Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question In the United States/Clerical Oppression
CLERICAL OPPRESSORS.
In the Report of the celebrated Pro-Slavery Meeting in Charleston, S. C., on the 4th of the 9th mo., 1835, published in the courier of that city, it is stated, 'The CLERGY of all denominations attended in a body, lending their sanction to the proceedings; and adding by their presence to the impressive character of the scene!'
Just God!—and these are they
Who minister at Thine altar, God of Right!
Men who their hands with prayer and blessing lay
On Israel's Ark of light!
What! preach and kidnap men?
Give thanks—and rob Thy own afflicted poor?
Talk of Thy glorious liberty, and then
Bolt hard the captive's door?
What! servants of thy own
Merciful Son, who came to seek and save
The homeless and the outcast—, fettering down
The tasked and plundered slave!
Pilate and Herod, friends!
Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine!
Just God and holy! is that church which lends
Strength to the spoiler, Thine?
Paid hypocrites, who turn
Judgment aside, and rob the Holy Book
Of those high words of truth which search and burn
In warning and rebuke.
Feed fat, ye locusts, feed!
And, in your tasselled pulpits, thank the Lord
That, from the toiling bondsman's utter need,
Ye pile your own full board.
How long, oh Lord! how long
Shall such a Priesthood barter Truth away,
And, in Thy name, for robbery and wrong
At thy own altars pray?
Is not Thy hand stretched forth
Visibly in the heavens to awe and smite?
Shall not the living God of all the earth,
And heaven above, do right?
Woe, then, to all who grind
Their brethren of a Common Father down!
To all who plunder from th' immortal mind
Its bright and glorious crown!
Woe to the Priesthood! woe
To those whose hire is with the price of blood—
Perverting, darkening, changing as they go,
The searching truths of God!
Their glory and their might
Shall perish; and their very names shall be
Vile before all the people, in the light
Of a world's liberty.
Oh! speed the moment on
When Wrong shall cease—and Liberty, and Love,
And Truth, and Right, throughout the earth are known,
As in their home above.
