Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-09-11
r II L L Il Il L VI A N,
For the Freeman.
FAST DAY SERMON,
DELIVERED IN THE TOWN HOUSE AT
WILLISTON.
PUBLISHED by REQUEST.
TConcluded1

[ConcludedJ
The preachers of the gospel must preach dorm the
LqO of slavery as unoquivocally as they do tke Pagan
law enjoining idol worship; and christian voters, too,
must vote it down, as they do theft, adultery and muir
der, or else they never can apply the law of ten COM
mands to either slave Or master.
Thus we preach to the master, "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, for this is law Divine
but thou mayest 1ohip thy brother with all thy might; for
this is the law Of the land,-and the powers that be
are ordained of God. Thou shalt love thy white
~neighbor as thysclt; always ondeayoTing to assist him
in recapturing thy black n%eighbor when attempting to
escape from the operation of the slave laws, as thou
wouldst that he should assist thee
To the slave, shall we say, in the name Of the D-
vine ~lawgiver, "Thou shalt have no other gods before
me, except thy legal owner. Thou shalt not kill; thou
thine earthly master bid thee?"
But | forbear such mockery, and simply and sincere
ly say that, il the church would be faithful to fulfil her
Lords commission, she must preach and apply the doc
trines of the gospel, not only to men of one complex
ion-to men in this or that condition-to the different
races of men, taken separately-but to all nations-to
every human creature Unfortunately and collectively,
as one grand family and universal brotherhood; as sus-
tanning the same f%raternal relation to each other as
under the same obligations of gratitude to their COM
mon Redeemer, and the same fihal obligations to their
common Father, to whom are offered, all, the same,
great salvation; for God is no respecter Of persons.
But how is it, my brethren, that in spite of all this
ropor,1 apD1ioo+ion opd rs II would conuo tbiS Tpivor-
sal application, we should fail to apply the teaching to
ourselvcs-to carry out in practice the doctrine of the,
golden rule.
Have we been lavish of our rebuke on southern
slave owners; have we even excluded from our pulpits
and commune our southern slayeholding brethren;-
and how shall we ~exonerate ourselves when they throw
back the charge on uS}-the charge Of slayeholding!
The kind and humane master IN the District of Co.
lumbIa, or in Florida, may sigh, and pray, and labor all
in vain to abolish slavery there. lie must not approach
the table of our common Lord, because he will persist
to stand the door-keeber of the great pison-house
which we have built. But should he once unbar that
door, enlarge his prisoner, as soon as he should stray
beyond the pale of his masters protection, our gutter
law would hunt him down and fasten its more cruel
lungs upon lLul anu JuS I'M III lAC Ill0"H VI "N
ed States, to sell him for his jail fees, unless that same
kind master shall appear to claim his property, and thus
repeat the offence for which we made him unto us a
heather man. We are the guiltier Stockholders
We, church members in Vermont--tpe, fieemen-voters
here in W-n-re,w who have been better taught
than they,-lce, who might WELD the power Of fran
chise to a purpose which they cannot,-me are tho
more to blame, for we, by our laws of Congress, hold
fast the bondman, though they might be disposed to set
him free. We are responsible to break this yoke
The owners of those thirty thousand slaves in the Fed
eral District and Florida could never do it Tiff they were
disposed. Nor can we hope that all our prayers, and
preaching, and church resolves important and sound
as these may be) will ever dispose them were this me
sole end to gain till we cleanse hands from this blood
outlines by remembering those in bonds as bound
with them. not only in our prayers, and preaching, and
church meeting, but also at the ballot box. And while
we feel our obligation to fulfil our great commission,
let us be aware that whatever self-denying efforts We
NAV nut forth, whatever zeal display, we cannot claim
the promise "Lo | am with you Away" to crown those
efforts with success, to convert the heather slave, or to
reclaim his heather master-(for we have made him
heather by our church resolves until our practice and
our preaching better correspond.
You will perceive that our view of this manstealing
system not only duplicates the kidnappers, the buyers
and sellers of the slaves and souls of men for whom tho
.Flerda is now a State, by Act ct our cosgass