alleged sanction of Slavery by Christianity. And, striving to be brief, I shall not undertake to reconcile texts often quoted from the Old Testament, which, whatever may be their import, are all absorbed in the New; nor shall I stop to consider the precise interpretation of the oft-quoted phrase, Servants, obey your masters; nor seek to weigh any such imperfect injunction in the scales against those grand commandments, on which hang all the law and the prophets. Surely, in the example and teachings of the Saviour, who lifted up the down-trodden, who enjoined purity of life, and overflowed with tenderness even to little children, human ingenuity can find no apology for an institution which tramples on man, which defiles woman, and sweeps little children beneath the hammer of the auctioneer. If to any one these things seem to have the license of Christianity, it is only because they have first secured a license in his own soul. Men are prone

to find in uncertain, disconnected texts, a confirmation of their own personal prejudices or preposessions. And I who am no divine, but only a simple layman make bold to say, that whoever finds in the Gospel any sanction of Slavery, finds there merely a reflection of himself. On a matter so irresistibly clear, authority is superfluous; but an eminent character, who as poet makes us forget his high place as philosopher, and as philosopher, makes us forget his high place as theologian, has exposed the essential antagonism between Christianity and Slavery, in a few pregnant words which you will be glad to hear, particularly as, I believe, they have not been before introduced into this discussion. "By a principle essential to Christianity," says Coleridge," a person is eternally differenced from a

thing; so that the idea of a Human Being necessarily excludes the idea of property in that Being.” *

With regret, though not with astonishment, I learn that a Boston divine has sought to throw the seamless garment of Christ over this shocking wrong. But I am patient, and see clearly how vain will be his effort, when I call to mind, that, within this very century, other divines sought to throw the same seamless garment over the more shocking slave-trade; and that, among many publications, a little book, was then put forth with the name of a reverend clergyman on the title-page, to prove that "the African trade for negro slaves is consistent with the principles of humanity and revealed religion; "† and, thinking of these things, I am ready to say with Shakespeare,

What damned error, but some sober brow

Will bless it and approve it with a text ?”

In the support of Slavery, it is the habit to pervert texts and to invent authority. Even St. Paul is vouched for a wrong which his Christian life rebukes. Great stress is now laid on his example, as it appears in the epistle to Philemon, written at Rome, and sent by Onesimus, a servant. From the single chapter constituting the entire epistle, I take the following passage, in ten verses, which is strangely invoked for Slavery:

"I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds; which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but

Coleridge's Dissertation introductory to the Ency. Metrop. This was by the Rev. Thomas Thompson. Boswell's Defence of the Slave-trade was kindred in character. Life of Johnson, vol. iv. p. 55.

now profitable to thee and to me; whom I have sent again; thou, therefore, receive him, that is, mine own bowels; whom I would have retained with me, that in thy stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel; but without thy mind would I do nothing, that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly. For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldst receive him for ever; not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved, specially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive him as myself. If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it; albeit, I do not say to thee how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides." - Epistle to Philemon, verses 10-19.

Out of this affectionate epistle, in which St. Paul calls the converted servant, Onesimus, his son, precisely as in another epistle he calls Timothy his son, Slavery has been elaborately vindicated, and the great Apostle to the Gentiles has been made the very tutelary saint of the Slave-hunter. Now, without relying on minute criticism, to infer his real judgment of Slavery from his condemnation on another occasion of "men-stealers," or, according to the original text, slave-traders, in company with "murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers," and without undertaking to show that the present epistle, when truly interpreted, is a protest against Slavery, and a voice for Freedom, all of which might be done, I content myself by calling attention to two things, apparent on its face, and in themselves an all-sufficient response. First, while it appears that Onesimus had been in some way the servant of Philemon, it does not appear that he had ever been held as a slave, much less as a chattel; and how gross and monstrous is the effort to derive a

wrong, by which man is changed to a chattel, out of words, whether in the Constitution of our country, or in the Bible, which do not explicitly, unequivocally and exclusively define this wrong! Secondly, in charging Onesimus with this epistle to Philemon, the Apostle announces him as "not now a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved," and he enjoins upon his correspondent the hospitality due only to a freeman, saying expressly, "If thou count me, therefore, a partner, receive him as myself;" ay, sir, not as slave, not even as servant, but as a brother beloved, even as the Apostle himself. Thus with apostolic pen wrote Paul to his disciple, Philemon. Beyond all doubt, in these words of gentleness, benediction and emancipation, dropping with celestial, soul-awakening power, there can be no justification for a conspiracy, which, beginning with the treachery of Iscariot, and the temptation of pieces of silver, seeks, by fraud, brutality and violence, through officers of the law armed to the teeth, like pirates, and amidst soldiers who degrade their uniform, to hurl a fellowman back into the lash-resounding den of American Slavery; and if any one can thus pervert this beneficent example, allow me to say, that he gives too much occasion to doubt his intelligence or his sincerity.

Certainly I am right in thus stripping from Slavery the apology of Christianity, which it has tenaciously hugged; and here I leave the first part of my subject, assuming against every objection the Necessity of our Enterprise.

II. I am now brought, in the second place, to con

sider the PRACTICABILITY of the Enterprise. And here the way is easy. In showing its necessity, I have already demonstrated its practicability; for the former includes the latter, as the greater includes the less. Whatever is necessary must be practicable. By a decree which has ever been a by-word of tyranny, the Israelites were compelled to make bricks without straw; but it is not according to the ways of a benevolent Providence, that man should be constrained to do what cannot be done. Besides, the Anti-Slavery Enterprise is right; and the right is always practicable.

I know well the little faith which the world has in the triumph of principles, and I readily imagine the despair with which our object is regarded; but not on this account am I disheartened. That exuberant writer, Sir Thomas Browne, breaks into an ecstatic wish for some new difficulty in Christian belief, that his faith might have a new victory, and an eminent enthusiast went so far as to say, that he believed because it was impossible credo quia impossibile. But no such exalted faith is now required. Here is no impossibility, nor is there any difficulty which will not yield to a faithful, well-directed endeavor. If to any timid soul the Enterprise seems impossible because it is too beautiful, then I say at once that it is too beautiful not to be possible.

But descending from these summits, let me show plainly the object which it seeks to accomplish, and herein you shall see and confess its complete practicability. While discountenancing all prejudice of color and every establishment of caste, the Anti-Slavery Enterprise at least so far as I may speak for it — does

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