ä marvellous thing, that many of them should be tempted to think that there is no God of justice? That their masters, who profess to love him and their fellow men as themselves, are hypocrites?

7. Thou consentedst with him.

And by what process of reasoning can it be shown that every slaveholder in this land does not, in some sense, countenance the conduct of the adulterer and the man-thief? The man who makes a habit of using intoxicating liquors, even if it be ever so temperately, is now set down by the voice of nearly the whole Christian world, as countenancing and promoting the cause of intemperance; and if he be a professed Christian or Christian minister, his example is believed and known to be so much the more pernicious and fatal in its influence. For who does not know that the unprincipled, intemperate rum-drinker, does invariably refer to the habit of the very good Christian who uses the liquid poison, as a sufficient justification of his intemperance?

And the more good which may be said of such a professing Christian, in some respects, the more dependence will be placed, by the intemperate, upon his example. And it is precisely so of the very kind and Christian enslavers of the human species; they do the very samé to perpetuate the crime and the evils of slaveholding, which the respectable and Christian rum-drinker, or the Christian distiller, does, to perpetuate the evils of intemperance. And it is remarkable, that the most conclusive argument which can be adduced at the present day in favor of slaveholding under any circumstances, is the fact, that both Christians and Christian ministers, nay, some of the most kind and respectable people at the South and West are SLAVEHOLDERS!!! Now can any candid observer fail of seeing that these very respectable, kind, and Christian ENSLAVERS of the human species, stand just as

much in the way of the final abolition of slavery, and the do mestic slave-trade in this country, as the respectable and Christian DISTILLERS and RUM-DRINKERS do in the way of the temperance reformation?

How frequently the opposers of slavery are now tauntingly asked, "why do you not send your agents to the South, where slavery exists?" We answer, for the very same reason that temperance agents do not spend their strength in preaching to the intemperate. We know that all successful action in the anti-slavery cause, as well as in the temperance cause, must be carried on by those who are not "partakers with" such as commit the evils which it is intended to remove.

8. He shall break in pieces the oppressor.

This is said of Christ; and so far as Christianity has prevailed in other civilized countries, it has already annihilated slavery, and broken the iron arm of the oppressor.

10. Deliver the poor.

We shall see in the course of these chapters, that there are as many commands in the Bible to a third person to deliver the oppressed out of the hand of the oppresser as there are commands to the oppressor to let the oppressed go free.

11. The joyful sound.

The sound of the trumpet, on the morning of the first day of the jubilee. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day of atonement, shall ye make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto ALL THE INHABITANTS thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. Lev. xxv, 9. Hence it appears, that on the arrival of this joyful day, all the inhabitants of the land of Judea

were free, and every one received again his forfeited or lost possessions.

13. So will I keep thy precepts.

Hence the sin of oppression; it incapacitates the oppressed from obeying all the precepts of God. How can those females in this land fulfill, or how may they be expected to fulfill, all of God's commands, when they are not permitted to read them, and when they have no protection, either in the laws or in public sentiment, for their purity or persons? They may be compelled to submit to the beastly lusts of any white man, by the stroke of the cowhide, or to avoid death, without the possibility of any redress! How can those slaves who are husbands, (in the sight of God,) and who are fathers also, fulfill that command which makes it their duty to love their wives, and provide for their families, when they are torn from their wives and children, and sold into a distant part of the country? The command of God makes it their duty to bring up their children "in the knowledge and discipline of God," but they are not suffered either to read the Bible themselves, or to teach their children to read it! God commands all children to honor their parents, and obey them in the Lord, but the children of more than a million of parents in this land, are prohibited, and hindered from doing this, by the laws of the States where they live; and the same laws prohibit all colored persons, whether slaves or free, from worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences. statutes of Virginia ordain that any free person of color, whether ordained or not, for preaching or exhorting at any religious meeting, may be seized by any person without a warrant, and punished with thirty-nine lashes; and any free person of color attending such a meeting may be seized and punished in a like manner. Similar laws are in force in the other slave States; so true it is, that civil and religious liberty generally stand or fall together.

The

CHAPTER VI.

SOLOMON.

God has threatened his displeasure against all such as forbear to deliver the poor and the needy from the hands of those who oppress them.

1. The poor is hated even of his own neighbor; but the rich hath many friends. He that despiseth his neighbor, sinneth; but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. Prov. iv, 20.

2. He that oppresseth the poor, reproacheth his maker; but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor. Prov. xiv, 31.

3. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich shall surely come to want. Prov. xxii, 16.

4. Rob not the poor, because he is poor; neither oppress the afflicted in the gate; for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them. Prov. xxiii, 22.

5. Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless; for their Redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee. Prov. xxii, 20.

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

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

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

9. So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and, behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no had no comforter.

iv, 1.

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Eccl,

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

Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad;

and a gift destroyeth the heart. Eccl. vii, 7. vi of

12. All the brethren of the poor do hate him; how