If it be true that slavery is of divine origin, that its design is to
prevent so great an accumulation of sin as would, of necessity, force
its subjects down to destruction and death, and to restore those who are
ignorantly, heedlessly, and habitually rushing on their own moral and
physical ruin, by the renovating influence of divine power, to such a
state of moral rectitude as may be required of the recipients of divine
grace;—then we should expect to find, in the history of this
institution, of its effects, both moral and physical, upon its subjects,
some manifestations of such tendencies; some general evidences that,
through this ordinance, God has ever blessed its subjects and their
posterity with an ameliorated condition, progressive in the direction of
his great and final purpose. Let us examine that fact.
In the government of the world, God has as unchangeably fixed his laws
producing moral influences, as he has those which relate to material
objects. When we discover some cause, which, under similar
circumstances, always produces a similar result, we need not hesitate to
consider such discovery as the revelation of his will, his law touching
its action and the effects produced; and by comparing the general
tendency of the effect produced with the previously revealed laws and
will of God in relation to a particular matter, we are permitted to form
some conclusion whether the cause producing the effect exists and acts
in conformity with his general providence towards the matter or subject
in question. If so, we may readily conclude that such cause is of his
appointment, and that it exists and acts agreeably to his will.
But one of the previously revealed laws of God is, that he ever wills
the happiness, not the misery, of his creatures. “Say unto them, As I
live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but that the wicked should turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel!” _Ezek._
xxxiii. 11. And we may form some conclusion of a man, a class of people,
or a nation, from their condition produced by the general result of
their conduct, whether their conduct has been in general conformity with
the laws of God. If the general result of the conduct of the thief,
gambler, tippler, and drunkard,—of him who lives by trickery and
deception, is an accumulation of weight of character among men, a
display of useful industry, independence, and wealth among his
associates; if himself and family are thereby made visibly more healthy,
happy, and wise,—if by these practices he and his family become patterns
of piety and of all noble virtues, he may hope; but if the contrary of
all these is the final result, we may safely condemn.
Another of the laws of God is, “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,
and thy backslidings shall reprove thee.” _Jer._ ii. 19. When the
characters just named become so great a nuisance that the strong arm of
the law of the land takes away their liberty, places a master over them,
in fact reducing them to slavery; forces and compels them to habits of
useful industry, and, in a length of time, makes of them useful and good
men,—then this law is exemplified and also the fact is proved, that
slavery, thus induced, is attended with and does produce an ameliorated
condition as to the morals, and probably as to the intellectual and
physical power, of its subjects. This law was also exemplified in the
family of Jacob. God, in the order of his providence, had determined and
made a covenant with Abraham, to wit: “In the same day the Lord made a
covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from
the land of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” _Gen._ xv.
18. This was to be brought about through the family of Jacob. “And God
Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou
mayest be a multitude of people, and give the blessing of Abraham to
thee, and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land
wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.” _Gen._
xxviii. 3, 4.
There are left us enough traces of the conduct of the family of Jacob,
whereby we may know the fact that they, although living in the midst of
the promised land, had become incorrigibly wicked and licentious. Judah,
who seems to have ranked as the head of the family, notwithstanding the
impressive lesson in the case of Esau, took to himself a Canaanitish
wife, and his eldest sons became so desperately wicked that, in the
language of Scripture, God slew them. Even the salt of slavery could not
save them. Of Shelah, we have no further account than that he went into
slavery in Egypt. Instead of nurturing up his family with propriety and
prudence, Judah seems to have idled away his time with his friend the
Adullamite, hunting up the harlots of the country. Reuben committed
incest; he went up to his father’s bed. Simeon and Levi, instigated by
feelings of revenge in the case of the Hivites, pursued such a course of
deception, moral fraud, and murder, leading on the rest of their
brethren to such acts of theft and robbery, that Jacob was constrained
to say, “Ye have troubled me, to make me stink among the inhabitants of
the land.” _Gen._ xxxiv. 30. Jacob found his children so lost to good
morals, so sunken in heathenism and idolatry, that, hoping that a change
of abode might also produce a change of conduct, he was impelled to
command them, saying, “Put away the strange gods that are among you, and
be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise and go to Bethel,
and I will make there an altar unto God.” _Gen._ xxxv. 2, 3.
And let us take occasion here to notice the long-suffering and
loving-kindness of the Lord; for, no sooner had they taken this
resolution, than Jehovah, to encourage and make them steadfast in this
new attempt in the paths of virtue, again appeared to Jacob:
“And God said unto him, I am God Almighty; a nation, and a company of
nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. And the
land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, to thee I will give it, and
to thy seed after thee will I give the land.” _Gen._ xxxv. 11, 12.
“But the sow that was washed has returned to her wallowing in the mire.”
2 _Pet._ ii. 22.
And what is the next prominent state of moral standing in which we find
this family? The young and unsuspecting Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report, and hence their revenge. “And when they saw him afar
off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to
slay him. * * * And they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty
pieces of silver.” _Gen._ xxxvii. 2, and xviii. 28. And against the deed
of fratricide there was but one dissenting voice and he, whose voice it
was, dared not boldly to oppose them. He had not the moral courage to
contend. Sometimes, in the conduct of men, there may be a single act
that gives stronger proof of deep, condemning depravity, than a whole
life otherwise spent in wanton, wilful wickedness and sensual sin. Their
betrayal of the confidence of an innocent and confiding brother, who
neither had the will nor the power to injure them, whose only wish was
their welfare, bespeaks a degradation of guilt, a deep and abiding
hypocrisy of soul before God and man, and a general readiness to the
commission of crimes of so dark a dye, that, it would seem to moral
view, no oblations of the good, nor even the prayers of the just, could
wash and wipe away the stain. During the history of all time, has God
ever chosen such wretches to become the founders of an empire—his own
peculiar, chosen people? On the contrary, has not his will, as expressed
by revelation, and by the acts of his providence, for ever been the
reverse of such a supposition? The laws of God are unchangeable: at all
times and among all people, the premises being the same, their operation
has been and will ever be the same.
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