There was no roar of artillery, when Mr. McGrubber began. He commenced in a tone hardly raised above a whisper; and it is wonderful how dead was the silence which followed. Every one strained to hear his lightest word; and I must say that all my previous expectations were disappointed. The dull pedagogue of the house, and the boor of the dinner-table, was eloquent, really eloquent, on the platform; and I never heard a more shrewd and well-arranged argument against slavery than he contrived to interweave with his exhortations to faith, repentance, and reformation. It was all done apparently quite naturally; and the very quietness of his low but piercing tones seemed to enchain all attention. I can remember several fragments of his discourse. "I call upon you, my brethren--I call upon you, the black as well as the white, the Jew likewise and the Gentile, to come to the foot of the cross and receive salvation. Why standest thou back, thou man of the dark skin? Why shrinkest thou from the presence of thy Redeemer? Is it because of the bonds upon thy hands? Is it because of the degradation which man, thy fellowman, has inflicted upon thee? Knowest thou not that he is the Saviour, the Liberator, the God to whom judgment belongs--who will avenge--who will wipe the tears from the eyes of the oppressed, and pile coals of burning fire upon the head of the oppressor? Come to Jesus, thy Lord and thy Saviour. Thinkest thou that He regards the colour of thy skin? Has He not said,-- "'_Though thy sins be as scarlet, I will make them as white as snow?_' "And shall he who can so wash the spirit, have regard to the hue of the flesh?" Again, after awhile, he said, "But perhaps they have persuaded thee, as they have tried to persuade me, that thou art no man--that thou hast no soul to be saved--that thou art as the beasts that perish. But yet we find by their own law, that in the third, or the fourth, or the fifth degree of white blood, thou becomest as the white man. Will they tell me at what particular hue or shade of colour the soul--the responsible, the immortal soul--enters into the breast that was before void and tenantless? Nay, nay! Feel, understand, that thou too, whatever be thy colour, art an heir of eternal life, a child of God, an object of the Saviour's love; that they may shackle thy hands and bruise thy feet in the stocks, and the iron may enter into thy soul; still, the God of Israel is thy God, of whom it is written, '_Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord._'"