small school. [Cheers.] Now, notwithstanding all the unfavorable things
we see--notwithstanding the dark cloud that hangs over the country,
there are hopeful indications that God has not forgotten us, and that he
will carry on this work till it is accomplished. [Hear!] But it will be
a long while first, I fear; and we must pray, and labor, and persevere;
for he that perseveres to the end, and he only, receives the crown. Now,
there are very few in the United States who undertake to defend slavery,
and say it is right. But the great majority, even of professors of
religion, unite to shield it from aggression. 'It is the law of the
land,' they say, 'and we must submit to it.' It seems a strange doctrine
to come from the lips of the descendants of the Puritans, those who
resisted the law of the land because those laws were against their
conscience, and finally went over to that new world, in order that they
might enjoy the rights of conscience. How would it have been with the
primitive church if this doctrine had prevailed? There never would have
been any Christian church, for that was against the laws of the land. In
regard to the distribution of the Bible, in many states the laws
prohibit the teaching of slaves, and the distribution of the Bible is
not allowed among them. The American Bible Society does not itself take
the responsibility of this. It leaves the whole matter to the local
societies in the several states, and it is the local societies that take
the responsibility. Well, why should we obey the law of the land in
South Carolina on this subject, and disobey the law of the land in
Italy? But our missionary societies and Bible societies send Bibles to
other parts of the world, and never ask if it is contrary to the law of
these lands, and if it is, they push it all the more zealously. They
send Bibles to Italy and Spain, and yet the Bible is prohibited by those
governments. The American Tract Society and the American Sunday School
Union allow none of their issues to utter a syllable against slavery.
They expunge even from their European books every passage of this kind,