CHAPTER X.
THE FUTURE.
"It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind rest in providence, move in charity, and turn upon the poles of truth." LORD BACON.
"Slavery, as human nature now is, cannot be otherwise than one of the Almighty's curses upon any race which is subject to bondage.
"True, it may nevertheless, be an amelioration of their original state; they may fall into the hands of a Christian people, and hundreds of thousands of them be civilized, and be converted to Christianity; redeemed from a barbarous condition they may contribute immensely to the general good of the race both as producers and consumers.

Wherever commerce needs them, unquestionably they will do more good to the world by being compelled to work than by wearing out their miserable and useless existence in Africa.
"All this may be true; still, is it not a curse to be hewers of wood and drawers of water?
Does not God say to Israel that if they sin, they 'shall be the tail and not the head ?' National degradation, exposing a people to be the prey and the captives of a superior race, is, of course, a curse, though, like death itself, and even sin, it may, by the grace of God, turn to good.

Still, it is a curse.
"But in governing a fallen world like ours, God now and then ordains the subjection of one race to another; and he makes bondage one of his ordinances as truly as war.

The extermination of the Canaanites by the sword, was an ordinance of Heaven.

War is a part of God's method in governing the world; as well as sickness and death.
"I never had any sympathy for that amiable but weak concern for the character of God which represents him as finding slavery in existence and merely legislating about it, and doing the best he can with an inevitable evil.