No. 38.
PRAYER
FOR THE OPPRESSED.
A PREMIUM TRACT.
BY
REV. JAMES A. THOME,
CLEVELAND, OHIO.
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
BOSTON.
SLAVERY UNCHRISTIAN.
There is a deep and growing conviction in the mindsof the mass of mankind, that slavery violates the greatlaws of our nature; that it is contrary to the dictates ofhumanity; that it is essentially unjust, oppressive, andcruel; that it invades the rights of liberty with which theAuthor of our being has endowed all human beings; andthat in all the forms in which it has ever existed, it hasbeen impossible to guard it from what its friends and advocateswould call abuses of the system. It is a violation ofthe first sentiments expressed in our Declaration of Independence,and on which our fathers founded the vindicationof their own conduct in an appeal to arms. It is atwar with all that a man claims for himself, and for his ownchildren; and it is opposed to all the struggles of mankind,in all ages, for freedom. The claims of humanity pleadagainst it. The struggles for freedom every where in ourworld condemn it. The instinctive feeling in every man’sown bosom, in regard to himself, is a condemnation of it.The noblest deeds of valor and of patriotism in our ownland, and in all lands where men have struggled for freedom,are a condemnation of the system. All that is noblein man is opposed to it; all that is base, oppressive, andcruel, pleads for it.
The spirit of the New Testament is against slavery, andthe principles of the New Testament, if fairly applied,would abolish it. In the New Testament no man is commandedto purchase and own a slave; no man is commendedas adding any thing to the evidences of his Christian character,or as performing the appropriate duty of a Christian,for owning one. Nowhere in the New Testament is theinstitution referred to as a good one, or as a desirable one.It is commonly—indeed, it is almost universally—concededthat the proper application of the principles of theNew Testament would abolish slavery every where, or thatin the state of things which will exist when the Gospel shallbe fairly applied to all the relations of life, slavery will notbe found among those relations.
Let slavery be removed from the church, and let thevoice of the church, with one accord, be lifted up in favorof freedom; let the church be wholly detached from theinstitution, and let there be adopted by all its ministersand members an interpretation of the Bible—as I believethere may be, and ought to be—that shall be in accordancewith the deep-seated principles of our nature in favorof freedom, and with our own aspirations for liberty, andwith the sentiments of the world in its onward progress inregard to human rights, and not only would a very materialobjection against the Bible be taken away,—and onewhich would be fatal if it were well founded,—but theestablishment of a very strong argument in favor of theBible, as a revelation from God, would be the direct resultof such a position....
There is not vital energy enough; there is not powerof numbers and influence enough out of the church tosustain slavery. Let every religious denomination in theland detach itself from all connection with slavery, withoutsaying a wor