Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
Who, if he but examines the laws of social and relative duty, as laid
down in the New Testament Epistles, may not discern that the relation
of master and servant is recognized side by side with the permanent
relations of parent and child, husband and wife, which rest on the law
of nature; just because it is not the temporary, unnatural, and
violent relation of slaveholder and slave which is recognized, but
that of master and servant by contract. The other, its very apologists
allow, will pass away; but these duties are enhanced in a law of
permanent application, and rest on natural principles, common to all
times and all nations.
[Illustration: (signature) Michael Willis]
"The Work Goes Bravely on."
Like all Reforms which have for their object the amelioration of man's
condition; the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom; the cause of
human freedom has encountered many oppositions calculated to impede
its progress. It has temporarily suffered from cruel defection within,
and the most virulent persecution without the camp.
John, the forerunner of Jesus, had for his portion "locusts and wild
honey." But those who have stood forth in the sunlight, the advocates
of the crushed and bleeding bondman; whose motto is, "Our country is
the world, and our countrymen all mankind," have had no _honey_ for
_their_ portion. Oh no! they have ever dwelt among the tempest and the
storm, with thunder, lightning, and whirlwind, to feed upon.
Some have been called, for the advocacy of the truth, to wing their
flight from the prison-house to Heaven; and others, to bare their
bosoms to the red-hot indignation of relentless mobs, arrayed in
murderous panoply. They have gone; but, thank God, "THE WORK GOES
BRAVELY ON!"
The great men of the nation, the mighty men, the chief priests and
rulers, have risen in their strength, and resolved to crush, as with
an avalanche, the irrepressible aspirations of the bondman's heart for
FREEDOM; they have attempted to padlock the out-gushing sympathies of
humanity; to trample in the dust the sacred guarantees of the
palladium of their own liberties, but their "terribleness hath
deceived them, and the pride of their heart," for the desolating angel
hath sealed _their_ lips in the silence of the tomb, and we, the
recipients of their crushing cruelties, thank God "THE WORK GOES
BRAVELY ON."
[Illustration: (signature) Wm. James Watkins]
Slaveholding not a Misfortune but a Crime.
LONDON, September 2, 1853.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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