ighbors, often suffer, we fear,
the same wrong at our remiss hands and from our cold hearts. Though we
have done much and would fain do more, yet, the truth must be confessed,
this sacred and imperious claim has not been fully met by us.

It may be otherwise at the North. There, children and poor neighbors,
too, may all be trained and taught to the full extent of the moral law.
This godlike work may be fully done by our Christian brethren of the
North. They certainly have a large surplus of benevolence to bestow on
us. But if this glorious work has not been fully done by them, then let
him who is without sin cast the first stone. This simple thought,
perhaps, might call in doubt their right to rail at us, at least with
such malignant bitterness and gall. This simple thought, perhaps, might
save us many a pitiless pelting of philanthropy.

But here lies the difference--here lies our peculiar sin and shame. This
great, primordial right is, with us, denied by law. The slave shall not
be taught to read. Oh! that he might be taught! What floods of sympathy,
what thunderings and lightnings of philanthropy, would then be spared
the world! But why, we ask, should the slave be taught to read? That he
might read the Bible, and feed on the food of eternal life, is the
reply; and the reply is good.

Ah! if the slave would only read his Bible, and drink its very spirit
in, we should rejoice at the change; for he would then be a better and a
happier man. He would then know his duty, and the high ground on which
his duty rests. He would then see, in the words of Dr. Wayland, "_That
the duty of slaves is explicitly made known in the Bible_. They are
bound to obedience, fidelity, submission, and respect to their
masters--not only to the good and kind, but also to the unkind and
froward; not, however, on the ground of duty to man, but _on the ground
of duty to God_." But, with all, we have some little glimpse of our
dangers, as well as some little sense of our duties.

The tempter is not asleep. His eye is still, as ever of old, fixed on
the forbidden tree; and thither he will point his hapless victims. Like
certain senators, and demagogues, and doctors of divinity, he will
preach from the Declaration of Independence rather than from the Bible.
He will teach, not that submission, but that _resistance_, is a duty. To
every evil passion his inflammatory and murder-instigating appeals will
be made. Stung by these appeals and maddened, th