|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 43
I beg leave to impress on your minds the solemn truth, that your
slaves are human beings of like passions, feelings, and propensities
as yourselves; that they have immortal souls; that their joys and
their sorrows, their happiness, and their misery, are suspended on the
treatment which they receive at your hands; and that not only their
present happiness and misery, but in all probability, their eternal
destiny may be influenced by your course of conduct toward them. These
are weighty considerations--would to God I could impress their
importance on your minds; and that you would give them that prayerful
and serious attention winch they demand at your hands.
In assuming the right to direct and control fellow beings, from their
cradles to their graves, you have taken on yourselves responsibilities,
onerous indeed; and whatever may be your feelings,--whatever may be
your views--whatever may be your course toward these unfortunate
beings, of one thing you may be assured, that you are destined to meet
them at the bar of judgment, and that if you have failed to discharge
the duties obligatory on you, God Almighty will require their souls at
your hands.
It is there that the rich and the poor, the bond and the free, the
slave and his master, shall meet on a common level before a just and
Almighty Judge; who, without respect of persons, colors, grades, or
conditions in life, shall render unto every man according to his
works, whether they be good or evil. In that dread day, it will avail
you nothing, that in this world you were men of renown; that in this
world the indigent and the ignorant, cowered in your presence, or were
awed into submission by your superiority; or, that the summits of your
superb and beautiful mansions vied with the clouds--that you added
house to house, and field to field--that you amassed silver and gold
as the dust of the earth--and that you were surrounded by all the
elegancies and enjoyed all the comforts of life--rioted in excess and
reveled in luxury. There you will stand before a just and scrutinizing
God, divested of all those superfluities, and stripped of all that
drapery, and those fascinating accomplishments, which attracted the
attention and commanded the respect and admiration of your dependants
and inferiors in this world.
Having in the preceding pages, but incidentally alluded to the duties
of servants, I will close the present chapter with a few remarks on
that subject. "Servants obey in all things your masters according to
the flesh," &c. Servants are taught in the New Testament, not only to
obey their masters, but to do it in the fear of God, cheerfully,
freely, and actively; not simply with a view to please their masters,
but as a service or duty, which God requires of them and for which he
will hold them accountable.
It is a little remarkable, that so much should have been said and
written about the cruel and harsh treatment of servants, and the
duties of masters, and that the duties of servants should have been
overlooked. Servants are commanded to be subject to their masters,
"not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward." The
non-observance of this command on the part of servants, has frequently
engendered that peevishness and perverseness in masters to which the
apostles alludes, viz. forwardness among servants, has engendered
frowardness in masters. It is the duty of servants, to oppose the evil
tempers and dispositions, and the inhumanity of masters, by opposite
tempers and dispositions, and by an opposite course of conduct. This
is the command of God; and by yielding obedience to this command, they
would to some extent, at least, reform their masters, and secure to
themselves kind treatment. It is their only hope; it is all they can
do, that will be likely to ameliorate their conditions as slaves. If
servants would obey the injunctions of Holy Writ, they would seldom be
treated cruelly or unkindly. It is their own disobedience and
perverseness that subjects them, for the most part, to cruel
treatment. I know, from personal observation, that the unkind, the
harsh, the cruel treatment of slaves, in a large majority of cases,
originates in their failure to observe the injunctions of the inspired
writers.
I have shown that it is the duty of servants to "love" and "obey"
their "masters," to "count them worthy of all honor," and "to please
them well in all things;" and it now devolves on those who have taught
a contrary doctrine, to either admit their error, or otherwise to
throw away their Bibles. It is folly for persons to persist in a
course so contrary to the word of God, and notwithstanding, to call
themselves Christians. I know that there are many who will plead
ignorance, when they are arraigned for their unscriptural views, and
their unwarrantable interference with slavery. It is too true--poor
souls, they are ignorant--deplorably ignorant; but in all seriousness
I would ask, how is it in this land of Bibles, that a majority of
those professing Christianity, should know but little more about the
Sacred Scriptures, than the heathen who never saw a Bible? But they
have no time to read the Bible, and what is worse, they have no taste
for it. All their leisure moment are devoted to the reading abolition
papers, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and other contemptible low, filthy novels!
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|