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Show 124 NARRATIVE OP' that their own views and practice had already eon· vi need me that it was an unrighteous book; for I could not believe that my fatuer would hold slaves under any conviction of its rightfulness drawn from nature, and that my mother would treat the blacks· as she did, had she been governed by ber natural sense of justice; but that by early education in the Bible, they had been trained to regard slavcholding perfectly compatible with the divine law, and the black as some heathenish being, whom it was no oppression to en· slave. But now having examined the Bible with care, I see that they who take that Book to justify the enslaving of men, have been most dreadfully deluded." " ' Veil, Albert," said Mary, "you know the obliga· tions of Christianity require action as well as senti· ment. If we are Christians truly, we have to serve Christ fully. We dare not, therefore, withhold our testimony against slavery any more than against any other crime. How then can we return to Carolina? 'V e cannot be happy there amidst au institution which we abhor." "Mary, like yourself, I now feel," said Albert, " that a Christian must not hide his light under a ALBERT AND MARY . 125 bushel. W c must speak for the dumb and for the truth as it is in J csus. But with such views and intentions we would not be suffered in South Carolina. What, then, are we to do?'' :Mary, after a few moments' meditation, answered, "Albert, our parents think we were lost with the Pulaski. Let it stand so. They will suffer more if we go back to them with such sentiments as we now entertain. And for your sakr, and for our parents' sake, and for the sake of Christ, I am will· ing to sacrifice all my worldly prospects and try to make a living by my own exertions in some place where my own feelings will not be shocked with the perpetual violation of Christian law by my own slave· holding relatives, and where I shall not be myself an annoyance to them." . Uere their dialogue was interruptecl by the arrival . of the ship at the wharf, and in a short time our young friends were safely landed in New York. Suffice it to say, in conclusion, that they both agreed never more to be dependent on the wealth of their parents,-assured as they were that all they could bestow upon them would be the prodnct of unrequitecl toil. They were s6on united in holy wedlock, and, |