ainly not always referred to in Scripture in
the tone which we prefer. There was the Apostle James, too, writing
about "works" in the same unguarded manner as Paul when speaking of
slaves and slave-holders. Pity that he could not have let "works" alone,
seeing it was so important for the other Apostles to establish the one
idea of justification by faith. He made great trouble for Luther and his
companions in their contest with Popery. Luther had to reject his
epistle; "_straminea epistola_" he called it,--an epistle of
straw,--weak, worthless; and he denied its inspiration, because it
conflicted with his doctrine of "faith alone." So much for trying to be
candid and just, and for presenting the other side of a subject, or of a
man, when the spirit of the age is averse to it, and candor is in
danger of being looked upon as a time-serving thing. Neither Paul nor
James, however, had felt the tonic, bracing effect of good anti-slavery
principles, or they would not have written, the one such a letter to a
slave-holder, and the other such a back-oar argument against "faith
alone." However, I am disposed to think well of Paul and James,
notwithstanding these the great errors of their lives. Indeed I can
almost forgive them, when I am reading other things which they said and
did. You will please acknowledge, therefore, my dear madam, that in
giving you credit for kind feelings toward a poor slave and its mother,
we are disposed to be just; yet I beg of you not to think that I abate
one jot or tittle of my belief that, in theory, slavery is "the sum of
all villanies," "an enormous wrong," "a stupendous injustice."

I have just been reading your letter once more, and the foolish tears
pester me so that I can scarce see out of my eyes. I find, dear madam,
that you have known a bitter sorrow which so many parents are carrying
with them to the grave. Your words make me think so of little graves
elsewhere, that I forget for the time that you are a slave-holder. Nor
can I hardly believe that your touching words are suggested by the death
of a slave's babe, when you speak of "the heavy earth piled on the
tender little breast." O my dear lady! has a slave's babe "a tender
little breast"? Then you really think so! And you a slave-holder!
"Border Ruffianism," perhaps, has not yet reached your heart; and yet I
suppose--forgive me if I do you wrong--that slave-holders' hearts
generally need only to be removed to the "borders," to manifest al