Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-03-04
WHOLE NO. 439.

J. is the completion. The influence Of the Higher
@ Law is continually countemcting this mental do.
terioration, and has moreover developed from what
were once no higher than our present lowest forms
Of humanity, our most glorious moral and inteec-
tua specimens Those forehcads Of which we ars
so justly proud, but for this Higher Law would
have been as retreating suppose as those Of
= keys. 1t is consoling to know that shams and
echos, and unprnciped politicians and divines, do
not include the whole Of human kind. Thsro are
true people in the world, intercourse with whom
if we have any truthfulness ourselves. VIC always
find so refreshing. so good. Men and women who.
feeling the dignity Of their own natures and
the solemn responsibility imposed by God 70 DO
justice to those nuturcs must needs think for them
selves, and shape their conduct thereby. Only
these people win real respect; they force il from
their enemies even, and they build up for themselves
reputation that will bear everlasting criticism.
4 ] can find no fitting words to approach to any
adequate description Of the destructive influence 70
public and private virtue which this outward sr.
thority constantly exercises. This fugitive slave
law has been tolerated these three years by these
enlightened free States, and that law is but nm in
cident, circumstance Of slnvory itself which Is
scquiesced in by popular Indifference, and snis its
brazen and heartless defenders from northern pul.
Pit9 "hu picSoc9s lou remember the little
lent, putting, consequential constable that accom-.
panied Marks and Tom Loker to the foot Of the
strong hold where George Harris and his Eliza and
their child had taken refuge. His speech George
Harris was after this wise You see we're officers
OF justice, we've got the law our side and tho
power, and 50 forth 50 you had better give up
peaeeably, you sec, for you'll certainly have TO
give up tlast' That is specimen Of the stup.
I ifxi gln -. IN.
law All that is false, and unjust, and cruel. aud
mean' hnds itself made respectable 10y being em-
bodied in law, so called. Deeds that would hayo
to be done by stealth, under the darkness of night,
and by isolated individuals Jy Iaso can be done by
hosts OF people together in the face of day. What
ccturing and writing, and what years Of laborious
agitation to get the public conscience cultivated to
any decent appreciation Of the planest dictates 90
justice, if the injustice sought to bo removed has
hut the authority and rospeetability of outward
law. You may preach of God and conscience. OF
justice, Of the golden rule, and YOU might clap,or
to the tenants of graveyard with almost as much
success. Those law-abiding people, MS thew aro
called, accustomed regard noiaw Dut the outxuIa,
taught by hireling priests to regard tho inward
light of Gods Holy Spirit as the promp,ngs of tho
devil, habitually disregarding the inward, they
become capable of every enormity of believing tlid
most palpable absurdities, and committing tho
grossest crimes, well nigh without compunction or
hcsitancy. They arc the plant tools of Injustice
whenever wickedness has end to accom- plish;.
What would be the worth of all slave-power cnact.
ments among moral people, among people thas
feared God, and made his spirit their law To es
cape the requirements Of the Higher Law, so broad
so deep, so high, people resort to Rulers and
Priests. Docs not our own experience furnish our
memories with many an instance of this kind
How often we have found ourselves going or dis
posed to go to some human authority, may be to
some friend for advice in some case of conscience.
with the plausible preense to ourselves Of seeking
light, when the real object has been to escape tho
light, and to get dispensati.n TO excuse us from
the hard duty which conscience was imposing And
we know if we are accustomed to self-disciplinehow
much easier 1t is TO pass muster even before our
nearest friends than to pass muster before this nl
ward examiner. Can the mischief that is being
done, day by day, by all this po litica and pridtlv
influence be weighed, or measured, or computed.
pompous oiHcialism, fussng and working as if
creations life depended it, tending and over
astingly tinkering clumsy and infinitely expensive
machinery, for propelling through human souls the
choke-damp Of hell II substitute for "tle imper<
ial air Of the heaven Of heavens" They succeed
in soaring the conscences of men, they call evil
good and good evil aud get their lies made current;
but they save men from the consequences Of
making lies and injustice the law of life? Verify,
nay. We reap Ms we SOW. Men do not gather
grapes Of thOrns nor figs of thistes If we SOW to
the flesh, we Of the flesh must reap corruption,
Penalty and transgrcssion go together fxcdly as
fate.
Is il not good to he identified however humbly
with this Higher Law obedience with those people
and that class Of influences to which our world ia
indebted for all its glory? Thus we become tho
children Of faithful Abraham, Jews nwardly no,
i by the circumcision which is outward in the flesh
but by the circumcision Of the heart. whose praise
is not Of men but Of God true priests in the apos-
tolical succession, not y the laying on Of hands Of
a traditional priesthood but by the amounting of
the Holy Spirit, members of the Holy Catholio
Church, against which the gates Of hell mover pre-
vail. That the value of separation from religious
and political sects to be free to follow whitherso-
ever it leads, the Holy Spirit Of God. Not to be
without law, but to be subject to the highest law
nat daring or wishing to avail ourselves of tho
license which all lower law is proved to Lc. Thus
living, we may becomingy enjoy the fruits of Col,
umbus' Higher Law discovery, and the fruits of
Puritan enterprise and suffering aud Of Quaker
faithmlnoss 10 the inward light. We are not idly
folding our hands or solhshly and meanly appro.
priatine the fruits Of the labors and suferings Of
our predecessors, but arc honorably doing for the
: future what the past has done for us. A. life so
spent will bear to be looked back upon we climb
successive eminences reputation SO won can
defy slander and misrepresentation. Such an ex-