“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.”
“Be kindly affectionate one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another.”
“Do good to all men, as ye have opportunity.”
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
“If thou mayest be made free, use it rather.”
“The laborer is worthy of his hire.”
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
Some years ago a clerical lickspittle of the slave power had the temerity to publish a book or pamphlet entitled “Bible Defence of Slavery,” which the Baltimore Sun, in the course of a caustic criticism, handled in the following manner:—
“Bible defence of slavery! There is no such thing as a Bible defence of slavery at the present day. Slavery in the United States is a social institution, originating in the convenience and cupidity of our ancestors, existing by State laws, and recognized to a certain extent—for the recovery of slave property—by the Constitution. And nobody would pretend that, if it were inexpedient and unprofitable for any man or any State to continue to hold slaves, they would be bound to do so on the ground of a “Bible defence” of it. Slavery is recorded in the Bible, and approved, with many degrading characteristics. War is recorded in the Bible, and approved, under what seems to us the extreme of cruelty. But are slavery and war to endure for ever because we find them in the Bible? or are they to cease at once and for ever because the Bible inculcates peace and brotherhood?”
Thus, in the last five chapters inclusive, have we introduced a mass of anti-slavery arguments, human and divine, that will stand, irrefutable and convincing, as long as the earth itself shall continue to revolve in its orbit. Aside from unaffected truthfulness and candor, no merit is claimed for anything we have said on our own account. With the best of motives, and in the language of nature more than that of art, we have simply given utterance to the honest convictions of our heart—being impelled to it by a long-harbored and unmistakable sense of duty which grew stronger and deeper as the days passed away.