of revelation.

But to what does it amount? If the views of Dr. Wayland and his
followers, respecting slavery, be correct, it amounts to this: The
Almighty has said to his people, you may commit "a sin of appalling
magnitude;" you may perpetrate "as great an evil as can be conceived;"
you may persist in a practice which consists in "outraging the rights"
of your fellow-men, and in "crushing their intellectual and moral"
nature. They have a natural, inherent, and inalienable right to liberty
as well as yourselves, but yet you may make slaves of them, and they may
be your bondmen forever. In one word, _you_, my chosen people, may
degrade "rational, accountable, and immortal beings" to the "rank of
brutes." Such, if we may believe Dr. Wayland, is the first stage in the
divine enlightenment of the human race! It consists in making known a
part of God's mind, not against the monstrous iniquity of slavery, but
in its favor! It is the utterance, not of a partial truth, but of a
monstrous falsehood! It is the revelation of his will, not against sin,
but in favor of as great a sin "as can be conceived." Now, we may
fearlessly ask if the cause which is reduced to the necessity of
resorting to such a defense may not be pronounced desperate indeed, and
unspeakably forlorn?

It is alleged that polygamy and divorce, as well as slavery, are
permitted and regulated in the Old Testament. This, we reply, proves, in
regard to polygamy and divorce, exactly what it proves in regard to
slavery,--namely, that neither is in itself sinful, that neither is
_always_ and _everywhere_ sinful. In other words, it proves that
neither polygamy nor divorce, as permitted in the Old Testament, is
"_malum in se_," is inconsistent with the eternal and unchangeable
principles of right. They are forbidden in the New Testament, not
because they are in themselves absolutely and immutably wrong, but
because they are inconsistent with the best interests of society;
especially in civilized and Christian communities. If they had been
wrong in themselves, they never could have been permitted by a holy God,
who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, except with inifinite
abhorrence.

Again, it is contended by Dr. Wayland that "Moses intended to abolish
slavery," because he forbade the Jews "to deliver up a fugitive slave."
The words are these: "Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant
that is escaped from his master unto thee: "He shall dwell with the