and the oppressed; and he is pledged to deliver all such as are afflicted, when they call upon him in faith.

11. Maketh wise men mad. The word here rendered mad, is from halal, which signifies, among other things, to be haughty, arrogant, wicked. If mad be the correct rendering of it, here, we might inquire, whether oppression produces this effect upon the enslaver, or the enslaved, or whether this effect be produced upon both as well as upon those who look on and witness its effects in others. Admitting those are mad who are praying for the abolition of slavery, as some pretend to believe, this state of mind is produced, it must be remembered, by the crimes of others, and perhaps it were as desirable to suffer it, as it is to be

66

Frighted when a madman stares."

But it is, however, a well-known fact, that one of the first and most direct influences which the slave system produces upon the minds of all who become connected with it, is to render their dispositions arrogant and haughty. The following testimony from Thomas Jefferson, may be consider. ed as conclusive evidence upon this point.

"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on one part, and degrading submis

12. All the brethren of the poor do hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him; he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him. Prov. xix, 7.

13. Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right. Prov. xvi, 8.

CHAPTER VII.

God commands the oppressor most explicitly to let the oppressed go free.

1. Cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless ; plead for the widow; Isa. i, 16.

sions on the other, The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions; and nursed, educated, and daily exercised in ty ranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances."

1. Cease to do evil. And when this simple command of God is obeyed, slavery in all its forms will have been banished from the earth. The right of property in the souls and bodies of the human species, will have ceased forever. But, alas! how many frightful bug-bears have been conjured up in the imaginations of men, against an immediate compliance with this command of God! To substitute, for the present authority of the "slave-master," a system of legal restraint, which would be adequately and impartially administered upon the slave population of this land, and to maintain such a system of laws by police regulations, as severe as the case might require, would, in the opinions of not a