[2]We mention as an example worthy of imitation the noble individuals who took the lead at Lane Seminary in contending for the rights of our colored citizens, and when their work there was accomplished, went among their colored brethren and sisters, and met them as equals bearing the impress of that God who stampt his image on his creature man. If each of our seminaries could boast of such champions of Human Rights, our colleges and schools might soon be regenerated, and our temples of science be thrown open to all our citizens irrespective of color or condition.
[2]We mention as an example worthy of imitation the noble individuals who took the lead at Lane Seminary in contending for the rights of our colored citizens, and when their work there was accomplished, went among their colored brethren and sisters, and met them as equals bearing the impress of that God who stampt his image on his creature man. If each of our seminaries could boast of such champions of Human Rights, our colleges and schools might soon be regenerated, and our temples of science be thrown open to all our citizens irrespective of color or condition.
[2]We mention as an example worthy of imitation the noble individuals who took the lead at Lane Seminary in contending for the rights of our colored citizens, and when their work there was accomplished, went among their colored brethren and sisters, and met them as equals bearing the impress of that God who stampt his image on his creature man. If each of our seminaries could boast of such champions of Human Rights, our colleges and schools might soon be regenerated, and our temples of science be thrown open to all our citizens irrespective of color or condition.
Let us turn our eyes on God's chosen people and learn a lesson fraught with fearful instruction.—As the time of their downfall approached, when for their manifold transgressions they were to be blotted out for a season, as a nation, God multiplied the number of his witnesses among them. Most of the prophets whose writings have come down to us, lived either a short time before, or were cotemporary with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; the warning voices of Jeremiah and Ezekiel were raised at this juncture, to save if possible their guilty nation—with the women as well as the men they expostulated, and admonished them of impending judgments, but the people scornfully replied to Jeremiah—"As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee, but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our mouth." "Therefore, thus saith the Lord—ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and every one to his neighbor—behold I proclaim a liberty for you saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine." Are we not virtually as a nation adopting the same impious language, and are we not exposed to the same tremendous judgments? Shall we not in view of those things use every laudable means to awaken our beloved country from the slumbers of death, and baptize all our efforts with tears and with prayers, that God may bless them. Then should our labor fail to accomplish the end for which we pray; we shall stand acquitted at the bar of Jehovah, and although we may share in the national calamities which await unrepented sins, yet that blessed approval will be ours.—"Well done good and faithful servants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord."
We are aware that few of our colored brethren and sisters are actively, or directly promoting the continuation of slavery; we mourn indeed that a single instance can be adduced, of one colored person betraying another into the fangs of those merciless wretches who go about seeking whom they may devour; we mourn, not because the act is more diabolical on account of the complexion, but because our enemies seize every such instance of moral delinquency, to prove that the people of color are lost to the feelings of humanity for each other.
Our hearts have been filled with sorrow at the transactions which have lately disgraced the city of New York; the forcible seizure and consigning to cruel bondage native American citizens. In the emporium of our commerce, in a city filled with Bibles and with churches, we behold the revolting spectacle of rational and immortal beings, arraigned before their fellow men, not for any crimes which they have committed, but because they dare to call their vital breath their own, and to take possession of that body, soul, and mind, which their Creator gave them. We behold them manacled and guarded by officers armed with weapons of death—guiltless of crime and accused of none, but forced to prove that they are men and not beasts. We marvel, as we behold these reproachful scenes, that the God of Justice has held back his avenging sword.—"Thus saith the Lord—execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings."
But although we believe that the accumulated wrongs of our colored friends are had in remembrance before God, and that he will assuredly visit this nation in judgment unless she repent, yet we entreat you in the name of the Lord Jesus, to forbear any attempts violently to rescue your brethren. Such attempts can only end in disappointment; they infuriate public sentiment still more against you, and furnish your blood-thirsty adversaries with a plausible pretext, to treat you with cruelty. They bring upon all your brethren unmerited odium, and render doubly difficult the duties of those who have been called by Jehovah to assert the colored man's right to freedom, and to vindicate his character from those calumnies which have been heaped upon him. Independent, however, of all these reasons, we beseech you to possess your souls in patience, because present duty is unresisting submission, in accordance with the apostolic precepts.—"Be subject not only for wrath, but for conscience sake." "For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully." "For even hereunto are we called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps."
Let us keep in mind, that Jesus Christ was arraigned before an earthly judge, that he endured indignity, violence and contempt. Every innocent man who is brought before a human tribunal, and condemned to perpetual bondage, when his judge can find no fault in him, may be regarded as the representative of Him, who replied to Pilate, "Thou couldst have no power against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." Suffer us to mingle our sighs, and our tears with yours over these heart-rending scenes, these ruthless inflictions of nameless and unutterable woes; but let us remember, that when the Redeemer of men was taken by a band of armed ruffians, he acted out his own sublime precept—"Resist not evil;" and when Peter with intemperate zeal cut off the servant's ear, Jesus healed the wound, and commanded his disciple to put up his sword again into its place.
If we recur to the history of God's chosen people, whom he permitted to be in bondage in the land of Egypt, we shall find that it was not when Moses killed the Egyptian because he smote an Israelite, that the God of the oppressed arose for their deliverance. No, dear friends, it was when "the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant." Shall we distrust him now that his covenant of mercy has been sealed with the blood of his only begotten son—shall we resort to weapons forged by Satan, and used by our enemies, when the Lord God omnipotent is our king, and it behoveth his subjects to be "shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, praying always with all prayer, and supplication in the Spirit."
The eyes of the community are fixed upon you with an intensity of interest; many watch for your halting, saying, "peradventure they will be enticed and we shall prevail against them." Many while they have a kind of sentimental desire for your welfare, are anxious to keep you as they term it, in your proper place, or in other words, are so much under the dominion of prejudice, that they shrink at the thought of receiving you as brethren beloved; they try to persuade themselves that God has created uswith an instinctive alienation from each other, and excuse their own sin, by casting a reproach on the character of Jehovah; they repel the idea that you are in every respect our equals, and pertinaciously deny you the privileges of social, religious, and domestic intercourse. We can feel for them, for most, if not all of us have had to combat these feelings, and such of us as have overcome them, have abundant cause to sing hallelujah to our God, and bless his holy name for our abolition principles; they have opened a source of heavenly joy in our bosoms, which we would not exchange for all the gold of Ophir. Let us then cherish the apostolic precept, "Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness." There is another class beloved friends, who are watching you with the most tender solicitude, whose daily petitions for themselves are mingled with supplications for you, who feel poignantly the indignities which are heaped upon you, who ardently desire your elevation in every way, who rejoice that they are found worthy to suffer with you, who feel that their interests are one with yours as Christians, and as Americans, and who supplicate the Father of Mercies for an increase of that hallowed feeling, which receives and welcomes you with joy as brethren and sisters dearly beloved, and loses in the sense of your manhood, in the remembrance that we are all one in Christ Jesus, those unhallowed and factitious distinctions which are eating out the very vitals of Christianity. This class long for that blessed and glorious era, when the brother of low degree will rejoice in that he is exalted, and the brother of high degree in that he is made low; because then and not till then the command may go forth to the Church of Christ in our land "Arise, shine for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."
In contemplating the abolition of slavery, we feel that you are equally concerned with ourselves, and we entreat your co-operation, believing that you can and will labor in it as efficiently as any portion of the community. We ask you in the name of Him whose precious blood was shed for us, to come up to the help of the Lord, in whose work we are engaged. We ask you, in the name of bleeding humanity, to assist in this labor of love. Weask you, for the sake of the down-trodden and defiled image of God, to arise for the help of the poor, and aid in restoring our brother and our sister to that exalted station, only a little lower than the angels, which their gracious Creator assigned them. True—obloquy, reproach, and peril, must be encountered by all who stem the torrent of popular iniquity, the tide of supercilious prejudice, and the arrogant pretensions of unfounded superiority; but these we can endure, and count it joy. We are sensible that our brethren of color have a more difficult and delicate part to act in this reformation, than their white fellow-citizens; but we confidently believe, that as their day is, so their strength will be; and we commend them and the cause of human rights, in which we are engaged, to Him who is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him. May he strengthen us to pursue our holy purposes with the zeal of the Apostles and the spirit of the Martyrs, consecrating ourselves to this work of faith, and labor of love, "that we may be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ—the righteousness which is of God by Faith."
Transcriber Notes:Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted.Specifically, inconsistencies in the use of quotation marks were not corrected, primarily because it wasn't always clear where quotation marks should be added.On page 5, "salvo" was replaced with "salve".On page 20, "useles" was replaced with "useless".On page 30, "uo" was replaced with "no".On page 30, "begotton" was replaced with "begotten".On page 30, a period after "Satan" was replaced with a comma.
Errors in punctuation and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted.
Specifically, inconsistencies in the use of quotation marks were not corrected, primarily because it wasn't always clear where quotation marks should be added.
On page 5, "salvo" was replaced with "salve".
On page 20, "useles" was replaced with "useless".
On page 30, "uo" was replaced with "no".
On page 30, "begotton" was replaced with "begotten".
On page 30, a period after "Satan" was replaced with a comma.