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Show 66 ease, extorts his sweat, I think of the fearful words which the Savior has put into the lips of the Hebrew patriarch in the unseen world, " Thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and thou art tormented." Distinctions founded on wrong endure but for a day. Could we now penetrate the future world, what startling revelations would be made to us! Before the all-seeing impartial justice of God, we should see every badge of humiliation taken off from the fallen, crushed, and enslaved; and where, where would the selfish, unfeeling oppressor appear! 5. J shall advert but to one more topic suggested by Mr. Gurney's book; I refer to the kind and respectful manner in which he speaks of many slave-holders. He has no sympathy with those, who set down this class of men indiscriminately as the chief of sinners, but speaks with satisfaction of examples of piety and virtue which he found in their number. By some among us this lenity will be ascribed to his desire to win for himself golden opinions ; but he deserves no such censure. The opinion of slave-holders is of no moment to him; for he has left them forever, and returns to his own country, where his testimony to their worth will find no 67 sympathy, but expose him to suspicion, perhaps to reproach. Of the justice of his judgment I have no doubt. Among slave-holders there may be and there are good men. But the inferences from this judgment are often false and pernicious. T here is a common disposition to connect the character of the slave-holder and the character of slavery. Many at the North, who by intercourse of business or friendship have come to appreciate the good qualities of individuals at the South, are led to the secret if not uttered inference, that a system sustained by such people can be no monstrous thing. They repel indignantly the invectives of the Abolitionists against the master, and by a natural process go on to question or repel their denunciation of slavery. Here lies the secret of much of the want of just feeling in regard to this institution. People become reconciled to it in a measure by the virtues of its supporters. I will not reply to this error by insisting that the virtues, which grow up under slavery, bear a small proportion to the vices which it feeds. J take a broader ground. I maintain that we can never argue safely from the character of a man to the system be upholds. It is a solemn truth, not yet understood as it should be, that the worst institutions may be sustained, the worst deeds performed, the most merciless cruelties inflicted by the conscientious and the good. History teaches no truth more |