APPEAL TO THE CHRISTIAN WOMEN OF THE SOUTH

BY A.E. GRIMKÉ.

"Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not within thyselfthat thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. Forif thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall thereenlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place:but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knowethwhether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. AndEsther bade them return Mordecai this answer:—and so will I go inunto the king, which is not according to law, and if I perish, Iperish." Esther IV. 13-16.

Respected Friends,

It is because I feel a deep and tender interest in your present andeternal welfare that I am willing thus publicly to address you. Someof you have loved me as a relative, and some have felt bound to me inChristian sympathy, and Gospel fellowship; and even when compelled bya strong sense of duty, to break those outward bonds of union whichbound us together as members of the same community, and members ofthe same religious denomination, you were generous enough to give mecredit, for sincerity as a Christian, though you believed I had beenmost strangely deceived. I thanked you then for your kindness, andI ask you now, for the sake of former confidence, and formerfriendship, to read the following pages in the spirit of calminvestigation and fervent prayer. It is because you have known me,that I write thus unto you.

But there are other Christian women scattered over the SouthernStates, a very large number of whom have never seen me, and neverheard my name, and who feel no interest whatever in me. But I feelan interest in you, as branches of the same vine from whose root Idaily draw the principle of spiritual vitality—Yes! Sisters in ChristI feel an interest in you, and often has the secret prayer arisenon your behalf, Lord "open thou their eyes that they may see wondrousthings out of thy Law"—It is then, because I do feel and do prayfor you, that I thus address you upon a subject about which of allothers, perhaps you would rather not hear any thing; but, "would toGod ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear withme, for I am jealous over you with godly jealousy." Be not afraidthen to read my appeal; it is not written in the heat of passionor prejudice, but in that solemn calmness which is the result ofconviction and duty. It is true, I am going to tell you unwelcometruths, but I mean to speak those truths in love, and rememberSolomon says, "faithful are the wounds of a friend." I do notbelieve the time has yet come when Christian women "will not enduresound doctrine," even on the subject of Slavery, if it is spoken tothem in tenderness and love, therefore I now address you.

To all of you then, known or unknown, relatives or strangers, (for youare all one in Christ,) I would speak. I have felt for you at thistime, when unwelcome light is pouring in upon the world on the subjectof slavery; light which even Christians would exclude, if they could,from our country, or at any rate from the southern portion of it,saying, as its rays strike the rock bound coasts of New England andscatter their warmth and

...