white man to insult or violate the wife or daughter of any slave; to take property from any: to strike any, unless with the appointed instrument of punishment, and, except in urgent cases, after a trial before him; the women were governed by female drivers, and punished only by women; theft, adultery, and other crimes among the slaves themselves were punished severely; every morning, like an eastern sovereign, he held court, heard all complaints, received the evidence of all farties, and did justice as he best might; punishment, by this system, became inevitable, and was recognized as justice and not revenge. By pursuing this system thoroughly, by placing confidence in those that deserved it, and by never deceiving them himself, he in a few years brought is refractory blacks to such a state, that the whip was abandoned; the desire to gain the good opinion, and to stand fair with their fellows, made all work cheerfully; and a friend who visited the plantation two years since, told us he had seen a slave faint in the field, rather than be supposed desirous of 'shirking.' Indeed, so strong was the feeling of duty among the slaves, that a rebellious one was put down at once by his fellows; he could not withstand the public opinion among them. Any one acquainted with the course pursued by Fellenberg in the education of the low and vicious of Switzerland, will recognize the system we have just sketched as being essentially the same; in both cases the result was successful. But, alas! there are few like Fellenberg, and fewer, perhaps, like the planter of whom we have spoken. The main hope for the education of the slaves is upon the legislatures of the slave-holding states. Let them take measures to learn exactly what has been the result of protective measures in other slavelands; let them, from the experience of others, satisfy themselves that it is sound policy as well as Christian duty to elevate the enslaved black, and we may then have some faint hope of seeing the bond go free; but we cannot discern even a ray of hope in any other direction. As, by the supposition, all fear of trouble and bloodshed from the mode of emancipation proposed, will be done away, the only objection remaining to the freedom of the black, is this, that he will become our fellow in all things, which will not be agreeable. To this we need only say, if you are satisfied it is your duty to free the slave when fit for freedom, it is needless to talk of possible results, however disagreeable: if his freedom will end in doing more moral wrong than it cures, keep him enslaved, but do not, to offset the commands of duty, present the dictates of taste and feeling. Or the objection may assume this form. If the black be set free, however quiet, he will at last drive the white from the country by outworking him, by getting the capital into his own hands, for the white cannot, in southern lands, compete with him. To this we answer, that it is yet doubtful if the white cannot compete every where with the negro; and very far from being true that the best hand-laborer will have the most capital; intellect does much more than brute power to accumulate wealth: and indeed were all the premises of the objection true, what Christian man could urge it as a fair conclusion, that slavery ought still to exist? The premises, in substance, allege that God has fitted the negro only to live in southern countries by fair means, the conclusion is, that therefore foul means should be used to enable the white to live there. To the man that thinks slavery no wrong, the argument may be irresistible; to those whom we speak to, it must be without force. From what has been said, if we have spoken clearly, it will be seen that we believe in gradual emancipation, not however meaning by that term what is usually meant. We do not believe it expedient or right to free the slaves by instalments,so many one year, and so many the next. The laws of slave states, touching free blacks, prevent freedom from becoming a means of improvement. Nor have we any greater faith in setting free a generation of pickaninies, the children of slaves, and of necessity, undergoing no course of parental education that would fit them to act like freemen. These kinds of gradual emancipation give liberty, but strip it of its main power, its true value. But, let a course of legislation, acting upon the whole slave-population, and fitted to raise the character of that multitude, be persisted in; let those that sway public opinion, give their weight, not only to humanity, but to the plan pursued by the Cuba planter; let the religious and moral not only think, but feel on this subject, and we may then have the hope of seeing the slaves, father and child, old and young, all brought to that point when all may be made free, uninfluenced by the degrading laws that slave-states feel bound to pass respecting free negroes. They may be made free, not necessarily to vote and to govern; that is no essential point of freedom; nor to mix socially, and intermarry with the white,--how that shall be, must depend on the will of the whites; but free to use their will, intellect, conscience; free to learn the Truth; free to worship God, and to grow toward that perfection for which, if they be indeed men as we are, God has fitted them. To the man that denies the negro to be possessed of the same powers with himself, our argument can have no weight; to the man that has no faith in eternity and an eternal growth, it can have none; to him that thinks it no duty of his to aid his fellows, it can have none; and lastly, to him with whom worldly interest is all-mighty, it can have none, (and alas! how many, and how many honest men too, do these classes contain!) but if there be any that think it their duty and high privilege to help others in their onward progress, and if they number the black among those others, they will, we feel assured, see that the law which binds the father to educate the son which God giveth him, binds also the slave-owner to educate the child that is born his slave. How he may best be educated is a question of expediency; what we would urge is the propriety and policy of action by the slave-holders to ascertain what mode is the best, and of immediate action. J. H. P. ART. 12.-REGENERATION. "Marvel not, that I said unto you, ye must be born again." That secret principle within, Religion in the soul; Must like a kindling flame begin— But when, to help the work intent, A sudden pulse of life is sent, Aud now the flames arise. They feed themselves, their strength renew- Joy does the rest,-for as it burns, Within the wearied mind New courage springs, lost hope returns, The path of life no longer seems A toilsome, upward way, With heavenly joy each moment teems, With kindly deeds each day. Faith steels the will to do and bear Whatever God commands; The work of sage and saint. Who wait on God, their STRENGTH renew, They walk and never faint. Through mists of doubt, confusion black, As ride amid the drifting rack The stars unchanged, and still come back Thus, 'mid the rushing clouds of thought, From these deep founts, heart hidden, run The living streams, each day, And so God lightens every one With an unchanging ray. For faith in them first leads to sight, We end where John began, That life can never come from light, But life's the light of man. And LOVE-but who can speak of love? Those who have felt it know. It cometh down from God above, It works God's will below. What matters then the terms, the name? The facts, all christians grant. For words may change, but Christ's the same, Oh! when will Christians lay aside Then may we know what Jesus saith; J. F. C. ART. 13.-CONFESSION OF FAITH. BY THE EDITOR OF THE MESSENGER. Creeds and Confessions have their uses and their abuses. Their abuses are manifold-their uses appear to be twofold. When set up as standards of faith by a church, they interfere with the authority of scripture, lord it over God's heritage, impede free inquiry, fetter the intellect, and produce bigotry, hypocrisy, equivocation, infidelity. It is useful for an individual to arrange and systematise his opinions, and if he classes them under certain articles, and calls it his creedthere is no harm in it. It is proper for individuals to profess their opinions openly and without disguise, and if they do it in a regular form and call it a confession of faith-there is no harm in it. Having formed such a creed, for the first reason, in order to systematise my own opinions, I now publish it for the second reason, because I hold it my duty to avow my sentiments. I wish, however, one or two things to be understood. 1. This is my creed. It was not formed like the Nicene creed, by a company of bishops brought together by an emperor's command, to put down a heresy and stop an angry dispute abroad by fighting the matter out among themselves. No assembly of Divines, met at the command of Parliament to arrange it. It was written by me, in my study-I alone am answerable for its heresies and mistakes. It expresses no one's opinion but my own. 2. It is my present creed. I will not swear always to believe this and no more, I will not promise to get no more insight into God's truth than this. I do not mean to sign this every five years, as the professors of some theological schools are forced to do. I intend giving up this faith when I get a better and truer one. 3. I do not make it a standard for others. I do not call on all people, nations and languages to fall down and worship it. I do not say that those who dissent from it, shall, without doubt perish everlastingly. On the contrary, I say with the courteous Roman, more christian in this than many a synod and General council, Si quid novisti rectius istis, 4. This is not all I believe. I have only put down here the chief points, according to the usual divisions of other creeds. |