Will it not be in exact accordance with God's plan of retribution heretofore to make the posterity of those who now are slaves in this land the masters, and our sons and daughters the slaves? But I trust in God my brethren will see their wrong and their danger in time to repent of the one and avert the other; and by breaking every yoke, and letting the oppressed go free, as God has commanded by Isaiah, make those who otherwise would be their enemies, their friends and their brothers.

It is your sin, fellow citizens, as it was the sin of Israel, to "turn aside the poor in the gate from their right." (Amos v. 12.) But "Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn; and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of

Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? (Amos viii. 4-8.) "Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his." (Habakkuk ii. 6.) "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages and giveth him not for his work." (Jer. xxii. 13. "Rob not the poor because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them." (Prov. xiv. 31.)

I need not multiply these expressions of God's wrath against those who crush down the rights of the poor, and live upon oppression. It is slavery that is thus denounced, and the Old Testament abounds in the strongest expressions of God's indignation at any system, by which the brotherhood of man is disregarded, and the poor are kept poor by the oppressions of the wealthy and the powerful.

CHAPTER X.

THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF SLAVERY WITH THE PRINCIPLES AND PRECEPTS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

We have seen how decidedly and strongly the Old Testament writers denounce slavery. Let us now look into the New Testament and learn what that requires of Christians in relation to it.

Matthew ix. 10. Luke iv. 8.

"Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve."

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

The service of God must be without rivalry. No authority is allowable between the authority of God and the obedience of his creature. No man must therefore be placed in a situation where he would be required to obey man rather

than God. But this is the slave's condition, for in the first place to keep up the authority of the master it is requisite that the mind of the slave be restrained from intellectual cultivation beyond a certain point, he therefore cannot learn what God requires of him and cannot improve the capacity for serving God; and in the next place he cannot carry out the convictions. of his own conscience as to the service he owes, unless those convictions accord with his master's judgment, and his consent be given to his slave to practice agreeably to his convictions. The rights of conscience and of private judgment are as indisputably appropriate to the servant as to the master. No man, therefore, can properly enter into any service of another man which to perform may require a neglect of any conscientious convictions of duty. But if no man have a right to place himself in such a condition, no other man has a right to force him into it. No man therefore can rightfully hold another man in the condition of a slave, for if the latter be at liberty to follow out the convictions of his own conscience, he is not a slave, because

this alone is true liberty. It is consequently impossible both to be a slave, and to carry out the injunction "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve,"

Matthew vii. 12.

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets."

This text is so exceedingly pertinent to the question at issue, that anti-slavery writers have for the most part been satisfied to rest their argument upon the strength of it alone. Yet pro-slavery men have with great dexterity evaded its force, to their own satisfaction, but not to the satisfaction of those whose minds are not under the influence of the "peculiar institution." They interpret it thus, (and I will state it as strongly for them as I can):-All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you if you were in their circumstances, do ye even so to them, yet without affecting the subsisting relation between the parties. They apply it thus: The master