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TWO SERMONS 
 
 KIND TREATMENT 
 
 AND ON THE 
 
 EMANCIPATION OF SLAVES 
 
 PREACHED AT MOBILE, 
 
 On Siiiulay the lOtli, and Sunday the 17th of May, 1810. 
 
 WITH A PREFATORY STATEMENT. 
 
 A. " 
 
 •^ ^ .)^ 
 
 BY GEO. F. SIMMONS. 
 
 oi WAS>n> 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WILLIAM CROSBY AND COMPANY. 
 1840. 
 
BOSTON : 
 
 FRISTED BY PRENTISS AND JONES 
 
 nEVOiNSHIRE STREET. 
 
^ PREFACE 
 
 V 
 
 C; 
 
 It will immediately be perceived that the fol- 
 lowing sermons contain many arguments which have 
 been more ably advanced in other writings, and 
 that, considered separately from the occasion, there is 
 little in them to detain the attention of one who has 
 attended to the subject before. They were meant for 
 the benefit of the people to whom they were addressed ; 
 and for no other purpose. 
 
 In Mobile, Slavery was not to me an abstraction. 
 Here were the slaves about me. I was served by them 
 at home, and at the houses of my friends ; and the re- 
 lation between them and their masters seemed, and 
 still seems to me, as much within the scope of Relig- 
 ious instruction, as the relation between husbands and 
 wives, or between parents and children. Had 1 been 
 silent on the subject, my silence would have been con- 
 strued into assent to things as they were ; and the du- 
 ty in this relation was too difficult a matter to be en- 
 forced with sufficient fulness and solemnity in private. 
 That a man's influence is small is no reason that it 
 should not be well used. The best of us do but little 
 
IV 
 
 good in the world ; and there is no conceit in attempt- 
 ing to effect that little. In my judgment, it is by a 
 myriad of minute influences, such as I attempted to 
 exert in the following discourses, that the minds of our 
 southern citizens are finally to be rightly turned on the 
 subject of their great interest. 
 
 Accordingly, without any undiscriminating zeal, I 
 had, after a practical and sympathizing view of the actu- 
 al state of things, foreseen that I must grapple with this 
 rugged question ; and indeed, at the beginning of the 
 winter, in a letter written to the Trustees of the Soci- 
 ety, replying to a request on their part that I should 
 become their permanent pastor, I used the following 
 language, which, I will add, is all that the letter con- 
 tains on that subject. 
 
 " Moreover, were 1 ready to settle, the state of the public mind 
 here with regard to slavery, would, I fear, not tolerate my presence. 
 Believing, as I do, that slavery is wrong, and that man cannot hold 
 property in man, the occasion calling for the expression of these 
 opinions, could not long fail of presenting itself, especially in the 
 exposition of those passages of Scripture, which condemn or which 
 are thought to favor, the depression of a portion of the race into 
 the condition of involuntary servants. On such occasions, I should 
 preach what 1 believe to be the truth, with the utmost openness, 
 and thereby draw public odium upon myself and upon the church. 
 This result you would greatly deprecate. 
 
 " Nevertheless, were good of peculiar magnitude to be accom- 
 plished thereby, I should not hesitate to expose myself to whatever 
 peril there might be from this quarter. But &c. &-c." 
 
 Coming finally to the conclusion that, on the whole, 
 and notwithstanding its dangers, the subject ought to 
 be treated by me, I deferred the execution of the duty, 
 from the natural reluctance one feels to undertake a 
 difficult and disagreeable task, from the desire of offer- 
 ing my maturest thoughts, and finally with the hope 
 that the longer I should have stood in the pulpit and as- 
 sociated with the people, the more kindly they might 
 
receive, what I could not hope they would fully ap- 
 prove. 
 
 The first sermon I knew would be heard content- 
 edly ; and it was. The second also was listened to 
 w ith attention and respect, although one person left the 
 church. 
 
 The statements, that remonstrances were used with 
 me after the first Sabbath, against treating the subject 
 a second time; that on Sunday morning, the 17th, the 
 church was crowded, in expectancy ; and that in the 
 evening the people expressed their disapprobation by a 
 very small attendance, are all equally and wholly erro- 
 neous. On the morning of the second Sabbath, the 
 congregation was no larger than usual ; in the evening 
 it was no smaller than usual, in similar states of weath- 
 er ; and during the week previous, unless my memory 
 betrays me, no remonstrances were used against a con- 
 tinuance of the discussion, for no continuance was ap- 
 prehended. In fact the first discourse was well re- 
 ceived. Large slaveholders from the country, as well 
 as those who belonged to my own people, said " it was 
 all true and all needed ;" and had the matter rested at 
 this stage, the excitement would not have arisen. In 
 the interval, I did not seek advice from my friends ; 
 because I already knew their opinions, and because I 
 was unwilling to implicate them in the offence, by ren- 
 dering them chargeable with having permitted it. 
 Thus the second sermon was unexpected by the peo- 
 ple, although necessary to the completion of my design. 
 
 What I had not calculated, was the effect of rumor 
 on those who did not hear me, and the use political par- 
 tizans might make of the occurrence. 
 
 On Monday morning I was accused before the 
 
VI 
 
 Grand Jury, who, after examining many witnesses, 
 dismissed the complaint. I awaited their decision, and 
 did not quit the place, until it was supposed to be final. 
 
 On Monday, friends waited on me, solicitous for 
 my welfare and for the public peace. It was thought 
 advisable that I should withdraw from the immediate 
 presence of the multitude. That night 1 passed with- 
 out the city. The next day the irritation was said to 
 be increasing ; and the knowledge that the Grand Jury 
 was not about to act, disposed some individuals still 
 more, to do me violence. It became the unanimous 
 opinion of my advisers, that I had better go away. Ac- 
 cordingly the next night I went aboard a packet which 
 lay at anchor in the harbor, where I remained until she 
 sailed on the following Friday. From this retreat, I 
 addressed a letter to a gentleman who had threatened 
 to commit an assault upon me. He has seen fit to pub- 
 lish that letter, with a confession of the intended out- 
 rage. 
 
 The conduct of my friends in the whole affair had 
 been honorable to them ; the votes of the congregation, 
 at a subsequent meeting, although regretful, were grati- 
 fying to me as expressive of a continuance of affectionate 
 regard ; and I have never felt so much interested in the 
 church, or attached to the people, as since my separation 
 from them. 
 
 Several circumstances are important to be borne in 
 mind to prevent an unfair judgment of that people and 
 of their city. 
 
 I was expelled from Mobile, not by the people of 
 Mobile, but solely by a cabal in it. 
 
 The animosity did not arise within the church, nor 
 
Vll 
 
 among those who heard me, but without the church, 
 and almost exclusively among those who did not hear me. 
 
 Had I remained, I should have been protected. 
 But I did not choose to be protected by the exposure 
 of those who had not been consulted for my conduct, 
 and if they had been, would have advised against it. 
 
 When I say that I should have been protected, I do 
 not mean to allege, that 1 was justified or encouraged. 
 I allow with grief, that the determination to suppress 
 the discussion, seems to be general and resolute at the 
 South. But it is not to be expected that freemen will 
 long acquiesce in that determination. 
 
 There are, however, opponents of discussion, whose 
 characters enforce respect, and whose position deserves 
 to be well considered. They solemnly allege, that ag- 
 itation of the question tends to insurrection and bloody 
 revolution ; that it threatens not only disaster, but des- 
 truction, to the interests both of master and slave ; 
 that the consideration of reform must be left entirely 
 to those, on whom the heavy responsibility devolves of 
 effecting it ; and that, among them, it should be reserved 
 for the halls of legislation ; that, if the subject were not 
 agitated, the South would prepare for the abandonment 
 of slavery ; but that while agitation continues, the pub- 
 lic good imposes on them the necessity of stern and silent 
 defiance. Such are the opinions of men, who on all 
 other subjects are wise, and whose characters are above 
 reproach. I respect those opinions ; but I could not 
 be persuaded by them ; and at the risk of being charged 
 with presumption, I felt called to act otherwise. 
 
 I wish not to be considered as expressing fellowship, 
 or entering into alliance of any sort, with Abolitionism 
 
vni 
 
 in the northern states. Its spirit offends me. When I 
 consider with what ease and irresponsibility a zeal in 
 that cause is gotten up, and with what vanity and light- 
 ness of heart it is often associated, and then turn to the 
 unfortunate master, from whom all the sacrifice and all 
 the action is to come, and see him disheartened by re- 
 proach, and toiling under the difficulties of a question, 
 in the solution of which, declamation will avail him 
 nought, and abstract principles, unless carried out into 
 practical wisdom, can be fruitful of no relief, struggling, 
 not undevoutly, with a thousand perplexities, which the 
 inhnbitnnt of a free state cannot even comprehend, and 
 which cast the unassisted mind into confusion and des- 
 pair, I confess that my sympathies are with him. It is 
 easy to be an abolitionist ; but it is very difficult to be 
 a humane, a judicious, a disinterested, slaveholder. 
 
 I repeat, then, that it was wholly in the interest of 
 my southern friends, and with the most affectionate 
 fellow-feeling towards them, that it was as identifying 
 myself for the time with their society, that I addressed 
 to them the discourses which are now published. It 
 was there and not here, that I was prompted thus to 
 speak. In New-England I should have been silent, or 
 have addressed myself to the opponents of slavery, 
 with exhortations to moderation and charity. 
 
 The discourses are here printed precisely as they 
 were delivered ; and I beg to be judged, not by what 
 has been said of me, but by what I have said. 
 
FIRST SERMON. 
 
 COLOSSIANS IV. 1. 
 
 BIASTERS, GIVE UNTO YOUR SERVANTS THAT WHICH IS JUST AND EQUAL ; 
 KNOWING THAT YE ALSO HAVE A MASTER IN HEAVEN. 
 
 In this text by « equal" is meant equitable; and what is 
 just and equitable would embrace all that we are required to 
 do to our fellow men. My intention, however, is not to con- 
 fine myself to the particular phraseology of this passage ; but 
 to follow the spirit which is inculcated elsewhere, as well as 
 here, in the New Testament, by which Masters are to be 
 guided in their conduct toward those who serve them. In the 
 epistle to the Ephesians, after mentioning the duties of ser- 
 vants to their lords, Paul directs his exhortation to those lords 
 themselves, saying " Ye masters, do ye the same things unto 
 them, forbearing threatening," showing how the relation is a 
 mutual relation, and that, as the inferior is bound to feel a 
 genuine, unbought, and sacred attachment to the superior, so 
 that superior is bound to look on the inferior with an 
 equally true and active affection. And indeed the whole tenor 
 of Christianity teaches us the same thing, it being character- 
 ized by benevolence, and enjoining that virtue of charity on 
 us, as a thing without which all observances are vain ; making 
 the sum and substance of our earthly duty to consist in loving 
 our neighbor as ourself, and instructing us that our neighbor 
 
10 
 
 is our fellow-man ; and that, whenever that fellow-man has 
 fallen among thieves, or lies a beggar by the road side, or is 
 sunk in any manner of distress, that then he has a pecuhar 
 claim on our sympathy and aid. 
 
 In enforcing this spirit, tlie example of Christ is peculiarly 
 marked. The circumstances of outward condition he disre- 
 gards ; and his sympathy is more awakened by the poor ciip- 
 ple, and the maniac wandering among the tombs, than by the 
 graces and wealth and pomp of those who fill the high pla- 
 ces of the earth. In thinking over his life, I do not remember 
 but one prominent instance of his having to do with a slave. 
 It was at Capernaum, " a certain centurion's servant who was 
 sick and ready to die" ; and Jesus restored him by his word; 
 nor are we to suppose that it was on the master's account 
 alone that he wrought the beneficent miracle ; for his whole life 
 showed the Saviour to have a peculiar regard to those who 
 were neglected by all others, or who occupied a low place in 
 the world's esteem. The centurion is represented to have 
 been a man of signal lovehness of character, to whom, there- 
 fore, the suffering slave was dear, (for that is the expression, 
 " who was dear unto him") and the elders of the Jews inter- 
 ceded with Christ in his behalf, " saying, he is worthy for 
 whom thou shalt do this ; for he loveth our nation, and he 
 hath built us a synagogue" ; he was so humble also that he 
 held himself unworthy to receive Christ under his roof, and 
 had such faith in him as to believe that nothing more than a 
 word was necessary to cause the disease to yield. It was such 
 a man that we should expect to find holding a servant dear, 
 and seeking his cure with the anxiety which he would have 
 felt for a son. 
 
 And again, Paul's letter to Philemon, on returning his fu- 
 gitive slave Onesimus, shows the profound affection and esteem 
 which he could feel for individuals of that class. So that, be- 
 sides the general inculcations of love for our fellow-men, 
 the New Testament is not without its particular lessons for 
 Masters in relation to laborers dependent on them ; — the spirit 
 
11 
 
 of which is expressed in the Text, — " Masters, give to your 
 servants that which is just and equitable, knowing that ye also 
 have a Master in heaven," and justice and equity include all 
 that we owe to our fellow-men, include genuine benevolence, 
 as well as the payment of debts, or performance of promises. 
 We, in this part of America, are distinguished from most 
 civilized countries by possessing a servile class ; and this cir- 
 cumstance forms our great sorrow and difficulty, bringing with 
 it peculiar and almost overwhelming temptations. But there 
 can be nothing permanently evil in its results, if we are true 
 to ourselves ; for it is a part of our ordained lot ; and God 
 ordains nothing in evil. However much our ancestors may 
 have erred ; for us, this state of things, being already consti- 
 tuted, is to be considered as given us by God ; and from what- 
 ever difficulties may accompany it, he will find us a way of 
 escape, if we obey him. If we obey him not, all is lost ; our 
 peculiar trial will prove our destruction ; we shall become cor- 
 rupt, wicked, dead ; we shall inherit w^oe in this world and in 
 another. 
 
 Now the condition of the colored class is such as to awaken 
 our deep compassion. From how many of our enjoyments 
 are they wholly and hopelessly cut off in this life ! Doomed 
 to toil for others' benefit more than for their own, and subject- 
 ed to the arbitrary will of another whom they do not choose, 
 always in the possibility of being sold to strangers, and severed 
 from whatever is dearest to them ; they are without country 
 and sometimes without home ; they wander like Cain upon the 
 earth, without Cain's guilt ; they enter hke Joseph into bonds, 
 but without the intelligence of Joseph to support and console 
 captivity, and without the remotest hope of rising like him, 
 above it. They are born in fetters ; in fetters must they die. 
 And they are always in peril of falling (with the changes of 
 fortune) into the hands of hard-hearted masters, who inflict 
 on them cruelties which have never been surpassed. Add to 
 this that, by education, they are almost without those fine feel- 
 ings, which are the source of all the bliss we much value, and 
 
12 
 
 possess but a meagre understanding of Christianity, which 
 furnishes the consolations of sorrow, and is the nurse of spir- 
 itual pleasure. They are brutish and unaspiring. They enjoy 
 but an initiatory, and unsatisfied being, and must look forward 
 to another world, even for that height of happiness, which we 
 may possess in this. Their indolence and childishness, their 
 deceitfulness and perversity, being the natural results of their 
 ignorance and of their condition, increase our compassion, rather 
 than irritate our tempers ; for we know that our virtues of 
 enterprise and industry and veracity, so far as we possess 
 them, are not to be claimed by us as merits, but are conse- 
 quences of our discipline ; that we are educated to be active, 
 as the slave is to be sluggish, and if we have human hearts, 
 we pity the poor man the more, that his condition is such as 
 to repress the native exuberance of power and of thought, and 
 hold him down to a monotony of reluctant drudgery. 
 
 On contemplating then the slave's lot, compassion and in- 
 dulgence are the necessary result in every undepraved mind. 
 And these are a constituent part of Christian charity ; for pity 
 is love for those who are in distress. 
 
 And while we compassionate the slave, we are not to forget 
 that he is our brother, although with a colored skin, and with 
 faculties less apt ; that he looks forward to the same heavenly 
 inheritance as we, and is an equal sharer in the redemption of 
 the cross. We are not to forget that in him, all human ca- 
 pacities lie, though not yet unfolded ; that in that darkened 
 mind are hid the elements of the Imagination which in Milton 
 entered Eden and the courts of Heaven, of the Reason which 
 with Newton weighed the spheres, of the Religious Faith which 
 made Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles, and led him by the 
 hand through dangers now unknown ; that in a future state these 
 faculties, long pent, may be brought forth into illustrious ac- 
 tion. And when we stagger at this contrast, and doubt 
 whether our principles do not delude us, we may reflect on the 
 great change w^hich has been wrought in us, since we were 
 helpless and senseless infants in our nurses' arms, and remind 
 
13 
 
 ourselves of the fact tliat the inhabitants of the now glorious 
 Britain were once regarded by the Romans, as incapable of 
 elevation, and fit only to be serfs. 
 
 Yes J on every soul the divine image is stamped, and as the 
 soul grows and expands, that likeness is capable of being 
 brought forth with glorious and angelic lustre. This world is 
 but introductory. At the high dawning of another, despised 
 and abused spirits will be found opening into display of facul- 
 ties long concealed, as the flower bursts into sudden gloiy 
 under the first warmth of the morning. The poor African, 
 when he has exchanged the darkened body for the livery of 
 the skies, and is enlightened by a sudden access of that knowl- 
 edge which was obtained by us below only with painful exer- 
 tion, when he is encouraged and lifted up by the sight of the 
 Lamb and of the benignant Father of glory, will seem not 
 wholly unlike the best of the sons of earth, — will receive 
 respect as his right, and happiness as his inheritance. The 
 negro is our brother. To be regarded with fraternal feeling is 
 therefore his due. We bestow it on him not as a favor, but 
 as a debt. 
 
 The obligation on us, then, is very apparent, to treat and 
 love him, as a fellow-laborer, and not as a tool ; to seek his 
 happiness, and when he is helpless, to make ourselves his guar- 
 dian, — to seek his happiness by complying always with the 
 demands of justice, by yielding him every thing which is equi- 
 table, by endeavoring to mitigate his sufferings, and to make 
 his happiness of a continually higher and higher kind, through 
 culture of his mind and giving him opportunity of improve- 
 ment. If the laws forbid this, they are wicked, and must be 
 repealed. 
 
 Thus by kindliness and encouragement in all our treatment 
 of them, by increasing their happiness even as they are, and 
 still more by attempting to lead them to such refined, and ra- 
 tional and elevating happiness as we ourselves would desire, 
 are we to show our Christian love toward this portion of the 
 race. I know that there are those who will smile at the very 
 
14 
 
 idea of loving them. " What ! Do you speak of affection as 
 possible towards the brutish laborers of our fields and streets, 
 towards men who do not even know what a refined thought 
 is ? " But those who deem such love impossible, have not yet 
 begun to know Christianity. What reward have we, if we 
 love only those whom it is instinctive to love, if our love be 
 tried by nothing which tends to sever it ? To love our amiable 
 and affectionate friends requires no Religion ; it is perfectly 
 consistent with a low state of heart ; it is not a virtue, but an 
 impulse. But our Christian benevolence is tried, when we 
 turn to the unhonored, the ignorant, the repulsive, or those 
 with whom our spirits are not congenial. There it will be seen 
 whether we have exalted Charity to be the rational principle of 
 our whole nature, whether our heart really beats for our fel- 
 lows, or only for those who flatter and solace it. Far from 
 love being impossible towards our common colored laborers, it 
 is the natural emotion in a pure mind, on contemplating their 
 condition. We do not see them overworn with toil, or de- 
 prived of comfort and hope, or suffering in any way, or on the 
 other hand, performing acts of faithfulness and friendship, 
 without sympathizing with them, and wishing to relieve them. 
 Selfishness and cupidity are stern and severe. But while the 
 mind is not excited by passion, nor blinded by interest, nor 
 hardened by former guilt, it is not without fellow-feeling for 
 the slave. And when taught by Christianity, it puts forth a 
 new sympathy, a sympathy far more penetrating and active, a 
 heavenly and constant love. 
 
 But some one may here whisper to himself, that I suffer my 
 enthusiasm to carry me away, that that love must remain mere- 
 ly nominal, so long as there is such a vast distance between us 
 and its objects, so long as they are so gross, and ignorant, and 
 uncongenial with us ; that this distance is too great for real 
 affection. But is the separation so vast ? And does it pre- 
 clude the idea of love ? Is not the Eternal Father raised 
 infinitely above us ; and are we too low to be reached by his 
 affection ? And has the great Christian Idea not yet dawned 
 
15 
 
 in our minds, that we are to imitate that Father, " to be his 
 followers as dear children "? In the sight of God the inequal- 
 ities among men sink into comparative insignificance, as the 
 hills and vallies of the plain become unnoticeable from the 
 mountain-cliff. God never ceases to love us through all our 
 folly and perverseness. Our brutish thoughts, our continual 
 ingratitude, our indolence, and childish frivolity and passions, 
 never drive away his tender providence. Can we do other 
 than imitate that long suffering towards those whom he com- 
 mands us to bear with and protect ? Does not the knowledge 
 of that Universal Father draw us nigh to our least favored 
 brethren ? Does not the thought of his universal care make 
 mutual kindness an act of devotion ? Does it not confer a 
 new dignity on every man ? Shall we despise any for whom 
 the Creator wakes the morning and shuts the evening, and 
 pours forth his myriad provisions of happiness and use ? Shall 
 we despise one who is invited to heaven, and may one day 
 wear the crown and wave the palm ? Our common faculties, 
 which in none of us are more than in infancy, our common 
 hopes which make the felicity of the future outshine and 
 eclipse all the advantages of the present, bring all men to 
 much the same level, cast superficial distinctions into obscuri- 
 ty, and bind us to all by a feeling of companionship. We 
 are not indeed to select our associates from those uncongenial 
 with us. From the whole human race to which we are bound 
 by Religion, we select but a few kindred hearts to be our fa- 
 miliar friends. But the excluding circumstance is not so 
 much outward as within. The virtuous man has far greater 
 aversion for his white brother whom sense and passion have 
 brutahzed, than for his colored servant whose character is 
 adorned by temperance and purity. 
 
 " Masters, give to your servants that which is just and 
 equitable, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." A 
 part of your debt to them is a tender interest in their welfare. 
 As citizens and as private men, always act for them in this 
 spirit. All wicked laws rescind. All unnecessary restraints 
 
16 
 
 remove. Pity their sufferings and be zealous for their eleva- 
 tion. Protect them in their homes. Seek to make their 
 domestic relations secure. Be indulgent to them in your 
 requisitions ; be ready to pardon, as you hope for pardon 
 above. Presume not to make them the mere instruments of 
 your comfort and advantage ; but prepare always to ansv^^er 
 for your treatment of them, before that Being who is no res- 
 pecter of persons ; remembering how great capacities of virtue, 
 what elements of moral beauty, of intelligence and compre- 
 hensive thought, what germs of celestial glory lie undeveloped 
 even in their disregarded minds. By true affection, extended 
 to them not as a favor, but as a debt, endeavor to call forth 
 within them an answering attachment, so that they may serve 
 us, " not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the servants 
 of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with good will 
 doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men," so that the 
 burden of bondage may be lightened by a willing spirit, and 
 they shall bless God that they were taken from the dark shores 
 of Africa, to inhabit among a Christian people, where they may 
 learn the divine truth uttered through Jesus, and see it en- 
 forced and beautifully exemplified in the character and con- 
 duct of their white brethren. Then it will no longer be a 
 mystery to us, why a good Father allowed this transportation 
 and bondage, and placed us in these distressful straits. We 
 are thrown into no straits, from which there do not lead 
 paths of duty, guiding us, though over rugged ways, into 
 regions of security and sacred satisfaction. Remember that 
 the trial of our faith consists in our peculiar temptations ; and 
 that it is very evident, where, with us, those peculiar tempta- 
 tions lie, that an awful responsibility and peril lie in our rela- 
 tion to the colored class, a responsibility and peril which make the 
 mind tremble and groan, and that it remains to be seen wheth- 
 er Christianity has life enough within us to bear us up and 
 carry us through safely, — whether our hearts are to be hard- 
 ened like that of Pharaoh, or made tenderly sympathizing and 
 self-forgetful like that of Paul and of his crucified Master. 
 
17 
 
 Already Slavery numbers its victims. In many it has caused 
 corruption and debauchery, a hard and hopeless brutality, 
 vv^hich nought in this world can cure ; in some of you here 
 present it has resulted in a severity and injustice, which in oth- 
 er countries would be a wonder ; in most it has given rise to 
 a shame of labor, which is disgraceful in men and in republi- 
 cans : but in many also it has been the occasion of bringing 
 forth a new tenderness of sympathy, a tolerance, a self-sacri- 
 fice, a regard for the human mind even when clouded and 
 veiled, which will shine illustriously in another world, as they 
 afford an enchanting spectacle in this. Make yourselves of 
 this latter class. Give to your servants all that regard and af- 
 fection, which is their due, which their miseries and vices 
 make only the more necessary, and await your reward from 
 Him who is alike your Lord and theirs. 
 
SECOND SERMON. 
 
 I ASK your attention once more to the text which engaged 
 our consideration on the morning of the last Sabbath. " Mas- 
 ters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal (or 
 equitable) ; knowing that ye also have a master in heaven " ; 
 and propose to attend still farther to the teachings of Chris- 
 tianity concerning our relations with the servile class. 
 
 There are some who object to all mention of the subject in 
 public, thinking that it is too exciting to be treated profita- 
 bly in any way. But, the more exciting the topic, the more 
 important that Religion should pour in its tranquilizing influ- 
 ence ; and as our difficulties and straits become more embar- 
 rassing, the more solicitous should we be for the guidance 
 of divine truth ; which never comes amiss ; which enlightens 
 darkness, which calms irritated feeling, which tempers the ex- 
 travagance of enthusiasm, and beautifully reconciles the rights 
 and true interests of all the children of God. On questions 
 of an agitating and doubtful nature, it may sometimes be 
 profitable to dissuade the expression of private opinion, of 
 the judgments and desires and fears of individual minds ; on 
 account of the apprehension that men may be irritated and 
 goaded by it. But in the Church it is quite different. Who- 
 ever is there excited to anger, when the instructions of Re- 
 ligion are faithfully proclaimed, brands himself as an infidel 
 and a rebel, he immediately makes himself an outlaw from 
 
20 
 
 the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and is to be ranked among the 
 enemies of the human race. 
 
 The rule which is to guide us in all our relations to our 
 fellow men in that which has been called the golden rule : 
 " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
 even so to them " ; this is declared to be " the law and the 
 prophets." This is the spirit of all the social teachings of 
 God's Word in the Old and in the New Testaments. This 
 is to be our guide in all our actions and all our feelings to- 
 wards others. It is not occasional or conditional ; but it is 
 universal. It is our Christian duty to aim never to swerve 
 from it ; and just in proportion as we do swerve from it, we 
 fall under condemnation. 
 
 The meaning of the injunction obviously is, that we should 
 do unto others, whatever, in an enlightened view of our in- 
 terests and rights we should desire them to do unto us ; not 
 whatever we might, in like circumstances, capriciously and 
 selfishly desire. For instance, were we very ignorant and 
 poor, we might desire that some person of wealth, should 
 transfer to us all his property ; but that certainly is not to be 
 done by him ; for therein the claims of others who are depen- 
 dent on him, and of himself would be disregarded. We are 
 to regard and treat others, as it would be right for us to wish 
 others to regard and treat us. And while we are disinterested, 
 we should also be just and impartial in our benevolence. We 
 come back then to the direction of our text, that we are to 
 give to our servants that which is just and equitable ; not 
 give them whatever they ask, but whatever they would ask if 
 they were wise ; to study their true interests ; and to aim to 
 promote those interests as we should aim to promote our 
 own. If we thoroughly, earnestlv, and without reserve, pur- 
 pose to act by these principles, our road will become com- 
 paratively plain, many perplexing questions will be immedi- 
 ately resolved, and we shall tread confidently and with happy 
 anticipations the path of duty. 
 
21 
 
 When we ventured upon the subject formerly, we con- 
 sidered to what sort of treatment of our servants those prin- 
 ciples would lead us. I propose now to inquire how those 
 principles affect their claim for liberation. 
 
 If it be true, as it is asserted to be, and as I suppose it 
 is, that a great part of the colored servants are so accustomed 
 to be taken care of, that they cannot take care of them- 
 selves, so indolent that they would not labor except urged 
 by others, and so improvident that the supplies of tomorrow 
 would be left to accident, and whatever they had to-day be 
 used for intemperate and vicious indulgence, it is plain that 
 we should do very wrong to turn them loose upon the world ; 
 for we feel that we, in like circumstances, with our present 
 clear views of interest, should supplicate to continue to be 
 protected and employed. It would be hke a father turning 
 his children at a tender age into the streets. But the inca- 
 pacity for freedom, is itself an evil to be deplored and re- 
 moved. It is not natural. It cannot be rightly permanent. 
 For every man is made to work out his own happiness in 
 this world and in another, by the unfettered use of his own 
 faculties ; and it is only when made free, that the resources 
 of his nature are drawn forth, that in ever new enterpri- 
 ses and attempts, animated by all the hopes and spirit of 
 liberty, he puts forth those manly powers, which, though un- 
 suspected in him before, are hidden in the recesses of every 
 human soul. That man is born to be free, is now a proposi- 
 tion every where allowed. In our country in particular, it 
 has become a familiar axiom. While one is unfit to be trust- 
 ed with this birthright, he is but in an infancy of being ; he 
 continues in a prolonged boyhood ; he has not yet become a 
 man, and the dignity, the happiness, and the hopes of man- 
 hood are denied him. That he should be fitted for freedom, 
 and made wholly free, becomes then the aim of one who acts 
 towards him in the spirit of Christian fraternity. If his own 
 safety require that like a child he should, for the present, be 
 
oo 
 
 constrained; and subject to the will of a master, his constraints 
 should be made no greater than are necessary, they should be 
 merely temporary, devised for the present exigence ; the idea 
 of him and his children being bound forever can never be 
 tolerated ; his right being recognised, he must be held merely 
 in guardianship, and not as an instrument for our gratification 
 or profit ; the relation must be a mutual and fraternal one, in 
 which he serves us in return for benefits conferred, and is 
 disciplined for his own advancement in intelligence and vir- 
 tue and practical capacity. If we doubt about the justice of 
 this requirement, then refer to the rule that we are to do unto 
 others as we would that they should do unto us, and ask 
 ourselves whether we should expect or rightfully demand any 
 thing less, were we in that state of servitude. 
 
 Let these few remarks suffice with regard to that portion 
 of our colored servants who are not fit to be immediately 
 freed from their restraints. There remain another class con- 
 sisting of those who are able to take care of themselves, and 
 are capable of judging of their own good. In these as in all 
 others, the right to liberty remaining unalienated and inalien- 
 able, nothing but the strongest considerations of public good 
 can authorize its being any longer suspended. Or if insuper- 
 able practical difficulties present themselves in the way of leg- 
 islation, and emancipation continue to be forbidden by law, 
 then the master, holding such an one in his dependence, must 
 regard him as a freeman, must give him the fruits of his la- 
 bor, must secure him in his domestic rights, must protect him 
 from all wrong, and afford him opportunity, while he fives, to 
 answer the ends of life, and to prepare to enter another, and 
 less oppressive world. Nothing less than this can possibly be 
 deduced from the golden rule of Christian morals. Nothing 
 less than this can be proposed to you as your duty, except by 
 one strangely deluded, or by one who cares more for your 
 opinion than for truth. 
 
 The principle on which Slavery is founded is entirely over- 
 thrown by the fundamental principle of Christian morality. 
 
23 
 
 Christianity makes all men our brethren. Slavery makes men 
 our tools. And the fallacy of its principle is fully allowed 
 here as well as elsewhere. I do not appeal to the majority of 
 slaveholders ; because the majority of this class, as well as of 
 other classes, is bad, and is not to be trusted to discern and 
 confess truth through the cloud of interest ; but I appeal to 
 that minority, of magnanimous, honorable, and benevolent 
 men, in whom the golden principles of the community are 
 treasured up, and who deserve to be considered the voice of 
 the community in all questions of justice and equity. They 
 allow, the better class among us freely allow, that the princi- 
 ple of slavery is wrong, that Christianity requires us to consid- 
 er all men our brethren, that each man has his rights, and that 
 they cannot be denied him and he be degraded into a thing 
 to be possessed for others' good ; they do not claim to own 
 their servants as they own their ploughs and their horses ; but 
 they own them as they own a wife and children ; hold them 
 under their care and direction, for the servants' own prosperi- 
 ty and spiritual advantage, by a discipline resulting in mutual 
 benefit and happiness. The idea that men can be owned, 
 strictly speaking, as property, will find few advocates among 
 the good. 
 
 Thus will Christianity eat out the heart of Slavery even 
 while Slavery continues. The servitude will not be a grind- 
 ing bondage ; but a mutual and fraternal dependence. While 
 the outward relation continues the same ; the virtual relation 
 will be entirely changed. The servants will be slaves, only in 
 the letter of the law ; while in fact they are regarded by their 
 Christian master as his wards, and indulged in whatever free- 
 dom they can profit by. To feed and clothe them, he will 
 deem but a part of his duty ; to teach, to encourage them, to 
 make them manly and intelligent, and enlighten them with 
 Christian truth, will be a more important responsibility and 
 equally incumbent ; and thus, while legislatures are unprepared 
 to act ; and philanthropists are afraid to speak ; and a silent 
 tolerance continues to brood over an Institution in itself cor- 
 
24 
 
 rupt, will the pure and irresistible principles of Christianity 
 have noiselessly, in many places, destroyed its essence, and left 
 only its name and some of its legal constraints. The teachings 
 of Cinistianity are practicable, even where the laws do not 
 conform to them. They forbid us to make our fellow man an 
 instrument for our profit or pleasure. They tell us he is our 
 brother. If he be ignorant and oppressed, they tell us to en- 
 lighten and deliver him. These teachings may be called 
 vague, and abstract, and unpractical ; but the truly good man 
 will easily find how to act according to them ; and his whole 
 conduct towards the servile class will be governed and sancti- 
 fied by their spirit. 
 
 But with these qualifications and mitigations, many find a 
 sanction for the existence of the Institution itself, in the alleged 
 facts, that it was authorized under the Mosaic dispensation, 
 and tolerated under that of Christ. This position deserves to 
 be well considered ; that we may decide how far what is al- 
 leged, is true ; and then how it bears on us of modern times. 
 
 When Moses was sent to lead and organize the Jewish peo- 
 ple, he found Slavery already existing and established ; and the 
 laws which he dictated to the Jewish Commonwealth, did 
 nothing with regard to it, but limit the power of masters, de- 
 fend the bondmen in certain rights, and provide for the liberation 
 of some, suffering the existing state of things to continue, only 
 mitigated and alleviated. Slavery, such as it exists in our 
 country, that is chattel-Slavery, by which the bondman is reck- 
 oned as part of the personal property of his master, did not 
 exist under the Jewish laws. Their bondmen were of two 
 sorts, first Hebrew servants who were to be restored to liberty 
 without fail on the year of jubilee, which was every seventh 
 year, and might be redeemed at any time previous, by the pay- 
 ment of the amount of the wages of a hired servant for what 
 remained of the period ; and secondly, servants taken from for- 
 eign nations, or children of the strangers dweUing in the land, 
 who were bound in perpetuity, and were to be a possession for 
 
25 
 
 the Jewisli master and for his children forever. But the law 
 contains no permission that these should be sold. They were 
 vassals of a family ; and with that family they were to remain ; 
 a condition more resembling the condition called " Villenage," 
 than Slavery as it has been planted in this region of the world. 
 For men being bought and sold, held as the mere transferable 
 tools of industry, to be driven about hither and thither like 
 cattle, as the interests of the master may demand, the Jewish 
 laws contain no sanction whatever. All their regulations with 
 regard to servants are conceived in quite a different spirit. 
 They are provident of the servant's rights. They protect him 
 against cruelty. When fleeing from a master of another na- 
 tion, they forbid him on any account to be restored. They 
 provide for his instruction in the Faith, and reckon him as 
 equal with his master before God. 
 
 These differences between Slavery as it exists among us, 
 and that authorized by the Jewish law^, are worthy of being 
 noticed. From the main fact, however, what inference can be 
 drawn? Slavery was permitted by the Mosaic code with 
 certain limitations and mitigations. Can that sufferance be 
 brought to show its lawfulness among us ? Certainly not. For 
 the same mode of argument would make polygamy admissi- 
 ble, since this was allowed by the Jewish law and practised by 
 the Jewish people. Yet can any be found to maintain on this 
 ground, that a man may, without sin, have several wives, if he 
 only treat them all with kindness ? The Jewish was an im- 
 perfect dispensation, designed for the infancy of the race. We 
 have a more perfect law. Nothing is permissible to us, except 
 that which, according to Christ, is just. If we would find 
 therefore what Revelation approves, we must turn to his word. 
 
 Christianity sought to make no violent revolutions in the 
 civil relations of men. Its office was to change the world by 
 means of a spiritual influence, a moral regeneration. Had it 
 declared freedom to slaves, and taken their part against their 
 masters, it would immediately have been obliged to engage in 
 4 
 
26 
 
 an outward conflict. It therefore addresses itself to men in 
 whatever condition of life it may find them ; making light of 
 outward condition, so the mind be rightly set. " Let every 
 man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art 
 thou called being a servant, care not for it. But if thou 
 mayest be made free, use it rather." But while it thus tolerates 
 the servile relation, because incorporated with the constitution 
 of society, it eats out its core and saps its foundations by si- 
 lently working principles, and prepares its final extinction. 
 The servants are exhorted to obey their masters from religious 
 motives, not because their service is their masters' right. They 
 are to free themselves, if possible ; but otherwise to resign 
 themselves to their lot, and to care Uttle for it, since it is out- 
 ward and of short duration. Masters are exhorted to give to 
 their servants that which is just and equal ; and Philemon is 
 besought to receive the fugitive Onesimus, not as a servant, 
 but as a brother beloved. In short the great principle of hu- 
 man brotherhood and mutual love, struck the fetters from the 
 captive's limbs. The Christian gives to others only what he 
 would be ready and bound, in like circumstances, to receive. 
 He is to make himself the instrument of good to all. Of 
 course, he cannot degrade others to be the mere instruments 
 of pleasure or gain to him. Their rights as men, their immor- 
 tal interests, their Christian hopes take precedence of all things 
 else. These are first in his mind, in all his dealings with oth- 
 ers. This spirit of Christianity, my friends, must finally cast 
 off every yoke. It has done so in all civilized countries ex- 
 cept our own ; but no people has been called to so arduous a 
 duty as we. We are surrounded by difficulties and dangers 
 through which nothing but Religion can ever lead us in safety. 
 Let us faithfully cleave to that Heavenly Guide. 
 
 It is not to be controverted that Christianity brought 
 no express and direct prohibition of Slavery. As little how- 
 ever did it bring an express and direct prohibition of despo- 
 tism ; and yet in our times and country, it need not be argued 
 
27 
 
 that Christianity asserts the hberties of a nation. In the New 
 Testament men are commanded without discrimination to sub- 
 mit to pohtical rulers. As well might we reason from this in 
 favor of passive obedience, and condemn thereupon our revolu- 
 tionary fathers and all who have withstood the tyranny of mon- 
 archs, as draw conclusions in favor of Slavery from the silence 
 of the New Testament with regard to it, and the exhortation 
 to servants to obey their masters. 
 
 How can we suppose that Christ looked upon Slavery oth- 
 er than with disapprobation ? Do we reflect on what Slavery 
 was in his day ? that it was not merely of the ignorant and 
 low, who were fit only to be the drudges of society, and need- 
 ed the strong arm of a master to control them, but that it em- 
 braced the philosopher, the poet, the accomphshed female 
 with its bonds, the delicacy and splendor of whose gifts did 
 not prevent their being subject to the will of a sometimes ca- 
 pricious or wicked master ? And are we prepared to maintain 
 that Christ approved of this, because he did not condemn it ? 
 Did he not find the world teeming with wrong, and society 
 laden with evil, and is his silence in any particular to be reck- 
 oned in opposition to those principles of religion which he 
 gave forth, as the powers that were to subdue all wrong ? 
 
 No. The question, as a question of Right and of Relig- 
 ion, seems to be very plain. Slavery is wrong. We can own 
 servants only as we own wives and children. They cannot be 
 a part of our property ; nor, without great injustice can they 
 be treated as such. This conclusion, indeed, is not in general 
 controverted. While it remains abstract and general, it is 
 allowed. But when we come to apply it to our own circum- 
 stances, we are perplexed with doubts, and a thousand insu- 
 perable difficulties are thought to present themselves before 
 us. The incapacity of people long inured to bondage, their 
 reluctance to work except when compelled, our entire depen- 
 dence on them for the necessary labor in our fields and houses, 
 are supposed to make it necessary to continue the bondage of 
 
28 
 
 the present generation. But in a few years the present gen- 
 eration will be gone : and does this reason apply to the gen- 
 eration that is to come ? May not the law decree the freedom 
 and provide for instruction in necessary knowledge, and for 
 the necessary discipline and protection, of those born after the 
 present time ? May it not mitigate the condition of those now 
 living, by permitting them to be instructed, by securing them 
 in their families from forced separations, and from violation of 
 their sacred rights ? Ought not some limit to be set to the 
 freedom with which they are bought and sold? In short, 
 if Slavery he wrong, ought not the removal of it to be the 
 settled policy of the people among ivhom it exists! 
 
 But while the people are too supine to act through the 
 way of law, the individual need not be dead. By great kind- 
 ness and thoughtfulness towards his laborers, making them 
 happy and devising ever new plans for their good, struggling 
 unweariedly against the difficulties and disgusts of his situa- 
 tion, he may leave nothing of Slavery but its name and its 
 legal disabilities, he may wholly free himself from the charge 
 of oppression and be hailed by his servants as their great bene- 
 factor. The duty of each of us will appear plain, in propor- 
 tion to the singleness of heart with which we pursue it. Be- 
 fore the steady gaze of a pure purpose, the clouds that hang 
 over our path will disappear. 
 
 Thus, my friends, I have accomplished my difficult duty of 
 uttering to you, what appear to be the teachings of Religion 
 on this forbidden subject. I have not spoken my own thought. 
 I have not suffered myself to listen to my own wishes or fears. 
 The opinion of this or that mind is nothing. Our question is 
 singly this, — what is the will of God toward us in this thing ? 
 Under His protection we may laugh at fear. Interest, reputa- 
 tion, the excitements and prejudices of the day sink and van- 
 ish ; and we seek to solve the great problem of our social con- 
 
29 
 
 dition, by looking into the eternal truth of things, and the 
 immutable and shining duties of Religion. Such views never 
 come amiss. Even N\'hen nothing is to be done, they prepare 
 us for the future, and make us satisfied to be quiet. They 
 give stabiUty to our otherwise fluctuating ideas. They yield 
 us confidence in ourselves. They calm all irritated feeling, 
 they raise us to serene and elevated thought, and prepare us 
 for sacrifices and toil. Religion is never an intruder. 
 
 Notwithstanding this, however, I have found a strong 
 motive to dissuade me from venturing on the subject, I 
 have now treated, in the apprehension that the treatment of 
 it might prejudice our infant church in the opinion of the 
 community. Let me say therefore, that thus to shift the 
 responsibility upon the church, would be wholly unjust. I 
 am forced to confess, that the members of our denomination 
 are in general as little favorable to the discussion of this 
 great interest as those of any other. I fear there is not an 
 individual in our society who would not have dissuaded all 
 mention of it. They of course are not to be blamed for 
 what they would not have approved. The odium, if such 
 there be, belongs to me. 
 
 I am well aware, also, that I expose myself to much mis- 
 representation. To this, and to a thousand ill-natured and 
 pusillanimous reproaches, to the bickering and cavils of the 
 foolish and superficial, and tO the anger of the wicked, as 
 well as to the disapprobation and complaint of many whom 
 it is painful to offend, to all these I resigned myself when 
 I began. I had come to a rugged passage in the path of 
 duty. What right had I to falter or complain ? 
 
 But to avoid, as far as possible, being misunderstood, let 
 me say, in conclusion, that I am not an Abolitionist, (in 
 the technical sense w^hich is given to the word) ; but that, 
 on the contrary, men of that persuasion have greatly re- 
 proached me for my opposition to them. But I am one of 
 
30 
 
 that large and increasing body of Christians, who hold Slave- 
 ry to be wrong, and are earnest for its removal. To be thus 
 is not matter of choice. Thus far the spirit of Paul and of 
 Jesus Christ constrains me. 
 
 And finally, whatever may be the opinions, the hopes and 
 fears, of different men, fail not to view the whole matter ha- 
 bitually in the light of Religion. If you follow that light, 
 you can never go astray, you can never fall into any lasting 
 calamity. 
 
 54 NT 
 

 
 
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