I
noticed particularly, the case of Tyre and Sidon, which were the Bristol
and the Liverpool of those times. A direct judgment had been pronounced
by the prophet Joel against these cities, and, what is remarkable, for
the prosecution of this same barbarous traffic. Thus, "And what have ye
to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Ye
have cast lots for my people. Ye have sold a girl for wine. The children
of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the Grecians,
that ye might remove them far from their own border. Behold! I will
raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will
recompense your wickedness on your own heads." Such was the language of
the prophet; and Tyre and Sidon fell, as he had pointed out, when the
inhabitants were either cut off, or carried into slavery.
Having thrown out these ideas to the notice of the audience, I concluded
in the following words:--
"If, then, we wish to avert the heavy national judgment which is hanging
over our heads, (for must we not believe that our crimes towards the
innocent Africans lie recorded against us in heaven?) let us endeavour
to assert their cause. Let us nobly withstand the torrent of the evil,
however inveterately it may be fixed among the customs of the times;
not, however, using our liberty as a cloak of maliciousness against
those, who, perhaps, without due consideration, have the misfortune to
be concerned in it, but upon proper motives, and in a proper spirit, as
the servants of God; so that if the sun should be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, and the very heaven should fall upon us, we may
fall in the general convulsion without dismay, conscious that we have
done our duty in endeavouring to succour the distressed, and that the
stain of the blood of Africa is not upon us.
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