Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 453: Volume 18, New Series, September 4, 1852Various
Philosophy
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 453: Volume 18, New Series, September 4, 1852
Various
Periodicals
'Oh what an untold world there is in one human heart! Who thought, as
George walked calmly up and down the deck of the steamer, with his shy
companion at his side, of all that was burning in his bosom? The
mighty good that seemed approaching seemed too good, too fair, even to
be a reality; and he felt a jealous dread every moment of the day that
something would rise to snatch it from him.
'But the boat swept on--hours fleeted, and, at last, clear and full
rose the blessed English shore--shores charmed by a mighty spell--with
one touch to dissolve every incantation of slavery, no matter in what
language pronounced, or by what national power confirmed.
'George and his wife stood arm in arm as the boat neared the small
town of Amherstberg, in Canada. His breath grew thick and short; a
mist gathered before his eyes; he silently pressed the little hand
that lay trembling on his arm. The bell rang--the boat stopped.
Scarcely seeing what he did, he looked out his baggage, and gathered
his little party. The company were landed on the shore. They stood
still till the boat had cleared; and then, with tears and embracings,
the husband and wife, with their wondering child in their arms, knelt
down, and lifted up their hearts to God!
''Twas something like the burst from death to life;
From the grave's cerements to the robes of heaven;
From sin's dominion, and from passion's strife,
To the pure freedom of a soul forgiven;
Where all the bonds of death and hell are riven,
And mortal puts on immortality,
When Mercy's hand hath turned the golden key,
And Mercy's voice hath said: "Rejoice, thy soul is free."
'The party were soon guided by Mrs Smyth to the hospitable abode of a
good missionary, whom Christian charity has placed here as a shepherd
to the outcast and wandering, who are constantly finding an asylum on
this shore.
'Who can speak the blessedness of that first day of freedom? Is not
the _sense_ of liberty a higher and finer one than any of the five? To
move, speak, and breathe, go out and come in unwatched and free from
danger! Who can speak the blessings of that rest which comes down on
the free man's pillow, under laws which insure to him the rights that
God has given to man? How fair and precious to that mother was that
sleeping child's face, endeared by the memory of a thousand dangers!
How impossible was it to sleep in the exuberant possession of such
blessedness! And yet these two had not one acre of ground, not a roof
that they could call their own; they had spent their all, to the last
dollar. They had nothing more than the birds of the air, or the
flowers of the field; yet they could not sleep for joy. "O ye who take
freedom from man, with what words shall ye answer it to God?"'
With this episode, we close for the present, and will go into the
history of Uncle Tom in a subsequent paper.
FOOTNOTES:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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