Songs of the Free and Hymns of Christian Freedom

Prayer of the Enslaved American.

Then hallelujah! power and praise
To God in Christ be given ;
May all who now this anthem raise
Renew the song in heaven.

Prayer of the Enslaved American.

IV.

BERNARD BARTON.

Он, Father of the human race !

The white, the black, the bond, the free;*

Thanks for thy gift of heavenly grace, Vouchsafed through Jesus Christ to me.

This, 'mid oppression's every wrong,

Has borne my sinking spirit up; Made sorrow joyful, -weakness strong, And sweetened slavery's bitter cup.

*-and hath made of one blood all nations of men

Acts xvii. 26.

What a glorious, what a beneficent doctrine! how magnificently does it level all distinctions, whether of color, rank, nation, or religion! It rebukes selfishness. It declares to each, that the object of disregard, hatred, or contempt, is a man; and man a brother. It knows nothing, it will hear nothing of the thousand pretensions set up for the gratification of vanity, and the indulgence of malignity. What prejudices have been already beaten down by it, and how

Prayer of the Enslaved American.

Hath not a Saviour's dying hour

Made e'en'the yoke of thraldom light?

Hath not thy Holy Spirit's power
Made bondage freedom, -darkness bright ?

Thanks, then, Oh, father! for the gift,

Which through thy gospel thou hast given;
Which thus from bonds and earth, can lift
The soul to liberty and heaven.

But not the less, I mourn their shame,
Who mindless of thy gracious will,
Call on a Father's-Saviour's name,
Yet keep their brethren bondsmen still!
Forgive them, Lord! for Jesus' sake.

And when the slave thou hast unbound, The chains which bind the oppressor break! And be thy love's last triumph crowned !

many prejudices yet exist to which it is opposed, and which it shall yet beat down! That there are in the world different races, with such disparity that it is for some to be luxurious lords of creation, and others, their saleable, fettered, tasked, beaten and branded beasts of burden; that a man's clan or country has exclusive title to his affections, exertions, duties, concentrating every thing within that circle, except a pitiless hostility to all of human kind beyond its narrow boundary; -these were and these are under the various modifications produced by ancient and present modes of thinking, evils which the gospel was given to mitigate and to annihilate; with which its spirit maintains everlasting warfare; against which it appeals to our piety, our benevolence, our justice, our consciousness. W. J. Fox.

Twelfth Psalm of David.

WATTS.

LORD! if thou dost not soon appear,
Virtue and truth will flee away;
A faithful man among us here
Will scarce be found if thou delay.

The whole discourse, when neighbors meet,
Is filled with trifles loose and vain;
Their lips are flattery and deceit,
And their proud language is profane.

But lips that with deceit abound,
Shall not maintain their triumph long;
The God of vengeance will confound
Their flattering and blaspheming tongue.

The Lord, who sees the poor oppressed, And hears the oppressor's haughty strain, Will rise to give his children rest,

Nor shall they trust his word in vain.

Restoration of Israel.

Thy word, O Lord, though often tried,
Void of deceit shall still appear ;

Nor silver, seven times purified
From dross and mixture, shines so clear,

Thy grace shall, in the darkest hour,

Defend the holy soul from harm;
Though when the vilest men have power,
On every side will sinners swarm.

Restoration of Israel.

VI.

MONTGOMERY.

DAUGHTER of Zion, from the dust
Exalt thy fallen head;
Again in thy Redeemer trust,
He calls thee from the dead.

CROLY.

King of the dead! how long shall sweep
Thy wrath! how long thy outcasts weep!
Two thousand agonizing years
Has Afric steeped her bread in tears;

The vial on her head been poured

Flight, samine, shame, the scourge, the sword !

17 18

Restoration of Israel.

Awake, awake, put on thy strength,
Thy beautiful array;

The day of freedom dawns at length,
The Lord's appointed day.

'Tis done! Has breathed thy trumpet blast;
The tribes at length have wept their last!
On rolls the host! From land and wave
The earth sends up the unransomed slave!
There rides no glittering chivalry,
No banner purples in the sky;
The world within their hearts has died;
Two thousand years have slain their pride!
The look of pale remorse is there,
The lip's involuntary prayer;

The form still marked with many a stain-
Brand of the soil, the scourge, the chain;
The serf of Afric's fiery ground;
The slave, by Southern suns embrowned;
The weary drudges of the oar,
By the swart Arab's poisoned shore,
The gatherings of earth's wildest tract-
On bursts the living cataract!

What strength of man can check its speed?
They come-the nation of the freed!
Who leads their march? Beneath His wheel
Back rolls the sea, the mountains reel!
Before their tread His trump is blown,
Who speaks in thunder, and 'tis done!
King of the dead! Oh, not in vain
Was thy long pilgrimage of pain;
Oh not in vain arose thy prayer,
When pressed the thorn thy temples bare;
Oh, not in vain the voice that cried,
To spare thy maddened homicide!

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