Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Its Comparative Guilt Illustrated — John Shaqi
Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Its Comparative Guilt IllustratedFitch, Charles
Philosophy
Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance of Truth, and Its Comparative Guilt Illustrated
Fitch, Charles
Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
slaveholder has done that, the lost slave will have his freedom.
But you say it would make great changes in society, to free every slave
at once, and many a man, who now lives in affluence, would instantly
become poor. We doubt it not. We doubt not that many a wretch, who has
rolled in profusion, by robbing his fellow men of their earnings, would
be obliged to go to work with his own hands to earn his bread; and this
is just what he ought to have done long ago. He is made of no better
clay than the lowliest of all God's creatures whom he enslaves; and
there is no more reason why he should be exempted from eating his bread
in the sweat of his brow. Let us arise then with one heart, and with
united voice, and with ready hands, do our utmost, to deliver the
oppressed from their wrongs.
But it may still be asked, what do you expect to accomplish? We expect
to make the slaveholder feel, that when he crushes an immortal soul down
to the depths of hell, to gratify his own abominable selfishness, God
will hold him accountable for that soul at the judgment day. We expect
to make him see, that the short-lived gratification, which he can have
derived from enslaving his fellow man, will but poorly compensate him,
for the eternal damnation which he must hereafter endure, if he does not
repent of his abominable sin. We expect to open to him the broad claims
of the infinite God, and to make him see that in his present course of
conduct, he is holding himself in open exposure to the Almighty's wrath;
and having thus bared his conscience to the arrows of truth, we expect
to call down the Holy Spirit by our prayers, to fix these arrows deep in
his heart; to reprove him of sin, of righteousness and of judgment, and
thus to bring him to unfeigned repentance before God. We expect not to
accomplish what we aim at with our unaided strength--but we believe that
the Lord of hosts is with us, and trusting in his strength we cannot
fail. Christians of every name, shall we not have your aid? Lovers of
your fellow men, look at the wrongs of the slave, and weep and toil for
him, that he may go free. Open your hearts and your hands to him, and
remember that 'He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord, and
that which he hath given he will pay him again.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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