Wesley Collected Works Vol 11
| Author | John Wesley |
|---|---|
| Type | treatise |
| Year | None |
| Passage ID | jw-wesley-collected-works-vol-11-094 |
| Words | 395 |
But have you indeed? What is your heart made of? Is
there no such principle as compassion there? Do you never
feel another’s pain? Have you no sympathy, no sense of
human woe, no pity for the miserable? When you saw the
flowing eyes, the heaving breasts, or the bleeding sides and
tortured limbs of your fellow-creatures, was you a stone, or
a brute? Did you look upon them with the eyes of a tiger? When you squeezed the agonizing creatures down in the
ship, or when you threw their poor mangled remains into
the sea, had you no relenting? Did not one tear drop
from your eye, one sigh escape from your breast? Do you
feel no relenting now? If you do not, you must go on, till
the measure of your iniquities is full. Then will the great
God deal with you as you have dealt with them, and require
all their blood at your hands. And at “that day it shall
be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for you!”
But if your heart does relent, though in a small degree,
know it is a call from the God of love. And “to-day, if
you will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” To-day
resolve, God being your helper, to escape for your life. Regard not money ! All that a man hath will he give for
his life : Whatever you lose, lose not your soul: Nothing
can countervail that loss. Immediately quit the horrid
trade: At all events, be an honest man. 4. This equally concerns every merchant who is engaged in
the slave-trade. It is you that induce the African villain to
sell his countrymen; and in order thereto, to steal, rob,
murder men, women, and children without number, by enabling
the English villain to pay him for so doing, whom you overpay
for his execrable labour. It is your money that is the spring
of all, that empowers him to go on: So that whatever he or
the African does in this matter is all your act and deed. And
is your conscience quite reconciled to this? Does it never
reproach you at all? Has gold entirely blinded your eyes, and
stupified your heart? Can you see, can you feel, no harm
therein? Is it doing as you would be done to? Make the case
your own.