GOD AGAINST SLAVERY:
AND THE
FREEDOM  AND  DUTY OF THE  PULPIT
TO REBUKE IT,
AS A SIN AGAINST CGOD.
GEORGE B. CHEEYER, D.D.
C INCIN NATI:
AM. REFORM TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY.
Depository, No. 28 West Fourth Street.
B Y 
Copyright secured to the
AMERICAN REFORM TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY,
Cincinnati, Ohio. 
PREFACE.
FOR the privilege of having been permitted to deliver
these discourses without interruption, and with a cordial
answering sympathy on the part of the public, I thank
God and take courage.   Seldom  have I found a heart
more thirsty for divine truth, more attentive under it, and
more manifestly responding to it, and grateful for it, than
in the great congregations whom God in his good providence brought out to listen to these sermons. I commenced them, much questioning as tio the result, but
determined to leave consequences to God, and to proclaim,
out and out, the whole truth in his word in regard to the
great reigning and destroying sin of our country.   I endeavored to do this to the best of my ability.  The event
was, that instead of driving men away in anger, the assertion of the freedom of the pulpit, and the proof of it from
the prophets and apostles, and the use of it in demonstrating the sinfulness of slavery, brought thousands on thousands to hear. They camne, desiring to learn what God
load really said in Ihis word in regard to slavery. The
church could not contain the multitudes that thronged,
night after night, to listen to a simple, plain exhibition of
God's own truth, in regard to the guilt of this iniquity in
His sight, and the inevitable consequences of it, if persisted in.
VI
,-' 
PREFACE.
Undoubtedly, Old Testamnent truth is a strange thing
to many; they are not aware how it burns, how it cuts,
how it probes and pierces, as a discerner and reprover of
sin, and how the mighty Hebrew prophets, ever living,
ever new, seem to hold a grand inquest over our organic
iniquities, and to walk among us with the writer's inkhorn, and the measuring plumb-lines of the Mosaic laws.
The people, generally, arce glad to witness these operations.  The people love to hear Gocl's word demonstrating(r and rebuking the iniquity of slavery; and it is only
crooked politicians, and political Christians, and preachers standing in awe of them, who cry out against it, and
call it political preaching. This vulgar watchword is losing all its terrors, and beins to be, as it deserves to be,
thoroughly despised.
The people prefer fieedom, and are glad to find that
God's word not only does not sanction slavery, but is
against it, wholly and utterly, from beginning to end.
But those men who prefer slavery along with freedom,
slavery for others and freedom for themselves, and whose
plan is to combine both, and give them the same sanction
and the same rights everywhere, would be glad to find
some support of slavery, somne shield for it in God's word;
and, if any one could demonstrate firom God's word that
slavery is light, he might d(o that from the pulpit ad in.#,itun, and they would not regard it at all as political
preaching, but as simply the geinuine meekness of wisdom
preaching peace by Jesus Christ, and the very perfection
of gospel conservatism.   There are many who, without
the least wincing, will hear you preach about the slaveryv
iv 
PREFACE.
of sin, but not one word will they endure about the sin of
slavery.
I have been delighted to find a great enthusiasm among
young men, for the freedom of God's word ill dealing with
the iniquity of oppression. They feel that it is no necessary part of religion to put down, or conceal, or crucify,
our native impulses in behalf of freedom, or our native
sense of justice against cruelty and wrong.  They have
but little symnpathy with those who  make political or
commercial expediency, in regard to great questions of
right or wrong, the Urinm and Thummim of their divinest
consultations.
The series of discourses began with an examination of
the dreadful influence and consequences of UNRIGHTEOUS
LAW, as illustrated in the history of the Hebrews, under
the light of the prophets.  Now, in consenting to throw
several of them into a volume, I have taken the liberty of
breaking them up into twenty chapters, both for the sake
of introducing some details into the argument, which
could not be condensed in speaking within compass of the
time given to a sernmoi, and also to relieve and sustain
the attention of the reader, and give greater prominence
to the principles developed in the discussion.
I am more than ever convinced of the right and duty
of every preacher of God's word to preach on this subject,
as contained in His word, and to show the people how He
regards it; and the providence that directs and overrules
all things is manifesting more clearly than ever the wickedness of the attempt to shield slavery from the reprobation of God's word, by denouncing every mention of it as
v 
PREFACE.
political preaching. That outcry is more likely to covei
up a jealousy against religion in politics, than any real
hatred of politics in religion. To the law and to the
testimony: should not the people seek unto their God?
And if their leaders speak not according to His word, it
is because there is no light in them.
THE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED TO THE YOUNG MEN OF MY OWN CONGREGA
TION, AND TO ALL LOVERS OF FREEDOM AND TRUTH IN
ALL PLACES.
vi 
CONTENTS.
Page
CHAP. I.-SHALL THE THEONE OF INIQUITY HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH
THEE, WHIICH FRAMETH MISCHIEF WITH A LAW?................... 9
CHAP. II.-THE PREVALENCE AND POWER OF UNRIGIITEOUS LAW, AND
THE RUIN OF T1lE NATION IN CONSEQUENCE OF OBEYING IT......... 16
CHAP. III.-COMPULSION BY TIHE GOVERNMENT, ENACTING WICKED LAWS
TO DRIVE TIlE PEOPLE INTO SIN; AND TIIE DAMNATION OF SUCH
GUILT-THE INIQUITY OF PREACIIERS DEFENDING OR EXCUSING IT... 28
CHAP. IV.-DAN AND BETHEL IN NEW YORK, AND THE WORSHIP OF THE
GOLDEN CALVES IN AMERICA-REPRESSION AND CONCEALMENT OF
TRUTH IN TIlE PULPIT AND CONSERVATISM OF NATIONAL SINS......
CHAP. V.-OBLIGATIONS OF THE PULPIT IN TIHE SIGHT OF GOD-ISYPOC   RICY OF TIIE OUTCRY OF POLITICAL PREACHINGTHE SINFULNESS
OF CONCEALMENT AND OF SHIELDING MEN1S SINS FROM THE LIGHT
OF THE GOSPEL-APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST AND
HLI CRUCIFIED....................................................   48
CHAP. VI.-GLORY AND FREEDOM OF TIHE WORD OF GOD IN ITS UNI   VERSAL AND PERPETUAL APPLICATION-DEMONSTRATIONS FROM ITS
HISTORICAL AND PROPIIETIC PORTIONS, AS TO NATIONAL SINS-THIS
LIGHT YET TO BE APPLIED....................................... 62
CHAP. VII.-ODIS WRATIS AGAINST SLAVERY IN JEREMIAII XXXIV. 17   THE ILLUMIINATION FIlOM THIS PASSAGE UPON OUR. OWN SIN-THE
SOLEMNITY OF TIlE CRISIS AND THE RESPONSIBILITY-NATIONAL DE   CISIONS BY INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS AND CISOICES-TIIE QUESTION TO
BE SETTLED IS OF RIGlIT OR WRONG, NOT POLICY OR IMPOLIY..... 72
CHAP. VIII.-OBJECTIONS URGED AGAINST THE MENTION OF THIS SIN   THE OPINION OF COLERIDGE-TIlE EXAMPLE OF LORD ERSKINE IN
RESISTING AND REBUKING OPPRESSION-THE WORD OF GOD OUR ONLY
SAFE GUIDE....................................................... 82
CHAP. IX.-DEMONSTRATION OF THE SINFULNESS OF SLAVERY-ARGU   MENT FROM TIIE LAWV OF LOVE-ARGUMENT FROM THE LAWVS AGAINST
OPPRESSION-NO SUCtI TILING AS SLAVERY AMONG TIHE HEBREWS   LUDICROUSNESS OF TIlE CLAIM OF AFRICANS AS OUR PROPERTY BY
REASON OF NOAH'S CURSE ON CANAAN............................. 98
CHAP. X.-TriIE WRATIH OF GOD AGAINST THE JEWS FOR THE ATTEMPTED
ESTABLISHMENT OF SLAVERY-THE PENALTY OF DEATH AGAINST THE
CRIME OF MAN-STEALING-COMPASS OF THIS LAW, AND ITS APPLICA   TION TO THE CLAIM OF CHILDREN AS PROPERTY.................... 107
CHAP. XI.-DOING  EVIL THAT GOOD  MAY COME-TEE GOSPEL Ol
SLAVERY-ITS GERMINATING AND PROPAGATING POWER OF EVIL   THE STEALING OF CHILDREN-PAUL ON MAN-STEALING.............  116 
Page
CHAP. XII.-SACREDNESS OF THE PARENTAL RELATIONS-VIOLATION OF
IT BY SLAVERY-SLAVEHIOLDING, WITH THE CLAIM OF PROPERTY, IS
MAN-STEALING.................................................... 123
(CHAP. XIII.-TIIE COMPOUND INTEREST OF CRIME-THE SLAVE'S NOTE   OF-HAND AGAINST THE SLAVE-IIOLDER WHO CLAIMS TO BE HIS OWN   ER-ACCIUMULATED CRIME, ACCUMIULATED RETRIBUTION............. 131
CMP. XIV.-OWNERSHIP IN MAN NOT POSSIBLE-FORBIDDEN IN THE
SCRIPTURES-TIIE ACT OF SELLING MEN, A CRIME ABHORRED OF GOD
-THE NATURE OF THIS CRIME, AND OF THE SIN OF SLAVERY, WELL
KNOWN UNDER TIE NEWV TESTAMENT..............................  135
CHAP. XV.-NO RESTORING OF RUNAWAY SERVANTS-THE HEBREWS FOR   BIDDEN TO RESTORE TIIE.M-THE HEBREW FUGITIVE LAW, A LAW IN
BEHALF OF TIHE SERVANT, AND NOT THE MASTER-DEMONSTRATION
FROM THIS LAWV TIIAT HIUMAN BEINGS CAN NOT BE PROPERTY   PAUL'S EPISTLE TO PIIILEION IN THE LIGIHT OF THIS LAW-THE
ASSERTION TIIAT TItE WORD OF GOD SANCTIONS SLAVERY AN IMPIOUS
LIBEL.............................................................  140
CIHAP. XVI.-JUBILEE STATUTE OF UNIVERSAL FREEDOM-ITS APPLICA   TION TO IHEATHEN SERVANTS-PERVERSION AND MISINTERPRETATION
OF THE MOSAIC LAWS-NO INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE ALLOWED   VARIOUS FORMS OF CONTRACT-LIMITATION BY TItE JUBILEE-MEAN   ING OF LEV. XXV. 46-NO REFUGE OR STANDING-PLACE FOR SLAVERY 148
CHAP. XVII.-THE JUBILEE-CONTRPACT OF SERVICE FOR THE HEATHEN
-EVERY CONTRACT PERFECTLY VOLUNTARY-USAGE OF THE WORD
BUY-ERVANTS BOUGIIT BY VOLUNTARY CONTRACT WITII THEM   SELVES, BUT NOT OF A THIRD PARTY-THE FASMILY INIIERITANCE OF
SERVICE TILL THE JUBILEE-BOTH HEBREW AND HIEATHEN SERVANTS
FREE-NO PROPERTY IN MAN EVER SANCTIONED.................... 158
CHAP. XVIII.-GOD'S JUDGMENTS AGAINST SLAVERY PROVE IT TO BE
SIN-THE COTEMPORANEOUS TESTIMONY OF JEREMIAII AND EZEKIEL   EFFECT OF SLAVERY IN THE RUIN OF EMPIRES-ITS EFFECTS ON THE
MORALS AND SENTIMENTS OF A PEOPLE-DEGRADATION OF FREE
LABOR............................................................  162
CHAP. XIX.-THE COMBINATION OF DEMONSTRATION-SOLEMNITY OF OUR
RESPONSIBILITIES-THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY-PROVINCE OF
THE PULPIT TO PROCLAIM THE RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITY OF A VOTE 170
CHAP. XX.-THE ONE QUESTION BEFORE US-PRETENSIONS AND DE   MANDS OF SLAVERY-THE CONSEQUENCES IF WE YIELD TO THEM   GUILT OF EXTENDING SLAVERY, AND SETTING IT AT TIIE VITALS OF
A NEW STATE OR TERRITORY-THE PERPETUAL AGITATION AND
POWER OF CONSCIENCE........................................... 176
ADDRESS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE INIQUITY OF THE EXTENSION OF
SLAVERY......................................................... 187
A DISCOURSE ON THE DIVINELY-APPOINTED FREEDOM OF THE FIULPIT,
TRE SENATE, AND THE PRESS...................................... 288
viii
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER I.
SHALL  THE THRONE OF INIQUITY  HAVE  FELLOWSHIP  WITH
THEE, WHICH FRAMETTI MISCHIEF BY A LAW?
PSALM xciv. 20.
THERE are plenty of answers to this question in
the Word of God; but the most startling and overwhelming is the answer by divine judgment, in the
destruction of the thrones and kingdoms of Israel and
Judah. We have but to trace a few steps in the
Jewish history, and we find lessons that, for the
closeness of their application to our own period, and
people, and country, and the terror of their warning
against our own legalized and cherished sins, are
absolutely appalling.  Would to God we might lay
them to our heart!
The time from the beginning of the Hebrew kingdom under Saul to its division under Rehoboam, the
son and successor of Solomon, was not much longer
than that which has elapsed from our revolutionary
war to the present day. And the progress of the
nation had been about as rapid and mighty as our
own. What a prodigious difference between the state
of the people and the extent of the kingdom at the
beginning of Saul's reign, and the close of Solomon's!
I* 
10    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
In this brief time, cities rose as by enchantment, and
territories were added, and brought under the one
great confederation, till the fame of its prosperity,
and the fear of its greatness, filled the world.
But in the midst of all this, the causes of ruin
grew on with frightful rapidity; luxury, aristocracy,
grandeur, riches, pride, family-wealth and rivalry,
insolence, commerce with Egypt and with foreign
countries, bringing in alliances, intermarriages, the
imitation of foreign vices and customs, and at length
the open, undisguised, and heaven-defying establishment of idolatry for Solomon's pagan concubines and
wives. The wisest of kings had grown the maddest
in his rebellion against God, and his iniquitous example before his people. By his own vices he had
conducted the country from the climax of power and
greatness to the verge of ruin. In the greatest
apparent grandeur of its prosperity, none but God
knew the precipice on which the kingdom tottered,
nor how soon its proud union was to be dissolved forever. There it was, strong and mighty in appearance, yet instantly to be riven, as when the frost splits
a rock, or one last blow upon the wedge rives the
oak asunder.   The  blow  descends from  God, the
kingdoms separate, and thenceforward, what a career
of warning to all the nations of the earth is theirs?
The lead in wickedness was assumed by Israel
under Jeroboam, as one of the separate and rival
kingdoms; the first great national step in open sin 
THE SIN OF UHNRIGHTEOUS LAW.  11
was his. By what he considered a master-stroke of
policy, but which proved his ruin, he set up the two
golden calves, to serve for the uses of his kingdom,
in place of the worship of the Temple at Jerusalem.
The one he inaugurated at Bethel, and the other at
Dan, and proclaimed to all the people, with the
semblance of the kindest consideration for their wants
and fatherly compassion for their burdens, it is too
much for you, too irksome and too great a task, to go
up to Jerusalem at the times appointed in the service
of the temple; these will answer for your gods, O
ye people! These shall be to you the representatives
of the gods that brought you up out of the land of
Egypt, and here shall you rejoice in your worship!
The appointed ministers of God's worship, who would
not subscribe to these decrees of the king and his
government, were ejected from their offices, and in
their places Jeroboam appointed an idolatrous priesthood from the riiff-raff of the people; whoever was
willing so accept a devil's chaplaincy under his government, him he set to work in the ministration of
oblations and of incense before those golden calves;
and so the people, the king, and Baal, were all served
and glorified, flattered and cajoled, at one and the
same time.
And so the thing became a stately sin, a systematized organic iniquity; and the people went to worship
before one or the other of these calves, even unto
Dan. The topography of these places is the best 
12      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
illustration of the passage, and for want of the consideration of that matter, the force of the history
is nearly lost.  One of them, Dan, was at the extreme north; the other, Bethel, at the extreme south,
on the borders of Jeroboam's kingdom.  The whole
of Jeroboam's kingdom lay north of Judah. If he
had set up both calves at Dan, it would have been too
far north to attract his subjects of the south; if he
had set them up in Bethel only, the people of the
north coming down so far as that for worship, would
have been tempted to continue their journey a few
miles further to Jerusalem itself. But up at Dan he
caught in the snare all the population of the north,
and down at Bethel all the inhabitants of the south.
And by setting at the heart of Bethel the whole circle
of his priesthood, and making the ceremonies of the
worship there both gorgeous and attractive, he caught
as in a great Vanity Fair nearly all unstable persons,
whose consciences might have startled them  on  a
pilgrimage for the Holy City, to engage in the worship of the Temple itself. Passing through Bethel,
they would stop to gaze at the golden calves, they
would enter into conversation with the worshipers
there, they would be met by temptations and seductive bribes, and in the state of moral debauchery to
which the conduct of Solomon had reduced the nation,
it was not difficult to make any, except the most truly
conscientious of the people, believe that they could
serve both God and Mammon. 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOUS LAW.  13 
Jeroboam must have sounded the heart of the
nation, and must have known that he could calculate
on the idolatrous disposition of the people, otherwise
he never would have dared to propose such a measure.
But he had watched the passions of men, and he
knew well how deeply the examples, and the idolatrous
shrines, made so familiar by Solomon, had corrupted
the people, and how far he could himself rely upon
them. Besides, he is supposed to have set guards
on the borders of the kingdom between Judah and
Israel, at the feast times especially, to prevent his
subjects from crossing the line, and going up to the
Temple in obedience to the law of God. And so,
between allurements and force, between his lies and
compulsion, between the power of law, unrighteous,
and the examples of the great multitude obeying it as
righteous, he succeeded in quieting the most troubled
and audacious consciences, and induced his people to
believe that inasmuch as this worship at the altars of
the calves was commanded by law, and they were
bound to obey magistrates, and not to set themselves
against the government, it might and must be considered a permitted substitute for the Temple worship.
Moreover, the payment of tithes seems to have been
done away, when Jeroboam turned the Levites out of
office, and put in a set of his own priests to do his
bidding; and that was an exemption which would
please the covetous multitude greatly. The king well
knew how to make up for the loss; he could extort 
4  G(OD AGAINST SLAVERY.
fronm them in other ways double what the willing
support of the true worship of God would have cost
them.
Now  this whole mighty  revolution, first, in the
establishment of Jeroboam's authority and kingdom as
foreign and separate from that of Rehoboam, and
second, in the impious establishment o-IL a new and
separate religious worship, the commixturie of idolatry
and the divine law under one and the same form,
would necessitate new laws, and would bring about, in
many points, inevitably, a conflict between the statutes
of the kingdom and thie statutes of God.  But  the
people chose to obey man rathler than God. They
agreed, as men do now, when they blasphemously set
the laws of a human government higher than God's law,
that the law of the land, right or wrong, must be obeyed
at all hazards, and that to teach otherwise is to teach
rebellion. They said that the statutes of  the king
and his government must be obeyed, and " they  willingly walked after the commandment," as the accusation is brought against them for doinc this by the
prophet Tlosea; so that the characteristic d(lescription
of this monarch, up to the time of ()mri and Ahab,
who each set new iniquities a going, and fri.med laws
still more infamous, was that of   Jeroboam the son
of Nebat, wHo MADE  ISRAEL TO SIN."'
The obedience of the people to such a monarch and
government in such commanded sins, was rebellion
against God; and rebellion against the monarch and 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOUS LAW. 15'
government would have been obedience to God.
And God by his prophets plainly denounced vengeance against the nation, for thus preferring to obey
man's laws rather than God's. Your very blessings
shall be blasted, said he, and you shall be swept with
desolation, delivered up to captivity and the sword,
because you have kept the statutes of Omri, and
all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk
in their counsels. Ye have turned judgment into
gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.
Through the impious policy of Jeroboam, and the
consent and submission of the people, it thus came
about that the separation of the ten tribes was as the
building of a vast reservoir of iniquity in Israel; a
fountain of atheism and licentiousness, of which the
people continued drinking to the latest generations,
forsaking God, and the cold-flowing waters of his
sanctuary, and hewing them out cisterns of Satan, and
springs of the vilest abominations. 
CHAPTER II.
tHE PREVALE!CE AND POWER OF UNRIGHTEOUP LAW, AND THE
RUIN OF THE NATION IN CONSEQUENCE OF OBEYING IT.
IIERE we have come upon a marked and mighty
era. The separation of this great Hebrew kingdom
into two, and the establishment of these regal and
governmental dynasties and machineries, not only
constituted the most important revolution since the
deluge, and the greatest event of all the history of
empire up to that time, but it had consequences, and
it set in motion tides of principle and courses of
action, that made a stratum in men's morals and character; it was a dispensation, a period of social and
governmental theory of life, as distinct as any period
in all the formations of geology. The periods of
granite primordial foundation, and of fossiliferous
rocky strata, and of alluvial deposits, are not more
strongly marked and demonstrated, or more important as demonstrations in themselves of the mighty
changes in the globe. The thing not justifies only,
but commands our careful study; it ought not to be
passed over with a superficial view.
For here began the wide, germinating, sweeping 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOUS LAW. 17
habit of rebellion against God under cover of obedience to man; that plague in the body politic and
social, worse than the yellow fever, worse than any
pestilence ever begotten or active among men, of a
supreme submissive regard to the laws of a human
government rather than the laws of God. it is in
this respect a most prominent and awful era; a period
marked, as you will see, all along thee record of the
history; down to the time when the kingdom was
swept from existence, as the period of the sins of
Jeroboam, the soin of Nebat, WHO MADE ISRAEL TO
SIN. The first book of Kings ends, as its course has
often been signalized, with that stigma, that scar, that
trench of God's wrath, and of moral infamy in the
cause and subject of it.
Ahab and Jezebel were the next grand incarnation
of such wickedness. And as upon the surface of the
globe, when a roaring cataract or deluge has passed
over it, there are left huge mountain cliffs, frowning
over the country in front, and behind them a sloping
trail of land where the soil has gathered and held on,
indicating which way the convulsion and the torrent
rolled forward, so stand these monarch forms, rent,
blasted, blackened, the leaders of the people's apostacy from God, and the landmarks of Ihis vengeance.
And from one to the other, it seems as if you could
still hear the thunders roar and reverberate. Look
back to the 21st chapter of the first book of Kings,
and mark the interview between Elijah the prophet 
18    GO1) AGAINST SLAVERY.
and Ahab in Naboth's vineyard, and you find in the
person and character of that monarch the defiant pinnacle on which God's wrathful lightning descended.
"Thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of
the Lord; and I will make thine house like the house
of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, for the provocation
wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, AND MADE
ISRAEL TO SIN." And look back still further to the
16th chapter, 25th and 26th verses, to the person
and character of Omri, who wrought the same evil in
the sight of the Lord, and did worse than all before
him, for he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the
son of Nebat, and in his sin, WHEREWITH HE MADE
ISRAEL TO SIN. And then, before him, look back to
Baasha, and before him, to Nadab, the immediate
successor and son of Jeroboam. The voice of every
peal of thunder, and the sentence trenched by every
flash of lightning, is the same dreadful accusation,
Thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and HAST
MADE MY PEOPLE ISRAEL TO SIN.
And how was it? What does this repeated phrase
in the indictment cover up? How could the man
carry all Israel with him in his wickedness? Mere
example could not have done it; permission could not
have done it; bribes could not have done it, nor persuasion, nor the inherent temptations of devil-worship.
No! But in league with all these influences, law
could do it; the State power could forcibly persuade,
and if the people would yield up their conscience, the 
THE SIN 01F UNRIGHTEOUS LAW. 19
government would find no opposition to their most
impious enactments. WVe learn the secret from Micah
and IHosea, two of the prophets cotemporary in the
days of Jotham, Ahaz,  and FIezekiah.  "'For the
statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the
house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels, that I
should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants
thereof a hissing."' The princes of Judah were
like than that remove the bound; therefore will I
pour out my wrath upon them like water. Ephraim
is oppressed and broken ill judgment, because he
WILLINGLY WALKED  AFTER  THE  COMIMANDMENT."
It was thus that the king, the princes, the government, by their unconstitutional and infamous legislation, by new enactments, framed on purpose, MADE
ISRAEL TO SIN. YOU gather this demonstration from
the history and the prophets together; and this is one
of the points in which you see the usefulness and
importance of a close comparative study of the
prophets by the history, and the history by the
prophets.
It was a usatugatioi, ut.der colo) oCf  _t(' thus
forced upon the people, and the experiment being
once successful, then, in giving up their conscience,
and renouncing their allegiance to God, they surrendered all their liberties.   They should have resisted
at the outset; but there are never wanting those, who
affirm that law is to be obeyed at all hazards, the
moment it is law, no matter of what character. So, 
20    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
by the power and majesty of UNRIGHTEOUS LAW,
which is as when the starry angel, first in heaven's
ranks, brightest of the sons of the morning, drew after
him the third part of heaven in his rebellion, the king
and the government compelled the  people.   For
because of the original majesty, the awfulness, the
reverential glory, the transcendant importance of law,
even its perversion wears the semblance of its authority; even bad law, wicked law, accursed law, appears
not less than archangel ruined, and men bow down to
it, and worship it, and range themselves under its
banners, especially when popular and profitable sins
are protected by it.  Sometimes, under its pressure,
men must have the firmness of Abdiel to stand up
against it, and nothing but God's word and His
righteousness in their hearts will enable them to
do it.
This usurpation began in Israel. But you are not
to suppose this kind of wickedness was the exclusive
property of that kingdom. You might have imagined that after such a divulsion of the tribes, the
separation between Israel and Judah would have been
so wide, and the enmity so mortal, that certainly the
torrent of these devilish iniquities could not have
crossed the gulf, and rolled over the house and kingdom of David. But where the heart is not right
with God, occasion can easily be found for any wickedness. There was a mine of Satan's combustibles in
the bosom of Judah ready to be fired; and there was 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHITEOUS LAW.  21
an elective affinity, a power of attraction by evil
examples, instead of repulsion by disgust; there was
an electric intelligence and fire of depravity shooting
from one side to the other. You have but to run
your eye down to the 8th chapter of the 2d Book of
Kings, and the 15th, 16th, and 17th verses, and you
discover the secret.  "In the fifth year of Joram, the
son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram, the son of
Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign in Jeru salem. And he walked in the way of the kings of
Israel, as did the house of Ahab; for the daughter*
of Ahab was his wife, and he did evil in the sight of
the Lord."   Here you have the bridge, the telegraphic wires, the sympathies. And running on to
the 26th verse you have another step, the son of
Jehoram reigning in Jerusalem, and his mother's
name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri,
king of Israel. And he walked in the way of the
house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord,
as did the house of Ahab; for he was the son-in-law
of the house of Ahab.  And in 2 Chron. xxii. 3, 4, it
is added, that his mnother was his counselor to do
weickedly; wherefore he did evil in the sight of the
Lord like the house of Ahab; for they w?ere his counselors after the death of his father to his destruction.
The singular intensity of wickedness, the eminent
and inveterate profligacy and malignity accumulated
in this family, as the force of galvanism collected in
a complicated battery, will be better understood, if 
22      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
you consider that Ahab, as if it had been a light thing
for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of
Nebat, took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal,
king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and
worshiped him. I-lim, king Ahab, and the murderess his wife, Elijah the Tishbite confronted. These
related and confederate families of Israel and Judah
threw over their kingdoms a net-work of the same
diabolical statutes; and to these enactments, and the
terrors used in their enforcement, the sacred historian
refers, when it is recorded, as in 2 Chron. xxi. 11,
that the king of Judah caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled them
into all this wickedness.  So this mighty sin passed
into vogue in Judah, and from Ahab and Jezebel's
families, in connection with Jeroboam's, it ran on, till
in the kingdom and house of David itself, Manasseh
went far beyond even Ahab in the form, the magnitude, and the monstrousness of his sins. And of him it
is said in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9, 10, that Manasseh made
Judah aid( the inhabitants of Jerusaekm to err, and
to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord
spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would
not hearken.  And in 2 K-ings xxi. 9, 11, God declares that Manasseh seduced the people to do more
abominable and horrible wickedness than even the
Amorites, and made Judah to sin with his idols, besides filling Jerusalem from one end to the other with
innocent blood. 
CHAPTER III.
COMPULSION BY THE GOVERNMENT, ENACTING WICKED LAWS TO
DRIVE THE PEOPLE INTO SIN; AND TIHE DAMNATION OF SUCH
GUILT. THE INIQUITY OF PREACHERS DEFENDING OR EXCUS ING IT.
Now in this account we have the fact of a compulsioz laid by the government upon the people,  to
drive them into sin, to constrain them, and force
obedience to the statutes of an idol worship. But
this compulsion was no other than the choice of obeying other statutes than God's. Being compelled to
disobey either God's law or the king's, they chose to
disobey God's, alleging, perhaps, that whatever laws
the government enacted, they were bound to obey,
God's law to the contrary notwithstanding. Sometimes the princes took the lead, and proposed the
enactment of mischief by a law, according to the references in Hos. v. 10, and xiii. 2, the princes removing the bound, and enacting that those who sacrificed
shall kiss the calves. So in 2 Chron. xxiv. 17, 18,
after the death of Jehoiada the priest, we have the
princes coming, and making obeisance to the king,
and the king hearkening to them, and all together
leaving the house of the Lord God of their fathers, 
24     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
and serving groves and idols. All this information
is concentrated finally in the 17th chapter of the 2d
book of Kings, where the whole transcript of the
people's wickedness, and of God's final wrath upon
them for it, is so solemnly summed up. For they
walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord
cast out from before the children of Israel, and in the
statutes of the kings of Israel, which they had
made. Also Judah kept not the commandments of
the Lord their God, but walked ir  the statutes of
Israel which they made; walked in all the sins of
Jeroboam which he did, and departed not from them.
Now it is impossible to find any thing in all history more terribly instructive than all this. It shows
the mutual responsibility of government and people,
both to one another and to God, and the consequences
of disregarding it. It shows the manner in which
the responsibility and guilt of government and people
may get inextricably involved and entangled, and unless there be in the people a conscience of resistance
in behalf of God, they go to ruin together.  It shows
that wicked laws are no authentication or excuse of
personal wickedness, nor any authorization of disobedience to God. They are not to be obeyed, but on
the contrary denounced and rejected; and only by
being thus faithful to God, can a people keep their
freedom.  And while it shows that a people are on
the high road to ruin, who will suffer and obey wicked
statutes, it also shows the terrific responsibility and 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOU? LAW.  25
wickedness of those who concoct and endeavor to enforce such statutes, and who set the example of such
iniquity. If there be a lower deep in hell than any
other deep, such men will, beyond all question, occupy
it, along with those who have put out or concealed the
light of God's word, and have put up false lights to
lure men upon the breakers.   It is such as these,
whom God gives judicially over to a reprobate mind,
to be filled with all unrighteousness; who, knowing
the judgment of God, that they who commit such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but
have pleasure in them that do them.
Nothing can go beyond this wickedness; it is a
fountain sin, a germinating sin, an accumulating and
multiplying sin, a sin that causes and compels others
to sin, a sin that enlarges from generation to generation all the way into the eternal world. If it brings
a million under its power this year, it may bring two
millions the next; this generation ten, the next generation twenty. Cursed be he that maketh the blind
to wander out of the way; and all the people shall
say, Amen!  But he that strikes out the eyesight of
a whole nation, that obliterates the law of justice and
humanity, and sets in its place statutes of injustice and
inhumanity, and thus compels a nation so blinded, to
wander in iniquity, what shall be said of such a monster? What curse is heavy enough for such an incarnation of malignity, or what curse can measure in
retribution the dreadful consequences of such crime?
2 
26     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
Of all evil things, law, that embodies in itself the example of wrong, the instruction, the authority, sanetion, justification, and command of injustice and oppression, in principle and in act, is the highest and
the worst. It is worse than arsenic in the fountain; it
is poison for the souls of men, poison for the great heart
of society, running through all the veins, and corrupting the whole system.   Well did Edmund Burke say,
that of all bad things, bad laws are the very worst,
and that they derive a particular malignity from the
good laws in their company, under which they take
shelter.
If a system of wicked laws be deliberately contrived, and fastened on a people for the purpose of
consolidating and rendering immovable the governmental despotism, and if, under those laws, a system
of immorality and cruelty is inaugurated as the central
fountain of the country's policy, to enter into both
the domestic and civil life of the people, to regulate
all their institutions, to impose conditions on the gospel
itself, to compel men in every sphere of society, every
branch of commerce, every agency of active business,
to swear faithfulness to that immoral interest; and if
the word of God itself, for the sake of shielding all
this iniquity, is either suppressed or perverted, what
really is the attitude of such a people toward God,
and what their character in his sight?   Can any
thing cover up this wickedness?
But suppose that, along with such a system, there 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTE0OUS LAW. 27
is inserted in it a provision, not of improvement or
correction, but rendering correction or repeal impos sible. Suppose that a guard is imposed on purpose
to perpetuate such a system, without change or ame lioration, by which indeed any attempt at change is to
be punished as treason. All these ingenious elements
of evil were in the diabolical statutes, with which
Jeroboam and the like kingly instruments of Satan,
subjected the people to his sway. And all these ingenious elements of evil are in those execrable laws
now being enforced at the point of United States
bayonets in Kansas; laws acknowledged to be an
utter usurpation, publicly demonstrated as such by the
Ilouse of Representatives in Congress assembled, and
therefore unconstitutional, null, and void. And yet
the people commanded to obey them! Can any professions of religion induce God to wink at such wickedness, or to connive at the prostitution of religion
itself for its support? God's own voice shall answer;
you shall have his own judgment from the prophets:
"Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,
and that write grievousness which they have prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, and
to take away the right from the poor of my people.
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with
thee, which frameth mischief by a law?   He shall
bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut
them off in their own wickedness; yea, the Lord our
God shall cut them off." If a man could take tho 
28     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
bolt of God's thunder in his hand, and could flash the
lightning right in the face of a tyrannical, usurping
legislator, there could not be any thing more direct
than this. And is not this to be preached? And if
the government of any nation be guilty of this sin, is
it not to be charged upon them? Is not the country
where this wickedness is perpetrated the very place,
and the generation in which and against which it is
perpetrated, the very time to rebuke it, and in the
name of God declare his testimony against it? And
on whom rests the responsibility of doing this, and
who have the right and authority from God to do it,
but his own appointed preachers of the word? And
will any man dare to call this political preaching? It
is indeed the bringing of religion into politics, according to God's command, and the application of the
instructions and principles of God's word to the conduct of the nation and the people, and such application the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were commanded to make, and our Lord Jesus conjoined upon
the preachers of the Gospel the same faithfulness.
"Cry aloud; spare not; lift up thy voice like a
trumpet; show my people their transgressions, and
the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me
daily, and delight to know my ways, is a nation that
did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of
their God. They take delight in approaching to
God."   And yet, besides the delineation continued
in that chapter, here is their character by the same 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOUS LAW. 29
prophet: "A rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Which
say to the seers, See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth
things; prophesy deceits. Get ye out of the way;
turn aside out of the path; cause the Holy One of
Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore, thus saith
the Holy One of Israel, because ye despise this word,
and TRUST IN OPPRESSION and perverseness, and stay
thereon, therefore THIS INIQUITY shall be to you as a
breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall,
whose breaking cometh suddenly in an instant."
" For the leaders of this people cause them to err,
and they that are led of them are destroyed. Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men,
neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and
widows; for every one is a hypocrite and an evil-doer,
and every mouth speaketh villainy.  They call evil
good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and
light for darkness.   They justify the wicked for
reward, and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him. Therefore, as the fire devoureth
the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so
their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom
shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the
law of the Lord, and despised the word of the Holy
One of Israel."
And every one of the prophets corresponds in his
testimony with this description; and you will find in 
30  -GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
the 5th chapter of Jeremiah, and in that which
follows, the most singularly precise and pungent
invectives for the coveteousness, cruelty, oppression,
falsehood, and disregard of God, prevailing to such a
degree that they added to their iniquities a plump
denial of them, and would not listen to the word of
God against them; so that God charges Jeremiah,
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see now and know, and seek in the broad places
thereof if ye can find a man, if there be any that
executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and I will
pardon it.
And the prophet Ezekiel, writing and speaking of
precisely the same period and people, declares, "The
people of the land have used oppression and exercised
robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea,
they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I
sought for a man among them that should make up
the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the
land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none."
The offer that God made by Jeremiah was unavailing.
The prophet could not find a man in Jerusalem to
stand in the gap before God, that he might pardon
the city and the people; and God bears witness- to
this fact by Ezekiel, even at the very time of the
punishment of the people for their sins, especially the
sin of oppression.
The iniquities practiced by the people were sanctioned by statute, defended by false prophets, and 
THE SIN OF UNRIGHTEOUS LAW.  81
enforced by the priests and princes through their
influence, when, if they had stood up publicly and
firmly against such sins, we have God's plain declaration both by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that they would
have turned the people from their sins, and procured
for them life and pardon.   "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets
prophesy 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?"
What will ye do indeed? They soon found out
that the end thereof was death.   "I have not sent
these prophets," said the Lord God, "yet they ran;
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But
if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my
people to hear my words, then they should have
turned them from their evil way, and from the
evil of their doings." iHow amazingly solemn and
impressive is this testimony as to the responsibility
and power of the ministry in reference to the sins of
the people and the nation! They are able, at their
pleasure, to mold the character of the people for
good or evil, and to direct their course for heaven or
hell. They may lead them either to obey or disobey
God, both in their public policy and their domestic
life; they may, if they choose, proclaim the law and
policy of the government to be higher than the law of
God, and sacred from rebuke for its wickedness, and
they may make the true word of the Lord to be de
i —
rv 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
spised and forbidden of the people; but ofin their heads
is the consequence. They did thus deceive and corrupt the people of old, so that Jeremiah could not
persuade them to listen to the voice of God.
"Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can
not hearken; behold, the word of the Lord is unto
them a reproach; they have no delight in it.  For
from the least of them even unto the greatest of them
every one is given to coveteousness; and fiom the
prophet even unto the priest, every one dealeth
falsely, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
And when God said, Walk in the old paths and in
the good way, and ye shall find rest unto your souls,
they said, We will not walk therein. And when
God set watchmen, saying, Hearken to the sound of
the trumpet, they said We will not hearken."' Such
was their obstinate refusal to hear God's word in
regard to their own iniquities.
And then comes the great appeal of God to the
whole world to take note, and bear witness for him,
against this people of his wrath, and to mark the
wickedness that is going on among them, and especially this exasperating and aggravating impiety of
refusing to have the light of God's word turned upon
their national, governmental, and social policy.
"Hear ye, 0 nations, and know, 0 congregation,
what is among them. Hear, 0 earth! Behold, I
will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their
thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my
32 
THE SIN OF UNRIIGHTEO'US LAW.  33
words, nor to my law, but rejected it." God then
proceeds just as in Isaiah, to denounce with utter
scorn their formal pretenses of his worship, along
with all their wickedness. He had said by Isaiah, I
hate, I despise your solemn feast-days, and your rites
of pretended religious service are an abomination to
me.  And he asks of Jeremiah, "To what purpose
cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the
sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto
me; therefore, fathers and sons, the neighbor and his
friend shall perish together."
And the conclusion of this tremendous sermon is
impressive beyond measure for its inculcation of the
necessity of discerning between the righteous and the
wicked, and separating the latter with their abominable maxims, from the former, in the policy and government of a people, in order that the agencies
appointed of God for the good of the people may
work, and may be able to accomplish his purposes.
God describes the character of the people, in their
acceptance of, and submission to, the oligarchy of evil
counselors and wicked governors and laws, by whom
they consented to be led to destruction, following
them as sheep for the slaughter.  "They  are all
grievous revolters, walking with slanders; they
are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed
2* 
34      GOD AGAINST ST, AVERY.
of the fire; the founder melteth in vain; for
the wicked are  not plucked  awiay.   Reprobate
silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath
rejected them."
God distinctly informs us, that if his ministers had
spoken as they ought in regard to all this wickedness,
it might have been prevented and the ruin which it
brought would have  been averted.   The  nation's
dlestruction was in consequence of their concealment
and perversion of God's word; and hence the solemnity and appropriateness of these historic records, as
applied for our own guidance at the present time. 
CHAPTER IV.
DAN AND BETHEL IN NEW YORK, AND THE WORSHIP OP THE
GOLDEN CALVES IN AMERICA-REPRESSION AND CONCEALMENT OF
TRUTH IN THE PULPIT AND CONSERVATISM OF NATIONAL SINS.
THERE are some practical instructions from this
history, of great importance. As we go forward
in it, we cannot help being astonished at the very
little use made of it, and the very little light poured
from it, when it is certainly one of God's great suns
of radiance for Christian nations, one of the orbs in
the planetary system of His word; and distinctly in
the New Testament, as well as the old, He declares
that much of this light was given as a warning, a
forewarning, and that it should be poured upon our
own consciences, our own habits of thinking, and our
own courses of action.  It is light that cost more
than any thing in the world ever did cost, till the
light from the cross and sufferings of Christ, the
light bought by his death, came down upon the world.
The  light from the carcasses of dead empires, the
light from Israel and Judah in their crimes and final
sufferings, and dreadful death, the light from their
captivities before the crucifixion, and the destruction
and desolation like a whirlwind after the filling up 
36    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
of that measure of their iniquities, and the light from
half-buried Jewish communities, and from Jewish
infidel minds still going about and wailing in their
grave-clothes, peeled, scattered, and exterminated
thus, is a beacon-light to states and statesmen, and to
every one of us in a world of probation; the world
where character, both national and individual, must
be formed in accordance with God's word, or it
has in it the elements, the self-igniting fires, of inevitable ruin. The history shows the wickedness of
obeying men rather than God, and the dangerous
nature of a system of human expediency and concealment of the truth, in preference to a reliance on
God, and his truth and righteousness.
But here you may possibly say that the great sin
for which the nations and generations now under our
examination were destroyed, was the sin of idolatry,
and we are not guilty of that, and in no danger from
it. Examine the record, and you will find, besides
the idolatry, the great sin of oppression, occupying
as large a space in the indictment; and we shall discover, as far onward as the 34th chapter of Jeremiah,
the deliberate establishment of slavery in the nation
to have been the one climacteric cause and occasion of
the wrath of God coming down upon the whole land
and people without remedy.
And we ourselves may be guilty of things as bad
as the idolatry of the old Israelites, and may be quite
as unwilling as they to have the light of God's truth 
CONCEALMENT OF TRUTH.
turned upon them. God speaks of covetousness,
which is idolatry. God looketh on the heart, and if
God sees a single merchant in our cities, with whom
the reason, for example, why he is unwilling that any
mention of the sin of slavery should resound from
the pulpit) or that any agitation in regard to its
wickedness should be kept up, is a regard to his
business and its profits, or a fear of revulsion and
disturbance distressing to the prosperous course and
current of commercial affairs, that concealment and
opposition of the light, and the motive for it, are as
bad, in his case, with his increased knowledge, in the
blaze of the whole word of God, as the idolatry of
the Israelites. It is the golden calves still, and still
there is the worship of them, and Dan and Bethel are
in this city with their Dagons and their altars, and
their priests, not among the lowest merely, but the
highest of the people.
And the forced concealment of truth on this very
subject, the voice to the seers, See not, and to the
prophets, Prophesy not, the ban upon the light, the
ostracism of opinion, the repression of freedom in the
pulpit, the accusation and the outcry of political
preaching, if the light of God be turned upon it, the
extreme fastidiousness and fear in our fashionable
congregations, sit like a night-mare on the genius of
the gospel. It is a mountain of despotism, and of the
fear of man thrown upon the truth. The preacher is
like the fabled giant under the volcano. If the giant
87  
38    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
will be quiet, the mountain will be quiet, and some
green things may grow upon it in peace and freshness.
But the moment he turns in his anguish, or strives to
free himself of his load, the mountain belches forth its
fire and fury, and rolls down streams of lava, and the
poor be-mountained giant is the cause of it! The
giant can not stir, hand or foot, with the least suspicion
of regaining his freedom, but Etna rages. Tell me
not that this is an exaggerated description. Almost
every time the light of God's word has been turned
directly upon this subject, it has been followed with
tumult. Again and again have faithful and beloved
pastors been driven from their pulpits, just barely for
giving a single utterance of God's word against the
sin of slavery. At the South a man has been driven
from his church, simply for refusing to add his name
to a commendation of the dastardly and murderous
outrage in the Senate of the United States. In
Washington, a pastor has been recently dismissed for
one single sermon against slavery. In Philadelphia
the people have demanded and accomplished the
resignation of a pastor for the same offense. Everywhere, almost, there is this attempt to muzzle the
pulpit, this impious refusal to listen to God's word on
this one sin.
Now I should insult the moral sense of the congregation, if I should ask them (as though there were a
doubt in their minds as to such iniquity) whether this
is right in the sight of God; and God perhaps has 
REPRESSION OF TRUTH.
suffered us to come to our present crisis in the affairs
of this nation, on purpose, in part, to deliver the
pulpit from such bondage. There is a point where
the life is reached, and men feel it, and now they
begin to speak out, whether men will hear or forbear.
And if we would be faithful, we must speak out;
for we know that this is God's truth and that whatever plausible motives of expediency may induce
either us to refrain from uttering it, or you to shrink
from hearing it, it can not be right in God's sight to
hearken unto men more than unto God.
The conservatism that would prevent the utterance
of God on this subject is a conservatism that stands
in the way of righteousness, and yet it makes great
pretensions to sobriety and uprightness. It reminds
one of Jeremiah's satirical description. They are
upright as the palm-tree, but speak not. It preserves
a sober and dignified silence, when God commands
a fearless outspoken rebuke of cherished sins. It
imputes the violence of men's passions in defense of
such sins to the rashness and impertinence of those
who have dared to rebuke them. It is always saying
to those who open the batteries of truth, when noise
and fury follow the cannonading, Had you kept
silence, there would have been nothing of all this
agitation; you are stirring up nothing but contention
and wrath. This was the very accusation brought
against Jeremiah himself, when he proclaimed the
Word of God in Jerusalem and Judea against sins,
It
39 
40      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
which the government commanded, and which the
people declared they would defend and practice, and
which not a few among prophets and priests themselves affirmed were no sins at all, but just a, profitable
policy.  " Woe is me," exclaimed Jeremiah, "for I
am become a man of contention and strife. I love
peace, and I love my people, and I love my country,
and out of love I speak to them this word of the
Lord. I have neither lent on usury, nor men have
lent to me on usury, yet every one of them doth
curse me."  Ah, Jeremiah, there are other ways to
touch men's pockets, and irritate their avarice,
besides charging twenty per cent. for your money.
Lay the tax of the word of God upon their profitable,
legalized, and cherished sins, and instantly they
cry out violence and spoil, and the word of God itself
will be made a reproach unto you and a derision,
daily.  "Then said they, Come, and let us' devise
devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish
from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the
word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him
with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of
his words. So I heard the defaming of many, fear
on every side. Report say they, and we will report
it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying
peradventure he will be enticed, we shall prevail
against him, and we shall take our revenge on him."
And all for what? Had he injured them, betrayed
them, slandered them, defrauded them?  Simply and 
DENIAL OF TRUTH.
solely because he had delivered unto them the tords
of the Lord against their sins of oppression and
idolatry.  Well! if all the Lord's prophets had been
faithful and true like Jeremiah, they would have
conquered, and God's word in them. But Jeremiah
stood almost alone, and the prophets themselves were
against him, the conservatists of peace and sin.
When he said that the city and the people were
wholly given to oppression, and that God would deso late the land, and deliver up the city to its enemies,
because of this wickedness, they said no, he will not
deliver it, but Jeremiah is teaching rebellion against
the king, the government, and the nation. So between the word of the Lord on the one side, and the
word of these false prophets on the other, between
the word of the Lord burning as a fire in his own
soul and in his very bones, and making him weary
with forbearing, and compelling him to cry out, like
a lion in his anguish, and the lies, threatenings, and
outcries of rebellion and treason, by prophets, priests,
and people, the faithful preacher of God was almost
distracted.'" Mine heart within me is broken because
of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a
drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the word of the Lord, and because
of the words of his holiness. For both prophet and
priest are profane, and their ways shall be unto them
as slippery ways in the darkness. I have seen also
in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing.
11 
42     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
They walk in lies, they strengthen also the hands of
evil-doers, that none doth return from his wickedness;
they are all unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants
as Gomorrah." Nothing could be more expressive
of the burning anger of the Lord against those who
stood against his word. They were looked up to for
examples and guides as the conservatists among the
people; but they conserved the people in their sins,
crying out all the while against this agitation and
strife that Jeremiah was producing with the word of
the Lord. There could hardly be a more offensive
and deliberate wickedness against God, than the
example of such resistance against his word, and such
denial of its application. Therefore saith the Lord
of hosts concerning the prophets, Behold, I will
feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the
water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is
profaneness gone forth into all the land. Therefore
thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the
words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they
make you vain; they speak a vision of their own
heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They
say still unto them that despise me, The Lord hath
said ye shall have peace, and they say unto every one
that walketh after the imagination of his own heart,
No evil shall come upon you. For who hath stood in
the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and
heard his word? who hath marked his word, and
heard it? 
PERVERSION OF GOD'S WORD.   43
These sneering questions of blasphemy and unbe  lief, this daring denial of God's word in the face of
his divinely-commissioned prophets, addressed by the
false prophets, and believed by the people, filled up
the cup of their sins, and insured the divine ven geance.  And instantly its assertion follows: "Be hold, a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury,
even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously
upon the heads of the wicked. The anger of the Lord
shall not return, until he have executed and till he
have performed the thoughts of his heart; in the
latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.   I have not
sent these prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken
to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood
in my couinse, and had caused my people to hear
my words, then they should have turned them from
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. I
have heard what the prophets have said that prophesy
lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have
dreamed.  How long shall this be in the hearts of the
prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets
of the deceit of their own hearts which think to cause
my people to forget my name, by their dreams which
they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers
have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophet that
hath a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath
my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What
is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my
word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer 
44     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
that breaketh the rock in pieces? Therefore, behold
I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal
my words every man from his neighbor. Prophet,
priest, and people that do this, I will even punish
that man and his house; for ye have perverted the
words of the living God, of the Lord of Hlosts, our
God. Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I
gave you axd your fathers, and cast you out of my
presence. And I will bring an everlasting reproach
upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be
forgotten."
That everlasting reproach? that perpetual shame,
that living destruction!  We see it with our eyes, for
where is the nation on whose soil some of these
cinders out of the furnace of God's wrath have not
fallen? And still the Jews, like half-burned shingles
from the great conflagration, darken the air of prophesy. And how is it possible that men anywhere
can read these burning denunciations of the wickedness by which they fell, and repeat the same wickedness, the same oppression, and the same daring
defiance, and resistance, and perversion of God's word
in regard to it?
God sent Jeremiah with such messages, even to
Tophet, sent him on purpose, and gathered a congre gation to hear him, even on the borders of that
smoldering. smoking image of the world of woe;
sent him to preach there in order to give a more 
JEREMIAI' S PREAOII HING.
terrible force and stinging application to his words,
sent him to that valley of the son of Hinnom, that
rotting gehlenna of dead men's bones and all uncleanness, and made him stand with an earthen vessel in
his hands, which, amid the tide of burning eloquence
poured from God's Spirit through his lips, against the
sins of.the nation, he was commanded to break in
pieces, and cast it into the valley as an emblem of the
manner in which God would break up the whole
nation, and cast the people into Tophet, till there
should be none to bury them, nor room for them to
be buried. And after lie had finished that sermon,
he came into the city again, and repeated its application to all the people in the court of the Lord's house,
and instantly upon that, the sermon being reported
to the authorities, they lashed the prophet with
stripes, and put him in the stocks, as their descendants afterward did with Paul and Silas, the New
Testament preachers of the same Gospel.   Never did
the malignity of man, and the instant retributive
power and majesty of the word of God come into more
graphic and instructive conflict. Will you listen to
the recital, for it is brief and pungent: " Then came
Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent
him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the
Lord's house, and said to all the people, Thus saith
the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will
bring upon the city, and upon.all her towers, all the
evil that I have pronounced against it, because they
45 
46     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
have hardened their necks that they might not hear
my words.   Now Pashur, the son of Immer the
priest, who was also chief governor in the house of
the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these
things. Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet,
and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate
of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur
brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then
said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath not called
thy name  Pashur, but I,agor-Missabib.   For thus
saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to
thyself, and to all thy friends; and they shall fall by
the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive
into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house,
shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried
there, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast
prophesied lies."
It was thus that God preserved Jeremiah, and, according to his promise, made the terror of his words
to sink in the hearts of his opponents, made his words
fire and the people wood, to be kindled by them.
And all around in the region of his native place,
where wicked and scornful men beset and plagued
him, Jeremiah was charged with similar messages. 
RELIGION IN POLITICS.
Now if ever there was what is now falsely called
political preaching, it was this preaching of Jeremiah.
It was the preaching of religion in politics, God's
word as the only authoritative and right guide of
politics, God's word forbidding a nation's sins. And
God sustained the prophet in this preaching through
a ministry of forty-three years' duration. Now mark
my words, It was the preaching of reliyion in politics,
which is God's own command, both in the Old and
New Testament, but the preaching of politics in
religion is quite another thing, the work of intriguing politicians and of Satan, seeking to blind the
minds of men, and keep God's light and God's authority away from their hearts and consciences. If religion be not preached and practiced in the politics of
a nation, that nation is on the high road to perdition;
for the nation and kingdom that will not serve God
shall perish; and if politics be preached and practiced in the religion of a nation, which is the case
when religion is not applied to politics, then both
church and people perish in their sins.
47 
CHAPTER V.
OBLIGATIONS OF THE PULPIT IN TIHE SIGHT OF GOD-HYPOCRISY
OF THE OUTCRY OF POLITICAL PREACIIING-THE SINFULNESS OF
CONCEALMENT AND OF SIIIELDING fEN'S SINS FROM THE LIGHT
OF THE GOSPER-APPLICATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CIHRIST AND
'mX CRUCIFIED.
THE Jesuitical habit of apologizing for sin, and of
covering it up, runs into every thing; he that is
unfaithful in much will also be unfaithful in a little,
and he that is unfaithful in a little is unfaithful in
much.   He whose corporate conscience is debauched
in a society, will lose all tenderness and acuteness of
conscience in private life, and in his own piety.  He
will lie, steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely,
and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other
gods, and then come and stand in God's house, which
is called by his name, and say, We are delivered to do
all these abominations.   Politics in religion will not
only lead to the practice of such abominations, but
will justify and sanctify them; but religion in pol
itics pours the light of God's word upon men's corporate as well as individual crimes. It is impossible
for the individuals of a nation to support the nation's
sins, or apologize for them, or ward off the light of 
DRUMS OF TRUTH MUFFLED.
God's word fromn rebuking them, and not put in peril
their own piety and salvation.
Already, over more- than half the pulpits in our
land there hangs the ban of excommunication, if a
single page of God's word be applied against slavery;
the thing must not be mentioned, and a politic silence
prevails.  The drums of God's vword are muffled, and
they beat a funeral mnarch instead of a Gospel onset.
Our conservative Christians have turned sextonsthey are for burying the truth instead of publishing
it.  Their whole terror is against the living truth;
dead men's bones and all uncleanness have less that is
repulsive for thelm, than rousing, cutting, and exciting
truth, the truth of God, that brings religion into
their cotton speculations and their politics.  " My
people ask counsel at their stocks, and their stuff
declareth unto them.   Ephraimi is a merchant; the
balances of deceit are in his hands;  he loveth to
oppress, yet he saith, I am become rich, I have found
me out substance; in all my labors they shall find
none iniquity in me that were sin."  There may be
iniquity in the abstract, but nothing is sin per se. if
there be great profit in it; and when the pecuniary
interest of any wicked system becomes vast, there are
prophets enough to justify Ephraim in its preserva
tion.
Now, then, let such dead as these bury their dead,
but the Gospel is not to walk as a mourner, at the
grave-digger's bidding. Preach thou the kingdom of
3
49 
50     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
God. Undertakers for the dead; preachers for the
living. Let not the first presume to give instructions
to the last. It is a different process, that of nailing
up truth in coffins, and putting it five feet under
ground, lest it be a stench in the nostrils of cotton
merchants, and that of revealing its grand and noble
forms, as glorious living messengers from the Lord
Almighty.   We  walk with angels, not with dead
men; we take counsel of living, beating hearts, not
dead bones and purses. To those who conceal or sell
the truth for a present expediency, and handle God's
word by profit and loss, God gives in receipt a whirlwind; ye shall be ashamed of your revenues, says he,
because of the fierce anger of the Lord. And when
they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have
familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that
mutter, Should not a people seek unto their God?
Will they dare to seek for the living to the dead?
To the law and to the testimony! If your leaders
speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. And if you follow such teachers,
hear ye what is in reserve for you, even in your very
passage through the word of God, and what it means
when the Lord says, that if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. For, says the living
God, If they speak not according to my word, they
shall pass through it hardly bestead and hungry;
even through this land of glory, this place of living
streams, green pastures, and cold flowing waters, and 
HYPOCRISY AGAINST TRUTH.  51
trees of life, whose fruit is for the healing of the
nations; even through this region of heaven shall they
pass more famished with thirst and hunger than if
lost in the heart of the great desert under the simoom
cloud. They shall pass through it hardly bestead
and hungry, and it shall come to pass that when they
shall be hungry, they shill fret themselves, and curse
their king and their God. and look upward.   And
they shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble
and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be
driven into darkncss.  That is the fate of any polit ical party that will not obey God's word, but chain
themselves to platforms that abjure it, and trust
in lies.
Nothing can possibly be more hypocritical, than
the outcry about political preaching. The truth is,
that the moment any sin passes from  the individual
to the nation, and is sanctioned by law, and becomes
what is called organic, then instantly the speech
against it is branded as political preaching; so that,
if you wish to take all manner of sin from the touch
and control of the pulpit, if you wish to shield it
from that rebuke which God has appointed to be
thundered against it, you have only to make it legal
and national, and you have given it a tabernacle, a
pavilion, you have enshrined it as a Dagon, before
which you must put off the shoes from your feet, and
approach it only to bow down and worship. If a
man has two wives, you may preach against polyga 
52    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
my, and nobody thinks of charging you with preaching politics; but if a State set up polygamy by law,
and its support be made a plank in the political platform of a party, then, if you touch upon it in the
pulpit, you are preaching politics. Whenever, and
in whatever way, you bring religion to bear upon
politics, there are men who will accuse you of political
preaching; but you are not to stop for that.
And it is most instructive to see the blundering
power of political prejudices, and the distortions of
men's vision.   The Rev. Dr. Richards, settled in
Morristown during the administration of President
Jefferson, preached on one occasion a sermon on the
prevalence of infidelity, applying the principles of the
gospel to the duties of the nation; and the sermon
happening to fall in with the opinions of the hearers,
it was greatly admired. No one tliought of calling
it a political sermon. Several years passed away,
bringing, in many respects, a great change in the
political views of the congregation. But divine truth
is always the same. Dr. Richards, thinking he perceived a train or habit of opinion and feeling in the
congregation or community, which called for it, took
up the same sermon, and preached it again as before.
Not an individual remembered it, but a great portion
of the congregation were very much offended by it,
as being what they called political preaching. They
went to the length of appointing a committee to wait
upon the preacher and remonstrate with him against 
POLITICAL PREJUDICE.
such kind of preaching. One of the gentlemen on
the committee, and their chairman, was Dr. Whelpley,
then an elder in Dr. Richards's church. The committee presented their grievances and remonstrance,
and Dr. Richards listened with great gravity and
serenity. When they got through, he remarked that
time brings about  great changes.   Men change,
opinions change; nature herself works wondrous
transformations; but his old sermons remained, for
aught he could discover, just as they were. This
discourse, said he, taking up the obnoxious sermon,
is indeed discolored, and somewhat yellow with age;
but its contents remain precisely the same as they
were so many years ago, when you first heard its
expositions of divine truth, and regarded them with
admiration as the pure gospel of God, nor ever
dreamed of there being any thing political in them.
The committee of remonstrance listened with
astonishment; they took the manuscript into their
hands, and sat gazing at one another, and at Dr.
Richards, in silence. At length Dr. Whelpley, the
chairman, turned to them  and said, Gentlemen, I
think we had better go! And after that, there was
no more criticism in the congregation concerning the
preaching of politics.
But at the present time, the simplest announcement
of divine truth, in regard to national guilt, is asserted
to be an invasion, forsooth, of the political rights of
the congregation, and an unwarranted intrusion of
53 
54    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
themes adapted to excite angry feeling, where there
ought to be nothing mentioned but Christ and him
crucified.
But what is it to truly preach Christ and him crucified, except to pour the light of a Saviour's sufferings
and death upon men's sins, that in that light they may
see and feel " the exceeding sinfulness of sin," their
own sins, and the sins of the community, and be led, out
of love to Christ, and for his sake, to renounce them?
Many persons may be willing to _preach nothing but
Christ and him crucified, who are not willing, like
Paul, to know nothing among men save Christ and
him crucified; a very different thing it is, merely to
preach that doctrine speculatively, from applying it
practically. Many are very willing to hear about
Christ being crucified for them, who will not listen
for a moment to the proposed crucifixion of their sins
for him, especially those sins which they call organic,
those that have the sanction and protection of human
law, those that are regarded and maintained as domestic institutions, and those that are defended by a strong
party, so that it becomes an unpopular and a hazardous thing to assail them. But for what purpose was
the gospel given, but to turn men from their iniquities,
disclosing and condemning them in the light of the
cross?
And what is the gospel, with its infinite majesty
of thought, and its burning motives, and its countless
applications, and its sublime combinations of thunder 
MEANNESS OF A MUZZLES) PULPIT. 55 
ings and halleluias, and its compass of all sounds
reverberating from heaven to hell? Is it a fiddle
with only one string, or a harp of infinite harmonies?  Is it an organ with only one note-a monotonous anodyne of repeated truisms, so admitted, that
they are cradled in the dormitory of the soul, as
lifeless  as exploded errors?  Is it a treadmill of
orthodoxy and conservatism, where men, that would
be Samsons anywhere else, must grind blind-folded,
crushed beneath the fear of man, terrified at the
thought of a blast from  the political newspapers,
afraid of every thing exciting, their only object to keep
things quiet, and the watchword of their millennium,
First peaceable, then pure? Such an idea of the
gospel is preposterous; it reminds us of our schoolday declamations:
"My name is Norval! on the Gram,ipian hills
ify Iltther feeds his flock; a frugal swain,
Whose only aim was to increase his store,
And keep his only son, myself, at home!"
I tell you, no wonder that the modern pulpit has
lost its power, when men are afraid of the application
of that power, and tremble at the consequences.   The
gospel is not to be perverted as a political lullaby,
and shall not be muzzled at the mandate of intriguing
politicians and oppressors. There is nothing, from
the beginning to the end of the alphabet, connected
with moral issues, and bearing on men's duty, which
may not, at the proper time, be made the subject of 
56    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
investigation in the pulpit, and the proper time for
the consideration of any sin, is the very time, and the
proper place the very place, where the sin is practiced,
where its lawfulness, expediency, and righteousness
are maintained, and where its disastrous, demoralizing,
destructive influence, is felt, and not at the Antipodes,
where sins are reigning of an entirely opposite character. The proper time and place for the consideration of idolatry is in the presence of the idol-worship,
and in the community where such an abomination prevails, or where it is defended; and no matter what
laws, or antique usages and authorities of state and
custom sustain the iniquity, that makes no difference
in the duty of the preacher.   The application of the
gospel must be made; nor is there any time to be
lost; since the argument of possession, custom, and
law, is every day growing stronger.
Just so with every dear, cherished, fashionable
evil. If the probing of it occasions agitation, anger,
strife, that very thing is proof of the necessity of so
dealing with it; and if it is warmly contested not to
be an evil nor a sin, that itself just clearly shows the
danger and ruin of letting it alone, and the pressing necessity of pouring the light of God's word upon
it. If it be interwoven with the politics of the state
and of society, so much the worse; so much the more
hazardous to meddle with it, but so much the more
necessary. Idolatry was thoroughly interwoven with
the fixtures and statutes of the Roman empire, but 
THE GOSPEL AGAINST ALL SIN.  57
the gospel was laid at its roots; and though the
apostles might have preached Christ and him crucified, technically, orthodoxically, without saying one
word against the worship of idols, yet they attacked
it, and poured the light of the cross upon it, in the
very heart of Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and Rome,
before the temples and the altars of Astarte, of
Jupiter, of Diana, and the thirty thousand gods
admitted by the indifference of Areopagus.   Think
of any man undertaking to tell Paul that he must not
bring his religion into politics!  It was only vagabond Jews, and that only of the iower sort, and
Demetrius the silver-smith, the maker of silver
shrines for Diana, that cried out politics, and the
turning of the world upside down with agitation, and
sounded the alarm that the apostles were persuading
men to worship God contrary to the law. That was
the accusation; and where the law was all on the
side of sin, death, and Satan, how could there but be
incessant conflict and strife, till God's law got the
uppermost?
I sometimes think I see, with the clearness of a
death-bed vision, that the spirit of gain, and of a
commercial expediency, and of an indolent love of
ease and prosperity, even in spiritual things, has
taken fast hold of the people. And I do know that
there may be a self-deception, even in the hearts of
men who think they are going on wisely and smoothly
in the way to heaven, and a secret leaven of supreme
3* 
58     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
regard to self, that corrupts the whole fountain, so
that, by-and-by, with the horror of an eternal surprise, they may find God saying to them, I never
knew you, ye never knew me!
There are those who have asked themselves, again
and again, May we not keep silence? Is it not best?
Why is it necessary to speak on this subject, though
it be in God's word; or, if necessary, why necessary
for us, and why now? But we are answered by
conscience, by God's word, by the examples of the
prophets and apostles: and so answered, how can we
forbear speaking out?  By the help of God, I, for
one, mean to speak freely, fully, on this subject, at
this most solemn juncture in our history. It is not
from curiosity, merely, but by constraint, that we
have to seek the light of God upon our present path
of duty, personal and individual, in regard to this
thing. It is no mere abstraction, and never was, but
it has come to every man's door, every man's own
soul, asking what shall be done? what course are
we to pursue, what opinion shall we maintain, and
what would God have us to do, in such a crisis?
Hlere, then, we must consent to come humbly to the
word of God, and learn what is His judgment in
regard to the right way; for now, at this very time,
we are making, as a nation, our final decision upon it,
and every man takes part in that decision.
I proclaim the right and the obligation of a minister of God's word to preach on the sinfulness of 
RIGHT OF THE GOSPEL TO SPEAK. 59
extending the system of slavery, and to show the consequent religious responsibility of a vote in regard to
it. If any persons in the nation have a right to speak
on this subject, those who have thoroughly investigated it in the Scriptures, in their original languages, certainly possess that right.   I have long
studied the Old Testament in reference to it, out of
anguish of spirit at the daring accusation brought
against God's law among the Hiebrews, of sustaining
and sanctioning this stupendous wrong. And if; after
some seventeen years' ministry in the city of New
York, I could not dare to speak, or might not be permitted or sustained in proclaiming the whole utterance of God's word on this subject, where or when
could I? Could I do it at the South? where, not
only no man is allowed to speak, but if he be even
suspected of thinking unfavorably to the systemn of
slavery, he must be expelled from society, the safety
of which is declared to be imperiled by his presence.
Or, should a minister go to India or Siberia, and
there proclaim the word of God against the sin of
slavery, in a country five thousand miles distant?
That was Amaziah's advice to the prophet Amos,
when, at God's bidding, he proclaimed the iniquities
of Israel in Israel. 0 thou seer, go, flee thee away
into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there, but prophesy not again any more at
Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's
court. 
60     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
But why speak here, and why now? Because the
time has come, and the occasion, and the demand,
and  the personal moral necessity.   It is worth  a
seventeen years' ministry to come to such a crisis,
and be permitted of God to speak out. Never before
has the extension of slavery been made a personal
responsibility, at least not directly; but now it is.
It is put to you and to me, as individuals, to say,
Shall slavery and oppression, or freedom and justice,
be the rule of this nation? This, then, is a crisis in
which, with the word of God in trust to proclaim for
God, we can not be silent; and Es to our hearers,
whatever part of God's word you reject, the same
shall judge you in the last day.
Now, it is no easy matter to proclaim the word of
God on this subject; it is not a pleasing or a popular
theme. And as to position, as to prosperity, as to
popularity, are not all inducements over on the side
of ease, quiet, and silence?   Why  endanger your
position, influence, the welfare of your church, by an
obstinate conscience, that makes you think, forsooth,
that you must proclaim the messages in the word of
God on this subject? Truly, my friends, you must
see that it is nothing of ease, or self-indulgence, or
the seductions of popular applause, that can constrain
a man, in such a case, to give utterance to his convictions. I can but ask your prayers, as Paul did,
that I may open my mouth boldly, that I may speak
boldly, as I ought to speak. But speak I must. If 
THUS SAITH THE LORD.
I did not speak, I should perhaps receive the curse of
a judicial darkness into my own soul. I should feel
degraded, debased, enslaved. I could never lift my
head as a man, a free man, an embassador for God,
who seeks not to please men, but God. I have been
made to feel that if a man can not stand against the
whole world, if need be, with a Thus saith the Lord,
he is unfit to speak for Jehovah; it may be that he is
unfit for heaven, destitute of the very first elements
of faith in the Lord Jesus. And of the two lines of
mistake in regard to eternity, that of self-indulgence
in the way of timidity and love of ease, taking that
for a conservative piety, and that of boldness, and a
constitutional love of liberty and truth, taking that for
conscientiousness;-a man may be mistaken in regard
to his motives in either way. But if one must go to
perdition by one of these errors, he had better go by
mistake of boldness in the truth, than shame and fear
of it. And sure I am, that more will be lost in this
age by not confessing God and his truth before men,
than by imprudent or fiery zeal in the proclamation of
any part of God's messages.
0 that God may work in us all, by his own grace,
a most entire and hearty love of his truth. Remembering that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of God shall man live, may we be enabled to say
with Jeremiah, Thy words were found, and I did eat
them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of my heart.
61 
CHIIAPTER VI.
GLORY AND FREEDOM OF TIlE WORD OF GOD IN ITS UNIVERSAL
AND PERPETUAL  APPLICAT'ION- DEMONSTRATIONS FROM  ITS
HISTORICAL AND PROPHIETIC PORTIONS, AS TO NATIONAL SINS THIS LIGHT YET TO BE APPLIED.
IT is the glory and the freedom of the Word of God,
that it is for all ages, times, circumstances, men, and
sins, without respect to persons. What would it be
worth, if it were not? It would grow old, it would
pass out of date, it would vanish away, it would be
like the first Egyptian covenant which decayeth and
waxeth old, anId is suspended.   But now, forever,
every word of God is settled in heaven, every orb
hung up in that divine firmament, the same faithful
light unto all generations. Its very historical records
are like the milky way, a galaxy of stars, disclosing
new worlds with the application of every new comprehensive prayerful investigation by instruments of
greater power. And its very nebulosities, that like
the cloudy fleeces of the starry universe, have sometimes furnished hopeful clinging-places for the bats of
infidelity, are resolved into clusters of perfect worlds,
arranged from the outset by him who made them at 
PERPETUAL LIFE OF THE WORD. 63
his own great will, for the manifestation of his own
glory. The words of the Lord are pure words, as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
There is no dross in it; there is nothing to be thrown
away; and the historical portions are especially precious for this, among many essential uses, that they
teach us, beyond all possibility of doubt, the freedom
and fearlessness with which God will have every
portion of his Word applied. They set in a divine
illumination the precedents, in which the statutory
parts of the divine law  are illustrated, with such
demonstration, as to give their meaning new clearness
and power. And the same is the case with the illustration of the promises, so often made to shine in the
chapters of personal experience, and in the beautiful
and various recountings of God's providence.
Now it can not be denied that in whatever age of
the world any sinful practices or principles prevail, to
the condemnation of which any part of the word of
God is applicable, or for demonstration of tile wickedness of which any part of the word of God can be
used, that part of the word of God is meant for that
age and that iniquity, was given in reference to it, was
prearranged for such application, and is as directly
revealed  from God to that age, for the purpose of
being proclaimed as his immediate message, as it was
for the very first age, and the very first occasion.
For this is the ever-living power and freshness of the
word of God. When God revealed it first, he gave it 
64      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
for all times and places, through all generations up to
the last day, and with a particular foresight of all
phases of human society, all forms of human government, all customs and fashions among men, and all
varieties of human wickedness, whether of philosophy
or impiety, intellect or heart, in the church or out of
it, rulers or ruled. It is the incorruptible, eternal
Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, while
generation after generation, all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of grass.  The
grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth away,
but the Word of the Lord endureth forever.
And God will have it applied; he gave it, he prepared it, he made it profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. God will have it applied by
living preachers, according as men's conditions, dangers, miseries and sins, sins and miseries, require;
will have it divided rightly, that every man, and
every generation, and every community, may receive
their portion in due season. Like the sun in the
heavens, there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
And there is nothing, in individual or national life,
at the door of which, as at a forbidden or sacred citadel, any man, or government, or society, may stand
and fend off, or expel, the word of God from entering
and applying its judgment. It has the scrutiny and
freedom of omniscience and omnipresence, breaking 
OMNISCIENCE OF GOD'S WORD.  65
every seal and every spell of concealment, and flash ing as God's eye into every secret recess and on every
hidden thing. Whatever is morally wrong in all the
ramifications, employments, and organizations of
society, whatever in human business or luxury, what ever in art, commerce, manufactures, labor, learning,
science, jurisprudence, civil, social, or domestic econ omy, on that the word of God falls, to search it out
and rebuke it.  WhateVer there be in the  laws or
policy of nations, tainted with moral infection, under
the condemnation of God's righteousness, or adapted,
or designed, to lead men into, or protect them in
pursuing courses of sin, on that the word of God
comes down, to that it is to be applied, and that is the
province over which it has indisputable dominion, and
on which it is to be marched without fear or apology,
without hindering or halting. If unrighteousness in
law is carrying men in iniquity headlong, God's word
is to be planted in the face of such law, in defiance of
it, as a park of artillery to thunder against it, and
shield the people from its dreadful sway.   Of all
partisan claims or theological hallucinations, the idea
that the science of government, the conduct of rulers,
the political creeds and practices of men, the administration of parties and of nations, the whole domain,
in fine, of what is called politics, is sacred from the
application of God's word, and stands aloof on ground
which the very nature of the preacher's vocation forbids him  to invade, is the maddest.   A  greater 
66     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
absurdity could scarcely be broached or a more impious one in its logic and its consequences, than that
which, nevertheless, has been broached, and widely
insisted on, that politics are out of the supervision of
piety, and that religion is out of its sphere in applying to the political doctrines and practices of a people
the rules of God's righteousness, the light of God's
word. The politics of a people comprise the whole
scope of their laws and civil obligations, under which,
if they be left to the dominion of the god of this
world, given over to his undisputed sway, the whole
nation will at length inevitably go down to perdition.
The idea that men commissioned with the word of
God are desecrating their office, or transcending its
limits, when they undertake to bring the nation's
laws and transgressions under the judgment of God's
law; or that they are in any manner or degree going
out of their own proper sphere as the teachers of
God's word, is a creation only of pride and impiety;
and for the ministers of that word themselves to
echo such an opinion, is itself a desecration of their
office and a treason against God.
And here let me say, in regard to the historical
teachings, and all other teachings in the Old Testament, that they are not only not superseded by the
New, but confirmed and strengthened, and of just as
great importance to be applied as ever. The New
Testament is an addition to, and perfection of, the
revelations of God's will in the Old, but it takes not 
PROVIDENCE ILLUSTRATED.
away one jot or tittle of its authority, nor diminishes
in the least degree its importance, nor supplies its
place. The New Testament is part and parcel of the
Old, but what the Old could not do, the New has
done, and what the Old has still to do, the New does
not do, and can not do, in its place.   The Old came
very much to governments and nations; the New
still leaves that field to be occupied by the Old, and
itself comes  more  especially and directly to individuals; but the Old has still its mission, and must
occupy its sphere, as fellovw-preacher with the New,
both being God's eternal witnesses, neither to cease
on account of the other, but both to preach together
and forever. to men and communities, to individuals
and nations, to governments and peoples, to rulers
and the ruled alike.
And in this history, the career of nations, and of
the Jews especially, is full of blazing light and practical instruction, both in regard to our duty, and in
illustration of the divine Providence and word.   The
HIebrew people, in their own country, and in their
national life, were (a perpetual beacon-light amid the
darkness; and in their living death among the nations
they still serve a mighty purpose for the demonstration of anatomy  and disease, as God's  subject of
dissection, for the scrutiny of deadly moral poison,
and the instruction and the warning of all empires.
And in these historical pages the providential government of God is revealed and illustrated as we never
67 
68     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
could have known it, but for them. Hence, continually the vivid references by the Lord Jesus Christ
back to the records of what God has been doing, for
instruction as to his will and providence and our
duty. HIave ye not read? Is it not plain before
you?  Remember Lot's wife.  Remember  the carcasses of those who fell in the wilderness.  Remember
Sodom and Gomorrah. As it was in the days of
Noah so shall it again be. As it was with Jonah
and Nineveh, and the warned and instructed, and yet
ruined cities and kingdoms of old, so again in the
ever-recurring tides and destinies of rising, flourishing, sinning, and falling nations. There they lie, the
ruins of those cities, and in solemn silent eloquence
proclaim God's wrath; and Nineveh and Thebes, in
their wonderful disentombment and material anastasis
bear witness to the truth.   The dispersion of the
Jews among all nations, and at the same time God's
most wonderful providential preservation of them
from becoming lost and indistinguishable, or merged
and denationalized, constitute a perpetual flaming
miracle, in fulfillment of the prediction in Amos, " I
will destroy the sinful kingdom from off the face of
the earth, and I will sift the house of Israel among
all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall
not the least grain fall upon the earth." These
demonstrations cover the course of all time, and they
are for all ages, and they reach to all possible circumstances and questions in their application, with their 
BATTLE-BG0ROUND OF PRINCIPLE. 69
light. They show, as one vast example and prece dent, for the instruction of all generations and nations,
how God is a present God, with a particular provi dence, interposing, acting, arranging all causes, and
ordering affairs and guiding and governing the whole
world on the same principles developed in the history
of that small portion of the world where the Saviour
of the world was crucified.
But this light has never been applied to the affairs
of nations, the administration of governments, the
political life of the people; and almost half of God's
word has remained a dead letter, and an unknown
power. When John Robinson told the pilgrims that
he was confident God had much more truth to unseal
and let it break forth out of his living oracles, than
they had any of them then gazed at, he might, or he
might not, have had in his mind this application of
divine truth to human politics; but certain it is, that
by such application and guidance alone can our country be saved from going down into a deeper gulf of
ruin than any nation was ever buried in. This country is the battle-ground of religious principle against
a wicked political expediency, and of God's authority
in national affairs against the spirit of conquest, covetousness, oppression, and diplomatic fraud and selfishness. Never, anywhere else, has principle had the
field; it has been shut out and abandoned, as an
interloper, an intruder, out of place in politics, and so
the world has gone on without it. But here we have 
70       GOTI) A(GAINST SLAVERY.
it.  The battle is God's authority, and the religious
principle, and the power of conscience, against political dishonesty and villainy.  It is by the word of
God that conscience and freedom fight on against
immorality and slavery; and the whole word must be
free, and must be used, and no part of it vailed or
rejected.
Heretofore the conscience-battle has been merely
as a skirmish in a narrow mountain gorge, where not
a thousandth part of the troops could be engaged, or
it has only been an ecclesiasticeal engagement, as of
the Free Church of Scotland, moving from the government and patronage of the State. Now, at length,
we are down in the plain, room enough for all the
forces and for every evolution, and the whole world
are gazing at us, as if they occupied the mountain
sides, and suspended all their interests for the issue
of this conflict. It is principle, battling by the word
of God, that here must contend against policy, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places; must enter into
policy, conquer it, guide it, shape it, inspire it,
transform it. It is principle in the hearts of the
people that must reclaim and govern the government,
that must wrest it mightily from the possession of
men who are subverting its fundamental laws and
elements, and put it in the hands, and keep it in the
hands, of men who will not do what God abhors.
There is but one way to accomplish this: God's 
RELIGION IN POLITICS.
truth, working by God's Spirit in the masses, in the
common people, in the whole constituency. We must
take possession of the constituency for God, and so
we get possession of the government for God. The
opinions of the constituency in regard to politics must
be formed under the light of God's word, a thing
which in most nations has never yet been done, but
religion has been kept as far away from politics, and
politics as thoroughly on the watch against religion.
as if politics were a peaceful, unpolluted Eden, and
religious truth the prowling fiend, seeking to distract,
divide, and fill it with mischief and desolation. The
government of religion by politics has been very common; this has been the rule where church and state
have been united; and between both the truth of
God's word has been crushed and silenced, where it
could not be perverted. But now comes a time when
every thing must be brought into the light, and determined not by state or ecclesiastical power, as formerly, but by conscience, which God's truth first
sets at work, and then arms with a might that is
irresistible. Now, over all this domain, God's word
has a park of mighty batteries to inove, hitherto
masked and silent, but now to be unmasked and
thundering. There is a hidden fre never yet revealed, but which is to break forth in triumphant
majesty and power.
71 
CHAPTER VII.
fOD'S WRATH AGAINST SLAVERY IN JEREMIAH XXXIV. 17-,THE
ILLUMINATION FROM THIS PASSAGE UPON OUR OWN SIN-THE
SOLEMNITY OF THE CRIISIS AND THE RESPONSIBILITY-NATION AL DECISIONS BY INDIVIDUAL  OPINIONS AND CHOICES-TIE
QUESTION TO BE SETTLED IS OF RIGHT OR WRONG, NOT POLICY
OR IMPOLICY.
THUS saith the Lord, Ye have not hearkened unto
me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother,
and every man to his neighbor; behold, I proclaim a
liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you
to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
Jer. xxxiv. 17.   These words constitute one of the
most tremendous thunderbolts of God's wrath against
a nation's sins ever issued from the quiver of the
Almighty.   It came down with the suddenness of a
peal of thunder in a clear day. The cause and occasion of it were the attempted establishment of slavery
in the land, in place of free voluntary paid labor.
Involuntary servitude was forbidden by the divine
law, and the service appointed by the constitution of
the Jewish state was a free service. There had been,
from time to  time, great and gross transgressions of
this benevolent constitution; and God had incessantly 
OPPItESSION PUNISHED.
denounced his vengeance., by the prophets, against
such oppressions; but never before had there been a
deliberate determination and attempt, on the part of
the nation, to violate the free constitution, defeat its
provisions of protection and justice for the laboring
classes. establish the sinful ldn( forbidden claim of
property in man, and bind their free servants  as
bond-slaves and chattels forever  at the will of the
master.
This dreadful revolution and usurpation they now
resolved upon-king, princes. priests, and the whole
oligarchy of masters.   They had hesitated, had relaxed their grasp from the subjects of their oppression,
when  Jerusalem  was threatened  by  the  invading
Clhaldean array: but the moment the troops drew off,
and the immediate pressure of fear and danger was
removed, they returined to their impious project; the
gain in their wealth, by making their servants prop- 
erty, instead of hIred servants, was too vast, and the
temptation of wielding an irresponsible despotism too
dazzling for their cupidity and love of power to resist.
They had been going on in an immoral, sensual,
proud, vicious training for this final, daring, culminating iniquity, for centuries; but they did not expect
to be reined up and blasted by so sudden a destruction.  It came like a whirlwind; it as all over with
them; there was no more reprieve, no more forbearance; the choice of slavery instead of freedom, and
oppression instead of justice and humanity, as the
4
73 
74    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
policy of the nation, filled up the measure of their
iniquities, and exhausted the last drop in the allotted
patience and long-suffering of God.
Now, the transaction of this marked and mighty
sin, and God's tremendous, almost instantaneous,
wrathful judgment against it, were, for the sudden
illumination of wickedness and justice in our fallen
world, like a sun shot into chaos. If I had time to
examine, and you the patience to contemplate, the
previous steps of transgression, that led to this
colossal guilt, and prepared the way for it, the
gradual sapping and mining of the foundations of
morality, the corruption of principles, manners, and
morals, the successive wicked statutes, and the habit
of infidelity and disobedience toward God fastened on
the people, in willingly walking after them, the
sacrifice and shipwreck of conscience, in obeying man
rather than God, and the consequent loss of all dignity, power, and freedom, the recital would be full
of instruction and of thrilling interest.   We  have
already dwelt upon several important points; and I
can now only, as it were, take the quadrant, and,
getting this orb of light in the firmament of God's
word in the right line and reflection, bring it down
exactly to our position, to calculate our course of
duty and of safety.   It is only by such celestial
observations, as that great writer, Mr. Coleridge,
once remarked, that terrestrial charts can be constructed: such charts, at least, as can be relied upon 
PRECEDENTS AND WARNINGS.  75
to carry a nation safely through its perils. We ourselves are at sea, and surrounded by breakers, and
God only can rescue us; and He will do it, only by
our reliance on Him, and obedience to Him.
Let us, then, in the first place, secure an observation as to God's method in a nation's probationary
trial, and as to the solemnity of the crisis to which
we have been brought, and the similarity between our
position and that of the Jews, from the lifted lid of
whose sepulchre there comes such an awful voice of
wailing and of warning.   We shall then be prepared
to go into the argument as to the iniquity of slavery,
and as to our own guilt and ruin, if we consent to its
extension.
And here I beseech you to remark, that this
mighty precedent of national injustice, and of God's
vengeance against it, being once set, and blazing out
with lurid fire, like a burning planet, in God's word,
it settles into certainty the judgment of God with any
othlier nation that shall dare to take to its embrace a
similar injustice as to its policy.  It settles another
matter also, that God will never again have patience
with any other nation as he had with the first; but
the wrath that with the first was restrained for ages,
while the injustice was rolling on, will come down
upon the last, because of the despised light of the first
example, with overwhelming rapidity and power.' If
men neglect the examples and the warning in God's
word, so much the worse for them, and worse still if 
76     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
they scoff at its application.   But there burns the
light, the fire, the wickedness, the warning, the
thunderbolt: you can almost hear it hissing and
detonating anew, as you open those sacred pages.
There stands the scorched, scarred, transfixed, and
blasted form of a nation once chosen and beloved of
God, but now a monument to the universe of his inexorable justice. Dear to him once as the apple of
his eye, engraved in covenant mercy on the palms of
his hands, yet for the crime of trusting in oppression anzd stayingj the)mselves thereon, plucked from
his own finger as his signet ring, and whirled in
scorn into the gulf of retribution!
We may be sure, if we do not mark this example,
and take heed to the warning, there will be no such
patience and forbearance of God toward us, as for a
while reined in his wrath from riding as a whirlwind
over his ancient people.
Nations have their time and scene of probation as well
as individuals. They form character, habits, and fixed
principles of conduct, that, in the.end, however things
may seem to move for a season, come out according
to eternal justice.   If that be violated by a. nation,
to secure a present seeming temporal prosperity or
power, there will be a divine vengeance and retribution. The course of crime strikes back, and that
which was pleasure, luxury, and power, in the forward career, is wretchedness, ruin, and death in the
reaction. The time must come; it can not wait for 
ACCUMULATED RETRIBUTION.
eternity; and whatever distance there may be between the actors of a present generation, whom the
judgment for national crime overtakes, and those who
began the crime, or set its causes in the national
policy, the stroke of vengeance is not lightened, but
falls with a renewed and accumulated, as well as
original righteousness and force, the present actors
having adopted for themselves the sins of their fathers,
woven them in the life of the nation, and made that
perpetual which might have been temporary. That
upon you may come all the righteous blood, from
that of Abel down to the last man murdered for his
principles. It all comes, and comes righteously, for
the last act challenges all the preceding, as adopted,
legitimated; and the fate that, like the whirling of a
sling, has been swinging round and round for generations, to gather force and swiftness, at length descends, as with the speed of lightning, in the concentrated fury of avengeance long scouted and defied.
Ages of expostulation and rebuke, of compassionate
delay and warning, throw themselves into the blow.
The spirits of retribution awake and hurry onward
from a thousand quarters, where the moans of the
injured have been going up to God.
When the time comes, when the books are open
for settlement, as in the time of vengeance on the
French monarchy for ages of oppression, every outraged principle, and every agonized class, presents its
account.   The  universe seems  but one uproar of
77 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
wrath; seems to have taken fire for God and justice,
and to rush upon the long-escaping and long-defying
criminal with a rejoicing energy and strength. The
race of men in Sodom, overwhelmed with the storm of
fire from heaven, were perhaps no worse than the
generation that preceded them; but the vengeance
long delayed all came down upon them. The vengeance due for past crimes, which might have been
prevented by repentance and humility, is condensed,
pointed, and brought down, by impenitence and hardness of heart, as when a lightning rod is lifted to the
clouds. There is always a last drop of insolence and
cruelty that fills up the measure of a nation's iniquities, and then the edict goes forth, Actuin est de
te: periisti. There was, in the case of Belshazzar
and Babylon; there was, in the case of Israel; there
was, in the case of Judah; there was, in the career of
Jerusalem, when incarnate Deity, in person, warned
and expostulated.
There are awful unseen junctures, unseen, because
men choose to be blinded, and there are days of unknown visitation, unknown, because men scoff at the
thought of being thus under the judgment of a present God. There are seasons of deliberate choice forever, where two ways meet, and nations, as individuals, come to the point, decide, and from that step, go
steadily downward or upward, according to that decision. We ourselves, as a nation, have come to such
a point. We are to choose for an empire between
78 
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY.  79
wrong and righteousness, between injustice andjustice,
between oppression and benevolence, between slavery
and freedom. It is a point, in which all the characters and wills in this country come to a convergency, one side or other, good or bad. It is a point
where the choice will be determined by individual
adopted opinions and preferences, under motives and
principles which in every case God unerringly traces
and judges, as he alone can do.
It is a spectacle, and a national issue, such as there
never was before in all the world; a decision affecting
at present and in prospect, more millions of men,
and greater varieties of interest in this world, and
more solemn eternal results, than any movement of
any nation's policy ever on record. All such issues,
heretofore, have been made up by the few in power,
by consolidated governments and councils, in regard to
whose determinations the people have no choice, and
whose edicts are only to be registered and executed,
unless the people have had the virtue to resist them.
So the world has gone on, amid the oppression of the
poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice
in provinces; the place of judgment, and iniquity
there, the place of righteousness, and iniquity there;
oppressors making wise men mrad, and the few assuming, by robbery and tyranny, the responsibility of
many, defrauding them almost of moral agency.
But out of this condition of the world there has
been great progress; it is given to our country to see 
80      GOI) AGAINST SLAVERY.
whether the many will act more truly and justly for
God, and mercifully and righteously for themselves
and others, than the few; whether human nature is
unjust, selfish, and tyrannical in the few only, because few, and intrusted with too great a trust, or in
the many also, except God's grace interpose. It is a
new, vast, unexampled step, that of a question of
morality for hundreds of millions and for ages, committed to a whole people to determine, by the expression of individual judgment as responsible as if the
whole decision were thrown upon each one's own mind.
The  question of duty  with us is therefore not
merely national, and corporate, but INI)IVIDU)AL, inasmuch as every man is called to vote, and to vote
freely, according to his own opinion and choice. It
is his highest moral responsibility, and most solemn
action, as connected with the state. In forming his
opinions, justly or unjustly, and in selecting his
representatives or agents, with reference to those
opinions, and in voting for his rulers, he is himself
the actor of the justice or the injustice. What a man
does by his agent, he does himself. Qui facit per
a,ium, facit per se.  If a man orders a broker to
buy, he buys; if a man hires an assassin to murder,
he murders   If a man votes for Senator, Representative, President, or Governor, pledged to pursue
a particular line of oppression and iniquitous policy,
he votes for that iniquity, he sustains it, he transacts
it himself, he will have to stand before God in judg 
THiE VOTE, A MORAL TRUST.
ment on that indictment. The vote is always a moral
trust, but especially when a great moral question is
to be determined by it. It is, of all others, a thing
of individual responsibility, and a matter of conscience. a matter between the soul and God, a matter
of religion, and not of mere politics, a matter in
which every man ought to seek the instruction of
God's word, and in which we are bound to proclaim
God's judgment.   We do not preach to the government, but to the people, the government being
merely their agent. We do not preach to the people
on a question of mere expediency, or diplomacy, or
profit, or political economy, or statesmanship, or even
of what is best, but of what is right, of what God
allows. The question of slavery is not a question of
power or revenue, but of RECTITUDE; and, since God's
will is plainly expressed upon it, a question of obedience to God's law. Beyond all contradiction therefore
it is a legitimate, appropriate, authoritative subject for
the pulpit; and if the course proposed for the nation is
that not only of sanctioning and sustaining the system
of slavery, but of enforcing it as the policy of a new
state, the system to be set at the heart of a virgin
society, and men who religiously hate and abhor it to
be driven into an endurance of it and submission to it
at the point of the bayonet, then no true Qmbassador
for God can avoid speaking out. On the plain and
pungent principles laid down in Ezekiel, he is bound
to proclaim God's denunciation of such an iniquity.
81
4* 
CHAPTER  VIII.
OBJECTIONS URGED AGAINST THE MENTION OF THIS SIN-THE
OPINION OF COLERIDGE-THE EXAMPLE OF LORD  ERSKINE IN
RESISTING AND REBUKING OPPRESSION-TIIE  WORD OF GOD
OUR ONLY SAFE GUIDE.
BuT here again I hear the stale, accustomed outcry of political preaching; and perhaps you say, it
produces noise and agitation, dispute and disturbance,
in the churches, to have the sluices of God's word
opened on this iniquity, and revivals of religion will
be stopped, and every thing will go to ruin. But, we
may be sure every thing will go to ruin by sin, and
not by the efforts to put a stop to sin.  It produces a
dreadful noise, to have the safety-valves opened on
board a steamboat racing with such reckless speed
and pressure of steam, that the boiler is about bursting. And suppose a party of men on board, engaged
in a religious conversation, should run and jump upon
the safety-valve, to prevent that noise, declaring that
they could not converse while the noise continued.
Would  that be piety or wisdom?   Suppose  they
asserted that all the danger was from the noise, and
not from the racing. Your fire-engines make a great
noise, tearing through the streets to put out a confla 
NEED OF EXCITEMENT.
gration. Suppose that they should be indicted as a
nuisance, while the incendiary goes at large, and the
flames prosper. According to the word of God, lihe
that kindled the fire shall make restitution, not he
that made a great disturbance in striving to put it
out.
Ludicrous as it may seem, I have absolutely had
the charge brought against my preaching, th,t it
excites the nerves to such a degree that the man could
hardly sit still under it.  A  man complained to a
friend who brought him to church one Sabbath evening, that he never was so excited in his life. that he
did not come to church to be excited, but quieted, but
that he never found himself under such excitement
of mind anywhere, and he would not stand it. Poor
man, just as if the word of God were nothing but
carpenter-work, to make sound sleepers!  He did not
consider that there are sleepers enough in our churches
any day, strong timber, and no danger of disturbing
them; and that the very thing we need is excitement
by the truth, excitement in the mind, excitement in
the heart, excitement in the conscience. But you
can not have it all one way; and when there are
snags in the mind, there will be a ripple where the
current of truth sweeps over them. Hurlgate itself
could be kept smooth, by widening the channel, and
blowing up the rough rocks at the bottom.
Between the mealy-mouthedness of preachers, and
the mealy-heartedness of the people, with the motto,
83 
84     GO D) AGAINST SLAVERY.
first peaceable, then pure, there comes to be a most
unsubstantial, unreliable state of things. Christians
educated in this manner are not to be relied upon for
a confession of the truth in troublous times, or a
defense of it when it becomes unpopular. You might
as well make a cable out of a bag of meal as expect to
hold fast by such a Christianity.   The fashionable
and time-serving congregations can not endure plain
truth. The flour of the gospel itself must be so
finely and exquisitely bolted, that all the strength is
excluded, all that goes to make bone and gristle, and
between that and the evil mentioned in God's word
(Ephraii? is a cake not tarr,ed), you get nothing
from the gospel-oven but dough-faces.   And the
same monstrous inconsistency is visible now, in the
profession and life of Christians, as was in the character
of the people of God of old, when in one verse he
described them as a people making great ostentation
of seeking God, and delighting in his ordinances, and
parading their oblations, and in the next as a rebellious generation, a lying people, who would not listen
to the word of the Lord, when it condemned their own
cherished and defended sins. They fasted, but refused to break a single yoke. They prayed, they
made long prayers, anld then turned and gave their
influence against all preaching and all effort to establish freedom instead of slavery, which was quite
equivalent to making long prayers, and then devouring widows' houses. Just so now, men pray for 
GOD AGAINST HYPOCRISY.
revivals of religion, but if any brother from the
country, too simple-hearted to understand the atmosphere and the currents of the prayer-meeting, happens
to pray for the deliverance of the oppressed and the
enslaved, a feeling runs through the room, as of something strange, ill-judged, unmannered, as if fanaticism
has appeared bodily in the assembly.   If slavery be
in any way referred to, they remark upon the injudiciousness of such preaching, how certain it is to put
a stop to revivals of religion, and drive away the
pious praying hearts that long for the outpouring of
God's Spirit.
Now is it to be supposed that God does not see to
the very bottom of such hollow professions, or that
his indignation against such hypocrisy is any less at
this day than it was when he told his people of old,
that all their oblations and their approaches to him,
were  a smoke in his nose, instead of gaining his
approbation, and that even when they burned incense
to him, it was no better than if they blessed an idol?
Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul
delighteth in their abominations; I also will choose
their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them.
God is not mocked, and we have yet to learn what
that meaneth; I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.
Love your neighbor as yourself, and thus prove that
the love of God is in you.
A deplorable, sickly, hypocritical fastidiousness is
in danger of settling down on our congregations,
85 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
destructive of every thing manly, bold, and original.
There are plenty of gentlemen with kid gloves in our
pulpits, but no brawny blacksmiths with sledge-hammers; or if by chance a sledge-hammer ever does
come into play, it must be garlanded with silk and
flowers, or cased in India rubber, to accommodate
itself to the elastic conscience with which it is to come
in contact; and even then, though it mray be used
advantageously to pound all in pieces the sin of
dancing, it can not preserve a conservative reputation
if brought down upon any organic iniquity. But
God's description of his word as a fire and a hammer
certainly smacks of the blacksmith's shop rather than
the parlor, and looks as if burning thloughts and hard
blows were more acceptable to him  than fastidious
elegances.   Our young  men  look in vain to our
pulpits for that sympathy with the oppressed, and
affinity with the native impulses of the human heart
for freedom, which true religion always possesses, and
which the true gospel cultivates. They are repelled
by the cold, sanctimonious caution with which all
enthusiasm for freedom is banished from the sanctuary.
I have but just received a note from a brother
minister in which he says, after inquiring as to Jeremiah's positions,'" The pro-slavery sentiment here has
spiked so many guns, that they expect to spike mine
without much difficulty. I only wish it was of a
larger caliber.", Now it is rather hazardous business, 
SPIKING G UNS DIFFICULT.
this spiking guns while the fight is waging; and one
thing is certain, if conscience has had the casting of
the gun, and the management of it, the attempt to
spike it will only result in filling it to the very
muzzle with grape-shot, and giving a tenfold fury to
its cannonadings.   Spike  the guns of the gospel
against men's sins?  Try the experiment.  More than
forty men once bound themselves with an oath that
they would neither eat nor drink till they had spiked
Paul's gun by killing him; but they only opened
before him a wider and more effectual door of utterance, and mean time we do not read that they starved
themselves to death, though really all that their oath
could do was only to spike their own stomachs. Just
so the pope tried to spike Luther's gun, but only
taught him how to load and fire more effectually.
And this is the effect which outrages upon truth
and justice always will have. and ought to have, upon
faithful and noble souls; it will only make them still
more earnest and resolute. Certainly, when truth is
fallen in the street, and equity can not enter, and he
that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey, it is
time for gap-men, time for the duke's guard, time
for Cromwell's invincibles, time to storm the enemy
with greater energy than ever, but not to compromise
our principles or spike our guns.
The truths that have been outraged are to be reproclaimed in the spirit of outraged truth, at the
behest of conscience, in the service of the God of
87 
88     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
truth. They may require the voice of loud alarm
and impassioned warning.   "Such," says Coleridge,
"are in our own times the agitating truths with
which Thomas Clarkson and his excellent confederates the Quakers, fought and conquered the legalized
banditti of men-stealers, the numerous and powerful
perpetraters and advocates of rapine, murder, and of
blacker guilt than either, slavery. Truths of this kind
being indispensable to man, considered as a moral
being, are above all expedience, all accidental consequences; for as sure as God is holy, and man immortal,
there can be no evil so great as the ignorance or disregard of them." Both the duty and the privilege of
bearing such testimony, and of rebuking such wickedness, especially in high places, has been defended and
demonstrated with illumination so dazzling, on occasions so illustrious, in a manner so noble, and with
consequences so grand, that the instances are the most
impressive and instructive chapters of history.   I
have seldom met with a prouder and more fearless
averment of the grandeur, solemnity, and imperious
necessity of such testimony in the teeth of tyranny,
than that of Lord Erskine, when the minions of the
British crown, and a cringing, tyrannical judiciary
were endeavoring to force the guilt of constructive
treason upon innocent men, and to compel a jury to
bring in a charge of guilty, just as they are now
doing with innocent men in Kansas, but in that Territory in a manner more outrageous, more defiant of 
LORD ERSKINE'S EXAMPLE.
truth, freedom, and righteousness, than ever before in
any nation under heaven.   "Gentlemen," said Lord
Erskine to the jury, " this is such a horrible proposi tion, the imputation of treason to men whom we know
never designed it, and the proposition to hang them
by law on account of it, though they could have been
indicted only by perversion of the law, that I would
rather, at the end of all these causes, when I had fin ished my duty to their unfortunate objects, die upon
my knees thanking God that for the protection of
innocence and the safety of my country, I had been
made the instrument of denying and reprobating such
wickedness, than live to the age of Methuselah for
letting it pass unexposed and unrebuked."
The religious sacredness and nobleness of testimony against oppression were never more grandly
illustrated; but if such be the convictions and exalted sentiments of an advocate at an oppressive
earthly tribunal, surely, they who occupy the place
of ministers of God's truth in God's own sanctuary
ought to be animated by impulses not less sacred,
ought to glory in their testimony with an ardor not
less sublime.
But why do we refer to mortal instances, when we
have the example of divine? In the judgment-hall of
Pilate, Christ Jesus himself transcendently glorified
and illustrated the duty of bearing testimony to
oppressed and persecuted truth, by declaring that his
own object, even in becoming incarnate, was to give
89 
90    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
it utterance, and to stand up in behalf of it. To this
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.
Now when we hear God declaring that the throne
of iniquity, which frameth mischief by a law, shall
not have fellowship with him, and when we hear him
saying Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed; it is beyond all possibility of doubt that the
denunciation from the pulpit, of such vast, creative,
germinating, and accumulating wickedness, is pleasing in his sight. It is one object for which he has
established the pulpit, and given it a sacredness in
the opinion and a hold upon the hearts and consciences of men.  But let ministers beware how they lose
that reverence, by yielding up the freedom of the
pulpit to the fear of man, and suffering the hypocritical outcry of political preaching to prevent them from
pouring the light of God's word on political sins.
Lord Erskine denounced the wickedness of the
imputation of treason to men who were known to be
true lovers of their country and of freedom, and the
infamy of the proposition to hang them up by an
indictment which itself could not be framed except by
perversion of the law. But the wickedness that Lord
Erskine was called to battle against might almost
boast of sanctity in comparison with the complica ted villainies transacted in Kansas, and enforced by
our government. For we have there the unrivalled 
USURPATION IN KANSAS.
atrocity of a pretended territorial legislature, proved
and acknowledged by our own government to be a
violent fraud and usurpation, and all its authority
null and void, yet sustained by our national government, with the whole available force of the United
States army; we have in the second place the atrocity
of laws enacted by the same legislature, and pronounced by the Senate and House of Representatives
to be infamous, barbarous, unconstitutional, and fit
only to be broken and trampled on, yet enforced by
the same government at the point of the bayonet;
we have in the third place the transcendent farce and
wickedness of the very best men in this outraged
Territory indicted and imprisoned for the crime of
high treason in peacefully and constitutionally opposing this diabolical usurpation, and their fetters riven,
and their prison guarded by the same government
with the same army. I defy all history, from the
foundation of the world, to show any usurpation to be
compared for atrocity, with this unparalleled wickedness, for it is a usurpation entered into and sustained
for the extension and perpetuity of slavery. And if
the people of this country tamely submit to such
shameless and monstrous prostitution of law and
complication of injustice, their liberties are dead and
buried from this time and forever. And yet, the Executive of this undeniable  and enormous  tyranny
remains unimpeached; and there are not wanting
91 
92     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
men bearing the Christian name to palliate if not to
justify and sanctify the wrong!
This could never be, if we, as a people, had kept
the word of God in view, and had not forgotten or
denied its principles.  We need to return to them,
and to examine this iniquity, and our conduct and
position, in their light. Even as politicians, in regard
to this matter, we must take our stand on God's
word, and square our policy, our platform, according
to it, or we shall surely perish as a nation, and with
such a destruction as the world never beheld.
I invite you, therefore, in the first place, to a calm
investigation of the judgment in the word of God in
regard to the system  of slavery.   In  the second
place, it being proved to be a sin in the sight of God,
I invite you to consider the defiant iniquity, the daring and abominable impiety, of making it the great,
chosen, and perpetual policy of the nation, a system
not only tolerated, but to be protected, defended, extended, and enforced. 
CHAPTER IX.
DEMONSTRATION OF THE SINFULNESS OF SLAVERY-AkRGUMENT
FROM THE LAW OF LOVE-ARGUMENT FROI. TIlE LAWS AGAINST
OPPRESSION - NO SUCH TIHLING AS SLAVERY AIONG TI-IE HE BREWS - LUDICROUSNESS OF THE CLAIM OF AFRICANS AS OUR
PROPERTY BY REASON OF NOAR S CURSE ON CANAAN.
THAT the system of slavery is sinful in the sight
of God, is capable of demonstration by several distinct lines of proof. We take the simplest first, and
from that ascend to a broader induction. First, there
is the law of love. Second, there are the laws against
oppression. Third, there are the laws against manstealing and man-selling.   Fourth, there is the nature,
the inviolable sacredness, of the parental relation.
Fifth, there are the recorded retributive judgments of
God for the attempt to hold and use servants as property. Sixth, there is the providential argument of
great power, the manifestation of God's curse upon
the established system of slavery in full blast, and
the destruction of nations by it. The evolution of
the argument on any one of these lines would be
enough for conviction; the forces marched upon them
all, are overwhelming, irresistible. I restrict myself
to the word of God, and even thus, much brevity will 
94   0GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
be requisite, in its various steps, to compass the argu  ment.
First, we take the Law of Love.  "Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself;" and, " Whatsoever ye
would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them." Neither color nor race puts any man out of
the category of my neighbor. You would not your self be made a slave. You can not, in conscience,
say that you would, under any circumstances, be so
treated, be deprived of your natural liberty, and held
as the property of another.  You feel that you are a
person, and not a chattel, and that to be treated as a
person and not a chattel, is your right, by the law of
common reciprocal justice and benevolence.
If you had been stolen and sold, or your father
before you, and had passed through forty differ cnt hands, called your owners, you would still feel
that no theft of your father, grandfather, or most
remote ancestor before you, could pass by transmission into honest ownership, or could give to any
human being any right of property in you, and that
no money whatever could purchase such right. Applied to yourself, as a man, to yourselves as men, you
know, you feel, that these principles are undeniable,
impregnable; by the law of God, then, you are bound
to apply them to others, as yourselves.   On this
ground, the command in the New Testament, specific
as to duty, "Masters, give unto your servants that
which is just and equal," would strike the fetters 
THE LAW OF LOVE.
from every slave in existence. No man can claim
property in man  and not violate that injunction.
You would not have your fellow-men compel you to
serve without wages. You would not have a master
sell your wife and your children from you. You
would not have your fellow-beings take away every
natural right and dignity of a human being from you,
and treat you as a beast of burden. You would not
consider it exaction, on your part, if you demanded
that your children should be your children, and
should be free, since you never entered into any contract with any human creature otherwise, and could
not rightfully have done such a thing, if you had
wished.
Now, then, the law of love demands  in you the
same treatment, the same award of justice, to your
fellow-being; and any relation in which you hold
him, subversive of these natural rights and claims of
love, is sinful. The compulsory relation itself, as
your work, is sinful. It is sin per se, and can not
possibly be otherwise. I might trace and demonstrate
this sinfulness, in other infractions of the law; but
the worst of all, and the most prolific, is the robbery
of children from their parents, the moment they are
born into the world, and the claiming, as your property, what was the gift of God to those parents,
what you never paid a farthing for, what you never
made a contract for, what you never received from
any trader even in human flesh, and over which you
95 
96     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
have not the least shadow of a claim, on any ground
on which human beings ever settle the just relation ship of possession or ownership, as between one
another. You can not in any thing do to others as
you would they should do to you, if in this funda mental thing you take their children, and claim and
use them as your property. You could not rightfully
use your own children as your property; much less
the children of others.
I might rest the whole argument here; but I pass
to a second demonstration of the sinfulness of slavery
in the various laws enacted against oppression, which
are indeed necessary conclusions from the law of love.
If slavery is not oppression, nothing under heaven
can be.   It is the violation, in every particular, of
every one of the statutes of God against that wickedness.   When  God says, Cursed be he that oppresseth his neighbor, in whatever respect: that curse
comes, in every possible shape, upon the man who
claims property in man; because that claim gathers
up into itself every conceivable exaction and exasperation of tyranny, either as essence or result. When
God says, Thou shalt not oppress the stranger, the
fatherless, the widow, the servant, the hireling; and
when he teaches us to pray, Deliver me from the
oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts;
every one of these statutes and instructions demonstrates the system of slavery to be sinful; because
its fundamental claim of property in man is the sum 
LAWS AGAINST OPPRESSION.
of all these oppressions, and God could never sanction
in a general system as righlt, that which He forbids,
in every particular, as wrong.  All the laws against
oppression, all the manifestations of God's abhorrence
of it, go to show the divine sentiment and sentence
in reprobation of slavery, God's hatred of it, God's
intense feeling and judgmnent a,gainst it.  When God
says, "If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land,
ye shall not vex him, but the stranger that dwelleth
with you shall be unto you as one born  among you,
and thou' shalt love him as thyself:" and when Ile
names the counts in Hils indictment of'the nation for
its sins. "In the midst of thee have they dealt by
oppression with the stranger; the people of the land
hlave used oppression, anld exercised robbery, and
have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully:"' the just moral
application of these sentences can not possibly be
made without the condemnation of slavery as sin.
There was never, at any time, in the Jewish statutes  or authorized  by them,  any such thing  as
slavery in the HIebrew nation; never any claim of
property in man.   When  they fled out of Egypt,
there were no slaves with them; the census of souls
is that of free souls only; not a creature went out of
Egypt on compulsion.  And  the laws promulgated
by Moses, in regard to the obtaining and the treatment of servants, were in no respect what is called
slave-legislation,  but  legislation  against  slavery;
5
97 
98     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
legislation to render its introduction into the nation
absolutely and forever impossible; legislation only
for the voluntary contracts of service with fi-ee men.
The obtaining of a servant by such a contract was
called the buying of him; it was simply and solely
the buying of his time and service for such period as
might be specified in the contract; and, to prevent
the possibility of such service running into slavery by
long possession, the period itself of such contracts was
limited to six years; and if in any case extended to
a longer time, only by solemn  mutual agreement,
and in no case, on no consideration, nor with any
party, could such contract hold beyond the jubilee.
Every fifty years, every servant in the land was free.
And children were never servants because their
parents were; no claim upon the time or service of
the parents created any claim to that of the children.
Servitude was not transmitted by birth, and never
could be. Every instance of service, whether of the
Hebrews or the heathen, was by free voluntary contract. The same phraseology is used of contracts
with the heathen as of those with the Hebrews, and
the one is no more a possession than the other.
Whether Hebrew or heathen, when a man entered
into a contract with a servant, he was said to have
bought him (as, when he married a wife, he was said
to have bought her), and as to the obligation to fulfill
the contract, and perform the work paid for, the servant was described as his money, his possession, for 
SECURITY OF FREEDOM.
that contracted period.   Hebrews thus sold them selves to strangers or heathen, and heathen sold themselves to Hebrews, but in every case as freemen, in
no case as property. There is no such idea as that
of property in man recognized, except as a wicked
oppression; and the whole Mosaic legislation guarded
the people at every point against such oppression, and
was admirably contrived to render it impossible.
In consequence of these careful and humane statutes, both the spirit of the Hebrew constitution and
the letter of the law, so effectually secured freedom as
a personal birth-right, that the idea of slavery, in our
sense of the term, was never embodied in the language.
There is no word to signify what we call a slave, a
human being degraded into an article of property.
And the laws were minute and specific in regard to
the treatment of servants, and their rights, to such a
degree, with such explicitness and exactness, in order
that there might never be any temptation to introduce
or establish slavery in the land, it being from the outset made so impossible, that without direct defiance of
Almighty God no man could intend such a thing, and
no tribe could accomplish it. And accordingly, notwithstanding all the oppression of which the Jews
were guilty, and the instances and forms in which
they evaded the law, and at length attempted to
establish slavery itself instead of the system of voluntary paid service prescribed by law, yet never, at any
time in Palestine, was there any slave-mart or public
99 
100    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
slave-traffic. Babylon and Tyre, Greece and Rome,
all nations of the earth, indeed, out of the land that
was under the teaching and discipline of these laws
of God, maintained the slave-trade; and never a philosopher, unenlightened by God's word, rose high
enough to see its wickedness; but in Judea its violation of the first principles of justice and humanity
were so manifest by the law of God, and so many
statutes combined to render it impossible, that though
the idol altars of the heathen world were at length
naturalized in Israel, and in the seductions of idol
worship the people were carried headlong, yet the
slave-traffic and the slave-mart never once obtained a
footing.
But here you aver that God devoted Ham to perpetual slavery.  It is difficult to treat this ludicrous
and wicked refuge of oppression either with patience
or gravity. For, in the first place, it was not God,
but Noah, who pronounced the curse; in the second
place, the curse fell not upon Ham, but upon Canaan,
whose descendants were as white as the Hebrews or
ourselves; in the third place, the descendants of Ham,
as you claim the Africans to be, have nothing to do
with this curse. Your pretended title to curse them
is not in this deed; your pretension to a right from
heaven to lay this curse upon them, and hold them as
your property, is the wildest, vastest, most sweeping
and diabolical forgery ever conceived or committed.
You pretend to be, by charter from heaven, the min 
PRETENDED TRUSTEES OF A CURSE. 101
isters of God's vengeance against a whole continent of
men, a whole race of mankind, whom, in the execution of that vengeance, you are to hold and sell as
your property. You are the trustees of this will of
Jehovah, the executors of this inheritance of wrath,
and as such you are to be paid for your trouble in
proving the instrument, and carrying its details into
operation, by assuming the objects of the curse as
your property!
Now, then, come into court, and show your own
names in this instrument. God himself is the Judge
of Probate, and all those who ever defrauded or
oppressed the widow or the fatherless will find it so to
their cost forever, except they repent of their wickedness.   Where  is the sentence in which God ever
appointed you, the Anglo-Saxon race, you, the mixture of all races under heaven, you, who can not tell
whether the blood of Shem, Ham, or Japhet mingles
in your veins, you, the assertors of a right to traffic
in human flesh, you, worse Jews, by this very claim,
more degraded, more debased ill your moral principles, than the lowest tribe of Jews who were swept for
their sins from the promised land. Where is the
sentence in which God ever appointed you, four
thousand years after Noah and his children had gone
to their graves in peace, to be the executors of Noah's
will, with the whole inheritance given to you, as your
property, for your profit, the reward of your faithfulness in fulfilling God's curse?   Where  is' God's 
102    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
curse? Where is the gift of property at all? Where
is the designation of the race whom you pounce upon
by this mighty forgery, and where the designation of
the race commissioned to pounce upon them? You
might as well go to Russia, and take the subjects of
the Czar. You might as well go to England, and
take your cousins of the sea-girt isle, the descendants
of your own great-grandfathers. You have no more
claim upon the Africans than you have upon the
aborigines of the Rocky  Mountains.   The whole
thing is a more frantic forgery than madness itself,
unless it had the method of the deepest depravity,
could have ever dreamed. But then again, if God
devoted Ham to perpetual slavery, he also devoted
strangers to perpetual freedom. All the strangers in
the land were to be treated as those born in it, to be
loved and treated as brethren; and you are God's
executors for this law of love, and not for any law
of vengeance to accommodate your own selfishness.
There is no article in God's will giving you all
strangers as your property, or allowing you to buy
and sell strangers.
Again, there is an infamous  contradiction of a
graver kind, in the logic applied in support and sanction of this wickedness. You say that God subjected
Ham to bondage, and that you are God's appointed
instrument to fasten the chains upon him, the curse,
the vengeance of perpetual slavery. But then, in
another breath, in order to excuse yourself for this 
(GOSPEL OF SLAVERY.
instrumentality, and under a galling sense of its
odiousness and shame, you say that God is a God of
wondrous mercy and love, and has appointed the poor
Africans to be Christians, and has made you no
longer the executioners of his wrath, but the almoners
of his bounty, to convert them, by means of slavery,
to Christ. You are appointed to put chains upon
them, and to buy and sell them as your property
forever, in order to make freemen of them in Christ
Jesus.   You  are God's appointed           missionaries, to
Christianize them by the gospel of slavery!
But did God ever put that in- the will? We
thought he appointed you, as residuary legatees, to
execute his curse upon Ham, and in default of any
other heirs direct, to take the blackest colored skins
upon the earth four thousand years after all Canaan's
posterity had died out of existence, and lay the cursed
inheritance upon them, and sell them as your property. Now you can not get the curse and the blessing out of the same will. If a man leaves a hundred
thousand dollars to endow a hospital, you can not, by
law, take that and apply it to the endowment of a
vast distillery. And if a man left a million to be
spent in exterminating rats or wild beasts, you could
not, by law, take that and endow a Trinity cathedral
with it. And if you were named, for example, as
executor in a man's will, who had given five hundred
thousand dollars to be spent in making a descent
upon Cuba to establish perpetual slavery there, you
103 ~ 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
could not come into court and aver that under that
will, and as its meaning, you had been appointed to
take that money, and make that descent, for the pur pose of converting all the inhabitants into free repub.
licans, and giving them a constitution of their own.
You might come into court, indeed, but you would be
speedily turned out of it. And no principles or precedents of human custom or equity would ever permit
men to deal by subtlety, sophistry, and perversion, with
any human instrument of policy or conveyance, as
the advocates of slavery deal with God's word. No
court, hardly even Jefferies's, would have suffered
such palpable distortion and misinterpretation of the
king's statutes.
The claim set up by Americans, eighteen hundred
and fifty-seven years after Christ, to hold the African
race as their chattel property, by reason of the curse
pronounced on Canaan two thousand three hundred
and forty-seven years before Christ, exceeds in the
extravagance of its impudence and madness any
Christian or pagan hallucination ever assumed by any
nation under heaven. You will say it is too ridiculous to receive a sober notice; but I have had to meet
it as a grave and serious claim, put forward by a
professedly religious person, who deliberately urged it
as a proof that slavery could not be sinful in the
sight of God!
Shall we or shall we not make God's word our
guide, God's law our standard? Time is like an
104 
SWIFT RETRIBUT[OS.
inclined plane, and a nation that has dragged slowly
and carefully up to the summit, may go down on the
other side, by carelessness and treason toward God, as
swift almost as the lightning.   God himself removes
the brakes, when a nation deliberately cuts loose from
his law, and sets up its policy of profit in defiance of
his righteousness; and when God lets go his restraining grasp, then the crash is not far off, and when it
comes, is terrible. They may say unto God, Depart
from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways;
but the voice comes, Woe unto them when I depart
from them, and their whirl to ruin is like a wheel of
fire.
The atrocities in Kansas have roused up very
many who would not have been aroused by the
claims of simple truth and justice.  There are those
who can not be made to see that our liberties are
endangered, or are worth keeping and defending at
the cost of painful effort and expense, unless there
is actual, intolerable, and continued outrage. And
some men are more affected by fire, thunder, and
fury, than by quiet truth, and power. An unpretending man or principle passes with them for nothing; but a man full of swagger, ferocity, and profaneness is your great man.  Any thing done in a
quiet way seems to them not done at all, or not worth
doing, and certainly not worth praying for.  One is
reminded of the man who came to a skillful dentist to
have a tooth pulled, and when it was done in an
105 
106    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
incredibly brief space of time with very little pain,
objected to the charge of half a dollar for the operation, declaring that on former occasions he had been
pulled by his jaw half way across the room, and
almost killed with pain, and had only paid a quarter
of a dollar for the whole of it. Let no man think
that by waiting for greater outrages he can get relief
at a cheaper rate. 
CHAPTER X.
THE WRATH OF GOD AGAINST THE JEWS FOR THE ATTEMPTED
ESTABLISHMENT  OF  SLAVERY- THE  PENALTY  OF DEATH
AGAINST THE CRIME OF MAN-STEALING-COMPASS OF THIS
LAW, AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE CLAIM OF CHILDREN AS
PROPERTY.
THE people of the land have used oppression and
exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy;
yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
And I sought for a man among them that should
make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me
for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found
none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation
upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of
my wrath, their own ways have I recompensed upon
their heads, saith the Lord God.* This passage was
written with reference to precisely the same generation, and precisely the same iniquity as the tremendous passage on the 34th chapter of the prophecy of
Jeremiah.
To those who have not examined the subject, it
may seem strange that not the sin of idolatry, but
the sin of slavery, the violation of the law of freedom, should have been marked of God as the one
* Ezekiel xx: 29, 30, 31. 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
decisive act of wickedness that filled up the measure
of the Jewish iniquities, and brought down the wrath
of God upon them without remedy or repeal. But
the wonder ceases, when the nature of the crime is
taken into consideratio.  Being a crime concocted
and  determined by princes, priests, and people, to gether with the king, it was really making the whole
nation a nation  of men-stealers;  and  nan-stealing
was a crime whose penalty was death; so that the
adopting of it by the government and the people was
an enshrining of the iniquity in public and glaring
defiance of God's authority, in the form of their state
policy.   They  thought  themselves  secure against
punishment, as a corporation of usurpers, under guilt
which they could not have committed as individuals
without exposure to the penalty of death. But the
sword of God came down upon them in the very
midst of this appalling crime, as swift, almost, as the
lightning.
They were deliberately inaugurating an iniquity,
as their chosen state policy, which they knew would
increase in a numerical ratio from generation to generation.  If it could have hbeen restricted to the first
persons stolen, and deprived of their liberty, the
iniquity would have been comparatively small. But
for every two immortal beings forced into this chattelism, there would be five others stolen and forced,
in like manner, by the next generation; the guilt of
oppression on the one side, and the sufferance of
108 
ACCUMULATING GUILT.
cruelty on the other, enlarging as it ran on into
posterity. Now to set going such a system of injustice, which was to branch out like the hereditary
perdition from the depraved head of a race, increas ing as the Amazon; to set a central spring of thou sand other springs of domestic and state tyranny,
coiled and coiling on, in geometrical progression; and
a central fountain of thousand other fountains of inhumanity and misery; and to do this in opposition to
the light of freedom and religion, and of laws in
protection of liberty, given from God, and maintained
by him for a thousand years, was so extreme and
aggravated a pitch of wickedness. that it is not wonderful that God put an instant stop to it, by wiping
Jerusalem and Judea of its inhabitants, as a man
wipeth a dish and turneth it upside down.
The evil of such a crime was the greater, because,
while it is enlarging every year, both in guilt and
hopelessness, it seems lessened in intensity, as it
passes down into posterity. The sons of the first
men-stealers would, with  comparatively  easy consciences, take the children of those whom their parents
had stolen, and claim them  as their _property, being
slaves born. But in fact we find that the guilt is
double; because, while the parents may have been
stolen only from themselves, the children are stolen
both from the parents and from themselves. The
stealing and inslaving of the parents could create no
claim upon the children as property, nor produce any
109 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
mitigation or extenuation of the sin of stealing the
children also, and holding them  as slaves.  And so
the guilt runs on, nor could the progress of whole
ages diminish it, or change its character.
In pursuing our demonstration of the sinfulness of
slavery, and consequently of the guilt of its extension, we come next to the laws against man-stealing,
man-selling, using men as servants without wages,
and bringing them into bondage against their will.
Slavery is forbidden of God, and condemned as sinful, by every one of them.  HE THAT STEALETH A
MAN, AND SELLETH HIM, OR IF HE BE FOUND IN
HIS HAND, HE SHALL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH.
God be praised for this law! It strikes through and
through the vitals of this sin.
3[an-stealtin, and mian-selting are almost the sole
origin of slavery; and in the Old and in the New
Testament,  these things  are  condemned  as  sins,
worthy of death. - But if neither stealing a man and
selling him, nor holding him, nor conveying him in
any way to another, could make him the property of
another, neither could the buying of a man, so stolen,
take away his right of property in himself, or convey it to another. The sum of fifty thousand dollars
might be paid for a man offered to you by a slavetrader, but you would have no more right of property
in him after you had paid that sum than before, or
than if you had paid but one farthing. The common
law lays down this principle, in regard to a horse,
110 
NO RIGHAT OF PROPERTY IN MAN.  11
which, if it be stolen and sold forty times over,
neither the selling, any more than the stealing, can
take away the right of the rightful owner, but whenever and wherever he appears, he can claim his property. Now a stolen man may have been passed
through five hundred hands, and the five hundredth
may have paid more for him than all the four hundred and ninety-nine put together; but the last
purchaser has no more rightful claim over him, no
more right of property in him, than the first stealer.
And if he purchased him with the knowledge of his
being originally stolen, he is himself also a thief, a
conspirator, a pirate, on the principles of common
law and righteousness.   And  if he had not that
knowledge, but made the purchase ignorant of the
original theft, his ignorance can not change right into
wrong, can not take away the man's indefeasible and
inalienable right of ownership over himself. The
price of a world might have been paid for him, but
he is still his own. When Joseph was sold by the
Ishmaelites into Egypt, the purchase of him by Potiphar did not take away, or diminish one iota, his indestructible right of freedom in himself. Not the
wealth of all Egypt could have given any purchaser
the least right of property in him.
He that stealeth, and selleth, or if he be found
in his hands; stealing, keeping, trading, all forbidden on pain of death. It is impossible by transmission to convert this crime into an innocent transaction. 
1 12      "SAIM:" OR, TIlE HISTORY oF MYSTERY.
duties of preaching and administering the sacraments, and
ministering to the sick, to correct the evils produced throughout all Christendom by the scandalous and immoral conduct
of the regular and secular clergy. To Caraffa, who had
already acquired great influence, Ignatius attached himself,
became an inmate of the convent he had founded, served
patiently and devotedly in the hospital which he directed, and
shortly became Caraffa's intimate friend.  This fixed at once
the hitherto aimless ambition of Loyola. Hle conceived the
idea of achieving power and fame, if not as the founder of a
new order, at least as the remodeler of one already existing.
With this design he submitted to Caraffa a plan of reform
for his Order, and strongly urged its adoptionl.  But Caraffa,
who perhaps suspected his motive, rejected his proposal, and
offered to admit himn as a brother of the order as it stood.
This, however, did not suit Ignatius, whose proud  nature
could never have submitted to play even the second part,
much less that of an insignificant member in a society over
which another had all power and authority. He therefore
declined the honor, and at once determined to found a new
religious community of his own. Aware, however, of the
difficulties he might have to overcome, he resolved to proceed
with the utmost caution.
Being under a vow to go to convert the Infidels inll the Holy
Land, he gave out that to this work alone were the lives of
himself and his companions to be devoted. Accordingly as
soon as they arrived in Venice hlie sent them to Rome to beg
the Pope's blessing on their enterprise, as he said; and also,
no doubt, to exhibit them to the Roman court as the embryo
of a new religious order. The reason assigned by his historians for his not going to Rome along with them is, that he
feared that his presence there might be prejudicial to them.
It is just as likely that he was afraid, lest beneath his cloak
of ostentatious humility, the discerning eye of Pope Paul
might detect his unbounded ambition.
At Rome his disciples were favorably received, the Pontiff
bestowed the desired benediction, and they returned to Venice,
whence they were to sail for Palestine.
Here Ignatius prevailed upon them to take vows of perpetual chastity and poverty, and then, under pretext of the
war which was raging at the time between the Emperor and 
STEALING CHILDREN.
great-grandfather, but every increase from every
ship's cargo ever landed on our shores, from the
latest importation in this generation, back to the
landing and inslaving of the very first gang, is
piracy; and all the increase by natural propagation is
the result of it, and the race is a stolen race. The
quality of crime, the taint of theft, the essential
element of man-stealing, is in the very title by which
you claim any creature of that race as property. It
is a brand that no art can efface, no file of sophistry
can rasp it out, no machinery of law can erase it.
The brand of ignominy which you put upon the
slave, when you call him a chattel, and treat him as
such, is the brand burned deeper in your bargain, in
your complicity with robbery, in the immorality of
your legal title, than in his soul; and generation
after generation can not cover it up, can not eliminate it; can not so vulcanize it, but.that the fires
of the last day itself will only bring out more clearly its essence of oppression and iniquity.
But we must apply the argument still more directly and definitely to the children of the slaves, and
the title of the slave-owner, so called, to the children
born on his estate, under his jurisdiction. Suppose,
then, that the stolen slave has children, born to him
while under the compulsory dominion and ownership,
so called, of his master. Do those children belong
by right to the master? Has he any better title to
them than to their father, whom he bought knowing
113 
114    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
him to have been stolen?  Whose property are they?
Did the man's purchase of their father give any
claim to them?  Did the father himself make any
bargain, either to sell himself or his children?   Nay,
but the owner, so called, of the father, steals the
children, the moment  he claims them as his own.
IHe commits the crime of man-stealing, the moment
he declares those children to be his property. And
if his children take those children as their property,
and claim their children of the next generation as the
same, they, in their turn, become men-stealers. And
here we have, in brief compass, the very essence of
slavery; at every step downward, in its progression,
it is man-stealing.  There is no escaping from the
logic of this argument. The facts, the principles of
natural and revealed justice and law, and the reasoning from them, hold you with a grasp as inexorable
as death. All the generations of mankind to the last
day, and all the complication of their interests,. can
not alter the nature of right and wrong.
What can be a greater violation of natural right
and justice, than to determine before-hand that the
beings born shall be born your property, and that
this is righteous law?   What  claim  have you?
Where did it begin? You say, perhaps, that you
bought the parents, and paid for them. But you
never bought the children; you have paid nobody
for them, no master, no slave-dealer; if they are
property, you have got it without an equivalent; it 
TRANSMITTED INIQUITY.
is stolen property. Time can not sanctify the claim,
but only increases the iniquity, for the more the
slave's faculties are developed, and the more precious
they and his rights are to himself, and the more profit
you make out of them, the greater becomes the theft.
Transmission can not sanctify it. You might as well
argue that because Adam sinned, and you were born
of sinful parents, it is therefore right for you to sin.
Original sin has produced inherited righteousness!
What was original sin, by being inherited, becomes
propagated holiness!
115 
CHAPTER XI.
DOING EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME-THE GOSPEL OF SLAVERY ITS GERMINATING  AND PROPAGATING POWER OF EVIL —rHE
STEALING OF CHILDREN-PAUL ON MAN-STEALING.
IT is thus that the support of this iniquity requires
and effects the perversion of all the principles of morality. This is one of its greatest evils. It sanctions
the principle, Let us do evil, that good may come.
Because a few savages brought from Africa have
been taught Christianity here, therefore the robbery
by which they were brought is itself changed into
piety! The evil, out of which God brings good, is
asserted to be good. Because some native Africans,
stolen from their country, have been taught the gospel here, therefore, instead of giving them their freedom here, let their posterity itself be enslaved, that
slavery may be to them the means of redemption
from a more barbarous state! But the millions born
in this country are not born in Africa, nor in barbarism, but under the light of the gospel, and have no
need of slavery to redeem them. So that, even if
the original iniquity of stealing men in Africa and
making slaves of them in order to make them
Christians, were right, it does not make it right to 
PROPAGATION OF EVIL.
make slaves of their children, who are born, not in
heathenism, but in Christianity. It is not slavery
that redeems them, but slavery that prevents their
free enjoyment of the light and civilization under
which they were  born.   Their  fathers  may have
been born in heathenism, and slavery may have redeemed them from it; but their children being born
in Christianity, slavery plunges them into a state
below it, and deprives them of its privileges. Their
parents being made slaves are the cause, not of their
being made Christians, but born slaves, and continued
as such. Our forefathers being persecuted was the
cause of their coming to this country as freemen.
Is persecution therefore the just inheritance and law
for their children, the normal state of their descendants?
It is this propagation of evil, this germinating
power of sin, that fastens the curse of God inherent
in the system. Every generation of this property, so
called, is not only stolen, but the theft and impiety
are enormously increased. In proportion as it travels
a greater distance from the fountain, its volume is
enlarged, till it rages like the sea. It becomes the
domestic policy of a nation. It enters into all their
system of justice and of law, corrupting and perverting it.  It has a reflex influence on society and
character, sweeping the morals as with a pestilential
wind, or a tide of impurity. The proverbs directed
of God against the unjust accumulation of riches,
117 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
strike into the heart of this iniquity, and work the
retribution there. He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house. The curse of the Lord is in the
house of the wicked. Cursed be he that oppresseth
the poor, and they that sell the poor for silver, and
the needy to increase their wealth. Wealth gotten
by oppression bringeth its owner to shame. Cursed
be he that useth his  neighbor's  service without
wages, and giveth him not for his hire. lIe that
getteth riches, but not by right, shall leave them in
the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns; they
have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit; ye
shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the
fierce anger of the Lord. A wasting pestilence, a
fretting leprosy, a fire not blown, a rust that burns
and consumes like fire, is in the riches of such a nation, and the wealth rolled up by such iniquity. All
these curses are appropriated, are vindicated, by the
propagation, by the perpetuity, by the extension, of
the crime of slavery, and its being practiced for the
profit of it.
This germinating and perpetual quality and power
of sin, inhering in slave property as it does in no
other kind of riches, it is no wonder that God. in his
legislation for mankind, condemned it at the fountain,
and affixed to the crime of stealing a man, and using
him as property, the penalty of death.   The con demning moral power of that penalty runs on with
118 
BUYING ONE, STEALIN G TWO.   119
the propagation of the crime; the condemnation does
not die out, as if the crime itself died out by being
propagated, or as if it were diluted instead of being
increased, in passing to the next generation. On the
contrary, whereas, to a wicked and remorseless man,
bent on self-interest only, and accustomed to this
wickedness, there may seem to be some actual claim
of property in a man whom he has bought as a thing,
and paid for as a thing, from another man who
claimed the right to sell him as a thing, there is no
shadow of such claim in taking the children of thatman, whom he grasps as his property, without ever
paying a farthing for them, or consulting a creature
in regard to them. So, supposing the slave-father to
beget two children, the slave-owner, so called, multiplies the iniquity just in that ratio of increase in
every generation: where he bought one, he steals
two.
It is partly for this reason that, coming down near
two thousand years from the publication of these
Mosaic statutes, Paul, in effect, republishes them
under the authority of the gospel, and, in the Epistle
to Timothy, includes man-stealing specifically among
the other forms of sin forbidden by those statutes,
and, accordingly, to be condemned by the gospel.
But, to such a depth of corruption and blindness have
the practice, the profit, and the legalization of slavery,
sunk men's minds, that there have not been wanting
creatures who, to evade the prodigious power of the 
120    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
argument against slavery drawn from the terms of
the divine law, have contended that, not a man, as a
man, but merely a Hebrew man, was signified in the
statute against stealing a man and selling him; so
that, to steal a man, as a man, might neither be unlawful or unchristian, but only a Hebrew man. This
attempted evasion of the universality and power of the
first statute is founded on the specification in Deut.
xxiv. 7:  "If a man  be found stealing any of his
brethren of the children of Israel, and making merchandize of him, or selleth him, then that thief shall
die." But this latter statute was passed forty years
after the other, without any mention of the other, or
connection with it, which proves that the other was
never abrogated; and if the other had referred solely
to the Hebrew man, the latter had been perfectly
superfluous, being neither a statute of limitation nor
interpretation. It having been found, in the course
of forty years, that the first and general law might
have been claimed as applying only to the stranger
or the heathen, and not to the stealing of a Hebrew,
whose servitude, even if stolen, could not last more
than six years, it was found necessary, for greater
security and definiteness, to add the second enactment, specifying the Hebrew man. But any limitation of the first statute by the second is forbidden by
the application of verse 14, of the same chapter:
"Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor
and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy 
STEALERS OF MEN.
strangers, that are in thy land within thy gates."
Now, if a hired servant, that was not a Hebrew, could
not be oppressed, any more that a native) much more
could not such a one be stolen with impunity: or the
thief escape the penalty. He could not be permitted
to plead that because there was a law against stealing
a Hebrelw, therefore the law against stealing a man
was null and void.   But  now, you  perceive,  the
Apostle Paul has set this point forever at rest, by
himself referring to the first law as applying not to
Hebrew men, but to men, any man, a man.  The
word he uses in quoting the law is a word meaning
MEN-STEALEPS,  not Jew-stealers, not  stealers of
Hebrew men. Stealers of MEN he specifies, and his
reference to the law there is no possibility of mistaking, and this sets the matter beyond dispute.
Just so with reference to the other evasion (for
there is no end to the quibbles and quirks with which
men have struggled to prevent the crushing and annihilating power of these statutes) by which some
have endeavored to restrict the application of the
law against i?an-stealing to the stealing of slaves, as
if this statute were merely a law for the protecting
and rendering more sacred a man's slave-property,
making it, in fact, incomparably more sacred than
any other property. They say that, indeed, to steal
a slave from his owner is worthy of death, but not to
steal a man, as a man, from himself, and from God
his Maker. You may steal a free man, and make
6
121 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
him a slave, and that process, in certain cases, in
these latter days, may be just a Christian process for
his good, the providential mode by which he is to be
taught religion! But the moment you have stolen
him from himself, and made him a slave by selling him,
then you have converted him into a sacred piece of property! then, to steal him from his master, is a sacrilege worthy of death! Is the human mind capable of
contriving a more diabolical or a meaner palpable
resort of lying villainy than this?   Can Christian
men believe that men could be found willing to descend to such baseness, or smit with the capacity of
such detestable wrigglings and twistings of sophistry!
How much better to come out boldly, and deny that
there is any guilt at all in stealing a man anywhere,
if your interests, or the interests of your state, demand it.
Unfortunately for this argument, or rather this
make-shift in the place of argument, the Apostle
Paul, in quoting and applying this law against menstealers, does not speak of servants, but of men, and
uses a Greek word of perfectly well known and
unquestionable meaning, as applied to men, and not
to slaves, so that this settles the matter, even if upon
the interpretation of the statute there had rested the
slightest cloud of uncertainty.
122 
CHAPTER XII.
SACREDNESS OF THE PARENTAL RELATIONS-VIOLATION OF IT BY
SLAVERY-LAVEHOLDING, WITH THIE CLAIM OF PROPERTY, 1i
HAN-STEALING.
IN the fourth place, the inviolable sacredness of
the parental relation, by which the children of the
parents belong to them, and them only, a thing
acknowledged even by the most barbarous tribes, all
the world over, but settled by the legislation of the
Hebrews, demonstrates slavery to be sin.  For, the
denial, the utter disregard, and ruthless violation of
th, parental right and claim is one of the essential
elements of slavery, so that one of the most valuable
considerations of this kind of property is its lifepower of reduplicating itself by propagation, through
the very prostitution and perversion of the family
and parental relation for the breeding of slaves.
And it is wrought into slave-law in terms that
might make the air redden with wrath at such a
lie against immortality, and such a theft of body and
soul in the very instant of birth, that the thing born
follows the condition of the womb that bore it. The
mother being the property of her master by law, the
child born is, without any pretense of purehae, or 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
equivalent paid, or bargain contracted, or permission,
or consent asked or given, the property of the same
master. This claim is in itself, and as wrought by
law into the system of slavery, and set at its foundation, a criminal violation of the parental claim and
authority as established by the Creator; in every
generation it is stealing from the parents. Even if
there were a bargain with the parents, that could not
wipe out the guilt, or change the moral essence of
the transaction. For no parent has any authority or
right to sell his child. A man can not abrogate the
responsibility of the parental relation for his child's
own good, can not sell him to another for a price. A
man can not'sell what he does not own to sell. This
it is, that vitiates the claim to the children as property, and beyond all possibility of contradiction demonstrates the system to be sin per se, that maintains
such a claim as its essence.
Now it is just here that the shoe fatally pinches;
the argument cuts to the quick. There is nothing at
all that rouses up such anger as to be told that slaveholding is man-stealing. But the logic will have its
way; you can no more stop it than you can stop the
lightning. And you can no more, by noise and fury,
prevent the truth of this conclusion from being truth,
or from being evident, than by drums and kettles you
could call up an eclipse, or hang a vail over the solar
system. Your exceptions are honestly and frankly
aditted.  It is the case that under an inherited
124 
REJECTION OF THE LIGHT.   125
compulsion some become slaveholders in law, who are
not such in gospel; that is, they hold their slaves not
as property, not as owners of them, but as human
beings who own themselves, and to whom they owe,
for their services, whatsoever is just and equal, and
over whom they maintain their legal claim, not to sell
them, but as masters and guardians for their good, as
well as for domestic service, to preserve them from
oppression, till the providence of God may open a
door for all parties out of the whole evil. Less than
this can not possibly consort with the phrase, that
which is just and equal, nor with the law to do to
others as you would they should do to you. But
whosoever claims them as his property, to sell for
money, as a horse is sold or a wheelbarrow; or
whoever takes their children, born God's immortal
souls, and says, These are my property, because I
bought the parents, and these I can sell as mine, or
do whatsoever I please with them that the law allows,
that person is, by impregnable logic, a man-stealer.
He may say, There is a wide diversity of opinion on
this subject, and I never could see it in this light.
He may keep out of the light, may refuse and scorn
with great indignation to hear the argument from
God's word;  but that makes no difference in the
truth itself, or its application. If he might see, and
refuses to see, God is the judge why he will not see;
but his keeping away from the light does not change
the nature of the sin, any more than a man's commit 
126    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
ting robbery at midnight, without a lantern, when he
absolutely could not see whether what he stole was
bank-bills or brown paper, prevents that act from
being sin.
But when a man says, I see, and with his eyes
wide open goes into this wickedness as a sacred right,
or if God sees that he loves darkness rather than
light, because his deeds are evil, and that he hates
the light, and cometh not to the light lest his deeds
should be reproved;  then God must take him  in
hand, and will administer judgment, for man can not
do it.  But O! the solemnity of that declaration in
regard to any part of God's word that you will not
hear, but deny, " The word that I have spoken, and
which you reject, that same word shall judge you in
the last day!" Men are apt to think, if they put
away God's truth, and deny its application, or keep
out of its light, that what they do in their imagined
innocence, because they do not see or acknowledge its
iniquity, they will not have to encounter in the judgment, under God's word, in God's interpretation, and
not their own. But if they, say, We see, we are not
blind, and we know that we are right, then comes the
answer, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin; but
now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth.
And for judgment I am come into this world, that
they which see not might see; that is, they that feel
and acknowledge their blindness, and come to God for
light; and that they which see might be made blind; 
VOLUNTiARY BLIN-DNESS.
that is, they who declare that they see, and can not
and will not be taught by a greater light than their
own opinions, even the light from heaven, they shall
justly and judicially remain in blindness, and go on
presumptuously and confidently sinning in consequence.
A man's keeping out of the light does not release
him from responsibility, though the Romish casuists
excuse the most enormous crimnes in this way. A
man has but to avoid or evade the truth, or to restrain
himself from examination and reflection, and thenceforward for things done in ignorance he is not to be
held  to  account.   A  Roman  Catholic theologian,
writing  concerning  the  quality of human actions,
says, " If a man commit adultery or homicide, reflecting indeed, but still very imperfectly and superficially, upon the wickedness and great sinfulness of
these crimes, however heinous may be the matter, he
still sins but slightly." That may be logic on earth,
but it will never do in heaven.  A  man may abide
by it here, but it will abide by him hereafter, to his
cost, if he does not repent of it.  There are degrees
of sin, according to degrees of light, but they who
keep out of the light, in order that conscience may
not plague or prevent them in the indulgence of sin,
every degree of darkness into which they succeed in
sinking themselves does but add to their guilt. They
who deliberately sanction oppression, and live in and
by the approval of the claim of property in man,
127 
GOD  AGAINST  SLAVERY.
maintaining slavery to be right as a divine institu tion, can not do it and keep up to the profession of a
Christian hope, but by violence and stifling some where. Like divers, they have to put weights upon
their feet, and armor over their bodies, to get down
into such depths, and not die there; and all the air
they do get is but just enough to keep them from
suffocating, and they get that in the most constrained,
tortuous, artificial way.  And  the fact that people
can live and breathe at all in such darkness is not to
be taken as a proof that darkness is as good as light,
or the sea as good as the air to live in. Just so,
there is an abstract possibility, perhaps probability,
and actuality of there being slaveholders, who are
such in the eye of the law, but not in the eye of God,
because they abjure before God all claim to any of
their fellow-creatures as property, and consider their
slaves as servants simply, to whom they are bound to
give that which is just and equal. But one such
case, or a dozen such, can not change the nature of
the system, nor take away its sinfulness, nor excuse
the wickedness of treating a man as a thing, nor
shield slavery from being declared to be what it is,
with the claim of property in man, sin per se.
The crime of mnurder, considered simply as the
killing of a man, is no more sin per se, than slavery; there may be exceptions in the same way, but
the exceptions do not destroy the rule. If a man
kills another, as Moses did, in tefense of his brother,
128 
SLAVERY IN ITSELF SINFUL
the fact of such killing not being sinful does not prevent murder from being sinful per se. Just so, the
fact of one man holding a slave under a State law
that compels him to do it, by making it impossible
for him to set him free, does not prevent another
man's holding a slave as his property from being
sinful in itself and absolutely. The claim of property in man is in itself and absolutely, by demonstration of the divine law, sinful. But when a man
holds a slave by slave-law, not as his property, but
to protect him from the iniquity of such law, that is
not claiming property in man, but denying it, and
defending the victim of such claim. There is an
infinite distance between that and slavery. It is not
benevolence, but oppression, against which we contend. It is a very convenient mode of covering up
the enormity from exposure and reprobation, to say
that some men may hold slaves for their good. Very
well; and if all would do it, there would be no more
slavery, and no more need of slave-law;  but this
possibility does not change the nature of the system.
By wranglings about per se, soime men succeed in
putting their own judgment and conscience at sea,
and sinking their moral discernment iii the sea of
sophistry and falsehood. Can they imagine that God
will excuse them, when they stand at his bar, and
plead as their reason for not opposing the wickedness of slavery, that they could not accept the doctrine of its being a sin per se?
6*
129  
130    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
As if that were a talisman to protect you from
God's judgment! You, who resort to such apologies
to shield you, and hide yourselves from your duty
and your country in the hour of peril, the hour that
demands an outspoken boldness, are like the bewildered prophet fleeing to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord.  The mighty tempest is now about you,
but you are all Jonahs sleeping in the sides of the
ship, as if a snug berth could keep you from ever
knowing what a storm is raging. But by-and-by, in
bare self-defense, the very shipmen will haul you out,
and throw you overboard, as the only means of quieting the tempest. And God perhaps will teach us,
out of our own misery, how to pray for the inslaved,
and by our own anguish will open our mouths for the
dumb under oppression, if we refuse to do it in our
churches. 
CHAPTER XIII.
THE COMPOUND INTEREST OF CRIME-THIE SLAVE'S NOTE-OF-HAND
AGAINST THE SLAVEHOLDER WHO CLAIMS'TO BE HIS OWNER ACCUMULATED CRIME, ACCUMULATED RETRIBUTION.
COMPOUND interest is a terrible thing. A man
shall steal five dollars from his neighbor, or take a
piece of property from him by fraud worth a hundred, and in a course of years shall make what he
thinks an honest fortune, having possibly forgotten
the wrong done to his poor neighbor. But at length
the fraud is proved, and what was a hundred dollars
at the outset shall take his whole fortune to redeem.
Compound interest runs with money; and do you
suppose it can be separated from crime?  It holds
on, it runs on, and a man's mischief shall return
upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come
down upon his own pate. It makes no difference by
what gentle name he baptizes his robbery or cruelty,
nor by what specious apologies of law, or custom, or
inheritance, he excuses it. God sees through all his
sophistries. God's conscience does not wait upon
his; nor will God's justice be turned aside by his
willing self-delusions, nor is God's righteousness to
be defined, or its operation paralyzed, by his igno 
132    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
rance. The great accountant will not stop casting up
the columns against him, because, when he incurred
the items, he never considered the interest; nor will
the presentation of the bill for payment be prevented,
because he has nothing to pay.
The slave holds, under God's own hand, a note
against you, with compound interest for the crime
committed against his father; and when you lay
your grasp upon his children, and take them as your
property, the note is more than doubled against you,
and the interest runs on. The man was stolen originally, and now tell me, if you dare, where did the
guilt stop? Did that theft convert two immortal
beings, not then born, into just property? Did the
man who bought the slave, knowing him to have
been stolen, convert him into just property by paying the price of blood? When the. high Priests
gave thirty pieces of silver to Judas, did they buy a
right of property in Christ?   Or, if the man bought
the slave without inquiring as to the title, does that
willful ignorance take away the ownership of a stolen
man  from the man himnself  and convert him into
property? And when the buyer, in addition to that
injustice, claims the man's children as his property,
without ever even going through the pretense of
giving one farthing for them, does that clear his
conscience, and still further establish his claim?
Ah! there is a God in heaven that looks on, and
his justice takes account of these transactions. The 
GUILT NEVER OUTLAWED.
man, by that claim of property, indorses the original
guilt as his own, and the compound interest of crime
waits for him. As the persecution of the prophets
came down from age to age unavenged, but held their
possession, their claim for retribution, not only undiminished. but accumulating with every repetition
of the sin, no quit-claim ever given, nor action of
ejectment by delay, nor outlawry by lapse of time;
but when the bill came in, all the columns were
footed up, all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, to the blood
of Zacharias, to be paid by that generation, so runs
on the guilt of slavery in a nation that sanctions and
sustains it. The souls under the altar count up a
vast difference in the dates of their respective bills
of retribution, as they cry out still, How long? But
the oldest of them is as fresh in the justice of the
living God as the latest. The cry loses none of its
power, but gathers it, by age. Indeed, there is not
a moral issue in the universe but increases by procrastination. The mournful wailing voice of Zacharias had the same earnestness and claim of vengeance
with that-of Antipas, the last martyr catalogued by
name in the New Testament; and Polycarp's is as
fresh as Latimer's, and Latimer's as Lovejoy's. For
one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years are as one day. As long as the
iniquity is not repented of, but indorsed and repeated, so long the voice of thy brother's blood
133 
184   GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
crieth unto me  from the ground.   No  injury is
ever outlawed, and some injuries perpetuate themselves in more than geometrical progression, having
a side increase in ten thousand channels and directions, in the way of moral corruption, beside the
direct onward reduplication.
And this is the case with slavery.  Who shall take
account of the millions of white men lost by it, defrauded of their birthright in Christianity itself, by
the debauchery of conscience and the habits of pride,
cruelty, licentiousness, and unrighteous gain and power fastened on them, by the antagonistic gangrening
energy of this domestic system, as a dead corrupting
carcase, hung round the neck of their Christianity
itself, and made a part of it by the law of the land?
And  who  can  compute  the amount  of infidelity
nourished, if not produced, by such a caricature of
Christianity thrust upon the anguished soul?  What
horrible perversion of truth. and confusion of principles, to read in tLie Old Testament how all God's
attributes burn as a consumning fire against every
form of oppression, and then be called on to believe
that the same divine revelation sanctions, as the most
just and perfect form of domestic society, the greatest
possible oppression under the sun! 
CHAPTER XIV.
OWNERSHIP IN MAN NOT POSSIBLE-FORBIDDEN IN THE SCRIPTURES
-THE ACT OF SELLING MEN, A CRIME ABHORRED OF GOD-THE
NATURE OF THIS CRIME, AND OF THE SIN OF SLAVERY, WELL
KNOWN UNDER THE NEW TESTAMENT.
To this branch of the argument, as to every other,
belongs the fact that never in the Scriptures is the
idea of ownership in man admitted, nor the possibility of selling man, woman, or child, as property,
without the guilt of an enormous crime. The owner
of a servant or slave is a phrase never known. The
owner of a horse or an ass is spoken of, but of a man,
never. The cases of selling men, of trading in them,
are marked with abhorrence, as cases for God's wrath.
In the whole history of the Hebrews there is no instance recorded of any man's selling a servant or
child, and no trace is to be discerned of any such
transaction. It is indeed mentioned, but mentioned
as sin, mentioned to receive God's curse as criminal.
"Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment, because they sold the righteous for silver, and
the poor for a pair of shoes."* And the selling of
*Ainx IL 6. 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
children by the heathen is expressly marked for
God's vengeance.
The crime is plainly denounced as a crime, whether
committed by any miserable, degraded,  avaricious
sinners among the HIebrews, who well knew how
abominable this iniquity was in the sight of God, or
by ignorant and abandoned pagans, according to the
custom of their own country, and permission of their
own laws. The examination and comparison of these
cases shows with what infinite abhorrence God must
look upon the enormities, abominations, cruelties, impurities, and diabolical practices of the slave-trade, as
kept up by a Christian people such as we.   The
internal, domestic, horrible iniquity of slave-breeding,
and the known and open existence of slave-marts,
slave-traders, and slave-trading, sanctioned and maintained by custom and law, are, beyond all comparison,
worse than any thing of the kind in the land of
Judea, that ever called down the curses of God on
those who dared to engage in it. Yet in this Christian
land, this indescribable and most atrocious abomination is maintained, and as of old, when the word of
God is directed against it, those guilty of it maintain not only its legal innocence by unrighteous law,
but its sacredness in the very sight of God, as part
and parcel of the great missionary system.    For
every one, from the greatest unto the least of them,
is given to covetousness. Were they ashamed when
they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not
136 
CRIME OF SELLING MEN.
at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore
shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their
visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord."*
This searedness and stupidity of conscience is no
excuse for crime, but rather, under the light of God's
word, an exceeding great exasperation of it. That
men could so torture, and blind, and petrify their
moral sense as not to be able to blush at such abominations, just shows how completely their iniquities
are their masters; they are holden of the cords of
their own sins, and love to have it so. They are like
those condemned in Zechariah xi. 5; the oppressors
of God's sheep, the destroyers of men; " whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty;
and they that sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, for
I am rich!" The same crimes are alleged against
the heathen when they oppressed the captive Jews.
'"They have cast lots for my people; and have given
a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they
might drink. The children also of Judah, and the
children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their
border.   Behold, I will sell your sons  and your
daughters, and will return you recompense upon
your own head."t Such passages cast a powerful
incidental light upon the wickedness of selling human
beings as property, whether men, women, or children.
It is plain enough how God regards it.
* Jer. viii. 10, 12.          f Joel iii. 3, 6, 7, 8.
187 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
And this is a thing we are to bear in mind in
turning to the New Testament, and examining the
instructions given both to masters and servants there.
When it is there commanded, "Masters give unto
your servants that which is just and equal," what
think you is the standard of equality and justice by
which measurement is to be made? Was it left to
the option or judgment of the master, or even to the
contract between master and servant? Nay, these
very Old Testament Scriptures, these laws before us
on this very subject, were the sole and the authoritative guide. There was no need, at any time, of
denouncing slavery in the New Testament, for it had
been rendered impossible by the Old Testament for
any man to practice it, to claim property in man, and
preserve a conscience clear from wickedness. There
was not a creature in existence who knew the teachings of God's word in the Old Testament, who did
not know that the claim of property in man was a
crime in God's sight, and that no man could give to
his servant that which was just and equal, and yet
treat him as a chattel, or hold him as a slave. There
was not a creature who knew God's statutes on this
subject in the books of Moses, and God's wrath for
the violation of them, as recorded in the histories and
the prophets, and was capable of reasoning at all, who
did not know that for him to take a young child, and
claim that child as his property, because the father
and the mother had been his slaves, was to make him
138 
MAN-SELLING A CRIME.
self a man-stealer, to incarnadine his conscience with
the stain of that crime, denounced in God's word
with the penalty of death. There was no need to
repeat these precepts, but to comprehend them in the
law of love, and to turn every man's conscience in
regard to all the duties specified by them back to
them, under the power of the gospel, for definition
and detail. It is as plain as the day that no man
could submit to the authority of the Old Testament
Scriptures, and yet maintain the iniquity of claiming
property in man.
139 
CIICHAPTER XV.
NO RESTORING OF RUNAWAY SERVANTS-TIoE HEBREWS FORBIDDEN
TO RESTORE TIHEM-THE IIEBREW FUGITIVE LAW, A LAW IN
BEHALF OF THE SERVANT AND NOT TIE MASTER-DEMONSTRATION
FROM THIS LAW THAT HUMAN BEINGS CAN NOT BE PROPERTY PAUL'S EPISTLE TO PHILEMON IN THE LIGHT OF THIS LAW-THE
ASSERTION THAT THE WORD OF GOD SANCTIONS SLAVERY AN
IMPIOUS LIBEL.
THlE consequence of these safeguards for the freedom of the servant was such, that there is no such
thing ever known, ever intimated in the history of
the Jews, as that of any master seeking to recover a
runaway. There are cases of men going from Dan to
Beersheba to recover an ass or an ox that had strayed
from its owner, but no instance of any man going
after, or sending after, a stray servant.  The first
and only instance of a slave-hunter figuring in the
sacred pages is that of the condemned liar, hypocrite,
and profane swearer, Shimei, whose servants ran
away to Achish, King of Gath; and no wonder that
they fled from the service of a man who threw stones
at David, and cursed him by the wayside, if that was
the way in which he treated his domestics at home.
The Jewish law strictly forbade any one from ever
returning unto his master that servant that had fled 
HEBREW FUGITIVE LAW.
from his master to him. If an ox or an ass had
strayed from its owner, any one finding the beast was
commanded to restore it to its owner, as his property;
but if a man's servant had fled away, every one was
in like manner forbidden to restore him; demonstrating in the strongest manner that a servant was
never regarded as property, and could not be treated
as such. A man's ox belonged to him, and must be
restored to him as his property; but a man's servant
did not belong to him, and could not be his property,
and if he chose to take himself away, was not considered as taking away any thing that belonged to his
master, or could be claimed and taken back by him.
It is not possible for an incidental demonstration to
be stronger than this. If the possibility of property
in man had been admitted: if servants had been
regarded as slaves, and masters as owners, then the
law of God would no more have permitted any twolegged property to run away from the owner, to steal
itself from the master, than a four-legged  property; a
biped would have no more right of property in himself than a quadruped; and the law would no more
have permitted any man to secrete, protect, and keep
back from the owner a strayed or runaway biped in
the shape of a man, than a strayed or runaway quadruped in the shape of an ox or an ass.
"C O()x, ass, sheep, raiment, or any manner of lost
thing which another challengeth to be his, the thing
shall be judged: if stolen, thou shalt make restitution
141 
142     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
to the owner; if found, thou shalt bring it back to the
owner."*  But a servant is not a lost thing, not an
article of property, and there is no such thing as an
owner of him recognized.   "If thou meet even thine
enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely
bring it back to him agailn."t   But "thou shalt not
deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped
from his master unto thee.  He shall dwell with thee,
even among you, in that place which he shall choose
in any one of thy gates where it liketh him best;
thou shalt not oppress him."     i He is a freeman, as
any of you, free to choose his residence, free to go and
come as he pleases, free to stay unmolested, in whatever place he may prefer, and there is no owner to
him, no creature that has any power to interfere with
his liberty, no law binding him as any man's property, but an explicit, divine law, recognizing, guarding, and establishing, beyond possibility of denial or
interference, his sole right of property and ownership
in himself.
Now, I maintain that it is not possible for language
or thought to present a stronger incidental demonstration than this, of the impossibility of a creature of the
human race being property. The demonstration is
absolutely all the stronger for being incidental. It
never entered into the mind of the sacred writer, it
never entered into God's heart, to set forth, in a
formal proposition, that the claim of property in man
* Ex. xxii. 9, 10, 11.  + Ex xxiii. 4.  $ Dent. xxiii. 15, 16. 
PAUL AND PHILEMON.
is sin, or that no man can be the owner of a man, because, there stood the law, He that stealeth, or selleth,
or holdeth, shall surely be put to death.   Just so,
there was no need of saying, as an abstract proposition, that the act of murdering is sin, because the
law said, Thou shalt do no murder; and, The murderer shall be put to death. But when we find, side
by side, in the catalogue of statutes defining and
illustrating the sin of stealing, and commanding the
restoration of stolen or lost property, with the appellation of owner bestowed on those to whom such property is to be restored, a commandment, not to restore
to his master the servant that has fled from his
master to thee, the forbidding of such restoration,
and the avoidance of the term owner, are intensely
significant.
This is the thing to be borne in mind, also, in reading the Epistle of Paul to Philemon.   This is the
thing that accounts, in the first place, for his sending
back Onesimus to Philemon at all; which he would
not have done, and could not conscientiously have
done, with the statute in Deuteronomy staring him in
the face, had he not known that he was sending him
back to a Christian, perfectly aware of that statute,
and acquainted with God's whole reprobation of the
crime of oppression, and the iniquity of claiming property in man.   And, hence  he says to Philemon,
' Whom  I would have retained," would have done
it, and could have done it, conscientiously, by the law
143 
144    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
of God; but, perfectly confident in Philemon's Christian integrity, he would not impose that detention
upon him, and compel him by the law, but would
give him the sweet privilege of yielding up the man
to Paul, on gospel grounds, and willingly. And
hence, also, he says, Thou therefore receive him, as I
have sent him; not nods as a servant, but above a
servant, a brother beloved.
Not now as a servant.  It is impossible to understand this, or any part of this remarkable Epistle,
indeed, except under the light of all these statutes
against slavery, which we have been considering.
But the moment you bring this phrase under the convergency, the focus, of this light, the brilliancy is
glorious; it is as if a diamond had burst into a blaze.
Paul would not, and could not, have returned Onesimus at all except to a man who, as a Christian, well
knew God's judgment against slavery; nor to him,
unless he had had perfect confidence in his Christian
integrity, that he would receive himn as no longer a
servant, a slave, even if hlie had been one before.
Paul would never have sent back Onesimus to any
doctors of divinity who proclaim slavery a divine institution, nor to any one who could have stood up and
said, as doctors of theology since his day have done,
We accept the system of human slavery, and conscientiously abide by it.
In the whole history, from that of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, down through the whole line of their de 
MAN-SELLING FORBIDI)EN.
scendants, not one instance is to be found of the sale
of a man, whether as servant or slave.   The only
approximations to such a thing are treated and denounced as criminal.  W1hen they obtained servants,
or purchased them, as the phrase was, they purchased
their time and labor from themselves; but if they
attempted to. sell them, it could not be done without
stealing them; it was making articles of property out
of them; it was asserting, and violently assuming, ownership in them; it was MAN-STEALIXG.  Accordingly;
is the transaction of the selling of Joseph, which is
described as the crime of stealizg; and no person in
Judea could ever have sold any human being, no
matter by what means in his power, without the conviction of doing what was forbidden of God. Manselling was no more permitted than man-stealing.
It was on the ground of the impossibility of property in man, that made the selling of him a crime,
that the statute was enacted forbidding any man to
return the escaping servant to his master. It was on
this ground: that every servant belonged to himself
and not to his master, and that if his master undertook to treat him as property, he had a perfect right
to flee from him, and no man had any right to stop
him, but every man was bound by God's own law to
assist and defend him. This most beneficent statute
was a key-stone for the arch of freedom which, by
the Jewish legislation, God reared in the midst of
universal despotism and slavery; it formed a security
7
145 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
for the observance of all the other many provisions
in favor of those held to labor or domestic service; it
opened a gate of refuge for the oppressed, and operated as a powerful restraint against the cruelty of the
tyrannical master.   There  might  be cruelty  and
tyranny in the land of Judea, but there was a legal
escape from it; the servant, if men attempted to treat
him as a slave, could instantly quit his master, was
not compelled to abide in bondage, was not hunted as
a fugitive, nay, by law, was protected from being
so hunted, and everywhere, on his escape, found
friends in every dwelling, and a friend and protector
in the law.
In this statute, and in all the others on this subject, we see how shameful is the libel on the word
of God, how impious, how blasphemous the charge
against it, of sanctioning the system of slavery.
They are, in some respects, the meanest and the
wickedest of all human moles, who go burrowing
among the Scriptures, and twisting and distorting its
passages, in the hope of finding some shadow of an
excuse for this wickedness. Their work is, as far as
in them lies, to make infidels; for they do what God
denounced, with his extremest vengeance, the false
teachers of old for doing; they belie the word of the
Lord, and cause men to turn from it with the feeling
that a book that teaches iniquity can not be God's
word. But we throw off and denounce their perversion, and we challenge all the world to find any
146
CW 
PROTECTION OF SERVANTS.
where so great a security for human freedom, and
against the possibility of human slavery, or so deep
a fountain and assurance of benevolence and justice,
as in these laws. They constitute, beyond all comparison, the most benign, protective,  and generous
system of domestic service, the kindest to the servants, and the fairest for the masters, ever framed
in any country or in any age. The rights of the
servants are defined and guarantied as strictly, and
with  as much care, as those of the employers  or
masters. Human beings could not be degraded into
slaves or chattels, or bound for involuntary service,
or seized and worked for profit, and no wages paid.
The defenses against these outrages, the denouncement and prohibition of them, are among the clearest
legal and historical judgments of God against slavery.
The system in our own country, even in the light of
only these provisions, holds its power by laws most
manifestly conflicting with the divine law, and stands
indisputably under the divine reprobation.
147 
CHAPTER XVI.
JUBILEE STATUTE OF UNIVERSAL FREEDOM-ITS APPLICATION TO
HEATHEN SERVANTS-PERVERSION AND MISINTERPRETATION OF
THE MOSAIC LAWS-NO INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE ALLOWED VARIOUS FORMS OF CONTRACT-LIMITATION BY THE JUBILEE MEANING OF LEV. XXV. 46-NO REFUGE OR STANDING-PLACE
FOR SLAVERY.
THE  great crowning statute, which secured all the
others on this subject, was the Jubilee Statute, of
universal personal liberty for all the inhabitants of
the land. The Hebrews were permitted to obtain
servants from the heathen on a contract lasting till
the Jubilee, but at every recurrence of that time of
release all were free, and every contract was voluntary. No heathen, no creature, of any name, or
race, or residence, could be forced into it; it was at
any heathen servants's option to make a contract to
the Jubilee, or not. If, rather than make such a
contract, he chose to return to the heathen country,
he was at perfect liberty to go; and if he staid in
Judea, and could find any master to take him as a
hired servant, and not as a servant of all work, till
the Jubilee, there was no law against that; he was
at liberty to hire himself out onl the best terms, and
to the best master, that he could find. So much is 
JUBILEE OF FREEDOM.
indisputable, and so much is absolutely and entirely
inconsistent with slavery.
And had it not been for the arbitrary translation
of the word servant into bondman, by our English
translators in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, where
the Jubilee contracts with the heathen are treated
of, no semblance of an argument could have been
found for the existence of any kind or degree of
involuntary servitude for them. The same word is
used of procuring heathen servants as Hebrew, and
in neither case, nor any case, can it mean bondman,
but simply and only servant. In the 46th verse of
the 25th chapter of Leviticus, the word bondman is
inserted in our English version, where there is not
only no such word, but nothing answering to it, in
the original Hebrew. The service of the heathen
was not bondage, and made no approximation to
slavery; and the law of heathen servitude until the
Jubilee was simply a naturalization law of fifty years'
probation, of those who had previously been idolaters and slaves, for freedom.
It was a contrivance to drain heathenism of its
feculence. The heathen slaves were in no condition
to be admitted at once to the privileges of freedom
and of citizenship among the Hebrews. They needed
to be under restraint, law, and service. They were
put under such a system as made them familiar with
all the religious privileges and observances, which
God had bestowed and ordered; a system that ad
149 
150    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
mitted them to instruction and kindness, and prepared them to pass into integral elements of the nation.
It was a system of emancipation and of moral
transfiguration, going on through ages, the taking
up of an element of foreign ignorance, depravity,
and misery, and converting it into an element of
native comfort, knowledge,  and piety.   And  the
Statute of the Jubilee, the statute of liberty to all
the inhabitants of the land every fifty years, was the
climax of all the beneficent statutes, by which the
sting was extracted from slavery, the fang drawn;
and by this statute, in conjunction with all the rest,
the Hebrew system constituted a set of laws and
causes to prevent the introduction of slavery and
render it impossible, and at length to break it up,
all over the world. The system of Hebrew Common
Law would, by itself, have put an end to slavery
everywhere. The Hebrew laws elevated and dignified free labor, and converted slave labor into free.
The service of the heathen being a voluntary apprenticeship, and not involuntary servitude, it was,
by reason of the privileges and instruction secured
by law, a constant elevation of character, and preparation for citizenship; and then, every fifty years,
the safety of complete emancipation was demonstrated. The Jubilee Statute can not be understood
in any other light. But, when the vail of prejudice
is taken away, it is especially by the tenor of the
Hebrew laws, in regard to slavery, that the beauty 
PROTECTION OF STRANGERS.  151
and glory of the Hebrew legislation, its justice,
wisdom, and beneficence, become more apparent than
ever.  We might rest the demonstration of a divine
inspiration of the Pentateuch in no small degree on
the supernatural benevolence and wisdom of those
laws.
It is from the misinterpretation, misrepresentation,
and perversion of those laws, that the advocates of
slavery have contrived to draw some shadow of pretense for its existence and divine sanction among the
Hebrews; although it was never slavery, but free
voluntary service, concerning which the whole system of jurisprudence was established. Some men
really have the idea that the heathen were given to
the Hebrews for slaves, in such wise that they might,
any time that it pleased them to sake a foray, go
forth and snatch up any men, womcn, and children,
whom they chose to take, and keep them in perpetual bondage!   And  this,  notwithstanding  the
repeated statutes enacted, and staring them in the
face, commanding the Hebrews to treat all strangers in their land as brethren, and on no account, nor
in any  way, to oppress them.  The  heathen were
strangers, and there were no strangers in the Hebrew
country but heathen; so, if the heathen had been
given to the Hebrews as slaves, here were two sets
of laws right against each other, directly and violently conflicting. But there never was any such
gift, nor any such permission, nor could heathen 
152    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
servants be oppressed, nor brought into bondage  ny
more  than Hebrew servants, nor made slaves, nor
treated as property.
Even the term forever, applied to the longest pos sible contract for service, is used both with reference
to the Hebrew and the heathen. It is this fact
which renders null and void thie pretence alleged by
some, from Leviticus xxv. 46, that the heathen were
perpetual slaves; for, if the heathen were, then the
Hebrews were; precisely the same declarations being
made in regard to the Hebrew, in the same case:
namely, the longest contract, that he shall serve his
master forever; whereas, it is admitted on all hands,
without a single denial, that the Hebrew could not be
a slave, and, if he had made the forever-contract,
that is, till the Jubilee, then in the Jubilee he was
free as ever. The cases are precisely parallel, the
form of language used is the same in the Hebrew
original, both in Exodus xxi. 6, of the acknowledged
freeman, and in Leviticus xxv. 46, of the pretended
slave, but who was, just as truly as the Hebrew, a
freeman, having made his own contract voluntarily
with his master, till the Jubilee, and no longer.
Then, in the Jubilee, by the great standing appointment in the Hebrew Constitution, ALL THIE INHABITANTS OF TiHE LANID, whether of Hebrew or heathen
origin, that had been bound for any term of service
whatsoever, long or short, were FREE.
Let us read the two passages together. The first 
THE JUBILEE CONTRACT.
is in reference to the Hlebrew servant, with his wife
and children, apprenticed to serve his master for the
ordinary service-term of six years. At the end of
that timeo, he is as free as his master.  But he had
the privilege, by law, if his situation pleased him, if
he loved his master, and liked his service, to enter
then into the longest engagement with the same master, even till the Jubilee, and his master was compelled to agree to it, and could not compel him to
quit. The law reads as follows: " If the servant
shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my
children;  I will not go out free; then his master
shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring
him unto the door, or unto the door-post; and his
master shall bore his ear through with an awl; AND
HE SHALL SERVE HIMI FOREVER..'
Now, several things are here to be considered.
1st, It is admitted, and can not be denied, that this
means simply till thIe Jubilee, when by law, he, and
every servant in the land, was free; and no master,
whatever might have been the terms of contract,
could keep any servant one moment longer than that
period.
2d, The terms here used are the same as in Leviticus xxv. 46, when it is said of the heathen, in reference to a contract of the same period, they shall be
your bondmen forever; but in this latter place, the
word bondmen is not in the original, but is put in by
the translators; and so the place should read, as in
7*
153 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
the first passage, they shall serve you forever, or,
ye shall serve yourselves with them forever; mean ing, just as in the first passage concerning the Hiebrews, till the Jubilee. The first passage might just
as properly have been translated, he shall be his
bondman forever, as the last.
3d, The details of this law were thus minute and
definite, equally for the sake of the servant and the
master, to prevent fraud on either side; to render
alike impossible oppression on the part of the master,
and cheating on the part of the servant. If it was
a privilege for the servant thus to secure for himself
and his family a permanent place with a good master
for forty or fifty years, it might also be a tax on the
kindness of the master; and this admirable legislation
most effectually guarded against fraud on either side.
The servant might die very soon after the contractmoney had been paid to him, and in that case it
might all be lost to the master.   For it is pretty
clear that the money was always paid down, or a
great portion of it, in this bargain, and the servant
had the privilege of trading with it, tand making the
most of it he could, and thus, if he chose, he might
at any time, if successful, buy back his whole contract. But, if the money was thus to be paid beforehand, some idle rascally servants might possibly be
so wicked, so imitative of the more respectable swindlers on a grander scale, as to take advantage of this,
and having received a considerable sum for the con
154 
THE FAMILY CONTRACT.
tract, then deny that they had entered into any
agreement longer than a renewal of the ordinary six
years' term. To guard against that, if the servant
insisted on staying with his master till the Jubilee,
the desire must (1st) be solemnly affirmed, and the
contract drawn, in the presence of judges; and (2d)
the servant was to have his ear bored, so that if at
any time he denied the contract, designing to cheat
his master, there was the unobliterable proof of it.
4th, On the other hand, these provisions were just
as necessary for the protection of the servant; for if
at any time the master, on his part, designed to repudiate the contract, and turn his servant out of
doors, there was, manifestly, the ear bored, and there
were the judges to whom he could appeal, and the
laws by which he could compel his master to keep
him.
5th, It is obvious that this contract, once entered
into, was a contract belonging to the family; it was
a contract, by which, the servant's time and labor
having been purchased for forty or fifty years, was
due to the family for that period. It had been purchased by the master for himself and his household,
his children; and the servant so apprenticed would
belong (that is, his time and service would belong) to
the family, to the children, if the master died before
the time of the contract expired. If, for example,
the master entered into such a contract the seventh
year after the Jubilee, it would be a contract for
155 
GOD AGAINST SLAVE RY.
forty-three years to come. Now, suppose the master
to die ten years from that time' then manifestly the
time and service of the Hebrew servant would belong
to the family as their inheritance; it would belong to
the children as their possession after their father;
and again, if they all died within the next ten or
twenty years, and the servant lived, then ten or
twenty years of the unexpired service would still belong to the grandchildren, as their possession; and so
on till the Jubilee. It would be an inheritance for
the master, and his children after him, to inherit a
possession; inasmuch as his death, ten years after a
contract made and paid with a servant for forty years,
did not and could not release that servant from his
obligation to complete the service, for which he had
been paid, in part at least, beforehand.
Let us now read, along with this, the passage in
Leviticus xxv. 46, relating to the heathen servants,
or servants coming from the heathen nations into
Judea for employment, and engaged under the same
Jubilee-contract, the forever-conztract, as in the preceding instance of the Hebrew servant so engaged.
It reads thus: I Ye shall take them as an inheritance
for your children after you, to inherit a possession;
ye shall serve yourselves with them forever." As we
have said, the phraseology is almost exactly the same
in the last clause, defining the extent of the contract
with the heathen servant, as in the clause in Exodus
xxi. 6, which defined the extent of the contract with
the Hebrew servant; the word forever being used in
156 
INHERITED SERVICE.
both cases, and used with the same meaning, that is, of
a contract extending till the Jubilee. The word bondman or bondmen is not used in either passage, though
our translators have chosen to put it in the text, in the
passage applying to the heathen, but without the least
authority or reason for so doing. Instead of saying,
they shall be your bonidmen forever, the passage
simply says, just as concerning the Hebrew servant in
Exodus, they shall serve you forever; that is, they
shall be your servants for the longest period admitted
by your laws for any service or any contract, even till
the Jubilee. And as engaged by such contract, and
paid on such terms, ye do take them, and may take
them, as an inheritance for your children after you,
for any part of the term of service unexpired, when
you, the head of the family, are taken away from
your household.   Then, these servants, by you engaged and paid for an apprenticeship till the Jubilee,
shall be for your children to inherit as a possession,
the possession of their time and service, which, by
your contract with them, as rightfully belongs to
your children as to you, until the stipulated period
come to an end.   That is the Jubilee-contract, the
forever-contract. The passage in Exodus xxi. 6, is
absolute demonstration in regard to this matter.
And thus are all the refuges of lies swept away, by
which the advocates of slavery, asserting that the
heathen were slaves to the IHebrews, or could be held
as such, endeavor to make men believe that slavery
is sanctioned by the law of God.
157 
CHIIAPTER XVII.
THE JUBILEE-CONTRACT OF SERVICE FOR THE IIEATIIEN-EVERY
CONTRACT PERFECTLY VOLUNTARY-USAGE OF THiE WORD BUY SERVANTS BOUGHT BY VOLUNTARY CONTRACT WITH THEMSELVES,
BUT NOT OF A THIRD PARTY-THE FAMILY INHERITANCE OF
SERVICE TILL THE JUBILEE - BOTH HEBREW AND HEATHEN
SERVANTS FREE-NO PROPERTY IN MAN EVER SAN\CTIONED.
Now taking the 44th and 45th verses of the same
chapter in Leviticus in the original, the meaning is
perfectly plain, according to the law of Jubilee, with
reference to which they were written. It is the long
contract, the Jubilee-contract, called, with reference
to the Hlebrew servant, forever, which is under consideration in these verses, as in Ex. xxi. 6; under
which contract, namely, the servants taken from
among the heathen were to be engaged, and were
to be for a possession according to the engagement, up
to the time of Jubilee, voluntarily assumed by both
parties. No Hebrew could compel any heathen to
serve him; no Hebrew could buy any heathen servant of a third party, as an article of property. No
such buying or selling was ever permitted, but every
contract was to be made with the servant himself.
The 44th verse reads thus: "Both thy men-servants
and thy maid-servants, which shall be to you of the 
CIHILDREN OF STRANGERS.. 159
heathen that are round about you, of them shall ye
buy the man-servant and the maid-servant;" that is,
of the men-servants and maid-servants themselves that
have come into your land, of them, shall ye procure,
shall ye obtain, your man-servant and your maidservant, on the Jubilee-contract.
And the 45th verse reads thus: "' Moreover, of the
children (descendants) of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their
families that are with you, which they begat in your
land; and they shall be to you for a possession." Of
the children of the strangers shall ye buy; that is,
ye shall take the children (the descendants) themselves, as many as are willing to enter your service
on this contract, not from a third party, but from
themselves, by their own free choice, and from their
families, begotten among you; and those so taken, so
engaged, shall, as to their time and service for the
period for which they engage themselves, belong to
you, be to you for a possession, a fixture of service,
up to the period of Jubilee.
The English word buy conveys, of necessity, to an
English reader, the idea of traffic and of property;
but such was not the idea attached to the word in the
original, which is the same word used of marrying a
wife, as when Hosea bought his wife;  and Jacob
bought Rachel and Leah his wives, and paid for
them seven years' work each to Laban.t Just so,
* Hosea iii. 2.              t Gen. xxix 16-23. 
160    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
Boaz bought Ruth.* And just so God is said to
have bought his people.t And in Exodus xxi. 2,
If thou buy a Hebrew servant, we have the exact
usage, in reference to a free contract of free service
for six years. And corresponding with this, we have
in Jeremiah the expression " every man his brother a
Hebrew, which hath been sold unto  thee," in the
original, which hath sold himsef;$ that is, engaged
as a servant in contract for six years.
Just so, in Lev. xxv. 47, after considering the
cases of heathen servants engaged till the Jubilee,
there follows the consideration of Hebrew servants
engaged to the stranger till the same period, and the
case is, if he, the Hebrew, sell himself to the stranger, or to the stock of the stranger's family. But
in the 51st verse this Hebrew servant is said to have
been bought for money, which money was paid to
himself, and the contract a perfectly free and voluntary contract. So in the 39th verse, If thy brother
be sold unto thee, that is, in the original, sell himself; the same free contract.  And the expression,
the stock of the stranger's family, is just precisely a
paraphrase or explanation of the expression in regard
to heathen servants taken for an inheritance for you
and your children after you; that is, heathen servants who have sold themselves to the stock of your
family, engaged themselves by contract, for which
you have paid the money to them, to serve you and
* Ruth iv. 10.   t Dout. xxxii. 6.  t Jer. xxiv. 14. 
THE FAMILY STOCK.
your children till the Jubilee, thus constituting a
fixture, a possession, as to time and service paid for,
in the family stock. This was done by Hebrews
themselves, who nevertheless were perfectly free,
and in no sense slaves; it was done in exactly the
same way by the heathen, on a contract exactly as
free, and they were nevertheless in no sense slaves.
It is from the misinterpretation of the words buy
and sell, that much of the perversion of Scripture on
this subject has originated and been maintained. A
fair examination clears away all the sophistry, and
leaves the case as plain and open as the daylight.
THERE IS NO  SUCH  THING  AS PROPERTY IN MAN
PERMITTED OR SANCTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.
161 
CHIIAPTER XVIII.
GOD'S JUDGMENTS AGAINST SLAVERY PROVE IT TO BE SIN-THE
CONTEMPORANEOUS TESTIMONY OF JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL EFFECT OF SLAVERY IN THE RUIN OF EMPIRES-ITS EFFECT
ON THE MIORALS AND SENTIMENTS OF A PEOPLE-DEGRADATION
OF FREE LABOR.
IN the fifth place, the recorded judgments of God
for the attempt to hold and use servants as property,
are another demonstration of slavery as sin.  The
great foremost instance is the one recorded in the
34th chapter of the prophecies of Jeremiah. - It was
the last crowning and exasperating crime of the
nation, this attempt to establish slavery, in perpetuating the servitude of their servants, at the will
and pleasure of the masters, who, by such usurpation
and oppression, claimed and treated them as property.
They had been guilty of oppression in many ways
before, and in this way at intervals, but now they made
it a national act and establishment, and it was a fundamental violation both of the letter and spirit of the
constitution and of God's law. The princes of the
nation and the lords of the capital, the holy city,
Jerusalem, and the priests, and all the people, conspired and combined in this iniquity together; and if
God had let their existence as a nation be prolonged, 
JUDGMENTS OF GOD.
they would thenceforward have had slavery instead
of freedom, as its ruling fundamental law. But the
wrath of God came down so instantaneously, that
they hardly had leisure to begin the working of the
system. And nothing can prove more clearly God's
abhorrence of it; for, as a thunderbolt from heaven,
the fierce anger of the Lord transfixed the nation.
The sword, pestilence, and famine, captivity, fire, and
desolation, consumed the people, and destroyed the
cities of the land. There is no possibility of mistaking this record.'" The people of the land have
used oppression and exercised robbery, and have
vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed
the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man
among them that should make up the hedge, and
stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should
not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore have I
poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their own
way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the
Lord God.'" This passage, and the whole 22d chapter of Ezekiel from which it is taken, were the testimony of God by his prophet in Chaldea against the
very same wickedness, on account of which God had
declared, by Jeremiah, that the whole nation should
be swept from the land.
For every other iniquity forgiveness had been
offered, and space granted for repentance; but there
was none for this. God had endured the idolatry of
163 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
the people, for that was not an iniquity established
and defended as an organic sin, nor had the attempt
been made to subvert the constitution given to them
from God; and while many were guilty of idolatrous
abominations, there were also many who resisted and
abhorred them. But this attempted establishment of
slavery was a glaring national trampling upon humanity and justice, and defiance of God, in which all
classes were combined. Strenuous for rites, but not
for righteousness, for sacrifice toward God, but not
for mercy nor common honesty toward man, they
would kill an ox for worship, and steal their neighbor's wages, and slay his freedom in the same breath.
They 1' trusted in oppression and perversion, and
stayed themselves thereon;" and these are crimes, the
lurid light of which burns in the pages of the prophets
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and others, in such a manner, that we see how the nation went into the establishment of slavery against the reiterated and longcontinued warnings and denunciations of God's messengers in every faithful free pulpit all over the land.
And slavery being the subversion of the constitution,
to make it an engine of oppressing and crushing the
free servants in the land, instead of protecting and
blessing them, the moment they attempted to shield
and establish this sin under the guardianship of the
constitution and the laws, making themselves a nation
of men-stealers; the extremest wrath of God came
down upon them.
164 
ITS EFFECT UPON THEAR MIND. 165
The sixth branch of this argument is the providen tial demonstration in the manifestation of God's curse
upon the system, by its practical workings among
men, and the ruin of states and empires under its in fluence.   Its path has gone over the earth in an
infinite train of iniquities and miseries, sins of oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and avarice, suggested
and produced by its temptations and its gifts of opportunity and power, and finally concentrated in its
essence; the corruptions of manners and morals, the
decay of commerce, arts, manufactures, learning, and
literature, the destruction of industry and intellect,
the blasting and emasculation of the earth itself under
its curse and blight.
Then there is the effect upon the moral sentiments
and feelings, the habits of immoral reasoning induced,
the monstrous sophistry admitted and maintained, and
the consequent insensibility of the conscience, and
blinding and darkening of the understanding; a thing
predicted in the prophets for those who would not be
guided in their policy by the word of God, but trusted
in oppression, and in the lying that was necessary to
sustain it, and fulfilled in the judicial blindness of the
Jews; and again declared in the New Testament, as
the consequence of rejecting God's testimony against
our own sins, and changing the truth of God into a
lie, God himself giving such over to a reprobate mind,
and to the all-deceivableness of unrighteousness in
them that perish. For this cause God shall send 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
them strong delusion that they should believe a lie,
since they would not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.  Just so in that psalm so
vividly descriptive of the character of unjust judges,
and of the effect of habits of injustice in putting out
the eyesight of the mind. They know not, neither
will they understand; they walk on in darkness, all
the foundations of the earth are out of course.
The most abandoned principles are openly maintained; the most ancient and revered landmarks are
swept away, the most sacred compacts disregarded;
the institutions of mankind, the wisdom of history,
and the nature of eternal justice, alike perverted and
defied. The doing of evil that good may come is justified and applauded; a selfish expediency is proclaimed as the right rule of the exercise of state
power; all the theories of moral sentiment grounded
in the word of God are overthrown, and a system of
public and domestic moral principles adopted, that
would have disgraced the darkest ages of mankind.
Among all the monstrosities of idol superstitions, the
fanaticisms of infanticide and Moloch-sacrifices, in the
darkness of heathenism, without the light of the
Bible, none were ever so bad as the deliberate rrmin tenance of such doctrines as are now maintained in
such light. That slavery is better than freedom,
and more accordant with God's intention in regard to
human society, that the degradation and inslavement
of one race is necessary for the higher refinement and
166 
ITS MONSTROUS DOCTRINES.
happiness of another; that the African race are sep arate from humanity, and only a footstool for it, by
standing on which the Anglo-Saxon race can reach a
higher stature, nearer to the gods; that society itself
ought to be nothing but the two extremes of unquestioning, unappealing, inevitable servitude, and unquestioned, despotic power; that the perfection of
domestic, and even of religious life, is in such a state.
We are reminded by such doctrines of the horrid
manufacture of the music in the pope's choir, where
the mutilation of children is said to give a tone of
plaintiveness and pathos to the melody, so exquisite
as to be unattainable in any other way. We are
taught in one and the same breath that God appointed
slavery as a providential good for the slaves themselves, and at the same time, that they are to be perpetual bondmen, chattels, bought and sold, in order
to make us, by contrast, nobler, prouder freemen;
and that, in fine, the institution is itself a whetstone
for the sharpening and polishing of our own humanity. It certainly does sharpen.
We are told that for such an acute, haughty, and
finely-toned order of humanity, labor is disgraceful,
and that it should be put upon slaves only, to make
white men the more ashamed of it. We are taught
that industry and submission are the properties of
slaves, indolence and command the marks of a gentleman; and that to labor, working with our hands,
instead of being the feature and the praise of an
167 
GOD) AGAINST SLAVERY.
elevating Christianity, is the badge of degradation.
Our virtues are turned into vices, and our vices into
virtues, by this system. Humanity is put to shame,
is set in the stocks, is crucified, because it is a slave's
deportment; haughtiness, resolute cruelty, arrogance
to those beneath, are virtues in the master, and there
must be a race always beneath to accustom the superior race to such a bearing. Intense and unmitigated
selfishness, pride, revenge, ferocity, hardness of heart,
and griping, close-fisted extortion, along with the
seemingly opposite qualities of lavish profusion and
waste, were not merely wrought into fixtures of
character among the Roman slaveholders, but they
are fruits of the same system now   Thomas Jefferson's graphic and powerful picture of these things
will last as long as the English language, together
with his well-known declaration, that in case of a
slave insurrection, Almighty God has no attribute
which could take part with the master against the
slave.
Indeed the demoralizing effect of this system in
making labor disgraceful, where God has made it
honorable, and in taking from it its right to a place
of nobleness and respect in human society, is worse
than its influence in defrauding independent laborers
of their just adequate recompense. I have a most
marked illustration, which I know to be authentic.
A man on Staten Island, a carpenter, who as master
workman had become successful by industry, honesty,
168 
RIGHTS OF FREE LABOR.
and intelligence in the pursuit of his business, learning that there was great demand for his work  at
Charleston in South Carolina, and thinking he might
more rapidly acquire a competency there, closed up
his business here, and went south for that purpose.
IHe had hardly got established, when a lady sent for
him to mrake a contract with him for repairing and in
effect rebuilding some part of her establishment.   She
desired him to make a computation of the cost, and to
let her know the lowest price at which he would undertake the business. The bill somewhat exceeded
her expectations. She reflected awhile, and at length
told our honest friend that on the whole she concluded not to engage him. The work would take two
or three months, and on the whole she could do better
to buy a carpenzter, and sell him again in the spring!
The man left the house, went to his shop, packed up
his tools, closed up his half established business, and
took passage in the first ship hlie could find for New
York, declaring that a country where housekeepers
could buy their carpenters, and sell them again in the
spring, was no place for him or free labor to live in.
And where, in the whole extent of our territorial
empire, let slavery once be established in the length
and breadth of it, can free and honorable labor find a
breathing place? Where will it ever be able to command its rights of existence, or its just reward?
8
169 
CONSCIOUSNESS OF MANKIND.  171
to the sin of oppression is as the sound of many
waters; and the ground-wave of conviction from the
depths of the consciousness of all mankind, amidst the
groans of humanity, generation after generation, rolls
up the judgment that personal slavery is the culmination of this sin. The feeling of our common humanity has found a common expression, and the literature of all nations is as a shrine of many-forked
lightnings against it. The logic of common law, of
common honesty, of common charity, must all be set
at defiance in denying its sinfulness. Millions on
millions of beating hearts assert, that for themselves,
'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its luster and perfume,
An(1 we ire weeds without it;
and if they can turn from such sentiments, and with
eyes moistened with the tears springing from  the
poetic sensibility of a Christian patriotism, can vote
to make their fellow-creatures such weeds, by fastening the chains of a perpetual slavery upon them, how
will they stand before God, face to face with the
victims of such hypocrisy and cruelty? The proud
boasts of liberty for themselves, the care with which
they guard their own personal freedom, shows what
they consider the dearest birthright of their humanity; and, therefore, by the common law of love, what
they know to be due to the humanity of others; and
if they defraud them of it, their own natural emotions
will witness against them at the last day. The dem 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
onstrations as to profit, also, and the proofs of what
men's true interests require, are equally clear, and
must equally be defied, in the maintenance of this iniquity. John Wesley did truly declare that it is the
sum of all villainies, and others in our land have testified that there is no sin in the decalogue but slavery
is the parent of it.
Now it is this iniquity that a large portion of the
community defend. At the South it is entailed; but
each generation consents to the entailment. It would
be easy fbr any State Legislature, nay for all, if the
people would consent, to put a stop to the evil. If
they would but take example from the law of jubilee,
and bring in a bill that at the end of fifty years every
child born in the State should be born free, the evil
would, in that period, without difficulty work itself
away. But instead of staying it where it is, they propose its universal  extension.   There  is territory
enough to carve out twenty-nine new States in the
region proposed to be set open to the freedom of
slavery. There are no geographical barriers to the
existence and the lust of power; it overrides every
thing; there is no climate on earth unfavorable to it.
Freedom is a flower that you must cherish; but
slavery is a weed, as Burke once truly said, that you
may have anywhere, only scatter the seed.   The
question before us is as to the deliberate national extension of this system. My argument does not run
backward, but was constructed simply to illustrate, by
172 
THE ABSORBING ISSUE.
a survey of the cogency and clearness of the demonstration that slavery is sin, the solemnity of the responsibility laid on us at this juncture in voting in
regard to it. God has brought us, at length, by a
wonderful combination of circumstances, to this, as
the one absorbing issue before us as a nation, Will we
choose slavery or freedom? Will we sanction and
extend that which God abhors, or will we choose that
which he commands?   In the history of the whole
world, no nation was ever brought face to face with
God, to answer such a question, as ours is at this day.
It is a position, the solemnity and importance of
which arrest the gaze of the nations. And the responsibility is individual. God has concentrated the
whole issue, at length, after a whole age of thrusting
and parrying, and fending off, on the primal election,
which combines the opinions, choices, wills, of all our
teeming population in the same act.   There is no
diversion of the responsibility in other ways, or on
more than one principle, one line of policy, which is
brought to every man's own door to decide upon, to
every man's own bosom for his judgment, to every
man's own conscience for approval or rejection. The
choice of every man, we had almost said of every
man, woman, and child, is concentrated in this decision with a directness of opinion, will, and responsibility, such as never accompanied any other elective
act of the people, in such sovereignty of determination
as no other nation under heaven ever exercised.
173 
THE ABSORBING ISSUE.
a survey of the cogency and clearness of the demonstration that slavery is sin, the solemnity of the responsibility laid on us at this juncture in voting in
regard to it. God has brought us, at length, by a
wonderful combination of circumstances, to this, as
the one absorbing issue before us as a nation, Will we
choose slavery or freedom? Will we sanction and
extend that which God abhors, or will we choose that
which he commands?   In the history of the whole
world, no nation was ever brought face to face with
God, to answer such a question, as ours is at this day.
It is a position, the solemnity and importance of
which arrest the gaze of the nations. And the responsibility is individual. God has concentrated the
whole issue, at length, after a whole age of thrusting
and parrying, and fending off, on the primal election,
which combines the opinions, choices, wills, of all our
teeming population in the same act.   There is no
diversion of the responsibility in other ways, or on
more than one principle, one line of policy, which is
brought to every man's own door to decide upon, to
every man's own bosom for his judgment, to every
man's own conscience for approval or rejection. The
choice of every man, we had almost said of every
man, woman, and child, is concentrated in this decision with a directness of opinion, will, and responsibility, such as never accompanied any other elective
act of the people, in such sovereignty of determination
as no other nation under heaven ever exercised.
I
173 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
On this account it is indisputably the province of
the pulpit to proclaim at this time the judgment of
God for the guidance of the people, in this, their
religious responsibility; and all plausibility and
power are taken away from the accustomed allegation
with which every mention of the sin of slavery has
been met, when it has been referred to, namely, that
we, the people of this congregation, or any other congregation in a free State, have nothing to do with it.
We now have every thing to do with it, and are ourselves to determine in regard to it. The question as
to the sinfulness of slavery and its extension, is as
direct, practical, and personal for us, as of stealing,
lying, adultery, intemperance, or infidelity.  If a
bill for licensing polygamy were before our own State
Legislature, there would be no more obligation to turn
the light of God's word upon that iniquity, than
there is now to examine the iniquity of the extension
of slavery in the same light. It is no more a political thing to preach concerning slavery, than it is concerning dishonesty in business, or repentance toward
God. On the principles laid down in the 33d chapter of Ezekiel, of which no man ever dreamed of
denying the application directly to every preacher
of the word of God, no minister of the gospel can
do his duty, and avoid speaking in such a case. " If
the people of the land take a man of their coasts,
and set him as a watchman, if the watchman see the
sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people
174 
DUTY  OF  TIIE-WATCHNIAN.    175
be not warned, if the swold come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's
hand. So thou, O soI of man, I have set thee a
watchman unto the people; therefore thou shalt hear
the word at my hand, and warn them from me. If
thou dost not warn them, then the wicked shall die
in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy
hand." This applies to whatever moral evil or sin
any people are in danger of committing. No sword,
no pestilence, no external misery or distress, is ever
to be compared with the sword of a deliberate iniquity, cutting the people to their vitals, or the habit
)f iniquity, chosen as their State and domestic policy. 
CHAPTER XX.
THE ONE QUESTION BEFORE US-PRETENSIONS AND DEMANDS OF
SLAVERY-THE CONSEQUENCES IF WE  YIELD TO THEM-GUILT
OF EXTENDING SLAVERY, AND SETTING IT AT THE VITALS OF A
NEW STATE OR TERRITORY-THE  PERPETUAL AGITATION AND
POWER OF CONSCIENCE.
THE question now before us is just this, and no
other, Shall slavery, henceforward, be the chosen
policy of our nation? Shall it be extended over
new territory, comprehending an area for the habitation of man, and the formation of human societies,
larger than all civilized Europe?  Shall every thing
be made to bend to its advancement, and no freedom
of speech, or even of opinion, be tolerated, that does
not swear fealty to it? Shall the whole power of
our government be enlisted and applied in its support? Shall the United States army force it upon
freemen, at the point of the bayonet, with rights that
had been secured by the Constitution struck down as
treason, and the freedom of thought itself forbidden
by atrocious law? To this it must come, and this is
the essential despotism brought upon ourselves, if we,
as a nation, deliberately fasten the law of slavery on
our free Territories. 
DEMANDS OF SLAVERY.
Shall we plainly choose, as our guiding and ruling
policy, a system of injustice and cruelty that God
abhors, and that all the nations of the civilized world
in turn have abolished and cast out as the scourge of
a prosperous, and the opprobium of a virtuous, society? Shall this condemned and abandoned policy be
set in new States and Territories, as their normal form,
their jurisprudence, the Shechinahli of the genius of
the country? Shall that which is as plainly forbidden of God as idolatry itself be selected by this nation
and government, stamped with the people's approbation, and inaugurated as the fundamental, determining, administrative act and prudence of public and
private life, the object of our worship, the North
Star of our being, the standard of our morals, the
law of domestic society, and the rule of State?
To this extent its pretensions and demands have
come. It has happened, in the providence of God,
which has permitted the experiment to go that length,
before throwing the question of its sanction or rejection solemnly on the whole nation's choice, that the
preparation for this crime of the extension of slavery
has been begun in open violence, in a daring, yet
acknowledged usurpation, establishing the throne of
iniquity, in the method of framing mischief by a law.
The annals of history can not show a greater wickedness. The statutes of the house of Omri in Israel, for
the iniquity of obeying which, the whole people of the
land were swept into desolation, were not more directly
177
Sg* 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
in conflict with God and his righteousness. The territorial legislative fraud transacted in Kansas, and the
execrable laws under it, enforced by the United States
army, at the command of the executive, at the same
time that the House of Representatives has declared
that very Legislature, and those very laws, to be unconstitutional, infamous, unrighteous, and therefore
null and void, constitute the grossest usurpation, all
things considered, ever perpetrated; because our
light, our privileges, our position in the world and its
ages, our Constitution, our Declaration of Indclependence, our theory and practice of liberty for ourselves,
our knowledge of the word of God, our light from
history and from the examples of all nations before
us. and our long consideration and examination of the
nature of public justice and righteousness, brand it
as a foreknown and heaven-defying crime, not rejected and reprobated, when committed, but sanctioned as crime; so that the sun in heaven never
shone upon a greater enormity, all these things considered, than the oppressions and cruelties in Kansas.
It is impossible to set their wickedness in an adequate
light.
And now, if we accept and sustain them, and carry
out the villainy for which they were committed, we
have sealed our own subjection, and the ruin of our
liberties forever.   I say this, because, a revolution
from good to evil, requiring at the outset a bloody
usurpation and civil war, can go on only by the sacri
178 
DESPOTISM OF SLAVERY.
flece of all principle. The two things can not live to.
gether:  a slavery, aggressive, jealous, devouring as
the sea, that requires such abnegation of principle and
conscience, such barbarous laws and such brutal ferocity in their execution, developing its remorseless
despotism in them, and a freedom, whose whole soul
of justice and humanity rises up against them; the
one must destroy the other. And to this it is running on. If we accept and sustain this iniquity, our
policy must be henceforward wholly despotic, and as
much against the spirit and letter of our own Constitution as of the word of God. All our strength will
be called into requisition against ourselves to subdue
our own prejudices in favor of liberty; and a new
net-work of law will have to be arranged to hold the
swelling emotions we have been accustomed to utter
as a lunatic in a strait-jacket. Our statutes must be
overhauled and knotted for the submission of State
rights, and judicial precedents and decisons favorable
to slavery must be prepared and enforced, that there
may be no rebellion, nor whisper of discontent. The
silent, unbroken, unLmurmuring reign of terror at
the South will be a stormy terror at the North, but a
reign of terror still, the worse for the uproar and resistance of conscience. The agencies of power are in
readiness, and the needed judges are at hand, to apply all the instrumentalities in their keeping. With
great assurance the advocates of the slave-system look
forward to the established and unquestioned catho
179 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
licity of its despotism, determined that it shall no
longer be the creature of municipal law, or local state
sovereignty, but of national and international righteousness. Not more confidently did Philip of Spain
load his vessels of the Armada against Protestant
England with thumb-screws and boots for the tortures
of the Inquisition, to be applied to freemen. And
then, our very literature will have to be mutilated
and re-cast, and intellectual eunuchs must be set over
all our book-shops and libraries, with an index expurgatorius for their guide.
I wish that it were in my power, by any language,
to express the sacredness and solemnity of a vote in
this crisis. If there ever was a religious responsibility in human affairs, it is the obligation to resist this
iniquity, when the opportunity is given of a vote
against it. There has never been such an opportunity till now; but now, no other issue is pretended, no
other is talked of, no other is thought of, but the
sanction and support, or renunciation and resistance,
of this sin. It is idle to pretend any other question
depending than just this, Shall slavery be extended
and nationalized? I wish that I could portray, as
with lightning, the unmeasured wickedness of that
man, who will let his individual profit, or imagined
profit, determine his vote on the side of injustice and
oppression, in a matter on which the temporal and
eternal condition of millions in future generations
may depend. The baseness of any merchant or cap
180 
CLIMAX OF WICKEDNESS.
italist is not to be fathomed, who, because the ramifications of his southern trade require that he cast a
benignant regard upon the system of slavery, will
therefore vote for its extension in the land. I do not
believe that human nature ever sank to a deeper debasement than it has in those men, who, under the light
of Christianity, will, for the sake of an imagined
greater security of property, establish, or vote to establish, the curse of slavery where it has not gone.
To set this cancer in the vitals of a new land, to inoculate with this plague the heart of a new society,
with the full knowledge of all the evils it will entail
generation after generation, is a climax of wickedness
a sublimity of crime, such as no nation under heaver
before our own ever had a possibility of attaining. Divine providence has never once committed such a possibility to mortals, and would not have done it now,
except to a nation educated, trained, disciplined, under
the light of the gospel, and therefore prepared to repel
the evil, and elect the good. And now, for such a
nation, having the power to determine the policy, the
social and civil institutions, of another state, and in
the words of God in Isaiah, to raise up the foundations of many generations, deliberately, after long
dispute and discussion, to set the system of slavery at
the heart of it, would be a crime so gigantic, a cruelty
so infinite, that eternity alone could reveal its enormity. It is a transaction without parallel on the face
of the earth. Nations have made slaves, have prac
181 
182    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
ticed slavery, but, to compel another nation, abhorring it, into the endurance and establishment of this
iniquity, puts a complication and intensity of malignity into the transaction, beyond the power of the
imagination to measure and of language to describe.
If you could take one immortal being, and set within
the circle of his faculties, for your profit, regardless
of his fate, a spring and machinery of incessant sin
and misery, that would be the supernatural wickedness of a fiend; but who can adequately illustrate or
characterize the enormity of setting such a spring
at the heart of a whole nation, of placing there this
productive cause of all miseries, this fountain and
creative agency of cruelty and crime?
We can almost see the great God of our fathers
warning us for the last time: we can almost hear the
voice of incarnate divine compassion, Oh that thou
hadst known, at least in this thy day, thy decisive
visitation, the things that belong to thy peace!  But
now they are hid from thine eyes. How often would
I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth
gather her brood under her wings, but ye would not.
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!  We
can almost see the spirits of our fathers bending down
over us from their bright abodes, to see what shall be
our decision in this hour of solemn trial. Oh that
God would in mercy guide us!  Oh that he would
constrain us to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with our God! But if we will not, then 
GOD'S WORD TRIUMPHANT.
there is a conflict before us, such as the nations never
knew. Every step of the way we have got to grapple
with God's word, and with conscience, and we can not
overcome it. Hle has set it within us, and it is on
God's side, and we had better have ten thousand
devils outside opposing us, than conscience within.
And God will still work; his word will break forth
like a volcano. You have even now the conscience
of twenty millions under the light of God's word,
against the conscience of three hundred thousand
slaveholders drugged by self-interest and sophistry.
The conscience of the twenty millions God will continue to stir up. He will make his word like a fire
in the bones, and a fire in the heart, and a fire in the
brain, and the whole Pacific ocean could not put it
out, nor all the mountains of profit and expediency
keep it down. No small part of our country, thanks
be to God, is all conscience on this subject, living
conscience, outraged conscience, conscience burdened
and agonized, and crying up to God. If you undertake to silence or to suffocate that conscience, you
will have such convulsions, such volcanoes as the world
never saw; and if you undertake to put down the
volcanoes, then you will have earthquakes, and your
institutions will roll and totter like a raging sea, as
when God takes whole cities by their towers, and
beats them against one another. When God and his
justice are pledged against a nation in rebellion in
this one sin, you can not question who will conquer.
183 
184     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
God has thrown down the gauntlet against this wickedness, and at this late period of the world, the nation
that dares to take it up will be blasted with the fury
of his wrath, not less terribly than his peeled, scattered, and exterminated people of old. 
A D D R E S S
ON TIHE SUBJECT OF THE
Ili itit                     o     f  o   r g.
DELIVERED AT THIIE MUSICAL ACADEMY,
OCTOBER 30, 1856. 
k 
A D D R E S S
ON THE SUBJECT OF THE INIQUITY OF THE EXTENSION
OF SLAVERY.
BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK, IN THE MUSICAL ACADEMY, ON THE
EVENING OF OCTOBER 30, 1856.*
WE are grateful for the opportunity to address an
assembly of our fellow-citizens in regard to the crime
* This address, and on the same evening an address on the same
subject by Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D.D., were delivered to an
immense assemblage of citizens at the suggestion and request of a
number of gentlemen, as detailed in the following correspondence.
NEW YORK, October 2T, 1856.
REV. GEORGE B. CHEEVER, D.D., REV. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D.D.
SiRs: The undersigned, being desirous that the moral and religious aspects of the question of the extension of slavery in the
United States may be presented, and the criminality of such extension fully argued before the public, respectfuilly request you to
address an audience on those topics, at the Academy of Music in
this city, and would suggest the evening of Thursday, 30th instant,
at 7~ o'clock, as a suitable time.
We are respectfilly, etc.,
J. W. EDIMONDS,        WM. CURTIS NOYEm,
M. H. GRINNELL,        JOSEEPII HOXIE,
FRAN]  TUTIILL,       IR. H. MCCURDY,
HENRY J. RAYMOND,    S. DIRAPER,
H. D. ALDRICHI,        WM. MN. EVARTS,
B. F. BUTIR,           TIIOMAS DENNY,
FRED. W.  [INO,        HIRAM BARNEY,
DEXTER FAIRHAANK,      JAMES IIUMPIIREY,
B. F. MANNIERE,        EDWIN WEST, M.D.,
W. N. BLAKEMAN, M.D.,  JAMES W. HALSTEAD,
LEWIS HIALLOCK, M.D.   ISRAEL MINOR,
HORAC;E GREELFY,       RICHARD F. HALSTEAD, M.D.,
CHARLE$S A. DANA,      H. A. RICHARDSON,
W. C. BRYANT,          Wm. G. WEST,
W. H. SMITH,           J. F. WHPPLE.
GEORGE GiFOoRD, 
GOD) AGAINST SLAVERY.
of extending slavery, and especially on grounds of
religious principle. We rejoice, because to that
foundation the whole permanent opposition against
slavery must come at last, and the sooner the better.
It is better, at whatever expense, to dig deep now,
and lay our foundation on a rock, than with careless,
costless labor for the present, to build upon the sand,
and by-and-by, when the waves rise, and the storm
Ni,w YORK, October 28,1856.
TO MESSRS. J. W. EDIIONDS, M. IHI. GRINNELL, AND OTHERS:
SIRS: The perils that threaten every social, moral, and religious
interest of our country from the extension of slavery, demand of
the Christion patriot, whatever of influence he can exert, in private
or in public, to stay the progress of this gigantic evil.
We shall be thankful if any words of ours shall contribute to
deepen in the minds of our fellow citizens their abhorrence of this
great iniquity, and their determination to suppress it.
We therefore accede to your somewhat unusual request, and
will respond to your call upon Thursday evening next.
With sentiments of esteem, we remain, gentlemen, yours,
GEO. B. CHEEVER,
JOS. P. THIOMPSON.
At the hour appointed for the meeting, William Cullen Bryant,
Esq., was called to the chair, and introduced the speakers with
the following appropriate remarks, which were responded to by
the audience with great earnestness and applause.
My FRIENDS: I have been called to this place for the purpose
of presenting to you two of our fellow-citizens of the clerical
profession, who have consented this evening to address you on
topics of the highest public importance. They are men who do
not hold themselves absolved by their profession from any of the
obligations which belong to the members of our great political
system.  [Applause.]  They do not hold that they have fulfilled
their duty to God until they have performed their duty to their
country. [Applause.] I honor the noble zeal which brings them
188 
TRUTH FOUNDED ON A ROCK. 189
rages, see our structure dashed upon the billows, and
if we ourselves are spared, spared only for the confusion of digging over again, at a thousand-fold cost,
our former work, to get below the sands, and in contact with primeval granite. Let us go down to the
granite now, and we shall have nothing to do afterward, but just build on securely toward heaven.
In the conflict against slavery, conscience and the
forth to give the benefit of their eloquence to the cause of justice
and humanity, and I am sure, fellow-citizens, you honor them for
it, too, or you would not be here this evening.  My friends, the
cause which brings us hither to-night is the cause of the manythe cause of the people. The battle we fight is the battle for the
rights of the many against the interests of the few-a battle for
the people against an oligarchy.  In the records of the ancient
Hebrew race, we read that when the Israelites had passed the
Red Sea, they were attacked by the Amalekites, and when Moses,
the great civil chief and leader of that race, beheld from the summit of the mount the conflict, he lifted up in his hands the rod
before which the waters of the Red Sea had parted. As long as
his hands were raised, the people of Israel, we are told, prevailed
against the Amalekites, but when his hands were lowered, the
Amalekites  drove before them  the children of Israel.   As the
hands of the Hebrew chief grew weary, Aaron, the High Priest
of the living God, came from his sacred function to support him
on the one side, and Ilur supported his hands on the other side
until the going down of the sun; and the Amalekites, we are
told, were smitten with the edge of the sword, discomfited and
scattered, and their race was blotted out from under heaven. My
friends, let us accept this omen. So may it be in the cause in
which we are engaged, and so may the enemies of justice and
humanity be discomfited, confounded, and overcome. [Applause.]
So may these servants of the altar, who come forward to-night to
support our hands, strengthen our hearts by their words until the
going down of the sun, and the victory be complete. I take great
pleasure in presenting to you the Rev. Dr. Cheever of this city who
will now address you 
190    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
word' of God are with us; yet we may not delude
ourselves with the hope of an easy victory, since the
battle is but begun; though with us it is half the
victory to have a battle in earnest, and a battle on
princ)ile.  The enemies of freedom have always been
afraid of that, afraid to look principle in the face, and.
have trembled whenever, casting their eye over the
hosts marshaling on one side and the other, they have
seen anywhere a brave flag floating to the breeze,
with ETERNAL RIGHTEOUSNESS inscribed upon it, and
the joyful rallying cry, In this we conquer!  We
have come at last to an issue upon principle, this
In the course of the address by Rev. Dr. Thompson he paid a
very eloquent and beautiful tribute to the genius and character of
Mr. Bryant, which we quote as follows from the report of the
meeting.  He had been speaking of the extension of slavery and
its dreadful consequences. "Where then," said he, "are your
missions, and schools, and churches? With slavery in Kansas, in
Oregon, and with Utah and Nicaragua to boot, we have next an
actual majority of slaveholders in the government at Washingtonand then who can speak for you there, though he bristle all over
with bowie-knives and revolvers; then your port becomes a mart
of slavers; and the'right of transit' for slave property will be
asserted here, against your own State sovereignty, by an armed
police of the Federal Government.   Are you ready for that?
"Their lives a poet who yet leads the choir of American literature; a poet who has opened the fount of Helicon and brought
forth its sweetest music, amid the din of commerce in this modern
Babel; a poet who [turning to Mr. Bryant] does not deem that his
sweet and lofty communings with the Muses have'absolved him
from any duty to his country.' [Immense enthusiasm, and three
cheers for Mr. Bryant.]
"Years ago that poet traversed the unpeopled prairie, broken as
yet only by the tramp of the buffalo and the swift foot of the hunter.
Musing awhile upon the interminable wilderness, his ear caught 
THE GRANITE OF PRINCIPLE.  191
issue, slavery or freedom, the very issue which it has
been the effort of the enemies of freedom to fight off;
for any thing under heaven would be more acceptable
to them than that; tariffs, naturalization laws, import
or export taxes, foreign diplomacy, national quarrels,
even a war with England, any thing, every thing, they
would rather battle about, and occupy the mind of
the whole  nation, than  freedom  and slavery,  and the
difference and choice between them. But now it has
come not only to the difference, but the choice.
After fending off and parrying, this way and the
other, to keep out this issue, to keep down even the
the murmuring of the adventurous bee; and his soul kindling
with prophetic hope, he sang,
"' I listen long
To his domestic hum; and think I hear
The sound of that advancing multitude
Which soon shall fill these deserts. From the ground
Comes up the laugh of children, the soft voice
Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn
Of Sabbath worshipers. The low of herds
Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain
Over the dark-brown furrows.'
That picture, which so touches the heart of the Christian
patriot, is a picture of freedom; the home of free men, the homes
of Christian families; the dignity of labor: the freedom of knowledge; the inviolable sanctity of worship; the peace and smile of
God. Shall we blot out that picture? Over all these prairies shall
we see the blight of slavery? Shall we hear the clank of chains,
the curse of the oppressor, the lash of the overseer, the sighing of
the needy, as they toil without hope, and sink into forgotten
graves? Will you who have given your thousands to evangelize the
West see all your gifts and labors swallowed up in the black abyss
of slavery?  [Cries of No; no; God forbid.]  No, sir, no;  that
vision of yours was not the mere dream of the prophet; it was
a prophecy inspired of God; and my children shall yet read your
prophecy fumfilled upon those teeming prairies." 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
agitation of it, at length we are brought plump and
full upon it, so that neither man, woman, nor child
can mistake it. This, then, is the issue, an issue of
eternal principle, and this is one point on which we
desire to address you, namely, that righteousness is
higher than policy, and must be the foundation of our
policy, if we are ever to have rest.
Righteousness must be the foundation of law, or
law itself is but wickedness bolted, principled, consolidated, and worse than chaos. An arch of wicked
principles, keyed with the key-stone of law, is something substantial, something reliable; it has a dreadful impregnability, durability, and power. It is order
in wickedness, and wickedness in order. Every one
of the materials of this wickedness, scattered in the
wildest anarchy, and riding through the air in huge
uproar, would be mindless and powerless for evil in
the comparison.  Anarchy is a thousand times preferable to wicked law. Anarchy is the chaos described
by Milton, which, until it was bridged, only the devil
dared attempt, or could cross; but when the materials were shoaled and surged into a solid consistency,
and law and order reigned in solid arches, then there
was a way, smooth, easy, inoffensive, down to hell.
The nations do not live by law, but righteousness.
Not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live. Not law
but righteousness, must be the rule; and if men pervert that, if rulers turn traitors to it, and undertake
192 
LEGISLATIVE USURPATION.
to lead the people down to ruin by unrighteous law, or
by perversion of righteous law into unrighteousness,
then the people must revert to the original elements
and covenant of power, and take the thing into their
own hands, as they did when they struck off the head
of Charles tile First, and as they did in California,
when the fundamental law of the republic had been
violated by those in power.
Now there has been a deliberate and monstrous
treason of this kind transacted in our government, not
by a clique, not in a corner, not on a side issue, but
in an endeavor to subvecit the fuitdamenttal laws of
the conmonuweallh; a treason, the greatest that can
possibly be committed, because committed against the
whole people, in a way in which the insanity of
Nero's mad malignity is realized, in getting the neck
of the people at one knot in the noose, and under
foot; a treason that cuts the jugular vein, and lets
out the life blood, and, if successful, would leave
nothing but a trampled carcass, like the worn-out
corpses of European despotisms. It is the treason
under the Constitution, of applying the power conferred by the Constitution, to enforce laws contrary
to the Constitution; to sustain and enforce a legislative usurpation, a legislature whose members were
constituted by violence and fraud, in transgression of
the fundamental law that underlies all our liberties,
the law of republican representation by a free and
pure election. It is a treason that only some one
9)
193 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
co-ordinate branch of our own government could
commit, for no private individual could accomplish it,
nor could the government itself, or a party in the
government, except by complicity and instrumentality
of the executive as its tool. Our national executive
is chargeable with this dreadful treason, applying the
power of the United States army to sustain the
strength and enforce the dictates of a Legislature
demonstrated to have been fraudulently and violently
imposed upon the people, more fraudulently and villainously than if by foreign conquest; a Legislature
created by villainy, fraud, and armed assault at the
ballot-box.
It was the duty of the executive, as the appointed
guardian of the fundamental laws of the commonwealth, and provisions of the Constitution, to have
thrown himself, with the whole power of the State,
against that usurpation; to have resisted and crushed
it at once, and brought the perpetrators of so huge a
treason to punishment. The seeming advocacy and
protection of such a crime, such a perversion and
destruction of the fundamental provisions on which
the whole frame of our liberties is grounded; even
the seeming advocacy, for a moment; is a thing to be
dreaded and deprecated, because of so fearful an
example, because this is the last stage of iniquity,ordinarily, by which a nation's liberties perish, falling
into the hands of the usurper; and a fearful thing it
is for a nation, yet young in years, and fresh in prin
194 
DEFENSE OF TREASON.
ciple and power, to look such a crime in the face, to
endure the beginning of it, the shadow of it, or to be
possibly quiet in the contemplation of it.
But instead of resisting these traitors, our national
executive has taken their part. I-Ie shields them
with the whole weight of his patronage, prerogative,
and authority.  lHe adopts and sanctions the usurpation, and adds to its bitterness as territorial, the
crushing force of the nation, binding it down upon
the people. Instead of yguarcdiny the people by the
Constitution, he has aided in trampling the people
under the Constitution.  Instead of redressing their
wrongs, he has even taken from them the means of
defending themselves, and denounces, not the oppression as treason, but the defense against it. The Constitution gives him the power of the army at his
disposal in certain cases, and hlie has taken that
power to enforce submission to a usurpation, not
while it was a question, or might have been, whether
it were a usurpation or not, but after every step of it
had been solemnly investigated by the Iouse of Representatives, and the whole transaction pronounced by
them to be a stupendous violence and fraud.
It adds a severity and atrocity to this treason,
unparalleled, that the known and avowed purpose of
it was the establishment of slavery in a Territory free
from slave-law, and under the government of the
United States, which government is constitutionally
appointed and established for the establishment and
195 
196     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
protection of freedom, and the securing of a free
republican government as guarantied by the Constitution, which gives the government of the United
States no authority to establish slavery, and does not
permit the army of the United States to be employed
for that purpose. WTill there be no impeachment for
such treason, no punishment of it? THIE PEOPLE
would have a right, in dealing with their executive for
such treason, to lay aside the common forms of law,
as was done in the trial of Charles I.; and such
treason is never outlawed; and therefore whenever
they are ready to do it, though it should be years
hence, they have the right; they may justly call the
great delinquent to account, and punish such extraordinary crime in a suitable manner, without the express sanction of the Constitution or of statute-law.
But a people that will endure this, submissively,
tamely, and not only allow the conspirators and the
executive in so mighty a fraud and villainy to go at
large unimpeached, but will vote to sustain it, by
voting for a POLITICAL PLATFORM, that not only
recognizes its object, but builds it in as the central
plank, and by refusing to vote for A MAN pledged to
put a stop to this monstrous oppression, pledged
against the extension of slavery; such a people certainly show that they deserve to be inslaved, that
they are not worthy to keep the freedom God has bestowed upon them, that they are not capable of keeping it. We sneer at the populace of France and 
FEATURES OF INIQUITY.
Italy, as being not prepared for freedom; but a
people who will submit to such usurpation and despotism as this, for the sake of enslaving others, are
themselves fit only to be slaves. Neither France nor
Italy have ever yet endured a usurpation, or voted
for it, whose object was to make slaves of others, or to
secure to three hundred thousand out of twenty millions the monopoly of governing the whole by slaveextension and slave-law. The shame of such a vote,
if such be the choice of our people (which may God
in his mercy forbid), will be our shame, original and
alone; sole and sovereign in it, over all the nations
of the earth.
It is these two enormous features in this iniquity
of the extension of slavery, as now proposed and contemplated, and in the measures by which its enforcement has been provided for, and by which it is to be
carried out and sustained, these two, namely, (first)
the enactment and enforcement of UNRIGHTEOUS LAW,
taking into fellowship " the throne of iniquity that
frameth mischief by a law," a thing glaringly forbidden by the Almighty; and (second) the sanction
and extension of the crime of slavery as a national
righteousness, or, in defiance of all considerations
about the righteousness at all, as a national expediency, whereas it is demonstrated and forbidden in
the word of God as a national iniquity and destruction; it is these two things, standing out in this proposed policy, as manifest as the Andes on our conti
197 
198    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
nent, as unmistakable as Etna in volcanic blast, that
put the conscience of every Christian man, every
upright man, every man that fears God, and therefore fears nothing but sin against him, in angry and
intense conflict against this policy.   And  as  the
Christian conscience, the conscience of the whole
community enlightened by the word of God, naturally
seeks, and justly ought to find, an expression, an explosion, in the utterance of a faithful, fearless, and not
a time-serving ministry, and as the word of God
ought to have its batteries unmasked, and its shotted
guns thundering against this wickedness, because, not
only by the general law of righteousness it is condemned, but God's word signs and seals it by name
with his curse, and orders his ministers to speak out
against it; therefore, unless the pulpit and the ministry also turn traitors to the Almighty as well as to
mankind, they must speak, and at all hazards they
will speak, and no power on earth or in hell can prevent it, because God will have it. lie never gave his
word on this subject in vain, or to be sealed up in a
Jesuitical silence, letting men go down to hell in
politic, orthodox reserve and prudence, but though
its proclamation were as revolutionary as one of the
seven vials full of the seven last plagues, he would
have it poured out. For when a nation undertakes
to stop the mouth of God's word, and to say to the
seers, See not, and to the Holy One of Israel, Cease
from before us, this is such defiance of God, that 
STATUTES AN) PRECEDENTS.  199
there can be no compromise with it, no endurance
of it.
Furthermore, a rightly constituted ministry, in connection with God's word and spirit, and with the
church and people, are as the discharging-rod at the
focus of a galvanic battery, or a compound blow-pipe:
they must let off the fire, the intensity, the burning
shock; and it is not theirs alone, but the gathered,
accumulating, and concentrated fire of conscience and
conviction in the whole community, that thus finds
vent; and if, for fear of consequences, or through fear
of man, they will not give it vent, or for a season
hesitate, then, if they be the true prophets, it will be
in them as a fire in their own bones, and they will be
more weary with forbearing, than af'aid of speaking;
but if they are false prophets, the fire that they refuse
to utter for God, will, at length, however smoothly it
may go with them for a season, consume them in behalf of God's justice.
There is no apology for silence. The iniquity of
slavery is palpably, undeniably demonstrated in God's
word, both by statutes and by precedents in its execution.   Now these two things, every lawyer knows,
coming together, and having the sanctity of age and
repeated investigation and reiteration, constitute the
strongest of all demonstrations.   If a lawyer can
refer back to cases in such and such reigns, where a
statute, even if now disputed, has been illustrated by
a great decision, on which the eye of the whole 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
people, and perhaps the gaze of other nations, was
fixed, it is a great thing. It would take an almost
insupposable amount of depravity and power to defy
and reverse such a decision, supposing it to be just.
There are some things as glaring as the sun, and no
more to be denied than the shining of the sun at noonday. And such are the decisions of God's law, and
the precedents of his judgments in regard to slavery.
Their light has been shining for ages, and it is a light
diffused through all history, and enshrined and burning in separate urns, in so awful a manner, that a
man must be an idiot or a madman who undertakes
to deny it.   We have all the statutes in regard to
domestic service, and all the definitions of oppression,
and all the statutes against it; and then we have
them illustrated in precedents, age after age, and at
length in one grand and mighty indictment, and trial,
and sentence, with the penalty announced and executed, in a tragedy of crime and wrath, so sublinmi
and awful, that until the crucifixion, there was nothing on earth to compare with it.
For our determination of this question, Divine
Providence has brought us to a point in the world's
history, where all conceivable lines of argument and
demonstration converge, from experience, from the
fate of empires, from every array and variety of
statistics, civil, political, economical, social, moral,
religious; from the word and the providence of God;
from our own experimental knowledge, forcing us on,
200 
THE PARIEN'TAL RELATION.
generation after generation, year after year, to more
irresistible conviction. There is no subject in the
world on which there is clearer light, or more impregnable argument, or a mightier body of it; and
in six distinct branches of the investigation, I have
already condensed the particulars, in a manner which
on the present occasion it is impossible to survey.
The nature of the law of love, and of the divine
ordinance of marriage would be enough to consider;
for we have, in tte crime of slavery, the violation at
once of the first comprehensive moral law of Jehovah,
binding us to one another and to himself, and of the
particular central, guiding, and beautifying law of
human society; both these forms of divine statute for
our good, the act, precept, and habit of slavery, do
utterly break up and destrov.
Then there is the nature of the parental relation,
the sacredness of which is so ruthlessly violated, so
annihilated, in making every new-born child the
property of the master and owner of the parents,
thus exasperating the boundless avarice of the slaveholder and trader, and exciting the eagerness, and
increasing the demand of accumulating slave-power,
by opening a perpetual channel of this wickedness in
the breeding of slaves for truflic and gain, whose
abominations are too gross and horrible even to be
hinted at. The lamented Professor B. B. Edwards,
of Andover, once said, in a public sermon, that it
would be like shaving off five feet of earth from a
9'
201 
202    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
vast and festering grave-yard, if we should attempt
to unvail those unspeakable moral enormities and
horrors. To think of the possibility of a crime, and
a system  of crime, so horribly ingenious,  and so
ingeniously horrible, as to take these two divinely
constituted forms of statute, personal authority, and
domestic institutions, established for the purity and
happiness of human society, and for its propagation
and perpetuity in the same happiness, and to prostitute them into comprehensive commercial agencies of
cruelty and depravity, obedient chartered commissioners of fraud and lust for the increase of property
in human flesh, the very affections and passions of
the human heart even in the inslaved being tortured
into the diabolical service of inhumanity and avarice
against themselves!
The Scripture statutes in regard to service, and for
the protection of personal freedom,  are among the
most remarkable things in the Old Testament; the
judgments of God for their violation are among the
most remarkable things of all Time, and their voice
is of Justice to Eternity. The characteristics of Hebrew law in behalf of servants, the jealous care with
which the possibility of slavery is excluded, the
combination of freedom, benevolence, generosity, and
guardian-kindness, are sufficient, in a world of such
raging depravity and despotism as shut in the Hebrew people when these statutes were made, to prove
them of divine inspiration. And perhaps the most 
LIBEL AGAINST GOD'S WORD.  203
impious perversion and libel in all ages ever uttered
against God's truth is that of sanctioning or licensing
the iniquity of human slavery. There never was
such a thing as slavery among the Hebrews, nor ever
any such thing as slave-legislation; they had no word
in the language to signify a slave, nor did God ever
permit any such word to be brought in; the heaventaught dialect refused to entertain it.  The word
always and from the outset employed for servant is
from the very word used to describe the occupation
of our father Adam in tilling the ground; and labor
was never disgraceful, but always honorable, among
the Hebrews.
When they were about to be settled as a nation in
Palestine, surrounded by heathen nations, that had
among them the abominations of slavery, as of every
other wickedness, in full blast, then, in preparation
for such a settlement, and to guard against the temptation and the possibility of the introduction of slavery
from abroad, it became necessary to prepare that
body of jurisprudence, by which, in every respect,
their policy was to be determined in regard to this
fundamental matter in human society. And when it
was perfected, it was not, and is not now, as many
seem to imagine, legislation for the regulation or
neutralization of slavery, as if any form of slavery
had existed, or was permitted in their social system,
but legislation absolutely and entirely against it,
legislation in abhorrence of it, legislation condemning 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
and forbidding it under penalty of death.   From the
first grand statute, HIIE THAT STEALETH A MAN, AND
SELLETH HIM, OR IF HE BE FOUND IN HIS  HAND,
SHALL SURELY BE PUT TO DEATH, down to the minutest specifications of oppression, and the forms of
imprecation against it, such as, " Cursed be he that
useth his neighbor's service, and giveth him  not for
his hire,"' " Cursed be he that defraudeth the hireling
in his wages,' these laws are a blaze of light against
this mighty sin.
And  the fugitive-seryant law in these statutes is
to be marked as in itself a shaft of lightning in reprobation of the same iniquity, and in protection of the
poor oppressed servant against it; and it stands in
such glaring contrast and condemnation against our
own  fugitive-slave law, that if a committee of politicians had been set to contrive a statute in the most
direct and shameless opposition to that in which God's
judgment is thus recorded, they could hardly have
adopted any more efficient terms. God's statute is
this: "Thou shalt NOT deliver unto his master the
servant which is escaped from his master unto thee,
he shall dwell with thlee, even among  you, in that
place which he shall choose in one of thy gates where
it liketh him best; thou shalt not oppress him."
Nothing could be more absolute than the denial, by
such a statute, of the possibility of property in man.
And in illustration of this statute, as of all the rest,
there breaks out such incidental light in the history,
204 
FUGITIVE SERVANTS PROTECTED. 205
that the study and comparison are interesting, convincing, and satisfactory to the last degree. In the
statutes you find man-selling forbidden by the law;
consequently, in the history you never find a trace
of any such thing as the selling of servants; but
the cases of man-selling always marked  as crime.
You find the restoration of servants forbidden in
the statutes; consequently, in the history you find
servants running away, but neither marshal to arrest
them, nor judges to judge them, nor bailiffs to distress them. For a runaway ox, ass, or all manner
of lost, strayed, or stolen thing whatsoever, which a
man challengeth to be his, there was provided a
legal recovery before the judges; for a fugitive servant, there was no such provision made, no process,
no writ, no possibility of recovery, because a servant
could not be proigerty, could not be claimed as any
manner of thing belonging to an owner.
The encounter between David and Nabal throws a
flood of light on this matter.   "Who in the world is
David?' said this surly, irritated prince of sheepshearers, when David begged some sustenance for his
followers: " there be many servants, nowadays, that
break away every man from his master."  The manner of the complaint proves the anger of Nabal to
think that such a thing could be, and the servants get
off with impunity. But no hint is given of any man
undertaking, with marshals or otherwise, to recapture
them, nor of any such thing as a posse comitatus
E-V 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
at the disposal of the master for this purpose, much
less any advertisement of keen-scented blood-hounds
trained to hunt them. IHIad there been such a thing
as a fugitive-slave law against the servant, instead
of one for his protection, Nabal's language would
rather have been that of threatening than complaint.
" You rogues, if you do not take yourselves off, I will
have you arrested as fugitive slaves, such as you
doubtless are, you vagrant rascals. I will have you
lodged in the county jail, and, if your owner does not
appear, you shall be sold to pay the jail fees." But
Nabal's language is that of a son of Belial, who is
furious because there is no help for such insubordination against tyranny.
If we had heard him excusing himself for not supplying the wants of David's company, by telling him
that he had lost so much of his valuable slaveproperty that hlie no longer could afford to be generous;  if we had heard him satying, MIy dear friend,
you know what a hard winter we have had, and the
Jordan being frozen hard over, a thing that has never
before happened in the memory of man, our rascally
property ran off by droves, and our plantations, if God
should give another such frost-bridge for the slaves to
get beyond the river another season, would not have
servants enough left to gather the olives.'Tis as
bad as an underground railroad. I say, if we had
heard such a dialogue as that, it would have been
much more in keeping with the state of a country
206 
NABAL AND DAVID.
where the laws recognized the right of property in
rar..  If Nabal had lived on the banks of the Ohio,
south side, we should certainly have had him complaining to David of the ease with which his slaves
could run away from him, by just crossing the river.
Now, I say, these statutes, so righteous in themselves, and expressed with such unmistakable explicitness and boldness, and illustrated so curiously and
clearly in the course of the history, possess the still
grander illustration of having great criminal trials
decided according to them.   They have the seal of
God's own after-interpretation, in his tremendous
judgments against the whole land for their violation.
Nothing could be more complete and perfect than the
chain of proof.
Then, in the New Testament, you are to remember
that the whole nation, and all persons, both Gentiles
and Jews, to whom the word of God came, stood in
the full blaze of all this light in the Old Testament
on this very subject, and therefore did not neecd to be
taught anew the iniquity of slavery. Christian masters, when commanded to give unto their servants
that which is just and equal, had no authority whatever in regard to what was just and equal, but this
same Old Testament, by which they found and knew
that property in man was an impossible thing, except
as v'lluiay anid crime, and that to take the children of
their servants, and claim them as their property, for
whom they had never paid one farthing to any crea
207 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
ture, was to commit the crime of man-stealing, punishable, according to God's law, by death. They
found that everywhere, no matter in what latitude,
under what sky, the holders, claimants, and traders
of men as property were men-stealers, and that the
essence of the crime runs on undiminished, from generation to generation, and not only undiminished, but
increasing as it runs, so that an accepted inheritance
of slaves, with the claim of their being property asserted, is the inheritance and proprietorship of guilt,
and a curse from the Almighty. What need of one
additional word in the New Testament, when the Old
was so full of unmistakable demonstration?
But then in the New, also, a flood of light breaks
forth incidentally in the Epistle to Philemon. Paul
had received Onesimus, a runaway slave, and instructed him in the gospel, and he was converted;
a proof, by the way, that not the thrusting of men
into slavery, but their running away from it, is the
missionary institute, and the means of religion; as
good a proof, at least, as any to be brought of God's
appointment of slavery as the converting ordinance
for Africa. Paul tells Philemon plainly, that he
would have retained Onesimus, that is, freely, conscientiously, without the least scruple. Whtom I
would have retained; could have done it, and would
have done it, because these divine and generous old
Hebrew statutes were right before his eye, and this
glorious old fugitive-slave law, commanding him NOT
208 
PAUL AND PHILEMON.
to return unto his master the servant that had fled
from his master unto him; and because, according to
those statutes, Philemon had no more right of property in Onesimus than he had in the sun, moon, and
stars, but the poor trembling fugitive belonged only
to God and to himself, and Paul was bound to take
care of him. But, suppose Onesimus to have been
Philemon's property; what then? Why, Paul the
apostle might as well have retained a bundle of bank
bills, or a cask of Spanish dollars, belonging to Philemon.  And Paul must have said, Whom I would not
have retained on any consideration whatever,  and
never thought of doing such a thing, but have advertised you, brother Philemon, that you might prove
your property, pay its charges, and take it away.
But Paul says, Whom  I wousld have retained.
What? Paul the apostle, who was of such proud,
incorruptible, and almost superfluous honesty, that he
would not even receive a farthing for his preaching,
but at this very time had his hands roughened and
chapped with the toil of tent-making for his daily
bread, and for payment of the rental of his own hired
house, which he gave to the congregation for a meeting-house; Paul, who had written, Let him that stole
steal no more; Paul, this apostle Paul, put his hand,
as it were, into Philemon's pocket, and steal from
him at least a thousand dollars; detain from him the
most sacred thing in the shape of property on his
plantation? Even the intezntion was a burglary.
209 
210    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
But Paul really says, Whom I would have retained,
and would not have sent back at any rate, except
only as a freeman, not now a servant, no longer a
slave, nor to be treated as one, but a brother beloved,
who he was sure would be at once dispatched back to
Paul himself, by Philemon, that he might minister
to him in the gospel. And Philemon being a Christian, Paul would not even seem to suspect him of such
an atrocity as that of claiming property in an immortal being, and a child of God. If he had had the
least suspicion of Philemon having such a kind of
Christian conscience, as would permit him to hold
property in man, you would never have seen Paul
intrusting one of his own converted children to such
man's tender mercies.
Now these things being so, and God's judgment
against slavery standing out so prominently in both
dispensations, Old and New, shall any man dare to
conceal or withhold these utterances? Ought not
the pulpits of our country to break forth in denunciation of this crime, if the people are seen plunging
into it? Would you not expect a universal, spontaneous explosion, a line of batteries kindled into incessant, living fire against such wickedness? For what
are God's watchmen set, if not to warn the people in
such a crisis? Will politicians undertake to bring
before the people the view of this wickedness in the
word of God? A political speech made out of such
materials, proof-texts from the prophets and the 
UNTEMPERED MORTAR.
books of Kings, would expose the speaker to a straitjacket and a lunatic asylum. Will those do it, who
say that religion indeed is a good thing in the abstract, but in politics it only makes men mad?  Who
:ill do it, if the ministers of God's word will not?
And does not God distinctly say that the people
should seek, and have a right to expect, the divine
law at their mouths? Oh, Israel, thy prophets are
like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up
into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the
house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of
the Lord. Her princes in the midst thereof are like
wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to
destroy souls, to get dishonest gain, and her prophets
have daubed them with untempered mortar.
Do the people desire such daubing? Degraded
indeed must their tastes be, as well their moral sensibilities, if they do. We have a vulgar expression that
answers precisely to the rude language of the prophet,
and describes, in the modern pulpit, what made the
prophet disgusted and angry with the old; it is soft
soap, and the application of it is exactly this daubing
with untempered mortar, instead of calling things by
their right names. Suppose a man, anxious to avoid
political offense, yet unwilling to finish the long
prayer without some reference, in some way, to the
iniquity of the times, should carefully arrange his
language thus: We beseech thee to comfort and bless
the class of laborers under depr,ession, deeming even
211 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
the word oppression too bold, and quite inexpedient,
lest it rouse up a political exasperation in the minds
of the hearers; would not such carefulness be deemed
contemptible, or can it consist with power, or can the
thunders of God's word possibly make any escape,
any development under it?  No, my friends; and if
you ever expect a clear sky, a firmamnent in which
God's stars may shine brightly and peacefully down to
bless you, if you ever hope for stars without stripes,
then must the thunder have room to roar and reverberate, and the lightning must have free play; and
if it seem to be a storm, it is only to give you a clear
atmosphere, purified of its noxious elements, and an
unclouded heaven above you to pour down light
Here, then, we stand, and this is our vindication
against the miserable cant, that like damaged fireworks, unfit for any noble purpose, sputters and
snivels in some political and semi-religious newspapers
against the turning of the light of God's word upon
the nation's sins. But no vindication whatever is
needed if men will but turn to the word of God
itself. and for a moment confront the glaring blaze of
argument and wrath against the wickedness of slavery. No man can put himself under that light, and
any longer dream of innocently and safely evading
the responsibility of utterance.   The  crime of the
establishment of slavery, for which the Jewish kingdom was annihilated, having been so plainly marked
with God's reprobation, and sealed with his retribu
212 
PREDICTIONS AND FULFILLMENTS. 213
tive vengeance, standing out so plainly forbidden in
his law, and comprehending not only the iniquity of
personal oppression, but the huge, entangling daring
guilt, wholesale, national, of UNRIGHTEOUS LAW, fabricated for the mischief, and enforced by government;
and the immediate action of God in regard to it being
concentrated and bodied forth in a nation's ruin, that
nation standing now in the sight of the universe, not
only on the record in God's word, but trenched and
scarred with GCod's thunder, a wandering omnipresent
form, blasted and blackened, before the conscience of
the world, as a terror and a warning, there is no
excuse either for ignorance or inattention.
The demonstration has a voice like the sound of
many waters.  Predictions  and fulfillments call to
each other across a thousand years.   "Thou shalt
become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword
among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee;
the earth that is under thee shall be iron, and the
Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and
dust; so that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger
that shall come from a far land shall say, when they
see the plagues of that land, and the sickness which
the Lord hath laid upon it, and that the whole land
thereof is brimstone and salt, that it is not sown, nor
beareth, nor any grass groweth thereon, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim,
which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his 
214   GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
wrath; even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the
Lord done thus unto this land? Then men shall say,
Because they have forsaken the Lord God of their
fathers, the covenant which he made with them, when
he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt."
Can any thing be plainer than this?  What then
shall we say as to the application of the precedent,
and the light that comes down from it, upon our own
sin, danger, and duty, when the iniquity specified, as
the form of covenant-breaking not to be forgiven, is
revealed as precisely the same with that which it is
now proposed to enthrone as the presiding yenitus
of the  United States government?  A  thousand
years after these awful predictions, at the very point
of their fulfillment, we find the Almighty himself referring back to that same covenant, and pouring out
his unrestrained wrath for the last culminating violation of it, in the attempted establishment of SLAVERY!
I made a covenant with your fathers, in the day
that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondmen; but ye have not
hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one
to his brother, and every man to his neighbor  behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to
the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I
will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms
of the earth!"  Is there no light here, nothing that
stands in our way, nothing that constitutes an absolute authority, not to be questioned for a moment, and 
GOD AND HIS WORD DEFIED.  215
a determination for us as plain as if God Almighty
spake this very day from heaven?
Nay, these prodigies of corporate crime and its
punishment, being so palpable, so that, wherever a
roused conscience gazes, if in waking thoughts of
national guilt and retribution, or in thoughts from
the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon
men, the spirit of a dead nation passes before the
face, and fear and trembling enter into the soul because of it, and in stillness, in silence, the voice of
God is heard; these things being so, and the nations
so solemnly warned, that an archangel floating across
the firmament with a drawn sword in his hand could
not be a more awful sign; the people, the country,
the government, that shall now, under such demonstrations, take up this crime, repeat this iniquity,
enshrine it as a sacred thing, set up this Dagon, this
Baal, this Moloch, and weave its worship into law and
policy, stand in a more defiant and impious attitude
toward the Almighty, than any nation that ever existed on the face of the earth. And if this iniquity
is sustained by the voice of the people, the nation is
seen uprising in the sight of the nations, and proclaiming, 0 thou Sovereign of the Universe, depart
from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy
ways!  Well do we know that this iniquity is forbidden in thy word, and visited with thy vengeance, but
as for us, we will practice it!
If God and his word be thus defied, it were absurd 
to suppose that either the letter or the spirit of the
freest Constitution upon earth will be in the least regarded. While this evil was growing, and in its days
of struggle, the Constitution was brought in as a
powerful locomotive to drag the heavy lumbering
train up the inclined plain it had to encounter; but
the moment it reached the summit, and began its descent on the other side, then the whole order of things
was reversed, and now the train drives the locomotive,
slavery drives the Constitution headlong, and if it
stops, will go over it. The brakes are taken off, all
regard to consequences cast aside, and we are rushing
downward with a speed that begins to be measured
by plunges, and rival despotic gambols, from one administration to another.   Will nothing rouse us up?
Will nothing rally us, to throw ourselves upon God's
righteousness, and make our last impregnable stand
there?  Will not our land-marks removed, and compacts for freedom disregarded; wil] not the encroachments on our liberties;  will not the most sacred
doctrines of our Revolution made a laughing-stock,
and the maxims of the rights of man a scoff; will
not the outrages upon free speech in the Senate; will
not the murders, usurpations, and infamous laws in
Kansas; will not the bold iniquity of the proclamation that slavery is a divine and divinely-sanctioned
institution; will not the proposition to re-open and
restore the slave-trade, pronounced of all nations
PIRACY; will not the imprisonment of men on false
216    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY. 
WIIAT CAN STARTLE us?
accusations, for the exercise of the common feelings
of humanity; will not the expulsion of free citizens
from their homes and business, without law or trial,
for the crime of a whisper against slavery; will not
the trampling upon  the sacred writ of liberty in
habeas corpses, and the perversion of that shield of
freedom and justice into a weapon of despotism and
oppression?
What canl startle us, if these things fail?  Shall
we sleep while the very floor is burning, and already
we are half suffocated with the smo!.e?
There is a time, beyond which, if we pay no regard
-to principle, if we will not be moved by the most
sacred obligations of truth and religion, we shall be
roused by the demonstration that all is lost, by the
shipwreck. of our own interests, by the sword cutting
through our own vitals, but roused too late. There
must be something of principle, or when there is
nothing but interest, God himself will desert us for ever.  The aggressions and iniquities, by which the
fundamental principles and s':,tguards of our own
Constitution, as well as the truths of the word of God,
are scouted and beaten down, call for resistance now,
tenfold more strongly than ever any thing of wrong or
wickedness our revolutionary fathers had to endure.
And the determination on the part of the sla-:e-power
is resolute, never to cease advancing, till, from being
the creature of mere local and municipal statutes, expatriated and branded in the free States, slavery shall
O10
217 
218    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
be nationalized, shall have the whole catholicity of
freedom, protected by national and international law,
empowered for transit, and free to reside in Pennsylvania, in Maine, in all New England, as now in
Alabama, in South Carolinia, in Virginia; and then
indeed shall the roll-call of slaves be sounded at the
foot of Bunker Hill Monument, and the whole army
force of the United States will be on hand, if necessary, to preserve the muster from disturbance.
But will there be peace?  Wtill the perfecting of
this despotism give us quiet?   Ah, there is a force,
that neither we, nor the roll-callers of their property
in human flesh, have calculated, or ever can calculate.
There is the word of God, breaking in clearer and
clearer light,  the clouds of misinterpretation  dis         -
persed, the perverse sophistry that has distorted these
glorious scriptures abandoned, and the intense blaze
of God's attributes against oppression acknowledged.
Then, there is the might of conscience, struggling the
more violently the more it is insulted and oppressed;
a pent-up fire, that will break out, and then, meeting
a savage opposition, will kindle the whole country into
flames. This land will be the scene of sufferings such
as no nation under heaven ever passed through since
the Jews perished from their inheritance, if the people
make choice of slavery as the presiding genius of their
policy. In garments rolled in blood comes on the
day of decision, if that be the election of the people.
WVith what measure you mete, it shall be measured to
FK 
SLAVE-BREEDERS OF MANKIND.  219
you again.  The injustice and cruelty, which, with
such thoughtless selfishness you have dealt out to a
helpless race, and which you determine to make the
ruling policy of new empires, and of millions on millions in generations to come, foredoomed by your determination, will be a treasure of wrath to yourselves
and your children. Whatsoever a man or a nation
soweth, that shall they also reap.   Swiftly is the
harvest gathered in these latter years, and rapidly the
causes of retribution do their work. Hardly three
hundred years have elapsed since Spain was the very
first and proudest among the nations; and Spain set
the first example of enslaving Africans in this hemisphere, and in her colonial:d pessessions never has
abandoned this guilt; and to what a gulf of degradation has she descended, and through what misery
groped!  But if retribution be measured by the light
sinned against, then the cup of wrath which we must
drink, if, instead of repenting of our sin and shame,
we glory in it, will be more dreadful than God ever
put to the lips of any other people.
We had fondly hoped that God had chosen us, as a
people, to perform a great work-of freedom and benevolence on the earth, and by the spread of the
gospel to break every yoke, and give liberty to the
oppressed all over the world.   But instead of God's
priesthood to a world, to raise up the foundations of
many generations, we propose to become the slaveowners, slave-breeders, and slave-traders of mankind, 
220    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
and this to be our Christianizing mission!  To think
of a nation, trained as ours has been, to watch the
steps of God's patient, rich, generous discipline; to
look back to the little company in the Mayflower, and
see how God kept the most remote possibilities of this
sin out of the compact there, out of the first foundations, and set personal liberty as the corner-stone; to
see the gradual growth of little communities by that
principle, to see the development and guardianship of
personal responsibility in the town-meetings, and the
training of representative freedom in the churches,
and the passing of these principles and habits into
governments, in republican simplicity and liberty; to
see the feelings and opinions, thus nourished and
fixed, breaking out in our revolutionary struggle and
sustaining it; to see the sense of the preciousness of
freedom, as every man's birth-right, steeled in that
fire of suffering; to think of the voice given to it for
all mankind in the immortal Declaration of Independence (now called, by some of the greatest traitors to
freedom the world ever saw, a rhetorical flourish and
an abstract lie); to see the enlargement and flourishing of commerce, industry, wealth, and every kind of
power, political, social, civil, religious, on these foundationrs; to see the beginning of Christian efforts and
measures abroad, in preparation for the accomplishment of the mighty mission of religion and humanity
for which God has been training us, and the doors of
which he has thrown wide open before us, with-the 
NATIONAL MADNESS.
offer of a mightier power over the world, than from
the beginning of time any nation ever wielded; to
trace all this, to see all this, to have the grandeur and
magnificence of the mission and the call demonstrated
even by philosophers in the study of the configuration
of our globe, and the very shape of our continent, and
our commanding position upon it, with all the springs
of righteous and irresistible influence under our touch,
and the very mountains, mines, and rivers, with all
the compass of inventions and discoveries arrayed at
our disposal, and breaking forth into hallelujahs be forehand, in earnest of the predicted manifestations
of the sons of God, to deliver the whole creation that
has been groaning and travailing in pain together
until now; to behold all this, and then witness this
wonderful people, chosen thus, and marked: for such
a mission of mercy to mankind, turning upon. themselves, as if seized with a fit of national lunacy, and
thrusting the sword of human slavery through their
own vitals!
Did the heavens or the earth ever witness such
madness!  What is to prevent (Bishop Butler once
asked), what is to prevent a whole nation from becoming mad, as well as individuals, except God keep
them? Was there any anomaly or enormity in the
French Revolution more astounding than this?  To
behold such a people, madly renouncing this pomp
and prodigality of God's grace, and, in the sight of
those nations of the Old World, that are struggling
221 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
for the bare life of liberty, and gazing toward us with
interest, anxiety of desire, and hope, contradicting
and repealing the very first elements of liberty, and
in defiance of God, and in scorn of the whole world's
prayers, denying the principles on which all our
greatness thus far, and the possibility of its continuance, and of the world's freedom and happiness, are
founded, and applying the whole force of government,
and the will and sovereignty of the people, to the
ESTABLISHMENT  OF  SLAVERY  as the  missionary
method of Christianity, and most perfect form of social
and civil existence in the world! Oh! pass over the
isles of Chittim and see; and send unto Kedar, and
consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
Hlath ever a nation changed gods, which yet are no
gods? But my people have changed their glory for
that which doth not profit!   Oh,  ye heavens, be
astonished at this, and thou earth, be horribly afraid!
And, indeed, how is it possible that the nation should
not start back in horror and affright from the gulf of
such iniquity and ruin?
As often as I think of this subject in this light,
there rises before my mind the sublime and glowing
picture of our future destiny as a nation, if happily
we be found obedient to C-od, drawn by the venerated
and now sainted Secretary of the American Board,
Jeremiah Evarts, tho last gift of his devout spirit to
his loved country. I remember his computation of
the future teeming millions of the West, and of the
222 
FUTURE RESPONSIBILITIES.  22.3
amazing responsibility of those who now decide the
nature of their institutions, and the molding of their
character. Would to God that such an appeal could
come now, this very moment, to the heart and con science of every elector. Look earnestly, steadily, at
what is depending. The Territories over which you
now deliberate for extending slavery, or excluding it
from them, will have, in the progress of two or three
generations, more than a hundred millions of inhab itants." Think what it is to set slavery there, to
fasten this cancer at the heart of a hundred millions,
to inoculate their domestic and civil institutions with
this plague!  If only what it has been at the South,
are you ready to fasten even such a measure of blast ing and of misery, where otherwis  there might be
such unbounded prosperity and happiness?   Little
more than two centuries have passed since slavery
was planted among us, and to-day enough land has
been worn out by it to make ten States as large as
Massachusetts.   Will you fasten  that  process on
these fair and virgin Territories? But what is that
to the doctrines that accompany it, and the corruption
of morals, and the perversion of truth, and the reign
of terror, and the repression of freedom of opinion
and of speech, and the despotism of an oligarchy of
the worst principles on which ever yet any oligarchy
under heaven was grounded, the principles of property in human flesh. An oligarchy of commerce, of
landed property, of political power by rank or title, 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
any thing the world ever saw, is more endurable, is
less odious, concentrates less of cruelty, immorality,
and injustice. And by what hallucination can any
man avoid seeing and knowing that this is the cancer
and the plague which it is proposed to fasten on the
vitals of our new and growing empire? Have not all
these miseries and evils been realized, and are they
not all increasing, where slavery has been tried, and
is now the ruling policy?  And by what process of
self-deception, or false reasoning; or imagination, can
any man suppose that these same results will not follow and be perpetual, if by law we extend this iniquity of slavery over the vast domain in regard to
which we are now called to determine the policy?
Are there any new causes to come in hereafter, to
prevent, subdue, or neutralize it?   Has not every
thing been tried-divine truth, economical demonstration, the remonstrance of the world, the religious
conscience, the array of inevitable consequences?
Will God interpose? Does He not say that, in a
plain case like this, where he has been warning, and
commanding, and intreating, and forbidding, for centuries, rising up early, and sending anew his prophets, and making the demonstrations in his word every
day more cogent, he will laugh at your calamity,
and mock when  your  fear  cometh?   As  to the
experience of evil, misery,  and immorality in the
system, will that work any cure a generation hence?
With all that experience. is not the class in power,
224 
FATALITY OF CRIME.
the despotic oligarchy, for whose sake, through the
entanglement of your property-interests with theirs,
and the debasement of your moral principles by
theirs, you are willing to hazard such experience for
a new generation-is not that class, whose selfish
continuance in power depends on the continuance of
that very immorality and misery, increasing along
with it? And are not the prices of slaves, and the
temptation to slave-breeding and trading, increasing
at the same time, along with the conviction of the necessity of still extending this power, in order to save
it? Where is the element, either of conscience, or
opposing fact, or resistance, to come in, with any
more hope of success, fifty years hence, than now?
What imagined potency have you in reserve, what
wand or talisman that you can wave, and think that,
among a hundred millions of men under the dominion
of this iniquity, you can subdue it, or turn it back, if
now, with all your light, and conviction, and means,
you are unwilling or unable to stop the awful experiment? What form of exorcism do you mean to rely
upon, to put down the devils you will have called up,
a thousand then, to a hundred now? There never
was such madness. And if any among us as a people
go into it without reflection, without thoroughly considering what it is we are doing, then, such infamous
and cruel carelessness, such selfish gambling with the
interests of future and present millions, thrown upon
10*.
225  
226      GOD AGAINST  SLAVERY.
our responsibility for guardianship, only makes the
crime ten thousand times worse.
Then, too, we have had at our command already
the greatest forces of resistance and defense for free dom that we ever can have. Our Declaration of
Independence, hitherto  the hugest colossal  maul,
under God's word, that the angel of freedom himself
could swing against the thrones of tyranny, and beat
upon the heads of the ferocious and cunning despots
of humanity, is no better than a feather dipped in
olive-oil. You have already traitors among your selves to belie its principles, and scout and scorn its
noble truths and sentiments as idle vaporilgs and
abstractions.   The  very scaling-ladders,  by which
you had risen to the conquest of a citadel of freedom
for the world, the enemies of that freedom, running
up by means of them under the guise of friends, and
conquering the garrison in their turn, have flung
backward on the groaning and terrified multitudes
crushed by them. They take your very doctrines of
popular sovereignty, and convert them into a network of usurpation and of tyranny, more subtle, more
knotted, more implacable, and in league with the
power put at their command, constituting a despotism
more hopeless, because the vaunted principles of your
democracy have been perverted into its support, than
all the Nimrods, or Napoleons, or even houses of
Hapsburg in Austrian sublimity of oppression, ever
invented. Your senators are ready, and still will be, 
USURPATION CLINCHED.
to enforce laws: which they themselves have declared
to be infamous, barbarous, unconstitutional, and fit
only to be broken; ready to enforce them, under the
pretense that they are laws, unrepealed. And your
executive will still be ready, sustained by the Senate,
and with the United States army put at his control,
and the power of selecting and commissioning his own
creatures to do his bidding, to enforce obedience to a
pretended Territorial Legislature, constituted by open
violence and fraud, and demonstrated by the House
of Representatives to be a monstrous usurpation,
branded as such by them in their official governmental
capacity. Your executive will be ready to compel
obedience to that usurpation, because elected on that
very assurance, and asserting that Legislature to be
the existing government, and because the people on
whom it is enforced are forcibly prevented from
expressing their rejection of it.   And  under  the
protection of the executive the tools and agents of
this slave-tyranny, the framers of this usurping Legislature and its laws, will still insert and maintain, in
the very body and heart of them, provisions of law
rendering their repeal impossible, except on pain
and penalty of treason, making it a crime against the
State, either to express opinions against this tyranny,
or to hold conventions of the people to deliberate upon
it, and by constitutional and peaceful means repudiate
and throw it off.
Never, in the history of mankind, was any en
227 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
croachment on men's liberties, or any form of usurpa tion, under the sanction of a boasted free government,
so clinched, and clamped,  and guarded.   It is a
prison, with the doors barred and locked, and the
keys inside. It is a combination-lock of tyranny, on
the despot's safe, with the Constitution itself shut up
in it, from the people, not for them; and the boldest
pick-locks can not draw the bolts, because the whole
construction bristles with United States bayonets,
defending it, and it is treason even to attempt the
rescue. And when you say that popular sovereignty
is as good and just for freemen as for slaveholders,
and that under it you will yourselves enter this contested land, and settle, with your principles, the
expression of your principles is treason, even if you
get there; but you can not get there; the slaveowners may go there, and carry and work their
slaves, but you can not go there and work your principles; their slaves are a property more sacred and
inviolable under these accursed laws, than your principles; their slave-])roperties are the principles of
the whole usurpation, and they mean to make them
the principles of the nation, with universal right of
transit.   But  your principles  are  a contraband
article, and there is no free highway or river in this
vaunted country of the free, on which you will be
permitted to sail or to travel, if freedom be your
known purpose, and if, in obedience to the article in
your own Constitution, you maintain the freeman's
228 
THE PEOPLE DECIDE.
guarantied and inseparable right of personal libertythe right to bear arms.   Without process of law, by
the agent of your own executive, your weapons shall
be taken from you, and you shall be put under arrest.
The United States army itself in this case, is only
not a band of Border Ruffians, because it has got into
the heart of the country, and is become a band of
settled, legalized, comrmissionied ruffians, under the
great seal of the usurpers at Washington.
Now do we think these things have begun, and in
the face and under the fear of a contested election,
and of all the appeals to the people, and all the glaring light of demonstration and opprobrium thrown
upon this wickedness, have still been pushed, and are
advancing, with desperate resolution, with implacable, unfaltering purpose and energy, at so much
hazard, and that they will suddenly stop, if we throw
our votes to sustain them, as we inevitably do, if we
vote for any party whose platform they are, as we
deliberately do, if we vote for the principle of that
party, the extension of slavery? Was there ever a
usurpation of this kind that turned backward, or
revolutionized itself in the moment of complete success, or when the voice of a corrupted, besotted, mad
people, accepted it, and sanctified it? In the nature
of things, in the nature of despotism, above all, a
slave-despotism, there can be no pause, nor faltering,
and there will be none. If the people of the United
States say, by their popular vote, that they will have
229 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
slavery (already thus thrust upon their bleeding Territories) nationalized, be sure that they will have
it, with a vengeance. There will be no more let or
hinderance to its power.
And our Constitution, as well as our Declaration
of Independence, will have lost its sacred protecting
influence.  We might have appealed to that in season; but if, under it, we admit that our government
has the right to establish and enforce slavery in the
Territories, belonging to us, we cut ourselves off forever from the use of that instrument, and from all
appeal to it, in behalf of freedom, as any more sacred
in its rights than slavery. We can never ground a
revolution anywhere, no more here, or in  Maine,
than in Kansas or Missouri, on the instrument which
we admit, by our own votes, if we vote for the extension of slavery, gives the government authority to
establish it.  We make slavery national, the moment
we record this vote. And of this power, and concerning this all-devouring gulf to which we are
advancing, it may be said, it has been proved, that
it never takes a step backward. niulla vestigia retrorsum. Onward you go, if you give way at this
juncture, and no power on earth can stop you.
And if the religion and conscience of the country
can not make you firm now, to stand where you are,
and hold your own, what hope is there, especiaally if
the conscience is becoming every day more and more
warped., and the religion more corrupt, as no man
230 
EXPERIENCE TOO LATE.
can deny that it must be by the progress of slavery,
what hope is there, that you can rely upon it at any
future time, when things get worse and worse, and
the iniquity is more and more sanctified by law, and
under law defended by the perversion of Christianity
itself, what hope, to resist, to revolutionize, to make
head against the evil? If you wait for experience to
convince, to alarm, to resolve you, experience will
indeed come, and will convince, and will alarm, but
in the same instant will consume you.  When it
comes to that, that the pressure of this despotism is
felt upon us, and because we feel it on ourselves, we
are ready to resist it, though we could not resist it for
others who pleaded for our help, but on the contrary
would vote to fasten it on them, then it will be too
late. God's vengeance for such selfishness will have
come, and we shall receive, and God himself will
compel us to drink, the poisoned chalice we have
commended to the lips of our groaning fellow-beings.
Out of such selfishness men may call upon God, but
he will not hear them; for while he called upon thenm,
out of mercy and justice to show mercy and renounce
oppression, they would not hear him, but trusted in
oppression, and stayed themselves thereon. Therefore shall this very iniquity be your ruin. And
when in the time of your trouble you are compelled
to cry, Arise and save us, then will God answer, as
in the same case of old, Where are thy gods that thou
231 
232      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
hast made thee? Let them arise, if they can save
thee in the time of thy trouble!
But we do not intend to be caught with such a despairing outcry. We seek God now while he may be
found, and we call upon him while he is near. He
has given us an impregnable vantage-ground and battery of resistance in his word, against the extension
of slavery, and here we plant ourselves resisting, and
here we stand, and here will we stand resisting, and
if we seem to suffer a temporary defeat, it shall only
be as the recoil of our own ordnance, a step backward, to command a new onset, and a new fire. We
had rather go down with liberty, than sit upon the
throne with slavery.   And  fervently  we  sympathize with the declaration of the noble patriot, Lord
Erskine, that we would rather die upon our knees,
thanking God that for the protection of the oppressed,
and the safety of our country, we had been made
the instruments of denying and reprobating this
wickedness, than live to the age of Methuselah for
letting it pass unexposed and unrebuked. 
A DISCOURSE
ON
TIE DIVINELY-APPOINTED FREEDOM OF TrlHE
PULPIT, THE SENATE, AND THE PRESS,
FOR THE
rem:~rbation of ~ret~ieo to taltktil:~.
DELIVERED IN NEW YORK IN JUNE, 1856,
AND RIEATD IN BROOKLYN, WILLIAMSBURG, FLUBSING, NEWPORT, R. L,
PROVIDENCA R. L, AND AL"M, MASS  
DISCOURSE.
Delivei me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy
precepts.-PSALM exit. 134.
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make ye free.Joun viii. 32,
THE answer of these two texts, one from the Old
and one from the New Testament, is as if from differ ent quarters of the heavens we heard the morning stars chanting responsively across the firmament.
How beautiful, how glorious, how divine! Deliver
me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy
precepts. Keep God's truth, and you shall be free,
and no oppression can harm you. We praise God for
these texts, and for the celestial experience of men,
and, to some degree, even of nations, in which they
have been illustrated. And here we remark, by the
way, before entering on the discussion of that freedom
of thought and speech which God has made our birthright, that in this grand old prayer put by divine
inspiration into the heart of the psalmist there is contained an argument of irresistible annihilating power
against the sophistry that seeks a sanction of slavery
and tyranny in the word of God.   God himself
teaches us to pray for deliverance from human op 
236     GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
pression, that we may keep his statutes. And is it
to be imagined that God would install the worst of all
oppressions under the sun as a divine institution, and
at the same time teach us to pray against it, as the
grand enemy of our piety?  Men that deal thus with
the word of God do their utmost to set their fellowmen in the high road to infidelity; by reason of whom
the way of truth is evil spoken of, and through covetousness with feigned words they make merchandise
of you.
Let us now consider the necessity of the freedom
of truth for the permanence of our free national
existence.  If the knowledge of truth is essential to
man's freedom, then the freedom of truth is essential
to man's knowledge.   If the truth be hidden or suppressed, freedom can not exist; the very nature and
essential elements of freedom will remain unknown.
In proportion to the preciousness of truth will be,
at times, the danger of its announcement. In all ages
men have been imprisoned, tortured, fined, beheaded,
burned, martyred, for possessing the truth, and for
speaking it to others. A free Bible, the very beginning of all freedom, has been gained only at the cost
of incessant strife, and blood, and martyrdom. Men
have waded to this prize through seas of suffering,
through centuries of persecution. The English Scriptures were translated and published in continual
danger and frequent experience of imprisonment and
death. John Wickliffe's own pen came near being
9 
PROSCRIPTION OF TRUTH,
dipped in his own heart's blood; and the noble Tyndale's types, and fair-printed pages, by which he fulfilled his promise to bring God's word within reach
and reading of every plowv-boy in his native country, cost him his life, and his last prayer at the stake
went up that God would open the eyes of the king of
England. So, what is to-day our commonest and yet
most priceless treasure, is baptized, almost every
letter of it, not only in the blood of Christ that bought
it first, but in the suffering and blood of dear chosen
followers in almost every age, in whom the remaining
afflictions of Christ for his body's sake, which is the
church, are filled up.
At this day, ill our own country, there is a more
gigantic, deadly, and iniquitous proscription of the
truth, and conspiracy against it, and persecution on
account of it, in oiie pairticu7ar fornm, than in any
other country under heaven.   Truth  in regard to
freedom, as opposed to slavery, truth in regard to
that which is the very object of truth, is not permitted to be promulglated, and if promulgated, it is at
the cost of misery and death. Under these circumstances, it is high time to look into our authority for
the free publication of the truth, and to see how far
duty to God and man commands us to speak out or to
be silent.
I affirm, and it can not be contradicted, that the
permanence of our free national existence depends not
on the concealment or repression of the truth, but on
237 
GOD A(4AINST SLAVERY.
its universal freedom. Let us see what fixtures of
truth and freedom have been given us of God, and
how they form the foundations of our country's worth
and greatness, and how the unimpaired, unrestricted
freedom of truth is essential to them all. God has
given us a Free Bible, a Free Church, a Free Pulpit,
Free  Suffrage, Free  Schools, a Free Judiciary, a
Free Legislature, and a Free Press. These gifts of
God, these gradually-perfected gifts of his providence
and grace, constitute our vast estate of freedom, that
magnificent and priceless heritage received from our
fathers, and which we are bound to transmit unimpaired to our descendants. And any thing that goes
against any of these agencies and elements of liberty,
goes against the freedom of mankind.
Now, then, let us mark in this matter, first, the
divinely-appoinited authority and duty of the church
and the ministry; second, of the Legislature; and
third, of the press; to sustain, defend, and practice
this freedom, as the essential, if not the only security
of our very existence as a nation; our existence, at
least, on any terms, in any manner. on which existence is worth having.  Better, a thlousanrd times, that
all North America should be obliterated by a concurrence of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as a dead,
revenging sea over buried cities, than that we, after
all our light and liberty, should live only by renouncing the truth that gave us being, or should set the
example to a terrified and struggling world of a na
238 
FREEDOM OF THE CHURCH.
tion claiming and daring to exist only by sustained
and sanctified oppression.
I say, then, first of all, if the freedom of the word
of God is essential, the freedom of the church and of
the ministry is necessary in publishing and proclaiming it. The whole truth must be published, without
respect to persons, and no part of it kept back.
For  this very purpose, for the freedom of the
church in this her work, Christ Jesus has constituted
the independence of the churches in the New Testament. Holding forth the word of life, fighting the
good fight of faith, contending against spiritual wickedness in high places, earnestly contending for the
faith once delivered to the saints; these are some of
the descriptive forms under which the mission of the
church is presented.   If men are to be made free by
the truth, it is necessary that the truth be made free
to men, and come in living and experimental freedom
to their hearts and consciences. The church of Christ,
for this purpose, is made up of those who have the
word of God living by the Spirit in their hearts, and
are set on fire by it, to set on fire others. You can
not conquer or shut up a church that thus lives in
Christ, and has his word abiding in it. When the
Philistines barred the great gates of Gaza upon
Samson, they thought they had securely imprisoned
him; but he carried away the gates, bars and all,
upon his shoulders. There is no limiting the Holy
One of Israel when he pleases to pour down his
239 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
Spirit, and when his people trust in him, and are
faithfal to his word. His word must convince men
of sin, if they are ever to be made free from sin.
And ifor this very purpose his church must be a testifying church against sin, and the more proud and
imperious the sin, the louder the testimony.
To deny this characteristic object, mission, and duty
of the church, is to deny its very essence; for that
which keeps men in bondage, is error and sin, nothing
else. All forms of error and of sin are therefore to
be exposed and rebuked, and especially those forms
that prevent obedience to God's law; and take from
other men their freedom to obey God.  Deliver me,
prays the Psalmist, from the oppression of man; so
will I keep thy statutes. If, therefore, oppression in
any form whatever keeps man from spiritual freedom,
the light of God's word is to be turned upon it, and
the thunderings  of God's word are to be directed
against it, and the church is to maintain that testimony. The light of God's word is to be turned on
all forms of iniquity, in law as well as custom.  Shall
the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which
frameth mischief by a law?  The church and the
ministry are God's appointed court to bring both law
and fact in the works of men under examination at
the bar of his word. Concerning the works of men,
by the word of thy lips have I kept me from the
paths of the destroyer.   Instruction in the truth
is the way of recovery out of the snare of the
240 
DUTTY OF TlHE MINISTRY.
devil for those  who  are taken captive by  him at
his will.   For this purlpose, then, both the church
and  the ministry  should be  a perpetually testifying activity aid power,. breaking down  Satan's stratagemns of lies, and  tearing away the vail of his
delusions.  "They are to have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to  rebuke
them.   No church and no ministry can throw off this
responsibility' neither do difficulty and danger in
bearing it constitute a release from it.  On  the contrary, the more alarming and critical the juncture
becomes, the more earnest anrid instant the church and
the ministry must be to meet it. Hearken unto me,
ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart
is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither
be ye afraid of their revilings.   For the moth shall
consume them as it doth a garment, and the worm
shall eat them like wood; but my righteousness is
forever and ever, and my salvation shall be everlasting.
The law for the publication of the gospel forbids
all concealment of it, and all miinglings of a selfish
expediency with it. The law for the publication of
the gospel requires openness, fullness, freedom, impartiality It is laid down by Paul in two great
passages. Not walking in craftiness, nor handling
the word of God deceitfully, but by MANIFESTATION
OF THiE TRUTH commending ourselves to every man's
conscience, not to every man's sense of convenience,
11
241 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
or custom, or business, or employment, or plans of
gain but, to EVERY MAN'S CONSCIENCE, and to conscience not in the sight of human opinions, or statutes, or governments, or compulsions, or judgments,
or moralities, but to every man's conscience IN THE
SIGHT OF GOD.  And in that other great passage, in
which the business of the gospel is illustrated in
detail, as working along with the law. "Foi the law
was not made for the righteous, but for the lawless
and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for
unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and
murderers of mothers, for whoremongers, for them
that defile themselves with mankind, FOR MEN-STEALERS, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be
any other things contrary to sound doctrine, ACCORDING  TO  THE  GLORIOUS GOSPEL  OF THE BLESSED
GOD, which was committed to my trust." No man
can truly preach this gospel, and no church truly
hold it, or truly preach Christ crucified, and at the
same time shield any form of iniquity from the
searching light of the law and the gospel, condemning all sin. If they shield or favor any form of
iniquity, or conceal it from the light, it is a conspiracy against the souls of men; for the object of
the gospel is to bring men out of darkness into light,
and out of sin into holiness, and if they continue in
sin and darkness they perish.
Hence the terrific woe against those who pervert the
gospel, and put darkness for light, and light for dark
242 
DANGER OF CONCEALMENT.  243
ness; evil for good, and good for evil. Ihence the
command, Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy
heart; thou shalt not suffer sin upon thy neighbor,
but shalt in any wise rebuke him. For, indeed, you
can not hate a man more infernally, more malignantly,
than by concealing his guilt from him; that is the
devil's own hatred; that is Satan's own game. If
you know your enemy to be in the prosecution of
courses that will certainly lead him to ruin, the
greatest injury you can do him is to conceal from
him the sinfulness and danger of those courses. If
you let him know, if you dispelled the delusion of his
innocence, you would give him some chance of escape;
but by concealing from him the wickedness of his
career, and encouraging his passions and his sins, you
hermetically seal him with his crimes for perdition.
You could not preserve a rattle-snake in spirit with
more certainty for dissection.   And thus are men
often sealed up, and nations also, and the air of truth
excluded.   Thus are men aid nations burie(i in falsehood, wound round with grave-clothes. And hence
the tremendous adjuration, Hie that saith to the
w-icked, thou art righteous, h;m shall the people
curse, nations shall abhor him. If any church or
any minister dare thus pervert or conceal the light
of God's word in regard to human guilt, it is just as
if they put out the light; it is just leading men  to
perdition. They may be tempted to do this by vast
and mighty bribes, by the pressure of a nation's 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
anger, by popular fury in behalf of cherished sins;
but they had better incur the wrath of all mankind
than the wrath of God.
And therefore the Lord Jesus was ever telling his
disciples, Behold, I send you forth as lambs in the
midst of wolves, and ye shall be hated of all for my
name's sake. But fear them not; but what I tell
you in darkness, that speak ye in light; and what ye
hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not
able to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell. Pain, agitation, wrath, fury, persecution, are no excuse for concealing or perverting the messages of God's word. If
men persecute you in one city, that gives you no
commission to cut out or withhold that part of the
gospel that goes against their sins; but you may flee
to another city, and preach the whole gospel; but
you must preach the whole wherever you preach, for
you are not at liberty to diminish a word. When
John the Baptist preached to Herod, he did many
things, and heard him gladly, but that furnished no
excuse to John for not attacking Ilerod's favorite sin.
When Jeremiah was charged with God's messages,
their very tenor made him a man of strife and contention, and the object of wrath and cursing, but that
gave no permission to Jeremiah to cease preaching, or
to choose for himself what he would preach, and what
not. He tried the experiment of silence, but it would
244 
BOLDNESS AND PLAINNESS.
not do; he could bear the wrath of men much better
than the indignation of the Lord.
Now, these faithful and fearless old Hebrew prophets were, by the Lord Jesus himself, set before the
preachers of the gospel as an example of courage and
of faithfulness.   Our blessed Lord never intimated
that the gospel could be preached with any less opposition than the law, nor that his disciples could escape
persecution, and still be faithful to the truth. If
they persecute you, fear them not, for so persecuted
they the prophets before you.   Wherever  ye are,
therefore, speak the truth, no matter where; before
kings, governors, councils, before synagogues, rulers,
mobs; fear not, and keep rnot back the truth, but proclaim it. Living or dying, proclaim it. Men die,
but principles live.
Boldness is the rule, not timidity; and plainness is
the rule, not sophistry; and sympathy with the poor
and oppressed is the rule, not with the despot and
the oppressor. Men may pervert the word of God
by sophistry, and they may consent to keep back part
of its instructions for fear of rousing men's prejudices.
But this is fearing men, and not God; this is being
ashamed of Christ and of his words; and this process,
in particular junctures, may involve the guilt of
moral forgery, and of being accessory to the ruin of a
nation.
There is a great authority in navigation, whether
plain-sailing or otherwise, an authority of world-wide
245 
246    GOD AGAINST SLAVE IRY.
reputation and confidence. It is Bowditch's Charts
and Navigator. Now, suppose that any person could
get these into his own  hands, with the power of keeping or of perverting the information at his pleasure;
and, suppose there were lying on a coast a dangerous
sunken reef, and that a great company of wreckers
on that coast made a vast annual revenue by decoying
vessels upon that reef;-what should we say of a
proposition, backed with wrath and threats on one
side, and enormous bribes on the other, to expunge all
notice of that reef in the Navigator and Charts, and
to make the world believe that, though to be sure
there is a splintered, ragged ridge there, just as there
is a bottom to the ocean everywhere, yet there is
also depth of water enough for the biggest ships in
the world to ride over in safety?  Suppose the expounder and keeper of the charts should consent to
this fraud, and excuse himself by saying, that the
peopie in that coast and country would not suffer him
to tell the truth, that they would not bear it; does this
mitigate his villainy? Or, suppose he could prove to
you that great good was done by the money obtained
out of those shipwrecks, would that sanctify the wrong?
Now, whensoever any church, or minister of God's
word, conceals the truth, or by sophistry turns it into
a lie, or into the support of unrighteousness, there
the very ife of men and of nations is attempted. If
watchmen upon towers, and sentinels at the gate of
nations, and God's appointed heralds of salvation do 
FREE VENTILATION OF TRUTII. 247
this, then will men and nations not only go to ruin in
these indorsed and sanctioned ways of oppression and
of crime, but the example of such double and false
dealing by the guides will be imitated by the people
in all things, till church and nation perish in their
sins.  Nation after nation has been ruined by such
..bominable sophistry, and by followving such sophists,
;s are even now at work in our own country, endeavoring to make us believe that the jagged reef of slavery is only a righteous ridge of God's constituted
bottom for the ocean, only an element of necessary
permanence, over which there is deep and smooth
sailing into the harbor of eternal rest, and out of
which comes the highest good of the race, and glory
of God forever.   But by such so]-)bistry we perish,
and if we hold the truth itself in unrighteousness,
there is no hope for us. There must be truth, and
not sophistry-the truth as the truth is in Jesus.  It
is as essential to our existence as the air.  And there
must be free ventilation of the truth; if not, then all
the wasting, the weakness, the destruction, the morbid
secretions, and the active miseries, of atrophy, marasmus, consumption, and a lingering death.
II. The freedom of truth and of discussion in our
representative and legislative assemblies is also essential. It is as much mnore essential here, in our country, than anywhere else under heaven, as good laws
are more essential to our well-being, and bad laws 
248    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
more pernicious, ours being a government of law.
"Bad laws," Edmund  Burke once said,  "are the
worst sort of tyranny. In such a country as this,"
he added, speaking of England, " they are of all bad
things the worst, worse by far than anywhere else;
and they derive a particular malignity even from the
wisdom and soundness of the rest of our institutions."
How true is this of our republic!.-low solemnly
true applied to such execrable laws, such diabolical
tyranny, under pretense of law, as that vwhich is being
enforced with fire and murder in Kansas.  And hence
the necessity of the most unlimited freedom of examination, disputation, and conflict of opinion, sacred
and inviolate, or the life of liberty is gone. If the
foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
The very argument for patience under oppressive
legislation, is the assurance that our representatives
will look into it, and redeem us from it. But, if despotism can bring the terrors of assassination into the
arena of public debate, there is no longer any possibility of legally resisting it, and a reign of terror
is inaugurated all over the country. If anywhere
under heaven there should be perfect freedom of deliberation and discussion in the light of divine truth,
and for the sake of equity and liberty, it is here.
Any attack upon it, any outrage against it, any attempt to set up the reign of dueling, murder, and
violence, is a repetition of the worst wickednesses of
the French Revolution. 
OUTRAGE IN THE SENATE.
But tilhe records of all history can not show, on the
whole, so mean, brutal, and dastardly an attack, as
that of which our national Senate-chamber has recently been the scene. In the annals of English
history, never has there been such an instance; never
were bullies with bludgeons pitted against the nation's
noblest orators. Chatham, Pitt, Lord Erskine, Burke,
Currani, Mlackintosh, Canning, and others, have let
loose their storms of withering sarcasm and invective,
and from the days of Chaucer and the Duke of Lancaster down to the time of Lord Broughain, the centuries have witnessed conflicts of angry eloquence,
but never was the British Parliament disgraced by
such a mode of worse than savage warfare. The
criminals in Newgate would have been ashamed of
such poltroonery. That a man of courteous manners
and classical attainments,  an eloquent scholar, an
orator on the side of freedom, not a man pleading for
oppression, not a man prostituting his talents in support of usurpation, or to sustain a fraudulent monopoly,
or to make the worse appear the better reason, but advocating the cause of the oppressed, and the claims
of liberty and humanity against violence and fraud;
that such a man, in such a cause, should be attacked
and struck down, unawares, hlelpless, writing at his
desk, in the feeling of perfect security, without the
least warning or challenge, merely because of the
freedom and power of his argument  and sarcasm
against slavery, is an atrocity, which, up to the time
I 1*
249 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
of its perpetration, the whole world would hare said
is impossible. The possibility of such an outrage in
the Senate of a free country, and of the criminal
going unpunished, and the Senate renouncing their
own power of punishment, and refusing to condemn
the crime, on the plea of not finding a precedent,
will need to be accompanied, like the most incredible
ghost story, with affidavits, or it will not be believed
in history. Is this the inauguration of a policy that
the people will submit to? Shall the renewed attempt to install murder as a law of honor, and bludgeons and pistols instead of argument as the rule of
legislation, be successful?
It is rare that public attempted assassination, and
open glaring usupation and murder, find advocates
and apologists. A man in public life, under all its
accumulated bonds and responsibilities for good behavior, has committed an outrage on the life of a
senator, that, done against any citizen in private life,
would instantly have brought him to prison to be
tried by the laws of his country; but the Legislature
sanction the crime!  Not only  the man's public
bonds and responsibilities, but common law for the
protection of common society and life, are defied and
disregarded, and the Senate and House of Representatives, in refusing the demanded retribution, and
letting the criminal go at large, sanction the crime.
They infect the air of our common justice, by such
impunity, with taint and poison. How long can any
250 
GOVERNMENT REVERSED.
country stand such an infusion of evil principle?
When God says, He that saith to the wicked, Thou art
righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall
abhor him; how long will it be before they discover
that when the powers that be do themselves sanction
wickedness, and by shielding it from punishment,
sustain it, they are among the highest and properest
objects of the curse of God and man? How madly
is a government digging down the foundations of its
own reverence, and destroying its only claim to obedience, when it pursues such a policy, acts upon such
maxims, legalizes such iniquities, and protects such
sinners, that, reversing the very terms of God's appointment and sanction of the magistracy, it becomes
a praise to evil-doers, and a terror to those who do
well!
And here I must say that I fear we are chargeable
before God-the church and the ministry are chargeable-for not doing all in their power to prevent that
corruption and violence which have been so rapid in
their progress. They have suffered themselves to be
deterred, by fear of the reproach of carrying politics
into religion, from the just and righteous work of
carrying religion into politics. Mark what I say;
we are guilty for not carrying religion into politics.
The carrying politics into religion is the devil's work,
and the union of Church and State, and all ecclesiastical despotism and corruption spring out of it.
The carrying religion into politics is Christ's work,
251 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
and he will go on with it, till he makes all men his
freemen by the truth; and the kingdoms of this
world shall become his kingdom, for he has promised
that those who keep his truth, and the freedom that
rests on it, shall have power over the nations.
And in this effort to conquer the world by the
truth, the first requisites after a sincere reliance on
him, are boldness and thoroughness. WYe need always to bear in mind the great remark of Burke,
that "good works are commonly left in a rude unfinished state, through the tame circumspection with
which a timid prudence so frequently enervates beneficence. In doing good, we are generally cold, and
languid, and sluggish, and, of all things, afraid of
being too much  in the right.  But the works of
malice and injustice are quite in another style. They
are finished with a bold masterly hand; touched as
they are with the spirit of those vehement passions,
that call forth all our energies whenever we oppress
and persecute."
Suffer me to illustrate the manner in which some
persons force their politics into religion,  who  are
nevertheless very wrathful if religion be carried into
politics. The anecdote was related to me by a venerable aged man now living, whose father-in-law was a
distinguished minister of the gospel in the days of
our Revolution.   The charge of preaching politics
was one day brought against that minister by a prominent parishioner. The person to whom he was vent
252 
POLITICAL PREJUDICE.
ing his complaint declared that it was not true, and
demanded of him to point out any instances. Well,
said he, if he does not preach politics he prays politics,
which is just as bad. Again it was denied, and demanded to show instances. Why, said the man, I
heard him say last Sabbath in his prayer that when
the righteous are in authority the people rejoice, but
when the wicked bearetlh rule the people mourn.
Well. said the other, I don't see any politics there;
how  can you make  politics out of that?   Plain
enough, said the man, for I know who hlie meant; he
meant Jefferson. This is a very good example of the
manner in which politicians sometimes see and hear
througoh the medium of their own prejudices, and torture the least pithy application of truth into an attack
against their own  opinions.   But these difficulties
form no just apology for keeping back God's truth.
That must be spoken, let it strike where it may; for
though the clamor and the strife of tongues sometimes
produced by it is evil, the withholding and concealment of it would be a greater evil.  Christ's own
gospel, he himself declared, would set households at
variance, and there are few evils greater than such
strife; but yet the withholding of the gospel would
have been a greater evil.
The proclamation of the gospel set households at
variance indeed, but it saved some, in the very fact
of such variance. The withholding of the gospel kept
households indeed in the unity of sin and Satan, but
253 
GOD A.GAINST SLAVERY.
carried them together in that unanimity down to hell.
It is better to have dissension and salvation, than an
icy politic stillness and death. It is not to be expected that the fearless proclamation of truth, when
it comes against grand and gainful cherished  and
organic sins, intrenched and citadeled in men's
hearts, men's purses, men's business, mrlen's interests,
families.  hereditary revenues, national  enactments,
and powerful oligarchies, can be maintained with the
shouts of popular applause, and fill men cheering you
on. and speaking well of you.  As easy as a summer's
Mediterranean sail ill Cleopatra's barge, or Vanderbilt's steamrn-yacht, would be the preaching of the
truth, with the soft breezes of a personal popularity
always fanning your temples.  MAen like to hear the
truth in pleasant and eloquent essays, and even in
stormy harang,ues, so long as you do not trouble their
own preferred private or public investments in pleasurable and profitable sin.  Easy enough it is to preach
with all your congregation in full sympathy; but the
moment you come to close quarters, making your applications in such wise that irritated conscienceswince
and fret under unexpected exposure, and your hearers
begin to cry out, He means me, away goes all your
popularity. There is a region of rhetoric like Paradise itself, where everlasting spring abides, and you
may lead your hearers up and down in such green
pastures, and besile still waters, and never trouble
any man's conscience in so doing. But whether such
254 
POWER OF A FREE PRESS.
preaching can be always faithful to the truth, and
saving to the soul, is quite another question.
III. But again, God has given us that other mighty
agency of freedom, a free press. The instinctive malignities of Satan and of despotism are always directed
against it, just in proportion as its spirit and its
issues are free and right. here, then, again, if the
truth make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
For the freedom of the press, both habit and
statute are requisite, for until it began to be known,
the rulers of the darkness of this world made it to
be dreaded as an unmitigated evil. It was regarded
as a monstrous and dangerous abuse, until an example was seen of it. It was to be chained like a
wild beast; a quarantine was to be maintained against
it, as against the pestilence. It only got on step by
step, under a heap of indexes Expurgatorius, Admittiturs, Impriyimaturs, stamps by authority, fines,
imprisonments, and battles against power. The freedom of thought and speech have been invaded by the
tyrants of the world even in unfinished and unpublished manuscripts; and the noble Algernon Sidney
lost his life for written arguments in favor of freedom,.
the contents of his ransacked private closets. The
freedom of publication is essential to the freedom of
thought.   There are abuses of all these blessings;
but the abuses are rather to be endured than the
blessings annihilated. Let the war of thoughts and
255 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
words go on, and the world is safe; for never yet was
there a fair field and fair encounter, and never will
be, between truth and error, freedom and slavery,
but truth and freedom must prevail. Truth is the
natural ally of freedom, and freedom of truth; but if
you repress free thought, and its free interchange and
expression, you produce apoplexy, or the bursting of
arteries, you explode the machinery, you break up
the best constituted society and state. If you introduce violence instead of truth, if you apply the
tyrant's plea, expediency, and the oppressor's argument, power, you have, in the long run, the constitution of the race against you, as well as the edict of
God's righteousness. And you insure earthquakes if
you keep down all volcanoes.
The messages of truth are like the lightning on
your telegraphic wires, beneficent while you let it
flow freely, but streaming with angry and electric
fires the moment you set yourself against it. The
freedom of truth belongs to our constitution, as that
electricity to the air we breathe; explosive only when
you force it under a posse comitatus, or imprison it
in company with fire-damp. The element and agency
of life in freedom, it is destruction and death if you
keep it pent up. Agitation, the conflict of opinion,
the freest comparison and battle of thought, is what
we need. But if every thing is to be kept close and
quiet, it may be a stagnant despotism, but never a
LIVING STATE. If evils are to be met, they must be
256 
THE SENATE AND THE PRESS.  257
examined. If festering wounds are to be cured, they
must be probed. The preventing power of truth, in
its utmost freedom, is better than the penal power of
imprisonment and capital punishment. If the licentiousness of the press is sometimes causative of crime,
its perfect freedom is much more preventive.
The Legislature and the press are both, under God,
the possession of the people; and the freedom of truth
is essential for both; they must speak out, responsible
to God. The Senate is the people's tongue by their
representatives; the press is the people's tongue by
themselves. The Senate is always in danger of pressing to an extreme the rights of government; the press
is the defender of the rights of the people.   The
Senate is the people's heart under deliberation, but
too often under political management; the press is the
people's heart under impulse; and oftentimes, when
the heart under political intrigue was going wrong,
the heart under impulse may step in and carry it
right. This is always likely to be the case, in proportion as the press is in more immediate contact with
the altar and the fireside, the Bible and its living
truth; and hence the press, made free by the truth
and for the truth, may be described as the most important co-ordinate branch of a free government. It
is important for its powerful action on all the others;
an action which is felt even from the judiciary to the
ballot-box; important for the instruction of the people
and the utterance of the people's voice, during the in 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
tervals, sometimes long and critical, because of the
rapid plunges of the government toward despotism, between the appointed occasions when power constitutionally returns to the hands of the people, by the
great foundation machinery of free voting.
These efforts and advances toward the increase of
executive patronage and authority, and the consolidation and preponderance of governmental power, by
which,  gradually,  government is changed from a
servant of the people to a despot over them, have
been continually going on, and every year more rapidly.   The  sovereignty is being  taken  from  the
people, and held in the government for its own sake,
and not for their sakes: And were it not for the
wondrous frame-work of our State and general governments, by which there is such a constitutional,
biennial, triennial, and quadrennial return of power
to the real sovereigns, the elective commonwealth, the
freedom of our government would not last twenty
years. Every thing would be sacrificed to power.
And therefore it is that I have called the press a coordinate branch of our free government, and therefore
it is that perfect freedom and eternal vigilance are
necessary in it by day and by night from year to
year. It is our great safeguard. It is, of all the
branches and forms of our government, the least liable to corruption, and the most open to direct instantaneous control by the people. Through it the people
may make the most despotic government feel their
258 
TRUTHL TO BE APPLIED.
power, and tremble at it; may make even its tools
hesitate and falter in the execution of its edicts.
Now, in view of these inestimable franchises and
blessings, these agencies and powers of truth and
freedom, which we have received from God through
our fathers, and are bound to transmit unimpaired to
the generation to come, what is our one grand duty?
It is to speak out, and to act out, freedom and truth,
as given us of God. It is to love the truth, and to
contend for it, and to send it forth in its freedom and
purity, throwing ourselves for success on his grace
who gave it, and gave us the commission to stand by
it and to spread it. If the truth prevails, we prevail,
and are safe. If the truth prevails, freedom prevails,
if not, tyranny and slavery. That which thou hast
already, hold fast till I come.  In the hour of danger
stand firm.
If you contend that your only lawful and Christian
weapon is the truth, then use that weapon. If you
abjure Sharpe's rifles, let us at least see the flashing
of the sword of the Spirit in your hands. When a
great sin is like to swamp us, we are bound to testify
against that sin. But there are not a few, whose
only talk is against the rebuke of sin, and against
Sharpe's rifles.  If it is the truth only that can
make us free, then are we bound to proclaim the truth
for such freedom. The church of Christ, far from
shrinking away behind paper constitutions to evade
this testifying obligation, far from alleging the letter
259 
260    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
of limitation in constitutional power as an excuse for
not speaking out when the Spirit demands it, when
equity demands it, ought gladly to embrace every
such juncture, to utter a voice that should ring
through the world like a trumpet on the field of
battle. Here in this Book of God is the constitution
of the church, commanding her to testify, and to keep
the tabernacle of this testimony wide open. Ye are
my witnesses, saith the Lord. It is when the enemy
cometh in like a flood. that the Spirit of the Lord
lifts up the standard against him, and this standard is
not made out of the old reiterated rags or relics of the
testimony of former generations. As well might the
Jews claim heaven on the ground of being the children of Abraham. as we claim to have done our duty
in a great and difficult emergency by referring back
to a testimony of our feathers in 1818, and ourselves
maintaining a politic silence. The word of God is
ever new, ever young, fresh, living, and no secondhand utterance of it will answer for our duty, nor are
we released from the duty, nor defrauded the privilege of applying it anew, because our fathers applied
it fifty years ago. For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until the righteousness thereof go forth in brightness.
The watchmen on the walls are never to hold their
peace, day nor night.
Not long ago, I saw an account of the installment
of the old bones of St. Quietus to a place of honor in 
BONES OF ST. QUIETUS.
some church that believes in the efficacy of old bones,
with the pope's benediction, rather than in the proclamation of fresh living truth from the word by the
Spirit of God. For people who think that the adoration of old bones may atone for new sillS this was all
natural.   But  for Protestant churches that have
tongues of their own, on a question of difficulty and
in a crisis of danger, to evade a present burning utterance by referring back to the relics of old testimonies
to the skeleton forms of past resolutions, is just making a St. Quietus out of them, just exhuming and
glorifying them by way of apology for their own
silence.  We all have our own responsibility of fresh
testimony in every age, and can not avoid it. A singular spectacle it would be if the oppressed freemen
in Kansas, instead of uttering their own indignations
in thunder-tones at the usurpation forced upon them,
should get together, and gravely reaffirm the resolutions of the old continental Congress in regard to the
righteousness of resisting tyrants, or the declarations
in Massachusetts, in regard to the old Boston Port
Bill.   A  mute  reference to a church  assembly's
records of forty years ago, may be a very convenient
mode of giving a quietus to the conscience in shrinking back from the duty of an outspoken boldness;
but even St. Quietus's bones will fail to convince the
people that there is no occasion for life, no need of
any thing but bones.
We are bound by the gift of God's truth to keep
261 
262     GO1) A(GAINST SLAVERY.
the love of freedom in men's hearts sanctified, Christianized, and to see to it that it be not crucified or put
to shame by a Christian desertion.   The love of freedom for others, as well as for ourselves, needs eternal
vigilance to be kept burning in our hearts.  It is
a, Christian grace, a Christian duty, and to be without it, or afraid of it, is an unchristian beseness and
cowardice, that (!od abhors.  G-)d lov-es freedom and
hates slavery, and he loves to behold the most intense
love of freedom in his creatures. and the mhost unmitigated hatred of s,lavery and oppression in all its forms.
The enthusiastic, energetic, un.e.SD.' d!eense of freedom is a thing that belongs, by the right of bloodbought truth and liberty, to Christian souls,.  Events
full of tyranny and outrage have b)een just now stirring men's mnindis for a seasoin, so that the coldest
were roused; but the danger  is great of sinrking back
into lukewarmness and apathy, and Christians must
speak and act boldly as well as pray, aned keep up
these fires and this salutary alarm  and excitement,
from a holier altar than any mere demagogue ever
visits.   Every  Christian  man, everywhere, should
speak out, should  show his colors;  every church
should do it, every preacher should do it. We have
a trust for others.  Open  thy month  for the dumb.
If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto
death, and 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 
OBEY YOUR MAR(tHING ORDERS. 263
not he know it? and shall not he render to every
man according to his works? We have no right to
renounce or relinquish the defense of others. We
might, perhaps without blame, lay down our own
necks, and permit the oppressor to ride over them
without resistance; but we can not innocently keep
silence or refuse help, when tyranny and slavery are
forced on others, who cry to us for protection, and
claim to be defended under the same Constitution
that shields ourselves.
It is an interesting and characteristic anecdote of
the Duke of Wellington, that on one occasion in
India, when the country was full of disturbance and
violence, a deputation of English missionaries came
a long way to wait on him for counsel and advice as
to whether they could do any good by advancing to
their post and occupying it in the then state of the
country, and whether it was  not too dangerous an
enterprise to undertake at a time of so much terror
and confusion. When the deputation presented their
case for consultation, the Duke's only answer was,
Gentlemen, what are your marching orders? They
had but just one, Go, preach. Well, then, gentlemen, I can do nothing for you.  I can not interfere
with your commanders orders. So with us, What
are your marching orders? When God gives the
truth, he gives it to be spoken, and the consequences
of it he takes upon himself. The prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my 
264    GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is
the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.  The wheat
God will take care of, and the chaff shall be scattered
as with a whirlwind.
The time has come, even in our own country, when
God is looking round for Ezekiel's gap-men, to stand
in the gaps, and make up the ranks in the day of
battle. Every generation to the end of the world
will continue to need them, and the country is lost
when they can not be found. Of all the illustrations
in history. of such grand and noble patriotism, none is
more thrilling and impressive than that of the Swiss
patriot, Arnold Winkelreid, throwing himself on the
spears of the Austrians, to nzake a gap in the otherwise impenetrable phalanx, through which his countrymen  might rush to victory.   Wordsworth  has
shrined it in immortal verse:
He, too, of battle-martyrs chief;
Who, to recall his daunted peers,
For victory shaped an open space,
By gathering, with a wide embrace,
Into his single heart a sheaf
Of fatal Austrian spears.
It is most interesting and solemnly instructive to
look back through the whole history of the world,
and to see how often the whole fortunes of truth and
liberty have been thrown of God upon single decisions and courses of such noble soldiers, and sometimes sir le acts of heroism.  It is solemn to think
how often the whole cause of truth and righteousness
F' 
EXAMPLES OF COURAGE.
must have failed by the failure of one man's courage
and faith in such perilous junctures. Where would
have been the principles of righteousness and liberty,
and what would have been the fate of truth, and what
the state of the world, if men appointed of God for the
conflict had conferred with flesh and blood, instead of
enduring as seeing Him who is invisible?
If Enoch, the seventh from Adam, had withheld
his terrible sermions, and if Noah, warned of God,
had not condemned the world, if Abraham had not
renounced his native country for God's truth, if Moses
had not forsaken Egypt, but had feared the wrath of
Pharaoh, and refused to plead for the oppressed on the
ground of not mingling in politics; if Samuel had
yielded to the despotism of Saul; if Elijah and
Elisha had withheld their testimony against the tyrant Ahab, and the statutes of the house of Omri;
if Micaiah, brought before kings and threatened with
death, had yielded the word of the Lord to be proclaimed only at the bidding of the monarch and his cringing
prophets; if Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, had
obeyed the law of Nebuchadnezzar; if Daniel had
shut his windows and concealed the worship of his
God; if Jeremiah had kept back his testimony, when
they bribed him and threw him into the most horrible
of all dungeons; if Isaiah had been so intimidated by
the multitude and fierceness of his opposers, and by
the bloody despotism of Manasseh, as to falter and
withhold his withering rebukes; if Amos  had list
12
265 
266     GOD AGAINST SLAV ERY.
ened to the courtly, cringing sophists that came to him
from the king's cabinet, telling him to forbear, and
drop no more of his words against the nation's sins,
or in the king's chapel. The king's chapel is it?
And thou, the king's hireling priest! darest interdict
my prophesying at the commandment of the King of
kings. Now, therefore, because thou dost presume to
interfere between his word, and those to whom it is
directed, hear thou the word of the Lord. For, from
the Lord God I tell thee, thou thyself shalt die in a
polluted land, and thy wife shall be a harlot in the
city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the
sword, and the whole nation shall go into captivity.
Where would have been God's truth, or any grand
decisive truth, and the examples of its fearless utterance in danger, examples so much needed, if these
men had acted on the principles of expediency, conservatists of their own property, peace, and reputation?
And in the New Testament, if John the Baptist
had consented to wink at Herod's adultery, provided
he could relieve his conscience by a virtuous indignation against Hierodias's dancing, and if in order to save
his own head from the axe of the tyrant, he had kept
back part of the truth, and only preached on those
subjects, in regard to which he heard him gladly?
And if the Lord Jesus had not, in all his instructions, and in all his preparations for the new and
freer dispensation, bade his disciples, commissioned 
PETER, JOHN, AND STEPHEN.  267
with the truth, to lay aside all fear of man, and all
respect to persons and to sins, and to stand, if need
be, against the whole world, with a thus saith the
Lord, as their only argument and weapon?
A new era of divinest liberty and light, and new
triumphs of boldness and faith, were thus inaugurated. And at the very outset we see Peter and John,
their whole being and character seemingly transfigured as in angelic stature and grandeur, their
oratory as when seven thunders utter their voices,
arraigning priests and people as the murderers of the
Lord of glory, and appealing to their very judges to
justify them for spurning their commands of silence;
whether we ought to obey man rather than God;
whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken
unto you more than unto God, judge ye?  And then
we behold a still more startling exhibition of fearlessness and power in Stephen's eloquence, full of the
Holy Ghost, and, with holy energy and fervor, cutting the whole council to the heart, so that they
gnashed on him with their teetl, while he charged
them as stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears, resisters of the Holy Ghost, the children of
persecutors, and themselves the betrayers and murderers of the Just One.
Was the freedom of Stephen's indignant heart and
tongue to be restrained, lest it should wake up the
angry passions of his hearers? Was he to stop in
the fierce career of his eloquence, and carefully meas 
268      GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
ure the form and manner of his invectives, and usher
in his terrible accusations with courteous apologies,
with honeyed palliatives? And when the church heard
of his death, or angels saw it, think you there was
one creature so mnean  on earth or in heaven, as to
excuse the murderous revenge of his enemnies, by alleging the imprudent and fiery severity of his own
speech?   Did the brethren make any question in
regard to his prudence? Did they apologize for the
malignity of his murderers, by supposing that they
were provoked by his injudicious personalties?  Did
they say that it was just what Stephen might have
expected, if he wouldl use such severe and cutting
language? And that though his murderers were to
blame for their violence, yet that they had, after all,
some excuse for their anger, leing rebuked in so terrible a manner, and ac,used with such tremendous
charges?  Certainly, it is not unlikely, if Stephen
had been more quiet and courteous, that they would
have been less passionate and furious  at least, they
would probably have put him to death without so
much outrage.  And could he not have been less personal and severe, and more tender and gentle in his
language?   Ask, if you will, tohat Divine Spirit,
whose truth he spake, and that ascended PRedeemer,
under whose eye he acted.  And  if you judge his
temper on these tremendous denunciations, judge it
also by his dying prayer of forgiveness for his murderers. 
PAUL AND POLYCARP
And then we turn to Paul, who watched the clothes
of Stephen when he died, but soon wore the mantle ot
his own piety and eloquence, and we see him  also
with uncomlpromising' boldness proclaiming the whole
truth, and contending for it against those who counseled a pol"itic silence, to whom hlie gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the
gospel migihlt remain with you; and again, dLefending
his own right  as a Roman citizen; and again, filled
with the I-Ioly Ghiost, setting his eyes on one of his
malignant opponents, and exclaimning, Thou child ot
the devil, thou enemy of a   righteousness, wilt thou
not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
And to John, with the trumipet-note foiri the Lord
Jesus, Fear none of tlos  thl}. s which thou shalt
suffer, but be faithful unIto deaetlh, and I will give thee
the crownv of life,  recounting afterward the souls
that were slain for tlhe word of God and the testimony
which they held,.-n  disclosing to us the thrones in
glory, and tios". bened-ec  for the witness of Jesus
and the worc 0o;        And to ]loly tarp, continuing
his testimony a,gainst' he atheists and idol.. tes, even
to the flames' and to Cy:', asked by the Emperor
to deliberate whether  it were not better to save his
life by just one grain o0 idol ince nse, and answering,
There needs no delibeiation iln tile ease; and to John
Iluss, That I ta,ught with my lips' nowl sea] writh
rmy blood; and to thie martyr (Galearius  Death is
much sweeter to me with the testimony of truth, than
269 
GO D AGAINST SLAVERY.
life with its least denial; and to the church of the
Waldenses, Ever burning, yet still testifying, and not
consumed; and to Luther, Had I four hundred heads,
rather would I lose them all than retract my testimony; and to John Bunyan, If I were out of prison
to-night, I would preach Christ to-morrow, so help
mne God! and to John Rogers, All the laws of men
can not rule the word of God, but must be judged
thereby; neither my conscience, nor any Christian's
consience, can be satisfied with such laws as disagree
with that word; and to Latimer, I am bound( in conscience to utter such things as God hathli put into my
mind. iHe will not have his faith defended by man
or man's power, but by His word only, in a way far
above man's power or reason.  And, when the fire of
his martyrdom was lighted, Be of good comfort and
play the man: we shall, by the grace of God, this day
light a candle in England which I trust will never
be put out.  And to this day that light is burning;
and from that time onward, all English history and
literature is consecrated by it. This is by the grace
of God.
And now if I were to add to these words only a
few similar testimonies, even from the natural heart
o()f man in its noble enthusiasm for truth and freedom,
notices scattered in the history of all countries and in
all times, it would be a volume.  And these martyr
words and sayings, wrung out from human hearts and
consciences by suffering. and danger, and death, are
270 
HISTORIC RADIANCES.
the very life-blood of history. There is that element
in suffering for truth, which embalms the truth forever and forever. These lights are set as stars in
the firmament; all history besides might perish, but
many of these battle-words and martyr testimonies
would still lighten the traditional memory of mankind from generation to generation. They are the
intensest historic radiances of humanity itself. They
are as great lights let down behind a vast transparency,
and lighting up the whole surrounding scenery, which
otherwise would be chaos and darkness. The disciples and the church of Christ must have lost not only
that Christian savor, which should make them the salt
of the earth, but even the common spirit of that love
of freedom native to our race, if they renounce and
disown the opportunity and responsibility of kindling
such lights. If they refuse to bear testimony to the
truth, when the truth is in danger, and its defenders
are stricken down in blood, and will venture a timid
utterance, only where it is all applause and security,
where can men turn for hope, or where on earth can
they look for refuge?
Let us then esteem it one of the noblest of all privileges to be engaged in such a service. Let us hold
up the banner of truth and righteousness, and fling its
folds to all the winds of heaven. Let us hail the opportunity of the defense of freedom on religious
grounds. Let nothing drive us from our citadel in
271 
GOD AGAINST SLAVERY.
God's word, and our refuge in prayer, and nothing
need terrify us, nor can any thing overcome us, for
the cause of truth and freedom is God's cause, and
the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.
THE END.
272 
the nat,tle (i pwet, tlie  Vor(_ of Sa bbath Sclool instruction, and
the,ikti-iee.'  0' So-tuer'l Siatvor   and  Nothllern P-rejudice
agtainst Coloiz.  It ought to fila I )lace iii itll outr Sabbath School
Librariei. firn aside from  it;  tiL-avir merits, it is wellwrittelln,
is of a slpirituLl totne, aud w-ill interest and instruct bothi teachers
aiind scholars."
}~'ro!~  t..?\\;, v l 5,atc!nnL {:~,;' lleJpeetor, Bo0ston~.'
'A good book -showing tlhe wick.diiess  of Slaveliolding and
the folly of PLejtudice against Color.  It is  illustrated with engraviings, and is worthylv of beingt placed( in the hands of all week(cay awid Sabbath  School childicren."
iFro the Cor toist.
" Finiely illustrating the neglected fact, that true religion can
not exist without sympathy for the oppressed."
Irom t },Psteri  Witness.
"Throughout it exhibits faitlifully the work of grace in those
who are niew creatures i1i Chii st Jesus."
MEEOIR OF MRS. MARY LUNI)IE DUNCAN.
By her Mother.
310 pp. 18 mo. cloth gilt 40 cents.
This edition containis the whole of that accomplished and pious
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LETTERS TO SABBATH SCHOOL  C-IILDREN  ON AFRICA.
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A series of letters, in a familiar style, on Africa —its pI)hysical
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character of its inhabitants in respect to their present and social
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2
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By a Lady.
138 pp. 18 mo. cloth gilt, 25 cents.
From the Presbyterian Witness.
"This little book is another interesting volume from the Reformed Book and Tract Society. The authoress claims for her
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"If in any thing truth is stronger and more terrible than fiction,
it is in the working of the system of oppression in our land."
From the National Era.
"It depicts the evils of the system of buying and selling
human beings in a graphic manner.   The sympathies of the
reader are enlisted in the stoiy of Kate, a slave girl, rescued by
the initercession of Gertrude and Grace;  and yet wve can see
nothing, in the management of the incidents or language, that
ought to render the 1)ook offensive to our Southern friends.  It
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From the Religious Telescope.
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' Books like these are greatly needed in the United States, for
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" The mechanical execution is altogether superior to the generality of Sunday School Books.  We have read them both with
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3
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Exhibiting the sinfulness of Slaveholding in terms suited to
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MEMOIR OF REV. LEVI SPENCER:
150 pp. 18 mro. cloth gilt,.20 cents.
Successively Pastor of the Congreuga.tioiial Chirch of Cantol,
Bloomington and Peoria, Illiois, by Rev. J. Blanchl,rd, lPr'iesident
of Knox College.
The decided stand which Mr. Spenceer took on questions of
refor,n, will make thl' volumoi de   to evely friend of a pllre gospel imorality in the church
From the Corresponident.
' Truly he was a good man.   I said to mly faimily after reading
it, that no one with anv heart could  rea(d that work, iand arise
from it the same manl or womnan as l)efore."
CHILD'S BOOK ON SLAVERY, OR SLAVERZY MADE PLAIN.
150 pp. 18 mno. cloth gilt, 25 cents.
THE EDMONSON FAMILY, AND THE CAPTURE OF THE
SCHOONER    PEARL.
By Mrs. 11. B. STOWVE.  54 pp. 18 imo. cloth gilt, 12 cents.
"Thris is one of the m1ost attractive narratives in our Sabbath
School series.  It includes the whole account of that nmemorable
capture of the schooner Pearl, wThich produced such a sensation
in Washinigton, D. C. in the year 1848.  The facts are well authenticated."
THE  POWER OF PRAYER.
With other Christian Dut,-ies, illustrated by examples.  By C.
Morley. 36 pp). 18 nmo. boards, 8 cents.
A SHORT MEMOIR OF SAMIUEL DONNELL,  ESQ.
By JOTIN II ANK'N.  43J pp. 18 mo., bound, 10 cents.
This is a short memnoir of a devoted follower of Christ, who
through a loin, life, exemplified by his every day religion, the
excellency of the gospel of Christ. 
4
THE GOSPEL OF THE JUBILEE.
An explanation of tihe Typical Privileges secured to the Congregation and Pious Strangers by the Atonement on the morning
of the Jubilee, Lev. xxv: 9-46. By Samuel Crothers, Pastor
of the Presbyterian Congregation iii Greenfiell, Highland Co.,
Ohio.  Reprinted friomn the Authior's Edition of 1839. With an
introdluction by Rev. John Raikin.  222 pp. IS inmo. cloth gilt,
30 cents.
Presby-tria, Witaess.
" Those of our readers who have been acquainted with the late
Dr. Crothlers, will not need to be told that this is an able and
sound exposition of the privileges of the people on the morning
of the Jubilee.  Thie Rtelo:tii Book and Tract Society have done
a good work in republisliing it."
SLAVERY AND INFIDELITY, OR, STLAV,ERY IN THE CHURCH
INSURES INFIDELITY IN THE WVORLD.
By Rev. W. W. PATTON.  72 pp. 18 1mo. paper, 8 cents, cloth
gilt, 14 c(ints.
The de(sign of this (essay is thlis given by the Author-:
" I p)ropose to revel a, conspiracy (,'naist the ble,-ssed Volume,
around which clst,r all ou:r lope(s fir t1 ine and eteriity —to show
how profes,,,l fi ie,ds are underiniin;is inlunc i iCe ad pi1epa iing the way for its niuiversal r(iectioSC l. his'Tract wvill infoim
you of deadly issaults Cl)On the!ibe, whiCi instead, of being
repelled 1by tlose wlio ci  to. be tile tl       iuardiais of its reputation, are actuailvy iiivited ad enicouirae(i; tle defeiiders of ievelation  occlpying  i temse lve   witlh   iipplyiig wveapons to  the
assailants.' ou  will  learii  of  new iidal     unsuspected  forms
assumed by skepticism, and of traito,ouis "aid aud comfort" fiirnished  by the Benedict Arinolds of the church to the hearts of
unbelievers."
SINNERS FRIEND.
32 pp., paper cover, 3 cents.
A  reprint, more than  Fifteen Hinudired Thousand copies of
which have been published ii f'weity-tiree different Languages.
HINTS TO CHRISTIANS.
39 pp. clotlli stampled, 10 cenis, lpaper,:, cents.
Desi,ned to aid in their efforts to convert men to God, 
3
EVIDENCE OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
12mo. 117. pp. cloth gilt, price 25 cents. A republication of
a work published originally in England in 1791.
From a Reviewer.
It covers a wvide rai,;e of topics connected with the Slave
Tiaide: the enoriniies practiced in obtaining slaves on the coast
of Africa, the extet to w,icli those enornities are occasioned by
Europeans   the brotailitils of the sl,ave passage; the treatment
of slaves on the pl].Ltatioins   tihe capacities of the African race
in respect to refinenieit of feeli-ng and streingth of intellect; the
effects of slavery on  seiOaen.  In a wo-rcl, the book unrolls, as no
other work which has ever come to our knowledge does, this
volume of sin and misery.
ationial Era.
The persons who gave their testimony were  fromn all classes,
who had seeni the slave trade in its variedl aspects and relations.
Somne, too, were unnwilling witnesses; and notling' btht necessity
could lave broullnt them to such ail utterance and before such a
ba       lTere w e   over   sityv of tlhemi, imen hi(h li  i  rank r  and
station, as weli as thiese ilI nore humble  life.  It malkes one
slhddr,4l    and the very f lesh to crawl, as it were, to read some of
the stateiments of tliese wi       sss;  and  the reoollection that
(" a face answNeiethl to ftce in tlhe  water, so is th'e heart of
man," ) similar sceiies, in ell probability, mnust be enacte(l, even
now, somlnetinmeso in our countiry, as  well  as o0i  the coast of
Africa, the ocean and the  Spanisli West Iiidies, thirow i   a dark
slihade over the face of this hie of of the exile ani( boasted land
of the free.
We conmmend the voliue to the candiid reflection of all who
feel interested ini the decisio  of the question, whether wve shall
seek to avert God's wrath or secure  his blessing on this domrnain,
won by the toils, sufferings, and blootl of our fathers.
GOD  AGAINST SLAVERY.
This volume  contains thle sermous d(elivered bv Rev. Dr.
Cheever, to imil-euse crowds, at thli chtirch of the PtIritalis, and
elselwhere, in Oct-ober last, and his mafignificect address at the
Academy of 2losie.
It is a 12mno. book, of 272 pages, printed on handsome paper,
in large type, and neatly boiund in cloth.  Price 50 cents.  If
sent by mail, 60 cents. 
6
TACTS PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN REFORM
TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY.
Separation from Sin and Sinners, 24 pages.
Hebrew Servitude and American Slavery Compared, 8 pp.
Premium Tract on Slavery, 24 pp.
Agitation, the Doom of Slavery, 16 pp.
Slavery and the Bible, 12 pp.
The Bible Gives no Sanction to Slavery, by a Tennes      seean, 32 pp.
Sale of a Family of Slaves in Washington, D. C., 4 pp.
What is the Maine Law? 8 pp.
The Little Coat, 8 pp.
The Duty of Voting for Righteous men, 8 pp.
The Cornl Question, 8 pp.
Why  the Sale of Intoxicating Drinks should be Pro      hibited, 4 pp.
What it is to preach the Gospel, 24 pp.
Colonization Wrong, by John G. Fee, 48 pp.
Fellowship with Slavery, 32 pp.
Is it expedient to Introduce Slavery into Kansas? 24 pp.
Earthly Care a Heavenly Discipline, 83 pp.
The Three Damagers, or Read, Watch and Pray, 8 pp.
Pleas for Slaverv Answered, 24 pp.
A Tract for the Free States, 12 pp.
A Tract for the Slaveholding States, 12 pp.
I Don't Believe in Religion, 16 pp._
Did the World Make Itself? 16 pp.
Is God Everybody, and Everybody God(? 16 pp.
Have we any Need of the Bible? 24 pp.
Who Wrote the New'lTestament? 16 pp.
Is the Gospel Fact or Fable? 16 pp.
Can We Believe Christ and His Apostles?  16 pp.
Prophecy, 32 pp.
Inifidelity among the Stars.
Daylight before Sunrise.
The Family and Slavery, 24 pp.
The above are 12mo. Tracts; sold 15 pages for 1 cent.
Earthly Care, etc., 64mo. 16 pp., colored paper, I cent.
We  See Jesus, a Brief History of Jesus  Chlrist in simple
verse, 12 pp., 64mo. colored paper; 1 cent.
How Shall I Honor Jesus To-Day? 4 pp., 64mo. 3 f(ar 1 cent.
No. 1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
ii.
12.
13.
i4.
15.
i 6.
i7.
i 8.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
6.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
37. 
AN APPEAL BY THE DIRECTORS.
CININNATI, March, 1857.
Dear Brother in (Christ:
THE AMERICAN REFORM TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY is not intended to be one-sided in its character; but to be comprehensive
of all Christian Truth.
Its earlier work has been chiefly anti-Slavery. The pressing
want of such tracts called the Society into being.  We desire to
go on with this work.  But we do not desire to be restricted to
it. We wish to publish against Infidelity and Pantheism, defending the Gospel before all Infidels, multitudes of whom press
upon us.  We have just begun a series of twelve or sixteen most
able, fresh tracts of that nature. We wish to publish for the
Sabbath. The day is everywhere, and fearfully, desecrated.
We wish to put fresh and powerfol appeals for God's worship
before the mnasses.  We want to distribute an adapted Christian
literature through all this great West and South-West: such as
no society, not on the ground, is likely to prepare. We want to
do what we canll for Christ ill every direction. But, above all,
we are engaged in the great anti-Slavery struggle.  Other Tract
Societies will not, or do not, engage directly in it. Yet nothing,
nothingq, but an outspeakinig, pleading, reasoning, enlightening
literature, scattered on every wind and carried over the whole
land, will avail in this struggle.
Christian Brothelr, wve appeal to you for aid. We are sending
forth such a literature. We would send forth more, but especially weightier.  We want works of heavier metal: we want
works of power. We cannot draw much from the past for these.
The anti-Slavery question is not of the past. We cannot select
from the works of some old worthy of preceding centuries. We
shall be compelled to procure works from living authors.
Brother, will you aid us?-by pen; by purse; or appeal to
your friends?  Will you not bear part with us in this struggle?
We have no agent in the field: we rely upon voluntary helpers.
Our funds are small.  Thank God they are swelling.  We come
to you for aid.  It will not be in vain.    Yours respectfully,
REV. H. M. STORRS, Congregational.
REV. GEO. E. DAY, D. D., Lane Theological Sem.
REV. H. BUSHNELL, Congregational.
REV. R. H. POLLOCK, Associate Presbyterian.
REV. J. J. BLAISDELL, Presbyterian.
REV. GEO. D. ARCHIBALD, Ass. Reform  e$s'n.
REV. R. PATTERSON, Reformed Presbyterian.    Director.
LEVI COFFIN, Friend.
DR. J. P. WALKER,
JOHN JOLIFFE, ESQ.
A. E. D. TWEED, 
S. C. FOSTER.
Orders for Books, Donations, and all Communications for the
Society, should be addressed to        GEO. L. WEED,
Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer.
CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
OFFICE AND DEPOSITORY OF TIM
latrta. 28 WEST FOURTIt STREET.       tg
NO). 28 WEST FOURTH STRE:ET.
CINCINNATI, February 1, 1856.
THIE AlMERICAN REFORM TRACT AND Boox SOCIETY, it is believed,
is the offspring of necessity, brought into existence to fill a
vacuum left unoccupied by most other Publishing Boards and
Institutions-its object being to publish such Tracts and Books
as are necessary to awaken a decided, though healtlhful, agita tion on the great questions of Freedom and Slavery. This is its
primary object, though its constitution covers the broad ground
of "promulgating the doctrines of the Reformation, to point out
the application of the principles of Cliiistiaiity to every known
sin, and to show the sufficiency and adaptation of those principles to remove all the evils of the world and bring on a form of
society in accordance with the Gospel of Christ."   To spread
these principles of the Society broadcast over the land, it was
at first thought a weekly newspaper wvas indispensable, and the
Christian Press" was sent abroad, as on  the wings of the
wind, and we doubt not has done its mission for good.  But, as
funds were not furnished in sufficient amount to carry on a
weekly issue, and add to the number of Tracts and Books demanded, a year since, the Press was reduced in size, and issued
only monthly.  This change in policy has enabled the Society
to relieve itself of a debt which, a year since, threatened its
existence, and to add to the number of Tracts and Books, and
at the late annual meeting, to show assets, in Stereotype Plates,
Books, and Tracts, to the Amount of over $2,500, including
$1,184 in cash on hand, and clear of liabilities.   This favorable change in the affairs of the Society, it is hoped, will restore
confidence, and lead the active friends of Freedom and Reform to
come forward in voluntary co-operation with the Directors, and
add largely to our number of Tracts and Books, and to commission Colporteurs.
It is the aim of the present Directors to use  all possible
economy, and bring out a larger series of Tracts, and especially
to increase the number of Sabbath School Books, so that Sabbath
Schools may be furnished with a Christian Anti-Slavery Literature, in connection with other subjects, without unnecessary
delay.
The "Society Record" will hereafter be published monthly,
and sent free to all contributors and frienlds who will send us
their address.                           GEO. L. WEED,
Corresponding Secretary and Treasurer.