Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-05-14
From the Iermont Chronicle.
The principles Of Rev. G. Walkers Ser"
mon applied to American Slavery.
Ofthe Termout Chronicle :

Editors ofthe TermOnt Chronicle:
The "extra" has fallen into many hands, and is
read with interest. The sermon it contains from Rom.
IA: l3-"BM Judge this rather, that no man put a Stum-
bling block, or an occasion to fall IN his brothers, tcqy;"
is performing its work. The friends of reform are not
i~nsensible of the aid you are giving them, in its pub
LEGATION, at this time. We hail it, not as a nelO dis
covery, or as a "ncW measure" to arrest the progress of
a mighty evil. But, we do receive it as a plain and
faithful exposition of principles, the light of which all
temperance men have been pouring in upon the dark
denominations of intemperance for a long time past. 1t
clearly states truths which we all should blush to dis
own, at this late period of the warfare. The respec-
ted author claims no credit of originality or discovery.
The honor of standing unmoved, upon the moveless
rock of truth, in the shock of battle, we c~beertully ac-
cede to him a higher honor than that Of a discoverer.
He tells us that "there are several practices common
in community" which are opposed. to the text by which
he might illustrate the melancholy fact that many a
man who wished to be thought respectable, and even
benevolent, will, Notwithstanding, pursue his own
pleasures or gains "by putting a stumbling block or an
occasion to fall in his brothers way" This fact is
clearly illustrated in reference to one topic, viz, The
prevalent habits IN regard TO the use and sale Of intOri-
eating liquors. | propose to prove the same fact, by
the same principles applied to "another practice COM
mon' in this land; viz, The practice ofhotding men in
SdUery.
/. The man who holds another in his power, as his
properly, VI D Is "CutlleI peTSOHdl, puLS IL Summing
block or an occasion to fall in his brothers way.
Whether Christian or infdel, protestant or catholic, if
he becomes and continues the owner of one whom his
"Creator has made free and equal" he commits a sin of
no ordinary character. Surely il fit be a sin at all, it
can be no small sin. For what is Slavery? What
are its enormities? Lest | may seem to exaggerate, |
will answer in the language of witnesses who will not
be charged with fanatcism, by the readers of the
Chronicle. Says Jonathan Edwards, whose praise is
in all the churches, at is as really wicked to rob a
man of his liberty, as to rob him of his life; and it is
much more wicked than to rob him of his property. To
hold IA man in a state of Slavery, is to be every day
guilty of robblng him of his liberty or man-stealing."
Let another witness testify, whose competency will
not be questioned. "Never wasa system so big with
wickedness and cruelty. In whatever part of it you
direct your view, the eye finds no comfort, no ~satistac-
ton, no relief. y Slavery is the
full measure of pure, unmixed, unsophisticated wick
edness, and scorning all competition, or comparison 1t
stands without a rival in the secure, undlsputed pos
session of its d~etestable pre-eminepce,"
Is this language severe? 1t is so because no other
language can portray %iniquity so fearful. Milder
terms cannot describe it. He therefore who engages
in such a system, is guilty of a glazing immortality.
But the evil stops not here. He "lays an occasion
to fall in his brothers ways" This principle is gran
ted,so far as it respects the use of intoxicating drinks.
Can a man be benevolent who gives his example in
favor of an Immortality which carries its tens of thou
sands down to the gulf of intamy every year?
Is not the act of robbing an equal of all his inalien-
able rights-is not the act of holding him in the con-
dition of property-his earnings and his offspring for
ever, a sin equal in enormity to that of habitually us
ing intoxicating drinks as a beverage? | would not
diminish one drop from the ocean of tears, which this
habit of drinking has caused, in order TO make a strong
case of the parallel sin. In full view of the countless
miseries to which this habit leads, | ask, is not the
practice of holding men in bonds equally fruitful Of
evil? Is it not prolific in groans and tears and death
death temporal and eternal? Is not, therefore, the
man who holds in his power another, whom he regards
as his property, guilty, and is he not, by his example,
"laying a stumbling block in the way of his brother ~
Q) He puts an occasion to fall in the way of his
tUeaker brother-+he StGUe. He holds him in a condition
which tempts the slave to be idle and lazy, to be
thievish and %prodigal to cherish hatred instead of
love, sail uncleanness" instead of purity, and to lift HIS
m%urderous hand and cut short his own bitter existence,
or to'strike down his oPpressQg,