Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1861-01-17

our version, anQ eAplaluluS Tue pTomlueuce
assigned to Canaan, by considerations sug-
gested above.
2. 1t is worthy of observation that the
utterance of Noah, was truly an announce
ment of the destiny and doom, not simply
of man, but of his posterity. Under
prophetic inspiration, the patriarch lifts the
curtain to an erriug parent, and shows him
in the remote future, his descendants de-
graded by subject'on to his brethren. But
the language is more than prophetical it
also announces a Judicial decree Of Jeho-
yah against Ham and his race. This is
evident from the language of judgment be-
ing used, sscursed," which also stands as
the counterpart of the blessing pronounced
upon Shem and Japheth The opposite of
blessing, would be an authoritative cur
sing, and in this light the hapless father
would doubtless regard it, when be would
contrast the fate of his own children with
his brothers Again the phrase "servant
of servants" is Hebraism, in which the
idea of degradation, in the superlative de-
gree, is suggested. The Hebrew word
Ebed is equivalent to the Greek word dou-
Jos, and this from DEo to bind, is translated
by our word SLAVE; and, hence, to say liter
ally szave Of slaves designates a seruitude
most affect and degraded, and, as some say,
perpetual
8. The guilt incurred by the act of Ham
also deserves attention. A recent and re-
spectacle writer says Hams conduct really
deserves death. Honor thy father and thy
mother that thy days may be long upon the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,
Exod. 20: -. Such is the express law OF
God; and passages bearing on this point
are found scattered throughout the old and
new Testaments. God pronounced curse
on the child that dishonors his parents,
Deut 81 Such children forfeited
their claim to life, and disrespect to parents
was, by the same law, capital crime, Deut.
81 :1S-2l. So that according to the law
of God, Ham deserved death for his until
ial and impious conduct. But the Great
Lawgiver saw fit, in his good pleasure, not
to destroy Ham with immediate death, but
to set mark of degradation on him, as be
had done with the first murderer, Cain, that
all coming generations might know and re-
spect the laws of God. Slavery was, pro.
perly, communication or change of punish
ment Death was the real punishment of
the crime, but Jehovah, for reasons salts
factory to himself, changed tito degrading
state of continual servisude"
This theory has the merit of being plau
siblc, but is encountered with the difficulty,
that the law by which the act is judged, is
post tactuma law !; and hence it is not con,
elusive to say that Ham deserved death for
his flial irreverence, for the law of God so
judged, inasmuch as the formal announce
ment of that law, so far as We know, was
subsequently to this crime in question -
We are perfectly willing, however, to re-
gard the conduct of Ham as very reprehen-
sible and deserving; doubtless, all that was
meted out to it. And we admit that wheth-
er we con6ne the sentence to the guilt In
CURED by the representative act of the pa
rent, or determine that the eye of God also
had in view the sins of the posterity who
were to be the victims of the sentence-in
either case it, as curse, was righteous and
no more than commensurate with the enor.
nifty of the act. There are those, however,
who are ready to tell US, that this conduct
of the guilty party was not the curse, but
only the occasion of the curse, and that God
was only taking advantage of this circum-
stance to reveal his sovereign purposes con-
cerniug the entire posterity of Noah. Up.
on this point we will not commit ourself,
because the Theological bearing of the theo'
ry is rather polemical, for the purpose we
have in view in pennipg these articles.
4. The historical fulflment of this sen.
tence is an item of interest. Precisely
when it first began to be executed, history
does not inform US; and, whether or not, it
was executed upon Canaan in person, we
cannot determine afirmatively. We know,
however, that it can be traced in its fulfil.
ment upon his posterity-and upon the pos.
terity of the other brothers, who, as we saw,
were not excluded from the curse.
Eight hundred years after this, the pre-.
dictiou was literally accomplished, when
the Israelites, the descendants of Shem,
subdued the Canaauites and took possession
of their country, and also, when the scat
tered remnants of those tribes we're expelled
by David, and settled in those parts of At
rica, which first fell under the dominion Of
the Romans, the undoubted descendants of
Japheth; and when we remember the i'm
mense number of slaves possessed by Ro-
mans and derived from these very quarters,
for the most part, We see additional evil
dence of its progressive ful6lment And
when we bring into view the history of the
Assyrian Empire, and Tyre and Sydon, and
Carthage and Egypt, we have accumulating
facts, evinciug the enslavement of Hams
posterity, by that of Shem and Japheth.-
And quoting language of Bishop Newtou's s
prophecy, p. 10, "the whole continent of
Africa was peopled, principally, by the chill
dren of Ham; and for how many ages have
the better parts of that country lain under
the dominion of the Romans, and then of
Saracens, and now of Turks In what
misery, wickedness, ignorance, barbarity
and slavery, live most of the inhabitants ?
And of the poor negroes, how many hun
dreds every year are sold and bought like
beasts in the market, and are conveyed from