Squatter sovereign., 1855-06-05

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the guilty, the master and the servant. We
all believe him to be- a Being who is the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever.
The first recorded language which was
ever uttered IN relation to slavery, is the
inspired language of Noah In Gods
stead he says, 'sCursed be Canaan ssa ser
want of servants shall he be to his breth-
ren." BLESSED be the Lord God of Shem;
and Canaan shall be his servant" "God
shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell
in the tents of Shem; andCanaan shall be
his servant" Gen. tx. 25, 26, 81. Here
language is used, showing the faoor which
| God would exercise to the posterity of
Shem and Japheth, while they were hold
ing the posterity Of Ham in a state Of ab-
ject bondage. May it not be said in truth,
that God decreed this institution before it
existed; and has he not connected its eris-
teace, with prophetic tokens of special fa-
vor, to those who should be slave owners
or masters? He is the same God now,
that he was when he gave these views of
his moral character to the world; and un-
less the posterity of Shem and Japheth,
| from whom have sprung the Jews, and all
the nations of Europe and America, and a
great part Of Asia, (the African race that
is IN them excepted, )-I say, unless they
are ali dead. as well as the Canaanites OF
| Africans, who descended from Ham, then
it is quite possible that his favor may now
be found with one class of men, who are
holding another class in bondage. Be this
as it may, God dscreed Slavery shows
in that decree, tokens Of goodwill to the
master. The sacred records occupy but a
short space from this inspired ray on this
subject, until they bring to our notice a
man, that is held up as a model, in all that
adorns human nature, and as one that God
delighted to honor. This man is Abra-
ham, honored in the sacred records with
the appellation, Father of the "faithful." ;"
Abraham was a native of Ur of the Chal-
dees. From thence the Lord called him
to go to country which he would show
him; and he obeyed, not knowing whittier
he went. He stopped for a time at Haran,
where his father died. From thence he
'stook Sarah his wife, and Lot his brothers
son, and all their substance, that they had
gathered, and the souls they had gotten in
Haran, and they went forth to go into the
land of Canaan" Gen. xiii 5.
All the ancient Jewish writer's of note,
and Christian commentators agree, that by
the 'souls they had gotten In Haran,' as
our translators render il, are meant their
slaves, OF those persons they had bought
with their money in Haran. In a few
years after their arrival in Canaan, Lot
with all he had was taken captive. So
soon as Abraham heard it, he armed three
hundred and eighteen slaves that were
born in his house, and retook him. How
great must have been the entire slave fami-
ly, to produce at this period of Abraham's
life, such a number of young slaves able to
bear arms. Gen. xiv. IA.
Abraham is constantly held up in the
sacred story as the subject of great distinc-
ton among the princes and sovereigns of
the countries in which he sojourned. This
distinction was not on account of his great
wealth. When he proposed to buy bu-
rying ground at Sarah's death of the chill
dren of Heth, he stood up and spoke with
great humility of himself as ga stranger
and sojourner among them,'' (Gen. XIII.
4, } desirous to obtain a burying- ground
But in what light do they look upon him?
"Hear us, my Lord, thou art mighty
prince among u.s. Gen. XIII. 6. Such
is the light in which they viewed him.
What gave a man such distinction, among
such a people2 Not moral qualities, but
great wealth, and its inseparable eoncomi-
tant, power. When the famine drove
Abraham to Egypt, he received the high
est honers of the reigning sovereign. This
honor at Pharaoh's court was called forth
by the visible tokens of immense wealth.
In Genesis Xii. Is, Is, we have the honor
that was shown to him, mentioned, srith a
lisf Of has property, which is given in these
words, in the 18th verse: "He had sheep. |
and oxen, and he-asses, and men-seryants,
and maid-servants, and she-asses, and
camels" The amount of his 1ocks may
be inferred from the Number of slares en-
ployed in tending them. They were those
he brought from Ur of the Chaldees, of
whom the three hundred and eighteen were
born; those gotten In Haran, where he
dwelt for short time; and those which he
inherited from his father, who died in Ha-
ran. When Abraham ,sent up from Egypt,
it is stated in Genesis xiii. 2, that he was