Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-03-04


ure of light neither the light nor the lack of ligh
+ of others. The light of to-day is the law for to
T day, neither the inferior measure we had ycstcr
= day, nor that higher measure we shall have to
morrow, If we spend the interval 10 good purpose
+ The same light in ALL but shining on men in diff
c erent conditions, and with varied capabilities 70,
r its recognition. Some are on the mountain TOP,
r with eagle eyes, some are down in narrow valleys
and yet others but catch its glimmerings through
ulhgy cellar windows, or the grating Of prisons
Inc same sun that enlightens us through the me.
dium OF the moon at midnight, through the me.
uium oil the atmosphere at twilight, and with his
direct reiulgent rays at monday. THE one some
Sun of righteousness that enlightened Enoch, and
Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, still shining
more and moro towards the perfect day, through
all the ages. We too can live in its light if We
choose to be the children of the light. "Let my
people go that they may serve me-" was Gods de-
mand OF Pharoah. LET my people 90 that they
may serve me-" is still the divine demand on ali
Pharoah's successors, and his plaques Of locusts
and lice, the deyouring and annoying yermn of
oicialisn, his plaques of darkness and death, are
and will be continued till not Pharoah is left on
Gods earth to dispute His authority.
What would be the consequence if people were
to make this Higher Law their law study and
conformity TO its requirements the business of their
lives if they made it their guiding pillar of cloud
by day, and their pillar of fro by night, journey
ing only when it moved, and encamping when IL
halted, if in all their doings and not doings they
silenced every Glamour Of selfshnoss and passion,
and carefully attended to the still small voice of
conscience, could they be otherwise than excmpla-
ry in every right relation of life? Under such
discipline what evil work could prosper, or what
good work could lack support Is there a debas-
ing habit, or n wicked institution, from cigar
smoking to slave holding, that would not be con-
demned and executed if brought to the tribunal of
conscience? The beauty Of spring and the fruit
fulncss of summer, under the genial showers and
sunshine Of heaven, do not more infallbly succeed
the scrlity of winter than would the present dis
order and misery of the moral world be succeeded
by the bloom, the beauty and the fruits Of right
cousness, if the Higher Law had its due Could
we insure it that children and young people should
grow up in habitual obedience to this law, we
should have insurance against every groyeling
pursuit and vicious practice the best insurance for
bodily health and long life, and for cearness' or
intellect insurance for amiability of disposition
and for truer politeness and better breeding than
can ever be attained by mere routine letter edu-
cation; insurance that the temporary and perma-
nent connections of life should all be Of the best
possible character insurance for the best education
of children, insurance for purity and dignity of
character, for useful and noble lives, and for q
green and cheerful old age.
II IL. A.
characteriscd,-by their allegiance to conscience
In the worst of times, in the most desperate cir
cumstanccs, when rottenness, and hollowness, and
hypocrcy, and lies and tyranny, and slavery
have seemed to make up the staple commerce of
human intercourse, God has not left Himself with
out witnesses. few there have always been who
could neither be coaxod, or bribed or be terrified
or driven from their loyalty to conscience
When outward law has been notoriously but all
manner Of wickedness systematized and authorized,
these, good and true, have found their salvation by
looking from the outward to the inward from low
or law to the higher from man to God While the
kingdom of hell was all without, they have found
the kingdom of heaven within them, and their in
corruptibleness has proved the nucleus of revolu-
tons The standard bearers of right, their example
has become at length contagious and they have led
the people on to higher life.
But is it only at such seasons, when outward
rule has become unbearable, and revolution inev-
table, that the Higher Law has its missionH Is it
only to settle the commotion of an earthquake that
the law Of gravity has its missionS its operation is
constant and universal. If the Higher Law is
competent to right the gross wrongs that occasion
revolutions, surely it is capable of keeping all
right in ordinary circumstances. The law of gray
ty is not more constant and universal in its opera
ton than is this Higher Law, and the aceumula-
ton Of evil which revolutions have to remedy, is
nothing more than the little-by-little departures
from the strictness of Higher Law require
ments.
Reformers themselves have seldom had any in
teligent conception Of the law under which they
acted. They have been wiser than they knew
They have been unconscious illustrations Of the all
suficency of the inward law, have really set Gus
toms, and precedents, and outward laws at defiance,
but have not gone so far as to ignore all outward
law formally and ayowedly. They have dreampt
that some form of outward law was necessary,
while all their usefulness, though they knew it not
was attributable to their disregard of the outward
and their faithfulness to the inward They have
been embodyments Of a new and higher phase of
life, adapted themselves to the new conditions, to
the growing wants of their age but not comprc-
hending the glorious Allsuffciency of that inward
inspiration by which they acted they have given
to some form Of the outward the honor that was
exclusively due to the inward they have permitted
their new discoveries and new truths to be formal
lied into a new creed, to take the place Of some
older creed, and to be used by their nominal fol
lowers for no better purpose than to embarris and
obsruct the further advances Of other faithful fol-
lowers of the inward light. Examples of the re-
ncwing power Of this inward law these people have