Year: 1861

sale Instance, az DnlHel ulu Wnen ne StOOu
on an opposite hill to curse King David,
and rebuke the sin and denounce divine
judgments upon the sinners.


Others more practical, If not more pru-
dent, go into the very midst of the al
legged wickedness and teach Servants un-
der the yoke" that they ought not to count
their own masters worthy of all honor
that liberty is their inalienable right
which they should maintain, if necessary,
even by the shedding of blood. Now, it
is not for me to decide who of all these
are truest to their own principles. 1t is
not for me to decide whether the man who
breaches this doctrine in brave words,
amid applauding multitudes in the city Of
Brooklyn, or the one who in the stiffness
of the night and in the face Of the laws
terrors goes to practice the preaching at
Harper's Ferry, is the most consistent
aboitionist and the most heroic man.
1t is not for me to decide which is the
most important part of tree; and if the
tree be poisonous, which is the most in
furious, the root, or the branches, or the
fruit? But am here tonight, in Gods
name, and by His help, to show that this
tree of abolitionism is evil and only evil,
root and branch, flower, leaf and fruit;
that it springs from and is nourished by
an utter rejection of the Scriptures; that
it produces no real benefit to the enslaved,
and is the fruitful source of division and
strife and infdelity in both church and
State. | have four distinct propositions
on the subject to maintain-four theses
to nail up and defend:-


l. Abolitionism has no foundation in
the Scriptures.


II. It's principles have been promul-
gated chiefly by misapprehension and
abuse.


III. 1t leads, in multitudes Of cases,
and by logical process, to utter inf
deity.


". It is the chief cause of the strife
that agitates, and the danger that threat
ems our country.


1.-ABoLITIoNIsM HAS NO FOUNDATION IN


THE SCRIPTURES.


Passing to the records of the patriarchal
age, and waving the question as to those
servants in Abraham's family, who, in
the simple but expressive language of
Scripture, "were bought with his money;
let us come at once to the tribunal Of that
law which God promulgated amid the
solemnities of Sinai What said the
law and the testimony to that peculiar
people over whom God ruled and for
whose institutions He has assumed the
responsibility? The answer is in the 25th
chapter of Leviticus. in these words


"And if thy brother that dwelleth by
thee be waxed poor and be sold to thee,
thou shalt not compel him to serve as a
bond servant; but as hired servant and
soiourner he shall be with thee, and
shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee,
and then shall he depart from thee, both
he and his children with him."


SO far, you will observe, the law refers
to the children of Israel, who, by reason
of poverty, were reduced to servitude.-
1t was their right to be free at the year
ofjubilec, unless they choose to remain in
perpetual bondage, for which case pro-
vision is made in other and distinct en-
actments. But not so with slaves Of
foreign birth. There was no year of jubi-
lee provided for them. For what says
the law? Read the 44-46 verses of the
same chapter.


"Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids
which thou shalt have shall be of the
heather that ore round about you. Oh
them shall ye buy bondmen and bond
maids. Moreover, of the children Of
strangers that do sojourn among you-oi
them shall We buy and of their families
that are with you, which they beget in
your land, and they shall be your posses
sion. And ye shall take them as an in.
heritance for your children after you, to
inherit them as a possession; they shall
be your bondmen forever"


There it is, plainly written in the di
vine law. No legislative enactment; nc
statue framed by legal skill was ever more
explicit and incapable of perversion.-
When the abolitionists tell me that slave.
holding is sin, in the simplicity of my
faith in the Holy Scriptures, I point him
to this sacred record and tell him in all
my candor, rs my text does, that his
preaching blasphemes the name of God
and His docrine. When he begins to
doat about questions and stifes of words,
appealing to the Declaration of Indepen
dence, and asserting that the idea OF
property in men is an enormity and a
crime, I still hold him to the record. say
ing, aye shall take him as an inheritance
for your children after you to inherit them
for possession" When he wakes warm
las he always does if his opponent quote
scripture (Which is the great test to try
the spirits whether they be of God-tho
very spear of Ithuriel to reveal their true
character when he gets angry, and be-
gins to pour out his evil surmisings and
abuse upon slaveholders--I obey the pre-
cept which says, "from such withdraw
thyself," comforting myself with this
thought: that the wisdom of God is wiser
than men, and the kindness of God kinder
than men. Philosophers may reason and
reformers may rave till doomsday. they
never can convince me that God, in the
Levtical law, or in any other law, sane
toned sin; and as / know, from the plain
passage | have quoted, and many more
like it, that He did sanction slaveholding
among his ancient people, / know also,
by the logic of that faith which believes
the Bible to be His Word, that slavehold-
ing is not sin. There are men even among
protesting Christians, and not few are
y - ~ L