and
indifference of others; for if slavery be as they represent it, the
proofs of it must be as self-evident as starvation. What if a class of
men among us should rage against those who do not contribute largely to
the Syrian sufferers, as the zealous anti-slavery people reproach and
even revile those who do not see slavery with their eyes? We should then
say, "Friends, who are you, that you should claim to have all the
virtuous sensibility?"

But more than this,--I doubt, I venture to deny, and that on
philosophical grounds, the true philanthropy of these people. For true
love and kindness always create something of their own kind where they
have full power. Are there any words or acts of love, kindness,
gentleness, mercy, toward others, in the speeches and doings of the
zealous anti-slavery people?

I wish that you had been with me, one evening, in a corner of the
Methodist meeting-house, where I sat and enjoyed the slaves'
prayer-meeting. I had been filled with distress that day by reading, in
Northern papers, the doings and speeches at excited meetings called to
sympathize with servile insurrection. In this prayer-meeting the slaves
rose one after another, went in front, and repeated each a hymn, then
resumed their seats, while some one, moved by the sentiments of the
hymn, would lead in prayer. A white gentleman presided, according to
custom, and I was the only other white person present. Going to that
meeting with the impressions upon my heart of the terrible excitements
which you were witnessing at home, and saying to myself, "O my soul,
thou hast heard the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war!" you
cannot imagine what my feelings were when the largest negro that I ever
saw rose and stood before the desk, and repeated the following hymn by
Rev. Charles Wesley. The first lines, you may well suppose, startled me,
and made me think that the insurrection had reached even here.

"Equip me for the war,
And teach my hands to fight;
My simple, upright heart prepare,
And guide my words aright.

"Control my every thought,
My whole of sin remove;
Let all my works in thee be wrought,
Let all be wrought in love.

"Oh, arm me with the mind,
Meek Lamb! that was in thee;
And let my knowing zeal be join'd
With perfect charity.

"With calm and temper'd mind
Let me enforce thy call;
And vindicate thy gracious will,
Which offers life to all.

"Oh, may I love like