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and their children may be, and they are separated and parted forever, at the irresponsible will of the master.

7. The laws of Moses secured to servants the necessary means of instruction and consolation.

But no such laws exist in this land; here the operation of the laws tends directly to deprive the slaves of all "mental “ and religious "instruction," for their whole power is exerted to keep their slaves in the lowest kind of ignorance.

8. The laws of Moses require every one to pity and love the stranger who might chance to come among the Jews, and under severe penalties they were forbidden to vex or oppress them in any way.

Here, the laws view every colored stranger as an enemy, and they consider him a slave until he proves his freedom.

9. If a servant escaped from his master and fled to the land of Israel, the law of Moses commanded every one to protect him; and forbade any one to deliver such to his master again.

But here, if a slave escape from his master, and flee to any part of the United States, the law forbids any one to protect him, and cominands that he be delivered up to his master.

10. The Mosaic law forbade man-stealing as the highest kind of theft, and condemned the perpetrator to suffer death as the penalty.

But here, thousands of legally free people of color have been stolen, and sold into hopeless and involuntary servitude, as many now are every year, in this nation; and there is no law by which they can redress their wrongs.

CHAPTER IV.

JOSHUA, JOB, AND EZRA.

God has always delivered his people from the oppression of their enemies, when they cried unto Him for deliverance.

1. And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. Jud. ii, 18.

2. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drove them out from before you and gave you their land. Jud. vi, 8.

3. And Zidonians also and the Amalekites and the Maonites did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Jud. x, 12.

4. Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hew

ers of wood and drawers of water, for the house of my God. Josh. ix, 23.

5. There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest. There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. The small and the great are there; and the servant is free from his master. Job, iii, 17.

6. To him that is afflicted, pity should be showed from his friend. Job, vi, 14.

7. The wicked man travaileth in pain all his days, and the number of days is hidden to the oppressor. A dreadful sound is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him. Job, xv, 20.

8. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not, surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly; he shall not save of that which he desired. Job, xx,

19.

9. This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. Job, xxvii, 13.

10. When the ear heard me then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me; because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. Job, xxix, 11.

11. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out. Job, xxix, 15.

12. If I did dispise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God riseth up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Job xxxi, 13.

13. If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering, if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. Job, xxxi, 16.

14. By reason of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed to cry; they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. Job, xxxv, 9.

15. He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ears in oppression. Job, xxxvi, 15.

16. And now for a little space grace hath been showed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage. “ Ezra, ix, 8.

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NOTES ON CHAPTER IV.

1 Them that oppressed them. The Jews were delivered into the hands of their enemies, not unfrequently, as a chastisement for their sins; yet, even in these cases, God regarded their groanings, and when they cried unto him, he saved them from the power of their oppressors. But the bondage which the slaves of this land are now suffering, is not a punishment for any sin which they can have committed; they are guilty of no crime either against God or man, for which they are now enslaved; and hence there is so much the more reason to believe, that when they cry unto the great avenger of wrongs, he will hear and deliver them.

And will not this language

2. And gave you their land. apply, with some degree of propriety, to the people of this nation? Have we not been delivered from the hand of the oppressor? Do we not now inherit the land that once belonged to others? And shall we now, in our turn, become the oppressors of the poor and defenceless? It is a remarkable fact, that this nation does now oppress a greater number of its own citizens, by the system of slavery which it upholds, than the whole number of our forefathers who were oppressed formerly by the government of Great Britain! Yes, a greater number of the citizens of these United States are now far more cruelly oppressed by our own government, than our ancestors were, who rose in rebellion sixty years ago against the government of England; and one hour of that bondage which we now inflict on three millions of our own citizens, as Jefferson remarks, is fraught with more misery and guilt, than ages of that which we rose in rebellion to oppose !

3. Ye cried to me, and I delivered you. The oppression

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