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body is one, and hath many members, and all "the members of that one body, being many,

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are one body, so also is Christ: for by one

Spirit we are all baptized into one body, "whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we "be bond or free." (1 Cor. xii. 12, 13.) See with what company Scripture associates the man-stealer: "The lawless and disobedient"the ungodly, and-sinners, unholy, profane, "murderers of fathers and murderers of mo"thers, man-slayers, whoremongers, them that "defile themselves with mankind, men-stealers, "liars, perjured persons, and if there be any "other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." (1 Tim. i. 9, 10.) Read the Saviour's own great summary of the principle of all our relative duties as fellow men: "All things whatwould that men should do to you, soever ye "do ye even so to them: for this is the law "and the prophets." (St. Matth. vii. 12.) Read thus in God's Word, and then be your own hearts the judge whether the comment I put before you do not entirely comport with

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the verities of our Christian faith.

Upon the great matter of a final termination to what divine and human law manifestly forbid, it seems to be the conclusion, at which the wise

and good, who have well considered it, have arrived, that it should not be an instantaneous termination. A sudden emancipation of those many thousands who have been so long under bondage in mind as in body, it is thought would be productive of ruinous and extensive ill to the present and immediately succeeding generations of them. Be it so. We will take it as thus determined for our purpose, and adopt the conclusion that the entire freedom of body from entire slavery had better be a progressive thing. But, when I look to the congregation before me, and know that they profess Christianity, must. I say of these our brethren, removed from us only by another colour and another climate, that we must be tardy also in proclaiming liberty to their souls; linger long before we bid them, as fellows in an earthly sphere of sin and sorrow, "God speed" under our own "glad tidings," and in spiritual things be backward in telling them to "stand fast in "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them,' as well as ourselves, "free?" God forbid. What says our text? "Remember them that "are in bonds." And how can you remember them, as yourselves invited into the liberty of Christ, unless you remember them for their

spiritual good, and invite them to a glorious participation of your own privileges?

Many among us have no local interest in actual possession of the bodies of these wretched labourers, who are labouring for us all; but not one among us but has an imperative call to take vital interest in the bettering the condition of their souls. It is not white or black that makes it soul, or no soul. The tie which, here at home, links us together in the bonds of Christian communion as a household of faith professing godliness, should link us as closely, in human and sympathizing interest, with every colour of our race unto the world's end. What though there be no annual revenue to yourself, and your sources are from other labour than from the coercive thraldom riveted by its iron grasp upon the scourged and degraded bodies of your natural equals-brothers in origin, dust and sin; brothers in

your

your eternal destiny, life eternal or death eternal—are you, therefore, the less called upon, as professing Christianity, to turn a willing ear to their spiritual wants in all that is implied for us and them in "Have we not all one Father? hath "not one God created us? why do we deal "treacherously every man against his brother?"

(Mal. ii. 10.) Recognise this Christian inference; and though you own no inch of soil whereon the African brother drags on his daily toil, in daily slavery, for your own coffer, still "remember those that are in bonds." Catch at the golden opportunities now in mercy before you, for bettering the condition of their souls, in the unshaken expectation of paving the way for ultimately emancipating their bodies. "Freely ye Freely ye have received, freely give." Give your influence, give your money, and above all things give your most fervent prayers for the great "work and labour of love," now going forward amid our slave fellow-subjects, in matter pertaining to their souls. You will then have an interest in them, far better than what any legal claim can give: you need not their enslaved bodies, and their forced services exacted by what, on English ground, must not with impunity be inflicted on a beast,-you need not this as your argument; for you will then in spirit anticipate the period, and in spirit rejoice to be the means of hastening it in its time, when God's Word shall be to them also accomplished: "Even unto them will I "give in mine house, and within my walls, a place and a name better than of sons and of

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daughters: I will give them an everlasting 66 name, that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah lvi. 5.)

If these be duties incumbent upon all in regard to the " sign of the times" now before us, how much more are they pressed upon those among us who have local interests and personal property in the bodily labour of a slave population, by human law, vested in their ownership!

You, my brethren, have indeed an awful warning in the dispensation of God manifested in our day, whereby he hath been pleased to turn the hearts of kings, governors, and nations to pity, and to endeavour to befriend, the common and vital interests of suffering humanity. You stand in a most fearful relationship; and God sees it, and man recognises it. You are, by hereditary right or legal purchase, actual lord and possessor of the enslaved bodies of your fellow men. By human law, they must work for and obey you; by human law, you may punish them if they do not work; and by human law how rarely, and with what difficulty, can you be called to any account? By human law they are your strange property, and under your legal ownership over them, they must stand ready all their life long to obey your