OCR Text |
Show 66 LIBERTY AND ST~AVERY. justly entitled from every portion of the rational universe. It )s repeatedly affirmed by Dr. ·wayland that every slaveholder lives in the habitual and open violation of the precept which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves. "The moral precepts of the Bible," says he, "are diametrically opposed to slavery. These are, 'Thou shalt Jove thy neighbor as thyself,' and 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.' Now, were this precept obeyed,'' he continues, "it is manifest that slavery could not in fact exist for a single instant. The principle of the precept is absolutely subversive of the principle of slavery." If strong assertion were argument, we should no doubt be ovetwhelmed by the irresistible logic of Dr. Wayland. But the assertion of no man can be accepted as sound argument. We want to know the very meaning of the words of the great Teacher, and to be guided by that, rather than by the fallible authority of an earthly oracle. What, then, is the meaning, the real meaning, of his inspired words? Do th.ey mean that whatsoever we might, in any relation of life, desire for ourselves, we should be willing .to gmnt to others in the like ARGUMENTS OF ADOT.ITIONISTS. 67 relation or condition? ThiB interpretation, we arc aware, has been put upon the words by a very celebrated divine. If we may believe that divine, we cannot do as we would be done by, unless, when we desire the estate of another, we forthwith transfer our estate to him ! If a poor man, for example, should happen to covet the estate of his rich neighbor, then he is bound by this golden rule of benevolence to give his little all to him, without regard to the necessities or wants of his own family! But this interpretation, though seriously propounded by a man of undoubted genius and piety, has not, so far as we know, made the slightest possible impression on the plain good sense of mankind. Even among his most enthusiastic admirers, it has merely excited a good-natured smile at what they could not but regard as the strange hallucination of a benevolent heart. A wrong desire in one relation of life U! not a reason for a wrong act in anotlter relation tltereof. A man may desire the estate, he may desire the man-servant, or the maid-servant, or the wifo of his neighbor, but this is no reason why he should abandon his own man-servant, or his maid-servant, or his wife to the will of anothe1·. The criminal who t•·emblcs at the bar of justice |