Each looked for an easier triumph, and a
result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible,
and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the
other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just
God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other
men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The
prayers of both could not be answered--that of neither has been
answered fully.
"The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because
of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to
that man by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that
American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the
providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due
to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do
we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet; if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three
thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
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