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Show 218 George B. Cheever. could be, as naked individual ern lty aml crime without lnw, and without the provi:::;ion of its p rp tual sanction and iucrca. c. And the obligation toward · God and man, upon every man, to . 't him elf against it, is 1en thousand times great er when human law thus commands and perpetuates what Gocl has foruilldcn, than it could be where no law enthroned and prot ·ctcu the villany. Two crim s, in this case, require oppo;;; ition, instead of one; two forms of crim , -and tho second the vastest, mo t atrocious, most terrible. l~~or God ltath publicly and solemnly expelled from sanction and /CI] owship the throne of iniquity that framcth mi ·chief by a law. Now a man hag ri ·en np to /ling God's protc:::;t in the f:t cc of such a State, and to put tho protest into action. God eviucntly pr pared the man, by many year:-~ of di ·ciplinr, of pray0-r, of instruction iu IIi · "\Von], for uch a protc.st, for f'Ueh a work, teaching him reliance solely on God. !laving taken ]lis own time and in !lis own way, God, who sccth the end from the beginning, nnd not as man seeth, takes th i;' trairwd servant and drives him openly n gain ~ t ~ u c h wickcdnes , such a Stale, uch law ·. It is no more . ingular that od should do this by IIi providence thnn that lie lrath done it in His word. rr John l\'filton were on earth he would how you that as clearly as God ever sent Ehnd against I~glon and hit~ tyranny, so clearly, and. mu<"h more, was J olm Brown t ommis'ion •d again t this tyranny of' Slavery, and again. t tile State and the law, that uphold it. Antl though the man might mistake a to the manner and m<·thod of the prote:-t, y t that it is God'::; protest is as true as that it is God's prorid ·nee. And the kind of in ·trum ' lit that God ha · tal<t~ n for this work is a most plain and acl'cd in<lieation tltnt it i ~ from Him; plain and sacrcc1, along with and in the light of' Jlis J' qui~ition s or men to act as "gnpmcn " in vindication of Ilis violated law, when ~~ whole land .·ecms gt vcn up to such violation, ' George B. Cheever. 219 God's thoughts are not as our thoughts; neither arc !lis ways as om· ways. The v ry lowest xpo~111der ' of all t.he f al)olo<r.rst" for sin the xtrcm :t d 'fenders of the Ill - race o " n · ·~ ' iqnity of Slav ry as rightC'onsnr.ss, mn~~ aC'kn.owl '<:g th:tt Uod has p ' rtlliLLcd a Chri:tin.n man to flmg thr ~ t1cfw,ncc·, m God's name, against both the Slavery and the State ti m~ sustain~ it. Obed.icnce to God's ·law instead of man'~, obe<l,cne'c to God's law against man's, is a Christian work when man ~ 1 · · ~ • God's Now aw IS agatn511 . , it is no wonucr that G.o d shoult.l ta1 \. C a Cl ll'L· S tt'a, n •11o do thi·s work· And if any cvtd nees o( th<' presence of !lis Spirit with the inuividnal doi~1g this '"ork can be relied upon, certainly we have tho. c cvrd 'nCeH. F or many years the man had. walk •d wi th G?d ;. h had · 1 1 · f~tm.tly tnune< up us " 1·t1 God'..",' fear·' he had m. arnta111 'd the family altar, and all the sanctities, the instru clton:-~, tlt ' care-ful observant discipline of n. lwus ·hold piety. lie had b '<:n a man of strict, known, un<loubtctl integri ty. lie was n. tuan whose conecientious scn"'c of right ami wrong wn as a fhu~c of' fire where m. common men ·, merely a spark 111 111 wa. '- slu <r<ri 'h embers. llis sensitiveness to inju ticc was extreme O. b. t. d . 1 . ~ ( I 0'' • nst other. . the iron cnterc mto liS own s HI • -111JU ICC a b ,U ' . . 1 Ie was accustomed, with grave stcauf:u;lnc. s an<.l holy pntiCI-lc to r ebuke profaneness and wickcdnc ·s in high or low. J n fhc' midst of hi . trial, wounded and lying on his cot, when lw 1 d 1 tl Of Some in the court room round about 1 "tr t lC oa 1s hi;n, he would raise himself upon his elbow, an.d calml~ . ay, " Gentlemen, can you not COffi[)•'l SS· this bustnCSS WJLhout , : ? " Ju t so with nll under hi ~ command; both by SW aung · . , b ]" , • ~ example aml teaching he endeavo red to mculcate o ct renee to the pr c 'pis of r eligion. . . lie had learned from a cltild the sacredness and dlgntty of human nature under what ver skin, and a. an. o~ll m~m on the verge of eternity could say, with the simphctty o{ n child and the mnjcsty of an angel, " I am yet to~, young to understanu that God i , any r c:;p<·et 'r or person . |