Part 114 (1/2)

1. That we have here a _test of universal application._ The rect.i.tude and benevolence of our Savior's character forbid us to suppose that he would subject this inquirer, especially as he was highly amiable, to a trial, where eternal life was at stake, _peculiarly_ severe. Indeed, the test seems to have been only a fair exposition of the second great command, and of course it must be applicable to all who are placed under the obligations of that precept. Those who can not stand this test, as their character is radically imperfect and unsound, must, with the inquirer to whom our Lord applied it, be p.r.o.nounced unfit for the kingdom of heaven.

2. The least that our Savior can in that pa.s.sage be understood to demand is, that we disinterestedly and heartily devote ourselves to the welfare of mankind, ”the poor” especially. We are to put ourselves on a level with _them_, as we must do ”in selling that we have” for their benefit--in other words, in employing our powers and resources to elevate their character, condition, and prospects. This our Savior did; and if we refuse to enter into sympathy and cooperation with him, how can we be his _followers_? Apply this test to the slaveholder. Instead of ”selling that he hath” for the benefit of the poor, he BUYS THE POOR, and exacts their sweat with stripes, to enable him to ”clothe himself in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day;” or, HE SELLS THE POOR to support the gospel and convert the heathen!

What, in describing the scenes of the final judgment, does our Savior teach us? _By what standard_ must our character be estimated, and the retributions of eternity be awarded? A standard, which both the righteous and the wicked will be surprised to see erected. From the ”offscouring of all things,” the meanest specimen of humanity will be selected--a ”stranger” in the hands of the oppressor, naked, hungry, sickly; and this stranger, placed in the midst of the a.s.sembled universe, by the side of the sovereign Judge, will be openly acknowledged as his representative. ”Glory, honor, and immortality,”

will be the reward of those who had recognized and cheered their Lord through his outraged poor. And tribulation, anguish, and despair, will seize on ”every soul of man,” who had neglected or despised them. But whom, within the limits of our country, are we to regard especially as the representatives of our final Judge? Every feature of the Savior's picture finds its appropriate original in our enslaved countrymen.

1. They are the LEAST of his brethren.

2. They are subject to thirst and hunger, unable to command a cup of water or a crumb of bread.

3. They are exposed to wasting sickness, without the ability to procure a nurse or employ a physician.

4. They are emphatically ”in prison,” restrained by chains, goaded with whips, tasked, and under keepers. Not a wretch groans in any cell of the prisons of our country, who is exposed to a confinement so rigorous and heart-breaking as the law allows theirs to be continually and permanently.

5. And then they are emphatically, and peculiarly, and exclusively, STRANGERS--_strangers_ in the land which gave them birth. Whom else do we constrain to remain aliens in the midst of our free inst.i.tutions? The Welch, the Swiss, the Irish? The Jews even? Alas, it is the _negro_ only, who may not strike his roots into our soil. Every where we have conspired to treat him as a stranger--every where he is forced to feel himself a stranger. In the stage and steamboat, in the parlor and at our tables, in the scenes of business and in the scenes of amus.e.m.e.nt--even in the church of G.o.d and at the communion table, he is regarded as a stranger. The intelligent and religious are generally disgusted and horror-struck at the thought of his becoming identified with the citizens of our republic--so much so, that thousands of them have entered into a conspiracy to send him off ”out of sight,” to find a home on a foreign sh.o.r.e!--And justify themselves by openly alledging, that a ”single drop” of his blood, in the veins of any human creature, must make him hateful to his fellow citizens!--That nothing but banishment from ”our coasts,” can redeem him from the scorn and contempt to which his ”stranger” blood has reduced him among his own mother's children!

Who, then, in this land ”of milk and honey,” is ”hungry and athirst,”

but the man from whom the law takes away the last crumb of bread and the smallest drop of water?

Who ”naked,” but the man whom the law strips of the last rag of clothing?

Who ”sick,” but the man whom the law deprives of the power of procuring medicine or sending for a physician?

Who ”in prison,” but the man who, all his life is under the control of merciless masters and cruel keepers?

Who a ”stranger,” but the man who is scornfully denied the cheapest courtesies of life--who is treated as an alien in his native country?

There is one point in this awful description which deserves particular attention. Those who are doomed to the left hand of the Judge, are not charged with inflicting _positive injuries_ on their helpless, needy, and oppressed brother. Theirs was what is often called _negative_ character. What they _had done_ is not described in the indictment.

Their _neglect_ of duty, what they _had_ NOT _done_, was the ground of their ”everlasting punishment.” The representative of their Judge, they had seen a hungered and they gave him no meat, thirsty and they have him no drink, a stranger and they took him not in, naked and they clothed him not, sick and in prison and they visited him not. In as much as they did NOT yield to the claims of suffering humanity--did NOT exert themselves to bless the meanest of the human family, they were driven away in their wickedness. But what if the indictment had run thus: I was a hungered and ye s.n.a.t.c.hed away the crust which might have saved me from starvation; I was thirsty and ye dashed to the ground the ”cup of cold water,” which might have moistened my parched lips; I was a stranger and ye drove me from the hovel which might have sheltered me from the piercing wind; I was sick and ye scourged me to my task; in prison and you sold me for my jail-fees--to what depths of h.e.l.l must not those who were convicted under such charges be consigned! And what is the history of American slavery but one long indictment, describing under ever-varying forms and hues just such injuries!

Nor should it be forgotten, that those who incurred the displeasure of their Judge, took far other views than he, of their own past history.

The charges which he brought against them, they heard with great surprise. They were sure that they had never thus turned away from his necessities. Indeed, when had they seen him thus subject to poverty, insult, and oppression! Never. And as to that poor friendless creature whom they left unpitied and unhelped in the hands of the oppressor, and whom their Judge now presented as his own representative, they never once supposed, that _he_ had any claims on their compa.s.sion and a.s.sistance. Had they known, that he was destined to so prominent a place at the final judgment, they would have treated him as a human being, in despite of any social, pecuniary, or political considerations. But neither their _negative virtue_ nor their _voluntary ignorance_ could s.h.i.+eld them from the penal fire which their selfishness had kindled.

Now amidst the general maxims, the leading principles, the ”great commandments” of the gospel; amidst its comprehensive descriptions and authorized tests of Christian character, we should take our position in disposing of any particular allusions to such forms and usages of the primitive churches as are supposed by divine authority. The latter must be interpreted and understood in the light of the former. But how do the apologists and defenders of slavery proceed? Placing themselves amidst the arrangements and usages which grew out of the _corruptions_ of Christianity, they make these the standard by which the gospel is to be explained and understood! Some Recorder or Justice, without the light of inquiry or the aid of a jury, consigns the negro whom the kidnapper has dragged into his presence to the horrors of slavery. As the poor wretch shrieks and faints, Humanity shudders and demands why such atrocities are endured? Some ”priest” or ”Levite,” ”pa.s.sing by on the other side,”

quite self-possessed and all complacent reads in reply from his bread phylactery, _Paul sent back Onesimus to Philemon_! Yes, echoes the negro-hating mob, made up of ”gentlemen of property and standing”

together with equally gentle-men reeking from the gutter; _Yes--Paul sent back Onesimus to Philemon_! And Humanity, brow-beaten, stunned with noise and tumult, is pushed aside by the crowd! A fair specimen this of the manner in which modern usages are made to interpret the sacred Scriptures?

Of the particular pa.s.sages in the New Testament on which the apologists for slavery especially rely, the epistle to Philemon first demands our attention.

1. This letter was written by the apostle Paul while a ”prisoner of Jesus Christ” at Rome.

2. Philemon was a benevolent and trustworthy member of the church at Colosse, at whose house the disciples of Christ held their a.s.semblies, and who owed his conversion, under G.o.d, directly or indirectly to the ministry of Paul.

3. Onesimus was the servant of Philemon; under a relation which it is difficult with accuracy and certainty to define. His condition, though servile, could not have been like that of an American slave; as, in that case, however he might have ”wronged” Philemon, he could not also have ”_owed him ought_.”[A] The American slave is, according to law, as much the property of his master as any other chattel; and can no more ”owe”

his master than can a sheep or a horse. The basis of all pecuniary obligations lies in some ”value received.” How can ”an article of merchandise” stand on this basis and sustain commercial relations to its owner? There is no _person_ to offer or promise. _Personality is swallowed up in American slavery_!

[Footnote A: Phil. 18.]

4. How Onesimus found his way to Rome it is not easy to determine. He and Philemon appear to have parted from each other on ill terms. The general character of Onesimus, certainly, in his relation to Philemon, had been far from attractive, and he seems to have left him without repairing the wrongs he had done him or paying the debts which he owed him. At Rome, by the blessing of G.o.d upon the exertions of the apostle, he was brought to reflection and repentance.