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    be so intently fixed , that his presence cannot be doubted nor his commissions refused . There are now no prophets among men , but there are still delegates from the Most High ; and every man who accepts his revelation is bound to announce his judgments , and to assert his will ; and the more distinct the revelation , the more awful should be the announcement , the more

    steadfast the assertion . He was pleased himself to release the Israelites from their captivity to Pharaoh ; and if he has now appointed us to lead out our brethren from a worse than Egyptian bondage to a state of higher privilege than any under the old dispensation , we must not protract the work ; for the time has been already too long delayed . Their bodily slavery at an end , a long and difficult task has to be accomplished in teaching them to enjoy their freedom , and in making them understand to whose mercy they owe it , and to whose gentle yoke they ought to offer themselves .

    These things cannot be taught them while they remain in their present state . We who are free know nothing of a morality or a religion of which freedom is not the basis . We can teach only what we have learned , and we have learned from the Bible ; and what is there in that volume which a slave can appropriate ? A new Bible must be made for him if he wants a manual of duty suitable to his present state ; for no changing , no cutting out , no suppression , no interdiction can make our gospel a book for the slave . In the first chapter we read , that God made man in his own image and blessed him ; in the last , that the leaves of the tree of life are for the

    healing of the nations , and that all who are athirst may drink freely of the water of life ? But who can discern the image of God in the slave ; and what is it but mockery to invite him to the tree and the waters of life ? In every intermediate chapter , in every dispensation by which the mind of man is led on to larger views and loftier expectations , in the intrepidity of

    prophets , the fervour of saints , the heroism of martyrs , the sanctity of apostles , and above all , in the serene majesty of the prince of our salvation , we find a truth which is veiled from the eye of a slave , a promise in which he cannot participate , and a beauty which , as a slave , he will never perceive . The motives of the gospel cannot be urged upon minds which have no share in its promises , and can form no estimate of its privileges .

    " The immorality and irreligion of the slaves are the necessary consequences of their political and personal degradation . They are not considered by the law as human beings , and they have , therefore , in some measure , ceased to be human beings . They must become men before they can become Christians . A great effect may , under fortunate circumstances , have been , wrought on particular individuals ; but those who believe that any extensive effect can be produced by religious instruction on this miserable race , may

    believe in the famous conversion wrought by St . Anthony on the fish . Can a preacher prevail on liis hearers strictly to fulfil their conjugal duties , in a country where no protection is given to their conjugal rights ; in a country where the husband and wife may , at the pleasure of the master , or by a process of law , be , in an instant , separated for ever ? Can he persuade them to rest on the Sunday , in colonies where the law appoints that time for the mar-. kets ? Is there any lesson which a Christian minister is more solemnly bound

    to teach , is there any lesson which it is , in a religious point of view , more important for , a convert to learn , than that \ t is a duty to refuse obedience to the unlawful commands of superior ? t Axe the new pastors of the slaves to inculcate this principle or not \ . In other words , are the slaves to remain uninstructed in the fundamental laws of Christian morality , or are their teachers td be hanged ? This is the alternative . We all remember that it was made a charge against Mr . Smith that he had read an inflammatory chapter of the Bible to his congregation ! Excellent encouragement for their future teacher *

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    & Negro Slavery .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1830, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2580/page/8/