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Show labor I have reared those imperishable structures, which will ~ta n_d to the last day of time, exciting astonishment and comm am.ling,a~mJratwn .from generation to gc~J e ration; I .wtu. J'IOo:r u:T THE ~·coi'L~ ,oo. fhc Alnu~h~_v taught him the folly and en me of h1s presumpt1on .. J_ o doubt the De~ty s hatred of slal'ery, is to deny the truth of this aston1shmg account. It IS to deny the Old and New Testament. It is to deny ?ur own natu.re-the unwriuen law of conscience. It is to deny and desp1se all the cnes and pleadings of our humanity. It is to ~en~ our 1~ature ami very exist~nce: It is to say there is no sin, that one th111g 1s as n ght as another, steal~ng 1s as honest as labor, lewdness is the same as modesty, cruelty as k111dness, robbery as benevolence, pir:.wy as a purchase . . T o tl~ny th~ crime of s lal'ery is to say there is no right, no wrong, no just1ce, no lllJUStlce. Behold the flyi11g fugitives ! The Red sea in the!r fron_t, mountains on their right and left, and the uncou1~ted ho~ts of Egypt 111 theJ r.rear. See the poor fugi tives anti their little ones 111 the pass of the m~untams ; ~verwhe\m~d with terror, they go to the banks of the sea, and 1t gathers 1ls waters 111 wa1\~-whi\e the triumphant freedmen, with praises on thf'ir to11gnes, and in their hearts, turn round to b~hold the Almighty causing the Egyptian wheels to forsake thei r axletrees, and the wall of water to yield and cover up their task-masters furever! A late traveller, of the last ten years, sent a pearl-diver down to examine the supposed path of the nation of fugitives, and discovered pieces of Egyptian armour and implements of war, attesting the truth of this highway in the deep, never travelled over but once. These fugitive slaves had a cloud by day and a pillar of lire by night for their outs tretched banner. " nx day along tile ~.ston ishe•l latuls fhc clmuty pilhn· glided slow, B.r night A t·aiJia's crimson s.'lnds Hctumcd the fh:•·y colunm's glow." They were fed with food direct from the Almighty's table for forty years in a land of emptiness and want, where the prowling hyena and gaunt wCllf howled in the bitternef:s of hunger unappeased. The rock opened its flinty mouth, and sent its cooling water.s after them. The Almighty, in scorn of human greatness, and to show himself no respecter of persons, made these despised, runaway slaves the honored recipients of the J.Aw of LAws-the ten eternal orders of God inscribed with His fin gers, and delivered to them, while the rocky heart of Sinai quaked and trembled with His thunders, and its summit shone with celestial brightness as the lightning blazed. around its pinnacles, and, through the pauses of the storm, the voice of the great trumpet waxed. louder and louder! Thus these poor fugitives had the custodial care of the first Heaven-le~t geography, which shows the pa\h-way through which man must travel, 10 order to enter on the joys of that undiscovered country from which none return. To them was entrusted God's revelation, the living fountain from whose waters of truth all of the civilized nations of the earth have drawn the fundamentals of jurisprudence. Yes, these fugiti,•e slaves were God's librari~ns, and had the holy keeping of llis laws, which have been the great.morall1ght of this world. But what was the treatment these oppressed and fl eeing fugitil'es met with from the hands of the King of Edom,-the land of Idumea? . H ere we have an awful demons tration of God's dcte~ta tion of a uauon who could dare attempt to arrest or impede the progress of fleeing fugitive SPEECH OF ALVAN STJo:WART. 105 !laves, who sought a passage through a neutral country to the land of freedom. For that crime the malediction of the Most High has brooded over the land of ldumea! Oh! w~at a solemn fulfilm ent of prophecy! Look at l3t~tra, the city of the Hoc~ 111 the mountains-the wo1H.lerful capital of this Heaven-doomed land-this nest of one of tile world's great empires, girded about with. e~e.rla.sti•~g mountain barriers. Behold her theatres, temples, and catacombs, VJemg ~vJth in:'perial Rome in the days of her Cres.ars, cut from her granite mountams, Wllh rocky roofs one th_ousand feet Ill ~hickne!!'s culminating above: ~ehold her m1ghty palaces Without mortar, without joints, chiselled out at pnmcval rock,-perfect after the long lapse of cen ~uries , as when first opened! Y_e~ this a ncient abode of polished life, which felt the movings of a mig hty ambitiOn, has, for twenty centuries, been abandoned of God and forsal.:e11 ?f man, only tenanted by the obscene bird and loathsome serpent-the sole mmates of the palaces of kings and lodgers in the chambers of departed greatness. No ma_n abides in this lone land, no man says th is is my home. ~.la~d o nce red w1th the ~load of th ~ grape, and thronged with populous ld.e, It. has become a ster1le and_ maJeStic so~itude,-bornc down by the w1thermg curse of God, for the crunc of opposmg the escape of the fugitive Hebrew slaves from the land of the spoiler. There stands, and will stand to the end of time, the witness, telling to each generation of the world as they flow down the long stream of ages, "here was once a crime committed by man against man, bv a nation in prosperity against a nation of fugitive slaves flying in distreSs." The punishment was inflicted in the zenith of her glory, and she is the only country on the globe which has been depopulated from century to century, as an enduring testimonial of the Almighty's wrath. As the soli tary traveller wan...ders over the ruins of Petra, he is alarmed as echo sends back her voice in answer to his footsteps from the lonely temple, the deserted palace, ~nd silent catacombs; astonished he lifts. ~1 is eye, surrounded by ever-dunng walls of rock, and beholds the only hv1ng being, em eagle, in the regions of the blue sky, revolving in his noontide gyrations over the doomed City of the Mountains. ~he flight of the Hebrews from the _house of bondage took place at a penod when Egypt was the home of seJence,-the Gamaliel at whose feet the learned and inquiring of other nations sat. She was at the head of the fa~ilies o~ the earth,. and withi~ her borders were locked up those discovenes winch have smcc astomshed mankind. [n the contest between ~srael and Egypt, therefore, it was enlightened strength contending against 1gnorant weakness. There wa!:l too much power to decide the question by reason and argument, on th e side of the Egypti::ms, and too much feebleness on the part of the Hebrews. But we are somewhat struck at the superior refinement of the haughty slaveholders of E gypt, compared with those of the United States. Pharaoh, as the representative of supreme power, tolerated Moses and Aaron with rights denied by an American Congress and Southern slaveholders, to wit, the rights of P ETI'flON and FREE DISC:USSIQN, For this matter was discussed no less t~1an seve~1 or eight. ~imes in the palace of Egypt; and Pharaoh never den1ed the nght of peht1on but o nce, and that ~as when he told Moses not to come before him again. But that was at the t1me when Moses had ceased to petition, as the business was lodged in the hands of the angel of death. The next g reat issue was the advent of our Redeemer. H |