and the blind. He intermeddled not with the civil
institutions of the day. On the contrary, he inculcated, both by
precept and example, submission to the ruling authorities. His
apostles followed in his footsteps, for they likewise enjoined on
their followers, to be subject to the higher powers--to those in
authority. They too, preached the gospel to the bond and the free,
masters and servants; and gathered them together in the same fold, as
brethren beloved--the sheep of one common shepherd, the servants of
one common master--members of the same church--partakers of the same
joys. But they did not in a solitary instance denounce the holding of
slaves as sinful; nor yet enjoin it on masters to release their
slaves. They carefully instructed both masters and servants in their
relative duties, as masters and servants; and otherwise left the
institution of slavery as they found it. How unlike the great apostles
of modern reform! Many will no doubt be ready to ask, if slavery is an
evil, why did not Christ and his apostles strike directly at its root,
and eradicate it from the face of the earth? Others may impiously ask
if it is an evil, why did the Almighty permit it, or why does he
tolerate it? The latter interrogatory is fully considered in the
preceding Chapter; but I will for obvious reasons make a few
additional remarks in reply. I again beg such persons to recollect
that we are but finite beings, and cannot, therefore, fully comprehend
the Infinite Mind; and that God is moreover the Supreme Ruler of the
universe, and that to Him belongs the right to govern and dispose of
the work of his own hands, as he, in his infinite wisdom, sees fit and
proper. We may observe His dealings with man, but we cannot in all
cases say why he acts thus; nor have we any right to ask him, why hast
them done thus? Slavery is a consequence of sin, and God, in his
providence, suffered it to fall on the posterity of Ham as a just and
righteous judgment--as a punishment suitable and proper--as a
punishment proportioned to the magnitude of the crime. The Divine
Being, no doubt, intended that the signal punishment inflicted on
Ham's posterity, should be a warning to all future generations, in all
future time, to warn them of the danger of violating his commands, and
deter them from the commission of crime. God, no doubt, willed that it
should continue until the crime was adequately punished, and future
generations warned of the danger of violatin