the citizens of these free and independent States! this one appalling fact, what American will not his country, when he reflects that God is just !"

In view of "tremble for

CHAPTER V.

DAVID.

God has always manifested a peculiar pity and regard for the oppressed and he promises his blessing upon all such as imitate Him in this thing.

1. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear; to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the men of the earth may no more oppress. Ps. x, 17.

2. When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them; he forgetteth not the cry of the humble. Ps. ix, 12.

3. For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. Ps. xii, 5.

4. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him he heard. Ps. xxii, 24.

5. Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth; and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing; thou wilt make up all his bed in his sickness. Ps. xli, 1.

The

6. The LORD will command his loving kindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Ps. xlii, 8.

7. But unto the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do, to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Ps. 1, 16.

8. Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of

the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. Ps. lxxii, 1.

9. For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight. Ps. lxxii, 12.

10. Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Ps. lxxxii, 3.

11. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance; in thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. Ps. lxxxix, 15.

12. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Ps. ciii, 6.

13. Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Ps. cxix, 134.

14. I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor. Ps. cxi, 12.

15. The LORD looseth the prisoners; the LORD openeth the eyes of the blind; the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down; the LORD loveth the righteous; the LCRD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. Ps. cxlvi, 7.

NOTES ON CHAPTER V.

1. Thou wilt prepare their heart. Thou wilt give them a disposition to seek after thee. So the great and good Being often sheds light upon the dark mind of the poor slave, who is oppressed, notwithstanding the unjust and cruel laws which are enacted to keep him in darkness. And when the heart of the afflicted is thus prepared, God hears the prayer which they offer unto Him.

2. He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. Let no one be discouraged in praying for the deliverance and salvation of the enslaved; God may seem not to hear for awhile, but the prayer of faith shall not be forgotten, it shall be answered in due time. God remembers not only the oppressed, but also those who make inquisition for their blood. The following account of some of the bloody inquisitions of this land, is from the pen of Dr. J. Torry, of Philadelphia. He says:

"Thomas Clarkson states, in his History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade,' that the arrival of slave-ships on the coasts of Africa, was the uniform signal for the immediate commencement of wars for the attainment of prisoners, for sale and exportation to America and the West-Indies. In Maryland and Delaware, the same drama is now performed in miniature. The arrival of the Man-Trafficers, laden with cash, at their respective stations near the coasts, or at their several inland posts, near the dividing line of Maryland and Delaware, (at some of which they have great prisons for the purpose) is the well known signal for the professed kidnappers, like beasts of prey, to commence their nightly invasions upon the fleecy flocks; extending their ravages, (generally attended with bloodshed and sometimes with murder,) and spreading

terror and consternation, among both freemen and slaves, throughout the sandy regions, from the western to the eastern shores. These blood-hounds, when overtaken, which is rare, by the messengers of the law, are generally found armed with instruments of death, sometimes with pistols with patent spring daggers attached to them." In this way thousands of innocent unoffending men, women and children, have been stolen and carried from their friends and homes in this land of boasted freedom, and themselves and posterity doomed to suffer all the horrors of an unending bondage.

3. Now will I arise, saith the Lord.

With such promises as these, the Bible abounds; and as sure as God is true, so surely he will yet undertake for the op pressed. At the same time, we should keep in view his longsuffering and patience towards the oppressor; He pities these also, and commands them to repent, and it becomes our duty to pity them, and pray for them accordingly.

4. He hath not despised the affliction of the afflicted. The poor and the afflicted are generally despised by those who are the cause of the evils which they suffer; but the affliction of the oppressed is not despised by the Great God.

5. Considereth the poor.

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By finding out their condition, visiting them, and adminis tering to their wants. As a most remarkable example of this kind, let the reader consult the life of John Howard, and he will perceive how strictly the promise was fulfilled, which is made here to those who perform this heavenly work.

6. Why hast thou forgotten me?

This inquiry the Psalmist was sometimes led to make when he was in trouble; and when we reflect for a moment upon the accumulated wrongs which millions of the population of this country are doomed to suffer by the slave-system, can we wonder that some of them should adopt this language? Is it