The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-10
THE NATIONAL ERA WASHINGTON D. c., NOVEMBER TO- 1853

Lord to be his servants, every one that keeper
the Sabbath from polluting It, and tsketh hole
of nv covenant even them will bring to my
holy mountain and make them joyful in my
house of PRAYER: their burnt offerings shall be
accepted on nv altar.o-ISd. lvi, 6, 7. And
was this gracious promise fulfilled in making
the stran gers and their children an inheritance
and Possession of slaves TO the Jews forever
Could it possibly be shown that notwith
standing the promises made and the privileges
offered TO proselytes who would settle in Judea
and the love professed for them by Jehovah
they were nevertheless sold in the market by
his command as slaves the uncircumcised might
well rejoice, the infdel blasphemer and the be.
lever in Revelation hang his head in specifics
confusion and sore amazement. We have nc
lack of divines who profess to find IN the pas
sage in Leyitcus full and unanswerable argu'
nent for the lawfulness of negro Slavery, but
not one of them has ever ventured on the des-
perate task of indicating the consistency OF
the alleged slavery of strangers in Israel with
the promises made to them, and the laws enact
ed for their protection, comfort, and happiness
and all the libraries of Europe and America
might be searched in vain for such q vlndica-
! ton.
! If there be such a thing upon earth as OPP
preston, it is developed in all its most loath-
some forms in chattel Slavery. for such Slavery
| is yendible despotism over both soul and body.
It depryes an intelligent and immortal being
of volition, of Judgment, of conscience, and re-
duces him to a mere animated machine, retain
ing, indeed, consciousness Of wrong and a SEN
sibility to suffering, but possessing no power to
promote and pursue its own welfare and hap
piness-a parent without children, husband
without wife, man without manhood, an
immortal without the power of serving and
worshipping his Maker, but at the pleasure
and dictation of master. IL there be mean
ing in words if there be truth in Scripture, if
there be holiness in God, such a system of OPP
preston must be hateful in the sight of HIM
with whom we have to do. Yet is it contend
ed that the Almighty by his divine sovereign.
ty, subjected strangers IN Israel to such a sys-
TEN of oppression Let Us meet the charge by
still further appeals to the volume Transportation.
The Judges of Israel are commanded to
"iudge righteous Judgment between every man
and his brother, and the STRANGER that is with
him "-DeW. i, Is To every Jew in Israel
was addressed the injunction: Thou shalt
neither vex a STRANGER nor Cypress him.
Err. xxi, 81. "Thus saith the Lord execute
We judgment and righteousness, and deliver the
spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, and
do no wrong, do no violence TO the sTRANGER"-
Jer. xiii g. "The people of the land have
used oppression-yea, they have oppressed the
STRANGER wrongfully; wherefore have pour
ed ont my indignation upon them "-Esek xxi,
%, 30 Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts
Cypress not the widow nor the fatherless, nor
. bo I.eL nj;
And are we, indeed, asked to believe that
God did himself establish an institution in Is
rael, which outraged all these injunctions, and
rendered the stranger victim of the foulest
oppression?
Once more: jeremiah witnessed the capture
of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple
and the exile of his people. AS the sword Of
divine vengeance was about to fall on the guilty
nation and as the army from Babylon was APP
preaching the doomed city, the last of the Jew
ish kings, trembling on his throne, desired the
prophet to inquire what was to be the result of
the invasion of his kingdom At this last hour
when the knell of the Jewish nation was ready
to sound, merciful God offered to avert the
ruin, and to secure the prosperity
and perpetuity of the kingdom, on certain con-
ditions, IL is remarkable that in this last ex-
tremty, Jehovah demands as the ransom of the
temple, the city, and the nation, not the due
of the Jewish ritual not the forms
but the substance of religion not sacrifices
and fasts, and oblations but JUSTICE and MER-
CY to the poor, the oppressed, and the STRAIN
GER. The answer returned to Zndekiah was
Hear the word of the Lord, o King of Judah,
that stitch on the throne of David-thou and
thy servants and thy people that enter in by
these gates, thus saith the Lord: Execute We
judgment and Righteousness, and deliver the
spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor and
do no wrong, do no violence to the STRANGER,
the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed in
nocent blood in this place. For if ye do this
thing, indeed, then shall there enter in by the
gates of this house kings sitting upon the
throne of David riding in chariots and on
horses, he and his servants and his people.
But if we will not hear these words ! swear by
myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall be-
come tion."-xxii, 3-5.
But the hearts and conscences Of the king
and his mobiles and his great men were petrii-
ed by tho long exercise of oppression. SO far
from hearing these words spoken by the AL
mighty, they added to the vast and accumula-
ted mass of their wickedness the browning crime
Of forcibly reducing their poor brethren to SER
vitude. Even while "the King of Babylon's
army fought against jerusalem and while a
long-suffering God WAS allowing them a re-
prieve of u few months this besotted and infat-
uated people compelled their six years servants
to continue to serve them after the expiration
of their term, and thus brought them into
subsection for servants and for landmarks" OF
course against their will, and without wages
Again was the voice of Jehovah heard, speak,
ing through his prophet "Thus saith the Lord
20 have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming
liberty, every one to his brother, and every man
to his neighbor; behold, proclaim liberty
for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
pestilence, and to the famine; and will make
you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
earth. "-xxxiv, II.
This last act of oppression, in subjecting their
own brethren to n condition differing but little
from slavery, filled up the measure of the ma
tons iniquty, Presently tho desolated city
the smoking ruins of the gorgeous temple, the
king in letters and long trains of captives wcnd
ing their way to Babylon, bore testimony to the
truth of those attributes which God had long
centuries before claimed as belonging to him
self: "The Lord God, merciful and gracious
long-sufering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
lniquity and transgression and sin, and thai
will by no means clear the guilty"
TO BE CONCLUDED IN OUR NEXT