Slavery Ordained of God | Page 7

that moves their destiny.
Ham will be ever lower than Shem; Shem will be ever lower than Japheth. All will rise in the Christian grandeur to be revealed. Ham will be lower than Shem, because he was sent to Central Africa. Man south of the Equator--in Asia, Australia, Oceanica, America, especially Africa--is inferior to his Northern brother. The blessing was upon Shem in his magnificent Asia. The greater blessing was upon Japheth in his man-developing Europe. Both blessings will be combined, in America, _north of the Zone_, in commingled light and life. I see it all in the first symbolical altar of Noah on that mound at the base of Ararat. The father of all living men bows before the incense of sacrifice, streaming up and mingling with the rays of the rising sun. His noble family, and all flesh saved, are grouped round about him. There is Ham, at the foot of the green hillock, standing, in his antediluvian, rakish recklessness, near the long-necked giraffe, type of his _Africa_,--his magnificent wife, seated on the grass, her little feet nestling in the tame lion's mane, her long black hair flowing over crimson drapery and covered with gems from mines before the flood. Higher up is Shem, leaning his arm over that mouse-colored horse,--his Arab steed. His wife, in pure white linen, feeds the elephant, and plays with his lithe proboscis,--the mother of Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, and Christ. And yet she looks up, and bows in mild humility, to her of Japheth, seated amid plumed birds, in robes like the sky. Her noble lord, meanwhile, high above all, stands, with folded arms, following that eagle which wheels up towards Ararat, displaying his breast glittering with stars and stripes of scarlet and silver,--radiant heraldry, traced by the hand of God. Now he purifies his eye in the sun, and now he spreads his broad wings in symbolic flight to the _West_, until lost to the prophetic eye of Japheth, under the bow of splendors set that day in the cloud. God's covenant with man,--oh, may the bow of covenant between us be here to-day, that the waters of this flood shall never again threaten our beloved land!

Speech Delivered in the General Assembly New York, 1856.

The circumstances, under which this speech was delivered, are sufficiently shown in the statement below.
It was not a hasty production. After being spoken, it was prepared for the "Journal of Commerce," with the greatest care I could give to it: most of it was written again and again. Unlike Pascal, who said, as to his longest and inferior sixteenth letter, that he had not had time to make it shorter, I had time; and I did condense in that one speech the matured reflections of my whole life. I am calmly satisfied I am right. I am sure God has said, and does say, "Well done."
The speech brings to view a wide range of thought, all belonging to the subject of slavery, of immense importance. As introductory,--there is the question of the abolition agitation the last thirty years; then, what is right and wrong, and the foundation of moral obligation; then, the definition of sin; next, the origin of human government, and the relations, in which God has placed men under his rule of subjection; finally, the word of God is brought to sustain all the positions taken.
The challenge to argue the question of slavery from the Bible was thrown down on the floor of the Assembly, as stated. Presently I took up the gauntlet, and made this argument. The challenger never claimed his glove, then nor since; nor has anybody, so far as I know, attempted to refute this speech. Nothing has come to my ears (save as to two points, to be noticed hereafter) but reckless, bold denial of God's truth, infidel affirmation without attempt at proof, and denunciations of myself.
_Dr. Wisner_ having said that he would argue the question on the Bible at a following time, Dr. Ross rose, when he took his seat, and, taking his position on the platform near the Moderator's chair, said,--
"I accept the challenge given by Dr. Wisner, to argue the question of slavery from the Scriptures."
_Dr. Wisner_.--Does the brother propose to go into it here?
_Dr. Ross_.--Yes, sir.
_Dr. Wisner_.--Well, I did not propose to go into it here.
_Dr. Ross_.--You gave the challenge, and I accept it.
_Dr. Wisner_.--I said I would argue it at a proper time; but it is no matter. Go ahead.
_Dr. Beman_ hoped the discussion would be ruled out. He did not think it a legitimate subject to go into,--Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, and all intermediate authorities, on the subject of what the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America had done.
Judge Jessup considered the question had been opened by this