One is, that the thing for which we pray must be lawful. The other is, that there must be some gospel promises which has a relation to the things sought by prayer, which the person praying must plead upon.

1st. First then, the things sought by prayer must be lawful, for prayer to God implies an appeal to him with all the solemnities of an oath, that the things we ask are in their nature lawful. But there is no precept of the moral law that will make it lawful to steal the property of another, or to rob him of his possessions. But the liberty of a man is his property, and the labor of a man is his property; it is that by which he lives. The children of parents are their property, more precious than any other earthly goods. To take all of these from our neighbors, whom we are bound by the law and the prophets to love as ourselves, is the greatest outrage upon moral justice that is possible to be committed in either earth or hell. Yea, it is atheism, for the slaveholder exalts himself above all that is called God, as will appear from two reasons.

(1.) God never exacts any service from his rational creatures, without a compensation; because his creation and preservation of them is of infinitely more value than all their services.

(2.) The slaveholder, by his office and station, has a power to supersede all the precepts of God's laws in rela. tion to the slave, both as to acts of religious worship and all relative duties which he owes to mankind as the duties of parents to children, and those of children to parents. No slave can take time or use any means to know the will of God, or to worship him, nor power to teach his family, or to require obedience from his family, nor can children obey their parents but through the sovereign will of the master, so that slaveholding is so far from being sanction. ed by the law of God, that it is the highest degree of wick. edness and contrariety to the law of God.

Where, then, can a man be found on the globe who can appeal to God with all the solemnity of an oath, and say, that slaveholding is a duty commanded by his law.

2d. There is no promise in the gospel to secure the blessing of God to any person in the business of keeping slaves, but there are some curses. Jeremiah, xxii. 13: "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteous.

ness, and his chambers by wrong, that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work." It would even amount to blasphemy to suppose that there could be a promise in God's word that would secure his blessing to acts of theft and robbery; therefore there is not a promise in the Bible for a slaveholder to plead upon for strength to support him in the practice of slaveholding, and it is highly probable that there never was an example of one who coolly and deliberately prayed to God for Christ's sake to assist him in forcibly restraining his neighbors from enjoying freedom, and to enable him to exact his labor without wages. That which appears to approach the nearest to it, was the case of a slaveholder in York county, state of Pennsylvania above thirty years ago, who owned some slaves, one of whom, through hard usage, was in the habit of running away, but was brought back to his owner one morning before the usual form of family devotion was past. The slave was instantly suspended in the air by his two hands with his toes just touching the ground, when, after they had beaten him with an unmerciful number of stripes, they left him in the same condition, retired within the house, performed family worship, returned when done, and gave the poor slave the remainder of his punishment.

If the fact now related tends to fill the mind with horror, how would it shock humanity to listen to a tale of one attempting to pray to God to enable him to keep his neighbors from ever enjoying liberty more; and to assist him in withholding from him the due reward of his labor, and to bless his endeavors to keep his slaves in a state of profound ignorance.

But as the Scripture makes it the duty of all men to pray, slaveholders are equally in duty bound to pray; and, in praying, to plead with God for grace and strength to help them to perform every branch of incumbent duty with all their might. If slaveholding is a duty, it must lay the master under an obligation to pray to God for strength and wisdom to fulfil his duty according to the true nature and tendency of the practice. It may not be amiss then to lay down a FORM OF PRAYER FOR SALVEHOLDERS, adapted to the proper nature of the business, and suited to the office and station of a slaveholder.

THE SLAVEHOLDER'S PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD! I thank thee that I am not as other men are, or even as these sable sons and daughters of Africa, which in thy providence are under my dominion. I thank thee that I am an absolute sovereign, possessed of an incontrollable authority over my subjects; that I am accountable to none upon earth for the disposal of their persons, or the administration of my government over them. I desire to admire the condescension of my great Creator in permitting me to occupy a station in the moral world more significant of sovereign independence than his own. Thou dost never demand a tribute of humble service from any of thy subjects without a reward. But I can demand implicit obedience by the supremacy of my power, and the vengeance of my rod, without the humbling thought of diminishing my fortune, and robbing my infant offspring, by distributing rewards to my humble subjects. With an exalted sense of my magisterial dignity, my soul doth magnify the Lord, and praise the God of my exaltation. Thou dost rule by established laws, which must of necessity correspond with the relations which thou hast made to exist between thyself and thy creatures, and the natural relations which exist among thy creatures, and canst not, consistently with the honor of thy king. dom, make laws to contradict or invert the order of relative duties. But, in thy providence, I am placed in a station of absolute supremacy, in which my sovereign will is a law to my subjects. I can say to one, at any time, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh. My will supersedes the relative obligations of rendering to thee the morning and evening sacrifice, by a rigorous demand of incessant labor, from the dawning light to the evening shade. I can say to one, Be married, and he must be married; and to another, Let thy marriage be dissolved, and it must be dissolved. I can say to my virgin slaves, Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish my plantation, and my command will be obeyed. I have an absolute power over conjugal relations, parental relations, and filial relations; and all the reciprocal duties of these relations, which the moral law would require of my subjects if they were not slaves, must yield to my despotical will. But O, Almighty Sovereign, though I am a debtor to thee for the exalted rank I occupy in the scale of moral existence, I must plead my inability to govern with discretion these my subjects, without I am taught the wisdom of the serpent and the vengeance of the tiger. I confess there is a kind of original sin, derived from our first father, Adam, which is peculiarly manifest in our subjects, by discontentment, and an unwillingness to submit to the authority of their lawful sovereigns, accompanied with murmurings and pleadings that they have the same right to freedom with their masters, making use of certain cant phrases, as-the rights of man-the right of worshiping God where and when they please-the right of learning to read the Bible-and some have had the assurance to plead their right of wages. These, almighty Sovereign, are some of the bitter fruits of Adam's fall; but thanks to thy goodness, thou hast endowed us sovereign potentates with power and wisdom to prevent the pernicious effects

of these turbulent passions. We have, by the authority of our civil rulers, who are thy ministers, and by our own sovereign power, put a final stop to all schemes, designs, or attempts to teach our subjects the knowledge of reading, writing, or any branch of science, for this laudable reason, that the more they know, they are so much more noisy in pleading for natural rights; and the less they know, they are so much easier governed. We can appeal to thy omniscience, that ignorance in our subjects is essential to the permanent existence of our government. We beseech thee, for the sake of our supreme dominion, to grant us the true spirit of our station; that when any of our subjects attempt to reason with us in favor of natural rights, we may maintain the majesty of our rank, by attempting no refutation but by the logic of the rod or whip. Enable us, we beseech thee, to display our dignity by a noble liberality and readiness to entertain strangers, especially ladies and gentlemen of rank and fortune; and to sympathize with all such poor of the land as we cannot make subject to our despotical power; but all such as we either have, or may hereafter bring under our yoke, may we have spirit and energy to rule with a rod of iron. Enable us to keep our subjects from the use of the Bible, and bless all our endeavors to prevent them from learning to read it; and grant to them such a degree of stupidity and want of concern about their eternal state, as to have no inclination to read the Bible or any other book. Shut up all their intellectual faculties, so as they may know nothing but obedience to their master's commands. Lord, keep from within our borders all preachers of the Gospel, except such as are slaveholders themselves; that when they are led to preach upon the subject of slavery, they may never attempt to prove their doctrine from the Scripture, but prove the sense of the Scripture from their doctrine. Teach us the most prudent methods of exacting from our good slaves as large a portion of hard labor as they may at all be able to bear without entirely sinking under the load; and keeping us from killing our bad ones by any other method than hard labor. Grant to all our subjects that patience under their privations and sufferings which belongs to slavery; and let them see that our dominion over them must be just, seeing that, in all points in which it tends to enslave them, it tends to enslave thee; and that, as the God of heaven serves with our sovereign will, they, poor reptiles, need not hesitate to do the same. Forgive the superstition of our brethren in sovereignty, who, from conscientious scruples about the condition of slaves, have made some feeble attempts to learn them to read the Bible. Teach them to know that the future happiness of slaves need be no matter of concern with slaveholders; because they and their slaves can never dwell together in the same heaven. Forgive not the sin of those who have liberated their slaves and thereby cast odium upon us, as we cannot forgive them. Lead us not into compassion for the temporal or eternal miseries of slaves. Deliver us from the evil of sympathy for them when under the discipline of the rod or whip; or for parents, when we tear from them their in

fants, to be disposed of for money; and from commiseration for those of our subjects who may be spectators to their near relations under the torture of the whip, or the excruciating torment of the saline solution, liberally applied to the lacerated back, and for those children who may be sometimes compelled to scourge their parents. Save us from ever being slaves to the blacks in hell, as they have been to us upon earth and may ours be the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. AMEN.

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HINDERS THE SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL.

Lastly-From the small success of the gospel in slave states when compared with the free states, it may be discerned that there is some public, notorious, God-dishonoring conduct persisted in, which renders it inconsistent with the glory of God and the honor of Christianity to make the means of grace effectual among them. This may be evinced from two reasons. One is, that there is no promise of success with the administration of the gospel where the whole counsel of God is not declared. But preachers of the gospel in slave states do not declare from the word of God his displeasure at the practice of slaveholding, but are apt to encourage it by their own example. 2dly. We cannot expect that God will bless the means of grace to any people, who, for the sake of indulging themselves in the worst kind of extortion, will withhold the same means from all under their power, and thus deprive them of their spiritual rights as well as temporal. Neither have we any reason to think that God will accept the persons and religious services of those who are already professors of religion, while they are engaged in the same hell-deserving practice. Prov. xv. 8: "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord." How applicable to such a people are the Lord's words addressed to the apostleizing Jews. Isaiah i., 10-20: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of lambs or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination