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النشر الإلكتروني

CREATION, NO. VII.

Creator, while the created atoms of the universe were yet individual, and of course in a state of fluidity. With what ease are they brooded over, agitated and perfected; what facilities of assortment, mixture, and division, into distinct orbs and atmospheres, does this circumstance present: how does it facilitate the formation of spheres, and dispose these spheres to take the form best adapted to their future motions; and with what ease is the stupendous fabric of the universe erected, compared with the labour which must have ensued, had the created matter become previously solid. Surely, He who created the matter of the universe could preserve that matter with as much ease in separate atoms as in solid masses, until the appointed moment when He applied these atoms to their several uses, and could then appoint to whatever portion thereof He pleased, the solid or the fluid forin; and I conceive the economy visible throughout every stage of creation to be a lesson, which should teach us, on all occasions, to employ our wisdom in the direction of our strength, and to economize our

time as well as our labour.

The prophet Isaiah sublimely takes up the theme of creation, and alludes to this day's work, in announcing the Redeemer to His people, "Him, by whom all things were made; for without Him was not any thing made that was made," exclaiming "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance." And Job is thus addressed by this Divine Person, in order to humble him in the presence of his God: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understand. ing. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" The psalmist exclaims, "O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world, and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them." Isaiah further exclaims, "Him that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in." Jeremiah also says, "He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His

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wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by His understanding. And St. Paul crowns the whole, saying, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God; so that things which are seen, were not made of things which do appear.

One whole day was devoted to this immense erection, by the Great Creator: who then appointed, and called into exercise, those powerful agents, or second causes, by which He now rules the universe, and directs every orb therein. By weight and measure, it appears, He adjusted all things; balancing the orbs in their orbits, in infinite wisdom; leaving no weak, no imperfect part, but erecting the whole universe in such perfect equilibrium, that the utmost serenity attends its action, and perfect security every sphere, throughout the whole. Small, feeble, and isolated, as the planets Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, are, and distant from the sun and the larger planets, they faint not in their course, but pursue it as on this their primal day; and unwieldy as Jupiter and Saturn are, and charged with huge eccentric trains, equal stability and serenity await these orbs, with all their attendants; while the Georgium Sidus, upon the very verge of the universe, pursues his orbit, attended by his satellites, with the same freedom as Mercury, the nearest planet to the sun, rolls unencumbered round his orbit from year to year.

The immense distances of the planets, each from each, and from the central sun, is the best security to the freedom of their motions: and there is an evident display of wisdom in the adjustment of these distances, which are by no means the same in all cases. Mars, the Earth, Venus, and Mercury, which are all small planets, move in orbits, comparatively near to each other; while the Georgium Sidus, Saturn, and Jupiter, being immense orbs, are placed at great distances, each from each, and thus enjoy that freedom of action which their unweildy bulks require.

There is a peculiar something diffused through the atmosphere, and even deep amidst the mines of the earth, which attracts iron and some other metals; causing rods of these metals, in whatever direction they may have been previously placed, to turn one of their ends towards the north, and the other end towards the south pole of the earth. These rods have, also, when impregnated with this something, the power of attracting other metallic rods, without coming into previous contact therewith; thus evidently acting under the influence of

an invisible power, which is intermediate between the attracting and the attracted rods. This influence we call magnetic, and the science magnetism. Heated bodies, or bodies exposed to the action of the solar rays, appear to possess this singular faculty of attraction, in a manner different to cold bodies. Perhaps the medium, or fluid, which is intermediate between the several bodies and the two poles of this sphere, may also be an adjunct of light, for it seems to be connected with electricity. Like the tides of the oceans, and the tides of the atmospheres, this invisible agent has its influx and reflux, denominated by us the variations of the needle, which carry the attracting point or centre to a certain distance eastward, and back again to a certain distance westward of the poles, and vice versa, in a determined portion of time.

Is the vortex,

created at the poles by the swift motion or working of the earth round its own axis, one of the causes why the tendency in the magnetic needle is to move in the direction of the poles, in preference to any other direction upon the surface of the sphere? Are the changes in the inclination of the poles, during the annual revolutions of the earth round its central sun, and its oppositions to, and conjunctions with, its fellow planets, in the system of which the earth forms a part, connected with the tides of this invisible fluid? There is no voicenone to answer; we are once more in the presence of an invisible agent, brought on this second day into existence by Elohim; which, in the hands of the invisible God, works wonderfully; manifesting wisdom infinite; before which wisdom it becomes us to bow, with humble reverence and godly fear.

"The evening was, and the morning was, the second day." What we said on the first day, we may repeat on this: Elohim, acting upon the light which He had created, became the light of the second day; also to the system which He now erected-darkness did no longer reign; light was, and it was in use, and we have the note of this use, in the declaration quoted above; for day could not have been, had not the light, in action, distinguished it from darkness, or night, when light is latent.

There are evidences, conclusive or collateral, that day and night alternate in every sphere throughout this system. Every orb therein appears to be rotary; and, moving round its own axis, it must present different sides, at different times, to the action of the solar rays. The side presented to the sun

will produce day to that portion of the sphere, and the side hidden from the sun will induce night thereto. Yet, notwithstanding day and night are appendages of every sphere, the lengths of these periods are as various as the orbs themselves. Twenty-four hours include the periods of day and night, upon the surface of the earth's equator; but, upon the surface of the moon's equator, the nearest orb to us, more than twenty-seven days and a half, of our time, elapses during the progression of one day and night; and so on of the other spheres.

Incessant changes throughout the universe prevent stagnations in its parts, 'present perpetual varieties to its inmates, mete out periods to all its generations, deal notes of active existence in its principal, the great Creator, and all His agents, anew to every age; induce, by action and reaction, vigour throughout the system, and health and stability to all its parts; and conduce, in general, to the diffusion of liveliness and joy throughout the animated portion of all its spheres. "O, give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good: for His mercy endureth for ever."

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THAT a strict regard to the cultivation of the reciprocal duties of life, diffuses comfort, and perpetuates happiness, in every community where they are the most scrupulously guarded and conscientiously cherished, a superficial acquaintance, a mere cursory glance at the actual state of human society, is sufficient to demonstrate, and also to corroborate its benignant tendency, and confirm its salutary effects.

It has been affirmed by unbelievers, în the fierceness of their sceptical hardihood, as a defect in the morality of the gospel, that friendship and patriotism are not expressly urged, or, at least, that they are not stated in the most luminous acceptation of the terms, and prescribed in the most forcible manner.

That social and public duties are repeatedly inculcated, and very solemnly enforced, in the sacred writings, is evident to every one, who peruses its pages, and studies its contents, untinged with the acrimony of party, and unbiassed by the arts of sophistical reasoning. For there the grand principles in which they are incorporated, and the virtues out of which they naturally grow, are strongly and accurately defined, and, from these radical premises,

REMARKS ON, SLAVERY.;

Before I proceed to remark upon this document, it may, perhaps, be proper distinctly to state, that I am not a member of any Anti-slavery Society; that most of their works I have never seen; that, for some planters I entertain much personal respect; and that there is not an individual among them, whose real interests I should not feel great pleasure in promoting. The Remarks, therefore, whether right or wrong, must be considered not as those of an enemy, but friend.

The Circular assumes, that the writers have a correct knowledge of "the actual state of the negro population." Were these gentlemen residents in the colonies, the correctness of their knowledge might not be questioned; but as they derive their information from their managers, or other agents, who, if a system of cruelty exists in their plantations, it is their interest to conceal; instead of such information being correct, it will, in many particulars, be defective and false. To expect correct information from such a quarter, would not be less absurd, than it would be to expect that Don Miguel would furnish a detailed account of all the abuses of his government. If we would know the state of Portugal, we must not apply to Don Miguel; and if we would know the state of the negro population, we must not apply to managers, and others, who are, in many cases, deeply interested in the concealment of the truth. Instead, therefore, of relying on the accuracy of communications from such sources, they will, in most cases, be received with much scepticism; and unless, like the depositions of witnesses for the crown, they be corroborated by evidence less questionable, they will, in general, be rejected altogether.

The friends of the abolition of slavery have as many means of "correctly ascertaining the actual state of the negro population," as the writers of this Circular. Some of those who now reside in this country have been resident in the colonies, and can speak from personal observation of that "state;" whilst many others of them still dwell in the region of slavery, and are intimately acquainted with the present condition and treatment of slaves; and, therefore, in point of knowledge, are fully competent to give correct information; and, as they have no interest, either in magnifying or diminishing the degradation of their condition, the presumption is, that the information they communicate may be confidently received. The interest which planters and managers have in the continuance of slavery, furnishes a very powerful temptation to "gross misre

2D. SERIES.-NO. 10. VOL. I.

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presentations;" to which temptation the abolitionists are not at all exposed; the statements of the former, therefore, will generally be received with some misgivings, as a "cunningly devised fable;" whilst the latter, bearing upon it the stamp of disinterested benevolence, will meet with a most cordial reception by every friend of humanity and religion.

Notwithstanding all the pretensions to superior knowledge, assumed by the writers of the Circular, we consider ourselves as competent, accurately to estimate the effects of the speedy and total annihilation of slavery as they are; and are fully persuaded, that nothing but this can preserve the colonies from those dreadful calamities predicted by them. They, indeed, hope to convince us, that such is the improved condition of the slaves, that the annihilation of the system is a thing hardly to be desired. To the investigation of this condition, this paper shall be devoted. We shall proceed in this examination, according to their own arrangement. They have entitled the first section of their abstract of the legal improvement of the condition of the slaves,Religious Instruction, and Observance of the Sabbath-Baptism-and Marriage."

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To provide for the religious instruction of slaves, and for their careful observance of the Christian Sabbath, are objects of great importance to their temporal and eternal interests. Without these, their ignorance, and vice, and degradation, will be perpetuated, and they will be doomed to the drudgery and sufferings of mere animals, without ever rising to the dignity of men, or to the Christian hope of a glorious immortality. If, therefore, these have to any considerable extent been furnished to the slaves, it is matter of congratulation, both to the slave and to his master, and cannot fail, eventually, to lead to the total and universal abolition of slavery, a consummation devoutly to be wished."

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But what is the religious instruction which the colonial legislatures have provided for them? Let us begin with Jamaica: According to the printed returns of 1812, the slave population consisted of 320,000, scattered over a surface of 150 miles long, and 40, on a medium, broad. How many schoolmasters have they provided for this immense population? Not one. How many catechists? None.* How many places of religious worship? The island is divided into twenty-one parishes, and, should they have a church in every parish,

Such was the case at the above period; and, as the abstract does not notice any improvement such, it is presumed, is the case still.

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154.-VOL. XIII.

which is far from being the case in several of the islands, there will be twenty-one places of public worship for 320,000 slaves, and say 80,000 white and other free persons, making a total of 400,000 people, which, when equally divided, gives 190,47 to each parish. The rector of one of those parishes (St. Ann's) says, “For their (the slaves) reception, a part of the parish church is set apart; but, when compared with their numbers in the aggregate, it is necessarily small indeed; small, how ever, as it is, it is by no means generally filled."

accommodated, there is only occasionally a vacancy that would admit about thirty persons. Now, the slave population in my parish amounts to 3,718 souls; there is, therefore, a prodigious number, by this single circumstance, unavoidably excluded from attending the established worship on Sunday, which is the only day they have in their power." Such was the neglected condition of the slaves in all the colonies; and, as the abstract supplies no proof of improvement, such, it is presumed, is their condition to this day.

With such evidence of the almost total In Barbadoes the case is no better. The absence of every thing which deserves the local government has not provided a single name of religious instruction, it was perfectly school, nor do the regular clergy make any ludicrous to head their leading article with attempts to instruct the slaves in the Chris- such a title—a title which must have oritian religion. The rector of Christ Church_ginated in the forlorn hope, that the thing says, "Much as the clergy may wish to instruct slaves in their religious duties, little can be done, unless proprietors of planta. tions will co-operate with them in their labours." He also observes, that the number of coloured persons who attend divine service is from twenty to twenty-five. The rector of St. Joseph says, "Divine service is attended by a few slaves." The rector of St. Andrew's says, "Very few attend." The rector of St. George's says, "There is no slave in St. George's who is a regular member of the church of England."

In St. Vincent the case is, if possible, still worse. Here is a population of 27,000 with but one incumbent, though the island is divided into five parishes; in not one of which was there, a few years ago, a single church; which, I suppose, is the case to Ι this day.

In Grenada, the rector of the united parishes of St. Patrick, St. Andrew, and St. David, says, that "Not more than five or six in a parish do actually attend oftener than six times in the year."

In Dominica, unless some improvement has recently taken place, of which I am not aware, and which, had it been the case, it is presumed the writers of the Circular would not have omitted to notice, there are ten parishes, and only one clergyman, and no church, divine worship being performed in the court-house in the town of Roseau.

Antigua. In 1818, the rector of St. Paul's said, that no attempt had been made by the clergy to convert the slaves-partly, because they had no time to devote to that object; partly, because the education of the regular clergy unfitted them for that work; and, partly, because there was no church-room for their accommodation. "Taking," he says, "my own church, for example; after the regular congregation is

would be received without examination, But, alas for the planters! that day of gullibility has gone by. The proper title would have been, No Religious Instruction. For here is neither schoolmaster, nor catechist, nor minister. Here and there, indeed, those whom planters contemptuously call sectarian teachers, have estab lished schools, and they visit plantations, and preach, and instruct the negroes; for which, instead of deriving support from the local authorities, they have, in many instances, been opposed and persecuted by them; and, had it not been for the interference of the parent government, these benevolent, pious, zealous, laborious, successful, and unfeed ministers, would long since have been martyred, as was the missionary Smith at Demerara; or banished, as was the pious, intelligent, and indefatigable Shrewsbury, from Barbadoes. And yet they have the effrontery to talk of the religious instruction of the slaves!

Then comes the "Observance of the Sabbath." In most of the colonies, the law says, Slaves shall not be compelled to work on Sundays; but in several of them they may be compelled to pot sugar, and to do any thing which their masters may pronounce emergent, or which a slave-holding government may, by proclamation, declare indispensable business; and, in Grenada, the slaves are only exempted from all

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manner of field labour;" whilst in Bermuda, for any thing that appears to the contrary, they may be compelled to labour, either in the fields, or any where else.

But what does it signify, to say they shall not be compelled to work on Sundays, if no other day is allowed them for the cultivation of their provision-grounds? It is an enactment which never can, and which never was intended to be enforced. It is tantalizing

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REMARKS ON SLAVERY.

the slave, and practising deceit upon a British public. "When I remonstrate," says the clergyman of St. George's, Barbadoes, they (the slaves) reply, that if they come to church, they must starve, for Sunday is the only day they have to cultivate their gardens." It is, indeed, true, that in several of the colonies the slave, by colonial law, is entitled to a certain portion of time, in some twenty-six, and in others twentyeight, days in the year, for the cultivation of that piece of land from which he is to raise produce sufficient for his entire maintenance. But what then? Should the master choose to send his slaves into the field, and should they even have the courage to lodge a complaint, they would not, in hardly any of the colonies, obtain the least redress; for the master would at once place himself under the shade of "indispensable business," or "work of emergency," and the law would be, in his case, what it was originally intended, powerless, and mere waste paper.

And then, according to their own shew. ing, How is the Sabbath observed? In the morning of the Sabbath till ten, and, in some of the colonies till eleven o'clock, the shops are open, and the public markets held. To these markets the slaves must go and sell the produce of their labour, or they and their wives and children must perish. After such a desecration of the morning of the Sabbath, and after the fatigue consequent on the preparation and carriage of their various articles, is it at all likely that they should feel the slightest inclination to join in any public act of religious worship? Yet this, forsooth, is by these gentlemen called the "Observance of the Sabbath." The title would be much more appropriate, were it to run thus-Laws to compel the Slaves to profane the Sabbath. But

colonial legislators seem not to know that the whole day, and not one or two hours only, called church hours, is the sabbath of the Lord; and that, during this entire portion of time, the slave, and his master too, must abstain from all secular engagements, and employ themselves in the hallowing exercises of religion.

A young Magdalene, some years ago, after hearing a powerful sermon against the vice by which she lived, felt offended, and said to one of her companions," I think the minister was a great deal too severe; at least I am sure he was so in my case, for I Bever gave my company to any gentleman on a Sunday evening before nine o'clock." Even her sabbath lasted till after sunset; whereas theirs expires in about an hour and a half. These legislators would do well to

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inquire by what authority they make laws, in direct opposition to the divine law. Do they suppose themselves wiser than the great Legislator? Or, do they think they may, with impunity, not only break his law themselves, but also compel others to do so too?

The laws by which gratuitous baptism is secured for the slave are a severe libel on the colonial clergy. It supposes that, although they have a liberal salary for the performance of parochial duties, yet, unless additional remuneration be awarded, they would not administer the rite of baptism to the slave population. It is, indeed, true, that the colonial legislators found it neces→ sary to stimulate the clergy, by some motive, to the administration of this rite; for, without stimulus, it had in former times been much neglected. The clergy had excused themselves, on the ground of the gross ignorance of the slaves, and on the total want of any system of instruction, or any means by which that ignorance might be dispelled, and their minds prepared for religious truth. At length, however, without any system of instruction, the insuperable barrier was surmounted. The bill for the registry of the slaves was passed by the British parliament, and the curate's bill, which entitled the clergyman to two shillings and sixpence for each baptism. The effects were wonderful! hundreds and thousands flew to the sacred font. Two-and-sixpence per head operated like a magic spell, and carried all before it. Gross ignorance was chased away in a trice, like darkness before the rising sun; and thousands, in the course of a few weeks, became enlightened Christians!

Soon after the passing of the curate's bill, one clergyman writes thus-"The population of my parish may be twenty-four thou sand slaves. I can assume to say, five thousand have been already baptized. Preparatory measures, for the speedy baptism of the whole, are now adopting. Much, I apprehend, will be accomplished by the middle of September; I therefore solicit to be allowed till October, to transmit my general return. The fee is now established by law at two shillings and sixpence for each slave, and is paid in my parish by the proprietary. I am desirous of discharging my duty most fervently." And who can doubt it, for the the hope of reward sweetens labour, and he knew, that by the fervent performance of his duty, he would realize three thousand pounds in a few months. This, however, was, though a rapid, a very expensive mode of conversion, and, therefore, when it was discovered that a passage had been made over the alps of ignorance, the formerly

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