whites figure as well as the blacks.

In short, there is a deadly struggle between the Gospel and slavery
under all its forms, and particularly under the odious form which the
African slave trade has given it in modern times. The Gospel has been,
is, and will be, at the head of every earnest movement directed against
slavery. It is important that it should be so; it is the only means of
avoiding the acts of violence, the revolts, the extreme calamities from
which the whites and the blacks would equally suffer. The Gospel is
admirable, inasmuch as by the side of the duties of masters, it
proclaims those of slaves; as in the time of the Apostles, it does not
hesitate to recommend to them gentleness, submission, scrupulous
fidelity, love for those who maltreat them, the practice of difficult
virtues; it makes them free within, in order to render them capable of
becoming free without.

To judge of this method, we have only to compare the miserable
population of St. Domingo with the beautiful free villages which cover
the English islands. How true the saying: "The wrath of man never
accomplishes the justice of God." Wherever the wrath of man has had full
sway, even to chastise abominable abuses, it has remained a curse. I
tremble when I think of the revolts which may break out at any moment in
the Southern States. Bloodshed, let us not forget, would sully our
banner; to the right of the slaves, such a crisis would be forever
opposed, and who knows whether a terrible return might not burst upon
them?

The mind becomes troubled at the mere image of the horrors that would
ensue from civil war. May the Christians of America comprehend, at
length, in a more perfect manner, the greatness of the part that God