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
reserves for them, and the extent of the responsibilities that are
weighing upon them. To take a stand frankly against slavery; to remove
their last pretexts from sincere men who seek to reconcile it with the
Gospel; to organize in the North the action of a vast moral power; to
address to the South words breathing forth truth and charity; to appeal
without wearying to the hearts of masters and slaves; to prepare for
trying moments that guarantee which nothing can replace, the common
faith of the blacks and the whites; to keep courage even when all seems
lost; to practise the Christian vocation, which consists in pursuing and
realizing the impossible; to show once more to the world the power that
resides in justice--this is to accomplish a noble task.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote B: These provisory and imperfect regulations appear none the
less admirable when compared, not only with the systems of legislation
of other nations of antiquity, but with those which prevail to-day even
in the Southern States. According to the law of Moses, the Jewish slave
always becomes free in seven years; the foreign slave also becomes free
when his master wounds him in chastising him; he has the right to
testify in law; he has the right to acquire and to possess.]

CHAPTER VII.

THE PRESENT CRISIS.

We now possess the principal elements of our solutio